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New Zealand landslide: rescue efforts called off for six people buried in disaster

Efforts to rescue six people buried by a landslide at a New Zealand holiday park ended on Saturday, with police shifting into a recovery operation. Police Supt Tim Anderson said human remains had been uncovered on Friday night beneath the mountains of dirt and debris that crashed into a campsite in Mount Maunganui on Thursday, adding that it could take several days to locate all of the victims due to the unstable ground. Anderson said it was “heartbreaking” that six people remained unaccounted for, including a 15-year-old, after camper vans, caravans and a shower block were buried in a mudslide brought on by heavy rain. He said it was now “highly unlikely” that more than six people had been caught under the landslide. “There’s still a lot of mud and other aspects [around the site] so my primary consideration today is actually the safety of the staff working on it,” he said on Saturday. “There are really strict parameters around those that are working on site right now.” The remains will be transported to a mortuary in Hamilton. Chief coroner Anna Tutton warned that the identification process could be “painful” and “lengthy”. For the past two days, the holiday town in the northern part of the country has staged a series of vigils, holding out hope that the search and rescue personnel would be successful. Prime minister Christopher Luxon said on Saturday “every New Zealander has been hoping for a miracle” and that the switch to a recovery operation was “the news we have all been dreading”. “Police have confirmed fatalities at the campground and the reality that no one would have been able to survive, therefore the rescue operation taking place there is now moving to a recovery. “To the families who have lost loved ones – every New Zealander is grieving with you.” More poor weather is forecast for the area on Saturday with thunderstorms and hail possible, potentially hampering the recovery operation at the campsite. New Zealand authorities are facing questions over why people were not evacuated after reports of a landslip at the campsite and neighbouring areas earlier on Thursday. Two people died in a separate landslide on Thursday in the neighbouring harbourside city of Tauranga. One of the people killed was a Chinese national, officials said.

