Category Archives: World News

Macron stands by divisive remark about US allies ‘not being vassals’

Posted on by

French president reaffirms Sunday’s call for Europe to act more independently from US over China and Taiwan

Emmanuel Macron has stood by his controversial comments on Taiwan, repeating that being a US ally did not mean being a “vassal”.

At the end of a state visit to the Netherlands during which he has also faced protests over pension reforms at home, Macron appeared to reaffirm the remarks he made in an interview on Sunday, in which he called for Europe to act more independently from the US over Taiwan.

Continue reading...

‘Huge honour’: Ireland breaks out the bunting for Joe Biden

Posted on by

US president given rapturous welcome despite bad weather as he begins celebration of his Irish heritage

Joe Biden has started a three-day personal and political pilgrimage to the Republic of Ireland, receiving a rapturous welcome despite heavy wind and rain.

The US president flew into Dublin on Wednesday afternoon after concluding a politically charged visit to Northern Ireland. The taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, greeted Biden after he descended from Air Force One for an expected three-day celebration of the president’s Irish heritage.

Continue reading...

Emmanuel Macron heckled during state visit to Netherlands

Posted on by

French president also criticised for saying Europe should act independently from US over Taiwan

Emmanuel Macron was heckled and jeered on a state visit to the Netherlands as he faced pressure over both raising the French pension age and his warning that Europe must not become “vassals” in a US conflict with China over Taiwan.

The French president was due to give a speech on European strategic autonomy when two demonstrators against his pension changes were arrested as they ran towards him on his arrival at the University of Amsterdam.

Continue reading...

UK imposes sanctions on ‘enablers’ accused of helping Russian oligarchs

Posted on by

‘Financial fixers’ alleged to have helped Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov to hide assets are among those targeted

The UK government has imposed sanctions on the “financial fixers” who have allegedly helped the Russian oligarchs Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov hide their assets.

The sanctions, announced by the Foreign Office on Wednesday, are targeted at what officials describe as “oligarch enablers”, whom they accuse of knowingly assisting the billionaire businessmen to shield their wealth.

Continue reading...

Threefold increase in Mediterranean crossings this year, says EU agency

Posted on by

Nearly 28,000 people arrived via sea route in first quarter, Frontex says, as UN decries deadliest period since 2017

Three times as many people sought to reach the EU across the Mediterranean in the first three months of 2023 compared with a year before, the bloc’s border agency has said, as the UN’s migration arm decried the deadliest first quarter since 2017.

Overall, the EU agency, Frontex, reported 54,000 irregular crossings into the bloc via all routes in the first quarter of the year, up a fifth from 2022.

Continue reading...

Al Jazeera English announces plans to move from London’s Shard to Qatar

Posted on by

Move of London’s live broadcast centre to Doha could involve dozens of job losses

Al Jazeera English plans to close its live broadcast centre that operates from London’s Shard skyscraper and move programming to Qatar, with the possible loss of dozens of UK-based jobs.

In an email to staff, the network’s managing director, Giles Trendle, said Al Jazeera was “looking to undertake a restructure involving the move of AJE live programming to Doha. The move would include the news bulletins between 1900GMT and 2300GMT produced from London, and The Stream programme produced from Washington DC.”

Continue reading...

Former J-pop idol alleges sexual abuse by late music mogul Johnny Kitagawa

Posted on by

Kauan Okamoto says Kitagawa evaded justice because victims knew speaking out would end their careers

Johnny Kitagawa, one of the most powerful figures in Japanese entertainment, sexually abused multiple boys but evaded justice because his victims knew speaking out would end their pop careers, according to a former protege who has decided to go public with his allegations.

Kauan Okamoto, a Japanese-Brazilian singer-songwriter, said Kitagawa had sexually abused him at least 15 times over a four-year period from 2012, when the pop hopeful was aged 15.

Continue reading...

Russia-Ukraine war live: US sanctions over 120 people and entities supporting Russia’s invasion — as it happened

Posted on by

Latest sanctions target a wide network tied to Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov

Associated Press today has a feature on people in Ukraine who are in need of mental health treatment after months of war.

There are hundreds of thousands of people in this situation, experts say, and the number of people needing psychological help is only expected to rise as the war continues.

Continue reading...

Bola Tinubu to become Nigeria’s president despite court challenges, says minister

Posted on by

Information minister says ‘no basis’ to form interim government, amid claims of February elections being fixed

The Nigerian president-elect, Bola Tinubu, will take office on schedule on 29 May despite court challenges to the election result, the country’s information minister has said.

On a visit to the UK to counter claims that the 25 February elections in Africa’s most populous country had been fixed, Lai Mohammed said there was “no basis” for an interim government to be formed until the court challenges could be resolved.

Continue reading...

Elon Musk says BBC’s ‘government-funded media’ Twitter tag will be changed

Posted on by

Billionaire also says pain level from owning site is ‘extremely high’ but the business is ‘breaking even’

Elon Musk, Twitter’s billionaire owner, has said the social media platform will change the BBC’s label of “government-funded media” after the broadcaster objected to the tag.

The Tesla chief executive made the announcement during a wide-ranging interview with the corporation in which he also said his pain level from running the site had been “extremely high” but claimed the business was now “roughly breaking even”.

Continue reading...

Biden team to propose strict vehicle pollution limits to boost EV sales

Posted on by

Proposal expected to be unveiled on Wednesday would require at least 54% of new vehicles sold in US to be electric by 2030

The Biden administration will propose strict new automobile pollution limits requiring that all-electric vehicles account for as many as two of every three new vehicles sold in the US by 2032 in a plan that would transform the US auto industry.

