Redfern bar shakes like the hull of a ship as devoted community comes back together after year apartOver the past year, various members of the Redfern Shanty Club found different ways to cope. Robert Boddington, with his thespian’s voice and easy stage patter, gathered a few friends and tried to sing in public places, “just turning up in the dead of night and quietly singing away”. Robin Howard says he got “the shakes”. Emma Norton, a train driver with a soaring Celtic voice, says: “I sang to myself a lot, I guess.”On Monday night, as restrictions in Sydney were almost completely lifted – with relaxed caps on capacity in bars, and no limits on singing – this devoted and joyous community finally returned to their favourite weekly ritual. Continue reading...

Number of patients in intensive care in France near to numbers reached in autumn 2020; state leader pushes back after Merkel criticism of inaction

Thursday: MP’s former branch secretary says she is surprised complaints ‘didn’t happen sooner’. Plus: joy as the giant Ever Given refloatedGood morning. Scott Morrison has reshuffled the cabinet to elevate a female “perspective” but the government is still dealing with complaints about the Queensland MP Andrew Laming. There are concerns for Brisbane businesses facing a snap lockdown coinciding with the end of jobkeeper. The trial for George Floyd’s alleged murderer has begun and cargo is finally flowing again through the Suez Canal.Andrew Laming’s former branch secretary Suzi Foster says she is surprised it has taken so long for complaints against the MP to be made public, given his history of making constituents “uncomfortable”. The comments come as Laming defended his online behaviour as being “re-invented into harassment”. Foster says concerns had been raised about Laming’s “erratic” behaviour from 2016. “What has been alleged doesn’t surprise me. I’m just surprised it didn’t happen sooner,” she said. Laming has taken a month’s paid leave to undertake courses in “empathy and appropriate communication” but experts have warned there’s no quick fix for improving empathy. Continue reading...

George Floyd's family and attorneys gathered outside the heavily-barricaded court house before former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin went on trial Monday.'They can't sweep this under the rug,' said Philonise Floyd, George Floyd's brother, to reporters. Philonise and other speakers spoke about the video that showed Chauvin's knee on Floyd's neck that would be brought as evidence during the trial

Ernesto Araújo’s resignation ends the most calamitous chapter in the history of the country’s diplomacy, critics sayJair Bolsonaro’s ultraconservative foreign minister has resigned after a rebellion from diplomats and lawmakers who accused him of demolishing Brazil’s international reputation and putting Brazilian lives at risk by vandalizing relations with China and the US during the coronavirus pandemic.Ernesto Araújo, a 53-year-old career diplomat famed for his bashing of Xi Jinping’s China and devotion to Donald Trump, tendered his resignation on Monday, ending what critics call the most calamitous chapter in the history of Brazilian diplomacy. Continue reading...

Analysis: the trial over the killing of George Floyd may be a bellwether for racial justice, but the prosecution will focus on one man’s actionsFor all the many thousands of protests around the world, the global reckoning on racism and policing prompted by the killing of George Floyd last May, prosecutors were clear that their case in the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin would be centered around a period of time lasting less than 10 minutes.Nine minutes and 29 seconds. The total time that Chauvin held his knee to George Floyd’s neck, leaving him “pancaked”, in the words of prosecutor Jerry Blackwell, between the ground and Chauvin’s body, gradually asphyxiating him to death. Continue reading...

China and Canada have clashed repeatedly in recent months over Beijing’s treatment of its Uighur minorityA Chinese diplomat has dismissed Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau as a “boy” in a social media attack marking a new low in the fractured relationship between the two countries.China and Canada have clashed repeatedly in recent months, and last week the two countries imposed sanctions on each other in a growing row over Beijing’s treatment of its Uighur minority. Continue reading...

Councillor would become city’s first black leader and first female mayor if she wins vote

Salvage teams and strong tides help to refloat vessel that had blocked key trading arterySalvage teams succeeded on Monday in freeing a massive container ship that had been stuck in the Suez canal for the past seven days, blocking billions of dollars’ worth of cargo from crossing one of the world’s busiest marine waterways.Insurers, the shipping industry and the thousands of businesses reliant on container goods were still counting the cost of the accident as traffic resumed in the evening with more than 367 vessels, carrying a vast range of items from crude oil to cattle, waiting to cross. Continue reading...

