They’re known by their faces, work, or names, and live a life of semi-stardom – all because they showcased their craft on the internetYou probably know Sarah Bahbah, by her name, or her work – but you probably wouldn’t be able to pick her out in a crowd. You may have seen her recent cover shot of DJ Khaled for GQ; or you may know her other visual art work –like her subtitle series, which uses cinematic stills with her inner dialogue as captions, featuring big names like Noah Centineo and Dylan Sprouse. But a few years ago, the 29-year-old was relatively unknown. Then, all of a sudden, she posted a collection of photographic stills based on sex and takeout, and woke up to find herself near famous.Now she has more than a million followers on Instagram, but Bahbah first recognized her new level of fame when she started to pass barbecue test – that is, when you are invited to a a gathering where you don’t know anyone, and a stranger asks if you’re familiar with your own work. “It’s happened numerous times,” she says. “I would just be sitting there listening to someone talk about my work, in this room full of strangers. That’s such a cool feeling to have – knowing that no matter where you are in the world, because of the internet, people discover you on their own terms and connect to your work.” Continue reading...

Better-than-expected figures for June come as Covid lockdown measures ease worldwideChina’s exports and imports both rose strongly in June, helping ease concerns over global growth that have knocked financial markets in recent days.Exports grew by 32% year on year in June to $281bn (£203bn), according to figures from China’s General Administration of Customs. This is up from the 28% growth recorded in May, and better than analysts had expected. It marks 12 months of continuous export growth. Continue reading...

Between home schooling and hybrid working, the last year has brought rapid and radical shifts in our working habits, good and bad. Now it is time to see whether positive change can stickLast month, a video by Maggie Mundwiller, a mother in St Louis, Missouri, went viral on TikTok. It showed her one-year-old son accompanying her to a second face-to-face job interview. (She had asked for an alternative date because she had no childcare. The employer said: “Bring him with you.”) The video featured on Good Morning America, has had more than 9m views and has inspired endless admiring comments, including: “It makes me sooo happy to know there are companies like this”; “Glad it’s a toddler-friendly business!” and: “Take note, corporate America.”The story is cute, as is the kid, who wore a bow tie and took along his own CV (“Skills: destroying a clean space in three seconds”). And, yes, the pandemic has given many of us permission to adopt work habits that previously weren’t encouraged. But will this kind of thing happen again in post-Covid life? What have we learned about incorporating family life into working life? And is anybody going to implement those lessons? Continue reading...

Julien Faraut’s documentary recounts how a Japanese women’s volleyball team recruited from factory workers became national heroes in the 60sFollowing the philosophical tennis documentary John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection, Julien Faraut is back with yet another unusual, enigmatic sports film, this time tracing the extraordinary journey of the undefeated Japanese national women’s volleyball team in the 1960s. Assembled from a group of factory workers, these young, initially amateur athletes went to extraordinary lengths to hone their skills, under the stern and ruthless training of head coach Hirofumi Daimatsu. Winners of the gold medal at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics, the team enjoyed a streak of 258 victories, earning the “witches” sobriquet abroad and inspiring a string of pop culture tributes, most notably Chikako Urano’s Attack No 1 manga series.In retelling this stranger-than-fiction chapter of sports history, Faraut’s choice of materials ranging from interviews with surviving members of the team, now in their 70s, to archival footage of their practices and matches, all juxtaposed with scenes from the anime adaptation of Attack No 1. By pairing real-life events with their animated interpretations, the film not only offers a fresh approach to documentary style but also draws out the tension between reality and artifice, private and public memory. One of the most mesmerising sequences is a training montage where Faraut deftly deconstructs an old newsreel showing the team at their fabric factory. The rhythm of the women’s movements as they roll on the floor to catch the ball – their training includes reimagining their bodies as roly-poly dolls – mirrors the factory machines churning out fresh cotton, to swoony, heady effect. Continue reading...

Welcome to our monthly roundup of the biggest issues in farming and food production, with must-read reports from around the webThe European Commission has committed to table a proposal to phase out the use of cages in farming by the end of 2023, with the aim of enforcing the ban from 2027. It comes after the EU parliament passed a non-binding vote in favour of the ban last month. The RSPCA has urged UK ministers to follow suit, “to ensure we do not fall behind”. Continue reading...

