Factory workers making goods for the west bear brunt of virus surge in south-east Asia

Migrant labourers tell of being forced to isolate in brutal conditions as Covid wave grips region

It was around mid-May when workers at the Cal-Comp factory in Phetchaburi, central Thailand, heard a small group of their colleagues had tested positive for Covid-19. It soon became clear the virus had ripped through the production lines. A cluster associated with the electronics factory has since been linked to thousands of infections.

Hwan Htet Paing*, a worker from the factory, said he was not told the results of his Covid test, carried out on 19 May. Despite this, he was instructed to quarantine inside a vast hall at his workplace. The floor was covered with tarpaulin sheets and lined with rows of mosquito nets for each worker. Everyone was given a bucket and a cup, and bedsheets to lay across the floor. Fans were handed out to help ease the heat – until the vast numbers of people testing positive meant there were none left.

CBS Weekend News, June 12, 2021

Biden urges unity among G7 leaders with global infrastructure plan to rival China; Disability advocate writes book on his life with Down syndrome

California approaches full reopening amid low coronavirus cases

After more than 15 months of emergency restrictions, California is set to fully reopen on Tuesday. Roughly 142 million people in the U.S. are not fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Lilia Luciano reports.

Biden urges unity among G7 leaders with global infrastructure plan to rival China

President Biden met with G7 leaders on Saturday to call for a stronger alliance among members. The group announced a massive infrastructure plan to rival China’s Belt and Road initiative. Nancy Cordes has more.

Biden and G-7 partners launch infrastructure initiative for developing countries

The initiative is called "Build Back Better World," a play on President Biden's slogan for improving infrastructure at home.

COVID's 'roots,' China, protests at sea, beach BBQ: Five takeaways from Day 2 of the G-7 summit

President Joe Biden and other world leaders talk economy, foreign policy and health care on second day of G-7 summit in Cornwall, England.
     

England reopening in question as Delta variant concerns rise; TSA marks pandemic milestone as travel ramps up: COVID-19 updates

The rollback of the England's lockdown restrictions may have hit a snag due to the highly-transmissible Delta variant. Latest COVID-19 news.
     

Opposition forces Orbán into U-turn over Chinese campus plan in Budapest

With a general election due next year, Hungary’s government has put the divisive project in the capital’s heart on hold

Protests against the construction of a Chinese university in Budapest have energised the Hungarian opposition ahead of elections next year, and forced the government into a rare U-turn.

Outrage at plans to build a campus of Shanghai’s Fudan University became a rallying cry for the opposition, drawing thousands to protest in defiance of government regulations

Zahid Quaraishi confirmed as first America’s Muslim federal judge

Appointment draws mixed emotions from Muslim communityQuarashi worked for Ice and served with US army in Iraq

The United States has appointed its first Muslim American federal judge in Zahid Quraishi, a historic confirmation that is eliciting mixed emotions from the Muslim community.

Related: Trump’s revenge: tilting of supreme court to the right poised to bear fruit

Delay ending lockdown: majority of public back Boris Johnson to wait

Observer poll reveals most people believe prime minister should wait past proposed 21 June date

The majority of the public back delaying the end of legal restrictions on social contact in the wake of rising cases of a more transmissible Covid variant, according to a new poll.

With Boris Johnson poised to announce a delay to his plan to remove the remaining restrictions on 21 June, an Opinium poll for the Observer found that 54% think the move should be postponed, up from 43% from a fortnight ago.

Christian Eriksen collapsed and the stadium fell silent in horror

The events brought to mind Fabrice Muamba and Marc-Vivien Foé, but with Eriksen in hospital, Denmark v Finland restarted

There was something in the banality of the scene that made it especially horrifying. A late afternoon sun shone on the pitch at Parken, where the stands were as full as they can be given Covid restrictions: the majority from Denmark in their red and white, but also behind one goal 3,000 from Finland in white and blue. But the game had stopped. The ground was silent. The match officials stood on one touchline with the managers, and in one corner of the field, Danish players gathered round medics, providing a shield as they attempted to resuscitate Christian Eriksen.

When, after around 10 minutes, the game was formally suspended, there was reason to fear the worst, but a little under an hour after the former Tottenham midfielder collapsed, Uefa released a statement explaining that he had “been transferred to the hospital and has been stabilised.” That is the Rigshospitalet, which stands on the opposite corner of the park to the stadium, just five minutes’ drive away.

