An army of riders ferry food around the South African city, their lives and travails largely unseen by the people they serve. Photojournalist James Oatway has spent several months documenting their challengesIt’s a Friday night in Johannesburg. Lockdown has just been eased as Covid infection rates have plateaued. The restive city is slowly springing back to life, with cars once again careering along the city’s recently empty arterial roads.At the scene of a crash, the blue and red lights of emergency vehicles bathe the street in an eerie glow. Two motorbike food couriers have been knocked down by a car. The driver tried to flee but was apprehended by another motorist. One of the bikes has been flattened. Next to it lies a black canvas carrier bag bearing the Uber Eats logo.A Congolese driver was seriously injured in a crash in Sandton. Footage showed a car going through a red light and hitting the rider. The vehicle did not stop and the driver has never been apprehended. Continue reading...

A study has shown that by the age of seven they can grasp the lessons they need to learn to avoid financial problems in the futureThe early experiences children have with money can shape their financial behaviour as adults, according to a study published by the UK government’s MoneyHelper service. By the age of seven, the University of Cambridge study found, most children are capable of grasping the value of money, delaying gratification and understanding that some choices are irreversible or will cause them problems in the future. The research suggests children who are allowed to make age-appropriate financial decisions and experience spending or saving dilemmas can form positive “habits of the mind” when it comes to money. This could lead to a lifelong improvement in their ability to plan ahead and be reflective in their thinking about money, or they may learn how to regulate their impulses and emotions in a way that promotes positive financial behaviour later in life. Continue reading...

After politics in Vice and finance in The Big Short, director McKay is taking on the climate crisis in his star-studded ‘freakout’ satire Don’t Look UpAdam McKay calls it his “freakout trilogy”. Having tackled the 2008 financial crash and warmongering US vice president Dick Cheney in his previous two movies, The Big Short and Vice, McKay goes even bigger and bleaker with his latest, Don’t Look Up, in which two astronomers (Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio) discover a giant comet headed for Earth, but struggle to get anyone to listen. It is an absurd but depressingly plausible disaster satire, somewhere between Dr Strangelove, Network, Deep Impact and Idiocracy, with an unbelievably stellar cast; also on board are Meryl Streep (as the US president), Cate Blanchett, Timothée Chalamet, Tyler Perry, Mark Rylance, Jonah Hill and Ariana Grande. It has been quite the career trajectory for McKay, who started out in live improv and writing for Saturday Night Live, followed by a run of hit Will Ferrell comedies such as Anchorman, Step Brothers and The Other Guys. “The goal was to capture this moment,” says McKay of Don’t Look Up. “And this moment is a lot.”Was there a particular event that inspired Don’t Look Up?

The Italian director’s new, semi-autobiographical film reveals a charming and rarely seen side of his home city‘This, for me, is the most beautiful place on Earth,” Paolo Sorrentino told Filippo Scotti, the actor playing the director’s younger self in his latest film, as their 1980s Riva speedboat chopped the waves of the Bay of Naples. Their view stretched from the precipitous peninsula of Sorrento all the way west towards Posillipo. The two promontories flank the sprawling port city, offering a warm embrace to all those who disembark there. Sorrentino’s new film, the Hand of God, opens with that same view: the sun-mottled bay, whose peace is disturbed by the sound of four Rivas as they speed towards the shore. The film is both a love letter to, and a portal into, Paolo Sorrentino’s Naples.In cinemas now and on Netflix this week, The Hand of God sees the Academy award-winning director return to his home city for the first time since One Man Up, his 2001 debut. Sorrentino tells the story of his own coming of age, up to the moment when his life is shattered by the death of his parents in a tragic accident. Sorrentino’s story is a tale of great grief, loss and perseverance, set in a middle-class part of Naples, a far cry from the impoverished neighbourhoods shown in the city’s other recent portraits: Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend or the mafia-focused Gomorrah series. Continue reading...

I get to wear a natty white jacket, insectoid mask and hold an épée like a pistol – my inner child could not be happier. En garde!Ever since childhood, I have wanted to be trained in the sword. But I have always believed one had to be born a musketeer for this to happen, or have a death to avenge, plus access to castle steps. But here I am at the London Fencing Club in Old Street, which is easier.It’s a few weeks before omicron takes off, and the government is pooh-poohing any talk of tightening Covid restrictions. I’m learning épée, the thin, pointy blade that most resembles a classic swashbuckling sword. My Russian-born coach, Anna Anstal, loves fencing épée. The opponent’s entire body is a target, and there are no “right of way” rules governing who can score at a given moment. “You must think about the zombie apocalypse,” she says. “Rules are no use with a zombie. The ability to strike first is all that matters.” It’s unexpected advice, her heavy accent giving it even more edge. I’m quite scared. Continue reading...

