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

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


Warning of tens of thousands of deaths in England from Covid-19 second wave

Posted: 21 Oct 2020 08:48 AM PDT

Tiered lockdown system not adequate for preventing high rate of virus infections daily, epidemiologist tells MPs

Tens of thousands of deaths are now inevitable in a second wave of coronavirus infections sweeping across England because of the failure to contain the virus, a government scientific adviser has warned.

John Edmunds, a professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, told MPs on Wednesday that without further measures England's tiered Covid-19 strategy would lead to high numbers of new infections every day, putting the NHS under strain and driving up the death toll.

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Thailand's prime minister lifts emergency measures

Posted: 22 Oct 2020 01:31 AM PDT

Prayuth Chan-ocha seeks to end conflict but protesters give him deadline to resign

Thailand's prime minister has lifted severe emergency measures imposed last week to halt months of pro-democracy protests that instead sparked even bigger, nationwide rallies against his government and the monarchy.

Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former army general who first came to power in the 2014 coup, said on Wednesday he was moving to de-escalate the situation, adding that the country "must now step back from the edge of the slippery slope that can easily slide to chaos".

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‘I have to do this’: Myanmar garment workers forced into sex work by Covid

Posted: 21 Oct 2020 11:15 PM PDT

Factory closures due to fashion industry order cancellations have pushed many former employees into often dangerous work

When Hla, 19, tried to go back to work seven months ago after having a baby, there were no jobs. Hundreds of garment factories in Myanmar had closed after western fashion brands cancelled orders due to the pandemic, leaving thousands of women jobless.

As lockdown gripped Yangon, her marriage broke down, her husband left, and her father had to sell his trishaw – no longer able to take passengers in the city. Her parents and baby were hungry. Five months ago, she became a sex worker.

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Ardern urged to review New Zealand Covid measures after election landslide

Posted: 21 Oct 2020 09:37 PM PDT

Veteran epidemiologist calls for review, and openness to adopting measures suggested by political rivals, now that voters have given PM a mandate

Jacinda Ardern won New Zealand's election with a commanding majority, in part attributed to her handling of the Covid-19 pandemic in her country. But a veteran epidemiologist is exhorting the prime minister to use the political capital gained in her decisive victory to scrutinise the coronavirus response by her government and officials, and adopt strategies proposed by her opponents before Saturday's vote.

"New Zealand has shown it can be quite smart and flexible, but we can see we've got these blind spots and we need to have no blind spots," said Nick Wilson, a University of Otago epidemiologist. "This is such an unforgiving disease and very few countries are doing it right so we need to smarten up our act quite substantially."

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'Trump isn't going to protect us': Obama returns to campaign trail for Biden

Posted: 21 Oct 2020 06:03 PM PDT

Former president told voters in swing state Pennsylvania: 'What we do now these next 13 days will matter for decades to come'

Barack Obama returned to the campaign trail on Wednesday to deliver a scathing – and occasionally humorous – condemnation of his successor while envisioning an America led by his former vice-president, Joe Biden.

Sleeves rolled and wearing a black mask that read VOTE, Obama assailed Donald Trump over his response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 220,000 Americans and infected millions more, including the president.

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Russia and Iran obtained US voter data in bid to sow unrest before election, FBI warns

Posted: 21 Oct 2020 08:39 PM PDT

In rare news conference, the director of national security says Iran has sent spoofed emails to intimidate voters

Russia and Iran have obtained some US voting registration information and are attempting to sow unrest in the upcoming election, the government's national intelligence director said in a rare news conference Wednesday night.

"We have already seen Iran sending spoofed emails, designed to intimidate voters, incite social unrest and damage President Trump," said John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence.

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Coronavirus live news: Germany sees 10,000 daily cases for first time as France infections top 1m

Posted: 22 Oct 2020 02:16 AM PDT

Spain becomes first western European country to pass 1m cases; Rome among latest to bring in curfew; German health minister has Covid-19

The head of Germany's disease control centre has said the country is facing a "very serious" rise in coronavirus cases, after the country earlier reported a record 11,287 new infections.

Lothar Wieler, head of the Robert Koch institute, was quoted as saying by AFP, the French state-backed news agency, that it was still possible to bring the virus under control through "systematic compliance with restrictive measures", but that "the overall situation has become very serious."

