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Jacinda Ardern pauses flights for eight weeks as her health chief says the spread in NSW was ‘clearly not under control’

Six people missing after boat sank just 150 metres from Nissan Island, with lone survivor swimming 15 kilometres to neighbouring islandAuthorities in Bougainville are still searching for the autonomous region’s health minister after he and his family went missing in rough seas at the weekend.Charry Napto, his wife and son were among seven people on board a banana boat which was travelling to Nissan Island from Buka, the capital of Bougainville, on Saturday. Continue reading...

Driver of car, 79, believed to have suffered a medical episode before crashing in PontyclunSix people have been taken to hospital after a car ploughed into a crowd outside a pub in south Wales.Police were called to the serious incident on Llantrisant Road, Pontyclun at about 8.30pm on Thursday, sparking a huge emergency services response. Continue reading...

Lords report calls on the government to ensure support remains in place to help late applicants secure their statusSignificant numbers of Europeans in the UK aged over 65 failed to apply to the EU settlement scheme (EUSS) before the deadline, a parliamentary report has found, warning that this could make thousands of retirement-aged EU nationals vulnerable to Britain’s hostile environment policies.Just 2% of all applications for the settlement scheme were submitted by people aged over 65, a percentage that is unlikely to reflect the population of older EU nationals living in the UK. Charities supporting older Europeans to apply said they had “encountered many individuals who have no mobile phone, no digital access and inappropriate or no documentation”, and the report warned that people who struggled with the digital technology required to apply were more likely to have missed the deadline for applications at the end of last month. Continue reading...

Once There Was a Bear by Jane Riordan and Mark Burgess will channel the original books’ voice and pictorial style using details from Christopher Robin’s real lifeThe story of how Winnie-the-Pooh went from a Harrods toy shelf to the home of Christopher Robin and the Hundred Acre Wood is set to be told for the first time, in an official prequel to AA Milne’s original stories.Winnie-the-Pooh: Once There Was a Bear has been written in the style of Milne by children’s writer Jane Riordan, with illustrations by Mark Burgess emulating the original drawings of EH Shepard. It is the first prequel to Milne’s books and poetry about the bear, and has been authorised by the estates of both Milne and Shepard. Continue reading...

Visit by deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman on Sunday follows reported standoff over diplomatic protocolAmid escalating diplomatic tensions, the US deputy secretary of state, Wendy Sherman, will travel to China this Sunday to meet with senior Chinese diplomats in the highest-level visit since the US climate envoy John Kerry’s trip to Shanghai in April.Sherman’s upcoming trip will not have the trappings of a fully fledged official visit. She will – according to a Chinese statement – “hold talks” with Xie Feng, a vice-minister in charge of the bilateral relations, and “meet” with Wang Yi, China’s state councilor and foreign minister. Continue reading...

Friday: It’s been nearly four weeks in lockdown for Sydney, but experts say it will take more than the current restrictions to bring Covid case numbers down. Plus: cockatoos get wheelie good at opening binsGood morning. National cabinet meets today to discuss the worsening Covid outbreaks and progress on the vaccine rollout, a UN committee votes on the status of the Great Barrier Reef tonight and cockatoos in Sydney are learning to open wheelie bins. Here are the main stories for this Friday.As Sydney approaches four weeks in lockdown, the number of Covid cases infectious in the community remains stubbornly high. On Thursday, 124 new local cases were announced in New South Wales. But experts and the state health authorities are divided on the best ways to reduce transmission and bring cases down close to zero before restrictions can be eased. It comes as figures show the NSW government has taken up just 145,000 of the almost 1 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine allocated to it by the commonwealth, leaving vaccines to either stockpile or be directed overseas. Amid the latest outbreak, NSW opted only to accept Pfizer vaccines from the federal government, because of what it says is a lack of demand for AstraZeneca. Continue reading...

Biden moves to pressure government over alleged human rights abuses amid biggest demonstrations in decadesThe US has imposed sanctions on a Cuban security minister and an interior ministry special forces unit for alleged human rights abuses in a crackdown on anti-government protests this month.The move marked the first concrete steps by Joe Biden’s administration to apply pressure on Cuba’s Communist government as it faces calls from US lawmakers and the Cuban American community to show greater support for the biggest protests to hit the island in decades. Continue reading...

Moscow owes 18.5m doses, leaving Argentina in a ‘very critical situation’ with only 12% fully vaccinated, leaked letter revealsArgentina’s gamble on Sputnik V vaccine has left it in a “very critical situation” because of Russia’s failure to fulfill delivery commitments, according to an official letter to Moscow leaked on Thursday.Russia owes Argentina 18.5m doses of its Sputnik V jab, over two-thirds of them vital second-component doses.

Government seeks to drive up vaccination rate amid resurgence in coronavirus infections

Eve Hibbert, who was presumed dead at the scene, believed to be ‘only person’ to have survived such brain injuries

Exclusive: Just 145,000 of the almost 1m doses allocated by federal government have been taken up, leaving jabs to stockpile or be donated overseas

Mexico wants Israel to arrest Tomás Zerón, accused of kidnapping, torturing suspects, manipulating evidence and embezzlementMexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has urged Israel to cooperate in extraditing a former top investigator wanted in connection with the disappearance of 43 students in 2014.Mexico wants Israel to arrest Tomás Zerón, who headed the Criminal Investigation Agency, over allegations of serious irregularities in the inquiry into one of the country’s worst human rights tragedies. Continue reading...

Police officers in England and Wales furious at pay freeze after months on frontline of Covid crisisRank-and-file police officers have overwhelmingly supported a vote of no confidence in the home secretary, Priti Patel, the first such move in more than a decade.In a scathing announcement, the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW), which represents 130,000 officers, said Patel and the government “could not be trusted” and warned “warm words were not enough”. Continue reading...

Always the diplomatic politician, forever the objective scientist, Germany’s chancellor gives her last annual summer press doAs she faced a lecture-hall sized auditorium packed with national and international press for the last time in her 16-year chancellorship, there was a sense that the room was simultaneously hearing from two very different people in Angela Merkel.One was Merkel the politician, unafraid to talk up her achievements, who patted herself on the back for diplomatic victories and expertly fudged answers to difficult questions. The other was Merkel the scientist, who found it hard to skirt around uncomfortable truths and instinctively wanted to scrutinise her doppelgänger’s track record. Continue reading...

The country is one of the largest recipients of western aid, and yet poverty and unemployment remain rife, write two healthcare professionalsIn response to Benny Dembitzer’s letter (20 July), we are currently working in Tanzania, one of the largest recipients of western aid in the world. We are doing research with the Hadza people, investigating the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in that population. In comparison to our observations from 2018, it appears that very little development has occurred in Tanzania. If anything, Tanzanians appear to be poorer and there appears to be more unemployed people now, which, given the challenges of Covid, is even more worrying. This highlights that the current aid model is not fit for purpose and western governments should rethink the way they support Tanzania and other countries urgently.In the medical field, we are finding that progress has been halted, and probably reversed. One of the causes is that the rich world takes so many doctors, nurses and other health professionals from the developing world. Countries such as Tanzania have educated these professionals at their expense. We collect the ripe fruits.

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