Category Archives: World News

Aid to Haiti sent by sea to bypass rising gang violence, UN food agency says

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World Food Programme scrambles to provide relief through air and sea to earthquake victims as local violence soars

The World Food Programme (WFP) is now using seafaring barges to ship supplies to earthquake victims in southern Haiti, after escalating gang violence made overland journeys unsafe for aid convoys.

Since the 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck the country’s southern peninsula in August, thousands of survivors have been sporadically cut off from Port-au-Prince, the capital, by roadblocks set up by warring gangs, leading relief workers to employ novel workarounds, including shifting aid to barges and helicopter airlifts.

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Joe Biden suggests US would defend Taiwan against China, forcing fresh White House clarification

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Administration insists there is no change of policy after president says US has ‘a commitment’ to defend island

China has urged the US to “avoid sending any wrong signals” after President Joe Biden for a second time in three months said the US would come to Taiwan’s defence if it was attacked.

In both incidents, the White House has clarified that there has been no change in US policy, which officially maintains so-called “strategic ambiguity” regarding Taiwan. Still, Biden’s words will rattle Beijing.

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Luxembourg becomes first in Europe to legalise growing and using cannabis

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Relaxation is part of government rethink designed to keep users away from illegal market

Adults in Luxembourg will be permitted to grow up to four cannabis plants in their homes or gardens under laws that will make it the first country in Europe to legalise production and consumption of the drug.

The announcement on Friday by Luxembourg’s government was said to deliver fundamental changes in the country’s approach to recreational cannabis use and cultivation in light of the failure of prohibition to deter use.

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Fearful but defiant: life goes on in Taiwan despite China’s threats

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On the streets of Taipei, Beijing’s rhetoric is a hot topic but people are focused on a peaceful future

In a small urban park on Yong Kang Jie, Taipei’s famous eat street, an elderly woman leans across the frame of her friend’s parked bicycle and shouts. “Taiwan is an independent country!”

It’s a quiet autumn morning. Children play on a nearby slide, and a young mother enjoys a takeaway bento box.

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Alec Baldwin kills woman by firing prop gun on film set of Rust

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Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins airlifted to hospital, where she died, while director Joel Souza also injured

Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun on a movie set in an accident that killed the film’s director of photography and injured its director, authorities in New Mexico have said.

A statement from the Santa Fe Sheriff’s office said Baldwin, who is acting in and producing the film Rust, had fired the prop gun in an incident on Thursday.

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‘I need to work’: Italy’s green pass rule triggers rise in Covid jab uptake

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Rule that pass must be presented to access workplaces forces hand of many vaccine-hesitant Italians

At the vaccination hub outside Termini train station in Rome, a steady flow of people have been turning up for their first Covid vaccine dose in recent days. The mood is begrudging. “If I didn’t have to do it, I wouldn’t,” said Rosanna Barbuto, a supermarket worker. Catalin, 41, who works in a factory, said: “I’m taking it because I need to work.”

They are among the vaccine-hesitant who caved in after Italy made it mandatory for all workers to present a so-called green pass to access their workplaces. The rules are the strictest in Europe and require workers to present proof of vaccination, immunity or of a negative test taken within the previous 48 hours. Some see Italy’s cautious approach as the key to its current low infection rate.

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Freezing to death: the migrants left to die on the Poland-Belarus border – video

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Migrants are dying in Poland's forested border with Belarus, as the countries are locked in a geopolitical standoff. Polish authorities accuse Belarus of deliberately abandoning migrants near its border in an attempt to destabilise the EU because the bloc imposing sanctions on Belarus after its disputed election. 

Poland has responded by declaring an emergency zone, forbidden to journalists and activists, where it is believed that, hidden from sight, they are illegally forcing people seeking asylum back over the border instead of processing applications. We follow Piotr Bystrianin, an activist trying to locate desperate migrants in the woods before the border guards do

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More than 30,000 Polish women sought illegal or foreign abortions since law change last year

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Tens of thousands have travelled to other European countries including England for legal terminations since near-total ban, campaigners say

At least 34,000 women in Poland are known to have sought abortions illegally or abroad since the country introduced a near total ban on terminations a year ago.

According to Abortion Without Borders (AWB), an organisation that helps women access safe abortion services, more than 1,000 Polish women have sought second-trimester abortions in foreign clinics since the country passed draconian new laws.

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‘What a fool’: fellow actors criticise William Shatner’s space flight

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Dame Joan Collins and Brian Cox unimpressed by historic trip, saying ‘let’s take care of this planet first’

The Star Trek actor William Shatner’s recent historic space flight saw him boldly go where some fellow actors refuse to follow, as the nonagenarian was labelled a “fool” for taking part in his record-breaking jaunt.

Dame Joan Collins, who once appeared in an episode of the science fiction series, and the Succession star Brian Cox, are both unimpressed by Shatner, at 90, becoming the oldest person to travel into space when earlier this month he flew in a rocket built by the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

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Auckland’s lockdown has finally given me what I always wanted – a licence to pry | Leni Ma’ia’i

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I’m one of the city’s many undercover agents, ready to pounce on any and all lockdown infringements

Nine weeks into Tāmaki Makaurau’s lockdown, having pushed the limits on baking, introspection and backgammon, I’ve taken to running.

No, not for any of the health benefits – running at my size can’t be healthy; it’s a chance to go snooping. I’ve always enjoyed sticking my nose in other people’s business, but society has repressed these urges. Lockdown, finally, has given me the licence to pry.

