Two suicide bombs exploded near the main entrances to Kabul airport on Thursday, reportedly killing at least 13 people, including children. Footage filmed after the blast shows what appears to be smoke rising from the airport and an eyewitness said 'people were hurled everywhere' in the explosions
North Cornwall town reeling and people urged not to visit as thousands of cases linked to festivalAt first glance it looked like a pretty perfect day in the self-styled surfing capital of the UK. The sandy beaches were packed, the pubs, cafes and shops humming.Look at little closer, though, and it became clear all was not quite right. A tapas bar was closed because a team member had tested positive; a surf shop shut its doors at lunchtime because of staff shortages; a scribbled note stuck on the window of a fudge shop summed up the problem – “Covid in Newquay is on the increase” – and urged customers to wear a mask and socially distance. Continue reading...
A study in Burkina Faso and Mali suggests combining anti-malarial drugs and vaccination could reduce deaths and hospitalisationsA trial combining vaccinations and prevention drugs has substantially lowered the number of children dying of malaria in two African countries, according to researchers.The results of the study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, have been hailed as “very striking”, especially at a time when decades-long progress on combating malaria has stalled in some countries. Continue reading...
The German defence minister warned of a very concrete risk of attacks at Kabul airport hours before at least one explosion near Abbey gate, an entrance to the Hamid Karzai international airport in Kabul.
Ahead of the release of Annette, we rank the actor’s greatest roles, from the insufferable hipster of While We’re Young to his severe missionary in SilenceThe movie might be flawed, but Driver’s performance (playing opposite the similarly excellent Alba Rohrwacher) is outstanding, winning him the Volpi Cup at the Venice film festival. He plays Jude, a young man who meets his future wife Mina (Rohrwacher) in New York when they are bizarrely locked in a restaurant toilet together. They marry, have a baby and at first everything is wonderful – but then she begins to show symptoms of post-partum psychosis and Jude has an agonising dilemma: if and when to take the baby away from her. Driver plays it with overwhelming sincerity and force. Continue reading...
Seoul skirts fraught issue of refugees as it ‘fulfils moral responsibility’ and welcomes 391 newcomersSouth Korea has welcomed the arrival of Afghans who supported its operations prior to the Taliban control of Afghanistan, designating them as “persons of special merit” instead of refugees in an apparent effort to defuse anti-migrant sentiment.A military aircraft landed at Incheon airport, west of Seoul, in the afternoon, transporting 378 Afghans who worked for South Korea’s embassy and other facilities in Afghanistan, as well as their family members. A further 13 will be arriving on a separate flight. Continue reading...
Beautiful beaches in the soft light figure strongly in our tipsters’ picks of sunny late summer and autumn getawaysThe north of the island of Lanzarote is a hidden idyll where sunsets burn golden orange and surf pounds the wild shores. Famara Beach is a surfing paradise for families looking for winter sun and a relaxed beach community. Staying in a yurt in nearby Arrieta is fantastic: at night you can watch the stars from your bed as you gently drift asleep listening to the waves. La Graciosa is a 20-minute boat ride away and hosts two tiny but perfect beachside restaurants serving freshly caught sardines. Spanish fills the air and British voices are rare. The mountains here are home to huge agave plants, aloes, bougainvillaea, date palms and pepper trees.
The lives of three young Egyptians become tragically entangled in Ayten Amin’s sharp, subtle coming-of-age dramaAs well as being subtle, tender and sad, this feature from Egyptian director Ayten Amin is one of those rare films which really engages with online existence and social media – yet without needing to flash up tweets and texts as onscreen graphics in the way most movies do. Souad meditates on the mysterious discrepancy between the image we project on social media and the reality behind it, and also how this discrepancy itself can be corrosive. And it also reflects on the eerie afterlife of a dead person’s Facebook page – like Jean Cocteau’s remark about a writer’s work carrying on like a ticking wristwatch on a dead soldier.Related: Sexting, lies and unveiled selfies: the Egyptian film exploring the hidden lives of teenage girls Continue reading...
Longstanding group accused of being ‘agent of foreign forces’ and is asked for information about its membershipHong Kong’s national security police are investigating the organisers of a vigil commemorating the Tiananmen Square massacre for alleged foreign collusion offences.Chow Hang-tung, the vice-chair of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, said authorities had written to core members of the longstanding group demanding information related to their foreign links within 14 days. Continue reading...
