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

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


Germany shooting: at least 11 people dead after shisha bar attacks in Hanau

Posted: 20 Feb 2020 01:43 AM PST

Police say suspect who killed nine people at two shisha bars then killed his mother and himself at home

A gunman killed nine people in two shootings at shisha bars and one at his home in the German town of Hanau on Wednesday night, police have said.

The suspect then killed himself, according to police, after also killing his mother at his home.

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Bloomberg roundly attacked by rivals in fiercest Democratic debate so far

Posted: 19 Feb 2020 11:25 PM PST

  • Billionaire's record on policing and discrimination condemned
  • Centrists Buttigieg and Klobuchar rip into each other
  • Warren gives spirited display and likens Bloomberg to Trump

The top six Democratic presidential candidates faced off in Las Vegas on Wednesday in the most combative debate of the election and days before the high-stakes caucuses in Nevada.

It was the first debate for Mike Bloomberg, and the former New York mayor's rivals in the Democratic race for president immediately took aim – attacking him for his legacy on racist policing and reports of sexist comments and discrimination at his companies.

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Coronavirus: South Korean city faces 'unprecedented crisis' after spike in cases – latest news

Posted: 20 Feb 2020 01:34 AM PST

Mayor of Daegu orders shutdown of all kindergartens and public libraries in while two Japanese passengers from stricken Diamond Princess ship die

A British couple who published video diaries from a cruise ship quarantined off the coast of Japan have confirmed that they have the coronvirus as they posted Facebook updates from hospital.

Sally and David Abel, who were among thousands of passengers on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship, said that Japanese doctors had told them that vaccinations which they had in the past for the flu had stopped the virus from spreading further.

Three Iranian patients have tested positive for the new coronavirus disease, according to the state's semi-official ISNA news agency.

The latest development in Iran comes after its health ministry said on Wednesday that two people had died after preliminary tests came back as positive for Covid-19.

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Firms making billions from ‘highly hazardous’ pesticides, analysis finds

Posted: 19 Feb 2020 11:00 PM PST

Use of harmful chemicals is higher in poorer nations, according to data analysed by Unearthed

The world's biggest pesticide companies make billions of dollars a year from chemicals found by independent authorities to pose high hazards to human health or the environment, according to an analysis by campaigners.

The research also found a higher proportion of these highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) in the companies' sales in poorer nations than in rich ones. In India, 59% of sales were of HHPs in contrast to just 11% in the UK, according to the analysis.

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Great Barrier Reef on brink of third major coral bleaching in five years, scientists warn

Posted: 19 Feb 2020 11:55 PM PST

If ocean temperatures don't drop in the next two weeks, heat stress could tip reef over into another widespread event

The Great Barrier Reef could be heading for a third major coral bleaching outbreak in the space of five years if high ocean temperatures in the region do not drop in the next two weeks, scientists and conservationists have warned.

Heat stress is already building across the world's biggest reef system, with reports of patchy bleaching already occurring. But a major widespread event is not currently taking place.

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Wellington's water crisis deepens as pollution, leaks and flooding take toll

Posted: 19 Feb 2020 05:18 PM PST

City councillor says capital's water issues may be 'tip of the iceberg' for rest of country

Wellington City Council has alerted Island Bay residents to another burst water pipe, frustrating the city's residents who are weary of harbour pollution, streets filled with brown sludge and some homes with no water at all.

Since the start of the year the capital has had one water set-back after another. The iconic Oriental Bay was closed to swimmers on some of the hottest summer days due to dangerous levels of pollution, two major city wastewater pipes burst, dozens of homes lost water access, and streets were flooded due to worn-out infrastructure.

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John Bolton rebuked for withholding Trump testimony in new public event

Posted: 19 Feb 2020 11:26 PM PST

  • Ex-national security adviser criticized by Obama official
  • 'I would feel like I was shamefully violating the oath I took'

Former national security adviser John Bolton faced a roasting from one of his predecessors on Wednesday night, in his second public appearance since the conclusion of Donald Trump's impeachment trial.

Related: Democratic debate: Warren brands Bloomberg 'a billionaire who calls people fat broads' – live

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Iran conservatives hope to harness popular anger to win elections

Posted: 19 Feb 2020 09:00 PM PST

Hardliners aiming to take advantage of fury over corruption to take power and keep President Rouhani on a tight leash

"They've been stealing the money. Cut off their hands, make them pay and answer," shouted an elderly woman in a black chador, suddenly standing up at a conservative election rally in south Tehran.

