World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk |
- EU imposes new economic sanctions on Belarus over ‘hijacked’ flight
- EU condemns ‘grave and serious’ kidnapping of Mali’s leaders
- Oxygen shortages threaten ‘total collapse’ of dozens of health systems
- Mysterious airbase being built on volcanic island off Yemen
- ‘A matter of time’: New Zealand’s foreign minister warns China ‘storm’ could be coming
- Explosive weapons used in cities kill civilians 91% of time, finds study
- EU report details role of race and ethnicity in use of ‘stop and search’
- Robert Mugabe remains must be dug up and reburied at heroes’ shrine – Zimbabwe chief
- Supermarkets will seek soy alternatives if Amazon protections weakened
- ‘A huge surprise’ as giant river otter feared extinct in Argentina pops up
- ‘I was sleeping in laybys’: the people who have spent the pandemic living in vans
- Afghanistan’s doctors braced for rapid spread of India Covid variant
- Covid vaccine hesitancy could see Hong Kong throw away millions of doses
- US tells citizens to avoid travel to Japan due to Covid outbreak
- The secret deportations: how Britain betrayed the Chinese men who served the country in the war
- ‘You care for birds, and they heal you’: film profiles world of a Black falconer
- El Salvador’s house of horror becomes grisly emblem of war on women
- ‘A handheld grater will make guests want to have sex with you’: the anatomy of a grown-up apartment
- German election poll tracker: who will be the next chancellor?
- Belarus ‘hijacking’ is test for international community
- ‘He lit the blue touch paper’: Max Mosley’s legacy as a campaigner for a more ethical press
- Can direct elections restore UAW as America’s most powerful labor union?
- Victoria reports four new local Covid cases as Melbourne suburbs cluster grows to nine – politics live
- Green growth: the save-the-mangrove scheme reaping rewards for women in Kenya
- Nigerian president’s vow to end violence lies in tatters as insurgencies grow
- Belarus hit with sanctions as world leaders react to ‘hijacked’ flight – video report
- Dominic Raab: UK airlines told to suspend flights over Belarus – video
- Ryanair passengers describe flight 'hijacking' and journalist arrest in Belarus – video
| EU imposes new economic sanctions on Belarus over ‘hijacked’ flight Posted: 24 May 2021 10:28 PM PDT Joe Biden welcomes EU moves as father of opposition blogger Roman Protasevich says video confession appears forced EU leaders triggered new economic sanctions against Belarus and punitive measures against its national airline as a dissident taken from a "hijacked" Ryanair flight was paraded on the country's television news apparently confessing to crimes against the state. In a summit communique swiftly agreed in Brussels on Monday night, the EU's 27 heads of state and government condemned the forced landing of flight FR4978 in Minsk and called for the immediate release of opposition blogger Roman Protasevich and his Russian girlfriend, Sofia Sapega. Continue reading... |
| EU condemns ‘grave and serious’ kidnapping of Mali’s leaders Posted: 25 May 2021 02:00 AM PDT Bah Ndaw and Moctar Ouane, as well as the defence minister, were seized by the military on Monday European Union leaders, the African Union and the US have condemned the "kidnapping" of Mali's civilian leadership and warned of potential sanctions against those responsible. Military officers detained the west African country's president and prime minister on Monday, following a cabinet reshuffle in which two cabinet ministers appointed from the military were removed. Continue reading... |
| Oxygen shortages threaten ‘total collapse’ of dozens of health systems Posted: 25 May 2021 01:30 AM PDT Data reveals Nepal, Iran and South Africa among 19 countries most at risk of running out as surging Covid cases push supplies to limit Dozens of countries are facing severe oxygen shortages because of surging Covid-19 cases, threatening the "total collapse" of health systems. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism analysed data provided by the Every Breath Counts Coalition, the NGO Path and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) to find the countries most at risk of running out of oxygen. It also studied data on global vaccination rates. Continue reading... |
| Mysterious airbase being built on volcanic island off Yemen Posted: 25 May 2021 01:37 AM PDT Military officials in Yemen say UAE is building runway on Mayun Island, a crucial shipping chokepoint A mysterious airbase is being built on a volcanic island off Yemen that sits in one of the world's crucial maritime chokepoints for energy shipments and commercial cargo. While no country has claimed the Mayun Island airbase in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, shipping traffic associated with a prior attempt to build a massive runway across the 3.5-mile-long island years ago links back to the United Arab Emirates. Continue reading... |
