World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk |
- Coronavirus live news: Japan confirms new Covid strain; rich countries stockpiling 1bn extra vaccine shots
- Myanmar protester shot in head during police crackdown dies
- How fires have spread to previously untouched parts of the world
- Mars rover landing: Nasa's Perseverance safely touches down in search of life
- Millions of Texans struggle for drinking water following deadly winter storm
- US makes official return to Paris climate pact
- Misinformation runs rampant as Facebook says it may take a week before it unblocks some pages
- Kevin Rudd says Australian politicians ‘frightened’ of ‘Murdoch media beast’ in Senate inquiry
- Iran nuclear deal: US agrees to join talks brokered by EU
- Japanese website maps neighbourhoods that have noisy children
- Ted Cruz flies to Cancún as millions of Texans freeze in the dark
- Vaccine diplomacy: west falling behind in race for influence
- How the beach 'super-spreader' myth may have hampered UK Covid reaction
- Boris Johnson to pledge surplus Covid vaccine to poorer countries at G7
- '6.2cm-tall man' offered priority Covid vaccine after NHS blunder
- Sacha Baron Cohen: 'If you’re protesting against racism, you’re going to upset some racists'
- Making a superhero: how Pelé became more myth than man | Jonathan Liew
- The scars of solitary: Albert Woodfox on freedom after 44 years in a concrete cell
- There is no I in Threesome: the film about polyamory that isn't quite what it seems
- Britney Spears: another pop princess trapped in a man-made fairytale
- The Legend of Zelda games – ranked!
- Pupils in Wales set to return to primary schools from 15 March
- Violence over jailing of rapper rocks Spain for third night
- South Africa leads backlash against big pharma over access to Covid vaccines
- 'Longest week of our lives': Texas food banks in crisis as storm disrupts supplies
- Nicaragua leaders face backlash after forming space agency amid human rights crisis
- Brittany Higgins proceeds with formal complaint about alleged rape
- The number of people in need is frightening – we need a global response | Axel van Trotsenburg
- Sydney hotel quarantine – a photo diary
- 'It was obviously a mistake': Ted Cruz on decision to fly to Mexico as Texas freezes – video
- Untold Chaos: living through Libya's wars – documentary
| Posted: 19 Feb 2021 01:45 AM PST Rich nations stockpiling one billion extra doses; WHO urges against letting guard down amid fall in cases; Japan finds new variant; immigration centre reports infections
Two Florida women aged 34 and 44 dressed up as "grannies" – wearing bonnets and gloves – to pass as old enough to be eligible for a vaccine shot, according to local media reports. WFTV, an ABC-affiliated TV station in Orlando, reports that the pair had valid vaccine cards from their first shot, but were denied their second ones, citing a news conference held by local health officials on Thursday. It quoted Orange County health Officer Dr Raul Pino as saying: I don't know how they escaped for the first time, but they came with the gloves, the glasses, the whole thing, and they are probably in their 20s. Orange County Health Officer Dr. Raul Pino told us they've increased security at the @OCCC vaccination site over this and others who've tried different approaches to get the shot. He says the two girls had valid cards from their first shots, but got held up over their IDs. @WFTV
The African Union's vaccine procurement scheme says Russia has offered 300m doses of its Sputnik V vaccine and that the offer included a financing package for member states wanting to secure the shot. It said the Sputnik V vaccine would be available for a period of 12 months starting May 2021, adding that member states had taken up all of the 270m doses previously secured from AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson in "the first allocation phase", according to Reuters. Continue reading... |
| Myanmar protester shot in head during police crackdown dies Posted: 18 Feb 2021 10:28 PM PST Grocery store worker Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing, 20, is the first protest fatality since military took control in coup two weeks ago A woman who was shot in the head by police during protests in Myanmar last week has died – the first protest fatality since the military took control in a coup more than two weeks ago. Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing, 20, had been on life support since being taken to hospital on 9 February after she was hit by what doctors said was a live bullet at a protest in the capital, Naypyitaw. Continue reading... |
| How fires have spread to previously untouched parts of the world Posted: 19 Feb 2021 01:26 AM PST Fires have always been a part of our natural world. But they're moving to new ecosystems previously untouched by fire – and this is concerning scientists Wildfires are spreading to fuel-abundant regions of the world that used to be less prone to burning, according to a new analysis of 20 years of data by the Guardian. While the overall area of annual burn in the world has remained relatively static in this period, the research indicates a shifting regional fire pattern that is affecting more forests and fewer grasslands. Continue reading... |
