Conflicts since start of US ‘war on terror’ have displaced 37m people – report

Study focuses on post-9/11 wars in which US initiated combat or took part in military operations

Conflicts with US military involvement have displaced at least 37 million people since the beginning of the “war on terror” nearly two decades ago, a report has estimated.

The invasion of Iraq and the decades of instability that have followed in the country have uprooted at least 9.2 million so far, the costliest of the eight US military operations that were included in the report by Brown University’s Costs of War Project.

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Fortnite could face year-long Apple ban, says Epic Games

Court filings reveal Apple may delay return even if developer backtracks in App Store dispute

Fortnite could be banned from iPhones and other Apple devices for a year, the game’s developer, Epic Games, has revealed, as the court battle between the two companies continues.

The scale of the ban was revealed in a legal filing from Epic, which asks the court to force Apple to allow the game back on the iOS App Store while the wider lawsuit winds its way to a full hearing.

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Coronavirus live news: Oxford vaccine trial on hold; Czech Republic reports 1,000 new cases a day for first time

AstraZeneca Plc and Oxford pause vaccine trial again; Czech Republic battles surging spread; China stages celebration of beating virus

In the US, Iowa’s governor, Kim Reynolds, is refusing to enforce a White House coronavirus taskforce recommendation to close bars and require people to wear masks after Covid-19 infections in some of the state’s cities surged.

Related: Iowa refuses to close bars and require masks as Covid-19 cases surge in cities

Russia’s sovereign wealth fund will sell 32m doses of the potential Covid-19 vaccine ‘Sputnik-V’ to a top pharmaceutical company in Mexico, Russia’s second vaccine export deal, a source close to the deal said on Wednesday.

Russia registered its first vaccine candidate, developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute, in August. Late-stage trials of Sputnik-V, due to involve 40,000 participants, were launched on 26 August.

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Illegal devices that bypass vehicle emissions controls spread across US

Thousands of tons of pollution spew into the air in the US from devices that proliferate online and in body shops

When officials at the Environmental Protection Agency began investigating Freedom Performance, LLC, they didn’t have to look very hard for evidence that the company was violating the Clean Air Act. According to legal documents, the Florida car parts distributor literally advertised violations on its website.

“The road to hell is often paved with good intentions,” stated one ad for a kit to remove federally required emissions controls from diesel trucks. It identified a particular emissions control system that “is certainly noble in its intent” but “in reality it is putting your engine through hell … The best solution is deletion.”

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Disloyal review: Michael Cohen’s mob hit on Trump entertains – but will it shift votes?

The president’s fixer wanted to be a Goodfella but ended up taking a fall. His revenge is a tawdrily readable tell-all memoir

Michael Cohen is no saint. Aside from the obvious, Donald Trump’s former fixer has never entered into a formal cooperation agreement with federal prosecutors, a fact duly noted by the US attorneys’ office for the southern district of New York in its sentencing memorandum. Because of that, the “inability to fully vet his criminal history and reliability impact his utility as a witness”.

Related: Michael Cohen book details Trump's racism and toxic family dynamic

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UK plans to change Brexit rules threaten US trade deal, top Democrats say

Altering terms of withdrawal agreement on Northern Ireland could damage relations under Biden presidency

Senior Democrats have warned that any attempt by the UK government to backtrack on the Brexit agreement on Northern Ireland would jeopardize a future US-UK free trade deal and could hobble bilateral relations across the board if Joe Biden wins the presidency.

Biden, an Irish American, is a staunch defender of the Good Friday Agreement, of which the US is the guarantor, and which requires an open border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

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Is democracy in America under threat? – podcast

As the US election draws closer, the Guardian’s Ed Pilkington hears from civil leaders on their fears for the integrity of the process and the future of their democracy

When Barack Obama spoke at the Democratic national convention recently he had as his backdrop a facsimile of the US constitution. He spoke pointedly about the importance of that document and criticised Donald Trump, a reality TV star who had damaged the reputation of the United States with “our democratic institutions threatened like never before”.

