Category: World

The US president says Afghan leaders need to fight for their nation, as more cities fall to the Taliban.

Only 26 people in New Zealand have died from the coronavirus since the pandemic began, after the nation of 5 million managed to completely stamp it out its spread. Chaired by epidemiologist David Skegg, the group said in a highly anticipated report released Wednesday that it believes it’s possible to maintain an elimination strategy even after more people start arriving. “By contrast, New Zealand has the opportunity to continue to enjoy a lifestyle that is relatively unaffected by the ravages of COVID-19,” the group said.

Firefighters and residents armed with simple tools battled a rash of forest fires in northern Algeria that the nation’s interior minister said Tuesday have killed at least six people in the mountainous Kabyle region. Interior Minister Kamel Beldjoud traveled to Kabyle, home of Berbers, to assess the situation. Other areas of Algeria also had active wildfires.

Moderna Inc said on Tuesday it had agreed with the Canadian government to start domestic production of mRNA vaccines as the country looks to boost supplies to fight respiratory viruses, including COVID-19 and seasonal influenza. Under the memorandum of understanding, Moderna will set up an mRNA vaccine manufacturing facility in Canada and also give access to its mRNA development engine. The COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna, based on mRNA technology, is already being used in the United States, the European Union, and Canada.

Bulgaria’s largest political grouping gave up efforts to lead a minority government on Tuesday following a razor-thin victory in last month’s parliamentary election, increasing the prospect of new polls later this year. The anti-establishment There Is Such a People (ITN) party narrowly won the second 2021 election on July 11, bolstered by public anger against widespread corruption after over a decade of dominance by former centre-right premier Boyko Borissov. But with just 65 seats it needed the support of other smaller parties in the fractured chamber of 240 lawmakers, having declined cooperation with Borissov’s GERB or the ethnic Turkish MRF party.

The trial of an Iranian citizen accused of committing grave war crimes and murder during the final phase of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s started Tuesday in Stockholm. The trial of Hamid Noury comes just days after hard-line Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi took office as the highest-ranking civilian leader in the Islamic Republic. Raisi himself took part as a prosecutor in the so-called “death commission” that executed as many as 5,000 people at the end of Iran’s bloody war with Iraq in 1988, complicating how the West will interact with him as negotiators try to save Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal with world powers.

Extensive coverage in China of sexual assault scandals involving tech giant Alibaba and celebrity Kris Wu, without obvious censorship, has rekindled discussion of the topic in a country where the #MeToo movement has previously been stifled. Sexual harassment and assault were issues that were for years rarely broached in public in China until the #MeToo movement took root in 2018, only to face online censorship and official pushback, including the arrest of activists. Exchanges on the Weibo social media platform on sexual harassment faced by women in the workplace, or during drinking sessions with work colleagues, were among the most discussed topics on Monday and Tuesday, with more than 500 million views.

AuctionAuction resultsAuction date2021-08-10Start date2021-08-11Maturity date2021-08-18Interest rate, %0.00Offered volume, SEK bn507.0Total bid amount, SEK bn2358.6Accepted volume, SEK bn507.0Number of bids17Percentage alloted, %21.496 ISIN: tba

Bangladesh began vaccinating thousands of Rohingya Muslims on Tuesday in the world’s largest refugee settlement, amid a surge in COVID-19 infections in the country, officials said. Aid workers have long warned of a potential humanitarian disaster if there is a significant outbreak in the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, the border district where over a million Rohingya who fled a brutal military crackdowns in neighbouring Myanmar have found sanctuary. Around 48,000 Rohingya, aged 55 and above, will be inoculated between Tuesday and Thursday with the help of the UN agencies, said Mahbubur Rahman, the chief health official in Cox’s Bazar district, said.

Amanda Selby, 15, died at a holiday park in North Wales on 31 July.

As foreign forces pull out after 20 years of war, what did it achieve and what happens next?

The Israeli military said soldiers shot and wounded a Palestinian woman after she attacked them with a knife in the occupied West Bank late on Monday. The woman was hospitalized after being shot in her “lower body” near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, the military said in a statement early Tuesday. No Israeli soldiers were wounded in the incident.

Just three months after the latest war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, the border town of Sderot appears to be on the road to recovery. An Iron Dome rocket defense battery sits on the eastern edge of town, a few hundred meters (yards) from a new apartment complex. Noam Biton says she has enjoyed a normal childhood in Sderot.

It is the world’s third largest carbon emitter, but hasn’t set a date for becoming carbon neutral.

