World news | The Guardian

20 men accused of involvement in 2015 massacre, but it is unclear whether the key accused will break their silenceDeep inside Paris’s historic law courts on the bank of the River Seine, builders were putting the finishing touches to an extraordinary architectural structure described as a cross between a high-security bunker and modern church.Its sleek pale wood and white lighting were chosen by the French justice ministry to create “a sense of calm” in contrast to the horrific events which will soon be examined there. This temporary structure will from next week host the biggest criminal trial ever held in France, when 20 men are accused of planning, aiding and carrying out the November 2015 Paris terrorist attacks on a stadium, bars and restaurants and the Bataclan concert hall. Continue reading...

Foreign secretary says Afghanistan’s fall came ‘faster than anyone anticipated’ during Islamabad visitDominic Raab has said there was widespread surprise including among the Taliban at the speed with which the group swept to military victory in Afghanistan, but the UK now wanted direct communication with the militants.Raab was speaking after holding talks with officials in Pakistan, the country with the greatest sway over the Taliban. It was his first visit to Islamabad as foreign secretary, and follows criticism that he had not engaged with the Pakistan foreign policy elite in the six months prior to the crisis erupting. Continue reading...

Three performers – among the one million people suffering from long Covid – explain the painful process of getting back on stageIn 2019, the actor and director Helen Oakleigh was hired to stage a number of shows in China that would be playing throughout 2020. They flew from London to Wuhan on 1 January last year and then on to Chengdu but, soon after arriving, began to feel unwell with a virus that would later be diagnosed as Covid-19. Although able to return to work soon afterwards, they struggled to concentrate and experienced sensory overload. Today, Oakleigh is “unrecognisable” from her former self and, along with many others working in the stage industry, is dealing with both the effects of the pandemic on the arts as well as long Covid.Oakleigh is one of around a million people in the UK with long Covid. After working all around the world on stage and screen projects, from Harry Potter to Shakespeare, the actor is now also an advocate for helping fellow sufferers. Oakleigh never felt 100% better but by July 2020 was getting there and, thinking she was just “deconditioned”, began to push slowly back to previous fitness levels and enjoy hockey, netball and cycling again. “I was doing a lot and also working. I was really proud that I had got to that level.” Continue reading...

Security contractors among hundreds from the Philippines, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka stuck without clear plans for evacuationWhen Taliban fighters started to kick at the door of a UN compound in a northern province 250 miles (400km) from the Afghan capital, Kabul, Rajesh* was certain he was going to be killed.The Taliban had taken control of the area on that day. Rajesh, a UN security contractor from India, hurried with his colleagues into an emergency steel-doored room. Before they sealed themselves in, they saw a group of seven or eight heavily armed men. Continue reading...

Businesses are becoming increasingly aware that exhaustion is a ticking timebomb

Natalia López and Eneko Abad crisscross Aragon serving elderly customers who cannot get to salonsWhen Natalia López travels to her parents’ village in northern Spain, she packs the essentials: scissors, combs and clippers.As the Zaragoza-based hairdresser strolls the streets of Huesa del Común, an isolated hamlet of 69 residents, her skills are in high demand. “I style my mother’s hair, give my father a haircut, and there are always neighbours who say: ‘Since you’re here, can you cut my hair as well? Or touch up my colour?’” Continue reading...

Prime minister says deal will boost supplies in September as 12-to-15-year-olds join vaccination rollout

Jacinda Ardern says attack was carried out by a ‘violent extremist’ who followed Islamic State ideology and was being monitored by policeAn attack at a New Zealand supermarket was “a terrorist attack” by a “violent extremist” who follows Islamic State ideology and who had been under heavy surveillance by police, prime minister Jacinda Ardern has said.A man was shot dead on Friday afternoon by police after entering a West Auckland supermarket and stabbing at least six people, who are now in hospital. Continue reading...

