Maria Kalesnikava, prominent opponent of country’s authoritarian leader, sentenced to 11 yearsA Belarusian court has sentenced the senior opposition leader Maria Kalesnikava to 11 years in prison, punishing one of the most prominent opponents of the country’s authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko.Kalesnikava, a leader of the opposition’s coordination council, was one of three women last year who united to lead an uprising in which tens of thousands of Belarusians took to the streets in the largest protests in the country’s modern history. Continue reading...
James Heappey, armed forces minister, says it is important to let veterans know their service was not in vainBritish veterans of the conflict in Afghanistan will be feeling vulnerable and questioning whether their service was worth it as they witness the country fall to the Taliban once again, a UK government minister has said.James Heappey, the armed forces minister and former British army officer, was forced to backtrack during media interviews on Monday over a claim he made that a soldier who served in Afghanistan had taken his own life in the last few days. Continue reading...
PM says supermarket terrorist had fraudulent refugee status amid warnings against kneejerk reactionsNew Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has said that a legal loophole which allowed an Islamic State-inspired terrorist to remain free will be closed off with new legislation by the end of September.The country had tried for years to deport Ahamed Aathil Mohamed Samsudeen, a 32-year-old Sri Lankan man who was shot dead by police following Friday’s attack at a supermarket in Auckland. Seven people were hurt in the attack, five of them with stab wounds. Three of those injured were in a critical condition in hospital on Saturday. Continue reading...
Manhunt under way as prisons service says fugitives accessed passages under their cellSix Palestinian militants have broken out of a high-security Israeli prison in what the prime minister, Naftali Bennett, called a grave incident.Israeli police and the military started a search after the escape from Gilboa prison in northern Israel on Monday. Continue reading...
Hundreds of millions of children fell behind around the world as schools closed during the pandemic. We look at four countries as pupils try to resume their education
Police surveillance and monitoring are key tools for community safety but do not result in rehabilitation. In fact, they could encourage offendingOn 3 September, seven innocent people were stabbed at a suburban Auckland supermarket. The perpetrator, Ahamed Aathill Mohamed Samsudeen, was shot and killed by police.In the aftermath of this heartbreaking event, we ask whether it could have been avoided. For those of us who had been trying to support Samsudeen in his transition out of New Zealand’s correctional system, this event raises several important questions. Continue reading...
Experts say Covid-19 infection total is encouraging sign ‘we are heading in the right direction’See all our coronavirus coverageNew Zealand’s regions outside of Auckland will move down lockdown settings to level 2, from midnight Tuesday, prime minister Jacinda Ardern has announced, as a slowdown in daily case numbers indicated the coronavirus outbreak may have peaked.On 17 August the country was put into a snap nation-wide lockdown following the discovery of one case of the Delta variant in the community. The entire country was in alert level 4 – the highest level – for two weeks, with regions outside Auckland moving down a level last week. Continue reading...
by Emmanuel Akinwotu West Africa correspondent on (#5P6D4)
Elite army unit says it has deposed president Alpha Condé but defence ministry says attack has been put downAn elite army unit has announced it has seized power in the west African country of Guinea, deposed the president, Alpha Condé, and imposed an indefinite curfew.After heavy gunfire was heard near the presidential palace in the capital, Conakry, on Sunday morning, soldiers announced the country’s leadership had been deposed in the latest political upheaval to beset the mineral-rich and impoverished nation. Continue reading...
Brazil’s World Cup qualifier with Argentina in São Paulo was suspended after just seven minutes as health authorities entered the field of play amid farcical scenes at Neo Química Arena. Three Premier League players - the Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez and Tottenham’s Cristian Romero and Giovani Lo Celso - were on the pitch while a fourth, Aston Villa’s Emiliano Buendía, was in the stands. The quartet had apparently violated Brazilian regulations stating that travellers who have been in the UK, South Africa or India during the previous 14 days are forbidden from entering the country. The bizarre scenes saw officials, accompanied by police officers, march on to the pitch and bring proceedings to a halt.
The 48-year-old, who has been in jail in Tripoli since 2014, left the country immediately for TurkeyAuthorities in Libya have released Saadi Gaddafi, a son of the former leader Muammar Gaddafi who was ousted and killed during a 2011 uprising.Prime minister-designate Abdul Hamid Dbeibah said in a tweet early on Monday that Gaddafi, 48, had been released in compliance with a previous court order. Continue reading...
