Several rockets hit residential areas of the Afghan capital in the early rush hour on Saturday, killing at least three civilians and wounding a dozen more, police officials said. The explosions, close to the diplomatic quarter, set embassies' warning sirens blaring two days before a major donor conference for Afghanistan in Geneva
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More than a second gentleman: why Doug Emhoff is Kamala Harris’ secret weapon | Hadley Freeman
I’m not obsessed with Doug, but he could probably be my pub quiz subject
There is much to say about Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s historic win, but I’d like to focus on a man called Doug. Doug Emhoff is a lawyer and – more relevantly to your interests and mine – Harris’s husband, and unless you are part of the #DougHive, Doug’s devoted (and, one suspects, mainly female) fans, it’s likely you don’t know much about him.
This in itself is astonishing, given that women are generally discussed through the prism of their personal lives. I didn’t realise until last month that the young adults with whom Harris is occasionally photographed are not, as I’d assumed, her children, but rather Doug’s children and her stepchildren. Having children, or not, once defined a woman’s public image, as Theresa May could tell you, but I don’t recall a single discussion of Harris’s parental status during this campaign. Before we all celebrate this too ecstatically, Harris remains an anomaly; just try to find a single article about Amy Coney Barrett that doesn’t mention how many kids she has, and then imply that this has some bearing on her fitness for the supreme court. That Harris has largely swerved this is mainly down to her, but also down to Doug. (I know newspaper style dictates I should refer to him as Emhoff, but, really, he is such a Doug.)
Continue reading...Barack Obama on the moment he won the presidency – exclusive extract
In this excerpt from A Promised Land, the former president remembers the anxious run-up to the 2008 election. Scroll down to hear a clip of him reading from it
More than anything campaign-related, it was news out of Hawaii that tempered my mood in October’s waning days. My sister Maya called, saying the doctors didn’t think Toot [Obama’s grandmother] would last much longer, perhaps no more than a week. She was now confined to a rented hospital bed in the living room of her apartment, under the care of a hospice nurse and on palliative drugs. Although she had startled my sister with a sudden burst of lucidity the previous evening, asking for the latest campaign news along with a glass of wine and a cigarette, she was now slipping in and out of consciousness.
And so, 12 days before the election, I made a 36-hour trip to Honolulu to say goodbye. Maya was waiting for me when I arrived at Toot’s apartment; I saw that she had been sitting on the couch with a couple of shoeboxes of old photographs and letters. “I thought you might want to take some back with you,” she said. I picked up a few photos from the coffee table. My grandparents and my eight-year-old mother, laughing in a grassy field at Yosemite. Me at the age of four or five, riding on Gramps’s shoulders as waves splashed around us. The four of us with Maya, still a toddler, smiling in front of a Christmas tree.
Continue reading...Barack Obama reads an excerpt from his memoir – audio
The former US president recalls the excitement of the 2008 night he was elected, in a passage from A Promised Land
Continue reading...Covid vaccine technology pioneer: ‘I never doubted it would work’
Katalin Karikó’s mRNA research helped pave way for Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna’s successful work
The Hungarian-born biochemist who helped pioneer the research behind the mRNA technology used in the two Covid-19 vaccines showing positive results believes it was always a no-brainer.
“I never doubted it would work,” Katalin Karikó told the Guardian. “I had seen the data from animal studies, and I was expecting it. I always wished that I would live long enough to see something that I’ve worked on be approved.”
Continue reading...In Afghanistan, fears of assassination overshadow hopes of peace
Human rights workers, moderate religious scholars and civil society activists are being killed in wave of targeted attacks
When he wasn’t chasing stories, Elyas Dayee loved tending to his flowers, cooking with his wife and playing with his toddler daughter, the only survivor of triplets, now bereft that her father has stopped coming home, and too young to understand why.
Last week, the 34-year-old became the latest Afghan killed in a nationwide campaign of targeted killings, when a bomb twisted his car into a lethal pile of metal and glass as he drove to work in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province.
