World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk |
- Glacial lakes threaten millions with flooding as planet heats up
- Mitt Romney booed and called ‘traitor’ at Utah Republican convention
- Tory poll lead slashed as key elections loom across Britain
- Stand up to China and Putin? Foreign policy at heart of Germany vote
- Warren Buffett says online trading platforms encourage ‘gambling impulse’
- North Korea accuses US of pursuing ‘hostile policy’ and warns of response
- UN catalogues ‘chilling tide of abuse’ against female journalists
- SpaceX returns four astronauts to Earth in darkness
- Havana syndrome: NSA officer’s case hints at microwave attacks since 90s
- Oscar-winning actor Olympia Dukakis, star of Moonstruck, dies aged 89
- Poor countries need billions in aid to avert Covid catastrophe, experts warn
- Coronavirus live news: England could end self-isolation with daily test; India sees record number of deaths
- Decline in US Covid vaccinations presents new problem: how to shrink operations
- Will Covid-19 vaccines reduce virus transmission? | David Spiegelhalter & Anthony Masters
- Paul Weller: ‘Music means more to me since I’ve been sober’
- Biden stakes claim to being America’s most pro-union president ever
- My mum tells me too many details about my abusive dad | Dear Mariella
- What my lockdown calls to an old man taught me about laughter, life – and myself
- The man orchestrating climate protest … from a shed in the Hebrides
- Redirect harmful subsidies to benefit the planet, UN urges governments
- Scottish Labour’s leader faces uphill task to drive SNP off course
- ‘We’re all Ayuso’: lockdown sceptic poised for victory in Madrid election
- The Observer view on Britain’s ineptitude at securing Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release | Observer editorial
- Act now to prevent oxygen shortage in Covid-hit countries, say campaigners
- Political chaos and poverty leave South America at virus’s mercy
- Biden and Xi talk of a clash of civilisations. But the real shared goal is dominance | Richard McGregor
- Victorian government pledges to slash state’s carbon emissions by 50% by 2030
- Riot police break up illegal party in Brussels park using tear gas and water cannon – video
- The Hindu priest struggling to cremate India’s Covid dead – video
| Glacial lakes threaten millions with flooding as planet heats up Posted: 02 May 2021 12:00 AM PDT More than 12,000 deaths have already been attributed to glacial lake outburst floods worldwide An increasing number of people are being threatened by flooding caused by glacial lakes bursting, scientists have warned. As the planet warms and glaciers recede, meltwater accumulates and forms lakes, often as a result of ice or moraine acting as a dam. Since 1990, the volume, area and number of these glacial lakes has increased by 50% globally. When these lakes become too full there is a risk that they may breach or overflow, releasing huge volumes of water and causing catastrophic flooding. Continue reading... |
| Mitt Romney booed and called ‘traitor’ at Utah Republican convention Posted: 01 May 2021 07:38 PM PDT Only Republican to twice vote to impeach Trump gets hostile reception as censure motion narrowly fails Mitt Romney was loudly booed at the Utah Republican party convention on Saturday – and called a "traitor" and a "communist" as he tried to speak. "Aren't you embarrassed?" the Salt Lake City Tribune reported the Utah senator asking the crowd of 2,100 delegates at the Maverik Center in West Valley City. "I'm a man who says what he means, and you know I was not a fan of our last president's character issues." Continue reading... |
| Tory poll lead slashed as key elections loom across Britain Posted: 01 May 2021 10:56 AM PDT Stories of Conservative sleaze appear to be having an impact as Keir Starmer faces his first electoral test as Labour leader on 6 May Labour has slashed the Tories' poll lead in half as more voters conclude that Boris Johnson is corrupt and dishonest ahead of this week's bumper set of local and devolved elections. The latest Opinium poll for the Observer shows the Conservative lead has fallen from 11 points to five points after a week in which the prime minister was at the centre of allegations over the refurbishment of his Downing Street flat, and criticised for reportedly saying he would rather see "bodies pile high" than order another Covid-19 lockdown. Continue reading... |
| Stand up to China and Putin? Foreign policy at heart of Germany vote Posted: 01 May 2021 10:45 PM PDT Green and CDU party leaders pick their sides in race to replace Merkel as chancellor After German federal elections in September, Europe's largest economy is likely to be led either by a human rights champion sending steely messages to Russia and China, or a dovish politician who wants Vladimir Putin to be given more respect. Surprisingly, the former hails from a Green party founded by peace activists during the cold war arms race, and the latter chairs a conservative party that traditionally sees itself as America's most loyal ally in German politics. Continue reading... |