| ‘A matter of time’: New Zealand’s foreign minister warns China ‘storm’ could be coming Posted: 24 May 2021 01:00 PM PDT In an interview with the Guardian, Nanaia Mahuta says exporters must diversify to protect themselves from a potential cooling of ties with Beijing New Zealand could find itself at the heart of a "storm" of anger from China, foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta has warned, saying exporters needed to diversify to ensure they could survive deteriorating relations with Beijing. Mahuta's comments come as the New Zealand government faces increasing pressure to take a firmer stance on human rights violations and crackdowns by China, putting the spotlight on the potential repercussions for countries who provoke Beijing's ire. Continue reading... |
| Explosive weapons used in cities kill civilians 91% of time, finds study Posted: 24 May 2021 10:00 PM PDT Human rights campaigners urge world leaders to agree to restrict use of bombs in built-up areas Civilians accounted for 91% of those killed or injured by explosive weapons in populated areas worldwide over the last 10 years – a total of 238,892 people – according to a study of thousands of incidents. The stark statistic – encompassing both state and terrorist violence – has prompted the report's authors to call on governments to agree to an international ban on the use of explosive weapons in built-up areas, which is now in draft form. Continue reading... |
| EU report details role of race and ethnicity in use of ‘stop and search’ Posted: 24 May 2021 09:00 PM PDT Roma, sub-Saharan Africans and other minorities stopped frequently by police across Europe The scale of the discrimination faced by people from minority ethnic backgrounds at the hands of European police forces has been detailed in an EU agency report marking the anniversary of the killing of George Floyd by an officer in the US. The findings of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) highlight a general trend in which minority ethnic people are stopped and searched more regularly across the continent, and the particularly stark picture in some European countries. Continue reading... |
| Robert Mugabe remains must be dug up and reburied at heroes’ shrine – Zimbabwe chief Posted: 24 May 2021 07:32 PM PDT Fresh row brews over final resting place of late president after ruling by traditional chief in district where Mugabe's remains lie The family of Robert Mugabe have been ordered to exhume the remains of the late dictator for reburial at a monument to Zimbabwe's national heroes, in a move likely to rekindle a row over the memory of one of Africa's foremost revolutionary leaders. A traditional chief made the order after accusing Mugabe's second wife, Grace, of breaking local custom by interring him at his rural home. Continue reading... |
| Supermarkets will seek soy alternatives if Amazon protections weakened Posted: 24 May 2021 11:00 PM PDT Bolsonaro's 'destruction package' is seen as the greatest threat to the rainforest since he took power British supermarkets will look at alternatives to Brazilian soy if president Jair Bolsonaro and congress passes new legislation this week to weaken protections for the Amazon rainforest. Retailers and industry groups told the Guardian they will seek different suppliers and accelerate efforts to find soy substitutes if Brazilian politicians pass bills to legitimise land-grabbing and loosen controls on new projects. Continue reading... |
| ‘A huge surprise’ as giant river otter feared extinct in Argentina pops up Posted: 24 May 2021 10:00 PM PDT Conservationists thrilled at the sighting of the wild predator, last seen in the country in the 1980s "It was a huge surprise," said Sebastián Di Martino, director of conservation at Fundación Rewilding Argentina. "I was incredulous. An incredible feeling of so much happiness. I didn't know if I should try to follow it or rush back to our station to tell the others." The cause of the excitement was the sighting, last week, of a wild giant river otter – an animal feared extinct in the country due to habitat loss and hunting – on the Bermejo River in Impenetrable national park, in north-east Argentina's Chaco province. The last sighting of a giant otter in the wild in Argentina was in the 1980s. On the Bermejo, none have been seen for more than a century. Continue reading... |
