Dozens of live-in workers have been forced to sleep rough in the Hong Kong winter after bosses refuse to allow them back in the house
Live-in domestic workers in Hong Kong have been left homeless after they were diagnosed with Covid-19 and their employers fired them or refused their return to the residence, support groups have said.
Many of the workers, who are mostly women from Indonesia and the Philippines, were also left without insurance to cover their medical bills.
Continue reading...House speaker Nancy Pelosi is now holding a press conference on Capitol Hill, after attending the Munich Security Conference last week.
Pelosi attacked Russian President Vladimir Putin for recognizing the two self-proclaimed republics in east Ukraine and ordering troops into the region, repeatedly describing him as a “tyrant”.
Continue reading...Experts see move from Russian-controlled territories as final pretext for full invasion
Russia’s ambassador to the United States has hit back at the imposition of sanctions imposed by US president Joe Biden, suggesting the move would hurt global financial and energy markets as well as ordinary citizens.
According to a recent post on the Russian embassy Facebook page early Wednesday, ambassador Anatoly Antonov said:
Sanctions will not solve anything regarding Russia. It’s hard to imagine that anyone in Washington is counting on Russia to review its foreign policy course under threat of restrictions.
I don’t remember a single day when our country lived without any restrictions from the Western world. We learned how to work in such conditions. And not only survive, but also develop our state.
Continue reading...Move comes as case numbers and deaths continue to fall in many nations
Hong Kong reported a record 8,674 new Covid infections on Wednesday, as the city prepares for compulsory testing of its residents after authorities extended the toughest social restrictions imposed since the pandemic began.
Health authorities reported 24 deaths compared with Tuesday’s 32, as they step up measures, with assistance from their mainland counterparts, to contain the outbreak. On Tuesday, Hong Kong reported 6,211 new cases.
Continue reading...Kyiv mobilises reserves and advises estimated 3 million people to depart in latest sign it believes Putin plans to invade
Ukraine has declared a state of emergency, mobilised reserves and told nearly 3 million of its citizens to leave Russia, as the US warned that Vladimir Putin had assembled almost 100% of the forces needed to launch a large-scale invasion of the country.
As Russian diplomats evacuated their embassy in the capital, the Ukrainian government said a massive cyber-attack had targeted ministries and banks on Wednesday. Officials have warned that Russia could use elements of hybrid warfare to sow confusion before launching an all-out military assault.
Continue reading...Police release video of attack on workers’ equipment at camp of Coastal GasLink, a 400-mile pipeline opposed by First Nation groups
Police in Canada have released footage of axe wielding attackers as they investigate a “calculated and organised” night-time raid on a remote work camp.
Up to 20 people are believed to have attacked Coastal GasLink’s pipeline construction camp last week on Marten Forest Service Road in British Columbia.
Continue reading...Applause in national assembly as lawmakers vote to extend limit for ending pregnancy from 12 to 14 weeks
France has extended its time limit for abortion after an epic battle in parliament, amid anger that thousands of women had to travel abroad each year to terminate pregnancies in countries such as the Netherlands, Spain or England because of French restrictions.
There was applause in the French national assembly on Wednesday when lawmakers voted definitively to extend the legal limit for ending a pregnancy from 12 to 14 weeks. France’s new time frame is still lower than in some other European countries, including England at 24 weeks.
Continue reading...Analysis: country has positioned itself to blunt western sanctions and has a few retaliatory ones of its own
Be ready for a long haul. That was the subtext of Boris Johnson’s message to MPs as he committed to toughening up sanctions against Russia.
The warning to prepare for a “protracted struggle” was both timely and appropriate. There will be no quick knockout blow because Vladimir Putin has had time to prepare and is well dug-in.
Continue reading...Some people getting Pfizer or Moderna Covid vaccines should consider waiting up to eight weeks between the first and second doses, instead of the three or four weeks previously recommended, US health officials said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday quietly changed its advice on spacing the shots.
Continue reading...Economic institute says current levels of gas enough for six weeks if mild temperatures continue
Europe could heat its citizens’ homes and power its industry on existing gas reserves for the remaining months of a relatively mild winter even if the standoff with Moscow over Ukraine were to escalate to a total stop on Russian gas imports, a leading German economic institute has said.
Unusually low gas reserves have raised alarm among several European governments in recent months, with storage tanks across the continent on average at only 31% capacity at the start of this week – roughly half as full as in 2020.
Continue reading...‘This image is from a collection I made called Stop Tanks With Books. I have sent out 750 free copies to try to stop the war’
This was taken in May last year in Myrnohrad, an industrial town 50 miles from Donetsk, a stronghold of the illegal Russian occupation in eastern Ukraine. Then, as now, fears of a Russian invasion were high. While much of the west thinks the threat of conflict started only a few weeks ago, it’s been the reality for Ukrainians for almost a decade.
