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- ‘Please save him’: Belarus blogger’s parents urge action as Biden mulls sanctions
- Italian cable car brakes ‘tampered with’, say prosecutors
- Dominic Cummings tells MPs Matt Hancock should have been fired for many things ‘including lying to everybody on multiple occasions’ – live
- ‘Mob boss’ Assad’s dynasty tightens grip over husk of Syria
- Iran’s failure to explain uranium traces is ‘big problem’, says IAEA chief
- Airships for city hops could cut flying’s CO2 emissions by 90%
- Climate crisis inflicting huge ‘hidden costs’ on mental health
- Hillsborough: trial of former South Yorkshire police officers collapses
- WhatsApp sues Indian government over ‘mass surveillance’ internet laws
- Ireland condemns ‘de facto annexation’ of Palestinian land by Israel
- Cyclone Yaas: more than a million evacuated as storm hits India’s east coast
- Coronavirus live news: EMA to announce vaccine decision for 12-to-15 year olds Friday; calls grow for deeper Covid origins investigation
- US joins calls for transparent, science-based investigation into Covid origins
- ‘I had to step up’: Child labour in poorest countries rose during Covid, says report
- Canadian soldier faces mutiny charges for trying to block vaccine distribution
- ‘Stranger than anything dreamed up by sci-fi’: will we ever understand black holes?
- How a ranger stumbled upon one of the largest fossil finds in California history
- ‘Highway of death’: animals pay ultimate price on Brazil’s most dangerous road for wildlife
- Sex-mad and spectacular: 17 incredible facts about cicadas
- Minneapolis celebrates George Floyd’s life after a ‘troubling, long year’
- Outback camel trek: one woman’s 5,000km journey across Australia
- National Trust chairman Tim Parker to step down
- Nigeria’s court strike paralyses underfunded justice system
- White male minority rule pervades politics across the US, research shows
- Yang Hengjun: Australian writer says he is unafraid of ‘suffering and torture’ ahead of trial in China
- Pilot was asleep as plane flew over Brisbane and Gold Coast, report finds
- Anger in Zimbabwe at Nehanda statue amid collapsing economy
- Russia wary to support Belarus amid fallout from plane ‘hijack’
- Anti-abortion movement bullish as legal campaign reaches US supreme court
- Thousands gather in US cities mark one year anniversary of George Floyd's death – video
- Journalist ducks for cover after gunshots heard near George Floyd Memorial Square – video
- George Floyd’s family urges Biden to pass laws to 'protect people of colour' – video
- Blinken: US will reopen Jerusalem consulate and provide aid to help rebuild Gaza – video
- Blinken: US supports Israel's right to defence against Hamas – video
- Belarusian journalist was forced to record confession video, says father – video
| ‘Please save him’: Belarus blogger’s parents urge action as Biden mulls sanctions Posted: 25 May 2021 07:27 PM PDT Parents of Raman Pratasevich fear for his life, as mother of girlfriend Sofia Sapega says she was not involved in politics The parents of Raman Pratasevich have pleaded for international help to free the Belarusian journalist as US president Joe Biden said sanctions against Alexander Lukashenko's regime were "in play", without revealing further details. From their new home in Poland, Natalia Pratasevich, the blogger's mother, told Agence France-Presse: "I'm asking, I'm begging, I'm calling on the whole international community to save him. Continue reading... |
| Italian cable car brakes ‘tampered with’, say prosecutors Posted: 26 May 2021 01:37 AM PDT Crash investigators say emergency brakes had been deactivated to avoid disruptions to service The emergency brakes on a cable car that crashed in northern Italy on Sunday, killing 14 people, had been "tampered with", prosecutors said as three people were detained early on Wednesday morning. The three people detained, who include the owner of the firm that manages the Stresa-Mottarone funicular near Lake Maggiore in the Piedmont region, are alleged to have made a "conscious gesture" by "tampering" with the emergency brakes in order to "avoid disruptions" to the cable car service, Ansa reported, citing the chief public prosecutor, Olimpia Bossi. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 26 May 2021 03:14 AM PDT Latest updates: PM's former top adviser says the government failed the public and did not realise the severity of the situation until too late
Cummings says that at the last election people had a choice between a government led by Boris Johnson or Jeremy Corbyn. He says any system that presents people with a choice like that has gone "extremely badly wrong". There are thousands of people who could provide better leadership, he says.
