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

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


Refugees head for EU as Turkey opens borders over Syria crisis

Posted: 28 Feb 2020 03:10 AM PST

Move appears designed to put pressure on Europe to support Turkish Idlib operation

Hundreds of Syrian refugees in Turkey have begun preparing to travel towards the country's borders with Greece and Bulgaria after Ankara's sudden decision to no longer impede their passage to Europe.

The move comes after an airstrike on Thursday night in Syria's Idlib province killed at least 33 Turkish soldiers recently deployed to support the Syrian opposition in the face of a blistering Russian-backed Syrian government offensive.

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Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai arrested on charges of illegal assembly

Posted: 27 Feb 2020 06:50 PM PST

Lai, who was arrested with two other activists and later released on bail, has been a major financial patron of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement

Hong Kong police arrested three veteran pro-democracy figures for taking part in an unauthorised anti-government march last year amid the city's most serious political crisis for decades.

Jimmy Lai, the 71-year-old founder of Next Media, which publishes the popular, anti-government Apple Daily newspaper, was picked up by police on Friday morning for taking part in a march banned by police on 31 August.

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Jacinda Ardern lashes Scott Morrison for 'testing' friendship over deportations to New Zealand

Posted: 27 Feb 2020 07:48 PM PST

New Zealand PM says Australia is deporting 'your people and your problems' using unfair policies

The New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has lashed Scott Morrison for "testing" the friendship between the two nations, accusing Australia of deporting "your people and your problems" using "unfair" policies.

Ardern took her strongest stance yet opposing Australia's policy of deporting New Zealand citizens, no matter how long they had spent in Australia, if they had committed a crime.

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Greta Thunberg in Bristol: schools shut as students join climate strike

Posted: 28 Feb 2020 01:25 AM PST

Thousands joining activist for march expected to bring traffic in parts of city to a standstill

Schools closed, lecture theatres were emptying and offices shutting as thousands of people made their way to hear Greta Thunberg speak at a youth climate strike in Bristol.

Teenage organisers of the Bristol Youth Strike 4 Climate insisted that Friday's event would be well run and safe, and dismissed concerns expressed by police and council officials at the scale of the event as "patronising."

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Red pandas are actually two separate species, study finds

Posted: 27 Feb 2020 04:11 PM PST

Scientists found substantial divergences between Chinese red pandas and Himalayan red pandas in three genetic markers

Red pandas, the bushy-tailed and russet-furred mammals that dwell in Asia's high forests, are not a single species but rather two distinct ones, according to the most comprehensive genetic study to date on these endangered animals.

Scientists said on Wednesday they found substantial divergences between the two species – Chinese red pandas and Himalayan red pandas – in three genetic markers in an analysis of DNA from 65 of the animals.

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Anniversary spotlights criminal justice reform ahead of South Carolina primary

Posted: 27 Feb 2020 11:00 PM PST

Five years after a white officer shot Walter Scott in the back, those associated with the case hope its memory will steer voters

Anthony Scott honours the memory of his brother Walter each time he casts a ballot.

"I'm not the sort of person to go and visit graves," he said, sat at a bustling diner on the outskirts of Charleston. "I can memorialize better by making sure people never forget. Weighing up my vote, making sure the right person is put in the right place."

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Olympic swimming champion Sun Yang banned for eight years after Cas ruling

Posted: 28 Feb 2020 01:30 AM PST

  • Cas accepted appeal from Wada against Fina's decision
  • Sun missed out-of-competition doping test in September 2018

The Chinese swimmer Sun Yang, a multiple world and Olympic champion, has been banned for eight years following a court of arbitration for sport (Cas) ruling released on Friday. Cas upheld an appeal lodged by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) after Fina, the international swimming federation, cleared Yang of wrongdoing over an incident with drug-testers in 2018.

Sun was accused of ordering a member of his entourage to smash vials containing his blood with a hammer, following a row with testers at his home in September 2018. The swimmer told the Cas hearing that he had concerns over whether the testers were properly accredited, and that they failed to provide identification.

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Death toll from Delhi's worst riots in decades rises to 38

Posted: 27 Feb 2020 10:24 AM PST

New citizenship law has triggered days of violence between Muslims and Hindus

The death toll from Delhi's worst riots in decades has risen to 38, as a political row broke out over the transfer of a judge who criticised the police and government's handling of the crisis.

Tensions remained high in India's capital, as thousands of riot police and paramilitaries patrolled streets littered with the debris from days of sectarian riots.

