World news | The Guardian

Exclusive: Analyst claims UK officials deleted alert to threat of genocidal violence by paramilitaries to protect UAE

Warnings of a possible “genocide” in Sudan were removed from a UK risk assessment by Foreign Office officials, according to a whistleblower whose testimony raises fresh concern over British failures to act on the atrocities unfolding in the war-ravaged country.

The threat analyst said they were prevented from warning that genocide could occur in Darfur by Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) officials in a humanitarian risk assessment collated days after Sudan’s brutal civil war erupted in April 2023.

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US president’s xenophobic rant comes amid reports of ramped-up deportation efforts in Ilhan Omar’s district

Donald Trump on Tuesday called Somali immigrants “garbage” and said they should be sent back home in a rant that came as the administration is reportedly increasing immigration enforcement against undocumented Somalis in Minnesota.

In a xenophobic rant during a cabinet meeting, Trump went off on Somalis and Ilhan Omar, the congressional representative who is from Somalia and is a US citizen. He said Somalia “stinks” and is “no good for a reason”.

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Suspects arrested after tipoff over accusation that 17 South Africans were tricked on to frontlines of the conflict

Five South Africans have appeared in court on charges relating to recruitment and fighting for Russia in its war with Ukraine, amid allegations that 17 South Africans had been tricked on to the frontlines of the conflict.

A female suspect was arrested on Thursday on her return to South Africa at OR Tambo international airport outside Johannesburg, police said. Three suspects were arrested at the airport on Friday and another on Saturday.

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Reports highlight devastating impact of slashed funding, especially in parts of Africa, that could lead to 3.3m new HIV infections by 2030

In Mozambique, a teenage rape victim sought care at a health clinic only to find it closed. In Zimbabwe, Aids-related deaths have risen for the first time in five years. In Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), patients with suspected HIV went undiagnosed due to test-kit stocks running out.

Stories of the devastating impact of US, British and wider European aid cuts on the fight against HIV – particularly in sub-Saharan Africa – continue to mount as 2025 comes to an end, and are set out in a series of reports released in the past week.

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Algerian foreign minister says African countries and peoples continue to pay a heavy price for colonialism

African leaders are pushing to have colonial-era crimes recognised, criminalised and addressed through reparations.

At a conference in the Algerian capital, Algiers, diplomats and leaders convened to advance an African Union resolution passed at a meeting earlier this year calling for justice and reparations for victims of colonialism.

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Gustavo Petro responded to intimations by US president of military strikes on Colombian soil to fight drug trafficking

Colombia’s president has warned Donald Trump that he risked “waking the jaguar” after the US leader suggested that any country he believed was making illegal drugs destined for the US was liable to a military attack.

During a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the US president said that military strikes on land targets inside Venezuela would “start very soon”. Trump also warned that any country producing narcotics was a potential target, singling out Colombia, which has long been a close ally in Washington’s “war on drugs”.

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Defense secretary says he ‘moved on to my next meeting’ as sensitive military operation was under way; top Democrat calls Hegseth ‘spineless’ and ‘a national embarrassment’. This blog is now closed.

• White House ‘selling out’ admiral to shield Hegseth over strikes, officials say

• Trump threatens strikes on any country he claims makes drugs for US

Joseph Gedeon is a politics breaking news reporter based in Washington

The FBI director, Kash Patel, is “in over his head” and leading a “chronically under-performing” agency paralyzed by fear and plummeting morale, according to a scathing 115-page report compiled by a national alliance of retired and active-duty FBI special agents and analysts.

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Release of convicted cocaine trafficker Juan Orlando Hernández is latest US interference in election and comes despite Trump’s apparent ‘war on drugs’

• Analysis: Trump’s pardon of Honduras’s ex-president shows counter-drug effort is ‘based on lies and hypocrisy’

A former president of Honduras who was convicted of drug trafficking has walked free from a US prison after receiving a pardon from Donald Trump, as the country’s presidential election remained on a knife edge with the US-backed candidate leading by 515 votes.

Juan Orlando Hernández, who was sentenced to 45 years in prison for allegedly creating “a cocaine superhighway to the United States”, was released from a West Virginia prison after Trump’s intervention, Hernández’s wife confirmed on Tuesday.

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US defense secretary posted meme depicting beloved children’s character aiming rocket launcher at set of boats

• Pete Hegseth told US soldiers in Iraq to ignore legal advice on rules of engagement

A post on social media by US defense secretary Pete Hegseth, depicting a beloved children’s character aiming a rocket launcher at a cluster of boats, has elicited condemnation from the book’s Canadian publisher.

