World news | The Guardian

Motorcycle-riding militants launch strikes using heavy weaponry and drones, damaging planes belonging to Ivorian carrier and Togolese airline

Islamic State in the Sahel has claimed responsibility for an audacious assault at the international airport and adjacent air force base in Niamey, the capital of Niger, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks jihadist activity and communications worldwide.

The attack, which began shortly after midnight on Thursday, reportedly involved motorcycle-riding militants who launched a “surprise and coordinated” strike using heavy weaponry and drones, according to statements released via IS in the Sahel’s propaganda arm, Amaq news agency.

Continue reading...

Ariel Seidman declared persona non grata and given 72 hours to leave country after remarks on social media

South Africa and Israel have engaged in a tit-for-tat expulsion of senior diplomats, after South Africa ordered Israel’s chargé d’affaires to leave within 72 hours, citing “insulting attacks” on South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, on social media.

Ariel Seidman, the chargé d’affaires at Israel’s embassy in Pretoria, was declared persona non grata by South Africa’s department for international relations and cooperation (DIRCO) in a statement on its website on Friday afternoon.

Continue reading...

General Tchiani accuses France, Benin and the Ivory Coast of links to attack near Niamey’s airport and thanks Russian troops for defence efforts

Heavy security has been deployed around the main airport in Niger’s capital, Niamey, after overnight gunfire and explosions that the country’s military ruler blamed without evidence on France, Benin and Côte d’Ivoire.

The shooting and detonations began shortly after midnight on Wednesday, according to residents of a neighbourhood near the airport, which is next to Base Aérienne 101, a military base previously used by US and then Russian troops.

Continue reading...

Fifty killed in one incident as Italian authorities estimate 380 people may have drowned last week

Up to 380 people may have drowned attempting to cross the Mediterranean last week as Cyclone Harry battered southern Italy and Malta, the Italian coastguard has said, as a shipwreck with the loss of 50 lives was confirmed by Maltese authorities.

Just one person, who was hospitalised in Malta, survived the shipwreck, which happened on Friday.

Continue reading...

More than 100 people killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe

Devastating floods have killed more than 100 people in southern Africa since the beginning of the year and displaced hundreds of thousands, as authorities and aid workers warn of hunger, cholera and attacks by crocodiles that have spread with the waters.

More than 70 people have died in Zimbabwe and 30 in South Africa, where hundreds of people were evacuated from Kruger national park earlier this month after a deluge of rain.

Continue reading...

Panama’s president says strategic waterway will operate as normal after ruling that advances US policy aims

Panama’s president said ports at each end of the Panama canal would operate as usual after the country’s supreme court ruled the concession held by a subsidiary of a Chinese company was unconstitutional.

The court’s decision on Thursday, which helps US attempts to block any Chinese influence over the strategic waterway, immediately drew a sharp rebuke from Beijing.

Continue reading...

Law will give private companies more control but experts unsure whether changes go far enough for US

Venezuela’s acting president has signed into law a bill making significant changes to the country’s oil sector after pressure from the US to open it up to foreign private investment.

The new hydrocarbons law promises to give private companies control over oil production and sales, ease taxes and allow for independent arbitration of disputes, while largely maintaining state control over oil production.

Continue reading...

Millions told to stay home in US and more than a million are left without power, while Australia faces record heatwave

Cold weather across a vast swathe of the eastern US has been the likely cause of at least 49 deaths in the past week.

At one point, about 213 million people were under some sort of winter weather warnings, affecting areas from New Mexico to New England – a spread of about 2,000 miles (3,200km). Millions were told to stay at home, and at one point there were more than a million people without power. As of Wednesday night, there were still 312,000 outages, mostly across Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.

Continue reading...

White House cites Cuba’s ties to hostile powers as order ratchets up Trump’s pressure to topple its government

Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday laying the groundwork to slap tariffs on goods from countries that provide oil to Cuba, the White House said.

The order, which ratchets up Trump’s pressure to topple the communist government, declares a national emergency and establishes a process for the US secretaries of state and commerce to assess tariffs against countries that sell or otherwise provide oil to the island nation. The White House has yet to specify tariff rates for violating its new policy of blocking Cuba from buying oil.

Continue reading...

Order allows direct flights from US to Venezuela, as major oil companies already on ground to assess potential operations

Donald Trump has ordered the immediate reopening of commercial airspace over Venezuela, weeks after US military forces toppled the dictator Nicolás Maduro.

