Category Archives: World News

‘Tipping point’: Greta Thunberg hails Black Lives Matter protests

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People are realising ‘we cannot keep looking away from these things’, says climate activist

Greta Thunberg has said the Black Lives Matter protests show society has reached a tipping point where injustice can no longer be ignored, but that she believes a “green recovery plan” from the coronavirus pandemic will not be enough to solve the climate crisis.

Reflecting on the protests that have swept the globe in recent weeks, the Swedish climate activist told the BBC: “It feels like we have passed some kind of social tipping point where people are starting to realise that we cannot keep looking away from these things. We cannot keep sweeping these things under the carpet, these injustices.

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Protesters topple statue of Confederate general in Washington DC – video

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Protesters in Washington DC climbed up a bronze statue of Brig Gen Albert Pike and brought it down with ropes before setting it alight on Friday.  A US holiday known as Juneteenth that commemorates the end of slavery takes place every year on 19 June. Demonstrators took about an hour to fell the three-metre statue, as Juneteenth celebrations and anti-racist protests took place across the US. The police surrounded the area but did not appear to intervene

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Lenin statue to be unveiled in Germany despite legal fight

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Gelsenkirchen bucks global trends with new monument as other cities confront relics of colonial past

While a global row rages over the controversial pasts of historical figures immortalised as statues, on Saturday a divisive new monument to the former Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin will be unveiled in Germany.

More than 30 years after the communist experiment on German soil that followed the second world war ended, the tiny Marxist-Leninist party of Germany (MLPD) will install Lenin’s likeness in the western city of Gelsenkirchen.

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Tulsa braces for Trump’s ‘wild evening’ amid unrest and coronavirus fears

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Donald Trump threatens protesters and ‘lowlifes’ as mass rally draws outrage from black communities with counter rallies expected

The city of Tulsa, Oklahoma is braced for Donald Trump’s first campaign rally since the coronavirus pandemic struck the United States, claiming more than 118,000 lives so far, plunging the economy into recession, and leading to widespread criticism of the president’s botched response to a crisis that has seen his approval ratings tank in recent polls.

The indoor rally, at Tulsa’s 19,000-person capacity BOK Center, comes as the city and the state of Oklahoma experience a surge in Covid-19 cases and local public health officials urge the campaign to reschedule the event over fears that the close contact between attendees – who will not be forced to wear face masks – could lead to more deaths.

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Rare ‘ring of fire’ annular solar eclipse to cast shadow over Africa and Asia

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Event will be visible across a narrow band from Congo-Brazzaville to southern China

Skywatchers along a narrow band from west Africa to the Arabian peninsula, India and southern China will witness the most dramatic “ring of fire” solar eclipse in years on Sunday.

Annular eclipses occur when the moon passes between Earth and the sun, but not quite close enough to our planet to completely obscure the sun’s light.

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North Korea to send ‘leaflets of punishment’ over border as tensions with South rise

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Regime creating piles of propaganda in retaliation for similar campaign from South amid worsening relations

North Korea is gearing up to send propaganda leaflets over its southern border, denouncing North Korean defectors and South Korea, its state media said on Saturday, the latest retaliation for leaflets from the South as bilateral tensions rise.

The North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported: “The enraged people across the country are actively pushing forward with the preparations for launching a large-scale distribution of leaflets to pour the leaflets of punishment upon those in South Korea who are bereft of even elementary morality.”

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Juneteenth: rallies and celebrations across America commemorate end of slavery – live

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In Oakland, thousands rallied with members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), whose workers arranged a strike at 29 ports up and down the West Coast.

I was there, earlier today. The union workers were joined by a motorcycle brigade, a car caravan, a fleet of cyclists, and thousands on foot. Activist and scholar Angela Davis and filmmaker Boots Riley addressed the crowd.

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In Wisconsin, governor Tony Evers called on the state legislature to ban police chokeholds, among reforms that he unveiled today.

The Democratic governor did not ask for a special legislative session to take up the policy as soon as possible, as the Brack Legislative Caucus had requested.

Our country promises the opportunity of justice and equity and in the wake of the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the calls for justice across our state and nation, and as we celebrate Juneteenth today, we are called to deliver on that promise.

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Mexican president says he ordered release of El Chapo’s son

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Ovidio Guzmán was briefly captured in October only to be let go hours later as security was overwhelmed by cartel forces

Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, on Friday said he personally ordered the release of one of the sons of notorious drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, after his brief detention during a military operation.

Scenes of mayhem during the operation caused López Obrador’s government considerable embarrassment in October as security forces briefly captured Ovidio Guzmán only to let him go hours later as the security forces were overwhelmed by cartel forces.

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Chechnya’s leader blames police failures for violence in Dijon

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Ramzan Kadyrov defends compatriots in France after an attack on Chechen teenager sparked unrest

Ramzan Kadyrov, the autocratic leader of Chechnya, has expressed support for compatriots involved in clashes in the French city of Dijon this month, saying they were protecting one of their own because police failed to act.

Kadyrov’s message came as French police carried out raids and made a number of arrests of Chechens after several nights of violence blamed on members of the Chechen community from last Friday to Monday, when the city was rocked by clashes and car burnings.

