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

Questions in Kabul as two top Taliban leaders ‘missing from public view’
China property giant Evergrande admits debt crisis as protesters besiege HQ
‘It’s a reality’: Biden calls for urgency in California as climate crisis fuels wildfires
Most plans for new coal plants scrapped since Paris agreement
Britain to delay some post-Brexit border controls due to Covid crisis
US faces ‘real battle for democracy’ against far right, says Hillary Clinton
‘Time to take sides’: post-Merkel era needs radical new direction, says study
Trudeau energized by anti-vaccine protests in Canada election few wanted
Norway election result: Labour celebrates but coalition talks loom
Lake Tahoe ski resort changes name to remove racist and misogynistic slur
New Zealand Māori party launches petition to change country’s name to Aotearoa
‘The virus is painfully real’: vaccine hesitant people are dying – and their loved ones want the world to listen
Coronavirus live news: Vladimir Putin self-isolating; new China outbreak grows
LA officers sue over vaccine mandate as police across California threaten to resign
New York hospital to stop delivering babies as staff quit over vaccine rules
The Met Gala 2021: eight key moments from fashion’s big night
‘It brought people back together’: the summer after 9/11 – in pictures
When Wall Street came to coal country: how a big-money gamble scarred Appalachia
Hurry up and wait: the joys of slow culture
‘It’s the balm we need right now’: how Broadway fought its way back
We don’t live in isolation. Our ancestors’ trauma can affect our health generations later | Himali McInnes
Three people killed after car crashes into residential block in west London
Taliban takeover of Afghanistan will reshape Middle East, official warns
Will he or won’t he? Why Trump’s tease over 2024 suits him just fine
Climate change will be on agenda when Scott Morrison meets Joe Biden in the US
Taliban’s return ‘a catastrophe’ for journalism in Afghanistan
‘Every man was drinking’: how much do bans on alcohol help women in India?
Give Lorde a break. Non-Māori must speak Māori for it to survive | Morgan Godfery
Think being trans is a ‘trend’? Consider these 18th century ‘female husbands’ | Gabrielle Bellot
Antony Blinken in angry exchanges with Republicans over Afghanistan – video

Questions in Kabul as two top Taliban leaders ‘missing from public view’

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 10:00 PM PDT

Group's leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, and one of their most recognisable faces, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, have not been seen

Two senior Taliban leaders have gone missing from public view, leading some Afghans to question whether the group's supreme leader and new deputy prime minister are alive.

China property giant Evergrande admits debt crisis as protesters besiege HQ

Posted: 14 Sep 2021 02:42 AM PDT

Disgruntled investors voice anger at headquarters as company appoints advisers and says firesale of assets won't cover debts

Property giant China Evergrande Group has said that it cannot sell properties and other assets fast enough to service its massive $300bn debts, and that its cashflow was under "tremendous pressure".

Only hours after angry investors besieged its Shenzhen headquarters and the company denied it was set for bankruptcy, Evergrande issued a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange saying that a significant drop in sales would continue this month, which was likely to further deteriorate its liquidity and cash flow.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

‘It’s a reality’: Biden calls for urgency in California as climate crisis fuels wildfires

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 06:50 PM PDT

President calls year-round fires an emergency country can no longer ignore as he advocates for rebuilding plan

Joe Biden travelled to California on Monday to survey wildfire damage as the state battles a devastating fire season that is on track to outpace that of 2020, the state's worst fire season on record.

The president is using the trip to highlight the connection between the climate crisis and the west's increasingly extreme wildfires as he seeks to rally support for a $3.5tn spending plan Congress is debating.

Most plans for new coal plants scrapped since Paris agreement

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 10:01 PM PDT

Report by climate groups found more than three-quarters of projects were discarded after the deal was signed

The global pipeline of new coal power plants has collapsed since the 2015 Paris climate agreement, according to research that suggests the end of the polluting energy source is in sight.

The report found that more than three-quarters of the world's planned plants have been scrapped since the climate deal was signed, meaning 44 countries no longer have any future coal power plans.

