What’s in the Ukraine ceasefire plan US is presenting to Russia?
The US is expected to present a 30-day ceasefire proposal to Russia in the coming days.
Putin’s soldiers squeeze Ukraine out of main Kursk stronghold – POLITICO Europe
- Putin’s soldiers squeeze Ukraine out of main Kursk stronghold POLITICO Europe
- Ukraine set to lose Kursk pocket, its foothold inside Russia Reuters
- Ukraine struggles to hold on in Kursk Oblast as Russia strikes back before peace talks Kyiv Independent
- Retreat! Ukrainian Brigades Appear To Be Evacuating Kursk. Forbes
- Russian forces walked inside a gas pipeline to strike Ukrainian troops from the rear in Kursk The Associated Press
Ecuador’s president enlists ex-Blackwater chief in controversial crime crackdown
Daniel Noboa, who is seeking re-election, announced the partnership with Erik Prince, a supporter of Donald Trump
Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, has announced a “strategic alliance” with the Donald Trump-supporting founder of the private military firm Blackwater to supposedly reinforce his controversial “war” on crime.
Noboa, the rightwing heir to a South American banana empire, announced the partnership with Erik Prince on social media on Tuesday night.
Continue reading...Rate of Indigenous people in jail has risen by 20% since 2019, Closing the Gap data shows
New data reveals child protection, incarceration and suicide rates getting worse
- Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
The rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people imprisoned increased by 12% in a year and was up 20% since 2019 – despite state and federal governments agreeing to reduce rates of incarnation by 15% by 2031 in June 2020.
Indigenous organisations have urged greater action from all governments to improve the lives of Indigenous people after new Closing the Gap data revealed child protection, Indigenous incarceration and suicide rates were getting worse.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...Mentally unwell woman in solitary confinement for almost a decade ‘an emergency situation’, Victorian judge warns
Psychiatrist describes the detained woman at Thomas Embling hospital as one of the most unwell patients in the state
- Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
One of the most mentally unwell patients in Victoria will deteriorate further if she continues to be held in solitary confinement, where she has been detained for almost a decade, a court has heard.
Victorian county court judge Nola Karapanagiotidis heard a major review on Wednesday of the detention of the woman under the Crimes (Mental Impairment and Unfitness to be Tried) Act.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...Expert concerned as large rafts of invasive fire ants seen floating in flood waters after Cyclone Alfred
Kirsty McKenna filmed entire colonies clinging on to debris, ready to make nests on dry ground in Queensland and beyond
- Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
- Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
Fire ants are forming rafts to survive and travel on flood waters caused by ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred in south-east Queensland as experts warn extreme weather events could sweep the highly invasive species into other parts of Australia.
Footage captured in the Scenic Rim and northern Gold Coast in recent days shows red imported fire ants (Rifas) grouping together and floating on flood waters. Clumps of the ants can then be seen forming nests on previously uninfested land after waters receded.
Continue reading...Balance of power: why Loch Ness hydro storage schemes are stirring up trouble
As Scottish energy firms race to meet challenges of storing power, critics fear plans will affect delicate hydrology of loch
Brian Shaw stood at the edge of Loch Ness and pointed to a band of glistening pebbles and damp sand skirting the shore. It seemed as if the tide had gone out.
Overnight, Foyers, a small pumped-storage power station, had recharged itself, drawing up millions of litres of water into a reservoir high up on a hill behind it, ready for release through its turbines to boost the UK’s electricity supply. That led to the surface of Loch Ness, the largest body of freshwater in the UK, falling by 14cm in a matter of hours.
Continue reading...COVID pandemic likely unleashed by lab mishap: Germany’s BND – DW (English)
Rubio says G7 won’t discuss US ‘takeover’ of Canada – Reuters Canada
U.K. Police Arrest Russian Captain Over North Sea Ship Collision – The Moscow Times
- U.K. Police Arrest Russian Captain Over North Sea Ship Collision The Moscow Times
- Cargo ship captain arrested in North Sea collision with US-flagged tanker is Russian national, owner says CNN International
- Salvage crews attempt to board stricken North Sea tanker BBC.com
- Detained captain of cargo ship that collided with US oil tanker is Russian national, ship owner says Fox News
- Tanker collision details revealed by crew member who says vessel rammed ship "out of the blue" CBS News
Pakistan operation to free hostages after train hijacking ends with dozens killed
Security services claim to have rescued about 190 people being held by Baloch Liberation Army in remote area
An operation to rescue hundreds of people taken hostage when a train was hijacked by a separatist militant group in remote south-west Pakistan has ended with dozens killed in the onslaught, a spokesperson for the army has said.