9.59pm BSTMy quiet Sunday covering Brazil v Argentina went out the window about two hours ago. Oh well, it was fun (in a way). Thanks for joining me for this unique experience. I am sure the full facts will be ascertained in due course but we can all accept that today’s events were a complete and utter farce. A full report straight from Brazil is coming your way very soon.9.54pm BST“Couldn’t they just bring out Messi and Neymar and settle this with a keepy-uppy challenge?” asks Peter Oh.
Businessman and philanthropist Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz awarded CBE by Prince Charles in 2016The son of one of Saudi Arabia’s richest men, Dr Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz, has hardly any information listed about him on his charity’s website, but has the honour of a wood, a fountain, a garden and a building named after him among some of Britain’s oldest and most prestigious buildings.The 51-year-old businessman and philanthropist has donated generously to Oxbridge colleges, as well as royal mansions Dumfries House and the Castle of Mey. The website for the Mahfouz Foundation, which he founded in 2012, shows simply a photo of Mahfouz, alongside his full name and list of honorifics. Continue reading...
by Presented by Gabrielle Jackson and reported by She on (#5P6JR)
Guardian Australia news editor Shelley Hepworth speaks to renowned author Salman Rushdie about his plans to release his newest novella – The Seventh Wave – on popular newsletter website Substack. He also shares how Covid-19 has impacted his creative process and the potential social media offers for writers wanting to experiment with new media Continue reading...
For some Afghans, the trauma of watching their homeland descend into civil war has been compounded by the fact they might have to go backEven as the Taliban swept across Afghanistan, overrunning cities and ultimately seizing the capital, the Australian government was telling some Afghan asylum seekers they should leave Australia and return to a country plunging back into civil war.As late as 28 July this year, with the Taliban brutally ascendant across Afghanistan and days from capturing the capital Kabul, Afghan nationals were told by the Department of Home Affairs they were “expected to depart Australia”. Continue reading...
Zuma, who was ousted in 2017, served less than two months of a 15-month sentence for contempt of courtJacob Zuma, the former president of South Africa, has been released from prison on grounds of ill health after serving less than two months of a 15-month prison sentence for contempt of court.Zuma, who was ousted in 2017, was jailed in July for refusing to comply with an order of South Africa’s highest court to appear before a judicial inquiry probing allegations of extensive corruption during his nine years in power. Continue reading...
by Emma Graham-Harrison in Kabul, Jon Henley and Akht on (#5P68E)
Spokesman says men ‘mistreated the women and a reporter’ but tells Afghans it is ‘not a time for protest’The Taliban have arrested four men who hit protesters and held journalists at gunpoint to break up a women’s rights’ demonstration in Kabul on Saturday, the spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.The demonstration came amid fierce fighting in Panjshir valley, the last holdout of anti-Taliban forces from the fallen government, and as Afghanistan waits for the country’s new rulers to reveal how they plan to govern. Continue reading...
‘Nothing of obvious significance’ found at gravel pits near York as part of inquiry into disappearance of chefPolice have said “nothing of obvious significance” was found during a search of a lake as part of the investigation into the disappearance of university chef Claudia Lawrence.Teams of police experts, search dogs, divers and forensic archaeologists spent two weeks scouring the lake and nearby woods as the murder probe continues. Continue reading...
by Robert Booth Social affairs correspondent on (#5P6BG)
Group who meet weekly to refresh wall of hearts in London want specialist lacquer applied to memorialFew memorials require restoration before they are complete, but that is the reality facing the bereaved who care for the national Covid memorial wall opposite the Houses of Parliament in London.Armed with pots of crimson masonry paint, they have started refreshing the wall of more than 150,000 hearts, many of which are already fading in the sun and rain. They also have the sad task of adding 5,000 more, to catch up with the still-rising death toll. Like the pandemic, there is no end in sight. But soon, sections could be preserved using a specialist lacquer that has previously been deployed to protect street art by Banksy to create a memorial that could stand for years to come. Continue reading...
What makes a pub special? From the perfect place to flog atomic secrets to the official strictly protected viewpoint for St Paul’s, a new book tells the amazing stories behind the city’s greatest barsWhen you stumble out of the medieval warren of Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese pub on Fleet Street, it’s easy to think you’ve had one too many. As you gaze east towards the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral, the skyscrapers of the Square Mile appear to lean back in a woozy limbo, as if lurching to get out of the way.
