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

Alexei Navalny looks gaunt as he appears in court after hunger strike
Biden’s speech to Congress is a once unthinkable call for transformation | David Smith's sketch
Coronavirus live news: India reports record new infections, deaths; Ireland to reopen economy in May
World will lose 10% of glacier ice even if it hits climate targets
Boris Johnson furious as inquiry launched into ‘cash for curtains’
China launches first module of new space station
Electric vehicles on world’s roads expected to increase to 145m by 2030
Stinging wasps are precious, not pointless, say scientists
Thai students in deteriorating health after hunger strike, say lawyers
Poussin painting ‘copy’ to hang in main galleries with new label
Belarus was given boot from Eurovision over ‘no dissent’ songs
Arundhati Roy on India’s Covid catastrophe: ‘We are witnessing a crime against humanity’
Explainer: why is getting medical oxygen for Covid patients in some countries so difficult?
‘Covid is just an excuse’: the scandal of Rome’s saturated cemeteries
Border dispute casts shadow over China’s offers of Covid help for India
The big squeeze: welcome to the pelvic floor revolution
Substack: the future of news – or a media pyramid scheme?
End of the ice: New Zealand’s vanishing glaciers
Life finds a way: in search of England’s lost, forgotten rainforests
‘It’s about self-love’: the black women busting beauty myths in west Africa
Killer farm robot dispatches weeds with electric bolts
Royal Mint unveils giant £10,000 gold coin
Here Are the Young Men review – Anya Taylor-Joy and the bad boys
From the archives: Remembrance of tastes past: Syria’s disappearing food culture – podcast
‘I am not my trauma’: survivors of sexual abuse at a Ugandan girls’ shelter – photo essay
Josh Hawley rails at big tech firms but records show he has invested in them
Amlo calls decision to disqualify candidates ‘a blow to democracy’
Leppington triangle: Coalition’s $30m purchase of airport land ‘incompetent or corrupt’
Almost 30 million will need aid in Sahel this year as crisis worsens, UN warns
Heavenly Harmony: China launches first module of new space station – video
Biden declares ‘America is on the move again’ in first congressional address – video
Huge sandstorm engulfs towns in China – video
Grant Shapps: NHS app will be Covid ‘vaccine passport’ for foreign travel – video
Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year 2021 – winners

Alexei Navalny looks gaunt as he appears in court after hunger strike

Posted: 29 Apr 2021 02:03 AM PDT

Kremlin critic makes first public appearance since announcing last week he was gradually ending hunger strike

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has appeared in court via a video link from jail, looking gaunt after a hunger strike.

The 44-year-old is serving a two-and-a-half-year jail sentence for parole violations on an earlier conviction that he says was politically motivated.

Biden’s speech to Congress is a once unthinkable call for transformation | David Smith's sketch

Posted: 28 Apr 2021 09:55 PM PDT

Sketch: The president went big in an address that offered post-Trump healing and an image of a new era

It has always been Washington's version of the Oscars: a primetime TV audience, an overlong speech and fierce disagreement among critics.

On Wednesday, Joe Biden's first address to a joint session of Congress, on the eve of his first 100 days in office, followed the Academy Awards with a small, physically distanced gathering that, given the US president's love of trains, might have switched to a railway station too.

Coronavirus live news: India reports record new infections, deaths; Ireland to reopen economy in May

Posted: 29 Apr 2021 02:27 AM PDT

India's total case numbers pass 18m; Ireland to reopen retail, personal services and construction; nearly 1 in 50 people worldwide have had Covid

10.27am BST

Covid-19 case rates in the UK have dropped below 50 cases per 100,000 people in more than 95% of local areas, new analysis by PA shows.

It is the first time since the start of September that as many as 19 in 20 areas have seen their rates plunge below such a symbolic level. Around one in 10 areas are recording rates in single figures.

10.18am BST

Just a very quick Reuters snap here that South Korea's drug safety ministry has said that Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine and a shot developed by Novavax have been submitted for preliminary regulatory approval.

World will lose 10% of glacier ice even if it hits climate targets

Posted: 29 Apr 2021 02:22 AM PDT

Exclusive: loss is equivalent to more than 13,200 cubic kilometres of water or 10m Wembley Stadiums

A tenth of the world's mountain glacier ice will have melted by the middle of this century even if humanity meets the goals of the Paris climate agreement, according to figures compiled exclusively for the Guardian.

The loss is equivalent to more than 13,200 cubic kilometres of water – enough to fill Lake Superior, or more than 10m Wembley Stadiums – with knock-on effects on highly populated river deltas, wildlife habitats and sea levels.

