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- Taiwan train crash: dozens dead after express service derails in tunnel
- Ethiopia: 1,900 people killed in massacres in Tigray identified
- Video of George Floyd's killing retraumatizes many as trial unfolds
- Myanmar coup: military expands internet shutdown
- Rights groups in Russia condemn Moscow's role in Syria war crimes
- Oxfam to investigate misconduct claims against staff in DRC
- Netherlands PM Mark Rutte narrowly survives no-confidence vote
- Windrush campaigners alarmed by omissions of No 10 race report
- Chicago police shooting victim was 13-year-old boy, department says
- New laws fuelling ‘increasing hostility’ and anti-LGBTQ violence in Uzbekistan
- Covid live news: UK poised to introduce traffic light system for foreign travel; second wave hits Indian states
- Brazil's gravediggers exhume bodies to make space for Covid victims
- 'You just have to be creative': couples in England tie the knot as lockdown eases
- Pfizer vaccine has 91% efficacy for up to six months, trial shows
- 'Citrusy aroma': how feijoas baffled a New Zealand immigrant – and polarise a nation
- ‘There were pitched battles, fist fights’: how Britfunk overcame racism to reinvigorate UK pop
- Why did The Bonfire of the Vanities go from bestselling book to box-office bomb?
- Nappy nomads: the couples who do #vanlife with babies on board
- Experience: I carried a twin in each of my wombs
- First Person Singular by Haruki Murakami review – meditations on ageing and memory
- Bristol police chief accepts force was slow to correct protest injury claims
- US fossil fuel companies took billions in tax breaks – and then laid off thousands
- Famed garment factory paying a living wage struggles to stay afloat
- Australia investigating whether blood clots in Victorian man linked to AstraZeneca vaccine
- Mexican press freedom dispute erupts as Amlo attacks US and domestic critics
- Dozens killed after train carrying about 350 people derails in eastern Taiwan – video
- The Nigerian woman starting school at 50 – in pictures
- Police in Brussels use teargas and water cannon to disperse fake concert crowd – video
- Derek Chauvin's supervisor says officers 'could have ended restraint' of George Floyd – video
- George Floyd's girlfriend testifies through tears about opioid addiction – video
- UK must do more to address 'serious issues' with racism, says Boris Johnson – video
| Taiwan train crash: dozens dead after express service derails in tunnel Posted: 02 Apr 2021 01:09 AM PDT At least 41 people have died as train carrying 350 crashes near Hualien City at the start of a holiday weekend Dozens of people have died after a train derailed in a tunnel in eastern Taiwan on the first day of a holiday period, authorities say, in the island's deadliest rail disaster in decades. The 408 Taroko Express was carrying about 350 people when it derailed on Friday morning at Qingshui tunnel in Hualien county, the transport ministry said. Four deaths were immediately reported but the toll rose sharply by mid-afternoon, with the confirmation that 41 people, including the train driver, had died. Continue reading... |
| Ethiopia: 1,900 people killed in massacres in Tigray identified Posted: 01 Apr 2021 07:00 PM PDT List compiled by researchers of victims of mass killings includes infants and people in their 90s Almost 2,000 people killed in more than 150 massacres by soldiers, paramilitaries and insurgents in Tigray have been identified by researchers studying the conflict. The oldest victims were in their 90s and the youngest were infants. The identifications are based on reports from a network of informants in the northern Ethiopian province run by a team at the University of Ghent in Belgium. The team, which has been studying the conflict in Tigray since it broke out last year, has crosschecked reports with testimony from family members and friends, media reports and other sources. Continue reading... |
| Video of George Floyd's killing retraumatizes many as trial unfolds Posted: 01 Apr 2021 11:30 PM PDT Prosecution has shown jury – and those watching at home via livestream – footage of the afternoon, the arrest and Floyd's death The public has been able to livestream the murder trial of ex-police officer Derek Chauvin since Monday, as searing video of George Floyd and wrenching testimony from distressed witnesses who watched him die filled the court room and the senses of millions, from Minneapolis to the rest of the world. As the trial got fully under way, the prosecution showed the jury not only bystander video, with which many were familiar from but also a lot of never-before-seen footage showing various aspects of Floyd's last afternoon, his arrest and his excruciating death as Chauvin kneeled on his neck last May. Continue reading... |
| Myanmar coup: military expands internet shutdown Posted: 01 Apr 2021 11:12 PM PDT New cuts affect wireless broadband services and come as UN security council expresses 'deep concern' at the 'rapidly deteriorating situation' Myanmar's military junta has expanded an internet shutdown, further stifling access to information in the country, where hundreds of people have been killed and disappeared following a coup in February. On Thursday night, ahead of the new restrictions, people rushed to share links to radio channels and communication apps that function offline. On the streets, protesters held a vigil, using candles to spell the words "We will never surrender". Continue reading... |
