Panama releases 65 detained migrants from US amid criticism
Group of 65 migrants reach Panama City after release from the Darien, a dangerous jungle region near Colombia border.
NATO Operations Chief’s Five Lessons Learned From War In Ukraine – The War Zone
Israeli soldiers roll Palestinian car off cliff in occupied West Bank
This is the moment Israeli soldiers pushed a Palestinian’s car off a cliff after arresting them during a traffic stop
Thousands of women march against femicide in Argentina
Thousands of women took to the streets of Buenos Aires on International Women’s Day to protest against femicide.
Internet shutdowns at record high in Africa as access ‘weaponised’
More governments seeking to keep millions of people offline amid conflicts, protests and political instability
Digital blackouts reached a record high in 2024 in Africa as more governments sought to keep millions of citizens off the internet than in any other period over the last decade.
A report released by the internet rights group Access Now and #KeepItOn, a coalition of hundreds of civil society organisations worldwide, found there were 21 shutdowns in 15 African countries, surpassing the existing record of 19 shutdowns in 2020 and 2021.
Continue reading...How Trump is driving US towards Russia – a timeline of the president’s moves
Since becoming president, Trump has upended the US approach to Ukraine and treated Moscow more as an ally
In just seven weeks since returning to the White House for a second term, Donald Trump has upended the US approach to the invasion of Ukraine and treated Russia increasingly not as an adversary, but an ally.
After tossing aside decades of alignment with Europe against Russian aggression, the US president suspended military assistance and intelligence to Kyiv and said on Friday he finds it “easier” to work with Russia than Ukraine.
Continue reading...Mass blackouts in storm-hit eastern Australia
Residents are warned power may not return for days as further heavy rainfall is forecast.
Gaza in fragments | DigiDocs
Gaza in Fragments follows three people in Gaza who talk about what life was like before the October 7, 2023.
Searching for Africa’s lost World War soldiers, a name and grave at a time
Historians dig into the past to uncover graves and commemorate the Africans who died fighting for Britain.
More than 1,000 people killed in two days of clashes in Syria, war monitor says
About 745 civilians among those killed in fighting in Latakia province between security forces and fighters loyal to former president Assad
More than 1,000 people, including 745 civilians, were killed in the two days of clashes between Syrian security forces and fighters loyal to the former Assad regime and ensuing revenge killings, a war monitor has said, one of the highest death tolls in Syria since 2011.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitor, said 745 civilians were killed mostly execution-style, while 125 Syrian security forces and 148 Assad loyalists were killed. Death tolls from the two days of fighting have varied wildly, with some estimates putting the final death toll even higher.
Continue reading...Watch: Man survives being run over by train
Surveillance footage shows the man standing up and walking away after the incident in Lima.
‘Military Keynesianism’? Reeves faces British defence dilemma after EU spending surge
Even Berlin and Brussels are bending fiscal rules in the face of Russia’s threat. Will the chancellor still stick to hers?
As the Nobel laureate Robert Lucas quipped during the 2008 financial crisis: “I guess everyone is a Keynesian in a foxhole.” Donald Trump’s upending of the postwar security consensus has underlined the enduring wisdom of Lucas’s observation. But now, instead of bank bailouts and emergency bond buying, European firepower is being directed at bombs, tanks and drones in the desperate fight to secure the continent’s border with Russia.
Berlin and Brussels – typically capitals of financial orthodoxy – have been convinced that this approach is required once again. Under the plan put forward by Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting, Friedrich Merz, Berlin is on the brink of relaxing its “debt brake” rule to pave the way for spending on defence and infrastructure worth an additional €1tn (£840bn) over the coming decade.
Continue reading...Captagon: Syria’s Hidden Drug Empire
Was al-Assad's Syria a narco-state?
‘They brought it on themselves’: a new low in US-Ukraine relations
Diplomats gasp as Keith Kellogg claims Zelenskyy to blame for soured relations with America
“There was an audible gasp in the room at the Council on Foreign Relations as Keith Kellogg, the White House’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, characterised the US decision to cut off intelligence sharing and military aid to Kyiv as like beating a farm animal with a piece of wood.
“Very candidly, they brought it on themselves, the Ukrainians,” Kellogg said as the veteran diplomats, academics, and journalists in the room recoiled in surprise. Several held their hands in their faces. “I think the best way I can describe it is sort of like hitting a mule with a two-by-four across the nose,” he continued. “You got their attention, and it’s very significant, obviously, because of the support that we give.”
Continue reading...Can the U.S. block hold together amid Trump’s policy shift? – Investing.com
‘The sewage scandal ends now’: UK water company fines to be used to clean up rivers
After fears £11m would be diverted to Treasury, money will be spent on restoring polluted areas where penalties issued
Millions of pounds of fines imposed on water firms will fund environmental schemes to protect the country’s waterways after fears the money would be diverted to the Treasury.
The water restoration fund was set up by the Conservative government to ensure that polluting water firms paid for the damage they caused. The fund received £11m in fines and penalties from April 2022 to October 2023.
Continue reading...Iran is riven with conflict. Donald Trump’s offer of talks won’t ease it
With internal politics at their most unstable for years, the risk of escalation is rising
The letter the US president, Donald Trump, says he sent to Iran’s leadership offering to reopen talks on the country’s nuclear programme comes at a point when Iranian domestic politics is at its most unstable for years.
In the past month, the conservative-dominated parliament has asserted its power over the broadly reformist president elected last June by impeaching and sacking the experienced economy minister, Abdolnaser Hemmati, while Mohammad Javad Zarif, the vice-president and most prominent reformist, has also been forced out.
Continue reading...Covid, five years on: UK ‘still not ready to protect the population’
Scientific triumphs were made in the battle against the pandemic, but the memories and lessons are already in danger of being lost
On 9 March 2020, Martin Landray was studying the likely impact of Covid-19 as it started to sweep Britain. What was needed, he realised, was a method for pinpointing cheap, effective drugs that might limit the impact of the Sars-CoV-2 virus that was filling UK hospitals with dangerously ill patients.
Within 10 days, Landray – working with Oxford University colleague Peter Horby – had set up Recovery, a drug-testing programme that involved thousands of doctors and nurses working with tens of thousands of Covid-19 patients in UK hospitals.
Continue reading...Bahía Blanca: Residents flee homes in flooded Argentine city
Torrential rain has forced more than 1,200 residents to leave their homes.
Bahía Blanca: Residents flee homes in flooded Argentine city
Torrential rain has forced more than 1,200 residents to leave their homes.