Boris Johnson furious as inquiry launched into ‘cash for curtains’

Posted: 28 Apr 2021 12:32 PM PDT

Electoral Commission believes there are 'reasonable grounds' to suspect offences around renovation of 11 Downing Street

The Electoral Commission has launched an inquiry that has the potential to imperil Boris Johnson's premiership as the "cash for curtains" row increasingly engulfed the prime minister.

With sweeping powers to call witnesses and refer matters to the police, the watchdog said its probe was necessary because it already believed there were "reasonable grounds" to suspect that payments for expensive renovations to Johnson's Downing Street flat could constitute several offences.

China launches first module of new space station

Posted: 28 Apr 2021 09:46 PM PDT

The space station is expected to become fully operational in 2022 after about 10 missions to bring up more parts and assemble them in orbit

China has launched the first module of its new space station, a milestone in Beijing's ambitious plan to place a permanent human presence in space.

The Tianhe or "Heavenly Harmony" unmanned core module, containing living quarters for three crew, was launched from Wenchang in China's Hainan province on a Long-March 5B rocket on Thursday.

Electric vehicles on world’s roads expected to increase to 145m by 2030

Posted: 28 Apr 2021 10:00 PM PDT

Under existing climate policies, electric vehicles could wipe out use of 2m barrels a day of diesel and petrol

The number of electric cars, vans, trucks and buses on the world's roads is on course to increase from 11m vehicles to 145m by the end of the decade, which could wipe out demand for millions of barrels of oil every day.

A report by the International Energy Agency has found that there could be 230m electric vehicles worldwide by 2030 if governments agreed to encourage the production of enough low-carbon vehicles to stay within global climate targets.

Stinging wasps are precious, not pointless, say scientists

Posted: 28 Apr 2021 11:00 PM PDT

Much-hated insects are voracious predators of pests, produce powerful antibiotics and pollinate plants

For those who have asked what the point of wasps is, there is now a comprehensive answer. They are voracious predators of pest insects, produce powerful antibiotics in their venom, pollinate plants and even make a nutritious snack.

The benefits to humans of the much-hated insects are revealed in the first major scientific review of the ecosystem services they provide. It focused on the 33,000 known species of hunting wasps, which carry stings and live in every corner of the world.

Thai students in deteriorating health after hunger strike, say lawyers

Posted: 29 Apr 2021 12:37 AM PDT

Parit Chiwarak, one of students jailed over protests calling for monarchy reform, is unable to stand, lawyer says

Two Thai students imprisoned for leading mass protests that called for reform of the monarchy are in deteriorating health after spending up to six weeks on hunger strike, their lawyers have said.

A lawyer acting for Parit Chiwarak, 23, who is known by the nickname Penguin, said he had fatigue, constant dizziness and was unable to stand. Parit began a hunger strike on 15 March to protest against his pre-trial detention.

Poussin painting ‘copy’ to hang in main galleries with new label

Posted: 29 Apr 2021 12:00 AM PDT

The Triumph of Silenus was relegated to storerooms but new study casts it in a new light

It was bought by the National Gallery in the 1820s as a painting by Nicolas Poussin, the 17th-century French master. But The Triumph of Silenus – a bacchanalian revel – has long been relegated to the storerooms, having been repeatedly rejected by some of the 20th-century's foremost experts as a mere copy.

Now doubts about the picture have been dispelled and it will hang in the main galleries with a new label bearing Poussin's name.

Belarus was given boot from Eurovision over ‘no dissent’ songs

Posted: 28 Apr 2021 10:00 PM PDT

Decision taken despite the risk of politicising music competition, head of European Broadcasting Union says

Belarus had to be banned from this year's Eurovision after it repeatedly submitted songs calling for "no dissent" despite the risk of the decision politicising the music competition, the head of the event's organising body has said.

Noel Curran, director general of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the industry body that produces the annual international competition, said a stand needed to be taken with Belarus cracking down on anti-government protests, while also conceding the danger of stoking controversy over future country submissions.

Arundhati Roy on India’s Covid catastrophe: ‘We are witnessing a crime against humanity’

Posted: 28 Apr 2021 03:50 PM PDT

It's hard to convey the full depth and range of the trauma, the chaos and the indignity that people are being subjected to. Meanwhile, Modi and his allies are telling us not to complain

During a particularly polarising election campaign in the state of Uttar Pradesh in 2017, India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, waded into the fray to stir things up even further. From a public podium, he accused the state government – which was led by an opposition party – of pandering to the Muslim community by spending more on Muslim graveyards (kabristans) than on Hindu cremation grounds (shamshans). With his customary braying sneer, in which every taunt and barb rises to a high note mid-sentence before it falls away in a menacing echo, he stirred up the crowd. "If a kabristan is built in a village, a shamshan should also be constructed there," he said.

