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


EU demands UK keep chlorinated chicken ban to get trade deal

Posted: 25 Feb 2020 02:29 AM PST

Exclusive: clause in negotiating mandate for Michel Barnier will create hurdle to US-UK deal

The EU will demand that the UK maintains a ban on chlorinated chicken as the price for a trade agreement with Brussels, in a move that protects European meat exports and creates an obstacle to a deal with Donald Trump.

On the recommendation of France, a clause has been inserted into the EU's negotiating mandate to insist that both sides maintain "health and product sanitary quality in the food and agriculture sector", according to a copy leaked to the Guardian.

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Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian president ousted during Arab spring, dies at 91

Posted: 25 Feb 2020 03:08 AM PST

Mubarak ruled Egypt for 30 years until he was ousted following mass protests

Egypt's ousted former president Hosni Mubarak has died at the age of 91, state television said on Tuesday, weeks after undergoing surgery.

Mubarak ruled Egypt for 30 years until he was ousted following mass protests against his rule in 2011, during the Arab spring. He was jailed for years after the uprising, but was freed in 2017 after being acquitted of most charges.

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Coronavirus news: Tenerife hotel in lockdown as tourists tested – live updates

Posted: 25 Feb 2020 03:17 AM PST

First case of virus in southern Italy; concerns mount that the spread of Covid-19 cannot be stopped as stock markets fall amid investor fears

The holiday package firms Tui and Jet2holidays use a Tenerife hotel currently at the centre of a coronavirus scare.

The H10 Costa Adeje Palace is a four-star seafront hotel with nearly 500 rooms, and has four pools and a gym.`

A letter sent by managers to guests says they must stay in their rooms after a man there was diagnosed with coronavirus.

A spokesman for the firm Jet2, which has its headquarters in Leeds, said in a statement to the PA news agency:

We are aware of reports that a non-Jet2holidays customer staying at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace in Tenerife has tested positive for coronavirus.

Under the advice of the regional and the Spanish government authorities, the hotel has been placed under quarantine.

Irish authorities are expected to announce more stringent measures against coronavirus on Tuesday in an effort to delay what is considered its almost inevitable arrival in Ireland.

The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) is to meet this afternoon to review preparations and recommendations related to travel and mass gatherings.

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Harvey Weinstein to face charges in Los Angeles after guilty verdict in New York

Posted: 24 Feb 2020 10:00 PM PST

LA case, announced before Manhattan trial began, focuses on charges for two alleged attacks over two days

The verdict in the New York case against Harvey Weinstein is only the beginning of the movie mogul's prosecution, with separate charges against the disgraced producer ahead in Los Angeles.

In the most high-profile trial of the #MeToo movement yet, a New York jury on Monday found Weinstein guilty of third-degree rape for an attack in a New York hotel and guilty of a criminal sex act for forcing oral sex on a former television production assistant. The fallen titan of Hollywood, who was taken away in handcuffs, could face 25 years in prison and will have to register as a sex offender.

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Hong Kong bookseller Gui Minhai jailed for 10 years in China

Posted: 25 Feb 2020 02:45 AM PST

Swedish citizen who went missing in 2015 sentenced for 'providing intelligence' abroad

A Chinese court has sentenced the Swedish bookseller Gui Minhai to 10 years in prison for "providing intelligence" overseas, deepening diplomatic tensions as Sweden demanded that China release him.

A court in Ningbo, an eastern port city, said on Tuesday that Gui had been found guilty and would be stripped of political rights for five years in addition to his prison term. The brief statement said Gui had pleaded guilty and would not be appealing against his case.

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Delhi rocked by deadly protests during Donald Trump's India visit

Posted: 25 Feb 2020 12:38 AM PST

Protestors clash ahead of US president's visit, with further conflict over controversial citizenship laws

Donald Trump's visit to Delhi has been overshadowed by deadly protests that have continued to engulf India's capital, as Muslim and Hindu groups clashed violently and the death toll rose to seven.

The bloody violence, which has left the streets of northeast Delhi in flames and continued to escalate on Tuesday, has so far left one policeman and six civilians dead, and over 150 injured.

