Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Largest US childrenswear retailer blames Covid for move, as employees say they are struggling to buy food after wage cuts
The largest childrenswear retailer in the US has cancelled millions of dollars worth of clothing orders from suppliers in Ethiopia because of the coronavirus pandemic, pushing companies into debt and leaving employees facing pay cuts.
The Children’s Place (TCP), which has more than 1,000 stores in the US and 90 around the world and had a turnover of $2bn (£1.5bn) last year, cancelled orders from Ethiopia in March and delayed payments by six months for orders completed in January and February, suppliers told the Guardian.
Obesity increases the risk of death from Covid-19 by nearly 50% and may make vaccines against the disease less effective, according to a comprehensive study using global data.
The research from leading global experts warns that the risks for people with obesity are greater than previously thought.
Letetra Widman, the sister of Jacob Blake, who was shot in the back by police on Sunday, gives an impassioned plea saying that above all the other labels given to her brother, he is human.
Letetra said she had been inundated with messages of support but that all she really wanted was change.
Nationwide the need for aid at food banks and pantries has surged amid worst unemployment rate in modern times
Neisha Davis cradles brown paper lunch bags in the crook of one arm, while holding on to Demitri, her wriggling baby son, in the other and keeping a careful eye on Naya, her four-year-old daughter, as she runs around the church car park with another little girl.
It’s hectic but the free packed lunches have become a crucial part of their daily nutrition. So everyday at noon the family make the two-mile journey from Homewood, a low income predominantly African American Pittsburgh neighbourhood with no grocery stores, to the East End Community Ministry’s pop-up lunch stall in East Liberty.
Speakers – including three members of the president’s family – spouted falsehoods about his character and his opponent
The best courtroom dramas involve a defence lawyer who can work miracles of persuasion and, no matter how damning the evidence, convince the jury that their client is innocent.
A week after Democratic prosecutors presented their “open and shut” case against Donald Trump, the virtual Republican national convention is not only attempting to get him off the hook but argue that he deserves a medal – and four more years in the White House.
Trump allies and family members also used misleading claims to portray the president as the best hope for America’s future
Allies of Donald Trump shattered political norms, stirred controversy and issued misleading claims against Democrats during the second night of the Republican party’s national convention on Tuesday.
In speech after speech, a collection of Trump’s family members, allies, rightwing campaigners and swing-state farmers portrayed the president as the best hope for America’s future.
The payment would go to victims of al-Qaida but has caused anger in the poverty-stricken country
A US proposal to remove Sudan from a list of states that sponsor terrorism – in exchange for a $330 million payment compensation to American victims of al-Qaida – has caused anger in the poverty-stricken east African country.
Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, visited Khartoum on Tuesday to underline US support for the new transitional government that took power following the fall of Omar al-Bashir last year, whose 30 year authoritarian rule saw Sudan become an international pariah.
The family of Jacob Blake, the black man shot by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, has revealed the 29-year-old has been paralysed. Speaking alongside attorney Benjamin Crump, Blake's father, Jacob Blake Sr said, 'They shot my son seven times. Seven times. Like he didn't matter. But my son matters.' Blake's mother, Julia Jackson, called for unity after damage to the city from protests following the shooting
Where’s the GOP condemnation for an extremist, conspiracy theory candidate?
Guardian reporter Julia Carrie Wong, who has reportedextensively on the QAnon conspiracy theory, notes that there is an interesting historical precedent for what Republican politicians could do when an extremist candidate is running for office as part of their party, as QAnon supporter congressional candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene is now doing.
The David Duke season of Slow Burn provided a really interesting and timely counterexample of how a national party *can* react when a fringe extremist is running for office. Both Reagan (former president) and HW Bush (current president) ran TV ads against Duke in 1989. https://t.co/e1YpyqULxH
By contrast, Trump has praised Greene, tacitly endorsed the false & antisemitic conspiracy theory she supports, and now invited her to the White House. Meanwhile, his chief of staff has given her campaign money. https://t.co/EGAkQk0YeY
Thunderstorms might disrupt Melania Trump’s Rose Garden speech tonight
This is Lois Beckett, taking over our live politics coverage from our west coast office in California, where wildfires across the state have displaced more than 100,000 people, and smoke and particles from the fires have made the air unhealthy to breathe for millions of other residents. (You can follow our wildfires live coverage here.)
JUST IN: Severe thunderstorm watch for entire DC area thru 11p. Most likely time for storms, passing from northwest to southeast, between 6 and 10p. A few storms may produce damaging winds. We'll monitor and update as necessary. Updates: https://t.co/QC9KsWX1Oypic.twitter.com/bnK2Xc6YWo
Tony Evers calls special session of state legislature
Lawmakers had delayed ordering body cameras for years
In the wake of protests over the shooting of a Black man by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the state governor, Tony Evers, has promised to move forward with reforms to curb law enforcement misconduct.
Evers has demanded state legislators meet on 31 August in a special session to consider a set of nine police reform bills which were floated more than two months ago. The proposals – which followed the 25 May killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police – include banning chokeholds and limiting other use-of-force methods.
Indonesia said no further action could be taken on US request because there was no consensus on 15-nation body
The US has suffered another humiliating diplomatic setback after the president of the UN security council rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to extend economic sanctions on Iran.