Britain to delay some post-Brexit border controls due to Covid crisis

Posted: 14 Sep 2021 02:19 AM PDT

Brexit minster says timetable has been delayed due to 'longer-lasting impacts' of pandemic on businesses

Brexit controls on food and animal products that were due to come into effect in January are being postponed until July 2022 because of the potential impact on businesses, the British government has announced.

It is also delaying paperwork required from 1 October for imports of food and animal products including dairy, eggs, honey and composite products such as lasagne and pepperoni pizza.

US faces ‘real battle for democracy’ against far right, says Hillary Clinton

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 04:25 PM PDT

Speaking at a Guardian Live event, the former presidential candidate says the Capitol riot was a 'terror attack' that shows a new 'internal threat'

Hillary Clinton has said that the US was still in a "real battle for our democracy" against pro-Trump forces on the far right, seeking to entrench minority rule and turn back the clock on women's rights.

At a Guardian Live online event on Monday, Clinton fended off suggestions that the world was now witnessing the twilight of US democracy, but said: "I do believe we are in a struggle for the future of our country".

‘Time to take sides’: post-Merkel era needs radical new direction, says study

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 10:00 PM PDT

German chancellor's consensus-building approach no longer sustainable in crisis-hit Europe, report says

After 15 years of "Merkelism" the German chancellor's neutral, consensus-building approach means many Europeans accept her country as the EU's leader – but post-Angela Merkel Berlin will have to radically change tack, according to a study.

"Angela Merkel has come to embody a strong and stable Germany, positioning herself as Europe's anchor though more than a decade of crises," said Piotr Buras, the co-author of the report by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).

Trudeau energized by anti-vaccine protests in Canada election few wanted

Posted: 14 Sep 2021 02:00 AM PDT

The prime minister trails the Conservatives in polls but has found new impetus in pursuit of a third term to secure his legacy

When he was pelted with a handful of gravel by anti-vaccine protesters last week, the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, joined an illustrious list of political leaders who have had things hurled at them by disgruntled citizens. His father, former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, had rocks (and tomatoes and eggs) thrown at his train car in the early 1980s.

But the gravel incident – which led to charges of assault with a weapon against the protester – has thrust the image of a prime minister on the defensive to the forefront of an election that, for many, is unwanted and has so far lacked a coherent theme.

Norway election result: Labour celebrates but coalition talks loom

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 01:27 PM PDT

Labour's Jonas Gahr Støre on course to be prime minister after Conservative incumbent concedes defeat but faces hard choices on picking allies

Norway's Conservative prime minister Erna Solberg has conceded defeat to the left-leaning opposition after a general election campaign dominated by questions about the future of the key oil industry in western Europe's largest producer.

"The Conservative government's work is finished for this time around," Solberg told supporters on Monday. "I want to congratulate Jonas Gahr Støre, who now seems to have a clear majority for a change of government."

Lake Tahoe ski resort changes name to remove racist and misogynistic slur

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 04:18 PM PDT

Resort will be called Palisades Tahoe after consulting with Indigenous groups over longstanding name

A popular ski resort at California's Lake Tahoe has changed its name to remove a racist and misogynistic slur after consultations with local Indigenous groups.

The resort, known as Squaw Valley since 1949, will be called Palisades Tahoe, the business announced on Monday.

New Zealand Māori party launches petition to change country’s name to Aotearoa

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 06:46 PM PDT

Party wants all original te reo Māori place names to be officially restored across the country in the next five years

The Māori party has launched a petition to change New Zealand's official name to Aotearoa, the te reo Māori, indigenous language name for the country.

"It's well past time that Te Reo Māori was restored to its rightful place as the first and official language of this country," Te Pāti Māori leaders, Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said in a statement launching the petition. "We are a Polynesian country – we are Aotearoa."

