Category Archives: World News

Saudi Arabia to put women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul on trial

Posted on by

Family fears activist being pressured into giving false confessions

Saudi Arabia will put women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul on trial on Wednesday, more than 900 days after she was detained, and just after the country wrapped up hosting duties on a virtual G20 summit, her family have been told.

Hathloul is on hunger strike and has been held incommunicado for nearly a month. A UN women’s rights committee recently expressed alarm about her failing health. Her sister Lina al-Hathloul fears she is being pressured into giving false confessions that could be used against her in court.

Continue reading...

Russian warship ‘threatens to ram’ US destroyer

Posted on by

Russia says Admiral Vinogradov threatened the USS John S McCain in the Pacific for ‘operating illegally’

A Russian warship has allegedly threatened to ram a US destroyer during a rare naval standoff between the two countries in the waters off Russia’s Pacific coast.

Russia said on Tuesday that the Admiral Vinogradov, a destroyer, threatened the USS John S McCain, a US navy guided-missile destroyer, for “operating illegally” in its territorial waters in the Sea of Japan.

Continue reading...

Rescuers recover migrants’ wedding rings lost at sea

Posted on by

Algerian couple were survivors of a shipwreck in October off the coast of Lampedusa, Italy

On 9 November, a migrant rescue boat came across a red backpack floating in the Mediterranean alongside other remains from a shipwreck that took place weeks before. The rucksack, covered with sea snails and reeking of petrol, contained two wedding rings, inscribed with the names Ahmed and Doudou.

“We thought it was proof of yet another love story that ended up at the bottom of the sea,” said Riccardo Gatti, the president of the NGO Open Arms in Italy, who recovered the personal items. “Unfortunately we find many of these. Most of the time suitcases and bags, floating in the sea, are nothing more than symbols of yet another journey that began in Libya and ended in tragedy.”

Continue reading...

Africa’s largest Covid treatment clinical trial launched by 13-country network

Posted on by

Anticov study with international research institutions aims to stop disease progression and protect fragile health systems

A network of 13 African countries has joined forces with global researchers to launch the largest clinical trial of potential Covid-19 treatments on the continent.

The Anticov study, involving Antwerp’s Institute of Tropical Medicine and international research institutions, aims to identify treatments that can be used to treat mild and moderate cases of Covid-19 early and prevent spikes in hospitalisation that could overwhelm fragile and already overburdened health systems in Africa.

Continue reading...

Clashes erupt as police break up makeshift refugee camp in Paris – video report

Posted on by

French police and gendarmes removed tents set up at Place de la République in Paris by refugees in a charity-organised protest on Monday against mass evacuations of homeless camps. Footage posted online showed police and demonstrators pushing against each other as officers moved in to clear the square of tents, which the police said had been set up without official permission. The interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said on Tuesday that images of the scuffles were 'shocking' and he was launching an investigation into the clashes

Continue reading...

As Ethiopia’s army declares daily victories, its people are being plunged into violence

Posted on by

Abiy Ahmed’s war against Tigrayan rebels endangers a fragile union whose collapse would destabilise the Horn of Africa

Ethiopia’s prime minister Abiy Ahmed has promised military victory in Tigray. He says he will capture the capital, Mekelle, and the leadership of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which he calls a criminal junta. If he succeeds, it will be a pyrrhic victory – prospects for peace, democracy and protection from famine in Ethiopia will be set back a generation.

There are artillery barrages, airstrikes, armoured assaults. The Ethiopian army announces a Tigrayan town captured every other day and this week it plans to surround Mekelle. But there’s something missing. We’re not seeing pictures of prisoners of war, recovered military equipment, or newly-captured towns with local people welcoming their liberators. Perhaps the TPLF evacuated the towns and retreated to the mountains. Or maybe there are things that Ethiopian TV doesn’t want the world to see.

Continue reading...

Coronavirus live news: Macron says worst of French second wave over; death tolls in Italy and Spain surge

Posted on by

French president says lockdown to ease; Italy reports most daily deaths since late March; Spain’s daily deaths highest of second wave

Scientists have warned the UK’s Christmas coronavirus plans, which will allow up to three households form a “bubble” to meet over the festive period, will cause the virus to spread and lead to further deaths.

Martin McKee, the professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “We know that the virus spreads easiest where people mix together, close to each other, for long periods of time indoors. These are exactly the conditions the government seems to be encouraging.”

Brazil registered a further 31,100 confirmed Covid-19 cases over the last 24 hours and 630 deaths, the health ministry said.

The South American nation has now registered 6,118,708 cases since the pandemic began and the official death toll has risen to 170,115, according to ministry data.

