World news | The Guardian

The French president needed to stay calm in the face of terror attacks. Instead, he has bowed to patriotic passions

Operation Green Jacket follows much criticised Operation Augusta, disbanded in 2005, which found only 57 casesNearly 500 victims of child sexual exploitation have been identified by a major police investigation in Greater Manchester.Greater Manchester police said they were aware of 480 young victims of sexual abuse and had identified more than 650 offenders dating back to the early 2000s. Continue reading...

She’s not sure of her exact age, but it doesn’t matter: the woman voted singer of the millennium stays timeless by collaborating with younger artists – and moving on from her painful pastYou often hear a praying mantis before you see it. As a child, Elza Soares always liked listening to their buzz – the noise reminded her of her own raspy register – and she tried to emulate them with her voice. Then, when carrying buckets of water on her head to and from her house, she realised she could actually sing. “When I picked them up, I’d groan and, eventually, I realised that gave off a [musical] sound. So, I continued doing it: carrying the buckets and singing.”Now 90 – though accounts vary, and even she isn’t sure of her age – Soares has evolved those buzzes and groans into one of Brazil’s most revered voices. Born in a favela slum in Rio de Janeiro to a washerwoman and a factory worker around 1930, she has recorded 36 studio albums, performed at the 2016 Olympic opening ceremony in Rio, and was voted the greatest singer of the last millennium by the BBC in 1999. She has released a string of singles this year – the newest is out this month, with the band Titãs – and still can’t bear to imagine a life without singing: “God forbid!” Continue reading...

Exclusive: report shows 23 ambulances were being used as ‘waiting rooms’ while man lay in agonyA man with terrible burns who waited an hour and 18 minutes for paramedics to reach him felt he was “left to die” after it emerged that more than 20 ambulances were being used as “waiting rooms” in local hospital car parks as he lay in agony.Company director Chris Williams-Ellis, 41, suffered 45% burns to his body in the blaze at his home in Denbighshire, north Wales, in September and remains very ill in hospital. Continue reading...

Rivals condemned Alassane Ouattara’s bid as illegal and urged supporters to stay homeAlassane Ouattara has won a third term in power in the Ivory Coast after an election boycotted by the opposition.The 78-year old president, who had once pledged to make way for a younger generation, took 94% of the vote. Two terms in office is widely seen as the limit set by the west African country’s 2016 constitution. Continue reading...

Victoria police say protesters disregarded the directions of the chief health officer by gathering for a mass rallyA policewoman was taken to hospital after she was injured when officers shut down a large anti-lockdown rally and arrested more than 400 protesters in Melbourne’s CBD.Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Victorian parliament on Tuesday to oppose the state government’s strict Covid-19 lockdowns in Melbourne that were eased last week, holding up signs that read “Tell the Truth”, “Not Happy Dan”, “Masks Don’t Work” and “Corona Hoax 1984”. Continue reading...

Mayor says relocation from current base by Tower Bridge will save £126m over 10 years

The St George Illawarra NRL player has pleaded not guilty to aggravated sexual assault at his Wollongong trialNRL star Jack de Belin raped a teenager after ignoring her protests to stop undressing her and later asked why she was being “so emotional”, a jury has been told.The St George Illawarra player, 29, and his friend Callan Sinclair, 23, have pleaded not guilty to the aggravated sexual assault of the woman, then 19, after meeting her in a Wollongong bar in December 2018. Continue reading...

Choy Yuk-ling reportedly held over film about claims of police collusion with armed thugsHong Kong police have arrested a journalist at a public broadcaster, reportedly in relation to a documentary about the 2019 Yuen Long incident, when police were accused of standing by as armed thugs attacked commuters.RTHK confirmed the arrest of Choy Yuk-ling, one of the producers of Hong Kong Connection. The respected current affairs programme investigated the police response to the attack, which left 45 people needing treatment in hospital. Continue reading...

Charles Spencer says BBC used ‘sheer dishonesty’ to secure interview with princessPrincess Diana’s brother has accused the BBC of a “whitewash” over faked bank statements that allegedly helped to secure a historic Panorama interview with his sister, and called on the corporation to carry out a formal inquiry.Charles Spencer said the BBC had used “sheer dishonesty” to win the trust of Diana, Princess of Wales, for the interview with Martin Bashir. Continue reading...

