Category Archives: World News

Beirut blast timeline: what we know, and what we don’t

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What happened in the months and years leading up to the explosion at the Lebanese capital’s port?

Beirut is still counting the cost in lives and property from a massive explosion at its port on Tuesday that sent a shockwave blasting across the city. Anger is growing in Lebanon at what appears to be an industrial accident that authorities foresaw and warned about for years before. The Lebanese government is currently investigating, but many in the country and internationally are calling for an independent probe.

Exactly what happened at the port in the early evening of 4 August is still unclear, but several facts have come to light in the days since the blast. The trail begins nearly seven years ago, with a rickety ship leaving the eastern European state of Georgia, carrying a deadly load.

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Criticism of South Korean MP’s red dress stirs sexism debate

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Ryu Ho-jeong, 28, says she wore colourful outfit to challenge male dominance in parliament

South Korea is again confronting its outdated attitudes towards women in the workplace after a female MP was criticised for attending a parliamentary session in a colourful dress.

Ryu Ho-jeong, who at 28 is the youngest member of the country’s national assembly, drew condemnation and praise after she was photographed in the national assembly chamber in what local media described as a red minidress earlier this week.

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Extreme droughts in central Europe likely to increase sevenfold

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Researchers say moderate reductions in CO2 emissions could halve their likelihood

Extreme droughts are likely to become much more frequent across central Europe, and if global greenhouse gas emissions rise strongly they could happen seven times more often, new research has shown.

The area of crops likely to be affected by drought is also set to increase, and under sharply rising CO2 levels would nearly double in central Europe in the second half of this century, to more than 40m hectares (154,440 sq miles) of farmland.

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Coronavirus global report: concern over German cases as holidays disrupt French testing

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Spain orders town of 32,000 back into confinement; Poland records highest daily case number so far

Germany has recorded its highest rate of infections in three months, France cannot keep up with demand for tests and Finland warned of an “extremely delicate” situation as Covid-19 case numbers continued to tick up across the continent.

New cases in Germany rose above 1,000 for the first time since early May, with the national disease control centre, the Robert Koch Institute, on Thursday reporting 1,045 infections in the previous 24 hours, bringing the total number of active cases to 8,700.

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European court of justice advises Madeleine McCann suspect was lawfully tried in rape case

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Preliminary opinion a setback for Christian Brückner’s attempt to appeal conviction using European arrest warrant rules

The prime suspect in the disappearance of the British toddler Madeleine McCann was told that he was lawfully put on trial for rape last year, as his lawyers attempt to overturn that conviction at the European court of justice.

Christian Brückner, a 43-year-old German, is trying to overturn his conviction for the rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2005. He has argued at the ECJ that he had been extradited to Germany from Portugal, and later Italy, on a different charge.

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China sentences third Canadian to death over drug charges

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Court in Guangzhou announced Xu Weihong’s penalty and said an alleged accomplice had been given a life sentence

China has sentenced a third Canadian citizen to death on drug charges amid a steep decline in relations between the two countries.

A court in Guangzhou announced Xu Weihong’s penalty on Thursday and said an alleged accomplice, Wen Guanxiong, had been given a life sentence.

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Monsoon rains driven by high winds bring flooding misery to Mumbai

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India’s commercial capital grinds to a halt after heaviest August rainfall in 47 years causes widespread flooding

The heaviest monsoon downpour in nearly 50 years has brought Mumbai to a standstill, with stranded passengers at railway stations having to be rescued by dinghies from waist-high water.

People who live in areas normally unaffected by the annual monsoon flooding looked out from their high-rise flats at new swirling rivers outside caused by the heaviest single day’s rain recorded in August in 47 years.

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Imperial War Museum unveils film marking 75 years since Hiroshima bomb

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Video by Es Devlin and Machiko Weston tells story of nuclear bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki

A powerful 10-minute video artwork marking the 75th anniversary of the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has been released by the Imperial War Museum in London.

The museum commissioned stage designers Es Devlin, who is British, and Machiko Weston, who is Japanese, to make the piece, which tells the stories and explores the impact of the bombings from different perspectives.

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Niger lost tens of millions to arms deals malpractice, leaked report alleges

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Government audit alleges that poor west African country lost at least $137m over eight years

More than $100m of public money in Niger, one of the world’s poorest countries and a key regional recipient of western aid, was wasted in a series of potentially corrupt international arms deals, a leaked official document alleges.

A confidential government audit of defence spending found that at least $137m had been lost due to malpractice over an eight-year period ending in 2019.

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Mumbai flooding: monsoon rains inundate streets, homes and hospitals – video

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Scores of videos shared on social media show streets and homes in Mumbai deluged by heavy monsoon rains, driven by high winds. The flooding has added to the woes of residents already bearing the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic. 

