International

• Saturday, October 31st 2020 - 08:07 UTC

  Cruise industry: CDC drops the “No Sail” in favor of a strict Conditional Sailing Order

  

  The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has dropped its controversial “No Sail” order in favor for a so-called Conditional Sailing Order. In short, the “No Sail” order has been lifted and the industry will work with the CDC on a realistic, phased-in return to service.

• Friday, October 30th 2020 - 09:43 UTC

  Climate change: the Arctic Ocean sea ice has yet to start refreezing

  

  By Gwynne Dyer – Historically, the Arctic Ocean would freeze right out to its edges (the northern coasts of Canada, Greenland, Russia, and Alaska) each winter — 14-million square kilometers of ice — and then melt back to about half that area over the following summer. Not this year.

• Friday, October 30th 2020 - 08:58 UTC

  World Medical Association blasts leaders who discredit science and sponsor fake news on coronavirus

  

  The spreading of fake news and discredited science by world leaders has led to many people dying and others being exposed to Covid-19, according to the departing President of the World Medical Association. In his valedictory address to this week’s WMA’s annual Assembly, Dr. Miguel Jorge, a psychiatrist from Brazil, mentioned both the Presidents of Brazil and the United States as contributing to more people being exposed to the virus and more deaths.

• Friday, October 30th 2020 - 08:56 UTC

  Catalonia closes borders and extends shutdown of bars and restaurants: hospitals overwhelmed

  

  Catalonia announced on Thursday a 15-day ban on entering and exiting its territory, the latest in a series of restrictions taken by Spanish regions to try and contain rampant COVID-19 contagion.

• Friday, October 30th 2020 - 08:51 UTC

  Polish women protest against abortion restrictions becomes global across EU and US cities; huge march expected in Warsaw

  

  Thousands of protesters in cities around the world have gathered over the past days in support of Poles who have taken to the streets after a court ruling further limited the country's restrictive abortion laws.

• Friday, October 30th 2020 - 08:34 UTC

  US rejects Nigerian candidate as next WTO director-general, further paralyzing the global trade watchdog

  

  The World Trade Organization's (WTO) bid to select a new leader was plunged into uncertainty this Wednesday after the United States rejected the Nigerian woman proposed as the global trade watchdog's next director-general.

• Friday, October 30th 2020 - 08:27 UTC

  Terrorist murders three people in a Nice church; European leaders come out in support of Macron

  

  France raised the security alert for French territory to the highest level on Thursday after a knifeman murdered three people at a church, beheading at least one of them in what was described as a terror attack in the city of Nice.

• Friday, October 30th 2020 - 08:22 UTC

  Spanish coronavirus strain has spread across with the second wave in Europe

  

  A coronavirus strain that emerged in Spain in June has spread across Europe and now makes up a large proportion of infections in several countries, researchers said, highlighting the role of travel in the pandemic and the need to track mutations.

• Thursday, October 29th 2020 - 00:09 UTC

  Chile and Spain celebrating the 500ths anniversary of the Magellan Strait discovery in Punta Arenas

  

  Chile and Spain are celebrating the 500th-anniversary discovery of the Magellan Strait, on November first 1520, by the round of the world expedition of Fernando Magellan and his second in command Sebastián Elcano, who had left Spain on September 1519, with five ships and some 247 crew, and only returned three years later with one vessel and 18 men.

• Wednesday, October 28th 2020 - 23:53 UTC

  “Why all the fuss about Malvinas and not a word on Formosa which Argentina should return to Paraguay?”

  

  “Why all the fuss about the Malvinas, all the indoctrination which starts at school claiming the Islands, and not a word about the province of Formosa which should be returned to Paraguay and we took as spoils of the Triple War in 1870?”, asks Argentine writer Federico Jeanmaire, a well-known author of several best sellers.