Wartime relics need to be cleared for wind farms but explosions can kill cetaceansThe detonation of wartime bombs left on the seafloor around the UK must end to stop the deaths of whales and dolphins, campaigners say.The offshore wind industry is expanding rapidly and this may lead to a sharp rise in such explosions as the seafloor is cleared before construction. A quieter “burning” technique is already available, say the campaigners. Continue reading...

Firms are scrambling to put staff back on the scheme but it is too late for those made redundantCompanies are scrambling to put staff back on furlough after the scheme was due to close at the end of October but will now continue throughout this month amid new lockdowns. However, for those already made redundant it is too late. Continue reading...

Military says Kiwis will be disappointed if they haven’t prebooked a place as hotels approach capacityNew Zealand’s quarantine hotels are approaching capacity as the military warns there may not be room to house Kiwis planning to return home for Christmas.Some 65,000 people have passed through New Zealand’s quarantine hotels since the borders closed in mid-March. Despite the facilities generally being four- and five-star establishments, there have been multiple escape attempts from them, and they have been denounced by a conservative US television host as “Covid camps”. Continue reading...

A wounded three-year-old girl was rescued in the Turkish city of İzmir on Monday, days after a powerful earthquake hit the country’s Aegean coast. Elif Perinçek was pulled from debris nearly 65 hours after the quake.Muammer Celik, one of the firefighters who saved Elif, said that when he reached her, she was lying motionless, and he thought she was dead. But as he reached out to wipe the dust off her face, the girl grabbed his thumb. ‘She opened her eyes. I froze,’ he said.

Papers show secret cooperation as ‘scruffy’ officers spied on anti-war protestersThe security service MI5 worked closely with undercover police officers to infiltrate the campaign against the Vietnam war, documents released to a public inquiry have disclosed.Senior Scotland Yard officers told MI5 that they had deployed what they called “bearded and unwashed” male officers and “scruffy” female officers to spy on the campaign in the late 1960s. Continue reading...

My stepfather, Michael Booth, who has died aged 87, was called up for national service in the Royal Navy in 1952 and enjoyed it so much that he took on a permanent commission, spending most of the rest of his working life as a navy officer.Michael was born in Guildford, Surrey, to Frank Booth, an engineer, and his wife, Mary (nee Gelstharp), a silversmith. In 1940 he and his younger brother, Richard, were evacuated to the US on board the Cunard liner Scythia. On returning to the UK five years later he went to Guildford grammar school. Continue reading...

More under-18s seeking asylum likely to be affected by ruling against Hillingdon councilThe high court has ruled that unaccompanied child migrants cannot be placed in adult hotel accommodation after three young asylum seekers won the right to be placed in the care of social services in the first case of its kind.The three, who cannot be identified, say they are 17 years old. They arrived in the UK in July and August 2020. Continue reading...

From former Tory ministers to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, the key figures standing against a second lockdown

A metro train that overran the stop blocks at a station outside Rotterdam has been left balancing 10 metres above ground on the plastic tail of a whale sculpture. The metro driver was reportedly able to free himself from the train without injury after the incident shortly after midnight on Monday morning. There were no passengers onboard

Businessman Vladimir Marugov found dead after intruders broke into his home

Local community plans to create nature reserve and regeneration project

Footage of a pianist in Barcelona playing a rendition of the Bangles' hit Eternal Flame amid the sound of explosions, wailing sirens and protesters has gone viral on social media.Peter William Geddes, who was playing in Plaça Nova on 31 October, said as the violence escalated in the background he felt peaceful: 'When I play I am very calm. No nerves.'Anti-lockdown protests have been escalating across Europe as many countries head into more stringent Covid-19 lockdowns Continue reading...

Douglas Ross calls for mayors and devolved administrations to have seats in House of LordsDouglas Ross, the Scottish Tory leader, has attacked over-centralisation by Westminster and called for English mayors and devolved administrations to be given seats in a reformed House of Lords.In his first major speech since becoming Scottish Tory leader, Ross said there was mounting evidence “trust has broken down” between Boris Johnson’s government and the leaders of the UK’s nations and regions during the Covid crisis and the Brexit transition process. Continue reading...

