Michael Cawley tenders his resignation after details of Italian holiday are revealed
The chairman of Ireland’s tourism authority has resigned after defying government guidance to avoid all non-essential travel by going on holiday to Italy.
Michael Cawley, Ryanair’s former chief operating officer, handed in his resignation on Saturday after details of his Italian excursion were revealed by the Irish Independent.
Continue reading...More than 170 teams of researchers are racing to develop a safe and effective vaccine. Here is their progress
Researchers around the world are racing to develop a vaccine against Covid-19, with more than 170 candidate vaccines now tracked by the World Health Organization (WHO).
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Donald Trump has spent the early part of today retweeting stories that promote the (unproven) theory that mail-in voting is subject to widescale fraud.
The president retweeted allegations of voting fraud in Paterson, New Jersey, along with the comment: “The Democrats know the 2020 Election will be a fraudulent mess. Will maybe never know who won!”
The Democrats know the 2020 Election will be a fraudulent mess. Will maybe never know who won! https://t.co/tEWKJ5NcUj
Good morning. We start this morning with news that the United States Postal Service’s inspector general will investigate claims that recent changes could affect this November’s presidential election.
Donald Trump has long issued baseless claims that mail-in voting is ripe for fraud and there are real concerns that cuts to the service could weaken the agency and mail-in ballots may not arrive on time to be counted.
Continue reading...Australian death toll stands at 379; France removed from UK travel corridor; Greece and Croatia impose midnight curfew on bars and restaurants
Related: For Manhattan's retail industry normal may never return
It should have been a great year for Spanish wine: a bumper crop of grapes resulting in millions and millions of extra bottles for sipping or swilling at home and abroad.
But with Covid-19 leading to a catastrophic drop in wine sales, the Spanish government is offering growers subsidies to destroy part of this year’s record grape harvest.
Related: Spain’s vineyards destroy record harvest as wine sales crash
Continue reading...British holidaymakers returning from France express a mix of anger, resignation and confusion at 14-day quarantine order
Weary and bedraggled, the first set of quarantiners from France began arriving at Gatwick airport at 10.20am today, missing the UK deadline to get back by a handful of hours. A mix of fury, resignation and confusion descended on the north terminal as five flights from the south of France arrived within an hour.
“How does it make sense?” asked Reda, who had spent two weeks in Bordeaux with his wife Elodie and their five-year-old daughter, Sara. “Either you allow people proper time to stagger getting back or you say quarantine is effective immediately. A 12- or 24-hour deadline just means that 100,000 people rushed back one day earlier than us, they’re more high risk because of that, and we are in quarantine and they’re out in open spaces.”
Continue reading...US diplomat David Hale calls for a thorough and transparent investigation into the blast
A team of FBI investigators is due to arrive in Lebanon this weekend to take part in the investigation into Beirut’s explosion, a senior US official has said, after visiting the location of the blast.
David Hale, the US undersecretary of state for political affairs, called on Saturday for a thorough and transparent investigation. He said the FBI team was taking part at the invitation of Lebanese authorities in order to figure out what caused the 4 August explosion that killed nearly 180 people and wounded thousands.
Continue reading...Taskforce to detect and anlyze unidentified aerial phenomena that could ‘potentially pose a threat’ to national security, Pentagon said
The US department of Defense has formed a new body to investigate what it calls “unidentified aerial phenomena” (UAPs) following reported sightings of what most people call UFOs.
The move is likely to spark wide interest in alien hunters worldwide looking for signs that humanity is not alone in the universe. Although the dry language of the Pentagon’s announcement of the new group belied its intent as watchers of the sky for potential first contact.
Continue reading...The royal family leads the UK’s commemorations on the 75th anniversary of VJ Day – the day the second world war ended with Japan’s surrender.
Prince Charles led a two-minute silence at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, as part of a service of remembrance. The prime minister also spoke at the event.
Continue reading...Pressure mounts on Alexander Lukashenko to go as protests threaten to spill beyond Belarus’s borders
The Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, have expressed confidence that all problems that had arisen in Belarus would soon be resolved, the Kremlin said.
“These problems should not be exploited by destructive forces seeking to harm the mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries within the framework of the union state,” the Kremlin said in a statement on Saturday.
Continue reading...VJ Day marks 75 years since Japan surrendered to the allied forces on 15 August 1945, ending hostilities in the second world war
Continue reading...Publisher Jimmy Lai’s arrest shocked Hongkongers, but since the anti-sedition law they’ve entered uncharted waters
On Monday, 10 August, Hong Kong woke up to the startling news of the arrest of Jimmy Lai, the 71-year-old publisher of Apple Daily, the only pro-democracy high-circulation newspaper in the territory. As the day progressed, more arrests linked to Lai and his businesses were carried out (including that of his two sons), and hundreds of police officers entered the paper’s headquarters. Much as Hong Kong has had to get used to shocking news, such an open move against a major media outlet was unexpected, as was the arrest of pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow, 23, also escorted from her home handcuffed by police. It all seems to be too much and too fast, but ever since the national security law against secession, sedition and terrorism was imposed on Hong Kong by the central government in Beijing on 30 June, the city has entered uncharted waters.