Clashes during inauguration of Balkan state’s new church leader at historic monastery of CetinjePolice in Montenegro have fired teargas at protesters as the new head of the Serbian Orthodox church in the country arrived by helicopter for his inauguration.The decision to anoint Bishop Joanikije as the new metropolitan of Montenegro at the historic monastery of Cetinje has aggravated ethnic tension in the tiny Balkan state. Continue reading...
His rural voters see the embattled president as a ‘messenger from God’. And this week they will march in the cities to support himJair Bolsonaro supporters aren’t hard to find in Sinop, an agricultural boomtown in the Brazilian Amazon where nearly 80% of voters backed the country’s ultra-conservative leader in the 2018 election.“He’s a president of the people,” said Marcos Watanabe, the head of the city’s conservative association, sporting a T-shirt stamped with Bolsonaro’s name. Continue reading...
Britain urgently needs to repair its relations with its neighbours but Boris Johnson’s government is singularly ill-equipped to do soAfter the rout, the recriminations. British fingers furiously jab at the Americans for a shaming scuttle from Kabul that will embolden the west’s adversaries. Sir John Major yesterday called the withdrawal of western forces a “strategically very stupid” decision. Tony Blair, the prime minister who sent British forces into Afghanistan 20 years ago, goes so far as to call the precipitous exit “imbecilic”. Number 10 has been forced to deny that Boris Johnson refers to the US president as “Sleepy Joe”, the insult minted by Donald Trump. Supporters of Joe Biden counter-accuse the British and other European countries of expecting the US to continue to expend its blood and treasure in Afghanistan when most Nato members had wound down their commitments long ago.In Whitehall, an ugly three-way blame game rages between the Foreign Office, the Ministry of Defence and the Home Office about why the government didn’t anticipate the swiftness of the fall of Kabul or make timely preparations to help vulnerable people to whom Britain owes obligations. We’d be in a better place if they’d devoted as much energy to planning for the evacuation as they are expending on excoriating each other. There will be more finger pointing when the Commons returns tomorrow. Yet it is not buck-passing between politicians desperate to save their careers that this country needs if anything useful is to be learned from this debacle. What is required is a cool reassessment of where this leaves Britain in a perilous and unpredictable world. Continue reading...
Sarah, Bob and Pete talk about recording their mesmeric new album via Zoom, the reality of the 90s and the oddness of pop parenthoodIn the concrete balcony bar of the BFI Southbank on a late summer’s afternoon, three old friends are sitting on mid-century seats, talking about the passing of time. Thirty years ago this month, Saint Etienne – Bob Stanley, Pete Wiggs and Sarah Cracknell – released their debut album, Foxbase Alpha, which stitched together samples from Dusty Springfield, the Four Tops and James Brown records, clips from old films and electronic beats that had their heart and soul in the clubs.Renowned music journalist Jon Savage wrote the sleevenotes, laying out how their approach to music-making could be a blueprint for a new kind of British pop culture. It might come from somewhere like London’s grimy Camden Town, home to “a myriad of sounds, looks and smells from all over the world, each with its own memory and possibility”. In Saint Etienne’s London, Savage wrote, you could immerse yourself in dub, reggae, old psychedelia and Northern soul, combining these sounds with contemporary ideas. Continue reading...
Charities and unions slam move as an attack on fundamental rightsBoris Johnson’s government is today accused of trying to rig future elections by stifling opposition and deterring participation, as a storm of protest erupts over its controversial elections bill, which is to be debated in parliament this week.In an open letter, charities including Save the Children, independent campaign groups such as Greenpeace, and the trades union movement, condemn the legislation as “an attack on the UK’s proud democratic tradition and some of our most fundamental rights”. Continue reading...
