Category Archives: World News

Coronavirus live news: Biden’s vaccine mandate for 100 million workers; Los Angeles requires students to be vaccinated

Posted on by

All US companies with more than 100 employees to ensure workers are vaccinated or tested weekly; LA mandates vaccines for 630,000 students 12 and older

BioNTech will request approval to use its Covid-19 vaccine in 5- to 11-year-olds within the next few weeks, the firm’s two top executives have said.

“Already over the next few weeks we will file the results of our trial in five to 11 year olds with regulators across the world and will request approval of the vaccine in this age group, also here in Europe,” chief medical officer Oezlem Tuereci told Der Spiegel.

Kenya’s economy has shrunk for the first time in three decades amid the coronavirus crisis, a government survey has shown. Almost 740,000 people have lost their jobs as a result.

The East African country’s gross domestic product dropped by 0.3% - the first contraction since 1992 - after growing 5% in 2019, the report said, as reported by AFP.

Continue reading...

Who will take on Macron in France’s 2022 presidential race?

Posted on by

A #MeToo figurehead, a mayor and a hate-speech ideologue among those tipped to put their hats in the ring

At rush hour at Paris’s Saint-Lazare station, activists, including a civil servant in a government ministry and a former climate-change protester, were out canvassing for an unusual would-be candidate for French president.

Their choice, Sandrine Rousseau, is a figurehead of the French #MeToo movement against sexual violence, an economist and university vice-chancellor and promises a new form of “punk ecology”.

Continue reading...

Criticism of animal farming in the west risks health of world’s poorest | Emma Naluyima Mugerwa and Lora Iannotti

Posted on by

In the developing world most people are not factory farming and livestock is essential to preventing poverty and malnutrition

The pandemic has pushed poverty and malnutrition to rates not seen in more than a decade, wiping out years of progress. In 2020, the number of people in extreme poverty rose by 97 million and the number of malnourished people by between 118 million and 161 million.

Recent data from the World Bank and the UN shows how poverty is heavily concentrated in rural communities in Africa, Asia and Latin America where people are surviving by smallholder farming. This autumn there will be two key events that could rally support for them.

Continue reading...

Denmark lifts all Covid restrictions as vaccinations top 80%

Posted on by

Scandinavian country declares it no longer considers coronavirus a ‘socially critical’ disease

Denmark’s high vaccination rate has enabled it to become one of the first EU countries to lift all domestic restrictions, after 548 days with curbs in place to limit the spread of Covid-19,

The return to normality has been gradual, but as of Friday, the digital pass – a proof of having been vaccinated – is no longer required when entering nightclubs, making it the last virus safeguard to fall.

Continue reading...

‘Tomorrow they will kill me’: Afghan female police officers live in fear of Taliban reprisals

Posted on by

With at least four women, including a pregnant mother, targeted and killed by Taliban fighters, female ex-officers feel abandoned by the world

Negar Masumi, a female police officer with 15 years of experience, was determined not to flee when the Taliban took control of her home province of Ghor in central Afghanistan.

On Saturday night, gunmen, who called themselves Taliban mujahideen, stormed Negar’s home. They took her husband and four of her sons into another room and tied them up. Then they beat Negar with their guns and shot her dead, according to a family member, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

Continue reading...

‘£3k just to hold the bed’: Exorbitant Covid care costs push Indians into poverty

Posted on by

A struggling healthcare system and inflated prices mean hospital treatment can result in a lifetime of debt for many

Anil Goel remembers the night in May when he received a call from his desperate nephew asking for money for his Covid treatment. The nephew had been admitted to a private hospital with his wife and four other family members with Covid complications but had used up all of his savings.

“I was shocked by the request as this was a young man who was doing well in life otherwise. But the high hospital bills and the black marketing just exhausted all of his savings within days. After all, six family members were on life support,” said Goel.

Continue reading...

Muslim Americans on life after 9/11: ‘The toll has been huge’ – video

Posted on by

In the years that followed the terrorist attacks, Muslim Americans faced intense suspicion and discrimination. Here, Kausam Salam, Zainab Johnson, Sabiha Hussain, Mehdi Hasan and Jaime 'Mujahid' Fletcher reflect on the events of that day – and how stereotypes, disinformation and the 'war on terror' changed their everyday lives

Continue reading...

China’s cultural crackdown: few areas untouched as Xi reshapes society

Posted on by

Vast range of new regulations prompt fears of a return to tight social control of pre-reform days

On the second floor of a nondescript concrete building in north-east Beijing, the Youyou internet cafe is less than half full. Quiet and dark, the cafe’s customers are all adults, sitting in brown sofas in front of screens set up for hours of comfortable online gaming.

Minors aren’t allowed in, and a poster on the glass entrance reads: “The whole society together cares about the healthy growth of underage teens.” Under new regulations from the Chinese government, minors are limited to just a few hours of gaming a week, with tech platforms ordered to enforce it. The intervention is just one of a recent rush of directives from Beijing aimed at reshaping society.

Continue reading...

Pfizer accused of holding Brazil ‘to ransom’ over vaccine contract demands

Posted on by

Leaked supply document reveals clauses to protect US pharma company from legal action in the event of serious side-effects

Pfizer has been accused of holding Brazil “to ransom” over demands to shield itself from possible vaccine side-effect lawsuits in its contract to supply the country with 100m Covid jabs.

In its $1bn (£700m) deal with Pfizer Export BV, signed in March, despite its prior complaints, the Brazilian government agreed that “a liability waiver be signed for any possible side-effects of the vaccine, exempting Pfizer from any civil liability for serious side-effects arising from the use of the vaccine, indefinitely”.

Continue reading...