Continue reading...Italian children take lessons outside school in protest at Covid closures
Movement began with 12-year-old Anita Iacovelli in Turin, who says her message is schools are safe
Temperatures have dropped in recent days in the northern Italian city of Turin, but that hasn’t prevented Anita Iacovelli from persevering in her protest against the closure of her school.
Every day since 6 November, when schools across the city and the wider Piedmont region were closed due to escalating coronavirus infections, the 12-year-old, wearing a hat, gloves and face mask, has sat outside Italo Calvino school and continued with her lessons remotely on a tablet computer. Behind her is a handwritten poster that reads “Learning at school is our right”.
Continue reading...Respect and value girls – they can transform Africa’s security and prosperity | Graça Machel
Investment in girls brings socioeconomic benefits, but too many countries lack the political will to bring about equality of opportunity
By 2050, Africa will be home to around half a billion girls and young women. If respected and treated as equals, they have the potential to transform the continent’s security and prosperity. This matters because every penny invested in girls’ education, healthcare and social protection benefits society many times over, while failure to invest in girls results in monumental socioeconomic losses.
Child marriage alone has resulted in human capital and revenue losses equivalent to three times the entire flow of international aid into the continent. As a mother and grandmother, it weighs heavily on me to see millions of girls robbed of their futures and the potential of our continent diminished.
Continue reading...African governments failing girls on equality, report finds
Girls are made to marry too young, excluded from healthcare and are sexually exploited, says African Child Policy Forum
Girls in Africa are being “condemned to a lifetime of discrimination and inequality” due to government failures, according to new data.
Ranking 52 countries in the continent according to how “girl-friendly” they are, a report published on Friday by advocacy group African Child Policy Forum (ACPF) found they were routinely denied education; made to marry too young; endured sexual, physical and emotional abuse at home, work and school; were excluded from healthcare; and were unable to own or inherit property.
Continue reading...US and Taiwan sign five-year agreement on health, tech and security
Countries emphasise potential for cooperation and future partnerships, which Beijing opposes
Taiwan and the United States have held their first high-level meetings under a new economic dialogue, inking a five-year agreement and pledging future cooperation on health, tech, and security.
The talks, held amid a contentious US presidential transition period and high regional tensions with China, did not advance Taiwan’s hopes for a trade deal with US, despite the two countries growing closer under Donald Trump and his pushback on Beijing.
Continue reading...Libya interior minister campaigns to lead country as fragile peace holds
Fathi Bashagha looks to France for support ahead of elections
Libya’s interior minister has completed a three-day charm offensive in France, as a tentative ceasefire in the war-torn country holds and diplomatic jostling for its leadership roles intensifies.
Fathi Bashagha, who hopes to become Libya’s interim prime minister, is regarded by the United Arab Emirates and forces in the east of Libya as under the influence of both the Muslim Brotherhood and Turkey, a country with which France is increasingly in conflict, not only in Libya but across the Middle East.
Continue reading...Coronavirus live news: Brazil passes 6m cases as South Australia reports new case
Donald Trump Jr tests positive for Covid; South Australia makes pizza worker scapegoat for failures; German doctor arrested on suspicion of killing two Covid patients. Follow latest updates
via Reuters
Mexico’s confirmed coronavirus death toll has risen to 100,823, according the the country’s health ministry.
In case you missed it earlier:
In Australia, New South Wales has reached two weeks – one complete infection cycle – without a single locally transmitted coronavirus case, AAP reports.
Coronavirus live news: UK records 341 more deaths; Russia reports record new cases and deaths
Donald Trump Jr tests positive for Covid; South Australia lockdown to end at midnight on Saturday; global cases pass 57.5m. Follow latest updates
- Donald Trump Jr tests positive for coronavirus
- US records highest number of daily coronavirus deaths since May
- NHS could start using vaccine next month, says Hancock
- Trials to begin in UK for antibody cocktail drug treatment
- See all our coronavirus coverage
The number of Covid-19 cases in the United States was on track to surpass 12 million on Saturday, just days ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday that health experts have warned could fuel the surging spread of infection around the country.
