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Impeached president being questioned over failed December martial law bid a month after a first arrest attempt ended in stalemateExplainer: After the arrest of Yoon Suk Yeol, what happens next?South Korea’s impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol, has been arrested and is being questioned over his ill-fated declaration of martial law last month, anti-corruption investigators said on Wednesday, bringing to an end an early-morning standoff...

Exclusive: Sampling results show ‘extremely concerning’ concentrations of PFOS and PFOA at sites across UKWhere are the UK’s ‘forever chemical’ hotspots?RAF bases are hotspots of toxic “forever chemical” pollution in water, analysis of Ministry of Defence documents has revealed.Moreover, some of the highest concentrations of these chemicals in British drinking water sources are near RAF bases, official sampling results obtained by the Guardian and...

Law to stop armed groups profiting from trade in gold, tin, tungsten and tantalum is being breached, rights groups sayThe European Union has been urged to clamp down on illegal imports of conflict minerals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) after evidence was found that current regulations had been breached.The advocacy group Global Witness (GW) said there remained a “high risk” of...

Labor MP says parties must not ‘squabble over discrimination’ as Jillian Segal urges prime minister to convene meetingFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe Labor MP Josh Burns says there are “clearly gaps in our legal framework” and has called on political parties “not to squabble over discrimination”, after Australia’s special envoy...

Firefighters expect difficult and treacherous day as red flag warning forecasts winds of up to 75mph. This blog is now closedPrivate firefighting crews prompt furious public debateTell us about financial consequences you are facingCalifornia homeowners and business owners who lost everything in the devastating Los Angeles-area fires now have to tackle their insurance companies to recover the value of their homeowners’ policies – if...

Influential musician confirms loss of extensive record collection amassed over 30 yearsThe celebrated hip-hop producer Madlib has confirmed the loss of his extensive record collection and much of his recording equipment along with his home in the wildfires that have swept across California and killed at least 25 people.The influential musician, who has worked with some of the most prominent names in rap including...

Region faces ‘extreme fire risk’ warnings and ‘significant risk of rapid fire spread’ as official death toll expected to riseAs forecasters warn of another “particularly dangerous weather situation” across northern Los Angeles, residents braced for new wildfire evacuation orders, even as the official death toll from last week’s fires in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades was expected to rise.Los Angeles, and parts of Ventura...

Stars from Beyoncé to Eva Longoria, Halle Berry and Meghan Markle supporting families and frontline workersCelebrities are chipping in to help the region that’s helped them grow to prominence – southern California – as wildfires continue to sweep across the state.As of Tuesday afternoon, the Los Angeles-area fires had killed at least 25 people, displaced thousands of others and destroyed more than 12,000 structures....

Financial regulator alleges Musk later acquired shares of company at ‘artificially low prices’, stiffing shareholdersA US financial regulator has sued Elon Musk for allegedly failing to disclose his ownership of Twitter stock and later acquiring shares in the company at “artificially low prices”, stiffing other shareholders.The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed suit against Musk late on Tuesday in federal court in Washington DC...

First phase of agreement likely to involve release of 33 Israeli hostages and up to 1,000 Palestinian prisonersNegotiators met in Doha on Tuesday in an effort to hammer out the final details of a ceasefire in Gaza, as the warring sides were reported to be closing in on a deal and the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said the negotiations were “right on...

Exclusive: Findings suggest ‘weakening of west’ as relations become more transactional, say report’s authorsEuropean anxiety about Donald Trump’s return to the White House is not shared in much of the world, a poll has shown, with more people in non-western powers such as China, Russia, India and Brazil welcoming his second term than not.The 24-country poll, which also included Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Indonesia...

Deal negotiated through Catholic church will involve ‘gradual’ release of 553 political prisoners, says HavanaThe Biden administration has notified Congress that it will remove Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism in a deal the country’s communist government said would involve the “gradual” release of 553 political prisoners.The deal, which administration officials said was negotiated through the Catholic church, was announced on...

