Selasa, 13 Juli 2021

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

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


Afghanistan stunned by scale and speed of security forces’ collapse

Posted: 12 Jul 2021 09:00 PM PDT

More than 1,000 have fled across the border, and hundreds more have handed over weapons to the Taliban

Last autumn, with the departure of American troops from Afghanistan looming after the US signed a withdrawal deal with the Taliban, several of the most senior security officials in Kabul urged President Ashraf Ghani to make some hard choices.

The Afghan army and police needed to retrench, figures including the then defence minister, Assadullah Khalid, told Ghani. Remote outposts, and rural areas where troops held little more than the cluster of government and security buildings that make up a "district centre", should be abandoned.

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South Africa violence intensifies despite calls for calm

Posted: 13 Jul 2021 02:33 AM PDT

President Cyril Ramaphosa addresses unrest in response to jailing of Jacob Zuma

Unrest in South Africa triggered by the jailing of its former president Jacob Zuma has intensified, despite calls for calm from senior officials and the deployment of thousands of soldiers to the streets to reinforce struggling police.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has described the deadly violence and protests as unprecedented in the 27 years since the end of the apartheid regime in the country.

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American west stuck in cycle of ‘heat, drought and fire’, experts warn

Posted: 12 Jul 2021 10:00 PM PDT

Wildfires in several states are burning with worrying ferocity across a tinder-dry landscape

As fires propagate throughout the US west on the heels of record heatwaves, experts are warning that the region is caught in a vicious feedback cycle of extreme heat, drought and fire, all amplified by the climate crisis.

Firefighters are battling blazes from Arizona to Washington state that are burning with a worrying ferocity, while officials say California is already set to outpace last year's record-breaking fire season.

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England’s Tyrone Mings criticises Priti Patel over racism remarks

Posted: 13 Jul 2021 03:07 AM PDT

Defender says home secretary 'stoked the fire' after dismissing team taking the knee as 'gesture politics'

The England footballer Tyrone Mings has criticised the home secretary, Priti Patel, in her condemnation of the racist abuse faced by his teammates, after she called players taking the knee "gesture politics".

A number of politicians have tweeted support for England players Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka, who faced a torrent of racism on social media after England's defeat in the Euro 2020 final.

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China bans pro-democracy candidates in Macau elections

Posted: 13 Jul 2021 03:04 AM PDT

Move mirrors crackdown in Hong Kong and comes despite pledges the territory would have high levels of autonomy

China's crackdown on pro-democracy politicians in Hong Kong appears to have spread to Macau, where 21 candidates, including veteran legislators, have been disqualified from forthcoming elections.

Most of those disqualified have vowed to challenge the ruling by the territory's electoral commission, warning that Beijing and pro-Beijing authorities are "changing the deal" they have with Macau, despite its "stability".

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Met police seize nearly £180m of bitcoin in money laundering investigation

Posted: 13 Jul 2021 01:01 AM PDT

Seizure follows confiscation of £114m of the cryptocurrency in June

Metropolitan police detectives investigating international money laundering have seized nearly £180m of bitcoin.

The seizure by the Met's economic crime command follows a confiscation of £114m of the cryptocurrency in June.

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‘It’s a hotbed’: Miami’s role in Haiti murder plot fits decades-long pattern

Posted: 12 Jul 2021 10:30 PM PDT

Exile communities, ready supply of military veterans, history of corrupt local politics and drugs money make city a nexus for mayhem

One of the less surprising developments in the unfolding mystery of the assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moïse is the central role of Miami in the whole story.

For decades, Miami has been the launching pad and a byword for half-baked plots and coups – from the Bay of Pigs, the failed invasion of Cuba in 1961, to last year's harebrained raid on Venezuela, and now, allegedly, last week's murder of the Haitian president. Most of the supposed participants were killed or arrested in the 24 hours after the murder.

