World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk |
- Revealed: seafood fraud happening on a vast global scale
- Myanmar military condemned for 'appalling' violence as Yangon martial law brought in
- Grammy awards 2021: women rule as Taylor Swift and Beyoncé break records
- Beijing skies turn orange as sandstorm and pollution send readings off the scale
- Brittany Higgins addresses March 4 Justice rally as women demand action across Australia
- Teen Vogue: controversy continues after editor-in-chief apologizes for anti-Asian tweets
- Cressida Dick refuses to quit over vigil policing and dismisses 'armchair critics'
- IRA Brighton bomber 'scouted Labour conference seven years earlier'
- New studies to examine racial inequality in UK art and music
- Angela Merkel's CDU slumps to historic lows in former strongholds
- Spain to launch trial of four-day working week
- Coronavirus live news: AstraZeneca finds 'no evidence' of blood clot risk as Netherlands suspends vaccine
- There's no proof the Oxford vaccine causes blood clots. So why are people worried? | David Spiegelhalter
- Green Gables care home restarts family visits – a photo essay
- The best books to understand vaccines– and why some refuse them
- Tim Berners-Lee: ‘We need social networks where bad things happen less’
- 'We won't give up’: new generation of activists keep Syria's revolution alive
- Netherlands election: Mark Rutte set to win big – but what next?
- The death of Zaw Myat Lynn: allegations torture used on opposition activist in Myanmar
- Why Britain is tilting to the Indo-Pacific region
- Boy on Fire by Mark Mordue review – Nick Cave's pre-fame years
- Sarah Everard: officers investigating killing cordon off area in Sandwich
- Andrea Sahouri on her BLM protest arrest: 'I was the only journalist of color and the only journalist arrested'
- Toolbox murders: three men jailed for life for 'sadistic' killing in Queensland
- What price a child's life? India's quest to make rare disease drugs affordable
- Has the pandemic led to a long-term erosion of the right to dissent?
- Livestreaming bill introduced after Christchurch could criminalise innocent people | Anjum Rahman
- Yo-Yo Ma plays cello in vaccine waiting room in Massachusetts – video
- 'Police are trying to silence us': officers clash with mourners at Sarah Everard vigil – video
| Revealed: seafood fraud happening on a vast global scale Posted: 14 Mar 2021 11:00 PM PDT Guardian analysis of 44 studies finds nearly 40% of 9,000 products from restaurants, markets and fishmongers were mislabelled A Guardian Seascape analysis of 44 recent studies of more than 9,000 seafood samples from restaurants, fishmongers and supermarkets in more than 30 countries found that 36% were mislabelled, exposing seafood fraud on a vast global scale. Many of the studies used relatively new DNA analysis techniques. In one comparison of sales of fish labelled "snapper" by fishmongers, supermarkets and restaurants in Canada, the US, the UK, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand, researchers found mislabelling in about 40% of fish tested. The UK and Canada had the highest rates of mislabelling in that study, at 55%, followed by the US at 38%. Continue reading... |
| Myanmar military condemned for 'appalling' violence as Yangon martial law brought in Posted: 14 Mar 2021 09:56 PM PDT UN figures and UK ambassador latest to criticise killing of protesters before Aung San Suu Kyi court appearance The mass killings by Myanmar's security forces on Sunday have been condemned by the UK and the UN as "appalling" and "heartbreaking", as the death toll rose to 44, making it the deadliest single day since the coup. Sunday's violence brings the number of people killed in mass protests since the military seized power from the civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi to more than 120, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a monitoring group. Continue reading... |
| Grammy awards 2021: women rule as Taylor Swift and Beyoncé break records Posted: 15 Mar 2021 12:20 AM PDT The Covid-restrained Grammys were a mostly female-fronted affair, with wins for Billie Eilish, Megan Thee Stallion, Dua Lipa, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift It was a historic, triumphant night for women in music at the 2021 Grammys, as a range of female artists took home the top awards. HER took home song of the year for the Black Lives Matter anthem I Can't Breathe, Taylor Swift became the first woman to win album of the year three times, and the rapper Megan Thee Stallion won both best new artist and best rap performance for her Savage remix with Beyoncé, now the most awarded singer (male or female) and female artist of all time. Related: Grammy awards 2021: the full list of winners Continue reading... |
| Beijing skies turn orange as sandstorm and pollution send readings off the scale Posted: 14 Mar 2021 09:51 PM PDT Capital of China suffers 'hazardous' levels of air pollution with authorities issuing second-highest safety alert A massive sandstorm has combined with already high air pollution to turn the skies in Beijing an eerie orange, and send some air quality measurements off the charts. Air quality indexes recorded a "hazardous" 999 rating on Monday as commuters travelled to work through the thick, dark air across China's capital and further west. Continue reading... |
| Brittany Higgins addresses March 4 Justice rally as women demand action across Australia Posted: 15 Mar 2021 01:20 AM PDT Former Liberal staffer and Grace Tame among those to address tens of thousands of protesters calling for an end to gender-based violence Brittany Higgins' voice shook as she addressed the crowd outside Parliament House in Canberra. She had decided at the last minute to speak to more than a thousand people, mainly women, holding signs calling for justice for women, for sexual assault survivors and for Higgins herself, who has alleged she was raped by a colleague inside Parliament House. Continue reading... |
