State’s teachers union says significant disruption to staffing may cause closures as parent group says it will launch legal action over rules preventing pandemic leave

Missile fire, claimed by Yemeni Houthi rebels in retaliation for airstrikes, further escalates tensionsThe United Arab Emirates intercepted two ballistic missiles claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels over the skies of Abu Dhabi early on Monday, authorities said, the second attack in a week that targeted the Emirati capital.The missile fire further escalates tensions across the Persian Gulf, where there has been a series of assaults near but never indisputably on – Emirati soil amid Yemen’s years-long war and the collapse of Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers. Continue reading...

Ruth Crocket spent little time at home when she made a sudden decision to buy her local post office. Just as she lost her job, it began losing money. But then came the pandemic …Ruth Crocket is too modest to say life was busy when she worked as a risk modeller for a leading bank. “Not busy, but occupied,” she says. Always dashing for a train, she was rarely in her village of Hitcham, Suffolk. But occasionally she popped into the village’s only shop for fresh bread rolls, which were very, very good.One day, she heard the shop was to be sold, possibly converted into housing. The village pub had recently gone the same way. “It seemed impossible not to do something,” she says. “So I did it. I bought the business.” Six years on, at the age of 66, she is postmistress and owner of Hitcham Post Office and Stores.Tell us: has your life taken a new direction after the age of 60? Continue reading...

Off the beach, villas ornate enough for a king; on the beach, fish-smoking huts offering delicious platefuls. Welcome to Usedom, an isle of delightsIn whitewashed Strandkorbs, families huddle together, enjoying the last of the warmth from the faltering autumnal sun on their upturned faces. These striped beach baskets, some owned, others rented, are dotted along large expanses of windswept sands that seep into the inky Baltic sea.The island of Usedom in Pomerania, surrounded by forests of beech trees, is known by some as the “bathtub of Berlin” and by others, slightly more poetically, as “sun island”. Dietrich Gildenhaar, a local author and guide, tells me that the island, north of the Szczecin lagoon in the huge Oder estuary, has been a luxury tourist destination since the Gründerzeit (Germany’s mid-19th-century economic boom), having been crowned one of the country’s sunniest places in Germany, with an annual average of more than 1,900 hours of sunshine. It is in two halves, the west side belonging to Germany and the eastern part to Poland, and has some of the region’s best beaches, with designated strips of sand for dogs and other sections reserved for nudists partaking in Freikörperkultur or “free body culture”. Continue reading...

Guardian will bring challenge against attorney general and Queen’s private lawyersA legal challenge over a decision to ban media organisations from a court case about the Duke of Edinburgh’s will is to be heard by the court of appeal.The Guardian has been given permission by a court of appeal judge to bring the challenge against the attorney general and the Queen’s private lawyers. Continue reading...

The river town of Mongla is leading the way in a project to resettle people in a region decimated by extreme weatherBy the time the rising sun breaks through the morning mist over the Mongla River, the rhythmic chug of motors strapped to wooden canoes is already audible as thousands of workers are hurriedly ferried across the waterway.They jump on to the small landing dock, pick up a potato-stuffed shingara pastry for pennies and rush towards the factories in Mongla’s export processing zone (EPZ), which has transformed the small town into an employment hub in a part of Bangladesh ravaged by the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Forty years after his breakthrough role in Little House on the Prairie, the actor is thrilling TV audiences as a drug cartel money launderer. But he almost threw his career awayJason Bateman appears on a Zoom screen from Los Angeles, bespectacled, calm and in uncluttered, butter-coloured environs. It’s as if Michael Bluth, the character he played in Arrested Development, had dressed up as a therapist for some hilarious purpose. To fans of the show, its entire cast will always have traces clinging to them, as if they have all been, well, arrested in that dysfunctional family. But today we’re here to talk about Ozark, a drama with a reputation that has been climbing each season (it’s now in its fourth and final) and so has, arguably, become even more defining for Bateman.Tense and lingering, Ozark has the dizzying pace and visual sumptuousness that the modern long-running box set demands. What was haunting about it from the start were the subtle performances of Bateman and his co-star, Laura Linney; just a regular, affluent, middle-aged couple, except he was about to launder $500m for a drug cartel and she’d just watched the murder of the lawyer she was having an affair with. They were on the run, but only sort of. They hated each other, except they didn’t. What passed between them gave such propulsive energy to their characters that from the very beginning you could trust one thing: it might be improbable, but it was never going to be boring. But all that nuance was a double-edged sword. “Marty and Wendy are really intelligent characters,” Bateman says. “Sometimes that narrows your options as a writer, trying to keep things plausible. They can’t do really stupid things. The smart thing to do is to turn yourself in. Then the show’s over.” Continue reading...

