Despite nationwide lockdown, there are now more than 800,000 suspected cases in the unvaccinated country
North Korea said on Sunday a total of 42 people had died as the country began its fourth day under a nationwide lockdown aimed at stopping the impoverished country’s first confirmed Covid-19 outbreak.
At least 296,180 more people came down with fever symptoms, and 15 more had died as of Sunday, the outlet said.
Continue reading...Head of military intelligence for Ukraine says August will be turning point in conflict; Republican senators travel to Kyiv to show support for Ukraine
In case you’d missed it, Italy is set to host the Grand Final of the Eurovision song contest later on Saturday – and Ukraine is the favourite to win.
Kalush Orchestra, a band that blends traditional folk and hip-hop, is competing in the event with the song Stefania, which has become an anthem at home, the Guardian’s Rome correspondent Angela Giuffrida reported earlier this week.
Continue reading...Alleged gunman Payton Gendron, 18, charged with murder after 13 shot at store in mostly Black neighbourhood
A teenager in military-style clothing opened fire with a rifle at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, in a shooting that officials called a “hate crime and racially motivated violent extremism”, killing 10 people and wounding three others before surrendering to police on Saturday afternoon, authorities said.
Police officials said the 18-year-old, who is white, was wearing body armour and military-style clothing when he pulled up and started shooting at a Tops Friendly Market at about 2.30pm. The attack was streamed via a camera fixed to the man’s helmet.
Continue reading...Soaring prices of wheat and basic goods bring protests to cities across Iran as internet outages suggest attempted clampdown
Protests over soaring food prices continued in several cities in Iran on Saturday, according to postings on social media, while an Iranian lawmaker told local media one person was killed in a demonstration in the south-west.
The protests were triggered last week by a cut in state subsidies for imported wheat that caused price hikes of as much as 300% for a variety of flour-based staples. The government of President Ebrahim Raisi also raised prices of basic goods such as cooking oil and dairy products.
Continue reading...Babis Anagnostopoulos spent 10 chilling hours in an Athens courts calmly describing the murder of his wife
Last week, Greek helicopter pilot Babis Anagnostopoulos stood in the dock of an Athens court and related the circumstances that led him to suffocate his British wife. Over the course of 10 hours he barely paused. Coolly and calmly, from 10am to 8pm, he addressed the tribunal.
He recalled the dream life he had shared with the woman whom he would go on to asphyxiate; his decision to choke her beloved puppy, Roxy, hanging the pet dog from the banister of the couple’s maisonette; his love for his baby daughter, whom he would place next to her dead mother’s body; and his determination in a moment “of chaos” to cover up the killing as a robbery gone terribly wrong.
Continue reading...Foreign ministers call for action to allow export of Ukrainian grain, as Kyiv claims Russian withdrawal from second-largest city
Millions of people will starve to death unless Russia allows the export of Ukrainian grain from blockaded ports, foreign ministers from the G7 have said.
As Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, warned that Vladimir Putin was intransigent during their bilateral call on Friday, the ministers from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and US condemned Moscow for stoking a food crisis.
Continue reading...Concerns grow for safety of those heading to Britain as government scrambles to fix flaws in housing scheme
• Russia-Ukraine war: latest developments
Ukrainians fleeing the war are being housed with UK hosts who have not had a criminal record check, in the latest concern to blight the government’s response to the refugee crisis.
Under increasing pressure to iron out flaws in its schemes, government sources told the Observer they were creating a “rematching” service to house Ukrainians with people willing to help.
Continue reading...Britain stirred up tensions, chaos and violence in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, according to declassified papers
The British government ran a secret “black propaganda” campaign for decades, targeting Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia with leaflets and reports from fake sources aimed at destabilising cold war enemies by encouraging racial tensions, sowing chaos, inciting violence and reinforcing anti-communist ideas, newly declassified documents have revealed.
The effort, run from the mid-1950s through to the late 70s by a unit in London that was part of the Foreign Office, was focused on cold war enemies such as the Soviet Union and China, leftwing liberation groups and leaders that the UK saw as threats to its interests
Continue reading...Further intense unrest puts more pressure on the presidency of Gotabaya Rajapaksa
They have called it “Gota Go Village”. Here, on what was once an empty stretch of lawn outside the office of the Sri Lankan prime minister, on Colombo’s seafront Galle Face promenade, a thriving community has sprung up. There are tents, food stalls, a library, a memorial, art installations, stages for music and speeches, and even the beginnings of a small farm growing vegetables and fruit from recently planted trees. Nearby, a patch has been set aside to cultivate rice.
