Category Archives: World News

‘Chairman Xi’ seeks only to purge and subjugate. That is his weakness | Simon Tisdall

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From Tibet to Taiwan, China’s leader is intent on wielding absolute power. Instead he is fanning the flames of dissent

It’s often said that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely – but does it also induce leaders to act in foolhardy, headstrong and ultimately self-destructive ways? History, especially Chinese history, is full of examples of omnipotent rulers whose unchecked behaviour led to disaster. Xi Jinping, China’s comrade-emperor, is a modern-day case in point. Xi seems to think he can do no wrong. As a result, not much is going right.

Xi’s authoritarian, expansionist policies, pursued with increasing vehemence since he became communist party chief and president in 2012-13, have enveloped China in a ring of fire. Its borderlands are ablaze with conflict and confrontation from Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Tibet and the Himalayas in the north and west to Hong Kong, the South China Sea and Taiwan to the east. More than at any time since Mao’s 1949 revolution, China is also at odds with the wider world.

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Movie star Sean Penn, drug lord El Chapo and a failed marine raid

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The Hollywood actor almost fell into a police trap when he met with the fugitive Mexican over a film deal, reveals new book

He is one of Hollywood’s most acclaimed actors, at one time known as much for his hellraising, turbulent marriage and interest in humanitarian causes as for his films. Now it has emerged that Sean Penn’s taste for adventure – and a potential movie part – almost led him into a trap that had been set for the notorious Mexican drug smuggler and fugitive Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

The tale, recounted in a new book, El Jefe: The Stalking of Chapo Guzmán, sheds new light on an international spying operation set up to apprehend the drug lord who was responsible for ordering as many as 200 murders, according to prosecutors.

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Coronavirus live news: nearly 3,000 people in UK test positive in 24 hours

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Significant rise in UK with 2,988 new cases; Netanyahu backtracks on lockdowns for cities with high infection rates; thousands attend protests against measures in Croatia and Italy

More than 200 UN employees have been infected with Covid-19 in Syria, medical workers and UN officials have said.

UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria, Imran Riza, last week told UN heads of agencies that the global body was close to securing a medical facility for treatment of coronavirus cases.

Up to 300 people who attended a charity football match at a working men’s club on the border of Sunderland and Durham have been asked to self-isolate after 28 tested positive for Covid-19.

Those who attended the event at Burnside working men’s club on 30 August are being told to self-isolate until 13 September.

Breaking: Up to 300 people who were at a charity football match asked to self-isolate, after 28 test positive for #Covid_19

Event was on 30 August at Burnside working men’s club (border of Sunderland and Durham)
 
Durham & Sunderland Council & @PHE_uk managing response.

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‘He’s been set up’: the American whose life may depend on US-China relations

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Sentenced to death in China, American Mark Swidan hopes for a permanent reprieve but his fate may hinge on an easing of diplomatic tensions

When Chinese police raided the Guangzhou hotel room of Mark Swidan and arrested him on 13 November 2012, he was on the phone to his mother, Katherine. Swidan had been in China sourcing building materials for his business , Katherine says, and they were discussing booking his ticket home to Houston, Texas, for his wedding, when he said there was a knock at the door.

“I heard banging, then I didn’t hear anything after that,” she recalls.

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UK’s Brexit negotiator says government is not scared of no-deal exit

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David Frost says the country is fully ready for Australia-style agreement with the EU

The UK’s chief negotiator has said the government is not scared of walking away from talks with the European Union without a deal and vowed not to blink in the final phase.

David Frost is due to hold another round of key negotiations in London with his counterpart, Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, next week as they look to agree a trade deal before autumn sets in.

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‘World’s loneliest elephant’ allowed to leave zoo for better life

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Kaavan, who lives in a Pakistani zoo, lost his partner in 2012 and is now medically clear to travel

An elephant who has become a cause célèbre for animal rights activists around the world will be allowed to leave his Pakistani zoo and be transferred to better conditions, the animal welfare group helping with the case has said.

Dubbed the “world’s loneliest elephant” by his supporters, Kaavan has languished at a zoo in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad for more than 35 years.

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Greta Thunberg says Venice documentary shows her real self

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Global climate activist pleased with film’s portrayal of her as a ‘shy nerd’

A documentary following Greta Thunberg and her journey from Swedish schoolgirl to global climate activist accurately portrays her as a “shy nerd”, the teenager said as the film premiered at the Venice film festival.

Director Nathan Grossman recorded Thunberg’s everyday life for a year, chronicling her rise to fame from the beginning of her school strike outside the Swedish parliament in August 2018 to her trips around the world demanding that political leaders take action to fight the climate crisis.

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Slowly does it: chord changes in John Cage’s 639-year-long organ piece

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Fans gather in a German church to hear the first new sound in composition, Organ/ASLSP, for six years

Hundreds of fans have attended a special kind of musical happening at a church in Germany: a chord change in an organ piece that is supposed to last for an entirety of 639 years.

The performance of the Organ/ASLSP (As Slow As Possible) composition began in September 2001 at the St Burchardi church in the eastern town of Halberstadt and is supposed to end in 2640 — if all goes well.

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Coronavirus live news: India cases pass 4m; anti-lockdown protesters arrested in Victoria

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India adds 86,432 cases in the past 24 hours; arrests made after hundreds gather for Melbourne anti-lockdown rallies

The UK government will deliver 250,000 clear face masks to frontline NHS and social care workers to help them communicate with people with conditions such as hearing loss and dementia.

The transparent masks are made from plastic with an anti-fogging barrier, meaning patients will be able to see the mouth of the wearer as they speak. The Department of Health and Social Care said this would help the millions of people with hearing loss who needed to use lip-reading to communicate.

