The Oxford quartet’s song Heat Waves is the most played globally on Spotify this week, and a curveball amid pop’s solo artists. Frontman Dave Bayley explains how it happenedWith solo artists currently dominating the charts and the zeitgeist, now is not the ideal time to be in a band – unless it’s Glass Animals. This week, the Oxford quartet became the first British group to top Spotify’s global songs chart with their synthpop single Heat Waves, racking up 4.26m plays per day on the streaming platform. It was a feat their fans saw coming: last year, Heat Waves was the fourth most-streamed song in the US and the most-streamed in Australia, having been played more than 1bn times worldwide.This is a remarkable achievement for an act with no previous big hits – but that’s not the only strange thing about their success. A sultry, wistful number with an extremely catchy chorus, Heat Waves has had an unusually slow rise to prominence: it was released in June 2020 and for months it failed to break into the UK Top 40 or US Billboard Hot 100. Its subsequent ascent up the charts – peaking at No 5 in the UK, No 1 in Australia and No 3 in the US, where it currently stands – was unprecedented in its leisurely nature; it now holds the record for the longest climb to the Top 5 in the US chart’s history. Continue reading...

Marine Le Pen calls Marion Maréchal’s decision not to back presidential bid ‘brutal, violent and painful’France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen has described her niece’s decision not to support her presidential campaign as “brutal, violent and painful”.Marion Maréchal, who dropped Le Pen from her name in 2018, said she was considering whether to transfer her allegiance to Éric Zemmour, who is even further to the right. Continue reading...

From surveillance to enforced holidays for activists, possible measures Beijing could take to prevent or deal with protestsIn the lead-up to the Beijing Winter Olympics there have been two major side issues unrelated to sport: Covid, and human rights protests.Chinese authorities have implemented an ambitious “closed loop” system to try to keep the Games free of a coronavirus outbreak, or at least keep any outbreaks away from the general population. When it comes to protests, authorities have put in a great deal of effort to contain them. Below we look at what issues may arise during the Games, and how authorities could react. Continue reading...

Photojournalist Guillaume Herbaut’s latest visit to Ukraine reveals a disturbing silence on the frontline as international posturing ramps up tensions and diplomats work to avert a full-scale conflictSince 2014, the French photographer Guillaume Herbaut has been going to Ukraine several times a year to cover the war in a country divided between those turned toward Europe, and those drawn to Russia.A Ukrainian soldier walks in a trench in the former Zenit military airbase. The base has become one of the Ukrainian army’s positions on the frontline Continue reading...

Set 20 years after a virus has decimated Earth, this 10-part TV epic suggests that humanity will bounce back after the apocalypse – finding joy in a brave new world where smartphones and the internet are mere memoriesThere is art that mirrors life, life mirroring art – and then there is Station Eleven. In February 2020, filming was under way on an HBO Max adaptation of the critically acclaimed novel, which is set 20 years after a deadly flu outbreak has decimated the global population and brought civilisation as we know it to an end. Its plot centres on a nomadic troupe of actors who perform Shakespeare to the scattered settlements of the Great Lakes. But after shooting two episodes showing the “Georgia flu” bringing the city of Chicago to a stop, production was shut down by the very threat it depicted.The book, which was a bestseller in 2014, was discovered anew as the real-life pandemic made us seek out stories to help process the emergent threat. (See the spike in streams of Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 pandemic thriller Contagion; the return of Camus.) Its author, Emily St John Mandel, is often declared to have “predicted” the future, a claim she resists. Continue reading...

Aid workers call for ‘humanitarian pause’ so crucial supplies can be delivered, after first assessment of hunger in the region since war broke outAt least 2 million people in the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray are suffering from an extreme lack of food, with the 15-month conflict between rebel and government forces pushing families to the brink, the UN’s emergency food agency has found.In the first comprehensive assessment the World Food Programme (WFP) has carried out in Tigray since the start of the war, 37% of the population were found to be severely food insecure, meaning they had at times run out of food and gone a day or more without eating. Continue reading...

