World

CARBIS BAY, England—Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies on Sunday called on China to respect human rights as President Biden seeks to build an international coalition to counter Chinese influence. Despite some initial concerns from several European leaders that forceful language might antagonize China, the final communiqué released on Sunday at the close of the first in-person G-7 summit in almost two years named Beijing but fell short of an outright condemnation. The statement called on China to respect human rights and freedom, particularly in the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang and in Hong Kong. It also laid out plans to counter Chinese influence in developing nations with the G-7 clubbing together to fund infrastructure projects. The group of rich nations also ca...

NEW DELHI—Indian cities and states are building oxygen plants and setting up new Covid-19 treatment centers, preparing for the possibility of more surges as the most recent crisis recedes.With oxygen having been in short supply in the recent surge, New Delhi, among the worst-hit places, is buying 25 oxygen tankers for transport, and building 64 small plants and one large one to produce it. “If a third wave comes, people should not suffer,” Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi’s chief minister, said earlier this month. India’s financial center, Mumbai, is setting up more Covid-19 centers, adding 5,500 beds, including some for children, said Suresh Kakani, a senior official in charge of the city’s health department. That will expand on the 9,000 patients who can be accommodated in current centers, in addi...

FALMOUTH, England—The head of the World Health Organization on Saturday urged China to cooperate with an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus after a summit of Group of Seven leaders discussed the causes of the global Covid-19 pandemic. Speaking to reporters after participating in parts of the summit by video, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, said he hoped there would be better cooperation and transparency when the next phase of the probe into the virus’s origin is under way. “As you know we will need cooperation from the Chinese side,” he said. “We need transparency to understand or know or find the origin of this virus…after the report was released there were difficulties in the data sharing, especially in the raw data.” Newsletter Sign-up Coro...

JOHANNESBURG—In Uganda, hospitals have become so overwhelmed with new coronavirus cases that the sick are dying while waiting for a bed. In Namibia, all nonemergency surgery has been canceled to preserve space for Covid-19 patients and military hospitals have been opened for civilian use. In South Africa’s largest city, Johannesburg, intensive-care wards are filling up and hospitals are stockpiling oxygen cylinders as infections surge again. Across Africa, which has received fewer Covid-19 vaccines than any other continent, countries are confronting a new wave in coronavirus infections without the inoculations that have turned the tide of the pandemic in Europe and North America. News that the Group of Seven countries will donate at least one billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines to poor...

For years, Ireland has prospered from rock-bottom tax rates that have drawn some of the biggest U.S. companies to set up large operations on its shores.Now, an effort led by the U.S. to stop tax-avoidance schemes is threatening Dublin, as Washington seeks an international agreement setting a minimum tax rate for big multinational corporations, and reallocating the right to tax some profits to countries where goods and services are sold, rather than where they are made. Over the past two decades, multinational businesses have flocked to Ireland, drawn by a corporate tax rate of just 12.5%. Most of the U.S. digital giants use the country as their European headquarters. Nine of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies have significant operations in the country, often making drugs tha...

More than 47,000 wild animals were sold in the Chinese city of Wuhan in the two and a half years before the first confirmed Covid-19 cluster was found there, a new study showed, providing critical new evidence that the coronavirus could have spread naturally from animals to humans.The study, published in the open-access journal Scientific Reports, revealed that the wild animals, including 31 protected species, were often butchered on site in markets, and stored in the kinds of cramped, unhygienic conditions that can allow viruses to hop species. Those animals included at least four species that scientists say can carry the Covid-19 virus—civets, mink, badgers and raccoon dogs—according to the study by researchers from the China West Normal University, the University of Oxford and Canada’s ...

MEXICO CITY—Vice President Kamala Harris said at the conclusion of a trip to Mexico and Guatemala that she would visit the U.S. southern border and stressed that the reasons why migrants from Central America make the dangerous trip to the border would take time to resolve. “The reality is that we need to prioritize what’s happening at the border, and we have to prioritize why people are going to the border, and so let’s talk about what’s going on in the places that are causing the issue at the border,” Ms. Harris said in a press conference Tuesday during her first trip abroad in office. “I think it’s short-sighted for any of us who are in the business of problem-solving to suggest we’re only going to respond to the reaction as opposed to addressing the cause.” Ms. Harris’s comments came af...

PARIS—A man appeared to slap French President Emmanuel Macron across the face Tuesday during a visit to a small town in southern France, in a sign of how tensions are building ahead of next year’s presidential election. In two videos broadcast on French television, Mr. Macron is seen jogging toward a small, cheering crowd standing behind a barrier. Mr. Macron leans in for a greeting, placing one hand on the arm of a man wearing a green T-shirt. The man then shouts “Montjoie Saint-Denis! Down with Macrony!” as he winds up and appears to slap Mr. Macron’s face, causing the president’s head to jerk to one side. Mr. Macron’s security service quickly intervened, pushing the man to the ground and pulling the president away. Two men were immediately detained by police, a spokesman for the Interio...

People gathered at a memorial for Sarah Everard in London in March. Photo: Victoria Jones/PA Wire/Zuma Press By Max Colchester Close Max Colchester June 8, 2021 1:25 pm ET LONDON—A British police officer pleaded guilty Tuesday to the kidnap and rape of Sarah Everard, a marketing executive whose murder earlier this year in London sparked protests over violence toward women. Ms. Everard went missing in March after leaving a friend’s apartment and her remains were later found in a wooded area southeast of the capital. An officer with London’s Metropolitan Police, 48-year-old Wayne Couzens, was charged with Ms. Everard’s kidnapping and murder. Ms. Everard’s death triggered an outpouring of anger from women across the U.K. Photo: metropolitan police/EPA/Sh...

WASHINGTON—Global inequality is likely to widen this year as a small number of major economies power the fastest recovery in 80 years while many poorer countries struggle to return to pre-pandemic income levels, the World Bank said. The global economy is set to grow by 5.6% this year, up from a January forecast of 4.1%, marking the fastest recovery from five post-World War II recessions, the bank said Tuesday in its semiannual Global Economic Prospects report. “While there are welcome signs of global recovery, the pandemic continues to inflict poverty and inequality on people in developing countries around the world,” David Malpass, president of the World Bank Group, said. The bank provides loans and technical advice to developing and emerging economies. While about 90% of advanced economi...