Sudan has had more military coups than any other country in Africa, having undergone three popular uprisings since its independence from British colonial rule. The most recent revolution in 2019 is still under way, with protesters calling for the military to hand over to a civilian government. On 25 October, the military responded to these calls with another crackdown. Internet access was shut down for more than three weeks and unarmed protesters were met with violence. Journalist Yousra Elbagir talks us through the timeline of events in Sudan's fight for democracy
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Italian who presented fake arm for Covid jab ‘has since been vaccinated’
Dr Guido Russo says stunt was protest against vaccine mandates and jab is ‘best weapon we have’ against virus
An Italian dentist who presented a fake arm for a Covid vaccine says he has since been jabbed and that the vaccine “is the best weapon we have against this terrible disease”.
Dr Guido Russo faces possible criminal fraud charges for having worn an arm made out of silicone when he first showed up at a vaccine hub in the northern city of Biella. Italy has required doctors and nurses to be vaccinated since earlier this year.
Continue reading...Covid live: people in Scotland urged to cancel Christmas parties; UK reports another 50,867 cases and 148 deaths
People and businesses in Scotland been urged not to go ahead with parties; UK daily case tally remains above 50,000
- People in Scotland ‘strongly urged’ to defer Christmas parties
- South African Covid cases up 255% in a week as Omicron spreads
- Stricter measures than plan B may be needed to stop Omicron in UK
- Italian who presented fake arm for jab ‘has since been vaccinated’
- What are the Covid rules and guidelines in the four UK nations?
Cuba has detected its first case of the Omicron Covid variant, according to Cuban state media agency ACN.
The case was identified in a person who had travelled from Mozambique.
Continue reading...China says Australia, UK and US will ‘pay price’ for Winter Olympics action
Beijing accuses nations of using Games ‘for political manipulation’ amid diplomatic boycotts
Australia, Britain and the US will pay a price for their “mistaken acts” after deciding not to send government delegations to February’s Winter Olympics in Beijing, China’s foreign ministry has said.
The US was the first to announce a boycott, saying on Monday its government officials would not attend the February Games because of China’s human rights “atrocities”, weeks after talks aimed at easing tension between the world’s two largest economies.
Continue reading...Can Biden’s ‘divisive’ democracy summit deliver?
Billed as a rallying call for human rights and liberties, the event has been lambasted by critics such as China and even invitees are critical
Much of the advance commentary about Joe Biden’s two-day Summit for Democracy has been a diplomat’s version of a Charity Ball: long discussions about the guest list and how the guests will show up, and very little about its supposedly noble purpose.
Potentially a rallying point for democracy, after the west’s crushing setback in Afghanistan, the summit has not been receiving rave advance notices even from those that have been invited.
Continue reading...Batman loach returns: fish feared extinct found in Turkey
Scientists working on the Search For The Lost Fishes project have spotted the freshwater Batman River loach, which has not been seen since 1974
A freshwater fish that scientists thought was extinct has been found in south-east Turkey, after an absence of nearly 50 years.
“I’ve been researching this area for 12 years and this fish was always on my wishlist,” said Dr Cüneyt Kaya, associate professor at Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University. “It’s taken a long time. When I saw the distinctive bands on the fish, I felt so happy. It was a perfect moment.”
Continue reading...‘We have to use a boat to commute’: coastal Ghana hit by climate crisis
As the sea claims more of the west African shoreline, those left homeless by floods are losing hope that the government will act
Waves have taken the landscape John Afedzie knew so well. “The waters came closer in the last few months, but now they have destroyed parts of schools and homes. The waves have taken the whole of the village. One needs to use a boat to commute now because of the rising sea levels,” he says.
Afedzie lives in Keta, one of Ghana’s coastal towns, where a month ago high tide brought seawater flooding into 1,027 houses, according to the government, leaving him among about 3,000 people made homeless overnight.