Delicate, beguiling and studded with trees, the museum has landed in a Budapest park – but behind it is a controversial €1bn vision by rightwing populist leader Viktor OrbánA great big crumpet appears to have landed in the middle of Budapest’s City Park, its circular hole-studded mass impaled on a thicket of trees. It droops down here and there, revealing little terraces cut into its top, and flares up elsewhere, showing off a sparkling underside of tiny golden leaves.

Aid charity says 6,000 people, many of whom are children, believed to have no food allowance due to cuts in serviceHumanitarian groups have accused the Greek government of fomenting a hunger crisis in refugee camps with “conscious” policy choices that have left thousands unable to access food.Decisions aimed at deterring migrant flows had, they said, created an intolerable situation in which refugees have been left struggling to feed themselves for months. Continue reading...

Quarantine facilities desperately needed in Yuendumu where Covid has ripped through community, relative says

Kelly, 36, admits in court to taking child from a tent last year. Other charges have been adjourned to a later date

We would like to hear from readers in Aotearoa about how they’re dealing with tighter restrictions and preparing for a surge in Covid casesLast week New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern said the arrival of Omicron was not a matter not of if but when. Days later, it arrived. With the highly contagious variant entering Aotearoa, officials say they expect cases to reach over 1,000 a day in the next two weeks.More broadly, New Zealand is entering a new stage in the pandemic: needing to reckon for the first time with the prospect of widespread Covid infections across the country, having kept the virus at bay for almost two full years. Continue reading...

Thousands of people say their rights have been compromised despite government promisesA 67-year-old British woman who planned to return to Britain with her 80-year-old French husband after 30 years in France has told how Home Office delays have left them waiting almost a year for the Brexit paperwork they need to set foot in the country.Carmel and her husband, Louis, who asked that their real names not be used, sold their house last year and packed up all their belongings having read that it would take 15 days to get a family permit. Continue reading...

Five teenagers arrested after what Greater Manchester police describe as ‘callous attack’Five teenagers have been arrested on suspicion of murder after a 16-year-old boy was fatally stabbed in Trafford.Greater Manchester police (GMP) named the victim as Kennie Carter and said officers were piecing together the circumstances leading to the “callous attack”. Continue reading...

Marcus Evans named as victim and second man taken to hospital following incident in KanchanaburiA British man who died in Thailand is believed to have been the victim of an assault involving a sickle.Marcus Evans, 49, from Berrow, near Burnham-on-Sea, in Somerset, was killed in the early hours of Saturday in Kanchanaburi province, in the west of the country. A second British man was taken to hospital after the incident. Continue reading...

Women asked their leaders to listen. They were told, repeatedly, to listen to how much they were not being listened toOne voice, your voice, and our collective voices can make a difference. We are on the precipice of a revolution whose call to action needs to be heard loud and clear. – Grace TameWomen have been angry since Eve. And the responses to that anger are just as old. Continue reading...

Group action alleges Treloar College failed in its duty of care for children who contracted hepatitis and HIVA group of survivors and relatives of people who died in the infected blood scandal are suing a school where they contracted hepatitis and HIV after being given experimental treatment without informed consent.A proposed group action lodged by Collins Solicitors in the high court on Friday alleges that Treloar College, a boarding school in Hampshire that specialised in teaching haemophiliacs, failed in its duty of care to these pupils in the 1970s and 80s. Continue reading...

