Drilling machine stalls metres away from where men have been trapped for 13 days since roof collapse
Hopes are high that in a few hours’ time the 41 workers who have been trapped in a tunnel for 13 days in north India will emerge to freedom and fresh air.
The mood at the scene – where heavy machinery and a more than 200-strong rescue team have been toiling without a break – was upbeat after a monumental and torturous operation.
Continue reading...The first amputee runner to compete at an Olympic Games in 2012, he killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, in 2013
Oscar Pistorius is a former professional sprinter and a convicted murderer.
Continue reading...South African former Paralympic star jailed for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp to be freed on 5 January
South Africa’s parole board has granted early release to Oscar Pistorius, the former athlete jailed for the 2013 murder of Reeva Steenkamp, who was his girlfriend.
Pistorius shot Steenkamp, a law graduate and model, through a bathroom door in their shared home in Pretoria on Valentine’s Day 10 years ago. He claimed he thought there was an intruder in the bathroom when he opened fire.
Continue reading...New curriculum from 2025 part of push to create sense of national identity among schoolchildren
Hong Kong is to introduce “patriotic” education in all primary schools by 2025, in the government’s latest push to “systematically cultivate” a sense of national identity among schoolchildren
Under the new framework, primary school pupils are expected to learn about national security and will also be taught about the opium war and Japan’s invasion of China, two key events in Beijing’s narrative of a “century of humiliation”, which it pushes as a reason for nationalism.
Students will also learn about significant Chinese historical figures and national achievements under the leadership of the Chinese Community party.
“The enrichment aims to keep pace with the times and systematically cultivate students’ sense of belonging to our country, national sentiments and sense of national identity from an early age for the implementation of patriotic education,” an official document reads.
The education bureau said the changes were made in line with national-level legislation that called for strengthening patriotic education in China. Mainland China maintains separate governing and economic system in Hong Kong but has gradually increased its control.
On Thursday, the education bureau announced the existing general studies curriculum in primary schools would be replaced with a new humanities curriculum by 2025. While the curriculum would contain general studies elements, such as health, citizenship and community, it would emphasise patriotic education, with new modules on national identity, national history and national security.
Paul Lee Kin-wan, an education official overseeing curriculum development, said that patriotic values existed in the previous curriculum, and students should know about China’s achievements. “It wouldn’t be right if students know nothing about their country after six years of education,” Lee said.
Students are expected to spend 93 hours – about 7% of their time in primary school – on the new curriculum.
Most of the suggested learning material came from government departments, including a short video about the legislative process of Hong Kong’s national security law, with no mention of the mass protest movement that preceded its enactment.
One veteran educator, who wished not to be named, said the curriculum seemed to emphasise national education over other components. “At that age, it is important to nurture good lifestyle and habits and students’ curiosity about their surroundings,” the educator said, adding that modules on students’ relationships with their family, friends and neighbours took up far less space.
While the curriculum highlights China’s achievements, the educator said the government should make it clearer whether more sensitive topics, such as China’s societal issues, could be discussed in class. “China has historical problems and existing ones. We need to face up to them for the country to progress.”
For more than a decade, the Hong Kong government had been trying to incorporate national and patriotic education into school curriculums. In 2012, a plan to introduce moral and national education in primary and secondary schools provoked mass class boycotts and protests, leading to it being temporary shelved.
Talks begin with liberal leader warning people not to be fooled by Wilders’ ‘Mother Teresa’ act
The party of the Netherlands’ outgoing prime minister, Mark Rutte, has ruled out forming a government with the anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders, as coalition talks began following this week’s shock general election result.
Their decision removes the first building block of a potential partnership government with Wilders’ Freedom party (PVV), which caused a political earthquake after winning more seats than any other party in Wednesday’s vote.
Continue reading...Trade unionists from US and Europe stand with staff at Coventry hub over local pay dispute amid global day of action
Hundreds of strikers outside Amazon’s Coventry warehouse were joined on Black Friday by trade unionists from Europe and the US as part of a global campaign calling for better working conditions at the internet retailer.
Wearing orange beanie hats branded with the GMB union logo, activists from Germany, Italy and California, on strike at their respective Amazon workplaces, expressed solidarity with the Coventry strikers, who have taken 28 days of industrial action since January.
Continue reading...Edelman, world’s largest public relations company, paid millions by Saudi Arabia, UAE and other repressive regimes
Public trust in some of the world’s most repressive governments is soaring, according to Edelman, the world’s largest public relations firm, whose flagship “trust barometer” has created its reputation as an authority on global trust. For years, Edelman has reported that citizens of authoritarian countries, including Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and China, tend to trust their governments more than people living in democracies do.
But Edelman has been less forthcoming about the fact that some of these same authoritarian governments have also been its clients. Edelman’s work for one such client – the government of the UAE – will be front and center when world leaders convene in Dubai later this month for the UN’s Cop28 climate summit.
Continue reading...Drew Harris says radicalised people exploited ‘terrible crime’ of knife attack to unleash mayhem on streets
Ireland’s police chief has warned that far-right radicalisation will continue to disrupt the country after a night of arson, rioting and looting left parts of Dublin resembling a war zone.
The capital was tense on Friday as significant numbers of police remained on the streets and Dublin counted the cost of an anti-immigrant protest that turned into anarchy, leaving the political establishment shocked.
Continue reading...More than 50 people dead in Tigray and Amhara regions while UN warns of ‘crisis-level hunger or worse’ in Somalia
The regions of Tigray and Amhara in northern Ethiopia have continued to experience severe drought conditions with more than 50 people dead, as well as 4,000 cattle.
