German media identify man who apparently fell from window of Russian embassy as member of FSBA Russian diplomat found dead near the country’s embassy in Berlin last month was an undercover intelligence agent, German media have reported.The news magazine Der Spiegel reported on Friday that police had recovered the body of a Russian diplomat who apparently fell from an embassy window, and that the man had been identified as a member of the Federal Security Service (FSB), Russia’s main intelligence and law enforcement agency. Continue reading...

Kieron Donaldson cleared of murder before being convicted after he ‘helped and supplied weapons’A fifth teenager accused of killing 15-year-old schoolboy Keon Lincoln has been cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter.Kieron Donaldson was convicted of the lesser charge by a majority 10-2 verdict at Birmingham crown court after a trial heard he “helped and supplied weapons” for the premeditated attack on Lincoln in January this year. Continue reading...

Officer accidentally shot child during high-speed chase of suspected people smugglersA Belgian court has reduced the sentence of a police officer convicted of accidentally shooting dead a two-year old girl during a high-speed chase of suspected people smugglers.An appeal court cut the officer’s suspended sentence for involuntary homicide from one year to 10 months. The court left a €400 (£343) fine unchanged. Continue reading...

Some conference visitors are now hooked on Scotland’s famous fizzy drink, while others can’t wait to leave it behindAlongside a post-work dram of whisky and a lunchtime haggis, delegates at Cop26 have been getting acquainted with another Scottish delicacy: Irn-Bru. Gleaming mounds of the rust-coloured drink are on sale throughout the SEC convention centre in Glasgow, and it has proved a hit with people from all corners of the planet – and a miss with others.The Zimbabwean presidential spokesperson got the party started on Monday when he was reported to have emerged from a Glasgow Costco with trolleys full of Irn-Bru and alcohol for an event that evening. The drink, which Donald Trump banned from his luxury golf resort in Turnberry in 2018, also has a new fan from the South Pacific. Continue reading...

Calogero Ferrara’s libel suits against Lorenzo Tondo marked as potential intimidation on Council of Europe ‘safety platform’Two libel claims by an aggrieved Italian prosecutor against a Guardian journalist have been flagged as potential acts of state “harassment and intimidation” on an alert system run by Europe’s leading government-backed human rights organisation, the Council of Europe.Calogero Ferrara, a prosecutor in Palermo, filed the defamation suits in 2019 against the journalist Lorenzo Tondo over a Facebook post and a series of allegedly inaccurate articles published by the Guardian. A first hearing of one of the libel cases has now been set for February 2022. Continue reading...

As rivers run dry, the desperate search for water has led to a rise in domestic abuse, conflict and illness

DS Derek Ridgwell’s actions led to at least two serious miscarriages of justice, the Stockwell Six and the Oval FourThe British Transport Police has apologised to the British black community for the trauma caused by the actions of a former officer involved in at least two serious miscarriages of justice involving young black people.In a letter sent to black civil rights activists, Lucy D’Orsi, the force’s chief constable, insisted the actions of DS Derek Ridgewell, who played a key role in the convictions of the Stockwell Six and the Oval Four, did “not define the BTP of today”. Continue reading...

Across the arts, Black British artists are making their voices heard. To mark the moment, Lenny Henry and Marcus Ryder have guest-edited the Saturday magazine’s culture sectionBlack lives matter. Before it is an organisation or capitalised political movement, it is just a simple statement of fact. Black people’s lives are important and have meaning. However, too often when we discuss the meaning of the phrase, we frame our discussions around how our lives are not valued. Continue reading...

Scotland’s newly reopened mountain bothies are shining examples of sustainable tourism. Our photographer takes us on a guided tourThe Mountain Bothies Association (MBA) charity has reopened its 105 mountain huts, shelters and howffs after more than a year of closure due to Covid. The overwhelming majority of these are in Scotland and they reopened in August for what the MBA described as “responsible use”, pointing out that Covid has not gone away. The bothies are all sorts of shapes and sizes in varied locations – many are extremely remote and operated with the agreement of owners and estates and maintained by MBA volunteers since the late 60s and early 70s.Above,Allt nam Fang, approaching Meanach Bothy; right, Meanach Bothy, renovated in 1977, is approximately 1,000ft above sea level Continue reading...