Trump says US ‘armada’ heading to Middle East as Iran death toll put above 5,000

Donald Trump has said an American “armada” is heading towards the Middle East and that the US is monitoring Iran closely, as activists put the death toll from Tehran’s crackdown on protesters at 5,002. Speaking on Air Force One as he returned from the World Economic Forum in Davos overnight, he said: “We have a lot of ships going that direction, just in case. I’d rather not see anything happen, but we’re watching them very closely … we have an armada … heading in that direction, and maybe we won’t have to use it.” The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and several guided-missile destroyers are due to arrive in the Middle East in the coming days. Additional air defence systems are being deployed, most likely around US and Israeli airbases. The UK said it would send RAF Eurofighter Typhoon jets from 12 Squadron to Qatar, at Doha’s request. Iran will treat any attack “as an all-out war against us, and we will respond in the hardest way possible” a senior Iranian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters on Friday ahead of the arrival of the US aircraft carrier strike group. The US president pulled back from attacking Iran two weeks ago, despite promising “help is on its way”, largely because he felt he had been given no military option that would prove decisive in securing regime change in Tehran. He was also urged to hold back by the Gulf states. In an update on Friday, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said the death toll from the Iranian crackdown on protesters had reached 5,002 – comprising 4,716 demonstrators, 203 government-affiliated people, 43 children and 40 civilians not taking part in the protests. The agency’s numbers have been accurate in previous unrest in Iran and rely on a network of activists there to verify deaths. HRANA said at least 26,541 people had been arrested. The protests started on 28 December when traders took to the streets in Tehran in response to a sudden dip in the value of the rial. As they spread, demands expanded to include calls for an end to the country’s government, creating the most serious and deadliest unrest in the country since the 1979 revolution. Speaking at an emergency session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Volker Türk, the UN commissioner for human rights, said thousands of people, including children, had been killed on the streets and in residential areas. He said video evidence showed there were hundreds in morgues with fatal injuries to their heads and chests, while hundreds of security personnel had also been killed. He urged Iran to “end their brutal repression”, including summary trials, and urged a complete moratorium on the use of the death penalty. Türk decried Iran’s judiciary chief this week saying there would be no leniency for the thousands detained, saying it was a “chilling development”. “I am deeply concerned by contradictory statements from the Iranian authorities about whether those detained in connection with the protests may be executed,” he said, pointing out that Iran “remains among the top executioner states in the world”, with at least 1,500 people reportedly put to death there last year. The Iranian authorities have sought to delegitimise the protests by claiming rioters infiltrated peaceful protests. “None of this would justify resorting to disproportionate use of force or coercing families,” Türk said. He claimed there had been 100 forced confessions and a lack of transparency about proceedings, with those arrested including lawyers, human rights activists, cafe owners, athletes and actors. The internet shutdown was the longest recorded in Iran and had severely restricted communications making it difficult for families to check on the welfare of their loved ones, he said. Mai Sato, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, demanded to be able to visit Iran for a thorough investigation. “The Iranian people have shown enormous courage by talking truth to power,” she said, and urged the international community to reciprocate. “Lethal force can only be used as a last resort to protect life and must be lawful, necessary and proportionate. I’ve received countless videos showing security forces using lethal force against unarmed protesters.” The protest movement has largely petered out in the face of the crackdown, which was accompanied by an unprecedented internet blackout, though chants of “death to the dictator” are taking place at bitter and often well-attended funerals. Videos are still trickling out from inside Iran showing how security forces were given licence to shoot to kill protesters, especially from 5-8 January. One of the main reformist newspapers, Ham-Mihan, has been shut down for printing two stories: one on the pursuit of protesters in a hospital and the other detailing the severity and brutality of the suppression more widely. Many leading reformists have not been able to express their views on the crackdown, and the few that have been allowed to address wider audiences seem to be blaming both sides for a collapse in social solidarity brought on by a crash in the exchange rate. The extent to which these problems are caused by sanctions or internal inefficiency is debated. In his longest reflection to date on the violence, the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, a reformist elected 18 months ago, claimed “the civil and just protest of the people was turned into a bloody and violent battle due to a conspiracy by those who wish Iran ill will”. Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, took credit while in Davos for the protests, saying US sanctions had led to the unrest and that maximum economic sanctions “worked because in December, their economy collapsed”. He added: “We saw a major bank go under. The central bank has started to print money. There is a dollar shortage. They are not able to get imports, and this is why the people took to the streets. This is economic statecraft, no shots fired, and things are moving in a very positive way here.” Trump has repeatedly left open the option of new military action against Iran after Washington backed and joined Israel’s 12-day war in June aimed at degrading Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. But the prospect of immediate American action seemed to have receded in recent days, with both sides insisting on giving diplomacy a chance. Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi, who heads Iran’s Khatam-al Anbiya Central Headquarters, which coordinates the army and the Revolutionary Guards, warned the US on Thursday that any military strike on Iran would turn all US bases in the region into “legitimate targets”.

Black and white and sent back over: end of panda diplomacy as Japan returns bears to China

