Niger’s military ruler vows retaliation after gunfire and explosions heard in capital

General Tchiani accuses France, Benin and the Ivory Coast of links to attack near Niamey’s airport and thanks Russian troops for defence efforts

Heavy security has been deployed around the main airport in Niger’s capital, Niamey, after overnight gunfire and explosions that the country’s military ruler blamed without evidence on France, Benin and Côte d’Ivoire.
The shooting and detonations began shortly after midnight on Wednesday, according to residents of a neighbourhood near the airport, which is next to Base Aérienne 101, a military base previously used by US and then Russian troops.
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Hundreds feared dead in attempt to cross Mediterranean during cyclone

Fifty killed in one incident as Italian authorities estimate 380 people may have drowned last week
Up to 380 people may have drowned attempting to cross the Mediterranean last week as Cyclone Harry battered southern Italy and Malta, the Italian coastguard has said, as a shipwreck with the loss of 50 lives was confirmed by Maltese authorities.
Just one person, who was hospitalised in Malta, survived the shipwreck, which happened on Friday.
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Crocodile warnings as floods devastate southern Africa

More than 100 people killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe
Devastating floods have killed more than 100 people in southern Africa since the beginning of the year and displaced hundreds of thousands, as authorities and aid workers warn of hunger, cholera and attacks by crocodiles that have spread with the waters.
More than 70 people have died in Zimbabwe and 30 in South Africa, where hundreds of people were evacuated from Kruger national park earlier this month after a deluge of rain.
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‘It’s the sovereignty of the country’: Guinea-Bissau says US vaccine study suspended

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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ActionAid to rethink child sponsorship as part of plan to ‘decolonise’ its work

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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Trump threatens tariffs on goods from countries that sell oil to Cuba

White House cites Cuba’s ties to hostile powers as order ratchets up Trump’s pressure to topple its government
Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday laying the groundwork to slap tariffs on goods from countries that provide oil to Cuba, the White House said.
The order, which ratchets up Trump’s pressure to topple the Communist government, declares a national emergency and establishes a process for the US secretaries of state and commerce to assess tariffs against countries that sell or otherwise provide oil to the island nation. The White House has yet to specify tariff rates for violating its new policy of blocking Cuba from buying oil.
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Trump orders immediate reopening of commercial airspace over Venezuela

Order allows direct flights from US to Venezuela, as major oil companies already on ground to assess potential operations
Donald Trump has ordered the immediate reopening of commercial airspace over Venezuela, weeks after US military forces toppled the dictator Nicolás Maduro.
Speaking at the White House during his cabinet’s first meeting of the year, Trump said he had just concluded a telephone conversation with Venezuela’s acting president (and former vice-president), Delcy Rodríguez, in which he informed her of the decision to restore flight access.
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Canada separatists accused of ‘treason’ after secret talks with US state department

Alberta activists’ covert meetings with US officials revealed, outlining group’s increasingly emboldened efforts
Covert meetings between separatist activists in the Canadian province of Alberta and members of Donald Trump’s administration amount to “treason”, the premier of British Columbia said on Thursday.
“To go to a foreign country and to ask for assistance in breaking up Canada, there’s an old-fashioned word for that – and that word is treason,” David Eby told reporters.
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US congressman meets five-year-old Liam Ramos and his father at ICE detention center – as it happened

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Two federal officers fired their guns during the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, according to an initial review by the Department of Homeland Security that was obtained by NBC News.
Three sources told NBC News that the preliminary report, from a Customs and Border Protection internal investigation led by the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility, was sent to congressional committees yesterday, including the House homeland security and judiciary committees.
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Can Venezuela’s Delcy Rodríguez become a Latin American Deng Xiaoping?

Maduro’s Sorbonne-educated successor is talking up an era of ‘reform and opening up’ modelled on China’s post-Mao boom
After years of political and social upheaval, hunger and despair, the Great Helmsman departs and is replaced by a francophile economic reformer who catapults a traumatised country into a new era of prosperity and growth.
That is what happened in China half a century ago when the croissant-loving communist Deng Xiaoping became paramount leader after Chairman Mao Zedong’s 1976 death and set in motion one of history’s biggest economic booms.
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Trump warns UK against doing business with China after Starmer visits Beijing – UK politics live

It comes after the US president threatened to impose tariffs on Canada if it went through with economic deals struck with China
We are expecting the Green party to announce its candidate for the byelection in the Greater Manchester constituency of Gorton and Denton this morning, at around 11am.
Labour won the seat with a 13,000 majority in the 2024 general election, but next month’s byelection is widely touted as a referendum on prime minister Keir Starmer, whose approval rating has tanked to unprecedented lows.
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Trump says ‘very dangerous’ for UK to do business with China, after Starmer hails progress in Beijing

US president warns Keir Starmer over closer ties with China during British PM’s trip to secure lower tariffs and better access to Chinese market
Donald Trump has warned the UK against doing business with China, just hours after Keir Starmer lauded the economic relationship during a landmark visit to Beijing.
The US president said it was “very dangerous” for the UK to pursue closer ties with the rival superpower as the prime minister’s three-hour talks with leader Xi Jinping underlined a thaw in previously strained relations.
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Palau lawmakers vote to block controversial Trump deal to resettle migrants from US

