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She used to worry about ‘not making enough to pay the rent’. But with a solo show, a commission to make UK’s first Windrush monument and an OBE, the artist has stepped out of the shadows

Westminster MP only person to be put forward after resignation of Edwin PootsSir Jeffrey Donaldson is to become the new leader of the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) after he was the only candidate put forward to succeed Edwin Poots.Nominations closed on Tuesday with nobody else declaring, paving the way for Donaldson to be crowned leader of Northern Ireland’s biggest party later this week or next. He will be the party’s third leader in three months. Continue reading...

Babis Anagnostopoulos claimed for a month that Caroline Crouch died in robberyDramatic scenes unfolded at Athens’ court complex as the pilot who has confessed to killing his British wife in a crime that has riveted the country was brought to testify before a magistrate now handling the case.As Babis Anagnostopoulos was hurried into the building by police from Greece’s anti-terrorist unit, in handcuffs and a bulletproof vest, it was to chants of abuse from irate onlookers who had gathered outside the complex. “Rot in prison, you monster,” one man screamed. Continue reading...

Deputy minister for climate change will announce move as part of plans to reach net zero emissions by 2050The Labour-led Welsh government is to freeze new road-building projects as part of its plans to tackle the climate emergency, and an external panel will review all proposed schemes.The deputy minister for climate change, Lee Waters, is to tell the Welsh parliament on Tuesday afternoon: “Since 1990, Welsh emissions have fallen by 31%. But to reach our statutory target of net zero emissions by 2050, we need to do much more. Continue reading...

Rights activists say country has built one of world’s most far-ranging systems of forced disappearanceChina has ramped up its use of secret detention without trial, creating one of the most far-ranging systems of forced disappearance in the world, human rights activists warn in a report.Tens of thousands of people have been subjected to “residential surveillance at a designated location” (RSDL), an anodyne, bureaucratic name for an Orwellian system, the group Safeguard Defenders said in the report, Locked Up. Continue reading...

Authorities deny reports that inmates were beaten after a 10-day sit-in over concerns about virus spread and lack of medical careIn early April, inmates at Bahrain’s Jau prison crowded into the corridors to protest. They were angry about a lack of medical treatment and fearing for their lives after the death of another inmate. Their sit-in at building 13 lasted 10 days, and spread to other blocks in Jau, an infamous prison complex in the south of the kingdom.Inmates claim authorities regularly delay or deny vital medical care to prisoners – especially prisoners of conscience. The concern has grown since late March when Covid-19 began to tear through the prison system. Prisoners and rights groups claim authorities failed to prevent the outbreak and have denied some inmates their choice of vaccine. Continue reading...

Removal of political secretary in face of MPs’ criticism is latest step in reshuffle of Labour’s top teamKeir Starmer’s closest aide, Jenny Chapman, is to be removed from her role as political secretary after significant criticism from MPs, but will move into the shadow cabinet taking responsibility for Brexit.Chapman’s departure is another major change to Starmer’s top team and follows a sideways move for Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, and the departure of his two most senior communications staff, Ben Nunn and Paul Ovenden. Continue reading...

Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to jail people who refuse to be vaccinated against the coronavirus as the country battles one of Asia’s worst outbreaks, with a cumulative total of more than 1.3 million cases and 23,000 deaths.“You choose, get vaccinated or I will have you jailed,” Duterte said in a televised address on Monday following reports of low turnouts at several vaccination sites in the capital Manila.

The opposition responds to Foster review undertaken by Scott Morrison’s department following the Brittany Higgins furoreLabor says a new independent complaints mechanism to be established for federal parliamentary staff in the wake of the Brittany Higgins furore needs a broader remit so it can retrospectively investigate serious incidents.The opposition has responded to the main recommendations of the Foster review undertaken by a deputy secretary in Scott Morrison’s department after the Higgins rape allegation became public. Continue reading...

