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World
2nd February
As Pope Francis visits Congo, LGBT+ activists cheer for perceived ally
By Benoit Nyemba and Sonia Rolley KINSHASA (Reuters) – LGBT+ activists in Democratic Republic of Congo are celebrating the arrival of Pope Francis, whose recent push for the decriminalisation of same-sex relations has given them hope of...
Oil rises as slowing U.S. inflation eases recession concerns
(Reuters) -Oil prices rose on Wednesday as signs of slowing inflation in the United States eased fears that the world’s largest oil user may face a recession because of further interest rate hikes and a weaker dollar supported some buying interest. Brent crude futures gained 32 cents, or 0.4%, to $85.78 a barrel at 0407...
How did Memphis medical workers respond to Tyre Nichols after police beating?
(In Jan. 30 story, corrects paragraphs 1 and 15 to show third employee fired by Memphis Fire Department was a lieutenant, not the emergency vehicle driver) (Reuters) -The Memphis Fire Department has fired two emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and a fire department lieutenant who responded to the scene of the deadly beating of Tyre Nichols...
Brazil readies task force to expel miners from Yanomami lands, officials say
BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil is preparing a task force of armed forces, police and government agencies to expel illegal gold miners who invaded the Yanomami indigenous reservation, officials said on Tuesday. More than 20,000 wildcat miners are blamed for bringing disease, violence and hunger that have caused a humanitarian crisis for isolated Yanomami villages on...
Campaigners challenge British arms export licences to Saudi Arabia
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain is unlawfully allowing arms sales to Saudi Arabia for possible use in the war in Yemen despite evidence of repeated violations of international humanitarian law, campaigners told London’s High Court on Tuesday. The Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) says the British government wrongly decided to resume issuing new licences to export...
‘Hands off Africa,’ Pope Francis tells rich world
KINSHASA (Reuters) -Pope Francis denounced the “poison of greed” driving conflicts in Africa as he began a visit to Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday, saying the rich world had to realise that people were more precious than the minerals in the earth beneath them. Many tens of thousands of people cheered as he travelled...
A.I. uncovers unknown play by Spanish great in library archive
MADRID (Reuters) – Artificial intelligence (AI) technology used to transcribe anonymous historic works at Spain’s National Library archives has uncovered a hidden gem – a previously unknown play by one of the nation’s greatest authors, Felix Lope de Vega. The National Library said on Tuesday experts later confirmed that the Baroque playwright and one of...
U.S. Justice Department seeks Tesla driver-assist documents
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Tesla Inc disclosed on Tuesday the U.S. Justice Department has sought documents related to its Full Self-Driving (FSD) and Autopilot driver-assistance systems as regulatory scrutiny intensifies. The automaker said in a filing it “has received requests from the DOJ for documents related to Tesla’s Autopilot and FSD features.” Reuters reported in October...
UN found no managerial misconduct at WHO in Congo sex scandal
GENEVA (Reuters) – A U.N. investigation into the World Health Organization’s managerial mishandling of a sex scandal in the Democratic Republic of Congo found that allegations against senior staff were “unsubstantiated,” the health agency chief said on Tuesday. Dozens of aid workers including some from the WHO were involved in sexual abuse and exploitation during...
Parents grieve for three-month old baby, a victim of Afghanistan’s deadly winter
KABUL (Reuters) – Shamila doesn’t have a photo of the baby son who died in her arms in freezing temperatures at their home in Kabul this month, but she remembers his face perfectly. “He had a white and bright face, big eyes, a small nose and black hair,” she said. Three-month old Amrullah was one...
1st February
Two years on, Myanmar coup takes a ‘catastrophic toll’
(Reuters) – Two years after Myanmar’s military coup, a young factory worker turned resistance fighter mourns the loss of his leg in battle. A former diplomat has not seen his family in four years. A beauty queen adjusts to a new life in wintry Canada. And an exiled teacher dreams of returning to school. The...
VP Harris to attend Nichols funeral as prosecutors weigh more charges
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (Reuters) – Vice President Kamala Harris will attend Wednesday’s funeral of Tyre Nichols, the Black man who died three days after Memphis police officers savagely beat him following a traffic stop earlier this month, the White House said on Tuesday. Nichols will be eulogized by the Reverend Al Sharpton at a service at...
The worst of the rain to hit New Zealand’s Auckland may have passed
WELLINGTON (Reuters) -The worst of the forecast rain moved away from New Zealand’s flood-ravaged biggest city on Wednesday after inflicting what the finance minister described as probably the “biggest non-earthquake event” in the country’s history. Four people were killed in flash floods and landslides that hit Auckland beginning on Friday as rainfall, that authorities say...
Baldwin charged for ‘reckless acts’ leading to ‘Rust’ shooting
(Reuters) -Actor Alec Baldwin was charged with involuntary manslaughter on Tuesday for showing a “reckless” disregard for safety that led to the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the Western movie “Rust” in New Mexico in 2021, according to court documents. District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies filed charges following months of speculation...
Canadian province tries decriminalizing drugs to fight overdose crisis
VANCOUVER (Reuters) -The western Canadian province of British Columbia on Tuesday began a three-year pilot program to stop prosecuting people for carrying small amounts of heroin, meth, ecstasy, or crack cocaine, as part of an effort to fight a drug overdose crisis. B.C. accounts for about a third of the 32,000 deaths due to overdose...