| Teen Vogue: controversy continues after editor-in-chief apologizes for anti-Asian tweets Posted: 14 Mar 2021 12:18 PM PDT Ulta Beauty 'paused' advertising campaign with the magazine because of Alexi McCammond's tweets Controversy around the new Teen Vogue editor-in-chief, Alexi McCammond, continues after she apologized for tweeting anti-Asian remarks in 2011. McCammond apologised for the tweets in 2019 and again this week, calling them "offensive, idiotic" posts. On Thursday she posted a new statement to Twitter in which she said: "I've dedicated my career to giving a voice to the voiceless, and the last thing I'd ever want is to make anyone – especially our Asian brothers and sisters in particular – feel more invisible," she wrote. "And I know that that is a unique source of pain in all of this, too: That historically the AAPI [Asian American and Pacific Islander] community has been left out or ignored in critical conversations around race, racism, justice and equality. I am determined to play a part in changing that." Continue reading... |
| Cressida Dick refuses to quit over vigil policing and dismisses 'armchair critics' Posted: 14 Mar 2021 05:23 PM PDT Metropolitan police chief stands firm after criticism from London mayor and home secretary Britain's most senior police chief defied pressure to resign as she dismissed "armchair" critics amid widespread outrage over officers manhandling women who were mourning the killing of Sarah Everard. Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan police commissioner, was publicly rebuked by the home secretary, Priti Patel, and the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, for providing an unsatisfactory explanation of why police broke up a vigil for Everard in London's Clapham Common on Saturday, near where she was allegedly abducted before being murdered. Continue reading... |
| IRA Brighton bomber 'scouted Labour conference seven years earlier' Posted: 15 Mar 2021 12:00 AM PDT Patrick Magee says he was in IRA team that visited town in 1977 to potentially target government figures The IRA bomber who almost wiped out Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative cabinet in 1984 secretly scouted a Labour party conference in Brighton seven years earlier, he has disclosed. Patrick Magee surveilled the Brighton conference centre in October 1977 when the IRA sought to hit back at the then Labour government for its policies in Northern Ireland. Continue reading... |
| New studies to examine racial inequality in UK art and music Posted: 15 Mar 2021 12:00 AM PDT Exclusive: pioneering surveys aim to use data to drive 'positive and lasting change' in arts sector Leading equal rights organisations in the UK have announced a landmark research commission into racial inequality in the art sector, as a new organisation called Black Lives in Music also aims to tackle racial inequality in the music industry. The Runnymede Trust, a race equality thinktank, and Freelands Foundation have partnered to deliver the first major commission into how black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) students are excluded from art education. Continue reading... |
| Angela Merkel's CDU slumps to historic lows in former strongholds Posted: 14 Mar 2021 12:32 PM PDT State election results could be sign tide is turning against conservatives as country gears up for national poll Angela Merkel's party has slumped to historic lows in two former stronghold regions at state elections, in a sign that the tide may be turning against Germany's conservatives just as the country gears up for a national vote in six months' time. The incumbent Green premier of Baden-Württemberg and the Social Democrat leader of Rhineland-Palatinate both look certain to retain their offices in the two south-western states, after exit polls showed significant losses for the second-placed Christian Democratic Union (CDU) on Sunday. Continue reading... |
| Spain to launch trial of four-day working week Posted: 14 Mar 2021 10:00 PM PDT Government agrees to proposal from leftwing party Más País allowing companies to test reduced hours Spain could become one of the first countries in the world to trial the four-day working week after the government agreed to launch a modest pilot project for companies interested in the idea. Earlier this year, the small leftwing Spanish party Más País announced that the government had accepted its proposal to test out the idea. Talks have since been held, with the next meeting expected to take place in the coming weeks. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 15 Mar 2021 01:30 AM PDT Netherlands temporary suspension of AstraZeneca Covid vaccine to be in place until at least 29 March; AstraZeneca says a review of 17m people has shown no evidence of an increased risk of blood clots
Hong Kong authorities have said that the city's vaccine scheme is to be widened to include those aged between 30-60 years old and domestic workers, as they aim to increase take up amongst residents in the Asian financial hub. Reuters reports: People have been relatively slow to come forward for vaccination since Hong Kong began unrolling its programme in February, starting with a vaccine made by China's Sinovac Biotech. The Pfizer/BioNTtech vaccine was added earlier this month. Around 190,000 people have received their first vaccination dose, around 2.5% of the city's population. At least six people have died and several fallen seriously ill after receiving a vaccination by China's Sinovac. The government said no direct link was established between the the vaccine and the first two deaths, while the other deaths were still being analysed.
