At least two protesters were killed as hundreds of thousands marched against the military coup in Sudan. The fatalities were reported by Sudan’s Doctors Committee after the security forces fired bullets and teargas outside the parliament building in Omdurman. The protests came almost a week after the military detained Sudan’s civilian leadership, dissolved the government and declared a state of emergency, drawing a chorus of international condemnation
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Xi Jinping calls for mutual Covid vaccine approvals
Speaking to the G20 summit by video, China’s president stresses vaccine cooperation and economic stability
China’s president, Xi Jinping, has called for mutual recognition of Covid-19 vaccines based on the World Health Organization’s emergency use list, according to a transcript of his remarks delivered to leaders of the Group of 20 leaders’ summit, published by the official Xinhua news agency.
Speaking to the participants in Rome via video link, Xi said China had provided more than 1.6bn Covid shots to the world, and was working with 16 nations to cooperate on manufacturing doses.
Continue reading...G20 leaders to endorse Biden proposal for global minimum corporate tax
- US heralds ‘reshaping of rules of the global economy’
- Win for Biden comes amid domestic deadlock on spending
- Secret Negotiator: G20 must say goodbye to fossil fuel
Leaders of the world’s 20 biggest economies will endorse a US proposal for a global minimum corporate tax of 15%, draft conclusions of the two-day G20 summit in Rome showed on Saturday.
The G20 plans to have the rules in force in 2023.
Continue reading...Rise of far right puts Dreyfus affair into spotlight in French election race
As Emmanuel Macron opens a museum dedicated to the exonerated Jewish soldier, ultra-nationalists led by Éric Zemmour again question his innocence
More than a century after he was exonerated, Alfred Dreyfus, the Jewish army officer whose false conviction for treason sparked bitter controversy, has erupted into France’s presidential race amid far-right attempts to question his innocence.
Emmanuel Macron last week personally inaugurated the first museum dedicated to the Dreyfus affair, a historical collection exhibited in the house of Émile Zola, the writer and best-known defender of the persecuted officer, in Médan west of Paris.
Continue reading...Tourists marvel at ancient Rome’s party town, now buried by the sea
Statues and ruins of a 2,000-year-old resort, famed for luxury and vice, are now a marine visitor attraction
Fish flit around Enrico Gallochio as he gently brushes away a layer of sand to reveal an ornate mosaic floor on which Roman nobility would have hosted non-stop parties in Baiae, an ancient resort in the gulf of Pozzuoli, close to Naples. Four metres below the surface of the water, Gallochio passes more mosaic pavements and the remains of walls that once surrounded a spa.
The mosaics date from the third century and are just a small part of the remains uncovered since Baiae, now a vast undersea archaeological park, began to emerge from its watery grave. The site has become an unlikely tourism destination, even as work continues to uncover more ruins.
Continue reading...Ancient Maya canoe found in Mexico could be more than 1,000 years old
Boat was discovered in freshwater pool during construction of a tourist train to the ruins of Maya city
A wooden canoe used by the ancient Maya and believed to be more than 1,000 years old has turned up in southern Mexico almost completely intact, officials have said.
The extremely rare canoe was found submerged in a freshwater pool known as a cenote, thousands of which dot Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula, near the ruins of Chichén Itzá, once a major Maya city featuring elaborately carved temples and towering pyramids.
Continue reading...Ethiopia: Tigrayan forces ‘seize strategic town in Amhara region’
TPLF fighters say they have captured Dessie, the furthest south they have reached since July
Tigrayan forces said on Saturday that they had seized the strategic town of Dessie in Ethiopia’s Amhara region where tens of thousands of people have sought refuge from an escalation in the conflict.
Fighters with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) had pushed Ethiopian government forces from Dessie and were advancing toward the town of Kombolcha, a TPLF spokesman, Getachew Reda, said by satellite phone from an undisclosed location.