Brexit bust-up torpedoes Johnson’s bid to showcase ‘global Britain’ at G7

Northern Ireland border row hits summit in Cornwall as prime minister tells other leaders UK is ‘a single country’

Boris Johnson was embroiled in an extraordinary public spat with EU leaders over Northern Ireland on Saturday as tensions over Brexit boiled over at the G7 summit in Cornwall.

After a series of tense bilateral meetings at which the French president, Emmanuel Macron, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel and the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, told their summit host the UK must implement the Brexit deal in full, an unrepentant Johnson said he had urged his EU colleagues to “get it into their heads” that the UK is “a single country”.

‘Americans are heaven for us’: the surge in US visitors throwing Greece a lifeline

Country confounds post-Covid predictions as transatlantic holidaymakers flood in ready to spend

A fresh wind blows down Adrianou. Seated in front of his rug store on the street that cuts through the heart of ancient Athens, Theo Iliadis takes in the scene. At 47, the owner of The Loom has seen “a lot of bad stuff” in recent years. The global pandemic couldn’t have come at a worse time for Greece, already gutted by prolonged economic crisis.

But barely a month after the tourist-dependent country opened its doors, the entrepreneur is in ebullient mood. There’s a glint in his eye and a lightness in the air of the carpet-stacked cavern behind him. “Americans are in town,” he smiles. “Business is good, The Loom is good and I’ve got drinks on ice.”

New Israeli coalition government seeks to put an end to the Netanyahu era

The opposition-led administration will be sworn in on Sunday if it can prevail in a confidence vote in the Knesset

Benjamin Netanyahu is due to be ousted from office on Sunday by a new Israeli government formed with the primary aim of dethroning the country’s longest-serving leader.

A motley grouping of politicians, including former Netanyahu allies turned foes, have set aside bitter differences to put an end to the prime minister’s historic run in power. If successful, it will also break a political stalemate that has seen four snap elections in the country since 2019.

6/12: CBS This Morning Saturday

Justice Department watchdog to investigate Trump administration's seizure of Democrats' phone data; Noel Gallagher discusses his music career and what he's been up to throughout the pandemic

Concerns as California moves toward dropping COVID-19 requirements for vaccinated people

California is just days away from dropping all of its mask and social distancing requirements for people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. But turning the page on the coronavirus comes with risks.

Barbara Thompson’s Paraphernalia with NYJO: Bulletproof review – fresh takes on old favourites

(Temple Music)
The musician breathes new life into familiar material in a captivating collaboration

Barbara Thompson, saxophonist, flautist, composer and one of Europe’s finest and certainly most popular jazz musicians, led her band, Paraphernalia, between 1978 and 2015. Now aged 76, she has been forced to stop performing by Parkinson’s disease. For this captivating album she assembled three former members of Paraphernalia, plus most of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra (Nyjo), to play 10 of her favourite compositions, freshly arranged. The young musicians take to them all with what sounds like easy familiarity – including the title number, which is 10 minutes of unrelenting pressure. It’s fascinating to hear improvised solos from two of the veterans, Peter Lemer on keyboards and Billy Thompson (no relation) on violin, beside Nyjo’s Tom Ridout on tenor saxophone and Luke Vice-Coles on trumpet. All four come up with surprising ideas that light up the whole piece, and there’s certainly no sign of the difference in age. The music here is typically wide-ranging, from the catchy Sax Rap to Ode to Sappho, based on a fragment of ancient Greek music, but it’s all unmistakably Thompson, and true originality such as hers doesn’t date.

Biden And Putin Won't Hold A Joint News Conference After Their Geneva Meeting

Biden will instead hold a solo press conference, which a White House official called "the appropriate format to clearly communicate with the free press the topics that were raised in the meeting."

Justice Department watchdog to investigate Trump administration's seizure of Democrats' phone data

The internal watchdog of the Justice Department says it will investigate the Trump administration's seizure of communications records of two Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee. The requests were made by former Attorney Generals Jeff Sessions and William Barr in their aggressive investigation to locate the source of leaks about Mr. Trump's 2016 campaign ties to Russia.

No joint news conference after Biden-Putin summit: White House

Biden will speak to press alone after Geneva meetingTrump caused outcry by accepting Putin denials at Helsinki

Joe Biden will give a solo news conference after his meeting next week with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, the White House has said.

Putin and Biden will meet in Geneva on Wednesday. The White House has said Biden will bring up ransomware attacks emanating from Russia, Moscow’s aggression against Ukraine, the jailing of dissidents and other issues that have irritated the relationship.

Biden administration closes Trump-era office for victims of immigrant crime

The move symbolizes President Joe Biden's rejection of former President Donald Trump's repeated efforts to link immigrants to crime.

