World news | The Guardian

Global heating is having a deadly impact on Nicaragua’s sugar cane workers, who toil in temperatures of up to 45C

In widely shared footage of the incident, the man can be seen snatching the reporter’s phone during a live broadcast in EgyptA man has been arrested after allegedly stealing a journalist’s phone straight from his hands during a live broadcast in Egypt.Mahmoud Ragheb, a reporter for the news site Youm7, was filming the aftermath of an earthquake live from the streets of Cairo when a man on a motorbike sped past and seized his phone. Continue reading...

Dame Cindy, the first in her family to graduate from university, rose to become a pro-vice chancellor at the University of AucklandThe first Māori woman to be named governor-general of New Zealand, Dame Cindy Kiro, has been sworn in at an intimate ceremony in parliament, where she said she hopes to use the role to reach out to marginalised communities.Dame Cindy, who is of Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Kahu and British descent, became the country’s 22nd governor-general – Queen Elizabeth’s representative in New Zealand. Continue reading...

Director general of health says country is following similar trajectory to UK, with vast majority of hospital cases being unvaccinated

Death of 18 people forces more social restrictions even as city-state expands quarantine-free travel to eight countriesSingapore’s healthcare system is at risk of being “overwhelmed” by surging coronavirus infections, government officials warned on Wednesday, a day after the city-state expanded quarantine-free travel as it shifts its approach to dealing with the pandemic.The health ministry reported 18 deaths on Wednesday – Singapore’s highest toll in a single day – and 3,862 more cases, just shy of the record 3,994 tallied the day before. Continue reading...

Polish health minister says explosion in cases needs to be urgently addressed; Singapore records 18 deaths and 3,862 new cases

Home secretary informs Commons of change despite no information suggesting any specific new dangerThe threat level against MPs has been raised to “substantial”, the home secretary, Priti Patel, has told the Commons, with police saying they would now work with MPs to review the security they receive.Patel, making a statement on MPs’ security after the killing of the Conservative MP Sir David Amess on Friday, urged them to take the “change in risk seriously” following a review by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre. Continue reading...

Suspension will take effect from 11.59pm on Wednesday and will last until further notice

Crew prepare for mission to evacuate four dogs stranded on Spanish island between rivers of red-hot lavaAn unprecedented drone operation is being prepared to rescue four dogs stranded for weeks between rivers of red-hot lava streaming from an erupting volcano on the Spanish island of La Palma.The emaciated dogs are stranded in two empty water tanks in the town of Todoque, flanked by slow-moving lava flows from the Cumbre Vieja volcano that erupted on 19 September . Continue reading...

Sculpture and its futuristic creator held for 10 days, possibly in fear she is part of spying plotShe has been described as “a vision of the future” who is every bit as good as other abstract artists today, but Ai-Da – the world’s first ultra-realistic robot artist – hit a temporary snag before her latest exhibition when Egyptian security forces detained her at customs.Ai-Da is due to open and present her work at the Great Pyramid of Giza on Thursday, the first time contemporary art has been allowed next to the pyramid in thousands of years. Continue reading...

Labour’s Mike Kane urges legislation after Catholic priest was denied entry to crime scene after MP’s stabbingCatholic priests’ right to give the last rites to the dying, including at crime scenes, should be enshrined in forthcoming legislation in the wake of the killing of David Amess, an MP has said.Labour’s Mike Kane has proposed the “Amess amendment” to the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill, which is being scrutinised in parliament and the House of Lords. Continue reading...

Moscow calls for aid to avert refugee crisis but also demands more inclusive government in KabulRussia has hosted the most high-profile international talks on Afghanistan since the Taliban took power, calling for an injection of aid to help the crippled economy but also demanding a more inclusive government.Senior Russian diplomats made clear that formal recognition of the Taliban regime was not on the table until it does more to improve human rights and broadens an all-male cabinet, most of them clerics from the Pashtun ethnic group. Continue reading...

Hampshire police chief admits decision by misconduct panel opens service up to lack of transparency accusationsA police chief has admitted a decision by a misconduct panel to grant lifelong anonymity to a male officer who harassed a female domestic abuse victim opened the service up to accusations of a lack of transparency.The specially trained domestic officer bombarded the young woman with messages as he pursued an “improper emotional relationship” with her after being assigned to work on her case, the panel heard. Continue reading...

