World news | The Guardian

Asylum seekers medically evacuated from Nauru and PNG may also be considered in move advocates describe as a massive step forward

UN says pause in fight against rebels would enable aid to reach province where 90% of people risk starvationThe Ethiopian government has defiantly brushed aside international calls for a ceasefire in the northern province of Tigray, saying its forces are close to “finalising operations” and will soon eliminate all armed opposition.In recent days the US, United Nations, UK and many European states have called for a pause in hostilities to allow humanitarian organisations to reach millions of people who observers say face famine. Continue reading...

Axe falls on projects for Yemen, Syria, Rohingya refugees and people affected by famine in AfricaThe government claimed Britain would be a “force for good” in the world when it defended merging the Department for International Development and the Foreign Office last year, but it soon announced £4bn in cuts to aid.Charities instead warned the world’s most vulnerable people would be hit by the “deadly force” of Britain’s new policies. Continue reading...

Portugal has been removed from the government’s ‘green list’ of destinations from which people can return to England without having to quarantine, and no extra countries have been added.The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, raised concerns of a new coronavirus mutation and rising cases in Portugal, adding the UK had to put ‘safety first’ ahead of a national reopening on 21 June

No countries added to England’s quarantine-free holiday register as seven moved from amber to red

Whether you are due to fly back shortly or have a holiday booked your questions are answered here

The pair were convicted in 2014 after sending a text message insulting the prophet MuhammadA Pakistani court has ordered the release of a Christian couple sentenced to death for blasphemy, lawyers said, weeks after the European parliament blasted the country over the case.Shafqat Emmanuel and Shagufta Kausar were jailed in 2013 and convicted of sending a text message insulting the prophet Muhammad – even though both are illiterate. Continue reading...

VTimes, one of country’s last remaining independent media outlets, to shut this monthA Russian business newspaper targeted as a foreign agent has said it is shutting down because of fears its journalists could be prosecuted, writing that the Russian government “does not need professional and uncontrolled media”.VTimes, founded by reporters fleeing censorship in Russia’s business media, said it would close down three weeks after it was put on a list of foreign agents that critics have called a death sentence for independent media outlets. Continue reading...

Authorities crack down on sports including trail running and wingsuit flying ahead of centenary celebrationsChina has indefinitely suspended extreme sports events, including ultramarathons, trail running and wingsuit flying, in response to the deaths of 21 long-distance runners in Gansu last month.Extreme weather hit Yellow River Stone Forest trail race in Gansu province a few hours into the race on 22 May as many of the competitors were crossing a remote and treacherous part of the 100km mountain track. Of the 172 competitors, 21 died and eight were injured. Scores of competitors sheltered in caves, some rescued by residents from nearby villages. Continue reading...

EU directive on Joe Biden’s proposal for 15% tax rate on multinationals would require unanimous supportCyprus could veto the EU’s adoption of Joe Biden’s proposal of a global minimum corporate tax rate, the country’s finance minister has suggested.A White House proposal of a 15% tax rate for multinationals applied to profits in all jurisdictions is expected to be endorsed in principle by finance ministers of the world’s seven largest economies, the G7, at an upcoming meeting in Cornwall. Continue reading...

The second-most decorated swimmer in Olympic history became a global symbol of privilege in Rio en route to rock bottom. Now the 36-year-old father of two will try to reach a fifth GamesIt’s been a roller-coaster five years for Ryan Lochte, even accounting for the ample fluctuations of a celebrity athlete whose nearly two decades in the public eye have been defined by in-water excellence measured against self-sabotage out of it. The second-most decorated men’s swimmer in Olympic history has married and become a father of two. He’s also been branded as a global symbol of privilege after an eponymous Rio Olympics scandal where he lied about being robbed at gunpoint, served two lengthy suspensions and admitted himself to rehab for alcohol addiction after one TMZ headline too many. Peaks and troughs, as they say.Yet through all the tumult, Lochte has never meaningfully wavered in his goal of swimming in a fifth Olympics. And when the US swimming trials begin on Friday in Omaha, the 36-year-old will attempt to make it a reality. His best chance is expected to come on Sunday night in the 200m individual medley, the event where he set a world record nearly a decade ago that stands today. Should he earn a spot on the US team for Tokyo, he will become the oldest American male swimmer to ever compete at an Olympics. Continue reading...

