Category Archives: World News

‘The darkest days are coming’: Myanmar’s journalists suffer at hands of junta

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Journalism has been outlawed in all but name since the coup, with reporters and editors fleeing the country or leading double lives to survive

As a cyclone rolled over the Bay of Bengal on 24 May, American journalist Danny Fenster, 37, contemplated the brooding skies near a terminal window at Yangon international airport.

For a while, the threat of foreigners being seized at the airport by Myanmar’s military was real, but after watching international reporters exit the country safely in April, the Michigan native was more worried about turbulence.

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How a tiny Pacific community fought off a giant mining company – video

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A proposal to mine 60% of a tiny island of Wagina in the Pacific was met with outrage by locals and became a landmark case in Solomon Islands.

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The little island that won: how a tiny Pacific community fought off a giant mining company

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A proposal to mine 60% of Wagina for bauxite was met with outrage by locals and became a landmark case in Solomon Islands

  • Read more of our Pacific Plunder series here

When a mining company arrived on Wagina nearly a decade ago with a proposal to mine 60% of the island for bauxite, resistance was swift and resolute.

“I was in the group that went and physically stopped the machines that landed on the site behind this island,” says Teuaia Sito, the former president of the Lauru Wagina Council of Women.

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Covid live: England reopening on 21 June could be delayed, say ministers; Israel begins vaccinating 12-16s

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Latest updates: Delta variant is threat to timetable for England, says Matt Hancock; children aged from 12 in Israel eligible for jab after 55% of adults have had two doses

The US will donate 750,000 vaccine doses to Taiwan, a cross-party delegation of US senators said as they arrived in the country.

AFP report that the high-profile delegation and gift come as Taiwan accuses China of hampering its efforts to secure enough doses as part of Beijing’s ongoing campaign to keep the island isolated.

Morocco will reopen its airports to international traffic starting from 15 June to help the return of its nationals living abroad, the country’s foreign ministry said on Sunday.

Foreign nationals will also be allowed into the country if they have been vaccinated against Covid-19 or had a negative PCR test.

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Excited, pursuing bear: Florida officials seek unusual urban visitor

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Sightings of black bear continue but state wildlife officials unsuccessful in attempts to trap and relocate it

In a summer’s tale to enthrall inhabitants of the south-western Florida city of Naples, a black bear seen wandering around downtown eluded wildlife officials – even as sightings of the animal continued.

Police said the bear was first spotted in the city on Friday, near 12th Avenue South and 6th Street South. Several unsuccessful attempts were made to trap the bear in hopes of relocating it, the Naples Daily News reported.

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Meghan and Harry announce birth of baby daughter Lilibet

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Child named after the family nickname for the Queen, the baby’s great-grandmother

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have announced the birth of a daughter they have named Lilibet “Lili” Diana Mountbatten-Windsor.

Harry and Meghan’s daughter, who was born in hospital in California on Friday, weighed 7lb 11oz and has been named after the family nickname for the Queen, the baby’s great-grandmother. Her middle name was chosen to honour her late grandmother Diana, Princess of Wales, the couple said. The baby is the Queen’s 11th great-grandchild and is eighth in line to the throne.

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Angela Merkel’s CDU beats far right in crucial German state election

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Conservative win in Saxony-Anhalt seen as last big test ahead of national election in September

Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) fought off a challenge from the far right in a state election on Sunday seen as the last big test for Germany’s political parties before a national vote in September that will end the chancellor’s 16 years atop German politics.

In exit polls the CDU, whose current leader, Armin Laschet, will vie for the top job in September, improved on its 2017 performance to gain 36% of the vote in the eastern state – a result the state premier, Reiner Haseloff, said symbolised “a clear demarcation against the far right”.

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Pressure on UK as Germany backs ending free carbon permits for airlines

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Boris Johnson has pledged to give details of how UK will meet its climate targets before Cop26

The German government is backing an extension of EU carbon pricing that will end free carbon permits for airlines, putting pressure on the UK to put in place a similar package to meet climate targets.

The European Commission will propose a dozen climate policies on 14 July, each designed to slash greenhouse gases faster in line with an EU goal to cut net emissions by 55% by 2030 from 1990 levels.

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Covid: more than 200 leaders urge G7 to help vaccinate world’s poorest

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Former PMs, presidents and ministers sign letter saying richest should pay two-thirds of $66bn needed

More than 100 former prime ministers, presidents and foreign ministers are among 230 prominent figures calling on the leaders of the powerful G7 countries to pay two-thirds of the $66bn (£46.6bn) needed to vaccinate low-income countries against Covid.

A letter seen by the Guardian ahead of the G7 summit to be hosted by Boris Johnson in Cornwall warns that the leaders of the UK, US, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada must make 2021 “a turning point in global cooperation”. Fewer than 2% of people in sub-Saharan Africa have been vaccinated against Covid, while the UK has now immunised 70% of its population with at least one dose.

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Calls for Keith Haring mural to stay at Barcelona site being turned into care home

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Artwork in building slated for demolition faces uncertain future, though city has pledged to save it

It all began one February night in 1989. Cesar de Melero was DJing in the Ars Studio club in Barcelona when someone told him that the artist Keith Haring was outside but the doorman wouldn’t let him in.

