World news | The Guardian

Charges come after Belgian police made six arrests and seized phones, computers and €600,000 in cashBelgian prosecutors investigating allegations that Qatar has sought to influence EU policy by bribing European parliament officials have charged four people with money laundering, corruption and participating in a criminal organisation.The charges, which were announced on Sunday, came two days after police arrested four people and seized computers, mobile phones and €600,000 (£515,000) in cash during searches at 16 properties across Brussels. Continue reading...

Sacking of nearly 800 crew in favour of low-paid agency workers in March led to calls for loopholes to be closed in seafarers’ wages billThe Trades Union Congress has urged the government to make crucial changes to legislation planned to help seafarers after the P&O Ferries scandal, warning that loopholes otherwise remain that unscrupulous employers could exploit.P&O Ferries admitted deliberately flouting the law when it sacked 786 seafarers and replaced them with low-paid agency crew last March. Despite public outrage and condemnation, and pledges of action from government ministers, the Dubai-owned operator received no fine or sanction – even though its chief executive, Peter Hebblethwaite, told MPs the firm had knowingly decided to break labour law. Continue reading...

Heavy snow delays restoration efforts as local MP says she is ‘desperately worried’ for vulnerable constituentsHundreds of people in Sheffield entered their 10th day without gas on Sunday after more than 1.5m litres of water flooded into gas pipes and created a nightmarish scenario “like something out of a disaster movie”.Heavy snow overnight delayed restoration efforts in Stannington, the worst-affected area, which sits at the top of a hill in the north-west of Sheffield. Malin Bridge, at the bottom of the hill, has also been badly affected. Continue reading...

Orwa Skafe, who fled Syria seven years ago, is among those given jobs and a home in attempt to revive rural areasIt’s been a long journey since Orwa Skafe fled the war in Syria seven years ago but thanks to an innovative resettlement scheme he’s found peace in a tiny village 900 metres (3,000ft) up in the Pyrenees. He is one of the first to benefit from a Catalan government programme to relocate refugees in depopulated villages.The programme, called Operation 500 because it involves villages with fewer than 500 inhabitants, is being run jointly by the regional employment agency, the equality commission and the Association of Micro-villages. Continue reading...

Managers say anxiety is causing distraction, affecting productivity and increasing absenteeismWorkers in the UK are becoming so anxious about the cost of living crisis that it is affecting their performance at work, with two-thirds of managers reporting issues such as rising absenteeism and lack of engagement among stressed-out staff.In a Chartered Management Institute (CMI) survey of more than 1,000 managers and team leaders, 71% said they had seen evidence of the crisis increasing stress and anxiety for their teams. Continue reading...

In the health, rail and the postal services, low pay, safety concerns and fear of losing rights have pushed staff to industrial actionCarmel O’Boyle has worked in the NHS for more than a quarter of a century, first as a healthcare assistant and then as a nurse at a walk-in centre in Liverpool. Continue reading...

The PCS union has told the home secretary that the £63m France deal was ‘doomed to fail’, and that a safe passage visa was neededHome Office staff are rebelling against the government’s attempts to tackle small boats crossing the Channel, demanding its recent deal with the French be scrapped because it is “doomed to fail”.A day after France announced it was increasing the number of rescue vessels in the Channel, the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) has written to the home secretary, Suella Braverman, saying the only solution to the crisis is creating a safe passage visa that allows refugees a secure route to the UK. Continue reading...

Poll ratings in Ireland dip for Mary Lou McDonald despite her distancing herself from former protege and councillor, Jonathan DowdallIt has been called Ireland’s gangland trial of the century but weeks of testimony in courtroom 11 of the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin have morphed into something else: a political test for Sinn Féin and its hopes of leading the next government.Gerry “the Monk” Hutch, 59, a prominent crime boss, is on trial for a 2016 murder that fuelled a feud between rival gangs that dotted Dublin with corpses. Continue reading...

