Category Archives: World News

French PM says jobs and green economy at heart of Covid recovery plan

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Jean Castex unveils €100bn plan aimed at returning France to pre-pandemic economic strength

France’s prime minister has stressed the importance of getting the country back on its feet within 18 months and “transforming” the French economy with a green makeover as he unveiled a €100bn (£89bn) coronavirus recovery plan.

Jean Castex outlined how France would spend its way out of the crisis, rather than create “social misery” through austerity measures, with a plan that had the environment, competitiveness and employment as its three pillars.

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Rwanda dissidents suspect Paul Rusesabagina was under surveillance

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Movements of ‘Hotel Rwanda hero’ arrested in Kigali may have been closely tracked by spyware say supporters

Rwandan dissidents say they suspect that Paul Rusesabagina, the inspiration behind the film Hotel Rwanda, was hacked or otherwise tracked using surveillance technology in the days before his arrest this week by the Rwandan government, raising questions about the country’s alleged use of spyware.

Rusesabagina, 66, who won international acclaim for saving 1,200 Rwandans during the country’s genocide – who has been more recently a prominent critic of Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame, appears to have been apprehended by authorities while he was on a trip to Dubai and reportedly left the United Arab Emirates on a private jet last week.

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France’s ‘big green recovery plan’ not big enough for campaigners

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A third of €100bn post-Covid package to be used for greener future, but critics say it falls short

Billed by the economy minister, Bruno Le Maire, as a “big green recovery plan”, one-third of France’s €100bn (£90bn) post-Covid economic stimulus package will be spent, in the government’s words, on “ecological transition” and “greening the economy”.

Environmental groups said the plan, presented on Thursday by the prime minister, Jean Castex, and other cabinet members, marked a welcome first step – but criticised a missed opportunity to break decisively with a growth-driven, high-carbon economy.

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Alexei Navalny faces long and uncertain road to recovery

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It is hard to gauge the chances of the Russian opposition leader regaining his former health

Alexei Navalny is likely to survive his poisoning with novichok but his long-term prospects and chances of making a full recovery are unknown, the hospital treating him in Berlin said on Thursday.

The Russian opposition leader “continues to improve”, doctors at the Charité hospital said. But they stressed: “Recovery is likely to be lengthy. It is still too early to gauge the long-term effects which may arise in relation to this severe poisoning.”

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Drivers for Amazon contractor allege safety and wage abuses

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Exclusive: Testimony of HGV drivers from ex-Soviet countries raises fresh questions over supply chain

Haulage drivers delivering to Amazon distribution centres across Europe allege that safety records are being deliberately manipulated and wages withheld in a breach of the e-commerce multinational’s pledges about working conditions in its supply chain.

HGV drivers recruited from former Soviet-bloc countries have told the Guardian that they were instructed to cheat tachograph machines that log their working hours, so that they could drive illegally long and unsafe stints in western Europe.

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Chinese mining firms in Zimbabwe pose threat to endangered species, say experts

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Two companies granted permission to clear land at Hwange national park, home to cheetahs, elephants and rhinos

Rhinos, giraffes, cheetahs and other endangered species face a new threat in Zimbabwe’s Hwange national park: Chinese mining companies.

Zhongxin Coal Mining Group and Afrochine Smelting have received permission from the government to begin environmental impact assessments for drilling, land clearance, road building and geological surveys at two proposed sites inside the park, which is home to almost 10% of Africa’s remaining wild elephants.

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Brexit: EU rejects UK proposal for reuniting child asylum seekers

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Warning that lack of agreement means more young people will risk lives crossing Channel

The EU has rejected a British proposal for a system to reunite children seeking asylum with their families in the UK or Europe, prompting warnings that more young people will risk their lives in dangerous Channel crossings.

The government had proposed a post-Brexit agreement to continue transfers of unaccompanied child asylum seekers to families living in either the UK or EU, although with no obligation on either side.

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Merkel pressured to end Nord Stream 2 support after Navalny poisoning

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German opposition calls on chancellor to use gas pipeline project to pressurise Kremlin

Angela Merkel is under growing domestic pressure to end her support for the joint German-Russian Nord Stream 2 pipeline project over the confirmed poisoning of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

The German Green party called on the chancellor to use the nearly completed infrastructure project to pressure the Kremlin into answering allegations over what Merkel called the “silencing” of Navalny with a novichok nerve reagent.

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Researchers reveal true scale of megalodon shark for first time

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UK study shows dorsal fin of prehistoric mega-fish was similar height to adult human

The enormous size of a prehistoric mega-shark made famous in Hollywood films has been revealed for the first time in its entirety by a UK study.

Previously only the length of the Otodus megalodon had been estimated, but a team from the University of Bristol and Swansea University has determined the size of the rest of its body, including fins as large as an adult human.

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‘Culture is language’: why an indigenous tongue is thriving in Paraguay

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The Paraguayan Guaraní language is a rare regional success story. But its own popularity is a problem for smaller languages

On a hillside monument in Asunción, a statue of the mythologized indigenous chief Lambaré stands alongside other great leaders from Paraguayan history.

The other historical heroes on display are of mixed ancestry, but the idea of a noble indigenous heritage is strong in Paraguay, and – uniquely in the Americas – can be expressed by most of the country’s people in an indigenous language: Paraguayan Guaraní.

