Category Archives: World News

The new centre of dissent: Britain becomes hub for Hong Kong activists

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Longstanding cultural ties and a newly welcoming government have led to prominent exiles choosing London as their base

The UK has become an international hub for Hong Kong dissidents as China’s harsh new security law leads to an exodus of pro-democracy politicians, campaigners and protesters, who now face jail terms for their activism.

Longstanding cultural ties, a newly welcoming government and Covid-era travel restrictions that have in effect closed off other potential destinations, such as Canada and Australia, have boosted the number of new arrivals to Britain.

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Robots and magnetic soap: scientists rethink oil spill clean-ups

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Incidents such as tanker stranding in Mauritius stress need for quick and effective solutions

Special sponges, magnetic soap and autonomous robots are among the latest wave of inventions aimed at tackling oil spills.

Incidents such as the tanker stranding in Mauritius in August can devastate the environment and threaten communities who rely on the sea or tourism for their livelihoods. They often take months or years to clean up.

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Most countries failing women and girls with Covid response, UN finds

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Global gender tracker assesses how governments address violence, strengthen women’s economic security and support unpaid caring

Most countries are failing to adequately protect women and girls during the fallout from Covid-19, according to a new UN database that tracks government responses to the pandemic.

The global gender tracker has looked at how 206 countries and territories address violence against women and girls, support unpaid care workers and strengthen women’s economic security.

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Breonna Taylor: Kentucky attorney general agrees to release grand jury recordings

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Juror had sued to release transcripts, saying ‘absolute truth of how this matter was handled’ should be published

Kentucky’s attorney general has said he will release a recording of the grand jury proceedings in the Breonna Taylor case, after a judge ordered they be filed in court by noon on Wednesday. It follows an anonymous juror suing for them to be made public.

Attorney general, Daniel Cameron, said in a statement: “The Grand Jury is meant to be a secretive body. It’s apparent that the public interest in this case isn’t going to allow that to happen.”

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New Zealand must match its Covid ‘in this together’ rhetoric with action on basic services | Max Harris

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If the country is to honour the pandemic’s spirit of collective solidarity there must be a genuine commitment to healthcare and education

New Zealand’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic has been a master-class in inclusive communication. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described the country as a “team of six million”. The top public health official, Ashley Bloomfield, said: “The virus is the problem, not people ... people are the solution”.

But the policies arising out of the pandemic, especially in the run-up to New Zealand’s election on 17 October, have not always been as inclusive as the communication. There’s a mismatch between universalist rhetoric in the pandemic response, and policy offerings that seem to give up on universalism in public services.

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Protests flare in Papua as students demand independence referendum

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Police fire shots as crowds of demonstrators demand a vote on secession from Indonesia

Unrest has flared in the restive Indonesian region of Papua with police firing shots during a protest by hundreds of university students in the provincial capital, Jayapura.

The group was demonstrating against plans to extend a special autonomy law that protestors say has not done enough to help people in one of the country’s poorest regions.

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One million coronavirus deaths: how did we get here?

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Milestone is known toll of months of Covid pandemic that has changed everything, from power balances to everyday life

Though an inevitable milestone for months, its arrival is still breathtaking.

Deaths from Covid-19 exceeded 1 million people on Tuesday, according to a Johns Hopkins University database, the known toll of nine relentless months of a pandemic that has changed everything, from global balances of power to the mundane aspects of daily life.

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Global coronavirus deaths pass 1m with no sign rate is slowing

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Johns Hopkins University data points to rises in countries that seemed to have slowed spread

The number of people who have died from Covid-19 has exceeded 1 million, according to a tally of cases maintained by Johns Hopkins University, with no sign the global death rate is slowing and infections on the rise again in countries that were thought to be controlling their outbreaks months ago.

The milestone was reached early on Tuesday morning UK time, nine months since authorities in China first announced the detection of a cluster of pneumonia cases with an unknown cause in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. The first recorded death, that of a 61-year-old man in a hospital in the city, came 12 days later.

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Demoralised but defiant, Hong Kong’s spirit of resistance endures

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Security law has largely stamped out anti-government protests, but the opposition is finding new ways to fight

Tony Chung spends his days in fear and solitude. For the 19-year-old activist, who became the first political figure to be arrested under Hong Kong’s national security law, the spectre of prison looms large.

Chung was arrested in late July with three other former members of the pro-independence group Studentlocalism – which he founded at the age of 15 – on suspicion of inciting secession under the law.

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Salty ponds may be under Mars’ icy surface, raising prospect of Martian life

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Italian scientists provide further evidence of underground lake and smaller bodies of water in study

A network of salty ponds may be gurgling beneath Mars’ south pole alongside a large underground lake, raising the prospect of tiny, swimming Martian life.