by Jay Rayner, Eva Wiseman, Philippa Perry, Rhik Sama on (#5P636)
Maybe you’re desperate to go back – or clinging to the kitchen table. Either way, the workplace beckons. Our writers are on hand to dispense orientation, sympathy and new lanyardsFor anyone in charge of a school-age child, this is “school supplies” season: queueing in the only shop that sells your scratchy uniform, picking a pencil case, the narky crush in Clarks. (If you think that’s stressful, try living in Belgium, where school supplies demands are as esoteric and difficult to parse as the Voynich manuscript). All that preparation – the sharpening of crayons, ironing of name tags and ticking of lists – gives a welcome focus for the galloping anxiety the new academic year often awakens. Because September is the real high-stakes “new year, new you” and this time round, it’s not just for kids. Many companies are taking advantage of the new school year to encourage – or a more muscular verb – workers back in-person, not on-screen. Those of us who worked remotely are the lucky ones, but from doctors to delivery riders, a huge swathe of the workforce did not have the luxury of elastic waistbands and a safe, cosy home office. Now we’re anxious. We haven’t seen our colleagues unpixellated for 18 months and these were not, if I can generalise, our finest months. We grieved, feared and vegetated; we got addicted to Bourbons, or videos of cats sneezing. Our working routines became, hmm, idiosyncratic – the third breakfast, the 2pm nap, the 4am primal scream – and we forgot what “business casual” means, or whether it’s a good thing. As with school, getting back to the office going back might mean boredom, bullies and the grey, alienating drag of doing what you’re told all day. But like school, it might also be a chance for reinvention: who are we now? Perhaps we’re actually wiser, kinder, better. Failing that, there’s the consolation prize of a functioning printer. So write your adult supplies list – blister plasters, emergency biscuit, stain remover, paper bag to breathe into if it gets too much – and look out your lanyard: the office is back. Emma Beddington Continue reading...
Venice has played host to the premiere of Harry Wootliff’s oddly bog-standard story of a Ramsgate benefits officer wooed by a love-ratHarry Wootliff is the talented director who made the excellent, Glasgow-set Only You a few years ago. Ruth Wilson is a reliably fine actor; Tom Burke was a revelation in Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir. On paper, therefore, True Things –their account of a toxic relationship in the less glamorous bits of Kent – has everything going for it. I’m still scratching my head over what went wrong with this one.Related: 'I'm an expressionist nihilist at heart': the dark allure of Tom Burke Continue reading...
Despite the dazzling dialogue and familiar delights, Rooney’s story of a young prize-winning writer is her most demanding book to dateEven in these accelerated times it seems bewildering: was it really only four years ago that Sally Rooney made her debut? The ecstatic welcome given to Conversations With Friends, a deadpan comedy of arty Dublin millennials, was a mere curtain-raiser to the escape velocity achieved a year later by her cross-class teen love story, Normal People. Amid the strenuously cerebral to-and-fro of the online Sallyology industry, arguing over how far the books reflected or betrayed the author’s avowed Marxism, it could be forgotten (though never, perversely, by her detractors) how purely and straightforwardly enjoyable Rooney is to read, which isn’t to say, as Will Self has, that Normal People represents “very simple stuff with no literary ambition”.
Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post used freedom of information to produce the definitive US version of the warIn the summer of 2009, the latest in a long line of US military commanders in Afghanistan commissioned the latest in a long line of strategic reviews, in the perennial hope it would make enough of a difference to allow the Americans to go home.Related: ‘The intensity has not changed’: Jason Kander on the fall of Afghanistan – and trying to get friends out Continue reading...
The actor, writer and creator of I May Destroy You, has written a manifesto, Misfits, in praise of being an outlier. Here she answers questions from famous fans and Observer readersMichaela Coel has one enormous eye, looming at me like a cyclops. She’s deliberately pushing different parts of her face at her laptop camera – “Boom!” – trying to make me laugh (it works). The award-winning Coel has been laying low since the genre-shattering TV series I May Destroy You came out during lockdown last year. Having admitted that she wanted to run away when it came out – “I struggle with that bit… I tend to go somewhere to hide” – she’s come off social media, stopped giving interviews for a little while. But in person, laying low is not Coel’s style.She’s a communicator. She talks in long, descriptive sentences and even when she’s not messing with the camera, her face is always moving, her thoughts and emotions flooding her features. At formal events, she can present a serious front – face and body held still and dignified – but today she’s upbeat. Her laugh is big. Sometimes, she stops in the middle of an answer and asks herself questions, wondering out loud about whether she’s being honest enough: “Do I feel that?” she says. “Do I really feel that?” Continue reading...
Resolution Foundation says mismatch between skillsets of those losing jobs in UK and those needed will continue unless government steps inBritain’s shortage of lorry drivers and care staff is unlikely to be solved by furloughed workers being made redundant when the job protection scheme ends at the end of the month, according to a study by a leading thinktank.A mismatch between the types of jobs that are no longer needed and the vacancies in industries facing a significant lack of skilled staff will persist into next year without government intervention, the Resolution Foundation said. Continue reading...
