World news | The Guardian

Threat to British jobs as companies look to move operations overseasHundreds of UK companies could switch operations to countries inside the EU in what is threatening to become a dramatic exodus of investment and jobs caused by Brexit.The Observer can reveal that by 1 January this year some 500 businesses – mostly UK-owned, or UK-based with overseas owners – were already making inquiries about setting up branches, depots or warehouses in the Netherlands alone, for “Brexit-related reasons”. Since then the number of inquiries from UK companies has increased further. Continue reading...

MC Fioti’s ‘vaccine anthem’ remix celebrates coronavirus inoculation with music video shot at biomedical research centreLeandro Aparecido Ferreira laid bricks and flipped burgers for a living until becoming one of Brazil’s most famous funk musicians.This year, the 26-year-old – whose stage name is MC Fioti – has added a new and unexpected string to his bow: as an unlikely champion of science and vaccinology in a country being pounded by coronavirus. Continue reading...

Andy Aitchison tells Guardian of concerns after being held in custody for seven hoursConcern is growing over press freedom following the arrest of a photographer after he took and shared photos of a protest at a former military barracks controversially housing asylum seekers.Andy Aitchison, 46, documented a demonstration outside Napier barracks in Folkestone, Kent, on Thursday morning as protesters threw buckets of fake blood at the doors of the site amid allegations of overcrowding, poor hygiene, significant risks posed by Covid-19, and limited access to healthcare and legal advice. Continue reading...

The actor, 25, on her childhood illness, the success of Unorthodox and creativity in staying up lateI don’t remember anything of my life before [cancer]. From the age of three to six I was very sick. Being ill forced me to mature early. I started to write poems and stories. Of course, I wish it hadn’t happened, but a part of me is thankful for what I went through. I understand pain and suffering. It shaped who I am.The first part I got came over Facebook. A well-known Israeli casting director messaged out of the blue. I’d enrolled at an arts school on a whim, where I fell in love with acting. I turned up to the audition with no expectations. Opening the door felt like stepping into Narnia – and I’ve not looked back. Continue reading...

Pandemic and ongoing legal battles led to cancelled expedition for Marconi wireless telegraph machine that helped save 700 peopleThe coronavirus pandemic has sunk plans to plans to retrieve and exhibit the Titanic’s radio equipment, according to a court filing made by the firm that own’s the historic wreck’s salvage rights.RMS Titanic Inc cited the “increasing difficulty associated with international travel and logistics, and the associated health risks to the expedition team”. It also it had to lay off high-profile experts in the Titanic field: Dave Gallo, PH Nargeolet, Bill Sauder and William Lange. Continue reading...

Anthony Collins, 53, faces crown court trial over incident that forced staff to evacuate Wrexham site

Librarian says she feels ‘very lucky’ working from home, so she volunteered for the vaccine test

Police say 96 people broke lockdown rules in St Anton – where hotels are closed to tourists

Five partners whose love has endured seismic changes, from refugees forced apart by war to a couple left with horrific injuriesCharlotte, 27, and Jak, 25, survived a serious car accident; both spent weeks in intensive care. They live in Lancashire and plan to marry this summer. Continue reading...

Glasgow-born Grammy nominee had worked with Madonna, Charli XCX and moreSophie, the Grammy-nominated Scottish musician whose high-intensity electronic productions pushed the boundaries of 21st-century pop, has died aged 34.Sophie’s management confirmed to the Guardian that the artist died around 4am at home in Athens, “following a sudden accident. At this time respect and privacy for the family is our priority. We would also ask for respect for her fanbase, and to treat the private nature of this news with sensitivity.” Continue reading...

The European commission has announced that it will tighten the export rules of vaccines produced in the 27 EU countries. ‘We paid these companies to increase production and now we expect them to deliver,’ said the commission vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis.The ‘vaccine export transparency mechanism’ would be used until the end of March and would control shipments to non-EU countries and ensure any exporting company based in the EU first submits its plans to national authorities

A wholesome mung bean dal set off nicely by a sweet-sour cabbage and carrot relishMung beans are considered very lucky to the average Gujarati. These are the beans that their bones are built of, and not just because of their general prevalence. Mostly, they’re eaten wet like a dal, as in today’s dish, though sometimes they are dry-fried or sprouted with lots of garlic, cumin and lemon. Uncooked, they’re a popular bean at religious ceremonies – I still have a pocketful that were blessed at my wedding, as well as some from when I moved into my new house. Today, they are just here as an idea for dinner, but I wish you good luck in cooking them. Continue reading...

