Discoveries that could help diabetics titled in honour of activist and journalist murdered in Amazon
Scientists in Brazil have found two new species of fermenting yeasts and named them after journalist Dom Phillips and activist Bruno Pereira, the two men murdered last year in the Amazon rainforest.
The discovery came from four isolates of the Spathaspora species, according to a paper published in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.
Continue reading...US president joined by German chancellor in support of action taken after Russia’s abduction of Ukrainian children
The US president, Joe Biden, has backed the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin over his role in the abduction of Ukrainian children, saying it was “justified”.
Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, was among other international leaders who welcomed the decision, saying on Saturdayyesterday that it showed “nobody is above the law”.
Continue reading...Russia seized Crimea in 2014, eight years before launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This blog is now closed
Ukraine has released details of overnight drone attacks by Russia.
Some hit the relatively peaceful region of Lviv in the west of Ukraine. Dnipro was also targeted, as was Kyiv, where air defences shot down all attacking drones.
Continue reading...Supporters of ex-prime minister and police fight outside court where he was addressing charges of unlawfully selling state gifts
A court in Islamabad has cancelled Imran Khan’s arrest warrant after intense clashes between police and the former prime minister’s supporters outside the judicial complex.
Khan officially appeared before the court in Pakistan’s capital on Saturday, complying with a judicial order that led to a failed attempt to arrest him on Tuesday. He is facing various legal challenges including unlawfully selling state gifts given to him by foreign dignitaries while in office from 2018 to 2022. Khan says he followed legal procedures in acquiring the gifts.
Continue reading...Italy’s new rightwing government put a strong emphasis on traditional family values during elections
Hundreds of people took to the streets in Milan in protest against moves by Italy’s new rightwing government to restrict the rights of same-sex parents.
“You explain to my son that I’m not his mother,” read one sign held up amid a sea of rainbow flags that filled one of the northern city’s central squares.
Continue reading...Increasing anger presents biggest challenge to Emmanuel Macron since gilets jaunes protests
Police in Paris have banned gatherings on the central Place de la Concorde as thousands of demonstrators continue to protest across France against Emmanuel Macron’s decision to force through a change to the state pension age without a parliamentary vote.
Protests were under way or planned on Saturday in cities including Bordeaux, Nantes, Marseille, Brest and elsewhere in Paris after unions called for a determined show of resistance ahead of a ninth day of nationwide industrial action planned for Thursday.
Continue reading...US president says Russian leader has clearly committed war crimes and move makes ‘a very strong point’
Joe Biden has welcomed the international criminal court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for the Russian president for war crimes in Ukraine.
The US president said Vladimir Putin had clearly committed war crimes and that the arrest warrant for the Russian leader made a “very strong point”.
Continue reading...British singer was billed to perform on Saturday alongside Cyndi Lauper and New Zealand singer John Stevens
Sir Rod Stewart has cancelled a performance in Australia after being told he has a “viral infection”.
The 78-year-old singer-songwriter, who has had six No 1 hits in the UK charts including Baby Jane and Maggie May, was due to sing at the festival A Day on the Green in Mt Duneed Estate, Geelong.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Apparent reversal of position adopted after invasion of Ukraine sends men fleeing Putin’s draft back to Russia
The Biden administration has quietly resumed deportations to Russia, an apparent reversal of the position adopted after Russia invaded Ukraine just over a year ago, when such removals were suspended, the Guardian has learned.
Immigration advocates were taken by surprise when a young Russian man, who came to the US fleeing Vladimir Putin’s efforts to mobilize citizens to fight in Ukraine, was abruptly deported at the weekend from the US back to Russia.
Continue reading...Joe Biden says international criminal court’s arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin is justified, while Volodymyr Zelenskiy hails the ‘historic’ move
Continue reading...President introduces former Ireland full-back Rob Kearney, a relative, at White House St Patrick’s Day event
Joe Biden has wished the Ireland rugby union team luck in their Grand Slam game against England in Dublin on Saturday.
On Friday, St Patrick’s Day, Biden welcomed the taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, to the White House for a traditional visit and talks.
