The Russian star brings his take on Bach’s Goldberg Variations to the Proms, having recently torn the piece apart with choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. He explains his new, ‘tree-like’ twist“Like climbing an infinite stairway, one step at a time.” That is how Pavel Kolesnikov describes working on JS Bach’s Goldberg Variations, one of the outstanding releases of last year. On Friday 10 September, he will perform them at the penultimate night of the Proms.“I’ve never had the chance to dedicate so much quality time to a piece before,” he says when we meet in a tiny cafe in central London. The city has been home since the Siberia-born Kolesnikov, now in his early 30s, came to study at the Royal College of Music. He had grown up listening to recordings of the Goldbergs by Glenn Gould and Rosalyn Tureck, but had never considered performing them himself – “I did not feel I had anything to add”. Continue reading...

Civil defence units and health personnel wearing gas masks and hazmat suits featured in celebrations in Pyongyang to mark the 73rd anniversary of North Korea’s founding, in a departure from previous militaristic displays Continue reading...

Peter Dutton meets with Jakarta counterpart, who says the two countries ‘would like to be even closer friends’

Fast-track scheme is aimed at those whose jobs put them at risk in pandemic

Justices decision to decriminalise abortion was based on human rights arguments and will mean fewer criminal investigationsActivists in Mexico have hailed a supreme court decision to decriminalize abortion, saying it would stop the legal prosecution of women who terminate their pregnancies – and those reported to the authorities after suffering miscarriages.The decision, handed down unanimously on Tuesday, declared that criminal sanctions for abortion in the northern state of Coahuila were unconstitutional. The decision sets precedent, according to lawyers involved in abortion cases, and will be applicable across the country. Continue reading...

Fourteen questions on general knowledge and topical trivia plus a few jokes every Thursday – how will you fare?The quiz master is away, but do not fret. Before he left, a cache of documents written in invisible ink were entrusted to a secret operative in the Guardian offices, containing 14 questions on topical trivia and general knowledge. As usual, there’s a hidden Doctor Who reference to spot, a picture of our beloved Kate Bush, and one round that has anagrams in it just to be annoying. Have fun. There are no prizes, but let us know how you get on in the comments.The Thursday quiz, No 20 Continue reading...

Clare Dunne stars in and writes this self-empowering story of a battered Dublin cleaner who builds her own house, directed by The Iron Lady’s Phyllida LloydClare Dunne is the young Irish stage and screen performer who takes a commanding role in this heartfelt and engrossing personal movie: she is the star and co-writer with Malcolm Campbell (who scripted Lenny Abrahamson’s What Richard Did). The director is Phyllida Lloyd, known for mainstream films like Mamma Mia! and The Iron Lady, and she shows a confident touch with both the subdued moments, the intestine-clenching spasms of domestic abuse and the big C-major chords of emotional uplift. It’s a really unexpected drama: unexpected for a heartwarmer, unexpected for a tough social-realist picture, these being the two genres in which it finds a Venn overlap.Sandra (Dunne) is a young woman in Dublin who has had to separate from her toxic and violently abusive husband Gary (scarily portrayed by Ian Lloyd Anderson), taking her two young daughters with her, taking cleaning jobs and living in state-funded hotel accommodation near the airport where she is humiliatingly told to come in through the service door at the back so her evident distress and poverty won’t upset the well-heeled customers. The hatchet-faced concierge icily reminds her of this arrangement whenever she cowers past the sleek flight attendants and pilots in their uniforms who are overnighting there. Here is how Sandra gets her nose rubbed in the glamorous world of international travel, a brutal reminder of how she is imprisoned at home – and doesn’t even actually have a home. Continue reading...

Justin Welby says favouring wealthy pensioners over young and poor not a ‘people-centred policy’Boris Johnson’s plan to increase national insurance contributions to raise £12bn for the NHS and social care could pose a “serious problem” for low-income workers, the archbishop of Canterbury has said.Justin Welby said privileging wealthy pensioners over the poorest young people was “not a people-centred policy”, as he stressed the need for “intergenerational equity”. Continue reading...

