Category Archives: World News

Japan marks 10 years since triple disaster killed 18,500 people

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Huge waves swept across swathes of the north-east coast after one of the strongest quakes ever recorded, triggering a nuclear meltdown

Japan has observed a moment’s silence to mark the 10th anniversary of an earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 18,000 people and triggered a nuclear meltdown in Fukushima.

At 2:46 pm, the moment Japan’s north-east coast was struck by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake on 11 March 2011, people attending private and public service across the affected region bowed and fell silent, some clasping their hands in prayer.

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Andrea Jenkins: the first Black openly transgender woman to hold US public office

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As the George Floyd murder trial opens in Minneapolis, the city councillor talks about coming out as trans, the prejudices she has had to overcome – and how policing must change

Andrea Jenkins lives just a few blocks away from 38th and Chicago, the crossroads in Minneapolis where George Floyd was killed on 25 May last year. She spent two decades of her life working to revitalise the community there, and kicked off her 2017 campaign for the city council’s Eighth ward in an arts centre a few yards away.

After Floyd’s death, when the crossroads became a space for collective mourning, Jenkins visited every day. But in the midst of a bitter Minneapolis winter and with the neighbourhood reeling from the long-term effects of Floyd’s death, Jenkins hasn’t been in months.

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‘Wolf in watchdog’s clothing’: India’s new digital media laws spark fears for freedoms

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Everything from online news to social media and streaming platforms are captured by the regulations, branded ‘palpably illegal’ by opponents

Not long before he was elected as India’s prime minister in 2014, Narendra Modi spoke of his dreams of a “digital India”, where “access to information knows no barriers”.

But this week, unprecedented barriers on every form of digital content, from online news to social media and films and television on streaming platforms, came into force, making India’s digital realm one of the most heavily regulated of any major democracy.

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Bronze age burial site in Spain suggests women were among rulers

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Researchers in Murcia find exquisite objects at women’s graves later used as sites for elite warrior burials

A burial site found in Spain – described by archaeologists as one of the most lavish bronze age graves discovered to date in Europe – has sparked speculation that women may have been among the rulers of a highly stratified society that flourished on the Iberian peninsula until 1550BC.

Since 2013, a team of more than a dozen researchers have been investigating the site of La Almoloya in the southern Spanish region of Murcia.

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US House passes $1.9tn Covid relief plan in major legislative victory for Biden

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Final tally was 220 to 211, with one Democrat and all Republicans voting against the measure

A deeply divided Congress passed a landmark $1.9tn coronavirus relief bill on Wednesday, delivering the first major legislative victory of Joe Biden’s presidency and a sweeping promise to raise millions of Americans out of poverty.

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‘Not suitable’: Catalan translator for Amanda Gorman poem removed

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Victor Obiols told he had wrong ‘profile’, the second case after Dutch writer resigned from same role

The Catalan translator for the poem that American writer Amanda Gorman read at US president Joe Biden’s inauguration has said he has been removed from the job because he had the wrong “profile”.

It was the second such case in Europe after Dutch writer Marieke Lucas Rijneveld resigned from the job of translating Gorman’s work following criticism that a black writer was not chosen.

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Lula excoriates Bolsonaro’s ‘moronic’ Covid response in comeback speech

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Addressing the nation, Brazil’s former president left no doubt that his political fightback had begun

Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has excoriated Jair Bolsonaro’s “moronic” and bungling response to the coronavirus pandemic, in a stirring and potentially historic address widely seen as the start of a bid to wrestle the presidency back from his far-right nemesis.

The veteran leftist, who led Latin America’s top economy through some of the brightest years in its modern history, was catapulted back onto the frontline of Brazilian politics on Monday by the surprise decision to quash the corruption convictions that scuppered his bid to reclaim the presidency in 2018. On Tuesday a supreme court judge branded the anti-corruption operation that forced Lula from that year’s election “the greatest judicial scandal” in Brazilian history.

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Vaccine row: EU has exported 34m doses – including 9m to the UK

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Internal figures leaked amid tit-for-tat with Boris Johnson over claims UK had export ban in place

A total of 34m doses of coronavirus vaccine have been exported from the EU despite shortages for people living in the bloc, including 9m sent to the UK and 1m to the US, which has a ban on sales abroad.

The internal figures were leaked as the EU was embroiled in a tit-for-tat with Boris Johnson over claims that the UK had an export ban in place.

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China leads world’s biggest increase in wind power capacity

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Developers built windfarms with a total capacity of almost 100GW in 2020, a rise of nearly 60% on previous year

China built more new windfarm capacity in 2020 than the whole world combined in the year before, leading to an annual record for windfarm installations despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

A study has revealed that China led the world’s biggest ever increase in wind power capacity as developers built almost 100GW worth of windfarms last year – enough to power almost three times the number of homes in the UK and a rise of nearly 60% on the previous year.

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Libya gets new unified government as corruption allegations swirl

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Move follows almost a decade of division, with no stable government since fall of Gaddafi in 2011

Libya’s parliament has brushed aside allegations of corruption to endorse a new, unified government in which a woman was appointed as foreign minister for the first time.

Libya has been unable to form a stable unified government since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, with divisions between the east and west of the country leading to fighting and institutionalised division.

