Ukraine war briefing: US anger builds on Russia over refusal to accept ceasefire
The Kremlin on Tuesday complained that it cannot accept US ceasefire proposals in their current form . US national security council spokesperson James Hewitt said: “ There is a deep frustration with the Russian government over negotiations. The Ukrainian president said the US had told Ukraine privately that it had seen the Russian violations. Ukraine will hold in-depth talks on Friday with a small group of foreign countries about contributing forces to a contingent that would act as a security guarantee for Ukraine, Zelenskyy said on Tuesday. Polish prosecutors said they had charged a Russian-born Ukrainian with spying on military installations in Poland for Russia’s intelligence services.
Source:The Guardian
April 02, 2025 19:29 UTC
‘Is it “woke” to care about the environment?’: how Trump’s cuts are dismantling global conservation work
Led by the philanthropist Gregory Carr and Mozambique’s government, it was the start of the park’s journey to becoming one of Africa’s most celebrated wildlife conservation success stories. Experts warn the cuts could cause a global surge in wildlife trafficking and poaching, as support for schemes protecting critically endangered species has ended. But the Trump administration’s cuts and funding reviews have forced many to reduce ranger patrols and critical restoration work, leaving vulnerable species with dramatically diminished protection. “These funding cuts could not have come at a worse time. Photograph: Jason Houston/USAIDMatthew Hansen, a professor at University of Maryland and an expert on remote sensing, says USAID funding of conservation has been critical for soft power.
Source:The Guardian
April 02, 2025 03:30 UTC
Global stock markets fall as new Trump tariffs loom
Stock markets across the world fell heavily on Monday after Donald Trump suggested that new tariffs he is expected to announce this week would hit “all countries”. On Monday, the threat of a deepening trade war spooked investors. “A selling wave is sweeping across global markets,” said Jochen Stanzl, the chief market analyst at CMC Markets. Larry Fink, the chief executive of BlackRock, issued veiled criticism of Trump’s trade tariffs on Monday, declaring that “protectionism has returned with force”. Over the weekend, Trump said he “couldn’t care less” if US carmakers raised their prices because of the new tariffs.
Source:The Guardian
March 31, 2025 19:45 UTC
Australia should persist with Aukus despite risk of US relationship ‘becoming unstuck’, former defence department secretary says
Richardson – former secretary of both the defence and foreign affairs departments, a former Asio chief and a former ambassador to the US – has been tasked with conducting a “top-to-bottom” review of the Australian Submarine Agency amid emerging concerns over its management of the Aukus submarine deal. These will replace Australia’s ageing Collins class diesel-electric submarines before Australia’s own Aukus nuclear-powered submarines can be built. Richardson told the forum Australia’s relationship with the US would be increasingly difficult to manage, given the unpredictability of the current US administration, and its willingness to castigate and abandon allies. “The biggest risk is not the Americans walking away from Aukus, the biggest risk is the relationship with the United States more broadly becoming unstuck. This is the only sovereign option.”Opening the forum, Turnbull said Australia’s relationship with the US had been irrevocably altered by the new Trump administration.
Source:The Guardian
March 31, 2025 18:40 UTC
Protests hit Tesla dealerships across the world in challenge to Elon Musk
Protest organizers asked people to do three things: don’t buy a Tesla, sell off Tesla stock and join the “Tesla Takedown” movement. Photograph: Brandon Bell/Getty ImagesIn San Francisco, a crowd of around 200 people gathered in front of the Tesla showroom. “We’re here to protest Musk, who has essentially held a Tesla car show on the White House lawn,” she said. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty ImagesIn Washington DC, organizers planned a rally in front of a new Tesla showroom in Georgetown, making the theme “Tesla Takedown Dance Party”. In London, dozens of demonstrators gathered at a Tesla showroom along the three-lane A40 in West London.
Source:The Guardian
March 31, 2025 04:42 UTC
Trump news at a glance: anti-Musk protesters target Tesla showrooms around the world
People around the world joined protests against Elon Musk and his attempts to dismantle the US federal government on Saturday, gathering outside Tesla showrooms from Australia to Switzerland and California. Protest organizers asked people to do three things: don’t buy a Tesla, sell off Tesla stock and join the “Tesla Takedown” movement. “Hurting Tesla is stopping Musk,” reads one of the group’s taglines. The departures come as the Trump administration scrutinizes institutions that have had pro-Palestinian protests over the last year. Watson was traveling to the Lompoc, California, federal correctional institution when he learned of the presidential commutation afforded to him, as CNBC reported.
Source:The Guardian
March 31, 2025 03:40 UTC
Expert says climate change behind South Korea's worst wildfires on record – video
The biggest forest fire on record in South Korea has displaced thousands, charred large areas and killed at least 26 people in the south-eastern province of North Gyeongsang, authorities say. The affected areas have had only half the average rainfall this season, while the country has experienced more than double the number of fires this year than last. Woo-Kyun Lee, a climatic environment professor, said a rapid increase in temperatures, prolonged dryness and stronger winds had exacerbated the fires. 'For this reason, wildfires in our country are bound to become more frequent, spread on a larger scale,' he said
Source:The Guardian
March 27, 2025 18:10 UTC
Stockpile 72 hours of supplies in case of disaster or attack, EU tells citizens
Outlining its first preparedness strategy, the European Commission said it wanted to encourage citizens to take “proactive measures to prepare for crises, such as developing household emergency plans and stockpiling essential supplies”. “We are saying to member states: 72 hours of self-sufficiency is what we recommend,” Hadja Lahbib, the European commissioner for preparedness and crisis management, told reporters. Today, the EU launches its new #Preparedness Strategy. “We must prepare for large-scale, cross-sectoral incidents and crises, including the possibility of armed aggression, affecting one or more member states,” the document states. The plans are likely to provoke a mixed response from EU member states, who perceive threats in different ways.