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Olympics chief mixes up Japanese and Chinese at Tokyo Games presser

Posted: 13 Jul 2021 01:49 AM PDT

Gaffe by International Olympic Committee president triggers backlash on social media

Thomas Bach's attempts to win over the reluctant hosts of the Tokyo 2020 Games got off to an embarrassing start on Tuesday when the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) referred to the people of Japan as "Chinese".

In his first public comments since arriving in Tokyo last week, Bach attempted to reassure the public that the Games would not become a coronavirus super-spreader event.

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Rise in China’s imports and exports eases fears over global growth

Posted: 13 Jul 2021 03:00 AM PDT

Better-than-expected figures for June come as Covid lockdown measures ease worldwide

China's exports and imports both rose strongly in June, helping ease concerns over global growth that have knocked financial markets in recent days.

Exports grew by 32% year on year in June to $281bn (£203bn), according to figures from China's General Administration of Customs. This is up from the 28% growth recorded in May, and better than analysts had expected. It marks 12 months of continuous export growth.

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Biden to denounce Trump’s lies about stolen election in Tuesday speech

Posted: 12 Jul 2021 03:47 PM PDT

Jen Psaki said he will also 'decry efforts to strip the right to vote' as Republican state legislatures pass voter suppression bills

Joe Biden, who has been criticised for failing to use his "bully pulpit" to defend voting rights, is set to deliver on Tuesday an aggressive denunciation of Donald Trump's "big lie" about a stolen election.

After months of sidestepping acrimony with his predecessor in a bid to lower the political temperature, Biden will argue that Trump's false conspiracy theories led to the 6 January insurrection and a rash of voter restrictions, the White House said.

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Iran unveils state-approved Islamic dating app to boost marriage

Posted: 12 Jul 2021 05:47 PM PDT

Users of app Hamdam have to take a psychology test, and successful matches will be accompanied by a consultant for the first four years of marriage

Iran has unveiled a state-sanctioned Islamic dating app aimed at facilitating "lasting and informed marriage" for its youth, state television reported.

Called Hamdam – Farsi for "companion" – the service allows users to "search for and choose their spouse", the broadcaster said on Monday.

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Coronavirus live news: Russia sets new record daily death toll; at least 66 die in Iraq Covid hospital fire

Posted: 13 Jul 2021 03:51 AM PDT

780 deaths is Russia's highest daily death toll since pandemic began; angry crowd blaming local authorities for negligence

More than 20,000 French people a minute booked vaccine appointments in the hours after Emmanuel Macron announced that cafés, restaurants, shopping malls and trains would be out of bounds for unvaccinated customers from next month.

Related: France reports rush for vaccines after Macron tightens Covid rules

India's Covid vaccination rollout has continued to falter due to supply shortages and vaccine hesitancy, casting doubt on the government's pledge to vaccinate the entire population by December.

A number of states, including the capital, Delhi, said they had run out of vaccine stocks this week while others including Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra said vaccine supplies were running critically low in many areas, particularly for those aged between 18 and 45.

Related: India's Covid vaccine rollout hit by hesitancy and supply snags

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France reports rush for vaccines after Macron tightens Covid rules

Posted: 13 Jul 2021 03:30 AM PDT

More than 20,000 people book jabs after cafes, malls and trains ruled out of bounds for the unvaccinated

More than 20,000 French people a minute booked vaccine appointments in the hours after Emmanuel Macron announced that cafés, restaurants, shopping malls and trains would be out of bounds for unvaccinated customers from next month.

"We've broken all records since the start of the vaccination campaign, and it's continued during the night and into this morning," Stanislas Niox-Chateau, the head of Doctolob – France's main medical appointments website – said on Tuesday.

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‘Mixed advice’ driving Covid vaccine hesitancy in pregnant UK women

Posted: 12 Jul 2021 10:00 PM PDT

Exclusive: campaign group warns of 'wildfire' of negative messaging given by healthcare professionals

Pregnant women are being given dangerously mixed messaging from health professionals, with figures suggesting a "very high" vaccine hesitancy among the vulnerable group, according to campaigners.

