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He’s the most successful driver Formula One has ever seen, and its only Black star. Now Lewis Hamilton has a new mission: to change the sport that made him.As Lewis Hamilton rose through the ranks of competitive go-karting, his father, Anthony, told him: “Always do your talking on the track.” Lewis had a lot to talk about. Bullying and racial taunts were a consistent feature of his childhood in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, a new town 30 miles north of London; his dad taught him the best response was to excel at his sport.The trouble was he didn’t have many people to talk to about what he was going through. Lewis is mixed-race, born to a white mother, Carmen Larbalestier, who raised him until he was 12, when he went to live with his Grenadian-British father, from whom she had separated. “My mum was wonderful,” he tells me. “She was so loving. But she didn’t fully understand the impact of the things I was experiencing at school. The bullying and being picked on. And my dad was quite tough, so I didn’t tell him too much about those experiences. As a kid I remember just staying quiet about it because I didn’t feel anyone really understood. I just kept it to myself.” Sport offered him an outlet. “I did boxing because I needed to channel the pain,” he says. “I did karate because I was being beaten up and I wanted to be able to defend myself.” Continue reading...

As Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s sitcom turns 20, top comics and people behind the scenes explain how it rewired British humourIt wasn’t the first painstakingly naturalistic sitcom on British TV (see: The Royle Family). It wasn’t the first comedy to revolve around the cringeworthy antics of a delusional, middle-aged “entertainer” (see: I’m Alan Partridge). It wasn’t even the first mockumentary about the banalities of work (see: People Like Us). Yet by marrying all those things together – and so much more – The Office managed to raze the comedy landscape, establishing a whole new language and style for the British sitcom. Twenty years after it debuted, the influence of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s series about the long-suffering employees at a regional paper merchants and their incredibly unprofessional boss, David Brent, is still everywhere; nothing since has had a comparable impact. How did a sitcom that prioritised footage of photocopiers over proper jokes remake comedy in its image?Related: The Guide: Staying In – sign up for our home entertainment tips Continue reading...

The authors of new book Hidden Beaches Spain pick five stunning spots offering safe bathing for kids and five with panoramic paths

Climate crisis researchers worry about the channel’s reach to perpetuate misinformation and advance political goalsFox News Media, the company that owns the reactionary, climate crisis-skeptical Fox News, is launching a weather channel this year – a development that has climate crisis experts worried.Fox Weather, a 24-hour channel devoted to all things meteorological, promises “cutting-edge display technology”, according to a press release, with “forecasting experts surrounding every major weather event”. Continue reading...

Social distancing is feeding an appetite for a new generation of US-style drive-through restaurantsDrive-through restaurants used to be a US-inspired novelty but a big increase in custom during the pandemic means money is pouring into new UK sites, with even upmarket names looking to serve food through car windows for the first time.New property research suggests that demand for drive-throughs has increased by 25% post-Covid with restaurant chains looking to open a total of 200 sites a year. The clamour comes as established names such as McDonald’s and Burger King face competition from North American brands such as Tim Hortons, famous for its coffee and doughnuts, and burger chain Wendy’s. Continue reading...

Actors Andie MacDowell, Helen Mirren and Jodie Foster hit the red carpet with ‘silver fox’ hairThe red carpet at Cannes film festival has long featured A-list stars in glamorous gowns and with perfect hair. This year, that hair might be grey.For the premiere of Annette on Tuesday, Andie MacDowell appeared on the red carpet with a mane of greying curls. Helen Mirren also attended, wearing her grey hair up in a chignon, and Jodie Foster, who received an honorary Palme d’Or at the festival, had her hair in a shoulder-length bob with grey streaks visible around her hairline. Continue reading...

PM expected to urge public to behave responsibly as polls show widespread concern over end of rules in England

Jay, 27, writer, meets Dinelka, 20, studentWhat were you hoping for?

As well as grabby headlines about Hitler, Michael Bender of the Wall Street Journal shows us how millions have been led astrayOn election night in 2016, Donald Trump paid homage to America’s “forgotten men and women”, vowing they would be “forgotten no longer”. Those who repeatedly appeared at his rallies knew of whom he spoke. Veterans, gun enthusiasts, bikers, shop clerks. Middle-aged and seniors. Life had treated some harshly. Others less so.Related: Trump told chief of staff Hitler ‘did a lot of good things’, book says Continue reading...

