Category Archives: World News

Scientists join forces to investigate airborne risk of coronavirus

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WHO adviser says results from well-designed studies are needed before it changes its advice

A major research effort is under way to understand whether Covid-19 can spread through tiny airborne particles that are released by infected people and remain suspended in the air for hours.

Scientists are working alongside sanitary engineers at the World Health Organization to investigate how tiny aerosols bearing the virus may be released into the environment; whether they are spread around rooms by air-conditioning units; and how infectious the particles may be.

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MoJ cleaners to get full sick pay backdated to start of Covid-19 pandemic

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Announcement follows Guardian reports that cleaners felt pressure to work though they had symptoms of coronavirus

The Ministry of Justice has announced that cleaners in its central London offices will now receive full pay if they are self-isolating or off sick. The arrangement, which will be administered through cleaning agency OCS, also provides back pay for cleaners who were sick or self-isolating after 1 April.

The announcement follows Guardian reports in June that the MoJ failed to investigate a potential Covid-19 cluster among its cleaners. The cleaners’ union, United Voices of the World (UWV), warned in April that workers felt forced to continue working despite feeling unwell because they could not afford to losewould have lost money.

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Syrian food and vaccines at risk as Russia uses UN veto to scupper aid plan

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Frantic talks after Moscow blocks draft security council resolution and agrees to only one border crossing point

Frantic talks are being held after Russia was accused of a “despicable and dangerous” use of its veto at the UN security council to block a draft resolution that would have renewed cross-border humanitarian aid to civilians in Syria.

The veto came at the close of months of negotiations between security council members over the number of cross-border aid points that should be kept open, a dispute fuelled by the Syrian regime’s determination to control the supply of international humanitarian aid to the country.

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‘We are the most homophobic country in the EU’: Poland’s election and the LGBT fightback – video

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Andrzej Duda, running for re-election as president of Poland, has included strong verbal attacks on the country's LGBT community in his campaign. Recently, he has referred disparagingly to 'LGBT ideology' in an attempt to appeal to his conservative base, calling it more destructive than communism, while some towns have proclaimed themselves 'LGBT-free zones'. In the last week of the election campaign, can the LGBT community stop Duda from winning another five years in power?

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Rowling, Rushdie and Atwood warn against ‘intolerance’ in open letter

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Harper’s letter asserts way to ‘defeat bad ideas is by exposure, argument, and persuasion’, but critics accuse authors of censorious mentality

JK Rowling, Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood are among the signatories to a controversial open letter warning that the spread of “censoriousness” is leading to “an intolerance of opposing views” and “a vogue for public shaming and ostracism”.

Rowling, whose beliefs on transgender rights have recently seen scores of Harry Potter fans distance themselves from her, said she was “proud to sign this letter in defence of a foundational principle of a liberal society: open debate and freedom of thought and speech”.

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Kenya calls for help in fight against rising sexual abuse by foreigners

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Anti-trafficking organisations say widespread trust in white outsiders makes children an easy target for abusers from the west

Child protection organisations in Kenya say more needs to be done to protect young people from exploitation by overseas perpetrators, as the country reports a rising number of abuse cases.

The warning follows the arrest of Gregory Dow, a 61-year-old missionary, who last month pleaded guilty in a US court to sexually abusing girls at an orphanage he ran in Kenya.

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How Bolsonaro downplayed Covid-19 before, and after, he contracted the virus – video

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Jair Bolsonaro has announced live on television he has tested positive for coronavirus - after months of repeatedly trivializing the pandemic and flouting social distancing guidelines.

In March, as Covid-19 claimed its first victims in Brazil, the far-right populist leader bragged that, if infected, he would quickly shake off the illness thanks to his 'athlete’s background'. Since then, the president has continued to attend social events and political rallies, often wearing masks incorrectly, if at all.

Brazil has suffered one of the world’s worst outbreaks, with more than 1.6m confirmed cases and 65,000 related deaths, according to official data released on 6 July.

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‘Evidence emerging’ of airborne Covid-19 spread, says WHO – video

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Members of the World Health Organization’s technical committee have said they are working on publishing a scientific brief about how and if the coronavirus can spread in the air, following a letter signed by more than 200 scientists who have called for the WHO and others to acknowledge that the disease can spread in the air. Committee member Prof Benedetta Allegranzi said evidence on airborne transmission was emerging but ‘is not definitive’

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Darfur protesters call for action to end attacks on civilians by armed militias

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The peaceful sit-in taking place in Nertiti county is demanding an end to the violence and punishment for the perpetrators

Thousands of people have joined a sit-down protest in front of local authority buildings in Central Darfur demanding action against the armed groups that patrol the region.