Why it's been relatively easy to vaccinate against COVID-19 compared to HIV or cancer

Why has it been so easy to vaccinate against COVID-19 when other medical problems remain intractable? Biology.
     

Mixing Britons’ food with politics invariably leaves a bad taste | Pen Vogler

The Brexit sausage war is nothing new: it follows an inglorious lineage that stretches all the way back to Hogarth’s Gin Lane

It’s summer at last! Time to gather a few neighbours round, start a fire, and throw another sausage war on to the flames. This one is about the complicated triangulation between the EU, Northern Ireland and Westminster over frictionless trade. Still awake? Let’s put it in terms “the public” can understand and, as former Brexit chief negotiator David Frost did, thunder about the right of “the shopper in Strabane” to get their favourite sausages or chicken nuggets. In fact, from Hogarth’s Gin Lane, right through to the pasty tax, politicians have scored political points around food, as a distraction from more important matters, such as whether children get fed.

If you were of telly-watching age in 1984, there might be a familiar whiff to Frost’s words. In Yes, Minister the not overly competent but endlessly fortunate minister, Jim Hacker, grappled with a rumoured proposal from Brussels to have the British sausage renamed the “emulsified high-fat offal tube”. Westminster is traditionally reluctant to get involved in our personal relationship with our shopping baskets and arteries. It still feels the pain of burnt fingers from the “hot pasty tax”; or Edwina Currie’s throwaway 1988 remark about the prevalence of salmonella in British egg production, which crashed consumer confidence overnight (it was reported that the industry had to slaughter four million hens). The knotty issues around processed meat products are delegated to food and health campaigners who would like Britons to eat a lot fewer, for the sake of our health, our waistlines and the welfare of the animals who end up in them.

Neuroscientist Karl Deisseroth: ‘Coronavirus has changed us all’

The neuroscientist and psychiatrist explains Zoom fatigue - and why the conditions of the pandemic can induce an ‘altered state’

The coronavirus pandemic has been a disorienting kind of emergency. It is a generation-defining cataclysm, but for many of us the day-to-day reality has been lonely, even dull. It is a call to action, but the most useful thing most of us can do is stay at home. Covid-19 is a disease that attacks the lungs, but it has also worsened mental health while causing a drastic reduction in patients seeking care for depression, self-harm, eating disorders and anxiety. Whatever path the pandemic takes from here, says Karl Deisseroth, the pioneering American neuroscientist, psychiatrist, bioengineer and now author, “Coronavirus has affected us all and it has changed us all. There’s no doubt about that.”

Deisseroth, 49, is talking in the lush, squirrel-filled garden of his house in Palo Alto, northern California, where he has spent much of the pandemic looking after his four young children. But he has had much else on his mind. He has been finishing his book, Connections: A Story of Human Feeling, an investigation into the nature of human emotions. He has been meeting with psychiatric patients over Zoom as well as putting in night shifts as an emergency hospital psychiatrist. And he has fitted all of this around his day job, which is using tiny fibre-optic cables to fire lasers into the brains of mice that he has infected with cells from light-sensitive algae and then observing what happens, millisecond by millisecond, when he turns individual neurons on or off.

Joe Biden’s reforming agenda at risk of dying a slow death in Congress

Transformational change, such as a huge infrastructure bill and voting rights protections, are hamstrung by antiquated procedures that give an effective veto to the minority

Joe Biden’s first hundred days surpassed progressive expectations with the scope of their ambition. His second hundred days are being mugged by reality: the one that says Washington DC is a place where dreams go to die.

A once-in-a-generation investment in infrastructure and the climate crisis has hit a wall. Reforms on gun safety, immigration and police brutality are in limbo. Legislation to expand voting rights and reduce the influence of money in politics appears doomed.

Andy Murray: ‘Don’t be sad for me! I like doing this – no one’s forcing me to play’

It’s been a tumultuous five years for Andy Murray: countless injuries, a new metal hip, four children and a bout of Covid. Can the former world No 1 really battle his way back to brilliance at Wimbledon?

Is he or isn’t he? One minute Andy Murray, one of Britain’s greatest living athletes, tells me he’ll be back on the court at Wimbledon this month, playing well in the tournament that made his name. And the next, he doesn’t sound so sure. “The test is being on court with the best players,” he says in a break in training, “and that’s something that, right this second, is difficult to give a definitive answer to.”