Voter turnout in the Pacific territory’s referendum on independence from France at the weekend was staggeringly low, after pro-independence groups called for boycotts. Those who did cast ballots voted overwhelmingly for New Caledonia to remain part of France Continue reading...

City’s education board seeks to distance itself from incident in which young students at one school watched video of corpses and executionsA primary school in Hong Kong has apologised after students as young as six were left in tears last week after teachers showed them unsettling video footage of the Nanjing massacre ahead of its 84th anniversary on Monday.The incident came after the Education Bureau called on local schools to run activities commemorating the massacre in a directive last month. Continue reading...

Arts administrator targets Liberal-held South Australian seat, now the third most marginal in the country

Officers called to Brunswick Park in Camberwell, south London, on Sunday morningPolice have found the body of a woman in Camberwell on Sunday, after days of appeals for information to trace missing NHS worker Petra Srncova who was last seen in the area on 28 November.At about 11.40am on Sunday police were called by a member of the public to reports that the body of a woman had been found in Brunswick Park in south-east London. Continue reading...

Analysis: next few weeks will be tough for anyone who relies on the health service as well as those who work in it

20 March 1936 – 29 August 2021

Metropolitan police say child’s death in Shadwell is being treated as unexplainedAn 11-year-old girl has died and several other people have fallen ill after apparent pest control chemicals were found at a block of flats in east London.Paramedics called in police on Saturday afternoon after reports of a girl unresponsive in a flat in Shadwell. She was taken to hospital and died a short time later. Continue reading...

Analysis: distinct camps have emerged in Westminster, from hardline lockdown sceptics to selective rebels

Talk of trade war dropped after UK and Channel Islands governments agree to issue more licences

Kremlin would ‘face massive consequences’ in event of invasion, says UK foreign secretary at Liverpool talksForeign ministers of the G7 group of rich democracies have warned Russia of “massive consequences” if it invades Ukraine and urged it to de-escalate its military buildup on its border.A communique from the meeting in Liverpool said the group reaffirmed its “unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the right of any sovereign state to determine its own future” and praised what it called Ukraine’s “restraint” as tensions grew. Continue reading...

Attacker’s mental health said to have deteriorated when he was moved to hotel with 320 other asylum seekersTwo asylum seekers caught up in a mass stabbing attack at a Glasgow hotel have issued a high court claim against the Home Office and their accommodation provider, the Guardian has learned.The men, one of whom said he reported concerns about the attacker to hotel management the night before the stabbings, are also calling for an independent investigation. Continue reading...

In a sparse gym in one Sydney’s most disadvantaged areas, Mayor Chagai is not only teaching basketball but also transforming AustraliaBoys are running in rows of three down the court. Legs, shouts, the smack of bouncing balls. As one boy passes to another, the third fans out to take the next pass, then he leaps and dunks. Some boys are already in flight and soaring towards the basket when they take the ball, almost delicately, then slam it through the hoop.On the side a man in a blue tracksuit watches intently, but not so much that he fails to see a boy trying to slip unnoticed into the gym, a hard thing to do when you are 200cm tall.The boys training at the Police Citizens Youth Club in the Blacktown suburb of Shalvey Continue reading...

Exclusive: high-level talks underway as race adviser promises radical reform and anti-racist policingBritain’s most senior police leaders are considering making a public admission that their forces are institutionally racist, the Guardian has learned.High-level discussions began on Thursday and come as their special adviser on race says the declaration is needed if promises of radical reform are to be believed by black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities. More discussions will be held in January with a decision from police chiefs expected in February. Continue reading...

Independent Office for Police Conduct says non-police issue firearm found at scene in KensingtonA gun has been recovered from the scene in west London where a man was shot and killed.The Metropolitan police said officers received reports that a man with a firearm had been seen in a bank and bookmakers near Marloes Road in Kensington before the shooting on Saturday. Continue reading...

Turnout of just 40% after pro-independence campaigners urged indigenous people not to participateResidents of the Pacific territory of New Caledonia have voted overwhelmingly to remain part of France in a referendum boycotted by pro-independence groups.In the third referendum on the matter, the decision to stay within the French republic was carried by 96.49% to 3.51%, but a turnout of just over 40% suggested the indigenous Kanak people have not given up on dreams of independence. Continue reading...

