World news | The Guardian

Political unrest hit tourism and retail, and coronavirus response has delayed recoveryHong Kong’s economy was already in recession when the pandemic hit in January. Six months of running battles between pro-democracy campaigners and local government had deterred many of the visitors who fuel the lucrative tourism industry, while the threat of violence on the streets and closures of shops had sent retail sales down nearly a quarter on the previous year.With much of Asia shut down by coronavirus restrictions during the winter months, there was little expectation of a recovery until the spring, when the level of infections fell to almost zero across mainland China and most of the rest of the region, and the measures could be eased. Continue reading...

Allegation follows new law that lets Hong Kong ask for sensitive data if deemed to threaten national securityBig technology companies may already be complying with secret Chinese requests for user information held in Hong Kong and ought to “come clean” about the vulnerability of the data they hold there, a senior US state department official has said.The allegation of possible secret cooperation between major companies and Hong Kong authorities follows the implementation of a sweeping and controversial new national security law that allows Hong Kong authorities to demand sensitive user data from companies if it is deemed to threaten national security. Continue reading...

Home secretary asked officials to see if applicants could be processed on isolated St HelenaA Whitehall brainstorming session prompted by Priti Patel led to the idea being floated of sending asylum seekers to a volcanic island in the South Atlantic, the Guardian understands.The Financial Times reported that the home secretary had asked officials to look into the idea of processing asylum seekers on Ascension Island, an isolated volcanic British territory, and on St Helena, which is part of the same island group but 800 miles away. Continue reading...

Global death toll passes one million; Angela Merkel says new action is needed in Germany; New York test positivity rate climbs

Five African grey parrots at a Lincolnshire zoo believed to be a bad influence on each otherFive foul-mouthed parrots have been separated after learning to swear at a Lincolnshire zoo.The parrots – named Billy, Elsie, Eric, Jade and Tyson – joined Lincolnshire Wildlife Park’s colony of 200 grey parrots in August. But soon after, they started encouraging each other to swear. Continue reading...

Wednesday: Rivals face off in the first presidential TV debate. Plus: the Gardening Australia host on the things that help him get through the dayGood morning, this is Tamara Howie bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Wednesday 30 September. Continue reading...

Fears of a backbench rebellion prove short-lived as bill goes through to House of Lords

Women say they were exploited by international workers in Democratic Republic of CongoMore than 50 women have accused aid workers from the World Health Organization and leading NGOs of sexual exploitation and abuse during efforts to fight Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo.In interviews, 51 women – many of whose accounts were backed up by aid agency drivers and local NGO workers – recounted multiple incidents of abuse, mainly by men who said they were international workers, during the 2018 to 2020 Ebola crisis. Continue reading...

Boris Johnson regards the lack of parliamentary oversight as a virtue. But without Commons scrutiny of fast-changing Covid rules, we have been left with error and confusionBoris Johnson is in No 10 with a majority of 80 in the Commons. This has meant he has run his government during the pandemic in a presidential style, bundling parliament to the sidelines in March. The emergency law which enabled his power grab has to be renewed after six months. Scores of Conservative MPs appeared not to be in the mood to give Mr Johnson such leeway again. They have been rightly infuriated by the lack of parliamentary oversight of fast-changing Covid rules which ultimately govern the way people live. By one count these have been changed 200 times since March. Even Mr Johnson appears confused about what people are allowed to do.There is a respectable argument that the government needed to be able to move quickly when dealing with an unknown and deadly viral pathogen. With no vaccine, restrictions on freedom were inevitable. We now have a much clearer idea of what tackling Covid means. Yet the government is exercising vast powers, without parliamentary scrutiny in advance, and undermining the law by having a shifting set of rules that few can keep up with. Commons debates have been permitted – absurdly – after the restrictions were announced or came into force. Continue reading...

The Labor leader will argue clean energy can power Australia’s economic recovery in a speech on WednesdayAnthony Albanese says the Morrison government should use next week’s budget to launch new investments in social housing, skills and local heavy manufacturing, and should only bankroll projects on 6 October if they boost productivity and economic growth.The opposition leader will use a speech to the McKell Institute on Wednesday to step up his political attack on the prime minister and the government’s record, and outline Labor’s broad priorities for the 6 October budget. Continue reading...

Relatives of some of the 14 people killed to challenge ruling by Northern Ireland Public Prosecution ServiceThe families of those who died in the 1972 Bloody Sunday killings in Derry are to challenge a legal decision not to prosecute any more former soldiers in connection with the shootings.Relatives expressed dismay after a review by the Northern Ireland Public Prosecution Service (PPS), published on Tuesday, confirmed that only one former member of the Parachute Regiment, known as Soldier F, should face charges. Continue reading...

