Category Archives: World News

UK downgrades Covid-19 alert level amid falling cases

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Chief medical officers said the wave of Omicron variants was ‘subsiding’, although ‘further surges are likely’

The UK’s Covid-19 alert level has been downgraded to level 2, meaning the virus is in “general circulation” but healthcare pressures and transmission are “declining or stable”.

The chief medical officers of the UK nations and the national medical director of the NHS in England have jointly recommended that the Covid alert level be moved down from level 3 amid falling cases. They said the Covid-19 wave of the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 was “subsiding”.

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Health officials warn of major outbreaks of disease after severe floods in Pakistan

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Diarrhoea and malaria cases spread, with risk of dysentery and cholera, as millions of displaced people forced to drink flood water

Health officials have warned of large-scale outbreaks of disease in Pakistan after severe flooding displaced millions of people.

A rise in cases of diarrhoea and malaria has been reported after months of heavy rains left people stranded and without access to clean water.

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Prankster seizes Bolsonaro website and turns president into ‘snake-tongued liar’

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Anonymous objector commandeers bolsonaro.com.br domain name and creates devastating takedown of far-right leader

An internet prankster has hijacked a website long used to glorify Brazil’s far-right president and turned it into a devastating online excoriation of Jair Bolsonaro’s “clownish”, “neo-fascist” government.

Bolsonaro and his three politician sons have reportedly used the bolsonaro.com.br domain as an official mouthpiece since the early 2000s.

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Trump boasted he had ‘intelligence’ on Macron’s sex life

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Inventory of what was seized at Mar-a-Lago caused ‘transatlantic freakout’ between Paris and Washington

Donald Trump boasted to close associates that he knew secrets about Emmanuel Macron’s sex life from US intelligence sources, it has been reported.

The report in Rolling Stone magazine comes in the wake of the release of court documents on the classified and national defence documents found in a search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home on 8 August, which mention a file referred to as “info re: President of France”.

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Works by Mexican writer Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz recovered from auction

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Two books containing 17th-century works by pioneering feminist poet and nun saved from US auction and returned to Spain

Two precious and well-travelled books containing works by the Mexican nun, writer, composer, poet and proto-feminist Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz have been saved from auction in New York and returned to Spain, where they were printed almost three-and-a-half centuries ago.

Sister Juana, who was born in mid-17th century Mexico to a Spanish father and a Mexican mother of Spanish descent, possessed a thirst for knowledge and a mind that would eventually mark her out as one of the greatest figures of the Golden Age of Spanish literature.

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Trump Mar-a-Lago home searched over ‘likely’ efforts to hide files, DoJ says

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Court filing alleges files were found despite Trump lawyers saying all documents had been returned

The FBI searched Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after it obtained evidence there was probably an effort to conceal classified documents in defiance of a grand jury subpoena and despite Trump’s lawyers suggesting otherwise, the Department of Justice said in a court filing late on Tuesday night.

The filing, opposing Trump’s request for an independent review of materials seized, amounted to the most detailed picture of potential obstruction of justice yet outlined by the DoJ.

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EU foreign ministers agree to suspend visa travel deal with Russia

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Move will curb number of Russian nationals entering the bloc but stops short of full tourist visa ban

The EU has agreed to suspend a visa travel deal with Moscow to curb the number of Russian nationals entering the bloc for holidays and shopping, stopping short of a full tourist visa ban demanded by some central and eastern European countries.

Meeting in Prague, the EU’s 27 foreign ministers promised to suspend the 2007 visa facilitation agreement with Russia that makes it relatively easy to obtain travel documents.

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South Korea considers survey on boyband BTS members’ military service

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K-pop band’s oldest member, Jin, faces enlistment in December when he turns 30

South Korea may conduct a public survey to help determine whether to grant exemption to the mandatory military service to members of the K-pop boy band BTS.

The question of active military service for the band’s seven members has been a hot-button topic in South Korea as its oldest member, Jin, faces his enlistment in December, when he turns 30.

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Japan’s PM cuts ties to Unification church after Shinzo Abe death

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The church had built close ties with Fumio Kishida’s ruling party and a host of conservative lawmakers

Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has announced that his ruling party will cut ties with the Unification church after a widening scandal caused by the assassination of the party’s former leader Shinzo Abe last month. Kishida also apologised for causing the loss of public trust in politics.

Cozy ties between members of Kishida’s governing Liberal Democratic party, many of them belonging to Abe’s faction, and the South Korean-born church have surfaced since Abe was shot to death while giving a campaign speech in July.

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Yinka Ilori’s patterns and designs to be celebrated at London Design Museum

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Free exhibition will include some of creative’s architectural projects and draw from his west African roots

The bold colours and striking patterns of Yinka Ilori’s furniture, homeware, textiles and billboard graphics are to be celebrated for the first time in a free museum exhibition.

Ilori, who grew up in a Nigerian household in north London, has drawn inspiration from west African textiles in his artwork and designs.

