Category Archives: World News

Third of French wine lost after rare cold snaps devastate vines

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Unseasonal frost is ‘agricultural disaster of 21st century’ as ice after warm weather decimates grape harvests

At least a third of French wine production worth almost €2bn (£1.7bn) in sales will be lost this year after rare freezing temperatures devastated many vines and fruit crops across France, raising concerns over the climate crisis.

“This is probably the greatest agricultural catastrophe of the beginning of the 21st century,” the French agriculture minister, Julien Denormandie, said this week as the government declared an “agricultural disaster” and began preparing emergency financial measures.

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Rapid Covid testing in England may be scaled back over false positives

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Exclusive: In leaked emails, Matt Hancock’s adviser says there is ‘urgent need for decisions’ on asymptomatic testing

Senior government officials have raised “urgent” concerns about the mass expansion of rapid coronavirus testing, estimating that as few as 2% to 10% of positive results may be accurate in places with low Covid rates, such as London.

Boris Johnson last week urged everyone in England to take two rapid-turnaround tests a week in the biggest expansion of the multibillion-pound testing programme to date.

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US has ‘low to moderate confidence’ in reports of Russian bounty on US troops

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  • US intelligence evaluates claims of Afghanistan bounties
  • Press reports sparked outrage and calls to confront Kremlin

US intelligence agencies have only “low to moderate confidence” in reports last year that Russian spies were offering Taliban militants in Afghanistan bounties for killing US soldiers.

The reports in the press citing intelligence sources sparked outrage and demands from Democrats for the Trump administration to confront the Kremlin over the issue.

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DRC aid agencies appeal to UK Foreign Office to suspend ‘disastrous’ cuts

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Fears of 60% reduction in budget for country where 27.3m said to be experiencing acute food insecurity

A consortium of 19 aid agencies operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo has issued a last-minute appeal to the UK Foreign Office to suspend planned aid cuts to the country, where a third of the population faces acute food insecurity.

The Foreign Office, the second largest provider of aid to the war-torn country, has told aid agencies that cuts are very likely. Although the size of them is not yet agreed, one report has suggested a 60% reduction in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office budget for the country. The FCDO’s aid programme for Congo was worth £180m in 2019.

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Brazil’s Covid-19 response is worst in the world, says Médecins Sans Frontières

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The medical NGO says government negligence is costing lives as death toll exceeds 362,000, second only to US

The Brazilian government’s negligent response to Covid-19 has plunged the South American country into a snowballing “humanitarian catastrophe” that is likely to intensify in the coming weeks, the medical NGO Médecins Sans Frontières has warned.

“I have to be very clear in this: the Brazilian authorities’ negligence is costing lives,” the group’s international president, Christos Christou, told reporters on Thursday after Brazil’s official death toll rose to more than 362,000, second only to the US.

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Human cells grown in monkey embryos reignite ethics debate

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Scientists confirm they have produced ‘chimera’ embryos from long-tailed macaques and humans

Monkey embryos containing human cells have been produced in a laboratory, a study has confirmed, spurring fresh debate into the ethics of such experiments.

The embryos are known as chimeras, organisms whose cells come from two or more “individuals”, and in this case, different species: a long-tailed macaque and a human.

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Saudi crown prince asked Boris Johnson to intervene in Newcastle United bid

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Mohammed bin Salman warned of damage to Saudi-UK relations if Premier League refusal not ‘corrected’

The Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, warned Boris Johnson in a text message that UK-Saudi Arabian relations would be damaged if the British government failed to intervene to “correct” the Premier League’s “wrong” decision not to allow a £300m takeover of Newcastle United last year.

Johnson asked Edward Lister, his special envoy for the Gulf, to take up the issue, and Lord Lister reportedly told the prime minister: “I’m on the case. I will investigate.”

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‘Short, fat, ugly’: Gucci family lashes out at cast appearance in new film

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Ridley Scott biopic tells story of Patrizia Reggiani’s doomed marriage to Maurizio Gucci

The Gucci family has hit out against the “horrible, horrible” and “ugly” casting of the House of Gucci film, starring Lady Gaga and Adam Driver.

The film, which is now in production and directed by Sir Ridley Scott, tells the story of Patrizia Reggiani and her doomed marriage to Maurizio Gucci. Reggiani was convicted of his assassination in 1998 after hiring a hitman to kill him.

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‘If we don’t give, people don’t eat’: Yemen focus of UK Ramadan giving

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As Britain cuts aid to war-torn country on brink of famine Muslim charities are directing donations towards feeding population

The Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, which started this week, is the biggest period of giving for UK Muslims.

According to research by the Muslim Charities Forum, in 2018 the UK’s estimated 3.5 million Muslims donated more than £120m to global charitable causes during Ramadan, at a rate of £46 every second.

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Scientists sound warning note over malaria drug resistance in Africa

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Rwanda study raises fears erosion of efficacy may have begun, with children at greatest risk

Resistance to malaria drugs in Africa may be starting to take hold, according to a study that maps changes similar to those seen a decade ago when drug resistance spread in south-east Asia.

