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

0 komentar

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


Coronavirus live news: new restrictions due in London; Italy shuts Campania schools weeks after reopening

Posted: 16 Oct 2020 02:59 AM PDT

Global death toll rises as US cases approach 8m; France and Germany see record infection rises; Melbourne could ease restrictions

Detention facilities in Moscow are to stop admitting new suspects due to Covid-19, according to a snap on Reuters, sourcing the Tass news agency

Millions of French people are preparing to enjoy a last night of freedom before a Covid-19 curfew in Paris and other large cities tonight, after officials warned that new efforts were needed to curb an alarming surge in new cases.

The curfew, which aims to keep 20 million people at home from 9pm to 6am, was unveiled by President Emmanuel Macron this week as the number of new infections and deaths raised the spectre of hospital overloads like those seen in March and April.

The two are pursuing a very similar strategy of local lockdowns in the hope of avoiding the catastrophe of another national one.

There is also a sense that there is safety in numbers; the more leaders who are doing the same thing, the more political cover there is to follow that path. As one source familiar with the discussion suggests: "It is obviously helpful if we are all moving together.

Continue reading...

Thirty-year failure to tackle preventable disease fuelling global Covid pandemic

Posted: 15 Oct 2020 03:30 PM PDT

Study reveals increase in high blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar and obesity, all risk factors for disease

The failure of governments to tackle a three-decade rise in preventable diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes has fuelled the Covid-19 pandemic and is stalling life expectancy around the world, a comprehensive study has found.

The latest data from the Global Burden of Disease study, published in the Lancet medical journal, is from 2019, before Covid, but helps explain the world's vulnerability to the virus.

Continue reading...

Fauci warns Americans to rethink Thanksgiving amid coronavirus surge

Posted: 15 Oct 2020 02:33 PM PDT

  • Disease expert calls herd immunity proposal 'total nonsense'
  • Donald Trump attacks Fauci at rally in North Carolina

Anthony Fauci warned on Thursday that Americans should rethink their usual plans for traditional Thanksgiving gatherings, citing increased coronavirus infections and hospitalizations.

Fauci, the most senior public health official on the White House coronavirus taskforce, told ABC News that given the rise in cases in almost three dozen US states, "we've really got to double down on fundamental public health measures that we talk about every day, because they can make a difference".

Continue reading...

Queen and Prince William criticised for maskless visit

Posted: 15 Oct 2020 11:02 AM PDT

Palace says medical advice was sought before engagement at Porton Down defence lab

The Queen has carried out her first public engagement outside a royal residence since lockdown but there was criticism over her decision not to wear a mask.

She visited the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) at Porton Down near Salisbury with her grandson the Duke of Cambridge.

Continue reading...

Trump and Biden offer dramatically different visions at dueling town halls

Posted: 15 Oct 2020 08:38 PM PDT

Combative president defends his record on coronavirus as Biden calls for far more robust national response

In a split-screen display, US voters heard dramatically different visions from Donald Trump and Joe Biden, his democratic challenger, at dueling town hall-style events on Thursday night, less than three weeks before the election.

Related: Trump refuses to disavow QAnon conspiracy theory during TV debate

Continue reading...

Western spies privately blame Russia's FSB for Alexei Navalny poisoning

Posted: 16 Oct 2020 02:38 AM PDT

Exclusive: stark conclusion shared between London, Berlin and Paris in effect points finger at Kremlin

Western security agencies have privately concluded that the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned by the country's FSB domestic spy agency, in effect pointing the finger at the Kremlin for ordering the attack.

The stark conclusion has been shared between London, Berlin and Paris, among others, and underpins the decision this week by the UK and the EU to target the FSB chief, Alexander Bortnikov, with sanctions.

Continue reading...

NZ election 2020: Jacinda Ardern and Judith Collins make final push to persuade voters

Posted: 15 Oct 2020 08:10 PM PDT

PM tours shopping malls in Auckland, while Collins takes final chance to attack Ardern's record

Political leaders in New Zealand put in a frantic final day on the campaign trail before Saturday's vote, with Jacinda Ardern, the Labour leader and prime minister, making a whistle-stop tour of shopping malls in the largest city, Auckland, where she was greeted by hundreds of fans who clamoured for selfies.

