House leader Hakeem Jeffries condemns former president over behavior related to expected indictment in New York
Donald Trump’s incendiary rhetoric over his expected indictment in New York could “get someone killed”, the Democratic leader in the US House warned.
“The twice-impeached former president’s rhetoric is reckless, reprehensible and irresponsible,” Hakeem Jeffries, from New York, told reporters at the Capitol in Washington.
Continue reading...Row a further signal of tensions over the green deal landmark proposals to tackle climate crisis
Germany is facing a growing backlash inside the EU over its U-turn on a law to phase out the combustion engine in new cars by 2035, despite signs of an end to the standoff with Brussels.
The row comes amid growing concerns over France’s push to include nuclear across a swathe of laws on green technologies, a further signal of tensions over the EU green deal, landmark proposals to tackle the climate crisis.
Continue reading...Acute hunger is affecting 4.9 million Haitians, according to a UN report, which outlines the increased need for humanitarian aid
Haitians are increasingly desperate for humanitarian aid as gang violence engulfing the country has left nearly half the population regularly going hungry, a World Food Programme (WFP) report has found.
“These are the worst conditions on record,” said Jean-Martin Bauer, WFP’s Haiti director. “Food insecurity in Haiti has been going downhill and Haiti is sliding into a hunger emergency.”
Continue reading...This blog is now closed. You can see the latest developments at a glance below:
The UK Ministry of Defence has issued its daily intelligence briefing on Ukraine, in which it suggests Russia has been training troops in Belarus for both practical and political reasons. It writes:
As of mid-March 2023, Russia had likely redeployed at least 1,000 troops who had been training at the Obuz-Lesnovsky training ground in south-western Belarus.
Although no new rotation of troops has been noted, Russia has highly likely left the tented camp in place, suggesting it is considering continuing the training programme.
Continue reading...Rahul Gandhi of Congress party had asked why ‘all thieves have Modi as [their] common surname’
The Indian opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi, has been expelled from parliament 24 hours after he was convicted of defamation for a remark implying the country’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, was a criminal.
Senior members of Gandhi’s Congress party met on Friday morning to discuss the conviction and his two-year jail sentence when they received news of his expulsion.
Continue reading...Slashing funding to the programme from a promised £7m to just £1m sends a ‘stark message to the world’, says Save the Children
The UK government has cut almost £6m in funding to a programme in Afghanistan supporting vulnerable women and girls.
Save the Children said it has been told by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office that it will receive just over £1m of a promised £7m to support more than 100,000 people to access essential basic services such as healthcare and education.
Continue reading...French president’s office confirms state visit off after mass strikes and demonstrations across the country
King Charles’s state visit to Paris has been postponed amid mass strikes and protests, the French president’s office has said.
The king had been scheduled to arrive in France on Sunday on his first state visit as monarch, before heading to Germany on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Olha fled the Ukrainian city a year ago this week and has faced many challenges, including enrolling her children in school
I’m just an ordinary mother. My children went to school and enjoyed after-school clubs. Last February, I was preparing to shoot a short film about Kherson’s streets. A rehearsal was scheduled – but it never took place.
That was the day they bombed airports simultaneously across the country. Public transport stopped running from our city. The frontline ran straight to our city and a week later we found ourselves under occupation. One morning changed our lives, and that of every Ukrainian family, for ever.
Continue reading...Maryam al-Khawaja says she fears her father Abdulhadi’s health is deteriorating and condemns Denmark for inaction
Human rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja’s health has suffered so much inside a Bahraini prison that his daughter Maryam has offered to trade places with him. She fears that without urgent action, her father will slowly die behind bars without being able to see his family.
“I don’t know how much longer my dad has. I spend every day dreading each time the phone rings, as it might be someone calling me to let me know my dad is no longer around,” said Maryam. “I know he has serious health issues and the authorities are using [lack of] access to proper treatment as a method of punishment. I don’t want to wait around for my dad to be released to us in a coffin. I can’t do that.”
Continue reading...Pair tell of witnessing or experiencing torture and brainwashing, as Republicans and Democrats vow to document ‘genocide’
Two women who say they experienced and eventually escaped Chinese “re-education” camps provided first-hand testimony to members of the US Congress on Thursday night, offering harrowing accounts of life in detention while urging Americans not to look away from what the US has declared a continuing genocide of Muslim ethnic minorities.
Speaking before a special bipartisan House committee at the start of Ramadan, Gulbahar Haitiwaji, a Uyghur woman, said she spent nearly three years in internment camps and police stations, during which she was subjected to 11 hours of daily “brainwashing education” that included singing patriotic songs and praising the Chinese government before and after meals.
Continue reading...Airstrikes in retaliation to attack on base in north-east by suspected Iranian-made drone that killed US contractor
The US military has carried out airstrikes against Iran-backed forces in retaliation for an attack that killed an American contractor and wounded five US troops.
