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- China floods: death toll climbs as questions raised over preparedness
- Five arrested in Hong Kong for sedition over children’s book about sheep
- Tokyo 2020: director of opening ceremony sacked over 1998 Holocaust joke
- ‘Fashion can be very exploitative’ – Halima Aden on why she quit modelling
- Biden says children under 12 could be eligible for Covid vaccines within months
- UK says it wants to substantially rewrite Northern Ireland Brexit protocol
- Chinese tycoon gets go-ahead to build vast central London ‘palace’
- Deadly coral disease sweeping Caribbean linked to wastewater from ships
- Johnson & Johnson to pay $5bn in landmark $26bn US opioid settlement
- Harvey Weinstein pleads not guilty to rape and sexual assault in LA trial
- Briton arrested over high-profile Twitter account hacks
- Struggling for work and food, Indonesia’s poorest suffer as Covid crisis deepens
- Coronavirus live: two more Tokyo athletes test positive; South Korea reports record daily Covid cases
- Australia and New Zealand pull out of Rugby League World Cup in England over Covid concerns
- Australia PM says sorry for vaccine failures amid bleak outlook for Sydney lockdown
- The hidden world of cats: what our feline friends are doing when we’re not looking
- ‘While there’s British interference, there’s going to be action’: why a hardcore of dissident Irish republicans are not giving up
- ‘I’m not alone’: survivors organise against sexual violence in Colombia
- ‘I shoot for the common man’: the photographs of Danish Siddiqui
- Liverpool has been vandalising its waterfront for a decade – it’s shocking Unesco didn’t act sooner | Oliver Wainwright
- Every Breath You Take review – Casey Affleck fires blanks in trashy psychodrama
- Legal bids mean UK deportation flight to Zimbabwe takes off just one-third full
- Riders of Justice review – Mads Mikkelsen revenge thriller turns screwball
- Gaza’s silent children – in pictures
- South Africa’s leaders fear fresh wave of violence by Zuma loyalists
- ‘Nowhere is safe’: heat shatters vision of Pacific north-west as climate refuge
- Australia Covid live news update: NSW allied health staff to join vaccine rollout as state records 124 new cases and Victoria 26
- The UK has been linked to Congo’s ‘conflict minerals’ – where are the criminal charges? | Vava Tampa
- More than 80 wildfires rage across western US – video report
- What sparked the mass violence in South Africa – video explainer
- Aerial shots of New York show hazy skies from western US wildfires – video
| China floods: death toll climbs as questions raised over preparedness Posted: 21 Jul 2021 11:51 PM PDT Public scrutiny has focused on contradictory statements from local media and differences between posts by authorities and public The official death toll from central China's devastating floods has risen to 33, as the public began to ask questions about the readiness of authorities for the disaster. Cleanup efforts were under way in Henan province and the capital city Zhongzhou on Thursday, after a record breaking rain storm flooded the city's streets and subway, damaged dams and reservoirs, collapsed roads, cut power to at least one hospital and was linked to a massive explosion at a factory in Dengfeng city. Continue reading... |
| Five arrested in Hong Kong for sedition over children’s book about sheep Posted: 21 Jul 2021 09:33 PM PDT Books tried to explain the pro-democracy movement, portraying supporters as sheep surrounded by wolves Five members of a Hong Kong union behind a series of children's books about sheep trying to hold back wolves from their village have been arrested for sedition. The arrests by the new national security police unit, which is spearheading a sweeping crackdown on dissent, are the latest action against pro-democracy activists since huge and often violent protests convulsed the city two years ago. Continue reading... |
| Tokyo 2020: director of opening ceremony sacked over 1998 Holocaust joke Posted: 21 Jul 2021 10:22 PM PDT Head of organising committee apologises for latest scandal to hit preparations for the Olympic Games Preparations for the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics have been thrown into further turmoil after the show's director was sacked over a joke about the Holocaust he made in the late 1990s. Kentaro Kobayashi, a popular entertainer, was dismissed after a video clip resurfaced online of a skit in which he joked about a game he called "let's play massacre the Jews", prompting laughter in the audience. Continue reading... |
| ‘Fashion can be very exploitative’ – Halima Aden on why she quit modelling Posted: 21 Jul 2021 04:01 PM PDT The industry's first hijab-wearing model speaks about the 'internal conflict' that made her quit the catwalk Halima Aden, the Muslim model who became a trailblazer for wearing her hijab on the catwalk and in photoshoots, has hit out at the fashion industry and its exploitation of young models. Aden quit the industry in November 2020, citing compromised beliefs and feeling like a "minority within a minority". Continue reading... |
