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

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


Covid: rush to get back to offices should be paused, says top UK expert

Posted: 10 Sep 2020 01:06 AM PDT

Prof Neil Ferguson says country should 'pause at the headlong rush to get everybody back'

One of the UK's top disease experts has suggested the government should "maybe pause at the headlong rush to get everybody back into offices" in England, as a minister admitted there was not yet a certified on-the-spot Covid test available.

Prof Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist from the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, warned there had been an "uptick" in Covid-related hospital admissions in the UK in recent days, with infections increasing across all areas.

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Covid vaccine: '8,000 jumbo jets needed' to deliver doses around world

Posted: 10 Sep 2020 01:48 AM PDT

Industry body IATA warns of capacity shortage for 'biggest aviation challenge ever'

Shipping a coronavirus vaccine around the world will be the airline industry's biggest ever challenge, requiring the equivalent of 8,000 jumbo jet planes to get a single dose to 7.8 billion people, according to the aviation industry.

The International Air Transport Association warned of severe capacity constraints that could hamper efforts to get a vaccine out quickly around the globe. While drugmakers are racing to develop a vaccine and get it approved by regulators, the international aviation group is working with airlines, airports, health bodies and pharmaceutical firms to draft an airlift plan.

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Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook won't remove anti-vaccine posts despite Covid concerns

Posted: 09 Sep 2020 04:27 PM PDT

Social media chief denies Facebook's algorithms are designed to push viewpoints 'that are going to kind of enrage people'

Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has said he "hopes" his social network will not effectively destroy society as we know it.

Related: Biden to visit Michigan as fallout from Cohen's book on Trump continues – live

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'Superbugs' a far greater risk than Covid in Pacific, scientist warns

Posted: 09 Sep 2020 08:34 PM PDT

Antimicrobial resistance 'biggest human health threat, bar none', says Australian research director ahead of three-year study in Fiji

The emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), including drug-resistant bacteria, or "superbugs", pose far greater risks to human health than Covid-19, threatening to put modern medicine "back into the dark ages", an Australian scientist has warned, ahead of a three-year study into drug-resistant bacteria in Fiji.

"If you thought Covid was bad, you don't want anti-microbial resistance," Dr Paul De Barro, biosecurity research director at Australia's national science agency, the CSIRO, told The Guardian.

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Coronavirus live news: India reports more than 95,000 new daily cases; Trump admits playing down Covid

Posted: 10 Sep 2020 02:41 AM PDT

India sees another record number of daily infections; Trump 'played down' threat because he 'didn't want to create panic'

For a detailed look at the situation in France this Twitter thread by veteran Paris correspondent John Lichfield (@john_lichfield) is very much worth a look.

Time for another French Covid update. In the last week, the picture has darkened again. Cases are still growing steadily but acute cases, which fell from May until late August, are growing rapidly. I fear the "second wave" is here.
1/10

France's Covid-19 scientific committee says the government is facing difficult decisions after recording the second highest number of new cases (+8,557) for months on Wednesday. The committee said the level of coronavirus in the country was "worrying" and that the government "will be forced to take a certain number of difficult decisions … in the next 8-10 days at most".

Jean-François Delfraissy, the head of the committee told journalists:

France is now at a worrying level that is not far behind Spain with a lag of maybe two weeks, and much more severe than Italy.

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US cancels 1,000 China student visas, claiming ties to military

Posted: 09 Sep 2020 08:14 PM PDT

State department has been revoking visas since 1 June after Trump order to tackle intellectual property theft

The US has revoked the visas of more than 1,000 Chinese students and researchers it said had ties to the Chinese military, accusing some of espionage, in the latest dispute between the rival superpowers.

China had been "abusing student visas to exploit American academia", said Chad Wolf, acting secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, in a speech on Wednesday. "We are blocking visas for certain Chinese graduate students and researchers with ties to China's military fusion strategy to prevent them from stealing and otherwise appropriating sensitive research."

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Humans exploiting and destroying nature on unprecedented scale – report

Posted: 09 Sep 2020 04:01 PM PDT

Animal populations have plunged an average of 68% since 1970, as humanity pushes the planet's life support systems to the edge

Wildlife populations are in freefall around the world, driven by human overconsumption, population growth and intensive agriculture, according to a major new assessment of the abundance of life on Earth.