The Prison Arts Collective brings art, and renowned artists, to incarcerated people as a form of therapy and escapeThe American prison has a long cultural history, depicted in movies from The Shawshank Redemption to The Green Mile. They are generally portrayed as harsh, dehumanising places populated by hardened criminals and vicious guards.Who better, then, to demystify prisons and those who live in them than artists themselves? “We’ve had this glorified TV version of what a prison is in America and sure, it’s not a cakewalk, but it’s also humans in there – our fellow humans,” says Brian Roettinger, a graphic designer based in Los Angeles. Continue reading...

How does Australia’s coronavirus vaccine rollout and schedule compare with other countries, and when will Australia reach 70% and 80% double dose vaccination? We bring together the latest numbers on the vaccination rate in Victoria, NSW, Queensland and other states, as well as stats, maps, live data and Indigenous vaccination rates.

Analysis: President faces an uphill battle to undo a system that has led to a bloated property sectorXi Jinping’s to-do list has seen a lot of ticks in recent months: more flights into Taiwan’s defence zone; suppressing dissenting voices in Hong Kong; clipping the wings of tech barons; outlawing the out-of-school tutoring industry. The list goes on.However, one key initiative – introducing a local property tax – has attracted fewer headlines but is apparently so controversial within China’s ruling Communist party that even Xi is still only able to deal in trial schemes rather than wholesale change. Continue reading...

Two people killed at Hyatt Ziva in Puerto Morelos in what state officials say was confrontation between drug dealers

Conservative MPs react with fury at ‘own goal’ after PM ditches bid to shield former minister from lobbying claimsBoris Johnson was engulfed in a sleaze crisis last night following a humiliating government U-turn that saw veteran Tory MP Owen Paterson resign from parliament after Downing Street ditched a bid to shield him from lobbying claims.Tory MPs reacted with fury after Johnson withdrew his backing from Paterson, less than 24 hours after ordering them to support a controversial amendment tearing up House of Commons anti-sleaze rules to protect him. Continue reading...

Trial of former hospital electrician is believed to be worst case of necrophilia in British legal historyAn electrician who admitted murdering two women in 1987 also sexually attacked scores of corpses in a hospital mortuary in the worst offending of its kind in British legal history, prosecutors say.David Fuller pleaded guilty to murdering Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, in separate attacks in Tunbridge Wells, Kent police said. Continue reading...

Armour UK also aware two people who had used its products had tested HIV positive, the inquiry heardA pharmaceutical company continued to insist its blood products were safe despite knowing it had used untested donors and that two people who had used the products had tested HIV positive, the infected blood inquiry has heard.On Thursday, Christopher Bishop, a former marketing manager at Armour UK, a major supplier of blood products, became the first employee of a pharmaceutical company involved in the infected blood scandal to give evidence to the statutory inquiry. Continue reading...

Documentary-maker who captured East Timor atrocities on film and left behind his earlier career as a Blue Peter presenterThe documentary-maker Max Stahl, who has died of throat cancer aged 66, exposed the atrocities of the Indonesian government in East Timor. But he first found fame under his birth name of Christopher Wenner as a presenter of the BBC children’s television show Blue Peter.His sporting prowess shone through when he abseiled down the east tower of Television Centre, but the overriding story of his two years on the programme (1978-80) was how he stumbled through scripts and appeared uncomfortable in front of the camera. Nevertheless, his constantly arguing over Blue Peter’s content with the editor, Biddy Baxter, who held an iron grip on the show, gave a glimpse of what he would later bring to news and current affairs television. Continue reading...

Steve Turner to be investigated after referral to police watchdog over alleged conduct before assuming roleThe police and crime commissioner of one of England’s most troubled forces is being investigated over an allegation of a historic sexual assault.Steve Turner, who became Cleveland police and crime commissioner in May, is resisting pressure to resign after the revelation by the Mirror newspaper. Continue reading...

Tory MP was facing suspension after standards watchdog found he had broken lobbying rulesOwen Paterson has announced his resignation as MP for North Shropshire, after Boris Johnson made clear he would no longer seek to prevent the former cabinet minister from being punished by parliament for lobbying.“I will remain a public servant but outside the cruel world of politics,” the MP for North Shropshire said in a statement.In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org. Continue reading...

Twitter users investigated for sharing “disinformation and manipulative content”Thirty people are facing legal proceedings after Turkish police launched an investigation into the spread of rumours on social media that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had died.Twitter users who posted under the trending hashtag “olmuş” – roughly “is said to be dead” – were being investigated for sharing “disinformation and manipulative content”, a police statement issued on Wednesday said. Continue reading...

