World news | The Guardian

Confusion over diplomatic standoff deepens after conflicting reports about the soldiers’ whereabouts

Eleven Nigerian military personnel are reportedly still in Burkina Faso days after their plane made an “unauthorised” landing in the south-west city of Bobo Dioulasso, despite earlier suggestions they had been freed, deepening confusion about the diplomatic standoff.

Burkinabé authorities told the BBC on Tuesday that the troops had been released and given permission to return to Nigeria, but officials in Abuja have said the matter is yet to be resolved.

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Military personnel told they can return to Nigeria after actions described as ‘unfriendly act’

• Fate of 11 Nigerian troops unclear after ‘unauthorised’ plane landing in Burkina Faso

Authorities in Burkina Faso have released 11 Nigerian military personnel held after a cargo plane from Lagos made an “unauthorised” emergency landing in its second largest city, Bobo-Dioulasso.

The breakaway regional Association of Sahel States (AES) said on Monday that the C-130 aircraft had entered Burkina Faso’s airspace without clearance, calling it an “unfriendly act”.

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Rwanda-backed M23 rebels clash with Congolese army and other groups as they march on strategic eastern town

About 200,000 people have fled their homes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as Rwanda-backed rebels march on a strategic eastern town just days after Donald Trump hosted the Rwandan and Congolese leaders to proclaim peace.

The UN said at least 74 people had been killed, mostly civilians, and 83 admitted to hospital with wounds from escalating clashes in the area in recent days.

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US treasury accuses Colombian nationals and companies of aiding the RSF, which has committed horrific war crimes

The United States has sanctioned four people and four companies accused of enlisting Colombian mercenaries to fight for and train a Sudanese paramilitary group accused by Washington of committing genocide.

Announcing the sanctions on Tuesday, the US treasury said the network was largely composed of Colombian nationals and companies.

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Unauthorised touchdown comes less than 24 hours after Nigerian forces intervened in attempted coup in Benin

Eleven Nigerian military personnel are being held in Burkina Faso after a Nigerian plane reportedly entered Burkinabé airspace without authorisation on Monday, the latest twist in a region enmeshed in multiple political and security crises.

In a statement on Monday evening, the breakaway Alliance of Sahel States (AES), of which Burkina Faso is a member alongside Mali and Niger, said the C-130 transport aircraft had made an emergency landing in Bobo Dioulasso.

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Move interpreted as escalation of US policy as Vladimir Putin ‘reaffirms’ support for South American dictator

• US politics live – latest updates

Diplomatic pressure on Nicolás Maduro has grown after the US interdicted a “dark fleet” tanker off the coast of Venezuela in a move that has been interpreted as an escalation of the Trump administration’s pressure on the South American dictator.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday said that the US would take the seized oil tanker, the Skipper, to a US port one day after military and law enforcement boarded it off the coast of Venezuela.

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US forces have seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela in a major escalation of Donald Trump’s campaign against the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, whose government called the seizure an act of international piracy.

The Trump administration is facing increasing scrutiny over a series of attacks on boats off the Venezuelan coast. At least 87 people have been killed in 22 known strikes since early September.

Lucy Hough talks to the Guardian’s deputy head of international news, Devika Bhat – Watch on YouTube.

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Unease grows in Washington, including among some Republicans, over Trump administration’s escalating military posture in the Caribbean

• US politics live – latest updates

Senior Democratic lawmakers and at least one Republican have condemned Wednesday’s seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker off the nation’s coast, with one saying Donald Trump is “sleepwalking us into a war with Venezuela”.

There is growing, at least somewhat bipartisan unease in Washington over the administration’s escalating military posture in the region. Trump has accused Venezuela of facilitating drug trafficking, and increased the US military presence in the Caribbean to a level not seen in decades. The administration has also conducted a campaign of bombings of alleged drug boats, killing more than 80 people so far.

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Maryland judge freed Ábrego as his case becomes a partisan flashpoint in battle over Trump’s deportation agenda

A federal court in Maryland has ordered the release of Kilmar Ábrego García from ICE custody on Thursday, and he will be advised on his release conditions in his separate Tennessee criminal case.

