Military conflicts

The number of coronavirus cases worldwide passed 30 million on Friday, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, as the World Health Organization said daily case numbers were growing at an “alarming rate” in Europe.

The global death toll stands at 943,203 people and is expected to pass 1 million by 1 October.

The US accounts for than 22% of global cases, at 6.67m, and nearly 200,000 fatalities. The Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, again criticised the President Trump’s handling of the pandemic as “close to criminal”, in particular Trump’s supposedly intentional downplaying of the severity of the virus.

Biden also questioned Trump’s claims on a vaccine: “I don’t trust the president on vaccines,” he said, adding that he trusted Dr Anthony Fauci, the leading US infectious diseases expert sidelined by Trump.

Roughly one in every 50 Americans is infected, and one in every 1,600 has died since the start of the pandemic.

Reports emerged late on Thursday that guidance about the novel coronavirus testing posted last month on the website of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was not written by the agency’s scientists and was posted despite their objections. The New York Times reported the story, citing people familiar with the matter and internal documents.

The guidance said it was not necessary to test people with no symptoms of Covid-19, even if they had been exposed to the virus. The agency’s previous position recommended testing all people who had close contact with anyone diagnosed with Covid-19. The reversal shocked doctors and politicians and prompted accusations of political interference.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned of “alarming rates of transmission” of Covid-19 across Europe and cautioned countries against shortening quarantine periods. The WHO said the number of coronavirus cases in September “should serve as a wake-up call for all of us”.

France confirmed a new 24-hour record late on Thursday, registering 10,593 new confirmed coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours and pushing the cumulative number to 415,481. The previous high was 10,561 new cases in a day, recorded on 12 September. The sharp increase is a result of a higher infection rate but also of a massive increase in testing, Reuters reported.

Extra measures to curb the epidemic in the cities of Lyon and Nice were announced by the health minister on Thursday, adding to the three other regions already deemed as virus “red zones”.

Israel is preparing to enter a second national coronavirus lockdown on Friday, becoming the first country to re-enter nationwide restrictions. The unpopular lockdown is expected to last at least three weeks, upending a normally festive period filled with Jewish holidays.

Meanwhile, the Chinese city of Wuhan, ground zero for the coronavirus outbreak, is reopening for international flights, ending an eight-month moratorium. China stopped international flights in March as Covid-19 swept the world, but has now largely brought the disease under control at home through travel restrictions, testing and lockdowns.

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Major differences between the lives and attitudes of Germans in the west and east of the country persist 30 years after reunification, a range of studies released for the October anniversary show.

From wages to childcare, trust in political leaders and state institutions, to the importance of an east or west identity, the gaps are stark, the government ombudsman for the former communist East Germany (GDR), and author of the main report, said. “I had hoped that in this, the 30th year after German reunification, we would be further along than we are,” Marco Wanderwitz admitted.

The reports’ findings make for sobering reading ahead of the key anniversary on 3 October, when the country will celebrate the reunification of the two Germanies divided by 41 years of the GDR and 28 years of the Berlin Wall.

A year after unification, only 55% of western German women had paid employment, compared with 67% of eastern German women, according to a study by the Hans Böckler foundation of the union DGB. But 30 years on, the number of western German women in jobs is about 72%, and eastern German women 74%.

In both parts of the country, women are responsible for most childcare and housework, and are far more likely to be in part-time jobs than men. But the legacy of state childcare in eastern Germany, which, although it has reduced since the days of the GDR remains largely intact, means 60% of eastern German women feel they have to work part time compared with as many as 80% of western German women.

Whilst the GDP per inhabitant in eastern Germany has risen four-fold since 1990, the average eastern German’s wage is still only 88.8% of that of a western German, and the economic power of former communist states is only 73% of those of the former West Germany, failing to reach the level even of Saarland, economically the weakest western German state. Eastern Germany also has more people out of work, lower land prices and less tax income.

Young east Berliners celebrate on top of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Photograph: AFP/Getty

“In an extraordinary manner, in many ways Germany looks like it’s still divided,” the left-leaning daily TAZ commented. It added that divisive in itself was the fact that three decades after reunification, Wanderwitz “continues to have the name ‘government ombudsman for the new states’ on his business card”, which it said made it sound as if he were “a mentor for problem pupils”.

Only broadband connections between the two parts of Germany are on a par.

The government’s report expressed concern about the “general lack of satisfaction” of eastern Germans towards politics and its representatives. And while 91% of western Germans think democracy is the “best suited form of government”, only 78% of eastern Germans feel the same.

Voting for far-right parties is considerably more prevalent in eastern Germany, where the far-right populist Alternative für Deutschland, the main opposition party in the Bundestag, has made its strongest gains.