A plan to resettle third-country nationals from the US to the Pacific nation faces an uncertain future amid unease over the deal
A controversial Trump administration deal to relocate deportees from the US to the small Pacific nation of Palau faces an uncertain future, after the senate voted to block the deal as concern about the agreement grows.
The deal, which allows up to 75 third-country migrants facing removal from the US to live and work in Palau, was signed by president Surangel Whipps Jr in December. Palau’s lower house now has to consider the deal, and the final decision rests with Whipps Jr.
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Keir Starmer opens door to UK visit by Xi Jinping after bilateral talks

PM says trip to China has put relationship in stronger place, but possible return visit angers British critics
Keir Starmer has taken a big step towards rapprochement with China, opening the door to a UK visit from Xi Jinping in a move that drew immediate anger from British critics of Beijing.
During the first visit by a UK prime minister to China in eight years – a period which Starmer has described as an “ice age” – he said talks with the Chinese president had left the bilateral relationship in a stronger position.
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Woman faints after being caned 140 times under Indonesian province’s sharia law

Woman and man accused of sex outside marriage and drinking alcohol faced what is likely to be one of the severest punishments since Aceh province adopted sharia law
Sharia police have caned a couple 140 times each in Indonesia’s Aceh province for having sex outside marriage and drinking alcohol, likely one of the severest such punishments since the deeply conservative region adopted Islamic law.
Sexual relations between an unmarried couple are strictly outlawed in Aceh, the only place in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, to impose sharia law.
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Weather tracker: Winter storms cause death and outages across eastern north America

Millions are told to stay home in the US and more than a million are left without power, while Australia faces record heatwave
Cold weather across a vast swathe of the eastern United States has been the likely cause of at least 49 deaths in the past week.
At one point, about 213 million people were under some sort of winter weather warnings, affecting areas from New Mexico to New England – a spread of about 2,000 miles (3,200 km). Millions were told to stay at home, and at one point there were more than a million people without power. As of Wednesday night, there were still 312,000 outages, mostly across Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.
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Four people, including two children, found dead in Perth in suspected murder-suicide

WA police say both Mosman Park children had ‘significant health challenges’ and had been in contact with care services

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Two parents and their teenage children have been found dead in the affluent Perth suburb of Mosman Park in a suspected murder-suicide, Western Australian police say.
At 8.15am on Friday, emergency services received a distressed call from a person known to the family who had gone to the home on Mott Close, in the city’s south-west.
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After feverish speculation, Andrew Hastie failed to mount a Liberal leadership challenge. So what now?

Hastie’s allies are cautioning against assuming his supporters would automatically shift their allegiances to Angus Taylor

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What was the point of that then?
That is the question some Liberals MPs – and no doubt some bemused voters – are asking after Andrew Hastie abandoned plans to challenge Sussan Ley for the party leadership after a week of feverish speculation.
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Denmark’s King Frederik and Queen Mary to visit Australia – as it happened

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Four people, including two children, found dead in Perth in suspected murder-suicide

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Queensland health minister said federal government still has to bridge the gap on funding deal
Tim Nicholls, the Queensland health minister, said he still thinks there’s a “bit of water to flow under the bridge” in discussions between states and the federal government over hospital funding.
There’s quite a bit of work for the commonwealth to do to step up to the mark because the last offer that was put forward was rejected by states. Because it was inadequate and failed to address the burgeoning problems that we have.
We’re negotiating respectfully with them, but quite frankly, the most recent offer wasn’t up to scratch, and we hope to see some improvements on it.
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Andrew Hastie rules out challenging Sussan Ley for Liberal leadership, clearing path for Angus Taylor

Hastie concedes he does not have support needed to become leader, as source says it is a ‘question of when, not if’ Taylor will mount challenge

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Andrew Hastie has confirmed he won’t contest the Liberal party leadership, clearing the path for fellow rightwinger Angus Taylor to challenge Sussan Ley.
After Hastie ended a week of a speculation with a statement on Friday that confirmed he would not seek the opposition leadership, a source close to Taylor said it was a “question of when, not if” the shadow defence minister will launch a formal bid to unseat Ley.
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Ukraine will be ‘technically’ ready to join EU in 2027, Zelenskyy says – Europe live

Ukrainian president doubles down on target for accession despite pushback from some European leaders
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy also spoke by phone with German chancellor Friedrich Merz last night, according to the readout published by the German government.
During their call, Merz “strongly condemned the ongoing, systematic, and brutal destruction of Ukrainian civilian energy infrastructure by Russian attacks,” the statement said, with Zelenskyy thanking Germany for its “winter aid package” to help with air defence and power, heat generation.
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Trump claims Putin agreed to halt strikes on Ukraine energy sites amid extreme cold

