Category Archives: World News

Salud! Barcelona’s tiny local bodegas saved for posterity

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Protection move widely welcomed, but many traditional bars are struggling to pay their rents, especially under lockdown

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Barcelona council has come to the rescue of some of the city’s most emblematic and best-loved bars by adding them to the list of protected sites and buildings. However, thanks to Covid-19 restrictions, you won’t be able to get a drink in any of them for at least the next few weeks.

The city has added 11 bodegas to the list of 220 shops that are considered part of the city’s cultural heritage. The move has been widely welcomed, though it comes too late to save many small businesses, from toy and book shops to grocery and furniture stores, that were part of the fabric and essence of the city but were forced out by soaring rents. In most cases they have been replaced by chain stores.

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PM who won Nobel peace prize takes Ethiopia to brink of civil war

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Abiy Ahmed made his name as a reformer – but was there always an authoritarian waiting to come out?

The beginning of the week saw Abiy Ahmed, the prime minister of Ethiopia, in one role: a forward-looking statesman, with a vision of peace and prosperity, and a tailored suit. The 44-year-old leader was at Addis Ababa’s recently modernised airport to welcome General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, effective leader of neighbouring Sudan for a two-day visit including trade discussions and tours of the Ethiopian capital’s skyscrapers, a seedling nursery and an industrial park.

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Bolivia’s leftwing president-elect: ‘We have reclaimed democracy’

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Luis Arce to take power after landslide win for Movement for Socialism, but experts predict bumpy road ahead

Bolivia’s new president, Luis Arce, has vowed to rebuild his country’s battered economy, revive ties with leftwing neighbours and serve one term only, as he prepared to take office after October’s landslide election.

Speaking to the Guardian before his inauguration on Sunday, the UK-educated economist was cautious about characterising his victory as proof that Latin America’s leftwing “pink tide” of the early 2000s was bouncing back after a period of rightwing dominance. Since 2018 the left has returned to power in Mexico and Argentina, while a leftwing economist is well placed to win Ecuador’s presidential election in February.

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Democrats left to sift through aftermath of ‘blue wave’ that never crested

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Once united over shared priority of removing Trump from office, Democrats now anxious and uncertain after unexpected losses

Joe Biden secured a historic presidential victory on Saturday yet some Democrats have spent the tense days since the election engulfed in recriminations, finger-pointing and infighting as they sift through the aftermath of expectations of a “blue wave” that never crested.

Long-simmering tensions between moderate Democrats who represent conservative districts and progressives who have massive online followings erupted into public view, after a series of unexpected losses in parts of the country where the president proved surprisingly resilient.

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Mary Trump on the end of Uncle Donald: all he has now is breaking things

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The president will be having ‘meltdowns upon meltdowns’, according to his niece, who sees poetic justice in the lies and cheating now coming back to bite him

This is how the most colossal and fragile ego on the planet deals with losing the US election: he does not deal with it at all.

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With humility and empathy, Biden speech seeks to make America sane again | David Smith’s sketch

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Sketch: In his victory speech, the president-elect proved himself the right person at the right time for an ailing country

Joe Biden ran jauntily on to the stage, wearing a black face mask but suddenly looking several years younger. Looking, in fact, like millions of Americans felt, with burdens to bear but a spring in his step.

The new US president-elect offered a Saturday night speech that did not brag or name call, did not demonise immigrants and people of colour, did not send TV networks and social media into meltdown and did not murder the English language.

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Mexico’s president won’t congratulate Biden on election win until legal challenges over

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Andrés Manuel López Obrador will wait for courts to rule on Trump lawsuits in bid to avoid friction

Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, said on Saturday he would not congratulate a winner of the US presidential election until legal challenges are concluded, in an apparent bid to avoid friction with Washington during the transition.

Democrat Joe Biden won the election on Saturday after a victory in the battleground state of Pennsylvania put him over the threshold of 270 electoral college votes.

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US election live: Joe Biden wins and says ‘It’s time for America to unite’

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Georgia’s Secretary of State has tweeted that that county of Fulton had “discovered an issue involving reporting from their work” on Friday.

Brad Raffensperger said officials will rescan the “work”, which I assume he means ballots, although the tweet is fairly vague.

Fulton has discovered an issue involving reporting from their work on Fri. Officials are at State Farm Arena to rescan that work. I have a monitor & investigators onsite. Also sent Dep. SOS as well to oversee the process to make sure to secure the vote and protect all legal votes

The Guardian’s Libby Brooks reports from Glasgow:

Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon has congratulated President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris following the US Presidential election.

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Who will fill Kamala Harris’s Senate seat in California?

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The state’s governor will appoint a replacement for Harris now she has been elected vice-president. Who’s in the frame?

With Kamala Harris officially headed to the White House, a fresh political battle in her home state of California looms: who will fill her US Senate seat?

