World news | The Guardian

Since Trump’s second term began in January, global healthcare, especially for sexual and reproductive health, has been under constant attack

This time last year, women’s rights organisations were bracing themselves for a second Trump term. Few were prepared for the chaos that would be unleashed in January. The volume and speed of executive orders coming out of the White House were seen as a deliberate tactic to overwhelm and create panic. In many ways it worked – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as organisations scrambled to fill the gap left by the USAID freeze. But that was just the beginning.

The US administration has been the key driver, supported by intense advocacy work by ultra-conservative groups using the moment to strengthen global ties with political allies.

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Government says it received distress calls, as daughter of ex-president Jacob Zuma accused of luring men to frontline

South Africa’s government is in talks with Russia to bring home 17 South African men fighting for Russia in Ukraine, after the men were allegedly tricked on to the frontlines of the war by a daughter of former South African president Jacob Zuma.

Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla has been accused in multiple lawsuits of luring the 17 South African and two Botswanan men to Russia in July, by telling them they would be training as bodyguards for her father’s uMkhonto weSizwe political party or attending a personal development course.

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It is hoped the institution can help foster new bonds in a fractured nation, but such optimism will be a stretch for some

It was a night at the museum like no other. As the staccato sound of firecrackers and explosions rang out across Martyr’s Square in the heart of Tripoli, for once it was not Libya’s militias battling it out for a larger stake in the country’s oil economy, but a huge firework display celebrating the reopening of one of the finest museums in the Mediterranean.

The National Museum of Libya – housing Africa’s greatest collection of classical antiquities in Tripoli’s historic Red Castle complex – had been closed for nearly 14 years due to the civil war that followed the former dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s downfall. Its ceremonial reopening came at the climax of a lavish show compressing Libya’s rich history and attended by diplomats and Arab celebrities, with a full-size Italian orchestra, acrobats, dancers, arches of fire and lights projected on to the fort. It did not lack for circus drama or cost, peaking with a billowing Ottoman sailing ship arriving high above the port on wires to be greeted by an angelic-appearing Libyan woman.

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Group asks Keir Starmer for help to persuade Ghanaian government to pay backlog of tuition fees and living allowances

Students from Ghana at UK universities say they are in danger of being deported after being stranded by their own government without promised scholarships or tuition fee payments.

The group representing more than 100 doctoral students has petitioned Downing Street and Keir Starmer asking for help to persuade the Ghanaian government to pay the backlog of tuition fees and living allowances running into millions of pounds.

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Australian researchers think the skeleton found in South Africa is not the same species as two found in the same South Africa cave system

Little Foot, one of the world’s most complete hominin fossils, may be a new species of human ancestor, according to research that raises questions about our evolutionary past.

Publicly unveiled in 2017, Little Foot is the most complete Australopithecus skeleton ever found. The foot bones that lend the fossil its name were first discovered in South Africa 1994, leading to a painstaking excavation over 20 years in the Sterkfontein cave system.

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Joesley Batista is credited as a major force behind the reconciliation between Trump and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

Six international airlines had suspended flights to Venezuela over the risk of possible US military strikes when an ultra-long-haul executive jet from São Paulo, Brazil, landed calmly in Caracas.

On board that flight on 23 November was the Brazilian meat tycoon Joesley Batista – twice jailed for corruption and whose companies have a long record of environmental violations. After a meeting with the Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, he returned to Brazil the following day.

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US Southern Command says boats were ‘engaged in narco-trafficking’

The US military has launched a fresh round of deadly strikes on foreign vessels suspected of trafficking narcotics, killing eight people.

The US Southern Command posted footage of the strikes on social media on Monday, announcing it had hit three vessels in international waters.

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Maduro regime accuses Caribbean nation of participating in ‘theft of Venezuelan oil’ as tensions mount in region

Venezuela has accused the government of Trinidad and Tobago of taking part in the US seizure of an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast last week, as Donald Trump’s four-month pressure campaign against Nicolás Maduro continues to reverberate across the region.

In a statement on Monday, the Maduro regime accused Trinidad and Tobago of participating in “the theft of Venezuelan oil, committed by the US administration on 10 December with the assault on a vessel transporting this strategic Venezuelan product”.

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From the US to Hungary to Argentina, rightwing leaders are praising José Antonio Kast’s win in Chile’s presidential race

José Antonio Kast’s victory in Chile’s presidential election has been widely praised by leaders of the global right, with congratulations coming from the US secretary of state Marco Rubio, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, Argentina’s Javier Milei and X’s Elon Musk.