Celebrations back in full swing for first time since pandemic began but many fear festival will bring fresh surge

Nobel peace prize winner Abiy Ahmed vowed in post to ‘bury’ his government’s enemiesFacebook has removed a post by Ethiopia’s prime minister for “inciting and supporting violence” as diplomats stepped up attempts to instigate a ceasefire in the country’s year-long civil war.Abiy Ahmed, the winner of the 2019 Nobel peace prize, vowed to “bury” his government’s enemies in a Facebook post on Sunday as forces from the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) moved closer to Addis Ababa. Facebook’s owner, Meta, said on Thursday that it had removed the post. Continue reading...

Two decades ago Richard Stiles escaped an avalanche in New Zealand, but friend Steve Robinson wasn’t so lucky. Now the mountain has given up some of its secrets. Features editor Lucy Clark introduces this unexpected tale about a moment that was captured on film and buried for more than 20 years before resurfacingYou can read the original article here: Photos from ‘beyond the grave’: camera discovery reveals climber’s last images before fatal avalanche

As she releases an album inspired by Girl, Interrupted, the US indie icon reveals how a childhood kidnapping and her repressive southern childhood left her with PTSDIn Los Angeles, it’s early and overcast. “It has that six-in-the-morning feel,” says Aimee Mann, eternally droll, from a home office wallpapered in fruity foliage. “So it’s been hard to get going.” Drab weather demands good knitwear, and Mann has paired thick-rimmed round glasses the size of ashtrays with a brown woollen sweater vest. She admits, with a whaddaya-gonna-do shrug, that she bought the Alexa Chung garm off Instagram. “I’ve actually bought several things from Instagram ads,” she says sheepishly. “How do they know?”When it comes to her career, the 61-year-old songwriter has never been one for the hard sell. In 1985, Mann’s band ’Til Tuesday had a US Top 10 hit with their debut single, Voices Carry, a sublime new-wave anthem about the liability of expressing emotion. With her shocked peroxide do, rat-tail plait and unyielding stare, Mann resisted sexual and commercial commodification. Misunderstood by their label, the group ended, then Mann spent the 90s with her first three solo albums of brilliantly spiky, weary, erudite guitar pop mired in major-label politics, from collapses and buyouts to brazen apathy at what to do with a late thirtysomething classicist more akin to Randy Newman than Britney Spears. Continue reading...

Posters in Liverpool were destroyed after going on display in Homotopia festival’s Queer the City exhibitionDetectives are investigating after two artworks, commissioned in response to a series of homophobic and transphobic attacks in Liverpool, were destroyed. Merseyside police said they are treating the incidents as hate crime.The artworks were vandalised within days of going on display as part of Homotopia festival’s Queer the City outdoor exhibition. Continue reading...

Leicester East MP, once a key Labour figure, threatened to ‘use acid’ on friend of her partner, trial heardThe MP Claudia Webbe has been sentenced to 10 weeks in custody suspended for two years after being found guilty of a campaign of harassment, including threatening an acid attack, against a woman.Webbe was found guilty of harassing Michelle Merritt, a friend of her partner, with threatening phone calls. A trial was told she had called Merritt a slag, threatened to “use acid” and said she would distribute naked pictures of Merritt to her family. Continue reading...

When the Kenyan woman died nine years ago, the army closed ranks – it’s time to find out what happened and whyThe last time 21-year-old Agnes Wanjiru was seen alive in public, she was leaving a hotel bar with two soldiers.Her body was found by a hotel worker two months later, stuffed into a nearby septic tank, naked but for her bra. The mother of a five-month-old baby, Agnes was a hairdresser who turned to sex work to support herself and her daughter, and had gone to the hotel expecting it to be full of partying British soldiers. An inquest later concluded that one or more of them must have killed her.Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

As the London Korean film festival kicks off, Youn Yuh-jung, talks about how her portrayals of racy grannies and scheming maids scandalised the nationIn her Oscar-winning turn in last year’s Minari, Youn Yuh-jung played the mischievous granny you wished you’d had: the one who ignores your fun-sucking parents, takes you on wild adventures and teaches you to do your own thing. “You’re not a real grandma,” her Americanised grandson tells her. “They bake cookies! They don’t swear! They don’t wear men’s underwear!” In real life, Youn is pretty similar: lively, funny, unpretentious, and, she admits, not all that good at cooking. The 74-year-old actor has had an unconventional life and career, and most of us in the west know only a tiny fraction of it.“My problem is, I don’t plan anything!” Youn laughs over Zoom from Los Angeles. Unlike her character in Minari, she speaks fluent English, although she apologises for it not being good enough. Continue reading...

