Mohamed Nasheed rushed to hospital after explosion as he was getting into his car in Malé
Mohamed Nasheed, the first democratically elected president of the Maldives and current parliament speaker, has been injured in a suspected bomb explosion and rushed to hospital.
The blast went off on Thursday as Nasheed, 53, was getting into his car in the capital Malé, an official from his Maldivian Democratic party (MDP) said.
Continue reading...As many as 37 people have died and at least 89 reported missing since protests began on 28 April
Colombia has entered its second week of violent unrest as riot police continued a brutal crackdown on nationwide protests against poverty and inequality exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.
Related: ‘No food and no fuel’: Colombia torn by protests and violent crackdown
Continue reading...At least 25 people have been killed after heavily armed police stormed one of Rio de Janeiro’s largest favelas in pursuit of drug traffickers, in what was the deadliest raid in the city’s history.
About 200 members of Rio’s civil police launched their incursion into Jacarezinho in the early hours of Thursday, sprinting into the vast redbrick community as a bullet-proof helicopter circled overhead with snipers poised on each side. By lunchtime at least 25 people were reported dead, among them André Frias, a drug squad officer who was shot in the head. Police and local media described the other victims as “suspects” but offered no immediate evidence for that claim.
Continue reading...New restrictions and deep cuts to allowances mean both French and Jersey boat owners feel betrayed by Brexit
Dawn was still four hours away and the small Normandy port of Carteret was alive, some boats hurriedly unloading their catch for a rapid turnaround, others turning on their lights and firing up their engines for the first time that night.
Minutes after 3am on Thursday they had left the quayside and, in pitch darkness and a gentle swell, were pushing smartly out to sea to join a growing armada of 60-odd boats from Cherbourg right the way round to St-Malo.
Continue reading...Foreign ministry responds to west’s human rights claims, saying countries should ‘face up to their own problems’
China has rejected accusations of human rights abuse and economic coercion, made by G7 foreign ministers, accusing them of “blatantly meddling” in China’s internal affairs, calling their remarks groundless.
“Attempts to disregard the basic norms of international relations and to create various excuses to interfere in China’s internal affairs, undermine China’s sovereignty and smear China’s image will never succeed,” said the foreign ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin. “They should not criticise and interfere with other countries with a superior mentality, and undermine the current top priority of international anti-epidemic cooperation.”
Continue reading...Proposals for 5,000-sq-metre building detailed in document submitted to the council by mayor
Amsterdam is preparing to build an out-of-town five-storey “erotic centre” with two bars, 100 small rooms and an “erotic entertainment” venue such as a strip club as it downsizes its red-light district.
The plan for the 5,000-sq-metre building has been detailed in a document submitted to the council by mayor Femke Halsema as the city seeks to find a commercial partner for the enterprise.
Continue reading...Health commissioner says plan is to reduce hospitalisation and tackle long-term impact of Covid
Three Covid medicines with the potential to “change the course” of the pandemic will be authorised for mass production and use in the EU by October under a European Commission plan.
Stella Kyriakides, the commissioner for health, said such a move would reduce hospitalisation and tackle the long-term impact of Covid, with one in 10 people reporting symptoms 12 weeks after infection.
Continue reading...Analysis: Joe Biden’s support for idea is vital but it won’t happen without backing of other rich nations
It was a “seismic decision” by Joe Biden, the US president, say campaigners who have fought for the demolition of patent protection on vaccines and drugs for decades. The US administration has amazed supporters and critics alike by throwing its considerable weight behind the pleas of South Africa, India and about 100 developing countries at the World Trade Organization to overturn patents on Covid vaccines in the interests of getting more of them, more cheaply and faster, to huge populations in need.
Patents preserve the profits of the multinational companies that make drugs and vaccines. They make it illegal for up to 20 years for manufacturers of generic medicines to turn out cheap copycat versions. In this pandemic where, as the World Health Organization says, no one is safe until everyone is safe, there is a powerful moral case for ditching them.
Continue reading...Country appeals for international help, with vaccines in short supply and a reported 47% positivity rate
Nepal is struggling to contain an explosion in Covid-19 cases, as fears grow that the situation in the Himalayan country may be as bad, if not worse, than in neighbouring India, with which it shares a long and porous border.
Following warnings by health officials earlier this week that the country was on the brink of losing control of its outbreak, Nepal has appealed for urgent international help.
Continue reading...Kurt Campbell says Beijing has been increasing military activities without taking measures to reduce the chance of miscalculation
The Biden administration’s top Asia official has warned about the absence of a crisis-communications channel between the US and China at a time of rising military tensions over Taiwan and the South China Sea.
Military and leadership hotlines have been established at various points in the fraught history of the relationship, but Kurt Campbell, the White House Asia “tsar” responsible for coordinating policy across the administration, said Beijing had shown no interest in using them, out of a preference for uncertainty. The hotline simply rings out in “empty rooms”, he said.