| Rights groups in Russia condemn Moscow's role in Syria war crimes Posted: 02 Apr 2021 02:00 AM PDT First extensive report issues rare criticism of conflict abuses such as indiscriminate bombings Leading human rights organisations in Russia have released their first comprehensive report on abuses in the decade-old conflict in Syria, condemning Moscow's direct participation in indiscriminate bombings of civilians, its backing of the Assad regime's use of torture, and culpability in other war crimes. "Russian state media does not report on the victims of bombardments, nor the forced displacement of civilians resulting in part from Russia's military actions in Syria," the authors of the report wrote. "As a result, the Russian public does not have sufficient knowledge to judge whom and what we are supporting in Syria, how much this war costs us, and how much suffering the war has inflicted upon civilians – people who have never taken up arms." Continue reading... |
| Oxfam to investigate misconduct claims against staff in DRC Posted: 01 Apr 2021 11:40 PM PDT Two aid workers suspended as charity looks into allegations of bullying and sexual misconduct Two Oxfam aid workers have been suspended as part of an investigation into allegations of bullying and sexual misconduct against senior managers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The inquiry comes just a few weeks after the charity's statutory supervision status was lifted, following reforms prompted by a 2019 report into conduct by its staff after the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Continue reading... |
| Netherlands PM Mark Rutte narrowly survives no-confidence vote Posted: 01 Apr 2021 09:21 PM PDT The recently re-elected keader was accused of covering up efforts to rein in an outspoken MP Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte has survived one of the biggest political fights of his decade in power, narrowly winning a no-confidence vote over claims he lied about coalition talks. Dubbed the "Teflon premier" for his ability to dodge scandal, Rutte will however remain under pressure after every party except his own supported a separate motion in parliament condemning his behaviour. Continue reading... |
| Windrush campaigners alarmed by omissions of No 10 race report Posted: 02 Apr 2021 12:00 AM PDT As scandal is mentioned twice in 258 pages, some of those affected question government's understanding of it Campaigners for the rights of those affected by the Windrush scandal expressed concern that the issue was raised just twice in the controversial 258-page racial disparity report commissioned by the government. The report concludes Britain is no longer a place where "the system is deliberately rigged against ethnic minorities", despite the scandal providing one of the clearest examples in recent history where government decisions caused catastrophic, racially discriminatory outcomes. Continue reading... |
| Chicago police shooting victim was 13-year-old boy, department says Posted: 01 Apr 2021 07:36 PM PDT Adam Toledo was killed in an 'armed confrontation', police say, as family calls for justice A 13-year-old boy has been identified as a person shot dead by Chicago police on the city's west side in what the department called an "armed confrontation". Adam Toledo died of a gunshot wound to his chest early on Monday, the Cook county medical examiner's office said on Thursday. Continue reading... |
| New laws fuelling ‘increasing hostility’ and anti-LGBTQ violence in Uzbekistan Posted: 02 Apr 2021 12:00 AM PDT Campaigners say that widespread homophobia in the conservative Islamic country is being inflamed by changes to the criminal code Uzbekistan's LGBTQ+ community says it is facing increasing threats and repression after anti-LGBTQ+ protests turned violent and new laws were passed this week banning the publication of content deemed to show disrespect for society and the state. The legislation, passed on Tuesday, makes it illegal for the media or online commentators to publish content arguing for the decriminalisation of sexual conduct between men, which is currently illegal and punishable by up to three years in jail. Uzbekistan – along with Turkmenistan – are the only post-Soviet states that prohibit sexual relations between men. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 02 Apr 2021 02:15 AM PDT Countries will be graded green, amber or red, on how well they are coping with the pandemic; India reports highest daily cases in six months
A food bank on Portugal's Algarve, which has two warehouses in the region, is now helping 29,000 people, almost double the number before the pandemic, as thousands of people had their lives turned upside down across the sun-drenched tourism region, with its popular beaches and golf resorts largely deserted. "It's the first time since the food bank began in Algarve that the numbers have reached such a level," said the food bank's president, Nuno Alves, as volunteers distributed food to drivers from various charities waiting in their cars outside, Reuters reports.