Hegseth’s post of the mocked cover of a Franklin the Turtle book titled Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists prompted disbelief and outrage. The image shows a smiling anthropomorphic turtle in military helmet and vest, with a US flag on his arm and a drug-laden boat exploding in the background. “For your Christmas wish list,” Hegseth wrote as the caption.

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Polluting facilities in Monterrey, which has close ties to the US, are pumping toxic heavy metals into the city’s air and threatening residents’ health

• Leer en español en Quinto Elemento Lab

An industrial boom in a US manufacturing hub in Mexico is contributing to a massive air pollution crisis that is threatening residents’ health, according to new research by the Guardian and Quinto Elemento Lab.

The polluting facilities in Monterrey include factories that are operated by companies from around the world – including the US, Europe, Asia and Mexico – but export largely to the US.

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Questions raised about permanency of 76-year-old’s appointment and ‘leadership stability at critical juncture for bank’

• Business live – latest updates

HSBC has appointed the former KPMG partner Brendan Nelson as its chair after a prolonged search process that left one of the world’s biggest banks without a permanent executive in the top role for months.

The decision to appoint Nelson, who has been serving as interim chair, came as a surprise, after a protracted hunt for a permanent successor for Mark Tucker which involved courting external candidates including the former chancellor George Osborne and the head of Goldman Sachs’s Asia-Pacific division, Kevin Sneader.

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ReSourceEU project aims to de-risk and diversify supply chains for critical rare earth metals and elements

• Business live – latest updates

The EU has unveiled a €3bn (£2.63bn) strategy to reduce its dependency on China for critical raw materials amid a global scramble triggered by Beijing’s “weaponisation” of supplies of everything from chips to rare earths.

The ReSourceEU programme will seek to de-risk and diversify the bloc’s supply chains for key commodities with a funding initiative to support 25-30 strategic projects in the sector.

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Malaysian transport ministry says robotics company Ocean Infinity will restart search operation on 30 December

The search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will resume this month, the Malaysian transport ministry has said, more than a decade after the plane disappeared in one of aviation’s greatest mysteries.

In a statement on Wednesday, the transport ministry confirmed that the marine robotics company Ocean Infinity, based in the UK and US, would resume a search of the seabed from 30 December, over a period of 55 days, with operations conducted intermittently.

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New date to approve site near Tower Bridge in London aligns with Keir Starmer’s planned visit to Beijing

The government has delayed its decision on whether to approve China’s super-embassy in London until January, when Keir Starmer is expected to visit Beijing.

Ministers are expected to greenlight the controversial plans after formal submissions by the Home Office and Foreign Office raised no objections on security grounds.

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Report says ‘systemic failures’ led to collapse of trial, but found no evidence of UK government interference

Parliament’s security committee has criticised prosecutors for pulling their charges against two men accused of spying for Beijing, in a damning report that concluded the handling of the case was “shambolic”.

MPs said that a process “beset by confusion and misaligned expectations” and “inadequate” communication between the government and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had contributed to the collapse of the trial, while several “opportunities to correct course were missed”.

It was “unclear” why the CPS had concluded that a July 2024 ruling concerning a Bulgarian spy ring “altered the legal landscape so significantly” that they had to change their approach.

It was “surprised” the CPS had deemed the government’s evidence insufficient to put to a jury when it had set out how China “posed a range of threats to the United Kingdom’s national security” that “amounted to a more general active threat”.

The government “did not have sufficiently clear processes for escalating issues where there was a lack of clarity” and “the level of senior oversight” from cabinet ministers and national security advisers “was insufficiently robust”.

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Acclaimed author ‘sick about’ 171-year-old institution’s proposed restructure as hundreds of writers sign open letter in protest

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Helen Garner says the State Library of Victoria has been turned into “party central” and a plan to cut jobs and focus on digital projects will “bring disgrace on the name of our city”, as hundreds of writers express alarm.

Garner has joined more than 220 writers, scholars and researchers in signing an open letter to the library’s board and executive calling for more public accountability, after plans to cut staff and refocus the 171-year-old institution on tourist-oriented digital experiences came to light.

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Global arm of Alliance Defending Freedom, which advances ‘a Christian view’ of sexuality, supports proposed legal action over classroom material

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A powerful global organisation accused of peddling anti-gay hate has thrown its support behind a South Australian woman who says her daughter was exposed to inappropriate sexual content at school.

