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

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


Rocket attack on US airbase in Iraq kills civilian contractor

Posted: 16 Feb 2021 02:55 AM PST

Eight others injured in blast that is expected to be first serious test of Joe Biden's Iran policy

A rocket attack on a US airbase in the Kurdish region of Iraq has killed one civilian contractor and injured eight other people, sparking fears of escalation in the first serious test of Joe Biden's policy towards Iran.

A volley of approximately 14 rockets was fired at the base hosting US troops next to the airport in the region's main city of Erbil late on Monday, which witnesses told local television appeared to come from an area to the south.

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Myanmar democracy veteran urges civil servants to join protest as Suu Kyi court case looms

Posted: 15 Feb 2021 05:13 PM PST

Min Ko Naing, a student leader in the 1988 uprisings, says this is the most important week yet for civil disobedience movement

A veteran of Myanmar's 1988 uprisings has urged protesters to demonstrate peacefully in what he called the most important week yet, as the day of Aung San Suu Kyi's court appearance neared.

Min Ko Naing – a student leader in the 1988 uprisings – said on his social media page that it was vital for civil servants to join protests outside embassies and government offices, saying: "It will determine the outcome of the protest; it is essential that the civil servants endure any challenges this week.

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Coronavirus live news: Athens snow causes vaccine cancellations; Dutch curfew should be lifted, court rules

Posted: 16 Feb 2021 02:59 AM PST

Snow in Athens causes Greek authorities to cancel vaccinations; Dutch government ordered to scrap night-time curfew; South Africa to share 1m vaccine doses via African Union

The Covid-19 pandemic is on the rise again in Poland after case numbers had stabilised following a second wave of infections last autumn, Reuters reports.

Poland has loosened some of its restrictions, and scenes of partying tourists ignoring rules about wearing masks and social distancing at Poland's main ski resort at the weekend have raised fears of a new rise in infections.

On Tuesday, Poland reported 5,178 new cases and 196 deaths. The European Union member states has reported a total of 1,596,673 cases and 41,028 deaths.

The first 550,000 doses of China's Sinopharm vaccine have arrived in Budapest and will be used to inoculate people after authorities have examined the shots, Reuters reports.

Hungary announced in January that it had reached a deal with Sinopharm to buy 5 million doses of its COVID vaccine, becoming the first European Union member state to approve and purchase the shot.

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Thin ice: Europeans warned not to skate on thawing canals after spate of accidents

Posted: 15 Feb 2021 07:22 PM PST

Video of one skater's unceremonious fall through an icy canal in the Netherlands has been viewed more than 5m times

There are bellyflops, and then there is skating, while half-naked on a half-frozen river, into a melting patch and landing face-forward into a mix of ice, slush and very cold water.

This is an experience that at least one Dutch ice skater – and Twitter users who have watched the video footage 5.2m times – are familiar with.

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Key pro-democracy figures go on trial over Hong Kong protests

Posted: 16 Feb 2021 02:27 AM PST

Veteran activist Lee Cheuk-yan accuses police and government of depriving Hongkongers of constitutional rights

A veteran champion of democracy in Hong Kong has described its legal system as an instrument of political suppression, after he and eight other high-profile figures went on trial in one of the biggest court cases linked to the protest movement that paralysed the city for more than a year.

"It's the department of justice, the police department and the Hong Kong government who should be on trial because they have deprived us of our constitutional rights," said Lee Cheuk-yan after the day's proceedings. "This year is the year of the ox so we should be stubborn as an ox."

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Alexei Navalny back in court for 'politically motivated' slander trial

Posted: 16 Feb 2021 12:40 AM PST

Prosecutors call for fine as punishment for describing war veteran as a traitor

Russian state prosecutors have asked for Alexei Navalny to be fined 950,000 roubles (£9,300) for slandering a second world war veteran, a charge the Kremlin critic calls politically motivated.

Navalny, Vladimir Putin's most prominent critic, was jailed this month for almost three years for parole violations he said were trumped up. The west has condemned the case and is discussing possible sanctions on Russia.