| Mars rover landing: Nasa's Perseverance safely touches down in search of life Posted: 18 Feb 2021 06:27 PM PST Radio signals confirmed that the six-wheeled rover had survived its perilous descent and arrived within its target zone Nasa's science rover Perseverance, the most advanced astrobiology laboratory ever sent to another world, streaked through the Martian atmosphere on Thursday and landed safely on the floor of a vast crater, its first stop on a search for traces of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet. Mission managers at Nasa's jet propulsion laboratory near Los Angeles burst into applause and cheers as radio signals confirmed that the six-wheeled rover had survived its perilous descent and arrived within its target zone inside Jezero crater, site of a long-vanished Martian lake bed. Continue reading... |
| Millions of Texans struggle for drinking water following deadly winter storm Posted: 18 Feb 2021 02:22 PM PST Record low temperatures damaged infrastructure and froze pipes, disrupting services and contaminating supplies for 12 million Millions of Texans are facing water shortages after the deadly winter storm ravaging the state caused pipes to burst and treatment plants to back up, disrupting services and contaminating supplies. Texas officials ordered 7 million people – a quarter of the population of the nation's second-largest state – to boil tap water before drinking it following days of record low temperatures that damaged infrastructure and froze pipes. Continue reading... |
| US makes official return to Paris climate pact Posted: 19 Feb 2021 01:06 AM PST World leaders expect Washington to prove commitment to accord after four years of inaction The US is back in the Paris climate accord, just 107 days after it left. While Friday's return is heavily symbolic, world leaders say they expect the US to prove its seriousness after four years of being mostly absent. They are especially keen to hear an announcement from Washington in the coming months on the US's goal for cutting emissions of heat-trapping gases by 2030. Continue reading... |
| Misinformation runs rampant as Facebook says it may take a week before it unblocks some pages Posted: 18 Feb 2021 10:21 PM PST News remains blocked as satirical websites are reinstated and Qanon and anti-vaxxers continue to be unaffected Facebook may wait up to a week before unblocking some of the pages of hundreds of non-media organisations hit by its news ban, while anti-vaccination content and misinformation continues to run rampant on the social media platform. News was blocked on Facebook in Australia on Thursday morning in response to the federal government's news media code, which would require Facebook to negotiate with news publishers for the payment for content. Continue reading... |
| Kevin Rudd says Australian politicians ‘frightened’ of ‘Murdoch media beast’ in Senate inquiry Posted: 18 Feb 2021 04:58 PM PST Former PM says his fear of the Murdoch empire persisted during his time in office and only subsided after he left The former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd has declared that Australian politicians are frightened of Rupert Murdoch – a fear that persisted when he was in the top job and subsided only when he left politics. Speaking under parliamentary privilege at Parliament House in Canberra, Rudd said the "Murdoch mob" was seeking "compliant politicians". He told an inquiry into media diversity that politicians were fearful of facing a "systematic campaign". Continue reading... |
| Iran nuclear deal: US agrees to join talks brokered by EU Posted: 18 Feb 2021 04:47 PM PST Tehran yet to answer European invitation seeking reinstatement of 2015 agreement torn up by Donald Trump The US has agreed to take part in multilateral talks with Iran hosted by the EU, with the aim of negotiating a return by both countries to the 2015 nuclear deal that is close to falling apart in the wake of the Trump administration. The state department spokesman, Ned Price, said the US would accept the invitation of the EU high representative for discussions with Iran and the five other countries that agreed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), by which Iran accepted strict constraints on its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief. Continue reading... |
| Japanese website maps neighbourhoods that have noisy children Posted: 18 Feb 2021 10:59 PM PST Gossiping adults and boisterous children are identified on the Dorozoku map, which has struck a chord in a country known for its quiet Chatty neighbours and children letting off steam on the street have become the target of a controversial website in Japan that identifies neighbourhoods where noise levels may be too much for those in search of a quieter life. The Dorozoku (street tribe) map is ablaze with colourful circles indicating places to avoid because, it says, they reverberate to the sound of children at play and adults gossiping within earshot of their neighbours. Continue reading... |
