Category Archives: World News

Top US general says Afghan collapse can be traced to Trump-Taliban deal

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The Doha agreement, signed in February 2020, set a date for the US to fully withdraw troops by May 2021

The collapse of the Afghan government and its security forces can be traced to a 2020 agreement between the Taliban and the Trump administration that promised a complete US troop withdrawal, senior Pentagon officials have told Congress.

Gen Frank McKenzie, the head of central command, told the House armed services committee that once the US troop presence was pushed below 2,500 as part of President Joe Biden’s decision in April to complete a total withdrawal by September, the unraveling of the US-backed Afghan government accelerated.

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Brazil hospital chain accused of hiding Covid deaths and giving unproven drugs

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Group of whistleblowing doctors gave 10,000-page dossier to investigators last month with allegations against Prevent Senior

One of Brazil’s biggest healthcare providers has been accused of covering up coronavirus deaths, pressuring doctors to prescribe ineffective treatments, and testing unproven drugs on elderly patients as part of ideologically charged efforts to help the Brazilian government resist a Covid lockdown.

Related: Trump may be gone, but Covid has not seen off populism

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How are Australia’s neighbours faring in the Covid pandemic?

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Vaccination rates are rising in much of south-east Asia and the Pacific after recent outbreaks, but some of the largest countries are falling behind

While Australians have focused on the Covid waves in Sydney and Melbourne, many of Australia’s neighbours have recently experienced their largest outbreaks so far. This includes Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia, Timor-Leste, Vanuatu and even Singapore.

Singapore surpassed Australia’s vaccination target weeks ago, but was now seeing more than a thousand cases a day. Fiji recently had one of the highest rates of Covid cases per capita – peaking at 1,850 cases in the middle of July. But the nation of 889,000 was now regularly administering more than 10,000 new vaccinations a day.

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Tunisia’s president names Najla Bouden as country’s first female PM

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Political unknown to form government with limited powers while president Kais Saied rules by decree

Tunisia’s president named geologist Najla Bouden as the country’s first ever female prime minister-designate on Wednesday, to form a government with limited executive clout after the president seized wide-ranging powers two months ago.

Bouden, a university lecturer and political unknown, will take office after President Kais Saied on 25 July sacked the government of Hichem Mechichi, suspended parliament, lifted MPs’ immunity and took over the judiciary.

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Covid live news: UK reports 36,722 new cases as weekly deaths in Scotland highest since February

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Latest UK-wide case figures come as Scotland sees rise in hospitalisations

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is in advanced talks with vaccine manufacturers to purchase further vaccine doses for its members, Reuters reports.

The region recorded more than 26,000 COVID-19 related deaths last week – more than any other global region.

Health authorities in Greece have recorded a further 2,187 coronavirus cases, taking the cumulative total since the start of the pandemic to 653,535.

The National Organisation for Public Health said 44 patients have died from Covid-19, raising the total death toll to 14,795.

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Erdoğan and Putin hold face-to-face talks over Syria ceasefire

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Turkey’s president wants to shore up the truce because it has been ruptured repeatedly in the last 18 months

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian president Vladimir Putin have held face-to-face talks for the first time since the pandemic in which they discussed the future of the last pocket of Syria outside regime control.

The leaders met in Russia’s Black Sea resort town of Sochi for Wednesday’s summit, Erdoğan sought to shore up a March 2020 ceasefire deal which ended a bruising assault by Bashar al-Assad and his Russian allies on Turkish-backed fighters in north-west Syria. The fighting last year brought Ankara and Moscow close to direct confrontation and threatened Turkey – which is already home to around four million Syrians – with a new wave of refugees.

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Canada: win for anti-logging protesters as judge denies firm’s injunction bid

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Judge blocks Teal Cedar Products’ extension request and says police conduct on Vancouver Island has put court at risk

A provincial court in Canada has refused to extend an injunction against protesters demonstrating against old-growth logging, ruling that police conduct has been so troubling that to extend the order would place the court’s own reputation at risk.

Related: Rescue of trapped Ontario miners involved gruelling climb to surface

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How bad is China’s energy crisis?

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Country is implementing power rationing as supplies dwindle due to price raise of imported coal

The situation is widespread. In recent days, factories in 20 of China’s 31 provinces have suffered a loss of power, forcing many to shut down production, at least for hours at a time. Millions of households in the north-east of the country have also lost power and found that they cannot use electricity to heat or light their homes.

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China hit by power cuts and factory closures as energy crisis bites

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The world’s top coal consumer implements power rationing as supplies dwindle ahead of winter

China has told railway companies and local authorities to expedite vital coal supplies to utilities as the world’s second largest economy grapples with extensive power cuts that have crippled industrial output in key regions.

As many as 20 provinces are believed to be experiencing the crisis to some degree, with factories temporarily shuttered or working on short hours. Shopkeepers were left to light their stores by candles, and there were reports of mobile networks failing after a three-day outage hit three north-eastern provinces.

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Dutch scientists may have solved mystery of why some twins are identical

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Discovery of DNA modifications raises hope of treatment for disorders that particularly afflict twins

The medical mystery of what causes some twins to be born identical may have been solved by scientists in the Netherlands, raising hopes for treatment of congenital disorders that disproportionately afflict them.

