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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...

Illustrated Luzzatto High Holiday Mahzor is one of fewer than 20 such prayer books believed to be in existenceA 700-year-old illustrated and annotated Hebrew prayer book that provides a window into the lives and rituals of Jewish communities in medieval Europe is expected to fetch up to $6m when it is sold at auction next month.The Luzzatto High Holiday Mahzor, created in southern Germany in late 13th or early 14th century, is one of fewer than 20 such prayer books believed to be in existence. According to Sotheby’s, it is the most important medieval illustrated prayer book to be offered for sale in a century. Continue reading...

Initiative may be rolled out further if successful in alleviating symptoms of burnout and psychiatric distress

Fewer than one in 1,000 infected children have entered ICU but Annastacia Palaszczuk declares under-12s need vaccine before borders reopen

The proposed laws come after federal police called for a ban on extremist insignia and propagandaVictoria will become the first Australian state or territory to ban the public display of Nazi symbols.The proposed laws, expected to be introduced to state parliament in the first half of 2022 with bipartisan support, will prohibit the display of swastikas and other hate symbols in public spaces. Continue reading...

Cathy Brady’s disquieting film about a mysterious return has an extra layer of melancholy, because it features the last performance by the late Nika McGuiganTwo fiercely committed performances are the bedrock of this drama from writer-director Cathy Brady. Nora-Jane Noone plays Lauren, who lives near the Northern Irish border with her partner, and works in a vast Amazon-style fulfilment centre; and Nika McGuigan (from RTÉ’s TV comedy Can’t Cope Won’t Cope) plays her troubled sister Kelly, returning home after a mysterious yearlong absence. This tense reunion revives painful memories of their mother, who took her own life when they were both children. Yet Kelly’s homecoming also appears to relight the wildfire in the hearts of both women, as they challenge the menfolk thereabouts who are still in hock to the macho cult of terrorist violence.This sombre film has an extra shadow of sadness because it marks the final performance of McGuigan, who died of cancer in 2019 at the age of 33. There are powerful moments and surreally disquieting images in Wildfire, which incidentally reminded me in some ways of Pat Murphy’s classic Northern Ireland drama Maeve from 1981, also about a young woman returning home to make a reckoning with the past. I especially liked the strange tableau of Lauren and Kelly in the pub dancing wildly to Van Morrison’s Gloria on the jukebox and then finally stopping exhausted, as if emerging from a dream, to see a bunch of faintly sinister middle-aged guys glowering at them resentfully from the bar. Continue reading...

Pop star’s housekeeper had made allegation after dispute involving a mobile phone, now dismissed due to a lack of evidenceBritney Spears will not face charges over an allegation of battery against her housekeeper.In August, Spears was alleged to have slapped a mobile phone out of her housekeeper’s hand. Police officers attended Spears’s home following the battery complaint. Continue reading...

Sir Nicholas Kay says he feels shame over collapse to Taliban as he calls for lessons learned inquiryThe former UK ambassador to Afghanistan Sir Nicholas Kay has said the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office is playing catch-up with other countries as the Taliban assume power there, as he also became the first senior diplomat to call for a lessons learned inquiry into the collapse of the country into the hands of the militants.Kay predicted that the UK government would have to pay countries to help transit refugees from Afghanistan to the UK. Continue reading...

In a new documentary, the defining funk artist’s ups and many downs are examined with a clear eye and a lack of sugar-coatingIn the jarring new music documentary, Bitchin: The Sound and Fury of Rick James, we see a star torn in half. On the one hand, there’s the Rick James who created some of the most popular, distinct and outrageous funk music of the late 70s and early 80s. On the other, there’s a man so lost to his desire for sex, drugs and recognition that his life became an obstacle course laced with landmines. “Rick set up a situation where it would be tough not to have a bad outcome,” said the film’s director, Sacha Jenkins. “It could not have been easy to be Rick James.”Related: ‘Like a horror film’: revisiting the Fyre-esque disaster of Woodstock 99 Continue reading...

