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Anal swabs cause ‘great psychological pain’, says Japan’s chief cabinet secretary

Dr Michael Ryan says Covid-19 is ‘very much in control’ as global infections rise for first time in almost two monthsDespite the spread of Covid-19 being slowed in some countries due to lockdowns and vaccination programs, it is “premature” and “unrealistic” to the think the pandemic will be over by the end of the year, the World Health Organization’s executive director of emergency services has said.Speaking at a press briefing Geneva, Dr Michael Ryan said while vaccinating the most vulnerable people, including healthcare workers, would help remove the “tragedy and fear” from the situation, and would help to ease pressure on hospitals, the “virus is very much in control”. Continue reading...

Pope emeritus says some who are unhappy with successor Pope Francis have refused to believe he willingly stepped downFormer pope Benedict has chided conservative Roman Catholics who have not accepted his decision to resign, calling them “fanatical” and reminding them there is only one pope and it is Francis.Benedict, now 93, became the first pope in more than 600 years to resign instead of ruling for life, saying he no longer had the strength to govern the 1.3 billion-member church. Continue reading...

Book extract: lockdowns may have had an anti-baby boom effect in some parts, but Kiwis appear to have made the most of close quartersOne of the early observations made by internet wags was the prediction that nine months after lockdown there would be a baby boom. The theory goes that suddenly being forced to spend weeks at home would ignite the passions of those interned in a way that a normal Saturday night on the couch watching reruns of Friends might not.The “Covid baby boom” was predicted to be like the period after the second world war, where soldiers returning from the front were delighted to be back in the bosom of their home country, with all the comforts that brings. Continue reading...

No 10 does not deny reports that scheme could cover costs of works by PM’s fiancee, Carrie SymondsDowning Street is trying to set up a charity that could cover the costs of the refurbishment of Boris Johnson’s flat, which he shares with his fiancee, Carrie Symonds.

Data from EY highlights last-minute transfers in order to hold on to European business

Xavier Beauvois’s tenderly drawn film sees a French policeman abandon all his certainties after a tragic misjudgmentXavier Beauvois is the actor-turned-director whose Of Gods and Men in 2010 is one of the great French movies of the 21st century; he also has the honour of a cameo, as himself, in the final series of the Netflix comedy Call My Agent. His new film is really intriguing, a film deeply rooted in a close-knit community, with excellent performances, a sophisticated control of narrative tempo and – at least initially – a tragic force that could almost be compared with Elia Kazan. Yet I have to say that this power is dissipated by a disappointing ending in which the film, as its English title warns us, drifts away.

On social media, Ryan Fischer says ‘healing still needs to happen’ after he was attacked while walking three dogsLady Gaga’s dog walker, who was shot last week during a robbery in Hollywood when two of the singer’s French bulldogs were stolen, has described the violence and his recovery “from a very close call with death” in social media posts on Monday.Ryan Fischer’s posts included pictures taken from his hospital bed, where he says a “lot of healing still needs to happen” but he looks forward to reuniting with the dogs. Continue reading...

Unrealistic to think pandemic will be over this year - WHO; Brazilian governors blast Bolsonaro over pandemic; number of new infections globally rose last week

Small businesses will receive help in Wednesday’s budget to boost tech and management skillsThe bosses of small businesses are to be invited back to school to brush up on their management skills, under plans to be announced in the budget designed to help close Britain’s productivity gap with rival nations.As part of the attempt to speed up the UK’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, will unveil a “help to grow” scheme that will offer the leaders of up to 130,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) the chance of MBA-style management training. Continue reading...

Independent Rex Patrick moves after similar parliamentary motions passed in Canada and the NetherlandsAn Australian senator will seek support from fellow upper house members to recognise China’s treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority as genocide, after similar parliamentary motions passed in Canada and the Netherlands.The proposed motion – placed on the Senate’s notice paper for 15 March – looms as a test for the major parties at a time when Australia should join the international community in taking a stand, according to the South Australian independent senator Rex Patrick. Continue reading...

