Category Archives: World News

Coronavirus live news: all over 40s in England to be offered jab – as it happened

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This live blog is closed. You can stay up to date with all coronavirus developments below:

We are closing this live blog now. You can stay up to date with all coronavirus developments below:

More now on the vaccine being offered to over 40s in England, via PA Media:

It comes as the latest NHS England figures revealed more than 28.5 million people in England had received their first jab by April 28, nearly two thirds of the adult population.

The data, published on Thursday, also showed that nearly 12 million people had received their second doses, making them fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who received his first coronavirus vaccination at London’s Science Museum on Thursday, said: “The UK’s vaccination programme has been a phenomenal success so far, with more than 47 million doses administered and one of the highest uptake rates in the world.

“Building on this excellent progress we are now opening up vaccinations to 40 and 41 year olds.

“I got my jab yesterday and I urge everybody in these age groups to book a jab as soon as possible to protect yourself and your loved ones from this dreadful disease.”

Mr Hancock and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab also announced on Friday that the UK will host a global summit in 2022 alongside a major scientific coalition aimed at supporting plans to accelerate vaccine development in response to any future pandemics.

The summit, which will be in partnership with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (Cepi), aims to raise investment from the international community to support the UK and Cepi’s goal of slashing vaccine development time to 100 days - about a third of the time that it took the world to develop a coronavirus jab.

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‘It’s about self-love’: the black women busting beauty myths in west Africa

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From Senegal to Nigeria, a growing wave of salons and small cosmetic companies are challenging colonial notions about how to wear and care for hair

Women kick the sand from their slippers, and ease into the cool comfort of a natural hair and skincare store in central Dakar. On the shelves are jars filled with handmade supplements of organic shea butter, coconut, castor and olive oils, sourced from across west Africa.

In floral silk hijabs and abaya dresses, the women sit on sofas near the back of the store, discussing their hair beneath a mural of poised black women and men, wearing a mixture of classic natural black hairstyles.

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Here Are the Young Men review – Anya Taylor-Joy and the bad boys

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Three Dublin lads and their super-smart classmate face an uncertain future in a tale that only hints at dark possibilities

Here is an ensemble coming-of-ager in which someone actually says the line: “That summer may have changed everything …” It’s in a style I associate with the 90s: movies such as Trainspotting or Human Traffic, with people clubbing and yearning and discovering the value of friendship together as the sun comes up. There’s certainly an impressive cast lineup for this one, but there’s also something weirdly formless and frustrating about it as well; the film gestures at some dark and disturbing possibilities in human nature without quite knowing if or how to follow through.

Matthew (Dean-Charles Chapman), Kearney (Finn Cole) and Rez (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) are three Dublin lads who leave school without much idea of what they want to do – not like their super-smart classmate Jen (Anya Taylor-Joy) who has some ambitious life plans figured out and on whom sweet, sensitive Matthew has a massive crush. But then the boys witness something horrible that shakes them up and reveals a sinister side to Kearney, who has a creepy attitude to Jen and a droog-like enthusiasm for torturing homeless people.

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Mantis shrimp larvae can pack a punch nine days after hatching

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Impact is on par with adult punch and larvae can move fast enough to capture prey, researchers observed

There’s a small, iridescent crustacean you might have heard of: its powerful punch can crack holes in aquarium glass and be deployed at the speed of a bullet. These aggressive critters – called mantis shrimp – can also be trigger happy, keen to pummel prey, predators and even their own kind if the need arises.

So how old do offspring have to be to unleash blows? Pretty young it turns out. Mantis shrimp larvae can bludgeon their dinner nine to 15 days after hatching, researchers have found.

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Belarus was given boot from Eurovision over ‘no dissent’ songs

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Decision taken despite the risk of politicising music competition, head of European Broadcasting Union says

Belarus had to be banned from this year’s Eurovision after it repeatedly submitted songs calling for “no dissent” despite the risk of the decision politicising the music competition, the head of the event’s organising body has said.

