Category Archives: World News

Alexei Navalny to be investigated by Russian authorities over alleged fraud

Posted on by

The prominent Kremlin critic, poisoned in August, is under investigation for allegedly mishandling $5m private donations

Russian authorities have ramped up the pressure on the prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny by levelling new fraud accusations against him.

The Investigative Committee, Russia’s main investigative agency, said on Tuesday it had opened a new criminal case against Navalny on charges of large-scale fraud related to his alleged mishandling of $5m in private donations to his Anti-Corruption Foundation and other organisations.

Continue reading...

Indigenous environmental defender killed in latest Honduras attack

Posted on by
  • Félix Vásquez, 60, shot in own home in front of family
  • Killing followed death threats linked to work on environment

Another indigenous environmentalist has been killed in Honduras, cementing the country’s inglorious ranking as the deadliest place in the world to defend land and natural resources from exploitation.

Félix Vásquez, 60, a veteran leader of the indigenous Lenca people, was shot dead at home in Santiago de Puringla, a rural community in the department of La Paz, western Honduras on the night of 26 December – just weeks after reporting death threats linked to his work. His adult children were beaten and threatened by the four armed assailants in balaclavas, but survived the ordeal.

Continue reading...

Boy is pulled alive from rubble after 6.3-magnitude earthquake in Croatia – video

Posted on by

A young boy was rescued after a collapsed building fell on a car during a powerful earthquake in Croatia. Authorities said a girl was killed and at least 20 people were treated in hospital in the town of Petrinja by the quake. 'My town has been completely destroyed. We have dead children,' Darinko Dumbović, the mayor of Petrinja, said in a statement. 'Half of the city no longer exists.' 

Continue reading...

‘That was easy’: Kamala Harris receives Covid-19 vaccine – video

Posted on by

The US vice-president-elect received her first injected dose of the coronavirus vaccine live on television, one week after Joe Biden received his. Describing the process as 'relatively painless', Harris urged all Americans to get vaccinated. 'It's about saving your life, the life of your family members, and the life of your community,' she said

Continue reading...

Pierre Cardin helped define modernity in the 1960s and beyond

Posted on by

Fashion designer will forever be associated with the decade that embraced his space-age aesthetic

The Beatles smiling for an early group portrait in 1963, their pixie handsomeness perfectly framed by four snappy collarless jackets. US first lady, Jackie Kennedy, unimpeachably elegant in a boxy scarlet wool day-suit on a visit to Canada in 1962. Marisa Berenson in a groovy sunset-hued kaftan, gazing through matchstick lashes at the lens of Irving Penn for a 1967 cover of Vogue.

Continue reading...

Global report: India finds six cases of new UK variant; South Africa bans alcohol sales

Posted on by

Germany says infectious variant has been present since November; Spain sets up Covid vaccine register

India has found six cases of a more infectious variant of the coronavirus in people arriving from Britain, while South Africa reimposed a ban on alcohol sales and ordered the closure of all bars as it battles a resurgence of the virus, including another new variant.

All six of the infected people in India are in isolation and their fellow travellers are being traced, the health ministry said.

Continue reading...

Mayor review – grappling with reality inside Ramallah city hall

Posted on by

Ramallah’s leader Musa Hadid navigates diplomatic stresses and day-to-day problems in this love letter to the West Bank

Musa Hadid is the popular Palestinian mayor of Ramallah in the West Bank, and this thoughtful, sympathetic documentary tracks his stressful day-to-day working life – shown suddenly getting a lot more stressful in 2017 when President Trump announced his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, moving the US embassy there from Tel Aviv. Hadid feels strongly that this move emboldened Israel’s military to be more menacing in Ramallah, with soldiers marching into stores and demanding to see security camera footage on the grounds that there could be images of terrorists – and even doing the same at city hall.

