World news | The Guardian

Development charity’s new co-chief executives signal shift from controversial sponsor a child scheme launched in 1972 to long-term grassroots funding

Child sponsorship schemes that allow donors to handpick children to support in poor countries can carry racialised, paternalistic undertones and need to be transformed, the newly appointed co-chief executives of ActionAid UK said as they set out to “decolonise” the organisation’s work.

ActionAid began in 1972 by finding sponsors for schoolchildren in India and Kenya, but Taahra Ghazi and Hannah Bond have launched their co-leadership this month with the goal of shifting narratives around aid from sympathy towards solidarity and partnership with global movements.

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Email sent to diplomats by state department office’s new boss is labelled ‘racist’ after dismissing Africa as a priority

US diplomats have been encouraged to “unabashedly and aggressively” remind African governments about the “generosity” of the American people, according to a leaked email sent to staff in the US state department’s Bureau of African Affairs this January and obtained by the Guardian.

“It’s not gauche to remind these countries of the American people’s generosity in containing HIV/Aids or alleviating famine,” says the email.

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Governments opting for oligarchy while brutally repressing protests over austerity and lack of jobs, charity report says

The world saw a record number of billionaires created last year, with a collective wealth of $18.3tn (£13.7tn), while global efforts stalled in the fight against poverty and hunger.

Oxfam’s annual survey of global inequality has revealed that the number of billionaires surpassed 3,000 for the first time during 2025. Since 2020, their collective wealth grew by 81%, or $8.2tn, which the charity claims would be enough to eradicate global poverty 26 times over.

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Yoweri Museveni wins seventh term but poll criticised by observers and rights groups over repression of opposition and internet blackout

Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, fresh from winning a seventh term in office at 81, said on Sunday that the opposition were “terrorists” who had tried to use violence to overturn the election results.

Official results showed Museveni winning a landslide with 72% of the vote, but the poll was criticised by African election observers and rights groups due to the heavy repression of the opposition and an internet blackout.

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Museveni’s opponent, Bobi Wine, alleges that members of polling staff were kidnapped and called for peaceful protests

Yoweri Museveni, has won the Ugandan election and his seventh term with more than 70% of the vote, state election authorities have said, amid an internet shutdown and claims of fraud by his opponent.

His opponent, a youthful musician known as Bobi Wine, condemned what he called “fake results” and alleged that members of polling staff were kidnapped, among other election irregularities. He called for peaceful protests to pressure the authorities to release what he called the “rightful results”.

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The US president unveiled the board with a gold logo whose resemblance to the UN emblem sparked European criticism

Donald Trump’s newly launched “board of peace” already has a logo – and perceptive eyes have noted its close resemblance to the United Nations emblem, except reworked in Trump fashion: all in gold, and focused squarely on the US.

Launched this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the initiative was first endorsed back in November by the UN security council, on the understanding that it would focus on brokering a ceasefire in Gaza. Since then, however, Trump has positioned it as a global body tasked with resolving international conflicts of all stripes, and to be chaired by Trump himself, in what appears to be part of the administration’s latest effort to reshape the postwar global order.

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Dallas Pokornik accused of using fake ID to fool airlines in case likened to Hollywood thriller Catch Me If You Can

A Toronto man posed as a pilot for years in order to fool airlines into giving him hundreds of free flights, prosecutors have alleged, in a case that has prompted comparisons to the Hollywood thriller Catch Me If You Can.

Authorities in Hawaii announced this week that Dallas Pokornik, 33, had been charged with wire fraud after he allegedly fooled three major US carriers into giving him free tickets over a span of four years.

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Marineland seeks approval to sell belugas to United States after its China export proposal was rejected

• ‘It’s heartbreaking’: how 30 captive beluga whales have become pawns in row over animal cruelty

Marineland, the Canadian amusement park and aquarium which has threatened to kill its captive whales, wants government approval to sell the belugas to the United States after its China export proposal was rejected, according to an official and a former trainer.

The former tourist attraction near the famed Niagara Falls has been mired in controversy for years. Twenty animals, including 19 belugas, have died at the park since 2019, according to a tally by the Canadian Press.