Continue reading...

Carlos Ghosn: UN tells Japan treatment of ex-Nissan boss ‘fundamentally unfair’

Posted on by

UN says former executive should be compensated for ‘arbitrary’ detention, though it made no judgment on allegations against him

The former Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn’s multiple arrests and detentions in Japan before he dramatically fled the country last year were “arbitrary”, UN experts have ruled, urging Tokyo to pay him compensation.

In an opinion dated late last week and harshly condemned by Japan, the UN working group on arbitrary detention concluded that “the process of arresting and detaining Mr Ghosn four times was fundamentally unfair”.

Continue reading...

China launches Chang’e-5 mission to bring back rocks from moon

Posted on by

Lunar landing is due in about eight days and entire mission is scheduled to last 23 days

China has launched a robotic spacecraft to bring back rocks from the moon – the first such attempt by any country since the 1970s.

The Long March-5, China’s largest carrier rocket, blasted off at 4.30am Beijing time on Tuesday from Wenchang space launch centre on the island of Hainan carrying the Chang’e-5 spacecraft.

Continue reading...

Qatar charges airport officials over invasive searches after baby found

Posted on by

Prosecutors have also launched proceedings to arrest child’s mother, who left country

Prosecutors in Qatar have announced that the airport police officers who ordered forced vaginal examinations of female passengers after a newborn child was discovered abandoned in a bin have been charged and could face prison sentences of up to three years.

Prosecutors did not say how many officers faced charges over the incident last month at Hamad international airport, which sparked widespread anger in Australia, a key destination for the state-owned Qatar Airways.

Continue reading...

Pope says anti-maskers stuck in ‘their own little world of interests’

Posted on by

Francis contrasts opposition to Covid measures with ‘healthy indignation’ over racism

Pope Francis has taken aim at protests against coronavirus restrictions, contrasting them with the “healthy indignation” seen in demonstrations against racism after the death of George Floyd.

“Some groups protested, refusing to keep their distance, marching against travel restrictions – as if measures that governments must impose for the good of their people constitute some kind of political assault on autonomy or personal freedom,” he said in a new book.

Continue reading...

UK, France and Germany discuss working with Joe Biden on Iran nuclear deal

Posted on by

Foreign ministers hope US will lift sanctions in effort to revive 2015 agreement with Tehran

European foreign ministers from Germany, France and the UK have met to discuss a joint approach with the incoming Joe Biden administration on reviving the Iranian nuclear deal.

The three nations, whose ministers met in Berlin, are hoping Tehran can reach an agreement under which the US would lift its crippling sanctions in return for Iran ending its non-compliance with the 2015 agreement constraining its nuclear activities.

Continue reading...

Saudis may stall on Trump’s Middle East peace plan now he’s on the way out

Posted on by

The Palestinians are hoping a Biden presidency will slow the growing rapport between Saudi Arabia and Israel

During the last year of Donald Trump’s presidency, the question of whether Saudi Arabia would make peace with Israel had come down to a question of when.

The terms of such a deal were more or less agreed during Trump’s tumultuous term, thrashed out between his envoy and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and the kingdom’s effective ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, who held a very different view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from other Saudi leaders.

Their outlook centred on Iran rather than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict being the centre of the region’s dysfunction. And Israel, they agreed, could help, not hinder, progress on that score. Prince Mohammed eschewed his father and uncles’ views that a return to 1967 lines was a starting point for peace, in favour of the Kushner line that Palestinian leaders had caused talks to stagnate.

Ties warmed quickly, especially from May 2017, when Saudi Arabia received Trump as a conquering hero after he overturned the nuclear deal with Tehran and reorientated Washington’s focus to Riyadh.

The secret channels used to communicate between the kingdom and Israel were discarded. So was the need for mediators, as Saudi officials made regular visits to Tel Aviv and vice versa. Denials of such trips were replaced by hints that they had taken place. Then came peace deals with Saudi allies, the UAE and Bahrain, and now a visit by Benjamin Netanyahu to Prince Mohammed on Saudi soil that Israel didn’t bother to disguise.

Despite a flight path visible on flight tracking sites, which showed the arrival of Netanyahu’s preferred charter jet on the shores of the Red Sea city of Neom, Riyadh responded with a pro forma denial.

There to meet the Israeli prime minister on the shores of the Red Sea was outgoing US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, on a mission to finalise as much as he can before he loses his job in eight weeks. Securing a peace pact is something Pompeo, Kushner and Trump have desperately pushed for and such a deal would indeed be seismic in the Middle East, where many are nervously awaiting its impact.

Continue reading...

Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine to be sold to developing countries at cost price

Posted on by

Jab that is part of global initiative to distribute doses will remain at low price ‘in perpetuity’

The coronavirus vaccine produced by Oxford University and AstraZeneca will be available on a non-profit basis “in perpetuity” to low- and middle-income countries in the developing world.

The details of arrangements to supply poorer countries came as AstraZeneca revealed the interim results of a phase 3 trial of the vaccine, which is being heralded as the first to meet the more challenging requirements of the developing world.

Continue reading...

Shanghai Covid outbreak ‘traced to cargo from North America’

Posted on by

Airport staff tested and flights cancelled as officials say two cargo handlers were first cases

A coronavirus outbreak in Shanghai has been traced to two cargo handlers who cleaned a container that had just arrived from North America, Chinese health officials have said.

Hundreds of flights were cancelled at Shanghai’s Pudong International airport, one of the world’s busiest transport hubs, amid chaotic scenes caused by a sudden decision to test airport staff on Sunday.

Continue reading...

Trump’s US investment ban aims to cement tough-on-China legacy

Posted on by

Move is latest chapter in deteriorating relationship with Beijing and improvement under Joe Biden is unlikely

Donald Trump has banned US investment in a further 89 Chinese companies, and reportedly sent a navy admiral to Taiwan, as he seeks to secure a tough-on-China foreign policy legacy.

Multiple media outlets have reported plans by the Trump administration for a series of confrontations with China before Biden’s inauguration on 20 January, and the moves were largely expected. Foreign policy and political analysts believe Trump wants to leave a legacy of being tough on China, while simultaneously conducting a “scorched earth” policy on his way out of the White House.

Continue reading...

Puppy rescued from jaws of alligator in Florida – video

Posted on by

A man in Florida rescued his puppy from the jaws of an alligator, diving under the water and wrestling the reptile all without dropping the cigar from his mouth. 

Richard Wilbanks, 74, was walking his Cavalier King Charles spaniel, Gunner, around the pond near his retirement home when the alligator raced up from the water and grabbed the dog. Cameras set up by the Florida Wildlife Federation and the fStop Foundation captured the encounter.

Gunner suffered a small puncture wound to his stomach,  while Wilbanks told CNN that his hands were 'chewed up'. He doesn’t want the alligator removed, he said. 'They’re part of nature and part of our lives'

Continue reading...

Guatemala protesters set congress on fire – video report

Posted on by

Hundreds of protesters broke into Guatemala’s congress and set fire to part of the building amid growing protests against education and health budget cuts.

They are calling on the president, Alejandro Giammattei, to step down and were angered after legislators approved almost £50,000 to pay for meals for themselves, but reduced spending on coronavirus patients and human rights agencies

Continue reading...

Coronavirus live news: Oxford vaccine has up to 90% efficacy; global cases near 60m

Posted on by

Vaccine from Oxford University and AstraZeneca; US suffers one Covid death every minute

AstraZeneca will have 200m doses of its candidate vaccine developed by the University of Oxford by the end of 2020, with 700m ready globally by the end of the first quarter of 2021, operations executive Pam Cheng has said.

Cheng told a briefing that there would be 20m doses in the UK by the end of the year, with 70m more for the UK by the end of March that year.

Pope Francis can relate to people in intensive care units who fear dying from coronavirus because of his own experience when part of his lung was removed 63 years ago, he has been quoted as saying.

The comments are included in excerpts of a new book “Let Us Dream: The Path to A Better Future”, which are carried in Italian newspapers on Monday ahead of publication of the full work next month.

I know from experience the feeling of those who are sick with coronavirus, struggling to breathe as they are attached to a ventilator.

They took about a litre and a half of water out of one lung and I was hanging between life and death.

[The experience] changed my bearings. For months, I didn’t know who I was, if I would live or die, even the doctors didn’t know. I remember hugging my mother one day and asking her if I was about to die.

Thanks to her regular contact with sick people, she knew what patients needed better than the doctor and had the courage to put that experience to work.

Continue reading...

Netanyahu holds secret meeting with Saudi crown prince – reports

Posted on by

Israeli PM is said to have flown to Saudi Arabia to meet Mohammed bin Salman and Mike Pompeo

Benjamin Netanyahu has made an unannounced trip to Saudi Arabia to meet the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, and US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, according to media reports in Israel.

The Sunday night trip, if confirmed, would mark an extremely rare high-level meeting between the long-time foes, one that Israel has been pushing for in its efforts for regional acceptance. Hebrew-language reports, citing unnamed Israeli officials, said Netanyahu was accompanied by Yossi Cohen, head of the country’s Mossad spy agency.

Continue reading...