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

Australia Covid lockdowns spread amid confusion over vaccine advice
Trump in financial and political danger as company faces possible criminal charges
Former South African president Jacob Zuma sentenced to 15 months in prison
Switzerland’s Sommer saves Mbappé’s penalty to send France crashing out
Interim government of Tigray flees as rebels seize capital
Billions needed to protect Glasgow from climate effects, report says
Nigerian government threatens to rein in press after Twitter ban
Coastguard seizes half a tonne of cocaine floating off Algeria coast
Obama: Trump broke ‘core tenet’ of democracy with ‘bunch of hooey’ over election
Native mouse believed to be extinct for 150 years found off Western Australia
Moscow’s cafes ‘sacrificed’ as Russian government plays Covid catch-up
Coronavirus live news: Delta variant makes up 20% of cases in France; fears of fifth wave in Tokyo
Brazil could have stopped 400,000 Covid deaths with better government response, expert says
Why women are more likely to suffer from long Covid | Susan Evans and Mark Hutchinson
Amartya Sen: what British rule really did for India
‘I struggle every day with the loss of my former life’: what it’s like to live with chronic pain
Michael Ball: ‘My breakdown made me a better performer – and a better person’
Jazz-funk guru John Carroll Kirby: ‘When musicians are uncomfortable, it can be interesting’
Screams, slashers and Thatcher: why horror films are going back to the 80s
‘You can’t cancel Pride’: the fight for LGBTQ+ rights amid the pandemic
Chris Whitty may get police protection as PM condemns ‘despicable harassment’
Greek police recover two stolen paintings by Picasso and Mondrian
Obama accuses Trump of violating democracy and making up a 'whole bunch of hooey' | First Thing
Peru dictator’s spymaster reappears to push Fujimori’s baseless fraud claims
Government committed millions to commuter car parks that could never be built, Labor says
Greece accused of refugee ‘pushback’ after family avoid being forced off island
The children’s graves at residential schools in Canada evoke the massacres of Indigenous Australians | William Pengarte Tilmouth
Now is not the time to abandon all Covid caution
Five key takeaways from France’s regional elections
LGBTQ Pride parade weekend around the world – in pictures

Australia Covid lockdowns spread amid confusion over vaccine advice

Posted: 28 Jun 2021 10:46 PM PDT

Four major cities in lockdown as experts question prime minister's remarks on who can receive AstraZeneca jab

See all our coronavirus coverage

Frustration is mounting in Australia over low vaccination rates and changing advice on the AstraZeneca jab after outbreaks of the highly contagious Delta variant sent more parts of the country into lockdown.

The outbreaks have grown to about 150 cases, and have forced lockdowns in four major cities and renewed restrictions in several others.

Trump in financial and political danger as company faces possible criminal charges

Posted: 28 Jun 2021 10:30 PM PDT

New York prosecutors may soon bring indictment against Trump Organization tied to perks for top executives

Donald Trump is facing a potentially crippling financial and political blow as state prosecutors consider filing criminal charges against his family business this week.

Prosecutors in New York could soon bring an indictment against the Trump Organization related to the taxation of lucrative perks that it gave to top executives, such as use of apartments, cars and school tuition.

Former South African president Jacob Zuma sentenced to 15 months in prison

Posted: 29 Jun 2021 02:19 AM PDT

Zuma found to have been in contempt of court when he defied an order to appear at corruption inquiry

South Africa's constitutional court has ruled that the former president Jacob Zuma was in contempt of court for failing to appear at a corruption inquiry earlier this year, and ordered that he be imprisoned for 15 months.

Zuma failed to appear at the inquiry led by the deputy chief justice, Raymond Zondo, in February. The inquiry is examining allegations of high-level graft during Zuma's period in power from 2009 to 2018. He denies wrongdoing and has so far not cooperated.

Switzerland’s Sommer saves Mbappé’s penalty to send France crashing out

Posted: 28 Jun 2021 03:03 PM PDT

Kylian Mbappé was France's sure thing. That is why he was fifth in their list of penalty takers and is why, when he stepped up to keep them in Euro 2020, the thought he might miss felt like too heady a twist in the narrative. Things like that have simply not happened to Mbappé during a young career of rare accomplishment, but here came the kind of horror that exposes even the preternaturally gifted as flesh-and-blood mortals: Yann Sommer, Switzerland's exceptional goalkeeper, smelled weakness and read his intentions correctly, diving right and clawing the spot-kick away. France were out; their delirious opponents had made their own slice of history and a tournament of unstinting drama took its least plausible turn yet.

