Category Archives: World News

Antony Blinken begins China visit that spy balloon put off

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US secretary of state’s trip seeks to clear the air but issues such as Taiwan and Ukraine leave limited room for compromise

Antony Blinken has arrived in Beijing on the highest-level trip by a US official since 2018, with his aides signalling he was seeking to build lines of communication rather than secure any practical breakthrough agreements.

The expectations, set deliberately low for the two-day talks, allow room for the world’s two largest economies to air their differences over the Taiwan strait, technology, human rights and the war in Ukraine.

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New British mayor of Mallorcan town to start work with nice cup of tea

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Teacher from west Sussex says victory was down to strong manifesto and knowing everyone in Sant Joan

The new mayor of Sant Joan, a small town of 2,000 people that sits in the centre of Mallorca, likes to joke that his main priority when he begins work on Monday will be ensuring a kettle is installed in his office.

Last month’s regional and local elections – which left the ruling Socialists with a bloody nose, triggered a snap general election and caused the conservative People’s party (PP) to forge a coalition with the far-right Vox party to rule the Valencia region – have also had unexpected consequences in Sant Joan.

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Lack of consensus on next Nato chief could lead to Stoltenberg staying on

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Disagreement over possible successors may mean secretary general is asked to remain in role at next month’s summit in Lithuania

Political disagreements, vetoes and personal reluctance make it increasingly likely that the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, will be asked to remain in post for another year at the Nato summit in Lithuania next month.

It would be the third time the former Norwegian prime minister has been asked to extend his almost 10-year term.

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Spain’s PM warns of far-right danger after PP strikes coalition deals

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Pedro Sánchez’s comments follow last month’s elections in which PP and Vox made huge gains

Spain’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has warned of the dangers of allowing far-right ideology to seep into the political mainstream after the conservative People’s party (PP) struck a series of coalition deals with the radical right Vox party ahead of next month’s general election.

Sánchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE), which has governed Spain alongside the far-left Unidas Podemos alliance for the past four years, suffered a drubbing in last month’s regional and municipal elections, while the PP made huge gains and Vox doubled its share of the vote.

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Ukraine takes village on Zaporizhzhia front, Russia-appointed official says

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War blogger also reports recapture of Piatykhatky, which if confirmed would be first village taken in nearly a week

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates

Ukraine has captured the village of Piatykhatky on the western edge of the Zaporizhzhia front, according to a Russia-appointed official and sources, the first village recaptured by Kyiv’s forces in nearly a week.

In a posting on Telegram on Sunday morning, Vladimir Rogov, a Russia-installed official for the region, said Ukrainian forces had taken the village under their “operational control” after what he described as fierce fighting.

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Families in Uganda bury their dead after school massacre

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Relatives grieve as search for missing continues after raid by militants in which dozens of pupils died

Grieving families prepared to bury their dead in western Uganda while others desperately searched for loved ones still missing after militants killed dozens of pupils in a school attack.

Officials say at least 41 people, mostly pupils, were massacred on Friday in the worst attack of its kind in Uganda since 2010.

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The Google employee who helped Edward Snowden in Hong Kong

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Ten years on, William Fitzgerald, then a 27-year-old policy worker, tells of his part in the story and explores how tech has changed since

Early on the morning of 10 June 2013, Hong Kong time, the journalist Glenn Greenwald and film-maker Laura Poitras published on the Guardian site a video revealing the identity of the NSA whistleblower behind one of the most damning leaks in modern history. It began: “My name is Ed Snowden.”

William Fitzgerald, then a 27-year-old policy employee at Google, knew he wanted to help. But he didn’t yet know how.

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Workers sue secretive elite club Bohemian Grove for wage theft

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The private club, which has included Reagan and Nixon among its members, is accused of failing to pay overtime and not giving breaks

Workers at Bohemian Grove, one of the most elite and secretive clubs in the US, have filed a lawsuit alleging numerous unfair labor practices, including 16-hour workdays without breaks, and a failure to pay overtime and minimum wages to the workers.

Bohemian Grove, which attracts some of the world’s most powerful people to a mysterious gathering in the woods north of San Francisco, has long been the subject of fascination and conspiracy theories.

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The best way to raise cows sustainably? Set them free

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An old farming technique called silvopasture, which allows cows to graze on a variety of plants in forests and tree-filled pastureland, is seeing a resurgence across the world

Brett Chedzoy and his wife, Maria, live on a 300-acre farm in Watkins Glen, a small town along the Finger Lakes in New York, with 100 cows – primarily Black Angus, with a few White Galloways scattered throughout the herd.

The farm, Angus Glen, has lush green pastures and wooded areas, where black walnut and black locust trees stretch skyward out of rolling seas of tall grasses, shrubs and clovers. When Chedzoy, 54, walks through the pasture at sunset, the cows pop their heads up, follow him and wait patiently at the gate. As he pulls it aside, the cows rush forward into the wooded area to nibble on tree branches and shrubs, before turning their attention to the emerald grass around the trees.

