The taoiseach, Micheál Martin, said impact of vaccines was being seen in hospitals, but people should continue to follow restrictions

In a video statement for International Women’s Day, the German chancellor said women were disproportionately affected

Catholic and Shia leaders strengthen dialogue between their faiths on first ever papal visit to the countryTwo of the most influential faith leaders in the world reached across a religious divide on Saturday to promote peace and unity in a historic meeting.Pope Francis, 84, the head of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, and Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, 90, the spiritual leader of most of the world’s Shia Muslims, talked for almost an hour during the first ever papal visit to Iraq, the pontiff’s first trip abroad since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Continue reading...

Christine Schraner Burgener says UN must put junta ‘on notice’ and stand with people of MyanmarMyanmar security forces used teargas and stun grenades to break up protests in Yangon on Saturday as a meeting of the UN security council was urged to take action to stop the killing of civilians.Myanmar has been plunged into turmoil since the military overthrew and detained the country’s elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi on 1 February, with daily protests against the coup and strikes that have choked business and paralysed administration. Continue reading...

BMA, Royal College of Nursing, Royal College of Midwives and Unison say pay recommendation ‘fails the test of honesty’The government is under mounting pressure to reconsider its proposed 1% pay rise for NHS staff in England, with four trade unions writing a joint letter to the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to express their “dismay” and calling for a fair pay deal.The British Medical Association (BMA), the Royal College of Midwives, the Royal College of Nursing and Unison said the pay deal “fails the test of honesty and fails to provide staff who have been on the very frontline of the pandemic the fair pay deal they need”. Continue reading...

Internal reports show projected cuts including 59% in South Sudan, 60% in Somalia and 67% in SyriaSome of the poorest and most conflict-ridden countries in the world will have their UK aid programmes cut by more than half, according to a leaked report of discussions held in the last three weeks among Foreign Office officials.The cuts include slashing the aid programme to Somalia by 60% and to South Sudan by 59%. The planned cut for Syria is reported at 67% and for Libya it is 63%. Nigeria’s aid programme would be cut by 58%. Continue reading...

The conversation, expected to draw millions of viewers, could mark the transition from royalty to Hollywood eliteIt may be an American coronation of sorts.When Oprah Winfrey’s highly anticipated and potentially explosive interview with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex airs in its primetime spot on Sunday evening, millions across the US are expected to watch. It will be the couple’s first interview since since stepping back from their royal duties in early 2020, but it could also mark the moment that the Sussexes evolve from British royalty to Hollywood elite. Continue reading...

Completing survey is vital to ensure access to health and care services, says Race and Health ObservatoryAn independent NHS body is urging black and minority ethnic communities to complete this year’s national census survey to help capture a more accurate picture of the overall health condition of households across England.The independent NHS Race and Health Observatory has called on minority ethnic communities to complete the online survey sent by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) by Sunday 21 March, or shortly after. Continue reading...

Aid groups warn of collapsed health system as traumatised people displaced by Islamist insurgency in Cabo Delgado seek helpThe insurgency in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province is causing a mental health crisis, with a quarter of the region’s population now displaced.People are struggling with untreated trauma after witnessing extreme violence, including mass beheadings, said humanitarian groups concerned about the strain on those who have sheltered dozens of displaced people in their homes. Continue reading...

Pontiff, 84, continues visit amid tight security and concerns about rising Covid infection ratesPope Francis has had a symbolic meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, one of the most senior clerics in Shia Islam, in Iraq’s holy city of Najaf.The historic meeting in Sistani’s home was months in the making, with every detail painstakingly discussed and negotiated between the ayatollah’s office and the Vatican. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Document produced by university cited agency as secret funder of researchFor an agency devoted to secrecy and surveillance, it is an embarrassing slip-up. An inadvertent disclosure on a university document has revealed that MI5 is partly behind what was meant to be a covert bug and drone research project.Ostensibly, Imperial College’s research was to create a quadcopter system for charging remote agricultural sensors – but MI5’s participation has emerged because somebody involved stated it was the secret second funder of the programme. Continue reading...

