Two suicide bombs exploded near the main entrances to Kabul airport on Thursday, reportedly killing at least 60 people, including children. Footage filmed after the blast shows what appears to be smoke rising from the airport and an eyewitness said 'people were hurled everywhere' in the explosions
Continue reading...Category Archives: World News
Covid live news: case rates rising in most areas of England; jabs from halted Moderna batch used in Japan
Case rates rising in England except London and Yorkshire & the Humber; thousands of shots from Moderna batch given before use suspended
- Seven destinations to be added to England’s Covid travel green list
- NHS planning Covid vaccines for children from age 12, reports say
- US Covid hospitalisations rise above 100,000 for first time since January
- NZ: Ardern rejects criticism of elimination strategy after 68 new cases
- See all our coronavirus coverage
UK ministers have been accused of doing the “bare minimum” to curb companies charging “misleading” prices for Covid travel tests and instead have been urged to name and shame the firms.
Ahead of a review of the traffic light system of quarantine rules which government sources said was unlikely to result in many major changes, Labour urged the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, to take tougher action against businesses “exploiting” the pandemic by imposing “rip-off” prices.
Related: Ministers doing bare minimum to stop Covid travel test ‘rip-offs’, says Labour
Newquay is reeling after health officials said that almost 5,000 cases had been linked to the music and surfing festival Boardmasters, which took place in the Cornish town earlier this month, my colleague Steven Morris reports. About three-quarters of them were aged 16-21 and about 800 live in Cornwall. Many of those who attended believe the number of infections is probably much higher.
It prompted tourism bosses to urge people not to visit the region unless they had pre-booked and to test themselves for Covid-19 before, during and after their stay.
Related: ‘It’s really hit us now’: Newquay becomes England’s Covid capital
Continue reading...Malaria trial shows ‘striking’ 70% reduction in severe illness in children
A study in Burkina Faso and Mali suggests combining anti-malarial drugs and vaccination could reduce deaths and hospitalisations
A trial combining vaccinations and prevention drugs has substantially lowered the number of children dying of malaria in two African countries, according to researchers.
The results of the study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, have been hailed as “very striking”, especially at a time when decades-long progress on combating malaria has stalled in some countries.
Continue reading...Islamic State claims responsibility for Kabul airport blasts
Analysis: Affiliate known as Islamic State Khorasan Province, or ISKP, poses ‘acute’ and ‘persistent’ threat, says US
The claim of responsibility from the Islamic State for the devastating suicide bombing at Kabul airport came as little surprise to analysts. The organisation’s affiliate in Afghanistan known as Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), had been pointed to as the prime suspect immediately after the blast.
The IS official Amaq news agency said on its Telegram channel that a member called Abdul Rahman al-Logari carried out “the martyrdom operation near Kabul Airport”. The name suggests the killer of at least 12 US servicemen and more than 60 civilians was Afghan.
Continue reading...Scottish court drops extradition case of Catalan independence campaigner
Extradition request from Spain for Clara Ponsatí was halted after she move to Belgium
An extradition case against a Catalan academic and independence campaigner, Clara Ponsatí, has been dropped by a Scottish court after she moved to Belgium.
A sheriff in Edinburgh halted an extradition request from the Spanish government against Ponsatí, who had been elected to the European parliament in January 2020, after agreeing the court no longer had any jurisdiction in her case.
Continue reading...Afghanistan evacuations enter ‘most hectic, dangerous phase’ – video
The German defence minister warned of a very concrete risk of attacks at Kabul airport hours before at least one explosion near Abbey gate, an entrance to the Hamid Karzai international airport in Kabul.
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer warned on Thursday morning that German officials had advised people 'to no longer come to the airport on their own' but only if they could reach it safely.
The German military has airlifted more than 5,200 people from Kabul so far, including 4,200 Afghans and 505 Germans
Continue reading...Spain bans fertilisers near saltwater lagoon after dead fish wash up
Officials close eight beaches as residents complain of cloudy, green water that emits a foul smell
Spanish officials have banned the use of fertilisers near one of Europe’s largest saltwater lagoons after five tons of dead fish washed up on its shores.
Alarm bells began to sound in the south-eastern region of Murcia last week as scores of small fish and shrimp began to wash up along the beaches of the Mar Menor lagoon.