| Warren Buffett says online trading platforms encourage ‘gambling impulse’ Posted: 01 May 2021 06:16 PM PDT Legendary investor warns about the risks of stock trading while his partner calls cryptocurrencies 'disgusting' Warren Buffett warned people not to think investing is an easy way to make a fortune as he answered a variety of questions at the annual meeting of his conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway. Speaking in Los Angeles, the legendary billionaire investor said it could be tough to pick the long-term winners. He pointed out that in 1903 there were more than 2,000 car companies, and nearly all of them failed, even though cars have transformed the country since then. Continue reading... |
| North Korea accuses US of pursuing ‘hostile policy’ and warns of response Posted: 01 May 2021 05:17 PM PDT Joe Biden made a 'big blunder' by telling Congress that North Korea posed a security threat, foreign ministry says North Korea has accused US president Joe Biden of pursuing a hostile policy against it and warned of a response that could leave the US "in a very grave situation". In a series of statements by the foreign ministry on Sunday, North Korea branded US diplomacy "spurious" – a day after the Biden administration said it was open to diplomatic negotiations on denuclearisation. Continue reading... |
| UN catalogues ‘chilling tide of abuse’ against female journalists Posted: 02 May 2021 01:30 AM PDT Misogyny, bigotry and threats 'cut public trust in critical media', warns report after major investigation An epidemic of online violence against female journalists worldwide is undermining their reporting, spilling over into real-life attacks and harassment, and puts their health and professional prospects in jeopardy, the UN has warned. The avalanche of misogynistic abuse and threats is not only damaging women working in media, it is also weaponised "to undercut public trust in critical journalism and facts in general", a report commissioned by the UN's cultural agency Unesco has found. Continue reading...This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| SpaceX returns four astronauts to Earth in darkness Posted: 02 May 2021 01:36 AM PDT Capsule parachutes into Gulf of Mexico at 3am, the first night-time US crew splashdown since 1968 SpaceX safely returned four astronauts from the International Space Station on Sunday, making the first US crew splashdown in darkness since the Apollo 8 moonshot. The Dragon capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Panama City, Florida, just before 3am, ending the second astronaut flight for Elon Musk's company. It was an express trip home, lasting just six and a half hours. Continue reading... |
| Havana syndrome: NSA officer’s case hints at microwave attacks since 90s Posted: 01 May 2021 11:00 PM PDT When Mike Beck developed a rare form of Parkinson's US intelligence concluded he was the victim of a hi-tech weapon When the first reports surfaced of a mysterious disorder that was afflicting dozens of US diplomats in Cuba, Mike Beck's reaction was one of recognition and relief. Beck, a retired National Security Agency counterintelligence officer, was at his home in Maryland, scrolling through the day's news on his computer when he spotted the story, and remembers shouting out to his wife. Continue reading... |
| Oscar-winning actor Olympia Dukakis, star of Moonstruck, dies aged 89 Posted: 01 May 2021 02:23 PM PDT
Olympia Dukakis, the Oscar-winning actor whose hit films included Moonstruck and Steel Magnolias, has died. She was 89. Related: Olympia Dukakis: 'My character is described as a foul-mouthed lesbian Walther Matthau? I love that!' Continue reading... |
| Poor countries need billions in aid to avert Covid catastrophe, experts warn Posted: 02 May 2021 12:53 AM PDT Virus will overwhelm health services across South America, Asia and Africa unless world leaders take urgent action World leaders have been warned that unless they act with extreme urgency, the Covid-19 pandemic will overwhelm health services in many nations in South America, Asia, and Africa over the next few weeks. Only billions of pounds of aid and massive exports of vaccines can halt a humanitarian catastrophe that is now unfolding rapidly across the planet, scientists and world health experts said. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 02 May 2021 02:08 AM PDT Latest updates: pilot scheme could see end of self-isolation for Covid contacts; deaths in India jump by 3,689 on Sunday
Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy has also been on Sky and the BBC this morning. She told Sophy Ridge on Sunday that it was very welcome that the Government was exploring ways to make it easier for people to get back to normal more quickly. We are certainly very keen to see it made easier for people to go about their normal lives, particularly because we have long had concerns about the economic impact of quarantine arrangements on people. That's one of the reasons we meet regularly with Sage scientists, to make sure they are robust and that we are not taking measures to unlock that people desperately want to see, that people desperately need, that will unravel the amazing progress that has been made through the national vaccination effort. There's light at the end of the tunnel, I think we can all see it, we can feel it, but we are not there yet.