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Police and protesters clash on Greek islands over new migrant camps

Posted: 25 Feb 2020 12:21 AM PST

Teargas used against demonstrators on Lesbos and Chios who want migrants moved to the mainland

Clashes have broken out on the Greek islands of Lesbos and Chios, where residents tried to prevent the arrival of riot police and excavating machines to be used to build new migrant detention camps.

Police fired teargas to disperse the crowds that gathered early on Tuesday to try to prevent officers from disembarking from government-chartered ferries.

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Landmark second world war ceremony in Moscow poses dilemma for UK and US

Posted: 25 Feb 2020 02:00 AM PST

Countries question whether to attend amid questions over division in the west and Russian military action

Russian ceremonies in May to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of the second world war are posing an increasingly urgent dilemma for western capitals on whether to go – and who to send.

Discussions have been under way for some weeks between UK and US officials on a coordinated response. But the decision is complicated by the unpredictability of Donald Trump, and by Emmanuel Macron's decision to accept Vladimir Putin's invitation to the 9 May victory parade as part of his diplomatic overture to Moscow, without consulting Nato allies.

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Sydney baboon escape: police confirm three animals recaptured at Royal Prince Alfred hospital

Posted: 25 Feb 2020 01:26 AM PST

NSW health minister says the baboons were being transported to RPA so one could have a vasectomy

Three baboons being transported to a major Sydney hospital so one of them could have a vasectomy escaped from their truck on Tuesday afternoon, triggering sightings around the hospital, a police response and widespread interest online.

Callers to Sydney talkback radio station 2GB were first to report they'd seen primates running about the area of the Royal Prince Alfred (RPA) hospital, which is just outside the central business district and adjacent to the University of Sydney.

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Academics refused permanent UK visas because of field trips abroad

Posted: 24 Feb 2020 11:00 PM PST

Ebola volunteering in Guinea and gender research in Bangladesh fall foul of hostile environment laws

When Dr Nazia Hussein spent six months researching class and gender identity in Bangladesh for her PhD at Warwick University in 2009, she had no idea that, a decade later, the Home Office would use this to refuse her application for permanent residency.

Hussein, a Bangladeshi expert on gender, race and religion, now a lecturer at the University of Bristol, was "absolutely shocked" when her application for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) was rejected last year on the grounds that she had spent too many days out of the country during the 10-year application period. This was despite the fact she had submitted clear evidence that her PhD research constituted essential fieldwork and an unavoidable and legitimate absence.

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Newly waterproofed Arctic seed vault hits 1m samples

Posted: 24 Feb 2020 04:01 PM PST

Rapid climate change forced urgent upgrade of 'failsafe' doomsday storage facility

The Arctic global seed vault has reached the milestone of having 1m varieties stored in its deep freeze. The new deposits are being made after unexpected flooding of its entrance tunnel in 2017 prompted an upgrade.

Seeds from 60,000 crop varieties from across the world are being placed in the vault to back up those held in other seed banks.

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Coronavirus closures reveal vast scale of China’s secretive wildlife farm industry

Posted: 24 Feb 2020 07:01 PM PST

Peacocks, porcupines and pangolins among species bred on 20,000 farms closed in wake of virus

Nearly 20,000 wildlife farms raising species including peacocks, civet cats, porcupines, ostriches, wild geese and boar have been shut down across China in the wake of the coronavirus, in a move that has exposed the hitherto unknown size of the industry.

Until a few weeks ago wildlife farming was still being promoted by government agencies as an easy way for rural Chinese people to get rich.

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Lib Dems demand transparency over HS2 college Ofsted report

Posted: 25 Feb 2020 03:09 AM PST

Institution had sought judicial review to halt release of report that graded it 'inadequate'

The Liberal Democrats have written to the government to demand action after it emerged that a flagship college intended to train engineers for the HS2 project had taken legal action to cover up a damning Ofsted report into its failing.

The letter from the interim leader, Ed Davey, along with Layla Moran and Munira Wilson, who speak for the party on education and transport, blamed "dither and delay" on HS2 for some of the problems experienced by the National College for Advanced Transport and Infrastructure (NCATI), which has attracted only a fraction of its planned student intake and required a £4.5m public bailout to sign off its accounts.