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Opposition lawmakers say they will seek to impeach José Jerí over undisclosed meetings in Lima’s Chinatown

Peru’s interim president, José Jerí, has denied lying to the country and claimed he was the victim of a plot to discredit him amid a growing political scandal over his secretive meetings with Chinese businessmen.

Jerí, 39, who took office in October after his predecessor Dina Boluarte was forced out, told a congressional oversight committee on Wednesday that he had been the target of a smear campaign designed to destabilise the country ahead of elections in April.

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Cash, gold, mercury and firearms seized in operations in Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana and Suriname

Police and prosecutors from Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana and Suriname have arrested nearly 200 people in their first joint cross-border operation targeting illegal gold mining in the Amazon region, authorities said.

The operation was backed by Interpol, the EU and Dutch police specialising in environmental crime. It involved more than 24,500 checks on vehicles and people across remote border areas and led to the seizure of cash, unprocessed gold, mercury, firearms, drugs and mining equipment, Interpol said.

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The first landslide hit a house in the community of Welcome Bay on New Zealand’s North Island at 4:50am on Thursday, police say

Landslides hit a house and a campground in New Zealand on Thursday, leaving at least two dead while emergency crews were trying to rescue others buried in rubble, officials said.

The first hit a house in the community of Welcome Bay on New Zealand’s North Island at 4:50am, police said. Two people escaped the house, and the bodies of two who were trapped inside were recovered hours later, the emergency management minister, Mark Mitchell, said.

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Reporters Without Borders said the ruling against the 26-year-old journalist showed a ‘blatant disregard for press freedom’ in the Southeast Asian nation

A young Filipino journalist who spent nearly six years in a crowded provincial prison was found guilty of terror financing on Thursday, in a case rights groups and a UN rapporteur labelled a “travesty of justice”.

Community journalist and radio broadcaster Frenchie Cumpio, 26, and former roommate Marielle Domequil broke down in tears and hugged each other as the guilty verdict was read and they were sentenced to 12-18 years in prison by judge Georgina Uy Perez of the Tacloban regional court.

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Chow Hang-tung, Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho, who led Tiananmen Square vigils, are accused of inciting subversion

The national security trial of three pro-democracy activists who organised an annual memorial in Hong Kong to mark the Tiananmen Square massacre opened on Thursday, in another landmark case brought under the Beijing-imposed law that has practically crushed protests in the semiautonomous Chinese city.

Chow Hang-tung, Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho are charged with inciting subversion under Hong Kong’s national security law. Their trial is one of the most high-profile national security cases to be heard in Hong Kong since Beijing imposed the law in 2020. The defendants face a maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment if convicted. The law has a near-100% conviction rate.

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Archaeologists say stencil painted with ochre in limestone cave on Muna Island was created at least 67,800 years ago

The faded outline of a hand on a cave wall in Indonesia may be the world’s oldest known rock art, according to archaeologists who say it was created at least 67,800 years ago.

The ancient hand stencil was discovered in a limestone cave popular with tourists on Muna Island, part of south-eastern Sulawesi, where it had gone unnoticed between more recent paintings of animals and other figures.

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Han Duck-soo verdict marks first judicial ruling stemming from ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol’s 2024 martial law decree

South Korea’s former prime minister Han Duck-soo has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for his role in an insurrection stemming from the former president Yoon Suk Yeol’s failed martial law declaration.

The judge, Lee Jin-kwan, ordered Han’s immediate detention.

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Opposition leader Sussan Ley said conversations between the factions of the Coalition are “still open” this morning as she seeks to maintain her grip on the opposition.

Ley said during an interview this morning:

The door between a coalition, between our two parties, from my point of view, is still open. But I’m not looking at that door.

I’m looking at the Australian people because they’re counting on us to deliver for them.

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Two women and a man have died after an alleged shooting at Lake Cargelligo as police urge locals to stay inside

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Four people have been shot – three fatally – and an alleged gunman is on the run in New South Wales’s central western region.

NSW police were called to Bokhara Street in Lake Cargelligo, about 240km south-west of Dubbo, at 4.20pm on Thursday and found two people suffering gun wounds.

