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Nine in ten local areas in the UK have seen a week-on-week rise in Covid-19 cases; Greek authorities to crack down on fake vaccination certificates

The Taliban in Kabul, the removal of the statue of Robert E Lee in Virginia, Emma Raducanu in the US Open and the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks – the most striking images from around the world this week Continue reading...

Nine more people injured, four seriously, after whirlwind rips off roofs and leaves cars upturnedTwo people have been killed and nine injured after a tornado tore through the Italian island of Pantelleria in the Mediterranean, leaving a path of destruction. The whirlwind ripped off roofs and flipped over at least six cars, with residents describing the scene as “apocalyptic”.Four of the nine injured are in serious condition, according to the authorities. A hospital helicopter from nearby Lampedusa island was initially unable to reach the island to provide assistance because of the bad weather. Continue reading...

There are slogans and jingles embedded deep in the psyche of the nation. Find out how well you’ve retained these vintage gems

Mary McCann, charged over deaths of 10-year-old son and four-year-old daughter, failed to appear in courtA judge has issued an arrest warrant for a woman who is accused of killing two of her children in a crash on the M1.Mary McCann, 35, failed to appear before Aylesbury crown court on Friday, where she was to face two counts of causing death by dangerous driving. Continue reading...

Growing debate in Netherlands about colonial past despite government refusal to apologiseThe city of Utrecht could pay for descendants of enslaved people to change their names, a sign of the growing debate in the Netherlands about its colonial past.Many enslaved people were given the names of their owners, plantations or muddled Dutch names, such as Vriesde (based on De Vries) or Kenswil (Wilkens). Continue reading...

Administration greeted with little enthusiasm by Lebanese people desperate for slide into chaos to stopAfter a 13-month feud, a catastrophic economic collapse and in spite of demands for reforms required to unlock desperately needed aid, Lebanon’s politicians have finally agreed to a new government that suggests more of the same.The formation of an administration, headed by the billionaire and two-time former prime minister, Najib Miqati, was on Friday met with relief but little enthusiasm by Lebanese people who had been desperate to stop the slide towards poverty and chaos, brought on by the standoff that had started in the weeks after the devastating explosion at Beirut port. Continue reading...

Declan Jones was sacked from West Midlands police after assaulting 44-year-old man and 15-year-old boyA former West Midlands police officer convicted of assaulting two members of the public, including a 15-year-old boy, while on duty during the first Covid lockdown has been sentenced to six months in prison.PC Declan Jones, 30, was convicted of assaulting a 44-year-old cyclist and a 15-year-old boy on two consecutive days in Birmingham, and was sacked earlier this week for gross misconduct, having been suspended since May last year. Continue reading...

Brussels repeats warning that renegotiation will mean more instability and insists Brexit protocol is ‘only solution we have’European Union leaders have stressed they are not seeking a “political victory” over the UK as they pushed back sharply against demands that the Northern Ireland Brexit protocol be scrapped.After a two-day trip to Northern Ireland, the European Commission vice-president, Maroš Šefčovič, repeated his warning that a renegotiation would merely lead to more instability for businesses and communities. Continue reading...

Dozens of Hasidic Breslov pilgrims boarded planes in Ukraine with bogus paperwork, border officers say

Jair Bolsonaro is backing a legal move to open up large tracts of indigenous territory to commercial exploitation that tribal members call an ‘extermination effort’More than 5,000 indigenous women have marched through Brazil’s capital to denounce the historic assault on native lands they say is unfolding under the country’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro.Female representatives of more than 170 of Brazil’s 300-plus tribes have gathered in Brasília in recent days to oppose highly controversial attempts to strip back indigenous land rights and open their territories to mining operations and agribusiness. Continue reading...

Anti-racism movement says ‘actions speak louder than words’ after comments attributing royal assentBlack Lives Matter UK has expressed surprise after the Queen and the royal family were said to support its cause, but the anti-racism movement stressed that “actions speak louder than words”.Sir Ken Olisa, the first black lord-lieutenant for London, revealed to Channel 4 that he had discussed racism with members of the royal household in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in the US. Asked whether the palace supported BLM, Olisa said: “The answer is easily yes.” Continue reading...

