With infection numbers rising, Europe is relying on pandemic measures that have scarcely changed since the Black Death in the 14th century
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Trump interrupts Biden’s tribute to late son to raise unfounded accusations – video
Joe Biden was interrupted while paying tribute to his son Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015, during the first presidential debate against Donald Trump.
The former vice-president brought up Beau, the former attorney general of Delaware who served in the army, to highlight Trump’s reported criticism of military members as 'losers'. The president cut in and turned the exchange into an attack on the business dealings of Biden’s other son, Hunter, in Ukraine. Despite a Senate investigation, there was no evidence of any wrongdoing by Biden, and indeed Trump was impeached for the way in which he was pushing government officials in Kiev to investigate the Biden family.
The president went on to remind viewers of Hunter Biden’s past drug use and falsely accused him of being dishonourably discharged from the military. Joe Biden, looking directly into the camera, explained that like many Americans, his son had struggled with addiction
- Donald Trump plunges debate into chaos as he repeatedly talks over Joe Biden
- A mess of Trump's making: key takeaways from the first presidential debate
How Covid sowed the seeds of food security in Johannesburg
During South Africa’s strict lockdown, groups of activists decided to distribute parcels of vegetables as wells as seedlings and gardening materials as well as to hundreds of vulnerable households
Photographs by Miora Rajaonary
Forget notions of coronavirus as a great equaliser – women are yet again the hardest hit | Helen Pankhurst
Just like every emergency, Covid-19 is racist, ageist, classist and sexist. The world response to the pandemic must reflect this
In the early days of coronavirus, there was a view that a global pandemic would act as a great equaliser. “A virus doesn’t discriminate,” they said. “We’re all in this together.” It didn’t take long for such a credulous perspective to vanish.
Just like every emergency, every disaster, Covid-19 absolutely does discriminate. It’s ageist, it’s racist, it’s classist and it’s worst of all for those with pre-existing health conditions or disabilities.
Continue reading...Oregon’s firefighting prisoners – in pictures
Prisoners in Oregon have been helping professional firefighters combat the state’s biggest wildfires in a century. They are part of a scheme that for seven decades has aimed to rehabilitate inmates by teaching them a trade, while providing extra boots on the ground during intense wildfire seasons
Continue reading...Coronavirus live news: 60m Indians may have contracted Covid; Disney announces mass layoffs
India’s pandemic agency says cases may be ten times official figure; New York introduces face mask fines as positivity rates climb; Boris Johnson apologises for getting north-east England lockdown rules wrong. Follow the latest updates
- Global coronavirus deaths pass 1m with no sign rate is slowing
- Walt Disney sheds 28,000 jobs at theme parks as pandemic bites
- Interactive: how did we get to one million deaths?
- France struggles to push Covid app as neighbours race ahead
- See all our coronavirus coverage
The revered living goddess is not leaving her temple this year, AP reports:
The old palace courtyard packed with hundreds of thousands of people each year during the Indrajatra festival is deserted, the temples are locked, and all public celebrations are banned by the government to curb the coronavirus.
North Korea has discovered “faults” in its anti-coronavirus measures, state media said on Wednesday, after an outcry in South Korea over a citizen who North Korean soldiers killed near their maritime border where tight virus controls are in force.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offered a rare apology for the killing of the South Korean fisheries officer last week in waters off the west coast of the peninsula.
Continue reading...Coronavirus live news: Italian senate suspended as lawmakers test positive; Covid travel slump could cost 46m jobs
Vaccine trial shows ‘robust’ immune response; warning over global impact of travel collapse; Belgium death toll exceeds 10,000
- Neanderthal genes increase risk of serious Covid-19, study claims
- World Bank announces $12bn plan for vaccines for poor countries
- ‘Only time will tell’: Russia places huge bet on Covid vaccine
- Germans embrace fresh air to tackle coronavirus
- Israel bans mass protests as Covid lockdown tightens
Turkey’s health minister appeared to acknowledge that the government does not publish the full number of daily positive Covid-19 cases but only those who are symptomatic, while refuting a claim that the case number had been 19 times the official figures.
