Hongkongers in Britain warns that many arrivals are being denied equal access to housing, education and jobs

Death of Memory Machaya, 14, who gave birth at church shrine, prompts outrage among citizens and activistsThe United Nations has condemned the practice of child marriage in Zimbabwe following the death of a 14-year-old girl after she gave birth at a church shrine, an incident that caused outrage among citizens and rights activists.The case has brought to the fore the practice of child marriage within Zimbabwe’s apostolic churches, which also allow polygamy. Continue reading...

Ministers say new crime will carry tougher sentences following rise in dognapping as pet ownership soared in lockdownA new offence of “pet abduction” is being drawn up to tackle a rise in dognapping since the start of the first lockdown last year. This is the primary recommendation from the government’s pet theft task force, which was launched following soaring cases of stolen pets.As demand for pets grew with people forced to spend more time at home during the pandemic, the cost of dogs and cats rose sharply, and soon organised crime groups were coordinating pet thefts to exploit the inflated prices. Continue reading...

Unions say Teleperformance also asked some staff based overseas to give biometric and medical dataA multinational call centre used by dozens of leading UK companies has been criticised for what unions have called the intrusive monitoring of home-working staff and their families, as well as asking workers to hand over biometric and medical data..Unions say Teleperformance, which also answers calls for a series of UK government departments, is “pushing workers’ boundaries” over long-term home working amid coronavirus, and accuse the company of having unfairly targeted several staff who objected. Continue reading...

Books, clean air and socialising thought to have helped the latest five mark their 100th birthdays in Perdasdefogu this yearIf there’s one thing the remote mountain village of Perdasdefogu needs to ensure it always has a steady supply of, it’s birthday candles. Already this year, 500 have been needed to decorate the birthday cakes of five residents who turned 100.Each milestone usually means a celebration involving the entire town. The mayor, Mariano Carta, presents a medal to the centenarian, who more often than not can recall details of their life over the past century with remarkable lucidity. Continue reading...

Necoclí, population 20,000, faces bottleneck as Covid rules lift and unrest, poverty and violence grow across region

The congresswoman’s protest on the Capitol steps may have been unconventional – but she didn’t come to Washington to play by the old rules.When Cori Bush decided to camp out on the steps of the US Capitol for four days to protest against the end of the eviction moratorium, people insinuated her behavior was unbecoming of a congresswoman.“Shameless and embarrassing,” was what Matt Walsh, the self-described “theocratic fascist” radio host called it. Ben Shapiro called the protest “stupid,” meanwhile, Bush’s local paper, the St Louis Post Dispatch, wrote that her “righteous-sounding aspirations” did not “seem to take into account political reality.” Continue reading...

With her debut book, The Right to Sex, a 36-year-old Oxford don is dazzling everyone from Vogue to Prospect magazine. She discusses porn, gender dysphoria – and why her students are no snowflakesIf All Souls is one of the most inordinately beautiful colleges in Oxford – its bone-white gothic, best peered at by mere mortals from nearby Radcliffe Square, is the work of the great Nicholas Hawksmoor – it’s also one of the oddest and most rarefied. Famously, it has no student body. Each year, however, a small number of recent graduates who would like to become so-called prize fellows may apply to take a famously difficult and inscrutable exam during which, as a tour guide I followed earlier put it, they must “write an essay on a single word, like coconut”. As my eavesdropping also revealed, TE Lawrence, AKA Lawrence of Arabia, passed this exam, but Harold Wilson failed it.In her lovely, wood-panelled room in All Souls – its current tenant wears Adidas sneakers and likes a good martini, but it still makes me think of patched corduroy and sherry – Amia Srinivasan laughs heartily. “Right,” she says. “Those guides. They always come up with things like: everyone here is a priest, or everyone is a man. Or they tell people: ‘Stephen Hawking is in there right now.’ At least the exam thing is sort of true.” Having taken it successfully herself in 2009 – she had to write around the word “reproduction” – Srinivasan was a prize fellow at the college until 2016, when she became a lecturer at UCL (the one-word riff component was abandoned the following year). Now, though, she’s back. Last January, she took her up her post as the Chichele professor of social and political theory at All Souls, a job once held by Isaiah Berlin. She is both the first woman, and the first person of colour, to hold it. At just 36, she is also its youngest ever incumbent. Continue reading...

