Belfast high court rules checks on goods entering from Great Britain must continue pending reviewBrexit checks on food and farm products entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain must continue pending a judicial review of the order made by Stormont’s agriculture minister, Edwin Poots, the high court in Belfast has ruled.Mr Justice Colton said he was “suspending the order or the instruction given by the minister of agriculture until the further order of this court”. Continue reading...

Format might not have romance of vinyl but its versatility and reliability will never be topped, say supportersAfter languishing in his car boot for several years, Jordan Bassett’s CD collection – mostly dating back to his teenage years – will soon be on proud display in his newly converted home office space.Bassett, a commissioning editor at the NME, has no means of playing the CDs and, in any case, his musical tastes have moved on. But the 100-150 thin, shiny 5in discs have sentimental value – and, who knows, one day they may be part of a revival similar to vinyl among music aficionados. Continue reading...

Urgent protection for minority groups needed in crisis connected to escalating clashes across central Asian ex-Soviet region, say human rights groupsParents of men killed by Tajikistan forces have called on the international community to step in and urgently protect ethnic groups being targeted by the Tajik regime.In a rare interview, families from the Pamiri ethnic minority have demanded that soldiers who killed their sons be brought to justice and urged the UN to prevent a new phase of conflict in Tajikistan, a landlocked country in central Asia. Continue reading...

Canadian Ashley Wadsworth was staying in Chelmsford with Jack Sepple whom she met on dating appThe stepmother of a 19-year-old woman from Canada allegedly murdered in Essex as she visited the UK for the first time has paid tribute to her “strong, smart and witty” daughter.Ashley Wadsworth, from Vernon, British Columbia, had reportedly never left Canada before arriving in the UK in November to stay with Jack Sepple in Chelmsford, Essex, whom she had met through an online dating app. She was due to fly home to see her family this week. Continue reading...

Anti-corruption activists criticise government inaction in face of years of Kremlin provocationBritain’s efforts to halt the flow of Russian “dirty money” into the UK have been called into question in the aftermath of the threat by the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, to hit Kremlin-linked oligarchs with economic sanctions if Ukraine is attacked.Labour and anti-corruption campaigners this week accused the government of failing to curtail Russian wealth and influence in Britain, despite years of provocative actions from the Kremlin. Continue reading...

We look at a selection of the PM’s statements this week and rate them for honesty

In this week’s newsletter: the beauty of podcasts is that anyone can start one and be successful. But that also means Rogan’s is far from the first show to get out of hand

Fierce stabs of sexuality and violence cut through the stoic calm of Chadian film-maker Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s urgent drama of survivalMahamat-Saleh Haroun is the Chadian film-maker whose 2002 movie Abouna – my favourite of his – has a claim to classic status. Now he returns with a film that is recognisably a part of African cinema’s quietist walking-pace tradition, set in a place where, on its outskirts, the city becomes a village. The two distant ambient sounds are barnyard chickens and incessant traffic noise. Yet for all its ostensible gentleness, his storytelling is driven by a need to challenge the country’s reactionary theocratic males. There are fierce and even shocking stabs of sexuality and violence cutting through the opaque, stoic calm.The title Lingui is the Chadian word meaning sacred bonds, and on the question of abortion, the male rulers of church and state think the really sacred bond is between mother and unborn child, or perhaps more pertinently, between submissive women and autocratic menfolk. But the men’s opposition to abortion co-exists with an enormous enthusiasm for female genital mutilation. The film shows that they are two halves of a whole, and the women involved feel that their sacred bonds are those of loyalty to each other. Continue reading...

Thousands expected at Saturday demonstration as killing of young Congolese lays bare racial fault lines in Brazilian societyThousands of demonstrators are expected to hit Brazil’s streets on Saturday to protest against the murder of a young Congolese refugee whose killing – captured in spine-chilling video footage – has caused an explosion of anger over deep-rooted structural racism and hate violence.Moïse Mugenyi Kabagambe abandoned his home in the conflict-stricken city of Bunia, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 11 years ago after his grandmother was killed. He sought shelter thousands of miles away in Brazil only to lose his own life last week, aged 24, after being set upon by a group of men on one of Rio’s best-known beaches, Barra da Tijuca. Continue reading...

