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Semi-animated Netflix documentary short reveals the secret story of the Jewish soldiers who watched over prisoners of war on US soilToo vast in scope to be contained within war drama, the Holocaust movie constitutes an entire genre unto itself, collecting a potentially infinite number of tragedies great and small. The history of the 20th century’s most massive atrocity comes with thousands of footnotes now gradually expanded upon by media depicting the unsung courage and untold evil. Israeli documentary film-makers Daniel Sivan and Mor Loushy singled out one such extraordinary tale for their latest joint project, Netflix’s short film Camp Confidential, drawing attention to a highly covert military operation only recently released from behind redaction-marker bars. “The first thing is, when producers Benji and Jono Bergmann approached us with this and told us of the story, we didn’t believe it,” Sivan tells the Guardian. “It was just so out-there.”The black-op facility tucked away in northern Virginia’s Fairfax county sounds like something out of a pulp paperback: Jewish soldiers, many of them refugees from the devastation in Europe, watched over Nazi prisoners of war in a surreally domestic setting. Known as PO Box 1142, it housed such notables as spymaster Reinhard Gehlen and rocket scientist Wernher von Braun. But those in charge of the base were also tasked with maintaining a baseline quality of life for the inmates, leading to bizarre scenes such as a department store outing with former members of the Third Reich to purchase unmentionables for their wives. Bulldozed after the war and buried in secrecy until the National Parks Service unearthed some remnants in the early 2000s, the clandestine camp now doubles as a cautionary tale for modern Jews and a memorial for those who came before them. Continue reading...

People have hated sprouts for centuries, but we still ate them. That may be about to change – and Christmas pudding should watch out, tooName: Gen Z v the brussels sproutAge: Current. Continue reading...

Celebrate the symbolic victory of light over darkness, good over evil and syrupy sweet treats over healthy eating with our Diwali roundupThis year, early November offers you two choice festivals: Bonfire Night and Diwali. In one, we burn effigies of a centuries-old failed revolutionary as a brutal reminder that we are for ever doomed to struggle under the unknowable power of the state. And then there’s Diwali, a five-day-long celebration observed by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and Buddhists, created to symbolise “victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance”. Which, you know, does sort of sound better. So, what should you eat for Diwali? Here are 10 Diwali recipes for your delectation. Continue reading...

Linacre College to rename itself Thao College after funding offer from Vietnam’s richest womanA University of Oxford college is to change its name to honour Vietnam’s richest woman after she offered it a £155m donation.Linacre College says it will ask the privy council for permission to change its name to Thao College after signing a memorandum of understanding over the money with Sovico Group, represented by its chair, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao. Continue reading...

Police identify more than 5,000 cases of people fraudulently drawing ‘citizens’ income’ meant for poorA “citizens’ income” scheme in Italy intended to alleviate poverty was allegedly cheated by thousands of claimants, some of whom owned Ferraris, yachts and several properties, police have said.Among those claiming the benefit was a presumed mafia boss and a person who invented having children in order to boost their monthly income. The details emerged during a six-month investigation in the southern regions of Campania, Abruzzo, Puglia, Molise and Basilicata. Continue reading...

Series showrunner tells podcast that ambiguous ending rankled with viewers who wanted to see the character ‘face-down in linguini’David Chase, the creator of The Sopranos, has spoken about his irritation at viewers’ desire to see Tony Soprano die at the end of the hit series.Speaking on the Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, the 76-year-old said he had been “bothered” by people’s obsession with the blackout ending of the 2007 finale, which stopped short of confirming the fate of its lead character. Continue reading...

Thomas Nutt, 45, from West Yorkshire, charged with murder of Dawn Walker, 52, after her body was found in a suitcaseA 45-year-old man has been charged with murdering his new bride after her body was found dumped in a suitcase.Dawn Walker, 52, of Halifax, was found dead in a suitcase in the village of Lightcliffe, three miles east of Halifax, West Yorkshire, on Sunday. Friends described her as kind, caring and friendly and said she had married Thomas Nutt just four days earlier. Continue reading...

Mandatory vaccination to be introduced for NHS England’s 1.2 million full-time staff from next year

Police warn lives are being endangered after three women aged 18-19 report being injected at clubsPolice in Sheffield are investigating three reports of young women being spiked with needles last weekend, warning those responsible that they are endangering the lives of innocent people and face long jail terms.In recent weeks there has been a big rise in the number of spiking cases, resulting in demonstrations last week at more than 40 university towns and cities across the UK. Continue reading...