This is from Johnny Mercer, who resigned recently as a defence minister complaining that "almost nobody" told the truth in Boris Johnson's government. Interesting watching Cummings, a man I've never met but was asked to defend his ludicrous behaviour. (I didn't). Interesting watching a co-ordinated slamming of him today by those who did. |
| ‘Mob boss’ Assad’s dynasty tightens grip over husk of Syria Posted: 25 May 2021 09:00 PM PDT Country's emergence as a mafia state leaves today's election result in little doubt Tyrant, war criminal, mob boss or, to his loyalists, their shrewd saviour: views about Bashar al-Assad rarely fall in between. As the Syrian leader faces a presidential poll on Wednesday – the result a foregone conclusion – a truer test of the authority he wields across a broken country has taken shape away from the political banners and faux campaigning. In battered towns and villages, ravaged by a decade of savagery, the now veteran president has been clawing back losses, consolidating himself as the only figure who could plot a course from the ruins of the region's most devastating modern conflict. Slowly, over the past year, Assad and his extended family have been shoring up their influence. Seldom seen during much of the crisis, he has become a fixture in what remains of Syria's industrial heartland, visiting factories, pressing employees on their hardships, and hosting delegations with an ease few observed at the height of the fighting. Continue reading... |
| Iran’s failure to explain uranium traces is ‘big problem’, says IAEA chief Posted: 26 May 2021 03:02 AM PDT UN nuclear inspectorate chief asks Tehran to 'come clean' about uranium found at three sites Iran's failure to provide credible explanations for traces of uranium found at two undeclared sites is "a big problem" that is affecting the country's credibility, the head of the UN's nuclear inspectorate, has said. Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), also said Iran and the US could not simply return to the old nuclear deal on exactly the same terms as signed in 2015, but needed a new understanding on how to handle Iran's increased nuclear knowledge, and its possession of more advanced centrifuges. Continue reading... |
| Airships for city hops could cut flying’s CO2 emissions by 90% Posted: 25 May 2021 10:01 PM PDT Bedford-based blimp maker unveils short-haul routes such as Liverpool-Belfast that it hopes to serve by 2025 For those fancying a trip from Liverpool to Belfast or Barcelona to the Balearic Islands but concerned about the carbon footprint of aeroplane travel, a small Bedford-based company is promising a surprising solution: commercial airships. Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), which has developed a new environmentally friendly airship 84 years after the Hindenburg disaster, on Wednesday named a string of routes it hoped to serve from 2025. Continue reading... |
| Climate crisis inflicting huge ‘hidden costs’ on mental health Posted: 25 May 2021 10:00 PM PDT Vicious circle of climate impacts, trauma and depression must be broken, say scientists The climate crisis is damaging the mental health of hundreds of millions of people around the world but the huge costs are hidden, scientists have warned. Heatwaves are increasing rates of suicide, extreme weather such as floods and wildfires are leaving victims traumatised, and loss of food security, homes and livelihoods is resulting in stress and depression. Anxiety about the future is also harming people's mental health, especially the young, the scientists said in a report. Continue reading... |
| Hillsborough: trial of former South Yorkshire police officers collapses Posted: 26 May 2021 02:43 AM PDT Judge rules two former officers and ex-solicitor accused of perverting the course of justice have no case to answer A judge has stopped the trial of two former South Yorkshire police officers and the force's former solicitor, who had been charged with perverting the course of justice for amending police statements after the 1989 Hillsborough disaster. Mr Justice William Davis ruled that there was no case for the defendants to answer because the altered police statements were prepared for the public inquiry into the disaster by Lord Justice Taylor. That was not a statutory public inquiry, at which evidence is given on oath, so it was not a "course of public justice", which could be perverted by amending statements, Davis ruled. Continue reading... |
