Students have been able to go to pubs and clubs this year, but not lectures. Now universities are saying next semester will be radically differentAustralian universities say campuses will look “radically” different next semester as students return to more in-person learning, although most large lectures will still be delivered online.As many students yearn for a return to the classroom, universities say they are planning to offer in-person learning for up to 90% of courses next semester. Continue reading...

An increased appetite for political donations strengthens the political influence of the wealthiest New ZealandersThe spokesperson for Aotearoa New Zealand’s Green party was genuinely surprised. She had called after I informed them that a major donor to their 2020 election campaign had subsequently pleaded guilty to animal neglect. The spokesperson said the Greens had not known about the neglect when they took her money.They nevertheless refused to donate it onwards. They argued the Incorporated Societies Act required them to hold on to it. As I later found out, that’s not quite true: returning the donation, or donating it to an organisation like the SPCA, seems to be possible according to their party’s charter. Continue reading...

Finland took the points at the end of a match delayed following the first-half collapse and subsequent resuscitation of Denmark’s Christian Eriksen

It was a game that felt simultaneously extraordinarily trivial and hugely significant. When Christian Eriksen collapsed four minutes before half-time, needing CPR on the pitch, it seemed inconceivable – unthinkable – that it could continue. As he lay, limp, surrounded by protective and clearly distressed teammates, there seemed a possibility the tournament might be cancelled.And yet, an hour and 45 minutes later, they were back. The sight of Mathias Jensen coming on for Eriksen was hugely poignant, a mundane act lent profundity by context. The assumption, even as news came through that Eriksen was awake in hospital, was that this game at least would have to be postponed. Yet the players and coaches, after being consulted in the dressing room, agreed to play on. Continue reading...

Observer poll reveals most people believe prime minister should wait past proposed 21 June date

Northern Ireland border row hits G7 summit in Cornwall as prime minister tells other leaders UK is ‘a single country’Boris Johnson was embroiled in an extraordinary public spat with EU leaders over Northern Ireland yesterday as tensions over Brexit boiled over at the G7 summit in Cornwall.After a series of tense bilateral meetings at which the French president Emmanuel Macron, the German chancellor Angela Merkel and the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, told their summit host the UK must implement the Brexit deal in full, an unrepentant Johnson said he had urged his EU colleagues to “get it into their heads” that the UK is “a single country”. Continue reading...

Country confounds post-Covid predictions as transatlantic holidaymakers flood in ready to spend

Metropolitan police have now made 11 arrests in connection with the incident in StreathamFour people have been charged with murder following the fatal stabbing of a teenager in south London.The Metropolitan police has made a total of 11 arrests in connection with the incident in Streatham, which happened on Thursday. Continue reading...

The opposition-led administration will be sworn in on Sunday if it can prevail in a confidence vote in the KnessetBenjamin Netanyahu is due to be ousted from office on Sunday by a new Israeli government formed with the primary aim of dethroning the country’s longest-serving leader.A motley grouping of politicians, including former Netanyahu allies turned foes, have set aside bitter differences to put an end to the prime minister’s historic run in power. If successful, it will also break a political stalemate that has seen four snap elections in the country since 2019. Continue reading...

The Booker-shortlisted novelist on teaching himself to read, critics who say he’s not nice enough to white people, and why the Bible still haunts himBrandon Taylor, 32, grew up in Alabama and studied at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He was shortlisted for last year’s Booker prize with his debut, Real Life, a campus novel about a gay black biochemist. His new book, Filthy Animals, is a series of linked stories loosely centred on the sexual tension between Lionel, a black maths postgraduate, and two white dance students, Charles and Sophie. The writer Paul Mendez has called Taylor “a phenomenon… the laureate of young, expensively educated people... pleasuring and harming themselves and each other”. He spoke to me over Zoom from his home in Iowa City.

Jalan Woods-Bell, also 15, died from his injuries in Hayes on Friday morningA 15-year-old boy appeared in court on Saturday charged with the murder of a teenager, named for the first time as Jalan Woods-Bell, who died after being stabbed in west London during the Friday morning school run.Police were called to reports of a fight on Blyth Road in Hayes just before 8.35am. Woods-Bell, also 15, was found with stab injuries and died at the scene. Continue reading...

Protesters turn out in support of a range of causes as the leaders of Group of Seven nations meet for the forum’s 47th summit in Cornwall Continue reading...

