The photojournalist Danish Siddiqui was shot dead last week while documenting the Taliban offensive in Afghanistan. His award-winning work for Reuters spanned some of the world’s most era-defining crises.
He said: ‘I shoot for the common man who wants to see and feel a story from a place where he can’t be present himself.’
Siddiqui leaves behind his wife, Rike, and two children. And a breathtaking body of work
Category Archives: World News
The hidden world of cats: what our feline friends are doing when we’re not looking
In Britain, most pet cats are free to roam, but where do they go and what do they get up to? We fitted six cats with GPS trackers and found out
As I prepared to write this piece, my three-year-old cat, Larry, had been missing for 24 hours. I had checked under the bins, posted in a community Facebook group and Googled variations of “Lost cat how long normal before come home?” all day.
Larry was a house cat when we took him in, but my boyfriend and I had recently moved to a house with a garden so had started letting him out. Just like that, our adorable, loving, docile cat turned into the neighbourhood bruiser. He stopped snuggling with us in the morning, instead impatiently pawing at the door even before we had put down his breakfast.
Continue reading...Five arrested in Hong Kong for sedition over children’s book about sheep
Books tried to explain the pro-democracy movement, portraying supporters as sheep surrounded by wolves
Five members of a Hong Kong union behind a series of children’s books about sheep trying to hold back wolves from their village have been arrested for sedition.
The arrests by the new national security police unit, which is spearheading a sweeping crackdown on dissent, are the latest action against pro-democracy activists since huge and often violent protests convulsed the city two years ago.
Continue reading...‘Fashion can be very exploitative’ – Halima Aden on why she quit modelling
The industry’s first hijab-wearing model speaks about the ‘internal conflict’ that made her quit the catwalk
Halima Aden, the Muslim model who became a trailblazer for wearing her hijab on the catwalk and in photoshoots, has hit out at the fashion industry and its exploitation of young models.
Aden quit the industry in November 2020, citing compromised beliefs and feeling like a “minority within a minority”.
Continue reading...Johnson & Johnson to pay $5bn in landmark $26bn US opioid settlement
Group of US states attorneys general unveil settlement including three largest US drug distributors and Johnson & Johnson
A group of US state attorneys general unveiled on Wednesday a landmark $26bn settlement with large drug companies for allegedly fueling the deadly nationwide opioid epidemic, but some states were cool on the agreement.
Under the settlement proposal, the three largest US drug distributors, McKesson Corp, Cardinal Health Inc and AmerisourceBergen Corp, are expected to pay a combined $21bn, while drugmaker Johnson & Johnson (J&J), which manufactures opioids, would pay $5bn.
Continue reading...Covid live: Delta variant will dominate globally in months – WHO; Rome cases surge linked to Euro 2020 celebrations
WHO warns world is set to pass 200m cases within weeks; fivefold increase in Rome cases linked to Euro 2020 celebrations
- Fauci turns tables on inquisitor Rand Paul
- Delta variant accounts for 83% of new cases in US, CDC director says
- UK border officials told not to make Covid checks on safe list arrivals
- India’s excess deaths during Covid ‘could be 10 times official toll’
At least 800 people in Uganda were given fake Covid-19 vaccines in a scam that involved “unscrupulous” doctors and health workers, government officials have said.
The fraudsters took advantage of the deadly coronavirus in May and June to target victims looking to pay for a jab, injecting some with water, while new cases soared to record highs of about 1,700 cases per day and doses were in short supply.
Around nine in 10 adults in all of the UK’s regions are now likely to have Covid-19 antibodies, figures suggest.
In Scotland, 88.6% are estimated to have antibodies, rising to 90.0% for Northern Ireland, 91.9% for England and 92.6% in Wales. Antibodies can be from a previous infection or vaccination.
Continue reading...White House and Congress see breakthrough Covid infections – US politics live
- White House and congressional staff test positive for virus
- Officials say cases underscores importance of vaccinations
Axios is reporting that the Biden administration will not reopen the US consulate in Jerusalem until the after Israel’s new government passes a budget - likely in early November.
