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NSW records 15th death as Queensland announces business support package as it extends lockdown in 11 LGAs until Sunday. This blog is now closed

The German-British composer explains why his new album, Exiles, addresses the refugee crisis – and is played by an orchestra who break all the rules

A deputy news production editor at the Guardian speaks to colleagues about how cutting and correcting copy has evolved over decadesThe internet may have revolutionised the media in the 21 years since I joined the Guardian, but my role as a subeditor has stayed essentially the same. We check facts, write headlines and cut stories to the right length, with a final spellcheck before moving it to its next stage.But until late last century, subediting looked completely different. Chris Dodd started work on the features desk, then based in Manchester, in 1965, after an “interview” in a pub (he didn’t know whether to drink or abstain, or buy a round), while Barry Johnson and Jay Sivell joined the London office in Farringdon Road in 1986. Shifts then started at various points in the afternoon, and subs (as they are called) enjoyed a leisurely start. “People used to take in chess sets and books, or do the crossword. You could sit for hours with nothing,” says Johnson, who retired in December. Continue reading...

Commons standards committee to look at conflicts of interest for members with second jobsMPs serving on informal parliamentary groups while working in second jobs are facing scrutiny from a powerful parliamentary committee over concerns that they could exploit a lobbying loophole.An inquiry by the Commons standards committee will examine whether MPs who sit on All-Party Parliamentary Groups that lobby for certain industries should no longer be paid by organisations in those same industries. Continue reading...

Stint of working from home rewrites rules for office dressing, with retailers seeing demand for hybrid wardrobeWith a return to the office now a real possibility, workers in the UK are thinking about something they haven’t for a while: what to wear. This comes after 16 months at home with only a laptop for company – and only a semblance of presentability required for video calls. The conventions of office attire are being reassessed, particularly by men who often wore suits for work. So are they ditching the jogging bottoms and dusting off their suits or are elasticated waists here to stay?With hybrid working – spending part of a working week in the office, part from home – now seen as a possible post-pandemic possible, Sam Kershaw, the buying director of menswear site Mr Porter, suggests there will be hybrid wardrobe to match. “Our customers are not ready to disregard the ‘at home’ shift of investing in comfortable, versatile pieces for their wardrobe,” he says. “Particularly as many will remain working from home in some capacity.” Continue reading...

US production house is latest major studio to find a home in region as demand for TV and film surgesHollywood’s Sunset Studios, which produced La La Land, Zoolander and the first in the X-Men franchise, has become the latest US movie production house to adopt the leafy Hertfordshire countryside as its main base outside the US.Backed by £700m from two major US investment firms, the TV and film studio complex will create more than 4,500 jobson a 37-hectare (91-acre) greenfield site in Broxbourne, close to the arc of rival studio complexes north-west of London known as Britain’s Hollywood. Continue reading...

The actor, comic and writer talks about her bestselling debut novel, the cruelty of costume fittings, how it felt to be in the Harry Potter franchise – and finding hope in small thingsAs a compulsive diary writer – she has kept one since she was eight – Jessie Cave knows that, unless it gets written down, life gets forgotten. She is glad, then, that she wrote her debut novel, Sunset, because the way she felt at the time “would have just gone, and then you’re in a different place and you don’t remember”. This book, says Cave, was “absolutely the only thing I could write during that period”.In March 2019, her younger brother Ben died in an accident aged 27. Her book was written in the aftermath, that manic feeling that sometimes comes with grief pushing her on. It went straight to No 1 on the Sunday Times’ bestseller list after being published in June. “I don’t know if I would have that energy now,” she says. Continue reading...

Labour’s deputy leader opens up about being a carer, byelections, and achieving a ‘cultural shift’ in the workplaceLabour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, has said her own experience as a care worker helped to convince her more flexible working could be a “win-win” for staff and employers.Speaking to the Guardian after announcing new policies last week on employment rights and flexible conditions, Rayner said she had helped negotiate family-friendly working when she was a trade union representative. Continue reading...