Gaffe by International Olympic Committee president triggers backlash on social media

Draft guidelines for England, Wales and Northern Ireland will not solve poorer maternity outcomes for women of colour, say doctorsProposed guidance that recommends inducing labour at 39 weeks in pregnant women from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds has raised concerns from doctors and midwives and been branded “racist” by activists.White women with uncomplicated pregnancies should be offered an induction of labour at 41 weeks, according to the draft guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice). The institute’s clinical guidelines such as this apply in England, Wales and Northern Ireland but do not cover Scotland. Continue reading...

A man in his 70s from Sydney’s east has died of coronavirus; Queensland keeps border open for now; support package for NSW to include increased payments for people who have lost work. Follow the latest updates live

Dozens of people have been killed and scores more injured in a fire probably caused by an oxygen tank explosion at a coronavirus hospital in the southern Iraqi city of Nassiriya. One health worker told Reuters that many patients were trapped in the coronavirus ward, with rescue crews struggling to reach them. The hospital fire was a blow to Iraq’s healthcare system, already struggling with an influx of patients and short supplies in the midst of the global health crisis

The New Zealand-born rugby player, who has lived in Australia since the age of 13, takes to Twitter to complain

At 17, Priyanka Bairwa refused her arranged marriage. Instead, she started Rajasthan Rising to help thousands of others and call for free educationPriyanka Bairwa was 15 when her family, began to look for a husband for her. The pandemic sped up the process, as schools shut and work dried up. By October 2020, her parents had settled on a suitable boy from their village of Ramathra in the district of Karauli, Rajasthan.But Bairwa, now 18, wouldn’t hear of it. “During the pandemic, every family in the village was eager to marry off their girls. You’d have to invite less people, there were fewer expenses,” says Bairwa. “But I refused to be caught in a child marriage. There was a major backlash – constant fights. I finally threatened to run away and, fearing I would do something drastic, my family called it off. My mother convinced them to let me study and I joined a college.” Continue reading...

Unvaccinated younger sufferers more at risk of debilitating long-term symptoms, study findsThe decision to lift England’s remaining Covid restrictions next Monday – even as cases of the Delta variant surge around the country – is expected to turbocharge the epidemic and push the nation into what one leading scientist called “uncharted territory” in terms of the numbers of people left suffering from long Covid.Ministers have been told to expect at least one to two million coronavirus infections in the coming weeks. And while the mass rollout of vaccines – which started with elderly and vulnerable people – will dramatically reduce the proportion who are hospitalised and die, the wave may leave hundreds of thousands of younger people with long-term health problems, researchers have said. Continue reading...

Once heralded a global Covid success story, Australia’s vaccine rollout has attracted little other than global criticism

The singer-songwriter discusses his new album and how his age and the current political landscape has shifted his musical directionIn the nearly seven years leading up to Jackson Browne’s new album, Downhill from Everywhere, he entered a new decade of life (his 70s), became a grandfather and saw fresh waves of activists, from the MeToo movement to Black Lives Matter, replace the ones that had inspired him in the 60s and 70s. At the same time, many of his new songs center on a theme most people associate with the bloom of youth: desire. “I think desire is the last domino to fall,” Browne said in a phone interview from his LA home. “Desire is eternal, like hope. It’s just your capacity to act on it that changes,” he added with a dark laugh.Related: ‘She had no fear mechanism’: the incredible, outrageous life of Miss Mercy Continue reading...

Exclusive: campaign group warns of ‘wildfire’ of negative messaging given by healthcare professionals

His latest project, piecing together the story of a bereaved Hong Kong man who wed his dead fiancé, has won an award. The photogapher reveals how it began with the discovery of a trunk of keepsakesAt the centre of Kurt Tong’s elaborate visual narrative Dear Franklin, there is a doomed love story that is also a ghost story. It traces the intertwined lives of Franklin Lung, a man who rose from poor beginnings to become part of Hong Kong’s social elite in the 1940s, and a young woman known only as Dongyu, the daughter of a high-ranking Chinese general.They met, fell in love, but shortly after their engagement, Dongyu was one of several thousand refugees fleeing the Chinese communist army on board the SS Kiangya when it struck an old Japanese sea mine. “Their love story should have ended with this terrible tragedy,” says Tong, “but it continued after her death because Franklin agreed to a ‘ghost marriage’, an elaborate traditional ceremony in which he became eternally wedded to Dongyu in the spirit world.” Continue reading...

