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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...

New impasse as Tehran accuses Washington of not doing enough to lift sanctions against it

Decision not to punish royal over Khashoggi killing ‘leaves room to work on areas of mutual agreement’The White House has defended its decision not to directly sanction Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman over the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as criticism grew before Washington’s unveiling of a new policy towards Riyadh on Monday.The White House spokesperson, Jen Psaki, stood by the move not to target the crown prince in an interview on Sunday, despite human rights groups and some senior Democrats expressing dismay that the administration had held him culpable, publishing an intelligence assessment that he had approved the killing of Khashoggi, without holding him accountable. Continue reading...

Rescue teams and police attend site known for landslips after tent spotted on coastlineA couple and a child have been visited by emergency services after pitching a tent on a cliff edge in a stretch of the North York Moors known for landslips.Police officers were alerted as the family’s trip breached Covid-19 regulations, the coastguard said on Saturday, but it is unclear whether they were fined. Continue reading...

Readers respond to the supreme court decision that Begum will not have her citizenship restoredEvery day it seems the Guardian serves up another reason for being ashamed to be British. On Friday, it was the case of Shamima Begum (Shamima Begum loses fight to restore UK citizenship after supreme court ruling, 26 February). It makes it particularly difficult that I’m tutoring someone who is hoping to take an A-level in British politics. All the books list human rights and explain how carefully protected they are in our system. Article 5 is supposed to protect the right to liberty and freedom from arbitrary detention. Yet the supreme court is unable to protect Begum’s rights against a home secretary who is operating a policy based on pandering to public opinion in return for (hoped-for) votes.We are told that legal protections are particularly important in difficult cases – that is, cases where an individual presents as unpleasant or undeserving. Begum was a teenager who took the extraordinary step of leaving her country to defend something she believed was deserving of her support. But even if she left with the firm intention of terrorising her fellow citizens, does this mean she should be deprived of her rights? It is a matter not of what Begum deserves but of what our national honour, and our constitution, deserve. This has been increasingly in doubt in recent years, with the government threatening to renege over the Northern Irish border agreement; not to mention the Chagos Islands and our participation in rendering citizens to be tortured during the “war on terror”.

Violent scenes play out across country as police crack down against peaceful protestersYe Swan Htet, 23, had joined a sit-down protest on a bridge in west Yangon when he saw police approaching. Officers were carrying guns, he remembered, but he didn’t expect them to actually shoot. The protest was peaceful; crowds were singing and clapping.Then, gun fire rang out all around him. Bricks burst open and a branch snapped from a tree. “There was a guy who got hit in his thigh by a rubber bullet, so I carried him to an ambulance,” he said. Continue reading...

During the black summer bushfires Sonya gave birth six weeks early. Afterwards, when her doctor told her that bushfire smoke may have had something to do with it, she was shocked – she had not been warned that this was possible. Isabelle Oderberg explains how bushfire smoke and air pollution are harmful during pregnancy, and argues for better health information for pregnant womenRead Isabelle Oderberg’s article here:

Cancer Council says there was 30% drop in certain diagnostic procedures and an 18% drop in treatments during pandemicThousands of Victorians may have missed out on early cancer diagnoses during the pandemic, potentially allowing the disease to progress past the chance of recovery and causing a “cancer spike” later on, the Cancer Council says.The council’s Victorian branch published figures in the Medical Journal of Australia on Monday showing 10% fewer cancer screening pathology tests were ordered between April and October last year. Continue reading...

Researcher Shiro Armstrong says decline most likely due to Australia’s changed foreign investment settings amid CovidChinese investment in Australia has collapsed, falling 61% in 2020, according to new data from researchers at the Australian National University.The university’s Chinese Investment in Australia database recorded just more than $1bn of investment in Australia in 2020, down from $2.6bn in 2019 and well short of the peak of $16.5bn in 2016. The drop follows a 47% decrease in 2019. Continue reading...

Pro-democracy group accused of organising unofficial election last July in largest crackdown on campaignersNearly every main voice of dissent in Hong Kong is now in jail or exile, after Hong Kong police charged 47 pro-democracy campaigners and politicians with conspiracy to commit subversion. All face life in prison if convicted.The group comprises most of the 55 people arrested last month, over primary polls held last year, in a dawn raid that marked the single biggest operation conducted under the controversial and draconian national security law. Continue reading...