A team of doctors have denied claims that mild cases of Covid-19 are putting young, otherwise healthy patients at increased risk of strokes. The claims, which emerged in April, were widely publicised, including in the Guardian, and backed up at the time by a number of scientific papers.

But in a letter to the journal Neurosurgery, the doctors from St Barnabas hospital in the Bronx, New York, have said that, on the contrary, their stroke unit had "experienced significant reductions, rather than increases in the rates of strokes, large vessel occlusions (LVOs), and thrombectomies."

A recent study found a 39% nationwide reduction in neuroimaging for acute stroke, a surrogate measure of endovascular thrombectomy for LVO. Likewise, a 38% nationwide drop in ST-elevation myocardial infarction catheterization lab activations has been documented during this period.

Such scientifically unfounded claims can potentially exacerbate the current state of collective anxiety surrounding this pandemic. As a result, young people with other illnesses may decide to stay home, seeking to avoid hospitals at all costs, ultimately suffering harmful delays in medical care ...

In summary, there is currently no evidence supporting Covid-19 as a risk factor for stroke, independently of sepsis. Such unsubstantiated and potentially harmful claims should not be widely publicised.

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Trump considers labelling humanitarian groups 'antisemitic' over criticism of Israel

Posted: 22 Oct 2020 01:59 AM PDT

Amnesty, Oxfam and Human Rights Watch accuse US administration of intimidation

The Trump administration is reportedly considering labelling a number of leading international humanitarian organisations as antisemitic after they documented Israeli rights abuses against Palestinians, including settlement building in the occupied territories.

The groups include the UK-based Amnesty International and Oxfam as well as the US organisation Human Rights Watch. Amnesty International accused the Trump administration, and the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, of attempting "to silence and intimidate international human rights organisations".

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Samuel Paty posthumously awarded French Légion d’honneur

Posted: 21 Oct 2020 11:57 AM PDT

Two teenage pupils charged with complicity in terrorist murder as slain teacher given France's highest civilian award

The French teacher decapitated while returning home last week has been posthumously awarded the Légion d'honneur, hours after France's anti-terrorism prosecutor said the killer had paid two pupils from the school to identify his victim.

At a private ceremony in the main amphitheatre of the Sorbonne university on Wednesday, President Emmanuel Macron bestowed the country's highest honour on the family of Samuel Paty, 47, who was killed on Friday after showing his class two cartoons of the prophet Muhammad as part of a discussion on free speech.

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Rudy Giuliani faces questions after compromising scene in new Borat film

Posted: 21 Oct 2020 09:00 AM PDT

Trump's personal attorney has indiscreet encounter with actor playing Borat's daughter in hotel room during pandemic

The reputation of Rudy Giuliani could be set for a further blow with the release of highly embarrassing footage in Sacha Baron Cohen's follow-up to Borat.

In the film, released on Friday, the former New York mayor and current personal attorney to Donald Trump is seen reaching into his trousers and apparently touching his genitals while reclining on a bed in the presence of the actor playing Borat's daughter, who is posing as a TV journalist.

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US designates six more Chinese media firms as foreign missions

Posted: 21 Oct 2020 07:53 PM PDT

Mike Pompeo says move is part of efforts to push back against 'propaganda efforts'; Chinese state media says Beijing will retaliate

The state department is designating the US operations of six more China-based media companies as foreign missions, US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has announced, a move said was aimed at pushing back against communist propaganda.

The US would also launch a dialogue on China with the European Union on Friday, Pompeo said, and that on Sunday he would begin a trip to India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Indonesia.

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Flooding and crop devastation predicted as 'severe weather' set to pummel eastern Australia

Posted: 21 Oct 2020 08:28 PM PDT

Storms over coming week forecast to peak on Saturday with 'very heavy rainfall, damaging winds and large hail'

Dangerous thunderstorms are set to cause large hail and flash flooding, destroy crops and drive deadly spiders into homes across large swathes of eastern Australia over the next week.

Triggered by a low pressure system forming over the southern centre of the country and a trough across eastern Australia, the hazardous weather will escalate when the two systems combine on Friday, with the added tropical moisture present as a result of La Niña contributing to the severity of the storms.

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Hong Kong says Germany harbouring a criminal after granting asylum to protester

Posted: 21 Oct 2020 10:31 PM PDT

Meeting called with Germany's consul general to lodge objections in what Hong Kong regards as 'internal matters' to China

Hong Kong has accused Germany of "harbouring criminals" after it granted asylum to a student who fled charges over last year's pro-democracy protest.

Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, Hong Kong's chief secretary for administration, warned against foreign interference in affairs that were "internal matters of the People's Republic of China".

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Saudi women's summit accused of 'whitewashing' record on rights

Posted: 21 Oct 2020 09:57 AM PDT

Sister of jailed activist, Loujain al-Hathloul, says attendees legitimise regime that silences women

The sister of a jailed Saudi activist has criticised a G20-linked women's summit hosted by Riyadh this week as a disturbing attempt to whitewash the country's dismal record on women's rights.

Loujain al-Hathloul has been in prison for more than two years without trial after campaigning for an end to Saudi Arabia's ban on women driving and its system of male guardianship, which effectively relegates women to the status of second-class citizens, requiring permission from male relatives for many life decisions.

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Crisis fermenting as cabbage shortage hits South Korea's kimchi culture

Posted: 21 Oct 2020 05:26 PM PDT

Rainy weather means households are struggling to find affordable ingredients for spicy pickle

South Koreans are facing a shortage of a beloved dietary staple after a summer of extreme weather destroyed crops of cabbages – the main ingredient of kimchi.

In what is being described a full-blown crisis, fields of Napa, or Chinese cabbages were wiped out in August and September, when the Korean peninsula was struck by typhoons, floods and landslides, sparking a sudden spike in the vegetable's price.

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Don McLean on the tragedy behind American Pie: 'I cried for two years'

Posted: 21 Oct 2020 10:00 PM PDT

The rollicking song about the souring of the 60s has now spawned a film, a musical and a children's book. Its creator talks about its meaning – and reveals the family deaths underlying it

When Don McLean was 15 years old, he had a premonition that his father was going to die. Distraught, he ran to tell his grandmother. "Don't be ridiculous, Donny, why would you say such a thing?" she said. "Because it's going to happen," the boy replied. A few days later, his father dropped dead right in front of him. "I saw how he looked," says McLean. "He'd turned green. I didn't know what I was going to do without him. He was the king, the boss. He knew everything."

The singer-songwriter behind the 1971 classic American Pie is speaking from his home in Palm Desert, a town in California where he is now well into what he calls the "desert phase" of his life. Wildfires are still burning across the state. You can't see the sun for the acrid smoke. "I'm feeling it in my lungs," says the 75-year-old.

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Met police apologise over errors in racist attack investigation

Posted: 21 Oct 2020 04:09 PM PDT

Victim of attack Niyad Farah says officers who questioned her discriminated against her

The Metropolitan police has apologised for errors made in an investigation into a vicious racist attack. The victim says the errors resulted from discrimination by officers.

Niyad Farah, 38, was with two friends when they were attacked by seven white men on Kilburn Lane, in north-west London, in the early hours of 22 December 2019.

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'They just acted like animals': anger after protesters shot by security forces in Nigeria

Posted: 21 Oct 2020 12:38 PM PDT

Demonstrators were braced for a confrontation but hail of bullets still left them – and the world – reeling

In the minutes before the shooting began, hundreds of mostly young protesters at a toll gate in Lagos, were sitting on the hot ground on a Tuesday evening, waving Nigerian flags, singing the national anthem and defying the government.

Protesters had braced themselves, prepared for when security forces would surely arrive, said 21-year-old Shola Abdul, a kitchen assistant, to enforce a 24-hour curfew across the state that effectively banned mass protests against police brutality.

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Amy Coney Barrett committee vote due before Trump and Biden head for debate – US politics live

Posted: 22 Oct 2020 02:25 AM PDT

The Iranian mission to the United Nations has rejected reports that Tehran has been meddling in the upcoming presidential election. It dismissed the allegations as "absurd" and an attempt to undermine the poll, citing Donald Trump's own attempts at calling the election "rigged".

Spokesperson Alireza Miryousefi said:

Unlike the US, Iran does not interfere in other country's elections. The world has been witnessing the United States' own desperate public attempts to question the outcome of its own elections at the highest level. These accusations are nothing more than another scenario to undermine voter confidence and are absurd. Iran has no interest in interfering in the US election and no preference for the outcome. The United States must end its malign and dangerous accusations against Iran.

