Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
The Olive Ridley turtles are part of conservationists’ attempts to boost the population and promote environmental protection
More than 10,000 baby turtles were released into the sea off the Indonesian island of Bali, as part of conservationists’ attempts to boost the population of a vulnerable species and promote environmental protection.
Conservation groups carried crates each full of dozens of tiny turtles to the island’s Gianyar beach on Friday and encouraged local people and volunteers to line up on the sand and release the hatchlings together.
With tourism devastated by the pandemic, many have returned to work the fields. Some believe they will never go back
Ni Kadek Erawati, 40, used to work in a villa in her village, Tegallalang, a Balinese district famous for its Instagram-able rice terraces.
But in March, her employer asked her to take a break until further notice. Her husband is unemployed and she needs to pay school fees for three children, but the only job she could find was working on a farm.
India has become the third country to record more than 1m coronavirus infections, following the US and Brazil, as it reported 34,956 new cases in the past 24 hours, taking the national total to 1,003,832.
New peaks continue to appear around the world, including an alarming rise in the Brittany region of France.
Attempts to control a growing coronavirus outbreak in Indonesia, the worst-hit country in south-east Asia, are being hampered by a lack of testing, poor communication from the government and the promotion of bogus cures, health experts have warned.
The country has so far recorded more than 74,000 cases and 3,535 deaths from the virus, though it is feared that this could be a vast underestimate. While testing rates have improved, they remain among the lowest in the world.
During the annual Yadnya Kasada festival, the Tenggerese people climb Mount Bromo, an active volcano, and seek the blessing of the gods by presenting offerings of rice, fruit, livestock and other items. Inside the crater villagers use nets to try to catch the offerings
The recent seizure of the biggest shipment of illegal fins in Hong Kong history shows the taste for shark is still going strong
In the narrow streets of Sai Ying Pun neighbourhood, the centre of Hong Kong’s dried seafood trade, most window displays give pride of place to a particular item: shark fins. Perched on shelves, stuffed in jars and stacked in bags, shark fins are offered in all shapes and sizes. Several shops even include “shark fin” in their name.
Fins are lucrative, fetching as much as HK$6,800 (£715) per catty (604.8g, or about 21oz), and the trade is big business. Hong Kong is the largest shark fin importer in the world, and responsible for about half of the global trade. The fins sold in Sai Ying Pun come from more than 100 countries and 76 different species of sharks and rays, a third of which are endangered.
Governments across south-east Asia are turning away boats but in Aceh locals took matters into their own hands
On Thursday afternoon, residents of Aceh, Indonesia, waded back and forth in water helping Rohingya refugees clamber to safety. Exhausted children were passed between rescuers.
On Lancok beach, where survivors gathered, a man knelt with his head on the sand, thankful to be alive. Another embraced a member of the rescue team tightly.
‘Balikpapan Seven’ accused of promoting West Papua independence movement at Indonesia rallies
Seven Papuan activists have been found guilty of treason and sentenced to up to 11 months in prison for their involvement in anti-racism rallies in West Papua last year, a verdict that has been condemned by human rights groups.
The men, known as the “Balikpapan Seven”, were convicted over protests that were sparked last summer by a viral video in which Papuan students were called “monkeys” and subjected to other racist taunts. Thousands of people took part in the rallies, some of which turned violent.
The Black Lives Matter actions have given renewed impetus to the campaign against injustices in the Indonesian province
Student Eden Armando Bebari, 19, was allegedly shot and killed by Indonesian security forces while fishing in his home town in West Papua in April.
Indonesian media described Bebari as a member of an armed criminal group, a claim denied by his parents. Many residents in Papua, the eastern-most province of Indonesia, now fish and tend crops to ease food shortages brought about by coronavirus lockdowns.
France is to lift its state of emergency on 10 July, Denmark said opening its bars, restaurants and malls had not led to a rise in infections, and Austria will reopen its border with Italy next week as EU nations pursue their steady exits from lockdown.
However, Germany extended its coronavirus travel warnings for more than 160 countries outside Europe until the end of August and reports suggested that Moscow’s death toll may be twice as high as Russia’s official figures.
Moscow has partially lifted its lockdown despite Russia reporting thousands of new daily cases and Spain’s government said face masks would remain mandatory in public as Europe continued to emerge from the first phase of its struggle against Covid-19.
Concern mounted, however, over the spread of coronavirus in Africa and elsewhere, with Nigeria confirming 600 deaths from a previously undetected outbreak and South Africa warning its pandemic could last up to two years.
Jacob Roberts, 29, fell four metres into the pit after being chased by a dog, but was rescued when a farmer heard his cries for help
A British man who spent six days trapped in a well after being chased by a dog has been rescued on the Indonesian island of Bali, authorities said on Sunday.
