Category Archives: World News

‘Just write STOP’: the teenager helping Polish women flee abuse

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Schoolgirl’s fake cosmetics site helps hundreds of women as domestic violence rises during Covid

In April 2020, weeks after Poland went into its first Covid-19 lockdown, Krysia Paszko, a 17-year-old high school pupil, watched a TV report about Europe’s surge in domestic violence cases, which had increased by up to 60% on 2019, according to the World Health Organization. Poland’s largest women’s rights centre, Centrum Praw Kobiet (CPK), had reported a 50% increase in calls to its domestic violence hotline in March.

Learning from the report that France had implemented a scheme in pharmacies that women could use to report domestic violence using the codewords “Mask 19”, Paszko had an idea. With help from a graphic designer friend, she created a Facebook page for a fictitious cosmetics company.

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Covid curfew and clock change threaten to call time on Spain’s drive-in cinemas

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Country’s oldest autocine is calling for exemption from 10pm rule so it can survive summer’s later sunsets

At 7.30 on Friday evening, Godzilla and King Kong are scheduled to converge on a large lot in eastern Spain to trade blows and bellows, rip fistfuls of fur and scales off each other and generally wreak CGI havoc for an appreciative, car-bound audience.

Their titanic sparring, however, could be short-lived. This weekend, the wading reptilian metaphor for atomic warfare and the conflicted, skyscraper-bothering ape could find themselves cowed by the setting sun, the changing of the clocks and the local coronavirus curfew.

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Nike and H&M face backlash in China over Xinjiang statements

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Chinese social media condemns statements by the companies as celebrities cancel contracts with brands

Anger with Nike has erupted on Chinese social media after the company issued a statement saying it was “concerned about reports of forced labour” in China’s Xinjiang province, and that it would not source textiles from the region.

The backlash over the Nike statement was among the highest trending topics on China’s Twitter-like social media Weibo on Thursday.

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Suez canal drama – and a tiny bulldozer – inspire wave of memes

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Big ship getting stuck in a too-narrow waterway has spawned invocations of poetry, the pandemic and Austin Powers

It is the David and Goliath story of our times: one of biggest container ships in the world got stuck in the Suez canal, blocking a route through which 12% of the world’s trade passes – and sent to rescue it was a very small bulldozer.

2 guys and a bulldozer on site to dislodge a ship stuck in the Suez Canal. pic.twitter.com/APAIU7sCv6

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Singapore blogger ordered to pay nearly US$100,000 damages to PM for Facebook post

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Blogger argued he had ‘merely shared’ an article without changing content or adding comments

The Singapore high court has ordered a blogger to pay S$133,000 (US$98,825) in damages in a defamation case to the prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong.

Lee sued Leong Sze Hian, a financial adviser, after he shared on Facebook an online news article .

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‘Unless you’re wealthy, don’t come back’: dismay over new rules for returning to NZ

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Charge of $3,100 will have to be paid if a returnee leaves again within six months, instead of the previous three months

New Zealanders overseas have reacted with despair to news that the government has doubled the time returning citizens are required to stay to avoid paying a $3,100 quarantine fee.

The changes, announced on Wednesday, mean people coming home from overseas will need to stay six months, rather than the previous three, to be exempt from the fee – a move the government has said will help make the managed isolation system “more financially sustainable”.

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AstraZeneca plant investigated by Italian police at EU’s request

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Investigation is fresh sign of breakdown in relations between Brussels and Anglo-Swedish vaccine supplier

An AstraZeneca plant has come under investigation by the Italian police at the request of Brussels in a sign of the breakdown in relations between the Anglo-Swedish vaccine supplier and the EU.

Officers were sent into the facility in the town Anagni, east of Rome, on Saturday evening after the European commission contacted the Italian government with concerns.

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Coronavirus live news: India pauses AstraZeneca vaccine exports; Belgium, Iceland and France tighten restrictions

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No exports were made on Thursday; Belgium imposes fresh lockdown; Iceland imposes three-week shutdown; France locks down more areas

AstraZeneca has dismissed as “inaccurate” a report in the Italian press that 29m doses of its Covid-19 vaccine found in factory near Rome were destined for the UK.

La Stampa reported on Wednesday that the doses – almost twice the amount the EU has so far received from AstraZeneca – were found “hidden” in the factory following a search by Italian police on Saturday at the request of the European commission, and that they were probably destined for the UK.

Related: AstraZeneca dismisses claim 29m vaccine doses in Italy were bound for UK

Luxembourg has announced a partial reopening of its hospitality industry, with cafés and restaurants able to serve customers again in outdoor areas from 7 April.

The European country’s venues have been closed since the end of November.

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Elderly Asian woman who fought attacker donates nearly $1m from GoFundMe

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Fundraiser was created to cover Xiao Zhen Xie’s medical expenses after she was punched in San Francisco

An elderly Asian woman who received nearly $1m on GoFundMe after she fought back against someone randomly attacking her is planning to donate all of the money to her community to fight racism, her family has announced.

The violent incident against Xiao Zhen Xie was one of many recent attacks against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in America. Stop AAPI Hate tracked nearly 3,800 discriminatory incidents that occured against this community from 19 March 2020 to 28 February 2021.

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Alexei Navalny says health has sharply deteriorated in jail

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Russian opposition leader’s aide says Navalny also blocked from meeting lawyers

Alexei Navalny has complained of a “sharp deterioration” in his health in prison and has been blocked from meeting lawyers, a senior aide to the Russian opposition leader has said.

Navalny has reported “serious back pain” and numbness in one of his legs that has left him unable to stand on it, Leonid Volkov said on Wednesday.

