It can now be found everywhere – in cans at Asda and in cakes on The Great British Bake Off. But the caffeinated classic certainly isn’t popular with everyone
Name: The espresso martini.
Age: 38.
Continue reading...Category Archives: World News
Day of the Girl is critical, but support is needed year-round, say campaigners
From period poverty to blockchain, initiatives raising awareness of girls’ rights abound on 11 October, but long-term help is needed after Covid setbacks
International Day of the Girl is critical in highlighting girls’ rights globally, but action is urgently needed to reverse the damage of the pandemic, campaigners have said.
“Girls who were once hopeful about their futures say to us: ‘We’re not sure if we’re going to achieve our dreams now, if we’re ever going to go back to school’,” said Emily Wilson, chief executive of UK and Uganda-based organisation Irise International, which works to combat period poverty.
Continue reading...Rotting Red Sea oil tanker could leave 8m people without water
FSO Safer has been abandoned since 2017 and loss of its 1.1m barrels would destroy Yemen’s fishing stocks
The impact of an oil spill in the Red Sea from a tanker that is rotting in the water could be far wider than anticipated, with 8 million people losing access to running water and Yemen’s Red Sea fishing stock destroyed within three weeks.
Negotiations are under way to offload the estimated 1.1m barrels of crude oil that remains onboard the FSO Safer, which has been deteriorating by the month since it was abandoned in 2017. The vessel contains four times the amount of oil released by the Exxon Valdez in the Gulf of Alaska in 1989, and a spill is considered increasingly probable.
Continue reading...Covid pandemic has pushed poor countries to record debt levels – World Bank
‘Tragic reversal’ has set back progress, president says, as he calls for a comprehensive plan
The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a “tragic reversal” in development and pushed debt in poor countries to record levels, the head of the World Bank has said.
David Malpass, the bank’s president, warned the virus had widened the gap between rich and poor nations, setting back progress by years and, in the case of some countries, by a decade.
Continue reading...Czech president still in hospital as analysts ponder PM’s election defeat
Doubts persist over whether Miloš Zeman, Andrej Babiš’s political ally, will be able to carry out duties
The populist Czech president remained in hospital on Monday as news sank in that Andrej Babiš, the billionaire prime minister, had suffered a shattering general election defeat days after the release of the Pandora papers and that Miloš Zeman, his main political champion, may be too ill to save him.
Zeman, 77 – whose constitutional powers invest him with a kingmaker’s role potentially allowing him to keep Babiš in office – remained in Prague’s central military hospital a day after being rushed there for emergency treatment for an unspecified chronic illness. Doctors said on Monday that they had stabilised his condition, although doubts persist about his future ability to carry out his duties.
Continue reading...Norway court rules two windfarms harming Sami reindeer herders
More than 150 turbines may be torn down after licences to operate and build them are declared void
Two windfarms in western Norway are harming reindeer herders from the Sami people by encroaching on their pastures, the country’s supreme court has ruled.
It was not immediately clear what the judgment’s consequences of would be, but lawyers for the herders said the 151 turbines on the Fosen peninsula could be torn down. The turbines, whose construction was completed in 2020, form part of the largest onshore windfarm in Europe.
Continue reading...Tunisia: president appoints new government 11 weeks after power grab
Kais Saied will technically head administration after paring back powers of PM’s office
Tunisia’s president, Kais Saied, has appointed a new government by decree, 11 weeks after firing the last one in a power grab, as the country faces acute economic and political crises.
State television broadcast a swearing-in ceremony of the cabinet headed by Najla Bouden, the north African country’s first female prime minister.
Continue reading...Florida city sued over mural that depicted Black female firefighter as white
- Latosha Clemons accuses Boynton Beach of defamation
- Mural removed a day after it was unveiled in June last year
Officials in a south Florida city will meet this week to discuss a lawsuit filed by the city’s first Black female firefighter, after her image was replaced with a white face in a mural meant to honor local history.
Latosha Clemons, a former deputy fire chief of Boynton Beach, filed the lawsuit in April, accusing the city of defamation and negligence.
Continue reading...Nobel economics prize jointly awarded to labour market expert David Card
Canadian-born academic wins prize with Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens
A labour market expert whose work influenced the introduction of the UK’s minimum wage has been named as a joint winner of the Nobel economics prize.
David Card, a Canadian-born economist, was one of three US-based academics given the prestigious award for their work on whether economic theory is supported by real-life situations.
Continue reading...Cop26: world poised for big leap forward on climate crisis, says John Kerry
Exclusive: upbeat US climate envoy anticipates big announcements from key players at Glasgow talks
The world is poised to make a big leap forward at the UN Cop26 climate summit, with world leaders “sharpening their pencils” to make fresh commitments that could put the goals of the 2015 Paris agreement within reach, John Kerry has said.
Kerry, special envoy for climate to Joe Biden, gave an upbeat assessment of the prospects for Cop26, which begins in Glasgow at the end of this month, saying he anticipated “surprising announcements” from key countries.
Continue reading...EU ‘close to the end of the road’ over Northern Ireland protocol
Point will come when EU says ‘enough, we cannot compromise any more’, warns Irish foreign minister
The EU is close to the end of the road with the UK over the Northern Ireland protocol, accusing David Frost, the Brexit minister, of trying to undermine serious attempts to solve the problem, the Irish foreign minister has said.
