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

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


UK to close door to non-English speakers and unskilled workers

Posted: 18 Feb 2020 02:30 PM PST

Government plans to take 'full control' of borders a disaster for economy and jobs, say industry leaders and Labour

Britain is to close its borders to unskilled workers and those who can't speak English as part of a fundamental overhaul of immigration laws that will end the era of cheap EU labour in factories, warehouses, hotels and restaurants.

Unveiling its Australian-style points system on Wednesday, the government will say it is grasping a unique opportunity to take "full control" of British borders "for the first time in decades" and eliminate the "distortion" caused by EU freedom of movement.

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Boeing 737 Max: debris found in fuel tanks of grounded planes

Posted: 19 Feb 2020 02:02 AM PST

'Absolutely unacceptable' discovery a new setback for US firm, which orders inspection

Boeing has ordered inspections of its entire fleet of grounded 737 Max planes after it found debris in the fuel tanks of some of the aircraft, in the latest setback for the US plane-maker.

The specialist aviation blog Leeham News, which first reported the discovery of the "foreign object debris" (FOD), said it was unlikely that the inspections would delay the recertification of the jets. However, it will take up to three days to inspect each plane because fuel must be drained and vapours dissipated before the fuel tanks can be opened.

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Coronavirus: first two patients confirmed in Iran as cruise ship cases rise to 621 – live updates

Posted: 19 Feb 2020 03:25 AM PST

Deaths on mainland China pass 2,000 as passengers begin leaving the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan. Follow all the latest news here

Japanese health officials said 79 new coronavirus cases have been detected on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, taking the total to 621.

The positive cases on board thevessel amount to the biggest cluster of infected people outside China, and Japan is facing mounting scrutiny of its quarantine measures as passengers begin to disembark and travel across the world.

Iranian authorities have confirmed two cases of coronavirus, the first in the country, the Associated Press has reported.

Citing the semi-official Isna news agency, the report states there was also an unspecified number of other suspected cases and that those individuals have been quarantined.

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The world is failing to ensure children have a 'liveable planet', report finds

Posted: 18 Feb 2020 10:00 PM PST

Children in biggest carbon-emitting nations are healthiest, while those with tiny environmental footprints suffer twofold from poor health and living at the sharp end of the climate crisis

Every country in the world is failing to shield children's health and their futures from intensifying ecological degradation, climate change and exploitative marketing practices, says a new report.

The report says that despite dramatic improvements in survival, nutrition, and education over the past 20 years, "today's children face an uncertain future", with every child facing "existential threats".

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Bloomberg set to make debate debut under cloud of controversy - live updates

Posted: 19 Feb 2020 03:27 AM PST

  • Billionaire will join Democrats on-stage in Las Vegas for the first time, dogged by controversy over comments on race and transgender rights
  • Help us cover the critical issues of 2020. Consider making a contribution

Tonight's debate will be a test for Mike Bloomberg's strategy of by-passing Iowa and New Hampshire, and only getting his campaign into full stride ahead of his main aim - Super Tuesday on 3 March. Skipping the opening caucuses and primaries has never worked for a candidate in modern times.

Democratic strategist Brian Brokaw has told Associated Press that for his first debate appearance "He is going to have a giant target on his back from all sides. It'll either all come together brilliantly or could fall apart very quickly. The stakes are just incredibly high for him."

Department of Justice spokesperson Kerri Kupec has attempted to quash the rumours that attorney general William Barr has considered resigning over Trump's repeated tweeted interference in the Roger Stone case.

She used her official account overnight to state: "Addressing Beltway rumors: The Attorney General has no plans to resign."

Addressing Beltway rumors: The Attorney General has no plans to resign.

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'They allowed the perfect storm': UN expert damns New Zealand's housing crisis

Posted: 18 Feb 2020 03:48 PM PST

Special rapporteur says successive governments have contributed to what she called a 'human rights crisis'

When Leilani Farha touches down in a new city, the first thing the UN special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing does is look up.

In Melbourne, Toronto, London and Dublin, the skies above are filled with cranes, Farha says, soaring across the skylineto construct new homes for their booming populations.

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UK inflation jumps to six-month high of 1.8% – business live

Posted: 19 Feb 2020 03:29 AM PST

Rolling coverage of business, economics and markets as British prices rise faster than expected

Here's the full detail on the inflation figures, from the Guardian's Phillip Inman:

Inflation jumped to a six-month high of 1.8% in January after a surge in petrol prices and an increase in the cost of gas and electricity over last year.

Related: UK inflation at six-month high as petrol and energy prices rise

US stock markets are looking up.

Futures for the S&P 500 suggest the US benchmark index will gain 0.2% when it opens later today, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq is expected to rise by 0.3%.

