Category Archives: World News

AstraZeneca did ‘not even try’ to meet Covid vaccine contract, EU tells court

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Commission demands €10 per dose for each day of delay as compensation

The European Commission has demanded an urgent court order requiring AstraZeneca to deliver millions more vaccines to the bloc or face a hefty fine, in a case that may reflect its anger more than its need for doses.

“AstraZeneca did not even try to respect the contract,” the EU’s lawyer, Rafaël Jafferali, told a court in Brussels on Wednesday, saying the EU wanted €10 per dose for each day of delay as compensation for the company’s alleged non-compliance.

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Jacob Zuma trial: South Africa’s ex-president denies corruption charges

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Zuma accuses lawyers of working ‘to bolster a narrative’ as trial begins over $2.5bn arms deal

Jacob Zuma, the former president of South Africa, accused prosecutors of seeking to malign a political leader rather than find the truth as he denied charges of corruption at the first major hearing of his trial on Wednesday.

Zuma, 79, faces charges of bribery, fraud, racketeering and money laundering relate to a $2.5bn (£1.98bn) deal to buy European military hardware to upgrade South Africa’s armed forces in 1999 when he was deputy president.

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France to impose Covid quarantine on visitors from UK

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France joins Germany in restricting travellers from Britain amid fears over spread of variant

France will impose a compulsory quarantine on travellers arriving from the UK amid mounting concern over the rapid spread of the coronavirus variant first found in India, the government’s spokesperson has said.

Gabriel Attal told reporters after a weekly ministerial meeting on Wednesday that the government would announce “in the coming hours” exactly when the decision, which was widely expected, would come into effect.

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Runner says she saw ‘many with hypothermia’ during deadly China ultramarathon – video

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Twenty-one runners died on Saturday when freezing temperatures, hail and high winds hit the racing route: a 62-mile (100km) stretch of mountainous trail about 3,000 metres above sea level in the Yellow River Stone Forest tourist site near Baiyin city, north-west China. Mountaineer Luo Jing comments on the conditions during the race.

Family members and fellow competitors of those how died are seeking answers and accountability, as further accounts emerge of survivors’ harrowing experiences

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New cryptocurrency Chia blamed for hard drive shortages

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Speculators buy up vital components as demand surges for rival to bitcoin that requires huge storage space

A new cryptocurrency is being blamed for shortages of hard drives and other storage systems, as speculatorsbuy up critical components in anticipation of a price rise.

Chia is the creation of Bram Cohen, the entrepreneur behind the BitTorrent file-sharing system. It aims to improve on more popular cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum by removing the incentives to burn massive amounts of electricity.

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EU cites ‘anti-vaccine campaign’ as reason to toughen social media code

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European Commission proposes more factchecking and algorithm changes to tackle disinformation

A “massive anti-vaccination campaign” has been cited by the European Commission as a reason for social media platforms to intensify their factchecking and revise the internal algorithms that can amplify disinformation.

Under a revised code of practice proposed by Brussels, companies such as Facebook, Google and Twitter would need to show why particular material is disseminated and prove that false information is being blocked.

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Did Jordan’s closest allies plot to unseat its king?

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Alleged sedition and a royal family feud may have been driven by a broader plan to reshape the Middle East

The phone call that shook the Jordanian government came in the second week of March this year. On the line to the General Intelligence Directorate (GID) in Amman was the US Embassy, seeking an urgent meeting about a matter of national importance. The kingdom’s spies were startled. Danger was brewing on the home front, they were told, and could soon pose a threat to the throne.

Within hours, the GID had turned its full array of resources towards one of the country’s most senior royals, Prince Hamzah bin Hussein, a former crown prince and half-brother of the king, whom the Americans suspected was sowing dissent and had begun rallying supporters. By early April, officials had placed Hamzah under house arrest and publicly accused the former heir and two close aides of plotting to unseat King Abdullah.

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‘It’s cooler to hang Lennon’s guitar than a Picasso’: pop culture wins out at auctions

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Sales of items from celebrities such as Janet Jackson and K-poppers BTS are trending – and reframing what goes under the hammer

Is celebrity merchandise the new Monet? Auction houses are in flux, with more and more pop culture items being sold under the hammer for six and seven-figure sums.

Last month, Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills hosted a three-day auction of Janet Jackson’s personal belongings, including some of her most iconic stage outfits. Buyers included Kim Kardashian, who snagged Jackson’s outfit from the music video for her 1993 classic If for $25,000 (£18,000) and, on Instagram, said she was “such a fan” of the singer.

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Sex-mad and spectacular: 17 incredible facts about cicadas

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Once every 17 years, trillions of cicadas emerge from beneath the ground in the US. They taste like tinned asparagus, are sometimes attracted to power tools – and can number 1.3m an acre

Brood X is upon us. Across the US billions, if not trillions of cicadas have emerged from below the ground, a biblical plague that occurs every 17 years. Gene Kritsky wouldn’t miss it. “This is special,” he says. An entomologist at Mount St Joseph University in Cincinnati, Kritsky has studied periodical cicadas for nearly 40 years. Brood X, the subject of three of his books, holds a particular place in his heart. In the middle of back-to-back interviews during his busiest professional period since 2004 (“It happens, every 17 years”), he found time to share his favourite facts with us.

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Italian cable car brakes ‘tampered with’, say prosecutors

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Crash investigators say emergency brakes had been deactivated to avoid disruptions to service

The emergency brakes on a cable car that crashed in northern Italy on Sunday, killing 14 people, had been “tampered with”, prosecutors said as three people were arrested on charges of suspected involuntary manslaughter and negligence.

