‘Interspecies communicator’ consulted to track down cat lost in transit, prompting criticism of country’s state companies
Bolivia’s state airline has enlisted an “interspecies communicator” – or animal psychic – to track down a lost cat, after a passenger’s pet went missing in transit.
The incident has prompted pointed questions over the performance of Bolivia’s many state companies, a continual source of debate between the leftist government and its opposition.
Continue reading...People urged ‘don’t go home’ during lunar new year holiday if older family members not yet infected
People in China have been warned against travelling to visit their elderly relatives during the lunar new year holiday, as Covid spreads rapidly through cities and into regional and poorer areas.
Prof Guo Jianwen, a member of the state council’s pandemic prevention team, urged people “don’t go home to visit them” if elderly relatives had not yet been infected.
Continue reading...Controversial bill to stop industrial action criticised as an already struggling sector fears losing more staff in a damaging brain drain
Zimbabwe’s health workers have criticised the government for passing contested legislation that outlaws any industrial action, saying it will worsen the sector’s already damaging brain drain.
The new Health Services Bill, which came into force on Tuesday, forbids health workers who are classified as an “essential” service from striking for more than three days. Those who do not comply face a fine or imprisonment of up to six months.
Continue reading...In an area prone to natural disasters, residents claim a new mining project has damaged homes and livelihoods and left them fearing for their safety
Villagers in North Sumatra have accused the Indonesian government of putting their lives at risk by allowing a zinc mining firm to operate in an area prone to earthquakes and flooding.
People in the mountainous Dairi Regency claim construction work carried out by Dairi Prima Mineral (DPM) has damaged their homes and livelihoods. They fear for their safety as the mine, which is expected to be operational in 2025, will sit on the Great Sumatran fault.
Continue reading...UN special envoys to meet in Washington as figures show Libyan politicians’ salaries rose by more than 40% in 2022
Western leaders are losing patience with an entrenched Libyan political elite that has collectively failed to agree on the basis of elections for more than a year but has boosted politicians’ salaries by more than 40%, according to official figures.
Special envoys from the US, France, Germany, Italy and the UK are due to meet in Washington on 13 January to discuss their next steps after two rival Libyan factions last week failed to reach a final agreement in Cairo on the constitutional basis for national elections.
Continue reading...Antony Blinken says China is ‘greatest shared strategic challenge’ in the region as US backs Japan’s biggest military build-up since second world war
The US and Japan have said that an attack in space would trigger their security treaty, as senior officials from both countries warned that China represents the “greatest strategic challenge” to regional security.
“We agree that [China] is the greatest shared strategic challenge that we, our allies and partners face,” the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Thursday after meeting his Japanese counterpart, Yoshimasa Hayashi, in Washington.
Continue reading...Russian mercenaries make claim about missing Britons; Ukrainian military claims forces killed more than 100 Russian soldiers in single strike
Continue reading...Bills not expected to advance in Senate but underscore Republican majority’s legislative priorities ahead of 2024 election
The Republican-led House on Wednesday pressed ahead with a pair of anti-abortion measures, despite warning signs that the issue had galvanized the opposition in the wake of the supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade last year.
Voting mostly along party lines, Republicans first approved a bill that would compel doctors to provide care for an infant who survives an attempted abortion – an occurrence that is exceedingly rare.
Continue reading...Congresswoman Ilhan Omar leads joint statement focused on Sunday’s riots in Brasília and January 6 insurrection
More than 70 progressive US and Brazilian lawmakers have condemned the collaboration between the Bolsonaro family and Trumpists in the US aimed at overturning elections in both countries, and called for those involved to be held to account.
“As lawmakers in Brazil and the United States, we stand united against the efforts by authoritarian, anti-democratic far right actors to overturn legitimate election results and overthrow our democracies,” said the joint statement, led by Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
Continue reading...Riverdance star has undergone surgery and is in care of doctors, according to Instagram account
Michael Flatley, best known for his Riverdance show, has been diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of cancer.
A post on the Irish dancer and director’s Instagram account said: “Michael Flatley has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. He has undergone surgery and is in the care of an excellent team of doctors.”
Continue reading...Chair of Nassau county committee says Santos ran ‘a campaign of deceit, lies and fabrication’ to win third district
The Republican George Santos said on Wednesday he would not resign from Congress less than a week after being sworn in, despite calls to do so from the chairman of his district committee and a fellow New York representative, amid continuing scrutiny of Santos’s mostly made-up résumé and growing calls for campaign finance investigations.
In a tweet, Santos said: “I was elected to serve the people of the New York third district not the party and politicians, I remain committed to doing that and regret to hear that local officials refuse to work with my office to deliver results to keep our community safe and lower the cost of living.
