Employer aims to remove stigma in a nation where menstruation is still taboo to some
Indian food delivery company Zomato has said it will give female employees up to 10 days of “period leave” a year, as part of an effort to combat what it said was stigma around the issue.
Zomato is the most high-profile organisation to institute the policy in India, a country where menstruation is still taboo to some.
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We’ll be shutting down today’s blog shortly. Here’s a glance at today’s major news items:
Trump’s decision to unilaterally extend federal unemployment insurance through executive order will almost certainly prompt a legal challenge from Democrats on the grounds that only the legislative branch has the constitutional authority to determine federal spending.
But the US president brushed aside concerns on Saturday, suggesting that he believes public sentiment will carry the day.
Continue reading...Boeing 737 crashed on landing in heavy rain, killing at least 18, including the two pilots
Flight data and cockpit voice recorders have been recovered from the wreckage of an Indian passenger aircraft that crashed in the southern state of Kerala.
The Air India Express plane, which was repatriating Indians from Dubai because of the Covid-19 pandemic, overshot the runway of the Calicut international airport in heavy rain near the city of Kozhikode, also known as Calicut.
Continue reading...Thousands turn out to call for accountability for one of world’s biggest non-nuclear blasts
Police fired teargas at protesters in Beirut on Saturday after thousands turned out in the city centre to demand accountability for one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions the world has seen.
Driven by anger at the corruption and incompetence that appears to have fostered Wednesday’s tragedy, a crowd gathered in Martyrs Square, where activists have erected a mock gallows for Lebanon’s top politicians.
Continue reading...Footage captured when the blast in the Lebanese capital's port hit the Lau Medical Center-Rizk hospital shows the shockwave shattering windows and ripping doors from their frames. More than 150 people in the city were killed, thousands were injured and hundreds of thousands of homes damaged or destroyed
Luiz Henrique Mandetta says the Brazilian president’s ‘misguided’ handling of the crisis has failed to comfort families
Jair Bolsonaro’s former health minister has accused the Brazilian president of failing to offer “a single word of comfort” to the families of the 100,000 Brazilians who have lost their lives to Covid-19.
In an interview marking Brazil’s latest Covid-19 milepost, Luiz Henrique Mandetta – who was sacked in April after challenging the president’s internationally condemned coronavirus response – expressed consternation that Brazil’s leaders had failed to recognise so much pain.
Continue reading...Somalia-based al-Shabaab group claims blast that leaves 14 wounded
A car bomb has exploded at the gates of a military base in Mogadishu, killing at least eight soldiers and wounding 14.
The extremist group al-Shabaab, linked with al-Qaida, claimed responsibility via its radio arm, Andalus. The group often targets military sites in Mogadishu and controls large parts of southern and central Somalia, with little sign of being hampered by the coronavirus pandemic.
Continue reading...Victorian premier Daniel Andrews says number of mystery Covid-19 cases has risen by 130 as nine new infections announced in NSW
A man in his 30s and six aged care residents are among 12 new Victorian Covid-19 deaths that have taken Australia’s coronavirus death toll to 278.
On Saturday, the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, announced a further 466 cases of coronavirus in the state. Andrews said the number of cases attributed to no known source had risen by 130 to 2,584.
Continue reading...Narendra Modi’s dream of a ‘self-reliant India’ comes at a terrible price for its indigenous population
Over the past decade, Umeshwar Singh Amra has witnessed his homeland descend into a battleground. The war being waged in Hasdeo Arand, a rich and biodiverse Indian forest, has pitted indigenous people, ancient trees, elephants and sloths against the might of bulldozers, trucks and hydraulic jacks, fighting with a single purpose: the extraction of coal.
Yet under a new “self-reliant India” plan by the prime minister, Narendra Modi, to boost the economy post-Covid-19 and reduce costly imports, 40 new coalfields in some of India’s most ecologically sensitive forests are to be opened up for commercial mining.
Continue reading...Ida lost two brothers in 10 days, and Ken’s teenage sweetheart died at 44. Now, they’re looking for answers
Sir Oyaseh Ivowi sits in front of a poster of two of his three boys. Olume, the older brother, hovers over Isi; both wear traditional Nigerian dress. Underneath are the words: “Gone too soon, but not forgotten. Olume Godfrey Ivowi, 7 November 1973 to 10 April 2020. Isi Benjamin Emitsemu Ivowi, 17 November 1985 to 19 April 2020.”
