Category Archives: World News

Australia Covid live update: 2 million in western Sydney face tougher lockdown as some construction resumes

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Residents of eight local government areas banned from leaving hotspots unless they are essential workers; tradespeople now allowed into clients’ homes. Follow all the day’s news

Oooh, Victorian premier Daniel Andrews is speaking early this morning. I wonder if we will get the Covid-19 update at this event or if we will have to wait for the CHO to step up later in the day:

Daniel Andrews is speaking at from 9.45am at a level crossing removal.

NSW is lagging behind many other states and territories when it comes to vaccinating its elderly population, with fewer than 40% of over-70s fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

New data released by the federal government on Wednesday provides a state breakdown of national vaccination numbers for the first time. The figures reveal that of the almost 1 million people over 70 in NSW, 77% have received a first vaccine dose and 39% have received a second.

Related: Just 39% of NSW residents over 70 are fully vaccinated against Covid, despite push for jabs

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New Zealand rated best place to survive global societal collapse

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Study citing ‘perilous state’ of industrial civilisation ranks temperate islands top for resilience

New Zealand, Iceland, the UK, Tasmania and Ireland are the places best suited to survive a global collapse of society, according to a study.

The researchers said human civilisation was “in a perilous state” due to the highly interconnected and energy-intensive society that had developed and the environmental damage this had caused.

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Facebook reports fastest quarterly growth in five years

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  • Social media company beats forecasts and hits $29bn revenue
  • Network condemned for allowing vaccine misinformation

Facebook saw its fastest growth this quarter since 2016, the company revealed in its earnings report on Wednesday, despite regulatory concerns and criticisms surrounding misinformation on the platform.

Related: Remington offers $33m to settle lawsuit by families of Sandy Hook massacre

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Five Cuban generals dead in recent days – is the Covid spike to blame?

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Observers fear pandemic could be responsible for deaths, adding intrigue to freedom protests taking place in Cuba and US

Five mostly elderly and retired Cuban military generals have died in recent days in mysterious circumstances, the country’s communist regime has confirmed, adding intrigue to a new round of freedom protests taking place in the island and US.

Related: Leftwing rural teacher Pedro Castillo sworn in as president of Peru

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Leftwing rural teacher Pedro Castillo sworn in as president of Peru

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Castillo vows to govern ‘for the people and with the people’ but will face deeply divided Congress

A rural school teacher who has never held public office has been sworn in as Peru’s new president pledging to govern “with the people and for the people” in a ceremony steeped in historic symbolism on Peru’s bicentenary of independence from Spain.

Wearing his typical wide-brimmed straw hat, Pedro Castillo promised to make sweeping changes to the country in his inaugural speech, he paid homage to Peru’s indigenous people and teachers and vowed to combat corruption, rein in monopolies and boost public spending on education and health.

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Genetic engineering test with mosquitoes ‘may be game changer’ in eliminating malaria

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UK scientist says gene-drive study rendering female insects infertile may lead to ‘self destruct mosquito’ field tests within 10 years

Scientists have successfully wiped out a population of malaria-transmitting mosquitoes by using a radical form of genetic engineering to render the females infertile – in the most advanced and largest ever test of use of the technology to fight the disease.

As well as bringing fresh hope in the fight against one of the world’s biggest killers, the study lays the foundations for further trials of gene-drive technology, which could mean self-destroying mosquitoes being released into the wild within 10 years.

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Emmanuel Macron takes legal action over Hitler poster comparison

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Police speak with wealthy billboard operator who depicted French president as Nazi leader

Emmanuel Macron is taking legal action against a wealthy billboard operator who displayed posters depicting him as Adolf Hitler.

Lawyers for the French president are suing after the large images appeared in the Var in the south of France.

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Tunisia in turmoil as president purges officials and seizes judicial power

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Days after PM’s overthrow fears grow that Kais Saied will undo democratic gains achieved by Arab spring

Tunisia’s president has launched a purge of senior officials, including prosecutors and judges, and taken on judicial powers, days after overthrowing the prime minister and imposing emergency law.

Kais Saied’s crackdown has dragged the country deeper into uncertainty days after its elected parliament was suspended for a month in a shock move that brought a decade of faltering democracy to a sudden halt.

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‘We will return’: the battle to save an ancient Palestinian village from demolition

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Activists say Lifta, abandoned during the 1948 war, must be preserved in the face of Israeli construction plans

The ancient Palestinian village of Lifta sits on a quiet hillside minutes from Jerusalem’s bustling modern centre. Abandoned when its residents fled during the 1948 war, it has been left unchanged – frozen in time – ever since.

Today, however, its overgrown domed stone houses with arched windows, built during the early Ottoman Empire and resting on even older ruins dating back to the Iron Age, are at risk of being demolished to make way for a luxurious resort of villas, hotels and shops.

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Myanmar could become Covid ‘super-spreader’ state, says UN expert

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Special rapporteur urges security council to call for ceasefire amid fears Covid will spread across wider region

Myanmar is at risk of becoming a super-spreader Covid state that fuels outbreaks across the region, the UN special rapporteur for the country has warned as he urged the security council to call for a ceasefire.

The south-east Asian country is facing its most severe outbreak yet, on top of a deep political and economic crisis brought about by the military coup in February. Its vaccination programme has ground to a standstill, testing has collapsed, and government hospitals are barely functioning.