Former Liberal PM Billy McMahon approved spy agency request to conduct covert operations in Chile, a move later overturned by Gough WhitlamAustralia’s covert overseas spy agency, the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, opened a base in Santiago to assist in the US Central Intelligence Agency’s destabilisation of the Chilean government ahead of the bloody military coup against Salvador Allende’s socialist government 48 years ago today.Declassified Australian government documents prove that in December 1970 Liberal foreign minister and later prime minister, Billy McMahon, approved an Asis request to open the base. For 18 months from 1971, according to the US-based National Security Archive, Asis apparently conducted covert operations in Chile – including handling CIA-recruited Chilean assets in Santiago and filing intelligence reports to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Crunch meeting of world leaders tabled for this month, with Xi key to success of climate summitBoris Johnson is planning to convene last-ditch climate talks with the president of China, Xi Jinping, at a crunch meeting of world leaders later this month, in hopes of breaking the global impasse on climate action before the Cop26 climate summit being hosted in Glasgow this November.Xi will be invited, along with the leaders of about 30 other countries, to a high-level meeting on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York on 20 September, the Guardian has learned. Continue reading...

Locals say cypress trees have been lost and rivers polluted by pesticides and wastewater from wineriesFabio Magro was woken up by the excruciating sound of chainsaws early one morning in late July 2019, and when he looked out of his bedroom window, the unthinkable was happening.It was just a couple of weeks after the hills surrounding his village, Miane, in Italy’s prosecco-producing Treviso province, were declared a Unesco World Heritage site. Continue reading...

Term extended despite backlash, as sources say possible replacements were not to Priti Patel’s tasteMinisters have defied critics and announced a two-year extension to Cressida Dick’s controversial term as commissioner of the Metropolitan police.Dick’s five-year term was due to end in April 2022, and the prospect of her gaining two extra years had triggered a backlash from those wronged by the Met who see it as a reward for failure. Continue reading...

Human rights official says group conducting house-to-house searches and threatening journalistsThe Taliban’s violent crackdown on protests against their hardline rule has already led to four documented deaths, according to a UN human rights official who said the group had used live ammunition, whips and batons to break up demonstrations.Ravina Shamdasani, the UN’s rights spokesperson, told a briefing in Geneva that it had also received reports of house-to-house searches for those who participated in the protests. Continue reading...

Scott Walker to serve minimum 32 years for murder of Bernadette, who called him her father and whose body has never been foundA man convicted of murdering 17-year-old Bernadette Walker, who went missing in July last year and whose body has never been found, has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 32 years.Scott Walker, 51, was found guilty of murdering Bernadette, who called him her father although they were not biologically related, in July. Continue reading...

Company behind Pfizer vaccine expected to file results of trial of five- to 11-year-olds with regulator soon

This week an 80-year-old woman began a 600-mile trek, while a night at the theatre had me out of action for daysJane Dotchin is off on her travels again. For those of you who have not yet had the pleasure, Dotchin is an 80-year-old woman who sets off on horseback from her home near Hexham, Northumberland at around this time every year and treks the 600 or so miles to Inverness, as she has done since 1972. I’m going to pause here to allow all of you who, like me, have just conceived of an entirely new set of life goals to go and get a paper and pen so that you may take all the necessary notes from hereon. Continue reading...

A #MeToo figurehead, a mayor and a hate-speech ideologue among those tipped to put their hats in the ringAt rush hour at Paris’s Saint-Lazare station, activists, including a civil servant in a government ministry and a former climate-change protester, were out canvassing for an unusual would-be candidate for French president.Their choice, Sandrine Rousseau, is a figurehead of the French #MeToo movement against sexual violence, an economist and university vice-chancellor and promises a new form of “punk ecology”. Continue reading...

In 1936, five English schoolboys on a hike died at the whim of a foolhardy teacher – and became fodder for Nazi propaganda. Now the story of populist idiocy is being retold for our timesThe day after the Brexit referendum the playwright Pamela Carter wrote to her German publishers, Suhrkamp, to apologise. “I felt the need to say sorry to a European for the terrible mistake,” she said.Two weeks later in a Dundee hotel, still steeped in bewilderment, she came across a Guardian Long Read I’d written, recalling the events of April 1936, when a group of London schoolboys had set out from their youth hostel in Freiburg, southern Germany, for a hike in the Black Forest. They were led by their charismatic teacher, who ignored numerous warnings and made a series of fatal decisions that resulted in five of them losing their lives. Continue reading...