The case of Ábrego, a Salvadorian national who was a construction worker in Maryland, has become a proxy for the partisan struggle over Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration policy and mass deportation agenda.

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Allegations he allowed state funds for Indigenous projects to be transferred to government officials’ accounts

Bolivia’s former president Luis Arce was detained on Wednesday on charges that he “enabled illicit enrichment” by allegedly allowing state funds earmarked for Indigenous communities to be transferred into government officials’ personal accounts.

Arce served as Bolivia’s president until last month, when he handed the sash to the centre-right former senator Rodrigo Paz Pereira, who won the runoff in an election that ended nearly 20 years of dominance by the leftwing Movement for Socialism, or Movimiento al Socialismo (Mas).

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At least 20 killed and almost 200 injured, as Trump claims he can settle hostilities ‘pretty quickly’

• What’s behind the Thailand-Cambodia clashes – explained in 30 seconds

Deadly fighting has continued along the disputed border of Cambodia and Thailand, as more than half a million people sheltered in evacuation centres.

At least 20 people have been killed and almost 200 injured in clashes that began on Sunday, the fiercest fighting since a five-day conflict in July.

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Exclusive: Letters with deepfake images of Carmen Lau in UK and targeting of Ted Hui in Australia part of growing harassment

Sexually explicit letters and “lonely housewife” posters about high-profile pro-democracy Hong Kong exiles have been sent to people in the UK and Australia, marking a ratcheting up in the transnational harassment faced by critics of the Chinese Communist party’s rule in the former British colony.

Letters purporting to be from Carmen Lau, an exiled pro-democracy activist and former district councillor, showing digitally faked images of her as a sex worker were sent to her former neighbours in Maidenhead in the UK in recent weeks.

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Cyclones like those in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Malaysia that killed 1,750 are ‘alarming new reality’

The climate crisis supercharged the deadly storms that killed more than 1,750 people in Asia by making downpours more intense and flooding worse, scientists have reported. Monsoon rains often bring some flooding but the scientists were clear: this was “not normal”.

In Sri Lanka, some floods reached the second floor of buildings, while in Sumatra, in Indonesia, the floods were worsened by the destruction of forests, which in the past slowed rainwater running off hillsides.

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Baby Ruth Villarama’s documentary Food Delivery depicts those struggling with the superpower to retain their trade. The director describes capturing their boats getting rammed by the Chinese coast guard

During a televised debate in 2016, populist presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte made a typically belligerent statement that he himself would jetski to Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea and plant a Philippine flag there. Duterte claimed that he was ready to die a hero to keep the Chinese out of the bitterly contested maritime territory.

“That made millions of Filipino workers and fishers vote for him because of that one promise,” says film-maker Baby Ruth Villarama. As her new Oscar and Bafta-contending documentary Food Delivery: Fresh from the West Philippine Sea reveals, it wasn’t a promise Duterte kept. “He would make excuses that the jetski has broken down. Eventually there was an official pronouncement that it had just been a campaign joke. From then on, the fisherfolk were really enraged.”

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After a ceasefire deal he brokered collapsed, Trump told a rally in Pennsylvania that he would ‘make a call’ to ‘stop a war’ between Thailand and Cambodia

US president Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he will make a call regarding reignited hostilities on the Thai-Cambodia border, where fighting has resumed less than two months after a ceasefire he brokered between the two nations collapsed.

Speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania, the US president reiterated his global peacemaking skills, proclaiming that “in ten months I ended eight wars”, before listing hostilities between Kosovo and Serbia, Pakistan and India, and Israel and Iran.

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Albanese government expected to offer $20bn to settle funding dispute. Follow updates

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Mark Butler hopes additional billions for health deal will help strike agreement by Christmas

The health minister, Mark Butler, said the job of health ministers is to “narrow the points of difference” so the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the chief ministers of states and territories can reach a deal on hospital funding.

[It is a] very substantial increase, first of all, on what they would have got under the longstanding existing agreements but also on the latest offer that had been made … So I hope that that’s going to lead the premiers and chief ministers to consider that position very seriously because we do want to strike an agreement before Christmas.

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Department of Finance opts not to take up review’s recommendation that public servants only use business class on flights of three hours or more

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Anthony Albanese says federal bureaucrats should look for “value for money at all times” despite the government rejecting expert calls to tighten the rules around expensing short-haul business-class flights.

