Category Archives: World News

Guatemala protesters set congress on fire during budget protests

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Public anger targets President Alejandro Giammattei over cuts to education and health

Hundreds of protesters broke into Guatemala’s congress and burned part of the building amid growing demonstrations against President Alejandro Giammattei and the legislature for approving a budget that cut educational and health spending.

The incident on Saturday came as about 10,000 people were protesting in front of the National Palace in Guatemala City against corruption and the budget, which protesters say was negotiated and passed by legislators in secret while the Central American country was distracted by the fallout of back-to-back hurricanes and the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Why the race to find Covid-19 vaccines is far from over

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Despite the promising news from Pfizer and Moderna, other efforts – which may be even more effective – continue around the world

While everyone celebrated this month’s news that not one but two experimental vaccines against Covid-19 have proved at least 90% effective at preventing disease in late-stage clinical trials, research into understanding how the Sars-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, interacts with the human immune system never paused.

There are plenty of questions still to answer about the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines: how well will they protect the elderly, for example, and how long for? Which aspects of the immune response that they elicit are protective and which aren’t? Can even better results be achieved, with vaccines that target different parts of the immune system?

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Ex-PMs unite in Australia in bid to curb power of Murdoch empire

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Former rivals to star in Leveson-style inquiry into mogul’s near-monopoly of the country’s media

In high public office, both men lived and died at the word of the world’s most influential media mogul, Rupert Murdoch. But now two former Australian prime ministers are at the vanguard of a campaign to redress the balance of power. It is a movement that Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull, the respective former Labor and Liberal leaders of Australia, hope will go on to undermine all of Murdoch’s international enterprises.

The two former PMs were once rivals but are to appear as joint star witnesses at an upcoming Australian parliamentary inquiry into Murdoch’s dominance of the Australian political debate. Both are to argue that News Corp Australia has become the propaganda arm of the rightwing Liberal government.

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Hold the 18-course dinners: Noma’s chef opens up a burger joint

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The team behind the feted restaurant found Danes queued around the block for their pandemic pop-up

It is one of the best restaurants in the world, known for its 18-course tasting menus costing north of £300 per person and for spawning a culinary movement based on foraging for ingredients.

Now the two Michelin-starred Copenhagen restaurant Noma, run by feted chef René Redzepi, is preparing to open the doors of a new venture: a burger-and-chips joint.

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Coronavirus live: UK lab-confirmed cases pass 1.5m; Gaza’s clinics could soon be overwhelmed

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Infections up in UK by more than 18,000 on Sunday; warning over Gaza Strip infections; G20 leaders agree to fund fair distribution of vaccines

Experts have urged Americans against travelling for family gatherings at Thanksgiving this week even though millions were set to defy the advice, as the US crossed the threshold of more than 12m cases of coronavirus.

Ominous warnings came as Donald Trump appeared to admit that coronavirus is “running wild” across the US, in contrast with his statements throughout the election campaign that the virus would simply “go away” or “disappear” and, more recently, that the country was “rounding the turn” on the pandemic.

Related: Millions of Americans set to ignore warnings against Thanksgiving travel

The Palestinian health ministry has recommended strict limits on Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem this year due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Celebrations in the biblical town revered by Christians as Jesus’ birthplace are usually attended by thousands of people from around the world, but this year the ministry has recommended the upcoming tree lighting ceremony in Manger Square be limited to 50 people, throughout the festive season.

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If Ethiopia descends into chaos, it could take the Horn of Africa with it

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As conflicts rapidly unfold in Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen, the US, UK and European states are being sidelined

The Ethiopian army’s assault on Tigray province marks a serious backwards step by the country’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, who has been feted internationally as a moderniser and Nobel peace prize winner. Abiy calls it a “law enforcement operation” – but he risks being blamed for an expanding refugee emergency and a burgeoning region-wide crisis.

An even bigger fear is the break-up of Ethiopia itself in a Libyan or Yugoslav-type implosion. The country comprises more than 80 ethnic groups, of which Abiy’s Oromo is the largest, followed by the Amhara. Ethnic Somalis and Tigrayans represent about 6% each in a population of about 110 million. Ethiopia’s federal governance structure was already under strain before this latest explosion.

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Thai teenagers tell rulers: ‘You’re dinosaurs’

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Thousands of students continue to take to streets of Bangkok to demand reform of monarchy, government and education

Outside one of Bangkok’s busy shopping arcades, crowds of young protesters bounce balloons – coloured grey with patches of molten orange – above their heads.

“We will act as a meteorite and hit the outdated ways of the older generations in this country,” the protest organisers explained. “We will talk about all the topics that the dinosaurs don’t want to hear.” Inflatable dinosaurs wobbled in the afternoon heat, representing the Thai government. The symbols are playful, but the message is clear: teenagers want change.

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Israel strikes Hamas targets in Gaza

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Defence forces say Israel’s air force hit two rocket ammunition manufacturing sites

Israel says its military struck Hamas targets in Gaza in response to a rocket attack launched from the Palestinian enclave.

The Israeli air force struck two rocket ammunition manufacturing sites, a military compound and “underground infrastructures”, the Israel Defence Forces said on Sunday.

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Donald Trump appears to admit Covid is ‘running wild’ in the US

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President’s tweet came as FDA approved emergency use authorisation for Regeneron antibody therapy

Donald Trump appears to have admitted that coronavirus is “running wild” across the US, in contrast with his statements throughout the election campaign that the country was “rounding the turn” on the pandemic.

