Social media means adoring fans can keep up with the ins and outs of their favourite celebrities. But for those in the public eye, a dedicated fanbase isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be – especially for womenA few years ago, I had a fan. She had read my writing and listened to my podcast, and often replied warmly to my tweets. Occasionally, she would send me private messages, and eventually I started following her back. It was nice. At some point, the volume of communication increased – I began receiving emails, and the notifications and messages spread to Instagram. Then they grew more frequent, uncomfortably so. She wanted things from me: to work for me, to meet up with me, to know how my weekend had gone, to tell me how hers had gone, to tell me about the job she disliked, for me to help her with a project she was launching.My heart began to sink whenever I saw her name appear on my phone and I started responding less and less in the hope of discouraging her overtures. Then she came to an event I’d organised – the first time we’d actually met – and to my mortification, presented me with a bundle of gifts (which I obviously sent a thank you message for – I’m not a monster). Continue reading...

Charity worker’s husband demands transparency from No 10 amid fears she is being used as ‘bargaining chip’ in nuclear talksThe husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian charity worker detained in Iran, has said she is “very, very angry” after learning about the collapse of a deal to bring her home.Zaghari-Ratcliffe fears she is a “bargaining chip” in ongoing nuclear talks and is filled with “anger at her life being stolen” and the government’s “lack of urgency” in securing her release, Richard Ratcliffe said. Continue reading...

While many are making contingency plans, life continues as normal in a city that has grown weary of the constant talk of warAs news of the latest grim White House briefing on Ukraine broke late on Friday evening in Kyiv, the bars and restaurants were as full as on any other Friday night, the atmosphere remained jovial, and anyone without access to a Twitter feed would have struggled to divine any sense of foreboding.While US officials and the Washington journalists briefed by them prophesied a “horrific, bloody” campaign to be launched against Ukraine imminently, nobody except journalists was paying much attention to what, to many in Kyiv, seems like just the latest in a line of apocalyptic briefings. Continue reading...

From 2016 to the Capitol riot, Jeremy Peters of the New York Times delivers a meticulously reported and extremely worrying tale of how and why the US came to thisAfter the Iraq war and the Great Recession, public trust in government plummeted while the flashpoints of race, religion and education moved to the fore. Barack Obama’s mantra of hope and change left many unsatisfied, if not seething. On election day 2016, Donald Trump lit a match. But the kindling was already there, decades in the making.Staring at the mess is Jeremy Peters of the New York Times, with Insurgency, his first book. A seasoned national political reporter and MSNBC talking head, Peters chronicles how the party of Lincoln and Reagan morphed into Trump’s own fiefdom. He writes with a keen eye and sharp pen. Beyond that, he listens. Continue reading...

Uncertainty over jobs data due to Omicron; Mark McGowan says WA border reopening still to be decided; Daniel Andrews announces LGBTQ+ support package; Victoria’s Covid rules under review as nation records least 47 Covid-related deaths; Scott Morrison condemns ‘bullying’ on Ukraine border. This blog is now closed

The British anti-vax community is small – but well organisedThe most comprehensive analysis of the UK’s anti-vax community reveals that just 0.32% of the population is active in the movement, contradicting its claim to represent “the 99%”.The first analysis of its kind shows that the anti-vax movement is far smaller than expected, with about 220,000 unique active users identified within a network of 427 groups on the messaging app Telegram, its preferred platform. Continue reading...

You are dancing from rescuer to persecutor to victim, says Philippa Perry. Change how you react and see what happens – or leaveThe question My partner has suffered from depression for decades, but only saw the doctor once, stopped taking the medication after a few months, and refuses to go on it again. They won’t talk to anyone or seek help professionally or from family – not even me.In the last two years, Covid has had a major impact on their mental health, and their behaviour on top of this is now affecting me massively. In the past, I’ve been told I’m very positive and happy. I’m certainly not that now. But I don’t want to go on medication myself. Continue reading...

Morrison government tries to shift anti-mandate protest anger towards states as Canberra rally ordered to leave

Police had early success in clearing Ambassador Bridge, but demonstrators still choke vital trade routeProtesters opposed to Covid-19 vaccine mandates and other restrictions withdrew some of their vehicles from a US-Canadian border bridge on Saturday, but ramped up demonstrations in cities across Canada, including the capital, where police said they were awaiting more officers before ending what they described as an illegal occupation.Late on Saturday police made the first arrest of a protester blocking the Ambassador Bridge linking Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, more than a day after authorities moved in seeking to end the blockade of the important trade corridor. Continue reading...

