Drone footage captures the devastation wrought by the Cumbre Vieja volcano, which has been ejecting ash, smoke and lava over the Canary island of La Palma for more than 10 days.
Since erupting on 19 September, the volcano has destroyed more than 800 buildings, as well as banana plantations, roads and other infrastructure.
About 6,000 people have been evacuated and are yet to return to their houses, a local government spokesperson said.
Continue reading...Judith Collins criticises America as ‘foolish’ for walking away from free trade agreements
New Zealand’s opposition leader has hit out at the US and UK over China, saying their failure to adopt free trade agreements was “foolish” and increased Chinese dominance in the Indo-Pacific.
“If any criticism comes to New Zealand, as it often does about this close relationship with China and trade, my answer to everybody – whether they’re the US or UK – is: ‘So where’s our free trade agreement?’,” Judith Collins, leader of the centre-right National party, said in an interview with the Guardian on Friday.
Continue reading...As Auckland grapples with Delta outbreak, opposition leaders dare to break with Jacinda Ardern on pandemic plan
“Things have changed,” Judith Collins declares, sitting in her Beehive government office. New Zealand’s National party leader is fresh off launching her alternative pandemic response plan, marking the first time the main opposition has significantly diverged from prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s largely popular elimination strategy.
The arrival of the Delta variant in New Zealand two months ago, causing an outbreak that the government is struggling to stamp out, has shown that elimination is “clearly not working,” Collins says.
Continue reading...After positive clinical trials for antiviral drug Molnupiravir, it joins other medicines that have shown promise
The first clinical trial results showing a positive effect for a pill that can be taken at home has been hailed as a potential gamechanger that could provide a new way to protect the most vulnerable people from the worst effects of Covid-19. Molnupiravir joins a growing list of medicines that have shown promise. Here are some of the main developments in treatments so far.
Continue reading...Irmgard Furchner, 96, was arrested after failing to turn up at court and absconding from retirement home
A 96-year-old woman who was arrested on Thursday after failing to turn up for the start of her trial in Germany on charges of aiding and abetting the murder of thousands of concentration camp prisoners had warned the judge in advance that she would not show up.
Irmgard Furchner was discovered about 38 miles from the courtroom after escaping her retirement home in a taxi, which dropped her off at an underground station in the early hours of the morning. She had written to the judge that to “avoid embarrassment” and due to her “advanced age and physical impediments” she would not be attending the trial.
Continue reading...Nygard faces sex trafficking and racketeering charges in US, as well as sexual assault and forcible confinement charges in Canada
The Canadian fashion designer Peter Nygard has consented to extradition to the US, where he faces sex trafficking and racketeering charges, lawyers for the prosecution and defence said at a hearing on Friday.
Separately, Toronto police service issued a statement saying it had an arrest warrant for Nygard on six charges of sexual assault and three charges of forcible confinement between 1987 and 2006.
Continue reading...Allegations are among most serious of those filed against ousted leader by Myanmar’s military junta
Aung San Suu Kyi has appeared in a closed court to face allegations of corruption, one of the most serious of a number of legal charges filed against the ousted leader by the military junta.
In a hearing at the Naypyidaw Council compound, Aung San Suu Kyi was accused of breaching the anti-corruption law in four cases. This includes accepting packets of US bank notes and gold bars in bribes from Yangon’s former chief minister, Phyo Min Thein; renting government land at a discount; and using funds of the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation, a charity founded by Aung San Suu Kyi in the name of her mother, to build a home.
Continue reading...Seven senior officials responsible for ‘delivering lifesaving aid’ told to leave amid de facto blockade of food, medicine and fuel
The Ethiopian government has told seven senior UN officials to leave the country, accusing them of “meddling in internal affairs”.
A statement from the foreign ministry said the officials – who include staff from the UN humanitarian agency, the UN human rights office and the children’s agency, Unicef – must leave Ethiopia within 72 hours.
Continue reading...Warsaw defies critics to extend state of emergency as it seeks to portray migrants as dangerous
Concerns over Poland’s treatment of migrants stranded on its border with Belarus are mounting after Warsaw this week ignored domestic and international criticism to extend a state of emergency and sought to portray them as dangerous deviants.
The European commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, met the Polish interior minister, Mariusz Kamiński, in Warsaw on Thursday night but won no concessions on the bloc’s request for monitors from the EU’s Frontex border force to be allowed into the zone, despite growing fears for the migrants’ safety after the deaths of at least five people.
Continue reading...Figures on English schools come as infection levels remain high in UK; India measures in response to requirements imposed on Indians visiting UK
In England, NHS tests and scans are to be offered at football stadiums and shopping centres to help deal with the backlog caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The health service is launching 40 “one-stop shop” diagnostic centres across England, which will carry out a wide range of health checks after referrals from GPs.
