World news | The Guardian

Calls for inquiry mount as officials begin blame game over ammonium nitrate storage

In contrast, letter in English on same issue said university had ‘unequivocal commitment to freedom of expression’The University of New South Wales has been criticised for issuing a letter in Chinese that differs from a letter in English explaining its deletion of a tweet that was critical of China’s human rights abuses.On Wednesday, the vice-chancellor of the university, Prof Ian Jacobs, apologised for the university’s deletion of a tweet that quoted Elaine Pearson, the Australian director of Human Rights Watch and an adjunct academic at the university. Continue reading...

US study says 300,000 Americans could die from coronavirus, Bolsonaro urges Brazilians to ‘get on with life’; Africa passes 1m cases

Revenue collapses by 16% in Australia and 13% in the UK, while Foxtel loses 12% of its subscribers in AustraliaNews Corp has posted a US$1.5bn loss, with its Australian and United Kingdom newspaper businesses suffering sharp declines in revenue and its Foxtel pay-TV business in Australia bleeding subscribers, new financial results for 2019-20 show.The global media giant released its financial results for 2019/20 on Thursday in the US. The reports paint a grim picture across the last quarter and year, with the exception of its Dow Jones business. Continue reading...

PM and president’s party wins ‘super majority’ that will allow them to carry out constitutional changesSri Lanka’s ruling Rajapaksa brothers have secured a two-thirds majority in parliamentary elections, giving them powers to change the constitution and unravel democratic safeguards.Final results on Friday showed that Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka Podujana Party (SLPP) won 145 seats and can also count on the support of at least five allies in the 225-member legislature. Continue reading...

US lawsuit by Saad Aljabri claims that the Saudi state sent a team of assassins to CanadaA former senior Saudi intelligence official with close ties to western intelligence agencies has accused Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of plotting to kill him, claiming in a US lawsuit that one such attempt was thwarted by Canadian officials in 2018.A lawsuit by Saad Aljabri against the Saudi crown prince and other Saudi officials, which was brought in a district court in Washington DC, claims that the Saudi state launched a campaign to target the former high-ranking official in Canada because he was viewed as a threat to Prince Mohammed’s relationship with the US and his eventual ascendancy to the throne. Continue reading...

Friday: Coalition tweaks wage subsidy only three weeks after cutting it. Plus, residents of Lebanon’s capital appeal for help in aftermath of blastGood morning, this is Richard Parkin bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Friday 7 August. Continue reading...

Angry crowds in Beirut have urged Emmanuel Macron to help bring political change to Lebanon as the French president toured the city’s blasted port and the shattered surrounding neighbourhoods. Macron was surrounded by hundreds of people as he toured the wrecked Gemmayze neighbourhood near the port, many of whom called for radical political change. 'We have to launch a new political initiative,' Macron told reporters. 'All this anger is directed at politicians'

As a devastating blast tore across Beirut, Emmanuelle Khnaisser prepared to give birth to a baby boy while the hospital shook and windows were shattered.

Letitia James has announced she is seeking to dissolve the NRA after an investigation by her office uncovered what she called 'years of self-dealing and illegal conduct'. James accused the NRA's CEO, Wayne LaPierre, of using the group's funds to finance a luxury lifestyle for his family.'The NRA is fraught with fraud and abuse,' James said. 'Which is why, today, we seek to dissolve the NRA, because no organisation is above the law.'

What happened in the months and years leading up to the explosion at the Lebanese capital’s port?Beirut is still counting the cost in lives and property from a massive explosion at its port on Tuesday that sent a shockwave blasting across the city. Anger is growing in Lebanon at what appears to be an industrial accident that authorities foresaw and warned about for years before. The Lebanese government is currently investigating, but many in the country and internationally are calling for an independent probe.Exactly what happened at the port in the early evening of 4 August is still unclear, but several facts have come to light in the days since the blast. The trail begins nearly seven years ago, with a rickety ship leaving the eastern European state of Georgia, carrying a deadly load. Continue reading...

Ryu Ho-jeong, 28, says she wore colourful outfit to challenge male dominance in parliamentSouth Korea is again confronting its outdated attitudes towards women in the workplace after a female MP was criticised for attending a parliamentary session in a colourful dress.Ryu Ho-jeong, who at 28 is the youngest member of the country’s national assembly, drew condemnation and praise after she was photographed in the national assembly chamber in what local media described as a red minidress earlier this week. Continue reading...

