My creativity can be traced back to my heritage, to the skin colour that defined how I was perceived. But, like my ancestors, I wouldn’t accept defeat

The Nobel laureate has produced plays, poems, essays and even inspired a pop duo but he hasn’t written a novel for nearly half a century - until nowAt 87, Wole Soyinka is a Nigerian icon. His plays have been performed around the world, his poems anthologised, his novels studied in schools and universities, while his nonfiction writing has been the scourge of many a Nigerian dictator. He was imprisoned for 22 months during the Nigerian civil war in the late 1960s for attempting to broker peace; his activism led him again into exile two decades later during the era of General Sani Abacha, military ruler of Nigeria, when the environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa was hanged.In 1986, he was awarded the Nobel prize in literature and became the first African laureate, but his status in Nigerian letters was secured long before then. For a generation of young Nigerian writers, his work has been transformative. It has inspired artists, too – in Lagos, many display their skill by painting famous faces, his among them. There was even a musical duo called Soyinka’s Afro. Continue reading...

The world’s most famous teen activist opens up about how she’s been transformed since she started her school climate strike in 2018 Continue reading...

When Covid stalled his film work, the writer took revenge on the virus in the form of a poem about Britain, Brexit and the pandemic – exclusively extracted hereWhere do you start with the pandemic? It may have been one of the most universally shared moments in history but that collective experience was instantly refracted into billions of entirely unique memories. How also do you address the weird paradox that for many the pandemic was an uncomfortable blend of positive and negative? “Me being at home was great for the children, but we’ve had to close our business.” “It was nice to spend more time with the family, but we lost my uncle.” It’s a mesh of contradictions; the cheerful banging of pans mingling with the distant screech of an ambulance siren. The pre-pandemic era feels both a long time ago and yesterday. As we emerged from lockdown, everything was both totally different and kind of the same.And how do I respond to the pandemic as a writer and a director? Like many working in film and television, I had mixed fortunes. My film, The Personal History of David Copperfield, never made cinemas around the world, but it got shown on streaming platforms. As a writer, I’m used to working at home anyway, and, though work slowed, it never went away. I’m currently starting up a shoot we shut down eight months previously and I feel both blessed and guilty to have been one of the lucky ones. Strangely, although I thought about it often, my response to the pandemic won’t be a film or TV show. Unexpectedly, it’s emerged spontaneously as a poem. Continue reading...

In our new column, we air both sides of a domestic disagreement – and ask you to deliver a verdict

Historians, film-makers and forensic scientists try to answer question once and for all as centenary nearsIt is the shot that a century later still echoes around Ireland as an unanswered question: who killed Michael Collins?On this much, everyone agrees: a bullet to the head killed the revolutionary leader on 22 August 1922 near Béal na Bláth, a village in County Cork, during Ireland’s civil war. Who did it, and why, remains a source of controversy and speculation that now bubbles as strong as ever. Continue reading...

A four-hour stroll on the fells followed by a pint, a bite and a place to rest your head – with a waterfall out the backStart Green Dragon pub Hardraw

Thanks to an online search error, an architect transformed a tumbledown building into a three-bedroom houseMelanie Schubert and partner Paolo Vimercati didn’t set out to buy a derelict double garage when they were looking for a new home. In one online search, Schubert forgot to include a minimum value – “and this was the cheapest property you could buy here”, she says. As architects, the couple realised that, with planning permission, this seven-metre-square plot with no garden in south-east London might just be a route to the best possible home for their budget. Continue reading...

Queensland health minister Yvette D’Ath says many went interstate ‘knowing what the rules are’

The cases of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, arrested in 2018, have prompted accusations of ‘hostage diplomacy’On a drizzly December day in 2018, Huawei’s chief financial officer landed in Vancouver international airport after a 12-hour flight from Hong Kong.Meng Wanzhou, whose father founded the telecoms giant Huawei, planned to stay just a few hours in the coastal Canadian city before traveling on to Mexico. Continue reading...

Analysis: Experts say it is first time since start of pandemic that sustained decline is recorded out of lockdown

Veteran presenter, who quit after eight shows, says technical faults and other problems ‘would have killed him’ if he had carried onAndrew Neil has revealed that he came close to having a breakdown while at GB News and believes “it would’ve killed me to carry on” due to the technical problems at the channel.The veteran broadcaster, 72, resigned last week from his role as the rightwing network’s lead presenter and chairman after weeks of speculation about his future. Continue reading...