Three-quarters of pregnant women in the UK feel anxious about the easing of coronavirus restrictions with many saying the move is like "another lockdown" for expectant mothers, according to a survey of about 9,000 pregnant women by campaigning group Pregnant Then Screwed.

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Delta surge ‘could leave hundreds of thousands with long Covid’

Posted: 12 Jul 2021 11:00 PM PDT

Unvaccinated younger sufferers more at risk of debilitating long-term symptoms, study finds

The decision to lift England's remaining Covid restrictions next Monday – even as cases of the Delta variant surge around the country – is expected to turbocharge the epidemic and push the nation into what one leading scientist called "uncharted territory" in terms of the numbers of people left suffering from long Covid.

Ministers have been told to expect at least one to two million coronavirus infections in the coming weeks. And while the mass rollout of vaccines – which started with elderly and vulnerable people – will dramatically reduce the proportion who are hospitalised and die, the wave may leave hundreds of thousands of younger people with long-term health problems, researchers have said.

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‘A woman wanting to make films was a joke’: Márta Mészáros, pioneering Hungarian director

Posted: 13 Jul 2021 03:15 AM PDT

The Golden Bear winner is 90 this year. As a showcase of her films plays in London, she reflects on her career, from documentaries to dramas, and the impact of censorship

Márta Mészáros, the pioneering Hungarian film-maker who turns 90 in September, has always looked young for her age. When she wanted to study film in her home country in the late 1940s, she was told: "We don't need anyone from kindergarten!" She spoke fluent Russian, having lived in Russia for much of her childhood, so she went to Moscow instead, where gender was the sticking point. "There were not so many female film-makers in those days," she tells me by phone. "A woman wanting to have that career was a joke. The men were all laughing at me." How did she respond? "Ah, I was laughing, too," she says, a trace of slyness in her voice.

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Welsh caviar: should we all start eating laver?

Posted: 12 Jul 2021 10:00 PM PDT

Protein-rich seaweed has dropped off British menus. Now an innovative Pembrokeshire group is leading a renaissance rooted in Welsh history

From the surfing beach of Freshwater West, Pembrokeshire, it is just a short walk to a small restored hut that stands alone on the southern cliff, where local forager, chef and entrepreneur Jonathan Williams gazes down at the rocks below.

"It's part of the Welsh DNA, like rugby and male voice choirs," says Williams. "It's packed with flavour, it's 40% protein, healthy, it doesn't take up land or require fresh water and it grows at a phenomenal rate. We should be shouting about it."

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Safe space: the cosmic importance of planetary quarantine

Posted: 12 Jul 2021 10:00 PM PDT

As the pace and ambition of space exploration accelerates, preventing Earth-born organisms from hitching a ride has become more urgent than ever

"This, what you're doing today, never happens," Nasa's David Seidel told us. "This is a rare chance," agreed the director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Michael Watkins, welcoming us into the lab's spacecraft assembly facility, located in the hills outside Pasadena, California. The exceedingly unusual adventure awaiting us was a trip into the clean room where Perseverance, Nasa's latest Mars rover, having been assembled under conditions of exacting sterility, sat awaiting shipment to Cape Canaveral.

Our visit, in December 2019, had been prefaced by a long email laying out extremely detailed rules: we were instructed not to wear any perfume, cologne, makeup or dangly earrings; flannel, wool or frayed clothing was not allowed; even our fingernails had to be smooth, rather than jagged. After a quick welcome, our phones and notebooks were confiscated, and a hi-tech doormat vacuum-brushed the soles of our shoes. In the gowning room, we were issued with face wipes, a sterile full-body "bunny suit", plastic overshoes, hood, gloves and face mask, then offered a mirror in which to admire the final look. Finally, we were sent through the air shower – an elevator-sized chamber studded with nozzles that blasted us with pressurised air from all sides, in order to dust off any final stray particles – before stepping out into a white-floored, white-walled room filled with white-suited engineers.

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New balance: will work be more parent-friendly than ever after the pandemic?