Ahead of Friday’s national cabinet meeting, the expenditure review committee signs off on changes that will cost $15.6bnThe Morrison government has tweaked the eligibility requirements for the jobkeeper wage subsidy only three weeks after cutting the payment in an attempt to save businesses and jobs at risk because of the deteriorating outlook in Victoria.Ahead of Friday’s national cabinet meeting, and after new Treasury analysis underscored the hit to the national economy from the second wave of coronavirus infections in Victoria, the expenditure review committee of cabinet signed off on the jobkeeper overhaul late on Thursday. Continue reading...

Lilly Wachowski expresses pleasure that the film’s ‘original intention’ has become commonplace understanding among fansLilly Wachowski, who co-directed the Matrix films with her sister, Lana, has confirmed that they should be read as allegories for the transgender narrative. Subsequent to the films’ release, both sisters came out as trans – Lilly in 2012 and Lana in 2016 – and some fans have since identified apparent resonances for the experience in the movies.“I’m glad that it has gotten out that that was the original intention,” Lilly told Netflix Film Club on 4 August. “The world wasn’t quite ready for it. The corporate world wasn’t ready for it.” Continue reading...

Deputy chief health officer Allen Cheng says he’s seen no data that matches the figures splashed on the front page of the AustralianVictoria’s deputy chief health officer has dismissed claims the state has “secret modelling” that shows daily Covid-19 cases rising to 1,100 by the end of next week, saying he has seen no such data from state or federal authorities.The claim was splashed on the front page of the Australian on Thursday in a story that said the Victorian government’s “own estimates” showed the number was likely to stay above 1,000 for eight days, and “the average number of new cases is not expected to decline until the last week of August”. Continue reading...

PM acclaimed Japan’s response as a model for the world, but has been largely silent amid record case rises

Government seeks to install antennas and cables above three architectural masterpieces by Oscar Niemeyer, report claims“Surprise is the main element of a work of art,” Brazil’s most celebrated architect once said.But were he alive today, Oscar Niemeyer would probably be horrified at the thunderbolt the country’s current leaders are hoping to inflict on three of his most spectacular creations in the futurist capital he helped build. Continue reading...

The complex history of how China and the US once embraced each other should inform how the current showdown is tackledThe Trump administration has floated the idea of sanctioning Chinese officials and members of the Communist party of China. Before we ask whether this is a good idea, let’s ask how Sino-US relations got to this stage.The US cold war with the Soviet Union was over ideology, but today’s standoff with China is different. The Chinese state has no ideology, no religion, no moral agenda. It continues wearing socialist garb but only as a face-saving pretence. It has, in fact, become a state-capitalist dictatorship. What the world sees today is a contest between the US system of free-market capitalism and Chinese state capitalism. How should we read this chessboard? Continue reading...

Rideshare association says there has been no clarity from Victorian government on transporting potentially infectious people

Business lobby urges PM to change rules that currently risk seeing sectors that saw a bump in income in June flunking out of jobkeeper programCompanies hit by sweeping new restrictions in Victoria that came into force this week risk being thrown out of the federal jobkeeper support scheme unless the rules are changed, business leaders say.They say this will put more jobs at risk in a state economy that is already set to be devastated by the new coronavirus lockdown, making it difficult for employers to keep people on in the run-up to Christmas. Continue reading...

More than 200 workers tested positive at garment factory supplying Amazon, Gap and American EagleA garment factory supplying Gap, American Eagle and Amazon was at the centre of one of the worst Covid-19 outbreaks in Guatemala, the Guardian can reveal.More than 200 people tested positive for Covid-19 at the KP Textil factory, exposing the dire working conditions inside the country’s maquila system of free trade zones. At the time of the outbreak, the factory was making masks for export to the US. Continue reading...

Operation shuts for 14 days as coronavirus infections rise more than ten-fold in three weeks

Hundreds of thousands want more work, and the drop in hours worked – largely as a result of coronavirus – is the biggest in 30 years

Language decline among newly qualified teachers could undermine goal of reaching 1 million Welsh speakersA “striking” decline in the number of newly qualified teachers able to teach in Welsh could undermine the country’s ambition to have a million speakers of the language in 30 years’ time, a report warns.The Welsh language commissioner, Aled Roberts, expressed concern about the trend and called for the devolved government to take urgent action to reverse the fall. Continue reading...

Tahir Malik apologises for attending large gathering with fellow councillors

Assistant minister for superannuation rejects former PM’s charge that drawing down on super breaches preservation rules, and says Coalition has ‘no intention’ of allowing more withdrawalsJane Hume has said the government has “no intention” of allowing a third early release of retirement savings but has accused Paul Keating of being “out of touch” and sneering at Australians for accessing their superannuation in the first two tranches.The assistant minister for superannuation made the comments to Guardian Australia after former prime minister Keating accused the government of shifting the burden of economic stimulus on to young people and robbing them of retirement incomes. Continue reading...

