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Lively music video seeks to dispel concerns that vaccines might not be safe for older people or those with certain health conditions

But Prof Paul Kelly recommended suspending arrivals, citing ‘significant risk’ of coronavirus leaking from hotel quarantineAustralia’s chief medical officer, Prof Paul Kelly, has warned the government that citizens stranded in India face the prospect of serious illness without healthcare and a “worst-case scenario” of death from Covid under a controversial ban on travel to Australia.But given Australia’s “limited” quarantine facilities, Kelly recommended the government go ahead with its decision to suspend arrivals from India until 15 May, noting it would be the first time that such a determination had been used to prevent Australian citizens and permanent residents entering Australia. Continue reading...

Building an arts centre in Uganda, in a pandemic, was never going to be easy but it’s crucial to our post-Covid future

Authorities accused of ‘blackmailing’ workers over plan to make vaccine a condition of getting a job

Police have charged a man for the killing of Polikalepo Kefu, a lifelong advocate for the queer community across the PacificPolice in Tonga are investigating the death of one of the country’s leading LGBTQI+ activists after his body was found on a beach near his home in Tongatapu, Tonga’s main island.A 27-year-old man has been charged with the murder of Polikalepo Kefu, 41. Kefu, who was affectionately known as “Poli”, was the president of Tonga Leitis Association, an organisation dedicated to the country’s LGBTQ+ communities, providing support services, advocacy, and education on HIV-Aids. Continue reading...

René-Claude and Cyril, the two postmen serving Mafate, French Réunion, walk 90 miles of paths to deliver mail to residents on routes that can last daysThe Cirque de Mafate, one of three calderas on the French island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean, along with Cilaos and Salazie, is a valley more than 1,000 metres deep surrounded by huge cliffs and steep peaks which, for nearly two centuries, have been home to the descendants of the “maroons”, slaves who fled sugar cane plantations.The community of 700 Mafatais lives here, almost self-sufficiently, amid palm, banana and filao trees. But there are only two ways to get to the cirque: by foot or by helicopter. Continue reading...

Some blame new residents and second-home owners not keen on sight and sounds of ‘local’ vessels

Her words might have sounded tough to a domestic audience but in fact they’ll go down fine in ChinaJacinda Ardern’s Labour government is achieving something no other western country has done – staying on side with China. Her latest speech on relations with China once again shows the west how deft diplomacy is done – with a carefully choreographed message that reiterates New Zealand is not joining the western aggression against the country’s biggest trading partner, while at the same time voicing some necessary hard words about human rights abuses.The prime minister gave a highly anticipated keynote speech at the China Business Summit in Auckland on Monday, which clarified her government’s orientation to China following a controversial speech two weeks ago by the foreign minister, Nanaia Mahuta. Mahuta had said that New Zealand won’t simply follow the Five Eyes security alliance’s condemnation of China. Today, Ardern essentially endorsed Mahuta’s distancing from western allies, arguing her government would make its own decisions on how to communicate its concerns about human rights abuses. Then speaking in a Q and A session she used a sporting analogy, saying “I’m often asked which lane are we swimming in. We swim in New Zealand’s lane.” This is a very clear rebuff to the increasing pressure from western allies for her government to take a harder line. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Watchmen and V for Vendetta writer lands six-figure deal for fantasy quintet Long London and short story collectionTwo years after announcing that he had retired from comics, Alan Moore, the illustrious author of Watchmen and V for Vendetta, has signed a six-figure deal for a “groundbreaking” five-volume fantasy series as well as a “momentous” collection of short stories.Bloomsbury, home to the Harry Potter novels, acquired what it described as two “major” projects from the 67-year-old. The first, Illuminations, is a short story collection which will be published in autumn 2022 and which moves from the four horsemen of the apocalypse to the “Boltzmann brains” fashioning the universe. Bloomsbury said it was “dazzlingly original and brimming with energy”, promising a series of “beguiling and elegantly crafted tales that reveal the full power of imagination and magic”. Continue reading...

