The Russian government claims to have stolen a march on dozens of global rivals - including the US and UK - in the race to produce a viable coronavirus vaccine, saying it would start production of a vaccine next month and begin mass immunisation by October.
The announcement came amid controversy over how Russia has rushed its two vaccine candidates through safety testing, in which researchers dosed themselves as part of truncated human trials.
Donald Trump publicly rebuked a second member of the White House coronavirus taskforce on Monday morning, calling Deborah Birx?€?s assessment of Covid-19?€?s spread ?€?pathetic?€? in a tweet.
Birx warned on Sunday that the coronavirus was entering a new phase in the US and infections were now ?€?extraordinarily widespread?€? across the country, instead of clustering mainly in a clutch of states and big cities.
The declaration of a major incident in Greater Manchester should jolt a ?€?complacent white middle class?€? into realising that Covid-19 is not just spreading in ethnic minority households, one of the region?€?s health chiefs has said.
Eleanor Roaf, the director of public health in Trafford, said 80% of its infections in the last week were in the white community, and she urged the region?€?s 2.8 million residents to concentrate ?€?much harder on what we can do to stop the wider spread?€?.
Andrews is now announcing new fines for anyone who breaches their isolation orders:
If you are supposed to be at home and you are not, then you face the prospect of a fine of up to $5,000. If there were repeat breaches, if there were particularly selfish behaviour like, for instance, going to work when you had the virus, then there is the alternative pathway and that is, of course, taking you to the magistrates court, where the maximum penalty that can be applied to you is $20,000.
The National Hurricane Center warned coastal residents of North and South Carolina to brace for flooding and up to 8 inches of rain
Tropical Storm Isaias was upgraded to a category 1 hurricane as it neared landfall in the Carolinas on Monday, threatening to bring with it blasting winds and devastating floods.
Coastal residents secured patio furniture, ferry operators completed evacuations on the Outer Banks, and officials passed out sandbags and offered car space in elevated garages as Isaias marched northward.
New research has found extreme melting of the country?€?s glaciers in 2018 was at least ten times more likely due to human-caused global heating
Twice a year, glaciologist Lauren Vargo and her colleagues set up camp beside two small lakes close to New Zealand?€?s Brewster glacier. Each time the trek to carry the measuring stakes takes a little bit longer as the glacier?€?s terminus gets further away.
Dr Vargo, a native of Ohio now working at the Antarctic Research Centre at the Victoria University of Wellington, is studying New Zealand?€?s glaciers from the air and on the ice.
The 82-year-old says he is moving abroad to help son ?€?exercise his responsibilities?€? as king
Spain?€?s former king Juan Carlos is to leave the country and go into exile abroad following a series of damaging allegations about his financial arrangements that have harmed the reputation of the monarchy and embarrassed his son, King Felipe.
In March Felipe stripped Juan Carlos of his annual stipend and renounced his own personal inheritance from his father after reports that he was in line to receive millions of euros from a secret offshore fund with ties to Saudi Arabia.
Labour queries why MP used unsecured account for classified government business
A personal email account belonging to Liam Fox, the former trade minister, was repeatedly hacked into by Russians who stole classified documents relating to US-UK trade talks, the Guardian understands.
The security breaches last year, which are subject to an ongoing police investigation, pose serious questions for the Conservative MP who is currently the UK?€?s nominee to become director general of the World Trade Organization.
Companies should ensure six weeks?€? worth of drugs for end of transition period, DHSC says
Pharmaceutical companies should stockpile six weeks?€? worth of drugs to guard against disruption at the end of the Brexit transition period, the government has said.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has written to medicine suppliers advising them to make boosting their reserves a priority.
Pyongyang?€?s past six nuclear tests had likely helped it develop miniaturised nuclear devices, interim report finds, echoing previous warnings
North Korea is pressing on with its nuclear weapons programme and several countries believe it has ?€?probably developed miniaturised nuclear devices to fit into the warheads of its ballistic missiles,?€? according to a confidential UN report.