Regulator heavily critical of aides to European Commission president in relation to Covid vaccine messagesAn investigation by an EU watchdog into text messages sent by European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, to Pfizer’s CEO has found the EU’s executive arm guilty of “maladministration”.Von der Leyen’s aides are heavily criticised in the ruling from Emily O’Reilly, the European ombudsman, for their handling of requests for publication of the messages sent during negotiations over vaccine purchases. Continue reading...

Playing the flute on one leg, Anderson’s jester-like image turned the prog rockers into global stars in the 70s. With their first new album in 20 years, he talks about the passion behind the pomp – and why he could never be ‘generic, like the Stones and the Who’When I last interviewed Ian Anderson, leader of multimillion-selling prog rockers Jethro Tull, in 1993, he told me that 2000 would be a good time to hang up his flute. “I think I was confusing myself with British Airways pilots who, when they turn 65, are out,” he counters today. “If you’re a professional tennis player and fully vaccinated, you might manage to play on until you’re in your late 30s. But those of us in arts and entertainment get to die with our boots on, like John Wayne in a black-and-white western.”Appraising Anderson’s face on my laptop screen, I could easily knock a decade off his 74 years, but it’s still hard to reconcile this loquacious, informed analyser of politics and history with the wild hippy dervish he was circa 1970, famous for playing his flute on one leg. His troll-like hair vanished long ago, but that passage of time is “both romantic and encouraging, because it means we can keep on paying our grandchildren’s school fees in our old age. There are others older than me who are still doing their stuff. Mick Jagger’s trousers keep going up and down, so all’s well with the world.” Continue reading...

Federal police are working with the TGA to investigate allegations of false documentation being used to attempt to import unregistered RATs

Legal action planned against Hungary and NSO, the spyware’s maker, in what could become template for other casesHungarian journalists targeted with Pegasus spyware plan to take legal action against the Hungarian state and the Israeli company NSO, which manufactures the tool.The Pegasus Project, a consortium of news outlets including the Guardian, revealed last summer that forensic analysis of mobile devices showed that a number of journalists in the country had been targeted with Pegasus. Continue reading...

At least 98 Covid deaths recorded across NSW, Victoria, Queensland, SA and ACT; Scott Morrison comments on viral photos of Grace Tame meeting; Russia’s ambassador to Australian condemns ‘propaganda’ reporting; additional Covid deaths in Sydney aged care homes confirmed. Follow all the day’s news

Russia says it’s not irrational after Australian defence minister calls president an ageing dictator amid tensions over UkraineRussia’s ambassador has hit back at the Australian defence minister, Peter Dutton, for branding Vladimir Putin an ageing and irrational dictator, amid growing tensions over the buildup of more than 100,000 Russian troops near Ukraine’s border.The ambassador to Australia, Alexey Pavlovsky, said if that was “the level of analysis informing Australian policy then it is definitely a worrying sign” and argued that some western politicians had been “convinced by their own propaganda”. Continue reading...

Hopes continue for diplomatic solution to Ukraine standoff but Berlin swings behind Washington’s threat on Nord Stream 2The United States and Germany have stepped up warnings to Russia that the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline will be at stake if it invades Ukraine, as Washington voiced hope for a diplomatic way out despite frigid statements from Moscow.A day after the US and its allies formally responded to security demands issued by Russia, officials in Moscow said their chief concerns were not addressed but notably did not rule out new talks. Continue reading...

Kiwis are experiencing a range of emotions over the expected surge in Covid cases, from resignation to relief, trepidation to fearThis week we asked Guardian New Zealand readers about the arrival of Omicron and how they are feeling and preparing. Hundreds of New Zealanders wrote in, about their hopes and anxieties, preparations and frustrations, confidence and worries.The country has spent almost two years relatively sheltered from the pandemic’s worst effects, and many said they felt some trepidation at the prospect of widespread Covid, and the threat it could pose to the country’s small health system, as well as its immunocompromised or under-vaccinated communities. Some were concerned about divisions the pandemic had produced: between the vaccinated and unvaccinated, those inside the border and those locked out. Continue reading...

