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: Donald Trump says he is 'doing well' but 'next few days will be real test'

Posted: 04 Oct 2020 01:53 AM PDT

US president addresses world from hospital; medical team says Donald Trump is 'not out of the woods'; cases continue to surge across Europe

Health journalist and former neuroscientist, David Cox, has written about the evidence of lingering heart damage after initial symptoms of Covid-19 have dissipated.

The first indications the virus could affect the heart came from the original centres of the outbreak. Peter Liu, chief scientific officer at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, recalls receiving emails first from doctors in Wuhan during January and February, and then those in Italy as the pandemic reached Europe. They described a number of patients in intensive care wards with myocarditis or inflammation of the heart muscle.

Related: Long Covid: the evidence of lingering heart damage

Cineworld will close all of its cinemas in the UK, Ireland and the US this week because of the impact of the pandemic, Reuters news agency has reported.

It comes after the release of upcoming Bond film No Time to Die was pushed back again until April 2021. It was originally due out in April this year but had already been pushed back to November.

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Panic and confusion permeate White House following Trump's Covid diagnosis

Posted: 03 Oct 2020 11:30 PM PDT

Concerns mount over spread of the virus within the building, and whether it could disrupt the functioning of government

Golden autumn sunshine shone down on Washington on Saturday to illuminate a US capital upended as Donald Trump began his first full day in hospital battling coronavirus amid a presidential election thrown into chaos.

Related: Amy Coney Barrett: quick confirmation under threat as three senators infected

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Trump’s New Jersey event showed perilous neglect for his staff, supporters – and himself

Posted: 04 Oct 2020 12:00 AM PDT

Why did the White House allow a fundraising event to go on after one of Trump's closest aides tested positive for Covid?

On Thursday afternoon Donald Trump held a roundtable of 19 top Republican donors at Bedminster, his 36-hole golf course in New Jersey, where he vented his frustrations about how his push for a rapid vaccine against Covid-19 was being undermined by the deep state.

According to a description of the meeting recorded on video by one of the donors present, "the president said that the approval for vaccines has been slowed down for political reasons by people who wanted to hurt him".

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Amy Coney Barrett: quick confirmation under threat as three senators infected

Posted: 03 Oct 2020 01:20 PM PDT

  • Democrats urge delay in process amid coronavirus turmoil
  • Senate judiciary committee to convene as planned on 12 October

Senate Republicans are facing a shrinking window of time before the November 3 election to confirm Donald Trump's supreme court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, following the news that at least three Republican senators have tested positive for the coronavirus and more are quarantining after likely exposure.

Related: Confusion mounts over Trump's true condition after doctor's Covid briefing – live

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Conservatives turn on Boris Johnson over handling of UK’s Covid-19 crisis

Posted: 03 Oct 2020 10:01 PM PDT

As virtual party conference gets under way, Tories rebel on both wings and PM's popularity plunges to a record low


Boris Johnson's reputation among Conservative members has plunged to a record low, it has emerged, as the party enters its annual conference facing accusations of a "chumocracy" at the top of government.

With Tory MPs restless over the government's performance, which has seen it lose a huge poll lead over Labour since the start of the pandemic, the prime minister has recorded his first ever negative satisfaction rating among a survey of Tory members on the ConservativeHome website. He recorded the second-lowest score of any cabinet member, with only education secretary Gavin Williamson performing worse.

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Scientists study whether immune response wards off or worsens Covid

Posted: 03 Oct 2020 10:50 PM PDT

Research into antibodies could explain children's protection against disease, or why virus causes life-threatening effects

British scientists have launched a major study aimed at uncovering the critical role that human antibodies and other immune defences play in the severity of Covid-19 cases.

Results could support some scientists' belief that antibodies triggered by common colds could be protecting children against the disease. Alternatively, the study could confirm other researchers' fears that some immune responses to the virus may trigger deadly inflammatory reactions that could bedevil attempts to create anti-Covid vaccines.

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London Marathon 2020 – Brigid Kosgei wins women's race!

Posted: 04 Oct 2020 01:54 AM PDT

"The weather is not good," Kosgei tells Gabby Logan on the BBC. "We haven't had much time to prepare ... I had some struggles out there." She adds that she hopes to come back next year and defend her title. Priority No 1 will be getting off the Mall - she looks absolutely freezing.

In the battle to be the highest-placed British finisher, Natasha Cockram has battled back to overtake Naomi Mitchell. She leads by around 10 seconds round the final bend, finishing in a time of just over 2hr 33min.

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Revealed: Trump-linked consultant tied to Facebook pages warning election will cause civil war

Posted: 04 Oct 2020 01:00 AM PDT

Network run by fake news-publishing father and son spreads word to Trump supporters they should prepare for violence in November

A militia-promoting father and son duo of fake news publishers and a Trump-connected social media consultant are linked to pages which promote the idea of an American civil war with material presented in a way that appears to be an effort to sidestep Facebook's fact-checking system.

