Decision not likely to be reached in coming days – with any possible coalition likely to need a third party
Germany’s Green party and conservatives have described initial rounds of exploratory coalition talks as “constructive”.
The comment came after the first formal meeting since last month’s election between the likely chief kingmaker in a future government and the second-placed Christian Democrats (CDU).
Continue reading...Israel prime minister tells Knesset of ‘bold’ mission concerned with fate of missing navigator Lt Col Ron Arad
The Israeli spy agency, the Mossad, launched a complex intelligence operation last month to find information on the whereabouts and fate of an Israeli airman who was shot down over southern Lebanon in 1986.
The existence of the operation to find Lt Col Ron Arad, a navigator on an Israeli jet whose plane went down during a bombing raid, was confirmed by the Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett, who told the country’s parliament on Monday that he could share no more details of the “courageous mission”.
Continue reading...Almost 140 countries understood to be in final OECD talks on measures to stop firms moving profits to tax havens
Almost 140 countries are edging closer to a global deal on the taxation of multinationals, with agreement on a minimum 15% rate of corporation tax set to be announced as part of a landmark statement at the OECD in Paris on Friday.
Governments representing more than 90% of the world economy are understood to be in the final stages of talks on a global minimum rate and other measures designed to stop multinationals shifting profits into tax havens.
Continue reading...Taiwan needs to be on alert for China's 'over-the-top' military activities which are violating regional peace, Premier Su Tseng-chang has said after incursions by Chinese warplanes into Taiwan's air defence zone. China has sent nearly 150 planes into the zone in the first four days of October, in what mainland figures and media have labelled a demonstration of strength but which world governments have condemned as an act of intimidation
Continue reading...Extra help called in for overwhelmed hospitals in California; two doses of Pfizer/BioNTech about 90% effective at preventing hospitalisations for at least six months, research reveals
Senegal has had only a handful of new daily Covid infections so far this week, with only two cases yesterday – the lowest number since the pandemic reached the country.
“Two cases were recorded today, the lowest ever recorded,” said the health ministry spokesperson Ngone Ngom. “They were in the past seven, 10 cases, but from the top of my head I think this is the lowest.”
Continue reading...Almost 20 years ago, a police shooting left David Makara without an arm and facing jail. Inspired by the blind lawyer who saved him, he now defends others facing injustice
When the police started shooting at David Makara in his home town of Nyahururu, in Kenya, he ran before quickly collapsing. Two bullets had hit him – one in his right arm, one in his hip – but he only realised when he looked down and saw his hand dangling from his wrist and blood pouring out.
“I thought I was going to die,” he says.
Continue reading...Abuses committed by priests as well as non-religious people, says independent commission
An investigation into sexual abuse in the French Catholic church has found that an estimated 216,000 children were victims of abuse by clergy since 1950.
The revelations in France are the latest to rock the Roman Catholic church after a series of sexual abuse scandals around the world, often involving children, over the past 20 years.
Continue reading...Pair will spend 12 days on International Space Station in effort to beat US to making first film in space
A Russian actor and a director have blasted off to the International Space Station (ISS) in an attempt to beat the US to the filming of the first movie in orbit.
The Russian crew are set to beat a Hollywood project announced last year by Tom Cruise, Nasa, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Continue reading...UN study finds streaming services have increased demand for film productions from across the continent, but warns piracy and underinvestment hampering growth
Film industries in Africa could quadruple their revenue to $20bn (£15bn) and create an extra 20m jobs in creative industries, according to a UN report about cinema on the continent.
The booming film industry in Nigeria – Nollywood is the world’s second-largest film industry in terms of output – and Senegal were examples of African countries with defined business models and growing avenues for local film productions, which are increasingly sought after by television and streaming services such as Netflix and Disney+, said the report by the United Nation’s cultural body, Unesco.
Continue reading...Analysis: the fallout from a conflict triggered by miscalculation or accident could be catastrophic
A surge of Chinese aerial sorties over the sea separating mainland China and Taiwan has served as a reminder that the strait has the potential to be one of the most dangerous places on Earth.
According to Taiwan’s defence ministry, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) made a total of 149 sorties in four days over the southern section of the Taiwan Strait, including flights by a dozen bombers and many jet fighters.
Continue reading...Lava is destroying much of La Palma but the last eruption in the Canaries appears to have ‘fertilised’ the surrounding seas
The eruption of the volcano on La Palma in the Canary Islands is a vivid reminder of the destructive power of nature but, as it lays waste all before it on land, for marine life it is likely to be a blessing.
When the lava reached the sea near the La Palma marine reserve on Tuesday night, every marine organism that was unable to swim out of danger was instantly killed. However, unlike on land, which lava renders lifeless for decades (and with forest not returning for more than a century), marine life returns quickly and in better shape, research shows.
Continue reading...Tsai Ing-wen says Taiwan will ‘do whatever it takes to defend itself’ against an increasingly assertive Beijing
Taiwan is committed to defending its democracy against an increasingly aggressive China, the island’s president has vowed, warning of “catastrophic consequences” for the region should it fall.