Fears that subs from China, which claims the area, could be first to reach wreckage that plunged from deck of aircraft carrierThe US navy is racing to salvage an F-35C fighter jet from the bottom of the South China Sea after it crashed on an aircraft carrier and plunged overboard – taking with it highly classified technology that would be a coup if China retrieved it first.The F-35C crashed-landed on the deck of the USS Carl Vinson during routine operations on Monday, the navy said, injuring six sailors and the pilot, who ejected from the plane before it fell into the sea. Continue reading...

New South Wales has reported 35 deaths in people with Covid-19 overnight, 2,737 people in hospital and 13,333 new cases. Kerry Chant said another 35 people, in addition to those previously reported, had died in aged care facilities in south-western Sydney between 2 and 20 January. There was a delay in reporting those deaths to the health department, she said

Pyongyang’s regime has carried out six tests in January ‘confirming the power of conventional warhead’North Korea has test-fired more long-range cruise missiles and short-range ballistic missiles, state media says, part of a record-breaking streak of launches this year.Pyongyang has conducted six weapons tests since the start of the year, including hypersonic missiles, one of the most intense barrages in a calendar month on record, while ignoring US offers of talks. Continue reading...

Protection against death increases to around 95% two weeks after receiving a booster dose, UK health agency says; UK reports another 96,871 Covid cases

Scientists warn Boris Johnson that failure means new Covid variants will put thousands of lives at risk across UK

The first minister, Mark Drakeford, said the country would be moving to alert level zero on Friday

New report from Human Rights Law Centre says fossil fuel, gambling and tobacco industries are distorting Australia’s democracy

Zoë Wilson took her own life while under psychiatric hospital care after telling staff voices were telling her to kill herselfA string of failings may have contributed to the death of a “deeply vulnerable” law student who killed herself while being treated in a psychiatric hospital in Bristol, an inquest jury has said.Zoë Wilson, 22, had informed staff she was hearing voices in her head telling her to kill herself and 30 minutes before she died was seen by a nurse through an observation hatch looking frightened and behaving oddly but nobody went into her room to check her. Continue reading...

Sale of historical document produced by the Red Brigades, who eventually killed the Italian statesman, criticised as in poor tasteA leaflet claiming responsibility for the 1978 kidnapping of the Italian statesman Aldo Moro by the ultra-left Red Brigades has been sold at auction, despite criticism the sale was in poor taste.Rome’s Bertolami auction house sold the historical document for €26,000 ($28,960) on Thursday, far surpassing its original estimate of €1,300-1,700. Continue reading...

Suspect, who was caring for five-year-old at the time, sectioned under Mental Health Act after her arrestA five-year-old boy who was fatally stabbed at his home in Coventry has been named as David-Mario Lazar.The boy, known to his family as Mario, was found with serious injuries at his home in the Earlsdon area of the city just before 6pm on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Legal experts question whether document filed with US district court can help royal avoid ‘disastrous’ trialBritish lawyers have cast doubt on the strength of Prince Andrew’s defence to Virginia’s Giuffre’s lawsuit and whether it can help him settle the case, thereby avoiding a “disastrous” court trial.In papers filed with the US district court on Wednesday, Andrew denied sexually abusing Giuffre when she was a minor and also sought to bar his accuser’s claim on grounds including the time elapsed since the alleged offences – despite a New York statute having extended the window for child victim claims – and her “wrongful conduct”.Andrew and convicted sex-trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell have been photographed at numerous social events together.Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008 to the charge of procuring a minor for prostitution.Andrew had been on Epstein’s private plane and stayed at some of his homes.The infamous photograph depicts Andrew, Giuffre and Maxwell at Maxwell’s home. Continue reading...