India has the third-highest number of cases worldwide with Mumbai considered the worst-affected city. A survey last month showed that more than half the people who live in its sprawling slums had been infected with the virus

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Fauci tells of death threats as Birx pinpoints fresh areas of Covid concern

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  • Expert says he has hired security to protect him and family
  • Taskforce colleague Birx tells some cities to ‘get on top’ of virus

Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the US, has had to hire security to protect himself and his family after receiving death threats in response to his work to stop the spread of coronavirus.

Related: New York attorney general files lawsuit to dissolve NRA – live

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Italy threatens to ban Ryanair over alleged Covid-19 guideline violations

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Dublin-based airline, previously criticised by German health authorities, denies accusations of non-compliance

Italy’s aviation regulator has threatened to ban Ryanair from its skies, alleging that the airline has not complied with rules brought in to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

The Italian civil aviation authority Enac accused the Dublin-based airline of “repeated violation of anti-Covid-19 health measures drafted by the Italian government and in force to protect passengers’ health”.

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Italian homes evacuated over risk of Mont Blanc glacier collapse

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Roads near Courmayeur closed to tourists because of threat from falling Planpincieux ice

Homes have been evacuated in Courmayeur in Italy’s Aosta valley, after a renewed warning that a huge portion of a Mont Blanc glacier is at risk of collapse.

The measures were introduced on Wednesday morning after experts from the Fondazione Montagne Sicura (Safe Mountains Foundation) said 500,000 cubic metres of ice was in danger of sliding off the Planpincieux glacier on the Grandes Jorasses park.

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‘They just pull up everything!’ Chinese fleet raises fears for Galápagos sea life

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A vast fishing armada off Ecuador’s biodiverse Pacific islands has stirred alarm over ‘indiscriminate’ fishing practices

Jonathan Green had been tracking a whale shark named Hope across the eastern Pacific for 280 days when the satellite transmissions from a GPS tag on her dorsal fin abruptly stopped.

It was not unusual for the GPS signal to go silent, even for weeks at a time, said Green, a scientist who has been studying the world’s largest fish for three decades in the unique marine ecosystem around the Galápagos Islands.

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German Protestant church to send migrant rescue boat to Mediterranean

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Sea-Watch 4 is result of crowdfunding and is set to leave from Spain in few days

The German Protestant church will send a ship to the central Mediterranean to rescue migrants attempting to reach Europe from north Africa.

The boat, named Sea-Watch 4, will depart in a few days from the seaport of Burriana, near Valencia, in Spain, where volunteers are finalising preparations, the crew has said.

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Beirut bride describes moment explosion hit during wedding photoshoot – video

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Israa Seblani, 29, was smiling and posing for her wedding video when the Beirut explosion hit. Dramatic footage captured the moment the blast rocked the Lebanese capital, killing more than 135 people and injuring thousands more.

Speaking a day later at the same site, Seblani, a doctor who works in the US and was in the city for her wedding, said: 'There is no word to explain ... I was shocked, I was wondering: what happened, am I going to die?' Her husband, Ahmad Subeih, 34, a businessman from Beirut, said: 'We are still in shock ... I have never heard anything similar to the sound of this explosion'

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Malawi human rights groups warn of Covid deaths in packed prisons

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Government urged to reduce overcrowding with cases rising fast in prisons accommodating many elderly and terminally ill inmates

Human rights campaigners in Malawi are calling on the government to urgently release people from its notoriously overcrowded prisons as cases of Covid-19 are rising among both staff and inmates.

Currently, 86 inmates and 21 members of staff have tested positive for Covid-19, according to the Malawi prison authority’s spokesperson, Chimwemwe Shaba. There are 71 cases in one prison in Blantyre alone.

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Covid outbreak exposes dire conditions at Guatemala factory making US brands

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More than 200 workers tested positive at garment factory supplying Amazon, Gap and American Eagle

A garment factory supplying Gap, American Eagle and Amazon was at the centre of one of the worst Covid-19 outbreaks in Guatemala, the Guardian can reveal.

More than 200 people tested positive for Covid-19 at the KP Textil factory, exposing the dire working conditions inside the country’s maquila system of free trade zones. At the time of the outbreak, the factory was making masks for export to the US.

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Coronavirus live news: cases in Germany rise above 1,000; Spanish town to re-enter lockdown

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Germany reports over 1,000 new infections for first time since May; town with 32,000 residents in northern Spain back in lockdown; Philippines reports over 3,500 new cases

The UK government said 46,413 people had died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Wednesday, up by 49 from the day before.

Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies show there have now been 56,600 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

Related: UK coronavirus live: Boris Johnson insists test-and-trace system is 'world beating' despite fall in contacts reached

Austria’s foreign ministry on Thursday warned against trips to Spain with the exception of the Balearic and Canary Islands, as concerns grow that holidaymakers could catch the coronavirus and spread it once they return.

The measure will take effect from Monday, and people returning to Austria will be required to present a negative test for Covid-19, the ministry said.

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