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

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


Coronavirus live news: global deaths pass 95,000 as Easter begins under lockdown

Posted: 10 Apr 2020 02:09 AM PDT

Boris Johnson leaves intensive care; cases worldwide top 1.6m; UN chief says virus threatens global security

A group of North African migrants rescued from a sinking boat came ashore in Malta early on Friday, hours after the government had said no further groups would be allowed in after it closed its ports due to the coronavirus emergency, Reuters reports.

The 64 migrants were rescued by the Maltese armed forces from a boat inside the Malta rescue zone south of the island and brought ashore. On Thursday Malta had followed Italy, the country that has so far seen the most deaths from the epidemic, in announcing it would no longer allow migrant boats to land due to the risk of coronavirus infection.

It is in the interest, and is the responsibility, of such people not to endanger themselves on a risky voyage to a country which is not in a position to offer them a secure harbour.

The Maltese Navy was accused of sabotaging a migrant boat off the coast of Malta after letting it drift for over a day, the latest in a series of hard-line actions taken by European countries against migrants since the start of the coronavirus crisis. https://t.co/mFuQF0r3FI

Indonesia has reported 219 new coronavirus cases, putting the country's total to 3,512 according to its health ministry.

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Care homes across globe in spotlight over Covid-19 death rates

Posted: 09 Apr 2020 03:09 PM PDT

Residential homes have emerged as key breeding ground for infections from Madrid to New York

Care homes for older people across much of Europe and North America are struggling to cope with the global coronavirus pandemic, prompting allegations of inhumane treatment and calls for high-level inquiries.

Appalling stories have emerged from residential homes, which have emerged as a key location for infections. People aged 70 and older are at higher risk of getting very sick or dying from the coronavirus. And people 85 and over are even more vulnerable, global figures show.

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WHO warned of transmission risk in January, despite Trump claims

Posted: 09 Apr 2020 10:16 AM PDT

Notes to global health leaders on 10 and 11 January highlighted possible infection routes

The World Health Organization warned the US and other countries about the risk of human-to-human transmission of Covid-19 as early as 10 January, and urged precautions even though initial Chinese studies at that point had found no clear evidence of that route of infection.

Technical guidance notes seen by the Guardian and briefings by top WHO officials warned of potential human-to-human transmission and made clear that there was a threat of catching the disease through water droplets and contaminated surfaces, based on the experience of earlier coronavirus outbreaks, such as Sars and Mers.

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'It's all gone': Cyclone Harold cuts a deadly path through Vanuatu

Posted: 09 Apr 2020 03:00 PM PDT

The northern islands of the Pacific nation were hit by a category-5 cyclone on Monday, flattening buildings, cutting power and stripping trees

The once-lush forest cover of the island of Malo has been completely denuded. Nearly every tree lost major limbs. Many were snapped at the trunk. Even cyclone-adapted coconut trees were strewn about like matchsticks. Schools and homes were destroyed.

On Monday, the tiny Pacific island country of Vanuatu was rocked by Cyclone Harold, the second category-5 storm to hit the nation in five years. The cyclone, which formed off Solomon Islands and led to the deaths of 27 people who were swept off a ferry in rough seas, went on to flatten buildings and cause severe flooding in Fiji and Tonga. But it passed through the north of Vanuatu when it was at its strongest.

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Police fear gangland feud from Irish Republic now being fought in Belfast

Posted: 09 Apr 2020 09:00 PM PDT

Fatal shooting of Dublin criminal is latest incident in saga of vicious score-settling

It started with taunts about stolen flip-flops, veered into a litany of horrors – abduction, murder, dismemberment, betrayal, vengeance – and ended with a party.

The gangland feud propelling such violence and depravity has played out in Ireland and now moved to the UK.

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Opec, Russia and other oil producers make draft deal to cut output

Posted: 09 Apr 2020 10:36 PM PDT

Mexico holds out against scale of reductions which would amount to 10m barrels per day, or 10% of global supply

Opec countries and allies led by Russia have agreed in principle to cut their oil output by more than a fifth and said they expected the United States and other producers to join in their effort to prop up prices hammered in the coronavirus crisis.