Dr Rochelle Walensky, the CDC director, notes new US cases are now at about 70,000 a day

Stuck container ship triggered people with fear of ships and sea wreckage and megalophobia, the fear of large objectsWhen Grace Gibson was texted a picture of the giant container ship Ever Given stuck in the Suez canal, she clenched.The image – of the gargantuan vessel wedged sideways into the canal – and the lone excavator working to free it – struck most as absurd. Against the massive underbelly of the ship, the equipment looked tiny. But for Gibson, a 26-year old Angeleno, it immediately evoked discomfort. Continue reading...

Masters of Foxhounds Association launches inquiry as police examine activities of Quorn Hunt members

At least seven people are dead and up to 60 unaccounted for after an ambush by Islamist militants on a convoy in northern Mozambique on Friday.On Wednesday, the insurgents had targeted the northern town of Palma, where many foreign contractors work for a multibillion-dollar liquified natural gas project run by the French energy company Total, attacking local people and hotels sheltering foreign workers

Analysis: experts split on whether easy access to porn has fuelled sexual harassment, abuse and assault among young peopleThe harrowing reports of sexism and assaults in schools detailed on the everyonesinvited.uk website has fuelled concerns of a “rape culture” in educational settings.The disclosures have raised concerns that easy access to pornography is part of the problem. Continue reading...

Jobkeeper was announced at the start of the Covid pandemic as a lifeline to stop employers losing staff due to the economic losses of the crisis. Now that jobkeeper has ended, economist Richard Denniss joins the podcast to explain how its removal will affect AustraliansYou can read more from Richard Denniss here Continue reading...

Results show increase in self-diagnosis accuracy after participants searched for advice onlineThat throbbing headache just won’t go away and your mind is racing about what may be wrong. But Googling your symptoms may not be as ill-advised as previously thought.Although some doctors often advise against turning to the internet before making the trudge up to the clinic, a new study suggests that using online resources to research symptoms may not be harmful after all – and could even lead to modest improvements in diagnosis. Continue reading...

Attack on port town of Palma has forced hundreds of people to flee amid fierce fightingThe Islamic State has claimed responsibility for an attack on a town in northern Mozambique last week that forced hundreds of foreign contractors to flee amid fierce fighting.Local police and soldiers were reported to have secured control of most of Palma on Monday, after hundreds of Islamist insurgents who overran the small port last week withdrew to surrounding forests and fields leaving a trail of devastation. Continue reading...

EU rules post-Brexit limit UK nationals to maximum 90-day stay per 180 days

Marc Feren Claude Biart was betrayed by failing to hide his distinctive tattoos in the clip

Singer experienced psychotic episode in May 2019 after she thought concert had gone badlyA young and talented singer was found dead in hospital after suffering a severe mental health episode following a concert, which she thought had gone badly, an inquest heard.Mina Topley-Bird, 24, the daughter of the trip hop musician Tricky and vocalist Martina Topley-Bird, was discovered dead at West Park hospital, Darlington, in May 2019, days after performing with her band in Newcastle upon Tyne. Continue reading...

Singer collaborated with streetwear label MSCHF to create the shoes, will be limited to 666 pairs, retail at $1,018 and contain ‘one drop of human blood’Nike has denied involvement in an announcement by the singer Lil Nas X that he will release custom-made “Satan shoes”, sneakers which contain a drop of human blood.The singer collaborated with streetwear label MSCHF to create the shoes, which are modified Nike Air Max 97s and feature a pentagram pendant and a reference to a Bible verse, Luke 10:18 – “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven”. Continue reading...

Caffeine is a stimulant, protein helps muscle recovery, and thousands of people are posting online about combining the two for a sludgy beige take on breakfast

US and EU lead international condemnation of violence against protesters by junta on SaturdayWashington has announced the immediate suspension of all US trade engagement with Myanmar until the return of a democratically elected government, a day after the president, Joe Biden, condemned the killing of peaceful protesters as “outrageous”.The move comes as the US and EU led international condemnation of the violence perpetrated by the junta in Myanmar on Saturday, when more than 100 people – including several children – died in the bloodiest day since the military coup two months ago. Continue reading...

