Lack of doses and a reluctant public make government programme unfeasible, say health experts, with malaria and conflict posing greater risk to lifeIt will be “impossible” for Nigeria to meet its target of vaccinating 40% of its population by the end of the year because Covid is not being taken seriously, health experts have warned.Fewer than 1.5% of the country’s 206 million population has been fully vaccinated. But with more people killed in conflict last year and substantially more recorded deaths from malaria than Covid in Nigeria, experts believe it is further down the list of concerns for many in the country. Continue reading...

The Northern Territory town of Katherine will exit lockout today, but Darwin’s lockout has been extended by 24 hours; Nurse accused of faking a Covid vaccination; Adem Somyurek appears at Ibac; Victoria records 1,126 cases and five deaths; NSW reports 187 cases, seven deaths; ACT has 13 new cases; Barnaby Joyce slams ex-PMs’ criticisms of PM; vaccine boosters roll out nationally; NSW scraps home-visit limits for vaccinated. Follow live

Rekindle, run by young pioneers, aims to reignite a love for learning in working-class kidsWhen Black Lives Matter protests swept the UK last year, Brother Nia Imara said his phone “went crazy”. Imara is the founder of the National Association of Black Supplementary Schools (Nabss), a network of Saturday or after-schools set up to tackle the underachievement of black children in mainstream education. “I was getting a lot of phone calls from parents saying, ‘I want my child to learn their history and their culture,’” he said.The conversation in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder led many to discover the history of the black supplementary schools movement, which began in the 1970s when black communities set up weekend schools in response to racism within the mainstream school system. Continue reading...

Australians who received their second dose at least six months ago can now sign up for a third jab

Constant change in the climate policies of Australia and New Zealand has been a huge disappointment to Pacific island nationsWhen I came into office as president of Kiribati in 2003, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had released its third assessment report and, like my predecessors, I believed the report’s projected rise in sea levels posed a real threat to the survival for those of us on the frontline. Accordingly, in my first address at the UN General Assembly in 2004 I drew attention to the dangers posed by climate change, especially to small island nations like Kiribati and other Pacific island countries.The fact that no other leader made any reference to it in their statement worried me and I wondered whether I might be making a fool of myself, especially when the focus of international attention at the time was on more real and present threats like terrorism. Thankfully by the next assembly, in 2005, other Pacific island leaders had joined the call for action. This has gathered great momentum in the years since. Continue reading...

Incident near Rathcoole in Newtownabbey sparks fresh fears of Brexit-related violence in regionA bus has been set on fire after it was hijacked by four masked men on the outskirts of Belfast.The men boarded the double-decker bus in Church Road near Rathcoole in Newtownabbey, County Antrim, at about 7.45pm on Sunday, ordered passengers to get off and set it alight. Continue reading...

Monday: Australia’s emissions from land clearing are likely far higher than claimed. Plus: exploding drone has failed to assassinate Iraqi PMGood morning. Australia will lag behind the world if the government doesn’t amp up spending in research and development. Emissions from land clearing are likely far higher than claimed. And it’s only Monday, but if you’re already looking forward to a beer at the pub this weekend, Sydney’s historic Annandale Hotel – after a controversial journey – reopens this week.Australia’s emissions from land clearing are likely far higher than reported to the United Nations, new analysis indicates, sparking calls for an independent review of the sector. Researchers assessed satellite imagery of more than 50 properties in Queensland and found significant discrepancies between what is treated as cleared land by Australia’s National Carbon Accounting System (NCAS) and the Statewide Landcover and Trees Study (Slats) used by the state government. The Australian government has relied on its reporting of falls in land-clearing rates for almost all the reductions that allow it to claim the country’s emissions have fallen by about one-fifth since 2005. Continue reading...

Daniel Weavers, 41, arrested following search of residential property in CorkA British man has appeared in court in Ireland accused of making threats to kill a Labour MP.Daniel Weavers was charged with making the threat during a phone call with the MP on 18 October, three days after the killing of the Conservative MP Sir David Amess in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex. Continue reading...