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$1,400 stimulus checks and vaccine funds: what the Covid relief bill contains

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The bill passed by the House includes sweeping measures to try to tackle deep-rooted racial, gender and class inequalities in the US

The US House on Wednesday passed the huge $1.9tn coronavirus relief and economic stimulus package that represents Joe Biden’s first major legislative victory.

Related: Biden poised for first major legislative victory with House vote on $1.9tn Covid relief – live

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Governments failing to fulfil talk of green Covid recovery, UN warns

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Prospect of green focus for rescuing economies in danger unless swift action is taken, environment chief says

Governments around the world are failing to match their green rhetoric with action in rescuing their economies from the Covid-19 pandemic, the UN has warned, with prospects for a “green recovery” in danger unless swift action is taken.

Countries are spending an unprecedented $14.6tn (£10.5tn) on trying to prevent economic collapse, seeking to protect jobs and save businesses on the brink of ruin. However, a UN-backed analysis of 50 leading economies has found only $368bn, or about 18%, of the rescue spending so far can be regarded as green.

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Myanmar police surround protesters and raid compound in Yangon

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Demonstrators in North Okkalapa flee under fire, and junta units raid striking rail workers’ district

Police in Myanmar have surrounded and arrested at least 200 students and civilians protesting against the military coup on the outskirts of Yangon, according to witnesses who said those detained were driven away in unmarked trucks.

Video footage from North Okkalapa showed protesters fleeing under fire. At least one person appeared to be seriously wounded.

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Israel says 600 children given Covid jab had no serious side-effects

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Exclusive: hopes raised for vaccine safety, although children, some of whom have cystic fibrosis, were not part of a clinical trial

Hundreds of children between the ages of 12 and 16 who have been given the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccination in Israel experienced no serious side-effects, a senior official has told the Guardian, one of the first signs that Covid-19 inoculations could be safe for minors before clinical trial results.

Israel’s health ministry has recommended vaccinating some teenagers if they suffer from underlying conditions that make them vulnerable to coronavirus.

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Russia accidentally shuts down state websites in Twitter slowdown

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Censor says move is punishment for failure to remove ‘banned’ content relating to Navalny protests

Russia took action on Tuesday to slow down the speed of Twitter in a move that also appeared to have accidentally shut down the Kremlin’s own website, as well as other government agency sites.

The state communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, said it was retaliating for Twitter’s alleged failure to remove banned content. It threatened a total block if the US platform did not comply with its deletion demands.

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Russia’s Sputnik V Covid vaccine gaining acceptance in Europe

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Jab has already been ordered or used in some EU countries, and Italy could start producing vaccine in July

Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine appears to be gaining acceptance in the European Union, as the head of Germany’s regulatory authority publicly praised the Covid-19 jab and Italy could become the first European country to produce the vaccine from the summer.

Thomas Mertens, the head of Germany’s standing commission on vaccination, described Sputnik V in an interview on Wednesday as “a good vaccine that will presumably also be approved in the EU at some point”.

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‘Another abuse of power’ as Saudi court upholds Loujain al-Hathloul’s travel ban

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Women’s rights activist was released from prison in February but faces years of probation

A court in Saudi Arabia has denied an appeal by one of the kingdom’s most prominent political activists that would have allowed her to travel freely, her supporters said, weeks after her release from prison.

Relatives of Loujain al-Hathloul, whose 1,001-day detention drew fierce international criticism of the kingdom’s human rights record, had hoped that a five-year ban on travelling outside Saudi Arabia that the court imposed as a condition of her release on 10 February would be lifted. She also faces three years of probation, meaning she cannot return to activism or speak her mind without risking re-arrest, her family said.

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Chinese entrepreneur sells pensive Donald Trump Buddha statues

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One buyer says he bought statue of former US president on Taobao as reminder not to be ‘too Trump’

Donald Trump is not known for his calm and peaceful demeanour, but that hasn’t stopped one entrepreneurial furniture-maker in China from casting a statue of the former US president in a pose more readily associated with the Buddha.

The Trump Buddha statue, listed on the Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao, is priced at 999 Chinese yuan (£110 GBP/$150 USD) for the small version, which measures 1.6 metres tall. A larger version, listed as 4.6 metres tall, is available for 3,999 yuan (£440/$610).

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France to declassify files on Algerian war

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Opening up of defence files from more than 50 years ago may also shed light on 1968 Air France crash

Emmanuel Macron is to allow access to classified national defence documents from more than 50 years ago, covering France’s war in Algeria and other files previously deemed to contain state secrets.

The Élysée said the move, a week after the admission that French troops tortured and killed the Algerian independence activist Ali Boumendjel in 1957, sought to balance “historical truth” with legitimate “national defence issues”.

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To protect women from violence today, we must secure justice for victims in the past | FW de Klerk

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South Africa’s former president calls for the pandemic to be a turning point in strengthening the rule of law and empowering survivors

Violence and sexual assault have surged across the globe since the onset of Covid-19, in what the UN has called a “shadow pandemic”. Even before the pandemic, one in three women experienced physical or sexual assault globally, the World Health Organization reported this week.

In Africa, the impact has been particularly acute. In the first half of 2020, a rise in reported cases prompted Liberia’s President Weah to declare rape and all forms of gender-based violence a national emergency.

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