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Protesters take to the streets demanding full civilian rule in Sudan

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Hundreds of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators march in Khartoum and other cities

Hundreds of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators have taken to the streets of the Sudanese capital Khartoum and other major cities demanding full civilian rule, just days after a sit-in was launched calling for a return to military government.

Images posted on social media showed vast crowds marching in different parts of the Sudanese capital in protests to reject military rule as the crisis in the country’s troubled transition from authoritarian rule deepened.

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Coronavirus live: WHO warns indoor socialising driving infections; Russia sees ‘isolated cases’ of Delta subvariant

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Indoor socialising in winter behind rise in cases, WHO warns; AY.4.2 subvariant may be around 10% more infectious than the original Delta

In the UK Labour’s shadow culture secretary Jo Stevens – she is MP for Cardiff Central – has been on Sky News, and has been highly critical of the government’s approach to rising Covid numbers in the UK, accusing the health secretary Sajid Javid of an “element of complacency” in his press conference yesterday. She said:

It’s a serious situation we’re in. Rising infection rates, rising hospitalisation rates, and suddenly rising death rates. And what we want to see and have pressed the government to do is to demonstrate their plan for dealing with this ahead of the winter situation.

The NHS is under pressure.

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Assad regime ‘siphons millions in aid’ by manipulating Syria’s currency

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Government pocketed half of donations in 2020 as central bank forced UN agencies to use lower exchange rate


The Syrian government is siphoning off millions of dollars of foreign aid by forcing UN agencies to use a lower exchange rate, according to new research.

The Central Bank of Syria, which is sanctioned by the UK, US and EU, in effect made $60m (£44m) in 2020 by pocketing $0.51 of every aid dollar sent to Syria, making UN contracts one of the biggest money-making avenues for President Bashar al-Assad and his government, researchers from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Operations & Policy Center thinktank and the Center for Operational Analysis and Research found.

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Outrage over stalled US voting rights bill continues as activists say ‘we need action’ – live

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Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have arrived at the memorial for Dr Martin Luther King at the Tidal Basin in Washington.

The president and the vice-president will soon deliver remarks to mark the tenth anniversary of the dedication of the memorial. Stay tuned.

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Natural habitats of 30 cities around the world at risk due to ‘coastal hardening’, study suggests

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Researchers estimate 1m sq km of seascape globally has been modified by coastal structures which bring in invasive species and damage habitat

Artificial structures have replaced more than half of the coastline of 30 cities around the world, according to new research suggesting coastal infrastructure will have a significant ecological impact if not well managed.

“Coastal hardening” – replacing natural coastal habitats with seawalls, breakwalls, wharves and other structures – is “consistently extensive” across cities in North America, the UK, Australia and New Zealand, finds a study published on Friday.

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Largest triceratops ever unearthed sold for €6.6m at Paris auction

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US collector ‘falls in love’ with 8-metre-long dinosaur found in South Dakota and reassembled in Italy

An 8-metre-long dinosaur skeleton has sold at auction for €6.6m (about £5.5m), more than four times its expected value, to a private collector in the US said to have fallen in love with the largest triceratops ever unearthed.

The 66m-year-old skeleton, affectionately known as Big John, is 60% complete, and was unearthed in South Dakota, in the US, in 2014 and put together by specialists in Italy.

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Angela Merkel calls for compromise amid row over Polish ECJ snub

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German chancellor offers olive branch to Warsaw at what may prove to be her last EU summit

Angela Merkel, who earlier this week reflected on her deep hurt over Brexit, has called for European Union countries to compromise over their competing visions of integration, at what was being billed in Brussels as a farewell summit for the German chancellor.

The attempt by Merkel, at her 107th and possibly final EU summit, to smooth over a dispute over Poland’s rejection of European court of justice rulings, in an olive branch to Warsaw, came as the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, demanded tough action, and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán rallied to the defence of the Polish government.

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US border agents engaged in ‘shocking abuses’ against asylum seekers, report finds

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Revealed: documents released after six years of legal tussles uncover over 160 cases of misconduct and abuse

Shocking instances of sexual and physical abuse of asylum seekers at the southern US border by federal officers have been uncovered by Human Rights Watch, after a years-long battle to wrestle the information from the Department of Homeland Security under freedom of information laws.

A stash of redacted documents released to the human rights group after six years of legal tussles uncover more than 160 cases of misconduct and abuse by leading government agencies, notably Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and US Border Patrol. The papers record events between 2016 and 2021 that range from child sexual assault to enforced hunger, threats of rape and brutal detention conditions.

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UK’s neighbours criticise Covid policies as cases begin to surge across EU

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Several European nations have questioned British response but there are growing signs of fresh wave across continent

For the past several weeks, many western European countries have been eyeing Covid case numbers across the Channel with mounting trepidation.

“Why does Britain have more than 40,000 Covid cases a day, and why is it the European country with the most infections?” asked Spain’s ABC, while France’s L’Express criticised “disastrous myopia” in London.

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Top Saskatchewan health official moved to tears by unchecked Covid spread

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Dr Saqib Shahab, the Canadian province’s chief medical officer, spoke of grief and frustration at deaths despite vaccine availability

A senior health official in western Canada has made an emotional plea for people to get vaccinated against coronavirus and observe social distancing recommendations, highlighting the grief and frustration felt by health workers in a country where Covid deaths continue despite the availability of vaccines.

Saskatchewan’s chief medical officer, Dr Saqib Shahab, was brought to tears during a briefing on Wednesday, as he presented new data showing the continuing pressure on the province’s hospitals and intensive care units.

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