Google queried over its strategy to prevent being ‘exploited’ by political figures such as Clive Palmer and Craig Kelly, who have been accused of undermining Australia’s response to Covid

Nicola Sturgeon apologises to patients experiencing long waiting times as she calls in army assistance

Armin Laschet and Olaf Scholz face their toughest grilling of campaign at the hands of two 11-year-oldsWhen Germany elects a new government on 26 September the average voter age may be over 50, but a week and a half before polling day it is children who are asking the hard questions of the candidates who want to fill Angela Merkel’s shoes.Armin Laschet, of the outgoing chancellor’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and Olaf Scholz, of the centre-left Social Democratic party (SPD), were both left shifting in their seats in what has been hailed as their toughest grilling of the campaign trail – at the hands of two 11-year-olds. Continue reading...

The US, UK and Australia’s new strategic partnership has upset both China and FranceIt is a new three-way strategic defence alliance between Australia, the UK and US initially to build a class of nuclear-propelled submarines, but also to work together in the Indo-Pacific region, where the rise of China is seen as an increasing threat, and develop wider technologies. It means Australia will end the contract given to France in 2016 to build 12 diesel electric-powered submarines to replace its existing Collins submarine fleet. The deal marks the first time the US has shared nuclear propulsion technology with an ally apart from the UK. Continue reading...

Oxfordshire village life does not conform to outdated stereotypes, writes Chris RawlenceIn the piece on boy racers stirring up Cotswold villagers by their visits to Jeremy Clarkson’s farm (‘We’re just not used to it’: Clarkson farm shop causes stir in the Cotswolds, 10 September), I was sad to read the “frozen in time” and “Chipping Norton set” tropes that tend to characterise metropolitan takes on Oxfordshire village life. Chadlington is in fact alive with radical outward-looking initiatives in sustainable farming, arts in health, and sustainable tourism. The village has a thriving music community, being home to several composers and performers with international reputations.The recent Covid-inspired influx of Londoners, while making housing even less affordable for locals, was not driven by a desire to live a “chocolate box” life so much as to escape diesel particulates and find space for young families. And as for Chipping Norton, take a look at the recent local election map. There’s a red splodge there that’s chiming with the Green/Liberal Democrat Fair Deal Alliance that now runs Oxfordshire county council. The Chipping Norton set cliche has had its day.

Premier Jason Kennedy admits ‘we were wrong –and, for that, I apologize’ as he warns ICU beds may run out in 10 daysAlberta’s premier has announced sweeping new restrictions to combat the spread of the coronavirus, admitting the Canadian province was gripped by a “crisis of the unvaccinated”.The new measures marked a major reversal from Jason Kenney’s hands-off approach to the pandemic previously, and come amid warnings from frontline medical workers that the province’s healthcare system is on the verge of collapse. Continue reading...

Drawing has been in private hands since around 1910 and is now going on display in AmsterdamA pencil drawing of a broken old man, head in hands looking utterly exhausted, has been identified as a work by Vincent van Gogh.The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam said on Thursday that it had authenticated the drawing as being the work of the man himself. Teio Meedendorp, a senior researcher at the museum, said it was a “spectacular” discovery shining light on Van Gogh’s early career as an artist living in The Hague, a time less well known than his years in Paris or the south of France. Continue reading...

Ex-PM asks Boris Johnson what UK’s obligations would be under deal if China attempted to invade islandBoris Johnson has been challenged by his predecessor, Theresa May, as to whether the newly signed Aukus defence pact between the UK, US and Australia could lead to Britain being dragged into a war with China over Taiwan.The intervention came during a Commons debate on the three-country agreement, under which the US and UK will share sensitive technology with Australia to allow it to develop its first nuclear-powered submarines. Continue reading...