| ‘I was sleeping in laybys’: the people who have spent the pandemic living in vans Posted: 24 May 2021 10:00 PM PDT For some, living in a van is their culture or a symbol of resistance. But for many others it is the only possible response to our growing housing crisis – and proposed legislation could make life much harder for them For Stef, living in a van made perfect sense. He was on the road all the time, travelling from music festival to music festival, feeding revellers his homemade pizzas. Soon, he had saved enough money to buy a secondhand white LDV Convoy. He moved into it in December 2019, but by early 2020, the pandemic had kicked in, lockdown was under way, and music festivals were a non-starter. Stef didn't have enough money to rent a place to live. "I'm on universal credit: £490 a month to live on," he says. "Half of that goes on running and insuring the van. So there's not a lot of wiggle room." He may have dreamed of living in a van before, but now it was his only option. Continue reading... |
| Afghanistan’s doctors braced for rapid spread of India Covid variant Posted: 24 May 2021 10:00 PM PDT The country has no testing capacity for the B.1.617.2 strain and medics are concerned about resilience of health system Doctors in Afghanistan have expressed fears that the Covid-19 variant first discovered in India could now be spreading quickly in the country. At Kabul's main Covid hospital, where all 100 beds are occupied, doctors said that many critically ill patients had recently returned from India. Up to 10 people die here every day. Continue reading... |
| Covid vaccine hesitancy could see Hong Kong throw away millions of doses Posted: 25 May 2021 12:55 AM PDT Observers say mistrust of government, disinformation and a lack of urgency mean vaccine take-up has been slow Hong Kong could soon be throwing away millions of Covid-19 vaccine doses because not enough people are taking them before they expire, a health official has warned, saying it's "not right" while other countries are scrambling for them. The city of 7.5 million people has bought enough doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and China's Sinovac, to vaccinate its entire population, but so far only 2.1 million have been administered since the vaccination programme launched in late February. Continue reading... |
| US tells citizens to avoid travel to Japan due to Covid outbreak Posted: 24 May 2021 10:50 PM PDT Move comes amid preparations in Tokyo for the Olympics, which are due to be held from 23 July despite a raging fourth wave The US has urged its citizens to avoid all travel to Japan, where concern is rising over new variants of the coronavirus, but officials insist the move will not complicate preparations for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The state department on Monday issued its highest Level 4 travel warning for Japan, where a month-long state of emergency has helped reduce cases in Tokyo but failed to have a significant impact on the country's fourth wave of Covid-19 infections. Continue reading... |
| The secret deportations: how Britain betrayed the Chinese men who served the country in the war Posted: 24 May 2021 10:00 PM PDT During the second world war, Chinese merchant seamen helped keep Britain fed, fuelled and safe – and many gave their lives doing so. But from late 1945, hundreds of them who had settled in Liverpool suddenly disappeared. Now their children are piecing together the truth On 19 October 1945, 13 men gathered in Whitehall for a secret meeting. It was chaired by Courtenay Denis Carew Robinson, a senior Home Office official, and he was joined by representatives of the Foreign Office, the Ministry of War Transport, and the Liverpool police and immigration inspectorate. After the meeting, the Home Office's aliens department opened a new file, designated HO/213/926. Its contents were not to be discussed in the House of Commons or the Lords, or with the press, or acknowledged to the public. It was titled "Compulsory repatriation of undesirable Chinese seamen". As the vast process of post-second world war reconstruction creaked into action, this deportation programme was, for the Home Office and Clement Attlee's new government, just one tiny component. The country was devastated – hundreds of thousands were dead, millions were homeless, unemployment and inflation were soaring. The cost of the war had been so great that the UK would not finish paying back its debt to the US until 2006. Amid the bombsites left by the Luftwaffe, poverty, desperation and resentment were rife. In Liverpool, the city council was desperate to free up housing for returning servicemen. Continue reading... |
| ‘You care for birds, and they heal you’: film profiles world of a Black falconer Posted: 25 May 2021 01:00 AM PDT A new documentary, The Falconer, follows Rodney Stotts, who found fulfillment in working with raptors and inner-city kids Falconry is a profession with roots in the ancient Middle East and medieval Europe but one of its practitioners is making some history of his own. Related: I'm a falconer - and there's nothing like watching a bird you trained in action Continue reading... |