A nanofiber mesh makes the traps more efficient and could help provide clean drinking waterChile’s Atacama desert is famously dry, with virtually no measurable rainfall. It is coastal though, with a sea breeze blowing inland. New technology could help draw precious water from the sea air.Fog traps are mesh screens that capture droplets of fog; when enough water accumulates it runs down into a collector. Fog traps have been used on a small scale since the 1960s, with a square metre of mesh collecting enough drinking water for one person. Continue reading...

Protein-rich seaweed has dropped off British menus. Now an innovative Pembrokeshire group is leading a renaissance rooted in Welsh historyFrom the surfing beach of Freshwater West, Pembrokeshire, it is just a short walk to a small restored hut that stands alone on the southern cliff, where local forager, chef and entrepreneur Jonathan Williams gazes down at the rocks below.“It’s part of the Welsh DNA, like rugby and male voice choirs,” says Williams. “It’s packed with flavour, it’s 40% protein, healthy, it doesn’t take up land or require fresh water and it grows at a phenomenal rate. We should be shouting about it.” Continue reading...

Hundreds of people have joined the search for the killer whale’s pod, with rescuers hopeful his family will return for himAnimal rescue teams in New Zealand have begun trying to reunite a baby orca with its pod after it was found stranded near Wellington.A pair of teenagers found the male calf caught in the rocks near Plimmerton, north of the city, with minor injuries, on Sunday afternoon. Continue reading...

Opening of community space in Accra, which was quickly shut, has been the trigger for new anti-LGBT+ action“All I wanted to do was help vulnerable people,” said Shaun Apong, tears streaking down his face, from behind the bars of a squalid police cell in Ho City in eastern Ghana.Apong was one of 21 people arrested in early June, charged with unlawful assembly and accused of spreading an LGBT+ agenda, amid a marked and sudden increase in sensitivities around the rights and advocacy of gay and queer people in the west African country. Continue reading...

More than 1,000 have fled across the border, and hundreds more have handed over weapons to the TalibanLast autumn, with the departure of American troops from Afghanistan looming after the US signed a withdrawal deal with the Taliban, several of the most senior security officials in Kabul urged President Ashraf Ghani to make some hard choices.The Afghan army and police needed to retrench, figures including the then defence minister, Assadullah Khalid, told Ghani. Remote outposts, and rural areas where troops held little more than the cluster of government and security buildings that make up a “district centre”, should be abandoned. Continue reading...

Family members of those killed in the 2019 attack in New Zealand say they have been retraumatised by the script, which has been leakedThe leaked draft script of a controversial film depicting the Christchurch mosque shooting has been described as “worse than the livestream” by those who lost family members in the attack.The proposed film, They Are Us, which takes its name from prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s comments following the massacre of 51 Muslim worshippers at al Noor mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre in 2019, was announced in June. The massacre was livestreamed on Facebook by the gunman. Continue reading...

South Africa has deployed the military in a bid to quell ongoing unrest sparked after former president Jacob Zuma handed himself over to police to serve a 15-month sentence amid corruption allegations. Supporters of Zuma responded by looting shops and setting buildings on fire while others armed themselves to protect property and were seen shooting at the rioters. Ten people are reported to have died in the unrest. South African president Cyril Ramaphosa authorised the military to go in to Johannesburg and in the province of KwaZulu-Natal where the violence has been the worst.

A site in WA the size of greater Sydney has been chosen for the $100bn project to convert wind and solar power into green fuels

Demand for fertility preservation has ballooned in the last decade. New research by Monash suggests many are happy for their employer to pay for itLast year, while working from home as a result of the Covid pandemic, Emily went through the process of freezing her eggs.It was something the 26-year-old Australian had been interested in for several years, but she made the decision to undergo the procedure when her company introduced it as an employee benefit. Continue reading...

Almost one year since Beirut blast, Lebanon is still headed by caretaker governmentAs the first anniversary of the deadly Beirut explosion approaches, the European Union said on Monday it hopes to develop the legal framework for sanctions targeting Lebanese leaders.More than 11 months since Lebanon’s government resigned in response to the blast on 4 August 2020, the country is still headed by a caretaker government. Continue reading...

