Analysis: blockage of route through Egypt provides a reminder of its importance to global trade
The impressive span of Al Salam Bridge at El Qantara in Egypt gives a unique view over the Suez canal.
On a normal day a procession of bulk carriers in convoys can be seen for miles creeping into the hazy distance on both sides.
Continue reading...Taipei’s success shows lives might have been saved had the UK government acted differently
Along central Taipei’s busy Yongkang Street crowds spill out of restaurants and bars every evening, mingling with people queueing outside popular eateries for a tiny table to cram around with groups of friends. Children out way past their bedtime run amok over the play equipment in a nearby park, shrieking and laughing as their parents chat nearby.
In London, it would be unthinkable. In the Taiwanese capital, it is just another spring evening.
Continue reading...Decades of migration to the US left generations of children behind for whom gangs are substitute families
Photographs and text by Ignacio Marin
Since she arrived in Guatemala City a few decades ago, she has lived in the same humble home. Between bare concrete walls and under a tin roof, she raised three children. Now Berenice is raising her 15-year-old grandson since his mother left for the US and his father was murdered.
Continue reading...Starvation, al-Shabaab and postponed elections have made the country a ready gun. If the trigger is pulled, global trade is at risk
Frantz Fanon once quipped: “Africa is shaped like a revolver, and Congo is the trigger.”
More than 60 years later, I think the French philosopher’s assessment is only half true. It leaves out Somalia – which once held the crown as the “Switzerland of Africa”, but is now again on the verge of political disintegration.
Continue reading...The pandemic, climate crisis and conflict combining to drive ‘alarming’ levels of global hunger, says report
Acute hunger is likely to soar in more than 20 countries in the next few months, the UN has warned.
Families in pockets of Yemen and South Sudan are already in the grip of starvation, according to a report on hunger hotspots published by the agency’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP).
Continue reading...Refugees caught up in the deadly blaze describe panic and despair after fire tore through the Balukhali area on Monday
Marium Khatun, 40, was feeding her 10-month-old son at home when she first saw the fire and smoke nearby. Realising a huge blaze was ripping through the Cox’s Bazar refugee camp just metres from her two-room shack, she panicked.
“I suddenly noticed people were running, scattered on the road in front of my house. I came to the door and saw this huge fire around 30 metres (100ft) away from my house. I couldn’t think straight.
Continue reading...A container ship heading to Rotterdam has run aground in the Suez canal, blocking other vessels from passing through one of the world’s most important waterways. Video posted to social media showed a traffic jam of ships. The 200,000-tonne ship, the Ever Given, is 400 metres long (1,312ft) and 59 metres wide (193ft)
Continue reading...Girl was shot in her home and is youngest victim so far in crackdown against opposition to military coup
A seven-year-old girl was killed in her home when security forces opened fire in Myanmar’s second city Mandalay, becoming the youngest victim so far in a crackdown against opposition to last month’s military coup.
The ruling junta accused pro-democracy protesters of arson and violence during the weeks of unrest, and said it would use the least force possible to quell the daily demonstrations.
Continue reading...Two tankers flying the flag of the remote Pacific archipelago are alleged to have been involved in subterfuge shipping of Iranian oil
Two tankers flying the flag of the Cook Islands have been scrubbed from the islands’ shipping registry after allegations the vessels were sanctions-busting, transporting Iranian crude oil while concealing their movements.
US sanctions on Iran’s oil and gas sector have, somewhat improbably, caught up the tiny Cooks archipelago on the other side of the world.
Continue reading...Russian president declines to have first dose in public after delaying jab for months
Vladimir Putin has received his first dose of a Russian-made coronavirus vaccine in private, his spokesman has confirmed, in an apparent effort to boost Russia’s fledgling vaccination drive after months of delaying his jab.
The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told news agencies late on Tuesday that the 68-year-old president had been vaccinated but did not specify which one of the three Russian-made vaccines was administered.
Continue reading...George and Alfred Degiorgio offer Maltese prosecutors details on other men they say were involved in killing
Two brothers accused of direct involvement in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia have asked for a presidential pardon in exchange for supplying state prosecutors with information on other men involved in the killing, including a former minister and a “middleman”.