The son of a Nazi party member, a father of nine and a staunch Catholic known for opposing abortion and same-sex marriage, Kast won 58.16% of the vote in the runoff – more than 2m votes than the leftist Jeannette Jara, a former labour minister under the current president, Gabriel Boric.

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Opposition leader and Nobel peace prize laureate’s injury was reportedly sustained during high-risk sea crossing

Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel peace prize laureate María Corina Machado suffered a vertebra fracture during her secret journey from Venezuela to Norway last week, her spokesperson has confirmed.

Machado previously said she feared for her life during the perilous voyage to receive her award in Oslo.

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US president says he feels ‘so badly’ about Lai’s conviction and has spoken to the Chinese leader about it

Donald Trump has said he wants Chinese leader Xi Jinping to release Jimmy Lai as he voiced sadness over the Hong Kong media mogul’s conviction on national security charges.

“I feel so badly. I spoke to President Xi about it, and I asked to consider his release,” Trump told reporters on Monday, without specifying when he asked Xi.

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Government says arrangement will bring in extra £400m on top of more than £15bn of existing annual trade with Korea

The UK has signed a new trade deal with South Korea designed to increase exports of cars, Scottish salmon and Guinness canned in Britain.

Keir Starmer described the deal, which replaces an existing agreement, as “a huge win for British business and working people”. It follows UK deals with India and the US, and the free trade agreement with the EU clinched this year.

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Guan Heng, who filmed at sites in China of alleged rights violations against Muslim group, detained by ICE in August

A Chinese man who left his country after filming at sites of alleged human rights violations against Uyghurs now faces the risk of removal from the United States, according to his lawyer and mother.

Guan Heng, 38, underwent an immigration hearing in New York on Monday after being detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in August, his mother said in an interview.

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UK, EU and Australia say guilty verdict against 78-year-old is further blow to democracy and press freedom in territory

Governments, institutions and rights groups across the world have condemned the conviction of the former pro-democracy media tycoon and British citizen Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong on national security charges.

The 78-year-old was found guilty in West Kowloon district court on Monday of one count of conspiracy to publish seditious publications and two counts of conspiracy to foreign collusion. The charges were brought under the city’s punitive national security law , introduced in 2020, and a British colonial-era sedition law that has been used in recent years by authorities.

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Rights groups dismiss ‘sham conviction’ of media tycoon on national security offences in city’s most closely watched rulings in decades

• The rise and fall of Jimmy Lai, whose trajectory mirrored that of Hong Kong itself

Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon, is facing life in prison after being found guilty of national security and sedition offences, in one of the most closely watched rulings since the city’s return to Chinese rule in 1997.

Soon after the ruling was delivered, rights and press groups decried the verdict as a “sham conviction” and an attack on press freedom.

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Interfaith groups share messages of love, unity and ‘deep heartbreak and condolences’ in the wake of antisemitic mass shooting

• Full report: Bondi terror attack

• Victims of Bondi beach shooting

• What we know so far about the Bondi terror attack

About 24 hours after terror was unleashed on Sydney’s Bondi beach, Rabbi Jeffrey Kamins stood in the city’s Hyde Park and delivered a message of unity.

“So many in our Jewish community have received messages of love from leaders in different faith communities, from Palestinian friends and friends around this country, and in so doing, we are now learning we are all just flesh and blood, and we are all also the light,” he said.

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Modelling suggests by 2050 main electricity market could run almost entirely on renewables without increase in generation cost

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The cost of generating electricity in an Australian grid powered by 82% renewable energy would be a third cheaper than current wholesale electricity costs, according to new CSIRO analysis.

The organisation has for the first time modelled the likely cost of electricity generation from different combinations of technology that could make up Australia’s grid in 2030 and 2050. Previous work has only looked at the comparative costs of individual technologies.

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Investigators examine IS link after finding flag in car registered to one of the alleged gunmen

• Full report: Bondi terror attack

• Victims of Bondi beach shooting

• What we know so far about the Bondi terror attack

Two major lines of inquiry have emerged in the investigation into the antisemitic terrorist attack in Sydney on Sunday.

One is the trip made by the alleged attackers to the Philippines just before the massacre, in which 15 were killed and dozens injured.

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Dreyfus says Australians rising to support community in wake of terror attacks

The former attorney general and special envoy for international human rights, Mark Dreyfus, just been on Radio National. He said this type of hatred will not divide Australia.