It was a more muted day for Judith Collins, the leader of centre-right opposition party National, who opted for a handful of events with party volunteers and reporters as she made a last attempt to poke holes in Ardern's track record. A final poll on Thursday showed Collins's party languishing about 15 points behind Labour.

Continue reading...

Merkel urges Johnson not to abandon Brexit negotiations

Posted: 16 Oct 2020 01:23 AM PDT

German chancellor says EU will need to compromise as UK PM prepares to make statement

Angela Merkel has called on Boris Johnson to keep negotiating over Brexit, saying the EU will need to compromise, ahead of a statement by the prime minister on whether he will walk out of the trade and security talks.

In comments designed to cool the temperature of the troubled talks, the German chancellor said both sides needed to find common ground. Johnson had threatened in September to abandon negotiations if an agreement was not in place by this weekend.

Continue reading...

US election: Rudy Giuliani's daughter endorses Joe Biden

Posted: 15 Oct 2020 11:57 PM PDT

'I've come to realize that none of us can afford to be silent right now,' former New York mayor's daughter writes in Vanity Fair

Rudy Giuliani's daughter has endorsed Joe Biden for president in an essay for Vanity Fair, writing that in this historic election "none of us can afford to be silent".

"My father is Rudy Giuliani," Caroline Rose Giuliani said in the magazine. "We are multiverses apart, politically and otherwise. I've spent a lifetime forging an identity in the arts separate from my last name, so publicly declaring myself as a 'Giuliani' feels counterintuitive, but I've come to realize that none of us can afford to be silent right now."

Continue reading...

Japan to release 1m tonnes of contaminated Fukushima water into the sea – reports

Posted: 15 Oct 2020 08:55 PM PDT

Local media say release could begin in 2022 and would take decades to complete, but local fishermen say move will destroy their industry

Japan's government has reportedly decided to release more than 1m tonnes of contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the sea, setting it on a collision course with local fishermen who say the move will destroy their industry.

Media reports said work to release the water, which is being stored in more than 1,000 tanks, would begin in 2022 at the earliest and would take decades to complete.

Continue reading...

Twitter changes policy on hacking after backlash over block on New York Post story

Posted: 15 Oct 2020 10:11 PM PDT

Criticism from Republicans and non-conservatives prompted the change – although the controversial story about Joe Biden is still blocked

Twitter has staged a partial u-turn on its policy of blocking a New York Post story about Joe Biden after a wave of criticism from Republicans and also from some non-conservative voices.

Twitter, along with Facebook, blocked dissemination of the article on their sites on Wednesday on the grounds that it was based on material allegedly hacked from a laptop owned by the Democratic presidential candidate's son, Hunter Biden.

Continue reading...

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris flew with people who tested positive for Covid-19

Posted: 15 Oct 2020 02:09 PM PDT

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris both travelled on flights that carried someone who subsequently tested positive for the coronavirus, it emerged on Thursday.

Harris, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, abruptly canceled her travel for the coming few days after two people associated with the Biden-Harris election campaign tested positive for coronavirus.

Continue reading...

Chinese detention 'leaving thousands of Uighur children without parents'

Posted: 16 Oct 2020 02:04 AM PDT

Researcher says Xinjiang files reveal government strategy of long-term social control

Thousands of Uighur children appear to have been left without parents as their mothers or fathers were forced into Chinese internment camps, prison and other detention facilities, according to evidence from government documents in Xinjiang.

Records compiled by officials in southern Xinjiang and analysed by the researcher Adrian Zenz indicate that in 2018 more than 9,500 mostly Uighur children in Yarkand county were classified either as experiencing "single hardship" or "double hardship" depending on if one or both parents were detained.

Continue reading...

Rickshaw driver's son beats odds to join famed UK ballet school

Posted: 15 Oct 2020 11:00 PM PDT

After just four years' training in India and some fast crowd-funding, Kamal Singh joins English National Ballet School

Kamal Singh did not even know what ballet was when he turned up nervously at the Imperial Fernando Ballet School, in Delhi, during the summer of 2016. But the 17-year-old, known as Noddy, whose father was a rickshaw driver in the west of the city, had been transfixed by ballet dancers in a Bollywood film, and wanted to try it for himself.