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Brexit: 'Keep your promises', Germany tells Johnson, amid EU fears UK backtracking on its pledges - live news

Posted: 25 Feb 2020 03:18 AM PST

Rolling coverage of the day's political developments as they happen, including the EU agreeing its negotiating mandate for the post-Brexit trade talks with the UK, and the Guardian's Labour leadership hustings in Manchester

This morning Boris Johnson is chairing a meeting of the cabinet's EU exit strategy (XS) committee which will agree the UK's own negotiating strategy. As the official list (pdf) shows, there are now five ministers who attend: the PM, the chancellor, the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, the foreign secretary and the attorney general. The Brexit secretary used to attend, but that post has now been abolished.

As Mujtaba Rahman, the Brexit specialist at the Eurasia Group consultancy points out, the replacement of Sajid Javid by Rishi Sunak as chancellor makes a significant difference.

Don't think it quite registered w ppl how significant reshuffle was. With @sajidjavid gone, balance in Cab has tipped to an even harder line. Brexit committee that'll meet today to sign off mandate eg of this. Govt keeps adding more icing to cake. But it's essentially same cake

In XS: What really jumps out now the negotiations are about to begin is just how fervently Brexiteer-y the all-important XS committee looks. The departure of Sajid Javid as chancellor means every single member of this critical decision-making group – Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Rishi Sunak, Dominic Raab and Suella Braverman – was a Vote Leave campaigner in 2016. The replacement of Attorney General Geoffrey Cox with Braverman, a former ERG chairwoman, brings an even more hardline feel to the room. And with senior No 10 aides Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain also central to proceedings, this really is the Vote Leave government writ large. There will be no dissenting voices as Britain's strategy is agreed.

EU ministers at the general affairs council have just approved the mandate for the trade negotiations with the UK, the BBC's Adam Fleming reports.

EU ministers have adopted the mandate for the future relationship negotiations with the UK at their meeting in Brussels.

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Trump's India visit continues as South Carolina Democrat TV debate looms - live updates

Posted: 25 Feb 2020 03:17 AM PST

  • President Donald Trump continues India visit amid clashes
  • Democrat challengers prepare for South Carolina debate
  • In this defining moment for America, support the Guardian's independent journalism. Make a contribution

Here are a few interesting reads from around the internet to set you up for the day.

Ben Mathis-Lilley over on Slate is arguing that the Democrats who are so worried that Sanders might grab the nomination should think hard about whether they've been doing the right thing in backing Biden.

If you sincerely hold the belief that [Sanders' "democratic socialism"] will [repel swing voters], what should you have been doing for the past year to actually prevent the socialist from winning the nomination? Probably finding and supporting a nonsocialist nominee who's shown themselves ready to run a dynamic general-election presidential campaign, right? Perhaps one like Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, or even Elizabeth Warren?

That's why his team is getting ready to launch a fusillade at Sanders before and during the debate, and why Bloomberg's prep sessions were focused on aiming his fire at the liberal Vermont senator. 'We've trained our eyes on him. Something the rest of the field has failed to do eight debates prior and a year in a campaign,' a top aide said in an interview.

The older people become, the less like each other they become. While many physical and mental functions might decline with advancing age on average, for most measures there are many older persons who perform as well as the average young adult, and well-educated, financially secure individuals are especially likely to be among them.

Trump's visit to India has been high on pomp and ceremony, and a little short on substance. The president started the day with an elaborate outdoor welcome ceremony in front of the grand Rashtrapati Bhavan Presidential Palace in New Delhi, where he was welcomed with canon fire and horseback soldiers.

The Trumps then went on to visit a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi where the president and first lady paid their respects in a petal throwing ceremony. The memorial is at Raj Ghat where the famed independence leader was cremated after his assassination in 1948. Trump also signed a guest book and was presented with a bust of Gandhi.

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Bloody eye sockets, defaced statues: the visual legacy of Chile's unrest

Posted: 25 Feb 2020 03:00 AM PST

Graffiti, toppled monuments and boarded-up buildings provide enduring reminders of the protests that have rocked the nation

I arrived in Santiago in December of 2019, some two months after the start of mass protests that have rocked the nation's largest cities. The unexpected burst of anger and violence has left much of the country bitter and uncertain about its identity and future.