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BT and Vodafone told to stock up on Huawei kit over US sanctions

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Security officials fear UK telcos could run out of vital parts if US pressure disrupts supplies

British security officials have told telecoms operators to ensure they have adequate stockpiles of Huawei equipment owing to fears that US sanctions will disrupt the Chinese firm’s ability to maintain critical supplies, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

Senior officials at the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), who are studying the impact of new US measures intended to restrict Huawei’s ability to source advanced microchips, wrote to BT and Vodafone last week, said three people familiar with the matter.

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Can Australia resolve its trade tensions with China? – Australian politics live podcast

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This week Katharine Murphy talks with the Australian trade, tourism and investment minister, Simon Birmingham. They discuss the challenges of economic recovery after the bushfires and coronavirus, and address the escalating trade actions from China. Will Birmingham appease an angered Beijing and reverse China’s tariffs? Or will the relationship see a continued decline in civility?

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Brazilian mayor censured over ‘racist’ coronavirus ban

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Fredson de Silva, mayor of Pau d’Arco, issued decree locking down only indigenous people

Local authorities in the Brazilian Amazon have been accused of racism after locking down a string of indigenous villages and banning indigenous people from entering a local town because of a coronavirus outbreak.

Federal prosecutors on Friday called for the mayor of Pau D’Arco in the Amazon state of Pará – population 6,000 – to revoke the decree, which he said had been issued to protect public health.

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John Bolton memoir reveals UK’s fragile relations with Trump

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Former US national security adviser reveals series of tensions and pressure points

Donald Trump dashed British hopes that he would take a tougher line on Hong Kong, including by refusing to condemn the Tiananmen Square massacre, according to John Bolton’s book about his time as the US president’s national security adviser.

In one of many episodes in the book that reveal the fragile nature of the UK’s relations with the Trump administration, Bolton writes that the president said Tiananmen Square was decades ago and he did not want to jeopardise a potential trade deal with Beijing.

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From celebration to dismay: the week Covid-19 re-emerged in New Zealand

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Gaps in the country’s coronavirus defences have taken the shine off its triumphant story

It had been a triumphant story of national unity and political leadership combining to vanquish a virus that still plagues most nations on the planet. But just a week after New Zealanders celebrated having rid the country of Covid-19 and the government lifted all restrictions on daily life except controls on entering the country, the one vulnerability in its defences – its borders – was dramatically laid bare.

The failure to test returning travellers before they left quarantine, and reports of slipshod standards at the hotels where they are placed in government-managed isolation, threatened political fallout for Jacinda Ardern’s government, which was heralded worldwide for having flattened the Covid-19 infection curve with a swift, early lockdown of the country.

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Amanda Staveley in tears as Barclays lawyer accuses her of ‘hustle’

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Businesswoman is seeking £1.5bn from bank in high court action over £2bn Qatari loan

A businesswoman embroiled in a £1.5bn high court battle with Barclays broke down in tears after bank bosses accused her of engaging in a “hustle”.

Amanda Staveley has made complaints about bank bosses’ behaviour when negotiating investment deals during the 2008 financial crisis.

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India accuses China of preparing attack on border troops

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Delhi says Chinese dammed a river and lay in wait for clash in which 20 Indians died

India has accused Chinese troops of meticulously preparing an attack on its soldiers on the treacherous Himalayan border, claiming they erected a tent on the Indian side, dammed a river, brought in machinery and then lay in wait with stones and batons wrapped in barbed wire.

The incident on Monday night, in which 20 Indian soldiers died and 76 were injured, was the worst violence between India and China for 45 years. China has not said whether it sustained any casualties.

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Croatian police officers arrested over beating of Afghan asylum seeker

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Arrest follows series of complaints of abuse and torture by Croatian law enforcement against those crossing from Bosnia

Two Croatian police officers were arrested on Thursday over the beating of an asylum seeker, as the UN urged the country to immediately investigate reports of excessive use of force against migrants.

The police in Karlovac, 35 miles south-west of Zagreb, announced the two officers had been charged after an Afghan man who crossed the border from Bosnia was injured, 24sata, a leading daily newspaper in Croatia, reported.

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Malala Yousafzai full of ‘joy and gratitude’ after graduating from Oxford

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Educational campaigner tweets about completing philosophy, politics and economics degree

The Nobel prize-winning campaigner Malala Yousafzai has expressed her “joy and gratitude” after completing her degree at University of Oxford.

The 22-year-old shared two pictures of herself covered in confetti on Twitter with the caption: “Hard to express my joy and gratitude right now as I completed my Philosophy, Politics and Economics degree at Oxford.

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Anxiety in Beijing as officials battle new coronavirus outbreak

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Chinese capital abruptly imposes lockdowns after fresh cases threaten official narrative of success

Zhang Le, 25 has been waiting for more than two hours outside a car park to be tested for coronavirus. Police officers stand behind a cordon, futilely shouting through loudspeakers for people not to gather in groups. When they are not looking, two women duck under the tape and jump the queue.

An officer tells Zhang and his colleagues, restaurant workers in a shopping mall, to go to the other entrance to the testing centre, set up on the outskirts of a park. They trudge over there only to be turned away again. Nearby, people stand or sit in groups as police try to herd them away.

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