Something or someone stole the steering wheel of your life, you need to get it back, says Philippa PerryThe question I have reached a point in my life where I am having to make the major commitments expected, like marriage, homeownership and children. Decisions that shape your life. I recently chose to end a relationship and step away from buying a house, though, because I felt unable to commit wholeheartedly. In some ways, it only felt I reached those significant events because it was forced upon me rather than getting excited and choosing for myself. It’s not that I don’t take a plunge – sometimes I have to, after all I have to live somewhere. But it always seems to be someone else doing the deciding. I just don’t have any eagerness or desire for anything.The more I think about it, the more I feel that I have this across my whole life and for all my life. I have a very short-term outlook where I can look forward to small things, like a holiday or starting a new job. But I can’t look forward to anything that has future implications. I never stay with an employer for a long time, or even commit to a savings plan. Continue reading...
The country has now recorded 801 infections in the outbreak, with one death and 38 people in hospitalNew Zealand has reported 20 new cases of coronavirus in the community, bringing the total number in the outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant to 801. It is the fifth day in a row cases numbers have remained low, and an encouraging sign that the strict lockdown measures are working.Since recording 83 cases a week ago, daily case numbers have been 53, 49, 75, 49, 28 and now 20, two days in a row. All of the 20 cases reported on Sunday were in Auckland. Continue reading...
The attack comes days after a drone strike on an airport in Saudi Arabia’s south left eight people woundedSaudi Arabia has intercepted three ballistic missiles fired from neighbouring Yemen targeting the oil-rich Eastern province, as well as the cities of Najran and Jazan in the south, defence officials claimed.Shrapnel from one of the missiles scattered over the city of Dammam, injuring two Saudi children and damaging 14 houses, according to the defence ministry. Continue reading...
by Charlotte Graham-McLay and Eva Corlett on (#5P5XH)
Jacinda Ardern says ‘every legal avenue’ was used to detain Ahamed Aathil Mohamed Samsudeen until his refugee status was resolvedNew Zealand had tried for years to deport the terrorist who stabbed shoppers in an Auckland supermarket on Friday before being shot dead by the police officers tasked with watching him, the country’s prime minister has said.Ahamed Aathil Mohamed Samsudeen, a 32-year-old Sri Lankan man, was fighting to keep his refugee status in New Zealand when he carried out the attack, which Jacinda Ardern said was inspired by the Islamic State. Continue reading...
Wood-fire cooking isn’t just for sausages and marshmallows, Harry Fisher says, and lockdown is no excuse for not upping your campfire-cuisine gameUsually, plenty of Australians would be starting to make plans for summer camping trips about now. Others would already be on them, having escaped the southern states for long soirees north where winter is little more than a horror story told to scare kids at night.A significant proportion of those people, though – and maybe you, reading this – are stuck at home dreaming of the warmth and crying into their beer while watching Netflix, thanks to ongoing lockdowns and border closures. Continue reading...
The South African novelist on making a pilgrimage to Cormac McCarthy’s home, his youth in apartheid-era Pretoria and being shortlisted twice for the Booker prizeNovelist and playwright Damon Galgut, 57, grew up in Pretoria, South Africa, at the height of the apartheid era. He wrote his first novel aged 17 and has twice been shortlisted for the Booker prize. His latest, The Promise, spans four tumultuous decades as it traces the afterlife of a white matriarch’s dying wish to bequeath property to her black servant. The novel is heavily tipped to land him a place on this year’s shortlist when it’s announced on 14 September. He lives in Cape Town.How did The Promise originate?
A savvy electoral campaign against two lacklustre opponents has put the SPD leader ahead in the polls to succeed Angela MerkelOf all the political posters and billboards that line the streets of German towns and cities this late summer, the ones most likely to stop commuters in their tracks are those bathed in traffic-light red.Using a stark colour scheme usually exclusive to the Marxist-Leninist parties on the fringe of the German left, the posters are surprising in more ways than one: in the centre of the picture sits a bald, suited man who looks less like a leftwing rabble-rouser promising you radical change than a middle manager at a regional building society scrutinising your loan application. Continue reading...
Border staff left dealing with backlog of travellers as reports emerge of people fainting in three-hour queuesDelays at Heathrow airport have been described as “unacceptable” by the Home Office, af reports of passengers fainting in queues of up to three hours.Border staff were left dealing with a huge backlog of travellers, with witnesses saying they had seen people – including a pregnant woman – passing out while queueing. Continue reading...
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