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- Pacific states face instability, hunger and slow road to Covid recovery: Dame Meg Taylor
- ‘Economic tsunami’: US cities and states hit by Covid-19 face dire budget cuts
- Freezing pants and tinfoil: homeworkers' tips for keeping cool
- Richie Mawson was a beloved dad and Liverpool fan. Did a late lockdown cost him his life?
- Belarus opposition candidate in Lithuania after second night of protests
- Secret Service escorts Trump from press briefing after shooting outside White House
- Coronavirus live news: Global cases top 20m as WHO chief says ‘it’s never too late to turn outbreak around'
- Hong Kong rallies around Apple Daily after arrest of founder Jimmy Lai
- Planet Ceres is an 'ocean world' with sea water beneath surface, mission finds
- 'Our dead are buried there': Ebo logging decree sparks anger in Cameroon
- Gene manipulation using algae could grow more crops with less water
- Lebanese government quits following Beirut port explosion
- Chicago erupts with violence and looting after police shooting
- Downfall: BP worker sacked for Hitler meme wins $200,000 in compensation
- Love of Stilton drives wedge between UK and Japan in post-Brexit trade talks
- Love you to death: how we hurt the animals we cherish
- After the Beirut explosion: anger, grief and the fall of the government – podcast
- 'They don't know what I know': why Cori Bush is poised to change politics
- Global report: coronavirus cases pass 20m as WHO points to 'green shoots of hope'
- Whitehaven Coal charged with 16 breaches of NSW mining laws
- Covid to displace more than a million across the Sahel, new tool predicts
- I'm a shielder who's been out for the first time. How do I stay safe? | Pippa Kent
- Let us honor our healthcare workers by giving them the protection they need | Andy Slavitt
- Revolution or repression? Belarus stands at a crossroads
- Trump abruptly led out of press conference by Secret Service – video
- 'May God protect Lebanon': PM announces government resignation after Beirut blast – video
- Violence and looting erupt in downtown Chicago as crowds clash with police – video
- Baltimore: aerial footage shows aftermath of gas explosion in residential area – video
| Pacific states face instability, hunger and slow road to Covid recovery: Dame Meg Taylor Posted: 10 Aug 2020 03:00 PM PDT While the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic has so far spared the Pacific, its economies are in free-fall, the region's chief diplomat warns Beyond the health and economic crises of Covid-19, the global pandemic has the potential to cause political instability and undermine state security across the Pacific, the region's chief diplomat has warned. Dame Meg Taylor, secretary general of the Pacific Islands Forum, said the region's economies were struggling with the virus-induced shocks, and a prolonged crisis could worsen existing problems of hunger, poor healthcare, and state fragility. Continue reading... |
| ‘Economic tsunami’: US cities and states hit by Covid-19 face dire budget cuts Posted: 11 Aug 2020 02:00 AM PDT State and local governments facing deep shortfalls wrestle with the devastating economic impact of the coronavirus Every day, New Yorkers throw out 10,000 tons of trash – a third of which is food and yard scraps that could skip the incinerators and landfills and be turned into compost. Over the last several years, a curbside pick-up program allowed New Yorkers to compost their food and yard scraps by putting them in a brown bin from the city that would be picked up just like trash. Continue reading... |
| Freezing pants and tinfoil: homeworkers' tips for keeping cool Posted: 11 Aug 2020 02:14 AM PDT People working from home share ideas to on how not to overheat amid soaring temperatures After months of working from home, hunched over laptops at small kitchen tables, Monday may well have been the hardest day for many. Temperatures reached as high as 35.2C at London's Heathrow airport and housebound workers took to social media to share their dissatisfaction. "WFH in this heat is horrid! I now really miss the air con at work that I always complained about being too cold," tweeted Raj Kaur Bilkhu. Continue reading... |
| Richie Mawson was a beloved dad and Liverpool fan. Did a late lockdown cost him his life? Posted: 10 Aug 2020 10:00 PM PDT On the day the WHO declared a pandemic, 52,000 fans – including 3,000 from Spain – piled into Anfield to watch the Reds play Atlético. Weeks later, the city was a Covid-19 hotspot. The family of one victim explain why they need answers No one knows for sure when Richard "Richie" Mawson contracted coronavirus, but, if his family were to guess, they would say it was related to the Champions League game between Liverpool and Atlético Madrid at Anfield on 11 March. Richie, 70, a retired train driver from Kirkdale, Liverpool, was in the Sir Kenny Dalglish stand that day, as he was for every Liverpool game. A season ticket holder, Richie had been attending Liverpool matches since he was a teenager. His uncle would take him to watch the Reds, back when Everton were the more successful club, and the Blues fans would give them stick. Continue reading... |
| Belarus opposition candidate in Lithuania after second night of protests Posted: 11 Aug 2020 02:13 AM PDT Svetlana Tikhanovskaya's low score in official election results has prompted two nights of unprecedented protest action Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the main opposition candidate in Sunday's disputed elections in Belarus, has left the country as clashes between heavily armed police and demonstrators escalated during a second night of protests. Lithuania's foreign minister, Linas Linkevičius, told the Guardian that she had been detained by Belarusian authorities for seven hours after filing a complaint against vote-rigging. She crossed the border towards morning, he said. Continue reading... |
| Secret Service escorts Trump from press briefing after shooting outside White House Posted: 10 Aug 2020 09:20 PM PDT
Donald Trump was abruptly escorted out of a press briefing by a Secret Service agent on Monday after an armed suspect was shot outside the White House. The president was just minutes into his coronavirus briefing when a Secret Service agent asked Trump to leave the podium and quickly exit the room along with other administration officials. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 11 Aug 2020 02:15 AM PDT Deaths likely to pass 750,000 this week, says WHO; Trump considers blocking Americans who may have Covid-19 from coming home; EU health agency calls for new lockdowns
Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand's prime minister, is about to hold an unscheduled news conference at 9:15p.m. local time, along with the country's top health official. The country has recorded 102 days of no community transmission of Covid-19, and all 22 diagnosed cases -- at this point -- are contained among returning travelers at quarantine facilities.