Identical twins form after a fertilised egg, called a zygote, splits into two embryos sharing exactly the same genes. The reason for the split is unknown.

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Fumio Kishida: a ‘safe pair of hands’ for Japan’s ruling party

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Analysis: Election result marks return of pragmatic and centrist policies, spearheaded by a decent, if unexciting, leader

Japan’s governing Liberal Democratic party [LDP] has chosen stability and moderation in electing Fumio Kishida as its new leader – a post that all but guarantees that he will become the country’s prime minister on Monday.

Kishida, like Taro Kono – the man he defeated in a second round of voting on Wednesday – is a hereditary politician in a party packed with MPs who were practically destined at birth to occupy a seat in parliament.

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Fears grow for photojournalist arrested by Taliban as executions resume

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Taliban deny Morteza Samadi, 21, has been sentenced to death but family concerned for his safety after he was detained while covering women’s protests in Herat

Fears are growing for a photojournalist who has been detained by the Taliban for more than three weeks after being arrested while covering the women’s protests in Herat.

Morteza Samadi, 21, a freelance photographer, was one of several journalists who were arrested at street protests at the beginning of September. All were quickly released except Morteza, whose whereabouts is not known. Some of those detained in Kabul have alleged they were badly beaten and tortured.

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YouTube to remove misinformation videos about all vaccines

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Streaming site cracks down on harmful content about all approved Covid jabs

YouTube is to remove videos that spread misinformation about all vaccines, as it steps up a crackdown on harmful content posted during the coronavirus pandemic.

From Wednesday, the video streaming site, which has already banned Covid jab falsehoods, will take down content that contains misinformation such as claiming any approved vaccine is dangerous, causes chronic health defects or does not reduce spread of disease.

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EU seeks to tighten Belarus visa rules amid growing migrant crisis

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Bloc accuses Lukashenko of incentivising migrants to cross Belarus’s border with the EU

The European Commission has said it wants to suspend easy access to visas for Belarusian officials in an attempt to deter it from pushing migrants from the Middle East and Africa across its border with the bloc.

Neighbouring Poland, Lithuania and Latvia have declared states of emergency after a sharp increase in arrivals at their borders with Belarus, accusing the country’s dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, of an act of “hybrid warfare” in seeking to orchestrate a EU migrant crisis.

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Madrid leader takes issue with pope’s apology for ‘painful errors’ in Mexico

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Spain brought Catholicism, civilisation and freedom to Americas, says Isabel Díaz Ayuso

The rightwing president of the Madrid region has taken issue with the pope’s recent apology for the church’s “very painful errors” in Mexico, and said Spanish conquistadors brought Catholicism, civilisation and freedom to Latin America.

Isabel Díaz Ayuso, touted as a possible future leader of Spain’s conservative People’s party, has a history of provocative pronouncements.

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Kenya bans LGBTQ+ documentary for ‘promoting same-sex marriage’

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‘Discriminatory’ banning of I Am Samuel, about a gay man’s struggles with his sexuality, criticised by activists and producers

Activists and film producers have criticised a decision by the Kenya Film Classification Board to ban a documentary that tells the story of a Kenyan man struggling with his sexuality.

They said banning the 52-minute film, I Am Samuel, amounted to “discrimination and persecution” of LGBTQ+ people.

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Abortion pledge adds to scepticism over women’s rights in China

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Analysis: plan to reduce abortions as birthrates plunge draws comparisons to The Handmaid’s Tale

Far-reaching proposals from Beijing on “women’s development” have sparked concern over a pledge to reduce abortions, with feminists and academics pointing to the government’s history of control over women’s reproductive rights.

On Monday China’s state council published its latest 10-year outline for women’s development. The lengthy document contained guidelines for China’s gender-based policy, but it was a short phrase that caught particular attention: a pledge to “reduce abortions conducted for non-medical reasons”.

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France cool on efforts by Australia to repair Aukus rift damage

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Élysée says future talks must have substance after Canberra’s decision to cancel submarine contract

France has said any future talks between Emmanuel Macron and the Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, over the fallout from Canberra’s decision to tear up a €56bn (£48bn) submarine deal will have to be “seriously prepared” and have “substance”.

The Élysée Palace has denied it is refusing to take Morrison’s calls, saying the president is “always available to talk on the phone”, but has admitted it is not in any hurry to resume contact with Canberra.

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Gail Omvedt: US sociologist who ‘lived by her principles’ among India’s poor

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The respected academic, who has died aged 80, was a leading anti-caste campaigner and fought tirelessly for women’s rights

At the village of Kasegaon, in India’s rural western region of Maharashtra, huge crowds turned up for the funeral in August of a US-born, white sociologist whom many local people saw as one of their own.

Most of the mourners were Dalits, who belong to the lowest caste in Indian society, previously deemed “untouchables”.

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‘Living in a cave is no life’: Pakistani villagers trapped by Taliban and poverty

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Seven years after fleeing army clashes with militants, 100 families eking out an existence on a hillside near the Afghan border are unable to return home

“Don’t talk to me about the government. They don’t help.”

Ninety-year-old Shah Mast is angry. He has been living in the cave he calls home for seven years, ever since an offensive by the Pakistan army against the Islamist militant group Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) destroyed his home.

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