Boris Johnson’s internal market bill is a “threat to democracy” by a government on an “ideological crusade” that is driving Britain into ever-increasing isolation, while the world “stares on in disbelief”, European media have concluded.

“In the space of four short years, the UK has grown from a prominent and respected member of the European Union to an isolated state, angry with its allies and closest trading neighbours – and watched by the world with disbelieving eyes,” said France’s Libération.

At the end of a week in which the UK government doubled down on its plans to pass a law “providing for the possibility of violating a binding international treaty” it had itself negotiated and sold to voters as a triumph, the left-leaning daily said the UK had, step by steady step, “sapped the EU27’s confidence and goodwill”.

“Officially, negotiations with the EU on a possible free trade deal continue,” Libération said, “but what will the negotiators now say to each other when there is no progress on the key sticking points – fish, governance, a level playing field? How far will Boris Johnson go? And and for how long?”

Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung was equally brutal. What had happened in London this week “was simply not normal”, the paper said. “With his plan to breach the Brexit treaty with the EU, Boris Johnson has shaken the very foundations of British democracy.”

Britain’s word was once its bond, the paper said, “but once again, it is evident that this prime minister bends the law for his own ends. He puts his Brexit ideology above the law, just as he did a year ago when he illegally suspended parliament – and only the supreme court could stop him.”

Now, the paper said, it is up to that same British parliament to stop Johnson and “show the government who is sovereign. It is incumbent on the women and men gathered there to reject this bill intended to undermine the Brexit treaty. Johnson’s manoeuvre is a threat to democracy.”

In the Netherlands, De Volkskrant noted that pacta sunt servanda – the rule that agreements must be kept – was “the oldest principle of international law”, so it was “a deliberate, and hugely far-reaching, step by the Johnson government to table a bill that violates the Northern Ireland provisions in the withdrawal agreement, which is an international treaty”.

The EU and the UK, it added, “have little time to reach an agreement that, to a greater or lesser extent, will affect many millions of people. ‘Robust’ language and other antics are all part of the negotiation process, but this latest British move crosses too many lines.

“The British voted for Brexit, not for an ideological crusade. Boris Johnson must quickly retrace his steps – and not just because the EU demands it, but because the British national interest demands it.”

The French international affairs commentator Pierre Haski pointed out on public radio France Inter that the British government’s latest move was so shocking it had prompted the EU to threaten legal action, “an astonishing first in a saga already far from lacking in plot twists”.

The only response possible, Haski said, was “that of the EU27: a unity that has so far withstood all of the tests thrown at it by London, which plainly wants nothing more than division. Plus the certainty that if these talks end in failure, everyone will suffer – but the UK far more than the rest.”

Le Monde said the world was left guessing at Johnson’s true intentions, wondering whether he “can really prefer no deal to a compromise on the future relationship. Has he truly pulled the pin out of the grenade by deciding to renege on the divorce agreement and trigger a complete breakdown with Brussels?”

Spain’s El Pais said Downing Street clearly had “no intention of dialling down the tension in a standoff that it has itself provoked, insisting that the sovereignty of the British parliament takes precedence over any international treaty”.

Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland, a recession-era road trip drama starring Frances McDormand, won the Golden Lion for best film on Saturday at a slimmed-down Venice film festival, which was held against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic.

Zhao and McDormand appeared by video from the United States to accept the award, as en virus-related travel restrictions made reaching the Lido in the Italian lagoon city difficult if not impossible for many Hollywood filmmakers and actors.

“Thank you so much for letting us come to your festival in this weird, weird world and way!” McDormand told the masked audience as the Italian marketing team for the film actually accepted the award. “But we’re really glad you let us come! And we’ll see you down the road!”

British actor Vanessa Kirby won best lead actress for Pieces of a Woman, a harrowing drama about the emotional fallout on a couple after their baby dies during a home birth. Italy’s Pierfrancesco Fabino won best lead actor for Padrenostro (Our Father), an Italian coming-of-age story that takes place after a terrorist attack in the 1970s. Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa won the Silver Lion for best director for Wife of a Spy, while the Silver Lion grand jury prize went to Mexico’s Michel Franco for his dystopian drama New Order.

Frances McDormand in Nomadland, directed bu Chloe Zhao. Photograph: Courtesy of SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES/AP

The Russian film Dear Comrades!, about a 1960s era massacre in the former Soviet Union, won a special jury prize while Chaitanya Tamhane won best screenplay for The Disciple, about an Indian man’s pursuit to be a classical musician.