| El Salvador’s house of horror becomes grisly emblem of war on women Posted: 25 May 2021 02:00 AM PDT Authorities have sought to portray the ex-policeman at whose home up to 40 bodies, mostly female, may be buried, as a freakish psychopath, despite the arrest of nine other suspects Day after day they flock to the emerald green house on Estévez Street, seeking news of loved ones who have vanished without a trace. "They say there are lots in there, maybe 40," said Jessenia Elizabeth Francia, a 38-year-old housewife who had travelled 20 miles to reach the heavily guarded building under a punishing midday sun. Continue reading... |
| ‘A handheld grater will make guests want to have sex with you’: the anatomy of a grown-up apartment Posted: 24 May 2021 06:00 PM PDT In an excerpt from her new book, Sinéad Stubbins offers a guide to decor that tells a lie – you have this whole thing figured out The thing they don't tell you is that parties change when you get older. You have this idea that once you graduate from sticky floors and vodka in plastic cups you'll suddenly get invited to sophisticated dinner parties every weekend. Parties where everyone is drinking tempranillo and saying thought-provoking things, where the apartment is scented like linen and figs and is washed in a warm orange light. Big wooden bowls of pasta materialise from nowhere and there are delicate salads of shaved pear. Somehow there is never a mess to clean up. Everyone is wearing white trousers. Continue reading... |
| German election poll tracker: who will be the next chancellor? Posted: 24 May 2021 11:58 PM PDT Find out who is leading the polling to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor of Germany Germans will vote on Sunday 26 September to elect a new Bundestag, or federal parliament. The result – after coalition negotiations likely to involve two or three parties – will decide who will succeed Angela Merkel, who is standing down after 16 years as chancellor. Some recent polls have put Germany's Green party in the lead, as Merkel's successor at the conservative CDU, Armin Laschet, struggles to inherit her appeal. German federal elections are proportional, so the share of vote given by polling companies should be read as translating fairly directly into share of seats in the resulting parliament. Only parties with less than 5% of the national vote, or one directly elected constituency seat, are not awarded parliamentary seats. Continue reading... |
| Belarus ‘hijacking’ is test for international community Posted: 24 May 2021 07:29 AM PDT Analysis: 'Air piracy' is just latest act of Alexander Lukashenko's brutal campaign against his opponents Belarus's president, Alexander Lukashenko, has unleashed a brutal campaign against his opponents. More than 35,000 people have been arrested, thousands have been tortured or abused, and 400 political prisoners are currently behind bars. Earlier this week a 50-year-old opposition activist, Vitold Ashurok, died in a penal colony. The official cause of death was "heart attack". His widow believes he was murdered. It is against this dark and repressive backdrop that the extraordinary events of Sunday took place. According to state media, Lukashenko personally authorised the forced downing of a Ryanair plane as it flew over Belarusian airspace between Greece and Lithuania – a real-time hijacking. He even dispatched a MIG-29 fighter jet to ensure the pilot complied after being informed of a fake bomb threat. Continue reading... |
| ‘He lit the blue touch paper’: Max Mosley’s legacy as a campaigner for a more ethical press Posted: 24 May 2021 12:30 PM PDT The former motorsport chief devoted the last 13 years of his life to campaigning for reforms in press regulation Even those who crossed swords with Max Mosley in the course of the privacy crusade he waged over many years before his death on Monday aged 81 readily accept the multimillionaire's position in future textbooks on the subject is assured. The spark was the News of the World's report on his involvement in an alleged sadomasochistic orgy in 2008. Mosley sued the newspaper for breach of privacy and won, although a personal tragedy came into play when his eldest son Alexander died at the age of 39 from a cocaine overdose. Mosley believed his son might have been spared a descent into deep depression and death were it not for the furore around the newspaper's coverage. Continue reading... |
| Can direct elections restore UAW as America’s most powerful labor union? Posted: 25 May 2021 02:00 AM PDT After a corruption scandal saw 12 union officials convicted of crimes, United Auto Workers members hope direct elections will bring inspiring leaders The United Auto Workers, once America's most powerful labor union, a union that led the way in building America's middle class, has sunk into hard times, with a huge corruption scandal in which 12 union officials, including two former UAW presidents, have been convicted of crimes. But now many rank-and-filers are hoping the union will regain its moral stature and some of its old swagger through a major push to inject more democracy into the union. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 25 May 2021 01:56 AM PDT New restrictions brought in across Melbourne as genomic testing finds Victoria's new cases linked to traveller from Adelaide hotel quarantine; and Senate estimates also continues today with the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Follow live updates