Comments on their Facebook pages and other materials obtained by the Guardian show that some rank and file Donald Trump supporters are enthusiastically receiving the message that they should prepare for violence against their perceived political enemies in November.

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Sir David Attenborough reveals favourite animal to young royals

Posted: 03 Oct 2020 10:06 AM PDT

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's three children quiz veteran broadcaster on his passion for nature

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's children have shared their passion for animals with Sir David Attenborough in an adorable video.

Prince George, seven, Princess Charlotte, five, and Prince Louis, two, quizzed the 94-year-old broadcaster in a video recorded at Kensington Palace in August. Princess Charlotte revealed that she likes spiders, and Attenborough told Prince Louis that his favourite animals were monkeys.

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Keir Starmer: Boris Johnson has ‘lost control’ of Covid-19 pandemic

Posted: 03 Oct 2020 11:37 AM PDT

Labour leader blasts government for its lack of leadership and U-turns, as he outlines his own five-point plan to fight the virus

Boris Johnson has "lost control" of the fight against Covid-19 and has no clear strategy for defeating the virus, the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, says today in his most savage attack yet on the government's handling of the pandemic.

As the number of confirmed cases rose alarmingly yesterday, Starmer accused the prime minister of "serial incompetence", saying the British people have been let down and left angry and confused by policies that change almost every week.

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Johnson and Von der Leyen extend Brexit talks by a month

Posted: 03 Oct 2020 08:12 AM PDT

UK and EU leaders instruct chief negotiators to work harder to close gaps on deal

Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen have approved a further month of Brexit negotiations after agreeing that enough progress has been made to justify a last push to reach a deal on trade and security.

The EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, will travel to London this week for talks with his British counterpart, David Frost, and the two sides will then hold follow-up talks in Brussels the week after.

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Samantha Morton apologises on radio for knife threat to girl when she was 14

Posted: 04 Oct 2020 12:29 AM PDT

Actor sets 'the record straight' on Desert Island Discs over incident growing up in care that led her to spend three nights in cell

The English actress Samantha Morton, star of the hit television series Harlots and The Walking Dead, has publicly apologised for threatening the life of a young girl with a knife when she was 14.

Morton, 43, said she wanted to "set the record straight a little bit" on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. The Oscar-nominated star was "incredibly sorry" about the incident, which led to her being charged with attempted murder and spending three days in solitary confinement in an adult cell block. She was convicted of threats to kill after she had confronted an older girl who had been bullying at the care home where they both lived.

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Summer spending boosted Britain but winter job cuts have yet to bite

Posted: 03 Oct 2020 11:00 PM PDT

Reductions in government support as the original furlough scheme ends point towards a brutal round of redundancies

The UK economy continued its rapid rebound from the depths of the coronavirus lockdown in August, the latest official data on growth is expected to show on Friday, but many economists are braced for a grim winter as job losses mount.

The Bank of England's chief economist, Andy Haldane, predicted last week that GDP would be "only around 3-4% below its pre-Covid level" by the end of the third quarter, covering July to September.

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Hilary Mantel: 'Being a novelist is no fun. But fun isn’t high on my list'

Posted: 04 Oct 2020 12:00 AM PDT

The Booker prize-winning novelist answers questions from famous admirers and readers on Thomas Cromwell, ghosts and her writing process

As soon as the third volume of her Wolf Hall trilogy was out in the world, Hilary Mantel returned to her Devon study to give The Mirror and the Light a new life as a play, in a remote script-writing partnership with actor Ben Miles. The first reading is due to take place this week, but, without being able to meet face to face, it's been a long haul, she says. They've collaborated by email, "so we have had to be very good clerks to each other".

Decades before Mantel became one of the world's best-known novelists, she combined the hard and penurious graft of fiction with the relatively easy rewards of life as a literary hack. "I have no critical training whatsoever so I am forced to be more brisk and breezy than scholarly," she wrote to Karl Miller, editor of the London Review of Books, in 1987.

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Jobs, health and climate: what Australians want the budget to pay for

Posted: 03 Oct 2020 12:00 PM PDT

With the economy in a Covid crisis, we ask people across states, sectors and stages of life where their priorities now lie

Australians are hoping to see extended financial support for workers in industries crippled by Covid-19 restrictions, as well as policies to make renewable energy cheaper and more accessible.

While the government has indicated job creation will be at the centre of Tuesday's federal budget, Guardian Australia spoke to Australians across several states, sectors and stages of life about where they want the government to spend money.

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America is having a code red moment. Which of its enemies is likely to strike first?

Posted: 04 Oct 2020 12:45 AM PDT

With Trump in hospital and the election campaign in chaos, the US has never been more vulnerable to foreign threats

US presidential elections and the uncertain transition periods that follow have traditionally been viewed by military, intelligence and security officials as moments of maximum national vulnerability. They will be especially worried now.

The fact that Donald Trump is ill in hospital, presidential advisers and Republican senators are also unwell, or self-isolating, and the election campaign is in chaos will intensify a sense of dangerous exposure at the Pentagon, CIA and state department.