The panda house at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo is not due to open for several hours, but visitors are already milling around its entrance, pausing to pose for photographs in front of murals of the facility’s most beloved residents. A short walk away the gift shop is doing a roaring trade in themed souvenirs – from cuddly toys and stationery to T-shirts and biscuits. The visitors are here to say goodbye to Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei. Early next week, the twin pandas, born at the zoo in 2021 but technically on loan from China, will be flown out of Tokyo’s Narita airport to China, where they will undergo quarantine and be reunited with their sister, Xiang Xiang, at a conservation and research centre in Sichuan province. Their departure will not only leave legions of Japanese admirers bereft; it is also symptomatic of a dramatic deterioration in relations between China and their host country. Japan will be without a giant panda for the first time since 1972, when Tokyo and Beijing normalised diplomatic ties almost three decades after the end of the second world war. Since then, China has loaned more than 30 pandas – an endangered species – to zoos in Japan, where they have endeared themselves to countless animal lovers and caused anguish on their return. The panda project has survived changes in Chinese leadership, the rise of hawkish leaders in Japan, and even an unresolved territorial dispute over the Senkakus, uninhabited islands in the East China sea that are administered by Japan but claimed by China, where they are known as the Diaoyu. But “panda diplomacy” has met its match in the future of Taiwan. Japan’s conservative prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has refused to back down on a suggestion she could deploy the self-defence forces in the event of an attempted Chinese invasion of Taiwan, which she has said poses an “existential threat” to Japan. The reportedly unscripted remarks, made before a parliamentary committee in November, drew a furious response from China, which accused Takaichi of interfering in its internal affairs. Chinese tourism to Japan has plummeted since Beijing urged its citizens not to travel to the country, while cultural exchanges and other events aimed at fostering closer ties have been cancelled or postponed. Now those tensions have seeped into the animal world. Despite requests for replacements from the Tokyo metropolitan government, Chinese authorities have said there are no plans to send pandas to take up residence at Ueno Zoo. “If tensions between Japan and China persist, China may refrain from new loans, and pandas may no longer be seen in Japan,” the Beijing Daily, a state-controlled newspaper, quoted a Chinese expert as saying recently. Members of the public lucky enough to have secured tickets to view the pair via a hugely oversubscribed online lottery voiced frustration that the zoo’s long relationship with pandas appears to be over – at least for the time being. “It’s such a shame this is the last time I’ll be able to see them,” said one woman who had travelled from nearby Saitama prefecture. “It feels like we’re being picked on by the Chinese government.” A thaw in relations that could lead to a resumption of panda diplomacy appears unlikely while Beijing and Tokyo are locked in a bitter row over the future of Taiwan – a self-governing democracy that China regards as a renegade province that will eventually be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary. “Giant pandas function mainly as symbols of Sino-Japanese friendship rather than as drivers of bilateral relations,” said Prof Rumi Aoyama, an expert in Japan-China relations at Waseda University in Tokyo. “Their presence here doesn’t in itself advance ties, and nor does their return to China undermine them. Instead, they serve as indicators of the broader state of relations between the two countries.” The panda’s purely symbolic role will do little to console Japan’s legions of panda lovers. More than 7.6 million people flocked to Ueno when Kang Kang and Lan Lan, the first giant pandas to be loaned by China, arrived 50 years ago. Ueno zookeepers were visibly upset after Ling Ling, a male panda that had lived there since 1992, died in April 2008. The prospects for a resumption in panda loans – made under the Washington Convention on the trade in endangered species – grew weaker after Takaichi this week called a snap general election for next month. Her refusal to bend to Chinese demands to withdraw her Taiwan remarks have contributed to her high approval ratings – a factor in her decision to call an early lower house election. “I don’t expect (Takaichi) to take any action before the election,” Aoyama said. “China has raised the bar by demanding a retraction of her statement, a condition Japan is unlikely to accept. As a result, there is little room for Japan to make any moves ahead of the election.” Emotions will be running high on Sunday, when the last batch of lottery winners arrive at Ueno to bid the pandas farewell. The zoo saw a surge in visitors as soon as the panda’s fate was announced last month, with some waiting as long as six hours to catch a glimpse of the animals. Since mid-December, access has been limited to up to 4,800 people a day, and by reservation only, with a lottery introduced to control soaring demand during the pandas’ final 12 days in Japan. This week the lottery winners included a woman who said she had fallen in love with the animals after seeing them for the first time at a zoo near her home in the western port city of Kobe. “I know the diplomatic situation is sensitive, but it’s frustrating that pandas have become mixed up in it,” she said. Asked if she would take up the Chinese foreign ministry’s invitation to visit the twins in their new home, she replied. “Absolutely not.” In the background, visitors without lottery tickets queued to have their photos taken with lifesize models of giant pandas. Banners of one of the zoo’s star residents gnawing on a piece of bamboo carried a simple message: “Thank you, Xiao Xiao.”