Reports say Ethiopia wants to buy Bayraktar TB2 drones after military cooperation agreement was signed with AnkaraEthiopia’s government has forged an alliance with Turkey, amid reports that it wants to deploy armed Turkish drones in its bitter war against forces from the region of Tigray.Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s prime minister, signed a military cooperation agreement on a visit Ankara in August with Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Continue reading...

Cases at near-record levels and 500,000 more deaths forecast by February

Total of 61,158 offences recorded in year ending June 2021, amid national debate over women’s safetyPolice have recorded a record number of rape offences in England and Wales, according to official figures.Although there was a fall in overall crime levels driven by coronavirus restrictions, the Office for National Statistics said recorded sexual offences had increased by 8%. Continue reading...

In this extract from a book compiling artworks made by Donwood and Yorke for Radiohead, the pair discuss how alienation with Cool Britannia saw them retreat into landscapes, labyrinths and inadvertently inventing TwitterStanley Donwood I can’t believe the innocent world we lived in when we were making this work. It was before 9/11, before the “war on terror”, before the conjoining of the police and the military – all of the social changes that have led towards the position we now find ourselves in. It wasn’t possible to know what was going on around the world in the same way that it is now, when news has become a sort of surrogate entertainment.Thom Yorke Everybody involved felt like we’d been in some weird circus for quite a while, after OK Computer. Personally, I mentally completely crashed, as did Stan. We all did, in a way. Rather than immersing ourselves in this congratulatory atmosphere around us, we felt the total opposite. There was this fierce desire to be totally on the outside of everything that was going on, and a fierce anger, and suspicion. And that permeated everything. It was completely out of proportion, deeply unhealthy – but that’s where we were at. Continue reading...

Sophie Pétronin accused of putting herself and others in danger by going back months after she was freedThe son of a former al-Qaida hostage has struck back at French government claims that she has put herself and others in danger by slipping back into Mali where she was held for four years.Sophie Pétronin’s return to Mali has sparked criticism and made headlines in her native France, with a government spokesperson this week accusing her of “irresponsibility toward her own security and also the security of our troops” in the west African country. Continue reading...

The Guardian’s picture editors select photo highlights from around the world Continue reading...

Commons expected to vote as soon as next week on suspending Tory Owen Paterson after PM’s retreat

With disco enjoying one of its periodic moments in the sun, a supremely classy 21st-century reboot was possible. But this isn’t itIn 1982, Diana Ross was interviewed by Smash Hits magazine. Her presence in among the breathless coverage of Duran Duran and Haircut 100 was testament to her continued commercial success two decades on from the Supremes’ first hit. She talked a little about that band’s 60s heyday, but, as befitting an artist who had just enjoyed two platinum albums stuffed with Top 10 singles, insisted that the 80s were the real “golden age. There’s so much opportunity.”But not, as it turned out, for Diana Ross, whose recording career stalled shortly afterwards. She had her last US Top 10 hit, a tribute to the recently murdered Marvin Gaye called Missing You, 37 years ago. Britain remained under her sway a little longer – Chain Reaction, a flop in the US, rightly reached No 1 in 1986 – but even so, it was all over bar the shouting by the early 90s. Continue reading...

With The Last Duel out now, and House of Gucci at the end of the month, we rate the top 20 movies by the go-to director for swords, sandals, cyborgs and SigourneyA film to prove that straight-up feelgood comedy is not Ridley Scott’s forte and casting his favourite leading man is no guarantee of success, either. This is based on a novel by Peter “A Year in Provence” Mayle: incredibly, it is Russell Crowe playing the quirkily conceited yet adorable Brit who inherits a sumptuous house-plus-vineyard in the south of France, comes over intending to sell it, but instead falls in love with the place and all the picturesque Frenchness thereabouts, including Marion Cotillard. Continue reading...

‘Surprise’ expulsion of de Volkskrant reporter comes after that of the BBC’s Sarah Rainsford in AugustRussia has expelled a Dutch reporter, his newspaper has said, as Moscow continues its crackdown on domestic and foreign journalists in the country.De Volkskrant journalist Tom Vennink said his visa was revoked and he was given three days to leave the country following difficulties renewing his journalist accreditation. Continue reading...