Olume, 46, and Isi, 34, died in Luton and Milton Keynes respectively. Their passing made headlines because it was so shocking: two brothers killed by Covid-19 in such a short space of time. A third brother, Osi, also caught the virus, but has recovered.
Continue reading...Ten of thousands demand better pay and protection as cases rise in the Philippines, Greece and Italy
Hi, it’s Aaron Walawalkar here in London, picking up the blog from my colleague Damien Gayle.
Please get in touch with any suggestions for coverage, or comments by DM on Twitter @AaronWala or by email at aaron.walawalkar@theguardian.com.
Continue reading...Footage appears to show the moments after an Air India Express passenger plane crashed in Kozhikode, India. The aircraft, carrying 190 passengers from Dubai, skidded off the runway on landing in heavy rain and broke in two
Continue reading...On Tuesday evening, a massive explosion ripped across Beirut, killing at least 150 people and injuring thousands more. The scale of the damage was immense, with buildings miles from the port lying in ruin.
The Guardian's international correspondent Michael Safi looks at the cause of the blast and the impact it has had on Lebanon, a country already on the brink of financial collapse
Canada to impose C$3.6bn in tariffs as Chrystia Freeland says: ‘Any American who buys a can of beer … will suffer’
Canada has announced that it will retaliate dollar for dollar – to the tune of C$3.6bn – after the US announced a 10% tariff on Canadian aluminum.
Donald Trump announced the new aluminum tariffs on Thursday at a campaign stop at a Whirlpool appliance plant in Ohio, accusing Canada of taking advantage of its trade relationship with the US.
Continue reading...At least 100,000 people are expected to attend the 10-day annual Sturgis motorcycle rally in South Dakota’s Black Hills from Friday, as opportunities for the local economy have overridden concerns it could become a coronavirus superspreading event.
Related: Coronavirus US: death toll tops 160,000 as relief package impasse continues – live updates
Continue reading...Angry Lebanese plan major protest on Saturday, one day before team investigating explosion reports to cabinet
Dozens of bags of fireworks were stored in the same hangar as thousands of tonnes of ammonium nitrate at Beirut’s port and may have been a decisive factor in igniting the explosive chemical compound that fuelled Tuesday’s huge explosion, a former port worker and other sources have told the Guardian.
As angry Lebanese plan a major protest in central Beirut on Saturday, scrutiny has focused on how 2,750 tonnes of the dangerous material could have been stored so close to residential neighbourhoods for years – despite repeated warnings of the risk it posed.
Continue reading...Fabienne Sahyoun has spent the last two days recovering some of her personal belongings from what is left of her flat. She is among thousands of people left reeling by the explosion, in which at least 145 people died, 5,000 were injured and as many as 250,000 homes were left uninhabitable
When the Guardian spoke to staff in March they had no time for reflection. So what do they think of the new surge now?
During the initial peak of Spain’s Covid-19 pandemic in the spring, the virus displayed an unexpected mercy. In its spread, ferocity and awful novelty, it left health workers too tired and overwhelmed to look beyond the next few hours.
“There’s no time to get angry or to wonder why things have been organised the way they have been,” Sara Gayoso, an A&E doctor at El Escorial hospital near Madrid, told the Guardian at the end of March.
Continue reading...Countless young people are being pushed to Europe’s margins by hardline border and migration policies
We don’t know how many undocumented children are living in Europe. We don’t even know how many children are currently locked up in detention because of their own or their parents’ immigration status. While the European Union requires precise data collection in numerous sectors – we know how many dairy cows there are in the EU and the UK, for example – the lack of data and visibility of undocumented children seems a political, rather than a technical, void.
Being born in Europe is not enough to prevent a child from becoming undocumented, if they are born to undocumented parents. No European country grants citizenship solely based on birth in the national territory. Others in the ranks of the undocumented moved to Europe as kids and have spent most of their lives here. For them, Europe is home. But policy hasn’t caught up with this reality.
Continue reading...Lebanese protesters clashed with police late on Thursday as they tried to approach government buildings in central Beirut. Police responded with teargas and dispersed the crowd.
Shock has turned to anger in the city where nearly 150 people died and more than 5,000 were injured when a huge pile of ammonium nitrate that had languished for years in a port warehouse ignited.
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