World news | The Guardian

As world leaders meet to discuss the climate crisis, campaigners say wealthier countries need to do more

Analysis: The vaccine won’t protect everyone, but whatever figure scientists settle on, the data is highly encouraging

22 April 1949: The Chinese communist revolutionary called for the ‘anti-democratic Kuomintang forces on Chinese territory’ to be wiped outNanking, April 21

Leaked files show applicants leave homes empty for most of year while claiming ‘genuine link’ to EU country

Xi Jinping is likely to push back against US claim to global leadership, but both know their interests overlap on tackling environmentObservers of the US and China this week may ponder whether a joint call to tackle the climate crisis marks a positive change in their fraught relationship as the two leaders meet for the first time since Joe Biden was sworn into office.After four years of Donald Trump, the bilateral relationship has reached its lowest ebb since formal ties were established in January 1979. In both capitals, fear of a “new cold war” is on the rise. Many highlight growing competition, and the opposing nature of the two countries’ political systems. Continue reading...

The critical questions of who is really in charge and who has the money still need to be answeredAfter decades of neglect, inequality, and outright racism in New Zealand’s health system, a shift toward indigenous sovereignty and tino rangatiratanga in healthcare is long overdue. The Māori Health Authority that the government announced this week seems like a step in the right direction. But the devil will be in the details, as we wait to see if this will produce true change, or just more window dressing.The failure of the health and disability system to serve Māori has been apparent for decades. A visit to the Ministry of Health website will yield report after report documenting the seven-year life expectancy gap between Māori and non-Māori, higher rates of cancer and other preventable illness, worse outcomes in care, and a myriad of other inequities. Being able to describe Māori health inequities is necessary. But ultimately, it’s insufficient. Continue reading...

Creation of an extra seat giving government’s party the edge was counteracted when independent MP joined oppositionAfter what commentators have referred to as the most dramatic election of the Pacific century and almost two weeks of twists and turns, Samoa’s polls have still failed to produce a clear winner.The Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP), which has ruled the small island country for 39 years, and its long-serving leader, Tuilaepa Sailele Lupesoliai Malielegaoi, faced their biggest election challenge yet in Fa’atuatua I le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (Fast), led by Fiame Naomi Mata’afa, the country’s first female MP and a former deputy prime minister. Continue reading...

Foreign minister Marise Payne cancels two deals between Victoria and China under new foreign veto lawsThe Morrison government has used its sweeping new foreign veto laws to tear up Victoria’s Belt and Road agreements with China, in what the Chinese embassy has denounced as a “another unreasonable and provocative move”.The foreign minister, Marise Payne, said she would cancel those two deals, along with two older agreements between the Victorian government and Iranian and Syrian entities, because they were “inconsistent with Australia’s foreign policy or adverse to our foreign relations”. Continue reading...

Food and Drug Administration report describes concerning conditions at Baltimore site where manufacturing was haltedA US Food and Drug Administration inspection report found unsanitary conditions and other problems at a Baltimore manufacturing plant that ruined more than 15m doses of Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine.The FDA reported the plant operated by Emergent BioSolutions “is not maintained in a clean and sanitary condition”. The report says the paint on the plant’s walls were peeling in several areas and paint flecks were found on the floor. Continue reading...

People’s Vaccine Alliance says profits inappropriate when poorer countries are struggling to get access

The company is notorious as an employer and its expansion here may not be in the country’s best interestsThe future of capitalism is the distribution centre. Or it’s the future of retail at least, if Amazon is the innovator its executives sell it as; the increasingly efficient warehouse where capacity management happens in the cloud, where drones scan tags to take an inventory or mark goods for dispatch, and where autonomous vehicles handle delivery to your door.The advantage, this time for Amazon’s shareholders, is that cloud computing, drones, and autonomous vehicles never tire, let alone ask for a toilet break. Continue reading...

Slow-moving lava has come within two and half blocks of homes in San José el RodeoEach morning, the residents of small communities living around Guatemala’s Pacaya volcano wake wondering if the lava will reach their homes.One slow-moving flow descending the volcano has advanced between El Patrocinio and San José el Rodeo. In the case of the latter, the lava has advanced to within two and half blocks of the outermost homes. Continue reading...

