Category Archives: World News

Cuomo stays quiet amid calls to resign over sexual harassment claims

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  • New York governor has avoided public appearances this week
  • State attorney general to investigate allegations against Cuomo

New York governor Andrew Cuomo has avoided public appearances for days as some members of his own party call for him to resign over sexual harassment allegations.

The governor hasn’t taken questions from reporters since a 19 February briefing, an unusually long gap for a Democrat whose daily, televised updates on the coronavirus pandemic were must-see TV last spring.

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FBI chief calls Capitol attack ‘domestic terrorism’ and defends US intelligence

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Christopher Wray says ‘that attack, that siege, was criminal behavior, plain and simple … and has no place is our democracy’

The FBI director, Chris Wray, has condemned the 6 January riot at the US Capitol as an instance of “domestic terrorism”, while defending the bureau’s handling of intelligence indicating that violence was likely.

Related: Seditionaries: FBI net closes on Maga mob that stormed the Capitol

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Bunny Wailer, last surviving founder member of the Wailers, dies aged 73

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Reggae artist and three-time Grammy winner found worldwide fame alongside Bob Marley in the early 1970s

Bunny Wailer, the co-founder and last living member of Jamaican reggae group the Wailers, who took Bob Marley to global stardom, has died aged 73.

His manager Maxine Stowe confirmed his death to the Jamaica Observer. Wailer had been frequently hospitalised since suffering a stroke in July 2020.

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Anti-coup protesters in Myanmar critically injured by live rounds

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Rally in Kale turns violent and stun grenades deployed in Yangon

Three people have been critically injured after security forces fired live rounds at anti-coup protesters in north-western Myanmar, medics said, as a regional meeting of south-east Asian countries failed to find a breakthrough to the political crisis.

Police also fired stun grenades and rubber bullets on Tuesday to disperse protesters in the city of Yangon, according to witnesses, as demonstrations continued over the military’s removal of Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government a month ago.

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CDC chief warns of ‘potential fourth surge’ of coronavirus in US – video

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The director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Rochelle Walensky, warned that a recent increase in coronavirus cases indicated a fourth surge could occur before a majority of the US had been vaccinated.

According to Johns Hopkins University, the US has recorded more than 28.5m Covid-19 cases and nearly 513,000 deaths. Daily case numbers fell steeply after a peak in January but have started to increase again, boosted by the spread of new variants 

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Family of trailblazing female Spanish mayor hail DNA match to remains

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Discovery after cemetery exhumation throws spotlight on legacy of María Domínguez Remón

More than eight decades after she was murdered, the remains of Spain’s first female mayor of the second republic have been identified, wrapping up a months-long investigation that has helped to cast a spotlight on María Domínguez Remón’s trailblazing legacy.

An exhumation, carried out earlier this year in the small town of Fuendejalón, Aragón, ignited hopes that the remains of Domínguez had been found. A handful of clues hinted that the remains were those of the feminist and rights activist; the location dovetailed with reports of where she was believed to be, the skull bore a hole where it had been punctured by a bullet and lying with the remains was a small brown comb like that worn by Domínguez.

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Brazil variant evaded up to 61% of immunity in previous Covid cases

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Scientists call for more genetic sequencing of emerging variants like P1 to bring pandemic under control

The coronavirus variant originally found in Manaus in Brazil and detected in six cases in the UK was able to infect 25% to 61% of the people in the Amazonian city who might have expected to be immune after a first bout of Covid, researchers say.

The extent to which P1 can evade the immune system, and potentially vaccines, emerged as the UK health secretary said the hunt for one person who tested positive for P1 – but did not leave contact details – had narrowed to 379 households in the south-east of England.

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Three female media workers shot dead in Afghanistan

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Broadcaster Enikass TV confirms deaths of three workers in two separate attacks in Jalalabad

Three women who worked for an Afghan television station have been shot dead in the eastern city of Jalalabad, the latest in a string of targeted assassinations that are increasingly overshadowing US-brokered attempts to negotiate an end to the country’s civil war.

Zalmai Latifi, the director at Enikass TV, said the women worked in the station’s dubbing department and were killed in two separate attacks. “They are all dead. They were going home from the office on foot when they were shot,” he told Agence France-Presse.

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Covid: Germany and France under pressure to shift Oxford vaccine

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Both countries urged to take action to avoid pile-up of unused AstraZeneca vaccine doses

Authorities in Germany and France are under pressure to come up with creative solutions to shift the AstraZeneca vaccine at higher speed in order to avoid a pile-up of unused doses over the coming weeks.

On Monday, France’s medical regulator reversed its advice not to use the AstraZeneca jab on over-65s, and Germany’s vaccination committee is coming under increasing pressure to follow suit or even scrap prioritisation altogether.

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We’ve cut aid to Yemen and children will starve – is this what global Britain means?

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Monday’s announcement confirmed my worst fears – not even those in the most desperate crises are safe from aid cuts

Three weeks ago, foreign office minister James Cleverly told me that in the face of drastic cuts to the UK’s aid budget, Yemen would remain a UK priority country and the government would use the full force of its diplomatic efforts to bring about peace.

On Monday, those words rang hollow when he announced the UK was slashing humanitarian aid to Yemen by more than 50% compared with last year. As a consequence, an already devastated country now faces the worst famine in decades and the prospect of lasting peace seems further away than ever.