Barry Joule, a close friend of the artist, says the gallery has not kept to a pledge to stage exhibitions of the worksWhen more than 1,200 sketches, photographs and documents from the studio of Francis Bacon were donated to the Tate in 2004, it was described as one of the most generous gifts the gallery had ever received, estimated to be worth £20m. Now the donor is threatening to cancel the gift, accusing the gallery of reneging on pledges to stage exhibitions of the material.Barry Joule, a longstanding friend of Bacon, had wanted the items to go to the Tate, as it had been the artist’s favourite gallery. Over the years, he kept expecting the Tate to do justice to it with an exhibition, as he says they had planned on accepting the gift. He wrote repeatedly to curatorial staff, asking when the show would happen. Continue reading...

Every year thousands of refugees from conflict, climate and instability in Africa board vessels in search of a new life in Europe. But hundreds never arrive – and even those who make it face hostility and a life of fearAt 6.30am on Friday 28 May, three fishermen at work four miles off the southern coast of Tobago spotted a large white boat adrift on the dawn waters of the Caribbean.As they drew closer, the trio saw the boat’s shape was far from local, and noticed a strong smell coming from inside it. The body the fishermen glimpsed at the bow was enough to confirm their suspicions. They called the coastguard who, unable to dispatch a vessel, asked them to tow the boat ashore at Belle Garden beach. Continue reading...

After 35 years, the Observer’s former correspondent is leaving as what was once a haven of liberty and peace is transformed into a police stateWhen I arrived in Hong Kong in 1987 as the Observer’s south-east Asia correspondent, the foreign editor said he saw it as being a base, not the kind of territory that would generate much news but it was a safe place to be, communications were good and I was unlikely to have any visa problems. I thought I might stay a couple of years and move on. Thirty-five years later, I have, with great sadness, moved on and no one in their right mind can possibly assert that Hong Kong is a safe place for journalists.The white terror – the term used to describe the ruthless elimination of the opposition in Taiwan following the imposition of Kuomintang rule and more recently taken up by the opposition in Hong Kong to describe similar events in the city – is relentless, swooping down not just on journalists, but on prominent opposition leaders, teachers, lawyers and, recently, speech therapists who had the temerity to write a children’s book about sheep that dared to answer back; they have been charged with subversion. Continue reading...

There was a degree of heat, but not much light cast on the future of a party still recovering from last year’s election thumpingThe National Party has just wrapped up the final day of its annual general meeting. There was a bit more drama than usual. Former speaker of the house David Carter resigned from the board before the close of the meeting after failing to win the presidency from Peter Goodfellow, who has held the role since 2009.Various changes were made to the party rules. A nod to the Treaty of Waitangi as the country’s founding document was inserted into the party constitution. There was heated debate on questions of party governance, with delegates opting to keep the board on a short leash following a disastrous election last year. Continue reading...

State reports 11 new Covid cases as authorities scramble to work out how the outbreak started

Australian health minister ‘expects’ 1m doses of Moderna in a month as Victorian premier also announces drive-though vaccination hubThe Moderna vaccine will be available in Australia from mid-September adding to the country’s use of AstraZeneca and Pfizer, the Morrison government says.The announcement on Sunday came as the Victorian government revealed it would make AstraZeneca available to people aged 18 to 39 at nine of its state-run clinics and stand up Australia’s first drive-through vaccination hub. Continue reading...

Northern Territory declares Cairns and Yarrabah hotspots ahead of snap lockdown; Victorian clinics to offer AstraZeneca to under 40s as state records 11 cases; NSW records 262 cases and one death; Queensland records nine new cases. Follow live

An engaging academic study of Alexei Navalny paints a vivid picture of a Russian politician who is a necessarily courageous product of the internet ageIn January, Alexei Navalny boarded a flight to Moscow. Russia’s most famous dissident had spent five months in Germany recovering from the effects of novichok poisoning. Surrounded by journalists who travelled with him, he was under no illusions as to what would happen once he swapped Berlin for home.The Russian authorities would arrest him, for sure. He would spend months, years, in prison. Probably he would never emerge. On the plane, Navalny shrugged off these concerns with his usual dark humour. “I am not afraid,” he said. He spent the flight watching his favourite show, the US cartoon sitcom Rick and Morty. Continue reading...

Our elite schools foster emotional austerity and fierce clique loyalty. Here a privately educated writer of the prime minister’s generation reveals the lasting damage public schools do

All countries have suffered Covid, but the UK has uniquely been exposed to the economic and moral damage of Brexit tooSo far, the Johnson government has hidden behind the disruption of Covid to divert attention from the consequences of Brexit.But not for much longer. The chaos caused by the removal of the Team GB economy from the single market while leaving Northern Ireland within is already manifest. It is also abundantly clear that the disruption of Northern Ireland’s trade cannot be blamed on, or confused with, Covid-induced damage. Continue reading...