Landlords showed ‘staggering lack of concern’ by failing to order checks after being warned about dangerous cladding

Tearful scenes in Birmingham park as couples and grandparents and grandchildren meet for first time in months

The vastly popular Colombian singer is challenging outdated views of women in Latin pop – but her naive racial politics have sparked controversyI catch Colombian singer Karol G in a rare moment of calm, while she is in a car on her way to a hotel. She has just landed in New York to film a music video, but home is Miami, she clarifies, the engine humming in the background. “I love it there because there are so many Latinos!”Born Carolina Giraldo Navarro in Medellín, Karol G, 30, is one of Latin America’s biggest pop stars, an expressive performer who uses beautiful hooks for lyrics that explore female desire and sexual agency – a rarity in the male-dominated Latin music scene, where, she says, women have historically been treated like “products”. Continue reading...

Islamist militants attacked the town of Palma last week, and dozens are still missing after a hotel siege and convoy attackThe first that people in the Mozambican city of Palma knew of the attack by Islamist militants was the sound of gunfire that erupted at 4pm on Wednesday afternoon.A focus of natural gas development in the Indian Ocean, the town, located close to the border with Tanzania, was under sustained attack from two directions by the Isis-affiliated al-Shabaab group, who have mounted a campaign of escalating terror in the northern Cabo Delgado region. The group does not have any known connection to Somalia’s jihadists of that name, and have been active in Cabo Delgado since 2017, but their attacks have become much more frequent and deadly over the past year. Continue reading...

Chancellor complains her government does not yet have power to impose national lockdown

At least five people seriously injured and about 1,000 residents evacuated, as Greenpeace calls for investigationA massive fire has broken out at one of Indonesia’s biggest oil refineries after an explosion turned the sprawling complex into a raging inferno.Firefighters battled to contain the fire at the Balongan refinery in West Java, operated by the state oil company, Pertamina, as towering plumes of black smoke rose into the sky. Continue reading...

Game of Thrones author also has a Netflix film on the way, but there is still no word of his finishing the fantasy series that made his name

In her new book, Kate Lebo experiments with tricky fruit. Here she explains the best ways to ensure that even nature’s tartest, sourest offerings never go to waste

A vast container ship blocking the Suez canal in Egypt for almost a week has been partially refloated, but the vessel’s bulbous bow – or front end – is still stuck at the canal’s edge.Dredgers, excavators and tugboats worked throughout the weekend fighting changing wind conditions and the tide to dislodge thousands of cubic metres of sand caked around the 400-metre-long Ever Given ship, managing in the early hours of Monday to first move it, then pull it free. Further tugging operations will resume once the tide rises later on Monday

Here we all are, mired in the worst reality TV show ever, Blokes Being Reprehensible at Your Expense, with a twist everyone can see comingIncredible, really, (and yet crushingly predictable, somehow) that Andrew Laming would have the audacity to make an appeal for privacy while finding the time to front his local radio station and dish some alternative “facts” about unsavoury incidents that have forced him to signal time on his parliamentary career.Also incredible (and yet not, somehow) that the Nationals MP Anne Webster would need to make a formal complaint to the party leadership after being sexually harassed by a male colleague in the House of Representatives chamber (a public place last time I looked) during a week where the government was lurching from disaster to disaster. Continue reading...

Queensland reports four new local Covid cases of UK variant; two of the cases visited Byron Bay; Porter responds to cabinet move; Malcolm Turnbull in line to head NSW climate advisory board. Follow the latest

Two women who travelled to Byron Bay in NSW while infectious are among the four new local cases of the UK variant of coronavirus

Portuguese island’s ‘green corridor’ opens door to visitors even if they have not been vaccinated

Gulf state’s male guardian rules deny women right to wed, travel, work or to make decisions about their children, report saysWomen in Qatar are living under a system of “deep discrimination” – dependent on men for permission to marry, travel, pursue higher education or make decisions about their own children, according to a new report.Opaque rules on male guardianship leave women without basic freedoms, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), which has analysed for the first time the way the system works in practice. Continue reading...

Shift surprises ABC during its attempt to stop commonwealth from automatically closing court proceedingsLawyers for the federal attorney general have flipped their position on secrecy in the Witness K case by abandoning a push to automatically close the court whenever sensitive material is raised.The government’s previous stance had wasted “considerable time and expense” for Australian Broadcasting Corporation lawyers who were preparing to intervene to keep the case as open as possible, the ACT magistrates court heard on Monday. Continue reading...

