Russian opposition leader in fresh trial at penal colony far from support base on charge of embezzlement

UK ‘laughing stock’ for failure to stem dirty money, says Lord Faulks QC, who was told to drop register by Theresa May’s No 10A former Conservative minister, once at the heart of efforts to clamp down on money laundering in London, has revealed that during Theresa May’s premiership, No 10 “leant on him” when he tabled amendments to introduce a public register of overseas property owners.Lord Faulks said he had first tried to put the register into the criminal finances bill in 2017 and then again into a government bill on money laundering in 2018. He had described the overseas ownership of dirty money in London as an obscenity. Continue reading...

When I was pregnant, I discovered that I had developed breast cancer – just like my mother before me. One day, the child I was carrying may face the same hard choicesWhen I was five, I would talk to my mother while she was in the bath. When she stood to get out, the water fell from her, her skin pink from the heat. Her body was miraculous to me. Women’s bodies are miraculous, with the things they can do, but I didn’t know any of that then. I just knew that she was soft and perfect, and mine.By the time my mother developed breast cancer, I was 30. She was double that age and there was an ocean between us: I was married and living in New York, so when the news came, I couldn’t hold her to me, or be a practical support. I sat on my bed and cried. The next time I saw her, it was all over. One breast removed and carefully reconstructed. The cancer gone. My husband asked me, as we approached my parents in the airport, whether it was OK to give my mum a hug. The surgery was recent; I wasn’t sure. But it was OK. She seemed the same. Continue reading...

From portraits of the Seri people to depictions of LA gangs, this major figure of Latin American photography has always looked for ‘surprise in the ordinary’ Continue reading...

The western leaders says Russia ‘can still step back from its threats’ as Germany’s Olaf Scholz heads to Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin

Morrison government ramps up pre-election bid to wedge Labor on national security issues as Kevin Rudd condemns ‘rancid lies’ on China

System promises to issue tickets automatically in attempt to address sound pollution in the cityParis has switched on its first noise radar as part of a plan to fine loud motorcycles and other vehicles in one of Europe’s noisiest cities.The machine placed high on a street lamp-post in the 20th district in eastern Paris is able to measure the noise level of moving vehicles and to identify their licence plate. Continue reading...

UK cases down 30% on the previous week, with weekly deaths down 27.2%; 500 French vehicles arrive in Brussels to protest against Covid measures

Emergencies Act gives government broad powers for 30 days, but prime minister is not expected to call in the militaryThe Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has invoked legislation that gives his government sweeping powers to fight a growing number of “illegal and dangerous” blockades across the country.The first prime minister to invoke the Emergencies Act, Trudeau said the measures would be time-limited and only apply to specific geographic regions. “We are not preventing the right of people to protest legally,” he said, adding that the military would not be deployed. “The act is to be used sparingly and as a last resort.” Continue reading...

Roger Ng pleads not guilty to helping launder millions of dollars looted from Malaysian sovereign wealth fundOn the first day of a trial over the multibillion-dollar looting of a Malaysian government fund, US prosecutors on Monday accused a former Goldman Sachs banker of taking $35m in kickbacks as his defense team slammed the prosecution’s star witness as a bigamist who used their client as a fall guy.Roger Ng, Goldman’s former head of investment banking in Malaysia, is charged with conspiring to launder money and violating anti-bribery law in his dealings with Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign wealth fund. Continue reading...

Move suggests Putin could extend crisis for weeks as Johnson and Biden agree ‘crucial window for diplomacy’ still existsRussia is sending thousands more troops to its border with Ukraine in a sign that Vladimir Putin could extend the crisis for weeks, as Boris Johnson warned the situation had become “very, very dangerous”.British officials estimate that a further 14 Russian battalions are heading towards Ukraine, each numbering about 800 troops, on top of the 100 battalions massed on the borders – a force already believed capable of launching an invasion. Continue reading...