US says Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi killed himself when he detonated explosives in home in AtmeAbu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi took over as leader of Islamic State in 2019 following the deaths in quick succession of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Baghdadi’s nominated successor Abu Hassan al-Muhajjir.The US operation to try to kill him had been in the planning stages since early December, when officials became convinced that he was living in a nondescript three-storey building on the outskirts of Atme in Syria’s Idlib province, close to the Turkish border. Continue reading...

Streaming has allowed the genre, sometimes sung by people with ties to the mafia, to become a national craze. Is a crackdown necessary, or merely kneejerk censorship?Tony Colombo is one of the biggest names in neomelodica, an Italian music style combining elements of traditional Neapolitan song (think O Sole Mio) with modern pop influences. He has released more than 20 albums, held concerts across Italy, Germany, Canada and the US, and has hordes of fans.It is also alleged that part of his fortune comes from laundering money for the Camorra, the Neapolitan mafia , made famous through its depiction in Roberto Saviano’s book Gomorrah and its TV adaptation. On 21 December, the Italian police confiscated goods from Colombo including an apartment, two cars and €80,000 (£66,000). In 2019, Colombo married the widow of a Camorra boss and he has reportedly been seen at parties thrown by the Camorra; prosecutors believe he has received dirty money from his wife’s clan and attempted to pass them as proceeds from his music career. He has always denied any involvement with organised crime. Continue reading...

Elena Narozanski, Boris Johnson’s special adviser on women and equalities, is latest to resign

Taskforce to oversee workplace changes and acknowledgement of trauma caused by bullying, sexual harassment and assault to be considered next week

She likes waking up slowly; he gets out of bed immediately. We air both sides of a domestic disagreement – and ask you to deliver a verdict• If you have a disagreement you’d like settled, or want to be part of our jury, click hereRegina sets between six and seven alarms each morning and ‘snoozes’ each one Continue reading...

Spurred on by military atrocities, young people are turning to armed struggle against the regime – leaving supportive but fearful families behind

Mayor denies any decision to accommodate the billionaire Amazon boss, despite claims that historic bridge will be removedThe Dutch port city of Rotterdam has not received a request for a permit to temporarily dismantle a historic bridge to allow a superyacht built for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to pass, local media reported Thursday.The city’s mayor denied any decision had been made, a day after a municipality spokesperson told AFP that officials had green-lit the shipbuilder’s request to remove the central section of the famous Koningshaven Bridge, sparking widespread criticism on social media. Continue reading...

Why did a fake member of the royal family stuff a student into a suitcase? Could four unconnected Brits be to blame? And how did Thurman get so much press for such a tiny cameo?Generally speaking, I’m a fan of what we might call the unlocked room mystery. The kind where someone is murdered or otherwise indisposed and we are then introduced to a wide variety of characters who may or may not have something to do with it or each other. Then all you have to do is wait patiently for the doughty police officers in charge to sniff out any red herrings and present you with the individual or web responsible.But ya gotta keep things tight and urgent if you’re going to pull off this kind of caper. The latest, Suspicion (Apple+ TV), is a loose, baggy thing that only begins to approach the necessary slickness a good quarter of the way through its eight-episode run. Continue reading...

With songs about heartbreak and capitalism, the cult pop singer is on the brink of the mainstream – but the intensity of her fandom has her fearing for her safetyThere is a jokey meme that captions a picture of Mitski with “Therapists HATE her”. Her songs can make you doubt what love, happiness and stability are even for. Over the course of six albums, the 31-year-old has become the US’s best young singer-songwriter, stating her feelings with dry amusement or real pain. Her songs are vignettes heavy with painterly symbolism. She connects squalling indie-rock to ambient ballads with plenty in between; her chords never resolve in the way you think they will, rather like life. Perhaps therapists hate her because she is putting them out of a job – as well as being troubling, her music is often uplifting, cathartic and compassionate.It turns out she is in therapy herself. “I love therapy! Having someone to talk to, who you don’t feel like you’re burdening, because it’s their job – it really eases up all your friendships,” she says, laughing. “You’re saying it out loud, giving it words; it clears things up. In America, there’s still this notion that you’re not good until you’re happy. I hope we can get away from that.” Continue reading...