Wesley Streete, 20, killed Keeley Bunker after night out to celebrate her birthdayA 20-year-old man has been convicted of raping and murdering a female friend who had trusted the killer to walk her home.Wesley Streete dumped Keeley Bunker’s body face-down in a brook in a park before trying to conceal it with branches on 19 September last year. Continue reading...

Court rules in favour of Duchess of Sussex in latest stage of legal action against Associated NewspapersThe Duchess of Sussex has won a high court bid to keep secret the identities of five friends who gave anonymous interviews to a US celebrity magazine, in the latest stage of her legal action against the owner of the Mail on Sunday.Meghan is suing Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Mail on Sunday and Mail Online, over an article that reproduced parts of a “private and confidential” handwritten letter she sent to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, in August 2018. Continue reading...

On the 75th anniversary of the A-bomb, a Japanese American writer speaks to one of the last living survivors – and traces connections from Malcolm X to the fight to end nuclear warI keep a red file folder, its edges faded from nearly three decades of exposure to dust and light. Inside, the title words I typed in 1991: “The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima.” It is the first research paper I ever wrote. Tucked inside of the folder’s front flap are three stapled index cards, each with reference titles written in smudged pencil. The first book listed is the one that mattered to me most: the journalist John Hersey’s 1946 nonfiction classic Hiroshima. The book’s scenes, vivid and wrenching, are lodged inside my memory. Particularly this one, about the Rev Kiyoshi Tanimoto, pulling bomb victims from a sand pit: “He reached down and took a woman by the hands, but her skin slipped off in huge, glove-like pieces.” Continue reading...

On 5 August 2019, India revoked the Muslim-majority territory’s semi-autonomous status and began a devastating crackdownFor the past year, Fayaz Tilgami’s poetry has spoken of nothing but loss: a lost home, a lost language, a lost world. “We have lost our existence; it has been snatched from us,” said the 70-year-old Kashmiri poet, his voice heavy with sorrow.A year ago, on 5 August 2019, the Indian government, led by prime minister Narendra Modi, repealed article 370 of the Indian constitution. For almost 70 years, the provision had given the disputed, majority-Muslim state of Jammu and Kashmir a semi-autonomous status, with special powers over issues such as jobs and residency. The special status had been granted to Kashmir in exchange for joining the Indian union after independence in 1947. Continue reading...

UN says getting students safely back must be ‘top priority’; France says ‘situation is precarious’; record fines for isolation breaches in Australia

Two large explosions have devastated Lebanon's capital city, Beirut. Footage taken in the immediate aftermath shows windows blown out, streets littered with debris and cars upturned by the strength of the blasts. The impact was reportedly felt 200km away in Cyprus

Palace refuses to reveal former monarch’s location one day after he announced exileThe whereabouts of Spain’s scandal-hit former king remained shrouded in mystery on Tuesday, one day after it was announced that Juan Carlos would be leaving the country in a bid to protect the crown from mounting scrutiny over his financial dealings.On Monday, Spain’s royal house published a letter sent by Juan Carlos to his son, King Felipe VI, saying he would “move, at this time, outside of Spain” amid the “public repercussions that certain past events in my private life are generating”. Continue reading...

Total of 8,891 deaths in England and Wales in week to 24 July, reports ONS; researchers warn more testing needed ahead of schools reopening

Musician files lawsuit against the president for copyright infringement after Rockin’ in the Free World and Devil’s Sidewalk were played at a rallyNeil Young is suing Donald Trump’s campaign for alleged illegal usage of his music at a rally.The musician claims that Rockin’ in the Free World and Devil’s Sidewalk were played at the president’s recent rally in Tulsa without a license. Both songs have also been used before by the campaign. Continue reading...

Mayfield park is part of government investment in outdoor spaces in response to coronavirusThe government is to contribute millions to fund Manchester’s first city-centre park in 100 years, as part of a series of investments in outdoor spaces in response to the coronavirus crisis.The new 6.5-acre Mayfield park, touted as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity”, is part of a £1.4bn development to transform the under-loved urban area between Piccadilly station and Mancunian Way, running along the River Medlock. Continue reading...