Torstar, which owns more than 70 papers, to launch gaming app to ‘support the growth and expansion of quality journalism’As advertising revenues dry up and the outlook for print newspapers looks increasingly bleak, publishers around the world are constantly hunting for new and innovative ways to fund costly journalism.Related: Why Toronto is taking action against a carpenter amid its homelessness crisis Continue reading...

Tuesday: Friend says woman allegedly raped by minister was ‘smart, witty, talented’ and her claim ‘credible’. Plus: the WA opposition leader who conceded defeat 16 days before the electionGood morning, it’s Tamara Howie here on Tuesday 2 March with the recommendations from the aged care royal commission, the latest on historic rape allegations confronting Canberra, and the teens taking the government to task over the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Reducing funding is a death sentence, says UN secretary general António Guterres

After years of violence half the population is going hungry and 400,000 under fives are at risk of dying from malnutritionEleven-year-old Sadia Ibrahim Mahmud was so weak she could not even move the blanket covering her tiny frame by herself.“I want to get better, and I want to go to school,” she said, her voice barely more than a whisper. The autumn sunlight pouring into the malnutrition ward at a Sana’a hospital hurt her eyes; she turned her head on the pillow and tried to rest. Continue reading...

My husband, Joe Handy, who has died aged 71 of cancer, was a teacher and Labour party activist. Elected to Dundee district council in 1988 and serving until 1996, he was cultural services convener during the city’s octocentenary in 1991, and entered into the celebrations with gusto. Later he used his IT skills to act as a webmaster and researcher for Marlyn Glen MSP, and performed a similar task for two Highlands and Islands MSPs, Rhoda Grant and David Stewart.He was born in Dundee to Joe, a labourer, and Margaret (nee McKay), a housewife, and educated at Lawside academy in the city. After graduating with a degree in chemistry from Dundee University in 1971, he embarked on two years of educational research at Glasgow University, and it was while he was in Glasgow that we married in 1972. An enthusiastic filmgoer at the time, Joe enjoyed being film critic of the student newspaper, the Glasgow Guardian, under the editorship of Robin McKie, who later went on to write for the Observer.

Intensive care units in 17 of the country’s 26 states were near capacity, while six states and the capital had run out of ICU bedsHealth experts and lawmakers have warned Brazil is steaming into the darkest days of its coronavirus catastrophe, as fatalities soared to new heights and one prominent politician compared the crisis to an atomic bomb.Politicians from across the spectrum voiced anger and exasperation at the deteriorating situation on Monday, after Brazil’s weekly average of Covid deaths hit its highest level since the epidemic began last February and hospitals around the country reported being swamped. Continue reading...

Finnegan Elder and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth are accused of murdering Italian officer Mario Cerciello RegaA US student accused of murdering an Italian policeman has told a court he did not know his night-time attacker was a police officer and thought he was a drug dealer.Finnegan Elder, 21, read an hour-long statement to the court in Rome, saying he wanted to tell his version of the July 2019 incident that led to the death of the police officer, Mario Cerciello Rega, during a drugs bust in the Italian capital. Continue reading...

Shadow chancellor says party would not back immediate hike in taxes on company profits, but does not rule out future increases

Former MP for Aberavon who promoted the rights of carers and organisations that would help south Wales to remember its pastHywel Francis, who has died aged 74 from cancer, served as Labour MP for Aberavon, south Wales, from 2001 until he stood down in 2015. He chaired the Welsh affairs committee and human rights joint committee, and his particular achievement was the Carers Equal Opportunities Act (2004).This he brought in as a private member’s bill, with Lord (Jack) Ashley of Stoke sponsoring it through the Lords. It required local authorities to ensure access to education, training, work and leisure opportunities for unpaid personal carers of elderly, ill and disabled relatives, neighbours and friends. Hywel and his wife Mair had cared for a son, Sam, who had Down’s syndrome and died at the age of 16 in 1997 of a longstanding heart condition. Continue reading...