Surveys suggest a large proportion of women have experienced sexual assaults that they labelled as a misunderstanding. This has serious psychological repercussions and increases the chance of being victimised againThe morning after it happened, I said a cheery: “Good morning,” to my university roommate, as if nothing was wrong. “How was last night?” she asked. “So fun,” I lied. The truth was that the night before I had feared for my life.I didn’t articulate it, but deep down I knew that what had happened had felt violating, degrading and not what I signed up for. Yet it took me a whole decade to realise what had really happened: I had been sexually assaulted. Continue reading...
Athens calls for a united response, as refugees already in Lesbos hope their asylum claims will now be reconsideredGreek officials have said that Greece will not become a “gateway” to Europe for Afghan asylum seekers and have called for a united response to predictions of an increase in refugee arrivals to the country.Greece’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotaki, has spoken to Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, about the developing situation in Afghanistan this week. Greek migration minister Notis Mitarachi last week said: “We cannot have millions of people leaving Afghanistan and coming to the European Union … and certainly not through Greece.” The country has just completed a 25-mile (40km) wall along its land border with Turkey and installed an automated surveillance system with cameras, radars and drones. Continue reading...
PNG says India allowed passengers infected with Covid to board a flight to Port MoresbyPapua New Guinea has banned all repatriation flights from India, after accusing the country’s high commission of a deliberate “deception” that resulted in passengers infected with Covid-19 arriving in the country.“India must respect Papua New Guinea as a sovereign nation, and not participate in actions involving unscrupulous people to violate our laws and undermine public health and safety measures,” PNG’s police commissioner, David Manning, said in a statement. Continue reading...
Armenia's parliament descended intoa mass brawl as the country remains split following last year's defeat in the war withAzerbaijan for control of Nagorno-Karabakh. Security officers could be seen pouring onto the floor of the house to quell the disturbance. Continue reading...
It’s worth having a real conversation with your friend about this, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith, because bullies rely on others’ silenceMy best friend is getting married in a few months and I am so sad. We have known each other since childhood, and while it is true that I probably hold too high standards for my loved ones, her fiance seems like a poor choice of life partner. He is combative, argumentative, immature and possessive, and puts her down regularly, often in front of other people. She deals with his unpleasant traits with good humour but admits they argue a lot. They have been together only a couple of years and have had a very short engagement.I worry she is rushing things and making a huge mistake. Continue reading...
Covid-19 patients from Sydney's Concord hospital have shared their experience of the Delta variant's symptoms and pleaded for Sydneysiders to get vaccinated. Lung specialist Lucy Morgan shared the stories of 50-year-old construction worker Fawaz, 30-year-old pharmacy worker Ramona and 35-year-old tradie Osama in a video from Sydney Local Health District. Fawaz and Osama infected family members who have also been hospitalised, while single mother Ramona says she has been unable to see her children for weeks► Subscribe to Guardian Australia on YouTube
Tough response to Baltic nation’s decision to exchange diplomatic offices with Taiwan puts under EU under pressureChina’s use of trade as a weapon in diplomatic disputes appears to be now targeted at Lithuania, home to fewer than 3 million people, after the Baltic nation agreed to exchange diplomatic offices with Taiwan.But Beijing’s unofficial halt to its already limited trade with Lithuania is more about sending a warning to the rest of Europe, analysts have said. Continue reading...
The Zimbabwean writer joins authors including Margaret Atwood and Ocean Vuong who have agreed to lock away new writing in the Future LibraryTsitsi Dangarembga made the Booker shortlist for her most recent novel, This Mournable Body, the story of a girl trying to make a life in post-colonial Zimbabwe which was praised as “magnificent” and “sublime”. Her next work, however, is likely to receive fewer accolades: it will not be revealed to the world until 2114.The Zimbabwean writer is the eighth author selected for the Future Library project, an organic artwork dreamed up by the Scottish artist Katie Paterson. It began in 2014 with the planting of 1,000 Norwegian spruces in a patch of forest outside Oslo. Paterson is asking one writer a year to contribute a manuscript to the project – “the length of the piece is entirely for the author to decide” – with Margaret Atwood, Ocean Vuong and Karl Ove Knausgård already signed up. The works, unseen by anyone but the writers themselves, will be kept in a room lined with wood from the forest in the Deichman library in Oslo. One hundred years after Future Library was launched, in 2114, the trees will be felled, and the manuscripts printed for the first time. Continue reading...