Continue reading...Critics say relaxed approach to restrictions has caused surge in prairie province averse to perceived government overreach
In an open field outside the prairie town of Bowden, Alberta, hundreds of people braved chilly winds and the threat of spring rain to attend their first rodeo in more than a year.
For the unmasked attendees cheering on as riders clung into bucking horses, the gathering this weekend must have seemed like a long-awaited return to normality.
Continue reading...Investing in midwifery could prevent two-thirds of maternal and newborn deaths, but investment and training are urgently needed
The world is facing a shortage of 900,000 midwives, with more than half the shortfall in Africa, where nearly two-thirds of maternal deaths occur, according to a new survey.
Insufficient resources and a failure to recognise the importance of the role mean there has been little progress since the last study in 2014, according to the State of the World’s Midwifery report, which looked at 194 countries.
Continue reading...The former secretary of state warns of the danger to democracy of lies flourishing online – and says big tech’s wings must be clipped
Her bid for the White House was engulfed by a tidal wave of fabricated news and false conspiracy theories. Now Hillary Clinton is calling for a “global reckoning” with disinformation that includes reining in the power of big tech.
The former secretary of state and first lady warns that the breakdown of a shared truth, and the divisiveness that surely follows, poses a danger to democracy at a moment when China is selling the conceit that autocracy works.
Continue reading...Hospital closure comes as the Pacific country tries to contain a second wave of the virus with lockdowns
Fiji has closed its second largest hospital amid fears that a patient who died of Covid-19 may have infected multiple staff members. The 53-year-old man was only the Pacific country’s third Covid-related death since the pandemic began.
More than 400 patients, doctors, nurses and other medical staff were being quarantined at Lautoka hospital as of Wednesday, after a doctor who had treated the man also tested positive for the coronavirus.
Continue reading...WHO chief hails US move as ‘heroic’; experts say India peak may not be reached for weeks; Bolsonaro links pandemic to ‘biological warfare’ by China
India, gripped by one of the most deadly coronavirus surges seen by any country, will have to be ready for new waves and badly needs more oxygen from other countries, officials said Wednesday.
Facing critical shortages of hospital beds and oxygen, the warnings came as India reported 3,780 new pandemic deaths, a new daily high, and 382,000 new cases. Experts say the peak may not be reached for weeks.
India reports 4,12,262 new #COVID19 cases, 3,29,113 discharges and 3,980 deaths in the last 24 hours, as per Union Health Ministry
Total cases: 2,10,77,410
Total recoveries: 1,72,80,844
Death toll: 23,01,68
Active cases: 35,66,398
Total vaccination: 16,25,13,339 pic.twitter.com/W1kQnSucGe
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.
As always, you can get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
Continue reading...23 protesters and one police officer killed after general strike over unpopular tax reform met with heavy-handed response
Mass protests were held across Colombia on Wednesday after a night of unrest in the capital city, as street violence continued after more than a week of angry anti-government demonstrations.
Twenty-three protesters and one police officer have been killed in the unrest that began with with a general strike over an unpopular tax reform but has grown into an outburst of rage over poverty exacerbated by the pandemic, human rights abuses and the authorities’ heavy-handed response to protests.
Continue reading...Communist party newspaper claims Long March 5B should easily burn up in atmosphere but expert warns pieces will reach Earth
The White House has called for “responsible space behaviours” as a Chinese rocket, thought to be out of control, looks set to crash back to Earth on Saturday, US time.
The US Space Command is tracking debris from the Long March 5B, which last week launched the main module of China’s first permanent space station into orbit. The roughly 30-metre (100ft) long stage would be among the biggest space debris to fall to Earth.
Continue reading...Jury convicts Finnegan Lee Elder, 21, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 20, over knife killing committed in 2019
Two American students have been sentenced to life in prison by a Rome court for the murder of Italian police officer Mario Cerciello Rega.
After almost 13 hour of deliberation, a jury convicted Finnegan Lee Elder, 21, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 20, of murdering Cerciello Rega, who had only just returned to duty after his honeymoon when he was stabbed to death, aged 35, on a street in central Rome in July 2019.
Continue reading...I had never imagined how horribly the company my father works for was entangled with the story of my West Papuan partner
They make great trucks. That’s what my father says whenever I ask him: “What do they make? Who do they sell them to?” “Only to the good guys,” is his standard answer, and the topic changes quickly. But what he calls “trucks”, most people call “tanks”. And I am always led to wonder, “What kind of ‘good guy’ drives a tank?”
My father works for Thales, one of the richest weapons corporations in the world. Before heading up security for Thales he worked for Asio, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson dispatches two gunboats to protect island from feared blockade
Boris Johnson has dispatched two Royal Navy patrol boats to protect Jersey from a feared blockade by French fishing vessels, in an escalation of a dispute over post-Brexit access to waters around the Channel island.
The move followed talks on Wednesday evening between the prime minister and the chief minister of the British crown dependency, John Le Fondré, who had warned Downing Street of imminent movements by French fishing boats to cut off the island’s main port.
Continue reading...