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Church asks for forgiveness as it accepts findings of ‘appalling’ abuse by clergy and lay members over 70 yearsThe French Catholic church has expressed “shame” and pleaded for forgiveness, after a devastating report found that at least 330,000 children were victims of sexual abuse by clergy and lay members of church institutions over the past 70 years.The publication of the landmark report on Thursday, France’s first major reckoning with what the Catholic church accepted was “appalling” abuse, has shaken the country with its horrific findings of a “massive phenomenon” of sexual abusers of children operating for decades within the church and its associated institutions. Continue reading...

Taiwan needs to be on alert for China's 'over-the-top' military activities which are violating regional peace, Premier Su Tseng-chang has said after incursions by Chinese warplanes into Taiwan's air defence zone. China has sent nearly 150 planes into the zone in the first four days of October, in what mainland figures and media have labelled a demonstration of strength but which world governments have condemned as an act of intimidation

Ferdinand Marcos Jr tipped for alliance with Sara Duterte, outgoing president’s daughter, in 2022 electionThe son of the Philippines’ former dictator Ferdinand Marcos has announced he will run for president in the 2022 election.Ferdinand Marcos Jr, known as Bongbong, who has defended President Rodrigo Duterte’s controversial drug war and supported the death penalty for traffickers, declared his candidacy in a video broadcast on Facebook. Continue reading...

Almost 20 years ago, a police shooting left David Makara without an arm and facing jail. Inspired by the blind lawyer who saved him, he now defends others facing injusticeWhen the police started shooting at David Makara in his home town of Nyahururu, in Kenya, he ran before quickly collapsing. Two bullets had hit him – one in his right arm, one in his hip – but he only realised when he looked down and saw his hand dangling from his wrist and blood pouring out.“I thought I was going to die,” he says. Continue reading...

Victorian teacher Belinda Cetnar and her husband Jack argue they could lose their livelihoods if they don’t get vaccinated

The Boss’s trusty sideman has many plans – from saving central America to TV Hogmanay at the Playboy Mansion – and he’s more than happy to share his rock wisdomIt is the middle of the 1980s, and Stevie Van Zandt, having departed the E Street Band and left Bruce Springsteen’s side, is pursuing a solo career. He has also parlayed decades of experience playing in bar bands into a new and unusual role: international activist and campaigner against injustice. And so he finds himself, in company with Jackson Browne, in Nicaragua, against which the US is waging a proxy war.He arranges a meeting with Rosario Murillo, the wife of Nicaragua’s president, Daniel Ortega, as he notes in his memoir, Unrequited Infatuations. “After a few drinks, I moved off the small talk and suddenly asked her if she loved her husband. She was taken a bit aback but said, Yes, señor, very much. ‘Well,’ I said, ‘you should spend as much time with him as possible, because he’s a dead man walking. It’s just a matter of time and time is running out’ … She was a very smart woman married to a revolutionary. But she was expecting a pleasant conversation about the arts, and the reality of what I was saying hit her hard.” Continue reading...

Josh Frydenberg in isolation after staff member tests positive; Victoria reports national record of 1,763 cases; Latrobe Valley will emerge from lockdown from midnight; NSW records lowest cases since mid-August; Dominic Perrottet sworn in and will ‘continue the plan’ for reopening that Gladys Berejiklian started; ACT records 33 cases; no new cases in SA; Qld records two local cases. This blog is now closed

Lava is destroying much of La Palma but the last eruption in the Canaries appears to have ‘fertilised’ the surrounding seasThe eruption of the volcano on La Palma in the Canary Islands is a vivid reminder of the destructive power of nature but, as it lays waste all before it on land, for marine life it is likely to be a blessing.When the lava reached the sea near the La Palma marine reserve on Tuesday night, every marine organism that was unable to swim out of danger was instantly killed. However, unlike on land, which lava renders lifeless for decades (and with forest not returning for more than a century), marine life returns quickly and in better shape, research shows. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Les Van Hagen, whose daughter Suzanne was killed by her partner, calls for inquiry into culture of policingThe father of a woman who died after being choked by her abusive partner has accused police of paying “lip service” to the protection of women and girls and called for a public inquiry into the culture of UK policing.West Midlands police apologised last month for a number of failings in the case of Suzanne Van Hagen, 34, who suffered months of domestic abuse before she died in February 2013. Continue reading...