She was groomed as a child and has endured trauma – and to say she now ‘looks western’ is an insult to British Muslims

The French actor has directed her first film, a historical drama about women experimented on at a psychiatric hospital in Paris. She talks about the shocking story – and its resonance for women todayTwelve years ago, Mélanie Laurent was shooting Inglourious Basterds, playing a Jewish fugitive on the run from diabolical Christoph Waltz. At the end of each day’s shooting, Quentin Tarantino played music on set. After one particularly arduous day, David Bowie’s Cat People boomed out of the speakers. “We would dance. It was glorious,” she recalls.On the film’s release, Laurent was touted as France’s next big thing. Peter Bradshaw wrote: “She could easily be the new French star to make the crossover into the Anglo-Saxon film world, like Catherine Deneuve or Juliette Binoche or Emmanuelle Béart or Marion Cotillard.” Continue reading...

Student, 21, who said Israeli tourists raped her, launches attempt to clear her name in supreme courtA British woman found guilty of fabricating a gang-rape claim while holidaying in the Cypriot resort of Ayia Napa, has launched an attempt to clear her name before the island’s supreme court.In what lawyers described as a critical day for human rights in Cyprus, the 21-year-old Derbyshire student lodged the appeal as supporters protested outside the Nicosia tribunal. Continue reading...

Joe Biden has introduced a vaccine mandate affecting millions, but some countries have gone further

Staff at hospitals and care homes had refused Covid jab despite warning by Macron of September deadline

European Commission calls for action as it says 908 media workers were attacked in 23 EU states last yearEU governments have been urged by Brussels to take action to protect journalists, after an increase in physical and online attacks on members of the press.Issuing its first-ever recommendation on journalists’ safety, the European Commission called on EU governments to set up free contact points for media workers who face physical or online threats, in order to ensure a rapid response from police and prosecutors. It also wants to make sure journalists who become victims of crime have assured access to counselling, legal advice and shelters. Continue reading...

As she celebrates her engagement and fights for her autonomy, we celebrate the best of an artist who helped to define 21st-century popSpears previously flirted with dubstep on 2007’s Blackout, but it was Hold It Against Me that dragged the then-underground dance music into the mainstream. A decade later, and its blistering amalgamation of industrial EDM and saccharine pop melodies still feels every bit as audacious and innovative. Continue reading...

France’s foreign minister says move to buy nuclear subs from US in new defence pact is betrayal of trust

Germany’s election takes places on 26 September after which Angela Merkel will stand down after 16 yearsOn 26 September, Germany will vote for the 20th parliament of the postwar era, after which Angela Merkel will stand down as chancellor after 16 years. Continue reading...

Everyone has a dish that defeats them – no matter how often they try to make itAll cooks, however competent, have a kitchen skill that defeats them. Some cannot make mayonnaise. Others have a blind spot with pastry. Me? I cannot make bechamel. The first time I tried, it split. It turned into a coagulated, grainy mess, like the milky sick that newborns regurgitate down your back when you burp them. It happened the second time. And the third time. And for ever after that. Now it’s as if the ingredients, the butter and the flour and the milk, can sense my fear and shame. They sit on the work surface staring up at me. We know what you want us to become, they say. We know all about the velvety white sauce you wish us to be. Well, dream on, sucker. Not today.Once, during lockdown, while making souffle Suisse, that indecent Le Gavroche confection of gruyere, cream and whipped, bechamel-enriched egg whites which certain puritanical religious sects would doubtless regard as profoundly immoral, it worked. I made a perfect example. Hooray for me. Nailed it. But it turned out the ingredients were merely laughing at me. Because the next time it split, and the time after that, and so on. Continue reading...

Government has ruled care staff must be fully vaccinated with Thursday last day for first jab

Latest updates: Boris Johnson expected to continue reshuffling junior ministers as new cabinet begins work

Beijing denounces Aukus pact, raising question of nuclear proliferation, as Morrison expects a greater US military presence in Indo-Pacific and deeper UK defence ties

Protests, citizens’ assemblies, local referendums and mutual aid groups are pushing back against attacks on civil societyThe past decade has been a bruising one for the health of European democracy. The dramatic authoritarian turns in Hungary and Poland have attracted most attention, but nearly all European governments have chipped away at civil liberties, judicial independence and civil society.With Covid accentuating many of the challenges posed by populism, disinformation and a collapse in public trust, the narrative of democracy labouring in deep crisis is now well established. Yet as the threats have mounted, so have efforts to defend and rethink Europe’s democratic practices. Continue reading...

