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

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


Trump cabinet appointments will 'undo decades of progress', rights activists say

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 11:36 AM PST

Hawkish trio – Jeff Sessions as attorney general, Mike Pompeo as CIA chief and Michael Flynn as national security adviser – have made inflammatory statements about race relations, immigration, Islam and the use of torture

Rights activists have condemned Donald Trump for three cabinet appointments they say could "undo decades of progress" towards racial equality and effectively legitimise the use of torture.

The US president-elect on Friday picked Senator Jeff Sessions as attorney general, Representative Mike Pompeo as director of the CIA and retired lieutenant-general Michael Flynn as national security adviser.

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Aleppo's children's hospital bombed as it treats chlorine gas victims

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 10:45 AM PST

Medics forced to take babies in incubators to building's basement after hospital was hit by bomb in latest attack on Syria's largest city

The only children's hospital in besieged Aleppo is out of action after being bombed as it treated victims of a chlorine gas attack, forcing staff to evacuate babies in incubators and other patients injured over days of fierce bombardment.

There are currently only four functioning hospitals left to serve around 250,000 civilians living in opposition-held areas, which have been under intense attack since the Syrian government and its Russian backers launched a new offensive on Tuesday.

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Far-right group attacks refugee camp on Greek island of Chios

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 12:20 PM PST

Dozens of people flee Souda camp with at least two wounded after molotov cocktails and rocks thrown at tents and occupants

Dozens of people have been driven out of a refugee camp on the Greek island of Chios after two successive nights of attacks by a far-right group.

At least two people were wounded after attackers threw Molotov cocktails and rocks as big as boulders from elevated areas surrounding the Souda camp, activists said.

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Climate summit chief pleads with Trump not to ditch Paris treaty

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 08:17 AM PST

Marrakech COP22 president urges US president-elect to join battle against global warming for sake of humanity

The president of the COP22 climate summit in Marrakech has made a direct plea to the incoming US president Donald Trump to join the struggle against global warming for the sake of humanity and the planet.

Salaheddine Mezouar, who is also the Moroccan foreign minister, had spent most of the week-long summit diplomatically trying to steer clear of questions about Trump, telling reporters at one point that "no one can stop history".

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Court convicts Malawi 'hyena' who had sex with over 100 women

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 10:04 AM PST

Eric Aniva, 45, who says he is HIV-positive, was paid to sleep with widows and girls as part of traditional cleansing rituals

A Malawian man accused of having sex with more than 100 girls and women in a series of traditional cleansing rituals has been convicted by a court of "engaging in harmful practices".

Eric Aniva, who has said he is infected with the HIV virus, was prosecuted after publicly speaking about his role as a "hyena" in a BBC documentary.

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France set to vote for rightwing presidential candidate to face Le Pen

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 07:16 AM PST

After Donald Trump's win in the US, could France's presidential election herald a shakeup of the political system?

France votes this weekend to choose the rightwing candidate likely to face the far-right Marine Le Pen in next spring's presidential election – just as Donald Trump's US win has thrown the spotlight on France as the scene of the next possible shakeup of the political system.

Polls have consistently shown that Le Pen, head of the far-right Front National, will make it to the French presidential final-round run-off next May, but that it would be difficult for her to win.

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Zika virus is no longer a global health emergency, UN health agency says

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 12:35 PM PST

Move does not mean the agency is downgrading threat of the mosquito-borne virus that can result in severe neurological defects in newborns, officials said

The United Nations health agency has declared that the Zika virus and related neurological complications no longer constitute an international emergency and said it is preparing a longer-term response to the mosquito-borne virus that can result in severe neurological defects in newborns whose mothers were infected.

World Health Organization officials were quick to note that the move does not mean the agency is downgrading the threat of the virus that has spread across Latin America, the Caribbean and elsewhere. Nearly 30 countries have reported birth defects linked to Zika, with 2,100 cases of nervous-system malformations reported in Brazil alone.

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Shelling of market in Yemeni city kills more than 20 civilians, MSF says

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 12:29 PM PST

Aid group says one of its own was among those killed in Taiz as 75 people were wounded, although it is not clear who fired at the market

More than 20 civilians were killed in the shelling of a busy market in the war-torn Yemeni city of Taiz, including a member of an international aid group, the group and medical officials said on Friday.