Search operation under way after vessel disappears about 60 miles north of BaliIndonesia’s navy is searching for a submarine that went missing north of the resort island of Bali with 53 people onboard.The country’s military chief, Hadi Tjahjanto, said on Wednesday that the KRI Nanggala 402 was participating in a training exercise when it missed a scheduled reporting call. The vessel is believed to have disappeared in waters about 60 miles (95km) north of Bali, he said. Continue reading...

Meng Wanzhou’s team had sought more time to review new documents after Hong Kong settlement with HSBCA Canada judge has agreed to delay Meng Wanzhou’s US extradition hearings for three months, according to a ruling read in court on Wednesday, handing the Huawei chief financial officer’s defense team a win.Meng, 49, was arrested at Vancouver international airport on charges of bank fraud in the US for allegedly misleading HSBC about Huawei’s business dealings in Iran, causing the bank to break US sanctions. Continue reading...

Turkey currently ranks fourth globally in daily cases; England’s health department says contacts of confirmed case have been identified

At least four dead and dozens wounded from explosion in car park of luxury hotel in the city of QuettaAt least four people have been killed and a dozen others wounded when a powerful car bomb exploded at a top hotel hosting the Chinese ambassador in south-western Pakistan.The blast took place in the car park of the Serena – a luxury hotel chain throughout Pakistan – in the city of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province where the military has been fighting a decade-long low level insurgency. Continue reading...

Thursday: epidemiologists say mass hubs in sites such as Bunnings could put Australia’s vaccination program back on track. Plus: why sedentary living is a bigger killer than obesityGood morning. Covid-19 dominates the headlines both domestically and internationally this Thursday, while in the United States the outpouring of emotion continues following the Derek Chauvin murder conviction.Health experts have backed a proposal by hardware company Bunnings to set up vaccination hubs in store carparks, in a bid to assist the federal government’s vaccine rollout. Epidemiologist Hassan Vally says mass vaccination centres could help “nudge” nationwide efforts, stating: “If people go to Bunnings and can get their sausage sandwich after their vaccine on the way out, that’s a good thing.” It’s welcome news for Scott Morrison who faces ongoing criticism over his government’s “glacial pace” of vaccine delivery, a plight seemingly shared by New Zealand. Meanwhile, state and territory leaders are expected to debate whether Australia’s 1,400-strong Olympic delegation should be fast-tracked for vaccination. And elsewhere, a new report has found that the rate of dementia deaths declined during the Covid-19 pandemic. In Western Australia, two returned travellers have contracted Covid-19 in hotel quarantine in Perth, sparking an investigation into the source of the infections. And in Sydney, health officials are investigating whether Covid-19 has spread inside a second quarantine hotel. Continue reading...

James Marape has said the adjournment was due to Covid-19. He was facing a challenge from former prime minister Peter O’NeillPapua New Guinea’s prime minister, James Marape, has adjourned parliament for four months, avoiding a vote of confidence that would have likely removed him from office.The adjournment was announced late on Wednesday, with the government citing the Covid-19 outbreak in the country as the reason. On Tuesday, the government announced that 36 parliamentary staffers and one MP had tested positive for Covid-19 in the last week. Continue reading...

Campaigners say conviction of white officer Derek Chauvin should be catalyst for change

Paschal Donohoe says Dublin will not accept reforms that affect its ability to undercut its rivalsIreland’s finance minister has signalled the country will resist attempts to rebalance the global tax system if they affect Dublin’s ability to undercut its rivals.Under new tax proposals led by the US, Ireland could lose 20% of its tax revenues, according to Paschal Donohoe. Continue reading...

Documentary The Race to Save the World makes the case for the urgency of climate action by burrowing deep into the lives of those on the frontlineEarly in the morning on 2 September 2014, Abby Brockway left her home in Seattle and, along with two dozen other climate activists, drove about a half hour north to a railyard in Everett, Washington. The group erected a massive, chained tripod over the crossed tracks, blocking a large line of oil tank cars. Brockway sat atop the 20ft structure flanked by a flag which read “Cut oil trains, not conductors.”Related: Jeff VanderMeer: ‘Success changes who I can reach with an environmental message’ Continue reading...

