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

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


Venezuela: at least four dead and hundreds injured in border standoff

Posted: 23 Feb 2019 07:50 PM PST

Presidential challenger Juan Guaidó says he will urge foreign leaders to keep 'all options open' at a meeting on Monday

At least four people have been killed and hundreds injured in a wave of violence that convulsed Venezuela's border regions on Saturday, as opposition activists tried to defy a government ban and bring food and medical supplies into the country.

After the failed attempt to breach government blockades, opposition leader Juan Guaidó declared the fight would continue, and said "we must keep all our options open for the liberation of our homeland".

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‘I felt the hatred’, says philosopher attacked by gilets jaunes

Posted: 24 Feb 2019 01:00 AM PST

Alain Finkielkraut says the protester who screamed 'go back to Tel Aviv' is part of a new wave of antisemitism

The French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut is at home: an airy apartment with walls packed floor to ceiling with books in one of Paris's more chic arrondissements.

Today, however, the writer and commentator does not feel entirely at home in France. That feeling was heightened dramatically when, last weekend, a gilet jaune protester shouted at him that he was a "dirty Zionist shit" who should "go back to Tel Aviv".

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Theresa May insists Brexit 'must not, will not' be blocked

Posted: 23 Feb 2019 09:36 PM PST

PM's vow comes after three ministers signal they could back moves to delay withdrawal

Theresa May has vowed to Tory grassroots activists that she will not allow the referendum vote for Britain to leave the EU to be frustrated.

The prime minister is flying to Egypt for an EU-League of Arab States summit where she is expected to hold talks with key EU figures as she battles to break the deadlock in the Brexit talks.

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Met police kept families of Isis schoolgirls ‘in the dark’

Posted: 24 Feb 2019 12:00 AM PST

Shamima Begum and the other Bethnal Green girls who travelled to Syria could have been stopped, their parents say

The families of a group of Bethnal Green schoolgirls who went to Syria to join Islamic State have accused the Metropolitan police of Islamophobia over its handling of their cases.

The relatives – including those of Shamima Begum, the 19-year-old whose UK citizenship was revoked by the home secretary last week – were treated as suspects and were not privy to intelligence that may have prevented three of the eight girls reaching Syria, according to lawyers, a former senior Scotland Yard officer and community sources.

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China says 'preventive' work in Xinjiang detention camps should be applauded

Posted: 23 Feb 2019 11:02 PM PST

Government steps up outreach to foreign envoys, explaining its achievements in the region home to Muslim minorities

China's counter-terrorism and de-radicalisation efforts in its far western region of Xinjiang should be applauded for creating a new method of tackling the problem, a senior diplomat told foreign envoys last week.

China is stepping up its diplomatic outreach over controversial detention camps in the heavily Muslim region, inviting more foreign diplomats to visit as it seeks to head off criticism from Muslim-majority nations and at the United Nations.

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Home Office gives green light to first drug testing clinic

Posted: 24 Feb 2019 01:00 AM PST

'Life-saving' scheme, licensed by the government, launched amid rising concern over potentially toxic substances

The first drug-checking service licensed by the Home Office will allow users to have their illicit substances tested without fear of being arrested in a move that could be rolled out nationally if it is shown to save lives.

The year-long pilot project, which had a soft launch in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, last Friday but begins in earnest this week, will allow anyone over the age of 18 to take their drugs to the clinic, run by the charity Addaction. Testing the content will take about 10 minutes, during which time the user will complete a short questionnaire to allow harm reduction advice to be tailored to them.

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Badgers, stoats and otters stage ‘incredible’ revival

Posted: 24 Feb 2019 01:00 AM PST

Britain's carnivore numbers are booming after clampdown on hunting and pollution

They must survive government culls, gamekeepers, poisoning, persecution and increasingly busy roads but, in modern times at least, Britain's carnivores have never had it so good: badger, otter, pine marten, polecat, stoat and weasel populations have "markedly improved" since the 1960s, according to a new study.

The otter, polecat and pine marten have bounced back from the brink of extinction, and the country's only carnivorous mammal now in danger of being wiped out is the wildcat, with the dwindling Scottish populations hit by hybridisation with domestic and feral cats.

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Alabama newspaper at centre of KKK outcry appoints black female editor

Posted: 23 Feb 2019 08:19 PM PST

Elecia R. Dexter takes reins of Democrat-Reporter from Goodloe Sutton, who called for return of Ku Klux Klan

A small-town Alabama newspaper that drew condemnation for an editorial this month calling for the Ku Klux Klan to "ride again" has named an African American woman as its new editor and publisher, the paper has said.

On Friday, Elecia R. Dexter took the reins of the weekly Democrat-Reporter in Linden, Alabama, from Goodloe Sutton, 79, the longtime owner of the paper who wrote the incendiary editorial that brought sharp rebukes from elected officials in the state and the public.