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Research for first time suggests tendon and bones in heavier species would have made bounding possible

Giant 250kg kangaroos that once roamed Australia would probably have been able to hop despite their enormous size, researchers have said.

While modern kangaroos are known for their ability to travel large distances by jumping with both hind legs at the same time, it has long been debated whether their extinct relatives would have been so springy.

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Researcher points to ‘medicalisation of masculinity’ after investigating how men’s health is being monetised online

“If you’re not waking up in the morning with a boner, there’s a large possibility that you have low testosterone levels,” an influencer on TikTok with more than 100,000 followers warns his viewers.

Despite screening for low testosterone being medically unwarranted in most young men, this group is being aggressively targeted online by influencers and wellness companies promoting hormone tests and treatments as essential to being a “real man”, a study published in the journal Social Science and Medicine has found.

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Extreme heat ‘is getting worse and whether we like it or not … there’s ultimately a limit to what we can actually physically cope with,’ scientist says

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Human-caused global heating made the intense heatwave that affected much of Australia in early January five times more likely, new analysis suggests.

The heatwave earlier this month was the most severe since the 2019-20 black summer, with temperatures over 40C in Melbourne and Sydney, even hotter conditions in regional Victoria and New South Wales and extreme heat also affecting Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania.

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EU meeting in Brussels is aimed at discussing volatile situation with US in wake of Trump’s recent moves around Greenland

Zelenskyy’s speech looks to be slightly late, as Indonesia’s president Prabowo Subianto is still speaking.

Don’t worry: I’m keeping an eye on this for you.

“Hardly any details are known yet about the proposed Greenland deal. But we need them in order to decide how to proceed with the implementation of the EU-US trade deal. @EP_Trade will revisit the issue on Monday and discuss the way forward.”

“However there is no room for false security. The next threat is sure to come. That’s why it is even more important that we set clear boundaries use all available legal instruments&apply them as appropriate to the situation. We must continue to act with this level of confidence.”

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Comments came at emergency EU meeting called after weeks of escalating threats from Donald Trump to annex Greenland

Transatlantic relations have “taken a big blow over the last week” the EU’s foreign policy chief said, as leaders from the bloc gathered for an emergency summit after weeks of escalating threats from Donald Trump over Greenland that were suddenly rescinded with a vague deal on Arctic security.

Summing up the mood, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said the EU was living through a lot of unpredictability: “One day, one way; the other day, again, everything could change.”

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Ukraine president accuses EU leaders of waiting for direction from Donald Trump in blistering speech at Davos

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has taken aim at Europe in a fiery speech at Davos, accusing leaders of being in “Greenland mode” as they waited for leadership from Donald Trump on Ukraine and other geopolitical crises rather than taking action themselves.

The Ukrainian president’s call to arms, targeting some of Kyiv’s top allies, capped a week of extraordinary diplomatic drama at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort, where European leaders scrambled to end a standoff with the White House over Greenland, and several western leaders – led by Canada’s Mark Carney – called for stronger pushback against Trump’s territorial ambitions and political whims.

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Island’s PM says sovereignty is non-negotiable after Trump claimed agreement would give US full access with ‘no end, no time limit’

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Greenland has demanded its red lines on sovereignty be respected after Donald Trump claimed an agreement with Nato would give the US full and permanent access to the Arctic island, the object of an increasingly bitter months-long dispute.

Jens-Frederik Nielsen, Greenland’s prime minister, said on Thursday he did not know what was in the deal but the largely self-governing territory wanted a “peaceful dialogue” with the US, and its sovereignty was non-negotiable.

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Emmanuel Macron says the oil tanker was boarded and searched ‘subject to international sanctions’

The French navy has intercepted a Russian tanker in the Mediterranean suspected to be part of the “shadow fleet” that enables Russia to export oil despite sanctions.

“This morning, the French navy boarded and searched an oil tanker from Russia, subject to international sanctions and suspected of flying a false flag,” President Emmanuel Macron said on X.

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Blueprint presented by Jared Kushner shows unified Gaza run by Palestinians, with Rafah crossing to open next week

Amid the hullabaloo and self-congratulation of Donald Trump’s “board of peace” launch in Davos, his administration laid out specific plans for the short- and long-term future of Gaza, aimed at a lasting peace.