The comments from Tsai Ing-wen, in an essay published on Tuesday, came amid record-breaking incursions by Chinese warplanes into its air defence zone. On Tuesday Taiwan’s premier, Su Tseng-chang, said the “over the top” activity violated regional peace, and Taiwan needed to be on alert.
Continue reading...Elizabeth Maruma Mrema says access to Covid jabs for developing world will be critical to the success of in-person Kunming Cop15 summit
Governments hoping for a global agreement to halt biodiversity loss must put more effort into access to Covid-19 vaccines for developing countries, the UN’s biodiversity chief has warned.
Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, said the Kunming Cop15 summit, at which governments will try to forge a “Paris agreement for nature”, was vital for halting the global crisis of species loss.
Continue reading...MEPs call for EU ban on all outsourced labour after Guardian investigation finds unequal pay and terms
The EU is facing calls to ban outsourcing in the meat industry, after a Guardian investigation revealed how agency workers were exploited by companies that took no responsibility for pay and conditions.
Katrin Langensiepen, vice-chair of the European parliament’s employment and social affairs committee, said the EU should ban subcontracting across all economic sectors to ensure workers receive the same pay and conditions for the same work.
Continue reading...Six of top 10, including China and Russia, yet to show ambition on emissions cuts before Cop26
Analysis of the total carbon dioxide emissions of countries since 1850 has revealed the nations with the greatest historical responsibility for the climate emergency. But six of the top 10 have yet to make ambitious new pledges to cut their emissions before the crucial UN Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow in November.
The six include China, Russia and Brazil, which come only behind the US as the biggest cumulative polluters. The UK is eighth and Canada is 10th. Carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for centuries and the cumulative amount of CO2 emitted is closely linked to the 1.2C of heating the world has already seen.
Continue reading...Without a dramatic change in New Zealand’s vaccination rates, Covid-19 risks becoming a disease for brown people
And so with that, a confusing 20-minute monologue in the Beehive theatrette, New Zealand’s virus-beating elimination strategy is over. As the Delta variant’s “tentacles”, to borrow the prime minister’s description, creep past the Auckland border, potentially wrapping themselves around parts of the Waikato, the government will no longer aim to cut the monster off at its head with tough alert level four restrictions. Instead public health officials will move to a suppression strategy aiming “to contain and control the virus” while we vaccinate our way out of the pandemic. At its simplest, Jacinda Ardern’s message from the threatrette was vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate.
For 18 months New Zealanders were living life as if there were no pandemic. We were gathering outdoors and indoors in the thousands, mask mandates were literally a foreign concept, and business and public services were operating more or less as normal. We were watching governments that let the virus rip with a good dose of horror and, if we’re honest, a modest dose of smugness. And so yesterday’s announcement – that the virus will remain resident in this country – feels like a form of whiplash. Only two weeks ago the prime minister stood in that familiar theatrette and told the country returning to zero cases was still the goal.
Continue reading...Concerns about the toll a suppression approach may take have dampened excitement about loosened restrictions
New Zealanders are grieving for the end of the country’s Covid elimination strategy and anxious about what the future holds, a day after prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced the country would switch to a suppression approach.
“It’s kind of a grieving for what we are losing,” microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles, one of the pandemic response’s most prominent science communicators, said. “We are very clearly losing alert level one, and the freedoms and privileges that come with [it].”
Continue reading...Harold Koh, a legal adviser and Obama administration veteran, criticises use of health protocol to expel thousands of migrants
A senior legal adviser in the state department has accused the Biden administration of deporting Haitians illegally through the use of a public health law.
Harold Koh, a veteran of the Obama administration, had been due to leave government service to take up a teaching position at Oxford University. He wrote a letter to the state department leadership, lambasting the expulsions of thousands of Haitians in recent weeks.
Continue reading...Last week’s court decision affirmed the view that seabed mining is too dangerous, too risky and too harmful to the environment
The decision by New Zealand’s Supreme Court last week against a giant seabed mining proposal in the South Taranaki Bight is a wake-up call for the world’s would-be seabed mining industry, both in the deep oceans of international waters and for countries contemplating such activities off their own coasts.
The mining operation, proposed by Trans-Tasman Resources (TTR), would have dug up 50 million tonnes of the seabed every year for 35 years, targeting 5m tonnes of iron ore and dumping the remaining 45m tonnes back into the ocean.
Continue reading...Brexit minister says he expects Brussels response to UK demand to renegotiate protocol within 10 days
The UK will react in a “robust” manner if the EU launches a retaliatory trade war in the event of Brexit talks on Northern Ireland breaking down, the government has warned.
The Brexit minister, David Frost, said he expected the EU to issue its formal response to the UK’s demand for renegotiation of the Northern Ireland protocol within the next 10 days, as he outlined fresh detail on the timeline for talks.
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