Europe is torn over whether to take Putin's help on vaccines
Updated 0448 GMT (1248 HKT) April 3, 2021
Europe's lackluster vaccination program has presented one of the continent's greatest foes with a golden opportunity to score a serious diplomatic victory.
Item one on the agenda, according to the Kremlin, was a discussion on the prospect of "the registration of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine in the EU and possible deliveries and joint production of the vaccine in the EU countries." The German readout of the call used more moderate language, including a more explicit caveat around how Sputnik could only be used if it meets European standards.
China launches musical in bid to counter Uyghur abuse allegations
A new state-produced musical set in Xinjiang inspired by the Hollywood blockbuster “La La Land” has hit China’s cinemas, portraying a rural idyll of ethnic cohesion devoid of repression, mass surveillance and even the Islam of its majority Uyghur population.
China is on an elaborate PR offensive to rebrand the north-western region where the United States and other western nationals and human rights groups say genocide has been inflicted on the Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.
As allegations of slavery and forced labour inside Xinjiang’s cotton industry have drawn renewed global attention, including big brands like Nike saying they would no longer source materials from the region, inside China, Beijing has been curating a very different narrative for the troubled region.
Opinion: If Tareq Alaows can't be a candidate, we are all the losers
Tareq Alaows wanted to be the first Syrian refugee in the German parliament but has given up after being targeted by hate speech and threats. This is a great loss for Germany, says Luisa von Richthofen.
When Tareq Alaows announced he would stand as a candidate for the Greens at upcoming German national elections, it made a great stir. The 31-year-old is a lawyer and former Red Crescent volunteer. But for many in Germany, only one thing matters: He is a refugee from Syria.
It hasn't been an easy 10 years for Alaows. But after having survived the despotism and war in Syria and the flight from his homeland, and after having lived in Germany for six years, learned the langauge and worked for the cause of asylum-seekers, it seemed the time had come: He could have made history as the first Syrian refugee in the Bundestag. One could imagine Alaows saying with a smile: "Yes, we've made it; we're really here."
This river in Canada is now a ‘legal person’
Jean-Charles Pietacho says the belief that nature is a living thing that must be respected, has been at the heart of the Innu people’s way of life for generations.
But now, that idea has been applied in a new way as the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit in February recognised the Magpie River, a 300km (186 miles) waterway in the Cote Nord region of the Canadian province of Quebec, as a “legal person”.
Suez Canal traffic jam caused by stuck ship Ever Given 'cleared'
The last ships stranded by the giant container vessel that was stuck in the Suez Canal have now passed through the waterway, the canal authorities say.
More than 400 vessels were left waiting at either end of the canal when the 400m-long Ever Given became wedged across it on 23 March.
But Egypt's Suez Canal Authority says the shipping traffic jam is now over.
Officials have opened an investigation into the incident and expect to made their findings public early next week.
Japan's commercial whaling season begins in coastal waters
Four whaling vessels left Japanese ports on Saturday for coastal waters as the country began its third season of commercial whaling since ending an over-three-decade hiatus on the practice in 2019.
With another ship to join the operation in June, a total of five are expected to catch 120 minke whales in waters off the Sanriku Coast and Hokkaido by late October, according to the Fisheries Agency.
Two ships left Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, early in the morning, before being joined by two other vessels that departed from Hachinohe in Aomori Prefecture. The fifth ship will leave from Abashiri, Hokkaido.
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