The report by an independent panel of experts monitoring UN sanctions said the countries, which it did not identify, believed North Korea?€?s past six nuclear tests had likely helped it develop miniaturised nuclear devices. Pyongyang has not conducted a nuclear test since September 2017.
New shrine to Lord Ram where mosque was torn down in 1992 marks culmination of a sustained political campaign by the BJP
Diwali has come early to the temple town of Ayodhya. Though the Hindu festival is three months away, the town has been lit up by earthen lamps for the laying of the foundation stone of a Hindu temple that ranks as perhaps the most emotionally intense, discordant, and divisive issue in Indian politics for decades.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to attend a ceremony in the town on Wednesday, when he will lay a 40kg silver brick at the construction site. He will be watched by priests chanting Vedic hymns, his party?€?s top brass and the good and great of Indian society.
Response follows thwarted infiltration attempt from Syria by suspected militants, Israel says
Israeli fighter jets and attack helicopters have struck Syrian military targets, hours after thwarting an infiltration attempt from Syria by suspected militants who were trying to plant explosives, the Israeli military said.
In a rare statement acknowledging strikes in neighbouring Syria, the army said the targets included ?€?observation posts and intelligence collection systems, anti-aircraft artillery facilities and command and control systems?€? in Syrian army bases.
NHS health officials say paracetamol, ibuprofen and opioids also unsuitable for chronic pain
Painkillers such as paracetamol, ibuprofen, aspirin and opioids can do ?€?more harm than good?€? and should not be prescribed to treat chronic pain, health officials have said.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) said there was ?€?little or no evidence?€? the commonly used drugs for chronic primary pain made any difference to people?€?s quality of life, pain or psychological distress.
Ricardas Puisys found hiding in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, after Facebook account set up in his name
A man feared by police to have been murdered has been found living in woods, almost five years after he disappeared amid fears he was being exploited.
The last confirmed sighting of Ricardas Puisys, now 40, was on 26 September 2015 at his workplace, 20 miles from where he lived in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. He unexpectedly failed to return to work two days later and in November of that year police launched a murder investigation. The following month a man was arrested on suspicion of his murder before being released without charge.
In this exclusive extract from her book about the case against George Pell, Melissa Davey talks to Robert Richter, the man who defended the cardinal against charges of child sexual abuse
In February 2020, I took the elevator to the fourth floor of a building in the heart of Melbourne?€?s courts district to interview Robert Richter, the defence barrister who represented George Pell at trial. He led me into his chambers, a room brimming with artwork, papers, books and vintage furniture. By the door was a 255-year-old leather chair made for Dr Samuel Johnson, who wrote the famous eponymous English dictionary. The relic has sentimental meaning for Richter, who taught himself English after moving with his family to Australia as a 13-year-old boy via Israel and the Soviet Union, where he was born.
I put in interview requests with the prosecution, including Mark Gibson, the county court?€?s chief justice, Peter Kidd, and Bret Walker SC, but Richter was the only one to eventually agree to be interviewed on the record about the case. While I was writing this book, many people I spoke to - including police officers, child-abuse researchers, lawyers and senior figures in Melbourne law - spoke of their respect and admiration for Richter. Some described him as kind; most described him as brilliant. However, none would go on the record, so poor are the optics of speaking favourably of someone representing an accused child-sex offender as high-profile as Pell.
There was a spike in the theft of sheep during the lockdown as gangs took advantage of deserted communities, empty roads and concerns about food shortages during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.
More than 6,000 inmates have tested positive for coronavirus and 22 have died. Advocates say the state has botched its response
California is battling a huge coronavirus outbreak in its state prisons, with thousands of inmates in facilities across the region infected.