Users of app Hamdam have to take a psychology test, and successful matches will be accompanied by a consultant for the first four years of marriageIran has unveiled a state-sanctioned Islamic dating app aimed at facilitating “lasting and informed marriage” for its youth, state television reported.Called Hamdam – Farsi for “companion” – the service allows users to “search for and choose their spouse”, the broadcaster said on Monday. Continue reading...

Residents in Bondi Junction under police guard after eight cases in block, while residents in Maribyrnong building ordered to isolate after an infected removalist worked there

Healthcare workers in France and Greece face mandatory Covid vaccination; Mark Rutte reimposed measures on bars, restaurants and nightclubs

PM to press ahead with lifting most restrictions on 19 July, but recommends mask use in crowded spaces

Death toll expected to rise as search operations at al-Hussain coronavirus hospital in Nasiriyah continueAt least 50 people have died after a fire tore through the Covid isolation ward at a hospital in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah.The death toll is expected to rise, as search operations at al-Hussain coronavirus hospital continued after the fire was brought under control. Sixteen people were rescued from the burning building. Continue reading...

The permits will also be required for entry to hospitals, shopping centres and to board long-distance trains

Met Office says thundery downpours also caused floods in parts of London, where fire brigade received over 150 callsSouthern England was hit by torrential downpours that resulted in significant flooding on Monday night.The Met Office said the heavy and slow-moving thundery showers caused floods in parts of London. The London fire brigade said its 999 control officers received over 150 calls to flooding incidents in the capital. Continue reading...

Rules tightened in Netherlands and France as infections surge across Europe, driven by Delta variant

Local styles such as pantsula and bhenga burst from the screen in a glossy new series featuring real dance crewsThe townships of South Africa are a fertile ground for dynamic new moves, from the pantsula dance popularised in the 80s to recent forms such as bhenga, danced to the raw, repetitive beats of gqom music or the house style amapiano. Once hyper-local trends, now you can see dancers demo-ing their skills on YouTube, dancing in streets or school yards.But another introduction to South African street dance comes by way of Netflix drama Jiva!, set in the township of Umlazi, in Durban. Meet Ntombi (Noxolo Dlamini), an ace dancer who gave up her dream career after a family tragedy and works at an aquarium, dressed as an octopus. She was betrayed by her ex-boyfriend, now a big reality TV star dripping with bling and the leader of the dance crew Soweto Cats, who have come back to town for a dance contest. Ntombi’s passion for dance is reignited and she sets up a rival crew to compete for the million rand prize. Continue reading...

Cuban officials blame the US for Sunday’s demonstrations as Biden calls on island’s leaders to hear citizens’ ‘clarion call for freedom’The Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, has attacked the “shameful delinquents” he claimed were trying to “fracture” his country’s communist revolution after the Caribbean island witnessed its largest anti-government protests in nearly three decades.As Cuban officials blamed the US for Sunday’s demonstrations, Joe Biden called on the island’s leaders to hear its citizens’ “clarion call for freedom”. Continue reading...

Dylan Kawende, Oliwia Charowska and Ria Kakkad on how they relate to the team and the playersAfter England’s defeat to Italy at the Euro 2020 final on Sunday, three members of generation Z reflect on what the team, and the tournament, has meant to them. Continue reading...

Bassem Awadallah and Sharif Hassan bin Zaid, aides of Prince Hamzah, convicted of sedition after month-long trialTwo aides of a senior Jordanian royal accused of plotting against the country’s monarch, King Abdullah, have been sentenced to 15 years in prison by a state security court.The convictions follow a month-long trial, held mostly behind closed doors, in the capital, Amman. Bassem Awadallah, a Jordanian national who also holds Saudi and US citizenship, and Sharif Hassan bin Zaid, a member of the royal family, were found guilty of sedition after being accused of acting as proxies for the king’s half-brother, Prince Hamzah, who officials claim had conspired to unseat Abdullah. Continue reading...

Police recognise incident was traumatic for Adrian Burragubba, who was pressured to leave at the request of AdaniThe Queensland police service has made a “public statement of regret” to Wangan and Jagalingou man Adrian Burragubba, in relation to an incident where he was pressured by officers to leave traditional lands at the request of the coalminer Adani.The cultural leader brought a complaint to the Queensland human rights commission after police broke up a protest camp opposing Adani’s Carmichael coalmine in August last year. Continue reading...

