Category Archives: World News

French cave markings said to be oldest known engravings by Neanderthals

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Hundreds of faint stripes, dots and wavy lines at Loire valley site were created more than 57,000 years ago, say scientists

Hundreds of faint stripes, dots and wavy lines that adorn a cave wall in central France are the oldest known engravings made by Neanderthals, according to scientists who analysed the ancient markings.

The patterns, called finger flutings, appear on sections of the longest and most even wall of the cave in La Roche-Cotard in the Loire valley, and were created more than 57,000 years ago, before modern humans arrived in the region, the researchers say.

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Archaeologists unearth 4,000-year-old ‘Stonehenge of the Netherlands’

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Religious site contains burial mound serving as a solar calendar as well as remains of about 60 people

Dutch archaeologists have unearthed an approximately 4,000-year-old religious site – nicknamed the “Stonehenge of the Netherlands” – that includes a burial mound that served as a solar calendar.

The mound, which contained the remains of about 60 men, women and children, had several passages through which the sun shone directly on the longest and shortest days of the year.

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Zelenskiy admits counteroffensive may be going ‘slower than desired’

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Ukraine president says war is not a Hollywood movie, as Putin announces nuclear-capable ICBMs will soon enter service

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has conceded that Ukraine’s counteroffensive may be going “slower than desired” but has insisted that he will not needlessly risk soldiers’ lives to meet international expectations.

The comments from Ukraine’s president came as Vladimir Putin suggested that there appeared to have been a break in the intensity of Kyiv’s long-anticipated counteroffensive.

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Nato allies back fast-track membership for Ukraine, says Cleverly

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UK foreign secretary says Ukraine has ‘evolved quickly’, as Zelenskiy tells summit it can be engine of green growth

The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has said all Nato allies are backing a plan to give Ukraine a fast track to Nato membership of the kind offered to Sweden and Finland earlier this year.

Speaking on the margins of the two-day Ukraine Recovery conference in London, Cleverly said the UK was “very, very supportive” of Ukraine being able to join Nato without the usual need for it to meet the conditions set out in a Nato membership action plan (Map).

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‘India is now a linchpin’: US looks to Narendra Modi’s visit to counter China

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The Biden administration will try to strengthen US-India ties while the Indian leader looks to shore up votes for next year’s election

The symbolism of the visit will be hard to avoid. As Narendra Modi arrives in Washington DC on Wednesday – the capital of a country he was once prohibited from visiting for almost 10 years – he will join the ranks of Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela and Volodymyr Zelenskiy as one of the few leaders to address a joint session of Congress more than once.

Statements from US officials ahead of the visit have been rapturous on the subject of US-India relations, praising the “significant defence partnership” and describing it as “a unique connection between the world’s oldest and largest democracies”. Before his departure from India, Modi said: “This special invitation is a reflection of the vigour and vitality of the partnership between our democracies.”

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China is state most dangerous to its own citizens’ civil rights, report finds

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China scores better on food, health and housing, while crackdowns have worsened Hong Kong’s ratings

China has been ranked as the worst country in the world for safety from the state and the right to assembly, in a human rights report that tracks social, economic and political freedoms.

The Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI), a New Zealand-based project, has been monitoring various countries’ human rights performance since 2017.

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Teachers at Taiwan kindergarten accused of drugging children

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Anger over handling of scandal threatens opposition party’s presidential election chances

Parents of toddlers in Taiwan have accused teachers at a preschool of drugging their children, in a scandal that threatens to dent the opposition party’s chances at the upcoming presidential election.

Teachers at Baoren kindergarten, a private preschool in New Taipei City, have been accused of sedating children with addictive cough syrups. Police launched an investigation this month after parents raised concerns about children showing unusual symptoms such as mood swings and cramps. Eight pupils reportedly tested positive for trace amounts of the psychoactive drugs phenobarbital and benzodiazepines.

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‘The signs aren’t good’: Bolsonaro may face ban on running for office in 2026

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Judges to decide whether to impose eight-year ban on Brazil’s former president, after attack on electoral system

The political future of one of the big names of the global populist right is on the line this week as Brazilian judges prepare to decide whether Jair Bolsonaro should be banned from running for office.

Members of Brazil’s superior electoral court will gather on Thursday to consider the first of 16 cases being brought against the far-right former president, who failed to win a second term after losing last October’s election to leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

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Billionaires and the Titanic: the allure of extreme expeditions

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The more adventurous of the world’s wealthiest take trips to the edge of space and Antarctica in their stride

The disappearance of the submersible en route to the wreck of the Titanic has highlighted the businesses that offer extreme expeditions – and their clienteles.

Among the five people on the missing Titan submersible are two billionaires – Hamish Harding, a 58-year-old businessman who made his fortune selling private jets and holds three Guinness world records for previous extremetrips, and the British-based Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, who is onboard with his 19-year-old son Suleman.

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Titanic sub: Joe Biden watching search closely as vessel’s oxygen supply dwindles – live

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White House says US president is thinking of crew on missing vessel and their families as desperate search continues

No 10 has said the UK Foreign Office is in contact with the family of Hamish Harding, as the rescue operation for the tourist submersible off the coast of Canada continues.