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Trump’s tweets are felt in Ethiopia. Washington should use its power wisely | Mekonnen Firew Ayano

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Anti-democratic attitudes in America helped to scrub our election, while US-Nile geopolitics could become a powder keg

When US presidents comment on events in other countries, their remarks have impact.

When, for example, President Barack Obama congratulated the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) on an apparent landslide election victory in 2015, it signalled to some Ethiopians that the world’s most powerful country would not favour a legal challenge to the election results.

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Coronavirus curfew in Havana, Cuba – in pictures

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Cuban authorities have launched a strict 15-day lockdown of Havana to try to stamp out the low-level but persistent spread of coronavirus. In addition to a curfew, most stores are barred from selling to shoppers from outside the immediate neighbourhood to prevent people from moving around the city

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‘I am starving’: the migrant workers abandoned by Dubai employers

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With no salary or money to pay for flights home, many are trapped in desperate situations in crowded labour camps

Hassan doesn’t know if he will eat today. The 30-year-old Pakistani has lived in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), for over a decade, employed as a construction worker. But when the Covid-19 pandemic took hold, he lost his job. Without his salary he cannot afford to live in the UAE. Nor can he afford to fly home.

“The suffering is too much. We hardly have any food and there’s no support. Since we don’t have any money, we can’t travel from here either,” he says. “How are we going to buy the ticket?”

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‘A race against time’: the new law putting Somalia’s children at risk of marriage

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Child marriage in the country has increased during coronavirus – and now a newly-tabled bill would allow children as young as 10 to marry

Fardowsa Salat Mohamed was 15 when her cousin asked her parents for her hand in marriage. Her father did not hesitate to say yes. When Mohamed objected, her father asked her to choose between “a curse and a blessing”.

“That was not a choice for me, I was basically forced,” she says. “No girl would ever choose to be cursed by her parents so I had to accept the marriage,”

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New Zealand given ‘F for failure’ on child obesity and youth suicide in Unicef report

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‘Woeful’ result puts country in bottom 15% for overall child wellbeing which Ardern says reflects previous government’s underinvestment

Unicef says New Zealand is failing children after a new report revealed the country’s poor childhood obesity and suicide statistics have pushed it to near the very bottom on child wellbeing.

The latest Unicef Innocenti report card shows that, out of 41 developed countries in the OECD and European Union, New Zealand ranks 35th.

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Coronavirus live news: Trump pushes to withdraw WHO funding immediately

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US public health departments being told to prepare November vaccine distribution; signs Covid-19 easing in Brazil; Berlusconi tests positive. Follow the latest updates

On loneliness in Victoria, Australia:

Under Melbourne’s strict lockdown rules, couples who live apart can visit each other but other visitors are banned, so a lot of single people who live alone, like Ford, have spent weeks completely isolated. Victorians are allowed to exercise with one other person for an hour outdoors, but that person has to live nearby because of the restrictions on movement. In practice, this means that unless you live in the same suburb as your friends and family, you are unlikely to be able to exercise together:

Related: 'It gets into your bones': the unique loneliness of coronavirus lockdown when you live alone

The UK government is to trial routine weekly Covid testing of the population as part of preparations to head off a possible winter second wave, as the former health secretary Jeremy Hunt called for such tests to become the norm.

Matt Hancock said the government was committing an extra £500m to scale up testing capacity and launch community pilots trialling the effectiveness of repeat testing in schools and colleges, as well as in the population as a whole. It will also ramp up the trials of a new test kit that it is claimed can provide results within 20 minutes:

Related: Mass weekly Covid-19 testing of population to be trialled in England

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Washington imposes new restrictions on Chinese diplomats in US

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Chinese embassy in US says move, which limits meetings and university visits without approval, contradicts ‘openness and freedom’

The US has put new restrictions on Chinese diplomats in America, barring senior envoys from visiting universities or meeting local government officials without approval, in the latest escalation in tensions between the two countries.

Announcing the latest measures, the state department said it was responding to “significant barriers” on its own diplomats based in China.

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‘It just sounds like a thud’: astronomers hear biggest cosmic event since big bang

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Researchers believe noise was two black holes colliding around 7 billion years ago, creating a previously unseen class of stellar object

Scientists have announced the detection of a signal from a long-ago collision between two black holes that created a new one of a size never seen before.

“It’s the biggest bang since the big bang observed by humanity,” said Caltech professor of physics Alan Weinstein, who was part of the discovery team.

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The Christchurch testimonies: survivors and the bereaved give their accounts of New Zealand’s worst terror attack

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More than 90 people – the wounded, the mourning, the defiant – spoke at the sentencing hearing for the gunman responsible for New Zealand’s most deadly terrorist attack, explaining how the massacre changed their lives forever. Here we document their evidence

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Trump is trying to pin Kenosha on Biden – but he created the chaos and violence | Richard Wolffe

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Make no mistake: this is Trump’s America, where protesters are shot by vigilantes as police look on

Donald Trump took a trip to a place called Biden’s America on Tuesday. It is a strange land where the president of the United States is a helpless guest, a doomed corner of his own country that is somehow ruled by a former vice president.

It is a topsy-turvy place, this Biden’s America. Occasionally, the president can regain his magical ruling powers by summoning assorted minions in uniforms and incanting a spell with his thumbs to tweet the words LAW AND ORDER.

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