That the 10-day Venice festival took place at all was something of a miracle, given that northern Italy in late February became ground zero for Europe’s coronavirus outbreak. The Cannes Film Festival was cancelled and other big international festivals in Toronto and New York opted to go mostly online.

But after Italy tamed its infections with a strict 10-week lockdown, Venice decided to go ahead, albeit under safety protocols that would have previously been unthinkable for a festival that has prided itself on spectacular visuals and glamorous clientele. Face masks were required indoors and out. Reservations for all were required in advance, with theatre capacity set at less than half. The public was barred from the red carpet and paparazzi, who would normally chase after stars in rented boats, were given socially distanced positions on land.

Vanessa Kirby with the best actress for Pieces of a Woman. Photograph: Ettore Ferrari/EPA

While it’s too soon to say if the measures worked, there were no immediate reports of infections among festivalgoers and compliance with mask mandates and social distancing appeared to be high. “We were a little bit worried at the beginning, of course,” said festival director Alberto Barbera. “We knew that we had a very strict plan of safety measures and we were pretty sure about that, but you never know.”

Hong Kong director Ann Hui almost didn’t make it after she couldn’t get on her flight because of virus border restrictions. In the end, she arrived to collect her Golden Lion lifetime achievement award and to see her out-of-competition film Love After Love make its world premiere.

Four hundred children left without shelter after fire destroyed a refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos will be relocated across 10 countries in the European Union, with Germany and France taking in the bulk of those affected.

Germany’s interior minister, Horst Seehofer, said on Friday morning his country was prepared to take up to 150 unaccompanied minors from Moria camp – despite some of Germany’s largest states and cities saying they were prepared to take in more.

Seehofer drew criticism for declining to take in more of the nearly 13,000 people in need of emergency housing after the fire gutted the camp on Tuesday and Wednesday.

At a joint press conference with Margaritis Schinas, a commission vice-president, Seehofer said the most important thing was to offer “help on the ground”, for example, by providing food and temporary shelter.

The federal states of Berlin, Thuringia, North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria, as well as the mayors of 10 German cities, announced they were willing to take in refugees from Lesbos.

“We are prepared to take in people from Moria to defuse the humanitarian catastrophe,” the mayors of cities including Düsseldorf, Freiburg, Hanover and Cologne said in an open letter to Seehofer and the chancellor, Angela Merkel.

In Berlin, about 3,000 people demonstrated under the motto “We have room” on Wednesday evening, condemning Moria as a “camp of shame”.

Seehofer, who has repeatedly clashed with Merkel over her open-border stance at the height of the 2015 refugee crisis, has so far blocked the arrival of refugees through federal reception initiatives, insisting on the need for a coordinated European response.

Schinas, the European commissioner for promoting the European way of life, confirmed on Friday that the commission would unveil proposals on 30 September for a new pact on migration and asylum. “Moria is a sharp reminder to all of us of what we need to change in Europe,” he said.

German media have accused Seehofer of using his call for a joint-European response as an excuse for inaction. In an editorial on its website, the news weekly Der Spiegel said the inhumane living conditions at the Moria camp had been known to Europe’s national governments for months but were never acted upon.

“Taking these refugees in would indeed run counter to a strategy of maximal deterrence,” Der Spiegel argued. “But then politicians should face up to their own cold toughness – and not pretend that the inaction of the past is only an unpleasant consequence of difficult European negotiations.”

The UK government is also facing urgent calls to offer support to the children. The Labour peer Alf Dubs, a former child refugee and campaigner for safe routes, has written to the home secretary, Priti Patel, asking her to bring some of the minors made homeless by the fire to the UK.

Lord Dubs wrote: “A terrible tragedy is unfolding at the Moria camp. The UK government must step in immediately and offer safety to the unaccompanied children now surviving in the open. The issue of safe routes for child refugees has always had cross-party support and after this horrendous fire the government cannot keep dodging the issue by insisting that children are safe in Europe. This shows beyond doubt that children are not safe.

“Whether in a camp on the Greek island or in northern France, children are at extreme risk and need our help now. Failing to act would be an outrage.”

The crisis in Lesbos intensifies the debate in the UK around laws on family reunion for unaccompanied minors. EU laws which allow minors to have their claim transferred to the UK if they have family in the country are due to come to an end when the Brexit transition period ends on 31 December.

Dubs is leading efforts to protect family reunion with an amendment to the immigration bill. It is currently before the House of Lords having been voted down by the government.

The charity Safe Passage said there were children stuck on Lesbos despite having been already approved for transfer to the UK to join close family.

The French president, Emanuel Macron, is expected to lay out a plan to tackle a rising tide of coronavirus infections after the country’s highest ever one-day total. It came as the UN called for an immediate quantum leap in funding to fight the virus, which the secretary general described as the “number one global security threat”.

