Donbas region has been ‘completely destroyed’, Zelenskiy says; Russia will consider opening Ukraine’s Black Sea ports only if western sanctions lifted, Moscow says
Continue reading...Category Archives: World News
Respiratory syncytial virus kills 100,000 under-fives every year
The acute lower respiratory infection has surged after Covid restrictions eased, experts say
Respiratory syncytial virus is killing 100,000 children under the age of five every year worldwide, new figures reveal as experts say the global easing of coronavirus restrictions is causing a surge in cases.
RSV is the most common cause of acute lower respiratory infection in young children. It spreads easily via coughing and sneezing. There is no vaccine or specific treatment.
Continue reading...Canada to ban Huawei and ZTE from 5G network, risking China tensions
Move brings Ottawa into line with intelligence allies that have excluded Chinese tech firms from cutting-edge phone networks
Canada says it will ban Huawei and ZTE from the country’s 5G network, a move that puts it in line with intelligence-sharing allies, but risks further chilling relations with China.
The federal government made the announcement on Thursday afternoon after signalling for months it intended to block China’s flagship telecommunications companies from accessing 5G networks in Canada.
Continue reading...Putin’s daughter flew to Munich ‘more than 50 times’, investigation suggests
Investigation also suggests president’s youngest daughter is in a relationship with ballet dancer Igor Zelensky
Since the start of his military campaign against Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has railed aggressively against pro-western Russians, whose appetite for European cuisine and climates meant “their mentality is there, not here, with our people”.
Yet his own daughter’s enthusiasm for sojourns to western Europe at least matches that of the oligarch “scum and traitors” he has decried, a joint investigation by independent Russian media outlet iStories and German magazine Der Spiegel suggests.
Continue reading...Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gets engaged to longtime partner Riley Roberts
Democratic congresswoman confirms engagement to Roberts, whom she met as a student at Boston University
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took a break between visiting Amazon union workers and endorsing progressive candidates to get engaged to her longtime partner Riley Roberts.
Ocasio-Cortez, 32, confirmed to Insider on Thursday that she and Roberts, who met while both were at Boston University, got engaged last month while visiting her parents’ home town in Puerto Rico.
Continue reading...Canadian premier abruptly quits amid surge in far-right influences
Conservative Jason Kenney, Alberta premier, leaves province’s top job after barely surviving a leadership review
The abrupt resignation of Alberta’s premier has shocked the western province and raised questions about the ideological direction of Canada’s conservative movement amid a surge in far-right and populist influences.
Jason Kenney announced late on Wednesday that he was leaving the province’s top job after barely surviving a leadership review. A slim majority of party members – 51.4% – had voted in favour of keeping him in power but Kenney said that support wasn’t enough to justify remaining head of the governing United Conservatives.
Continue reading...Sri Lanka defaults on debts for first time
Economists fear Sri Lanka could be first of several, with IMF in talks with Egypt, Tunisia and Pakistan
Sri Lanka has defaulted on its debts for the first time in its history as it struggles with an economic and political crisis triggered by global shock waves from the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
An inflation rate spiralling towards 40%, shortages of food, fuel and medicines and rolling power blackouts have led to nationwide protests and a plunging currency, with the government short of the foreign currency reserves it needed to pay for imports.
Continue reading...Japanese university told to compensate 13 women after exam discrimination
Juntendo University medical school made it harder for females to pass entrance exams
A medical school in Tokyo that made it harder for female students to pass entrance exams has been ordered to pay compensation to 13 women for gender discrimination.
Juntendo University said in 2018 that it had raised the bar for women in the exams to “narrow the gap with male students”, as a scandal over medical school admissions uncovered improper practices at several institutions.
Continue reading...Taliban orders female Afghan TV presenters to cover faces on air
Female anchors post pictures of themselves being ‘erased’ on orders of virtue and vice ministry
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have ordered all female TV presenters to cover their faces on air, the country’s biggest media outlet has said.
The order came in a statement from the Taliban’s virtue and vice ministry, tasked with enforcing the group’s rulings, as well as from the information and culture ministry, the Tolo news channel tweeted on Thursday. The statement called the order “final and non-negotiable”, the channel said.
Continue reading...Israel will not hold criminal inquiry into killing of journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh
Military police say they are satisfied with assurances of Israeli troops over death of US-Palestinian despite international demands
Israel will not launch a criminal investigation into the killing of the US-Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh, which Palestinian officials and witnesses have blamed on Israeli soldiers.
In a statement released on Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces claimed that because Abu Aqleh was killed in an “active combat situation”, an immediate criminal investigation would not be launched, although an “operational inquiry” would continue.
Continue reading...Mozambique confirms first wild poliovirus case in 30 years
Case in child in Tete province follows detection of similar strain in Malawi in February, officials say
Mozambique has identified its first case of wild polio in three decades following the genetic sequencing of a similar strain of the childhood disease in Malawi earlier this year.
Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization’s regional director for Africa, said the detection of the new case was “greatly concerning” and that it demonstrated “how dangerous this virus is and how quickly it can spread”.
