Exclusive: government documents suggest potential pub closures and stricter social contact rules

Trio from Northern Ireland reportedly found unconscious in apartment in BodrumA Northern Irish man has died and two of his friends were left critically ill after a dental treatment trip to Turkey, it is understood.The trio, who are believed to be in their late 20s or early 30s and were described by their MP as “three fit and healthy young lads”, were found in the Turkish resort city of Bodrum on Saturday. Continue reading...

French and Italian rescue services have stepped up search efforts after floods cut off several villages near the two countries’ border, causing widespread damage. Eight people were unaccounted for on the French side of the border after storms, torrential rain and flash floods washed away homes and roads

Human rights groups decry home secretary’s plan to stop ‘endless legal claims’Priti Patel has called the asylum system “fundamentally broken” and promised new laws to deny asylum to those using illegal routes to enter the UK, causing dismay among human rights groups.Speaking at the Conservative party conference, the home secretary said she would bring in legislation next year to stop “endless legal claims” from refused asylum seekers and was willing to face “being unpopular on Twitter” in order to bring claims down. Continue reading...

Boris Johnson rejects idea UK will be locked into rolling lockdowns for years to come; 210 people in hospital in Scotland with coronavirus

Thousands of jobs at risk as cinema chain warns Covid-19 crisis has made sector ‘unviable’Britain’s biggest cinema chain is considering shutting all its UK and US venues temporarily, after the release of the latest James Bond film was put back to next year.Cineworld, which owns the Regal cinema and Picturehouse chains, said in a statement on Sunday: “We can confirm we are considering the temporary closure of our UK and US cinemas, but a final decision has not yet been reached. Once a decision has been made we will update all staff and customers as soon as we can.” Continue reading...

Exclusive: Royal College of GPs is seeking assurances that enough doses are available

Coronavirus key workers and volunteers also to be included in 2020 list, say reports

Vorayuth Yoovidhya faces fresh charges after public outrage led to further investigationsInterpol has issued a “red notice” to arrest the fugitive Thai heir to the Red Bull billions over his role in a fatal hit-and-run incident in Bangkok, police have said.The move by the international police organisation is the latest in the years-long saga surrounding Vorayuth “Boss” Yoovidhya who crashed his Ferrari in 2012, killing a police officer. Continue reading...

Sébastien Klem taking employer to industrial tribunal, but ex-colleagues dispute version of events

Letter addressed to whole of Catholic church urges nations to work towards a just world

Zambia could become the first country to default on its debts amid the fallout from Covid-19, but it won’t be the lastZambia is running out of money to pay its debts. It has asked bondholders for breathing space so that it can put a restructuring plan in place. The copper-rich African state is at risk of being the first country to default on its debts since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.Not the last though. Zambia is the canary in the coalmine, a harbinger of a full-blown crisis that has been lurking in the background from the moment the seriousness of Covid-19 became apparent. Continue reading...

Boris Johnson has said the UK's coronavirus restrictions could continue beyond Christmas in a sobering interview on the Andrew Marr Show. The prime minister said the outlook would be very different by spring 2021, but that things would 'continue to be bumpy through to Christmas, it may even be bumpy beyond' Continue reading...

Densely populated Campania declared itself Covid-free in June, but concerns are mounting again

Under Trump, the US has taken a back seat on many major international issues, compared to previous administrationsHeadlines last week that the presidents of Russia and France were jointly calling for a ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh were “heartbreaking” to Carey Cavanaugh, a former US ambassador charged with helping to resolve the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.Partly it was because they meant the century-old dispute had flared up again, killing more than 400 people so far, including more than a dozen civilians. But it was also because the US – which, along with France and Russia, forms the OSCE Minsk Group, a troika that has worked to end the conflict since 1993 – was missing from the statement. Continue reading...

Tory MPs argued a tweet on a trade bill amendment in July broke impartiality rulesThe House of Commons Twitter account has been banned from tweeting the results of votes after Tory MPs complained it was breaking impartiality rules when one tweet went viral, the Guardian has learned.Set up in 2012, the Commons account has been used to inform the public about procedures and policies of the House, share information about upcoming events and debates, and post the outcome of divisions. Continue reading...