Special report details instances of excessive force, inappropriate strip-searches, smuggled contraband and guards accepting bribesThe rapid growth of the Victorian prison population and poor workplace culture in prisons has led to “significant corruption risks”, a damning report into Victoria’s corrective services has found.A special report released by the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (Ibac) on Tuesday detailed accounts of excessive use of force by prison guards, inappropriate strip-searching, relationships between prison officers and inmates, smuggling of contraband, and prison guards accepting thousands of dollars in bribes. Continue reading...

As party girl Marissa in The OC, Barton found fame at a time when young female stars were being hounded by the press. She talks about strength, resilience and her battle against revenge pornFor some actors, the roles they have played stick to them like shadows, long after they should have been left behind. Just ask Mischa Barton. It is 15 years since she starred as Marissa Cooper in the teen drama The OC, and yet still she can’t shake her off. When Barton appeared in the reality show The Hills in 2019 – inspired by The OC’s privileged young Californians but featuring real-life people – she was supposed to be herself, but the producers expected Cooper. “It is the constant mistake,” she says wryly. “They were even calling me by my character name. Seriously? Like, this far down the line they can’t get my name right?”The parallels, though, are irresistible. Marissa was a troubled party girl with a love of fashion who met a tragic end. Mischa (even their names are similar) was also a troubled party girl with a love of fashion, whose life at times seemed out of control. There was the extreme fame, the breakdown, the reported threats of suicide, estrangement from her parents and a “revenge porn” court case. Barton has weathered it all with a sense of humour and now, at 35, a bit of perspective. Continue reading...

This special film follows a journalist and a theatre-maker as they attempt to reframe their national identity on stage, even as the project threatens their long friendshipCinema is often connected to dreams and triumphs, and yet failure can make for a far more arresting subject. This astonishing documentary both demythologises the creative process and captures a tortuous artistic collaboration full of human messiness and complexity.With an evocative opening image of a man paddling a small boat towards the shore, Sing, Freetown is about returning, both physically and metaphorically. The image recalls the history of Sierra Leone as a territory where liberated Africans resettled after the slave trade was outlawed. Bafta- and Emmy-winning journalist Sorious Samura is also on his own odyssey. Weary of reporting on the poverty and civil unrest in Africa, Samura has come back to Sierra Leone, his homeland, to create a theatre piece that is positive about the nation’s pride and its rich history. Joining him is Charlie Haffner, Samura’s friend, mentor and founding figure of modern Sierra Leonean theatre. The pair encounter funding difficulties and resistance from the government. These are to be expected; what they do not predict is how the project would irretrievably puncture their relationship. Continue reading...

A new exhibition shines a light on the female creatives and managers who helped turn the home of Joy Division and New Order into a three decade-long powerhouseFrom its figurehead Tony Wilson through to the male-dominated bands that found fame on the label, Factory Records is sometimes seen as the epitome of a muso lad fest. But a new exhibition at Manchester’s Science and Industry Museum is having a go at changing all that, casting welcome light on the women who were integral not only to Factory’s birth but its three decade-long survival.Related: The Guide: Staying In – sign up for our home entertainment tips Continue reading...

Singer says she was unaware of the meaning of the offensive word at the time, did not mean to cause offence, and the prospect of causing people hurt ‘absolutely breaks my heart’Billie Eilish has apologised after a video surfaced appearing to show her mouthing a racist slur.The Grammy-winning pop star, 19, shared a lengthy statement to Instagram Stories, writing that she was “appalled and embarrassed” by the clip. Continue reading...

Carrie Lam denies arrest of senior editorial figures at pro-democracy paper and seizure of its assets was an attack on press freedomHong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, has refused to clarify how journalists can avoid breaking the vaguely defined national security law following the raid and prosecution of journalists at a pro-democracy newspaper.At a regular press conference on Tuesday the city’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, defended the arrest of senior Apple Daily executives under the national security law (NSL) – two of whom have been charged with conspiracy to commit collusion with a foreign country – as well as the raid of its newsroom and freezing of assets. Continue reading...

