‘A national crisis’: how the killing of George Floyd is changing US politics
As people protest across the US, Donald Trump and Joe Biden have offered divergent responses that point to a divisive political debate on race relations
Riots in Minneapolis and across the US triggered by video footage showing George Floyd, a black man, killed under the knee of a police officer, has caused a dramatic shift in the national political debate in America and thrust race to the center of the stage.
Donald Trump and Joe Biden offered divergent responses that point to an even more divisive political debate on race relations and between Democrats and Republicans playing out in the months ahead.
The president, in a tweet in the early hours of Friday, warned that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts”. Later on Friday the former vice-president in a video address called for national unity and serious police reform, saying: “This is no time for incendiary tweets. This is no time to encourage violence. This is a national crisis, and we need real leadership right now.”My Europe: The coronavirus time machine
The COVID-19 pandemic has confined us to a world of yesterday, one full of nostalgia. But we must remember that the past is never innocent, says Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov. It also harbors political dangers.
In the early days, we used to say that after this pandemic we could never go back to the way things were. And yet, we've abruptly gone back to that world, in the way people return to places they have left. The way Swiss mercenaries, far from home, were once struck down by a mysterious ailment known as nostalgia.
That sickness was first described by Johannes Hofer, a Swiss medical student at the University of Basel in 1688, with clear physiological symptoms: fainting, high fever and stomach disorders, which in some extreme cases could even lead to death. Early this year, we first heard about the symptoms of those infected with the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, which included a dry cough, fever, sore throat and difficulty breathing. A while later, a loss of taste or smell was added to the list. But there is another, as yet unidentified symptom which I believe to be part of the coronavirus profile: a sharp nostalgia for the world of yesterday.
Afghanistan: Life inside Kabul's women's prison during Covid-19
Thousands of prisoners in Afghanistan have been released and pardoned as the country battles the Covid-19 pandemic. But in Kabul's only prison facility for women, more than a hundred women, often with young children, remain behind bars. FRANCE 24 reports from Kabul.
In Afghanistan's overcrowded prisons, officials struggled to implement hygiene protocols to slow the spread of Covid-19.
President Ashraf Ghani intervened on March 27, signing a decree to release over 12,000 inmates and to reform various prisons as part of measures designed to battle the virus.
But in Kabul's only prison facility for women, more than a hundred women, often with young children, remain behind bars.
One detainee had fled her husband, to whom she was forcibly married at the age of 17.
Death toll mounts as Bolsonaro's favourite drug divides nation
By Lia Timson
Updated first published
Daniela is an emergency doctor working in several public hospitals in Sao Paulo, on the frontline of Brazil's coronavirus outbreak.
“Today I sent four health professionals home,” she says. “Some had already had symptoms, others were starting to lose their sense of smell. A colleague sent another three or four home. That’s just today.”
Using a finger-prick test and her professional judgement, Daniela did what she felt was needed to protect patients and the rest of her staff when those doctors tested positive.
Israel police kill unarmed Palestinian in occupied East Jerusalem
Iyad el-Hallak, 32, attended and worked at a special needs school in the Old City, close to where he was shot.
Israeli police have shot and killed an unarmed Palestinian near the Old City in occupied East Jerusalem.
The slain man, 32-year-old Iyad el-Hallak, attended and worked at a school for people with special needs in the Old City, close to the spot where he was shot on Saturday morning, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.
How Vietnam managed to keep its coronavirus death toll at zero
Updated 0716 GMT (1516 HKT) May 30, 2020
When the world looked to Asia for successful examples in handling the novel coronavirus outbreak, much attention and plaudits were paid to South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
But there's one overlooked success story -- Vietnam. The country of 97 million people has not reported a single coronavirus-related death and on Saturday had just 328 confirmed cases, despite its long border with China and the millions of Chinese visitors it receives each year.
This is all the more remarkable considering Vietnam is a low-middle income country with a much less-advanced healthcare system than others in the region. It only has 8 doctors for every 10,000 people, a third of the ratio in South Korea, according to the World Bank.
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