Helen Haines will work to secure numbers in parliament after Scott Morrison told her the government will not allow debate on her bill

Family who were sent to Turkey despite lodging asylum claims take case to European courtFive years to the day after a family of Syrian refugees were bundled on to a plane and deported to Turkey despite having lodged asylum claims in Greece, they are taking their case to the European court of justice.In an unprecedented step, a Dutch firm of human rights lawyers announced on Wednesday that it had filed a lawsuit against Frontex, the EU border agency that operated the flight, and was seeking damages on behalf of the family. Continue reading...

Penelope Jackson, 66, admits manslaughter but denies murder, saying husband was abusiveA retired accountant who killed her “abusive” husband has told a jury she stabbed him to death after a row over a birthday meal.Penelope Jackson, 66, said she took a new kitchen knife upstairs to kill herself but instead attacked her husband, former army Lt Col David Jackson, 78, when he told her she was pathetic. Continue reading...

Brazilian president savaged for ‘macabre’ and ‘slovenly’ response to pandemic and ‘deliberate neglect’ of Indigenous peopleJair Bolsonaro should be charged with crimes against humanity and jailed for his “macabre” reaction to a Covid outbreak that has killed more than 600,000 Brazilians, including a disproportionate number of Indigenous citizens, a congressional inquiry has found.Two of the most dramatic accusations against the Brazilian president – murder and genocide of the country’s Indigenous populations – were removed from a previous draft of the report on Tuesday night after talks between opposition senators serving on the inquiry. Continue reading...

A volcano blasted ash two miles into the sky after erupting on Japan's southern island of Kyushu on Wednesday.

Plane’s owner said pilot had been involved in airspace infringements, Cardiff crown court hearsThe owner of a light plane that crashed into the sea, killing the professional footballer Emiliano Sala, had ordered the pilot not to fly the aircraft, a jury has been told.Fay Keely said she told the plane’s operator, David Henderson, that pilot David Ibbotson, who also died in the crash, should not fly the plane after she was notified of two airspace infringements he was involved in by the UK aviation regulator. Continue reading...

Villeneuve’s take on the sci-fi classic starring Timothée Chalamet, Oscar Isaac and Zendaya has been given room to breathe, creating a colossal spectacleIf there can ever be a moment of triumph for a director, when the anxiety of influence is vanquished – for a bit, anyway – then Denis Villeneuve might have achieved it. This eerily vast and awe-inspiring epic, a cathedral of interplanetary strangeness, is better than the attempt a generation ago by an acknowledged master.David Lynch’s Dune from 1984 was an interesting, rackety, flawed movie that attempted to cram the entirety of Frank Herbert’s classic sci-fi novel into its running time – the result was like Flash Gordon without the laughs. Villeneuve, with his co-writers Jon Spaihts and Eric Roth, has used less than half the book (with a second episode to come) and allowed it room to grow: to breathe and drift through unimaginably vast reaches of fictional galaxies, with images of architecturally enormous spacecraft moving into view, or delicately lowering themselves on to alien landscapes of parched and austere beauty, particularly the ravishingly pure desert landmass of “Dune”, the contested planet itself. Star Wars’ debt to Dune, and now Dune’s debt to Star Wars, has been extensively discussed (amusingly, Dune gives us moving holograms rather like the one in which Princess Leia first begged Obi-Wan Kenobi for help). But this blockpulverising film feels more like TE Lawrence’s imperious version of The Phantom Menace. This is how it ought to have been. Continue reading...

Animal charity says gangs shipping diseased dogs to UK mainlandNorthern Ireland has become a gateway for an “abhorrent” multimillion-pound illegal trade in puppies in Britain in what has been called the new drugs trade by animal welfare investigators.A BBC and Ulster Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals investigation found puppies were being bred in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and illegally moved across to Great Britain through Belfast port to cater for the rocketing demand for pets during the Covid lockdown. Continue reading...

Lawyers hail judgment as landmark case for English nationals injured or killed abroadA woman whose husband was killed in a car crash in Egypt during an excursion booked through the hotel they were staying in has won permission to sue the hotel in the English courts, in a judgment her lawyer says will have significant implications for other English nationals injured or killed abroad.Sir Ian Brownlie QC, a leading international lawyer, died aged 77 in 2010 in an accident in which his daughter from his first marriage, Rebecca, whose two young children were in the vehicle, was also killed. The driver was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Continue reading...

