Planning a trip across state borders or a weekend away? Is the border between Victoria and NSW closed? Can you travel into or out of Sydney, from NSW to Qld, or to Victoria, SA, WA, NT or NZ? Before you leave home, check our state-by-state guide to coronavirus travel restrictions.
After 16 years, the BBC’s flagship sci-fi show is tired and suffering. It should go away to save itselfThree series is the usual tenure for an actor playing the Doctor, so rumours are rife that Jodie Whittaker is about to step down. Michaela Coel, Olly Alexander and Richard Ayoade are among those tipped for the role. But what if, instead of a new Doctor, the show actually needs something a doctor might prescribe to an exhausted patient – a rest.The current run started in 2005, and even with such a flexible format as Doctor Who, there aren’t many TV dramas that can sustain 13 series in 16 years. (Call the Midwife is probably the best BBC attempt at that in the past decade.) Soap operas can manage it, but then soap storylines generally don’t revolve around such cataclysmic events as the universe being destroyed. Continue reading...
Steering clear of wheat, rye and barley doesn’t mean avoiding delicious dishes. Here are some of the tastiest offerings, including soda bread, peanut butter cookies and banana oat pancakesMy favourite gluten-free recipe is poodla (small pancakes), which I make using gram (chickpea) flour, water, cumin seeds, garam masala, turmeric and salt, with added chillies (chopped), grated onion and grated courgettes (it also works with mashed peas, spinach, grated cauliflower etc). Simply make a batter to any consistency, add your vegetables, then shallow fry on both sides. It’s delicious with a raita and a salad; we eat them for breakfast, lunch and sometimes as a main meal. Rekha Shah, retired, Bournemouth Continue reading...
Belgian government under pressure to offer residence permits to hundreds of migrants on hunger strikeThe Belgian government is under pressure to offer residence permits to several hundred migrants, some of whom are “between life and death” after a weeks’ long hunger strike in Brussels.Undocumented migrants have been on hunger strike in a central Brussels church and university buildings for nearly 60 days in an attempt to secure residency papers. Continue reading...
Anthony Albanese accused the prime minister of going ‘missing’ in a crisis as lockdowns widened and borders closedMore than 13 million Australians are in lockdown and state borders are being slammed shut as the country scrambles to get ahead of a rapidly spreading outbreak of the Delta variant of Covid-19.As Victoria extended its restrictions for another week and South Australia became the latest state to enter into lockdown, Labor ramped up its pressure on the Morrison government, saying the latest round of restrictions were only necessary because of a lack of vaccine supplies. Continue reading...
Self-avowed nationalist Ersin Tatar in ebullient mood despite embargos, isolation and political restrictionsIt’s been nine months since Ersin Tatar assumed the presidency of the self-declared Turkish republic of northern Cyprus and, like his predecessors, he has found little has changed.Embargos, international isolation and political restrictions remain perennial problems for his unrecognised state. Even today, nearly 38 years after the territory proclaimed independence, foreign dignitaries pass through his colonial-era office and still object to being photographed next to the flags on his desk. Continue reading...
by Tom Phillips Latin America correspondent on (#5MCQE)
New prime minister announced as elections chief says current suspects were probably not ringleadersThe “big fishes” who masterminded the assassination of Haiti’s president, Jovenel Moïse, remain at large, a senior government minister has admitted, as the Caribbean country unveiled a new prime minister in a bid to defuse a burgeoning struggle for power.Police have named two Haitian citizens as key suspects in the murder: a Florida-based pastor called Christian Emmanuel Sanon and the former intelligence officer Joseph Felix Badio. On Friday Colombia’s police chief, Gen Jorge Luis Vargas, claimed Badio might have given the order for two retired Colombian soldiers to assassinate Moïse in the early hours of 7 July for reasons that remain obscure. Sanon was arrested in Haiti last week, and Badio’s whereabouts are unknown. Continue reading...