Doctors Without Borders, known by the French acronym MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières), said that its hospitals received a total of 21 victims on Friday, including a group worker, and 75 wounded, with many suffering from fractures, severe burns, open wounds and lacerations, as well as internal injuries.

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Turkish bill to clear men of child sex assault if they marry their victims

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 12:24 PM PST

Government says legislation is aimed at custom of child marriages

A bill in Turkey that would overturn men's convictions for child sex assault if they married their victim has provoked fury, with critics accusing the government of encouraging rape of minors with the proposals.

The opposition, celebrities, and even an association whose deputy chairman is the daughter of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expressed alarm over the move.

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Zimbabwean activists held before launch of emergency 'bond notes'

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 08:59 AM PST

Notes meant to ease cash shortages, but opposition and citizens fear release will trigger economic chaos

Authorities in Zimbabwe have arrested dozens of opposition activists before the launch of controversial "bond notes", which the government hopes will inject desperately needed cash into the failing economy of the former British colony.

Many ordinary people fear the bond notes will trigger economic chaos, wiping out savings and livelihoods.

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Amazon v Donald Trump? Jeff Bezos may soon face his biggest challenge yet

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 11:13 AM PST

The president-elect has been verbally sparring with Bezos for months. Now things could get a lot tougher for Amazon

Amazon will almost certainly enjoy its biggest ever day on Black Friday next week.

The discount shopping event will help the American online retailer to continue its run of 22 years of unbroken and dramatic sales growth since it was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos. It is now valued at more than $375bn (£304bn), making it one of the biggest companies in the world.

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Experts raise alarm over declining effect of last-line antibiotics

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 12:30 AM PST

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control says resistance of some strains of bacteria is growing

Last-line antibiotics against serious pneumonia and bloodstream infections are under real threat in Europe as resistant strains of bacteria emerge, experts are warning.

A new report from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) reveals that resistance has continued to increase across Europe in spite of attempts to raise global awareness of the danger to the fundamentally important antibiotic class of drugs. Without them, some infectious diseases could become untreatable and some forms of major surgery would again become perilous.

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Mike Pence booed at Hamilton musical: 'We are anxious you will not protect us' – video

Posted: 19 Nov 2016 02:02 AM PST

Brandon Victor Dixon, actor in the hit musical Hamilton, addresses Mike Pence who was booed by the audience at the hit Broadway show in New York on Friday. Dixon calls on the vice-president elect to 'uphold our American values and work on behalf of all of us'

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Why don’t we grieve for extinct species?

Posted: 19 Nov 2016 01:17 AM PST

We have no rituals for coping with extinction, ecological destruction or environmental loss. And that's a problem. Now, an impassioned group of artists and activists are trying to create them.

In early 2010, artist, activist and mother, Persephone Pearl, headed to the Bristol Museum. Like many concerned about the fate of the planet, she was in despair over the failed climate talks in Copenhagen that winter. She sat on a bench and looked at a stuffed animal behind glass: a thylacine. Before then, she'd never heard of the marsupial carnivore that went extinct in 1936.

"Here was this beautiful mysterious lost creature locked in a glass case," she said. "It struck me suddenly as unbearably undignified. And I had this sudden vision of smashing the glass, lifting the body out, carrying the thylacine out into the fields, stroking its body, speaking to it, washing it with my tears, and burying it by a river so that it could return to the earth."

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Andy Murray, Trump and the battle for Mosul – the 20 photographs of the week

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 11:57 PM PST

The reaction to Donald Trump's US election victory, fighting in Mosul and the ongoing violence in Syria – the news of the week captured by the world's best photojournalists

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'Extreme surveillance' becomes UK law with barely a whimper

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 11:00 PM PST

Investigatory Powers Act legalises range of tools for snooping and hacking by the security services

A bill giving the UK intelligence agencies and police the most sweeping surveillance powers in the western world has passed into law with barely a whimper, meeting only token resistance over the past 12 months from inside parliament and barely any from outside.

The Investigatory Powers Act, given royal assent on Thursday, legalises a whole range of tools for snooping and hacking by the security services unmatched by any other country in western Europe or even the US.

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Clare in the community

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 11:00 PM PST

Time to man up?