Related: 'Mentally, we're in crisis mode': protests leave Chileans living on their nerves

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Dutton says 'leftwing lunatics' must be dealt with as Asio warns of far-right threat

Posted: 25 Feb 2020 01:15 AM PST

The home affairs minister declares Islamic terror is leftwing extremism after being blasted by Labor for applying false equivalence

Peter Dutton has declared that "leftwing terrorism" includes Islamist extremism after being blasted by Labor for applying false equivalence in the national security debate.

Dutton's intervention on Tuesday was triggered by a speech by the director general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio) Mike Burgess. On Monday night, Australia's top intelligence chief warned the threat of rightwing extremism in Australia was real and growing.

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Conversations from Calais: the posters sharing migrant voices with the world

Posted: 24 Feb 2020 11:00 PM PST

A poster project aims to re-humanise those affected by the refugee crisis by sharing conversations between migrants and volunteers

All photographs courtesy of Conversations from Calais

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The contraceptive helping refugee women plan their families

Posted: 24 Feb 2020 11:00 PM PST

Instead of becoming 'factories for babies', women who've fled South Sudan to Uganda are trying new options for managing their reproductive health

Christine Lamwaka and her husband gathered their six children and fled. It was April 2017 and their town in South Sudan had just been attacked. They walked for two days from Eastern Equatoria before crossing the border into Uganda.

"It was hard to flee with the young children. We struggled to run. I thought we couldn't make it alive," says Lamwaka, who was 22 at the time of the attack.

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Against the grain: why millet is making a comeback in rural India

Posted: 24 Feb 2020 10:00 PM PST

Nagaland farmers are bringing back the ancient crop – said to have near-miraculous powers – as a less water-intensive alternative to rice

  • Photographs courtesy of NEN Nagaland

Whülü Thurr is a staunch believer in ancient farming traditions. "There is an old adage," she says, "which goes 'even a single stalk of millet can revive a dying man'."

The 65-year-old farmer, from New Phor village in Nagaland state, north-east India, is a devotee of the ancient grain millet, and is well versed in its nutritional benefit. She is one of the few farmers here who has stayed with the traditional crop over the decades. Many other farmers in Nagaland, the majority of whom are women, have stopped growing it due to a lack of demand.

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Micheál Martin faces a battle of conscience to form Irish government

Posted: 23 Feb 2020 09:00 PM PST

Fianna Fáil leader is a key player in breaking parliamentary deadlock, but has ruled out working with Sinn Féin

Ireland's political deadlock hinges on the cold, hard numbers of parliamentary arithmetic, but there is an additional, nebulous factor: the conscience of Micheál Martin.

The leader of Fianna Fáil is the party leader best positioned to wrangle a government and emerge as taoiseach. It would safeguard his job as party leader and crown his career, giving him a chance to shape history in the Brexit era.

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Harvey Weinstein found guilty of rape – video

Posted: 24 Feb 2020 01:24 PM PST

One of Hollywood's most powerful men, Harvey Weinstein, has been found guilty of rape at his trial in New York. The jury found Weinstein guilty of a criminal sex act in the first degree for forcing, and also convicted him of rape in the third degree

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Aerial footage shows huge queues for masks in South Korea amid coronavirus panic – video

Posted: 24 Feb 2020 03:12 AM PST

A queue of hundreds of people wanting to buy face masks from a supermarket stretched round several streets in Daegu on Monday.

Customers queued outside one of Daegu's E-mart stores, which began to sell face masks at half price in the city, according to local media reports. South Korea has raised its infectious disease alert level to its highest for the first time since 2009 

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Canary Islands sandstorm leaves tourists stranded – in pictures

Posted: 23 Feb 2020 11:51 PM PST

A sandstorm forced the closure of airports on Spain's Canary Islands at the weekend. Scores of flights were cancelled after strong winds carrying red sand from the Sahara shrouded the tourist hotspot and the regional government declared a state of alert. The national weather service warned that winds of up to 120km/h were set to buffet the Canaries until Monday

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