The photographer toured the four tournaments shooting thrilled fans instead of sweaty stars. He talks about why street photography is becoming impossible – and life after his cancer diagnosis

The Navotas mudflats are among the last of their kind and act as a crucial feeding ground for migratory birds, but they are being buried in plasticThere are stray, abandoned flip flops, old foil food wrappers, crumpled plastic bags, and discarded water bottles. The Navotas mudflats and mangroves in Manila Bay are buried in a thick layer of rubbish.It is “almost choking the mangrove roots,” Diuvs de Jesus, a marine biologist in the Philippines who photographed the area on a recent visit, said. Continue reading...

PM’s comments fuel suggestions former NSW premier could run for a federal seat after Icac hearings

Experts have raised alarm the bill is a tool to crush dissent, with media watchdog saying it carries ‘the seeds of the worst totalitarian leanings’Singapore’s parliament has passed a law aimed at preventing foreign interference in domestic politics, which the opposition and activists have criticised as a tool to crush dissent.The law, approved after a marathon session that stretched to near midnight on Monday, would allow authorities to compel internet service providers and social media platforms to provide user information, block content and remove applications used to spread content they deem hostile. Continue reading...

Tuesday: Dominic Perrottet is expected to be elected leader of the NSW Liberal party to replace Gladys Berejiklian as premier. Plus: Luna the dog’s 16-month journey homeGood morning. The New South Wales Liberal party is set to get a new leader today after the shock resignation of Gladys Berejiklian on Friday. The climate crisis is taking the Australian military away from security issues to deal with severe weather events. And we’ll have plenty more from the Pandora Papers throughout the day.Dominic Perrottet is expected to be elected leader of the NSW Liberal party today. Labor should not underestimate the new leader, who comes with a powerful alliance who can unite the Liberal factions. But can the new alliance sell themselves to the public? Perrottet has been working hard on building a profile in recent months but despite serving in the NSW government ministry since 2014, for many voters, Perrottet is a largely unknown quantity. Here’s what we know about the conservative MP set to take NSW’s top job. Continue reading...

Brexit minister says he expects Brussels response to UK demand to renegotiate protocol within 10 daysThe UK will react in a “robust” manner if the EU launches a retaliatory trade war in the event of Brexit talks on Northern Ireland breaking down, the government has warned.The Brexit minister, David Frost, said he expected the EU to issue its formal response to the UK’s demand for renegotiation of the Northern Ireland protocol within the next 10 days, as he outlined fresh detail on the timeline for talks. Continue reading...

The Guardian/Birdlife Australia bird of the year poll is in full swing and the once-crowded field of 50 is rapidly narrowing with each day of voting. Which warbler will reign supreme?We hear from journalists, comedians and a former prime minister about the bird they’re supporting. They also discuss their wildest feathered encounters and the race to save some native species from extinctionYou can also read: Continue reading...

David Taylor, who was a police officer for 30 years, offers an insight into the handling of ‘minor’ crimes, while Ann Kelly and Caroline Ley reflect on the language used by ministers and the mediaHaving been a police officer for 30 years, serving as a detective inspector and in the police complaints arena, I can say officers and staff nationwide will have been horrified by the murder of Sarah Everard (Sarah Everard’s killer might have been identified as threat sooner, police admit, 30 September). The approach of all police forces, not just the Met, as to how they deal with “minor crime” is now under scrutiny. Such crime is only considered “minor” by the police and not by the victim, otherwise they wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of reporting it.While every day many officers and staff successfully conduct criminal investigations and go the extra mile for victims, this is not the case for all; you only have to report a crime considered by the police to be “low level” to realise this. Each crime is assessed based on its seriousness and its solvability, often by desk-based staff under pressure to file the case without further investigation. This “don’t look too close” approach means any evidence that potentially exists is not pursued or is ignored. In my experience, too many police officers and staff lack investigative professional curiosity, compounded by the fact that there is often a complete lack of challenge from first-line supervisors towards staff they consider as their mates, or where such scrutiny could attract accusations of bullying. Continue reading...