Italian scientists reported their findings Monday, two years after identifying what they believed to be a large buried lake. They widened their coverage area by a couple hundred miles, using even more data from a radar sounder on the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter.

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Democrats on the attack after Trump tax return revelations – live

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Trump said back in 2011 that even low-income Americans should have to pay some taxes and that he pays “a lot of tax,” a new CNN report reveals.

The tax information obtained by the New York Times indicates Trump paid only $750 in federal income taxes the year that he won the presidency.

Related: Trump reels from taxes bombshell as he gets set for crunch debate with Biden

Florida police have released body camera footage from officers’ interaction with Brad Parscale, the president’s former campaign manager who was involuntarily hospitalized yesterday.

In the video, Parscale’s wife, Candice, can be heard saying he brandished a gun and has multiple firearms in the home.

New: Police just released body camera footage of the incident involving Brad Parscale https://t.co/QBpA7jIjEg

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Hole discovered in hull of Baltic ferry that sank killing 852

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Sweden, Finland and Estonia to jointly assess new information on 1994 sinking of MS Estonia

Nordic leaders have announced that they will examine evidence from a new television documentary that could shatter the official explanation of how 852 people died in a 1994 ferry sinking in the Baltic Sea.

The makers of the five-part documentary series, which was released for streaming on Monday, claimed to have found a hitherto unrecorded four-metre hole in the hull of the MS Estonia.

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Trump reels from taxes bombshell as he gets set for crunch debate with Biden

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  • President under pressure from New York Times revelations
  • First TV head-to-head takes place in Cleveland on Tuesday

Donald Trump heads into the first US presidential debate against Joe Biden on Tuesday night trailing in opinion polls and now reeling from dramatic newspaper revelations detailing his chronic financial losses and years of tax avoidance.

Related: Democrats on the attack after Trump tax return revelations – live

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Boost for HSBC as major Chinese investor Ping An increases stake

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Move halts slump in share price after money-laundering claims and US-China spat

HSBC has received a much-needed vote of confidence from its largest investor after China’s Ping An Asset Management increased its stake in the embattled bank.

The move comes after the lender was caught in the middle of rising diplomatic tensions between Washington and Beijing and as it attracts fresh criticism for its money-laundering compliance procedures.

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Dozens killed as Armenian and Azerbaijani forces clash for second day

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Fighting prompts international calls for immediate ceasefire in dispute over breakaway region

Dozens of soldiers have been killed in the second day of clashes between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces over a disputed south Caucasus region, with international calls mounting for an immediate ceasefire.

Civilians have also been killed and are said to be among the hundreds wounded in the fiercest clashes since 2016 in an area that provides crucial transit routes for gas and oil to the international market.

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Covid-19 tests that give results in minutes to be rolled out across world

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Global initiative will supply 120m rapid antigen tests to low- and middle-income countries

Tests for Covid-19 that show on-the-spot results in 15 to 30 minutes are about to be rolled out across the world, potentially saving many thousands of lives and slowing the pandemic in both poor and rich countries.

In a triumph for a global initiative to get vital drugs and vaccines to fight the virus, 120m rapid antigen tests from two companies will be supplied to low- and middle-income countries for $5 (£3.90) each or even less.

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Former Elite model agency boss investigated over rape allegations

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French prosecutors look into complaints from former BBC journalist and three ex-models

French prosecutors have opened an investigation into Gerald Marie, the former European boss of the Elite model agency, over allegations of rape, including of a minor.

It follows a complaint against Marie, the ex-husband of the supermodel Linda Evangelista, from a former BBC journalist and claims of abuse by three ex-models, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.

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France divided over calls for Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine to be reburied in Panthéon

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Petition says the poets, who were lovers as young men, were ‘the French Oscar Wildes’ and deserve to rest in the mausoleum

France’s cultural elite are split over whether the remains of two of the country’s greatest poets, Arthur Rimbaud and his lover Paul Verlaine, should be dug up and re-interred in the Panthéon in Paris.

The secular mausoleum is home to French greats including Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Émile Zola, Alexandre Dumas and Marie Curie. Now a petition signed by more than 5,000 people, including culture minister Roselyne Bachelot and a host of her predecessors, is calling on president Emmanuel Macron to allow Rimbaud and Verlaine to join them.

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Trump ‘paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017’ – video report

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A New York Times report into Donald Trump's tax records has revealed he paid just $750 in federal income tax in his first year as president. Trump, who in 2016 suggested reports of tax avoidance showed he was 'smart', denounced the findings as 'completely fake news'. The New York Times said that of the 18 years its reporters examined, Trump had paid no income tax at all in 11 of them.

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