The organizers of a women’s race in Spain has apologised after the winner was offered a food processor to take home, something that has sparked accusations of sexism.
The 7km Carrera de la Mujer issued a statement on Twitter saying it hadn’t considered the kitchen appliance – donated by a sponsor – would have sexist implications.
Continue reading...Mining groups hope their joint project, ReSource, will have an influence on the global business
“It’s incredibly exciting,” said Benedikt Sobotka, the chief executive of mining company Eurasian Resources Group (ERG). Sitting in front of an audience in January at Davos, the ski resort that hosts an annual gathering of the world’s business elite, he waved a piece of paper with a QR code that he hopes will eventually be attached to every electric car battery in the world.
Sobotka’s excitement reflected his involvement in setting up ReSource, a joint project with fellow miners Glencore and IXM to provide battery “passports” for electric cars. It also hinted at his bigger hopes: that his mining company and its partners could take an influential role in the future of the automotive industry.
Continue reading...Under proposed ‘chat controls’ regulation, any encrypted service provider could be forced to screen for ‘identifiers’
An EU plan under which all WhatsApp, iMessage and Snapchat accounts could be screened for child abuse content has hit a significant obstacle after internal legal advice said it would probably be annulled by the courts for breaching users’ rights.
Under the proposed “chat controls” regulation, any encrypted service provider could be forced to survey billions of messages, videos and photos for “identifiers” of certain types of content where it was suspected a service was being used to disseminate harmful material.
Continue reading...Records for countries broken just weeks after temperature in Thailand rose above 45C for the first time
All-time temperature records were broken in Vietnam and Laos last week. On 6 May, Hoi Xuan in Vietnam reached a scorching 44.1C, breaking the previous record for the country of 43.4C, set in 2019. On the same day, Laos recorded its highest-ever temperature, , which reached 43.5C in Luang Prabang. These records were set just a few weeks after temperatures in Thailand rose above 45C for the first time.
A breakdown of the heat in south-east Asia is expected to occur in the next few days as a tropical disturbance is likely to develop nearby. Forecast models suggest that, over the coming days, the Bay of Bengal will have the perfect conditions for cyclogenesis to occur. By later this week, several factors, including enhanced vorticity and very high sea surface temperatures, will enhance the chance that a tropical storm will edge north-eastwards into parts of Myanmar. This will bring some strong winds and significant rainfall to south-east Asia, including the areas that have recently seen their temperature records broken.
Continue reading...Drone attacks launched on Kyiv with explosions also reported in Odesa and Kherson; Ukrainian general says ‘meat assaults’ have led to high casualties.
This live blog is closed
More from that ISW report I mentioned earlier: the analysis suggests that Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov was happy to help Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin “blackmail” the Russian defence ministry in order to reestablish his position within the circle of power in the Kremlin. The think tank writes:
Kadyrov had previously held an influential position within … Putin’s close circle … until apparently losing favor recently, likely because his forces played a limited role in active combat operations in Ukraine throughout late fall of 2022 and winter of 2023.
Putin belittled Kadyrov during their meeting on March 13 where Kadyrov appeared visibly nervous when reporting on the Chechen fighters’ role in Ukraine.
Continue reading...Kyiv and Odesa targeted overnight, with attacks coming as Moscow prepares to commemorate victory over Nazi Germany
Russia has launched a fresh wave of drone, missile and airstrikes on cities across Ukraine, as Moscow stepped up attacks on the eve of its Victory Day parade commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany.
Russia’s latest missile barrage came as both sides appeared to be preparing for a widely expected Ukrainian offensive Kyiv hopes will help recapture territory lost since the start of the war.
Continue reading...Hundreds of children among evacuees as Ukraine expected to start long-anticipated counteroffensive
Russian forces are evacuating residents from the area near the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, with more than 1,600 people, including 660 children, evacuated so far, a Moscow-installed official in the region has said.
The head of the UN’s nuclear power watchdog warned on Saturday that the situation around the plant had become “potentially dangerous”. Ukraine is soon expected to start a much-anticipated counteroffensive to retake Russian-held territory, including in the Zaporizhzhia region
Continue reading...Yevgeny Prigozhin had criticised the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, and the chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov
When Vladimir Putin takes to the stage on Tuesday to commemorate the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, his speech on Red Square will have been preceded by a turbulent week in which drones attacked the Kremlin and one of his top war leaders threatened mutiny.
The dramatic footage early last Wednesday of two drones flying over the walls of the Kremlin, its historical seat of power, exposed vulnerabilities in the heart of the Russian capital, putting Moscow on edge.
Continue reading...Jean-Luc Mélenchon also criticises French TV coverage while National Rally MP hails ‘magnificent’ ceremony
Almost 9 million people watched King Charles’s coronation live on TV in France, where the pomp and ceremony sickened the radical left while impressing the far right.