Simon Coveney accuses British government of ‘deliberately forcing breakdown’ in negotiations over Northern IrelandThe prospect of a trade war between the UK and the EU has edged closer, with Ireland giving the clearest hint yet that Brussels plans to suspend the entire trade deal struck last December if the British government suspends the Northern Ireland Brexit protocol.The Irish foreign minister, Simon Coveney, accused the UK of “deliberately forcing a breakdown” in negotiations over Northern Ireland, adding that there was still time to step back from the brink. Continue reading...

Why do I identify with my Aboriginal family and not my Irish and English ancestry? There are many reasons, and they are all compellingEvery now and then a troll calls me white. It’s a violent colonial tactic: call me white if I identify as blak, call me blak if I wanted to identify as white. My self-identity is not important to them, nor is that of any other Indigenous person, or any person of colour. Wadjelas demand the right to define others, just defining themselves is not enough. They demand to define whiteness and blakness.It was the wadjelas that created the ‘one drop’ rule, that defined anybody with a single bla(c)k ancestor as black. They did that to separate people, to create a caste system, to protect the notion of whiteness, to protect whiteness from the merest ‘impurity’, from the merest influx of colour. Rather than accept that bla(c)k and white people are more alike than different, rather than accept that ‘half-castes’ are just people, one drop was enough, one drop was too much. Continue reading...

Former Sandinista rebel leader, who has governed since 2007, seeks unprecedented fourth termNicaragua’s authoritarian leaders, Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, are poised to extend their rule over the crisis-hit Central America country with an election that opponents and much of the international community have denounced as a charade.Ortega, the Sandinista rebel who led Nicaragua during the 1980s and has governed continuously since 2007, will seek an unprecedented fourth consecutive term in Sunday’s contest, which follows a ruthless six-month political crackdown on rivals. Continue reading...

Ahead of a UK exhibition of her photo series Journey in the Death Boat, Güliz Vural describes travelling with Syrians being smuggled to Greece from TurkeyStanding on a Turkish beach ready to join a group of Syrian refugees on an inflatable boat bound for Greece, the photojournalist Güliz Vural’s biggest fear was that the people traffickers organising the illegal crossing would not let her onboard.If she had known that within a few hours of leaving Turkey she would be under arrest, accused of people trafficking herself, she would have thought twice about the journey.The migrants carry the inflatable boat they will travel in down to the beach. They had to leave all their possessions as they crammed themselves in. Nearly 50 Syrians made the crossing in a boat designed to carry 12 people, adding to the anxiety felt by the children in particular. Continue reading...

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Row deepens as Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh dismisses president’s decision to suspend Najla El-MangoushLibya’s chronic political instability has been exposed, with the country’s foreign minister, Najla El-Mangoush, suspended from office and banned from leaving the country by the president, only for the disciplinary action to be rejected by the prime minister.The power struggle comes days before a major conference in Paris at which world powers hope to speed up the departure of foreign mercenaries and troops from Libya ahead of planned December presidential and parliamentary elections, which are hanging in the balance. Continue reading...

Legal action comes after singer hit out at Robin Swann over handling of Covid restrictions

Australia currently spends just 1.8% of GDP on research and development, lagging OECD average

A decade on from psychologist Steven Pinker’s declaration that violence is declining, historians show no sign of agreeing a truceTen years ago, the psychologist Steven Pinker published The Better Angels of Our Nature, in which he argued that violence in almost all its forms – including war – was declining. The book was ecstatically received in many quarters, but then came the backlash, which shows no signs of abating. In September, 17 historians published a riposte to Pinker, suitably entitled The Darker Angels of Our Nature, in which they attacked his “fake history” to “debunk the myth of non-violent modernity”. Some may see this as a storm in an intellectual teacup, but the central question – can we learn anything about the future of warfare from the ancient past? – remains an important one.Pinker thought we could and he supported his claim of a long decline with data stretching thousands of years back into prehistory. But among his critics are those who say that warfare between modern nation states, which are only a few hundred years old, has nothing in common with conflict before that time, and therefore it’s too soon to say if the supposed “long peace” we’ve been enjoying since the end of the second world war is a blip or a sustained trend. Continue reading...