Lee Jae-yong, the de facto boss of the Samsung electronics to entertainment group, is to be released from jail on Friday, South Korea’s Ministry of Justice said. The move is deeply controversial. Lee was imprisoned for bribery in a complex case involving the highest echelons of a previous government and attempts to minimize tax payments […]

Thousands proudly show off their short hair after an Olympic athlete is criticised for her haircut.

To clean the air, fight climate change, make our communities more resilient and protect biodiversity, Parks Canada is mobilizing to plant 150,000 trees in 2021 in up to 18 national parks from coast to coast to coast.

Governments face more pressure to ramp up efforts to cut emissions ahead of to international Cop26 climate talks in Glasgow in November.

Provider Randox says it is increasing collections but the tests for travellers are branded ‘pointless’.

An FC Barcelona member has filed complaints with a French court and with the European Union Commission with the aim of blocking any move by Lionel Messi to Paris Saint Germain soccer club, according to documents seen by Reuters on Monday. In the complaints, shared by the fan’s lawyer Juan Branco, the Barca member claims that French football authorities have failed to enforce their own financial fair play (FFP) rules in order to help PSG become a force in European football.

Hoping the world takes heed of Monday’s dire report by the U.N. climate panel, activist Greta Thunberg said she plans to go to this year’s global climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, after all. Thunberg had said she would skip the major U.N. conference in November out of concern that the uneven rollout of COVID-19 vaccines across the world would leave some countries unable to attend safely. “I’ve said before that I wasn’t going to go if it wasn’t fair,” Thunberg said in an interview with Reuters.

British Prime minister Boris Johnson has full confidence in finance minister Rishi Sunak and has no plans to reshuffle his cabinet team, Johnson’s spokesman said on Monday in response to a report in the Sunday Times that Johnson could demote Sunak. “The prime minister and chancellor (Sunak) have always enjoyed a close and effective working relationship and will continue to do so,” the spokesman said.

South Korea will release billionaire Samsung scion Lee Jae-yong on parole this week after he spent 18 months in prison for his role in a massive corruption scandal that triggered nationwide protests and led to the ouster of the country’s previous president. The announcement Monday by the Justice Ministry, which came with a year left on Lee’s 30-month sentence, extends a history of leniency toward major white-collar crime and preferential treatment for convicted tycoons. It tarnishes the reformist image of President Moon Jae-in, who after winning a presidential by-election in 2017 vowed to curb the excesses of “chaebol,” South Korea’s family-owned conglomerates, and end their cozy ties with the government.

There have been protests across France against the expansion of its COVID health pass.

A brawl at a gas station in northern Lebanon over scarce fuel supplies descended into deadly violence on Monday, turning into a fight with knives and guns that killed one man, the country’s news agency said. Lebanon has faced months of severe fuel shortages that have prompted long lines at gas stations and plunged the small country, dependent on private generators for power, into long hours of darkness.

Sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, who was removed from the Tokyo Olympics by the Belarusian team after she criticised her coaches, is auctioning a medal from the 2019 European Games to support athletes who say they have been targeted by authorities. Belarusian team officials took the 24-year-old to Tokyo’s Haneda airport against her wishes on Aug. 1, a day before she had been set to run the 200m. Tsimanouskaya told Reuters https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/exclusive-olympics-belarusian-athlete-says-she-was-taken-airport-go-home-after-2021-08-01 the reason she had been removed from the team was her public criticism of “the negligence of our coaches.”

The 27-year-old man has been charged with murdering the 57-year-old woman.

Under pressure from businesses and public sectors facing a worker shortage that policymakers fear will fuel inflation, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is due to unveil plans this week to reopen the country’s borders. Ardern garnered global praise for containing local transmission of COVID-19 via an elimination strategy, imposing tough lockdowns and slamming New Zealand’s international border shut in March 2020. The dairy, horticulture, housing, services, health and broader public sector have all reported acute staff shortages, and called on the government to raise border blocks.

The move comes after a woman’s allegations of sexual assault went viral on Chinese social media.

South Korea begins opening COVID-19 vaccine reservations for all adults over 18 for the first time on Monday as it scrambles to stave off a rise in sporadic outbreaks, many of them among young, unvaccinated residents. South Korea was praised for its handling of the virus in the beginning of the pandemic with thorough tracing and testing, but a slow vaccination uptake has overlapped with surge in more transmissible variants. Some 45% of South Korea’s 52 million population have had at least one dose of vaccine, while just 15% have been fully vaccinated as of Sunday midnight.