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Despite US pushback, officials in west Africa say controversial hepatitis B study on pause amid ethics concerns

US health officials insisted it was still on. African health leaders said it was cancelled. At the heart of the controversy is the west African nation of Guinea-Bissau – one of the poorest countries in the world and the proposed site of a hotly debated US-funded study on vaccines.

The study on hepatitis B vaccination, to be led by Danish researchers, became a flashpoint after major changes to the US vaccination schedule and prompted questions about how research is conducted ethically in other countries.

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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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President also claims US refineries will process seized Venezuelan oil, saying ‘we take the oil’

Donald Trump on Saturday said he would impose a 100% tariff on all Canadian imports if the North American country makes a trade deal with China.

Beside that tariff threat, another Trump foreign policy maneuver to make news on Saturday involved the president announcing the US had taken the oil that was on recently seized Venezuelan tankers.

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Court says alleged abuse and trafficking offences occurred outside Spain, leaving it without jurisdiction

Spanish prosecutors have shelved a complaint brought by two women who have accused the singer Julio Iglesias of sexual assault and human trafficking, arguing the country’s courts have no jurisdiction as the alleged offences took place outside Spain.

Two female former employees who worked at Iglesias’s Caribbean mansions 10 days ago accused the veteran entertainer of sexual assault, saying they had been subjected “to inappropriate touching, insults and humiliation … in an atmosphere of control and constant harassment”.

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Ryan Wedding turned himself in at US consulate in Mexico City and is due to appear in court in California on Monday

Ryan Wedding, the Canadian Olympic snowboarder turned alleged drug kingpin, has been arrested after turning himself in at the US embassy in Mexico, law enforcement officials announced on Friday.

Wedding, 44, had been sought by the FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) for his role in overseeing what the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, called the “one of the most prolific and violent drug-trafficking organizations” in the world.

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Interim leader Delcy Rodríguez told influencers of US threat to kill leaders if they did not cooperate after capture of Maduro

The communications minister holds a phone up to a microphone before a gathering of regime-friendly influencers.

On speakerphone is Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, who claims that when US forces captured the dictator Nicolás Maduro, she and other members of his cabinet were given 15 minutes to decide whether to comply with Washington’s demands – “or they would kill us”.

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While leaders of many liberal democracies declined to sign on, Mark Carney had, before Davos, accepted in principle

Donald Trump withdrew on Thursday an invitation for Canada to join his “board of peace” initiative aimed at resolving global conflicts.

“Please let this Letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you regarding Canada’s joining, what will be, the most prestigious Board of Leaders ever assembled, at any time,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post directed at the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney.

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US policy document suggests South Korea take primary responsibility, as Pentagon prioritises defending US homeland

The Pentagon foresees a “more limited” role in deterring North Korea, with South Korea taking primary responsibility for the task, a Pentagon policy document released on Friday said, in a move likely to raise concern in Seoul.

South Korea hosts about 28,500 US troops in combined defence against North Korea’s military threat and Seoul has raised its defence budget by 7.5% for this year.

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Rescue efforts at Mount Maunganui site switch to recovery operation that police say could take several days

Efforts to rescue six people buried by a landslide at a New Zealand holiday park ended on Saturday, with police shifting into a recovery operation.

Police Supt Tim Anderson said human remains had been uncovered on Friday night beneath the mountains of dirt and debris that crashed into a campsite in Mount Maunganui on Thursday, adding that it could take several days to locate all of the victims due to the unstable ground.

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Conservationists hail the ‘desperately needed’ measures and urge greater protection after up to 11% of endangered Tapanuli orangutans wiped out

The floods and landslides that tore through Indonesia’s fragile Batang Toru ecosystem in November 2024 – killing up to 11% of the world’s Tapanuli orangutan population – prompted widespread scrutiny of the extractive companies operating in the area at the time of the ecological catastrophe.

For weeks, investigators searched for evidence that the companies may have damaged the Batang Toru and Garoga watersheds before the disaster, which washed torrents of mud and logs into villages, claiming the lives of more than 1,100 people.

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Search-and-rescue teams worked through the night at the campground, but there had been no progress in finding missing people, officials say

New Zealand is ‘full of grief”, the prime minister has said, after landslides tore through a house and busy campground, leaving two dead and at least six victims still missing.

Police said emergency crews were still searching for at least six people, including two teenagers, believed missing beneath the debris of a landslide which struck a Mount Maunganui campsite on Thursday morning. Police were attempting to contact another three people. Families enjoying the summer school holiday were among the campers. Recreational vehicles and at least one structure were crushed, images showed.