| Biden says children under 12 could be eligible for Covid vaccines within months Posted: 21 Jul 2021 07:09 PM PDT President urges Americans to take 'gigantically important' step of getting vaccinated amid surging cases Joe Biden has expressed optimism that young children would soon become eligible for Covid-19 inoculations, while urging unvaccinated Americans to take the "gigantically important" step of getting their shots as the virus surges across the US. Speaking at a televised town hall in Cincinnati on Wednesday, hosted by CNN, Biden said that children under 12, who are currently ineligible for the three coronavirus vaccines available in the US, could get shots by August or later in the fall. Continue reading... |
| UK says it wants to substantially rewrite Northern Ireland Brexit protocol Posted: 21 Jul 2021 11:27 AM PDT Blueprint for alternative arrangement published as sources say protocol was flawed at conception The UK has launched an audacious bid to rewrite a key plank of the Brexit deal, saying the Northern Ireland protocol was flawed at conception but served its purpose to get the UK out of the EU as "one country". The European Commission immediately ruled out a renegotiation of the deal, which was trumpeted by Boris Johnson as a solution to the Irish border impasse two years ago. The commission is understood to be open to some changes on the special arrangements for Northern Ireland, however. Continue reading... |
| Chinese tycoon gets go-ahead to build vast central London ‘palace’ Posted: 21 Jul 2021 10:00 PM PDT Westminster council unable to block Cheung Chung-kiu's grand plans for Knightsbridge property despite ban on "Monopoly board-style" homes A Chinese billionaire has been granted planning permission to construct an eight-storey, 5,760-sq metre (62,000-sq-ft) private palace overlooking Hyde Park, central London. Westminster city council granted Cheung Chung-kiu, a Hong Kong-based property tycoon, permission to partly demolish and reconstruct 2-8A Rutland Gate, in Knightsbridge, in order to create his vast new home, which experts said could be worth up to £500m when completed. Continue reading... |
| Deadly coral disease sweeping Caribbean linked to wastewater from ships Posted: 21 Jul 2021 11:00 PM PDT Researchers find 'significant relationship' between stony coral tissue loss disease and nearby shipping A virulent and fast-moving coral disease that has swept through the Caribbean could be linked to waste or ballast water from ships, according to research. The deadly infection, known as stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD), was first identified in Florida in 2014, and has since moved through the region, causing great concern among scientists. Continue reading... |
| Johnson & Johnson to pay $5bn in landmark $26bn US opioid settlement Posted: 21 Jul 2021 03:45 PM PDT Group of US states attorneys general unveil settlement including three largest US drug distributors and Johnson & Johnson A group of US state attorneys general unveiled on Wednesday a landmark $26bn settlement with large drug companies for allegedly fueling the deadly nationwide opioid epidemic, but some states were cool on the agreement. Under the settlement proposal, the three largest US drug distributors, McKesson Corp, Cardinal Health Inc and AmerisourceBergen Corp, are expected to pay a combined $21bn, while drugmaker Johnson & Johnson (J&J), which manufactures opioids, would pay $5bn. Continue reading... |
| Harvey Weinstein pleads not guilty to rape and sexual assault in LA trial Posted: 21 Jul 2021 04:33 PM PDT The convicted rapist is serving a 23-year prison term in New York and now faces the possibility of another sentence in California Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty in a Los Angeles courtroom Wednesday to four counts of rape and seven other sexual assault counts. The 69-year-old convicted rapist appeared in court in a wheelchair. He was wearing a brown jail jumpsuit and face mask. Attorney Mark Werksman entered the plea a day after Weinstein was extradited to California from New York, where he was serving a 23-year prison term. Continue reading... |
| Briton arrested over high-profile Twitter account hacks Posted: 21 Jul 2021 11:21 AM PDT 22-year-old faces multiple charges in connection with attacks on accounts of politicians and celebrities A 22-year-old British citizen has been arrested in Spain in connection with a July 2020 Twitter hack that compromised the accounts of high-profile politicians and celebrities, the US Justice Department said on Wednesday. It named the British man as Joseph James O'Connor and said he faced multiple charges. He was also accused in a criminal complaint of computer intrusions related to takeovers of TikTok and Snapchat accounts, including one incident involving sextortion, as well as cyberstalking a 16-year-old juvenile. Continue reading... |
| Struggling for work and food, Indonesia’s poorest suffer as Covid crisis deepens Posted: 21 Jul 2021 11:05 PM PDT Restrictions on mobility introduced to stop the spread of the virus have been catastrophic for those living in poverty Usually every Eid al-Adha, Riki Priyanto's father would bring home goat or beef from the nearby mosque. The meat had been donated by devotees and distributed to the poor, like Riki's family, to celebrate the Islamic day of sacrifice. His mother would cook goat meat satay for their lunch and Riki would sit next to his three younger siblings in the middle of their 3x3m house in North Jakarta. They would eat the special meal together. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 22 Jul 2021 01:22 AM PDT Seoul considering whether to expand restrictions amid one of South Korea's worst outbreaks to date; Tokyo Olympics officials say there are now 87 positive cases