Supermarket ‘closely reviewing’ report that found the certification system failed to prevent a mass fish kill in TasmaniaSupermarket giant Woolworths says it is concerned by claims an environmental certification scheme used to assess the Tasmanian salmon it sells may not be “fit for purpose”.The comments were in response to an independent report commissioned by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) that found an Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) certification system had failed to prevent a mass fish kill in Macquarie Harbour, on the state’s west coast, in 2018 because it was not designed to identify and address potential threats before they occurred. Continue reading...

Move aims to tackle decline in use of contraception ‘because it costs too much’, says health minsterYoung French women will be offered free contraception from next year, the health minister has announced.Olivier Véran said those under 25 would not be charged for medical appointments, tests, or other medical procedures related to birth control. Continue reading...

Prime minister says Pfizer’s ‘focus was not on Australia’ in mid-2020; NSW freedoms come into effect the Monday after 70% over-16 vaccination is achieved; state confirms five more deaths; new case in Qld quarantine; 107 of Victoria’s new cases linked to known outbreaks – follow the latest updates live

In Rajasthan a project developing self-esteem and skills is getting people off the streets and into workPandit Tulsidas, 52, was resting under a tree by a road junction in Jaipur, Rajasthan, where he had begged for years.When an official approached him about a government scheme that would teach him job skills, he rejected the offer. When the man said his meals would be looked after and he would have a room to share with only one other person, he refused again. Continue reading...

Crackdown follows arrest of four members of civil society group that ran June 4th MuseumHong Kong authorities have raided the city’s Tiananmen massacre museum a day after arresting four members of the civil society group that ran it.The raid is the latest act by police in a sweeping crackdown on dissent and civil society groups that do not toe a pro-Beijing line, and came on the same day 12 activists pleaded guilty over a banned Tiananmen vigil last year. Continue reading...

New Zealand prime minister’s face shows full range of emotions after being asked about Auckland patient’s liaison that health chief called a ‘high-risk activity’

At Thursday's daily Covid-19 briefing, the typically unflappable prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, could barely contain her expression when asked to respond to an allegation that a visitor and a patient had sex in a shared room at Auckland hospital. The allegation comes as the Auckland District Health Board faces criticism for allowing hundreds of visitors a day into hospitals, despite the strict lockdown measures in place to help the country stamp out an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant.

Thursday: Wilcannia residents have been targeted by a someone offering to treat locals with an unproven drug for Covid. Plus: the funniest things on the internetGood morning. NSW is due to reveal its roadmap out of Covid today, which is expected to hinge on the state’s vaccination rates. The UK has been criticised for reportedly dropping Paris climate goals in its trade deal with Australia. And the US walks a delicate line trying to seek a consensus position for negotiations with the Taliban.The NSW government will reveal its roadmap to economic recovery on Thursday at the 11am press conference. It is understood premier Gladys Berejiklian will unveil the plan, which will involve a cautious reopening of restaurants, cafes, pubs and clubs for fully vaccinated patrons. It is expected that citizens will be allowed to attend pubs and clubs, get their hair cut and sit in cafes once the state reaches 70% double vaccination rates – most likely by 18 October.

Rallies in Afghanistan have already been broken up violently, now ‘severe consequences’ are threatened for demonstratorsThe Taliban has moved to tighten its crackdown on escalating protests against its rule, banning any demonstrations that do not have official approval for both the gathering itself and for any slogans that might be used.In the first decree issued by the hardline Islamist group’s new interior ministry, which is led by Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is wanted by the United States on terrorism charges, the Taliban warned opponents that they must secure permission before any protests or face “severe legal consequences’”. Continue reading...

Judge rules against governor while appeals court decides whether ban on public schools mandating masks is ultimately legalA Florida judge ruled on Wednesday that the state cannot enforce a ban on public schools mandating the use of masks against the coronavirus while an appeals court sorts out whether the ban is ultimately legal.Related: Three Vermont state troopers accused of creating fake Covid-19 vaccination cards Continue reading...