Tuesday: New Zealand and Australia to open borders by end of February. Plus: how to keep your hats cleanGood morning. Nurses in New South Wales are expected to strike today, calling for stricter nurse-to-patient ratios and a 2.5% pay increase, despite orders from the Industrial Relations Commission to call off the action. Budget estimates hearings will continue. And there are fears Russian-Ukraine tensions could spill over.New Zealanders and Australians separated from loved ones for years are now counting down the days until they can reunite after the two countries announced they will relax the border rules for vaccinated travellers later this month. Vaccinated citizens and visa holders travelling to New Zealand from Australia will be able to fly there from 27 February and do 10 days of home quarantine, and those in other countries can return on 13 March, despite record Covid cases in NZ. We spoke to four people who have been affected by the countries’ strict border restrictions about how it will feel to be reunited with family and friends. Continue reading...

Shares dipped and oil prices crept closer to the $100 mark due to fears of invasion and resulting economic sanctionsThe threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine has left financial markets jittery but not yet panicky. Unsurprisingly, shares took a tumble on the world’s bourses and there was a brief rise in oil prices to just over $96 a barrel.Investors were taking few chances and sought out traditional safe havens such as the US dollar, but there was little sense that world war three was about to break out. If anything, financial markets seem to be underestimating the risks. Continue reading...

Metropolitan Police Federation chair attacks London mayor and claims members have ‘no faith’ in himCressida Dick was ousted by London’s mayor to deflect from his own failings, the chair of the Metropolitan Police Federation has said.Ken Marsh, who leads the body representing rank-and-file officers in Britain’s largest force, claimed his members had “no faith” in Sadiq Khan, and needed to support any changes otherwise they would not work. He insisted the Metropolitan police commissioner had been reforming the force’s culture before she was pushed out. Continue reading...

Barriers and checkpoints set up around European quarter, and drivers directed to park and rest area

Frank Jackson says the Labour leader’s eulogy for Nato is a travesty of history, while Richard Ashwell wonders if he understands what being opposed to war means. Plus letters from Dr Alan Lafferty and Blaine StothardI hold no brief for Vladimir Putin, and I am not a member of the Stop the War coalition, but Keir Starmer’s attack on it and his eulogy for Nato is a travesty of history (Under my leadership, Labour’s commitment to Nato is unshakable, 10 February). When the UN was founded in 1945, the imperialist concept of spheres of influence should have become obsolete. But instead of developing common security policies, Nato was established – allegedly – as a defence against a threat from the Soviet Union to attack western Europe. In fact there was, and is, no evidence that there was a plan to overrun the west. When the Soviet Union collapsed and the Warsaw Pact was disbanded, Nato’s alleged raison d’etre disappeared and it too should have been closed down.The standoff with Ukraine must not lead to war. But an arms buildup on both sides makes war more likely. Only discussion and diplomacy can avoid this catastrophe. Constructive dialogue should be brokered by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which operates with a fraction of the budget of Nato, yet gets no publicity for its successes. Increased support for the OSCE would make a much greater contribution to peace in Ukraine and the rest of Europe than flooding the region with more arms.

Sadiq Khan blames second consecutive annual increase on government’s refusal to fund TfL properlyThe cost of travelling on London’s tube and bus network will rise by almost 5% from next month, the biggest increase in more than a decade, as the body responsible for running the capital’s transport network struggles to plug a funding shortfall.The average 4.8% rise, which matches the rate of inflation, means that most fares will increase by between 10p and 20p. However, some bus fares will rise by 6.5%. Continue reading...

This reimagining of the popular 90s sitcom is full of annoying caricatures, is monotonously intense and doesn’t seem to know what it is – or where it’s goingBel-Air is a reboot with its own remarkable origin story. In 2019, the independent film-maker Morgan Cooper had the audacity to make a trailer for an imaginary new version of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, reshaping the 1990s sitcom as a tough, Ryan Coogler-style drama. Cooper might have dreamed that the clip would go viral and that the show would actually be made, with him still on board directing episode one. That’s happened, but this is a fairytale with a sad ending. The new Bel-Air (Peacock/Sky/NOW) is confused and joyless, a remake without a reason to exist.Another kid called Will Smith moves hastily to LA to live with his rich aunt, uncle and cousins after an incident on a west Philadelphia basketball court. That run-in with the neighbourhood bad guys is much graver than the one the previous incarnation of Will experienced – involving guns and the threat of jail time – and when Will gets to Bel-Air, everyone there is a serious operator, too. Continue reading...

