Over 20,000 people evacuated after Qinghai in north-west and Yunnan in south-west struck on same day
A series of strong earthquakes has rattled north-west and south-west China, leaving at least two people dead.
Both Qinghai province in the north-west on the Tibetan plateau and Yunnan province in south-western China are prone to earthquakes. And both tremors were shallow, which generally means they cause more damage.
Continue reading...There is only one way to really make a change in New Zealand is to raise the bottom more rapidly than the middle
“Today, we close a chapter on our past.” So said New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, on Thursday, as she launched a budget that included the largest increases to benefits since the 1940s. But although she should be congratulated for finally taking concrete steps to attack poverty and inequality, there is a real danger of celebrating too soon.
Child poverty is one of our much-lauded prime minister’s signature issues, and she has committed herself to ambitious targets that require hardship rates to be cut by as much as two-thirds by 2028. If achieved, this would be an exceptional feat, a rapid reduction that would place New Zealand among the world’s best performers.
Continue reading...Records obtained by Washington Post show agency paid $396.15 every night since 20 January until at least 30 April
Donald Trump has billed the Secret Service more than $40,000 for a room for his own security detail, which has been guarding him at his Mar-a-Lago resort since he left office in January.
Related: Trump family members got ‘inappropriately close’ to Secret Service agents, book claims
Continue reading...Israeli police fired stun grenades towards Palestinians who threw rocks and petrol bombs at officers outside Jerusalem's flashpoint al-Aqsa mosque on Friday, hours after Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire in Gaza. Police raids at the mosque and clashes with Palestinians during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan had led in part to the war between Israel and Hamas
Continue reading...Parents admit murdering film-maker Babak Khorramdin and to killing daughter and son-in-law years before
An Iranian couple have been arrested for drugging, murdering and dismembering their film-maker son, Babak Khorramdin, 47, and also confessed to killing their daughter and son-in-law in the same way years earlier.
The case has stunned Iran, where it has been splashed across the front pages of newspapers with headlines including “Society in shock” and “Occupants of terror house”.
Continue reading...MailOnline published actor’s identity as complainant in rape case against French director
Associated Newspapers has paid substantial damages and apologised to actor Sand Van Roy for revealing her identity as a complainant in a rape case against the French film director Luc Besson.
In May 2018, Van Roy filed a complaint with French police alleging that she had been raped by Besson. She expected to remain anonymous, as is her right under French law, but details of her complaint were leaked and reported in the French press, breaching her right to anonymity, the high court heard.
Continue reading...Bombardier Chelsea Cogswell faces 18 charges at a court martial for serving edibles to unsuspecting members of artillery battery
A Canadian soldier is facing court martial after alleging serving cannabis-laced cupcakes to unwitting members of her artillery unit during a live fire exercise.
Bombardier Chelsea Cogswell faces 18 charges for her baking, including administering a noxious substance and behaving in a disgraceful manner.
Continue reading...Spanish PM says negative test not needed even as Boris Johnson warns against travel to amber list countries
Spain will allow British holidaymakers into the country without the need to provide a negative Covid test from 24 May.
In a move aimed at restarting the country’s battered tourist industry, the Spanish government has announced that visitors from the UK will be free to enter Spain “without restrictions and without health requirements”. The same applies to visitors from Japan. All arrivals are still required to fill out a health form.
Continue reading...G7 countries reaffirm commitment to limit global heating to 1.5C after nearly two days of wrangling
The world’s richest nations have agreed to end their financial support for coal development overseas, in a major step towards phasing out the dirtiest fossil fuel.
After nearly two days of wrangling at a meeting of the G7 environment and energy ministers, hosted virtually by the UK on Thursday and Friday, all reaffirmed their commitment to limiting global heating to 1.5C, and committed to phasing out coal and fully decarbonising their energy sectors in the 2030s.
Continue reading...The Carnavalet, devoted to the city’s history, has been shaken out of its dusty and confusing former shape
One of the first cities in Europe to award itself a museum devoted to its own history, Paris will soon have one of the continent’s most modern as the Musée Carnavalet reopens this month following a spectacular five-year, €58m (£50m) renovation.
Opened in 1880 at the suggestion of Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann, who realised 20 years earlier that the mammoth programme of urban renewal he was carrying out would obliterate much of the city’s past, the museum had not been overhauled since.
Continue reading...Dutch cycling union claims city has turned on them by making centre more difficult to navigate
Its reputation is that of an idyll for cyclists, a city freed from the torment of cars. But while Amsterdam remains a model to most of the world, there are signs of trouble in paradise.