Interim government of Tigray flees as rebels seize capital

Posted: 28 Jun 2021 12:00 PM PDT

Spokesperson for Tigray People's Liberation Front says Mekelle is 'under our control'

The interim government of Ethiopia's war-hit Tigray region has fled as rebel fighters advanced into the region's capital and the national government announced a "unilateral ceasefire".

Witnesses said federal soldiers and police were also abandoning Mekelle late on Monday, and fireworks and celebratory gunfire could be heard as Tigrayan fighters took the city's airport and other key positions.

Billions needed to protect Glasgow from climate effects, report says

Posted: 28 Jun 2021 11:00 PM PDT

Study says 2m in Clyde area – due to host Cop26 – face severe disruption without urgent investment

Nearly 2 million people living in the greater Glasgow area face severe disruption from climate heating unless billions of pounds are invested in protecting homes, businesses and transport links, a report says.

A study on the impacts of climate change on the Clyde area estimates about 140,000 of its poorest residents will be the worst affected by increased heatwaves, flash floods and droughts, as they are the least equipped to cope.

Nigerian government threatens to rein in press after Twitter ban

Posted: 28 Jun 2021 09:00 PM PDT

Government could determine code of conduct for journalists under plans criticised as 'deeply disturbing'

Media organisations in Nigeria have expressed alarm as the government prepares to follow its controversial ban on Twitter with wider regulations reining in the press and social media companies.

A new amendment proposed by lawmakers in President Muhammadu Buhari's All Progressive Congress party would allow the government to determine a code of conduct for Nigerian media agencies and journalists, who could be liable to be fined and prosecuted for "fake news" and other breaches of the code.

Coastguard seizes half a tonne of cocaine floating off Algeria coast

Posted: 28 Jun 2021 05:03 PM PDT

Fishermen alerted authorities to 'suspicious' items floating in the sea

The Algerian coastguard has seized almost half a tonne of cocaine after fishers alerted authorities to "suspicious" items floating off the north-west coast.

The coastguard fished out 490kg (1,080 pounds) of cocaine split up into 442 packages from the water six nautical miles (11 kilometres) off Oran's Cap Carbon on Saturday evening, a defence ministry statement said on Monday.

Obama: Trump broke ‘core tenet’ of democracy with ‘bunch of hooey’ over election

Posted: 28 Jun 2021 03:06 PM PDT

Ex-president calls for action to stop 'delegitimizing of democracy' during redistricting fundraiser

Barack Obama said on Monday that his successor in office, Donald Trump, violated a "core tenet" of democracy when he made up a "bunch of hooey" about last year's election and refused to concede he lost.

Speaking at his first virtual fundraiser since the 2020 election, the former Democratic president said former Republican president's claims undermined the legitimacy of US elections and helped lead to other anti-democratic measures such as efforts to suppress the vote.

Native mouse believed to be extinct for 150 years found off Western Australia

Posted: 28 Jun 2021 09:08 PM PDT

Gould's mouse found on several small islands off coast of WA after population collapse on mainland

Scientists have discovered that an extinct native mouse thought to have been wiped out more than 150 years ago is thriving on islands off Western Australia.

Researchers compared DNA samples from eight extinct native rodents and 42 of their living relatives to study the decline of native species since the arrival of Europeans in Australia.

Moscow’s cafes ‘sacrificed’ as Russian government plays Covid catch-up

Posted: 29 Jun 2021 12:38 AM PDT

Capital's restaurants are latest flashpoint as ministers scramble to contain rise in coronavirus cases

The tables inside the Primavera Italian restaurant in Moscow's Shchukino district should have been packed on a Monday afternoon, but the only diners were sat outside braving a thunderstorm.

For Moscow's bustling restaurant business, it was the first day of a tough new QR-code regime that requires diners to provide proof they have been vaccinated or have a negative PCR test to eat indoors. And the diners did not appear to have received the memo.