ADF International is the global arm of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which is based in the US. It describes itself as a global alliance focused on the sanctity of life, religious freedom, freedom of speech, marriage, family and parental rights that “advances the God-given right to live and speak the truth”.

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Andrew McLachlan has condemned the ‘inflammatory and irresponsible’ language being used in the Coalition’s debate over immigration levels

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A Liberal senator has condemned the “inflammatory and irresponsible” language being deployed in the debate over immigration levels, challenging colleagues to approach the policy in a “respectful and honest way” or risk backlash from voters.

The South Australian backbencher Andrew McLachlan said the repeated use of the phrase “mass” migration to describe the rate of immigration was not only “technically inaccurate” but “extremely unhelpful”.

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Sweeping changes to the way National Disability Insurance Scheme support plans are generated criticised amid fears they amount to ‘robo-planning’

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Advocates have criticised sweeping changes to the way National Disability Insurance Scheme support plans will be generated as “robo-planning” that risks the lives of NDIS participants, and have called on the government to rethink the changes.

Guardian Australia revealed this week that under a major overhaul of the NDIS to be rolled out next year, funding and support plans for participants will be generated by a computer program and staff will have no discretion to amend them, dramatically reducing human involvement in the process.

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Massive cloud over Tanami desert in Northern Territory reminiscent of Uluru, onlookers say

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Lachlan Marchant and his colleagues were driving their golf buggies back to their shed when they saw the earth sweeping towards them.

“It reminded us of Uluru, the sheer size and width of this thing,” Marchant said. “It was just rolling at us.”

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Mark Rutte’s response comes after Vladimir Putin’s comment that Russia was ‘ready’ for war with Europe

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is now briefing the media after the commission’s weekly meeting, presenting the bloc’s plan to help fund Ukraine’s continuing fight against Russia.

I will bring you the key lines here.

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Moscow is demanding Kyiv accept its ‘annexation’ of areas it occupies. After the latest round of talks between envoys of Putin and Trump ended without progress, we look at the territory Russia is seeking to absorb

Sources: Center for Strategic and International Studies, Institute for the Study of War, Yale Humanitarian Research Lab Ukraine Conflict Observatory, OpenStreetMap. Picture credits: Invasion trucks – Gettty; Sevastopol – Reuters; Yalta – Dennis Cox / Alamy; Donetsk steelworks – Alexander Ermochenko / Reuters.

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Option of EU loan based on common borrowing also proposed in concession to concerns raised by Belgium

• Europe live – latest updates

The European Commission will move ahead with a controversial proposal to fund Ukraine with a loan based on Russia’s frozen assets, it has announced.

But in a concession to concerns raised by Belgium, which hosts most of the assets, the EU executive has also proposed another option: an EU loan based on common borrowing.

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Pontiff says Italy specifically could play role of mediator in talks between Russia, US and Ukraine

Pope Leo has stressed the importance of Europe’s involvement in US efforts to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, while suggesting that Italy specifically could play the role of mediator.

Russia and the US failed to make progress towards a peace deal for Ukraine during talks on Tuesday, with Vladimir Putin accusing Europe of “preventing the US administration from achieving peace on Ukraine”.

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Prosecutors say two others also indicted in investigation into funding for school training young diplomats

• Europe live – latest updates

The EU’s former chief diplomat Federica Mogherini and two other people have been formally accused of fraud and corruption, the European prosecutor’s office has said.

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) did not refer to Mogherini by name, but said the rector of the College of Europe in Bruges – her role – had been formally notified of the accusations. A senior staff member of the college and a senior official from the European Commission were also indicted, the EPPO said, after all three were questioned by Belgian police.

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Group including Margaret Atwood, Ian McKellen and Richard Branson sign open letter to free Marwan Barghouti

More than 200 leading cultural figures have come together to call for the release of Marwan Barghouti, the jailed Palestinian leader seen as capable of uniting factions and bringing the best hope to the stalled mission of creating a Palestinian state.

The prestigious and diverse group calling for his release in an open letter includes a variety of prominent names, including the writers Margaret Atwood, Philip Pullman, Zadie Smith and Annie Ernaux; actors Sir Ian McKellen, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tilda Swinton, Josh O’Connor and Mark Ruffalo, and the broadcaster and former footballer Gary Lineker.