UK business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has said a "very narrow" list of sectors whose workers will be exempt from self-isolation rules will be published today amid "pingdemic" shortages across the country. "We're looking at different sectors and we will be publishing today the sectors that will be affected," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
In the UK, the Road Haulage Association has said the combination of Brexit and the "pingdemic" has created a "recipe for chaos" for lorry driver numbers. Rod McKenzie, the association's managing director of policy, said there is already a shortage of 100,000 drivers and with so many drivers being required to self-isolate, it will "get even worse", reports the Press Association. We don't know how many drivers are affected in terms of the pingdemic on a daily basis, but the effects are clear. We started off with a shortage of 100,000 drivers, UK lorry drivers, and that's because we've always had a shortage of 60,000 and we've lost an additional 20,000 European drivers, add to that 30,000 cancelled lorry driving tests in the past year which haven't been made up. What we're able to see is the effect in terms of our shops, our supermarkets and everything else. There are fewer drivers than there were last week - and there were shortages last week. Since the pingdemic has peaked we're seeing this critical shortage get even worse. Continue reading... |
| Australia and New Zealand pull out of Rugby League World Cup in England over Covid concerns Posted: 22 Jul 2021 12:52 AM PDT
Holders Australia and New Zealand have withdrawn from the Rugby League World Cup due to be held at the end of the year in England, citing player welfare and safety concerns. In a joint statement on Thursday afternoon, the Australian Rugby League Commission and NZRL urged the tournament to be postponed until 2022 to avoid the risk of a player catching Covid-19. Continue reading... |
| Australia PM says sorry for vaccine failures amid bleak outlook for Sydney lockdown Posted: 21 Jul 2021 10:38 PM PDT Scott Morrison apologises for missing vaccine targets as New South Wales reports record cases during fourth week of stay-at-home order Australia's prime minister has apologised for failures in the disastrous coronavirus vaccine rollout as cases in the states of New South Wales and Victoria grew further despite millions living in lockdown. One day after notably refusing to apologise for a rollout that has fully vaccinated just 12% of the population since February, Scott Morrison said on Thursday: "I'm certainly sorry we haven't been able to achieve the marks we had hoped for at the beginning of the year. Of course I am." Continue reading... |
| The hidden world of cats: what our feline friends are doing when we’re not looking Posted: 21 Jul 2021 10:00 PM PDT In Britain, most pet cats are free to roam, but where do they go and what do they get up to? We fitted six cats with GPS trackers and found out As I prepared to write this piece, my three-year-old cat, Larry, had been missing for 24 hours. I had checked under the bins, posted in a community Facebook group and Googled variations of "Lost cat how long normal before come home?" all day. Larry was a house cat when we took him in, but my boyfriend and I had recently moved to a house with a garden so had started letting him out. Just like that, our adorable, loving, docile cat turned into the neighbourhood bruiser. He stopped snuggling with us in the morning, instead impatiently pawing at the door even before we had put down his breakfast. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 21 Jul 2021 10:00 PM PDT In the face of scorn and contempt from former IRA members, a small number of dissident groups remain committed to armed action. What do they think they can achieve? In the early hours of 19 April 2019, Belfast-born Irish republican Anthony McIntyre was awakened by his wife, Carrie, in their home in Drogheda, just south of the border in Ireland. "It's not true, it can't be true," she was saying. "Lyra has been shot dead." Drowsy, confused and not quite believing what he had just been told, McIntyre fell back asleep. He awoke the following morning thinking, "What did she tell me?" McIntyre looked online, and saw that it was true: their good friend, the 29-year-old journalist Lyra McKee, had been observing a riot in Derry the previous night when she was shot by a republican gunman. Continue reading... |
| ‘I’m not alone’: survivors organise against sexual violence in Colombia Posted: 21 Jul 2021 11:30 PM PDT Despite death threats, gangs and guerrilla warfare, a network of women are determined to help others recover from rape and domestic abuse Children now play football on the field where the lives of the people of El Salado changed completely. In February 2000, about 450 paramilitary fighters stormed this small Colombian town. They forced people from their homes into the field, and began to play drums and drink alcohol stolen from local shops. They then went on to torture and kill. Yirley Velasco was one of those gang-raped. She was 14 at the time. Continue reading... |
