‘We averted an economic crisis and economic collapse,’ says president in address to the nation about deal, but will not sign bill before Saturday
Here’s more on how the debt ceiling crisis will impact the US’s credit rating, from the Guardian’s Joan E Greve.
The US is not yet out of the woods on a potential credit downgrade, even though Joe Biden is scheduled to sign the debt ceiling bill tonight to avert a federal default.
Continue reading...Detectives hope to identify man, whose body was found on a Tui flight from the Gambia on 7 December
Police have released a digitised image of a man who was found dead in the undercarriage of a plane, as they work to identify him.
The man’s body was found on a Tui flight from the Gambia to the UK. His body was discovered at Gatwick airport at about 4am on 7 December, Sussex police said at the time.
Continue reading...Huge Barrington Lake fire now considered province’s largest wildfire but wet weather expected from Friday into next week
Rain on Friday and a rainy forecast for the weekend have fire officials hopeful they can get the largest wildfire ever recorded in Canada’s Atlantic coast province of Nova Scotia under control.
That wildfire and three others in the province have prompted air quality warnings in US regions as far south as Virginia and Maryland.
Continue reading...Jon Waldman says attacks have weighed on his conscience and that Atlanta shooting earlier this month was ‘final straw’
A Georgia gun shop owner said he is closing his store in the wake of several mass shootings targeting young children, as the country reels from recent attacks and an escalating rate of killings.
Jon Waldman, a gun shop owner in Duluth, Georgia, said that he had already closed his store and will have the gun inventory cleared out by 15 June, NBC News reported.
Continue reading...Freedom of Russia Legion social media reports contradict Russian claims to have repelled the rebel incursion
Ukrainian-backed Russian rebel groups have said they are still fighting inside Russia’s Belgorod region, despite Moscow’s claims on Thursday to have repelled the incursion.
The Freedom of Russia Legion posted videos on social media of combat purportedly in the Belgorod village Novaya Tavolzhanka, between the Ukrainian-Russian border and the town of Shebekino, the legion’s stated goal.
Continue reading...Youssef Mikhaiel is at risk of forced removal to Egypt before he marries Sarah Bradley
A couple planning to marry soon could be forcibly separated by the Home Office because they are not cohabiting before their wedding.
Sarah Bradley, 29, a British digital marketing teacher, and Youssef Mikhaiel, 28, an Egyptian man who graduated from the University of Glasgow with a degree in aeronautical engineering, met in February 2022 through a Christian dating app.
Continue reading...Analysis shows handful of corporations extract tens of billions of dollars of raw materials a year – and their commitments to restoration vary greatly
A handful of global giants dominate the industrialisation of the Amazon rainforest, extracting tens of billions of dollars of raw materials every year, according to an analysis that highlights how much value is being sucked out of the region with relatively little going back in.
But even as the pace of deforestation hits record highs while standards of living in the Amazon are among the lowest in Brazil, the true scale of extraction remains unknown, with basic details about cattle ranching, logging and mining hard to establish despite efforts to ban commodities linked to its destruction.
Continue reading...Investigation involving Guardian shows systematic and vast forest loss linked to cattle farming in Brazil
More than 800m trees have been cut down in the Amazon rainforest in just six years to feed the world’s appetite for Brazilian beef, according to a new investigation, despite dire warnings about the forest’s importance in fighting the climate crisis.
A data-driven investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ), the Guardian, Repórter Brasil and Forbidden Stories shows systematic and vast forest loss linked to cattle farming.
Continue reading...A rift widened between the president and Kyiv’s mayor after witness reports that three people were locked out on the street during Russian attack
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has ordered an audit of all Ukrainian air-raid shelters as a rift widened with Kyiv’s mayor after the deaths of three people who were locked out on the street during a Russian attack.
A nine-year-old girl, her mother and another woman were killed by falling debris after rushing to a Kyiv shelter on Thursday morning and finding it was shut. Later that day, the Ukrainian president accused Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, and other city leaders of negligence. Klitschko responded by saying the responsibility for the tragedy should be shared between them.
Continue reading...From Sweden to the US, the handling of the pandemic has been questioned. In some cases criminal proceedings are under way
Britain’s public Covid-19 inquiry, led by the retired judge Heather Hallett, is far from the first independent commission in the world to begin examining a country’s experience confronting the pandemic.