Linda Burney claims the vaccine blitz plan shows the government has ‘completely stuffed up’ the protection of vulnerable Aboriginal populations

Secret documents reveal scale of funeral strategy and government anxieties over resourcesThe UK government’s vast security operation to manage the immediate aftermath of the death of the Queen include official social media blackouts and a ban on retweets.The secret documents, codenamed Operation London Bridge and seen by Politico, reveal the scale of the plans for the funeral and government anxieties about whether the UK has the resources to execute them. Continue reading...

The newsletter platform has poached big names including Salman Rushdie along with a slew of comic book authors from DC and MarvelThe subscription newsletter platform Substack announced on Wednesday it had signed an exclusive deal with Salman Rushdie – but he is just the latest in a growing number of authors making the leap to write serialised fiction delivered straight to the inboxes of subscribers who pay a monthly fee.Several comic book writers and artists have announced lucrative deals to provide exclusive content for the California-based company founded four years ago, in some cases eschewing contracts with Marvel and DC to do so. Continue reading...

Move comes on back of Beijing encouraging firms to share wealth as part of a drive to ease inequalityChina’s Alibaba Group will invest 100bn yuan ($15.5bn) by 2025 in support of “common prosperity”, it said, becoming the latest corporate giant to pledge support for the initiative driven by the president, Xi Jinping.Beijing has been encouraging companies to share wealth as part of the effort to ease inequality in the world’s second-largest economy. Other companies that have made similar announcements include Tencent Holdings, which also pledged 100bn yuan, and Geely Automobile. Continue reading...

After winning Sundance in 1992, the director’s career stalled, thanks in part, he says, to Harvey Weinstein. It was making films with his family that saved himWhen Alexandre Rockwell’s basement flooded a few years ago, he spotted an opportunity. Why not do the repairs himself and put the $80,000 (£58,000) insurance payout towards making a new film? He hired graduate students from New York University, where he is the head of directing at the graduate film school, as crew and cast his children, Lana, 18, and Nico, 15, in the leading roles. Lana is on our video call, too, laughing at her dad as he finishes the story. “I’ll do whatever I have to do to make a film,” he jokes. “I just hope I don’t have to burn my house down next time, or cut my leg off.”Lana was 15 when the family shot Sweet Thing. It is the second movie directed by their dad that she has appeared in with her brother Nico – a follow-up of sorts to 2013’s Little Feet. In both, the Rockwells play siblings growing up dirt poor, constantly in harm’s way, but whose innocence is a kind of magical overcoat, protecting them from the world – up to a point. Little Feet was about two little kids taking their goldfish to the ocean to set it free. The new one is a coming-of-age tale, Stand by Me meets Badlands. Shot in black and white on 16mm film, the two movies share a freewheeling energy and a fairytale quality; the world seen through a child’s sense of wonder. Continue reading...

An innovative community project has brightened buildings, ‘brought people together’ and provided an emotional outlet after traumatic journeysJadhav*, 18, from Bangladesh, arrived in Italy 10 months ago, but is still haunted by memories of his journey with people smugglers across the Mediterranean Sea.“There were 156 people packed into a small boat. There were women and children,” says Jadhav in broken Italian and Bengali translated on a smartphone app. “Waves were coming over the side. People were weeping. There was no hope of survival.” Continue reading...

Thieves will face tougher penalties under legislation unveiled by government after surge in crimesDognappers will face tougher penalties under government plans to introduce a criminal offence of pet abduction.Pet theft is currently prosecuted under the Theft Act and is subsequently treated as loss of property to the owner, which for years campaigners have been saying fails to recognise the emotional distress caused by the crime. Continue reading...

Statement comes after allegations king helped George Brown’s killers return to TongaTonga’s royal family has denied an allegation that the late King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV was involved in covering up the murder of Australian horse trainer George Brown almost four decades ago.Brown’s incinerated body was found in a burnt out car in bushland near Sydney in 1984. Continue reading...

Leader dogged by poor opinion ratings unexpectedly announces intention to step down after just a year amid anger over Covid responseJapan’s prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, is to step down from his party’s leadership this month amid mounting discontent at his government’s handling of the pandemic.“The battle against the coronavirus takes a vast amount of energy and I don’t feel it is possible to carry on with that and fight the upcoming election for the party leadership,” said Suga in a brief statement to reporters, during which he took no questions. Continue reading...