The film lets you appreciate Hadid’s delicate and complex situation. He is often receiving high-profile international visitors and relishes the opportunity to show off the city he loves – the opening and closing sequences of this film, incidentally, almost feel like the introduction to Woody Allen’s Manhattan. One such VIP is Prince William, though some of Hadid’s colleagues are less than happy: “All the problems of our country come from Britain!” says one, referring to the 1923 Mandate.

Continue reading...

WHO warns Covid-19 pandemic is ‘not necessarily the big one’ – video

Posted on by

Experts from the World Health Organization have told the end of year media briefing that even though the coronavirus pandemic has been severe, it is 'not necessarily the big one', and that the virus is likely to become endemic and the world will have to learn to live with it. The head of the WHO emergencies programme, Dr Mike Ryan, warned that the next pandemic may be worse, while Prof David Heymann, the chair of the WHO's strategic and technical advisory group for infectious hazards, said the 'destiny' of the virus is to become endemic, even as vaccines begin to be rolled out across the world

Continue reading...

Coronavirus live news: more countries report suspected cases of new Covid variant

Posted on by

Latest updates: South Africa imposes tighter restrictions amid sharp increase in cases; UK told it must vaccinate 2 million people per week to avoid new wave

India has found six people who returned from the UK in recent weeks with the more infectious strain of the virus that has prompted border closures around the world, Reuters reports.

Nevertheless, the country’s daily increase in cases fell to a six-month low.

Hello and thank you for reading our live coverage. I’ll be with you for the next few hours. Here’s a brief summary of where we stand:

Continue reading...

‘What about justice?’: Chagos Islanders pin their hopes on Biden

Posted on by

Decades after the US took over the territory for a military base, families separated and forced to leave their homes are still waiting for compensation

When Laurenza Piron was forced from her home in the Chagos Islands in 1970, she was sent on a boat to the Seychelles. Her parents and siblings were sent to Mauritius. It was two decades before they located one another again, and even then none of them could afford a reunion. So Piron, now 76, never saw her family again.

“I wanted to go, but I didn’t have the money,” says Piron. “Compensation should have been paid. If it had, there wouldn’t be such hardship.”

Continue reading...

‘Miners out, Covid out’: threats to indigenous reserve in Brazil grow

Posted on by

Illegal goldminers supported by Bolsonaro bring environmental destruction and coronavirus to Yanomami communities

A petition with 439,000 signatures demanding “miners out, Covid out” of the Yanomami reserve in Roraima state was handed to Brazil’s congress this month as shamanic images were projected on to the building’s exterior. With Covid-19 ravaging the Yanomami population since the first death from the disease was reported in April, the existence of the “garimpeiros”, or goldminers, has brought even greater threats to the reserve.

The estimated 20,000 miners were already blamed for bringing alcohol and prostitution into the Yanomami reserve, where they have worked illegally for decades, clearing forests and polluting rivers with mercury used in separating out the gold. The destruction wreaked by their work has increased since far-right president Jair Bolsonaro took office – and they have kept working during the pandemic.

Continue reading...

Could Covid lockdown have helped save the planet?

Posted on by

Slowdown of human activity was too short to reverse years of destruction, but we saw a glimpse of post-fossil fuel world

When lockdown began, climate scientists were horrified at the unfolding tragedy, but also intrigued to observe what they called an “inadvertent experiment” on a global scale. To what extent, they asked, would the Earth system respond to the steepest slowdown in human activity since the second world war?

Environmental activists put the question more succinctly: how much would it help to save the planet?

Continue reading...

New rules to tackle ‘wild west’ of plastic waste dumped on poorer countries

Posted on by

International convention to stop richer countries exporting contaminated material for recycling could mean a cleaner ocean in five years

New international rules to tackle the “wild west” global trade in plastic, which has seen wealthy nations dump contaminated plastic waste on to poorer ones, will result in a cleaner ocean within five years, according to a UN transboundary waste chief.

