Brussels says German court ruling contradicting ECJ sets ‘dangerous precedent’ for integrity of EU law
Brussels has launched a legal case against Germany over an alleged breach of “the principle of the primacy of EU law” by the country’s constitutional court.
The “infringement proceeding” is the result of a ruling last year by the German federal constitutional court in Karlsruhe which it is claimed undermined the pre-eminence of the European court of justice (ECJ).
Continue reading...‘When I first visited the Yanomami tribe, they were completely isolated – they hadn’t seen a camera and didn’t know what photography was’
It was 1971 when I photographed the Yanomami tribe of Brazil for the first time. I knew that it would take time to build our relationship, but I wanted to see if we could become friends. For me, the best photographers are those who are truly interested in their subjects.
The Yanomami is a big population of indigenous people who live in the Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil and southern Venezuela; several thousand live in Brazil alone. A small village can be as few as 40 people, or a big one as many as 200. When I first went to the Yanomami villages, the tribe was completely isolated – some still are today. At that time, 50 years ago, they hadn’t seen a camera and didn’t even know what photography was.
Continue reading...Prosecutors accuse suspect of failing to ensure protection of convoy that was attacked in February
Italian prosecutors have placed a UN officer under investigation in relation to the murder of Italy’s ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who was killed in February along with two other people in an attack in the restive east of the central African country.
Magistrates in Rome are investigating the role of a UN World Food Programme (WFP) officer in the DRC, whose name has not been disclosed, who is accused of allegedly omitting to take all the necessary security to ensure against a potential attack.
Continue reading...French president shrugs off security fears after he is slapped on walkabout in run-up to elections
Emmanuel Macron has insisted he will continue to meet the public despite security fears after he was assaulted on a walkabout.
The French president was speaking as an opinion poll suggested his popularity is increasing. The latest survey by Ifop showed Macron gained 7 percentage points over the last month and was considered favourably by 50% of people.
Continue reading...Activists fear that an increase in attacks on the country’s LBGT community is fuelled by a culture of homophobia at the very top
An act of “barbaric” violence where a 22-year-old gay man was gang-raped and tortured has prompted fierce reaction in Brazil and is evidence of a growing tide of hate crime in the country, according to human rights campaigners.
The man, who has not been named, was attacked last week in Florianópolis by three armed men who used sharp objects during the assault and forced him to carve homophobic slurs into his legs, said activists.
Continue reading...Three generations of the same family who migrated from Pakistan 14 years ago died on Sunday after a 20-year-old man drove his pickup truck at them in London, Ontario.
Speaking in parliament after a minute of silence for the family, the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, described it as a ‘terrorist attack, motivated by hatred’
Continue reading...Nobel laureate David Baltimore says he overstated case, and the origins of the virus are still unknown
A Nobel prize-winning US biologist, who has been widely quoted describing a “smoking gun” to support the thesis that Covid-19 was genetically modified and escaped from a Wuhan lab, has said he overstated the case.
David Baltimore, a distinguished biology professor, had become one of the most prominent figures cited by proponents of the so-called lab leak theory.
Continue reading...From friendly Antarctic penguins to the rainbow plumage of a Colombian hummingbird, our readers on their favourite images – and the lengths they went to to capture them.
I took this photo at the end of January in Balloch, Scotland. I have always wanted to take a picture of a male mandarin duck. It is the bird that made me want to start taking photographs. They are beautiful, with so many stunning colours. At the end of January, I had heard via Facebook that there was a pair of them up the road from me. I got up early and drove to Balloch. I had all but given up hope, when all of a sudden I saw the bright orange tail feathers of the duck in between some bushes on the river’s edge. I had to lean on a tree that was in the water to take the pictures. I then fell into the water and tore my trousers, but it was worth it. Paul Fraser, 36, freshwater biologist, Callander, Scotland
Continue reading...Fifty-eight people have died in six weeks of unrest, but demonstrators say they are more determined than ever to fight for change
Protests in Colombia that began in late April over a proposed tax hike have morphed into a generational outcry over the country’s deep-rooted inequalities.