I was walking around Myrnohrad taking photos with a big portable flash and a plate camera when I saw this woman sit down and light a cigarette. She looked so confident and self-absorbed. I speak a little Russian, so I told her I was taking pictures of ordinary life across Ukraine and asked if she would pose. She agreed without hesitation.
Continue reading...Tensions have escalated sharply after Vladimir Putin ordered troops into east Ukraine. What might happen next?
Vladimir Putin has said Russia will recognise the territorial claims of its two proxy states in east Ukraine, and has ordered his forces into Russian-controlled territory, in a sharp escalation of already high tensions.
Continue reading...Three plaintiffs who suffered under eugenics law to get payouts after judge overturns lower court decision
A court in Japan has awarded damages for the first time to people who were forcibly sterilised under a now-defunct eugenics law designed to prevent the births of “inferior children”.
The Osaka high court overturned a lower court decision and ordered the government to pay a combined ¥27.5m (£175,600) to the three plaintiffs, who are in their 70s and 80s. It described the law, which was abolished in 1996, as “inhumane”.
Continue reading...Proportion of UK worker’s salary covered is typically less than quarter of Germany’s 100% in first six weeks
Asked this week about whether his move to drop Covid isolation requirements would drive infectious workers into the office, Boris Johnson said UK workers should learn from their German counterparts and stay home when unwell.
The prime minister did not mention the stark differences in the support available for British workers compared with Germany and the rest of the world, and whether this could explain their reluctance to take a sick day.
Continue reading...After perilous journeys fleeing human rights abuse in Eritrea, the four boys had arrived safely in the UK. Yet in the space of 16 months they were all dead. What went wrong?
For a while, the four teenage boys, Alex, Filmon, Osman and Mulue, did a reasonably good job of looking after each other. Filmon and Mulue had met in Eritrea before they embarked on their long, dangerous journey to Britain; the others became friends en route or in London, in a park near a Home Office registration centre for unaccompanied child refugees. Their similar backgrounds drew them together, as did the shared experience of travelling 3,300 miles in search of safety.
Mulue and Alex had both spent time in foster care before moving into independent accommodation; Osman and Filmon were living in a hostel in north London. They had all become used to surviving without parents, instead leaning on each other for support. All of them were also struggling with the unsettling reality of their precarious new lives, which was so different from the expectations they had clung to during their traumatic journeys.
Continue reading...Vladimir Putin has said Moscow is ready to look for 'diplomatic solutions' over Ukraine, but stressed that Russia’s interests were non-negotiable.
In a video address on Wednesday morning, the Russian president said his country would continue to develop state-of-the-art weapons.
His speech follows Russia’s unanimous approval to deploy 'peacekeepers' to two self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk now recognised by Moscow as independent
Continue reading...Global Fund urges UK and other donors to pledge billions to get efforts to end diseases by 2030 ‘back on track’ after catastrophic impact of Covid
Britain is being urged to pledge billions of dollars to get the fight against malaria, tuberculosis and Aids “back on track” after efforts were ravaged by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The UK has historically been one of the main donors to the Global Fund, an international financing organisation aimed at ending the three deadly epidemics by 2030. Now it is warning that, unless donors make an unprecedented total funding pledge of $18bn (£13.25bn) this year, that goal will be missed.
Continue reading...Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and beyond are using poetry to come to terms with atrocities – and as a form of resistance
It has now been a year since the military coup, and the breeze of democracy has become a dead wind in Myanmar. People breathe the air of fear and pass nights of rage and despair as men and women are shot or burnt alive at the hands of the Myanmar military. Villagers leave their loved ones at home and take refuge in the forest. Once-vibrant city streets have become rows of haunted houses. The whole country is trapped in a shadowland.
As Rohingya refugees, we are all too familiar with the military’s capacity for violence and destruction. Over the past year, Rohingya people have watched with terror and anguish as the same military forces that perpetrated genocide against us now unleash their atrocities across the country.
Continue reading...Analysis: advance forces’ battle readiness will quickly degrade, giving Putin only days to choose invasion or retreat
Russian forces massing near Ukraine’s borders can only remain in position for a few days before they have to be sent back to nearby bases or risk their capability being significantly degraded, western officials and experts believe.
That means that President Vladimir Putin will come under increasing pressure to use them in a full invasion of Ukraine – or send them back to staging areas, still in Russia’s south or west, but tens or even hundreds of kilometres back.
Continue reading...Shows about ‘aunts and uncles’ looking for love go viral as they debunk negative stereotypes of elderly people
Standing before the studio audience the slim older man holds a microphone in front of his blue polo shirt, buttoned to the neck. Wang Qingming seems a little nervous as he faces his prospective date, a formidable looking woman with long black hair piled in a loose bun, her name tag obscured.
“What bad habits do you have?” he asks.
Continue reading...