Mohammad Hosseini, Iran's minister for culture and Islamic guidance from 2009 to 2013 under the then president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, replied. If elected, he said, he would always be available to his people. He even read out his phone number to the crowd to underline his sincerity.

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Roger Stone's sentencing to move ahead after judge refuses new trial request

Posted: 19 Feb 2020 11:00 PM PST

  • Trump ally guilty on seven counts, including lying to Congress
  • President claims conviction 'should be thrown out'

Roger Stone, a longtime ally of Donald Trump and a self-described political dirty trickster, is set to be sentenced on Thursday for his attempts to sabotage a congressional investigation that posed a political threat to the president.

The sentencing will go ahead despite an 11th-hour request by Stone's defense team for a new trial following Trump's claim that the conviction "should be thrown out".

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Over half of UK women killed by men die at hands of partner or ex

Posted: 19 Feb 2020 10:00 PM PST

Femicide Census for 2018 shows 149 women killed, the highest number since census began

More than half the women killed by men in the UK in 2018 were killed by a current or former partner, many after they had taken steps to leave, according to a report on femicide.

The fourth Femicide Census, conducted by the campaigner Karen Ingala Smith, found 149 women were killed by 147 men in 2018. The number of deaths is an increase of 10 on the previous year and the highest number since the census began.

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Nearly 70 injured as 200 vehicles involved in pile-up in snowy Montreal

Posted: 19 Feb 2020 03:09 PM PST

  • Two people trapped in cars hours after accident
  • 'Pretty much everything with four wheels was involved' – police

Nearly 70 people have been injured in a pile-up involving about 200 vehicles on a busy highway in a suburb of the Canadian city of Montreal.

Two people were still trapped in their cars hours after the crash, which happened at 12.30pm on Wednesday in La Prairie, Quebec, said Sgt Marie-Michelle Moore with the Sûreté du Québec, the province's police force and highway patrol authority.

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How Hindu supremacists are tearing India apart

Posted: 19 Feb 2020 10:00 PM PST

For seven decades, India has been held together by its constitution, which promises equality to all. But Narendra Modi's BJP is remaking the nation into one where some people count as more Indian than others. By Samanth Subramanian

Soon after the violence began, on 5 January, Aamir was standing outside a residence hall in Jawaharlal Nehru University in south Delhi. Aamir, a PhD student, is Muslim, and he asked to be identified only by his first name. He had come to return a book to a classmate when he saw 50 or 60 people approaching the building. They carried metal rods, cricket bats and rocks. One swung a sledgehammer. They were yelling slogans: "Shoot the traitors to the nation!" was a common one. Later, Aamir learned that they had spent the previous half-hour assaulting a gathering of teachers and students down the road. Their faces were masked, but some were still recognisable as members of a Hindu nationalist student group that has become increasingly powerful over the past few years.

The group, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidya Parishad (ABVP), is the youth wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Founded 94 years ago by men who were besotted with Mussolini's fascists, the RSS is the holding company of Hindu supremacism: of Hindutva, as it's called. Given its role and its size, it is difficult to find an analogue for the RSS anywhere in the world. In nearly every faith, the source of conservative theology is its hierarchical, centrally organised clergy; that theology is recast into a project of religious statecraft elsewhere, by other parties. Hinduism, though, has no principal church, no single pontiff, nobody to ordain or rule. The RSS has appointed itself as both the arbiter of theological meaning and the architect of a Hindu nation-state. It has at least 4 million volunteers, who swear oaths of allegiance and take part in quasi-military drills.

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UK weather: warning of further rain for areas already hit by flooding

Posted: 20 Feb 2020 01:02 AM PST

More than 100 flood alerts in England as Jeremy Corbyn criticises government response

Parts of the UK already saturated by heavy rainfall and flooding have been warned by forecasters to prepare for more wet weather.

The Environment Agency said there were 106 flood warnings in place for England on Thursday morning, including six severe warnings, indicating a danger to life, in communities near the Welsh border.

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'Afro-optimism' on the rise among continent's youth, finds survey

Posted: 19 Feb 2020 11:00 PM PST

Young people found to be 'overwhelmingly keen' to tackle Africa's challenges head on, confronting negative stereotypes

Young people across Africa are confident that the continent is heading for an era of success fuelled by technology and entrepreneurship, according to a new survey.

The Africa Youth survey, which claims to be the largest of its kind, said there is growing belief in the concept of "Afro-optimism", fighting persistently negative stereotypes of the continent.

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Democratic rivals attack Bloomberg in punishing debate debut – video

Posted: 20 Feb 2020 12:57 AM PST

Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg fiercely attacked Mike Bloomberg on his first Democratic debate appearance.