Funds will go only to those provinces where girls are in school if Taliban renege on promise, diplomats sayThe west is planning to incentivise the Taliban to abide by their promise to allow girls to be educated by providing funding for teachers’ salaries only in provinces in which the pledge is met.The Taliban claimed this week the group would allow girls of secondary school age to be educated from March, the start of the next school term. Sceptical diplomats said they would need more than verbal assurances, with physical and budgetary evidence of preparations being required. Continue reading...

Opposition leader Alexis Tsipras files censure motion, also citing poor handling of wildfires and pandemicGreece’s main opposition leader, Alexis Tsipras, has filed a motion of no confidence in the government, saying its bungled response to a winter blizzard this week showed it was no longer fit for office.Submitting the censure motion, the leftist former prime minister, said Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s administration was “the worst the country has known” since the collapse of military rule in 1974. Continue reading...

First minister Paul Givan says UK must take action if EU agreement cannot be reached by 21 FebruaryThe DUP has set 21 February as a fresh deadline for the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, to find a solution to the dispute over the Northern Ireland Brexit protocol.In her first visit to Northern Ireland, Truss, who inherited Brexit negotiations from Lord Frost at Christmas, met the DUP’s Paul Givan and Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill, first minister and deputy first minister respectively. Continue reading...

Russian president Vladimir Putin is being briefed on a US paper reaffirming support for Ukraine’s right to pursue Nato membership

Many shoppers and commuters in London and Birmingham kept their faces covered – although not all

Answering readers’ questions, the actor and musician talks about how he tried stealing a job off his father, his favourite item from Greggs and his Mickey Mouse tattooHi, Keith … What’s your favourite English expression? ClassicMacGruber

Xiomara Castro’s inauguration will cap a remarkable rise but she faces daunting challenges around femicide and abortionXiomara Castro will be sworn in as the first female president of Honduras on Thursday, marking the culmination of a remarkable rise to power that began just over 12 years ago when she led a massive protest movement in response to the ousting of her husband, former president Manuel “Mel” Zelaya, in a military-backed coup.Castro’s resounding victory in the 28 November election has generated hope for a new era for women in the country with the highest rate of femicide in Latin America and some of the region’s most draconian laws with regards to reproductive rights. Continue reading...

The former minister Nusrat Ghani has claimed whips told her she had been sacked for being a Muslim. Labour, Lib Dem and Tory colleagues share their own experiences, from being labelled a terrorist sympathiser to being told to change their nameIn 2011, Sayeeda Warsi, then a co-chair of the Conservative party, implored her government to take action over the rising tide of anti-Muslim bigotry, which she said had become socially acceptable enough to pass “the dinner-table test”.A decade later, it seems too little has changed. Last week, Nusrat Ghani, the Tory MP for Wealden, told the Sunday Times that when she was dismissed from her ministerial post in 2020, she was told by a whip that her “Muslimness” had been an issue. The chief whip, Mark Spencer, identified himself as the person who spoke to her, but strongly denied her allegations. Continue reading...

Easing of restrictions comes as legal requirements for masks and NHS passes are dropped

Threat of war with Ukraine has led to fears of gas shortages in Europe, but there are alternative suppliesRising tensions on the Russia-Ukraine border have raised fears that Europe’s gas supply crisis could become far more serious. Gas market prices have already surpassed record highs and threaten to saddle European households with a cost of living crisis.Russia is Europe’s largest supplier of gas, of which a third flows through Ukraine’s gas pipelines to countries across the continent. Russian gas flows have been a quarter lower than usual over the past year, but European leaders now fear that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could spell an energy catastrophe if gas exports are cut. Continue reading...

