World news | The Guardian

This blog is now closed. We’ve launched a new blog at the link below:

Couple share picture of Harry resting his hand on Meghan’s head as she lies in his lap cradling her bumpThe Duke and Duchess of Sussex have confirmed that they are expecting a younger brother or sister for their one-year-old son, Archie.A spokesperson for Prince Harry and Meghan said: “We can confirm that Archie is going to be a big brother. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are overjoyed to be expecting their second child.” Continue reading...

Maraj, 64, was walking along a road on Long Island at 6.15pm on Friday when he was hit by a car that kept going, police sayThe 64-year-old father of the rapper Nicki Minaj has died after being struck by a hit-and-run driver in New York, police said.Robert Maraj was walking along a road in Mineola on Long Island at 6.15pm on Friday when he was hit by a car that kept going, Nassau county police said. Continue reading...

Thursday: Pfizer vaccine to arrive this week as Victoria deals with hotel quarantine outbreak. Plus: should you brush your teeth with toothpaste tablets?Good morning, it’s Imogen Dewey kicking off your week on Monday 15 February, with the latest on Melbourne’s Covid cluster, Donald Trump’s impeachment acquittal, and the ongoing problem of dark money in Australian politics.There are now 16 confirmed cases in the outbreak linked to Melbourne’s Holiday Inn quarantine hotel, with 940 primary close contacts identified. One expert is blaming “poor infection control” in Victoria. Still, the federal health minister Greg Hunt says there’s a light at the end of the tunnel with the Pfizer vaccine due to land this week and shots to begin in the last week of February, as scheduled. As the UK hits its milestone of 15m vaccinations, China has fired back at the US over allegations Beijing withheld information about the virus outbreak from World Health Organisation investigators. And Auckland is now in a three-day lockdown after New Zealand confirmed three new cases this weekend. Continue reading...

About 300 women gathered in Moscow holding a white ribbon in -13C temperaturesSeveral hundred women formed human chains in Moscow and St Petersburg on Sunday, using Valentine’s Day to express support for the wife of the jailed opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, and other political prisoners.About 300 women gathered on Arbat Street in Moscow’s city centre holding a long white ribbon in temperatures of -13C (8F). Continue reading...

Diplomats warn ‘the world is watching’ amid fears for fate of pro-democracy protestersMyanmar’s internet has been cut overnight on Sunday, hours after armoured vehicles rolled into several cities, prompting fears for the fate of protesters and warnings by diplomats that “the world is watching”.Armoured cars appeared on the streets of Yangon, Myitkyina and Sittwe on Sunday, live footage broadcast online by local media showed, in the heaviest show of force so far by the military since it staged a coup on 1 February. Continue reading...

Exclusive: early detection hailed as ‘major breakthrough’ for treatment of Britain’s deadliest form of cancer

The bloc’s joint vaccines strategy – far from being a fiasco – is delivering a better outcome than the UK’s

My father, Mike Audley-Charles, who has died aged 86, was a geologist with a special interest in south-east Asia. His research during the 1960s and 70s offered new interpretations on the formation of the Banda Arc, a set of island arcs in eastern Indonesia, the evolution of Gondwana, a southern supercontinent that existed about 550 million years ago, and the origin of the Timor Trough in the ocean north of Australia.Mike was born in Worthing, Sussex, to Laurence, a merchant seaman, and Elsie (nee Ustonson), a housewife. His father was killed in the second world war, and as Mike’s mother could not afford to keep her two children, he spent his early years in an orphanage, going home in the holidays. He left the orphanage aged 16, after taking O-levels, then studied A-levels at Enfield Technical College in north London followed by a degree in geology at Chelsea Polytechnic. Continue reading...

After 34 years together, Melbourne couple Phil Kafcaloudes and Jackie Rees-Kafcaloudes have had some tough conversations about kids, ageing and the meaning of commitment. Alexandra Spring talks to the couple about how they stay togetherIn honour of Valentine’s Day, this episode is a simple love story. It’s part of a series at the Guardian by columnist Alexandra Spring called ‘How we stay together’ where she talks to couples about how they navigate life’s challenges.For Melbourne couple Phil and Jackie that’s meant some tough conversations about kids, ageing and the meaning of commitment. Continue reading...