Related: US election live: Joe Biden wins and says 'It’s time for America to unite'

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First, the world mocked the chaos, then the congratulations flowed in

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After the tortuous last few days, Joe Biden’s election has been welcomed by leaders keen to renew relations with the US

Fiji’s prime minister got in first, gambling on congratulating Joe Biden before the presidential election had been called, slipping in a plea for action on climate change.

But once the result was official, congratulations came pouring in from around the world. Donald Trump’s allies, critics and reluctant partners had all been following the vote counting, weighing up the impact of a radical change of direction expected from Washington under Biden.

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Biden’s win marks the end of Trump’s war on democracy and truth

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Americans across the country took to the streets to celebrate the end of Trump’s presidency while triumph likely to be welcomed by international allies

Joe Biden has been elected the 46th US president, signalling a return to political norms in America after four years of raucous populism and administrative turmoil under Donald Trump.

Related: Ever resilient, Joe Biden finally grasps his chance to lead America

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United Arab Emirates to relax Islamic laws on personal freedoms

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Country to end lenient punishments for ‘honour’ killings and decriminalise alcohol amid reforms

The United Arab Emirates has ended lenient punishments for so-called “honour” killings, lifted a ban on unmarried couples living together and decriminalised alcohol, in reforms to personal laws.

Foreigners living in the Gulf state will also be able to follow their home country’s laws on divorce and inheritance, rather than using UAE legislation based on Islamic religious law, government-linked media reported.

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UAE decriminalises alcohol and lifts ban on unmarried couples living together

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Country also ends lenient punishments for ‘honour’ killings as part of reforms

The United Arab Emirates has ended lenient punishments for so-called “honour” killings, lifted a ban on unmarried couples living together and decriminalised alcohol, in reforms to personal laws.

Foreigners living in the Gulf state will also be able to follow their home country’s laws on divorce and inheritance, rather than using UAE legislation based on Islamic religious law, government-linked media reported.

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‘I can’t stop crying’: joyful celebrations erupt in US as Joe Biden beats Trump

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Expressions of joy and happiness break out across America after Pennsylvania went to Biden, handing him the presidency

As news broke that Joe Biden had defeated Donald Trump in the race for the White House, cities across the US saw wild celebrations from supporters of the Democratic nominee for president.

Related: US election live: Joe Biden wins and says 'It’s time for America to unite'

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Donald Trump refuses to concede defeat as recriminations begin

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  • Biden declared winner but president says: ‘This is far from over’
  • Legal challenges threatened but experts doubt they will succeed
  • Joe Biden wins – live updates

Donald Trump refused to formally concede the US election on Saturday, even as senior Republicans began to distance themselves from him, and as recriminations were reported among aides to a man doomed to go down as an impeached, one-term president.

Before the race was called, Trump continued to tweet his defiance and to attract censure for making baseless claims about voter fraud and his supposed victory. He also went to his course in Virginia to play golf. While he played, a defiant statement was issued in his name.

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What will President Biden’s United States look like to the rest of the world? | Timothy Garton Ash

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The future of a diminished superpower now lies in being part of a wider network of democracies

What is the best the world can now hope for from the United States under President Joe Biden, now that the election has been called for him? My answer: that the US will be a leading country in a post-hegemonic network of democracies.

Yes, that’s a, not the leading country. Quite a contrast to the beginning of this century, when the “hyperpower” US seemed to bestride the globe like a colossus. The downsizing has two causes: the US’s decline, and others’ rise. Even if Biden had won a landslide victory and the Democrats controlled the Senate, the United States’ power in the world would be much diminished. President Donald Trump has done untold damage to its international reputation. His disastrous record on handling Covid confirmed a widespread sense of a society with deep structural problems, from healthcare, race and infrastructure to media-fuelled hyper-polarisation and a dysfunctional political system.

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Ethiopian government moves to replace leadership of Tigray region

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Dispute between former coalition partners has led to clashes and airstrikes in the northern area

Ethiopia has further intensified the pressure on the country’s restive northern Tigray region by moving to replace the local leadership with a new centrally imposed administration.

The move comes amid clashes between Tigrayan and national military forces that have brought Africa’s second most populous nation to the brink of what analysts say could be a long drawn-out and bloody civil war.

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Biden styled himself as the antithesis to bare-knuckled Trumpism – and won

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The veteran Democrat ran a slow and steady campaign in stark contrast to the sitting president

Joe Biden had characterized his campaign for the White House as a “battle for the soul of the nation” against Donald Trump, a president he said threatened the very foundation of American democracy.

Related: Joe Biden beats Donald Trump to win 2020 US election – live updates

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Ever resilient, Joe Biden finally grasps his chance to lead America

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After a career pocked by adversity, the next challenge for the ‘scrappy kid from Scranton’ is to heal a fractured nation

At a moment of extraordinary tumult and pain, America has elected a man haunted by grief, with a seemingly boundless capacity for resilience, to be the country’s next president.

Joe Biden sought the presidency twice before serving as vice-president for eight years in the Obama administration, a role that might have been the capstone of his decades in public life.

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