World news | The Guardian

Analysis: Despite warnings not enough has been done to stablise the country, the president has decided to set aside the rule ‘if you break it, you fix it’Joe Biden has decided that 20 years is enough for America’s longest war, and has ordered the remaining troops out no matter what happens between now and September.Biden’s withdrawal is one area of continuity with his predecessor, although unlike Donald Trump, this administration consulted the Afghans, US allies and its own agencies before announcing the decision. But both presidents were responding to a national weariness of “forever wars”. Continue reading...

Judge says collision into officers who had pulled over Porsche driver Richard Pusey on Eastern Freeway ‘shocked the public conscience’Truck driver Mohinder Singh has been jailed for at least 18 years and six months for hitting and killing four police officers on Melbourne’s Eastern Freeway.Singh was short on sleep and high on drugs when he crashed a 19-tonne semi-trailer into the officers who had pulled over Porsche driver Richard Pusey on 22 April last year. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Sharon Johal left the Australian soap last month but says she endured a ‘painful’ four years, alleging ‘direct, indirect and casual racism’ from fellow cast membersOne of Neighbours’ longstanding cast members has claimed she endured “direct, indirect and casual racism” on set, including racial slurs and mockery, saying the past four years starring in the long-running Australian soapie were “painful and problematic”.In a detailed 1,500 word statement provided to Guardian Australia, Sharon Johal said she tried to “deny, bury and ultimately survive” racist taunts allegedly from some of her colleagues. She also claimed that the television show’s production company, Fremantle Media, failed to take any effective action to rein in the alleged behaviour and left her feeling powerless, isolated and marginalised. Continue reading...

Exports will be phased out over two years as government says decision will uphold country’s ‘high standards of animal welfare’New Zealand will cease the export of livestock by sea following a transition period of up to two years, agriculture minister Damien O’Connor has said.“At the heart of our decision is upholding New Zealand’s reputation for high standards of animal welfare. We must stay ahead of the curve in a world where animal welfare is under increasing scrutiny,” O’Connor said on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Megaship that ran aground now caught in legal row between owners and Egyptian authorities reportedly seeking $900mTwo weeks after it was freed from the Suez Canal, the giant container ship Ever Given is once again stuck.This time however, the 220,000-ton megaship is not caught in the sand, but snared in a legal row between Egyptian authorities and the ship’s owners over the financial impact of the accident. Continue reading...

Monarch held ceremony for the retirement of her household’s most senior official, the Lord ChamberlainThe Queen has returned to royal duties, four days after the death of the Duke of Edinburgh, to mark the retirement of her household’s most senior official.The monarch held her first in-person event to host a ceremony at Windsor as William Peel formally stood down as Lord Chamberlain. The earl had overseen the arrangements for the duke’s funeral, known as Operation Forth Bridge. He had handed responsibility for the operation to his successor, former MI5 spy chief Andrew Parker, just a week before Prince Philip died at Windsor Castle. Continue reading...

Move to delay vaccine deployment in Europe comes after six blood clot cases detected among Johnson & Johnson jab recipients in US

Wednesday: Australia’s largest aged care provider still waiting for a Covid vaccination plan for its workforce. Plus: CSIRO’s junk food analyser delivers confronting resultsGood morning. It’s not good news on the vaccine rollout front as frustration grows for aged care workers waiting to get their jab in Australia. And the US, which had been vaccinating people at rapid rates, has hit a hurdle with some blood clot concerns around the Johnson & Johnson shot.Australia’s largest aged care provider, Bupa, has been left in limbo about its employees’ Covid vaccines six weeks into the rollout. It says it has yet to receive any plan from the government on when its workforce will be immunised, despite aged care staff initially supposed to be vaccinated as part of the highest priority cohort. Council on the Ageing chief executive, Ian Yates, sounded the alarm weeks ago. “Vaccination of the staff is really important to the Covid security of residents, and we are concerned that the vaccination of staff doesn’t seem to have a clear strategy at this point,” he said. Australia recorded its first Covid-related death since October after an 80-year-old man died in a Queensland hospital yesterday after returning from overseas. Continue reading...

