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- International aid arrives in India to combat deadly Covid crisis
- Israel is committing the crime of apartheid, rights watchdog says
- Minister seeks to play down growing accusations of Tory sleaze
- Myanmar: ethnic armed group seizes military base near Thai border
- Regulators missing pollution’s effect on marine life, study finds
- UK to come under scrutiny in Italy’s largest mafia trial in decades
- ‘Shortsighted’: UK cuts aid to project preparing cities for natural disaster
- Global alliance for phasing out coal not fit for purpose, says NGO
- US police killings of Black Americans amount to crimes against humanity, international inquiry finds
- Russian man 'trapped' on Chinese reality TV show finally voted out after three months
- Coronavirus live news: Fiji bans inter-island travel over ‘Indian variant’; Hong Kong to reopen bars for vaccinated people
- Covid ‘vaccination persuasion’ teams reap rewards in Turkey
- Donna Coleman died after Covid ran riot at Burnley College. Should it have been open?
- US to share up to 60m vaccine doses amid pressure to lead global virus fight
- The tiny American towns passing anti-abortion rules
- The clockwork universe: is free will an illusion?
- ‘It’s satisfying to learn the wealthy have problems’: why is reality TV obsessed with the super-rich?
- ‘If not hope, then what?’: the musicians finding optimism in dark times
- Dearth from above: aerial images of a vanishing America – in pictures
- Norway’s witch trials: the woman killed for a fatal storm
- All Covid-19 fines in England should be reviewed, MPs say
- ‘The city has multiple bullet wounds’: mayoral candidate Maya Wiley on healing New York
- Identifying Features review – horror and heartbreak in Mexico’s borderlands
- Tokyo-bound athletes to be vaccinated; flights suspended over crisis – as it happened
- Normalising special needs: the Kabul school offering hope
- Mutations, politics, vaccines: the factors behind India’s Covid crisis
- India: tearful relatives beg for oxygen and hospital beds for Covid patients – video
- Video shows Indonesian submarine crew singing in the weeks before vessel sank
- India: drone footage shows makeshift mass crematorium in Delhi – video
| International aid arrives in India to combat deadly Covid crisis Posted: 26 Apr 2021 10:59 PM PDT Ventilators arrived from the UK early on Tuesday morning and will be followed by oxygen containers from Dubai International aid has been arriving in India and a number of countries have pledged to join in the fight against Covid, as the country's healthcare is system pushed to the brink of collapse by a deadly second wave. On Tuesday morning, a flight from the UK carrying vital medical supplies including ventilators landed. Six oxygen containers will also be flown in from Dubai on Tuesday and in a phone conversation between Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden on Monday, Biden pledged "America's steadfast support" to India by providing oxygen-related supplies and vaccine raw materials. Continue reading... |
| Israel is committing the crime of apartheid, rights watchdog says Posted: 26 Apr 2021 09:00 PM PDT Human Rights Watch calls on international criminal court to investigate 'systematic discrimination' against Palestinians Human Rights Watch has accused Israeli officials of committing the crimes of apartheid and persecution, claiming the government enforces an overarching policy to "maintain the domination by Jewish Israelis over Palestinians". In a report released on Tuesday, the New York-based advocacy group became the first major international rights body to level such allegations. It said that after decades of warnings that an entrenched hold over Palestinian life could lead to apartheid, it had found that the "threshold" had been crossed. Continue reading... |
| Minister seeks to play down growing accusations of Tory sleaze Posted: 27 Apr 2021 12:55 AM PDT Thérèse Coffey says public does not care about makeover of Boris Johnson's Downing Street flat Soon-to-be-published annual accounts will "tidy up" the controversy over the funding of the refurbishment of the prime minister's Downing Street flat, according to a government minister. In an interview with Sky News, the work and pensions secretary, Thérèse Coffey, sought to play down growing accusations of sleaze, and claimed the public did not care about the makeover of the apartment after the prime minister said he would foot the £58,000 bill himself. Continue reading... |
| Myanmar: ethnic armed group seizes military base near Thai border Posted: 27 Apr 2021 01:29 AM PDT Groups that have been fighting military for decades have voiced support for anti-coup protesters A prominent ethnic armed group in Myanmar says it has captured a military base near the Thai border, as clashes escalated days after the junta chief committed to immediately end violence in the country. The junta has launched brutal crackdowns against civilians in an attempt to suppress the opposition it faces from the public. Some of Myanmar's ethnic armed groups, which have spent decades fighting the military for greater autonomy, have voiced support for anti-coup protesters. Continue reading... |