The House select committee is set to have its first hearing looking into the 6 January attack on the US Capitol next week, and chairman Bennie Thompson told the Guardian that “nothing is off limits”.
Thompson indicated that Donald Trump and House minority leader Kevin McCarthy are among his top witnesses.
Related: Capitol attack committee chair vows to investigate Trump: ‘Nothing is off limits’
Continue reading...More than 80 wildfires rage across western US – video report
The Bootleg fire in Oregon, now roughly the size of Los Angeles, is so intense that it has created its own weather system, causing winds that have further fanned its flames. It has been burning for two weeks and barely a third of its perimeter has been contained. The Dixie fire in California exploded in size to roughly 94 sq miles (243 sq km) on Tuesday, and is only 15% contained. It broke out on 13 July
Continue reading...Luz: The Flower of Evil review – arty horror strangely mutes its women
Colombian horror about a micro-cult is rather too fascinated by the barbarity of its leader, rather than the daughters he has hidden from the world
This bold and disturbing arthouse horror from first-time feature director Juan Diego Escobar Alzate feels like it could be set sometime in the 19th century. It’s about a tiny religious cult based in the wildly beautiful Colombian mountains: the group’s leader is El Señor (Conrado Osorio), a farmer who looks like a cowboy in the Clint Eastwood mould, with a macho growl; his trio of daughters wear frontier prairie dresses. But we must be closer to the present day: in an early scene the eldest, 23-year-old Laila (Andrea Esquivel), brings him a 1980s cassette player that she has found in the woods and she is spellbound by this unknown contraption. El Señor says the devil lurks inside.
It’s an intriguing set-up, and cinematographer Nicolás Caballero Arenas shoots the lush landscape through what looks like a trippy filter; blazing sunsets and garish rainbows give the film a quasi-fairytale, almost surreal feel. El Señor has raised his daughters in total ignorance of the world outside their community of a dozen or so. But the film is depressingly thin on the women; often it seems more interested in arranging them in arty tableaux than investigating the way that isolation has shaped their personalities and how they see the world. The wafty Terrence Malick-ish voiceover written for Laila doesn’t exactly fill in the psychological gaps.
Continue reading...‘I never thought this would happen in France’: day one of showing Covid vaccine pass
Showing a health pass or negative PCR test is obligatory if people want to access cultural venues
There are teething troubles on day one of France’s controversial health pass for accessing public places. Outside Montpellier’s main art gallery, the Musée Fabre, a security guard squints at a visitor’s smartphone. “I can’t see your pass,” he says. The visitor tries shielding it from the severe Mediterranean sun: “I don’t see anything either. I can’t even see whether my phone’s unlocked or not.”
From Wednesday, showing either a health pass, or proof of a negative PCR test dated to within 48 hours, is obligatory in France for anyone wishing to access any cultural or leisure facilities with a capacity of more than 50 people. This includes cinemas, art galleries, libraries, museums, sports centres and work-related events. Cafes, restaurants and trains will fall under the measures at the beginning of August.
Continue reading...Hungary’s Viktor Orbán will hold referendum on anti-LBGT law
Prime minister announces referendum on ‘child protection’ three days before Budapest Pride march
Hungary’s far-right prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has announced that his government will hold a nationwide referendum on “child protection”, a euphemism for parts of a recent law widely condemned as discriminatory that bans any portrayal of LGBT people in materials meant for children.
“LGBTQ activists visit kindergartens and schools and conduct sexual education classes. They want to do this here in Hungary as well,” said Orbán in a Facebook video statement placed on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Aerial shots of New York show hazy skies from western US wildfires – video
New York officials have told vulnerable people to stay indoors because of sooty air pollution from wildfires in western US states that have drifted across the country. Residents of New York City, 2,000 miles away from the blazes, witnessed a fiery sunrise on Tuesday. The Bootleg fire in Oregon has become so large and hot it is creating its own weather system, causing winds that have further fanned its flames
Continue reading...The UK has been linked to Congo’s ‘conflict minerals’ – where are the criminal charges? | Vava Tampa
Swiss court ruling is not the first time plunder of DRC’s mineral wealth has been linked to the killing of Congolese people. Without accountability, it won’t be the last
According to the Swiss federal criminal court last week, the corruption destroying the Democratic Republic of the Congo – where devastating conflicts over minerals used in our electronics have killed more than six million people – is inextricably linked to the UK, Gibraltar and Switzerland.
