Live Reporting
Derek Chauvin trial begins as George Floyd's brother calls killing 'modern-day lynching
- Trial live-streamed with courtroom access restricted
- ‘The world is waiting’: Chauvin set to go on trial
- How George Floyd Square became a symbol of resistance – and healing
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Members of the public, lawyers, activists and members of George Floyd’s family gathered early this morning outside the heavily-barricaded court house.
Our correspondent Amudalat Ajasa was there and took some video as the central group kneeled.
Civil rights activist Rev Al Sharpton notes at the two minute-mark of them taking a knee that they are only a short way into the time that Chauvin crushed Floyd.
Merkel threatens to centralise Covid response as some states refuse to act
Chancellor complains her government does not yet have power to impose national lockdown
Angela Merkel has threatened to centralise Germany’s pandemic response as several of the country’s federal states refuse to implement an emergency brake mechanism on easing restrictions in spite of rapidly rising infection rates.
Interviewed on German television on Sunday night, the German chancellor complained that the political instruments to break a third wave of the virus, for example by imposing a strict nationwide lockdown, were currently not at her government’s disposal, speaking of a “turning point” in the management of the Covid-19 crisis.
Merkel fell short of spelling out how such a politically sensitive power grab could look, merely hinting at a tweaking of Germany’s pandemic law.
Coronavirus ‘very likely’ to have passed to humans from bats via unknown animal, WHO report says
World Health Organisation scientists also conclude it is ‘extremely unlikely’ the virus was leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan
Coronavirus is “very likely” to have first passed from bats to humans via another animal, according to a World Health Organisation report on the origins of Covid-19.
A draft version of the study, which was obtained by the Associated Press, also concludes that it is “extremely unlikely” the virus was leaked from a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where Covid-19 first emerged in late 2019.
It had been claimed that scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) were experimenting with a virus genetically similar to Sars-CoV-2 before it was leaked into the community.
Islamic State group claims control of northern Mozambique town of Palma
The Islamic State group said Monday it had seized the coastal town of Palma in northern Mozambique, after days of fighting.
“The caliphate’s soldiers seize the strategic town of Palma” following a three-day attack against military and government targets that killed dozens, the group said in a statement on its Telegram channels.
The jihadist group’s claim came after thousands of survivors of coordinated jihadist attacks in the town fled on boats to the provincial capital, Pemba, according to sources in the city.
International aid agency sources said between 6,000 and 10,000 people are waiting to be evacuated to safety following the raid on Palma that began last Wednesday.
‘Lockdown on thoughts’: Kashmiris slam India’s free speech curbs
Recent order asking government employees to share social media details latest in a series of measures aimed at curbing free speech.
Sadia Munawar is a 29-year-old government employee in Indian-administered Kashmir. She is also an amateur poet.
Sitting at her home in a picturesque town in central Kashmir, Munawar (not her real name) says she has closely witnessed the recent years of unrests, lockdowns and fear among the people in the disputed region.
“Had we feared the darkness like this, dead we would have been, nameless, long ago,” she recently wrote.
Iran’s next hardline president coming into view
Three hardline yet distinct candidates have emerged as frontrunners as moderates are expected to lose Iran's June 18 presidential poll
The countdown is on for Iran’s June 18 presidential election and early projections suggest a hardliner close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will likely emerge on top.
At least two Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRCG) commanders have thrown their hats into the ring, both of whom would represent a hard turn from the “prudence and moderation” espoused by outgoing President Hassan Rouhani.
Rouhani’s approval rating now stands at a trifling 25% according to a Stasis agency poll, a huge dip from the 67% he enjoyed in February 2016 shortly after the implementation of the soon thereafter annulled Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal.
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