Ban on air travel between Britain and Greece to continue until June 30, unlike other countries
It was meant to be the moment when Greece “welcomed the world”. But in another about-turn, travellers on flights from the UK will not be accepted when the Mediterranean country reopens to tourism on Monday.
Bowing to new advice from the EU, Athens announced on Friday that the suspension of air links with Britain, in effect since March, will continue to be enforced until 30 June.
Continue reading...President of Burundi whose 15-year rule was ultimately marked by violence and repression
Pierre Nkurunziza, who has died unexpectedly aged 55, was the outgoing president of Burundi whose 15-year-rule, particularly towards the end, was marked by brutal repression.
In 2015, Nkurunziza’s decision to run for an unconstitutional third term led to an outbreak of protests and violence that spread across the country. He responded with brutal violence. Over the next two years, his youth-led militia group, known as the Imbonerakure, as well as various state security forces, killed more than 1,200 Burundians in an attempt to quash street protests. Four hundred thousand more fled the country. A born-again Christian, Nkurunziza spent much of that time organising prayer meetings.
Continue reading...Andrzej Duda launches ‘family charter’ to appeal to base as election race tightens
Gay rights and homophobia are likely to be major issues in Poland’s delayed presidential election after the frontrunner pledged to “defend children from LGBT ideology”.
Andrzej Duda, the incumbent president, who is allied with the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, made the pledge while launching a so-called “family charter”. The move appeared designed to energise the party’s conservative base as polls showed his lead narrowing.
Continue reading...Three-phased plan for Brexit border checks welcomed as UK formally rejects extension to transition period
Full border controls on goods entering the UK will not apply until July next year the government has announced, as it formally notified the EU it does not want an extension to the transition period.
The announcement of a three-phased plan for Brexit border checks was welcomed by industry leaders but represents the most dramatic change to international trading since 1993 when the single market was introduced.
Continue reading...Pregnant woman turned away from eight hospitals as pandemic pushes healthcare to brink of collapse
For the past five days, Bijendra Singh has been haunted by the voice of his dead wife, Neelam. “Why could you not get me the treatment that I needed?” she asks. “Why could you not save me, save our baby?”
It was around 6am on 5 June when Neelam, more than eight months pregnant, began complaining of lower back pain and breathlessness. Presuming it was early contractions, Singh and his wife set off in his brother’s auto-rickshaw to a government hospital in the Uttar Pradesh city of Noida. Before leaving, they kissed their five year-old son goodbye and promised they would be returning with the birthday present he had requested: a baby sister.
Continue reading...Amnesty records 200 state killings and forced disappearances in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, state members of internationally-backed G5 group
Hundreds of civilians have been killed by their own governments in Africa’s Sahel region since countries pledged a surge against militant groups at a regional meeting held by France in January.
Amnesty International said on Wednesday that it had documented 200 cases of unlawful state killings and forced disappearances in February and March in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, which are members of the internationally backed G5 force set up to fight militants in the Sahel.
Continue reading...Pocket Casts says it refuses to restrict its content at request of Chinese authorities
Apple has removed two podcast apps from its Chinese app store, following government pressure to censor content.
Pocket Casts and Castro were both pulled from distribution in China after the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) demanded that the apps stop allowing content that breached the country’s restrictive speech laws.
Continue reading...Chief Allan Adam of Fort Chipewyan First Nation alleges police assaulted him in parking lot in March
Canadian police tackled and punched a prominent First Nations chief in the parking lot of a casino as they accused him of resisting arrest.
On Saturday, Chief Allan Adam of Fort Chipewyan First Nation in Alberta alleged he was assaulted by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) during the incident in early March. It began over an allegation of an expired licence plate but quickly escalated into what Adam claims was a clearcut instance of excessive force.
Continue reading...A statue of a British naval captain has been removed by the city council in Hamilton, New Zealand, after a Māori elder threatened to take it down by force. The statue of Capt John Hamilton, after whom the city in the central North Island is named, was gifted to the city by a local company in 2013. The removal of the statue comes amid wider discussions about the future of New Zealand’s colonial statues
Continue reading...Miguel Otávio Santana da Silva fell nine storeys after being left alone by his mother’s employer, one of many richer white Brazilians employing black domestic workers
Mirtes Santana weeps when she remembers finding her son dying on the pavement outside the luxury seaside apartment block where she worked in north-eastern Brazil.
“I can’t bear it,” said the 33-year-old domestic worker. “It breaks my heart.”
