US secretary of state pushed back against criticism of the military withdrawal from Afghanistan. Blinked said the Biden administration inherited Donald Trump's deal with the Taliban but no plan for carrying it out
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Give Lorde a break. Non-Māori must speak Māori for it to survive | Morgan Godfery
If we must wait for the perfect circumstances to speak or sing te reo, we may as well sign the language’s death certificate
My sisters and I are the first generation in almost 50 generations of our family who didn’t grow up speaking te reo Māori as a first language. At first, that fact seems startling – a dramatic rupture from our past and the language that gives form to it. We are only three generations removed from ancestors who were Māori-speaking monoglots, ordering their lives and their world in a language almost foreign to their 21st-century descendants.
But this break between the language our ancestors spoke and the language we speak – English – is the typical Māori experience: only one in five Māori can hold a conversation in their ancestral language, and in the past three national surveys this number has fallen. That makes us anglophones a firm majority in our Indigenous populace.
Continue reading...Norway election result: Labour celebrates but coalition talks loom
Labour’s Jonas Gahr Støre on course to be prime minister after Conservative incumbent concedes defeat but faces hard choices on picking allies
Norway’s Conservative prime minister Erna Solberg has conceded defeat to the left-leaning opposition after a general election campaign dominated by questions about the future of the key oil industry in western Europe’s largest producer.
“The Conservative government’s work is finished for this time around,” Solberg told supporters on Monday. “I want to congratulate Jonas Gahr Støre, who now seems to have a clear majority for a change of government.”
Continue reading...We don’t live in isolation. Our ancestors’ trauma can affect our health generations later | Himali McInnes
Our wellbeing is inextricably linked to our childhoods, which in turn is influenced by the lives of our parents and grandparents
If there is one patient who has opened my eyes to my own cognitive bias and who has helped me to recognise the profound effect of the past on a person’s health, it is my patient Arama*.
“Hey, what’s up, doc?” says Arama as he walks into my consulting room one day. He’s weaving a little, his breath reeks of alcohol, his speech is slurred. He wants to get some antibiotics for a chesty cough that he’s had for a week.
Continue reading...Taliban takeover of Afghanistan will reshape Middle East, official warns
Gulf states are having to reconsider their alliances and especially whether they can still trust the US, says senior source
The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan is a shattering earthquake that will shape the Middle East for many years, a senior Gulf official has said, warning that – despite the group’s promises of moderation – the militant group is “essentially the same” as last time it was in power.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the official also said that the rapid and chaotic US withdrawal also raises serious questions for Gulf states about the value of US promises of security over the next 20 years.
Continue reading...Covid live: UK and EU urged to stop blocking vaccine patent waiver; ‘sudden and severe wave’ in Syria’s Idlib
Médecins Sans Frontières says waiver would allow faster production; cases in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province have soared since mid-August
- UK children aged 12 to 15 to be offered Covid jab
- Covid passports: what are European countries doing?
- US senators condemn Amazon for promoting anti-vaxxer books
- UK cancels Covid vaccine deal with French firm Valneva
- How Zhang Wenhong became the face of Beijing’s Covid battle
Trials of localised lockdowns will begin in the Philippines’ capital Manila this week as the country tries to contain its worst coronavirus outbreak while also opening the economy.
A shift towards localised lockdowns in the Manila area was delayed last week because of the levels of infection.
After months of uncertainty, the UK’s four chief medical officers have said that Covid-19 vaccinations can be offered to all 12-to-15-year-olds. How was the decision made, how will the vaccines be rolled out, and what difference will they make?
Related: How will the Covid vaccine rollout to 12-to-15-year-olds in UK work?
Continue reading...Fisherman in Greece accused of throwing dead body back into sea
Man allegedly caught 74-year-old who had died while spearfishing in his net but failed to report it
A fisherman in Greece has been arrested after allegedly catching a dead spearfisherman in his net and throwing the body back into the sea.
The alleged incident happened on Sunday, the same day that a 74-year-old man who had been out spearfishing in shallow waters was reported missing near the coast of Pelion.
Continue reading...Stock market correction of 5%-10% ‘likely before year end’; US inflation expectations rise – as it happened
Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
- Latest: Beware FAKE Walmart press release on litecoin
- Deutsche Bank survey finds many investors expect correction soon
- Virus fears and inflation top list of concerns
- But most investors still expect markets to be higher in a year
Earlier:
- FT: Beijing to break up Ant’s Alipay
- China “wants to end big tech’s control of data”
- Primark hit by pingdemic sales drop
- Growth and inflation worries weigh on markets
Time to wrap up....