Centre Alliance’s Stirling Griff and Rebekah Sharkie still talking to Coalition about possible package they could supportSenators Sarah Hanson-Young and Rex Patrick are urging Patrick’s former Centre Alliance colleagues to sink the Morrison government’s controversial higher education funding changes, declaring the package will harm the prospects of young people in South Australia.Last week the Tasmanian independent Jacqui Lambie confirmed she would vote against the package that increases fees for some university courses, including humanities, to fund fee cuts for other courses such as sciences and an overall cut in the government contribution from 58% to 52%. Continue reading...

Actor sets ‘the record straight’ on Desert Island Discs over incident growing up in care that led her to spend three nights in cellThe English actress Samantha Morton, star of the hit television series Harlots and The Walking Dead, has publicly apologised for threatening the life of a young girl with a knife when she was 14.Morton, 43, said she wanted to “set the record straight a little bit” on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. The Oscar-nominated star was “incredibly sorry” about the incident, which led to her being charged with attempted murder and spending three days in solitary confinement in an adult cell block. She was convicted of threats to kill after she had confronted an older girl who had been bullying at the care home where they both lived. Continue reading...

The Booker prize-winning novelist answers questions from famous admirers and readers on Thomas Cromwell, ghosts and her writing processAs soon as the third volume of her Wolf Hall trilogy was out in the world, Hilary Mantel returned to her Devon study to give The Mirror and the Light a new life as a play, in a remote script-writing partnership with actor Ben Miles. The first reading is due to take place this week, but, without being able to meet face to face, it’s been a long haul, she says. They’ve collaborated by email, “so we have had to be very good clerks to each other”.Decades before Mantel became one of the world’s best-known novelists, she combined the hard and penurious graft of fiction with the relatively easy rewards of life as a literary hack. “I have no critical training whatsoever so I am forced to be more brisk and breezy than scholarly,” she wrote to Karl Miller, editor of the London Review of Books, in 1987. Continue reading...

Reductions in government support as the original furlough scheme ends point towards a brutal round of redundanciesThe UK economy continued its rapid rebound from the depths of the coronavirus lockdown in August, the latest official data on growth is expected to show on Friday, but many economists are braced for a grim winter as job losses mount.The Bank of England’s chief economist, Andy Haldane, predicted last week that GDP would be “only around 3-4% below its pre-Covid level” by the end of the third quarter, covering July to September. Continue reading...

Emergency services have worked for two days to secure 180-megalitre dam in Torquay south-west of MelbourneEmergency services have told 100 people living in a coastal Victorian town they are able to return home after volunteers worked for two days to secure a 180-megalitre private dam that was found to be leaking on Friday.Volunteers knocked on doors at over 40 homes in Torquay, about 80km south-west of Melbourne, on Saturday afternoon telling 109 people to leave due to fears the privately owned dam could burst. Continue reading...

Delivering migrants to an offshore location is more about spectacle than solutionDump them on Ascension Island. Or in Moldova. Imprison them in disused ferries. Build “marine fences” across the Channel. Deploy water cannons to make huge waves to swamp their boats.And so it goes on. All apparently ideas from Home Office “brainstorming” sessions on how to deal with asylum seekers and cross-Channel undocumented migrants. Continue reading...

As virtual party conference gets under way, Tories rebel on both wings and PM’s popularity plunges to a record low

Shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers signals opposition but says party needs to see measures in detail before taking positionLabor has signalled it remains opposed to tax cuts for high-income earners if the Morrison government brings its stage three changes forward in Tuesday’s budget.But the shadow treasurer, Jim Chalmers, on Sunday left open the prospect of voting for the proposal if the government rolled up the budget tax cuts as a package. He said Labor needed to see the measures in detail before taking a position. Continue reading...

