Analysis of stories across six countries including UK found fewer than a fifth of experts quoted on the pandemic were women
Women’s voices have been “worryingly marginalised” in reporting of the coronavirus, partly due to the war-like framing of the pandemic, according to a report analysing stories across six countries.
Each woman’s voice in news coverage of the crisis is “drowned out” by at least three men, it said.
Continue reading...Israel announces plans for stricter lockdown; Paris to unveil tighter restrictions; Follow the latest updates
Israel is tightening its coronavirus lockdown after an alarming spike in new cases, the cabiney decided on Thursday morning.
Bejamin Netanyahu, prime minister, has voiced alarm that a surge in infections was pushing the nation to “the edge of the abyss”.
Rarely can there have been a more low-key beginning to the cricket season in Australia. It’s usually a time of optimism as spring blooms and sports grounds are transformed from hosting football codes of different types into cricket ovals.
But of course 2020 is different and, as Australia’s Megan Schutt explains here, it’s all a bit surreal knowing that the teams have to put on a big show despite the lack of ceremony or razzamatazz in the Covid-era.
Related: Surreal and a little bit scary: cricket returns to Australia in the Covid era | Megan Schutt
Continue reading...Daily deaths in Spain at highest level since early May; Portugal to extend restrictions; Netherlands hits record of 2,544 daily cases; 1,136 new infections in Poland
The French government may be pushing for people to download its Covid-19 contact-tracing app, but when asked whether he had done so, prime minister Jean Castex said he had not because he does not take the metro.
The app was launched at the start of June to much fanfare from the government, but three months later only 2.4 million people out of a 67 million population have downloaded it
Brazil has recorded 32,817 additional confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, and 831 deaths from the disease.
South America’s largest country has registered more than 4.6 million cases of the virus since the pandemic began, according to ministry data, ranking it as the third worst outbreak in the world after the US and India.
Continue reading...Rapper Famke Louise joined by Bizzy and others refusing to follow government advice
They are young, famous and refusing to abide by the coronavirus restrictions. A group of Dutch celebrities have triggered both a sizeable backlash and a national debate after breaking cover on social media with the hashtag #ikdoenietmeermee, (I no longer participate).
The central figure is the rapper and model Famke Louise, 21, who told her 1 million Instagram followers she was no longer willing to go along with the growing number of restrictions designed to slow the spread of the virus. “Only together can we regain control of the government,” she said. “I no longer participate. Free the people.”
Continue reading...Saudi Arabia’s interventions could result in seismic shift in region’s geopolitics
As the UAE and Bahrain prepared to sign a deal to normalise diplomatic relations with Israel this summer, Saudi Arabia – the regional heavyweight – was quietly urging them on.
For several months before the deals were signed at the White House, the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, had been laying out his rationale for a pact that would overturn regional policies towards a long-term foe.
Continue reading...Pacific nation has strong links to New Zealand, but languishes a day behind it as a result of the somewhat arbitrary international dateline
Some on Niue want to travel through time.
The lone Pacific island, one of the smallest nations on Earth, is considering jumping west across the international dateline, to come forward in time, almost a full day.
Continue reading...Water cannon and stun grenades used by riot squad after opposition denounce president’s secret ceremony as illegitimate
Riot police clashed with protesters in Minsk on Wednesday evening, using water cannon and stun grenades, hours after the inauguration of Alexander Lukashenko for another term as president.
Several thousand protesters, many carrying the red-and white opposition flag, took to the streets of the capital Minsk and other cities following a surprise announcement that Lukashenko had been sworn in for a sixth term in office following disputed elections in August.
Continue reading...PM says government will invest billions in housing, health and jobs, but dismissals from rival parties prompt election speculation
Justin Trudeau’s government has announced ambitious plans to spend billions on childcare, housing and healthcare – partly financed by taxing “extreme wealth inequality” – as Canada braces for an economically devastating second wave of coronavirus.
Related: 'It's like night and day': Trudeau's and Trump's Covid-19 responses fuel wildly different outcomes
Continue reading...One Dutch MEP compared the plans to the far right while Von der Leyen’s party called them ‘a good starting point’
The EU home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson, hopes migration will become just another “normal policy area”, even “boring”.
Since more than 1 million refugees arrived in Europe in 2015, migration has been neither “boring” nor easy for the bloc. Leaders have flung accusations at each other, exposing painful divisions. In 2015, Italy’s then prime minister told his fellow leaders they were “time wasters”, who didn’t deserve to call themselves Europeans. Central European countries accused their neighbours of trying to “blackmail” them.
Continue reading...Yachts less than 15 metres told to avoid area near coast of Galicia after series of incidents
Small yachts have been ordered to steer clear of a stretch of water off the north-west coast of Spain after at least three boats were damaged by a gang of boisterous orcas.
