News in Brief

Date: 12 June 2021 - 21:26

News ID: ۹۱۱۸۸

CORNWALL (Independent) – G7 leaders rejected pleas to find billions of pounds to end COVID jab shortages in poor countries, despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson making a plan to “vaccinate the world” his aim for the Cornwall summit. Aid groups said the richest nations had failed what one called “a moment of truth” by not even discussing a financing package – instead merely donating doses expected to total less than 10 percent of the number needed. On the eve of the summit, more than 100 former world leaders, including Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, called for the G7 to pay two-thirds of the $66bln (£46.8bln) cost of a truly global program. The move would not only end “vaccine apartheid”, Brown wrote in The Independent, but would be “an act of self-interest” – triggering a $9 trillion economic bounce back by 2025, the International Monetary Fund said. But G7 leaders are instead expected to donate only one billion of the 11 billion doses required, as Downing Street admitted it had not put a financing package on the G7 agenda.

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WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – The teenager whose 2020 video recording of a U.S. police officer kneeling on African American George Floyd’s neck before he died in police custody has been awarded a 2021 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation. Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died in May 2020 after Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin placed his knee on the victim’s neck even as he pleaded, “I can’t breathe.” Eighteen-year-old Darnella Frazier’s video was an important piece of evidence used in the trial of Chauvin who was found guilty in April on all charges in the murder of Floyd. Frazier won the citation “for courageously recording the murder of George Floyd, a video that spurred protests against police brutality around the world, highlighting the crucial role of citizens in journalists’ quest for truth and justice,” according to the Pulitzer Prize Board. “The Floyd story in particular highlighted not only the essential role of journalists, but the increasing importance of ordinary citizens in the quest for truth and justice,” said Mindy Marques, co-chair of the Pulitzer Prize Board, during the award ceremony on Friday. In a social media post last month commenting on the one-year anniversary of Floyd’s brutal death by police, Frazier wrote, “Even though this was a traumatic life-changing experience for me, I’m proud of myself. If it weren’t for my video, the world wouldn’t have known the truth.”

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ALGIERS (AFP) – Polling stations opened Saturday in Algeria’s first parliamentary election since a popular uprising forced longtime president Abdelaziz Bouteflika from office in 2019. The vote is meant to satisfy demands of protesters and turn a new leaf for the troubled, albeit gas-rich, country — but which many activists plan to boycott. Authorities have tightened the screws on the Hirak protest movement in recent weeks, and police arrested a politician and journalist who are prominent opposition figures in the run-up to the voting. The early election is supposed to exemplify President Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s “new Algeria,” with an emphasis on young candidates and those outside the political elite. A huge number of candidates — more than 20,000 — are running for the 407-seat legislature, more than half as independents and the rest on party lists. It’s the first legislative election since former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was forced from office in 2019 after 20 years in power amid protests over corruption, joblessness and repression. But the threat of boycott, worries about the coronavirus and general frustration with the political system cast shadow over the elections.

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PYONGYANG (Dispatches) – North Korean leader Kim Jong-un says his country’s military power should be boosted, state media KCNA said on Saturday. Chairing the second expanded meeting of the Central Military Commission of the Worker’s Party of Korea (WPK), he discussed the enhancement of the army’s fighting efficiency in light of the changing situation on the Korean Peninsula, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. Kim also touched upon “important tasks” to make “a fresh turn in the overall work of national defense,” according to KCNA. The latest meeting came a few days after another one where Kim and senior officials of the Workers’ Party discussed ways to evaluate and improve the economy in the second half of the year. Kim is reportedly seeking a greater role in government policy making in a bid to upgrade an economy battered by the brutal sanctions against his country -- intended to halt North Korea’s nuclear and missile program – and to maintain strict border closures to ward off the COVID-19 pandemic. Pyongyang blasted U.S. President Joe Biden last month for his remarks on North Korea’s nuclear program, rejecting Washington’s talk of diplomacy as “spurious” and warning of a corresponding response to its hostile policies.

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MADRID (Reuters) – Spanish women protested across the country against male violence on Friday in the wake of recent violent events against women. Women dressed in black clothes lightened candle to protest against feminicides after Spanish rescuers found the body of one of the girls missing in the Canary Islands. “We are very sad in this country, there are hundreds and hundreds of deaths, this last one has already been a turn of the screw, they are sadists,” said a nurse at the protest, Marta Otadu. Father of missing girls, Tomas G., is the main suspect in the disappearance of Olivia, 6, and Anna, 1, after failing to return them to their mother as agreed at the end of April. He is also missing. Almost 1,100 women have been killed by partners or ex-partners since a register was created in 2003, shortly before a gender violence law was approved, while some 39 children have been killed during attacks on their mothers since 2013.