People are going to unite to reject this hatred. It’s much worse than anyone’s worst nightmares.

It’s the event that we in the Jewish community feared, the murder of 15 of our community members celebrating Hanukah ...

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The unwelcome return of inflation means Anthony Albanese’s government is desperate not to be seen to be adding to the problem

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A penny-pinching Jim Chalmers will reveal a multi-billion dollar improvement in the federal budget that will still see the deficit nearly quadruple to $36.8bn in this financial year.

The treasurer is the master of expectations management, and this week’s midyear economic and fiscal outlook (Myefo) will be an exercise in selling the Albanese government’s fiscal rectitude: Chalmers and Katy Gallagher gamely battling the rising tide of spending pressures.

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Zelenskyy and European leaders call for Russia to be held accountable for aggression: ‘There must be no impunity’

Meanwhile, the Kremlin said that a Christmas truce that Ukraine has proposed would depend on whether a peace deal is reached or not.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday that Kyiv supported the idea of a ceasefire, in particular for strikes on energy infrastructure, during the Christmas period.

“We want to stop this war, achieve our goals, secure our interests, and guarantee peace in Europe for the future. That’s what we want.”

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Investigators say latest studies of wreckage reveal no sign to back up alternative theories of a collision or a blast

• Europe live – latest updates

The sinking of the Estonia ferry more than 30 years ago was caused by the failure of its bow section, not an explosion or collision as claimed by some, authorities have said, in a report aimed at finally closing the case on Europe’s worst civil maritime disaster since the second world war.

“The MV Estonia sank as a result of the collapse of its bow construction,” Estonian, Swedish and Finnish investigators said. “There is, therefore, no reason to start a new full-scale … investigation of the accident.”

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US says talks with Ukraine in Berlin have resolved 90% of difficult issues – but no sign Putin willing to compromise

• Europe live – latest updates

Volodymyr Zelenskyy says proposals negotiated with US officials on a peace deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine could be finalised within days, after which American envoys will present them to the Kremlin.

After two days of talks in Berlin, US officials said on Monday they had resolved “90%” of the problematic issues between Russia and Ukraine, but despite the positive spin it is not clear that an end to the war is any closer, particularly as the Russian side is absent from the current talks.

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Exclusive: Seven-country survey finds strong opposition to increasing migration and support for deportations

Many Europeans mistakenly think most migrants are in their country illegally, according to a poll that found overwhelming opposition to any increase in migration and strong support for a significant reduction in numbers, including deportation.

Pluralities or majorities of between 44% and 60% of respondents polled in a survey by YouGov in Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and Spain said they thought “many” or “somewhat” more migrants were staying illegally than legally.

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This live blog is now closed. For more on Ukraine, read our full report:

• Europe ready to lead ‘multinational force’ in Ukraine

Separately, the commission’s deputy chief spokesperson Olof Gill has just confirmed that commission president Ursula von der Leyen will attend the Berlin talks this evening.

Not a surprise at all, but good to have it formally confirmed.

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Nour AbuShammala has returned to her partly destroyed apartment in Gaza City. This is her story of multiple displacements, injury and devastation over the last two years

When 26-year-old Nour AbuShammala stepped back into her family’s apartment in Gaza City in October the rooms were gutted, the walls were damaged by bombing, and there was no water or electricity, but it was still home.

Since the outbreak of war in October 2023 she has been forced to flee six times. This is her story of relentless displacement, survival and loss, told using photography and videos provided by AbuShammala and satellite imagery of a ruined Gaza.

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Family friend, sources in Russia and Syria, and leaked data help give rare insight into life of dictator’s reclusive household

In 2011, a group of teenage boys spray-painted a warning on to a wall in their school playground: “It’s your turn, Doctor.” The graffiti was a thinly veiled threat that Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, a London-trained ophthalmologist, would be next in the line of Arab dictators toppled by the then raging Arab spring.

It took 14 years, during which 620,000 were killed and nearly 14 million displaced, but eventually the doctor’s turn came and Assad was deposed, fleeing to Moscow in the middle of the night.

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If Saed is dead he would be most senior militant to be killed since October ceasefire, in attack on car that reportedly left four dead

The senior Hamas commander Raed Saedhas been killed in a strike on a car in Gaza City, the Israeli military said on Saturday.

The attack killed four people and wounded at least 25 others, according to Gaza health authorities. There was no immediate confirmation from Hamas or medics that Saed was among the dead.