Coleen Rooney’s lawyers wanted Caroline Watt added to proceedings over alleged leaks to Sun newspaperColeen Rooney has suffered a serious setback in her legal battle with Rebekah Vardy, after a high court judge refused to grant permission to add Vardy’s former agent to the legal proceedings.Rooney’s lawyers had attempted to bring Caroline Watt into the “Wagatha Christie” case, alleging she misused Rooney’s private information and worked in cahoots with Vardy to leak stories to the Sun. Continue reading...

Snap election called by conservative People’s party backfires as it fails to secure absolute majoritySpain’s far-right Vox party is pushing for a place in the new regional government of Castilla y León following a snap election that has proved a tactical misstep for the ruling conservative People’s party (PP).The PP called Sunday’s vote in the hope of securing an absolute majority after spending three years governing the region in partnership with the centre-right Citizens party. Continue reading...

Prime minister cuts short UK tour to chair emergency meeting as fears of Russian invasion grow

Many women working in restaurants and bars say men routinely asked them to remove their masks in return for tips, putting their lives at riskAfter working as a bartender in Washington DC for many years, Ifeoma Ezumaki’s body reached its limit during the pandemic. For Ezumaki and millions of other restaurant employees, working during the pandemic – often, in the US, for a “sub-minimum” wage – became a source of immeasurable suffering. Tips went down because sales went down, while customer harassment and hostility went up. Ezumaki and her colleagues had to become public health marshals, in addition to cocktail servers; she was asked to enforce social distancing, mask wearing and even vaccination requirements.One evening, a customer at the bar asked her to pull down her mask so that he could see her face – a request that became so common from male customers during the pandemic that hospitality workers started referring to it as “maskual harassment”. When Ezumaki refused, he said: “Well, I guess you’re not going to eat tonight.” Continue reading...

Clarence House says Camilla is self-isolating after Prince Charles contracted Covid last weekThe Duchess of Cornwall has tested positive for coronavirus, Clarence House has announced.A spokesman said: “Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall has tested positive for Covid-19 and is self-isolating. We continue to follow government guidelines. Continue reading...

Our beliefs about difficult feelings may do more damage than the feelings themselvesIn the late 19th-century America, a somewhat bizarre form of abstinence emerged. The vice was not alcohol but anxiety. Citizens of New York began to attend regular “Don’t Worry Clubs” in which they encouraged each other to look on the bright side of life. Their founder, Theodore Seward, argued that Americans were “slaves to the worrying habit”, which was the “enemy which destroys happiness”. It needed to be “attacked” with “resolute and persevering effort”.By the early 20th century, the psychologist William James described how people had developed a kind of “religion of healthy-mindedness” with the aim of turning the mind away from all negative thoughts and feelings. Continue reading...

Jamie Butler, former Man City medic, died last year near spot where he proposed in 1994, inquest hearsA former team medic for Manchester City died falling 100 metres from a Lake District ridge where he proposed to his wife 27 years earlier.Dr Jamie Butler, from Altrincham in Greater Manchester, fell from the Striding Edge section of Helvellyn when hiking with his wife, Margaret, last year. They had returned to the mountain to find the exact spot where he had asked Margaret to marry him in 1994. Continue reading...

From Cyrano to The Last Duel, the world of medieval chivalry is big on screen – and its preoccupation with appearances isn’t so far from our ownAgainst our backdrop of revenge porn, dick pic-strewn online dating and embittered incel manifestos, the notion of courtly love couldn’t seem more remote. Cilla Black and Blind Date now seem like something from medieval times – so where does that leave an actual medieval sentimental convention? A goodly knight inspired to perform virtuous deeds and compose the sublimest verse in honour of an idealised lady-love – it’s enough to make a 21st-century onanist yawn and reach for their Fleshlight.But romance and chivalry aren’t quite dead yet. Cyrano de Bergerac is back in a new musical version this month, as Peter Dinklage lends his alexandrines to help a mate woo the beautiful Roxanne. Married off to no-nonsense bruiser Matt Damon in Ridley Scott’s 14th-century drama The Last Duel, Jodie Comer’s sequestered damsel becomes subject to the attentions of courtly smooth operator Adam Driver. And a silky-voiced consort, played by Alicia Vikander, gave Sir Dev of Patel’s mettle the stiffest of examinations in the penultimate trial of last year’s The Green Knight. Continue reading...

