World News 22nd May
US Secretary of State in London to meet UK Government says that World Health Organisation is responsible for the people who have died in the UK from the virus. He claimed that China had put pressure on the WHO to ignore the virus and that China had helped the WHO president to be elected in 2017. This is part of Trump’s attack on international organisations but especially on China.
Trump U-turn on virus. He says it will get worse; he also asks people to wear masks. He has one in his pocket and says he will wear it. There are nearly 4 million cases in the USA and over 140 thousand people have died. Virus is getting worse all over South America. Melbourne in Australia is still increasing virus numbers. Nearly one quarter of people living in Delhi in India have the virus infection. Two thirds of the people in USA who watch Fox News think that the numbers of people dying from the virus is much less than the official figures.
Things in UK could be worse – for example, Belarus … Belarus is a country between Poland and Russia. It has around 10 million people. For 26 years they have had the same President – a dictator. They are trying to stop all protests and arresting people on the streets (see photo). One demonstrator says “if you see a military car, just run. You have to just run.” Why? They are arresting just anyone they can catch. There is an election coming but all the people who wanted to stand against the President have been refused and then put in jail. This is a very serious crackdown on human rights.
Word News 21st July
Greta Thunberg (Swedish girl) has been given an award of over one million euros by a Portuguese charity. This is because of her efforts in the school climate strike and the way she has involved young people to stop global warming. She is astonished by the amount of money but says it will all be given to groups who are working to prevent global warming.
EU leaders in a four-day meeting in Brussels agreed their budget of 1.1 trillion euros for the next 7 years and also a special amount to help countries recover for the virus – 750 million euros. There was a lot of argument – some countries with less virus problem wanted to have more control about which countries received money and also how to make sure it was used in the correct way. Other countries really needed the money. In the end there was a deal after a very long discussion.
Trump made a number of false claims in an interview on Friday. The biggest was that USA had the “best mortality rate in the world” – means the lowest deaths. Facts were checked – this is not true at all – nowhere near the truth. People think he just got bored of the virus and does not believe any facts or advice from experts.
More trouble in American cities. This time because Trump sent in Government agents (like special police) and started grabbing people off the street and arresting them. Portland In Oregon had groups of these police in plain clothes just appear on the streets. The Mayor says they are causing more violence. Not stopping it. Trump wants to send more of these to other cities without asking the mayors or discussing with them.