In England, coronavirus restrictions are to be eased in Greater Manchester, Lancashire and West Yorkshire, Matt Hancock has said.

Casinos, skating rinks, bowling alleys, exhibition halls, conference centres and indoor play areas, including soft play areas, will be able to lawfully reopen on Tuesday in all three places, apart from Bolton in Greater Manchester.

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Donald Trump claims US has not seen any proof of Alexei Navalny poisoning – video

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The US president declined to accept the German government's assessment that the Russian opposition leader was attacked with a nerve agent. This week the chancellor, Angela Merkel, revealed that tests at a military laboratory had identified unequivocally that the Kremlin critic had been poisoned with novichok

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Boris Johnson fascinated by Donald Trump, says ex-ambassador

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PM is intrigued by Trump’s ‘relationship with the truth’, Kim Darroch writes in new book

Kim Darroch, a former British ambassador to the US, has said Boris Johnson is fascinated and inspired by Donald Trump, and is intrigued by the US president’s patchy relationship “with the facts and the truth”.

In a new book serialised in the Times, Lord Darroch said Johnson must share the blame for his resignation as ambassador to Washington, which followed the leaking of diplomatic cables disparaging Trump.

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The bleak Covid winter? America still not on course to beat back the virus

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As summer ends, and as deaths near 200,000 amid severe economic damage, experts say the next few months are vital

Even with three decades of experience in the travel industry, Jorge Pesquera has never seen a downturn in business like this one.

Related: Could western Pennsylvania win Trump a second term?

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North Korea officials to be punished after typhoon causes ‘dozens of casualties’

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State newspaper reports leaders will punish ‘irresponsible’ city and provincial officials for failing to protect residents

North Korea has pledged harsh punishment for local officials it says failed to protect residents from a typhoon which caused a “serious incident” with dozens of casualties, the ruling party’s newspaper reported.

Typhoon Maysak brought heavy downpours across the country earlier this week, with footage showing a street inundated with water in the eastern port town of Wonsan, Kangwon province.

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America Through Foreign Eyes review: a Mexican take on the US under Trump

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Jorge Castañeda, once Mexico’s foreign minister, looks at the neighbour to the north – and where it might be heading

In 1830, Lorenzo de Zavala, the principal author of the 1824 Mexican constitution, found himself in exile. So decided to visit a nation he had long admired.

Related: 'Trump has a different leadership style': David Rubenstein plays it by the book

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Donald Trump says US ‘hasn’t had any proof’ of Navalny poisoning

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President says US must look seriously at case but suggests media should be looking into China

President Donald Trump said the United States must look “very seriously” into the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, but that his administration had not yet seen any proof.

“I think we have to look at it very seriously, if it’s the case,” he said, before talking at length about his diplomatic efforts in North Korea and nuclear non-proliferation in Russia. “I don’t know exactly what happened. It’s tragic. It’s terrible, it shouldn’t happen. We haven’t had any proof yet, but I will take a look.

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Kosovo and Serbia give Israel diplomatic boon after US-brokered deal

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Majority-Muslim Kosovo will recognise Jewish state, while Serbia promises to relocate embassy to Jerusalem

Israel scored two diplomatic gains on Friday when majority-Muslim Kosovo agreed to recognise the Jewish state and Serbia said it would move its embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.

The decisions came after a White House-brokered agreement between the two Balkan arch-rivals to normalise economic relations two decades after they fought a bitter war.

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Trump denounced over reported war dead comments: ‘He doesn’t understand bravery’ – live

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Jennifer Griffin, a national security correspondent for Fox News, said she has confirmed reporting by The Atlantic with two former senior Trump administration officials.

One former official told her: “When the President spoke about the Vietnam War, he said, ‘It was a stupid war. Anyone who went was a sucker.’”

This former official heard the President say about American veterans: "What's in it for them? They don't make any money." Source: "It was a character flaw of the President. He could not understand why someone would die for their country, not worth it."

Regarding McCain, "The President just hated John McCain. He always asked, 'Why do you see him as a hero?" Two sources confirmed the President did not want flags lowered but others in the White House ordered them at half mast. There was a stand off and then the President relented.

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Canada: shooting in family home near Toronto leaves five dead

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  • Dead include four males and one female, with two under 18
  • Woman, 50, injured in incident in early hours of Friday

Five people have been found dead and another with serious injuries following an early morning shooting in a home east of Toronto on Friday.

A police spokesman said that neighbours reported the sound of gunshots from a home in Oshawa, Ontario, at around 1.20am.

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Woman in Germany to be charged with murder after death of her five children

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Children aged between one and eight were found dead in beds in case that has shocked country

German prosecutors have said they will charge a 27-year-old woman with murder after five of her young children were found dead at their home in the western city of Solingen.

Heribert Kaune-Gebhardt, a prosecutor in nearby Wuppertal, told reporters that postmortem examinations on the dead children between the ages of one and eight showed signs of sedation and suffocation, but it was still unclear how exactly they died.

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A city in need of miracles: few glimmers of hope in Beirut’s reconstruction effort

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Business is strong for glaziers but the mood among most rescuers and residents is sombre

Working 13 hours a day for more than a month, Ghassan Awad has driven trucks carrying glass panels from Beirut’s southern suburbs to the ruins of its waterfront.

He has not been so busy since the 2006 war with Israel. Nor have all Lebanon’s other glaziers, who have been at the frontline of making the capital inhabitable in the 31 days since the massive explosion that killed 190 people, injured more than 6,000 and ripped the city apart.

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