"Shamshan! Shamshan!" the mesmerised, adoring crowd echoed back.

Explainer: why is getting medical oxygen for Covid patients in some countries so difficult?

Posted: 28 Apr 2021 06:50 PM PDT

As India's hospitals struggle to keep pace with demand, the pandemic has exposed global market failures, lack of knowledge and anticipation

New waves of the Covid-19 pandemic in countries, such as India and Kenya have exposed the poor management of oxygen supplies. Prof Trevor Duke, editor of the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines on oxygen therapy for children, answered questions on what countries with limited resources can do to secure better supplies.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

‘Covid is just an excuse’: the scandal of Rome’s saturated cemeteries

Posted: 28 Apr 2021 09:00 PM PDT

Funeral directors say up to 2,000 bodies await burial or cremation in warehouses at Prima Porta cemetery

Steps away from a warehouse containing row upon row of coffins at Prima Porta cemetery in Rome, anger simmered among a group of about 12 funeral workers queueing up outside the administrative office.

Some were there to deliver bodies for burial or cremation, others to collect the ashes of the deceased cremated months ago. "It's a tragic, shameful situation," said Maurizio, a funeral company worker. "Just look around you – we're all waiting. They blame it on coronavirus, but that's just an excuse. This is how it is every day."

Border dispute casts shadow over China’s offers of Covid help for India

Posted: 28 Apr 2021 09:00 PM PDT

Analysis: some in China see India's crisis as a diplomatic opportunity but tensions from last summer remain high

As coronavirus rages across India, its neighbour China has made repeated offers of help. Some are asking whether this could be an occasion to ease the tense relations between the world's two most populous countries following last year's border skirmishes.

China's foreign minister, Wang Yi, said this week that Beijing was "ready to provide support and assistance to the Indian people at any time according to the needs of India". A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Delhi said it would "encourage and instruct Chinese companies to actively cooperate".

The big squeeze: welcome to the pelvic floor revolution

Posted: 28 Apr 2021 10:00 PM PDT

There are books, podcasts, apps and devices devoted to it. But what's behind this new obsession with a strong pelvic floor?

If you want to know about the wonders of a healthy pelvic floor, you could do worse than look to Coco Berlin, who styles herself "Germany's most famous belly dancer". Berlin started belly dancing in 2002, but it wasn't until a few years later, when she went to Egypt to study dancers there, that she wondered why they were so much better. She concluded they were seriously in touch with their pelvic floor, the internal muscular structure that supports the internal organs and prevents incontinence, among other important functions.

"When I connected to my pelvic floor, for the first time in my life, I had this feeling of embodiment," Berlin says. It improved her dancing – before, she says, it had felt "like mimicry" – but also affected the rest of her life. She felt more confident, "I had the feeling that I own my body". Her enjoyment of sex was greatly improved, and she felt stronger and less stressed. She thinks it is a prime reason why people assume she is much younger than she is (she's 42 and, speaking over Zoom from her home in Germany, she looks like a woman in her 20s).

Substack: the future of news – or a media pyramid scheme?

Posted: 29 Apr 2021 01:00 AM PDT

The company says it's creating a viable alternative for readers and writers – but is it trying to have its cake and eat it?

Since launching in 2017, Substack has been touting itself as a "better future for news." Their offering was simple: email newsletters with an option for subscribers to pay monthly fees for content – like Netflix for newsletters.

End of the ice: New Zealand’s vanishing glaciers

Posted: 28 Apr 2021 11:09 PM PDT

New Zealand's glaciers are retreating. After years of inaction, Covid could be a wake-up call for change – but is it already too late?

Life finds a way: in search of England’s lost, forgotten rainforests

Posted: 28 Apr 2021 10:00 PM PDT

Much of Britain's temperate rainforest has been destroyed – but it can sometimes regenerate. The race is on to map what survives and restore what we can

Few people realise that England has fragments of a globally rare habitat: temperate rainforest. I didn't really believe it until I moved to Devon last year and started visiting some of these incredible habitats. Temperate rainforests are exuberant with life. One of their defining characteristics is the presence of epiphytes, plants that grow on other plants, often in such damp and rainy places. In woods around the edge of Dartmoor, in lost valleys and steep-sided gorges, I've spotted branches dripping with mosses, festooned with lichens, liverworts and polypody ferns.

