Category Archives: World News

Hong Kong pro-democracy figures given jail terms of up to 18 months

Posted on by

Media mogul Jimmy Lai and veteran activist Lee Cheuk-yan each sentenced to 12 months over protests

Ten of Hong Kong’s most senior pro-democracy activists including the media mogul Jimmy Lai have been sentenced to jail terms of up to 18 months for organising or attending “unauthorised assemblies” during mass protests that rocked the city in 2019.

In the latest blow to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, the individuals were either ordered to jail or given suspended sentences in relation to two separate rallies held on 18 and 31 August 2019.

Continue reading...

US-made guns are ripping Central America apart and driving migration north | Ioan Grillo

Posted on by

An iron river of illegal guns flows from the US to Mexico, Central America, and across the hemisphere

The stray bullet from the gang fight struck Katery Ramos when she was 12 years old, playing on the dirt street in the poor Planeta neighbourhood of San Pedro Sula, Honduras. “I was standing up for a moment, afterwards I fell,” she told me, sitting with her mother in a scrubby field near her home.

Related: Biden strikes international deal in bid to stop migrants reaching US border

Continue reading...

Spain’s Endesa power firm sued over electrocution of birds

Posted on by

Landmark case says thousands of birds including endangered eagles die needlessly each year

In Leonard Cohen’s famous song, a bird on a wire is a symbol of freedom, but for thousands of birds it is the equivalent of being sent to the electric chair.

Now, in a landmark case, a Spanish electricity company is being prosecuted over the deaths of hundreds of birds electrocuted on pylons and overhead cables and for failing to comply with regulations designed to protect wildlife.

Continue reading...

‘They capture history’: the projects saving Spain and Portugal’s shop signs

Posted on by

A collective of projects across Iberia is protecting commercial signs to create a living archive

Fire engine red, bordered by polka dots and stretching the length of three cars, the sign for the Orte clothing store had long loomed over Madrid’s Alcalá thoroughfare, its presence steady even as fast-food restaurants and chain stores began moving into the area.

When the store closed its doors and the space was poised to be rented, news swiftly reached Alberto Nanclares. Within days he was on site, working with a team to painstakingly pry the sign from the facade where it had sat for more than five decades.

Continue reading...

EU and UK hold ‘productive’ talks on Northern Ireland crisis

Posted on by

Brexit minister David Frost says momentum has been established in efforts to ease tensions

Talks between the EU and UK to ease tensions in Northern Ireland have been described as “productive” and “constructive” with momentum now established to achieve a solution to the crisis, the Brexit minister, David Frost, has said.

But the EU used the first face-to-face meeting since lockdown between Lord Frost and the European commission vice-president, Maroš Šefčovič, to warn that the outcome needed to be jointly agreed.

Continue reading...

Spreading faster, hitting harder – why young Brazilians are dying of Covid

Posted on by

Highly transmissible variant and behavioural factors blamed as intensive care units fill with younger patients

One month after Michel Castro’s premature brush with death, the coronavirus infection has receded but the nightmares persist.

In them the 31-year-old father relives the spine-chilling scenes he witnessed as his Covid-hit body battled for survival in a Rio ICU. The six-month-old baby who appeared to be suffocating right next to him. The man urinating blood after his kidneys failed. The unnerving bleep-bleep-bleep of machines warning doctors that yet another life was on the line.

Continue reading...

Adam Toledo did not have a gun in his hand, says family lawyer – video

Posted on by

Adam Toledo, a 13-year old boy shot and killed by a Chicago police officer, was not carrying a gun, his family's lawyer has said, contrary to claims made by the police department. Officials released to the public graphic body-camera footage showing an officer shooting Adam, who appeared to have his hands raised. 'Those videos speak for themselves,' said Adeena J Weiss-Ortiz, the family's lawyer. 'Adam, during his last second of life, did not have a gun in his hand'

Continue reading...

Handwashing and hot tea: Eswatini celebrates roll out of solar-heated water

Posted on by

New stations at health clinics improve hygiene in locations where warm water seen as ‘an absolute luxury’, helping to tackle Covid

In Eswatini, the southern African country which lost a prime minister to Covid-19 in December and where most people have no access to hot water, handwashing – a key weapon in the fight against the pandemic – has been a problem.

No government health clinic in the kingdom, formerly known as Swaziland, had hot running water for patients. Nine out of 10 didn’t have hot water for operations and cleaning instruments.

Continue reading...

Malawi to bin 16,000 AstraZeneca doses amid fears of rise in vaccine hesitancy

Posted on by

Authorities act to counter rumours out-of-date shots are being used as people drag their heels over being vaccinated

More than 16,000 expired AstraZeneca Covid-19 doses are to be destroyed in Malawi as concerns over vaccine hesitancy increase.

The vaccines are among 102,000 doses donated by the African Union (AU) to the Malawian government last month.

Continue reading...

An end to cigarettes? New Zealand aims to create smoke-free generation

Posted on by

Proposals include making sale of cigarettes to anyone born after 2004 illegal

New Zealand has announced a suite of proposals aimed at outlawing smoking for the next generation and moving the country closer to its goal of being smoke-free by 2025.