Many people have been running more in lockdown - but your route may now be wearily familiar. Here’s how to get the excitement back

All-party group on coronavirus gives recommendations on international travel for leisure, which could resume on 17 May

He was the inventor of ‘art brut’ who rebelled against his parents, his teachers and then art itself. Yet the impact of his wild provocative paintings, often culled from graffiti, can still be seen todayWhich great artist of the 20th century has been most influential on the 21st? Neither Picasso nor Matisse, as they have no heirs. And not Marcel Duchamp, however much we genuflect before his urinal. No, the artist of the last century whose ideas are everywhere today was a wine merchant who took street art and fashioned it into something extraordinary more than 75 years ago.After four years of Nazi occupation, you’d think Parisians would have been unshockable. But in 1944, the newly liberated city was sorely provoked by the antics of Jean Dubuffet. Even as the last shots were fired, he was creating newspaper collages bearing the fragmentary graffiti messages he saw in the streets: “Emile is gone again”, “Always devoted to your orders”, “URGENT”. In the next couple of years, he unveiled shapeless, childlike paintings that abandoned all pretence at skill. Continue reading...

3 May 1986: Mainland Europe experiences higher than normal radiation, with Poland, East Germany and Sweden bearing the brunt of contaminationBy dusk last night, every country in mainland Europe had experienced higher than normal radiation as a result of the Chernobyl disaster. Only the Iberian peninsula was still clear, as governments in East and West, having recovered from the initial panic, started to count the medium-term costs.Related: Radioactive Russian dust cloud escapes – archive, 1986 Continue reading...

Muhoozi Kainerugaba leads Special Forces Command, an elite military unit blamed for widespread abuses

PM Jacinda Ardern had previously said workers who declined to be vaccinated would be moved to other rolesNew Zealand’s customs agency has fired nine border workers who refused to get the Covid-19 vaccine. The country has required all frontline border workers to be vaccinated by the end of April.In February, the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said the government would not be making the vaccine compulsory for frontline staff, and that those who declined the vaccine would be moved into backroom roles. Continue reading...

Far-right group was deemed a terrorist entity in Canada in February with authorities describing group as ‘serious and growing’ threatProud Boys Canada, a far-right group that Ottawa named as a terrorist entity earlier this year, has dissolved itself, saying it has done nothing wrong, according to a statement by the organisation.In February, Canada said the group posed an active security threat and played a “pivotal role” in the deadly attack on the US Capitol in January by pro-Trump rioters. US authorities have charged several members of the Proud Boys in connection with the 6 January assault. Continue reading...

Prime minister has been coming under pressure from allies to take a tougher approach towards country’s largest trading partnerNew Zealand’s differences with China are becoming “harder to reconcile,” the prime minister Jacinda Ardern has said, as she called on China “to act in the world in ways that are consistent with its responsibilities as a growing power”.Ardern’s comments were made as New Zealand’s government comes under increasing pressure, both internally and from international allies, to take a firmer stance on concerns over human rights abuses of Uyghur people in China’s Xinjiang province. Last week, the Act party presented a motion for New Zealand’s parliament to debate whether the treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang constitutes genocide – a motion that Labour will discuss this week. Continue reading...

The attacks in Papua New Guinea may look like a barbaric relic from the past but have to do with poverty, inequality and the normalisation of violenceNews broke last week about the horrific attack on two women in Port Moresby after they were accused of sorcery.Senior leaders and police in Papua New Guinea expressed outrage that such violence was occurring in the nation’s capital. But as a researcher who investigates this type of attack, these stories are frustratingly familiar and predictable. Continue reading...

Misidentification of women as offenders has far-reaching effects, especially for First Nations women, research showsAlmost half the women murdered by an intimate partner in Queensland had previously been labelled by police as the perpetrator of domestic violence, research shows.As the Queensland police again reckon with the brutal consequences of family violence – the deaths of Gold Coast women Doreen Langham and Kelly Wilkinson, who both repeatedly sought help – they have acknowledged and pledged to address systemic failings in their response. Continue reading...

