Category Archives: World News

Giorgia Meloni appoints minister once pictured wearing Nazi armband

Posted on by

Brothers of Italy politician Galeazzo Bignami says he feels ‘profound shame’ over wearing swastika in 2005

A Brothers of Italy politician who was once photographed wearing a Nazi swastika armband is among the junior ministers appointed in Giorgia Meloni’s government.

Galeazzo Bignami, named undersecretary at the infrastructure ministry, caused controversy after a photograph of him wearing the armband was published by an Italian newspaper in 2016. The photo dated back to his stag party in 2005, and after it initially emerged in the press he shrugged the gesture off as a bit of “lighthearted” fun.

Continue reading...

‘Coldest village in France’ reports rare frost-free October

Posted on by

Mouthe’s temperate autumn is extra proof of climate crisis, say weather experts

For the first time in 140 years, the village of Mouthe – officially recognised as France’s coldest – reported a frost-free October.

A temperate autumn is additional proof of the reality of the climate crisis, weather experts say.

Continue reading...

US school criticizes Republican Senate candidate for repeating false litter box claim

Posted on by

Don Bolduc, who is running in New Hampshire against Democrat Maggie Hassan, spreads anti-trans rightwing trope

A New Hampshire school has rebuked the Republican US Senate candidate Don Bolduc for claiming schoolchildren were identifying as “furries and fuzzies” in classrooms, using litter trays and licking themselves and each other.

“I wish I was making it up,” Bolduc, a retired special forces general, said last week.

Continue reading...

Ukraine faces ‘winter humanitarian crisis’ with energy grid on the brink

Posted on by

Exclusive: Energy boss says ‘virtually all’ non-nuclear power stations hit by Russian attacks

Ukraine faces a winter humanitarian crisis unless it can prevent a collapse in its electricity supply caused by the relentless campaign of Russian bombing, the chief executive of the country’s national grid said.

Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the chief executive of Ukrenergo, said “virtually all” large non-nuclear power stations in the country had been hit, as well as more than 30% of the network’s routing substations.

Continue reading...

Indian police raid news site’s office over retracted article about BJP official

Posted on by

Homes of several editors of the Wire also raided after complaint about story based on falsified documents

Police in Delhi have raided the premises of a news website known for its fierce criticism of the Indian government, over a retracted article about a politician in charge of the ruling party’s social media campaigns.

Officers arrived at the homes of several editors of the Wire in the middle of the night and seized their laptops and phones. They also searched the website’s office in the capital.

Continue reading...

Israel election: Netanyahu may be able to build coalition with far-right allies, exit polls suggest

Posted on by

Turnout for fifth general election in just four years reaches 23-year high as voters attempted to break political deadlock

The former Israeli prime minster, Benjamin Netanyahu, may have scraped a razor-thin election win with the help of new far-right allies, according to exit polls in the country’s fifth vote in four years.

His Likud party is projected to win 30 or 31 seats, Israel’s public broadcaster and two private channels said when polls closed at 10pm (8pm GMT) on Tuesday. The longtime leader’s rightwing religious bloc is set to win 61 or 62 seats overall – just clinching a majority in the 120-seat Knesset.

Continue reading...

Ethiopians found in Malawi mass grave thought to have suffocated

Posted on by

Bodies tentatively identified as adults being secretly transported to South Africa on perilous ‘southern route’

Dozens of Ethiopian people whose remains were found in mass graves in northern Malawi last month most likely suffocated to death while being secretly transported, investigators and campaigners believe.

The tragedy came amid a spate of incidents underlining the dangers faced by tens of thousands of people who entrust their lives to criminal networks that promise passage to South Africa, the most developed country on the continent.

Continue reading...

‘I can’t cut the signal’: DRC radio boss vows to stay on air as rebels seize key city

Posted on by

His journalists have fled from M23 violence but Patrick Sugira is staying put, saying people depend on his broadcasts

Last Wednesday evening, Patrick Kiroha Sugira sent a text message to a friend via WhatsApp: “The security situation is very bad here. We have nowhere to go. I am at the radio.”

Within days, Sugira, the director of Horizon community radio station in Rutshuru, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was in hiding with his wife and children and other terrified citizens. The town was one of two overrun by armed rebels on Saturday, in a resurgence of violence in the area that is escalating tensions across the region.

Continue reading...

Tokyo issues long-awaited same-sex partnership certificates

Posted on by

Partnership certificates allow same-sex couples to be treated as married couples in areas like housing, health and welfare

Tokyo’s metropolitan government began issuing partnership certificates to same-sex couples who live and work in the capital on Tuesday, a move that’s been long-awaited in a country that still does not allow equal marriage.

The status does not carry the same rights as marriage, but allows LGBTQ partners to be treated as married couples for some public services in areas such as housing, health and welfare.

Continue reading...

Oligarch renounces Russian citizenship over Ukraine war

Posted on by

Oleg Tinkov, who has previously spoken out against the conflict, says he ‘won’t be associated with a fascist country’

The billionaire banker and entrepreneur Oleg Tinkov has renounced his Russian citizenship because of the conflict in Ukraine, which he has previously criticised.

“I have taken the decision to exit my Russian citizenship. I can’t and won’t be associated with a fascist country that started a war with their peaceful neighbour and killing innocent people daily,” Tinkov said.

Continue reading...

Panel criticizes Mexico for dropping arrest warrants in missing students case

Posted on by

International group says it’s ‘incomprehensible’ why 21 of 83 arrest orders were dropped amid investigation into 2014 disappearance

An independent panel has criticized Mexico for withdrawing arrest warrants, mostly for military members, in the investigation into the 2014 disappearance of 43 students, saying there was sufficient evidence to press charges.

The Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) said it did not know why 21 of 83 arrest orders were dropped just as investigators were moving forward with detentions, including that of Mexico’s former top prosecutor, in one of the country’s most notorious human rights scandals.

Continue reading...

Iran to hold public trials for up to 2,000 detained in protests

Posted on by

The country’s judiciary says those marching against the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini will be tried

Iran’s judiciary has announced that it will hold public trials for as many as 1,000 people detained during recent protests in Tehran alone – and more than a thousand others outside the capital – as international concern grew over Iran’s response to the protests that began with the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her arrest.

The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said he was shocked by the number of innocent protesters who were being illegally and violently arrested. Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has already announced that she is to ask the European Union to sanction the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation.

Continue reading...

Russian assault on Ukraine’s power grid is the strategy of nihilism

Posted on by

His bombs may not break Ukrainian resolve, but Vladimir Putin knows their damage will drive up the west’s costs

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates

Russia’s cynical decision to target Ukraine’s network of hydroelectric power stations on Monday represents a further, dispiriting, escalation in its efforts to destroy the country’s power supply.

The electricity network is reeling from three weeks of attacks focused on coal- and gas-fired power stations and, above all, the electricity substations that link up different parts of the grid. Power cuts are the new normal as winter looms.

Continue reading...

Israeli election too close to call as Netanyahu bids for comeback

Posted on by

Final polls suggest deadlock, but if rightwing alliance keeps slowly gaining, scandal-plagued former PM may scrape in

With polls too close to call the day before Israel holds its fifth election in four years, even minute shifts in voter turnout could make or break the longtime prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comeback attempt, for which he has allied with rightwing extremists.

Israeli politicians were busy making their final campaign pitches on Monday, after Friday’s final pre-election polls suggested that neither Netanyahu’s rightwing religious bloc, nor the opposing centre-left bloc, would win enough seats to form a government.

Continue reading...

Nothing will change on climate until death toll rises in west, says Gabonese minister

Posted on by

Before Cop27, Lee White also says broken promises on funding leave sense of betrayal

The world will only take meaningful action on the climate crisis once people in rich countries start dying in greater numbers from its effects, Gabon’s environment minister has said, while warning that broken promises on billions of dollars of adaptation finance have left a “sense of betrayal” before Cop27.

Lee White said governments were not yet behaving as if global heating was a crisis, and he feared for the future he was leaving to his children. He said the $100bn of promised climate finance from rich nations was not reaching poor countries, which was driving distrust in the UN climate process.

Continue reading...

Indian police arrest nine people after footbridge collapse kills at least 134

Posted on by

Officials say they did not issue a certificate to the company in charge of Morbi bridge that it was fit for public use after repairs

Indian police have arrested nine people, including ticketing clerks and contractors, as part of their investigation into the collapse of a footbridge in which at least 134 people, including many children, were killed.

CCTV footage from just before the collapse showed a group of young men taking photos while others tried to rock the suspension bridge in Morbi from side to side, before they tumbled into the river below as the cables gave way.

Continue reading...

Visitors trapped in Shanghai’s Disney resort after lockdown announced

Posted on by

Videos appear to show guests rushing to locked gates as strict Covid restrictions return across China

Visitors to Shanghai’s Disney resort were trapped inside for the second time in 12 months after authorities and operators announced a sudden lockdown as part of China’s strict pandemic response.

In a repeat of scenes from across Covid-zero China, viral videos on Monday appeared to show guests rushing to the locked gates of the theme park in an attempt to escape the lockdown. It followed extraordinary scenes on the weekend, with a mass escape of employees from a locked-down Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou, to walk up to hundreds of kilometres to their hometowns.

Continue reading...

Coldplay perform Iranian protest song Baraye by arrested singer

Posted on by

British band joined on stage by exiled actor Golshifteh Farahani to sing protest song by Shervin Hajipour as Buenos Aires concert broadcast in 81 countries

An Iranian protest anthem that has become the soundtrack to the national uprising was again thrust into the international spotlight over the weekend when Coldplay performed a cover and broadcast it live around the world.

The British band played the song, Baraye, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Friday and Saturday night at the start of their world tour, with the exiled Iranian actor Golshifteh Farahani on stage and singing in Farsi.

Continue reading...

Georgia governor debate: Kemp silent on question over harsher abortion restrictions

Posted on by

Republican Brian Kemp and Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams spar in final gubernatorial debate before midterms

In the final televised debate with Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams before their November election, Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, refused to say whether he would support harsher abortion restrictions if re-elected to a second term and if fellow Republicans dominating the state legislature sent them to his desk.

At WSB-TV’s Channel 2 Action debate Sunday, Kemp, a Republican, said it was not his “desire to go move the needle any further” on abortion restrictions in Georgia, adding that he would look into additional restrictions passed by state lawmakers “when the time comes.” Kemp at a previous debate had said he “would not” support new abortion limits.

Continue reading...

Putin ‘exacting vengeance’ for his military failures with latest strikes, says UK foreign secretary – as it happened

Posted on by

UK’s James Cleverly says Russian president taking things out ‘on the poorest people in the world by threatening their food supplies’

US secretary of state Antony Blinken spoke with China’s foreign minister Wang Yi on a call on Sunday and discussed Russia’s war against Ukraine and the threats it poses to global security and economic stability.

Blinken also discussed with his Chinese counterpart on the need to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly manage US-China relations, the US department of state said in a statement.

As a result of strikes on critical infrastructure facilities, part of the capital was cut off. There is no water supply in some areas. All services are working. More details – later.”

Continue reading...