President says next few days will be the ‘real test’ as he battles Covid-19

Donald Trump has posted his first video message from Walter Reed hospital, saying: 'I came here, wasn’t feeling so well. I feel much better now. We’re working hard to get me all the way back ... I’ll be back, I think I’ll be back soon.'During the four-minute video posted to Twitter, the president said that he could have stayed isolated at the White House after his Covid-19 diagnosis, but that he 'can't be locked up in a room and totally safe' - adding that 'as a leader you have to confront problems'.Trump acknowledged that the 'next few days will be the real test' and said the first lady, Melania Trump, who also tested positive for coronavirus, was 'really handling it very nicely' – with the president joking about their 24-year age gap during his video message

Former top civil servant says government must not repeat past mistakes, amid controversial ideas to discourage migrantsA plan to process refugees on decommissioned ferries risks being expensive, inadequate for its inhabitants, and likely to repeat the policy mistakes of the past, ministers are being warned.A similar attempt to house prisoners in an offshore floating jail lasted less than a decade after conditions at the facility were criticised, Whitehall veterans said. They warned it proved difficult to keep supplied and too expensive to maintain in a suitable condition. Continue reading...

Issues of bigotry, belonging, race and redemption and are unpicked in this majestic biopic of police officer Leroy LoganSteve McQueen’s five-movie series for the BBC, Small Axe, only gets more thrilling and captivating with the appearance of this new episode at the New York film festival. He is setting new gold standard for drama – and cinema – on screens of any size.Related: Lovers Rock review – Steve McQueen throws the best party ever Continue reading...

Dubbo and Tamworth still need to preserve town water and farmers are ‘still doing it tough economically’At Tamworth South public school the oval is no longer a dust bowl. Around the hinterland of Dubbo pastures are lush and green. But appearances can be deceptive.Farmers and townships in western New South Wales are still hoping that rain that has fallen over winter will continue, filling the dams, and the drought won’t return. Continue reading...

With the airline industry at a standstill and farmers desperate for workers, aviation staff are finding opportunities in a new fieldThe cabin of a harvester in the middle of a vast wheat field might be a strange place to find an airline pilot at work, but for Andrew King it all makes sense.King worked as a passenger jet pilot for Hainan Airlines but has been on leave without pay since the pandemic hit in February. Continue reading...

With the economy in a Covid crisis, we ask people across states, sectors and stages of life where their priorities now lieAustralians are hoping to see extended financial support for workers in industries crippled by Covid-19 restrictions, as well as policies to make renewable energy cheaper and more accessible.While the government has indicated job creation will be at the centre of Tuesday’s federal budget, Guardian Australia spoke to Australians across several states, sectors and stages of life about where they want the government to spend money. Continue reading...

Labour leader blasts government for its lack of leadership and U-turns, as he outlines his own five-point plan to fight the virus

Apparent serious assault is latest in series of alleged human rights abuses by CarabinerosLess than a month before Chile votes on whether to replace its Pinochet-era constitution, police have brutally repressed demonstrators in the capital, Santiago.On Friday evening officers of the Carabineros police force used plumes of teargas and high-pressure water jets to disperse protesters congregating in Plaza Italia, where pockets of violence flared amid a heavy police presence. Continue reading...

A new bill could close loophole allowing under-18s to marry in England and Wales, as charities warn Covid has exacerbated hidden child marriageWhen Payzee Mahmod was married at 16 to a man nearly twice her age she didn’t understand the words spoken during the Islamic ceremony – and nobody thought to translate them for her.The teenager, who loved fashion and pop music, was preparing to start college. “I had just finished school and the idea of not wearing a uniform was exciting to me,” she remembers. “Instead I found myself trussed up in a wedding dress, with elaborate jewellery, feeling like a sale item at an auction.” Continue reading...

While Kardashians and others raise awareness, some consider returning to fight against AzerbaijanWhen Azerbaijan went to war this week with Armenia over the breakaway territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, it might have appeared as an obscure conflict with little resonance outside the south Caucasus.Until you turned to the Twitter account of one of the most famous people in the world, Kim Kardashian. Or that of her husband, Kanye West. Metal fans might have seen tweets about the war from Serj Tankian, the lead singer of System of a Down. If you missed those, there were also posts by Alexis Ohanian Sr, the founder of Reddit and husband of Serena Williams, and former Arsenal footballer Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Continue reading...

British newspaper front pages as the US president, Donald Trump, goes into hospital with coronavirusSome of the UK papers play the big story of the moment with a fairly straight bat but others draw attention to the irony of Donald Trump testing positive for coronavirus, having repeatedly played down the pandemic.The i puts one of the president’s innumerable tweets at the centre of its front page. The headline is “Covid-19 in the White House” and the tweet from February says: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA”. Continue reading...

