In his first interview with western media, Kandahar’s enforcer promises that things will be different from the brutal 1990sMawlawi Mohammad Shebani is officially in charge of policing morals throughout Kandahar, the Taliban heartland of southern Afghanistan.He is newly appointed head of the provincial office for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice, a title which strikes fear into many Afghans old enough to remember its previous incarnation under Taliban rule in the 1990s. Continue reading...

The Tory leader’s reshuffle was ruthless but the challenge is to create a post-Covid recovery and prove ‘levelling up’ and ‘global Britain’ aren’t mere slogansFor ministers who trooped into Downing Street on Wednesday it was hardly the warmest of welcomes. As the promoted, sacked and sidelined came and went, four armed policemen stared grimly through the black gates while anti-government protestors blared out music from a large speaker on the pavement outside.Road to Nowhere was one song that rang out down Whitehall, The Lunatics have taken over the Asylum followed. Nearby, the anti-Brexit activist Steve Bray was in full cry, confronting the new foreign secretary Liz Truss within minutes of her elevation, shouting: “So you are the new minister for pork pies.” Continue reading...

Boxing great’s daughter says new Ken Burns documentary for PBS will show how he coped with fame – and used it for social purposesIn February 1964 Muhammad Ali, then 22-year-old Cassius Clay of Louisville, Kentucky, proclaimed for the first time “I am the greatest” before snatching, from Sonny Liston, the first of his three world heavyweight boxing titles.Related: We need to separate sport and politics. But also recognise they’re inseparable | Kenan Malik Continue reading...

It’s as if you are in some sort of subconscious prison and I want you to escape, says Philippa PerryThe question I’ve been with my husband for 22 years. Ten years ago, I suffered depression. My doctor said it was nothing and dismissed me.My husband showed no interest in me, we barely talked or had sex, I’d try to get his attention with meals or looking nice, and he’d get angry and tell me all was fine and why did I wear my depression like a badge of honour? At times, I felt suicidal. Continue reading...

The German monarch’s imperial ambitions were fuelled by the British colonialist – as the story behind a recently discovered relic revealsIt was discovered, dusty and damaged, on a warehouse shelf.Recorded simply as a “paperweight” in the depot inventory, it was just one small piece among 30,000 personal items salvaged from Kaiser Wilhelm II’s palaces more than a century ago, and sent on to him in a convoy of 64 railway coaches as he abdicated and fled to the Netherlands after Germany’s defeat in the first world war. Continue reading...

The €38m asylum seeker centre on Samos – the first of five – has restaurants and air-conditioning but it’s like a prison, say criticsIt has eight restaurants, seven basketball courts, three playgrounds, a football pitch, special rooms for vulnerable people, and is purportedly eco-friendly.But Greece’s new “closed” migrant camp for 3,000 asylum seekers on Samos is also surrounded by military-grade fencing, watched over by police and located in a remote valley, and has been likened by critics to a jail or a dystopian nightmare. Its message is clear: if Europe-bound asylum seekers reach the country, they are going to be strictly controlled. Continue reading...

The formation of the election committee on Sunday is the first poll to be held under the patriots rule imposed by BeijingHong Kong’s political elite begin selecting a powerful committee on Sunday that will choose nearly half the legislature – and later a new leader – under a new “patriots only” system imposed by Beijing.The first poll under that new system, dubbed “patriots rule Hong Kong”, will take place on Sunday as members of the city’s ruling classes choose a 1,500-seat election committee. Continue reading...

Experts believe works at Yongbyon nuclear facility could allow production of bomb-making material to increase by up to 25%Recent satellite images appear to show North Korea is expanding a uranium enrichment plant at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex, with experts saying the move shows an intent to boost the production of bomb materials.The assessment comes after North Korea recently raised tensions with its first missile tests in six months amid long-dormant nuclear disarmament negotiations with the US. Continue reading...

Jean-Pierre Thebault was angry about Aukus as he left Australia on Saturday night, saying: ‘It’s like in a couple, you know, when you commit … you don’t run away’

With its cosy socks, simmering hotpots and scary festivals, autumn is rich in tradition. But should we insist on fetishising a season of rain, fading light and tedious poetry?Depending on your view, autumn has a bad rap, or an easy time of it. Overdue a renaissance or passé to even admit liking at all. As a child, I considered autumn the red-headed stepchild of the calendar. It was the end of summer. It was back to school. It was a period in which blue skies turned white and the sun started showing up less and less, like texts from a friend you’d made on holiday. Then, in a strange move, the government would surgically remove an entire hour of sunlight, presumably at the behest of whatever grisly nest of vampires came up with daylight savings time.So far, so bad. But autumn was also a twilight time of change and spookiness, of crisp air, Halloween and substantially better television programmes. Sure, it’s the time of school uniforms, but it’s also the time of soup and candles and, again, much better television programmes. Continue reading...