‘The virus is painfully real’: vaccine hesitant people are dying – and their loved ones want the world to listen

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 10:00 PM PDT

In the UK, the majority of those now in hospital with Covid-19 are unvaccinated. Many face their last days with enormous regret, and their relatives are telling their stories to try to convince others like them

Matt Wynter, a 42-year-old music agent from Leek, Staffordshire, was working out in his local gym in mid-August when he saw, to his great surprise, that his best friend, Marcus Birks, was on the television. He jumped off the elliptical trainer and listened carefully.

The first thing he noticed was that Birks, who was also from Leek and a performer with the dance group Cappella, looked terrible. He was gasping for breath and his face was pale. "Marcus would never usually have gone on TV without having done his hair and had a shave," Wynter says.

Coronavirus live news: Vladimir Putin self-isolating; new China outbreak grows

Posted: 14 Sep 2021 02:54 AM PDT

Latest updates: Covid cases in Russian president's inner circle; China reports 59 new cases compared to 22 the day before

10.54am BST

Nigeria is experiencing one of its worst cholera outbreaks in years, with over 2,300 people dying from suspected cases so far, potentially worsened by the coronavirus pandemic.

The outbreak, which has a higher case fatality rate than the last four years, is being exacerbated by the prioritisation of Covid-19 by state governments, reports the Associated Press.

We must remain conscious that these multiple outbreaks can further strain our health system.

Prior investment in diagnostic capacity, case management, electronic surveillance systems, event-based surveillance, risk communication, logistic management systems and national/subnational workforce development have paid off significantly during Covid-19 pandemic.

10.32am BST

More from the Associated Press on Putin's self-isolation:

Russian president Vladimir Putin is going into self-isolation because of coronavirus cases in his inner circle, the Kremlin said Tuesday.

The announcement came in the Kremlin's readout of Putin's phone call with Tajik President Emomali Rahmon.

LA officers sue over vaccine mandate as police across California threaten to resign

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 06:18 PM PDT

Police department employees claim 'hostile work environment' for the unvaccinated and say mandate violates civil rights

Los Angeles police department (LAPD) employees have sued over requirements they get vaccinated for Covid-19, alleging that the department has created a "hostile work environment" for the unvaccinated and that the mandate violates employees' privacy and civil rights.

The suit is one of several aggressive challenges to vaccine mandates by police unions and officers across California, some of whom have threatened mass resignations in response to new rules. It comes as staff at law enforcement agencies remain unvaccinated at disproportionately high rates.

New York hospital to stop delivering babies as staff quit over vaccine rules

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 07:07 AM PDT

• Lewis county hospital to suspend service next week

• Covid-19 vaccines compulsory for all New York health workers

A hospital in upstate New York will at least temporarily stop delivering babies later this month, after too many employees resigned over a Covid-19 vaccination mandate.

"We are unable to safely staff the service after 24 September," Gerald Cayer, chief executive of the Lewis County Health System, told reporters.

The Met Gala 2021: eight key moments from fashion’s big night

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 09:58 PM PDT

From politics to vaccines, mechanical babies to masked kisses – celebrities turned on the glamour and the chaos in New York

With crowds of Black Lives Matter protesters outside, and a vaccine mandate inside, the much-delayed Met Gala finally went ahead in New York on Monday evening. The event, usually held on the first Monday in May, was cancelled in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and rescheduled this year for the same reason.

The 2021 event was themed "American independence", and co-chaired by singer Billie Eilish, tennis pro Naomi Osaka, actor Timothée Chalamet and poet Amanda Gorman – all Gen Z darlings.

‘It brought people back together’: the summer after 9/11 – in pictures

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 11:00 PM PDT

Nine months after the towers fell, Lucas Foglia visited the diverse boroughs of New York with his camera to 'show the city healing … but with scars'

When Wall Street came to coal country: how a big-money gamble scarred Appalachia

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 10:00 PM PDT

Around the turn of the millennium, hedge fund investors put an audacious bet on coal mining in the US. The bet failed – but it was the workers and the environment that paid the price

Once or twice a generation, Americans rediscover Appalachia. Sometimes, they come to it through caricature – the cartoon strip Li'l Abner or the child beauty pageant star Honey Boo Boo or, more recently, Buckwild, a reality show about West Virginia teenagers, which MTV broadcast with subtitles. Occasionally, the encounter is more compassionate. In 1962, the social critic Michael Harrington published The Other America, which called attention to what he described as a "vicious circle of poverty" that "twists and deforms the spirit".