Another 1,378 cases on Friday as authorities warn new case numbers may nearly double by the end of JulySouth Korea posted its highest ever number of new daily Covid-19 infections within 24 hours, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency has said, in a third consecutive day of record high new infections.Starting on Monday, coronavirus curbs will be tightened to the strictest level possible in Seoul and neighbouring regions for the first time. Continue reading...

Wildlife officials in Montana stake out chicken coop visited by same grizzly that fatally mauled camperA grizzly bear that pulled a California woman from her tent and killed her has been fatally shot by wildlife officials, who used night-vision goggles to stake out a chicken coop it had also raided near the small Montana town of Ovando.They shot the bear shortly after midnight on Friday when it approached a trap set near the coop about two miles from Ovando where 65-year-old Leah Davis Lokan of Chico, California, was killed on Tuesday, said Greg Lemon with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Continue reading...

Theresa May’s former aide Robbie Gibb said to have warned broadcaster not to appoint ex-HuffPost editor Jess BrammarA BBC board member with close ties to Downing Street has been accused of attempting to block a senior editorial appointment on political grounds.Sources told the Financial Times that Sir Robbie Gibb issued a warning to the corporation after Jess Brammar, former editor of HuffPost UK and deputy editor of BBC Newsnight, became the leading candidate to oversee the BBC’s news channels. Continue reading...

• Elections minister calls for US help amid political instability• Previous foreign interventions have proved controversialHaiti’s government has requested that the United States send troops to protect key infrastructure after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse this week, the elections minister, Mathias Pierre, said on Friday.Related: Why were Colombian guns for hire allegedly key to Haiti assassination plot? Continue reading...

France recommends mandatory jabs for professionals coming into contact with vulnerable; WHO director says many countries have done ‘a good job’

A lovelorn woman lies in a Paris hospital as violent protests rage on the streets. It’s all very symbolic … but is it any good?The fracture of the title is, ostensibly, the nasty broken arm suffered by ditsy lead character Raf (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi), a comic-book artist in Paris who slips and falls over having had a traumatic and possibly metaphorical breakup with her partner Julie (Marina Foïs). But there is another metaphor level to come.Related: Stillwater review – fictionalised Amanda Knox drama is so bad it’s bad Continue reading...

Serving officer Wayne Couzens is suspected of committing indecent exposure three times before murderA major chance to identify PC Wayne Couzens as a sex offender while he served as a constable may have been missed by police six years before he abducted, raped and murdered Sarah Everard, the Guardian has learned.The revelation comes after Couzens on Friday pleaded guilty to abducting Everard from a London street into a car in March, before murdering her. Continue reading...

The hit squad that killed President Jovenel Moïse is alleged to be largely drawn from veterans of Colombia’s civil conflictsWhen Manuel Antonio Grosso Guarín jetted into Punta Cana’s tourist-clogged airport early last month on Avianca Flight 252, immigration officials are unlikely to have given the 41-year-old Colombian a second glance. Visitors from around the globe flock to this Dominican resort town each week in search of sun, sea and Caribbean sands.Grosso appears to have had rather different plans, though: to sneak over the border into neighbouring Haiti and help assassinate that country’s president. Continue reading...

Millions of younger Australians will never own their own home. With interest rates at record lows, how else can you safeguard your financial future?If you feel like you’re never going to own a home, you may be right.A May 2020 report from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute forecasts that “almost half” of today’s young people will not own property by age 54. In the year since that report was published, Australian house prices have surged record amounts, making an already tricky property ladder even harder to get a foot on to. Continue reading...

Having long encouraged universities to find funding elsewhere, politicians now home in on their ties to China to argue that they’ve lost their wayOutside the political sphere, much of Australia’s China panic centres on university campuses. This is hardly surprising, given the deep connections of the Australian higher-­education sector to China.In 2019, before the Covid-­19 pandemic hit, higher education brought in some A$12bn in export revenue, most of it from China. With more than 150,000 Chinese international students enrolled, some institutions relied on that single revenue stream to make up a quarter of their total budget before the current drop-­off. Mandarin is the second language of campus life in most universities these days; Confucius Institutes have been established at 13 universities; partnerships and MOUs with Chinese universities proliferate in many fields. Australian academics now collaborate more with colleagues in China than in any other foreign country: one report found that an incredible 16.2% of scientific papers by Australian researchers – almost one in six – were co-­authored with researchers in China, with papers in the fields of materials science, chemical engineering and energy topping the list. Continue reading...