Strikes mean the company cannot guarantee deliveries before 25 December, forcing businesses to meet deadline of this FridaySmall businesses that rely on Royal Mail to deliver their products to customers before Christmas are being forced to take their last orders for gifts as early as this weekend because of the postal backlog already building up as a series of postal worker strikes looms over the next fortnight.Others are working around the clock to ensure orders already placed arrive before 25 December. Continue reading...

Fishing gear used by Maine lobstermen is killing right whales. Will boosting a $1bn industry trump protecting an endangered species?President Macron of France may not have realised it, but he walked into another fishing war earlier this month when he and 200 other guests were treated at the White House to butter-poached Maine lobster accented with American Osetra caviar and garnished with celery crisp.At issue was the lobster, currently subject to a court ruling designed to prevent Maine’s lobstermen from trapping the crustacea in baited pots marked by lines that can fatally entangle feeding North Atlantic right whales. There are now just 340 such whales, with only about 100 breeding females, making the species one of the most endangered on the planet. Continue reading...

Dina Boluarte, Peru’s first female head of state, seeks to steady nation after turbulent 17-month rule of ousted Pedro CastilloPeru’s newest president, Dina Boluarte, swore in her cabinet on Saturday just three days after becoming the country’s first female head of state, and asked each minister to pledge not to be corrupt while in office.The 17 ministers picked by Boluarte, who on Wednesday was elevated from vice-president to replace the ousted Pedro Castillo as the country’s leader, will be key to further inflaming or calming a South American country experiencing a seemingly endemic political crisis. Continue reading...

Dahaba Ali Hussen, who has lived in London for 19 years, stopped while trying to board Eurostar in ParisA black EU citizen with settled status was temporarily denied entry to the UK when she attempted to board a Eurostar train in Paris on Saturday.Dahaba Ali Hussen, a Dutch citizen of Somali origin who has lived in London for 19 years, was on a solo holiday in France when she arrived at the Gare du Nord railway station two hours before her train was set to depart to London St Pancras. Continue reading...

Campaigners point to culture of impunity as five questioned over bribery allegationsThe arrest of a European Parliament vice-president and four others linked to a corruption investigation implicating World Cup hosts Qatar sparked calls Saturday for “root and branch reform” in the EU institution.“This is not an isolated incident,” said anti-corruption campaigning group Transparency International. Continue reading...

63-year-old Joerg Lange’s employer, humanitarian organisation Help, did not say how release securedA 63-year-old German aid worker, Joerg Lange, has been freed more than four years after he was kidnapped in western Niger near the Malian border, his employer, humanitarian organisation Help, said in a statement on Saturday.Armed men on motorcycles kidnapped Lange in April 2018 near the Nigerien town of Inates in borderlands where militant groups, some with links to al-Qaida and Islamic State, have carried out frequent attacks for years. Continue reading...

Police say there could be more fatalities after 4am collapse of three-storey building on Channel IslandAt least three people have died and about 12 people are believed to be missing after an explosion in a block of flats in St Helier, Jersey police have said.The blast at Haut du Mont, Pier Road, in the capital, occurred at about 4am on Saturday, less than eight hours after firefighters had been called to the site after concerns from residents, it was confirmed. Continue reading...

Royal College of Nursing and Unison call on health secretary to negotiate with them to avoid action at Christmas and new yearHealth unions made a dramatic offer on Saturday night to suspend a wave of planned strikes that threatens to cripple the NHS over Christmas and the new year if ministers agree to open serious discussions over pay.The moves by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the country’s biggest union, Unison, are the first signs of flexibility by either side in a dispute that has been deadlocked for weeks. Continue reading...

Support and self-care will be vital during the campaign, which could stir up ‘perfect storm for fear and hate’

Ukraine’s president says Russian shelling has ‘actually destroyed’ the cityRussian forces have “destroyed” the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, while Ukraine’s military reported missile, rocket and airstrikes in multiple parts of the country.The latest battles of Russia’s nine-and-a-half-month war in Ukraine have centred on four provinces that Russian president Vladimir Putin illegally claimed to have annexed in late September, the Associated Press reported. Continue reading...