Senate inquiry hears of upset over $21m in grants being given to companies while Indigenous community lacks even basic infrastructureTraditional owners opposed to fracking in the Beetaloo Basin have condemned the Morrison government for handing tens of millions of dollars to gas companies while Indigenous communities lack basic housing and health infrastructure.A Senate inquiry on Monday heard from a series of traditional owners in the Northern Territory about plans to open up the Beetaloo Basin to gas exploration and fracking. Continue reading...

Cleaners no longer welcome in middle class homes, as wealthier Indians turn to machines for help

The men’s gold and women’s bronze medals meant everything to Fiji, which has the highest per-capita Covid infection rate in the worldWhen the Fijian men’s sevens team beat New Zealand to win gold at the Tokyo Olympics on Wednesday, the entire nation celebrated.The win could not have come at a better time. Fiji is in the grip of a deadly second outbreak of Covid-19, on top of a potential political crisis over controversial native land legislation. Continue reading...

West Midlands police seek contact details of family of Brahane Yordanos, who do not yet know of her killingDetectives are trying to find the family of a 19-year-old woman found fatally stabbed at her home in Birmingham. West Midlands police named the victim as Brahane Yordanos, from Eritrea in north-east Africa, on Sunday.Just after 6am on Saturday, officers were called to Unett Street, Newtown, where the teenager was discovered with stab wounds. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Continue reading...

Former Australian prime minister has signed a conflict of interest declaration due to his role as a trade adviser to the UK governmentThe Morrison government will spend about $19,000 to send former prime minister, Tony Abbott, on a five-day trade mission to India this month.Guardian Australia can also reveal Abbott has signed a conflict of interest declaration, due to the former Liberal party leader’s ongoing role as a trade adviser to the British government. Continue reading...

The increasingly draconian approach to irregular migration betrays the spirit of the 1951 refugee conventionSeventy years ago, the 1951 UN refugee convention established the rights of refugees to seek sanctuary, and the obligations of states to protect them. Increasingly, it seems that much of Europe is choosing to commemorate the anniversary by ripping up some of the convention’s core principles.So far this year, close to 1,000 migrants have died attempting to cross the Mediterranean, more than four times the death toll for the same period in 2020. Many will have been economic migrants. Others will have been fleeing persecution. Increasingly, Europe does not care. All were “irregular”. And all must be discouraged and deterred through a strategy of cruelty. Continue reading...

Mural artist Hussein Sabbagh, 13, one of 27 children killed in government attacks in north-west Syria in two monthsAmid the rubble of bombed homes in Binnish, a town in north-west Syria, a brightly painted mural stands out. The image shows an intact house, with love hearts streaming from the windows. Overhead, however, the dark silhouettes of birds are accompanied by helicopters, warplanes and missiles, and the garden’s red and yellow flowers look like flames.Related: Syria: Assad shells former opposition stronghold Deraa Continue reading...

Foreign secretary backs Israeli PM’s claims Iran was behind attack that killed one Briton and one RomanianThe UK has said it is “highly likely” that Iran carried out an “unlawful and callous attack” on a ship in the Middle East, which left a Briton dead.The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said the government believed the drone attack on the oil tanker off the coast of Oman was “deliberate, targeted, and a clear violation of international law by Iran”. Continue reading...

Railway folly | Barclays bonus | Country diary | Dinner in Ireland | Mixed-up names | New heights for CovidSimon Jenkins makes compelling points regarding HS2, but surely the reality is that it cannot now be stopped (Depleted and unwanted, HS2 hurtles on as Johnson’s £100bn vanity project, 30 July). Were sense ever to prevail, then across London and the home counties, half-abandoned projects would for ever stand like the legs of Ozymandias. They would be enduring testaments to folly, and so cannot be permitted to remain as they would for ever point a finger towards those (ir)responsible. The rest of us can but despair – and pay.

Verdict due in case that could lead to Palestinians being forcibly displaced to make way for Jewish settlersIsrael’s supreme court is due to make a decision on whether to evict Palestinian families from the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, in a final hearing in the controversial case that helped spark communal violence inside Israel and a new war with Hamas earlier this year.A verdict in the deeply contentious case, which could lead to the neighbourhood’s current residents being forcibly displaced to make way for Jewish settlers in a decades-old dispute, is expected on Monday morning. Continue reading...

