Total number of injured still not known after truck carrying gasoline overturned around midnight in the Sanmarie area
More than 60 people have died after a fuel truck overturned and exploded in Haiti’s second-largest city Cap-Haitien, the country’s health ministry has announced.
The death toll is expected to rise after the truck carrying gasoline overturned at about midnight in the area of Sanmarie on the eastern end of the city, according to local media.
Continue reading...Governments urged to use ‘peace dividend’ to help UN tackle pandemics, climate crisis and extreme poverty
More than 50 Nobel laureates have signed an open letter calling for all countries to cut their military spending by 2% a year for the next five years, and put half the saved money in a UN fund to combat pandemics, the climate crisis, and extreme poverty.
Coordinated by the Italian physicist Carlo Rovelli, the letter is supported by a large group of scientists and mathematicians including Sir Roger Penrose, and is published at a time when rising global tensions have led to a steady increase in arms budgets.
Continue reading...The United States has surpassed 800,000 coronavirus-related deaths; Moderna chief cautions against assumptions Omicron is milder than Delta
United States secretary of state Antony Blinken says by the end of next year, the US will have donated more than 1.2b Covid-19 vaccine doses to the world, Reuters is reporting.
The US air force has discharged 27 people for refusing to get the Covid-19 vaccine, making them what officials believe are the first service members to be removed for disobeying the mandate.
Continue reading...Experts have recorded no seismic activity from Cumbre Vieja volcano since Monday night
A volcano that has been spewing lava in the Canary Islands for almost three months has quietened but scientists warned the lull did not necessarily mean the eruption was over.
Experts recorded no seismic activity from the Cumbre Vieja volcano on La Palma island since Monday night, the Canary Islands’ volcanology institute tweeted.
Continue reading...Call comes after ambitious early draft of EU energy performance in buildings directive ran into opposition
The EU executive is under pressure to ratchet up green energy standards for buildings, as it prepares a further batch of legislation to tackle the climate emergency.
The European Commission is expected to propose mandatory energy efficiency upgrades for buildings in the EU in legislative proposals published on Wednesday, but MEPs and Green NGOs fear they will not be strict enough.
Continue reading...Governor says death toll expected to grow after Friday’s disaster. Plus, Elon Musk named Time person of the year
Good morning.
Kentucky’s governor, Andy Beshear, broke down in tears yesterday as he announced the deaths of at least 74 people from Friday’s deadly tornadoes that swept across multiple midwest and southern states, and warned that the death toll was expected to grow.
Are rescuers still looking for survivors? Yes, rescuers are continuing to search the wreckage in Mayfield and across the state. Meanwhile thousands remained without power and water, or have been left homeless.
What has the government response been like? Joe Biden declared a major federal disaster in Kentucky. Federal agencies, the president said, were “working like the devil” to get affected states the help and resources they needed.
What did Thompson say? “When the records raise questions – as these most certainly do – you have to come in and answer those questions. And when it was time for him to follow the law, come in, and testify on those questions, he changed his mind and told us to pound sand. He didn’t even show up.”
What else happened? The select committee’s vice chair, Liz Cheney read out texts Meadows received as the 6 January riot unfolded, including from Trump’s eldest son, Don Jr, who implored him “we need an Oval Office address” to stop the Capitol attack.
Continue reading...Nationwide test for teenagers included passage indicating female independence was undermining discipline in the home
An Indian exam board has withdrawn a passage from a nationwide English exam that appeared to promote the subservience of wives, after an outcry over “blatant misogyny”.
All students have been awarded full marks for the comprehension section of the exam covering the passage, which appeared to explicitly state that women’s independence was undermining discipline and parenting in the home. The passage appeared in an English language and literature exam taken by 14 and 15-year-olds on Saturday.
Continue reading...Political parties reach new coalition agreement to form government 271 days after elections in March
Dutch political parties have reached a new coalition agreement, paving the way for the country’s caretaker prime minister, Mark Rutte, to form his fourth successive government a record 271 days after general elections in March.
The text of the accord between Rutte’s rightwing liberal VVD party, the progressive D66, Christian Democrat CDA and orthodox Christian party Christen Unie will be presented to the parties’ MPs on Tuesday and the whole parliament on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Ryad Alsous, whose story helped inspire the bestselling book, says life is sweet caring for his hives in Huddersfield
In 2013, Syrian beekeeper Ryad Alsous drank his last cup of mint tea on the balcony of his flat in Damascus. He was about to leave the city where he had spent his whole life and move to Britain. Eight years later, he is again drinking mint tea made in the same flask but this time in Huddersfield. The flask is the only item he still has from his home in Syria. He is talking about the moment he left. “It was very difficult. And also full of hope,” he says.
His block of flats had been bombed twice, and explosions in the eastern part of the city were happening daily. On the day he left, a loud bang nearby caused the doves perched on his balcony to briefly flutter into the air. He had been feeding the birds for years and realised they would have no one to look after them once he left.
Continue reading...Millions of children worldwide are at risk of abuse and exploitation in institutions, often to attract funding from donors, says Lumos charity
Immediate action must be taken to prevent trafficking and exploitation of children in orphanages, according to a report published on Monday.
