Category Archives: World News

Covid news: UK reports 51,342 new infections; vaccines protect against new variant – as it happened

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Latest figures come amid concern over spread of Omicron variant; Pfizer says third jab increased antibodies by factor of 25

Germany reported 69,601 cases of Covid-19 and 527 deaths in the past 24 hours, according to the Robert Koch Institute, taking the total cases in the country to 6,291,621. There have been 104,047 deaths.

South Korean authorities are urging people to get vaccinated as case rise in the east Asian nation generally regarded as having dealth with the pandemic well.

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How Nairobi’s ‘road for the rich’ resulted in thousands of homes reduced to rubble

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40,000 people in one of the largest slums in the Kenyan capital have had their homes demolished to make way for works for a Chinese-backed toll road, with some asking: ‘this is development for who?’

About 40,000 people have been made homeless by demolition works for a major Chinese-backed toll road in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.

Amnesty International Kenya says it believes the roadworks have created a humanitarian crisis, as schools, businesses and 13,000 homes spread across nearly 40 hectares (100 acres) of the Mukuru Kwa Njenga slum have been demolished since October, clearing land for a link to the Nairobi expressway.

A girl stands among the rubble of Mukuru Kwa Njenga slum, Nairobi, where 13,000 homes were razed to the ground

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‘If you run, you will die’: fear stalks Nigerian state as jihadists gain foothold

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Niger state has been wracked by banditry for years. Now jihadists have moved in to communities just a few hundred miles from the capital, Abuja

“They ordered everyone to come around, saying if you run, if you cry, you will die,” said Bala Pada, recalling the moment in April when jihadists rounded up people at a market in his home town of Kaure to witness the execution of two alleged vigilantes.

Hundreds of jihadists have settled over the past year in Kaure and other remote communities in Niger state in Nigeria, according to displaced residents and local government officials. They began to arrive in November 2020, hoisting flags and declaring the communities under their control.

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From the archive: Who murdered Giulio Regeni? – podcast

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We are raiding the Audio Long Read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors.

This week, from 2016: When the battered body of a Cambridge PhD student was found outside Cairo, Egyptian police claimed he had been hit by a car. Then they said he was the victim of a robbery. Then they blamed a conspiracy against Egypt. But in a digital age, it’s harder than ever to get away with murder. By Alexander Stille

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Olaf Scholz to be voted in as German chancellor as Merkel era ends

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Scholz to lead coalition government after agreement was signed by party leaders on Tuesday

Olaf Scholz is to be voted in as chancellor by the Bundestag on Wednesday, opening a new chapter in German and European politics as the Merkel era comes to an end.

Scholz, the outgoing deputy chancellor and finance minister, will lead a government composed of his Social Democrat party, the business-friendly Free Democrats and the Greens, a coalition of parties never tried before at the federal level in Germany.

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Whoops and grunts: ‘bizarre’ fish songs raise hopes for coral reef recovery

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Vibrant soundscape shows Indonesian reef devastated by blast fishing is returning to health

From whoops to purrs, snaps to grunts, and foghorns to laughs, a cacophony of bizarre fish songs have shown that a coral reef in Indonesia has returned rapidly to health.

Many of the noises had never been recorded before and the fish making these calls remain mysterious, despite the use of underwater speakers to try to “talk” to some.

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‘A bit of hope’: Chile legalizes same-sex marriage

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Vote seen as a blow to conservative presidential candidate José Antonio Kast, who won majority of votes in November’s first round

A historic vote granting equal marriage rights to same-sex couples in Chile has been heralded by activists as a triumph and a blow to the conservative agenda of presidential candidate José Antonio Kast.

Kast won the majority of votes in November’s first-round vote, instilling a wave of fear among the country’s LGBTQ+ community. A tight runoff between Kast and his progressive opponent, former student protest leader Gabriel Boric, is scheduled on 19 December.

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Top civil servant regrets holiday while Afghanistan fell to Taliban

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Sir Philip Barton refused to say precisely when Raab had been on holiday in August

The head of the diplomatic service has admitted failing to show leadership after he began a three-week holiday two days before the Foreign Office internally accepted Kabul was about to fall to the Taliban.

Sir Philip Barton stayed on holiday until 28 August and during bruising evidence to the foreign affairs select committee, he admitted this was a mistake.

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Putin’s Ukraine rhetoric driven by distorted view of neighbour

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Analysis: Russian president believes it his 'duty’ to reverse Kyiv’s path towards west

Even as Vladimir Putin has built up an invasion force on his borders, he has repeated a refrain that Russians and Ukrainians are one people, bemoaning a “fraternal” conflict that he himself has provoked.

As Putin speaks on Tuesday with Joe Biden, western analysts have likened his focus on Kyiv to an “obsession” while Russians have said Putin believes it his “duty” to reverse Ukraine’s path towards the west.

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Covid, mourning and the spectre of violence: New Caledonia prepares for blighted independence vote

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Pro-independence groups have called for Indigenous voters not to take part in Sunday’s long-awaited ballot, saying proper campaigning has been prevented

New Caledonia is set to hold a referendum on independence from France this weekend, the third and final poll meant to conclude a decolonisation process initiated 30 years ago.

