Pasquale Bonavota featured on police’s list of most dangerous criminals
Italian authorities have announced the arrest of a top boss of the ’Ndrangheta mafia after he spent almost five years on the run.
Pasquale Bonavota, 49, who featured on the police’s list of most dangerous criminals, had been sought since November 2018 after escaping an arrest warrant for homicide and mafia association issued by a magistrate in Calabria, southern Italy.
Continue reading...Far-right Italian prime minister in London for ‘new beginning’ aiming at deeper and wider alliance between the countries
The Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has praised the work undertaken by her British counterpart, Rishi Sunak, to fight people traffickers and clandestine immigration networks, as two of the most prominent rightwing leaders in Europe met in Downing Street.
At the start of a two-day visit designed to deepen relations between the two governments, Meloni was greeted outside Downing Street by a small group of demonstrators carrying placards reading “stand up to racism” and “no to fascist Meloni”.
Continue reading...Zoe Salim says waiting at the border between Sudan and Egypt was the worst part of her family’s journey
A British teacher who was forced to flee Sudan amid the outbreak of fighting has told her shock and fear as she made her way to Egypt.
Zoe Salim, a former head of languages in a London school, was visiting Khartoum with her husband and two children for Ramadan.
Continue reading...Record figures for month recorded in Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, China and South Asia
Asia is experiencing weeks of “endless record heat”, with sweltering temperatures causing school closures and surges in energy use.
Record April temperatures have been recorded at monitoring stations across Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, as well as in China and South Asia.
Continue reading...International human rights body calls for immediate and urgent action to halt movement of children from Ukraine by Russia. This live blog is closed
Reuters has taken a hard look at satellite imagery of Russia’s “vast network of fortifications, sweeping down from western Russia through eastern Ukraine and on to Crimea” and built in readiness for Ukraine’s expected counteroffensive.
The news agency says it has examined thousands of defensive positions, both inside Russia and along Ukrainian front lines, and concluded Russia is most heavily defended in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and the gateway to the Crimean Peninsula.
It’s not the numbers for the Ukrainians. It’s can they do this kind of warfare, combined arms operations? The Russians have shown they can’t do it and they’ve gone back to their old Soviet method of attrition.
We’ve cleaned out most of the stocks in the West. It’s going to take some years to rebuild. I think this is Ukraine’s big opportunity to press on.
For the Guardian, Lyz Lenz looks at the relationship between Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson, and what the latter’s ouster from Fox News this week means for the former president’s latest campaign for the White House:
At an 18 February 2017 rally, Donald Trump railed against immigrants and violence. He was unusually focused on Sweden, warning the crowd about recent terrorist attacks in the country: “You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this?” If a terrorist attack in Sweden seemed unbelievable, it’s because it was. There had been no attack by immigrants the night before Trump spoke. The most recent attacks on Sweden, at the time, were a series of bombings between November 2016 and January 2017 that were allegedly connected to the neo-Nazi group the Nordic Resistance.
Continue reading...Army and paramilitary opponents the RSF agree to extend fragile truce that was due to end at midnight
The UK’s foreign secretary James Cleverly has been defensive about criticism of UK evacuation efforts from Sudan affecting and delaying efforts by Germany and other European nations to evacuate people.
The BBC has reported that German authorities told it that the British operation to rescue diplomats at the weekend “jeopardised” the efforts of other nations, because it didn’t have the permission of the Sudanese authorities to take place. Cleverly told listeners:
My understanding is we did have permissions for those overflights. I will, of course, look at the circumstances of that. My understanding is we’ve had permissions for those flights. We enjoy a very, very close professional relationship with the German government and the German armed forces that have been on the on the ground.
The extremist putschist forces have attacked the camp of the RSF in the Kafouri area with aviation and artillery. Our forces confronted the aggressor forces … and inflicted heavy losses … and seized their military equipment. The attacks of the putschists and the remnants of the former regime on the camps of our forces come during the humanitarian truce that was allocated to open humanitarian corridors for citizens and residents of brotherly and friendly countries.
Continue reading...Family of famed TV figure and former mayor of Cincinnati announces he died ‘peacefully’ at home in Chicago on Thursday
The talkshow host Jerry Springer, a former mayor of Cincinnati whose work was vastly influential in daytime TV worldwide, has died. He was 79.
Springer’s family said he died “peacefully” on Thursday at home in Chicago.
Continue reading...In El Fasher, in North Darfur, only one hospital remains functional, with bomb damage, power cuts and only weeks until lifesaving equipment and drugs run out
Until gunfire broke out on the streets of El Fasher this month, the state capital of North Darfur had several main hospitals. There was the big teaching hospital, the Saudi hospital, a paediatric hospital and the South hospital, a modest 35-bed facility with big ambitions and a specific remit: to help bring down the high numbers of local women dying in pregnancy and childbirth.
Now, almost two weeks into the conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), two weeks of bloodshed that has seen terror return to a region once synonymous with human suffering, those options have narrowed.