| Ted Cruz flies to Cancún as millions of Texans freeze in the dark Posted: 18 Feb 2021 05:50 PM PST
Ted Cruz has sparked outcry after the Republican senator from Texas left the state for a trip to the sunny Mexican tourist resort of Cancún, as millions of his constituents endure deadly power outages and freezing temperatures. Cruz was spotted waiting for, then later boarding, a flight to Cancún on Wednesday night. After photos of Cruz on the plane went viral on Twitter, prompting fierce criticism, the senator returned to Texas on Thursday, saying the trip was "obviously a mistake". Continue reading... |
| Vaccine diplomacy: west falling behind in race for influence Posted: 18 Feb 2021 09:00 PM PST While the UK and US strive for herd immunity, Russia and China are leveraging their Covid jabs "Today it is easier to get a nuclear weapon than to get a vaccine," the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vučić, declared in January. He was bragging. The Balkans country had just received its first shipment of almost 1m Covid-19 vaccine doses from Sinopharm, a state-owned Chinese pharmaceutical company. Since then, Serbia has augmented its stockpile with tens of thousands of shots of Russia's Sputnik V, signed an agreement to build a bottling plant for the Russian vaccine and now boasts the fastest vaccination rate in continental Europe. Continue reading... |
| How the beach 'super-spreader' myth may have hampered UK Covid reaction Posted: 18 Feb 2021 11:00 PM PST News that no outbreaks were linked to beach trips highlights important message about outdoor transmission, says expert They were images that seemed to define a hot, febrile, and dangerous summer: massed ranks of daytrippers swamping Britain's beaches, making the most of the June sunshine after months of restrictions – and, some front pages suggested, creating an appalling risk of coronavirus infection. Eight months later, the headlines tell a different story: there was no real danger at all. Continue reading... |
| Boris Johnson to pledge surplus Covid vaccine to poorer countries at G7 Posted: 18 Feb 2021 02:30 PM PST PM to counter accusations that richest countries are piling up supplies and creating global inequality Boris Johnson will lead efforts to fend off accusations that the world's richest countries are hoarding Covid vaccines by pledging at a G7 summit that the UK will donate surplus doses to poorer countries and cut to 100 days the time it takes to produce new jabs. Both Russia and China are threatening to win an escalating vaccine diplomacy war by sending their vaccines direct to Africa, while the G7 club of wealthy nations continues to pile up surplus supplies as insurance against stocks running out. Continue reading... |
| '6.2cm-tall man' offered priority Covid vaccine after NHS blunder Posted: 18 Feb 2021 05:03 AM PST Liam Thorp, whose real height is 6ft 2in, was recorded as having a BMI of 28,000 A 32-year-old man with no underlying health conditions was offered a Covid vaccine early because of a blunder at his GP surgery which recorded him as being 6.2cm tall, giving him an astonishing body mass index (BMI) of 28,000. The Liverpool Echo's political editor, Liam Thorp, said he was left "really confused" after he was offered the jab this week seemingly ahead of the government's rollout plan, and shared the "frankly surreal" experience in a Twitter thread which quickly went viral. Continue reading... |
| Sacha Baron Cohen: 'If you’re protesting against racism, you’re going to upset some racists' Posted: 18 Feb 2021 10:00 PM PST Stopping Trump, reforming Facebook and risking his life to make a Borat sequel. In an exclusive interview, the actor unveils his plans for a revolution – and reveals how it feels to come out as himself Seven months ago, Sacha Baron Cohen was in the back of a speeding ambulance. It was an escape car, and he was fleeing a gun rally. The Borat producers had chosen the ambulance as it could blend in, accommodate a small film crew and, if necessary, hasten a trip to hospital. Baron Cohen – dressed as Borat, himself disguised as a country singer – had just led the crowd of far-right conspiracy theorists in a singalong. At first, they happily joined in: "Obama, what we gonna do? / Inject him with the Wuhan flu." Then one or two smelled a rat. Then they all stormed the stage. Continue reading... |
| Making a superhero: how Pelé became more myth than man | Jonathan Liew Posted: 19 Feb 2021 12:00 AM PST Netflix's new film captures the legendary Brazilian's genius, but its lead character remains a fascinating enigma Casa Pelé, the small two‑room house in Três Corações where Pelé was born in 1940, is now a popular tourist attraction. As no photographs or descriptions of the original house have survived, it was rebuilt entirely from the memories of Pelé's mother, Dona Celeste, and his uncle Jorge, with period furniture and fixings sourced from antique shops. And so what greets visitors today is really only a vague approximation of the house where one of the world's most famous footballers spent his earliest years: a heavily curated blend of hazy memories and selective detail. As you walk in, a wireless radio plays classic songs from the early 1940s on an endless loop. As it turns out, this is also pretty much how Pelé himself is remembered these days. It's 50 years since he played his last game for Brazil. Only a fraction of his rich and prolific playing career has survived on video. The vast majority of us never saw him play live. And so for the most part, the genius of Pelé exists largely in the abstract: something you heard or read about rather than something you saw, a bequeathed fact rather than a lived experience, a processed product rather than an organic document. Continue reading... |