The official number of daily coronavirus cases in Turkey has begun to decline in recent days after rising over the past several weeks. Politicians and medics have expressed doubt over the government’s numbers, saying the number of coronavirus cases are actually much higher.
Moderna said it will not be ready to apply for emergency approval for its potential Covid-19 vaccine before the US presidential election in November, the Financial Times has reported.
The company’s chief executive officer, Stéphane Bancel, told FT that he did not expect to have full approval to distribute the drug to all sections of the US population until next spring.
Continue reading...Panama’s trans community failed by gendered lockdown measures – report
LSE finds country’s sex-segregated distancing rules may have reproduced inequalities and injustices for trans people
Each day when Pau González wakes and looks at his phone, he feels as if he is running a call centre. As the founder of the activist group Hombres Trans Panama, he has been inundated by members of the transgender community seeking advice on how to navigate Panama’s sex-segregated social distancing laws. Some callers have been cautioned or abused by police. Others report feeling suicidal and scared to go out.
In April, Panama announced one of the most aggressive Covid-19 policies in Latin America – dictated which days its citizens could go out according to their sex as stated on their national identification cards.
Continue reading...How HSBC got caught in a geopolitical storm over Hong Kong security law
Bank’s future remains uncertain as it finds itself under pressure from Beijing and Washington
HSBC has been a fixture of the Hong Kong economy for more than a century. However, its origins as a financial bridge between Asia and the west have placed it in the centre of a modern day geopolitical storm. Facing pressure to choose sides as Hong Kong is convulsed by the new security law imposed by Beijing and Donald Trump pursues a trade war with China, HSBC is in danger of finding itself without friends in either direction.
Headquartered in London, but dependent on Hong Kong and China for profits, HSBC has been affected by tensions between Washington and Beijing – and shareholder concern over its controversial acceptance of an authoritarian crackdown in its key market.
Continue reading...New Zealand firms switch to using nation’s Māori name, Aotearoa
Vodafone and communications agency DDB respond after calls on companies to use the reo term
One of New Zealand’s biggest telecommunications companies has heeded an exhortation to use the country’s original, Indigenous name of Aotearoa, joining others that have pledged to use more reo, the Māori language, or tikanga – protocols – in their daily business operations.
Earlier this week Vodafone – which has about 2,000 New Zealand employees – confirmed it had changed its banner at the top of users’ phones from “Vodafone NZ” to “VF Aotearoa”. The company gave short shrift to those on social media who complained about the change. Rival companies backed the move.
Continue reading...Protests and Covid leave Hong Kong stuck in recession
Political unrest hit tourism and retail, and coronavirus response has delayed recovery
Hong Kong’s economy was already in recession when the pandemic hit in January. Six months of running battles between pro-democracy campaigners and local government had deterred many of the visitors who fuel the lucrative tourism industry, while the threat of violence on the streets and closures of shops had sent retail sales down nearly a quarter on the previous year.
With much of Asia shut down by coronavirus restrictions during the winter months, there was little expectation of a recovery until the spring, when the level of infections fell to almost zero across mainland China and most of the rest of the region, and the measures could be eased.
Continue reading...Near-blind Ansell’s mole-rats detect magnetic cues with eyes, study shows
Research shows Zambian species with surgically removed eyes change nest-building habits but other behaviours remain intact
Near-blind, underground-burrowing, African Ansell’s mole-rats can sense magnetic fields with their eyes, a study has found.
Native to Zambia, the animals have eyes that span just 1.5mm in diameter, live in elaborate underground tunnel systems of up to 1.7 miles (2.8km) long and feed on plant tubers and roots.
Continue reading...More than 50 women in DRC allege abuse by WHO Ebola aid workers
Women say they were exploited by international workers in Democratic Republic of Congo
More than 50 women have accused aid workers from the World Health Organization and leading NGOs of sexual exploitation and abuse during efforts to fight Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In interviews, 51 women – many of whose accounts were backed up by aid agency drivers and local NGO workers – recounted multiple incidents of abuse, mainly by men who said they were international workers, during the 2018 to 2020 Ebola crisis.
