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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘Only when you become one of those numbers, when you’re in it, do you realise how serious it is’

Conservative Young Women condemns ‘deplorable’ police response to violence against womenThe Conservatives’ young women’s group has called for an investigation into “the apparent culture of misogyny in the police”, piling pressure on Boris Johnson after he faced down calls for a major independent inquiry.Conservative Young Women spoke out in the wake of Sarah Everard’s murder and after Met police officers were charged over photographs taken at the scene of the murders of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman, which were then allegedly shared in a WhatsApp group. Continue reading...

Severed digit found in Southampton belongs to 28-year-old man who is now getting treatment in hospitalPolice have traced the owner of a severed finger that was found outside a block of flats in Southampton.It was discovered in a parking area in Lower Bannister Street on Saturday morning. Continue reading...

India’s tiny train has puffed up the Himalayas since 1881 but now the world heritage site is under threat“Darjeeling ko sano rail, hirna lai abo tyari cha / Guard le shuna bhai siti bajayo” (Darjeeling’s dainty train is all set to chug off / Oh, listen to the guard blowing the whistle): generations of children in Darjeeling have grown up hearing these lines from a Nepali nursery rhyme. Serenading the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR), it depicts the close relationship between the “Queen of the Hills” and local people.However, that relationship has become strained after the Indian government decided to hand over the running of the railway – listed by Unesco as a world heritage site – and oversight of the land adjoining the stations to a private company, threatening jobs and livelihoods. Continue reading...

Supporters of Saied – who seized power in July – take to the streets in Tunis to back his promised reformsThousands of supporters of the Tunisian president, Kais Saied, have rallied in the capital to back his suspension of parliament and promises to change the political system, acts his critics call a coup.The demonstration in central Tunis was by far the biggest since Saied seized executive power in July, a show of support by his supporters that dwarfed two protests against his actions over the previous two weekends in the same location. Continue reading...

US and European media give their verdict on the fuel, food and labour crisis they say is caused by BrexitGovernment ministers may insist it is “wrong” to blame Brexit for Britain’s fuel, food and labour shortages, but for the rest of Europe – and beyond – there is only one reason why the UK’s crisis is so very much worse than anywhere else’s.“One is tempted to tell the British: ‘You have only yourselves to blame,’” said Gabi Kostorz on ARD’s Tagesthemen, a leading German news show. “We tried to talk you out of it, but you decided otherwise. Now you have to face the consequences.” Continue reading...

Ambassador Qirjako Qirko said many Albanians living in the UK could step in as HGV drivers to ease shortfallAlbania has said thousands of its migrants to the UK would be willing to work for nothing to help tackle the petrol crisis.Albania’s ambassador to the UK, Qirjako Qirko, told the Guardian: “If your government would like, we can offer good reliable drivers, maybe 5,000 immediately.” Continue reading...

The three contenders to take the helm for the continent as era of outgoing German chancellor draws to a closeShe dominated Europe – a de facto leader in a time of crisis. For 16 years, Angela Merkel has used her signature cautious, calm pragmatism to steer the continent through the rise of the far-right, a blundered response to migrant arrivals, and, of course, Brexit.With the Merkel era drawing to a close, another European leader could emerge and take the helm. Here are the main contenders: Continue reading...

Oyster Court in Southwark doesn’t meet height threshold for bailout in wake of Grenfell Tower disasterNurses, teachers and post office workers are among those facing crippling fire-safety bills which they believe could reach £85,000 each despite only owning a fraction of their homes.Housing association Optivo this week told key workers in shared ownership properties in Oyster Court in Southwark, south London, that they faced a combined £2.6m bill to fix problems including combustible cladding, wooden balconies and missing firebreaks. Continue reading...

As an autobiographical novel by the writer is published for the first time in English, Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir – the adopted daughter with whom Simone shared the last 26 years of her life – talks about their bond“Simone de Beauvoir was haunted by the death of her childhood friend Zaza… I think she spent the rest of her life looking for the intimacy they’d had,” says Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir. “For a long time she didn’t succeed, but I believe she found it with me.”For all but the most ardent followers of the 20th-century feminist and author of The Second Sex this statement may come as a surprise. De Beauvoir is most famously linked to fellow writer and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, with whom she enjoyed – and at times endured – a 50-year open relationship. Continue reading...

Preparatory sketch discovered beneath Norwegian master’s painting shows how he struggled with the original compositionIt is one of art history’s most evocative female forms, a painting of a nude woman arching her back sensually, one arm behind her head and the other behind her back. Now a preparatory drawing has been discovered beneath Edvard Munch’s Madonna in the National Museum of Norway, revealing that the Norwegian master struggled over how he should place her arms, initially showing them just hanging down, until inspiration came to him.The underdrawing also shows that this masterpiece is likely to have been the first of five painted versions that Munch created in the 1890s. Continue reading...

State treasurer declares his intention to take over from Gladys Berejiklian with Stuart Ayres as deputy Liberal leader

NSW treasurer Dominic Perrottet will contest Liberal Party leadership after Gladys Berejiklian’s resignation; NSW reports 10 deaths and 667 cases with 70% double-dose target in sight; cases continue to rise in Victoria amid vaccine mandate protests; Queensland readies for NRL grand final as state records no new local Covid infections; ACT records 38 new local cases. This blog is now closed

Queen’s dressmaker’s private documents and scrapbooks detailing furore over Princess Margaret’s wedding dress are up for saleDrawings and legal documents that once belonged to the Queen’s former dressmaker Sir Norman Hartnell have revealed details of a row that rocked the House of Windsor and his own illustrious fashion house 60 years ago.A rediscovered bundle of private papers and scrapbooks, to be auctioned next month, also includes previously unseen designs by Hartnell created for Princess Anne. “The colours are amazing and very evocative of the era,” said vintage fashion specialist Susan Orringe. Continue reading...

Top official says council ignores US weapons tests, after it met over Pyongyang’s anti-aircraft missile launchNorth Korea has accused the United Nations security council of applying double standards over military activities among UN member states amid international criticism over its recent missile tests.The council met behind closed doors on Friday upon requests from the United States and other countries over the North’s missile launches. Continue reading...

Twenty contemporary writers recommend overlooked novels, essays and poetry that deserve to sit alongside the classics on our bookshelves. Introduction by Kadish MorrisIt wasn’t until I started university in 2008 that I truly realised how little regard there was for Black authors. My creative writing lecturer was a Black poet, whose teaching material and reading lists were saturated with authors of colour, but each term, I noticed that the class was shrinking. One day, there was a discourse bubbling among my white peers; they deemed him too biased, and proclaimed that his reading list was too Black. He’d been suggesting interesting works such as Ishmael Reed’s Juice! and Clarence Major’s Painted Turtle: Woman With Guitar, but students banged their fists on the table for more Plath, more Twain, more Orwell.A 2017 report showed that of 400 authors named as writers of literature by 2,000 people, only 7% were from Black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds. Sunny Singh, co-founder of the Jhalak prize, which recognises Black and Asian writers in Britain, said the list reflected “a deeply entrenched imaginative conservatism, where the need to hold on to a nostalgic past combines with a fear of confronting a complex present in all its variety”. Continue reading...

The Polluter Pays principle applies to flats as much as fridges – and residents should not be left in the lurch