| Regulators missing pollution’s effect on marine life, study finds Posted: 27 Apr 2021 12:00 AM PDT Chemicals and plastics, not just overfishing, threaten aquatic food chain with 'disaster', report warns
The report, Aquatic Pollutants in Oceans and Fisheries, by the International Pollutants Elimination Network and the National Toxics Network, draws together scientific research on how pollution is adversely affecting the aquatic food chain. It catalogues the "serious impacts" of "invisible killers" such as persistent organic pollutants and excessive nutrients on the immunity, fertility, development and survivaL of aquatic animals. Continue reading...This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| UK to come under scrutiny in Italy’s largest mafia trial in decades Posted: 26 Apr 2021 10:00 PM PDT Witnesses will be asked to respond to claims the 'Ndrangheta has laundered billions of euros in City of London In a high-security, 1,000-capacity courtroom converted from a call centre, Italy's largest mafia trial in three decades is under way in Lamezia Terme, Calabria. About 900 witnesses are set to testify against more than 350 defendants, including politicians and officials charged with being members of the 'Ndrangheta, Italy's most powerful criminal group. Several of the defendants will be asked to respond to charges of money laundering over establishing companies in the UK with the alleged purpose of simulating legitimate economic activity. Continue reading... |
| ‘Shortsighted’: UK cuts aid to project preparing cities for natural disaster Posted: 26 Apr 2021 10:00 PM PDT From Quito to Kathmandu, millions will be endangered by cuts affecting planning for floods, earthquakes and fires, experts say
Professor John McCloskey, from Edinburgh University, said the 70% cut to this year's budget for the Tomorrow's Cities project was an act of "vandalism" that had wrecked the past two years of collaboration with scientists, NGOs, authorities and communities in Ecuador's capital Quito, Nairobi, Kathmandu and Istanbul. Continue reading... |
| Global alliance for phasing out coal not fit for purpose, says NGO Posted: 27 Apr 2021 01:53 AM PDT Powering Past Coal Alliance accused of failing to follow up on pledges as many countries expand use of coal An attempt by the UK government to encourage countries and businesses around the world to quit coal for power generation is failing to make an impact, and in danger of being used as "greenwash", an assessment has found. The Powering Past Coal Alliance, led by the UK and Canada, with 111 members including 24 governments, local governments and businesses, is a key plank of Boris Johnson's strategy for vital UN climate talks to be hosted in Glasgow in November. Continue reading... |
| US police killings of Black Americans amount to crimes against humanity, international inquiry finds Posted: 26 Apr 2021 11:00 PM PDT In devastating report, human rights experts call on International Criminal Court prosecutor to open an immediate investigation The systematic killing and maiming of unarmed African Americans by police amount to crimes against humanity that should be investigated and prosecuted under international law, an inquiry into US police brutality by leading human rights lawyers from around the globe has found. A week after the former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder in George Floyd's death, the unabated epidemic of police killings of Black men and women in the US has now attracted scorching international attention. Continue reading... |
| Russian man 'trapped' on Chinese reality TV show finally voted out after three months Posted: 27 Apr 2021 01:39 AM PDT Vladislav Ivanov says he regretted his decision to join Produce Camp 2021 but fans refused to vote him out The reality TV ordeal of a Russian who joined a Chinese boy band show by accident – and made it to the final despite urging fans to vote him off – has finally ended after nearly three months. Vladislav Ivanov, a 27-year-old from Vladivostok, was kicked out of the Produce Camp 2021 on Saturday after viewers ignored his pleas to leave and backed him all the way to the final. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 27 Apr 2021 02:52 AM PDT WHO chief describes situation in India as 'beyond heartbreaking'; England extends vaccines to those aged 42 and over
Jessie Yeung writes for CNN this morning that as grim as the numbers coming out of India seem, they may be a vast under-estimation: Health workers and scientists in India have long warned that Covid-19 infections and related deaths are significantly underreported for several reasons, including poor infrastructure, human error, and low testing levels. Testing has greatly increased in the wake of the first wave, but, the true extent of the second wave now ravaging India is likely much worse than official numbers suggest. "It's widely known that both the case numbers and the mortality figures are undercounts, they always have been," said Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy in New Delhi.