Trucks and agricultural machines used as roadblocks, heightening recent tensions in the regionHundreds of ethnic Serbs erected barricades on a road in northern Kosovo on Saturday, blocking the traffic over the two main border crossings towards Serbia, police said.Trucks, ambulance cars and agricultural machines were used as roadblocks, heightening recent tensions which included explosions, shootings and an armed attack on a police patrol which saw one ethnic Albanian police officer wounded. Continue reading...

Two apparently uninjured people safe after incident in which shots were reportedly firedGerman police said on Saturday that a man suspected of killing his mother and later taking two people hostage in the eastern city of Dresden has died.Authorities had urged people to avoid an area in the city centre and ordered Dresden’s Christmas market to remain closed while the police operation to free the hostages was under way. Continue reading...

Russian drones hit energy facilities in Ukraine port city, leaving all non-critical infrastructure without power

Voters risk being turned away and organisers need more time to prepare, argue critics of the new measuresPlans to force voters to present photo ID at polling stations for the first time in May risk damaging access to democracy and must be delayed, senior local government figures have warned ministers.Amid concerns about voters being turned away and polling station workers being confronted, the body representing councils told the Observer there was simply not enough time to deal with all the risks that will be created by the new system. Continue reading...

Ukrainians have the technical advantage but Russians persist in sacrificing troops to take an area with no strategic valueIn a smothering fog cloaking the woods of the Donbas, the sound of artillery takes on a spooky, disconnected quality.Guns crack nearby, invisible among the skeletal branches. Shells whicker in the gloom towards the Russian lines around the key city of Bakhmut, distant thuds marking when they hit their targets. When the Russian guns fire back, it’s with a different sound, the crump of incoming fire. Continue reading...

The Russian arms dealer is back in Moscow after the prisoner swap for Brittney Griner. Kremlin officials say it’s a ‘capitulation by America’ – but other believe Bout is a declining assetThe victory lap in Moscow began even before the An-148 jet carrying the notorious arms dealer once dubbed the “merchant of death” touched down at Vnukovo airport.Viktor Bout, arrested in 2008, had been returned to Russia more than 14 years after his arrest, much of that time spent incarcerated in the US. “The game is over,” he had said as US Drug Enforcement Administration agents and Thai police burst into a hotel conference room where he thought he was meeting members of Farc, the Colombian rebel group – but they were actually undercover US agents. Continue reading...

Agent pays tribute to ‘unique talent loved by many’ who played Gladys Pugh in BBC comedy seriesThe Hi-de-Hi! actor Ruth Madoc has died aged 79 after a fall.Madoc became a household name playing “chief yellowcoat” Gladys Pugh in the BBC One sitcom. The show ran for eight years from 1980 and was set in a fictional holiday camp, Maplins, during the 1950s. Continue reading...

Sacked chancellor says he and ex-PM failed to consider political and economic consequencesKwasi Kwarteng has admitted he and Liz Truss “got carried away” when they wrote the disastrous mini-budget that led to both of them leaving their jobs just weeks after they entered Downing Street.Kwarteng announced a raft of tax cuts without any reduction in spending in September, which led to the pound crashing against the dollar, pension funds nearly collapsing, a £65bn Bank of England bailout, soaring mortgage costs, and the cost of government borrowing increasing. He also said he would remove the cap on bankers’ bonuses. Continue reading...

Sistah Space says many domestic abuse services temporarily halted after founder spoke of encounter with Susan HusseyA charity led by a black domestic abuse campaigner who was asked where she “really came from” by the late queen’s senior lady-in-waiting has had to pause its operations because of safety fears.Sistah Space said it was “forced to temporarily cease” working after its founder, Ngozi Fulani, spoke out about her treatment by Susan Hussey at a reception at Buckingham Palace. The charity supports women of African and Caribbean heritage who have been affected by domestic and sexual abuse. Continue reading...

Study shows the proportion of musicians, writers and artists with working-class origins has shrunk by half since the 1970sThe proportion of working-class actors, musicians and writers has shrunk by half since the 1970s, new research shows.Analysis of Office for National Statistics data found that 16.4% of creative workers born between 1953 and 1962 had a working-class background, but that had fallen to just 7.9% for those born four decades later. Continue reading...