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Iranian film-maker won Cannes film festival’s Palme D’Or prize earlier this year for It Was Just an Accident

Iran has sentenced the Palme d’Or-winning film-maker Jafar Panahi in absentia to one year in prison and a travel ban over “propaganda activities” against the country.

The sentence includes a two-year ban on leaving Iran and prohibition of Panahi from membership of any political or social groups, his lawyer Mostafa Nili said, adding that they would file an appeal.

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Group beaten in early hours of morning in village where they volunteered to help protect Palestinians from settler violence

Italy and Canada have raised concerns about the treatment of their citizens who were beaten and robbed by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.

Three Italians and a Canadian were attacked early on Sunday morning in the village of Ein al-Duyuk, near Jericho, where they had volunteered to help protect the Palestinian population from intensifying settler violence.

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Meanwhile, Iran grapples with one of worst droughts and temperatures fall 10C below normal in US

More heavy rainfall is expected in Sri Lanka in the coming days, likely resulting in further damage across the country. It comes after torrential rainfall in south-east Asia triggered catastrophic flash floods and landslides that have affected millions, killing more than 300 people in Indonesia and 160 in Thailand, with hundreds more still missing.

Parts of North Sumatra, Indonesia, were hit with rainfall totals of 800mm over four days, with other areas also experiencing heavy rainfall.

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Residents in Batn al-Hawa have all but given up hope and blame the Gaza war which, they say, has created ‘an atmosphere of hate’ towards them

The dome of the al-Aqsa mosque gleamed in the late afternoon autumnal sun as Zohair Rajabi looked out from his balcony towards the skyline of Jerusalem’s Old City. Christian pilgrims spilled out of buses, while observant Jewish worshippers gathered outside the gate to the Western Wall.

New flags now fly a few metres from Rajabi’s home. Blue and white and bearing the Star of David, they mark where residents were evicted recently from their homes by Israeli police. After more than 20 years of activism, Rajabi knows his days in Batn al-Hawa, a predominantly Palestinian neighbourhood less than a mile south of the Old City, are almost certainly numbered.

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Apple among big tech companies reportedly refusing to install Sanchar Saathi cybersecurity app on their devices

A political outcry has erupted in India after the government mandated large technology companies to install a state-owned app on smartphones that has led to surveillance fears among opposition MPs and activists.

Manufacturers including Apple, Samsung and Xiomi have 90 days to comply with the order to preload the government’s Sanchar Saathi, or Communication Partner, on every phone in India.

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Many uncertain about the future after losing everything in the country’s deadliest natural disaster for years

When the rains began, Layani Rasika Niroshani was not worried. The 36-year-old mother of two was used to the heavy monsoon showers that drench Sri Lanka’s hilly central region of Badulla every year. But as it kept pounding down without stopping, the family started to feel jittery.

Some relocated to a relative’s house, but her brother and his wife decided to stay behind to collect the valuables. As they were inside, a landslide hit the family home.

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Critics voice concern as government says its Sanchar Saathi app combats cybersecurity threats for 1.2bn telecom users

India’s telecoms ministry has privately asked smartphone makers to preload all new devices with a state-owned cybersecurity app that cannot be deleted, a government order showed, a move likely to antagonise Apple and privacy advocates.

In tackling a recent surge of cybercrime and hacking, India is joining authorities worldwide, most recently in Russia, to frame rules blocking the use of stolen phones for fraud or promoting state-backed government service apps.

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Millions of people affected by torrential rainfall in Sri Lanka and large parts of Indonesia’s Sumatra, southern Thailand and northern Malaysia

• How cyclones and monsoon rains combined to devastate parts of Asia – visual guide

Sri Lanka and Indonesia have deployed military personnel as they race to help victims of devastating flooding that has killed more than 1,100 people across four countries in Asia.

Millions of people have been affected by a combination of tropical cyclones and heavy monsoon rains in Sri Lanka, parts of Indonesia’s Sumatra, Thailand and Malaysia in recent days.

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MP for Hampstead and Highgate in London denies allegations and condemns ‘flawed and farcical’ trial

• What led to Bangladesh trial of Tulip Siddiq in her absence?

A court in Bangladesh has sentenced the British MP Tulip Siddiq to two years in jail after a judge ruled she was complicit in corrupt land deals with her aunt, the country’s deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

In a ruling on Monday, a judge found Siddiq, the Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate, guilty of misusing her “special influence” as a British politician to coerce Hasina into giving valuable pieces of land to her mother, brother and sister.