International Air Transport Association chief calls for simpler travel rules and fewer border restrictions to help sector recoverThe International Air Transport Association (Iata) has said the airline industry is now over the worst of the Covid pandemic, but urged governments to simplify travel rules and open borders to help the aviation sector operate within a now “endemic” phase of the virus.Total industry losses are expected to fall to $11.6bn (£8.5bn) in 2022, according to Iata forecasts, which would mean a cumulative loss of just over $200bn in three years as a result of Covid. Continue reading...

High court decision could cost Home Office millions in back-paymentsA Home Office decision not to give thousands of asylum seekers money to make calls to friends and family during the pandemic has been ruled unlawful by the high court.The government could now be forced to backdate the weekly payments for an estimated 10,000 asylum seekers, potentially costing millions of pounds. Continue reading...

The filmed Broadway show has crash-landed early on the streamer with hilariously awful songs, a musical mess to rival CatsLogically, it makes perfect sense that Diana: The Musical should exist. After all, Diana, Princess of Wales lends herself extraordinarily well to musical theatre. Hers was a story of wealth and betrayal, of high camp and tragedy, plus she also happened to be an enormous fan of the medium. If you built a time machine and used it to tell Diana that she would one day get her own Evita, she would be absolutely thrilled.However, Diana died a quarter of a century ago and will never get to see Diana: The Musical. Some people get all the luck. Continue reading...

Former Catalan separatist leader says he’s ‘very happy’ after walking free from Sardinian courtCatalonia’s former separatist leader Carles Puigdemont has walked out of a Sardinian courthouse after a judge delayed a decision on Spain’s extradition request and said he was free to travel.Puigdemont walked out with his lawyer, shook hands and embraced supporters, saying he was “very happy”, as he got in a van and was whisked away. Continue reading...

This part fiction, part documentary film captures the spontaneity of young friends Leonel and AntuànDirected by Pablo Briones, Sean Clark, and Jace Freeman, here is a film that blurs the lines between fiction and documentary as it accentuates bittersweet childhood connections, full of teases, mischief and innocent tenderness. Following Leonel and Antuàn, a pair of friends who grew up in the small Cuban town of Pueblo Textil, this mesmerising promenade through abandoned landscapes doubles as a journey to the cusp of adulthood.With a script based on the real-life relationship and conversations between the two friends, Baracoa has an authentic spontaneity of children’s interactions so rarely captured in fiction films that rely on precocious child actors. The camera quietly observes the pair’s wanderings through ruined and deserted compounds whose austerity is transformed by the boys’ imagination. At one point, Leonel and Antuàn pretend to drive as they sit atop a broken down, rusted car frame. The moment is poetic, yet also full of melancholy. Soon, they will not find such childish daydreams so entertaining. Continue reading...

A cyclone that made landfall in Oman on Sunday has killed at least 13 people, and others are missing as the storm moved further inland and weakened. Omani state television broadcast images of flooded roadways and valleys as the storm churned deeper into the sultanate, its outer edges reaching the neighbouring United Arab Emirates

Fact-finding mission says migrants and detainees particularly exposed to violations since civil warWar crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, torture, enslavement, extrajudicial killings and rape have been committed in Libya since 2016, a United Nations investigation has found.The independent fact-finding mission on Libya, commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council, said migrants and detainees were particularly exposed to violations that have occurred since the country was plunged into a state of instability and civil war. Continue reading...

