Senior state officials have commented on the postponement of Blinken’s trip to China after a Chinese spy balloon was discovered over the US yesterday, noting that conditions were no longer right for Blinken’s travel.
From Reuters’ reporter Hümeyra Pamuk:
Continue reading...President Gabriel Boric cuts short vacation as heatwave fuels nearly 40 blazes across southern and central regions
Chile’s government has declared a widened state of emergency amid wildfires that have killed at least 13 people and consumed about 14,000 hectares (35,000 acres), as the South American country endures a summer heatwave across southern and central swaths of the country.
The interior minister, Carolina Toha, said on Friday morning the government had declared a catastrophe in the region of Biobío, joining its neighbouring region Ñuble, which President Gabriel Boric announced on Thursday evening, allowing the deployment of soldiers and additional resources.
Continue reading...Canadian province argues in court it is not responsible for compensating Indigenous people over broken treaty obligations
Ontario has claimed that it does not need to pay billions of dollars owed to First Nations over broken treaty obligations, arguing that it has already spent the sum on the historical costs of resource extraction and the infrastructure of “colonization”.
Canada’s federal government and the province have spent the last week in a Sudbury court arguing neither is responsible for compensating Indigenous nations for more than 150 years of lost revenues.
Continue reading...Survivors tell Italian authorities vessel carrying about 50 people lost its way trying to cross from Tunisia
A baby was among nine people including his mother and a pregnant woman who died of cold and thirst on a boat carrying about 50 migrants across the central Mediterranean, Italian authorities have said.
Survivors who landed on the Italian island of Lampedusa after being rescued late on Thursday told investigators the four-month-old baby slipped out of the boat after his mother, who was holding him, collapsed and died from exposure.
Continue reading...Agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack also seeks to significantly lower sodium in meals as part of fresh nutrition standards plan
US agriculture officials on Friday proposed new nutrition standards for school meals, including the first limits on added sugars, with a focus on limiting sweetened foods such as cereals, yogurt, flavored milk and breakfast pastries.
The plan announced by the agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack, also seeks to significantly decrease sodium, making for less salty meals served to the nation’s school kids by 2029, while making the rules for foods made with whole grains more flexible.
Continue reading...Award-winning director, who was arrested in July, is released from Evin prison in Tehran
The acclaimed Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi has been released on bail after starting a hunger strike to protest against his almost seven-month detention, a rights group and supporters said on Friday.
Panahi has been released from Evin prison in Tehran “two days after starting his hunger strike for freedom”, the US-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said on Twitter. Iran’s Shargh newspaper posted an image of Panahi jubilantly embracing a supporter.
Continue reading...Researchers hail ‘world-class discovery’ that suggests cave bears may have lived farther south than thought
Researchers exploring a cave system in south-east Spain have discovered a huge cavern, sealed off for millennia, hung with huge stalactites and gouged by the claws of long-extinct cave bears, which, they claim, “opens a new door on prehistory”.
The find was made at the Cueva del Arco, a collection of caves in the Almadenes gorge near the Murcian town of Cieza. Although the site had already yielded evidence of settlements stretching back 50,000 years – making it one of the few places in the eastern Iberian peninsula where the transition from Neanderthals to modern humans can be documented – experts digging there suspected it harboured further discoveries.
Continue reading...Eccentric designer became known for his space-age metal dresses and signature range of fragrances
The Spanish fashion designer Paco Rabanne, best known for his space-age metal dresses, bestselling fragrances and eccentric pronouncements, has died at the age of 88.
His death was announced on Friday in a statement by the Puig group, which owns the Paco Rabanne brand. “I am profoundly saddened by the death of Paco Rabanne,” the group’s chief executive, Marc Puig, said in a statement. “Through his great personality, he transmitted a unique aesthetic and a daring, revolutionary and provocative vision of the world of fashion.”
Continue reading...Package of 29 older tanks could be sent to help fight Russia as soon as refurbishments done, reports say
Germany has approved the export of older Leopard 1 battle tanks, which would add to the raft of fighting vehicles Berlin promised last week it would send to Ukraine.
A spokesperson said on Friday that Olaf Scholz’s government had granted an export licence for the German-made tanks first produced in the 1960s and replaced within Germany’s own military by Leopard 2 tanks in 2003. Further details would be provided in the coming days and weeks, they said.
Continue reading...Claimant seeks $3m in damages to cover financial losses as well as rehabilitation and therapy to overcome ‘trauma’
A man in Singapore is seeking more than S$3m (£1.87m) in damages from a woman who said she saw him only as a friend, claiming she caused him trauma and damaged his “stellar reputation”.
A defamation case being brought by K Kawshigan claims the damages are to cover loss in earnings and investments, as well as “rehabilitation and therapy programmes to overcome the sustained trauma,” according to court documents.