A fire at a juice-making factory in Bangladesh has killed 52 people and injured 20. The fire started late on 8 July on the ground floor of the six-storey factory in Narayanganj, south-east of Dhaka, and firefighters were still struggling to contain it the following day. A key exit was locked, forcing a number of people to jump from upper floor windows to escape the flames. Three of those people died. Authorities have not yet determined the cause of the blaze, but said investigations are ongoing

Family of Nottingham woman say they have received ‘the worst news imaginable’ from policeA British teacher who was missing in Japan for more than a week has been found dead.The family of Alice Hodgkinson, 28, confirmed they had received the “worst news imaginable” from police in Japan. Continue reading...

England is easing travel restrictions to more destinations from 19 July, here are some gems off the beaten track

Details emerge about foreign hit squad accused of being behind assassination of Jovenel MoïseKey members of the hit squad allegedly behind the assassination of Haiti’s president Jovenel Moïse had been in the country for about three months, apparently preparing their attack, with others joining from the Dominican Republic last month, according to Haitian judicial authorities.The Caribbean country was plunged into turmoil in the early hours of Wednesday morning when Moïse was killed in his private residence in Pétion-Ville in the hills above the capital, Port-au-Prince. On Friday it emerged that the alleged assassins – including two joint US-Haitian nationals resident in Florida and about two dozen Colombians – had assembled a cache of weapons, money, mobile phones and other equipment, including rental cars. Continue reading...

Officials say many victims were trapped inside the food factory near Dhaka by an illegally locked doorA fire engulfed a food and drink factory in Bangladesh killing at least 52 people, many of whom were trapped inside by an illegally locked door, according to fire officials.The blaze began on Thursday night at the five-storey Hashem Foods factory in Rupganj, just outside Dhaka, sending huge clouds of black smoke billowing into the sky. Police initially gave a toll of three dead, but on Friday afternoon discovered piles of bodies after the fire was extinguished. Continue reading...

Kelsey Devlin’s family in Burnley had concerns for her welfare and want transparency over how she diedThe prime minister of Pakistan and Boris Johnson have been asked to intervene in the case of a British woman who died in Pakistan, with MPs and her family calling for transparency over the circumstances.Kelsey Devlin, a 27-year-old carer and mother of two from Burnley in Lancashire, died on 30 June in a hospital in Rawalpindi. A death certificate says the previously healthy young woman died of sepsis, a stroke and cardiopulmonary arrest, but her family in Burnley say they were concerned about her welfare in Pakistan before her death. Continue reading...

Mystery still surrounds the killing of Jovenel Moïse, and there are fears it could lead to further chaosAlix Pierre was watching television at his home in Port-au-Prince’s moneyed hillside suburbs when he heard strange voices in the night.It was about 1am (0600 BST) on Wednesday when the insomnia-stricken salesman noticed the midnight prowlers outside, speaking in a mishmash of Spanish, English and Haitian Creole. Ten minutes later, he heard shots. Continue reading...

Total of 118 people have died after two doses in England, as PHE says vaccine drive has prevented about 30,000 deaths

Brussels’ accounts reveal amount expected, but London says: ‘We don’t recognise that figure’The government has rejected claims it owes the European Union £41bn for a Brexit “divorce bill”, even as it emerged the first payments have been made.Brussels and Westminster reopened a dispute about the size of the bill, after the publication of the EU’s 2020 accounts revealed the European Commission expected €47.5bn (£40.8bn) from the UK, a sum higher than British estimates. Continue reading...

Corruption still sadly plays a part in public life here, but we’re making steps in the right directionOn Wednesday night, at 45 minutes to midnight, Jacob Zuma blinked. In what was the most consequential moment for the rule of law in post-apartheid South Africa, the former president handed himself into police.Zuma was, in fact, three days late. The apex constitutional court ruled last week that he must surrender himself by Sunday on a charge of contempt of court, after repeatedly refusing to appear before a statutory commission looking at allegations of corruption made against him. If he did not voluntarily turn himself in, the police minister was set to arrest him by midnight on Wednesday. For the past week, Zuma and his supporters – gathered outside his rural redoubt near Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal – threatened resistance and even war against the state if the authorities tried to enter the compound, while his lawyers engaged in futile litigation to try to get him off the hook (a judge dismissed Zuma’s application this morning). Continue reading...

