Official in Afar says Tigrayan forces have seized three districts in fight against Ethiopian militaryAttacks by Tigrayan forces in the Afar region of Ethiopia have forced more than 54,000 people from their homes, an official has said, as refugees in a camp in southern Tigray described heavy clashes nearby.Tens of thousands of people, meanwhile, rallied in the capital to support Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who has faced criticism for his handling of a conflict that threatens to undermine stability in Africa’s second most populous nation. Continue reading...

Yorkshire resort wants to transform its bucket-and-spade image to capitalise on domestic holiday boomPack away the bucket and spade and roll out the yoga mat. Scarborough is hoping to overhaul its image as a traditional seaside resort by enticing millennials with the promise of surfing, exercise on the beach and dolphin-watching at sunset.The North Yorkshire town, which claims to be England’s first coastal resort, wants to capitalise on the domestic holiday boom by showing twentysomethings there is more to “Scarbados” than amusement arcades and donkey rides. Continue reading...

Newly built destroyer and support vessel thought to be on way to Russian naval parade in St PetersburgThe Danish military has said that it has spotted an Iranian destroyer and a large support vessel sailing through the Baltic Sea, thought to be heading to Russia for a military parade in the coming days.The Danish defence ministry posted photographs online on Thursday from the Royal Danish Air Force of the new domestically built Iranian destroyer Sahand and the intelligence-gathering vessel Makran passing by the Danish island of Bornholm. Continue reading...

President intervenes after days of protests over shortages in Khuzestan province that have left three deadIran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, said on Thursday that citizens have the right to protest after days of demonstrations against water shortages in Khuzestan province in which three people have been killed.The south-western province is Iran’s main oil-producing region, but has been struggling with an intense drought since March. Continue reading...

The perfume was specially commissioned by organisers of the annual Bergman Week festival on the island on which the Swedish director was born. But what does it smell like?On Monday morning the postman delivers a parcel from Sweden. Inside is Persona, a perfume inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s most demanding, difficult, abrasive film. It gives us Bergman in a bottle; the arthouse atomised. I spray it on my wrist and then on my wife’s and we stare at each other through a mist of droplets. The perfume is distinctive, but does that mean it’s good?After a long, anxious moment, my wife nods in relief. “This is actually all right,” she says. “It’s herby. It’s lavender. It smells like the sea.” Continue reading...

Campaigners say new flag featuring traditional county fox is ‘something to hang our pride on’Lancashire’s has a red rose, Kent’s has a white horse and Nottinghamshire’s features Robin Hood. Nearly every county in England has had its own flag for some time – but until this week one was missing.After a public campaign lasting almost a decade, Leicestershire has finally raised its own official county flag for the first time. Continue reading...

EU has already proposed changes to lessen impact on Northern Irish citizens, say officialsThe president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has rejected Boris Johnson’s move to renegotiate the Northern Irish protocol, raising the temperature of a simmering Brexit row.“The EU will continue to be creative and flexible within the protocol framework. But we will not renegotiate,” she said after a call with the prime minister on Thursday. Continue reading...

A ceremony devoid of fans and low on athletes will set the tone for a Games mired in coronavirus uncertaintyWhen a national leader as conservative as Shinzo Abe was persuaded to emerge from a giant pipe in Rio dressed as the world’s most famous plumber, it felt like Tokyo had already hatched plans to put on an Olympic show like no other when its chance came four years later.The coronavirus not only forced the summer Olympics’ fallow season to be extended by 12 months; it has guaranteed that nothing as whimsical as a cosplaying politician will be making a reappearance at the official start of the Tokyo 2020 Games. Continue reading...

She’s out of the Olympics, but the US sprinting star’s ‘extra’ style makes an important statement about black womanhoodDespite not being part of Team USA after a failed drugs test, Sha’Carri Richardson made a reappearance yesterday in an advert for Beats by Dre soundtracked by a new song from Kanye West. With her trademark long nails, long lashes and fire-cracker hair, Richardson has underlined the point that, Olympian or not, she is one of 2021’s most electrifying style icons. Continue reading...

