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

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


Senate gets ready to open impeachment trial against Donald Trump

Posted: 15 Jan 2020 11:00 PM PST

For only the third time in US history, the Senate is preparing on Thursday to open an impeachment trial against the president, who stands accused of abusing the powers of his office and obstructing a congressional investigation of his deeds.

Related: Trump 'knew exactly what was going on' in Ukraine, says Giuliani associate

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Iran says it is enriching more uranium than before nuclear deal

Posted: 16 Jan 2020 12:47 AM PST

President Hassan Rouhani says country 'continues to progress' as it reacts to US withdrawal

Iran is now enriching more uranium than it did before it agreed to a nuclear deal with world powers in 2015, the Iranian president said on Thursday in a televised speech.

Hassan Rouhani said: "We are enriching more uranium before the deal was reached ... Pressure has increased on Iran but we continue to progress."

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Rain brings joy to farmers in NSW and Victoria and dampens some bushfires as others burn

Posted: 15 Jan 2020 10:23 PM PST

Fire-hit areas receive desperately needed rain, as severe thunderstorms cause flooding in Melbourne

Up to 50mm of rain has fallen across parts of New South Wales and Victoria, dampening bushfires even as dozens more continue to burn.

Fire-hit regions of NSW's Snowy Valley and south coast, and Victoria's East Gippsland and north-east, received as much as 15mm of desperately needed rain on Wednesday and Thursday, while severe thunderstorms caused flooding in Melbourne.

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Hong Kong could keep semi-autonomy for longer, says Lam

Posted: 16 Jan 2020 12:26 AM PST

Leader says 'one country, two systems' deal could continue if city shows loyalty to China

Hong Kong's leader, Carrie Lam, has said the "one country, two systems" framework under which the city is meant to enjoy autonomy from China could be extended beyond 2047 if loyalty to Beijing is upheld.

In her first appearance at the Legislative Council since October, Lam answered a question from a lawmaker about what might happen in 2047, the year the semi-autonomous territory is meant to return to Chinese rule.

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'You called me a liar on national TV': audio released of testy Warren-Sanders exchange

Posted: 15 Jan 2020 07:57 PM PST

Candidates and longtime friends trade angry remarks before Tom Steyer offers an awkward hello

CNN has released the audio of the testy exchange between Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders that took place following Tuesday's Democratic debate.

After the debate wrapped, Bernie Sanders outstretched his hand to Elizabeth Warren. Warren did not take it, and the two progressive candidates, who until recently have avoided criticizing each other publicly, exchanged words – which until now were inaudible.

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New Zealand's drought and record-breaking hot summers putting kiwi birds at risk

Posted: 15 Jan 2020 08:10 PM PST

Dehydrated birds venturing out of bush to find food and water are vulnerable to predators

New Zealand's famous kiwi birds are suffering from dehydration as drought affects many northern areas of the country, with conservationists warning chicks may soon perish too.

There are 68,000 kiwi left in New Zealand but their number is declining at a rate of 2% a year. A century ago there were millions but attacks by dogs, cats, possums, stoats and rats have led to a huge decline.

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'Regret and unhappiness': China offers muted response to US trade deal

Posted: 15 Jan 2020 09:32 PM PST

State media plays down agreement, in contrast to Donald Trump's assertion it is the 'biggest deal anyone has ever seen'

Reaction in China to the US trade deal has been muted, with state media playing down news of the agreement signed in Washington and adopting a conciliatory tone.

On Wednesday, Donald Trump and the Chinese vice-premier, Liu He, signed an initial pact that hits pause on more than two years of escalating trade tensions. China pledged to buy more US products while the US called off additional tariffs on Chinese goods, among other measures agreed between the two sides.

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One in four countries beset by civil strife as global unrest soars

Posted: 15 Jan 2020 10:00 PM PST

Researchers predict worldwide turmoil will continue in 2020, with Venezuela, Iran and Libya at greatest risk

A quarter of all countries experienced a dramatic surge in civil unrest last year in a worrying trend that is likely to continue into 2020, researchers have found.

Verisk Maplecroft, a leading risk analysis and strategic forecasting company, said in a report published on Thursday that 47 countries experienced a significant rise in the number of protests over the course of the past year. Hong Kong, Chile, Nigeria, Sudan, Haiti and Lebanon were among the states affected.

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Japan confirms first case of new China coronavirus strain

Posted: 15 Jan 2020 09:25 PM PST

30-year-old man tested positive to illness after visiting central Chinese city of Wuhan

Japan has confirmed its first case of infection from the new China coronavirus that has killed one person and prompted a travel alert from the US state department.