Paper on guarantees for struggling companies still leaves major gap with EU positionBoris Johnson has been rebuffed by Brussels after making an eleventh hour attempt to break the Brexit logjam with new proposals on limiting state subsidies to ailing British companies.As the latest week of negotiations began, EU sources welcomed the UK’s effort to make a compromise with a submission of a new round of “negotiating papers”, but warned that a major gap remained between the two sides. Continue reading...

Witnesses who worked for company accused of spying on WikiLeaks founder claimed they were at riskFormer employees of a security firm accused of spying on Julian Assange at Ecuador’s embassy in the UK will be allowed to give evidence to his extradition trial anonymously after claiming they would be at risk of kidnapping or poisoning.Anonymity was granted to two former employees of UC Global after a hearing at the Old Bailey in London was told they feared that its director and owner, David Morales, or others connected to him in the US, could seek to harm them. Continue reading...

Emir who mediated to prevent conflict between Qatar and Saudi Arabia will be succeeded by his brotherKuwait’s emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, the architect of the nation’s modern foreign policy and one of the region’s most influential voices, has died at the age of 91.The monarch died on Tuesday at the Mayo clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where he had been recovering after surgery in July. His body was being flown to Kuwait for burial. Continue reading...

Mail on Sunday wins permission to argue Duke and Duchess of Sussex collaborated with authorsThe Mail on Sunday has been given permission to rely on a biography of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in its legal defence of duchess’s privacy claim against it, after the newspaper argued the couple had collaborated with the book’s authors.Meghan is suing Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL), the publishers of the newspaper and the website MailOnline, for alleged misuse of private information, breaching the Data Protection Act and infringement of copyright over publication of parts of a letter to her estranged father, Thomas Markle. Continue reading...

Concerned MEPs say definition of rule of law narrowed to unblock Covid recovery money

My friend and former student, Carlos Santos, has died aged 79 of liver disease. He experienced life to the full and became regarded as “a living repository” of the contemporary history of southern Africa.Carlos’s life was shaped by traumatic experiences. Aged 17, he was sent to learn English in a high school in the Transvaal, where he suffered as an outsider in Afrikaner society. Then, in 1973, during Frelimo’s independence struggle against Portugal in Mozambique, he was arrested by the colonial security police and endured 22 days of solitary confinement in Machava prison, as well as physical maltreatment. It was alleged he had been involved in the destruction of a statue of the Portuguese dictator, António de Salazar. Released for lack of evidence, he swore the truth would go with him to the grave. Continue reading...

Turkey denies claim it shot down Armenian jet, as UN announces emergency talks

Asset freeze and travel ban come with censure of regime’s ‘thuggery’ against its peopleThe UK has imposed sanctions on the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, his son and six other senior government officials judged to be responsible for rigging the August presidential poll and suppressing subsequent street protests.The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, announced the sanctions on Tuesday in coordination with a similar move from Canada. “We will hold those responsible for the thuggery deployed against the Belarusian people to account and we will stand up for our values of democracy and human rights,” he said. Continue reading...

Campaign by colour matching company aims to ‘emboldens people who menstruate to feel proud of who they are’Pantone has unveiled a new shade of red inspired by the colour of women’s periods, as part of a new campaign to end the stigma associated with menstruation.The company, which has the biggest colour matching system in the world, relied on by the global design industry, from graphic design to fashion, product design to printing, said the new shade was “an active and adventurous red hue” that it hoped would “embolden people who menstruate to feel proud of who they are”. Continue reading...

19-year-old Dalit woman was attacked while out cutting grass in Hathras, Uttar PradeshProtests have erupted in India over the death of a young woman two weeks after she was dragged from a field and allegedly gang-raped and tortured.The 19-year-old was attacked while she was out cutting grass on 14 September in Hathras, a district in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The attackers allegedly pulled her into a field with her shawl, sexually assaulted her and tried to strangle her. Continue reading...

Former security commissioner warns of ‘immediate impact’ on tackling terrorism and crime

Customers face having to transfer funds after move by banks due to lack of post-Brexit trade dealBanks should give Britons living in the EU “sufficient warning” before closing down their current accounts due to Brexit, MPs on the influential Treasury committee have said.The committee chair, the Conservative MP Mel Stride, wrote to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on Tuesday, asking the regulator to clarify how much time customers should be granted to transfer their funds, and avoid being left without a bank account at the end of December. Continue reading...