The prime minister has a host of problems to weigh up before deciding to remove all legal restrictions on social contact

Kieffer Moore’s second-half header earned a point for Wales in their opener in Baku4.03pm BSTKieffer Moore speaks to the BBC. “It’s great personally, but it’s a good start for us. We would have liked to have won, but a draw from the first game puts us in a good position. It’s never good going a goal down, but to get one back and see the game out is a big positive for us. It was tough in the heat, but it’s what we expect in a hot climate, and we’re used to it. I’m enjoying it. It’s a big occasion and I’m loving every second of it!”4.00pm BSTWales look much the happier side after this draw. Kieffer Moore is understandably all smiles, receiving the congratulations of his team-mates. The Swiss are more subdued, having dominated the game and created the majority of the chances. But Wales dug in and got their reward for a determined response to going behind. They form a big huddle as Gareth Bale delivers a post-match pep-talk. A big game against Turkey coming up. The Swiss face an even bigger one against Italy, and may reflect that taking off Xherdan Shaqiri wasn’t the greatest idea. Continue reading...

Data leak published by ProPublica fuels calls to tighten up system which sees ultra-wealthy pay little or no taxThe revelation last week that the 25 richest US billionaires have paid very little tax even as their fortunes have soared has reignited demands for wealth taxes on both sides of the Atlantic.An unprecedented leak of “a vast trove” of 15 years of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data to the investigative news site ProPublica has provided a staggering insight into the legal strategies the very rich deploy to avoid tax. Continue reading...

As the often volatile marching season approaches, bitter tensions over the EU protocol grow, along with a belief that NI is being cast adrift by a duplicitous British governmentThey gathered in their thousands at the top of the Shankill Road with banners and drums to send a message to the far side of the Irish Sea, where a treacherous prime minister played his charade in a kingdom no longer fully theirs.Some waved union jack flags, others had union jack masks, one had a union jack balaclava, and they tramped behind marching bands with drums, flutes and cymbals, a percussive shockwave in the Belfast dusk. Continue reading...

Thousands of people have marched in Canada in support of a Muslim family run over and killed by a man driving a pickup truck. Police have described the incident last Sunday as a premeditated attack motivated by Islamophobia. Crowds in London, Ontario, marched five miles on Friday from the spot where the family was killed to a nearby mosque, the site close to where police arrested the attacker. Candlelight vigils were also held to honour the victims and protest against hatred

Scheme is part of wider push for G7 leaders to question China on human rights, Taiwan and Covid-19The Group of Seven rich nations have agreed plans to set up an alternative to China’s belt and road initiative as part of a wide push back against China covering human rights, supply chains, support for Taiwan and demands for Beijing to reveal more about the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.But Biden is being urged by other G7 leaders, including the Italian prime minister Mario Draghi, the current chair of the G20, not to push competition with China to the extent that it prevents Chinese cooperation over other critical issues such as the climate crisis. Continue reading...

From Watership Down to The Animals of Farthing Wood, leading nature writers discuss the children’s classics that made them want to write about the natural world

Stefan Damian Dragos, 28-year-old Romanian citizen, is accused of providing truck in people-smuggling caseItalian police have arrested a man wanted by the UK in connection with a people-smuggling plot that led to the death of 39 Vietnamese migrants in the back of a lorry.Stefan Damian Dragos, a 28-year-old Romanian citizen, is accused of having provided the truck that transported the migrants to England, according to a police statement. Continue reading...

UK also reports 17 deaths as infection rate rises; British Medical Association calls for delay to easing of remaining lockdown restrictions

Australia’s world-heritage listed Daintree rainforest teems with unique flora and fauna, including one of the rarest and most primitive flowering plants in the world. It spans 120sq km and is estimated to be 180 million years old, but in recent years logging and sugarcane fields have threatened this natural wonder. Now an ambitious ‘buy back’ scheme is set to bring the rainforest back to lifeAs Andrew Solomon looks up at the rainforest canopy on Kuku Yalanji land near Cape Tribulation, his eyes start to water.“When I first came back, I felt someone was following me. I could feel a presence. I wasn’t wearing any shoes and all of a sudden I felt a bolt of electricity come up through me from the ground. It was country speaking to me, it was welcoming me back.” Continue reading...

After a muted 2020 ski season, alpine towns are hoping heavy snowfall will bring back travellers and revive businesses

The animals have a bad reputation in Aotearoa, where they are regarded as pests – but some say they are scapegoated for human failuresMaurice likes to stay up all night. When he finally settles down at 5am, he makes sure everyone knows he’s there – then he curls up and sleeps all day.“When he’s ready to go to bed, he gives us a good face wash to say ‘hi,’” Jo Little* says, laughing. “He’s got really, really cold feet, and he puts them all over your head. He licks every area of your face!” Continue reading...

