Russia wary to support Belarus amid fallout from plane ‘hijack’

Analysis: Minsk and Moscow watching carefully to see if EU makes good on threat of targeted economic sanctions

A new wave of sanctions and restrictive measures on Belarus’s aviation industry, severing its direct links with much of Europe, looks set to increase the country’s reliance on Russia, yet Moscow, its remaining ally, appears wary.

Kremlin officials have offered only muted support over an incident that has been described as “air piracy” and an “act of state terrorism” by Alexander Lukashenko, a leader whom Vladimir Putin treats as a junior partner, and often with open disdain.

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Blinken: US will reopen Jerusalem consulate and provide aid to help rebuild Gaza – video

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has announced that the US would reopen its consulate in Jerusalem after it was downgraded by the Trump administration, and will provide an additional $75m to help rebuild Gaza. Speaking alongside the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, he also promised to ‘continue to rebuild’ the US’s relationship with Palestinians, and repeated comments from Biden that both Israelis and Palestinians should ‘enjoy equal measures of freedom, opportunity, and democracy, to be treated with dignity’

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Raman Pratasevich: the Belarus journalist captured by a fighter jet

Friends describe arrest of influential opposition journalist as an act of ‘personal revenge’ by the country’s president

In an interview last November the 26-year-old opposition journalist Raman Pratasevich said he was not planning to spend his life in exile. “I would go back to Belarus immediately if my safety was guaranteed,” he said. “My intention is to return.”

The extraordinary circumstances of Pratasevich’s involuntary homecoming have provoked international outrage, after his Ryanair flight was forced on Sunday to land in Belarus’s capital Minsk. It was on its way from Greece to Lithuania, where Pratasevich was living.

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Children’s bodies wash up on Libyan beach after migrant boats sink

Charities post photographs of dead babies and toddlers said to have left Libya in dinghies in recent days

Photographs have emerged of the bodies of babies and toddlers washed up on a beach in Libya, highlighting the human tragedy of the migration crisis on Europe’s borders.

According to one of the charities that posted the photos on Twitter, the children had been travelling with their parents on one of the many dinghies that set off from Libya in recent days.

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Moderna jab stops Covid transmission in people aged 12 to 18, trial finds

Moderna becomes second manufacturer to announce successful trial results in adolescents

Mass vaccination of children against Covid-19 moved a step closer as Moderna became the second manufacturer to announce successful trial results, showing its vaccine can stop transmission in people aged 12 to 18.

Pfizer/BioNTech’s vaccine has already been given emergency approval for adolescents aged 12 to 15 in the US by the regulator, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), after its trials were said to show better efficacy even than in participants aged 16 to 25. It has begun a trial in young children, from six months to 11 years old.

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Blinken: US supports Israel’s right to defence against Hamas – video

The US secretary of state has arrived in Jerusalem at the start of a Middle East tour aimed at shoring up the Gaza ceasefire. In a joint press conference with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, Antony Blinken said the US 'fully supports Israel's right to defend itself against attacks' such as those by Hamas. A ceasefire was called after 11 days of fighting in which 250 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes on Gaza and 12 people died when Hamas rockets struck Israel.

Netanyahu spoke positively of his relationship with the US as well as a common ideal of recognising Israel as a Jewish state.

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Coronavirus live news: Austria bans flights from UK over variant fears; US advises against travel to Japan

Austria to ban direct flights from UK from 1 June; officials insist US move will not complicate preparations for Tokyo 2020 Olympics

EU leaders have agreed to donate at least 100m doses of Covid-19 vaccines to poorer countries by the end of the year as supplies steadily rise across Europe.

AP reports:

Gathered in Brussels for a two-day summit, the 27 leaders backed a text in which they pledge to continue efforts “to increase global vaccine production capacities in order to meet global needs.”

Leaders also called “for work to be stepped up to ensure global equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines” and reiterated their support for the UN-backed Covax program.

