Move comes as case numbers and deaths continue to fall in many nations

Seven-square-metre ‘posh cell’ in Lower Clapton fetches £90,000 at auctionA 7-square-metre microflat, cramming in a bed, toilet, shower, sink and a microwave tucked under the pillow, has sold for 80% above its minimum listing price at £90,000.The microflat, located in a Victorian conversion in Lower Clapton, east London, is believed to be the capital’s smallest-ever property, marking a turn towards tiny homes driven by the UK’s housing crisis of soaring rent and property prices. Continue reading...

The identity of those targeted has not been officially confirmed, but here are five of the most prominent figuresThe EU has approved asset freezes and travel bans on various Russian people and entities in response to Vladimir Putin’s decision to recognise the self-proclaimed republics in Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states.The list of those targeted has not been officially confirmed, but here are five of the most prominent names the Guardian has seen on a draft list. Continue reading...

Applause in national assembly as lawmakers vote to extend limit for ending pregnancy from 12 to 14 weeksFrance has extended its time limit for abortion after an epic battle in parliament, amid anger that thousands of women had to travel abroad each year to terminate pregnancies in countries such as the Netherlands, Spain or England because of French restrictions.There was applause in the French national assembly on Wednesday when lawmakers voted definitively to extend the legal limit for ending a pregnancy from 12 to 14 weeks. France’s new time frame is still lower than in some other European countries, including England at 24 weeks. Continue reading...

Friends and colleagues pay tribute to actor, 85, who died in fire at Ilford homeThe former On the Buses and EastEnders actor Anna Karen has died in a fire at her east London home.Firefighters rushed to the blaze on the ground floor of a terrace house in Windsor Road, Ilford, shortly after 10.30pm on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Extreme temperatures due to climate crisis are resulting in higher rate of hospital visits, say scientistsHot summer temperatures drive up the number of people suffering mental health emergencies, the most comprehensive study to date has found.The analysis of medical records from millions of US citizens showed an average 8% rise in the rate of emergency hospital visits on days when the temperature was in the top 5% of those recorded across the decade-long study. Continue reading...

Change comes into effect as requirement for people with Covid to self-isolate is lifted in England

The former secretary to the disgraced president talks about his new memoir and what it was like to go to prison for NixonHe was at the side of the American president on one of the most important diplomatic trips in history, enjoying sumptuous banquets as a guest of Chinese dictator Mao Zedong.Three and a half years later he was in prison after becoming first person to go on trial in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, despite protesting his innocence. Continue reading...

Farmer says his Hereford turned up one week after going missing when torrential rain hit his farm on New Zealand’s west coastA young bull that was swept into a surging river during flooding on New Zealand’s West Coast has miraculously survived the ordeal, turning up unharmed a week later, 80 kilometres (49 miles) downstream, snuffling about in a blackberry bush.Deer and cattle farmer, Tony Peacock, said the 18-month-old bull was grazing with 37 others in a paddock in the Shenandoah area above the Maruia River, on 10 February, when torrential rain began falling. Continue reading...

After weeks of threats, Putin has ordered troops into eastern Ukraine. Shaun Walker and Patrick Wintour explain what the new stage of the crisis means for the country and its allies.After an angry, rambling, theatrical security meeting, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, announced that Russia had recognised the independence of two Russian-controlled territories in east Ukraine: the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. Furthermore, he said, the Kremlin would be sending troops on a “peacekeeping mission” into the region. Continue reading...

Scott Morrison’s government told Australia’s membership of Open Government Partnership may be reviewed

‘Misleading’ messages from $55bn-a-year industry are ‘unethical’, says report, which calls for plain packaging rules similar to tobaccoCountries should clamp down on the “aggressive” and “unethical” marketing of formula milk for babies, including forcing companies to sell products in plain packaging, a report by the World Health Organization and Unicef has said.In research, commissioned 41 years after the global health community drew up guidelines aimed at regulating the industry, experts found that the marketing of formula had “no limits” and had become more “unregulated and invasive” in the digital age. Continue reading...