In the Czech Republic, the legal definition of rape requires the threat of violence – campaigners argue that it is failing victims“I felt so lost when I heard the court verdict; as if the fact that he raped me was somehow not enough,” said Jana Novak.Novak, from Prague, pressed charges against her attacker in 2019 and endured an 18-month-long court case. “I had all the evidence, the creepy messages, the medical notes,” said Novak, whose name has been changed to protect her identity. “But none of it was enough.” While the court found that there had been non-consensual sex, the defendant was acquitted on the basis that there was insufficient evidence it constituted rape. Continue reading...

Forty people under investigation, including 11 vets involved in the illegal docking of ears and tailsItalian police have uncovered a puppy trafficking ring which involved vets allegedly docking their ears and tails to make them more attractive to foreign buyers.Police in Ancona are investigating 40 people, among them 29 dog breeders and 11 vets, on charges of animal abuse, trafficking of puppies and the unlawful practice of a profession. Continue reading...

UN had opposed bill for fear it will erode refugees’ rights and might encourage other EU states to follow suitDenmark’s parliament has passed a law that will enabe the country to relocate asylum seekers to countries outside Europe, in defiance of calls from the UN and NGOs to abandon the plan for fear it will erode refugees’ rights.The passing of the bill, by 70 votes to 24, is an apparent break with the EU’s efforts to overhaul Europe’s migration and asylum rules, an extremely divisive subject for the bloc. Continue reading...

Soon to be seen in The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, the actor has a CV taking in dancing losers, choric narrators, a Bible-misquoting killer – and Marvel’s coolest middlemanSamuel L Jackson is the elegantly besuited, cane-twirling, fourth-wall-breaking narrator in Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq (pronounced “shy-rack”), set in the city of Chicago, where the homicide rate has exceeded the US death toll in Iraq. It is a twist on Aristophanes’s Lysistrata, about one woman’s mission to end the Peloponnesian war with a sex strike. Teyonah Parris plays Lysistrata, the girlfriend of a gangbanger. She reaches out to the wives and partners of their enemies with a similar idea – and the chant: “No peace, no pussy!” Jackson is the dapper, impish Dolmedes, whose rhyming couplets bring us into the story. Continue reading...

Former PM among 30 Tory MPs backing amendment aiming to reverse cuts to aid spendingThe former prime minister Theresa May has joined a growing rebellion of Tory MPs over cuts to the government’s overseas aid programme.Thirty Tory MPs now plan to sign an amendment to the advanced research and invention agency bill, which has its report stage in the House of Commons on Monday, introducing a new clause reversing the cuts. Continue reading...

More than 5,000 readers and supporters, in 121 countries, signed our 200th anniversary card this month – a delightful addition to our bicentenary celebrations. We’ve gathered a small selection – well, 200 – of the messages here. They’re diverse, thoughtful, and heart-warming. We hope you enjoy reading them as much as we did. Continue reading...

UK military confirms some training on Ajax family of vehicles has been suspended as precautionThe Ministry of Defence has confirmed it paused trials of its £3.5bn fleet of army tanks over design issues, which reportedly include them being unable to travel safely faster than 20 miles per hour.The Daily Telegraph says problems with the Ajax armoured fighting vehicles, which are supposed to be able to go up to 40mph, also include an inability to fire cannons on the move. Continue reading...

‘The mood was edgy, even a little paranoid …’ As Ireland moves out of lockdown, our writer recounts what it’s been like over the past year‘Are you over from England?” Just five words. A simple enough question. Yet delivered by a supermarket manager in a small town in County Kerry last year, shortly after Ireland had been forced into the first of its many lockdowns, the innocent question seemed to take on a new dimension.People had been ordered to stay within 2km of their homes, but there were rumours that rogue elements, in these early disbelieving days of the pandemic, had ignored the restrictions and were continuing to travel. There was talk of holiday homes being occupied, of visitors arriving from elsewhere in Ireland – and across the sea from Britain. Continue reading...

Here are the details behind the talks over Joe Biden’s proposals for a minimum corporate tax rateG7 finance ministers are expected to agree on support for a global minimum corporation tax rate on Friday as part of talks being held in London between the group of wealthy nations.The potential landmark tax reform comes as governments around the world grapple with record levels of public borrowing incurred during the coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading...