US president says he made appeal to Russian leader, but no ceasefire has been confirmed by Moscow or Kyiv
Donald Trump has claimed that Vladimir Putin has agreed to halt strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for one week after he issued a personal appeal to the Russian leader due to the extreme cold in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, did not immediately confirm the ceasefire was in place, but said that Trump had made an “important statement … about the possibility of providing security for Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities during this extreme winter period”.
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Greenland threats no laughing matter, says mayor after comic’s flag stunt

Avaaraq Olsen tells content creators to think before making jokes after German tried to raise Stars and Stripes in Nuuk
The mayor of Greenland’s capital has called on media professionals and content creators to act responsibly after a German comedian’s failed attempt to hoist the US flag.
Maxi Schafroth, 41, a Bavarian comic, tried to run up the Stars and Stripes on a flagpole near the cultural centre in Nuuk but was confronted by angry passersby.
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EU designates Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation

‘Any organisation that kills thousands of its own people is working toward its own demise,’ says Kaja Kallas
The EU has listed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation, ending years of division over the issue in response to the regime’s brutal repression of protesters.
“Repression cannot go unanswered,” said Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, on Thursday. The paramilitary organisation has played a significant role in suppressing demonstrations in Iran. “Any regime that kills thousands of its own people is working toward its own demise,” she wrote on X.
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EU designates Iran’s revolutionary guard as terrorist organisation – as it happened

The EU has just designated Iran’s revolutionary guard as terrorist organisation, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas confirmed.
EU enlargement commissioner Marta Kos also strongly criticised Russia for its continuing attacks on Ukraine.
Arriving for the EU foreign affairs council this morning, she said:
“The news we are getting from Ukraine nearly every morning are horrific. What Russia is doing. There is a state terror. It’s far beyond the war [as] they are bombing people while they are at home, freezing to death, [and] bombing passenger trains …”
“I can’t speak about the years; [as] I was saying there is some level of fundamentals which have to be fulfilled. But of course, we also have to consider the very important historical moments. So we will discuss with the member states how to bridge the time we need for the accession process, and of course, to react to this situation.”
“We will work until the end to get the unanimity we need for this process. This is the only way we have to keep going, working also with the Hungary, and this is what we are doing.”
“After more than a decade of hostilities and almost four years of full-scale war, the people of Ukraine continue to endure immense suffering. Daily civilian casualties, widespread infrastructure destruction, and mass displacement are further exacerbating the massive humanitarian needs.
With Russia’s ongoing attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, millions in the country are exposed to freezing temperatures.”
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UK unlikely to join a US attack on Iran – but may help Gulf states if Tehran retaliates

Deployment of RAF Typhoon squadron to Qatar signals willingness to protect country from a counterattack
Britain is unlikely to assist the US in an attack on Iran but a deployment of RAF Typhoons to Qatar last week signals a willingness to help regional allies if Tehran tries to widen the conflict in retaliation.
A first strike on Iran is unlikely be in line with the UK’s interpretation of international law, but British forces could become involved if there is a need to help Qatar or other regional allies in self-defence.
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Is Trump about to attack Iran? – The Latest

Donald Trump says ‘time is running out’ for Iran as the threat of war appears to loom closer. A huge US armada is being moved towards Iran and is seen as the starkest indication yet that Trump intends to strike.
The US president had called on the Iranian regime to negotiate a deal on the future of its nuclear programme, only weeks after he promised Iranian protesters ‘help was on the way’ then backtracked days later.
Nosheen Iqbal talks to the Guardian’s deputy head of international news, Devika Bhat, about what Trump could do next – watch on YouTube
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Nigel Farage meets UAE ministers and drums up donations on Dubai trip

Reform UK leader speaks at GB News event also attended by industry minister on second UAE visit in two months
Nigel Farage has paid a visit to Dubai to build diplomatic relations with United Arab Emirates ministers and drum up donations for Reform UK from wealthy expats.
The two-night trip was his second visit to the Gulf state in two months, after a £10,000 trip hosted by Abu Dhabi to attend the Formula One grand prix.
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Iran seeks to avert US military action with talks in Ankara

Turkey hosts urgent mediation as Trump’s threats mount and Tehran weighs painful compromises to avoid conflict
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, will travel to Ankara for talks aimed at preventing a US attack, as Turkish diplomats seek to convince Tehran it must offer concessions over its nuclear programme if it is to avert a potentially devastating conflict.
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, proposed a video conference between Donald Trump and his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkian – the kind of high-wire diplomacy that may appeal to the US leader, but would be anathema to circumspect Iranian diplomats. No formal direct talks have been held between the two countries for a decade.
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Iran tries to confront ‘catastrophe’ of violent clampdown on protests

Calls for independent external inquiry into brutal crackdown that some estimates suggest killed more than 30,000
A deep and painful inquest is under way inside Iran as politicians, academics and the security establishment try to come to terms with what has been described as a catastrophe after the violent protests and their even more violent suppression by the security forces.
The shape of the debate taking place in the heavily censored society is emerging, as selective newspapers and Telegram channels slowly open up to international audiences after the protests – which some estimates suggest could have left more than 30,000 dead – that have stunned many Iranians.
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