‘They killed my sons’: chief of Nigerian village where jihadists massacred hundreds recounts night of terror

Umar Bio Salihu, 53, the local head of Woro in Kwara state, says gunmen ‘just came in and started shooting’
The traditional chief of a village in western Nigeria where jihadists massacred residents earlier this week has recounted a night of terror during which the attackers killed two of his sons and kidnapped his wife and three daughters.
Umar Bio Salihu, the 53-year-old chief of Woro, a small, Muslim-majority village in Kwara state, said that at about 5pm on Tuesday the gunmen “just came in and started shooting”.
Continue reading…

Gunmen kill more than 160 people in attacks on two west Nigeria villages

Local politician says armed men rounded up residents, bound their hands behind their backs and shot them
More than 160 people have been killed in two villages in western Nigeria in the country’s deadliest armed assaults this year, as communities reel from repeated and widespread acts of violence perpetrated by jihadists and other armed groups.
The death toll from Tuesday’s attacks in Woro and Nuku in Kwara state stood at 162 on Wednesday afternoon, according to Mohammed Omar Bio, a member of parliament representing the area.
Continue reading…

Ugandan opposition leader still in hiding as feud with president’s son escalates

Bobi Wine’s whereabouts unknown since he fled what he said was night raid on his home by police and military
Bobi Wine, Uganda’s most prominent opposition figure, remains in hiding nearly three weeks after a disputed election, as a high-stakes social media feud with the east African country’s military chief escalates.
Wine’s whereabouts have been unknown since 16 January, when he fled what he said was a night raid by the police and military on his home, leaving his family behind.
Continue reading…

Death of Nigerian singer after snakebite highlights crisis of ‘preventable’ fatalities

Ifunanya Nwangene died in hospital after being bitten in her Abuja home, raising questions about the availability of effective antivenoms
In a last message to her friends, Ifunanya Nwangene wrote: “Please come.”
The 26-year-old singer and former contestant on The Voice Nigeria had been bitten by a snake while asleep in her flat in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, and was in hospital, anxiously awaiting treatment.
Continue reading…

Trump-led abuses amid ‘democratic recession’ put human rights in peril, HRW report says

Rights group says growing authoritarianism and abuses in US, Russia and China threaten global rules-based order
The world is in a “democratic recession” with almost three-quarters of the global population now living under autocratic rulers – levels not seen since the 1980s, according to a new report.
The system underpinning human rights was “in peril”, said Philippe Bolopion, executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), with a growing authoritarian wave becoming “the challenge of a generation”, he said.
Continue reading…

Cuba open to talks with US ‘without pressure’ after months of Trump threats

Miguel Díaz‑Canel says Cuba is willing to engage Washington amid the island’s deepening economic crisis
After months of threats from Donald Trump, the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, has said that his government is willing to talk to the United States, just so long as it is “without pressure”.
Standing in front of a life-sized photograph of Fidel Castro carrying a rifle during the 1959 revolution, Díaz-Canel, the 65-year-old president, said on Thursday that his island nation had been subject to an “intense media campaigns of slander, hatred and psychological warfare”.
Continue reading…

Eight current and former Toronto police arrested in organized crime inquiry

Investigation exposes ‘corrosive’ reach of organized crime in Canada, with links to bribes, drug trade and a murder plot
At least eight current and former Toronto police officers have been arrested following a sweeping investigation that officials say exposed the “corrosive” reach of organized crime into Canada’s largest municipal police service.
Police allege fellow officers accepted bribes, aided drug traffickers, leaked personal information to criminals who then carried out shootings and helped members of organized crime in a plot to murder a corrections officer.
Continue reading…

Maduro’s alleged frontman Alex Saab reportedly detained in Caracas

FBI and Venezuela’s intelligence agency also reportedly arrest billionaire media mogul Raúl Gorrín at same address
A close and powerful associate of the deposed Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro has reportedly been detained during a joint operation by Venezuela’s intelligence agency and the FBI.
Alex Saab, a wealthy Colombian-Venezuelan businessman long considered Maduro’s frontman, was removed from his position in Venezuela’s government a fortnight after US forces captured his ally on 3 January. In the early hours of Wednesday, the 54-year-old was reportedly detained by members of the Bolivarian national intelligence service (Sebin) at a luxury home in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas.
Continue reading…