Continue reading...Twenty-five ethnic Pamiris killed by security forces in Tajikistan protests
Escalating tensions erupt into regime-backed violence against the minority group in the autonomous region of Gorno-Badakhshan
At least 25 people were killed on Wednesday by security forces in Tajikistan during a protest in the autonomous region of Gorno-Badakhshan (GBAO), where the Tajik regime has targeted the Pamiri ethnic minority.
The deaths mark an escalation of violence in the region. Conflict between the central government and the Pamiri has continued for decades, with the cultural and linguistic minority ethnic group suffering human rights abuses, as well as discrimination over jobs and housing.
Continue reading...Baloch women fear crackdown after Karachi suicide attack
Pakistan’s first female suicide bombing marks shift in nature of Baloch militancy
On 26 April, Pakistan’s first female suicide bomber killed three Chinese teachers and the driver of the minibus they were travelling in as she blew herself up in front of the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi.
The impacts have been felt far and wide. Chinese teachers working at the cultural and educational institutions have now left Pakistan, and in the restive province of Balochistan female activists are facing greater pressures, with three reported abductions this week.
Continue reading...Widow of man killed in Libya accuses South Africa of ‘silence’ in hunt for his body
The South African government sent Anton Hammerl’s passport to his widow in 2016 but has refused to say how it came to have it
The widow of a British-based photographer who was murdered by Col Gaddafi’s forces in Libya in 2011 has accused South Africa of withholding crucial information about her husband’s death that could help in efforts to locate his body.
Anton Hammerl was killed in an incident in May 2011 that saw other journalists, including James Foley – who was later kidnapped and beheaded by Islamic State in Syria – taken prisoner.
Continue reading...Biden takes action on baby formula shortage | First Thing
US president authorized defense department to use commercial aircraft to fly formula supplies from overseas
Good morning.
As parents across the country continue to struggle to find infant formula to feed their babies, Joe Biden yesterday invoked the Defense Production Act to speed production of infant formula and authorized flights to import supply from overseas.
The 1950 law requires suppliers of formula manufacturers to fulfil orders from those companies before other customers.
Biden also authorized the defense department to use commercial aircraft to fly formula supplies that meet federal standards from overseas to the US, in what the White House is calling “Operation Fly Formula”.
Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration is streamlining its review process to make it easier for foreign manufacturers to begin shipping more formula into the US.
At the start of May, 43% of baby formula was out of stock at retailers. Read more here on how this crisis came to be.
Continue reading...French dijon mustard supply hit by climate and rising costs, say producers
Poor seed harvests have led to empty shelves at supermarkets in France and global shortages
Climate change and rising costs are causing supermarkets in France to run out of dijon mustard, raising questions over whether the shortage could spread to other countries.
French mustard producers said seed production in 2021 was down 50% after poor harvests, which they said had been brought on by the changing climate in France’s Burgundy region and Canada – the second largest mustard seed producer in the world.
Continue reading...‘Huge spike’ in global conflict caused record number of displacements in 2021
Those fleeing combat were internally displaced 14.4m times, with biggest toll in sub-Saharan Africa, report reveals
Conflict and violence forced people from their homes a record number of times last year, a report has found, with sub-Saharan Africa bearing the brunt of mass internal displacement caused by “huge spikes” in fighting.
People fleeing violence were internally displaced 14.4m times in 2021, an increase of 4.6m on 2020, according to figures published by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).
Continue reading...‘History repeating’: Amazon base in Cape Town splits Indigenous groups
Building work is quiet, for now, on £200m project that pits different visions of South Africa’s future against one another
Smoke curls into the air, a drum beats, the dance begins, a chant is raised. Ten metres away, cars howl past on a busy road, drivers unaware of the sacred ritual taking place in the centre of a bustling South African city.
Francisco Mackenzie, a chief of the Cochoqua community of the Khoi people, talks of ancient beliefs and battles five centuries ago, against invaders from overseas. He points to the iconic skyline of Table Mountain, and then to a nearby building site.
Continue reading...Jacinda Ardern loses sense of taste after Covid, can’t enjoy cheese roll
New Zealand PM remains in isolation but tried to uphold budget breakfast tradition with finance minister via Instagram
New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern says she has lost her sense of taste after testing positive for Covid-19 on Saturday.
Thursday was budget day in New Zealand, when traditionally the prime minister has an early morning breakfast with finance minister Grant Robertson. Typically, the two share cheese rolls – a South Island New Zealand delicacy involving cheddar cheese and powdered soup rolled inside a piece of toasted white bread. This year, the breakfast took place via Instagram live stream – and the prime minister said the cheese rolls were missing their usual flavour notes.
Continue reading...New Zealand budget 2022: Ardern offers $1bn in sweeteners to tackle cost of living ‘storm’
PM says budget, which includes major spending on climate and health care reform, aims to ensure long term ‘economic and social security’
Weekly $27 cash payments, fuel discounts and half-price public transport are among the short-term sweeteners offered up by New Zealand’s government in its latest budget, as it tries to juggle the cost-of-living crisis with big-ticket spending commitments, including $11.1bn of healthcare system reform and $2.9bn responding to the climate crisis.
“While we know the current storm will pass, it is important we take the hard edges off,” prime minister Jacinda Ardern said in remarks accompanying the budget’s release.
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