Coronavirus live news: Delta variant makes up 20% of cases in France; fears of fifth wave in Tokyo

Posted: 29 Jun 2021 03:04 AM PDT

French minister says cases of the variant are rising; cases rising in Tokyo one month from Olympics

11.04am BST

That is your lot from me, Martin Belam, today. I will be back with you bright and early tomorrow. Mattha Busby is now taking the controls, so stay tuned…

10.48am BST

The coronavirus pandemic is continuing to fade but the Delta variant now accounts for about 20% of all new confirmed cases in France, the country's health minister, Olivier Véran, has said.

Véran told FranceInfo radio the overall incidence rate of the virus was still falling fast, to 18 cases per 100,000 people, and said the variant's impact could be reined in by effective contact tracing and continuing vaccination, adding: "We mustn't give up."

Brazil could have stopped 400,000 Covid deaths with better government response, expert says

Posted: 29 Jun 2021 02:00 AM PDT

Epidemiologist behind study on scale of disaster says Jair Bolsonaro's government is 'entirely' responsible

See all our coronavirus coverage

Brazil could have saved 400,000 lives if the country had implemented stricter social distancing measures and launched a vaccination programme earlier, according to an eminent epidemiologist who is leading the first study to quantify the scale of the country's Covid disaster.

Such policies would have prevented 80% of the half a million Covid deaths registered in one of the hardest-hit countries in the world, said Pedro Hallal, a professor at the Federal University of Pelotas.

Why women are more likely to suffer from long Covid | Susan Evans and Mark Hutchinson

Posted: 28 Jun 2021 10:00 PM PDT

Men are more likely to die from the coronavirus but for women, a stronger immune system comes at a price

When Covid-19 burst into our world, the initial focus was on how to prevent death. Older men were more likely to die from the virus than young people or women, and it became clear that not all humans suffered or died at an equal rate. Covid-19 infection was fatal in some and asymptomatic in others.

Throughout human evolution, this has been the situation. A new infectious threat arises, and humans with an immune system best suited to resisting the infection survive.

Amartya Sen: what British rule really did for India

Posted: 28 Jun 2021 10:00 PM PDT

It is true that before British rule, India was starting to fall behind other parts of the world – but many of the arguments defending the Raj are based on serious misconceptions about India's past, imperialism and history itself

The British empire in India was in effect established at the Battle of Plassey on 23 June 1757. The battle was swift, beginning at dawn and ending close to sunset. It was a normal monsoon day, with occasional rain in the mango groves at the town of Plassey, which is between Calcutta, where the British were based, and Murshidabad, the capital of the kingdom of Bengal. It was in those mango groves that the British forces faced the Nawab Siraj-ud-Doula's army and convincingly defeated it.

British rule ended nearly 200 years later with Jawaharlal Nehru's famous speech on India's "tryst with destiny" at midnight on 14 August 1947. Two hundred years is a long time. What did the British achieve in India, and what did they fail to accomplish?

‘I struggle every day with the loss of my former life’: what it’s like to live with chronic pain

Posted: 28 Jun 2021 10:00 PM PDT

Long Covid is highlighting conditions that have been around much longer than the pandemic. Ten readers share their experiences

"The endless cycle of seeing doctors and never seeing any change or improvement" is how one 43-year-old woman from the US described what it's like to live with chronic overlapping pain conditions. Long Covid has helped highlight issues surrrounding chronic illness but many people around the world have had to cope with debilitating symptoms of chronic pain for years, often without receiving adequate professional help.

A 2011 report by the US Institute of Medicine recognised a cluster of chronic pain conditions that predominantly affect women and frequently co-occur. They were dubbed "chronic overlapping pain conditions" by the US Congress and include: vulvodynia, temporomandibular disorders, myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome, fibromyalgia, endometriosis, chronic tension-type and migraine headache and chronic low back pain.

Michael Ball: ‘My breakdown made me a better performer – and a better person’

Posted: 29 Jun 2021 02:00 AM PDT

As his new show, Hairspray, leads the return to theatres, the singer talks about his mental health struggles, going back to his mining-town roots – and how the government has let down the performing arts

It is only an hour and a half before curtain-up, and if Michael Ball is feeling a rising panic at the idea of spending this time speaking to me through his iPad, rather than on his usual warmup, he is hiding it well. A trouper. It will be only the second performance of Hairspray, in which Ball plays the matriarch Edna Turnblad, and he is still on a high from opening night. "It was one of the most extraordinary nights I've ever had in the theatre," he says. Despite an audience of only 1,000 – fewer than half the London Coliseum's capacity – "they did twice the work," Ball says. "I've never heard an ovation like it for the cast. They were up, and there was cheering and screaming. It's just electric, and we needed to hear it. It's been a long time."

The culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, was there; he was photographed with Ball – who was, in Edna's pearls, handbag and wig, almost Thatcherite – looking delighted. "I had a nice chat with him," says Ball, with a theatrical grimace. Theatres, and the whole ecosystem around them, have been devastated by the pandemic. "And so we've got to say our piece, and the most important thing I said for us would be Covid insurance for producers," says Ball. "It's all very well opening theatres, but if there's nothing to put into them, what's the point? Producers need to have confidence that they can put productions together knowing that, if they have to be cancelled, they're covered. I was banging the gong, in a frock, so I don't think he knew quite what hit him. But he listened."

Jazz-funk guru John Carroll Kirby: ‘When musicians are uncomfortable, it can be interesting’

Posted: 29 Jun 2021 02:30 AM PDT

He's worked with Solange, Frank Ocean, Harry Styles and more – and his own music is wondrously fun and spiritual. The LA artist explains why it sounds like butterflies and mountain lions

Amid the swirling sounds and scenes intersected by Los Angeles' sprawling freeways, John Carroll Kirby is somewhere at the centre of it all, shirt open, hair slicked back. He circles the city's buzzing jazz movement with his soul-dappled instrumentals and is a keysman, composer and producer who's been enlisted by some of the most exciting names in contemporary pop: Frank Ocean, Mark Ronson, Harry Styles, Blood Orange, and Solange Knowles, whose incendiary past two albums, A Seat at the Table and When I Get Home, were shaped in part by Kirby.

He laughs as he describes his own work as "French cat burglar music": it blends jazz with new age, funk and exotica, flutes often taking centre stage. Tracks are inspired by paintings of ayahuasca visions or stories about dolphins that turn into lost boys. Kirby is of a spiritual persuasion, but he has a sense of humour about it, too.

Screams, slashers and Thatcher: why horror films are going back to the 80s

Posted: 29 Jun 2021 01:00 AM PDT

From Netflix's Fear Street to UK shocker Censor, a new wave of gory tales are being set in the recent past – but what can they tell us about the present?

Netflix did not quite invent nostalgia, but you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise. The streamer certainly went to town on it with Stranger Things, which wore the 1980s like a badge of honour: the BMXs, the Dungeons & Dragons, the walkie-talkies. In its wake, a slew of scary tributes to the era appeared, ever-evolving variants seeping through a time-travel portal.

‘You can’t cancel Pride’: the fight for LGBTQ+ rights amid the pandemic

Posted: 28 Jun 2021 11:00 PM PDT

Lockdown hit LGBTQ+ communities hard but even as Pride events are called off there is hope and a promise that the parades will return

This month, for the second year in a row, there was no Pride parade in San Francisco, arguably the city most laden with history and symbolism for the LGBTQ+ community.

It is a decision Fred Lopez, who took over as executive director of San Francisco Pride at the beginning of last year describes as "heartbreaking".

Chris Whitty may get police protection as PM condemns ‘despicable harassment’

Posted: 29 Jun 2021 01:57 AM PDT

Ministers speak out after video emerges of chief medical officer apparently being manhandled

Chris Whitty may be given police protection after another video surfaced of England's chief medical officer being subjected to "appalling abuse".

Senior politicians have condemned the latest incident, with Boris Johnson saying he was "shocked at seeing the despicable harassment" and Priti Patel, the home secretary, saying she was horrified by the "terrible" behaviour towards a "remarkable public servant" who is one of the most senior government officials tackling the Covid crisis.

Greek police recover two stolen paintings by Picasso and Mondrian

Posted: 29 Jun 2021 03:04 AM PDT

Works by 20th-century masters recovered nearly a decade after audacious heist at Athens gallery

Greece has recovered a Picasso painting personally donated by the Spanish master to the Greek people, almost a decade after it was stolen alongside two other artworks in an audacious heist at the National Gallery in Athens.

Head of a Woman, gifted by Pablo Picasso to Greece in 1949, was recovered in Keratea, a rural area about 45km (28 miles) south-east of the capital, officials told a news conference.

