France, Germany, Spain and Italy have all posted record rises in GDP, but the region is still below its pre-pandemic levels

Incident off the coast of Senegal is the deadliest shipwreck recorded so far this year

A powerful earthquake in the Aegean Sea has toppled buildings in the Turkish city of İzmir and caused damage in several Greek islands

Witnesses capture the moment a building falls in the city of Izmir during a magnitude 6.6 earthquake in Turkey's Aegean region on Friday. The nation's disaster agency said the quake occurred at 2.51pm at a depth of 10 miles (16.5km)• Powerful earthqake rocks Turkish coast and Greek islands Continue reading...

Iranian man held on suspicion of manslaughter following deaths of at least four people

With admissions rising, the photojournalist Jonny Weeks returns to University hospital in Coventry to see how it is coping with the start of the second waveDuring the typical evening bustle of the critical care unit at University hospital, Coventry, two construction workers are hoisting temporary polythene walls into position, dividing the ward into two. Behind them, a young nurse wearing an unconventional mask – one which cloaks her entire head – is providing life-saving care to an unconscious patient.The second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has hit the Midlands, with Coventry imposing tier 2 restrictions last week. Plans for a possible surge in admissions to University hospital are being swiftly implemented. Continue reading...

Army will assist 20,000 medical staff in three-week programme aiming to reach 4m adults

This fascinating documentary about extraordinary finds makes a clear statement about the reclamation of Egypt’s heritageThe “secrets” here are in fact well known, having made headline news across the world in 2019: the discovery in the Saqqara necropolis, just outside Cairo, of scores of mummified animals, including a lion cub, and an untouched tomb from the 25th century BC. But what makes this an exceptional documentary is the focus on the entirely Egyptian archaeological team, doing their bit in a quiet way to decolonise Egyptology and to demonstrate the emotional connection between the locals and the ancient civilisation they are unearthing.In truth, excavating the pharaonic monuments has always been a multinational affair, with dig teams from all over the world pitching in. But the dominant images of British chaps in pith helmets or the Indiana Jones-style maverick are hard to dispel; this film’s aim, apart from simple wonderment at what the excavators find, is to assert Egyptian ownership of the country’s heritage and history. Continue reading...

47-year-old is said to have been in touch with alleged knifeman hours before attackPolice in Nice are questioning a 47-year-old man who is reported to have been in contact with the suspected basilica knifeman hours before the attack that left three people dead.The man was taken into custody late on Thursday evening. Police have given no more details and say there is currently no evidence that the knifeman had an accomplice. The suspected attacker, 21-year-old Tunisian man Brahim Aouissaoui, was shot by police and is in a serious condition in hospital in Nice. Continue reading...

Support payment for people waiting decision on asylum application rises to £5.66 a day

Figures of the ‘wise woman’ Cailleach deity and her family are part of a tradition that may be centuries oldThe stone family huddle by their turf-roofed shelter, looking eastwards to the shrouded summit of Meall Daill, Perthshire, as the mists roll down from the burnt orange mountainside. The tallest of the figures, still under a foot in height, is a water-worn rock with a feminine torso and slim neck. She is the Cailleach: a seasonal deity in Gaelic mythology who bestrides the winter months, known variously as an earth-shaper, wise woman, storm-raiser and mistress of deer. Around her are ranged her husband, the Bodach, and their children.This weekend, at Samhain, the Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season, according to a modest local custom that may span centuries, the figures will be returned to their quartz-studded shieling – a basic shepherd’s hut – to spend the winter months undercover. They will be brought back outside, as they are every year, around Beltane, next May. Continue reading...

Studies in the Baltic state moved seamlessly online thanks to its early adoption of education technology

Following a preliminary investigation the government said ‘those responsible have been referred to the public prosecution office’The Qatari government says those responsible for the intimate medical examinations of women at Doha airport did not follow standard procedures and have been referred to the public prosecution office.Women on 10 flights – including 18 women bound for Sydney – were searched in early October after a newborn baby was found dumped in the terminal. The government on Friday said a preliminary investigation into the “attempted murder” of the infant, and subsequent actions taken by airport authorities, had found “standard procedures were violated”. Continue reading...

Complaints of ‘white saviourism’ and harassment at the group led to the review, which found no individual responsibleThe results of an investigation into allegations of racism and harassment at one of the world’s most high profile women’s rights organisations has been described as a “slap in the face” to those who complained.Investigators concluded this week that no single person was responsible for the “challenges” at the group, Women Deliver, which had undergone a period of rapid growth “during which its policies and practices lagged behind”. The report added the workplace culture had been “too demanding, urgent, and high-pressure”. Continue reading...