Welcome to our monthly roundup of the biggest issues in farming and food production, with must-read reports from around the webAs UN climate talks take place in Glasgow, the role of cows and other farm animals in human-induced climate emissions – and what can be done about it – has been in the spotlight.

Zhang Yiming relinquishes role at firm he co-founded, one of Chinese tech’s biggest global success storiesThe chairman of TikTok owner ByteDance has stepped down, as the Chinese government tightens its control of the tech sector and maintains pressure on the industry’s domestic entrepreneurs.Zhang Yiming announced in May he would step down as chief executive of the tech company he co-founded and on Wednesday he relinquished his chair title, with the company’s English-language website no longer featuring a page that mentioned his formal board role. Instead, there was a photo of Zhang under the heading of “leadership” with no title underneath. ByteDance declined to comment. Continue reading...

Party expected to dip below 50% in municipal elections with more than half of polling stations reportingSouth Africa’s ruling ANC party looked set to deliver its worst ever electoral performance since the end of apartheid, with support expected to dip below 50% in local government polls.With more than half of polling stations reporting after Monday’s fiercely contested elections, the African National Congress stood at slightly under 46% of the vote, according to electoral commission figures. Continue reading...

One of Western Australia’s biggest police hunts ended with officers breaking into a house and rescuing Cleo Smith. A 36-year-old man is being questioned

Investigators obtain bank records of transfers between Marlene Kairouz and electorate office manager Kirsten Psaila, hearing told

Defence budget and nuclear posture review are battlegrounds as Republicans seek to block limits on US use of weaponsA battle is being fought in Washington over the Biden administration’s nuclear weapons policy, amid fears by arms control advocates that the president will renege on campaign promises to rein in the US arsenal.The battlegrounds are a nuclear posture review (NPR) due early next year and a defence budget expected about the same time. At stake is a chance to put the brakes on an arms race between the US, Russia and China – or the risk of that race accelerating. Continue reading...

The musicians and execs share the pitches, punch-ups and phone calls behind the adverts that took Stiltskin, Babylon Zoo and Mr Oizo to No 1 – and flipped music and advertising’s relationship on its headAmid black and white Ansel Adams-style cinematography, two Amish sisters spy on a topless man bathing in a Yosemite river. Suddenly, a peaceful choral soundtrack gave gives way to bone-shaking guitar: Inside, the debut single by Scottish grunge band Stiltskin.Thus began one of the strangest cultural wrinkles of the 1990s: when Levi’s became a jeans company that could also score UK chart hits. Inside was built around an addictive riff that still sounds fresh, and the advert, entitled Creek, shot it to the top of the UK charts. Over the next few years, the likes of Babylon Zoo, Smoke City, Mr Oizo and Norman Cook’s pre-Fatboy Slim project Freak Power would also score major success off the back of a placement in Levi’s witty, often sexually provocative adverts. Continue reading...

Jean-Pierre Thébault says Morrison government’s ‘deceit was intentional’ and questions whether any country could trust ‘the value of Australia’s signature’The French ambassador has denounced the Australian government’s release of a private text message from Emmanuel Macron as “an unprecedented new low”, arguing other world leaders would now worry their words might be “weaponised” against them.Jean-Pierre Thébault said the leaking of the text message from the French president was a setback “in terms of truth and trust”, and it would be “sad” if this was the Australian government’s answer to France’s request for concrete actions to heal the relationship. Continue reading...

Tony Chung, the founder of a pro-independence group, was taken into custody in 2020 at a coffee shop close to the US consulateA Hong Kong court has found the former leader of pro-independence group Studentlocalism guilty of secession and money laundering under the city’s sweeping national security law, after a plea bargain.Tony Chung, 20, was charged with the offences in October last year and denied bail. Chung and two others were detained by unidentified men at a coffee shop near the US consulate early on 27 October. Chung’s supporters said at the time he had been intending to seek political asylum. They said Chung had submitted his paperwork weeks earlier, but fear of an imminent arrest prompted him to seek shelter at the consulate. Continue reading...