Analysis: 95-year-old monarch has been to Wales and Ascot in the last week and has key events coming upThe Queen’s 11th-hour cancellation for medical reasons of a long-planned visit to Northern Ireland comes at a busy period for the 95-year-old monarch, and is a decision that will not have been taken lightly.Much preparation goes into official visits. On this occasion the Queen was due to meet members of the community at Hillsborough and attend a service of reconciliation and hope at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Armagh, marking the centenary of partition and Northern Ireland’s foundation, alongside Boris Johnson. Continue reading...

Buckingham Palace says monarch has ‘reluctantly accepted medical advice to rest for next few days’The Queen has cancelled a planned two-day visit to Northern Ireland after advice from her doctors that she should “rest for the next few days”.Buckingham Palace said in a statement: “The Queen has reluctantly accepted medical advice to rest for the next few days. Continue reading...

Nothing to indicate account given by girl’s parents anything other than ‘accurate and truthful’, inspector says

Former coronavirus success story announces month of restrictions including night-time curfew

One of the brightest talents in UK dance music is getting used to bigger stages, thanks to her infectiously fun tracks that draw deeply from black cultural historyNights out are a culmination of so many stimuli: pre-party rituals, journeys through the club and echoes of nightlife that linger into the next day. For Manchester producer and DJ Anz – AKA Anna-Marie Odubote – they are an experience she brings into her work. “I always listen to garage before I go out,” she says in a Mancunian bar, eyeing the entertaining mix of people leaving offices late or getting on the lash early to mark the end of another week. “I want to hear a drum workout at peak time. When they’re about to kick us out the club, I want something big, hands-in-the-air, like: oh my God, where are we going after?”This narrative arc is the inspiration for her new EP All Hours. Bookended by a bright piano intro signifying the waking morning, and a dreamlike synth outro designed to sooth you into sleep as the sun comes up and strangers have passed out on your sofa, each track corresponds to a time of day so listeners can “choose their own adventure” through 24 hours. Continue reading...

Police asked to give urgent update on inquiries into reports of women being drugged via drinks or needlesThe home secretary has requested an urgent update from police on investigations into a spate of reports of women having their drink spiked or being drugged by injection on nights out, the Guardian understands.Priti Patel’s intervention comes after police in Nottingham arrested a 20-year-old man as part of an investigation into spiking, following reports of women being injected with needles in the past fortnight. Continue reading...

A fiscal conservative in the job and a new era of debt limitation could spell disaster for EU countries

Extreme heat can kill or cause long-term health problems – but for many unendurable temperatures are the new normalThe impact of extreme heat on the human body is not unlike what happens when a car overheats. Failure starts in one or two systems, and eventually it takes over the whole engine until the car stops.That’s according to Mike McGeehin, environmental health epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “When the body can no longer cool itself it immediately impacts the circulatory system. The heart, the kidneys, and the body become more and more heated and eventually our cognitive abilities begin to desert us – and that’s when people begin fainting, eventually going into a coma and dying.” Continue reading...

Normally referrals to the privileges committee are waved through on the voices but on Wednesday afternoon Peter Dutton bowled up a rude shock

From a pottery paw print to a treasured tattoo, contributors share their ideas for keeping their pets’ memories aliveMr Horatio Parmouk, our beloved cat, turned up at my house as a stray and never left. He was a large, black tom cat with the sweetest disposition and was named partly after Nelson, partly after a character in Downton Abbey. Everyone loved him; he had his own Facebook page, wore various outfits in return for a cat biscuit or six and even starred in an advert for a hat company. Before he passed, we sponsored a seat at the London Coliseum in his name, so opera-goers can now sit in his seat. He was a real feline character. Cathy Peake, nurse manager, Barnet Continue reading...

French player accused of ‘complicity’ in alleged plot to extort money from former teammate Mathieu ValbuenaA trial is under way of the French international footballer Karim Benzema who is accused of involvement in an alleged attempt to blackmail a former teammate with a sex tape.The Real Madrid striker is accused of “complicity” in the alleged targeting of Mathieu Valbuena, who plays for the Greek Super League club Olympiacos. Investigators claim Benzema encouraged midfielder Valbuena, 37, to pay the blackmailers. Continue reading...