Continue reading...Valery Gerasimov to replace Sergei Surovikin, who was appointed in October, as Zelenskiy mocks claims of Russian victory in Soledar
Russia has appointed Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff, as its overall commander for the war in Ukraine, in the latest of several major shake-ups of Moscow’s military leadership during the stumbling invasion of its neighbour.
In a statement on Wednesday, the defence ministry said that Gerasimov’s appointment constituted a “raising of the status of the leadership” of the military force in Ukraine and was implemented to “improve the quality … and effectiveness of the management of Russian forces”.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary warns Tehran over case of Alireza Akbari, an ex-Iranian minister accused of being MI6 spy
The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has urged the Iranian government not to press ahead with plans to execute a British-Iranian dual national found guilty of spying for MI6.
Alireza Akbari, a former Iranian deputy defence minister who has lived in the UK for more than a decade, could be executed within days after he was found guilty by the revolutionary courts of being a senior spy for M16. His appeal was rejected more than three months ago, but for reasons that are not clear the Iranian security services are now threatening to go ahead and impose the death penalty.
Continue reading...Accords negotiated by Kissinger and Le Duc Tho in 1973 sealed US exit from war but were soon flouted by North and South Vietnam
The 1973 Nobel peace prize to top US diplomat Henry Kissinger and North Vietnam’s Le Duc Tho, among the most disputed in the award’s history, was given in the full knowledge the Vietnam war was unlikely to end any time soon, newly released papers show.
Nominations to the Peace prize remain secret for 50 years. On 1 January, documents about the prize awarded to Kissinger and Hanoi’s chief negotiator Tho were made available on request.
Continue reading...Sultan Al Jaber, chief of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, expected to be named president of global climate talks
The United Arab Emirates will launch its presidency of global climate talks on Thursday, with the head of its national oil company likely to be given the leading role.
Sultan Al Jaber has served as climate envoy to the country, and is chief of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), the world’s twelfth-largest oil company by production, and is hotly tipped to take on the pivotal role of president of the talks.
Continue reading...Far-right activists loyal to ex-president have launched what the government called a botched coup attempt
Security has been stepped up in Brazil’s capital amid concerns that hardcore supporters of the former president Jair Bolsonaro were planning to mobilise again, three days after thousands of extremists launched what the government has called a botched coup attempt.
Reports in the Brazilian media said far-right activists had summoned “a mega nationwide protest to retake power” on Wednesday afternoon. On Tuesday night, members of the national public security force in black SUVs could be seen taking up position along the esplanade leading to Brazil’s congress, supreme court and presidential palace – the three buildings stormed and ransacked during Sunday’s turmoil in Brasília.
Continue reading...Claims by Wagner mercenary group come as Poland announces transfer of German-made Leopard 2 tanks
Ukraine’s military has denied that Russian forces have encircled and captured Soledar after claims by the head of the Wagner mercenary group that the eastern city had fallen.
The claims about the status of the fighting on the eastern Donbas front were made by Yevgeny Prigozhin as Poland announced that it planned to transfer 10 German-made Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine, in a move with wide significance.
Continue reading...It is the first known ruling against a soldier who criticised Kremlin’s unpopular mobilisation
A Russian conscript has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison after getting into an altercation with his superiors over poor training conditions, in the first known ruling against a soldier who criticised the Kremlin’s unpopular mobilisation.
In a widely shared video filmed on 13 November, draftee Alexander Leshkov is seen shouting profanities and shoving Lt Col Denis Mazanov at a training ground outside Moscow.
Continue reading...Pontiff praises ‘determination and wisdom’ of Pell, who was convicted but then acquitted of child sexual abuse
Pope Francis has praised George Pell for his “determination and wisdom”, in a statement dedicated to the controversial cardinal after his death at the age of 81.
Pell, who was Australia’s most senior Catholic and was found guilty and then acquitted of child sexual abuse, had undergone a hip operation in Rome and died after a cardiac arrest. Days earlier, he attended the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican.
Continue reading...Aly Domínguez and Jairo Bonilla, co-founders of grassroots resistance group to iron ore mine in Guapinol, murdered in street
Two environmental defenders have been shot dead in broad daylight in Honduras, triggering fresh calls for an independent investigation into the persecution and violence against a rural community battling to stop an illegally sanctioned mine.
Aly Domínguez, 38, and Jairo Bonilla, 28, from Guapinol in northern Honduras, were murdered on Saturday afternoon as they returned home on a moped after finishing work collecting payments for a cable company. They were intercepted by armed assailants and died at the scene, according to relatives.
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