Memphis fire department fires three employees in Tyre Nichols case
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (Reuters) – Three members of the Memphis Fire Department who responded to the fatal police confrontation with Tyre Nichols were dismissed on Monday after investigators found he was beaten and left handcuffed on the ground without medical attention for nearly 15 minutes. According to a fire department statement, emergency medical technicians Robert Long...
Young professionals flee crisis-hit Pakistan in search of jobs
KARACHI, Pakistan (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Tahir took a leap of faith when he left Pakistan four months ago in search of a better and more prosperous future in Canada. Even with no job lined up, he made up his mind to leave as his homeland grapples with a worsening economic crisis that is driving...
Families seek loved ones after Pakistan mosque blast kills 100, all but 3 police
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) -Distraught relatives thronged hospitals in Pakistan’s Peshawar on Tuesday to look for their kin a day after a suicide bombing ripped through a crowded mosque in a heavily fortified area of the city, killing 100 people, all but three of them police. The attack, in the Police Lines district, was the deadliest...
U.S. to end COVID-19 emergency declarations on May 11
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden’s administration on Monday said it will end COVID-19 emergency declarations on May 11, nearly three years after the United States imposed sweeping pandemic measures to curb the spread of the illness. The COVID-19 national emergency and public health emergency (PHE) were put in place in 2020 by then-President Donald Trump....
Thousands of ambulance staff in England to strike on Feb. 10
LONDON (Reuters) -Thousands of ambulance workers in England will carry out fresh strike action on Feb. 10 in a dispute over pay and staffing, the UNISON trade union said on Tuesday. They join ambulance workers in other trade unions who plan to stage several walkouts in February and March, following an earlier wave of strikes...
Australia deploys more experts, equipment to search for lost radioactive capsule
MELBOURNE (Reuters) -Australian authorities on Tuesday sent out more personnel and specialised detection equipment to search for a tiny radioactive capsule missing somewhere in the outback, including a team from the country’s nuclear safety agency. The capsule is believed to have fallen from a road train – a truck with multiple trailers – that made...
Pakistan braces for fuel shortages amid liquidity crisis
KARACHI (Reuters) – Pakistan could face a crunch in fuel supplies in February as banks have stopped financing and facilitating payments for imports due to depleting foreign exchange reserves, traders and industry sources said. The South Asian nation is facing a balance of payments crisis and the plummeting value of the Pakistani rupee is pushing...
Teachers join mass walkout in Britain after decade-long pay squeeze
LONDON (Reuters) – London school teacher Lucy Preston will miss her son’s fourth birthday on Thursday because she has to work a second job in the evening as a private tutor to make sure she can pay for her childcare and mortgage. A day earlier, in the hope of earning a pay rise that will...
Australia and China trade ministers to hold virtual meeting next week
SYDNEY (Reuters) -The trade ministers of Australia and China will hold a virtual meeting next week, Australia’s trade minister, Don Farrell, told broadcaster ABC in an interview on Tuesday. The meeting between China’s Wang Wentao and Farrell would be the first between the commerce and trade ministers of both nations in three years. Relations between...
China foreign minister seeks stronger economic ties with Saudi Arabia
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s new foreign minister Qin Gang wants to build stronger ties with Saudi Arabia and set up a China-Gulf free trade zone “as soon as possible”, according to a ministry statement published late on Monday. Qin, who was just recently named to the position, made the suggestion in a telephone conversation with...
Brazil’s Lula cold-shoulders Germany’s Scholz on Ukraine support
BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Monday said Moscow made a mistake invading Ukraine, but speaking alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz he kept clear of condemning the Russian attack. It was the third time on his South American tour that Scholz failed to rally strong support for the Ukrainian war...
Brazil’s Lula orders crackdown on supplies to illegal miners in Yanomami territory
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazil’s president on Monday announced a crackdown on transportation of supplies to illegal gold miners in the Yanomami reservation in northern Brazil, hoping to force out the wildcat miners who have caused a humanitarian crisis among the area’s indigenous people. After meeting with ministers, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva mandated...
Home for hedgehogs: UK to restore swathes of wildlife habitat
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain will announce a plan on Tuesday to improve the environment, including a commitment to restore at least 500,000 hectares (1.2 million acres) of wildlife habitat to protect the country’s rarest species from hedgehogs to red squirrels. The proposals comprise 70 new projects including 25 new or expanded National Nature Reserves, according...
31st January
IMF board approves $4.7 billion support program for Bangladesh
(Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund on Monday said its executive board approved a support program for Bangladesh worth $4.7 billion at current exchange rates, making the South Asian country the first to access its new Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF). The funding includes $3.3 billion under the IMF’s Extended Credit Facility and Extended Fund...
Pope’s visit to shine spotlight on war-ravaged DR Congo
KINSHASA (Reuters) – Pope Francis flies into Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday for a visit that will highlight the human cost of protracted conflict in the vast central African country. The 86-year-old pontiff will celebrate Mass in the capital Kinshasa on Wednesday and meet victims of violence from the eastern part of the country,...