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsWhy do some places have dust and others not? Our house seems to need redusting days after a full deep clean, while a colleague told me she could leave her holiday home in Sweden for a year and come back to a spotless space. Is it the population density? Legacy of industrialisation? Car pollution?

Motion to revert to leader and cabinet model followed scrapping of all-female mayoral shortlistLabour councillors in Liverpool have failed in an attempt to abolish the city mayoral role in protest against a decision by the party to scrap its all-female mayoral shortlist and bar three senior local politicians from standing.The move means the party must scrabble around to find a plausible candidate for May’s elections, following the arrest of the incumbent, Joe Anderson. Continue reading...

Portrait of Lenin and spy tools among items snapped up at auction by group planning UK exhibitionIt depicts the Russian revolutionary leader in characteristically serious mood, staring across Red Square, perhaps, and rendered with more than a touch of kitsch.But while a Soviet-era oil painting of Vladimir Lenin, which sold for nearly $2,000 at auction in the US, might capture the man as many know him, its buyers are not exactly Bolsheviks. Continue reading...

Social distancing has reminded us what a crucial role touch plays in our wellbeing, says social and cultural historian Joe MoranWhen was the last time you touched someone you don’t live with? One day last March, probably; you’re not sure of the date. Did you shake hands with a new colleague at work? Did your coat brush against another commuter’s on the train? Did someone bump your elbow and mutter an apology when rushing past you on an escalator? If you’d known that was the last time you’d make contact with the body of a stranger, you’d have paid more attention.And what about the 8.2 million British adults who live on their own? Many will have gone nearly a year now without so much as a pat on the arm from another person. Touch is the sense we take most for granted, but we miss it when it’s gone. Psychologists have a term for the feelings of deprivation and abandonment we experience: “skin hunger”. Continue reading...

Lawyers for Stuart Page say no findings of hacking or misuse of private information made against himA British private investigator and security consultant whose company has just completed a four-year contract to protect the UK’s embassy in Tel Aviv is linked to a string of telecommunications hacking complaints dating back more than 20 years, according to high court judgments.A court judgment that touches on the career history of Stuart Page – the 69-year-old founder of the private security and intelligence firm Page Group – noted last May that the businessman “operates in a world of covert surveillance in which agents acquire confidential information unlawfully”. Continue reading...

After a tragedy where a man was killed by a fire in a tiny home, the city has blamed the man who built the structuresFor the thousands of homeless people who live in Toronto, winter represents the most challenging and dangerous season. Heavy snowfall crushes tents and cold rains leak through them, damaging belongings and soaking sleeping pads.When Khaleel Seivwright surveyed the city’s housing crisis last autumn, he hoped that his background in carpentry could be of some help. Within weeks, his tiny wooden houses began appearing in city parks. Continue reading...

After initially enduring criticism over its handling of restrictions, Chile moved to secure vaccines from a range of suppliersChile has administered more than 3.1m vaccine doses in just three weeks to emerge as a global leader in Covid-19 inoculations, trailing only the US, UK, UAE and Israel in vaccination doses per 100 people.Having initially endured heavy criticism over its handling of pandemic restrictions, Chile has moved quickly to secure vaccines from a range of suppliers and aims to have 80% of its population immunised against the virus by June. It has already vaccinated 16% of its 19 million citizens at hospitals, schools, stadia and municipal buildings throughout the country. Continue reading...

Device thought to be Hermann bomb used by Nazis was found on building site near Exeter UniversityStructural damage has been caused to a number of properties in Exeter following the detonation of a second world war bomb, police have said.The device, believed to be a 1,000kg Hermann bomb used by the Nazis, was discovered on a building site on private land to the west of the University of Exeter campus on Friday morning. Continue reading...

The pandemic exposed gender inequality, shattering the fragile jigsaw of support that allowed women with children to work. Radical action is necessary to prevent women’s rights backsliding a generation“It is so hard, I cannot describe it.”“I burned out, completely.” Continue reading...