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Prosecutors seize Italian Scala dei Turchi over conservation concerns

Posted: 27 Feb 2020 09:00 PM PST

Coastline that has been up for Unesco listing has been in poor condition for years

Italian prosecutors have seized control of the famous Scala dei Turchi limestone coastline, one of the Mediterranean's main tourist attractions, citing poor handling of the cliff's preservation.

For years, the site of the Scala dei Turchi – meaning Turkish steps or stairs of the Turks – a candidate for Unesco heritage, has been in a state of degradation. It is subject to constant erosion and theft by visitors who detach pieces of marl, the white sedimentary rock that gives the steps their distinctive appearance.

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Downfall: BP worker sacked over Hitler parody wins his job back

Posted: 27 Feb 2020 06:49 PM PST

Fair Work Commission finds oil refinery technician was not comparing his bosses to Hitler when he posted Downfall meme

An oil refinery worker who was sacked for creating a Downfall parody of his bosses has had his job reinstated, after the Fair Work Commission ruled the "memetic context" of the video meant it was unreasonable to find he was comparing them to Nazis.

The worker, a technician on a BP refinery in Western Australia, was originally sacked after he used an oft-parodied scene from the 2004 film by Oliver Hirschbiegel about the final days of Hitler and Nazi Germany to depict his bosses during a tense wage negotiation.

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'She exists out of time': Umm Kulthum, Arab music's eternal star

Posted: 28 Feb 2020 12:00 AM PST

With a voice adored by Bob Dylan, Robert Plant and millions across the Arab world, Umm Kulthum rejected gender norms with her powerful, political music. But can her 90-minute songs work in a new stage musical?

You hear the Umm Kulthum cafe before you see it. Violins swoon and a monumental voice surges from a doorway in Cairo's Tawfiqia neighbourhood. Outside, couples smoke shisha on plastic chairs, dwarfed by two immense golden busts depicting the singer known variously as "the star of the east", "mother of the Arabs" and "Egypt's fourth pyramid".

Umm Kulthum recorded about 300 songs over a 60-year career and her words of love, loss and longing drift reliably from taxis, radios and cafes across the Arab world today, 45 years after her death. Despite singing complex Arabic poetry, she influenced some of the west's greatest singers. Bob Dylan said: "She's great. She really is." Shakira and Beyoncé have performed dance routines to her music. Maria Callas called her "the incomparable voice".

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UK weather: Storm Jorge expected to bring more floods

Posted: 28 Feb 2020 01:55 AM PST

South-west and north-west of England, Wales and Northern Ireland are likely to be worst hit

Heavy downpours are expected to cause more flooding to homes and businesses over the weekend, as the latest storm to hit the UK takes hold.

Yellow weather warnings are in place for Storm Jorge on Friday, with the south-west and north-west of England, Wales and Northern Ireland expected to experience the worst of the deluge.

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Nigeria confirms first coronavirus case in sub-Saharan Africa

Posted: 28 Feb 2020 02:41 AM PST

Stock market losses around the world deepen as officials confirm 20 new cases in France

The first confirmed case of coronavirus in sub-Saharan Africa has been reported by Nigeria, as stock market losses around the world deepened amid investor alarm over a potential global pandemic.

The case was an Italian citizen who worked in Nigeria and had returned from Italy to Lagos on 25 February, said Nigeria's health minister, Osagie Ehanire. "The patient is clinically stable, with no serious symptoms, and is being managed at the Infectious Disease Hospital in Yaba, Lagos," Ehanire said.

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Joe Biden campaigning in South Carolina ahead of crucial Democrat primary - live updates

Posted: 28 Feb 2020 03:14 AM PST

  • Biden needs a big win tomorrow to keep campaign momentum
  • Secretary of State Pompeo appearing before House Committee on foreign affairs
  • Support the Guardian's independent journalism. Make a contribution

Ahead of his appearance at the House committee of foreign affairs this morning, Mike Pompeo has published his opening witness statement, and it is fair to say that he does not mince his words about the Trump administration's attitude to Iran. Among other things he says:

Good morning - there's quite a bit on the agenda today.

It is the final full day of campaigning before the South Carolina primary, and Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Tom Steyer are all in the state today. Joe Biden has been considered the frontrunner in the southernmost state to vote so far, but he needs a decisive victory over Sanders if he's to convince people that his campaign has a chance of eclipsing the leftwing senator and making a strong push for the nomination.