New restrictions have begun across Europe, many greeted by protests

Dr Basem Enany has treated many coronavirus patients but believes he faces removal from the UK

British-Iranian dual national in court to hear fresh charges of undermining Iranian stateThe detained British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has avoided being sent back to jail after after appearing in court to hear fresh charges of undermining the Iranian state.There had been fears that she would be sent back to Evin prison in Tehran but the hearing was adjourned before she could present her defence, her British-based family told her local MP, Tulip Siddiq. Continue reading...

Micheline Roquebrune says the late James Bond actor’s dementia ‘took its toll on him’Sean Connery had dementia in his final months, his wife, Micheline Roquebrune, has revealed.Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, Roquebrune said: “He had dementia and it took its toll on him. He got his final wish to slip away without any fuss.” Continue reading...

In 1936, a school group from south London went on a hike in the Black Forest. Despite the heroic rescue attempts of German villagers, five boys died. Eighty years on, locals are still asking how it happened. By Kate Connolly Continue reading...

Pirates of Caribbean actor had sued newspaper publisher for damage to his reputationThe Hollywood actor Johnny Depp has lost his high-stakes libel action in the London courts against the Sun after the newspaper described him as a “wife beater”.The high court dismissed the claim by the Pirates of the Caribbean star for compensation at the end of one of the most widely followed libel trials of the century. Continue reading...

Mark Drakeford said Wales’s Covid firebreak, ending in a week, would not be extended

Former Mosman swimming teacher Kyle Daniels is facing a jury trial accused of touching nine of his students on or near their genitalsA young girl who accused her swimming teacher of inappropriately touching her twice asked why anyone would have done so on purpose, a Sydney jury has heard.During a police interview this year the girl said her former swimming instructor, Kyle James Henk Daniels, “accidentally touched my part you’re not allowed to”. Continue reading...

Donald Trump has threatened to fire America’s top infectious disease expert during a rally in Florida, just 24 hours before the US presidential election.Anthony Fauci has served for more than three decades as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and has been critical of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak. During the midnight rally in Florida, crowds chanted: ‘Fire Fauci!’, which the president allowed to continue for several seconds before responding: ‘Don’t tell anybody, but let me wait until a little bit after the election.’

Chadema leader arrested alongside former politicians as opposition calls for protests against election outcome

Catchy children’s song reaches 7.04bn views, over four years after it was first uploadedBaby Shark, the cute and ultra-catchy children’s song recorded by South Korean company Pinkfong, has become the most viewed video ever on YouTube.At 7.04bn views, it edges past Despacito, the 2017 single by Puerto Rican pop stars Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee. Continue reading...

Government to earmark money to explore revamps in a departure from funding large stadium upgradesThe New South Wales budget will include funding for planning work on Sydney suburban stadiums, including in Kogarah, but the government says it is not yet ready to designate money to specific boutique projects.It is understood the 17 November budget will earmark between $2m and $3m over the next two years as a means of exploring a business case for revamping the city’s sporting infrastructure to create jobs and economic growth. Continue reading...

Companies that cut hours of older workers to hire younger staff could be in breach of scheme’s rules, Treasury saysEmployers who tell older workers not to apply for jobs they intend to create with jobmaker wage subsidies for young employees may be protected from discrimination law, according to the Treasury.Officials told a Senate inquiry into the jobmaker hiring credits bill on Monday that exemptions in the Age Discrimination Act could protect employers in such cases, a position supported by the Australian Human Rights Commission, although both said employers needed to seek their own legal advice. Continue reading...

Indonesia’s Citarum is relied upon by millions, but decades of pollution have choked it with chemicals and rubbish

Holgate says she regrets that decision to give watches ‘caused so much debate and distraction’; Deb Frecklington quits as Queensland LNP leader; and Christian Porter flags plan for federal integrity commission

Minority ethnic network urges Holyrood to ‘do things differently’ and extend support

Trial judge to deliver long-awaited ruling online in case between actor and the Sun newspaper

The non-binary photographer chronicles the harsh realities of life for LGBTQ+ people in a hostile country. Ahead of a major Tate show, the artist reveals why ‘just existing is political’Amid the plethora of essays in the catalogue for Zanele Muholi’s forthcoming retrospective at Tate Modern, there is a moving testimony by Lungile Dladla, a South African lesbian. Entitled I Am Not a Victim but a Victor, it recounts how, on an evening in February 2010, she and a friend were accosted by an armed stranger, who ushered them into a field and ordered them to lie face down with their hands behind their backs.“We did as told,” she writes, “because we feared for our lives as he had a gun in his hand and threatened to use it if we did not do as he said. He undressed us and said, ‘Today ngizoni khipha ubutabane.’” (“Today I will rid you of this gayness.”) Continue reading...

