Armed with only a solar charger, a vibrator and some marijuana gummy bears, I rode out the pandemic – and my fear of spiders – in a California commune

NSW reports 813 cases and 10 deaths while Victoria records 1,488 infections, ACT 52 and Queensland two. This blog is now closed

With negotiations souring an already uneasy relationship to England, the Irish novelist surveys the mood of his nation, and considers the prospect of unificationIn late 2010, I sat in a discreet space in the lounge of a Dublin hotel with two British diplomats who were planning the first state visit of Queen Elizabeth to Ireland the following May and were consulting widely. The questions were the basic ones: What should she say? What should she not say? Where should she go? Where should she not go?When I said she should visit a stud farm and get to see some horses, the diplomats were uneasy. Would that not seem too posh? I explained that following horses in Ireland was part of ordinary life. And also, if she didn’t see some horses, people would think that she was not enjoying herself, and, oddly enough, despite 700 years of strife, most people in Ireland would want the Queen to enjoy her visit. Continue reading...

Strong’s role as the self-destructive media heir takes commitment – and the actor goes all in• Plus: inside the Succession writers’ roomEarlier this year, Jeremy Strong left his apartment in Brooklyn, walked across the bridge to Manhattan and headed towards the far west side of the island, where he was filming the third season of the feverishly adored and heavily accoladed HBO series Succession. Strong plays Kendall, the alternately bullied and rebellious son of the vilified, Murdoch-esque media tycoon Logan Roy, played by Brian Cox, and Succession follows the jostling among the patriarch’s four children for his affection and respect, both of which he generally withholds. None of them is as visibly crushed by this as Kendall, who bears more than a slight resemblance to James Murdoch, even down to the dabblings in hip-hop. With every timid step Strong makes on screen, every apologetic dip of his chin when he starts to talk, he captures the pain of a son who knows he has failed to live up to his father’s expectations from the first time he cried. He won an Emmy last year for the role, beating, among others, Cox, in neatly Freudian style.Strong likes to walk while learning his lines, so on that day in New York as he was walking he was also talking, reciting a speech he would soon be saying to Cox, in which Kendall tries to curry favour with his father, but also to be seen as his own man. “Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a ghost-grey Tesla rolling to a stop, so I looked in it, and there was James Murdoch,” Strong says when we meet in a London hotel. “He looked at me and I looked at him, and there was a flicker between us. Then he was gone. So we had a moment.” Continue reading...

Crimes such as indecent exposure can lead to more serious offences. Are the police and justice systems taking them seriously enough?

Cinema’s classiest actor on being wooed by Wes Anderson for The French Dispatch, playing Bond’s CIA buddy Felix and why he’s fighting for thinkers in an age of vulgarityWith his soulful gravitas, rich vocal tones and understated cool, Jeffrey Wright is one of those actors who brings dramatic heft to anything in which he appears. Which, these days, is an awful lot. He broke through on the New York stage, winning a Tony award for 1994’s Angels in America, then on screen with his portrayal of Jean-Michel Basquiat in Julian Schnabel’s 1996 biopic, and he has not stopped since. As well as voicing Marvel’s animated series What If…? he will be seen in the coming months as James Bond’s CIA buddy Felix Leiter in No Time to Die; in a new series of Westworld, and as James Gordon to Robert Pattinson’s Batman. Meanwhile, Wright has joined the Wes Anderson Extended Universe with The French Dispatch, a characteristically intricate hymn to New Yorker-style journalism. As we speak, Wright is in Spain working on Anderson’s next movie. “I feel I’m part of the travelling troupe now,” he says over Zoom, at the end of a day’s shootingSo how did you join Anderson’s troupe? I’m imagining an embossed invitation slipped under your hotel room door …

After a famously damning verdict on the Brexit process, the supreme court queen and her spider pin became an unlikely viral sensation. Who better to model this season’s brooches?The woman who used to be president of the highest court in the land is surveying a table bedecked in brooches, mostly with an insect theme. Cooperative and engaged, she looks for all the world like a person who is enjoying herself, nothing on her face but the cool clarity for which she is known; not a trace of impatience at the frippery. You would think a photographic studio in London was as natural a habitat as a courtroom.Lady Hale has made history a number of times, of course – the first woman to be appointed to the supreme court, the youngest and first female commissioner to be appointed to the Law Commission. She has always been popular in legal circles as a reformer, known as the “Beyoncé of the legal world” owing to her pioneering reputation among students and young lawyers. It must strike her as rum that her breakthrough viral moment came as a result of the spider brooch she sported at a critical point on the road to Brexit. It doesn’t take much to raise other judges’ eyebrows with accessories, and colleagues have long remarked on her marvellous collection, which hovers on the edge of Halloween. Continue reading...