People under 20 who used vapes were found to be more than three times as likely to have ever smoked tobacco cigarettes

The far-right president has never hidden his admiration for dictatorship. There are growing fears he will not accept defeat in next year’s electionThough Jair Bolsonaro’s opponents warned of the dangers, most voters in the world’s fourth largest democracy were willing to elect a declared admirer of dictatorship. Many are now having second thoughts. The president’s popularity has plummeted, with almost two-thirds of Brazilians now rejecting him. Even those unfazed by the relentlessness of his aggressive ultra-conservatism have balked at a supreme court investigation into his own conduct and corruption allegations surrounding his allies and family, surging inflation and unemployment, and above all his decision to let Covid run rampant, killing more than 580,000 Brazilians.But those who backed him are getting what they voted for: a man with unabashed disdain for democracy and admiration for force. On current polling, the popular though polarising former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva would beat him easily in 2022’s election. Mr Bolsonaro is acting accordingly. The president has already sought to cast doubt on electronic voting, and limited the power of tech companies to remove content – making it harder to tackle disinformation. On Tuesday, he unleashed rallies in the country’s biggest cities, Rio de Janeiro, Brasília and São Paulo. Though not quite on the scale he hoped for, the crowds were still sufficiently large and fervid to send his message. If the supreme court does not shift its course, “it may suffer that which we don’t want”, Mr Bolsonaro warned. Diehard supporters had a less euphemistic version of how to handle his opponents: “Shut down the court,” and “Shoot them”. Continue reading...

Main suspect’s courtroom tirade on opening day of long-awaited trial angers survivors of 2015 attacksThe opening of the long-awaited trial of 20 people accused of involvement in the 2015 wave of terrorist attacks in Paris was disrupted when the main suspect accused the French authorities of treating them “like dogs”.In an outburst on Wednesday that angered survivors and relatives of victims, Salah Abdeslam leapt to his feet in the dock, pulled off his mask and pointed at the president of the court. Continue reading...

Safety checks carried out at Mount Street primary after thunderstorms trigger flash floodingPupils at a primary school have been evacuated after the building was struck by lighting in thunderstorms that caused flash flooding and disruption in Devon.Devon and Somerset fire and rescue service was called to Mount Street school in Plymouth on Wednesday morning to carry out safety checks. It confirmed that lightning had hit the side of the building and tripped the alarm but there was no fire or injuries. Continue reading...

Africa is paying the price of western hoarding, and my country will endure Covid lockdowns until we get more doses• Jackee Budesta Batanda is a Ugandan writer and entrepreneurMy gardener, Emmanuel, returned a few days ago after a five-month hiatus. One of the conditions for his return was that he needed to be vaccinated. He comes from Karamoja in the north-eastern part of Uganda, where the vaccine uptake was low, so he was able to get vaccinated.I first thought that he was fibbing, as many Ugandans are prone to do when they get fake documents in order to get a pass. I checked his card and confirmed he had a genuine vaccination card. He told me that his whole family had been vaccinated. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Germany’s possible next chancellor on his plans for Europe, tackling inequality and how to revive the centre-leftThe new frontrunner to win Germany’s national vote at the end of this month says he believes he can reawaken Europe’s centre-left from its decade-long slumber with a two-fold promise: to guarantee his country’s continued economic success, while at the same time putting an end to the myth that individual success is always self-made.Germany’s vice-chancellor and finance minister, Olaf Scholz, has this summer surprisingly lifted his Social Democratic party (SPD) above Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in opinion polls, in large part due to a reputation for rational decision-making and fiscal prudence that mirrors that of the outgoing chancellor. Continue reading...

Campaigners from 31 NGOs urge MEPs to rethink plans to overhaul Eurodac databaseThe EU has been accused of planning “a powerful tool for the mass surveillance” of migrants through proposed changes to a fingerprint database for asylum seekers.Campaigners from 31 non-governmental organisations, including Amnesty International and the European Network Against Racism, made the charge in an open letter to the European parliament urging MEPs to rethink plans to overhaul the Eurodac database of asylum seekers’ fingerprints. Continue reading...

