Category Archives: World News

Russia says 82,000 conscripts from emergency draft already in Ukraine

Posted on by

Ministry of Defence says Russia relying on ‘poorly trained force’ as Kremlin seeks to consolidate gains

Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates

Russia’s defence minister said 82,000 conscripts had already been sent to Ukraine, reflecting what the west called a desperate effort to halt Kyiv’s counter offensive with poorly trained troops.

Sergei Shoigu told president, Vladimir Putin, that a further 218,000 were being trained in barracks, and that the controversial “partial mobilisation” had concluded, although it was not possible to verify the figures cited.

Continue reading...

Russia-Ukraine war live: Russia has fired 4,500 missiles on Ukraine since invasion, says Zelenskiy; more than 300 drones ‘shot down’ – as it happened

Posted on by

Ukraine president says there were 8,000 air strikes; air force spokesman says Ukraine has shot down hundreds of Iranian-made drones

Russia has probably bolstered its troops with “mobilised reservists” west of the Dnieper River, the UK’s ministry of defence has said.

The region encompasses most of Kherson, a strategically important Russian-held city braced for a counter-offensive from Ukrainian troops.

Continue reading...

‘Criminalizing kindness’: US woman arrested for feeding homeless people sues

Posted on by

Norma Thornton, 78, files lawsuit against Bullhead City in north-west Arizona over law about food-sharing events in public park

A woman who was arrested for feeding homeless people in north-west Arizona is suing over a local ordinance that regulates food-sharing events in public parks, accusing the authorities of criminalizing kindness.

Norma Thornton, 78, became the first person arrested under Bullhead City’s ordinance in March for distributing prepared food from a van at Bullhead community park. Her lawyer said the lawsuit filed this week is part of a nationwide effort to let people feed those in need.

Continue reading...

Twitter takeover: fears raised over disinformation and hate speech

Posted on by

EU commissioner says Elon Musk’s platform must ‘fly by our rules’ as UK minister raises concerns over content moderation

Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition has been polarizing, sparking reactions from politicians, regulators and non-profits across different continents.

Some have expressed concerns about potential changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies now that it’s in the hands of the Tesla billionaire, while others celebrated how they expect the platform’s newly minted leader will handle content and speech on Twitter.

Continue reading...

‘It’s a therapeutic genre for me’: Iceland’s PM releases debut crime novel

Posted on by

Katrín Jakobsdóttir joins long list of fiction-writing politicians with book that came together during Covid pandemic

For 30 years, the disappearance of teenager Lára Marteinsdóttir from the windswept island of Víðey, off the coast of Iceland’s capital, tormented the nation. Until 1986, when Valur, a rookie reporter on a local newspaper, decided to investigate …

So far, so Nordic noir. But Reykjavík, published to promising reviews in Iceland this week, is a crime novel with a difference – it was written by the prime minister, albeit with the help of one of the country’s international bestselling authors.

Continue reading...

Vegan activist takes Switzerland to human rights court over prison diet

Posted on by

Man says state prison failed to provide adequate diet, in appeal joined by former psychiatric patient

Switzerland has been challenged at the European court of human rights over a failure to provide adequate vegan diets to a prisoner and a patient at the psychiatric ward of a hospital, in a case that could lead to veganism being interpreted as a protected characteristic under the right of freedom of conscience across geographic Europe.

The court, which is part of the Council of Europe and not the EU, this week formally asked its member state Switzerland to respond to the two complaints that Swiss state institutions had failed to provide a totally vegan diet to two applicants while they were in prison and in a hospital psychiatric unit respectively.

Continue reading...

Senator Tom Cotton brags about ignoring Trump impeachment evidence

Posted on by

New book by Arkansas senator, a Republican presidential hopeful, also suggests president did not understand military procedures

In January 2020, the rightwing Arkansas Republican Tom Cotton said he would vote to acquit Donald Trump in his first impeachment trial because despite senators having “heard from 17 witnesses … and received more than 28,000 pages of documents”, Democrats had not presented their case correctly.

According to Cotton, the senators who sat through so much evidence would “perform the role intended for us by the founders, of providing the ‘cool and deliberate sense of the community’, as it says in Federalist 63”.

Continue reading...

Paul Pelosi, husband of Nancy Pelosi, in hospital with skull fracture after attack

Posted on by

Paul Pelosi underwent ‘successful surgery’ after he was attacked at his home early on Friday by an assailant with a hammer

Paul Pelosi, husband of the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, was hospitalized with a skull fracture on Friday after he was attacked at the couple’s home in California with a hammer by an assailant who was reported to have shouted “Where is Nancy? Where is Nancy?”

Paul Pelosi, 82, underwent “successful surgery” to repair a skull fracture and other “serious injuries” sustained during the assault and is expected to make a full recovery”, according to Nancy Pelosi’s longtime spokesperson, Drew Hammill.

Continue reading...

Iran: deaths reported as security forces open fire on protesters in Zahedan

Posted on by

Crowds in Mahabad also fired on during rally held after funeral of protester Ismail Mauludi

Iranian security forces have opened fired on protesters in Zahedan a month after a massacre that killed scores of people in the restive south-eastern city.

Crowds were also fired on in Mahabad, another city with a long history of resistance against the regime, in renewed deadly violence at the end of the sixth week of unrest sparked by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini on 16 September.

Continue reading...

ExxonMobil’s record-breaking $20bn profit nearly matches Apple’s

Posted on by

Oil company’s third-quarter result smashes Wall Street forecasts – as does Chevron’s £11.2bn

The US oil supermajor ExxonMobil has reported a quarterly profit of nearly $20bn (£17.3bn), $4bn more than analysts had forecast, almost matching the earnings of the tech giant Apple.