| WhatsApp sues Indian government over ‘mass surveillance’ internet laws Posted: 25 May 2021 10:54 PM PDT Lawsuit says controversial new laws are unconstitutional and violate the right to the preservation of privacy WhatsApp has sued the Indian government over new internet laws which the company says will "severely undermine" the privacy of their users. The new IT laws, which have been called oppressive and draconian, give the Indian government greater power to monitor online activity, including on encrypted apps like WhatsApp and Signal. They were passed in February but were due to come into effect on Wednesday. Continue reading... |
| Ireland condemns ‘de facto annexation’ of Palestinian land by Israel Posted: 25 May 2021 10:58 PM PDT Foreign minister Simon Coveney supports parliamentary motion and says treatment of Palestinians is 'manifestly unequal' Ireland's government has supported a parliamentary motion condemning the "de facto annexation" of Palestinian land by Israeli authorities in what it said was the first use of the phrase by a European Union government in relation to Israel. Ireland's foreign minister, Simon Coveney, supported the motion on Tuesday, and condemned what he described as Israel's "manifestly unequal" treatment of the Palestinian people. Continue reading... |
| Cyclone Yaas: more than a million evacuated as storm hits India’s east coast Posted: 25 May 2021 09:56 PM PDT Winds snap power lines and kill two as residents in Odisha and West Bengal scramble for safety More than 1.2 million people have evacuated low-lying areas of India's east coast as Cyclone Yaas made landfall on Wednesday. A week after Cyclone Tauktae claimed 155 lives in western India, wild weather has already caused two deaths and inflicted damage to homes amid heavy rain and high winds rains in Odisha and West Bengal states. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 26 May 2021 03:06 AM PDT France sees 50 cases of rare variant in Bordeaux; India variant found in at least 53 countries; United States and other countries call for more in-depth investigation into pandemic origins; South Korea to relax mask rules
Easily the biggest news draw domestically at the moment on Covid is Dominic Cummings explaining what he thought were the failings of the UK government to prepare. You can follow that live with Andrew Sparrow here:
The economic impact of Covid has not been evenly distributed in the US, as Alexandra Villarreal reports for us: Over the first two months of the health crisis, the number of active Black, Latino and Asian business owners plummeted by 41%, 32% and 26% respectively, versus just 17% for white entrepreneurs. Related: 'Permanent damage': can minority-owned businesses recover from pandemic's toll? Continue reading...This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| US joins calls for transparent, science-based investigation into Covid origins Posted: 25 May 2021 07:01 PM PDT Several countries tell the WHO annual meeting that a new inquiry with new terms of reference must be launched The United States and other countries have called for a more in-depth investigation of the pandemic origins, after an international mission to China earlier this year proved inconclusive. Addressing the World Health Organization's main annual meeting of member states in Geneva, representatives from several countries stressed the continued need to solve the mystery of how Covid-19 first began spreading among humans. Continue reading... |
| ‘I had to step up’: Child labour in poorest countries rose during Covid, says report Posted: 25 May 2021 10:30 PM PDT Study finds children in Ghana, Nepal and Uganda in dangerous, exploitative work, with long hours and little pay Gopal Magar's father has had a drinking problem for as long as he can remember, but when Kathmandu went into lockdown last spring, it got worse. With five members of his family confined to a small room in the south of the city, tempers frayed and the 14-year-old saw his father beat his mother again and again. One day Gopal could stand it no longer. He fought back, and then fled, leaving his parents, and his school, behind. Gopal now lives with his older brother on the other side of the city, and has swapped his classroom for a construction site. "I have fewer problems now, but I need to work really hard," he says. He starts work at six in the morning and for the next 12 hours hauls sand, loads bricks and mixes concrete. He earns about £7 a day and sends some of it to his mother to help her buy food and pay the rent. Continue reading... |
| Canadian soldier faces mutiny charges for trying to block vaccine distribution Posted: 25 May 2021 12:52 PM PDT