Published here exclusively in English, the Dutch writer responds to the controversy over their decision to resign as Amanda Gorman’s translatorNever lost that resistance, that primal jostling with sorrow and joy,

Exclusive: in Everything inhabitable, published in the Guardian, the Dutch writer responds to controversy over the decision to appoint a white translator to the black poet’s bookThe International Booker winner Marieke Lucas Rijneveld has written a poem responding to the controversy that broke out after they withdrew from the job of translating Amanda Gorman’s poetry into Dutch, writing that they took the decision because they were “able to grasp when it / isn’t your place”.Related: Everything inhabitable: a poem by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld Continue reading...

Robyn, 32, credit controller, meets Danny, 36, radio presenter/DJWhat were you hoping for?

Male suspect, 23, taken into custody after 48-year-old was pronounced dead at sceneA 23-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder in North Yorkshire.Officers were called to Mayfield Grove, Harrogate, just after 10pm on Friday and found the suspect in the street, North Yorkshire police said. Continue reading...

Tourism industry could not wait for clarity from Brussels about Covid-19 immunity certificates

Nationals MP says attorney general should seek independent inquiry into rape allegations

Two teenagers thrown out of cart, one woman run over and a man injured in accident at Lockhart Showground in RiverinaFour people have been taken to hospital after a horse drawing a cart bolted in a “freak accident” at a showground in regional New South Wales.Emergency services were called to the Lockhart Showground in the NSW Riverina region just after 11.30am on Saturday. Continue reading...

Another 30 injured in ‘cruel attack’ and death toll could riseTen people have been killed after a rickshaw loaded with explosives was detonated by al-Shabaab Islamists at a popular restaurant in Mogadishu.The three-wheeler rickshaw, fitted to carry a load on the back, had been packed with explosives when it hit the restaurant near the capital’s port, said Somali police spokesman Sadik Dudishe. Continue reading...

NSW police suspend search for Caddick’s remains in waters around her Dover Heights neighbourhood

Italy warns of rapid spread of new cases; WHO chief warns of third and fourth surges if curbs eased too fast

Nurses leaders set up industrial action fund as Tory MPs fear another U-turn by the governmentMinisters are on a collision course with millions of NHS staff as they insisted the country could not afford a more than 1% pay rise for health workers even as nurses leaders raised the prospect of strike action.The health secretary, Matt Hancock, on Friday insisted the decision to recommend such a small increase was due to an assessment of “what’s affordable as a nation” after the economic toll taken by the coronavirus crisis. Continue reading...

Welsh Guards sergeant fatally wounded at Castlemartin training area in PembrokeshireA sergeant in the Welsh Guards has died after being injured in a live firing exercise in south-west Wales.It is understood the incident, first reported by the Sun newspaper, occurred at the Castlemartin training area in Pembrokeshire. Continue reading...

MinterEllison’s chief, Annette Kimmitt, reportedly sent an all-staff email in which she apologised for ‘pain’ caused by representing attorney generalThe chief executive of the law firm representing Christian Porter is under fire after reportedly sending an all-staff email critical of the lawyer who took the case.On Friday the Australian Financial Review reported that Annette Kimmitt, the chief executive of Australia’s largest law firm, MinterEllison, had sent an email to the firm’s more than 2,500 staff saying she was sorry for any “pain” caused by the decision to take the attorney general as a client. Continue reading...

A person who tested positive for the Brazilian variant of Covid has been tracked down to Croydon and appears not to have infected anyone else, the health secretary said. Matt Hancock said the effort took a team of 40 people and was launched in an attempt to prevent the mutation, which is believed to be more transmissible and have greater resistance to vaccines, from spreading

After a turbulent two weeks in parliament, Katharine Murphy talks to Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young about her experiences in fighting toxic cultures in the workplace. They discuss the ways women in the spotlight can be supported, and whether the domino-like effect will continue Continue reading...

Rex Patrick calls on the government to reassess all social security debts ‘calculated unlawfully using averaging of payslips’The independent senator Rex Patrick has called for a sweeping review of Centrelink welfare debts, after the federal government was again rebuked at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal over its methods.The AAT, which reviews social security decisions, recently ruled in two decisions that debts imposed on two welfare recipients by Centrelink could not be upheld. Continue reading...