Chinese-backed plans for fishing plant and city on Papua New Guinea island in Torres Strait designed to ‘ruffle feathers’ in Australia, expert saysAustralia has dramatically overreacted to speculative announcements of possible Chinese-funded development on the Papua New Guinea island of Daru, just north of Australia’s border in the Torres Strait, a former adviser to the PNG government has said.“I think the Chinese just wanted to ruffle a few feathers on the Australian side,” Martyn Awayang Namoron said of the leaked letter describing plans to build a $39bn city on Daru, and last November’s memorandum of understanding signing to establish a “comprehensive multifunctional fishery industrial park” on the island. Continue reading...

Irish Sea project is part of plan to improve transport links between four UK nationsRail industry leaders have proposed building a tunnel between Scotland and Northern Ireland to a group tasked with exploring ways to improve connectivity between the four constituent parts of the UK.High Speed Rail Group (HSRG) has proposed tunnelling under the Irish Sea between Stranraer and Larne in its submission to a review led by Sir Peter Hendy, who is expected to publish his interim report within weeks. Continue reading...

Tens of thousands of people took part a ninth day of anti-coup demonstrations on Sunday. Students marched through the centre of Yangon, the country's biggest city, carrying placards demanding the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been in detention since Myanmar’s military overthrew the elected government on 1 February

Outreach work and threat of fines deployed to encourage people in England and Wales to take part

Many long-distance couples are spending Valentine’s Day apart because of travel restrictionsHelen Riddle’s husband, Tim, hasn’t been home in almost a year. He left the UK in March last year for what was supposed to be two weeks, and Covid-19 measures have prevented his return. His Christmas presents wait for him under the tree their three children insist on keeping up until he gets back.Tim is a pilot who flies medical equipment around the world. Though he has lived in Hong Kong for the past six years, he would normally come home every six to eight weeks. Before he left again in March, Helen says they begged him not to go but he had no choice but to return to work. “At that point I thought: ‘We’re not going to see him for a while,’ but I never, ever imagined it would be as long as it has been.” Continue reading...

Apart from the pollution, there are concerns the Chinese firm’s new airport hub may not revive the fortunes of the Belgian regionBraving an ominously grey sky, Ine Brants, 33, perches precariously at the top of a stepladder at Liège airport’s perimeter fence. “Ah, the green queen,” she says, raising the long lens of her camera to Challenge Airlines’ green-liveried jumbo jet as it flies into view. “You can get a 747 rush hour here. It has definitely got busier since coronavirus.”Brants’ lens is capturing the Alibaba effect. Quietly over the last three years, Liège, Belgium’s third largest city, has been transformed into a launchpad for the Chinese e-commerce group’s push into the European marketplace, a dynamic boosted by the coronavirus pandemic. It is a cause for celebration for some and worry for others. Continue reading...

Australian infection expert, part of a team visiting Wuhan, says they were provided only with a summary of data

A 7.3-magnitude earthquake that shook Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures off the coast of Japan, injuring more than 100 people, was an aftershock of the devastating 2011 quake that caused the Fukushima nuclear meltdown, the nation’s meteorological agency has said.The Japanese prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, expressed his sympathy to all affected and injured, although no deaths have been reported

Dating in a pandemic has very different challenges, as these brave adventurers discoveredFor Martina Piercy, 54, an occupational therapist from Wellington in Somerset, going into lockdown at the start of a new relationship was “really upsetting”. “We had been dating for six to eight weeks before the pandemic started, so the idea of either living with Tony or not seeing him was difficult,” she said. Continue reading...