And while Hong Kong has been relatively spared from the worst disasters of the pandemic, for months now there have been serious limitations on how much people can gather – to discuss what is happening or protest against it. The draconian law has been imposed from above, hastily approved and supported by the local government without any space for public debate.
Continue reading...Luiz Henrique Mandetta accuses president of playing a ‘pivotal’ role in steering economy towards catastrophe
Historians will savage Jair Bolsonaro for leading Brazilians into a deadly “canyon” with his shambling, self-interested and anti-scientific response to Covid-19, according to his former health minister.
In an interview with the Guardian, Luiz Henrique Mandetta accused the Brazilian president of playing a “pivotal” role in steering Latin America’s largest economy towards a catastrophe. Bolsonaro played politics with citizens’ lives at a time of global crisis, he said, as Brazil’s death toll rose to more than 105,000. Only the US has suffered more deaths.
Continue reading...Pro-democracy rallies continue with large event due to be held in Bangkok on Sunday
A prominent student protest leader in Thailand has been arrested on charges of sedition as pro-democracy rallies continued across the country.
Parit Chiwarak, 22, whose arrest was livestreamed on social media, was stopped on the outskirts of Bangkok on Friday night. As he was physically carried into a car, he raised his hand in a three-fingered salute – a gesture borrowed from the Hunger Games that is used by protesters and symbolises opposition to the military-backed government.
Continue reading...Naruhito reflects on war actions at Covid-curtailed ceremony, marked elsewhere by former foes as Victory in the Pacific or VJ Day
Japan has marked the 75th anniversary of its surrender in the second world war with Emperor Naruhito expressing “deep remorse” over his country’s wartime actions at a sombre annual ceremony curtailed by the coronavirus pandemic.
Naruhito pledged to reflect on the war’s events and expressed hope that the tragedy would never be repeated. There was no word of apology from the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, who gave thanks for the sacrifices of the Japanese war dead.
Continue reading...Apple Daily founder and pro democracy activist says his case will likely be a ‘litmus test’ of Hong Kong’s legal system
Wary but defiant, Jimmy Lai is determined to keep fighting for a democratic Hong Kong, even as he acknowledges that China’s goal is to take full control of the region.
Speaking to the Guardian five days after his arrest on foreign collusion allegations – he is currently out on bail - media tycoon Lai argues the press must keep going. But he also believes that Monday’s round up was a warning from Beijing.
Continue reading...Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai has told the Guardian he believes that how authorities handle his case will likely be a 'litmus test' for the future. The 71-year-old this week became the highest-profile pro-democracy figure so far to have been arrested under Beijing’s national security law, which makes even the mildest forms of activism a crime against China.
Lai was taken into custody for more than 40 hours for on suspicion of committing foreign collusion crimes, and conspiracy to defraud. Speaking after being released on bail, he said that 'without fighting, we don’t have hope [of democracy in Hong Kong]. We don’t know when we’ll win, but we’re so sure we’re on the right side of history, and time is on our side'
Continue reading...Postal service warns Pennsylvania seven-day turnaround for mail-in ballots may not be possible, amid mounting election concern
There are growing fears over the handling of November’s US presidential election after the postal service warned that the rules in a key battleground state could result in millions of votes left uncounted.
Related: Trump faces surprise call from Republican congressman to pardon Edward Snowden – live
Continue reading...Agency to review historical photographs after issue raised on website and social media
Magnum Photos, one of the world’s most celebrated photographic agencies, is to re-examine the content of its archive of more than 1 million images after accusations it made available photographs that critics said may show the sexual exploitation of minors.
In a statement, the president of Magnum, Olivia Arthur, said the agency, whose founders included Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson, had begun an “in-depth internal review to make sure that we fully understand the implications of the work in the archive, both in terms of imagery and context.
Continue reading...Spain announces 11 new measures; Italy move affects travellers from Spain, Croatia, Malta and Greece; India reports over 60,000 new cases
Canada is preparing for a “reasonable worst case scenario” in which further surges of coronavirus cases would at times overwhelm the public health system, officials have said.
In this scenario, there would be a large peak later this year followed by a number of smaller peaks and valleys stretching to January 2022. Each of the peaks would exceed the health system’s capacity.
Hello, my name is Clea Skopeliti and I’ll be running the blog for the next few hours. You can get in touch with me on Twitter @cleaskopeliti or by email: clea.skopeliti.casual@theguardian.com. I won’t always have time to reply to everything but will read it all! Thanks in advance.
Continue reading...Travellers left stressed and exhausted as they cut holidays short following new Covid-19 rules
At times on the A1 and A16 motorways in northern France on Friday afternoon, four out of five cars had UK plates: SUVs, estates and vans laden with luggage and children and piled high with surfboards and bikes, Brits barrelling back in a desperate bid to make it home before the 4am quarantine deadline.
Related: 'It’s killed the holiday': Britons in France react to new quarantine rules
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