Category Archives: World News

Global shipping is a big emitter, the industry must commit to drastic action before it is too late

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Around 80% of global trade is transported across oceans on cargo vessels powered by fossil fuels, Pacific nations are calling for decisive global action

  • Casten Ned Nemra is minister of foreign affairs of the Marshall Islands

Many communities around the world have recently been confronted with the dangerous impacts of climate change and as world leaders prepare to meet in Glasgow for the COP26 summit, are examining what action needs to be taken.

But one of the world’s major global greenhouse gas emitters has long escaped global attention.

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Coronavirus live news: 1.5million people in England to receive booster jab invite

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Texts and letters will be sent to eligible people who had their second vaccine at least six months ago

Ireland’s chief medical officer has praised the country’s “exceptionally” high level of vaccine uptake, describing it as the envy of the world.

The vaccine programme hit a milestone at the weekend, with more than 90% of people over the age of 16 now fully vaccinated, the PA reports.

While vaccination remains our best means of protection against COVID-19, there are additional things that you can do to prevent transmission of the disease. pic.twitter.com/MVyC9xCsEp

The UK government said a further 56 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of today, bringing the UK total to 135,203.

Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have been 159,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, the PA reports.

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UK-France defence summit cancelled in Aukus row

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Paris furious at scrapping of Australian submarine contract and new three-way technology pact

A Franco-British defence ministers’ summit due to take place this week has been cancelled as Paris steps up its protests over the loss of a £48bn submarine contract with Australia and its secret replacement with nuclear technology from the UK and US.

Ben Wallace, the UK defence secretary, and his opposite number, Florence Parly, had been due to hold a bilateral meeting in London and address the two-day Franco-British Council, now the latest casualties of the diplomatic row.

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Haitian migrants intend to remain at Texas border despite plan to expel them

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Thousands seeking to escape poverty and hunger in their own country remain encamped under and near a bridge in Del Rio

Haitian migrants seeking to escape poverty, hunger and hopelessness in their home country said they would not be deterred by US plans to swiftly send them back, as thousands remained encamped on the Texas border.

Related: How thousands of Haitian migrants ended up at the Texas border

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Spanish Canary Island volcano erupts, sending lava streaming towards villages

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About 5,000 people have been evacuated from near the volcano on La Palma Island but no injuries reported

A volcano has erupted on the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma, sending lava shooting into the air and streaming in rivers towards houses in two villages from the Cumbre Vieja national park in the south of the island.

Authorities had begun evacuating the infirm and some farm animals from nearby villages before the eruption at 3.15pm local time on Sunday on a wooded slope in the sparsely populated Cabeza de Vaca area, according to the islands’ government.

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Afghan women stage protest in Kabul after Taliban crack down on women’s rights – video report

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More than a dozen women staged a protest in Kabul on Sunday, holding up signs calling for the participation of women in public life. The protest came as female government employees in Kabul were told to stay home, with work only allowed for those who cannot be replaced by men. The order was given by the interim mayor of Kabul, detailing the latest restrictions on women by the new Taliban rulers.

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Zinedine becomes Antoine as satirical site fixes ‘un-French’ names

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Site ridicules far-right suggestion that people should be made to have ‘more French’ names

When a far-right political journalist and possible presidential contender began talking about people having “un-French” names, there really was only one response: satire.

The humorous website Vite Mon Prénom (My Name, Quick) was set up to offer a one-click test to find out if your name is French enough, based on a repealed 1803 law, and suggest alternatives if it is considered unacceptably foreign.

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French highline walker makes 600-metre Seine crossing from Eiffel Tower

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‘It was beautiful,’ says Nathan Paulin after traversing slackline over Paris river to mark country’s Heritage Day

A French highline walker has crossed the River Seine in Paris at a height of 70 metres, in a breathtaking feat watched by cheering crowds on the Eiffel Tower and along the banks.

Attached by a strap to a safety lanyard, 27-year-old Nathan Paulin slowly progressed barefoot on a line stretched across the river between the Eiffel Tower and the Chaillot theatre. He stopped for a few breaks, sitting or lying on the rope.

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Kabul government’s female workers told to stay at home by Taliban

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Only those who cannot be replaced by men may remain, in further sign of Taliban’s hardline rule over Afghans

Female employees in the Kabul city government have been told to stay home, with work only allowed for those who cannot be replaced by men, the interim mayor of Afghanistan’s capital said on Sunday, detailing the latest restrictions on women by the new Taliban rulers.

The decision to prevent most female city workers from returning to their jobs is another sign that the Taliban, who overran Kabul last month, are enforcing their harsh interpretation of Islam despite initial promises by some that they would be tolerant and inclusive. Under their previous rule in the 1990s, the Taliban barred girls and women from schools, jobs and public life.

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Climate top of the agenda as knife-edge race to lead Germany enters final stage

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Cheers and jeers greet political rivals trying to succeed Merkel, as they chase green votes in the former DDR

As Annalena Baerbock steps on to the stage, the downpour that minutes before had soaked those gathered on Chemnitz’s Theater Platz ceases. The Green party candidate is quick to use the opportunity to stress that everything is still possible. “Minutes ago it was raining, now the sun has come out – it can happen,” she says with a huge grin, hinting that the change in the weather is a good omen for her party’s fortunes.

There are both chuckles and jeers from those gathered. With a week to go before one of the most open and tension-filled German elections in years, Baerbock is in the last stages of a campaign that weeks ago saw her heading for the top job, as successor to Chancellor Angela Merkel, but in which she is now fighting for second or third place.

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Slow but steady has seen the EU win out in the vaccine race

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Ursula von der Leyen says the union’s vaccination programme is now a success after its stumbling start

We did it,” said Ursula von der Leyen in her annual state of the union address last week. With more than 70% of its adult population now fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, Europe is, “against all critics, among the world leaders”.