Scandinavian country declares it no longer considers coronavirus a ‘socially critical’ disease

NSW confirms record high 1,542 cases; Victoria has linked 149 of its 334 new cases to known outbreaks. This blog is now closed

Late one night, I noticed the attic hatch was open. All the puzzle pieces fell into place – someone was in my apartmentIn 1995, when I was 20, I moved to Enumclaw, a farming town in the US state of Washington, to be close to my brother and his family. I rented an apartment. My room was on the top floor but on my first night, lying in bed, I heard footsteps above me. Over the months, I started to notice things going missing. I would buy a six-pack of soda, drink one, come home from work and find only four left. It was the same with packets of soup and ramen noodles. I also noticed that doors I had left open were closed, or vice versa.Mostly, I found it amusing – I assumed that my brother, who had a key, was coming over and eating my food. (Looking back, I should have known it wasn’t him because there would have been dirty dishes everywhere.) Continue reading...

Therapeutic Goods Administration concerned people taking controversial medication instead of seeking proper treatment or vaccine

With at least four women, including a pregnant mother, targeted and killed by Taliban fighters, female ex-officers feel abandoned by the worldNegar Masumi, a female police officer with 15 years of experience, was determined not to flee when the Taliban took control of her home province of Ghor in central Afghanistan.On Saturday night, gunmen, who called themselves Taliban mujahideen, stormed Negar’s home. They took her husband and four of her sons into another room and tied them up. Then they beat Negar with their guns and shot her dead, according to a family member, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. Continue reading...

A struggling healthcare system and inflated prices mean hospital treatment can result in a lifetime of debt for many

As a child, Charlotte Simpson and her family were excluded from many hotels in the deep south. Now she has visited more than 80 countriesThe Christmas after her husband died, Charlotte Simpson went on holiday with her daughter. In their tour group to Morocco were two women who travelled alone. “I felt sorry for them,” Simpson says, laughing. “It seemed preposterous. I would ask them from time to time how they felt and they just loved it. Both ladies said: ‘Seeing you here on the trip, I think you’d really enjoy it.’ I was like, ‘I don’t know what makes anybody think I’d like to be by myself on a trip!’”On her next holiday, Simpson went to China with her sister-in-law. There, they met a woman who was celebrating her 80th. “And she was alone. She had a real spirit of adventure. A very cool lady.” Continue reading...

Moulin Rouge performed a full dress rehearsal two days ahead of the reopening of the cabaret following an 18-month closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Moulin Rouge and Le Lido, emblems of the crazy Parisian nights since 1889, will open again on 10 September. Continue reading...

Hong Kong Alliance leaders face charges under national security law Beijing imposed last yearHong Kong police have charged the group that organises the city’s annual Tiananmen candlelight vigil and three of its leaders with subversion under the national security law, amid an ongoing crackdown on dissent.The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China said that the group, its chairman, Lee Cheuk-yan, as well as vice-chairs Albert Ho and Chow Hang-tung were charged late on Thursday with “inciting subversion of state power”, under the national security law Beijing imposed more than a year ago. Continue reading...

The prime minister was under fire for his record on climate change, Indigenous affairs and economic hardship ahead of 20 September pollJustin Trudeau has been forced to defend his government’s plans for fighting climate change, Canada’s fractured relationship with Indigenous peoples and a growing affordability crisis in the country as the prime minister faced off with contenders ahead of the federal election.For two hours on Thursday evening, federal party leaders from the Liberal, Conservative, New Democratic, Green and Bloc Québécois parties sparred in the only official English-language debate before the 20 September vote. Party leaders debated in French on Wednesday evening. Continue reading...

IAEA says new hardline government in Tehran making oversight of nuclear programme impossibleEuropean powers and the US will decide on Friday whether to censure Iran in response to a damning report by the UN nuclear inspectorate the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) showing that the new hardline government in Tehran had made it impossible for inspectors to oversee the country’s nuclear programme.The Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, has warned any such censure motion, or a reference to the UN security council, could delay or prevent Iran returning to the talks in Vienna on how the US and Iran could come back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal. Continue reading...

Two months after 133 people died in the Ahr valley, residents say they feel abandoned by politiciansWhen she heard on the radio just weeks after floods had devastated her family-run restaurant and her home town that German authorities no longer classed it as a disaster zone, Paddy Amanatidis felt like she had been punched in the stomach.“It’s hard to be told that everything is supposedly OK when you have no electricity, no clean water, no heating,” she said. Continue reading...