Metropolitan police say man was spotted walking down the Mall by officers on patrolA man carrying an axe has been arrested near Buckingham Palace, police have said.Metropolitan police officers were on patrol when they spotted the man, believed to be in his forties, walking on the Mall in central London holding the weapon at about 6.30pm on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Police chief had said that officer Kim Potter meant to fire her Taser but fired her service weapon by mistake, killing the 20-year-oldKim Potter, the white Minnesota police officer who fatally shot the Black resident Daunte Wright during a traffic stop, and her chief of police, Tim Gannon, resigned on Tuesday.Their resignations come after two nights of protests in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center over Sunday’s killing of Wright, who was unarmed when he was pulled over for a traffic violation on Sunday. Continue reading...

Report looks at how police investigated Bruce McArthur’s ‘reign of terror’ and relationship between officers and LGBTQ+ communityThe hunt for a serial killer who preyed on gay men in Toronto was hampered by “serious flaws” in the police investigation – including the stereotyping of LGBTQ+ people by police officers and a lack of public trust – a new report has concluded.Bruce McArthur, who targeted men living on the margins of society, was given eight life sentences in 2019. But members of Toronto’s LGBTQ+ community had long feared that police ignored critical leads as he continued to kill. Continue reading...

Angela Rayner asks Tory London mayoral candidate to disavow Fair Tax Campaign’s ‘underhand tactics’Labour’s deputy leader has called on the Conservative party’s candidate for London mayor to condemn and dissociate himself from “underhand tactics” used by a secretive campaign funding anti-Sadiq Khan adverts online.Angela Rayner has written to Shaun Bailey asking him to confirm that he had “no interaction or coordination” with the Fair Tax Campaign, which has put out menacing attack ads. Continue reading...

Trial of 12 ‘openly Nazi’ men accused of planning a series of terror attacks opens in StuttgartThe trial of 12 men accused of planning a series of far-right terror attacks on asylum seekers, Muslims, Jews and politicians in an attempt to overthrow German democracy has opened in the city of Stuttgart.Gruppe S (Group S) was named after Werner S, a 55-year-old junk salesman, who is believed to have established it in 2019 and been its leader. He has described himself as a “free spirit with leanings towards National Socialism”. The like-minded men he brought to the group sought to trigger a situation akin to a civil war, according to federal prosecutors. Continue reading...

While the UK tries to contain the variant first found in South Africa, it is allowed to circulate unchecked elsewhere

Well-connected corporate lawyer is ‘supremely qualified’, but his close professional contacts are set to be scrutinised

Exclusive: Lukman Thalib says he struggles to recall what he said during ‘calculated’ tortureAn Australian public health professor alleges he told Australian consulate staff he was being tortured and held without charge they visited him in a Qatari prison, but says they did nothing to help.Biostatistician Prof Lukman Thalib, 58, was arrested at his Doha home and detained for five months without charge in Qatar, where he had been working as acting head of Qatar University’s public health department. Continue reading...

Most side-effects are mild and short-lived, and some groups are more likely to get them than others

Azaria, who is white, voiced the role of the Indian American shopkeeper from show’s inception in 1989 but stood down last yearThe actor Hank Azaria has apologised “to every single Indian person” for his portrayal of Apu in The Simpsons.Azaria, who is white, voiced the role of the Indian American shopkeeper from the show’s inception in 1989 but stood down last year amid criticism of racial stereotyping. He said he was willing to be held accountable for its “negative consequences”. Continue reading...

Charlie Harrison stopped Carl Abrahams ‘due to skin colour’ before attack in front of children, judge rulesA police officer jailed for picking on a black father because of his colour and attacking him in front of his children, is facing dismissal.A judge said PC Charlie Harrison, 39, targeted his victim – who was grieving for his dead partner – for a bogus stop because of his race, and then assaulted him. Continue reading...

Latest news: UK has 30m doses of the Johnson & Johnson product on order, but it has yet to be authorised; PM says ‘people have just got to understand’ the consequences of loosening restrictions

Exclusive: Kyaw Zwar Minn says he feels unsafe at London residence and family at home fear reprisalsMyanmar’s ousted ambassador to the UK has said that friends and relatives at home have been forced into hiding after the country’s military regime removed him from office for declaring his loyalty to the deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.In his first major interview after he was unceremoniously locked out of the embassy by his deputy last week, Kyaw Zwar Minn said he no longer felt safe at his north London residence and had contacted the police after members of his former staff delivered a letter ordering him to move out by Thursday. Continue reading...