Simon Coveney said he had spoken to Lord Frost’s counterpart, the European Commission vice-president, Maroš Šefčovič, on Sunday. They have agreed there would come a point when “the EU will say: enough, we cannot compromise any more”, Coveney said.
Continue reading...Bolsonaro blocks free tampons and pads for disadvantaged women in Brazil
Campaigners say president’s veto is ‘absurd and inhumane’ in country where period poverty keeps one in four girls out of school
President Jair Bolsonaro’s decision to block a plan to distribute free sanitary pads and tampons to disadvantaged girls and women has been met with outrage in Brazil, where period poverty is estimated to keep one in four girls out of school.
Bolsonaro vetoed part of a bill that would have given sanitary products at no charge to groups including homeless people, prisoners and teenage girls at state schools. It was expected to benefit 5.6 million women and was part of a bigger package of laws to promote menstrual health, which has been approved by legislators.
Continue reading...Yazidis visit holiest temple during Autumn Assembly – in pictures
Autumn Assembly is the highest and most important Yazidi holiday. It takes place in the holy city of Lalish, which is believed to be the place where creation began and where the seat of God descended to rule the earth. It also houses the tombs of Sheikh Adi and other holy figures. The town is considered so sacred that you are not allowed to enter while wearing shoes, especially during the assembly
Continue reading...China floods: bus falls into river as heavy rains destroy homes
At least three people dead and 11 others missing after incident in flood-hit Hebei province
A bus has fallen into a river in northern China, leaving at least three people dead and 11 others missing after flooding from heavy rains destroyed homes and covered farmland in two provinces.
Video posted online showed people on top of an almost submerged bus in a rushing river flowing over a nearby bridge outside the city of Shijiazhuang, about 165 miles (265km) south-west of Beijing.
Continue reading...Digital gender gap: men 50% more likely to be online in some countries – report
Failure to ensure women have equal access to the internet hampering developing economies and fuelling gender inequality
A failure to ensure women have equal access to the internet has cost low-income countries $1tn (£730bn) over the past decade and could mean an additional loss of $500bn by 2025 if governments don’t take action, according to new research.
Last year, governments in 32 countries, including India, Egypt and Nigeria, lost an estimated $126bn in gross domestic product because women were unable to contribute to the digital economy.
Continue reading...US navy engineer charged with trying so sell nuclear submarine secrets
Jonathan Toebbe and wife arrested in West Virginia after nuclear engineer makes ‘dead drop’ to undercover FBI agent
A US navy nuclear engineer with access to military secrets has been charged with trying to pass information about the design of American nuclear-powered submarines to someone he thought was a representative of a foreign government – but who turned out to be an undercover FBI agent.
In a criminal complaint detailing espionage-related charges, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) said Jonathan Toebbe sold information for nearly a year to a contact he believed represented a foreign power. That country was not named in the court documents.
Continue reading...Steve Scalise, No 2 House Republican, refuses to say election was not stolen
Party whip asked three times by Fox News Sunday’s Chris Wallace to disavow Donald Trump’s ‘Big Lie’ about electoral fraud
The second-ranking House Republican, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, repeatedly refused to say on Sunday that the 2020 election was not stolen, standing by Donald Trump’s lie that Democrat Joe Biden won the White House because of voter fraud.
More than 11 months after Americans picked their president and almost nine months after Biden was inaugurated, Scalise was unwilling to say the vote was legitimate.
Continue reading...Covid live news: Wales to keep home working and mandatory masks until 2022; Australia planning to allow international travel
Welsh first minister expects Covid measures to continue until next year; Australia’s PM planning to fast-track international travel
Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, the man regarded as the “father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb”, has died aged 85 after being hospitalised with Covid-19, the BBC reports.
Khan was hailed as a national hero for transforming his country into the world’s first Islamic nuclear power.
Continue reading...Czech president in hospital after shock election defeat for PM
Fears of a political crisis as Miloš Zeman, an ally of Andrej Babiš, is admitted to intensive care unit
The Czech Republic is facing political upheaval and a possible power vacuum after its billionaire prime minister, Andrej Babiš, suffered a surprise general election defeat and then saw his most powerful backer and sole potential saviour, the country’s president, Miloš Zeman, taken to hospital, apparently gravely ill.
In a stunning upset that confounded pollsters’ forecasts, Babiš’ populist Action for Dissatisfied Citizens (ANO) 2011 party finished second in this weekend’s popular vote behind the centre-right Spolu (Together) alliance, which previously vowed not to form a government with him.
Continue reading...Fauci: US must not ‘prematurely declare victory’ over Covid
White House medical adviser tells CNN vaccinated Americans will be able to get out and enjoy Halloween
Americans should celebrate good news about declining Covid cases as the holiday season approaches but should not “prematurely declare victory” over the coronavirus, Dr Anthony Fauci said on Sunday.
The right approach to increasing vaccinations and observing public health precautions would contribute to a happy Halloween for children, the chief White House medical adviser said, pointing to imminent federal consideration of data which will lead to a decision on whether children aged five to 12 are eligible for a shot.
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