Category Archives: World News

‘They created monsters’: How New Zealand’s brutal welfare system produced criminals

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Rangi Wickliffe was one of many Māori children repeatedly abused in welfare institutions including the notorious Lake Alice psychiatric hospital

Rangi Wickliffe’s body is a map and a history of New Zealand’s welfare and prison institutions, where the 60-year-old has spent about 45 years of his life.

There are the scars the length of his inner left forearm that he slashed up with a razor blade when he was 16. That was in D Block in Paremoremo prison, the harshest wing in New Zealand’s maximum security prison.

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Rightwing Chilean newspaper accused of ‘apology for Nazism’ over Göring article

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Germany embassy condemns El Mercurio for Sunday piece and says ‘no room to justify or minimise his horrific role’

Chile’s main conservative daily newspaper has been accused of publishing “an apology for Nazism” after running an illustrated article commemorating the life of the German war criminal Hermann Göring.

After El Mercurio published the article on Sunday, the German embassy in Santiago expressed its concern, highlighting Göring’s many crimes.

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Canada container ship fire: ‘bomb cyclone’ storm may hinder effort to assess damage

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Blaze on freighter ship has been largely contained, but officials won’t be able to determine damage amid wind and rain

Emergency crews have largely contained a chemical fire aboard a container ship anchored off western Canada, but warned a looming “bomb cyclone” storm could complicate efforts to fully assess damage to the ship and surrounding marine ecosystem.

The blaze broke out on Saturday aboard the MV Zim Kingston, a freighter ship carrying mining chemicals, including potassium amylxanthate – a hazardous substance used to help separate ores.

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Seeds of Sudan coup sown after fall of Omar al-Bashir

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Analysis: democratic transition that followed 30 years of military rule only papered over faultlines

In 2019, in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Sudan’s authoritarian leader Omar al-Bashir – who had himself seized power in a military-backed coup in 1989 – the potential for fissures in the country’s nascent political settlement were already obvious.

As representatives of the country’s rebel movements sent delegations to the huge and sprawling public protests in Khartoum and students discussed the possibilities of democracy at coffee stalls set up on the pavement outside universities, the military – which had removed their backing from Bashir – was keeping a watchful eye with its soldiers manning checkpoints.

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‘The most difficult journey of my life’: an Afghan family’s escape to the UK

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One of just six female judges who have so far managed to reach Britain speaks of fleeing Kabul and finding refuge in Manchester

The day the Taliban arrived in Kabul, Dina* went to her office in the city’s law courts as normal. It was deserted. “Only the cleaner was there,” the 41-year-old supreme court judge remembers. “The cleaner said: what are you doing here? Go home!”

Dina gathered as many legal papers and personal documents as she could carry and drove back to the four-storey home she shared with her husband and three children. There, she scanned in the most important bits of paper and burned the lot on her roof terrace. It was painful watching evidence of everything she worked so hard to achieve going up in flames.

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Experts frustrated as German footballer says he has not had Covid jab

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Immunologists say Bayern Munich’s Joshua Kimmich is mistaken and vaccine misunderstandings persist

German immunologists have warned that fundamental misunderstandings about the way vaccines work persist among the population, after the Bayern Munich and Germany footballer Joshua Kimmich confirmed over the weekend that he had declined to receive a Covid jab due to concerns over long-term side-effects.

“I have concerns about the lack of long-term studies,” the 26-year-old told Sky Sport. “I am of course aware of my responsibility. I follow all hygiene measures and get tested every two to three days. Everyone should make the decision for themselves.”

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‘Countdown to catastrophe’: half of Afghans face hunger this winter – UN

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An economic crisis aggravated by conflict and drought have caused a collapse in food security since the Taliban takeover

More than half of Afghanistan’s population is facing acute hunger as the country has been thrown into one of the world’s largest food crises.

Almost 23 million Afghans will be hungry due to conflict, drought and an economic downturn that is severely affecting livelihoods and people’s access to food as a harsh winter looms, the UN has warned; an increase of nearly 35% compared with last year.