Continue reading...Nearly 100 former British Council staff remain in hiding in Afghanistan
Staff employed to teach British values and the English language refused the right to come to the UK
Nearly 100 former British Council staff employed to teach British values and the English language remain in hiding in Afghanistan after having so far been refused the right to come to the UK by officials.
Their plight has been taken up by Joseph Seaton, the former British Council Afghanistan English manager, and its deputy director, who has written to the most relevant cabinet members in a bid to gain their support.
Continue reading...Women in prison ignored by feminist funders that find them less ‘marketable’, says NGO head
Survey by Women Beyond Walls finds 70% of groups working with incarcerated women do not receive funds from women’s rights foundations
The global feminist movement is failing to support organisations working with women in prison, as donors shy away from funding projects aimed at people with “complicated” narratives, says lawyer and activist Sabrina Mahtani.
Mahtani, founder of Women Beyond Walls (WBW), said many NGOs around the world were doing vital work “supporting some of the most marginalised and overlooked women” in society, including providing essential legal services and reducing pretrial detention time.
Continue reading...The inner lives of dogs: what our canine friends really think about love, lust and laughter
They make brilliant companions, but do dogs really feel empathy for humans - and what is going through their minds when they play, panic or attack?
Read more: the inner lives of cats: what our feline friends really think
It is humanity’s great frustration, to gaze into the eyes of a dog, feel so very close to the creature, and yet have no clue what it’s thinking. It’s like the first question you ask of a recently born baby, with all that aching, loving urgency: is that a first smile? Or yet more wind? Except that it’s like that for ever.
I can never know what my staffie is thinking. Does Romeo realise that what he just did was funny, and did he do it on purpose? Is he laughing on the inside? Can he smile? Can he feel anxious about the future? Can he remember life as a puppy? Does he still get the horn, even though I had his knackers off some years ago? And, greater than all these things: does he love me? I mean, really love me, the way I love him?
Continue reading...‘Give me my baby’: an Indian woman’s fight to reclaim her son after adoption without consent
Anupama S Chandran’s newborn child was sent away by her parents, who were unhappy that his father was from the Dalit caste
Through the rains and steamy heat of November, day and night, Anupama S Chandran sat by the gates of the Kerala state secretariat. She refused to eat, drink or be moved. Her single demand was written on a placard: “Give me my baby.”
The story of Chandran’s fight to get back her child, who was snatched from her by her own family days after he was born and put up for adoption without her knowledge, is one that has been greeted with both horror and a sad familiarity in India.
Continue reading...Anti-independence ads accused of ‘profound racism’ against indigenous New Caledonians in court action
Urgent appeal lodged to stop the broadcast of cartoons calling on New Caledonians to vote against independence from France in this weekend’s referendum
Cartoons urging New Caledonians to vote no to independence from France in this weekend’s referendum have been accused of “profound racism and ridicule towards Pacific Islanders, especially the [indigenous] Kanak people”, in a legal submission lodged with France’s highest judicial body.
An urgent appeal has been lodged against the broadcast of the animations, which have been running on television in New Caledonia and online, with the Council of State in France.
Continue reading...Failure, fear and the threat of famine in Afghanistan
A whistleblower has accused the British government of abject failures in its efforts to manage the evacuation of people from Afghanistan as the Taliban took control in August. Emma Graham-Harrison returns to the country to find it facing a humanitarian crisis
When the Taliban entered Kabul in August and completed their takeover of Afghanistan, thousands of people scrambled for the last remaining flights out of the city’s airport. It was chaos that turned deadly: a bomb attack on the airport’s perimeter killed more than 70 people as they crowded the fences, desperate for a way out. Now testimony from a whistleblower who was working on the UK government’s response to the crisis paints a picture of a callous, complacent and incompetent Foreign Office.
It’s a picture that rings true for the Guardian’s senior foreign reporter Emma Graham-Harrison, who tells Michael Safi that while some of the staff in the Foreign Office acted heroically, the system as a whole had huge failings. The government has rejected the account of the whistleblower. A spokesperson said: “Regrettably we were not able to evacuate all those we wanted to, but … since the end of the operation we have helped more than 3,000 individuals leave Afghanistan.”
