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Australian consumers say they want durability ratings for white goods and electronics

Raffaele Imperiale, suspected of buying Van Gogh paintings on black market, considered one of Italy’s most dangerous fugitivesOne of Italy’s most wanted men, an alleged top drug trafficker suspected of having bought two stolen Van Gogh paintings on the black market, has been arrested in Dubai.Raffaele Imperiale, an alleged kingpin in the Naples-based Camorra organised crime syndicate, was arrested on 4 August, Italy’s state police and financial crimes police corps said in a joint statement on Thursday. Continue reading...

Sgt Geraint Jones of Devon and Cornwall force given final written warning by disciplinary panelA police officer who sent an offensive meme depicting the arrest of George Floyd to a WhatsApp group of colleagues has avoided losing his job.Sgt Geraint Jones received a final written warning by a police disciplinary panel after an Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) investigation. Continue reading...

Historic England project aims to find ashes of fans buried at football ground slated for redevelopmentThe buddleia is pushing through the concrete of the Grosvenor Road stand at Bootham Crescent. Nature has reclaimed York City FC’s once pristine pitch, and knee-high grass sways in the breeze in the centre of the dilapidated ground.It doesn’t look like the site of a groundbreaking historical project, but the small holes in a carefully excavated site behind where the goal once was tell a different story. Continue reading...

From Bolivia’s Lake Titicaca to wildlife tourism in Nepal, we find out how the crisis has affected people in four travel hotspots – and whether or not they want the tourists to return

Biden’s hasty withdrawal removed leverage in talks with Taliban, says first female vice-president of Afghan parliament Fawzia KoofiJoe Biden delaying the exit of American forces from Afghanistan by just a month could have made a significant difference to the outcome of continuing peace talks with the Taliban leadership, according to one of the negotiators.Fawzia Koofi, an Afghan politician and women’s rights activist, said the chaotic withdrawal undermined all leverage that the US and the Afghan government had had with the Taliban at the talks in Qatar. Continue reading...

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She dated Elvis – then made him look tame with her growling, high-energy rock’n’roll. And at 83 years old, she still can’t quite embrace retirementIn 2019, Wanda Jackson announced her retirement from performing. She had been on the road for 65 years, during which time she had variously been a country star, a rock’n’roll pioneer, a gospel singer and a grande dame hailed as either the Queen of Rockabilly, or its First Lady. It was a career that had taken her from touring with Elvis Presley just as his career took off to collaborating with Jack White, but she was ready to stop travelling: she had suffered a stroke, “problems with my knees and such”, and Wendell Goodman, her husband and manager of 55 years, had died in 2017. She was, she says, “glad of the rest”.And yet, here we are, two and a half years on. Jackson is peering out of my laptop screen from her home in Oklahoma: 83, sharp as a tack, fully madeup, elaborately coiffured and brushing aside queries about what happened to her retirement with a chuckle of “it’s hard to get a good girl down”. Continue reading...

Founder of institute that has transformed lives of impoverished children fears return to ‘silent nation’ under Taliban ruleFor more than a decade, Ahmad Sarmast has taken impoverished children from the streets of Afghanistan and filled their lives with music. One, an orphan girl who hawked chewing gum in one of the most conservative areas of the country, became a conductor of Afghanistan’s first all-female orchestra.All that is now at risk as the Taliban tighten their grip on power. Continue reading...

Government urged to relax UK immigration rules after one in six jobs left unfilled since EU departureThe British Poultry Council has said food producers are facing serious staff shortages because of Brexit as this week’s partial closure of the Nando’s chain threw the spotlight on problems made worse by the fallout from Covid.The trade association said its members, which include 2 Sisters Food Group – the country’s largest supplier of supermarket chicken, said one in six jobs were unfilled as a result of EU workers leaving the UK after Brexit. Continue reading...

Bill Shorten says refusal to disclose details is ‘nothing short of a cover-up’ as Senate inquiry examines schemeThe Morrison government wants to keep its own taxpayer-funded legal costs from the robodebt scandal secret despite no longer facing court action over the program.This month the government again claimed public interest immunity when refusing to answer 19 questions posed by a Senate inquiry examining the scheme, according to an upper house committee report. Continue reading...