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Operator says it does not know when the problem at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata province will be solved, after an alarm sounded during start-up

The restart of the world’s largest nuclear power plant was suspended in Japan on Thursday just a day after it went online for the first time in about 14 years, with the operator saying it does not know when the problem will be solved.

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata province had been closed since the 2011 Fukushima disaster, but operations to relaunch it began on Wednesday after it received the final green light from the nuclear regulator.

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Smoke hangs over state as out-of-control fire at Carlisle River near Gellibrand in south-west continues. Follow updates live

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Albanese says cost of living is 2026 focus

Just rounding out the rest of the prime minister’s jam-packed Insiders interview, Albanese reiterated that Australia would give “further consideration” to Donald Trump’s invitation to join the Board of Peace but said it was unclear what the objectives of the board are.

So we’ve had the 5% housing deposit rolling out, being taken advantage of. Three days of guaranteed childcare subsidy began on 6 January. Cheaper medicines, $25, came in on 1 January. 1800 Medicare has been accessed by tens of thousands of Australians. The bulk-billing incentive has led to a massive spike in the number of free doctor visits …

What we have been focused on is dealing with the immediate, but dealing with all of those issues that are so important for Australians as well. And as we go back, school goes back this fortnight, and what that will mean is that the increased fair funding for every school, that begins to kick in as well. So you can walk and chew gum at the same time, as the saying goes, and we’ve been determined to do just that.

We’re seeing them adopt One Nation policies and shift to the right. And the problem here is that what that is doing is legitimising the hard-right policies that One Nation advocate for.

You can’t fight One Nation by being a lighter version of them. Now people like the late Senator Ron Boswell understood that. John Howard understood that when he put One Nation last on how-to-votes. What we saw at the last election was a preference deal between One Nation and the Coalition. We’ve seen them become closer and closer as the Coalition have shifted to the right.

The politics of just identifying grievance and not coming up with solutions is a cul de sac that doesn’t get the country anywhere.

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Police deploy air support to search properties at Mount Hope, about 70km north of Lake Cargelligo, where shootings took place on Thursday

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• Warning: This article contains references to Indigenous Australians who have died

Police say a sighting of Julian Ingram, who is suspected of murdering three people in remote NSW, has been reported about 70km north of where the shootings occurred.

The unconfirmed sighting was made early on Sunday morning at Mount Hope in the NSW central west.

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Career public servant and former chief of staff to Malcolm Turnbull to represent Australia’s interests with Trump administration from April, including progression of Aukus agreement

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The head of the department of defence, Greg Moriarty, will succeed Kevin Rudd as Australia’s ambassador to the United States.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, announced Moriarty’s appointment to the role on Sunday. A former chief of staff to Malcolm Turnbull and former Australian envoy to Iran and Indonesia, he has led the defence department since 2017. He will take up the posting in Washington from April.

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Teachers who attended ‘compulsory’ creationist conference run by US-based fundamentalist group told radiometric dating techniques were flawed

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Teachers employed by a large group of Queensland Christian schools were told to teach creationism in science classes, including that vegetarian baby dinosaurs would have been taken aboard Noah’s Ark.

Last year, the Open Brethren organisation Christian Community Ministries (CCM) hosted a Christian science conference by the US-based fundamentalist group Answers in Genesis, which once built a replica of Noah’s Ark – with model dinosaurs included.

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Exclusive: Experts say AI is likely to create more news deserts, fewer independent voices and threaten the viability of Australian journalism

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Australian journalism is largely “invisible” in AI-generated news summaries from Microsoft Copilot, which overwhelmingly favour US or European media, research by the University of Sydney has found.

Roughly one-fifth of responses to Copilot news prompts feature links to Australian media sources, according to researcher Dr Timothy Koskie from the university’s Centre for AI, Trust and Governance.

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Kyiv says Moscow used 396 drones and missiles in ‘another night of Russian terror’ on second day of talks in UAE

Russia launched a major drone and missile attack targeting Ukraine’s two largest cities, Kyiv and Kharkiv, early on Saturday, as US, Ukrainian and Russian negotiators met in the United Arab Emirates for a second day of tripartite peace talks.

“Peace efforts? Trilateral meeting in the UAE? Diplomacy? For Ukrainians, this was another night of Russian terror,” the country’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said after the latest Russian assault on critical infrastructure.

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Many of those moved into an asylum return centre have held jobs for years and can speak the language

“Sweden did this for us,” said Sofiye*, making a supportive scooping up gesture with her hands. “And then, bam.” She dropped them to the ground.