Could you calm someone living in a war zone? Meet five counsellors facing up to terrible challengesI joined the Liverpool Fire Brigade in 1968 at the age of 16. I transferred to North Wales, before eventually joining South Wales Fire and Rescue Service nearly three decades later. I was brought up in a Christian home; my father was a minister right here in the valleys. For a long time, I never wanted to be involved, formally. Eventually, I trained for the ministry, jointly leading a church, and missions in Uganda. On one such trip, I found my calling. Continue reading...

An impoverished teen seeks to escape the clutches of a human trafficker in Alexandre Moratto’s complex dramaBrazilian director Alexandre Moratto’s follow-up to his award-winning debut Socrates, 7 Prisoners delves into the subject of modern slavery through the eyes of 18-year-old Mateus (Christian Malheiros, excellent). In order to support his family, Mateus takes a job in the city, but finds himself imprisoned and working off a seemingly endless debt to his employer (Rodrigo Santoro). His initial reaction is desperation and anger, but Mateus is smart and negotiates with his captor on behalf of his fellow workers. The rather on-the-nose storytelling grows increasingly complex and interesting the further that the protagonist ventures into morally ambiguous territory.In cinemas and on Netflix from 11 November Continue reading...

David Owen condemns Cabinet Office’s ‘waste of public money’ in four-year bid to stop part of archive’s releaseThe Cabinet Office has been accused of a “grotesque abuse” of public funds in a freedom of information battle over the personal diaries of Lord and Lady Mountbatten in which costs are now expected to exceed £600,000.Andrew Lownie, the author and historian, has fought a four-year legal battle over the papers that are in an archive saved for the nation after a fundraising campaign. They are now held at Southampton University. Continue reading...

The theatre and film actor on staging a pair of Julian Barnes stories, playing Emperor Palpatine, and finding peace in isolationIan McDiarmid, 77, has distinguished himself as a theatrical all-rounder. He made his name on stage as an actor of incisive authority and is internationally known as Emperor Palpatine in the Star Wars films. Between 1990 and 2002, he ran – with Jonathan Kent – the Almeida theatre in London with tremendous flair. He is touring a one-man show, The Lemon Table – his adaptation of a pair of acerbically funny Julian Barnes stories: one about Sibelius in old age, the other about a sixtysomething concert-goer with zero tolerance for coughers, chatterers and mobile-phone users.What first drew you to Julian Barnes’s stories?

The daughter of the Indonesian president responds to our story about the propaganda war waged against himMy father, Sukarno, the first elected president of Indonesia, was put under house arrest in March 1967 a few days after I was born. He was 67. In the months before, there had been a bloodbath in the country in which he lost many trusted friends and allies. The year before, he had sent my mother, who was pregnant with me, to Japan, her homeland, advising her to return to Indonesia when the situation improved.It never did. Three years later, in 1970, I saw my father for the first time, on his deathbed. My mother and I had not been allowed to return to the country and we had been living in France. My father died a few hours after our plane from Paris landed. Thanks to the despotic rule of the second president – General Suharto – I was not able to see my father alive, although my mother had tried repeatedly to enter Indonesia. Continue reading...

Artefacts reflect joys and sorrows of a community persecuted in Spain since Catholic reconquest in 1492It doesn’t look like a place of legend, but the narrow Carrer de la Cera is the birthplace of la rumba catalana, the infectiously rhythmic stepchild of flamenco created by Barcelona’s Gypsy community in the 1950s and popular today throughout the world.Now the city’s gitanos have their own museum, a tiny, vibrant space on the Carrer de la Cera, which lies in the multicultural el Raval neighbourhood. The museum will open its doors on Sunday. Continue reading...

