Category Archives: World News

New Zealand minister’s TV interview interrupted by son waving phallic carrot

Posted on by

Carmel Sepuloni said she would ‘never buy the odd shaped carrot pack again’ after ‘almost wrestling’ with son over vegetable

A New Zealand cabinet minister has become the latest public figure to be embarrassed by an unfortunate incident involving a video call after her live TV interview was interrupted by her son, who entered the room excitedly brandishing a phallic carrot.

Carmel Sepuloni, the minister for social development, was doing a live Zoom interview with Radio Samoa when her grinning son burst through the door behind her, holding an oddly shaped carrot he’d apparently found among the groceries.

Continue reading...

New Zealand flash floods force evacuations in Auckland, motorists rescued by jet ski

Posted on by

Floods came after unexpectedly heavy rains, with as much as 90mm per hour hitting the city through the night

Aucklanders have been forced to evacuate their homes in the middle of the night due to flash flooding, after New Zealand’s largest city was hit by unexpectedly heavy rainfall.

Evacuations were carried out in the suburbs of west Auckland and nearby townships, such as Kumeu and Piha, with firefighters having to use jet skis to reach motorists trapped in their cars, according to the New Zealand Herald.

Continue reading...

Trump phone records could be sought by Capitol attack panel, reports say

Posted on by
  • Telephone companies reportedly asked to preserve records
  • Records of Trump and family could be among those requested

Donald Trump’s phone records from the day of the 6 January Capitol insurrection could be among those requested by the congressional committee looking into the deadly attack, it was reported on Monday.

Related: Hurricane Ida: up to 2 million without power as New Orleans assesses damage

Continue reading...

I have a 50/50 chance of inheriting Huntington’s disease – should I take a test to find out? | Lillian Hanly

Posted on by

A coin toss could give me two completely different lives. But once I know the result there’s no going back

I’ve spent most of my life knowing I may have inherited a faulty gene that would cause Huntington’s disease, a neurodegenerative disease that can be fatal. My grandad had the disease, my mum has it, and I am yet to take the test to find out if I have it too. It’s a 50/50 chance of inheritance. Right now, I am happily ignorant of whether I carry the mutation or not. A coin toss could give me two completely different lives. Once I know the results, there’s no going back. So far, everyone who has been tested in my family has tested positive. It seems the odds are against me. I’m 27 years old, and I’m starting to think seriously about my future, whether that is moving overseas or contemplating having children. Whatever big decisions I am facing now, I can’t help but wonder, could this disease overshadow them? I explore this tension in a newly released short documentary, Fifty Percent.

Related: After the Nobel, what next for Crispr gene-editing therapies?

Continue reading...

WHO expects 236,000 more Covid deaths in Europe by 1 December – video

Posted on by

Senior officials at the World Health Organization have cited stagnating vaccination rates and low uptake in poorer countries as reasons so many Covid deaths are predicted.

'Last week, there was an 11% increase in the number of deaths in the region – one reliable projection is expecting 236,000 deaths in Europe, by 1 December,' WHO Europe director Hans Kluge said.

Kluge attributed the higher transmission to the spread of the more transmissible Delta variant, an 'exaggerated easing' of restrictions and measures, and a surge in summer travel.

While about half of people in Europe are fully vaccinated, vaccination uptake in the region has slowed, Kluge said.

Europe has registered about 1.3 million Covid deaths

Continue reading...

MPs trying to rescue more than 7,000 people trapped in Afghanistan

Posted on by

Figure dwarfs 800 to 1,100 Afghans eligible for resettlement defence secretary said would be left behind

MPs are scrambling to rescue more than 7,000 constituents and family members trapped in Afghanistan, according to figures provided to the Guardian, dwarfing the only estimates provided by the government of the number left behind.

Scores of Labour MPs have been inundated with pleas for help from thousands of constituents whose relatives have been left stranded since the UK’s final emergency airlift left Kabul following the country’s rapid fall to the Taliban. Among them are children, disabled relatives and people who face persecution due to their work, all with potential eligibility to be resettled in Britain.

