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The GuardianDiplomacyEurope

Hosts Italy voice ‘absolute opposition’ to Russia flag flying at Winter Paralympics

Italian government urges IPC to reconsider its stanceRussian and Belarusian athletes to compete under flagsItaly, the Winter Olympic hosts, has called for a reversal of the decision to let 10 Russian and Belarusian athletes compete with national flags and anthems at next month’s Paralympic Games.The foreign minister Antonio Tajani and sports minister Andrea Abodi urged the International Paralympic Committee to reconsider its stance due to Russia’s four-year-old invasion of Ukraine, saying it contradicted the Olympic spirit.

Last updated 1h ago
The GuardianHealth AlertsLondon

What’s next for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson?

Former duchess has stood by the former prince through waves of allegations and has yet to comment on his arrestWhile the spotlight has been on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, his arrest has prompted questions about what is next for his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson.Ferguson, known by the tabloids as Fergie, married the then prince Andrew in 1986 and was divorced from him 10 years later after an alleged affair with an American financial adviser. It was one of multiple scandals in the 1990s and 2000s involving the former duchess, who was widely considered an embarrassment to the royal family.

Last updated 1h ago
The GuardianWar & ConflictSudan

RSF siege of El Fasher in Sudan has ‘hallmarks of genocide’, UN mission finds

Report details harrowing 18-month occupation of North Darfur capital, showing destruction aimed at ethnic communitiesThe of the Sudanese city of El Fasher by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces group last October bore “the hallmarks of genocide”, a UN-mandated fact-finding mission has said.In a report detailing the harrowing 18-month occupation of the capital of North Darfur, investigators concluded that the RSF and allied militias deliberately inflicted conditions calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the Zaghawa and Fur ethnic communities.

Last updated 2h ago
The GuardianPublic PolicyUSA

Trump order seeks to protect weedkiller at center of barrage of lawsuits

President’s move, which also seeks ‘immunity’ for makers, faces backlash from health advocates and Maha coalitionDonald Trump has signed protecting production of glyphosate-based herbicides, such as Roundup, which some and have linked to cancer and which are the subject of widespread US litigation.The president’s move, which also seeks to provide “immunity” for makers of the herbicides, was strongly criticized by health and environmental advocates including some figures in the Make America Healthy Again (Maha) coalition.This story is co-published with the , a journalism project of the Environmental Working Group

Last updated 0h ago
The GuardianWar & ConflictEngland

Spending even more on defence won’t buy us peace | Letters

Readers respond to the call by Keir Starmer and military chiefs for faster and larger investment in rearmamentWe are told to spend even more, and more quickly, on the armed forces, whose current budget for this year is expected to amount to more than £60bn (). The Ministry of Defence must surely first show it can put its house in order.The government is considering whether to scrap Ajax, the army’s planned new armoured vehicle, even though more than £6bn of taxpayers’ money has already been spent on the project. Ajax is eight years late, its defects so serious that have made soldiers training on it sick, with some suffering hearing loss.

Last updated 2h ago
The GuardianInformationUSA

US builds website that will allow Europeans to view blocked content

Freedom.gov appears to be administered by a branch of the Department of Homeland SecurityThe US has built a portal that will allow Europeans to view blocked content including alleged hate speech and terrorism, according to .The portal, “”, will allow worldwide users to circumvent government controls on their content. The site features a graphic of a ghostly horse galloping above the Earth, and the motto: “Information is power. Reclaim your human right to free expression. Get ready.”

Last updated 1h ago
The GuardianAIUSA

Digital blackface flourishes under Trump and AI: ‘The state is bending reality’

From TikTok deepfakes to smears put out by the White House, fake videos modeled on Black archetypes are running rampant - putting Black users at riskLate last year, as a US government shutdown cut off the Snap benefits that low-income families rely on for groceries, videos on social media cast the fallout in frantic scenes. “Imma keep it real with you,” a Black woman said in a viral TikTok post, “I get over $2,500 a month in stamps. I sell ’em, $2,000 worth, for about $1,200-$1,500 cash.” Another Black woman ranted about taxpayers’ responsibility to her seven children with seven men, and yet another melted down after her food stamps were rejected at a corn-dog counter.Visible watermarks stamped some videos as AI-generated – apparently, too faintly for the racist commentators and hustlers more than happy to believe the frenzy was real. “You got people treating it like a side hustle, selling the stamps, abusing the system,” the conservative commentator Amir Odom whinged. Fox News as if they were authentic, before . Newsmax anchor Rob Schmitt people were using Snap “to get their nails done, to get their weaves and hair”. (Lost in the outrage was a basic fact: white Americans 37% of Snap’s 42 million beneficiaries.)

Last updated 4h ago
The GuardianDiplomacyUSA

Authoritarians, strongmen and dictators: who is on Trump’s Board of Peace?

Representatives of repressive regimes from around the world are flying to Washington for the inaugural meeting of the bodyA grouping of largely oppressive and authoritarian world leaders and their envoys are flying to Washington for the inaugural meeting of .The body was created to implement , but Trump has widened its scope, “the most consequential international body in history”.

Last updated 15h ago
The GuardianScandalEngland

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor released under investigation after arrest – live

The police raided Andrew’s Norfolk home on ThursdayBefore the arrest was announced, the prime minister told BBC Breakfast “nobody is above the law” when asked about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.Keir Starmer added:Anybody who has any information should testify.So whether it’s Andrew or anybody else, anybody who has got relevant information should come forward to whatever the relevant body is, in this particular case we’re talking about Epstein, but there are plenty of other cases.

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