It began as the focal point of the anti-government protests that have engulfed Sri Lanka for months as the country goes through the worst economic crisis since independence. As fuel, food and medicine have run short, the blame has been placed firmly at the feet of one man, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, widely known as Gota, who stands accused of economic mismanagement and corruption pushing the country to the brink of bankruptcy. The calls from the majority of the population have been clear: Gota must step down.
Continue reading...Senators meet Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy who praises US bipartisan support for his country
The US Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, has joined the growing list of US politicians making visits to Kyiv, it emerged on Saturday
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy welcomed McConnell’s visit as a powerful signal of bipartisan support for Ukraine.
Continue reading...Demonstrators demand release of two students held after murder of Christian woman in Sokoto
Hundreds of people in Nigeria’s north-western city of Sokoto demonstrated on Saturday over the arrest of two students after the murder of a Christian student accused of blasphemy, residents said.
Africa’s most populous country is roughly divided between Muslims and Christians but religious tensions and deadly clashes are not uncommon, particularly in the north.
Continue reading...Helping president would hand victory to autocratic alliance led by Russia, warns deputy foreign minister
The west must not backslide into aiding the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, or it will hand victory to an autocratic alliance led by Vladimir Putin and weaken the democratic cause in Europe and Venezuela, the country’s deputy foreign minister, Isadora Zubillaga, has warned.
A delegation of Venezuelan opposition politicians have been touring Europe in an attempt to reassure the west that despite recent divisions and setbacks, they have a viable strategy to secure new presidential elections.
Continue reading...Move imposed with immediate effect in attempt to control prices after heatwave damages crops
India, the world’s second largest producer of wheat, has banned all exports with immediate effect after a heatwave affected the crop.
A notice in the government gazette by the directorate of foreign trade, dated Friday, said a rise in global prices for wheat was threatening the food security of India and neighbouring and vulnerable countries.
Continue reading...Speed of transition, one day after death of Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, appears designed to show unity
Rulers in the United Arab Emirates have unanimously appointed Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan as the president of the hereditarily ruled nation on the Arabian peninsula.
The state-run WAM news agency said the rulers of the country’s seven sheikhdoms made the decision at a meeting held in Al Mushrif Palace in Abu Dhabi.
Continue reading...In rare unanimous statement, council calls for ‘immediate and impartial’ inquiry into the Al Jazeera journalist’s death
The UN security council has unanimously condemned the killing of Palestinian-American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh while she was covering an Israeli army raid in the occupied West Bank, diplomats said.
In a rare unanimous statement, the security council also called for “an immediate, thorough, transparent and impartial investigation into her killing”.
Continue reading...Ukraine appears to have successfully driven back Russian forces from Kharkiv; Russia to suspend electricity to Finland after Helsinki announces Nato bid
Continue reading...Antony Blinken says US ‘deeply troubled’ after police stormed procession for Palestinian American journalist
Joe Biden’s secretary of state has issued a statement condemning Israeli forces for their attack hours earlier on the funeral procession in Jerusalem of a Palestinian American journalist who was shot and killed this week.
“We are deeply troubled by the images of Israeli police intruding into the funeral procession of Palestinian American Shireen Abu Aqleh,” Antony Blinken’s statement on his official Twitter account read. “Every family deserves to lay their loved ones to rest in a dignified and unimpeded manner.”
Continue reading...Gonzalo Lopez stabbed the driver and fled on Thursday as inmates were bussed through a rural area between Houston and Dallas
A convicted murderer serving a life prison sentence in Texas stabbed a transport bus driver and escaped Thursday, setting off a frantic manhunt that was ongoing more than a day later.
The getaway happened as officers bussed Gonzalo Lopez, 46, and other inmates through a rural area between Houston and Dallas about 1.20pm. Lopez somehow slipped out of his shackles, used an unspecified sharp object to stab the driver in the hand and lunged for the wounded officer’s service pistol, Robert Hurst of the Texas department of criminal justice told reporters.
Continue reading...Psaki’s final White House briefing continues.
“I promised myself I wouldn’t get emotional,” she says. She succeeds.
Continue reading...South Ossetia, focal point of Russia-Georgia war of 2008, will decide whether to subsume itself into larger neighbour in July
Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia will hold a referendum on joining Russia on 17 July, the region’s leader announced on Friday.
“Anatoly Bibilov signed a decree on holding a referendum in the Republic of South Ossetia,” his office said in a statement, citing his people’s “historic aspiration” to join Russia.
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