Barrott, 54, arrested in Elgin area of northern Scotland four days after death of his wife, Eileen, a Leeds nurseA man suspected of murdering his wife and then going on the run was arrested in Scotland early on Thursday morning. West Yorkshire police took the rare step of naming Mark Barrott, 54, as a suspect in the murder of his wife, Eileen Barrott, at their home in Leeds on Sunday.Barrott was detained by officers from Police Scotland in the Elgin area of northern Scotland at about 4.30am. He will be brought back to West Yorkshire for questioning in relation to his wife’s death. Continue reading...

NT judge dismisses prosecution bid to postpone Zachary Rolfe’s trial for allegedly murdering Indigenous man Kumanjayi WalkerIt remains unclear whether a Northern Territory policeman’s trial for allegedly murdering an Indigenous man during an outback arrest will be further delayed, just days before it is set to start.Cst Zachary Rolfe, 29, is accused of murdering Kumanjayi Walker, 19, who was shot three times in the remote community of Yuendumu in November 2019. Continue reading...

Book claims couple felt Queen’s response to their Oprah interview fell short of addressing problemsThe Duke and Duchess of Sussex believe the royal family did not take accountability for the concerns raised in their Oprah Winfrey interview, an unauthorised biography of the couple has claimed.Harry and Meghan used their March interview with Winfrey to make a series of explosive allegations against the royal family, accusing an unnamed royal – not the Queen or the Duke of Edinburgh – of racism, the institution of failing to support a suicidal Meghan, and touching on troubled relationships with the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge. Continue reading...

NSW records 681 local cases and one death, extends regional lockdown as police issue 671 penalties in 24 hours; ACT records 16 cases; Victoria records 57 cases; Queensland reports another Covid-free day; Melbourne has now had 200 days of lockdown. Follow all the day’s news

A record number of people are expected to cross the Channel to the UK in small boats this year to claim asylum.Amid the coronavirus pandemic, more than 10,000 people have already made the dangerous and potentially fatal 21-mile journey across the busiest shipping lane in the world. On 4 August, 482migrants crossed the Channel – a record for a single day.The Guardian journalist Diane Taylor explains what is driving people to take the enormous risk

Posters in Ribadesella warn visitors unhappy about reality of rural life they ‘may not be in the right place’Some called in to complain about braying donkeys. Other tourists dialled up officials in the northern Spanish village of Ribadesella, population 5,700, to notify them of the mess left behind by wandering cows.“Last week we had a lady who called us three or four times over a rooster that was waking her up at 5am,” said Ramón Canal, Ribadesella’s mayor. “She told us that we had to do something.” Continue reading...

Former deputy PM is likely to takeover from Muhyiddin Yassin, taking the UMNO party ousted amid the the 1MDB scandal back into officeFormer Malaysian deputy prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob looked set to form the next government after gaining a parliamentary majority from the same coalition that collapsed earlier this week, media and lawmakers said on Thursday.The choice of Yaakob as prime minister would essentially restore the ruling alliance of Muhyiddin Yassin, who resigned as the country’s leader on Monday after infighting in the coalition cost him majority support. Continue reading...

In a country with shocking brutality against LGBTQ+ people, Alexya Salvador is using her faith to help others like herDesperate calls from LGBTQ+ youths contemplating suicide or from their parents after they have made an attempt on their lives often punctuate Alexya Salvador’s day. When they do, she drops everything to talk.As a transgender woman, she recognises the anguish in their voices. “I feel their pain in my body because I went through this,” she says. “My family went through this.” Continue reading...

As Melbourne notches 200th day of lockdown, premier says state has made tough choices and can beat virus again

Estranged from my parents at 17, I jumped at the chance to go on holiday to Spain. I danced, drank too much – and had a row that taught me about friendshipWhen I was 17, there was a lot I knew little about. I didn’t know about burning in the sun or how to use euros; I had never swum in the ocean.I was part of a big family and we were poor. As my parents were out of work, they couldn’t afford to take the nine of us on holiday. Continue reading...

Poorest areas house high proportion of asylum seekers, analysis shows, but north pledges to be welcomingPolitical leaders in the north of England have promised to welcome refugees from Afghanistan but said they must be distributed fairly across the country, as analysis showed the areas housing the most asylum seekers are among the poorest in Britain.A Guardian analysis has found that almost one in four of the UK’s 44,825 asylum seekers supported by the Home Office are housed in just 10 local authorities, nine of which are among the most deprived in the UK. Continue reading...

