Reuters World News Summary
Following is a summary of current world news briefs.
Robot chef serves Chinese school dinners to lower COVID-19 risk
A Shanghai school is using a bright yellow robot to prepare and serve dishes in its canteen in an effort to improve food safety as China strives to keep the spread of the novel coronavirus under control.
The Minhang High School Experimental School, whose students are 11-13 years old, started using the robot in October shortly after the school first opened, making human cooks redundant.
UK says Brexit talks still stuck as EU wants too much
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Brexit supremo, Michael Gove, said on Tuesday that trade deal talks with the European Union were still stuck on fishing, dispute resolution and governance rules.
"The EU still wants to take the lion's share of the fishing in our waters - that's not fair," Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Gove told Sky. "The EU still want us to be tied to their way of doing things."
Women's movement sweeps Latin America to loosen abortion restrictions
Several weeks pregnant and about to start a job away from home, Lupita Ruiz had no doubts about wanting to end her pregnancy, despite knowing she could face jail time for du lịch ba li having an abortion under a law in her state of Chiapas in southern Mexico.
She asked friends for help until she found a doctor two hours from her town who agreed to do it in secret.
Chefs versus scientists: France's pandemic fight to keep eating out
"Chez Francoise" is a discreetly located venue near the French parliament whose visitors' book boasts signatures from former leaders including Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande.
Options include a "Menu Parlementaire" - three courses including wild boar pate with chestnuts, veal and crepes suzette. In late September, as a second wave of COVID-19 infection loomed, government scientific advisers wanted new restrictions on bars, restaurants and cafes.
U.N.
seeks access to 96,000 Eritrean refugees in Tigray where food running out
The United Nations refugee agency appealed on Tuesday to Ethiopian authorities for access to 96,000 Eritrean refugees in the northern Tigray region, where it said food is believed to have run out during the month-long conflict.
Babar Baloch, spokesman of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, told a Geneva news briefing: "Our extreme worry is that we hear about attacks, the fighting near the camps, we hear about abductions and forced removals, so this is very important for us to have that access to go and see what has happened over there."
U.S.
'war on drugs' in Latin America needs overhaul amid COVID-19 challenges, report says
The United States' anti-drug policy in Latin America needs to change if Washington is to effectively combat a problem worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, a U.S. congressional commission will say in a bipartisan report coming out this week.
The 117-page report urges "smarter" interagency policies led by the U.S.
State Department to reduce the supply of dangerous drugs. It also calls on authorities to combat money laundering by blocking the flow of illicit funds using cryptocurrencies and complex cross-border financial transactions.
Iranian MPs seek hardening of nuclear stance after scientist killed
A bill requiring Iran's government to step up uranium enrichment closer to the level needed for a nuclear weapon, and ignore other restraints on its nuclear program agreed with major powers, cleared its first hurdle in parliament on Tuesday.
But the government promptly said the move, proposed in response to the assassination of a top nuclear scientist on Friday, could not change Iran's nuclear policy, which was the province of the Supreme National Security Council.
Papuans rally for independence from Indonesia as group declares government in exile
Hundreds of Papuans held rallies across at least eight cities in Indonesia on Tuesday to renew calls for independence, as a separatist group declared it had established a provisional government in exile.
The demonstrations marked the anniversary of West Papua declaring independence from Dutch rule in 1961, which was followed by a contentious U.N.-sanctioned referendum in 1969 that brought Papua under Indonesian control.
China gave COVID-19 vaccine candidate to North Korea's Kim: U.S.
analyst
China has provided North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his family with an experimental coronavirus vaccine, a U.S. analyst said on Tuesday, citing two unidentified Japanese intelligence sources. Harry Kazianis, a North Korea expert at the Center for the National Interest think tank in Washington, said the Kims and several senior North Korean officials had been vaccinated.
Analysis: Wary Turks aren't buying Erdogan's economic promise yet
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's promise of a new economic era triggered a foreign-driven rally in the lira, but local investors have yet to be persuaded that policies they say have dragged on economic prospects for years will be reversed.
Interviews with local portfolio managers, gold sellers and kynghidongduong.vn business owners suggest Erdogan's biggest challenge will be convincing Turkish individuals and companies he can turn last month's rhetoric of market-friendly reforms into reality.