Shazad Ali and Abdul Musavir went into the city to protect their business as rioters clashed with police but never returnedIn her golden years Rukaya Begum’s home should have been full of the patter of grandchildren’s feet and the hustle of family get-togethers but instead there is an overwhelming silence.On 9 August 2011, Begum had been surrounded by her family; her husband, Ghazanfar, her three sons, Abdul Quddoos, Shazad Ali and Abdul Musavir, and her daughter, Sumera Ali. It was Ramadan and she remembers in detail the food that she had cooked that night – keema kebabs, masala haandi with warm chappattis and sweet fruits for pudding. Just before they sat down for the family meal her son, Shazad, had affectionately fed her a date to break her fast. Continue reading...

Afghan forces defend western city of Herat and Lashkar Gah in south as Kandahar airport hit by rocketsThe Taliban escalated its nationwide offensive in Afghanistan on Sunday, launching renewed assaults on three major cities and rocketing a major airport in the south amid warnings that the conflict is rapidly worsening.As Afghan government forces struggled with a resurgent Taliban following the withdrawal of US-led foreign forces, hundreds of commandos were deployed to the economically important western city of Herat while authorities in the southern city of Lashkar Gah called for more troops to rein in the assaults. Continue reading...

Man is in custody after what police described as ‘domestic incident’ in Ty Mawr in TowynA man has been arrested after a 15-year-old girl died at a holiday park in north Wales.Police officers were called to Ty Mawr holiday park in Towyn, near Abergele, on Saturday afternoon to attend what police described as a “domestic disturbance”. Continue reading...

The Home Office appears to be in breach of the Brexit withdrawal agreement, says legal charityEuropean citizens who have applied for settled status are being detained and threatened with deportation, a development that contradicts assurances from ministers and appears to contravene the Brexit withdrawal agreement.The Home Office has served EU nationals with removal directions even though they could prove they had applied for settled status, which should protect their rights to remain in the UK. Continue reading...

Experts say mandates could be a logical step to contain the spread of the virus as cases of the Delta variant rise

Sailing into imperial delusions is no way to run foreign policyWhat would Jack Aubrey have made of it? When Patrick O’Brian’s fictitious Royal Navy hero sailed HMS Surprise to the far side of the world, the enemy was the USS Norfolk, a lone American frigate marauding in the Pacific. Full speed ahead from the war of 1812, to 2021, and today’s maritime sparring partners are HMS Queen Elizabeth, Britain’s new £3bn aircraft carrier, and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army navy and its 360 “battle-force” ships.It’s hardly an equal fight, though that would not have stopped Captain Aubrey. In any case, the government insists, slightly disingenuously, that it is not courting confrontation by parading modern-day gunboats under Beijing’s nose. The defence secretary, Ben Wallace, says the aim is “fly the flag for Global Britain”. Thus do deluded Brexiters spread their foolish, neo-imperial fantasies to points as distant as the hotly contested South China Sea. Continue reading...

Delta variant blamed for rise in cases in 14 provinces; UK records a further 71 deaths

Officer morale sinks in the 43 forces as attacks rise by 20% during the Covid crisisA major increase in attacks on police has been recorded during the pandemic, according to official figures revealing that there were more than 100 assaults on officers in England and Wales every day.With senior police figures warning that officers have faced deliberate spitting and coughing since the start of the crisis, it has emerged that there were 36,969 assaults on police in the year that followed the outbreak in March 2020. It represented a 20% rise on the previous year Continue reading...

200,000 take to the streets to oppose proof-of-vaccination for hospitals, trains, and cultural and leisure centres

Even by the standards of this extraordinary cases, this was a remarkable weekAfter two full days giving evidence Mohammed Hanifa Fatih was formally excused.But he wasn’t yet finished. Continue reading...

WG Sebald’s writing on the Holocaust was driven by the anger and distress he felt over his father’s service in Hitler’s armyHis books are saturated with despair. Over and over again, his emotionally traumatised characters are caught – inescapably – in plots that doom them to a life of anguish. Often, they kill themselves.Now, the psychological wounds and suicidal thoughts that blighted WG Sebald’s own life and secretly inspired him to begin writing fiction are to be laid bare for the first time in a forthcoming biography. Continue reading...