Keen to re-establish the album in the age of the playlist, artists are peppering their work with voice notes and sketches – to profound and annoying endsDe La Soul played a gameshow on 3 Feet High and Rising, kids discussed love on The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Eminem faced his irate manager on The Marshall Mathers LP, Outkast parodied themselves at a record store on Aquemini, Biggie Smalls actually received fellatio on Ready to Die, and Eazy-E probably didn’t actually receive fellatio on Just Don’t Bite It.There was once a time where skits like these, particularly in the age of tapes and CDs, were a staple of hip-hop. Interspersed between songs, these comedy sketches or spoken-word interludes aimed to bring you deeper into the album, with records such as the Fugees’ The Score showing how poignant this could be (a child being shot at the end of Cowboys) or how puerile (the Chinese restaurant at the end of The Beast). Such interludes were not solely the preserve of rap, though: Meat Loaf’s You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth opened with an attempted seduction on that hot summer night, Destiny’s Child recited lines from the Bible on the outro track to Survivor, and Britney had an ill-fated exchange with an earnest astronaut on Oops! … I Did It Again. Continue reading...

Carrie Lam says her government will work with Chinese officials to combat ‘worrying’ situation as cases soar

FTSE 100 down 2% and oil prices hit seven-year high on back of fears of Russian invasionMounting fears of an imminent Russian attack on Ukraine triggered a global share sell-off on Monday, and prompted oil prices to hit a seven-year high.European markets followed Asian shares sharply lower, with the UK’s FTSE 100 down 160 points, or 2%, at 7,501 in morning trading. Travel-related stocks were hardest hit, including the British Airways owner, IAG, which was the biggest faller on London’s blue-chip index, down 7%. The jet engine maker Rolls-Royce was down 4%, as only five companies on the FTSE 100 made it into positive territory. Continue reading...

Given enough time, even the most loving couple can get sick of each other. Roll back the years with this Valentine’s Day refresher

Five applicants deemed ‘ineligible’ under program’s guidelines received moneyGrants awarded under the Coalition’s $184m Safer Communities Fund were “not appropriately informed by departmental briefings”, with more than half delivered without a “clear basis for the decision”, an auditor general’s report into the program has found.The auditor general also found that a total of $1.12m in grant funding was paid out to five separate applicants despite them having projects deemed “ineligible” under the program’s guidelines. Continue reading...

His outrageous stunt show ran for just 10 months, but became wildly popular. He tells of being inspired by his hard-drinking father, his years in therapy and suffering brain damageI hear Johnny Knoxville’s Tennessee drawl before I see him. “I’m gonna getcha!” he barks – part children’s entertainer, part axe murderer – as he chases the small child of one of his entourage down the hotel corridor. “Where’s my little honey bunny?” His infectious cackle and her giggling shrieks ricochet into the room where I am waiting to meet him.Knoxville has been provoking shock and delight for 22 years, ever since his TV show Jackass first aired on MTV. The formula was beautifully simple: a ragtag group of skateboarders and oddballs with a punk-rock aesthetic filmed themselves undertaking painful, grotesque DIY stunts – no context necessary. Audiences tuned in for the back yard suburban anarchy, but stayed for the gang’s camaraderie. It was absurd and puerile – the New York Times dismissed the film that followed the TV series as “a documentary version of Fight Club, shorn of social insight, intellectual pretension and cinematic interest”. Continue reading...