On the BBC's Andrew Marr show, Raab was asked about the catastrophe unfolding in India and whether the UK would help provide more vaccines to the country, with the UK still having 5m vaccines on order from India. Raab said that India had not requested vaccines from the UK. Asked if they did ask, would the UK provide them, Raab said he would not speculate on a "hypothetical scenario" but the relationship was "very important" to the UK. We obviously want to cooperate very closely together. Right throughout this crisis we've said we need to keep supply chains, particularly critical supply chains, open, and we ought to resolve these kinds of issues through collaboration, and that is certainly what we're doing with the Indians. Continue reading... |
| Decline in US Covid vaccinations presents new problem: how to shrink operations Posted: 01 May 2021 11:00 PM PDT With less than one-third of Americans fully vaccinated, health authorities switch from mass vaccination clinics to outreach campaigns A decline in daily Covid-19 vaccination rates has left US public health authorities with a new problem – how to effectively shrink operations. In the campaign to immunize all American adults against the coronavirus, most of the difficulties to date have involved overwhelming demand and restricted supply. Now, with less than one-third of Americans fully vaccinated, local public health authorities described a sense of whiplash as they pivot from mass vaccination clinics to outreach campaigns, all within a couple of weeks. Continue reading... |
| Will Covid-19 vaccines reduce virus transmission? | David Spiegelhalter & Anthony Masters Posted: 01 May 2021 11:15 PM PDT Vaccinated people can still get infected, but they are less likely to pass it on There are two ways that getting vaccinated can slow the spread of the virus. First, it can help prevent you getting infected. Second, even if you are unlucky and catch the virus, it may reduce the risk of passing it on. It is crucial to understand how big these benefits are. Two huge new studies have taken advantage of the successful UK vaccine rollout. An Oxford-ONS analysis of more than 370,000 survey participants found infections were reduced by 65% after a single dose. For protection against the virus, one dose was similar to having had a prior infection. There was no major difference between the two available vaccines. Continue reading... |
| Paul Weller: ‘Music means more to me since I’ve been sober’ Posted: 02 May 2021 12:00 AM PDT On the eve of his 16th album, the master of English pop takes questions from musicians, politicians and readers on his punk past, quitting booze, and what lockdown does to mod haircuts In the kitchen of a recording studio, down a long lane, off a village high street, stands the wiry, wired figure of Paul Weller, looking at his shoes. Oxblood fringe-and-buckle loafers. He is explaining the subtle differences between this pair, and another pair he owned a few years ago. "This part here used to be a few millimetres deeper," he says. "And the buckle was a tiny bit bigger." Continue reading... |
| Biden stakes claim to being America’s most pro-union president ever Posted: 01 May 2021 11:00 PM PDT The president's decision to set up a taskforce to boost union membership is of a piece with other efforts in his first 100 days Just over 100 days into his presidency Joe Biden is showing that he is one of the most pro-union presidents in American history, declaring the "unions built the middle class" in his address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday. Union membership has declined precipitously in the US and accounted for about 10.8% of US employees last year, just over half the rate in 1983. Unions have also suffered notable setbacks in recent years, mostly recently failing to get the votes to unionize at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama. Continue reading... |
| My mum tells me too many details about my abusive dad | Dear Mariella Posted: 01 May 2021 10:00 PM PDT Your mother's revelations are an offloading too far, says Mariella Frostrup. You will have to take the 'adult' position and bring it to an end The dilemma My mother recently started going to therapy. I'm really happy for her. She has always been in a financially controlling relationship with my dad which, at times, has been emotionally abusive. She's really enjoying therapy and having quite a few realisations about her marriage, and I think she's finally seeing how badly she has been treated. But she is also burdening me with all the gory details. I really want her to seek help and feel empowered, but as her child I find it hard to see the reality of my parents' relationship. While I suppose I have always been on my mum's side and encouraged her to seek more independence and tell my dad to sod off, it is tough to hear the details. It makes my feelings towards my father feel complicated: even loving him feels like a betrayal. I want my mum to be able to talk about these things with friends (she has plenty of them) and her therapist, but am I being a bad daughter and perhaps even a bad feminist if I don't want to know all the details of my dad's poor behaviour? Or am I being childish and should I accept this as part of being an adult – seeing your parents as the flawed people they are? Continue reading... |