CBS says it will drop X-Factor-style competition from celebrity-fronted show after widespread criticismA reality TV show that planned to pit activists against each other in an X-Factor style contest judged by celebrities is to be drastically “reimagined” after it sparked a backlash from campaigners.The Activist, which had been due to air in the US in late October, prompted incredulity among many campaigners and elsewhere when its format was revealed last week, with many labelling it a “tone-deaf” distortion of true activists’ values. Continue reading...

Star will have operation on hip injury, and will move 22 arena dates to April 2023Elton John has announced he recently suffered an injury in a fall, and has postponed numerous UK tour dates as he recovers.In a statement, he said: Continue reading...

Russian president, 68, self-isolating after announcing outbreak among members of his entourage

Australia didn’t announce the ‘forever partnership’ while Donald Trump was in the White House. What happens if he returns?

Aukus described as ‘exclusionary’ amid French anger at scrapping of $90bn submarine deal with AustraliaChina has told the US, the UK and Australia to abandon their “cold war” mentality or risk harming their own interests after the three countries unveiled a new defence cooperation pact.The trilateral security partnership, named Aukus, was announced on Thursday by the three nations’ leaders via video link, and will include an 18-month plan to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines. Continue reading...

Blinded by medical intervention as a baby, Billups became one of the leaders of a groundbreaking, world-shaking 1977 protest. He talks about what drives him and why Barack Obama loves his energy“My mother used to tell us we had to be really good,” says Dennis Billups. “There were always two strikes against us – so you had to hit the third strike out of the park.” The “strikes” were being Black and being blind. And growing up in San Francisco in the 1960s and 70s, both were potential sources of open discrimination. “There were times when, even walking in our own neighbourhood, we would get: ‘You’re supposed to stay inside.’ ‘Don’t you have a dog?’ ‘Don’t you have a cane?’” At times this could turn physical. “Some neighbours would turn water on us and stuff like that.” Finding employment was also a challenge. “Being blind, they didn’t have to do too much except say: ‘We’re not going to hire you,’ or: ‘We don’t think you can do this.’ So it was a glass ceiling, more or less. I’m sure with my twin sister there was a lot more, being a woman, African American and blind as well, but she was a hell of a fighter.”Billups is a fighter, too, albeit one whose principal weapons are determination, congeniality, optimism – and a mellifluous voice. Now in his late 60s, speaking on Zoom from the San Francisco public library, he still radiates an infectious positivity that helped him as a young man when he played a key role in a lesser-known battle for civil rights. Continue reading...

Paul Keating slams submarine deal, warning of US-China tensions; Australian nuclear-powered submarines will be banned from entering NZ waters; Victoria to ease restrictions as state records 514 Covid cases; unemployment rate falls in August but hours worked plummets – follow all today’s news and Covid updates

Emmanuel Macron claims ‘another major success’ after death of Adnan Abu Walid al-SahrawiEmmanuel Macron has said French military forces have killed the leader of Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, claiming “another major success” in the fight against terrorist groups in the Sahel.The French president, who recently moved to reduce French troop deployment in the troubled sub-Saharan region amid broad consensus that the intervention was not achieving its aim, gave no further details in his statement on Wednesday night, though he mentioned French casualties. Continue reading...

One was a young footballer, another a dentist. Their shocking deaths haunt the families who could not stop their desperate bids to escapeWhen Zaki Anwari scaled the fence of Kabul airport, he was determined to escape. The 17-year-old footballer with the Afghan national youth team had taken a break from studying maths for his exams to accompany his brother as he tried to catch a flight. Zaki had always told his family he was not interested in going abroad, unless he could return to Afghanistan.But the Taliban takeover had changed things. Zaki did not have a passport but, as night fell on Kabul after the Taliban took control of the city, he told his brother Zakir that he wanted to leave. Zakir did his best to talk him out of it, but he would not let go of the idea. Continue reading...