“The place was packed, so I put on a record and pushed through the crowd,” De Melero told the Guardian. “And there he was with his saintly, innocent face and I told the doorman to let him in and I said to the boss: ‘Champagne for Keith Haring.’”

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Pope Francis stops short of apology over deaths in ex-Catholic school in Canada

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Pontiff fails to issue direct apology for church’s role in residential schools where children were abused

Pope Francis has said he was pained by the discovery of the remains of 215 children at a former Catholic school for indigenous students in Canada and called for respect of the rights and cultures of native peoples, but stopped short of the direct apology some Canadians had demanded.

Speaking to pilgrims and tourists in St Peter’s Square in the Vatican during his weekly blessing, Francis urged Canadian political and Catholic religious leaders to “cooperate with determination” to shed light on the finding and to seek reconciliation and healing.

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‘Sea snot’: Turkish minister announces plan to tackle slimy scourge

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Substance has spread through sea south of Istanbul, posing threat to marine life and fishing industry

Turkey’s environment minister has pledged to defeat a plague of “sea snot” threatening the Sea of Marmara, with a disaster management plan he said would secure its future.

A thick slimy layer of the organic matter, known as marine mucilage, has spread through the sea south of Istanbul, posing a threat to marine life and the fishing industry.

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‘France is for ever grateful’: Normandy memorial for British D-day troops unveiled

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Ceremony takes place at Ver-sur-Mer for 22,442 soldiers under British command who died during D-day and Battle of Normandy

They fought on the beaches of Normandy, they fought on the landing grounds in the fields and streets and hills. As Winston Churchill had promised, they did not surrender.

On Sunday, the names of 22,442 soldiers under British command who died on D-day and the subsequent Battle of Normandy were engraved in stone as a permanent reminder of their sacrifice as a new British Normandy memorial was unveiled.

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Iran election candidate threatens to try rival for treason during TV debate

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Former leader of Revolutionary Guards rounds on ex-central banker in bruising first debate

Iran’s presidential election candidates have engaged in a fiery and bruising first television debate, during which one promised to put another, the former governor of the central bank, on trial for treason and ban him and other members of the government from leaving the country.

The threat to put Abdolnaser Hemmati on trial was made on Saturday by the former leader of the Revolutionary Guards Mohsen Rezaei, currently secretary of the Expediency Council. He claimed the Iranian currency had been devalued so much by Hemmati that “the train of the revolution has turned into a scooter”.

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Biden trumpets democracy abroad in Post op-ed – as threats spread at home

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Joe Biden will use his visit to Europe this week to “rally the world’s democracies” in a reset of US foreign policy after four turbulent years under Donald Trump – all while threats to American democracy, stoked by Trump, proliferate at home.

Related: After Trump: Biden set to outline US policy to Johnson, Putin and more

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Hundreds detained without trial in Uganda in new wave of repression

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Roundup of opposition activists took place in May around date of swearing-in ceremony for President Yoweri Museveni

A new wave of repression in Uganda has led to the abductions of dozens more opposition activists by security forces and at least one alleged death. Several hundred people are thought to have been detained without trial in the east African country in secret prisons where they are subjected to a brutal regime of mistreatment. The country has suffered a series of crackdowns aimed at stamping out dissent since campaigning began for presidential elections late last year.

The trigger for the most recent repression by security services appears to have been the swearing-in ceremony of Uganda’s veteran president, the 76-year-old Yoweri Museveni, in May.

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Covid Delta variant ‘about 40% more transmissible’, says Matt Hancock

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Under-30s to be offered jabs from next week but variant makes decision on easing rules in England ‘more difficult’

The new Delta variant of coronavirus appears to be about 40% more transmissible than the variant it has largely replaced, Matt Hancock has said, making government decisions about whether to ease restrictions in England on 21 June “more difficult”.

Saying that under-30s in England will be called to begin vaccinations from next week, the health secretary confirmed it was still possible the reopening programme could be delayed or some rules kept in place.

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Conservatives go to polls in Germany fearful of far-right threat

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Victory for the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt would be a devastating blow for Armin Laschet’s CDU

Germans in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt headed to the polls on Sunday, with the far right posing a tough challenge to Angela Merkel’s conservatives in the final major test before the first general election in 16 years not to feature the veteran chancellor.

Saxony-Anhalt is one of Germany’s smallest states with a population of 2.2 million, but with Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union running neck-and-neck with the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) there, the stakes could not be higher for the regional vote.

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UK foreign aid cuts ‘will leave 100,000 refugees without water’

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Aid agencies write to Foreign Office minister as pressure grows on Boris Johnson ahead of Commons vote

UK aid cuts of 42% will leave about 70,000 people without health services and 100,000 without water in Cox’s Bazar, the world’s largest refugee settlement, before the deadly cyclone season, the Foreign Office minister for Asia has been warned.

A private letter sent to him last week by a group of aid agencies working in the area comes before a vote on Monday designed to force ministers to guarantee they will restore UK aid to 0.7% of gross national income next year.

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