Category Archives: World News

Roaring crowds, roti and Rihanna: the view from a Delhi farm protest camp

Posted on by

As rhetoric rises on both sides, Indian farmers at the Singhu camp say they are going nowhere

Puffing out his chest, his lime green turban luminescent in the morning sun, Surinder Singh made it clear he was a man who would not easily be moved. “We will stay here five years, 10 years if we have to,” the farmer said with a steely smile. “As long as it takes.”

A roar of approval greeted his words from fellow farmers who had gathered for breakfast at Singh’s chai stand at the Singhu camp, one of three main protest camps on the outskirts of Delhi. Singh, a small-scale farmer from India’s northern state of Punjab, is just one of hundreds of thousands to have made Singhu his home since November, living out of the back of his now fully furnished tractor trailer.

Continue reading...

British-Iranian anthropologist who fled Iran accused of sexual abuse

Posted on by

Women say Kameel Ahmady, who recently told of his escape from Iran, harassed and sexually assaulted them

A number of women have accused a prominent British-Iranian anthropologist who recently fled Iran of being a sexual predator who should not be allowed to continue working with women or with the vulnerable groups that are a focus of his research.

Kameel Ahmady, known for work on child marriage, female genital mutilation and LGBT communities in Iran, denies the allegations of sexual assault and harassment, which have led to his suspension from Iran’s Sociology Association.

Continue reading...

Microsoft urges US and EU to follow Australian digital news code

Posted on by

Firm stood against Facebook and Google over plan to make tech giants pay news organisations

Microsoft is calling for the US and the EU to follow Australia in introducing rules that require technology companies to share revenue with news organisations and support journalism.

The company, which stood against Facebook and Google in supporting the proposal, argues that it is necessary to impose such a levy to create a level playing field between large tech firms and independent media organisations.

Continue reading...

Trump impeachment trial day three: Democrats rest their case – video highlights

Posted on by

House impeachment managers concluded their case against Donald Trump on Thursday by saying that the deadly Capitol assault he stands accused of inciting was the culmination of a presidency beset by lies and violent rhetoric. They also said he would remain a threat to US democracy if not convicted and barred from holding future office

Continue reading...

Pakistan ends death penalty for prisoners with severe mental health problems

Posted on by

Supreme court ruling welcomed by rights activists who say it opens the way to broader prison reforms

In a landmark decision, Pakistan’s supreme court ruled this week that prisoners with serious mental health problems cannot be executed for their crimes.

The verdict was hailed by rights activists, who said it laid the groundwork for broader prison reforms in the country.

Continue reading...

Election officials detained in Myanmar ‘in bid to prove fraud’

Posted on by

A senior polling officer and a human rights watchdog say arrests part of military’s attempt to discredit vote

Myanmar’s military government is detaining election commission officials in night-time raids and asking them to provide evidence that November’s election was rigged, according to a senior member of the organisation and a human rights watchdog.

The Tatmadaw justified its 1 February coup by alleging widespread irregularities in the vote, won decisively by Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, but their claims have been rejected by the Union Election Commission (UEC), the organisation responsible for administering elections in Myanmar.

Continue reading...

‘I don’t make enough’: the financial cost of having Covid in the US

Posted on by

Major health insurers volunteered to cover testing and treatment, while the government introduced new programs – but those assurances haven’t played out

Covid-19 allowed for an experiment in US healthcare: what if doctor’s visits and hospitalizations didn’t cost people money?

In response to the pandemic, major health insurers volunteered to cover coronavirus testing and treatment for their paying customers and the government introduced programs to make care more affordable. But a year after coronavirus was first identified in the US, those assurances haven’t played out as planned.

Continue reading...

Alexei Navalny back in court on charges of slandering war veteran

Posted on by

Opposition leader accuses state of orchestrating case to damage his image among Russians

Alexei Navalny, the leading opposition figure whose jailing this month sparked protests across Russia, has been back in court to face charges of slandering a war veteran in a separate case.

Navalny denies the charges and has accused the state of orchestrating the case to damage his image among the Russian public.

Continue reading...

Japanese lose taste for Valentine’s ‘obligation chocs’ under Covid

Posted on by

Growing numbers of women ditch giri choco custom of ‘forced giving’ of gifts to senior male colleagues

Shifting gender politics and the coronavirus have combined to spell the possible end of the Japanese Valentine’s Day custom of women giving chocolates to male colleagues.

Traditionally, women are expected to buy gift-wrapped chocolates for the men in their working lives – usually senior colleagues and others who have helped them during the course of the year – as part of a tradition called giri choco, literally “obligation chocolates”.

Continue reading...

DRC is rich with farmland, so why do 22 million people there face starvation? | Vava Tampa

Posted on by

For two decades the global community has stood by while militia groups have got away with killing, raping and looting

I was food shopping when I read the news. Nearly 22 million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are facing starvation and malnutrition. Now. In 2021.

You have to wonder how a country with eight months of rain, more than 50% of all the rivers, lakes and wetlands in Africa, and more agricultural land than any African country, with the potential to feed up to 2 billion people, gets to the point where it is unable to feed its population of 100 million.

Continue reading...

Global green recovery plans fail to match 2008 stimulus, report shows

Posted on by

Exclusive: just 12% of spending on economic rescue packages is going towards low-carbon projects, research finds

Efforts by governments around the world to forge a green recovery from the coronavirus pandemic are so far failing even to reach the levels of green spending seen in the stimulus that followed the 2008 financial crisis, new analysis has shown.