Concerns about new Omicron offshoot in England; France to bring in strict restrictions for unvaccinated people

Bury South MP says former education secretary warned disloyalty over free school meals vote put new high school at riskChristian Wakeford has accused the former education secretary Gavin Williamson of threatening to withdraw funding for a school if he voted for a motion criticising the government over free school meals.After crossing the floor to join Labour on Wednesday, the Bury South MP alleged that party whips told him he would lose funding for a new high school in his constituency if he did not vote with the government. At the time, he did not say who was responsible. Continue reading...

Foreign Office claim of plot to install pro-Moscow government in Kyiv comes with scant detailThe Foreign Office has said that it had exposed evidence of a plot to install a pro-Moscow government in Ukraine, and Boris Johnson promised to “ramp up pressure on Russia”, as his own domestic political troubles deepened.Saturday’s rare reference to intelligence-gathering went into almost no detail about a conspiracy that, if accurate, could mean a serious escalation in the threat to Ukraine. Politicians there were sceptical that the government could be replaced without a full-blown invasion of the capital, Kyiv. Continue reading...

Oscar-winner ‘devastated at the deepest level’ by death of ‘a bright light who cared so deeply about the happiness of others’Ian Alexander Jr, the only child of the Oscar-winning actor and director Regina King, has died. He turned 26 on Wednesday.“Our family is devastated at the deepest level by the loss of Ian,” a statement shared by a spokesman for King said.In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 800-273-8255 and online chat is also available. You can also text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org. Continue reading...

Second British man taken to hospital following incident that reportedly took place in early hours of SaturdayThe death of a British man in Thailand has been confirmed by officials amid reports he was attacked.A second British man was taken to hospital after the incident, the Foreign Office confirmed. Continue reading...

Security logs crucial to future of key staff as Sue Gray also ‘has details of new social event’The senior civil servant investigating allegations of at least nine lockdown-breaking parties at Downing Street has been given access to a detailed log of staff movements in and out of the building from security data including swipecards.Whitehall figures say the inquiry by Sue Gray – who is expected to publish a report of about 25 pages this week – has been “forensic”, looking in “granular detail” at who was in the building for social gatherings, some of which went on into the early hours, and the precise timings of their arrivals and departures. Continue reading...

The Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh, who has died at 95, gave his movement a global reach and influenceBefore he got sick, Thich Nhat Hanh urged his followers not to put his ashes in a vase, lock him inside and “limit who I am”. Instead, the Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, poet and peace activist apparently told them: “If I am anywhere, it is in your mindful breathing and in your peaceful steps.”And after the 95-year-old’s death on Saturday, the breadth of the legacy of his extraordinary life was laid bare as news of his death reverberated around the world, drawing tributes from leading figures from across psychology, religion and social justice. Continue reading...

The inter-party agreement has left the Greens defending rising emissions – a stance that goes against all their principlesMetiria Turei, the former Green party co-leader, left parliament more than four years ago, resigning from the co-leadership and the party list after right wing lobby groups, with an able assist in the form of the parliamentary press gallery, led a ruthless campaign against the former lawyer for admitting that she once had to commit benefit fraud to feed her young family.The admission came in a landmark speech condemning New Zealand’s miserly welfare system. Struggling families were paid far too little to survive, something policymakers had known for decades, with examples ranging from Turei’s own to anonymous sole parents who were coming forward to describe how they spent $380 of the $480 in assistance from the State on rent alone. Turei and the Greens were promising to lift the rate of sole parent support, remove sanctions, and make other necessary and progressive reforms to the welfare system in order for people to meet their basic needs. Continue reading...

Farmers believe a more diverse poultry industry could help ease supply chain issues – and reduce cost pressures on chicken growers

Kentish pharmacist-restauranteurs Rav and Raj Chopra joined the NHS vaccine rollout after their father’s hospitalisationWhen customers walk through the doors of V’s Punjabi Grill, a family-run restaurant in Gravesend in Kent, the sign above their heads says in gold-letters: cocktails, grills, events.Now, the family might need to paint a fourth bullet point: vaccinations. Continue reading...