Hamas and Israel ‘in final stages’ of agreement, with Gazans still reeling from fresh deadly airstrikesMiddle East crisis – live updatesHopes rose across Gaza on Tuesday that the war that has devastated the territory, killing more than 46,000 and displacing millions, was finally over.Amid widespread reports that Hamas and Israel were in the “final stages” of agreeing a ceasefire agreement, residents of the embattled...

RedNote, also known as Xiaohongshu, rockets to top of US app stores, along with ByteDance’s Lemon8New users have piled in to the Chinese social media app RedNote just days before a proposed US ban on the popular social media app TikTok, as the lesser-known company rushes to capitalize on the sudden influx while walking a delicate line of moderating English-language content.In a live chat...

Responses range from conciliation to retaliation, including cutting off electricity and halting the purchase of US liquorCanada’s provincial premiers are sharply divided on how to prepare for US trade tariffs, less than a week before Donald Trump takes office with a threat to dramatically reshape the relationship between the two countries.Canadian officials have sought to defuse the crisis with personal appeals to the president-elect,...

Tech company rejects as ‘pure fiction’ a report that a deal could take place if it fails to avoid an impending banChinese officials have reportedly held preliminary talks about a potential option to sell TikTok’s operations in the US to the billionaire Elon Musk, should the short-video app be unable to avoid an impending ban. Another option is that Musk acts as a broker...

Exclusive: ‘Grotesque’ footage shows previously undocumented incidents on day PM Sheikh Hasina fled countryBangladeshi police killed or injured at least 20 unarmed protesters in two previously undocumented incidents during the demonstrations that engulfed the country last year, according to newly examined video footage.The International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP), a rights group that documents alleged abuses, has analysed video footage of two incidents in...

Relatives watch and wait as talks to broker ceasefire between Israel and Hamas continue in QatarThe families of Israeli hostages held captive for 15 months in the Gaza Strip have voiced cautious optimism their loved ones may soon be free as talks to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas continued in Qatar.“The reports suggesting a potential deal to secure the release of our...

Parliament unanimously agrees on three-month extension of security measures after gang warfare kills six last weekEscalating violence in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) has caused the country’s government to extend emergency security measures declared in December, after a week of bloody gang warfare that left at least six dead.Late on Monday evening, the T&T parliament unanimously agreed on a three-month extension of a state of...

François Bayrou said France must look global powers ‘face on’ in reference to Donald Trump’s return to officeThe French prime minister has said the country must stand firm in the face of figures such as Elon Musk, who represents a “new world disorder”.In his first policy speech to parliament on Tuesday, François Bayrou, a veteran centrist, said there was “a new world disorder, that...

Anne, 53, faces wave of online mockery for believing she was in relationship with actor and paying scammer €830kA French woman who believed she was in a long-term romantic relationship with Brad Pitt and was scammed into paying €830,000 (£700,000) to help him with medical treatment faced such a wave of online mockery that a TV programme about her has been withdrawn.The interior designer,...

UN agency says more than half of the displaced people are children, as gang attacks see upswing in Port-au-PrinceMore than 1 million people have been forced from their homes in Haiti amid a sharp upswing in gang attacks in the country’s embattled capital, Port-au-Prince, the UN has said.The UN’s migration agency, the IOM, said that never before had such a large number of Haitians...

American Zachary Greear, 34, receives suspended sentence after unruly behaviour on United Airlines planeA “nervous flyer” whose unruly behaviour caused his transatlantic flight to be diverted to Dublin has been given a two-month suspended sentence.Dublin district court heard that the 34-year-old American had mixed the tranquilliser Xanax with alcohol to combat his anxiety before becoming disruptive on the United Airlines flight on Monday. Continue...

Greenlandic minister says Denmark has failed to act over demands for action on minerals and alleged state abusesA Greenlandic government minister has said she views Donald Trump’s interest in the territory as positive, saying it has acted as a “wake-up call to Copenhagen” after years of failing to adequately respond to its demands for action on minerals and alleged abuses by the Danish state.Naaja...