The milestone marks a worsening of the country’s Covid-19 epidemic, which has claimed a quarter of a million lives across America, more than in any other nation.
Turkey on Saturday reported its highest daily number of new coronavirus patients since the outbreak started.
Figures from the health ministry showed that 5,532 people had been diagnosed with Covid-19 symptoms in the previous 24 hours.
Continue reading...Trump makes futile last stand to overturn results as Georgia certifies Biden win
President met with Michigan’s Republican leaders at White House in desperate bid to subvert democracy
Donald Trump was on Friday making a futile but dangerous last stand, without precedent in modern American history, to overturn the result of the presidential election so he can remain in power.
Even as Joe Biden’s victory in the state of Georgia was confirmed, the president met with Republican leaders from Michigan at the White House in an increasingly desperate bid to subvert democracy after a series of courtroom defeats over allegations of voter fraud.
Continue reading...Ivanka Trump calls New York fraud inquiries ‘harassment’
Authorities reportedly looking at consulting fees that may have gone to president’s eldest daughter
Authorities conducting fraud investigations into Donald Trump and his businesses are reportedly looking at consulting fees that may have gone to his daughter Ivanka Trump, prompting her to accuse them of “harassment”.
The New York Times said there were twin New York investigations, one criminal and one civil.
Continue reading...Brazil accused of holding up UN biodiversity talks
Objection to virtual meetings threatens next year’s conference in China, say environmental campaigners
Brazil has been accused of obstructing global efforts to protect nature following a row over the use of virtual meeting technology to overcome Covid-19 restrictions.
The dispute threatens a key United Nations conference in Kunming, China, next year, which aims to set new targets to protect the Earth’s natural life support systems.
Continue reading...Microplastic pollution found near summit of Mount Everest
Humans now known to have polluted Earth from deepest ocean to highest peak
Microplastic pollution has been discovered in snow close to the peak of Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain. With plastic debris revealed in 2018 at the deepest point on Earth, the Mariana Trench, it is now clear that humanity’s litter has polluted the entire planet.
The tiny plastic fibres were found within a few hundred metres of the top of the 8,850-metre mountain, at a spot known as the balcony. Microplastics were found in all the snow samples collected from 11 locations on Everest, ranging from 5,300 metres to 8,440 metres high.
Continue reading...Brexit deal close to being finalised, EU ambassadors told
Most key issues largely agreed, but there is still a danger of no deal by accident, envoys hear
A trade and security agreement with Britain is close to being finalised but the risk remains of an accidental no-deal Brexit in six weeks, with gaps on the contentious issues “slowly shrinking”, EU ambassadors have been told.
With Michel Barnier in self-isolation after an EU negotiator tested positive for coronavirus, the talks will be conducted almost entirely online over the next few days.
Continue reading...‘What he was doing was in plain sight’: more ex-models accuse Gérald Marie of sexual assault
Exclusive: Another seven women come forward with allegations about the former Elite boss
Seven more women have come forward to accuse the former model agency boss Gérald Marie of sexual misconduct, adding to mounting allegations that have drawn parallels with the disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.
Last month a Guardian investigation revealed that nine women had made sexual misconduct allegations against Marie, who for three decades was one of the most powerful men in the fashion industry.
Continue reading...Ethiopia fighting could drive 200,000 to Sudan in coming months, says UN
Officials warn that number of refugees crossing border already surpassing preparations
Violence in northern Ethiopia will probably drive 200,000 people into neighbouring Sudan over the coming months, UN agencies have warned, where food, shelter and medicine are urgently needed.
The number of refugees streaming across the border has already surpassed agency preparations by 11,000 people, a UN refugee agency official said.
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