The global pandemic has had a huge impact on film festivals worldwide. But are there reasons to be optimistic?In any other year, the first night of the Berlin film festival would see crowds packing into the Berlinale Palast, the giant cinema off the Potsdamer Platz that acts as the festival’s main hub. But like every other film festival, Berlin has been forced to completely rethink itself in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.The major festivals have taken different approaches. Sundance and Toronto opted to move most of their activity online – albeit with limited “in-person” screenings – staging digital premieres and events. Cannes, with its commitment to the cinema experience, decided to cancel rather than stream its films, and has pushed its next edition to a more audience-friendly summer time-slot. Berlin has chosen a middle way: this week sees a “virtual” event for press and industry representatives, featuring digital screenings of its selected films, followed by a “physical” event in June, Covid restrictions permitting. Continue reading...

Civil liberties groups say ‘fast-tracked’ bill goes beyond stopping bullying and blocking extremist content“Fast-tracked” safety legislation regulating online content could censor all adult content online and force sex workers off the internet, sex workers and civil liberties groups have warned.The online safety bill is aimed at giving powers to Australia’s eSafety commissioner to target bullying and harassment online, extending existing powers protecting children from online bullying to adults. Continue reading...

Duke of Edinburgh, 99, has been transferred from King Edward VII’s hospital to St Bartholomew’s

Ousted leader, not seen in public since last month’s military coup, appears in court via video linkA court in Myanmar has announced two new charges against Aung San Suu Kyi, including one of sharing information “causing fear or alarm”, as the police and military stalked the streets and rounded up protesters in the country’s biggest city, Yangon.A day after the bloodiest crackdown on anti-coup protesters since the military seized power, security forces used teargas and stun grenades to disperse crowds that continued to gather in Yangon. Officers went door-to-door on side streets, raiding homes to search for people suspected of taking part in rallies. Continue reading...

Minister says country will act unilaterally if Europe does not bring in vaccination passports

Wales is at alert level 4, with young children back at school but other people encouraged to stay at homeWhile Boris Johnson has announced his phased plan for easing lockdown restrictions in England, Wales currently lacks an equivalent roadmap. The first minister, Mark Drakeford, has said: “We need you to stay at home for a bit longer.”For now, all of Wales will remains at alert level 4 until at least 12 March, meaning people must stay at home except for very limited purposes and are prohibited from meeting others from outside their household. Continue reading...

A new Netflix documentary aims to tell the unheard story of a tragic rapper, focusing on the personal, speaking to those who knew and miss him“This was a four-year journey for us,” film-maker Emmett Malloy tells the Guardian of his ambitious new documentary that aims to tell the story of Christopher Wallace, more famously known as the Notorious BIG. He was murdered at the age of 24 in Los Angeles and a week away from the 24th anniversary if his death, Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell is landing on Netflix.Malloy partnered with Biggie’s estate manager Wayne Barrow, and the late rapper’s 68-year-old mother, Voletta Wallace in order to bring to fruition a true representation of the rapper’s real upbringing – the glorious moments and the glorified. Continue reading...

British consulate general among crowds outside court voicing their opposition to latest crackdown

Case of Paul Bond is Serious Fraud Office’s fourth successful Unaoil-related prosecutionA British businessman has been jailed for three and a half years after being convicted of conspiring to pay huge backhanders in one of the world’s biggest bribery scandals.The jailing of Paul Bond on Monday is the fourth successful prosecution by the Serious Fraud Office following the exposure of the systematic use of multimillion-dollar bribes to secure lucrative contracts around the world for blue chip firms. Continue reading...

