Category Archives: World News

Hong Kong: first person charged under new security law

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Tong Ying-kit, 23, charged with terrorism and inciting secession for allegedly driving motorbike into group of police last week

China has begun putting its new Hong Kong security law into action, as a 23-year-old man became the first person on Monday to be charged under the legislation and authorities announced a purge of literature from libraries and schools.

The law, imposed last week following anti-government protests in Hong Kong last year, classes as illegal all activities the government deems to be secessionist, subversive, or terrorist, as well as foreign intervention in the city’s internal affairs.

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‘Magnitsky sanctions’: who are those being targeted by UK?

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Forty-nine individuals and organisations from four nations are accused of rights abuses

The UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has announced sanctions against 49 individuals and organisations accused of human rights abuses from four different countries.

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Canada: armed man who rammed gate threatened Justin Trudeau, police say

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  • Corey Hurren, 46, was carrying multiple firearms, police allege
  • Suspect accused of crashing his truck through gate in Ottawa

A military reservist who allegedly crashed his truck through a gate on the grounds where the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, lives was armed with two shotguns, a rifle and a revolver, and threatened Trudeau, according to prosecution documents made public on Monday.

Police allege that Corey Hurren brought a prohibited M-14 rifle, plus the shotguns and a revolver when he entered the grounds on 2 July. He is also accused of having a prohibited high-capacity magazine.

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Mary Trump’s book to be published early amid ‘extraordinary interest’

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Tell-all book by Donald Trump’s niece will argue president suffered ‘child abuse’ in the early years of his life

A tell-all book by Donald Trump’s niece will be published two weeks ahead of schedule and will argue that the president suffered “child abuse” in the early years of his life.

Related: Bolton: Trump claim he wasn’t told of Russia bounty report is 'not how system works’

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Harry and Meghan say Commonwealth ‘must acknowledge the past’

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Couple say process will be uncomfortable but ‘needs to be done because everyone benefits’

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have said the Commonwealth “must acknowledge the past” even if it is “uncomfortable”, as the couple spoke of historical injustice, unconscious bias and racism in light of the Black Lives Matter movement.

They said the Commonwealth, which grew out of the British empire and is headed by Prince Harry’s grandmother the Queen, needed to follow the example of others, and they accepted it would not be easy.

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Coronavirus: world treating symptoms, not cause of pandemics, says UN

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Ongoing destruction of nature will result in stream of animal diseases jumping to humans, says report

The world is treating the health and economic symptoms of the coronavirus pandemic but not the environmental cause, according to the authors of a UN report. As a result, a steady stream of diseases can be expected to jump from animals to humans in coming years, they say.

The number of such “zoonotic” epidemics is rising, from Ebola to Sars to West Nile virus and Rift Valley fever, with the root cause being the destruction of nature by humans and the growing demand for meat, the report says.

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Justin Trudeau snubs Nafta meeting with Trump in Washington

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  • Mexico’s president to meet Trump on Wednesday
  • Canada PM had spoken of concern about US tariffs on metals

The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has declined an invitation to visit the White House this week to celebrate a new North American free trade deal, amid worsening coronavirus figures in the US and lingering tensions with Donald Trump.

Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obradoris due to meet Trump in Washington on Wednesday, and had urged Trudeau to attend the meeting.

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More victims of Jeffrey Epstein have come forward, says lawyer

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British women among those who have sought legal advice since arrest of financier’s associate

More victims of the deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein, including women from the UK, have come forward in recent days following the arrest the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, a lawyer for the accusers has said.

Maxwell, 58, a friend of Prince Andrew, is due to appear in court in the US this week on charges of helping Epstein recruit women to sexually abuse. Speaking on Monday morning, Gloria Allred, who represents 16 of Epstein’s accusers, said others had sought legal representation to pursue compensation against his estate.

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Wuhan residents told to stay indoors again after record rainfall

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City at centre of coronavirus outbreak faces new crisis as China suffers weeks of flooding

People living in Wuhan, the central Chinese city that bore the brunt of the country’s coronavirus outbreak, have been told stay indoors once more after record rainfall prompted authorities to raise the city’s emergency response to the second highest-level.

A prolonged period of heavy rain is the latest disaster to strike China, where people are only just recovering from the coronavirus outbreak.

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Why we need sharks: the true nature of the ocean’s ‘monstrous villains’

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Why did dolphins get Flipper while sharks got Jaws? These majestic, diverse animals bring balance to the ocean ecosystem – and they’re in grave danger

Each day, as the sun sets over the coral-fringed Raja Ampat Islands in Indonesia, an underwater predator stirs. As predators go, it’s not especially big or ferocious – an arm’s length from head to tail, with a snuffling, moustachioed snout.

What’s unique is that it doesn’t so much swim along the seabed as walk. Using its four fins as legs, and twisting its spine like a lizard, it can emerge from the water and hold its breath for an hour, strutting across the exposed reef and clambering between tide pools to find prey.

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Extend US Facebook boycott to Europe, campaigners urge

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Calls follow Mark Zuckerberg’s dismissal of anti-hate-speech campaign in meeting with staff

Campaigners are calling for an advertising boycott of Facebook in the US to be extended to Europe, after its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, dismissed the effects of the campaign in a meeting with staff.

A growing number of companies have halted advertising on Facebook after criticism that the platform was not doing enough to counter hate speech on its sites.

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Ennio Morricone, Oscar-winning Italian film composer, dies aged 91

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Morricone’s work helped define the western but he went on to work across all film genres

Ennio Morricone, the Italian composer whose symphonic scores backed everything from spaghetti westerns to romance, horror and sci-fi films, has died aged 91.