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Protesters march in Khartoum after Sudan’s military launches coup – video

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Demonstrators blocked roads in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, on Monday after the military launched a coup, arresting leading politicians and declaring a state of emergency. Footage shows anti-military protesters chanting slogans while tyres burn in the streets.

Sudan’s prime minister, Abdalla Hamdok, and other senior members of its transitional government have been arrested. Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who led Sudan’s power-sharing sovereign council, justified the seizure of power by saying infighting between the military and civilian parties threatened the country’s stability

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Coronavirus live: European Medical Agency approves Moderna booster; UK records 36,567 new cases

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The EU’s medical body has approved booster doses of Moderna’s Covid vaccine for all adults; UK also reports 38 further Covid-related deaths

Just back on those school anti-vaccine protests for a moment, my colleague Sarah Marsh has this report: Keir Starmer calls for schools to be protected from anti-vaccine protests

The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) revealed this month that most of the schools surveyed by the union (79%) had been targeted by anti-vaxxers. This had mainly been through emails threatening legal action, but the ASCL said in some cases staff had been threatened with physical harm and some protesters have gained access to school sites.

Starmer said: “It is sickening that anti-vax protesters are spreading dangerous misinformation to children in protests outside of schools. The uptake of vaccines among children is far too low and the government’s rollout is painfully slow. Everything must be done to get those eligible jabbed as quickly as possible in this public health emergency.

“Labour believes the law around public spaces protection orders (PSPOs) urgently needs to be updated so that local authorities can rapidly create exclusion zones for anti-vax protests outside of schools.”

PSPOs can be used to disperse people from a public area and have previously been used to move on protesters outside abortion clinics or to allow police to confiscate alcohol in certain spaces.

But gaining permission to impose one takes significant consultation, and Labour is calling for an expedited process in cases of preventing harassment and intimidation of children outside schools if agreed to by the school, the leader of the local council, and the local police chief constable.

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Six jailed in Spain for selling fakes of Goya and other artists online

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Valencia police seized 27 paintings by various artists being sold for €1.2m, 18 of which were crude forgeries

Six people have been jailed in the eastern Spanish region of Valencia after police broke up a criminal gang that was using the internet to sell crudely forged paintings attributed to artists including Francisco de Goya, José Benlliure y Gil and Nicolás Falcó.

The investigation, carried out by officers from the historical heritage group of the Valencian police, began when doubts arose over the provenance of Falcó’s The Adoration of the Three Wise Men, which had been bought for €18,000 (£15,000) and was being resold for €45,000.

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Sudan’s army seizes power in coup and detains prime minister

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Military declares state of emergency and gunfire reported as protesters flood Khartoum streets

Sudan’s military has seized power in a coup, arrested leading civilian politicians including the prime minister, Abdalla Hamdok, and declared a state of emergency as thousands of protesters flooded the streets of Khartoum in opposition.

A health ministry official said late on Monday that seven protesters had been killed and 140 people wounded after security forces fired on demonstrators. As night fell in Khartoum, witnesses described gangs of young men armed with sticks reportedly beating anyone found on the streets.

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Fox News’s Neil Cavuto ‘begs’ viewers to ‘stop the politics’ and get Covid vaccine

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Host urges Covid vaccination and tells viewers: ‘I cannot stress this enough – it’s not about left or right’

The Fox News host Neil Cavuto has “begged” viewers to toss out political talking points about Covid-19 vaccinations and get the shot.

“My God, stop the politics,” he told the network’s Reliable Sources show.

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Alec Baldwin was pointing gun at camera when it went off, director says

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Joel Souza says actor was practising a scene at time of accidental shooting of Halyna Hutchins

Alec Baldwin was practising a scene that involved him pointing a gun “towards the camera lens” when it accidentally went off, killing his director of photography, according to a written statement by the film’s director.

The director, Joel Souza, said he heard what “sounded like a whip and then a loud pop”. He said he saw the cinematographer Halyna Hutchins clutch her midriff and stumble backwards. Souza noticed that he himself was bleeding from the right shoulder.

