WORLD - The African Mirror

Dec

18

2020

French COVID-19 cases rise as Macron tests positive

WORLD

FRANCE recorded 18,254 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, health director Jerome Salomon has disclosed, a tally not seen since November 20 as infections showed an upward trend again. He spoke at a news conference hours after Emmanuel Macron's office announced the French president had tested positive, prompting a track-and-trace effort across Europe following numerous meetings between Macron and EU leaders. Salomon, who spoke of a "worrying development of the pandemic" a week before Christmas, said the reproduction rate of the disease had gone above 1 again, at 1.03. A level below 1 is needed to gradually contain…

Dec

17

2020

By The African Mirror

Macron tests positive for COVID-19, forcing leaders to self isolate

WORLD

THE President of France, Emmanuel Macron has tested positive for coronavirus, his office said, prompting a track and trace effort across Europe following meetings between the French leader and EU heads of government in recent days. Macron, 42, was running the country remotely after going into quarantine in the Élysée Palace, the presidency said. His wife Brigitte was also self-isolating. "This diagnosis was made following a PCR test performed at the onset of the first symptoms," Macron's office said, declining to give further details of his conditions or the symptoms he had. Macron will cancel all upcoming trips including a…

Dec

17

2020

By The African Mirror

India’s ‘invisible’ women hope for recognition at farmers protests

WORLD

ROLI SRIVASTAVA LEGIONS of women have trekked to India's capital to join massive protests against agricultural reforms, hoping not only to protect their livelihoods but also win visibility as farmers. About 75% of rural women in India who work full-time are farmers, Oxfam says, with numbers rising as men migrate to work in factories and construction sites. Yet farming is still widely seen as men's work and only 13% of women own the land they till. "Women are never counted as farmers ... we are always counted as housewives, but not workers," said Sunita Rani, 39, who owns a farm…

Dec

17

2020

By The African Mirror

Landmark ruling links death of UK schoolgirl to pollution

WORLD

LIN TAYLOR AIR pollution contributed to the death of a London schoolgirl, a coroner has ruled in a landmark case that could push Britain to get tougher on traffic and clean up city air. After a two-week inquest, coroner Philip Barlow said the death in 2013 of Ella Kissi-Debrah, aged 9, was caused by acute respiratory failure, severe asthma and exposure to pollution. "I will conclude that Ella died of asthma contributed to by exposure to excessive air pollution," said Barlow from Southwark Coroner's Court in south London. He said air pollution was a "significant contributory factor" that had exacerbated…

Dec

17

2020

By The African Mirror

French court finds accomplices to Charlie Hebdo attackers guilty

WORLD

TANGI SALAUN A French court has convicted 14 people of crimes ranging from financing terrorism to membership of a criminal gang in relation to Islamist attacks in 2015 against the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and a Jewish supermarket. The trial has reopened one of modern France's darkest episodes, just as another wave of Islamist attacks on home soil this autumn, including the beheading of a schoolteacher, prompted the government to crack down on what it calls Islamist separatism. Brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi stormed Charlie Hebdo's offices in Paris, spraying gunfire and killing 12, on Jan. 7, 2015, nearly a…

Dec

16

2020

By The African Mirror

China accused of forcing 570,000 people to pick cotton in Xinjiang

WORLD

EMMA BATHA CHINA is forcing hundreds of thousands of ethnic Uighurs and other minorities to pick cotton by hand, a U.S. think-tank said, sparking calls for governments to ban all cotton imports from the Xinjiang region. The vast western province, home to about 11 million ethnic Uighurs, produces 85% of China's cotton and 20% of the global supply, which is used by fashion brands worldwide. The Washington-based Center for Global Policy said in a report it was very likely a major share of cotton from Xinjiang was "tainted with forced labour". China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin dismissed the allegations.…

Dec

16

2020

By The African Mirror

Third of world’s people get no state aid during pandemic – Oxfam

WORLD

MATTHEW LAVIETES MORE than a third of the world's population - some 2.7 billion people - has not received government aid during the coronavirus pandemic with gaping differences between rich and poor countries, Oxfam has revealed. An analysis of World Bank data conducted by the Nairobi-based charity found that while $9.8 trillion of aid was spent by 36 wealthy nations, 59 low-income countries spent only $42 billion to cope with the economic fallout of the pandemic. It also found that rich countries have spent at the rate of $695 per person, whereas low-income and emerging countries have spent at a…

Dec

16

2020

By The African Mirror

Biden to stump in Georgia runoffs, top Senate Republican ends silence on U.S. election result

WORLD

JOSEPH AX A day after the Electoral College confirmed President-elect Joe Biden's victory, he is set to travel to Georgia to campaign for two Democratic U.S. Senate candidates whose January 5 runoff elections could make or break his domestic policy agenda. Just ahead of Biden's trip, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in Congress, ended his silence on the November 3 election results by congratulating Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. McConnell acknowledged their win after six weeks of President Donald Trump's unfounded claims of election fraud. Trump has yet to concede to Biden, and many congressional…

Dec

15

2020

By The African Mirror

‘Democracy prevailed,’ Biden says after U.S. Electoral College confirms his win

WORLD

MICHAEL MARTINA and JARRETT RENSHAW US President-elect Joe Biden has delivered a forceful rebuke to President Donald Trump's attacks on the legitimacy of his victory, hours after winning the state-by-state Electoral College vote that officially determines the U.S. presidency. "In this battle for the soul of America, democracy prevailed," Biden said in a prime-time speech from his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. "Now it's time to turn the page, as we've done throughout our history – to unite, to heal." Monday's vote, typically a formality, assumed outsized significance in light of Trump's extraordinary effort to subvert the process due to what…

Dec

15

2020

By The African Mirror

Russia trials COVID-19 vaccine for domestic animals, including mink

WORLD

MARIA VASILYEVA RUSSIA is close to completing clinical trials for a COVID-19 vaccine for domestic animals and mink and expects to begin the regulatory approval process in February, according to Russia's agricultural safety watchdog. The Federal Centre for Animal Health began developing the vaccine in spring after the authorities established the virus could be passed from humans onto some domestic animals. Russia became the first country to give regulatory approval to a human vaccine -- Sputnik V -- in August and is in the process of rolling it out across the country. Over 150,000 people have already received it. The…