An elevated section of the Mexico City metro collapsed and sent a subway car plunging toward a busy boulevard on Monday night, killing at least 20 people and injuring about 70, city officials said
Continue reading...Category Archives: World News
Mexico City metro overpass carrying train carriages collapses – video
A rescue operation was under way after a Mexico City metro overpass partially collapsed on Monday night. More than a dozen people died in the incident and about 70 were injured, civil protection authorities in Mexico said.
Videos on Mexican television and social media showed train cars hanging in mid-air as sirens blared nearby after the overpass fell on to cars on a road below. Emergency medical crews and firefighters were at the scene of the accident combing through wreckage looking for survivors
Continue reading...‘Gamechanger’: Uganda launches drone delivering HIV drugs to remote islands
Technology could ensure critical medicines reach Lake Victoria communities with country’s highest prevalence of HIV/Aids
As the bottles of medication are carefully loaded into the body of the drone, a small crowd gathers to watch on the other side of the yellow tape marking out the grassy landing strip.
With a gentle buzz the drone rises, a little uncertainly, into the sky, on its 1.5-metre wings. The precious cargo leaving Bufumira health centre III, in Uganda’s Kalangala district, is critical drugs for people living in some of the most far-flung communities in the region. Kalangala is made up of 84 islands in Lake Victoria, the world’s largest tropical lake, which Uganda shares with Tanzania and Kenya.
Continue reading...Melting ice reveals first world war relics in Italian Alps
Accelerating retreat of glaciers in Lombardy and Trentino Alto-Aldige reveals preserved history of ‘White War’
The soldiers dug the wooden barracks into a cave on the top of Mount Scorluzzo, a 3,095-metre (10,154ft) peak overlooking the Stelvio pass. For the next three-and-a-half years, the cramped, humid space was home to about 20 men from the Austro-Hungarian army as they fought against Italian troops in what became known as the White War, a battle waged across treacherous and bitterly cold Alpine terrain during the first world war.
Fought mainly in the Alps of the Lombardy region of Italy and the Dolomites in Trentino Alto-Adige, the White War was a period of history frozen in time until the 1990s, when global warming started to reveal an assortment of perfectly preserved relics – weapons, sledges, letters, diaries and, as the retreat of glaciers hastened, the bodies of soldiers.
Continue reading...Three dead and dozens injured after boat capsizes near San Diego
- Officials believe boat was being used to bring migrants into US
- Commercial boat reported vessel overturning on rocks
The US coast guard has ended its search for survivors after a boat capsized off the coast of San Diego, leaving three people dead and dozens injured.
Officials believe the boat, which had at least 30 people onboard, was being used to smuggle migrants into the US and the man who was captaining the vessel has been taken into custody.
Continue reading...Colombia braces for further unrest after police react violently to mass protests
At least 16 demonstrators and one officer dead after police fired at protesters and rammed crowds with motorcycles
Colombia is bracing for further unrest after a weekend in which largely peaceful nationwide demonstrations were met with a violent police reaction which left at least 16 demonstrators and one police officer dead and hundreds injured.
Videos shared on social media over the weekend showed police firing at protesters sometimes from close range, ramming crowds with motorcycles, and bashing demonstrators with their shields.
Continue reading...New Zealand treats animals inhumanely – but it could become a world leader in their welfare | Philip McKibbin
Our country has already set examples on issues like women’s suffrage and anti-nuclear policy. It can do the same again
Aotearoa New Zealand is a pretty good place to live – if you’re human, that is. If you happen to be a non-human animal, chances are you’re not doing very well.
Inhumane treatment of animals is widespread. It is routinely used in farming (the dairy industry is among the worst perpetrators, as forced pregnancies, separation of calves from their mothers, and slaughter are routine practices); conservation (poison and traps are commonly used to control “pests”); scientific research (430,000 animals were used or bred for experiments last year); and entertainment (such as horse racing and rodeo).
Continue reading...Joe Biden: time for corporations and richest Americans to ‘start paying their fair share’ – video
The US president, Joe Biden, has said it is time for corporations and the richest Americans to ‘start paying their fair share’ as he pitched his $4tn infrastructure and welfare plans at an event in Virginia.
Speaking at a community college in Norfolk, Biden made the case for increasing taxes on the wealthiest in the US to fund his $1.8tn American families plan and $2tn infrastructure plan. The packages would provide funds for childcare, invest in free universal pre-schooling and rebuild America’s transport and public housing.
‘I think it’s about time we started giving tax breaks and tax benefits to working class families and middle class families, instead of just the very wealthy,’ Biden said.
Continue reading...UK likely to give green light for travel to fewer than 10 EU countries
Traffic light system to be used cautiously despite European plan to let in Covid-vaccinated tourists from June
Britons’ summer holiday plans were given a major boost on Monday, as the EU confirmed vaccinated travellers will be able to fly to Europe from June, though it’s understood the UK could give the green light to travel to fewer than 10 countries.
The changing quarantine requirements for popular holiday destinations looks set to make 2021 the year of the last-minute booking.
Continue reading...Fifty new outlets, 250 journalists: Canadian startup unveils plan to revive local news
As local papers close their doors, a morning newsletter defied the odds. Now its founder aims to push the model nationwide
Local journalism has shed jobs faster than the coal industry, leaving swaths of North America as news deserts with little or no regular coverage.
But the grim prospects for an industry in decline didn’t deter the Canadian tech entrepreneur Andrew Wilkinson, who in 2019 hired a reporter and launched a daily newsletter in his home town, Victoria.
