Category Archives: World News

Coronavirus live news: Germany extends partial lockdown; Irish PM speaks out against vaccine export ban

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German leaders extend restrictions until 18 April amid rising infections; Micheál Martin says EU restrictions would be ‘retrograde step’

Nigeria has suspended the airline Emirates from flying into or out of its territory last week after the carrier imposed additional Covid-19 test requirements on passengers from the country.

Reuters reports:

Emirates said last week passenger flights to and from Nigeria had been suspended until further notice in line with government directives, but did not give details.

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Canadian Michael Kovrig goes on trial in China

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Canadian official is denied court access as former diplomat faces accusations of espionage in case described by Ottawa as ‘hostage diplomacy’

The second of two Canadians detained in China for more than two years, Michael Kovrig, has gone on trial on espionage charges, days after the United States raised its concerns over the cases during tense US-China talks in Alaska.

One senior Canadian diplomat said he had been denied access to the court in Beijing on Monday, echoing the scenes on Friday, when Michael Spavor was tried in secret in a court process that lasted only a few hours.

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Miami Beach spring break chaos: more than 1,000 arrests as Covid curfew extended

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Miami Beach officials have warned that the unruly spring break crowd gathering by the thousands, fighting in the streets, destroying restaurant property and refusing to wear masks has become a serious threat to public safety, after 1,000 arrests were made.

At a last-minute meeting, city officials voted to extend a highly unusual 8pm curfew for another week along famed South Beach, with the possibility of extending it well into April if needed, and stressed this wasn’t the typical spring break crowd. They said it’s not college students, but adults looking to let loose in one of the few states fully open during the pandemic.

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Covid cases in Papua New Guinea triple in a month as doctors warn of ‘danger days’ ahead

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Cases of coronavirus reached record highs on the weekend, as more than 120 hospital staff in Port Moresby hospital test positive

Papua New Guinea has reported a record number of Covid-19 cases over the weekend as doctors warn that the hospital system is in the brink of being overwhelmed and more people could die outside emergency rooms.

The news came as a photograph of a woman who died outside the Port Moresby General Hospital went viral on social media causing outrage with fears the woman’s death was due to hospital being overwhelmed due to Covid-19.

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‘Cooperative and rather active’: joy as pandas mate in French zoo

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Huan Huan, a female on loan from China at the Beauval zoo in France, was ‘put in contact’ eight times on Saturday with partner Yuan Zi

A couple of giant pandas in captivity engaged in a rare weekend of mating, although the hoped-for result, an even rarer panda offspring, is still too early to call, a French zoo has said.

Huan Huan, a female panda on loan from China at the Beauval zoo in central France, was “put in contact” eight times on Saturday with partner Yuan Zi, the zoo said on Sunday.

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Allowing summer holidays abroad risks another lockdown, Johnson is warned

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Sage experts are worried about overseas breaks leading to rise in vaccine-resistant variants in UK

Lifting the ban on foreign holidays in the coming months could risk another lockdown next winter, Boris Johnson is being warned, amid mounting alarm about a third wave of infections sweeping continental Europe.

Scientific experts and opposition politicians are urging the government to be extremely cautious before loosening travel restrictions, with their concerns about the prevalence of new variants of the virus overseas increasingly shared by Whitehall.

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US defense secretary Austin visits Afghanistan as exit deadline looms

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  • Surprise visit and meeting with President Ashraf Ghani in Kabul
  • Trip comes ahead of 1 May deadline to bring US troops home

Lloyd Austin, the US secretary of defense, made a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Sunday, meeting President Ashraf Ghani in Kabul.

Related: Afghan peace summit includes just one female delegate

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Covid: why has the fall in UK infection rate stalled despite vaccinations?

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Hospital admissions and deaths are declining as priority groups vaccinated but number of new diagnoses has stabilised

The UK’s Covid-19 statistics remain encouraging despite continuing rows over vaccine deliveries in Europe. Admissions to hospital and daily deaths from the disease continue to decline with numbers in the latter category now down to double digits while the former have dropped to around a 10th of their total two months ago.

However, one other category – numbers of new diagnoses a day – has reached a plateau with cases, having plunged from 60,000, stabilising at around 5,000 to 6,000. So why has this figure apparently stalled while deaths and hospitalisations continue to decline?

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Gerhard Richter gives Holocaust art to Berlin

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Germany’s greatest living painter donates 100 works, including his Birkenau series, to capital’s new museum

Fans of the German painter Gerhard Richter are expected to flock to Berlin to view 100 works that he has in effect donated in a long-term loan to a new museum of modern art. The works include a series of paintings addressing the Holocaust that he has vowed never to sell.

The donation by the 89-year-old, who is one of the world’s highest-priced living artists, is destined for the Museum der Moderne, which is under construction in the German capital.

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Coronavirus live news: pressure on Boris Johnson not to extend UK curbs; Miami curfew after crowds turn violent

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Boris Johnson facing growing threat of Tory revolt over UK’s emergency Covid measures; curfew imposed in Miami

The Philippines has recorded 7,757 new cases, its second-highest single-day increase, Reuters reports.

The daily tally follows Saturday’s record infections and marks the third straight day confirmed new cases topped 7,000.