Continue reading...François Vérove took his own life and mentioned crimes in suicide note after being called in for questioning
A retired police officer has been identified as the serial killer behind a spate of murders and rapes in and around Paris in the 1980s and 1990s, in which he used his police card, handcuffs and professional restraint techniques to stop young women and girls, but eluded capture for decades until he took his life this week.
In one of the biggest cold-case reviews in the history of the Paris police, investigators had been seeking DNA evidence to identify the notorious serial killer and rapist known as the “pockmarked man” who had avoided capture for 35 years.
Continue reading...If approved, Merck’s drug would be first simple oral medication shown to be effective against coronavirus
An antiviral pill was found to reduce hospitalisations and deaths by half in patients newly diagnosed with Covid-19, according to results announced on Friday.
If approved, the drug made by the US firm Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics would be the first simple oral medication shown to be effective against Covid-19, which would mark a crucial advance in the fight against the pandemic. Other drugs, such as remdesivir, have been shown to be effective if given early, but all currently approved treatments need to be given as injections or IV infusions.
Continue reading...Push will be performed in Boortmeerbeek, where Simon Gronowski fled to safety, nine days before his 90th birthday
The 90th birthday of Simon Gronowski, who at the age of 11 escaped a train destined for Auschwitz thanks to three Belgian resistance fighters, is being honoured with the staging of an opera inspired by his story near the rail tracks where he fled the Nazis eight decades ago.
Sitting alongside Gronowski during Sunday’s performance in Boortmeerbeek, a village north-east of Brussels, will be the sculptor Koenraad Tinel, whose elder brother was the Flemish SS guard who ordered him and his mother, Chana, on to the train on 19 April 1943. Chana did not escape from the transport and was killed in the gas chambers on arrival at the death camp.
Continue reading...Open letter by current and ex-staffers alleges ‘consistently inappropriate’ behaviour by Blue Origin leaders
A group of current and former employees at Blue Origin, the space flight company owned by the Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, has accused the business of operating a work environment that is “rife with sexism” and prefers “breakneck speed” to safety.
An open letter written by Alexandra Abrams, the former head of employee communications at Blue Origin and 20 other current and former workers, says the company’s culture “reflects the worst of the world we live in now” and must change.
Continue reading...Virginia Raggi hasn’t solved waste issues while far-right candidate advocates restoring fascist salute
Elio Perugini can’t remember the last time he had a decent night’s sleep. “It’s a disaster, the noise just doesn’t stop,” he said. “I hardly sleep any more. The worst of it is on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.”
Sleepless nights have become the norm for many in Trastevere, a neighbourhood in central Rome once treasured for its charm and old-world feel, but now known for its rowdy nightlife, petty crime, piles of rubbish and graffiti-scarred walls.
Continue reading...Experts hope he is resting and building up blubber reserves before returning to Arctic to look for mate
When Wally the walrus disappeared after more than five months of appearances around the UK and Ireland, interspersed with visits to France and Spain, observers feared the worst.
But after about three weeks at sea he re-emerged in Iceland, looking skinnier but much closer to his Arctic home.
Continue reading...Marriage with non-royal Kei Komuro to take place against backdrop of scandal, tabloid intrusion and public disapproval
When they announced their unofficial engagement four years ago, they were cast as a perfect match: the young princess and the clean-cut trainee lawyer, for whom she was prepared to sacrifice her imperial status.
Now the sound of wedding bells is within earshot, after the Imperial Household Agency announced on Friday that Princess Mako, the niece of Japan’s emperor, would marry her non-royal fiance, Kei Komuro, on 26 October.
Continue reading...World’s second biggest economy is grappling with power cuts that have affected industrial output
China’s central government officials have ordered the top state-owned energy companies to secure fuel supplies for winter at all costs as the country battles a power crisis that threatens to hit growth in the world’s second biggest economy.
The vice-premier, Han Zheng, has told energy companies to make sure there is enough fuel to keep the country running and made it clear that Beijing would not tolerate blackouts, according to a report by Bloomberg.
Continue reading...People with the condition can face being seen as ‘cursed’ in the east African country, says Martin Senkubuge, whose art aims to make them proud of their skin
It was a confrontation with a female Michael Jackson fan that first drew Martin Senkubuge’s attention to the skin condition vitiligo.
Senkubuge, a Ugandan artist, was describing his tattoo of the musician to the woman at an art exhibition in Kampala in 2019, when he accused the pop star of bleaching his skin.
Continue reading...Some hospitals have experienced staff shortages after new rules went into effect – but the mandate appears to be working
Erie County Medical Center, a hospital in the western New York city of Buffalo, just recorded its highest single-day patient count ever – 553 patients in a facility licensed for 573 beds – but not because of an influx of Covid-19 cases.
Instead, hospital leaders said the caseload is the result of a New York state vaccine mandate – the first statewide “vaccinate or terminate” mandate to be implemented in the nation.
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