Spain train collision investigators examine rail damage theory

Experts investigating the deadly rail collision in southern Spain, which killed 45 people and left dozens more injured, believe the accident may have happened after one of the trains passed over a damaged section of rail. The disaster occurred near the Andalucían town of Adamuz on Sunday, when a high-speed train operated by Iryo, a private company, derailed and collided with an oncoming high-speed train operated by the state rail company, Renfe. A preliminary report published by the Rail Accidents Investigation Commission (CIAF) on Friday found nicks in the wheels on the right-hand side of the three front carriages of the Iryo train consistent with an impact with the top of the rail. “These nicks in the wheels and the observed deformation in the rail are consistent with the rail being fractured: with the rail’s continuity interrupted, the section before the break would initially bear the full weight of the wheel, causing that part of the rail to sag slightly,” the report said. “Since the section of rail after the break would not be acting in unison with the section before it, a step would momentarily form between the two sides of the fracture, which would strike the wheel rim.” Given the available information, the report added: “We can hypothesise that the rail fracture occurred prior to the passage of the Iryo train involved in the accident and therefore prior to the derailment.” But the CIAF also stressed that the theory was provisional and would be subject to further testing and investigation. Spain’s transport minister, Óscar Puente, told reporters on Friday afternoon that if the cause of the accident had been a damaged rail, the fault must have occurred “in the minutes or hours before the train derailment and, therefore … could not be detected”. Puente also said investigators were looking into whether the rail may have suffered a defect during its manufacture. Pedro Marco de la Peña, the president of Spain’s state rail infrastructure administrator, Adif, said the batch of track in question had been identified and would be carefully tested. Two days after the Adamuz accident, a train driver was killed and 37 people injured when a train was derailed by the collapse of a retaining wall near Gelida in Catalonia. The two deadly events have led Semaf, Spain’s largest train drivers’ union, to call a three-day strike in February to demand measures to guarantee the safety of railworkers and passengers. Semaf said industrial action was “the only legal avenue left for workers to demand the restoration of safety standards on the railway system and, consequently, guarantee the safety of both railway professionals and passengers”. The tragedy has been seized on by opposition parties which have accused Spain’s socialist-led coalition government of a chaotic response and a lack of transparency. “The state of the railways is a reflection of the state of the nation,” Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the leader of the conservative People’s party, said on Friday. He added: “Right now, we don’t have the best rail system in our history; what we have is the worst government in our history.”