Continue reading...New US $2.175bn military aid also includes precision-guided rockets and HAWK air defence firing units. This live blog is now closed
Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, has posted to Telegram, responding to the Ukrainian president’s comments about the slowing down of western sanctions on Russia.
She quotes the media saying “Zelenskiy complained that the pace of sanctions in Europe has slowed down, and Russia has become faster to adapt to restrictions” and goes on to write:
Western Europe, falling into recession, having long lost the habit of survival, is sinking, with Ukraine tied to its feet.
At night, the Russian military attacked the Barvinkove community in the Kharkiv region. A private house was destroyed and a 70-year-old man was rescued from the rubble. Two men died.
Also at night, the Russian army shelled Kherson. They hit one of the shopping centres, a fire started there. People were not injured. Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk region also came under fire. There are no dead or injured.
Continue reading...Norway’s sovereign wealth titan threatens to vote against boards on firms it holds investments with over lax climate and social targets
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s single largest investor, has warned company directors it will vote against their re-election to the board if they don’t up their game on tackling the climate crisis, human rights abuses and boardroom diversity.
Carine Smith Ihenacho, chief governance and compliance officer of Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages more than 13tn Norwegian kroner (£1tn) on behalf of the Norwegian people, said the fund was preparing to vote against the re-election of at least 80 company boards for failing to set or hit environmental or social targets.
Continue reading...Le Nouveau Duluth enjoyed an incredible reputation on Tripadvisor – raising questions over online reviews
It’s notoriously difficult to secure a table at the world’s greatest restaurant, but diners hoping to sample the cuisine at Le Nouveau Duluth in Montreal will have an especially hard time.
That’s not only because, until recently, it had the highest Tripadvisor rating of the city’s 3,678 listed eateries – although reviews on the website suggest its menu is beyond belief.
Continue reading...Rare exhibition assembles 28 paintings by enigmatic Dutch master in one place
For once, say its curators, “the chance of a lifetime” may be right: never before have so many works by Johannes Vermeer, the luminous 17th-century Dutch master, been assembled in the same place – and it is highly unlikely they will be again.
Of the fewer than 40 paintings most experts attribute to the artist, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has obtained 28. Opening next week, its first Vermeer retrospective has sold more advance tickets than any show in the museum’s history.
Continue reading...Zelenskiy urges west to supply long-range weapons; EU offers support to Ukraine in Kyiv meeting but no promises on membership
Continue reading...Officials say balloon has been watched for a few days but decided not to shoot it down for safety reasons
The Pentagon has said it is tracking a Chinese spy balloon flying over the US but decided against shooting it down for safety reasons.
Defence officials said the balloon had been watched since it entered US airspace at high altitude a couple of days ago. It has been monitored by several methods including crewed aircraft, and has most recently been tracked crossing Montana, where the US has silo-based nuclear missiles.
Continue reading...Auckland has experienced its wettest January since records began, while temperatures plummet in southern US
Historic rainfall hit New Zealand in the past week with the worst flooding in at least 200 years in Auckland. Auckland airport reported 249mm of rainfall in a 24-hour period on 27 January, with a month’s worth of rainfall in less than an hour. At another station, Albert Park, there was 280mm in one day, with 211mm falling in less than six hours.
These totals are more than 8.5 times higher than a typical January, and more than 2.5 times higher than an entire typical summer. Overall, Auckland has had the wettest January since records began, with more than half a metre of rain falling in places. The rainfall has caused numerous landslips, flooding and damage to roads and properties with four people killed and 350 in need of emergency accommodation. More than 9,000 people are still stranded as flights in and out of Auckland experiencing delays and cancellations.
Continue reading...Scientists suggest patient’s own cells could be grown in the lab and used to repair stroke or trauma injuries
Blobs of human brain tissue have been transplanted into the brains of rats in work that could pave the way for new treatments for devastating brain injuries.
The groundbreaking study showed that the “human brain organoids” – sesame seed-sized balls of neurons – were able to integrate into the rat brain, linking up with their blood supplies and communicating with the rat neurons.
Continue reading...Herero and Nama people demand direct talks and take Namibian government to court for accepting reparations on their behalf for 1904-1908 killings
Descendants of victims of genocide in Namibia have called on Germany to “stop hiding” and discuss reparations with them directly, as they take their own government to court for making a deal without their approval.
The Herero and Nama people have gone to Namibia’s high court, rejecting an apology made in 2021 after years of talks between Namibia and Germany, which they say falls short of atoning for the 1904 to 1908 genocide, the first of the 20th century.
Continue reading...Signature cuisine is at the centre of a police investigation after customers at revolving sushi restaurants posted video clips of themselves meddling with dishes
There are breaches of etiquette – drenching your rice in soy sauce, for one – and then there are heinous acts of “sushi terrorism”.
Japan’s signature cuisine is at the centre of a police investigation after customers at revolving sushi restaurants posted video clips of themselves interfering with food and playing pranks on other customers.
Continue reading...