Rights, royalty, relationships: can two strangers find common ground over dinner?

A toxic culture of misogyny among some officers disrupts investigations and erodes women’s faith in forcesPolice sexism is an institutional problem that simply has not gone away.It has hampered investigations from the Yorkshire Ripper to John Worboys – and, despite repeated attempts at reform, a toxic culture among some male officers has persisted for decades, affecting colleagues as well as victims. Continue reading...

Treasurer Dominic Perrottet says he is considering running to take over from Gladys Berejiklian as premier

Lottie, 26, influencer marketing manager, meets Amber, 30, corporate events managerLottie on AmberWhat were you hoping for?

A left-behind Baltic Sea state took revenge on Angela Merkel’s CDU, which had done too little for too long to help the regionLess than four years ago, Erik von Malottki’s main objective was to keep the party he loved as far away from political power as possible. Inspired by young activist grassroots movements in the US and the UK, the trade unionist was one of a band of young Social Democratic Party (SPD) members who in January 2018 urged delegates to vote against joining another coalition with Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats.Yet this week, the now 35-year-old and a band of similarly aged delegates propelled the German centre-left to an unlikely election victory. While the British Labour party remains entrenched in factionalism, the SPD has constructively channelled the energy of its youthful rebels, edging ahead in Sunday’s vote through a seismic shift in the country’s north-east. Continue reading...

Analysis: The prime minister needs to shake a sense of national paralysis and reassure his party before a daunting winterWhen preparations began for this year’s Conservative party conference, what most struck Boris Johnson and his senior aides was research suggesting voters feel the country is paralysed – that valuable time has been lost to the pandemic and that everything else is at a standstill.Above all, Johnson’s aim for the conference will be to try to shake that sense of inertia. He will characterise himself as the delivery prime minister, even if his own MPs complain there has been precious little delivery so far. Continue reading...

Letter, sent to Naval Group on 15 September, is at the heart of diplomatic rift between France and Australia

The man started swallowing metal objects, some measuring 10cm long, when he gave up alcohol, hospital official saysDoctors in Lithuania have removed more than a kilogram of nails and screws from the stomach of a man who started swallowing metallic objects after quitting alcohol.The man, who was not identified for reasons of patient confidentiality, was admitted to hospital in the Baltic port city of Klaipeda with severe abdominal pain. Continue reading...

Judith Collins criticises America as ‘foolish’ for walking away from free trade agreementsNew Zealand’s opposition leader has hit out at the US and UK over China, saying their failure to adopt free trade agreements was “foolish” and increased Chinese dominance in the Indo-Pacific.“If any criticism comes to New Zealand, as it often does about this close relationship with China and trade, my answer to everybody – whether they’re the US or UK – is: ‘So where’s our free trade agreement?’,” Judith Collins, leader of the centre-right National party, said in an interview with the Guardian on Friday. Continue reading...

Businessman Spavor reunites with family after his release last week from detention along with former diplomatCanadian citizen Michael Spavor has expressed joy at being reunited with his family after being released from jail in China last week.“I’m overjoyed to be finally reunited with my family. It’s humbling as I begin to understand the continued support that we’ve received from Canadians and those around the world, thank you,” Spavor said on Friday in a first statement since his release. Continue reading...

Ozy faced questions about its viewership figures and claims that its co-founder impersonated a YouTube executive on a call with Goldman SachsOzy, a digital media startup, is shutting down less than a week after a New York Times column raised questions about the organization’s claims of millions of viewers and readers, while also pointing out a potential case of securities fraud.The story triggered canceled shows, an internal investigation, investor concern and high-level departures at the company. Continue reading...

Drone footage captures the devastation wrought by the Cumbre Vieja volcano, which has been ejecting ash, smoke and lava over the Canary island of La Palma for more than 10 days.Since erupting on 19 September, the volcano has destroyed more than 800 buildings, as well as banana plantations, roads and other infrastructure.About 6,000 people have been evacuated and are yet to return to their houses, a local government spokesperson said.

Threat of Christmas being ruined by driver shortages forces ministers to expand range and duration of visasBoris Johnson’s government has made a dramatic U-turn in an attempt to save Christmas – with a raft of extended emergency visas to help abate labour shortages that have led to empty shelves and petrol station queues.New immigration measures will allow 300 fuel drivers to arrive immediately and stay until the end of March, while 100 army drivers will take to the roads from Monday, the government announced late on Friday. Continue reading...