BREAKING: DOH reports 7,757 new cases, bringing the national total to 663,794, as of March 21, 2021.

Total recoveries have reached 577,754 (+ 15,288 new) while death toll is now at 12,968 (+ 39 new). pic.twitter.com/kbAemDp0lp

The number of coronavirus patients in hospital in Bulgaria has risen to 8,545, the highest level since the start of the pandemic last March, Reuters reports citing official data.

A surge in infections in the third Covid wave has prompted the Bulgarian government to close schools, nurseries, restaurants, big shops and gyms from Monday for 10 days ahead of the 4 April parliamentary election.

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Uncertainty hangs over Israel PM’s bid to break political impasse

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Hardline former allies hold key in new effort by Benjamin Netanyahu to end the country’s two-year stalemate

Israel is due to hold its fourth round of elections on Tuesday, although the result could simply extend a two-year-long political stalemate and possibly lead to a dreaded fifth vote.

Multiple failed attempts to form stable governments after largely inconclusive previous elections have left the country in a protracted crisis. Once the results come in on Wednesday morning, Israel is expected to enter days or weeks of intense political negotiations.

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Philippine troops rescue Indonesian hostages and kill top Abu Sayyaf militant

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Military says Majan Sahidjuan, a mastermind in several kidnappings by Abu Sayyaf, died after a gun battle

Philippine troops have killed a leader of the Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom group and rescued four Indonesian hostages held since last year, the military said on Sunday.

Majan Sahidjuan, alias Apo Mike, was severely wounded in a gunbattle with the marines on Saturday night in Languyan town in southern Tawi-Tawi province, and later died, said lieutenant general Corleto Vinluan Jr.

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Cherry blossom festivals nipped in the bud as Japan leaves lockdown

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Tree-viewing parties are banned as many coronavirus restrictions remain

Japan will emerge from 10 weeks of coronavirus restrictions on Sunday, just in time for the peak of the annual cherry blossom viewing season.

In normal years, the appearance of the delicate pink flowers is the cue for friends to spread out picnic blankets and lose their inhibitions in a ritual that often involves copious quantities of food and drink, and a nodding recognition of the floral spectacular. But the lifting of the state of emergency, announced earlier this month by the prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, will not be celebrated beneath the sakura.

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‘A similar challenge’: how Joe Biden echoes Kennedys on US foreign policy

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The president does not just share Irish roots with John, Robert and Ted Kennedy – he also wants to lead America in the world

It was a popular Washington sport: find the past president who best explained Donald Trump. There was a touch of Andrew Jackson’s populism, a dash of Richard Nixon’s skulduggery, a sprinkling of Ronald Reagan’s myth-making. But now all that is over, who are the closest matches to Joe Biden?

Related: Lucky review: how Biden beat Trump – and doubters like Obama and Hillary

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Hong Kong’s arts scene shudders as Beijing draws cultural red line

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Pro-Beijing politicians accuse newly built M+ Museum of breaching the sweeping national security law

After successfully muzzling Hong Kong’s democracy protests and opposition, Beijing’s loyalists have warned art institutions about their collections as they seek to impose mainland-style orthodoxy on culture and purge the city of dissent.

Newly built on Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, M+ Museum aims to rival western contemporary heavyweights like London’s Tate Modern and New York’s MoMA.

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Atlanta spa shootings: Georgia hate crimes law could see first big test

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A hate crimes law passed in Georgia amid outrage over the killing of Ahmaud Arbery could get its first major test as part of the murder case against a white man charged with shooting and killing six women of Asian descent at Atlanta-area massage businesses this week.

Related: 'It's time for people to hear us': Georgia's Asian Americans vow to stand up against hate

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Canadian Conservative party votes not to recognize climate crisis as real

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  • Delegates vote 54%-46% against policy change request
  • Leader O’Toole has sought ambitious climate change agenda

Canada’s main opposition Conservative Party members have voted down a proposal to recognize the climate crisis as real, in a blow to their new leader’s efforts to embrace environmentally friendly policies before a likely federal election this year.

Related: 'Climate facts are back': EPA brings science back to website after Trump purge

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Unmasked: man behind cult set to replace QAnon

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The creator of the rapidly growing ‘Sabmyk Network’ is said to be a Berlin art dealer with a record of media manipulation

The mysterious individual behind a new and rapidly growing online disinformation network targeting followers of QAnon, the far-right cult, can be revealed as a Berlin-based artist with a history of social media manipulation, a prominent anti-racism group claims.

Since Donald Trump left the White House, QAnon’s vast online community has been in a state of flux as it comes to terms with the reality that its conspiracy theories – such as the former US president being destined to defeat a cabal of Satan-worshipping paedophiles – amount to nothing.

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Iceland volcano: eruption under way on mountain near Reykjavik – video report

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A volcanic eruption began in south-west Iceland near the capital, Reykjavik, on Friday. More than 40,000 earthquakes have occurred on the peninsula in the past four weeks, a huge jump from the 1,000-3,000 registered each year since 2014. Unlike the eruption in 2010 of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, which halted approximately 900,000 flights and forced hundreds of Icelanders from their homes, this eruption is not expected to spew much ash or smoke into the atmosphere

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