The kea filmed some majestic views over the Kepler Track, as well as a closeup of its own slightly frenzied attack on the cameraA kleptomaniac parrot has become the latest contributor to New Zealand cinema, after stealing a GoPro camera and taking it on a sweeping tour of remote Fiordland.Aotearoa’s native alpine parrot species, the kea, is known for its curious and mischievous nature – and for swiping wallets, jewellery, packed lunches, windscreen wipers and other valuables from unsuspecting tourists and visitors. Continue reading...

Such gains as Māori have made are no accident, but the result of a willingness to fight for what is rightfully theirs – a struggle that continues to this dayHannah Arendt, the political philosopher, once wrote that “power always stands in need of numbers”. That insight, made in the context of a study into the nature of violence, is one that commentators often turn to when explaining why Māori appear to fare so much better than Indigenous peoples in other parts of the Anglosphere. Māori make up more than 15% of the New Zealand population – more than five times larger than the Aboriginal Australian or Native American share of their national populations – meaning Māori are in a better position to press for guaranteed representation in parliament and local government, for dedicated television channels and radio stations, for native language schooling, and more. Indigenous peoples in other countries, to paraphrase Arendt, stand in need of numbers.The argument is seductively simple. Social scientists sometimes call it the 3.5% rule. In other words, if enough people engage in active struggle – from workers’ strikes to street protests – the disruption they cause is almost always enough to guarantee political change. In the 1980s socialist organisers were turning out tens of thousands of people on the streets to protest the Springbok tour, nuclear warships, and racism against Māori. It’s impossible to measure whether the 3.5% threshold was met, but it’s obvious enough that the many thousands who took part in demonstrations and advocacy were enough to cancel any further Springbok tours, to prohibit nuclear warships from New Zealand waters, and to strengthen the Treaty of Waitangi’s position in the New Zealand constitution. Continue reading...

The minister responsible for New Zealand’s pandemic response says the future is ‘still something that’s the subject of models rather than reality’In the midst of an Omicron outbreak and almost two years after New Zealand shut its borders, the government has announced its latest reopening plan. For most New Zealanders, the coming months will be their first direct experience of widespread Covid-19. No one, not even the minister in charge, knows what exactly will come next.“I think we’re all nervous about what the next few months has in store for New Zealand,” Chris Hipkins, the minister responsible for the country’s pandemic response, told the Guardian. “Covid-19, and Omicron in particular, is here now – it is in New Zealand and it will spread. We know that is going to happen. The extent of that, the effectiveness of our public health measures, the effect on our health system and on our most vulnerable populations is still something that’s the subject of models rather than reality.” Continue reading...

Chief executive takes a swipe at state premier Mark McGowan saying: ‘I think we should all be a bit outraged by it’

Jamaica return to the bobsleigh after 24 years, Haiti and Saudi Arabia make debuts, while GB aim for curling gloryJamaica will enter a four-man bobsleigh team in the Olympics for the first time in 24 years after nicking the final qualifying spot, offering a feelgood reboot for the island nation whose debut at the 1988 Calgary Games inspired the Disney film Cool Runnings. Just making it to Beijing might seem like accomplishment enough for Shanwayne Stephens, the team’s 31-year-old pilot and Royal Air Force lance corporal who emigrated to Great Britain with his family in 2002: certainly after improvised training methods at the height of the pandemic that included pushing his girlfriend’s Mini Cooper around the streets of Peterborough. But having touched down in China after undergoing their final preparations at the University of Bath, his goal is plain. “It’s got to be medalling,” Stephens says. “It’s everybody’s dream, it’s what we’re here to do. So why not aim high?” BAG Continue reading...