United Arab Emirates plans to bankroll first ‘planned community’ in south Gaza

The United Arab Emirates plans to fund “Gaza’s first planned community” on the ruined outskirts of Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city. Palestinian residents there will have access to basic services like education, healthcare and running water, as long as they submit to biometric data collection and security vetting, according to planning documents and people familiar with the latest round of talks at the US-led Civil Military Coordination Center in Israel. The planned city would mark the UAE’s first investment in a postwar reconstruction project located in the part of Gaza currently held by Israel. The wealthy Gulf state has contributed more than $1.8bn of humanitarian assistance to Gaza since 7 October 2023, according to UAE state media, making it Gaza’s largest humanitarian donor. Blueprints for the Emirati-backed endeavor are laid out in an unclassified slide deck obtained by the Guardian and first reported by Dropsite, but the UAE’s role as its planned financier has not previously been reported. The presentation was prepared for a cohort of European donors who visited the CMCC on 14 January, according to an aid official who shared details about the briefing on the condition of anonymity. Israeli military planners have given the plans their stamp of approval. Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff and Josh Gruenbaum, all members or advisers to the US-led Board of Peace, arrived on Friday in Abu Dhabi to broker peace talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators. The Gulf ally agreed to host the landmark trilateral meeting after pledging its support for several US-led efforts, including the Board of Peace. The group is newly mandated to oversee reconstruction efforts in Gaza, following Donald Trump’s endorsement of its founding charter on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos. The United Arab Emirates did not comment on its decision to endorse the Board of Peace, or its plans to fund one of the first US- and Israeli-backed reconstruction projects in Gaza. One US official said that the first Emirati-backed compound could “become a model” for a string of residential camps that US and Israeli officials have described as “alternative safe communities”. Within the first Rafah community, billed as a “case study”, planners envision several efforts to prevent the influence of Hamas, including the introduction of electronic shekel wallets “to mitigate the diversion of goods and funds to the Hamas financial channels”, and a school curriculum that will “not be Hamas-based”, but supplied by the UAE. Planners also specify that residents will be permitted to “enter and exit the neighborhood freely, subject to security checks to prevent the introduction of weapons and hostile elements”. Plans do not indicate who will conduct security checks at the entry and exit points of the planned community. Any new residential compounds will be built atop of the rubble left from Israel’s two-year war on Gaza – an assault that has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians and leveled three-quarters of the structures in Gaza amid Israel’s efforts to rout out Hamas militants after their deadly 7 October attack. Rebuilding Gaza will cost at least $70bn, according to the United Nations, which estimates that at least three-quarters of Gaza’s roads, water pipes and buildings have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli bombardment. UN experts estimate that rebuilding efforts could take up to 80 years, given the level of destruction. Clearing debris, disarming unexploded ordnance and retrieving bodies trapped under the rubble could all complicate the process. ‘New Rafah’ Under the terms of Trump’s brokered peace agreement, Gaza is now divided into two halves: a “green zone”, controlled by the Israeli military; and a “red zone”, in effect governed by Hamas. Initial reconstruction efforts are only slated for the Israeli-held half of Gaza. Kushner dispensed with the artificial red zone and green zone divisions during a presentation at Davos on Thursday, where he unveiled Board of Peace ambitions to redevelop Gaza’s entire Mediterranean coast. On a slide titled “master plan”, Kushner’s group re-envisioned a map of Gaza featuring eight “residential areas” spanning Gaza, including two development blocks called Rafah 1 and Rafah 2. The first city, called “New Rafah” in the Board of Peace slide deck, would be built during an early phase of Trump’s 20-point peace plan. The Board of Peace plans promise 100,000 permanent housing units, 200 education centers and 75 medical facilities in the new city. A White House spokesperson said that the Emirati-backed compound would be built during the board’s initial reconstruction push. Land-clearing efforts for the Rafah site are already under way, an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson told the Guardian. “Israel’s mission on the east side of the yellow line is to clear the infrastructure in that territory, including tunnels, booby-trapped houses – all of the infrastructure left on our side,” the IDF spokesperson said. They also said that Israel would not participate in building or running the Emirati compound. “When construction begins, that’s when the ISF participates with boots on the ground.” The ISF, or International Stabilization Force, is a concept introduced by the Trump-brokered peace agreement. It envisions countries pledging troops to serve as a neutral security body responsible for overseeing public security in Gaza. Countries have yet to pledge forces. A project timeline obtained by the Guardian indicates that site planning began with a “land deed” review in late October and will entail at least four to six months of preparations before construction begins. A deed review was a top priority for planners, according to two people briefed on the process. If Palestinian landowners can prove deeded claims to the site, Gulf funders and other groups linked to “Gaza’s first planned community” could be accused of forcible displacement of a civilian population, which is a war crime. Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator, expressed skepticism that the Emirati-backed compound would ever be built, but said that, either way, the plans serve Israel’s political goals. “Without one brick being laid, it gives a further layer of permission to Israel clearing the area, and displacing or killing Palestinians in the process,” Levy said. The Emirates’ participation allows Israel to insist that construction is proceeding with the support of an Arab state, Levy added. “It distracts from the fact that Israel occupies 58% of Gaza because this portion of Gaza they will attempt to label as ‘happy Gaza’, with schools and a judiciary and hospitals,” Levy said. It’s not clear exactly how reconstruction efforts will proceed. United Nations programs that once serviced 80% of Gaza’s schools have been largely dismantled, following Israel’s allegations that UN staff participated in 7 October. And Israel has barred several longstanding aid groups from Gaza, including those that once staffed and supplied its hospitals or funded community water projects. Private contractors have been courting White House officials in hopes of securing lucrative reconstruction bids since October, when Trump brokered the peace agreement. One group, led by a Republican insider, has claimed to have an “inside track” to reconstruction work, the Guardian reported in December. Muhammad Shehada, a visiting Middle East fellow for the European Council on Foreign Relations, said that reconstruction planners at the CMCC seem to be operating under the assumption that Palestinians will leave the Hamas-controlled red zone and move into newly constructed communities “if you dump enough food there”. He said that those tactics may not work and overlooked the politics of the area, which he said “did not interest” military planners. To move into the Emirati compound, Palestinians living in the “red zone” will have to cross an Israeli checkpoint into the “green zone”. Next, they will be subjected to “security vetting” and “biometric documentation”. The plans do not specify who would complete the vetting or manage biometric data collection, nor do they articulate why someone would be turned away. Palestinians approved for entry will use their Palestinian ID numbers, as issued by the Palestinian Authority in coordination with Israel’s COGAT, the Israeli agency charged with administration of Gaza, to join the community registry, planning documents say. Matt Mahmoudi, an assistant professor at the University of Cambridge and researcher and adviser on AI and human rights at Amnesty International, reviewed planning documents for “Gaza’s first planned community” and raised concerns the plan would “expand biometric surveillance in Gaza”. “Israel’s deployment of biometric surveillance reinforces apartheid and the oppression of Palestinians by perpetuating a coercive environment intended to force Palestinians out of areas of strategic interest to Israeli authorities,” Mahmoudi said. Should Palestinians voluntarily subject themselves to the surveillance and biometric measures proposed for “Gaza’s first planned community”, Levy and others suggested that Israel would be happy to see this first “case study” succeed. “As far as Israel is concerned, if Gaza ends up with four or so model Palestinian communities of say 25,000 each, all of them vetted, and everything else is a hellscape where you’re further encouraging the ethnic cleansing, or the physical removal of Palestinians from there, that’s a desirable outcome.”