Continue reading...Over 70% of the indigenous Peruvian community of Cantagallo Island have tested positive for coronavirus. This is how they are surviving lockdown
• All photographs by Florence Goupil, who received a grant from the Covid-19 National Geographic emergency fund for journalists
Continue reading...Coronavirus has forced events including AfrikaBurn and Bushfire to cancel, leaving performers without promotional platforms and income
In a region where live music is everything – both for audiences and for performers heavily reliant on live appearances to make a living – the widespread cancellation of festivals across southern Africa has hit the music business hard.
May should have seen the Bushfire festival in Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland), Zakifo and AfrikaBurn in South Africa, and Azgo in Mozambique. Next month would have been Zimfest in Zimbabwe. All have been cancelled – or replaced with online versions – along with dozens of smaller live events that have been growing in recent years, bringing in tourism, showcasing talent and culture, and boosting southern Africa’s music industry.
Continue reading...Continent is seeing more cases spread to the provinces; Trump supporters can’t sue over catching Covid-19 at rallies; Brazil confirms 30,000 new cases
The World Health Organization has warned that the coronavirus pandemic is accelerating in Africa, after the continent hit 200,000 cases earlier this week.
Speaking at a video briefing hosted by the UN press association in Geneva on Thursday, Doctor Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s regional director for Africa, said, “It took 98 days to reach the first 100,000 cases, and only 18 days to move to 200,000 cases.” Africa has so far recorded 5,635 deaths.
Continue reading...Deaths in Delhi could be twice as high as reported; German health minister warns nation against ‘carefree’ attitude
The front page of Saturday’s UK edition of The Guardian.
Guardian front page, Saturday 13 June 2020: Johnson 'stoking fear and division' over protests pic.twitter.com/YX3eiFZb7A
Requiring the wearing of masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus in areas at the epicenter of the global pandemic may have prevented tens of thousands of infections, a new study suggests.
Mask-wearing is even more important for preventing the virus’ spread than social distancing and stay-at-home orders, researchers said in the study published in PNAS: The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.
Continue reading...Critics say legislation is being used for US strategy and could cause further problems for country and wider region
Its currency has plunged by 70% since April, more than half its people face food scarcity, and hopes of rebuilding a country shattered by war continue to ebb.
Syria seems barely able to absorb new shocks, but new US sanctions that take effect next week, could devastate what is left of its flatlining economy and amplify the gravest regional decline in decades.
Continue reading...With no active Covid-19 cases, NZ to open borders to certain migrants but the move will also help team American Magic for March 2021 competition
New Zealand is relaxing its borders to grant exemptions for certain workers – including America’s Cup sailors – and partners of New Zealand citizens to enter the country.
The move comes after 21 days with no new Covid-19 cases across the country and no current live cases.
Continue reading...Meetings on Tiananmen Square massacre and Hong Kong crisis were taken down because Communist government complained
Zoom has admitted it suspended the accounts of human rights activists at the behest of the Chinese government and suggested it will block any further meetings that Beijing complains are illegal.
On Thursday the video conferencing platform was accused of disrupting or shutting down the accounts of three activists who held online events relating to the Tiananmen Square massacre anniversary or discussing the crisis in Hong Kong. None were given an explanation by Zoom.
Continue reading...City council says memorial to Captain John Hamilton comes down after Māori elder calls him a ‘murderer’ and threatens to remove by force
A statue of a British naval captain has been removed by the city council in Hamilton, New Zealand after a local Māori elder threatened to take it down by force.
The statue of Captain John Hamilton, after whom the city in the central North Island is named, was gifted to the city by a local company in 2013.
Continue reading...Netflix was right to pull Lilley’s shows. We have no need for him to whitesplain Tongan people for entertainment
When I first watched Summer Heights High, seeing the character of Jonah – a lazy, dumb, breakdancing, Tongan teenager – I was mortified and struck dumb by the fact that in 2007 brownface was allowed on Australian TV.
This week it was revealed that Netflix had quietly pulled four of Chris Lilley’s television shows, specifically those that featured Lilley in black- or brownface portraying Tongan schoolboy Jonah Takalua and African American rapper S.mouse.
Continue reading...UN expresses horror at finds, mainly in town of Tarhuna, and backs GNA investigation
The United Nations has expressed horror at the discovery of eight mass graves in Libya, mainly in the town of Tarhuna, south of Tripoli, in an area recently retaken from forces loyal to Gen Khalifa Haftar.
The UN mission in Libya said it welcomed the decision by the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) to launch an investigation into the gravesNo estimate of the number of dead has been made public, but one grave contained at least 15 badly decomposed bodies. Some graves are said to contain entire families.
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