A Canadian soldier is facing rare mutiny charges after allegedly urging fellow members of the armed forces not to help with the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines. The Department of National Defence has announced charges against officer cadet Ladislas Kenderesi, a reservist in Ontario. Kenderesi has been charged with "endeavoring to persuade another person to join in a mutiny" and "behaving in a scandalous manner unbecoming of an officer", according to officials. Continue reading... |
| ‘Stranger than anything dreamed up by sci-fi’: will we ever understand black holes? Posted: 25 May 2021 11:09 PM PDT In the new documentary Black Holes: The Edge of All We Know, the work of Stephen Hawking and others in trying to figure out a mystery for the age is put under the spotlight So, what would it feel like to fall into a black hole? "Well, at the moment you crossed the horizon, you wouldn't feel anything – there would be nothing dramatic," Peter Galison, co-founder of the Black Hole Initiative at Harvard University, says over the phone. Continue reading... |
| How a ranger stumbled upon one of the largest fossil finds in California history Posted: 26 May 2021 03:00 AM PDT While on a routine patrol, Greg Francek came across bone fragments from prehistoric animals that existed millions of years before humans Imagine a California with volcanoes erupting to the east and Los Angeles buried under the Pacific Ocean. Giant camels, rhinoceros and four-tusked miniature elephants graze on a lush landscape, only to be preyed upon by bone-crushing dogs. This is the prehistoric scene conjured up by a trove of new fossils discovered in California's Sierra foothills – a hugely significant find, and one of the largest in the state's history. Continue reading... |
| ‘Highway of death’: animals pay ultimate price on Brazil’s most dangerous road for wildlife Posted: 25 May 2021 11:29 PM PDT More than 3,000 animals die on the country's BR-262 road each year, but legal action by activists is forcing authorities to take notice The last time Schwartz's tracking monitor registered his location, he was standing at the edge of the "highway of death". A massive male giant anteater, he was roaming his habitat in the Brazilian Cerrado – a vast tropical savanna that neighbours the world's largest tropical wetland, the Pantanal – when he disappeared next to the federal highway officially known as the BR-262. No more GPS datapoints, collected every 20 minutes, were recorded. But biologists and veterinarians from the Institute for the Conservation of Wild Animals' (ICAS) Anteaters and Highways Project, who had placed the collar on him, were sure of what happened. Continue reading... |
| Sex-mad and spectacular: 17 incredible facts about cicadas Posted: 26 May 2021 03:00 AM PDT Once every 17 years, trillions of cicadas emerge from beneath the ground in the US. They taste like tinned asparagus, are sometimes attracted to power tools – and can number 1.3m an acre Brood X is upon us. Across the US billions, if not trillions of cicadas have emerged from below the ground, a biblical plague that occurs every 17 years. Gene Kritsky wouldn't miss it. "This is special," he says. An entomologist at Mount St Joseph University in Cincinnati, Kritsky has studied periodical cicadas for nearly 40 years. Brood X, the subject of three of his books, holds a particular place in his heart. In the middle of back-to-back interviews during his busiest professional period since 2004 ("It happens, every 17 years"), he found time to share his favourite facts with us. Continue reading... |
| Minneapolis celebrates George Floyd’s life after a ‘troubling, long year’ Posted: 25 May 2021 06:15 PM PDT Residents gathered across the city to honor Floyd and other victims of police violence, and vowed to hold officers accountable In downtown Minneapolis, the city that was plagued with tension during the Derek Chauvin murder trial last month, a celebration of George Floyd's life was held less than a mile from where the white former Minneapolis officer was convicted of all three counts of his murder. The event, organized by the George Floyd Memorial Foundation, was filled with shrieks from children as they leapt in bouncy houses while others filled the air with bubbles. The smells from a dozen food trucks penetrated the space as people danced and basked in the sun. Continue reading... |
| Outback camel trek: one woman’s 5,000km journey across Australia Posted: 25 May 2021 10:30 AM PDT After working with camels for five years, 32-year-old Sophie Matterson decided to embark on an epic trek across Australia, with nothing but the animals she had come to love for company. She trained five of them to carry her provisions before beginning a 5,000km coast-to-coast walk from Australia's western-most point in Shark Bay, Western Australia, to the eastern-most point in Byron Bay, New South Wales |