Authorities froze bank accounts after criticism of government’s human rights recordAmnesty International has been forced to shut down operations in India and lay off all staff after the Indian government froze its bank accounts.The Indian enforcement directorate, an agency that investigates economic crimes, froze the accounts of Amnesty’s Indian arm this month after the group published two reports highly critical of the government’s human rights record. Continue reading...

About 700 people moved from Calais camp where thousands have sought to cross ChannelFrench police have dismantled a migrant camp in the northern port of Calais from where thousands of people have sought to cross the Channel to reach British shores.The operation to clear the makeshift camp, which was home to about 700 people, began shortly before sunrise on Tuesday. It was the biggest such operation since the sprawling camp known as the “Jungle” was broken up four years ago. Continue reading...

Kristalina Georgieva says support for most vulnerable countries must be stepped up

Former news producer Natalie Morton claimed she was bullied into ‘unnecessary’ trip to HomsA war journalist who sued the BBC after claiming she was bullied into a dangerous assignment during which she was almost killed in an explosion has settled her case for £40,000.Natalie Morton, 44, a former news producer, said the ordeal left her with severe post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety, which ended her broadcasting career, drove her to drink and left her so traumatised she could not watch the news. Continue reading...

Wesley Barnes sued by resort owner after posting negative comments on TripadvisorAn American man is facing two years in prison in Thailand after posting negative online reviews of a hotel resort.The Sea View Resort in Koh Chang accused Wesley Barnes of “a slanderous campaign” over the reviews, and filed a police complaint under the country’s harsh defamation laws. Continue reading...

Exclusive: MPs and peers aim to grant minorities in China the right to petition British courts

Wang Yun put sodium nitrite in children’s breakfast in act of revenge against a colleagueA nursery school teacher in China has been sentenced to death for poisoning dozens of children, one of them apparently fatally, in an act of revenge against a colleague.A court in the central province of Henan said Wang Yun put sodium nitrite into porridge being prepared for her colleague’s students after a falling out with the colleague. Continue reading...

Dr Shankar Chappiti says he was told to run clinics without pay after an unfounded and racist fraud allegationA consultant has accused an NHS trust of forcing him into enslavement after making an unfounded and racist allegation of fraud against him that was later dropped.Dr Shankar Chappiti has lodged a complaint at the Birmingham employment tribunal concerning managers at New Cross hospital, part of the Royal Wolverhampton NHS trust. Continue reading...

Guy Jalland denies he knew of late Macau mogul Stanley Ho’s interest in Crown share buyer MelcoOne of billionaire James Packer’s key lieutenants, Guy Jalland, has faced a grilling over whose interests he believed he was representing at a key meeting on 23 May last year where the $1.7bn sale of part of Crown to Melco Resorts was finalised.Jalland is a director of Packer’s private company, Consolidated Press Holdings and the ASX-listed Crown Resorts. But he was not a director of the CPH company that held the shares in Crown and that was selling nearly 20% of its 46% holding. Continue reading...

Fantastic Beasts star also defends trans friends who face discrimination ‘on a daily basis’Fantastic Beasts star Eddie Redmayne has said he is alarmed by the “vitriol” aimed at Harry Potter author JK Rowling after her comments on trans rights, adding the reaction on social media was “absolutely disgusting”.Redmayne was speaking to the Daily Mail during the shoot of the third Fantastic Beasts film, which is produced and co-written by Rowling. He said he had sent her a private note. Continue reading...

The cardinal is travelling for official Vatican government business, which means he does not need an exemptionCardinal George Pell did not need to apply for a travel exemption to leave Australia because he is travelling to Rome for official Vatican government business.The news that Pell was flying from Sydney to Rome on Tuesday generated criticism online with people questioning why the Australian government – which has banned its citizens from leaving the country as a Covid-19 precaution – granted him an exemption. Continue reading...

If the commonwealth had set up its aged care response centre sooner ‘we might have avoided some of the scale of the outbreaks in Victoria’

Scott Morrison says it’s time Australians go back to the office and flags home quarantine for returned travellers. Follow live

A frailty index is rationing treatment for older and disabled people who catch coronavirus. We are not sacrificial lambs

With 17 children missing every day, the city’s police commissioner hopes a promise of fast-track promotion will inspire officers to reunite more familiesNew Delhi Police Commissioner SN Srivastava was particularly troubled over the 17 children who went missing in his city every day. So he decided to light a fire in the belly of his force and came up with a new approach.If any officer could find 50 missing children in a year their promotion would be fast-tracked. It usually takes constables at least five years to be promoted to head constable, and meeting the target would dramatically speed that up. Continue reading...