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Congo river disaster: at least 60 dead and hundreds missing after 'overloaded' boat sinks

Posted: 15 Feb 2021 06:13 PM PST

Whaling vessel was carrying 700 passengers at night from Kinshasa when it sank, minister says

At least 60 people have died and hundreds more are missing after an overloaded whaling boat sank on the Congo river at night, the Democratic Republic of Congo's humanitarian affairs minister has said.

Minister Steve Mbikayi said more than 700 people had been aboard the vessel but that only 300 survivors had been found so far at the site of the disaster in Mai-Ndombe province in the west of the country.

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Sudan declares states of emergency after protests over soaring food prices

Posted: 15 Feb 2021 11:15 PM PST

As famine warnings are triggered and food is stolen from markets, the government blames supporters of ousted president al-Bashir

Seven regions of Sudan have declared states of emergency following violent protests against food price rises. Curfews have been imposed and schools have been forced to close in 10 cities across Darfur, North Kordofan, West Kordofan and Sennar. Buildings were looted and burned, and food was stolen from markets and shops. The regions are among the poorest in Sudan.

The joint military-civilian government believes supporters of the former president, Omar al-Bashir, are behind the protests. The government recently ordered the prosecution of members of Bashir's party.

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Ardern blasts Morrison for shirking responsibility for suspected Isis terrorist who grew up in Australia

Posted: 15 Feb 2021 06:39 PM PST

New Zealand PM says Australia should be handling the woman's case as she had lived in the country since she was six

Jacinda Ardern has accused Scott Morrison of exporting Australia's problems by cancelling the citizenship of a woman who allegedly joined Islamic State in Syria.

The New Zealand prime minister and her Australian counterpart discussed the case of the woman, a dual New Zealand-Australian citizen, after she was detained in Syria along with her two children following the retaking of Isis's last remaining territory by US-backed forces in 2019.

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Australian Open 2021 day nine: Djokovic faces Zverev after Williams beats Halep – live!

Posted: 16 Feb 2021 02:58 AM PST

Djokovic 6-6 (3-3) Zverev Djokovic knows that when things get tight so will Zverev – he made three unforced forehand errors when serving for the set – and shonuff, when made to play an extra ball at 0-1 in the breaker, he goes long with the backhand. But he's quickly back at 2-2 and then properly steps into a succession of forehands to seize a mini-break of his own. But he can't consolidate it, Djokovic's forehand inciting him to net.

Djokovic 6-6 Zverev* Zverev holds easily, and we have ourselves a breaker.

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Spanish police storm university in Lleida and arrest fugitive rapper

Posted: 16 Feb 2021 12:16 AM PST

Pablo Hasél had barricaded himself inside after being sentenced to jail on charges of glorifying terrorism

Dozens of Spanish police have stormed a university and arrested a rapper who had barricaded himself inside the building after being sentenced to jail on charges of glorifying terrorism and insulting royalty in his lyrics.

Pablo Hasél and a group of his supporters had taken refuge on Monday in the university town of Lleida in north-eastern Catalonia. He had been given until last Friday to hand himself over to the police to serve a nine-month sentence.

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Andrew Cuomo insists New York didn't cover up nursing home Covid-19 deaths

Posted: 15 Feb 2021 03:33 PM PST

Governor, who has faced calls to resign, acknowledged that officials should have moved faster to release some information

Under fire over his management of the coronavirus' lethal path through New York's nursing homes, Andrew Cuomo insisted Monday the state didn't cover up deaths – but the governor acknowledged that officials should have moved faster to release some information sought by lawmakers, the public and the press.

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No logo, no likes: New York's offline DIY culture embraces lockdown limitations

Posted: 15 Feb 2021 09:00 PM PST

From subversive newspapers to free gigs and galleries, a new kind of pandemic creativity is anti-consumerist and pro-community

New Yorkers who once thrived on chance encounters and interconnection with Manhattan's pace and energy are beginning to find creative footholds in the abnormalities of pandemic life.

Expressions are varied, but each point to the embrace of a profoundly altered state and a DIY punk ethos featuring a partial rejection of commercial imperatives, branding, the internet and politics.

