Category Archives: World News

Germany set to declare starvation of Ukrainians under Stalin a genocide

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Bundestag hopes move will serve as ‘warning’ to Moscow as Ukraine faces potential hunger crisis

Germany’s Bundestag is planning to pass a resolution declaring the starvation of millions of Ukrainians under Joseph Stalin a genocide, a move that parliamentarians hope will serve as a “warning” to Moscow as Ukraine faces a potential hunger crisis this winter.

The resolution, which will be jointly brought to the vote next week by the three governing parties and conservative opposition leaders, will describe the 1932-33 Holodomor as part of “a list of inhuman crimes by totalitarian systems that extinguished millions of human lives in Europe in the first half of the 20th century”.

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Max Beckmann self-portrait poised to fetch record price at German auction

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Rarely seen work painted during artist’s Dutch exile from Nazi Germany has an estimate of €20m-€30m

A moody self-portrait of the 20th-century expressionist Max Beckmann painted during his Dutch exile from the Nazis is predicted to break the record for a price secured at auction in Germany when it goes under the hammer in Berlin next week.

Art lovers have been flocking first to New York and then to Berlin to see the painting in preview showings, which have offered a rare opportunity to view a masterpiece that has always been in private hands.

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Tanzania drops murder charges against 24 Maasai leaders

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The pastoralists had been detained over the death of a police officer during protests against government plans to evict them from ancestral land

Prosecutors in Tanzania have dropped murder charges against 24 Maasai pastoralists who were detained over the death of a police officer earlier this year.

The officer died in June during protests against government plans to evict them from their ancestral land in Loliondo, in Ngorongoro District, to make way for a conservation and a luxury hunting reserve.

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China’s 26-storey pig skyscraper ready to slaughter 1 million pigs a year

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The world’s biggest single-building pig farm has opened in Hubei province, but critics say it will increase the risk of larger animal disease outbreaks

On the southern outskirts of Ezhou, a city in central China’s Hubei province, a giant apartment-style building overlooks the main road. But it is not for office workers or families. At 26 storeys it is by far the biggest single-building pig farm in the world, with a capacity to slaughter 1.2 million pigs a year.

This is China’s answer to its insatiable demand for pork, the most popular animal protein in the country.

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Canadian pop star Kris Wu sentenced to 13 years in jail for rape in China

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Beijing court finds Chinese-born singer raped three women in November and December 2020

A Beijing court has sentenced the Chinese-born Canadian pop star Kris Wu to 13 years in jail after finding him guilty of crimes including rape, just over a year after his arrest in China, where he was born and built a lucrative career.

The court in Chaoyang district said investigations showed that from November to December 2020, Wu, also known as Wu Yifan, raped three women.

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Far-right extremist gets Israeli security job as coalition deals struck

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Appointment of Itamar Ben-Gvir raises fears of further escalation in Israeli-Palestinian tensions

The far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir will be Israel’s national security minister under a coalition deal with Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, in what is likely to be the most rightwing government in the country’s history.

The agreement comes after the prime minister-designate’s alliance won a comfortable victory in this month’s parliamentary election, Israel’s fifth in less than four years.

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Starvation being used as a weapon of war in South Sudan, report reveals

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International community urged to intervene as hundreds of thousands forced into refugee camps as homes and crops destroyed and aid workers attacked

Starvation is being used as a weapon of war by South Sudan government forces against their own citizens, an investigation has found.

Deliberate starvation tactics used by government forces and allied militia, and by opposition forces, are driving civilians out of their homes, exacerbating Africa’s largest refugee crisis, according to the report published on Thursday.

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Amazon warehouse workers stage Black Friday strikes and protests around world

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On one of firm’s biggest shopping days of year, employees demand better wages and conditions

Amazon warehouse workers in the UK and 40 other countries are to strike and stage protests timed to coincide with the Black Friday sales, one of the company’s biggest shopping days of the year.

Employees in dozens of countries, from Japan and Australia to India, the US and across Europe, are demanding better wages and conditions in a campaign called “Make Amazon Pay”.

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French team to build replica of William the Conqueror’s warship

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Viking-style vessel is based on the one that launched invasion of England in 1066 and its makers hope to sail it across Channel

On 27 September 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, set sail in La Mora, the flagship of a huge fleet that would invade and conquer England. Now a historical society on France’s Normandy coast is going to re-create the ship that launched almost 1,000 years of cross-Channel enmity.

The Bayeux tapestry, a 70 metre-long (230ft) embroidered account of the Norman Conquest, depicts La Mora as a Viking-style longship with a striped red and gold sail flying the papal banner on its masthead. On board was William, his most trusted knights, their entourage and horses, and 60 oarsmen.

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The littlest rat catchers: New Zealand schoolchildren trap and kill 600 pests in 100 days

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As part of an attempt to rid Stewart Island of the rodents, children as young as five have taken part in a rat catching competition, with remarkable results

In a tiny school on the southern-most tip of New Zealand, the children are lining up their kill.

Big brown rats with long tails, their stomachs caked in blood. Smaller rats, stiff from the refrigerator, tails in a tangle.

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UK foreign secretary visits Kyiv to reaffirm support for Ukraine

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James Cleverly, who says Russia will fail in its attempt to ‘break Ukrainian resolve’, announces fresh support package

The foreign secretary, James Cleverly, travelled to Kyiv on Thursday to meet the Ukrainian leadership and promise the UK’s support for as long as it takes to defeat Russia’s brutal efforts to break the country’s resolve.