Morricone had broken his femur days ago and died during the night in a clinic in Rome. His death was confirmed by his lawyer, Giorgio Assumma. In a statement, Assumma said that the composer “died at dawn on 6 July in Rome with the comfort of faith. He preserved until the final moment full lucidity and great dignity.

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It’s time the UN faced up to its own treatment of black people like me | Rosebell Kagumire

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An honest conversation about race has to recognise the marginalisation and exploitation of many aid workers

The global push for racial justice following the death of George Floyd in the US has resulted in a flurry of solidarity statements from within the international aid industry, including the UN.

After a shaky start, where its secretary general, António Guterres, was forced to backtrack on a note to staff that suggested they shouldn’t participate in Black Lives Matter (BLM), UN People of African Descent (Unpad) launched a survey to “allow staff to provide data, including on the extent of perceptions of systemic inequality inside the UN, its manifestations, and the responsiveness of the organisation to reports of incidents of systemic racism”.

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Farmers’ markets go hi-tech: how online sales are saving Indian farmers

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Facing the prospect of rotting crops and ruined livelihoods, Indian farmers have embraced virtual marketplaces to sell produce

When the call finally comes, the connection is so poor that Silme Marak can barely catch the words. After running upstairs to the roof of her house for a better signal, the 39-year-old farmer finally hears the first piece of good news to come her way in months: an order for 600 pineapples from a harvest that she had feared might have to be left to rot.

Marak lives in the Tura town of Meghalaya, a hilly place in north-east India whose name translates as “the abode of clouds”. She is among millions of farmers in India – agriculture contributes nearly a seventh of the country’s GDP – in despair at the prospect of seeing their produce rot as the country entered a severe lockdown in the third week of March. According to a Credit Suisse report, vegetable farmers alone have lost upwards of Rs 20,000 crore (£2.5bn).

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Coronavirus live news: US death toll surpasses 130,000; India’s cases third-highest in world

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Donald Trump’s handling of US crisis under microscope; Israel reimposes restrictions after infections spike

Air travellers arriving in Scotland from Tuesday will be subject to quarantine spot checks for the first time, after the country reported four days without deaths from Covid-19.

Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, said her officials and advisers were still deciding which countries would not be subject to quarantine checks, four days after the Home Office released its list of 74 “air bridge” countries and territories.

Related: Air travellers to Scotland to face quarantine spot checks and fines

The US has suffered 235 more deaths and registered 44,361 new cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has said. That takes the respective totals to 129,811 and 2,886,267.

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Mariachi Mecca: Mexico’s national heritage under threat from Covid-19

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The mariachi musicians of Mexico City are struggling to eke out a living during the pandemic. Photojournalist Rubén Salgado has been documenting the community

The Mariachi musician is one of Mexico’s most best-known symbols and Plaza Garibaldi their home in Mexico City’s historic downtown, known as the Mariachi Mecca. Normally the plaza will have hundreds of tourists and locals present to see them perform. With the new government restrictions in place due to Covid-19, there are hundreds of jobless musicians vying for the work that may allow them to feed themselves and their families that day. Dozens of men wait on the main avenue stepping in front of traffic looking for clients.

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Shark finning: why the ocean’s most barbaric practice continues to boom

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The recent seizure of the biggest shipment of illegal fins in Hong Kong history shows the taste for shark is still going strong

In the narrow streets of Sai Ying Pun neighbourhood, the centre of Hong Kong’s dried seafood trade, most window displays give pride of place to a particular item: shark fins. Perched on shelves, stuffed in jars and stacked in bags, shark fins are offered in all shapes and sizes. Several shops even include “shark fin” in their name.

Fins are lucrative, fetching as much as HK$6,800 (£715) per catty (604.8g, or about 21oz), and the trade is big business. Hong Kong is the largest shark fin importer in the world, and responsible for about half of the global trade. The fins sold in Sai Ying Pun come from more than 100 countries and 76 different species of sharks and rays, a third of which are endangered.

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Xu Zhangrun, outspoken critic of Xi Jinping, detained by police in Beijing

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Professor had been under house arrest after writing an essay lambasting the president over his response to coronavirus

Chinese professor Xu Zhangrun, known for his scathing and public criticisms of China’s leader Xi Jinping, has been detained, according to friends of the legal scholar.

Two friends of Xu, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals, told the Guardian that he had been detained on Monday morning. According to one, around 20 police officers and 10 vehicles arrived at his home in Beijing and took Xu away.

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US interest in moving to New Zealand jumps amid Covid-19

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Figures show 65% rise in Americans thinking of emigrating to land where coronavirus has been effectively eliminated

American interest in moving to New Zealand has spiked during the coronavirus crisis, with the number of people seeking information on how to emigrate climbing by 65% during May.

New Zealand went into lockdown on 25 March and by May was beginning to loosen restrictions, with the disease effectively eliminated by shutting the borders to non-New Zealanders and enforcing strict stay-at-home orders.

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Global report: India becomes third worst-affected country as giant Covid-19 hospital opens

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Cases reach almost 700,000 to pass Russia in third place; Iran suffers record death toll; alarm in South Africa as cases jump amid easing of lockdown

India has passed Russia as the country with the third-highest number of coronavirus cases in the world after recording a record number of cases for one day.

The health ministry added 23,000 new cases on Monday, taking India’s total to 697,000 and almost 20,000 deaths. On Sunday India racked up nearly 25,000, its highest total for one day.

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