This has been shared by Barend Leyts, spokesperson for the European Council President:

#EUCO conclusions on #COVID19 adopted just now pic.twitter.com/f6YPtavPqf

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Belarus journalist’s father says video confession carried out under duress

Raman Pratasevich, seized from diverted Ryanair flight, appeared to have been beaten, says father

The father of the Belarusian journalist Raman Pratasevich said it was clear his son was acting under duress and had been beaten when he recorded a video “confessing” to organising mass protests against the regime.

Dmitry Pratasevich said Raman was “very nervous” and “spoke in a way that was unusual for him”.

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German election poll tracker: who will be the next chancellor?

Find out who is leading the polling to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor of Germany

Germans will vote on Sunday 26 September to elect a new Bundestag, or federal parliament. The result – after coalition negotiations likely to involve two or three parties – will decide who will succeed Angela Merkel, who is standing down after 16 years as chancellor.

Some recent polls have put Germany’s Green party in the lead, as Merkel’s successor at the conservative CDU, Armin Laschet, struggles to inherit her appeal. German federal elections are proportional, so the share of vote given by polling companies should be read as translating fairly directly into share of seats in the resulting parliament. Only parties with less than 5% of the national vote, or one directly elected constituency seat, are not awarded parliamentary seats.

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No Man’s Land review – well-meaning drama about US-Mexico relations

This contemporary western about a young Texan fugitive who flees south of the border is handsomely shot but didactic

Just north of the border between the United States and Mexico, the Greer family – patriarch Bill (Frank Grillo), mom Monica (Andie MacDowell), and grown sons Lucas (Alex MacNicoll) and Jackson (Jake Allyn) – work the land as ranchers. They raise cattle, ride horses and, being red-blooded Texan types, play sports – in Jackson’s case well enough that he’s got a chance to go pro as a baseball player. They also spend the odd evening riding the range with a vigilante militia group, rounding up immigrants who may have crossed the border illegally, to “help” the border patrols. On one such night, Jackson joins his dad and big brother, even though they try to keep him out of this sort of thing so he can get out of Dodge and become a sports hero – and what do you know, the dumb lug ends up shooting and killing a boy (Alessio Valentini) just a little younger than himself. In the back no less.

Ashamed, distraught and worried that his father will try to take the rap for him, Jackson confesses to local Texas Ranger Ramirez (venerable character actor George Lopez), but then bolts across the border to Mexico on his trusty horse Sundance. Soon, the fugitive is learning some life lessons and about what Mexico is really like, and he becomes a hired hand for a nice middle-class family. A flirtatious friendship blooms between him and the family’s pretty daughter, Victoria (Esmeralda Pimentel), while he tries not to get caught by the dead kid’s dad Gustavo (Jorge A Jimenez) and a skeevy people-trafficking “coyote” (Andres Delgado), who are out to get him.

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Poland defies EU court by refusing to close major brown coalmine

Shutting Turów lignite mine would cause thousands of job losses, says development minister

Poland’s government has defied an injunction by the top European Union court that ordered the immediate closure of a major brown coalmine, with officials saying it would shake the nation’s energy system and lead to the loss of thousands of jobs.

The country’s development minister, Jarosław Gowin, said Poland would not shut the lignite mine in Turów, on the border with Germany and the Czech Republic, but instead was engaged in “very intensive diplomatic and law-related efforts” to secure undisturbed operation of the mine and connected power plant that generates 7% of Poland‘s energy.

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Turkey struck by ‘sea snot’ because of global heating

Increasing blanket of mucus-like substance in water threatens coral and fishing industry

When seen from above, it looks like a brush of beige swirled across the dark blue waters of the Sea of Marmara. Up close, it resembles a creamy, gelatinous blanket of quicksand. Now scientists are warning that the substance, known as sea snot, is on the rise as a result of global heating.

The gloopy, mucus-like substance had not been recorded in Turkish waters before 2007. It is created as a result of prolonged warm temperatures and calm weather and in areas with abundant nutrients in the water.

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El Salvador’s house of horror becomes grisly emblem of war on women

Authorities have sought to portray the ex-policeman at whose home up to 40 bodies, mostly female, may be buried, as a freakish psychopath, despite the arrest of nine other suspects

Day after day they flock to the emerald green house on Estévez Street, seeking news of loved ones who have vanished without a trace.