But there was some confusion after Mexico apparently refused to sign up to its share of cuts under the deal, which would have been 400,000 barrels per day. The Mexican energy minister Rocio Nahle Garcia tweeted that her country had suggested a cut of 100,000 barrels.

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Tolkien was right: giant trees have towering role in protecting forests

Posted: 09 Apr 2020 12:45 PM PDT

Study highlights importance of biodiversity as part of strategy to stop planet overheating

Scientists have shown to be true what JRR Tolkien only imagined in the Lord of the Rings: giant, slow-reproducing trees play an outsized role in the growth and health of old forests.

In the 1930s, the writer gave his towering trees the name Ents. Today, a paper in the journal Science says these "long-lived pioneers" contribute more than previously believed to carbon sequestration and biomass increase.

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China signals end to dog meat consumption by humans

Posted: 09 Apr 2020 08:16 AM PDT

Draft policy released by agriculture ministry cites concern over animal welfare and prevention of disease transmission as factors behind move

The Chinese government has signalled an end to the human consumption of dogs, with the agriculture ministry today releasing a draft policy that would forbid canine meat.

Citing the "progress of human civilisation" as well as growing public concern over animal welfare and prevention of disease transmission from animals to humans, China's Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Affairs singled out canines as forbidden in a draft "white list" of animals allowed to be raised for meat.

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High winds kill thousands of migrating birds in 'disaster' over Greece

Posted: 09 Apr 2020 04:55 PM PDT

Swallows and swifts on their annual flight from Africa to Europe have been found dead across Greece

Thousands of swallows and swifts migrating from Africa to Europe have been left dead by high winds battering Greece, bird watchers say.

The birds have been found in the streets of Athens, on apartment balconies in the capital, in the north, on Aegean islands and around a lake close to the seaport of Nauplia in the Peloponnese.

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Hamas arrests Gaza peace activists for Zoom chat with Israelis

Posted: 09 Apr 2020 11:28 AM PDT

Rami Aman and others held for 'establishing normalisation activities ... via the internet'

Hamas security forces in the Gaza Strip have arrested local peace campaigners for treason after they held a Zoom virtual conference with Israeli activists.

Eyad al-Bozom, a spokesperson from the Hamas-run interior ministry, said the prominent Palestinian figure Rami Aman and others had been detained on charges of "establishing normalisation activities with the Israeli occupation via the internet".

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'I haven't laughed so much in my life': the Australians dressing up to celebrate bin night

Posted: 09 Apr 2020 10:30 AM PDT

Weeks into quarantine, we must find joy in the little things – like wheeling out the garbage in a giant inflatable penis

A 74-year-old woman in a fluffy purple dressing gown pulls a wheelie bin down her driveway. As she walks, she tugs suggestively on the zipper in a pretend striptease, kicking up her leg and singing to the tune of Right Said Fred: "I'm too sexy for my bin".

This is the sort of content you can find in Bin isolation outing, an Australian Facebook group that's amassed almost half a million members in under two weeks. Its premise is that with social distancing measures in full force, the country's wheelie bins spend more time outside than we do – so why not dress up for those weekly walks to the curb?

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Tommy Chong: 'We were always high. That was the job'

Posted: 09 Apr 2020 10:00 PM PDT

How does half of stoner duo Cheech and Chong cope with coronavirus lockdown? Fine – thanks to drugs, his wife and the experience of nine months in prison for selling bong pipes

Tommy Chong has got the munchies. It's early afternoon in locked-down LA, and last night he was on the pot cookies. "My wife, Shelby, just made a whole batch of them – oatmeal and maple syrup." He stops to correct himself. "I put the pot in there, and of course I put too much in. Last night it got me almost comatose. Shelby got kinda mad at me. You know like when a kid gets so stoned all you do is sit there and grin." Chong is 82 next month.