Health minister says ‘This is totally reprehensible’ as families of seriously ill asked for up to $21,000 at state-run hospitalPeruvian police have dismantled an alleged criminal ring that had charged as much $21,000 per bed for seriously ill Covid-19 patients in a state-run hospital, aggravating care in a country hit by one of the world’s deadliest outbreaks of the virus.Authorities arrested nine people in an early morning raid on Wednesday, including the administrators of Lima’s Guillermo Almenara Irigoyen public hospital, according to prosecutor Reynaldo Abia. Continue reading...

English Defence League founder’s Facebook videos led to Jamal Hijazi ‘facing death threats’Tommy Robinson has lost a libel case brought against him by a Syrian teenager who was filmed being attacked at school.The founder of the English Defence League – whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – was sued by Jamal Hijazi, who was assaulted in the playground at Almondbury community school in Huddersfield in October 2018. Continue reading...

Public scrutiny has focused on contradictory statements from local media and differences between posts by authorities and publicThe official death toll from central China’s devastating floods has risen to 33, as the public began to ask questions about the readiness of authorities for the disaster.Cleanup efforts were under way in Henan province and the capital city Zhengzhou on Thursday, after a record breaking rain storm flooded the city’s streets and subway, damaged dams and reservoirs, collapsed roads, cut power to at least one hospital and was linked to a massive explosion at a factory in Dengfeng city. Continue reading...

Estimated 1.2m Italians who are not in police or the security forces own small guns, according to pollA row over privately owned guns has been ignited in Italy after a councillor with the far-right League party allegedly shot dead an immigrant.Massimo Adriatici, a councillor for security in Voghera, is under house arrest following the shooting outside a bar in the Lombardy town on Tuesday night. Youns El Bossettaoui, a 38-year-old man from Morocco, was shot in the chest and later died in hospital. Continue reading...

Queensland has eased some restrictions. Here’s the full list of what you can and can’t do

The vaccines minister has confirmed the government intends to go ahead with making Covid vaccination a condition for entry to nightclubs from September in England.Nadhim Zahawi said that after a successful trial the government has rolled out the NHS Covid pass, which allows people to show their Covid status, whether proof of vaccination, test results or natural immunity.He added the government reserved the right to make its use compulsory in future but confirmed MPs will get a vote on plans to use Covid passports

Archaeologist involved all her life with Mycenae and an authority on the ancient Greek culture’s terracotta figurinesLisa French, who has died aged 90, was the leading authority on Mycenaean ceramics. The first archaeologist to study systematically the culture’s terracotta animal and human figurines – “dollies”, as she called them – she was also the first female director of the British School at Athens (1989-94).Mycenae, situated in the Argolid region in the eastern Peloponnese, 120km south-west of Athens, is one of the principal archaeological sites of the late bronze age in mainland Greece, and now possesses Unesco world heritage status. Ancient Greek legend had it as the home of Agamemnon, who led the Greeks in the war against Troy; and it was where in 1876 Heinrich Schliemann first put spade to earth. Continue reading...

Despite government rhetoric, Atagi had always advised that adults wanting to be vaccinated COULD choose either vaccine

‘Justice suffocated’ say families of seven people who died when train overturned while speeding on sharp bendThe deaths of seven passengers in the Croydon tram crash were accidental, the jury at the coroner’s inquest in south London has decided, in a verdict met with anger by families of the victims.In a narrative verdict, the jury said contributing factors were that the driver had become disoriented and not braked in time, while Tram Operations Ltd (TOL), the tram operator, had failed to adequately account for the risk of a high-speed derailment, or ensure a “just culture” where drivers felt able to report health and safety concerns. Continue reading...

Supporters applaud as hundreds of undocumented people leave church where they had been campedHundreds of undocumented migrants in Brussels have ended a hunger strike after 60 days, giving up the demand for a collective regularisation of their status.A representative for the group announced on Wednesday that people camped at the Church of St John the Baptist at the Béguinage in central Brussels were ending their refusal to eat or drink. Continue reading...

A virtual lockdown date that blossomed, an encounter on a backpackers’ bus and a school trip to Spain – readers share their most memorable summer romancesAfter just one week of living in New York, the city locked down, and a summer of love seemed unlikely. I did go on a series of virtual dates, with around 20 guys over four months; some were funny, kind and smart, and some were a little weird. One or two of them became my friends. Then, I finally got a call from Mr Right on the long weekend of 4 July. We started talking and he was everything I’d hoped for – except he was in Michigan, hundreds of miles away. In early August, he casually mentioned he’d be coming to NYC to meet me, and the next day he drove for 10 hours to take me for dinner. Continue reading...