A day after the deadly attack on US personnel in Syria, which Washington blamed on a drone of Iranian origin, sources said a US base in Syria’s north-east was targeted in a new missile attack. US officials said there were no US casualties in the incident on Friday.
Continue reading...Known as ‘Rice Tusker’ for his insatiable hunger, the 30-year-old pachyderm has been terrorising the Indian region for years
The trail of destruction left by an elephant in Kerala could finally come to an end on Sunday as a crack team of experts plan to capture him.
The team of 71 vets, forest officers and field workers have identified a specific spot among the wooded hills in Idukki district where Arikompan – which means the Rice Tusker, because of his love for rice – comes every couple of days to cool off in water.
Continue reading...Patrick Amadon, whose work flashed up names from pro-democracy protests, says it had to be taken down ‘to be a completed piece’
A Hong Kong department store took down a digital artwork that contained hidden references to jailed free-speech defenders, in an incident the artist says is evidence of the erosion of free speech by Chinese authorities.
Patrick Amadon’s No Rioters was put on display on a billboard at the huge Sogo Causeway Bay store as the city was promoting itself as a cultural hub following years of pandemic travel restrictions. Art Basel Hong Kong, a prominent art fair in Asia, began this week, alongside other art events.
Continue reading...Poor internet and logistical problems frustrate hearing into killing of British journalist and Brazilian Indigenous expert
Activists and lawyers representing the families of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira have voiced frustration and anger after the preliminary court hearings of three of their alleged murderers had to be suspended because of poor internet and logistical problems at the high-security prisons where the defendants are being held.
Three of the suspected killers of the British journalist and Brazilian Indigenous specialist were scheduled to give evidence from behind bars this week during partly online hearings that are expected to pave the way for a jury trial, possibly in the second half of this year.
Continue reading...Polly Sanderson-Grasham said seeing her father’s state after the incident was like ‘a slap in the face’
The daughter of the man who collided with Gwyneth Paltrow on a ski slope, has said seeing her father’s state after the incident was like “a slap in the face”.
Polly Sanderson-Grasham said that following the crash in 2016, her father was unable to “see the forest for the trees” and got “lost in the minutiae” of things.
Continue reading...Animal, which is thought to have broken out of its zoo enclosure, was tranquillised after being on the loose in South Korean capital
A young zebra walked, trotted and galloped for hours through the busy streets of Seoul before emergency workers tranquillised the animal and brought it back to a zoo.
The zebra – a male named Sero who was born in the zoo in 2021 – was in a stable condition and being examined by veterinarians on Thursday evening, said Choi Ye-ra, an official at the Children’s Grand Park in South Korea’s capital.
Continue reading...South Korean CEO of Terraform Labs is accused of multi-billion-dollar fraud involving TerraUSD and Luna currencies
A man suspected of being the fugitive South Korean cryptocurrency entrepreneur Do Kwon, accused of orchestrating a multi-billion-dollar fraud that shook global crypto markets last year, has been arrested in Montenegro.
“Montenegrin police have detained a person suspected of being one of the most wanted fugitives, South Korean citizen, co-founder and CEO of Singapore-based Terraform Labs,” the interior minister, Filip Adžić, tweeted late on Thursday.
Continue reading...Shou Zi Chew attempts to play down concerns over data and privacy as lawmakers call for ban on Chinese-owned app
The chief executive of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, was forced to defend his company’s relationship with China, as well as the protections for its youngest users, at a testy congressional hearing on Thursday that came amid a bipartisan push to ban the app entirely in the US over national security concerns.
The hearing marked the first ever appearance before US lawmakers by a TikTok chief executive, and a rare public outing for the 4o-year-old Chew, who has remained largely out of the limelight as the social network’s popularity soars. TikTok now boasts tens of millions of US users, but lawmakers have long held concerns over China’s control over the app, which Chew repeatedly tried to assuage throughout the hearing. “Let me state this unequivocally: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country,” Chew said in Thursday’s testimony.
Continue reading...In an excerpt from her forthcoming book, CNN supreme court analyst Joan Biskupic reveals a body where the conservative majority fortified by Donald Trump is driving forward with decisions to change America – even as some of its members try to appear conciliatory in public.
She also describes chief justice John Robert’s decision to quickly move Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s papers from her office after she died in 2020, which offended some of her aides used to more relaxed transitions between justices.
Within days of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s memorial service in late September 2020, boxes of her files and other office possessions were moved down to a dark, windowless theater on the Supreme Court’s ground floor, where – before the ongoing pandemic – tourists could watch a film about court operations.
Grieving aides to the justice who’d served 27 years and become a cultural icon known as the “Notorious RBG” sorted through the chambers’ contents there.
Continue reading...At least 75 people held across country on ‘day of disruption’ as Knesset approves law designed to protect Netanyahu
Israel’s two-month-old protest movement took to the streets for a “day of disruption” as the parliament passed the first part of the hardline government’s controversial judicial changes into law.
The legislation, designed to protect the position of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was approved early on Thursday, after a heated all-night debate, by 61 votes to 47 – the minimum majority required.
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