Demonstrators begin hunger strike outside Delhi after week of clashes with police

Longing to get your glad rags on – or fully converted to the tracksuit? Fashion insiders reveal their lockdown looks and predict what we’ll be wearing post-pandemicPicture this: the very first celebratory night out you will have when the vaccine sets us free. Maybe you’re in a fancy restaurant, maybe your local pub. Cosy around a friend’s kitchen table, or on a packed dancefloor. What are you wearing? Are you desperate to wriggle back into a party dress and brave your highest heels? Or have sweatpants spoilt you for anything that doesn’t have an elasticated waistband and a fleece lining?For a year, most of us have had the same hobbies (Netflix and going to the park) and as a result have worn pretty much the same thing (loungewear and puffer jackets). But post-vaccine, we are set to split into two style tribes. For every 21st-century swell desperate to re-enact the roaring 20s, there is someone who has found solace in the soft textures of lockdown. Culture responds to trauma in a kaleidoscope of ways. After all, in the first half of the decade that followed the first world war and the Spanish flu pandemic, F Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby, while TS Eliot wrote The Waste Land. Continue reading...

The ‘poet laureate of Twitter’ and author of the acclaimed memoir Priestdaddy has written her first novel. She discusses politics, finding her voice, and her experience of long CovidThe day before my interview with the poet, essayist, memoirist and novelist Patricia Lockwood, the attempted coup took place in Washington DC. She, like myself and millions of others, followed it online, scrolling for hours, watching as President Trump continued to incite his fans by posting untruths about the election. Whatever divide ever existed between the real and virtual worlds was as decisively shattered as the Capitol’s windows.“WHAT A DAY TO BE SITTING ON YOUR BUTT IN FRONT OF THE COMPUTER, EH,” Lockwood emailed me from her home in Savannah, Georgia, using the all-caps and no-punctuation style that all of us who spend too much time online recognise as meta sarcasm: sarcasm but also sarcastically mocking the obviousness of the sarcasm. Continue reading...

Petition urges government to extend closing times for bars as women go hungry and are forced to skip HIV medication

After 25 years in the limelight, the actor says she is finally finding her voice as an actor, writer and now director. Does life imitate art?The first thing Billie Piper says to me is, “It’s in your lined paper book, Eugene, I already sent it to them,” because she’s trying to home school her children while also roaming around her house to escape them and find a better phone signal. We’re already on to our third kind of tech in an attempt to video chat. “I’m just so strung out,” she says, sitting down, remarking that she looks awful with no makeup on, long blond hair yanked into a ponytail. She laughs at the bleakness: to hell with all this.The Piper household – her two sons, Winston, 12, and Eugene, eight, her musician boyfriend Johnny Lloyd and their toddler daughter, Tallulah – are enjoying the pandemic as little as the rest of us. “We’re OK. We’re just cracking on. Everyone’s going through it and other people have some terrible situations,” she says, first trying to be positive, then admitting the truth: “I’ve got two boys home schooling and they just hate it. And I hate it. If a teacher hears me losing it down the phone, I’m past the point of caring. The mask has slipped.” Continue reading...

Armed forces release statement saying remarks by general about political system were misinterpretedMyanmar’s armed forces have said they will protect and abide by the country’s constitution and act according to law, amid concerns in the country that the military might attempt to seize power.In an official statement on Saturday, the military said recent remarks by its top general about abolishing the constitution were misinterpreted by media and some organisations. Continue reading...

Countries have adopted different rules on business activity, education, socialising and travelCurfews and lockdowns Restrictions have largely been relaxed in most of Brazil’s 26 states, although several continue to limit opening hours for bars, restaurants and shops. A round-the-clock curfew was imposed this week in Brazil’s biggest state, Amazonas, after hospitals were overwhelmed. Continue reading...

I realise that the last time my fixed notion of what I weighed was affirmed by actual measurement was at a doctor’s appointment five years agoOn my third pass through the kitchen in the morning, I see a recently delivered box sitting on the floor. I consider the possibility that it might be for me. The package is addressed to my wife, but there’s still a slim chance I am the final intended recipient. I lift the box: it’s heavy. For the moment, I can take the investigation no further – my wife is not at home.At some point in the afternoon, I look out the window of my office shed towards the house and see my wife standing in the kitchen. I cross the garden. My wife does not look up when I enter – she is staring intently at her feet. The box is on the table between us, empty. Continue reading...

‘History and geography don’t change – I don’t think British destiny is different to ours,’ says French presidentEmmanuel Macron has warned that Boris Johnson’s government has to decide who its allies are, insisting that “half-friends is not a concept”.“What politics does Great Britain wish to choose? It cannot be the best ally of the US, the best ally of the EU and the new Singapore … It has to choose a model,” the French president said, in an interview with the Guardian and a small group of other media. Continue reading...