Foreign secretary talks up global growth opportunities and says Brussels ‘imposing obstacles’ to tradePotential losses in UK trade with the EU because of Brexit will be more than made up by more opportunities in developing markets, Dominic Raab has claimed, saying people should take a “10-year view” of the current troubles faced by companies.Questioned about warnings from a number of firms that bureaucracy and duties means they will go out of business, or have to relocate operations inside the EU, the foreign secretary also appeared to blame Brussels, saying it was “imposing” obstacles to trade. Continue reading...

Witnessing the destructive power of a tornado can be exhilarating. Now some amateur enthusiasts are helping scientists predict these awesome weather eventsEight years ago on 20 May – a Monday afternoon – the most destructive category of tornado, known as an EF5, touched down just outside the town of Newcastle, Oklahoma. For 37 minutes, with winds estimated at 210mph, it snaked its way northeast towards the city of Moore, forging a catastrophic path. More than 1,000 homes were destroyed, 24 people were killed and 377 were injured. The damage was estimated at $2bn.Late that same night I drove from my then-home in Austin, Texas, the five-and-a-half hours to Moore to report on the aftermath. On the way into town the following morning, I passed abandoned cars that told their own story of panic and terror. I saw houses that had been ripped from their foundations. Continue reading...

A large settlement, a Roman villa and many household objects are among the discoveries at an ancient site in OxfordshireWhen archaeologists began excavating land near the iron age hillfort at Wittenham Clumps, a famous Oxfordshire landmark, they were hopeful of unearthing something of interest because the area has been occupied for more than 3,000 years. But nothing prepared them for the excitement of discovering an extended iron age settlement, with the remains of more than a dozen roundhouses dating from 400BC to 100BC – as well as an enormous Roman villa built in the late third to early fourth century.The structures would have remained buried beneath the sprawling green landscape if not for a decision by Earth Trust, the environmental charity that cares for it, to redevelop its visitor centre. Investigating the archaeology was part of the planning application. Continue reading...

The £150m repair of Hammersmith Bridge, closed since 2019, is mired in squabbling – and it’s just one of many across the UK that need workToby Gordon-Smith can see the district of Hammersmith from his flat. In normal times it takes him a few minutes to get there in his wheelchair. His cannabidiol products business is there, with the accessible tube station that he needs to get to the rest of London. The station is the reason why he moved to the area, but now it might as well be in another city. For he lives in Barnes, on the south side of the River Thames, opposite Hammersmith, and the bridge that connected them is closed for safety reasons – to vehicles since April 2019, and to pedestrians, cyclists and wheelchair users since last August. Although it is nearly two years since the first closure, there is still no clear plan for fixing the bridge.There are thousands of stories like Gordon-Smith’s. For children in Barnes who go to schools in Hammersmith, what was once a 15-minute walk is now a tortuous three-mile journey along a towpath regularly flooded by the tide, up flights of steps on to a railway bridge (which makes cycling difficult) and through an ill-lit park with high rates of crime. Or they can take a long bus ride, which means getting up at 6am, if you’re going to beat the rush-hour traffic. The area’s main hospital, Charing Cross, is on the north side of the river, so those of its staff who live to the south, and patients needing such things as chemotherapy, now have to make gruelling journeys of an hour or more each way. Ambulances face potentially lethal delays. Continue reading...

A year ago, singer Kizito Mihigo died after being arrested for his song mourning the Tutsi and Hutu killings. Now western donors want a full inquiry into his deathMasses will be held across at least four continents this week to mark the anniversary of the death of Rwanda’s most famous gospel singer. But there will be a key difference in the ceremonies staged in Kizito Mihigo’s country of birth and those abroad. In Rwanda, no one will dare publicly to question how – or why – the baby-faced singer met his end. In the rest of the world, fans will be clamouring for justice.The 38-year-old star’s death in police custody last February sits near the top of a list of cases cited by human rights and civil society groups calling for a fundamental reappraisal of western governments’ relationship with president Paul Kagame and his central African nation. Guilt over the international community’s failure to stop the 1994 genocide, they say, has for too long encouraged donors to ignore the sinister realities of his Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) regime. Continue reading...