Motown-signed vocalist later became a minister and founded network of LGBT-friendly churchesCarl Bean, the US gospel artist and minister who sang the gay pride anthem I Was Born This Way, has died aged 77.A statement from the Unity Fellowship Church Movement, a church for Black LGBTQ+ worshippers founded by Bean, said he “made transition into eternal life” following a lengthy illness. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Dame Judith Hackitt urges people to challenge huge bills by insisting on second opinionLeaseholders risk being “fleeced” by profiteering landlords and builders in the post-Grenfell fire safety crisis, a senior government adviser has warned in comments likely to increase pressure on ministers to finally resolve the problem.More than four years after the disaster that claimed 72 lives, tens of thousands of leaseholders are being landed with crippling remediation bills exceeding £200,000 per household in the worst cases. But Dame Judith Hackitt is urging homeowners to challenge the demands by insisting on a second opinion, warning “profiteering” means “we are making lives worse than need be”. Continue reading...

‘A cop asked me: “How can you take photographs?” I told him: “I have to document this. It’s history”’I was asleep when the first plane hit. At the time, I lived just four blocks from the World Trade Center, right next to a hospital, a fire station and the HQ of the New York police. The sirens woke me up. They were nonstop. I turned on the television and saw one of the towers on fire. As I watched the second plane hit the south tower on TV, I also heard it because I lived so close.I was working for Associated Press (AP) as a photo editor. I knew, as their closest staff member, that I should go out and document it. I got dressed, threw some film into my camera bag, and ran out to the World Trade Center. A lot of photography is like muscle memory. Even in a situation like this, your body knows exactly what to do. I remember a cop asking me: “How can you take photographs?” I told him: “I have to document this. It’s history.” Continue reading...

State’s roadmap out of Covid expected to be announced on Thursday along with lifting of lockdown in parts of regional NSW

Gideon Mendel has been photographing people returning home after the devastation of recent wildfires on the island of Evia in Greece. The work follows his earlier projects about people affected by wildfires in New South Wales, Australia, and flooding globallyAt the end of August, as part of my long-term work on the global climate emergency, I travelled to Evia in Greece to explore the impacts of the unprecedented fires that had devastated village communities and the ecology of the island. I chose not to chase the drama of the burning flames, but rather to seek out their aftermath. I encountered endless blackened landscapes and made these portraits of people whose lives have been destroyed by the fire they describe as a “burning hell”. I know that it was not easy for my subjects to return to their homes to be photographed, and for some this was the first time that they had stepped inside since the fire. However, I found that they embraced this moment of having their fractured situation witnessed and were keen to share their stories. I was moved by their openness to my camera after all the horrors of their recent experience. Visually I found that an eerily precise symmetry seemed to emerge from the unspeakable chaos of their ruined homes, many of which are situated in places of profound beauty. I hope that their gaze at the camera will provoke a visceral sense of the climate threat we all face. Continue reading...

National cricket team included in prohibition, as interim government containing no women starts workAfghan women, including the country’s national women’s cricket team, will be banned from playing sport under the new Taliban government, according to an official in the hardline Islamist group.In an interview with the Australian broadcaster SBS, the deputy head of the Taliban’s cultural commission, Ahmadullah Wasiq, said women’s sport was considered neither appropriate or necessary. Continue reading...

The former NSW premier will seek preselection in the safe western Sydney seat of Fowler, replacing retiring MP Chris Hayes

Entertainment industry told to ‘oppose decadent ideas of money worship and hedonism’Attendees of a Chinese entertainment industry symposium have been told to ensure they act with morality in both public and private, amid an intensive government crackdown on cultural sectors.The meeting on Tuesday in Beijing, with the theme of “Love the party, love the country, advocate morality and art”, was attended by senior Communist party officials, who laid out new regulations on industry practice and the behaviour of celebrities, state media reported. Continue reading...

