Category Archives: World News

Russian conscript sentenced to years in prison after rebelling against superiors

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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.

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Pope Francis pays tribute to controversial cardinal George Pell

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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.

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Honduran environmental defenders shot dead in broad daylight

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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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‘A great day for the country’: Uganda declares an end to Ebola outbreak

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Control measures including lockdowns have halted the spread of the virus after less than four months

The Ugandan government has declared an end to its Ebola outbreak, less than four months after cases were first reported.

Since 20 September, 56 people have died from the virus, which is spread through body fluids, and there have been 142 confirmed infections.

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Ukraine war pushes civilian casualties from explosive weapons to four-year high

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Reported casualties in Ukraine were eight times more than Afghanistan – and real figure likely to be much higher

Civilian casualties from the use of explosive weapons soared by 83% last year because of the war in Ukraine, according to a monitoring organisation that counts the number of deaths caused by conflict and war.

Action on Armed Violence (AOVA) said the total number reported killed and injured in 2022 was 20,776, the highest level since 2018, with 10,381 casualties in Ukraine alone, based on reports from English language media.

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Emergency room death highlights Canadian healthcare crisis

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Waves of respiratory diseases, staff attrition and an older population are taxing Canada’s overburdened hospital system

When Allison Holthoff entered a crowded Nova Scotia hospital at the end of December, the intense pain in her abdomen worsened with each hour she spent waiting for treatment. With the emergency room under renovations, overwhelmed staff triaged a stream of incoming patients in a makeshift treatment area.

“‘I feel like I’m dying. They’re going to let me die here,’” Holthoff told her husband, Gunther.

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Anthony Albanese to push ‘family-first’ security treaty in address to Papua New Guinea parliament

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Australian PM to call for ‘a swift conclusion to negotiations’ to treaty and say both countries should ‘work as equals with our fellow Pacific states’

Anthony Albanese will seek progress on a new security treaty during a visit to Papua New Guinea, pushing a “family-first approach” amid increasing competition with China for influence in the Pacific.

On Thursday the Australian prime minister will become the first foreign government leader to address PNG’s parliament and will say he sees the relationship as “a bond between equals”.

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Biden’s response to Israel’s far-right government: avoid confrontation

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As Netanyahu takes an aggressively anti-Palestinian line, the White House will seek to avoid the humiliations heaped on Obama

The more things change in Israel, the harder Joe Biden is working to make sure they stay the same.

The new far-right government of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, which includes openly anti-Arab racists, is already causing concern in the White House with commitments to expand illegal settlements in the occupied territories and annex Palestinian land.

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‘Shot two zebras. Played tennis’: Scarborough museum confronts legacy of colonial past

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Discovery of stuffed animals from central Africa and recordings from ‘human zoo’ inspires exhibition

It was when part of a Scarborough museum was being redeveloped more than a decade ago that builders found a blocked-up door. Behind it they discovered bags filled with asbestos and, under that, a collection of taxidermied animals that had been collected by a Victorian big game hunter and left to the museum.

Neglected, outdated and ethically problematic, the temptation may have been to shut the artefacts away again. Instead, the Scarborough Museums and Galleries opted to do something else with the archive bequeathed by Col James Harrison – some of it much more morally challenging than stuffed antelope heads.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Putin replaces general in charge of Russian forces in Ukraine – as it happened

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Politico reports that Germany is facing pressure from France and Poland to supply Ukraine with the powerful Leopard 2 tanks.

Politico reports:

Supplying modern western tanks such as the Leopard 2 would be a big boost for Ukraine’s military, as Kyiv’s allies have so far only been willing to send older Soviet-era tanks that had still been in the stocks of eastern European countries, as well as other weapon systems such as howitzers and air defences.

A French official told Politico that Paris is turning the screws on Germany in the hope of extracting an agreement from Berlin to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine ahead of a Franco-German summit on January 22, the 60th anniversary of the Élysée partnership treaty between the two nations.

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Cardinal George Pell divides opinion in death as in life

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Conservative politicians remember Pell as a ‘saint’ and a ‘martyr’, while others prefer to acknowledge victims of child sexual abuse in the Catholic church

The death of Cardinal George Pell has prompted dramatically polarised reactions, with church officials praising his service while others shared messages of support for victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic church.