Continue reading...Fashion brands sign new deal on Bangladesh garment workers’ safety
Campaigners and union leaders praise accord, which replaces one agreed after 2013 Rana Plaza fire
Campaigners have hailed a new agreement designed to protect garment workers in Bangladesh, signed by the likes of H&M and Inditex, which owns Zara and Bershka.
The accord replaces another agreement signed by more than 200 international fashion companies after the Rana Plaza factory fire in 2013, in which more than 1,100 people died. For the first time, these companies faced legal action if their health and safety standards were found lacking or if they did not address problems in an agreed time period. More than 38,000 inspections have been carried out since 2013, and nearly 200 factories have lost their contracts owing to poor safety standards.
Continue reading...Angela Merkel scores higher approval ratings than any other world leader
Exclusive: in six countries surveyed, outgoing chancellor is most appreciated for handling of German economy
Almost 16 years after she first became Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel’s approval ratings in five major European countries and the United States remain higher than those of any other current world leader, a new poll shows.
Asked by YouGov whether they had a favourable or unfavourable opinion of Merkel, who steps down next month after four terms in office, more respondents delivered a positive verdict than a negative one in all six countries surveyed.
Continue reading...Qatar has failed to explain up to 70% of migrant worker deaths in past 10 years – Amnesty
World Cup host has not properly investigated fatalities, rights group says, citing concerns over heat stress and safety
World Cup host Qatar has failed to investigate the deaths of thousands of migrant workers in the past decade, according to a new report by Amnesty International.
The human rights organisation said the majority of migrant worker deaths in Qatar are attributed to “natural causes”, cardiac or respiratory failure; classifications which are “meaningless” without the underlying cause of death explained, according to one expert cited.
Continue reading...Australian engineer Robert Pether sentenced to five years in Iraqi prison after dispute with central bank
Desree Pether had hoped her husband was going to be freed. Instead, she had to tell their three children their dad was not coming home
The family of Australian engineer Robert Pether say they are “living in hell” after he was sentenced to five years in an Iraqi jail and fined $USD12m over a protracted business dispute between his employer and the country’s central bank.
Pether was detained without charge in Baghdad in April, after flying to Iraq at the invitation of the Central Bank of Iraq to resolve a dispute it was having with his engineering firm, CME Consulting, over the construction of its new headquarters.
Continue reading...South Korea designates arriving Afghans as ‘persons of special merit’
Seoul skirts fraught issue of refugees as it ‘fulfils moral responsibility’ and welcomes 391 newcomers
South Korea has welcomed the arrival of Afghans who supported its operations before the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, designating them as “persons of special merit” instead of refugees in an apparent effort to defuse anti-migrant sentiment.
A military aircraft landed at Incheon airport west of Seoul in the afternoon, transporting 378 Afghans who had worked for South Korea’s embassy and other facilities in Afghanistan and their family members. A further 13 will arrive on a separate flight.
Continue reading...Haiti’s earthquake has compounded years of corruption and political crisis | Jonathan M Katz
The 2010 earthquake response was riddled with failure. Haitians cannot afford another catastrophe
The latest statistics from Haiti’s August 14 earthquake are stark: at least 2,207 people have been confirmed dead and more than 12,000 injured. More than 130,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed. Aftershocks continue, and new landslides in the wake of the follow-on Tropical Storm Grace mean those numbers are expected to rise in the coming weeks.
But the most dispiriting number is 11. That is the number of years that passed between Haiti’s last major earthquake and this one – years in which corruption has hollowed out the state, armed gangs have expanded their territorial control, and political turmoil has intensified, culminating in the assassination of the president, Jovenel Moïse, in July.
Continue reading...Hong Kong police investigate organisers of Tiananmen Square vigil
Longstanding group accused of being ‘agent of foreign forces’ and is asked for information about its membership
Hong Kong’s national security police are investigating the organisers of a vigil commemorating the Tiananmen Square massacre for alleged foreign collusion offences.
Chow Hang-tung, the vice-chair of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, said authorities had written to core members of the longstanding group demanding information related to their foreign links within 14 days.