| National Trust chairman Tim Parker to step down Posted: 26 May 2021 12:03 AM PDT Parker faced opposition from ministers over trust's examination of UK's legacy of slavery and colonialism The chairman of the National Trust is to stand down after seven years, the charity has said, as it begins the search for his successor. Tim Parker, who faced political opposition from government ministers over the trust's examination of historical links between its properties and the UK's legacy of slavery and colonialism, will leave the post in October. Continue reading... |
| Nigeria’s court strike paralyses underfunded justice system Posted: 26 May 2021 01:00 AM PDT Defendants left in prison for months awaiting trial as staff strike over judicial system's financial autonomy A nationwide strike of court workers in Nigeria is paralysing the justice system, resulting in extended prison remands for those awaiting trial or sentencing and lengthy delays for everyone else. In March last year, Taiwo Ebun*, 27, was arrested for alleged armed robbery in Lagos. Since then he has been in detention. Continue reading... |
| White male minority rule pervades politics across the US, research shows Posted: 26 May 2021 03:00 AM PDT
From county officials and sheriffs to governors and senators, white male minority rule pervades politics in the United States, according to a new report published on Wednesday. White men represent 30% of the population but 62% of officeholders, dominating both chambers of Congress, 42 state legislatures and statewide roles across the nation, the analysis shows. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 26 May 2021 01:01 AM PDT In a letter dictated from detention the democracy activist has urged a friend 'don't worry about me' Yang Hengjun, the Australian democracy activist who goes on trial for espionage in China on Thursday, says he is unafraid of the "suffering and torture" of a potential long prison sentence, and he wishes he could keep writing to "help China to understand the world". In a letter dictated from detention, where he has been held more than two years and interrogated more than 300 times, he urged a friend "don't worry about me". Continue reading... |
| Pilot was asleep as plane flew over Brisbane and Gold Coast, report finds Posted: 26 May 2021 01:58 AM PDT Pilot responded only after 40 minutes and was instructed to head to Gold Coast airport, where he safely landed A pilot fell asleep and was uncontactable for 40 minutes as his plane flew over Brisbane and the Gold coast, an investigation has found. The Air Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said air traffic control lost contact when the plane was around 53km north-west of Sunshine Coast airport in July 2020 and tried repeatedly to get through to the pilot. Continue reading... |
| Anger in Zimbabwe at Nehanda statue amid collapsing economy Posted: 25 May 2021 11:00 PM PDT Criticism of priorities as tribute to liberation leader unveiled despite foreign food aid and lack of jobs The Zimbabwean government unveiled a statue of the liberation heroine and anti-colonialism figurehead Mbuya Nehanda in the capital, Harare, on Tuesday amid controversy about its priorities while the economy and health system collapse. President Emmerson Mnangagwa vowed that the government would "repatriate Mbuya Nehanda's skull and the skulls of others from the UK", and said discussions about this were "on course". The human remains of Nehanda and others who fought British colonisers are widely rumoured to be held at the Natural History Museum in London. Continue reading... |
| Russia wary to support Belarus amid fallout from plane ‘hijack’ Posted: 25 May 2021 10:46 AM PDT Analysis: Minsk and Moscow watching carefully to see if EU makes good on threat of targeted economic sanctions A new wave of sanctions and restrictive measures on Belarus's aviation industry, severing its direct links with much of Europe, looks set to increase the country's reliance on Russia, yet Moscow, its remaining ally, appears wary. Kremlin officials have offered only muted support over an incident that has been described as "air piracy" and an "act of state terrorism" by Alexander Lukashenko, a leader whom Vladimir Putin treats as a junior partner, and often with open disdain. Continue reading... |