While northern Ethiopia suffers from droughts, the southern and eastern parts of the country, along with Kenya and Somalia, have been hit by flooding. Somalia suffered the worst of the flooding, with 50 people reported dead. According to the Somali disaster management agency almost 700,000 people have been forced to leave their homes.
Continue reading...European Environment Agency says half of deaths could have been avoided by cutting pollution to recommended limits
Dirty air killed more than half a million people in the EU in 2021, estimates show, and about half of the deaths could have been avoided by cutting pollution to the limits recommended by doctors.
The researchers from the European Environment Agency attributed 253,000 early deaths to concentrations of fine particulates known as PM2.5 that breached the World Health Organization’s maximum guideline limits of 5µg/m3. A further 52,000 deaths came from excessive levels of nitrogen dioxide and 22,000 deaths from short-term exposure to excessive levels of ozone.
Continue reading...One of the investors bidding for the paper is the vice-president of the UAE, which is ranked far down the press freedom index
The United Arab Emirates has a mixed record on free speech. Detention of journalists is not uncommon and the nation ranked 145th out of 180 countries included in a press freedom index compiled by Reporters Without Borders.
Now a member of the ruling elite has set his sights on a UK newspaper whose roots can be traced back more than 100 years before the official creation of the Gulf state.
Continue reading...US reportedly willing to attack Houthi military sites unless Houthis release Israeli-linked ship seized on Sunday
Advanced plans by Saudi Arabia to strike a peace deal with the Houthi rebels in Yemen are being jeopardised by Houthi attacks on Israel and this week’s seizure of an Israeli-linked commercial vessel in the Red Sea.
Saudi Arabia hopes it can maintain a firewall between the Yemen peace talks and the Houthis’ attacks on Israel, but in London and Washington there is pressure to redesignate the Houthis as a terrorist organisation, which would threaten any deal.
Continue reading...Dictator seen with daughter at celebration for scientists and technicians who finally put Malligyong-1 into space after two failed attempts
The North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un, has celebrated a “new era of a space power” with his family including daughter Ju Ae and the scientists who put the North’s first spy satellite into orbit.
Pyongyang’s launch of the Malligyong-1 on Tuesday was its third attempt after failures in May and August.
Continue reading...After weeks of negotiations, incoming PM Christopher Luxon announces populist Winston Peters and libertarian David Seymour will alternate as deputy
Nearly six weeks after New Zealand’s general election, the incoming prime minister, National’s Christopher Luxon, has announced the shape of the governing coalition with the libertarian Act and populist New Zealand First parties.
Luxon told a media conference in Wellington on Friday that the three parties had agreed on a “common sense” plan that reflected their values and policies.
Continue reading...Lawsuit alleges the Hollywood star assaulted a woman while at Catch NYC & Roof, a restaurant and rooftop bar, in summer 2015
Hollywood star Jamie Foxx has denied accusations that he sexually assaulted a woman while at a New York rooftop bar eight years ago.
The lawsuit alleges in summer 2015, Foxx made comments such as, “Wow, you have that supermodel body,” while at Catch NYC & Roof, a restaurant and rooftop bar, before grabbing the woman by the arm and pulling her to the “secluded” back of the rooftop.
Continue reading...Crowd chanting anti-immigrant slogans clashes with police hours after stabbing incident outside school
Buses and trams have been torched and a shop looted during riots in Dublin city centre after a stabbing attack outside a school left three children injured.
Police and politicians called for calm amid warnings against misinformation as violence escalated from a demonstration that began on Thursday afternoon at the scene of the incident.
Continue reading...Epidemiologists say wave in north, particularly among children, may be partly caused by ‘immunity debt’
Chinese health authorities have provided the requested data on an increase in respiratory illnesses and reported clusters of pneumonia in children, and have not detected any unusual or novel pathogens, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.
The WHO had asked China for more information on Wednesday after groups including the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases reported clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children in north China.
Continue reading...UK foreign secretary hopes situation will provide opportunity to ‘get hostages out and get aid into Gaza’
David Cameron has met Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, during a visit to Israel, expressing hope that the planned temporary truce with Hamas would be an “opportunity to crucially get hostages out and get aid into Gaza”.
The ceasefire is due to begin on Friday morning from 7am local time, with aid “going in as soon as possible”, according to Qatari officials. The first set of civilians held captive by Hamas are expected to be freed at about 4pm local time on Friday, including 13 women and children.
Continue reading...IDF claims al-Shifa hospital was Hamas command and control centre as footage of tunnels and underground rooms appears
Israel’s army has arrested the director of Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital and bombed at least 300 targets from the air, killing dozens of Palestinians, as an agreed four-day truce was delayed until Friday.
Mohammad abu Salmiya and other medics were detained, a colleague said, amid reports that members of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) had seized them as they were travelling with a World Health Organization evacuation convoy.
Continue reading...Far-right leader also says he wants EU exit referendum, as other parties meet to consider joining coalition
Geert Wilders, the leader of the Netherlands’ far-right, anti-Islam Party for Freedom (PVV), has vowed to try to become prime minister and has said he is in favour of a referendum on the country’s EU membership after his party scored an unexpected and emphatic victory in Wednesday’s general election.
The PVV – whose manifesto included calls for bans on mosques, the Qur’an, and the wearing of Islamic headscarves in government buildings – won 37 seats in the 150-seat parliament, more than double its previous number.
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