While big-name US firms can compel their staff to be vaccinated against Covid, in the UK the issue is a legal and moral minefield

Young skateboarders raised spirits, but amid rising Covid cases the mood elsewhere was not so sunnyIt was a rough week for Britain’s Tom Bosworth, who came 25th in the 20km race-walk. He called it his “worst performance in a British vest”. He also became a target on Japanese social media after complaining about being fed “cold slop” in the Sapporo athletes’ village, which felt like “a prison”. This didn’t go down well with locals who have had to cancel plans because rising Covid cases mean the local government is advising against travel in and out of the city. Comments on Twitter included: “We’re not going to be lectured by a Brit about shit food.” Continue reading...

When you want to be a parent and can’t, this is a loss to be mourned, says Philippa PerryThe question I’m a 48-year-old woman in a loving relationship. I don’t have any children. I have two brothers – my younger one has four children with his partner. The other, who is older than me and gay (and my half-brother), has recently gone abroad with his partner and had two children via a surrogate, with both fathers having had a biological child each.I’ve always supported people’s rights in principle, especially gay rights, yet this has opened a chasm of sadness in me, not having had children. It also makes me feel like the odd one out among my siblings as they are both now busy with their respective families. Continue reading...

Ebrahim Raisi is another hardliner, but western leaders must engage with him to cool the tensions threatening the regionA hardline president has taken charge in Iran. An inexperienced government in Israel is threatening military action against Tehran. A lethal shadow war is being waged in the Gulf. Iran’s ally, Hezbollah, is firing missiles into Israel from chaotic Lebanon. Bitter words fly in London over hostage-taking. US fears grow, meanwhile, that the Vienna nuclear talks have failed. Deal or no deal, it’s suggested, Iran may soon be able to build an atomic weapon.This is a perilous, darkly portentous moment in the Middle East and specifically for the multifaceted conflict between Iran and the west. Ebrahim Raisi, who was sworn in as president on Thursday after a rigged, boycotted election, offered scant ground for optimism. “Tyrannical” sanctions imposed by Donald Trump, which have ravaged the country since 2018, must be lifted, he said. But he offered no plan to achieve it and nothing in the way of concessions. Continue reading...

French protests expected to enter fourth week but president’s hardline strategy is succeeding

Stung by claims of a bungled response to devastating fires, president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says criticism is orchestrated by foreign powersProsecutors in Turkey have launched an investigation into a social media hastag critical of the government’s allegedly bungled response to the country’s devastating wildfires, accusing it of spreading “anxiety and fear”.The hashtag HelpTurkey exploded when rightwing president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was pictured on a tour of the damaged region under heavy police escort, tossing bags of tea to locals out of a moving bus in the middle of the night while a megaphone announced his presence. Continue reading...

Army officer wins nation’s first athletics gold to spark celebrations and a resurgence of pride amid the ravages of CovidArmy officer Neeraj Chopra has achieved Indian sporting immortality after winning the country’s first ever athletics gold medal with victory in the men’s javelin in Tokyo.Chopra’s historic triumph means India has racked up its best-ever Olympic medal haul of seven and caps a resurgence of national pride amid the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 427,000 Indians. Continue reading...

Prosecutors allege Maria Licciardi, 70, ran extortion rackets as head of Naples-based Camorra crime syndicateA reputed top Naples crime syndicate boss was arrested as she was about to board a flight to Spain, Italian authorities said.The interior minister, Luciana Lamorgese, praised the arrest of Maria Licciardi, 70, by Carabinieri officers on the orders of Naples prosecutors. Continue reading...

During the pandemic New Zealand has become a safe haven for international film studios, creating a surge in demand for ‘stunties’Burrowed in a beige building block in Auckland’s industrial east, a neat line of stunt hopefuls wait their turn to take their first step on an “air ram”. With enough power to flip a full sized car, the menacing looking metal pedal is designed to vault the “stunties” high into the air, as if tossed from an exploding building.Standing by and keeping a watchful eye, Dayna Grant points up to the rafters of the converted warehouse at least 10 metres above, fondly remembering a time she was tossed up high enough to touch the ceiling. But today’s NZ Stunt School class of ex-circus performers, working stunt people, and retirees, won’t come close to that. Continue reading...