On average, global populations of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles plunged by 68% between 1970 and 2016, according to the WWF and Zoological Society of London (ZSL)'s biennial Living Planet Report 2020. Two years ago, the figure stood at 60%.

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Pompeo: 'substantial chance' senior Russian officials behind Alexei Navalny poisoning

Posted: 09 Sep 2020 07:03 PM PDT

US secretary of state strikes more strident tone after Donald Trump said at the weekend he had not seen any proof of poisoning

The US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has said there was a "substantial chance" the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was ordered by senior Russian officials.

"I think people all around the world see this kind of activity for what it is," Pompeo said in a radio interview with conservative host Ben Shapiro. "And when they see the effort to poison a dissident, and they recognise that there is a substantial chance that this actually came from senior Russian officials, I think this is not good for the Russian people."

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WE Charity closes Canada operations after scandal linked to Trudeau family

Posted: 09 Sep 2020 05:38 PM PDT

Brothers who founded influential organisation will also stand down, blaming Covid and damage to its brand

The charity at the centre of a political firestorm in Canada has announced it will shutter its operations in the country, the latest in a scandal that has placed prime Justin Trudeau at the centre of a parliamentary and ethics investigation.

Citing sustained damage to its brand, as well as the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic, brothers Craig and Marc Kielburger announced plans to scale down the operations of the WE Charity in Canada. The brothers, who co-founded the charity, also announced they would leave the organization.

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London bus attack couple join campaign to make misogyny a hate crime

Posted: 09 Sep 2020 10:00 PM PDT

Increase in violence against women during lockdown makes new law imperative, says MP Stella Creasy

A couple who were victims of a violent, homophobic attack on a London bus are calling for misogyny to become a hate crime, as a report reveals that women are three times more likely to experience sexual violence and threats than men.

Melania Geymonat and her partner Chris, who were unwillingly propelled into the spotlight last year when they were beaten up by a gang of young men after refusing to kiss, have joined forces with a former police chief, MPs, religious leaders and the charity Citizens UK to put pressure on the government to introduce the new law.

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Kevin Spacey sued for alleged sexual assault of two teenagers in 1980s

Posted: 10 Sep 2020 12:24 AM PDT

Actor Anthony Rapp and another man file suit against Hollywood star at Manhattan court

Actor Anthony Rapp and another man filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against Kevin Spacey, accusing him of sexual assaults in the 1980s when they were teenagers.

Rapp, who starred in Rent on Broadway and in Star Trek: Discovery on TV, had first spoken out against the Oscar-winning Spacey in 2017, a decision that led to others speaking up and Spacey's celebrated career coming to an abrupt end.

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China demands Twitter inquiry as ambassador to UK 'likes' porn tweet

Posted: 10 Sep 2020 01:32 AM PDT

Embassy claims anti-China hackers behind 'vicious attack' on Liu Xiaoming's account

China's UK embassy has demanded Twitter carry out a "thorough" investigation and reserved the right to take further action after its ambassador's account liked a pornographic post.

The embassy claimed Liu Xiaoming's account had been "viciously attacked" on Wednesday, after it liked tweets including posts critical of the Chinese Communist party and a 10-second video of a sex act.

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Winds fuel wildfires in California as blazes rage across US west

Posted: 09 Sep 2020 04:59 PM PDT

Region sees amber skies while Washington state faces more acres burned in a day than typically burn in a year

Large, fast-moving fires raged on across the American west on Wednesday, destroying hundreds of homes in the Pacific north-west and sending a dense plume of smoke that turned skies amber across parts of the region.

Related: California, Oregon and Washington battle dozens of fires – live updates

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Ronald 'Khalis' Bell, cofounder of Kool & the Gang, dies aged 68

Posted: 09 Sep 2020 04:32 PM PDT

The singer, who wrote and composed some of the group's biggest songs, died at his home in the US Virgin Islands

Ronald "Khalis" Bell, a cofounder and singer of the group Kool & the Gang, has died. He was 68.