Sofiye, who has three children, arrived in Sweden from Uzbekistan as an asylum seeker in 2008, and for much of that time she was able to build a life in the Scandinavian country. The family lived in a flat in a Stockholm suburb and Sofiye worked for the municipality in the home help department. She learned Swedish and her children went through the Swedish school system. Her youngest son was born in Sweden and her 18-year-old son, Hamza, who is studying in college to be a technician, doesn’t know life anywhere else.

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India and Europe hope to strike the “mother of all deals” when EU chiefs meet prime minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi next week, as the two economic behemoths seek to forge closer ties, AFP reports.

Facing challenges from China and the United States, India and the European Union have been negotiating a massive free trade pact – and talks, first launched about two decades ago, are nearing the finishing line.

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Shift in relations and unpredictability of Donald Trump make it ‘risky to store so much gold in the US’, say experts

Germany is facing calls to withdraw its billions of euros’ worth of gold from US vaults, spurred on by the shift in transatlantic relations and the unpredictability of Donald Trump.

Germany holds the world’s second biggest national gold reserves after the US, of which approximately €164bn (£122bn) worth – 1,236 tonnes – is stored in New York.

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Preliminary report suggests fracture could have existed before high-speed train derailed in Andalucía

Experts investigating the deadly rail collision in southern Spain, which killed 45 people and left dozens more injured, believe the accident may have happened after one of the trains passed over a damaged section of rail.

The disaster occurred near the Andalucían town of Adamuz on Sunday, when a high-speed train operated by Iryo, a private company, derailed and collided with an oncoming high-speed train operated by the state rail company, Renfe.

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Ceasefire to be extended for one month to allow transfer of suspected Islamic State members from Syria to Iraq

The Syrian government and Kurdish forces agreed to extend a ceasefire on Saturday, according to Syrian diplomatic sources, temporarily staving off a looming war between the two sides in the north-east of the country.

Sources told Agence France-Presse the ceasefire would be extended for “a period of up to one month at most”, citing the need to facilitate the transfer of suspected members of Islamic State from Syria to Iraq.

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US president says ‘we have a lot of ships’ going in that direction and that Washington is watching Iran closely

Donald Trump has said an American “armada” is heading towards the Middle East and that the US is monitoring Iran closely, as activists put the death toll from Tehran’s crackdown on protesters at 5,002.

Speaking on Air Force One as he returned from the World Economic Forum in Davos overnight, he said: “We have a lot of ships going that direction, just in case. I’d rather not see anything happen, but we’re watching them very closely … we have an armada … heading in that direction, and maybe we won’t have to use it.”

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Exclusive: Blueprints describe a ‘case study’ community where residents submit biometric data to gain entry

The United Arab Emirates plans to fund “Gaza’s first planned community” on the ruined outskirts of Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city. Palestinian residents there will have access to basic services like education, healthcare and running water, as long as they submit to biometric data collection and security vetting, according to planning documents and people familiar with the latest round of talks at the US-led Civil Military Coordination Center in Israel.

The planned city would mark the UAE’s first investment in a postwar reconstruction project located in the part of Gaza currently held by Israel. The wealthy Gulf state has contributed more than $1.8bn of humanitarian assistance to Gaza since 7 October 2023, according to UAE state media, making it Gaza’s largest humanitarian donor.

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Judge shelves inquiry into use of Israeli-made software to target ministers’ phones citing chronic lack of cooperation

Spain’s highest criminal court has again shelved its investigation into the use of Israeli-made Pegasus software to target the mobile phones of senior Spanish ministers, including the prime minister, citing a chronic lack of cooperation from the Israeli authorities that has violated “the principle of good faith” between countries.

The investigation began in May 2022 after the Spanish government revealed that the phones of the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, and the defence minister, Margarita Robles, had been infected the previous year with the spyware, which, according to its manufacturers, NSO Group, is available only to state agencies. It was later established that the phones of the interior minister and the agriculture minister had also been targeted.

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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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Third and final phase of voting taking place on Sunday in village just days after military airstrike killed 21 people

Polling stations open on Sunday for the final stage of Myanmar’s three-phase election, a one-sided vote that has been widely derided as a sham, with politicians jailed, the main opposition party banned and conflict raging across parts of the country.

Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing has defended the vote as “free and fair”, presenting it as a return to democracy and stability. The election is happening almost five years after the military seized power in a coup, ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and triggering a fierce conflict. The 80-year-old has been detained since she was ousted, and her party has been banned.

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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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Police said group breached HMP Wormwood Scrubs grounds where Umer Khalid is being held

A group of protesters supporting a Palestine Action prisoner on hunger strike have been arrested after they breached prison grounds, the Metropolitan police has said.