Four years on Singh is now one of the first Indian students to be admitted to the English National Ballet school. He started this week.

Continue reading...

Chess's cheating crisis: 'paranoia has become the culture'

Posted: 16 Oct 2020 02:48 AM PDT

As the game enjoys a boom online, players ranging from grandmasters to preteens are getting caught 'computer doping'

In one chess tournament, five of the top six were disqualified for cheating. In another, the doting parents of 10-year-old competitors furiously rejected evidence that their darlings were playing at the level of the world No 1. And in a third, an Armenian grandmaster booted out for suspicious play accused his opponent of "doing pipi in his Pampers".

These incidents may sound extreme but they are not isolated – and they have all taken place online since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Continue reading...

QAnon: a timeline of violence linked to the conspiracy theory

Posted: 15 Oct 2020 10:00 PM PDT

In the past two years, kidnappings, car chases and a murder appear to have been fueled by belief in a fictional narrative

The QAnon conspiracy theory has been linked to several violent acts since 2018, with QAnon supporters arrested for threatening politicians, breaking into the residence of the Canadian prime minister, an armed standoff near the Hoover dam, a kidnapping plot and two kidnappings, and at least one murder.

QAnon adherents believe that Donald Trump is trying to save the world from a cabal of satanic pedophiles. The conspiracy theory's narrative includes centuries-old antisemitic tropes, like the belief that the cabal is harvesting blood from abused children, and it names specific people, including Democratic politicians and Hollywood celebrities, as participants in a global plot. Experts call these extreme, baseless claims "an incitement to violence".

Continue reading...

Andy Burnham trying to hold us over a barrel on lockdown, says Raab

Posted: 16 Oct 2020 01:58 AM PDT

Foreign secretary urges Greater Manchester mayor to relent in row over tier 3 Covid restrictions

Dominic Raab has accused the Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, of trying to "hold the government over a barrel" by resisting a tier 3 lockdown, as a member of the government's scientific advisory panel said the "general feeling" among experts was that regional restrictions would not work.

The foreign secretary said action was needed in the areas most affected by Covid-19 to avoid a national lockdown, and he urged Burnham to relent.

Continue reading...

Senior Libyan coastguard commander arrested for alleged human trafficking

Posted: 16 Oct 2020 02:18 AM PDT

Abd al-Rahman Milad, known as Bija, is suspected of being behind the drowning of dozens of refugees

The UN-backed government in Libya has arrested a coastguard commander alleged to be one of the world's most ruthless human traffickers.

On Wednesday, authorities in Tripoli said Abd al-Rahman Milad, known as Bija, and suspected of being behind the drowning of dozens of people, has been arrested in the Hay-al-Andalus district of the city and is now being detained by Rada special forces.

Continue reading...

Timeline: how 2020 US election scenarios could play out

Posted: 16 Oct 2020 03:00 AM PDT

Americans are used to a certain routine with presidential elections – but this year might be different

Continue reading...

October Crisis: 50 years after a bloody spasm that nearly tore Canada apart

Posted: 16 Oct 2020 03:00 AM PDT

A campaign by Quebec separatists culminated in two kidnappings, a killing and the suspension of civil liberties

Tanks rumbled down Montreal streets. Soldiers stood guard in Quebec City. After the declaration of martial law, police conducted warrantless raids, detaining nearly 500 people. Two high-profile kidnappings – of a British diplomat and a senior politician – ended with a grisly murder.

For a brief period in October 1970, Canada was gripped by fear as separatists in the province of Quebec dramatically escalated their battle for independence.

Continue reading...

Former MP didn't know why he spoke in 'code' during conversation with premier – as it happened

Posted: 16 Oct 2020 02:05 AM PDT

The former Wagga Wagga MP and the NSW premier have previously said it was 2015. This blog is now closed

And that is where I will leave you.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption's investigation into whether Daryl Maguire improperly used his position as a politician for his own benefit concluded with admissions from the former Wagga Wagga MP on Friday.