Military colleagues and prime minister pay tribute to former commandant general Matthew HolmesBoris Johnson led tributes from across the military to the former head of the Royal Marines who was found dead on Saturday at the age of 54.

PC David Carrick is accused of attacking woman in St Albans last year after they met on dating appA Metropolitan police officer who is accused of raping a woman he met on the dating app Tinder has been remanded in custody.PC David Carrick, 46, who serves in the parliamentary and diplomatic protection command, was arrested at the weekend after being accused of attacking the woman after they met for drinks in St Albans last year, a court heard. Continue reading...

In his speech to the annual Conservative party conference, the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, said when he backed Brexit five years ago, he was told his political career would be over before it had begun. He went on to outline why, despite the challenges, he believes Britain's departure from the EU will be positive for the UK

Cyclone causes landslide in Oman and dust storm in Iran, as warning issued to residents in UAEA cyclone that made landfall in Oman on Sunday has killed 12 people, and others are missing as the storm moved farther inland and weakened.Authorities in Oman said they found the body of a man who disappeared when flood waters swept him away from his vehicle. Continue reading...

The Cumbre Vieja volcano on the Canary island of La Palma threw lava and rocks into the air as the eruption continued to gather momentum. Local media reported that the north side of the crater had collapsed late on Sunday, causing a faster flow of lava. Cadena Ser radio said the collapse had formed a new lava flow that was threatening several nearby towns

Igor Memic’s award-winning drama Old Bridge, staged at the Bush theatre in London, charts teenage romance at a time ‘when the world stopped spinning’The bridge in the middle of Mostar is the spiritual and social heart of the city. It’s where people meet and gossip, snatch a first kiss or dive into the waters of the river below. The Bosnian city takes its name from the arched Ottoman-era bridge and it became a terrible symbol for the shattering of Yugoslavia when it was destroyed by Croat paramilitaries in 1993, though it has since been rebuilt.“It’s the soul of the town,” says Igor Memic, whose play Old Bridge, which won the Papatango prize for new writing last year, is now in rehearsals at the Bush theatre in London. Memic is from Mostar himself. His family came to the UK in 1992, “just 10 days before things popped off”. He doesn’t think of himself as a Bosnian playwright. Immigrant identity is more complex than that and his mother “left it up to me to discover who I was and who we were”. Continue reading...

Joe, 32, and Beth, 31, met in 2014 after a message she was sending to one of her friends went astray. They now live together in Wiltshire with their puppy, HansWhen Joe was at university in 2010, his housemate went through a phase of logging into his Facebook page to play practical jokes. “He used to add random people as friends on my account. I think he thought it was funny because it made me look lonely,” he says. One day his housemate sent a friendship request to Beth, who accepted. “I saw that Joe was from Devizes in Wiltshire, which is near me, so I assumed I knew him from a night out,” she says.They never spoke, and Beth soon forgot all about it. Joe had no idea she was on his friend list until April 2014, when she contacted him by accident. “I was arranging to meet my friend Jo and sent it to the wrong person,” says Beth. “Joe got in touch to tell me I’d made a mistake.” They struck up a conversation, and tried to work out how they knew each other. “Neither of us had any idea how we’d met. We didn’t work out what happened until years later,” laughs Joe.Want to share your story? Tell us a little about yourself, your partner and how you got together by filling in the form here. Continue reading...

Junta pursue charges against ousted Myanmar leader as warnings grow of worsening conditions for displaced peopleAung San Suu Kyi has requested her court sessions be held every two weeks rather than every week on health grounds, according to her lawyer, as hearings for a series of legal charges filed against her by Myanmar’s junta continue.The 76-year-old, who faces charges ranging from corruption to the illegal possession of walkie-talkies, requested the change, saying “she had to spend all weekdays at court so her health conditions seemed strained”, her lawyer Khin Maung Zaw said in a statement. The judge said he would make a decision next week. Continue reading...