“They say there are lots in there, maybe 40,” said Jessenia Elizabeth Francia, a 38-year-old housewife who had travelled 20 miles to reach the heavily guarded building under a punishing midday sun.

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Mysterious airbase being built on volcanic island off Yemen

Military officials in Yemen say UAE is building runway on Mayun Island, a crucial shipping chokepoint

A mysterious airbase is being built on a volcanic island off Yemen that sits in one of the world’s crucial maritime chokepoints for energy shipments and commercial cargo.

While no country has claimed the Mayun Island airbase in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, shipping traffic associated with a prior attempt to build a massive runway across the 3.5-mile-long island years ago links back to the United Arab Emirates.

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Oxygen shortages threaten ‘total collapse’ of dozens of health systems

Data reveals Nepal, Iran and South Africa among 19 countries most at risk of running out as surging Covid cases push supplies to limit

Dozens of countries are facing severe oxygen shortages because of surging Covid-19 cases, threatening the “total collapse” of health systems.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism analysed data provided by the Every Breath Counts Coalition, the NGO Path and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) to find the countries most at risk of running out of oxygen. It also studied data on global vaccination rates.

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Belarusian journalist was forced to record confession video, says father – video

The father of the dissident journalist Roman Protasevich, who was detained in Belarus after his plane was forced to land there, said he believed his son was forced in a video posted online to admit guilt and appeared to have a broken nose. 'I think he was forced. It's not his words, it's not his intonation of speech,’, Dzmitry Protasevich said over Skype from Poland. 

Appearing on several channels of the Telegram messaging app, Roman Protasevich acknowledged playing a role in organising mass disturbances in Minsk last year. His father said the video seemed to be the result of coercion. ‘It's likely his nose is broken, because the shape of it has changed and there's a lot of powder on it’, he said

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Covid vaccine hesitancy could see Hong Kong throw away millions of doses

Observers say mistrust of government, disinformation and a lack of urgency mean vaccine take-up has been slow

Hong Kong could soon be throwing away millions of Covid-19 vaccine doses because not enough people are taking them before they expire, a health official has warned, saying it’s “not right” while other countries are scrambling for them.

The city of 7.5 million people has bought enough doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and China’s Sinovac, to vaccinate its entire population, but so far only 2.1 million have been administered since the vaccination programme launched in late February.

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Afghanistan’s doctors braced for rapid spread of India Covid variant

The country has no testing capacity for the B.1.617.2 strain and medics are concerned about resilience of health system

Doctors in Afghanistan have expressed fears that the Covid-19 variant first discovered in India could now be spreading quickly in the country.

At Kabul’s main Covid hospital, where all 100 beds are occupied, doctors said that many critically ill patients had recently returned from India. Up to 10 people die here every day.

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‘A huge surprise’ as giant river otter feared extinct in Argentina pops up

Conservationists thrilled at the sighting of the wild predator, last seen in the country in the 1980s

“It was a huge surprise,” said Sebastián Di Martino, director of conservation at Fundación Rewilding Argentina. “I was incredulous. An incredible feeling of so much happiness. I didn’t know if I should try to follow it or rush back to our station to tell the others.”

The cause of the excitement was the sighting, last week, of a wild giant river otter – an animal feared extinct in the country due to habitat loss and hunting – on the Bermejo River in Impenetrable national park, in north-east Argentina’s Chaco province. The last sighting of a giant otter in the wild in Argentina was in the 1980s. On the Bermejo, none have been seen for more than a century.

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Startup’s bug idea – to put cricket tortillas and chips on the menu

Company founded by three Spanish friends hopes to tap into demand for new sources of protein

There are no gargantuan mastiffs or shepherds on quad bikes watching over the hundreds of thousands of newborn animals that tumble and crawl around an unlikely farm among the wind turbines, motorways and patchwork fields of this corner of Castilla-La Mancha, in central Spain.

Nor are there any fences to pen them in. Plastic tubs, shelves and the insulated walls of a unit on a windswept industrial estate do the job perfectly well. But whatever Origen Farms lacks in land, tradition and rural romance, it aims to make up for in innovation, enthusiasm and resilience.

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