Related: ‘They can’t take it any more’: pandemic and poverty brew violent storm in Colombia
Continue reading...A thick layer of organic matter known as marine mucilage has spread in the Sea of Marmara, covering harbours, shorelines and swathes of the surface south of Istanbul. Some of the ‘sea snot’ has sunk below the waves, suffocating seabed life
Continue reading...Vital services including grants financed by UK unavailable without identity cards, with women and the elderly worst affected
Up to a third of adults in Uganda have been excluded from vital healthcare and social services because they do not have national ID cards, according to a report.
Women and elderly people have been particularly affected by the introduction of the digital identity cards, which are required to access government and private sector healthcare, to claim social benefits, to vote and to open bank accounts or buy sim cards.
Continue reading...Ethical streetwear co-operative Top Manta says profits will help migrant vendors ‘become legal and work for a decent wage’
After years of selling cheap copies of designer shoes and handbags, Barcelona’s street vendors have set up a co-operative and launched a line of trainers under the brand name Top Manta.
Unlike an earlier attempt to establish a brand in 2017 by sticking a logo on shoes imported from China, the trainers are made in Alicante in Spain and Porto in Portugal.
Continue reading...Belgium’s prime minister among signatories to open letter backing global right to safe abortions and reopening of clinics closed in pandemic
Government ministers from five European countries, including Belgium’s prime minister, Alexander de Croo, are among 29 politicians, healthcare and women’s rights activists who have signed an open letter calling for the removal of all legal barriers to abortion.
The letter, signed by gender and equality ministers from France, Canada and Norway, and international development ministers from Sweden and the Netherlands, states that women’s right to safe, legal abortion is being eroded by misinformation and attacks on services. It calls for the reopening of abortion clinics closed during the pandemic.
Continue reading...US vice-president Kamala Harris has brushed off questions about her decision not to go to the US-Mexico border as part of her work to address the spike in migration. Harris, who was asked about the issue during visits to Mexico and Guatemala, said: ‘I’ve been to the border before and I will go again, but when I’m in Guatemala dealing with root causes, I think we should have a conversation about what is going on in Guatemala’, Harris said. Republican lawmakers have criticised her for not prioritising the shared frontier
Climate Commission recommends shift to electric cars, large-scale agricultural reform and an end to reliance on gas in homes
New Zealand has been handed a new vision for dramatic reduction of its greenhouse gas emissions – including reduced animal numbers on farms, no new household gas connections by 2025, and a dramatic shift to electric cars in the next decade.
The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said the climate crisis was a matter of “life or death” as she spoke at the release of a new roadmap for the government’s response to global heating.
Continue reading...Previous first-place holder Vienna fell out of the top 10 as cities in New Zealand, Australia and Japan fared best in rankings
The Covid-19 pandemic has shaken up the Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual ranking of most liveable cities, propelling Auckland to top spot in place of Vienna, which crashed out of the top 10 altogether as the island nations of New Zealand, Australia and Japan fared best.
The Austrian capital had led the list since 2018 and for years ran neck and neck with Melbourne at the top of the survey of 140 urban centres. New Zealand’s elimination of Covid-19 within its borders, through lockdown measures helped by its geographic isolation, gave its cities a big boost.
Continue reading...Beijing says bill seeks to exaggerate ‘so-called China threat’ and is ‘full of cold war thinking’
China has denounced a US Senate bill worth about $250bn (£175n) that aims to boost American technology and manufacturing prowess as an example of the US hyping up “the so-called China threat”, and accused Washington of attempting to hinder its development.
The Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved the Innovation and Competition Act, in a rare show of unity in a chamber often filled with political division between Democrats and Republicans.
Continue reading...The island’s Indigenous people are in a race against time to save their native tongues before they are lost forever
In a modest conference room near the edge of Taiwan’s Sun Moon Lake, Panu Kapamumu holds up an unwieldy A3 booklet. The home-printed document contains every known word of Thao, the language of his Indigenous tribe. Kapamumu runs his finger down the list, reading out a selection of Thao words, meanings and translations. He reads slowly and purposefully, a man in his sixties but still just a student of his mother tongue.
Continue reading...Annual Russian pilgrimage in honour of icon of St Nicholas discovered, as legend has it, in the 14th century
The Kiribati island survived droughts due to sacred caves that captured rainfall but rampant phosphate extraction ruined this precious resource
The last decent rain on Banaba was more than a year ago.
Without rain, people on the isolated central Pacific island, which is part of the country of Kiribati, have been forced to rely on a desalination plant for all their water for drinking, bathing and growing crops.
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