Analysis: Commentators and news websites have spread incorrect information on Covid deaths in Australia, feeding conspiracy theories

A day after Vladimir Putin recognised the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent, protesters gathered in front of the Russian embassy in Kyiv in a show of defiance against the Russian president's actions in their country. The Guardian's Luke Harding spoke to them about why they were protesting and what they thought of the recent escalating tension between Ukraine and Russia

German shorthaired pointer named Hertz given PDSA Dickin medal after sniffing out drugs and electronicsA retired military working dog named Hertz has been awarded a medal known as the animals’ Victoria Cross for his service in Afghanistan.The German shorthaired pointer is the first dog in British military history to detect electronic communications equipment such as mobile phones, voice recorders, sim cards and GPS devices. Continue reading...

We would like to hear from people in Russia about their views on the situation with UkraineWe would like to hear from Russian people living and working in Russia about their thoughts on the situation with Ukraine.What is the mood like at the moment? What are your thoughts on the developments? We would also like to hear from Russians living in the UK, US or elsewhere. Continue reading...

Buckingham Palace says monarch suffering ‘mild cold-like symptoms’

Feeling the chill? Get knitting, or make some soup, or tackle the dirty dishes, or …Use natural materials to knit yourself a jumper – they are better for the planet and keep you warmer than artificial yarns. The beauty and benefits start almost as soon as you cast on, since the growing garment on your knees keeps you warm long before it’s ready to wear. Win-win! Carol Brook, West Yorkshire Continue reading...

A ghostly vision in a dream prompted the Texan folk-rockers to return after a decade away. The result is their most daring album yetThe next time you’re in the city of Denton, Texas, you could do worse than swing by the speakeasy-style Paschall Bar, pull up a stool and order a Pulido Old Fashioned. “It’s my signature cocktail,” grins Midlake’s frontman Eric Pulido from under a well-worn baseball cap. “I think they just started getting tired of me saying: ‘Instead of the sugar can you do Bénédictine [a liqueur], and then can you also put in maple bitters … ’”Pulido isn’t simply a fussy customer, but alongside the rest of Midlake actually owns this dimly lit, book-lined boozer, which, like so many others, found itself on the brink of collapse during the early stages of the pandemic. “We experienced the up and down of ‘We’re good’, ‘We’re not’, ‘Now we’re OK!’” offers Pulido with a sigh. “It was definitely a trying time, but I feel like we’re coming out of the woods now.” Continue reading...

The UK has some of the cheapest food in the world, but thanks to spiralling costs and the effects of Brexit, farmers like Rachel Hallos are on the edge. She explains why she could soon lose the way of life she loves – and her family depends on

This was a supreme leader marshalling his minions for a decision that will change the security architecture in Europe and may well lead to horrific war

Further 129 flood warnings in place across England and Wales after third severe storm in a week wreaks havocTwo severe “danger to life” flood warnings have been issued in Shropshire and Worcestershire after Storm Franklin brought a day of flooding, power cut misery and travel chaos on Monday.Parts of the historic village of Ironbridge were being evacuated as the river Severn threatened to overwhelm flood defences, and in Bewdley in Worcestershire, residents were told to expect flooding from Tuesday morning. The Environment Agency urged people to implement emergency flood defence plans and follow evacuation advice. Continue reading...