Monday: Authorities race to contain a coronavirus outbreak in Queensland. Plus: Melbourne’s Rising festival promises you will get your hands dirtyHello, and happy Monday. It’s Imogen Dewey here, with updates about Brisbane’s growing Covid cluster, still more sexual misconduct allegations in parliament, and some big news about renewables.Australian health authorities are scrambling to track down contacts of two Brisbane friends who tested positive for coronavirus, amid fresh concerns about the outbreak growing. A third case was announced yesterday morning. NSW Health is contacting thousands who’ve returned from Brisbane in the past week, and you can see a list of possible exposure sites in Queensland. Continue reading...

At least 5,000 troops and police begin security operation to tackle growing threat from sleeper groupsKurdish forces in north-east Syria have begun a security operation inside al-Hawl detention camp in an attempt to eliminate Isis sleeper cells that have become increasingly active over the last few months.Around 5,000–6,000 Kurdish troops and Asayish security police, led by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) military, entered the camp on Sunday to conduct searches and arrests in what is expected to be a 15-day operation. Continue reading...

Leave campaigners behind project only won charitable status by vowing it would tell balanced story

Martin Hewitt says he wants to change ‘generations of history’ between police and black communitiesThe leader of Britain’s police chiefs has said forces’ legitimacy in black communities is so low it is damaging the effectiveness of law enforcement, as he vowed to change generations of strained trust and confidence.In his first interview about race since the Black Lives Matter protests of last year, Martin Hewitt said it was not a matter of “political correctness” or “wokeness” but an operational necessity to boost racial justice in policing. Everyday crime-fighting was being damaged, he said, with the issue of race being the continual fault line of British policing. Continue reading...

Australia has ramped up the practice of deporting people who commit crimes while living here on visas – a policy that’s seen deportations to New Zealand skyrocket.Reporter Ben Doherty explains the history of this policy, and how a series of recent controversies over deportations have pushed tensions between the two countries to an all-time high

Schools that fail safeguarding rules risk closure after sexual abuse allegations posted on Everyone’s InvitedSchools that fail to meet safeguarding standards for pupils could be forced to shut amid concerns over a “rape culture” in educational establishments.More than 100 schools have been named in harrowing anonymous testimonies on the everyonesinvited.uk website, which was set up to expose misogyny, harassment and assault and has also drawn attention to a lack of redress and support for many victims. Continue reading...

Blackburne House’s former chief executive says she ‘could have wept’ over soil pipes and uneven floorFor almost 40 years, Blackburne House has given a lifeline to thousands of Liverpool’s most vulnerable women. But its former chief executive has described how the charity fell victim to a “catastrophic” property deal that is embroiled in corruption allegations engulfing Liverpool city council.Claire Dove, who has been awarded a CBE, MBE, OBE and Queen’s lifetime achievement award for her work, had proposed to build an education centre but it went “very wrong” when the council brought in a developer to build the facility along with 132 apartments. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Michael Barton, who led Durham force, says government should show common sense after pandemicA former police chief has warned that new protest laws move Britain dangerously towards “paramilitary policing” and that UK ministers are “flexing their muscles via their police forces” like repressive regimes around the world.The warning from Michael Barton, the former chief constable of Durham comes as policing braces itself for a report expected within the next 48 hours after Metropolitan police officers were accused of heavy-handed tactics at a vigil on Clapham Common for Sarah Everard. Continue reading...

Analysis: As ships ballooned in size, worst-case scenario was flagged up by organisations such as OECD

Dutch Green Business, which plants trees for carbon capture, says ex-Ukip leader will ‘facilitate introductions’He has criticised Greta Thunberg for “alarmism” and wind power as “economic insanity” – but Nigel Farage appears to have made a U-turn on climate change, after signing up as a lobbyist for a Dutch green finance firm, in his first commercial role outside frontline politics.Dutch Green Business Group, which is listed on the Amsterdam stock exchange, said it had appointed Farage to its new advisory board. The eurosceptic and former Ukip leader will “facilitate introductions to politicians and business leaders in the UK and around the world” while also acting as a spokesman for the company, it said in a press release. Continue reading...

Grateful families flock to beaches and holiday accommodation as stay-local rule lifted in Wales

Exclusive: analysis finds nation has spent big on high-profile global sporting events in a bid to bolster its reputationSaudi Arabia has spent at least $1.5bn on high-profile international sporting events in a bid to bolster its reputation, a new report reveals.The oil-rich nation has invested millions across the sporting world, the report by the human rights organisation Grant Liberty says, from chess championships to golf, tennis and $60m alone on the Saudi Cup, the world’s richest horse-racing event with prize money of $20m. Continue reading...