Stella Nyanzi talks about challenging Uganda’s President Museveni from her new home and why she had to leave the land she lovesThe first few days of Stella Nyanzi’s new life in Germany have not been without their challenges, from navigating the TV and internet in a different language to finding the right school for her three teenagers. On the second day, the family went shopping for clothes – “thick jackets, mittens and scarves” – to see them through the fierce Bavarian winter. For her 14-year-old twins, who have lived their whole lives in sub-Saharan Africa and who insisted on wearing Crocs with no socks on the flight over, the sub-zero temperatures were a rude awakening.At the centre of it all, however, has been deep sense of relief. Nyanzi, a 47-year-old outspoken scholar, poet and human rights advocate whose irreverent writing about Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, has seen her jailed twice, decided enough was enough. She has been accepted on a writers-in-exile programme run by PEN Germany, and has no intention of returning to Uganda while the 77-year-old Museveni is in power. And while there are many concerns about how she and her children are going to settle into Munich life, the sense of freedom is powering her on. Continue reading...

An image titled The Dancing Dreams of a Mountain Girl, depicting a young mountain girl dancing for her grandmother in a village in China, is the overall winner of an international photo competition celebrating Chinese culture. The Global SinoPhoto awards invited photographers to tell Chinese stories, imagining, interpreting and inspiring connections between Chinese culture and the rest of the world. The awards covered four categories: water (as 2022 is the year of the water tiger), home, work and play, and environment.The Museum of East Asian Art (MEAA) in Bath is to exhibit the winning entries from 16 February until 14 May 2022 Continue reading...

Dominic Perrottet says lagging areas remain a priority but disability advocate says setting targets is not enough and strategy should be overhauled

NSW police allege the founding member of domestic violence charity White Ribbon grabbed the woman by the throat

Shots fired at property in Hawthorn Grove, Leigh at about 5.45pm on Wednesday shortly before second shooting in Shadwell GroveTwo men have been taken to hospital after a double shooting near Wigan.Gunshots were fired at a property in Hawthorn Grove, Leigh at about 5.45pm on Wednesday evening before a second shooting shortly after in Shadwell Grove. Continue reading...

Melbourne home set alight by lightning strike while heavy rain continues to cause havoc in Queensland

The nation accepts a big psychological change, one expert says, as people prepare for more cases than they have ever seen beforeSee all our coronavirus coverageIn New Zealand’s biggest city, the streets were calm. At an Auckland supermarket, shelves of toilet paper, wine, chocolate and flour – metrics of a population hunkering down for a marathon of self-soothing and banana bread – had been quietly restocked from any panic-buying flurries.In an uptown cafe, a barista said things had been a little quieter since the announcement. Then again, she shrugged: “It might just be a Tuesday.” At Unity Books, a bookstore at the heart of the city, people were quietly browsing. “There’s always an element of eerie calm before the storm,” said bookseller Briary Lawry. Continue reading...

Duke denies Jeffrey Epstein ‘trafficked girls to him’ and demands trial in Virginia Giuffre’s sexual abuse lawsuitPrince Andrew has denied that he was a co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein, and insisted on a jury trial in Virginia Giuffre’s sexual abuse lawsuit against him, his lawyers said in court papers filed Wednesday.“Prince Andrew hereby demands a trial by jury on all causes of action asserted in the complaint,” his lawyers wrote. The Duke of York also denies that Epstein “trafficked girls to him”, the attorneys said in their legal filings. Continue reading...

Thursday: Liberal and National senators back opposition calls for an inquiry into Australia’s pandemic response. Plus: WA’s border closure causes ‘chaos’ for universitiesGood morning. Government senators join calls for a Covid royal commission, anxiety over a possible Russian military offensive in Ukraine heightens, and international students fear limbo after Western Australia’s snap border decision.Three Coalition senators have supported crossbench and opposition calls for a royal commission into Australia’s Covid pandemic response. Liberal Gerard Rennick, who has vowed to continue to withhold support for government legislation over the management of the pandemic, told Guardian Australia there “definitely needs to be a review into the way everything happened”, while National Matt Canavan said “all levels of government, not just the commonwealth” would need to submit evidence to any inquiry. A spokesperson for fellow National Sam McMahon has confirmed she also backed a royal commission. Labor’s Katy Gallagher added “there will have to be some assessment of all the decisions taken”, including accounting for $337bn in spending during the pandemic. Continue reading...