Obama accuses Trump of violating democracy and making up a 'whole bunch of hooey' | First Thing

Posted: 29 Jun 2021 03:01 AM PDT

The former president said his successor's unfounded 'big lie' claims are fuelling voter suppression. Plus, why America needs to plant more than 30m trees

Good morning.

Barack Obama has accused Donald Trump of violating a "core tenet" of democracy by refusing to concede the presidential election and making up a "whole bunch of hooey".

Peru dictator’s spymaster reappears to push Fujimori’s baseless fraud claims

Posted: 29 Jun 2021 02:00 AM PDT

Vladimiro Montesinos, known as 'Peru's Rasputin', demands votes be recounted in bid to prevent Pedro Castillo winning election

He was known as the Peruvian Rasputin, the spymaster of one of the country's most corrupt and brutal regimes.

Vladimiro Montesinos masterminded a network of political espionage, mining state coffers to control the military top brass, the courts, and the media – until he was brought down by one of his own videotapes which showed him bribing politicians.

Government committed millions to commuter car parks that could never be built, Labor says

Posted: 29 Jun 2021 02:55 AM PDT

MPs are criticising the Coalition for doing 'no homework' by announcing projects on ineligible land

Labor MPs have criticised the Coalition's $660m commuter car park fund, which allowed Liberal MPs and candidates to select and announce projects in their electorates, some of which were never and could never be built.

On Monday the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) released a scathing report finding the infrastructure department selected none of the 47 car park sites, which were instead selected by the government using a "non-competitive, non-application based process" that "was not demonstrably merit-based".

Greece accused of refugee ‘pushback’ after family avoid being forced off island

Posted: 28 Jun 2021 11:30 PM PDT

Story of Palestinians who hid on Samos to escape deportation to Turkey appears to be 'proof' that pushbacks continue, claim rights groups

On 26 April Dimitris Choulis, an immigration lawyer based on the Greek island of Samos, opened his office door to find a family of four on his doorstep. Aisha*, 31, and her three children, all from Palestine.

"She said 'pushback,'" said Choulis, "and I understood what had happened." These were the only people left on the island out of a group of asylum seekers who had arrived from Turkey a few days before.

The children’s graves at residential schools in Canada evoke the massacres of Indigenous Australians | William Pengarte Tilmouth

Posted: 28 Jun 2021 11:22 PM PDT

Until there is truth-telling in Australia about the colonisation process, reconciliation remains superficial

First Nations people across Australia are mourning with Canadian First Nations families as evidence mounts of hundreds of deaths of children at residential schools.

We are standing with our Canadian First Nations brothers and sisters on these recent horrific discoveries.

Now is not the time to abandon all Covid caution

Posted: 28 Jun 2021 02:02 PM PDT

Analysis: scientists say the Delta variant should make the government think twice about resting all its hopes on vaccines

If the new health secretary is to be believed, we are about to embark on an "exciting new journey" come 19 July. Sajid Javid, like the prime minister, appears confident that restrictions will be lifted irreversibly on that date. The data, however, is beginning to tell a different story.

When Boris Johnson said his government would be guided by "data, not dates", the scientific community – for the most part – endorsed the cautious approach. Now, the signs are ominous. Driven by the highly transmissible Delta variant, cases are once again starting to rise exponentially. Vaccination rates have slowed. An exhausted NHS is seeing a rise in hospitalisations. Over half of all people in the UK are not fully vaccinated.

Five key takeaways from France’s regional elections

Posted: 28 Jun 2021 07:13 AM PDT

Analysis: record low turnout makes it difficult to draw clear lessons but both Macron and Le Pen did badly

France's regional elections produced a humiliating defeat for Marine Le Pen's far-right Rassemblement National (RN), stinging failure for Emmanuel Macron and thumping wins for incumbents from the country's traditional centre-right and centre-left parties.

A record low turnout of less than 35% makes it hard, however, to draw clear lessons for next year's presidential elections, in which Macron and Le Pen remain clear frontrunners – although the race has certainly got a lot more interesting.

LGBTQ Pride parade weekend around the world – in pictures

Posted: 28 Jun 2021 05:35 AM PDT

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Pride month is celebrated in June to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall uprising in Manhattan. Although the coronavirus pandemic curtailed festivities, many revellers adapted to the new circumstances

Aneka Info

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

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

About the author

Posting Komentar

Categories

Popular Posts

Link list

Categories

Tags