The comedian will have you in stitches, but she can also leave you speechless. Katherine Ryan talks to Eva Wiseman about breast implants and potty training – and the jokes even she wouldn’t risk todayKatherine Ryan has named her autobiography The Audacity, a word (she explains) most commonly used to indicate disapproval. “Like, ‘HOW DARE she carry herself with that wicked abundance of self-belief? How AUDACIOUS!’” It is the perfect title. The absolute perfect title for a memoir by a comedian equal parts louche and lurid, famous for her uncompromising attitude, convincing invulnerability and refusal to self-deprecate. Her cover photo, shot when she was nine months pregnant, sees Ryan lucent and blonde in an ice-blue gown trimmed with marabou feathers, holding aloft in her left hand her favourite of her three tiny dogs.It is these small dogs that greet me at her front door, and an entirely other lady. Instead of TV’s Katherine Ryan, be-lashed and dazzling, a happy cross between Christine Baranski and Taylor Swift, I’m welcomed by real-life Ryan, makeup-less in leggings, immediately offering me a plate of halloumi salad and a selection of milks for my tea. A breast pump sits on the counter beside a bag of golden hair extensions and outside, by the dainty heated swimming pool, her 12-week-old baby Fred sleeps gently in his pram. The atmosphere is one of Californian tranquillity in the London suburbs, only punctured slightly by her description of a man lowering his anus on to a bed post. Continue reading...

Asylum seekers are pawns in a conflict between Poland and BelarusOn the outskirts of the Białowieża forest – which bestrides the border between south-east Poland and Belarus – a group of seven Iraqi Kurds make their weary way towards the Polish hamlet of Grodzisk.The latest miles of their journey have been from Belarus – crossing back and forth twice, deported after their first and second attempts. Now a third time: through sub-zero temperatures, across the primeval forest’s marshy terrain. Among them are two children: an eight-month-old girl and a two-year-old boy. When we came upon them, they were afraid to get up off the ground and begged us not to call the police, whispering: “They’ll kill us.” Continue reading...

Figures delayed as police and borders bills pass through parliamentThe Home Office has failed to release its annual stop-and-search data, prompting concern that the figures will reveal a further increase to disproportionate targeting of black people.At the same time, the department is refusing to publish the results of its own public consultation into its heavily criticised “anti-refugee” legislation. Continue reading...

The close aide to Hillary Clinton has written a tale spliced with pain but blind to her boss’s weak spots

As No 10 ham-fistedly let the scandal spread, was this about saving an old Brexit ally or protecting the PM himself?A Conservative MP who entered parliament in 2010 began to receive what he described as a series of “unusually persistent” texts from his Tory whip last week. The member in question had been part of the Conservative intake that followed the parliamentary expenses scandal of 2009.The arrival of this new group at Westminster – many of them with impressive previous careers outside politics – was supposed to demonstrate, as David Cameron said at the time, that his party was reforming its ways, ridding itself of sleaze. Continue reading...

The trailblazing director on how #MeToo inspired her first feature in more than a decade, the revisionist western The Power of the DogThe Power of the Dog is the first feature film Jane Campion has directed in 12 years. That it happened at all is down to her picking up Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel of the same name and not being able to put it down.“I was actually thinking of retiring before I did this film,” she says, matter of factly, “but then I thought, ‘Oh man, this is gonna be a big one.’ I’d read the book and loved it and afterwards I just kept thinking about it. When I made a move to find out who had the rights, that’s when I knew it had got me. I needed to do it.” Continue reading...

Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy reflects movingly on the death of Jack and other sad eventsThe Observer Magazine of 10 March 1974 featured a very moving account by Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy of some of the tragedies that befell the Kennedys, serialised from her memoir Times to Remember.After her husband Joe’s debilitating stroke, she recalled a lunch between him and Herbert Hoover – ‘Joe, who cannot speak, and Mr Hoover, who cannot hear’ – in New York, 1962. ‘And so poignant, inexpressibly sad, when each of them from time to time through the meal wept silently.’ Continue reading...