Tens of thousands sign petition to investigate mechanism that allows Queen to vet draft lawsMore than 50,000 people have called for a parliamentary investigation into an “unfathomable” mechanism that allows the Queen to vet draft laws before they are approved by the UK’s elected representatives.They have signed a petition supporting an urgent investigation by a House of Commons committee as they are concerned that the “royal family has a worrying and undemocratic ability to influence the government behind closed doors”. Continue reading...

Stephen Cottrell says the nation has learned to live with wrongs when it should be trying to change themBritain needs to reset its compass in a political climate in which “we’ve learned to accommodate things that we know are wrong”, the archbishop of York has said.Stephen Cottrell, who was enthroned in October, told the Observer: “Our compass has slipped; we’ve allowed ourselves to believe that things can’t change, that this is just the way the world is. Politics has, I think, shrunk. There’s a loss of vision about what the world could be like.” Continue reading...

Though a hundred thousand people have died, initial predictions were far worse, giving rise to many theories on ‘the African paradox’

Sarah Henderson says she forwarded federal police email from woman alleging she was raped by a man now in parliamentLiberal senator Sarah Henderson has referred a rape allegation against an unnamed Labor member of parliament to the federal police.Henderson announced the move on Sunday evening, citing AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw’s advice that allegations of criminal conduct should be referred to the police immediately. Continue reading...

Andrew Edwards urges government in open letter to reopen talks to renegotiate an EU-wide visa system for arts workersA British opera and theatre designer has told of an “intimidating” post Brexit experience in Schiphol airport in Amsterdam which nearly cost him his first paid job since the pandemic started a year ago.Andrew Edwards says the “roadblock” he experienced is a foretaste of the “humiliation” to come once Europe reopens its borders with musicians, crews, and crafts people working in the arts now required to have paperwork to ply their trade in each country. Continue reading...

Imagination, energy and a surrealist streak have made Lakeith Stanfield one of Hollywood’s most unusual – and sought-after – stars. Here, he talks about his toughest role yetTo spread the word about his anarchic, brilliantly batshit 2018 comedy Sorry to Bother You, the actor Lakeith Stanfield adopted an anarchic, brilliantly batshit strategy. He went to one of his favourite stores, Iguana Vintage Clothing, in Los Angeles, and cleared out every wig they had. Then he drove around cinemas in Hollywood, bought tickets for the film, stashed them inside the wigs, and hid them outside the cinemas.“Then people engaged in it, on a wild goose hunt,” explains Stanfield, his voice deep and languid. “There’s a lost art in being able to have fun with a film in the release. But it was a film that I thought was fun, right? So I wanted to have fun, and I wanted people to engage in that fun with me. Also I loved the movie so much, I wanted people to see it for free.” Continue reading...

Human rights abuses cut little ice with holidaymakers who rush to the beachHow many abducted and imprisoned princesses would it take for British tourists to turn their backs on Dubai? Three? Four? Ten? Because two “disappeared” princesses doesn’t look like being enough, even now that a secretly filmed account by one of them, saying she had been captured, assaulted, drugged and repatriated, has appeared on the BBC – corroborating the fact-finding judgment of a UK judge, published a year ago.Sir Andrew McFarlane accepted, following claims by lawyers for Princess Haya, a fugitive ex-wife of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum of Dubai, vice-president of the UAE, that his daughters Latifa and Shamsa had both been forcibly returned to Dubai after escaping in 2018 and 2000 respectively. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, it emerged, was withholding information that might shed light on Shamsa’s rendition from the UK. Continue reading...

They’ve ditched the shaven heads but, despite recent setbacks, they remain a threat, says film-maker Christian SchwochowInside a university auditorium in Prague, a young man in a crisp black shirt and white trainers is railing against the pro-immigration politicians he holds responsible for a recent Islamist terror attack in Berlin. To build a safer Europe, he yells, “we have to get rid of those responsible for these murderous policies”.A woman in the crowd voices her support with a shout of “Sieg heil!”, but he is quick to shut her down: “That was yesterday.” Like-minded movements of the future will succeed by remaining outwardly respectable: “We can protect the foundations of Europe by occupying them,” he proclaims, his blue eyes sparkling, “by becoming economists, teachers, judges.” Continue reading...