Tehran responds as foreign minister accuses Israel of ‘bad gamble’ in targeting Natanz nuclear plant

Abd al-Rahman Milad, AKA Bija, is accused by UN of being directly involved in sinking migrant boatsLibyan authorities have released a man described as one of the world’s most wanted human traffickers, who was placed under sanctions by the UN security council for being directly involved in the sinking of migrant boats.The coastguard commander Abd al-Rahman Milad, known by his alias Bija, is suspected of being part of a criminal network operating in Zawiyah in north-west Libya. He was arrested in 2019 but was freed on Sunday after the military attorney general of Tripoli dropped charges against him “for lack of evidence”. Continue reading...

It’s easy to laugh at hardcore patriots misunderstanding Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA, but such appropriation is increasingly widespread – and dangerously twisting the truth“Did you know that Born in the USA is actually an anti-Vietnam war anthem?” Since Donald Trump embraced the 1984 Bruce Springsteen song during rallies, the lyrics have prompted so much explanation it now borders on cliche. Yet it’s no less unsettling for it, becoming a prime example of a startlingly widespread trend for the right wing to co-opt music about struggle and progress.President Ronald Reagan made the first attempt to gloss over the context of the song’s ironically upbeat chorus after the release of the Born in the USA album. Reagan name-checked Springsteen during a New Jersey rally in an attempt to connect the musician to a “message of hope” for America. Springsteen’s opposition to its use didn’t affect the fervour for the song from Trump and his supporters. As Barack Obama noted in an episode of his podcast series with Springsteen this month: “It ended up being appropriated as this iconic, patriotic song. Even though that was not necessarily your intention.” Continue reading...

Usman Khan joined prisoner rehabilitation breakout session just before his attack, lawyer saysA convicted terrorist told a prisoner rehabilitation conference that he was a reformed character who had turned away from the “wrong path” just minutes before killing two people in a knife attack, an inquest has heard.Usman Khan, 28, took part in a breakout session on individual “turning points” at London’s Fishmongers’ Hall in the hour before his deadly attack in November 2019, the barrister Catherine Jaquiss told the inquest jury. Continue reading...

The short style has gone in and out of fashion – and was particularly popular after a ruinous pandemic a century agoName: The bob.Age: Originated in the 1890s. Continue reading...

Nicola Sturgeon says ‘Covid is in retreat in Scotland’ as travel and outdoor rules eased

Exclusive: Opposition to force vote on investigation into Cameron and lobbying of ministersLabour is to force a binding Commons vote to establish a wide-ranging parliamentary inquiry into David Cameron and the Greensill lobbying scandal, saying the government cannot “mark its own homework”.It will propose setting up a new committee of MPs with the the power to ask witnesses to give evidence and face questioning – including Cameron himself and the cabinet ministers who were lobbied by the former prime minister, including the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, and the health secretary, Matt Hancock. Continue reading...

Essential Energy plane was conducting aerial inspections of the company’s electricity network prior to the crashTwo people have been killed after a light plane inspecting Essential Energy’s electricity network crashed north of Canberra.New South Wales police confirmed that emergency services were called to a paddock on a property in the small township of Sutton about 4.30pm on Tuesday afternoon following reports a plane had crashed. Continue reading...

Delight as Klassique, an African-Caribbean social hub in south London, reopens after lockdown

Holgate says she was ‘humiliated’ by prime minister Scott Morrison; man dies of coronavirus in Queensland. This blog is now closed

Media mogul writes from prison that ‘freedom of speech is a dangerous job’ but journalists must uphold justiceThe Hong Kong media mogul and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai has told his staff to “stand tall” in a letter from prison, days before being sentenced in two of several cases against him.Separately on Tuesday, his fellow activist Joshua Wong was sentenced to a further four months in jail, concluding another of the growing number of trials in a sweeping crackdown. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Boris Johnson’s ‘chumocracy’ is using Covid crisis to sell off health service by stealth, says Sir David King