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Xi Jinping poised to further consolidate power at party congress

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Analysts say announcement of a date for gathering suggests any in-party disputes have been reined in

The announcement of a Communist party meeting that is expected to cement Xi Jinping’s agenda for the coming years shows the strength of Xi’s “ultimate authority”, analysts have said.

The CCP’s twice-a-decade meeting will begin on 16 October and is likely to run for several days. Xi, considered the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong, is expected to further consolidate his political power, which he has wielded with increasing authoritarianism since taking charge of the party in late 2012.

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Inflation pushes average cost of filling Panini 2022 World Cup sticker album to £870

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Five-sticker packs for football tournament in Qatar are 12.5% more than for Russia 2018

Inflation has come for the football sticker album. Collecting and completing the official Panini Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022 album will cost fans an average of about £870.

Panini, which first produced a World Cup sticker album for the 1970 tournament in Mexico, has priced five-sticker packs for the Qatar 2022 album at 90p each. That is a 12.5% increase on the 80p cost of a five-sticker pack for the Russia 2018 album. For Euro 2016 a pack cost 50p.

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Misinformation abounds as Chile prepares to vote on new constitution

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Chileans will cast ballots on Sunday to approve or reject a progressive document to replace the Pinochet-era constitution

Chile is heading towards a historic plebiscite on a new constitution to replace the document drawn up during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, but the vote will take place amid a climate of uncertainty driven by a storm of falsehoods and divisive campaigns.

For weeks, television advertising spots, street canvassers and social media campaigns have attempted to sway opinion towards the two options which will appear on the ballot this Sunday: “approve” or “reject”.

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Pakistan floods: before-and-after images show extent of devastation

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More than 1,100 people have been killed in flooding described by Pakistan PM Shebaz Sharif as worst in country’s history

New satellite images show the extent of the devastation caused by catastrophic flooding and rains in Pakistan.

The images, from Planet Labs and Maxar, show swaths of green fields, villages and buildings before monsoonal rains and flooding began lashing the country in June.

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Petrol pumps run dry across Malawi as fuel import problems deepen

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Motorists forced to pay premium for smuggled black market fuel or drive to service stations at border with neighbouring Mozambique

Motorists in Malawi are having to rely on fuel smuggled in from neighbouring Mozambique as pumps across the country run dry, while some drivers told the Guardian they had to cross the border to get petrol as the country grapples with severe shortages.

“We have been depending on smuggled fuel from Mozambique,” said Allick Pondani, a motorist from the southern Malawi district of Phalombe. “Some entrepreneurs have taken advantage of the situation and are smuggling the scarce commodity, which they are selling at 50% over the normal pump price.”

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‘We need your help’: Bishops plead with UK to aid drought-ravaged Horn of Africa

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Open letter from 44 Anglican leaders contrasts ‘generous’ British response to Ukraine with ‘dire need’ still unmet in their countries

Dozens of bishops from drought-ravaged east Africa have appealed to the UK government to urgently get more funding to those in need, warning that Britain’s rapid response to the Ukraine crisis must not come at the expense of lives elsewhere.

As the worst drought for four decades tightens its grip on Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, with millions facing acute hunger, the group of 44 Anglican bishops criticised the international community for not paying attention to early warnings or backing up rhetoric with sufficient funds.

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Papua New Guinea hopes to have Australia security deal signed by end of year

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Country’s foreign minister says China’s interest in the Pacific required a ‘strengthened’ PNG-Australia treaty

Papua New Guinea hopes to sign a security deal with Australia, as well as possibly New Zealand and the US, by the end of the year, the country’s foreign minister Justin Tkatchenko has said.

Tkatchenko said the security treaty with Australia has been in the works since 2019, but that the recent security deal struck between China and Solomon Islands would require Australia and Papua New Guinea to strengthen the treaty.

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Tributes for Mikhail Gorbachev pour in after death of former Soviet leader – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. Follow all the latest Mikhail Gorbachev updates here

The former farm worker with the rolling south Russian accent and distinctive port-wine birthmark on his head gave notice of his bold ambition soon after winning a Kremlin power struggle in 1985, at the age of 54, Reuters reports.

Television broadcasts showed him besieged by workers in factories and farms, allowing them to vent their frustrations with Soviet life and making the case for radical change.

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Solomon Islands bans all foreign navy ships from its ports

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Solomon Islands has issued a moratorium on all nations while it works on new processes for docking of military vessels

The Solomon Islands has issued a moratorium on all nations requesting to send in naval ships while it works on new processes for military vessels entering port.

The announcement from the prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare, comes after it was revealed the US had been issued with a notice of the moratorium.

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Mikhail Gorbachev: a divisive figure loved abroad but loathed at home

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Despite being celebrated across liberal democracies, the former Soviet leader was reviled and unpopular in Russia

Until his very last day, Mikhail Gorbachev lived in a dual reality – loved and celebrated in Washington, Paris and London, but reviled by large numbers of Russians who never forgave him for the turbulence that his reforms unleashed.

His policy of ‘glasnost’, or openness, gave Russians previously unthinkable levels of freedom, but for many, his rule will be remembered by the dramatic plunge in living standards that followed.

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