British soldier falls through roof of California house, crashing into the kitchen in a burst of insulation and roofing materialA British paratrooper whose parachute failed to open correctly sustained only “minor injuries” after a 15,000ft fall took him through the roof of a house in California, crashing into the kitchen in a burst of insulation and roofing material.The soldier, who was not immediately named, jumped out of a plane during a High Altitude Low Opening (Halo) exercise, a technique used by special forces. He lost control as he approached the ground near Camp Roberts, in Atascadero. Continue reading...

US sanctions and coronavirus crisis lead to food shortages and high prices, sparking one of the biggest such demonstrations in memoryThe biggest mass demonstrations for three decades have rippled through Cuba, as thousands took to the streets in cities throughout the island, demonstrating against food shortages, high prices and communist rule.The protests began in the morning, in the town of San Antonio de los Baños in the west of the island, and in the city of Palma Soriano in the east. In both cases protesters numbered in the hundreds. Continue reading...

‘This will never be a hit, we told each other – we are literally singing about a car wash!’I was singing in a band called the Jewels and was spotted and recommended to Norman Whitfield. I had no idea he was a legendary Motown songwriter and producer. I went to meet him at his mansion in Beverly Hills and said: “Sir, why do you have all these gold and platinum records on your walls?” He dropped to the floor and laughed for 20 minutes. Later everyone went: “The Norman Whitfield? The Temptations? Marvin Gaye?” But I was this little girl from Biloxi in Mississippi. I never read the names on the back of albums. Continue reading...

Large indoor venues urged to check customers’ status as mask-wearing and gatherings rules swept away

PM and home secretary criticised despite condemning racism aimed at players after matchBoris Johnson and Priti Patel have been accused of hypocrisy over their stance on racism in football, after they condemned the abuse of three black England players but previously refused to criticise fans who booed the team for taking the knee.Both the prime minister and home secretary said they were appalled by social media abuse of Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho, who missed penalties in the Euro 2020 final at Wembley on Sunday night. Continue reading...

Big leap in malnutrition during Covid, with fifth of children now believed to be stunted, report warnsThe number of people who did not have enough food to eat rose steeply during the Covid-19 pandemic to include almost a third of the world, according to a new UN report published on Monday.Five UN agencies said the number of people without access to healthy diets grew by 320 million last year to nearly 2.37 billion people– more than the increases in the previous five years combined. Continue reading...

Ex-president’s supporters loot shops and block highways as South Africa’s highest court rules on whether to uphold sentenceSouth Africa’s army is to deploy to help police to quell rioting and looting that has cost seven lives and led to hundreds of arrests, military officials have announced.Authorities have been unable to stem sporadic outbreaks of violence across two provinces since the former president Jacob Zuma handed himself over to police to serve a 15-month prison sentence last week. Continue reading...

It’s been 16 months since the pandemic grounded the world. These images from Magnum’s July square print sale explore themes of being shut in – and getting away from it all

Family of 16 had hoped to claim asylum in Russia, as thousands flee Afghanistan after troops withdrawalSixteen members of an Afghan family who fled Taliban death threats have been trapped in Istanbul airport for the past two weeks, and thousands more refugees are making their way overland seeking safety in Turkey, as the security situation in Afghanistan rapidly deteriorates after the withdrawal of US and Nato forces.The family, from Herat city, decided to leave the country in June after a relative was shot and killed on the street by Taliban forces. Several of them work with international aid organisations on issues such as women’s rights, and have continued to face threats. Continue reading...

WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead, Maria Van Kerkhove, says event likely to have spurred Covid-19 transmission

Fireworks, flags, tooting car horns and Brexit taunts greet shootout victory against EnglandWithin moments of Gianluigi Donnarumma’s decisive save, the screams of tens of thousands of fans exploded across Italian towns and cities. The celebrations continued long into the night, with many Italians missing a night’s sleep amid the sound of fireworks, smoke bombs, chanting and tooting car horns.In Rome, euphoric fans gathered next to the Colosseum and other key monuments, waving the Italian flag, dancing and singing songs including Notti Magiche (Magic Nights) by Gianna Nannini and Edoardo Bennato. Continue reading...