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Sudan: warring sides agree to new ceasefire after fighting intensifies

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Mediators from the US and Saudi Arabia broker pause after airstrikes on Khartoum kill 17 civilians including five children

Sudan’s warring generals agreed to a new 72-hour truce to take place from Sunday, US and Saudi mediators said, after fighting intensified with deadly airstrikes in Khartoum and an exodus of wounded from Darfur over the border into Chad.

Airstrikes killed 17 civilians, including five children, in the capital on Saturday, a citizens’ group said, while medics in Chad reported hundreds of wounded from Darfur seeking treatment.

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Brazil: 11 dead and 20 missing after cyclone strikes in south

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Authorities warn of landslides after conducting several thousand flood rescues in two days

At least 11 people were killed in Brazil’s southern state of Rio Grande do Sul after an extra-tropical cyclone struck the region, according to the state’s authorities.

The storm on Friday caused torrential rains and helicopter searches were under way in flooded neighbourhoods to find 20 others who were missing, the government of Rio Grande do Sul said.

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Ecuador: ‘dead’ woman who was found alive in her coffin dies in intensive care

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Bella Montoya, 76, who knocked on her coffin during her wake, has died seven days later from a stroke

A 76-year-old woman who had been declared dead and surprised her relatives by knocking on her coffin during her wake earlier this month has died after seven days in intensive care.

Ecuador’s health ministry confirmed in a statement that Bella Montoya died from an ischemic stroke after spending a week in intensive care. It added that Montoya had remained under “permanent surveillance” but didn’t provide further information on the medical investigation surrounding the case.

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UK is among countries with the most positive attitude towards refugees, poll finds

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Survey comes as government rhetoric on immigrants gets increasingly toxic, adopting far-right slogans

Britons have among the most positive attitudes towards refugees in the world, a new global poll has found, despite increased hostility from the UK government to asylum seekers.

An international survey of almost 22,000 adults across 29 countries found British people had the third-most enthusiastic outlook towards refugees, just behind Spain and New Zealand.

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Russian forces face shortage of tanks as counteroffensive creeps forward

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Ukraine forces slowly pushing back Putin’s troops, claims Kyiv, aided by western hardware

Russia’s forces are suffering a shortage of tanks, the country’s defence minister has admitted, as Ukraine’s offensive in the south and east continued to push back the frontline with the help of western hardware.

Sergei Shoigu, on a visit to a military factory in western Siberia, said that production of armoured vehicles needed to be increased as Kyiv talked up the heavy losses being inflicted on the occupying enemy.

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Biden begins re-relection campaign – does he have what it takes to win again?

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The oldest president in history is ditching his Covid-imposed ‘basement strategy’ for the most gruelling campaign of his life

It became known as the “basement strategy”. As the coronavirus pandemic raged outside, presidential candidate Joe Biden addressed the nation from a makeshift studio under his Delaware home, avoiding off-the-cuff gaffes and allowing rival Donald Trump to self-destruct.

But three years on, with lockdowns lifted and America mostly back to a new version of normal, Biden knows that speeches on glitchy Zoom calls or in empty auditoriums will not be enough. The president, who at 80 is the oldest in American history, is facing the final, most gruelling campaign of his life.

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At least 41 people dead after IS-linked attack on Uganda school

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Militants believed to be Allied Democratic Forces abducted others in attack on secondary school in Mpondwe

Militants linked to Islamic State reportedly killed at least 41 people and abducted others in an attack on a school in western Uganda, police have said.

“Our forces are pursuing the enemy to rescue those abducted and destroy this group,” defence spokesperson Felix Kulayigye said on Twitter.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: counteroffensive records ‘tactical successes’ as troops advance south – as it happened

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Ukrainian military officials say they are making gradual progress to push Russian forces out of southern sectors of the country

Russia’s defence minister has called for more tanks to be manufactured “to meet the needs of Russian forces” in Ukraine after Kyiv launched a counteroffensive with western arms.

Sergei Shoigu visited a military factory in western Siberia and stressed the need “to maintain the increased production of tanks”, the defence ministry said.

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North Korea holds key meeting as US sends nuclear submarine to South Korea

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Kim Jong-un attended the conference to review defence strategies and the country’s struggling economy

North Korea opened a key political conference with leader Kim Jong-un in attendance to discuss improving its struggling economy and reviewing defence strategies in the face of growing tensions with rivals, according to state media reports.

The enlarged plenary meeting of the ruling Workers’ party’s central committee came as the US sent a nuclear-powered submarine to South Korea in the allies’ latest show of force against the North, which has ramped up its testing of nuclear-capable missiles to a record pace in recent months.

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Bug swarm: Nevada crawling with thick carpet of Mormon crickets

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Millions of crickets – or rather shield-backed katydids – migrating across state, after hatching was delayed in spring

Millions of flightless insects known as Mormon crickets have descended across Nevada, alarming residents, blanketing roadways and buildings, and fueling nightmares.

Footage shared on social media and by local news outlets captures six Nevada counties under siege, with thick carpets of bugs moving slowly and efficiently across the state. A local hospital had to deploy brooms and leafblowers to clear the way for patients to get into the building, a spokesperson for the Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital, told local news outlet KSL.

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