CDC data shows 29% decrease in cases over two weeks in September but experts say virus remains a significant threatThe United States has seen a dramatic drop in the number of Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations in recent weeks, a trend that epidemiologists see as an encouraging sign that the Delta wave of the virus has peaked nationally.The seven-day average of daily new cases in America dropped from about 151,000 on 14 September to about 106,000 on 29 September, a 29% decrease, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Continue reading...

Feeling down? You need to experience more awe, psychologists say. So I set off every day to explore my local area, leaving my phone behindI am in the middle of a cloud, halfway up a steep pike, and on a mission to get some awe. I am here thanks to a new study, which found that by paying close attention to our surroundings as we walk, we can get our happy chemicals pumping and enhance overall wellbeing. That sounded pretty good, so I find myself in the middle of nowhere on an oddly misty, humid day.Dacher Keltner, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, thinks I am in the right place. “It’s hard to think of a single thing that you can do for your mind and body that’s better than a little dose of awe,” he says. It was Keltner and a team of researchers who published a paper that found that awe can reduce stress, help inflammation, increase creativity and sociability and make you happy. “To me, that all says we urgently need to find awe.” Continue reading...

Fumio Kishida to announce dissolution of parliament as he takes advantage of honeymoon periodJapan’s new prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has decided to seek an early public mandate, amid reports that he is about to call an election for the end of the month, several weeks earlier than expected.Kishida, who was approved by parliament as the country’s leader on Monday, surprised many pundits who believed he would give his Liberal Democratic party (LDP) more time to regroup after a disappointing year under his predecessor, Yoshihide Suga. Continue reading...

Benjamin Glenn Hoffmann is accused of killing four people in a shooting spree in Darwin in 2019The ex-girlfriend of a man on trial for murdering four people during a shooting spree across Darwin has given evidence that the pair smoked dodgy drugs with one of his alleged victims before the killings.Benjamin Glenn Hoffmann has pleaded not guilty to four counts of murder over the alleged drug-fuelled rampage on the afternoon of 4 June 2019. Continue reading...

The RuPaul’s Drag Race judge puts together the soundtrack of her lifeAt my 10th birthday party, I got not one but three copies of Andy Gibb’s album Shadow Dancing. He was so hot! So sexy! But since I had three copies, I didn’t need to buy it. The first one that I used my own money to buy was Kenny Rogers’s The Gambler. It was No 1 on the radio, and I wanted that record. Continue reading...

As the Tzeltal people resist huge infrastructure projects across Chiapas state, the new national guard barracks springing up are alarming manyMicaela* always stops to kiss a cross at the base of three hills, a lush swath of land in the indigenous ejido of San Sebastián Bachajón, Chiapas. Her ejido, meaning communal land, is shared among more than 5,000 Tzeltal inhabitants. But soon, they will also have to share it with Mexico’s national guard.The national guard has built 165 barracks in Mexico since it was created only two years ago by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to replace the federal police, which he said was corrupt. Micaela’s community is leading the first lawsuit against one of 500 or so barracks planned across the country. Continue reading...

Force published about 2,100 seized knife images in a year, which experts say could be counterproductiveYoung people may be nudged into carrying knives by the police, research has found, as a new count showed the Metropolitan police circulated more than 2,100 images of seized knives on Twitter in a year.In the same period, three leading violent-crime prevention charities – Hope Collective, the Ben Kinsella Trust and Dwaynamics – circulated two images of knives between them, according to research by the Green party in the London assembly. Continue reading...

Fresh from a run in Joseph, and about to go on tour, the actor and singer reflects on superstardom, drug addiction and the steadying joy of fatherhoodDespite insisting that he likes to look to the future, Jason Donovan is confronted with the past much of the time. He has just started a UK tour – one that has been postponed twice because of the pandemic – singing the songs that turned him into a huge star in the UK in the late 80s and early 90s, after his role in the Australian soap opera Neighbours (which people also always want to talk about).“My catalogue of recent music is probably thin, so I tend to rely on my heritage a bit more,” he says. “This is a sort of moment of reflection.” But does he feel he is always being dragged back? Does it fill him with wistfulness? Does he think about time passing? “I do when I can’t sleep,” he says with a laugh. But the answer is no: “It’s just great to be able to sing those songs, still have a voice, still have an audience. I’m grateful. Those songs are going to live beyond me.” Continue reading...