Continue reading...Air pollution spikes may impair older men’s thinking, study finds
Even short, temporary increases in airborne particles can damage brain health, research suggests
Temporary rises in air pollution may impair memory and thinking in older men, according to research that indicates even short-term spikes in airborne particles can be harmful to brain health.
Scientists found that the men’s cognitive performance fell following rises in air pollution during the month before testing, even when peak levels remained below safety thresholds for toxic air set by the World Health Organization and national regulators.
Continue reading...Covid vaccine rollout rapidly gathering pace across Europe
EU now confident that supply – the biggest problem in early months of year – should not be an obstacle to further acceleration
The restaurant and cafe terraces spilling out into the streets of the pretty Dutch medieval town of Sluis were teeming over the weekend with smiling people clinking glasses under the spring sun.
The Netherlands reopened alfresco hospitality last Wednesday and Belgians, ignoring official advice, had driven a short distance across the border in huge numbers to enjoy their neighbour’s freedom over the long Labour day weekend. “We could have filled 400 tables,” said an apologetic waiter at the Resto de Eetboetiek, as he turned away the latest family arriving without a reservation.
Continue reading...Vaccine shortages blight India’s efforts to contain Covid crisis
Indian government accused of complacency, with shortage of jabs likely to continue ‘for months’
Severe Covid-19 vaccine shortages have hampered India’s plan to administer jabs to all adults, with fewer then half of India’s states able to begin vaccinating over-18s amid warnings the shortfall could last months.
Over the weekend, more than 600 million Indians became eligible for the coronavirus vaccine in a policy that was introduced in the wake of a deadly second wave hitting the country last month.
Continue reading...‘It’s terrifying’: parents’ struggle to get help for children with long Covid
Lack of research into area means children are being sent away from A&E and parents told they are overanxious
On Christmas Day, Gail Jackson’s 16-year-old daughter said she was in so much pain she thought she would die. Liliana had been briefly admitted to hospital with Covid in September. Her symptoms never went away and, as time went on, new ones had emerged.
“For months she had a relentless, agonising headache, nausea, tinnitus, fatigue and insomnia, but the worst thing was the agonising nerve pain,” said Jackson. “I couldn’t even touch her without her screaming in pain.”
Continue reading...Hopes raised for two Americans jailed in Tehran being freed
Morad Tahbaz and Siamak Namazi moved to cells where previously prisoners were held before release
Two high profile American-Iranian dual nationals detained in Tehran have been moved to a new location inside Evin prison in a procedure that has previously led to the release of detainees, according to sources inside the jail.
The moves could add credence to Iranian media reports at the weekend that a prisoner swap involving four unidentified detainees might be, or had been, imminent.
Continue reading...Lucky review – spirited Ghanaian romcom captures the social media age
An idling student enlists the help of a wideboy friend in pursuit of a hot date in a comedy that veers between likable and laddish
Here is a vibrant, idiosyncratic portrait of Ghanaian youth, bursting with wisecracks and a boyish restlessness. There is an amateurish shakiness to the visuals, but the film overcomes this with a lot of charm and an innate understanding of its young subjects.
Related: 20 best African films – ranked!
Continue reading...German police shut one of world’s biggest darknet child abuse images sites
Boystown platform had membership of more than 400,000 international subscribers
An online platform said to be one of the largest websites for child sexual abuse images in the world has been closed down by German police after a lengthy investigation.
The Boystown platform, which had a membership of more than 400,000 international subscribers and was active for almost two years, was accessible only via the darknet, a component of the wider internet for which special software is needed. It was used for the swapping and sharing of images and films, mainly of boys, according to investigators from Germany’s federal investigative police force (BKA).
Continue reading...Everest Covid outbreak throws climbing season into doubt
Nepal authorities accused of underplaying seriousness of situation as daily cases soar
The coronavirus outbreak at Everest base camp in Nepal, controversially opened to climbers despite the pandemic, has infected “many people” amid continuing evacuations and complaints of lack of transparency over the severity of the situation.
With Nepal reporting a record number of more than 7,000 new cases in a day, its highest total since October, reports from Everest described a number of evacuations of climbers showing symptoms of Covid-19 even as doctors at base camp complained privately they were not being allowed by the country’s ministry of health to undertake PCR testing.
Continue reading...Zimdancehall dreams: the back yard studios helping Harare get heard
Infectious hits produced on a shoestring allow Zimbabwe’s aspiring musicians to express their struggles and dream big
Inside a grimy flat in Mbare, Zimbabwe’s oldest township in the capital Harare, about 10 young musicians nervously rehearse their lyrical chants as they wait to be called into the recording booth.
Many celebrated musicians in Zimbabwe have been born out of this old flat. For those here now, this is their one shot at stardom, or at least a future in music.
Continue reading...Coronavirus live news: India offers vaccination to all adults as country nears 20m cases
US to discuss Covid vaccine IP with World Trade Organization; Chinese tourists expected to make 18.3 million railway trips on labor day; all adults in India eligible for vaccines
- How Covid pass is helping Denmark open up
- New Zealand fires nine border workers who refused Covid vaccine
- Risk of pubs running dry as drinkers wrap up for outdoor pint
- UK to send 1,000 more ventilators to India to help with Covid crisis
- See all our coronavirus coverage
Thousands of UK doctors are planning to quit the NHS after the Covid pandemic because they are exhausted by their workloads and worried about their mental health, a survey has revealed.
Almost one in three may retire early while a quarter are considering taking a career break and a fifth are weighing up quitting the health service to do something else.
Related: NHS faces exodus of doctors after Covid pandemic, survey finds
Related: Covering India’s Covid crisis: ‘Hundreds of journalists have lost their lives’
Continue reading...