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PM responds to report that Nigel Farage told donors he expects Reform could do an election deal with the Conservatives

This is from Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, on Nigel Farage’s denial of the FT story. (See 9.33am.)

A handy reminder that in 2019 Farage did a deal to put Boris Johnson in No10 and push through his disastrous Brexit deal.

But instead of taking responsibility, of course Farage plays the victim.

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Ministers accept watchdog’s recommendations on how to help people avoid spending more on formula than needed

The government has agreed to implement a plan intended to reduce the cost of buying baby formula, Keir Starmer has said.

The announcement comes ahead of the release of the government’s child poverty strategy later in the week and follows the removal of the two-child limit for benefits in last week’s budget, a move Starmer referred to several times during PMQs on Wednesday.

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Anne Owers highlights ‘failings and omissions’ after fatal crash in August 2019, after which Anne Sacoolas flew to US

The Foreign Office failed to treat the Harry Dunn case as a crisis and lost “opportunities to influence” the US after diplomatic immunity was asserted on behalf of the suspect, an independent review has concluded.

David Lammy officially launched the review into the case in July, when he was foreign secretary. The report’s author, Dame Anne Owers, highlighted “failings and omissions” in the department when dealing with Harry’s death in August 2019.

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Debt-ridden utility company warns of ‘material uncertainty’ despite seeing profits rise to more than £400m

Thames Water has said crisis talks to secure its future with lenders are taking “longer than expected” and will drag into 2026 as it faces the prospect of a collapse into government control.

Britain’s biggest water company on Wednesday said it had swung to a profit of £414m for the six months to September helped by bills rising by nearly a third, after losing £149m in the same period in 2024.

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Vincent Chan, 45, pleads guilty to 26 offences from 2022 to 2024 including attacks on four young girls

• Warning: this article contains descriptions of offences readers may find distressing

A man passed vetting to get a job at a London nursery where he sexually assaulted toddlers, some during their nap time, while they were in his care.

Vincent Chan, 45, who worked at a north London branch of the Bright Horizons nursery group, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to 26 offences from 2022 to 2024, including attacks on four young girls whom he sexually assaulted and offences relating to more than 25,000 indecent images of children.

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DHS says it will target ‘criminal illegal aliens roaming free thanks to sanctuary policies’ as it announces action in latest Democratic-run city

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced it had started its immigration enforcement operation in New Orleans today.

In a statement, the department said Operation Catahoula Crunch would target “criminal illegal aliens roaming free thanks to sanctuary policies”. New Orleans is the latest Democratic-run city (albeit in a Republican-led state) to see federal immigration agents on its streets. Most recently, the Trump administration targeted Charlotte, North Carolina, and touted the arrest of more than 300 undocumented immigrants.

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Private employment decreased by 32,000 jobs last month after an upwardly revised 47,000 increase in October

US private payrolls unexpectedly declined in November, the ADP employment report showed on Wednesday.

Private employment decreased by 32,000 jobs last month after an upwardly revised 47,000 increase in October. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast private employment rising by 10,000 jobs after a previously reported 42,000 rebound in October.

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Richard Pazdur’s potential retirement weeks into the role adds to upheaval at the FDA amid political pressure

The top drug regulator in the US signaled on Tuesday he may retire weeks after accepting the position, adding to upheaval in the highest ranks of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

If Richard Pazdur retires, finding a replacement would be challenging amid mounting political pressure and internal conflict at the agency, sources say.

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Renny Martyn revealed in archdiocese bankruptcy proceedings that priest abused her at school when she was six years old

A woman who Big Brother fans might recognize as a contestant on an earlier season of the unscripted television competition has spoken out as a victim of New Orleans’ decades-old Catholic clergy abuse scandal.

Renny Martyn, 71, told her story toward the end of a Tuesday hearing in the federal courthouse where the Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans has been in bankruptcy protection proceedings since 2020 amid the financial fallout of the scandal.

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Store employee found masked bandit sleeping off a bender after invading booze store and tippling a tad too much

A liquor store employee in Virginia was startled on Saturday to discover smashed whisky bottles on the floor of the shop and, upon entering the bathroom, an apparently drunk, sleeping and spread-eagled raccoon.

“He fell through one of the ceiling tiles and went on a full-blown rampage, drinking everything,” Samantha Martin, an local animal control officer, told the Daily Mail.

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