The final episode of the sequel did nothing to redeem it. It was bafflingly tone-deaf, cringe-makingly crass and seemingly written by people who had never heard of the originalThat sound you can hear – that faint but persistent chuckle – is Kim Cattrall laughing. The actor was the only one of the original Sex and the City cast to decline to join And Just Like That …, the sequel to the much-loved, era-defining show. The rest of them stayed, and suffered. But at least they were getting paid. Viewers – if they did stay, which many of us did out of a potent blend of desperate hope that things would improve, and fascinated horror as they did not – had no such solace. The end of the 10-episode run has now been reached, with the finale refusing to redeem anything that had gone before.It could have, should have, been great. The idea of best friends Carrie, Charlotte and Miranda returning to navigate the complexities of female life and friendship in their 50s – a rare televisual sight – was a fine one (even if Cattrall’s Samantha would be missed). New writers and characters were brought in to address the glaring whiteness and heteronormativity of the original. Michael Patrick King was in charge, as he had effectively been for much of Sex and the City. Continue reading...

Policy chief Munira Mirza was first to go, followed shortly by Jack Doyle, Dan Rosenfield and Martin ReynoldsFour of Boris Johnson’s key staff have quit as the fallout from the Downing Street party scandal continued to shake his hold on government.Johnson’s longstanding policy chief Munira Mirza was the first to go, using a stinging resignation letter to accuse the prime minister of “scurrilous” behaviour when he falsely linked Keir Starmer to the failure to bring paedophile Jimmy Savile to justice. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Decision puts state at odds with counterparts in Victoria and South Australia who have already mandated a third jabThe New South Wales government will not seek to mandate booster shots for healthcare workers, despite calls from Victoria to change the definition of a fully vaccinated person to include a third dose.The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (Atagi) is currently preparing advice for national cabinet that is expected to recommend expanding the definition of full vaccination against Covid-19 to three shots. Continue reading...

Moscow says US deployments in eastern Europe increase tensions, as Nato says Russia has moved 30,000 troops to BelarusThe US decision to deploy more than 3,000 US troops in Germany, Poland and Romania is a “destructive step” that makes it harder to reach a compromise over Ukraine, Russia’s deputy foreign minister has said, as Moscow continues to build up its forces.Alexander Grushko said the move by Joe Biden would “increase military tension and reduce scope for political decision”, and would “delight” Ukrainian authorities, who would continue sabotaging the Minsk agreements “with impunity”. The Minsk agreements of 2014 and 2015 were designed to reach a political settlement in the east of Ukraine, including greater autonomy. Continue reading...

In El Carmen de Bolívar, LGBTQ+ people want the history of their brutal persecution by police and paramilitaries to be told, but the sense of safety is fragile and many still face prejudice

Emergency traffic controls triggered 20 times this year as extra Brexit controls and freight volumes cause logjamsHis lorry loaded with British Airways aircraft parts, Ivo Hradilik was expecting to drive onto a ferry headed to Calais, before delivering his cargo to the outskirts of Paris.But there’s a problem with the customs paperwork, and the 26-year-old HGV driver from the Czech Republic will have to park up near the Port of Dover while the haulage company sorts everything out. Continue reading...

Erin O-Toole, who only became leader in 2020, lost a secret ballot of MPS 73-45 amid accusations of ‘flip-flopping’ on Tory issuesCanada’s Conservatives have ousted their leader amid accusations of “flip-flopping” on key Tory issues, and a broader debate over whether the party should appeal to a more rightwing voting base.In a secret ballot held on Wednesday, 73 Conservative parliamentarians voted to remove Erin O’Toole as leader. Forty-five voted for him to keep his job. Continue reading...

Analysis: While Putin’s intentions remain unclear, Kyiv would rather it didn’t get classed as the next KabulUkraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has again insisted that Russia does not currently have enough troops in place to mount a further invasion of Ukraine, a day after Boris Johnson travelled to Kyiv and said there was a “clear and present danger” of an “imminent military campaign”.Even taken together, the troops currently massed on Ukraine’s border with Russia, in the annexed Crimea peninsula and in neighbouring Belarus, are “insufficient for a large-scale military operation”, said Kuleba, in a briefing for foreign journalists on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Mining billionaire says world-first prosecution aims to prevent ‘Australians being scammed through clickbait advertising on social media’

French international footballer is now accused of nine offences relating to six alleged victimsThe Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy has appeared in court to face a new allegation of attempted rape.Mendy, who appeared in the dock at Chester crown court, is now accused of nine offences relating to six alleged victims. Continue reading...