For anyone who witnessed the first two referenda, the contrast with the vote set for 12 December is striking: instead of the countless Kanaky flags or the red, white and blue of the French tricolour that adorned houses, balconies, roadsides, pickups or even people in the run-up to the 2018 and 2020 votes, this year there is little to see. On the Place des Cocotiers, in the centre of Nouméa, the capital, the quiet is disturbed only by the incessant patrolling of police trucks, part of the increased security around the vote.

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One of suspected killers of Jamal Khashoggi held in Paris, say reports

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Khalid Aedh al-Otaibi reportedly arrested as he was about to board flight to Riyadh

French police have reportedly arrested a former member of the Saudi royal guard suspected of involvement in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Khalid Aedh al-Otaibi was said to have been taken into custody at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport as he was about to take a plane to the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

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Biden holds virtual summit with Putin amid fears of Ukraine invasion – live

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Russian state television shared a clip of the start of Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden’s virtual summit this morning, which started about 45 minutes ago.

The clip shows the American and Russian leaders greeting each other before beginning their discussion about the situation in Ukraine.

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Electrician jailed after castrating men at their request in Germany

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Man, 67, convicted of assault for removing testicles of several people and causing one person to die

A German court convicted a 67-year-old electrician of aggravated, dangerous and simple assault for removing the testicles of several men at their request, causing one person to die, the dpa news agency has reported.

A Munich regional court sentenced the man to eight years and six months in prison. The defendant, whose name was not released for privacy reasons, had initially also been charged with murder by omission but prosecutors later dropped that charge.

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Latest Covid travel rules for the 10 most popular holiday destinations from UK

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The arrival of the Omicron variant and rising infection rates has led to myriad new rules that travellers have to negotiate before setting off

Spain has banned all non-vaccinated Britons from entering the country. The ban is expected to last until at least 31 December, at which point the rules will be reviewed.

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Andrew Neil threatens to sue Jennifer Arcuri after tweet about Epstein

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Businesswoman had made claims about journalist’s inclusion in a contact book owned by Jeffrey Epstein

Andrew Neil says he has launched legal action against Jennifer Arcuri, the US businesswoman and former lover of Boris Johnson, after she made claims about the veteran journalist’s inclusion in a contact book owned by the deceased paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

In a public spat that started with a disagreement over the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines, Arcuri tagged the former BBC presenter in a now-deleted tweet that read: “Citation for @afneil: Not only is he a paid for pharma puppet but here he is on the pedo elite train. Everyone knows what happened on that plane.” Alongside were the hashtags #itsOver and #ticktock, a picture of Neil arm in arm with a woman, and a screengrab from Epstein’s address book purportedly showing Neil’s name.

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Egyptian researcher’s mother ‘jumping for joy’ after court orders release

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Patrick Zaki was detained last year and still faces charges of ‘spreading false news’

An Egyptian court has ordered the release of researcher Patrick Zaki, whose detention in February last year sparked international condemnation, particularly in Italy where he had been studying, his family said.

“I’m jumping for joy!” his mother, Hala Sobhi, told AFP. “We’re now on our way to the police station in Mansoura,” a city in Egypt’s Nile Delta, where Zaki is from.

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Dozens killed in fire at overcrowded Burundi prison

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Inmate says police refused to open doors amid blaze that left 38 dead and 69 seriously hurt

A massive fire ripped through an overcrowded prison in Burundi before dawn on Tuesday, killing dozens of inmates and seriously injuring many more, the country’s vice-president said.

Many inmates were still sleeping at the time of the blaze that destroyed several parts of the facility in Burundi’s political capital, Gitega, witnesses said.

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Prepare a swift response to Russia invading Ukraine, Latvia tells west

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Nato not sending a clear signal would mean ‘glue that keeps us together’ has failed, says foreign minister

A swift reprisal package against Russia – including US troops and Patriot missiles stationed in the Baltics, the cutting off of Russia from the Swift banking payments system and reinstated sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline – must be prepared now in case it invades Ukraine, the Latvian foreign minister has said.

The warning from Edgars Rinkēvičs comes as Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin prepare to hold talks about the growing tensions.

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‘Disastrous’ plastic use in farming threatens food safety – UN

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Food and Agriculture Organization says most plastics are burned, buried or lost after use

The “disastrous” way in which plastic is used in farming across the world is threatening food safety and potentially human health, according to a report from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

It says soils contain more microplastic pollution than the oceans and that there is “irrefutable” evidence of the need for better management of the millions of tonnes of plastics used in the food and farming system each year.

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Marianela Núñez: ‘What lockdown taught me, one more time, is that dance is my true passion’

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The Royal Ballet’s phenomenal principal dancer was the fixed star at the heart of an extraordinary year for the company

It’s been an oddly fractured year for dance. Repeated lockdowns stifled talent, thwarted new ideas. Online and outdoor offerings provided some release but when theatres reopened in May, dancers emerged as if from hibernation, full of life, anxious to get on with their notoriously short careers.

None more so than Marianela Núñez. The Royal Ballet has excelled as a company this year, but she is the fixed star gleaming at its heart, never disappointing, always moving towards her aim of perfection. Her smile irradiates the stage, but it is the purity of her classical technique, the sense that you are watching someone at the absolute peak of their abilities.

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