And that is where we will leave things for this evening. Here is what happened today:
Via AAP: The Defence department has admitted breaching its duty of care to a young soldier fatally shot in the head during a live-fire exercise, saying it was a terrible and avoidable tragedy. Victorian soldier Private Jason Challis, 25, died after he was shot in 2017 at the ADF's Mount Bundey training area, about 120km south-east of Darwin. Continue reading... |
| Green growth: the save-the-mangrove scheme reaping rewards for women in Kenya Posted: 24 May 2021 03:20 AM PDT A community project on the Lamu archipelago trains women in preserving this vital ecosystem and provides business loans Kenya's mangroves have been harvested for centuries, the timber used in shipbuilding and for ornate doors and furniture as well as shipped across the Indian Ocean and around the world. The Lamu archipelago accounts for more than half of Kenya's mangrove forests. But across the country an estimated 40% of this precious commodity has been degraded, as more mangroves have been cut to provide construction materials and charcoal for cooking, and oil leakages from cruise liners and ships that pass along the coast kill off young saplings. The area has become one of the most degraded marine ecosystems in east Africa. Continue reading... |
| Nigerian president’s vow to end violence lies in tatters as insurgencies grow Posted: 24 May 2021 05:24 AM PDT Analysis: jihadists regroup after Boko Haram 'defeat' in the north-east while secessionist forces grow in south-east "Can our president keep us safe when we travel to any part of this country?" said Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, months before the former military dictator won the Nigerian presidency on a wave of mass anger at jihadist violence and corruption. "Is your life better today than it was six years ago?" Halfway through his second term, the same questions are being levelled at him. As an insurgency in the north-east has persisted – and grown in recent years – security crises have proliferated around the country. Criticism has mounted against his administration, including from within his own party. Continue reading... |
| Belarus hit with sanctions as world leaders react to ‘hijacked’ flight – video report Posted: 24 May 2021 09:25 PM PDT European Union leaders have agreed to impose economic sanctions on Belarus. They have also called on their airlines to avoid the former Soviet republic's airspace, while authorising work to ban Belarusian airlines from European skies and airports. 'Belarus used its control over its airspace in order to perpetrate a state hijacking, therefore the safety and security of flights through Belarus airspace can no longer be trusted,' said the head of the bloc's executive, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
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| Dominic Raab: UK airlines told to suspend flights over Belarus – video Posted: 24 May 2021 09:25 AM PDT The British government has told all UK planes to cease flying over Belarus and summoned the country's ambassador amid outrage over the arrest of an opposition blogger and his girlfriend when their Ryanair flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Minsk. The operating permit for Belavia, the country's state-owned airline, has also been suspended in the UK. Dominic Raab told the Commons that Belarus's ambassador had been summoned to provide an explanation and told MPs he was urgently seeing what further sanctions could be placed on Belarusian individuals and entities, but he stressed he wanted to act in coordination with allies, including the EU
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| Ryanair passengers describe flight 'hijacking' and journalist arrest in Belarus – video Posted: 24 May 2021 04:38 AM PDT Passengers onboard a Ryanair a plane that was forced to divert from its Athens-Vilnius route and make an emergency landing in Minsk, where officials arrested a dissident journalist, have described being tired and uncomfortable. Belarus has faced international condemnation after forcing a Ryanair flight carrying an opposition activist to land in the Belarusian capital in order to arrest him. Some European leaders have called it an 'act of state terror and kidnapping' |
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