Continue reading...Cop26 failure could mean mass migration and food shortages, says Boris Johnson
Ahead of G20 meeting, PM warns of ‘difficult geopolitical events’ echoing those that ended Roman empire
A failure by world leaders to commit to tackling the climate emergency at the Cop26 summit in Glasgow could prompt “very difficult geopolitical events” including mass migration and global competition for food and water, Boris Johnson has said.
Speaking before the start of a gathering of leaders from the G20 industrialised nations in Rome, where he will push for countries to arrive in Glasgow with fixed plans to cut emissions, Johnson said the chances of success hung in the balance.
Continue reading...‘People are starting to wane’: China’s zero-Covid policy takes toll
Latest Delta variant outbreak is testing the limits of people’s patience with aggressive containment measures
On Friday, the Beijing Daily published an intricate graphic identifying two people sick with Covid-19 and everyone they had infected, detailing the spread of the latest Delta outbreak in the country. The map came amid growing frustration, some panic, and rare protests over the ramifications of China’s effort to remain a “zero Covid” country.
Since the first coronavirus cases were reported nearly two years ago, China has run a zero-tolerance Covid policy. Its success in preventing the virus from spreading across the vast country serves as a stark contrast to the situations in many western countries. Since last year, fewer than 100,000 cases have been officially recorded, among a population of about 1.4 billion. At least 4,634 have died.
Continue reading...Japan’s governing party set for bloodied victory in weekend election
Polls show the LDP may struggle to hold on to its sole majority in the 465-seat chamber
The party that has governed Japan almost without interruption for nearly seven decades is expected to win Sunday’s general election, but the new prime minister, Fumio Kishida, could emerge with his authority damaged.
Kishida, who became president of the ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP) last month, is hoping to capitalise on a dramatic fall in coronavirus cases in Japan in recent weeks and engage voters with promises of a “new capitalism” that will redistribute wealth to the country’s struggling middle class.
Continue reading...Vigilante surveillance: the rise of Beijing’s neighbourhood patrols
Red-armbanded ‘Chaoyang masses’ likened to KGB and MI6 have become a common sight on streets of China’s capital
They are often seen wearing a red armband patrolling residential neighbourhoods of Chaoyang, the biggest district of Beijing, which is home to nearly 3.5 million people. On a sunny late autumn afternoon, they will sit with a group of retirees in the sun and chat away. But when an individual of interest turns up, their attention quickly diverts to them.
In Chinese media and official police statements, these vigilante neighbourhood watchers are called the “Chaoyang masses”. Last week, the state-owned Global Times went a step further, quoting internet users as saying the mysterious group “could match four famous intelligence [agencies], the CIA, MI6, KGB and Mossad”. Some jokingly called it “the fifth largest intelligence agency in the world”.
Continue reading...Sudan democracy march: three protesters killed as security forces open fire
Pro-coup forces reportedly use live ammunition and teargas in Khartoum and Omdurman
Sudanese security forces have opened fire on massive demonstrations across the country against last week’s military coup, killing at least three protesters and injuring many more.
According to reports on social media and claims by Sudanese pro-democracy organisations, pro-coup security forces have used live ammunition and teargas in several locations in Khartoum and its twin city Omdurman as well as in the city of Nyala.
Continue reading...First group of LGBT+ Afghans fleeing Taliban arrive in the UK
Students and activists in group that British foreign ministry hopes will be ‘the first of many’ in coming months
A group of LGBT+ Afghans has arrived in Britain, the first since the Taliban’s return to power in August caused panic among gay and transgender Afghans, who feared persecution and even death under the Islamists’ rule.
The evacuation of the 29 Afghans is “hoped to be the first of many” in the coming months, Britain’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday, hours after a Taliban spokesman said LGBT+ rights would not be respected.
Continue reading...Guantánamo prisoner details torture for first time: ‘I thought I was going to die’
Al-Qaida courier, who could be freed next year despite 26-year sentence, tells court of interrogators’ horrific treatment
For the first time, a Guantánamo Bay prisoner who went through the brutal US government interrogation program after the 9/11 attacks has described it openly in court, saying he was left terrified and hallucinating from techniques that the CIA long sought to keep secret.