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Caroline Flack's family releases unpublished Instagram post

Posted: 19 Feb 2020 02:46 AM PST

TV star wrote message days before she died but her advisers warned against posting it

Caroline Flack wrote an unpublished Instagram post weeks before she killed herself revealing how her "whole world and future was swept from under [her] feet" over claims she assaulted her boyfriend, her family has said.

The former Love Island presenter, who was found dead aged 40 on Saturday before she was due to stand trial in March accused of assault, said the domestic incident was an accident.

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Researchers find a western-style diet can impair brain function

Posted: 18 Feb 2020 04:01 PM PST

After a week on a high fat, high added sugar diet, volunteers scored worse on memory tests

Consuming a western diet for as little as one week can subtly impair brain function and encourage slim and otherwise healthy young people to overeat, scientists claim.

Researchers found that after seven days on a high fat, high added sugar diet, volunteers in their 20s scored worse on memory tests and found junk food more desirable immediately after they had finished a meal.

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Dave attacks Boris Johnson in Brit awards performance: 'Our prime minister's a real racist'

Posted: 19 Feb 2020 12:07 AM PST

South London rapper, who won album of the year for Psychodrama, also called for support for the Windrush generation and castigated the media over their coverage of Meghan Markle

South London rapper Dave has accused Boris Johnson of being a racist on stage at the 2020 Brit awards.

Performing Black, a freestyle track that charts the difficulties of black Britons and celebrates black excellence, he added a newly written final verse that began: "It is racist, whether or not it feels racist, the truth is our prime minister's a real racist / They say – 'you should be grateful, we're the least racist' / I say the least racist is still racist."

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Harvey Weinstein jury carries weight of #MeToo into deliberations

Posted: 18 Feb 2020 01:26 PM PST

The jury began deliberating their verdict Tuesday, asking to see emails with names of women Weinstein allegedly tried to silence

The jury at Harvey Weinstein's rape trial in New York have asked to see emails in which the movie mogul highlighted the names of potential accusers and handed them to investigators he employed, to try and silence the women and prevent them going public with their allegations.

Just hours after the seven men and five women of the jury began deliberating their verdict on Tuesday, they began asking the judge at the New York supreme court a series of detailed questions. They wanted to see copies of all emails where "certain women's names are highlighted in red".

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'Coal workers are orphans': the children and slaves mining Pakistan's coal

Posted: 19 Feb 2020 02:20 AM PST

Injuries and fatalities are common among thousands of debt-bonded men and children toiling in one of the world's harshest work environments

All photographs by Mashal Baloch

The spectre of death hovers over the coal mines of Balochistan. Under scorching skies, this turbulent south-west region of Pakistan is home to one of the world's harshest work environments, where tens of thousands of men and children descend below the surface each day to dig up thousands of tonnes of coal.

The threats of underground explosions, methane gas poisoning, suffocation, or mine walls collapsing are omnipresent and there is barely a single worker across the state's five massive commercial coal mines who has not been touched by the fatalities that are common here.

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Immigration: firms will need to train more UK workers, says Priti Patel

Posted: 19 Feb 2020 01:20 AM PST

'Economically inactive' Britons could do jobs in sectors where there are shortages under new system, home secretary says

Companies will need to train more British workers to fill vacancies when the new immigration system kicks in requiring foreign workers to have qualifications and the ability to speak English, Priti Patel, the home secretary, has said.

In a round of television and radio interviews, she said 8 million people between the ages of 16 and 64 were "economically inactive" and could be given the skills to do jobs in sectors where there were shortages as a result of the new points-based system.

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Warnings about Weimar Germany could turn into self-fulfilling prophecies | Arnon Grunberg

Posted: 19 Feb 2020 12:00 AM PST

Historical comparisons are made too easily. We can't give in to the sense of looming catastrophe that hangs over our world

On a snowy evening last week, I found myself in the dining room of the Morosani Posthotel in Davos, and when I had finished my meal the waiter started a conversation, probably because most of the tables were already empty. A middle-aged man with a charming smile, he told me that he was from Italy; during the summer he worked in a hotel on the island of Ischia in the Gulf of Naples, but the winter season he spent in Davos. "When we have the World Economic Forum here," he said, "we work day and night. It doesn't stop. And the tips these people leave, it's incredible, they have a bill for 2,400 francs and then they tell me, 'add a tip of 40%', I should be happy, but I'm not happy, it's insane, it's unhealthy."

I left him a tip of 10% – who wants to be unhealthy? Besides, my bill was a long way off 2,400 Swiss francs. That night I couldn't get the word "unhealthy" out of my head, nor the gusto and certitude with which the waiter had uttered it.