| What my lockdown calls to an old man taught me about laughter, life – and myself Posted: 02 May 2021 12:30 AM PDT When a busy young woman befriended an old man living on his own, a compelling relationship was born When the first lockdown began and Boris Johnson finally pointed his finger down our throats and warned us in a tweet that we must stay at home "as we work together to fight this virus and keep everyone safe", he also spoke in a speech of the "fortitude of the elderly". Suddenly, the rising stats of loneliness began to be bandied about on every news feed. One in four adults said they had experienced feelings of loneliness in the previous two weeks, according to a Mental Health Foundation survey, from last April. The number of people who felt "always or often" lonely reached 8%, the highest it's ever been on record. Before the word "bubble" was revamped to mean "people you could have actual physical contact with", I lived what I now refer to as the "fast life": always moving, constantly adrenalised, permanently stimulated. My alarm would scream down my ear at 6.30am. I'd squeeze my way into a spin class at 7am, then eat a bowl of Tupperwared oats on the train as I made my way to a café to start work for the day. I'd spend money I didn't have on overpriced coffees and average lunches, and then I'd rush to audition for an acting part, making small talk with my doppelgängers in the waiting room. Continue reading... |
| The man orchestrating climate protest … from a shed in the Hebrides Posted: 02 May 2021 12:00 AM PDT Roc Sandford lives alone on Gometra, his own island. He tells of his fears for his family, and the future of all children In the past year, Roc Sandford has left the tiny Scottish island which is his off-grid home only once, to get a Covid vaccination. The rest of the time he has been alone with the birds, sheep and open skies. His days are busy but evenings can be lonely; cooking for one is "very sad", he says. At the moment, he is enjoying some wine sent by a friend, eking out the six bottles by sipping from a thimble-sized glass. Despite his commitment to a close-to-zero carbon footprint, he misses socialising with friends and family. "I work very hard and very productively in this beautiful, beautiful natural environment, without the compromises one has to make elsewhere. But I can't go to the pub." Continue reading... |
| Redirect harmful subsidies to benefit the planet, UN urges governments Posted: 01 May 2021 11:00 PM PDT Head of the Kunming biodiversity summit asks nations to review destructive support for fishing, agriculture and other industries Billions of pounds of environmentally harmful government subsidies must be redirected to benefit nature, the United Nation's biodiversity chief has said, before the restart of negotiations on an international agreement to set new targets for protecting nature. Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, the executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, said states must review and adapt support for agriculture, fishing and other industries that are driving the destruction of the natural world, and adopt policies that meet human needs while also conserving the health of the planet. Continue reading... |
| Scottish Labour’s leader faces uphill task to drive SNP off course Posted: 02 May 2021 02:08 AM PDT Anas Sarwar is challenging Nicola Sturgeon – the first time in British politics that two major party leaders have contested the same seat Even with her face mask on, Mhairi Hunter is spotted by Asif, a business graduate rushing past with a shopping bag. "You're that SNP councillor," he shouts, before tracking back to offer an impassioned one-man party political broadcast in support of the Scottish National party. The focus of his wrath is Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour party leader, who is fighting Nicola Sturgeon for the Holyrood constituency of Glasgow Southern, one of Scotland's most ethnically diverse areas. Sarwar grew up nearby and his predecessors once took it for granted that Punjabi Glaswegians like Asif and his parents would vote Labour. But no more. Continue reading... |
| ‘We’re all Ayuso’: lockdown sceptic poised for victory in Madrid election Posted: 02 May 2021 02:00 AM PDT Isabel Díaz Ayuso's mix of bluntness, defiance and appeals to far-right voters appears set to pay off The late lunchers who linger over coffee and wine on the terraces of Calle Ponzano, Madrid, sit beneath banners bemoaning the neighbourhood's noise levels and among posters bearing the capital's most ubiquitous face. From the windows of many of the bars and restaurants that line the bustling street – and from the walls of metro stations across they city – stare the eyes of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, regional president of Madrid, scourge of Pedro Sánchez's Socialist-led coalition government, and unofficial patron saint of a hefty proportion of the region's hospitality industry. Her campaign posters and letters feature little more than her image and the single word libertad. Freedom. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 01 May 2021 10:15 PM PDT The government must pay its £400m debt to Iran and ensure her freedom above all else The anger expressed last week by the Labour MP Tulip Siddiq over the government's failure to secure the release from Iran of her wrongly accused constituent Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is fully justified. This distressing case has dragged on for too long. Again and again since Zaghari-Ratcliffe's arrest in 2016, ministers have hinted at progress, only for hopes to be dashed. Now she has been condemned to a further year in jail. This is outrageous. Yet what does the government do? Nothing that makes a difference. Zaghari-Ratcliffe is one of several UK and European citizens who hold dual Iranian nationality and are ensnared in Iran's politicised judicial system. It has long been clear that Iran is using them as bargaining chips in a wider diplomatic negotiation. Yet Boris Johnson's government seems unable to grasp the realities of this distasteful process. The Foreign Office's softly-softly approach to this case has been interpreted as weakness by some in Tehran. Continue reading... |