The rules, which come into force on 1 January, aim to make the trade more transparent in order to allow developing nations such as Vietnam and Malaysia to refuse low-quality, difficult-to-recycle waste before it is even shipped.

Continue reading...

WHO warns Covid-19 pandemic is ‘not necessarily the big one’

Posted on by

Experts tell end of year media briefing that virus is likely to become endemic and the world will have to learn to live with it

World Health Organization experts have warned that even though the coronavirus pandemic has been very severe, it is “not necessarily the big one”, and that the world will have to learn to live with Covid-19.

The “destiny” of the virus is to become endemic, even as vaccines begin to be rolled out in the US and UK, says Professor David Heymann, the chair of the WHO’s strategic and technical advisory group for infectious hazards.

Continue reading...

Covid vaccine uptake high despite concerns over hesitancy

Posted on by

Experts fear misinformation and development worries could undermine efforts to control pandemic

Uptake of the Covid-19 vaccine has been high among those offered it, doctors say, despite fears that vaccine hesitancy could undermine efforts to control the pandemic.

Experts have feared mass uptake of the jab could be jeopardised by widespread misinformation, concerns among the public about the speed at which the vaccine has been developed and approved, and lack of trust in vaccines and the pharmaceutical companies and governments calling for it.

Continue reading...

Pressure on Turkey to protect Uighurs as China ratifies extradition treaty

Posted on by

Ankara has long welcomed Uighur and Turkic Muslims fleeing China but human rights groups fear the treaty will endanger them

Beijing has ratified an extradition treaty with Turkey that human rights groups warn could endanger Uighur families and activists fleeing persecution by Chinese authorities if it is adopted by Ankara.

The treaty, first signed in 2017, was formalised on the weekend at the national people’s congress, with state media saying it would be used for counter-terrorism purposes. Facing strong opposition within its parliament, Turkey’s government has not yet ratified the deal, and critics have urged the government to abandon it and prevent the treaty from “becoming an instrument of persecution”.

Continue reading...

Render unto Rome – contrite tourists return pilfered relics

Posted on by

Whether compelled by guilt or superstition, more and more tourists are returning items they lifted from Italian cultural sites

Some of the repentant sinners may be compelled by guilt, others by superstition.

But Italian museum curators and archeological officers have observed a trend of tourists who, having pilfered artefacts from cultural sites, return them, years later, with a heartfelt letter of confession.

Continue reading...

How Joe Biden’s cold war experience will shape his approach to Russia

Posted on by

President-elect’s formative years of going toe-to-toe with the USSR on arms control hint at how he may deal with Putin

It was 1988, near the end of the cold war, when then-senator Joe Biden made yet another visit to the Soviet Union for talks on arms control. By that time, he felt comfortable enough in Moscow to bring a guest into the room: his teenage son.

“Would you mind my son, Hunter Biden, sitting in and listening? The gentleman is interested in international affairs and diplomacy,” he said, according to Victor Prokofiev, the Soviet foreign ministry interpreter at the meeting.

Continue reading...

Freezing weather across Britain could send temperatures as low as -10C

Posted on by

Met Office issues snow and ice warning after a day of heavy snowfall, with mercury set to plunge furthest in western Scotland

A cold snap will continue to spread across Britain on Tuesday and temperatures could plunge as low as -10C in parts of the country.

The Met Office has issued a yellow warning of snow and ice for much of England and Wales and parts of Scotland after a day of heavy snowfall in some regions, with more wintry weather expected on Wednesday and Thursday.

Continue reading...

House Republicans join with Democrats to override Trump’s veto of defence bill

Posted on by

If, as expected, the Senate follows suit later this week, it will be Congress’s first such rebuke of his presidency

Donald Trump suffered fresh humiliation on Monday when more than a hundred Republicans joined Democrats in the House of Representatives to override his veto of a $741bn defence bill.

If, as expected, the Senate follows suit later this week, it will be Congress’s first such rebuke of his presidency, which has only three weeks left to run.

Continue reading...