International

Tuesday, December 29th 2020 - 09:01 UTC
China censorship: four-year jail term for journalist who reported on the Covid-19 pandemic in Wuhan

A Chinese court handed a four-year jail term on Monday to a citizen-journalist who reported from the central city of Wuhan at the peak of last year's coronavirus outbreak, on grounds of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” her lawyer said.
Tuesday, December 29th 2020 - 08:00 UTC
Poisoned dissident Navalny, “Blockhead”, underpants, beards and consonants

By Gwynne Dyer – Surely you don’t want to read about the new, faster-spreading variant of the coronavirus today, or the fourth Israeli election in two years, and I certainly don’t want to write about them. So here are a few matters of lesser import, culled from yesterday’s media.
Monday, December 28th 2020 - 09:39 UTC
Malvinas Veteran in tears after his Argentine military ID was sold on the UK eBay website

By Heather Briley for MercoPress

LONDON, UK – Almost forty years after the Falklands conflict the identity document of an Argentine soldier has been sold on the UK eBay website. It belongs to the director of the Malvinas Museum in Buenos Aires, Edgardo Esteban, 58. He expressed his dismay at the sale and was moved to tears that it had surfaced after all this time.
Monday, December 28th 2020 - 09:13 UTC
WHO chief warns Covid-19 will not be the last pandemic: climate change and animal welfare must be addressed

The coronavirus crisis will not be the last pandemic, and attempts to improve human health are “doomed” without tackling climate change and animal welfare, the World Health Organization's chief said.
Monday, December 28th 2020 - 09:10 UTC
Europe launched a mass Covid-19 inoculation drive on Sunday; 6,25 million should be vaccinated by end of the year

Europe launched a mass Covid-19 vaccination drive on Sunday with pensioners and medics lining up to get the first shots to see off a pandemic that has crippled economies and claimed more than 1.7 million lives worldwide.
Monday, December 28th 2020 - 09:00 UTC
Hot food and drinks shop found buried under the volcanic ashes or Pompeii

Archaeologists in Pompeii, the city buried in a volcanic eruption in 79 AD, have made the extraordinary find of a frescoed hot food and drinks shop that served up the ancient equivalent of street food to Roman passersby.
Saturday, December 26th 2020 - 09:28 UTC
Galicia disappointed with fisheries post Brexit deal, pledges a belligerent attitude to recover lost fishing rights

Spain's regional government of Galicia has publicly expressed its concern about the fisheries chapter in the recently agreed UK/EU post/Brexit trade deal, which it considers will have a cost of 190 million Euros for the regional fleet and anticipates it will adopt a “belligerent” attitude to recover the lost fishing rights of the regional industry,
Saturday, December 26th 2020 - 09:19 UTC
EU expected to unanimously support the massive free trade deal struck with UK

European Union ambassadors were convening to start assessing the massive free-trade deal that the bloc struck with Britain, which should begin next week when the acrimonious Brexit divorce process finally comes to an end.
Saturday, December 26th 2020 - 09:17 UTC
Scotland claims the post-Brexit trade accord was “a bad deal for fishing”

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has accused the UK government of breaking promises to Scotland's fishing industry over the post-Brexit trade deal. The Scottish government said the agreement announced on Thursday was ”a bad deal for fishing.”
Saturday, December 26th 2020 - 09:10 UTC
Markets and the pound react positively to the post Brexit trade deal

U.S. stocks rose for a second day in holiday-shortened trading as investors monitored the latest developments on the Congressional aid package, while the British pound strengthened after a post-Brexit trade accord agreement was reached.