This film about Misha Defonseca, author of a ‘memoir’ about escaping the Nazis and sheltering with wolves as a child, is propulsively watchable“Sometimes a story is so astonishing it’s unbelievable.” So said a Massachusetts radio presenter in the 90s, introducing Misha Defonseca, a local Jewish woman originally from Belgium. As a child in the war, Defonseca walked hundreds of miles across Nazi-occupied Germany to find her parents. She was one of Belgium’s “hidden children”, taken in by a Catholic family, her identity erased. In her internationally bestselling memoir she described how, cold and hungry, she was sheltered by a pack of wolves. Disney wanted to turn it into a film. Oprah Winfrey’s book club was interested.The thing is: Defonseca was a fake. Never mind a pack of wolves, her whole memoir was a pack of lies; a hoax Holocaust narrative. This documentary assembles the story like a thriller, interviewing the key players, keeping the audience guessing about certain important details until the end. It’s propulsively watchable if a tad light on reflection. And you may feel hoodwinked by one late reveal. Continue reading...

Written 75 years ago but deemed ‘too intimate’ to publish in her lifetime, this exclusive extract from a lost novel by the author of The Second Sex, translated by Lauren Elkin, is based on the ‘passionate and tragic’ friendship she had as a girl with Elisabeth ‘Zaza’ LacoinWhen I was nine years old I was a good little girl, though this hadn’t always been the case. As a small child the adults’ tyranny caused me to throw such tantrums that one of my aunts declared, quite seriously: “Sylvie is possessed by a demon.” War and religion tamed me. Right away I demonstrated perfect patriotism by stomping all over my doll because she was made in Germany, though I didn’t really care for her to begin with. I was taught that God would only protect France if I were obedient and pious: there was no escaping it. The other girls and I would walk through the basilica of Sacré-Cœur, waving banners and singing. I began to pray frequently, and I developed a real taste for it. Abbé Dominique, the chaplain at the Collège Adelaïde where we went to school, encouraged my ardour. Dressed all in tulle, with a bonnet made of Irish lace, I made my First Communion, and from that day forward, I set a perfect example for my little sisters. Heaven heard my prayers, and my father was appointed to a desk job at the Ministry of War because of his heart trouble.Related: Lauren Elkin: ‘I felt like I was in De Beauvoir’s body’ Continue reading...

Black children have access to just 1 cent for every dollar enjoyed by their white counterparts, new research shows, and Hispanic kids fare little betterAfrican American children are suffering long-term disadvantages as a result of vast and growing disparities in the wealth of US families, with Black families with kids having access to barely 1 cent for every dollar enjoyed by their white counterparts.The shocking racial wealth gap between families, and its impact on Black and Hispanic kids, is revealed in groundbreaking new research by scholars on US inequality. It shows that the basic wealth levels of families from different racial and ethnic backgrounds have diverged to such a stark degree in the past three decades that the future prospects of children from lower-wealth groups are likely to be grossly compromised. Continue reading...

In the poverty-stricken kingdom, an older generation rely on growing marijuana to feed children orphaned by Aids epidemicIn Nhlangano, in the south of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), the illegal farming of the mountainous kingdom’s famous “Swazi gold” is a risk many grandmothers are ready to take.In what is known locally as the “gardens of Eden”, a generation of grandparents are growing cannabis, many of them sole carers for some of the many children orphaned by the HIV/Aids epidemic that gripped southern Africa. Continue reading...

Foreign materials including stainless steel identified in batches of Covid-19 vaccine though no safety or efficacy issues have been reportedThe Moderna coronavirus vaccine programme in Japan has been hit by a series of contamination incidents, prompting it to recall 1.63m doses found to contain metal fragments.Other potential contaminants have been identified in separate batches over the past week but so far no injuries as a result of those vaccines have been reported. Continue reading...

A rare encounter was caught on video at Puerto Madryn, Argentina when a southern rIght whale seemingly plays with a woman on a paddleboard and pushes the board gently forward, observing its movement as it swims directly beneath it."They are rare moments, it is something that is prohibited," said Oscar Comes, a local water-sports tourism operator. "It isn't like you can go in a kayak, standup board, a boat, or whatever, to look for the animal." Continue reading...