Fears grow for Kabul government after militant group seizes two key border crossingsThe Taliban has swept through western Herat province, seizing two key border crossings to Iran and Turkmenistan, and much of the countryside beyond city limits.It was the latest part of Afghanistan to collapse in the face of a rapid militant advance, during which they have taken control of areas far beyond their original southern strongholds. Their speed has fuelled fears the government in Kabul could fall within months. Continue reading...

Critics accuse government of incompetence, denial and dragging its feet in response to pandemic

Hundreds gathered to protest outside police headquarters after the arrest of 17 men believed to be involved in the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse on Wednesday. Protesters demanded information about the suspects and set fire to vehicles they thought belonged to the group.Police say they believe a heavily armed commando unit composed of 26 Colombians and two Haitian Americans assassinated Moïse, as the search for the rest of the group continues

A bus camera that captured his number plate was the key to catching PC Wayne CouzensThree days before he kidnapped and murdered Sarah Everard, PC Wayne Couzens took a decisive step in his path to committing his crimes.He hired a white Vauxhall Astra from Enterprise car hire in Dover, Kent, which he would use in the crimes. But as he went through the process of hiring the car, he made a crucial error that would lead to his detection and capture. Continue reading...

Thousands in streets to mourn television star, actor and singer as funeral is broadcast live on TVIn Italy’s week of mourning for Raffaella Carrà, one image summed up her universal appeal: a rainbow flag – the symbol of the LGBT movement – next to her coffin in a Catholic church.Carrà, who died on Monday aged 78, was a cultural institution in her home country and regarded as its “best-loved woman”. The queen of light-entertainment TV, she also acted and topped the music charts of Europe and South America with pioneering, sex-positive pop music. Continue reading...

Two staff may have failed to pass on information over 19-year-old later found dead in Epping ForestTwo Metropolitan police staff members have been given misconduct notices over potential failings in the disappearance of the teenager Richard Okorogheye.The student, 19, went missing after leaving his home in Ladbroke Grove, west London, on 22 March. Continue reading...

Inspired by Erika Eiffel, who married the Eiffel Tower, this surreal debut tells the story of a woman who falls in love with a big, swirling fairground ride. Its director explains allJust imagine the pitch. “I want to make my debut film about a girl who falls in love with a funfair ride. Um, that’s it.” But, however improbable it may seem, Zoé Wittock didn’t just get Jumbo bankrolled, the film was also screened at Sundance. And it’s every bit as strange, and quite a bit richer than you might expect.Jumbo tells the story of Jeanne, played by Noémie Merlant, who lives with her sexed-up single mother near an amusement park, and also has a job there as an after-hours cleaner. One night, while spit-cleaning the knobs on a new fairground machine, Jeanne realises she has fallen in love with “him”. And so begins a giddy rites-of-passage story, with the intoxication of flashing lights and the sensuality of oil standing in for the dopamine rushes and tentative bodily exchanges of first love. Continue reading...

Digging deep into the nonsensical and narcissistic – yet apparently acceptable –ways that we behave online, Tim Robinson’s Netflix series is ahead of the curveIn the first season of I Think You Should Leave, Tim Robinson’s superlative Netflix show, there’s a sketch that made me laugh more than any joke I have ever seen on social media. In it, a trio of brunching women decide to post an attractive picture of themselves on Instagram, accompanied by an obligatory and utterly transparent self-deprecating caption, “so it doesn’t look like you’re just bragging”. But one of the party can’t get to grips with this odd internet etiquette. “OK, got it,” she grins earnestly. “Slopping down some pig-shit with these fat fucks, and I’m the fattest of them all. If I died tomorrow no one would shed a tear. Load my frickin’ lard carcass into the mud, no coffin please, just wet, wet mud. Bae.”You might think the vortex of narcissism, desperation and mindless rote behaviour that characterises many people’s Instagram use would be an obvious, not to say rather tired, subject for satire by now. In fact, TV comedy that mines laughs from the warped ways people behave online is vanishingly rare. But I Think You Should Leave – which returned for a much-lauded second season this week – does it in practically every sketch, drilling down into the absurdity of online interaction, and, in doing so, exposes the half-obscured egomania and self-interest that drives it. Continue reading...

As the country marks a decade since independence, musicians talk of the songs and rhythms that help create a shared culture and community for people displaced by civil war“What comes first is a culture and then a nation,” says David Otim, a musician from Bahr el Ghazal, who performs and teaches South Sudanese songs. “Our [civil] war, which was caused by a foreigner, led us to not understand ourselves, made us go and destroy our culture out there [in refugee camps].” Continue reading...