In this book extract, Steve Braunias describes a visit to the New Zealand home of the German internet entrepreneur who is fighting extradition to the USThis is the way the world ends: in a candy store. When I asked Kim Dotcom for his address in Queenstown so I could sit with him a while and interview him about his views on how to survive the coming apocalypse, he replied that he would send someone to collect me on a Thursday at 4pm at the Remarkables Sweet Shop on the main street in nearby Arrowtown. I got there early. It was a cold, fresh winter’s day, with black ice and low snow, and birds shivered in the trees above the pretty Arrow River. Tourists filled the candy store. I stood there lurking among the trays of Aniseed Twists and Cola Fizzballs. As soon as I stepped onto the pavement, a big black Mercedes pulled up. It was four o’clock on the dot.The rendezvous had come about because Dotcom got in touch after reading a story I wrote for The New Zealand Herald about preparing for Doomsday. “The end of the world as we know it is coming,” he emailed. “We are close, I think.” I thought so, too. I wrote a year-long series of stories about end days; the subject occupied my mind day and night, I was sleepless, worried, a wreck, but I fancied that I was also practical and methodical, and kept busy by laying down provisions and supplies to protect my family when the world spiralled towards Hell in a fiery and terrifying hat. Continue reading...

Cases could plateau at a point equivalent to summer 2020 peak, while vaccines have reached relatively few peoplePublic health experts encouraged Americans to continue social distancing and wearing masks at a potentially critical inflection point in the pandemic – one in which highly effective vaccines could provide relief, but fervor to reopen public life could unintentionally spread new Covid-19 variants.The warnings come the same week Texas and Mississippi flung open the doors to normal social life in their states. Continue reading...

Resurgence in gravity-defying dos follows Black Lives Matter movementThe intricate art of sculpted hair celebrating black identity is front and centre of British Vogue’s April issue. Made up of four different covers around the theme of “joy”, each edition features different models (Achenrin Madit, Precious Lee, Mona Tougaard and Janaye Furman) with their hair moulded into spherical, coloured balls.But the trend is not new. “In the 60s and 70s hair sculpture became part of the black consciousness movement,” says Prof Carol Tulloch, the author of The Birth of Cool: Style Narratives of the African ciaspora. “Gravity-defying hair creations contributed to the black is beautiful [ideology] and revelled in the beauty of black hair.” Continue reading...

Number of online ads surges after nationwide protests against jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei NavalnyRussia’s riot police have launched an online recruitment campaign in the weeks since nationwide protests erupted over the jailing of the Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.Police forcefully dispersed tens of thousands of people who took part in three protests in January and early February, when Navalny returned to the country from Germany and was later jailed for two and half years. Continue reading...

Decline wipes billions off Elon Musk’s fortune as investors fear firm is vastly overvaluedA sharp decline in Tesla’s share price has wiped more than $250bn (£193bn) off the value of the electric car company, and dragged down the value of an Edinburgh-based investment fund that is one of Tesla’s biggest backers.The shares dropped by 7.5% in early trading in the US on Friday to $575 – setting them on course to close down 16% this week and 35% below their record peak of $883 on 26 January. Continue reading...

Keith McLeay suggests the first minister’s successes are deserving of more recognition, John Warburton says the Scottish government is spending Scottish money, Adam Rennie argues that accountable parliamentary democracy is alive and well, and Liam Stewart addresses the use of ‘yous’Martin Kettle’s article on Rishi Sunak and Nicola Sturgeon (Nicola Sturgeon and Rishi Sunak were both playing for Scotland’s future, 3 March) was thoughtful, but he reinforces the oft-repeated UK media narrative that Sturgeon’s popularity during the pandemic is solely due to her presentational skills, in referring to “Sturgeon’s successful presentation of herself as Scotland’s national crisis manager”.Clearly she is a consummate performer, probably the best in the UK currently. However, given that England has a Covid-19 death rate that is significantly higher than Scotland’s, it is clear that Sturgeon has achieved a better outcome and saved many Scottish lives over the course of the pandemic. Continue reading...