Police on horseback dispersed a crowd of up to 2,000 people gathered in a Brussels park on Thursday for a fake concert announced on social media as an April Fool's Day prank. Agence France-Presse reports: AFP journalists at the scene saw projectiles thrown at police in riot gear in the Bois de la Cambre park on the southern side of the Belgian capital. Police said that three officers were wounded, one of whom was taken to hospital, and four people were arrested. Continue reading... |
| Brazil's gravediggers exhume bodies to make space for Covid victims Posted: 01 Apr 2021 06:19 PM PDT As cemeteries run out of space, World Health Organization experts warn multiple states in 'critical condition' See all our coronavirus coverage The Brazilian city of São Paulo has sped up efforts to empty old graves to make room for a soaring number of Covid deaths as the sprawling metropolis registered record daily burials this week. As the World Health Organization warned that the pandemic has put a number of Brazilian states in "critical condition", gravediggers worked on Thursday to open the tombs of people buried years ago, bagging decomposed remains for removal to another location. Continue reading... |
| 'You just have to be creative': couples in England tie the knot as lockdown eases Posted: 02 Apr 2021 12:52 AM PDT Couples are going ahead with smaller ceremonies, with up to six attendees, including bride and groom Having trimmed their guest list from 180 people to four, Jessica and Jonny Chope were one of the first couples to get married on Monday when restrictions in England eased to allow weddings to take place again. They tied the knot at Alton register office in Hampshire in front of their parents while a registrar read the vows from behind a plastic screen. It was a world away from the big wedding they had originally planned for summer 2020, but for Jessica the intimate ceremony could not have been more perfect. Continue reading... |
| Pfizer vaccine has 91% efficacy for up to six months, trial shows Posted: 01 Apr 2021 09:27 AM PDT Findings based on two doses three weeks apart are first to show shot remains effective for many months The coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech protects against symptomatic Covid for up to six months, an updated analysis of clinical trial data has found. In a statement released on Thursday, the companies reported efficacy of 91.3% against any symptoms of the disease in participants assessed up to six months after their second shot. The level of protection is only marginally lower than the 95% achieved soon after vaccination. Continue reading... |
| 'Citrusy aroma': how feijoas baffled a New Zealand immigrant – and polarise a nation Posted: 01 Apr 2021 06:01 PM PDT When Polish-born Hania Żądło inquired about the strange avocado-like fruit, she was met with a mixture of indignation, hostility … and sympathy When Hania Żądło, a new arrival in New Zealand, asked an innocent question about an unfamiliar fruit, she was not to know that she was undermining a national treasure. As a registered nurse, Żądło and her husband, an anaesthetic technician, had both been granted "critical purpose" visas to take up jobs at Dunedin hospital. After landing in Auckland from the UK in late March, they were sent with their two children to the Crowne Plaza hotel for two weeks' mandatory quarantine. Continue reading... |
| ‘There were pitched battles, fist fights’: how Britfunk overcame racism to reinvigorate UK pop Posted: 01 Apr 2021 10:00 PM PDT Blending jazz-funk, glam rock and punk energy in the late 1970s, Britfunk crash-landed into the charts and inspired club culture. The musicians relive one of the first homegrown Black music scenes Last year, a few weeks before lockdown began, Gilles Peterson was watching the Brit awards when the American musician Tyler, the Creator won the international male solo artist award. In his acceptance speech, he said something deeply unexpected: "Shoutout to all the British funk of the 80s that I've tried to copy." Peterson was startled. He had been an aspiring teenage DJ during what has become known as the Britfunk era – a period from 1976 to 1982, when London spawned a succession of homegrown bands putting their raw spin on the sound of funk – and could vouch for its impact and importance. There's a convincing argument that Britfunk was the UK's first homegrown Black – or at least multiracial – musical genre: certainly, it's neck and neck for the title with lovers rock. Continue reading... |
| Why did The Bonfire of the Vanities go from bestselling book to box-office bomb? Posted: 01 Apr 2021 11:00 PM PDT Thirty years on, why was Brian De Palma's star-studded adaptation of Tom Wolfe's novel such a flop? In the opening minutes of the film adaptation of The Bonfire of the Vanities, Bruce Willis's journalist Peter Fallow arrives in an inebriated state to the launch of his new book. Through a glorious, unbroken tracking shot, Fallow indulges in the excesses of celebrity while being fawned over by the New York socialite and intellectual scene. His writing is said to be as vital to literature as Anna Karenina. Once a washed-up has-been, Fallow is now admired by those who detested him. If only the same could be said for Brian De Palma's film. Tom Wolfe published the novel The Bonfire of the Vanities in 1987. In it, smarmy Wall Street bond trader Sherman McCoy becomes lost in the Bronx during a rendezvous with his mistress, Maria Ruskin, and runs over a young African American called Henry Lamb. Lamb falls into a coma and his misfortune is taken advantage of by Fallow and Reverend Bacon, a black religious and political figure, who use the Lamb case for their own gain. As a result, McCoy is engulfedin a legal battle that threatens to destroy his livelihood. Continue reading... |