Exxon’s $19.7bn profit for the third quarter outstripped the record $17.9bn it reported for the previous quarter, as it became the latest fossil fuel producer to enjoy soaring earnings, a day after Shell announced global profits of $9.5bn between July and September.

Continue reading...

Mondrian painting has been hanging upside down for 75 years

Posted on by

Despite the discovery, the work, titled New York City I, will continue to be displayed the wrong way up to avoid damaging it

A painting by abstract Dutch artist Piet Mondrian has been hanging upside down in various museums since it was first put on display 75 years ago, an art historian has found, but warned it could disintegrate if it was hung the right side up now.

The 1941 picture, a complex interlacing lattice of red, yellow, black and blue adhesive tapes titled New York City I, was first put on display at New York’s MoMA in 1945 but has hung at the art collection of the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Düsseldorf since 1980.

Continue reading...

Young girls being sold in India to repay loans, says human rights body

Posted on by

Notice issued to Rajasthan state government demanding police inquiry into ‘abominable’ practice

Young girls in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan are being sold as “repayment” for loans their parents cannot afford, the national body that protects human rights has said.

The National Human Rights Commission has issued a notice to the state government demanding a police inquiry and answers within a month to what it called an “abominable” practice.

Continue reading...

Japan considering buying US Tomahawk cruise missiles

Posted on by

Purchase likely to prove controversial, as Tokyo seeks to counter growing regional threats

Japan is looking into buying US-developed Tomahawk cruise missiles as it seeks to counter growing regional threats, including from North Korea, the government has said.

Any purchase would probably prove to be controversial, in a nation whose military is not officially recognised under its post-second world war constitution.

Continue reading...

Perpetrator of Syria’s Tadamon massacre still working on military base

Posted on by

Maj Amjad Yousef, identified on videos as killer of dozens of people, accused of directing more mass killings

The Syrian intelligence officer at the centre of one of the most shocking acts of the civil war – the Tadamon massacre – is still working on a military base outside Damascus and has since been accused by colleagues of directing up to a dozen more mass killings.

Amjad Yousef, a major in one of Syria’s most feared intelligence units, is operating from the Kafr Sousa base, where he has been for most of the past six months since the Guardian revealed his role in shooting dead dozens of people across a death pit in Tadamon, a suburb of the Syrian capital in 2013.

Continue reading...

Was Hu Jintao’s removal from China’s 20th party congress suspicious or not?

Posted on by

Incident has split China watchers with some saying former leader was unwell and others it was political purge by Xi Jinping

After eight days of China’s most important political meeting, in which the autocratic leader Xi Jinping’s precedent-breaking third term was confirmed, belligerent foreign policy reaffirmed, and the leader of the world’s largest population and second-largest economy announced through the next five years, one question was on everyone’s lips: what on earth happened to Hu Jintao and where is he now?

The drama happened on Saturday morning. In a short window between foreign media being allowed into Beijing’s Great Hall and the start of the final public meeting of the 20th party congress, the former Chinese leader Hu was physically removed from his seat next to his successor, Xi, and out of the Great Hall of the People.

Continue reading...

Italian neofascists display banner celebrating Mussolini’s march on Rome

Posted on by

Picture of dictator along with text exalting in his seizure of power 100 years ago reportedly placed by far-right militants

Neofascist militants have hung a banner from a bridge near the Colosseum in the Italian capital to celebrate Friday’s 100th anniversary of Benito Mussolini’s march on Rome.

The banner, which features a large picture of the fascist dictator wearing military uniform alongside the words “100 years after, the march continues”, appeared on the Ponte degli Annibaldi, a small elevated bridge close to Italy’s most visited cultural monument, on Thursday night.

Continue reading...

Iraq parliament approves new government after year of deadlock

Posted on by

Prime minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani leads new government, vowing to reform economy and fight corruption

Iraqi lawmakers have approved a new government, ending more than a year of deadlock, but the country still faces many challenges.

Prime minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, 52, who previously served as Iraq’s human rights minister as well as minister of labour and social affairs, will head the new government.

Continue reading...

Republican Liz Cheney endorses Michigan Democrat in midterm elections – as it happened

Posted on by

Joe Biden plans to use his speech at a semiconductor factory in New York today to make the case that the economy is benefiting from Democratic policies, and Republicans would undo that progress, CNN reports.

“We can talk about what we’ve done, all these huge legislative wins, ‘til we’re blue in the face,” a Democratic campaign official told the network. “If people can’t feel it, it doesn’t matter at this point.”

Continue reading...

Shrew-like creature was placental mammals’ last common ancestor

Posted on by

Group’s earliest primogenitor was probably a diminutive creature with a long snout, researchers suggest

The last common ancestor of today’s placental mammals – a group that includes humans, whales and armadillos – was probably a shrew-like creature with a long snout, researchers have revealed.

The forerunners of mammals are believed to have split from what eventually became reptiles around 320m years ago, but it was not until some time between 70 and 80m years ago that placental mammals arose.

Continue reading...

Republican and Trump critic Liz Cheney to campaign for Michigan Democrat

Posted on by

Wyoming congresswoman, who lost her Republican primary, endorses Elissa Slotkin in seventh congressional district

Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney on Thursday endorsed Democratic congresswoman Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and plans to campaign for her.

It is the first time that Cheney, a critic of Donald Trump who lost her Republican primary, has crossed party lines to formally support a Democrat.

Continue reading...