Story of a yakuza turf war survivor smuggled to Brazil has real style and a devil-may-care cheekJonathan Rhys Meyers has turned up in some rum old places of late. He gave one of his best performances as a Gestapo officer in the Norwegian drama The 12th Man, largely overlooked in early 2019. Now the roaming Irishman can be seen playing second blade to the singer-actress Masumi in a thriller set among São Paolo’s Japanese community, the most populous of its kind outside Japan.Vicente Amorim’s film is fundamentally an exercise in shifting fistfuls of tropes – and cliches: beardy senseis, terse men named Takeshi, ambient Christopher Doyle lighting – halfway around the globe for the heck of it. Reheated 10,000 miles from source, these ingredients are presented medium-fresh. Like street-cart fusion cuisine, this film will fill a hole, if you have a particular hankering. Continue reading...

One of Bollywood’s most bankable actors has written a revolutionary pregnancy book that lifts the lid on libido, caesareans and more. She discusses power, pay and the reality behind the glamourDays after giving birth to her first child – an emergency caesarean after the cord had wrapped itself around the baby’s neck – Kareena Kapoor Khan stood undressed and alone in front of a mirror in her bedroom. “There I was: scarred, chubby, puffy, tired,” she recalls of that moment in 2016. “I saw the baby bulge, the dark circles, the dressing bandage of my C-incision. I cannot describe how I felt.”

Academic finds that lines widely reproduced in the eastern Roman empire are ‘stressed’ in a way that laid the foundations for what we recognise as poetryFor Taylor Swift, the “haters gonna hate”, but she’ll just “shake it off”. Now research by a Cambridge academic into a little-known ancient Greek text bearing much the same sentiment – “They say / What they like / Let them say it / I don’t care” – is set to cast a new light on the history of poetry and song.The anonymous text, which concludes with the lines “Go on, love me / It does you good”, was popular across the eastern Roman empire in the second century, and has been found inscribed on 20 gemstones and as a graffito in Cartagena, Spain. Continue reading...

I thought I had unleashed the full force of my student intellect in a history essay. The formidable Betty Behrens let me know I did not understand what scholarship wasI held them in awe. My supervisors at Newnham College, Cambridge, in the 50s were of the generation who had served in the war: Bletchley Park, the Board of Trade, that kind of thing. They were fiercely intelligent in a way my schoolteachers had not been. I was brimming with admiration and fear. It was why I had studied hard to be there, to pit my wit against the finest in the land. But I was to come a cropper severely. In the end, it served me well enough. But the pain remains.I had studied economics in my first year. My supervisor was Ruth Cohen, who sat on the floor in dishevelled tweeds, her legs wide and an ashtray between, to catch the ash from her continual smoking. Needless to say, she was brilliant. Soon she would be made college principal, take herself off for a makeover and emerge, neat, tidy, almost smart, to lead the college with style. Continue reading...

A group of young people are not only eschewing excess material items, but also meaningless relationships and ‘emotional clutter’Ronald L Banks was just 21 when he stood in front of his closet containing 60 pairs of jeans, a huge collection of shoes, and a wardrobe full of T-shirts and thought, “this has to stop”. He took out each item of clothing, examining them closely. Inspired by the Marie Kondo method, he asked himself the meaning that each held – and if he couldn’t answer, he donated them.Banks, a prominent YouTuber, has a channel of 130,000 fans. He broadcasts from his apartment in Wisconsin – which is pristine. His furniture consists of a sofa, a TV, a wood table and four chairs, some houseplants and paintings. He just has enough basics to get by. He chooses to live with this little, he explains, because “minimalism is living with more of what matters by choosing to want less of what doesn’t,” he says in a video. Continue reading...

Premier Daniel Andrews says lockdowns will be targeted rather than statewide if new clusters emerge in the future

The clinic, which set up an online page to book $85 consultations for the drug, has been listed as a coronavirus exposure site

Overlooking Hanoi’s deserted streets, tiny balconies have become places of refuge during the coronavirus lockdown as city residents squeeze desks, yoga mats and chairs into the spaces to get their share of fresh air. Below them, everyday objects – bamboo poles, beer crates and ladders – form makeshift barricades on the Vietnamese capital’s streets as authorities try to slow the spread of CovidBalconies photographed by Nhac Nguyen. Barricades photographed by Manan VatsyayanaEight million people living in the Vietnamese capital have been under a strict stay-at-home order since late July, allowed out only for trips to get food or hospital visits. Continue reading...

