Category Archives: World News

Guatemala contender decries police raid on party HQ before crucial runoff

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Semilla’s Bernardo Arévalo, who came second in June election, condemns ‘flagrant demonstration of the political persecution’

The Guatemalan presidential candidate Bernardo Arévalo has denounced a police raid on his party headquarters as a “corrupt” show of “political persecution” just a month before the high-stakes runoff election.

Police raided the headquarters of Arévalo’s Semilla party on Friday, saying it was carrying out a 12 July court order that had canceled the party’s legal status.

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Russia ‘holding humanity hostage’ over Black Sea grain deal, UN hears

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Security council session told that world’s poorest and most vulnerable at risk after Russia blocked exports

• What was the Black Sea grain deal and why did it collapse?

Russia has been accused at the UN security council of stoking famine by blocking grain exports through the Black Sea, with the aim of profiting from higher global food prices.

Russia’s representative said on Friday that Moscow might consider restarting the scheme if it was given better terms for its own food and fertiliser exports, but was accused by western diplomats of holding the world’s poor to ransom.

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Hot streak: US heatwaves lasting longer as record temperatures bake south-west

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Phoenix and Californian town of Needles experiencing 70th day in which temperatures have reached 90F

A brutal heatwave is persisting throughout much of the US, with cities across the south-west reaching all-time records for hottest consecutive days. Intense heatwaves are becoming more frequent as a result of the climate crisis, but alarmingly, these streaks of hot days are also lasting longer.

People living in cities in Arizona, California and Texas are entering their second month of days in which the temperature reaches 90F (32.2C) and above. Cities such as Phoenix, and Needles in California, have had no relief from this extreme heat in the past 70 days, with Phoenix recently experiencing three consecutive weeks of temperatures reaching 110F (43.3C) and above.

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Bankman-Fried planned to buy Nauru and build apocalypse bunker – lawsuit

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Lawsuit filed against FTX founder, 31, includes memo that detailed plans to purchase Pacific island in case world came to an end

The disgraced cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, who founded the FTX exchange, had planned to purchase the small Pacific island nation of Nauru in case the world came to an end, according to a new lawsuit.

The lawsuit, filed on Thursday by FTX against its 31-year-old founder and three other former executives, and seeking $1bn, included a memo created by Bankman-Fried’s younger brother Gabriel and an FTX Foundation executive. The memo detailed plans to buy Nauru.

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Top tech firms commit to AI safeguards amid fears over pace of change

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Joe Biden announced Meta, Amazon and OpenAI among others had agreed to eight measures to encourage responsible practices

Top players in the development of artificial intelligence, including Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI, have agreed to new safeguards for the fast-moving technology, Joe Biden announced on Friday.

Among the guidelines brokered by the Biden administration are watermarks for AI content to make it easier to identify and third-party testing of the technology that will try to spot dangerous flaws.

Using watermarking on audio and visual content to help identify content generated by AI.

Allowing independent experts to try to push models into bad behavior – a process known as “red-teaming”.

Sharing trust and safety information with the government and other companies.

Investing in cybersecurity measures.

Encouraging third parties to uncover security vulnerabilities.

Reporting societal risks such as inappropriate uses and bias.

Prioritizing research on AI’s societal risks.

Using the most cutting-edge AI systems, known as frontier models, to solve society’s greatest problems.

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Retired Canada police officer charged with foreign interference for China

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William Majcher arrested and facing two charges under the Security of Information Act

A retired police officer in Canada has been arrested and is facing rare charges under the country’s national security laws, police said on Friday.

William Majcher, 60, “allegedly used his knowledge and his extensive network of contacts in Canada to obtain intelligence or services to benefit the People’s Republic of China”, the Royal Canadian Mounted police said in a news release.

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Zelenskiy condemns Donetsk attack in which he says two children died – as it happened

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Ukraine president accuses Russia of killing two children and hitting a school. This live blog is closed

According to Russian state-owned news service Tass, the number of people in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory hospitalised after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in June has risen to 166. It cited sources in the local Russian-imposed authority.

In addition to those two injuries sustained in the attack on Odesa reported by governor Oleh Kiper, state broadcaster Suspilne has reported these other incidents in its wrap-up of overnight news:

On July 20, four workers were killed and two more people were injured in an attack by Russian troops on an infrastructure facility in the Polohivskyi district of the Zaporizhzhia region, the regional authority reported.

In Kharkiv oblast, a 56-year-old woman was injured as a result of night shelling. In the Kherson region, on the night of 21 July, the Russian Federation shelled four locations. No injuries were reported.

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Manipur: why is there conflict and how is the government responding?

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As violence between the Meitei and Kuki communities continues in north-east India, campaigners criticise the authorities’ reaction and both sides warn of civil war

Manipur is a state in north-east India with a population of more than three million. It has been embroiled in an ethnic conflict since early May, fought between the majority Meitei community and the minority Kuki tribe.

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UK must repatriate more nationals in Syria, says terrorism policy adviser

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Britain has been urged by UN to help young children in Syrian detention camps

The UK government must allow greater repatriation of British nationals held in Syria, recognising that circumstances have changed since 2017, according to Jonathan Hall, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation.

He also predicted little security risk in allowing the return of Shamima Begum, who fled her east London home when she was 15 years old to join the Islamic State in Syria, because her notoriety is such that she is likely to apply for a lifelong anonymity order requiring daily contact with authorities. Begum was stripped of her British citizenship in 2019, a decision upheld by the supreme court.

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Sudan: Attacks on health workers jeopardise remaining hospitals operating in Khartoum

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A rise in violence towards staff has led Médecins Sans Frontières to rethink its presence in the Sudanese capital as intense fighting continues

Increased violence against health workers in Khartoum is endangering the few hospitals still open in the Sudanese capital, the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said after its employees were beaten and whipped by armed men on Thursday.