Abdul Rahman Khiti has approval for citizenship revoked after Guardian revealed sanctioned businessman among more than 2,000 people who bought passportsVanuatu has reportedly revoked the citizenship of a Syrian businessman who was granted approval to receive a Vanuatu passport earlier this year, after a Guardian investigation into the country’s controversial citizenship by investment scheme.Abdul Rahman Khiti is believed to be the first individual approved for citizenship of Vanuatu under the development support program, which allows foreign nationals to purchase citizenship for US$130,000, to have his Vanuatu citizenship revoked. Continue reading...

Interactive tool features more than 500 women who are often forgotten in the classical music worldTwo siblings, both considered child prodigies, dazzled audiences across Europe together in the 18 century, leaving a trail of positive reviews in their wake. But while Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart went on to be celebrated as one of the world’s greatest composers, the accomplishments of his sister – Maria Anna – were quickly forgotten after she was forced to halt her career when she came of age.However, a new tool is seeking to cast a spotlight on female composers throughout the ages, pushing back against the sexism, stigmatisation and societal norms that have long rendered them invisible. Continue reading...

‘I stood with you .. now, I need to be taken care of,’ says Nowroz Ali, amid calls for Jacinda Ardern to do more to help desperate refugeesIn hiding with his family in Kabul, Nowroz Ali says he is consumed by fear. He can hear gunfire in the darkness. He cannot sleep, getting up every time he hears a door slam.“At night time, I am shivering. I can’t control myself. The more days I spend here, the more worried I get – the Taliban have started looking for people who worked with coalition forces.” Continue reading...

West Mercia police satisfied no other parties involved in deaths of David Louden and three-year-old Harrison in KidderminsterThe deaths of a police officer and his three-year-old son in Kidderminster are being treated as a suspected murder-suicide.West Mercia police assistant chief constable Damian Barratt said that although the deaths of David Louden, 39, and Harrison Louden were originally treated as unexplained, the force was now satisfied no other parties had been involved. Continue reading...

Successful inner-city clinic, a joint initiative of Vinnies, St Vincent’s hospital, City of Sydney and local charities, offers a model

The Guardian and other UK media demand action for those who have helped report from Afghanistan• UK media repeat call for evacuation of Afghan colleaguesDear prime minister and foreign secretary,When British media organisations wrote to you earlier this month about the grave Taliban threat to Afghan journalists and translators who had worked with us, you responded almost immediately. You recognised their vital contribution to a free press by reporting on the British mission in Afghanistan and promised colleagues at risk a path to safety. President Biden did the same in the United States. Continue reading...

The performance artist on her new 10-hour work, rethinking her distance from feminism, and why she told Malcolm McLaren her avant garde covers band was ‘unmanageable’Anne Bean has been revisiting her past. On 21 August the pioneering performance artist is taking part in a 10-hour “durational live event” as part of PSX: A Decade of Performance Art in the UK. Not only did this require her to look back on five decades of practice – her past work, she tells me, is “intimately linked” to her present – but it’s taking place at Bermondsey’s Ugly Duck, a stone’s throw from the Butler’s Wharf studio in London in which she worked from the mid-70s to the mid-80s.Many artists at the time, including Derek Jarman and Andrew Logan, squatted in warehouses there, and in her time Bean has worked with everyone from slapstick clowns the Kipper Kids to artists such as Paul McCarthy and Rose English, as well as sharing bills with Psychic TV, Genesis P-Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti. She even opened for Roxy Music as part of the pseudo-pop band Moody and the Menstruators, an avant garde performance covers group she founded in 1971. Bean has often used sound in her work and loves music – her father was a classical and jazz musician – but Moody was never supposed to be a real band, more “a subversive exploration of the boundaries between art and music”. Continue reading...

Analysis: As the US freezes Afghan reserves and Germany halts aid, the new rulers may find they are far short of what is required to governAfghanistan’s new Taliban rulers are likely to face a rapidly developing financial crisis, with foreign currency reserves largely unreachable and western aid donors – who fund the country’s institutions by about 75% – already cutting off or threatening to cut payments.While the hardline Islamist group has moved in recent years to become more independent of outside financial supporters including Iran, Pakistan and wealthy donors in the Gulf, its financial flows – amounting to $1.6bn (£1.2bn) last year – are far short of what it will require to govern. Continue reading...