Beijing police detain the ex-boy band member after social media allegations of date rapeChinese-Canadian pop star Kris Wu has been detained by Beijing police on suspicion of rape.The 30-year-old former member of the Korean boyband EXO had previously been accused by a teenager of having sex with her while she was drunk. Wu denied the accusation. Continue reading...

Report after report is reaching the same conclusion: exporters, including many in the red wall, will be suffering for a long timeBrexit is beginning to take its toll. Trade with the EU is suffering and foreign investment is heading south. Neither trend is temporary and both harm the government’s stated aim of “levelling up” regions that until now have depended on overseas trade to create well-paid jobs.It’s not clear if the red wall has noticed. Or anyone among the 17.4 million people who voted for Brexit. So far, all the in-depth polling shows there is little movement on the vexed question of EU membership. Continue reading...

A massive landslide in the Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh in India has led to a road collapsing down the side of a mountain. The footage, captured on 30 July, has been widely shared on social media and Indian news channels. It is not clear whether there were any casualties. There have been incidents of landslides in the area amid heavy rains. Recently a huge rockfall hit the Sangla valley, destroying a bridge, cars and killing at least nine tourists Continue reading...

The spiritual leader has mused that he may return as a woman. But his succession has turned into a political battleA couple of years ago, during a meeting of Tibetan leaders in Dharamshala in India, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, was asked about his reincarnation. Addressing the room of monks, religious teachers and Tibetan politicians, the Dalai Lama asked them to look into his eyes. “Do you think it’s time now?” he asked.It was a meeting that would end with the Tibetan leaders agreeing that the issue of reincarnation was one that would be decided only by the Dalai Lama himself. But China, which annexed Tibet in 1951 and has retained tight control over the region ever since, has other ideas. It insists that the choice of the next Dalai Lama lies only with China, and have even enshrined this right into Chinese law. Continue reading...

So often we interact with the world via phones and apps, but what if you struck up a converastion with a random person? A growing body of research suggests we shouldIt’s 7am on a Monday and my heart is racing. Normally my Mondays are reserved for tedious activities, but this morning I’m chasing a high. I’m not in a nightclub greeting sunrise with a tequila, sadly, but in an east London café. The source of my palpitations? I’m steeling myself to strike up a conversation with an unsuspecting man a few tables away.Given that I’m a journalist who interviews people for a living, you might think I’m being overly dramatic. But talking to strangers can be terrifying. The unpredictability of how they will respond to your overture, and the possibility of rejection, is paralysing. Perhaps the worst fear of all: might they find me annoying? Continue reading...

Boy was reported missing early on Saturday morning in Sarn village, north of BridgendThe body of a missing five-year-old boy has been found in a river in south Wales.Police were called at 5.45am on Saturday to a report of a missing child in Sarn, Bridgend. The boy’s body was later found in the Ogmore River near Pandy Park. Continue reading...

Suspect arrested after police officers saw man on ground surrounded by group of males – who fled sceneA murder investigation has been launched after a dying man was discovered surrounded by a group of males in High Wycombe.Thames Valley police said its officers were on patrol in the town, in Buckinghamshire, when they saw the man, in his 50s, on the ground in the early hours of Saturday. Continue reading...

Owners blame ‘low consumer confidence’ and confused government messages for poor post-‘freedom day’ attendancesNightclubs in England have seen low attendances and been forced to cancel events as the pandemic continues to disrupt the nightlife industry almost two weeks on from “freedom day”.Many operators blamed “low consumer confidence” in the face of confusing government messages about whether it was safe to attend. Continue reading...

Anti-lockdown protests planned in Sydney fail to materialise as police enforce exclusion zone

President Pedro Castillo completes his cabinet after causing shockwaves with appointment of controversial Guido Bellido as prime ministerAfter 24 hours of uncertainty and the worst Friday in years on the stock exchange, Peru’s new president, Pedro Castillo, has completed his cabinet, swearing in the moderate leftist economist Pedro Francke as finance minister, and in the process calming jittery investors and anxious Peruvians alike.Aníbal Torres was also sworn in, as justice minister, on Friday, filling the remaining empty cabinet posts. The rest were sworn in late on Thursday, amid deep unease over Castillo’s choice of prime minister, Guido Bellido, who is under investigation for allegedly defending the Shining Path, a Maoist rebel group that killed tens of thousands of Peruvians in the 1980s and 1990s, and is also accused of making homophobic remarks. Continue reading...