Continue reading...

Hurricane Ida’s rampage through Louisiana – in pictures

Posted on by

Up to 2 million people in and around New Orleans were without power after Hurricane Ida, a 150mph monster storm that was the most powerful ever to hit Louisiana. At least one person was killed, by a falling tree, but the governor, John Bel Edwards, warned that the death toll will probably rise

Continue reading...

EU removes six countries including US from Covid safe travel list

Posted on by

Travellers from Israel, Kosovo, Lebanon, Montenegro, and North Macedonia also affected by move

The EU has removed six countries, including the US, from a Covid “white list” of places whose tourists should be permitted entry without restrictions such as mandatory quarantine.

A majority of EU countries had reopened their borders to Americans in June, in the hope of salvaging the summer tourism season although most required a negative test ahead of travel. The move was not, however, reciprocated by the US.

Continue reading...

US school students return amid threat of Delta disruption – live

Posted on by
  • First day of school for students in some parts of America
  • Over 180,000 Covid cases in children between 12 and 19 August

The Guardian’s world affairs editor, Julian Borger, is monitoring the latest updates on Afghanistan.

Responding to repeated questions about civilian casualties from a drone strike on Kabul on Sunday, the Pentagon spokesman, John Kirby said: “We are not in a position to dispute it right now, and ... we’re assessing, and we’re investigating.”

The US health department is preparing to launch an office focused on the climate crisis as a public health issue, something it outlined in a January executive order.

The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources, said resources for the new Office of Climate Change and Health Equity are being assembled now. The WSJ reports:

The new office is likely to spur initiatives touching on many aspects of healthcare, according to people briefed on the planning and White House releases. It is expected to offer protections for populations most at risk—including the elderly, minorities, rural communities and children—and could eventually lead to policies compelling hospitals and other care facilities to reduce carbon emissions, the people said.

Continue reading...

US intercepts rockets targeting Kabul airport as key diplomats fly out

Posted on by

Islamic State claims responsibility for attacks in final hours of western evacuation of Afghanistan

US anti-missile defences have intercepted as many as five rockets targeting Kabul airport as key American diplomats flew out of the Aghan capital in the final hours of the western evacuation under the threat of further Islamic State attacks.

Officials told Reuters that core US diplomats had on Monday joined the 122,000 foreign nationals and Afghans to be evacuated since mid-August, although it was not clear whether the acting ambassador, Ross Wilson, was among them.

Continue reading...

Armed robbers take hostages in deadly bank raids in Brazil city

Posted on by

At least three people dead and trail of explosive booby traps left across Araçatuba in São Paulo state

Bank robbers armed with explosives and high-powered rifles have plunged a Brazilian city into terror early Monday, taking civilians hostage and even putting some on their cars while making their escape.

Video shared on social media showed a booming shootout and men dressed in black marching hostages down a street in Araçatuba, 320 miles from São Paulo and home to almost 200,000 people.

Continue reading...

Leaded petrol era ‘officially over’ as Algeria ends pump sales

Posted on by

UN announcement marks ‘huge milestone for global health and our environment’

The era of leaded petrol is officially over, the UN has announced, eliminating a major threat to human and planetary health.

UN experts have called the use of the fuel, which began in 1922, a “catastrophe for the environment and public health”. By the 1970s, nearly all petrol produced around the world contained lead. Now the last country to use it, Algeria, has finally stopped selling it in petrol stations.

Continue reading...

West may benefit from pragmatic approach after defeat to Taliban

Posted on by

Analysis: forging an acceptable agreement with new Afghan regime will require careful diplomacy

The history of war is littered with losing parties struggling to accept the terms or even the fact of their defeat. At the end of the first world war, Germany’s then chancellor Philipp Scheidemann announced: “May the hand wither that binds us in such shackles.”

Some of the demands by the US and its allies on how the Taliban must behave now contain similar self-denial. It is as if the US remains in control of Kabul, as orders are issued on future Taliban actions ranging from the release of refugees to the future makeup of the government, its counter-terrorism policies and the place of women in society.