A man in his 30s from Kanagawa prefecture, next to Tokyo, tested positive after being treated for pneumonia, Japan's health ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

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UN sounds alarm over unprecedented levels of hunger in southern Africa

Posted: 15 Jan 2020 11:00 PM PST

Women and children bear brunt as drought and extreme weather leave tens of millions short of food

Southern Africa is in the throes of a climate emergency, with hunger levels in the region on a previously unseen scale, the UN has warned.

Years of drought, widespread flooding and economic disarray have left 45 million people facing severe food shortages, with women and children bearing the brunt of the crisis, said the World Food Programme (WFP).

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Sir Patrick Stewart speaks of Brexit sorrow at Star Trek launch

Posted: 15 Jan 2020 02:27 PM PST

The 79-year-old said Brexit was the 'grimmest thing' in his political lifetime

At 79, Sir Patrick Stewart is back in the role of Jean-Luc Picard, and boldly going somewhere no USS Enterprise captain has gone before – their own Star Trek spin-off show.

But it was terrestrial matters that were concerning him more at the London premiere of the new series Star Trek: Picard on Wednesday night, where he described Brexit as "the grimmest thing" to have happened to him in his political life.

"It makes me very, very sad," Stewart told PA Media. "I think what is happening with the European Union is actually the saddest, grimmest thing that has happened to me since I have been involved in politics."

Having first played the part of Picard when Star Trek: The Next Generation hit screens in 1987, the new web television series sees him return to the role after a gap of 18 years.

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Amsterdam's Green mayor looks to reform red-light district

Posted: 15 Jan 2020 09:00 PM PST

As an MP, Femke Halsema helped make prostitution legal in the Netherlands. So why does she now want to overhaul an area where sex workers famously ply their trade?

The local football team, Ajax, had just won the championship, and as is traditional, the mayor of Amsterdam expected some abuse at the victory parade. "It is a Dutch tradition – it is usually just screaming and throwing cans of beer,"said Femke Halsema, the first woman to take the highest office in the Dutch capital.

Halsema, 53, a former leader of the national Green party, though, faced a difference grade of barracking: shouts of "bitch" and "whore", and a wall of middle fingers. "It was a moment when I was confronted by being a woman," she said, laughing. "I think the last mayor wasn't called a bitch."

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Man held after fatal stabbing in Leamington Spa

Posted: 15 Jan 2020 11:54 PM PST

Police arrest 33-year-old and seek second suspect after one man killed and another injured

A man has been stabbed to death in what police believe was a targeted attack in Leamington Spa.

Warwickshire police were called to reports of two men being stabbed in Tachbrook Road at about 11am on Wednesday. One was pronounced dead at the scene and the other sustained serious injuries and is in a critical condition in hospital.

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Catastrophic conditions greet refugees arriving on Lesbos

Posted: 16 Jan 2020 12:00 AM PST

EU countries need to act urgently to support Greece with 'unmanageable' levels of arrivals, UN warns

It's just getting light on the north coast of Lesbos and in an olive grove by the side of the road a group of refugees are breaking up branches and feeding a fire to keep the children warm. They are a small group, 25 people, all of them from Afghanistan. They climbed out of a boat on the shore at 1.30am and lit the fire while they called for help.

Jalila is 18 and has travelled to the Greek island alone from Afghanistan. "But these people in the boat are my new family" she says cheerily. She is in good spirits, though shivering uncontrollably.

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The Syrian Revolution by Yasser Munif review – an early phase of a third world war?

Posted: 16 Jan 2020 12:58 AM PST

The murderous conflict in Syria is simplified by both right and left. This account deals with the short period of hope, when the people threw off their chains

It is happening again. Over the last year protest movements – some of them deep and broad enough that we might dare to call them revolutions – have once more been shaking the Middle East and North Africa, ending decades-long dictatorships in Sudan and Algeria, forcing the prime ministers of Lebanon and Iraq to resign. And yet the war brought to Syria by the last wave of revolutionary upheaval – the Arab spring that began in 2011 and by 2014 had turned to something worse than winter – has not ended. It continues to be fought not only with bullets and bombs but, in a parallel battle for narrative control, with words.

In the discourses of American thinktanks and much of the mainstream media, tropes flatten the war into a conflict between, as the Syrian-American scholar Yasser Munif puts it, "western civilisation and the Islamic State's barbarism" on one front, and between the shining freedoms of the democratic west and the dark tyrannies of Bashar al-Assad and his Russian and Iranian backers on another. Meanwhile the more Manichaean precincts of the left prefer to imagine the war as a single fight between a brave anticolonialist holdout and Islamist terrorists in league with the west. Anyone who disagrees is rewarded with a depressingly predictable slew of smears: "interventionist", "pro-imperialist", "regime change advocate" and so on.