Human Rights Watch says army’s suppression of protests has included torture and murder, as small protests mark milestoneHuman Rights Watch has accused Myanmar’s military junta of crimes against humanity as small groups of protesters marked six months since the armed forces seized power.Bands of university students rode motorbikes around the country’s second-largest city Mandalay on Saturday waving red and green flags, saying they rejected any possibility of talks with the military to negotiate a return to civilian rule. Continue reading...

Snap three-day lockdown in Brisbane and surrounding areas of Queensland, while WHO urges containment ‘before more dangerous variants emerge’

Reporter Matilda Boseley tests your knowledge of the funniest and most bizarre moments from Australia’s Covid pressers in our new Saturday quiz seriesAustralians the country over have adopted a dark and destructive pastime. It may be vital to our very survival, but overindulge and you will find yourself a nervous wreck, rocking back and forth, or – even worse – falling in love with a chief health officer.I am of course talking about the daily spectacle of the Covid-19 press conference. Continue reading...

New Zealanders stranded abroad are growing increasingly frustrated with the country’s over-subscribed quarantine systemIn the age of coronavirus, New Zealand can seem like an idyll: a tightly sealed hermit kingdom, recently rated best place to survive global societal collapse, and one of the last countries in the world to evade incursions from the Delta variant. But the walls of fortress New Zealand aren’t only successful at keeping out Covid-19.With demand for government-required quarantine greatly exceeding the supply of spaces, desperate New Zealanders are going to enormous lengths – employing bots, coders, and $2000 booking assistants – to try to secure entry to the country. For many, the emotional and psychological toll is enormous. Continue reading...

Lewis Hughes, 24, handed suspended sentence over incident involving England’s chief medical officerA former estate agent left Prof Chris Whitty “humiliated” after he put him in a headlock when England’s chief medical officer declined to take a photo with him.Lewis Hughes, 24, of Romford, Essex, put his future at risk with “10 seconds of madness” when he accosted Whitty in St James’s Park in central London last month, Westminster magistrates court heard. Continue reading...

Actor best known for Vera Drake takes over from Olivia Colman for fifth series about the UK royal familyThe first image of Imelda Staunton in character as the Queen in season five of The Crown has been revealed.Staunton has taken over from the Golden Globe winner Olivia Colman, as the fresh series ushers in a new era for the royal family. Netflix gave fans a first glimpse of Staunton as the monarch while she was still filming the next instalment of the Netflix show. Continue reading...

High court judge issues ruling after man was denied antiretroviral medication for four daysThe Home Office failed to put in place systems to protect detainees with HIV, a high court judge has ruled, after a man was denied lifesaving medication for four days.The landmark ruling found that in failing to adequately care for people with HIV the Home Office breached article 3 of the European convention of human rights, which protects against inhuman and degrading treatment. Continue reading...

Long after two people have gone their separate ways, some partings still rankle. Readers reflect on the beloved items they left behindEven though my breakup was amicable, I felt a lot of guilt – so when I moved out I said: “Keep it all.” But, in the years since, there have been a few items of kitchenware that I wish I’d held on to: a Le Creuset casserole dish, my favourite mug, a digital cooking thermometer, the plastic bowl attachment for my stick blender (the blender itself I retained at her insistence, but I forgot all the accessories that came with it). There never seemed like a good time to ask for any of it back – I hope she’s at least getting some use out of them. Anonymous, Australia Continue reading...

Poplar and Limehouse MP acquitted over claims she withheld information to get social housingThe Labour MP Apsana Begum has been cleared by a jury over claims of housing fraud, in a prosecution brought by Tower Hamlets council, which claimed she had withheld information about her circumstances to obtain social housing.The Poplar and Limehouse MP, who was first elected in 2019 with a 28,904 majority, was acquitted on three counts of housing fraud between 2013 and 2016 at Snaresbrook crown court in east London following a week-long trial. Continue reading...