Patient, who suffered vomiting and diarrhoea, part of trend hospital is seeing of people taking unproven substances

The kung fu goddess talks about her most eye-popping stunts, her yearning to do another Crazy Rich Asians, and her outrageously enjoyable new Marvel movie, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten RingsTen minutes into my conversation with Michelle Yeoh, there is a misunderstanding. We are discussing her character in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, an outrageously enjoyable new Marvel adventure about a San Francisco parking valet trying to ignore his destiny as a martial arts warrior. Yeoh plays Ying Nan, a beneficent gatekeeper who lives on the far side of an enchanted bamboo forest. Another character, played by Awkwafina, refers to Ying as “an awesome magical kung fu goddess”. When I mention this, Yeoh thinks Awkwafina made the remark about her. “Oh, that’s so sweet!” she says. “Of course, I already knew Awkwafina because we were both in Crazy Rich Asians.”There’s no need to point out the error, because it is perfectly true: Yeoh really is an awesome magical kung fu goddess. No one would argue with that. Not the millions who gasped as she skipped nimbly up walls and across rooftops in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Nor the ones who flocked to her early Hong Kong action movies with the likes of Jackie Chan and Cynthia Rothrock. Not the ones who were first introduced to her in the Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies. And certainly not Oliver Stone, who called her “a woman of elegance and magnificent grace – the young grande dame of Hong Kong cinema”. Nor Quentin Tarantino, who rushed to her bedside when she was in a body cast for a dislocated neck and cracked rib sustained after falling 18ft on to her head while filming The Stunt Woman in 1996. “He insisted on seeing me and sat on two pillows at my feet and recounted my movies frame by frame,” she later said. Continue reading...

Man was arrested later by police in full protective equipment who had sealed off the Auckland property

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi tells US climate envoy John Kerry cooperation on reducing emissions cannot be separated from the broader relationshipChinese foreign minister Wang Yi has warned US climate envoy John Kerry that deteriorating US-China relations could undermine cooperation between the two countries on climate change.In a video link call on Wednesday, Wang told Kerry that such cooperation cannot be separated from the broader relationship and called on the US to take steps to improve ties, a foreign ministry statement said. Continue reading...

PM Jacinda Ardern says country is starting to see ‘positive trends’ in the numbers, with fewer cases infectious in the community

Mark Milley says it's possible the US will seek to coordinate on strikes in Afghanistan, though defence secretary Lloyd Austin remains scepticalUS Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said it was “possible” the United States will seek to coordinate with the Taliban on counterterrorism strikes in Afghanistan against Islamic State militants or others.The extent and nature of a US-Taliban relationship, now that the war is over, is one of the key issues to be worked out. US military commanders have coordinated daily with Taliban commanders outside Kabul’s international airport over the past three weeks to facilitate the evacuation of more than 124,000 people, but that was a matter of convenience for both parties. Continue reading...

Some media reported soldiers identified in Brereton inquiry had been allowed to continue serving, but investigators reaffirm that has no bearing on their inquiriesGet our free news app; get our morning email briefingInvestigators are continuing to look into alleged war crimes by Australian special forces in Afghanistan uncovered by the Brereton inquiry, despite media claims implying some individuals have been exonerated.Several media outlets have reported that more than a dozen soldiers who were issued with “show cause” notices no longer face termination, and in some cases this development has been conflated with separate investigations into alleged war crimes. Continue reading...

Authorities deployed troops and shut down the internet as a precautionary measure, police saidIndian Kashmir politician Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a veteran separatist, has died in Srinagar. He was 91 years old.In response to the news, authorities deployed troops around the city. Continue reading...

The media host says he used ivermectin, a medication that the FDA has warned againstJoe Rogan, the host of Spotify’s most popular podcast, has contracted Covid, he announced on Wednesday. He says he is feeling better – but his health update undoubtedly made health experts instantly sick.On Instagram, the podcaster, who professes not to be “an authority on health” but has discouraged young people from getting the coronavirus vaccine, said that he had “immediately thrown the kitchen sink” at his infection. Among the many medications he used, he said, was ivermectin, a drug used to deworm horses. Continue reading...

Conditional approval for plan to organize drugmaker into new company with board appointed by public officials

Dominic Raab grilled by foreign affairs select committee over why he did not act on risk assessmentThe UK Foreign Office’s own risk assessment warned that the Taliban could return rapidly to power, causing cities to collapse and triggering a humanitarian crisis, less than four weeks before the fall of Kabul.Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, told MPs on Wednesday that he believed the Afghan capital would remain safe until next year based on an assessment by the joint intelligence committee, a view he said was widely shared by Nato allies. Continue reading...

