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

A default by the property giant could have far-reaching consequences for China and the global economyThe rescue of embattled Chinese property company Evergrande appears to have stalled, leaving the developer on the brink of default and threatening to unleash contagion through the country’s giant real estate sector, home prices and the economy.The problems enveloping Evergrande, which has eyewatering total debts of $305bn, have hung over global financial markets in recent weeks and helped curb China’s post-pandemic recovery. Continue reading...

Key figures in Saudi Arabia and UAE accused of crimes against humanity include investors in BritainA group of human rights lawyers will on Wednesday file a legal complaint in the UK accusing key figures in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates of being involved in war crimes relating to the war in Yemen.They plan to submit a dossier to British police and prosecutors alleging that about 20 members of the political and military elite of the two Gulf nations are guilty of crimes against humanity, and call for their immediate arrest should they enter the UK. Continue reading...

A small number of people become severely unwell with Covid even if they are fully vaccinated, but the data suggests they mostly suffer from other conditions as wellOn Tuesday, there were 356 Covid-19 patients being treated in intensive care wards throughout Australia. Of those, 25 were fully vaccinated.While the data points to the extraordinary efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines in preventing people from becoming severely unwell, being hospitalised and dying, it does raise the question: why do a small number of people become seriously ill and, in rare cases, die, despite being fully vaccinated? Continue reading...

Hunt for person who asked to check on pet at home comes as Covid minister says daily case numbers could reach the ‘high hundreds’New Zealand officials are searching for a Covid-positive escapee, who allegedly absconded from quarantine after being allowed home to check in on a pet.The person had requested to return home to retrieve personal items, care for a pet and lock their house in south-east Auckland, said Rose King, joint head of managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ). “A security escort was set up to allow this to occur. They were given 10 minutes to do what they needed to. At the 10 minutes mark the security detail went to retrieve them and found the individual had disappeared from the address.” Continue reading...

UK reports further 223 deaths but UK government says no to plan B for now; US study shows success in preventing hospitalisation of 12- to 18-year-olds

Exclusive: Ali Harbi Ali received extensive support under government programme before case was closedThe suspect in the killing of the MP David Amess received extensive support under the government’s Channel counter-terrorism programme before his case was closed, the Guardian has learned.Ali Harbi Ali was first referred to Prevent, the early intervention scheme designed to turn people away from the risk of supporting violence, as a teenager in 2014. Continue reading...

Low Covid vaccination rates among Māori reflect practical barriers – but they also have good reason to distrust the governmentOne of my earliest memories is racing up a flight of hollow stairs in Kawerau’s town hall as Tiwi, my first friend, counts down from 20. “Ready or not, here I come” he roars from the stage. I slide through the doorway to the makeup room, carving a two-lane highway into the dusty floors. The lighted mirrors paint the room in yellow and gold. I wriggle my tiny body into one of the cubby holes for bags and belongings. The doorknob turns. The door creeps open. “Found me”, I yell at Tiwi. After a three-second delay he yells back “but where”, still searching behind the velvet curtains on stage.Dad’s boxing gym is hidden below that stage. The heavy bags, the leather pads, the medicine balls, and the sparring gloves wash the stage in the smell of rubber and sweat. Tiwi and I tutu (fidget) with the flood lighting most weeks, waiting for the boxers to finish their cardio session on stage and head for sparring and pad work downstairs. Dad screams at that perfect decibel level where the soundwaves crash against your ear but the background violence scrambles the electrical signal to your brain. Is he saying “right, left, right” or “left, right, left”? For most of Kawerau in the 1990s the town hall was a boxing gym with cosmetic facilities. For Tiwi and I, it was our playground. Continue reading...

Ismail Abedi had been ordered to attend hearing, as childhood friend arrested trying to leave countryThe older brother of the Manchester Arena suicide bomber has left the UK and there is no indication of whether he will return in time to give evidence this week to the public inquiry into the atrocity, it has emerged.The bomber’s childhood friend Ahmed Taghdi tried to leave the country on Monday as well but was arrested, the public inquiry was told on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Court hears David Henderson responded to news of crash by saying it ‘opens up a can of worms’A plane operator who organised the flight in which the footballer Emiliano Sala was killed knew the pilot was not qualified to fly at night and was not competent in bad weather, a jury has been told.The court heard that when David Henderson was told the plane piloted by David Ibbotson had crashed into the sea he messaged a friend: “Ibbo has crashed the Malibu and killed himself and VIP pax [passenger]! Bloody disaster. There will be an enquiry.” Continue reading...

‘If something doesn’t change, we are going to see single mums sleeping under bridges’, one lawyer says

Monarch ‘politely but firmly’ turns down title because she ‘does not believe she meets relevant criteria’The Queen has received many accolades over her 95 years, but one she is refusing to accept is the Oldie of the Year award, believing she does not meet the criteria and explaining that “you are as old as you feel”.She “politely but firmly” declined the award, which is given annually to celebrate the achievements of members of the older generations who have made a special contribution to public life, although she sent organisers her “warmest best wishes”. Continue reading...