The actor talks about being bullied by the disgraced movie mogul, marrying a billionaire and becoming a superhero at 55Salma Hayek is dreadfully jetlagged, which is one of the perils of having homes around the world and frequently hopping between them. “Let me tell you about my craziness,” she says by video chat from her home in west London. “I’m here for less than a week, then I go back [to the US] for five days for my husband’s work, then I come back here for my work, then I go back to LA because I’m getting a star on the Hollywood Boulevard! It’s crazy,” she says. After this interview she has a fitting for dresses for various movie premieres.“We’re just making it up as we go along!” she says in exasperation at her crazy life. Despite the craziness, she looks impeccable in a Gucci dress (“As comfortable as your sweats!”), framed by the enormous mirrored painting behind her. “It’s by [Takashi] Murakami,” she says casually of one of the most expensive living artists. She blows a kiss to her husband, François-Henri Pinault, as he leaves the house. Pinault is the CEO of the fashion conglomerate Kering, which is behind labels such as Gucci, Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent and many others. The Pinault family wealth is estimated at $49bn. It’s crazy.“No to me taking a shower with him. No to letting him watch me take a shower. No to letting him give me a massage. No to letting a naked friend of his give me a massage. No to letting him give me oral sex. No to my getting naked with another woman. No no no no no … And with every refusal came Harvey’s Machiavellian rage.” Continue reading...

No new details about president Miloš Zeman’s condition as centrist and centre-right parties reach power-sharing agreementCzech centrist and centre-right parties reached an agreement on forming a majority coalition government and its key agenda, the chairman of the strongest party in the new coalition said.The five-party coalition faces elevated inflation, mounting debt, an economy curbed by a global shortage of semiconductors and surging energy prices, and a resurgent Covid-19 pandemic which has been gathering pace in recent weeks. Continue reading...

The Hong Kong-raised Melbourne film-maker, who has two movies screening at Sydney film festival, reflects on the ‘farcical’ immigrant experience and being a pioneer of Asian Australian cinemaWhen Clara Law’s film Floating Life opened in Australian cinemas in 1996, the Hong Kong-raised, Melbourne-based writer-director did not expect it to pack such a strong cultural punch.Along with being one of few local films to deal with the Asian migrant experience, Floating Life made history as Australia’s first-ever submission in the best foreign language film category at the Academy Awards, and ignited a new generation of Asian Australian film-makers. Continue reading...

Australia’s high court finds the higher rate of tax for working holiday makers is discriminatory and breaches treaty with UK

The 2019 protests spawned documentaries that may never see broad release amid growing intolerance of anything linked to the fight for democracyWhen the DVD came back shattered, it felt like a sign. The creators of Hong Kong protest documentary, Inside the Red Brick Wall, had sent it to regulators for a screening approval, as they’d done numerous times before without issue. But this time the returning envelope was filled with silver shards.“We didn’t understand why, but it was intentional,” one of the anonymous creators says. “They said it was broken by the DVD machine but it was intentional – it came back in pieces. It felt intentional, like they were sending a message.” Continue reading...

Commons spending watchdog says out of 20 projects, 13 were running late by a cumulative total of 21 yearsThe Ministry of Defence’s system of procurement is “broken” and is repeatedly wasting billions in taxpayers’ money, according to a scathing assessment by a watchdog committee of MPs.The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said that the oversight in the department was so poor that it was unable to spell out what additional capability the country will get from an extra £16.5bn which was allocated by Boris Johnson last year. Continue reading...

Another 293 deaths recorded in last 24 hours in UK; Greece public health body says 6,700 new infections recorded in past day

Ben Raymond accused of propagandising for banned neo-Nazi group and its offshootA talented artist was the “Joseph Goebbels” of the violent neo-Nazi group National Action and continued to be a leading light in the organisation after it was banned by the UK government, a jury has been told.Ben Raymond, 32, from Swindon in Wiltshire, was one of the founders of NA, whose members hoarded machetes, swords, ice picks, firearms and even a crossbow powerful enough to bring down an elephant, Bristol crown court was told. Continue reading...

Downing Street fear hospitalisations and deaths among double-vaccinated could rise due to waning immunity

The Foreign Office initially told Ashoori’s family Middle East minister, James Cleverly, could meet themThe foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has agreed to meet the family of the British-Iranian dual national Anoosheh Ashoori who is being held in Evin prison in Tehran. They are calling on the Foreign Office to give him the same diplomatic protection as that granted to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.The move comes as Nazanin’s husband, Richard Ratcliffe, enters the 11th day of a hunger strike outside the Foreign Office. He is pressing the UK government to pay the £400m debt it owes to Iran from a court case dating back to the 1970s. Iran has made it clear that although the debt is a standalone issue, its payment would help with the release of British-Iranian detainees. Continue reading...