Drawn on the writer’s personal experience, Nir Bergman’s father-son runaway adventure delivers poignancy through myriad insightsMoving but unsentimental, this Israeli drama is a perfect example of how a cinematic story becomes paradoxically more universal by being very specific about people and places. It explores an intense relationship between father Aharon (Shai Avivi) and his son Uri (Noam Imber), a young man in his 20s; although the word autism barely features here, or at least not in the English subtitles, it’s starkly obvious that Uri is on the spectrum. He can speak, but he’s very attached to his routines, resistant to eat much apart from pasta stars and obsessed with watching Charlie Chaplin films on his portable DVD player; he must have his dad around to help him navigate the world at all times lest there’s any danger he might, for example, step on a snail, a prospect that completely terrifies him, or in case he’s not sure if someone has made a joke.Although the dialogue only skims these characters’ backstories, it soon becomes clear that Aharon, once a successful graphic designer, has essentially turned taking care of Uri into his life’s work, to the point where both men are entirely interdependent on each other. Uri’s mother Tamara (Smadi Wolfman) doesn’t live with them any more, but arguably she can see more clearly than Aharon that Uri needs to be around peers and learn how to live semi-independently, if only to help him prepare for a time when Aharon and Tamara themselves won’t be around. She has found an assisted living facility that’s willing to take Uri in, but it’s really Aharon who can’t let go; and the two of them end up on the run, or as much on the run as you can be in a country as tiny as Israel. Continue reading...
Government calls for freedom of expression in Cuba as police mount brutal response to local activistsColombia’s government has been accused of hypocrisy after calling for solidarity with protesters in Cuba even as it cracks down harshly on mass demonstrations against economic inequity and human rights abuses.Colombia is bracing for another round of anti-poverty demonstrations and unrest, with large marches planned for Tuesday 20 July, Colombia’s independence day, after taking a monthlong hiatus during a surge in Covid-19 cases. Continue reading...
Climate envoy John Kerry has rejected notion that Beijing could buy US silence on human rights as price of cooperation on climateIn the next four months or so, the world will find out whether it is possible for one branch of the US federal government – the state department - to accuse Chinese officials of committing genocide, and for another branch – led by the special envoy on climate change, John Kerry – to persuade China to transform the way its dirty economy operates. Is it possible simultaneously to compete for mastery of the world and to collaborate to save that world?The outcome of this diplomatic experiment will become known at the British-hosted Cop26 in Glasgow convened to try to put the world on course for only 1.5C of warming. All countries are expected to produce their nationally determined contributions – how much they will reduce their carbon footprint. British officials insist Cop26 is about more than China and the US, but without these two players, jointly responsible for 40% of global green house gas emissions, nothing meaningful is achievable. Continue reading...
Home Office says at least 430 people made the dangerous crossing on MondayHundreds of migrants crossed the Channel to the UK on Monday, setting a new daily record.The Home Office said that at least 430 people made the crossing. In Dungeness, Kent, about 50 people, including women and young children, were seen arriving on a beach after crossing in a single dinghy. Continue reading...
by Samuel Okiror in Kampala and Jason Burke on (#5MCNP)
Reports by supporters of opposition politician Robert Kyagulanyi will increase pressure on president over human rightsOpposition activists who spent months behind bars in Uganda have described systematic physical abuse, denial of basic legal rights and appalling conditions as they waited for trial on charges they claim were fabricated.The experiences of the activists, revealed to the Guardian after their release last month, will increase pressure on Uganda, a key western ally in east Africa, over human rights failings that have grown significantly worse since the country’s president, Yoweri Museveni, started to face a significant political challenge in recent years. Continue reading...
Beach volleyball players have already found sand too hot for their feet during practiceAs if the coronavirus was not enough to contend with, Olympic athletes who have arrived ahead of the start of the Tokyo Games on Friday now find themselves at the sharp end of a Japanese summer.Related: ‘Weird and unfair’: Usain Bolt criticises advances in spike technology Continue reading...
With Covid lockdowns blamed for rising rates, MPs and teachers say it’s time to ‘face reality’ and allow younger teens access to birth controlMalet*, 14, stands in the long queue at the maternity clinic in Harare. She is here for her routine checkup. Most of the people in the queue are teenage girls.Malet fell pregnant the first time she had sex. Her baby is due in two months. Continue reading...
by Jessica Elgot Chief political correspondent on (#5MCBV)
Former aide says Boris Johnson held out on October lockdown because those ‘dying are essentially all over 80’Boris Johnson denied the NHS would be overwhelmed and said he was not prepared to lock down the country to save people in their 80s, texting his adviser “get Covid and live longer,” according to new WhatsApp messages released by Dominic Cummings.In his first TV interview, the prime minister’s former chief adviser said Johnson held out on reimposing Covid restrictions because “the people who are dying are essentially all over 80.” Continue reading...
