Category Archives: World News

Coronavirus live news: India sees 92,000 new infections; China faces fifth wave, expert says

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India now has 5.4m cases; China fears winter infections; NZ records new cases

Covid-19 has spread around the planet, sending billions of people into lockdown as health services struggle to cope, Pablo Gutiérrez and Seán Clarke write. Find out where the virus has spread, and where it has been most deadly:

A clown juggled and acrobats launched themselves through the air above a stage in an open field in Seoul at the weekend as the audience watched from the safety of their cars, cocooned from the risk of coronavirus.

The annual circus – usually held in May – was pushed back twice this year because of the virus until organisers turned it into a drive-in event, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports. Cho Beong-hee, the manager of the Seoul Street Art Creation Centre, said:

The performing arts are very important even during a pandemic. So we came up with different ideas in trying to make this event happen and the drive-in option was chosen as it was deemed the safest idea.

I think watching performances in cars is great. I think it can be done in the future, with other performances like musicals.

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‘We’re suddenly drowning in people’: Argentinians flock to Uruguay amid pandemic

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About 15,000 to 20,000 Argentinians are estimated to have moved to Uruguay since the pandemic began

Agustina Valls’ phone is ringing off the hook.

“It started as a trickle when the pandemic first hit Argentina, but now we’re getting over 20 calls a day,” she said from her office in Uruguay’s luxury beach resort of Punta Del Este.

Valls runs a thriving business guiding well-off Argentinians through the red tape of acquiring Uruguayan residence – a skill she learned arranging her own residency application after marrying a Uruguayan lawyer last October.

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Matt Hancock’s Covid cavalry is not yet on the horizon. We need a global approach now

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The UK has done well on building capacity. But only wide access to simple, effective tests will allow us to manage life under coronavirus

As the UK battles with the overwhelming demand for Covid-19 tests, the health secretary, Matt Hancock, said on Friday that the country needs to come together to keep the infection levels down while we await the cavalry on the horizon.

The cavalry, he said, would come in the shape of the science that will bring a vaccine, effective treatments and the ability to undertake mass testing. Detecting cases, tracking contacts and containing the spread of infection remains our strongest weapon.

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Global preparation: how different countries planned for the second wave of Covid-19

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Lockdowns brought temporary relief to some but, everywhere, test and trace is key

The first wave of coronavirus swept through a world unprepared. Authorities struggled to test for the disease, and didn’t know how to slow the spread of Covid-19.

Lockdowns brought the virus under temporary control in some places, including the UK, buying a window for the revival of education and the economy, and time to prepare for future waves that epidemiologists said were almost inevitable.

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Justice and the Rohingya people are the losers in Asia’s new cold war

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Attacks against the Muslim minority in Myanmar have gone unchecked as regional players focus on their own interests

The persecution, ethnic cleansing, and attempted genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’s Rakhine state is an affront to the rule of law, a well-documented atrocity and, according to a top international lawyer, a moral stain on “our collective conscience and humanity”. So why are the killings and other horrors continuing while known perpetrators go unpunished?

It’s a question with several possible answers. Maybe poor, isolated Myanmar, formerly Burma, is not important enough a state to warrant sustained international attention. Perhaps, in the western subconscious, the lives of a largely unseen, unknown, brown-skinned Muslim minority do not matter so much at a time of multiple racial, ethnic and refugee crises.

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So long, Southsea: last sultan of Zanzibar quits UK after 56 years in exile

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Deposed royal who fled to UK after 1964 revolution finally reunited with family in Oman

After more than half a century of living in Southsea, Portsmouth, with its unpredictable British weather, shingle beaches and Victorian pier, relocation to the Gulf state of Oman might take some adjustment.

But for Jamshid bin Abdullah al-Said the 91-year-old last sultan of Zanzibar, it was the next best thing to going home.

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Trump says he approves TikTok Oracle deal which may include Walmart

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  • President says he will allow Chinese-owned app in US
  • Walmart could acquire stake and seat on global board

Donald Trump has said he “approves a deal in concept” that will allow TikTok to continue to operate in the US, after threatening to ban the Chinese-owned app.

Related: China attacks US 'bullying' over ban on Tiktok and WeChat

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More than 100 cats – and owner – evicted from Spanish flat

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Huge clan is believed to have originated from a pair of cats taken in three years ago

Animal charities in southern Spain were urgently seeking homes for 110 cats on Saturday after they and their owner were evicted from a flat in the Valencia region.

Spama Safor, an animal shelter in the south-eastern seaside town of Gandia, had initially thought there were only 96 cats in the flat. But by Saturday evening, the charity said it had removed a total of 110 cats and urgently needed help to shelter them “at least until they are vaccinated or sterilised”.