As France accuses the US and Australia of ‘lies and duplicity’, new UK foreign secretary faces major diplomatic incident on her first official overseas tripLiz Truss is heading for a furious diplomatic confrontation with France on her first trip abroad as foreign secretary, as anger mounts in Paris over the cancellation of a £48bn nuclear submarine contract.Truss, whose appointment was one of the biggest surprises of Boris Johnson’s cabinet reshuffle last Wednesday, will arrive in the US on Sunday before a four-day visit to New York and Washington during which she is aiming to promote the prime minister’s vision of “global Britain” to international leaders. Continue reading...

Cross-party MPs and peers say the response to the two crises has exposed system as inadequateThe rapid fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban and the response to the Covid-19 pandemic have revealed “serious weaknesses” in the government’s approach to dealing with national security, according to a highly critical cross-party report.MPs and peers found that the two critical events had highlighted the shortcomings of the national security council – a cabinet committee of senior ministers and officials designed to handle major security challenges. The Lords’ and Commons’ joint committee on the national security strategy (JCNSS) said the system had been exposed as inadequate. It warned that national risk management across government is “loose, unstructured, and lacking in central oversight and accountability”. Continue reading...

British boxer claims to have been banned by American Airlines after colleague’s mask ‘not high enough’British boxer Amir Khan has said he was escorted from a flight in the US by police “for no reason”.The 34-year-old, who has also appeared on reality television shows including I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!, claimed he had been banned by American Airlines. Continue reading...

French foreign minister makes no attempt to hide anger as former UK ambassador says announcement ‘puts a big rift in Nato alliance’France’s historic decision to recall its ambassadors to the US and Australia is far more than a diplomatic spat, analysts have warned.The move, in protest at Canberra’s surprise decision to cancel an order for French-built submarines and its security pact with Washington and London, will affect France and Europe’s role in Nato and already strained relations with the UK. Continue reading...

OzHarvest says it is distributing five times as many hampers as it was at the start of lockdown

Picture Search owner Derek de Vreught aims to stick around as browsing for DVDs becomes a niche experience

Dozens of West Papuans were tortured and thrown into the sea 23 years ago. Days later, Australia knew details of the attack, yet remained silentIn the pre-dawn light, beneath a water tower on the West Papuan island of Biak, Yudha Korwa lay bleeding in the dirt.Four days earlier, the young high school student, full of hope in post-Suharto, Reformasi Indonesia, had joined hundreds of other independence activists to fly the Morning Star, the banned West Papuan flag, near Biak’s harbour. Continue reading...

Sara Duterte ahead in the polls despite refusing to commit to presidential raceIt was a decade ago, before her father had become Philippine president, that Sara Duterte attracted national attention. A local sheriff had ignored orders issued by her, the mayor of Davao City, to delay the demolition of a shantytown. She arrived at the scene furious and punched him, not once, but four times in the head, in front of reporters.Duterte, 43, a motorbike lover and tough talker, has a combative image that echoes that of her 76-year-old father, the populist president Rodrigo Duterte. It is widely believed that, as he nears the end of his six-year term limit, she will follow in his footsteps to Manila’s Malacañang Palace. Continue reading...

West Midlands police said the 5ft-long female python was ‘very friendly’A couple from Dudley were left shocked after discovering a 5ft python in their bedroom.The yellow snake was removed by West Midlands police after it was found wrapped around a vanity mirror at the couple’s home in Quarry Bank, Dudley. Continue reading...

Initial reports suggest a Taliban convoy may have been targeted in the ISKP’s stronghold regionAt least three people have been killed and more than 18 people injured in three explosions in Jalalabad in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province.It is reported that the intended target may have been a passing convoy of the Taliban in the provincial capital. It is the first attack in the province since the Taliban came into power in mid-August. Continue reading...