Crown’s chair Ziggy Switkowski said the board unanimously recommended the offer which is still subject to gaming regulator approval

Campaigning coalition estimates ‘unworkable and cruel’ schemes will cost taxpayers an extra £2.7bn a yearA coalition of hundreds of pro-refugee organisations has estimated the astronomical costs of five Home Office policies to block refugees, which are due to become law in a matter of months.The campaign coalition Together With Refugees, which is made up of about 360 community groups, refugee organisations, trades unions and faith groups, is publishing a report on Monday. It attempts to calculate the cost of policies such as offshoring refugees – with the bill running into the billions. The Home Office is yet to publish this information itself.New large, out-of-town accommodation centres to house up to 8,000 people seeking refugee protection – £717.6m a year.An offshore processing system to send people seeking refugee protection to another country to be detained while they wait for a decision on their claim, based on Australian government costings, which the Home Office said it is modelling its plans on – £1.44bn a year.Imprisoning people seeking refugee protection who arrive via irregular routes, such as in a small boat across the Channel – £432m a year.Removing people seeking refugee protection from the UK to another country if the government said they should claim asylum elsewhere – £117.4m a year.Extra processing costs for additional assessments of people allocated a new temporary protection status, who have already passed a rigorous assessment recognising them as a refugee, every two and a half years – £1.5m a year. Continue reading...

Monday: The situation in Ukraine has reached a dangerous stage, Scott Morrison warns citizens in the country. Plus: romantic Australian mini-breaks for under $500Good morning. Australia has ordered the evacuation of its embassy in Kyiv as the Ukraine crisis worsens. Some countries are warning their citizens to leave the country entirely. And vulnerable Australians are being forced to hide at home due to expensive Covid tests.Roughly one in three Australians have confidence in the Morrison government, which is the lowest approval since the 2019-20 summer bushfires, according to a survey. The longitudinal survey of 3,472 Australians was conducted in the final two weeks of January, as the Omicron wave and eased restrictions resulted in some days with more than 100,000 new Covid cases. The ANU’s Centre for Social Research and Methods found 34.5% of adult Australians had confidence or were “very confident” in the federal government, down from a peak of 60.6% in May 2020. Continue reading...

Embassies of Britain, US and Canada have sent staff home or to the western city of LvivDozens of Western diplomats in Kyiv were packing their bags and preparing to leave the city on Sunday evening, as many countries issued a clear warning to all citizens still inside Ukraine: get out now.Six months after Western decision-makers were taken by surprise by the speed with which Kabul fell to the Taliban, politicians in many countries are taking extra precautions over a potential Russian assault that has not yet begun. Continue reading...

Prof Lewis Lesley on Sheffield’s tram network, Judith Martin on the importance of local knowledge and Jane and Simon Clements on the city’s musical heritageJohn Harris’s article about Sheffield and the impact of the closure of Debenhams and John Lewis (The death of the department store, 10 February) raised many questions, not least “What are city centres for?” Historically, they were the most accessible locations in a large urban area. The advent of the private car, and free use of roads, has made almost anywhere easy to get to. The cost, however, of sprawl, pollution and energy usage will become limiting as we move towards a zero-carbon economy. As the architect Adam Park said in Harris’s article: “We shouldn’t be demolishing buildings any more.”The out-of-town Meadowhall shopping centre was approved by the city council to replace a brownfield former steelworks site. Surprisingly, no mention was made of Sheffield’s tram network; prior to the pandemic, this had provided a counter to Meadowhall by carrying passengers parked there into the city centre. There are three other lines, making the centre nearly as well-connected as Manchester through Metrolink. As an acceptable alternative to car travel, this offers a sustainable way to get people into the centre and, learning from the Strong Towns movement, is a good starting point for the reinvention of Sheffield.

Home secretary is understood to be keen on outsider to head London force who could push through reformsCould the UK’s most powerful police officer be brought in from outside the force? Or might Priti Patel look even farther afield – to Australia, or even the United States – instead of recruiting from within Scotland Yard?Reports this weekend claimed that the unexpected resignation of Cressida Dick, the head of the Metropolitan police, has driven the home secretary to look for an outsider to transform the force. Continue reading...