Adulterous housewives, CIA bosses – Joan Allen has played them all with consummate skill. Now, in Stephen King adaptation Lisey’s Story, she’s turned her hand to visceral horrorIn some ways, Joan Allen is like an American Gary Oldman; wait, stay with it. She looks so different from one role to the next that she’s way beyond mercurial, further towards intangible – like a spirit slipping into a role more than a flesh-and-blood actor. Or maybe this is just acting at its most rarefied. One of the late 70s founders of Steppenwolf, the legendary Chicago theatre troupe that most famously launched John Malkovich, her early career was edgy, ensemble work, with an activist’s purity of purpose. “We’d have to write these applications to get arts grants, and people would say ‘What is your mission statement?’,” she remembers as she Zooms from Connecticut. “Well, what were we? A group of like-minded people who wanted to do strong visceral theatre and had a similar sensibility and sense of humour. We saw the pinnacle of our job as to tell whatever story we were telling to the best of our ability.” This was married, certainly in Allen’s mind, with a craftsmanlike lack of pretension. “It’s like tennis. You come in, and you bring your game. The better you play, the better your partner plays, the better your opponent plays.”Although Steppenwolf were multi-award-winning and there was no shortage of mainstream theatre success – Allen won a Tony in 1988 for Burn This, in her Broadway debut – you can still get a whiff of how uncomfortable the ensemble was with the idea of Hollywood, especially as Malkovich’s star started to rise. “At that time, there really was a concern, if we do go out and do other work, will this still be the most important thing in our lives? Is it more important to stay in Chicago and do it for local audiences?” Continue reading...

Former leader of Jewish settler group is infamous for making incendiary comments about the Palestinians

Uyghur Martyrs’ Road and Dalai Lama Road also adorn Hungary’s capital near project condemned as ‘Chinese influence-buying’Budapest has renamed streets around the planned site of a leading Chinese university campus to protest an “unwanted” project forced on it by the government of the prime minister, Viktor Orbán.Four street signs at the site now bear the names Free Hong Kong Road, Uyghur Martyrs’ Road, Dalai Lama Road, and Bishop Xie Shiguang Road, the last referring to a persecuted Chinese Catholic priest. Continue reading...

China must tell the world a better story about itself, says president, as he seeks stronger ‘international voice’China needs to improve the way it tells the world stories about itself, and convince people the ruling party is striving for the happiness of all Chinese people, Xi Jinping has said.The Chinese president’s comments to a Communist party meeting on Tuesday come amid the country’s growing isolation in the global community, and tension with international media, largely driven by international concerns over human rights abuses. Continue reading...

Undersupply so severe amid outbreak clinic forced to turn away residents of two care facilities

Lunaz specialises in classic cars but is set to start conversion of bin lorries to help transition away from fossil fuel

A 21-year-old man has been charged with the murder of Tony Eastlake who was fatally stabbed close to his stall in IslingtonA 21-year-old man has been charged with the murder of a flower seller who was fatally stabbed close to his stall in north London, the Metropolitan police said.Tony Eastlake, 55, died from a knife wound after being attacked on Essex Road in Islington just before 5.30pm on Saturday. Continue reading...

The Kharg, the Iranian navy’s largest vessel, went down in the strait of Hormuz just after dawn on WednesdayMilitary officials in the Gulf are investigating what caused the Iranian navy’s largest vessel to catch fire and sink in the latest mysterious incident to affect shipping linked to Tehran.The support ship Kharg went down in the strait of Hormuz just after dawn on Wednesday, after a fire that had started 18 hours earlier reached the waterline. All crew members are reported to have survived. Continue reading...

PC Benjamin Monk says former footballer was ‘very scary’ and told him he would ‘take him to the gates of hell’ during incident in 2016The police officer on trial for murdering Dalian Atkinson has told the court he kicked the former footballer while he was on the ground because he feared being killed if he got up.PC Benjamin Monk denies the murder or manslaughter of the former Aston Villa striker after being called to a disturbance outside the home of Atkinson’s father on 15 August 2016. Continue reading...