From wearing an ‘airport shirt’ to travelling solo, our tipsters share their secrets for easier, stress-free breaksNoise-cancelling headphones are my most cherished luggage. On busy trains, planes and ferries they block out the thrum of engines, the cries of babies and the sounds leaking from other people’s headsets. They allow me to be entertained by music, podcasts or audiobooks when turbulence, bumpy tracks or heavy swell make reading impossible. Most importantly, they make food taste better! Taste is affected by hearing, and the background engine drone is one reason aeroplane food tastes so bland. I pop on my headphones and, if not haute cuisine, the food does develop taste.

Clapton says he won’t perform for a ‘discriminated audience’ after vaccination passports made mandatory for clubs and venues this autumnEric Clapton has said he will not perform at any venues that require attendees to show proof of vaccination.In response to the government announcement that vaccination passports will be required to access nightclubs and venues by the end of September, the musician has issued a statement saying he would not play “any stage where there is a discriminated audience present. Continue reading...

Report criticises David Cameron and Jeremy Heywood and says lobbying process is insufficiently transparentThe businessman Lex Greensill was given “extraordinarily privileged” access to Downing Street while the government’s process for managing lobbying is insufficiently transparent and allows access to a “privileged few”, a report into the Greensill lobbying scandal commissioned by the prime minister has concluded.The former prime minister David Cameron and the late cabinet secretary Jeremy Heywood have been criticised in the 141-page review drawn up by the City solicitor Nigel Boardman. Continue reading...

Many blame President Jair Bolsonaro’s failure to handle the pandemic and to provide adequate support for those in needEven before coronavirus, life was a struggle on Regeneration Street, a rubbish-strewn skid row on the north side of Rio de Janeiro.Cadaverous crack addicts probe dumpsters for scraps of food; crestfallen down-and-outs sprawl on soiled mattresses and rugs. Continue reading...

Fifteen questions on general knowledge and topical news trivia plus a few jokes – how will you fare?Unlucky for some, incredibly it is the 13th edition of the quiz idea so haphazard that you feel it must have been scribbled down on the back of a cigarette packet in the pub, if only pubs had been open earlier in the year. Fifteen questions. Some of them are topical. Some of them are general knowledge. One will have anagrams and one will feature Kate Bush, and most of them are a tiny bit silly in some way. It’s just for fun; let us know how you get on in the comments.The Thursday quiz, No 13 Continue reading...

The menopause brings an end to menstruation – but in the lead-up, many women experience periods that can disrupt their lives and careersIf Emma Pickett needs to make a long journey, she checks her calendar very carefully. She will often take an emergency change of clothes when she goes out, and if giving a lecture for work, has to ensure it is no longer than half an hour. Yet she rarely hears anyone talk about the reason so many older women secretly go to all this trouble; why they’ve started to stick to black trousers, give up the sports they loved, or plan days out – especially with children – meticulously.“If you have a bunch of 12-year-olds in the car, you can’t say: ‘Sorry chaps, I’m just bleeding heavily today,’” says Pickett, a 48-year-old breastfeeding counsellor and author of The Breast Book, who also happens to be among the one in five British women who suffer from heavy periods in the run-up to menopause (or perimenopause). “You can talk about hot flushes, make a joke about it. But because menstrual blood is gross in our society, there’s no conversation about it. There must be women round the world just pretending they need to dash off for some other reason.” Continue reading...