Signs of pollution detected at burial sites but no water contamination, says environmental agency

In 2015, Nathalie Warmerdam was killed by an ex-partner. Now her brother Joshua Hopkins has teamed up with the author to write a song cycle highlighting such everyday atrocitiesFive years ago, Nathalie Warmerdam was murdered by her ex-partner in one of the worst cases of domestic violence in Canadian history. The 48-year-old was Basil Borutski’s third victim that day; he also killed two other former partners, Anastasia Kuzyk and Carol Culleton. Boruktski was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison in 2017.Warmerdam’s brother Joshua Hopkins, an acclaimed baritone, was rehearsing in Ottawa when he received the call. Continue reading...

Only ‘patriots’ will be allowed to stand for election and democratic representation will be reducedChina’s top lawmaking body has formally unveiled plans to ensure only “patriots” can govern Hong Kong, as Beijing tightens its grip on the city with electoral changes including a vetting process for all parliamentary candidates.In an annual “work report” delivered on Friday to Beijing’s most important political meeting, Premier Li Keqiang swore to “resolutely guard against and deter” interference by external forces, amid growing international alarm at Beijing’s attacks on pro-democracy voices. Continue reading...

High court makes ruling after Duchess of Sussex’s victory in copyright claim against paperThe Mail On Sunday must publish a front-page statement about the Duchess of Sussex’s victory in her copyright claim against the newspaper over its publication of a letter to her estranged father, the high court has ruled.Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), the publisher of The Mail On Sunday and MailOnline, has also been ordered to print a notice on page three of the paper stating it “infringed her copyright” by publishing parts of the letter sent to Thomas Markle. Continue reading...

Radu Jude’s provocative satire takes Golden Bear while Maren Eggert wins gala’s inaugural gender-neutral acting awardThe provocative Romanian film Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn has won the Golden Bear at the Berlin film festival, capping the truncated 2021 virtual edition of the event.Directed by Radu Jude, Bad Luck Banging is a satirical parable about a teacher who is put up before a tribunal after a sex tape is illicitly leaked on to the internet. In a three-star review, Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw described it as “a contemptuous slap at boredom, at hypocrisy and at everything petty and mean” and said it is about “our creeping suspicion that standard-issue human unhappiness will survive even when, or if, [Covid] is eradicated”. Continue reading...

US president has chosen to ‘recalibrate’ relations with Saudi Arabia, but some say a rupture is requiredIn late 2019, as Joe Biden stood on a debate stage and boldly vowed to make Saudi Arabia a pariah if he was elected president, a little-known former aide and Middle East expert was examining what exactly a “progressive” post-Trump stance towards the oil-rich kingdom might look like.Daniel Benaim, a policy wonk who had worked for Biden as a speechwriter, and for Hillary Clinton and John Kerry before that, first travelled to Saudi Arabia and then began interviewing dozens of Democratic and progressive policy experts to come up with a blueprint. Continue reading...

It is the simplest of comfort foods, but does the strawberry topping deserve its popularity? Which bread is best? And how should we punish those who get butter in the jar?Politically, it is said, Britain tolerates endless promises of jam tomorrow, never demanding jam today. But now the country has seized its own destiny – at least in the literal matter of jam.Rewind to 2019 and jam was over. Dying. In terminal decline. Jam was as cool as a tweeting a laugh-cry emoji about the state of Kings of Leon’s skinny jeans. But, during the pandemic, jam has enjoyed a dramatic revival. “Breakfast has been reborn,” trilled the Grocer magazine as it reported jam sales had increased in value by almost 23% last year. Continue reading...

DUP leader’s comments are latest salvo in party’s campaign to dilute or ditch Northern Ireland protocolArlene Foster, Northern Ireland’s first minister and leader of the Democratic Unionist party (DUP), has accused the EU of belligerence and inflexibility in its application of post-Brexit arrangements for the region.The EU commission was disrupting supply chains and damaging the Good Friday agreement through a “disproportionate” application of the Northern Ireland protocol, the part of the Brexit deal that keeps the region in the bloc’s single market, she said on Friday. Continue reading...