Video appears to show piled-up furniture, dirty toilets and animal excrement as Covid pass becomes law

Canadian singer ‘heartbroken’ after being unable to rehearse for new concert residency in Las VegasCéline Dion has postponed the start of her latest Las Vegas concert residency after suffering what a statement describes as “severe and persistent muscle spasms”.The Canadian singer was due to begin the new concert series, an update of her ongoing residency entitled Céline, at the Resorts World Las Vegas venue next month, but she has been unable to rehearse due to the illness. The dates, from 5-20 November and 19 January to 5 February, are intended to be rescheduled. Continue reading...

Police investigating possible ‘crimes against republic’ as senate prepares to vote on transferring Miloš Zeman powersThe Czech Republic is facing a full-blown political crisis after the prime minister, Andrej Babiš, demanded the resignation of the chief aide to the country’s gravely ill president and police said they were investigating possible “criminal offences against the republic”.On Tuesday the senate’s constitutional committee voted unanimously in favour of suspending the powers of the president, Miloš Zeman. Continue reading...

Group threaten to kill themselves unless Spanish PM helps victims, but end protest after a few hoursSurvivors of a mass canola oil poisoning four decades ago occupied the Prado museum in Madrid for a few hours and threatened to kill themselves if the government did not respond to their demands.The Cadena SER news outlet published a photo showing five protesters, including one in a wheelchair, in front of the Diego Velázquez painting Las Meninas. Continue reading...

Dennis Hutchings was three days into hearing in Belfast for 1974 killing when he died from Covid on MondayThe lawyer of a terminally ill 80-year-old army veteran who died of Covid-19 three days into a trial over a fatal shooting during the Troubles in Northern Ireland has said the proceedings contributed to his death.Philip Barden, who acted for Dennis Hutchings, said he would be “alive today” had he not been compelled to go to Northern Ireland to stand trial over the killing of a 27-year-old man with learning difficulties in 1974. Continue reading...

Father says Alta ‘was our whole world’ after two-year-old girl taken off life supportA two-year-old girl whose parents fought a legal battle over her medical treatment has died after being taken off life support.Alta Fixsler, who suffered a serious brain injury at birth, died at a Manchester hospice with her parents at her bedside. Continue reading...

The New Yorker writer’s book Major Labels examines why we tag music with a genre, be it for commerce or community. He explains why people still argue over great songs – and why they can thrive on cultural appropriationWhen Nik Cohn wrote Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom: The Golden Age of Rock in 1969, he only had 15 years of the rock’n’roll era to process. Five decades later, telling the story so far is such a daunting prospect that, while writing Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres, New Yorker staff writer Kelefa Sanneh’s trick was denial.“I figured if I thought too much about the span of it, I would go insane,” he says cheerfully. “The idea of sitting down to write the history of music is horrifying. It feels more fun if I’m telling seven overlapping stories.” Continue reading...

Los Angeles judge approves request of the rapper, producer and fashion designer to legally change his nameThe singer Kanye West will from now on formally be known simply by the name Ye.A Los Angeles judge late on Monday approved the request of the rapper, producer and fashion designer to legally change his name from Kanye Omari West to just Ye, with no middle or last name. Continue reading...

President Guillermo Lasso’s declaration gives authorities the power to restrict the freedom of movement and associationEcuador’s president has decreed a state of emergency to confront drug trafficking and other crimes in Ecuador, saying the military and police will take to the streets to provide security.In a national broadcast on Monday, President Guillermo Lasso said that “there is only one enemy: drug trafficking.” Continue reading...

Mateusz Morawiecki says European court’s ‘creeping revolution’ undermines Polish sovereigntyPoland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, has clashed with the European Commission president and MEPs after accusing EU institutions of seeking to turn the country into a province, in an escalation of the battle between Warsaw and Brussels over the rule of law.During a heated debate in the European parliament in Strasbourg, where parallels between the Polish situation and Brexit were raised repeatedly by MEPs, Morawiecki claimed the European court of justice (ECJ) was responsible for a “creeping revolution” undermining Poland’s sovereignty. Continue reading...

The K-drama is the hottest show in the world – so why do its English speakers sound like they’re reading off Google Translate? We meet the men accused of dire, stilted acting to see how they’ve found being catapulted to fameSquid Game is a sensation. A violent Korean drama that mixes childhood nostalgia with vast amounts of death, the series has surpassed all expectations to become the most successful show in Netflix history. It has made global stars of its main cast overnight. That is, with a few notable exceptions.‘Why is Squid Game’s English-Language Acting So Bad?’ demanded one recent headline, echoing the sentiment of hundreds of tweets and memes. The culprits are the “VIPs” – four English-speaking, mask-wearing billionaires who watch the action from afar, placing bets on the outcome of the carnage. To the naysayers, the VIP acting in Squid Game is stilted and mannered, and pulls them out of the show. But who are the people behind the masks? Continue reading...