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Donald Trump impeachment: House sends articles to Senate, setting stage for trial

Posted: 16 Jan 2020 12:06 AM PST

The House of Representatives transmitted articles of impeachment against Donald Trump to the Senate on Wednesday, setting in motion a trial that could unearth damaging new evidence of misconduct by Trump as the 2020 presidential contest heats up.

Related: Trump 'knew exactly what was going on' in Ukraine, says Giuliani associate

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Inside the tent immigration courts that turn away thousands of asylum seekers

Posted: 16 Jan 2020 12:00 AM PST

Under the "Remain in Mexico" policy, into which House Democrats have launched an investigation, just 0.2% of cases result in relief

Underneath a white tarpaulin roof, behind razor wire and barking police dogs, Wendy Ramírez Penosa and her two teenage sons stood before an immigration judge sitting 30 miles (48km) away from them. Through tears, they begged the court to keep them safe.

"My children have been threatened with kidnap," Ramírez said through a translator on Monday afternoon, describing threats both in Mexico and in Honduras, her home country. "They said I would be forced to work in a brothel."

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Queensland archbishop opposes planned law to compel priests to report child sexual abuse

Posted: 15 Jan 2020 10:58 PM PST

Mark Coleridge says move to legislate against the sanctity of the confessional will fail to make children safer

A move to compel Queensland priests to report child sexual abuse offences disclosed during confessions would fail to make children safer, Brisbane's Catholic archbishop has said. 

Mark Coleridge has opposed a state government plan to legislate against the sanctity of the confessional as an excuse, defence or privilege. 

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Climate, inequality, hunger: which global problems would you fix first? – interactive quiz

Posted: 15 Jan 2020 02:28 AM PST

Interactive quiz: With only 10 years left to achieve the UN's sustainability goals, find out how your priorities compare

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Dmitry Medvedev: the rise and fall of the Robin to Putin’s Batman

Posted: 15 Jan 2020 11:46 AM PST

Corruption allegations and embarrassing public moments weakened Russia's former PM

Vladimir Putin's decision on Wednesday to accept the resignation of Dmitry Medvedev was not a surprise. For some time, Medvedev's standing within the Russian government has been inexorably sinking.

There have been embarrassing public moments. Medvedev has been spotted nodding off during Putin's presidential addresses, not once but on several occasions.

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Putin's plans are all about keeping his hands on levers of power

Posted: 15 Jan 2020 10:39 AM PST

The looming question is not whether Putin will stay in control after 2024, but how he plans to do so

Vladimir Putin made two things clear as he embarked on a sweeping reshuffle of Russia's government on Wednesday: first, that Russia will probably bid farewell to him as president after 2024. And second, that when he leaves the presidency, he will definitely not be leaving power.

No one really expected Putin to retire in 2024, when term limits dictate he cannot run for re-election. But pride and an interest in self-preservation dictate that he keep his hands on the levers of power.

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Trump impeachment: how the day unfolded as House sends articles to Senate – video

Posted: 15 Jan 2020 11:39 PM PST

Donald Trump faces a trial after the House of Representatives voted to send articles of impeachment against him to the Senate. Here's how a frantic day on Capitol Hill unfolded

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Pelosi says Trump 'can never erase' impeachment as she names prosecutors – video

Posted: 15 Jan 2020 08:53 AM PST

Nancy Pelosi, the speaker for the US House of Representatives, has vowed that Donald Trump will be 'held to account' as she named the Democrats who will prosecute the impeachment case against him in the Senate. The team includes women – two African Americans and one Latina – as well as the House intelligence chair, Adam Schiff, and the judiciary chair, Jerry Nadler

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Plane dumps fuel on LA schools before emergency landing – video

Posted: 15 Jan 2020 03:02 AM PST

A jet with an engine problem dumped fuel to reach a safe landing weight before making an emergency return to LA international airport. The vapour from the fuel fell on five elementary schools and caused minor skin and lung irritation to more than 50 children and adults, officials said

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Ashen landscapes of the Philippines after Taal volcano eruption - in pictures

Posted: 15 Jan 2020 12:25 AM PST

The eruption of Taal volcano near Manila spewed lava into the sky, leaving villages blanketed by heavy ash. The falling ash pushed aviation officials to temporarily shut down the capital's main airport, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights and stranding tens of thousands of travellers.

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