Senator Warren led the assault, challenging the former New York mayor to release women at his company from non-disclosure agreements they signed while settling lawsuits. Bloomberg defended his record, saying: 'In my company, lots and lots of women have big responsibilities.'

Here are the key clashes from the ninth Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas

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Queensland police spark anger with 'open mind' comment on murder of Hannah Clarke and children

Posted: 19 Feb 2020 11:28 PM PST

Domestic violence campaigners appalled force wants to consider suggestions Rowan Baxter was 'driven too far' when he set fire to his family in their car in Brisbane

Queensland police have revealed that a man who killed his wife and three children by dousing them with petrol and setting them alight had a history of domestic violence and was known to them.

But in comments that have shocked domestic violence campaigners, the force says they are keeping an "open mind" about suggestions the 42-year-old Rowan Baxter had been "driven too far" and are appealing to people who knew the couple to come forward to understand his motives.

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The mystery sickness bringing death and dismay to eastern Ethiopia

Posted: 20 Feb 2020 01:00 AM PST

As villagers in Somali region fall ill in unexplained circumstances, some locals fear gas exploration has tainted the local water supply

At first, 23-year-old Khadar Abdi Abdullahi's eyes began turning yellow. Then the palms of his hands did the same. Soon he was bleeding from his nose, and from his mouth, and his body was swelling all over. Eventually he collapsed with fever.

A deadly sickness is spreading through villages near a Chinese natural gas project in Ethiopia's Somali region, according to locals and officials who spoke to the Guardian. Many of Khadar's neighbours have suffered the same symptoms. Some of them died.

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Huge locust swarms raise fears of food shortages in South Sudan

Posted: 19 Feb 2020 10:00 PM PST

UN warns 25 million people could be affected as wartorn country is beset by fresh wave of insects

Swarms of desert locusts, which have been ravaging crops and grazing land across east Africa, have now crossed the border into South Sudan, a country already struggling from widespread hunger and years of civil war.

The UN has warned that an imminent second hatch of the insects could threaten the food security of 25 million people across the region.

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Dissent becomes the next victim of coronavirus as China cracks down

Posted: 18 Feb 2020 09:47 PM PST

Analysts say epidemic poses gravest threat to authorities since Tiananmen Square – and Beijing's tight control could backfire

The coronavirus crisis in China has posed unprecedented political challenges to the authorities and prompted them to further crack down on speech freedom and tighten control over people in a desperate move to bolster the regime, say analysts and activists.

After President Xi Jinping ordered "resolute efforts" to curb the spread of coronavirus in his first public remarks on the disease on 20 January, Wuhan was swiftly placed under lockdown. Millions of communities across China also began to implement draconian epidemic control measures.

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Blessing the harvest with the Naga of Myanmar – in pictures

Posted: 19 Feb 2020 11:00 PM PST

The subsistence farmers of the Gongwang Bonyo tribe are among the most isolated people in Myanmar. Living near the Indian border, they gather each year to bless the harvest

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Democratic debate: Warren attacks Bloomberg over non-disclosure agreements – video

Posted: 19 Feb 2020 08:48 PM PST

Mike Bloomberg has come under attack in Las Vegas from his Democratic rivals after taking part in his first debate. The former New York mayor was criticised for the city's stop-and-frisk policy, his wealth and the non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) several women at his company have signed while settling lawsuits. Elizabeth Warren repeatedly urged him to disclose how many NDAs women had signed and to let the women speak freely. Bloomberg refused to answer her direct questions, leading to boos from the crowd. "I hope you heard what his defence was: 'I've been nice to some women," Warren said


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Rod Blagojevich thanks Donald Trump for prison release – video

Posted: 19 Feb 2020 10:43 AM PST

The former Democratic Illinois governor called himself a 'Trumpocrat' as he thanked Donald Trump for commuting his prison sentence, praising Trump's 'kind heart'. Blagojevich had been recorded trying to sell the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama when he became president, but Trump has claimed it did not happen

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British couple with coronavirus 'will not be on evacuation flight' – video

Posted: 19 Feb 2020 06:11 AM PST

A British couple who had been asking the UK government to organise a repatriation flight for passengers stuck on a cruise ship in Japan will not be on the plane after testing positive for coronavirus. David Abel said in a video on Facebook that he and his wife, Sally, were being taken to a hostel as there were no available hospital beds nearby. The couple, who are in their 70s, were diagnosed with the virus one day before the ship's quarantine was due to end

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