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My father’s senseless murder must be a wake-up call for Nigeria

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A surgeon dedicated to his patients, Chike Akunyili was on the frontline of people’s suffering. We must address the problems that drove his killers to pull a trigger just because they could

On the afternoon of 28 September 2021 my father was murdered in broad daylight by Nigeria’s ubiquitous “unknown gunmen”, the name given to unidentified attackers.

His killing, which happened to be on my birthday, was gruesome, cruel and senseless. As he struggled for his life no one helped or comforted him in his hour of need. Worse still, his body was robbed.

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‘This is their time’: post-Golden Dawn, is far-right reviving in Greece?

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Extremist party’s demise has left a gap that it is being filled by far-right groups in north of the country

“They were big and brawny and struck like a thunderbolt,” says Aphrodite Frangou, an activist and leftwing journalist recalling the moment a group of far-right Golden Dawn sympathisers went on the attack. “They kicked us and punched us and broke everything, tables, chairs, even the loudspeakers we had set up. Four of us spent the night in hospital.”

October was meant to be a month of celebration for Frangou and other members of Keerfa, Greece’s pre-eminent anti-fascist movement.

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Herbalist’s murder highlights assault on Mayan spirituality in Guatemala

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Spiritual guide Domingo Choc Che was tortured and burned by neighbors who accused him of witchcraft – and advocates say Christian churches are stoking prejudice

In meetings, Domingo Choc Che was quiet and reflective, speaking up only once others had said their piece. But he would come alive when he entered the jungles of Guatemala’s northern Petén department, sharing his knowledge of traditional medicines with anyone who wanted to learn.

“He was more at ease with plants,” said Mónica Berger, a sociologist and anthropologist at the University of the Valley of Guatemala who worked closely with Choc Che, a member of the indigenous Maya Q’eqchi community.

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French election polls: who is leading the race to be the next president of France?

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Emmanuel Macron and the far-right hopeful Marine Le Pen look set to be joined by numerous other candidates in the French presidential election. We look at the latest polling, and introduce some of the most likely candidates

France will vote to elect a new president in April, and the jostling for position among potential candidates is well under way. The current president, Emmanuel Macron, has yet to declare his candidacy but is expected to run again. His second-round opponent from 2017, the far-right populist Marine Le Pen, has already launched her campaign. Alongside them on the ballot will be Anne Hidalgo, the Socialist candidate, Yannick Jadot, representing the Green movement, and a candidate from the centre-right, to be chosen by Les Républicains, on 4 December. The far-right TV pundit Éric Zemmour, who has no political party, could declare an outsider bid.

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Climate crisis: greenhouse gas levels hit new record despite lockdowns, UN reports

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The data send a ‘stark’ message to the nations tasked with increasing action at the Cop26 climate summit, UN meteorology chief says

Levels of climate-heating gases in the atmosphere hit record levels in 2020, despite coronavirus-related lockdowns, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization has announced.

The concentration of carbon dioxide, the most important greenhouse gas, is now 50% higher than before the Industrial Revolution sparked the mass burning of fossil fuels. Methane levels have more than doubled since 1750. All key greenhouse gases (GHG) rose faster in 2020 than the average for the previous decade and this trend has continued in 2021, the WMO report found.

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Saudi crown prince a ‘psychopath’, says exiled intelligence officer

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Saad Aljabri says Mohammed bin Salman boasted he could kill former ruler King Abdullah

A former senior Saudi intelligence officer has claimed that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is a “psychopath with no empathy” who once boasted that he could kill the kingdom’s ruler at the time, King Abdullah, and replace him with his own father.

In an interview on US television, Saad Aljabri, who fled Saudi Arabia in May 2017 and is living in exile in Canada, also said he had been warned by an associate in 2018, after the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, that a Saudi hit team was heading to Canada to kill him.

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Amnesty International to close Hong Kong offices due to national security law

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Human rights watchdog cites staff safety among reasons over decision to leave city for first time in 40 years

Amnesty International will close its Hong Kong offices by the end of the year, citing concerns for the safety of staff trying to operate under the national security law.

The decision, announced on Monday, will leave the city without the human rights organisation’s presence for the first time in 40 years.

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