Some in US administration see risks in seeking support of Russia or China to counter a potential terrorist threatThe Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi, believes he is close to gaining Joe Biden’s support to stage a special G20 peace conference on Afghanistan next month that will include key players with close contact with the Taliban, including China, Russia and Turkey.Draghi, the chair of the G20 group of nations, has been working on the plan for days, holding talks with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. The Italian prime minister is also expected to hold a call with the Chinese resident, Xi Jinping, this week. Continue reading...
Richer countries must wake up and see the bigger Covid pictureThe statistics are stark and shaming. During an exasperated intervention earlier this week, the World Health Organization’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, pointed out that of 4.8bn Covid vaccine doses delivered around the world to date, around 75% have gone to just 10 countries. The level of vaccine donations from richer countries, he added with some understatement, has been “really disappointing”. In Africa, where a third wave of the virus has been on the march since May, less than 2% of the continent’s population has received a first dose. While high-income countries across the globe have administered around 100 doses for every 100 citizens, the equivalent figure for low-income countries is 1.5.As a consequence, while the United States, Britain and other richer nations begin to roll out programmes for booster shots in the autumn, a pandemic of the unvaccinated continues unabated elsewhere. The WHO’s target of reaching 10% of the population of every country with a first shot by the end of September is unlikely to be met. This grotesque inequity, as Mr Ghebreyesus and others have repeatedly pointed out, is ultimately in no one’s interest. Allowing much of the planet to operate as a variant factory, and the more transmissible Delta variant to run riot, stores up trouble for the future. “Vaccinating the world” should therefore be seen as sound strategy as well as an ethical obligation. But, in Europe and North America, early good intentions have so far come a distant second to domestic priorities. Continue reading...
by Mattha Busby (now); Léonie Chao-Fong and Helen Su on (#5NR3A)
UK reports 149 new deaths as expert says large gatherings will cause ‘significant surge’ in cases; WHO chief says safety of vaccine booster shot is inconclusive
Police chiefs attack report by Independent Office for Police Conduct as vague and out of datePolice deploy Taser stun guns too often, with black people more likely to face prolonged use lasting over five seconds, an official report has found.The study by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) warned of a loss of legitimacy after a review of 101 Taser cases from 2015-20. They represent the most serious cases it investigated, and a fraction of more than 94,000 uses over that period – leading police to attack the findings as selective and out of date. Continue reading...
The Belgian city was a centre for the trade in lace, as well as wool, writes Joanna HashagenI was very interested in your editorial on Antwerp (17 August). I have had the opportunity to visit that fine city several times over the last 20 years, collaborating with curators there. It is an underrated city today and, as you state, English traders sold wool there in the past; we also bought their lace in the 17th and 18th centuries.This week The Bowes Museum sent a crate of some of the finest 17th- and 18th-century Flemish lace to a large, prestigious exhibition in Antwerp that highlights the important role the city played in the production and trade of lace. P.LACE.S – Looking through Antwerp Lace, opens on 25 September. A city trail connects five exhibition locations in the city.
by Andrew Sparrow Political correspondent on (#5NREQ)
Sharon Graham will become union’s first female general secretary after surprise victoryThe Unite union is expected to develop a calmer but more distant relationship with the Labour party after the election of the leftwinger Sharon Graham as its first female general secretary on Wednesday.Graham, who was the surprise winner in the three-way contest with 37.7% of the vote, was elected on a manifesto that said “we have tried our political project within Labour – it has failed”, and she has said that she intends to prioritise workplace organising in her new role. Continue reading...
Woman, 44, nine-year-old girl and boy, five, die in collision with HGV on A64 near York, police sayA woman and two children have died in a crash involving a motorhome and a lorry.North Yorkshire police said the 44-year-old woman, a nine-year-old girl and a five-year-old boy were passengers in the grey motorhome which collided with a white HGV on the A64 near York on Tuesday night. Continue reading...