Hong Kong: Tiananmen vigil organisers charged with inciting subversion

Posted on by

Hong Kong Alliance leaders face charges under national security law Beijing imposed last year

Hong Kong police have charged the group that organises the city’s annual Tiananmen candlelight vigil and three of its leaders with subversion under the national security law, amid an ongoing crackdown on dissent.

The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China said that the group, its chairman, Lee Cheuk-yan, as well as vice-chairs Albert Ho and Chow Hang-tung were charged late on Thursday with “inciting subversion of state power”, under the national security law Beijing imposed more than a year ago.

Continue reading...

Coronavirus live: Scotland to require vaccine passports from 1 October; fears over German vaccine campaign

Posted on by

People in Scotland will need vaccine passport to enter nightclubs and large events; German vaccine plan ‘not sufficient to stop fourth wave’

Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has slammed a far-right website in the final days of the country’s federal election, accusing it of spreading misinformation about coronavirus vaccines and contributing to the growing number of protests across the country.

After Wednesday night’s French language debate between federal leaders, Trudeau was asked by a member of Rebel News – a website whose contributors have included Katie Hopkins and Tommy Robinson – if he would continue to exclude the group from covering the election.

The reality is, organisations – organisations like yours – that continue to spread misinformation and disinformation on the science around vaccines … is part of why we’re seeing such unfortunate anger and lack of understanding of basic science,.

Frankly your – I won’t call it a media organisation – your group of individuals need to take accountability for some of the polarisation that we’re seeing in this country.

Related: Trudeau accuses far-right website of spreading vaccine misinformation

Continue reading...

Biden says ‘we can and we will turn the tide on Covid-19’ in White House speech – live

Posted on by

Joe Biden said in a Thursday afternoon statement that he was no longer proposing David Chipman, a 25-year veteran of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) who has worked to tighten gun laws, as the agency’s next director, confirming an earlier Washington Post report.

The gun reform group Brady says Biden’s decision to bow to National Rifle Association (NRA) pressure and withdraw his nominee, a strong gun control advocate, to lead the agency enforcing federal firearms laws is “a shameful day for our country”.

Related: Biden withdraws pick to run firearms agency after NRA pressure

“We have the tools. Now we just have to finish the job,” Biden said in his concluding remarks.

More details of his pandemic plan will be revealed in the coming weeks, he said. He ended his speech with a whisper: “Get vaccinated”.

Continue reading...

Biden administration sues Texas over ‘clearly unconstitutional’ abortion ban

Posted on by
  • Law bans abortion once embryonic cardiac activity is detected
  • Kamala Harris says reproductive rights are ‘non-negotiable’

The Biden administration sued Texas on Thursday over the state’s extreme abortion law, which amounts to a near total ban on abortion, calling the law “clearly unconstitutional”.

The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, said the law that went into effect last week after the supreme court refused to block it and bans almost all abortions in the state was one “all Americans should fear”.

Continue reading...

Former Venezuelan spymaster arrested by Madrid police on US drugs charges

Posted on by

Gen Hugo Carvajal, who had defied a Spanish extradition order and disappeared, was arrested on Thursday night

Police in Madrid have arrested a former Venezuelan spymaster on US narcotics charges nearly two years after he defied a Spanish extradition order and disappeared.

Gen Hugo Carvajal, who for over a decade was Hugo Chávez’s eyes and ears in the military, was arrested on Thursday night at a small apartment where he had been holed up.

Continue reading...

Afghan journalists describe violent Taliban beatings when reporting on protests – video

Posted on by

Two reporters from Kabul have said they were beaten for about 10 minutes by at least six men then locked in a cell, after reporting on protests in Panjshir valley. An acting Taliban minister, who declined to be identified, said attacks on journalists would be investigated.

The founder of Afghan publication Etilaat Roz said the beatings sent a chilling message to the media in Afghanistan

Continue reading...

France accuses Patel of blackmail in row over Channel migrants

Posted on by

Interior minister says UK plans to return boats of vulnerable people would not be accepted

Priti Patel has been accused by France’s interior minister of plotting “financial blackmail” and a violation of international maritime law in a deepening diplomatic row over efforts to prevent migrants from crossing the Channel by boat.

Gérald Darmanin said that UK plans, released on Wednesday night, to send back boats of vulnerable people into French waters would not be accepted by his government.

Continue reading...

Austrian man mummifies dead mother to keep receiving her benefits

Posted on by

Man, 66, admitted to freezing her body after she died before wrapping her in bandages to absorb any fluid

Austrian police have discovered the body of an 89-year-old woman who died more than a year ago and was mummified in the cellar by her son who wanted to continue receiving her benefits.

In a statement, police said the woman, who is believed to have suffered from dementia, had died in June last year.

Continue reading...

Rebel forces accused of killing more than 100 civilians in north Ethiopia

Posted on by

Massacre was perpetrated by fighters loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, officials say

Rebel forces in northern Ethiopia have been accused of killing more than a hundred civilians during fierce battles.

Local government officials said the massacre in a village 6 miles (10km) from the town of Dabat took place just over a week ago and was perpetrated by fighters loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.

Continue reading...

Putin and Lukashenko move to integrate economies of Russia and Belarus

Posted on by

Russian president announces agreement on macroeconomic policies, and common tax and customs measures

Vladimir Putin and Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said they had made progress toward integrating the two countries’ economies during a summit on Thursday evening in advance of massive joint military exercises.

Speaking late on Thursday, Putin said the two leaders had agreed to coordinate the countries’ macroeconomic policies, institute common tax and customs measures, and harmonise other financial controls as part of a 28-point roadmap that is expected to increase Russia’s influence over its neighbour.

Continue reading...