Deployment of 1,000 Syrians to Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict shows Ankara’s rise in regionA Syrian fighter sent into combat with Azerbaijani forces in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh has detailed the extent of foreign involvement in the new conflict with Armenia that, after six days of clashes, is taking on a regional dimension.The deployment of 1,000 Syrian fighters working for a private Turkish security firm, as well as Ankara’s outspoken support for Azerbaijan in the worst fighting between the two neighbours since 1994, confirms Turkey’s rise as a regional power – and threatens to upset the fragile status quo in the Caucasus, long seen as Russia’s domain. Continue reading...

Donald Trump has tested positive for Covid-19 – but what happens if he can’t carry out his presidential duties?

Benjamin Thomas pleaded guilty to 40 offences over 30 years, mainly against teenage boysA former pastor and BBC television presenter has been jailed for 10 years and four months after he admitted abusing boys and men over almost three decades.Ben Thomas, 44, carried out many of his attacks while his victims were sleeping at Christian camps and conferences, Mold crown court in north Wales heard. Continue reading...

National Assembly party aims at creation of representative government in Saudi ArabiaA group of intellectual Saudi Arabian expatriates have launched an opposition party on the second anniversary of the murder of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi.The aim of the National Assembly party is to gather the support of people inside and outside of Saudi Arabia for the formation of a representative government, which would be the first elected democratic institution inside the country since its birth 90 years ago. Continue reading...

Strong winds and heavy rain bring travel chaos and power outages across southGale-force winds of up to 61mph battered the south-west of England as Storm Alex moved in from France.The storm had pushed strong winds and lashing rain into southern England, causing travel chaos and disrupting power lines in the south-west and the Isle of Wight. Continue reading...

Gagosian, London

Former Italian interior minister accused of abusing power in incident involving 116 peopleItaly’s far-right former interior minister Matteo Salvini goes on trial on Saturday on kidnapping charges over an incident in 2019 when 116 migrants were prevented from disembarking a coastguard ship in the Mediterranean.Prosecutors in the Sicilian city of Catania accuse the League party leader of abusing his powers to block people from disembarking from the Gregoretti coastguard boat under his “closed ports” policy. Continue reading...

Maximuscle founder and TV presenter dies at same airfield where he was almost killed in 2016Zef Eisenberg, the millionaire sports nutrition company founder and television presenter, has been killed during an attempt to break the British land speed record at the same airfield where he almost died in a crash four years ago.The 47-year-old, who founded fitness firm Maximuscle, died at Elvington airfield, to the east of York, on Thursday afternoon, the same airfield where the former Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond was involved in a near-fatal accident in 2006. Continue reading...

Crime agency found evidence ‘bounce back’ scheme for small businesses is being exploited

Local officials will get extra powers to fight radicalism and social problems will be tackledEmmanuel Macron has announced a law against religious “separatism” aimed at freeing Islam in France from “foreign influences”.In a long-awaited declaration, the French president outlined new measures to “defend the republic and its values and ensure it respects its promises of equality and emancipation”. Continue reading...

Women lead protests against conflict violence in Democratic Republic of the Congo, amid calls for action on hundreds of civil war crimesWomen led thousands of people in demonstrations in four cities across the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Thursday, demanding justice for historic murders and rapes committed in the east of the country.Organisers said police beat protesters in Kisangani, one of the cities, as they marked a decade since the UN documented hundreds of crimes in DRC between 1993 and 2003 that have not been prosecuted. Continue reading...

It’s the crowning glory of any weekend – but the stakes are high and soggy veg or claggy gravy could ruin everything. Here are the hacks to try – and the corners not to cutFew meals retain a capacity for disappointment like the classic British roast dinner. Expectations are usually high, and there is just so much that can go wrong: tough meat, soggy veg, claggy gravy, ill-advised departures from traditional methods and ingredients. Most of us have probably had more bad ones than good.With so much work involved, the temptation to cut corners is strong. But resist! Instead limit your ambitions, resign yourself to some hard work and follow the tips below. A better roast dinner is within your grasp. Continue reading...