Artist claims piece was rejected from exhibition for addressing imprisonment of the WikiLeaks founderAi Weiwei has accused the organisers of a large UK art exhibition of rejecting his artwork for the show because the piece addressed the imprisonment of the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.The Chinese dissident artist and activist said the piece for The Great Big Art Exhibition featured an image of the treadmill which Assange used while seeking asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy. Continue reading...

Diop is the first French writer to win the prize for translated fiction – split with his translator Anna Moschovakis – for novel about a Senegalese soldier fighting for France in the first world warDavid Diop has become the first French novelist to win the International Booker prize for translated fiction with At Night All Blood Is Black, his first novel translated into English.Diop, the author of two novels, and his translator Anna Moschovakis, split the £50,000 annual prize, which goes to the best author and translator of a work translated into English. At Night All Blood Is Black follows Alfa Ndiaye, a Senegalese soldier fighting for France in the first world war, whose descent into madness after the death of a childhood friend on the frontline begins to show itself in extreme brutality against enemy German soldiers in the trenches. Continue reading...

Rising numbers come as Home Office staff warn of 20-hour shifts and delays in Covid testing

It is part of a year of events to mark the first time a British sovereign has been on throne for seven decadesA four-day bank holiday weekend will mark the Queen’s platinum jubilee next summer to celebrate the monarch’s 70 years on the throne.National events will include a live concert featuring some of the world’s biggest stars, a service of thanksgiving and, perhaps the Queen’s own highlight, a day at the races. Continue reading...

The Iranian navy’s largest warship caught fire and sank in unclear circumstances in the Gulf of Oman on Wednesday, semi-official news agencies have reported.The blaze began at about 2.25am and firefighters tried to contain it, Fars said. The vessel sank off the Iranian port of Jask, near the strait of Hormuz. The crew are thought to have evacuated.

The poet, a songwriter for artists including the Weeknd, explains how music helped him explore the loss of friends to inner-city violence: ‘Sorrow is meant to be experienced and felt’Appearing on a Zoom call from his Los Angeles apartment, sporting the white, perforated kufi skullcap worn in mosques, 24-year-old Canadian musician Mustafa is a long way from Regent Park, the predominantly Black, working-class neighbourhood in downtown Toronto where he grew up. Regent Park is a place with a dual identity: one of camaraderie and community, the “building blocks for how I think, how I breathe and how I speak”, he says; the other deprivation and violence, where Mustafa’s adolescence was shaped by grief and death, including the murders of friends such as Ano, Santana, Ali, and the rapper Jahvante “Smoke Dawg” Smart.Using the vulnerability of folk music – a genre that rarely makes space for the Black Muslim experience – Mustafa’s stunning debut long-form project, When Smoke Rises, is an elegy to these friends, a dialogue with those grieving and a love letter to his community. “Don’t crease your Air Forces, just stay inside tonight,” he begs his friends to a rhythm beaten out on acoustic guitar. Of Smoke Dawg, who was killed in 2018, he pleads, “Please come back, at least in my dreams”, over tender piano played by James Blake. Continue reading...

As Benjamin Netanyahu’s status as prime minister hangs in balance, MPs have elected a scion of prominent political familyIsaac Herzog’s election by MPs as Israel’s new president, set against the backdrop of coalition deliberations that could seal the end of Benjamin Netanyahu’s long grip on power as the country’s prime minister, is a neat piece of symmetry and certainly symbolic.As Allison Kaplan Somer put it in the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper, Herzog is as close to “royalty” as Israel’s political system can conceive, part of the once-dominant Ashkenazi elite – referring to Jews who arrived from Europe – who shaped the Israeli state for decades after its founding in 1948. Continue reading...

€672bn fund could pay for projects including building pylons next to a protected natural habitat

Temperatures reach 26.6C in parts of London on Wednesday, after UK’s fourth wettest May on recordThe UK has recorded its third successive warmest day of the year, with temperatures reaching 26.6C in parts of the country.Northolt in west London reached the temperature before midday on Wednesday, beating the previous day’s highs of 26.1C in Cardiff on the first day of meteorological summer. Continue reading...