The territory imports 90% of its food and supply fears come as it battles its worst outbreak of the pandemic

Scott Morrison says situation is reaching a ‘very dangerous stage’ as embassy staff moved to Lviv

Yemeni officials say workers taken in southern province of Abyan on Friday and taken to unknown locationSuspected al-Qaida militants have abducted five UN workers in southern Yemen, Yemeni officials said on Saturday.The officials said the workers were abducted in the southern province of Abyan late on Friday and taken to an unknown location. They include four Yemenis and a foreigner, they said. Continue reading...

US president fears ‘widespread human suffering’ in the event of an invasion as Russia denies there are any plans for an attackJoe Biden on Saturday night warned Vladimir Putin that the US would “impose swift and severe costs on Russia” if his forces invaded Ukraine. In a phone call that lasted more than an hour, the US president said an invasion would “produce widespread human suffering and diminish Russia’s standing”.The call was the culmination of a frantic day of diplomatic activity aimed at averting a war in Ukraine, which the US has warned could start as soon as Wednesday. Continue reading...

Report by senior diplomat Rina Amiri raises concerns about number of ‘unjust detentions’ in AfghanistanThe Taliban have detained 29 women and their families in Kabul, a senior US diplomat said on Saturday, adding to concerns about rising numbers of people seized and held indefinitely in Afghanistan.Rina Amiri, US special envoy for Afghan Women, Girls and Human Rights, said that women were among 40 people seized on Friday. “These unjust detentions must stop,” she said in a tweet. Continue reading...

French police fire teargas in Paris, while convoy of vehicles brings The Hague’s city centre to standstillDemonstrators against Covid-19 restrictions in France and the Netherlands staged protests on Saturday inspired by the “Freedom Convoy” demonstrations in Canada.In France police fired teargas at demonstrators on the Champs Élysées in Paris shortly after a convoy protesting against restrictions made it into the capital. Continue reading...

‘Aunt Annie’ was killed in the Holocaust – but not before marrying her sweetheart in captivity. Now her great-niece has found 260 other couples who did the sameSaskia Aukema knew little about her great-aunt Annie, who was murdered during the Holocaust. All she knew was that Annie had declined to go into hiding like her siblings, and continued working as a hospital nurse, even after the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands began in May 1940.“That was the family story: this was the woman who didn’t hide and chose to be with her patients. That was all I knew… this line, this one sentence,” she told the Observer. Continue reading...

Five experts on policing explain what the commissioner’s successor must do to put things right and restore public trust in a force mired in scandal and crisisFormer chief of Nottinghamshire police, who called out the “toxic culture of sexism” in UK policing Continue reading...

From brain hacks to darks nudges and near misses – betting companies employ an arsenal of clever tricks to tempt punters into spending more money. Here’s how …

Another former Conservative leader piles pressure on prime minister over Partygate allegationsThe former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith has warned Boris Johnson it will be hard to cling to power if the Metropolitan police finds he breached Covid rules.The comments from the senior Tory will ratchet up pressure on the prime minister to resign if he broke the law, after Johnson received a questionnaire from the Met on Friday regarding alleged parties in Downing Street. Continue reading...

Marie Gracie helps families arriving from Afghanistan. The Guardian angel sends a party entertainer to help the children adjust to their first English winterMarie Gracie never met the boy, but his fate changed her life. On 2 September 2015, three-year-old Alan Kurdi washed up, drowned, on a Turkish beach. His family were Syrian refugees, trying to reach Europe. Journalist Nilüfer Demir took a photo. Alan lies face down, in a T-shirt and shorts. His feet are so tiny. His hands are upturned, facing the sky.“I’m a mother,” says Gracie, an artist from Milton Keynes. “Can you imagine anything worse than your child being in the news like that?” She reached out to her local chapter of Refugees Welcome, set up in the wake of the Syrian war. Continue reading...

Suspect arrested 30 minutes after woman in Durham, Ontario, mistakenly contacts English forceControl room staff helped save a woman in danger more than 3,000 miles away after she contacted the wrong Durham police force.Durham constabulary was contacted on Wednesday afternoon on its online live chat facility by a distressed woman who reported an intruder trying to get into her home in Durham, Canada. Continue reading...

The performance artist is known for putting herself in challenging situations. Now, she says, it’s your turn, with a set of instruction cards aiming to ‘reboot your life’Go into a park, find a tree you like, hold the tree and complain to the tree. This was Marina Abramović’s technique for staying focused during the pandemic. In 2020, she and a group of volunteers tried out this tree-hugging exercise during a five-hour programme on Sky Arts that sought to educate watchers on the history of performance art. Though at times it felt like watching a mockumentary, it was a transformative experience for the participants, according to Abramović. “It was amazing how people got emotional. How much they kept inside, and how talking to the tree [was] a kind of release.”It’s 11am in New York, where Abramović is based, and she has just finished a morning yoga session. She stretches out her arms, showing me her black fitness top before turning the web camera round to reveal a snowy landscape. “I like to do physical exercise. Walk in the snow. I don’t want to have my life in control. I hate [the] studio. I never go to the studio,” says the 75-year-old artist. “I like to put myself in very uncommon situations.” Continue reading...