Around the turn of this century, hedge funds in New York and its environs took a growing interest in coalmines. Coal never had huge appeal to Wall Street investors – mines were dirty, old-fashioned and bound up by union contracts that made them difficult to buy and sell. But in the late 1990s, the growing economies of Asia began to consume more and more energy, which investors predicted would drive up demand halfway around the world, in Appalachia. In 1997, the Hobet mine, a 25-year-old operation in rural West Virginia, was acquired for the first time by a public company, Arch Coal. It embarked on a major expansion, dynamiting mountaintops and dumping the debris into rivers and streams. As the Hobet mine grew, it consumed the ridges and communities around it. Seen from the air, the mine came to resemble a giant grey amoeba – 22 miles from end to end – eating its way across the mountains.

Hurry up and wait: the joys of slow culture

Posted: 14 Sep 2021 01:00 AM PDT

In the streaming age, sleeper hits such as Schitt's Creek and The Morning Show have replaced quick successes, confirming culture is a marathon not a sprint

Modern Toss on the art of the slow burn

If one thing guarantees a TV hit in 2021, it's a lukewarm reception. Take Ted Lasso, a sitcom about a perky, naive American football coach transplanted on to British soil. Its first season premiered last summer to barely any fanfare – but little by little came mass critical reconsideration. The show ended up a smash hit, breaking the record for most Emmy nominations for a first season of a comedy. Its second series, concluding next month, has made it one of the most talked-about shows of the year.

‘It’s the balm we need right now’: how Broadway fought its way back

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 11:23 PM PDT

The long theatre shutdown in New York has taken its toll on the industry but a renewed and reinvigorated outlook towards diversity could have a major impact

When Ruben Santiago-Hudson walks on stage at the Manhattan Theatre Club on Tuesday night, the electric charge between actor and audience will spark back to life. Then the healing will begin.

"It is the balm that we all need right now, not just on stage, but in our city," says Santiago-Hudson, writer, performer and director of Lackawanna Blues, one of a record seven works by Black playwrights opening on Broadway this autumn. "It's a necessity, it's in us as human beings. Theatre has always been the great gathering place – church and theatre."

We don’t live in isolation. Our ancestors’ trauma can affect our health generations later | Himali McInnes

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 01:00 PM PDT

Our wellbeing is inextricably linked to our childhoods, which in turn is influenced by the lives of our parents and grandparents

If there is one patient who has opened my eyes to my own cognitive bias and who has helped me to recognise the profound effect of the past on a person's health, it is my patient Arama*.

"Hey, what's up, doc?" says Arama as he walks into my consulting room one day. He's weaving a little, his breath reeks of alcohol, his speech is slurred. He wants to get some antibiotics for a chesty cough that he's had for a week.

Three people killed after car crashes into residential block in west London

Posted: 14 Sep 2021 01:09 AM PDT

Emergency teams found vehicle on fire after being called to scene on Great Western Road in Notting Hill

Three people have died after a car crashed into a residential block in west London, the Metropolitan police have said.

Officers and emergency crews were called to Great Western Road in Notting Hill at about 4.50am and found the vehicle on fire. The flames were extinguished but three people were pronounced dead at the scene.

Taliban takeover of Afghanistan will reshape Middle East, official warns

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 11:53 AM PDT

Gulf states are having to reconsider their alliances and especially whether they can still trust the US, says senior source

The Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan is a shattering earthquake that will shape the Middle East for many years, a senior Gulf official has said, warning that – despite the group's promises of moderation – the militant group is "essentially the same" as last time it was in power.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the official also said that the rapid and chaotic US withdrawal also raises serious questions for Gulf states about the value of US promises of security over the next 20 years.