PM also tells Commons people with positive cases will no longer have to isolate from Thursday

Scott Morrison bowled up a scare campaign on national security but latest Guardian Essential poll suggests it is not working

A magnetic central performance from Yannawoutthi Chanthalungsy anchors Matty Do’s excellently spooky tale of destructive hubrisFollowing the critically acclaimed Dearest Sister, Laos’s first female director, Mattie Do, has crafted another enigmatic tale that sets itself apart from the usual horror fare, offering plenty of genre pleasures while retaining an arthouse aesthetic. In an impoverished Laotian village, an unnamed farmer (Yannawoutthi Chanthalungsy) leads a near-hermit-like existence. His daily rituals involve scavenging for metal scraps, which he sells for little money. His reticent demeanour, however, betrays none of his discontent.Yet, just as secrets lie beneath the landscape, he has skeletons in his closet. He is haunted by his mother’s death from severe lung disease, and while people whisper about his ability to speak to the dead, no one knows that, since his childhood encounter with a ghost, he has taken it upon himself to relieve dying women of their suffering by euthanising them. As their apparitions wander for eternity, these spectres embody his own inability to break free of the past. Continue reading...

With three named storms hitting country in just six days, experts reject claim people will become inured to threatIn just six days the UK has been battered by a triple whammy of Dudley, Eunice and Franklin and next up could be Gladys. But does the naming of storms heighten awareness to the danger, or inure us?Liz Bentley, chief executive of the Royal Meteorological Society, says that it does work and heightens awareness. “Having named storms gives them a kind of uniqueness, identity and higher profile … that need for people to listen and take action.” Continue reading...

JCVI formally advises another booster shot in spring for groups deemed most at risk from virus

Number of Palestinians killed rises year on year as firearms stolen from Israeli military proliferate on streetsThere has been a break in the rain, and the sun is shining on the orange groves of Bir al-Maksur, a quiet Bedouin village near Nazareth in Israel’s north.Three-year-old Ammar would have loved splashing in the winter puddles outside the Hujarat family’s home, his aunt said. But two days before, the little boy was shot and killed in a playground by a stray bullet fired during a car chase, and the grieving family is trying to make sense of the way his life ended. Continue reading...

PC Jonathan Cobban, 35, PC William Neville, 33, and former officer Joel Borders, 45, charged over alleged racist and misogynistic messagesProsecutors have named the police officers charged over allegedly sharing racist and misogynistic messages on a WhatsApp group that included the officer who kidnapped and murdered Sarah Everard.The Crown Prosecution Service last Thursday announced charges against two serving and one former Metropolitan police officer, but kept their identities secret. Continue reading...

A cast of nonprofessional newcomers captivate in a realist drama reminiscent of Sarah Gavron’s RocksSwiss film-maker and former social worker Fred Baillif has created this pressure-cooked realist drama about a group of teen girls in a care home, where there is something more dysfunctional and tragic about the supervising staff than about the inmates themselves. Lora (Claudia Grob) is the director of this residential institution, a tough veteran of the system. Under her wing are troubled girls including Audrey (Anaïs Uldry), Précieuse (Joyce Esther Ndayisenga) and Justine (Charlie Areddy). Each of them is acting out, each has been abused in some way, but they find love and solidarity in this home: for them it is la famille, slangily shortened to la mif, equivalent, perhaps, to “the fam”.But from the very outset, it is Lora herself who is in serious trouble: she is officially reprimanded for allowing a situation to happen whereby one of the girls, at 17, has sex with a 14-year-old boy who has been allowed to visit with others for a party. She incautiously opens up to one of the girls about an unthinkably painful thing in her own life, and when this same girl spitefully throws this information back in Lora’s face during a later row, Lora’s drinking problem begins to resurface; she slaps one of the abusive mothers who insults her, having been unlawfully demanding to see her daughter at the home – and things spiral out of control from there. Continue reading...

Accident inspectors found many areas around site ‘had a medium or heavy level of contamination’Engineering work delayed the cleaning of rails in Salisbury last October, less than two hours before a passenger train skidded on leaves stuck to the line and crashed, injuring 14, investigators have found.The routine autumn cleaning work had been rescheduled from 5pm to 11pm the same evening but at 6.43pm a South Western Railway train was unable to stop on the slippery tracks and collided with a Great Western Railway service outside a tunnel near Salisbury, Wiltshire. Continue reading...