Their formats, mandates – and their progress – vary widely according to systems and traditions, but their task is essentially the same: to assess preparedness, make a record of decision-making, review government responses and learn lessons for the future.
Continue reading...Amid usual scrubbing for Tiananmen Square anniversary, searches for bridge where protest was held in 2022 return no results
Chinese censors scrubbing the internet of any words or symbols that could be used to reference the Tiananmen Square massacre in the run-up to Sunday’s anniversary have a new target in their sights: a bridge in Beijing where a rare protest was staged last year.
As the 34th anniversary of the 1989 massacre approaches, anyone searching in Chinese for Sitong Bridge on Baidu maps will draw a blank.
Continue reading...Kyiv mayor orders air raid shelters to be open 24 hours after death of child; Ukraine claims to have shot down 15 cruise missiles and 21 drones
Continue reading...Heatwave continues in southern and eastern Asia as temperatures exceed 40C in vast swathes of region
Shanghai in China has reported a record high May temperature of 36.7C, breaking the previous record by 1C. The new high temperature on 29 May comes amid the heatwave affecting southern and eastern Asia since mid-April. Vast swathes of the region have had temperatures exceeding 40C, with parts of Pakistan reaching almost 50C in mid-May.
South-east Asia has been affected particularly badly, with record high national temperatures in Laos (43.5C), Vietnam (44.2C), and Thailand (45.4C). This is due to low amounts of rainfall over the previous winter resulting in drier soils, which can heat up more quickly than moist soils, thus exacerbating the effect.
Continue reading...Soccer for Life league in Tokyo has about 40 players, enough for three teams, playing 30-minute matches
There are mops of silver hair, Bobby Charlton combovers and a fair number of creaking knees. But the Red Star and Blue Hawaii football teams can be forgiven for the hesitant start to their match: every man on the pitch is older than 80. Within minutes, though, they are running freely – and moaning at the referee – as they roll back the years with every pass and tackle.
With a combined age in four figures, the 22 men are defying the passage of time in the Tokyo Soccer for Life league for the over-80s, a sporting expression of Japan’s status as a “super-ageing” society where the average male life expectancy is 85.
Continue reading...‘He’s fine,’ says White House after president, 80, loses his footing handing out diplomas at commencement in Colorado
Joe Biden tripped and fell after handing out the last diploma at a graduation ceremony at the US Air Force Academy on Thursday.
He was quickly helped up and walked back to his seat unassisted.
Continue reading...Tanks believed to have attacked area residents say is not close to any military target
Twenty-seven people have been killed and 106 injured after a market in a poor area south of Khartoum was shelled, according to local residents.
Six tank shells were fired from al-Shajara, one of the few areas the army controls in the Sudanese capital, towards the neighbourhood of Mayo, residents said.
Continue reading...Officials acknowledge ‘genuine concerns’ in wake of MPs’ suspension over allegations of harassment
Female Labour staff are said to be fearful of using the party’s official complaints process, prompting concern among senior officials as a long-serving MP is suspended over allegations of sexual harassment.
Labour figures have acknowledged the “genuine concerns” of female colleagues, and have issued a “cast-iron commitment” to take any action necessary that will restore faith in the party’s processes.
Continue reading...Governor of Russian border town says drone fell on road way; claims that three people killed in capital sought safety in locked shelter
Wires are also posting new photos from the Russian city of Shebekino in the Belgorod border region, which Russian officials say was shelled for the fourth time this week by Ukrainian forces.
Continue reading...Ukrainian president speaks of the importance of overturning Russia’s air supremacy with Patriot missiles and F-16s
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had received “powerful support” from allies attending a summit in Moldova as it emerged F-16 fighter jets could be made available to Ukraine within six months.
Closing the conference of 46 European leaders held at a castle 12 miles (19km) from the border with Ukraine, the country’s president spoke of the importance of overturning Russian’s supremacy in the air with a “sky shield” involving a combination of Patriot missiles and F-16s.
Continue reading...Girl and her mother reportedly among the dead from falling debris after short-range missiles intercepted
Three people including a child were killed and at least 11 people were injured in an early morning missile attack on Kyiv that hit apartment buildings, two schools and a children’s clinic, according to city authorities.
The attack, on what is International Children’s Day in many post-Soviet countries, reportedly involved 10 Iskander short-range missiles, and there was only a few minutes’ warning before they hit. Most of the damage appeared to be from falling debris after the incoming missiles were intercepted by the capital’s air defences.
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