In Cambodia and neighbouring countries, the artemisinin drug compounds widely used against malaria are no longer always effective. The falciparum malaria parasites have developed genetic mutations that allow them to evade the drugs. There has been great concern that drug resistance could spread to Africa, which has the highest burden of cases of this type of malaria – and the highest toll of child deaths from it.

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The Mexican women who kicked out the cartels – video

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Adelaida Sánchez is a member of the community police force in Cherán, a Purépecha indigenous town in Michoacán, Mexico, which declared itself autonomous in 2011. When the town was under siege from illegal logging, cartel criminals, and corrupt authorities and the men of the town stood by and did nothing, it was left to women to lead the fightback. On the tenth anniversary of the uprising, Adelaida patrols the town and its forests, providing an oasis amidst the murder, kidnap and extortion across the state

  • Photograph credit:  Andrea Murcia 
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UN outlines plan to close camps housing 430,000 refugees in Kenya

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Proposals follow Kenyan government’s ultimatum to UN refugee agency to close Dadaab and Kakuma camps

The UN refugee agency has given the Kenyan government “sustainable and rights-based” proposals for the closure of Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps.

The response follows a 14-day ultimatum issued by the Kenyan government for the UN high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) to come up with a plan for closing the two camps, which are home to some 430,000 refugees and asylum seekers from more than 15 countries.

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‘I blamed myself’: how stigma stops Arab women reporting online abuse

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Women in the Middle East and north Africa say social codes leave them unable to talk about social media abuse as pandemic pushes sexual harassment off the streets

The first pornographic picture sent shivers of shock through Amal as she stared in horror at the phone screen. Until now, she had responded politely to the older man who had been messaging her on Facebook, hoping to deter his questions about her life with curt, one-word replies.

More lurid pictures followed, some from pornographic magazines, others of the man himself in sexual poses. “I started to blame myself and feel that I invited this because I had replied to him,” says the 21-year-old, who is a university student in Amman, Jordan.

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Medics’ anger as Delhi orders most beds in private hospitals be reserved for Covid cases

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Doctors say ‘absurd’ move, made as second wave surges, is unfair on non-Covid patients

Doctors have expressed fears for patients after the government ordered that the majority of the beds in 14 of Delhi’s biggest private hospitals be reserved exclusively for Covid patients, as the Indian capital’s healthcare system struggles to cope with a virulent second wave.

The announcement by the government came as the situation in Delhi grew increasingly dire, with over 17,000 new cases reported on Wednesday, breaking all records since the pandemic began, and 104 deaths. The capital has overtaken Mumbai, previously Covid ground zero in India, in terms of the number of new cases reported every day.

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Myanmar’s lost generation: young people sacrifice futures for freedom

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Dreams of careers and family life have been replaced with death and injury in the wake of the 1 February coup

For Myanmar’s young people, 2021 was supposed to be a year for optimism. After seeing through the Covid-19 pandemic, the rollout of the vaccine had begun and general elections in November had marked a step towards the country realising its potential.

But in the wake of the 1 February coup, their dreams have turned into nightmares, as many of Myanmar’s young people have found themselves forced to sacrifice their futures to take a stand against the military.

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Officer who fatally shot Daunte Wright charged with manslaughter

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Former police officer Kimberly Potter was charged with second-degree manslaughter on Wednesday after fatally shooting the 20-year-old Black motorist Daunte Wright, officials said.

The white former suburban Minneapolis police officer was arrested earlier in the day in relation to the shooting dead of Wright during a traffic stop on Sunday in Brooklyn Center, a suburb of Minneapolis.

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China ‘must shut 600 coal-fired plants’ to hit climate target

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Move towards renewables to hit net zero by 2060 would also pay off with saving of $1.6tn, analysis finds

China must shut down nearly 600 of its coal-fired power plants in the next 10 years, replacing them with renewable electricity generation, to meet its goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2060, a report has said.

But replacing the 364GW of coal generation with renewable power would achieve a net saving of $1.6tn (£1.2tn) over the period, since wind and solar power are now much cheaper than coal, according to the analysis company TransitionZero.

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Mexico’s high Covid death toll blamed on populist government

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New report points finger at nation’s penny-pinching policies and failure to act on scientific advice

Mexico’s unwillingness to spend money, do more testing, change course or react to new scientific evidence contributed to the country being one of the worst-hit by the coronavirus pandemic, a report has concluded.

Mexico would have had a significantly lower death toll if it had reacted as satisfactorily as the average government, according to the Institute for Global Health Sciences, at the University of California, San Francisco, which also released a report sharply critical of the US response to Covid-19.

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UN warns of humanitarian crisis as St Vincent eruptions displace thousands

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  • About 20% of Caribbean island’s population have evacuated
  • Volcanic activity expected to continue for days or weeks

Volcanic eruptions on St Vincent have displaced about 20% of the Caribbean island’s population, as a UN official warned of a growing humanitarian crisis.

Between 16,000 to 20,000 people were evacuated under government orders before La Soufrière volcano first erupted on Friday, covering the lush green island with ash that continues to blanket communities in St Vincent as well as Barbados and other nearby islands.

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