Speaking at the White House during his cabinet’s first meeting of the year, Trump said he had just concluded a telephone conversation with Venezuela’s acting president (and former vice-president), Delcy Rodríguez, in which he informed her of the decision to restore flight access.

Continue reading...

Prime minister suggests US president was ‘talking more about Canada’ when asked for reaction to Beijing visit

Prominent Hong Kong and Uyghur activists living in exile in the UK have accused Starmer of seeking China’s desperate approval, after the prime minister visited Beijing for the first time in eight years this week.

Pro-democracy campaigner and prominent critic of the Communist Party, Finn Lau said the Hong Kong community is disappointed by Starmer’s visit, but unsurprised by the government’s “short sightedness”.

“While British citizen Jimmy Lai remains imprisoned and Uyghurs continue to suffer atrocity crimes, we take no comfort in this decision and will not be silenced.

We look forward to receiving urgent assurances from the government regarding those who were placed under sanction together with us, and take this opportunity to express our ongoing solidarity with the Uyghur people, whose cause we will not drop.

Continue reading...

Starmer confirms immediate removal, but it is unclear if sanctions remain on former MP, academic and barrister

China has lifted the sanctions it imposed on serving British MPs and peers in a significant sign of warming relations after Keir Starmer travelled to Beijing for landmark talks with Xi Jinping.

Nine UK citizens were banned from China in 2021, including five Conservative MPs and two members of the House of Lords, targeted for highlighting human rights violations against the Muslim Uyghur community.

Continue reading...

US president warns against closer ties with China during British PM’s trip to secure lower tariffs and better market access

Donald Trump has warned the UK against doing business with China, just hours after Keir Starmer lauded the economic relationship during a landmark visit to Beijing.

The US president said it was “very dangerous” for the UK to pursue closer ties with the rival superpower as the prime minister’s three-hour talks with Xi Jinping underlined a thaw in previously strained relations.

Continue reading...

A plan to resettle third-country nationals from the US to the Pacific nation faces an uncertain future amid unease over the deal

A controversial Trump administration deal to relocate deportees from the US to the small Pacific nation of Palau faces an uncertain future, after the senate voted to block the deal as concern about the agreement grows.

The deal, which allows up to 75 third-country migrants facing removal from the US to live and work in Palau, was signed by president Surangel Whipps Jr in December. Palau’s lower house now has to consider the deal, and the final decision rests with Whipps Jr.

Continue reading...

PM says trip to China has put relationship in stronger place, but possible return visit angers British critics

Keir Starmer has taken a big step towards rapprochement with China, opening the door to a UK visit from Xi Jinping in a move that drew immediate anger from British critics of Beijing.

During the first visit by a UK prime minister to China in eight years – a period which Starmer has described as an “ice age” – he said talks with the Chinese president had left the bilateral relationship in a stronger position.

Continue reading...

Change comes after 100-day review that found domestic violence case management was not ‘core’ police business

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

The Queensland police service plans to disband a specialist unit that provided statewide support for domestic and family violence cases, prompting concern from frontline workers that the loss of an “important resource” would place women at greater risk.

The QPS confirmed to Guardian Australia on Friday it would scrap the DFV and vulnerable persons command “operational support unit” and redeploy its officers to local districts.

Continue reading...

Solar met the majority of electricity demand between 9am and 6pm in the past week as much of the country cranked air conditioners

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Australia’s power grid is changing rapidly – so rapidly that it can feel difficult to keep up.

This week, as an oppressive heatwave in the country’s south-east rewrote temperature records, there was also plenty of evidence demonstrating just how fast long-held assumptions about the electricity system are being overturned.

Continue reading...

Soaring temperatures, heat at altitude and hot summer nights combine to create one of south-eastern Australia’s ‘most significant’ heatwaves

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Heatwaves and hot days during an Australian summer may seem unremarkable. Days spent at the beach, sunburn and mosquitoes are part of the national psyche, along with outback pubs serving crisp lager as relief from searing afternoon heat.

But when the opal mining town of Andamooka (population 262) in the far north of South Australia reached 50 degrees on Thursday, it was only the eighth time in recorded history anywhere in Australia.

Continue reading...

WA police say both Mosman Park children had ‘significant health challenges’ and had been in contact with care services

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Two parents and their teenage children have been found dead in the affluent Perth suburb of Mosman Park in a suspected murder-suicide, Western Australian police say.