| ‘I shoot for the common man’: the photographs of Danish Siddiqui Posted: 21 Jul 2021 10:30 PM PDT The photojournalist Danish Siddiqui was shot dead last week while documenting the Taliban offensive in Afghanistan. His award-winning work for Reuters spanned some of the world's most era-defining crises. |
| Posted: 21 Jul 2021 09:09 AM PDT Losing world heritage status has shone a light on the city's redevelopment from maritime metropolis to pound-shop Shanghai, plagued by allegations of bribery and corruption "A certificate on the wall" is how Liverpool's former mayor Joe Anderson used to describe the city's Unesco world heritage status. The unbridled contempt he showed for his own city's architectural heritage has now come to its logical conclusion: the certificate has ended up in the bin, along with the reputation of this once great maritime metropolis. Unesco's decision to strip Liverpool of its hallowed heritage status is hardly surprising – nor will it probably affect the buoyant city a great deal. Much of the public reaction so far has been a defiant shrug. But the real shock is that it took the international watchdog quite so long to act. Continue reading... |
| Every Breath You Take review – Casey Affleck fires blanks in trashy psychodrama Posted: 21 Jul 2021 04:00 AM PDT The Oscar-winner gives a sluggish performance as a grief-stricken psychiatrist in this shallow psychological thriller In Manchester By the Sea, Casey Affleck gave a heart-rending performance as a father emotionally paralysed by the death of his young children; at times barely moving his features, he suggested the rage and grief swelling inside his character. Well, here he is again, grief stricken and blank-faced, playing a psychiatrist whose son has been killed in a car crash. The trouble is this time it's impossible to read anything much into Affleck's sleepy eyes – other than possibly an overwhelming urge to take a nap. His sluggish performance suits the tempo of this shallow psychological thriller, which is written in the style of a 90s potboiler but as if someone forgot to switch on the gas. It's gloomy and dull, and a little bit up itself. There's a snortingly ridiculous scene near the start where psychiatrist Philip (Affleck) presents a case study to an auditorium full of students. He claims to have cured a young suicidal woman called Daphne (Emily Alyn Lynd) with an experimental new talking therapy; ignoring all the usual boundaries, he has shared his own grief and emotional trauma with her – telling her things he hasn't even confided to his wife Grace (Michelle Monaghan). When his boss at the psychiatric institute raises a sceptical eyebrow, Philip defends his approach with what passes for intellectual rigour. Actually, with a bored sigh he says: "You're so old school." Continue reading... |
| Legal bids mean UK deportation flight to Zimbabwe takes off just one-third full Posted: 21 Jul 2021 04:21 PM PDT Multiple challenges, as well as Covid self-isolation, result in only 14 of people being on board, it is believed A controversial Home Office deportation charter flight to Zimbabwe took off at about 10.30pm on Wednesday evening with only around one-third of the passengers on board that officials had hoped to remove. It is the first mass deportation flight to Zimbabwe for many years and marks the start of a planned 'summer season' of charter flight deportations to countries including Vietnam and Jamaica that the Home Office is planning in the coming weeks. Continue reading... |
| Riders of Justice review – Mads Mikkelsen revenge thriller turns screwball Posted: 22 Jul 2021 01:00 AM PDT Anders Thomas Jensen's film is far-fetched, tonally wayward and shouldn't work at all, but somehow it all comes together The poster image of a grey-bearded, shaven-headed, tooled-up, mean-looking Mads Mikkelsen, combined with that title, might set alarm bells ringing … along the lines of, "Oh no, he's doing a Taken." Blessedly, rather than giving us a straightahead middle-aged revenge thriller, this unpredictable Danish film takes apart the whole trope. There are action thrills, to be sure, but they are folded into what becomes a sort of group therapy session on the psychology of grief, guilt, vengeance, chance and coincidence. Even more blessedly, it's often hilarious. Mikkelsen plays Markus, a military commander who is recalled from Afghanistan when his wife is killed in a train crash. He might have a particular set of skills, as Liam Neeson would put it, but emotional intelligence is not one of them. Markus refuses counselling and struggles to connect with his teenage daughter. Fortunately, along comes Otto (Nikolaj Lie Kaas), a maths geek who happened to be on the same train as Markus's wife. He is accompanied by eccentric sidekicks Lennart (Lars Brygmann), and Emmenthaler (Nicolas Bro). They are convinced the crash was not an accident but a targeted killing connected to a violent biker gang. Continue reading... |
