Leaked documents suggest renewed inquiry into Covid-19 origins, Biden declares ‘US is back’, and one Republican’s orbit-altering solution for climate change
Good morning
Leaders at the G7 summit – which kicks off in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, England, on Friday – will call for a fresh World Health Organization inquiry into the origins of Covid-19, a leaked draft communique suggests.
Continue reading...Throughout history, our story has been narrated by others who treat our rights as less deserving of recognition
The silencing of the Palestinian story is nothing new. In 1950s Britain, a few years after Israel was established, even the name Palestine went out of use. When asked as a child where I came from, people would think I’d said Pakistan.
I remember how frustrating it was that no one wanted to hear our story, as if we had invented it. “It’s the land of the Jews,” I was repeatedly told. “The Arabs are only squatters on it.” Israel’s stunning victory in the 1967 war compounded these attitudes, and the Zionist narrative of Israel’s moral right to exist in the Jewish people’s “ancestral land” became supreme. Constantly made to understand we were second-class human beings with no valid right to “someone else’s country” was demoralising and intimidating.
Continue reading...Indian state of Bihar revises total Covid deaths up by 4,000; Ursula von der Leyen says investigators need full access to find source of pandemic
Ukraine has reiterated that it will not allow foreigners inoculated with the Russian Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik into the country if they do not also provide a negative test for the coronavirus
Reuters report that current border crossing rules require a negative Covid-19 test or documentary proof of receiving a vaccine approved by the World Health Organization.
Bulgaria plans to lift the compulsory wearing of face masks in gyms, hairdressing salons, small shops and offices where all workers are vaccinated as coronavirus infections decrease, a deputy health minister said.
“We have seen a drop in new infections and given the coming summer heat, we plan to take steps to ease the wearing of masks in some indoor spaces,” deputy minister Alexander Zlatanov told reporters.
Medieval martial arts enthusiast and ultra-rightwinger Damien Tarel claims act was not premeditated
A medieval martial arts enthusiast who slapped the French president, Emmanuel Macron, across the face will appear before a judge in a fast-track trial on Thursday.
Damien Tarel had acknowledged striking Macron while the president was on a visit to a professional training college, but told investigators it was not premeditated, the prosecutor Alex Perrin said in a statement.
Continue reading...Bloc leaders say UK must fully implement post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland
Boris Johnson must respect the “rule of law” by fully implementing the post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland, EU leaders have said ahead of the G7 summit in Cornwall.
Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, said the behaviour of the prime minister was of increasing concern to EU member states. “It’s paramount to implement what we have decided – this is a question of rule of law,” he said.
Continue reading... Skygazers – with appropriate eye protection – will be able to see much of sun being obscured from 10.08am
Views of a partial solar eclipse will be “somewhat fleeting” across certain parts of the UK due to cloudy skies, forecasters have said.
But those in central and south-east England will have clear spells to witness the spectacle, according to the Met Office. On Thursday morning, skygazers will be able to see nearly a third of the sun being blocked out by the moon in what is known as an annular eclipse.
Continue reading...Brazil-based giant paid ransom in bitcoin after ransomware attack shut down operations across world
JBS, the world’s biggest meat processor, has paid an $11m (£7.8m) ransom after a cyber attack shut down operations, including abattoirs in the US, Australia and Canada.
While most of its operations have been restored, the Brazilian-headquartered company said it hoped the payment would head off any further complications including data theft.
Continue reading...Five citizens accuse government of failing to protect them from impacts of global heating
Five Polish citizens are taking their government to court over its failure to protect them from the impacts of the climate crisis.
They say the state has breached their rights to life, health and family life by delaying action to cut national carbon emissions and propping up the coal industry.
Continue reading...‘Don’t do as we did,’ says Pippa Biddle, who highlights colonial structure of industry where unqualified Western tourists pay to volunteer abroad
Seven years ago, Pippa Biddle wrote a blog post about volunteering abroad. She recounted her struggles speaking Spanish to children living with HIV in the Dominican Republic and how local people in Tanzania would spend all night redoing the construction work she and her classmates had done poorly.
“Taking part in international aid where you aren’t particularly helpful is not benign,” Biddle wrote. “It’s detrimental.”