At 8.15am on Friday, emergency services received a distressed call from a person known to the family who had gone to the home on Mott Close, in the city’s south-west.

Continue reading...

Hastie’s allies are cautioning against assuming his supporters would automatically shift their allegiances to Angus Taylor

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

What was the point of that then?

That is the question some Liberals MPs – and no doubt some bemused voters – are asking after Andrew Hastie abandoned plans to challenge Sussan Ley for the party leadership after a week of feverish speculation.

Continue reading...

Viktor Orbán reiterates stance on EU membership as spokesperson claims Brussels wants to give Ukraine access to next budget

But just as Volodymyr Zelenskyy doubles down on his 2027 accession target, so is Hungary’s Viktor Orbán in opposing the move.

In clips published by Hungary’s international spokesperson Zoltán Kovács, Orbán has claimed that during the last EU summit the leaders were given a document describing Brussels plans to admit Ukraine in 2027.

Continue reading...

Ukraine president says he will wait to see if Putin complies with Trump request to halt strikes on energy infrastructure

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said he was waiting to see whether Russia would observe a proposed pause in strikes on Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure, as Kyiv endures a spell of bitter winter cold.

Donald Trump on Thursday claimed that Vladimir Putin had agreed to halt strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for a week after he issued a personal appeal to the Russian leader due to the extreme weather in Ukraine.

Continue reading...

US president says he made appeal to Russian leader, but no ceasefire has been confirmed by Moscow or Kyiv

Donald Trump has claimed that Vladimir Putin has agreed to halt strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for one week after he issued a personal appeal to the Russian leader due to the extreme cold in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, did not immediately confirm the ceasefire was in place, but said that Trump had made an “important statement … about the possibility of providing security for Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities during this extreme winter period”.

Continue reading...

Avaaraq Olsen tells content creators to think before making jokes after German tried to raise Stars and Stripes in Nuuk

The mayor of Greenland’s capital has called on media professionals and content creators to act responsibly after a German comedian’s failed attempt to hoist the US flag.

Maxi Schafroth, 41, a Bavarian comic, tried to run up the Stars and Stripes on a flagpole near the cultural centre in Nuuk but was confronted by angry passersby.

Continue reading...

‘Any organisation that kills thousands of its own people is working toward its own demise,’ says Kaja Kallas

The EU has listed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation, ending years of division over the issue in response to the regime’s brutal repression of protesters.

“Repression cannot go unanswered,” said Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, on Thursday. The paramilitary organisation has played a significant role in suppressing demonstrations in Iran. “Any regime that kills thousands of its own people is working toward its own demise,” she wrote on X.

Continue reading...

Foreign minister Abbas Araghchi says Tehran is ‘ready to begin negotiations if they take place on an equal footing’

• Killing Khamenei? Hitting military sites? It is unclear what a US attack on Iran would achieve

Iran has said it is ready to negotiate with the US, but only if talks are not under duress and do not extend to Iran’s missile programme, as diplomats scrambled to head off the threat of a regional conflict.

After meetings with Turkish diplomats on Friday, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said Iran was “ready to begin negotiations if they take place on an equal footing, based on mutual interests and mutual respect”.

Continue reading...

Tehran’s nuclear ambitions date back to the shah and the 1970s and remains undimmed despite the damage caused by sanctions

A desperate effort to avert war between the US and Iran is once again under way, but trying to locate common ground between the two countries over Tehran’s nuclear programme has been made more difficult by escalating US demands, and by Iran’s ideological, deeply nationalist attachment to the right to enrich uranium.

Iran’s ambitions to run its own nuclear programme pre-date the arrival of the theocratic state in 1979, and can be traced back to the mid-1970s when the shah announced plans to build 20 civil nuclear power stations. This prompted an undignified scramble among western nations to be part of the action, with the UK energy secretary at the time, Tony Benn, having more than a walk-on part.

Continue reading...

Milestone appears to resolve escalating tensions over the question of Kurdish autonomy in north-east Syria

The Syrian government and Kurdish-led forces have reached an agreement to extend a fragile ceasefire into a permanent truce, laying a framework for integrating Kurdish forces into the state and ending nearly a month of fighting.

The agreement on Friday appeared to resolve escalating tensions between the two sides over the question of Kurdish autonomy in north-east Syria and paved a way for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to join Syria’s new army through negotiations, rather than battle.

