Minggu, 11 Juli 2021

World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk

World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk


‘They will never let go’: Isis fighters regroup in the heart of Iraq

Posted: 11 Jul 2021 02:00 AM PDT

Iraqi special forces hunt Isis in lowlands south of Kirkuk, where the militants keep on the move, seeking to regain territorial control

A long convoy of humvees, trucks and troop carriers moved slowly through the countryside to the south of the city of Kirkuk, ferrying dozens of Iraqi special forces. Their target was a string of hideouts used by Islamic State militants in the rough terrain of hills and lowlands crisscrossed by canals and long-dried seasonal river gullies, or wadis as they are called in Arabic.

In the lead vehicle sat the commanding officer, a young lieutenant-colonel, Ihab Jalil, with a clipped moustache and hazelnut-coloured eyes. He charted the routes of the convoy on his tablet. At the same time, switching between three radio sets, he talked to the pilots of two helicopters that circled over the convoy, scouting the road ahead.

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‘Growing risks’: Hong Kong pro-democracy group scales down

Posted: 10 Jul 2021 09:14 PM PDT

Organisation known for annual Tiananmen vigil lets go of all paid staff and halves its steering committee

One of Hong Kong's most established pro-democracy civic organisations has said it is letting go its paid staff and halving the size of its steering committee after Beijing stepped up its crackdown on opposition activity.

The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China is best known for its annual rally and candlelight vigil remembering those killed in the bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

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Euro 2020: buildup to Italy v England final – live!

Posted: 11 Jul 2021 02:18 AM PDT

"My wife once travelled from Leeds and queued outside the Riverside from just after 7am until 3.30pm to buy tickets for my father and I to go to the League Cup final. Totally worth it (as far as I'm concerned)," writes Dan Taylor, who must be a very lovely man if Mrs Taylor felt moved to do that for him. Or maybe she just wanted him out of the house for a day? Meanwhile, FionnTSmith (09.55) has just sent me photographic evidence of the throngs assembling outside the London pub where he is queuing. There are less than two hours till opening time ...

Here is Jonathan Wilson mulling over some of the tactical plotting that will shape today's story:

Related: Tactical battle: where the Euro 2020 final will be won and lost | Jonathan Wilson

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The top journalist, the mafia boss and the gunman: Dutch fear the rise of ‘narco crime’

Posted: 10 Jul 2021 11:00 AM PDT

While Peter R de Vries fights for life in an Amsterdam hospital the nation reflects on how to end the grip of drug gangs

Five gunshots blasted like fireworks on a sunny evening, just behind Amsterdam's busy Leidseplein. To the horror of the Netherlands, a cold-blooded shooting has left prominent Dutch crime journalist Peter R de Vries fighting for his life in hospital.

Everyone from European leaders to the Dutch king Willem-Alexander and Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema have expressed their shock at the ambush of "national hero" De Vries as he walked back to his car on Tuesday after recording a chatshow, on a busy street in broad daylight.

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Haitian leader’s widow blames political enemies as power struggle intensifies

Posted: 11 Jul 2021 02:22 AM PDT

A voice recording on Martine Moise's Twitter page accuses enemies of trying to stop democratic change

Martine Moise, the widow of Haitian president Jovenel Moise, has accused shadowy enemies of organising his assassination to stop democratic change, as a struggle for power intensified in the Caribbean nation.

Haiti has been reeling since Moise was gunned down early on Wednesday at his home in the capital, Port-au-Prince. Martine Moise, who was wounded in the attack, said her husband was targeted for political reasons.

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Oliver Stone derided for film about ‘modest’ former Kazakh president

Posted: 11 Jul 2021 02:13 AM PDT

Eight-hour series about Nursultan Nazarbayev criticised for stoking cult of personality of 30-year ruler

Oliver Stone has interviewed Kazakhstan's former president Nursultan Nazarbayev for a new eight-hour film series which has been attacked as a hagiography that contributes to the leader's cult of personality.

In the film, Qazaq: History of the Golden Man, Stone employs the same non-confrontational approach to interviewing autocrats that has made him a favourite of Vladimir Putin, Ukraine's former president Viktor Yanukovych and others seeking to polish their reputations by sitting down with the Oscar-winning director of Platoon and JFK.

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Woman, 90, infected with Alpha and Beta Covid variants at the same time

Posted: 10 Jul 2021 05:46 PM PDT

Researchers warn 'phenomenon is probably underestimated' after the death of woman in Belgium

A 90-year-old Belgian woman who died after falling ill with Covid-19 was infected with both the Alpha and Beta variants of the coronavirus at the same time, researchers have said.