Amid the growing expenses saga roiling Labor, the Department of Finance has opted not to take up a recommendation that public servants only be permitted to book business-class fares on flights of three hours or more, up from the current two-hour threshold.

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Emergency warning issued for parts of Kenwick, Wattle Grove, Maddington and Beckenham in Perth’s south-east

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Gusty winds have hampered the efforts of firefighters to contain two bushfires that have threatened residents and homes in Perth.

Emergency warnings were issued on Thursday for blazes in Perth’s south and north-east, which were downgraded to watch and act in the evening after authorities earlier urged residents in multiple suburbs to leave if they could do so.

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NSW housing policy states higher density developments must allocate some ‘affordable’ units – but in some suburbs these can still fetch up to $1,000 a week

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The trend of knocking down older blocks of flats to replace them with a smaller number of luxury apartments in parts of Sydney could see community support for development dive, federal independent MP Allegra Spender has warned.

Spender, whose Wentworth electorate takes in Bondi, Potts Point and Paddington, has written to the New South Wales housing minister, Rose Jackson, calling for urgent action.

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With 53-day wait time for aged care assessment, advocate says some doctors are advising elderly people to be admitted to hospital to speed up referral

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Anthony Albanese is pressing state and territory leaders to accept more than $20bn in extra spending for public hospitals or the federal government will pursue “other options” to end a protracted standoff over health funding.

State health ministers will meet with their federal counterpart, Mark Butler, on Friday, as advocates for elderly Australians say shortages in aged care facilities are putting further pressure on overcrowded hospitals.

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Ukrainian president says plan would not be fair without guarantees that Russia would not simply take over zone

The US wants Ukraine to withdraw its troops from the Donbas region, and Washington would then create a “free economic zone” in the parts Kyiv currently controls, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.

Previously, the US had suggested Kyiv should hand over the parts of Donbas it still controlled to Russia, but the Ukrainian president said on Thursday that Washington had now suggested a compromise version in which Ukrainian troops would withdraw, but Russian troops would not advance into the territory.

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Ukrainian leader says Washington has suggested that Russian troops would stay in region, but not advance further

Nato’s Rutte largely sticks to usual pleasantries, but says the clear political signal from Germany and other European partners is that “Europe is ready to take on more responsibility,” and “a signal that burden sharing is not just a slogan.”

In his opening remarks, Merz says that Nato plays “a key role in a time of great geopolitical upheaval,” as he recalls his numerous meetings with Rutte in recent months.

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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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Prime minister makes announcement before parliament vote on no-confidence motion filed by opposition

Bulgaria’s prime minister has handed in his government’s resignation after less than a year in office after weeks of mass street protests over its economic policies and perceived failure to tackle corruption.

Rosen Zhelyazkov announced his resignation on television shortly before parliament had been due to vote on a no-confidence motion submitted by the opposition and before the country is due to join the eurozone on 1 January.

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Museum, which includes rich collection of Vermeers and Rembrandts, currently shows only fraction of its 1m objects

Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, which holds the world’s largest trove of paintings from the Dutch Golden Age, has announced plans to open an outpost in Eindhoven.

The museum, which showcases only a fraction of its more than 1m objects, said on Thursday it would construct the 3,500 sq metre centre over the next six to eight years.

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‘Clear conflict’ between Eurovision ideals of ‘inclusion and dignity for all’ and decision to let Israel compete, says 2024 winner

Nemo, the Swiss singer who won the 2024 Eurovision song contest, has said they are handing back their trophy in protest over Israel’s participation in next year’s event.

The 26-year-old, the first non-binary winner of the contest, said on Thursday there was “a clear conflict” between the Eurovision ideals of “unity, inclusion and dignity for all” and the decision to allow Israel to compete.

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Guardian story helped to draw attention to planned hanging of Goli Kouhkan over death of abusive husband

A child bride who was due to be executed this month in Iran over the death of her husband has had her life spared by his parents, who were paid the equivalent of £70,000 in exchange for their forgiveness.