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Mike Pence booed at Hamilton performance and hears diversity plea

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 10:32 PM PST

After audience jeered vice-president elect at New York musical, actor addressed him from stage: 'We are the diverse Americans anxious you will not protect us'

The US vice-president elect, Mike Pence, was booed by a theater audience when he attended the hit hip-hop musical Hamilton in New York on Friday night – and then had a message about protecting diversity delivered to him from the stage after the curtain call.

As Pence, president-elect Donald Trump's chosen deputy, turned up for the Broadway show at the Richard Rogers Theater and entered the auditorium, video taken by onlookers and posted to social media picked up some audience members cheering him, then more people booing him.

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Croydon tram footage shows a driver 'asleep' at controls

Posted: 19 Nov 2016 02:29 AM PST

First Group and TfL investigate incident filmed earlier this year on line near fatal tram derailment in south London

A second investigation has been launched after footage emerged of a driver apparently asleep at the controls of a tram on the same line in London where a crash last week killed seven people.

A concerned passenger filmed the 32sec clip as the driver struggled to remain sitting upright around 3 miles from the derailment in Croydon, south London, the Sun reported.

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Scrap article 50 court appeal, senior Tories urge May

Posted: 19 Nov 2016 01:12 AM PST

Letwin, Grieve and Garnier call for appeal against Brexit ruling to be dropped to avoid legal risks and save time and money

Senior Tories have urged Theresa May to scrap the government appeal against a high court ruling which states that parliament must vote on leaving the EU.

Oliver Letwin, the former head of the government's Brexit preparations, has called for the prime minister to abandon the supreme court appeal over the decision on article 50, the mechanism that triggers exit negotiations.

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Venezuelan president's relatives guilty in US cocaine trial

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 11:22 PM PST

The case is one of several in which US prosecutors have linked individuals tied to Nicolás Maduro's government to drug trafficking

Two nephews of Venezuela's first lady were found guilty on Friday on US charges that they tried to carry out a multimillion-dollar drug deal to obtain a large amount of cash to help their family stay in power.

Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas and Efraín Antonio Campo Flores, nephews of Cilia Flores, the wife of the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, were convicted by a federal jury in Manhattan of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States.

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Thousands call for Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak to quit

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 09:28 PM PST

Protesters march in Kuala Lumpur just hours after activists and opposition leaders were arrested in a government crackdown

Thousands of anti-government protesters marched in Malaysia's capital on Saturday demanding the resignation of the prime minister, Najib Razak, over his alleged involvement in a multibillion-dollar misappropriation scandal.

Clad in yellow shirts and unfazed by arrests of activists and opposition leaders just hours before the rally, protesters marched from various spots towards the heart of Kuala Lumpur amid tight security.

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Australia's immigration measures are keeping families apart, study says

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 11:00 PM PST

Refugee council report says punitive rules and processing delays are preventing thousands of people from reuniting with their families

Thousands of people across Australia have been kept from reuniting with their families because of Australia's immigration policies, new research from the Refugee Council of Australia has found.

The report, Addressing the Pain of Separation for Refugee Families, found people were kept from their families by punitive and exclusionary policies, processing delays and exorbitant costs, even those found to be Australian citizens.

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Canadian mother calls for gender identity training after court ruling

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 09:00 PM PST

Susan Smith to file complaint after judges ordered her four-year-old to stop wearing girls' clothes and limited her custody

A Canadian mother has called for lawyers and judges to receive better training on gender identity after two judges in the province of Alberta ordered her four-year-old child to stop wearing girls' clothing in public.

The order was first issued last year by a family court judge in the city of Medicine Hat. Three months later, the clothing restriction was upheld by a second judge.

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Poland president Lech Kaczyński reburied after postmortem

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 08:08 PM PST

Late leader's exhumation is part of a renewed investigation into the plane crash in 2010 for which many in his party blame Russia

Poland's former president, Lech Kaczyński, and his wife were reburied on Friday following exhumations and postmortems required for the new investigation into the 2010 plane crash that killed them and 94 others.

The Catholic reburial service for the couple took place at St Leonard's Crypt at the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków, where many of Poland's royals and writers are buried.