Venezuela plan to turn notorious prison into cultural centre scrubs past horrors, critics say

The move is among several measures the acting president has touted since Maduro’s capture – yet critics say it erases Venezuela’s long history of repression
It was designed in the 1950s to be the world’s first “drive-through shopping centre”, a futuristic structure with more than than two miles of ramps looping past 300 shops, as well as cinemas, a hotel, a private club, a concert hall and a heliport.
But the building was never completed, and under the regimes of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, spaces envisioned as shops were turned into cells, and El Helicoide became Venezuela’s most notorious torture centre for political prisoners.
Continue reading…

The people betting on catastrophic world events – podcast

Prediction markets allow you to put money on everything from the US attacking Iran to Jesus returning. Saahil Desai explains their dizzying rise
In the early hours of 3 January, Donald Trump ordered a surprise attack on the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, to kidnap the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro. Millions of Venezuelans’ lives were thrown into uncertainty. Politicians at home and abroad scrambled to respond. It seemed this was something no one had seen coming. Except one person did actually predict it.
In the hours before the attack, someone – and we have no way of knowing who – placed a series of bets that Donald Trump would oust Maduro on a prediction market platform, netting them nearly $500,000 when it happened. These platforms allow their users not just to bet on whoever’s going to win the Super Bowl, but also on world events. Heavily regulated under the Biden administration, these apps have enjoyed a huge boom in popularity since Trump came to power.
Continue reading…

Be ‘prudent’ about supplying arms to Taiwan, Xi tells Trump in call

Taiwanese president says ties with Washington ‘rock solid’, hours after leaders of US and China share first call since November
In their first call since November, Chinese leader Xi Jinping warned US president Donald Trump to be “prudent” about supplying arms to Taiwan, according to a readout of their call provided by China’s foreign ministry.
“President Xi emphasised that the Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-US relations,” the readout said. “China must safeguard its own sovereignty and territorial integrity, and will never allow Taiwan to be separated. The US must handle the issue of arms sales to Taiwan with prudence.”
Continue reading…

Green energy sector drove more than 90% of China’s investment growth last year, analysis finds

Industry bigger than all but seven world economies, and accounts for more than third of China’s economic growth
China’s clean energy industries drove more than 90% of the country’s investment growth last year, making the sectors bigger than all but seven of the world’s economies, a new analysis has shown.
For the second time in three years, the report showed the manufacture, installation and export of batteries, electric cars, solar, wind and related technologies accounted for more than a third of China’s economic growth.
Continue reading…

Harry Potter’s Draco Malfoy becomes mascot for year of the horse in China

Mandarin transliteration of character’s name regarded as auspicious, prompting wave of memes and fan art
Draco Malfoy, one of Harry Potter’s most recognisable villains, has become an unlikely lunar new year icon across China, as fans embrace the character for the year of the horse.
In Mandarin, Malfoy’s name is transliterated as “mǎ ěr fú”. The first character means “horse” while the final character, “fú”, means “fortune” or “blessing” – a powerful symbol found across lunar new year celebrations.
Continue reading…

China to ban hidden car door handles on all EVs over crash safety concerns

Sleek car doors reduce vehicle drag but are prone to losing operability in the event of a crash, officials say
China will soon ban concealed door handles on electric vehicles (EVs), becoming the first country to do so after several deadly incidents triggered global scrutiny of the controversial design first popularised by Tesla.
According to regulations announced on Monday by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, cars sold in China will now be required to have a mechanical release on both the inside and outside of every door except the boot.
Continue reading…

Trump unveils $12bn critical minerals stockpile scheme in apparent move to counter China’s dominance

Other countries are expected to join Project Vault, which US president said would ensure that US businesses are ‘never harmed by any shortage’
Donald Trump has announced the creation of a critical mineral reserve worth nearly $12bn, a stockpile that could counter China’s ability to use its dominance of the hard-to-process metals as leverage in trade talks.
“Today we’re launching what will be known as Project Vault to ensure that American businesses and workers are never harmed by any shortage,” Trump said at the White House on Monday.
Continue reading…

Australia news live: Tony Mokbel walks free after criminal case withdrawn; health minister says surge in ebikes a ‘real emergency’

Follow the latest updates live

Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Rideshare driver in court over allegations of sexual assaulting passenger
A rideshare driver will face court after allegedly sexually assaulting a woman during a short early morning trip, AAP reports.
Continue reading…