From starring in the Luca Guadagnino series to releasing an album about identity, the 18-year-old star has enjoyed a lockdown like no otherOn a mid-afternoon in Atlanta, Georgia, Jordan Kristine Seamón is sitting at her desk, explaining her choice of bedroom decor. “That’s Buttercup from The Powerpuff Girls,” she says, gesturing behind her head. “That one is Jeanette from the Chipettes, I haven’t finished it. That’s Marceline from Adventure Time.” She cranes her neck. “Right there, you can barely see him, that’s Dexter from Dexter’s Laboratory. And that guy over there,” she points to the huge illustration hovering over her bed. “That’s a character from The Boondocks. My dad outlined it and I painted it.” She grins. “Something I like to do when I get very stressed and can’t handle the world is paint on my wall.”Related: The Guide: Staying In – sign up for our home entertainment tips Continue reading...

Black, Asian and ethnic minority women report being denied pain relief or feeling unheard to panel investigating mortality disparityFeeling manipulated into having medical procedures, dismissed by professionals and labelled with racial stereotypes are among the complaints of parents who responded to a national inquiry into racial injustice in UK maternity care.A panel established by the charity Birthrights is investigating discrimination ranging from explicit racism to racial bias and microaggressions that amount to poorer care. Continue reading...

Michela Wrong uses the murder of Patrick Karegeya to focus her case against Rwanda’s leader Paul Kagame in this fascinating investigationWhen Rwanda’s former intelligence chief was found strangled in a plush Johannesburg hotel room, there was only ever one real suspect. Patrick Karegeya spent years dodging assassination attempts evidently set in motion by his childhood schoolmate, Rwanda’s eternal ruler, Paul Kagame.Karegeya even had tapes of former intelligence colleagues plotting his death. For all that, the ex-spy master allowed himself to be tricked into attending his own murder on the last day of 2013. Far too many of Kagame’s former allies turned opponents have met untimely ends for the man who has dominated Rwanda since the genocide in 1994 not to be the prime suspect. But, as Michela Wrong’s engrossing and revelatory investigation reveals, Karegeya’s killing was of a different order. Continue reading...

The arrest of Watch Docs festival director Hatsura-Yavorskaya is a reminder of how much culture matters in authoritarian statesThe arrest in Belarus of the director of Minsk’s Watch Docs festival of nonfiction cinema is a reminder of how much culture workers matter in authoritarian states and at times of information deficit.On 5 April Tatsiana Hatsura-Yavorskaya’s home was searched by security forces, phones and computers were confiscated, and she was arrested. The ostensible reason was that she had co-organised (with Natalia Trenina and Yulya Semenchenko, who were also arrested but since released) an exhibition called The Machine Is Breathing, I Am Not about Belarus health professionals at the time of Covid-19. Continue reading...

Government could suffer high-profile defeat over five-year deadline proposed in overseas operations billPeers behind a cross-party amendment to halt plans to restrict prosecutions of torture and war crimes by British soldiers serving abroad are hopeful of inflicting a high-profile defeat on the government in the Lords on Tuesday.Related: The UK government is attempting to bend the rules on torture | Nicholas Mercer Continue reading...

Between accidents, disease and bad weather, farm animals are prey to so many disasters that dedicated professionals are called out to dispose of the casualties. It’s a grim task, and one that’s only getting more difficultOne bright morning in the middle of May, Ian Carswell’s tipper lorry came sliding to a halt in a Tenbury car park. It was a smallish thing with raw grey sides and nothing distinctive about it, the sort of truck that carries topsoil or aggregate all over the country.“Jump in,” said Carswell, leaning over and prodding open the passenger door. The cab smelled of lemon air-freshener and self-consciousness. He wouldn’t normally allow a passenger, and almost certainly wouldn’t be taking one now if the boss hadn’t told him to. Continue reading...

Faced with climate change, farmers in Jammu and Kashmir are switching from maize to essential oilsIt’s late June and the field is glowing with fragrant purple as the women in their flowing shalwar kameez arrive with scythes to harvest the lavender. In the 30-odd villages on the hilly slopes of Jammu’s Doda district, more than 200 farmers have shifted from maize to lavender production, starting a “purple revolution” in the region.The village of Lehrote had a moment of agricultural fame this year when a 43-year-old farmer, Bharat Bhushan, won a prestigious award for innovative farming from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, one of several institutions across the country looking to find ways of coping with the climate crisis and its devastating impact on farming. Lavender, a drought-resistant crop, can be grown on poor soil and likes lots of sun but needs little water. Continue reading...