Officials and NGOs say orphans now face the double threat of neglect and being vulnerable to exploitation

Rightwing candidate Keiko Fujimori alleged fraud after losing to leftist Pedro Castillo by about 60,000 votesPeru was on a knife-edge on Friday as its electoral board reviewed ballots cast in the presidential election, after a challenge to the tally by the losing candidate Keiko Fujimori.The final tally gave the leftist teacher Pedro Castillo a razor-thin 50.17% to 49.83% advantage over his rightwing rival Fujimori, which amounts to about 60,000 votes. Continue reading...

As doubt grows that government will end Covid controls on planned date, we look at the other options

As Dutch capital reopens post-Covid, city is taking ‘extra measures’ to discourage excessAmsterdam has said it will not allow a return to the “nuisance and massive crowds” the city endured before the pandemic, sending a blunt warning that visitors “whose intention is to booze and misbehave, dressed like a penis” should go elsewhere.As much of the EU prepares to open up to tourists who are vaccinated, have recovered from the coronavirus or can provide a negative test from 1 July, the Dutch capital’s city hall said in a statement it was taking “extra measures” to discourage excesses. Continue reading...

G7 leaders have opened their first in-person talks in nearly two years. Welcomed by Boris Johnson to the beachside summit venue in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, the leaders posed for a photograph before opening their first session of talks Continue reading...

Met police say suspect has been detained after death on Blyth Road in Hayes on Friday morningA 15-year-old boy has died after being stabbed in west London during the morning school run.Officers were called to reports of a fight on Blyth Road in Hayes shortly before 8.35am and found the victim with multiple stab wounds. He died at the scene, close to Global Academy, a college for students aged 14 to 19. Continue reading...

Petition asks for protection from shooting ranges around Samye Ling and other places of peaceWhen the gunfire starts it is like a thunderclap, the monks and nuns explain, and the sound reverberates up the valley. During the game shooting season, it is not unusual for avian casualties to land within the grounds of Samye Ling, the largest Tibetan Buddhist temple in western Europe. Tame ducks who have sought refuge from the hunters now waddle and strut between the golden statues, and peck at the monastics’ brick red robes.This secluded spiritual community now finds itself in a confounding position, standing with the local community of Eskdalemuir against the development of shooting ranges that threaten their “pocket of peace”. Continue reading...

Cpl Jürgen Conings disappeared more than three weeks ago and threatened to kill a top scientistPolice searching a nature reserve for a heavily armed Belgian soldier who has threatened to kill one of the country’s top scientists have found a backpack full of ammunition, raising fears the fugitive has even more weapons than suspected.Cpl Jürgen Conings, 46, a specialist marksman, has not been seen since he disappeared on 17 May after taking four anti-tank missile launchers, a sub-machine gun and a bullet proof vest from his barracks. Continue reading...

Take the edge off the summer heat with these delicious cocktails to share – from a boozy take on iced tea to a dark rum crowd-pleaser

Edelsten was known for his flashy lifestyle, young wives and a series of brushes with the legal system that included a stint in jailGeoffrey Edelsten, who made a name for himself as a flashy doctor, helped save AFL team the Sydney Swans from extinction and had a string of young wives, has died aged 78.Edelsten died on Friday at his home in Melbourne, the ABC and local media reported. Continue reading...

Victoria Cross recipient tells court man killed in Afghanistan was a ‘spotter’ and legitimate target within rules of warAccused soldier Ben Roberts-Smith has denied outright the most dramatic murder alleged against him – that he kicked an unarmed, handcuffed Afghan civilian off a cliff before ordering him shot – telling a court the accusation was false and “outright malicious”.“It feels like you’re in a bloody nightmare,” he told the court during an excoriating day of evidence. “Every time they write it I wonder: ‘how am I in this position?’” Continue reading...

Victoria and Queensland record no new Covid cases; court approves robodebt settlement. Follow live

Games will not boost local trade by as much as was hoped but there is optimism over Italy’s chancesThe rescheduled European football championships kick off in Rome on Friday in what the city’s mayor, Virginia Raggi, has billed as a symbol of a new beginning.Andrea Bocelli will sing Nessun Dorma before the opening match between Italy and Turkey at the Olympic stadium, and a football village will open at Piazza del Popolo in the centre of Rome. Continue reading...