Posted: 13 Jul 2021 02:00 AM PDT

Between home schooling and hybrid working, the last year has brought rapid and radical shifts in our working habits, good and bad. Now it is time to see whether positive change can stick

Last month, a video by Maggie Mundwiller, a mother in St Louis, Missouri, went viral on TikTok. It showed her one-year-old son accompanying her to a second face-to-face job interview. (She had asked for an alternative date because she had no childcare. The employer said: "Bring him with you.") The video featured on Good Morning America, has had more than 9m views and has inspired endless admiring comments, including: "It makes me sooo happy to know there are companies like this"; "Glad it's a toddler-friendly business!" and: "Take note, corporate America."

The story is cute, as is the kid, who wore a bow tie and took along his own CV ("Skills: destroying a clean space in three seconds"). And, yes, the pandemic has given many of us permission to adopt work habits that previously weren't encouraged. But will this kind of thing happen again in post-Covid life? What have we learned about incorporating family life into working life? And is anybody going to implement those lessons?

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Meet the in-betweeners: the suddenly public lives of internet celebrities

Posted: 13 Jul 2021 03:00 AM PDT

They're known by their faces, work, or names, and live a life of semi-stardom – all because they showcased their craft on the internet

You probably know Sarah Bahbah, by her name, or her work – but you probably wouldn't be able to pick her out in a crowd. You may have seen her recent cover shot of DJ Khaled for GQ; or you may know her other visual art work –like her subtitle series, which uses cinematic stills with her inner dialogue as captions, featuring big names like Noah Centineo and Dylan Sprouse. But a few years ago, the 29-year-old was relatively unknown. Then, all of a sudden, she posted a collection of photographic stills based on sex and takeout, and woke up to find herself near famous.

Now she has more than a million followers on Instagram, but Bahbah first recognized her new level of fame when she started to pass barbecue test – that is, when you are invited to a a gathering where you don't know anyone, and a stranger asks if you're familiar with your own work. "It's happened numerous times," she says. "I would just be sitting there listening to someone talk about my work, in this room full of strangers. That's such a cool feeling to have – knowing that no matter where you are in the world, because of the internet, people discover you on their own terms and connect to your work."

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Legal threats to Donald Trump ‘more serious than ever before’, experts say

Posted: 13 Jul 2021 12:00 AM PDT

Prosecutors in New York, Georgia and Washington have inquiries that could yield further, serious charges against the ex-president

As a New York criminal investigation continues after bringing tax fraud charges against Donald Trump's business and a top executive, other prosecutors in Georgia, Washington DC and New York have inquiries under way that could also yield serious charges against Trump and his company, according to former prosecutors and public records.

Related: Rupert Murdoch approved Fox News calling Arizona for Biden, book claims

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Killer Colin Pitchfork to be released from prison after challenge fails

Posted: 13 Jul 2021 03:41 AM PDT

Parole Board rejects government call to re-examine decision to free man who murdered two schoolgirls

Colin Pitchfork is to be freed from prison after the Parole Board rejected a government challenge against its ruling.

Pitchfork, now in his early 60s, was jailed for life after raping and strangling 15-year-olds Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth in Leicestershire in 1983 and 1986.

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EU prepares sanctions against Lebanon leaders a year after Beirut blast

Posted: 12 Jul 2021 05:53 PM PDT

Almost one year since Beirut blast, Lebanon is still headed by caretaker government

As the first anniversary of the deadly Beirut explosion approaches, the European Union said on Monday it hopes to develop the legal framework for sanctions targeting Lebanese leaders.

More than 11 months since Lebanon's government resigned in response to the blast on 4 August 2020, the country is still headed by a caretaker government.

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Arrested, abused and accused: wave of repression targets LGBT+ Ghanaians

Posted: 12 Jul 2021 09:00 PM PDT

Opening of community space in Accra, which was quickly shut, has been the trigger for new anti-LGBT+ action

"All I wanted to do was help vulnerable people," said Shaun Apong, tears streaking down his face, from behind the bars of a squalid police cell in Ho City in eastern Ghana.