Polish director Patryk Vega’s usually slick technique fails him utterly here in this lurid story about a cop investigating a girl’s kidnapping by the Russian mafiaPatryk Vega is the Polish writer-director whose hardboiled thrillers have found commercial favour both at home and with diaspora audiences: 2018’s The Plagues of Breslau was the kind of full-throttle, unapologetically 18-rated entertainment western producers have largely backed away from. Regrettably, his latest is both globetrotting and dashed-off, and so remorseless that it becomes actively punishing. Violence is hardwired into Vega’s film-making: his unhinged protagonists can’t walk into a room without it seeming like a declaration of war. You gulp, then, when an ominous (and suspiciously unattributed) epigram – “What sort of species are we, if we cannot protect our children?” – makes clear this director has turned his brawn to addressing trafficking. What follows has two modes: lurid and sentimental. Either way, it’s a big wince.Our hero Robert Goc (Piotr Adamczyk) is a cop of a familiarly grizzled stripe, first introduced as he chaperones a desperate mother to the border after the latter’s daughter is snatched by the Russian mob. The case gets forcibly reopened several years later after a gas explosion in the Russian suburbs exposes a paedophilic treasure trove in the bathroom of weak-willed foster parent Oleg (Andris Keiss). Given that Oleg’s brother is played by an especially phlegmy Aleksey Serebryakov (from Leviathan and the recent Nobody), we sense things can only get grimmer. Sure enough: half an hour in, a pregnant 11-year-old is throwing herself in front of a train at Rotherham station. Worse ensues in Bangkok, where Goc starts to wonder whether he himself might have certain … tendencies. Continue reading...

Central Sulawesi province’s military chief says Ali Kalora of East Indonesia Mujahideen shot during gun battle with security forcesIndonesia’s most wanted militant with ties to the Islamic State (IS) group has been killed in a gun battle with security forces, the military said, in a victory for the counter-terrorism campaign against extremists in the jungles of Sulawesi island.Ali Kalora was one of two militants killed in the shootout, according to Central Sulawesi province’s military chief, Brig Gen Farid Makruf. He identified the other suspected extremist as Jaka Ramadan. Continue reading...

Man, 49, held on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving after incident in Keighley on FridayA man has been arrested after a nine-year-old boy died when he was hit by a van which is said to have made off from the scene.West Yorkshire police are appealing for witnesses to the incident in Keighley on Friday. Continue reading...

Adavosertib found to delay tumour growth in some patients in clinical trial, with few side effectsResearchers have identified a potential new targeted treatment for incurable bowel cancer.The medication has shown promise in a clinical trial in slowing the regrowth of tumours among some patients with the condition. Continue reading...

Restoration to start at the cathedral in the centre of Paris two years after a fire destroyed the attic and spireWork to shore up Notre Dame in Paris has been finished, allowing restoration to start at the cathedral two years after a fire destroyed the attic and sent its spire crashing through the vaults below.Soon after the April 2019 blaze, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said the cathedral – which dates back to the 12th century – would be rebuilt. He later promised to reopen it to worshippers by 2024, when France hosts the Olympic Games. Continue reading...

Gang violence, bloody protests, food and fuel shortages plus natural disasters have spurred many to leave the west’s poorest nationEvery night Guy would fall asleep to the sound of gunfire: warring gangs in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, were fighting pitched battles in the city centre.By day, the country was roiled by bloody protests against food and fuel shortages. Roadblocks with burning tyres were commonplace, and the police responded with tear gas and billy clubs. Continue reading...

The country’s greatest living writer feels ‘surprised, bewildered and assaulted’ after the president issued a warrant for his arrest and seized copies of his new novel about the 2018 uprisingSergio Ramírez, Nicaragua’s best-known living writer, hero of the Sandinista revolution, and former vice-president of the volcanic Central American nation, has lived through both tougher times and duller publicity tours.Even so, the past few days have been – as he puts it, with a degree of understatement – “an odd experience”. Continue reading...

Police deploy pepper spray and dodge projectiles as protests held in Melbourne, Sydney, Byron Bay and Brisbane

For 17 years in the Guide, cartoonists Jon Link and Mick Bunnage have poked and prodded at pop culture. They handpick 15 strips from the archives ...