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Muffin Break faces backlash after boss says millennials won't do unpaid work

Posted: 23 Feb 2019 09:17 PM PST

Uproar comes as parliamentary inquiry into Australian franchise sector prepares final report

The cafe chain Muffin Break is facing a backlash from customers after its general manager said that entitled millennials weren't willing to do unpaid work to get ahead.

Natalie Brennan told News Corp there was "nobody walking in my door asking for an internship, work experience or unpaid work".

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Children to be taught dangers of female genital mutilation

Posted: 24 Feb 2019 12:59 AM PST

Sex education shake-up in secondary schools means learning about grooming, forced marriage and domestic abuse

The dangers of female genital mutilation will be taught to all secondary school pupils in England from 2020 as part of a bold shake-up of relationships and sex education.

New proposals will be presented to parliament on Monday which would see the curriculum reformed to include relationship education for primary age pupils and health education for pupils of all ages in state-funded schools. Secondary school pupils will also be taught about grooming, forced marriage and domestic abuse.

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Thousands mourn seven Syrian siblings killed in Canada fire

Posted: 23 Feb 2019 06:34 PM PST

Refugee children from four months to 15 years old perished in as-yet unexplained blaze at their home in Halifax

Around 2,000 mourners attended the funeral on Saturday of seven children from a Syrian refugee family who died earlier this week in a house fire in Halifax, eastern Canada.

Ahmad Barho and siblings Rola, Mohammed, Ola, Hala, Rana and Abdullah – whose ages ranged from four months to 15 years – all perished in the as-yet unexplained blaze at their home on Tuesday.

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Frank Gehry at 90: ‘I love working. I love working things out’

Posted: 24 Feb 2019 12:00 AM PST

He didn't hit his stride till he was 50, and now the architect, as inventive and bold as ever, hangs out with everyone from Harrison Ford to Jay-Z

I've taken up flying," says Frank Gehry, aged 89 years and 11 months, as he sits opposite me in his Los Angeles office, "a little bit." Then he tells a story. How in his youth he had a job washing aeroplanes, and how his cousin had a Waco biplane and would take him up in it. How he wanted to do this again. How the subject came up when Sydney Pollack was making the 2005 film Sketches of Frank Gehry. How the architect asked the film director, did he know someone who had a Waco?

"Yes, he did – Harrison Ford. And I knew Harrison way, way back, when he was a cabinet maker. He bid for some of our projects." But Gehry never got to fly with the man who played Han Solo. Then, one evening, he was at a dinner party complaining to Ford on the subject when the host chipped in. He had another make of biplane, a Stearman, and was happy to take Gehry into the sky. He shows a photo as proof. "I can't land it or anything, but he lets me steer it."

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Immigration check outcry sees officers removed by councils

Posted: 24 Feb 2019 02:00 AM PST

Local authorities scrapping embedded Home Office staff amid fears vulnerable people are put off seeking help

Labour councils are removing Home Office immigration officers embedded within local authorities after calls from party members and councillors to stop enabling policies that lead to a "hostile environment" for migrants.

Embedded officials sit in on meetings between councils and vulnerable migrant families and ensure the Home Office is made aware of each person that registers for emergency funds. They can also pass information to immigration enforcement officers, and have been accused of encouraging undocumented migrants to leave the UK voluntarily and of providing poor advice that could damage applications to stay in the country.

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War doctor David Nott: ‘The adrenaline was overpowering’

Posted: 24 Feb 2019 02:00 AM PST

As his book detailing his time volunteering in Sarajevo, Gaza, Syria and beyond is published, the NHS surgeon talks about what it takes to work in a war zone

• Read an extract from David Nott's book War Doctor

What first inspired you to become a war doctor?
Two things. The first was Roland Joffé's film The Killing Fields, which had a huge impact on me when I saw it as a trainee surgeon. There is a scene in a hospital in Phnom Penh, overrun with patients, where a surgeon has to deal with a shrapnel injury – I wanted to be that surgeon. The second big spur was watching news footage from Sarajevo back in 1993. There was this man on the television, looking desperately through the rubble for his daughter. Eventually he found her and took her to the hospital but there were no doctors there to help her. I thought, "Right, I'm off".

What was that first experience of war like?
As a young man, jumping off the aeroplane and running for cover, then hopping into a bulletproof vehicle and being taken at high speed to the hospital was Boy's Own stuff, just how I wanted it to be. It was perfect. The adrenaline was overpowering and the amount of endorphins in your head – I felt like I was floating on air and could do anything. Then to be able to help people as well, having your own operating theatre, it was wonderful. Of course, then I wanted to replicate it all the time. Once I had tasted that, I couldn't stop.

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From bean to bar in Ivory Coast, a country built on cocoa

Posted: 23 Feb 2019 11:00 PM PST

On the eve of Fairtrade Fortnight, we meet the female farmers fighting for trade justice who face an uncertain future

Asking about the importance of cocoa in Ivory Coast feels a little like making enquiries about the value of grapes in Burgundy. When I put the question to N'Zi Kanga Rémi, who has for the last 18 years beengovernor of the rural department of Adzopé, north-east of the sprawling port city of Abidjan, he leaned forward in his chair and fixed me with an amused stare.