| The scars of solitary: Albert Woodfox on freedom after 44 years in a concrete cell Posted: 19 Feb 2021 01:00 AM PST Woodfox was a member of the Angola 3, a group of men wrongfully accused of murder. Now he marks the fifth anniversary of his freedom Every morning for almost 44 years, Albert Woodfox would awake in his 6ft by 9ft concrete cell and brace himself for the day ahead. He was America's longest-serving solitary confinement prisoner, and each day stretched before him identical to the one before. Did he have the strength, he would ask himself, to endure the torture of his prolonged isolation? Or might this be the day when he would finally lose his mind and, like so many others on the tier, suddenly start screaming and never stop? Continue reading... |
| There is no I in Threesome: the film about polyamory that isn't quite what it seems Posted: 18 Feb 2021 07:02 PM PST Warning: contains spoilers. Jan Oliver Lucks and his fiancee decided to film their attempt at an open relationship – things did not go to plan When Jan Oliver Lucks' fiancee left him for another man he was more distraught than most: she not only walked away with his heart but the end of the relationship also meant the end of the documentary they were working on. The pair had been collaborating for more than a year on a project documenting their open relationship, and when his partner decided to leave, the filming stopped too. Continue reading... |
| Britney Spears: another pop princess trapped in a man-made fairytale Posted: 19 Feb 2021 12:00 AM PST One contributor is notably absent from the new film about Britney: herself. But from Rihanna to Beyoncé to Taylor Swift, female stars have always struggled to tell their stories In the closing song of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton, we are invited to ponder the question: "Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?" It is a powerful message about legacy and ownership, as relevant to any modern public figure as it is about one of America's founding fathers. I think about this lyric whenever my mind strays to Britney Spears, who has found her life back under the microscope following the release of the documentary Framing Britney Spears. The story the film chooses to tell is contextualised by what we now understand as the rampant misogyny of the mid-to-late 00s, painting an empathic portrait of a woman who had not previously found much sympathy in the mainstream. Continue reading... |
| The Legend of Zelda games – ranked! Posted: 19 Feb 2021 12:00 AM PST As Nintendo's classic video game series comes up on its 35th anniversary, it's time to put all the main entries in their place Continue reading... |
| Pupils in Wales set to return to primary schools from 15 March Posted: 19 Feb 2021 12:10 AM PST First minister Mark Drakeford to announce no further changes to country's lockdown Primary schoolchildren in Wales will return to face-to-face teaching from 15 March if the coronavirus situation in the country "continues to improve", the first minister has said. Mark Drakeford will announce on Friday that there will be no further significant changes to the country's lockdown, with an extension of at least another three weeks to allow for a safe return to school for the youngest pupils from Monday. Continue reading... |
| Violence over jailing of rapper rocks Spain for third night Posted: 18 Feb 2021 05:14 PM PST Protesters burn barricades in centre of Barcelona as case of Pablo Hasél risks dividing ruling leftwing coalition Spanish police and protesters have clashed for a third night as the backlash against the jailing of a rapper for controversial tweets continued. Dozens of people have been arrested since Tuesday night when angry demonstrations erupted after police detained Pablo Hasél, 32, who had been holed up in a university in Catalonia to avoid going to jail in a highly contentious free speech case. Continue reading... |
| South Africa leads backlash against big pharma over access to Covid vaccines Posted: 18 Feb 2021 10:00 PM PST Pressure mounts for patent waivers to allow poorer countries to develop their own manufacturing capacity to boost availability The domination of global medicine by major pharmaceutical companies needs to be confronted to provide fairer access to vaccines, a leading South African official has said. The scramble over Covid vaccines should alert rich countries to the power of profit-driven companies that control production of crucial medicines, said Mustaqeem De Gama, South Africa's delegate at the World Trade Organization (WTO) on intellectual property rights. Continue reading... |
