Science editor Ian Sample explains how vaccines work, runs through some of the main obstacles to creating one for coronavirus and preparing it for public use, and tells us which scenario he thinks is most realistic in the next 18 months
Continue reading...Category Archives: World News
Anger at huge shareholder payout as US chain Kohl’s cancels $150m in orders
Retailer paid $109m in dividends just weeks after cancelling clothing orders, leaving suppliers in Bangladesh facing financial crisis
Kohl’s, one of the US’s largest clothing retailers, cancelled millions of dollars worth of existing orders from Bangladeshi and Korean garment factories just weeks before paying out $109m (£85m) in dividends to shareholders, the Guardian can reveal.
The company cancelled orders of clothing worth approximately $100m from Korea and $50m from Bangaldeshi factories after the Covid-19 pandemic struck, and refused petitions from suppliers asking for the option to renegotiate payments.
Continue reading...‘Ten years of watching people die online has left me so angry’: young protesters on why they are marching
The UK’s Black Lives Matter protests have been spearheaded by a new generation of activists. Six demonstrators from a recent London march reveal what brought them to the streets
The killing of George Floyd by a white police officer took place thousands of miles from the UK. But the 46-year-old’s cry in Minnesota that he could not breathe has sparked widespread protest in Britain. In the past two weeks, there have been demonstrations across UK cities. The protesters, the vast majority of whom were under 25, chanted: “No justice, no peace, no racist police” and “the UK is not innocent”. The demonstrations were largely organised through word of mouth and social media rather than established anti-racism groups.
Protesters carried handmade placards with the names of Mark Duggan, Sean Rigg, Julian Cole and others killed or left disabled by British police. They chanted for the Windrush generation, the victims of the Grenfell tower fire, and decried the high Covid-19 death rate among members of the BAME community.
Continue reading...Brexit: EU may veto UK trade deal lacking safeguards, leaked report reveals
Draft resolution urges British government to ‘revise its negotiating position’
The European parliament could veto any trade deal between the UK and the European Union that lacks “robust” safeguards to ensure fair competition and strong standards on the environment and workers’ rights, according to a leaked document.
A draft resolution, seen by the Guardian, which will be put to a vote on Friday, underlines the implicit threat to block the EU-UK trade deal. Urging the British government to “revise its negotiation position”, the text states that a level playing field is the “necessary condition for the European parliament to give its consent to a trade agreement with the UK”.
Continue reading...EU says China behind ‘huge wave’ of Covid-19 disinformation
Brussels shifts position by accusing Beijing for first time of running false campaigns
China has been accused by Brussels of running disinformation campaigns inside the European Union, as the bloc set out a plan to tackle a “huge wave” of false facts about the coronavirus pandemic.
The European commission said Russia and China were running “targeted influence operations and disinformation campaigns in the EU, its neighbourhood, and globally”. While the charge against Russia has been levelled on many occasions, this is the first time the EU executive has publicly named China as a source of disinformation.
Continue reading...Street snacks to sanitiser: the Afghan women fighting coronavirus in Kabul
When lockdown closed their businesses, food sellers adapted their carts into mini disinfection units to tackle the outbreak
Photographs by Stefanie Glinski
Freshta had spent months building up a franchise business to help to feed her family – and break a few taboos on women at the same time – when coronavirus hit Afghanistan.
In November, the engineering student, (who has asked to be identified by one name only) became one of a fleet of female drivers taking 40 Banu’s Kitchen food carts around Kabul, serving up burgers and rice to a predominantly male customer base. “At the beginning, men on the streets would be shocked to see us driving a motorbike and selling food, but after about two or three months, they are now used to it. They even support us,” she says.
Continue reading...‘The older I get, the less I fear’: meet the Italian Larry David
A decade after his two much-loved comedies about the vicissitudes of ageing, director Gianni Di Gregorio explains why, against his own expectations, he had to make another
In 2000, after a decade of caring for his ailing mother in her large flat in Rome, Gianni Di Gregorio wrote a comedy about a bloke called Gianni who looks after his 93-year-old mother in a large flat in Rome. No one was interested in the story, in which the unemployed bachelor ends up running around after a cohort of old ladies whose spirit and vigour remain undimmed despite various ailments. Everyone thought he was crazy: who would be interested in a funny film about four old women and a middle-aged bloke?