Unicef says country wants to send its UN-backed allotment of 3m Sinovac shots to other nations, with some experts believing it may want other vaccinesNorth Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered officials to wage a tougher epidemic prevention campaign in “our style” after he turned down some foreign Covid-19 vaccines offered via the UN-backed immunisation program.During a Politburo meeting on Thursday, Kim said officials must “bear in mind that tightening epidemic prevention is the task of paramount importance which must not be loosened even a moment”, the official Korean Central News Agency reported on Friday. Continue reading...

Alexanda Amon Kotey, one of a gang of four IS militants, admits to hostage taking and conspiracy to murder in US courtA British terrorist accused of beheading western hostages for Islamic State has pleaded guilty to multiple charges in a US federal court.Alexanda Amon Kotey, 37, was one of the gang of four IS militants nicknamed “the Beatles” by their captives due to their British accents. Continue reading...

Social media delights in the gaffe of a Movie Max employee at Timaru as a tonic during Covid lockdownAn expletive-ridden voicemail recording, accidentally uploaded by a New Zealand cinema, is giving the nation a dose of cheer as it races to stamp out an outbreak of coronavirus.An employee of Movie Max Cinemas in the South Island port city of Timaru attempted to record a temporary closure voicemail while the region is in a level-3 lockdown, the country’s second-highest setting. Continue reading...

Man’s mother said she had called police on her son when he left home in Auckland after receiving his positive test resultA man who tested positive for Covid-19 before absconding from a quarantine facility in Auckland on Thursday had attempted to escape three times before he was successful, health officials report.New Zealand police arrested the man at a south Auckland address on Thursday afternoon, roughly 10km from the Novotel Ibis hotel in Ellerslie, where he was quarantining. He had been in the community for at least 12 hours at the time of his arrest. Continue reading...

Bulgaria currently least vaccinated EU country; Taiwan receives delivery organised by tech giants and a charity; likelihood of long Covid in double-jabbed adults who get coronavirus almost half

Possession could be criminalised as home secretary vows to ‘take tough action’ on use of laughing gasPossession of nitrous oxide, one of the most popular drugs among 16- to 24-year-olds, could be criminalised after the home secretary ordered experts to review its effects.Priti Patel said she was ready to “take tough action” on the widespread use of laughing gas, which is taken mostly through balloons filled from small metal cylinders often seen littering areas around nightclubs and music festivals. Continue reading...

Chair of commission scrutinising post-Brexit trade deals says ministers must act now to get shelves stocked for ChristmasThe government is being urged to “get a handle” on the supply chain crisis, as the chair of a cross-party commission created to scrutinise the UK’s post-Brexit trade deals said ministers need to act now to avoid empty shelves in the run-up to Christmas.“Red tape and labour shortages from Brexit have exacerbated problems that are being acutely felt across production, processing, manufacturing, retail and of course logistics,” said Aodhán Connolly, who chaired an extraordinary session of the UK Trade and Business Commission, a group of cross-party MPs and business representatives set up as an independent adviser to government in April. Continue reading...

It was an evening when, yet again, England had more than mere footballing problems thrown at them. It started with a hail of plastic cups, first for Raheem Sterling and then Luke Shaw, from the diehard Hungary supporters behind one of the goals, and it escalated to a firework – which was hurled in the wake of Harry Maguire’s header for 3-0.England’s players were celebrating as a group and it was a mighty relief that it missed its target, fizzing for a while before burning out. And then in the closing stages came the low point that everybody had dreaded. Continue reading...