Harry opening up on Netflix show about losing his mother could help others experiencing the early loss of a parent, say experts“When my mum died, we had two hats to wear,” said Prince Harry as he opened up about the trauma of having to mourn his mother in public. “One was two grieving sons wanting to cry, grieve and process that grief because of losing our mum. And two was the royal hat – show no emotion, get out there and meet the people, shake their hands.”The death of Diana, Princess of Wales, who was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997, looms over the six-part Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan. In the first episode, a 12-year-old Harry and his older brother, Prince William, admire floral tributes and greet weeping mourners on the day before their mother’s funeral. Continue reading...

Family want coroner to recommend requirement for US personnel at bases in Britain to receive trainingThe family of Harry Dunn are to press for the inquest into his death to recommend that US personnel at American military bases in Britain should be required to be properly trained in road safety.Anne Sacoolas, the teenager’s killer, was handed a suspended sentence on Thursday at the Old Bailey, which was told that the US citizen’s car hit his motorcycle while she was driving on the wrong side of the road – or what she described to police as the “American side” – after leaving a military base in Northamptonshire in 2019. Continue reading...

Households expected to save around $230 on average after national cabinet agrees to energy price cap scheme

NSW education minister Sarah Mitchell blames ‘IT issue’ and says she asked Education Standards Authority for an explanation

Apple Daily founder, who recently completed sentence over territory’s pro-democracy protests, convicted in contract dispute involving newspaper officesHong Kong pro-democracy media owner Jimmy Lai received a fresh jail sentence of five years and nine months on Saturday after being found guilty of fraud in a contractual dispute.Lai, the 75-year-old founder of the now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper, had recently completed a 20-month jail term resulting from multiple convictions for his part in protests and unauthorised assemblies. Continue reading...

Campaigners hope overturning of Akif Rasuli’s 50-year sentence will be ‘first victory’ for criminalised migrants in Greek jailsAn imprisoned Afghan refugee wrongfully accused of smuggling people into Greece has been told he can walk free in a trial that activists hope will set a precedent for thousands of others in similar situations.After a marathon day of proceedings, an appeals court sitting on the Aegean island of Lesbos ruled that Akif Rasuli could be released more than two years after he began serving a 50-year sentence for the crime of “facilitating the illegal entry” of undocumented migrants into the country. The three-member tribunal overturned the conviction citing lack of evidence. Continue reading...

Penny Wong announces Magnitsky-style sanctions to punish Iran’s violent crackdown on protesters and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

Putin mentions potential settlement with Ukraine; blasts reported at airbase in Zaporizhzhia region; Brittney Griner ‘in good spirits’ after prisoner swap

Chief justice Lucy McCallum has released a judgment made during the trial following objections from Lehrmann’s defence

After mass demonstrations against Covid lockdowns, experts say Xi Jinping’s response will be a further gradual crackdownSince Xi Jinping came to power a decade ago, China’s Communist party has enacted a sweeping crackdown on civil society. Independent NGOs have been shut down, journalists and human rights lawyers arrested and outspoken media tamed. Meanwhile, the government has invested heavily in a massive surveillance system to keep track of citizens’ movements and activities.Given their emphasis on national security and stability, party leaders would have been shocked therefore by the nationwide protests that broke out on 26 November in opposition to Xi’s “zero-Covid” policy. Demonstrators demanded an end to lockdowns and mass testing and some even called for the removal of the party and Xi himself. Continue reading...

Raids were part of an international crackdown on those suspected of supplying and using illegal tax-avoiding tools

Four former officers also told they would have been dismissed for racist and misogynist WhatsApp contentTwo serving police officers have been sacked, and four former officers have been told they would have been sacked, for sharing racist, homophobic and misogynist messages in a WhatsApp group.A disciplinary panel made dismissals orders against PC Gary Bailey from the Metropolitan police and PC Matthew Forster from the Civil Nuclear constabulary (CNC). Continue reading...