Continue reading...New Zealand to ban smoking for next generation in bid to outlaw habit by 2025
Legislation will mean people currently aged 14 and under will never be able to legally purchase tobacco
New Zealand has announced it will outlaw smoking for the next generation, so that those who are aged 14 and under today will never be legally able to buy tobacco.
New legislation means the legal smoking age will increase every year, to create a smoke-free generation of New Zealanders, associate health minister Dr Ayesha Verrall said on Thursday.
Continue reading...China’s indebted property sector highlights a fading economic revival
Xi Jinping’s mission is not only to control the housing bubble, but rein in untethered industries and foreign capital
China’s economy has become heavily dependent on property development over the last decade. High-rise apartments have mushroomed across hundreds of cities to house a growing white-collar workforce, while glass and steel office blocks are dominating city centres, mimicking Shanghai’s glittering skyline.
Valued at more than $50tn after 20 years of rapid growth, Chinese real estate is worth twice as much as the US property market and four times China’s annual income.
Continue reading...Allegra Stratton resigns after No 10 Christmas party video
Boris Johnson ‘sorry to lose’ spokesperson for climate summit who was seen in footage joking about party during lockdown
Allegra Stratton has stepped down as the government’s spokesperson for the Cop26 climate summit after footage emerged of her joking about a party at Downing Street during the peak of lockdown rules in December last year.
Boris Johnson told a coronavirus press briefing on Wednesday that Stratton had been an “outstanding spokeswoman … I am very sorry to lose her”. But he added: “I take responsibility for everything that happens in this government and I have throughout the pandemic.”
Continue reading...Macron takes on far-right presidential rival in visit to Vichy
President warns about ‘manipulation’ of history after Éric Zemmour claims Vichy regime protected French Jews from Nazis
Emmanuel Macron has warned against the “manipulation” of history in a clear message to the far-right presidential candidate, Éric Zemmour, on a symbolic visit to Vichy.
After the German occupation in 1940, the spa town was chosen for Marshal Philippe Pétain’s puppet regime, which collaborated with the Nazis and ensured the deportation of Jews to death camps. Zemmour has angered historians by claiming, instead, that Pétain saved French Jews.
Continue reading...US accuses El Salvador of secretly negotiating truce with gang leaders
In 2020, Nayib Bukele’s administration ‘provided financial incentives’ to MS-13 and the Barrio 18 street gangs, US treasury says
The US has accused the government of El Salvador president Nayib Bukele of secretly negotiating a truce with leaders of the country’s feared MS-13 and Barrio 18 street gangs.
The explosive accusation on Wednesday cuts to the heart of one of Bukele’s most highly touted successes in office: a plunge in the country’s murder rate.
Continue reading...Three doses of Pfizer vaccine likely to protect against Omicron infection, tests suggest
Initial findings indicate stark reduction in protection against new Covid variant from two vaccine doses
Three doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine are likely to protect against infection with the Omicron variant but two doses may not, according to laboratory data that will increase pressure to speed up booster programmes.
Tests using antibodies in blood samples have given some of the first insights into how far Omicron escapes immunity, showing a stark drop-off in the predicted protection against infection or any type of disease for people who have had two doses. The findings suggest that, for Omicron, Pfizer/BioNTech should now be viewed as a “three-dose vaccine”.
Continue reading...UK ‘embarrassed’ into funding Mozambique gas project, court hears
Friends of the Earth cites documents suggesting UK’s reputation could suffer if it pulled $1.15bn of promised support
The UK was “embarrassed” into funding a huge gas project in Mozambique while considering ending overseas support for fossil fuels, a court has heard.
During a three-day high court hearing, Friends of the Earth highlighted government documents that suggested there would be “obvious repercussions” if the government did not follow through on $1.15bn of support to an offshore pipeline and liquefied natural gas plant in Cabo Delgado province.
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