Try to imagine events through her eyes. If you hold on to your position, believing her to be selfish, nothing will changeThe question My youngest daughter has ignored me since I divorced her mother some years ago. She didn’t even visit when I suffered from cancer and had chemotherapy. When she got married, my partner and I were not allowed to attend. I’ve never met her child, yet her husband’s father, who is in the same situation as me, widowed with a new partner, is allowed to visit and see my grandchild. I also have a married son with children and they all are fine with me and my partner.Now, before my elderly mother’s birthday, she says I can visit her so that the party won’t be the first time we meet again. I can’t get over the fact that she has been so selfish and ignored me for years, even when I was so ill with cancer. I’m livid that I’ve been treated this way. I don’t know what to say if I visit her. Continue reading...

Detectives believe a candle left burning on top of a piano may have caused the instrument to smoulder and emit toxic fumes inside the residence at GoonengerryNeighbours have left flowers at the entrance to a northern NSW property where twin girls died following a house fire thought to have started after a candle was left burning.Police and ambulance paramedics performed CPR on the four-year-old sisters but they were unable to be revived. Continue reading...

An increasing number of women are selling their eggs for as much as $20,000 a cycle to cover essential costsMy eyes flutter open. I’m surrounded by four nurses holding me upside down. They shake me back and forth, urging the blood back to my head. As I regain consciousness I wonder: is this worth it? That “it” is the $10,000 question.Seven months ago, I received my acceptance to Columbia University’s School of Journalism. I was absolutely stunned to be admitted, but even more shocked by the $116,000 price tag – and that was just for tuition. The school, whose education is widely considered the golden standard in journalism, would provide me with unparalleled access, in an industry I currently felt immobile in. Continue reading...

The crash sparked an inferno that also injured at least three people on the highway between Mexico City and Puebla stateA transport truck has smashed into a toll booth and six other vehicles on a highway in central Mexico, leaving at least 19 people dead and three injured, authorities said.The brakes on the truck apparently failed before it crashed into the toll booth and then the vehicles on Saturday, igniting a large fire on the highway connecting Mexico City with Puebla state. Continue reading...

Assa wollumbin found in Wollumbin national park and will likely be listed as critically endangered

People in England will be able to book their Covid-19 booster jab a month before they are eligible from Monday

Musician went on to perform in breakaway group with former vocalist Ali Campbell and Mickey VirtueFormer UB40 member Astro, real name Terence Wilson, has died after a short illness, his current band has confirmed.The musician went on to perform with breakaway group UB40 featuring Ali Campbell and Astro. Continue reading...

Conference in Lourdes recognised that church had allowed abuses to become ‘systemic’Senior members of France’s Roman Catholic hierarchy knelt in a show of penance at the shrine of Lourdes on Saturday, a day after bishops accepted the church’s responsibility for decades of child abuse.But some of the survivors of the abuse – and lay members supporting them – said they were still waiting for details of compensation and of a comprehensive reform of the church. Continue reading...

More than 350 people linked to organised crime are being tried, with biggest names yet to be judgedItaly struck an early blow on Saturday against the country’s powerful ’Ndrangheta organised crime group, convicting 70 mobsters and others in a first, crucial test of the largest mafia trial in more than three decades.Judge Claudio Paris read out verdicts and sentences against 91 defendants in the massive courtroom in the Calabrian city of Lamezia Terme. Continue reading...

Protesters link woman’s death by septic shock to new restrictions on ending unviable pregnancies“Her heart was beating too,” thousands of protesters across Poland chanted on Saturday during demonstrations sparked by the death of a pregnant 30-year-old woman in hospital. Her family say that the hospital staff refused her life-saving health care because they were afraid of breaking the country’s strict abortion law.Demonstrators were joined by senior opposition politicians, including Donald Tusk, the former president of the European Council. Continue reading...

Australia’s plant-based meat market is booming, with increasingly sophisticated production techniques aiming to earn a place on carnivores’ plates. Assistant news editor Shelley Hepworth recommends this story about meat alternatives

Exclusive: Taxpayer cost of offshore processing regime revealed as government remains silent on where $400m wentThe cost to Australian taxpayers to hold a single refugee on Nauru has escalated tenfold to more than $350,000 every month – or $4.3m a year – as the government refuses to reveal where nearly $400m spent on offshore processing on the island has gone.Australia currently pays about $40m a month to run its offshore processing regime on Nauru, an amount almost identical to 2016 when there were nearly 10 times as many people held on the island. Continue reading...