The MSF team was attacked 700 metres from the Turkish hospital, one of only two operating in southern Khartoum after others were forced to close during almost 100 days of fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

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Putin warns Poland against ‘unleashing aggression’ against Belarus

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Russian president reacts angrily after Polish defence minister sends troops to guard eastern border

Vladimir Putin has said Russia will use “all means at its disposal” to defend Belarus after Poland and other EU countries voiced concerns about the deployment of Russian paramilitaries near their borders.

Putin delivered a series of aggressive remarks during a meeting of his security council, where he claimed without evidence that Poland was seeking to invade Belarus, a Russian ally, and that their elites were “dreaming of Belarusian lands”.

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Escaped ‘lioness’ in Berlin was most likely a wild boar, mayor says

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Experts reach conclusion after analysing video of animal that triggered lion hunt

A 30-hour search for an escaped lioness that had residents on the southern fringes of Berlin shelter in their homes and the rest of the German capital on tenterhooks has found that what was thought to be an exotic feline predator was most likely a common wild pig.

After no more sightings of the big cat were reported overnight, Michael Grubert, the mayor of the municipality of Kleinmachnow, said two leading experts had analysed the video that had originally triggered the lion hunt. “With a relatively high degree of certainty the tendency is towards a wild boar,” Grubert said.

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How brutal heat is breaking records everywhere from the US to Japan

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Temperatures reached as high as 53.3C in the US and flooding hit South Korea and India

A remote township in the north-western region of Xinjiang set a Chinese record of 52.2C (125.9F) on Sunday – in a country that was battling -50C weather six months ago. Sanbao is in the Turpan Depression, an arid basin of sand dunes and dried-up lakes where 50.3C was recorded in 2015. Beijing topped its record for high-temperature days in a year on Tuesday, with 27 days above 35C. The temperature in its southern suburbs soared even higher on Wednesday to 36.3C.

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Certain of election victory, Cambodia’s Hun Sen prepares to hand power to son

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Hun Manet, eldest son of strongman who has ruled for four decades, faces balancing act when he inherits patronage system

When Cambodians go to the polls on Sunday, there is little doubt about who will be declared the winner. The only major opposition party has been banned from running, its members arrested and activists beaten in the streets. Independent media outlets have been closed down or their websites blocked.

With no viable opposition, Hun Sen, the strongman prime minister who has held power for almost four decades, is expected to again sweep to victory. His intense crackdown – which rights groups say is a deterioration even on the repression that preceded elections in 2018 – comes as he prepares to hand over to his eldest son, Hun Manet, 45.

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India’s ban on rice exports raises fear of global food price rises

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Attempt to curb domestic inflation behind country’s decision on non-basmati white rice

India has banned non-basmati white rice exports to curb domestic inflation, raising fears of further increases in global food prices just days after wheat and corn prices were sent climbing by Russia’s termination of a key grain deal.

The immediate ban, introduced after heavy rains hit domestic crops, follows the failure of a 20% duty on international exports introduced in September to curb foreign demand, which has soared after extreme climate conditions hit production in countries.

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India: four men arrested after women stripped naked and paraded in Manipur

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Police say further arrests expected as attack captured in viral video prompts nationwide outrage

Four men have been arrested in connection with the case of two women who were stripped naked, publicly paraded and allegedly gang raped in the Indian state of Manipur, in an attack that caused outrage after it was captured in a viral video.

The arrests took place on Thursday, a day after the footage of the assault prompted anger across India and was condemned by the prime minister, Narendra Modi, and the supreme court. The police said more arrests were expected soon.

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Stolen Christopher Columbus letter found in Delaware returned to Italy

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Columbus wrote the letter to King Ferdinand of Spain in 1493 about his findings after the ‘discovery’ of the Americas

The US has returned a rare 15th-century original edition of a letter written by Christopher Columbus to Italy, the federal US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agency has announced.

The letter, valued at over $1.3m, was revealed to have been stolen some time between 1985 and 1988, likely from the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, the historic public library in Venice.

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‘Facekinis’ become popular in China as temperatures soar

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People buying full-face masks alongside hats, fans – and hats with inbuilt fans – as temperatures rise above 35C

In scorching Beijing, “facekinis” are the hottest new fashion as surging temperatures shatter records.

With the air temperature rising above 35C (95F) and the ground surface temperature soaring as high as 80C in some parts of the country, residents and visitors have taken to carrying portable fans and covering themselves up to avoid getting burnt. Some hats even have fans built in.

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Journalist unrepentant over 2016 fracas with new Fox News host Jesse Watters

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Ryan Grim calls Tucker Carlson replacement ‘a classic bully’ and says fight started when he backed colleague Watters had harassed

The US political journalist Ryan Grim broke the news of allegations against Brett Kavanaugh before his 2018 supreme court justice confirmation, and he was among the first to report on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s initial ascent to Congress.

Still, to some, he remains known as the guy who got into a fight at the 2016 White House Correspondents’ Dinner with Jesse Watters, who debuted Tuesday as host of the coveted 8pm Fox News slot made available by Tucker Carlson’s firing.

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Death toll rises as Kenya’s cost-of-living protests continue

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Opposition leader Raila Odinga rallies his supporters to the streets where there have been clashes with armed police in Nairobi and western city of Kisumu

Teargas and live ammunition were used against demonstrators as pockets of violence broke out in Kenya during a second day of protests against tax increases and rising living costs.

Despite relative calm in Nairobi on Thursday morning, there were clashes in the informal settlements of Kibera and Mathare in the capital, and in the western city of Kisumu. Protesters threw stones at police, who had mounted a heavy presence in Nairobi after the deaths of at least six demonstrators and more than 300 arrests around the country on Wednesday.

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