The joy of sport is its unpredictability, but Murray’s not talking about that. His body has been through such immense stress and strain – throughout his career, but especially over the past few years – that he can’t rely on it. He genuinely doesn’t know what it can do.

Brazil is reluctantly hosting the Copa América that no one wanted

The Copa América begins on Sunday night with a match between Brazil and Venezuela but that is not even half the story

By Tom Sanderson for Yellow & Green Football

Tite’s job is safer now than it was the last time Brazil were preparing to host the Copa América, just two years ago. But his job security has little to do with the fact that he led the team to glory at that tournament, giving Brazilian fans their first major silverware in 12 years. Rather, his position has been strengthened after an argument over where – and whether – this year’s Copa América should be played. Brazilian football is in such a crisis off the field that it cannot deal with any more disruption on it.

The Copa América was meant to be co-hosted by Colombia and Argentina this year but, after social unrest erupted in Colombia and Covid-19 cases surged in Argentina, Conmebol bafflingly decided to move the tournament to Brazil, even though the country is suffering from both of these issues. More than 480,000 people have been lost to the virus in Brazil, where similar numbers have taken to the streets to protest against the mishandling of the pandemic by president Jair Bolsonaro.

CBS Evening News, June 11, 2021

President Biden meets with world leaders at G7 summit; Michigan community saves couple’s wedding reception that was interrupted by fire

Spain’s right unites in fury as PM considers Catalan pardons

Rightwing parties condemn prime minister’s call to work for ‘co-existence’ with separatists

On Sunday thousands of people, among them the leaders of the three parties on Spain’s right, will once again gather in the Madrid square that boasts the world’s largest Spanish flag to protest against the Socialist-led government’s handling of the Catalan independence crisis.

In February 2019, in a deeply controversial moment immortalised in photographs of the occasion, the conservative People’s party (PP), the centre-right Citizens party and the far-right Vox party joined forces in the Plaza de Colón to accuse the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, of betraying Spain, and to call for an early election.

President Biden meets with world leaders at G7 summit

President Biden is meeting with world leaders to discuss China, Russia, trade, taxes and COVID-19. The leaders are also having dinner with Queen Elizabeth II and other members of the royal family. Nancy Cordes reports.

Trump DOJ obtained records of House Democrats

The Justice Department’s inspector general is investigating the Trump administration secretly obtaining phone records from some House Democrats. Jeff Pegues has the latest.

2 passengers test positive for COVID-19 on fully vaccinated cruise

Two people are in isolation after testing positive for COVID-19 while onboard the Celebrity Millennium cruise ship. Errol Barnett has more.

Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine faces setbacks

Johnson & Johnson has fallen short in delivering COVID-19 vaccines amid several roadblocks. Omar Villafranca has more.

DOJ watchdog will probe reported Trump-era subpoenas of Apple for Democrats' data

Reps. Schiff and Eric Swalwell, whose records were both reportedly seized by Trump's Justice Department, had called on the DOJ inspector general to investigate.

Have COVID vaccine, will travel: These are the countries open to fully vaccinated Americans

Got your shots and ready to travel abroad? Check our lists of which countries are accepting vaccinated Americans and those with negative COVID tests.
     

20 photographs of the week

The aftermath of the conflict in Gaza and Israel; the crisis in Ethiopia’s Tigray region; the 77th anniversary of D-day and the election in Peru: the most striking images from around the world this week

Emmanuel Macron and Joe Biden share a moment after G7 leaders' photo – video

Emmanuel Macron made a beeline for Joe Biden after the G7 summit photo call in Cornwall. Biden, on whom Boris Johnson expended considerable energy attempting to politically woo ahead of the summit, warmly embraced the French president. Johnson was left lingering with Angela Merkel as he waited for the pair to catch up.

Moderna says it hasn't found a link between its Covid vaccine and heart inflammation

The company said it made the conclusion after "carefully reviewing the available safety data to date for Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine."

Why can't companies find workers? Spurred by COVID-19, many are launching new businesses

Americans are starting new businesses in large numbers because of COVID-19. The trend is contributing to widespread worker shortages, economists say.     

Opinion: The Democratic Party is drunk on spiked progressive Kool-Aid

West Virginia Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin has emerged as the progressives' new favorite politician to attack. Their frustrations with Manchin are largely fueled by his refusal to both support the For the People Act, a comprehensive voting rights and campaign finance reform bill, and to kill the filibuster, which threatens to undermine President Joe Biden's efforts to pass any significant legislation.

Fugees rapper Pras, Jho Low charged in scheme to get Trump administration to drop 1MDB probe

Former Republican fundraiser Elliot Broidy has admitted his role in the scheme to illegally lobby the Trump administration to drop the 1MDB probe.