As Auckland grapples with Delta outbreak, opposition leaders dare to break with Jacinda Ardern on pandemic plan“Things have changed,” Judith Collins declares, sitting in her Beehive government office. New Zealand’s National party leader is fresh off launching her alternative pandemic response plan, marking the first time the main opposition has significantly diverged from prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s largely popular elimination strategy.The arrival of the Delta variant in New Zealand two months ago, causing an outbreak that the government is struggling to stamp out, has shown that elimination is “clearly not working,” Collins says. Continue reading...

Irmgard Furchner, 96, was arrested after failing to turn up at court and absconding from retirement homeA 96-year-old woman who was arrested on Thursday after failing to turn up for the start of her trial in Germany on charges of aiding and abetting the murder of thousands of concentration camp prisoners had warned the judge in advance that she would not show up.Irmgard Furchner was discovered about 38 miles from the courtroom after escaping her retirement home in a taxi, which dropped her off at an underground station in the early hours of the morning. She had written to the judge that to “avoid embarrassment” and due to her “advanced age and physical impediments” she would not be attending the trial. Continue reading...

Philip Allott accused of victim-blaming for advising women to be better informed about legalities of being arrestedA police commissioner is facing calls to resign for saying that women “need to be streetwise” about powers of arrest in the wake of the Sarah Everard murder.Philip Allott, who oversees North Yorkshire police and the region’s fire service, was accused of victim-blaming after saying women should “just learn a bit about that legal process” in case they are falsely arrested. Continue reading...

Nygard faces sex trafficking and racketeering charges in US, as well as sexual assault and forcible confinement charges in CanadaThe Canadian fashion designer Peter Nygard has consented to extradition to the US, where he faces sex trafficking and racketeering charges, lawyers for the prosecution and defence said at a hearing on Friday.Separately, Toronto police service issued a statement saying it had an arrest warrant for Nygard on six charges of sexual assault and three charges of forcible confinement between 1987 and 2006. Continue reading...

Readers react to the murder of Sarah Everard and the threat of male violence that women faceWhile I welcome calls for the police to be more active in addressing violence against women, it will have little impact on most women’s lives (Sarah Everard murder: Wayne Couzens given whole-life sentence, 30 September). The tragic murder of Sarah Everard is at one end of a very wide spectrum of men’s behaviour towards women.At the other end is my son’s GCSE English syllabus, where in two years, not one book by a female author was studied. How will boys learn that girls are their equals when, in an A-level history course, the only woman mentioned was Elizabeth I? When will pupils be taught how women have been held back – socially, morally, legally? Everything children learn in school tells them men have achieved and women haven’t – but not why. The truth is that men are only superior in physical strength and that ultimately it is the possibility, however slight, of it being used that facilitates gender inequality.

Exclusive: under-fire force places two police officers on restricted duties, while other forces suspend officersTwo Metropolitan police officers allegedly involved in a chat group that included Wayne Couzens that swapped alleged misogynistic and racist messages have been left on duty after being placed under criminal investigation, the Guardian has learned.The two Met officers are said to have been part of a WhatsApp group involving constables from three forces that is under investigation after Couzens’s phone was seized following his arrest for the murder of Sarah Everard in March. Continue reading...

Allegations are among most serious of those filed against ousted leader by Myanmar’s military juntaAung San Suu Kyi has appeared in a closed court to face allegations of corruption, one of the most serious of a number of legal charges filed against the ousted leader by the military junta.In a hearing at the Naypyidaw Council compound, Aung San Suu Kyi was accused of breaching the anti-corruption law in four cases. This includes accepting packets of US bank notes and gold bars in bribes from Yangon’s former chief minister, Phyo Min Thein; renting government land at a discount; and using funds of the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation, a charity founded by Aung San Suu Kyi in the name of her mother, to build a home. Continue reading...

Seven senior officials responsible for ‘delivering lifesaving aid’ told to leave amid de facto blockade of food, medicine and fuelThe Ethiopian government has told seven senior UN officials to leave the country, accusing them of “meddling in internal affairs”.A statement from the foreign ministry said the officials – who include staff from the UN humanitarian agency, the UN human rights office and the children’s agency, Unicef – must leave Ethiopia within 72 hours. Continue reading...

Women interviewed on Poynders Road in Clapham say the case has shattered their trust in the police“It could have been anyone. We would all have done the same thing and got into the car, especially during Covid restrictions,” says Jenny, 33, holding her five-month-old daughter in her arms.On Poynders Road, in Clapham, south London, where Sarah Everard was last seen alive before police officer Wayne Couzens used his Met ID to falsely arrest and kidnap the 33-year-old before murdering her, this sentiment is repeated among female residents. Continue reading...