Prime minister says controversial decision opposed by many Spaniards will ‘open path to reconciliation’Spain’s socialist-led government will on Tuesday approve the deeply controversial pardons of the nine Catalan independence leaders who were jailed over their roles in the illegal, failed attempt to secede from the rest of the country in October 2017.The prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has acknowledged that the decision will anger many Spaniards, but insists the act of clemency is the best way to bring the country back together and to help find a political solution to the enduring territorial crisis. Continue reading...

Man, 62, held in south London police station after footage shared online showed reporter being harassedPolice have arrested a second man on suspicion of harassing the BBC journalist Nick Watt after footage emerged online last week of the political editor being confronted and chased by a group of protesters.The Metropolitan police said a 62-year-old man was being held in custody in a south London police station on suspicion of an offence under section 4a of the Public Order Act, which covers using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour towards another person with the intention to cause them harassment, alarm or distress. Continue reading...

Estimated UK cut of $900m offsets increases by others nations, according to annual Global Humanitarian Assistance ReportInternational humanitarian spending by public donors dropped by $284m (£204m) between 2019 and 2020, and UK the government cut its humanitarian funding by the most of any major western country, according to a new report from the independent Development Initiatives has found.Its annual Global Humanitarian Assistance Report is regarded as one of the best sources for objective statistics on aid trends and humanitarian needs, and the report highlights the extraordinary pressure now being placed on UN-coordinated humanitarian appeals.The total UK cut – put at $900m – offsets increases by others. Humanitarian assistance can be both multilateral or bilateral, but does not cover all overseas aid designed to provide long-term resilience. The UK has cut its large aid budget due to an unprecedented cut in the size of the economy and priority given to dealing with the impact of Covid in the UK. Continue reading...

Ten years since the Arab spring rocked Egypt and removed its president, the country is still detaining human rights workers and locking up political prisoners. Karim Ennarah, a human rights worker for the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, was at a beach resort in South Sinai when he was arrested and accused of joining a terrorist group and ‘spreading false news’. He tells Anushka Asthana his arrest was only the beginning of his separation from his British wifeThis episode was first aired on our global news podcast Today in Focus Continue reading...

Poll finds 59% believe Australia needs to follow the lead of other countries and make action a priorityA majority of voters fear Australia will be left behind unless the Morrison government follows the lead of other countries in prioritising serious action to combat global heating, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll.The findings from the fortnightly survey of 1,087 respondents come as Barnaby Joyce deposed Michael McCormack and returned to lead the National party after a week where senior Nationals expressed open hostility about the government adopting a net zero emissions target by 2050. Scott Morrison says achieving net zero as soon as possible is Australia’s preference. Continue reading...

Hungarian-born Zsolt Balla speaks of his ‘historic responsibility’ to serve Jewish soldiersThe German army has installed its first rabbi as a religious counsellor in 100 years, in a symbol of the renewal of Jewish life decades after the Holocaust.Priests and pastors are already providing religious services to the estimated 94,000 Christians in the military. Continue reading...

Former aide says in Substack Q&A that No 10 is now ‘just a branch of the entertainment industry’Downing Street under Boris Johnson is “a branch of the entertainment industry” and nothing will get done in terms of serious policy focus until he leaves, Dominic Cummings has said in his latest blast at his former boss.In a question and answer session with paid subscribers to his Substack newsletter, Johnson’s former chief adviser described the prime minister as “a pundit who stumbled into politics and acts like that 99% of the time”. Continue reading...