Independent inquiry into child sexual abuse criticised ‘culture of disbelief’ at Leicestershire policeLeicestershire police was guilty of a “serious and inexcusable failure” to properly investigate allegations of child sexual abuse against the late Labour peer, Lord Greville Janner, according to a damning report.The investigation, by the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA), into the handling of allegations against Janner found that a failure by police to submit statements by two anonymised witnesses in 2002 to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) may have been the result of “complacency, incompetence or undue deference to a prominent public figure”. It criticises a “culture of disbelief” at Leicestershire police at the time. Continue reading...

Senators want to know which big companies received wage subsidy but commissioner Chris Jordan insists tax information should be confidential

A gigantic sunfish found tangled in tuna fishing nets in the Mediterranean could weigh up to 200kg, according to experts. The fish was measured at 3.2 metres long and 2.9 metres wide, a record find for Ceuta, a Spanish autonomous city on the north coast of Africa. When the sunfish was weighed it almost broke a 100kg scale. Enrique Ostalé, a marine biologist, said he had heard of sunfish this size only in books Continue reading...

Residents injured as house destroyed and neighbours warned they may not be able to return home for 10 daysTwo adults and two children remain in hospital after an explosion ripped through homes on a South Ayrshire council estate, destroying one terraced house and severely damaging others.A local councillor confirmed that gas caused the blast in the Kincaidston area shortly after 7pm on Monday evening. The explosion was heard for miles around. Chris Cullen, a South Ayrshire councillor, said that if gas from the affected properties could be capped, other residents may not be able to return to their homes for up to 10 days. Continue reading...

Airport allowed to increase cost added to tickets but CAA halts plan to nearly double itHeathrow will be allowed to raise significantly its landing charges from next summer, the aviation regulator has announced, although it has ruled out the near-doubling of charges proposed by the airport.Airlines reacted with dismay at the Civil Aviation Authority’s proposals, which could allow the UK’s biggest airport to increase charges by up to 56% by 2023 as it seeks to recoup losses from the pandemic. Continue reading...

The Guardian's environment editor, Damian Carrington, examines exactly how the climate crisis is fuelling devastating floods – and what we can do to help protect ourselves and our planet

Letter from 137 lawmakers urges fund to drop stakes in firms accused of human rights violations or linked to Chinese stateA cross-party group of more than 137 parliamentarians, including 117 MPs, have called on parliament’s pension fund to disinvest from Chinese companies accused of complicity in gross human rights violations or institutions linked to the Chinese state.The signatories include Lisa Nandy, the shadow foreign secretary, and the former Conservative cabinet ministers Liam Fox, Iain Duncan Smith and Norman Tebbit. Others include the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesperson, Layla Moran, and the shadow foreign affairs minister, Stephen Kinnock. The Conservative MP David Amess was also a signatory, one of his last political acts before his death on Friday. Continue reading...

Liberal senator threatens to withhold vote unless border closure contested in court ‘as a matter or urgency’

In a complex, eye-opening new documentary, El Paso high schoolers hold complicated reasons for wanting to become part of a divisive institutionThe US border with Mexico is a region unto itself, with its own culture, rules and politics. If that wasn’t clear before the 2020 presidential election, then it became so when Donald Trump, riding on a wave of Latino support, became the first Republican to win Texas’s border-hugging Zapata county in 100 years, despite getting trounced 58% to 41% among all of Texas’s Latinos. All of a sudden, Democrats were scrambling to understand how a man known for his virulent anti-immigrant, anti-Latino rhetoric and actions could appeal so strongly to this group.This is a dynamic that film-maker Maisie Crow dives into in her fascinating and delicate documentary At the Ready, which follows the lives of high school students in El Paso as they train to become border patrol agents. We get to know Cesar, Cristina and Mason (identified by a different name throughout the movie, but who comes out as a trans man in a coda following the credits). They are all Latinos, holding complicated, often contradictory reasons for wanting to train for a career in law enforcement. Continue reading...

Fog, storm clouds and snow are among the natural phenomena to feature in 8,900 photographs submitted for the Royal Meteorological Society’s annual awards by more than 3,300 photographers from 114 countries. Here is a selection of some of the best Continue reading...

The WHO and Unicef campaign will restart after three years, and the hardliners say they will assist and allow frontline female staffAfghanistan will restart nationwide polio vaccinations after more than three years, as the new Taliban government agreed to assist the campaign and to allow women to participate as frontline workers, the UN said on Monday.The World Health Organization and Unicef said the vaccination drive would begin on 8 November with Taliban support. Continue reading...

Housing campaigners welcome changes, saying they will boost businesses, lower emissions and enable better transport linksNew Zealand’s cities could be reshaped for decades to come, after the government joined forces with the opposition to announce sweeping bipartisan housing legislation that aims to counter urban sprawl and boost supply by up to 105,000 new homes in the next eight years.In a rare display of cross-party collaboration, the housing minister Megan Woods and environment minister David Parker took the podium with the National Party’s leader Judith Collins and its housing spokesperson Nicola Willis on Tuesday, to introduce a bill that will cut urban-planning red-tape and enable up to three houses, three storeys tall, to be built on most sites without requiring consent in the country’s major cities. Continue reading...