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Palestinians who have worked the ‘breadbasket’ area for generations face being replaced by Israeli settlers

The death knell for the Palestinian village of Atouf, on the western slopes of the Jordan valley, arrived in the form of a trail of paper, a series of eviction notices taped to homes, greenhouses and wells, marking a straight line across the open fields.

The notices, which appeared overnight, informed the local farmers that their land would be confiscated and that they had seven days from the date of their delivery, 4 December, to vacate their properties. A military road and accompanying barrier was to be built by Israel right through the area.

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Mohammadi ‘violently’ detained along with other activists at memorial event in Mashhad, her foundation says

There are fears for the wellbeing of the 2023 Nobel peace prize winner, Narges Mohammadi, after she was detained by Iranian security forces at a memorial ceremony for a human rights lawyer in the eastern city of Mashhad.

Mohammadi, 53, who was granted temporary leave from prison on medical grounds in December 2024, was newly detained along with several other activists at the memorial for Khosro Alikordi, who was found dead in his office last week.

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Opposition claims SIR process being used to disenfranchise minority groups to benefit Narendra Modi’s government

India’s political opposition has warned that democracy is under threat amid a controversial exercise to revise the voter register across the country, which critics say will disenfranchise minority voters and entrench the power of the ruling Narendra Modi government.

An debate erupted in India’s parliament last week over the special intensive revision (SIR) process, which is taking place in nine states and three union territories, in one of the biggest revisions of the country’s electoral roll in decades.

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• Argentinian makes 20-minute appearance in Kolkata

• Supporters climb fence and hurl objects from stands

Lionel Messi’s tour of India kicked off on a chaotic note on Saturday as fans ripped up seats and threw them towards the pitch after the Argentina and Inter Miami forward’s brief visit to the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata, the ANI news agency reported.

Messi is in India as part of a tour during which he is scheduled to attend concerts, youth football clinics and a padel tournament, and launch charitable initiatives at events in Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi.

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Lawyers say people ‘don’t feel safe to leave their home’ as officials target recent arrivals and those awaiting hearings

Immigration agents appear to be increasingly arresting and detaining Afghan asylum seekers, especially men, who have arrived in the US recently and are awaiting court hearings to decide their cases.

Amir – an asylum seeker who came to the US via Mexico in 2024 – was driving home from his English class in Bloomington, Indiana just after noon on Monday, when he was pulled over by an unmarked police vehicle. Minutes later, the asylum seeker from Afghanistan was cuffed and driven to a detention center.

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Conflict monitors say the junta has increased airstrikes year-on-year since the start of Myanmar’s civil war

Dozens have been killed in a military strike on a hospital in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state, according to an aid worker, a rebel group, a witness and local media reports, as the junta wages a withering offensive ahead of elections beginning this month.

“The situation is very terrible,” said on-site aid worker Wai Hun Aung. “As for now, we can confirm there are 31 deaths and we think there will be more deaths. Also there are 68 wounded and will be more and more.”

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Interior ministry will tell 640 people awaiting sanctuary ‘there is no longer any political interest in their being admitted’

• Europe live – latest updates

Hundreds of Afghans previously promised sanctuary in Germany have been told they are no longer welcome, in a stark U-turn by the conservative chancellor, Friedrich Merz‪.

The 640 people in Pakistan awaiting resettlement – many of whom worked for the German military during the US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan – will no longer be taken in, as Merz’s government axes two programmes introduced by its centre-left-led predecessor.

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Organisers of award in honour of late primatologist hope it will inspire and encourage people to take action

Earth might be under pressure, but the Queen guitarist Sir Brian May is hopeful a new award from the science, music and arts festival he co-founded will encourage people to take action.

The Starmus Jane Goodall Earth medal is in honour of the British primatologist who died this year and will recognise those who champion life on Earth.

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Reform deputy leader says party’s role is to ‘challenge’ minister after Chris Parry posted on X that Lammy should ‘go home to the Caribbean’

Reform UK’s deputy leader has refused to condemn a mayoral candidate for the party who said David Lammy should “go home to the Caribbean”.

Richard Tice said it was the role of the party to “challenge” the justice secretary. Answering questions after a press conference, he also refused to say whether he still thought the 25-plus former school contemporaries of Nigel Farage who have accused the Reform leader of racism and other offensive behaviour were making up their claims, calling it “old news”.

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Steve Reed announces review in response to conviction of former Reform politician who accepted Russian bribes

Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, has published a green paper on BBC charter renewal. It includes a consultation on options for the future.