Exclusive: Liz Truss urged to sign off deals quickly to spare African states high tariffs once Brexit transition period endsThe Labour party has urged the UK trade secretary, Liz Truss, to end delays over rollover deals with Kenya and Ghana to prevent them being slapped with high tariffs when the UK leaves the EU on 1 January.Negotiations with Kenya and Ghana have yet to be signed off with only nine weeks to go before the UK’s transition deal with the EU comes to an end, when import charges would be imposed on goods worth £2.6bn from the African countries. Continue reading...

Fears president will declare himself a winner prematurely amid ongoing legal challenges in some statesWelcome to today’s US election briefing for Australia.If this were a normal presidential campaign, you might expect the final days to be about polling, last-minute trips to swing states and the candidates’ closing pitch to voters. But this isn’t a normal presidential campaign, obviously. Continue reading...

Buckland in the Moor, Devon: An unpromising wheat harvest results in scruffy raw material for thatchers this year, but looks aren’t everythingIt began life as a cow shed. The low building at the edge of St Peter’s Church in Buckland in the Moor looks unremarkable enough – rough granite walls, a simple roof of Devon wheat – yet it is believed to be the only surviving thatched vestry in the country.I am here to repair the roof. The church treasurer, Patrick Watson, shows me inside to inspect the damp around the chimney; he explains that the building probably began its second life as a vestry in the second half of the 19th century. We shine our torches up on to crooked hazel battens and a basecoat (underlayer) of wheat as old as the building. Continue reading...

Restitutions committee members have links to the Stedelijk Museum, which houses the Kandinsky workA Jewish family, suing for the return of a €20m (£18m) painting by Wassily Kandinsky obtained by Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, has accused an official advisory committee of bias after ruling against them.Lawyers acting for the heirs to Robert Lewenstein, who fled for France in 1940, told an Amsterdam court there was an “appearance of partiality and a conflict of interest” within the Netherlands’ restitutions committee, which advises on the return of art lost by Jewish families during the second world war. Continue reading...

Tourists can return to crumbling resort in northern Cyprus – but Turkey’s involvement has caused angerPavlos Iakovou was 17 when he met his wife, Tuolla, at the Edelweiss cafe in Famagusta, the fashionable Cypriot holiday resort where his family owned a hotel. Last week, the couple returned to some of their old haunts in the abandoned quarter of Varosha, or Maraş in Turkish, for the first time in 46 years.Sealed off as a militarised zone and untouched since 1974, when Turkey invaded following a Greek coup, the decaying slice of 1970s glamour is now open again to visitors – Greek Cypriots included. Continue reading...

Volcanic mudflows bury houses before powerful winds weaken as storm blows towards ManilaA powerful super typhoon has slammed into the eastern Philippines, killing at least 10 people and causing volcanic mudflows to bury houses before weakening as it blew towards Manila, where the capital’s main airport was shut down, according to officials.Typhoon Goni hit the island province of Catanduanes at dawn on Sunday with sustained winds of 140mph (225km/h) and gusts of 174mph. It was heading west towards densely populated regions, including Manila, and rain-soaked provinces still recovering from a typhoon last week that left at least 22 people dead. Continue reading...

Bookshop.org, which launched in the US earlier this year, has accelerated UK plans and goes online this week in partnership with more than 130 shops

Journalist was reportedly admitted to hospital after suffering a suspected strokeThe veteran British foreign correspondent Robert Fisk has died at the age of 74.The journalist and author was reportedly admitted to St Vincent’s hospital in Dublin after becoming unwell on Friday. A source at the Independent, where Fisk was Middle East correspondent, confirmed the news of his death. Continue reading...