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Fauci says he worried about getting Covid at Trump White House

Posted: 15 Feb 2021 01:27 PM PST

Infectious disease expert tells Axios he had been nervous going there when many were coming down with the virus

Anthony Fauci, America's top infectious disease expert and chief medical and coronavirus adviser to Joe Biden, revealed on Monday that he had been nervous entering the White House when many there were coming down with Covid-19 late in Donald Trump's presidency.

Fauci is 80 years old and said that as such he was acutely aware that he was at high risk of suffering a "serious outcome" if he became infected by coronavirus, he told Axios in an interview clip posted online.

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To see a mockingbird: birdwatchers fined for breaking Covid rules

Posted: 15 Feb 2021 02:35 PM PST

Five twitchers travelled to Devon to photograph a northern mockingbird, last seen in the UK in the 1980s

Five birdwatchers have been fined for breaking Covid-19 restrictions after they travelled to Devon to try to see a rare specimen after a Twitter tipoff.

They were looking to catch sight of a northern mockingbird, normally found in North America, which had been spotted by Exmouth resident Chris Biddle.

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How to have better arguments online

Posted: 15 Feb 2021 10:00 PM PST

The troubled times we live in, and the rise of social media, have created an age of endless conflict. Rather than fearing or avoiding disagreement, we need to learn to do it well

In 2010, Time magazine made Mark Zuckerberg its person of the year. It described Facebook's mission as being to "tame the howling mob and turn the lonely, antisocial world of random chance into a friendly world". During the first decade of mass internet use, this was a popular theory: the more that people were able to communicate with others, the more friendly and understanding they would become, the result being a more peaceable and harmonious world.

In 2021, that vision seems painfully naive. Howling online mobs clash day and night, and some of them commit real-world violence. The internet is connecting people, but it isn't necessarily creating fellow feeling. At its worst, it can resemble a vast machine for the production of mutual antipathy.

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'The drum needed a blood sacrifice': the rise of dark Nordic folk

Posted: 15 Feb 2021 10:00 PM PST

Heilung jam with Siberian shamans and play with human bones, while Wardruna record songs submerged in rivers and on burial mounds. Now this vibrant undergound music scene is finding a wider audience

In 2002, holed up in an attic studio on the majestic Norwegian coast, Einar Selvik had a vision. He would create a trilogy of albums based on the 24 runes of the Elder Futhark, the world's oldest runic alphabet. The multi-instrumentalist's epiphany kicked off what is now one of the world's most vibrant underground music scenes.

Calling on vocalists Lindy-Fay Hella and Gaahl, with whom Selvik had played in black metal band Gorgoroth, he created the band Wardruna and the first instalment of the trilogy arrived in 2009. It was called Runaljod: Gap Var Ginnunga (Sound of Runes: The Gap Was Vast) and had taken seven years to research, write and record. Each song told a story behind Nordic culture and traditions, via dark and ambient folk, played on ancient string and horn instruments, as well as animal hide drums.

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'A critic said my stomach was a warning to us all!' Simon Callow meets Derek Jacobi

Posted: 15 Feb 2021 10:00 PM PST

The theatre legends look back at working with Laurence Olivier and Peter O'Toole, the pain of biting reviews, the joy of a good run – and the agonies of being miscast

Derek Jacobi and Simon Callow first met at the Old Vic in London. Jacobi was treading the boards with Laurence Olivier, Peter O'Toole and other greats in the fledgling National Theatre company; the younger Callow was working at the box office. Prolific as ever through this lockdown year, both are juggling an assortment of stage and screen projects from home. They took time off to talk about Shakespeare, scathing reviews and how rifling through their family's wardrobes led them into an acting career.

Derek Jacobi: Have we ever worked together, Simon? I can't remember!

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My porn life: what my years as a sex writer taught me about my desires

Posted: 16 Feb 2021 01:00 AM PST

Tracy Clark-Flory spent years as a reporter embedded in the porn world. Here, she shares how it shaped her own sexuality

I was in a warehouse in Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley, anxiously scribbling in my reporter's notebook while waiting for a porn shoot to begin.