Star adds affability to his very particular set of skills to meet weekend punters for The Marksman at the AMC Lincoln SquareAs cinemas in the US start to reopen, distributors and exhibitors are hoping to coax audiences back in front of screens with promises of enhanced safety, unmissable movies – and a personal welcome from the stars.Liam Neeson will personally greet cinemagoers who go and see his latest action thriller, The Marksman, at the AMC Lincoln Square in New York’s Upper West Side before screenings on Friday. Continue reading...

I’d love to say I took it in my stride, but a 2% chance of something going wrong seemed a little highWhen I got a letter from our local hospital, inviting me to a telephone consultation with one of the urology team, I didn’t give the matter much thought. My kidney stone was no longer giving me any pain and I assumed it had either passed or had found its way into a place where it couldn’t do much harm. Big mistake as the consultant brushed aside my insistence that the hospital must be rushed off its feet with Covid cases and told me the stone was in an awkward place, the hospital had available beds and I needed urgent surgery to remove it. After that, things moved at remarkable speed and within a matter of weeks I was under the knife in a private hospital – the NHS had taken over some of its spare capacity – as a day case. I’d love to be able to say that I took it all in my stride, but the reality was that I was scared stiff. Principally because I had made the elementary error of asking if the procedure carried any risks and I didn’t find the 2% chance of post-op infection to be particularly reassuring. A one in 50 probability of something going wrong seemed rather on the high side. Still, I didn’t seem to have much choice – other than to completely ignore all the medical advice – and so I came out of the operating theatre minus a stone but plus a temporary stent. That too has thankfully now been removed and, having passed the dates by which an infection could occur, I am now more or less back to normal. Though I did feel surprisingly roughed up by the whole experience. I’m sure that in the past, I was a much more stoical hypochondriac. Continue reading...

Boris Johnson cannot deny the Scots the government they want – and helping them achieve it will save him much troublePassionate unionist Boris Johnson must be thanking his lucky stars for the spat between the SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, and her predecessor, Alex Salmond. There was a sudden dip to 50-50 this week in poll support for Scottish independence.But I doubt if it will last. Whatever happens in the coming May elections to the Scottish parliament, the issue of independence is not going away. Once the idea takes hold of a nation’s political soul it is never satisfied until, in some sense, it is achieved. That has been the lesson elsewhere in Europe, of Ireland, of the former nations of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. Britain’s quarter-hearted devolution in 2000 has not worked, because London could not be trusted to keep its sticky hands off the levers of central power. This week alone Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, took control of all post-pandemic subsidies, deciding who gets what aid and which industries are financed. Unpopular lockdown was devolved to Edinburgh, nice recovery is centralised to London. Continue reading...

People tell how they have been affected by travel rules stopping them from meeting loved ones

Exclusive: Greg Hunt and Paul Fletcher were at the 1988 debating competition attended by the attorney general who has strenuously denied wrongdoingTwo cabinet ministers attended the 1988 university debating competition at which a woman has alleged she was sexually assaulted by Christian Porter, although members of the Morrison government insist they had no ongoing association with her.Guardian Australia can reveal that the health minister, Greg Hunt, and communications minister, Paul Fletcher, attended the tournament – two of the numerous alumni of the tightknit world of university debating that graduated to high-profile careers in politics and law, including the attorney general who has strenuously denied wrongdoing. Continue reading...

Traditional owners to show Sussan Ley the sacred women’s site they fear will be destroyed by the proposed trackThe federal environment minister, Sussan Ley, has stepped in at the last minute to stop construction of a contentious go-kart track at Wahluu/Mount Panorama in Bathurst over concerns it threatens a sacred Indigenous site.Ley made an emergency protection declaration on Friday, three days before construction was due to begin at the famous motor racing site in regional New South Wales. Continue reading...

Petra Diamonds already faces court action on similar grounds, as its contractors are accused of continued assaults on illegal minersA Tanzanian mine that produced a flawless pink diamond for one of the Queen’s favourite brooches is investigating claims that security personnel have shot and assaulted illegal miners.New allegations come months after a lawsuit alleging “serious” human rights abuses was filed against Petra Diamonds, the mine’s British owner, in the high court in London. Continue reading...

Australian sex discrimination commissioner to lead review of parliament culture; Italy blocks 250,000 doses of Covid vaccine. This blog is now closed