Category Archives: World News

Cop26 failure could mean mass migration and food shortages, says Boris Johnson

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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.

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‘People are starting to wane’: China’s zero-Covid policy takes toll

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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.

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Japan’s governing party set for bloodied victory in weekend election

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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.

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Vigilante surveillance: the rise of Beijing’s neighbourhood patrols

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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”.

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Sudan democracy march: three protesters killed as security forces open fire

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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.

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First group of LGBT+ Afghans fleeing Taliban arrive in the UK

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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.

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Guantánamo prisoner details torture for first time: ‘I thought I was going to die’

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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.

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Trudeau files last-ditch appeal against billions for Indigenous children

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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.

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Covid bioweapon claims ‘scientifically invalid’, US intelligence reports

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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.

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‘If we don’t act now it will be too late’, warns Johnson ahead of Cop26

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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”.

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Forced retreat: one New Zealand town’s fate highlights coming fight over climate adaptation

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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!”

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Biden admits to Macron the US was ‘clumsy’ in Aukus submarine deal

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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.

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Macron’s fighting talk on fishing is driven by far-right election threats

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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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Fresh air or foul odour? How Covid can distort the sense of smell

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Coronavirus-induced parosmia is surprisingly common and the sensory confusion can have profound effects

Deirdre likens her body odour to raw onions; Deepak says his favourite aftershave smells foul, and coffee like cleaning products; Julie thinks coffee and chocolate both smell like burnt ashes.

Most people are aware that a cardinal symptom of Covid-19 is loss of smell, or anosmia. It may last for weeks or even months. Increasingly though, those who have recovered subsequently develop another disorienting symptom, parosmia, or a distorted sense of smell. This typically results in things that once smelled pleasant smelling bad or rotten.

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Covid news live: Russia sets yet another new high for daily deaths; Wales set to tighten rules on self-isolation

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Russia reports 1,163 new Covid deaths, its highest one-day toll of pandemic; whole households to self-isolate in Wales if one person tests positive

Bulgaria has recorded another 5,178 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours. Official data shows that there are 7,553 patients in hospital, 656 of them being in intensive care.

Yesterday a meeting of health authorities agreed to transform Lozenets Hospital in Sofia into an intensive care centre for Covid-19 treatment. Deputy health minister Dimitar Petrov said the government’s intention was to open 30 new beds every 3-4 days in the next two weeks. In addition, students will not be returning to in-person classes next week, with primary school pupils expected to be back at school on 8 November.

The truth of the matter is we wish the UK Government took a more precautionary approach to international travel. But when they choose to change the rules in England, in any practical sense it’s impossible for us to do anything different in Wales, because almost everybody from Wales who travels abroad or who returns to this country from abroad comes in through English ports and airports, and then travels on to Wales. So in a practical sense, we can’t make anything different happen there, although we wish the UK Government took a different approach. What we can do, when we can do things differently, when we have decisions that we can make effectively in Wales, then we take them.

We do have opportunities to discuss this with the UK Government. I have for a number of weeks been urging them to move to Plan B. It would certainly help us here in Wales to have a single communication that says across England and Wales we are all taking this virus as seriously as we need to take it as we go into the autumn and the winter.

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Biden heads to Cop26 as climate agenda hangs in balance | First Thing

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President faces hurdles in reasserting US credibility at the summit. Plus, Texas stand-your-ground laws thrown into spotlight

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Good morning.

Joe Biden is heading to Glasgow for the critical Cop26 global summit, where he will fight to reassert the United States’s credibility after Donald Trump’s presidency, as his spending and climate bill remains unsigned into law.

Phasing out fossil fuels from the grid

Making oil and gas producers pay to emit methane

Introducing a CO2 tax

What are stand-your-ground laws? The controversial laws oppose the idea that faced with danger, you should retreat, and offer provision for homeowners to use deadly force to justifiably defend themselves.

When were these laws introduced? The first law in the US was enacted in Florida in 2005, after lobbying from the National Rifle Association. Opponents say they result in unnecessary deaths and are often a pretext for racism.

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New minister takes helm as Canadian military engulfed by sexual misconduct crisis

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Seven generals have so far been implicated in the billowing scandal – can institutional change be effected?

For nearly a year, Canada’s military has been engulfed in crisis, as one senior officer after another has come under investigation over allegations of sexual misconduct or cover-up.

So far, seven generals have been implicated in the snowballing scandal, which has undermined both public trust in the institution and morale within the ranks – and highlighted a lack of transparency over how the military handles allegations of sexual assault.

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Holy bikini-clad Batwoman! Archive saves Mexico’s scorned popular films

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Permanencia Voluntaria has rescued hundreds of films and is seeking to challenge attitudes towards its legacy

From demons, ghosts and vampires to Martians, mad scientists and spurned lovers, the heroes and heroines of 20th-century Mexican popular cinema faced more than their share of enemies.

Few foes, however, have proved quite as formidable as the combined adversaries of time, critical snottiness and oblivion – not to mention the odd earthquake.

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Macron’s re-election hopes may be driving Brexit fishing row, says Eustice

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UK environment secretary accuses France of using ‘inflammatory’ rhetoric in escalating dispute

Emmanuel Macron’s hopes of being re-elected president may be driving the diplomatic row with France over post-Brexit access to Britain’s fishing waters, the UK’s environment secretary has claimed.

George Eustice accused Paris of using “inflammatory” rhetoric in an escalating dispute over a shortfall in licences for French fishing vessels seeking to operate in the coastal waters of the UK and Jersey.

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Global activists gather at Rome G20 to demand tougher action on China

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Beijing must not be let off hook over human rights abuses in return for climate cooperation, say legislators

Legislators from around the world have gathered on the fringes of the G20 summit in Rome to protest against the presence of the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, and urge leaders not to let China off the hook over human rights abuses in return for Beijing’s cooperation on the climate crisis.

Many of those at the Rome counter-meeting have been banned from travelling to China as punishment for campaigning against Chinese repression in Xinjiang.

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