The plans include the gradual increase of the legal smoking age, which could extend to a ban on the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products to anyone born after 2004, making smoking effectively illegal for that generation.

Continue reading...

Beijing hit by third sandstorm in five weeks

Posted on by

Dust blown in from drought-hit areas to the north sends pollution soaring to twice the hazardous level

The third major sandstorm in five weeks turned Beijing’s skies sepia on Thursday, and sent air quality plummeting in the Chinese capital.

The storms, caused by winds from drought-hit Mongolia and north-western China, sent levels of the pollutant PM10, which can penetrate the lung, to 999 micrograms per cubic metre – a level almost double the “hazardous” stage indicated by the Beijing air pollution real time quality index.

Continue reading...

Coronavirus live news: Merkel will receive AstraZeneca vaccine; Northern Ireland lockdown easing to be unveiled

Posted on by

German chancellor will be vaccinated on Friday; NI executive to outline reopening dates; Cambodia ‘on brink of death’, says premier

Poland’s top vaccination official said he did not see any obstacle to the country’s inoculation program from the “moral” reservations expressed by the powerful Catholic Church about two vaccines.

Poland’s Episcopate bioethical team on Wednesday said the use of the AstraZeneca and the Johnson & Johnson vaccines raised “serious moral opposition.”

Continue reading...

Fauci spars with Republican congressman over when to lift Covid restrictions – live

Posted on by

House minority leader Kevin McCarthy wished Mike Pence a speedy recovery, after the former vice-president’s office said he had a pacemaker implanted yesterday.

“Wishing my friend @Mike_Pence a swift recovery. Judy and I are thinking of you as you overcome this challenge—you are in our prayers,” McCarthy said on Twitter.

Wishing my friend @Mike_Pence a swift recovery. Judy and I are thinking of you as you overcome this challenge—you are in our prayers. https://t.co/UPt1Lwa8k0

The CEO of Pfizer, Albert Bourla, has said people will “likely” need a third coronavirus vaccine dose within a year, with annual revaccinations also a possibility.

“We need to see what would be the sequence, and for how often we need to do that, that remains to be seen,” Bourla told a CNBC reporter during an event with CVS Health. The CEO’s comments were released today, but they were filmed two weeks ago.

Continue reading...

French citizens advised to leave Pakistan as protests worsen

Posted on by

Pakistani government bans religious leader as row over satirical cartoons simmers

French nationals and companies in Pakistan have been advised by their embassy to leave temporarily after violent anti-France protests brought large parts of the country to a standstill.

Anti-French sentiment has been simmering for months in Pakistan since Emmanuel Macron expressed support for a satirical magazine’s right to republish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, deemed blasphemous by many Muslims.

Continue reading...

St Vincent fears volcano eruption will drive up Covid cases

Posted on by

Officials say lack of clean water and overcrowding among evacuees are hampering prevention efforts

Officials in St Vincent say they are extremely worried about the island’s Covid-19 outbreak given a lack of clean water and more positive cases reported as thousands of evacuees fleeing the La Soufrière volcano eruption crowd into shelters and private homes.

About a dozen cases have been reported in recent days. At least five evacuees staying in two homes and a shelter tested positive, exposing at least 20 people to the virus, St Vincent’s chief medical officer, Dr Simone Keizer-Beache, said.

Continue reading...

Whitest-ever paint could help cool heating Earth, study shows

Posted on by

New paint reflects 98% of sunlight as well as radiating infrared heat into space, reducing need for air conditioning

The whitest-ever paint has been produced by academic researchers, with the aim of boosting the cooling of buildings and tackling the climate crisis.

The new paint reflects 98% of sunlight as well as radiating infrared heat through the atmosphere into space. In tests, it cooled surfaces by 4.5C below the ambient temperature, even in strong sunlight. The researchers said the paint could be on the market in one or two years.

Continue reading...

Biden hits Russia with new sanctions in response to election meddling

Posted on by

Ten diplomats expelled as part of fresh package of sanctions announced by US president as Russia says retaliation ‘inevitable’

The Biden administration has announced the expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats and broad sanctions against Russian officials and companies in retaliation for Moscow’s interference in elections and cyber-espionage campaigns such as the SolarWinds hack.

The sanctions, which were the Biden’s largest punitive action against the Kremlin yet, also targeted six Russian cybersecurity companies deemed to be involved in the SolarWinds hack, as well as 32 individuals and entities deemed to be involved in efforts to influence the outcome of the 2020 US presidential election.

Continue reading...

Canada: calls to investigate photo leak of MP captured naked on Zoom

Posted on by
  • Will Amos pictured nude in meeting while changing clothes
  • Questions raised over dissemination of photos without consent

A Canadian lawmaker’s naked webcam gaffe during a session of parliament has promoted calls for an investigation and raised questions over the ethics of sharing compromising pictures of public officials without their consent.

Related: ‘Cancel the Olympics’: fashion outcry as Canada brings back jean jackets for Tokyo

Continue reading...