Pakistan’s security services claimed late on Wednesday to have rescued about 190 people who were being held captive after militants from the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) blew up a railway line and launched an attack on the Jaffar Express train.
Continue reading...What to know about the collapse of Portugal’s government – ABC News
- What to know about the collapse of Portugal's government ABC News
- Portugal’s government loses confidence vote, triggering early election amid prolonged instability The Associated Press
- Portugal elections loom as PM loses confidence vote BBC.com
- Frustrated Portuguese voters doubt snap election will bring political stability Reuters
- Western Europe’s poorest country is about to oust its government over immigration The Telegraph
Sydney writers’ festival 2025: tallying authors’ views on Israel-Gaza ‘tokenistic and unfortunate’, organisers say
After the shock resignation of the festival’s chair, the Sydney writers’ festival unveils its starry 2025 program in ‘an incredibly polarised environment’
Over the past two years, programming a writers’ festival has become one of the most politically fraught undertakings in the Australian cultural sphere. Both Sydney and Melbourne writers’ festivals have seen board members resign over programming decisions, while Adelaide and Perth have fended off calls for the de-platforming of speakers on both sides of the Israel-Gaza conflict.
Literary events are traditionally lauded for their “restraint, reason and tolerance in the face of opposing views” – but writers’ festivals are now issuing safety tips and employing security as they navigate “the frontier between social media’s echo chambers of outrage and the traditional public square’s conventions”, the University of Melbourne journalism academic Denis Muller observed in the Conversation last year, after the resignation of the Melbourne writers’ festival’s deputy chair, Leslie Reti.
Sign up for our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning
Continue reading...Mediators seek a new deal to release more than half of the hostages in Gaza – NPR
- Mediators seek a new deal to release more than half of the hostages in Gaza NPR
- LIVE: Israel, Hamas continue talks on US proposal for Gaza truce extension Al Jazeera English
- Trump Envoy Witkoff Joins Intensive Hostage Release Talks in Doha Haaretz
- Israel says UN report alleging sexual violence against Gazans among ‘worst blood libels ever’ The Times of Israel
- Ignore the negotiations sideshow: Hamas must leave Gaza or be destroyed New York Post
Greenland’s opposition wins election dominated by independence and Trump
The Democrats party wants a gradual move to independence but the second-placed party is keen to speed it up.
Greenland’s opposition wins election dominated by independence and Trump
The Democrats party wants a gradual move to independence but the second-placed party is keen to speed it up.
Romania lashes out at Russia as Georgescu election ban furor intensifies – POLITICO Europe
- Romania lashes out at Russia as Georgescu election ban furor intensifies POLITICO Europe
- Romanian far right in disarray after ban on Călin Georgescu Financial Times
- Romania Banned a Nationalist Presidential Candidate. Now It’s Bracing for a Trump Backlash. The Wall Street Journal
- Romania hard right seeks replacement for Georgescu in presidential race Reuters
- Why JD Vance, Elon Musk Are Weighing In on Romania's Politics Bloomberg
Art of a deal: how UK and France led dogged effort to repair US-Ukraine ties – for now
Over 11 days of breakneck diplomacy, Kyiv was convinced of need to pacify Trump, but reconciliation may be all too brief
The 11 days of whiplash-inducing talks British and French officials endured to repair shattered relations between Washington and Kyiv, and for the first time put Donald Trump’s trust in Vladimir Putin to the test, could go down as one of the great feats of diplomatic escapology.
The dogged fence-mending may yet unravel as hurdles remain, principally the outstanding question of Ukraine’s security guarantees, but for the first time, in the words of Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, the ball is in Russia’s court. Putin, by instinct cautious, has preferred watching from the sidelines, suppressing his delight as Trump denounced Volodymyr Zelenskyy to his face in the White House and wreaked subsequent vengeance by stopping all military aid and then pulling some US intelligence.
Continue reading...Treasury’s Value for Money body targets asylum accommodation – BBC.com
Trump’s ‘drill, baby, drill’ agenda could keep the world hooked on oil and gas
The US president is making energy deals with Japan and Ukraine, and in Africa has even touted resurrecting coal
Donald Trump’s repeated mantra of “drill, baby, drill” demands that more oil and gas be extracted in the United States, but the president has set his sights on an even broader goal: keeping the world hooked on planet-heating fossil fuels for as long as possible.
In deals being formulated with countries such as Japan and Ukraine, Trump is using US leverage in tariffs and military aid to bolster the flow of oil and gas around the world. In Africa, his administration has even touted the resurrection of coal, the dirtiest of all fossil fuels, to bring energy to the continent.
Continue reading...