Researchers looking at whether human remains cause changes that could be detected by drones
They can’t shout “whodunnit” but plants could offer vital clues when it comes to finding clandestine graves, researchers say.
Forensic experts in the US have begun experiments at a body farm – a facility where decay processes can be studied – to explore whether decomposing human remains leave their mark on surrounding vegetation, for example by affecting the colour of the leaves.
Continue reading...White House summit irritates EU diplomats, who say deal brokered by them is near
The leaders of Kosovo and Serbia will meet at the White House on Thursday and Friday, in an encounter that some see as a push for a diplomatic win for Donald Trump to brandish during his re-election campaign.
Kosovo’s prime minister, Avdullah Hoti, will meet with the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vučić, in talks that Trump aides say will be primarily about economic issues between the two countries, but may pave the way to a broader deal.
Continue reading...Dwayne Johnson says he, his spouse and their daughters caught the virus less than three weeks ago from ‘very close family friends’
Pro-wrestler turned Hollywood actor Dwayne Johnson, known as The Rock, said in a video message posted on social media on Wednesday that he, his wife and their two young children tested positive for Covid-19 in recent weeks and he had “a rough go”.
Related: Joe Biden to meet with Jacob Blake's family in Kenosha – live
Continue reading...White House manipulation of US intelligence on Russian and Chinese interference may rival WMD fiasco that led to Iraq war, say experts
Two months before the presidential election, the US intelligence agencies are under increasing pressure from the Trump administration to provide only the information it wants to hear.
After installing loyalist John Ratcliffe at the pinnacle of the intelligence community, the administration is seeking to limit congressional oversight, and has removed a veteran official from a sensitive national security role in the justice department
Continue reading...Anti-democratic attitudes in America helped to scrub our election, while US-Nile geopolitics could become a powder keg
When US presidents comment on events in other countries, their remarks have impact.
When, for example, President Barack Obama congratulated the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) on an apparent landslide election victory in 2015, it signalled to some Ethiopians that the world’s most powerful country would not favour a legal challenge to the election results.
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From me and Joan E Greve:
A Bay Area police officer has been charged with voluntary manslaughter in the shooting of a Black man in a Walmart store in April.
The district attorney in California’s Alameda county announced the charge against officer Jason Fletcher, 49, in the killing Steven Taylor, 33. Responding to a call about a possible shoplifter with a baseball bat at a Walmart, Fletcher fired first his taser and then his pistol at Taylor, killing him.
Lee Merritt, an attorney for Taylor’s family, said Taylor was going through a mental health crisis on Saturday afternoon, and that he has previously suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar depression. “He was shot after he had become completely helpless and no longer represented a threat,” Merritt told the Guardian on Monday.
Merritt said he wasn’t sure yet whether police shot Taylor with a Taser or bullet after he was already down, and that an autopsy was under way.
Related: 'Don't shoot him no more!' California police face backlash over killing of man in Walmart
Continue reading...US public health departments being told to prepare November vaccine distribution; signs Covid-19 easing in Brazil; Berlusconi tests positive. Follow the latest updates
On loneliness in Victoria, Australia:
Under Melbourne’s strict lockdown rules, couples who live apart can visit each other but other visitors are banned, so a lot of single people who live alone, like Ford, have spent weeks completely isolated. Victorians are allowed to exercise with one other person for an hour outdoors, but that person has to live nearby because of the restrictions on movement. In practice, this means that unless you live in the same suburb as your friends and family, you are unlikely to be able to exercise together:
Related: 'It gets into your bones': the unique loneliness of coronavirus lockdown when you live alone
The UK government is to trial routine weekly Covid testing of the population as part of preparations to head off a possible winter second wave, as the former health secretary Jeremy Hunt called for such tests to become the norm.
Matt Hancock said the government was committing an extra £500m to scale up testing capacity and launch community pilots trialling the effectiveness of repeat testing in schools and colleges, as well as in the population as a whole. It will also ramp up the trials of a new test kit that it is claimed can provide results within 20 minutes:
Related: Mass weekly Covid-19 testing of population to be trialled in England
Continue reading...Chinese embassy in US says move, which limits meetings and university visits without approval, contradicts ‘openness and freedom’
The US has put new restrictions on Chinese diplomats in America, barring senior envoys from visiting universities or meeting local government officials without approval, in the latest escalation in tensions between the two countries.
Announcing the latest measures, the state department said it was responding to “significant barriers” on its own diplomats based in China.
Continue reading...Democratic candidate sought to put virus at heart of the campaign as rivals gave duelling speeches on Wednesday
Joe Biden attempted to regain the narrative in the US presidential election on Wednesday, telling Donald Trump to “get off Twitter” and focus on safely reopening schools during the coronavirus pandemic.