Continue reading...Greece will not be ‘gateway’ to Europe for Afghans fleeing Taliban, say officials
Athens calls for a united response, as refugees already in Lesbos hope their asylum claims will now be reconsidered
Greek officials have said that Greece will not become a “gateway” to Europe for Afghan asylum seekers and have called for a united response to predictions of an increase in refugee arrivals to the country.
Greece’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has spoken to Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, about the developing situation in Afghanistan this week. Greek migration minister Notis Mitarachi last week said: “We cannot have millions of people leaving Afghanistan and coming to the European Union … and certainly not through Greece.” The country has just completed a 25-mile (40km) wall along its land border with Turkey and installed an automated surveillance system with cameras, radars and drones.
Continue reading...‘Is this justice?’: why Sudan is facing a multibillion-dollar bill for 9/11
The families of some 9/11 victims are still pursuing compensation from those complicit in the attacks – but is Sudan, already ravaged by years of US sanctions, really the right target?
Five months after the terrorist strikes by al-Qaida on 11 September 2001, a lawyer named Ron Motley received a phone call from Deena Burnett, whose husband had been killed in the attack. Thomas Burnett, she explained, had been on one of the hijacked planes. She wanted to ask whether he would help her to find a way to sue those responsible for the attack that claimed her husband.
Two weeks after the call, on 2 March 2002, Motley and a team of lawyers with his firm, Motley Rice, spent a day with the Burnett family at their home in California. They described how, upon realising the plane had been taken over for a suicide mission, Thomas Burnett had led the charge on the cockpit on flight 93. He and his fellow passengers managed to divert the plane from its target – the White House. The cockpit flight recorder captured his now-famous last words before they stormed the hijackers: “We’re going in!” Shortly after, the plane crashed, killing all 44 people on board. Burnett was 38 years old.
Continue reading...‘No deadline’ on evacuating Americans from Kabul, says Blinken – live
- US military will help evacuate US citizens beyond 31 August
- Blinken: as many as 1,500 Americans remain in Afghanistan
- Eight government agencies receive letters requesting documents
- Capitol officer who shot Ashli Babbitt to give TV interview
- Committee also seeks communications from Trump children
- Johnson & Johnson touts coronavirus booster shot
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That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
The Guardian’s Dan Sabbagh and Aubrey Allegretti report:
Afghans who want to flee to Britain may be better off “trying to get to the border” than awaiting RAF evacuation, the defence secretary has said as British troops made last-ditch attempts to airlift at least 1,500 remaining interpreters and others who have supported the UK.
Related: Fleeing Afghans should try to get to border, says UK defence secretary
Continue reading...Lake Tahoe shrouded in smoke from surging Caldor fire – in pictures
The pristine setting of Lake Tahoe, on the California-Nevada border, was obscured by thick plumes of smoke as thousands of firefighters worked to contain the nearby Caldor fire, which has burned more than 120,000 acres. Tourists wore masks outdoors and ducked into cafes and casinos to escape the haze and the smell
Continue reading...‘I saw children falling down’: panic and despair in Kabul as time runs out
Faced with crowd stampedes and Taliban reprisals, even those eligible for travel to UK have begun to give up hope
For the past four days, Nangyalai, a 42-year-old minicab driver from south London, has been queueing with his wife and 11-month-old baby outside the Baron hotel on the edge of Kabul airport, trying to get close enough to the entrance gate to show guards his British passport.
There is a sign by the gate stating “British passport holders only”. Inside the hotel, officials are working to grant evacuation visas for thousands of UK nationals and Afghan citizens who have worked for British organisations. Diplomatic staff say they are “processing hundreds every hour”, but there is a growing sense of despair among the crowds who have been waiting outside since the start of the week – and tensions are rising.
Continue reading...All theories on origins of Covid-19 outbreak still ‘on the table’, says WHO
Remarks follow reports US intelligence study unable to conclude if virus came from animals or a Wuhan lab
The World Health Organization has said all theories on the origins of the Covid-19 outbreak, including the possibility of laboratory leak, are “on the table” and urged Chinese scientists to carry out their own investigations.
WHO officials were answering questions from the press after a classified US intelligence report delivered to the White House on Tuesday was reported to be inconclusive on the question of the origins of the pandemic, in part due to a lack of information from China.
Continue reading...