EM News: Your Monday Headlines

Missed out on Monday news stories? Don’t worry, we’ve got you sorted with five of the most important stories that made headlines today.

Keep up to date with all of the latest news stories coming out of South Africa and around the world, visit our News & Politics section.

Alexei Navalny: EU and US demand release of poisoned Putin critic

Several European nations and the United States have condemned the Arrest of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and are demanding that he be released from prison.

 

 

 

[The] attacks on Mr Navalny are not just a violation of human rights, but an affront to the Russian people who want their voices heard.

-Jake Sullivan, Incoming US National Security Adviser

Read more on BBC.

‘We sensed danger’ – Lesufi appeals to private schools to postpone reopening

Gauteng Education MEC, Panyaza Lesufi, has appealed for private schools to adhere to the government’s directive to start the school year on 15 February.

 

 

 

 

 

This weekend I was flooded with reports that there are schools that believe they should go ahead with… reopening. We sensed danger and we felt that we can’t just persuade the public education system – we need to also pursue the private education system.

-Panyaza Lesufi, Gauteng Education MEC

Read more on News24.

World facing ‘catastrophic’ moral failure on vaccines: WHO chief

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has denounced the “catastrophic moral failure” of wealthy nations’ taking a “me-first” approach to securing Covid-19 vaccines.

 

 

 

 

“I need to be blunt. The world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure — and the price of this failure will be paid with lives and livelihoods in the world’s poorest countries.”

-Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General

Read more on IOL and CNN.

GOP senators wrestle with purging Trump from party

Republican senators are debating over what role Donald Trump will have in the party after his presidential term ends on Wednesday. Current Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell has told GOP senators to vote with their conscience on whether or not to convict Trump.

 

 

 

“I don’t think it’s an easy call, but I think there would be a lot more Republican support evident if it were not linked to the Democrats’ clear desire to prevent him from running for office ever again. That’s the real question politically.

“A lot of people in both parties who want Trump just gone think, ‘That’s good, we’ll just get rid of Trump. He can’t run again,'”

-Vin Weber, Republican strategist

Read more on The Hill.

New videos of Wuhan emerge from earliest days of Covid outbreak

Video footage coming out of Wuhan from the earliest days of the Covid-19 pandemic shows how the Chinese government could have stopped the virus and how it attempted to prevent journalists from reporting on it.

 

 

 

 

“When I arrive, people seem to have no fear or concern about the virus at all. Some haven’t even heard about it. A stall owner asks me to take off my mask. He says ‘You are obviously an over-worried outsider. Everything is fine here,’”

-Yang Jun (anonymous source)

Read more on Al Jazeera