The 48-year-old reportedly told police she was worried she would be forced to move out of the flat she shared with her motherA Japanese woman who said she hid her mother’s corpse in a freezer in her apartment for a decade told police she feared eviction if the death was discovered, according to reports.Yumi Yoshino, 48, was held “on suspicion of abandoning and hiding a female body” found on Wednesday inside the freezer in a Tokyo apartment, police said. Continue reading...

WA premier Mark McGowan says travellers from Queensland and Victoria will no longer have to quarantine upon arrival

Saad Aljabri, once a top aide to the former heir to the throne, has said he will fight the ‘recycled corruption allegations’Saudi state-owned companies have sued the country’s former intelligence chief in a Canadian court, alleging he stole billions of dollars, according to documents obtained by the news agency Agence France-Presse.The 10 subsidiaries of Tahakom Investment Co – which is owned by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund – said in the civil suit filed in Ontario superior court that Saad Aljabri committed a “massive fraud” totalling at least US$3.47bn. Continue reading...

Weeks after 40,000 poultry culled by another outbreak, parks chief says more must be done to prevent the disease from spreadingBird flu killed at least 750 pelicans found dead in Senegal’s Djoudj bird sanctuary, after authorities had initially ruled out the disease, scientific analysis has shown.The birds – 740 juveniles and 10 adults – were discovered in the Djoudj national bird sanctuary on 23 January, and the country’s environment ministry said on Wednesday it had been closed to the public. Continue reading...

Driver, who allegedly had suspended licence, charged with negligent driving and driving with unrestrained child under six monthsA two-month-old baby who was allegedly unrestrained was propelled through a back seat car window in a crash involving a suspended driver in Sydney’s east.The unregistered Toyota Tarago was travelling southbound near Stephen Road in Botany on Friday evening when it missed a bend near the intersection of Swinbourne Street, police say. Continue reading...

Irish foreign minister warns Northern Ireland protocol ‘not something to be tampered with lightly’

Thousands join rallies in Warsaw and other cities after delayed ban finally becomes lawThousands have protested for a third consecutive night in Warsaw and other parts of Poland after the country’s rightwing government implemented a court ruling imposing a near-total ban on abortion.Protesters have defied coronavirus restrictions and sub-zero temperatures to rally after the controversial judgment was given legal force on Wednesday. Continue reading...

European commission cites ‘error’ hours after proposal caused anger on both sides of Irish border

NI first minister brands move an ‘incredible act of hostility’; Germany bans travellers from UK, Ireland, Brazil, South Africa and Portugal. This blog is now closed

Book extract: A lot of things will change as a result of this pandemic and it’s clear the recovery won’t be marked by a discrete eventIn 1844, Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard wrote: “Whoever has learnt to be anxious in the right way, has learnt the ultimate.”I’m no Kierkegaard, but I think he may have been on to something. The anxiety we may be experiencing in these coronavirus times might be something that feels different, deeper, and beyond perhaps your usual fear or anxiety about day-to-day troubles. This feels more existential. Continue reading...

Stormont's first minister branded the EU’s triggering of article 16 of Brexit’s Northern Ireland protocol to stop the unfettered flow of inoculations from the EU into the region an 'incredible act of hostility'

Strict new measures announced, and government to introduce mandatory airport Covid testing for people returning to CanadaAll air travellers to Canada will be obliged to quarantine in a hotel at their own expense for at least three days on arrival, under strict new travel restrictions announced by Justin Trudeau in response to new variants of the coronavirus.Related: Canadian couple who got vaccine meant for Indigenous people may face jail time Continue reading...

Labor’s climate spokesman says Joel Fitzgibbon was wrong to advocate surrender on carbon emissionsChris Bowen says Labor will develop a jobs and emissions “compact” to put to voters at the next election, and he has rebuffed Joel Fitzgibbon’s campaign to have the opposition adopt the same medium-term emissions reduction target as the Coalition.In an interview with Guardian Australia after being appointed shadow minister on climate change and energy this week, Bowen declared Labor could win the political battle to take climate action consistent with the science if it won the argument that ambition was good for jobs and long-term economic growth. Continue reading...

High hopes in the region soon turned to exhaustion and despair. But the movement is not overIt is sometimes said that the Chinese premier Zhou Enlai, when asked in 1972 about the influence of the French Revolution, replied: “Too soon to tell.” Though the tale is apocryphal – he was referring to the student revolts of 1968 – it reminds us that the world’s great events may look quite different from another temporal perspective.In January 2011, Tunisia’s Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was toppled by protests triggered by the self-immolation of a street vendor weeks earlier. Within days, tens of thousands of Egyptians had flooded into Tahrir Square, forcing Hosni Mubarak from power and transforming the nascent movement into a true phenomenon. Yet a decade after the region rose up against its dictators, authoritarianism has a tighter grip than ever, and its people are drained or traumatised. Egypt, the most populous Arab nation, is in the throes of its worst human rights crisis for decades. Poverty has deepened, with the pandemic and falling oil prices exacerbating the impact. Continue reading...