| Gaza’s silent children – in pictures Posted: 22 Jul 2021 12:47 AM PDT Brazilian photographer Felipe Dana arrived in Gaza to cover the aftermath of the last war in May and was struck by how children were suffering psychologically Continue reading... |
| South Africa’s leaders fear fresh wave of violence by Zuma loyalists Posted: 21 Jul 2021 06:54 AM PDT Attacks by supporters of jailed former president 'are bid for pardon or to unseat government' South African authorities fear a new wave of attacks aimed at undermining the economy, investment and the rule of law as networks loyal to former president Jacob Zuma seek to force his return to power. Investigators believe the unrest last week, which killed more than 200 and caused massive damage across a swath of the country, was deliberately provoked as part of a broader strategy by political opponents to force president Cyril Ramaphosa to pardon Zuma or even step down. Continue reading... |
| ‘Nowhere is safe’: heat shatters vision of Pacific north-west as climate refuge Posted: 21 Jul 2021 11:00 PM PDT Residents of the region, known for its mild weather, are facing a shifting reality The recent heatwave that broiled the US Pacific north-west not only obliterated temperature records in cities such as Seattle and Portland – it also put a torch to a comforting bromide that the region would be a mild, safe haven from the ravages of the climate crisis. Unprecedented temperatures baked the region three weeks ago, part of a procession of heatwaves that have hit the parched US west, from Montana to southern California, over the past month. A "heat dome" that settled over the area saw Seattle reach 108F (42.2C), smashing the previous record by 3F (1.7C), while Portland, Oregon, soared to its own record of 116F (46.7C). Some inland areas managed to get up to 118F (47.8C). Continue reading... |
| Posted: 22 Jul 2021 01:33 AM PDT Scott Morrison says sorry for sluggish vaccination program; two people have died following a first AZ dose; NSW residents will learn lockdown fate 'this time next week'. Follow all the latest news
Liquidators of the company that sits atop the failed global finance empire formerly run by Bundaberg sugar farmer Lex Greensill (with advice along the way from Julie Bishop and David Cameron) have released a new report. The new report covers the affairs of Greensill Capital, which is an Australian company that owned the company's subsidiaries overseas, including its main trading entity in the UK and a bank in Germany.
Morrison is asked why people on Youth Allowance are not eligible for disaster payments. He says that the payments are "not designed" to replace someone's income. Continue reading... |
| The UK has been linked to Congo’s ‘conflict minerals’ – where are the criminal charges? | Vava Tampa Posted: 21 Jul 2021 04:00 AM PDT Swiss court ruling is not the first time plunder of DRC's mineral wealth has been linked to the killing of Congolese people. Without accountability, it won't be the last According to the Swiss federal criminal court last week, the corruption destroying the Democratic Republic of the Congo – where devastating conflicts over minerals used in our electronics have killed more than six million people – is inextricably linked to the UK, Gibraltar and Switzerland. It was a significant moment exposing corruption that has fuelled not only grinding poverty, famine and unemployment in DRC but also the impunity and violence required to sustain it. Yet, unless there is accountability, it won't change. Continue reading... |
| More than 80 wildfires rage across western US – video report Posted: 21 Jul 2021 08:37 AM PDT The Bootleg fire in Oregon, now roughly the size of Los Angeles, is so intense that it has created its own weather system, causing winds that have further fanned its flames. It has been burning for two weeks and barely a third of its perimeter has been contained. The Dixie fire in California exploded in size to roughly 94 sq miles (243 sq km) on Tuesday, and is only 15% contained. It broke out on 13 July Continue reading... |
| What sparked the mass violence in South Africa – video explainer Posted: 21 Jul 2021 06:52 AM PDT South Africa has recently experienced its worst violence since the end of the apartheid regime 27 years ago. More than 200 people were killed and thousands arrested in a week of civil unrest during which hundreds of shops were looted, factories set ablaze and government infrastructure destroyed. The Guardian's Africa correspondent, Jason Burke, explains how the violence was sparked by more than just the jailing of the former president Jacob Zuma, and what impact it could have on a country where more than half of the population lives in poverty Continue reading... |
| Aerial shots of New York show hazy skies from western US wildfires – video Posted: 21 Jul 2021 04:04 AM PDT New York officials have told vulnerable people to stay indoors because of sooty air pollution from wildfires in western US states that have drifted across the country. Residents of New York City, 2,000 miles away from the blazes, witnessed a fiery sunrise on Tuesday. The Bootleg fire in Oregon has become so large and hot it is creating its own weather system, causing winds that have further fanned its flames Continue reading... |
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