As museum prepares to celebrate Lewis Carroll’s heroine, ties to mysticism and magical societies have come to light in a new work, Through a Looking Glass DarklyGreat art spawns imitation. And great weird art, it seems, spawns still weirder flights of fancy. Lewis Carroll’s twin children’s fantasies, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There have both inspired a string of adaptations, artistic and musical responses down the generations.Now, as the Victoria & Albert Museum prepares to celebrate Alice and her cultural influence in Curiouser & Curiouser, a landmark exhibition next month, a new book containing unseen original images is to expose the secrets behind the darker world of the second Alice story. Continue reading...

Campaigners call for historic sports venue in Madrid to become a world heritage site after its €38m restorationBeneath a pale-blue late-winter sky, and behind an elegant but unassuming facade, one of Madrid’s great unsung survivors sits waiting, once more, for news of the latest in a long and improbable series of metamorphoses.Since its inauguration 127 years ago, the Frontón Beti-Jai, built at the height of the Spanish capital’s love affair with the Basque game of pelota, has echoed with the crack of leather-stitched balls, with cheers, screams, the thrill of invention, the gunning of thirsty American engines and, most recently, the chirping of the birds who nested in its almost terminal decay. Continue reading...

Behind the numbers: the policy of giving as many first jabs as possible is already cutting hospital admission ratesWe should by now be familiar with the idea of a vaccine’s efficacy, but last Monday three analyses of vaccine effectiveness were published. Despite the confusing similarity, these are different concepts: efficacy is measured in tightly controlled clinical trials, effectiveness is how well a vaccine works in the messy real world.In trials, healthy volunteers are put in vaccinated and control groups at random – this ensures the groups are comparable and differences in outcomes must be due to the vaccine. If we simply compare people who have been jabbed with those who have not, they will differ in all sorts of ways: older and other higher-risk people will be first in the queue, while communities that are hesitant to be vaccinated may also be at higher risk. These confounders can lead to systemic bias in estimating effectiveness. So, studies use elaborate statistical analysis to make fair comparisons. Continue reading...

It goes against conservative instincts, but another £100bn should be spent on improving the prospects of those worst hit by CovidIt’s time we talked about “K”. Britain, it’s now commonly agreed, will be climbing out of our economic nadir in the months ahead even if the rate of recovery is unclear – but what worries thoughtful economists, notably but not only the new US treasury secretary Janet Yellen, is its Covid-dominated K character.Essentially winners from the pandemic – the better-off, hi-tech companies, leading brands, the healthy, those whose work held up over lockdown and live in prosperous neighbourhoods – are going to do even better, moving up the upward-sloping part of the K. Continue reading...

Employees at Uline, owned by billionaires Dick and Liz Uihlein, have filed numerous safety complaints, investigation findsEmployees at a private Wisconsin company owned by two top Republican donors in the US have faced significantly higher rates of Covid-19 infection and have filed numerous complaints about workplace safety to federal authorities, according to a Guardian investigation into Uline.Related: Billionaires backed Republicans who sought to reverse US election results Continue reading...

How can the west continue to do business with the man who approved Jamal Khashoggi’s murder?As details emerged of the gruesome 2018 murder in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul of the exiled dissident and journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, most observers became convinced it could not have happened without the approval of the all-powerful Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. The US intelligence report, published last week, definitively supports that conclusion.Joe Biden is to be commended for making the CIA’s findings public after they were blocked by Donald Trump. The US sanctions imposed on Saudi government employees involved in the killing, and new measures to curb foreign agents who harass dissidents abroad, are welcome. But Biden’s too-pragmatic decision not to penalise Salman himself, the plot’s ringleader, and, in effect, let him off the hook, is dismaying. Continue reading...

A year after the city was engulfed by violence, victims are harassed into silence by police and find the law has turned against themFor a year, Irfan has remained almost entirely in his house, too terrified to leave. A Muslim living in north-east Delhi, he says that his powerful Hindu neighbours, many belonging to the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), are keeping a close watch on him. Jobless and afraid, he spoke in whispers of his fear of being “eliminated” at any time.“I take a safe route to occasionally leave my house to see my lawyer,” said Irfan, who requested a pseudonym for protection. “I know that BJP leaders and their followers are after me so I move around very carefully. I have to stay alive at least to see those who attacked me are brought to justice.” Continue reading...