Ofgem says latest collapses will leave about 24,000 households in need of a new supplierAnother four energy suppliers have gone bust in a single day as historic gas market highs continue to rip through the UK’s energy market amid fresh fears that Russia may curb gas supplies to Europe.The energy regulator, Ofgem, said the collapse of four small energy suppliers on Tuesday would leave about 24,000 households in need of a new supplier, and bring the total number of bust energy companies to 17 since the start of September, affecting more than 2 million households. Continue reading...

Trevor Smith, 52, died after being struck by bullet that ricocheted off bed frame, jurors toldA 52-year-old man was killed by a ricocheting police bullet when he refused to leave his room during an attempted arrest, an inquest has heard.Trevor Smith, a van driver who was suffering from mental health problems, was fatally shot when officers attempted to arrest him at his home in Lee Bank, Birmingham, in the early hours of 15 March 2019. Continue reading...

$2.2bn deal under threat after attorney general files antitrust suit claiming Penguin Random House would ‘exert outsized influence’The US justice department is suing to block a $2.2bn book publishing deal that would have reshaped the industry, saying consolidation would hurt authors and, ultimately, readers.The German media giant Bertelsmann’s Penguin Random House, already the largest American publisher, wants to buy New York-based Simon & Schuster, whose authors include Stephen King, Hillary Clinton and John Irving, from the TV and film company ViacomCBS. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Paris shelved plans to ban UK boats from French ports following last-ditch talks

PM urges citizens to arm themselves as US clears way for further economic sanctionsEthiopia has declared a state of emergency after forces from the northern region of Tigray said they were gaining territory and considering marching on the capital Addis Ababa.The declaration came as Joe Biden accused the government of “gross violations of internationally recognised human rights” and said he that he was removing Ethiopia from a key US trade program, clearing the way for further economic sanctions over its failure to end the nearly year-long conflict. Continue reading...

When Gadia Zrihan’s family were forced to leave their dog behind, they left a part of themselves too – a part they feared they could never get back. Lifestyle editor Alyx Gorman recommends this story about a heartwarming family reunion during uncertain times

Long after the toilet paper frenzies, there are still shortfalls of many goods. What’s behind it and which products are worst affected?

‘Mega-MPA’ in Pacific will link waters of Ecuador, Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica to protect migratory turtles, whales and sharks from fishing fleetsFour Pacific-facing Latin American nations have committed to joining their marine reserves to form one interconnected area, creating one of the world’s richest pockets of ocean biodiversity.Panama, Ecuador, Colombia and Costa Rica announced on Tuesday the creation of the Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Corridor (CMAR) initiative, which would both join and increase the size of their protected territorial waters to create a fishing-free corridor covering more than 500,000 sq km (200,000 sq miles) in one of the world’s most important migratory routes for sea turtles, whales, sharks and rays. Continue reading...

Dutch director David Verbeek’s stylish, Taipei-set horror-satire looks fabulous but is too soft on its wealthy charactersBlack Mirror meets Succession in this arthouse-y psychological vampire drama, the story of five super-rich millennials – the bored, entitled offspring of global billionaires – who become vampires. The satirical dig here, of course, is that they’re already soulless, uncaring bloodsuckers, even before waking up with actual fangs. But director David Verbeek’s script doesn’t quite wield the scalpel with enough sadistic glee. Instead, this film feels ever-so-slightly sluggish and dour in places.What Verbeek does brilliantly is to create an eerie parallel world of sterile luxury: glass-walled, penthouse restaurants and gleaming, first-class lounges. The film was shot in the Taiwanese capital Taipei, where the five old friends have jetted in. Money can buy whatever they want; but what this lot craves is new experiences. So they have formed an elite club, staging elaborate events and pranks for each other. For his turn Bin-Ray (Philip Juan) fakes his own death. Continue reading...

Demonstrations and candlelit vigil after woman, 30, dies of septic shock in 22nd week of pregnancyA Polish hospital has said that doctors and midwives did everything they could to save the lives of a pregnant woman and her foetus in a case that has put the spotlight on the country’s new stricter abortion law.The 30-year-old woman died of septic shock in her 22nd week of pregnancy. Doctors did not perform an abortion, even though her foetus was lacking amniotic fluid, according to a lawyer for the family. Continue reading...