International Booker winner Marieke Lucas Rijneveld will not translate inaugural poet’s work into Dutch after anger that a Black writer was not hiredThe acclaimed author Marieke Lucas Rijneveld has pulled out of translating Amanda Gorman’s poetry into Dutch, after their publisher was criticised for picking a writer for the role who was not also Black.Related: 'My family are too frightened to read my book': meet Europe's most exciting authors Continue reading...

Beans are not just delicious but good for us – and the planet. They’re also amazingly versatile

Israeli PM says explosions on board MV Helios Ray cargo ship were work of Tehran and that ‘we are hitting it in the entire region’Israel’s prime minister has accused Iran of attacking an Israeli-owned ship in the Gulf of Oman last week, a mysterious explosion that further raised security concerns in the region.Without offering any evidence, Benjamin Netanyahu told the Israeli public broadcaster Kan the incident “it was indeed an act by Iran, that is clear”. Continue reading...

Netflix royal drama and Chloe Zhao were toast of the night amid technical difficulties and against background of diversity issues

The rapper’s arrest shows Spain has a problem with freedom of ideology. But people shouldn’t be scared to write songs that stand up to powerThe arrest of Pablo Hasél this month, a Spanish rapper – like me – who is accused of glorifying terrorism and insulting the monarchy in his lyrics, didn’t surprise me. When I was 18, I wrote a song about the Spanish king, the police arrested me and I was sentenced to three and a half years in jail. The day they came to take me to prison, I fled to Belgium and have been here ever since, despite the best efforts of Spain to have me extradited. It seemed like a joke – almost four years in jail for a song. But it wasn’t: there are 18 rappers in Spain facing jail for similar charges.Related: Angry words: rapper's jailing exposes Spain's free speech faultlines Continue reading...

From struggling to breathe and move – to aches and fevers that never went away – there are thousands of people who say they are experiencing symptoms months after first contracting Covid-19. They are a community struggling to find answers, care and compensation. The Guardian spoke to five people suffering with long Covid

The British vaccine deployment minister, Nadhim Zahawi, has appealed for help to trace one of six people infected with the Brazilian Covid-19 variant.

A woman tells Hobart court she was on couple’s yacht the night Bob Chappell went missingThe witness crucial to Hobart woman Susan Neill-Fraser’s murder appeal has told a court she was on the yacht the night of the killing.Neill-Fraser is serving 23 years’ jail for the murder of partner Bob Chappell, who disappeared off the couple’s boat moored on the River Derwent on Australia Day 2009. Continue reading...

For the government to try and sweep allegations of rape against a cabinet minister under the carpet of ‘process’ misconceives what is at stakeShould we know the name of the alleged cabinet-level rapist in Canberra? Of course, we should and we must.Even in our own shaky version of democracy, parliamentary representatives on the public purse are accountable to the people – so it’s ludicrous that a cone of silence should descend on these wretched details. Continue reading...

Aerial video released on 26 February reveals a huge iceberg has separated from the Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica, almost 10 years after scientists first discovered cracks.The berg has been compared in size to the English county of Bedfordshire, measuring 1,270 sq km, according to the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).Scientists were expecting the calving of the iceberg to happen, after daily monitoring of the area with GPS instruments and satellite imagery, the BAS's director, Prof Dame Jane Francis, said

His tenure encompassed a new owner in Jeff Bezos and a new presidency that put the Post in the frontline of Trump’s war on truthOne of the arts of editorship is knowing when to delegate. It spared Marty Baron, stepping down after eight years as executive editor of the Washington Post, from having to follow Donald Trump on Twitter.“I figured that we had a staff who could follow his Twitter feed and I could find out from them whether there’s something consequential he said,” Baron explains, a year to the day since his own last tweet. “I’ve basically gone cold turkey on Twitter and I feel fine.” Continue reading...