Related: Gianni Di Gregorio: The incidental director
Continue reading...Coronavirus live news: Argentina records more than 1,000 daily cases for first time
WHO official walks back asymptomatic transmission comments; world faces worst food crisis in 50 years; UK NHS waiting list could hit 10m
- Fauci: coronavirus pandemic that ‘took over the planet’ is far from over
- Burundi president dies of illness suspected to be coronavirus
- Argentina confirms more than 1,000 new cases in one day for first time
- Brazil restores Covid-19 data to government website
- Australia coronavirus updates – live
Japan’s lower house of parliament has approved an emergency budget worth nearly over £230bn, doubling the scale of measures to pep up the world’s third-biggest economy after the coronavirus tipped it into recession, AFP reports.
Their raucous clucking deprives residents of sleep. They leave the neighbourhood “wrecked”. And food left out for them attracts “rats the size of cats” to an otherwise peaceful, leafy suburb.
New Zealand’s national lockdown to quell the spread of Covid-19 appears to have vanquished the virus, but it has had one unintended consequence: the re-emergence of a plague – not of frogs or locusts but of feral chickens, a flock of which is once again menacing an area of west Auckland.
Related: 'Like a Stephen King movie': feral chickens return to plague New Zealand village
Continue reading...Coronavirus live news: Africa passes 200,000 confirmed cases after Burundi president dies of suspected Covid-19
Asylum applications in Europe fall to lowest level for a decade as borders closed; world faces worst food crisis in 50 years
- Burundi president dies of illness suspected to be coronavirus
- EU says China behind ‘huge wave’ of Covid-19 disinformation
- Fauci: coronavirus pandemic that ‘took over the planet’ is far from over
- WHO urges Pakistan to return to lockdown as hospitals struggle
Louise Taylor and David Conn report:
Premier League clubs should be braced for a collective £500m loss of revenue because of the coronavirus pandemic, Deloitte has warned.
Related: Premier League clubs set for £500m collective loss due to coronavirus
Key developments in the global coronavirus outbreak so far today include:
Continue reading...Surgisphere: mass audit of papers linked to firm behind hydroxychloroquine Lancet study scandal
Questions continue for Surgisphere and CEO Sapan Desai as universities deny knowledge of links to firm behind Lancet’s now-disputed blockbuster study
Dozens of scientific papers co-authored by the chief executive of the US tech company behind the Lancet hydroxychloroquine study scandal are now being audited, including one that a scientific integrity expert claims contains images that appear to have been digitally manipulated.
The audit follows a Guardian investigation that found the company, Surgisphere, used suspect data in major scientific studies that were published and then retracted by world-leading medical journals, including the Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine.
Continue reading...Nigeria to cut healthcare spending by 40% despite coronavirus cases climbing
Nurses say they have been left without promised compensation as £75m set aside for renovation of parliament buildings
Plans by Nigeria’s government to cut healthcare spending risk undermining the country’s coronavirus response and severely impacting already strained services, health and transparency groups have warned.
Funding for local, primary healthcare services will be cut by more than 40% this year in a revised budget expected to be passed into law in the coming weeks.
Continue reading...Global report: WHO urges Pakistan to return to lockdown as hospitals struggle
Brazil restores Covid-19 data online; Argentina passes 1,000 daily cases for first time; Fauci says ‘we’re still at the beginning’ of pandemic
The World Health Organization has taken the unusual step of urging Pakistan to return to lockdown, suggesting the country implement restrictions in a cycle of two weeks on, two weeks off.
While Pakistan has relatively low testing rates, one in four people who are tested return a positive result, the WHO said in a letter to Punjab’s provincial health minister, Yasmin Rashid. Prime Minister Imran Khan has resisted a national lockdown, arguing the country cannot afford it, and provinces have instead introduced patchwork lockdowns. Last week Khan said these would be lifted.