Natalia López Gallardo’s feature debut unfolds with a mix of woozy uncertainty and shock tactics that mirror the murky criminal dealings at its heartThe film that everyone is talking about this year in Berlin is the dazzlingly accomplished and confident debut feature from the 42-year-old Mexican-Bolivian film-maker Natalia López Gallardo; as a former editor, she has worked with Lisandro Alonso and Carlos Reygadas, whose various influences are detectable in the movie’s mixture of languour and shock. The title appears to refer to a Buddhist parable about the man who lives in poverty, not knowing that a wealthy friend has securely but invisibly sewn a precious gem into his robe so that he would not have to live like this: the allusion is one of the many opaque and difficult things about this film.It is a disturbing and unsettling piece of work, a psycho-pathological moodboard of a film, in which guilt, horror and shame poison the atmosphere. Exactly what is going on has to be inferred through the indirect hints and cloudy indications; these are never finally and definitively revealed, and I can’t be absolutely sure that this obscurity is not a first-time film-maker’s flaw. But Gallardo certainly has a fluent cinematic language at her command. Continue reading...

Report finds a diminished labour pool is impacting productivity across regions and driving the rapid increase in job advertising

Two years of the pandemic have meant drops in essential screening and detection, while cancer patients undergo treatments alone and isolate to avoid Covid risksWhen Claire Simpson turned 50 in early 2020, she received a letter telling her to get a mammogram. Then the pandemic hit, and Victoria went into lockdown.“Like many people, I put it off until we were coming out of that lockdown, but by then it was September and I couldn’t get an appointment until December,” she says. Continue reading...

Energy meter numbers were used instead of amount payable in 74 Storm Arwen compensation chequesAn energy company has thanked “honest” customers who did not try to cash compensation cheques for trillions of pounds sent out in error.Compensation is being paid to tens of thousands of people who were left without power when severe “once in a generation” winds swept across the UK in November last year during Storm Arwen. Continue reading...

Police had previously investigated suspect in 2018 but case dropped for ‘insufficient evidence’A doctor has been arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a child patient, prompting a widespread police investigation into his conduct at two hospitals in the West Midlands.The Royal Stoke university hospital in Stoke-on-Trent and Russells Hall hospital in Dudley have both opened up helplines for parents of children who may have been treated by the 34-year-old, as well as past patients. Continue reading...

Eva B, who was brought up in a notorious slum, has become Pakistan’s latest music sensationHer phone has been buzzing with non-stop messages and calls. Eva B, once a little-known rapper from the Karachi urban-slum settlement of Lyari, has become Pakistan’s newest music sensation, racking up millions of views on YouTube.She is not just the first female rapper from Pakistan, she is the first veil-wearing female rapper from Pakistan’s Baloch minority. She says her brother had told her if she wanted to rap she had to wear a veil, but that it is now a part of her identity and personality as a musician. Continue reading...

The Portrait of a Lady on Fire star talks about her role in Jacques Audiard’s new dating drama, making a documentary about her own family, and the Hollywood actor who inspires herThe French actor Noémie Merlant is in demand these days – especially since 2019, when Céline Sciamma’s acclaimed Portrait of a Lady on Fire massively boosted her international profile. When I talk to her on Zoom, she’s rushing between two films, on her mobile in a car travelling from one shoot in Brest in northern France to another in the Pyrenees.Despite her busy schedule, and the distraction of having just lost her bank card, Merlant is focused enough to talk with enthusiastic intensity (and no, she’s not driving the car) about Jacques Audiard’s Paris, 13th District, which is released in the UK next month. The film is something of a departure for the 69-year-old director, who is often associated with crime dramas (A Prophet, The Beat That My Heart Skipped). It’s about young people in a multiracial Paris, and the 21st-century digital economy of passion: dating apps, instant hookups and webcam sex. And given that he’s often considered a very male film-maker, this feature notably adopts a very female perspective; it’s co-written, in fact, with Sciamma, and the writer-director Léa Mysius. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Shadow minister says pardon would be ‘significant step in Britain’s acknowledgement of its role in history of slavery’David Lammy has written to the government asking it to pardon 70 abolitionists convicted for their role in the historic 1823 Demerara rebellion by enslaved people against British colonialists in the Caribbean.The shadow foreign secretary described the revolt, involving 10,000 enslaved people, as a “seminal moment” in the history of slave resistance. Although unsuccessful at the time, the event contributed to the abolition of slavery 10 years later, in 1833. Continue reading...

Unions and charities say cost of tests hurts vulnerable Australians most, as 150,000 sign petition for free kits