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Apec leaders urged to defend free trade after Trump win

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 06:05 PM PST

Pacific leaders are warned 'protectionist tendencies are taking over' in the US amid fears for the Trans-Pacific Partnership

A summit of world leaders has been urged to defend free trade from rising protectionism after Donald Trump's election victory stoked fears that years of tearing down barriers to global commerce could be reversed.

Trump successfully tapped the anger of working-class voters who feel left behind by globalisation, vowing to protect American jobs against cheap labour in countries like China and Mexico.

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Quebec election shooter given life sentence for 2012 killing

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 05:17 PM PST

Richard Henry Bain shouted 'the Anglophones are waking up' after opening fire at victory rally for the separatist Parti Quebecois

A Canadian man who carried out a deadly shooting at a victory rally in Montreal following the 2012 election of Quebec's separatist premier has been sentenced to life in prison with no parole for at least 20 years.

Justice Guy Cournoyer of the Quebec superior court sentenced Richard Henry Bain, 66, in a Montreal courtroom on Friday.

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Chios refugee camp burns after attack by far-right group – video

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 01:42 PM PST

The Souda refugee camp on the Greek island of Chios burns after it was attacked with Molotov cocktails and rocks on Thursday night, purportedly by a far-right group affiliated with the Greek extreme right party Golden Dawn. Mohammed al Jazeer, a Syrian refugee described seeing two petrol bombs land amongst the tents. Shortly afterwards, a group of about 30 people attacked migrants standing at the entrance to the camp, police said

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Hot rat is so hot right now: Moscow falls for the rodent burger

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 09:10 AM PST

The nutria, or river rat, is the victim of the Russian capital's most challenging current food craze

Forget kale, forget quinoa. This season's foodie craze in Moscow is homegrown, affordable and full of nutrients. It's rat.

Well, not quite rat, but nutria, a giant orange-toothed rodent also known as coypu or river rat, and found in southern Russia. The furry, whiskered beast is finding its way on to plates at several Moscow restaurants this autumn.

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'The English love this drink': Italians bemused by prosecco trade threat

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 08:57 AM PST

Producers of the fizzy wine say demand far outstrips supply and they are unconcerned by Boris Johnson's Brexit warning

Boris Johnson may have thought he had discovered Italy's achilles heel when he suggested in a private meeting recently that the country would capitulate to British demands in Brexit negotiations because it would be loath to "sell less prosecco".

But in Veneto, where the fizzy wine is made, Johnson's not-so-subtle threat against one of Italy's most fashionable exports to Britain was met with bemusement and even confusion.

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Services in France and UK mark end of Battle of the Somme centenary

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 04:59 AM PST

Tributes to war dead include ceremony at Thiepval monument and wreath-laying event in Northern Ireland

The centenary of the end of one of the bloodiest episodes of the first world war, the 141 days of the Battle of the Somme in which more than a million men on both sides were killed or injured, is being marked with services in France and in the UK.

At the monument in Thiepval – which has been inscribed with the names of 72,000 men whose bodies were never identified – guests including politicians, representatives of the armed forces and descendants of those who fought in the battle are gathering for a service led by Bishop James Newcome, the national chaplain of the Royal British Legion.

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Broken leaves in salad bags raise salmonella risk 2,400-fold – study

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 04:37 AM PST

Researchers say bacteria naturally present on leaves grows much faster once bag is opened, even when kept in fridge

Broken leaves in bags of prepared salad can hugely increase the risk of salmonella, a study suggests.

Scientists found that juices released from damaged leaves in bagged mixed salad and spinach increased the risk of the bacteria 2,400-fold. It also increased the bacteria's virulence, enhancing its ability to cause infection.

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Turkish officers seeking asylum after failed coup, says Nato chief

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 04:32 AM PST

Jens Stoltenberg's statement about officers seeking refuge amid post-coup purge likely to raise Ankara's ire before weekend talks

A number of Turkish military officers are seeking asylum in Europe, Nato's chief has said, months after a coup attempt that shook the country and led to a purge of the upper echelons of the armed forces.

"Some Turkish officers working in Nato command structure … have requested asylum in the countries where they are working," said Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary general, in Brussels. He did not name the nations involved or the number of officers, saying it was a matter for those countries to decide.