Two people have died following a first AZ dose; NSW residents will learn lockdown fate ‘this time next week’. This blog is now closed

Anders Thomas Jensen’s film is far-fetched, tonally wayward and shouldn’t work at all, but somehow it all comes togetherThe poster image of a grey-bearded, shaven-headed, tooled-up, mean-looking Mads Mikkelsen, combined with that title, might set alarm bells ringing … along the lines of, “Oh no, he’s doing a Taken.” Blessedly, rather than giving us a straightahead middle-aged revenge thriller, this unpredictable Danish film takes apart the whole trope. There are action thrills, to be sure, but they are folded into what becomes a sort of group therapy session on the psychology of grief, guilt, vengeance, chance and coincidence. Even more blessedly, it’s often hilarious.Mikkelsen plays Markus, a military commander who is recalled from Afghanistan when his wife is killed in a train crash. He might have a particular set of skills, as Liam Neeson would put it, but emotional intelligence is not one of them. Markus refuses counselling and struggles to connect with his teenage daughter. Fortunately, along comes Otto (Nikolaj Lie Kaas), a maths geek who happened to be on the same train as Markus’s wife. He is accompanied by eccentric sidekicks Lennart (Lars Brygmann), and Emmenthaler (Nicolas Bro). They are convinced the crash was not an accident but a targeted killing connected to a violent biker gang. Continue reading...

Brazilian photographer Felipe Dana arrived in Gaza to cover the aftermath of the last war in May and was struck by how children were suffering psychologically Continue reading...

Despite death threats, gangs and guerrilla warfare, a network of women are determined to help others recover from rape and domestic abuseChildren now play football on the field where the lives of the people of El Salado changed completely.In February 2000, about 450 paramilitary fighters stormed this small Colombian town. They forced people from their homes into the field, and began to play drums and drink alcohol stolen from local shops. They then went on to torture and kill. Yirley Velasco was one of those gang-raped. She was 14 at the time. Continue reading...

Restrictions on mobility introduced to stop the spread of the virus have been catastrophic for those living in poverty

Albert Dupontel stars in his own hectic romp, which tries and fails to be funny about disability and dyingBafflement has to be the chief response to this laboured, weirdly misjudged comedy from French actor and film-maker Albert Dupontel, supposedly inspired by the anarchic spirit of Terry Gilliam, who has been credited for “participation exceptionelle” and gets a wacky cameo. It’s also dedicated to the memory of Terry Jones.But in fact this is a frantically French romp in the commercial mainstream, about as far from Python as it’s possible to get. (The original French title, Adieu Les Cons!, put me in mind of Francis Veber’s similarly strained satire Le Dîner de Cons.) Virginie Efira – not a comedy natural – plays Suze, a woman dying of a bronchial disorder, of all hilarious things. Before she dies, she wants to find the child she was forced to give up as an unmarried teen mother. But while she is at the government office begging for help, that department’s IT technician, Monsieur Cuchas (Dupontel), depressed at being passed over for promotion, shouts the phrase in the title and makes a bizarrely botched attempt to kill himself in the neighbouring office, accidentally shooting the young man being so unhelpful to Suze. Continue reading...

The photojournalist Danish Siddiqui was shot dead last week while documenting the Taliban offensive in Afghanistan. His award-winning work for Reuters spanned some of the world’s most era-defining crises.

Books tried to explain the pro-democracy movement, portraying supporters as sheep surrounded by wolvesFive members of a Hong Kong union behind a series of children’s books about sheep trying to hold back wolves from their village have been arrested for sedition.The arrests by the new national security police unit, which is spearheading a sweeping crackdown on dissent, are the latest action against pro-democracy activists since huge and often violent protests convulsed the city two years ago. Continue reading...

Emma Goldberg followed doctors when Covid first hit New York. Now, as the Delta variant surges across the US, she retells the story of an ICU physician during the horror of the first waveWe’re playing a song for you,” Dr Luis Seija said softly, gazing at his patient. His voice, muffled by two masks and a face shield, fought to be heard above the noise of the hospital room. There were monitors beeping, alarms ringing, the hum of the negative-pressure machines.“We’re playing this for you,” Dr Seija told the patient, a Latina woman in her 60s. “So you can dance the night away.” He took her hand into his own, and he noticed, right away, how soft her skin felt. Continue reading...

Both babies survived after doctors performed emergency caesarean sections

President urges Americans to take ‘gigantically important’ step of getting vaccinated amid surging casesJoe Biden has expressed optimism that young children would soon become eligible for Covid-19 inoculations, while urging unvaccinated Americans to take the “gigantically important” step of getting their shots as the virus surges across the US.Speaking at a televised town hall in Cincinnati on Wednesday, hosted by CNN, Biden said that children under 12, who are currently ineligible for the three coronavirus vaccines available in the US, could get shots by August or later in the fall. Continue reading...