Continue reading...CrossFit CEO Greg Glassman resigns after offensive George Floyd and coronavirus tweets
Fitness program lost key partnerships, endorsements and the business of hundreds of affiliated gyms around the world after Glassman tweets
The founder of the US fitness brand CrossFit will step down from his position as CEO following a disastrous few days that have seen the fitness program lose key partnerships, endorsements and the business of hundreds of affiliated gyms around the world.
The move comes after a pair of offensive tweets by Greg Glassman. On Saturday, in response to a tweet from the research centre Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which stated “Racism is a public health issue”, Glassman tweeted “It’s FLOYD-19”, in reference to the police killing of George Floyd, whose death has sparked a global protest movement.
Continue reading...Huge fire breaks out at India gas well blowout
Fire has reportedly spread to homes near well that has been leaking ‘uncontrollably’ for two weeks
A massive fire has broken out at an oil field in north-eastern India, after gas that had been leaking for two weeks ignited, sending plumes of smoke and flames into the sky, and reportedly setting fire to nearby homes.
Five deaths in the area are being investigated for potential links to the gas well, which has been leaking “uncontrollably” for two weeks, according to Oil India, the state-owned company managing the oil field.
Continue reading...Fauci: coronavirus pandemic that ‘took over the planet’ is far from over
US’s top infectious disease expert calls virus his ‘worst nightmare’ as 7 million people have been infected and 400,000 have died
The US’s top infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci warned on Tuesday that the coronavirus pandemic was far from over, calling Covid-19 his “worst nightmare”.
“In a period of four months, it has devastated the whole world,” Fauci said, speaking to executives at a conference of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization. “And it isn’t over yet.”
Continue reading...Russia will open nuclear disarmament talks with US
But Moscow warns against insisting on including China in New Start negotiations
Russia has confirmed that it will open talks with the US this month on extending a major nuclear disarmament treaty but warned that Washington’s insistence on including China could scuttle efforts.
The deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov will meet the US envoy Marshall Billingslea in Vienna on 22 June to begin negotiations on New Start, which expires in February.
Continue reading...Hong Kong riot police descend on protesters marking movement anniversary – video
Several demonstrators were arrested when thousands defied a police order and took to the streets of Hong Kong to mark a year of the ‘million-person march’ against an extradition bill in June 2019. Dozens of riot police descended on the crowds gathered in the city's business district
Continue reading...George Floyd: large procession of mourners expected to follow private Texas funeral – live
- Biden says ‘Now is the time for racial justice’ in remotely delivered message at memorial
- Trump accused of ‘trafficking in conspiracy theories’
- Trump says campaign rallies may resume ‘next week’
- US protesters attacked by cars driven into crowds and men with guns
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The Guardian’s Vivan Ho reports from Houston, Texas:
Supporters of George Floyd stood outside the church in the punishing Houston humidity, waiting for the procession to Floyd’s final resting place.
Joe Biden expressed support for the Buffalo protester who was shoved to the ground by police officers, after Trump suggested the 75-year-old man might be an Antifa plant.
My Dad used to say there's no greater sin than the abuse of power.
Whether it's an officer bloodying a peaceful protester or a President defending him with a conspiracy theory he saw on TV.
I'm a Catholic – just like Martin. Our faith says that we can't accept either.
Related: Trump makes baseless claim about man, 75, shoved by police: ‘Could be a set-up?’
Continue reading...‘Call it out!’: global voices from George Floyd protests – video
Floyd’s death in Minneapolis has been the trigger for a global wave of activism against prejudice and police brutality that has spread to more than 50 countries, becoming a mirror for racism and inequality in societies around the world. In Australia and Papua people protested for indigenous rights, as people took up the cry against injustices in New Zealand, Ghana, France, Germany and the UK
- George Floyd killing triggers wave of activism around the world
- What the George Floyd protests have achieved in just two weeks
Notorious Sudanese militia chief in Darfur conflict arrested in CAR
Ali Kushayb, wanted for human rights abuses and war crimes, faces trial in The Hague
One of the most notorious Sudanese militia leaders in the brutal conflict in Darfur has been arrested in the Central African Republic and handed over to the International criminal court.
Ali Kushayb, who had been on the run for 13 years, surrendered to authorities in a remote corner of northern CAR near the country’s border with Sudan, said a spokesman for the ICC.
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