We would like to hear from people who have been tested for Covid-19 in England during the past two weeks. Share your storiesWe would like to hear from people who have been tested for coronavirus in England during the last two weeks. Continue reading...

Labour leader says it is theoretically possible former leader could be expelled from partyKeir Starmer has said Jeremy Corbyn could have predicted that his decision to play down the extent of antisemitism in Labour would lead to disciplinary action, and added that it was theoretically possible the former leader could be expelled from the party.In a round of media interviews as Labour descended into infighting following Corbyn’s suspension for saying that antisemitism in Labour had been “dramatically overstated for political reasons”, Starmer insisted he had had nothing to do with this disciplinary process. Continue reading...

A summary of the major developments in the coronavirus outbreak across the country

Miguel Simões Leal adopted his alias because of a physical likeness but he’s not the only candidate with a familiar moniker“I’d vote Biden,” Trump said as he pondered Tuesday’s era-shaping election.Not the real Donald Trump, of course, but his South American namesake – a 49-year-old politician from Brazil’s Amazon who is running for office using the name of a US president he reviles. Continue reading...

Mark McGowan announces a relaxation of border rules as Annastacia Palaszczuk says Queensland border will stay closed to Victoria and greater Sydney. This blog is now closed

A girl longs for her absent mother in this frank, witty tale about power and gender roles from the author of KintuKirabo is an inquisitive child. She has even more unanswered questions than other girls in the run-up to puberty, the greatest and most mysterious of which is: “Who is my mother?” In the small Ugandan village of Nattetta, nobody seems to want to tell her, least of all the grandparents who have loved and protected her throughout her life; fleeting visits from her father, Tom, who is busy making his mark in Kampala, yield no further insight. So Kirabo, already unsettled by her ability to depart her body and soar above her neighbourhood, decides to consult the village witch, Nsuuta.Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s first novel, Kintu, explored the complex effects of masculinity and its limitations on the relationship between fathers and sons; its canvas took in both the pre-colonial period and its long-lasting legacy. Vivid and ambitious, it suggested a writer unafraid to juxtapose past and present, the mythological and the modern - a scope that Makumbi reprises in her second novel. Here, she focuses on the origin myths of motherhood, the contested ground of women’s sexuality and the intersection between personal, public and political power, in a style that is frank, funny and direct. Beginning in 1975, in the middle of Idi Amin’s dictatorship, the story captures the surrealism of living in unpredictable and violent times, folding awareness of vast events into the minutiae of daily life. Continue reading...

A growing tribe in Japan are defying deeply held prejudices linking tattoos with crime, turning their bodies into palettes of colour with elaborate designs, often featuring characters from traditional fables Continue reading...

In time for Halloween, Guardian writers have picked out their favourite underseen scary movies, from Brazil’s first horror film to a found footage gem Continue reading...

Scheme designed to resettle about 5,000 refugees a year is currently suspended due to pandemicThe UK government needs to urgently restart its resettlement scheme after two young children and their parents died while trying to cross the Channel, the UN refugee agency’s UK representative has said.Iranian Kurds Rasul Iran Nezhad and his wife, Shiva Mohammad Panahi, both 35, and two of their children, Anita, nine, and Armin, six, drowned on Tuesday as they tried to reach Britain by boat. The fate of the family’s third child, 15-month-old Artin, is unknown. Continue reading...

President claims his own people want him to talk more about the economy and less about Hunter Biden

Leaders from the UK, US and Middle East express solidarity with France as soldiers are deployed to guard schools and churchesLeaders from around the world have offered condolences and expressed their solidarity with the people of France after the nation suffered a second suspected Islamist extremist attack on its soil in a fortnight.President Emmanuel Macron said France was “under attack” in the wake of the killings inside the Notre-Dame basilica in the coastal city of Nice on Thursday which left three worshippers dead, but he vowed the French people would “not give in to any terror” in fighting intolerance. Continue reading...

Thursday’s traffic was 30% higher than the previous record as people headed out to escape lockdown and others headed back from half-term holidaysA dash by Parisians to either escape the new national lockdown or scramble back to the French capital to prepare for the restrictions caused record traffic jams on Thursday night.The movement in and out of the city created a record 706km of traffic on roads in the region by 6pm, according to France’s traffic department. Continue reading...