Continue reading...World Bank announces $12bn plan for poor countries to buy Covid vaccines
Initiative aims to ensure low-income countries are not frozen out by rich nations
The World Bank has announced plans for a $12bn (£9.3bn) initiative that will allow poor countries to purchase Covid-19 vaccines to treat up to 2 billion people as soon as effective drugs become available.
In an attempt to ensure that low-income countries are not frozen out by wealthy nations, the organisation is asking its key rich-nation shareholders to back a scheme that will disburse cash over the next 12 to 18 months.
Continue reading...Ruler of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah al-Sabah, dies aged 91
Emir who mediated to prevent conflict between Qatar and Saudi Arabia will be succeeded by his brother
Kuwait’s emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, the architect of the nation’s modern foreign policy and one of the region’s most influential voices, has died at the age of 91.
The monarch died on Tuesday at the Mayo clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where he had been recovering after surgery in July. His body was being flown to Kuwait for burial.
Continue reading...What is QAnon and why is it so dangerous? – video explainer
Donald Trump has referred to QAnon followers as 'people who love our country' - while to the FBI considers them a potential domestic terror threat. The Guardian US technology reporter Julia Carrie Wong explains the roots - and rise - of QAnon, the unfounded conspiracy theory that emerged in the US in 2017, and is now spreading across the world
- The QAnon orphans: people who have lost loved ones to conspiracy theories
- 'Quite frankly terrifying': How the QAnon conspiracy theory is taking root in the UK
Coronavirus live news: one million deaths worldwide; White House Covid taskforce rift deepens
Global death toll passes one million; rift between US health officials coordinating response; New York test positivity rate climbs
- Global coronavirus deaths pass 1m with no sign rate is slowing
- Interactive: how did we get to one million deaths?
- Tests that give results in minutes to be rolled out across world
- UK coronavirus – latest updates
- See all our coronavirus coverage
Germany could face up to 19,200 new coronavirus infections per day by Christmas unless it finds new ways to slow down the spread of the virus during the cold season, chancellor Angela Merkel has warned ahead of a summit with state premiers today.
The country’s disease control agency recorded 2,089 new infections in the last 24 hours, but Merkel believes Germany could find itself in a similar situation to France or Spain by the end of the year.
The number of deaths involving Covid-19 registered in England and Wales has risen for the second week in a row.
A total of 139 deaths registered in the week ending 18 September mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).This is up from 99 deaths in the week to 11 September, and 78 deaths in the week to 4 September.
Continue reading...Amnesty to halt work in India due to government ‘witch-hunt’
Authorities froze bank accounts after criticism of government’s human rights record
Amnesty International has been forced to shut down operations in India and lay off all staff after the Indian government froze its bank accounts.
The Indian enforcement directorate, an agency that investigates economic crimes, froze the accounts of Amnesty’s Indian arm this month after the group published two reports highly critical of the government’s human rights record.
Continue reading...Global Microsoft outage brings down Teams, Office 365 and Outlook
Microsoft says a recent update has affected the processing of authentication requests, making cloud-based services inaccessible
Microsoft has said it is investigating an outage that brought down Microsoft’s cloud-based office services including the meetings software, Teams, worldwide.
Microsoft reported issues with authentication for its cloud services at around 9.25pm UTC, meaning people were having issues logging into the online services Teams, Outlook and Office.
Continue reading...‘Any focus on them is good’: can a new scheme help Delhi’s missing children?
With 17 children missing every day, the city’s police commissioner hopes a promise of fast-track promotion will inspire officers to reunite more families
New Delhi Police Commissioner SN Srivastava was particularly troubled over the 17 children who went missing in his city every day. So he decided to light a fire in the belly of his force and came up with a new approach.
If any officer could find 50 missing children in a year their promotion would be fast-tracked. It usually takes constables at least five years to be promoted to head constable, and meeting the target would dramatically speed that up.
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