Charles Dera, a performer with jet-black hair and a well-groomed beard to match, crouched in front of me, stretching his calves. Tommy Gunn, a performer named after his biceps, sat on the floor flipping through a release form. He hopped to a stand and asked to borrow my pen.

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Bear Grylls: 'There's no point getting to the summit if you're an arsehole'

Posted: 16 Feb 2021 01:00 AM PST

The TV adventurer talks near-death experiences, what he learned from Eton and why he decided to go public about his religious faith

"The ninjas of the future," says Bear Grylls, "are going to be those who can learn how to navigate the fear. It's like a firefight. You can't move backwards. You've got to move towards it, you know?" Not really. But I've never been in a firefight. And if I saw one, I doubt I'd move towards it. Like most people, I've been raised in mimsy, risk-averse Britain. Few of us have acquired the wild wisdom of Edward Michael "Bear" Grylls OBE. Unlike the 46-year-old TV adventurer, we have never simmered a sheep's eyeball in geyser water, paused on Everest to reflect on the corpse of a late friend, wrestled snakes, outrun lions, or broken our backs parachuting. Rather, we've been raised in a land where a PE lesson can consist of Tudor-dancing.

Grylls wants to change all that. He wants kids to embrace fear and risk. "If you meet somebody who says they don't have fear, it means one of two things: one, they're not telling the truth; or two, they're not going for anything big enough in their life. What I've learned through many trips and many failures is that you have got to move towards the difficult stuff. And the irony is that the things we fear most often dissipate."

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The joy of pancakes: 10 top chefs on their favourite recipes – from apple crepes to duck dosa

Posted: 15 Feb 2021 06:56 AM PST

Pancake day is upon us, but don't feel restricted to sugar and lemon juice. Celebrated chefs, including Heston Blumenthal and Ravinder Bhogal, share their suggestions

There's no better way to start the day than pancakes – and tomorrow they are practically compulsory. If you're an old hand looking for new ideas, you'll find sweet and savoury suggestions below from everyone from Heston Blumenthal to Ella Mills. But before we talk toppings and infusions, here's how to make the classic Shrove Tuesday treat.

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Canoeing along Scotland's Union Canal – in pictures

Posted: 15 Feb 2021 11:00 PM PST

Guardian photographer Murdo MacLeod and crew embarked on a lockdown exploration of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Union Canal in a Canadian canoe

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Biden announces extension of Covid mortgage program – US politics live

Posted: 16 Feb 2021 02:59 AM PST

Action will protect 2.7 million US homeowners currently in Covid forbearance

NBC News this morning have a write-up of the immigration reform bill that we are expecting to see later this week from the Biden administration. They report:

Biden's proposal includes an earned pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants, expands the refugee resettlement program and deploys more technology to the Southern border. There are additional protections that are being considered in the legislation, such as asylum processing in home countries for minors, expanded benefits for DREAMers and ending the public charge rule.

While previous attempts at massive immigration reform have failed under both Republican and Democratic administrations, the Biden White House has signaled support for breaking the legislation into pieces.

One strand of US politics over the coming weeks is going to be a backlash among grassroots Republicans – and their media mouthpieces – against Congressional Republicans who were not staunchly behind disgraced former president Donald Trump in his historic second impeachment trial.

Lee Moran at Huffington Post had an eye on how Sean Hannity was taking it all on Fox News last night – and he was putting the blame on Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell:

Hannity slammed McConnell as "sanctimonious" and accused the seven Senate Republicans who voted to convict Trump as being "way out of touch" with the GOP base.

"When is he going to give a speech on the Senate floor and hold those Democrats accountable for their incitement of insurrection and their insurrection-like language?" Hannity asked of McConnell.

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Johnny Pacheco, co-founder of New York's Latin label Fania, dies aged 85

Posted: 16 Feb 2021 02:17 AM PST

The Fania All-Stars player and record-label impresario worked with Latin music giants including Celia Cruz and fostered a more intense, political salsa sound

Johnny Pacheco, the co-founder of trailblazing salsa label Fania Records, has died aged 85. The cause was complications from pneumonia.