Continue reading...

Donald Trump now has the firepower in place, but using it might not end well

A fortnight ago, when Donald Trump first threatened Iran’s regime, telling protesters in the country that “help is coming”, there were not enough US military assets in the Middle East to back up the rhetoric. That has now changed, although plenty of questions remain about what an attack on Iran could achieve.

An aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, has arrived in the Indian Ocean, dispatched from the South China Sea alongside three destroyers equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles. Its eight-squadron air wing includes F-35C and F/A-18 jets and, critically, EA-18G Growlers to suppress anything that is left of Iran’s air defences after last year’s war with Israel.

Continue reading...

London-based satirist hails ‘amazing’ ruling that found Gulf state targeted and attacked him for his criticism

A London-based Saudi dissident who a judge decided should receive more than £3m in damages from the kingdom for assault and the hacking of his phone has insisted that it must pay up or face enforcement action.

Mr Justice Saini ruled that the Saudi government infected the phone of Ghanem al-Masarir with Pegasus spyware and, while surveillance was continuing, in 2018, its agents attacked him outside Harrods in central London.

Continue reading...

• Concern raised over politicisation of sport

• Bangladesh pulled out of men’s World T20 after row

Bangladesh’s withdrawal from the men’s T20 World Cup could have implications for India’s 2036 Olympic bid amid concern at the International Olympic Committee over the potential politicisation of sport.

Bangladesh pulled out of next month’s tournament last weekend after the International Cricket Council declined a request to move their group matches from India to the cohosts Sri Lanka, after a long-running political row triggered by Kolkata Knight Riders’ decision to remove the Bangladeshi bowler Mustafizur Rahman from their Indian Premier League squad.

Continue reading...

Human rights groups and some western countries have denounced the election, the first held since the 2021 coup, describing it as neither free nor fair

Myanmar’s military-backed party has completed a sweeping victory in the country’s three-phase general election, state media said, cementing an outcome long expected after a tightly controlled political process held during civil war and widespread repression.

The Union and Solidarity Party (USDP) dominated all phases of the vote, winning an overwhelming majority in the two legislative chambers in Myanmar. It secured 232 of the 263 seats up for grabs in the lower Pyithu Hluttaw house and 109 of the 157 seats announced so far in the Amyotha Hluttaw upper chamber, according to results released on Thursday and Friday.

Continue reading...

Voting ends in month-long poll derided internationally as sham designed to cement army’s grip on power

Voting in Myanmar has ended with the military-backed party expected to win a landslide victory after a month-long election that has been widely derided as a sham designed to cement the army’s grip on power.

The junta leader, Min Aung Hlaing, has rejected criticism of the vote, saying it has the support of the public and presenting it as a return to democracy and stability.

Continue reading...

Eastern region on high alert as authorities try to track animal tearing through villages in Jharkhand after apparently becoming separated from herd

Forest officials in India are on the hunt for an elephant that has killed more than 20 people in a days-long rampage through the eastern state of Jharkhand.

Since the beginning of January, 22 people have been killed by a single-tusked elephant that has been tearing through forests and villages in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand.

Continue reading...

Delhi is world’s second largest purchaser of Russian crude, which is now cheaper than oil from Middle East

Russia is already working to circumvent the latest US sanctions to ensure India can continue to import high levels of cheap Russian crude oil, according to industry analysts.

Since the outbreak of the Ukraine war, India has become the world’s second largest purchaser of Russian crude oil, which has been heavily discounted due to the impact of western sanctions.

Continue reading...

Far-right activist tells X followers to vote for Reform’s Gorton and Denton candidate, Matthew Goodwin

Labour have accused the Reform UK candidate for the Gorton and Denton byelection, Matthew Goodwin, of representing “toxic politics” after he was endorsed by the far-right agitator Tommy Robinson.

The move will be uncomfortable for Nigel Farage, who has consistently kept the parties he leads separate from Robinson, an anti-Islam campaigner and one of the UK’s leading far-right figures.

Continue reading...

Services running normally again after trains into Euston on UK’s main intercity line held up as far back as Warrington

Train services on Britain’s main intercity rail line are running normally again after being disrupted for much of Friday because of a fire close to the tracks in north London.

Trains to and from London Euston serving Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow were among those suspended due to the blaze in Primrose Hill, Camden.

Continue reading...