Six people in Indonesia share their views on the controversial legislation and what it means for themThe news that Indonesia’s parliament has passed new legislation outlawing sex outside marriage – as part of a wider overhaul of the country’s criminal code – has triggered concern from human rights activists and prompted protests in the capital Jakarta.Here, six people in Indonesia share their views on the controversial legislation, and what it may mean for their personal lives and those of fellow citizens when it comes into effect. Continue reading...

Vote comes as government tries to mitigate impact of a phone-tapping scandal involving Pasok party leaderGreece’s parliament has passed a bill overhauling the country’s intelligence service (EYP) and banning the sale of spyware, as the government tries to mitigate the impact of a phone-tapping scandal still under investigation.The case has turned up the heat on the conservative government, which faces elections in 2023. It emerged in August when Nikos Androulakis, the leader of the socialist Pasok party, Greece’s third-largest, claimed the EYP listened to his conversations in 2021. Continue reading...

Adviser on violence against women says on live radio she is on a ‘completely different planet’ to home secretaryA government adviser on violence against women appears to have effectively resigned from her role on live radio after saying she is on a “completely different planet” to the home secretary, Suella Braverman.Nimco Ali, a social activist who was appointed to the independent role by the then home secretary, Priti Patel, in 2020, used an interview to criticise Braverman’s stance on the issue and announce her intention to relinquish her role. Continue reading...

Duke and Duchess accuse press of creating false narrative that privacy was a key reason behind their step back from dutiesThe Duke and Duchess of Sussex have hit back at attacks over their sharing of personal video clips and photographs in their Netflix documentary.A spokeswoman for Harry and Meghan said the narrative that privacy was a key reason behind the couple stepping back from royal duties and quitting the UK was a false one. Continue reading...

Force agrees to pay damages and costs in settlement with Dijon and Liam Joseph over 2018 incidentThe Metropolitan police have apologised and paid tens of thousands of pounds in damages and costs to two young black men who were stopped and searched after officers saw them bump fists in the street and wrongly suspected them of dealing drugs.As part of a legal settlement, the Met declared that brothers Dijon and Liam Joseph, 33 and 31, were blameless for their ordeal four years ago, which involved Dijon being handcuffed and left them traumatised and humiliated. Continue reading...

Ex-police officer once tasked with protecting Jewish communities also linked to foiled Reichsbürger planA celebrity gourmet chef whose daughter is the girlfriend of the Real Madrid footballer David Alaba and an ex-police officer once tasked with protecting Jewish communities from terror attacks are among the latest figures to have been linked to the foiled Reichsbürger coup plan in Germany, with further arrests expected as investigations continue.Details emerging after the biggest ever national police operation against rightwing extremism indicate that suspects may have been informed in advance of the raids, in which 3,000 police officers targeted more than 150 addresses across Germany, and in Austria and Italy, making 25 arrests. Continue reading...

Russian president still claims ‘special military operation’ going to plan during Kyrgyzstan press conference

Claim that it would end up costing each households an extra £1,000 a year described as ‘disingenuous’Rishi Sunak has been condemned for using “disingenuous” figures after he repeated a claim that meeting union demands for public sector pay awards would cost every household £1,000 extra a year.Speaking at a RAF base in Lincolnshire, where he was speaking to service personnel who miay be deployed to replace striking staff, including ambulance crews and border staff, the prime minister said he would not give way despite a way of planned stoppages. Continue reading...

Socially conscious young people are snapping up political merchandise that sums up mood of frustrationA spectre is haunting social media: the spectre of socially conscious young people wearing slogan baseball caps whose messages are tailored to the moment.Leading the charge is a £20 black cap emblazoned with “hate landlords”, stitched in white, sold through the leftwing media organisation Novara. Continue reading...

Basketball star lands at Texas airbase after being swapped for Russian arms dealer Viktor BoutThe American basketball star Brittney Griner returned to the US early on Friday after being freed in a high-profile prisoner exchange from nearly 10 months in detention in Russia.The deal, in which she was swapped for the Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, secured the release of the most prominent American detained abroad and achieved a top goal for Joe Biden. But Washington failed to win freedom for another US citizen, Paul Whelan, who has been jailed for nearly four years. Continue reading...