Goli Kouhkan, 25, has been on death row in Gorgan central prison in northern Iran for the past seven years. At the age of 18 she was arrested over allegedly participating in the killing of her abusive husband, Alireza Abil, in May 2018, and sentenced to qisas – retribution-in-kind.

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Syrians who have rebuilt their lives abroad face uncertainty over their futures amid hardening of attitudes

Tears of joy streamed down Abdulhkeem Alshater’s face as he joined thousands of other Syrian nationals in central Vienna last year. The moment they were marking felt like a miracle: after more than five decades of brutality and repression, the Assad regime had fallen.

A day later, however, the ripple effects of what had happened 2,000 miles away in Syria were laid bare. A dozen European states announced plans to suspend asylum applications from Syrians, in a show of how western states are increasingly treating refugees as transients. As the fall of Bashar al-Assad collided with politicians’ quest to be seen as taking a hard line on migration, the lives of Syrians around the globe were plunged into uncertainty.

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Aid agencies say Israel is still restricting their aid shipments despite ceasefire announced two months ago

Malnutrition continues to take a toll among Gaza’s young despite a ceasefire declared two months ago, with more than 9,000 children treated for acute malnutrition in October alone, according to the latest UN figures.

While the immediate threat of famine has receded for most of the 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza after the ceasefire announcement on 10 October, the UN and other aid agencies report continuing Israeli restrictions on their humanitarian aid shipments, which they say fall well below the needs of a population weakened and traumatised by two years of war, homelessness and living in flimsy shelters.

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Eyal Zamir said Israel would hold on to current positions, giving it control of more than half of the territory

The “yellow line” that divides Gaza under Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan is a “new border” for Israel, the country’s military chief told soldiers deployed in the territory.

The chief of the general staff, Eyal Zamir, said Israel would hold on to its current military positions. These give Israel control of more than half of Gaza, including most agricultural land and the border crossing with Egypt.

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Bajun Mavalwalla, who maintains his innocence, will take case to jury even as others strike plea agreements

An Afghanistan war veteran arrested on felony “conspiracy” charges a month after he participated in a protest against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) maintains his innocence and is preparing for a jury trial, even as others arrested the same day strike plea agreements to avoid long prison terms, his father said.

Bajun Mavalwalla II – a former army sergeant who survived a roadside bomb blast on a special operations mission in Afghanistan – was charged in July with “conspiracy to impede or injure officers” after joining an anti-ICE protest in Spokane, Washington.

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Officials say the Birch nightclub had contravened multiple safety regulations and that the basement had no fire safety exit

Four members of the same family on their first holiday to Goa were among the 25 killed in a deadly fire at a nightclub in the popular Indian tourist state on Saturday night.

The massive blaze broke out at just before midnight at Birch by Romeo Lane, a buzzing bar, restaurant and nightclub in north Goa’s Aporna district.

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Fire broke out at midnight in Arpora with victims mostly kitchen workers, according to state’s chief minister

At least 25 people have been killed in a fire at a nightclub in Goa, an Indian state popular for its nightlife and tourism.

Several tourists were among the 25 dead in the fire, which broke out at about midnight at Birch by Romeo Lane, a popular restaurant, cocktail bar and club in Arpora, a district of north Goa.

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Russia and India will reshape their defence ties to take account of New Delhi’s push for self-reliance, the two countries said in a joint statement after a summit between president Putin and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.

“In response to India’s aspirations for self-reliance, the partnership is currently being reoriented toward joint research and development, as well as the production of advanced defence platforms,” the statement said.

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Narendra Modi says energy security is ‘pillar of the India-Russia partnership’ as two leaders meet in Delhi

Vladimir Putin has told the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, that Russia is ready to continue “uninterrupted” shipments of oil to India, signalling a defiant stance to the US as the two leaders met in Delhi and affirmed that their ties were “resilient to external pressure”.

The statement, made on Friday after the annual India-Russia summit, appeared to be directed at western countries – particularly the US – that have attempted to pressure New Delhi into scaling back its ties to Moscow.

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Private investigator Jonathan Rees denies telling Doreen Lawrence he was involved in bugging her

A key whistleblower supporting a legal claim headed by Prince Harry and Doreen Lawrence against the publisher of the Daily Mail appears to have dealt a last-minute blow to the case against the media group.