At a Tribeca film festival event, the director and his star Robert De Niro discussed the legacy of the greatest boxing movie ever madeIn Martin Scorsese’s 1980 magnum opus, Raging Bull, the self-destructive boxer Jake LaMotta goes from the greatest to a washed-up parody of himself, clinging to his memories of the good ol’ days. For the director and star Robert De Niro, looking back on the film from the present day could have been tempting fate, a couple of ageing men reminiscing about their younger years via a movie illustrating the hazards of just that.At this year’s closing night for De Niro’s own Tribeca film festival, during an hour-long pre-recorded conversation that preceded the evening’s screening, there was a slight hint of the rueful in the way he and dear pal “Marty” discussed the experience with emcee Leonardo DiCaprio. “Our way of making movies went down,” Scorsese proclaimed, citing the massive financial failure of the pricy Heaven’s Gate that same year as a sign that the party was over for creative talents in search of studio carte blanche. “The kind of thing we were doing was too much trouble for, ah, what they would reap from it.” De Niro clarified: “Money.” Continue reading...

Justice minister tells people to focus on facts after discovery of corporal’s body in woods near Dutch borderBelgium’s justice minister has appealed to the public to ignore conspiracy theories around the death of Jürgen Conings, the heavily armed soldier whose body was discovered on Sunday a month after he went missing, threatening to kill a high-profile virologist.Vincent van Quickenborne said he hoped people would focus on the facts of the case following the discovery of the 46-year-old corporal’s body in the Dilserbos woods in the municipality of Dilsen-Stokkem near the Dutch border. Continue reading...

Some of you went classic rock; others Iranian ambient. And yet others took on epic challenges that will take years to complete … here’s what you’ve been listening to while working under lockdownIf I need to concentrate on something really thorny, I go for Bach every time. It seems to allow my brain to work at a high level and I do almost all my best work to Bach. András Schiff or Angela Hewitt playing keyboard works, and Hilary Hahn on violin. Beethoven’s late quartets and Schubert lieder are good for deep thought. If I’m just doing low-level stuff, then Radio Paradise is my go-to – it’s a commercial-free internet station, which I like because it mixes a lot of stuff I know from my younger days with music that I’m less familiar with. Edward Collier, software developer, Cheltenham Continue reading...

Princess, who was seized trying to flee the sheikhdom in 2018, has appeared in several social media posts in recent monthsA Dubai princess who has been the subject of concern from a United Nations panel after being seized trying to flee the sheikhdom in 2018 has appeared in a social media post that described her as being in Spain on a “European holiday”.An image published on an Instagram account belonging to former Royal Navy member Sioned Taylor appears to shows Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed al-Maktoum at Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas airport. Continue reading...

Independent review said curriculum had not kept pace with changes, and exams and inspections were in need of reformScotland’s exams agency and its schools inspections system are to be substantially reformed after a damning report said the current system was cumbersome and over-complex.An independent review by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, a Paris-based agency, found the Scottish education system had failed to keep pace with the latest best practice and had no long-term strategies or vision. Continue reading...

Sanctions extended as punishment for forced landing of Ryanair flight and detention of journalistThe European Union has extended sanctions against Belarus, with pledges to make Alexander Lukashenko’s regime “run dry”, following last month’s forced landing of a Ryanair flight to arrest a dissident.EU foreign ministers on Monday agreed to add 86 people and entities to the bloc’s sanctions list, as a punishment for the arrest of the journalist Raman Pratasevich and his girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, who were detained after being hauled off a flight from Athens to Vilnius. Continue reading...

Scheme closes in nine days, with many still at risk of losing access to healthcare, jobs and homesFears have been raised that at least 100,000 EU citizens settled in the UK risk losing access to healthcare and other benefits, after the leak of government figures on the EU settled status scheme.With just nine days to go before the scheme closes, the figures show that 130,000 of the 820,000 Europeans claiming benefits ranging from children’s allowance to income support have not yet applied for settled status. Continue reading...

Appeal has so far raised more than $200,000, after the two-storey Samir Mansour bookshop, containing tens of thousands of books, was bombed in MayDonations of money and books from around the world have flooded in to help rebuild one of Gaza’s largest booksellers, the two-storey Samir Mansour bookshop, which was destroyed by Israeli air strikes in May.Founded 21 years ago by Palestinian Mansour, the shop was a much-loved part of the local community and contained tens of thousands of books in various languages covering everything from philosophy and art history to fiction and children’s books. It was reduced to rubble on 18 May, during the 11-day conflict that killed more than 250 people in Gaza and 13 in Israel. Continue reading...