A large number of women have joined the first peaceful demonstration – now in its second week – in Nertiti county since war erupted in 2003.

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Poor nutrition in developing countries is costing firms $850bn annually – report

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Business is paying a high price for inadequate diets of employees, research shows, with experts calling on companies to provide living wage and subsidised food

Malnutrition among workers in developing countries is costing businesses up to $850bn (£676bn) a year, according to analysis of the hidden impact of poor diet on productivity.

Worst affected were industries relying on manual labour, including mining, agriculture and construction, according to a report [pdf] by Chatham House and the consultancy Vivid Economics. But it found big losses caused by malnutrition in all 13 business sectors studied, including health and education.

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Coronavirus live news: US gives WHO official notice of its withdrawal next year

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Joe Biden says he would return the US to the WHO if elected; WHO acknowledges ‘evidence emerging’ of airborne spread of Covid-19; Jair Bolsonaro tests positive. Follow the latest updates

The Guardian’s Eleanor Ainge Roy reports from Queenstown with Charlotte Graham-McLay in Auckland:

Here’s the full story on a man in compulsory isolation in New Zealand who has absconded from a quarantine hotel to make a late-night “spur-of-the-moment” dash to the supermarket – before testing positive for Covid-19 the following day:

Related: New Zealand: man with Covid-19 absconds from quarantine for supermarket 'dash'

The Netherlands will be at the centre of upcoming talks over European spending on the coronavirus crisis, driven by a mix of traditional Calvinist frugality and political reality, experts say.

As part of the “frugal four” along with Austria, Denmark and Sweden, the Dutch have enraged many in the EU by putting the brakes on a €750bn (US$850bn) rescue package for the worst-hit countries.

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Coronavirus live news: Tulsa health chief cites Trump rally over spike in cases

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Gathering ‘likely contributed’ to surge; Bolsonaro vetoes measures to help indigenous people; Melbourne goes into full lockdown after rises in cases

Nigeria has passed 30,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, according to the country’s Centre for Disease Control.

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China blackmailing dissenters in US to return home – FBI chief

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Christopher Wray condemns campaign against ex-pats and says Beijing espionage is ‘greatest threat to US economic vitality’

Chinese agents have been pursuing hundreds of Chinese nationals living in the US in an effort to force their return, as part of a global campaign against the country’s diaspora, known as Operation Fox Hunt, the FBI director has said.

Related: Apple under pressure to act after TikTok pulls out of Hong Kong

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DNA analysis identifies second Mexican student among 43 disappeared in 2014

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  • Christian Rodríguez named after testing at Austrian university
  • 43 Ayotzinapa teachers college students abducted by police

Nearly six years after 43 Mexican students were kidnapped and forcibly disappeared, a new forensic science study has identified the remains of a second member of the missing group.

Omar Gómez Trejo, head of the special unit of the attorney general’s office charged with reinvestigating the case, said on Tuesday that remains found in November were subjected to DNA analysis this year at the University of Innsbruck in Austria.

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French coronavirus study finds black immigrant deaths doubled at peak

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Statistics agency is first in France to cross-check Covid-19 fatalities with country of origin

Death rates among immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa doubled in France and tripled in the Paris region at the height of France’s coronavirus outbreak, finds a study from the French government’s statistics agency.

The INSEE agency’s findings, published on Tuesday, are the closest France has come to acknowledging with numbers the disproportionate impact of the virus on the country’s black immigrants and members of other overlooked minority groups.

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Scientists put forward plan to create universal species list

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Single classification system could end centuries of disagreement and improve global efforts to tackle biodiversity loss

A plan to create the first universally recognised list of species on Earth has prompted hopes of an end to centuries of disagreement and confusion over how to classify the world’s library of life.

The 10-point plan aims to finally bring order with an authoritative list of the world’s species and a governance mechanism responsible for its quality. Researchers hope a single recognised list would improve global efforts to tackle biodiversity loss, the trade in endangered wildlife, biosecurity and conservation.

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