Russia keeps up demand for Ukrainian land as three-way talks begin in UAE

Ukraine, Russia and the US have begun three-way talks for the first time since Russia’s full-scale military invasion began in February 2022, but with the Kremlin maintaining its maximalist demands for Ukrainian territory, it is unclear whether Donald Trump will be able to broker a ceasefire even by putting heavy pressure on Kyiv. The talks in Abu Dhabi on Friday are the highest-level known summit between the three sides since the beginning of the war, and come as Trump’s demands to take over Greenland have strained tensions among Ukraine’s western allies as the country endures a harsh winter with much of its civilian energy infrastructure damaged by Russian attacks. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said the three sides were meeting at “negotiator level” and that the “format is happening for the first time in a long time”. Kyiv’s delegation “knows what to do,” he said in a voice note to journalists. Russia sent a delegation led by the GRU military intelligence chief, Adm Igor Kostyukov, indicating a focus on military rather than political negotiations. The talks come after a seventh meeting between Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Vladimir Putin in Moscow, where the main topics of discussion were Russia’s demands for territory and Ukraine’s security guarantees, which Zelenskyy has said were agreed with Trump at this week’s World Economic Forum in Davos. Witkoff was accompanied in Moscow by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. They were joined by Josh Gruenbaum, the commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service (FAS). He was recently appointed as a senior adviser on Trump’s international “board of peace” for Gaza. The Kremlin’s diplomatic adviser, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters the talks had been “useful in every respect” and that it was “agreed that the first meeting of a trilateral working group on security issues will take place today in Abu Dhabi”. As the talks were about to begin on Friday, the Kremlin repeated its demand that Kyiv withdraw its forces from the eastern Donbas region for the war to end. Other senior Russian officials have gone on record demanding Ukraine adopt other measures that have been left out of a “20-point peace plan”, in what they indicated were plans to pursue regime change in Kyiv. “Any settlement proposal founded on the primary goal of preserving the current Nazi regime in what remains of the Ukrainian state is, naturally, completely unacceptable to us,” Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said on Tuesday. Before the talks, a German government spokesperson questioned whether Moscow would be willing to concede on any of its demands, which include taking over territory currently not under its military control. “There are still major questions about the extent to which Russia is really willing to move away from its maximalist demands,” Steffen Meyer said. “Nothing would be gained if a peace agreement ultimately only gave Russia some breathing space and allowed it to launch new attacks at a later date. That is why we have focused very strongly on the issue of security guarantees.” The full details of the UAE talks had not been released at the time of writing, and it was not clear whether Russian and Ukrainian officials would meet face to face. Zelenskyy said the meetings would last for two days. The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said: “Russia’s position is well known on the fact that Ukraine, the Ukrainian armed forces, have to leave the territory of the Donbas. They must be withdrawn from there … This is a very important condition.” The Trump administration has been pushing for a peace settlement, with representatives of the US president shuttling between Kyiv and Moscow in a flurry of negotiations that some worry could force Ukraine into an unfavourable deal. Trump said on Wednesday that Putin and Zelenskyy would be “stupid” if they failed to come together and get a deal done. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, Witkoff said one key issue remained to be resolved, without giving further details. Zelenskyy said the future status of land occupied by Russia in eastern Ukraine was unresolved, but that peace proposals were “nearly ready”. Both sides have previously highlighted the issue of territory as crucial. Putin has repeatedly demanded that Ukraine surrender the 20% of the eastern region of Donetsk it still holds. Zelenskyy has refused to give up land that Ukraine has successfully defended since 2022 through grinding and costly attritional warfare. Russia also demands Ukraine renounce its ambition to join Nato and rejects any presence of Nato troops on Ukrainian soil after a peace deal. Zelenskyy said from Davos: “The Russians have to be ready for compromises because, you know, everybody has to be ready, not only Ukraine, and this is important for us.” He said postwar security guarantees between Washington and Kyiv were ready, should a deal be reached, although they would require each country’s ratification. Zelenskyy was speaking after a closed-door meeting with Trump and a blistering Davos speech in which he accused European leaders of being in “Greenland mode” as they waited for US leadership rather than taking action themselves. Despite Trump’s limited and scattergun support for Ukraine since taking office a year ago, Zelenskyy focused on Europe’s role in the conflict, accusing the continent’s leaders of complacency and inaction. “Just last year, here in Davos, I ended my speech with the words: ‘Europe needs to know how to defend itself,’” he said. “A year has passed, and nothing has changed.” Speaking to reporters as he flew back to Washington, Trump said his meeting with Zelenskyy had gone well,and that the Ukrainian president had told him he wanted to make a deal to end the war. “I had a good meeting, but I’ve had numerous good meetings with President Zelenskyy and it doesn’t seem to happen,” he said.