He sounds about four decades younger – his voice is deep, sexy, pulsing with life. Chong is one half of the most famous stoner comic partnership in history, Cheech and Chong. In the 1970s, they not only sold out their live shows, they topped the album charts and had huge box-office hits with movies such as Up in Smoke and Cheech and Chong's Next Movie. The double-act were as radical as they were bonkers. And while the films were ostensibly about two aspiring rock stars in search of the next spliff, they introduced audiences to a downtown, multiracial Los Angeles rarely seen in movies.

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Tool to report lockdown rule-breakers 'risks fuelling social division'

Posted: 09 Apr 2020 08:18 AM PDT

Majority of forces in England and Wales adopt online form allowing people to report others

New police tools that encourage the public to report people they suspect of breaching coronavirus restrictions risk fuelling "social mistrust and division", a barrister has warned, as the majority of the UK's forces adopt the scheme.

Twenty-six of the 43 police forces in England and Wales have launched dedicated online forms allowing people to report suspected breaches of the lockdown, such as large gatherings in parks.

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Coronavirus US news: New York sees record daily death toll as unemployment rises by 6.6m – as it happened

Posted: 09 Apr 2020 05:29 PM PDT

Fact check: The majority of states have less than 10% positive cases

Earlier, Dr Deborah Birx, a coordinator on the coronavirus response task force, said that 63% of the states (31 states) had less than 10% of total people tested for Covid-19 be positive. A quick glance at data provided by the Covid Tracking Project, a collaborative, volunteer-run project that collects data from local health departments, shows that about 28 states plus US Samoa meet that threshold.

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Canada could see 22,000 coronavirus deaths even with physical distancing, officials say

Posted: 09 Apr 2020 11:01 AM PDT

Dropping strict control measures could lead to 300,000 deaths, projections show after country's deadliest day yet

Canada could suffer as many as 22,000 deaths from the coronavirus pandemic, even with strict physical distancing and the widespread closure of businesses and schools, Canadian public health officials have warned.

Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday that he remained confident that Canadians could continue their "disciplined" behaviour, including staying home and practicing social distancing.

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Australia coronavirus: NSW arts minister Don Harwin resigns after breaching health order – as it happened

Posted: 10 Apr 2020 02:05 AM PDT

Deputy chief medical officer says NRL is 'not a law unto themselves' and would need permission to resume play next month. This blog is now closed

We will close the blog for this evening. Thank you for your company and contributions.

A summary follows of Australia's Covid-19 situation on the evening of Good Friday 2020.

I would really urge caution there. Most of the cases we've seen so far have and still remain related to overseas travel and so our local epidemic is very early. There's only a couple of thousand of those 6,000 cases are actual local transmission.

The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, has accepted the resignation of her arts minister, Don Harwin, after he was fined $1,000 for staying at his Central Coast holiday home, breaching a Covid-19 public health order.

While Harwin maintained he had sought, and followed, official advice on whether he was allowed to relocate to his holiday home, he accepted the controversy surrounding his move – as the government was urging people to stay home over Easter – was a "distraction".

During this health crisis my government has asked the community to make greater sacrifices than all of us have ever had to make before.

These sacrifices are saving lives, and I am proud of the people of NSW for continuing to uphold the law in the interest of public health.

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Declare abortion a public health issue during pandemic, WHO urged

Posted: 10 Apr 2020 01:00 AM PDT

Charities press World Health Organization to ensure women can get contraception and safe abortions during crisis

  • Coronavirus – latest updates
  • See all our coronavirus coverage
  • The World Health Organization is being urged to declare abortion an essential health service during the coronavirus pandemic.

    In guidance notes issued last week, the WHO advised all governments to identify and prioritise the health services each believed essential, listing reproductive health services as an example.

