The Guardian

@guardian

200 years of independent journalism 🌏 Fearlessly holding power to account 🔍 Always factual 🤝 Never dull 💃
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On Friday 22 March, Islamic State claimed its deadliest attack in Europe after gunmen stormed into the Crocus City Hall concert venue on the outskirts of Moscow and killed 137 people. Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, acknowledged the involvement of 'radical Islamists' but suggested Ukraine was involved, a claim which Kyiv has rejected. The Guardian's Moscow correspondent, Andrew Roth, explains why the group might have targeted Russia, why Putin has blamed Ukraine and what impact the attack is likely to have on the president’s strongman image in Russia. Watch the video to find out, and for more about terrorism and the battle for truth in Moscow listen to our latest Today in Focus episode via the link in bio.
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A major bridge in Baltimore in the US state of Maryland has snapped and collapsed after a container ship collided with it early on Tuesday, sending a number of vehicles into the water. The Baltimore fire department said it was searching for at least seven people believed to be in the water, after reports that a large vessel had crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge. A video posted on X appeared to show the vessel striking one of the bridge’s central supports, causing much of the 2.6km bridge to give way as a number of vehicles fell into the Patapsco River below. The ship appeared to catch fire as part of the bridge appeared to collapse over it, sending plumes of thick, black smoke into the air. Calls to 911 had come in at about 1.30am, reporting a vessel travelling outbound from Baltimore that had struck a column on the bridge, causing it to collapse, said Kevin Cartwright, the director of communications for the Baltimore fire department. Several vehicles were on the bridge at the time, including one the size of a tractor-trailer. The Baltimore mayor, Brandon M Scott, and the county executive, Johnny Olszewski Jr, said emergency personnel were at the scene and rescue efforts were under way. Built in 1977, the bridge spans the Patapsco River, a vital artery that along with the Port of Baltimore is a hub for shipping on the US’s east coast. It is named for the author of the American national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner. Follow the link in bio to follow our live coverage of the situation in Baltimore.
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Only seven countries are meeting an international air quality standard, with deadly air pollution worsening in places due to a rebound in economic activity and the toxic impact of wildfire smoke, a new report has found. Of 134 countries and regions surveyed in the report, only seven – Australia, Estonia, Finland, Grenada, Iceland, Mauritius and New Zealand – are meeting a World Health Organization (WHO) guideline limit for tiny airborne particles expelled by cars, trucks and industrial processes. When inhaled, these particles, PM2.5, can cause a myriad of health problems and deaths. The most polluted country, Pakistan, has PM2.5 levels more than 14 times higher than the WHO standard, the IQAir report found, with India, Tajikistan and Burkina Faso the next most polluted countries. Canada, long considered as having some of the cleanest air in the western world, became the worst for PM2.5 last year due to record wildfires that ravaged the country, sending toxic spoke spewing across the country and into the US. “Unfortunately things have gone backwards,” said Glory Dolphin Hammes, North America chief executive of IQAir. “The science is pretty clear about the impacts of air pollution and yet we are so accustomed to having a background level of pollution that’s too high to be healthy. We are not making adjustments fast enough.” Follow the link in bio to read more.
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Margarita Bunova, who was in the concert hall with her husband during the Moscow attack, has told of how she escaped after gunmen left at least 137 people dead. 'It was 7.47pm. I heard a blast, I honestly thought it was a firecracker. I thought that, probably, the artists who came were being greeted by fans. But these crackles… they weren’t stopping, there was screaming, panic,' she said.  Islamic State has released new videos of the attack on the Crocus City concert hall, corroborating the terror group’s claim to have masterminded the slaughter even as Russia has sought to place the blame on Ukraine, which Kyiv denies. Russia is observing a nationwide day of mourning on Sunday for the worst terror attack on the country’s soil in two decades, as the official number of wounded rose to 154. Russian authorities have said they expect the death toll to rise with at least one dozen victims still in critical condition. #Russia  #Moscow
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The Princess of Wales has disclosed that she has been diagnosed with cancer and is in the early stages of receiving chemotherapy treatment. In a statement recorded at Windsor by the BBC, Catherine said her condition had been discovered after she had major abdominal surgery in January. After weeks of speculation about her health, Catherine said she and her husband, Prince William, had needed time to explain the situation to their three children, George, 10, Charlotte, eight, and Louis, five. “This of course came as a huge shock, and William and I have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family,” she said. “As you can imagine, this has taken time. It has taken me time to recover from major surgery in order to start my treatment. But, most importantly, it has taken us time to explain everything to George, Charlotte and Louis in a way that is appropriate for them, and to reassure them that I am going to be OK.” The Princess of Wales, 42, had been admitted to the London Clinic on 16 January for major abdominal surgery. At the time, the palace refused to confirm what Catherine was being treated for, but said the condition was non-cancerous. Catherine said it was only after the surgery that the cancer had been found. The king is also currently being treated for cancer. For more, click the link in bio.