Continue reading...Joe Biden wants alternative to Chinese belt and road offer while Japanese PM’s interests are more domestic
Leaders of the world’s seven leading industrialised nations will meet in Cornwall this weekend to agree a communique on how to redraw the world post-Covid, but also to pursue their own agendas and try to forge new personal relations after nearly 18 months apart.
1. Joe Biden has restored order, calm and direction to US international alliances, but now has to show what he will do with that goodwill.
Continue reading...A look back at the career of Senegal-born film director Ousmane Sembène as his 1968 film Mandabi is released in the UK for the first time
•Mandabi is released on 11 June in cinemas, and on 28 June on DVD, Blu-Ray and digital platforms.
•Peter Bradshaw on Mandabi: classic about colonialism resonates today
Continue reading...The top items on the leaders’ agenda for this week’s gathering at Cornwall, and some possible outcomes
World leaders are gathering for the G7 summit in Cornwall this week. Here we look at the key themes that will dominate their meeting and what might constitute a successful outcome from discussions:
Continue reading...UN warns that coronavirus crisis threatens to push millions more children into work
Child labour has risen for the first time in two decades and the coronavirus crisis threatens to push millions more youngsters towards the same fate, Unicef has said.
In a joint report, the International Labour Organization and the UN children’s agency say the number in child labour stood at 160 million at the start of 2020 – an increase of 8.4 million in four years.
Continue reading...Installation of new pathway and lift has been criticised by archaeologists and called ‘a scandal’
When seen through the eyes of Manolis Korres, the architect who has long presided over the restoration of the Parthenon, the Acropolis needs no improvement at all.
In the face of such architectural mastery, he thinks of himself more as a maestro of order, making a monument that has survived explosions, fire, looting and earthquakes more understandable to the public.
Continue reading...Lloyd Austin says directive is about ensuring that dealing with the threat from Beijing remains a priority
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has directed the Pentagon to sharpen its focus on China, which the United States has tagged as its top strategic rival.
“Now, it is up to the department to get to work,” Austin said on Wednesday after issuing an internal directive to the Pentagon bureaucracy.
Continue reading...IOC officials have avoided any mention of the commercial forces driving the Tokyo Games towards their 23 July opening date
The least divisive statement in the saga surrounding Tokyo 2020 – assuming, as many people now do, that it will happen in just over 40 days’ time – is that it will be an Olympics like no other.
Overseas fans have been banned; athletes will spend what for many will be the pinnacle of their career sealed off from the outside world; GPS-tracked journalists hoping to escape their hotel rooms for a late-night fix of ramen risk being put on the next flight home.
Continue reading...Statement indicates leaders will also commit to delivering 1bn vaccine doses and plans to tackle forced labour
Leaders at the G7 summit will call for a new, transparent investigation by the World Health Organization into the origins of the coronavirus, according to a leaked draft communique for the meeting.
The call was initiated by Joe Biden’s administration and follows the US president’s decision to expand the American investigation into the origins of the pandemic, with one intelligence agency leaning towards the theory that it escaped from a Wuhan laboratory.
Continue reading...Misjudged comments to prime minister of Spain sought to play up the South American country’s ties with Europe
Argentina’s president, Alberto Fernández, has triggered a Twitter storm and a regional race debate with misjudged comments to visiting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of Spain that sought to play up the South American country’s ties with Europe.
“The Mexicans came from the Indians, the Brazilians came from the jungle, but we Argentines came from the ships. And they were ships that came from Europe,” Fernández said, referring to the many European migrants who arrived in the country. He later apologized for the comments and said his country’s diversity was something to be proud of.
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Democratic Florida Representative Val Demings has announced she is running for Senate, challenging Republican Marco Rubio for his seat.
I'm running for U.S. Senate because I will never tire of standing up for what is right. Never tire of serving Florida. Never tire of doing good.
Join my campaign today: https://t.co/rHVPBuSzKU pic.twitter.com/HuWB80Mrxh
https://t.co/kPlysL0aZd pic.twitter.com/06iEZMpmfS
Continue reading...Court has in effect liquidated the opposition politician’s movement by classifying it as ‘extremist’
A Russian court has outlawed opposition politician Alexei Navalny’s nationwide political organisation on the grounds it is “extremist”, in a landmark step forward for Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on political dissent.
The highly anticipated court decision in effect liquidates Navalny’s non-violent opposition movement and bars his allies from running for office for years, as the Kremlin seeks to erase the jailed opposition leader from Russian political life.
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