The blueprint set out on Thursday was extremely ambitious. It envisages a unified Palestinian-run Gaza, which represents a rebuff to the aims of Israeli extremists, including some in the governing coalition, who have sought the deportation of Gaza’s population and the building of Israeli settlements in its place.

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Foreign secretary says Britain supports president’s Gaza plan but there are concerns around involvement of Putin

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Britain will not join Donald Trump’s “board of peace” on Thursday, Yvette Cooper has said, citing concerns about Russian involvement.

The foreign secretary said the UK strongly supported the US president’s 20-point plan for Gaza, which he is seeking to draw attention to at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

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US president holds signing ceremony at World Economic Forum amid concerns new body seeks to replace UN

Donald Trump has claimed the world is “richer, safer and much more peaceful than it was just one year ago” as he hosted a launch event for his “board of peace” initiative at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

At a signing ceremony for the new organisation, the US president said it would be “one of the most consequential bodies ever created in the history of the world”.

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High court ruling marks first time a foreign state has been held liable for domestic servitude by its envoy on UK soil

The United Arab Emirates must pay more than £260,000 to a victim of human trafficking who was exploited by one of its diplomats in London, the high court has ruled.

Lawyers representing the woman said it was unprecedented for a court to order a foreign state to pay for domestic servitude by a diplomat on UK soil.

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Researchers find with high confidence that security officials used Cellebrite to extract data from activists’ phones

Authorities in Jordan appear to be using an Israeli digital tool to extract information from the mobile phones of activists and protesters who have been critical of Israel and spoken out in support of Gaza, according to a new report by the Citizen Lab.

A multiyear investigation found with high confidence that Jordanian security authorities have been using forensic extraction tools made by Cellebrite against members of civil society, including two political activists, a student organizer, and a human rights defender, the researchers said.

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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.

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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.

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Police ask Paramjeet Singh Pamma to install security cameras and reinforce door locks at his home

Police have advised a high-profile Sikh activist in the UK to install security cameras at his home and reinforce door locks because of threats from Hindu nationalist elements.

Paramjeet Singh Pamma, 52, said he had been visited by police and received verbal advice to increase his security due to intelligence suggesting threats to his safety.

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UN and many western countries as well as human rights groups say that in the absence of a meaningful opposition the election is neither free, fair nor credible

Voters in war-torn Myanmar queued up on Sunday to cast their ballots in the second stage of a military-run election, following low turnout in the initial round of polls that have been widely criticised as a tool to formalise junta rule.

Myanmar has been ravaged by conflict since the military ousted a civilian government in a 2021 coup and detained its leader, Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking a civil war that has engulfed large parts of the impoverished nation of 51 million people.

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Satat Sampada founders Harjeet Singh and Jyoti Awasthi say allegations are ‘baseless, biased and misleading’

Police have raided the home of one of India’s leading environmental activists over claims his campaigning for a treaty to cut the use of fossil fuels was undermining the national interest.

Investigators from India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) claim Harjeet Singh and his wife, Jyoti Awasthi, co-founders of Satat Sampada (Nature Forever), were paid almost £500,000 to advocate for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty (FFNPT).

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Speculation has spread over whether Burnham will attempt to return to pursue a Labour leadership bid

Keir Starmer’s allies have launched a “Stop Andy Burnham” campaign to prevent the Labour mayor from returning to parliament after the resignation of a Manchester MP triggered a byelection.

Multiple members of the party’s ruling national executive committee (NEC) predicted it would be impossible for Burnham to make it through the selection process given the number of Starmer loyalists on the body desperate to avoid a leadership challenge.

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Campaigners hail U-turn during legal challenge over proposed centre an ‘embarrassing climbdown’

The government has been forced to admit its own planning approval for a major AI datacentre should be quashed after it failed to fully consider the climate impact, in what campaigners described as “an embarrassing climbdown”.

Angela Rayner, the former deputy prime minister, had overruled opposition from a local council to grant permission for a hyperscale datacentre on greenbelt land by the M25 in Buckinghamshire in line with Labour’s pledge to enable faster private investment in AI. But her successor, Steve Reed, has admitted the reasons for not requiring an environmental impact assessment were “inadequate” and that “permission should be quashed”.