The Observer, 5 March 1922: No book has ever been more eagerly awaited by the inner circle of book-lovers than Joyce’s privately published novelUlysses. By James Joyce (Privately issued to subscribers by Shakespeare and Company, 12, Rue de l’Odéon, Paris.)No book has ever been more eagerly and curiously awaited by the strange little inner circle of book-lovers and littérateurs than James Joyce’s Ulysses. It is folly to be afraid of uttering big words because big words are abused and have become almost empty of meaning in many mouths; and with all my courage I will repeat what a few folk in somewhat precious cénacles have been saying – that Mr James Joyce is a man of genius. I believe the assertion to be strictly justified, though Mr Joyce must remain, for special reasons, caviar to the general. I confess that I cannot see how the work upon which Mr Joyce spent seven strenuous years, years of wrestling and of agony, can ever be given to the public. Continue reading...

Investigation into Jos Beek matches his DNA with children of mothers he treated between 1973 and 1986A gynaecologist in the Netherlands conceived 21 children and potentially dozens more using his own sperm after prospective parents turned to him for fertility treatment, an investigation has discovered.Jos Beek worked at Elisabeth hospital in Leiderdorp, now part of Alrijne hospital, between 1973 and 1998. He died in 2019. Continue reading...

Migrant workers employed at Expo 2020 allege confiscated passports, racial discrimination and withheld wagesSecurity guards, cleaners and hospitality staff at Dubai’s Expo 2020 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are allegedly working in highly abusive conditions that may amount to forced labour, according to a human rights group.Migrant workers employed at the international fair in the UAE – taking place now after being delayed by Covid – allege they have been forced to pay illegal recruitment fees, suffered racial discrimination and had wages withheld and passports confiscated, said the report by Equidem. Continue reading...

Bureau says sophisticated hacking tool was never used in support of any investigationThe FBI has confirmed that it obtained NSO Group’s powerful Pegasus spyware, suggesting that it bought access to the Israeli surveillance tool to “stay abreast of emerging technologies and tradecraft”.In a statement released to the Guardian, the bureau said it had procured a “limited licence” to access Pegasus for “product testing and evaluation only”, and suggested that its evaluation of the tool partly related to security concerns if the spyware fell into the “wrong hands”. Continue reading...

‘Hen’ expected to be recognised as alternative to feminine ‘hun’ and masculine ‘han’ in official language this yearA new gender-neutral pronoun is likely to enter the official Norwegian language within a year, the Language Council of Norway has confirmed.“Hen” would become an alternative to the existing singular third-person pronouns, the feminine “hun” and the masculine “han”. Continue reading...

Moscow ramps up criticism of Britain’s bid to be at helm of fight to protect Ukraine from Russian invasionThe Kremlin moved to belittle Boris Johnson on Wednesday, describing him as “utterly confused” and calling British diplomacy a waste of time.The concerted effort to ridicule Britain’s efforts to put itself at the helm of the fight to protect Ukraine came the day after Johnson flew to Kyiv to warn that a Russian invasion would be a humanitarian, political and military disaster for Moscow. Continue reading...

Greater Manchester mayor says government’s £96bn rail plan will not bring the claimed benefitsThe north of England risks being left with “second-best” trains for 200 years under the government’s £96bn rail plan, the mayor of Greater Manchester has told MPs.Andy Burnham said while his city would do better than most in the north, the plan would not “maximise the levelling-up benefits” ministers claimed it would bring. Continue reading...

My friend Min Marks, who has died aged 100, was a communist activist and wartime Bletchley Park associate. She and her husband, Jack, were associated with virtually every peace movement, anti-racism and anti-fascist campaign in Leeds for more than 70 years.Despite her sturdy communist affiliations, Min was ecumenical in her attitude to political campaigns, happily working with all who shared the objective in view. She and Jack were essentially secular Jews and their support of the Palestinian cause inevitably brought difficulties with some members of the Leeds Jewish community. Min also cultivated a wide array of friends and was a convivial host. Continue reading...