Covid-19 has shown the effectiveness of local partners. If the sector is to respond and rebuild, it must redistribute powerThe UK’s cut to its aid budget comes to about £4bn a year. Such a dramatic reduction is a blow to many, but most of all to the local organisations who perpetually find themselves last in line for funding.New research by the Vodafone Foundation reveals that, too often, only a small proportion of philanthropic funding earmarked for African development reaches local, African-led civil society organisations. Instead, most development funding favours intermediaries in the global north and international organisations. Continue reading...

Workers in depressed sectors or regions won’t be able to plug gaps in areas that have been quicker to recover, ministers are being warnedThere are signs outside almost every pub, restaurant and hotel dotting Torquay’s harbour: Staff wanted.“It’s been packed solid busy, you can’t get a table anywhere,” said Brett Powis, owner of three hotels in the area including the Riviera and Lincombe Hall. For the hotelier, staff shortages made it harder to take full advantage of the busiest summertime boom in the Devon resort for decades. Continue reading...

Government has prioritised rescue of current scholars but estimated 70 alumni are still in countryA group of former Chevening scholars have accused the British government of abandoning them in Afghanistan, where they say their lives are at grave risk from the Taliban.The UK government has prioritised the rescue of 35 current Chevening scholars who were due to embark on their studies in the UK before the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, but an estimated 70 former scholars are also thought to still be in the country. Continue reading...

Lawyers documented deterioration in health of asylum seekers while staying in accommodationConditions in hotels used by the Home Office to accommodate asylum seekers during the pandemic are akin to detention centres, according to a report that also says accommodation is often sub-standard and sometimes unsafe.The report, Safe Environment: investigating the use of temporary accommodation to house asylum seekers during the Covid-19 outbreak, explores experiences in hotels and similar accommodation. It was conducted by academics at Edinburgh Napier University in partnership with grassroots organisation Migrants Organising for Rights and Empowerment. Continue reading...

Dating apps can be difficult and daunting at the best of times, and many users give up on them entirely. But for some the pandemic was a chance to reassess their priorities, and they were able to forge a much deeper connection

Her huge-hearted portrayal of Blanca has made Rodriguez the first trans performer to be up for a leading actress Emmy. Will she take the crown on Sunday? We join her for a Zoom call with a twistMJ Rodriguez can see me but I can’t see her. This is not the sort of existential issue that afflicted pre-pandemic interviews, but minutes before my Zoom encounter with the actor and singer I get an email from Rodriguez’s rep saying she will no longer be appearing on camera. This comes hot on the heels of another message saying Rodriguez, who this year became the first trans actor in history to be nominated for an Emmy award in a lead acting category, for her fantastic performance in Pose, would rather I didn’t ask her about the ballroom scene. Which is basically the entire world of Pose, Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s era-defining drama, set in the New York underground vogueing culture of the late 1980s and early 1990s.I take from this nervy preamble two things. First, constantly being seen as the living embodiment of the importance of representation is exhausting, and curiously diminishing. And second, Rodriguez is ready to walk out of the shadow of her character on Pose: Blanca Evangelista, the no-nonsense “house mother” who takes all of queer New York under her wing, has a seemingly never-ending supply of wise words for them, and a heart bigger than any disco ball. Continue reading...

The pandemic has forced many of us to rethink our lives, not least of which is how we work. For me, it meant returning homeTen days before our birthday, I drove my 2005 blue Nissan Sentra over the Verrazano Bridge and let the tears roll out. He didn’t know it, but I was almost home. The Verrazano spills into Brooklyn, where Scott and I entered the world.We were born a little after 11am on 28 July 1994 in Maimonides hospital, fraternal twins. “Two boychiks!” my father boasted, still in his blue scrubs, as he burst into the waiting room. The cheering section – two grandmas, two grandpas – erupted. Continue reading...