Indonesia has reported 1,693 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, bringing the country's total tally of infections to 128,776, Reuters reports, citing data from the country's health ministry. The data also showed an additional 59 deaths, taking the total to 5,824, the highest Covid-19 death toll in south-east Asia. Continue reading... |
| Hong Kong rallies around Apple Daily after arrest of founder Jimmy Lai Posted: 11 Aug 2020 01:44 AM PDT Newspaper prints 500,000 copies, up from 100,000, as readers queue for hours to buy pro-democracy tabloid Hong Kong residents have rallied behind the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily after its founder Jimmy Lai was detained under a controversial national security law being used to crack down on dissent. Residents lined up around 2am on Tuesday, hours after the daily tabloid's offices were raided by police following Lai's arrest, to buy copies of the paper in a show of support. Many purchased the paper in bulk, leaving notes in convenience stores urging others to take a copy. Others left stacks of the paper on stairs or in their apartment compounds. One reader wrote to the paper: "Even if Apple Daily only publishes a bundle of blank sheets, we will be buying all of them." Continue reading... |
| Planet Ceres is an 'ocean world' with sea water beneath surface, mission finds Posted: 10 Aug 2020 12:35 PM PDT Dwarf planet, believed to be a barren space rock, has an 'extensive reservoir' of brine beneath its surface, images show The dwarf planet Ceres – long believed to be a barren space rock – is an ocean world with reservoirs of sea water beneath its surface, the results of a major exploration mission showed on Monday. Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and has its own gravity, enabling the Nasa Dawn spacecraft to capture high-resolution images of its surface. Continue reading... |
| 'Our dead are buried there': Ebo logging decree sparks anger in Cameroon Posted: 11 Aug 2020 01:36 AM PDT Ebo forest is home to hundreds of rare species including Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees A Cameroonian government decree allowing logging in a forest that is home to some of the world's most endangered species has sparked outrage among local communities and conservation groups. The richly biodiverse Ebo forest is one of the last intact forests in central Africa and home to hundreds of rare flora and animal species. Continue reading... |
| Gene manipulation using algae could grow more crops with less water Posted: 10 Aug 2020 09:59 AM PDT Enhanced photosynthesis holds promise of higher yields in a drought-afflicted future Tobacco plants have been modified with a protein found in algae to improve their photosynthesis and increase growth, while using less water, in a new advance that could point the way to higher-yielding crops in a drought-afflicted future. The technique focuses on photosynthesis, the complex process by which plants are able to use sunlight and carbon dioxide to produce nutrients that fuel their growth. Enhancing photosynthesis would produce huge benefits to agricultural productivity, but the complexities of the process have stymied many past attempts to harness it. Continue reading... |
| Lebanese government quits following Beirut port explosion Posted: 10 Aug 2020 11:32 AM PDT PM Hassan Diab forced to exit, saying the corruption is 'bigger than the state' Lebanon's besieged government has fallen, one week after a cataclysmic explosion destroyed Beirut port, with the country's prime minister, Hassan Diab, claiming the disaster was the result of endemic corruption. Diab announced the resignation of the government after more than a third of ministers quit their posts, forcing Diab himself to resign. Continue reading... |
| Chicago erupts with violence and looting after police shooting Posted: 10 Aug 2020 12:49 PM PDT More than 100 arrested after overnight looting on shopping district as mayor decries 'an assault on our city' Unrest and violence erupted in the center of Chicago early on Monday after weeks of bubbling tension in a number of neighborhoods across the city and protests on Sunday after a man was shot by police on the south side. Continue reading... |
| Downfall: BP worker sacked for Hitler meme wins $200,000 in compensation Posted: 10 Aug 2020 10:08 PM PDT BP ordered to pay Western Australia oil refinery worker for lost wages, after his parody of bosses got him fired An oil refinery worker who was sacked for creating a Hitler parody of his bosses has been awarded $200,000 in compensation. The employee, a technician on a BP refinery in Western Australia, was sacked after he used an oft-parodied scene from the 2004 film Downfall by Oliver Hirschbiegel about the final days of Hitler and Nazi Germany to depict his bosses during a tense wage negotiation. Continue reading... |