| 'Longest week of our lives': Texas food banks in crisis as storm disrupts supplies Posted: 18 Feb 2021 11:00 PM PST With grocery stores empty and school meals suspended, the need for food is soaring – even as weather forces pantries to close Food banks in Texas have gone into disaster mode as they ramp up operations to tackle a surge in hunger after unprecedented freezing conditions disrupted almost every part of the food supply chain in the state. Grocery stores are empty, school meal programs suspended, and deliveries disrupted by untreated treacherous roads that have left millions of Texans trapped in precarious living conditions with dwindling food supplies. Continue reading... |
| Nicaragua leaders face backlash after forming space agency amid human rights crisis Posted: 18 Feb 2021 04:12 PM PST Critics say President Daniel Ortega is attempting to distract from his dismal human rights record and poor response to the pandemic Nicaragua has created a new National Ministry for Extraterrestrial Space Affairs, The Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, prompting scorn from critics in a nation experiencing a steady erosion of human rights since a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests three years ago. The new space agency was approved by 76 legislators Wednesday in the country's congress, which is dominated by President Daniel Ortega's Sandinista party. Fifteen opposition legislators abstained. Continue reading... |
| Brittany Higgins proceeds with formal complaint about alleged rape Posted: 19 Feb 2021 12:01 AM PST Former Liberal staffer calls for police to act swiftly, saying she wants alleged perpetrator to face 'full force of law' Brittany Higgins has re-engaged with Australia's federal police and is proceeding with a formal complaint about her alleged rape in Parliament House, while calling for a "truly independent investigation" and widespread reform to the way staffers are treated. Late on Friday, Higgins released a statement confirming she was pressing ahead with a formal complaint about her alleged rape, something she says occurred "in what should be the safest building in Australia". She had previously signalled to the Guardian that she intended to do so. Continue reading... |
| The number of people in need is frightening – we need a global response | Axel van Trotsenburg Posted: 18 Feb 2021 11:15 PM PST We can rise to the challenge of a green, resilient and inclusive recovery from Covid, but only if critical changes are made The numbers are well-publicised but bear repeating. Around 120 million more people were pushed into extreme poverty in 2020, a number that could rise to 150 million in 2021. An estimated 250 million jobs have been lost around the world, and the number of people affected by acute food insecurity was estimated to have doubled to 272 million by the end of last year. A decade of progress in the most fragile countries wiped out. Let's put a human dimension on these numbers. More than a billion children have been out of school during the Covid-19 pandemic, and girls are much less likely to return to the classroom. Continue reading... |
| Sydney hotel quarantine – a photo diary Posted: 18 Feb 2021 11:00 PM PST The photographer Jillian Edelstein flew to Australia in December to visit her mother, who had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in October. On arrival in Sydney she was bussed to a police hotel. A quarantine exemption was refused so she had to endure a 14-day wait before being able to see her mum. These images form her very personal diary of that experience, some of which she shared on Instagram, edited for publication Continue reading... |
| 'It was obviously a mistake': Ted Cruz on decision to fly to Mexico as Texas freezes – video Posted: 18 Feb 2021 09:33 PM PST Ted Cruz has provoked an outcry after the Republican senator from Texas left the state for a trip to the sunny Mexican tourist resort of Cancún, as millions of his constituents endured deadly power outages and freezing temperatures. Cruz was spotted waiting for, then later boarding, a flight to Cancún on Wednesday night. A day later, after the images went viral, he returned to Texas
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| Untold Chaos: living through Libya's wars – documentary Posted: 18 Feb 2021 05:00 AM PST At the end of his US presidency, Barack Obama said his worst mistake was failing to plan for the day after the intervention in Libya. What followed was chaos. Filmed over seven years, this is an observational mosaic, capturing the feeling of a country in the hands of warlords and a proxy war, while a divided political process and a fragile international peace deal loom. Yet across besieged cities and vast deserts, through ancient languages, diversities and divisions, we glimpse a quest for democracy and a thirst for reconciliation from those who are often unseen and unrepresented Continue reading... |
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