Visit from Pope Francis will start in Baghdad on Friday and is his first trip abroad in 15 monthsDespite the twin threats of Covid-19 and terrorism, the first ever papal visit to Iraq is due to begin on Friday, during which Francis will meet beleaguered Christian communities and one of the world’s most influential Muslim leaders.For 84-year-old Pope Francis, it will be his first trip abroad for 15 months as the pandemic has curtailed his movements. New Covid restrictions came into effect in Iraq last week, with overnight curfews and a full three-day lockdown at weekends, as daily recorded cases doubled in less than a week. Continue reading...

Southern Transitional Council president says US leader should support a vote on independence for the SouthJoe Biden can help end the six-year civil war in Yemen by backing a UN-sponsored referendum on independence for the South, the president of Yemen’s separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) has said.In an interview with the Guardian, Aidarus al-Zoubaidi claimed a referendum would show 90% support for independence for Yemen’s South and should be held exclusively within the South, pointing out that in the Brexit referendum the rest of the European Union was not given a vote. Continue reading...

Our national reluctance to make a fuss as well as the structure of our government have helped us fight CovidOn 28 February 2020, the New Zealand authorities were confirming the country’s “first” Covid-19 case. “PANDEMONIUM”, wrote the New Zealand Herald from its first page. Aucklanders made a dash for the supermarkets, according to the same paper, cleaning out toilet paper supplies and gridlocking the city’s major transport nodes. The government was advising national caution after barring travellers from China earlier that month and organising repatriation flights for New Zealanders through the next.Four weeks later, on 25 March 2020, the country went into a nationwide lockdown. Continue reading...

Her TV show has been No 1 in the US since 1998, but many have criticised her approach to justice. As she hangs up her gavel after 25 years, she discusses wealth, success and repentance

Politicians and campaigners - facing up to life in prison - sent messages of hope, justice and unity before reporting to police

An semi-virtual kickoff to the awards season sees wins for Schitt’s Creek, Chadwick Boseman and Borat but there’s continued outrage over diversity and alleged corruption

New Zealand PM says she understands frustration at people who have not followed Covid rules but argues against punishment

Exclusive: letters to Dominic Raab and Lady Scotland say Princess Basmah requires urgent medical treatmentSupporters of a prominent Saudi Arabian princess detained with her daughter in Riyadh have appealed to the British government to help secure their release.In two letters to both foreign secretary Dominic Raab and Commonwealth general secretary Patricia Scotland, the princess’s supporters urged them to intervene on behalf of Princess Basmah bint Saud bin Abdulaziz al-Saud and her daughter Souhoud Al Sharif, arrested in Jeddah two years ago. Continue reading...

South Africa’s Covid alert level has been downgraded from three to one; Jordanian ministers sacked breaking Covid laws; First dose of vaccine in UK passes 20m

Monday: Rape allegations against a cabinet minister should be investigated by an independent body, say legal experts. Plus: who is Kate Kelly?It’s 1 March, and this is Imogen Dewey with the main stories leading the day – plus a look at the littler-known Kelly sibling you should have heard of.Legal experts are calling for an independent investigation of the historical rape alleged to have been committed by a federal cabinet minister, citing it as a “very serious” integrity issue. Geoffrey Watson, director of the Centre for Public Integrity, has challenged the government’s position that only police should investigate the serious offence, alleged to have occurred in 1988. Two more federal MPs have revealed they were made aware of the allegation before that: a Liberal MP sent a dossier on Wednesday, and a Labor MP contacted by the complainant, a friend, in 2019. Adam Bandt has called on Scott Morrison to stand the minister aside pending an independent inquiry. Malcolm Turnbull backed a coronial inquest into the death of the complainant, who took her own life in July. Anthony Albanese, while agreeing the matter is best handled by police, yesterday called it a “test” for Scott Morrison, who must decide if the minister should continue in his current position. He refused to say how he would handle a similar allegation against a Labor frontbencher, arguing that this was a hypothetical. But Liberal senator Sarah Henderson last night referred a rape allegation against an unnamed Labor member of parliament to the federal police. Continue reading...