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Abuse victim Manny Waks wins $800,000 in damages from paedophile David Cyprys

Posted: 18 Feb 2020 06:53 PM PST

Waks, now an advocate for Jewish abuse victims, was one of a number of children Cyprys abused at Melbourne's Chabad Yeshivah centre

A child abuse victim who blew the whistle on abuse within the Orthodox Chabad sect of Judaism in Australia has been awarded $804,170 in damages in a civil case brought against his perpetrator and serial abuser, David Cyprys, in Melbourne.

Manny Waks was about 13 years old when he was first abused by Cyprys at the Elwood synagogue, and he was also abused at the Chabad Yeshivah centre in Melbourne.

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Locusts swarm into crisis-hit South Sudan as plague spreads across east Africa

Posted: 18 Feb 2020 06:24 PM PST

Invasion is further food shortages in country struggling with drought and legacy of civil war

Swarms of locusts ravaging crops and grazing land across east Africa have reached South Sudan, already reeling from widespread hunger and years of civil war, the country's agriculture minister said on Tuesday.

Kenya, Somalia, Eritrea and Djibouti are battling the worst locust outbreak in decades, and swarms have also spread into Tanzania and Uganda.

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Justin Trudeau urges 'dialogue and mutual respect' to end rail blockade

Posted: 18 Feb 2020 10:23 AM PST

  • Canadian prime minister: 'I know patience is running short'
  • Indigenous activists are protesting against C$6.6bn gas pipeline

Justin Trudeau has called for patience and dialogue as his government seeks a peaceful end to a rail blockade that has shut down freight and passenger traffic. But the Canadian prime minister is under increasing pressure from the Conservative opposition to clear the tracks.

For almost two weeks, protesters across the country have taken up the cause of the Wet'suwet'en indigenous people of British Columbia in their campaign against the C$6.6bn (US$4.98bn) 40-mile Coastal GasLink gas pipeline project.

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Brisbane car fire: Hannah Baxter dies of injuries after fire that killed husband and three children

Posted: 19 Feb 2020 03:19 AM PST

Former rugby league player Rowan Baxter and his three children died at the scene, while Hannah Baxter, 31, died later in hospital

The 31-year-old woman involved in a "horrific" car fire at Camp Hill in Brisbane that killed her three children and her husband has died from her injuries, Queensland Police confirmed.

Hannah Baxter died at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital early on Wednesday evening.

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Coming out as Dalit: how one Indian author finally embraced her identity

Posted: 18 Feb 2020 11:00 PM PST

Raised to hide her low caste, Yashica Dutt's new book traces her realisation that her history is one of oppression, not shame

Pretending not to be a Dalit took a heavy toll on the young Yashica Dutt.

Her mother, Shashi, was so determined to protect her three children from the discrimination of the Hindu caste system that relegates Dalits to the periphery of society that she pretended the family were Brahmin.

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China's handling of coronavirus is a diplomatic challenge for WHO

Posted: 18 Feb 2020 11:36 AM PST

Beijing's draconian measures to contain outbreak have delayed global transmission

The World Health Organization is having to perform a diplomatic balancing act over the new coronavirus outbreak, caught between China – whose draconian measures to contain the disease have delayed transmission to the rest of the world –and China's critics, who say its behaviour is typical of its disregard for human rights.

At every press briefing, WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has defended China's handling of the epidemic in the face of critical questions, very often from US journalists. At the end of January, when Tedros declared a public health emergency of international concern – having put it off a week earlier under what was assumed to be pressure from Beijing – he praised China for protecting the rest of the world.

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Gezi park verdict may be mere political ploy of isolated Ankara

Posted: 18 Feb 2020 07:43 AM PST

Acquittals are welcome but not necessarily a signal of change at heart of government

One defendant in the Gezi park trial grimly predicted the expected results of Tuesday's hearing would be the "funeral of civil society in Turkey". But a surprise verdict led to applause and tears of joy as nine of the activists charged with terrorism offences for their alleged roles in organising the 2013 protests walked free from the Istanbul courthouse.

The unexpected acquittals of nine of the 16 defendants – lawyers say not guilty verdicts for the seven others being tried in absentia are also expected if they return to the country – were a rare spot of good news in Turkey, where the judicial system has been hollowed out and weaponised against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's opponents and critics.

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Syrian father teaches daughter to cope with shelling noise through laughter – video

Posted: 18 Feb 2020 05:13 AM PST

In video posted on social media, Abdullah Mohammad and his daughter Salwa, three, can be heard laughing at the sound of shelling in Syria. Mohammad, who moved his family from Idlib to Sarmada district, has tried to insulate his daughter from trauma by telling her the noise of bombs is part of a game. In September 2018, Turkey and Russia agreed to turn Idlib into a de-escalation zone in which acts of aggression are prohibited, but since then more than 1,800 civilians have been killed in attacks by the Assad regime and Russian forces

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