High vaccination rates and low Covid case numbers mean border can reopen, premiers Dominic Perrottet and Daniel Andrews say

Fifteen questions on general knowledge and topical trivia plus a few jokes every Thursday – how will you fare?Thursday seems to come around earlier every week, especially if you’ve set yourself an immovable deadline for writing 15 questions about general knowledge and topical news stories. All your favourites are here: Kate Bush, Ron from Sparks, the Olly Murs face masks, and the unexpected anagram round. It is just for fun, there are no prizes, but there are bonus points to be had in the comments for making the quiz master laugh or spotting the hidden Doctor Who reference in this week’s questions. Let us know how you get on!The Thursday quiz, No 28If you do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers, please feel free to email martin.belam@theguardian.com but remember, the quiz master’s word is always final, especially about the respective merits of various Star Trek series. Continue reading...

Carnarvon local charged with forcible abduction and other offences after four-year-old girl was allegedly taken from WA camping site

Researchers fear Horizon Europe programme is collateral damage in UK-EU political disputeMore than 1,000 universities and 50 academies of science across Europe have called on the EU to “immediately” finalise the UK’s membership of its flagship £80bn research programme and end the 10-month delay to the ratification process.In a letter to the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, they say the lengthy delay is “endangering current and future plans for collaboration” and any further delay will “result in a major weakening of our collective research strength”. Continue reading...

‘Difficult to see future’ of Kathryn Stone, says business secretary after Tories vote to tear up system amid Owen Paterson row

Boys aged 12 and 15 arrested on suspicion of riotous behaviour after violence in Belfast on WednesdayTwo boys aged 12 and 15 have been arrested on suspicion of riotous behaviour after police came under attack after a protest against the Northern Ireland Brexit protocol in Belfast.Police described the scenes on Wednesday as “disgraceful”, with officers subjected to a volley of missiles and fireworks close to the site of previous violence in April. Three police vehicles were damaged. Continue reading...

Many Nicaraguans, including the ruling couple’s estranged daughter, see unhappy parallels with the fight against Somoza half a century agoAs her childhood home was used to plot one of the 20th century’s most storied revolutions, Zoilamérica Ortega Murillo told playmates she was Guatemalan – lest the neighbours detect the very Nicaraguan conspiracy unfolding next door.“The little friends I used to play ball with came in to drink water once and wandered into the room where the guns were kept,” said the 54-year-old sociologist as she stood outside the peach-coloured villa where she lived as a nine-year-old girl. Continue reading...

Queensland police say accounts of what happened to 27-year-old in state’s far west after he vanished on 18 October ‘not consistent’

This little known and preventable disease disfigures those it does not kill – and a new campaign hopes to raise awareness and eradicate it entirelyWarning: this article includes graphic images some readers may find disturbingFidel Strub was three when the inside of his cheek started to itch. After a few days, it felt like it was burning, then it began to smell as if it was rotting. A splitting headache came next before his whole body started to feel uncomfortably hot.“I remember darkness came,” he says. “I had a hammering headache and a burning body. When I opened my eyes, any light stung them and it burned like hell. It was easier to close my eyes for less pain. I could do nothing but lie on the floor.” Continue reading...

Audio of ‘My name is Cleo’ moment released as WA police expect to lay charges over Cleo Smith case ‘later today’; Peter Dutton says France would’ve reacted the same if told earlier about Aukus; Victoria records 1,247 new Covid cases and nine deaths; NSW records 308 and four deaths; Queensland records three local cases; Labor attacks Morrison over leaked texts – follow today’s news live

The reintroduction of bison to the Carpathians is a boon for nature – and local communities – as our writer discovers on a hiking break“From this pile of logs onwards, we need to be completely silent,” says Georg Messerer, our guide through Romania’s southern Carpathians. His head cocks 45 degrees as a bird starts chirping. “Nuthatch,” he whispers, reaching for his binoculars. “And two red deer.” Georg directs our gaze to a row of apple trees, where sure enough, two deer are grazing.Georg is an environmental encyclopedia. Give him a fresh footprint or dropping and he can tell you what the animal was and when it was there. Born in Germany, but with extensive guiding experience in Southern Africa, Georg has been guiding here, in the remote hills of Rusca in the Țarcu Mountains, near the villages of Armeniș, for more than five years – ever since the reintroduction of free-roaming bison to the area began. Continue reading...

Lawyers say ruling is ‘highly significant’ and likely to impact future prosecutions amid intensifying national security crackdownHong Kong’s top court has quashed attempts by the city’s government to prosecute people for rioting or illegal assembly even without being present at the scene – a ruling lawyers described as a landmark.The five-judge panel in Hong Kong’s court of final appeal, headed by chief justice Andrew Cheung, unanimously rejected an earlier ruling by a lower appeal court that people, such as supporters, could be criminally liable without being actually present under the common law doctrine of “joint enterprise”. Continue reading...