The force said on Saturday evening that it had detained a group of protesters outside HMP Wormwood Scrubs, in west London, and was in the process of making a number of arrests.

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National Police Service will investigate organised crime, terrorism, fraud and online child abuse

The government is setting up a National Police Service – dubbed the “British FBI” – to deal with organised crime, terrorism, fraud and online child abuse in a major change to policing in England and Wales.

The new organisation, which will be announced by the Home Office in a white paper on Monday, means fraud, criminal gang and UK-wide counter terror investigations will no longer be carried out by a combination of existing agencies such as the National Crime Agency and regional organised crime units run by local police forces.

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Greater Manchester mayor has applied to stand for Labour in Gorton and Denton, setting up potential fight for PM’s political future

Keir Starmer’s allies are urging him to block Andy Burnham from running in the Gorton and Denton byelection, after the Greater Manchester mayor declared his intention to stand, setting up a potential fight for the prime minister’s political future.

Burnham said on Saturday he wanted to contest the seat after the sitting MP, Andrew Gwynne, said he intended to stand down.

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Yellow warnings for heavy rain remain in place across parts of Northern Ireland, Scotland and south-west England and Wales

Downpours and high winds are likely to continue after Storm Ingrid wreaked havoc in the south-west and washed away part of a historic pier in Devon, the Met Office said on Saturday.

It has been a wet weekend for many, with yellow weather warnings for heavy rain in place across parts of Northern Ireland, Scotland and south-west England and Wales.

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Starmer loyalists argue Burnham’s return to Westminster would undermine the government, but he has the support of powerful party figures

When Lucy Powell, Labour’s deputy leader and a close ally of Andy Burnham, took to the stage at the Fabian conference in London on Saturday, she had a blunt message for her party.

“I want to make sure that we’re putting out the best team on the pitch, week after week, so we can win those important matches,” she told the audience.

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Minnesota governor decries ‘federal occupation’ after another deadly shooting less than three weeks after ICE officer killed Renee Good in city

• Man shot in Minneapolis by federal agents identified as nurse Alex Pretti

• ‘How many more Americans need to die?’: mayor lambastes Trump

In a statement sent to the Guardian, assistant secretary of homeland security Tricia McLaughlin said that at 9.05am local time, “as DHS law enforcement officers were conducting a targeted operation in Minneapolis” against a person they said was in the country illegally, who she said was “wanted for violent assault”, “an individual approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun.”

McLaughlin said that “the officers attempted to disarm the suspect but the armed suspect violently resisted” and that “more details on the armed struggle are forthcoming.”

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Wave of demonstrations comes a day after thousands marched through Minneapolis streets to protest ICE

Large protests spread across US cities on Saturday – including Minneapolis, New York City, San Francisco, Boston and Providence, Rhode Island – after 37-year-old Alex Pretti, a registered nurse living in Minneapolis, was shot dead by federal agents.

The wave of demonstrations come just one day after thousands marched through the streets of Minneapolis to protest against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Protesters again braved the extreme cold to speak out against the agency and show support for Pretti and others who have been harmed by the surge of immigration agents who have flooded the city in recent week.

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Announcement comes as anger toward DHS – which oversees ICE – intensifies after Alex Pretti fatally shot

In the wake of another fatal shooting of a US citizen in Minnesota by a federal officer, the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, said Saturday evening that his party will block a funding package next week if it includes money for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The announcement, which dramatically escalates the potential for another government shutdown, comes as anger toward DHS, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) intensifies among the party after a group of federal agents violently restrained and then fatally shot Alex Pretti in Minneapolis Saturday morning.

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Video evidence reviewed by Guardian shows Alex Pretti, killed by agents in Minneapolis, held a phone, not a gun

Video recorded by witnesses to the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday shows that the 37-year-old registered nurse was holding a phone, not a gun, when he was tackled and shot, directly contradicting the claims of senior Trump administration officials that he threatened to “massacre” officers.

In the aftermath of the killing, which was recorded by multiple witnesses, the Department of Homeland Security released an image of a handgun, which Donald Trump referred to as “the gunman’s gun” in a social media post. Kristi Noem, the DHS secretary, said at a briefing that Pretti had “approached US border patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun”, though she later declined to say whether or not Pretti pulled the gun out.

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Pretti, 37, worked in the ICU at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System and had assisted on scientific research

• Minneapolis shooting – latest updates

The Minnesota man who was killed by federal agents on Saturday has been identified as Alex Pretti, 37, a registered nurse working in the intensive care unit at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System, which serves veterans.

It’s the second fatal shooting this month in Minneapolis, in addition to another non-fatal shooting, amid a major crackdown in Minnesota by federal agents.

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