Magic Beach by Alison Lester named Australia’s best children’s picture book

Lester’s 1990 classic about the wonders of nature wins Guardian Australia poll ahead of Possum Magic in second place

Alison Lester interview: ‘Everything I do looks a bit like a stuffed toy’

Children on their favourite picture book: ‘I also like that the dad cries’

Magic Beach by Alison Lester has won Guardian Australia’s poll to find Australia’s best children’s picture book of all time.
More than 100,000 votes were cast after polling opened on 27 January. Aside from the first day, when Possum Magic by Mem Fox and illustrator Julie Vivas took an early lead, Magic Beach was the most voted for book every other day of the count.
Continue reading…

Donors gave $131m before Australia’s 2025 election. Here’s who they are

Mining, resources and big fossil fuels donated more than $10m, or $62m if Clive Palmer’s Mineralogy donation to his Trumpet of Patriots party is included

Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Technology, fossil fuels and financial sector donors gave millions to Australian political parties before the 2025 election, while lobby groups, gambling firms and hotels companies also chipped in.
Analysis of Australian Electoral Commission data from the 2024-25 financial year found companies and individuals with interests in the tech sector donated more than $13m to the Labor, Liberal and Greens parties.
Continue reading…

Indonesians wrongly deemed adult people smugglers by Australian police finally cleared to appeal convictions

Errors led to boys aged as young as 13 going to adult maximum-security jails in WA. Now the attorney general has intervened in two cases

Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

The federal attorney general has used her mercy powers to pave the way for two Indonesian children to overturn a shocking miscarriage of justice that caused their wrongful imprisonment as adult people smugglers.
The boys, both aged 15, were among hundreds of Indonesian children who were found on asylum seeker boats between 2010 and 2012 and wrongly deemed adult people smugglers by Australian police.
Continue reading…

Adani donated $600,000 to Liberal National party before 2024 state election using federal ‘loophole’

The donations were disclosed through the Australian Electoral Commission on 2 February – but not through the state-level disclosure system

Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Adani donated more than $600,000 to the Liberal National party of Queensland before the 2024 state election, making it the party’s largest single federal donor.
But the donations were not disclosed for a year, with the Greens blaming a loophole in federal electoral funding laws that allowed it to not disclose it in real time.
Continue reading…

Resignations, denials and excuses: Epstein fallout hits some harder than others

While the US president’s many mentions in the Esptein files seem to have no consequences, in the UK Starmer could be the first world leader to fall
All around Europe, the political and business elite are facing an inquest on what blinded so many to think it was permissible to consort with a known child sex offender. As the 3m emails and 1,800 photos released on Friday by the US Department of Justice start to percolate across the continent and through to national media, questions about the moral fibre of this elite are starting to be asked at markedly different levels of intensity.
Squirming businessmen, bankers, politicians, royals, academics, tech bros and partners in law firms have become entangled in Jeffrey Epstein’s interlocking circles of money, power and sex. It seems there was no one in a position of power that Epstein was not in email contact with, and that there was little limit to what this networking elite was prepared to do in return for a gift, a contact or an invite to a sexually charged party. Elon Musk was right when in July 2025 he tweeted – only to quickly delete it – that “so many powerful people want that list suppressed”.
Continue reading…

Epstein files shed more light on Steve Bannon’s efforts to influence European politics

Donald Trump’s former adviser told Epstein in 2019 that he was ‘focused on raising money for Le Pen and Salvini’ before European elections
Dozens of messages contained in the latest tranche of Epstein files lay bare the attempts by Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon to tap Jeffrey Epstein for support and funding to bolster European far-right parties.
The messages mostly date to 2018 and 2019, when Bannon, after being sacked by Trump, regularly visited Europe in his quest to forge a movement in the European parliament uniting ultra-rightwing and Eurosceptic forces from several countries including Italy, Germany, France, Hungary, Poland, Sweden and Austria.
Continue reading…

Zelenskyy says Ukraine-Russia talks ‘not easy’ but ‘constructive’ after prisoner swap agreed – as it happened