The UK prime minister’s official spokesman said: “The FCDO are in contact with Hamish Harding’s family and the local authorities.

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Iceland suspends annual whale hunt in move that likely spells end to controversial practice

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Decision comes after a government report found the hunt does not comply with Iceland’s Animal Welfare Act

Iceland’s government has said it is suspending this year’s whale hunt until the end of August due to animal welfare concerns, a move that is likely to bring the controversial practice to an end.

Animal rights groups and environmentalists hailed the decision, with the Humane Society International calling it “a major milestone in compassionate whale conservation”.

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Ukraine lacks capacity to process huge sums in aid, official admits

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Largest amount of money Kyiv previously worked with was $6bn a year in 2014, Mustafa Nayyem says

Ukraine will struggle to absorb the expected billions of western private and public sector aid for its recovery not due to corruption, but a simple lack of capacity to process and invest such huge sums, a senior Ukraine official has said on the eve of the UK-sponsored Ukraine recovery conference in London.

“It is about the capacity to work with this amount of money,” said Mustafa Nayyem, the head of the Ukraine State Agency for Restoration and Infrastructure Development.

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‘Monstrous murder’: 41 women killed in Honduras prison riot

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Some women were burned to death in uprising blamed on crackdown on illicit activities inside of the country’s prisons

At least 41 women have been killed – some of them burned to death – after an outbreak of violence between gangs at a prison in Honduras.

Authorities found dozens of bodies after the violence on Tuesday at the prison in Tamara, about 30 miles (50km) north-west of the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, said Yuri Mora, spokesperson for the national police investigation agency.

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Hunter Biden plea deal: Republicans hit out at US president’s son over minor federal charges – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. You can read the latest full report here:

More Republicans are condemning Hunter Biden’s plea deal.

New York representative Elise Stefanik released a statement on the plea deal, calling out “a two-tiered system of justice” that purportedly benefited Biden.

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Missing Titan sub’s air supply dwindling as search yields no results

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Rescue teams race to find crew of the submersible Titan, which went missing during a dive to the wreck of the Titanic

US Coast Guard officials said on Tuesday afternoon that the crew of the submersible Titan, which went missing in the Atlantic during a dive to the wreck of the Titanic, had about 40 hours of breathable air remaining, if they are still alive.

Capt Jamie Frederick also told reporters at a media briefing that a massive sea and air search that began on Sunday night for the vessel and five men aboard, and which has so far covered 7,600 sq miles of a remote area of the ocean, had “not yielded any results”.

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Best and worst case scenarios to explain Titan’s loss of contact with surface

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The missing submarine had enough oxygen to sustain those onboard for four days, but limited air is far from the only hazard

For an expedition as hazardous as the Titan’s descent to the Titanic, there is a long list of onboard systems that need to be checked and a host of environmental hazards that must be identified and assessed before the voyage begins.

“When you are putting people in a potentially dangerous position like this you want to be absolutely sure everything’s checked through before getting under way,” said Stefan Williams, a professor of marine robotics at the University of Sydney. “We have an extensive checklist before we put anything in the water.”

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France to shut down climate protest group citing public safety risks

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Les Soulèvements de La Terre uses direct action aimed at big business interests

The French government is to shut down a climate protest group over a series of recent demonstrations citing risks to public safety, as the environmental activists called the decision “political and particularly worrying”.

Les Soulèvements de la Terre (Earth Uprising) is an umbrella group of several different environmental activist associations across France. It is seen as leading a new form of more radical climate action in Europe with high-profile direct action often aimed at big business interests, state projects and large-scale farming.

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At least four people killed by Palestinian gunman in West Bank

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Israeli security forces say gunman was shot and search for other attackers continues after incident near settlement of Eli

A Palestinian attacker has opened fire at a gas station near an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, killing at least four people and wounding several others, Israeli medics have said, as violence continued to roil the occupied territory.

Israeli security forces said they shot the gunman and were still searching for other attackers near the settlement of Eli north of the Palestinian city of Ramallah. Palestinian media reported that the attacker’s driver had fled the scene.

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Tropical Storm Bret forecast to strengthen into hurricane

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Storm approaching eastern Caribbean Leeward and Windward Islands in aggressive weather pattern early in the season

Tropical Storm Bret is forecast to strengthen into a hurricane as it approaches the eastern Caribbean’s Leeward and Windward islands, with meteorologists noting that the weather pattern is unusually early and aggressive for the Atlantic cyclone season that formally began on 1 June.

It is only the second hurricane to form in the tropical Atlantic in June since record keeping began, according to forecasters. The previous June hurricane was the 1933 Trinidad hurricane.

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Disgraced Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn sues former employer for $1bn

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Executive who jumped bail in Japan and escaped to Beirut has filed claim in Lebanese court

Carlos Ghosn, the disgraced former Nissan executive who jumped bail in Japan and fled to Lebanon, has filed a $1bn lawsuit against his former employer.

Ghosn, the mastermind of a carmaking alliance with Renault that also later involved Mitsubishi Motors, was detained in Japan in November 2018 amid allegations of financial misconduct involving a plot to deliberately underreport his remuneration.

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