Educators say they fear reversal of hard-won progress as aid workers call for Taliban’s desire for international legitimacy to be used as leverageAfghanistan’s only boarding school for girls has temporarily relocated to Rwanda, its co-founder has said, just days after a video of her burning class records to avoid Taliban recriminations was widely shared on social media.Shabana Basij-Rasikh, who escaped Kabul with 250 students and staff, urged the world to “not avert your eyes” from the millions of girls left behind. Continue reading...
by Matilda Boseley (now) and Amy Remeikis (earlier) on (#5NQSN)
New record for NSW with 919 new Covid cases, two deaths; Queensland to pause hotel quarantine from noon; ACT reports nine new cases; Victoria reports 17 of new cases in quarantine for entire infectious period. Follow all today’s news
As the pandemic drives calls for a radical overhaul of the food system, can the president take on the meat giants?Both the planet and US politics have heated up in tandem over recent decades, but few sectors have stewed in controversy quite like America’s beef industry. Four super-powered meatpackers control more than 80% of the US beef market, an extraordinary concentration of market power that the Biden administration is not happy about.
Stress of pandemic could be behind increase in people aged 18-34, but number who quit habit also roseThe number of young adults who smoke in England rose by about a quarter in the first lockdown, research has suggested.Nevertheless, the number of people who stopped smoking altogether increased, with the number across all age groups almost doubling during the first national lockdown when compared with the period immediately prior, researchers from University College London (UCL) and the University of Sheffield said. Continue reading...
Takeaway company says it will invest £100m in north-east as it brings staff in-houseThe takeaway company Just Eat is planning to open a customer service site in north-east England, which will employ 1,500 people as it brings jobs back from India and Bulgaria.The business said that it would invest £100m in the region over the next five years, with staff working partly from home and partly from its new Sunderland-based office. Continue reading...
by Denis Campbell Health policy editor on (#5NQVB)
Which? finds substances that can cause heart problems being sold on eBay, Wish and AliExpress“Dangerous” weight loss products containing substances that can induce a stroke or heart attack are being sold on websites such as eBay without any health warnings, an investigation has found.The consumer group Which? found dozens of products on sale online containing plant extracts that can make users agitated or aggressive and increase their heart rate and blood pressure. Continue reading...
Wednesday: Australia offered hundreds of Afghans an evacuation flight, but when they got to the airport they were turned away. Plus: music legend Charlie Watts dead aged 80Good morning. There is growing despair in Kabul, as many trying to flee the Taliban regime before the 31 August deadline are blocked from its airport. In Australia, Covid continues to dominate headlines. And the world has lost a rock’n’roll legend with the death of Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts.Hundreds of aged care homes are lagging behind in their efforts to vaccinate workers against Covid. Some centres have vaccinated fewer than 10% of their staff with a single dose, three weeks before a vaccine mandate for the sector is in force. Just one in five of aged care homes have vaccinated more than 90% of their workers with at least one dose, according to federal health department data. At the other end of the age spectrum, parents of children eligible for the vaccine say it has been almost impossible to make an appointment. The mother of a 14-year-old with Down’s syndrome was forced to turn to Twitter to find a vaccine appointment for her daughter. In a new Guardian Australia series, people in a range of circumstances tell us what life in the pandemic is like for them. Today, we hear from a healthcare worker and a school leader. Continue reading...
Unruffled amid excess, personality clashes and musical disputes, the Rolling Stones’ exceptional drummer used technique to deepen the meaning and power of their songs
Officials weighing up educational needs with risks of young children spreading Covid, sources saySchool students from kindergarten to year 2 as well as year 11 are expected to be prioritised under the New South Wales government’s roadmap to return some children to classrooms in term four, but progress could depend on vaccination levels.The NSW education department and health officials are in detailed negotiations regarding a return to face-to-face learning with the crisis cabinet expected to consider the potential schooling plan on Wednesday afternoon. Continue reading...
by Martin Pengelly in New York and Richard Luscombe i on (#5NQ9Q)
But NIH director Francis Collins warns ‘we’re in a world of trouble’ until Delta variant can be controlledThe US could have the Covid pandemic under control and achieve a return to “normality” by next spring, Dr Anthony Fauci said, if the “overwhelming majority” of the population is vaccinated.Related: Biden hails announcement as FDA gives full approval to Pfizer’s Covid vaccine Continue reading...
The musician sports a 128.54-carat stone in a new ad campaign – the jewelry company’s latest attempt to rebrand itselfBeyoncé has become the first black woman to wear the famous yellow Tiffany diamond, in the jewelry company’s latest attempt to rebrand itself for a younger, more diverse audience.The musician sports the “priceless” 128.54-carat stone alongside husband Jay-Z in a new ad campaign for Tiffany & Co. Beyoncé is the fourth woman, and first Black woman, to wear the diamond in more than a century. Continue reading...