You may have heard of England's most famous fragment of temperate rainforest: Wistman's Wood, in the middle of Dartmoor. With its gnarled and stunted oaks, its remote location marooned within a sheep-nibbled moorscape, and attendant tales of spectral hounds that inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles, it has an outsize reputation for somewhere so tiny in size: eight acres – about four football pitches.

‘It’s about self-love’: the black women busting beauty myths in west Africa

Posted: 28 Apr 2021 11:30 PM PDT

From Senegal to Nigeria, a growing wave of salons and small cosmetic companies are challenging colonial notions about how to wear and care for hair

Women kick the sand from their slippers, and ease into the cool comfort of a natural hair and skincare store in central Dakar. On the shelves are jars filled with handmade supplements of organic shea butter, coconut, castor and olive oils, sourced from across west Africa.

In floral silk hijabs and abaya dresses, the women sit on sofas near the back of the store, discussing their hair beneath a mural of poised black women and men, wearing a mixture of classic natural black hairstyles.

Killer farm robot dispatches weeds with electric bolts

Posted: 28 Apr 2021 10:00 PM PDT

Makers say machine could be part of an agricultural revolution of automation and sustainability

In a sunny field in Hampshire, a killer robot is on the prowl. Once its artificial intelligence engine has locked on to its target, a black electrode descends and delivers an 8,000-volt blast. A crackle, a puff of smoke, and the target is dead – a weed, boiled alive from the inside.

It is part of a fourth agricultural revolution, its makers say, bringing automation and big data into farming to produce more while harming the environment less. Pressure to cut pesticide use and increasing resistance to the chemicals meant killing weeds was the top priority for the farmers advising the robot company.

Royal Mint unveils giant £10,000 gold coin

Posted: 29 Apr 2021 01:42 AM PDT

Queen's Beasts coin weighs in at 10kg, took 400 hours to produce – and has already been snapped up

The Royal Mint has produced a 10kg (22lb) gold coin, the biggest in its 1,100-year history. It took 400 hours to produce the coin – described by the Mint as a "masterwork" – including four days of polishing.

The coin has already been sold. The Mint did not give details about the sale or buyer, but said a coin of this calibre and craftsmanship would be priced in the region of six figures.

Here Are the Young Men review – Anya Taylor-Joy and the bad boys

Posted: 28 Apr 2021 11:00 PM PDT

Three Dublin lads and their super-smart classmate face an uncertain future in a tale that only hints at dark possibilities

Here is an ensemble coming-of-ager in which someone actually says the line: "That summer may have changed everything …" It's in a style I associate with the 90s: movies such as Trainspotting or Human Traffic, with people clubbing and yearning and discovering the value of friendship together as the sun comes up. There's certainly an impressive cast lineup for this one, but there's also something weirdly formless and frustrating about it as well; the film gestures at some dark and disturbing possibilities in human nature without quite knowing if or how to follow through.

Matthew (Dean-Charles Chapman), Kearney (Finn Cole) and Rez (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) are three Dublin lads who leave school without much idea of what they want to do – not like their super-smart classmate Jen (Anya Taylor-Joy) who has some ambitious life plans figured out and on whom sweet, sensitive Matthew has a massive crush. But then the boys witness something horrible that shakes them up and reveals a sinister side to Kearney, who has a creepy attitude to Jen and a droog-like enthusiasm for torturing homeless people.

From the archives: Remembrance of tastes past: Syria’s disappearing food culture – podcast

Posted: 28 Apr 2021 04:00 AM PDT

We are raiding the Audio Long Reads archives and bringing you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors.

This week, from 2016: For Syrians in exile, food is more than a means of sustenance. It is a reminder of the rich and diverse culture being destroyed by civil war. By Wendell Steavenson

‘I am not my trauma’: survivors of sexual abuse at a Ugandan girls’ shelter – photo essay

Posted: 29 Apr 2021 12:00 AM PDT

German national Bernhard 'Bery' Glaser took advantage of his 'rich white foreigner' status to systematically abuse girls in his care. Photographer DeLovie Kwagala captured the stories of 15 women

Eve was just eight years old and recently orphaned when she was taken to live at a girls' shelter on Bugala island, in the Ugandan sector of Lake Victoria.