Apong was one of 21 people arrested in early June, charged with unlawful assembly and accused of spreading an LGBT+ agenda, amid a marked and sudden increase in sensitivities around the rights and advocacy of gay and queer people in the west African country.

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Texas Democrats thwart voting restrictions bill | First Thing

Posted: 13 Jul 2021 03:32 AM PDT

Lawmakers flew to Washington in an effort to block bill described as "Jim Crow 2.0" by the left

Good morning

Texas Democrats have fled the state in an escalation of one of the most high-stakes battles over voting rights in the US.

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NSW Covid assistance package: are you eligible and how much support is available?

Posted: 13 Jul 2021 03:34 AM PDT

The federal and state government plan promises help for 'every worker, for every business'. Here is what we know so far

As greater Sydney prepares for its fourth week of lockdown, a multibillion-dollar Covid assistance package has been announced by the federal and New South Wales governments.

The NSW treasurer, Dominic Perrottet, said the package would provide support for "every worker, for every business, right across the state".

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Nice guidance to induce minority ethnic pregnancies earlier condemned as racist

Posted: 13 Jul 2021 01:40 AM PDT

Draft guidelines for England, Wales and Northern Ireland will not solve poorer maternity outcomes for women of colour, say doctors

Proposed guidance that recommends inducing labour at 39 weeks in pregnant women from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds has raised concerns from doctors and midwives and been branded "racist" by activists.

White women with uncomplicated pregnancies should be offered an induction of labour at 41 weeks, according to the draft guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice). The institute's clinical guidelines such as this apply in England, Wales and Northern Ireland but do not cover Scotland.

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‘We can do anything’: the Indian girls’ movement fighting child marriage

Posted: 12 Jul 2021 11:00 PM PDT

At 17, Priyanka Bairwa refused her arranged marriage. Instead, she started Rajasthan Rising to help thousands of others and call for free education

Priyanka Bairwa was 15 when her family began to look for a husband for her. The pandemic sped up the process, as schools shut and work dried up. By October 2020, her parents had settled on a suitable boy from their village of Ramathra in the district of Karauli, Rajasthan.

But Bairwa, now 18, wouldn't hear of it. "During the pandemic, every family in the village was eager to marry off their girls. You'd have to invite less people, there were fewer expenses," says Bairwa. "But I refused to be caught in a child marriage. There was a major backlash – constant fights. I finally threatened to run away and, fearing I would do something drastic, my family called it off. My mother convinced them to let me study and I joined a college."

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We, Women: The Power of We – in pictures

Posted: 13 Jul 2021 01:28 AM PDT

We, Women is a social impact photography project led by women and gender nonconforming artists across the US, examining issues including immigration, education, climate change, race and motherhood

  • We, Women: The Power of We is at the Empire Fulton Lawn directly under the Brooklyn Bridge in Brooklyn Bridge Park, 13 July-12 September 2021
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Dozens killed after fire rips through Iraqi Covid-19 hospital – video

Posted: 12 Jul 2021 11:34 PM PDT

Dozens of people have been killed and scores more injured in a fire probably caused by an oxygen tank explosion at a coronavirus hospital in the southern Iraqi city of Nassiriya. One health worker told Reuters that many patients were trapped in the coronavirus ward, with rescue crews struggling to reach them. The hospital fire was a blow to Iraq's healthcare system, already struggling with an influx of patients and short supplies in the midst of the global health crisis

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South Africa military deployed to tackle violence over Zuma jailing – video

Posted: 12 Jul 2021 08:05 PM PDT

South Africa has deployed the military in a bid to quell ongoing unrest sparked after former president Jacob Zuma handed himself over to police to serve a 15-month sentence amid corruption allegations. Supporters of Zuma responded by looting shops and setting buildings on fire while others armed themselves to protect property and were seen shooting at the rioters. Ten people are reported to have died in the unrest. South African president Cyril Ramaphosa authorised the military to go in to Johannesburg and in the province of KwaZulu-Natal where the violence has been the worst. 

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