Just weeks before a high court trial, Jonathan Rees, a private investigator who has supported claims of unlawful news gathering at Associated Newspapers, has contradicted a central allegation in the claimants’ case.

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David McCann, 43, was arrested after police searched his flat in Edinburgh

The editor of the Times and Sunday Times in Scotland has been suspended and charged over “indecent online communications”.

News UK, which owns the newspapers, announced that David McCann had been suspended after he was “made the subject of a criminal investigation unrelated to his work”.

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Health secretary announces investigation into Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys trust that has seen young patients take their own lives

A public inquiry will be held into the failures of a north-east NHS foundation after the deaths of several patients, Wes Streeting has confirmed.

The health secretary made the announcement in Darlington, speaking to the families of patients who died while receiving treatment from hospitals run by Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS foundation trust, which is headquartered in the County Durham town.

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Board warns anything less than maximum 5% council tax rise will put financial viability of council at risk

Reform UK has been accused of making “rash promises” after a local authority led by the party has been told it will have to increase council tax by the maximum amount, despite its election promises to cut costs.

Warwickshire county council has been warned by its executives that anything less than a 5% maximum council tax increase will put its financial viability at risk.

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Hospitals treating record numbers of flu patients but worst is yet to come as medical bosses urge people to get vaccinated

The NHS is bracing for its worst ever winter crisis in the next fortnight because of a worsening “flu-nami” that has left hospitals, GP surgeries and ambulances services under intense strain.

Hospitals are already treating record numbers of people seriously ill because of flu for the time of year. But things will get worse in the days ahead, NHS leaders said, as medical bosses urged people to get vaccinated against the virus so they can enjoy Christmas gatherings more safely.

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Karoline Leavitt says seizure of oil tanker off coast of Venezuela was about enforcing ‘administration’s sanction policy’

• Pressure on Maduro grows after US seizes ‘dark fleet’ tanker off coast of Venezuela

Chris Van Hollen, the Democratic senator from Maryland, was among the lawmakers speaking out against the Trump administration and its actions around Venezuela, taking to the senate floor on Wednesday to call on Congress to block Donald Trump from “using taxpayer dollars to launch a regime change war”.

“Last time I checked, the constitution of the United States gives Congress – this body – the power to decide questions of war or peace,” he said.

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UC Berkeley apologizes to Israeli sociologist and dance teacher and Pomona to create taskforce on Jewish life

Two California colleges have reached settlements with Jewish organizations and individuals who filed complaints alleging antisemitism arising from pro-Palestinian campus protests, including a $60,000 payment to an Israeli sociologist and dance researcher who says she was not rehired by the University of California, Berkeley despite the popularity of her class.

The UC Berkeley chancellor, Rich Lyons, on Wednesday issued an apology to Yael Nativ, a visiting 2022 professor who was found in a campus investigation to have been the victim of discrimination, the Los Angeles Times reported. She is also invited to teach her class in a semester of her choosing.

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Lindell, an election conspiracist who still maintains the 2020 election was stolen, joins a crowded Republican field

Mike Lindell, a pillow salesman and election conspiracist, is running for governor of Minnesota, he announced on Thursday.

Lindell, an ally of Donald Trump’s and major player in efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, joins a crowded Republican primary in the left-leaning state, where his pillow company, MyPillow, is headquartered.

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Retired Adm Mike Mullen said political environment facing officers is difficult as ‘we have gotten so much more divided’

The US’s sharpening ideological polarization is affecting a wider and much more junior cross-section of the country’s armed forces and challenging the military’s ability to remain above the political fray, a former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff has said.

Retired Adm Mike Mullen, who was the US’s top military commander under presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama, called the political environment facing currently serving officers “challenging” and “the most dangerous time” in his memory.

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Announcement, and lack of details in the weeks following, represents major departure from previous FDA priorities

As the US’s top vaccine officials come under pressure from lawmakers and former leaders, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says it will release information “soon” about changes to regulations following unconfirmed claims of deaths after Covid vaccination.

It’s part of a sweeping effort, led by Robert F Kennedy Jr, secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to change the routine vaccines given in childhood, limiting access to and casting doubt upon safe and effective vaccines.

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