Category Archives: World News

Biden staffers urge president to ‘hold Israel accountable’ and protect Palestinians – live

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With the Tokyo Olympics just weeks away, the US State Department has issued a “Level 4” warning against traveling to Japan, that’s now struggling through another surge in Covid cases.

A new wrinkle two months before Olympics. US State Department advises travelers not to visit Japan. https://t.co/Hrnfkwzayz

A Tokyo medical organization has joined calls to cancel Japan’s Olympic games this summer, citing a surge in #COVID19 cases in the country.

“Japan will bear the maximum responsibility” for deaths caused by the games, it said.

Just 3.5% of people in Japan have been vaccinated. pic.twitter.com/TGZBVRZXmy

The Trump Administration, which forced families to separate at the border, also made migrant parents leave without their children according to a new Department of Homeland Security Inspector General report.

The agency watchdog found that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) knowingly deported parents who had asked to be allowed to take their children back, the Associated Press reports.

That contradicted assertions by senior DHS officials that parents were choosing to leave their children in the U.S. to stay with family or for other reasons while they were deported in 2017 and 2018 as the administration sought to enforce a hard-line approach to immigration enforcement.

The findings, issued by Trump-appointed Inspector General Joseph Cuffari, provide new insight into a policy that became a significant political crisis for the previous administration and a continuing challenge for the current one, which is working to reunite children who remain separated even now.

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Peru: Shining Path splinter group kills 14 in pre-election jungle massacre

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  • Two children among dead in remote hamlet
  • Leaflets threaten voters for rightwing candidate Keiko Fujimori

At least 14 people, including two children, have been killed by a splinter group of the Shining Path rebel group, in a brutal attack on a remote jungle hamlet, according to Peru’s military.

Leaflets reportedly scattered at the site of Sunday’s massacre warned locals to boycott upcoming presidential elections next month and said anyone who voted for the rightwing candidate Keiko Fujimori would be considered a “traitor”.

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Coronavirus live news: India death toll passes 300,000; Taiwan criticises WHO’s ‘indifference’ after meeting snub

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Brazil has fully vaccinated only 8.8% of population; Bahrain sees cases surge in recent weeks; India’s migrant workers ‘left out’ of vaccine drive

Chileans fully vaccinated against Covid-19 will be allowed to move more freely within the country, the government said on Monday, although the nation’s borders will remain closed through mid-June to tamp down a fresh rise in infections.

People in Chile who have completed their vaccination cycle will be able to move between communities that are both in and out of quarantine for some activities, as well as travel more freely inside the country starting on Wednesday, the government said.

Japan opened mass inoculation centres on Monday as it races to vaccinate most of its elderly population before the start of the Tokyo Olympics on 23 July.

The centres in Tokyo and Osaka will vaccinate thousands of people every day, giving a boost to Japan’s sluggish inoculation drive as the country battles a fourth wave of coronavirus infections.

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Mali: leader of 2020 coup takes power after president’s arrest

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World leaders condemn ‘grave and serious’ kidnapping of Mali’s leaders as Col Assimi Goïita seizes power

Mali’s interim vice-president, Col Assimi Goïta, who led a military coup last year, has declared he has seized power from the transitional president and prime minister, after they failed to consult him about the formation of a new government.

In a statement broadcast on state television, Goïta said Mali’s civilian president, Bah Ndaw, and prime minister, Moctar Ouane, had been placed “outside of their prerogatives”, and that he orchestrated their arrests and removal to the Kati military base, outside of the capital, Bamako.

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EU imposes new economic sanctions on Belarus over ‘hijacked’ flight

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EU’s 27 heads of state call for the immediate release of opposition blogger Roman Protasevich

EU leaders triggered new economic sanctions against Belarus and punitive measures against its national airline as a dissident taken from a “hijacked” Ryanair flight was paraded on the country’s television news apparently confessing to crimes against the state.

In a summit communique swiftly agreed in Brussels on Monday night, the EU’s 27 heads of state and government condemned the forced landing of flight FR4978 in Minsk and called for the immediate release of opposition blogger Roman Protasevich and his Russian girlfriend, Sofia Sapega.