Since leaving Turkey in July, Little Amal, a 3.5-metre (11ft 5in) tall puppet of a nine-year-old Syrian girl, and her entourage of about 25 people have navigated Covid border restrictions to walk across Europe to the UK. Amal, whose name means hope in Arabic, was created by Handspring, the company that made the equine puppets in War Horse. The puppet represents the millions of children forced to leave their homes in desperate situations. The global pandemic has made them more vulnerable than ever Continue reading...

Nicola Brookes was groomed by a senior officer she trusted and she is not alone – 2,000 police officers have been accused of sexual misconduct in four years. In the wake of Sarah Everard’s murder, what can be done?Nicola Brookes was at the lowest point of her life when she turned to the police for help. By the time she met Inspector Anthony Lumb, she had suffered years of online abuse – including death threats, letters sent to her house and relentless trolling.Her problems began in November 2011, when she sent an innocuous message of support to an X Factor contestant on Facebook. The contestant was being trolled online and Brookes wrote: “Keep your friends and your family close. They’ll move on to someone else soon.” Within hours, she had received hundreds of abusive messages. Brookes was stunned – she was called an “insane old crone”, a “demented witch”. A cloned Facebook account was created in her name, suggesting she was a paedophile and a drug dealer. Her address was even published online. Then the campaign spread to multiple Twitter and Facebook accounts, blogs, online radio and video channels. Continue reading...

Kidnappings of 16 Americans and a Canadian in Port-au-Prince come as hundreds of local residents face similar targeting, with at least 628 abductions so far this yearFirel Joseph was driving through Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, one evening this year when he noticed a white Toyota Land Cruiser with official license plates trailing close to his rear bumper. Assuming the other driver wanted to overtake him, the 44-year-old development worker gave way. Then things took a hellish turn.The car skidded to a halt in front of Joseph, while another vehicle appeared behind, boxing him in. Six men, wearing flak jackets and armed with rifles, piled out of the Land Cruiser, moving with military discipline. Continue reading...

Inquest examined why killer was granted gun permits despite his history of domestic violence

Alexandre Moratto’s feature about workers lured into modern-day slavery in Brazil takes an unexpected turnYou would expect a film about human trafficking and modern-day slavery to be devastating, and this Brazilian drama duly horrifies. But it doesn’t evolve in quite the direction you might anticipate which, strictly from a film point of view, makes it much more interesting than your standard social realism. With a Brechtian approach that compels the viewer to question both their own ethical assumptions and tacit complicity in a worldwide consumerist culture that exploits people all over the planet, 7 Prisoners is deeply uncomfortable but utterly compelling viewing.The film reteams director Alexandre Moratto, making his second feature-length work after Sócrates in 2018 with young actor Christian Malheiros, who starred as the title character. This time Malheiros plays Mateus, a young man from Brazil’s deep inland farm country, who has accepted a job offer in São Paulo doing hard menial work, for significant enough money that it will make a real difference to his mother and siblings’ quality of life back home. But when Mateus and three other young men from the region arrive at the squalid junkyard where they will spend their days salvaging copper and scrap metal it soon becomes clear they’ve all been duped. First their passports are confiscated, and then absurd amounts for travel and accommodation expenses are deducted from the pay they were promised. Continue reading...

Move comes as former deputy premier John Barilaro labels as ‘rumour’ a suggestion he will join the prestigious racing regulator’s board

In her 50-year career, Baca has been a singer, ethnomusicologist and Peru’s minister of culture. As she releases her 16th album, she reveals why her work is as vital as it has ever beenSusana Baca has lived multiple lives in her 77 years. She is one of Peru’s most celebrated singers, and a champion of Afro-Peruvian music, amplified by a partnership with David Byrne’s Luaka Bop record label. She is trained as an ethnomusicologist and manages a cultural centre in Peru, and she was only the second Afro-Peruvian minister in the history of independent Peruvian government, serving as minister of culture in 2011.“It was not an easy path to achieve all that I have,” Baca says, speaking over video call. She is draped in a black shawl, speaking via an interpreter, from her home in Cañete. “My parents used to play music all the time when I was a child – my earliest memories are of my father singing and my mother dancing – but when I decided that I wanted to be a singer, my mother was horrified. We were very poor and all the musicians she had heard of had died from tuberculosis. It was an extreme life.” Continue reading...