Dozens remain unaccounted for after tornado leaves trail of destruction from Arkansas to KentuckyDozens remained unaccounted for on Sunday as rescuers worked overnight searching for survivors after what could be the longest tornado in US history left a trail of destruction from Arkansas to Kentucky, part of a vast storm front that it is feared may have killed at least 100 people.Kentucky governor Andy Beshear said the path of devastation was about 227 miles (365km) long, which, if confirmed, would surpass the 218-mile Tri-State tornado in 1925, which killed at least 695 people and destroyed 15,000 homes across Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. Continue reading...

Horror writers pay tribute after bestselling gothic novelist dies of complications from strokeAnne Rice, the bestselling author of Interview With the Vampire, has died at the age of 80.The gothic novelist’s son Christopher Rice said in a statement on Sunday morning that Rice had “passed away due to complications resulting from a stroke”, adding: “The immensity of our family’s grief cannot be overstated.” Continue reading...

Xavier Novell i Gomà was Spain’s youngest bishop before abandoning clerical career to marry Silvia CaballolA controversial Spanish bishop has been formally stripped of his powers and prohibited from administering the sacraments four months after he abandoned his clerical career to marry a “dynamic and transgressive” erotic novelist.Xavier Novell i Gomà, who became Spain’s youngest bishop aged just 41 when he was appointed to the Catalan municipality of Solsona in 2010, is reported to have backed and participated in so-called conversion therapies for gay people, and has also been criticised for supporting regional independence. Continue reading...

5 June 1956 – 22 September 2021

Talks between PM and crown prince of Abu Dhabi come after full diplomatic links brokered last yearNaftali Bennett is to make the first official visit by an Israeli prime minister to the United Arab Emirates since the two countries established diplomatic ties last year.On Monday, Bennett will meet Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, crown prince of Abu Dhabi, to discuss “deepening the ties between Israel and the UAE, especially economic and regional issues,” his office said. Continue reading...

Strict rules lifted across most of country after three weeks as case numbers plummet

Firefighters say the blast in the southern town of Ravanusa was probably caused by a gas leakFour people have been killed and five are missing in Sicily after an explosion caused a four-storey apartment building to collapse.Two women were recovered alive from the rubble in the southern town of Ravanusa on Saturday night, and rescuers and sniffer dogs were searching for those still missing. Continue reading...

US ambassador says delay would put country at mercy of those who prefer ‘bullet power over ballot power’The chances of Libya staging its first presidential elections on the long planned date of 24 December appeared close to collapse on Sunday after the body overseeing the vote said it was unable to announce the the approved candidates because of continued legal doubts.With the elections less than a fortnight away and virtually no time for campaigning, a postponement would represent a bitter blow to the international community’s hopes of reuniting the deeply divided country. Continue reading...

A recent sighting of Putin’s notorious Buk missiles on their way to the frontline does not bode well for talksA flatbed rail wagon speeding through south-west Russia last week carried an ill omen for negotiations to avert a larger war with Ukraine.On board was a Buk-M1, the kind of medium-range surface-to-air missile system that became notorious in 2014 after a missile fired from territory controlled by Russian proxies in eastern Ukraine shot down a Malaysian airliner, killing all 298 people aboard. Continue reading...

Bond actor recalls past #MeToo incident and contrasts lack of censure with ‘immediate’ removal on recent projectThe Oscar-nominated actor Naomie Harris has said a #MeToo incident on one of her recent projects prompted the “immediate” removal of the perpetrator, as she recalled another occasion when she was groped by a “huge star” who faced no censure.Harris, who played Moneypenny in the last three Bond films and was up for an Oscar for her role in Moonlight in 2017, declined to name either of the men allegedly responsible. Continue reading...

Adam McKay’s star-studded climate change satire with Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence et al lands its gags with all the aplomb of a giant cometA comet is on a collision course with Earth. The targets in this shrill, desperately unfunny climate change satire directed by Adam McKay are more scattershot. According to stoner PhD student Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) and her professor, Dr Randall Mindy (a self-consciously tic-y Leonardo DiCaprio), the asteroid is the size of Mount Everest and due to hit in six months.The pair try to warn Meryl Streep’s President Orlean about the impending “extinction-level event”, only to find her preoccupied by the midterm elections. They attempt to raise awareness on breakfast TV, but anchors Jack and Brie (Tyler Perry and Cate Blanchett) can’t help but give their bad news a positive spin. The only person with enough money to intervene is tech entrepreneur Peter Isherwell (Mark Rylance), who wants to mine the comet for its “$140tn worth of assets”. Party politics, celebrity gossip and social media memes are swiped at too. It feels cynical, then, when Timothée Chalamet shows up with no real narrative purpose other than to snog Lawrence.In cinemas now and on Netflix from 24 December Continue reading...