Issue of whether royal had been notified about the case had previously been contestedThe Duke of York has received court papers relating to a sexual assault lawsuit, US officials have confirmed.The complainant, Virginia Giuffre, is seeking damages after alleging Prince Andrew sexually assaulted her, a claim he vehemently denies. Continue reading...

Hampstead theatre, London

Recent history suggests Liberals and Nationals have little to fear from Craig Kelly and One Nation, but the dynamics of the next vote are unclearOne of the federal government’s Queensland MPs was enjoying some downtime at home recently, watching the reality show SAS Australia. They were interrupted by a sudden jolt – not an abseiling mishap or some other epic fail by a hapless contestant – but the sudden appearance during an ad break of their former colleague Craig Kelly.You may remember him as the Liberal backbencher with brimming feelings and wild theories on pretty much everything. Kelly parted ways with the government back in February. These days, he’s the federal leader of the United Australia party, fronting ads for Clive Palmer’s political operation. Continue reading...

A coalition appears inevitable after two surveys suggest almost equal support for CDU and former favouriteThe race to succeed Angela Merkel as German chancellor remains completely open two days before western Europe’s most populous country goes to the polls, with the latest predictions showing the leading parties almost neck and neck.Two leading polls published on Friday ahead of Sunday’s election indicate the Social Democrats (SPD) have lost their lead over the Christian Democrats (CDU). One, carried out by Civey for the broadcaster ZDF, showed the SPD to be stable on 25%, but the CDU to have risen to 23%. A poll released later in the day for the polling institute Allensbach for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung showed the race to be even tighter, with the SPD on 26%, the CDU on 25%. Continue reading...

Rally to demand government action on climate crisis is first worldwide since start of pandemicHundreds of thousands of people in 99 countries have taken part in a coordinated global climate strike demanding urgent action to tackle the ecological crisis.The strike on Friday, the first worldwide climate action since the coronavirus pandemic hit, is taking place weeks before the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow, UK. Continue reading...

Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Éric Zemmour slug it out in much-publicised two-hour debateTwo men; two completely different visions for France.In a debate that lasted more than two hours, the hard-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the hard-right Éric Zemmour, expected to be a presidential candidate, went head to head on prime-time television on Thursday evening. Continue reading...

Find out who is leading the polling to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor of GermanyGermans go to the polls this Sunday to elect a new Bundestag, or federal parliament. The result – after coalition negotiations likely to involve two or three parties – will decide who will succeed Angela Merkel, who is standing down after 16 years as chancellor.A two-way coalition between the conservative CDU and the German Greens had long looked the most likely outcome, but in recent weeks the SPD’s Olaf Scholz has performed well in televised debates and his party has taken a lead in the latest polls. Continue reading...

With her generous features and a dolorous countenance, the German chancellor has been an artist’s dreamSixteen years is a very long time in politics, and since 2005 we’ve had Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron (and Nick Clegg), Theresa May and Boris Johnson – while the Germans have just had Angela Merkel. It usually takes time to get the hang of drawing a politician, particularly one from a foreign country, and Merkel was no exception. I’d only just about got a handle on the SPD’s Gerhard Schröder when he was replaced by the CDU’s first female leader, and my first attempts were a little shaky and somewhat speculative. Was she a Thatcherite? Would she be pro-Bush, like Blair, or continue Schröder’s opposition to the war in Iraq? Would she be easy to draw? Continue reading...

Citizen Lab confirms human rights campaigner probably hacked by a government client of NSO Group from 2015 to 2020Even in death, there was little peace for Alaa Al-Siddiq.When the body of the 33-year-old Emirati activist, who died in a car accident in Oxford in June, was shown in a viewing to mourners at Regent’s Park Mosque, a number of her close friends stayed away. Continue reading...