Aboriginal leaders in Redfern say they don’t know where locals are catching the virus as NSW Health does not list exposure sites in metropolitan Sydney

Antony Blinken thanks Qatar and Taliban for facilitating flight that he says shows US commitment to help citizens and others who assisted USA flight carrying more than 100 international passengers out of Kabul has landed in Doha, the first such civilian flight since the chaotic evacuation of 124,000 foreigners and at-risk Afghans sparked by the Taliban’s swift takeover of the country.About 113 people were aboard the flight to Doha operated by state-owned Qatar Airways, officials said. The passengers included US, British, Canadian, Ukrainian, Dutch and German citizens. Continue reading...

Asymptomatic woman isolating after testing positive but having no apparent exposure to another case or hotspot, as daily cases fall to 11

Exclusive: The woman’s 12-weeks premature baby was then taken to a separate hospital with better neonatal care resources

The 70-year-old singer and drummer calls his upcoming Genesis tour putting the band ‘to bed’British musician Phil Collins says he can barely hold a drum stick because of deteriorating health that has also forced him to sit while singing during live performances.The 70-year-old drummer and singer told the BBC in an interview broadcast on Thursday that he was frustrated at the challenges he faced. He underwent surgery on his back in 2009 and again in 2015 that affected his nerves, and he also has diabetes. Continue reading...

People in Scotland will need vaccine passport to enter nightclubs and large events; German vaccine plan ‘not sufficient to stop fourth wave’

Sir Ken Olisa, first black Lord-Lieutenant for London, reveals he has talked about racism with royal householdThe Queen and the royal family are supporters of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, one of the monarch’s representatives has said.Sir Ken Olisa, the first black Lord-Lieutenant for London, revealed to Channel 4 that he had discussed the topic of racism with members of the royal household in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in the US. Continue reading...

Gen Hugo Carvajal, who had defied a Spanish extradition order and disappeared, was arrested on Thursday nightPolice in Madrid have arrested a former Venezuelan spymaster on US narcotics charges nearly two years after he defied a Spanish extradition order and disappeared.Gen Hugo Carvajal, who for over a decade was Hugo Chávez’s eyes and ears in the military, was arrested on Thursday night at a small apartment where he had been holed up. Continue reading...

Blaze in mountain range broke out late Wednesday and grew, fanned by winds of up to 50 km/hA worsening wildfire that kept advancing through forest land and prompted the evacuation of nearly 1,000 residents has claimed the life of one firefighter, authorities in southern Spain said late on Thursday.The blaze in a mountain range of the Málaga province broke out late Wednesday and grew, fanned by winds of up to 50km/h with shifting directions. 940 people were evacuated near the resort town of Estepona and three other municipalities, the Andalusia regional authorities said. Continue reading...

Term in office expected to be extended, despite calls for her to go from those who have won apologies from MetDowning Street has come out in strong support of the embattled Metropolitan police commissioner, Cressida Dick, after a backlash to the government’s decision to extend her time in office.The formal announcement to extend her five-year term as Britain’s top police officer by two years, to 2024, is expected in days, multiple sources have told the Guardian. Continue reading...

QR code or paper document will be required for entry to nightclubs and large events from 1 October

Interior minister says UK plans to return boats of vulnerable people would not be acceptedPriti Patel has been accused by France’s interior minister of plotting “financial blackmail” and a violation of international maritime law in a deepening diplomatic row over efforts to prevent migrants from crossing the Channel by boat.Gérald Darmanin said that UK plans, released on Wednesday night, to send back boats of vulnerable people into French waters would not be accepted by his government. Continue reading...

Man, 66, admitted to freezing her body after she died before wrapping her in bandages to absorb any fluidAustrian police have discovered the body of an 89-year-old woman who died more than a year ago and was mummified in the cellar by her son who wanted to continue receiving her benefits.In a statement, police said the woman, who is believed to have suffered from dementia, had died in June last year. Continue reading...

Figure highest for almost six months leading to fears of resurgence in virus’ ability to cause serious illness

Massacre was perpetrated by fighters loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, officials sayRebel forces in northern Ethiopia have been accused of killing more than a hundred civilians during fierce battles.Local government officials said the massacre in a village 6 miles (10km) from the town of Dabat took place just over a week ago and was perpetrated by fighters loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. Continue reading...