Spanish prosecutors drop sexual assault complaint against Julio Iglesias

Spanish prosecutors have shelved a complaint brought by two women who have accused the singer Julio Iglesias of sexual assault and human trafficking, arguing the country’s courts have no jurisdiction as the alleged offences took place outside Spain. Two female former employees who worked at Iglesias’s Caribbean mansions 10 days ago accused the veteran entertainer of sexual assault, saying they had been subjected “to inappropriate touching, insults and humiliation … in an atmosphere of control and constant harassment”. The allegations emerged at the end of a three-year joint investigation by the Spanish news site elDiario.es and the Spanish-language TV network Univision Noticias, which gathered testimony from 15 former employees who worked for the 82-year-old singer between the late 1990s and 2023. The two complainants – a domestic worker and a physical therapist employed at mansions in the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas – filed their complaint with prosecutors at Spain’s highest criminal court, the Audiencia Nacional. In a decision issued on Friday, prosecutors rejected the case, saying Spanish courts “lacked jurisdiction” because the alleged offences had not taken place in the country. A filing seen by Reuters from the prosecutors said while the high court was unable to hear the case, prosecution could still be sought in the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas. One of the women, referred to as Rebeca to protect her identity, said Iglesias, who was 77 at the time, would frequently call her to his room at the end of the working day. She said he would then penetrate her anally and vaginally with his fingers without her consent. “He used me almost every night,” she told elDiario.es and Univision Noticias. “I felt like an object, like a slave.” According to Rebeca, the assaults habitually took place in the presence – and with the participation – of another employee who was her superior. Another woman, using the pseudonym Laura, said Iglesias kissed her on the mouth and touched her breasts without her consent. Eldiario.es also published documents suggesting that Iglesias allegedly ordered some women who worked for him to undergo tests for sexually transmitted diseases. The singer, whose career spans six decades, has denied all the allegations and said he would defend himself against what he described as “a serious affront”. In a statement posted on Instagram a week ago, Iglesias wrote: “With great regret, I am responding to the allegations from two people who used to work in my house. I have never abused, coerced or disrespected any woman. These accusations are absolutely false and pain me deeply.”

