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Crows trained for street-cleaning operations

A Swedish start-up is teaching the birds to pick up discarded cigarette butts

A start-up in Sweden has begun recruiting crows as part of a pilot project to clean up the streets and squares of Södertälje, a city near the Swedish capital, Stockholm. The birds are being incentivized by food offerings, dispensed from a bespoke machine designed by rookie outfit Corvid Cleaning.  

“They are wild birds taking part on a voluntary basis,” said Christian Günther-Hanssen, founder of Corvid Cleaning. He stated that his methods could save the city at least 75% of the cost involved in cleaning the streets of cigarette butts. 

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Research suggests that the New Caledonian crow, the bird being recruited for the street cleaning, is as developed at reasoning as a seven-year-old human.

“They are easier to teach and there is also a higher chance of them learning from each other. At the same time, there’s a lower risk of them mistakenly eating any rubbish,” Günther-Hanssen said.

He claimed that the cost per cigarette butt picked up is 80 öre [Swedish change] or more, and that, if effective, the birds could greatly reduce this cost.

According to the Keep Sweden Tidy Foundation, some one billion cigarette butts are dropped on Sweden’s streets each year. It represents 62% of all litter and Södertälje itself spends 20 million Swedish kronor ($2.16 million) on street-cleaning each year.

If the pilot project goes to plan, the machines could be rolled out across the city.

Boy refused heart surgery due to unvaxxed parents

A sick infant from Cyprus is flown to Greece after his German hospital refuses to operate

A three-year-old boy from Cyprus has been flown to Greece for emergency surgery after doctors in Germany refused to treat the child because his parents were not vaccinated against Covid-19.

On Monday it was reported that the boy was awaiting emergency surgery after being flown by air ambulance to Greece over the weekend. The boy, who has not been named, had been hospitalized with a serious heart condition.

However, it later emerged that there had been another complication and that the child had been diagnosed with viral pneumonia on arrival in Athens. The Cypriot health ministry’s permanent secretary Christina Yiannaki said the boy had been admitted to intensive care. 

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The child, who is from a Russian family, had his flight to Frankfurt canceled last week after it emerged that his parents were not vaccinated. He had been treated in the same hospital there last year.

It was also reported that he was turned away by authorities in the UK and Israel; the Cypriot health authorities often outsource such operations to specialized health centers in the two nations.

His parents were vaccinated on Thursday, but will have to wait six weeks before their inoculation records are recognized abroad.

Speaking to the press, the boy’s father, Alexey Matveev, a Russian national living in Cyprus, highlighted his opposition to being vaccinated, noting that unvaccinated people are admitted to hospital in Germany.

“I didn’t know that I had to be vaccinated for my child to be operated on in that hospital. If I knew it of course I would have done it … I am healthy and did not want to be vaccinated. I find it inappropriate for someone who is healthy to be vaccinated,” he said.

“This is blackmail and war on people. No, it’s not parental negligence, it’s just killing my son,” he wrote in a Facebook tirade.

Permanent Secretary Yiannaki disputed Matveev’s comments, insisting the parents had been informed about the need to be vaccinated.

German embassy officials in Nicosia noted that hospitals and nursing homes have the right to restrict access for visitors and family members, adding that “each case has to be considered on its own merits.” 

Presidential candidate’s adviser accused of raping male teen intern

Events director of France’s Eric Zemmour has called allegations a ‘slanderous denunciation’

A senior adviser to the French far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemmour has been accused of raping a teenage male intern. He vehemently denies the allegation.

According to France Info, referring to a source close to the case, a complaint against Olivier Ubéda was filed by an 18-year-old man on December 9. The Paris prosecutor’s office launched an investigation the next day and since then several witness hearings have already taken place.

BFMTV’s sources have indicated that an alleged forced sexual relationship began in spring 2021 and continued until autumn. According to their information, the teen accused Ubéda, in particular, of forcing him to perform oral sex.

Ubéda, who is Zemmour’s events director and previously worked for the presidential campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy, has called the allegations “slanderous denunciation.”

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“I will only react when I know what and who we are talking about,” he said on Twitter, adding that he is meeting an investigating officer on Tuesday.

“Sometimes #MeToo is just a mytho,” he noted, referring to a popular movement against sexual abuse.

In a separate post, he claimed that rape allegations have become the latest in a series of issues he faced since he started working for Zemmour. His wife Anne Gaudin-Ubéda was dismissed from her position as the cabinet director of the Creuse Department Council’s president, and he accused the tax authorities of becoming “overzealous.”

“You are accused of rape… just that. The scenario is well written. It’s not based on anything real. The media love it. Aiming to break what works. To bedraggle not to let go. To vomit. Who is fooled? Who’s next?” he wrote.

The scandal comes soon after Ubéda’s boss Zemmour, known for his nationalist and far-right views, was fined €10,000 for his remarks on unaccompanied migrant minors, whom he described as “thieves,” “murderers” and “rapists.”

Fate of pregnant journalist stranded in Afghanistan revealed

Charlotte Bellis, who is 25 weeks pregnant, has been unable to return to New Zealand due to the country’s Covid border policy

New Zealand reporter Charlotte Bellis announced on Tuesday that government officials have confirmed that she will be able to return to her home country “at the beginning of March to give birth to our baby girl.”

The ability to return to New Zealand comes after wrangling with the country’s government over its Covid border policy, which has left her stranded in Afghanistan.

The 35-year-old Bellis had been working in Afghanistan as a correspondent for Qatar-based Al Jazeera but resigned in November because it’s illegal to be unmarried and pregnant in Qatar.

She has remained in the now Taliban-controlled country as she has been unable to secure entry to New Zealand via the lottery-style system or emergency return. New Zealand has struggled to repatriate citizens, as the country has limited space in the military-run border-quarantine hotels people must be admitted to upon return.

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Chris Bunny, the head of New Zealand’s quarantine system, confirmed that Bellis had been offered entry to the country due to concerns about the risk of terrorism in Afghanistan and her safety in the wake of the Taliban’s takeover.

“We do acknowledge that Ms. Bellis considers herself to be safe and did not seek an allocation on that ground,” Bunny said, adding, “We have the residual discretion to grant allocations in rare and exceptional circumstances.”

Despite the situation surrounding Bellis and other New Zealanders who are struggling to return home, New Zealand’s Covid Response Minister Chris Hipkins defended the border policy, claiming it has worked well, saved lives, and prevented the health system from being overwhelmed.