Will he or won’t he? Why Trump’s tease over 2024 suits him just fine

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 11:00 PM PDT

No one quite knows if the former president will run again, but stoking the fire flatters his ego and keeps the cash rolling in

The date Saturday 9 October 2021 might go down in political history. Or at least that is what Donald Trump would like you to believe.

That night, Trump will hold a rally in Iowa, the celebrated launchpad for US presidential candidates, the state that goes first in the major parties' selection process and that is already drawing potential contenders for the Republican nomination in 2024.

Climate change will be on agenda when Scott Morrison meets Joe Biden in the US

Posted: 14 Sep 2021 02:00 AM PDT

Prime minister confirms he will travel to Washington this month in first visit since Biden was elected

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The Biden administration has confirmed climate change will be on the agenda next week when Scott Morrison arrives in Washington for a summit of Quad leaders and for talks with the US president.

Australia's prime minister on Tuesday confirmed he would travel to Washington from 21 to 24 September. This will be Morrison's first visit to the US since Joe Biden was elected in 2020.

Taliban’s return ‘a catastrophe’ for journalism in Afghanistan

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 10:30 PM PDT

Head of International Federation of Journalists says 'future is black' for 1,300 journalists still in country

Journalism in Afghanistan is in danger of disappearing, according to the head of the International Federation of Journalists, who said that reporters trying to continue working under the Taliban have been subjected to beatings and imprisonment.

"The Taliban don't want to make too many waves right now, but they will want to take control of everything, including the foreign press in Afghanistan," Anthony Bellanger, the IFJ secretary general, told the Guardian. "And as often happens in such situations, foreign journalists will be considered agents of foreign governments.

‘Every man was drinking’: how much do bans on alcohol help women in India?

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 10:00 PM PDT

Women's protests led to prohibition in Bihar but can alcohol bans end domestic abuse and harassment?

Holding sticks and brooms, the women marched to the liquor shop in the centre of Konar village. It was a rare ambush in the staunchly patriarchal Bihar state in eastern India. But they were at breaking point.

"In every village women were troubled by alcohol. Men harassed them on the streets. Husbands beat them at home," says Sunita Devi, 52, a former seamstress who led the crowd. "When they saw us they gained courage that we can come together and fight."

Give Lorde a break. Non-Māori must speak Māori for it to survive | Morgan Godfery

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 05:18 PM PDT

If we must wait for the perfect circumstances to speak or sing te reo, we may as well sign the language's death certificate

My sisters and I are the first generation in almost 50 generations of our family who didn't grow up speaking te reo Māori as a first language. At first, that fact seems startling – a dramatic rupture from our past and the language that gives form to it. We are only three generations removed from ancestors who were Māori-speaking monoglots, ordering their lives and their world in a language almost foreign to their 21st-century descendants.

But this break between the language our ancestors spoke and the language we speak – English – is the typical Māori experience: only one in five Māori can hold a conversation in their ancestral language, and in the past three national surveys this number has fallen. That makes us anglophones a firm majority in our Indigenous populace.

Think being trans is a ‘trend’? Consider these 18th century ‘female husbands’ | Gabrielle Bellot

Posted: 10 Sep 2021 03:30 AM PDT

Conservatives think they can avoid accepting trans people by reducing our existence to a passing fad. But we've always been here

Whenever the subject of transgender identities comes up today, there is a tendency for conservative politicians – perhaps most of all in the United States – to trot out a particularly specious argument: that the idea of being trans is a "new" concept, a notion that "no one" in their right mind had heard of, or would entertain, in previous eras.

At its most extreme, this argument suggests that a peculiar concoction of things is to blame for our existence – from social media, indoctrination by well-paid gender studies professors, or even an excess of supposedly hormone-altering substances, like soy or arcane chemicals, in our diets. Non-binary identities particularly confound conservatives.

Antony Blinken in angry exchanges with Republicans over Afghanistan – video

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 06:14 PM PDT

US secretary of state pushed back against criticism of the military withdrawal from Afghanistan. Blinked said the Biden administration inherited Donald Trump's deal with the Taliban but no plan for carrying it out

Blinken pushes back against Republican criticism at Afghanistan hearing

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

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