The former prime minister Tony Abbott called Pell “a saint for our times”, saying in a statement the cardinal’s overturned convictions on charges of child sex abuse was “a modern form of crucifixion … a kind of living death”.

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Yemen: 87 civilians killed by UK and US weapons in just over a year

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Oxfam says its analysis of January 2021 to February 2022 underlines need for UK to stop arming Saudi Arabia

At least 87 civilians were killed by airstrikes from the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen using weapons supplied by the UK and US between January 2021 and February 2022, according to a new Oxfam analysis.

The charity accused the UK government of ignoring an identifiable “pattern of harm” caused by the indiscriminate bombing – and argues it amounts to legal grounds for Britain to end elements of its lucrative arms trade with Riyadh.

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Head of Russia’s Wagner group says his troops have taken control of Soledar

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Yevgeny Prigozhin poses with some of his mercenaries in Ukrainian town renowned for its salt mines

The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has claimed his forces have completed the takeover of the Ukrainian town of Soledar, which if confirmed would mark Moscow’s first major battlefield success since last summer.

“Wagner units have taken the whole territory of Soledar under control,” said Yevgeny Prigozhin in an audio message released on his Telegram channel late on Tuesday.

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Brazil’s attempted coup was thwarted by Lula’s decisive action, minister says

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Alexandre Padilha says insurrection by Bolsonaro supporters was well-organized ‘act of terrorism’ aimed at toppling government

The insurrection that shook Brazil’s capital was a well-organised coup attempt that was thwarted thanks to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s swift and firm reaction, one of the president’s top ministers has told the Guardian.

Speaking at the presidential palace on Tuesday, the minister of institutional relations, Alexandre Padilha, said he believed Sunday’s far-right assault on the three branches of Brazil’s government was “an act of terrorism” designed to bring down Lula’s week-old government.

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Family of Briton missing in Ukraine ‘very worried’ about him

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Chris Parry and fellow Briton Andrew Bagshaw had been helping people evacuate from frontline

The family of one of the two British men missing in Ukraine have said they are “very worried” about his disappearance.

Chris Parry, 28, was last seen on Friday with fellow Briton Andrew Bagshaw, 48, heading to the town of Soledar in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine.

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Brazil’s failed coup is the poison flower of the Trump-Bolsonaro symbiosis

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The striking similarities between events at the Capitol and Brasília stem from links fostered by the former presidents and their families

In the days following the 6 January 2021 storming of the US Capitol, a Brazilian professor and expert on disinformation, David Nemer, gave an interview predicting the same thing would happen in Brazil two years later.

Sunday’s insurrection in Brasília came just two days after the second anniversary of the Capitol attack. Nemer said his prediction was not the work of a seer, but was based on analysis of the close and growing symbiosis of the hard right in the US and Brazil – a bond that was built up around the Trump and Bolsonaro families and their entourages.

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Haiti left with no elected government officials as it spirals towards anarchy

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Last 10 remaining senators leave office, with gangs controlling much of capital, a malnutrition crisis and a cholera outbreak

The last 10 remaining senators in Haiti’s parliament have officially left office, leaving the country without a single democratically elected government official.

The expiration of the officials’ terms at midnight on Monday formally concluded their time in office – and with it, the last semblance of democratic order in the beleaguered Caribbean nation.

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World Bank walking tightrope as it mulls increased lending to poorest

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Campaigners say bank should rush to rescue countries facing recession – but can it do so without resulting in mass debt write-offs?

Not since the early 1990s has the world faced such a period of low growth.

Discounting the havoc caused by the financial crash of 2008 and the initial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the World Bank says that by the end of 2024 it will have been 30 years since the global economy grew at an average of less than 2% a year.

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Evo Morales barred from Peru as foreign interests blamed for deadly protests

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Former Bolivia leader banned from Peru after weeks of unrest following leftist president Pedro Castillo’s removal from power

Peru has barred Bolivia’s former president Evo Morales from entering the country, as it accuses foreign interests of stirring up deadly protests in support of the imprisoned former president Pedro Castillo.

Peru has seen weeks of violent unrest following last month’s removal from power of Castillo, who was arrested on 7 December after attempting to dissolve congress in an attempt to avert his impeachment trial.

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