Country at a ‘tipping point’ that could affect wider region, experts warn, as ‘donor fatigue’ causes aid shortfallThe continuing exodus of millions of Venezuelans is reaching “a tipping point” as the response to the crisis remains critically underfunded.More than 5.6 million have left the country since 2015, when it had a population of 30 million, escaping political, economic and social hardships. It has become the largest external displacement crisis in the region’s history, and the most underfunded. Continue reading...

From 28 Days Later to Army of the Dead, fast zombies are everywhere – but aren’t they supposed to be slow and unsteady?In the Guide’s weekly Solved! column, we look into a crucial pop-culture question you’ve been burning to know the answer to – and settle itYou used to know where you were with zombies. Normally it was 10ft ahead of them, watching them lurch pathetically towards you. This afforded plenty of time to find a baseball bat, something sharp, maybe even a chainsaw. If The Walking Dead, which wraps up after 11 seasons this autumn, has taught us anything, it’s that zombies only really become a problem if there’s a horde of them. Continue reading...

In the 1980s, there was an attempt to rename the block after Robert Mugabe, but now it will simply be Park View House. It reflects changes being made across the countrySometime in the next few weeks, a team of council maintenance staff will be dispatched to a nine-storey block of flats behind St Pancras station in central London. They will unscrew the panels that bear the name Cecil Rhodes House, and affix newly made replacement signs, making it clear that the building should now be known as Park View House.As the Rhodes Must Fall campaign in Oxford drags on into a fifth year, with 150 dons announcing this month that they refuse to teach at Oriel College because of its decision not to remove a statue of the former Cape Colony prime minister, Britain’s other Rhodes controversy has been dealt with relatively swiftly. Continue reading...

Exclusive: number of UK productions seen as ‘disproportionate’ and threat to Europe’s cultural diversityThe EU is preparing to act against the “disproportionate” amount of British television and film content shown in Europe in the wake of Brexit, in a blow to the UK entertainment industry and the country’s “soft power” abroad.The UK is Europe’s biggest producer of film and TV programming, buoyed up by £1.4bn from the sale of international rights, but its dominance has been described as a threat to Europe’s “cultural diversity” in an internal EU document seen by the Guardian. Continue reading...

States and territories say more GPs will be needed to dispense Pfizer when supplies increase later in the yearShortages of the Pfizer Covid vaccine are expected to slow Australia’s rollout through June and July, as states and territories call on the commonwealth to sign up more GPs to dispense doses when supplies increase in August.The national cabinet met on Monday to discuss Australia’s coronavirus vaccine rollout in the wake of updated health advice that AstraZeneca is not the preferred vaccine for those aged 50 to 59 due to the risk of rare blood clots. Continue reading...

The actor charms the pants off everyone he meets in his new culinary travelogue that will whet your appetite for a trip abroad when it’s finally allowedYou may not realise this at the moment, but your heart has been crying out for a series like Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy. If you saw last night’s first episode, tucked away on CNN International, you will already be aware of this. If you didn’t, stop what you’re doing and seek it out. It’s less a TV show and more an hour of full-body relaxation. By the time the episode ended, I felt as if my entire brain had been taken out and massaged in olive oil.Although the title suggests a different series, in which a beloved actor receives a concussion then forlornly attempts to navigate Google Maps, this is actually a culinary travelogue. Tucci visits a different Italian region in every episode and contentedly samples its food. It is a formula you will have seen thousands of times before, albeit with a couple of key differences. Continue reading...

