Good morning. At about 2pm local time yesterday, a live news broadcast on an Ecuadorian TV channel was interrupted by a group of masked men carrying guns, grenades, and dynamite. The intruders pointed guns at employees and made them lie on the floor. “Don’t shoot, please don’t shoot!” one person shouted. One of the attackers said the attack was the result of “messing with the mafias”. The TC Televisión broadcast continued for at least 15 minutes. Then the signal was cut off.
Some 13 gunmen were later arrested, and the hostages taken to safety. The astonishing scenes in the city of Guayaquil were part of a series of audacious coordinated attacks by members of Ecuadorian gangs that have killed at least 10 people. They follow the escape from prison of the country’s most feared gang leader, Adolfo Macías, and new president Daniel Noboa’s subsequent declaration of a state of emergency. And while the situation is evolving rapidly, it appears to represent a declaration of war on the country’s fragile democratic institutions.
Today’s newsletter, with the Guardian’s Dan Collyns, explains what we know about what just happened. Here are the headlines.
Five big stories
Post Office Horizon scandal | The former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells is to hand back her CBE over the wrongful prosecution of hundreds of staff, with over 100 more potential victims having come forward in recent weeks. Vennells said on Tuesday she was “truly sorry for the devastation caused to the sub-postmasters and their families”.
Israel-Gaza war | The British government has accepted that Israel as an occupying power had a legal duty to provide basic supplies to the people of Gaza. David Cameron, the foreign secretary, told MPs that Israel should remove barriers on the delivery of humanitarian aid that were risking “real, widespread hunger”.
Climate crisis | 2023 has smashed the record for the world’s hottest year by a huge margin. The planet was 1.48C hotter in 2023 compared with the period before the mass burning of fossil fuels ignited the climate crisis, scientists have said.
Child protection | Boys are watching violent porn on their smartphones then going on to attack girls, police have said, as new data showed children are now the biggest perpetrators of sexual abuse against other children. Overall, the data shows a quadrupling of sexual offences against children.
US news | A group of men belonging to a Hasidic Jewish community in New York were arrested on Monday amid a dispute over an illegal tunnel secretly dug into the side of a historic synagogue, which has since been closed. Action by law enforcement after the tunnel came to light led to a brawl with those who had created the passageway.
In depth: ‘A declaration of war on the Ecuadorian state’
About half an hour after the masked men appeared at the TV…
2024-01-10 01:52:33
Article from www.theguardian.com