International children’s charity Lumos says that an estimated 5.4 million children worldwide live in institutions that cannot meet their needs and neglect their rights and where they are exposed to multiple forms of exploitation and harm.
Continue reading...Overwhelming vote to remain with France, but low turnout ‘weighs heavily’ on self-determination process, say observers
Low voter turnout at New Caledonia’s independence referendum “weighs heavily” on the French territory’s self-determination process, election observers from the Pacific Islands Forum have said.
In Sunday’s referendum, more than 96% of voters were opposed to independence from France, compared with 57% in 2018 and 53% in 2020.
Continue reading...Older people described how they coped with enforced isolation, with some finding the experience positive
A trove of nearly 800 letters recording the lockdown experiences of older New Zealanders has been collected in a University of Auckland research project called Have Our Say. Researchers appealed for written accounts of lockdown to understand how older people coped with enforced isolation, and to amplify elders’ voices. The letter writers were all over 70. Many described the importance of daily routines, their experiences during historical crises and how they stayed involved in their community. The letters will be held by the Auckland War Memorial Museum.
Here are some excerpts from the collection:
Continue reading...The benefits of a single large tree can’t be replaced by a mown lawn or a seedling. With thoughtful planning we can keep them
The New Zealand parliament is about to have its third reading of an amendment bill informally known as the “housing intensification bill”. Its purpose is to relax the Resource Management Act (RMA), which currently restricts building height and intensity in cities, to meet the urgent demand for housing and address affordability.
While it is clear that housing affordability needs to be addressed to meet the needs of young and low-income New Zealanders, there are pitfalls to the speed at which the legislation is rushing through the system. Yes, we do need more houses, and we do need to intensify within our cities so that we don’t further impact the rural landscape as the tentacles of our cities spread into key food production and natural ecosystem areas.
Continue reading...Family, friends and fellow musicians pay their final respects to the man known as ‘El Rey’ (the King) following his death at age 81
Mexicans are in mourning for Vicente Fernández, the elaborately mustachioed icon of ranchera music, whose ballads of love and loss, golden baritones and singular stage presence captured the raw emotions of a nation.
Fans flocked to his ranch in western Jalisco state, where family, friends and fellow crooners paid their final respects to the man known as “El Rey” (the King) – and often just by the diminutive “Chente.”
Continue reading...Kremlin wants legal agreement that alliance will not expand into disputed territory
Vladimir Putin has told Boris Johnson that he wants immediate talks to secure clear legal agreements that Nato will not expand eastwards. According to a Kremlin readout of the two leaders’ phone call on Monday, Putin said talks were needed to discuss Nato’s future intentions, and to clarify Ukraine’s plans for the east of the country.
The call marked the first time the two men had spoken since October before the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow. Johnson expressed the UK’s “deep concern over the buildup of Russian forces on Ukraine’s border”, and warned him “that any destabilising action would be a strategic mistake that would have significant consequences”. The British prime minister also called for the issues to be resolved through diplomatic channels.
Continue reading...Germany says escalating tensions over Ukraine are one factor in Nord Stream 2 not getting green light
• Gazprom profits as Russia prospers from Europe’s gas crisis
Gas prices across the UK and Europe are on course to return to record highs after Germany said a controversial pipeline from Russia could not be approved amid deepening tensions on the Ukrainian border.
The German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said the Nord Stream 2 pipeline could not be given the green light in its current form because it did not meet the requirements of EU energy law.
Continue reading...Appearance of highly transmissible variant poses serious threat to zero-Covid strategy
Mainland China has reported its first case of the highly transmissible Omicron variant in the northern city of Tianjin, posing what could be the biggest threat to date to the country’s zero-Covid strategy.
The Chinese authorities reported on Monday that the Omicron case was detected on 9 December from an overseas returnee, who showed no symptoms on arrival. The patient is being quarantined and treated in a designated hospital.
Continue reading...Protesters against police brutality were met with more police brutality
Colombian police were responsible for the deaths of 11 protesters during anti-police protests that swept the capital in September 2020, according to a report published on Monday after an independent investigation backed by the mayor of Bogotá’s office and the United Nations.
“It was a police massacre,” wrote Carlos Negret, a former ombudsman of the South American country who led the investigation, in the scathing and lengthy report published on Monday. “A decisive political and operational leadership, based on rights, was needed at national and local levels to avoid this happening.”
Continue reading...Communities in five US states are picking up the pieces after a barrage of twisters
Powerful tornadoes barrelled through five US states on Friday, levelling houses and factories and bringing down power lines. In Kentucky, the worst-hit state, one tornado alone followed an extraordinarily long and destructive path of more than 200 miles.
Continue reading...Health experts issue dire warning as staff go unpaid and medical facilities lack basic items to treat patients
Large parts of Afghanistan’s health system are on the brink of collapse because of western sanctions against the Taliban, international experts have warned, as the country faces outbreaks of disease and an escalating malnutrition crisis.
With the country experiencing a deepening humanitarian crisis since the Taliban’s seizure of power in August amid mounting levels of famine and economic collapse, many medical staff have not been paid for months and health facilities lack even the most basic items to treat patients.
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