Source:The Guardian
March 27, 2025 03:23 UTC
Rachel Reeves is all about growth. So why won’t she admit that Brexit is its worst enemy? | Polly Toynbee
The European defence emergency has made talk of Brexit and its future less taboo on both sides of the Channel. The City lost 40,000 finance jobs soon after Brexit: those high earners who have departed Britain lost the Treasury £1bn a year in tax. Keir Starmer has called for an “ambitious UK-EU defence and security partnership”, but France has blocked British defence companies from accessing a €150bn (£125bn) European defence fund. It has just renegotiated its complex patchwork of EU agreements, partly in the single market, for goods only. However inflexible the EU seems, Switzerland shows painstaking deals of mutual advantage can crisscross the apparently rigid single market rules.
Source:The Guardian
March 25, 2025 18:19 UTC
Tesla’s Europe sales drop nearly 45% amid row over Musk’s Trump links
In January, its sales across Europe fell 45%, from 18,161 in 2024 to 9,945. Volkswagen reported a 180% increase in sales of battery electric vehicles to just under 20,000, while BMW and Mini sold a combined 19,000 such models last month. The Chinese-owned BYD recorded a 94% increase in sales in Europe to more than 4,000. Tesla reported annual revenues of $97.7bn last year. BYD also sells about the same number of electric vehicles as Tesla – 1.76m compared with 1.79m respectively in 2024.
Source:The Guardian
March 25, 2025 02:46 UTC
More than 150 ‘unprecedented’ climate disasters struck world in 2024, says UN
The devastating impacts of the climate crisis reached new heights in 2024, with scores of unprecedented heatwaves, floods and storms across the globe, according to the UN’s World Meteorological Organization. The report lists 151 unprecedented extreme weather events in 2024, meaning they were worse than any ever recorded in the region. Storms were also supercharged by global heating in 2024, with an unprecedented six typhoons in under a month hitting the Philippines. Photograph: Luong Thai Linh/EPADr Brenda Ekwurzel, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, condemned the Trump administration’s deletion of online climate information. “Attempts to hide climate science from the public will not stop us from feeling the dire impacts of climate change,” she said.
Source:The Guardian
March 19, 2025 18:31 UTC
Countries must bolster climate efforts or risk war, Cop30 chief executive warns
Some countries could decide to include climate spending in their defence budgets, suggested Ana Toni, Brazil’s chief executive of the Cop30 summit. Unfortunately, climate change is there for a long time. We need to take climate change very seriously, otherwise we will have even more wars in the future. So that trade-off between short-term defence needs now, versus the long-term need to prevent this bigger fight on climate change, is absolutely needed. Toni predicted that the US’s turn away from climate action under Trump would not weaken China’s efforts to cut carbon.
Source:The Guardian
March 19, 2025 03:08 UTC
US journalist sues Indian government after losing his overseas citizenship
A US journalist has taken the Indian government to court after his Indian overseas citizenship was unilaterally cancelled, after the publication of a story critical of a prominent Indian businessman. OCI status is given to foreign citizens of Indian origin, or those married to Indian nationals, and allows for visa-free travel, residency and employment in India. Satter received his OCI through marriage. According to an investigation by Reporters Without Borders, at least 15 media outlets investigating Appin received legal notices and five have been subjected to legal proceedings. The Indian government now has until the next hearing, on 22 May, to respond to the petition and give legal justification for Satter’s OCI cancellation.
Source:The Guardian
March 13, 2025 18:27 UTC
‘Global weirding’: climate whiplash hitting world’s biggest cities, study reveals
Climate whiplash is already hitting major cities around the world, bringing deadly swings between extreme wet and dry weather as the climate crisis intensifies, a report has revealed. “And given that we’re looking at the world’s largest cities, there are really significant numbers of people involved.”Coping with climate whiplash and flips in cities is extremely hard, said Michaelides. The researchers have worked in Nairobi, Kenya, one of the cities suffering climate whiplash. Other whiplash cities include Baghdad, Bangkok, Melbourne and Nairobi. The cities that had at least five months more of both extreme wet and extreme dry in the second period were classed as having developed climate whiplash.
Source:The Guardian
March 13, 2025 02:29 UTC
German tourists’ ordeal reportedly ending as they are returned from US detention
The families of the two tourists, who were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), had compared their ordeals to “a horror film”. Both Germans were held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center, a prison in San Diego, California. He had entered the US on a tourist visa and with his girlfriend, Lennon Tyler, had subsequently visited Mexico where they had taken her dog to the vet. “Especially not if you’re on a tourist visa, and especially not over the Mexican border.”US authorities have yet to issue a statement on the German cases. She had been travelling on a tourist visa, but was told she should have applied for a working visa as she planned to stay with a family receiving accommodation in exchange for carrying out domestic chores.
Source:The Guardian
March 13, 2025 02:22 UTC