Campaigners fear ban emboldens anti-choice governments as more aggressive opposition, better organised and funded, spreads from USThe new anti-abortion law in Texas is a “terrifying” reminder of the fragility of hard-won rights, pro-choice activists have said, as they warn of a “more aggressive, much better organised [and] better funded” global opposition movement.Pro-choice campaigners have seen several victories in recent years, including in Ireland, Argentina and, most recently, Mexico, where the supreme court ruled last week that criminalising abortion was unconstitutional. Another is hoped for later this month when the tiny enclave of San Marino, landlocked within Italy, holds a highly charged referendum. Continue reading...

Simba Mujakachi says government’s ‘hostile environment’ policies deterred him from taking medicationSimba Mujakachi, a personal trainer, was just 29 years old in June 2019 when he suffered a catastrophic stroke that left him comatose. When he awoke, he was paralysed on his left side and unable to talk or eat.His stroke could have been prevented by relatively inexpensive medication for a blood clotting condition that, as an asylum seeker, he was not entitled to on the NHS. Continue reading...

Concerns raised over confusion between Home Office and councils over who will house arrivalsAfghans evacuated to Britain are facing homelessness and destitution amid confusion over plans to house them, MPs say. And essential supplies meant for newborns and mothers, largely provided by volunteers, are not always reaching them, leading to concerns over their ongoing care.Most families have been moved out of quarantine into “bridging” hotels. But some, including traumatised British citizens, are scrambling to find accommodation. Others are being sent far from their support networks. One man who has lived in north London for 23 years, told the Guardian he was suffering from depression after being sent to a hotel hundreds of miles from relatives. Another was told to board a bus with his sick baby daughter to Liverpool, despite having an emergency housing claim in London. Continue reading...

Lauren Anne Dickason is charged with killing two-year-old twins and their six-year-old sister soon after arriving from South AfricaA woman has appeared in court charged with murdering her three young daughters just weeks after the family arrived in New Zealand from South Africa.Lauren Anne Dickason appeared in court on Saturday morning in the port city of Timaru, and a judge remanded her to a hospital for a mental health evaluation, a court spokesperson said. Continue reading...

Campaigners call for parades to be re-routed as up to 13,000 people expected to converge in city centreCampaigners against anti-Catholic bigotry and anti-Irish discrimination will gather in protest around vulnerable churches on Saturday, as Glasgow braces itself for the largest gathering of Orange marchers since the pandemic.More than 30 of the controversial Protestant parades will converge in the city centre to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the first Battle of the Boyne parade, with potential turnout estimated from 5,000 to 13,000. Hundreds of police officers are expected to be deployed on the day, with 32 streets closed until mid-afternoon to facilitate the marchers. Continue reading...

Bouteflika, an independence war veteran, was ousted during pro-democracy protests in 2019Algeria’s longest-serving president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who was ousted in 2019 amid pro-democracy protests after two decades in power, has died aged 84.The state television announcement on Friday, citing a statement from the office of the current president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, did not provide the cause of death. Continue reading...

Animal and Plant Health Agency says infected animal was dead and has been removed from the farmA single case of BSE – an infection commonly known as “mad cow disease” – has been confirmed on a farm in Somerset.The Animal and Plant Health Agency (Apha) said the infected animal was dead and had been removed from the farm. Continue reading...

President Xi Jinping faces serious test of his financial reforms as struggles of property giant send ripples through real-estate sectorThe crisis engulfing Evergrande, China’s second-biggest property company, is the greatest test yet of President Xi Jinping’s effort to reform the debt-ridden behemoths of the Chinese economy. It could also be the most significant test that China’s financial system has faced in many years.As angry protesters occupied the headquarters of the troubled property developer in recent weeks, some analysts have described the Evergrande crisis as “China’s Lehman Brothers moment”. Only this time it’s a credit-fuelled housebuilder that suddenly can’t pay its $300bn debts, rather than a blue-chip investment bank that many assumed was too big to fail but was instead thrown to the wolves 13 years ago. Continue reading...

One woman’s modest mission to restore law and order to the streets has divided a cityAll Anne Moran wants is a civilised city where people politely stick to the left on the footpath.The Adelaide councillor is tired of cyclists, scooters, smartphone zombies and meanderers ricocheting off each other, creating mayhem on the (ahem) thriving streets of her city. Continue reading...

Just two weeks before the bombshell, senior ministers from both countries met and declared they were ‘committed to cooperation’. How did it all go so wrong?