It is a concern shared by many across the US and the Guardian’s Ed Pilkington tells Anushka Asthana that he was alarmed by what he heard in interviews with some of the most prominent figures in civil rights, the law and academia on the state of democracy in America. He spoke to Michael Waldman, the head of the Brennan Center for Justice; Derrick Johnson, the president of the NAACP; Deirdre Schifeling, the campaign director of Democracy For All 2021; K. Sabeel Rahman, the head of Demos, and Vanita Gupta, the president and chief executive of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. All told him versions of the same story: democracy in America is in peril like never before.

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Oscars reveal new diversity requirements for best picture nominees

Nominees must satisfy two of four key standards addressing onscreen and offscreen representation

The Oscars are raising the inclusion bar for best picture nominees, starting with the 96th Academy Awards in 2024.

In a historic move, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Tuesday laid out sweeping eligibility reforms to the best picture category intended to encourage diversity and equitable representation on screen and off, addressing gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity and disability.

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Trouble in store as Covid canning craze leads to empty shelves and price gouging

Americans turning to gardening during Covid crisis find themselves in a pickle when it comes to finding the right jars, seals and lids

It’s the time of year when gardeners are turning their ripe tomatoes into sauces and salsas and cucumbers into pickles. But a boom in gardening and preparing food at home during the coronavirus pandemic has led to a scarcity of supplies with which to preserve them.

From Maine and Vermont to Louisiana and West Virginia, gardeners have reported being in a pickle when it comes to finding the right size glass jars, the special lids to safely seal them, or the bands with which to screw them on. They’ve gone from store to store and some have given in to paying higher prices online.

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Crowds eschew masks at Trump rally as president mocks Biden over social distancing

The president also chose to ridicule the mass protests against racism and policing, saying, ‘We call our rallies peaceful protests’

A packed crowd of hundreds gathered in North Carolina for a Donald Trump campaign rally on Tuesday, with many people forgoing masks, in defiance of state guidelines capping gatherings at 50 people.

Ahead of the president’s visit to Winston-Salem, the chair of the local county commission, a Republican, urged Trump to wear a face mask. The state has a mask requirement in place to slow the spread of coronavirus.

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Hundreds of thousands brace for power shutoffs as California fires burn 2m acres

Altogether, 721,000 people could be affected by these preventive measures, posing significant risks to the physically vulnerable

Hundreds of thousands of Californians are bracing for preventive power shutoffs, as wildfires have burned a record 2m acres across the state and the pandemic keeps many confined to their homes.

The first wave of power shutoffs started late Monday night, with Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) cutting power to 172,000 homes and businesses in 22 counties in northern California because of strong winds and dry conditions in the forecast. The utility also planned to shut off power to customers in Kern county, north of Los Angeles, starting Tuesday afternoon.

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Creek fire: hundreds trapped as blazes surround popular California camping spot – video

The fast-moving Creek fire exploded in size on Monday night, pushing California over the edge of a new state record for most acres of land burned during one fire season. Several rescue missions were carried out on Monday night. At least 224 people were lifted out by helicopter after being trapped at Mammoth Pool Reservoir, a popular lake that was busy for the holiday weekend. As of Tuesday morning, the fire was 0% contained

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Trump weighs spending own money on campaign as funds dwindle – live

The race to succeed Bill de Blasio as New York mayor has a new potential entrant.

Kathryn Garcia, the city’s sanitation commissioner and one of de Blasio’s most trusted cabinet members, resigned on Tuesday in anticipation of a run.

Michael Cohen’s Trump book is out today and it may or may not be a coincidence that the president was exceedingly busy on Twitter this morning as NBC’s Today was broadcasting excerpts of in interview between his former lawyer and fixer and Lester Holt, of NBC Nightly News.