A 60-year old Danish woman who died of a blood clot after receiving AstraZeneca's Covid vaccine had "highly unusual" symptoms, the Danish medicines agency has said. AFP reports: It said the woman had a low number of blood platelets and clots in small and large vessels, as well as bleeding. European vaccination programmes have been upset in the last two weeks by reports that recipients of the AstraZeneca inoculation have suffered blood clots. The European Medicines Agency has said there is no indication that the events were caused by the vaccination, a view that was echoed by the World Health Organization on Friday. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 15 Mar 2021 12:00 AM PDT It's human nature to spot patterns in data. But we should be careful about finding causal links where none may exist Stories about people getting blood clots soon after taking the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine have become a source of anxiety among European leaders. After a report on a death and three hospitalisations in Norway, which found serious blood clotting in adults who had received the vaccine, Ireland has temporarily suspended the jab. Some anxiety about a new vaccine is understandable, and any suspected reactions should be investigated. But in the current circumstances we need to think slow as well as fast, and resist drawing causal links between events where none may exist. As Ireland's deputy chief medical officer, Ronan Glynn, has stressed, there is no proof that this vaccine causes blood clots. It's a common human tendency to attribute a causal effect between different events, even when there isn't one present: we wash the car and the next day a bird relieves itself all over the bonnet. Typical. Or, more seriously, someone is diagnosed with autism after receiving the MMR vaccine, so people assume a causal connection – even when there isn't one. And now, people get blood clots after having a vaccine, leading to concern over whether the vaccine is what caused the blood clots. Continue reading... |
| Green Gables care home restarts family visits – a photo essay Posted: 14 Mar 2021 11:00 PM PDT Photographer Christopher Bethell's very personal project documents the residents of Green Gables care home, who this week have finally been allowed to have a family visitor to see them For the first time since the beginning of England's first national lockdown, I saw my mum sit down next to my gran's bed to hold her hand and comfort her. It was 8 March, the first day of regulations being loosened to let children back into schools and allow care home residents to be visited by their loved ones. The rules permit only one visitor, so I watched through her window. Continue reading... |
| The best books to understand vaccines– and why some refuse them Posted: 14 Mar 2021 11:00 PM PDT As Covid-19 vaccinations gain speed around the world, Eula Biss picks books that explore this huge advance in medical science Exactly one year ago, I began to search my bookshelves for Daniel Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year. By the time I remembered that I had returned it to the library, the library was closed, and so was my child's school, and we seemed to be living through a new adaptation of that novel. In 1665, Defoe's narrator wanders the empty streets of London, where quarantines and curfews have been imposed. He tracks the rising and falling numbers reported by the weekly bills of mortality and witnesses a mass burial. All this now feels eerily current, but I first read that book to learn about what life was like before the advent of vaccination. A Journal of the Plague Year was published in 1722, long before germ theory was validated. Defoe's narrator mentions a curious rumour that disease might be caused by tiny dragons visible only through the lens of a microscope. He then dismisses that possibility as fanciful and highly improbable. Continue reading... |
| Tim Berners-Lee: ‘We need social networks where bad things happen less’ Posted: 14 Mar 2021 11:00 PM PDT The father of the world wide web talks about its first 30 years, the rise of the toxic internet – and whether Facebook needs to be broken up Zoom being Zoom, Tim Berners-Lee's name appears in my browser window about 20 seconds before his audio and video feed kick in – and for a brief moment, the prospect of talking online to the inventor of the world wide web seems so full of symbolism and significance that it threatens to take my breath away. During the hour we spend talking, that thought never fully recedes – but the reality is inevitably rather more prosaic: a 65-year-old man in a slightly crumpled, light blue polo shirt, talking – usually at high speed – from his home a dozen or so miles from Oxford, at a desk positioned just next to a fancy-looking model house ("I think that's a mansard roof," he says). For all that he is one of a tiny group of people who can claim to have fundamentally changed how most of us live – which explains why he had a role in Danny Boyle's opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympics – he carries himself with a striking lack of star power. He could probably walk down the average high street unrecognised; as if to underline that the human race may now have its priorities slightly wrong, at 345,000, his Twitter followers number less than 5% of Piers Morgan's. Continue reading... |