Coffs Harbour cops a hammering as shopping centre ceiling collapses; Australia records its largest ever hailstone

Morrison government to announce more funding for global climate finance as Bridget McKenzie says Coalition adopting net zero without the Nationals ‘will be ugly’; Christian Porter will not be referred to privileges committee; Victoria records 1,841 local cases overnight, NSW 283 – 19 people have died with Covid across both states; Australia hits 70% vaccination target. Follow updates live

Gascón, who frequently clashed with Rodrigo Duterte over his ‘war on drugs’, has been hailed as a ‘true hero’ of democracyJosé Luis Martín C Gascón used a walking stick to carry out his duties as the Philippines’ “courageous” human rights lawyer, a result of living with with diabetes and the wound it left on his right foot.But in the words of his brother, Miguel Gascón, who confirmed his death on Facebook earlier this month, “of all the battles you fought, we had to lose you to Covid-19”. Continue reading...

From an early age, she encouraged me to be strong, physically and mentally. Those gifts helped me through the day we buried herMy mum was a PE teacher and coach. One of her early gifts was to help me feel like a physically capable female. For the couple of years before she died, my body had taken a battering, with illness and major surgery, then pregnancy and the aftermath, so I wasn’t feeling at all hale. Carrying a coffin is not something a woman necessarily plans to do – usually men perform this task; assumed to be stronger bearers. It’s a frightening, demanding duty.

Four hundred items of clothing and accessories which belonged to García Márquez and his wife, Mercedes Barcha, go on sale this Wednesday to raise funds for a charity helping children of indigenous communities in Mexico Continue reading...

Exclusive: Ipsa plans to reduce publication of claims for travel and venue hire after killing of David AmessThe UK’s parliamentary spending watchdog has begun redacting parts of MPs’ expenses to protect their safety since the killing of Sir David Amess.After the veteran MP was stabbed to death at a constituency surgery on Friday, some colleagues raised concerns with the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) over the amount of information released about their claims for travel and venues hired for surgeries under transparency requirements. Continue reading...

Damning report highlights greater risk of EU worker exploitation and vulnerability of undocumented migrantsA damning new report on trafficking in the UK has warned that Brexit and the Home Office’s new plan for immigration are increasing the risks to trafficking victims.The report has also found links between terrorism and trafficking in cases involving families from the UK ending up with Islamic State in Syria and an increase in the recruitment of trafficking victims via social media. Continue reading...

The comic has come blazing out of lockdown fearless and on full throttle, buying a motorbike for her 50th birthday and turning the menopause – along with an incident in a park – into comedy gold‘I must tell you how old I’m going to be when I die,” says Bridget Christie, whipping out her phone to show me a small cartoon gravestone bearing the date of her demise. Fittingly, we’re sitting in a churchyard near her home in London, not far from some actual gravestones. According to the app, Christie, who recently turned 50, has 34 years left. As one of the many people who lost loved ones to Covid-19, death has been on her mind during the pandemic, and her thoughts on ageing have been exacerbated by the arrival of the menopause. In lockdown, preoccupied by the passage of time, she decided to look at the moon every night: “I thought about how many moons I’ve got left to see. I was like, ‘We’re not here for very long – what are you going to leave behind?’”Her thoughts coalesced into her BBC Radio 4 series Mortal, which tackled birth, life, death and the afterlife. Working with BBC Radio Theatre, where she’d previously recorded standup, she decided to try something different. Whispered monologues, surreal characters (Zeus, the Grim Reaper and dead Bridget among them) and real telephone conversations are stitched together into something quite intimate. Although she got their permission, she didn’t tell her dad, sister Eileen and friend Ashley exactly when she’d be recording their phone calls, lending a naturalness to the chats. Continue reading...

MPs propose raft of tough new measures aimed at getting more people to stop smoking

Workers, including teachers and supermarket staff, will need jab by end of year as premier Mark McGowan dashes hopes state will reopen for Christmas