An idling student enlists the help of a wideboy friend in pursuit of a hot date in a comedy that veers between likable and laddishHere is a vibrant, idiosyncratic portrait of Ghanaian youth, bursting with wisecracks and a boyish restlessness. There is an amateurish shakiness to the visuals, but the film overcomes this with a lot of charm and an innate understanding of its young subjects.Related: 20 best African films – ranked! Continue reading...

Talks between US secretary of state and Dominic Raab come as Britain cuts foreign aid to the sectorThe US secretary of state is to hold talks with his British counterpart, Dominic Raab, while the UK is on the back foot over plans to set new global targets to help girls’ education at a time when London is drastically cutting aid to the sector.Antony Blinken’s trip to London for the G7 meeting will include discussions with other foreign and development ministers on Tuesday and Wednesday. It is the first face-to-face meeting at G7 level for two years and foreign ministers from South Korea, Australia, India and South Africa will also be attending some of the talks. Continue reading...

Rai faces calls to apologise to Fedez over alleged attempt to silence his condemnation of homophobia

It’s not enough to have made good films, you can only have made good films. Whose back catalogue is truly flawless?

Boystown platform had membership of more than 400,000 international subscribersAn online platform said to be one of the largest websites hosting child sexual abuse images in the world has been closed down by German police after a lengthy investigation.The Boystown platform, which had a membership of more than 400,000 international subscribers and was active for almost two years, was accessible only via the darknet, a component of the wider internet for which special software is needed. It was used for the swapping and sharing of images and films, mainly of boys, according to investigators from Germany’s federal investigative police force (BKA). Continue reading...

Serbian commander in the Bosnian army during the war of 1992-95 who rejected sectarian nationalismThough an ethnic Serb, the military commander Jovan Divjak, who has died aged 84, was a popular figure in his homeland of Bosnia-Herzegovina – particularly among the Bosniak (Muslim) half of the population. When war came in 1992, he opted to fight for a civic, multi-ethnic Bosnia. Consequently for many Bosnians he personified the patriotic rejection of sectarian nationalism, a rejection on which they prided themselves.When Bosnia’s independence was internationally recognised in April 1992, the country was being engulfed by war, and its leadership needed to establish an army. The leadership of this fledging force reflected the country’s ethnic composition: its commander was a Muslim, its chief of staff a Croat and its deputy commander a Serb – Divjak. Continue reading...

Boystown platform had membership of more than 400,000 subscribersAn online platform said to be one of the largest child pornography websites in the world has been closed down by German police after a lengthy investigation.The Boystown platform, which had a membership of more than 400,000 international subscribers and was active for almost two years, was accessible only via the darknet, a component of the wider internet for which special software is needed. It was used for the swapping and sharing of pornographic images and films, mainly of boys, according to investigators from Germany’s federal investigative police force (BKA). Continue reading...

‘It felt like skinny-dipping,’ says singer Susanna Hoffs. ‘I ended up doing it for most of the album’In 1988, it felt like the Bangles had been touring endlessly. Our second album, Different Light, with the singles Manic Monday and Walk Like an Egyptian, had been released two years earlier. Now, finally, we could take a break from living on buses together. Continue reading...

The first ‘near-normal’ concert since Covid began took place in Liverpool on Sunday, with 5,000 giddy music lovers crowding into a festival tent with no masks and no social distancing

Country Milk’s trade with the EU has nosedived with the dairy industry particularly badly affected by new customs rulesA small error in the paperwork – a box ticked by mistake – and the tanker of butter oil was held at French customs for five days, with veterinary authorities at the border threatening to destroy it. The debacle nearly cost the tanker’s exporter, dairy company County Milk, a six-figure sum. After fraught negotiations, the cargo was eventually repatriated.“You don’t need too many of those to be destroyed and you are in dire straits,” says Phil Langslow, trading director at County Milk, the UK’s largest privately owned dairy ingredients business. Continue reading...

Speedboat carrying dozens of passengers crashed into vessel transporting sand in Padma River, say policeAt least 26 people were killed when a speedboat packed with passengers collided with a vessel transporting sand in the latest maritime disaster to hit Bangladesh.Police said the speedboat carrying about three dozen passengers from the town of Mawa rammed into the other vessel in the Padma River as it neared the main river station in the central rural town of Shibchar. Continue reading...

Infectious hits produced on a shoestring allow Zimbabwe’s aspiring musicians to express their struggles and dream big

The extreme use of a power most people didn’t know existed has generated a storm of criticism. We look at how it came about – and what happens next

Monarch says ‘continued peace’ is ‘credit to its people’ and speaks of ‘treasured memories’ of visits with PhilipThe Queen has said that “continued peace” in Northern Ireland is a “credit to its people”, in a message to the country to mark its centenary.She also spoke of the “treasured” memories she shared of Northern Ireland with the Duke of Edinburgh, who died, aged 99, last month. Continue reading...

Health minister joins Scott Morrison in defending ban; over-50s eligible for Covid vaccine

Landbridge says it is willing to participate in review of $500m lease but insists 2015 deal with Northern Territory was ‘in good faith’The Chinese company that operates the Port of Darwin has vowed to cooperate with the Morrison government’s review into any security risks from its long-term lease – but insists it struck the deal “in good faith”.The defence minister, Peter Dutton, confirmed on Monday that his department was reviewing the 2015 agreement between the Northern Territory’s then-Country Liberal party (CLP) government and the Landbridge Group. Continue reading...

Following 803 pregnant and postpartum deaths, authorities have warned women to delay pregnancy as alarm risesThis month should have been one of the happiest in Letícia Aparecida Gomes’s life. The pregnant 23-year-old Brazilian had been due to marry before delivering her baby, Elloah, in August.Instead, as the Covid-19 pandemic swept Gomes’s country claiming thousands of lives each day, she was taken to hospital having been infected herself. Continue reading...

Minister tells senators pause of rollout is ‘to get the construction right’ and future shape of assessments is ‘the subject of consultation’Linda Reynolds has confirmed the government will proceed with “some form” of independent assessments for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, after announcing a “pause” that raised advocates’ hopes the policy could be scrapped.Fronting a Senate estimates hearing on Monday, Reynolds, the new NDIS minister, and the NDIS agency’s chief executive, Martin Hoffman, were also grilled about a so-called “razor gang” aimed at slowing spending on packages and participant numbers. Continue reading...

Medical staff say their focus should remain on treating coronavirus patients rather than helping hold Games

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...