Fall in usage and lack of step-free access on the classic front-engined doubledeckers cited as reasons for permanent withdrawalTransport for London has retired its iconic fleet of “hop on, hop off” Routemaster buses on the number 15 route, the capital’s last running heritage service.Citing reasons including falling ridership across the central London network and the lack of step-free access on the classic front-engined doubledeckers, TfL confirmed the service had been permanently withdrawn. Continue reading...

Muslims are adapting with smaller prayer groups, sanitation stations and fasts broken separately

Like Kardashian West’s filing, the rap and fashion mogul also agreed neither of them need spousal supportKanye West has agreed with Kim Kardashian West that they should have joint custody of their four children and neither of them need spousal support, according to new divorce documents.West’s attorneys filed his response Friday in Los Angeles superior court to Kardashian West’s divorce filing seven weeks earlier, which began the process of ending their six-and-a-half-year marriage. Continue reading...

French-owned Retirement Villages Group aims to spend £2bn across 40 locations over the next decadeA property developer owned by a French investment management group has announced an ambitious £2bn plan to build 5,000 retirement homes across 40 urban sites in the UK over the next decade.As town and city centres are being reshaped as a result of the changes to UK high streets accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic, Retirement Villages Group (RVG) said it had won planning permission for a £110m retirement community of 196 one and two-bed apartments to rent or buy in central West Byfleet in Surrey, on the site of a 1960s office block with shops and a car park, which will be knocked down. Continue reading...

Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince condemns government inaction and says violence by ‘armed gangs’ is now ‘unprecedented’The Catholic church has warned that Haiti is facing a “descent into hell” and condemned government inaction after 10 people, including seven members of the clergy, were abducted by kidnappers demanding $1m ransom.“For some time now, we have been witnessing the descent into hell of Haitian society,” the archdiocese of the capital Port-au-Prince said in a statement, adding that “violence by armed gangs” was taking on “unprecedented” proportions. Continue reading...

Essential poll finds Scott Morrison’s approval at lowest level in a year and approval of Coalition management of pandemic down eight points in a monthVoter approval of the Morrison government’s handling of the pandemic has dropped eight points in a month, and more than half of voters in the Guardian Essential poll sample think the Coalition needs to step up and take more responsibility for ensuring Australians are vaccinated against Covid-19 as quickly as possible.The latest survey of 1,368 voters suggests the government is in a vulnerable political position as it attempts to recalibrate the vaccination program, with just over half of respondents believing they are being vaccinated more slowly than they would like, and nearly a third (27%) of the sample feeling vaccinations are progressing a lot more slowly than they would like. Continue reading...

Labor urges Morrison government to extend the stay of temporary visa holders and expand sanctions against military figuresThe Morrison government faces fresh calls to allow more than 3,000 Myanmarese citizens to stay in Australia once their visas expire, amid fears about the dangers they face if forced to return home.With more than 600 civilians now estimated to have been killed in violent crackdowns by security forces since the 1 February military coup, Labor has written to Australian ministers to demand help for temporary visa holders and the expansion of sanctions against junta figures. Continue reading...

With coronavirus surging in Japan and internationally, this summer’s Games are a risky prospect

US intelligence sources believe Israel was behind Saturday’s cyber-attack on heavily guarded facilityThe cyber-attack on the heavily guarded Natanz plant in Iran will set back Tehran’s nuclear programme by nine months, US intelligence sources have claimed.Iran’s foreign ministry has blamed Israel for sabotaging Iran’s main uranium enrichment facility, and although Israel has not formally confirmed responsibility its officials have done little to dispel the notion. Continue reading...

Nesrine Malik’s columns | Ex-leaders compared | Love for Guardian letters | A mother’s placeYour columnist Nesrine Malik writes (11 April) that the pandemic has made her reflect wistfully on the bargain she made when she left Sudan to find success far from home. Nesrine’s columns, expressing subtle thoughts with admirable lucidity, have been something I’ve looked forward to reading all during lockdown. Perhaps we in her adopted country are not the audience she most longs for, but her eloquence has surely touched many readers.