The astute and unconventional adaptation of Daniel Clowes’ source material remains one of the most unique examples of the genreIn the 20 years since Ghost World was released, nerd culture has become dominant culture, turning a term once associated with the dweeby outcasts of 80s comedies to a shorthand nearly everyone can self-apply. Now you’re a nerd for seeing Ant-Man and the Wasp on opening day. In truth, the term was always meaningless, whether it applied to pitiable dorks with taped-together glasses and pocket protectors or the hordes jamming Hall H at ComicCon every year, hyped up over the biggest movies on the planet. Authentic nerds are exiled from the culture entirely – few people want to spend time around them, much less pay money to see them on the screen.Related: AI at 20: Spielberg’s misunderstood epic remains his darkest movie yet Continue reading...
As a child, I fled Afghanistan with my family. When we arrived in Britain after a harrowing journey, we thought we could start our new life in safety. But the reality was very differentDuring the summer I turned 15, I fell into a prolonged depression that lasted well into my 20s. My mother, my two brothers and I had just arrived in London, and because we were seeking asylum as refugees, we were moved into a hostel for vulnerable families on Fitzjohn’s Avenue in the affluent north-west of the city. The journey to London had been so difficult that we had separated from my father, one of my brothers and my sister a few months earlier. The hostel was situated on a tree-lined avenue that connects Swiss Cottage to Hampstead village. A pleasant walk north takes you to Hampstead Heath and Keats House, to the south is Regent’s Park, where my family would walk around the park’s ornate rose garden and sit by the fountain, our favourite spot.Four years earlier, in autumn 1992, my family had left our home in Kabul when the sudden withdrawal of US interests from Afghanistan left militias fighting for power, making ordinary life impossible. Once-frequent family gatherings had been reduced to funerals attended by a few. Food and water were scarce. We rarely left our home – the adults only went out on the most essential errands. My uncle sometimes cycled across the city to bring us drinking water as rockets fell around him. We would be worried sick until his return. Continue reading...
Former UK prime minister could not be reached to sign off 1997 speech seen as ‘significant moment’ in Anglo-Irish relationsTony Blair’s “apology” for the Irish famine on its 150th anniversary, greeted with plaudits and hailed as a significant moment in Anglo-Irish relations at the time, was hastily written by aides because they could not reach him to approve it, newly released classified documents reveal.The prime minister’s words, read out by actor Gabriel Byrne at a televised commemoration event in County Cork, were damning in proclaiming: “Those who governed in London at the time failed their people through standing by while a crop failure turned into a massive human tragedy.” Continue reading...
One-time teacher asks for ‘effort and sacrifice’ in first remarks after being confirmed as president-electPedro Castillo, a rural teacher turned political novice, has become the winner of Peru’s presidential election after the country’s longest electoral count in 40 years.In his first comments as president-elect, he called for national unity. “I ask for effort and sacrifice in the struggle to make this a just and sovereign country,” he said. Continue reading...
We need to keep pressing our political leaders to talk about Covid-19 in ways that support an informed debate about our collective futuresPoliticians around the world have been promoting responses to the Covid-19 pandemic with statements such as: “we must open up”, “we have to learn to live with the virus”, and “freedom day”.But to us epidemiologists these are almost meaningless political slogans that cover a vast array of possible scenarios, some of which are potentially very harmful, especially for the most vulnerable. Continue reading...
At least 35 people were killed and many more injured in an explosion in Iraq's capital Baghdad, on the eve of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha. The blast took place in Wahailat market, Sadr City district during rush hour. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the deadly attack in Sadr City neighbourhoodA suicide bomber has killed at least 35 people and wounded more than 60 in a crowded market in the Sadr City neighbourhood of Baghdad on Monday, the eve of the Eid al-Adha festival, security and hospital sources said.Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, the group’s Nasheer news agency said on Telegram. It said one of its militants blew up his explosive vest among the crowds. Hospital sources said the death toll could rise as some of the wounded were in critical condition. Continue reading...
Blair wrote to then South African leader in 1997 after aides said raising issue at summit in Scotland would be ‘pretty disastrous’Tony Blair failed in urgent attempts to prevent Nelson Mandela raising the issue of the Lockerbie trial at a Commonwealth summit in Edinburgh, which aides warned would be “pretty disastrous”, previously classified documents reveal.The Foreign Office, on discovering Mandela was visiting Libya en-route to the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm) in Edinburgh in October 1997, warned of a “sensitive situation” if the South African leader spoke out against UK government’s plans to hold the trial of two suspects in Scotland. Continue reading...