A bridge was closed and shops were flooded after the River Wharfe overtopped its banks.Accelerated footage shows water levels rising around Tadcaster Bridge as the approach of Storm Franklin overnight caused heavy rain and flooding in North Yorkshire.There was severe flooding in parts of Northern Ireland, and more than 150 flood warnings are in place across the north of England, with Yorkshire and Manchester the worst-hit areas

This hard-hitting film about young Norwegians struggling with suicidal ideation, addiction, abuse and self-harm is intense, but does it cross a line?This scrappy, rough-around-the-edges documentary from Norway is directed by two friends and began after one of them, Petter Aaberg, attempted to kill himself. It’s a fly-on-the-wall study of Aaberg and four other young Norwegians struggling with their mental health. It is raw and intense, and also troubling in places: Aaberg and Kvamme keep the camera rolling on these vulnerable people in moments of crisis, testing the limits of documentary ethics.One of their subjects is Monica, whose arms are horrifically scarred by self-harm. A sexual abuse survivor, she lives in a constant state of hyper-vigilance. We see her having a panic attack in the street after hearing a car backfire. Monica introduces the directors to Emma, her trans friend who is struggling with the agonisingly long wait for surgery. Another subject is heroin addict Cornelia, who is filmed injecting herself and being rushed to hospital, her umpteenth overdose. I wasn’t convinced that showing moments such as this, honest and hard-hittingly intimate as they are, take us any closer to understanding Monica, Emma or Cordelia. Continue reading...

About 1.4m doses of Nuvaxovid to arrive in country this week, after EU approval in December

Home Office says eviction letters sent ‘in error’ and it is working to find long-term accommodationThousands of asylum seekers fear they could lose their Home Office hotel accommodation because some owners want to offer rooms to tourists and other travellers.One letter sent to a group of asylum seekers being accommodated by the Home Office in a hotel close to central London states: “Dear guests, we would like to kindly inform you that your accommodation with us is going to end on 31 January (2022). We advise you to get in touch with your local council for alternative accommodation.” Continue reading...

Leak shows King Abdullah was beneficial owner of at least six Credit Suisse accounts

Putin spokesperson says no concrete plans for leaders to meet following diplomatic efforts by FranceRussia has suggested that talk of a summit between Vladimir Putin and the US president, Joe Biden, is premature, saying the two leaders could arrange a call or meeting at any time but there were no concrete plans for an imminent high-level encounter.The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Monday tensions over Ukraine were rising but diplomatic contacts remained active, adding that the Russian president would soon address a special session of Russia’s security council. Continue reading...

Sydney’s train network will resume with limited services on Tuesday after a Fair Work Commission hearing was adjourned with no resolution

Drama about a trans activist’s return to the small New Zealand town he fled as a teenager is straightforwardly told, but with great warmth and optimismThis heartfelt, straightforwardish drama from New Zealand ends with a belting cover of Bronski Beat’s LGBTQ+ anthem Smalltown Boy: a song about a young man leaving home to find love and acceptance in the city. Rūrangi picks up a similar story a decade later, when a trans man goes back to the dairy farm where he grew up. It’s a film that thrums with warmth and gives the rest a lesson in how to get trans representation right: all the trans roles are played by trans actors (and for good measure some non-trans – or non-specific – roles too).Elz Carrad gives a likably vulnerable performance as Caz, who ran away as a teenager to Auckland, where he has made a new family in the LGBTQ+ community, transitioned, found work as a trans activist and acquired a gorgeous boyfriend. When Caz arrives back in his home town Rūrangi, all the confidence vanishes. He feels as if he has to explain himself all the time. His dad Gerald (Kirk Torrance) doesn’t recognise him, then struggles to accept him. He also can’t forgive Caz for not coming back for his mum’s funeral. (She died of a rare cancer linked to chemical fertilisers.) Since then, old-school Gerald has become an environmental activist, so, right there you know he is capable of a change of heart. Continue reading...