| Anti-abortion movement bullish as legal campaign reaches US supreme court Posted: 25 May 2021 06:13 AM PDT A case that could undermine the landmark Roe v Wade ruling and a punitive Texas law are the culmination of a decades-long push The anti-abortion movement in the US is emboldened and optimistic after the supreme court announced it would hear a direct challenge to laws underpinning the right to abortion in the US, and Texas enacted a law intended to ban abortion after six weeks. The high court decision to take up the case and the Texas move come during the most hostile year for reproductive rights in the nearly half-century since pregnant people won the constitutional right to choose whether to terminate a pregnancy in the landmark 1973 case Roe v Wade. Continue reading... |
| Thousands gather in US cities mark one year anniversary of George Floyd's death – video Posted: 25 May 2021 10:36 PM PDT Thousands of people have marked the first anniversary of George Floyd's death with marches and vigils across the US. Large crowds gathered in New York and Los Angeles while in Minneapolis, the city Floyd died in, he was honoured with a moment's silence. Mourners also gathered later at Minneapolis's George Floyd Memorial Square for a candlelight vigil
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| Journalist ducks for cover after gunshots heard near George Floyd Memorial Square – video Posted: 25 May 2021 06:58 PM PDT An Associated Press journalist had to duck for cover during a report from George Floyd Memorial Square in Minneapolis as gunshots rang out nearby. Philip Crowther was covering the first anniversary of George Floyd's death from the intersection where Floyd died and reported hearing about 30 gunshots from two blocks away. Local authorities later reported one person was treated for a non life-threatening gunshot wound. Marches and vigils were held across the US to mark one year since George Floyd's death Continue reading... |
| George Floyd’s family urges Biden to pass laws to 'protect people of colour' – video Posted: 25 May 2021 01:57 PM PDT The family of George Floyd spoke to reporters after meeting Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on Tuesday to commemorate the anniversary of his murder. They addressed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which they called for Congress to pass. Philonise Floyd said: 'If you can make federal laws to protect the [national] bird, which is the bald eagle, you can make federal laws to protect people of colour'
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| Blinken: US will reopen Jerusalem consulate and provide aid to help rebuild Gaza – video Posted: 25 May 2021 10:26 AM PDT The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has announced that the US would reopen its consulate in Jerusalem after it was downgraded by the Trump administration, and will provide an additional $75m to help rebuild Gaza. Speaking alongside the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, he also promised to 'continue to rebuild' the US's relationship with Palestinians, and repeated comments from Biden that both Israelis and Palestinians should 'enjoy equal measures of freedom, opportunity, and democracy, to be treated with dignity' Continue reading... |
| Blinken: US supports Israel's right to defence against Hamas – video Posted: 25 May 2021 04:58 AM PDT The US secretary of state has arrived in Jerusalem at the start of a Middle East tour aimed at shoring up the Gaza ceasefire. In a joint press conference with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, Antony Blinken said the US 'fully supports Israel's right to defend itself against attacks' such as those by Hamas. A ceasefire was called after 11 days of fighting in which 250 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes on Gaza and 12 people died when Hamas rockets struck Israel. Netanyahu spoke positively of his relationship with the US as well as a common ideal of recognising Israel as a Jewish state. Continue reading... |
| Belarusian journalist was forced to record confession video, says father – video Posted: 25 May 2021 01:20 AM PDT The father of the dissident journalist Roman Protasevich, who was detained in Belarus after his plane was forced to land there, said he believed his son was forced in a video posted online to admit guilt and appeared to have a broken nose. 'I think he was forced. It's not his words, it's not his intonation of speech,', Dzmitry Protasevich said over Skype from Poland. Appearing on several channels of the Telegram messaging app, Roman Protasevich acknowledged playing a role in organising mass disturbances in Minsk last year. His father said the video seemed to be the result of coercion. 'It's likely his nose is broken, because the shape of it has changed and there's a lot of powder on it', he said
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