The German film director has announced two new books: a memoir and The Twilight World, about a remarkable second world war officerWerner Herzog is writing a book about Hiroo Onoda, the Japanese soldier who took three decades to surrender after the end of the second world war.The esteemed German film director’s take on the life of Onoda, The Twilight World, will be translated by the poet Michael Hofmann, and published next summer by The Bodley Head. A memoir by Herzog will follow in 2023, reflecting on his life and the decades he has spent in the film industry, creating films including Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo, and documentaries Grizzly Man and Cave of Forgotten Dreams. Continue reading...

Scottish finance secretary says notional deficit of £36.3bn for 2020-21 does not undermine case for leaving UKScotland‘s deficit more than doubled to £36.3bn, or 22.4% of GDP in 2020-21, the highest yearly figure since devolution, but it should not be an obstacle to making the case for independence, according to Scotland’s finance secretary.Increased spending and falling revenues as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, compounded by the continuing oil price slump, increased Scotland’s notional deficit for 2020-21 from 8.6% of GDP in 2019-20, to 22.4%. Continue reading...

The choreographer felt the urgent need to bring happiness and relentless fun to the weekender she has curated for the Southbank Centre’s Summer Reunion series‘With the year we’ve had, we just needed people to have insanely, intensely engrossing, almost relentless fun,” says choreographer Jade Hackett of the weekender she has curated for the Southbank Centre’s Summer Reunion series. Working with music producer DJ Walde under the umbrella of ZooNation dance company, Hackett is taking over the Thames riverside terrace for a free mini festival, three days celebrating UK hip-hop culture, and just celebrating full stop, having been starved of live shows and social occasions during the pandemic.“It’s the first stepping stone to reintegration, bringing people together in a really safe way,” she says. “We’ll kick it off with music by Afrika Bambaataa, Earth, Wind & Fire, Stevie Wonder, that’s the vibe; awesome social dances, the electric slide, Soul Train lines, it’ll be super fun.” Audiences can watch dance battles and performances from the likes of female popping collective AIM and Afrobeats dancers HomeBros, but there’s an emphasis on participation, with a series of workshops covering dance from the 70s, 80s and 90s as well as newer styles such as Litefeet. There are daytime family activities and evenings dancing to DJ collective The Midnight Train playing garage, grime, house, R&B, hip-hop and soca – a little carnival fix for those feeling the gap left by the cancellation of Notting Hill carnival for the second consecutive year. Continue reading...

Long-anticipated federal trial over allegations that R&B singer sexually abused women and girls

Former federal attorney general seeks declaration that media outlets never publish ABC’s unredacted defence without judicial permissionChristian Porter has revived an element of his defamation proceedings, by seeking a declaration that three media outlets never publish the ABC’s unredacted defence without judicial permission.But Nine, its subsidiary, Fairfax, and News Corp say such relief isn’t possible as the former federal attorney general does not own the 37-page document. Continue reading...

The oil firms have fled and an Isis-affiliated insurgency has engulfed the region. As foreign troops begin to arrive, hundreds of thousands face desperate journeys to try to find safety

Huge tapestry initially toured Scotland but now it has permanent home in purpose-built Galashiels galleryBeginning at the glacial formation of mountains and glens more than 420m years ago, spanning from the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 to the reconvening of the Holyrood parliament in 1999, up to Andy Murray’s Wimbledon victory of 2013, the Great Tapestry of Scotland – an ambitious project to render the nation’s story from pre-history to modern times – can be viewed for the first time in its new and permanent home from next week.Comprising 160 panels – finely stitched, vividly colourful and animated with detail – it is thought to be one of the longest tapestries in the world, at 143 metres – 70 metres longer than the Bayeux Tapestry in Normandy. Now hung in a purpose-built gallery in Galashiels, in the Scottish Borders, the panel were created by 1,000 volunteer stitchers from across the country working with more than 300 miles of wool over two years. Continue reading...