Under the proposed regulation, expected to be released by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday, greenhouse gas emissions for the 2027 through 2032 model years for passenger vehicles would be limited to even stricter levels than the auto industry agreed to in 2021.

Continue reading...

Hyundai urged to stop illegal miners using its machines in Amazon

Posted on by

Greenpeace report finds heavy machinery made by South Korean firm contributing to destruction of Brazilian rainforest

Hyundai is being urged to prevent its heavy machinery products from being used in illegal mining and environmental destruction in the Brazilian Amazon.

A report published by Greenpeace on Wednesday found the South Korean conglomerate’s excavators and other heavy machinery are precipitating the destruction of the rainforest and putting the survival of Indigenous populations at risk.

Continue reading...

China appears to backtrack over no-fly zone near Taiwan

Posted on by

Taipei says Beijing has confined flight ban north of island to 27 minutes on Sunday after initial three-day plan

China has appeared to backtrack after reports it was planning to declare a three-day no-fly zone in the airspace north of Taiwan next week, reducing the planned duration to just 27 minutes.

A spokesperson from Taiwan’s defence ministry told a press conference the no-fly zone was about 85 nautical miles north of Taiwan, and they believed it could be related to aerospace activities, perhaps satellite launches.

Continue reading...

Tories hail Greek migration policies as an example. Instead, they should serve as a warning

Posted on by

Experience in eastern Mediterranean proves deterrence and harsh conditions do little to discourage refugees

Prominent Conservatives openly view Greece’s self-described “strict but fair” migration policies as a model to emulate. The former home secretary Priti Patel told MPs last week that “we would not be in this current situation” had she been allowed to replicate “Greek-style reception centres”.

British interest in the Greek model dates back to May 2021, when the former immigration minister Chris Philp made an “urgent” – as internal documents seen by the Guardian called it – trip to Greece. This was followed by an official visit by Patel in August 2021, who toured a newly constructed Greek camp, went out on patrol with the Greek coastguard and spoke of working “closely with Greek partners” on migration.

Continue reading...

Gun battles erupt in Ethiopia as PM axes Amhara region’s security force

Posted on by

The country’s second-biggest state has been riven by mass street protests, armed clashes between local police and the federal military as well as the fatal shooting of two aid workers

Gun battles and mass protests have engulfed parts of Amhara, Ethiopia’s second-biggest region, after a move to centralise the regional security forces of the country’s 11 states.

The federal government announced the policy last Thursday, in pursuit of building “a strong centralised army”. People from several towns in Amhara responded with protests, while some units of the region’s security forces refused to disarm and clashed with the federal military.

Continue reading...

As the west tries to limit TikTok’s reach, what about China’s other apps?

Posted on by

With government concerns over national security growing, Beijing’s influence over platforms such as WeChat and Shein could come under scrutiny

As TikTok, the world’s most popular app, comes under increasing scrutiny in response to data privacy and security concerns, lawmakers in the west may soon set their sights on other Chinese platforms that have gone global.

TikTok was built by ByteDance as a foreign version of its popular domestic video-sharing platform, Douyin. But it is far from being ByteDance’s only overseas moneymaker. The Chinese company owns dozens of apps that are available overseas, many of them English-language versions of Chinese offerings.

Continue reading...

Myanmar airstrike on civilians sparks global outcry as witnesses describe attack

Posted on by

Death toll in Sagaing could reach 100 in what could be deadliest junta attack since coup in 2021

A series of deadly airstrikes by Myanmar’s military on a civilian crowd has sparked widespread condemnation, as witnesses recounted the horror of the attack that could be the junta’s deadliest since a coup two years ago.

The initial death toll stood at 53 from Tuesday’s attacks on a village ceremony in Sagaing region at which women and children were present, but later tallies reported by independent media raised it to about 100.

Continue reading...

Mayan ball game scoreboard thought to be over 1,000 years old found in Mexico

Posted on by

The circular carved stone, unearthed at the Yucatán’s Chichén Itzá complex, displays hieroglyphic writing and two game players

A stone scoreboard used in an ancient ritual ball game has been discovered at the famed Mayan Chichén Itzá archaeological site on Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula.

The circular piece, measuring just over 12.6in (32cm) in diameter and weighing 88lbs (40kg), displays hieroglyphic writing surrounding two players standing next to a ball, according to a statement from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).

Continue reading...

Liz Truss to say Macron trip to China was sign of weakness

Posted on by

Former PM to say in speech that any attempts by western leaders to appease Xi Jinping would be a mistake

Liz Truss will say Emmanuel Macron’s recent trip to China was a “sign of weakness”, after the French president asked Beijing for support in ending the war in Ukraine.

In the latest of a series of foreign policy interventions designed to encourage Rishi Sunak to take a tougher approach towards China, Truss will say in a speech that any attempts by western leaders to appease Xi Jinping would be a mistake.

Continue reading...

Armenian and Azeri soldiers clash near contested Nagorno-Karabakh region

Posted on by

Rivals have accused each other of initiating fire which killed seven people

South Caucasus rivals Armenia and Azerbaijan have accused each other of initiating a fatal clash around the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region which killed seven soldiers.

The two neighbours – both formerly part of the Soviet Union – have fought repeatedly over the last 35 years for control of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but home to a mainly ethnic Armenian population.

Continue reading...