Loose Women’s Brenda Edwards ‘devastated’ at death of music pioneer, 31, after ‘sudden illness’The mother of the SBTV founder and music entrepreneur, Jamal Edwards, has paid tribute to her “beautiful son”, who died on Sunday morning aged 31.In a statement, released on the official Twitter account of ITV’s Loose Women, on which she is a regular panellist, Brenda Edwards said her family and friends were “completely devastated” and confirmed that Jamal had died “after a sudden illness”. Continue reading...

Expert witness tells trial Aboriginal teenager’s chance of death could have been ‘around 1%’ had it not occurred in remote communityKumanjayi Walker would have probably survived being shot three times by Constable Zachary Rolfe had it happened in a city, the police officer’s murder trial has been told.The Aboriginal teenager was shot three times during a failed arrest attempt in the remote community of Yuendumu, 290km north-west of Alice Springs, on 9 November 2019. Continue reading...

Father demands answers after Indigenous 16-year-old Jai Wright dies following trail bike crash with unmarked police car

Perrottet urged to work with union over NSW train dispute; Peter Dutton says all signs on Ukraine ‘pointing in one direction’; at least 17 Covid-related deaths; Australia’s international border reopen for the first time in nearly two years. Follow the latest updates live

Alienated civilians, ruined homes and Ukrainian soldiers on the frontline Continue reading...

Expert group offers two options for statue of King Léopold II that pay tribute to millions who died under his colonial ruleA bronze statue of 19th-century Belgian king Léopold II in the centre of Brussels could be melted down and turned into a monument to the millions who died during his brutal rule of the Belgian Congo and other victims of colonialism, an expert group has suggested.The group of historians, architects and other specialists, commissioned by the Brussels regional government, also suggests a second option for the Léopold II bronze: creating an open-air statue park to house the equestrian work, along with other controversial monuments to figures of the colonial past. Continue reading...

Frank Farrell had loved magic since he was a child. But it was only after retiring that he began to perform professionally. Now he is living exactly the life he wants to liveWhen Frank Farrell’s retirement day came in 2018 – after 35 years of teaching – everyone thought he “would be straight down the pub to celebrate”. Instead, he stayed sober and prepared his materials: the next day he began his new career as a magician. He was 60, and he didn’t yet feel like a magician, but that weekend Mr Farrell the English teacher gave way to Magic Frank. Under this stage name, he performed 10 shows at a Harry Potter convention in Manchester.Farrell had been dabbling in magic since his 30s, but the scale of these gigs – he was paid nearly £2,000 – struck him as “a mark of respect” and validation. “I started to consider myself a magician, not someone who does a bit of magic on the side.” Continue reading...

The scenic Cowal peninsula west of Glasgow is once again attracting holidaymakers with its mix of unspoiled nature, community ventures and cool places to stayThe remote Cowal peninsula, extending into the Firth of Clyde, is not the sort of place you’d expect to find artisan coffee roasters, outdoor infinity pools and modern outdoor sculpture. Take it from me: my mum was born here, in the faded Victorian resort of Dunoon. Outside shinty circles – those familiar with the local hockey-like game - “the secret coast” is little known, even in Scotland.But a spotlight shone briefly on the village of Tighnabruaich last November, when artist David Blair’s vaulting 20-metre-long, six-metre-high Ark of Argyll – designed to raise awareness of the climate emergency – was visited by delegates to COP26. I’d heard about other new ventures breathing life into Cowal, so turned away from the Scotland of queueing campervans on Loch Lomond and went to investigate, with my 10-year-old daughter in tow. Continue reading...

Friends of Doski Azad said the 23-year-old makeup artist had received repeated death threats from male family membersThe Kurdish transgender woman Doski Azad shot dead by her brother last month, had been living in hiding from her family after repeated death threats, friends have said.According to friends, Azad had had to move home regularly after several death threats by male members of her family. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed. Follow the latest news from Russia and Ukraine here

Less than half of the age group have received their first dose, but misinformation is not the only barrier, vaccine expert says