Thousands are still at the Taliban’s mercy in Afghanistan, and expert warns that ‘politically expedient’ initiative may now witherPriti Patel’s much-trumpeted scheme to allow Afghans to resettle in Britain has been starved of “appropriate resources”, according to officials, as a former senior diplomat voices fears that the UK government appears intent to let the initiative wither away before it has even started.The Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) was announced to great fanfare in August as the Taliban took Kabul, but four months on it has still not started. A senior Whitehall source with intimate knowledge of the scheme said it had been delayed because it had not received adequate support for it to launch. Continue reading...

Families tell of their ‘heartbreak’ as parties and other social plans are cancelled in the wake of Omicron

22 April 1963 – 16 August 2021

RNLI crews risk their lives daily helping people in British waters – regardless of where they might come from. We meet one of the new generation of life saversHurtling into town on a bike in the small hours of the morning wearing a tiger onesie might not be that unusual for the average 21-year-old. But if Amelia Luck from Fowey, Cornwall, is doing it, she isn’t rushing to a party or a rave – she is heading to the lifeboat station, responding to an emergency call-out that can come at any time of day or night.“When you hear that beep from the pager, your heart does a little jump and, well, you just run, no matter what time it is. You don’t know what situation you’re going to, you just go,” she said. Continue reading...

Roasted by critics for being clichéd and inane, the romcom is due to return with a ‘more mature’ heroineWhen Emily first came to Paris this time last year, it was a dark day for critics in the City of Light, who dismissed it as being full of tired cliches.Now the young woman from Chicago that the French loved to hate is back for a second season of the Netflix show Emily in Paris. This time she may have a better reception from Parisians; surprisingly, they seem to be growing fond of her. Continue reading...

Appeal Court to hear cases of individuals imprisoned on smuggling chargesThe UK government is facing a major legal challenge against its policy of prosecuting asylum seekers who steer boats across the Channel under smuggling laws.Since the start of 2020, Immigration Enforcement has brought 67 successful prosecutions related to piloting small boats. But after court challenges earlier in the year, the Crown Prosecution Service issued new guidance advising that passengers – even those who take a turn steering – are potentially vulnerable asylum seekers who should not be prosecuted. Continue reading...

This year’s Guardian and Observer campaign supports charities fighting global climate injustice. Here, we look at Practical Action, which helps small farms in Bangladesh

Riz Ahmed has never been afraid of a challenge – he famously learned drumming and sign language for his role in Sound of Metal. But his most fearless performance? Taking on Hollywood…This summer, Riz Ahmed took aim at Hollywood and the wider film industry. In a speech that was somehow both measured and searingly furious, the British actor called out the “toxic portrayals” of Muslim characters in TV and movies. Using research that he was directly involved in commissioning, Ahmed showed how Muslims, who make up almost a quarter of the world’s population, are either “invisible or villains” in our screen entertainment. He said that this omission resulted not just in “lost audiences” but “lost lives” because of the “dehumanising and demonising” ways that Muslims were often depicted. In fact, Ahmed noted, some of the most prestigious and awards-laden releases of recent years were “frankly racist”: specifically The Hurt Locker and Argo, both of which won best picture at the Oscars, and Marvel’s Black Panther, which earned more than $1bn at the box office.The speech in June, which launched an initiative called the Blueprint for Muslim Inclusion, was many things: timely, vital and, for some, eye-opening. But mainly, on Ahmed’s part, it felt brave, even risky. Actors typically don’t take potshots at their paymasters, the studios. They almost never single out specific, very successful films for criticism. Continue reading...

Rachel Zegler’s Maria alone justifies this handsome update of the classic Broadway musical hits – though not everyone is a perfect fitDo we really need a remake of West Side Story? Having won 10 Oscars (a record for a musical), including best picture, Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins’s 1961 screen incarnation of the 1957 Broadway musical hit remains a much-loved and much-watched “classic”; a self-consciously streetwise affair with weapons-grade earworm tunes and choreography that kids would try to mimic in school playgrounds for decades. Yet even the most ardent fan of the original would have to admit that time has not been kind to the sight of Natalie Wood playing a Latina. Hooray, then, for screen newcomer Rachel Zegler, who landed the lead role of Maria from an open casting call, and whose vibrantly natural performance almost singlehandedly justifies this “reimagining” from director Steven Spielberg.The story, which transposes the star-crossed lovers of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet from Renaissance-era Verona to postwar New York, hardly needs rehearsing. Suffice to say that Spielberg’s version opens with what could be an outtake from the later stages of Saving Private Ryan – an aerial view of what looks like a bomb site, over which a wrecking ball ominously hangs. This is the stamping ground of the Jets, the white gang fighting a turf war with their sworn Puerto Rican enemies, the Sharks. Continue reading...