The melancholic singer was a gem in Brazil’s musical history, but many thought he had been killed in a motorcycle accident. At 72, he is releasing his lost recordings and finally reclaiming his legacyIt was the summer of 1995 when José Mauro discovered he was dead. The Brazilian musician, then 46 years old, was living on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, teaching guitar, when a friend called from London saying he’d spotted a CD of Mauro’s long-deleted 1970 LP, Obnoxius, on sale in a London record shop.“He called and explained about this CD, and about how it said I’d been killed in a motorcycle accident,” says Mauro today, now 72. “That was the day I knew I had died.” Continue reading...

Chief medical officer says new rule introduced to ensure potential exposure sites have complete records for contact tracing

Letter signed by Lisa Chester, Ged Kearney and Joanne Ryan calls on PM to sack MP from parliamentary committee roleLabor members of a parliamentary committee chaired by Andrew Laming are calling on the prime minister to sack the controversial Queensland MP, saying his position is “untenable”.In a letter sent to Scott Morrison on Wednesday, the opposition members of the employment, education and training committee expressed “deep concern” about the conduct of Laming, saying the Liberal MP’s behaviour towards women had been “completely unacceptable”. Continue reading...

From Belarus to Hong Kong, why is popular protest being crushed?

For years, Hong Kong has been one of just two cities in China allowed to mark anniversaries of the deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989. This year, however, Hong Kong authorities banned the vigil for the second consecutive year, citing the coronavirus pandemic. Critics say the authorities are using the pandemic as an excuse to silence pro-democracy voices. Last year thousands of people gathered in Victoria Park despite the ban, and weeks later police arrested more than 20 activists who had taken part in the vigil. Organisers have urged people to mark the anniversary in private this year by lighting a candle at home Continue reading...

Australia’s Covid vaccination program has lacked urgency at every stage, with the government forced to revise its own targets and never seeming to meet its own goals. Victoria’s latest outbreak has exposed the Morrison government’s failure to successfully get the vaccine out to even the most vulnerable in the community. The outbreak has hit unvaccinated aged care workers, despite federal promises they would be vaccinated by March. Along with mixed messages about the urgency of getting Australia vaccinated, the Morrison government became mired in a debate about whether Australia’s coronavirus vaccination rollout is or is not a race

The shuttering is almost at an end, but as hotels reopen on 2 June, how will the county cope with domestic-only tourism?Ireland has endured one of Europe’s longest lockdowns, so its hotels have been busy blowing away cobwebs, training staff and restocking the kitchen as they prepare to reopen today.As with other Irish hotels, the Ferrycarrig on its south-eastern tip is hoping this landmark day will signal the beginning of a rebirth of a devastated tourism industry. Continue reading...

This weekend, Carrie Symonds married Boris Johnson in a wedding dress she had rented. She isn’t alone. From dresses to shoes to hairbands, clothes hire is growing fastWhen Carrie Symonds married Boris Johnson over the bank holiday weekend, it wasn’t in a dress handed down by a relative, or a custom-made designer frock destined to take up space in her wardrobe for years to come. It was in a dress she had rented for a few days from a website called My Wardrobe HQ.You might not expect a person who spends tens of thousands redecorating a flat that she will only temporarily live in to be much of an economiser, but it turns out that Symonds – now Johnson – is a frequent renter. “Carrie has always rented from us,” says Sacha Newall, the founder of My Wardrobe HQ, who had no idea that this particular dress was destined for Westminster Cathedral. “As a regular customer, nothing flagged as being unusual about the order.” Continue reading...

Yair Lapid’s 28-day mandate to forge majority and end Netanyahu’s time as PM ends on Wednesday

Ambassador to be summoned after 16 Chinese planes allegedly flew into Malaysian air space off BorneoThe foreign ministry of Malaysia has said it would summon China’s envoy to explain an “intrusion” by 16 air force planes into its airspace, after the south-east Asian country’s military detected “suspicious” activity over the South China Sea.Malaysia’s air force said it scrambled jets on Monday after the planes flew within 60 nautical miles off Sarawak state of Malaysian Borneo. It described the incident as a “serious threat to national sovereignty and flight safety”. Continue reading...

Emergency use listing gives countries, funders, procuring agencies and communities assurance it has met international standards

New Victorian Covid-19 restrictions have been announced in response to a growing number of cases in a Melbourne suburbs coronavirus outbreak. Can you leave home? Is mask-wearing compulsory? Are schools closed? Is travelling permitted? What is the 5km radius for? Here are the new rules