Here’s today’s main stories:
Related: Alibaba shares plunge as Beijing ‘seeks to break up Ant’s Alipay’
Related: Stock market pullback likely by year end, Deutsche Bank survey finds
Related: Evergrande investors face 75% hit as company edges closer to restructure
Related: UK cancels Covid vaccine deal with French firm Valneva
Related: Higher taxes could leave low-paid frontline workers £1,000 worse off
Related: EU Brexit controls are pointless bureaucracy, says M&S chairman
Related: Brexit trade barriers added £600m in costs to UK importers this year
Related: Primark hit by ‘pingdemic’ but it says supply crisis won’t lead to shortages
Related: West End theatres bank on staging a revival with big-budget productions
Related: All Sainsbury’s stores to stay shut on Boxing Day as a ‘thank you’ to staff
Related: UK to offer £265m in subsidies for renewable energy developers
European stock markets have shrugged off growth fears and talk of a stock market pullback, to end the day higher.
In London, the FTSE 100 gained 39 points or 0.55% to end at 7068 points. Royal Mail (+3%), Lloyds Banking Group (+2.8%), and hedge fund management group Pershing Square (+2.6%) led the risers.
Spain's Ibex up 1.3%. German Dax up 0.6%
The major European indices are ending the day with gains across the board:
German DAX, +0.56%
France's CAC, +0.2%
UK's FTSE 100, +0.55%
Spain's Ibex, +1.3%
Italy's FTSE MIB, +0.9%
In other markets as European/London traders look to exit:
Far-right journalist quits French TV show amid election rumours
Éric Zemmour is about to begin a book tour, but has not yet announced his candidacy for president
The French far-right journalist and commentator Éric Zemmour has stepped down from his nightly TV show, heightening speculation that he could make an outsider bid to run in next year’s French presidential election.
The 63-year-old, who was a political journalist for Le Figaro, holds convictions for inciting hatred and is best known for his TV diatribes against immigration and Islam.
Continue reading...Emma Raducanu’s Chinese heritage praised by China’s state media
News outlet points out that US Open champion once attributed her winning confidence to ‘Chinese style of inner faith’
Chinese state media has said the “Chinese style of inner faith” gave British player Emma Raducanu the confidence to win the US Open over the weekend, but some of the country’s internet users asked: why are we calling her Chinese?
Raducanu, 18, became the youngest grand slam winner since Maria Sharapova won Wimbledon in 2004. The pride in her success was simultaneously shared in China, where her mother was born.
Continue reading...Meat accounts for nearly 60% of all greenhouse gases from food production, study finds
Production of meat worldwide emits 28 times as much as growing plants, and most crops are raised to feed animals bound for slaughter
The global production of food is responsible for a third of all planet-heating gases emitted by human activity, with the use of animals for meat causing twice the pollution of producing plant-based foods, a major new study has found.
The entire system of food production, such as the use of farming machinery, spraying of fertilizer and transportation of products, causes 17.3bn metric tonnes of greenhouse gases a year, according to the research. This enormous release of gases that fuel the climate crisis is more than double the entire emissions of the US and represents 35% of all global emissions, researchers said.
Continue reading...Taliban assure UN over safety and security of humanitarian workers
Written assurances also say aid agencies will be able to operate independently of government and will be free to employ women
The Taliban have given the UN written assurances on the safe passage and freedom of movement for humanitarian workers operating in Afghanistan, the UN under-secretary for humanitarian affairs, Martin Griffiths, has told a UN fundraising conference in Geneva.
Reading extracts from the Taliban undertakings, Griffiths said he had also received the assurances that aid agencies would be able to operate independently of the government, and would be free to employ women.
Continue reading...New York court to hold pre-trial conference on civil suit filed against Prince Andrew
Attorneys for Virginia Giuffre expected to argue royal has been properly served with documents in alleged sexual assault case
A New York court is to hold a pre-trial conference on Monday on the civil suit filed against the Duke of York in the sex assault case against him, with reports suggesting his lawyers will not attend the hearing,
Attorneys for Virginia Roberts Giuffre, 38, who alleges Prince Andrew, 61, sexually assaulted her when she was 17, a charge he vehemently denies, are expected to argue that the royal has been properly served with documents in the case.
Continue reading...Spain wildfire: almost 1,000 emergency workers fighting blaze
Fire in Andalucía region rages for sixth day having already forced evacuation of thousands of people
Almost 1,000 firefighters and emergency workers are battling one of the most intractable Spanish wildfires in recent years as the blaze rages for a sixth day, after devouring at least 7,400 hectares (18,285 acres) of land in the southern region of Andalucía and forcing the evacuation of more than 2,600 people.