Incidents such as tanker stranding in Mauritius stress need for quick and effective solutionsSpecial sponges, magnetic soap and autonomous robots are among the latest wave of inventions aimed at tackling oil spills.Incidents such as the tanker stranding in Mauritius in August can devastate the environment and threaten communities who rely on the sea or tourism for their livelihoods. They often take months or years to clean up. Continue reading...

Longstanding cultural ties and a newly welcoming government have led to prominent exiles choosing London as their baseThe UK has become an international hub for Hong Kong dissidents as China’s harsh new security law leads to an exodus of pro-democracy politicians, campaigners and protesters, who now face jail terms for their activism.Longstanding cultural ties, a newly welcoming government and Covid-era travel restrictions that have in effect closed off other potential destinations, such as Canada and Australia, have boosted the number of new arrivals to Britain. Continue reading...

Continue reading...

Global gender tracker assesses how governments address violence, strengthen women’s economic security and support unpaid caring

Coronavirus has hit few sectors harder than air travel, wiping out tens of thousands of jobs and uncountable billions in revenue. While most fleets were grounded, the industry was forced to reimagine its futureWhen an airline no longer wants a plane, it is sent away to a boneyard, a storage facility where it sits outdoors on a paved lot, wingtip to wingtip with other unwanted planes. From the air, the planes look like the bleached remains of some long-forgotten skeleton. Europe’s biggest boneyard is built on the site of a late-30s airfield in Teruel, in eastern Spain, where the dry climate is kind to metallic airframes. Many planes are here for short-term storage, biding their time while they change owners or undergo maintenance. If their future is less clear, they enter long-term storage. Sometimes a plane’s limbo ends when it is taken apart, its body rendered efficiently down into spare parts and recycled metal.In February, Patrick Lecer, the CEO of Tarmac Aerosave, the company that owns the Teruel boneyard and three others in France, had one eye cocked towards China. Lecer has been in aviation long enough to remember flights being grounded during the Sars epidemic in 2003. This year, when the coronavirus spread beyond Asia, he knew what was coming. “We started making space in our sites, playing Tetris with the aircraft to free up two or three or four more spaces in each,” he told me. Continue reading...

Variegated monstera disappears from orchid house in Christchurch amid boom in popularity of valuable floraA rare and valuable houseplant has disappeared from the Christchurch Botanic Gardens in New Zealand, amid a boom in the popularity of unique indoor greenery.A variegated monstera – one of the world’s most prized indoor plants – went missing from the gardens earlier this month. Its distinctive white and green leaves make it potentially valuable on the black market. Continue reading...

If the country is to honour the pandemic’s spirit of collective solidarity there must be a genuine commitment to healthcare and educationNew Zealand’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic has been a master-class in inclusive communication. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described the country as a “team of six million”. The top public health official, Ashley Bloomfield, said: “The virus is the problem, not people ... people are the solution”.But the policies arising out of the pandemic, especially in the run-up to New Zealand’s election on 17 October, have not always been as inclusive as the communication. There’s a mismatch between universalist rhetoric in the pandemic response, and policy offerings that seem to give up on universalism in public services. Continue reading...

Police fire shots as crowds of demonstrators demand a vote on secession from IndonesiaUnrest has flared in the restive Indonesian region of Papua with police firing shots during a protest by hundreds of university students in the provincial capital, Jayapura.The group was demonstrating against plans to extend a special autonomy law that protestors say has not done enough to help people in one of the country’s poorest regions. Continue reading...

Milestone is known toll of months of Covid pandemic that has changed everything, from power balances to everyday lifeThough an inevitable milestone for months, its arrival is still breathtaking.Deaths from Covid-19 exceeded 1 million people on Tuesday , according to a Johns Hopkins University database, the known toll of nine relentless months of a pandemic that has changed everything, from global balances of power to the mundane aspects of daily life. Continue reading...

Johns Hopkins University data points to rises in countries that seemed to have slowed spread

Security law has largely stamped out anti-government protests, but the opposition is finding new ways to fightTony Chung spends his days in fear and solitude. For the 19-year-old activist, who became the first political figure to be arrested under Hong Kong’s national security law, the spectre of prison looms large.Chung was arrested in late July with three other former members of the pro-independence group Studentlocalism – which he founded at the age of 15 – on suspicion of inciting secession under the law. Continue reading...