Bell died at his home in the US Virgin Islands Wednesday morning with his wife by his side, publicist Sujata Murthy said. The cause of death has not been released.

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'They want to shut down his voice': how did Hotel Rwanda hero end up on trial?

Posted: 09 Sep 2020 09:00 PM PDT

Paul Rusesabagina is credited with saving 1,200 people during the 1994 genocide. But until last month he had not returned

Until late August, there was nothing exceptional about Paul Rusesabagina's summer. For months, the 66-year-old had done little more than sit on the porch of his home in Texas, water his plants, telephone his children and chat with neighbours. A cancer survivor, he worried about Covid-19 and carefully observed the measures recommended to avoid catching the virus. His weeks passed without incident.

But on the other side of the world, in Rusesabagina's native Rwanda, security agencies were formulating plans to bring the former businessman to the capital, Kigali, to face terrorism charges, a trial and jail.

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Brexit is back – and Labour's dilemma has not changed | Owen Jones

Posted: 10 Sep 2020 12:54 AM PDT

Keir Starmer has been praised for 'sidestepping' the Brexit trap, but this was always the only option

The latest Tory ruse on Brexit is tediously straightforward. By talking up no deal and expressing a willingness to flout international law, the Conservatives intend to bounce Brussels into a favourable agreement while torturing their Labour opponents. It is the Tories who have relitigated Britain's rupture with the EU – despite coasting to victory with a commitment to "Get Brexit done".

They know that if the airwaves are flooded with Labour's angry reactions, their opponents can be easily portrayed, once again, as blocking Brexit altogether. They believe that their electoral coalition has little interest in international law. They want to toxify Keir Starmer in so-called red wall seats by portraying him as an aloof, establishment, metropolitan, remainer lawyer.

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Conflicts since start of US 'war on terror' have displaced 37m people – report

Posted: 09 Sep 2020 06:18 AM PDT

Study focuses on post-9/11 wars in which US initiated combat or took part in military operations

Conflicts with US military involvement have displaced at least 37 million people since the beginning of the "war on terror" nearly two decades ago, a report has estimated.

The invasion of Iraq and the decades of instability that have followed in the country have uprooted at least 9.2 million so far, the costliest of the eight US military operations that were included in the report by Brown University's Costs of War Project.

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Florida sewage spills expected to worsen due to ageing infrastructure

Posted: 10 Sep 2020 02:00 AM PDT

More than 230m gallons spilled in Fort Lauderdale between December 2019 and February 2020

Florida has recently experienced several large sewage spills and the is issue expected to worsen in the state due to its growing population, urban development, the climate crisis and ageing infrastructure that frequently cause existing wastewater systems to fail.

For example, between December 2019 to February 2020, more than 230m gallons of sewage spilled into waterways in Fort Lauderdale, the result of ageing water infrastructure.

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MSF ran 'white saviour' TV ad despite staff warnings over racism

Posted: 09 Sep 2020 09:00 PM PDT

Decision to show then withdraw video sparked crisis at MSF Canada, says review

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) broadcast a $400,000 (£307,000) TV fundraising campaign in Canada despite warnings from staff that it was exploitative, reinforced racist "white saviour" stereotypes and breached the medical charity's ethical guidelines, the Guardian has learned.

A damning review of the decision to run and later withdraw the advert, which featured the REM track Everybody Hurts played over images of crying black children being treated by MSF medics, concluded it exposed a lack of trust in leadership and triggered an "organisational crisis" at MSF Canada.

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Coronavirus Australia live update: Victoria reports 51 new cases and seven deaths as NSW records seven cases

Posted: 10 Sep 2020 02:06 AM PDT

Greg Hunt says Melbourne curfew should be lifted if 'there is no medical basis' for it as two more Sydney healthcare workers test positive. Follow live

That's where we will leave our live coverage of the coronavirus situation in Australia. As always you can follow our global rolling coverage here.

Here's where things stand:

As mentioned previously, Victorian premier Daniel Andrews was asked today to provide the evidence behind the 8pm-5am curfew that is in place under stage four lockdown in Melbourne.

He did not – though said he would later, so watch this space – but appeared to indicate in a press conference today that the curfew was introduced in a captain's call.