Advocates and attorneys long warned that living conditions in the overcrowded institutions would prove fertile ground for the virus. Families and rights organizations say the state botched its response to the pandemic, failing to curb the spread of the virus and provide basic care and protections for prisoners.
Police guard also dies in shooting at restaurant in Guerrero
More than 120 Mexican journalists killed in 20 years
Press groups have called for justice after unidentified gunmen killed a journalist in southern Mexico, along with a police officer assigned to protect him after a 2016 attack.
Pablo Morrugares was the fifth journalist to be killed in Mexico this year, in attacks which are increasingly killing police guards assigned to the victims. More than 140 journalists have been killed over the past 20 years.
Many are unable to sleep, support coordinator says, and have been left without information, support or sanitation
Residents of the nine Melbourne public housing towers formerly under strict, police-controlled lockdown have been left traumatised and at risk of self-harm, fearful of going outside and without support or proper sanitation, one says.
Mohamed, a resident of a tower at 33 Alfred Street in North Melbourne and a support coordinator for his building, said nothing had changed in the towers since they come out of hard lockdown.
160 people have died following the killing of Haacaaluu Hundeessaa, leaving the ethnically and politically riven country more divided than ever
The figure holding a gun stepped beside the car in which Haacaaluu Hundeessaa was sitting in Addis Ababa, and pulled the trigger. The cold-blooded killing on the night of 29 June cut short the young life of one of Ethiopia?€?s most popular musicians and activists. It was also the start of some of the most consequential few days in recent Ethiopian history.
Hours later, in the lakeside town of Ziway in Ethiopia?€?s Oromia region - from which Haacaaluu came - Selas Russell woke to the sound of gunfire and shouting. Soon a friend rang her. ?€?Get up, grab your passport, leave your belongings and run for your life,?€? he told the Ethiopian-born British citizen who owns a hotel in the town.
Cooking, cleaning, and food shopping have been a shock to Anisa Agarwal. Pre-pandemic, married to a wealthy tile manufacturer, her life in Gulmohar Park in Delhi involved a cook, maid, driver and cleaner who came to her house every day.
But despite her total dependence on them, Agarwal, 44, has not allowed her staff to enter her home in four months.
In the two weeks before he died from suspected Covid-19, Grover Ponce was shuttled between six hospitals, as his wife Paola Medina battled the labyrinthine bureaucracy of Bolivia?€?s health system.
Just days after he was finally admitted to La Portada hospital in La Paz, he had to be rushed to intensive care in another hospital in El Alto. But by then it was too late. He suffered two cardiorespiratory arrests and died on Sunday.
With tourism devastated by the pandemic, many have returned to work the fields. Some believe they will never go back
Ni Kadek Erawati, 40, used to work in a villa in her village, Tegallalang, a Balinese district famous for its Instagram-able rice terraces.
But in March, her employer asked her to take a break until further notice. Her husband is unemployed and she needs to pay school fees for three children, but the only job she could find was working on a farm.
Attacks following election at centre of ?€?most serious known case of human rights abuse suffered by Unilever workers?€?
A group of 218 Kenyan tea plantation workers have filed a complaint with the UN against Unilever, alleging that the multinational violated international human rights standards by not adequately assisting its employees, who were attacked when ethnic violence broke out following a disputed election in 2007.
The workers say that Unilever, known in the UK for its PG Tips brand, breached its obligation to remediate any human rights abuses to which it has contributed, which is central to the UN?€?s guiding principles on business and human rights, and which the company has endorsed. They request the UN?€?s working group on business and human rights to make a declaration to this effect, and to call on the company to provide redress.
Over the past two decades GRU spies have stolen classified information from numerous targets around the world. According to Reuters, last summer they broke into Fox?€?s email account. They made off with secret US-UK trade documents later dumped out before the 2019 election.