| Act now to prevent oxygen shortage in Covid-hit countries, say campaigners Posted: 02 May 2021 01:00 AM PDT Focus on vaccines and tests has been obscuring the need for oxygen in low- and middle-income countries The scenes in India of families desperately searching for oxygen for critically ill Covid patients will be repeated in Bangladesh, Ethiopia and other countries in Africa and around the world unless a significant international effort is made to ensure all countries have good oxygen supplies, campaigners have said. The focus on vaccines and tests, while important, has been obscuring the need for oxygen, which is cheap and readily available in high-income countries but in short supply elsewhere, they say. Before India, there was similarly shocking footage from Manaus in Brazil where distressed relatives pleaded for oxygen to keep a family member alive. Continue reading... |
| Political chaos and poverty leave South America at virus’s mercy Posted: 02 May 2021 01:15 AM PDT President Jair Bolsonaro's prediction that the crisis was nearing an end was misguided in Brazil and many of its neighbours South America produced some of the most horrific episodes of the pandemic last year, with mass graves dug in the Brazilian Amazon and bodies dumped on pavements in the Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil. But at the end of 2020 there was some hope that with the onset of vaccination the worst might have passed. Brazil's president, Jair Bolsonaro, even claimed the crisis had reached its "tail-end" in December. Such predictions have proved grotesquely misguided. Brazil's death toll has since more than doubled to more than 400,000, after an explosion of infections caused a catastrophic healthcare collapse. At least 100,000 Brazilians have died in the last 36 days and 100,000 more are expected to lose their lives before July. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 02 May 2021 01:00 AM PDT The US president has challenged the idea that the 'east is rising, the west declining'. Instead, he insists that America's day is far from done Finally, we have arrived, not at a clash of civilisations, but at the clash of civilisations. Or so President Joe Biden's address to a joint session of Congress would have you believe. The US versus China. The west versus the east. Democracy versus autocracy. Biden's speech last week was rich in laying down markers for Washington in the contest of the century. "They're going to write about this point in history," Biden told a gathering of US television news anchors before his speech, in remarks later released by the White House. "Not about any of us in here, but about whether or not democracy can function in the 21st century." Continue reading... |
| Victorian government pledges to slash state’s carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 Posted: 02 May 2021 12:52 AM PDT Long-awaited strategy includes plan to power all government-owned schools and hospitals with renewables by 2025 The Victorian government has promised to cut the state's greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030, in an announcement of long-awaited climate targets that outstrip commitments made by the Morrison government. The plan, announced on Sunday, will see Victoria power all government-owned enterprises, including schools and hospitals, by renewables by 2025. Continue reading... |
| Riot police break up illegal party in Brussels park using tear gas and water cannon – video Posted: 01 May 2021 11:42 AM PDT Clashes erupted as riot police in Belgium used tear gas and water cannon to disperse revellers at an illegal party in Brussels' Bois de la Cambre park. The event, dubbed 'La Boum 2', was a sequel to the fake festival arranged as an April Fools' Day joke at the same park on 1 April – and was held in defiance of the government's Covid-19 restrictions. A collective called 'L'abîme Team', the organiser of the event on social media, unsuccessfully tried to seek permission for the gathering, local media reported. On 23 April, Belgium pressed ahead with plans to allow restaurant and cafe terraces to reopen on 8 May despite warnings from health officials that hospital saturation was starting to resemble that of Italy at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. From 8 May, up to 50 people will be also allowed to attend an outdoor event. More than 23,000 people out of in Belgium's 11 million population have died of Covid-19, with about 3,500 daily infections Continue reading... |
| The Hindu priest struggling to cremate India’s Covid dead – video Posted: 30 Apr 2021 11:25 PM PDT RamKaran Mishra is a Hindu priest who performs the last rites at the Ghazipur crematorium in east Delhi, on the frontline of India's Covid crisis. He's been cremating up to 150 bodies day after day, working long hours into the night. With no end in sight, and feeling abandoned by his government, Mishra must deal with traumatised families and an ever-present smell of burning bodies |
| 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