To be clear, though, the transcript shows that later in the day Maguire seemed to walk that back a little, saying 2014 was "clearer in my mind".

Robertson:

From your perspective the relationship was a close personal relationship on those two dates that you there identify. Do you agree?

I see that. But 14 was clearer in my mind – 14/15.

So is it right that at least from your perspective, you were in a close personal relationship with Ms Berejiklian in calendar year 2014, is that right?

I originally said 15 and I lean towards 15 still, or late 14. That was, that's my recollection, somewhere there.

Continue reading...

Pressure grows on Zimbabwe to free detained student leader

Posted: 15 Oct 2020 11:15 PM PDT

International groups join calls for the release of Takudzwa Ngadziore, held for protesting against Mnangagwa's regime

A campaign focusing on the detention of 22-year-old Takudzwa Ngadziore, who has been held for 30 days in a remand prison, is gaining momentum in Zimbabwe, putting pressure on President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government to release the student.

Ngadziore, president of the Zimbabwe National Students Union (Zinasu), was arrested and jailed last month for protesting outside a car hire company, Impala Car Rental. The company has been under pressure from campaigners to release details of the alleged use of one of their vehicles in the suspected abduction of another student activist, Tawanda Muchehiwa.

Continue reading...

Army warn they are on standby as police brutality protests intensify in Nigeria

Posted: 15 Oct 2020 09:58 AM PDT

At least 10 are dead and dozens injured in street demonstrations demanding an end to widespread abuses by security forces

Nigeria's army has warned it could step in against "subversive elements and troublemakers" as the protests against police brutality that have erupted throughout the country over the past week continue.

Thousands of mainly young people have taken to the streets to protest against the notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad, commonly known as Sars, long accused of unlawful killings and abuse, and against wider police brutality. At least 10 people have died and dozens injured in the demonstrations, which have been met with force by police units.

Continue reading...

Trump and Biden town halls: two channels, two candidates, two planets

Posted: 15 Oct 2020 08:36 PM PDT

Trump rambled feverishly like 'someone's crazy uncle' as Biden looked relaxed in an armchair like a grandfather with pipe

America is often described as a "split screen nation", bitterly divided between two political tribes dwelling in echo chambers. But Thursday night at 8pm was a bit too on the nose.

The NBC network hosted a town hall event with Donald Trump. ABC hosted a simultaneous town hall event with his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden. CBS, meanwhile, hosted the reality TV show Big Brother with Julie Chen Moonves.

Continue reading...

Mail-in ballot tracker: counting votes in US swing states

Posted: 15 Oct 2020 08:08 AM PDT

With millions of Americans casting their ballots by mail during the pandemic, The Guardian and ProPublica are tracking the votes in critical states to determine how many are counted, rejected and delayed

This piece is published in partnership with ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive their biggest stories as soon as they're published.

An unprecedented number of Americans are voting by mail this year to avoid Covid-19 risk. Joe Biden's supporters have said they are more likely to vote by mail while Donald Trump's supporters say they are more likely to vote in person. With postal delays, rejected ballots and a dearth of funding, the process isn't always smooth – ballots can be rejected for multiple reasons, and due to court challenges, election rules are changing even while voting is underway. Meanwhile, Trump and other Republican officials have spent the last months casting doubt on the mail-in voting process, paving the way for legal battles during the vote count.

Continue reading...

Biden article row shows how US election is testing Facebook and Twitter

Posted: 15 Oct 2020 07:30 AM PDT

Online giants felt forced to take unprecedented action as they struggle with role during divisive presidential battle

Mere hours after the publication of a controversial New York Post article critical of Joe Biden, both Twitter and Facebook took unprecedented action to restrict distribution of the post.

Facebook, a company spokesman revealed, had immediately begun to "reduce its distribution on our platform", altering how the company's recommendation algorithm would normally react to such a viral story in order to buy its third-party fact checkers time to come to a conclusion about its veracity.

Continue reading...

