Author: Amnewsworld

Ahead of the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Saudi Arabia on 21 November, 11 aid organizations are calling for early action to prevent soaring rates of hunger and malnutrition resulting from the pandemic-related global economic recession. We are seeing spiraling levels of poverty and hunger among refugees and conflict-affected people. Hundreds of thousands still risk being kicked out of their homes, and millions are skipping meals and dropping out of school. The economic impacts of Covid-19 are having a devastating effect on the world’s most vulnerable. G20 leaders have the opportunity and means to address this growing crisis. They must take…

Tony Georgiou sighed as he stood in front of a field full of parked taxi cabs, admitting he has lost count of how many are there. Many London taxi drivers rent their instantly-recognisable black cabs from fleet companies such as GB Taxi Services, where Georgiou is one of the owners. But with London’s streets emptied by the coronavirus lockdown, many drivers are unable to keep paying for their vehicles and are handing them back in droves. “There’s probably around 150 to 200 vehicles that are here, which we’ve had to take off the road,” said Georgiou, whose company has parked…

South Australia’s six-day “circuit-breaker” lockdown will be cut short, officials said Friday, blaming a pizza chef who misled contact tracers about how he contracted the virus. Premier Steven Marshall indicated a tough lockdown for the state’s almost two million people would end late on Saturday, at least two days earlier than planned. Marshall said a man who claimed he was a customer at a pizza parlour hotspot — leading authorities to believe the strain was virulent enough to be transmitted via a takeaway box — in fact worked there. “One of the close contacts linked to the Woodville pizza bar…

Mexico said Thursday its coronavirus death toll had risen above 100,000, becoming the world’s fourth country to pass the grim milestone. “Today in Mexico we have 100,000 people who have lost their lives due to Covid-19,” deputy health minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell told a news conference. The health ministry announced 576 more deaths in its daily update, taking the total to 100,104, behind only the United States, Brazil and India. The overall number of infections registered now stands at 1,019,543 in the nation of more than 128 million, up 4,472 from the previous day. While the number of daily infections has…

The election of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro in 2018 looked to some like a death blow for the Brazilian left after the spectacular fall of its 13-year rule. But the heart monitor may have just emitted a blip in local elections. Rewind a decade or so, and Brazil’s left wing looked invincible: president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the charismatic co-founder of the Workers’ Party (PT), was presiding over a booming economy, slashing poverty in one of the world’s most unequal countries, and was called “the most popular politician on Earth” by no less than Barack Obama. But fast forward…

US President Donald Trump will take part Friday in an Asia-Pacific summit as he continues to reject his election loss, a day after President Xi Jinping used the forum to hail China’s growing economic clout. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gathering, held online this year because of the Covid-19 pandemic, brings together 21 Pacific Rim countries, accounting for about 60 percent of global GDP. Beijing has become the main driving force behind the trade grouping after the United States began withdrawing from multilateral bodies during Trump’s presidency. President Xi, boosted by the signing last week of the world’s biggest trade…

Indications that the US is considering declaring Yemen’s Huthi rebels a “terrorist organisation” have alarmed humanitarian groups who say it could cripple aid delivery and tip the country into famine. The Iran-backed Huthis are at the centre of a flurry of diplomacy as the administration of US President Donald Trump, which has made isolating its arch foe Tehran a centrepiece of its regional policy, enters its final weeks. Officials confirmed to AFP reports that the US is laying the groundwork for a designation of the rebel group, which controls the capital Sanaa and much of the north after a grinding…

Democratic candidate Joe Biden has won the US state of Georgia, the state’s officials confirmed after a hand recount of the ballots cast in the presidential election. President Donald Trump had alleged fraud. An audit in Georgia confirmed a majority of voters endorsed Joe Biden for the next US president, state election officials said on Thursday. It reaffirms the result which gave the president-elect all 16 of the state’s electoral college votes. Biden is the first Democratic candidate to win in the southern US state since Bill Clinton in 1992. The original count put Biden’s advantage at over 14,000 votes. The recount…

EU leaders have made no headway on the veto of its budget and coronavirus bailout package. Poland and Hungary have blocked their passage over stipulations they uphold the rule of law. European Union leaders argued at a summit Thursday over Poland and Hungary’s attempts to block the passage of the EU budget and coronavirus rescue package. The two holdouts reaffirmed their position at the video conference. Leaders agreed to park the dispute and hand it over to experts to find a way forward. Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel said the block means “we have to continue talking with Hungary and Poland.” “There is consensus on…

EasyJet has revealed the first annual loss in its 25-year history of £1.27bn – a result of the virus crisis turbulence that grounded airlines globally. The no-frills carrier said the total loss before tax figure for the year to the end of September compared to profits of £430m in the previous 12 months. However, it struck a more upbeat tone in Tuesday’s announcement following a slew of downbeat statements during 2020 to date – the latest just 11 days ago that it expected to operate only 20% of services during the current winter. Image:EasyJet has raised over £1bn in recent months…