Whether it’s online or on the streets, women have defined London’s huge celebration of Caribbean culture. We talk steel pans and skimpy costumes with the pioneers who set the toneSitting in a neat little cafe at the back of the Tabernacle, a Grade II-listed pub and arts venue in London’s Notting Hill, Sister Monica Tywang is reflecting on how much has changed since her association with the carnival began in 1975. “We’d call it the annual pilgrimage,” she says. “We didn’t have the ways of communicating then that we have today, so everybody looked forward to coming to Notting Hill, to meet other Caribbean people and to celebrate our culture.”Today, Notting Hill carnival is an indelible part of the British cultural calendar. It dominates the August bank holiday weekend, as around a million people descend on west London for Europe’s largest street festival. Lining the white walls of the cafe are photos from carnival’s past, and Tywang can’t help but reminisce about the days they capture. “We brought colour to this country. After the war everything was black and grey and drab, smog was billowing out of the chimneys that everyone had in those days.” Continue reading...

Strengthening legislation ‘not ruled out’ claims chair of inquiry into menopause discrimination, Caroline NokesChanging equality legislation to protect women going through the menopause should “not be ruled” out, according to the chair of a group of MPs leading an inquiry into discrimination on the issue.Caroline Nokes, chair of the women and equalities committee, said the inquiry had heard from women who have suffered discrimination in the workplace and have been forced to use disability legislation to seek redress in the courts. Continue reading...

Frontline staff must be inoculated by 15 November, with remainder of staff given until 31 March

OAS review of violence that followed 2019 election stops short of calling Jeanine Áñez’s ascent to power a coup but finds ‘irregularities’Bolivia’s recent interim government came to power by sidestepping constitutional rules for presidential succession and persecuted opponents with “systematic torture” and “summary executions” by security forces in the tumultuous aftermath of Evo Morales’s resignation in 2019, according to a new report by independent human rights experts.The scathing 471-page report is the most comprehensive yet to examine the events surrounding the disputed 2019 presidential vote, when Morales’s narrow election to an unprecedented fourth term triggered widespread protests spurred by strong international allegations of voting fraud – claims later questioned by foreign electoral experts. Continue reading...

The Taliban said they wanted peaceful relations with other countries and would respect the rights of women 'within the limits of Islam', as they held their first press conference since seizing Kabul. During their rule between 1996 and 2001, the Taliban implemented their own strict interpretation of sharia law, preventing women from working and girls from going to school.

People already displaced by Saturday's earthquake in Haiti evacuated temporary shelters on Monday night due to a tropical storm.Tropical Storm Grace was projected to hit some of the areas worst affected by the earthquake with up to 38cm (15in) of rain, bringing the risk of flash floods and landslides.

Social media platform launches experiment in US, South Korea and Australia as part of plan to crack down on misleading content

CCTV footage obtained exclusively by the Guardian shows Jake Davison pacing around a local corner shop on the day before he shot dead five people and then turned his weapon on himself

British ties with a historic European city deserve to be more widely exploredMany countries contain a city, sometimes more than one, that has acquired world fame while at the same time being an overlooked destination for busy visitors. In Europe, these cities are often places with long histories that morphed into industrial, commercial or trading hubs. Cities like Hamburg, Lyon and Turin can perhaps be seen in this way.In Belgium, Antwerp is one of the most striking examples of this phenomenon of simultaneous fame and neglect. Antwerp is one of the great historic cities of Europe. In a highly readable new book, Michael Pye argues that, during Europe’s ages of discovery, it became one of the earliest genuinely global cities too. For much of the 16th century, it was what Paris, New York or London would become in later times, a place of restless wealth and vigour where, as Mr Pye puts it, anything could happen or at least anything could be believed. Continue reading...

Analysis: The stunning US defeat has left Afghans and Americans distraught and confused but some gains may not be easily erasedOn 1 October 2001, three weeks after the 9/11 attacks and six days before the bombing of Afghanistan began, there was a small protest march in Washington.The marchers wore badges saying “Don’t Turn Tragedy into War” and “Our Grief Is Not a Cry for War”, and argued that war was not the inevitable response to the terrorist outrage. Continue reading...

Demonstrators demand prime minister resigns over handling of pandemic; latest UK Covid data shows week-on-week rise in cases

The resurgence of the virus highlights low vaccination rates among aged care workers who were initially due to be vaccinated by EasterThirty-four aged care facilities in New South Wales are currently in the grips of a Covid-19 outbreak or are under close surveillance due to recent cases, new data shows.The resurgence of the virus across the eastern states has again put dozens of aged care facilities at risk and highlighted low vaccination rates among aged care workers, who the government once promised would receive the jab by Easter. Continue reading...