Australia’s glacially slow delivery of jabs derided as a ‘farce’, while in New Zealand only 4.5% of eligible people have been vaccinatedThey were held up as Covid success stories, two countries at the bottom of the world that kept outbreaks under control and deaths low as the pandemic swept the rest of the globe.Daily life in cities including Sydney and Auckland now feels largely back to pre-pandemic normal – restaurants are full, theatres are open, masks are scarce and offices are busy. A degree of international travel is also a reality thanks to the new “trans-Tasman travel bubble” – a two-way quarantine-free corridor between the neighbours. Continue reading...

Coroner praises pursuers’ bravery after inquest hears Usman Khan threatened to set off suicide vestThe convicted terrorist Usman Khan threatened to set off a suicide vest as a bystander confronted him with a narwhal tusk at London’s Fishmongers’ Hall, an inquest has heard.Darryn Frost, a civil servant, poked the tusk into Khan’s stomach after he had stabbed Jack Merritt, 25, and Saskia Jones, 23, at a prisoner rehabilitation event in the hall on 29 November 2019. Continue reading...

Officer infiltrated anarchist groups in London in the 1970s and met the woman during his deploymentAn undercover police officer who infiltrated anarchist groups in the 1970s met a woman during his deployment and had a child with her, a public inquiry has heard. It appears to be the earliest known instance of a child being born from a relationship between a woman and an undercover officer who infiltrated political groups.The woman met the officer during his deployment when he was using the fake identity of Jim Pickford. The public inquiry heard that from the mid-1970s onwards, undercover officers who infiltrated political groups regularly formed sexual relationships with women. Continue reading...

‘She climbed to the top unaided, to collect leaves for her family’s dinner. The tastiest ones are usually higher up’The vast Zinder region in Niger, west Africa, is the most populated part of the country. Its people live mostly in traditional villages, their lives relatively unchanged for decades. Yet they are now being profoundly affected by climate change. I was there in 2019, working on stories about the crisis, reforestation and resilience projects. Most of the region’s inhabitants make their living through cattle. Global warming isn’t just causing droughts that affect crops and cause food shortages – it also means the cattle can’t graze. So people are being forced to travel ever further to find water and food for themselves and their livestock. This creates conflicts over land and access to water.This girl, who was 10 or 11, lived in the village of Malawama. She is at the top of a massive baobab tree, collecting leaves for the family dinner – the tastiest are usually higher up. Baobab leaves are a popular meal in the region. They’re similar to spinach and eaten as a side dish or added to soups and stews. I saw her from a distance and the image quickly caught my eye. I was surprised to see her climbing this huge tree unaided, but she moved so confidently that I soon stopped worrying. She was completely used to it – as most local people are. Continue reading...

Trials coincide with Iran announcing desire for ‘all for all’ simultaneous prisoner exchanges with westIran has set trial dates for two dual nationals, one British-Iranian and the other German-Iranian, in cases that may increase the pressure before the next stage of talks on the future of the Iran nuclear deal in Vienna.The news of the trials set for next Wednesday comes as the lead Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, Saeed Khatibzadeh, said at a Clubhouse event on Tuesday that Iran wants a big “all for all” prisoner exchange. Continue reading...

EDL founder claimed Jamal Hijazi was ‘not innocent’ after footage of attack on student went viralThe family of a Syrian schoolboy who was filmed being attacked in a Huddersfield playground had to flee the town after the far-right campaigner Tommy Robinson aired “entirely distorted anti-Muslim” claims about him, a court has been told.The founder of the English Defence League (EDL) – whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – is being sued by the family of Jamal Hijazi after he “peddled false and defamatory lies” online about the teenager. Continue reading...