Unbridled fear-based rhetoric filled the first day of the 2020 Republican national convention, with participants focused on the alleged dangers of electing Joe Biden as president. Other topics included concern for the future of the economy, stoking racial divisions and praise for Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic
While some scientists believe the virus has become less deadly, others look at the factors that suggest otherwise
Are Covid-19 death rates decreasing? Most statistics indicate that although cases of Covid-19 are rising in many parts of Europe and the United States, the number of deaths and cases of severe complications remain relatively low. For example, patients on ventilators have dropped from 3,000 at the epidemic’s peak in Britain to 70. At the same time, the number of cases in the UK have begun to rise in many areas.
What lies behind this trend? Doctors are unsure exactly what is going on. Some suggest that medical interventions are more successful at treating those who suffer complications from the disease. For example, the drug dexamethasone was recently shown to improve survival rates among patients requiring ventilation. Others argue that different factors are involved. One suggestion is that Covid-19 is now becoming a disease of younger people who are less likely to die or suffer serious complications.
Carnival’s Princess Cruises has said it will cancel early 2021 cruises on two ships, citing travel, border and port restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Cruise lines, hammered by a crisis that has seen some ships turn into infection hotspots, had earlier said they were expecting solid 2021 bookings, mainly as repeat cruisers were eager to book their trips.
Kate Green, Labour’s shadow education secretary, has called the Department of Education change on face coverings a “half baked U-turn”.
Parents and schools needed clarity and leadership, but instead the government have just passed the buck back to them.
Face coverings should be compulsory in communal areas in schools.
It was inevitable that the policy on face coverings would change following guidance from the World Health Organization, and we recognise that the government in Westminster has responded to our call for a quick direction on this matter with the reopening of schools imminent.
The new policy is discretionary, other than in places where coronavirus restrictions apply, and secondary school and college leaders will welcome the flexibility this affords them to decide what best suits their circumstances.
Kenosha police confront demonstrators shouting ‘no justice, no peace’ over the shooting of Jacob Blake on Sunday
Anger over the shooting of a Black man by police spilled into the streets of Kenosha for a second night Monday, with police again firing teargas at hundreds of protesters who defied a curfew, threw bottles and shot fireworks at law enforcement guarding the courthouse.
The south-eastern Wisconsin city became the latest flashpoint in a summer of racial unrest in the US after footage of police shooting Jacob Blake apparently in the back, as he leaned into his SUV with his three children inside, circulated widely on social media Sunday. The 29-year-old was hospitalised in a serious condition.
In the short term, probably not, but with China weaponising the yuan stern challenges lie ahead
The recent sharp depreciation of the US dollar has led to concerns that it may lose its role as the main global reserve currency. After all, in addition to the Federal Reserve’s aggressive monetary easing – which threatens to debase the world’s key fiat currency even further – gold prices and inflation expectations have also been rising.
But, to paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the dollar’s early demise are greatly exaggerated. The greenback’s recent weakness is driven by shorter-term cyclical factors. In the long run, the situation is more complicated: the dollar has both strengths and weaknesses that may or may not undermine its global position over time.
President’s allies and family issued dark warnings of what’s at stake in the election, and an array of misleading claims
Republicans have used the first night of their national convention to issue dark warnings about the future of America, arguing that re-electing Donald Trump is the only way to save the country from falling into socialism, economic ruin, violence and anarchy.
Monday night’s theme was officially the “land of promise,” but the collection of speeches offered an almost apocalyptic vision of what’s at stake in November’s elections, and a dizzying array of misleading claims.
20-year-old Timesha Beauchamp was discovered alive shortly before she was to be embalmed, according to family lawyer.
A young woman who was declared dead at her suburban Detroit home opened her eyes at a funeral home as she was about to be embalmed, a lawyer has said.
“They would have begun draining her blood to be very, very frank about it,” Geoffrey Fieger told WXYZ-TV. Fieger, who was hired by the family, identified the woman as Timesha Beauchamp.
The Southfield fire department acknowledged it was involved in a bizarre set of events on Sunday that began when a medical crew was summoned to a home where a 20-year-old woman was unresponsive.
Paramedics tried to revive her for 30 minutes and consulted an emergency room doctor, the department said.
The doctor “pronounced the patient deceased based upon medical information provided” from the scene, the department said.
The Oakland county medical examiner’s office said the body could be released to the family without an autopsy, according to the fire department.
But then came a startling discovery at the James H Cole funeral home in Detroit: the woman was still alive more than an hour later.
“Our staff confirmed she was breathing” and called a emergency medical crew, the funeral home said.
Fieger said: “They were about to embalm her, which is most frightening, had she not had her eyes open ... The funeral home unzipping the body bag, literally that’s what happened to Timesha, and seeing her alive with her eyes open.”
Fieger did not return a message from the Associated Press.
Beauchamp was in a critical condition on Monday night, said Brian Taylor, spokesman for the Detroit Medical Centre.
“My heart is so heavy. Someone pronounced my child dead, and she’s not even dead,” Beauchamp’s mother, Erica Lattimore, told WDIV-TV.
Southfield said it was conducting an internal investigation but insisted that the fire and police departments had followed procedures.
In an unscheduled appearance on the first day of the Republican national convention, Donald Trump falsely claimed Democrats were attempting to steal the election by expanding absentee voting during the coronavirus pandemic. 'The only way they can take this election away from us is if this is a rigged election,' he told delegates in Charlotte, North Carolina