UK detects 76,807 new cases in the past 24 hours, suggesting Omicron wave has spiked

Deceased man ‘propped up’ by two men as they walked into the building in County Carlow on Friday morningGardaí have launched an investigation after two men carried a dead body into an Irish post office in an apparent attempt to claim his pension.The deceased pensioner was described in reports as being “propped up” by the men as they walked into the building in County Carlow on Friday morning. Continue reading...

The British-Iranian dual national is staging a strike in solidarity with Barry Rosen who is campaigning outside Vienna nuclear talksA British-Iranian man imprisoned in Iran is to start a hunger strike on Sunday in support of a 77-year-old American who is protesting outside nuclear talks in Vienna against Iranian hostage taking.Anoosheh Ashoori, who is being held in Evin prison in Tehran, is staging the strike in an act of solidarity with Barry Rosen, who started his own four days ago. He told the Guardian he was humbled by the support, as well as other messages being sent to him by Iranians in jail. Continue reading...

Influencers told to extol country’s virtues on social media despite diplomatic boycotts of Beijing Games over human rights recordAn army of western social media influencers, each with hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok, Instagram or Twitch, is set to spread positive stories about China throughout next month’s Winter Olympics.Concerned about the international backlash against the Beijing Games amid a wave of diplomatic boycotts, the government has hired western PR professionals to spread an alternative narrative through social media. Continue reading...

Hundreds also wounded as Saudi-led coalition denies reports it bombed detention centre in Sa’adaThe UN has condemned an airstrike on a detention centre in northern Yemen as the death toll rose to more than 80.The airstrike in the rebel-held Sa’ada province on Friday morning followed a Houthi drone attack on the United Arab Emirates on Monday that killed three people. It marks an intensification of violence in the seven-year civil war between the government, supported by a Saudi-led coalition, and the Iranian-backed rebels. Continue reading...

Report comes as arms deliveries promised by Joe Biden arrive in response to threat of Russian invasionThe US embassy in Ukraine has requested the evacuation of all non-essential staff amid increasing fears of an imminent Russian invasion and the arrival overnight of arms deliveries promised by President Joe Biden, according to a CNN report.US evacuations are likely to start “as early as next week”, the US cable news network said, citing a source close to the Ukrainian government. It marks the embassy’s shift in focus towards “helping Ukraine bolster its defences in the face of growing Russian aggression”. Continue reading...

Less than four months ago, the PM was riding high and telling jokes in Manchester, a world away from where he is nowIt was not meant to fall apart as fast as this. After Boris Johnson won the general election in December 2019, he declared in a victory address: “I, and we, will never take your support for granted.”The prime minister’s 80-seat majority, a victory for the “get Brexit done” campaign, appeared to leave him impregnable. For 18 months after, Johnson continued to defy political gravity despite repeated missteps, as the pandemic came to Britain’s shores. Continue reading...

When the writer retrained in medicine, she never imagined she’d be working through a pandemic. She describes how she has coped with the everyday tragedy by putting her experience into wordsIn February 2020, when the novelist and doctor Roopa Farooki first sat down to write her latest book, coronavirus was “something that was kind of buzzing around” in the background. “Those of us going to work every day in a hospital, we weren’t really aware of it; we were just blindly doing our job, day by day, patient by patient. Knowing there was this thing happening, but it was insidious. There was a clue here or there, but we weren’t absolutely sure how far it would affect us, or how far it would change us.”Farooki’s sister Kiron had just died of breast cancer. Kiron was 48, a solicitor and a mother. She had previously been unwell, but the cancer had gone into remission. “We thought she had beaten this thing,” says Farooki. Her sister was straight-talking, fierce in her love, prone to doling out advice whether Farooki wanted to hear it or not. “She was super-amazing at everything she did.” To process it all, Farooki did what she has done since she was a little girl: she wrote about it. “Before she passed away, she saw that I was thinking about her and writing about it. She wasn’t angry about it. But you always worry when you write about someone that you’re twisting yourself into someone else’s tragedy.” Continue reading...