Manchester United player, 20, bailed following arrest on suspicion of raping, assaulting and threatening to kill womanThe Manchester United player Mason Greenwood has been bailed following his arrest on suspicion of raping, assaulting and threatening to kill a woman.The 20-year-old, who is regarded as one of England’s most talented young footballers, remains under investigation. Continue reading...

Scott Morrison this week admitted he didn’t know how much staples cost. Given similar questions have undone other politicians perhaps he was wise not to take a stab

I was brought up in a puritanical religious sect but a chance visit to Peterborough cathedral began a lifelong interest in these wonderful buildingsIn the mid-70s, when I was a young reporter on the London newspaper the Evening News, I was sent to Peterborough – then pretty much on the edge of the paper’s circulation area – to do a story. I had finished my interview, and had an hour to wait until the next train back to London, so, having nothing to do, I went to look at Peterborough Cathedral.As you approach it from the west, there are three huge arches: they look like doorways for giants. Inside, I looked around and was completely fascinated. Most people who look at a cathedral feel this, usually asking themselves two questions: why did medieval people want one of these? And how did they build it? Continue reading...

His parents hoped he might get a job in a library. Instead he became an actor, a campaigner – and a role modelMost of Tommy Jessop’s acting plans are, he says with a smile, “top secret”. His biggest ambition is to play James Bond, and there’s an opening now. Jessop laughs, and says he has been told he looks like Bond. “It’s when you’re wearing black tie,” says Jessop’s mother, Jane, who is sitting next to him. Jessop has had cause to wear black tie a fair amount – this year, Line of Duty, in which he starred as murder suspect Terry Boyle, picked up a National Television Award. Jessop’s first big role saw him star alongside Nicholas Hoult in the 2007 BBC drama Coming Down the Mountain, which was nominated for a Bafta.This year has been a particularly successful one for Jessop. As well as appearing in 2021’s biggest TV show, he has been filming a Steven Spielberg-produced second world war drama, Masters of the Air, for Apple TV+ (those are the rumours, at least, after he was photographed on set). He was awarded an honorary doctorate at the University of Winchester and, most significant of all, added his voice to the campaign for the Down Syndrome bill, which passed its second reading in the Commons in November. Continue reading...

Nation records at least 69 Covid deaths; raising interest rates won’t solve housing affordability, Philip Lowe says; Grace Tame condemns ‘civility for the sake of civility’. Follow all the day’s news

Ethiopia’s government has declared a new phase of reconciliation, but a cycle of atrocities on all sides has left a legacy of mistrust. War is far from over, say those on the groundAt first sight, it could have been any normal year. Pilgrims, shrouded in white shawls, smiled as they walked the winding cobblestone streets, shaded from the glare of the midday sun by a sea of colourful umbrellas. Young men and women danced and sang, thrusting wooden sticks joyously into the air, as priests blessed onlookers beside a church carved into the mountainside.The Epiphany of Saint George, an ancient Orthodox Christian tradition, was celebrated in Lalibela on 26 January just as it has always been. The northern Ethiopian town, a Unesco world heritage site renowned for its dazzling rock-hewn churches, is coming back to life after several angst-ridden months on the frontline of Ethiopia’s devastating civil war. “It is a day of double joy for us,” says Father Tsige Mezgebu, the archbishop who officiated the ceremony. Continue reading...

Dillon Helbig’s handwritten tale of a Christmas star, the first Thanksgiving and the north pole has proved a surprise hitWhen eight-year-old Dillon Helbig finished writing his book, The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis, in mid-December, he wanted everyone to read it. The only problem was that he did not have an agent.So he decided to self-publish. During a visit with his grandmother to the Lake Hazel branch of the Ada Community Library in Boise, Idaho, Dillon quietly deposited his book, signed “by Dillon His Self”, on to a nearby shelf. Continue reading...

Aged care minister insists he worked on portfolio duties ‘all through that weekend’ in mid-January when he was at Ashes cricket for three days