Dr Rebecca Gomperts made waves providing abortion in international waters around the world. Now she’s prepared to help American womenIt’s Sunday morning, less than a week after the US supreme court signaled that it was ready to pave the way for new restrictions on abortion rights in the US, and I’m on the phone with a Dutch abortion provider who has watched the proceedings from half a world away.Dr Rebecca Gomperts tells me that she’s shocked with the situation in Texas, which recently enacted a near total ban on legal abortion – not because the state government passed the law, but because doctors in the state are largely complying with it. Continue reading...

The son of Oliver Postgate, creator of the 1970s show, reveals what was in the scripts for the delightful and puzzling swannee-whistle creaturesWhen Oliver Postgate, the late maestro of children’s television programmes, first invited young viewers to travel with him “in our imaginations across the vast starry stretches of outer space”, he was introducing many of them to a lifeform they would never forget: the Clanger.These little pink, knitted, nozzle-nosed aliens, Postgate suggested, were really rather like us, living out their lives on the “small planet wrapped in clouds” they called home. Now it has emerged they were much more like us than we thought. Continue reading...

The cable news giant spent lavishly on its primetime star until it emerged he had helped his brother respond to a billowing scandalCNN found itself at the center of the US news cycle this week, after its primetime host Chris Cuomo was abruptly fired for helping to shape the response of his brother, the former New York governor Andrew Cuomo to multiple accusations of sexual harassment.The younger sibling, 51, lost three jobs in as many days – as CNN host, Sirius satellite radio jock, and a contract for a book provisionally titled Deep Denial – and now faces an investigation by outside lawyers for CNN, while the elder Cuomo, 64, faces a justice department investigation stemming from a damning report issued by New York’s attorney general. Continue reading...

The former chief of staff has written the most consequential Trump book – if not, thanks to the revelation of the great Covid cover-up, in quite the way he planned. In contrast, McEnany, Navarro and Atlas just play fast and loose with the truthThe Chief’s Chief is the most consequential book on the Trump presidency. In his memoir, Mark Meadows confesses to possibly putting Joe Biden’s life in jeopardy and then covering it up – all in easily digested prose and an unadorned voice. If nothing else, the book has provided plenty of ammunition for Donald Trump to have concluded that Meadows “betrayed” him.Trump has trashed The Chief’s Chief as “fake news”, derided Meadows as “fucking stupid”, and falsely claimed that the book “confirmed” that he “did not have Covid before or during the debate”. Continue reading...

17 August 1968 - 16 April 2021

PM faces mounting challenge to authority over plan B restrictions at the same time as a once safe seat hangs on a knife edgeBoris Johnson is facing the most testing week of his troubled premiership as a mounting Tory rebellion over new Covid-19 restrictions threatens his authority in parliament and a supposedly safe Conservative seat appears on a knife-edge ahead of a byelection on Thursday.After a tumultuous week for the prime minister, which saw him having to apologise over the way his officials joked about a rule-busting Christmas party in Downing Street last year and deny that he had misled his own standards adviser over the refurbishment of his flat in Downing Street, even some of his most loyal supporters are now privately raising questions about his chances of leading the party into the next general election. Continue reading...

Covid vaccine booster shots also fast-tracked on day of large protests in capital cities to oppose mandates

After counselling you may feel strong enough to let your mum back into your life – on your terms and with your boundariesThe question Several times in my childhood I was sexually abused by different men, starting from age six. I was raised as the oldest child of a single mum who often struggled to cope. Having also raised kids on my own – both are now adults – I understand the challenges and exhaustions of sole parenting. However, I don’t understand a number of neglectful decisions she made, including leaving one or all of us in the care of unknown adults or, worse, adults who were suspected of abusive behaviour, for overnight stays.Understanding that Mum is emotionally vulnerable has meant my siblings and I don’t raise these issues with her in the interests of keeping the peace. Even so, in recent years Mum has made a habit of raising the issue of my assaults unprompted, to explain that she wasn’t a bad parent. Or she will invoke a conversation about how she was a good mother, then she brings up a traumatic incident that she insists wasn’t her fault. Continue reading...