The unvaccinated woman was admitted to the OLV hospital in the city of Aalst after a spate of falls in March and tested positive for Covid-19 the same day.

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Virgin Galactic to launch space plane with Richard Branson on board

Posted: 10 Jul 2021 10:30 PM PDT

The billionaire, along with two pilots and three other passengers, will reach 55 miles above Earth for about an hour

July is a frantic month for the two billionaires racing to kick off space tourism, with Richard Branson's SpaceShipTwo set to launch on Sunday with the British entrepreneur on board just days ahead of rival and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in his rocket.

Branson's extraterrestrial venture, Virgin Galactic, will send its space plane into sub-orbital flight on Sunday morning, aimed at reaching 55 miles above Earth at its peak altitude.

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Abiy Ahmed wins landslide victory in Ethiopian election

Posted: 10 Jul 2021 11:34 AM PDT

Second term for prime minister whose handling of Tigray conflict has drawn international criticism

Ethiopia's ruling Prosperity party has been declared the winner of last month's national election in a landslide, assuring a second term for the prime minister, Abiy Ahmed.

The National Election Board of Ethiopia announced on Saturday night that the ruling party won 410 seats out of 436 in the federal parliament, which will see some seats remain vacant because no vote was held as a result of unrest or logistical reasons.

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‘Cyber-attack’ hits Iran’s transport ministry and railways

Posted: 10 Jul 2021 05:51 PM PDT

Message boards in train stations show cancellations though rail operator denies disruptions

Websites of Iran's transport and urbanisation ministry went out of service on Saturday after a "cyber-disruption" in computer systems, the official IRNA news agency reported.

On Friday, Iran's railways also appeared to come under cyber-attack, with messages about alleged train delays or cancellations posted on display boards at stations across the country. Electronic tracking of trains across Iran reportedly failed.

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Salud! Spain’s female winemakers use their intuition to rise to the top

Posted: 11 Jul 2021 01:30 AM PDT

The industry has a growing number of women earning plaudits at its renowned bodegas. But are they really better than men?

"I think of my wines as barefoot children that need love and care," says winemaker Marta Casas, holding her glass up to the light. Below her, the vineyards of Penedès roll away almost to the sea, but she could be virtually anywhere in Spain.

Just as they fought their way into the male domain of haute cuisine, a growing number of Spanish women are seeking a career in winemaking, with three times as many taking courses in oenology compared with 10 years ago. This was given an added boost in 2018 when Almudena Alberca was made Spain's first female master of wine, one of only 149 in the world.

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Global Covid: woman dies in Sydney’s Delta outbreak, 745 new cases in Germany

Posted: 10 Jul 2021 10:23 PM PDT

Australia's biggest city remains in lockdown while South Korea records 1,324 more infections

Australia has reported its first death of 2021 from locally acquired coronavirus, while cases of Covid-19 have grown in China and continued to surge in South Korea.

The Australian state of New South Wales is battling an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant, setting a 2021 record of 77 new cases of the virus on Sunday.

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Covid live news: public in England will be expected to wear masks indoors when measures lift, says UK minister

Posted: 11 Jul 2021 02:08 AM PDT

Nadhim Zahawi says mask guidance indoors is likely to stay in England and denies story that gap between vaccine doses will half

Marr getting stuck in to Nadim Zahawi after his first interview on Sky News this morning. He compares Boris Johnson's claim in PMQs this link that the link between infections, hospitalisations and deaths had been "severed" was at odds with the information given by Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty.

When Zahawi suggests the question is "dancing on the head of a pin", Marr shows why he is one of the best political interviewers in the game, saying:

This is really important because people are going to have to make choices themselves, and we are seeing the number of cases shooting out, and we see the number of hospitalisations rising quite fast as well.

So if people think that the link has been severed, they will behave in one way, and if they don't think it's been severed they'll behave in another way, This is not [an] irrelevant, heads of pin question it is quite important, I say again, the Prime Minister was wrong to say the link has been severed?

Ultimately the Prime Minister agrees with his chief scientific adviser that we have severely weakened that link, and you see it in the numbers.

We have to be cautious on Monday he will stand up another press conference, and will say we have severely weakened the link, okay, and he will advise that people should take responsibly, but will be expected to, for example, wear masks indoors in crowded train carriages.

We have to be cautious, this thing is not over, you look at what's happening in France and Italy and elsewhere,[...] this is very concerning.

Marr asked Spiegelhalter if people were doubly vaccinated, how safe were they:

You're not completely safe, but probably at least 20 times safer than if you were not vaccinated.