A representative for Fania said Pacheco was "the man most responsible for the genre of salsa music. He was a visionary and his music will live on eternally."

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Barnaby Joyce pushes clean energy finance amendment to allow coal investment

Posted: 16 Feb 2021 02:04 AM PST

Former Nationals leader announces he will try to amend his own government's legislation

Barnaby Joyce has said he will attempt to amend his own government's legislation to allow the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to invest in coal.

The former Nationals leader, now an outspoken backbencher, added himself to the Speaker's list in the House of Representatives on late Tuesday afternoon, and tabled an amendment intended to allow for new investment in "high efficiency, low emissions" coal-fired power.

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Stateless, stuck and desperate: the militants' wives trapped in Kashmir

Posted: 16 Feb 2021 02:32 AM PST

Hundreds married to men who travelled to Pakistan for militant training now find themselves stateless

Under dark skies in Kashmir's heavily militarised town of Kupwara, Saira Javed mournfully recalled her happy childhood.

Recounting her early life in Karachi, a bustling metropolis over the border in Pakistan, she spoke vividly of her father, Abdul Latif, who would take their large family on weekend picnics and of the moonlit nights she spent dying her hands with henna.

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Guinea officials race to contain Ebola outbreak as death toll rises

Posted: 15 Feb 2021 09:43 AM PST

At least four people have died in the epidemic, causing heightened alarm across west Africa

Health officials in Guinea are racing to contain a new outbreak of Ebola that has killed at least four people and raised concerns across west Africa, which previously suffered the worst from the virus.

On Monday morning, a fourth victim died in Guinea and four others are being treated in an isolation centre, suffering vomiting, diarrhoea and bleeding. At least seven of the people who contracted the virus attended the funeral of a nurse in Goueke, a town near the Liberian border, on 1 February the government said on Sunday.

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Degrees of racism: how heat is radically altering Americans' lives before they're even born – video

Posted: 16 Feb 2021 12:01 AM PST

Even before a child is born in the US, their race plays a huge part in how they'll experience heat and pollution. 

It starts with America's history of racist housing policies that segregated families of color into undesirable neighborhoods – and we can actually see the effects of those policies today: lots of pavement, little green space, and ultimately more heat. Meanwhile, in areas where white families live, the neighborhoods tend to have a lot more trees and shade, which leads to less heat. And as the climate warms, it's black families who are most likely to be stuck in extremely hot areas.

Recent research is showing us that this isn't just about being uncomfortable. Heat has an effect on everything – from pregnancies to our long-term health to our ability to learn.

As part of our environmental justice series, the Guardian's Alvin Chang and Oliver Milman explain how the climate criss and race have become inextricably linked in the US

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'I'm focused on results': Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on becoming first African female WTO leader – video

Posted: 15 Feb 2021 02:21 PM PST

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said she was focused on delivering results after becoming the first woman and first African to be appointed director general of the World Trade Organization. 'I want to make sure that people remember my continent producing the first leader of the WTO that made a difference,' Okonjo-Iweala said.

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Hundreds of Florida manatees filmed basking alongside dolphins – video

Posted: 15 Feb 2021 12:34 PM PST

Almost 200 threatened Florida manatees have been filmed together basking in shallow waters off the state's west coast. The remarkable drone footage also shows a pod of playful dolphins swimming through the group. The video of the manatees and dolphins at play, taken by See Through Canoe, is unusual in that it captures the species together in such high numbers. The Florida fish and wildlife conservation commission estimates that only about 7,500 manatees exist in the wild in the south-eastern US.

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Johnson says end of lockdown must be 'cautious but irreversible' – video

Posted: 15 Feb 2021 08:22 AM PST

The prime minister said the government would provide target dates for sectors to reopen 'if we possibly can' when he reveals his plan for easing lockdown next week. Speaking to broadcasters in Kent, Johnson said: 'The dates that we will be setting out will be the dates by which we hope we can do something at the earliest'

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