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Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi: 'Life is about making myth'

Posted: 03 Oct 2020 10:00 AM PDT

The Ugandan-born writer, whose new book deals with her country's origin stories, on feminism and the importance of home

Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi was born in Kampala, Uganda, in 1967, and now lives in Manchester. Her first novel, Kintu, was longlisted for the Etisalat prize in 2014 and she won the Commonwealth Short Story prize in the same year. Her first short story collection, Manchester Happened, was published in 2019. She was awarded the prestigious Windham-Campbell prize for fiction in 2018. Her new book, The First Woman, is a powerful feminist rendition of Ugandan origin tales, charting the young girl Kirabo's journey to find her place in the world.

"How does it feel to have a mother?" is one of the questions at the core of the book.
I didn't meet my mother until I was perhaps 10 and used to have to think about that question. As a child, I lived with my dad, but he was brutalised during Idi Amin's regime and lost his mind, so I went to live with my aunt aged about 10. I wanted to explore the idea that if you don't have a mother you create the idea of one yourself and turn her into a perfect goddess. When Kirabo meets her mother, she mourns the loss of the mother she had created. Those kind of losses I wanted to deal with.

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Chilean police throw boy, 16, off bridge during protests

Posted: 03 Oct 2020 09:57 AM PDT

Apparent serious assault is latest in series of alleged human rights abuses by Carabineros

Less than a month before Chile votes on whether to replace its Pinochet-era constitution, police have brutally repressed demonstrators in the capital, Santiago.

On Friday evening officers of the Carabineros police force used plumes of teargas and high-pressure water jets to disperse protesters congregating in Plaza Italia, where pockets of violence flared amid a heavy police presence.

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Sarah Hanson-Young and Rex Patrick urge South Australian colleagues to sink uni funding changes

Posted: 04 Oct 2020 01:00 AM PDT

Centre Alliance's Stirling Griff and Rebekah Sharkie still talking to Coalition about possible package they could support

Senators Sarah Hanson-Young and Rex Patrick are urging Patrick's former Centre Alliance colleagues to sink the Morrison government's controversial higher education funding changes, declaring the package will harm the prospects of young people in South Australia.

Last week the Tasmanian independent Jacqui Lambie confirmed she would vote against the package that increases fees for some university courses, including humanities, to fund fee cuts for other courses such as sciences and an overall cut in the government contribution from 58% to 52%.

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'So old he was losing his hair': survivors urge MPs to end scandal of UK's child brides

Posted: 03 Oct 2020 05:00 AM PDT

A new bill could close loophole allowing under-18s to marry in England and Wales, as charities warn Covid has exacerbated hidden child marriage

When Payzee Mahmod was married at 16 to a man nearly twice her age she didn't understand the words spoken during the Islamic ceremony – and nobody thought to translate them for her.

The teenager, who loved fashion and pop music, was preparing to start college. "I had just finished school and the idea of not wearing a uniform was exciting to me," she remembers. "Instead I found myself trussed up in a wedding dress, with elaborate jewellery, feeling like a sale item at an auction."

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Trump films first message from hospital: 'We're going to beat this coronavirus' – video

Posted: 03 Oct 2020 04:39 PM PDT

Donald Trump has posted his first video message from Walter Reed hospital, saying: 'I came here, wasn't feeling so well. I feel much better now. We're working hard to get me all the way back ... I'll be back, I think I'll be back soon.'

During the four-minute video posted to Twitter, the president said that he could have stayed isolated at the White House after his Covid-19 diagnosis, but that he 'can't be locked up in a room and totally safe' - adding that 'as a leader you have to confront problems'. 

Trump acknowledged that the 'next few days will be the real test' and said the first lady, Melania Trump, who also tested positive for coronavirus, was 'really handling it very nicely' – with the president joking about their 24-year age gap during his video message

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Trump medical team 'cautiously optimistic' after Covid hospital admission – video

Posted: 03 Oct 2020 09:30 AM PDT

The White House doctor Sean Conley said Donald Trump was 'doing great' after the president was admitted to the Walter Reed military medical centre on Friday. Trump has received antibody therapy and is on a five-day treatment of remdesivir, and was reported to be 'in exceptionally good spirits'

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Nancy Pelosi says Trump illness 'sad' but criticises pandemic response – video

Posted: 03 Oct 2020 03:43 AM PDT

The Democratic House speaker said on MSNBC that Donald Trump's announcement early on Friday that he and his wife, Melania, had tested positive for Covid-19 was 'very sad'. She added, however, that Trump's actions during the pandemic were 'a brazen invitation for something like this to happen'

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Jacinda Ardern wishes Donald and Melania Trump a speedy recovery – video

Posted: 03 Oct 2020 02:52 AM PDT

New Zealand's prime minister has wished the US president and his wife a rapid recovery after they were diagnosed with Covid-19 on Friday. She said the virus had had a 'devastating impact' globally and noted that several world leaders had been taken ill with it

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