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Myanmar: police fire stun grenades at protesters in Yangon – video

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Clashes between police and protesters in Myanmar are continuing despite a crackdown by the authorities. Officers were filmed using stun grenades and water cannon on demonstrators in Yangon and Kale. Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are expected to hold a conference call with a Myanmar military official to ask them to resolve the demonstrations peacefully. The military overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government on 1 February. Since then, 21 people have been killed and more than 1,100 arrested



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‘It’s an arms race’: the tech teams trying to outpace paedophiles online

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As platforms pivot towards greater encryption, analysts are rushing to finesse child abuse prevention technology

“Predators are often early adopters of technology,” says Sarah Smith, chief technology officer at the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), a UK child abuse hotline. “It’s an arms race, we have to be constantly horizon-scanning.”

Smith and her team, based in an unassuming office in Cambridge, are a key link in a chain of experts around the world developing and finessing technology that tracks down paedophiles and removes child abuse images found online.

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Weekend lockdown in Paris would be ‘inhumane’, says mayor

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Anne Hidalgo condemns plans to shut city and suburbs to stem spread of coronavirus

The mayor of Paris has described as “inhumane” plans to force the city into weekend lockdowns to combat the continuing spread of Covid-19.

Anne Hidalgo has vehemently opposed government plans to shut down the city and its suburbs at the end of the week, saying its residents, most of whom live in apartments with no outside space, “need a horizon” and have to be able to escape to outside spaces such as parks, gardens and riverside areas.

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‘I’d like to join Pixar one day’: meet Afghanistan’s first female animator

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Born under Taliban rule, Sara Barackzay studied abroad and now hopes to start her own school

A woman in traditional dress breaks open the bars of a prison. A young child dances, oblivious to a backdrop of tanks and explosions. The drawings by Afghanistan’s first professional female animation artist, Sara Barackzay, reflect the struggles of her young life.

Barackzay, who lost her hearing as a child, left Afghanistan to study in Turkey, but has returned with the hope of starting a specialist school for animation arts.

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Coronavirus live news: WHO says Covid won’t be over this year; China aims to vaccinate 40% of population by June

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Unrealistic to think pandemic will be over this year, says WHO; China says it aims to vaccinate 40% of its population by June; number of new infections globally rose last week

The majority of California’s 6.1 million public school students could be back in the classroom by April under new legislation announced Monday by Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders. Critics panned the plan as inadequate, AP reports.

Most students in the nation’s most populous state have been learning from home for the past year during the pandemic. But with new coronavirus cases falling rapidly throughout the state, Newsom and lawmakers have been under increasing pressure to come up with a statewide plan aimed at returning students to schools in-person.

If approved by the Legislature, the plan announced Monday would not order districts to return students to the classroom and no parents would be compelled to send their kids back to school in-person. Instead, the state would set aside $2bn to pay districts that get select groups of students into classrooms by the end of the month.

Crucially, the legislation does not require districts to have an agreement with teachers’ unions on a plan for in-person instruction. That’s a barrier that many districts, including the nation’s second-largest district in Los Angeles, have not been able to overcome.

The Philippines has documented six cases of the South African coronavirus variant, its health ministry said on Tuesday, raising concern among its experts that the current vaccines might be less effective.

Of the six South African variant cases, three were detected locally and two from Filipinos returning from overseas. The origin of the other case was still being verified, it said. The Philippines kicked off its Covid vaccination campaign on Monday.

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Stop doing anal Covid tests on our citizens, Japan tells China

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Anal swabs cause ‘great psychological pain’, says Japan’s chief cabinet secretary

Tokyo has requested Beijing to stop taking anal swab tests for Covid-19 on Japanese citizens because the procedure causes psychological pain, a government spokesperson has said.

Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Katsunobu Kato, said the government had not received a response that Beijing would change the testing procedure, so Japan would continue to ask China to alter the way of testing.

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Coronavirus crisis unlikely to be over by the end of the year, WHO warns

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Dr Michael Ryan says Covid-19 is ‘very much in control’ as global infections rise for first time in almost two months

Despite the spread of Covid-19 being slowed in some countries due to lockdowns and vaccination programs, it is “premature” and “unrealistic” to the think the pandemic will be over by the end of the year, the World Health Organization’s executive director of emergency services has said.

Speaking at a press briefing Geneva, Dr Michael Ryan said while vaccinating the most vulnerable people, including healthcare workers, would help remove the “tragedy and fear” from the situation, and would help to ease pressure on hospitals, the “virus is very much in control”.

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City firms made plans in Brexit run-up to move assets worth £100bn to EU – survey

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Data from EY highlights last-minute transfers in order to hold on to European business

City firms revealed in the final months of 2020 that they planned to shift nearly £100bn in assets to the EU, taking the total value of assets lost to the bloc since the Brexit vote to £1.3 trillion, according to a new survey.

The data from consulting group EY pointed to a last-minute push by firms before 31 December after the UK-EU trade deal did not offer concessions for the UK’s dominant financial services sector. It forced companies to move staff and assets to the continent in order to continue serving EU customers.

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US refuses to say whether crown prince one of 76 Saudis hit by visa ban

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State department ‘not in a position to detail the identity’ of those on list as US under heavy criticism for failure to sanction Saudi heir

The US state department has refused to say whether Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is one of the Saudi officials subject to US visa restrictions under the new “Khashoggi ban”.

The ban is named after the Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, whose murder and dismemberment in 2018 was approved by the crown prince, according to a US intelligence assessment declassified on Friday.

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