Noel Curran, director general of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the industry body that produces the annual international competition, said a stand needed to be taken with Belarus cracking down on anti-government protests, while also conceding the danger of stoking controversy over future country submissions.

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China launches first module of new space station

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The space station is expected to become fully operational in 2022 after about 10 missions to bring up more parts and assemble them in orbit

China has launched the first module of its new space station, a milestone in Beijing’s ambitious plan to place a permanent human presence in space.

The Tianhe or “Heavenly Harmony” unmanned core module, containing living quarters for three crew, was launched from Wenchang in China’s Hainan province on a Long-March 5B rocket on Thursday.

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‘Covid is just an excuse’: the scandal of Rome’s saturated cemeteries

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Funeral directors say up to 2,000 bodies await burial or cremation in warehouses at Prima Porta cemetery

Steps away from a warehouse containing row upon row of coffins at Prima Porta cemetery in Rome, anger simmered among a group of about 12 funeral workers queueing up outside the administrative office.

Some were there to deliver bodies for burial or cremation, others to collect the ashes of the deceased cremated months ago. “It’s a tragic, shameful situation,” said Maurizio, a funeral company worker. “Just look around you – we’re all waiting. They blame it on coronavirus, but that’s just an excuse. This is how it is every day.”

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Border dispute casts shadow over China’s offers of Covid help for India

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Analysis: some in China see India’s crisis as a diplomatic opportunity but tensions from last summer remain high

As coronavirus rages across India, its neighbour China has made repeated offers of help. Some are asking whether this could be an occasion to ease the tense relations between the world’s two most populous countries following last year’s border skirmishes.

China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, said this week that Beijing was “ready to provide support and assistance to the Indian people at any time according to the needs of India”. A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Delhi said it would “encourage and instruct Chinese companies to actively cooperate”.

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Parking mad: UK man completes mission to park in every spot at local supermarket

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Gareth Wild finished his ‘magnum opus’ by filling the last of 211 spots in the parking lot of Sainsbury’s in Bromley

A man has completed a six-year challenge to park in every car parking space at his local Sainsbury’s.

Gareth Wild, 39, from Bromley, south-east London, said he decided to take on the challenge after noticing his preference for certain spots.

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‘Chilling’: Vanuatu libel bill prompts fears for free speech

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Bill placing libel under criminal rather than civil law could see journalists jailed for three years for ‘misleading’ content

Journalists and social media moderators in Vanuatu could face up to three years in prison under a new bill that broadly criminalises threatening words, gestures and the “reckless” sharing of false statements.

Changes to the criminal libel and slander provisions of the South Pacific country’s Penal Code Act mean that Ni-Vanuatu could now face imprisonment for “any representation that is untrue or misleading” on public platforms including “television, radio, internet websites, social networking sites and blog sites”.

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Arundhati Roy on India’s Covid catastrophe: ‘We are witnessing a crime against humanity’

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It’s hard to convey the full depth and range of the trauma, the chaos and the indignity that people are being subjected to. Meanwhile, Modi and his allies are telling us not to complain

During a particularly polarising election campaign in the state of Uttar Pradesh in 2017, India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, waded into the fray to stir things up even further. From a public podium, he accused the state government – which was led by an opposition party – of pandering to the Muslim community by spending more on Muslim graveyards (kabristans) than on Hindu cremation grounds (shamshans). With his customary braying sneer, in which every taunt and barb rises to a high note mid-sentence before it falls away in a menacing echo, he stirred up the crowd. “If a kabristan is built in a village, a shamshan should also be constructed there,” he said.

“Shamshan! Shamshan!” the mesmerised, adoring crowd echoed back.

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Amlo calls decision to disqualify candidates ‘a blow to democracy’

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Mexico’s electoral tribunal upheld ruling barring two candidates, including one accused of rape, for failing to file expense reports

Mexico’s president has blasted a decision to disqualify two of his party’s gubernatorial candidates – including one accused of rape – describing the decision by Mexico’s electoral tribunal as “a blow to democracy”.