Athletes representing Australia at the Tokyo Olympics and their support staff will be prioritised for vaccination ahead of the July Games with national cabinet agreeing to divert thousands of doses for the team. Approximately 2,050 Australian athletes and staff travelling to Japan for the Olympics and Paralympics will now be considered a priority group under 1b of the rollout, the federal government said on Tuesday. Related: Australian Olympic team to receive fast-track Covid vaccinations ahead of Tokyo Games Continue reading... |
| Covid ‘vaccination persuasion’ teams reap rewards in Turkey Posted: 26 Apr 2021 09:00 PM PDT Door-to-door initiative targeting elderly people reluctant to have jab to be rolled out after local success A coronavirus "vaccination persuasion" initiative targeting elderly people who have declined invitations to get vaccinated is gearing up to be rolled out across Turkey after proving a resounding success in a district in the country's south-east. Since February, doctors and healthcare workers in the mainly Kurdish city of Adıyaman, or Semsûr, have been calling people in age groups already eligible for the vaccine to ask why they have not come to clinics for appointments. Continue reading... |
| Donna Coleman died after Covid ran riot at Burnley College. Should it have been open? Posted: 26 Apr 2021 10:00 PM PDT Donna, 42, was a devoted and popular member of the teaching staff. Yet at the height of the second wave, working conditions left her terrified of doing the job she loved The joke went: it was impossible to get Covid at Burnley College. The virus didn't exist there. All through September, October, November and December 2020, as more and more people came down with Covid yet the further education (FE) college stayed open, Donna Coleman would make this gag to her sisters, Steph Coleman, 38, and Vicki Coleman, 45. She spoke to them on the phone every day. "It was a running joke," Steph says. "'Who's come down with Covid now?'" Although the sisters laughed about it, in truth they were alarmed. Donna was a member of the teaching staff at the college in Lancashire. She worked with teenagers who had been kicked out of school, as well as long-term unemployed people, helping them to continue their education or find work. (Steph and Vicki had previously worked at the college, too, although they had left by September 2020.) Continue reading... |
| US to share up to 60m vaccine doses amid pressure to lead global virus fight Posted: 26 Apr 2021 12:45 PM PDT
The US will share up to 60m doses of AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine with other countries, the White House has announced, amid intensifying pressure for it to lead the global fight against the pandemic. The pledge came as Joe Biden spoke with Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India, which is reportedly running out of Covid-19 vaccines just as a deadly second wave continues to devastate the country. Continue reading... |
| The tiny American towns passing anti-abortion rules Posted: 26 Apr 2021 11:00 PM PDT In last year, 23 Texas towns have declared themselves 'sanctuary cities for the unborn', making the procedural punishable, and in April, a Nebraska village became the 24th Over the last year of the pandemic, 23 tiny towns in Texas have approved local laws declaring themselves "sanctuary cities for the unborn", passing ordinances to make the procedure punishable by a $2,000 fine. In April, the tiny village of Hayes Center, Nebraska, became the 24th, and the first outside Texas. Continue reading... |
| The clockwork universe: is free will an illusion? Posted: 26 Apr 2021 10:00 PM PDT A growing chorus of scientists and philosophers argue that free will does not exist. Could they be right? Towards the end of a conversation dwelling on some of the deepest metaphysical puzzles regarding the nature of human existence, the philosopher Galen Strawson paused, then asked me: "Have you spoken to anyone else yet who's received weird email?" He navigated to a file on his computer and began reading from the alarming messages he and several other scholars had received over the past few years. Some were plaintive, others abusive, but all were fiercely accusatory. "Last year you all played a part in destroying my life," one person wrote. "I lost everything because of you – my son, my partner, my job, my home, my mental health. All because of you, you told me I had no control, how I was not responsible for anything I do, how my beautiful six-year-old son was not responsible for what he did … Goodbye, and good luck with the rest of your cancerous, evil, pathetic existence." "Rot in your own shit Galen," read another note, sent in early 2015. "Your wife, your kids your friends, you have smeared all there [sic] achievements you utter fucking prick," wrote the same person, who subsequently warned: "I'm going to fuck you up." And then, days later, under the subject