| 'We won't give up’: new generation of activists keep Syria's revolution alive Posted: 14 Mar 2021 10:00 PM PDT In the few areas not retaken by Assad's forces, people gather to reiterate the same demands protesters made a decade ago Kasem's teenage years were spent living under siege in the city of Homs, where friends and relatives disappeared in regime prisons and her family lived much of the time without electricity, struggling to secure food and medicine. All the while, Bashar al-Assad's air force dropped barrel bombs and cluster munitions on their neighbourhood. When the city fell, the Kasems were faced with a choice millions more would make during the course of the war: stay and face Assad's troops, who would treat them like terrorists, or flee to Idlib province – also unstable, but at least outside regime control. Continue reading... |
| Netherlands election: Mark Rutte set to win big – but what next? Posted: 14 Mar 2021 10:00 PM PDT Analysis: PM is on course for fourth term in office. What is his secret and how is next coalition government likely to look? The outgoing prime minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, appears headed for a comprehensive victory and fourth successive term in office as the Dutch go to the polls in national elections on Monday, with voting spread over three days due to coronavirus restrictions. Polls predict Rutte, who has headed three coalition governments of different political complexions since 2010, and his centre-right People's party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) will win twice as many parliamentary seats as his nearest rival. Continue reading... |
| The death of Zaw Myat Lynn: allegations torture used on opposition activist in Myanmar Posted: 14 Mar 2021 09:00 PM PDT Photographs seen by the Guardian testify to the gruesome death suffered by prominent community leader
Under cover of darkness, the soldiers rolled up outside a school building on the outskirts of Myanmar's main city, Yangon. It was 1.30am. The military began searching the Suu Vocational College, in the north-west suburb of Shwe Pyi Thar. They moved swiftly from room to room. They had come to arrest Zaw Myat Lynn, a prominent community organiser and teacher. He was an activist with the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party of Aung San Suu Kyi. In November, the NLD won a landslide election victory. It was in power until last month, when the military abruptly ended civilian rule. Continue reading... |
| Why Britain is tilting to the Indo-Pacific region Posted: 15 Mar 2021 12:00 AM PDT Critics warn of imperial fantasy but the economic and political forces pulling the UK back to the region are real Some will call it a tilt, others a rebalancing and yet others a pivot but, either way, the new big idea due to emerge from the government's foreign and defence policy review on Tuesday will be the importance of the Indo-Pacific region – a British return east of Suez more than 50 years after the then defence secretary Denis Healey announced the UK's cash-strapped retreat in 1968. Boris Johnson and his admirals are billing the focus on a zone stretching through some of the world's most vital seaways east from India to Japan and south from China to Australia as Britain stepping out in the world after 47 years locked in the EU's protectionist cupboard. Others warn Johnson is indulging a hubristic and militarily dangerous imperial fantasy. Continue reading... |
| Boy on Fire by Mark Mordue review – Nick Cave's pre-fame years Posted: 15 Mar 2021 12:00 AM PDT This thorough portrait of the artist as an adolescent uncovers the passions and environmental factors that shaped the rock great's singular style At 63, the singer-songwriter Nick Cave cuts an urbane, almost sanctified figure. Currently based in Brighton, this erudite career artist's recurring preoccupation, since the 2015 death of Arthur, one of his teenage sons, has been transmuting profound grief into beauty. For many decades, though, Cave fronted a series of bands whose confrontational performances dealt in threat, derangement and deeply corporeal concerns. In his 20s, he was a goth poster boy, a heroin addict whose musings on toxic masculinity and God, outlaws and perdition fuelled a succession of swaggering bands and a lasting myth. Continue reading... |
| Sarah Everard: officers investigating killing cordon off area in Sandwich Posted: 15 Mar 2021 12:13 AM PDT Path near centre of Kent town is focus of inquiry by Met police and local force Officers investigating the murder of Sarah Everard have cordoned off an area in the town of Sandwich, Kent. The 33-year-old went missing while walking home from a friend's flat in south London on 3 March, and her body was found on 10 March. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 14 Mar 2021 09:00 PM PDT The Des Moines Register reporter speaks about her arrest while covering a protest against police brutality: 'I did my job and I did it correctly' Six days after the murder of George Floyd, the Des Moines Register journalist Andrea Sahouri went to work. The public safety reporter was assigned to cover one of the many protests against police brutality happening around the country, set to take place outside Merle Hay Mall, a shopping complex near the city center of Des Moines, Iowa. Continue reading... |