Home secretary under pressure to shut Napier barracks site as images show smoke billowing from blocks

Case between dealer Yves Bouvier and oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev has been ongoing since 2015A long-running court case involving an art dealer who was accused of swindling $1bn from a Russian oligarch took a step closer to being resolved after Swiss prosecutors moved to close an action against him.The dispute between the dealer, Yves Bouvier, and the oligarch, Dmitry Rybolovlev – known as the Bouvier Affair – has been ongoing since 2015, but this week the Geneva prosecutor’s office confirmed it was planning to end the criminal proceedings. Continue reading...

Move comes after UK says people with status can move to Britain and eventually settle

Russian president spoke to Joe Biden earlier in the week about arms control pact due to lapse in FebruaryVladimir Putin has signed a bill extending the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between Russia and the United States a week before the pact was due to expire.Both houses of the Russian parliament voted unanimously on Wednesday to extend the New Start treaty for five years. Putin and the US president, Joe Biden, had discussed the nuclear accord a day earlier, and the Kremlin said they agreed to complete the necessary extension procedures in the next few days. Continue reading...

Footage shows thick smoke billowing from a block at a former military barracks being used to house asylum seekers in Folkestone. Kent fire and rescue service said eight fire engines had been sent to the barracks to deal with the blaze.

Health commissioner says bloc needs to ensure vaccine firms live up to their promises

Group of 15 activists were prosecuted under anti-terror laws for blocking immigration removal flight in 2017Fifteen anti-deportation activists who were prosecuted under counter-terror legislation for blocking the takeoff of an immigration removal flight from Stansted airport have had their convictions quashed.In a judgment handed down by the court of appeal on Friday afternoon, the lord chief justice, Lord Burnett of Maldon, said: “The appellants should not have been prosecuted for the extremely serious offence under section 1(2)(b) of the 1990 Act because their conduct did not satisfy the various elements of the offence. Continue reading...

French president bemoans ‘questionable behaviour’ and says deliveries ‘do not honour’ contractural agreements

Nigerian farmers win claim for compensation in The Hague after 13-year court battleA Dutch court has ordered Shell Nigeria to compensate farmers for major oil spills they say caused widespread pollution.On Friday an appeals court in The Hague rejected Shell’s argument that the spills were the result of sabotage, saying not enough evidence had been provided. Continue reading...

Can we do more as individuals to help slow the spread of coronavirus? We ask the experts

Le Chambon-sur-Lignon inherits fortune, having sheltered Austrian Eric Schwam who fled during war

Amy Hawkins becomes star of social networking site after great-grandson posts video of her singingShe is the oldest person in Wales and now she may be the oldest person on TikTok. Amy Hawkins has become a star of the social networking site after her great-grandson posted a video of her singing on her 110th birthday.The former dancer made her debut on the site earlier this week singing the music hall song It’s a Long Way to Tipperary and her family have posted several videos since, including one in which she performs a dance with her 14-year-old great-grandson Sacha Freeman. Continue reading...

The One Child Nation film-maker has assembled an impressive, infuriating film flipping between China and America throughout the last chaotic yearWhile life ground to a halt for just about everyone in 2020, Nanfu Wang had a most eventful year. Exactly 12 months ago, the Chinese-born film-maker was at the Sundance Film Festival to sit on the World Cinema Documentary jury while her two-year-old son stayed with her mother in China to prep for the New Year celebrations. But as the threat of Covid-19 grew more urgent by the day, her husband traveled to the Wang family’s remote village to safely retrieve their child. Soon, she would scuttle her plans to convene with them in Asia after wrapping things up in Park City, and start doing everything she could to coordinate the emergency return of her loved ones from a viral hotspot.Related: Censor review – disturbing descent into video nastiness Continue reading...

Exclusive: almost 70 memorials renamed or being taken down since last summers Black Lives Matter protests

Emily Whelan was suspected to have been killed but investigation was hampered by state of corpseThe family of a woman whom they suspect was killed has won a lawsuit against a health trust that allowed her body to decompose to the point that experts were unable to rule out third-party involvement in the death in a first-of-its kind ruling.In a judgment handed down on Friday, Judge Andrew Saffman concluded that Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS trust had breached human rights laws by failing to preserve Emily Whelan’s body, and awarded the family damages. Continue reading...