Nestlé has already recalled several batches due to concerns they may trigger nausea and vomiting

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has confirmed the presence of a toxin that can cause food poisoning in some Nestlé baby formula products.

At the start of this month, the Swiss food and drink company recalled several batches of its SMA infant formula and follow-on formula due to concerns they contained cereulide, which can trigger nausea and vomiting when consumed.

Continue reading...

Weather service research concludes that less accurate probability-based predictions are still considered helpful

The Met Office is to lean into one of Britain’s favourite pastimes – talking about the weather – by launching a new two-week forecast.

At present, the publicly funded weather and climate service offers a seven-day forecast on its website and app with an hourly breakdown for the first five days and then a three-hourly breakdown for the final two days.

Continue reading...

Postcards showing Paul Mescal, Harris Dickinson, Joseph Quinn and Barry Keoghan in character were printed as postcards and secreted around the performing arts school co-founded in the city by Paul McCartney

Pictures of the stars of Sam Mendes’ forthcoming four-part Beatles film in character as the musicians have been published, offering a first look at the actors in costume.

The pictures were released in postcard form at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, the school co-founded by Paul McCartney which occupies the premises formerly occupied by the Liverpool Institute High School for Boys, where both McCartney and future bandmate George Harrison were pupils.

Continue reading...

Todd Blanche says ‘we didn’t protect anybody’ in the files as he announces release of 3m more documents

• US justice department releases more than 3 million new pages of Epstein files

Among those arrested by federal agents for a protest earlier this month at a Minnesota church is Georgia Fort, an independent journalist who was covering the demonstration.

“Agents are at my door right now. They’re saying that they were able to go before a grand jury sometime, I guess, in the last 24 hours, and that they have a warrant for my arrest,” Fort said in a video posted to Facebook, apparently shortly before she was taken into custody.

This is all stemming from the fact that I filmed a protest. As a member of the media, we are supposed to have our constitutional right of the freedom to film, to be a member of the press. I don’t feel like I have my first amendment right as a member of the press, because now federal agents are at my door, arresting me for filming the church protest a few weeks ago.

Don Lemon is an accomplished journalist whose urgent work is protected by the First Amendment.

There is zero basis to arrest him and he should be freed immediately.

Continue reading...

Subjects of acclaimed doc about inhumane prison conditions transferred in a move described as ‘straight-up retaliation’

The Alabama prison system has moved three well-known incarcerated activists who supported a 2022 prison strike and were featured in an Oscar-nominated documentary about the troubled system to isolated cells with little contact with others, family members and attorneys said.

Family members of the three men said they fear for their loved ones’ safety and are concerned the moves to solitary confinement are a form of retaliation for outspokenness about problems within the prison system. Robert Earl Council, Melvin Ray and Raoul Poole were transferred two weeks ago from their existing prisons to solitary confinement at the Kilby correctional facility outside Montgomery, their lawyers said. The transfers come as some groups have encouraged a new prison labor strike this year.

Continue reading...

Batch will include more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images, deputy attorney general Todd Blanche says

• Epstein files release – latest updates

The US deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, announced on Friday that the justice department is releasing more than 3m pages of documents related to its investigation into disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the largest trove of files released to date.

In a testy news conference, Blanche said that the release will include more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images, which will have “extensive redactions”. He added that the Trump administration has produced roughly 3.5m pages in an effort to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. He said that they include large quantities of commercial pornography and images “that were seized from Epstein’s devices”.

Continue reading...

Killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good prompted Democrats to block passage of a measure funding DHS

• US politics live – latest updates

The US Senate on Friday was scrambling to find agreement on a government funding package as a partial shutdown loomed at midnight, after the killings of two US citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis upended spending talks and gave Democrats rare leverage over Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign.

The deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, both US citizens shot dead amid a surge of immigration enforcement agents in Minneapolis, prompted Senate Democrats to block passage of a measure funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). That jeopardized a broader legislative package intended to continue funding through September for a slew of government departments.

Continue reading...

Activists call for Friday ‘blackout’ in protest against administration’s violent immigration crackdown

Activists have called for a nationwide shutdown on Friday, advocating “no work, no school, no shopping” in a protest against the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration crackdowns.

Organizers say Friday’s “blackout” – or general strike, as some are calling it – is part of a growing non-violent movement to combat ICE’s aggressive enforcement tactics, which have come under renewed scrutiny following a series of fatal shootings involving federal agents.

Continue reading...