Oscar Isaac is a blank-eyed poker player with a past in Schrader’s latest gathering of lost, tormented soulsPaul Schrader makes films about lost souls in torment and unachievable goals, the sort of bleak existential purgatories that speak to our own uglier moments. Ahead of the Venice press screening of his latest production, an impromptu security cordon makes more than 100 guests late, after which they are only allowed into the cinema in small dribs and drabs - a tense, shuffling progress that extends throughout the film’s opening half-hour. The critics are in uproar; the ushers get lairy. Wherever he is, I imagine that Schrader himself would approve of the show.On screen, The Card Counter provides another stylish, slow-burning account of Schrader’s lonesome samurai, a figure who can crop up in all walks of life: as a taxi driver, an escort, a drug dealer, a priest. On this occasion he’s embodied by a blank-eyed Oscar Isaac, who wears his scuffed leather jacket like a bulletproof vest. William Tell (formerly Tillich) is a veteran of Abu Ghraib and served eight years for his crimes. He now earns a living at the card tables and roulette wheels of middle America. The film has him driving the strip malls at night or prowling the stygian bowels of interchangeable casinos, with their patterned carpets and heavy black drapes. These joints have lights blazing everywhere and yet always appear cloaked in shadow. The gamblers, one worries, bring the darkness in with them. Continue reading...

Musician will be best remembered for scoring the film Zorba the Greek and defiance during military ruleThe renowned Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis, who scored the 1964 classic film Zorba the Greek and was an icon of resistance to the former military junta, has died in Athens, aged 96.A prolific talent and political maverick, Theodorakis was revered in his home country for his inspirational music and defiance during the junta that ruled from 1967 to 1974. Continue reading...

Lockdowns may harm mental health to an extent, but they also prevent epidemics which definitely do harm, experts say

Chris and Jackson feel grateful to be working during lockdown, enjoy their interaction with customers and take pride in providing an essential service

Swedish hitmakers to release album of brand new material in November, and digital avatars will appear in London concert residency in 2022One of the most anticipated comebacks in pop culture has finally come to pass: the return of Abba.Forty years after the bitter songs written in the wake of two band divorces for their last album, 1981’s The Visitors, the Swedish pop quartet have reunited for Voyage, an album of brand new songs that will be released on 5 November – including, they say, a Christmas song. Two tracks from it, the stately and epic ballad I Still Have Faith in You and the shimmying Don’t Shut Me Down, are out now. Continue reading...

Five-year-old dies and six-year-old brother critically ill after undergoing liver transplant near WarsawDoctors at Poland’s main children’s hospital have said a five-year-old Afghan boy, recently evacuated from Kabul, has died and his six-year-old brother, who has undergone a liver transplant, remains in life-threatening condition after they ate poisonous mushrooms.The boys and their older sister fell ill last week after their family picked and ate death cap mushrooms in the forest around the refugee centre where they were staying in Podkowa Leśna, near Warsaw. Continue reading...

Comedian who suggested young and healthy should not get vaccinated has tested positive

Prof Calum Semple and others advising government on Covid-19 response have been targeted by anti-vaxxers

Foreign secretary says UK must engage with Taliban in Afghanistan after meeting with Qatari officialsEvacuations may be able to resume from Kabul airport “in the near future”, the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has said as he expressed a need for direct engagement with the Taliban.Speaking after talks in Qatar on Thursday, Raab raised hopes that the Britons and Afghans left behind may be able to leave on flights from Afghanistan’s capital. Continue reading...

From Sleaford Mods in London to Mogwai in France, bands and performers talk about the strange and wonderful experience of returning to the stage after 16 months of deprivationThere were those few weeks of strange, haunted gigs in autumn 2020, but for most people live music disappeared at the start of March last year and didn’t return until this summer. It was a peculiar enough experience being in the crowds, but what was it like for the artists walking on stage after 18 months without the hum of amps, the dimming of house lights and the roar of an audience? From festival headline sets to low-key club shows, this is how the return to playing live felt for the musicians who came back. Continue reading...

Colleagues of Dr Marta Krawiec, who was killed while riding to work, say urgent safety work is neededA leading hospital has called for immediate safety works at a notoriously dangerous junction in central London where one of its doctors was killed last month while cycling to work, saying it was unacceptable for more lives to be put at risk.In a highly unusual intervention, the chair and chief executive of Guy’s and St Thomas’ trust, and the heads of the children’s allergy service where Dr Marta Krawiec worked, have written to the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, saying the moment had come “for action rather than words”. Continue reading...