The brilliant songwriter for Meat Loaf, Céline Dion and Bonnie Tyler, who has died aged 73, reminded us that pop music should involve fantasy and a sense of the ridiculousIn 1989, the NME interviewed Jim Steinman. The late journalist Steven Wells found him on fine, very Jim Steinman-ish form. He was presiding over a video shoot for a single by his new project Pandora’s Box, directed by Ken Russell, a man who shared Steinman’s zero-tolerance policy towards subtlety and good taste. Amid Russell’s exploding motorbikes, white horses surrounded by fire, and S&M gear-clad dancers gyrating on top of a tomb, Steinman offered his thoughts on current rock (U2 were “the most boring group in the world”) and dished scandalous gossip about the artists he’d worked with. He also announced that the Pandora’s Box album had been inspired by a scene in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights where Heathcliffe exhumed Cathy’s corpse and “danced with it on the beach in the cold moonlight”. It should be added that this scene seems to have existed entirely in Steinman’s head – nothing like it happens in Brontë’s book. But then, Jim Steinman seemed very much the kind of guy who might read Wuthering Heights and decide it needed amping up a little.He also ruminated on his own position within rock music. “It’s always struck me as weird that a lot of people in rock’n’roll think my stuff is ridiculous,” he said. “I think that so much rock’n’roll is confessional. It’s like black and white film. That’s what a lot of people think rock’n’roll should be … I just see it as fantasy, operatic, hallucinations, stuff like that … I kinda think rock’n’roll is silly, in the best way. The silly things are kinda the things that are alright.” Continue reading...

Policy is not sufficiently ambitious and out of line with Paris agreement, say environment groupsA new EU target of a 55% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 has been described as a “farce” by environmental groups after it was agreed in Brussels on the eve of Joe Biden’s climate summit for world leaders.After 14 hours of intensive negotiations, representatives of the EU’s member states and parliament emerged on Wednesday morning to announce a deal in principle on cuts and the establishment of a new independent body of scientists to monitor the policy. Continue reading...

Many falsely believed that the country had defeated Covid. Now hospitals are running out of oxygen and bodies are stacking up in morgues

A wonderfully simple and quick three-ingredient Roman dish of cheese, black pepper and pasta. It’ll be clean plates all roundDried pasta, which cooks in roughly 10-12 minutes, depending on its shape and your taste, isn’t always the first thing I reach for when time is of the essence, but this Roman classic is so wonderfully simple, both in terms of ingredients and preparation, that it takes some beating. And if you think it’s quick to make, wait until you see how fast it disappears. Continue reading...

One nurse is responsible for two jobs at the Broken Hill hospital, the inquest into the death of Alex Braes has heardA New South Wales regional hospital where a teenager was sent home three times days before his death is still not safe due to staff shortages, a coroner has heard.Several changes had occurred to the patient triage process at Broken Hill base hospital’s emergency department since the September 2017 death of Alex Braes, the registered nurse Kristy Kelly told the NSW coroner’s court on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Fourth coronavirus wave hits densely populated parts of country as experts say mutant strains driving latest outbreak

Lockdown revolutionised women’s access to home treatment – and strengthened the anti-abortion backlashKay, 34, realised her period was late a month into Britain’s lockdown. The coronavirus death count was spiralling across the country. Covid-19 was putting the NHS under unprecedented strain and Boris Johnson had given the British people what he described as “a very simple instruction” in an address to the nation from Downing Street: “You must stay at home.”A worrying, unsettling time, and Kay, a mother of a six-year-old girl, needed to get hold of a pregnancy test kit. She went online and, two days later, took delivery of the test, learning of a positive result via two pink lines. It was the news she had dreaded. Continue reading...

Opposition leaders leave airport bolthole as they step up pressure over contested presidency of Mohamed Abdullahi MohamedAfter months living at an upmarket inn close to Mogadishu’s airport, Somalia’s opposition leaders, including two former presidents and their armed teams, have decamped, spreading across the capital in what is seen as a strategic move.The sitting president, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed “Farmaajo”, has meanwhile flown to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he reportedly hopes to win support for an extension of his presidential term from the African Union. Continue reading...

Lockdown affected all our routines when it comes to showering, bathing, shampooing and deodorant. Will regular washing ever resume?