| Nappy nomads: the couples who do #vanlife with babies on board Posted: 01 Apr 2021 12:00 PM PDT As the vanlife community grows up, a new generation is being born into the bohemian travelling lifestyle. Doosie Morris meets the couples who take their lives, and babies, on the road In October 2020, 34-year-old Karstan Smith had just returned from a 15,000km drive. Four months earlier the Newcastle native had set off in a 1968 Kombi panel van with his childhood sweetheart, Maxine, and their baby daughter, Zuri, and headed north. Within a week of being home, he'd thrown out 90% of his clothes, purchased a map of Australia and a box of thumbtacks and started planning the next family adventure. For most parents the first year of family life is a wild enough ride in its own right, the very steepest of learning curves, never mind enduring the whole discombobulating scenario while living in the back of a van. Continue reading... |
| Experience: I carried a twin in each of my wombs Posted: 02 Apr 2021 02:00 AM PDT The medical staff had never seen anything like it. They told us the chances were one in 50 million The day I gave birth, there were 24 people in the room, most of them fascinated medical students. At 10.11am they watched as my daughter, Bonnie, came into the world, and five minutes later they saw Watson emerge, from my other womb. The twins were not our first children. Our eldest daughter, Agyness, was born two months early, in 2015, but doctors said early labour was "one of those things". When I became pregnant with Margot, born six weeks early, in 2017, scans revealed a bicornuate uterus, which means it's heart-shaped. But no one spotted the second one. Continue reading... |
| First Person Singular by Haruki Murakami review – meditations on ageing and memory Posted: 02 Apr 2021 01:00 AM PDT In these underpowered short stories, the female characters are mere pretexts for male epiphany Eight stories are told in the first person, with each narrator a man in late middle age who shares interests, such as jazz and baseball, with his author. Only one narrator is given a name: "Haruki Murakami". Murakami, by his own account, is less interested in creating complex characters than in the interaction his characters have with the world in which he imagines them. Even so, the women in this book are remarkably less complex, less individual, than the men, existing primarily as a pretext for the male characters to find out, or fail to find out, about themselves. The playfulness with the identity of the narrator might be more rewarding, were it not for the stretches of tepid, underpowered writing. The conversational style can be slack and cliched, speckled with reflections on philosophical questions about ageing, identity, memory and what it is to know oneself. In "The Yakult Swallows Poetry Collection", it is hard not to read "It's true that life brings us far more defeats than victories" as merely trite. When the situation repeats of the older man, looking back at his youth, surprised by ageing, and having learned very little (an acute enough observation), the reader, too, learns very little, and might begin to conclude that these are tales of the slightly remarkable, which one would not be tempted to read more than once. Continue reading... |
| Bristol police chief accepts force was slow to correct protest injury claims Posted: 01 Apr 2021 04:01 PM PDT Mark Runacres says claim officers had bones broken at 'kill the bill' event were 'hugely regrettable' A police commander has accepted that his force was too slow to correct a false claim that two officers had suffered broken bones during clashes with "kill the bill" protesters in Bristol. Supt Mark Runacres, the Bristol area commander, also said he regretted that demonstrators had been injured during a subsequent night of violence when police with riot shields, dogs and horses dispersed them. Continue reading... |
| US fossil fuel companies took billions in tax breaks – and then laid off thousands Posted: 02 Apr 2021 02:00 AM PDT Figures show 77 companies received $8.2bn under tax changes related to Covid relief and yet almost every one let workers go Fossil-fuel companies have received billions of dollars in tax benefits from the US government as part of coronavirus relief measures, only to lay off tens of thousands of their workers during the pandemic, new figures reveal. A group of 77 firms involved in the extraction of oil, gas and coal received $8.2bn under tax-code changes that formed part of a major pandemic stimulus bill passed by Congress last year. Five of these companies also got benefits from the paycheck protection program, totaling more than $30m. Continue reading... |