In his first visit to Ukraine since his appointment as foreign secretary, Cleverly presented a package of support including money for the reconstruction of schools, ambulances, the victims of sexual violence, and grain sales to the world’s poorest markets, such as Sudan and Yemen.

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China threat looms in Taiwan’s local elections as voters weigh island’s future

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Ruling DPP puts Beijing at centre of campaign while rival KMT steers clear, in first vote since tensions in the Taiwan Strait escalated

On Sunday afternoon 150,000 people gathered in front of the Taipei city hall. Harley motorcycles, giant floats, balloons and mascots led the parade to a soundtrack of music banned in China. It looked like a concert, but on this day the main act was a politician.

The crowds were there to support Taipei mayoral candidate Chen Shih-chung, a former minister of health with the governing Democratic Progressive party (DPP).

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Channel dinghy tragedy: investigation confirms boat was in UK waters

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Marine Accident Investigation Branch condemned for slow progress in determining how last November’s tragedy occurred

Bereaved families who lost relatives in a mass drowning in the Channel a year ago have criticised the UK body investigating the tragedy for a lack of progress in determining how and why dozens of lives were lost.

An interim report from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) published on Thursday confirmed that the boat had reached UK waters.

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‘Desensitised’ ex-IS followers remain threats, Shamima Begum hearing told

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Home Office argues people trafficked to Syria were exposed to extreme violence which poses ‘almighty problem’

People trafficked to Syria and radicalised remain threats to national security as they may be desensitised after exposure to extreme violence, the Home Office has argued, in contesting Shamima Begum’s appeal against the removal of her British citizenship.

Begum was 15 when she travelled from her home in Bethnal Green, east London, through Turkey and into territory controlled by Islamic State (IS). After she was found, nine months pregnant in a Syrian refugee camp in February 2019, the then home secretary, Sajid Javid, revoked her British citizenship on national security grounds.

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French McKinsey investigation widened to cover election campaigns

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Prosecutor looking into allegations about 2017 and 2022 elections, which were won by Emmanuel Macron

France’s financial prosecutor has opened an investigation into the role of consultancy groups including McKinsey in the 2017 and 2022 French election races, when Emmanuel Macron was elected and then won a second term.

The financial prosecutor’s office confirmed that its current investigation into potential tax fraud by the US-based consultancy giant McKinsey had been widened to include consulting firms’ possible involvement in the two election races. Investigators are looking into allegations of “improperly keeping campaign accounts”, the “undervaluing of the role of consulting firms” and “favouritism”.

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‘We are Ukrainians. We’re strong’: morale the key in Kyiv as winter sets in

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Residents shelter in ‘invincibility stations’ offering power, water and food as Russian missiles knock out supplies

The residents of Kyiv taking shelter in their local “invincibility station” were well aware that their own morale has become the central battlefield of the war, and it is not territory they are prepared to concede to Vladimir Putin.

The insulated grey tent set up on a street corner in the Pecherskyi district of Kyiv, one of thousands established around the country this week, was offering electricity, warmth, tea and sandwiches after the latest Russian onslaught.

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China imposes new lockdowns as local Covid cases hit record high

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Country reports 31,444 new locally transmitted cases, the highest daily figure since pandemic began

China has imposed a fresh series of Covid lockdowns, including in a city where workers at the world’s largest iPhone factory clashed with police this week, as a record daily high in coronavirus cases tests its commitment to follow the rest of the world in easing pandemic restrictions.

The national health commission reported 31,444 new locally transmitted Covid cases on Wednesday, the highest daily figure since the coronavirus was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late in 2019.

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Journalist under strict bail terms in Somalia after arrest in crackdown

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Abdalle Mumin was held after press groups said government edicts on coverage of offensive against al-Shabaab put them at risk

Authorities in Somalia have imposed strict bail conditions on a respected journalist and media rights campaigner that will prevent him from seeking medical attention for a suspected kidney condition aggravated by poor conditions during his detention by intelligence services and police earlier this year.

Abdalle Mumin, a co-founder of the Somali Journalists Syndicate and a frequent contributor to the Guardian, was arrested in October after press organisations protested that directives issued by the information ministry on coverage of an offensive against Islamic militants in the unstable east African state put them at risk.

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Iran protests: UN council votes to investigate human rights abuses

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Official says country is in ‘fully fledged human rights crisis’ as fact-finding mission launched

The UN’s human rights council has voted overwhelmingly to set up a fact-finding investigation into human rights abuses in Iran, where an estimated 300 people have been killed and 14,000 arrested since protests began 10 weeks ago.

At a special session convened by Germany in Geneva the HRC voted by 25 to six to set up the inquiry, with 15 abstaining. The vote is regarded as a significant victory for human rights defenders, since a mechanism now exists to file evidence of abuses by the state, making the possibility of prosecutions in international courts more likely.

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Row breaks out over favourite for EU’s first ever special envoy to Gulf

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Critics say former Italian foreign minister Luigi Di Maio lacks experience and has poor record in Gulf relations

A row has broken out over the appointment of the EU’s first ever special envoy to the Gulf, as internal critics allege the frontrunner, the former Italian foreign minister Luigi Di Maio, is poorly qualified for the job.

Di Maio, a former leader of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), served as Italy’s foreign minister for just over three years until last month. He has now been selected by a panel of European officials as the best of four candidates to become the EU’s special representative to the Gulf states, beating veteran politicians with more experience.

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