Educating girls is critical to the global Covid recovery plan | Dominic Raab and Julia Gillard

The pandemic has deepened the existing crisis in education: we must act now to prevent the loss of a generation

The pandemic has deepened the long-running crisis in global education. Many children around the world missed the majority of the last academic year. At the height of school closures, 1.6 billion children and young people were out of education.

Girls have been among the hardest hit. When they are not enrolled in school they are more likely to be forced into child marriage, subjected to female genital mutilation and exposed to gender-based violence. There is a real risk of a lost generation of girls, with 20 million likely to never return to school. So we must act.

U.S.-China relations are 'still deteriorating,' says former U.S. ambassador

Max Baucus, former U.S. ambassador to China, said he was wrong to think that ties between Washington and Beijing could reset when Joe Biden becomes president.

António Guterres on the climate crisis: ‘We are coming to a point of no return’

UN secretary general says he’s concerned that the richest nations have pumped billions more into fossil fuels than clean energy since the pandemic

Wealthy countries risk an “unforgivable lost opportunity” by not emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic with newly green economies to address the climate crisis, the United Nations secretary general has warned.

Before meeting the leaders of the world’s major economic powers at the G7 summit in the UK, António Guterres said he was concerned that the richest nations have pumped billions of dollars more into fossil fuels than clean energy since the pandemic, despite their promises of a green recovery.

We're returning to the office after COVID-19: Can we handle talking politics with co-workers?

The pandemic, election, social justice movement, insurrection and impeachment have left American workers incensed. Now we're going back to the office.
     

Why Joe Biden is so invested in defending Good Friday agreement

Analysis: Northern Ireland is a rare issue of bipartisan consensus and a pillar of US foreign policy

Joe Biden’s commitment to defending the Good Friday agreement is baked into his political history and identity. But it is also a pillar of US foreign policy, a rare issue of bipartisan consensus in an otherwise hyper-polarised political scene, one of the few stances Biden can take on the world stage without drawing fire from Republicans.

Biden’s emotional attachment to Ireland has been a constant throughout his adult life and has become part of his political identity too. He routinely refers to his mother’s family history and his ties to County Mayo. He quotes Irish poets, and uses the example of British rule in Ireland as a bridge to empathise with persecuted minorities.

China the spectre at the feast as Biden aims to rally democracies on Europe trip

The US president has become convinced that Beijing is the main adversary in a global battle of governance systems

The unifying theme behind Joe Biden’s European tour this week is a country which will not be at any of the meetings and may not even be mentioned in the final communiques: China.

Before setting out on his first foreign trip as president, Biden has made clear that the competition between the world’s democracies and its authoritarian regimes – mostly importantly Beijing – is the defining global challenge of the age, with victory anything but guaranteed for the US and its allies.

The interrogation of Matt Hancock - podcast

Two weeks after Dominic Cummings told MPs that the health secretary was a serial liar who lost the trust of No 10, Matt Hancock will face the same committee to defend himself. Heather Stewart explains what is at stake, and what it could mean for the next stage of the pandemic

When Dominic Cummings appeared before MPs to set out his account of what went wrong in the early stages of the Covid pandemic, he attempted a political assassination. But a fortnight later, Matt Hancock, the health secretary, is still limping on. So far, Hancock has been able to bat away questions from journalists, and at the dispatch box, without much trouble, and has retained the support of the prime minister. But a grilling by MPs, who will have much more time and the chance to follow up on their questions, will present him with a far greater challenge.

Hancock’s day of reckoning comes with the 21 June planned unlocking still uncertain, and the number of cases rising again, so his future will have profound consequences for the country. Rachel Humphreys spoke to the Guardian’s political editor, Heather Stewart, about the questions he is likely to face, the light his answers could shed on what went wrong, and why Boris Johnson appears determined to stick with his man — for now.

How do we know we’re not living in a simulation like The Matrix?

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

How do we know we’re not living in a simulation like The Matrix? Jack Freedom, Bristol

Post your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published on Sunday.

‘We have to participate’: what Europe’s Gen Z want from their post-Covid lives – video

Covid-19 policies risk leaving psychological and socioeconomic scars on millions of young people across Europe, with far-reaching consequences for them and society, a wide-ranging Guardian project has revealed.

Taking a snapshot, the Guardian asked five members of Europe’s Generation Z how the worst global pandemic in a century has affected their lives, what they have learned and how they see their future after the pandemic