Majid Khan, a former resident of the Baltimore suburbs who became an al-Qaida courier, told jurors considering his sentence for war crimes that he was subjected to days of painful abuse in the clandestine CIA facilities known as “black sites” as interrogators pressed him for information.
Continue reading...Trudeau files last-ditch appeal against billions for Indigenous children
Tribunal ordered Canadian government to pay compensation to children who suffered discrimination in welfare system
Justin Trudeau’s government has launched a last-minute court appeal against a ruling that would require it pay billions of dollars to First Nations children who suffered discrimination in the welfare system.
Minutes before a court deadline on Friday afternoon, the government filed papers indicating it planned once again to fight a human rights tribunal decision ordering the compensation payment.
Continue reading...Covid bioweapon claims ‘scientifically invalid’, US intelligence reports
ODNI reject bioweapons claims but says origins of virus may never be known, barring dramatic breakthrough in Chinese cooperation
Allegations that the Covid-19 virus was designed as a bioweapon – a theory aired by some senior Republicans – are based on “scientifically invalid claims” whose proponents “are suspected of spreading disinformation”, the US intelligence agencies have reported.
Most of the 17 US agencies also agree that the virus had not been genetically engineered, while observing it is becoming increasingly difficult to detect signs of such tampering. However, the intelligence community is still divided on the question of whether the virus was spread by animal-to-human transmission or as the result of a lab accident, concluding that that may never be known barring a dramatic breakthrough in Chinese cooperation.
Continue reading...‘If we don’t act now it will be too late’, warns Johnson ahead of Cop26
Prime minister says ‘too many countries doing too little’ amid last-minute talks before summit
World leaders have been warned that Cop26 must “mark the beginning of the end of climate change” amid last-minute talks that could help determine the future of the planet.
With the long-awaited environmental summit due to start on Monday, Boris Johnson issued his plea while saying “too many countries are still doing too little”.
Continue reading...Forced retreat: one New Zealand town’s fate highlights coming fight over climate adaptation
The tiny town of Matatā provides a bleak preview of the challenges that could play out across the country in the decades to come
There’s a moment on the road from Auckland to the Bay of Plenty, after hours of farmland, when the view of the sea rears up in front of you. The fields retreat, the horizon expands, the road is lined by Pohutukawa trees clinging to the cliffs. The change in view is as stark as an etch-a-sketch being wiped clean.
Follow that road and you come to a tiny settlement, slipped between the sea and a steep spine of hills running down New Zealand’s Toi-te-Huatahi coastline. Gradually, the once-orderly and plush beachfront homes are disappearing. Houses are replaced with grassed lots, weeds push up through the cul de sac pavements. Soon, the view will be transformed further still, the last remnants of the neighbourhood replaced with a reserve stretching from the road to the sea. On one of the few remaining fences is a sign: “Leave our homes alone! Watch out the rest of New Zealand – you’re next!”
Continue reading...Biden admits to Macron the US was ‘clumsy’ in Aukus submarine deal
American president moves to repair relationship after France was blindsided by security pact
Joe Biden has moved to repair his damaged personal and political relationship with Emmanuel Macron by acknowledging that the announcement of a security and technology pact that blindsided France was a “clumsy” episode handled with a lack of grace.
Continue reading...Macron’s fighting talk on fishing is driven by far-right election threats
Analysis: British government is not entirely innocent but Paris knows forceful rhetoric should only go so far
In January 2017, Emmanuel Macron, in third place in the race to be the next president of France and seen by some as an electoral bubble waiting to burst, staged a photo opportunity in the fish market of Le Guilvinec in Brittany. “Brexit will not go well because Brexit cannot go well,” Macron told fishers who had raised their concerns about the future. “But I’ll make [the fishing problem] a red line in our negotiations with the UK.”
Macron’s seizing of the Élysée Palace later that year was hugely buoyed up by the turnout in the coastal region. Close to a third of voters in Brittany gave him their vote in the crucial first round of the 2017 contest, a greater proportion than in any other region of France.
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