For three decades, Kevin Martin has detonated the British music scene with various apocalyptically noisy projects – all as a way to ‘get over the crushing tyranny of existence’Kevin Martin’s industrial dancehall project the Bug started 20 years ago, in chaotic circumstances. As part of electronic duo Techno Animal, the producer was playing a show in Bern, Switzerland, and had just started his soundcheck when the ramshackle wood-framed arts complex was attacked by football hooligans, some brandishing incendiary devices.Speaking to me from his home in Brussels, the permanently baseball-capped Martin says: “It was like warfare. There were people barricading doors. Glass was shattering as concrete went through windows. We were shitting our pants: ‘Hold on, this is a wooden building – if one of those molotovs goes off, we’re chargrilled!’” Continue reading...

‘I didn’t understand at the time was how transgressive this was. For her generation, you did not show your passport to anyone – let alone have it photographed’One day when I was around 11, I had to take a day off school. I had asthma and felt rotten, but I also felt ashamed about not being well. Mum decided to take me out to cheer me up. She took me to an auction – it wasn’t anything special, just one of those local things that would be advertised in the papers back in the day. She was hoping we might find a bike, probably just to stop me crying because everyone else had one and I felt left out.We took a bus to the Royal Horticultural Halls in Westminster and arrived late. Almost everything had gone. There were no bikes left. I was despondent. Mum was gunning for anything to cheer this moany kid up when a Kodak Instamatic went up for sale. I wasn’t convinced, but she persuaded me we should get it. By the time we’d got back home, it was an obsession – the best toy I’d ever received.

Team of civilians has been deployed to make sure random searches will not involve racial profilingA policy of randomly frisking people on the streets of Amsterdam is being trialled by police in response to a rise in youth gun crime but the police union has objected to the involvement of civilian observers.To assuage fears that the searches will involve ethnic profiling, a team of civilian monitors has been deployed tasked with reporting on any suspicious patterns. Continue reading...

His new HBO series has been re-edited after backlash over featuring 9/11 ‘truthers’ – but a thread of distrust remainsSpike Lee is no stranger to controversy, but pre-emption is new for him. His incendiary work has inspired scandals both righteous (Do the Right Thing frightened a complacent America with its vision of urban unrest) and regrettable (the Jewish club owners in Mo’ Better Blues attracted charges of antisemitism), and now, his new docuseries NYC Epicenters 9/11 —> 2021½ has landed him in the same hot water that never seems to cool.Related: Two decades after 9/11, the real threat to the US is our own far right | Harsha Panduranga Continue reading...

Foreign minister warns reviving site traditionally used for diplomacy with Palestinians could be ‘destabilising’Israel has said a US plan to reopen its consulate in Jerusalem that was traditionally a base for diplomatic outreach to Palestinians is a “bad idea” and could destabilise the prime minister’s new government.The previous US administration of Donald Trump signalled support for Israel’s claim on Jerusalem as its capital by moving its embassy there from Tel Aviv and subsuming the consulate in that mission. Continue reading...

Syed Taalay Ahmed, who worked for Muslim Television Ahmadiyya International, was ambushed in TamaleTributes have been paid to a British journalist killed in an armed robbery in Ghana.Syed Taalay Ahmed, 31, who grew up in Hartlepool, was working for Muslim Television Ahmadiyya International (MTA) when he was killed, the station said. Continue reading...

Militants show off Humvees as leaders gather in group’s southern Afghan heartlandTaliban fighters have stood aboard captured Humvees as they prepared for a parade of plundered US military hardware in their southern Afghan heartland.A long line of green vehicles sat in single file on Wednesday on a highway outside Afghanistan’s second-biggest city, Kandahar, many with white-and-black Taliban flags attached to aerials, according to an AFP journalist. Continue reading...

Manchester City footballer faces possible trial on four counts of rape and one of sexual assaultThe Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy will remain in custody before a potential trial on rape charges after a bail application was refused.The 27-year-old French international has been in custody at HMP Altcourse in Merseyside since last Friday, when he appeared at Chester magistrates court charged with four counts of rape and one of sexual assault. Continue reading...