And that's reflected in the current statistics, you know, very few people are dying, but those that are, are predominantly older people who have been vaccinated. There's far more vaccinated over 50s dying than unvaccinated under 50s.

What it does mean is that if you're in this current wave if you're unvaxxed and older, you're a very high risk, and that means that some communities are going to be hard hit.

There's a lot of uncertainty about long covid, but it is a reasonable concern. The Office for National Statistics recently estimated that one in six 25 -year -olds were reporting symptoms three months after they got infected.

I mean I don't like telling anyone what to do, but I should say for young people vaccines not only reduce the chance of getting the virus, but they also seem to reduce the chance of getting long Covid if you do get the virus, and also of course, you help everyone else around you.

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Freedom day? Boris Johnson faces a tough call as Covid cases soar

Posted: 11 Jul 2021 01:00 AM PDT

The prime minister seems intent on lifting England's remaining Covid restrictions on 19 July. But many in the NHS fear it could be overwhelmed – and tourist hotspots are fearful too

With foreign holidays still in doubt and Cornwall filling up by the day, Jessica Webb has a unique perspective on "freedom day". With her sister, Naomi, and her father, Spence, she helps run Falmouth Surf School and Watersports on Maenporth beach. Bookings for surf lessons are strong, and Jessica, 38, has started running yoga classes on paddleboards anchored in the cove to cope with excess demand.

She is also a part-time healthcare assistant in the A&E department at Cornwall's only major hospital, in Treliske. "Even now, before the summer holidays have started, we don't have enough staff in the hospital, people are waiting hours at A&E, the ambulances are all parked up outside," she says. "There's just so little capacity and so few beds – even for the people that live here all the time, let alone all the holidaymakers.

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Malta’s ban on visitors without two jabs raises fears of tourist restrictions across Europe

Posted: 10 Jul 2021 10:10 PM PDT

Travel industry hopes island's decision is a one-off response to Delta variant's rapid spread across continent


The UK travel industry has described as "confusing" Malta's surprise decision to ban all visitors unless they are double vaccinated, a development that has raised fears that other European countries will follow suit as the Delta variant continues its rapid advance across the continent.

Chris Fearne, health minister of the Mediterranean island nation, presented its unexpected decision this weekend as a "selling point" for tourists who wanted to feel safe.

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Unlocking the ‘gut microbiome’ – and its massive significance to our health

Posted: 11 Jul 2021 12:00 AM PDT

Scientists are only just discovering the enormous impact of our gut health – and how it could hold the key to everything from tackling obesity to overcoming anxiety and boosting immunity

If you want to learn more about what's going on in your gut, the first step is to turn your poo blue. How long it takes for a muffin dyed with blue food colouring to pass through your system is a measure of your gut health: the median is 28.7 hours; longer transit times suggest your gut isn't as healthy as it could be. We are only now beginning to understand the importance of the gut microbiome: could this be the start of a golden age for gut-health science?

"The gut microbiome is the most important scientific discovery for human healthcare in recent decades," says James Kinross, a microbiome scientist and surgeon at Imperial College London. "We discovered it – or rediscovered it – in the age of genetic sequencing less than 15 years ago. The only organ which is bigger is the liver." And, for all that the internet may be full of probiotic or wellness companies making big health claims about gut health, "We don't really know how it works," he says. At the risk of sounding like the late Donald Rumsfeld, there's what we know, what we think we know, and an awful lot that we don't yet have a clue about.

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Half-pipe dreams: girls on the edge of skateboarding glory

Posted: 11 Jul 2021 12:00 AM PDT

Skateboarding makes its debut at the Tokyo Olympics next month. We talk to the UK's top skateboarders to find out why more women are taking up the sport

In 2003, the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Sunday Times selected 20 British under-21s who they believed would be multimillionaires by the year 2020. Some of the names on the "rich list" will be familiar: Keira Knightley or Wayne Rooney, who has earned considerably more than the projected £25m. Others were more of a punt, such as the 19-year-old skateboarder Lucy Adams from Horsham, west Sussex. Adams had won a competition called King of the Streets and there was burgeoning interest in skateboarding thanks to the American legend Tony Hawk's hit video game Pro Skater. The list estimated that Adams would be worth £10m by 2020.

Adams, who is 37 now and still "shredding" (riding hard) pretty much every day, snorts when I ask if that figure was on the optimistic side. "Yeah, I think you'd be right in saying that," she sighs. "Definitely don't even have a million."

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Scientist Prue Hart: ‘Sunburn causes havoc in the skin – we should avoid it’

Posted: 11 Jul 2021 01:00 AM PDT

The inflammation researcher explains the health benefits and dangers of soaking up the sun

Prof Prue Hart is head of the inflammation research group at the Telethon Kids Institute in Perth, Australia, which studies the beneficial effects of sunlight exposure on our health and whether these are the result of UV-induced vitamin D or other molecules produced in our skin upon exposure to sunlight.