Report into the apocalyptic 2019-20 bushfires says Australia must radically change its approach to fighting fires under new climate conditionsAustralia’s bushfire disaster last summer was just a glimpse of what global heating will deliver to the country in the future, with major changes needed to the way the nation responds, according to the final report of the royal commission.The royal commission has made 80 recommendations, including calls for a more co-ordinated approach and new legislation to allow the prime minister to declare a national state of emergency. Continue reading...

Reports predict Keir Starmer will face a ‘civil war’ after moving against his leftwing predecessor, while others focus on ‘day of shame’Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s suspension of his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, in response to the long-awaited report on an investigation into antisemitism in the party dominates the front pages today.The Guardian’s front page reports that Labour has been “plunged into crisis” after Corbyn was suspended for saying antisemitism within the party was “dramatically overstated for political reasons”. The paper adds that the decision to suspend the leftwinger has “led to rumours of a split”. Continue reading...

Moore-Gilbert, who has Australian and British citizenship, had been held in Qarchak, widely regarded as the worst female prison in IranThe detained British-Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert has been moved back to Tehran’s Evin prison, sources with knowledge of her case have confirmed to the Guardian.Moore-Gilbert is understood to be back in the secretive ward 2A of Tehran’s largest prison, where she had spent much of the past two years under the control of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Continue reading...

Results must be enacted by the new Labour government by November 2021, but second referendum on legalising cannabis fails to find supportNew Zealanders have voted to legalise euthanasia for those with a terminal illness, in a victory for campaigners who say people suffering extreme pain should be given a choice over how and when to bring their life to a close.The decision on whether to legalise euthanasia appeared as a referendum question on the 17 October general election ballot paper, alongside a second referendum question on whether to legalise cannabis – which did not succeed, according to preliminary results. Continue reading...

Former party leader has whip removed over comments following publication of Equality and Human Rights Commission inquiry

Friday: French president says the country will not give in to terror after three people were killed in a Nice church. Plus: how to escape to the countryGood morning, this is Imogen Dewey bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Friday 30 October. Continue reading...

Former party leader said problem of antisemitism within Labour was ‘dramatically overstated for political reasons’Labour was plunged into turmoil after the party suspended Keir Starmer’s predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, in the wake of a damning report into antisemitism that found the party responsible for unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination.The decision to suspend Corbyn for saying the problem of antisemitism within Labour was “dramatically overstated for political reasons” by opponents and the media sent shockwaves through the party and led to rumours of a split. Continue reading...

Jessica Lee-Hayes, 15, and her cousin, Michael Connelly, 13, fell on to rocks after rope snappedGreek judicial authorities have ordered an official investigation into a parasailing accident off Rhodes after two British teenagers died and a third was left in a critical condition.The victims were named locally as 15-year-old Jessica Lee-Hayes and her 13-year-old cousin Michael Connelly. Doctors said the boy’s older brother, James, 15, was fighting for his life in Rhodes general hospital after being severely injured in the fall. Continue reading...

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said on Thursday that he would step up the deployment of soldiers to protect places of worship and schools after a knife attack in Nice in which three people were killed. Speaking from the scene, a defiant Macron said France had been attacked ‘because of our values, our taste for freedom, the possibility there is here to believe freely’

The loss of an Iranian family in the Channel has renewed calls for a legal route to the UKThe call came on Tuesday night in Iran. “A friend of mine in the UK, who had crossed the Channel a week ago, told me some people from Sardasht had died in the water,” says Hawkar Iran Nezhad. “Then he told me the names.”The latest of almost 300 asylum seekers to die crossing the Channel over the past two decades were his cousin Rasul Iran Nezhad, his wife, Shiva Mohammad Panahi, both 35, and their children: Anita, nine, Armin, six, and 15-month-old Artin, who is still missing. Continue reading...

Confidential request by duchess delays case against Mail on Sunday as father tells of ill health

France will not give in to terrorism, Emmanuel Macron has said in a call for firmness and unity after the country’s latest terrorist attack left three people dead.On Thursday morning, a man armed with a knife killed two women and a man at the Notre-Dame Basilica in the city centre of Nice on the Côte d’Azur

European commission president says key issues are level playing field and fisheriesTrade and security negotiations between the UK and the EU are making good progress, Ursula von der Leyen has said in the most optimistic comments to date on the state of the Brexit talks.As the negotiations moved to Brussels after seven days in London, the European commission president said: “We’re making good progress but [there are] two critical issues: level playing field and the fisheries, [where] we would like to see more progress. Continue reading...