Life for single mothers in Afghanistan has always been marred by stigma and poverty. Now with the Taliban in control, what few protections they had have disappeared

Supporters and critics of Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro gathered in their thousands across cities throughout Brazil during the country's Independence Day. Supporters of the far-right President, dressed in the green and yellow of the Brazilian flag, in a show of support for his attacks on the country's Supreme Court. But Bolsonaro's detractors also took to the streets to voice their concerns on issues including the president's handling of the pandemic and Brazil's low vaccination rates.

A man was killed and buildings were damaged in the resort city of Acapulco, and the quake was also felt in Mexico CityA powerful earthquake has struck south-west Mexico near the beach resort of Acapulco, killing at least one man who was crushed by a falling post, and causing rock falls and damaging buildings.The US Geological Survey (USGS) said a 7.0 magnitude quake struck 11 miles (18km) north-east of the resort of Acapulco, Guerrero, in the early hours of Wednesday sending people running into the street for safety. Continue reading...

After 15 years campaigning, Satya Naresh believes it’s time for government action to stop the custom that causes a woman to die every hour through murder or suicideFor more than a decade, Satya Naresh has been trying to persuade India’s men to stop a wedding custom that he sees as one of the country’s worst social evils.He wants men to declare: “I don’t want dowry”. The line is the name of the website he set up in 2006 as part of his campaign. Naresh wants Indian men not to expect the money, motorbike, sofa, TV, iPhone, gold jewellery or fridge that a future wife is expected to come with. Continue reading...

The past 18 months have left many parents and carers feeling overwhelmed, irritable and wrung bone dry. Can balance ever be restored?“I’m tired of how blurred the lines are between home and work,” Julia Thomas tells me as her two boys repeatedly ask for snacks in the background. Thomas lives in London with her husband, twin 11-year-old boys and a daughter, seven. She is a civil servant, but says she is feeling so burned out by childcare that she’s considering quitting her job completely. She isn’t sleeping properly, her back and hips ache from sitting at a desk all day and her constant to-do list makes life feel chaotic.“Quitting my job feels like a big deal. I feel guilty, as if I’m letting the sisterhood down – but this situation is untenable,” she says. “The children are downstairs, while my husband and I are upstairs on Zoom meetings. We can still hear the sibling fights, even when we’re working, and when it gets bad they bring the problem to you.” Continue reading...

Despite a fifth day of falling cases, planned reopening early next year will be changed to grade countries by vaccination and case numbersSee all our coronavirus coverageNew Zealand’s plans to reopen its borders to the world early next year will have to undergo a complete reworking, the government has warned, as the country races to stamp out an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant.The nation recorded 15 new cases of coronavirus in the community on Wednesday, bringing the total number in the outbreak to 855. Continue reading...

Kompas TV showed footage of firefighters trying to put out huge flames from the top of a building in Banten province in western JavaA fire at a jail in Indonesia has killed 40 people, authorities have said.The fire in the prison in Banten province broke out at some time between 1am and 2am on Wednesday morning, a spokesperson for the prison department of the law and human rights ministry said. Continue reading...

The outspoken vaccine minister is favourite for the top job partly thanks to his large social media following and backing from young peopleJapan’s straight-talking, social media-savvy minister for vaccines and reform, Taro Kono, is the frontrunner to become the country’s next leader. Seen as a maverick in Japan’s staid political world, Kono has set his sights on shaking up the nation’s entrenched bureaucracy.Kono has used his platform on Twitter – where his Japanese account has nearly 2.4 million followers and his English-language one nearly 50,000 – to berate civil servants for working into the wee hours and holding late-night press conferences. Continue reading...

Jamie Spears, conservator of the pop singer’s estate since 2008, says ‘recent events’ called the arrangement into questionBritney Spears’ father has filed an unexpected request to terminate the controversial conservatorship that has controlled the singer’s life for 13 years.In a stunning move, Jamie Spears, who is the conservator of his daughter’s estate, said “recent events” called into question whether she still needed a court to oversee her personal affairs and finances. Continue reading...