| Love of Stilton drives wedge between UK and Japan in post-Brexit trade talks Posted: 10 Aug 2020 09:50 PM PDT Consensus crumbles after Liz Truss reportedly sought to make the cheese a part of negotiations Having promised to rush through a post-Brexit trade deal, Japan and Britain made significant progress only to discover that the fate of Stilton has driven a wedge between them. During recent talks in London, international trade secretary Liz Truss and the Japanese foreign minister, Toshimitsu Motegi, reached a "substantial" preliminary agreement on trade, promising to conclude a preliminary deal by the end of this month. Continue reading... |
| Love you to death: how we hurt the animals we cherish Posted: 10 Aug 2020 10:00 PM PDT Something has gone badly wrong with the way we keep pets. Our casual cruelties are a symptom of our unhealthy relationship with other species. By Esther Woolfson I must have been about four when we drove to buy a dog. The day is now only a haze of Sunday afternoon impressions of rain and green, of the muddy track somewhere in the Stirlingshire countryside, a room, a log fire, and the two chosen puppies who would be the confidants of my growing up. The black dog died when I was in my early teens, and the brown one, the last dog I knew well, shortly before I left school. Our buying them must have been part of the growing tendency for post-second world war pet-keeping, which had been increasing since Victorian times, and was about to expand into the vast pet trade of today. But what makes us choose one creature over another? Many studies have evaluated the importance of a species' appearance in determining its popularity, commercial potential or conservation status. The conclusions are dismaying: "An animal's attractiveness substantially increases support for its protection," one study says, while another concludes: "A few charismatic and cute species … tend to receive most of the conservation funds and policy attention." Creatures are ranked – "the 20 most charismatic species" – or described as "powerful commercial icons" or "the world's cutest animals". Even the birds in our gardens are subject to our caprices. The results of a study on the "likeability" of garden birds show that we like songbirds (even though we may not be able to define correctly what a songbird is), preferring robins and blackbirds to corvids, gulls, pigeons and starlings. We consider the former attractive but the latter argumentative, competitive and noisy – all necessary, natural behaviours of wild birds. "Charismatic", "iconic", "cute" – in a time of devastating and irreversible species loss, can these really be the measures of our love? Continue reading... |
| After the Beirut explosion: anger, grief and the fall of the government – podcast Posted: 10 Aug 2020 07:00 PM PDT It is a week since the devastating explosion rocked Beirut, killing more than 200 people. As shock turns to anger and the cabinet resigns, Bethan McKernan and Martin Chulov report on what comes next for the Lebanese people The deadly explosion that ripped through Beirut last week has left more than 200 people dead, thousands injured and hundreds of thousands displaced from their homes. The blast happened in a summer of already simmering tension in Lebanon as an economic crisis has taken a devastating toll on the country. The Guardian's Martin Chulov, who is based in Beirut, describes the moment his apartment was rocked by the blast – and what he witnessed that day. He tells Mythili Rao the scenes were apocalyptic, and worsened the closer he walked to the site of the explosion at the city's docks. Continue reading... |
| 'They don't know what I know': why Cori Bush is poised to change politics Posted: 11 Aug 2020 01:00 AM PDT The police killing of Michael Brown was the injustice driving a rise from the streets of Ferguson to the verge of a seat in Congress August ninth was always going to be a difficult day to interview Cori Bush. Just five days before, Bush was propelled into the spotlight after winning her primary race in Missouri's first congressional district, unseating the Democratic incumbent and ending a half-century family dynasty in Missouri. In the days since, Bush has barely had a chance to catch her breath. Continue reading... |
| Global report: coronavirus cases pass 20m as WHO points to 'green shoots of hope' Posted: 10 Aug 2020 09:03 PM PDT US considers blocking infected citizens returning; Australian outbreak trends down; Singapore economy plunges 43% Nearly five months to the day since the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic, Covid-19 infections have passed 20 million cases. In acknowledging the milestone, the health body's chief warned against despair, saying if the virus could be suppressed effectively, "we can safely open up societies". Global cases reached one million at the start of April. By 22 May, there were 5 million cases. That figure had doubled to 10 million cases by the end of June, and, seven weeks later, it had doubled again to 20 million infections. Continue reading... |