A series of developments have led the Amsterdam branch of the Fietsersbond, the Dutch cyclists’ union, to claim the municipality has turned on them, unfairly prioritising pedestrians in the city’s historic centre.
Continue reading...7,200 mucormycosis cases reported, usually in patients with diabetes or compromised immune systems
States across India have begun declaring a “black fungus” epidemic as cases of the fatal rare infection shoot up in patients recovering from Covid-19.
The fungal disease, called mucormycosis, has a 50% mortality rate. It affects patients initially in the nose but the fungus can then spread into the brain, and can often only be treated by major surgery removing the eye or part of skull and jaw.
Continue reading...Berlin wary of setting legal precedent as talks near completion on reconciliation deal for atrocities against Herero and Nama tribes
Germany has categorically ruled out financial reparations forming part of a planned formal apology to Namibia for colonial atrocities at the start of the 20th century, amid fears such payments could set a legal precedent for further claims.
Angela Merkel’s government has since 2014 negotiated with Namibia to “heal the wounds” of what historians call the first genocide of the 20th century, when between 1904 and 1908 tens of thousands of indigenous people were shot, starved, and tortured to death by German troops as they put down the rebellious Herero and Nama tribes in what is now Namibia.
Continue reading...Pandemic worsens in Latin America and the Caribbean, the region with the worst per capita death rate from Covid; Germany declares Britain and Northern Ireland a virus variant region
Hi, I’m Edna Mohamed; we’ll now be closing this live blog. Thank you all for following along with me tonight!
We’ll be starting a new live blog In a few hours, but until then, you can read up on all our coronavirus coverage from across the world here.
Here are some of the top headlines from the past few hours:
Continue reading...Region including Benidorm and Alicante has a much lower Covid infection rate than Spain as a whole
The president of the Valencia region is to meet Britain’s ambassador to Spain next week to press for the region to be added to the UK’s green list of acceptable travel destinations.
Valencia, which includes the resorts of Benidorm and Alicante on the Costa Blanca, claims to be the safest place in Europe, with a Covid infection rate of 29 cases per 100,000 inhabitants compared with Spain’s overall rate of 140 per 100,000.
Continue reading...Analysis: political undercurrents cannot be ignored as Zhang Yiming stands down to ‘daydream’
In the latest retreat by a leading figure in China’s booming tech sector, the chief executive of TikTok’s parent company has said he will step down to focus on long-term strategy, saying he prefers “reading and daydreaming” to the challenge of running a multinational firm.
Zhang Yiming, the 38-year-old boss of Bytedance, set out the reasons for the move in an unusually candid memo addressed to the company’s staff. “The truth is, I lack some of the skills that make an ideal manager,” he confessed.
Continue reading...Gradual tariff-free deal will be victory for free-trade Brexiters but will likely alarm UK farmers
UK ministers are expected to offer Australia a trade deal which will gradually eliminate all tariffs and quotas, one seen as a victory for free-trade Brexiters in the cabinet but likely to prompt alarm among UK farmers.
Downing Street did not deny reports on Friday that the likely offer to Australia would be a transition to zero quotas and tariffs over 15 years, although insisted discussions were still taking place.
Continue reading...Brazil’s former leftist leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva left no doubt he was planning a finale to a dramatic political career
Brazil can be rescued after being turned into a Covid-stricken global outcast by its “psychopath” president Jair Bolsonaro, the politician best placed to defeat him in next year’s presidential election has insisted.
In an interview with the Guardian, Brazil’s former leftist leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – who is widely tipped to challenge Bolsonaro for the presidency after regaining his political rights – stopped short of explicitly confirming he would run. But Lula, who rose from rural poverty to become Brazil’s first working-class president, left no doubt he was plotting an extraordinary finale to one of the world’s most enduring and dramatic political careers.
Continue reading...The potential arrival of a highly transmissable variant could overwhelm health systems already struggling after military coup
Doctors in Myanmar have warned the country would be unable to cope with a major outbreak of Covid-19 as hospitals and medical facilities struggle to function in the aftermath of February’s military coup.
Fears are growing about the potential impact of a highly transmissible variant as neighbouring countries, chiefly India but also Thailand and Laos, battle record numbers of Covid cases.
Continue reading...Rising number of British B.1.617.2 cases to push back Brussels decision by two weeks
A decision in Brussels to add the UK to an EU “white list” of countries from where tourists will be welcome this summer is to be delayed, it is understood, due to concerns over the Covid variant first identified in India.
EU diplomats were expected to use a revised threshold of infection cases to extend the list of countries at a meeting on Friday but sources said that the decision will be put back by two weeks.
Continue reading...