At least 29 people killed on Sunday in rebel missile strike in escalating fight for control of MaribMore than 100 civilians in the Yemeni province of Marib have been killed or injured in the past month as fighting rages for the country’s last major government-loyal stronghold.Marib city has been under sustained attack since the beginning of the year from Houthi rebels, whose forces have steadily closed in on the central desert area on three different fronts. Continue reading...

From obesity to heart disease, there are many harmful effects of a lack of sleep. Now scientists are adding an unexpected one to the list: a wobbly gait

Ministry of Commerce website notice posted amid price rises and ongoing Covid outbreak

Israel’s Karine Elharrar could not attend summit on Monday due to lack of accessibilityAn Israeli government minister has received an apology from Boris Johnson and the organisers of Cop26 after she could not attend the summit on Monday due to a lack of wheelchair accessibility.Karine Elharrar, Israel’s minister of energy and water resources, described how she was denied entry to the summit because as a wheelchair user she was unable to access the Glasgow venue, criticising the refusal to accommodate her as “outrageous”. Continue reading...

Confidence shattered by ‘crude’ leak of president’s message to prime minister Scott Morrison, says adviserElysée officials have expressed fury at the decision of Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, to leak a private text message from the French president, Emmanuel Macron, as the diplomatic rift between the two countries deepened.“Confidence has been completely shattered,” a close adviser to Macron told French media on Tuesday. “Disclosing a text message exchange between heads of state or government is a pretty crude and unconventional tactic.” Continue reading...

CBC investigation into Carrie Bourassa has drawn comparisons with case of Rachel Dolezal in USA Canadian official and academic specialising in Indigenous health issues has been placed on administrative leave from her university after an investigation challenged her claims of Indigenous ancestry.Carrie Bourassa, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan, has described herself as having Métis, Anishinaabe and Tlingit heritage. In 2019 she appeared at a TEDx talk wearing a blue embroidered shawl and holding a feather, where she identified herself as “Morning Star Bear”. Continue reading...

Scope of UN investigation constrained by Addis Ababa’s involvement, experts sayAn international human rights investigation into the brutal civil war in Ethiopia’s Tigray province will be published on Wednesday amid concerns that the scope of the UN inquiry has been constrained by both Addis Ababa and the ongoing conflict.Due to be released almost exactly a year after the conflict began, the joint UN Human Rights Office and government-created Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC), will nevertheless be the most authoritative overview of the war and its consequences. Continue reading...

The refugee camp became notorious in 2015, as 1 million people fled war and danger to come to Europe. Years after it was demolished, 2,000 migrants are still waiting there, at the centre of a political stormA small group of Ethiopian and Eritrean men stand shoeless and shivering in Calais. A few hours earlier, they almost drowned in the Channel, trying to cross to the UK. They got into difficulty when the motor on their boat failed. Their jeans are stiff and sodden with sand and seawater.“We called the French coastguard to rescue us but they told us to call the English coastguard,” says one man. “Eventually, the French rescued us and brought us back to Calais.Migrants and police at the ‘Old Lidl’ site in Calais. The police clear the site regularly, evicting anyone living there and seizing remaining belongings. Continue reading...

Yellow, blue and red spiders, native to east Asia, thriving in warm weather and sending experts scramblingNorthern Georgia has found itself besieged by millions of large yellow, blue and red spiders, in scenes residents say bring to mind the movie Arachnophobia.The Joro spider is an invasive species, native to east Asia, that was first spotted in Georgia in 2014. Since then, the 3in arachnid appears to have thrived in the warm climes of the state. Continue reading...

The Guardian's Richard Sprenger steps inside a farm, an abattoir and a knackers yard to see how the industry deals with dead and dying animals, and what that says about our own humanity. The welfare of farm animals is well regulated in the UK, but in many cases these animals still suffer traumatic, messy deaths through sickness, injury or the lengthy process that leads to the abattoir. It’s an area of farming that we rarely think about, let alone see – but the safe disposal of carcasses takes many forms

Suspect held after woman discovered dead in village four days after her weddingPolice are continuing to question a 45-year-old man after the body of a woman was found dumped in a suitcase four days after her wedding.The woman, named locally as Dawn Walker, was found dead in the village of Lightcliffe, three miles east of Halifax, West Yorkshire, on Sunday. Continue reading...