• Woman had hair pulled by ‘six or seven’ England fans• Also claims of Denmark fans being spat on at WembleyA Denmark supporter who attended Wednesday’s Euro 2020 semi-final at Wembley says she was physically assaulted by England fans as she made her way home after the game.Jeanette Jorgensen, who has lived in west London for 15 years, went with three cousins after obtaining tickets through the Danish Football Association (DBU). Continue reading...

Allegation about Wayne Couzens was reported to Kent police, which faces investigation into its handlingThe Metropolitan police constable Wayne Couzens was the subject of a claim of indecent exposure against a woman six years before he murdered Sarah Everard, it has been revealed.An allegation was reported to Kent police in 2015, who will now face an investigation into whether they investigated it properly. Continue reading...

British investor Stephen Peel in ongoing dispute with partners over Luxembourg company linked to spyware firmA British financier’s voting rights at a Luxembourg company linked to Novalpina Capital, whose fund owns a majority stake in the spyware firm NSO Group, will remain suspended, a Luxembourg court has ruled.Though this may not be permanent, the decision appears to mark a setback for the financier, Stephen Peel, a former Olympic rower, in a bitter legal dispute that has erupted between him and his two longtime business partners, Stefan Kowski and Bastian Lueken. Continue reading...

Prime minister says country ‘cannot afford to waste time getting back the lives we know and love’Fiji’s government has announced it will make Covid-19 vaccinations a mandatory condition of work for civil servants and staff in the private sector, with some people liable to lose their jobs if they do not comply.The prime minister, Frank Bainimarama, said in a televised address on Thursday night that employers and employees in the private sector should receive at least one dose of vaccine by 1 August. Continue reading...

Formula One driver who left the sport after failing to win the world championship in 1981 and entered Argentinian politicsIn the years when Carlos Reutemann competed in Formula One, between 1972 and 1982, the pen portrait of the Argentinian driver printed in the programme for the Monaco Grand Prix memorably described him as possessing le physique d’un séducteur du cinema. Reutemann, who has died aged 79, did indeed resemble the popular idea of a South American racing driver: tall, dark-haired, with a strikingly saturnine visage that could open into a charming smile.But there was an enigmatic side to him, a moodiness that could put a dampener on his performances. Continue reading...

Cheerful Rhinelander poised to succeed Angela Merkel aims to reach out to likes of Russia and HungaryOver her 16 years as German chancellor, Angela Merkel has gained a reputation as the world’s go-to consensus-builder, a relentless forger of compromises between political opponents. The man most likely to step into her shoes this September presents himself as someone with the ambition to outdo her.Armin Laschet, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and conservative candidate for the top job at federal elections on 26 September, says he is a passionate European, a committed transatlanticist and a reliable ally of Israel. Continue reading...

The pair filmed themselves wrecking the house in Murtoa, Victoria, after their sister was named executor of their mother’s estateThe world is laughing at the stupidity of two brothers who destroyed their late mother’s home in regional Victoria after their sister was named executor of her estate, a Victorian judge has said.Malcolm and Garry Taylor missed out on their inheritance and have now received major fines following their dramatic response to their sister being named executor. Continue reading...

Health authority creates adverts to send positive message about social effects of vaccination

As the government continued to fail at governing, at least England had an easy win in exposing Lawrence Fox’s hypocrisyData, not dates! Except, after all – dates. The government (are we still using that word? It feels like such a misnomer at this stage. The gafferment? The gufferment, farting into its empty hands) announces that the country will lay aside virtually all Covid-19 restrictions on 19 July – “Covid Freedom Day” as our genuinely pathetic prime minister terms it – as planned. Continue reading...

Pan-Asian labour rights group launches groundbreaking attempt to hold global labels accountable for alleged rights violations during pandemicLegal complaints are being filed against some of the world’s largest fashion brands in major garment-producing countries across Asia in a groundbreaking attempt to hold the global fashion industry legally accountable for human rights violations in the countries where their clothing is made.The Asia Floor Wage Alliance (AFWA), a pan-Asian labour rights group, says it is using legal challenges to argue that global clothing brands should be considered joint employers, along with their suppliers, under national laws and be held accountable for alleged wage violations during the Covid-19 pandemic. Continue reading...

One local barista says he feels police have exaggerated the rate of non-compliance in the region