As the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who is close to Charles, attended the service at Westminster Abbey, congratulating the monarchy who he said were “friends to France”, the French media’s massive focus on the event – with souvenir front pages and lengthy TV specials across different channels – caused high emotions across the polarised political landscape.
Continue reading...Yevgeny Prigozhin drops plans to withdraw from devastated city after receiving promises of extra arms
The head of Russia’s Wagner group appears to have ditched plans to withdraw his forces from Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine, after receiving promises overnight that they would get all the arms needed to capture the devastated city.
Yevgeny Prigozhin announced on Friday that his fighters, who have spearheaded the months-long assault on Bakhmut, would pull out because he said his men had been starved of ammunition and taken “useless and unjustified” losses as a result.
Continue reading...Petr Pavel sounds cautious note, saying Kyiv no longer has element of surprise that led to military successes last year
The Czech president, Petr Pavel, a decorated retired general who was previously Nato’s principal military adviser, has privately warned Ukraine’s leadership against the disaster of a rushed counteroffensive.
In recent meetings in Kyiv with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, Pavel cautioned that they no longer had the element of surprise that aided successful assaults on the eastern city of Kharkiv and southern region of Kherson last year.
EU member states agreed this weekend to source ammunition for Ukraine from outside the bloc, including the UK and the US, despite initial objections from France, a decision he said would increase the scope for helping Ukraine in the next weeks and months.
Europe did not have the capacity to produce the armaments it needs but it could buy it in and Zelenskiy had said he would provide qualified technicians for new ammunition factories if the EU defence industry fell short. “He said: ‘Yeah, we can do that.’”
The EU should source ammunition for Ukraine from all over the world, including countries that might not want to admit to being involved in the conflict with Russia, or with whom European capitals might feel some diplomatic embarrassment in dealing with – “there are ways how we can do it”.
Claims from the Kremlin that Ukraine had sought to assassinate Vladimir Putin through a drone strike in Moscow were “nonsense” given the defensive shield around the Russian capital, and could instead be a “pretext, for a bigger air attack on Ukraine”.
China has made a “first step” that could help the west put diplomatic pressure on Putin by backing a UN resolution describing Russia as the “aggressor”, though Pavel said he remained doubtful that Beijing could be a trusted mediator. “Does China have a real interest to push hard on Russia and to make for Russia to make concessions? I don’t think so.”
The west must be prepared for an outcome in the war short of all-out victory. “I think we should do anything at what is at our disposal to encourage Ukrainians and to support them to be successful. But internally, we should also be ready for other contingencies.”
Continue reading...Many of the 40 people forced to flee after a local stabbing are still traumatised by Andalucían town’s ‘blackest day’
Almost 10 months on, Ricardo García Carmona still shudders at the way he spoke to his mother when she appeared on his doorstep with an urgent warning a little after 9am on Sunday 17 July last year. “She said: ‘Let’s go! We need to get out!’”
A few hours earlier, his mother told him, a young doorman called Álvaro Soto had been stabbed to death after an argument at the pub where he worked in the small Andalucían town of Peal de Becerro. The alleged killers, like García Carmona’s family, were members of Peal’s Gypsy community, and his mother could not shake the feeling that something terrible was about to happen.
Continue reading...Experts say neighbourhood varieties will suit an area’s pollinators, and that caution is needed when buying generic seed mixes
Gardeners hoping to establish a wildflower patch in their gardens should be wary of generic seed mixes and stick to local blooms to best serve wild pollinators, experts have said.
Conservationists are urging people to source not just native wildflowers but to find out what grows naturally in their neighbourhood by getting out in their area and looking for inspiration in existing meadows, verges and nature reserves. They should then use this as a guide to ensure they are collecting or buying the most suitable wildflowers for their gardens.
Continue reading...One person killed in incident in Nizhny Novgorod region, according to Russia’s interior ministry
A prominent Russian nationalist writer has been wounded in a car bombing that killed his driver, an attack that Russia immediately blamed on Ukraine and the west.
Zakhar Prilepin’s Audi Q7 was blown up in a village in the Nizny Novgorod region, about 250 miles (400km) east of Moscow, said the state investigative committee, which is treating the incident as an act of terrorism. It said Prilepin had been taken to hospital.
Continue reading...The former Italian prime minister was speaking for the first time since he was hospitalised a month ago
The former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has given his first address to the public since being hospitalised a month ago, delivering a video message to party members from his hospital room.
“Here I am, here for you, wearing a shirt and jacket for the first time in a month,” the 86-year-old billionaire media mogul said, in a pre-recorded address to a convention of his right-wing Forza Italia party.
Continue reading...Shootings in a school in Belgrade and a day later in a rural area left 17 people dead and 21 injured
Funerals are being held in Serbia for some of the victims of two mass shootings that happened in just two days this week, leaving 17 people dead and 21 injured, many of them children.