On Sunday, 260 members of Spain’s military emergencies unit were deployed to help tackle the fire, which began last Wednesday in the mountainous Sierra Bermeja above the resort town of Estepona, and which now has a perimeter of 53 miles (85km). Experts hope the rain forecast across much of the country on Monday will help extinguish the blaze.
Continue reading...‘China’s Dr Fauci’: How Zhang Wenhong became the face of Beijing’s Covid battle
Expert’s clever analogies and frank messages to public have won him respect – and millions of followers
Early last year, as Covid-19 began to disrupt livelihoods in Shanghai, local media struggled to persuade the public to stay at home. Then they turned to an infectious diseases expert, Dr Zhang Wenhong, who also heads up Shanghai’s expert panel on Covid-19.
“You’re bored to death at home, so the virus will be bored to death, too,” Zhang said in rapid-fire mandarin mixed with a distinctive Shanghainese accent. “Stay at home for two weeks … then we’ll be an inch closer to success.”
Continue reading...The battle for Mekelle: Ethiopia’s civil war over Tigray goes on – in pictures
An estimated 2.2 million people have been forced from their homes and thousands have been killed in the civil war that broke out in Ethiopia last November when government troops entered Mekelle, capital of the Tigray region. Witnessed by photographer Sergio Ramazzotti, the city was retaken by the Tigray Defence Forces in June, but peace in the region seems a long way off
- All photographs by Sergio Ramazzotti/Parallelozero
‘A very cruel exit’: UK’s aid cuts risk rapid return of treatable diseases
£200m project to eliminate avoidable blindness and disfigurement in Africa ends after funding is prematurely axed
A chandelier sparkling in the background, the grandeur of Downing Street gleaming behind him, Boris Johnson looks into the camera and speaks with solemnity. He is marking World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day, he says, to raise awareness of these “terrible afflictions … which impose an immense burden of suffering in developing countries”.
Huge progress has been made, he says, in the fight against the diseases, not least as a result of British aid to some of the poorest parts of the world. But there is more – much more – to be done: more than a billion people are still at risk, he warns, and that is why the UK “fully supports” the World Health Organization’s big elimination push over the next decade.
Continue reading...Wildfire in south of Spain forces thousands to flee their homes – video
People have been forced to flee their homes across many Andalucían towns and villages as fire crews in Spain worked to contain wildfire blazes. A military unit has been sent in to help tackle the fires raging close to a Costa del Sol resort. Evacuees, some elderly, took shelter in a sports centre in the nearby town of Ronda, as volunteers brought in bottled water and supplies. Regional environment chief Carmen Crespo said the blaze appeared to have been started deliberately and investigators were working to uncover more details.
Continue reading...Coronavirus live news: Italy sends 100,000 vaccines to Iraq; England to scrap Covid vaccine passport plans
Latest updates: follow all our coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic from the UK and around the world
Conservative MPs fear vaccine passports could still be made mandatory later this year amid a warning the NHS faces “the worst winter in living memory”, despite the health secretary’s announcement earlier today that they are to be scrapped.
The dramatic U-turn came just weeks after Boris Johnson announced the controversial documents would be necessary for fully vaccinated people to go to nightclubs and other crowded venues.
They shouldn’t be kept in reserve – they are pointless, damaging and discriminatory.
“The very concept of vaccine passports needs to be ruled out for good, as they are fundamentally unconservative, discriminatory and would lead to a two-tier society that I am confident no one actually wants to see.
“I don’t believe that, sadly it’s probably politics.
Related: Some Tories fear second U-turn over plan for Covid vaccine passports in England
South Africa’s president has announced an easing of Covid-19 restrictions and a shortening of the national curfew after a decline in infections.
Authorities will also extend the hours of alcohol sales, further relaxing restrictions introduced in June to combat a third wave of cases caused by the Delta variant, Reuters reports.
While the third wave is not yet over, we have seen a sustained decline in infections across the country over the last few weeks.
With the decline of infections across all provinces, the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Covid-19 has recommended an easing of restrictions.
Continue reading...Republican backlash against Biden’s Covid vaccine mandate grows
Asa Hutchinson calls directive ‘unprecedented assumption of federal mandate authority’ as other governors threaten to sue
The political sparring match over Joe Biden’s new vaccine mandate continued on Sunday with one Republican governor blasting the measure as “counterproductive” and the White House insisting it was necessary to end the coronavirus pandemic.
Related: Northern Idaho’s anti-government streak hinders fight against Covid
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