Lord Frost told triggering article 16 would add to legal uncertainty for traders and damage economyBusiness leaders have warned Lord Frost that triggering article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol would be a “lose-lose” move.As Frost prepares to reiterate his threat to suspend the protocol using article 16 in two appearances at next week’s Conservative party conference, businesses in Northern Ireland have said such a step would add to the legal uncertainty for traders and damage the economy. Continue reading...

Chemical engineer turned alternative bacon producer Benjamina Bollag on the trouble with animal farming, and how lab rashers are madeThere are many complicated words for my diet – flexitarian, reducetarian, carnesparsian (from carne meaning meat, and eating it sparsely, because there is nothing like using Latin to give heritage to something made up online). I’m not alone: a third of Britons have reduced eating meat because of concerns about industrial farming. Soon to launch into this space is “lab-grown meat”, promising to take the slaughter and environmental exploitation out of your steak. But how does it work? And can it deliver? I spoke to Benjamina Bollag, founder of lab-grown bacon producer Higher Steaks.Hi Benjamina! So you’re bringing home the bacon …

Warsaw defies critics to extend state of emergency as it seeks to portray migrants as dangerousConcerns over Poland’s treatment of migrants stranded on its border with Belarus are mounting after Warsaw this week ignored domestic and international criticism to extend a state of emergency and sought to portray them as dangerous deviants.The European commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, met the Polish interior minister, Mariusz Kamiński, in Warsaw on Thursday night but won no concessions on the bloc’s request for monitors from the EU’s Frontex border force to be allowed into the zone, despite growing fears for the migrants’ safety after the deaths of at least five people. Continue reading...

Veronica Ryan creates UK’s first permanent artwork dedicated to people affected by the scandalThe first permanent artwork to honour the Windrush generation in the UK has been unveiled in the east London borough of Hackney, as councils across the country kick off the first day of Black History Month.The work, created by the artist Veronica Ryan, is one of two permanent sculptures that symbolise the council’s respect and commitment to the Windrush generation and their legacy and contribution to the area. The second, by Thomas J Price, will be unveiled next spring. Continue reading...

From a wedding ring washed away in the surf to tickets for Leonard Cohen’s first London gig, these are the possessions that refused to give up on their ownersMany years ago, as a twentysomething in Dublin, I had to leave a flat I had been living in quickly, and inadvertently left behind a shelf full of books. When I went back a week later, the landlord had thrown them out. Twenty years on, I returned to Dublin with my daughter and found three of the books in a secondhand shop, with the date and my signature on them.

Will Renwick set to complete three-week, 500-mile journey across Wales – after nearly giving up on day twoHe has survived injury, isolation and an awful lot of drenching, bone-chilling rain, and now Will Renwick is on the point of completing an extraordinary run across Wales, taking in 189 mountain peaks.Unsupported, carrying his tent and everything else on his back, the 31-year-old will have run north to south, covering more than 500 miles, and in the process raised thousands of pounds for the charity Mind Over Mountains, which promotes the benefits of spending time in the great outdoors. Continue reading...

Push will be performed in Boortmeerbeek, where Simon Gronowski fled to safety, nine days before his 90th birthdayThe 90th birthday of Simon Gronowski, who at the age of 11 escaped a train destined for Auschwitz thanks to three Belgian resistance fighters, is being honoured with the staging of an opera inspired by his story near the rail tracks where he fled the Nazis eight decades ago.Sitting alongside Gronowski during Sunday’s performance in Boortmeerbeek, a village north-east of Brussels, will be the sculptor Koenraad Tinel, whose elder brother was the Flemish SS guard who ordered him and his mother, Chana, on to the train on 19 April 1943. Chana did not escape from the transport and was killed in the gas chambers on arrival at the death camp. Continue reading...

After scoring a No 1 in lockdown, the post-punk band’s singer Joe Talbot reflects on writing about car crashes, substance abuse and Rishi Sunak on their new albumTowards the end of Idles’ upcoming fourth album, Crawler, lead singer Joe Talbot comes to a euphoric realisation. “In spite of it all,” the 37-year-old howls, “life is beautiful.”It’s an apt conclusion for a band who have endured personal tragedy and childhood trauma, and in just four years cemented their status as the face of British post-punk. Their debut album, Brutalism, burst forth with Talbot raging about rape culture (“Sexual violence doesn’t start and end with rape / It starts in our books and behind our school gates,” he shouts on fan favourite Mother), NHS funding and white privilege. Its follow-up Joy As an Act of Resistance swiped at toxic masculinity via similarly seething anthems and catapulted its creators to No 5 in the UK album chart. Last year’s Ultra Mono, a more diversified flurry of synths, pianos and hummed vocals, did even better, finding its way to No 1. Continue reading...