There’s more to the 19th-century reformer than Tommy Lee Jones’s portrayal for Spielberg. Bruce Levine’s book is a startThaddeus Stevens deserves to be better known. A leading radical Republican of the Reconstruction era, he is perhaps best known for Tommy Lee Jones’s portrayal in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln. In his new biography, though, Bruce Levine dismisses the movie’s story of Stevens and his mixed-race housekeeper Lydia Hamilton Smith as lovers by writing that “no firm evidence substantiates it”. Similarly, Jones’s line “Trust? Gentlemen, you seem to have forgotten that our chosen career is politics,” falls into the category of “too good to check”.Related: The Rope review: Ida Wells, the NAACP and a slim thread to a murder Continue reading...

Your relationship sounds unworkable and toxic, says Mariella Frostrup. Find someone you can confide in or get professional helpThe dilemma My boyfriend’s work ground to a halt as a result of the pandemic, and his weed-smoking habit has expanded within that void to become a lifestyle. He buys, sells and grows the stuff, meaning that he’s meeting strangers on a daily basis, often in our home.My initial response was anger that he could so readily endanger my health for the sake of a habit I despise. Then I began to wonder if he was struggling mentally, so I tried to be more supportive. But it became clear he is just doing it for fun (I think he thrills at the criminal element). He comes from a wealthy family and my salary is ample to cover our bills if he falls short, so this isn’t a necessary earner. Continue reading...

Explosion heard for miles around and leaves crater the size of double-decker bus

Labor leader says Scott Morrison must satisfy himself ‘the current make-up of the cabinet can continue’Anthony Albanese has said a historical rape allegation against a current cabinet minister is a “test” for Scott Morrison, who must satisfy himself it is appropriate for the man to continue in his current position.While agreeing that police were best to investigate the complaint of sexual assault, which allegedly occurred in 1988, the Labor leader argued on Sunday that Morrison must separately “assure himself … the current make-up of the cabinet can continue”. Continue reading...

Officer to undergo facial surgery after responding to a domestic violence call-out in Sydney’s south-westA police officer will undergo facial surgery after a man allegedly incited his dog to savagely attack the sergeant during a call-out in Sydney overnight.Police were called to an address in Georges Hall, near Bankstown, about 1:30am on Sunday following reports of a domestic-related incident. Continue reading...

Miller alleges bullying when media adviser while she and Tudge were in consensual affair, and during employment with CashFormer Liberal staffer Rachelle Miller has engaged lawyers to bring a workplace harassment suit against the now education minister, Alan Tudge, and employment minister, Michaelia Cash.The suit, to be run by Gordon Legal, relates to Miller’s allegations she was bullied when working as a senior media adviser while she and Tudge engaged in a consensual affair, and during her subsequent employment with Cash. Continue reading...

In a new book, Francis says he expects to die in Rome, not his native Argentina, either as ‘active or emeritus’ popePope Francis expects to die in Rome, still the Catholic pontiff, without returning to spend his final days in his native Argentina, according to a new book titled The Health of Popes.In an interview granted to Argentinian journalist and physician Nelson Castro at the Vatican in February 2019, the pope said he thinks about death, but does not fear it. Continue reading...

Head of child abuse and sex crimes squad will meet with principals to discuss ‘issue of sexual violence’The heads of hundreds of private schools across New South Wales will be briefed by the boss of the police sex crimes squad this week as the sector scrambles to address concerns raised by a new viral petition has gathered more than 3,000 testimonies of alleged sexual assault committed by high school students.The Sunday Telegraph reports the new head of the state’s child abuse and sex crimes squad, Stacey Maloney, will speak to principals from hundreds of private schools this week in a bid to address growing concerns following the release of the petition. Continue reading...

Exclusive: The street artist’s latest work saw 60 people parade through Lake Cawndilla in NSW, holding aloft enormous portraits of local farmers and leaders as they fight to save Australia’s vital river systemThe mood around Lake Cawndilla in western New South Wales on Saturday is funereal but defiant, as a procession of around 60 locals parade through scrub and sand around its banks.They carry between them a series of 30m-long cloth figures: three local citrus farmers and prominent Baakandji artist William Badger Bates. Continue reading...

Government data shows 19.6m get first jab and up to 770,000 inoculated a second time