On funding, the document says the government has an “open mind” on how the licence fee system may be reformed to stop fewer households paying every year. It suggests there might be a new type of licence fee for people who say they don’t watch BBC TV, but who do use the BBC’s website, or BBC Sounds.

In addition to BBC saving and efficiency programmes, we also want to explore wider reforms that could help address the funding challenges the BBC faces. We have not ruled out keeping the current licence fee in place with its current structure. However, given the sustainability challenges it is facing, we are also reviewing the scope of services for which the licence fee is required and considering differential rates for specific types of users, to make it more sustainable for the long-term, along with increasing commercial revenue to ease the burden on the public. This would aim to reverse the trend of fewer households paying every year and declining overall income, which risks the BBC declining if it is not addressed. Any reform of the licence fee must be proportionate and reflect the cost-of-living burden on the public.

As the licence fee is a tried and tested public funding model, we are not considering replacing it with alternative forms of public funding, such as a new tax on households, funding through general taxation, or introducing a levy on the revenues of streaming services to fund the BBC …

My aims for the charter review are clear. The BBC must remain fiercely independent, accountable and be able to command public trust. It must reflect the whole of the UK, remain an engine for economic growth and be funded in a way that is sustainable and fair for audiences.

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Arts Council England must remain free from interference to ensure artistic freedom, says report by Labour peer

Arts Council England needs to scrap its flagship strategy, ensure that arts funding is protected from politicisation and be less bureaucratic in order to regain trust, according to a damaging report by the Labour peer Margaret Hodge.

The report, which was announced a year ago, found that there had been a “loss of respect and trust” for the organisation by those it funds – in part – because of “perceived political interference in decision-making”.

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Green-led authority to provide 250 pitches in richer neighbourhoods rather than poorer parts of the city

Bristol city council has vowed to open temporary sites for people who live in vehicles in some of the most affluent neighbourhoods rather than trying to shift them to more deprived areas.

The Green-led authority is aiming to provide 250 pitches on “meanwhile sites” – often plots of land about to be developed – for vehicle dwellers by the spring.

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Data shows the headline unemployment rate continued to climb and hit 4.6%, a four-year high, last month

The US labor market grew by more than expected last month, recovering some of the damage inflicted by the federal government shutdown, according to official data.

An estimated 105,000 jobs were lost in October, and 64,000 were added in November, a highly-anticipated report showed on Tuesday.

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Two students were killed and nine wounded as hunt for unknown suspect enters fourth day, amid growing frustration

The FBI has offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the capture of the killer of two students in a mass shooting at Brown University as the manhunt for someone described by the agency as an “unknown suspect with a stocky build” enters its fourth day.

Officials in Rhode Island hope the reward provides a breakthrough in the faltering case, the pace of which has sparked growing community frustration. One “person of interest” was detained then released Sunday, and FBI director Kash Patel has faced criticism for prematurely declaring it solved.

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Police in city of Pacific told residents to evacuate just hours after evacuation order had been lifted in nearby suburbs

Residents near a breached levee in Washington state were told to evacuate early Tuesday, just hours after an evacuation alert was lifted for residents near another broken levee in the same county.

Police in the city of Pacific, about 20 miles (32km) south of Seattle, urged people in the evacuation area near the White River to “Go Now!”

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Court filing was response to lawsuit asking judge to halt project until it goes through independent reviews and wins approval from Congress

• US politics live – latest updates

Donald Trump’s administration argued Monday in a court filing that the president’s White House ballroom construction project must continue for reasons of national security.

The filing came in response to a lawsuit filed three days earlier by the National Trust for Historic Preservation asking a federal judge to halt the ballroom project until it goes through multiple independent reviews and wins approval from Congress.

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President accuses broadcaster of ‘deceptive’ editing. Plus, music labels embrace AI despite artists’ concerns

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Good morning.

Donald Trump is suing the BBC for $10bn over its editing of a speech he made to supporters before the storming of the US Capitol in 2021.

On what basis is Trump suing? He’s seeking $5bn in damages on each of two counts: alleging that the BBC defamed him, and that it violated Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.

What roadblocks remain to a deal? The main one is the future of the Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia.

What’s Donald Trump’s view on this? He’s appeared to suggest that to receive security guarantees, Ukraine must cede the parts of the eastern Donbas region that it still holds to Russia – something Volodymyr Zelenskyy has previously rejected.

This is a developing story. Follow the latest in our live blog.

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