Continue reading...

China urges nations to ‘actively guide’ Taliban government

Posted on by

US should work with international community to help Afghanistan run government functions, Wang Yi says

China’s top diplomat has urged the international community to engage with Afghanistan’s new Taliban government and “guide it actively”, in a phone call with the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.

Wang Yi, Chinese state councillor and foreign minister, also said that Washington should work with the international community to help the new regime run governmental functions normally, according to a statement. He added that the US’s “hasty withdrawal” could allow terrorist groups to “regroup and come back stronger”.

Continue reading...

Milan mayor likens tower block fire to Grenfell disaster

Posted on by

Experts say combustible materials were used in 20-storey building that went up in flames with no loss of life

The mayor of Milan has compared a fire that ripped through a 20-storey residential building on Sunday to the Grenfell Tower blaze in London that killed 72 people four years ago.

The fire, which started on the upper floors of the tower on the southern outskirts of the capital of the Lombardy region, spread to the rest of the building owing to what experts described as the “chimney effect”, which turned the building into a torch.

Continue reading...

New Orleans battered by Hurricane Ida as storm claims first victim in Louisiana

Posted on by

A million households without power as governor says system of levees overhauled after Hurricane Katrina will face ‘most severe test’

One person has died as Hurricane Ida, one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the US, knocked out power to all of New Orleans, reversed the flow of the Mississippi River and blew roofs off buildings across Louisiana.

Related: Hurricane Ida live updates: first death in Louisiana as New Orleans loses power

Continue reading...

International talks aim for consensus on Taliban government

Posted on by

Western G7 powers are meeting Turkey, Qatar and Nato in Doha to discuss how Kabul airport could be reopened

Talks are due in Doha and New York to try to reach an international consensus on the conditions for recognising the Taliban government in Afghanistan. There are signs of tensions between superpowers after Russia called on the US to release Afghan central bank reserves that Washington blocked after the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul earlier this month.

“If our western colleagues are actually worried about the fate of the Afghan people, then we must not create additional problems for them by freezing gold and foreign exchange reserves,” said the Kremlin’s envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov.

Continue reading...

Chaos as Caldor fire forces unprecedented evacuation of Tahoe tourist town

Posted on by

Cal Fire chief warns of ‘fire activity that we have never seen before’ as fleeing residents clog roads

Thousands of residents have been forced to evacuate the tourist town of South Lake Tahoe as the raging Caldor fire draws closer, prompting chaotic scenes and clogged roads as residents rush to leave the area.

Monday’s fresh evacuation orders, unheard of in the city, came a day after communities several miles south of the lake were abruptly ordered to evacuate as the wildfire raged nearby.

Continue reading...

Would-be successors to Angela Merkel clash in first of three TV debates

Posted on by

Encounter unlikely to have banished CDU nerves after snap poll suggests SPD’s Olaf Scholz retains lead

The three politicians battling it out for the top job in German politics have clashed in a TV debate during which the leader of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats failed to regain lost momentum and ceded the role of continuity candidate to his centre-left rival.

Polls published before the first of three televised debates suggested the race to lead Germany into the post-Merkel era was more wide open than ever, with Olaf Scholz’s SPD in a narrow lead over Armin Laschet’s CDU and Annalena Baerbock’s Green party following closely in third place.

Continue reading...

Covid booster jabs ‘not a luxury’ and protect the vulnerable, says WHO

Posted on by

Health body previously stated that boosters in Europe are unnecessary and will increase vaccine inequality

A booster jab of Covid-19 vaccine for vulnerable people is not a luxury but a good way to protect them, the World Health Organization has said, as surging infection rates and a pan-European vaccination slowdown produced a “deeply worrying” situation.

“A third dose of vaccine is not a luxury booster taken away from someone who is still waiting for a first jab,” Dr Hans Kluge, the WHO’s regional director for Europe, said on Monday. “It’s basically a way to keep the most vulnerable safe.”

Continue reading...