With his new film Parallel Mothers, the director dials down the camp to address the shadow of fascism hanging over his homelandPedro Almodóvar is in Madrid at his production company El Deseo (The Desire). El Deseo could not be a more fitting name: desire has been at the heart of his films. All sorts of desire: for love, sex, justice, acceptance and truth. Behind him are DVDs, books and a phalanx of awards. He has five Baftas, five Goyas and is the only Spanish director to have won two Oscars (best foreign film in 1999 for All About My Mother and best original screenplay for Talk to Her in 2002).He is sitting on a purple chair, wearing a pink jumper, his hair quiffed into a punky white meringue. You suspect that every colour in Almodóvar’s life has been carefully handpicked – just as in his films. His back is ramrod straight, his manner both warm and regal. Almodóvar is a man used to being in control, and today there is a translator (despite his fluent English), assistant and publicist at his service. When I met Almodóvar previously, in Madrid in 2004, he was tense throughout our conversation, and only began to relax after the interview. At the end, he gave me a copy of a calendar I had admired, featuring pictures he had shot on location. He signed it “Things are simpler and yet more complicated”. Somehow, it seems to sum up his films and worldview perfectly. Continue reading...

The first aid vessels and flights have arrived and more are on their way as the devastated Pacific nation begins clean-upTonga’s government said drinking water was the priority as the clean-up continued a week after a devastating volcanic eruption and tsunami.A national emergency team had already distributed 60,000 litres of water to residents, the government said on Saturday. A desalination plant on a New Zealand naval ship that arrived on Friday, capable of producing 70,000 litres a day, has started drawing seawater from Tonga’s harbour. Continue reading...

A roundup of the coverage of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Cambodia to Costa Rica Continue reading...

An elegant, beautifully framed drama with playful, Murakami-esque cat cameoes care of the Norwegian writer-director Anders Emblem“What is the best thing about Norway?” asks the leading character in this intriguing film from Norwegian writer-director Anders Emblem. Her friend answers: “Mountains? A-ha?” To which the original speaker replies that she was actually thinking more of things like the welfare state. It’s a quibbling, playful, thoughtful exchange, which appears also to coincide with tentative sexual advances, and it’s very characteristic of this elegant, seriocomic, beautifully shot, slow-cinema piece with some great cat acting and quirky touches of Murakami.Asta (Amalie Ibsen Jensen) is a young woman who lives with Live (Maria Agwumaro) in an airy apartment in the Norwegian port town of Ålesund, opposite a derelict building at which Asta is often seen gazing thoughtfully. Live is a carpenter who specialises in repairing chairs. She also likes to play the electric organ that the landlord has left in the attic. In what appears to be a lull in her personal and professional life, Asta applies to the local newspaper, Sunnmørsposten, for temporary shift work. After working on some stories about fan discontent with the local football team, and greedy developers threatening to destroy the art nouveau architecture for which the town is famous, Asta hits on a story that means something to her: an asylum seeker called Aslan who has been forcibly repatriated. She sets out to discover more about him and appears reasonably content with the resulting sombre article about Norwegians’ troubled conscience – though the question of where Aslan is now is another matter. Continue reading...

Tom, 30, teacher, meets Claire, 36, managerTom on ClaireWhat were you hoping for?

Decades after she created one of the longest murals in the world, the Chicana artist and scholar is receiving long overdue mainstream recognitionJudy Baca still recalls the day in the 1970s when the curator of an exhibit showcasing the work of emerging Los Angeles artists told her she couldn’t possibly include Baca in the show. “These are only people touched by an angel,” Baca remembers the woman saying about the the all-male group of artists she had selected. The message was clear: Baca was not worthy of a museum.Fifty years later, Baca’s an internationally celebrated artist, whose large-scale works of public art have left an unmatched imprint on the artistic landscape of LA. And the Chicana muralist, scholar and activist is now receiving long overdue mainstream recognition. The Museum of Latin American Art (Molaa) in Long Beach, California, is running the first major retrospective on her work, and a major show at the Museum of Contemporary Art (Moca) in Los Angeles is planned for September. Continue reading...