line "Hello": "I'm coming for you." "This was one where we had to involve the police," Strawson said. Thereafter, the violent threats ceased. It isn't unheard of for philosophers to receive death threats. The Australian ethicist Peter Singer, for example, has received many, in response to his argument that, in highly exceptional circumstances, it might be morally justifiable to kill newborn babies with severe disabilities. But Strawson, like others on the receiving end of this particular wave of abuse, had merely expressed a longstanding position in an ancient debate that strikes many as the ultimate in "armchair philosophy", wholly detached from the emotive entanglements of real life. They all deny that human beings possess free will. They argue that our choices are determined by forces beyond our ultimate control – perhaps even predetermined all the way back to the big bang – and that therefore nobody is ever wholly responsible for their actions. Reading back over the emails, Strawson, who gives the impression of someone far more forgiving of other people's flaws than of his own, found himself empathising with his harassers' distress. "I think for these people it's just an existential catastrophe," he said. "And I think I can see why." Continue reading... |
| Posted: 27 Apr 2021 12:00 AM PDT From Bling Empire to Made in Chelsea, the uberwealthy trend in TV is here to stay – and it might even be good for diversity In the first episode of reality TV show Bling Empire, heiress Anna Shay commits to an excursion so globe-straddlingly audacious it would make Greta Thunberg weep. Los Angeles resident Anna asks a friend and her objectively awful boyfriend to go to her favourite restaurant with her – in Paris. They chart a private plane, eat their dinner and head back to LA the next day. It sets the scene for a series that luxuriates in the lives of the super-rich, and the candour, conflict and rule-breaking that such an existence affords. Related: The Guide: Staying In – sign up for our home entertainment tips Continue reading... |
| ‘If not hope, then what?’: the musicians finding optimism in dark times Posted: 27 Apr 2021 12:23 AM PDT Against a backdrop of Covid, a striking number of musicians, from hard rock to jazz, made music rich with positivity. In the first of a two-part series, they tell their stories I had really given up on music after my mom passed away [in 2014], and then of course the record that I saw as my death rattle [2017's Soft Sounds from Another Planet] got picked up in a big way. It was a very bittersweet moment where all these great things were happening in the wake of loss. I didn't allow myself to feel that for a long time. Now I feel ready to embrace feeling. Continue reading... |
| Dearth from above: aerial images of a vanishing America – in pictures Posted: 26 Apr 2021 11:00 PM PDT From abandoned car plants to poisoned and dried-out lakes, Travis Fox's bird's eye views of the US capture the nation's terrifying pace of change Continue reading... |
| Norway’s witch trials: the woman killed for a fatal storm Posted: 26 Apr 2021 10:00 PM PDT Else Knutsdatter, one of 91, mainly women, executed, was burned to death in fishing community of Vardø Exactly 400 years ago, a violent storm proved deadly to a woman who did not even witness it. This was the outcome of one of the biggest witch trials in Scandinavian history, in the Norwegian fishing community of Vardø. A sudden storm in December 1617 sank many boats and drowned 40 men. Previously, a famous trial had been held of people accused of raising a storm to sink King James I's ship, and there was a growing belief that witches could cause storms. Continue reading... |
| All Covid-19 fines in England should be reviewed, MPs say Posted: 26 Apr 2021 11:08 PM PDT Committee says regulations are muddled and discriminatory while large fines 'criminalise the poor' All 85,000-plus Covid fines issued in England during the pandemic should be reviewed, MPs and peers have said, after more than a quarter of prosecutions in the first two months of the year for breaching the regulations were shown to have been wrongly brought. The joint committee on human rights said coronavirus regulations, which have been changed at least 65 times since March last year, were muddled, discriminatory and unfair. Continue reading... |
| ‘The city has multiple bullet wounds’: mayoral candidate Maya Wiley on healing New York Posted: 27 Apr 2021 02:00 AM PDT The daughter of civil rights activists says if you want to tackle Covid recovery, housing and racial justice, 'pick a Black woman' When Maya Wiley announced her candidacy for New York major – known as the second hardest job in the US – it seemed like her résumé was tailored to the moment. It was early October last year, and the city was reeling from trauma. In the spring, New York City had been the center of the coronavirus pandemic, the city rife with ambulance sirens and hospitals erecting tents to house patients outside their overflowing doors. In the summer, thousands of New Yorkers flooded the streets to protest against the killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and countless other Black Americans killed at the hands of police officers. Continue reading... |