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Chinese billionaire pig farmer jailed for ‘provoking trouble’

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Agricultural mogul Sun Dawu given 18-year sentence in case observers believe was politically motivated

Sun Dawu, a Chinese billionaire pig farmer and agricultural mogul, has been sentenced after weeks of hearings in secret to 18 years in prison and fined 3.11m yuan (£345,000) for a catalogue of crimes including “provoking trouble”, in a case observers believe was politically motivated.

The court in Gaobeidian, near Beijing, said Sun was guilty of crimes including “gathering a crowd to attack state organs”, “obstructing government administration” and “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, a catch-all term often used against human rights figures and dissidents.

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Coronavirus live news: Pfizer jab efficacy drops to 84% over six months; France to bring in health pass on 9 August

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Efficacy of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine falls from 96%; French health pass to be compulsory for cafe visits and some travel

An interesting story from Cuba - five mostly elderly and retired Cuban military generals have died in recent days in mysterious circumstances. Cuba’s government has not given an explanation for the deaths but it is thought Covid may be to blame, as the rate has risen almost eight-fold since the start of July.

Related: Five Cuban generals dead in recent days – is the Covid spike to blame?

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in Kuwait on Wednesday where he pledged his support to the UN agency’s investigation in China into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Agence France-Presse.

“The U.S. supports the @WHO plans for additional studies into Covid-19 origins, including in (the People’s Republic of China), to better understand this pandemic and prevent future ones,” Blinken tweeted after arriving in the Gulf Arab state.

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Australia Covid live news update: Scott Morrison announces increase to support payments as NSW records 11th death of outbreak

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NSW records 177 local cases, lockdown extended four weeks; single bubbles now allowed in greater Sydney; those on welfare support now eligible for federal disaster payments, NSW premier says; Victoria records eight local cases overnight, and a new local, non-quarantined case today. Follow all the day’s news

And here’s the video of Scott Morrison comparing the vaccine take-up to a gold medal run at the Olympics earlier today:

Reviews of rapid Covid-19 tests in Australia have found markedly different results in their effectiveness, but experts say the New South Wales government’s decision to employ them in schools and essential workplaces will help to control the virus.

Michael McGowan has this story after NSW announced that rapid tests would be used during Sydney’s continuing lockdown.

Related: Cautious welcome for rapid antigen tests to control Sydney Covid outbreak, despite reliability concerns

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‘We walked 18 hours, no food’: Taliban advance triggers exodus of Afghans

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As the conflict intensifies amid the withdrawal of US-led forces, a new wave of families are being forced to flee via perilous routes to Iran and Turkey

A weary Zebah Gul and her eight children are gathered quietly in a small room at a transit centre in Herat, north-eastern Afghanistan. Their six-month attempt to escape the war and find safety has failed.

They have just spent a week in Iranian police detention after being caught trying to cross the border into Turkey, and are beginning to make their way back to their besieged home province of Takhar, on the opposite side of the sprawling country.

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‘Please explain what OG means’: delight as Fiji politician discovers Twitter

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Pio Tikoduadua, president of the opposition National Federation Party, has won praise and followers with his faltering attempts to understand social media

A leading opposition MP from Fiji is delighting new social media followers with his wide-eyed discovery of Twitter, even as the country is experiencing heightened political tensions.

Pio Tikoduadua, who is the president of the National Federation Party, announced on Monday that while his Twitter account had been created a while ago, it had been run by his staff until now.

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Greenpeace criticises New Zealand Rugby deal with petrochemical company Ineos

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Ineos has been accused of using sports to ‘greenwash’ its reputation

New Zealand Rugby’s decision to sign a six-year deal with global petrochemical company Ineos has been criticised by Greenpeace, who said it fundamentally goes against the country’s “clean, green” values.

NZ Rugby announced the company will become the official performance partner for its seven teams from 2022. Ineos is a UK oil, gas and petrochemical conglomerate – the third largest company of its kind in the world. Its main shareholder is billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, and the company has lobbied to weaken green taxes and reduce restrictions on fracking.

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London court reopens $7bn Brazil dam collapse lawsuit against BHP

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Six years after deadly Fundao dam rupture, lawsuit against Anglo-Australian mining giant proclaimed as ‘an opportunity for real justice’

London’s court of appeal made a U-turn on Tuesday by agreeing to reopen a US$7bn lawsuit by 200,000 claimants against Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP, reviving a case over a dam rupture behind Brazil’s worst environmental disaster.

Lawyers for one of the largest group claims in English legal history have been pushing to resurrect the £5bn ($6.9bn) lawsuit against BHP since a lower court struck out the lawsuit as an abuse of process last year – and a court of appeal judge upheld that decision in March.

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‘No parallels’: 2,300-year-old solar observatory awarded Unesco world heritage status

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Chankillo in Peru features 13 stone towers built in 250 to 200 BC that functioned as a calendar by marking the rising and setting arcs of the sun

The oldest solar observatory in the Americas has been awarded Unesco world heritage status and dubbed “a masterpiece of human creative genius”.

The 2,300-year-old archaeological ruin Chankillo which lies in a desert valley in northern Peru was one of 13 new global sites added to the list of cultural monuments.

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