George and Alfred Degiorgio, both arrested and accused of planting and triggering the car bomb that killed the investigative journalist in 2017, have sent two separate letters with formal requests to Malta’s president, George Vella.
Continue reading...Bloc expected to assess countries’ Covid vaccination coverage and record in facilitating exports to EU
The EU is expected to take into account the level of vaccination coverage in a country and its record in facilitating exports to the bloc when deciding on whether to prohibit individual vaccine shipments to the UK and elsewhere.
The revision of the export authorisation scheme, widening the criteria that will guide Brussels’ decisions on export requests, is due to be announced on Wednesday. EU leaders will then on Thursday discuss going further in controlling vaccine distribution when they meet by videoconference.
Continue reading...At least 15 people killed as blaze spread across Bangladesh camp of about 124,000 refugees from Myanmar
Hundreds of people are missing with at least 15 confirmed dead, including three children, after a fire tore through a camp for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
The toll was exacerbated by barbed wire fencing that caged refuges into areas of the sprawling Balukhali camp that were going up in flames, aid workers said.
Continue reading...The Chinese threat to invade Taiwan is serious and more imminent than many understand, the US admiral chosen to lead the Pentagon’s Indo-Pacific region has warned.
China considers recovering control over Taiwan its “No 1 priority”, Adm John Aquilino, nominated to become commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, told the Senate armed services committee on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Boulder police released the names of the 10 people shot and killed at a Colorado grocery store on Monday and said the victims were between 20 and 65.
Related: US gun-safety groups call for urgent action after Colorado shooting
Continue reading...From going braless and wearing black – to therapists in ‘sympathetic necklines’ and politicians in fleeces, readers reflect on a year of getting dressed in the pandemic
It is a white linen suit that Perry Seymour misses the most. “It serves so many purposes, but always reminds me of summer nights,” he says.
Slim-fitting and miraculously stain-free, it is what he wore in the garden to celebrate his 55th birthday last July. Not that anyone saw it. “I never thought I dressed for anyone else, but I’ve found, without occasions or parties, I have no motivation to get dressed at all. These days, I don’t wear trousers unless I leave the house.”
Continue reading...Lawyers for Sidney Powell argued conspiracies she laid out constituted legally protected first amendment speech
A key member of the legal team that sought to steal the 2020 election for Donald Trump is defending herself against a billion-dollar defamation lawsuit by arguing that “no reasonable person” could have mistaken her wild claims about election fraud last November as statements of fact.
Related: Senate filibuster reform would produce 'nuclear winter', says Mitch McConnell
Continue reading...Alarming rates of violence have inspired a poster campaign that has spread beyond France to more than 15 countries
On a weekday evening, in between coronavirus lockdowns and curfews, Camille, Natacha and Cindy are out with a bright yellow plastic bucket of glue, two large brushes and a wad of A4 paper, each sheet covered with a single letter.
The women, all in their 20s, stop on the main road of this Paris suburb by the wall of what looks like a former bank.
Continue reading...Duke of Sussex’s first formal role since ending royal duties involves ‘meaty role’ as chief impact officer at BetterUp
Prince Harry has been given a job by a $1bn (£730m) Silicon Valley startup which provides professional coaching, mental health advice and “immersive learning” as its chief impact officer.
The Duke of Sussex said he hoped to be able to use his own experiences using the “the power of transforming pain into purpose” to help BetterUp’s clients with “proactive coaching” for personal development, as well as achieve “an all-round better life”.
Continue reading...Senior official twice threatened to have Agnès Callamard ‘taken care of’ in meeting with UN colleagues in Geneva in January 2020
A senior Saudi official issued what was perceived to be a death threat against the independent United Nations investigator, Agnès Callamard, after her investigation into the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
In an interview with the Guardian, the outgoing special rapporteur for extrajudicial killings said that a UN colleague alerted her in January 2020 that a senior Saudi official had twice threatened in a meeting with other senior UN officials in Geneva that month to have Callamard “taken care of” if she was not reined in by the UN.
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