New agreement between Nauru and Australia on offshore processing; NSW records 1,043 local cases and 11 deaths; more than half of over-16s now vaccinated; Victoria records 733 new local cases and one death; WA records one new case, ACT records 19 new cases, zero cases in Qld. Follow all the day’s news

A childhood encounter with a hyena inspired Hawa Jama Abdi’s first verse. Now she is part of an arts project designed to encourage women storytellers - and unite all SomalisWhen Hawa Jama Abdi was eight years old, she got lost in a forest and found herself in the path of a hyena. In her place, many would have run, some would have frozen – but Jama Abdi, the blind daughter of Somali pastoralists, kept her cool, and composed her first poem. The verse ran:I lived in fear of you, day and night

Fourteen also rescued in operation hampered by strong winds, low visibility and sub-zero temperaturesFive climbers have died after a blizzard on Mount Elbrus, Europe’s highest peak, Russia’s emergencies ministry has said.Thursday’s incident happened when a group of 19 climbers were at an altitude of over 5,000 metres (16,000ft). Continue reading...

After years of avoiding crime films, he’s back as a mafioso in the Sopranos prequel The Many Saints of Newark. He talks about being adopted and getting into acting – and saves a surprise for the end

Since 2015, the outgoing German chancellor has largely relied on a sole Hamburg designer for her wardrobeA four-storey house set a discreet distance away from Neuer Wall, Hamburg’s luxury designer strip, holds the secrets to Angela Merkel’s successful sartorial style.Except that fashion designer Bettina Schoenbach, who has her studio here on ABC Strasse, has taken something of a vow of silence over her association with Merkel, who became her client after winning the 2005 election. Continue reading...

After 16 years in power, Angela Merkel is to retire as chancellor after a general election on Sunday, leaving a gaping hole in German politics. Merkel announced in October 2018 that her fourth term in office would be the last. The decision marks the first time since 1949 that an incumbent chancellor has not run for re-election. Appointed chancellor for the first time on 22 November 2005, Merkel has been in office for almost as long as Helmut Kohl, Germany’s longest-serving leader, who was in power for just over 16 years

Mass youth protests to hit more than 1,400 locations weeks before Cop26 climate summitA global climate strike by youth protesters on Friday will hit more than 1,400 locations with a message that “change is coming – from the streets”.The strike is the first such worldwide action since the coronavirus pandemic hit, and is taking place just weeks before the vital Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow, UK. Continue reading...

SPD and the Greens have declined to publicly rule out pact with Die Linke but privately voice scepticismAs Germany heads to the polls this weekend, it is the scenario that haunts conservatives’ nightmares and has progressives daring to dream: that after 16 years of conservative-led rule, Europe’s most powerful economy could for the next four years have a full-throated leftwing government.The possibility of a power-sharing deal between the centre-left Social Democratic party (SPD), the Greens and the leftwing Die Linke – nicknamed “red-green-red” or R2G – has been highlighted aggressively in recent weeks by the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in an attempt to paint a vote for the current frontrunner for chancellor, the pragmatic finance minister, Olaf Scholz, as tantamount to a radical lurch to the left. Continue reading...

Frustration in Auckland has been rising and the cabinet would have been aware it risked losing the crowdOne of the many quotes attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte that he probably never said, was that he preferred his generals lucky, rather than able. When it’s a matter of life and death, “give me lucky generals,” he’s reputed to have pleaded.It’s a view that New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern echoed this week when she announced that Auckland – home to about a third of all New Zealanders – was moving out of the strict level 4 lockdown to level 3. Replace “generals” with “policy” and you get a pretty accurate sense of cabinet’s big call this week. In a country that has essentially tattooed “go hard, go early” on to one collective arm and “stay home, stay safe” on to the other, the decision to let about 300,000 people go back to their places of work when Auckland’s still getting 15-30 cases a day in the community is a turning point in the government’s approach to this pandemic. Both in public health terms and politically. A year ago, public opinion wouldn’t have worn such faith in “lucky generals”. But that was a year ago. Continue reading...

Project backed by Andrew Forrest and Mike Cannon-Brookes to supply electricity to Singapore given go-ahead for subsea cable

Sexual health experts urge women not to copy DIY procedure, saying ‘you wouldn’t take out your appendix’

Friday: Australian states and territories will receive fewer Pfizer vaccines in October as frustrated overseas nurses are blocked from NSW hospitals. Plus: Adelaide’s giant pandas begin their mating ritualGood morning. Australian states and territories will receive fewer Pfizer vaccines in October. Foreign nurses are being blocked from work in New South Wales because of bureaucratic hurdles. Josh Frydenberg will make the economic case for Australia adopting a net-zero climate commitment, warning the country has a lot to lose if others believe “we are not transitioning in line with the rest of the world”. And, at the Adelaide Zoo, sex-shy pandas will try it the “old fashioned way” in the hope of conceiving a cub.Leaked figures, seen by Guardian Australia, confirm concerns that the supply of Pfizer vaccines to states and territories will be reduced in October, the critical month that NSW and Victoria intend to reach the 70% vaccination target and push towards further reopening at 80%. The national cabinet told the states and territories their allocations of Pfizer will fall from 10.9m in September to 8.4m in October. Continue reading...