It was a significant moment exposing corruption that has fuelled not only grinding poverty, famine and unemployment in DRC but also the impunity and violence required to sustain it. Yet, unless there is accountability, it won’t change.
Continue reading...Catastrophic floods could hit Europe far more often, study finds
Slow-moving storms such as recent deluge in Germany could become 14 times more frequent by 2100
Catastrophic floods such as those that struck Europe recently could become much more frequent as a result of global heating, researchers say.
High-resolution computer models suggest that slow-moving storms could become 14 times more common over land by the end of the century in a worst-case scenario. The slower a storm moves, the more rain it dumps on a small area and the greater the risk of serious flooding.
Continue reading...Sicilian towns face bankruptcy over Etna clean-up costs
Italian government earmarks €5m to help villages get rid of volcanic cinders from erupting volcano
Dozens of Sicilian towns face bankruptcy due to the cost of cleaning up the volcanic ash left by Mount Etna, which has been erupting regularly since February.
The Italian government on Monday allocated €5m to compensate several villages struggling to pay to get rid of the volcanic cinders, the cost of which can reach more than €1m with every eruption.
Continue reading...Death of 13-year-old girl sparks calls for action on FGM in Somalia
Fartun Hassan Ahmed bled to death after undergoing female genital mutilation, a practice that 98% of women in the east African country undergo
A 13-year-old girl has died after undergoing female genital mutilation (FGM) in Somalia, as activists report a rise in the practice during the pandemic.
Fartun Hassan Ahmed, the daughter of nomadic pastoralists, bled to death after being cut earlier this month in the village of Jeerinle in the state of Galmudug, her mother said.
Continue reading...Syrian economy lies in ruins and China sniffs opportunity
Analysis: War may be winding down, but with Assad in charge for seven more seven years the country remains splintered
Standing on a podium on Saturday to take an oath of office, Bashar al-Assad declared himself the only man who could rebuild Syria.
His first foreign guest, China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, seemed to enhance his claim, endorsing the president’s win in a May poll described by Britain and Europe as “neither free nor fair” and laying a marker to help get the job started.
Continue reading...Fauci to Rand Paul: ‘You do not know what you are talking about’ – video
Top US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci got into a heated discussion with Republican Senator Rand Paul during a Senate hearing on the coronavirus. Paul pressed Fauci on previous comments made to the committee about funding for a lab in Wuhan, China, 'You take an animal virus and you increase its transmissibility to humans, you're saying that's not 'gain of function'?' To which Fauci replied, 'Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly. And, I want to say that officially. You do not know what you are talking about'
Continue reading...White House official and Pelosi aide test positive for Covid, reports say – live
- Pair escorted delegation from Texas around Capitol this week
- President walks back ‘Facebook is killing people’ comment
Many were surprised by the strong stance that Fox News host Sean Hannity took on Covid-19 Monday night when he told viewers, “I believe in science, I believe in the science of vaccination.”
Related: Fox News host Sean Hannity urges viewers to ‘take Covid seriously’
Continue reading...Coronavirus live: Olympics faces last-minute cancellation if cases rise; virus spread grows 150% in a week in France
Tokyo 2020 could make late call on whether Games begin; infections in France grow at unprecedented rate due to Delta variant
- Delta variant accounts for 83% of new cases in US, CDC director says
- England border officials told not to make Covid checks on green and amber list arrivals
- India’s excess deaths during Covid ‘could be 10 times official toll’
- Twitter suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene’s account over misinformation
- See all our coronavirus coverage
Turkey’s daily coronavirus cases rose to 8,780 on Tuesday, nearly double a low water mark touched earlier this month, while 46 new related deaths were logged, according to the government tally.
Infections remain well down from a wave in April-May when new cases peaked above 60,000. They fell to 4,418 on July 4 in the wake of a stringent lockdown that ended in mid-May. The government lifted most of the last restrictions this month.
Continue reading...