Moreover, the Commission president said, the EU had exported half its vaccines: “We delivered more than 700 million doses to the European people, and we delivered more than 700 million doses to the rest of the world. We are the only region to achieve that.”

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Jonathan Mirsky: reporter who went from Mao fan to fierce Beijing critic

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The career of the Observer’s former China correspondent who died last week, was marked by a willingness to review his convictions

Jonathan Mirsky, the Observer’s former China correspondent who has died aged 88, was acutely aware of the mounting danger from the bullets criss-crossing Tiananmen Square on 4 June 1989 as units of the People’s Liberation Army were sent in to break up the protests. He was aware too that he desperately needed to get his copy to London.

Writing about the experience 30 years later, Mirsky admitted that few at first had any sense of the scale of the violence that was being unleashed either on the students in the square. All that, however, was to change quickly.

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Why Greece’s expensive new migrant camps are outraging NGOs

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The €38m asylum seeker centre on Samos – the first of five – has restaurants and air-conditioning but it’s like a prison, say critics

It has eight restaurants, seven basketball courts, three playgrounds, a football pitch, special rooms for vulnerable people, and is purportedly eco-friendly.

But Greece’s new “closed” migrant camp for 3,000 asylum seekers on Samos is also surrounded by military-grade fencing, watched over by police and located in a remote valley, and has been likened by critics to a jail or a dystopian nightmare. Its message is clear: if Europe-bound asylum seekers reach the country, they are going to be strictly controlled.

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Baptism of fire as Liz Truss heads to US amid submarine row

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As France accuses the US and Australia of ‘lies and duplicity’, new UK foreign secretary faces major diplomatic incident on her first official overseas trip

Liz Truss is heading for a furious diplomatic confrontation with France on her first trip abroad as foreign secretary, as anger mounts in Paris over the cancellation of a £48bn nuclear submarine contract.

Truss, whose appointment was one of the biggest surprises of Boris Johnson’s cabinet reshuffle last Wednesday, will arrive in the US on Sunday before a four-day visit to New York and Washington during which she is aiming to promote the prime minister’s vision of “global Britain” to international leaders.

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Aukus pact could allow New Zealand to deepen relations with Europe and Pacific | Pete McKenzie

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As country’s traditional allies take a more confrontational approach to China, it could offset Anglosphere divide with new partnerships

During the announcement that America, the United Kingdom and Australia had formed a new Aukus defence pact – inaugurated with the sale of American nuclear-powered submarines to Australia – Australian prime minister Scott Morrison lauded it as a “forever partnership for a new time between the oldest and most trusted of friends”.

That phrasing was notable given that the deal excluded New Zealand, which has historically been so close with Australia that the Australian constitution contemplates complete integration of the two countries. Remarkably, New Zealand’s government apparently only learned about the Aukus deal when it began to be reported in the media on Wednesday.

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Ministers told to bar EU from UK trial data in vaccines row

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England’s deputy medical chief asked for data to be withheld unless British vaccine guinea pigs allowed to travel abroad

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England’s deputy chief medical officer asked ministers to withhold all UK clinical trial data from the EU if European countries continued to deny entry to British vaccine trial volunteers, the Observer can reveal.

Jonathan Van-Tam made the extraordinary proposal after months of uncertainty for the 19,000 volunteers who are effectively unable to travel to Europe to see family, work or go on holiday because they took part in trials of Novavax and Valneva.

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Will she run for president? Duterte’s daughter keeps the Philippines guessing

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Sara Duterte ahead in the polls despite refusing to commit to presidential race

It was a decade ago, before her father had become Philippine president, that Sara Duterte attracted national attention. A local sheriff had ignored orders issued by her, the mayor of Davao City, to delay the demolition of a shantytown. She arrived at the scene furious and punched him, not once, but four times in the head, in front of reporters.

Duterte, 43, a motorbike lover and tough talker, has a combative image that echoes that of her 76-year-old father, the populist president Rodrigo Duterte. It is widely believed that, as he nears the end of his six-year term limit, she will follow in his footsteps to Manila’s Malacañang Palace.

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Nike and Amazon among brands advertising on Covid conspiracy sites

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Household names may have unwittingly helped spread fake news, investigation reveals

Dozens of the world’s biggest brands, including Nike, Amazon, Ted Baker and Asos, have been advertising on websites that spread Covid-19 misinformation and conspiracy theories, it has emerged. The companies, as well as an NHS service, are among a string of household names whose ads appear to have helped fund websites that host false and outlandish claims, for example that powerful people secretly engineered the pandemic, or that vaccines have caused thousands of deaths.

Analysis of nearly 60 sites, performed by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and shared with the Observer, found that ads were placed through the “opaque” digital advertising market, which is forecast to be worth more than $455bn (£387bn) this year.

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Three killed in explosions in Jalalabad, eastern Afghanistan

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Initial reports suggest a Taliban convoy may have been targeted in the ISKP’s stronghold region

At least three people have been killed and more than 18 people injured in three explosions in Jalalabad in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province.

It is reported that the intended target may have been a passing convoy of the Taliban in the provincial capital. It is the first attack in the province since the Taliban came into power in mid-August.

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US to fly Haitian migrants back after thousands gather at Texas border

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Plan will likely involve five to eight flights a day, with San Antonio potentially among departure cities

The Biden administration on Saturday was working on plans to send many of the thousands of Haitian immigrants who have gathered in a Texas border city back to their homeland, a swift response to the huge influx of people who suddenly crossed from Mexico and congregated under and around a bridge.

Related: ‘A forgotten disaster’: earthquake-hit Haitians left to fend for themselves

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