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Hurricane Ianos turns towards Crete after sweeping across Greece

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Two dead, one missing and nearly a thousand rescued as floods damage Thessaly

After pounding parts of western and central Greece meteorologists have predicted a rare Mediterranean hurricane is headed south towards the island of Crete.

Authorities struggling to contain the impact of the cyclone – a so-called medicane, named Ianos – said two people had died and at least one was missing as torrential rain and gale-force winds wielded a trail of destruction.

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Hundreds of women detained during Belarus protest march

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Protesters dragged into police vans at rally to demand removal of Alexander Lukashenko

Riot police detained hundreds of women as opposition protesters marched through the Belarusian capital, Minsk, demanding an end to President Alexander Lukashenko’s rule.

About 2,000 women took part in the “Sparkly March”, wearing shiny accessories and carrying the red-and-white flags of the protest movement.

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How Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death could affect Senate races – and Trump v Biden

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Susan Collins of Maine is among vulnerable Republican senators as polls indicate voters trust Biden more on justice picks

On the question of supreme court nominees, the Republican senator Susan Collins has repeatedly threaded the same political needle. It is one with a shrinking eye.

Related: Ruth Bader Ginsburg changed America long before she joined the supreme court | Moira Donegan

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg: death of liberal justice gives Trump chance to reshape the US for generations

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The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has sparked a titanic political fight that could shape the future of US supreme court decisions on abortion rights, voting rights and other fundamental issues for a generation.

Related: What does Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death mean for the supreme court?

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Thousands gather in Thailand for anti-government protest

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Protesters in Bangkok call for new constitution and elections, and criticise monarchy

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Bangkok for a major rally on Saturday, demanding the resignation of Thailand’s prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, and reforms to the monarchy – an institution until recently considered beyond direct public criticism.

A grassroots pro-democracy movement led by students has swept across the country, upending decades of convention within months. Protesters have called for a range of democratic reforms, with some groups, including the organisers of Saturday’s rally, demanding the king’s powers and budget be curbed.

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Woman throws drink over Leo Varadkar as he gives Dublin interview

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Footage shows woman tossing liquid in white cup over tánaiste’s face in Merrion Park

A woman wearing a face mask was filmed throwing a drink over Leo Varadkar as he gave an interview in Dublin.

Footage shared on social media shows the woman, who was carrying a skateboard, walking over to where the tánaiste and a camera crew were standing in Merrion Park at about 3pm on Friday.

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Alexei Navalny walks down stairs as recovery continues

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Russian opposition leader describes ‘clear path’ to recovery and praises Berlin doctors

The Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been pictured walking down stairs, five days after a Berlin hospital said he had been taken off a ventilator and could breathe independently.

Navalny, the leading opponent of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, fell ill in Siberia last month and was airlifted to Berlin. Germany said laboratory tests in three countries determined he was poisoned with a novichok nerve agent, and western governments have demanded an explanation from Russia.

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‘An amazing woman’: Donald Trump reacts to death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg – video

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The US president reacted with visible surprise when reporters informed him the 87-year-old supreme court justice had died. 'She led an amazing life,' Trump said after a rally in Minnesota. 'What else can you say? She was an amazing woman who led an amazing life. I'm actually saddened to hear that.'

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Covid warnings ring out as Latin America bids to return to normality

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The region has seen some of the longest lockdowns in the world but experts are urging countries not to reopen too soon

The scene in Rio de Janeiro was as though much of 2020 had never happened.

The beaches at Ipanema and Copacabana heaved with visitors, the white sand obscured by bronzed bodies, sun loungers and parasols, as locals enjoyed the blistering 38C heat.

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Bleach touted as ‘miracle cure’ for Covid being sold on Amazon

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Consumers buying chlorine dioxide solution on Amazon platform say they have been drinking fluid despite FDA warnings

Industrial bleach is being sold on Amazon through its product pages which consumers are buying under the mistaken belief that it is a “miracle cure” for Covid-19, despite health warnings from the US Food and Drug Administration that drinking the fluid can kill.

Related: 'Archbishop' of Florida church selling bleach 'miracle cure' arrested with son

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Two dead after mass shooting at party in Rochester, New York

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Male and female are killed and 14 are injured in shooting in upstate New York

Two people have died and 14 others have been wounded in a mass shooting at a party in Rochester, New York, police said.

A male and a female died in the shooting on Saturday, the interim police chief Mark Simmons told reporters. The wounded people were taken to two different hospitals. Simmons said none of them were reported to have life-threatening injuries.

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