After her controversial novel about motherhood, the Canadian author has turned the spotlight on her father. She talks about grief, honesty – and her decision not to have childrenSheila Heti hadn’t intended to write a book about grief, but in late 2018, about a year after she’d started writing her new novel, Pure Colour, her father died. “He had been sick, but it was always going to be a shock. It has been the most profound change I’ve experienced in adulthood, having a parent die. Mother and father are connected to what life is, and you know all along they aren’t the sky, the earth – they’re people. But while your mind knows it, maybe your body doesn’t,” she says. As a result of the shock, she adds, the story in her book “suddenly breaks”.Heti and I are sitting in her cosy second-floor apartment in Toronto, which she shares with her boyfriend of 11 years, Luc, and their friendly rottweiler, Feldman. Outside, a blizzard blows, but Feldman keeps us both warm by snoozing on our feet. A mutual friend had told me beforehand that the 45-year-old Heti “will seem young to you”, and, with her girlish voice and 1990s teenager outfit of a long-sleeved T-shirt beneath a cotton blue dress, she does at first. But she seems older than I expected, too. Her short, pixie-like fringe, which she had when she wrote her previous bestselling novels, 2010’s How Should a Person Be? and 2018’s Motherhood, has gone (“I just grew out of it”), and she has a quietness and perceptiveness that is often overlooked by critics, who mistake her originality for kookiness. It is easy to imagine her, simultaneously, as the precociously artsy girl she once was and the pin‑sharp older woman she will one day be. Continue reading...

Perfect foundation for those who are naturally blessed, plus the best faux freckle products and techniquesThere’s not much that I miss about my youth, but if I could permanently restore my lost smattering of nose freckles, I would.Few things are as attractive as a constellation of pigment clusters imprinted across the face, and the more densely they’re packed, the less makeup you’ll need to wear (a girlfriend of mine is covered completely in freckles and it’s as though she wakes up each morning in a perfect face of foundation). Continue reading...

As a young woman, I’ve been surrounded by porn my whole life. It’s shaped the way I see myself, in and out of the bedroomI was young the first time I watched porn. I didn’t have hips or enjoy eating olives. My parents still paid my phone bill and I’d never kissed anyone, despite the story I used to tell about some guy I met on my family holiday to Spain. I was on the school playing fields at lunchtime and a boy from my form came over and put his Sony Ericsson slider phone right in my face. On the screen I could see a blurred video of a woman in red suspenders pleasuring herself, letting tense breaths hiss out from behind her teeth. The space between her legs was smooth and hairless, like the skin of an unripe nectarine. She looked like I did, except I was 13 and she must have been older. “I bet you do this, don’t you?” the boy said, his eyes hidden beneath floppy hair.At the time I didn’t think much about the video, except it was a bit gross that she was doing that alone. There was no way I would have believed it affected me or that seeing more images like that eventually would. But porn was already shaping how I, and the men I would later share relationships with, viewed my body. It was implementing a code of behaviour we would draw and learn from. It was telling us what sex was when the only way we were educated about it in school was via condoms on bananas and photos of untreated gonorrhoea. Continue reading...

Activists handing out ‘writs’ at schools part of trend drawing on non-existent law that was also factor in Keir Starmer incidentGovernment attacks on judges and lawyers are fuelling distrust of the courts and encouraging bogus notions of ancient “common law” being pushed by conspiracy theorists, according to the Law Society.The use of bogus interpretations of common law to portray courts, fines and regulations, particularly in relation to the Covid-19, as invalid or wrong is becoming an increasingly common strand across the full spectrum of extremist groups, ranging from anti-vax conspiracy theorists to the far right. Continue reading...

Pauline Hanson mobbed by protesters as Lifeline book fair forced to cancel. This blog is now closed

The former US ambassador has written a predictably unsubtle memoir, aimed squarely at the 2024 Republican primaryDavid Friedman was Donald Trump’s ambassador to Israel. But that job title alone fails to adequately convey his proximity to the 45th president and his impact on US policy. Their time together marked a repudiation of Barack Obama’s vision for the Middle East. Sledgehammer, Friedman’s memoir, reminds the reader of all of this as insistently as its title suggests.With Friedman’s assistance, the US helped forge the Abraham Accords, normalizing relations between Israel and four Arab countries. The US also moved its embassy to Jerusalem and left the Iran nuclear deal. As for the Palestinians, put it this way: they no longer occupy rent-free space in the Republican conscience. Continue reading...