If countries that use tourism to fund conservation are not supported, species and habitats will disappearAt London zoo, the giraffes, which are easily visible from the street, had regular visitors even during lockdown, and an illuminated NHS sign on their famous building. Like most other attractions that rely on tourists for income, zoos forced to shut owing to the coronavirus face a financially fraught future. But the risks to captive animals and their keepers are nothing to those faced by wild creatures and the people who guard them. Already under huge pressure from multiple sources, international conservation efforts have been thrown into fresh chaos.The picture that is emerging of the global impact of Covid-19 on wildlife is complicated. Fishing hours were found by researchers to have fallen by 10% in March and April, for example, while South Africa reported a 53% drop in the number of rhinos killed by poachers, compared with the first six months of last year (from 316 in 2019, to 166). The sudden dramatic fall in air pollution and traffic (road, sea and air) brought rapid if short-lived benefits for many of the planet’s non-human inhabitants. In the UK, as in other countries, people who could afford to took the opportunity of the lockdown to spend more time in the countryside or their gardens. So far, it is a bumper year for British butterflies. Continue reading...

Woman has come forward claiming she recalls seeing duke at Mayfair nightclub with Giuffre

Carlos was advised by cooler heads to (belatedly) oppose the coup, save the monarchy and become a national hero into the bargain, writes Bill Phillips

Video circulating on social media shows a massive explosion rocking central Beirut - shattering windows, knocking down doors and shaking buildings several hundred feet away.Lebanon’s health minister told journalists a ship carrying fireworks had blown up in the port, though the size of the blast heard across the country raised suspicions it might have resulted from a rocket strike or detonation of explosives - deliberate or otherwise. The source of the blast has not been confirmed

Experts say Germany is already in second wave as UN warns of global education catastrophe

Local residents say the government has pressured them to hand over their lands: ‘They’re destroying our culture’High in the Sierra de Alamos of Mexico’s northern Sonora state, towering pillars of rock loom above thermal springs where for thousands of years, the indigenous Guarijío people would gather to commune with their ancestors.Now the springs – and the land around them – have been submerged beneath rising waters trapped behind an enormous dam across the Mayo River. The 25-storey Bicentenario-Los Pilares barrier threatens to displace the living, and leave the graves of their forefathers deep under water. Continue reading...

Flooding fears extend up to Maine as storm continues with 70mph windsHurricane Isaias has been downgraded down to a tropical storm after making landfall near Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina.The hurricane touched down shortly after 11pm on Monday with maximum sustained winds of 85mph (136km/h), weakening to 70 miles per hour (117km/h). Continue reading...

Luca Neves was born in Rome and has always lived there, but for 12 years he has been undocumented, trapped outside hardline migration laws

Work levels from big construction sites to trade businesses set to be pummelled amid predictions new curbs will ‘knock wind out of’ stateVictorian builders say they will take a hit to revenue totalling up to $456m a day from sweeping new restrictions on construction in the state, forcing some companies to close their doors entirely.Under tough restrictions announced on Monday that are designed to slow the spread of the state’s coronavirus outbreak, the number of workers on large building sites such as apartment complexes and office towers is to be reduced to a quarter of the normal number. Continue reading...

Richard Marles accuses the Coalition of mishandling a relationship that ‘needs to be managed by the adults in the room’The Morrison government has been asleep at the wheel when it comes to the relationship with China, while its handling of a submarine project has made Australians less safe, the deputy Labor leader has declared.In a sharpening of the opposition’s political attack following months of restraint during the coronavirus pandemic, Richard Marles accused the Coalition of mismanaging ties with Australia’s largest trading partner by failing to speak with a single, clear message. Continue reading...

Letter to Daniel Andrews outlines ‘distressing’ situation where nurses are not being given N95 masks and there ‘isn’t enough PPE’• Melbourne’s stage 4 restrictions; Victoria stage 3 restrictions

The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has announced tough new stage four coronavirus restrictions for metropolitan Melbourne, including an overnight curfew

Popular destinations include Nice and Faro despite coronavirus travel concernsEasyJet has expanded its summer schedule after better-than-expected demand and says it expects to operate about 1,000 flights a day in August.The budget carrier said popular destinations included Faro and Nice, along with city breaks such as Amsterdam and Paris. EasyJet will have 210 planes flying this month and expects to operate 40% of its capacity between July and September, higher than the 30% predicted at its first-half results. Continue reading...

The UN declared access to water and sanitation a human right a decade ago, but 785 million people worldwide still have no water close to homeTen photographs marking the 10th anniversary of access to water and sanitation being declared a human right by the UN have been commissioned from 10 visual artists by the charity WaterAid to show the impact of clean water on people’s lives.Globally, 785 million people – one in 10 – still lack access to water close to home and 2 billion people – one in four – don’t have a toilet of their own. Continue reading...