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‘A matter of time’: New Zealand’s foreign minister warns China ‘storm’ could be coming

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In an interview with the Guardian, Nanaia Mahuta says exporters must diversify to protect themselves from a potential cooling of ties with Beijing

New Zealand could find itself at the heart of a “storm” of anger from China, foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta has warned, saying exporters needed to diversify to ensure they could survive deteriorating relations with Beijing.

Mahuta’s comments come as the New Zealand government faces increasing pressure to take a firmer stance on human rights violations and crackdowns by China, putting the spotlight on the potential repercussions for countries who provoke Beijing’s ire.

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No-go area: pandemic highlights Canada’s lack of public toilets

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Toronto’s unreliable patchwork of restrooms – thrown into relief as Covid closed restaurants, cafes and hotels – hits vulnerable hardest

Biking through Toronto on a recent afternoon, Dawn Russell realized she urgently needed to pee. Six months into her pregnancy, she knew that each trip from her house would mean searching for a toilet, but the promise of city streets clear of cars proved too much of a temptation.

“The pandemic has made the world so small, and it’s taken so many things away. To also lose the ability to go for a real walk was just a freedom I was not willing to give up,” said Russell, whose name was changed for privacy reasons. “I would rather risk peeing my pants than be confined at home.”

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Spain PM decries domestic violence surge after five women killed in a week

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Pedro Sánchez condemns ‘misogynist scourge’ after deaths of women at hands of partners or ex-partners

The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has denounced as “unacceptable” a surge in domestic violence in which five women were killed in the past week by their partners or ex-partners.

Among the victims was a 42-year-old Barcelona woman who was stabbed to death by her husband who then killed himself, and a pregnant Moroccan woman who was killed by her partner, who called police to confess.

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Israeli police shoot dead Palestinian knife attacker in Jerusalem

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Incident comes with city still on edge after 11 days of war, and as Israeli opposition parties restart efforts to oust Benjamin Netanyahu

Israeli police have shot dead an attacker who stabbed an Israeli soldier and civilian in Jerusalem. The attack on Monday came with the city still on edge after 11 days of war, and as opposition parties restarted efforts to oust the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, with a unity coalition.

It was the latest reminder of how volatile the situation is, barely two weeks after protests and clashes with police escalated into an exchange of rockets and missiles that killed more than 250 people, the vast majority of them Palestinians living in Gaza.

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UK urged to intervene after another photo of Princess Latifa emerges

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Peter Hain says government must demand proper proof of life of Emirati royal after third image appears on Instagram within days

The UK government has been urged to intervene to find out whether the Emirati royal Princess Latifa has been genuinely freed from house arrest by her father, after a third Instagram photo appeared in as many days purporting to show her in a Dubai shopping mall.

The latest photo showed Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, a daughter of the ruler of Dubai, looking at the camera blankly next to a clairvoyant at a coffee table.

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Belarus ‘hijacking’ is test for international community

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Analysis: ‘Air piracy’ is just latest act of Alexander Lukashenko’s brutal campaign against his opponents

Belarus’s president, Alexander Lukashenko, has unleashed a brutal campaign against his opponents. More than 35,000 people have been arrested, thousands have been tortured or abused, and 400 political prisoners are currently behind bars. Earlier this week a 50-year-old opposition activist, Vitold Ashurok, died in a penal colony. The official cause of death was “heart attack”. His widow believes he was murdered.

It is against this dark and repressive backdrop that the extraordinary events of Sunday took place. According to state media, Lukashenko personally authorised the forced downing of a Ryanair plane as it flew over Belarusian airspace between Greece and Lithuania – a real-time hijacking. He even dispatched a MIG-29 fighter jet to ensure the pilot complied after being informed of a fake bomb threat.

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China rejects report of sick staff at Wuhan lab prior to Covid outbreak

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Spokesperson dismisses Wall Street Journal claims based on ‘previously undisclosed’ intelligence

China has vehemently denied a Wall Street Journal report citing US intelligence materials that said several members of staff at a key virus laboratory in Wuhan had fallen ill shortly before the first patient with Covid-like symptoms was recorded in the city on 8 December 2019.