France on Thursday recorded 9,843 new cases of Covid-19, bringing the number in a week to nearly 50,000.

Macron said he would announce measures on Friday for France to “adapt to the evolution of the virus”.

“We will have decisions to make but we must continue to be demanding, realistic, without giving in to any panic whatsoever,” he said.

France’s scientific council warned this week that the government will be forced to take action to control the rising infections. In August the daily average of new cases was 3,003 but in September it has been 7,292.

France has already classed nearly a third of its regions as “red zones” because of the virus. On Wednesday officials announced 20 new Covid testing centres would be opened in Paris after a huge rise in demand as people return from summer holidays.

Cases also skyrocketed in India which has set a global one-day tally of new coronavirus infections with 96,551 recorded on Thursday. The total number of recorded cases was more than 4.5m, according to the health ministry. Infections are growing faster in India than anywhere else in the world. The death rate has remained relatively low but appears to be trending upwards with more than 1,000 reported every day for the last 10 days and total fatalities standing at 76,271.

The United Nations secretary general, Antonio Guterres, urged countries to find $15bn over the next three months to fund the ACT-Accelerator programme, a global collaboration for a vaccine and treatments led by the World Health Organization.

“Either we stand together or we will be doomed,” Guterres said, calling the virus the “number one global security threat”.

“We need a quantum leap in funding to increase the chances of a global solution to get the world moving, working and prospering again,” he said.

He said the near $3bn contributed so far had been critical but $35bn more was needed to shift from start-up to scale-up.

In the US, Donald Trump claimed the country was “rounding the final turn” as coronavirus deaths in the country neared 200,000. He went on the offensive over Bob Woodward’s new book, Rage, which brought to light recordings of Trump admitting he played down the virus publicly while privately knowing it was very serious.

At a rally in Michigan, Trump called Woodward a “whack job” and also accused Joe Biden of not wanting a vaccine for political reasons. Thousands attended the rally, many without masks, and with little social distancing.

Donald Trump arrives at a rally in Michigan. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP

Earlier the US’s top infections diseases official, Anthony Fauci, warned a Harvard Medical School panel that the US “needed to hunker down and get through this fall and winter because it’s not going to be easy”.

Fauci warned against underestimating Covid’s power to cause destruction.

“We’ve been through this before,” he said. “Don’t ever, ever underestimate the potential of the pandemic. And don’t try and look at the rosy side of things.”

He also warned that some parts of the US would see rises in cases after last weekend’s Labor Day holiday. The Memorial Day holiday at the end of May was also blamed for surges in June and July.

According to Murphy’s testimony, Nielsen and her successor, Chad Wolf, continued to exaggerate the terrorist threat at the border in 2019, while being aware of the real figures.

Murphy’s most serious allegations concern the effort to downplay Russian meddling in the election while it was under way. In May this year, Murphy says, Wolf told him “to cease providing intelligence assessments on the threat of Russian interference in the United States, and instead start reporting on interference activities by China and Iran”.

Wolf told Murphy the orders came from the national security adviser, Robert O’Brien.

“Mr Murphy informed Mr Wolf he would not comply with these instructions, as doing so would put the country in substantial and specific danger,” the whistleblower complaint says.

On 7 July, Murphy was told to stop circulating any information about Russian disinformation efforts until he met Wolf. The next day, according to the complaint, the acting homeland security secretary told Murphy the assessment of the Russian role “should be ‘held’ because it ‘made the president look bad’”.

When Murphy objected, he was excluded from meetings on the subject, and an alternative assessment was leaked to the press which put Russian interference on a par with China and Iran – an equivalence which Murphy, and most intelligence experts, say is not supported by the facts.

“This is a huge deal,” the former National Security Agency lawyer Susan Hennessey wrote on Twitter. “Is [national security adviser] O’Brien directing the [intelligence community] and others to lie about or distort the China election threat to hurt Biden and help Trump?”

Top administration officials, including the director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe; the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo; and the attorney general, William Barr, have claimed that China is as big a threat, if not a much greater danger, to the integrity of the US elections than Russia, with the implication that China favours Trump’s Democratic challenger, Joe Biden. No substantial evidence has been presented to support that claim, which is contradicted by a vast amount of material, including reports by the special counsel Robert Mueller, and the Republican-led Senate intelligence committee, detailing Russian interference.

Speaking to MPs on the digital, culture, media and sport committee, Lloyd Webber said he had been trialling measures at the London Palladium that could allow the theatre business to return after a production of Phantom Of The Opera was able to continue in South Korea with strict hygiene measures and no social distancing.

