Category Archives: World News

EU founding father Robert Schuman moves a step closer to sainthood

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Pope Francis gives ‘venerable’ status to post-war French statesman and supporter of European unity

Robert Schuman, a French statesman who was an early advocate for the bloc that evolved into the European Union, has moved ahead on the Catholic church’s path toward possible sainthood.

The Vatican said Pope Francis on Saturday approved a decree declaring the “heroic virtues″ of Schuman, a former prime minister and finance minister after the second world war. In 1950, as foreign minister, he developed a plan to promote European economic unity in hopes of furthering peace.

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Hardliner Ebrahim Raisi hailed as Iran’s new president

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Three main rivals congratulate candidate whose election is likely to unlock talks on reviving nuclear deal

Ebrahim Raisi, the hardline head of Iran’s judiciary, has been hailed the country’s new president after his three main rivals congratulated him on his victory and preliminary results showed he had secured 17.8m votes, a huge 14.5m more than his nearest rival.

With 90% of the votes counted, Iranian officials said 28.6 million people had cast their ballots. More than 41 million did so in 2017.

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Poland: thousands turn out for Warsaw Pride march

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Sea of rainbow flags in the capital as campaigners warn against rising tide of homophobia

Thousands marched through central Warsaw on Saturday in an “equality parade”, amid what campaigners say has been a rising tide of homophobia in Poland in recent years.

LGBT rights have become a central part of a wider struggle in the country between liberals, who stress the need for a more tolerant and inclusive society, and religious conservatives, who denounce what they say is an attempt to subvert traditional values in the predominantly Catholic nation.

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Covid jabs for billions of humans will earn their makers billions of dollars

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We look at the drug firms – led by Pfizer and Moderna – that are set to profit most in an unprecedented global vaccination drive

Drugmakers led by US firms Pfizer and Moderna stand to make tens of billions of dollars from their Covid-19 vaccines this year and next, given G7 governments’ pledge to vaccinate the entire world by the end of 2022, but sales are likely to drop sharply thereafter, according to analysts.

Acclaimed for allowing a return to more normal life, Covid vaccines will also substantially benefit some pharmaceutical companies. The global market for the vaccines is worth $70bn (£50bn) this year, says Karen Andersen of Morningstar.

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Ebrahim Raisi hailed as Iran’s new president – video

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The hardline head of the Iranian judiciary, Ebrahim Raisi, has been congratulated by his three main rivals on his victory in the country's presidential election after preliminary results showed he had secured 17.8m votes, a huge 14.5m more than his nearest rival

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The martyr who may rise again: Christian right’s faith in Trump not shaken

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The talk in the carpeted corridors of the Road to Majority conference suggests the ex-president’s big lie has firmly taken root

Young alligators swam in the water or lazed on artificial rocks as a waterfall cascaded nearby. “Alligators are found primarily in freshwater and swamps and marches,” noted a nearby sign. “... Alligators are opportunistic feeders.”

Related: Conservative Christians jeer ‘traitor’ Pence for refusing to overturn election

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Guinea Ebola outbreak declared over by WHO

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Resurgence of virus in west Africa infected 16 people and killed 12 since outbreak in February

An Ebola outbreak in Guinea that started in February, infecting 16 people and killing 12, has been declared over, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.

Health authorities were able to move swiftly to tackle the resurgence of the virus, which causes severe bleeding and organ failure and is spread through contact with body fluids, after lessons learned from previous outbreaks in Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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‘It’s such a relief’: how Europe’s Covid vaccine rollout is catching up with UK

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More supplies and vaccination centres have put France, Italy and Germany back on track in battle against coronavirus

On Friday morning, Leyla Çelik woke up with butterflies in her stomach. For weeks, the 22-year-old student at Berlin’s Freie Universität had tried in vain to get an appointment for her first Covid-19 vaccine shot so she could volunteer as a polling station administrator at federal elections in September. “I’d basically given up hope.”

But last week her university had suddenly got in touch via email, offering her a chance to get a first dose of Moderna vaccine on campus, and within a few days. By 9am on Friday, the anxiety has turned into euphoria: “It’s such a relief,” said the native Berliner, nursing her achey shoulder at Freie’s biology institute, converted into a vaccine delivery point as of this week. “At last I can catch a train or a bus without feeling anxious.”

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‘Don’t betray women of Tigray’: calls grow for international action against rape in war

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Politicians among signatories of two open letters urging investigation into reports of sexual violence in Ethiopian conflict

The former prime minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark, and Zimbabwean author and 2020 Booker prize nominee Tsitsi Dangarembga are among the signatories of two separate letters demanding international action after shocking reports of sexual violence in Tigray.

In one, more than 50 women of African descent call for an immediate ceasefire and express horror at reports that African women and girls are “once again the victims” of violence and rape in war.

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David Miliband charity pushes ‘white supremacy culture’, workers allege

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International Rescue Committee hires law firm to review internal policies as leadership accused of ‘belittling and gaslighting’ staff

The International Rescue Committee reinforces “white supremacy culture”, staff have alleged, with the aid organization subsequently hiring a law firm to review its policies relating to discrimination, harassment and retaliation, the Guardian can reveal.

Headed by former UK foreign secretary David Miliband, the IRC is a major NGO with 20,000 staff and volunteers and a budget of $800m. It delivers aid in more than 40 countries, primarily in Africa, and helps resettle refugees across the US, with operations mainly directed out of New York.