| Toolbox murders: three men jailed for life for 'sadistic' killing in Queensland Posted: 15 Mar 2021 01:26 AM PDT Judge brands acts 'unspeakable evil' after Cory Breton and Iuliana Triscaru were locked in a toolbox and thrown in lagoon Three men convicted of the "sadistic" murders of two drug dealers whose bodies were locked in a toolbox and submerged in a Queensland lagoon have been sentenced to life in prison. A fourth man found guilty of manslaughter will serve 12 years behind bars. Continue reading... |
| What price a child's life? India's quest to make rare disease drugs affordable Posted: 14 Mar 2021 11:45 PM PDT Parents whose only hope was finding foreign sponsorship or a clinical trial are now looking for homegrown breakthroughs For three years, Vidya tried to find the cause of her son's recurrent fevers and low cognitive development. When she found out, she was devastated. Vineeth, 10, has an incurable illness – mucopolysaccharidosis type 2 – that affects his organs. Afflicting just one in a million, the enzyme-replacement medication that can help stop the illness getting any worse costs £100,000 a year, far beyond the reach of even a wealthier Indian parent. Continue reading... |
| Has the pandemic led to a long-term erosion of the right to dissent? Posted: 14 Mar 2021 10:49 AM PDT Analysis: the police's handling of the Sarah Everard vigil raises questions over whether authorities are going too far Defending the Metropolitan police's handling of Saturday night's Sarah Everard vigil, assistant commissioner Helen Ball argued the force had to act "because of the overriding need to protect people's safety" from the threat of coronavirus. Yet last year's Black Lives Matter protests in some 300 US cities did not cause a spike in cases there, a July report from the National Bureau of Economic Research found. The outdoor air played a part in dispelling the virus and, in cities with big rallies, infections even fell because those who did not take part stayed home instead of shopping or eating out – activities that carry a greater risk. While not an exact parallel with the Clapham Common event, it suggests even huge and noisy protests, where thousands of people are shouting and chanting, are not necessarily cauldrons for infection. And they can be done safely, according to the human rights organisation Liberty. For example a socially distanced rally was held in Tel Aviv in April last year against the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, with thousands of people shouting and waving banners each in their own space, two metres apart. Continue reading... |
| Livestreaming bill introduced after Christchurch could criminalise innocent people | Anjum Rahman Posted: 14 Mar 2021 10:00 AM PDT The government's proposal on criminalising the streaming of offensive content is open to misuse and could lead to unnecessary harassment Two years on from the horrific mass murders at Al-Noor and Linwood mosques in Christchurch, we know the grief is fresh in the hearts of many. As we think about those directly and indirectly impacted, we must also continue to think about what needs to change. In December 2020, the report of the royal commission into these events was made public. The findings were a disappointment in not holding any person or agency negligent, though the body of the report detailed a number of failings. The government has committed to implementing the 44 recommendations, with some announcements already made. Continue reading...This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Yo-Yo Ma plays cello in vaccine waiting room in Massachusetts – video Posted: 14 Mar 2021 01:25 PM PDT The renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma gives an impromptu performance in a vaccine waiting room in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, after having received his second dose of the coronavirus vaccine. He performs Ave Maria and the prelude to Bach's Cello Suite No 1 to the small number of patients waiting to receive the dose. Ma, who played for about 15 minutes, is a part-time resident of the area and wanted to 'give something back' to his community, according to a local paper, the Berkshire Eagle Continue reading... |
| 'Police are trying to silence us': officers clash with mourners at Sarah Everard vigil – video Posted: 14 Mar 2021 10:14 AM PDT The evening began in grief and silence, as hundreds gathered in south London to remember Sarah Everard and call for changes to keep women safe. The vigil ended in anger and violence, as police trampled flowers and candles laid out in tribute to Everard and tried to silence women speaking out in her memory
|
| You are subscribed to email updates from World news | The Guardian. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
Posting Komentar