He told MPs: “I’m absolutely confident that the air in the London Palladium and in all my theatres is purer than the air outside.”

Giving evidence alongside other key arts promoters, Lloyd Webber said theatres needed funds to reopen safely and turn a profit with socially distant audiences.

Even a forthcoming musical version of Frozen, the hit Disney film, would struggle to break even, he said, saying: “Disney would be lucky to make their investment back on that show for two or three years. The margins are incredibly tight.”

He claimed a Public Health England official visiting the London Palladium told him that people “won’t want to wear masks in theatres”. He disagreed: “Theatregoers tend to be a very responsible bunch. People will be very respectful of all the measures.”

He added: “There comes a point when we really can’t go on anymore. Theatre is an incredibly labour-intensive business. In many ways putting on a show now is almost a labour of love. Very few shows hit the jackpot in the way a Hamilton, Lion King or Phantom Of The Opera do.”

He added that theatre shows were “not like cinema, you can’t just open the building”, estimating that a production like Phantom Of The Opera would take “between three or four months” to get up and running again. “We simply have to get our arts sector back open and running. We are at the point of no return really,” he said.

Asked about his final message for the government, the theatre boss said: “Give us a date”.

Lucy Noble, the artistic and commercial director of the Royal Albert Hall, which is holding its annual proms concerts without an audience, told MPs 80% of its staff were on furlough.

There were “huge consequences to venues not being able to put performances on … serious financial consequences … all venues are on their knees financially,” she added.

On Tuesday the venue in Kensington, west London, called for donations totalling £20m to help it weather the impact of Covid-19.

It has lost £18m in income, refunded more than £6.5m in ticket sales and exhausted its reserves in the six months since closing its doors in March, according to the chief executive, Craig Hassall.

The Royal Albert Hall was not eligible for an emergency grant from the government’s £1.57bn arts rescue package, and had been advised to apply for a loan which, if successful, would arrive in December.

Later, Melvin Benn, the managing director of Festival Republic, a UK promoter of festivals including Reading and Leeds, Download, Wireless and V, told MPs that festivals were impossible with social distancing.

Testing could be the solution, he said: “In June, I published a report or a plan, the Full Capacity plan, which was based on testing people before they arrive at the festival, or before they arrive at the event.”

Business leaders have warned Boris Johnson that securing a Brexit deal is essential for safeguarding Britain’s economic recovery from the coronavirus outbreak and avoiding higher prices in the shops for British consumers.

Sounding the alarm after the prime minister said no deal would be a “good outcome” for Britain and confirmed plans that could undermine the government’s commitment to the EU withdrawal agreement, business groups said failure to compromise in talks this week would severely damage Britain’s fragile economic recovery.

“Getting a deal requires political leadership and compromise from both sides. That is needed urgently in the coming weeks.”

Allie Renison, head of Europe and trade policy at the Institute of Directors, said few companies would welcome the prospect of no deal. “Even among our members who want to diverge from EU rules, the majority say reaching a deal is important for the economy,” she said.

At the outset of a tense week of negotiations between London and Brussels, reports that the UK government could backslide on the EU withdrawal agreement signed in January sent the pound tumbling on the international currency markets. In a shift that could push up the cost of imports to Britain if the sell-off is sustained, sterling fell about 1% against the dollar on Monday to trade below $1.32, and fell by a similar amount against the euro to below €1.12.

“The Brexit heat is back on and sterling is, in our view, unprepared,” said Petr Krpata, a currency analyst at the Dutch bank ING, warning that the pound could reach parity with the euro within weeks if the Brexit talks deteriorate further.

Raising the temperature in the talks, Johnson issued an ultimatum to negotiators on Monday, saying an agreement must be reached by 15 October or Britain will walk away.

However, business leaders warned that British companies were ill-equipped to cope with a no-deal departure from the transition period with the economy in the deepest recession since modern records began.

Should a deal fail to be reached in time, business leaders said consumers could face higher prices in the shops as a result of border disruption, tariffs and a weaker pound driving up the cost of imports.

“A no deal would be the worst outcome for consumers,” said Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium. He said hundreds of millions of pounds in tariffs would be added to the cost of food in UK supermarkets after a no-deal departure, disproportionally hitting the poorest households.

Ian Wright, chief executive of the Food and Drink Federation, said: “While shoppers have rightly come to expect a wide range of products on shop shelves and menus, a no-deal Brexit scenario would result in significant changes to availability, quality and value.”

Manufacturers’ groups warned that Brexit stockpiles had been depleted during the Covid lockdown amid widespread disruption to businesses, and that many firms were running out of cash and time to prepare for leaving the EU.