Illinois State Police are investigating after a suburban Chicago police officer fatally shot a Black teenager who was a passenger in a vehicle that rolled in reverse toward an officer, report the Associated Press.

Officials haven't identified the dead teen, nor the driver, a Waukegan woman in her 20s who was wounded during the shooting. She was hospitalized in serious condition.

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'Lack of shame': Robinho affair highlights Brazil's rape crisis

Posted: 22 Oct 2020 02:00 AM PDT

Top club Santos signed a contract – now suspended – with the former Brazil striker who was convicted of rape in Italy in 2017

A public debate over sexual violence and rape culture has erupted in Brazil after one of its leading football clubs tried to recruit a convicted rapist to lead its attack.

Santos Futebol Clube – which has produced sporting legends including Pelé and Neymar – announced the highly controversial signing of the former Manchester City striker Robinho on 10 October.

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New laws needed to protect elderly people from substandard care and abuse in aged care homes

Posted: 22 Oct 2020 01:43 AM PDT

Almost half of the 10,000-plus public submissions to royal commission referred to substandard care, with 588 mentioning sexual assault


Mandatory staff ratios in residential aged care and new laws to protect the rights of elderly people are among 124 recommendations put forward to a royal commission probing the sector.

The inquiry heard on Thursday the sector has systemic failures, is rife with abuse and should be overhauled to ensure people receive high-quality care.

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Police brutality is just tip of the iceberg for protesters in Nigeria

Posted: 21 Oct 2020 09:00 AM PDT

Police violence prompted latest protests but anger at the government is growing

The signs held up by protesters have been clear. "We have no leaders," said one. "The power of the youth is stronger than you that is in power," ran another. A third read: "Nigeria bleeds."

This last statement has been all too true over the last 24 hours. At least seven people are thought to have been killed when soldiers opened fire on a protest site in an upscale part of Lagos, the commercial and cultural centre of Africa's most populous nation.

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Man camp: in the California desert, I tried to become a better man – video

Posted: 21 Oct 2020 11:54 PM PDT

Earlier this year, pre-pandemic, Adam Gabbatt spent a weekend with Sacred Sons, a male-only community that aims to help men explore their vulnerable side and listen to their emotions. In an era when masculinity is under scrutiny, could Adam open up too?

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Trump responds to Barack Obama's speech at Biden-Harris rally – video

Posted: 21 Oct 2020 10:13 PM PDT

Donald Trump has responded to Barack Obama's speech at a campaign rally for Joe Biden, saying the former president underestimated him in 2016. "I think the only one, the only one more unhappy than crooked Hillary that night was Barack Hussein Obama," Trump said. Less than two weeks from the election, Trump's campaign took him to North Carolina, where he told supporters "I love this particular state, but I might not have come here so often. I've been all over your state, you better let me win"

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Barack Obama likens Donald Trump to 'crazy uncle' in Joe Biden rally speech – video

Posted: 21 Oct 2020 06:37 PM PDT

Barack Obama has delivered a stinging rebuke of president Donald Trump in a speech delivered in Philadelphia while campaigning for Joe Biden. Obama criticised Trump's handling of the coronavirus crisis as well as divisive behaviour including retweeting conspiracy theories that you wouldn't tolerate from  anyone "except from a crazy uncle". The former president also praised the positivity shown during the pandemic and recent Black Lives Matter movement . "We see that what is best is us is still there, but we've got to give it voice."

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Voting 'makes things better': Barack Obama praises youth – video

Posted: 21 Oct 2020 02:49 PM PDT

Barack Obama has praised young Black Lives Matter demonstrators saying they gave him 'optimism', during a discussion with black male community leaders ahead of a drive-in rally for Joe Biden on Wednesday night.

At his Philadelphia campaign event, Obama emphasized the need for young voters to make it to the polls to ensure a better future for the country

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Broken promises and alternative facts: how Donald Trump failed Ohio – video

Posted: 21 Oct 2020 03:42 AM PDT

After winning the 2016 election, Donald Trump promised to deliver new jobs and economic prosperity to Youngstown, Ohio, a city suffering from decades of decline. But four years on those promises never manifested. Oliver Laughland and Tom Silverstone meet residents who lost their jobs and had their families split by economic necessity, and witness how the demise of the city's only newspaper made it harder to hold politicians accountable for their failures

More from the Anywhere but Washington series: 




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