Analysis: Mindful of ‘red wall’ voters, Johnson protested, but the question remains whether he can give the game long-term helpThe spectacle of Boris Johnson, acme of an old Etonian rugby man, weighing in on the side of football fans against the breakaway European Super League, is a collision of political and sporting cultures that has been brewing for 30 years.The abortive participation in the venture of England’s “big six” clubs, all owned by investors from overseas, is the culmination of a financial carve-up that began with English football’s own breakaway, the 1992 formation of the Premier League. The then big First Division clubs were determined not to share the new pay-TV riches with the clubs in the Football League’s other three divisions. As their fortunes subsequently boomed, British owners made multimillions by selling their shares. Continue reading...

Prime minister faces mounting anger as new cases exceed 250,000 a day and oxygen supplies run out

Supporters of Russian dissident say they are preparing for the worst prior to last-ditch protest

Anas Laghari claims elite competition will reignite love of game and end ‘madness’ of big money transfers

Len McCluskey, the general secretary of Unite, on the union’s construction project in BirminghamEndemic sleaze is indeed engulfing this government and degrading our public realm, but Jonathan Freedland does his case against Boris Johnson no good by including a cheap swipe at Unite (This is Tory sleaze. Don’t let Boris Johnson convince you otherwise, 16 April). Our Birmingham conference facility was authorised by our elected executive council. An employment protocol ensured that the workers were directly employed, with union members earning the professional rate for the job – no small miracle given the cowboy culture that bedevils the construction sector.Despite Mr Freedland’s insinuations, I had no dealings with the awarding of contracts for the centre; nor did I need to, because our protocol, agreed by our executive council, dictated strict value for money and employment standards, overseen by independent property experts. Continue reading...

Decade-long feud continues over popular selfie spot linked to Shakespeare’s Romeo and JulietPlans to curtail the number of tourists who flock to Verona for a selfie beneath the balcony where Romeo is said to have wooed Juliet have been blocked amid a feud over the site that has lasted more than a decade.Tourists can enter the tiny courtyard – free-of-charge – simply to take a photo of the balcony or to rub their hand on the right breast of a bronze statue of Juliet as part of a ritual that is said to bring luck in love. Continue reading...

A father’s legacy is in dispute when wayward son RJ Mitte decides to spar with the barman who guards the man’s ashesSeveral men walk into several bars in this interlocking suite of tales, and the repeating permutations of barman and barfly, blue collar and white collar, father and son, raconteur and listener pile up pleasingly into a kind of oppressive, Coenesque cosmic joke. RJ Mitte, Breaking Bad’s Walter White Jr, plays college boy Steve, who turns up in a snowstorm at a bar owned by the irascible Paul (Peter Outerbridge). He owes the latter money – and without it, Paul won’t give up the ashes of Steve’s recently deceased dad, Gord, whose funeral the youth failed to attend. And then this arrogant sadsack – whose very presence aggravates Paul – offers to pay him with a story.Steve’s yarn is a slack spin on his own: a freezing wayfarer walks into The Oak Room, a pub in a neighbouring town, and puts a set of demands to an irked barman. Unimpressed, Paul tells him that he must learn to “goose the truth” to hold an audience, and then sucker-punches him with a story about Gord, with another story inside. Or he thinks it’s a sucker-punch – Steve reveals that he had only told the ending of his, and the start will transform everything. Continue reading...

Former prime minister told to release full texts he sent to chancellor at start of the pandemic

Statement comes two months after BBC video in which Dubai ruler’s daughter said she was being held hostage

Appointments in third quarter of 2020 at five-year high despite dip earlier in pandemic

Prime minister will offer ‘unwavering support’, he tells FA, Premier League and fans

Hollywood Foreign Press Association apologises after Phil Berk emails article to members that calls Black Lives Matter a ‘racist hate group’Already under fire for its failings over membership diversity, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the organisation behind the Golden Globes, has been forced to apologise after its former long-term president emailed a copy of an article to members that called Black Lives Matter a “racist hate movement”.According to the LA Times, Phil Berk, who served eight terms as the HPFA president, ending in 2011, shared a copy of an article from rightwing website Frontpagemag.com, which described Black Lives Matter as a “racist … hate group” and claimed that the movement is carrying out the “race war” that Charles Manson aspired to start. Continue reading...