A rescue team lifted 29-year-old Jacob Roberts from the four-metre-deep concrete pit after a farmer in Pecatu village raised the alarm.
The 102-year-old car rental firm Hertz has filed for bankruptcy protection in the US after its business all but vanished during the coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reports.
Hertz said in a US court filing on Friday that it had voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 reorganisation. Its international operating regions including Europe, Australia and New Zealand were not included in the US proceedings.
The 54 countries of the African Union were reporting a total of 103,933 cases of coronavirus on Saturday morning, according the Africa Centres for Disease Control.
So far African nations have reported 3,183 deaths from Covid-19, while 41,473 people have recovered since the virus was first detected on the continent 14 weeks ago.
Case numbers have not grown at the same exponential rate as in other regions and so far Africa has not experienced the high mortality seen in some parts of the world. Today, there are 3,100 confirmed deaths on the continent.
By comparison, when cases reached 100,000 in the World Health Organization (WHO) European region, deaths stood at more than 4,900. Early analysis by WHO suggests that Africa’s lower mortality rate may be the result of demography and other possible factors. Africa is the youngest continent demographically with more than 60% of the population under the age of 25. Older adults have a significantly increased risk of developing a severe illness. In Europe nearly 95% of deaths occurred in those older than 60 years.
Now that countries are starting to ease their confinement measures, there is a possibility that cases could increase significantly, and it is critical that governments remain vigilant and ready to adjust measures in line with epidemiological data and proper risk assessment.
Data breach included names, home addresses and national identification numbers
Indonesia is investigating how 2.3 million voters’ personal information was leaked online, the election commission said.
The data breach, which included names, home addresses and national identification numbers, appeared to be from the 2014 election voter list, the General Election Commission revealed on Friday.
India has reported more than 6,000 new Covid-19 cases, its biggest one-day increase, while Chinahas abandoned setting a GDP growth target because of the “great uncertainty” caused by the pandemic.
The sharp increase in new infections in India came after the government began easing lockdown restrictions and as airlines prepared to reopen selected domestic routes.
Madrid and Barcelona to ease lockdown as Spain’s death toll stays under 100 again; 660,000 people forced to flee homes during crisis despite UN global ceasefire call
Peru has extended its state of emergency until the end of June with only a very partial lifting of its lockdown as infections continue to climb despite more than two months of confinement.
Peru is the second-worst affected Latin American country, with more than 111,000 cases and a death toll of 3,148, according to official figures.
It’s not just an extension ... there is a strategy to combat the virus. This disease will not beaten in a short time. It’s not a 100m sprint, it’s a marathon.
Over the course of the last 60 days we have made great efforts but we have to make another qualitative jump in the health sector.
France regrets a British decision to impose a quarantine on people arriving from mainland Europe and stands ready to impose reciprocal measures, the Agence France-Presse news agency has quoted the country’s interior ministry as saying.
Indonesia has reported its highest number of daily coronavirus cases as millions of people in the world’s fourth most populous country prepared to mark the festival of Eid al-Fitr without the usual celebrations and gatherings.
This year’s festivities will be dampened by the economic hardship for many as Indonesian migrant workers, who usually send money back home to their families, have been left stranded and with no income.
Political activists wait to find out if they will be included in government pardon scheme to stop the spread of Covid-19
It has been two months since Andi Rizky last saw her uncle Jimmy, a drug offender in Cilegon Prison, Banten province, in person. Since the middle of March, the prison has banned visitors because of concerns about the spread of the coronavirus.
In 10-minute video calls to replace the visits, the pair have discussed the Indonesian government’s plan to release thousands of prisoners.
Accounts also linked to Honduras and Indonesia violated policy and were ‘targeted attempt to undermine the public conversation’
Twitter has deleted 20,000 fake accounts linked to the governments of Serbia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Honduras and Indonesia, saying they violated company policy and were a “targeted attempt to undermine the public conversation”.
Yoel Roth, the head of site integrity, said the removal of the accounts was part of the company’s ongoing “work to detect and investigate state-backed information operations”.
Last Thursday morning Louisa Baillie drove down the five-kilometre dirt track that connects her jungle home in the Amazon rainforest to the main road. At the junction, she parked, hiking the rest of the way into Mera, a town of about 8,000 people.
After filling her backpack with fruit and vegetables from local sellers, she grabbed some leaves and set about plucking termites off trees along the roadside, stuffing them into a bucket containing small fragments of the insects’ nests. Baillie works as a veterinarian at Merazonia, a wildlife rescue centre in Ecuador. The termites were dinner for Andy the anteater, a baby recently confiscated at a police checkpoint.