Tribunal ruling noted Brexit campaign and insurance company owned by its key backer had a ‘two-faced approach to regulation’The Leave.EU campaign and the insurance company owned by the political group’s key financial backer, Arron Banks, have lost an appeal against £105,000 of fines for data protection violations in the wake of the EU referendum campaign.The companies were issued the fines two years ago, for including promotions for Banks’s GoSkippy insurance brand in emails to Leave.EU subscribers between August 2016 and February 2017. Continue reading...

Laverne Cox is a trailblazing actor and trans activist. But the one person she still has trouble winning over is the little girl inside herself. She talks about self-discovery and why she’ll never stop fightingLaverne Cox knew she was different because everybody told her so. She was eight when a teacher called to warn her mother, “If you don’t get your son into therapy right away, he’s going to end up in New Orleans wearing a dress.” This was Alabama, 1980, and Cox was escaping bullies every day. At 11 she attempted suicide. The bullying continued when she moved to New York in her late teens – by day she’d get harassed in the street, but by night, on stage at Lucky Cheng’s drag bar, she was celebrated, a queen. It was here that she began her transition, and it was only after wrapping season one of Orange is the New Black in 2013 (where she played Sophia Burset, a trans woman sent to prison for credit-card fraud, committed to fund her gender-reassignment surgery) that she finally quit the night job and leaned into her new life – as the most famous trans actor in the world.Today, Cox is applying hand cream in her hotel room in readiness for her first interview of the day. “OK!” She is used to this by now, to people wanting her to tell her story again, in her kind and clever way. In the years since she started acting she has become the first openly trans- gender person to be on the cover of Time magazine, the first to be nominated for a Emmy, the first to have a waxwork in Madame Tussauds and the first to appear on the cover of British Vogue – chosen, no less, by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. “So where should we start?” she asks, smiling with teeth. Continue reading...

While Aung San Suu Kyi defended a genocidal campaign against the Muslim minority, refugees fear military rule will end dreams of a return homeFor the Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar, news of the fall of Aung San Suu Kyi after the military coup was bittersweet.After all, no community had felt more betrayed by Myanmar’s civilian leader. When she came to power in 2015, the belief was that she would overturn decades of persecution and finally bring about peace and citizenship, following in the footsteps of her father, Gen Aung San. Continue reading...

Three members of a South Auckland family have tested positive for Covid-19, prompting Jacinda Ardern to place the region into level 3 measures

Samba troupes fight to stay positive as cancellation of parades hurts jobs and dampens hope in the favelas

Here are the current coronavirus hotspots in Victoria and what to do if you’ve visited them

Two eminent voices on the climate crisis present clear strategies for tackling emissions, deniers and doomsayersPresident Joe Biden has promised a new era of American leadership on global climate action, after four years of unscientific denial and misinformation under Donald Trump. Two important new books by prominent American authors, both written before the result of the presidential election was known, should help to capitalise on the new spirit of cautious optimism by laying out bold but well-argued plans for accelerating action against climate change.How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need by Bill Gates presents a compelling explanation of how the world can stop global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions effectively to zero. Gates and his wife, Melinda, are well known for their foundation’s tremendous work on improving health and tackling disease around the world, particularly in poor countries. It is this concern for the most vulnerable people on the planet that has meant Gates has occasionally appeared equivocal about climate and energy policies that he thought could undermine the fight against poverty and illness. However, this book lays out forcefully his understanding that the impact of climate change poses a far bigger threat to lives and livelihoods in developing countries – it is thwarting efforts to raise living standards because poor people, in every country, are the most at risk from droughts, floods and heatwaves. Continue reading...

Number of self-employed people no longer working is 50% higher than during first pandemic shutdown, thinktank warnsThe number of self-employed people who have stopped working during the current lockdown is already 50% higher than the number without work during the first lockdown, and 41% have experienced a significant drop in earnings, according to a study by the Resolution Foundation.Revealing the toll on self-employed workers, many in the hardest hit parts of the economy, the study shows around 700,000 have stop Continue reading...