Bery's Place had been set up in 2006 by Bernhard "Bery" Glaser, a German national living in Uganda, as a refuge for traumatised children and victims of sexual violence. Yet Eve and other girls living there at the time say that Glaser was hiding a dark secret. Taking advantage of his "rich white foreigner" status to entice parents to leave their daughters at the home, Glaser was using Bery's Place as a cover for routine and systematic sexual and emotional abuse of the children in his care, the girls allege.

Josh Hawley rails at big tech firms but records show he has invested in them

Posted: 29 Apr 2021 02:00 AM PDT

Missouri senator accuses big tech of posing 'gravest threat to American liberty' since Gilded age in new book

Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri accuses the US's biggest tech companies of committing the "gravest threat to American liberty since the monopolies of the Gilded age" in his upcoming book. He rails that tech giants like Amazon, Google and Facebook "have become a techno-oligarchy with overwhelming economic and political power".

Amlo calls decision to disqualify candidates ‘a blow to democracy’

Posted: 28 Apr 2021 11:26 AM PDT

Mexico's electoral tribunal upheld ruling barring two candidates, including one accused of rape, for failing to file expense reports

Mexico's president has blasted a decision to disqualify two of his party's gubernatorial candidates – including one accused of rape – describing the decision by Mexico's electoral tribunal as "a blow to democracy".

"Democracy is respecting the will of the people," said Andrés Manuel López Obrador, known as Amlo, at his morning press conference on Wednesday. "In a democracy, it's the people who decide. It's the people who give orders."

Leppington triangle: Coalition’s $30m purchase of airport land ‘incompetent or corrupt’

Posted: 29 Apr 2021 02:06 AM PDT

'Unjustifiable' purchase demonstrates need for federal anti-corruption body, inquiry hears

The federal government's controversial $30m purchase of the Leppington triangle site was either the result of "gross incompetence or corruption", a parliamentary inquiry has heard.

Geoffrey Watson SC, the director of the Centre of Public Integrity, told a Senate inquiry the purchase of a 12.26-hectare triangular parcel of land near the site of Sydney's second airport for 10 times its market value was "unjustifiable".

Almost 30 million will need aid in Sahel this year as crisis worsens, UN warns

Posted: 28 Apr 2021 08:34 AM PDT

Armed conflicts, the climate crisis and Covid-19 are contributing to chronic risk of food insecurity in the region, says Unocha report

A record 29 million people will need humanitarian assistance in the Sahel and the Lake Chad basin in 2021 amid a deepening crisis, a report by the UN office for humanitarian affairs (Unocha) has estimated.

Almost one in four people in the border areas of Burkina Faso, northern Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Niger and north-east Nigeria are expected to need aid in 2021, 5 million more than a year ago, and a 52% rise on 2019.

Heavenly Harmony: China launches first module of new space station – video

Posted: 29 Apr 2021 12:11 AM PDT

China has successfully launched the first module of its new space station, part of an ambitious plan for Beijing to have a permanent human presence in space. The Tianhe, or Heavenly Harmony, unmanned core module, launched from Wenchang in China's Hainan province, is expected to become fully operational in 2022, with about 10 more missions required to launch and assemble parts

China launches first module of new space station

Biden declares ‘America is on the move again’ in first congressional address – video

Posted: 28 Apr 2021 10:11 PM PDT

Joe Biden argued that 'America is on the move again' in his first address to Congress, on the eve of his 100th day in office. The president, flanked by two women – Vice-President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – for the first time in US history, addressed the coronavirus pandemic, the 6 January assault on the Capitol, plans to raise the minimum wage, police reform, climate change and historic levels of investment in the country. Due to social distancing measures, only 200 people, mainly politicians, attended rather than the usual 1,600 guests

Huge sandstorm engulfs towns in China – video

Posted: 28 Apr 2021 09:44 AM PDT

Huge sandstorms swept across areas of Alxa Right Banner in China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region on Sunday. The sand clouds enveloped buildings in many cities, turning the sky an apocalyptic yellow. The local authorities issued a yellow alert for poor air quality, noting that the conditions could persist

Grant Shapps: NHS app will be Covid ‘vaccine passport’ for foreign travel – video

Posted: 28 Apr 2021 03:07 AM PDT

International travellers will be asked to demonstrate their Covid vaccination and testing status using the NHS smartphone app, the UK government has confirmed, as the transport secretary promised to release a list of possible holiday destinations within a fortnight.

Grant Shapps said work had started on developing the app many people use to book appointments with their GPs so that it can show whether they have been vaccinated and tested for the virus

Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year 2021 – winners

Posted: 28 Apr 2021 12:00 AM PDT

Category winners in the awards recognising the art and diversity of food photography