Latest updates: how has Covid-19 progressed where you live? Check the week-on-week changes across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
The map shows local authorities where the number of cases has increased week-on-week and where it has fallen. Some of this is due to natural fluctuations, especially in areas where there are very few cases, and so a rise from 1 to 2 is a doubling. Increased testing also means that more cases may be being detected than previously, although the impact of this between one week and the next is likely to be slight.
Israeli PM says media makes demonstrations seem more significant than they are - he could have a point
Images of thousands of people in the streets and police scuffling with protesters paint a picture of an increasingly isolated prime minister whose lengthy grip over Israel may finally be loosening.
The visuals are striking, and the protests have certainly grown in size, yet whether they can hurt more than Benjamin Netanyahu?€?s ego is still to be seen.
Two years after part of Genoa's Morandi motorway bridge collapsed, killing 43 people, a new structure was opened in its place on Monday. The new Genoa San Giorgio bridge, designed by Renzo Piano, was inaugurated in a ceremony that included a flyover and was attended by the president, Sergio Mattarella, and the prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, who called the new structure the result of 'Italian genius'. The celebrations have been criticised by victims' families who declined to attend but had a private meeting with Mattarella beforehand
Federal judge Esther Salas has released an emotional video message in which she describes the day her son was killed and husband shot in an apparent targeted shooting.
Holding back tears at times, Salas described how 20-year-old Daniel was shot by Roy Den Hollander, who was posing as a FedEx driver, in what police believed to have been a targeted attack at their home in New Jersey on 19 July. Hollander was later found dead by suicide.
Salas used her message to call for more protection for people in her position, saying: 'my son's death cannot be in vain', adding: 'The free flow of information from the internet allowed this sick and depraved human being to find all our personal information and target us'
Thousands of Israelis took to the streets over the weekend to protest against Benjamin Netanyahu's alleged corruption and against his government's handling of the coronavirus crisis.
Israeli media estimated that about 15,000 protesters arrived at the prime minister's state residence in Jerusalem, where they carried banners calling on him to resign.
The weekend's protests were reported to be the biggest in a series of weekly demonstrations near Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem. Protesters also arrived outside his private house in the Israeli city of Caesarea and hundreds gathered in Tel Aviv
New Zealand leader Jacinda Ardern says while there was no timeframe on plans for a trans-Tasman travel bubble that would include Australia, the rise in Covid-19 cases in Victoria means it won't happen for some time to come. Once hopeful of including other countries in the Pacific region in the travel bubble, Ardern has confirmed New Zealand's borders will remain closed until the risk of coronavirus entering the country through visitors can be minimised. 'We wish Victoria all the very best as they continue to combat what is a devastating situation,' she said, 'but I think the reality for both of us is this is going to slow things down for us'
Thousands of residents in southern California were forced to evacuate as a wildfire in mountains east of Los Angeles exploded in size. The 'Apple fire' burned 60sq km of dry brush and timber after two blazes converged on Friday. Firefighters continue to battle the fire, with dangerously hot weather conditions forecast to carry on
Scenes of economic despair are visible across Lebanon - from shops to homes, businesses to hospitals. Guardian journalist Martin Chulov discusses why the country is verging on financial collapse
Across all pockets of a country conditioned to hardship over decades of war and tumult, the effects of a catastrophic economic implosion were evident when the Guardian?€?s Middle East correspondent Martin Chulov took a road trip across Lebanon. Since March, the prices of most goods have nearly tripled, while the value of the national currency has fallen by 80% and much of the country has ground to a halt. Those who still have work are surviving month to month. Poverty is soaring, crime is rising, and streets are incendiary. The country has defaulted on one bond payment and a second is due soon.
Martin tells Rachel Humphreys about how government corruption and financial mismanagement have lead to Lebanon finding itself on the brink of financial collapse.
Large number of US citizens demonstrated against the war in Iraq (and the possible war in Iran) during this October weekend. Massive turnout in Boston and San Fransisco, and also in Chicago, LA and DC people took to the streets. The message was: NO more war in Iraq! NO to a war with Iran!