All countries will now be on the red list or no list, with the fully vaccinated no longer required to test before returning homeAn overhaul of England’s Covid-19 rules governing international travel will come into force from Monday 4 October, replacing the traffic-light system.A single red list of countries will remain, with the previous green and amber countries becoming the “rest of the world” or “non-red list”. There will also be changes to the testing requirements when returning from a non-red-list country, if fully vaccinated. Continue reading...

Want to know what’s within the 5, 10, 15 or 25km travel limit around you? Use our interactive map and calculator to see where you can and can’t go under NSW and Victoria lockdown restrictions.

Prime minister says the use of vaccines means country now has ‘more options’ on how to control virus

After Beijing sends nearly 100 planes towards the island in three days, Washington says it is ‘very concerned’ by pressure on TaipeiThe United States has condemned China for “provocative” and “destabilising” military activity after Beijing sent nearly 100 fighter jets and bombers into Taiwan’s air defence zone over three consecutive days.“The United States is very concerned by the People’s Republic of China’s provocative military activity near Taiwan, which is destabilising, risks miscalculations, and undermines regional peace and stability,” US state department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement. Continue reading...

A private plane crashed into an empty building on the outskirts of Milan, northern Italy, killing all eight people on board. The aeroplane, which had taken off from Milan's Linate city airport, was heading for the island of Sardinia, officials added. The crash occurred just outside a suburban metro station. Several vehicles parked along the street caught fire but no other casualties were reported.

PC David Carrick to appear in court on Monday over incident in Hertfordshire in September 2020A Metropolitan police officer serving in the parliamentary and diplomatic protection command has been charged with rape.PC David Carrick, 46, of Stevenage, allegedly attacked a woman in St Albans on the night of 4 September 2020 while off-duty. Continue reading...

Monday: Financial secrets of the rich and powerful exposed in biggest ever leak of offshore data. Plus: is the pursuit of Inbox Zero an unwinnable war?Good morning. The biggest ever leak of offshore data has exposed the financial secrets of the world’s rich and powerful. A new report shows that people in insecure, lower-paid positions have been hardest hit by the pandemic. And Donald Trump has asked a court to force Twitter to restore his account.The secret deals and hidden assets of some of the world’s richest and most powerful people have been revealed in the biggest trove of leaked offshore data in history. Branded the Pandora papers, the cache includes 11.9m files from companies hired by wealthy clients to create offshore structures and trusts in tax havens such as Panama, Dubai, Monaco, Switzerland and the Cayman Islands. More than 600 journalists have sifted through the files as part of a massive global investigation. Continue reading...

Paige Kimberley claims she wrote to Priti Patel and Cressida Dick about messages, but they did not respondA retired Metropolitan police detective has accused both Priti Patel and Cressida Dick of ignoring evidence of “vulgar and sexist” WhatsApp group messages involving police contractors and police officers.Former Det Supt Paige Kimberley said she wrote to the home secretary and the head of the Met shortly after the murder of Sarah Everard asking for a review of “how inappropriate behaviour is addressed amongst contract workers”. Continue reading...

Islamic State suspected of carrying out bombing outside mosque in Afghan capitalAt least five civilians have been killed in a bomb blast at the entrance to a Kabul mosque on Sunday, a Taliban official said, the deadliest attack in the Afghan capital since US forces left at the end of August.There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suspicion fell on Islamic State extremists, who have stepped up attacks on the Taliban in recent weeks, particularly in the IS stronghold in eastern Afghanistan. Continue reading...