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'Revolution is alive': Canada protests spawn climate and Indigenous rights movement

Posted: 28 Feb 2020 02:00 AM PST

An unprecedented movement has been triggered by police raids on Indigenous land – and dialed up the pressure on Justin Trudeau

Since a police raid on an Indigenous territory at the start of February, a wave of civil disobedience has surged over Canada.

Mohawks in Ontario and Quebec have erected rail blockades that paralyzed passenger and freight travel on some lines. Other protesters – Indigenous and non-Indigenous – have followed suit, blockading tracks across the country. Thirty-seven people were arrested in Toronto this week for standing on commuter tracks during evening rush hour, paralyzing the city's Union Station.

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Coronavirus: first case in Wales as two further cases in England take UK total to 19 – latest updates

Posted: 28 Feb 2020 03:28 AM PST

Nigeria, New Zealand and Lithuania also report first cases as WHO says epidemic could get 'out of control'. Follow live news

Guardian science correspondent Hannah Devlin has this piece busting the most common coronavirus myths –

'It's no worse than the flu': busting the coronavirus myths https://t.co/Ut433uUhpS

The government is to hold an emergency Cobra meeting over the coronavirus outbreak on Monday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to chair a meeting of the Government's emergency cobra committee on Monday over the COVID-19 outbreak

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Clive Palmer charged with criminal offences by corporate regulator

Posted: 27 Feb 2020 11:30 PM PST

Asic boss confirms mining magnate and former politician charged with four offences by the regulator for conduct dating back to 2013

Mining magnate and former politician Clive Palmer has been charged with criminal offences that could see him jailed by Australia's corporate regulator.

The head of the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, John Price, revealed on Friday that the Queensland businessman had been charged with four offences by the regulator for conduct dating back to 2013.

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World Bank's $500m pandemic scheme accused of 'waiting for people to die'

Posted: 28 Feb 2020 12:44 AM PST

Bonds designed to provide fast funding for poor countries branded 'obscene' because of complex payout criteria

A flagship $500m World Bank scheme to help the poorest countries deal with a health emergency is "too little too late" for the coronavirus outbreak, say health experts.

The first pandemic emergency financing (PEF) bonds were launched in 2017 by Jim Yong Kim, the bank's president at the time, after the Ebola outbreak in west Africa. Designed to potentially "save millions of lives and entire economies" by speedily funnelling money to nations facing pandemics.

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Not much love actually: Jacinda Ardern was right to call out Australia's 'corrosive' policies | Ben Doherty

Posted: 27 Feb 2020 10:12 PM PST

The New Zealand prime minister was justified in taking Scott Morrison to task over a policy that is both spurious and damaging

We've seen this movie before.

Then, in Love Actually, Hugh Grant played the unlikely prime minister of Britain, standing up to an oleaginous Billy Bob Thornton as president of the US.

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Jacinda Ardern blasts Scott Morrison over Australia's deportation policy – video

Posted: 27 Feb 2020 10:24 PM PST

The New Zealand prime minister said the Australian government's policy of deporting NZ citizens, no matter how long they had spent in Australia, was "testing" the friendship between the two nations, at a joint press conference in Sydney on Friday.

Jacinda Ardern lashes Scott Morrison for 'testing' friendship over deportations to New Zealand


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Coronavirus spreads around the world – in pictures

Posted: 27 Feb 2020 09:45 PM PST

As cases of people infected with the coronavirus or Covid-19 grow rapidly in Italy, Iran and South Korea, the rest of the world is bracing for a pandemic

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Pride of Sydney: glamming up for Mardi Gras 2020 – in pictures

Posted: 27 Feb 2020 06:35 PM PST

Ahead of Saturday's annual parade down Oxford Street, participants muscling up, perfect their dance moves and put the finishing touches to floats

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'I thought they would kill me': Delhi mob victim describes attack – video

Posted: 27 Feb 2020 07:57 AM PST

Mohammad Zubair, a Muslim, was brutally attacked as Delhi experienced some of its worst religious riots in decades. 'My clothes were drenched in blood,' he said of his ordeal. Muslims and Hindus across the region have been mourning their loved ones after dozens of people were killed in the latest wave of violence

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Coronavirus: walking through the ghost town at the centre of Italy's outbreak – video

Posted: 27 Feb 2020 04:59 AM PST

Streets and shops in Codogno in northern Italy have been left eerily empty after the town was placed under lockdown due to the new coronavirus outbreak. The virus has so far killed 14 people in Italy, and cases across the country had reached more than 500 by Thursday, among them at least five children aged between four and 15

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