The shootings on Wednesday in a school in Belgrade and on Thursday in a rural area south of the capital city have left the nation stunned with grief and disbelief.
Continue reading...Habib Farajollah Chaab allegedly behind attack that killed dozens of people in southern province of Khuzistan in 2018
Iran has executed a man who was allegedly behind an attack that killed dozens of people at a military parade in the southern province of Khuzistan in 2018, state media have reported.
Habib Farajollah Chaab had been sentenced to death for being “corrupt on Earth”, a capital offence under Iran’s strict Islamic laws.
Continue reading...Zakhar Prilepin wounded in explosion in the region of Nizhny Novgorod, Russian state news agency says. This blog is now closed
A prominent Russian nationalist writer, Zakhar Prilepin, was wounded in a car bombing in the region of Nizhny Novgorod on Saturday, the Russian state news agency Tass said, in an attack that Russia immediately blamed on Ukraine and the West.
Tass quoted a source in the emergency services as saying the writer’s car was blown up. “He survived, but was wounded and is conscious,” the source was quoted as saying.
The fact has come true: Washington and Nato fed another international terrorist cell – the Kyiv regime.
Continue reading...Scheme on certain streets including near beach makes it as costly to park for 10 minutes as for whole day
Whether for 10 minutes or a whole day, it now costs a flat fee of €50 (£43) to park in certain streets in The Hague, including roads around the popular Scheveningen beach.
The pilot scheme in the Dutch city on the North Sea coast, which will last a year, aims to discourage tourists and visitors from blocking up the historic centre and seaside roads, particularly on sunny days.
Continue reading...Wagner chief says his forces will pull out of Bakhmut while Ukraine says they are reinforcing positions; Zaporizhzhia villages near frontline evacuated
The leader of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force has said that his forces will leave Bakhmut, which they have been trying to capture since last summer. Yevgeny Prigozhin said they would pull back on Wednesday 10 May – ending their involvement in the war’s longest battle – because of heavy losses and inadequate ammunition supplies and asked defence chiefs to put regular army troops in their place. But Ukraine said Wagner fighters were reinforcing positions to try to seize the eastern city before that date.
Prigozhin earlier released a video showing him standing in a field of Russian corpses and blaming defence chiefs for the losses suffered by his fighters in Ukraine, appearing to reignite his simmering feud with Russian top brass.
Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, has carried out an inspection of troop readiness for forces engaged in the war, in an apparent coded response to Prigozhin’s criticism.
Ukraine said two people have been killed and nine wounded in the eastern Donetsk region and electricity distribution networks have been damaged by shelling in the Donetsk and the Kherson regions.
Some residents left Kherson city in cars and buses on Friday, and others stocked up on groceries, ahead of a 56-hour curfew due to begin on Friday evening. The announcement of the curfew prompted speculation in Kherson that the city is about to be used as a launch point for the long-anticipated Ukrainian counterattack.
Authorities in the Russian-occupied areas of Zaporizhzhia have begun evacuating villages near the frontline. The Russian-installed governor, Yevgeny Balitsky, announced the move in anticipation of a Ukrainian offensive aimed at retaking the area, claiming Kyiv’s forces had “stepped up shelling of settlements close to the frontline” in the past few days.
Engineers have reduced the risk of a dam bursting and damaging the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, a senior Russian official was quoted by state news agency Tass as saying on Friday. Renat Karchaa, an adviser to the general director of energy engineering firm Rosenergoatom, said specialists had begun discharging water from the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam on the Dnieper River in southern Ukraine.
A Moscow court has ordered the arrest of a theatre director and a playwright on charges of “justifying terrorism” over an award-winning play about Russian women recruited online to marry radical Islamists in Syria. Director Yevgeniya Berkovich and author Svetlana Petriychuk were placed in custody until 4 July, Russian news agencies reported.
Ukraine’s air force said it downed one of its own drones after it lost control over Kyiv. Andriy Yermak, Ukraine presidential chief of staff, initially said an enemy drone that had been shot down, but the air force later clarified it was Ukrainian and had been destroyed on Thursday.
The White House has dismissed as “ludicrous” claims by Russia that Washington orchestrated drone strikes on Moscow, saying the US was not involved in Wednesday’s incident and accusing Russia of lying.
Finnish power utility Fortum has notified the Kremlin it strongly objects to what it said was Russia’s “unlawful” seizure of its subsidiary in the country. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the seizure was in accordance with Russian legislation.
Bill Clinton has said he knew in 2011 it was just “a matter of time” before the Russian president attacked Ukraine. “Vladimir Putin told me in 2011 – three years before he took Crimea – that he did not agree with the agreement I made with Boris Yeltsin,” the former US president recalled. “He said … ‘I don’t agree with it. And I do not support it. And I am not bound by it.’ And I knew from that day forward it was just a matter of time.”
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