Person alleged to have made threat during a phone call to a female Labour politicianA British national has been arrested in Ireland on suspicion of making threats to kill a sitting Labour MP.A 41-year-old man was detained in the Cork suburb of Douglas on Saturday and brought to the Brideswell Garda station for questioning. Continue reading...

Marília Mendonça, one of Brazil’s biggest singers and a Latin Grammy winner, has been killed in a plane crash on her way to a concert. Her press office said their plane crashed between Mendonça’s home town of Goiânia and Caratinga, a small city 220 miles north of Rio de Janeiro. The aircraft was around seven miles from Caratinga, her destination for that evening’s gig.

Dyfed-Powys police say woman held on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter has been released under investigationPolice in Wales have arrested a woman on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter following a paddleboarding incident a week ago that has now claimed a fourth death.The suspect, who police said was from south Wales, has been released under investigation. Continue reading...

The musician and composer on a magical performance by Udo Kier, a west African drumming app and where to find a taste of PalestineDamon Albarn was born in east London in 1968. Interested in music from a young age, he studied at East 15 Acting School and then Goldsmiths, where he co-founded the band that helped kick off Britpop. As well as recording eight studio albums with Blur, Albarn also co-created Gorillaz and the Good, the Bad & the Queen, spearheaded the collaborative organisation Africa Express and has scored stage productions including Monkey: Journey to the West and Dr Dee. He lives in Notting Hill, west London, with his partner, Suzi Winstanley. On 12 November, Albarn releases his second solo album The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows on Transgressive Records. Continue reading...

The reggae musician and producer, 68, talks about Bob Marley, Linton Kwesi Johnson, police intimidation, impressing his dad and writing songs in prison to vent his angerMy very first memory is meeting my dad. I was small and because he worked in America, I only knew him from the photo that sat on the mantelpiece. It’s because of my dad that I made every effort to become a musician. He said to me, “You should find a decent job, because if you make music, you’ll never eat a decent meal in a decent restaurant.” Well, I’ve eaten some nice meals in some nice restaurants!I know my dad is proud of me. He never told me to my face, but he would brag about me to his friends. To my face he’d say, “Are you still trying to play that guitar?” That was our running joke. I made a point of giving him a copy of every release and production I’d ever made, to the point where if I wanted some of my old stuff, I would have to go to him to get a copy. Even then he’d only let me borrow it. Continue reading...

The Nobel prize-winning gynaecologist counts Michaela Coel, Jill Biden and a small army of Congolese women among his fans. Yet he still won’t call himself a heroIn 1984,at the age of 29, Dr Denis Mukwege moved to France from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to complete his training as a junior obstetrician. It was his first trip to Europe, and he had spent half his life savings on the air fare. The city of Angers was to be his home for five years, but he struggled to make it one. He would arrange to view flats and on arrival would be told that they had just been let. It took him a while to figure out that it was his skin colour that was making apartments disappear. He finally found a home in a houseshare with other students.When he took up his training position, he was astonished at how well staffed and equipped the hospital was compared with the one he had come from in the DRC, which delivered the same number of babies annually with just two doctors, as opposed to 30. Mukwege was already far more experienced than his peers in France. He had gained expertise beyond his years working in a small, under-resourced hospital where he operated on women and girls by torchlight and often broke away, mid-surgery, to consult medical literature for instructions. Continue reading...

Sir Tom Winsor says random searches of officers’ WhatsApp and social media could act as deterrentRandom phone searches for police officers should be carried out to check for inappropriate jokes and racist, sexist and homophobic slurs, the chief inspector of constabulary has said.Sir Tom Winsor said trawling WhatsApp and social media could act as a deterrent, much in the same way that the random drug testing of police officers does. Sir Tom also spoke of his revulsion over officers taking photographs of the murdered sisters Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry before sharing them in a group message with colleagues. Continue reading...