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Minister says use of former army barracks at Crowborough is part of plan to move people out of hotels

A first group of asylum seekers has been moved into a former military camp in East Sussex, the Home Office has said, amid expectations of further protests and legal challenges.

Crowborough training camp received 27 men in the early hours of Thursday morning, a statement said, which will be scaled up to 500 over several months.

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Celebrity chef warns UK government’s plans for higher business rates from April ‘simply will not work’

The celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has accused the government of cooking up a kitchen nightmare at restaurants across the country with tax changes that he says will make hospitality businesses “lambs to the slaughter”.

Ramsay, whose company operates 34 restaurants in the UK including Bread Street Kitchen, Pétrus and Lucky Cat, said the industry was “facing a bloodbath”. He said restaurants were closing every day as a result of rising business rates, which came on top of higher energy, staffing and ingredient costs and little growth in consumer spending.

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Met says allowing protest would risk serious disorder, including from local people

Far-right Ukip supporters will be stopped from marching through Tower Hamlets for fear of serious violence, including from local people, Scotland Yard has said.

The Metropolitan police said it was not a ban, as the march on 31 January calling for mass deportations could take place in another part of London.

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Storm expected to hit from south Rockies and plains into mid-south on Friday before spreading east

A powerful winter storm is set to sweep across much of the US this weekend, bringing potentially record-breaking cold, heavy snow and ice that forecasters warn could cause hazardous conditions, power outages and travel disruptions.

The storm is expected to bring “widespread heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain” from the southern Rockies and the plains into the mid-south on Friday, before spreading east to the mid-Atlantic and New England areas this weekend, according to the US National Weather Service. The impact in New England will potentially linger into Monday.

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Appeal was raised on behalf of the boy’s mother to pay for the legal costs of seeking Liam and her husband’s release

A fundraiser for the family of a five-year-old Minneapolis boy seized by immigration officers and transported with his father to a detention center in Texas raised more than $110,000 on Thursday.

The appeal, “Help Bring 5-Year-Old Liam Home”, was set up by a person named Sarai Orquiz, who said she was asked by the mother of preschooler Liam Ramos to create the fundraiser on her behalf to pay for the legal costs of seeking his release from custody.

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Former special counsel also tells House he does not understand Trump’s pardons for January 6 rioters

• Jack Smith testifies evidence showed Trump crimes in 2020 election effort

The committee is taking a recess for members to vote on the House floor. A reminder that today we’re expecting a vote on Department of Homeland Security funding bill that dozens of Democrats have vowed to vote against.

The top Democrat on the House judiciary committee, Jamie Raskin, praised Jack Smith’s handling of his investigations into the president. Raskin also noted the persistent denigration by Donald Trump as Smith conducted the probes.

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Guardian analysis shows images are the same, with Nekima Levy Armstrong looking composed in original but sobbing after alteration

The White House posted a digitally altered image of a woman who was arrested on Thursday in a case touted by attorney general Pam Bondi, to make it seem as if she was dramatically crying, a Guardian analysis of the image has found.

The woman, Nekima Levy Armstrong, also appears to have darker skin in the altered image. Armstrong was one of three people arrested on Thursday in connection to a demonstration that disrupted church services in St Paul, Minnesota, on Sunday. Demonstrators alleged that one of the pastors, David Easterwood, was the acting field director of the St Paul ICE office. Bondi announced the arrests on social media Thursday morning.

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Vice-president says ‘number one thing’ that would lower the temperature would be for officials to help facilitate ‘reasonable enforcement of law’

JD Vance on Thursday put the onus on local officials to “turn down the temperature” in Minneapolis, where federal immigration agents in recent days have detained a five-year-old child with his father and gassed protesters throughout the city.

Flanked by federal law enforcement, the US vice-president said he spoke with immigration agents and local business leaders ahead of talking to the press, but he had not spoken with the state’s governor, Tim Walz. He said local officials could be helping ICE identify and arrest violent criminals so that the operation could be more targeted.

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