“Democracy is respecting the will of the people,” said Andrés Manuel López Obrador, known as Amlo, at his morning press conference on Wednesday. “In a democracy, it’s the people who decide. It’s the people who give orders.”

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Almost 30 million will need aid in Sahel this year as crisis worsens, UN warns

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Armed conflicts, the climate crisis and Covid-19 are contributing to chronic risk of food insecurity in the region, says Unocha report

A record 29 million people will need humanitarian assistance in the Sahel and the Lake Chad basin in 2021 amid a deepening crisis, a report by the UN office for humanitarian affairs (Unocha) has estimated.

Almost one in four people in the border areas of Burkina Faso, northern Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Niger and north-east Nigeria are expected to need aid in 2021, 5 million more than a year ago, and a 52% rise on 2019.

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Joe Biden to set out plans to reshape America in first address to Congress – live

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Joe Biden will also speak about gun violence during tonight’s speech, according to USAToday. On the presidential campaign trail, Biden pledged to reinstate the assault weapons ban and create a voluntary gun buyback program.

A White House official told the newspaper that Biden will talk about gun violence as an epidemic, which he has done in the past, and urge Congress to reinstate a ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines.

The president’s plea appears to echo a similar one made by Obama at the State of the Union in 2013, two months after Sandy Hook, in which he told Congress victims of gun violence — many of whom were seated in the room — “deserve a vote.” Biden presided over the Senate chamber when a gun safety package failed to pass two months later.

Despite the uphill battle, Democrats are heeding the president’s call. Last week Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., reintroduced a bill to remove protections for manufacturers and sellers from consumer negligence lawsuits and allow victims of gun violence to pursue legal recourse. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., a key Democrat leading gun control efforts, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper last week that he’s made calls to almost half the Republican caucus “asking them to keep an open mind.”

The Guardian’s voting rights reporter, Sam Levine, has an alarming story this morning on Republican efforts to make it harder to vote in Joe Biden’s first 100 days in office:

Even as attacks on voting rights have escalated in recent years, the Republican effort since January marks a new, more dangerous phase for American democracy, experts say.

Related: The Republicans’ staggering effort to attack voting rights in Biden’s first 100 days

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UK sends oxygen concentrators and ventilators to India – but no Covid vaccines

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Foreign Office says Britain ‘first out of the blocks’ with help but Labour calls it a drop in the ocean

The UK has been “the first out of the blocks” with help for India, but will not send vaccines to the Covid-ravaged country until Britain has surplus supplies, the Foreign Office minister Nigel Adams has told MPs.

He said the UK was responding to the Indian government’s needs, and had been the first country to provide practical support “in the face of heartbreaking scenes that had shocked us all”. He said he had friends of Indian heritage who were “at their wit’s end”, and vowed the UK would be at the forefront in providing aid.

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Switzerland to hold referendum on same-sex marriage

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Critics of 2020 law allowing gay couples to marry gather 61,027 signatures to force national vote

Switzerland will hold a referendum on whether to push ahead with same-sex marriage after opponents forced the government to hold a binding vote on a 2020 law allowing gay couples to marry.

The Swiss parliament passed a bill recognising same-sex marriage last December, several years after most other western European states.

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Hong Kong passes law that can stop people leaving

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Bar association and activists decry Beijing-type immigration act with ‘exit ban’ powers

Hong Kong has passed a new immigration law that includes powers to stop people entering or leaving the city, raising fears of Chinese mainland-style “exit bans” in the international business hub.

The legislation sailed through a legislature now devoid of opposition, as Beijing has quashed dissent and sought to make the semi-autonomous city more like the authoritarian mainland after huge and often violent democracy protests.

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France arrests seven Italians convicted of far-left terrorism

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Rome had long urged Paris to detain 10 people found guilty of terrorist acts from late 1960s to early 80s

Seven Italian far-left guerrilla fighters, who hid in France for decades after escaping terrorism convictions that left “an open wound” in Italy, have been arrested.

French authorities are also searching for three other Italians convicted on terrorism charges linked to bombings and assassinations between the late 1960s and early 1980s.

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