Global heating is now setting the parameters of political debateThese are heady days to be a German Green. Last month, Die Grünen chose 40-year-old Annalena Baerbock as their candidate for chancellor in September’s federal election. Since then there has been a huge influx of new members excited by the prospect of what is shaping up to be a generational shift in the country’s politics. According to the latest polls, the party is either fighting for first place with or is ahead of the Christian Democratic Union, which is mired in Covid-related difficulties, including a corruption scandal and dissatisfaction at the slow rollout of the vaccination programme.There have been green awakenings in the past which proved ephemeral. In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster 10 years ago, the party enjoyed a historic surge in support, only to slump disappointingly at the 2013 election. This time feels significantly different. The Greens already form part of coalition governments in 11 of Germany’s 16 states. Their poll ratings have comfortably eclipsed those of the centre-left Social Democrats over the past 12 months, and a pragmatic leadership has been careful to court the political mainstream on foreign policy issues such as commitment to Nato. One striking survey for a German business magazine found that more company executives preferred the idea of Ms Baerbock as the next chancellor to the 60-year-old Armin Laschet, the somewhat lacklustre CDU candidate. Continue reading...

Dominic Raab says he wants to turn page on Brexit saga and treat EU with respect it deservesThe government has hinted that it will grant full diplomatic status to the EU ambassador to the UK, with the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, saying he is looking to turn the page on the Brexit saga and wants to treat the EU with the respect it deserves.UK officials said no final decision had been made, days before the EU external affairs chief, Josep Borrell, visits the UK this week for a meeting of the G7 foreign and development ministers. The EU normally attends meetings of the G7, but the Foreign Office made no mention of Borrell in advance briefings, referring only to guest visitors from the foreign ministries of South Korea, Australia, India and South Africa. A representative of the Asean group of 10 south-east Asian countries will also attend. Continue reading...

Ciaran Martin criticises post-Brexit attempts to ‘redesign’ UK based on old notion of English sovereigntyThe United Kingdom’s unity faces being destabilised by “flag-waving unionism” from English nationalist politicians, one of the most senior officials to emerge from Northern Ireland’s traditionally Catholic community has warned.Ciaran Martin, who created the framework for Scotland’s 2014 independence poll as the Cabinet Office’s constitution director, said the “complex identities” of Northern Ireland faced being undermined by post-Brexit attempts to “redesign” the British state based on “a narrow 17th-century notion of English sovereignty”. Continue reading...

As it marks 100 years since its foundation, a look at how the region is doing in education and jobsOne hundred years to the day after its foundation on 3 May 1921 Northern Ireland, on paper at least, is outdoing the rest of the United Kingdom on many metrics.The UK’s smallest country has seen the lowest unemployment rate on the British Isles for six consecutive quarters, reaching a record low in late 2019; pre-Covid tourism was booming ; and it has the highest levels of wellbeing in the OECD. Continue reading...

Plea comes five days after police community support officer was found dead near home in Kent

The ‘coronapas’ has enabled places such as bars, restaurants and museums to welcome people back

Disagreements centre on firm controlled by Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley’s brotherSports Direct is in talks with tax authorities in the European Union that could lead to settlements related to a controversial deal between billionaire founder Mike Ashley and his brother.Documents filed at the high court reveal that Sports Direct, since renamed Frasers Group, came under scrutiny in Ireland, France and Finland, over an arrangement that involved it paying VAT in the UK on all of its sales to customers overseas over a seven-year period. Continue reading...

Dr Chahat Verma saw five patients die in a day as India’s Covid crisis overwhelms hospitals

Midnight in Cairo tells how the city’s vibrant nightlife was driven by female cabaret entertainers and club entrepreneursThe birth of the women’s movement in Egypt is not usually associated with music hall singers, dancers and actresses. But it was on the stages of theatres and nightclubs in Cairo, in the roaring 20s, that early feminists first asserted themselves, a new book will argue.The capital’s biggest stars were independent, transgressive Arabic-speaking women who, in the 1920s, were seeking to redefine their place in the world, according to Raphael Cormack, the author of Midnight in Cairo, out on 6 May. Continue reading...

Foreign secretary says he has ‘no idea’ if claim is true and he will not comment on ‘tittle-tattle’Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, has said he does not know if a Conservative donor was asked to pay for Boris Johnson’s childcare costs, amid new allegations of undeclared donations and loans to fund the prime minister’s lifestyle.Following reports that Johnson sought payments from a donor to help pay for his one-year-old son’s care, Raab told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “I have no idea, you don’t have conversations like that with the PM. I can’t comment on every little bit of gossip that’s in the newspapers. The last thing you asked me about, I think, is an example of tittle-tattle.” Continue reading...

Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s mix of bluntness, defiance and appeals to far-right voters appears set to pay offThe late lunchers who linger over coffee and wine on the terraces of Calle Ponzano, Madrid, sit beneath banners bemoaning the neighbourhood’s noise levels and among posters bearing the capital’s most ubiquitous face.From the windows of many of the bars and restaurants that line the bustling street – and from the walls of metro stations across they city – stare the eyes of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, regional president of Madrid, scourge of Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist-led coalition government, and unofficial patron saint of a hefty proportion of the region’s hospitality industry. Her campaign posters and letters feature little more than her image and the single word libertad. Freedom. Continue reading...

For all the standing ovations, Hollywood roles and parties with stars, nothing beats the rough and tumble of real life for actor Rafe SpallThe play was going well. It was going very well, a Broadway production of Pinter’s Betrayal, starring Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz as a married couple and Rafe Spall as her lover – the last thing Mike Nichols directed before he died. It was a hit; so much so that one night Madonna invited the cast round for dinner. “So I went to dinner,” says Spall.He is telling the story with relish, leaning into his laptop camera as if we’re slightly pissed on a Sunday and our families have drifted off to watch telly. “And Madonna was dressed as Madonna, a gold grill and fingerless gloves. I was feeling quite confident, because I’ve just done the show and I was like, I’m going to pretend to Madonna that I’m not scared of her.” After dinner the tables were pushed to the side to make a dancefloor, “and Lourdes is on the iPad playing tunes. So I started dancing and Madonna came up and started, well… grinding me. Very close. I suppose ‘dutty wining’ would be the phrase? My wife was there… [actor Elize du Toit, they’ve been married since 2010, three kids, recently moved from London to Stroud] And she looked at me like, ‘The fuck?’ My torso was pouring with sweat. And in my mind I was saying, don’t back down. So I looked her in the eye and said to myself, ‘Yeah, this is me.’” Soon after, a dance circle formed. “With Madonna on a literal throne. And all of the dancers from her tour were in a circle around her. And she said, ‘Rafe, get in the circle!’ So I was like, ‘Don’t back down, this is you.’ So I got in the middle of the circle of Madonna and the best dancers in the world. And I danced in there for three minutes.” Continue reading...

Misogyny, bigotry and threats ‘cut public trust in critical media’, warns report after major investigationAn epidemic of online violence against female journalists worldwide is undermining their reporting, spilling over into real-life attacks and harassment, and puts their health and professional prospects in jeopardy, the UN has warned.The avalanche of misogynistic abuse and threats is not only damaging women working in media, it is also weaponised “to undercut public trust in critical journalism and facts in general”, a report commissioned by the UN’s cultural agency Unesco has found. Continue reading...

Focus on vaccines and tests has been obscuring the need for oxygen in low- and middle-income countries

Virus will overwhelm health services across South America, Asia and Africa unless world leaders take urgent action

Roc Sandford lives alone on Gometra, his own island. He tells of his fears for his family, and the future of all childrenIn the past year, Roc Sandford has left the tiny Scottish island which is his off-grid home only once, to get a Covid vaccination. The rest of the time he has been alone with the birds, sheep and open skies.His days are busy but evenings can be lonely; cooking for one is “very sad”, he says. At the moment, he is enjoying some wine sent by a friend, eking out the six bottles by sipping from a thimble-sized glass. Despite his commitment to a close-to-zero carbon footprint, he misses socialising with friends and family. “I work very hard and very productively in this beautiful, beautiful natural environment, without the compromises one has to make elsewhere. But I can’t go to the pub.” Continue reading...

The president has an imperial view of France’s place in the world yet he is level-pegging with Marine Le Pen in the pollsNews of the death of Napoleon Bonaparte in exile on St Helena, 200 years ago this week, did not reach London until July, 1821 – but the press reacted swiftly. “Thus terminates the most extraordinary life yet known to political history”, the Times declared.France’s deposed emperor, who seized power in a 1799 coup and was finally defeated at Waterloo in 1815, was a “destroyer of the rights of nations … [who] extinguished liberty in France and had no hold upon his subjects but their love of military glory,” it said. Continue reading...