The actor on studying with the Sex Pistols, being in a Bowie tribute act, the appeal of Roxy Music, the help of teachers and the power of surrealism Continue reading...

Lester Holloway of Britain’s only black national newspaper points to a ‘regression’ in recognising inequalityThe new editor of Britain’s only black national newspaper has warned the UK is going backwards in recognising institutional racism in the media and wider society.Lester Holloway, who was announced on Thursday as editor of the Voice, said the original statement by the Society of Editors that the UK media was not racist or bigoted, and which strongly disputed claims the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s negative coverage was motivated by racism, was part of a wider “regression” in recognising and tackling racial inequality. Continue reading...

Those on board the cramped military plane weren’t granted a last glimpse of their homeland before the difficult journey ahead, while all knew thousands still waited desperately belowThe American marine shouted “push!”. And hundreds of people did, shoving inside the Boeing C-17 military aircraft; tumbling over, then pulling their bodies into tight huddles on the floor to let as many others in as possible.As the rear door closed and the deafening engines started, lifting the heavy plane off the runway at Kabul’s international airport, people broke down wailing; crying. Now refugees. Continue reading...

At least 828 people were removed on charter flights last year, more than double the number removed in 2019The Home Office spent almost £9m on deportation charter flights last year, the Guardian has learned, including more than £500,000 for planes that never left the tarmac.At least 828 people were removed by air, more than double the 410 removed on similar charters in 2019. The department spent £8.2m on 47 charters to 24 countries in 2020, with 18 of those countries in Europe. Continue reading...

Court voted 5-4 to deny emergency appeal against law that bans abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activityA deeply divided supreme court has allowed a Texas law that bans most abortions to remain in force, stripping most women of the right to an abortion in the nation’s second-largest state.The court voted 5-4 early on Thursday to deny an emergency appeal from abortion providers and others that sought to block enforcement of the law that went into effect Wednesday. Continue reading...

Five Star Movement’s Virginia Raggi accuses Lazio regional government of failing to tackle problemRome’s mayor has opened a criminal lawsuit against the surrounding Lazio regional government over “the massive and uncontrolled presence of wild boar in Italy’s capital”.In recent years, Roman citizens and farmers have protested about wild boar wreaking havoc on their land and causing fatal road accidents, and the animal is believed to be responsible for an average of 10,000 road accidents a year in the country. Continue reading...

Three died at the scene on 23 August and a fourth later died of her injuries, Essex police saidA fourth person has died after a serious collision involving a lorry, a minibus and a car on the M25 in Essex.Three people died at the scene, between junctions 27 and 26 of the anticlockwise carriageway, on 23 August and a fourth person later died of her injuries, Essex police said. Continue reading...

Official says ceremony is being prepared at presidential palace in Kabul – two weeks after Islamist militia seized controlThe Taliban are expected to announce a new government in Afghanistan within hours as chaos and confusion deepened and the country teetered on the brink of economic collapse more than two weeks after the Islamist militia seized control.Sources told Agence-France Presse the cabinet could be presented after morning prayers on Friday, while Ahmadullah Muttaqi, a Taliban official, said on social media a ceremony was being prepared at the presidential palace in Kabul. Continue reading...

The Vieux Pays of Goussainville should have disappeared during the construction of the Charles de Gaulle airport in the 70s, however some inhabitants resisted the takeover of their houses and continue to live there despite the noise and isolation Continue reading...

Duke of Sussex makes speech at GQ awards as he presents prize to team behind Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine

Fourteen questions on general knowledge and topical trivia plus a few jokes every Thursday – how will you fare?Once again it is time to brave the Thursday quiz challenge. Dare you enter the arena and take on 14 questions on general knowledge and topical trivia, wrestle with anagrams, spot the hidden Doctor Who reference and brave the siren call of the saintly Kate Bush? Look, it is just a silly quiz – there are no prizes. But do let us know how you got on in the comments.The Thursday quiz, No 19 Continue reading...