WORLD - The African Mirror

Dec

13

2020

Russia says may retaliate after new round of UK sanctions

WORLD

A new round of British sanctions against Russian individuals over alleged human rights abuses in Chechnya is "unfounded" and Moscow may retaliate, the Russian Foreign Ministry has announced. "Undoubtedly, this politically-charged demarche will have a negative impact on Russian-British interstate relations," the ministry said, adding Russia "reserves the right to take appropriate countermeasures." Britain said on Thursday it was imposing sanctions on 11 individuals, including security figures and officials from Russia, Venezuela, Pakistan and Gambia, in a coordinated move with the United States on human rights violations. - Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Sep

29

2021

By The African Mirror

Young Germans tired of status quo put faith in Greens, liberals

WORLD

JOSEPH NASR GERMAN’S pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and Greens could not be further apart on issues like taxation, climate change and fiscal policy, but Sunday's election revealed one thing they do have in common: popularity among young voters. An analysis of exit polls by Infratest dimap for broadcaster ARD showed that the Greens and FDP had won 23% each among first-time voters aged 18 to 22, compared with 15% and 10% for the Social Democrats (SPD) and conservatives respectively. The results reflect frustrations with Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling conservatives and their SPD coalition partners for slow progress on upgrading digital…

Dec

13

2020

By The African Mirror

Trump averts state shutdown, Covid-19 aid fight drags on

WORLD

RICHARD COWAN PRESIDENT Donald Trump has signed a one-week extension of expiring federal funding to avoid a government shutdown and to provide more time for separate talks on COVID-19 relief and an overarching spending bill. The Republican-led Senate passed the bill on Friday afternoon after the Democratic-majority House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the measure on Wednesday. Without this legislation, an array of government programs faced partial shutdown, ranging from some airport operations to national parks and State Department activities. With only a week before its next deadline on December 18, Congress now will focus on passing a $1.4 trillion bill…

Sep

29

2021

By The African Mirror

’30‌ ‌years‌ ‌of‌ ‌blah‌ ‌blah‌ ‌blah’:‌ ‌Thunberg‌ ‌questions‌ ‌Italy‌ ‌climate‌ ‌talks‌

WORLD

STEPHEN JEWKES and GIULIO PIOVACCARI GRETA Thunberg and fellow youth campaigners struck a sceptical tone for this week's climate talks in Italy, saying much has been promised but little done to tackle global warming in almost three decades since the landmark Earth Summit. Fears that climate change is worsening grew after a U.N. report in August warned the situation was dangerously close to spiralling out of control, with the world certain to face further disruptions for generations to come. "Thirty years of blah, blah, blah," Thunberg told the opening session of a Youth4Climate event on Tuesday. Thousands of young activists…

Sep

28

2021

By The African Mirror

Relief and disbelief greet R. Kelly guilty verdict

WORLD

A mixture of relief and disbelief greeted the guilty verdict in the sex trafficking trial of singer R. Kelly, the most high profile musician brought down in the #MeToo era. Kelly, once one of the biggest selling R&B singers with hits like "I Can Believe I Can Fly," was convicted on all nine counts after some 25 years of using his fame and wealth to lure underage girls and women for sex. "We hope this verdict brings some sense of justice to the brave survivors who came forward," tweeted the MuteRKelly campaign that was founded by two Black women in…

Sep

28

2021

By The African Mirror

Pledging stability, German SPD seeks three-way alliance to succeed Merkel

WORLD

EMMA THOMASSON and PAUL CARREL German Social Democrat Olaf Scholz vowed on Monday to strengthen the European Union and keep up the transatlantic partnership in a three-way coalition government he hopes to form by Christmas to take over from Angela Merkel's conservatives. Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD) came first in Sunday's national election, just ahead of the conservatives, and aim to lead a government for the first time since 2005 in a coalition with the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats (FDP). Scholz, 63, projected a sense of calm assurance when asked whether the close election result and the prospect of…

Sep

28

2021

By The African Mirror

U.S. warns Iran: Grant inspectors access or else…

WORLD

FRANCOIS MURPHY IRAN must stop denying the U.N. nuclear watchdog access to a workshop making centrifuge parts as agreed two weeks ago or face diplomatic retaliation at the agency's Board of Governors within days, the United States said on Monday. The workshop at the TESA Karaj complex makes components for centrifuges, machines that enrich uranium, and was hit by apparent sabotage in June in which one of four International Atomic Energy Agency cameras there was destroyed. Iran removed them and the destroyed camera's footage is missing. TESA Karaj was one of several sites to which Iran agreed to grant IAEA…

Dec

12

2020

By The African Mirror

World in denial on climate action 5 years after Paris accord, says Thunberg

WORLD

FIVE years on from the Paris Agreement on climate change, the world remains in denial over the actions needed to prevent catastrophic warming, Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg said on Friday. The deal was adopted on December 12, 2015 by 196 countries but, so far, global leaders have failed to deliver on its promises, she said in a video that urged her 10.5 million Instagram followers to #FightFor1point5. That was a reference to the ambition set out in the accord to hold the rise in average global temperatures to 1.5 Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The video showed images of politicians…

Sep

28

2021

By The African Mirror

Panic buying leaves up to 90% of fuel pumps dry in major British cities

WORLD

GUY FAULCONBRIDGE and ALISTAIR SMOUT UP to 90% of British fuel stations ran dry across major English cities on Monday after panic buying deepened a supply chain crisis triggered by a shortage of truckers that retailers are warning could batter the world's fifth-largest economy. A dire post-Brexit shortage of lorry drivers emerging after the COVID-19 pandemic has sown chaos through British supply chains in everything from food to fuel, raising the spectre of disruptions and price rises in the run-up to Christmas. Just days after Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government spent millions of pounds to avert a food shortage due…

Dec

12

2020

By The African Mirror

Rohingya widow seeks compensation from Myanmar government

WORLD

A Rohingya woman is seeking $2 million in compensation for the death of her husband who was killed by government soldiers during a 2017 military crackdown in western Myanmar, lawyers said. Legal Action Worldwide (LAW) and international law firm McDermott Will & Emery said they filed a complaint on Thursday, with Myanmar's human rights commission on behalf of Setara Begum, whose husband Shoket Ullah was killed at Inn Din village in Rakhine state. Her claim is the first complaint related to the Rohingya known to have been filed through Myanmar's human rights commission, according to LAW, a legal non-profit organisation…