Dress in ‘monoclo’, says artist Pascal Anson, and you’ll rethink your relationship with clothes for ever. Jess Cartner-Morley gives it a go

The manager of the Ontario store noticed the carroty crustacean was being ‘picked on’ and took it to the Toronto aquariumAn extremely rare orange lobster was rescued from certain death – and the humiliation of spending its final days in a grocery store tank – after the manager noticed it was being “picked on” by the other lobsters.“Obviously it stood out. It’s not every day you see a lobster that looks like it’s pre-cooked walking around,” said Niki Lundquist, whose husband manages the grocery store in Ontario’s Durham region. Continue reading...

Virginia Raggi hasn’t solved waste issues while far-right candidate advocates restoring fascist saluteElio Perugini can’t remember the last time he had a decent night’s sleep. “It’s a disaster, the noise just doesn’t stop,” he said. “I hardly sleep any more. The worst of it is on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.”Sleepless nights have become the norm for many in Trastevere, a neighbourhood in central Rome once treasured for its charm and old-world feel, but now known for its rowdy nightlife, petty crime, piles of rubbish and graffiti-scarred walls. Continue reading...

Victoria’s premier Daniel Andrews has announced a further easing of restrictions as the state reaches its 80% first-dose vaccination target. Here’s what you need to know about schools, travel, childcare and work

Demonstrators who took part in rally that hastened end of Brazil’s dictatorship hope for similar show of force this weekendNearly 40 years have passed since downtown Rio was overrun with what one awestruck reporter declared “the greatest and most fantastical popular demonstration of all time”.It was 10 April 1984, the twilight of Brazil’s two-decade dictatorship, and more than a million dissenters from across the political spectrum had hit the streets with a deafening and unified call for change. Continue reading...

Victoria’s case numbers are delayed:No clue if this is a good sign or not. Here’s hoping. Continue reading...

Pair aged 44 and 53 bring total number of arrests to nine in relation to the shooting in Derry in 2019Detectives investigating the murder of the journalist Lyra McKee in Derry have arrested two more men.The men, aged 44 and 53, were detained on Friday morning under the Terrorism Act and taken to the serious crime suite at Musgrave police station in Belfast for interview. Continue reading...

Marriage with non-royal Kei Komuro to take place against backdrop of scandal, tabloid intrusion and public disapprovalWhen they announced their unofficial engagement four years ago, they were cast as a perfect match: the young princess and the clean-cut trainee lawyer, for whom she was prepared to sacrifice her imperial status.Now the sound of wedding bells is within earshot, after the Imperial Household Agency announced on Friday that Princess Mako, the niece of Japan’s emperor, would marry her non-royal fiance, Kei Komuro, on 26 October. Continue reading...

NHS app needed to enter nightclubs, large events and for overseas travel, but users complain it does not work

Prime minister announces plans to allow vaccinated passengers into Australia with a pre-flight Covid test and one week of home quarantine

World’s second biggest economy is grappling with power cuts that have affected industrial outputChina’s central government officials have ordered the top state-owned energy companies to secure fuel supplies for winter at all costs as the country battles a power crisis that threatens to hit growth in the world’s second biggest economy.The vice-premier, Han Zheng, has told energy companies to make sure there is enough fuel to keep the country running and made it clear that Beijing would not tolerate blackouts, according to a report by Bloomberg. Continue reading...

People with the condition can face being seen as ‘cursed’ in the east African country, says Martin Senkubuge, whose art aims to make them proud of their skinIt was a confrontation with a female Michael Jackson fan that first drew Martin Senkubuge’s attention to the skin condition vitiligo.Senkubuge, a Ugandan artist, was describing his tattoo of the musician to the woman at an art exhibition in Kampala in 2019, when he accused the pop star of bleaching his skin. Continue reading...

Women in refuges have been sent home to their abusers or to prison since the Taliban takeover. Those in the few shelters still open fear what lies aheadZari was seven years old when her parents died, forcing her to move in with her uncle. But when he died four years later, his two widows beat Zari and forced her to work long hours weaving carpets. During her teenage years, Zari tried to kill herself.After her suicide attempt, Zari, now 28, moved into a shelter for abused women. For the past eight years she has held on to the belief that things would get better. She made friends and learned to sew clothes, eventually teaching others to do the same. Continue reading...