Researchers find minimal interactions by teen users can trigger a deluge of thin-body and dieting imagesInstagram’s algorithms are pushing teenage girls who even briefly engage with fitness-related images towards a flood of weight-loss content, according to new research which aimed to recreate the experience of being a child on social networks.Researchers adopting “mystery shopper” techniques set up a series of Instagram profiles mirroring real children and followed the same accounts as the volunteer teenagers. They then began liking a handful of posts to see how quickly the network’s algorithm pushed potentially damaging material into the site’s “explore” tab, which highlights material that the social network thinks a user might like. Continue reading...
by Dominic Rushe, Vivian Ho and agencies on (#5MCDK)
Biden implores Americans to get vaccinated and stocks fall amid outbreaks in areas with low inoculation ratesA rapid increase in coronavirus cases in the US and abroad is fueling fears of a pandemic resurgence and on Monday sent shockwaves through the stock market as the highly contagious Delta variant takes hold – and Joe Biden urged Americans to “please, please get vaccinated”.The number of new cases, hospitalizations and deaths due to Covid-19 have been rising worryingly in recent days, largely driven by outbreaks in parts of the country with low vaccination rates, as officials have been warning of a “pandemic of the unvaccinated”. Continue reading...
by Helen Sullivan (now and earlier) ; Clea Skopeliti on (#5MBGK)
This blog is now closed. You can find all of our pandemic coverage here.11.49pm BSTThis blog is closing now but thanks very much for reading. We’ll be back in a few hours with more rolling coverage of the pandemic from all around the world.In the meantime you can catch up with all our coverage of the pandemic here.11.18pm BSTAs the British health minister, chancellor and prime minister self-isolate, the commons speaker has pleaded with MPs to continue wearing face coverings and “not push the limits for the sake of it” following the easing of restrictions in England, PA Media reports.
Julianna Moore, formerly Ganna Ziuzina, told an inquest she did not seek to profit from Barry Pring’s death, as his family allegesThe widow of a wealthy British businessman killed in a hit and run in Ukraine as he celebrated his first wedding anniversary has denied organising his murder, an inquest heard.Barry Pring, 47, suffered fatal injuries when he was hit by a vehicle using a stolen number plate while waiting for a taxi outside a restaurant in Kiev with his wife, Ganna Ziuzina, on 16 February 2008. Continue reading...
Former student leader becomes candidate for leftwing coalition and vows to fight Pinochet-era economicsA decade ago, Gabriel Boric was a long-haired 25-year old leading thousands of clamouring students through the streets of the Chilean capital with megaphone in hand, demanding free education for all.Boric was part of a radical generation of student leaders who were catapulted into the spotlight in 2011 during an uprising against the disparities in Chile’s education system. Continue reading...
Vermont-based company says sales in the occupied lands were ‘inconsistent with our values’Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream has announced that it will no longer sell its ice-cream in the occupied Palestinian territories, saying the sales are “inconsistent with our values.”The announcement on Monday was one of the highest-profile rebukes by a well-known brand of Israel’s settlements which are regarded as illegal under international law. Continue reading...
Despite rise in Covid cases, France’s infections stand at less than a third of daily reported cases in BritainBritain’s restrictions on travellers from France seem excessive, the French European affairs minister has said as France attempts to contain rising Covid cases – which stand at less than a third of the daily reported cases in the UK.“We don’t think that the United Kingdom’s decisions are totally based on scientific foundations. We find them excessive,” Clément Beaune told BFM TV after the UK decided that visitors would need to quarantine for 10 days after arriving from France amid concern over the Beta variant. Continue reading...
Penguin Random House announces book is expected in late 2022 with proceeds going to charityThe Duke of Sussex has agreed a publishing deal to write his memoirs and said he would do so “not as the prince I was born, but as the man I have become”.The global deal for his “literary memoir” was announced by Penguin Random House, with publication expected in late 2022 and proceeds to be donated to charity. Continue reading...
Regulator’s move comes amid fears that limited press freedoms are being eroded by the governmentNigeria’s broadcasting regulator has told TV stations to limit their reporting of rising insecurity in the country and withhold details of incidents and victims, in a move widely criticised by the country’s media and civil society groups.In a letter sent to the country’s broadcasters, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) said TV stations should refrain from “giving details of either the security issues or victims of these security challenges”, and they should “collaborate with the government in dealing with the security challenges” by toning down reporting and commentary. Continue reading...