Detectives have also released images of a man they want to speak to and a vehicle they are searching forA 38-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of the murder of the primary school teacher Sabina Nessa, the Metropolitan police said.The 28-year-old is suspected to have been killed as she walked through Cator Park in south-east London, on what should have been a five-minute journey to a pub from her nearby home, at about 8.30pm last Friday. Her body was found in the park the following day. Continue reading...

The director’s death aged 65 is a huge blow for British cinema, whose very best qualities – of wit, intelligence and subtlety – Michell exemplifiedRoger Michell was the TV and movie director who had a midas touch with actors and with a particular type of English material: witty, literate, poignant and romantic. Michell was a master at directing anything on the continuum between Jane Austen and Richard Curtis, and knew what animated both.Related: Roger Michell – a career in pictures Continue reading...

Vigil and walk planned as south London community tries to come to terms with suspected murder of 28-year-old schoolteacherIt was quiet in Cator Park on Thursday morning. Every now and then, someone would pass by, jogging or walking their dog, breaking the stillness across the green space in south-east London flanked by the new-build apartment blocks of Kidbrooke Village. Its serenity jarred heavily with the sight of press and police, and the sound of a helicopter overhead.Several passersby approached the police cordon along Cambert Way, pausing to lay flowers, reflect and read tributes left in memory of Sabina Nessa. The 28-year-old primary school teacher is thought to have been murdered as she walked through the park on her way to meet a friend at the Depot bar last Friday – a journey that should have taken her five minutes. Continue reading...

Estimates for females broadly unchanged, with a girl born in 2018-20 likely to live for 82.9 years

Celebrating a birthday, within Covid guidelines, was enough to put three 18-year-olds in quarantine. Then one ended up in hospital unable to breathe or walk. Gabrielle Jackson, Guardian Australia associate editor of visual and audio, recommends this piece by Rafqa Touma about teenagers suffering from CovidYou can read the original article here: ‘I wasn’t certain I was going to leave hospital’: Sydney teenagers tell of terrifying Covid experience

The cheeky 00s revival speaks volumes about cultural re-appropriation and the emergence from lockdownThe idea of what’s “sexy” has been going through something of a metamorphosis in fashion of late. Since the pandemic shuttered any semblance of flesh-bearing and instead saw virtually everyone opt for chunky, tie-dye jogging bottoms, there has been an effort to bring sexy back. The widely predicted “vaxxed and waxed” Hot Girl Summer was delayed, but recently, we’ve seen a heap of celebrities baring more than usual, whether in bodysuits or in Love Island-inspired “pin tops”. Continue reading...

With clone emperors in haute couture and exotic wolf-lizards poised to attack, Foundation and For All Mankind herald a new era of ravishing spectaculars. Can they do for sci-fi what Game of Thrones did for fantasy?

Warnings issued that Kemi Badenoch’s messages could drive black supporters away from Tory partyThe equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch, has been criticised after leaked messages revealed she claimed not to “care about colonialism”, amid warnings that Conservatives could haemorrhage support from the black community.Badenoch, whose brief was recently expanded to include a junior ministerial position in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, reportedly wrote: “I don’t care about colonialism because [I] know what we were doing before colonialism got there. They came in and just made a different bunch of winners and losers. Continue reading...

Westminister’s bilateral aid axe falls heavily on education, gender and equalityDetails of the cuts of more than 40% in the UK bilateral aid spending programme have been set out by the Foreign Office for the first time, including huge cuts to humanitarian aid, girls’ equality and climate.It is the first time the government has outlined how the aid axe is intended to fall in 2021 as ministers cut the aid programme from 0.7% of UK gross national income to 0.5%, a decision now endorsed in a vote by MPs, but not peers, and likely to remain in force for many years. Continue reading...