Only about 12% of the spending on economic rescue packages around the world is going towards low-carbon projects, such as renewable energy and clean technology, according to a report by Vivid Economics, published on Friday.

Continue reading...

US lawmakers urge UK to help end complicity in Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen

Posted on by

Question mark over far Biden administration will go to push allies to end arms sales

Senior US lawmakers have called on the UK to live up to its “moral responsibility” and help end both countries “complicity” in Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, in a sign of the pressure the UK will face in Washington to join the Biden administration and end weapons sales to the kingdom.

Related: Biden announces end to US support for Saudi-led offensive in Yemen

Continue reading...

Coronavirus live: France advises single vaccine dose for those who had Covid; Germany shut parts of land border

Posted on by

French health authority will give one jab to previously infected people; Germany to ban travel from Czech border regions and Austria’s Tyrol

Reuters reports:

The French government has no plans for now to order local lockdown measures in the eastern area of Moselle to rein in the spread of highly contagious Covid-19 variants, health minister Olivier Veran said on Friday.

Veran told reporters that a high number of cases of the South African Covid-19 variant had been found in the region.

The World Health Organizations’ director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has discussed US support for COVAX vaccines:

I so appreciated today’s call with @CDCDirector Dr. Rochelle Walensky on our organizations' enduring partnership. It was good to discuss ‘s support for @ACTAccelerator and COVAX, #VaccinEquity, prioritizing robust public health systems, and our partnership to #EndPolio. pic.twitter.com/LVba0R3aFq

Continue reading...

Ties with Myanmar military put pressure on western companies

Posted on by

Activists criticise oil and gas companies that have set up highly profitable joint ventures with army chiefs to exploit mineral resources

Western companies are facing growing calls to break ties with businesses run by Myanmar’s military after last week’s coup threatened to cast the impoverished south-east Asian country back into full-blown dictatorship.

The Japanese drinks company Kirin Holdings has announced it will abandon its involvement with a Myanmar brewery after a six-year partnership because of its close links to the military.

Continue reading...

Huawei to seek UK court order to access HSBC records in bid to clear CFO

Posted on by

Chinese company turns to UK high court in attempt to stop extradition of Meng Wanzhou from Canada to the US

Huawei’s battle to prevent the extradition of its chief financial officer from Canada to the US will open a new front at the British high court on Friday when the Chinese telecoms giant seeks an application to access records from inside HSBC in a bid to prove that she did not mislead the bank.

The future of Meng Wanzhou has become a major three-way point of diplomatic and legal tension between China, Canada and the US since she was arrested at Vancouver airport in December 2018.

Continue reading...

New Zealand Covid vaccines to arrive one month early, border staff to be inoculated next week

Posted on by

Jacinda Ardern says vaccination of the wider population will begin in the second half of the year

New Zealand’s first Covid-19 vaccines will arrive in the country ahead of schedule in a win for the government, which has been criticised for being too slow to procure them.

In a surprise announcement on Friday, the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said hundreds of thousands of vials of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine would be arriving early, and vaccinations for border staff would begin next Saturday.

Continue reading...

Gove and Šefčovič reiterate commitment to NI protocol after crisis talks

Posted on by

Joint statement between UK and EU agrees to ‘spare no effort’ in implementing solutions

Michael Gove and the European commission’s vice-president have reiterated their “full commitment” to the Northern Ireland protocol following crisis talks in London.

A joint statement said Gove and Maroš Šefčovič had a “frank but constructive discussion” on Thursday evening, in which they agreed to “spare no effort” in implementing solutions.

Continue reading...

Chick Corea, Grammy-winning jazz musician, dies at 79

Posted on by

The composer, keyboardist and bandleader, who won 23 Grammy awards, has died of a rare form of cancer

The jazz pioneer Chick Corea has died at the age of 79.

According to a post on his Facebook page, the musician died from “a rare form of cancer which was only discovered very recently”. In his career, Corea won 23 Grammys and was the fourth most-nominated artist in Grammys history.

Continue reading...

Police killed baby when shooting at father’s truck, Canada watchdog finds

Posted on by

Ontario’s special investigations unit concludes gunfire was cause of one-year-old’s death in Kawartha Lakes

Nearly three months after an armed confrontation in rural Canada, a police watchdog has concluded that a police bullet killed a one-year-old baby when officers opened fire on his father’s truck.

In its first public finding on Thursday, Ontario’s special investigations unit said that a review of evidence indicated police gunfire was the cause of the child’s death on 26 November.

Continue reading...

Brazil: missionaries ‘turning tribes against coronavirus vaccine’

Posted on by

Health workers were reportedly attacked with bows and arrows after visiting an indigenous community in Amazonas

Medical teams working to immunise Brazil’s remote indigenous villages against the coronavirus have encountered fierce resistance in some communities where evangelical missionaries are stoking fears of the vaccine, say tribal leaders and advocates.

On the São Francisco reservation in the state of Amazonas, Jamamadi villagers sent health workers packing with bows and arrows when they visited by helicopter this month, said Claudemir da Silva, an Apurinã leader representing indigenous communities on the Purus river, a tributary of the Xingú.

Continue reading...