The lethal destruction in western states will frame the debate ahead of September’s vital electionEarlier this month, the German Greens unveiled an election poster designed to reassure voters who might be wary of their environmental radicalism. “Economy and climate without crisis”, went its slogan, suggesting that ambitious carbon reduction targets could be met without undue pain for jobs and industry. Days later, ecological crisis struck, in the form of the devastating floods that have overwhelmed western Germany, and parts of Belgium and the Netherlands. More than 190 people are so far known to have died, following flooding of an intensity and scale that has shocked scientists. The record levels of rain in north-west Europe followed record-breaking heat in the Americas. Extreme weather events are becoming the new normal, as climate models have long predicted. But some of the recent spikes have outstripped scientific predictions.The eventual impact of the floods on Germany’s September election remains to be seen. But this disaster, which the country’s main political parties have broadly agreed was related to global warming, has thrust the climate crisis to the forefront of the campaign. On Sunday, Angela Merkel, who is standing down as chancellor, insisted that Germany needed to “up the pace in the fight against climate change”. Less impressively, the conservative frontrunner to succeed her, Armin Laschet, was caught on video sharing jokes with bystanders during a visit to a flooded town. As the president of North Rhine-Westphalia, one of the worst-hit states, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union can make amends by getting to the bottom of a lethal failure to translate satellite warnings into evacuations on the ground. Continue reading...
by Presented by Michael Safi and reported by Stephani on (#5MC7C)
Investigative reporter Stephanie Kirchgaessner tells Michael Safi how a technology company’s clients have apparently selected journalists, activists and politicians in advance of possible surveillanceThis episode first aired on our global news podcast, Today in FocusThe Guardian revealed on Monday a huge data leak showing more than 50,000 phone numbers that, since 2016, are believed to have been selected as persons of interest by government clients of NSO Group, which sells surveillance software. Forbidden Stories, a Paris-based nonprofit journalism organisation, and Amnesty International initially had access to the list and shared access with 17 media organisations including the Guardian. More than 80 journalists have worked together over several months as part of the Pegasus project. Continue reading...
I was among those who first reported on Eddie Obeid’s dealings in the NSW Upper Hunter. Monday’s supreme court verdict is vindication for many who investigated him“If it is corruption, then it is corruption on a scale probably unexceeded since the days of the Rum Corps,” counsel assisting the NSW Independent Commission against Corruption, Geoffrey Watson SC, declared theatrically at the opening of the inquiry into the grant of a coal licence at Mount Penny in 2012.A decade later, the NSW supreme court has found the grant of the controversial coal exploration licence in the Bylong Valley was the result of a criminal conspiracy that resulted in the Obeid family making at least $30m. Continue reading...
Anglicare says the federal government is trying to shift blame for low vaccination rates to workersAnglicare Australia say its aged care workers are eager to be vaccinated but are being hampered by failures with the government’s “messy and confusing” rollout.Aged care workers have been given until 17 September to receive a first dose or face being locked out of work. Continue reading...
Loghman Sawari was 17 when he was placed in a men-only centre on Manus Island. Nearly a decade on, and another child refugee wants to know why he’s still in detentionOne of the child refugees unlawfully detained on Manus Island alongside Loghman Sawari has said it is “unbelievable” he remains detained, eight years on, while an Australian family has said they have repeatedly offered their own home as sanctuary for him if he were released from detention.This came as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees again urged Australia to end offshore asylum processing which “undermined the rights of those seeking safety and protection and significantly harmed their physical and mental health”. Continue reading...
Show was second most in-demand cartoon in US households for 12-month run that ended in February, according to Parrot AnalyticsParents across the US say their children are acquiring British accents, thanks to Peppa Pig.Linguistic experts have cast doubt on such claims, but some parents insist the “Peppa effect” has their American children saying “mummy” instead of “mommy”, using phrases such as “Give it a go”, and pronouncing tomato “to-mah-to”, not “to-may-to”. Continue reading...
Amber warning announced for much of Wales and parts of England as temperatures could reach 33CThe Met Office has issued its first ever extreme heat warning for the UK with temperatures possibly reaching 33C in western areas.The amber warning is in place for much of Wales, all of south-west England and parts of southern and central England. Continue reading...
by Lisa O'Carroll Brexit correspondent on (#5MBY8)
Helpline for people trying to prove their right to remain in country after Brexit charges £10.35 for 15 minutesThe government has come under fire after introducing a 69p-a-minute charge for a helpline for EU citizens who are trying to prove to landlords or employers their right to remain in the country after Brexit.Callers to the “view and prove” immigration status telephone number, 0300-790 6268, must also preauthorise a potential £5 credit on a bank card before talking to an assistant. Continue reading...
More than 30 people have died in the Indian city after an intense burst of rainfall caused flooding and landslides, as changing monsoon patterns because of the climate crisis lead to more extreme rains across India.The landslide in the eastern suburb of Chembur enveloped homes as people were sleeping and killed at least 21, according to the National Disaster Response Force Continue reading...