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Have you ever wondered how the internet travels around the world? You might think it travels above our heads through the ether, but actually 99% of it is carried undersea by fibre optic cables, according to TeleGeography. The problem is undersea cables are relatively fragile and can be damaged quite easily- especially when there’s a conflict happening above them. Experts are worried that the conflict in the Red Sea could damage the world’s internet infrastructure - either accidentally or on purpose. Yemeni Houthi rebels have been attacking cargo ships in the Red Sea since last November, in response to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza – which began after an unprecedented Hamas attack on 7 October. The Red Sea has a series of cables running through its relatively shallow water - and the cables have been described as ‘no thicker than a hosepipe’. In the video, our technology editor Alex Hern explains all the ways the recent conflict in the Red Sea could threaten our global access to the internet. #Internet #RedSea #Technology
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When Arizona state senator Eva Burch learned that her pregnancy was not progressing and decided to have an abortion, Burch and her husband quickly made another decision: Burch was going to speak up about it – from the floor of the state senate. On Monday, as her voice shook and a group of women surrounded her, Burch, a Democratic senator, gave a 10-minute-long speech about her decision and the struggle to navigate Arizona’s “coercive” maze of abortion restrictions. “My medical provider was forced to tell me multiple things that don't apply to my situation, and some that are just transparently, factually false”, said Burch, describing how she was given disinformation about abortion alternatives after seeking an abortion for her pregnancy which is no longer viable. With her speech, Burch joined the ranks of women who have spoken out since the fall of Roe v Wade about their battles to get abortions even for nonviable pregnancies. Yet Burch, who was still pregnant when she spoke on the floor, is believed to be the first pregnant state lawmaker to go into such detail about her plans to get an abortion since Roe v Wade's demise.
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“We’re trying to fill a gap, and continue on pace.” The first Covid-19 lockdowns of 2020 were now almost four years ago, but the lasting impact of the pandemic on the world is still being felt. One area where this is particularly the case is education. Like many countries, a significant ‘pandemic learning gap’ has emerged in the US since 2020, with students falling behind compared to their pre-pandemic peers. The issue is a big topic of conversation among teachers online, especially on TikTok. To understand it more, we spoke to Mr Bryant, whose video about his students went viral, and three other teachers who say they’ve had similar experiences. Video via @guardian_us .
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“Whoever we were looking for had gone to a lot of effort to hide their tracks, and then we learned just how deep those tracks were buried.” When disturbing non consensual deepfakes of girls from a Spanish school caused havoc in their community, police and lawmakers didn’t know how to deal with them. Meanwhile, similar stories were beginning to emerge across the world including America and at the centre of cases in Almendralejo and New Jersey was the same app – ClothOff. For more than six months, the Guardian’s Michael Safi and the team behind our new podcast, Black Box, have been investigating who is behind the AI company that creates these deepfakes. The search took them to unexpected places across the globe and led to exclusively revealing the surprising names behind the app.  Listen to Black Box to follow the investigation and discover more stories about AI and us.
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Vladimir Putin has claimed a landslide victory in Russia’s presidential vote, as thousands in the country and around the world protested against his deepening dictatorship, the war in Ukraine and a stage-managed election that could have only one winner. In a vote denounced by the United States as “obviously not free nor fair”, Putin won 87% of the vote, according to exit polling published by the state-run Russian Public Opinion Research Center and the Public Opinion Foundation. Across the weekend, people in Russia used dye, molotov cocktails and fires to protest at polling booths, while Russians abroad also took part in acts of protest to show their opposition to Putin and the war in Ukraine. Reports from the ground suggested queues suddenly formed at numerous polling stations across Russia’s big cities, as well as in Europe, as the clock struck midday. The protest action, labelled 'Noon against Putin', was proposed by the St Petersburg politician Maxim Reznik and endorsed by the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny before his death in an Arctic prison. He called it a safe way for Russians inside and outside the country to congregate publicly and show their opposition to the president. On Friday, Russian prosecutors threatened any voters who took part in the action with five years in prison, while the former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said protesters could face treason sentences of 20 years for destroying voting ballots. Putin’s election victory extends his 24-year rule until at least 2030. By 2029 his tenure will have surpassed that of Joseph Stalin, who ruled the Soviet Union for 29 years, making Putin the country’s longest-serving leader since the Russian empire. Find out more about Putin’s “landslide” victory, and the protests against it, by heading to the link in bio.
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No country in the world affords women the same opportunities as men in the workforce, according to a new report from the World Bank, which found the global gender gap was far wider than previously thought. For the first time, the bank investigated the impact of childcare and safety policies on women’s participation in the labor market in 190 countries. It found that when these two factors were taken into account, women on average enjoyed just 64% of the legal protections men do, down from the previous estimate of 77%. Report author Tea Trumbic said childcare and safety issues particularly affected women’s ability to work. Violence could physically prevent them from going to work, and childcare costs could make it prohibitive. The 10th edition of the women, business and the law report, published on Monday, also for the first time assessed the gap between laws and the policies put in place to implement them. It found countries had, on average, established less than 40% of the systems needed for full implementation. “All over the world, discriminatory laws and practices prevent women from working or starting businesses on an equal footing with men,” said Indermit Gill, chief economist of the World Bank Group. “Closing this gap could raise global gross domestic product by more than 20% – essentially doubling the global growth rate over the next decade – but reforms have slowed to a crawl.” Follow the link in bio for the full story.
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From mating frogs to invasive goose barnacles hitching a lift across the ocean on a discarded football – which wildlife image is your favourite? The winners of the annual British Wildlife Photography awards have been announced, with the winner chosen from more than 14,000 submissions. Swipe across to see some of our favourites from the @‌bwpawards. Photo credits: 1. Three frogs in amplexus by Ian Mason 2. @‌ryanstalker9 3. Mark Williams 4. Spencer Burrows 5. Robin Dodd 6. Rosamund Macfarlane 7. Will Palmer 8. Matthew Glover 9. Lucien Harris 10. @‌max_wildlifephoto #wildlife #britishwildlife #wildlifephotography #photojournalism
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