A ghost cop pursues the man who murdered him in a well-meaning spoof that trips itself up in the final actThe ghost of a cop refuses to pass to the other side until he catches the serial killer responsible for his murder in this cheerfully silly low-budget comedy horror from New Zealand. It doesn’t quite pull it off as a spoofy send-up – there are too few laughs and no scares. But director Hayden J Weal (he was Martin Freeman’s body double in all three Hobbit films) gives a well-tuned comic performance as the policeman, appearing at first glance to be standard-issue ramrod cop but actually more interesting and far sweeter.Weal plays officer Jason Tagg, who was stabbed to death in the line of duty while giving chase to a hoodie-wearing masked serial killer – he is victim No 7. While jumping over a fence in pursuit, Tagg’s police-issue trousers were ripped clean off. So in death he walks around wearing pink underpants. His only hope of bringing his killer to justice is a clueless stoner called Marbles (Thomas Sainsbury), who has accidentally discovered a way to see ghosts: his technique involves injecting himself with a cocktail of neurological medication and marijuana. Continue reading...

Findings come as chancellor is told new support measures not enough to protect jobs or firms

Of 25 nations in the YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project only three others had higher levels of trust, while support for conspiracy theories is at just 5%

Exclusive: Figures from 32 forces show 15% fall in crime and 12.5% increase in use of force from April to JunePolice officers deploying the use of force against members of the public was higher at the height of lockdown than in the previous three months despite crime rates falling significantly, it can be revealed.Analysis by Liberty Investigates and the Guardian of figures obtained through freedom of information laws from 32 police forces in England and Wales shows there were almost 20,000 more recorded instances of uses of force by officers, an increase of 12.5%. From April to June there were 163,749 instances compared with 145,543 from January to March. Continue reading...

Those subject to level 3 controls from Monday will be advised stay within council area

Eyewitness video captured the sound of gunfire as police responded at the scene of a deadly church attack in the French city of Nice on Thursday. A man armed with a knife has killed three people – two women and a man – during the terrorist attack inside the Notre-Dame Basilica in the city centre. Police described the scene as a 'vision of horror'. The mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, said the attacker had said 'Allahu Akbar' several times while he was being arrested and handcuffed by police

Spanish government trying to increase capacity and stop hundreds of deaths at sea, says migration secretarySpain’s migration secretary has acknowledged that the Canary Islands are struggling to cope with the arrival of more than 11,000 migrants so far this year, but says the government is working to increase reception capacity, manage migration and stop people dying at sea.The Spanish archipelago, which lies off the coast of north-west Africa, has experienced a massive rise in arrivals compared with last year, which has left resources strained, people sleeping on docks, and the regional government saying it has been overwhelmed. Continue reading...

Incident comes amid heightened anti-France sentiment across Muslim worldSaudi Arabian police have arrested a man outside the French consulate in Jeddah after he allegedly stabbed a guard, amid heightened anti-France sentiment across the Muslim world and apparent terrorist attacks in two French cities.The Saudi national used a “sharp tool” to injure the guard, who is receiving treatment in hospital, the Saudi Press Agency said. Continue reading...

Delhi seeking geographical indication status for its basmati rice, angering IslamabadA new ingredient has been added to the boiling pot that is the relationship between India and Pakistan: basmati rice. Pakistan’s government has vowed to “vehemently” oppose an application by India for the long-grain aromatic rice to be recognised by the EU as being grown exclusively in specific regions of the Indian subcontinent.Since 2006, the EU has applied zero tariffs on rice imported into the bloc’s member states that has been authenticated by either Pakistani or Indian authorities as being truly basmati. Around two-thirds of basmati imports to the EU are from India and the rest from its northern neighbour. Continue reading...

Suspect shot and injured by police after attack in church in southern French cityA man armed with a knife has killed three people – two women and a man – in a terrorist attack at a church in Nice on the Côte d’Azur.The killings happened at 9am on Thursday inside the Notre-Dame Basilica in the city centre. Continue reading...

Authors, booksellers and publishers appeal to government for special status so ‘social confinement does not also become cultural isolation’French authors, booksellers and publishers are imploring the French government to allow bookshops to stay open because reading is “essential”, as the country enters a national four-week lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus.France’s second lockdown, announced on Wednesday evening by president Emmanuel Macron, begins at midnight on Thursday. Macron said he hoped it would put a “brutal brake” on the infection rate, as France is “submerged by the acceleration of the spread of the virus”. All non-essential businesses, including bars and restaurants, are to close, while individuals will require sworn declarations to leave home. Continue reading...