What exactly happens when the sun hits our skin?
Sunlight is made up of three components: there's the visible light that gives colour to everything we see; infrared light, which provides the heat; and ultraviolet (UV) light, which is probably the most important for our health.

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Kamala Harris faces scrutiny and tests in first six months as vice-president

Posted: 10 Jul 2021 11:00 PM PDT

The vice-president was handed what some saw as a poisoned chalice of leading the southern border response and faces 'unique hurdles' in the administration

Kamala Harris looked glad to be back at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington. "The first office I ever ran for was probably the most difficult campaign I've ever been in," she recalled with laughter, "and that was freshman class representative of what was then called the liberal arts student council."

Related: How Trump's big lie has been weaponized since the Capitol attack

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Channel patrol: Priti Patel’s harsh regime is ‘answer to a crisis that doesn’t exist’

Posted: 10 Jul 2021 11:14 PM PDT

The home secretary has pinned her future on cutting the refugee influx. But critics say her tough measures could quickly unravel

Blue skies appeared above Dover, and for the crew of the Valiant, moored off the harbour wall, it was a signal to start readying for action. Fine weather meant more migrants would soon be heading towards them. For those on board the Border Force cutter, it was a familiar routine. Already this year it has brought ashore hundreds of asylum seekers, another 65 last Sunday alone.

So far, 6,000 people have crossed the Channel in small boats during the first six months of the year. The figure for the whole of 2020 was 8,417, a total expected to be eclipsed during the next two months as clement weather makes the treacherous crossing more tempting.

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More sex. Fewer fights. Has the pandemic actually been good for relationships?

Posted: 10 Jul 2021 11:00 PM PDT

A poll finds American adults are happy with their partnerships, perhaps because lockdown has pushed couples to grow

From the earliest days of the pandemic, experts anticipated that the stress of Covid-19 would wreak havoc on romantic relationships (and in some cases, they were right). But one recent survey suggests what few people could have predicted: for many of the couples that persevered, the pandemic may have actually improved the relationship.

According to a national poll released in February by Monmouth University, a whopping 70% of romantically committed American adults are "extremely satisfied" in their relationships. This figure marks a more than 11-point increase over previous installations of the survey, which the university has conducted for more than six years.

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NHS trust apologises over trauma caused by charging ‘overseas’ patients

Posted: 11 Jul 2021 01:45 AM PDT

Government rules on residency may have made people too frightened to seek treatment, report finds

An NHS trust's approach to charging "overseas" patients for healthcare may have scared people away from seeking treatment, with domestic violence survivors hit with bills for thousands of pounds and one patient ending up on the streets, a report has found.

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS trust (LGT) apologised for "any instances where patients were not treated with compassion, or in a manner consistent with the values of [the] trust", and accepted all but one of the report's 39 recommendations.

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The light that failed: South Sudan’s ‘new dawn’ turns to utter nightmare

Posted: 10 Jul 2021 10:15 PM PDT

Nearly 400,000 have died since it won independence 10 years ago. Now violence looms again, within and beyond its borders

Independence isn't always what it's cracked up to be. Recent additions to the family of nations, such as Kosovo and East Timor (Timor-Leste), have struggled to find their feet. In 2017, Catalonia's secessionists split their homeland in two. Scottish referendum voters took a pass in 2014. The uncomplicated glory days when "third world" liberation movements ousted colonial regimes seem a long time ago.

South Sudan, which marked its 10th birthday on Friday, came late to Africa's independence party – the product of a complex 2005 deal to end Sudan's decades-old civil war. Barack Obama, seeking the credit, waxed lyrical. "Today is a reminder that after the darkness of war, the light of a new dawn is possible," he declared.

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‘A story of power’: podcast on Epstein and Maxwell to draw on hours of interviews

Posted: 11 Jul 2021 02:00 AM PDT

Vicky Ward's 13-part series will focus on a manipulative con artist and the men involved with him

The disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein has been dead almost two years and his consort Ghislaine Maxwell is firmly behind bars awaiting trial, but the world's obsession with the pair of accused high society sex traffickers who allegedly preyed on young girls continues unabated.

The latest addition to the canon of lore on Epstein, Maxwell and rich and powerful social circles they moved in comes from the veteran British journalist Vicky Ward, who is launching a 13-part podcast based on hours of unpublished interviews with Epstein.