As new Covid infections in the US approached 200,000 a day, Trump took to Twitter on Saturday night to insist things were bad outside the United States as well: “The Fake News is not talking about the fact that ‘Covid’ is running wild all over the World, not just in the U.S.”

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Spy Jonathan Pollard expected to fly to Israel after US lifts parole

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Release marks latest gesture by departing Trump administration towards the Israeli government

Jonathan Pollard, a US citizen jailed for 30 years after being convicted of spying in one of the most dramatic espionage cases of the cold war, is expected to fly to Israel after being released from parole.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, welcomed the lifting of travel restrictions, his office said in a statement on Saturday, adding that he had “consistently worked towards securing Pollard’s release”.

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Protesters set fire to Guatemala’s Congress building

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7,000 demonstrate against health and education cuts amid Covid and hurricane crises

Hundreds of protesters broke into Guatemala’s Congress and burned part of the building on Saturday amid growing demonstrations against president Alejandro Giammattei and the legislature for approving a budget that cut educational and health spending.

The protest came as about 7,000 people were demonstrating in front of the National Palace in Guatemala City against the budget, which protesters say was negotiated and passed by legislators in secret while the Central American country was distracted by the fallout of back-to-back hurricanes and the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Actor calls out director for criticizing his ‘tiny’ apartment during Zoom audition

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Lukas Gage tweeted clip of director saying ‘these poor people live in these tiny apartments’ without realizing he wasn’t muted

It appears the mute button is becoming harder to find these days.

Hollywood is now rallying its support for an actor who posted a video of an excruciatingly awkward Zoom encounter he had with a director who witheringly criticized his “tiny apartment” without realizing he hadn’t muted his microphone.

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Trump tells G20 leaders he wants to work with them ‘for a long time’

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US president delivers boasts and falsehoods while other members focus on dealing with the pandemic

Donald Trump has taken his campaign to deny the results of the US presidential election global, telling world leaders at the G20 summit that he looks forward to “working with you again for a long time”.

The gathering of leaders of major world economies is being held online this year, because of the pandemic, but could have been an occasion for Trump to bid his peers goodbye and pledge American support to the battle against Covid-19.

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Pompeii dig reveals ‘almost perfect’ remains of a master and his slave

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Archaeologists have unearthed two exceptionally well-preserved victims of the eruption of Vesuvius in AD79

The almost perfectly preserved remains of two men have been unearthed in an extraordinary discovery in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii.

The bodies of what are thought to be a wealthy man and his slave, believed to have died as they were fleeing the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79, were found during excavations at a villa in the outskirts of the city, Pompeii archaeological park officials said yesterday.

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Trump’s last-ditch efforts to overturn results fail to make dent in Biden victory

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President’s desperate efforts include pleas to Republican state lawmakers as states certify election results

Desperate efforts by Donald Trump and his Republican allies to overturn the result of the American election are facing an ever narrowing range of options as court cases and recounts have repeatedly failed to make any dent in the convincing victory of Democratic challenger Joe Biden.

Now that states are certifying their election results, it appears the president’s last-ditch efforts will entail desperate pleas to Republican state lawmakers in hopes they will ignore their state laws and somehow skew the election to favor his reelection in the all-important electoral college.

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UN report deepens fears that Ethiopia Tigray conflict could be long and brutal

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Confidential papers warn that, despite talk of success, army faces heavy resistance and regional stability is at risk

Ethiopian national forces are meeting heavy resistance and face a protracted “war of attrition” in the northern region of Tigray, a confidential United Nations assessment reveals.

Though officials in Addis Ababa, the capital, have repeatedly claimed that key towns have been secured, paramilitaries and militia deployed by the army are still struggling to clear and secure territory. Heavily armed regular troops have continued to advance into Tigray as they rush to reach the capital, Mekelle, the assessment says.

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Human rights must not be ‘trampled’ in global rush for PPE, say MPs

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Calls come after Guardian finds UK sourced PPE from factories in China where North Koreans work in modern slavery

MPs and experts in the procurement of personal protective equipment have said human rights must not be “trampled” in the rush to secure PPE for frontline workers via global supply chains.

The calls come after a Guardian investigation found evidence that the British government had sourced PPE from factories in China where hundreds of North Korean women have been secretly working in conditions of modern slavery.

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Protests erupt in Brazil after black man dies after being beaten outside supermarket

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João Alberto Silveira Freitas was allegedly attacked by security guards at a Carrefour store in Porto Alegre

A black man who died after being beaten by supermarket security guards in the city of Porto Alegre on the eve of Black Consciousness Day has sparked outrage across Brazil after videos of the incident circulated on social media.

Footage showed João Alberto Silveira Freitas being punched in the face just outside the doors of a Carrefour supermarket, late on Thursday. Other clips showed Freitas’ being kneeled on.

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Violence erupts in Brazil after a black man is beaten to death outside supermarket – video

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A black man has died after being beaten by supermarket security guards in the city of Porto Alegre on the eve of Black Consciousness Day. Videos of the incident circulated on social media and have sparked outrage and protests across Brazil, with people entering Carrefour supermarkets and demanding justice for Freitas

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Donald Trump Jr says he will pass time in Covid isolation by cleaning his guns

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President’s eldest son, who tested positive for coronavirus, made remark in Instagram video

Donald Trump Jr, the president’s son who has tested positive for the coronavirus, has said he will pass the time in isolation battling with the virus by cleaning his collection of guns.

Trump Jr is now the fourth member of the Trump family to have become infected with Covid. The president, the first lady and their son, Barron, have recovered from the virus, as has Trump Jr’s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle.

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