Jacinda Ardern saves best for last in New Zealand election TV debate | Steve Braunias

Posted: 15 Oct 2020 05:05 AM PDT

Judith Collins has the look of a defeated woman as Labour heads to likely victory

Long time no see. Jacinda Ardern left it late, but turned up at last night's fourth and final debate of the election campaign as the prime minister. Ghostly versions of herself made weird, kind of shifty appearances in the previous three debates. God she was terrible, an anxious mess, uptight, easily thrown, unable to say anything memorable or with much conviction. She got better or at least less terrible as the debates dragged on and last night, back at the TVNZ studios where the series began, she was in the ascendant. She looked like she knew what she was doing. She looked like herself.

Who was the person sitting beside her in the mauve lights of the studio, though? Someone who only had a faint resemblance to the National leader, Judith Collins, someone who looked like she had the fight taken out of her and had nothing left to give. God, it was sad to witness. It's a lie that it's lonely at the top. It's a lot lonelier at the bottom, and that's where Collins seems right now at the end of a campaign that has turned into a nightmare, with the prospect of a sound thrashing on Saturday.

Continue reading...

Joe Biden lays out plans for tax, Covid and the supreme court in town hall event – video

Posted: 16 Oct 2020 12:59 AM PDT

The Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, took to the stage in Pennsylvania in a modified town hall event, following the cancellation of the second debate. Biden gave detailed answers about his proposals on everything, from the coronavirus pandemic to tax reform – in a stark contrast to Donald Trump's combative event  that took place in Miami at the same time 

Continue reading...

Trump grilled on white supremacy, QAnon and his taxes by Savannah Guthrie – video

Posted: 16 Oct 2020 12:56 AM PDT

The US president, Donald Trump, refused to denounce rightwing conspiracy theory QAnon during a town hall-style event, claiming he did not know about it, despite retweeting QAnon accounts. In heated exchanges with the NBC host Savannah Guthrie, Trump was pressed to denounce white supremacy before being asked about QAnon and a baseless conspiracy theory about Joe Biden

Continue reading...

Coronavirus: what has changed about what we know? – video explainer

Posted: 16 Oct 2020 12:00 AM PDT

Covid-19 has spread around the world, sending millions of people into lockdown as health services struggle to cope. From symptoms and long Covid to vaccines and treatments, the Guardian's health editor, Sarah Boseley, explains what we now know about the virus that we did not at the beginning of the crisis

Continue reading...

Protesters in Thailand defy government crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations – watch

Posted: 15 Oct 2020 02:43 PM PDT

Despite emergency measures by Thai authorities banning the gathering of five or more people, thousands have taken to the streets of Bangkok to continue anti-government demonstrations. Protesters are calling for the prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, to resign and for sweeping reforms to the government and the monarchy

Continue reading...

Amy Coney Barrett: key moments from the supreme court confirmation hearings – video

Posted: 15 Oct 2020 12:06 PM PDT

Amy Coney Barrett spent most of her time avoiding key questions during three days of Senate hearings to confirm her as a supreme court justice. 

Barrett would become the third justice on the court to be appointed by Donald Trump – and her confirmation would give conservatives a bulletproof, six-justice majority on the nine-member court, which decides cases by a simple majority.

Barrett, a conservative Christian who has criticized the high court's decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act (ACA), who has publicly opposed reproductive rights and who was a trustee at a school whose handbook included a stated opposition to same-sex marriage, is seen on the left as part of a power play by Donald Trump 

Continue reading...

Justice on trial: three years after murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia – video report

Posted: 15 Oct 2020 08:45 AM PDT

The murder of the Maltese anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017 plunged the country into turmoil. Guardian journalist Juliette Garside, who has been investigating Caruana Galizia's death, speaks with Matthew Caruana Galizia about his mother, his family's quest for justice, and how tragedy may be uniting the country over political divides

Continue reading...

Matt Hancock raises Covid alert level for parts of England including London – video

Posted: 15 Oct 2020 05:42 AM PDT

The health secretary told the Commons that several areas of England were being moved to the tier 2 level of coronavirus restrictions designed for high-risk areas. The new rules will come into force at one minute past midnight on Saturday, for an undetermined amount of time, in areas including London, Essex, York and north-east Derbyshire

Continue reading...


Posting Komentar