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    Tanzania to ease education ban on pregnant girls – but not in classrooms

    Posted: 09 Apr 2020 11:00 PM PDT

    Official announcement greeted with cautious optimism but World Bank comes under fire over $500m education loan

    Tanzania has pledged to improve access to education for pregnant girls after receiving a controversial $500m (£402m) World Bank loan, but has stopped short of readmitting them to mainstream classrooms.

    The World Bank has been accused of undermining human rights and has faced criticism from local and international civil society groups over the Tanzania secondary education quality improvement programme loan. Campaigners say approval should not have been given without first securing a commitment from the government to reverse its discrimination towards pregnant girls and end compulsory pregnancy tests.

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    Elimination: what New Zealand's coronavirus response can teach the world | Michael Baker and Nick Wilson

    Posted: 09 Apr 2020 06:41 PM PDT

    New Zealand's drive against Covid-19 is showing promise and it is not too late for other countries to follow

    Epidemiologists love to evoke the memory of John Snow, who famously advocated removing the handle from the Broad Street pump in London, an action that helped to end a severe outbreak of cholera. In the face of the Covid-19 pandemic we need to take the same kind of decisive action, yet western countries have appeared remarkably slow to do so, despite the advantages of immense scientific knowledge and modern tools of pandemic control.

    New Zealand now appears to be the only "western" nation following an articulated elimination strategy with the goal of completely ending transmission of Covid-19 within its borders. The strategy appears to be working, with new case numbers falling. Most cases are now returning travellers, who are safely quarantined at the borders, and the few remaining case clusters in the community are being traced and further spread stamped out. But it is far too soon to claim victory, and the country is remaining under an intense lockdown to support the elimination effort.

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    The UK coronavirus lockdown by Guardian and Observer photographers

    Posted: 09 Apr 2020 11:00 PM PDT

    From an unusually quiet Millennium bridge to dawn swimmers on Portobello beach, the sights and ambience of lockdown

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    Thousands across UK applaud NHS workers on third week of #clapforcarers – video

    Posted: 09 Apr 2020 04:00 PM PDT

    Thousands of people across the country have taken to their streets, gardens and windows to pay tribute to NHS workers and carers for the third consecutive week

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    Superheroes, brides and pets: Australia brings joy (and style) to bin night – video

    Posted: 09 Apr 2020 03:33 PM PDT

    Leaving the house to take the garbage out has suddenly become a rare treat for isolated Australians, who are putting in all kinds of effort for the occasion. The Bin isolation outing Facebook group has amassed almost half a million members in under two weeks. Here are some of our favourite posts

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    Ugandan president records home workout encouraging citizens to exercise indoors – video

    Posted: 09 Apr 2020 01:48 PM PDT

    Uganda's president, Yoweri Museveni, has released a video of his home workout routine in a bid to encourage Ugandans to stay indoors during the country's coronavirus lockdown. The 75-year-old is shown jogging barefoot around his office before completing 30 press-ups. Museveni banned public exercise on Wednesday to limit the spread of the virus

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    Superheroes, brides and pets: Australia brings joy (and style) to bin night – video

    Posted: 09 Apr 2020 10:30 AM PDT

    Leaving the house to take the garbage out has suddenly become a rare treat for isolated Australians, who are putting in all kinds of effort for the occasion. The Bin isolation outing Facebook group has amassed almost half a million members in under two weeks. Here are some of our favourite posts

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    Dominic Raab thanks NHS staff and key workers for Covid-19 response – video

    Posted: 09 Apr 2020 10:20 AM PDT

    The first secretary of state has thanked NHS staff and others working on the UK's response to the coronavirus crisis. 'We will never forget their sacrifice,' he said of those who had lost their lives

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    'We're not done yet': coronavirus lockdown must continue over Easter, says Raab – video

    Posted: 09 Apr 2020 09:44 AM PDT

    Dominic Raab has said the UK must not ease up on lockdown measures going into the Easter weekend. 'Thank you for your sacrifice but we're not done yet,' he told the public. 'We must keep going.' The lockdown measures were introduced with a three-week review, which is due next week

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