The three, including the owner of the firm that manages the Stresa-Mottarone aerial tramway near Lake Maggiore in the Piedmont region, are alleged to have made a “conscious gesture” by “tampering” with the emergency brakes in order to “avoid disruptions” to the cable car service, Ansa reported, citing the chief public prosecutor, Olimpia Bossi.

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Nigeria’s court strike paralyses underfunded justice system

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Defendants left in prison for months awaiting trial as staff strike over judicial system’s financial autonomy

A nationwide strike of court workers in Nigeria is paralysing the justice system, resulting in extended prison remands for those awaiting trial or sentencing and lengthy delays for everyone else.

In March last year, Taiwo Ebun*, 27, was arrested for alleged armed robbery in Lagos. Since then he has been in detention.

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Anger in Zimbabwe at Nehanda statue amid collapsing economy

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Criticism of priorities as tribute to liberation leader unveiled despite foreign food aid and lack of jobs

The Zimbabwean government unveiled a statue of the liberation heroine and anti-colonialism figurehead Mbuya Nehanda in the capital, Harare, on Tuesday amid controversy about its priorities while the economy and health system collapse.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa vowed that the government would “repatriate Mbuya Nehanda’s skull and the skulls of others from the UK”, and said discussions about this were “on course”. The human remains of Nehanda and others who fought British colonisers are widely rumoured to be held at the Natural History Museum in London.

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‘I had to step up’: Child labour in poorest countries rose during Covid, says report

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Study finds children in Ghana, Nepal and Uganda in dangerous, exploitative work, with long hours and little pay

Gopal Magar’s father has had a drinking problem for as long as he can remember, but when Kathmandu went into lockdown last spring, it got worse. With five members of his family confined to a small room in the south of the city, tempers frayed and the 14-year-old saw his father beat his mother again and again. One day Gopal could stand it no longer. He fought back, and then fled, leaving his parents, and his school, behind.

Gopal now lives with his older brother on the other side of the city, and has swapped his classroom for a construction site. “I have fewer problems now, but I need to work really hard,” he says. He starts work at six in the morning and for the next 12 hours hauls sand, loads bricks and mixes concrete. He earns about £7 a day and sends some of it to his mother to help her buy food and pay the rent.

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‘Please save him’: Belarus blogger’s parents urge action as Biden mulls sanctions

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Parents of Raman Pratasevich fear for his life, as mother of girlfriend Sofia Sapega says she was not involved in politics

The parents of Raman Pratasevich have pleaded for international help to free the Belarusian journalist as US president Joe Biden said sanctions against Alexander Lukashenko’s regime were “in play”, without revealing further details.

From their new home in Poland, Natalia Pratasevich, the blogger’s mother, told Agence France-Presse: “I’m asking, I’m begging, I’m calling on the whole international community to save him.

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US joins calls for transparent, science-based investigation into Covid origins

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Several countries tell the WHO annual meeting that a new inquiry with new terms of reference must be launched

The United States and other countries have called for a more in-depth investigation of the pandemic origins, after an international mission to China earlier this year proved inconclusive.

Addressing the World Health Organization’s main annual meeting of member states in Geneva, representatives from several countries stressed the continued need to solve the mystery of how Covid-19 first began spreading among humans.

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John Cena ‘very sorry’ for saying Taiwan is a country

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Fast & Furious actor and wrestler apologises profusely on social media for offending Chinese fans

Fast & Furious star and wrestler John Cena began learning Mandarin Chinese nearly a decade ago. But this month, by showing off his linguistic skill in Taiwan, he got into trouble in mainland China.

On Tuesday, Cena apologised for calling Taiwan “a country” in an interview he gave to a Taiwanese broadcaster early this month, saying that it was not appropriate.

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George Floyd’s family urges Biden to pass laws to ‘protect people of colour’ – video

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The family of George Floyd spoke to reporters after meeting Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on Tuesday to commemorate the anniversary of his murder. They addressed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which they called for Congress to pass. Philonise Floyd said: ‘If you can make federal laws to protect the [national] bird, which is the bald eagle, you can make federal laws to protect people of colour’

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Canadian soldier faces mutiny charges for trying to block vaccine distribution

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  • Ladislas Kenderesi urged soldiers not to distribute vaccine
  • Officer cadet took part in anti-lockdown rally in December

A Canadian soldier is facing rare mutiny charges after allegedly urging fellow members of the armed forces not to help with the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.

The Department of National Defence has announced charges against officer cadet Ladislas Kenderesi, a reservist in Ontario. Kenderesi has been charged with “endeavoring to persuade another person to join in a mutiny” and “behaving in a scandalous manner unbecoming of an officer”, according to officials.

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US to reopen Palestinian diplomatic mission in Jerusalem

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Secretary of state Antony Blinken also announces aid to help rebuild Gaza as he begins Middle East trip

The US will reopen a mission in Jerusalem to manage diplomatic relations with Palestinians, which had been downgraded by the Trump administration, the US secretary of state has said.

On a trip to the Middle East designed to shore up last week’s ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza, Antony Blinken also announced the Biden administration would ask Congress for $75m (£53m) in aid for Palestinians, including $5.5m in immediate aid for rebuilding Gaza. He had earlier pledged at a meeting with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, that the US would not allow Hamas to benefit from those funds.

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