Washington will reopen its embassy on the island after 29 years, expanding its Pacific presence amid China’s growing influence in the regionThe United States plans to re-establish an embassy in Solomon Islands, a senior US state department official said, as Washington seeks to beef up its presence in a region where China is rapidly expanding its influence.Secretary of state Antony Blinken is set to announce the opening of a new embassy on the Pacific island state during a visit to nearby Fiji – 29 years after the United States downgraded its diplomatic presence in Honiara. Continue reading...

The two leaders will speak on Saturday after warnings from Washington that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could be imminentUS president Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will speak on Saturday as Western nations warned that a war in Ukraine could ignite at any moment.The US warned on Friday of the “very distinct possibility” of a Russian invasion of Ukraine in the next few days and told all remaining Americans to leave the country in the next 48 hours. Continue reading...

Trend has developed over six EU elections between 1994 and 2019 and is more marked in colder climatesMatching extreme weather events to voting patterns has revealed that in Europe people who have experienced flooding, heatwaves and forest fires are more likely to vote green. This trend has developed over six European elections between 1994 and 2019, a period when climate change has gone from a theoretical threat to voters to many having experienced devastating events not previously seen in their lifetimes.The realisation that urgent action is needed for climate mitigation and adaptation has led voters to support green party candidates. Greens have done better wherever the calamities have been worst. The trend is more marked in the north and west of the EU where the climate is more moderate and colder, presumably because extremes have become more noticeable. Continue reading...

I’m suspicious, though – our appointment comes after I spend an hour searching for a particular kitchen implement which has mysteriously disappeared …On Sunday morning I wake to the sound of the dog and the cat fighting at the foot of the bed. Looking over the edge, I see a miniature re-enactment of a wildlife programme: a small leopard trying to take down a tusk-less warthog, only the warthog thinks it’s a game.You can imagine how frustrating this is for the would-be predator. It leaps out from behind a chair and pounces, sinking its teeth into the dog’s flank; the dog, wagging its tail, reaches round and presses the cat’s head to the floor. Then they pause, resume their former positions and start again. Continue reading...

Ruling party may need help from rightwing Vox to hold on to power after snap election in Castilla y LeónPeople in the Spanish region of Castilla y León vote on Sunday in a snap election that represents a massive gamble for the ruling conservative People’s party (PP). It could see a breakthrough by a new political platform campaigning on behalf of depopulated and underdeveloped parts of Spain.The vote was called in December after the regional president, the PP’s Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, kicked his partners in the centre-right Citizens party out of the coalition government, claiming that he could no longer rely on their loyalty. Continue reading...

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Boris Johnson contacted over alleged parties that took place while the UK was under strict Covid curbsBoris Johnson has been sent a questionnaire by Scotland Yard over alleged parties in Downing Street, in a move that could raise fresh concerns among Tory MPs about his leadership.No 10 confirmed late on Friday night that the prime minister received the document, and vowed he would respond to it “as required”. Continue reading...

FDA postpones key meeting, saying it needs to wait for data to show how well third Pfizer dose works for young childrenUS regulators on Friday put the brakes on their push to speed Pfizer’s Covid vaccine to children under five, creating major uncertainty about how soon the shots could become available.The Food and Drug Administration had urged Pfizer and its partner BioNTech to apply for authorization of extra-low doses of its vaccine for the youngest children before studies were even finished – citing the toll the Omicron variant has taken on children. Continue reading...

Mark Davison says he is ‘sorry and ashamed’ of his son Jake who who shot dead five people before killing himselfThe father of a man who shot dead five people in Plymouth has said he told police he did not believe his son should have a shotgun because he was concerned about his mental health.Mark Davison said he was ashamed of his son Jake, 22, who shot dead his mother and four other people before killing himself in August. Continue reading...

As the UK Treasury pushes for free tests to be scrapped, here’s how charges look in other countries

Valentine’s Day ‘the perfect storm’ as rose prices above double the usual cost

Guidance comes a day after Joe Biden told US citizens in Ukraine ‘things could go crazy very quickly’The Foreign Office has issued new guidance advising British citizens in Ukraine to leave now while commercial means are still available, amid increasing concern of an invasion by Russia.On Thursday Biden urged all US citizens to leave, saying “things could go crazy very quickly”. Continue reading...