Amid a global call to tear down offensive statues, one Australian city council is asking: what do we do with ours?A large bronze statue of a noble-looking white man stands in a park in central nipaluna/Hobart. Adjacent to the city’s bus mall, it honours William Lodewyk Crowther, a doctor and early premier of Tasmania.Crowther is praised on the accompanying plaque for his “long and zealous political and professional service in this colony.” But the plaque makes no mention of William Lanne, the palawa leader whose corpse he mutilated and skull he stole. Continue reading...

Experts say Aukus military deal underlines Australia’s increasingly close alignment with the US on China – and New Zealand’s relative distanceNew Zealand is not part of a new security pact between Australia, the UK and US, in what experts say is an illustration of the distance between the country and its traditional allies.On Wednesday, the three countries announced a trilateral security partnership, Aukus, aimed at confronting China, which will include helping Australia to build nuclear-powered submarines. New Zealand and Canada were notably absent. Continue reading...

NSW police say people were in breach of public health orders as four men arrested at Rookwood cemetery

Zalmay Khalilzad says militants agreed not to enter Kabul and to discuss future government before president’s swift departureThe US negotiator on Afghanistan has said that President Ashraf Ghani’s abrupt exit scuttled a deal for the Taliban to hold off entering Kabul and negotiate a political transition.In his first interview since the collapse of the 20-year western-backed government, Zalmay Khalilzad, who brokered a 2020 deal with the Taliban to withdraw US troops, told the Financial Times that the insurgents had agreed to stay outside the capital for two weeks and shape a future government. Continue reading...

Experts say it’s too soon to say whether measures have failed entirely but it’s already too late for many young peopleAs New Zealand’s average house price closes in on $1m, a generation says they’re being locked out of the market – and the glacial impact of government reforms may come too late, if it arrives at all.“It’s urgent,” says Isla Stewart, 20, a housing advocate living in Auckland, New Zealand’s most expensive city. “The government’s failure to quickly address the housing crisis could result in a generation being frozen out of the housing market. Disconnected from their communities, living in unhealthy, unstable housing situations.” Continue reading...

Analysis: military alliance is more wide-ranging than Five Eyes agreement and may come to define future approach to Indo-Pacific security

Aukus partnership will enable Australia to have nuclear-powered submarines for the first time

Party facing internal backlash as leader Anthony Albanese backs five time Olympian and coalminer Daniel Repacholi for Hunter Valley seat

Minister says health officials found no evidence that any patient reported such side effects: ‘We wasted so much time running down this false claim’Trinidad and Tobago’s health minister has dismissed claims by the rapper Nicki Minaj that a cousin’s friend had become impotent after receiving the Covid-19 vaccine, saying that health officials in the Caribbean country had found no evidence that any patient had reported such side-effects.“As we stand now, there is absolutely no reported side effect or adverse event of testicular swelling in Trinidad … and none that we know of anywhere in the world,” the minister, Terrence Deyalsingh, said in a press conference on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Cabinet reshuffle clears out failing ministers and rewards those with positive publicity

The chair of the joint chiefs of staff sought to prevent the former president from ‘going rogue’, according to new Woodward book• US politics – follow liveJoe Biden threw his weight behind the top US military officer on Wednesday, saying he had “great confidence” in the general who, according to a new book, took steps to prevent the outgoing Republican president Donald Trump from “going rogue” and launching a nuclear war or an attack on China.Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, also defended phone calls he made to his Chinese military counterpart in the tumultuous final months of Trump’s presidency, signaling that the hitherto secret conversations were in keeping with his duties. Continue reading...

Former vaccines minister promoted by Boris Johnson after winning plaudits for efficient and fuss-free jab rolloutNadhim Zahawi, whose star has risen during the pandemic as vaccines minister, is to become education secretary after Gavin Williamson’s gaffe-prone tenure came to an end.Zahawi has been promoted by Boris Johnson after winning plaudits over the efficient and fuss-free Covid vaccine programme, a style that may serve him well in an education sector buffeted by Williamson’s more confrontational style. Continue reading...