This blog is now closed, you can read more on this story here
US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff said that the US, Ukraine and Russia have agreed to exchange 314 prisoners in “the first such exchange in five months.”
He said:
“This outcome was achieved from peace talks that have been detailed and productive. While significant work remains, steps like this demonstrate that sustained diplomatic engagement is delivering tangible results and advancing efforts to end the war in Ukraine.”
“We may be, in the course of 2026, coming to a point where the whole thing becomes unsustainable, because so much of the Russian economy has been distorted so much by the building up of the war economy at the expense of the civil economy. I think defying the laws of economic gravity can only go on for so long.”
Continue reading…

Italian investigated over claims he paid to shoot people during siege of Sarajevo

Former truck driver, now 80, allegedly one of many ‘sniper tourists’ who paid Bosnian Serb soldiers to be allowed fire on city
An elderly Italian man is under investigation as part of an investigation by prosecutors in Milan into individuals who allegedly paid members of the Bosnian Serb army for trips to Sarajevo so they could kill citizens during the four-year siege of the city in the 1990s.
The 80-year-old is being investigated on charges of aggravated murder, a source close to the case told the Guardian. The man, a former truck driver from the northern Italian region of Veneto, is the first suspect to be placed under investigation since the inquiry began in November.
Continue reading…

Summer travel disruption fears over new biometric checks at European borders

Industry leaders urge EU to tell authorities to stand down entry-exit system controls if needed
Travel industry leaders have called on the European Commission to tell all border authorities to stand down the new entry-exit system (EES) if needed as fears increase of summer disruption.
European airports have warned of a potentially “disastrous” experience for passengers and huge queues unless the biometric controls for foreign visitors are relaxed.
Continue reading…

Iran is betting that Trump does not have a plan for regime change

Although weakened by airstrikes, sanctions and domestic unrest, Tehran is surprisingly bullish before talks with US
When it comes to Iran and Donald Trump, there is so much bluff, backed by military hardware, that the truth rarely makes an appearance.
It appears that a bullish Iran is going into negotiations with the US on Friday adopting maximalist positions that do not seem greatly different to those it adopted in the five rounds of talks before the negotiations were abruptly halted by the surprise Israeli attack on Iran last June.
Continue reading…

Shin Bet chief’s brother charged with ‘assisting enemy’ over cigarette smuggling in Gaza

Bezalel Zini accused of role in taking goods into the occupied Palestinian territory during an Israeli blockade
The brother of Israel’s internal security chief has been charged with “assisting the enemy in wartime” for his alleged role in a smuggling network taking cigarettes and other goods into Gaza during an Israeli blockade of the occupied Palestinian territory.
Bezalel Zini was one of more than 10 people charged in relation to the alleged network. His brother, David Zini, is the head of the Shin Bet, the domestic intelligence agency. He was appointed by the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, last May and began the job in October.
Continue reading…

Israel accused of spraying cancer-linked herbicide on farms in southern Lebanon

President condemns ‘environmental and health crime’ as critics say Israel seeks to make southern Lebanon uninhabitable
Lebanon has accused Israel of spraying a herbicide linked to cancer on farmland in the south of the country as a “health crime” that would threaten food security and farmers’ livelihoods.
The country’s president, Joseph Aoun, condemned what he called “an environmental and health crime” and a violation of Lebanese sovereignty, and he vowed to take “all necessary legal and diplomatic measures to confront this aggression”.
Continue reading…

Dubai’s potent lure: the reality behind the real-estate frenzy

Bankers and billionaires are flocking to the city where income tax is zero but critics say it ignores money laundering – and pay disparities are huge

Business live – latest updates

Aidan Doyle was an estate agent in Liverpool before he decamped to Dubai and turned a £30,000 annual income into £500,000 a year and climbing.
Acting as an agent for buyers and sellers, Doyle has seen his commission soar beyond anything he could hope to generate in the UK after just three years in the city, one of seven city-states in the United Arab Emirates.
Continue reading…

US and Iran talks brought back from the brink after White House relents on move to Oman

Talks that had been scheduled in Turkey salvaged after Arab states convince White House not to walk away from negotiations
Talks between the US and Iran scheduled for Friday have been brought back from the brink of collapse after the US initially rejected Iran’s request to move them from Turkey to Oman without the presence of a group of Arab states.
Iran’s foreign minister said late on Wednesday that the talks would proceed in Oman after reports of a last-minute effort by Arab states to convince the White House not to walk away from negotiations.
Continue reading…