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German police appeal for information after 17th century paintings found in skip

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An art expert believes the paintings are by Dutch artist Samuel van Hoogstraten and Italian Pietro Bellotti

German police have appealed for information from the public after two 17th century paintings were discovered in a skip at a highway rest stop.

Police said a 64-year-old man found the oil paintings at the rest stop near Ohrenbach in central Germany last month. He later handed them in to police in the western city of Cologne.

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One person killed after suspected tornado hits Auckland

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The storm struck the suburb of Papatoetoe, causing extensive damage to homes

One person has died and two people have been injured after a suspected tornado hit a shipping container site in the New Zealand city of Auckland on Saturday morning.

Fire crews were also attending about 100 calls after the tornado ripped through the suburb of Papatoetoe, bringing down trees, tearing off roofs and smashing windows, Stuff reported.

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United Nations condemns coup in Myanmar and calls for arms embargo

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Rare move by general assembly demonstrates widespread global opposition to military junta

In a rare move, the UN general assembly has condemned Myanmar’s military coup and called for an arms embargo against the country in a resolution demonstrating widespread global opposition to the junta and demanding the restoration of the country’s democratic transition.

Related: Trial of Aung San Suu Kyi begins in closed courtoom in Myanmar

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Kiwi wars: the golden fruit fuelling a feud between New Zealand and China

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One firm’s attempt to regain control of illegal cultivation shows Wellington’s lack of leverage over its largest trade partner

It is the story of a global superpower, a smuggling operation, pestilence and a small hairy fruit.

Ubiquitous on supermarket shelves and in lunchboxes, the humble kiwi is New Zealand’s most valuable horticultural export. Recent battles for control of the fruit, however, have shone a light on tensions in New Zealand’s relationship with China.

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Racist school course sparks outrage as Canada reckons with colonial legacy

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Course in Nova Scotia asked racist questions about residential schools, which forced the assimilation of Indigenous children

A series of racist questions in a high school English course sparked outrage among parents and students and highlighted persistent shortcomings in how Canada teaches the grim legacy of colonialism and its impact on Indigenous peoples.

Students taking a grade 10 correspondence course in the province of Nova Scotia were asked to list the benefits and disadvantages of being placed in one of the country’s notorious residential schools, where 150,000 Indigenous children were sent as part of a campaign of forced assimilation.

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Ukrainian couple break up after being handcuffed together for 123 days – video report

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The couple, from the eastern city of Kharkiv, decided to handcuff themselves together on Valentine’s Day in a last-ditch attempt to break the cycle of breaking up and making up.

After 123 days handcuffed together to save their on-again, off-again relationship, Ukrainians Alexandr Kudlay and Viktoria Pustovitova shed their bonds on national TV, saying the experiment had brought home uncomfortable truths

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Briton tells how she beat crocodile on snout to save twin in Mexico lagoon

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Georgia Laurie gives interview about attack that left her sister Melissa recovering in hospital

A British woman has described beating a crocodile on its snout while it grabbed her other hand as she fought to save her twin sister from the reptile.

Georgia Laurie, 28, said she feared her sister, Melissa, was dead when she saw the crocodile drag her underwater after they went for a swim in a lagoon in Mexico.

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EU fails in court action to secure urgent 120m doses of Oxford Covid vaccine

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But Brussels court says AstraZeneca should have used UK plants in the past to fulfil EU deliveries

The EU has failed in a legal attempt to secure an urgent 120m vaccine doses from AstraZeneca by the end of this month, while securing a judgment that sites in Oxford and Staffordshire should have been used in the past to make good on deliveries.

The court of first instance in Brussels ordered the Anglo-Swedish company to deliver just 10m more than it has already provided by the end of September, and make “best efforts”, including potentially the use of UK facilities, to provide the further 220m jabs to which it is contractually committed.

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Covid ‘remains a serious and deadly threat’ for unvaccinated people, Biden says – as it happened

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– Joan E Greve and Maanvi Singh

The history of the race massacre in Elaine, Arkansas, has always been contested.

It is widely accepted that in 1919, a group of white men, with the backing of federal troops, tortured and killed scores of Black residents – the exact number is disputed but assumed to number at least in the hundreds – who were starting to organize against the exploitation of their labor. The massacre came at the tail end of what would become known as the “red summer”, a season of racial terror fueled by white resentment of the strides Black people were making across the country.

Related: ‘We want our land back’: for descendants of the Elaine massacre, history is far from settled

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Covid live: Delta variant becoming globally dominant, WHO says as expert calls Africa’s case trajectory ‘very, very concerning’

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WHO expert says Delta variant becoming dominant because of its increased transmissibility as underreporting in Africa means case levels are worrying

The EU has lost its attempt to require AstraZeneca to deliver fewer Covid-19 vaccines to the European Union, Reuters reports.

Reuters reports:

AstraZeneca said that the EU had lost its legal case, but European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the court ruling supported its view that the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical giant had failed to honour its commitments.

The row plunged the EU into crisis earlier this year as states scrambled for shots, highlighting the pressure on them to speed up vaccinations. Brussels has since largely cut ties with AstraZeneca, choosing not to buy any more of its shots for now.

Official data in Britain reported 10,476 new cases of Covid-19 on Friday and 11 deaths within 28 days of a positive test, Reuters reports.

The figures showed 42.5 million people had received their first vaccine dose and 30.9 million had received both shots.

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