His booming voice went up a decibel to fill the administrative offices on whose walls his own portrait alternated with that of his nation's president. "It doesn't make sense to ask an Ivorian what cocoa means to him!" he said. "It means everything! It's his first source of income! My education was funded by cocoa! Our houses are built with cocoa! The foundations of our roads, our schools, our hospitals is cocoa! Our government runs on cocoa! All our policy focuses on sustaining cocoa!"

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Andrew Yang: the 2020 candidate warning of the rise of robots

Posted: 24 Feb 2019 12:00 AM PST

The entrepreneur says Trump won the 2016 election because the US automated away jobs – so he wants to become president to do something about it

Donald Trump won 2,584 counties in the 2016 presidential election; Hillary Clinton carried only 472. But the Democratic nominee's accounted for nearly two-thirds of America's economic output, according to a study by the Brookings Institution.

Related: Leftwing Democrats steal the 2020 spotlight but can centrists fight back?

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Cuba’s evangelical alliance leads crusade against gay marriage

Posted: 23 Feb 2019 10:00 PM PST

Conservative Christianity becomes a political force in referendum on state's new constitution

A thousand parishioners gathered in the Methodist church in the Vedado district of Cuba's capital on a recent Sunday morning. After the revival music and conga drums had faded, the dancers had come off stage and the faithful had lowered outstretched arms, Pastor Lester Fernández rounded off his sermon on the ruinous consequences that the legalisation of gay marriage would bring.

"The Cuban church, as an essential part of society, is worried, and therefore has a right to a public voice," he hollered into his microphone. "Amen," replied the flock.

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Liberal party chooses Katie Allen to succeed Kelly O'Dwyer in Higgins

Posted: 23 Feb 2019 11:46 PM PST

Paediatrician wins preselection for plum Melbourne seat ahead of federal election

The Liberal party has chosen a woman to succeed the cabinet minister Kelly O'Dwyer in the blue-ribbon seat of Higgins in Melbourne.

The paediatrician and former state election candidate Katie Allen was on Sunday afternoon picked to succeed O'Dwyer.

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Trump’s cronies are in secret talks to sell nuclear tech to Saudi. The risks are clear

Posted: 23 Feb 2019 10:39 AM PST

The congressional report on this multibillion-dollar scheme provides further evidence of attempts to monetise the Trump presidency

The idea that the US might sell state-of-the-art nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia, potentially enabling Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's reckless regime to build nuclear weapons, sounds so far-fetched as to be almost grotesque.

After all the near-hysterical American and Israeli warnings about the risk of Iran, the Saudis' arch-rival, acquiring the bomb, surely even Donald Trump would balk at such breathtaking – and dangerous – hypocrisy?

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It's grim time for abortion rights in the US, but activists are still energized | Arwa Mahdawi

Posted: 23 Feb 2019 05:00 AM PST

The Trump administration issued a rule barring organizations that provide abortions from federal money, but several states are already trying to protect the right

Sign up for the Week in Patriarchy, a newsletter​ on feminism and sexism sent every Saturday.

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In pictures: violent clashes on the Venezuelan border

Posted: 23 Feb 2019 03:48 PM PST

Volunteers attempt to get aid inside country but trucks stopped just meters inside Venezuelan territory

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Venezuela: police and protesters clash as border tensions rise – video report

Posted: 23 Feb 2019 11:03 AM PST

Tensions have been rising at the Venezuelan border with Colombia amid president Nicolás Maduro's ban on aid entering the country.

Dozens of Venezuelans and Colombians gathered at the Simón Bolívar bridge connecting the countries to urge authorities to allow humanitarian aid to enter Venezuela, while in other areas on the border Venezuelan soldiers defected and violent protests broke out between police and demonstrators

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'Why did we keep silent for so long?': Nun condemns Catholic church over clerical abuse - video

Posted: 23 Feb 2019 09:28 AM PST

A Nigerian nun uses her speech to the Vatican's summit on clerical sexual abuse to condemn the church's hierarchy for its 'mediocrity, hypocrisy and complacency' in handling the scandal. Sister Veronica Openibo is softly spoken but delivers a strong rebuke to the gathering. 

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Saudi sisters trapped in Hong Kong fear for their lives: 'We would be executed' – video

Posted: 23 Feb 2019 05:45 AM PST

Two sisters who fled Saudi Arabia and have been in hiding in Hong Kong for nearly six months say they did so to escape beatings at the hands of their brothers and father. The pair say they have renounced their Muslim faith, and that Saudi diplomats intercepted them at the airport in Hong Kong and prevented them from boarding a connecting flight to Australia

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Dianne Feinstein rebuffs young climate activists' calls for Green New Deal – video

Posted: 23 Feb 2019 04:15 AM PST

The California senator has been criticised for her response to a group of children and teenagers asking her to support the Green New Deal. Video footage shows Feinstein flatly rejecting the activists' request, telling them: 'I've been doing this for 30 years. I know what I'm doing'

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