The pandemic, and the IOC’s stubbornness, have transformed the Games into a made-for-TV spectacle with a stale aftertasteOn arrival at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, passengers are greeted with a sign addressed to those “concerned with the Olympics”. It was a clumsy translation – “associated with” might have been more accurate – but it is all too apt. Those in Tokyo to compete in, report on or organise the 2020 Games are very much concerned. Concerned about what the next two weeks will bring, about the spread of Covid-19 in the athlete’s village and about the prospect that a ping on our phone could force us into 14 days’ isolation.Related: AOC boss John Coates orders Annastacia Palaszczuk to attend Olympic ceremony Continue reading...

Multiple challenges, as well as Covid self-isolation, result in only 14 of people being on board, it is believedA controversial Home Office deportation charter flight to Zimbabwe took off at about 10.30pm on Wednesday evening with only around one-third of the passengers on board that officials had hoped to remove.It is the first mass deportation flight to Zimbabwe for many years and marks the start of a planned ‘summer season’ of charter flight deportations to countries including Vietnam and Jamaica that the Home Office is planning in the coming weeks. Continue reading...

Number of Covid hospital admissions in England at highest level for nearly five months; Chile’s Institute of Public Health approves Russia’s Sputnik V jab

The industry’s first hijab-wearing model speaks about the ‘internal conflict’ that made her quit the catwalkHalima Aden, the Muslim model who became a trailblazer for wearing her hijab on the catwalk and in photoshoots, has hit out at the fashion industry and its exploitation of young models.Aden quit the industry in November 2020, citing compromised beliefs and feeling like a “minority within a minority”. Continue reading...

Blueprint for alternative arrangement published as sources say protocol was flawed at conceptionThe UK has launched an audacious bid to rewrite a key plank of the Brexit deal, saying the Northern Ireland protocol was flawed at conception but served its purpose to get the UK out of the EU as “one country”.The European Commission immediately ruled out a renegotiation of the deal, which was trumpeted by Boris Johnson as a solution to the Irish border impasse two years ago. The commission is understood to be open to some changes on the special arrangements for Northern Ireland, however. Continue reading...

Analysis: removal of world heritage status is a humiliating moment for Britain and the UK governmentThe threat has loomed over Liverpool for almost a decade. With every new building, crane and construction site that appeared on its historic waterfront, there was a growing inevitability that the city would be stripped of its prized world heritage status.Many believe the final nail in the coffin was the approval of Everton FC’s new £500m stadium at Bramley Moore-Dock. The 53,000-capacity venue will be built on derelict land that has been cut off from the city for 60 years, hemmed in by some of Britain’s most deprived streets. Continue reading...

Government subsidies were second-largest source of income for school in 2020, which declared a surplus of $8.31m and offered discounts to parentsA private boys’ school in Perth that charges up to $27,000 a year in fees received more than $7m in jobkeeper subsidies in 2020 while declaring an operating surplus of more than $8m.The Hale School in Perth counts cabinet minister Christian Porter and Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith as alumni. Continue reading...

Turkey’s president told move to open up Varosha in northern Cyprus will clash with UN resolutionsTurkey’s pledge to resettle an abandoned Greek town in northern Cyprus has been universally condemned, with Washington joining the EU and UK in calling the move “unacceptable”.The criticism grew within hours of Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, using the 47th anniversary of the Turkish invasion into Cyprus to unveil the plan, as he pushed for a two-state solution to the island’s division during a visit to Nicosia. Continue reading...

‘Highly sensitive’ data shows there were 39,017 care home deaths between April 2020 and end of March this year

Member of the House of Lords and Briton once detained in UAE among those appearing in databaseA member of the House of Lords is among more than 400 people whose UK mobile phone numbers appear in a leaked list of numbers identified by NSO Group’s client governments between 2017 and 2019, the Guardian can reveal.The principal government responsible for selecting the UK numbers appears to be the United Arab Emirates, according to analysis of the data. The UAE is one of 40 countries that had access to the NSO spyware that is able to hack into and secretly take control of a mobile phone. Continue reading...