| Identifying Features review – horror and heartbreak in Mexico’s borderlands Posted: 27 Apr 2021 03:00 AM PDT First-time director Fernanda Valadez conjures up a vision of real evil in her story of the terrors faced by migrants into the US There is unbearable heartbreak in this migrant drama from first-time Mexican film-maker Fernanda Valadez – and also a vision of real evil. At times, it looks something like social-realist folk horror. Mercedes Hernández plays Magdalena, a middle-aged woman from Guanajuato in central Mexico whose teenage son Jesús left home three years before, with a friend, on a bus bound for the border, where he'd hoped to take his chances on disappearing into the US as an illegal. But the body of Jesús's friend has been found on Mexican territory, in an unspeakably grim holding area where the corpses of teen runaways are routinely kept in container boxes awaiting identification – though there is still no proof that Jesús himself is dead. Continue reading... |
| Tokyo-bound athletes to be vaccinated; flights suspended over crisis – as it happened Posted: 27 Apr 2021 01:59 AM PDT National cabinet agrees to give Games athletes priority in vaccine rollout; two more Aboriginal deaths in custody confirmed; Australia to send health supplies to India. This blog is now closed
Here's a recap of the main news on 27 April 2021:
The Victorian health department says wastewater sampling has detected viral fragments of Covid-19 in Melbourne's eastern and northern suburbs. It said in a statement: Given the current prolonged period of no community transmission in Victoria, it is most likely that this is due to a person or persons continuing to shed the virus after the infection period. However, it could also be due to a person living in or travelling through the area in the early active infectious phase. Continue reading... |
| Normalising special needs: the Kabul school offering hope Posted: 27 Apr 2021 12:30 AM PDT Fatima Khalil school has given some children the first taste of education – and love – in their lives Laughter and excited chatter burst out of the colourfully painted classrooms. In a quiet garden schoolhouse amid the jam-packed Afghan capital, Kabul, pupils run around, study and play in the country's first official school for children with disabilities. It's a far cry from what most of these children have previously experienced. For many, it's the first time in their lives they feel loved and accepted. Continue reading... |
| Mutations, politics, vaccines: the factors behind India’s Covid crisis Posted: 26 Apr 2021 06:23 AM PDT Analysis: experts believe a number of things coalesced to cause the world's worst coronavirus outbreak India is now identifying more than 1 million coronavirus cases every three days, with many times more thought to be going unregistered in a vast country where public health surveillance is often poor. Daily deaths exceeded 2,800 on Sunday, but these too are thought to be many times higher. Epidemiologists and other experts are speculating that several factors have coalesced over the past months to bring India to the point of the world's worst Covid-19 outbreak. Continue reading... |
| India: tearful relatives beg for oxygen and hospital beds for Covid patients – video Posted: 26 Apr 2021 11:28 AM PDT Patients in New Delhi stood in long queues outside hospitals while others waited with oxygen masks in ambulances as India's new coronavirus infections hit a record high for a fifth consecutive day on Monday. Infections in the last 24 hours rose to 352,991, with overcrowded hospitals in Delhi and elsewhere turning away patients after running out of supplies of medical oxygen and beds
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| Video shows Indonesian submarine crew singing in the weeks before vessel sank Posted: 26 Apr 2021 09:04 AM PDT A video released by the Indonesian military shows the crew of the KRI Nanggala-402 submarine singing the song Sampai Jumpa ('Goodbye') together, weeks before the vessel sank in the Bali Sea. None of the 53 crew members survived. The submarine was found broken in three parts on the seabed Continue reading... |
| India: drone footage shows makeshift mass crematorium in Delhi – video Posted: 26 Apr 2021 05:02 AM PDT Mass cremations have been taking place in the Indian capital, Delhi, in makeshift facilities set up to cope with the huge rise in coronavirus deaths. India recorded another 352,991 new coronavirus cases on Monday, the fifth day of record highs, and 2,812 new deaths, its highest daily figure so far
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