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The Halt review – alt-reality anti-authoritarian fable from Filipino auteur Lav Diaz

Posted: 11 Jul 2021 01:42 AM PDT

Diaz's latest opus lampoons a Duterte-esque president struggling with a rebel enclave while a deadly flu epidemic rages

At four and three-quarter hours, the latest butt-numbing opus by Filipino auteur Lav Diaz is a veritable TikTok video by his standards. A needling and occasionally deranged assault on the Philippines' most recent turn into authoritarianism, this monochrome sci-fi dystopia takes place in 2034 after a series of volcanic explosions has permanently darkened the skies, and the "Dark Killer" flu epidemic is tearing through the population (it was shot pre-Covid). President Nirvano Navarra (Joel Lamangan) – whose stocky physique and wild pronouncements make a fairly obvious match for real-life incumbent Rodrigo Duterte – decides to use the crisis to put a heavy lid on a simmering crockpot of dissidents.

Meted out mostly in long and often patience-stretching static takes, and in humdrum locations despite sci-fi inflections such as omnipresent flying drones, Diaz follows both Navarra's retinue and the opposition. The leader is mollycoddled by two buttoned-up aides, Martha Officio (Hazel Orencio) and Marissa Ventura (Mara Lopez) – who are having an affair, though the latter also moonlights with history teacher turned sex worker Haminilda (Shaina Magdayao). Meanwhile, soulful resistance fighter Hook Torollo (Piolo Pascual) swans in like something from a Wong Kar-wai film. He hangs moodily with the oppressed, but is forced into an assassination attempt after Navarra unleashes Operation Black Rain, a plot to poison rebel enclaves under cover of the epidemic.

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NSW records 77 new cases and one death as new mask and travel rules issued – as it happened

Posted: 11 Jul 2021 12:42 AM PDT

Masks must be worn in all indoor construction sites across NSW and from 13 July in residential common areas as new restrictions placed on people entering greater Sydney. This blog is now closed

That's where we'll end today's live coverage of Covid news.

Here are the key developments:

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the Australian Medical Association have both backed NSW Health's call for Sydney residents to bring their second shot of AstraZeneca forward to six weeks after the first dose.

Both the RACGP and the AMA said that the six week window made sense, as it would provide quicker protection against catching, spreading and also potentially dying from Covid-19.

We will definitely will be looking at giving boosters for those who get it early.

You will actually have a benefit from coming in early, because we'll keep you on that list."

Related: NSW urges people to bring forward second AstraZeneca dose to six weeks from first

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Is it wise to lift England’s Covid restrictions fully?

Posted: 10 Jul 2021 11:00 PM PDT

The cases for and against the final easing of rules on 'freedom day' of 19 July

At the start of this pandemic, one key ethical justification for restrictions was to protect the NHS from being overwhelmed. Yet, despite rapidly rising cases, the number of patients in hospital with Covid has remained relatively low (similar to the start of October). It is clear that the vaccination programme is reducing deaths and hospital admissions from Covid-19. The benefit of continuing restrictions is now far smaller than it was.

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Data, not arms, the key driver in emerging US-China cold war | Robert Reich

Posted: 10 Jul 2021 03:00 AM PDT

Cybersecurity comes down to which side has access to more information about the other and can utilize it best

This week, shares in China's giant ride-hailing app Didi crashed by more than 20%. A few days before, Didi had raised $4.4bn in a massive IPO in New York – the biggest initial public offering by a Chinese company since Alibaba's debut in 2014.

The proximate cause of Didi's crash was an announcement by China's Cyberspace Administration that it suspected Didi of illegally collecting and using personal information. Pending an investigation, it had ordered Didi to stop registering new users and removed Didi's app from China's app stores.

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Charlottesville removes Confederate statues at center of deadly 2017 protest – video

Posted: 10 Jul 2021 08:45 AM PDT

Statues of Confederate generals Robert E Lee and Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson were taken down in the city of Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday, nearly four years after white supremacist protests over plans to remove them led to clashes in which a woman was run down by a car and killed. A small crowd of onlookers cheered as the statue of Lee was hoisted away first, lifted by crane from its stone pedestal and taken away on a flat-bed truck.

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California: strong winds form fire tornado during Tennant blaze – video

Posted: 10 Jul 2021 06:06 AM PDT

Newly released footage of the Tennant fire in California, filmed on 29 June, shows a fire tornado near the Klamath national forest. Large wildfires can heat air so much that huge clouds develop. In strong winds, these can rotate and sometimes produce a tornado, or fire whirl. 

California's wildfire season is already more extreme than in 2020. Officials say the length of the fire season has increased by 75 days across the Sierras, in keeping with a rise in the extent of forest fires statewide

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