| Famed garment factory paying a living wage struggles to stay afloat Posted: 02 Apr 2021 02:00 AM PDT Workers were furloughed without pay amid the pandemic at the Dominican garment factory, the only one in the developing world that pays a living wage When Alta Gracia launched in 2010 it was hailed as an experiment to show the world that garment factory workers in the developing world could aspire to a living wage and that their labor rights could be respected. But in order to survive the company, which sells T-shirts and sweatshirts made in the Dominican Republic to US college students, also needs to make a profit. And then came Covid-19. Nine months after the pandemic hit, Alta Gracia workers were furloughed without pay and the US based company is struggling to stay afloat. This is not the first time the company has struggled and its failure to keep its head above water over a decade led some to question whether a clothing business can pay a decent wage and still be profitable. Continue reading... |
| Australia investigating whether blood clots in Victorian man linked to AstraZeneca vaccine Posted: 01 Apr 2021 10:33 PM PDT Acting chief medical officer says authorities are taking reports of clotting disorder after vaccination 'very seriously' but says no causal link has yet been proven
The Therapeutic Goods Administration has announced it is investigating a potential link between the AstraZeneca vaccine and a rare clotting disorder, after a 44-year-old man was admitted to hospital with blood clots after receiving the vaccine. On Friday Australia's acting chief medical officer, Prof Michael Kidd, told reporters that health authorities were taking this case "very seriously". Continue reading... |
| Mexican press freedom dispute erupts as Amlo attacks US and domestic critics Posted: 01 Apr 2021 01:12 PM PDT President hits back over critical US human rights report but also singles out Mexican press freedom group Article 19 for censure A growing row over press freedom has engulfed Mexico after the country's nationalist president maligned a routine US human rights report which highlighted his government's failure to protect journalists – and the behaviour of some officials against media members. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, commonly called Amlo, condemned Mexico's mention in the state department's annual human rights report as an unwelcome intervention in Mexican matters. Continue reading... |
| Dozens killed after train carrying about 350 people derails in eastern Taiwan – video Posted: 02 Apr 2021 12:19 AM PDT Dozens of people have died after a train derailed in a tunnel in eastern Taiwan, authorities have said. The 408 Taroko Express was carrying about 350 people when it crashed on Friday morning at Qingshui tunnel in Huaelien county, the transport ministry said. It said 36 passengers 'had no signs of life', and 44 others had been taken to hospital with injuries. The majority of injuries occurred in the last two carriages. The express train was travelling south towards Taitung on the first day of a long weekend for the traditional Tomb Sweeping holiday Continue reading... |
| The Nigerian woman starting school at 50 – in pictures Posted: 01 Apr 2021 11:00 PM PDT It's never too late to learn, says 50-year-old Shade Ajayi, who attends Ilorin grammar school in Kwara state, Nigeria Continue reading... |
| Police in Brussels use teargas and water cannon to disperse fake concert crowd – video Posted: 01 Apr 2021 10:28 PM PDT Police in Brussels have used teargas and a water cannon on a large crowd gathered in a park for a fake concert announced on social media as an April Fools' Day prank. The police entered Bois de la Cambre park on the south side of the Belgian capital to enforce strict Covid-19 social distancing rules that prohibit gatherings of more than four people outdoors. The crowd responded by throwing projectiles, hitting at least one police officer. Belgium imposed tighter restrictions on Saturday aimed at curbing surging Covid infection numbers Continue reading... |
| Derek Chauvin's supervisor says officers 'could have ended restraint' of George Floyd – video Posted: 01 Apr 2021 07:25 PM PDT Derek Chauvin's police supervisor, Sgt David Pleoger, has said there was no justification for the officer keeping a knee on George Floyd's neck for nine minutes. Ploeger arrived at the scene shortly after Floyd was taken away by ambulance, said that Chauvin and other officers holding down the 46-year-old Black man should have stopped using force once Floyd stopped resisting. 'When Mr Floyd was no longer offering up any resistance to the officers they could have ended their restraint,' he said Continue reading... |
| George Floyd's girlfriend testifies through tears about opioid addiction – video Posted: 01 Apr 2021 11:49 AM PDT George Floyd's girlfriend told the Derek Chauvin murder trial that the couple shared an addiction to opioid painkillers that they struggled to overcome in the weeks before his death. Courteney Ross described meeting the man she called 'Floyd', but the bulk of her testimony on the fourth day of the trial focused on the pair's opioid use
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| UK must do more to address 'serious issues' with racism, says Boris Johnson – video Posted: 01 Apr 2021 06:57 AM PDT The prime minister said the Sewell report was a 'very interesting and stimulating piece of work', but made clear the government did not agree with all of its findings. 'There are very serious issues that our society faces to do with racism, he said. 'We've got to do more to fix it.' Continue reading... |
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