Author: Steven Sahiounie

A labor union has voted to approve a strike at Escondida, the world’s largest copper mine, located in the Atacama Desert, Chile, where the miners are demanding better work conditions and benefits during the pandemic. The mine’s Union No 1 said that 2,164 of its members, or 99,5% of those who had voted, had chosen to reject a final contract offer, and that it had approved the strike. “The resounding result once against demonstrates that… our ranks believe that this offer doesn’t contain any progress towards [addressing] the legitimate demands of the workers,” the union said, in a statement late on…

The Cambodian prime minister has announced that his country is rolling out a third-dose booster scheme, using either a Chinese shot or a British jab. Frontline workers will be the first to receive the follow-up injection. Cambodians who have previously been injected with the Sinopharm or Sinovac vaccine will receive a dose of that produced by Oxford-AstraZeneca, while those inoculated with AstraZeneca’s will be administered Sinovac’s, Prime Minister Hun Sen announced on Sunday. Preparations are underway for the third-dose scheme, and the government has ordered the Health Ministry to purchase more of the Oxford-developed shots, the Khmer Times reported. Up…

It is “highly likely” that Iran was behind the deadly drone attack on the Israeli-operated tanker MV Mercer Street off the coast of Oman, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said, threatening Tehran with a “concerted response.” “We believe this attack was deliberate, targeted, and a clear violation of international law by Iran,” said a statement, released by the Foreign Office on Sunday. It went on to say that “it is highly likely” that Iran attacked the Mercer Street tanker with one of its drones as the vessel was passing through neutral waters off the coast of Oman. The MV Mercer Street, a Liberian-flagged…

YouTube has suspended one of the largest media companies in Australia, local Sky News, from posting on its platform for allegedly breaching Covid-19 misinformation policies. It has also reportedly had some of its videos removed. The one-week suspension was issued following a review of Sky News Australia’s “old videos,” the channel announced on Sunday. Under the terms of the temporary ban, for seven days, YouTube will allow no videos or livestreams to be posted by the channel, which has 1.86 million subscribers, and some earlier videos about coronavirus have been reportedly permanently deleted from the platform. The ban was issued after…

The airport in Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city, has come under rocket attack, forcing the cancelation of all flights, as the Taliban seeks to recapture its former stronghold. At least three rockets were launched towards Ahmad Shah Baba International Airport on Sunday, with two of the projectiles hitting the runway, airport chief Massoud Pashtun said, as quoted by the news agency AFP. All flights have been canceled, but are expected to resume later in the day, as the runway is being repaired, the official said. A Taliban spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, told Reuters the airport was targeted because it was being used…

A French hospital union boss has said a health pass will not be enough to curb another wave of Covid-19, and urged the government to make vaccination compulsory for everyone. “We no longer have the luxury of taking half-measures,” Frederic Valletoux, the head of the Hospital Federation of France (FHF) and the mayor of Fontainebleau, told Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper. “Everywhere, the indicators are going up again. The context of the epidemic shows us the limits of intermediate measures.” Pointing to the “unprecedented speed of the fourth wave” of infections, Valletoux said the government should “assume the course of compulsory [measures] along with…

The Swedish Armed Forces have paid for a pro-LGBTQ ad in one of the country’s leading newspapers, featuring soldiers standing beneath a rainbow flag. The campaign has provoked some fiery discussions online. The front-page ad in the Svenska Dagbladet daily features a group of soldiers in full combat gear, one holding a large rainbow flag. The text at the top of the image reads, “A flag worth defending,” and, in smaller print below, it says, “We defend human rights, equality for all, and our right to live as we choose.” The ad was published ahead of the week-long Stockholm Pride festival, which kicks…

Israel is preparing to get rid of some 80,000 Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine doses after their shelf life expired. Previously, the Jewish state had salvaged some 700,000 nearly expired doses by sending them to South Korea in a swap deal. Even though its campaign to inoculate elderly Israelis with a booster shot has only just been launched, Tel Aviv is reportedly poised to destroy thousands of vaccine doses that expired at the end of July, Israeli media reported on Saturday. Some 80,000 unused doses, worth around $1.8 million, are expected to be “thrown in the trash,” Israel’s Channel 12 news reported. The government’s frantic…

Israeli Occupation Foreign Minister and US Secretary of State Anthony to work with the UK, Romania and other international partners in investigating the targeting of the Israeli ship. Blinken and Lapid ahead of their meeting in Rome on Jun 27,2021 The Israeli Occupation’s Foreign Minister and the US Secretary of State agreed to “work with the United Kingdom, Romania, and other international partners to investigate the facts, provide support, and consider the appropriate next steps,” according to a statement by US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price. Lapid called for an international response “in the face of Iranian terrorism, which also harms freedom…

According to the latest coronavirus data released by the UK government, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the county has soared to 5.8 million, with 129,654 fatalities as of Saturday. British medical scientists have argued that the UK may be hit by thousands of COVID deaths every winter because the disease will most likely join other seasonal viruses, including influenza, in the immediate future. The Guardian cited Professor Adam Finn of Bristol University as saying that Britons “are going to see problems with COVID for a long time”, given that the virus “has shown itself to be genetically more nimble…