| Whitehaven Coal charged with 16 breaches of NSW mining laws Posted: 11 Aug 2020 12:57 AM PDT Company's subsidiaries face up to $17m in fines for alleged breaches of exploration licences The NSW resources regulator has charged Whitehaven Coal with 16 breaches of the state's mining laws at an underground mine near Narrabri. The mining company's subsidiaries Narrabri Coal Pty Ltd and Narrabri Coal Operations Pty Ltd face up to $17m in fines for alleged breaches of mining exploration licences at a site north-west of Boggabri. Continue reading... |
| Covid to displace more than a million across the Sahel, new tool predicts Posted: 10 Aug 2020 11:15 PM PDT Software hailed as a 'game-changer' in providing early warning for humanitarian relief efforts as virus fuels conflict Coronavirus is predicted to push more than 1 million people from their homes across the Sahel, creating havoc in an already highly fragile region, according to new forecasting software. Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Nigeria in west Africa are predicted to see displacement as a result of the increasing conflict, unemployment and human rights abuses brought on by fallout from the coronavirus, the analytical tool developed by the humanitarian group Danish Refugee Council (DRC) has found. Continue reading... |
| I'm a shielder who's been out for the first time. How do I stay safe? | Pippa Kent Posted: 10 Aug 2020 11:00 PM PDT Shielding rules were relaxed in England on 1 August, but I'm not rushing to the shops or beach any time soon I am one of those people who were told that from 1 August we no longer needed to shield to protect ourselves from the coronavirus. While you might assume that, having been trapped inside our homes for the past 18 weeks, we would embrace our newfound freedom with enthusiasm, the reality remains far from it. Continue reading... |
| Let us honor our healthcare workers by giving them the protection they need | Andy Slavitt Posted: 10 Aug 2020 11:00 PM PDT As the Guardian/KHN database shows, too many have given their lives to keep us safe – but with decisive action we can stop Covid-19 in its tracks They chose not to hold their own children's hands so they could hold ours. They intubated us and kept our ICU rooms germ-free. They brushed our teeth and switched our position so we could be more comfortable. As they always have, they put our health first, although this time it was in place of their own. Continue reading... |
| Revolution or repression? Belarus stands at a crossroads Posted: 10 Aug 2020 07:05 AM PDT Experts liken situation to 1989 uprisings that toppled Europe's communist regimes For a man who has spent a quarter of a century building a political brand based on stability, there is no doubt that the events unfolding in Minsk will change politics in Belarus and the standing of its veteran leader Alexander Lukashenko for ever. What is not yet clear is whether the new political era that will follow the protests will be one of dynamic change and a new government, or one of a sustained and bloody crackdown. Continue reading... |
| Trump abruptly led out of press conference by Secret Service – video Posted: 10 Aug 2020 03:33 PM PDT Two minutes into a press briefing, Donald Trump was abruptly approached by a Secret Service agent and escorted out of the briefing room. The president said nothing as he walked out and did not answer a reporter's question about why he was leaving. He later returned, thanked the Secret Service and explained that there had been a shooting outside the White House perimeter Continue reading... |
| 'May God protect Lebanon': PM announces government resignation after Beirut blast – video Posted: 10 Aug 2020 12:34 PM PDT Lebanon's prime minister Hassan Diab has announced the resignation of his government after a powerful Beirut port explosion sparked public uproar against the country's leaders. Diab, in a televised speech, said the detonation of highly explosive material warehoused at the port in the capital for the last seven years was 'the result of endemic corruption' Continue reading... |
| Violence and looting erupt in downtown Chicago as crowds clash with police – video Posted: 10 Aug 2020 10:48 AM PDT Violence and unrest erupted in central Chicago on Monday following protests on Sunday. Earlier a man was shot by police on the south side of the city. Pockets of disruption on Sunday escalated overnight into looting on the so-called Magnificent Mile central shopping district and some other parts of the city. The Chicago mayor, Lori Lightfoot, said police are investigating a possible link between the latest unrest and the shooting of the man in the Englewood neighborhood, but said there 'cannot be any excuse' for what she called 'brazen and extensive criminal looting and destruction' Continue reading... |
| Baltimore: aerial footage shows aftermath of gas explosion in residential area – video Posted: 10 Aug 2020 10:41 AM PDT One woman died and three people were hospitalized in serious condition after a major explosion in a residential area of Baltimore. Aerial footage from the scene showed first responders searching through the rubble for people who might be trapped inside Continue reading... |
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