Western Australia’s universities warn they will continue to bleed revenue while other states scoop up stranded students

The English actor, who has worked with Chinese directors from Jackie Chan to Zhang Yimou, reveals how a chance meeting at the visa office in Beijing changed his lifeIf the Chinese film industry needs a stock foreign villain, I’m their first port of call. I was a Gatling gun-wielding mercenary in 2015’s Wolf Warrior, one of the first of the new wave of military blockbusters, and a hitman in Jackie Chan’s Kung Fu Yoga in 2017, among many others. And I recently played an American colonel in the Korean war in The Battle at Lake Changjin, the most expensive and successful Chinese film ever: it made $909m (£675m) last year.It’s surreal – coming from humble beginnings in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire – to find myself in the middle of a massive field in Hubei province filming the likes of The Battle at Lake Changjin. You’d think you were in a real-life warzone – there were hundreds of tanks supplied by the government. I grew up watching Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee and Jet Li movies, which kickstarted my passion for China. I originally came here to study martial arts in 2004. Then I came back 10 years later to work as a financial consultant, which I didn’t really enjoy. Continue reading...

Buster Moon and his troupe aim to make it big in showbiz but even a new character voiced by Bono can’t save this from feeling like a movie generated by an algorithmWriter-director Garth Jennings has returned with a sequel to the highly successful family animation Sing, about a koala called Buster Moon (voiced by Matthew McConaughey, a musical theatre impresario with a never-say-die attitude and a cute troupe of talking, singing animals. That was a slick product with a fair bit of charm, but this follow-up has all of the varnish but the actual heart and soul has dwindled to a blandness. It feels like a screensaver, a movie generated by an algorithm, the same algorithm that calculated the likely profit on extending the Sing franchise.Now Buster and the gang are yearning to make it big in the world’s entertainment capital: a flashy but fictional place called Redshore, like Vegas with a dash of LA. They somehow blag their way into an audition for thuggish media magnate and arctic wolf Jimmy Crystal (Bobby Cannavale) who lets them put on their sci-fi spectacular in his hotel showroom, as long as it stars his pampered princess of a daughter Porsha (voiced by Halsey). Fast-talking Buster also claims he can tempt out of reclusive retirement a legendary singer and lion called Clay Calloway (voiced by Bono) who slightly tiresomely sings his version of I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, without anyone breaking the fact-fiction dividing wall and wondering why this supposed icon is performing a U2 cover instead of his own material. Continue reading...

Campaigners say not enough victims are being identified before Home Office moves to lock them upThe number of trafficking victims locked up in immigration detention centres has increased more than tenfold in the last four years, according to data shared with the Guardian.The charity Focus on Labour Exploitation (Flex) obtained freedom of information data showing that in 2017 86 people – 14% of those suspected of being victims of trafficking – obtained what is known as positive reasonable grounds decisions after being locked up. Continue reading...

Women have never had more products and services designed to help with the menopause. But does the new-found choice improve lives or is it just companies in search of the next profit?From menopause calendars to menopause scented candles, and menopause supplements to menopause spa breaks, there is no shortage of products to help ease a woman’s transition into her post-reproductive years. If you’re after something stronger, how about vaginal rejuvenation laser treatment or bioidentical oestrogen? You could even try to postpone menopause for a decade or so – provided you are willing to freeze a slice of your ovary in your 20s and then have it grafted back on in later life.Menopause is enjoying a moment. After centuries of enduring the rollercoaster of physical and emotional symptoms that often accompany it, middle-aged women have never been so well-catered for with products purporting to help. But is this sudden choice empowering, or just exploitative? Continue reading...

Increased natural gas exports considered after US and UK raise concerns over Europe’s reliance on Russian LNG