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...The president has threatened tougher steps for further provocation, preserving the potency of sanctions as a deterrent
Numerologists will be fascinated that Joe Biden began his Ukraine speech on Tuesday at 2.22pm on 22.2.22. The US president, however, was more concerned with his own calculation of the economic and political costs of overreacting – or underreacting – to Russia’s provocations.
Biden thought he would be remembered as the pandemic president, but finds himself commanding the arsenal of democracy in what could become the biggest military assault in Europe since the second world war. The crisis escalated on Monday after Vladimir Putin recognised two breakaway territories in eastern Ukraine as independent entities, an apparent pretext for invasion.
Continue reading...‘Misleading’ messages from $55bn-a-year industry are ‘unethical’, says report, which calls for plain packaging rules similar to tobacco
Countries should clamp down on the “aggressive” and “unethical” marketing of formula milk for babies, including forcing companies to sell products in plain packaging, a report by the World Health Organization and Unicef has said.
In research, commissioned 41 years after the global health community drew up guidelines aimed at regulating the industry, experts found that the marketing of formula had “no limits” and had become more “unregulated and invasive” in the digital age.
Continue reading...Joe Biden has announced new sanctions in retaliation for Russia recognizing two self-proclaimed republics, Donetsk and Luhansk, and sending troops there, adding to western efforts to stop what they fear is the beginning of a full-scale invasion. The measures target Russian banks and sovereign debt, among other steps. 'We have no intention of fighting Russia,' Biden said. 'We want to send an unmistakable message, though, that the United States, together with our allies, will defend every inch of Nato territory and abide by the commitments we made to NATO'
Dutch police say all hostages are safe after a man with a firearm entered a shop in the city centre, starting a siege that lasted several hours
A man with a firearm who held several people hostage in an Apple store in central Amsterdam has been overpowered after a siege lasting several hours, police have said, adding that the last of the hostages had been freed.
Police had deployed several special units to “get the situation under control” after being alerted of an armed robbery at 5.40 pm (1640 GMT) on Tuesday, which had rapidly transformed into a hostage situation.
Continue reading...A day after Vladimir Putin recognised the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent, protesters gathered in front of the Russian embassy in Kyiv in a show of defiance against the Russian president's actions in their country. The Guardian's Luke Harding spoke to them about why they were protesting and what they thought of the recent escalating tension between Ukraine and Russia
Continue reading...Police have been accused of spying on at least 26 individuals who are not criminal suspects
An inquiry into allegations that Israel’s police force systematically hacked into the mobile phones of Israeli citizens has found that while the police did use NSO Group’s controversial Pegasus malware, there is no evidence suggesting illegality.
In a series of explosive reports over the last two months, the local financial daily newspaper Calcalist accused the police of spying on at least 26 individuals who were not criminal suspects. Those named included politicians, protesters, and members of the former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s inner circle – claims Netanyahu used to delay proceedings in his corruption trial.
Continue reading...As protesters condemn Russian president, city’s defence chief says it is ready for ‘any situation’
The doors to the Russian embassy in Kyiv were shut on Tuesday. Seemingly nobody was at home. Outside on the street a small, noisy crowd of demonstrators waved blue and yellow Ukrainian flags. “We are not afraid of Vladimir Putin. Or his army,” said one activist, Roman Tyschenko.
Behind him protesters banged kettle drums and broke into a rhythmic chant of “Putin huiylo”, to blaring music from a loudspeaker. “It means Putin is a motherfucker,” Tyschenko explained. “It’s our anthem. Football fans in Kharkiv invented the song in 2014, when Russia stole Crimea.”
Continue reading...Far-right candidate yet to secure the 500 signatures needed to qualify for first round of vote
The French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has postponed several campaign events because she is yet to secure the 500 endorsements from elected officials needed to qualify for the first round of the vote.
Le Pen, the leader of the nationalist-populist National Rally, is lying second in the polls and is widely considered to be Emmanuel Macron’s most likely opponent in a second-round runoff on 24 April.
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