Police search follows rescue of man calling for help near Dobroyd Head at Balgowlah HeightsA search is underway for a man and a dog missing after a boat capsized off Sydney’s North Harbour.Marine Area Command police were alerted to reports of a man calling for help near Dobroyd Head at Balgowlah Heights shortly before 4.50am on Saturday. Continue reading...

The spiritual leader rose to prominence as an opponent of the Vietnam war and was lauded by Martin Luther KingThich Nhat Hanh, the Zen Buddhist monk, poet and peace activist who rose to prominence as an opponent of the Vietnam war, has died aged 95 surrounded by his followers in the temple where his spiritual journey began.In a statement on Twitter, the International Plum Village community of engaged Buddhism founded by Thich Nhat Hanh said “our beloved teacher passed away peacefully” on Saturday at Tu Hieu temple in Hue, Vietnam. Continue reading...

Perilous conditions along remote stretch of Manitoba have ambushed border crossers for yearsThe death of four members of an Indian family at the US-Canada border has once again highlighted the dangerous journeys families are willing to risk for a better life – and the groups that profit from their desperation.Police in Canada announced on Thursday that the victims, who included a baby and young boy, probably froze to death while attempting to cross into the United States during a blizzard. Seven others survived and were intercepted by police. Continue reading...

Activists, artists, film-makers and nuns across India write to 50-year-old after court clears Franco MulakkalHundreds of letters of support have poured in for a nun in Kerala after a court acquitted a bishop accused of raping and abusing her over two years, in the first case of its kind to hit the Indian Catholic church.The handwritten letters from activists, artists, journalists, film-makers and fellow nuns across India have expressed outrage at last week’s court verdict that cleared Bishop Franco Mulakkal of all charges of sexual abuse after the judge said the victim, a 50-year-old nun, was not a “sterling witness”. Continue reading...

Judge Martin Edmunds QC says Neil Corbel’s actions would have an impact on public trust in the policeA senior Met police officer who deployed spy cameras to film naked women has been sentenced to three years in prison, in a case the judge said would “impact public trust” in the police.Neil Corbel, a 40-year-old detective inspector who resigned after being suspended by the Met, concealed spy cameras in keys, glasses, phone chargers, air fresheners, tissue boxes, and headphones. Continue reading...

Rock’n’roll superstar died at home with his family by his side, his agent confirmedThe US singer and actor Meat Loaf has died aged 74, his agent has confirmed. Born Marvin Lee Aday and later legally known as Michael, the musician died on Thursday with his wife, Deborah Gillespie, by his side. No cause of death was shared but unconfirmed reports suggested he had died of Covid-19.“We know how much he meant to so many of you and we truly appreciate all of the love and support as we move through this time of grief in losing such an inspiring artist and beautiful man,” his family said in a statement. “From his heart to your souls … don’t ever stop rocking!” Continue reading...

With Britain facing a cost of living crisis, is it time for one of its wealthiest ever prime ministers?Rishi Sunak is renowned at Westminster for burnishing his brand in preparation to make a bid for the top job – but it now appears he may get the opportunity much sooner than expected. If he does succeed Boris Johnson in No 10, he will be one of the wealthiest prime ministers in history. And if it happens before his 42nd birthday, in mid-May, he’ll be the youngest in 150 years.Well-tailored and whip-smart, the chancellor has been assiduously wooing Conservative MPs, and polls suggest he is well-liked by the public – or certainly more so than his beleaguered boss. An Ipsos Mori poll taken in the past few days gave Sunak a net favourability rating of +7, against Johnson’s -39, and -14 for the Labour leader, Keir Starmer. Continue reading...

John De Mol said women could learn lessons from scandal that took The Voice of Holland off airThe Dutch creator of reality TV shows including The Voice and Big Brother has been accused of victim-blaming by his company’s female employees after accusations of widespread sexual abuse of contestants on the original Dutch version of The Voice.In a full-page advert in the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, a group of employees at the production company Talpa Media castigated its founder, John De Mol, for suggesting that women as well as men had lessons to learn from a scandal that has gripped the country this week and prompted the broadcaster RTL to take Friday’s episode of The Voice of Holland off air. Continue reading...