Girl and someone she says she married during captivity surrendered themselves to militaryOne abducted girl from the Nigerian town of Chibok has been freed and reunited with her parents seven years after Boko Haram militants kidnapped her and more than 200 of her classmates, Borno state’s governor said on Saturday.The raid on the school in the north-eastern town one night in April 2014 sparked an international outcry and a viral campaign on social media with the hashtag #bringbackourgirls. Continue reading...

Latest updates: UK has recorded 28,612 new cases; Wales removes most restrictions as Northern Ireland records first child death from Covid

Met Office warns of severe downpours across Northern Ireland, north Wales, northern England and ScotlandParts of the UK have faced rain and localised flooding this weekend, but forecasters have said drier and sunnier weather could be possible by the end of the month.Heavy downpours caused flooding in areas of London on Saturday, and the Met Office warned that torrential rain would continue to affect the south-east of England throughout the day. Continue reading...

Airport of Sheberghan is only part of northern city to remain under government control following assault by insurgentsThe Taliban have captured a second provincial capital in Afghanistan a day after they took over the south-western financial hub of Zaranj, as the insurgent group continued to advance in urban parts of the country.Taliban fighters armed with heavy weapons overran the strategic city of Sheberghan, the capital of the northern Jawzjan province, on Saturday afternoon. The city was considered a stronghold of the notorious Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, who is believed to be in Kabul after returning to Afghanistan this week following medical treatment in Turkey. Continue reading...

While courtship handbooks have always existed, for some women new technologies have both facilitated and necessitated a change in approachRebekah Campbell remembers the moment she knew things had to change. “I got to age 34 and woke up one Christmas morning on a fold-out bed in the garage of some friends of my parents and was like, ‘I don’t want to live the rest of my life like this,’” she says. “I could see that I was potentially going to miss out on having a family unless I did something drastic.”Campbell was single and had not been on a date since the death of her boyfriend a decade prior. In those 10 years, she focused her energy on building a successful business career, including founding the order-ahead app Hey You. So she resolved to begin dating the same way she launched brands: by sketching out a plan that resembled the “sales funnel” she used in her work. Continue reading...

Workers have been putting off taking annual leave as the pandemic makes planning a trip impossible, but experts say taking time off could be more important than ever for your mental healthLike many Australians, Meredith Donkin had been so busy working in the “volatile environment” created by the pandemic that she’d taken very little time off since early last year.“I’d taken very little leave. A day here, a day there.” Continue reading...

Critics of country’s military told by Met police of plots against them as security forces fear there may be an attack in BritainPakistani exiles living in London who have criticised the country’s powerful military have been warned that their lives are in danger, raising fresh concern over authoritarian regimes targeting foreign dissidents in the UK.British security sources are understood to be concerned that Pakistan, a strong UK ally – particularly on intelligence issues – might be prepared to target individuals on British soil. Continue reading...

‘Dee Tee’ played alto sax, flute and percussion and was stylist for celebrated soul-funk bandDennis “Dee Tee” Thomas, a founding member of the long-running soul-funk band Kool & the Gang, known for such hits as Celebration and Get Down On It, has died.He was 70 years old. Continue reading...

At least 400 wildfires are raging across the country, which have killed one and injured 20 so farBritish firefighters are to be sent to Greece this weekend to lend their support in the battle against wildfires that have spiralled out of control over the past few days.Teams from Merseyside, Lancashire, south Wales, London and the West Midlands fire services are due to fly out to Athens this weekend, while France said it would provide a further three aircraft and 80 firefighters to join the hundreds that had already been sent. Continue reading...

Prosecutors allege Maria Licciardi, 70, ran extortion rackets as head of Naples-based Camorra crime syndicateA reputed top Naples crime syndicate boss was arrested as she was about to board a flight to Spain, Italian authorities said.The interior minister, Luciana Lamorgese, praised the arrest of Maria Licciardi, 70, by Carabinieri officers on the orders of Naples prosecutors. Continue reading...

Site offering supposedly independent advice is part of a £23,000 government social media campaignThe home secretary, Priti Patel, has been censured by a communications watchdog for setting up a website that purports to provide independent advice to migrants considering travelling to the UK – but without making it clear that her department is behind it.It has been reported that the Chartered Institute for Public Relations (CIPR) condemned the Home Office for producing an “unethical” website that aims to deter people from attempting to seek refuge in the UK. Continue reading...