Related: Michael Cohen book details Trump's racism and toxic family dynamic

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Coronavirus live news: France confirms 6,544 new infections; Spain reports 3,168 new daily cases

Latest figures bring France’s total cases to 335,524 and Spain’s to 534,513; concerns over spread of virus in Greek migrant camps

The UK government response to the coronavirus pandemic is on track to cost £210bn for the first six months of the crisis, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has said.

Reflecting the scale of the emergency since March, the National Audit Office (NAO) said ministers had instigated more than 190 measures in response to the crisis so far, including emergency job support, additional NHS funding, and business grants.

Related: Coronavirus bill has cost UK government £210bn, spending watchdog says

Canada is seeing a worrying increase in the number of people infected with the coronavirus as schools across the country are starting to reopen, a top medical official has said.

Chief public health officer Theresa Tam said an average of 545 new cases had been reported daily over the last week, up from around 300 in July. She told a briefing:

This is concerning and I want to underscore that when cases occur, including in schools, it is a reflection on what’s happening in the community.

This week is a really critical week.

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California fires burn record 2m acres

Record set early in the season as firefighters battle to contain several wildfires ahead of forecast hot, dry winds

Wildfires have burned more than 2m acres (809,000 hectares) in California this year, setting a state record even as crews battled dozens of growing blazes in sweltering temperatures Monday that strained the electrical grid and threatened power outages for millions.

The previous high was 1.96m acres (793,184 hectares) burned in 2018. the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, began tracking the numbers in 1987.

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#NZhellhole: how Kiwis are hitting back at Trump’s Covid taunts

In August the US president said New Zealand was seeing a ‘big surge’ in cases, but it only reminded people of how well they had done

Following comments by Donald Trump that New Zealand was dealing with a “big surge” of new Covid-19 cases, Kiwis have snapped back with some light social media trolling under the hashtag #NZhellhole, which has trended at number two on New Zealand Twitter.

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Trump’s White House rally fails to evoke adulation from stony-faced reporters

David Smith’s sketch: With Biden still enjoying a lead in the polls, the president’s attacks on his rivals and perceived enemies smacked of more desperation than usual

After turning the south lawn into a convention stage last month, Donald Trump held a surprise press conference-cum-campaign event on Monday at the White House’s front door – where Jackie Kennedy wore black on the day of JFK’s funeral, and where the Obamas greeted their successors on inauguration day.

On a glorious late summer’s day, Trump’s vantage point behind a presidential lectern at the north portico afforded him a view of former president Andrew Jackson’s statue in Lafayette Square and, beyond that, the newly minted Black Lives Matter Plaza. Give him a second term in November, and perhaps he’ll install a golden escalator like the one he descended in at Trump Tower to launch his first campaign.

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Michelle Obama on marriage: ‘There are times when you can’t stand each other’

Former first lady says in latest episode of her podcast that marriage should be approached like picking a basketball team

Michelle Obama said there have been times when she wanted to “push Barack out of the window” and that marriage should be approached like picking a basketball team in a frank discussion about relationships.

In the latest episode of her Spotify podcast, the former first lady said young couples, especially when they have small children, struggle to deal with tiredness, stress and sharing roles and they give up on their relationship.

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US veterans and soldiers divided over Trump calling war dead ‘suckers’

Some service members expressed skepticism after bombshell report prompted an outpouring of condemnation

Donald Trump was struggling to retain support of active US service members, according to polls, even before last week’s bombshell report that the commander-in-chief referred to fallen and captured US service members as “losers” and “suckers”. But some veterans and military family members remain conflicted.

Related: Trump called American war dead ‘suckers’ and ‘losers', report claims

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India becomes country with second highest number of Covid cases

With 4.1m cases, south Asian nation is now second only to US in terms of number of infections

India has surpassed Brazil to become the country with the second highest number of coronavirus cases, as the virus continues to spread through the country of 1.3 billion at the fastest rate of anywhere in the world.

India recorded more than 90,000 cases overnight, bringing the number of infections in the country past 4.2 million and overtaking Brazil, which with 4.1 million cases had been the second worst-affected country for several months.

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