Across a decade of rolling threats, from the eurozone to Brexit and Covid, Germany’s outgoing chancellor focused on holding the EU togetherIt was Monday 13 July 2015 and dawn had broken when Angela Merkel said it was all over: Greece would be leaving the eurozone. After 15 hours of all-nightcrisis talks, it looked like disaster. Merkel gathered her papers and was heading towards the door. If the summit had ended at that moment the history of the European Union, its fragile currency and Merkel’s legacy would be very different.But the drama took another turn. Donald Tusk blocked the exit. Throughout the night, the French president, François Hollande, had been cajoling the German chancellor to think again. Now Tusk, European Council president, refused to let her leave, persuading her to reconvene with him and Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras, warning of the stakes for the EU. “In five years in the discussions between Hollande and Merkel it was a unique occasion in which Hollande really won the battle with Merkel,” Pierre Sellal, then France’s ambassador to the EU, said. Hollande helped convince Merkel not to run the risk of ‘Grexit’, suggested Sellal: “It was Pandora’s box, the consequences of which were impossible to predict.” Continue reading...

The bill gives citizens the right to sue anyone who helps someone who seeks an abortion, as in TexasAn anti-abortion bill that would ban abortions after an embryonic heartbeat is detected, about six weeks, and allow citizens to sue doctors who perform them, modeled after Texas’s abortion ban SB8, was introduced in Florida on Wednesday.Filed by the Republican representative Webster Barnaby, the bill allows people to sue practitioners and others who aid people seeking abortions up to six months after an abortion was performed versus only four months allocated in Texas’s SB8. The implications of the bill have alarmed many concerned about the role of anti-abortion vigilante lawsuits. Continue reading...

If a judge does not intervene by 30 September, those selected for the program will become ineligible: ‘We are left behind’Thousands of Afghan families who were selected for US visas are stuck in the war-torn country, as the US government’s failure to schedule their visa interviews ahead of a final deadline puts them at risk of missing their opportunity to leave.If a US judge does not intervene by 30 September, more than 2,100 Afghans who were selected for the diversity visa program last year will become ineligible for such a visa. Continue reading...

Airlines may turn away EU nationals with settled status due to complex residency rules, says BrusselsConcerns have been raised that EU citizens living in the UK may not be allowed to board flights into the country because of confusion created by new government rules over ID cards and passports.From 1 October, EU citizens who do not have the post-Brexit right to live in the UK will not be able to use EU, EEA or Swiss national ID cards to enter the country. Continue reading...

She was on a major label, hanging out with Dua Lipa – but being sidelined behind the scenes. Now independent and thriving, the UK musician has a cautionary tale for women in the music industryThe pandemic temporarily spelled game over for emerging pop stars: who could compete for headlines and livestreams with the likes of Dua Lipa? For Connie Constance, it stalled a career she had only just jump-started. A few months earlier, the Watford-born songwriter broke ties with AMF, then an imprint of Virgin EMI, the major label that released her 2019 debut album, English Rose, when she felt sidelined. She spent the last of her money on a trip to Los Angeles, writing songs, networking and restoring her musical confidence. Back home, her manager secured a distribution deal that would allow her to start her own label. She was raring to go. “Then Covid came in and I was like: ‘No!’” she hoots, thrusting her hand towards her webcam. “What? How is this happening!”In lockdown one, writing songs became difficult again. “The lyrics that were coming out were just so dead,” says the quick-to-laughter 26-year-old who was born Constance Power, video-calling from her boyfriend’s place in London. So she left music alone and “made loads of mansions on Sims 4”. Then a host of social issues bubbled up – Black Lives Matter following the murder in the US of George Floyd, Marcus Rashford’s free school meals campaign – that spoke to a woman who once said she found politics boring. Continue reading...

Elliott was president of the federal Liberal party from 1987 to 1990 and ran the Carlton football club for two decades until 2002

Contest to lead ruling party and country appears to be two-horse race between Taro Kono and Fumio KishidaThe race to become leader of Japan’s ruling party and the next prime minister is too close to call ahead of next week’s party election. It is a rare moment of uncertainty after almost a decade during which Shinzō Abe became the country’s longest-serving prime minister until he was replaced last year by his close ally Yoshihide Suga.When Abe abruptly announced his resignation last August, citing the recurrence of a chronic health problem, the identity of his successor was never in doubt. As Abe’s chief cabinet secretary for almost eight years, Suga had proved a loyal lieutenant, perfecting the role of taciturn spokesperson in his daily encounters with the media. Continue reading...

Discussions between health department officials and testing consortium revealed during legal challenge