Jamie Spears says in court filing he has faithfully served as conservator of daughter’s estateBritney Spears’ father said in a court filing Friday that there are “no grounds whatsoever” for removing him from the conservatorship that controls her money and affairs – a day after the singer’s new lawyer had requested a hearing to suspend James Spears from the arrangement.James Spears “has dutifully and faithfully served as the conservator of his daughter’s estate without any blemishes on his record,” his filing said. Continue reading...

His traumatic experience with coronavirus inspired the author’s new children’s book – about the ‘friend’ he leaned onIt was the tweet that let the world know Michael Rosen was back on form and on the mend. “My wheelchair days are over. Stick now. Sticky McStick Stick,” he wrote in June last year, after having come down with Covid-19 in March and spent 48 days in intensive care.Now, the poet and former children’s laureate has written a moving picture book about Sticky Mcstickstick and his battle with long Covid on an NHS rehabilitation ward last summer. Continue reading...

The musician, 45, talks about putting down roots, losing her mother, playing music and and how middle age has been a transformative timeMy first memory is my mother [folk singer Kate McGarrigle] singing to me. It was the song Go Tell Aunt Rhody, which is about a goose dying and the gander being depressed. Very morbid. I was very little. I remember her hand softly caressing my arm while she sang it to me. It’s a lovely memory. It’s a sad song, even a scary one. But it was comforting.I’m still grieving for my mother. I’m very much in it. She’s been gone over 10 years now, but I wear a lot of her clothes, I live in the house she lived in and I sing her songs. Her dying at 63 has defined me in lots of ways. I was only 33 when I lost her. But this year I’ve been thinking about it differently. Dying young means that you’re saved years of old age. There’s a lot of suffering in old age. That’s been helping me to think like that. Continue reading...

Activists in Bangkok forced back with teargas and rubber bullets as they demand Thai PM’s resignation

Ten students will receive £5,000 in draw if they can prove they are double-jabbed or medically exempt

Covid restrictions extended for greater Sydney, with 8 LGAs in hard lockdown, including stricter mask rules and a 5km radius travel limit. Some restrictions have been eased with some construction to resume and a singles bubble introduced. Here’s the full list of what you can and can’t do in NSW

Stephen Cottrell says it is time to ‘rediscover a national unity more fractured than I have ever known it’The archbishop of York has called for a new “expansive” vision of what it means to be English to counter a “negative political discourse and a hopeless future”.Courage and compassion should be the cornerstones of an Englishness that people could be proud of, said Stephen Cottrell, the second most senior cleric in the Church of England. Continue reading...

Keir Starmer is hoping his first in-person conference speech can unite party but he faces uphill taskKeir Starmer will be packing the laptop as well as the buckets and spades as he heads off to Devon for a family break later this month: aides say he plans to use the holiday to work on a first draft of his party conference speech.It will be the Labour leader’s first address to the party faithful in person – last year’s was delivered online from an empty arts centre in Doncaster – and both fans and detractors agree it will have to be the speech of his life. Continue reading...

The Guardian speaks to four people braving eye-watering price hikes to holiday in Britain this year

The actor and film-maker on being ghosted for her politics, the best kiss of her life and having an angel experienceBorn in New York City, Rosanna Arquette, 61, starred with Madonna in the 1985 film Desperately Seeking Susan, for which she won a Bafta. Her other movies include Pulp Fiction and Crash. In 2002, she made Searching For Debra Winger, a documentary about women in the film industry; her podcast series is called Radical Musings. She is married, has a daughter and lives in Los Angeles.When were you happiest?

Slow-cooked courgettes with a toasty breadcrumb topping, a summery tomato and feta salad with lemon dressing and, to finish, a classic pick-me-up of soft amaretti with coffee sauceItalian summer, anyone? I know! Me, too! This might not be a summer when we get to drink espresso with a little amaretti biscuit on the side in situ, but I fully intend to pretend for a good few meals. Amaretti biscuits, Italian extra-virgin olive oil, hard ricotta from Puglia, the sweetest tomatoes and most basil-y of basil leaves you can get your hands on: invest in the power of food to transport. Cin-cin! Continue reading...

The birds exist in a pest-control grey area, with no agency taking the lead, allowing the population to boomThey are aggressive, territorial, noisy and excrete more than a kilogram of faeces a day. Now huge flocks of Canada geese have made parts of rural New Zealand their home, bringing havoc in their wake.The introduced birds are polluting waterways, damaging pasture and are so numerous in some places that they pose a threat to aircrafts, but little is being done to curb the problem. Continue reading...