Related: Covid cases could surge in battleground midwest during Labor Day holiday
Continue reading...Joe Biden has described school closures as a ‘national emergency’ as he sought to put the coronavirus pandemic back at the heart of the US election campaign, after two weeks of Trump seeking to capitalise on sporadic scenes of violence in cities to push a ‘law and order’ theme
Continue reading...Make no mistake: this is Trump’s America, where protesters are shot by vigilantes as police look on
Donald Trump took a trip to a place called Biden’s America on Tuesday. It is a strange land where the president of the United States is a helpless guest, a doomed corner of his own country that is somehow ruled by a former vice president.
It is a topsy-turvy place, this Biden’s America. Occasionally, the president can regain his magical ruling powers by summoning assorted minions in uniforms and incanting a spell with his thumbs to tweet the words LAW AND ORDER.
Continue reading...The US has imposed sanctions on the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court, Fatou Bensouda, in the latest of a series of unilateral and radical foreign policy moves.
Announcing the sanctions, the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, did not give any specific reasons for the move other than to say the ICC “continues to target Americans” and that Bensouda was “materially assisting” that alleged effort.
Continue reading...US rejects global vaccine effort; cases rise in India, Russia and Hungary; Australia enters recession
Greece recorded has recorded the first coronavirus case in the overcrowded migrant camp of Moria on the island of Lesbos, two migration ministry officials said on Wednesday.
A 40-year old asylum seeker has tested positive for the virus and had been put in isolation, one of the officials told Reuters. Authorities were trying to trace the people he had been in contact with, the official said.
I am now handing over the blog to the very capable Amy Walker. Thank you for reading and please do keep us updated on all coronavirus-related tips and stories.
Continue reading...US president’s move challenged by Congress; Silvio Berlusconi has Covid-19; Brazil’s death toll appears to be easing. This blog is now closed
We’ve launched a new blog at the link below – head there for the latest:
Related: Coronavirus live news: Trump pushes to withdraw WHO funding immediately
Brazil’s Covid-19 death toll appears to be easing for the first time since May, data shows, a sign the Latin American country could be descending from a long infection plateau that has seen it suffer the world’s second-worst outbreak after the United States, Reuters reports.
With nearly 4 million confirmed cases, the virus has killed over 120,000 people in Brazil. But the level of average daily deaths dropped below 900 per day last week - the lowest in three and a half months and below the rate of both the United States and India, according to a Reuters tally.
Researchers at Imperial College London also calculate that the transmission rate in Brazil, at which each person infected with the coronavirus infects another person, is now below 1, the level required for new infections to slow.
US president blamed police discrimination on ‘bad apples’. Plus, US refuses to join coronavirus vaccine cooperation over WHO stance
Good morning. Trump blamed discriminatory policing on “bad apples”, and denied it was “systemic”, as he visited Kenosha, Wisconsin. Kenosha has been the site of daily anti-racism protests since police shot and paralysed Jacob Blake, an African American man, as he was getting into his vehicle with his three children inside.
Continue reading...The US president praised police forces while touring the Wisconsin city that became the centre of protests after an police shot Jacob Blake, blaming recent racist incidents on 'bad apples' and officers 'choking' under pressure.
Donald Trump said a silent majority of Kenosha residents were most concerned about 'law and order', insisting people should focus on 'anarchists, looters and rioters' and not peaceful protesters
As many as 75% of Biden voters worry that if Trump loses election he will refuse to concede defeat, triggering a constitutional crisis
Three in four supporters of Democratic challenger Joe Biden are worried about the prospect of Donald Trump rejecting the US presidential election result if it goes against him, an Opinium Research poll for the Guardian shows.
The survey underlined fears that the president will not accept the outcome of November’s race, triggering a constitutional crisis. Last week two congressional Democrats wrote to the Pentagon seeking assurance that the military would ensure an orderly transfer of power.
Continue reading...Donald Trump told Sarah Sanders she would have to “go to North Korea and take one for the team”, after Kim Jong-un winked at the then White House press secretary during a summit in Singapore in June 2018.
Related: Trump denies 'series of mini-strokes' after book reports mystery hospital visit
Continue reading...Former senior advisor claims she corresponded multiple times a day with the first lady on state business via private channels
Melania Trump used private email and messaging while in the White House, according to a former senior advisor and estranged friend.
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, speaking to the Washington Post, claims she corresponded multiple times a day with the First Lady via private channels.
Continue reading...The reassessment of China highlighted by Wang Yi’s trip has political, economic and security implications
The Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi did not exactly end his week-long European tour with his tail between his legs but he may have been chastened if he ever believed Beijing could simply win over Europe by pointing to the extremist cold war rhetoric of Europe’s natural ally America.
The five-nation tour surely marked the end of an era where China can any longer get away with simple homilies on win-win solutions, multilateralism and non-interference in another’s internal affairs. Pointing to Donald Trump is also no longer enough to win European friends.
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