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Painting matching fresco that became 'Monkey Christ' resurfaces

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 04:05 AM PST

Woman whose restoration attempt went badly awry may attend unveiling of Elías García Martínez painting in Zaragoza

Four years ago, 81-year-old Cecilia Giménez noticed that the fresco of a scourged Christ that adorned the wall of the Santuario de la Misericordia in the Spanish city of Borja was looking a little tired, and she decided to do something about it.

Her decision to reach for her paintbrushes was well intentioned but spectacularly misguided. Giménez's less than expert efforts ruined Elías García Martínez's fresco, transforming his Ecce Homo into a work dubbed the "Monkey Christ", unleashing countless memes and setting a new global standard for botched restorations.

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Eyewitness: Mosul, Iraq

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 03:12 AM PST

Photographs from the Eyewitness series

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‘Africa is tired of being in the dark’: bank chief on plans to boost energy

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 06:07 AM PST

At COP22, the African Development Bank's president, Akinwumi Adesina, tells of strategies to improve energy supplies and fight the impact of climate change

"We lose 5% of our potential GDP every year, and African industries cannot be competitive without access to electricity," says Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank. "I believe that's why we can't break away from reliance on exporting our raw materials – new industries will only go to where there's power."

He is speaking on the sidelines of the COP22 climate change conference in Marrakech, which ends on Friday.

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One in five people in cities worldwide live in areas with no safe toilet

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 03:17 AM PST

As World Toilet Day approaches, WaterAid report reveals dire state of urban sanitation, as globally one child dies every two minutes from diarrhoeal disease

Close to one in five people living in towns, cities and megacities across the world do not have access to a safe, basic toilet, according to WaterAid.

Some 600 million urban dwellers globally rely on a humiliating and haphazard array of the only services available to them in slums: filthy and crowded communal toilets, or rudimentary pit or bucket latrines that fail to meet minimum standards of hygiene, safety or privacy. A further 100 million people in cities do not even have access to these services and are forced to defecate in the open, using railway tracks, roadsides and even plastic bags dubbed "flying toilets", the report found.

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'Justice for some': advocates worry Jeff Sessions could halt criminal justice reform

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 12:40 PM PST

Trump's attorney general nominee, who was rejected for district judgeship for alleged racist remarks, supports civil forfeiture and nonviolent drug prosecutions, experts say

Senator Jeff Sessions – who accepted Donald Trump's nomination as attorney general on Friday and now faces a Senate confirmation – has been down this road before.

Nominated by Ronald Reagan for an appointment as a district judge in 1986, the former US attorney was rejected by the Senate judiciary committee, for allegedly having made racist remarks to colleagues.

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Michael Flynn: from subtle intelligence chief to Muslim-baiting ideologue

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 12:06 PM PST

Donald Trump's proposed national security adviser took a nuanced line as a general in Afghanistan but now says fearing Islam is a rational response to terror

Long before Michael Flynn led a chant demanding the imprisonment of Hillary Clinton, and before he came to view an entire religion as responsible for terrorism, he issued a public plea for nuance in intelligence.

Related: Trump picks Jeff Sessions for attorney general and Mike Pompeo for CIA chief

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Donald Trump's cabinet nominations: what we know so far

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 11:11 AM PST

The president-elect has nominated Jeff Sessions as attorney general and Mike Pompeo to head the CIA but rumors and speculation swirl about other positions

President-elect Donald Trump scheduled a series of meetings with close allies and Washington veterans this week, stoking speculation about his possible cabinet picks – just as he did this summer, when he polled crowds about his running mate and floated improbable names to the press.

Related: Who are Trump's attorney general, national security adviser and CIA chief?

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Obama has become a therapist for those suffering from Trump anxiety disorder

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 10:59 AM PST

US president's trip to Europe has had to be repurposed from celebration to consolation, as he tries to convince the world it's 'not the apocalypse'

From the White House to Athens and on to Berlin, Barack Obama has for the past 10 days focused his energies on soothing and encouraging allies who are stunned and anxious about the future.

In the wake of the shock US election result, he has become the world's normaliser-in-chief.

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Winging it: Donald Trump's golden pheasant lookalike – video

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 06:45 AM PST

Who does this golden pheasant from a Chinese safari park remind you of? Gao Hongqiang, Hangzhou safari park's head bird keeper, tells Reuters on Thursday that both the hairstyle and eye expressions of male golden pheasants are similar to those of a certain president-elect

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