Fears of illness over nitrites used in US but currently banned in Britain and EUBritish stores could be flooded with “dangerous” bacon and ham from the US, marketed under misleading labels, as the result of a transatlantic trade deal, says the author of a new book based on a decade of investigation into the food industry.The meat has been cured with nitrites extracted from vegetables, a practice not permitted by the European Commission because of evidence that it increases the risk of bowel cancer. But it is allowed in the US, where the product is often labelled as “all natural”. The powerful US meat industry is likely to insist that the export of nitrite-cured meat is a condition of a post-Brexit UK-US trade deal, which the UK government is under intense pressure to deliver. Continue reading...

There are now 940 primary close contacts identified in the outbreak linked to the Holiday Inn quarantine hotel

Paul Potts, a director of Times newspapers, appointed to panel to choose new head of broadcasting regulatorA senior journalist with a leading role in Rupert Murdoch’s Times group of British newspapers has been given a key voice in deciding who is to chair Ofcom, Britain’s national broadcasting regulator that is tasked with holding the BBC to account.Paul Potts, who was appointed two years ago as an independent director of Times Newspapers Holdings, is now also the government’s “senior independent panel member” who will help pick the successor to Terry Burns at the head of the body that rules on standards and is to shape the future of public service broadcasting in the digital age. Continue reading...

Over the course of two decades, Sue Conley and Peggy Smith created a beloved California brand – and helped redefine our relationship to foodWhen Sue Conley and Peggy Smith announced their retirement last month from Cowgirl Creamery – the cheese company they grew from plucky startup to leader in the modern farm-to-table movement – the tributes came in thick and fast.To their devoted followers, this was no surprise. Continue reading...

How should I go about making my move? Strange times indeed, says Mariella Frostrup, but who says romance is dead?The dilemma A colleague I have had my eye on in the office was recently promoted, meaning we are now equals in the company. Along with working remotely at the moment, this has made me wonder if now the right time is to ask her out (so far as we can date anyone right now), away from the glare of our small company. I have always ruled it out but when I date other girls, she is always in the back of my mind, which has led me to think I need to give it a go. When I became suddenly ill last year, it was her I thought of in my hospital bed as I wondered what I would regret, even though I was in a relationship with someone else. I do feel worried though, as I’m very inexperienced for someone my age. I was thinking of asking if she wants to go for a lockdown walk first, and seeing what happens after a few walks and messages. Can you give me some advice on workplace relationships, particularly in the circumstances?Mariella replies Strange circumstances indeed. First, may I congratulate you on waiting until you were of equal stature in the workplace before making your move? How very evolved and modern. In other ways you’re an old-fashioned guy. As your dilemma aptly demonstrates, these are challenging times for the singleton, the ranks of whom will have swelled considerably with anyone not already hooked or bubbled-up nearly one long year ago likely to still be on their own. If you didn’t have a partner last March it is more than likely you’re stuck with, at best, a virtual one at this point. Continue reading...

Adar Poonawalla, chief executive of the Serum Institute of India, on vaccines, regulation and what comes next

Shadow treasurer refuses to back negative gearing and capital gains changes following reports they’ll be droppedExpectations are growing that Labor will ditch the Shorten-era negative gearing and capital gains tax policies before the next federal election, although the shadow cabinet is pushing back against pressure to finalise its economic platform early.The shadow treasurer, Jim Chalmers, failed to endorse the previous housing affordability policy on Sunday, instead stating the party was still working through its agenda and would not be rushed into making decisions. Continue reading...

Residents project red illumination on closed west London landmark to highlight delays to repairHammersmith Bridge has been illuminated bright red in a Valentine’s Day stunt aimed at highlighting delays to its repair.The 133-year-old west London bridge has been closed to traffic since April 2019 when cracks appeared in its pedestals. It then closed to pedestrian, cyclist and river traffic in August after a heatwave caused the faults to “significantly increase”. Continue reading...

The Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, decried the decision to acquit Donald Trump of inciting a riot at the US Capitol on 6 January. House Democrats, who voted a month ago to charge Trump with ‘incitement of insurrection’, needed two thirds of the Senate, or 67 votes, to convict him. Only seven Republicans joined all 50 Democrats in voting to convict Trump.

Harrison, who defended contestant who attended ‘old south’ party, says he is ‘deeply remorseful … [for] excusing historical racism’Chris Harrison, the host of the hit reality series The Bachelor, said on Saturday he was “stepping aside” from ABC’s hit franchise for a “period of time”, following comments in defense of a current contestant caught up in a racism storm.The contestant, Rachael Kirkconnell, appears to have liked social media posts featuring the Confederate flag while photos have also emerged purportedly showing her at an “old south”-themed college party several years ago, according to reports. Continue reading...

Wall Street Journal says prosecutors interested in loans relating to four Manhattan propertiesWhile there was good news for Donald Trump in Washington on Saturday, as his second impeachment trial ended in acquittal, troubling news came out of his native New York.The Wall Street Journal reported that prosecutors in the city are investigating about $280m in loans to the Trump Organization, related to four buildings in Manhattan: Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue; a skyscraper at 40 Wall St; a hotel and residential building on Columbus Circle near Central Park; and an apartment building on the Upper East Side. Continue reading...

Former European Central Bank chief to lead unity government as it tackles Covid and economic slumpThe former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi has been sworn in as Italy’s prime minister at the head of a unity government called on to confront the coronavirus crisis and economic slump.Draghi, a respected figure at home and internationally, managed to convince almost all of the country’s main parties to support his government, with leaders from the far-right League and populist Five Star Movement (M5S) adopting more moderate, pro-European tones in recent days. Continue reading...

The bestselling Chilean American novelist talks about her foundation for women, laughing too much to write romance - and what she’s learned from her grandchildrenThe Chilean American author Isabel Allende was a feminist long before she knew what the word meant. At the age of three, she saw her mother, Panchita, abandoned by her father and left to raise their three small children alone. Panchita moved back to her parents’ house in Santiago, where her father immediately took control of her finances. Following the annulment of her marriage, she was excommunicated by the church. Observing her mother’s disempowerment, the young Isabel railed against male authority. In her new book, The Soul of a Woman, she recalls her resentment as “an aberration in my family, which considered itself intellectual and modern but according to today’s standards was frankly Paleolithic.” Such was her fury, her mother took her to a doctor, suspecting colic or perhaps a tapeworm.Allende, now 78, says she was frustrated on Panchita’s behalf but also at her refusal to stand up for herself. “She thought you couldn’t change what God had made this way,” she tells me. “When she saw me so willing to go out there and fight, she was scared and thought I would be ostracised. She was also worried I would never catch a husband. In my generation in Chile, if you didn’t have a formal engagement by age 23, you were a spinster.” Continue reading...

Women say Kameel Ahmady, who recently told of his escape from Iran, harassed and sexually assaulted them

Australian’s blunt style became his undoing after he tells staff to stop moaning about CovidLess than two months ago, Bill Michael welcomed the Queen on a virtual visit to KPMG’s new innovation hub during the accounting firm’s 150th anniversary celebrations.One imagines his comments during the video call with the monarch were less blunt than those he made to staff during Monday’s virtual town hall meeting, which have now prompted his resignation. Continue reading...

Prosecutors asked to consider corporate manslaughter charges after death of Nargis Begum, 62A coroner investigating a smart motorway death has referred Highways England to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to consider whether corporate manslaughter charges are appropriate.Nargis Begum, 62, from Sheffield, died on a stretch of the M1 without a hard shoulder in South Yorkshire, near Woodhall services, in September 2018. Continue reading...

Opposition leader accuses state of orchestrating case to damage his image among RussiansAlexei Navalny, the leading opposition figure whose jailing this month sparked protests across Russia, has been back in court to face charges of slandering a war veteran in a separate case.Navalny denies the charges and has accused the state of orchestrating the case to damage his image among the Russian public. Continue reading...