Shortages of beds and oxygen as Covid variant reaches areas with weaker healthcare systems

A familiar face from TV roles in The Night Manager and Industry, the Cairo-born actor is spellbinding in the upcoming independent film about asylum seekers in the Outer Hebrides. But does he owe his career to the Lawrence of Arabia star?Amir El-Masry has a gravely handsome face and a forehead that goes on for ever: he is like an Easter Island statue with matinee-idol looks. Audiences will have a lot of time to study that face in Limbo, a bittersweet British comedy about asylum seekers dispatched to a far corner of the Outer Hebrides (the film was shot in Uist) while their claims are processed.Related: Limbo review – heart-rending portrait of refugees stranded in Scotland Continue reading...

Fiame Naomi Mata’afa was confirmed by Samoa’s court of appeal to be the country’s first female prime minister, ending the 22-year reign of the former leaderSamoa’s months-long political crisis has been brought to a close and the Pacific nation has its first female prime minister after a ruling of the country’s court of appeal this afternoon.The Samoan court of appeal ruled that the Faatuatua ile Atua Samoa ua Tasi (FAST) party was the official winner of the national election in April and the ad hoc swearing-in ceremony held by the party out the front of parliament, when FAST MPs were denied entry to the building, was legitimate. Continue reading...

We must apply our own home-grown initiatives if we are to curb abuses of Africa’s most vulnerableOf all the unspeakable injustices suffered by Africa’s children – and I’ve witnessed many – violence is surely the worst because it is almost entirely preventable. Africa’s children suffer many hardships, including poverty, hunger and disease. Violence against children is avoidable, yet young people in Africa, especially girls, continue to live with sexual violence, child marriage, female genital mutilation, forced labour, corporal punishment and countless other forms of abuse.After decades spent trying to improve young people’s life chances, I had hoped to see at the very least a significant reduction in violence that threatens children. It is now 31 years since the adoption of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and we have seen some governments putting into place laws and policies aimed at ending violence against children. There have also been efforts, though insufficient, towards eradicating female genital mutilation and child marriage, which cause untold lifelong suffering. Continue reading...

Bindi Vora’s Mountain of Salt is a collection of found images and appropriated text conceived as a response to the Covid pandemic. The wry, sometimes humorous, text-based series of collages focuses on the language used over the past year and was developed from collecting words and sentences derived from politicians, journalists and other individuals. Vora says she is ‘interested in how we might unite and reflect on this time currently being experienced in our individual and collective ways, as we all live in the hope of clambering out and making it to the other side unscathed. This curious collection of phrases speaks to the dissemination of language and its effect upon us’Bindi Vora’s work is on display, alongside Alys Tomlinson’s Lost Summer, at Charing Cross hospital in London until September

Twenty years ago, it was made by juvenile men in shorts. Now, from Meet Me @ the Altar to Olivia Rodrigo, diverse young women have reclaimed the genre – and made it the sound of the summerA white man whining about high school, his mediocre hometown or a faceless girl: that is what most people picture when they think of pop punk. In the 90s and 00s, all-male bands such as Green Day, Blink-182, New Found Glory and Sum 41 ruled the charts, looking like Jackass extras in Dickies pants and wallet chains and sounding – albeit mildly – like rebellion. Now, though, a diverse group of women are emerging who have kept the genre’s sense of belligerence and fun, but are developing it to create something youthful that also has a quality those older bands eschewed – emotional maturity.Today’s pop punks go to therapy (I’m Gonna Tell My Therapist On You by Pinkshift) and sing self-reflectively about relationships. Their vocals recall the soprano gymnastics of the genre’s 00s matriarch, Paramore’s Hayley Williams more than her nasal male contemporaries. Pop punk has become a defining sound of 2021: Olivia Rodrigo’s splenetic Good 4 U recently spent five weeks at No 1 in the UK, the longest stretch for a rock song for 25 years, while Willow, the daughter of Will Smith, released a pop punk album last week that discusses her personal growth and confronts the fake people in her life. Continue reading...

Locals in Efrat, an Israeli settlement with US cultural links, give their views on the ban on sales to occupied territoriesThere are blue skies and green grass outside and inside Pizzeria Efrat, a restaurant in a settlement of the same name in the occupied West Bank.Outside, the pizza parlour is surrounded by lush parks and wide, quiet roads. Inside, the famous cartoon cows on tubs of Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream greet customers from no fewer than three branded freezer cabinets, stacks of red pizza boxes piled up behind them. Continue reading...

Human rights groups say latest series of arrests and searches are part of ‘a total purge on civil society’The government of Belarus has launched a broad crackdown on civil society, launching raids and arrests on dozens of organisations in what has been described as a “black week” for the country’s NGOs.The raids, which began last week, have touched all corners of civil society, from groups that campaign for political prisoners’ rights to those that crowdfund medical care and have helped medics in the fight against coronavirus. Continue reading...

Living in lockdown with small children means distracting them with the same thing, over and over again, until you – like Ben Jenkins – are driven insaneEvery parent of a young child in lockdown either knows this fact or is about to learn it: you don’t get to choose where they find their joy.For example, my two and half year old son likes to listen to the Thomas and Friends Storytime podcast. It is, by some margin, his favourite thing to do. By a similar margin, the opening “toot toot” of the podcast is my least favourite sound on the entire planet, which now activates my fight or flight reflex every time I hear it. But due to some quirk of evolution, I find myself unable to deny my boy his train show, as it gives him the kind of happiness unattainable to adults without the use of class-A drugs. Continue reading...

NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian calls coronavirus spread in Sydney a 'a national emergency' as state records another death and 136 new cases of Covid-19. Berejiklian says, 'we need to have a discussion about refocusing the national vaccination strategy' and says NSW needs more Pfizer vaccines for the young population in south-west Sydney. Chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said, 'I have advised the government today that this is a national emergency, and requires additional measures to reduce the case numbers'► Subscribe to Guardian Australia on YouTubeFollow the Australia Covid live blog as NSW records 136 new casesNSW restrictions; NSW hotspots; border restrictionsVaccine rollout tracker Continue reading...

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...