If you want to put it to the prime minister, has he ever acted beyond, in any sense, the advice that [health department secretary Prof] Brendan Murphy or [chief medical officer Prof] Paul Kelly have given him, I think the answer will be he has.

You always have to reserve the right to operationalise and deliver the advice of the medical experts and the principles that they want achieved.

Related: Daniel Andrews defiant on Melbourne curfew after police chief denies responsibility

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'Catastrophe' warning as thousands left homeless by Lesbos refugee camp fire

Posted: 09 Sep 2020 06:58 AM PDT

NGOs accuse police of blocking access to hospital for families and vulnerable migrants injured in Moria blaze

NGOs in Lesbos have warned that a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding on the roads around the still burning Moria camp, where thousands of migrants are allegedly being held by police without shelter or adequate medical help.

Annie Petros, head coordinator of of the charity Becky's Bathhouse, said she was blocked by police from taking injured people to hospital as she drove them away from the fire.

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New Zealand must cast off its worries about government debt in its Covid recovery | Max Harris

Posted: 09 Sep 2020 04:58 PM PDT

The economic response to the pandemic risks being blinkered by old orthodoxies at a time when investment is sorely needed

New Zealand's response to the Covid-19 pandemic has been rightly praised. Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said New Zealand was "working … to build the kind of economy that should mark the post-pandemic world".

The finance minister, Grant Robertson, acknowledged the opportunity to showcase a new approach in a bold speech in May in which he said: "There are few times in life when the clock is reset. Now is the time we should address … long-term issues. It's not one we should squander."

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What is No 10's 'moonshot' Covid testing plan and is it feasible?

Posted: 09 Sep 2020 01:05 PM PDT

Plan to provide rapid tests for 10 million people a day would be hugely costly – and the technology does not yet exist

They call it the "moonshot" – and it is as ambitious as any space adventure.

This is the name given to the government project that aims to ramp up testing to such a scale that it will return the country to some kind of normality. But is it feasible? And what about the cost?

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'I don't want to create panic': Trump defends coronavirus remarks he made to Bob Woodward – video

Posted: 09 Sep 2020 01:57 PM PDT

Donald Trump said he was 'trying to avoid panic' by not revealing the severity of Covid-19, despite CNN audio published on Wednesday from an interview in February in which he acknowledged the virus was 'deadly'.

The president, who defended his comments to the journalist Bob Woodward for Woodward's book Rage, insisted his strategy was focused on encouraging Americans to remain calm, as the virus spread across the country

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California skies glow orange as wildfires continue – in pictures

Posted: 09 Sep 2020 12:58 PM PDT

Dozens of blazes continue to rage in California with a record 2.2m acres burned. Bay Area residents awoke on Wednesday to orange skies

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Trump's Covid-19 response a 'life and death betrayal' of Americans, says Biden – video

Posted: 09 Sep 2020 11:56 AM PDT

Joe Biden took the offensive against Donald Trump during a campaign event in Warren, Michigan after CNN released audio of Trump telling the journalist Bob Woodward in February that he knew coronavirus was 'deadly' and airborne.

Biden said the president had 'failed to do his job on purpose' as he knew the danger of Covid-19 but downplayed the severity of the virus for months 

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California governor on wildfires: 'No patience for climate change deniers' – video

Posted: 09 Sep 2020 09:07 AM PDT

About a million hectares (2.3m acres) have been burned so far in California as uncontrolled fires driven by high winds and unprecedented temperatures rage across the west coast of the US. The state governor, Gavin Newsom, has said he has 'no patience for climate change deniers' as the experience of the past few days was proof 

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Keir Starmer says government lacks competence over Covid testing shortage – video

Posted: 09 Sep 2020 06:27 AM PDT

The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, has said the government lacks competence when it comes to coronavirus testing and that this is leading to shortages

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Jacinda Ardern begins election campaign from her parents' home – video

Posted: 09 Sep 2020 03:53 AM PDT

New Zealand's prime minister has launched her pre-election tour of the country from her parents' home in the rural town of Morrinsville so they can can babysit. The rescheduled general election, now taking place on 17 October, is unlike any the country has seen before, with party leaders hitting the campaign trail in face masks and maintaining social distancing 

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