Overhaul in England aims to simplify travel by scrapping traffic light system and changing testing requirements

Canada already shares intelligence with Australia, the UK, the US and New Zealand but was not included in Aukus pactJustin Trudeau is facing harsh criticism from political rivals after Canada was excluded from a new international defence pact, days before the country votes in a federal election.Australia, the United Kingdom and the United State on Wednesday announced a new intelligence sharing agreement meant to counter Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific region. Continue reading...

Inquest into Frankie MacRitchie’s death recommends more ‘robust system’ to ensure police deal with dangerous dogsA coroner is to write to a police force over the tragedy of a nine-year-old boy mauled to death by a dog during a Cornish holiday, after his inquest heard the animal had been involved in previous attacks.Frankie MacRitchie was killed after being left alone in a caravan with the 45kg dog, an American bulldog crossed with a staffordshire bull terrier called Winston. Continue reading...

Ank Bijleveld joins Sigrid Kaag in resigning, after both were formally censured as interpreters strandedThe Dutch defence minister has became the second cabinet member to resign over the Afghan evacuation debacle.Ank Bijleveld resigned on Friday, following the foreign minister, Sigrid Kaag, out of the door after parliament formally censured them over a crisis that has left dozens of interpreters stranded in Afghanistan. Continue reading...

PM will hope signing of this week’s Aukus deal will help the allies move on from the chaos of KabulBoris Johnson will fly to New York this weekend for his first foreign trip since the Covid pandemic, hoping to cement his relationship with the US president, Joe Biden, after a rocky summer marred by the chaotic Kabul airlift.Two years ago, when Johnson made his first foreign trip as prime minister to the Biarritz G7 summit, the hope was that Donald Trump’s enthusiasm for the man he called “Britain Trump” would help smooth the way for a rapid post-Brexit trade deal with the US. Continue reading...

After five years at the agency tackling organised crime, she is leaving to focus on treatment for breast cancerThe head of the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), sometimes dubbed Britain’s FBI, is stepping down to focus on her fight against cancer.Dame Lynne Owens announced her intention to retire as NCA director general on Friday, after 32 years of service to law enforcement. Continue reading...

Brazil’s president claims he has not received a Covid-19 vaccine – but his immunization records have been locked away for 100 yearsThe Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, has signaled that he will snub New York City vaccination rules when he travels to next week’s UN general assembly claiming not to have received a Covid jab.Bolsonaro is the only G20 leader who publicly claims not to have been vaccinated against a disease that has killed nearly 600,000 Brazilians, although the decision to place a 100-year secrecy order on his immunization records means many citizens doubt that claim. Continue reading...

Gearoid Cavanagh and Jordan Devine appear via videolink at Derry magistrates in Northern IrelandTwo men have appeared in court in Northern Ireland charged with the murder of the writer Lyra McKee.Gearoid Cavanagh, 33, and Jordan Devine, 21, both from Derry, appeared via videolink at Derry magistrates’ court on Friday Continue reading...

Poorer diet may explain why the lofty lowlanders are at least 1cm shorter than the previous generationIt is, perhaps, with just a hint of satisfaction that the Dutch office for national statistics has confirmed that the men and women of the Netherlands remain the tallest people on the planet. But the government’s statisticians have had cause to report a further potentially humbling twist: the Dutch are shrinking.For the last six decades, the people of the lowlands have stood imperiously at the top of the world height league table, with the latest data suggesting the average 19-year-old man stood at just over 6ft tall (182.9cm) in 2020, while women born in the same year measured in at 5ft 5in (169.3cm). Continue reading...

Royal’s legal team believed to be contesting service of notice of Virginia Giuffre’s civil sexual assault actionThe Duke of York’s lawyers have one week to challenge a decision that he can be formally notified by the UK courts of the US civil sex assault case against him, the high court in London has said.The high court on Wednesday accepted a request by lawyers for Virginia Roberts Giuffre to formally contact him if necessary about her legal proceedings launched in New York. Continue reading...

The source of the rocker’s enviable eternal youth? In the words of the man himself, it’s avidly rooting out new artists into his 70s (and beyond)I keep reading that we decline in our 70s so I try to keep using my brain. Discovering new music opens my mind and the element of surprise keeps me connected. I feel like I’m mining for diamonds – and when you find the diamond, you know. When I heard Chaise Longue by Wet Leg I got really excited: it’s cheeky, with a wicked groove, but it’s the vocals – they’re almost metronomic. You could ask 100 people to sing it and it wouldn’t sound the same.Related: The Guide: Staying In – sign up for our home entertainment tips Continue reading...