Continue reading...Players criticise the BBC for questioning their integrity and naming individuals without consent
Female football players who fled Afghanistan after Kabul fell to the Taliban in 2021 are criticising a recent BBC article which has labelled some of those evacuated as “false footballers”.
The investigation by BBC Newsnight said some of the descriptions of UK visa applicants as national players or members of a regional team “appear to be false”. The report said there is resentment among “genuine players” now living under Taliban rule.
Continue reading...Andrés Manuel López Obrador cites a lack ‘of hugs and embraces’ for 70,000 annual overdose deaths attributed to synthetic opioid
Mexico’s president has said that US families were to blame for the fentanyl overdose crisis because they don’t hug their kids enough.
The comment by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador caps a week of provocative statements from him about the crisis caused by fentanyl, a synthetic opioid trafficked by Mexican cartels that has been blamed for about 70,000 overdose deaths per year in the United States.
Continue reading...Supporters of the invasion of Ukraine are portraying the court’s decision as a sign of western antagonism to Russia
The international criminal court’s arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin will probably be portrayed as a point of no return in Russia, where the Kremlin will spin the court’s decision as proof that the west is seeking nothing short of regime change.
While Putin has already been preparing his public for a long war, the arrest warrant will for the first time raise the concrete possibility that Russia’s leaders and other prominent supporters of the war could face justice at The Hague if they ever find themselves under arrest.
Continue reading...Russian president accused of ‘unlawful deportation’ of children ‘from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation’
The state-owned Russian news agency RIA is reporting that Russia’s defence secretary, Sergei Shoigu, has presented state awards to the pilots of the Su-27 planes involved in the drone incident over the Black Sea for “preventing the violation of the borders of the special operation area by the American MQ-9 Reaper drone”.
More details soon …
Continue reading...Former banker who promised to reconcile the French people with the political class is accused of worsening disillusionment
When furious protesters in Dijon set fire to a stuffed dummy of Emmanuel Macron, and thousands spontaneously took to the streets in cities such as Paris, Rennes and Marseille this week to protest against the government raising the pension age without a parliament vote, the French interior minister said the chaos “brought back bad memories”.
Indeed, four years after the gilets jaunes anti-government movement, in which people in small towns and the countryside rose up, Macron was once again accused by many working-class voters of disdain for the mood on the street. Politicians from his party were yet again asking for police protection for fear of violent reprisals against them.
Continue reading...Lifelines handed to Swiss bank and US regional bank First Republic fail to ease investor concerns
Credit Suisse shares came under renewed pressure on Friday, despite fresh attempts by central banks and politicians to calm fears about a crisis in the global banking industry sparked by the collapse of two US banks this week.
Shares in Credit Suisse, Switzerland’s second largest bank, fell 8% on Friday despite securing a £45bn emergency loan from the Swiss National Bank just days earlier to shore up its liquidity after a week of panic.
Continue reading...Irish leader meets US president at White House for traditional St Patrick’s Day event a day after making gaffe
Ireland’s taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, has apologised for making an apparent joke about Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, during an event in Washington on the eve of St Patrick’s Day celebrations.
Varadkar’s comment on Thursday risked overshadowing his meeting with Joe Biden at the White House on Friday for the traditional handing over of a bowl of shamrock to the US president, the most important day in the Irish-American political calendar.
Continue reading...What we know about the children behind the indictment of Vladimir Putin and his children’s commissioner for abduction
• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates
The international criminal court in The Hague has indicted the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and children’s commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, for the mass abduction of Ukrainian children.
This means there is now an international arrest warrant out for Putin, a reflection of the speed with which the international legal community has pursued allegations of war crimes during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Continue reading...Nidal Hazem among three men and a boy killed in ‘intelligence-based counter-terrorism activity’
The shooting in the head of a motionless Palestinian militant during an Israeli raid on Jenin in which three other people were killed has enraged Palestinians as images of the incident spread across social media.
Ahmad Majdalani, a member of the PLO executive committee, condemned the shooting on Thursday of Nidal Hazem, who was face down at the time. “This is a crime in the full sense of the word,” he said.
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