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Germany eases citizenship rules for descendants of Nazi victims

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Measure helps close legal loopholes that led to many victims’ descendants having applications rejected

The German government has agreed a draft law to naturalise some descendants of Nazi victims who were previously denied citizenship.

Described by Berlin as a symbolic step, the measure helps close legal loopholes that had led to many victims’ descendants having their citizenship application rejected.

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Delhi reportedly halts AstraZeneca Covid vaccine exports as cases soar

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Temporary hold put on exports of vaccines by Serum Institute of India to meet demand at home

Delhi has reportedly put a temporary hold on all major exports of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine made by the Serum Institute of India (SII) to meet demand at home as infections surge.

The move, first reported by Reuters, will affect supplies to the Gavi/WHO-backed Covax vaccine-sharing facility through which more than 180 countries are expected to get doses, one of the sources said.

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Israel election: near-complete results suggest extended deadlock

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With close to 90% of votes counted, Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party leads but will struggle to form government

Near-complete results from Israel’s fourth snap election suggested yet another stalemate, with Benjamin Netanyahu scrambling to cobble together a coalition by partnering with extreme nationalist, hardline religious and far-right parties.

With close to 90% of votes counted by Wednesday evening, the prime minister’s Likud party was clearly leading with about 30 seats. The opposition head, Yair Lapid, had roughly 18.

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The beluga whale who became famous: Aleksander Nordahl’s best photograph

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‘He was called Hvaldimir and he would play in front of crowds at Hammerfest harbour in Norway. One woman dropped her phone and he fetched it for her’

In April 2019, a beluga whale appeared alongside fishing boats off the coast of Norway. He was wearing a harness. A fisherman called Joar Hesten freed him, and saw the harness had stamped on it “equipment of St Petersburg”. The media went crazy, with talk of a “spy whale”, and the creature was named Hvaldimir, a combination of hval, the Norwegian word for whale, and Vladimir, a nod to Russia’s President Putin.

The whale became famous. There were Instagram videos of him playing in Hammerfest harbour in front of crowds. One woman dropped her phone in the water and the whale fetched it for her. He would bring up bones from the depths to show people, almost like little gifts. It became this huge moment on social media: everyone in the country fell in love with the whale. Even the hardcore fishing villages melted for Hvaldimir.

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How a container ship blocked the Suez canal – visual guide

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The Ever Given, a 220,000-ton, ‘megaship’, became lodged in sand on eastern bank of canal on Tuesday

A container ship nearly 100 metres longer than the height of London’s Shard ran aground on Tuesday morning in the Suez canal, blocking one of the most vital arteries of the global economy.

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One of Earth’s giant carbon sinks may have been overestimated – study

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The potential of soils to slow climate change by soaking up carbon may be less than previously thought

The storage potential of one of the Earth’s biggest carbon sinks – soils – may have been overestimated, research shows. This could mean ecosystems on land soaking up less of humanity’s emissions than expected, and more rapid global heating.

Soils and the plants that grow in them absorb about a third of the carbon emissions that drive the climate crisis, partly limiting the impact of fossil-fuel burning. Rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere can increase plant growth and, until now, it was assumed carbon storage in soils would increase too.

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A small Islamist party could decide Benjamin Netanyahu’s fate

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Analysis: Israel’s election is pushing the PM towards a historic and incongruous political move

He built a hugely successful career scaremongering among Israelis about politicians from the country’s Arab minority presenting a threat from the inside. Now, Benjamin Netanyahu’s rhetoric might have come back to haunt him: election results suggest the leader’s fate may have fallen into the hands of a small party of Islamists.

With most votes tallied, the latest national election – Israel’s fourth within the span of two years – looks on course for further deadlock. Neither Netanyahu nor the opposition leader, Yair Lapid, have a clear majority to form a coalition government.

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UK singled out for failing to export Covid vaccines to EU

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European commission revising export authorisation mechanism ‘to ensure vaccination of EU’

Britain has been singled out for failing to export Covid vaccines to the EU as Brussels empowered officials to prohibit shipments of doses to countries with a better vaccination coverage than within the bloc.

Valdis Dombrovskis, a European commission vice-president, said the commission was revising its export authorisation mechanism in order to “ensure vaccination of our own population”.

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UN resolution hailed as ‘crucial turning point’ for victims of Sri Lanka civil war

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UK-led action ramps up scrutiny of the regime against a backdrop of worsening human rights abuses

Civil rights groups have welcomed a UK-led UN resolution on Sri Lanka as a “crucial turning point for justice” for victims of the country’s nearly 30-year-long conflict.

The resolution, which ramps up international monitoring and scrutiny of the country, was passed on Tuesday by the human rights council after the UN high commissioner for human rights warned Sri Lanka could rapidly descend into violence unless decisive international action was taken. Michelle Bachelet expressed alarm over “worrying trends” in the country since President Gotabaya Rajapaksa took office in 2019 and last month told the human rights council the country had “closed the door” on ending impunity for past abuses.

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Giant ship blocking Suez canal partially refloated

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Tugboats work to free 400-metre ‘megaship’ Ever Given as vessels gather at either end of key waterway

One of the largest container ships in the world has been partially refloated after it ran aground in the Suez canal, causing a huge jam of vessels at either end of the vital international trade artery.

The 220,000-ton, 400-metre-long Ever Given – a so-called megaship operated by the Taiwan-based firm Evergreen – became stuck near the southern end of the canal on Tuesday. The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said it had lost the ability to steer amid high winds and a dust storm.

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