Foreign ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian, said it was “completely untrue” that three researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) became sick in autumn 2019. The report, based on “previously undisclosed” US intelligence, said the said the lab workers staff had become sick “with symptoms consistent with both Covid-19 and common seasonal illness”.

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Missing man found dead inside Spanish dinosaur statue

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Police say it’s likely the 39-year-old got stuck trying to retrieve his mobile phone after dropping it

Police in Catalonia are investigating the death of a man who is thought to have become trapped inside a large dinosaur statue while trying to retrieve his mobile phone.

Officers were called to the statue in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, a satellite town of Barcelona, after a man and his son noticed something inside the papier-mache stegosaurus on Saturday afternoon.

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Revealed: Syrians pay tax to rebuild after war but see little benefit

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Analysis by Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Syrian partner SIRAJ and Finance Uncovered looks at how ‘reconstruction tax’ has been spent

Um Ahmed left everything when she and her four children fled their home south of Damascus at the beginning of a decade-long civil war – toys scattered around all corners of the house, the certificates she earned when she qualified as a pharmacist.

After moving repeatedly, they now live in the Rukn al-Din neighbourhood of the capital in a gloomy rental flat. It is a far cry from their previous home, which was filled with light from dawn until dusk.

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Ryanair passengers describe flight ‘hijacking’ and journalist arrest in Belarus – video

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Passengers onboard a Ryanair a plane that was forced to divert from its Athens-Vilnius route and make an emergency landing in Minsk, where officials arrested a dissident journalist, have described being tired and uncomfortable.

Belarus has faced international condemnation after forcing a Ryanair flight carrying an opposition activist to land in the Belarusian capital in order to arrest him. Some European leaders have called it an 'act of state terror and kidnapping'


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Green growth: the save-the-mangrove scheme reaping rewards for women in Kenya

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A community project on the Lamu archipelago trains women in preserving this vital ecosystem and provides business loans

Kenya’s mangroves have been harvested for centuries, the timber used in shipbuilding and for ornate doors and furniture as well as shipped across the Indian Ocean and around the world.

The Lamu archipelago accounts for more than half of Kenya’s mangrove forests. But across the country an estimated 40% of this precious commodity has been degraded, as more mangroves have been cut to provide construction materials and charcoal for cooking, and oil leakages from cruise liners and ships that pass along the coast kill off young saplings. The area has become one of the most degraded marine ecosystems in east Africa.

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Britons should not be holidaying in Spain yet, says UK minister

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Anne-Marie Trevelyan urges people not to travel to country on coronavirus amber list ‘unless you have to’

Britons have been urged not to travel to Spain after the country opened its doors to tourists from the UK.

Spain has lifted its restrictions on holidaymakers from the UK but the business minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan has urged people not to go there unless there is an urgent reason.

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Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro leads motorcade rally in Rio amid coronavirus surge – video

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Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro has led a motorcade rally through Rio de Janeiro streets where thousands showed their support for the Brazilian leader, while COVID-19 infections surge and the death toll mounts across the South American country. Brazil has now registered 16 million cases since the pandemic began, and the official death toll stands at 448,208, according to ministry data

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US joins global outcry at Belarus over seizure of blogger from Ryanair flight

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European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen says ‘hijacking must be sanctioned’ ahead of EU leaders’ meeting on Monday

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has joined European leaders in condemning Belarus for forcing a Ryanair flight carrying an opposition activist to land in the Belarusian capital Minsk.

European leaders – some of whom have already denounced the move to arrest blogger Roman Protasevich as an “act of state terror and kidnapping” – will meet on Monday to discuss what action could be taken against Belarus, for forcing the plane’s diversion during its flight from Athens to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.

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George Floyd: Minneapolis holds rallies in build-up to anniversary of police killing

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Program starts with march led by the Rev Al Sharpton and Benjamin Crump to mark the anniversary of black man’s murder

Members of George Floyd’s family, and others who lost loved ones to police encounters, have joined crowds in Minneapolis for a march that was one of several events planned nationwide to mark the one-year anniversary of Floyd’s death.

Hundreds of people gathered on Sunday for the rally in front of the courthouse in downtown Minneapolis where a month ago former policeman Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murdering the black man by kneeling on his neck.

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