Experts say pandemic pressures have contributed to a huge increase in abuse and antisocial behaviourFaced with a rising tide of acrimony, rage, and online crankiness, New Zealand has launched a nationwide campaign to try to calm its citizenry down.Over the summer, pastel posters began cropping up around the cities, asking New Zealanders to “dial it down a notch,” “read it before you hit enter,” and “comment with dignity”. Cartoon characters entreat keyboard warriors to take a breath, and consider “what would your mother say?” Continue reading...

Exiles intend to plant Mauritian flag on land UK claims as part of British Indian Ocean TerritoryFor Olivier Bancoult, of the Chagos Refugee Group, it was the sight of two skuas gliding over the waves that heralded long-promised landfall on his native islands.During the first three days of the voyage from Seychelles there had been remarkably few seabirds, until the Mauritian-chartered Bleu De Nîmes, a cruise ship converted from its former use as a British minesweeper, neared the Chagos Islands. Continue reading...

Village of Aceredo in Galicia was flooded in 1992 to create Alto Lindoso reservoirA ghost village that has emerged as drought has nearly emptied a dam on the Spanish-Portuguese border is drawing crowds of tourists with its eerie, grey ruins.With the reservoir at 15% of its capacity, details of a life frozen in 1992, when the Aceredo village in Spain’s north-western Galicia region was flooded to create the Alto Lindoso reservoir, are being revealed once more. Continue reading...

The Labour leader has directed his ire at anti-war campaigners, even though he knows we’ve been proved right again and again

Two serving officers with crisis-hit force referred over group in which misogynistic messages allegedly exchangedScotland Yard’s crisis has deepened as it emerged two officers and one former officer have been referred for potential criminal prosecution over their part in a WhatsApp group with Sarah Everard’s murderer Wayne Couzens where it is alleged misogynistic and racist messages were swapped.The Metropolitan police is reeling from its commissioner, Cressida Dick’s resignation after she failed to convince the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, she could root out wrongdoing and transform the force. Continue reading...

Covid-hit travel industry sees a mini-boom, as people head off for breaks and summer bookings flood inAt London St Pancras, a ghost station for much of the past two years, the sun was shining through the glass roof and Elton John’s piano, sealed up for Covid, was ringing out again. Happily for Eurostar, the start of the half-term getaway brought the return of queues of passengers snaking up along the shopfronts, heading to Paris and Amsterdam.“I’m so excited, I’m like a child!” said one woman lining up with her boyfriend for the 10.22am departure, a 22nd birthday present of a trip to Paris. Continue reading...

Unofficial estimates say country may have highest number of victims of paedophile priests in worldPressure is mounting on the Catholic church in Italy to face a reckoning on child sexual abuse amid unofficial estimates that the country could have the highest number of victims of paedophile priests in the world.Damning investigations into the scale of sexual abuse and cover-up allegations have dealt a severe blow to the church’s reputation in the US, Ireland, Chile, France and, more recently, Germany. But in Italy the issue has been mostly buried. Continue reading...

Boris Johnson announced plans to end all domestic rules from Thursday 24 FebruaryOn Wednesday Boris Johnson announced plans to end all Covid regulations in England, including the requirement to self-isolate if you are infected with the virus.Five people who work in public-facing jobs share their reaction to the news and what ending of all Covid restrictions will mean to them. Continue reading...

The government has run out of ideas on Brexit, it’s demob happy on Covid rules, and the PM’s wife is under fireThe Location, Location, Location presenter Kirstie Allsopp has some advice for young people wanting to buy their first home. Think twice about going to university and racking up student debt. Move back in with your parents for three years if you can. Stop going to the gym, watching Netflix, buying coffee from Starbucks and taking a couple of easyJet flights abroad each year. And be prepared to move to a cheaper part of the country if necessary. For someone who has made a living out of telling people how to get the best value for money out of their property, Allsopp’s maths is a little suspect. Assuming you are paying your parents no rent, you are probably saving yourself about £7,000 per year. Given that the average deposit, according to Halifax, is £59,000, you are going to have to stay with your parents for eight and a half years – assuming house prices don’t rise during that period. And if staying with your parents isn’t an option, it will take you 37 years to save for a deposit if you’re relying on cutting out coffee, the gym, streaming TV and overseas holidays. Nor does Allsopp seem to have thought through how moving to a cheaper part of the country might work if your job is in the south-east. Then there is the knock-on effect. If young people from London all move to the north to find affordable housing, where are those living in the north supposed to buy? There will always be someone who loses out. Though not Kirstie. She walked to work, went without a foreign holiday or two and soon had cash spare to buy her own house. That was in 1981, when the average house price was £51,000. And she was helped out by her parents. Continue reading...