Green and CDU party leaders pick their sides in race to replace Merkel as chancellorAfter German federal elections in September, Europe’s largest economy is likely to be led either by a human rights champion sending steely messages to Russia and China, or a dovish politician who wants Vladimir Putin to be given more respect.Surprisingly, the former hails from a Green party founded by peace activists during the cold war arms race, and the latter chairs a conservative party that traditionally sees itself as America’s most loyal ally in German politics. Continue reading...

Plan for sales levy on public services and food sees huge demonstrations end in violence, burning of buses and lootingThousands of Colombians have taken to the streets for International Workers’ Day marches and protests against a government tax reform proposal, in a fourth day of demonstrations that have resulted in at least six deaths.Unions and other groups kicked off marches on Wednesday to demand the government of president Ivan Duque withdraw the proposal, which originally imposed sales tax on public services and some food. Continue reading...

Subsidy will increase to up to 95% for families with two or more children aged five and under

Joe Biden made a ‘big blunder’ by telling Congress that North Korea posed a security threat, foreign ministry saysNorth Korea has accused US president Joe Biden of pursuing a hostile policy against it and warned of a response that could leave the US “in a very grave situation”.In a series of statements by the foreign ministry on Sunday, North Korea branded US diplomacy “spurious” – a day after the Biden administration said it was open to diplomatic negotiations on denuclearisation. Continue reading...

WA premier Mark McGowan says there will be no coronavirus lockdown ‘at this point’The Western Australian premier, Mark McGowan, says a hotel security guard and two of his housemates have tested positive for coronavirus.But he says there is no need at this stage for another lockdown, although that may change by Sunday. Continue reading...

Saturday’s news on Covid developments around the world

Police in Paris fire teargas as protesters in trade union-led march smash windows of bank branchesThousands rallied on Saturday across France and Spain to hold May Day rallies in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic as police scuffled with protesters in Paris and fired teargas.A police source told AFP that far-left “black bloc” protesters had repeatedly tried to block the trade union-led march in the French capital, with 34 people detained. Continue reading...

The premier says it is ‘increasingly likely’ his party will win 13 out of 25 seats, as Labor concedes defeatThe Liberal party is on the brink of an unprecedented third straight election win in Tasmania, with the premier, Peter Gutwein, declaring he expected to command a majority in the state’s parliament.By late Saturday night, the Liberals had won at least 12 seats in the state’s 25-seat parliament. Labor had at least eight seats and the Greens two. Three seats were undecided, but the government was favoured to claim an additional MP in the Hobart-based electorate of Clark. Continue reading...

It’s not always clear what sort of mental health care is the right care. What can you expect from different levels of care, and where can you find it?Between the GP and the emergency department, there are many different mental health care options but it’s not always clear which will best suit any person’s individual needs.As the majority of respondents to Guardian Australia’s reader callout told us about their interactions with the mental health system, the system is very complex and hard to navigate, with confusing options for different types of care. Trying to find the appropriate care was often trial and error and time-consuming. Continue reading...

The continent is already reeling from the pandemic’s economic impact – but now officials fear it could suffer India’s fate

Clashes erupted as riot police in Belgium used tear gas and water cannon to disperse revellers at an illegal party in Brussels' Bois de la Cambre park.The event, dubbed 'La Boum 2', was a sequel to the fake festival arranged as an April Fools' Day joke at the same park on 1 April – and was held in defiance of the government's Covid-19 restrictions. A collective called 'L'abîme Team', the organiser of the event on social media, unsuccessfully tried to seek permission for the gathering, local media reported.On 23 April, Belgium pressed ahead with plans to allow restaurant and cafe terraces to reopen on 8 May despite warnings from health officials that hospital saturation was starting to resemble that of Italy at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. From 8 May, up to 50 people will be also allowed to attend an outdoor event. More than 23,000 people out of in Belgium's 11 million population have died of Covid-19, with about 3,500 daily infections Continue reading...