On Tuesday, Spain’s transport ministry said yachts of less than 15 metres in length would be banned from sailing close to the coast between Cape Prioriño Grande and Estaca de Bares point in Galicia for a week.
Continue reading...Tighter measures are being imposed, but they vary across the continent
Continue reading...Tomomi Inada makes comment after new prime minister appoints just two women on 21-strong cabinet
A prominent member of Japan’s ruling party has described the country’s politics as “democracy without women”, days after the new prime minister appointed just two female MPs to his cabinet.
Tomomi Inada, a former defence minister from the governing Liberal Democratic party (LDP), added her voice to criticism of Japan’s poor record on gender equality, directing most of her anger at her own party.
Continue reading...Paris move would follow curbs in other French cities; world reports just under two million Covid-19 cases in one week
Travel restrictions around Europe aimed at curbing coronavirus contagion ravaged Spain’s tourism industry during the crucial month of August, depriving it of millions of tourists, Reuters reports.
The number of nights booked in Spanish hotels fell 64% last month from a year ago, data from the National Statistics Institute showed on Wednesday.
In the first eight months of the year, hotel bookings slumped 70% from the same period in 2019.
The Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz has announced the cancellation of this year’s Vienna Opera Ball, a glamorous society event that usually marks the peak of the Austrian ball season.
The government cited rising Covid-19 infection rates in the Alpine country as the reason for calling off the event, which was planned for 11 February 2021. While the Vienna State Opera put a lot of effort into security concepts, the wellbeing of participants could not have been guaranteed, the government said.
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A few moments ago, a driver drove into a group of protestors. There were no serious injuries, Denver police have confirmed, and a man has been detained.
#DPD Officers are at Colfax & Broadway in response to a vehicle that drove into a protest occurring at that location. No injuries are reported. One male has been detained. #Denver. pic.twitter.com/Ge8zDLZTju
JUST IN: Video from a @denverpost reporter shows the moment a driver ran their car over a protester outside the Colorado State Capitol.
The protester, Kate, told @ShellyBradbury she was not badly hurt.
Denver police say a man has been detained. https://t.co/LNPZVmAiTO
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the family of Breonna Taylor, has told CNN the indictment is, “like killing Breonna all over again.”
He called her death, “Legalized genocide of people of color, because no matter how much evidence we have, they always find a way to try to legally justify it.”
Continue reading...Countries would be offered €10,000 an adult to take people in under ‘solidarity à la carte’ plan
The European commission is abandoning the idea of mandatory refugee quotas, as it revives an attempt to change Europe’s asylum and migration rules after more than four years of deadlock.
The long-awaited migration proposals, delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, would allow EU member states to choose whether to accept refugees, or take charge of returning those denied asylum to their home countries.
Continue reading...The arm-wrestle underscores Brazil’s bitter political rupture over a leader critics consider an abomination and supporters a corruption-busting champion
A giant image of Jair Bolsonaro stared down from billboards in the Brazilian town of Ourinhos. “We believe in God and we value the family,” its slogan proclaimed.
But within days of being erected, local dissidents had taken spray cans to the hoardings, dousing Brazil’s nationalist leader with black paint and using their graffiti to declare him a fascist.
Continue reading...Doctors say Russian opposition leader could make full recovery from exposure to suspected novichok
Alexei Navalny has been discharged from Berlin’s Charité hospital after spending 32 days as an inpatient, following what German authorities say was poisoning with a novichok nerve agent and with doctors suggesting he could make a full recovery.
The hospital said in a statement on Wednesday morning that the Russian opposition politician’s condition had “improved sufficiently for him to be discharged from acute inpatient care”, and added that he had left on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Music venue drops association with slave trader and will be known as Bristol Beacon
A new name has been announced for the Bristol venue Colston Hall following decades of protests and boycotts over its association with the slave trade.
Colston Hall, which was named after the 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston, will from now on be known as Bristol Beacon following a public consultation.
Continue reading...US president says it could have been 2.5 million deaths; Japan considers easing border controls; WHO announces record weekly cases
President Donald Trump has said the 200,000 US deaths from coronavirus were “a shame” in response to a reporter’s question about the milestone in the country’s fight against the pandemic.
As Trump was departing for an election campaign event in Pittsburgh he told the media: “I think if we didn’t do it properly and do it right, you’d have 2.5 million deaths.”
Continue reading...Reading of -69.C in 1991 from Greenland is nearly 2C colder than previous known records
The coldest temperature ever recorded in the northern hemisphere just got colder, thanks to the work of climate detectives at the World Meteorological Organization.
Searching through the WMO archives of heat records from weather stations at the top of the world, researchers found the coldest temperature reading came from an automatic weather station in Greenland in midwinter almost 30 years ago, nearly 2C (3.6F) colder than the previous known records.
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