Canadian Olympic snowboarder turned alleged cocaine kingpin in US custody

Ryan Wedding, the Canadian Olympic snowboarder turned alleged drug kingpin, has been arrested after turning himself in at the US embassy in Mexico, law enforcement officials announced on Friday. Wedding, 44, had been sought by the FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) for his role in overseeing what the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, called the “one of the most prolific and violent drug-trafficking organizations” in the world. “He thought he could evade justice … here we are today, bringing him to justice,” the FBI director, Kash Patel, said from an airfield in California, calling Wedding the “largest narco-trafficker in modern times”. Mexico’s security minister, Omar García Harfuch, said that Wedding “surrendered voluntarily” at the US embassy in Mexico City on Wednesday after evading police for nearly a decade. Wedding was flown from Mexico to California and is custody. He is due to appear in court on Monday in California. He is charged with drug trafficking, conspiracy to murder, witness tampering and money laundering. Officials in the US allege that Wedding’s organisation had moved nearly 60 metric tons of cocaine a year into Los Angeles from Mexico using a network of semitrucks. Wedding is also accused of ordering the killing of a key FBI witness as well as several other murders, including that of a couple who were killed in a case of mistaken identity. Since 2023, the RCMP and the FBI have been collaborating on a sprawling investigation known as Operation Giant Slalom. In March, 2025, Wedding was added to the FBI’s Most Wanted List. “We told you in November we would find Mr Wedding. Today, that day has arrived,” said Akil Davis, the assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office. “The long arm of the law extends beyond our border.” David said the arrest was a “good day” for victims. “Ryan Wedding tormented several people and several families that will never be the same,” he said. “But today, they get the justice that they sought.” Davis said in addition to “crushing sanctions” against 19 people, including Wedding, authorities also seized a Mercedes sports car worth $15m and motorcycles worth $40m. US authorities had previously said that they believed Wedding to be in hiding in Mexico. On Thursday, Patel was in Mexico City for what he called “pre-planned” meetings with the country’s security chief, García Harfuch. And on Friday morning he left with a souvenir: Wedding and another, unnamed, “priority objective”. The decision for an FBI director to be present in the field for an arrest is exceedingly rare and speaks to the political focus on capturing Wedding. García Harfuch released a statement saying that Patel was leaving with “a non-US citizen who was arrested by Mexican authorities and is among the FBI’s 10 most wanted, and a Canadian citizen who voluntarily surrendered yesterday at the US embassy”. “If it’s true that he handed himself in, this may be an attempt to negotiate better terms,” said Cecilia Farfán-Méndez, an analyst with the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime. “Maybe it gives him a little more room for manoeuvre.” Or there could be another explanation: he feared for his safety in Mexico, said Farfán-Méndez. The arrest comes at a time of tension in North America, with Mark Carney and Donald Trump clashing at Davos, and renewed threats of US military strikes on Mexican cartel targets. “There was a message from the secretary of state, talking about the need for tangible results [against organised crime],” said Farfán-Méndez. “I think grabbing Ryan Wedding is a very media-friendly way to show tangible results. I think it could be filed under that column.” Alejandro Rosales Castillo, one of the FBI’s 10 most wanted fugitives, who is accused of the murder of a woman in North Carolina in 2016, was also arrested. A US citizen, he crossed the border to Mexico in 2017 and was in hiding for almost a decade until he was captured in Pachuca, Hidalgo, on 16 January. NBC News first announced news of the arrest and US law enforcement officials familiar with the operation confirmed it to the Guardian. In March, the FBI announced a $15m reward for the capture of Wedding, whose nicknames allegedly include “Public Enemy”, “El Jefe” and “Giant”. At the time,Patel, compared Wedding to Pablo Escobar and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. The head of the RCMP, Michael Duheme, was also present at the announcement and said “no single country” can break up transnational drug-trafficking organizations. Wedding was allegedly being protected by the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico while he was on the run. Some analysts have suggested that Wedding’s significance in the international drug trade had been exaggerated by US authorities and the media. “There’s been a high-level characterisation of Wedding as a major kingpin. There was a $15m reward for him. At least from a media standpoint, he was a big fish,” said Farfán-Méndez. “But I think the indictment gives a different sense of proportion.” Though US authorities claim Wedding’s enterprise was trafficking 60 tonnes of cocaine a year, this figure does not appear in the indictment, which only mentions specific cases of a few hundred kilos being moved at a time. “These arrests are important for law enforcement,” said Farfán-Méndez. “But whether they impact [drug] supply is another question.”