The former SAS soldier says attitudes of other soldiers changed after he received his military honour and he was ‘white-anted’The Victoria Cross was a cross to bear, Ben Roberts-Smith has told his defamation trial, saying it “put a target on his back” for other soldiers jealous of his medal.In the witness box for a second straight day, the former corporal detailed at length his missions in Afghanistan, and the tensions within SAS as soldiers were sent back for repeated deployments in a long, grinding and costly war. Continue reading...

Foreigners could be placed on an anti-sanctions list and denied entry into China or expelled from the countryChina has passed a law to counter foreign sanctions in response to US and EU pressure over trade, technology, Hong Kong and Xinjiang.Individuals or entities involved in making or implementing discriminatory measures against Chinese citizens or entities could be put on an anti-sanctions list and may be denied entry into China or be expelled from the country. Their assets within China may be seized or frozen and they could be restricted from doing business there. Continue reading...

Many are beginning to fear the world may soon be caught in the crossfire between Beijing and WashingtonIn July 1971, US national security adviser Henry Kissinger embarked on a secret mission to China, then America’s sworn enemy. This 48-hour ice-breaking trip paved the way for Richard Nixon’s historic handshake with Chairman Mao a year later. Nixon’s visit altered the strategic geometry of the cold war and influenced Washington’s subsequent movement towards détente with Moscow.Half a century on, as Joe Biden arrived in Cornwall to attend the G7 meeting, there was a looming sense of history in the making again – one that involves the talk of allies (a group of like-minded democracies) and adversaries (notably Russia and China). It is also one that invokes memories of the cold war in the 1970s, when strategists like Kissinger crafted the art of balancing power between the US, China and the Soviet Union. Continue reading...

Aid chief says situation is worst since the 2011 famine in Somalia that led to the deaths of an estimated 250,000 peopleMore than 350,000 people in Ethiopia’s Tigray region are suffering famine conditions, with millions more at risk, according to an analysis by UN agencies and aid groups that blamed conflict for the worst food crisis in a decade.“There is famine now in Tigray,” the UN aid chief, Mark Lowcock, said on Thursday after the release of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis. Continue reading...

Singaporean prime minister Lee Hsien Loong says mutual recognition of vaccination certificates key to quarantine-free travelThe Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, and his Singaporean counterpart, Lee Hsien Loong, have confirmed students will be the first group to travel under a bubble arrangement to be established by the two countries, with Morrison stating it will happen “sooner rather than later”.Lee confirmed students would be the first priority following talks between the two leaders in Singapore on Thursday. Continue reading...

Police issue warnings as loyalists march along Shankill Road on eve of G7 summitWarnings have been issued by police after thousands of people gathered in west Belfast to protest over the Northern Ireland protocol.Loyalists gathered in Woodvale on Thursday evening to stage a demonstration and a parade then took place along the Shankill Road. Continue reading...

The destroyer Sahand and the intelligence-gathering vessel Makran departed last monthAn Iranian destroyer and support vessel are now sailing in the Atlantic Ocean on a rare mission far from the Islamic Republic, Iran’s state TV has reported, amid speculation that the ships could be bound for Venezuela.The destroyer Sahand and the intelligence-gathering vessel Makran departed last month from Iran’s southern port of Bandar Abbas, said Adm Habibollah Sayyari, Iran’s deputy army chief, on Thursday. He described the mission as the Iranian navy’s longest and most challenging voyage yet, without elaborating. Continue reading...

At least 1bn doses due from G7 but campaigners say package does not address structural problems

Boris Johnson’s guests are set to enjoy buttered rum, an indoor rainforest and a beach barbecue with local sea shantiesSea shanties, buttered rum and toasted marshmallows on the beach: away from the tense negotiations at this weekend’s G7 summit, Boris Johnson is hoping to give the assembled leaders a taste of Cornwall at its laid-back best.Emmanuel Macron hosted the 2019 G7 summit in Biarritz, but Johnson’s team believe the dramatic Cornish scenery can match the glitzy riviera resort – although not necessarily the balmy sunshine of the south of France. Continue reading...

Analysis: Mundane conflicts over sausage exports have no place in high-flown plans for new Atlantic charterWhatever precise pressure US diplomats put on Boris Johnson’s Brexit negotiator, Lord Frost, ahead of Joe Biden’s rather chaotic first photocall with Johnson at the G7 summit at Carbis bay, both sides were keen at their bilateral meeting to put the ugly genie back in the bottle.The US side claimed there was nothing it had been saying to the British in private about the sanctity of the Good Friday agreement that it had not said in public, adding there had been no presidential directive to the US embassy to heighten the issue via a demarche to Frost, a florid piece of diplomatic jargon of French origin normally reserved for something akin to Russian diplomats caught spying. Continue reading...