Continue reading...Florida governor attempting to weaken Disney’s self-governing powers after entertainment giant opposed his ‘don’t say gay’ law
Disney’s lawsuit over his attempt to seize its self-governing powers is a political stunt with no legal merit, the increasingly embattled hard-right Florida governor Ron DeSantis, told reporters on Thursday.
“I don’t think the suit has merit,” the likely Republican White House hopeful said, adding: “The days of putting one company on a pedestal with no accountability are over in the state of Florida.”
Continue reading...Jack Teixeira, 21, expected to appear in Massachusetts court on Thursday as prosecutors urge judge to keep him behind bars
The Massachusetts air national guardsman suspected of leaking highly classified US intelligence documents is set to appear in federal court on Thursday, after federal prosecutors urged a judge to keep the suspect behind bars.
Jack Teixeira, 21, is expected to appear at 1pm ET for a detention hearing in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Continue reading...David Tebbutt’s widow ‘delighted’ as court rules conviction of Ali Kololo for robbery with violence was unsafe
A man found guilty of being part of a gang of pirates who murdered a British tourist 12 years ago has had his conviction quashed by Kenya’s high court.
Ali Kololo, from Lamu County, was convicted of robbery with violence in connection with the 2011 attack that left David Tebbutt dead and his wife, Judith, held captive in Somalia for six months.
Continue reading...Union leader wants more preventive detention of activists across country to stop disruption
Police representatives, members of the judiciary and politicians in Germany are calling for harsher penalties for climate activists, including preventive detention and longer prison terms, in an effort to halt their disruptive protests.
This week has seen the most intense protests yet by the campaign group Letzte Generation (Last Generation), with hundreds of its members blocking scores of roads during rush hour in Berlin.
Continue reading...Petteri Orpo, likely successor of Sanna Marin as PM, says government should be in place by June
Finland’s conservative National Coalition party has said it will open formal coalition talks with the far-right, anti-immigration Finns party and two smaller groups to form the country’s next government.
Petteri Orpo, who is likely to succeed the Social Democrat Sanna Marin as prime minister after his NCP finished first in the 2 April elections, said negotiations would start on Tuesday and a government should hopefully be in place by June.
Continue reading...David Gianforte, who uses he/they pronouns, said they urged father Greg to stand up against ‘unjust, immoral’ legislation
The son of the Republican governor of Montana, Greg Gianforte, met their father in his office to lobby him to reject several bills that would harm transgender people in the state, the Montana Free Press reported.
David Gianforte told the paper they identify as non-binary and use he/they pronouns – the first time they disclosed their gender identity publicly. They told the outlet they felt an obligation to use their relationship with their father to stand up for LGBTQ+ people in the state.
Continue reading...Ezekiel Odero arrested and more than 100 people evacuated from church, days after discovery of bodies linked to another church
One of Kenya’s highest-profile pastors is facing charges over the “mass killing of his followers”, the government has said, just days after the discovery of dozens of bodies linked to another church.
Ezekiel Odero, the head of the New Life Prayer Centre and Church, “has been arrested and is being processed to face criminal charges related to the mass killing of his followers”, the interior minister, Kithure Kindiki, said in a statement.
Continue reading...The Chinese leader’s surprise contact with his Ukrainian counterpart is suspected to be a corrective move
A long-awaited phone call between Xi Jinping and Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been cautiously welcomed, but China analysts say the timing suggests it could be partly an act of damage control after controversial comments by China’s ambassador to France.
Ambassador Lu Shaye, one of China’s “wolf warrior” diplomats with a history of fiery remarks, caused outrage across Europe this week when he denied the sovereignty of former Soviet states, saying they “did not have effective status”. The comments were roundly condemned, with several European nations summoning Chinese envoys for rebuke, and politicians suggesting it demonstrated China’s untrustworthiness as a neutral party in the Ukraine war.
Continue reading...Pascal Soriot says decline in startups across Europe differs markedly from ‘explosion’ of firms and clinical trials in China
The boss of Britain’s biggest drugmaker has said that the UK and the rest of Europe are falling behind China and the US in the creation of biotech firms and clinical trials of new medicines.
Pascal Soriot, chief executive of AstraZeneca, said that while China had seen an “explosion of biotech companies”, and a “rapid expansion of clinical trials” that puts it ahead of the US, the UK and EU had posted declines.
Continue reading...UK military chiefs say flights will continue as long as conditions are safe
Renewed clashes in Khartoum and in south-west Sudan have raised fears that the current three-day ceasefire due to expire on Thursday night will not be extended and fighting will instead intensify
A surge in violence would threaten the evacuation of thousands of foreign nationals who remain in Sudan. UK military chiefs said flights would continue as long as conditions were safe, although the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said the UK “cannot guarantee” how many would depart once the ceasefire ends.
Continue reading...Volodymyr Saldo, a Kremlin puppet in the Russian-occupied territories, listed as firm’s owner, despite being under sanctions
A UK company has been set up in the name of one of Vladimir Putin’s top officials in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine despite him being under sanctions.
Volodymyr Saldo, a notorious puppet of the Kremlin in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, is listed as the owner of a UK company registered in November, five months after his name was added to the sanctions list.
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