Frontrunner Abiy Ahmed needs popular mandate to bolster his grip on power amid growing criticismVoters have begun casting their ballots in delayed elections in Ethiopia that supporters of the prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, say are proof of his commitment to democracy and critics warn could be the launchpad for consolidation of an increasingly authoritarian rule.The national and regional polls take place against a background of a gruelling military conflict in the northern Tigray region, the looming prospect of a famine, rising ethnic violence and deep economic problems. Continue reading...

Premier is first in country’s history to be ousted by opposition MPs and has a week to decide next moveSweden’s parliament has backed a no-confidence vote in the centre-left prime minister, Stefan Löfven, making him the first premier to be ousted by opposition MPs in the country’s history and giving him a week to resign or call snap elections.The vote, called by the nationalist Sweden Democrats barely a year before a general election, plunges Sweden back into political uncertainty four years after the last inconclusive poll produced a deadlocked parliament and led to months of negotiations to form a coalition. Continue reading...

Australian Women in Agriculture founding member says Joyce trapped in culture dominated by ‘power plays between the boys’

Barnaby Joyce set to become Australia’s new deputy PM after retaking Nationals leadership; Senate Covid committee hears from authorities and TGA. Follow latest updates

Adviser to jailed owner Jimmy Lai says newspaper cannot pay staff after officials froze banking facilitiesHong Kong’s Apple Daily newspaper and website could shut down this weekend if authorities do not agree to the board’s request to unfreeze its assets, after the arrest of its senior editors and executives last week.According to various local reports on Monday afternoon, an internal memo said Next Digital, Apple Daily’s parent company, would seek restored access to its accounts so it can pay staff, but that if this did not happen by Friday it would make a decision to stop publication of the pro-democracy title. Continue reading...

Gladys Berejiklian is urging people to remain vigilant, saying latest coronavirus cluster has spread from ‘scarily’ fleeting contact

State hospitals are barely functioning as humanitarian crisis unfolds across the country

Poor families cannot afford healthcare and schooling but good harvests offer some hope, World Bank findsThe number of Zimbabweans in extreme poverty has reached 7.9 million as the pandemic has delivered another economic shock to the country.According to the World Bank’s economic and social update report, almost half of Zimbabwe’s population fell into extreme poverty between 2011 and last year, with children bearing the brunt of the misery. Continue reading...

More than 12 years have passed since xenophobic violence swept unexpectedly through South Africa’s townships, leaving more than 60 people dead, hundreds injured and tens of thousands displaced from their homes. Photojournalists James Oatway and Alon Skuy document the unrest in a new book, [BR]OTHERIn May 2008, a series of xenophobic attacks accompanied by widespread looting and vandalism left at least 62 people dead, 1,700 injured and 100,000 displaced in South Africa. The violence began in Alexandra in Johannesburg after a local community meeting at which migrants were blamed for crime and for “stealing” jobs. Within days the attacks had spread around the country, with Ramaphosa settlement on the East Rand becoming one of the areas that witnessed inhumanity on an unthinkable level. Continue reading...

Valérie Bacot, who had four children with alleged abuser, will say she believed he would kill them allOn Monday, a French woman, Valérie Bacot, will walk into a court to be tried for killing her stepfather turned husband. She has admitting shooting him dead and believes she should be punished.In her defence, she is expected to tell the the hearing at at Chalon-sur-Saône in Burgundy how Daniel “Dany” Polette made her life hell from the day he raped her when she was 12, to the day he died 24 years later while prostituting her. Continue reading...

Former pupils of Treloar College in Hampshire in 1970s and 80s to give evidence and demand accountability“Every time we meet, in the back of our mind we remember the school friends that should be there with us,” says Richard Warwick, one of scores of people with haemophilia who attended Treloar College in Hampshire in the 1970s and 80s. “It’s hard to comprehend, we’ve been to hell and back.”By the time he left the specialist boarding school in 1982 he had been infected with hepatitis C and HIV through contaminated blood products, and yet he describes himself as lucky because unlike many of his fellow pupils, he is still alive. Continue reading...