We want to hear how you are finding it and what concerns you have for the future

With UK’s Liam Fox eliminated the contest is now between Yoo Myung-hee and Ngozi Okonjo-IwealaThe World Trade Organization is set to be run by a woman for the first time in its 25-year history after it was announced that the final choice to be its new director-general will be between South Korea’s Yoo Myung-hee and Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.Britain’s former international trade secretary, Liam Fox, failed to make the final shortlist as the number of candidates was whittled down from five to two. Continue reading...

Opposition leader says Australia has ‘once-in-a-generation chance’ to rebuild economy, and Victoria reports no deaths. This blog is now closed

More than 100 women launch action as activists say practice is serious violation of human rights and privacyA group of more than 100 Italian women have asked prosecutors to investigate who is behind the burial for nearly a decade of foetuses in graves marked with the names of their mothers in a cemetery in Rome.The practice only came to light last week after one of the women, whose curiosity was sparked after reading about so-called “fields of angels” in local newspapers, discovered a plot with a wooden cross bearing her name and the date on which the foetus was buried at Prima Porta cemetery. She subsequently posted about her experience on Facebook. Continue reading...

In the election Judith Collins is up against one of the most popular PMs in recent times“I’ve been having an awfully fun time, can you tell?”, Judith Collins, the leader of New Zealand’s centre-right National party enthused, to a campaign trail meeting packed with her admirers outside the South Island city of Dunedin. “I can’t stop grinning.”It was true; she could not. Collins, the country’s opposition leader, is running in the 17 October election against one of the country’s most popular prime ministers of recent times, Jacinda Ardern, who is mobbed for selfies wherever she goes – with such large and closely-packed crowds that security and Covid-19 precautions often appear to be cast aside. Continue reading...

We want to hear from people living and working in Scotland about how new coronavirus restrictions will impact themA ban on drinking indoors in pubs, bars and restaurants across Scotland for 16 days is set to take place from Friday at 6pm. Places will have to operate a food and non-alcoholic drinks only service between 6am to 6pm, but can still serve alcohol outdoors until 10pm.The harshest restrictions in the UK will affect central Scotland where licensed premises will be closed fully. Areas include Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Lanarkshire, the Lothians, Ayrshire and Arran, and Forth Valley. People are still banned from visiting one another in their homes. Continue reading...

Painting by government official Ren Renfa bears seals of several Chinese emperorsA 700-year-old Chinese painted scroll from the Yuan dynasty has fetched HK$306.6m (£32.2m) at an auction in Hong Kong.The 2-metre (6.6ft) Five Drunken Princes Returning on Horseback is by Ren Renfa, a renowned Chinese artist and government official. Continue reading...

Mandatory data retention laws cited as preventing the release of call records of the former Victoria police commissioner Graham AshtonTelstra is holding key information that could solve the mystery of who decided to use private security guards in hotel quarantine in Victoria, but says restrictions in the mandatory data retention legislation prevent the release of critical call records.Last week, the inquiry heard in closing submissions it was a “creeping assumption” among various government department heads on 27 March – the day the program was announced and influenced by Victoria police’s preference – that led to security guards being used in the program. Continue reading...

Agriculture minister David Littleproud says government has stood up for Australia’s valuesAn opposition frontbencher has accused the Australian government of having “started a war with China” and allowing the relationship to slip to its lowest level since the Tiananmen Square massacre.While launching his mostly strongly worded attack on the government’s handling of the relationship to date, the former Labor minister Joel Fitzgibbon also suggested the Coalition should have used this week’s budget to compensate Australian barley growers hit by China’s 80% tariffs. Continue reading...

Photographer Chris de Bode teamed up with Farm Africa to tell the story of how owning goats is transforming women’s lives in Ethiopia and Uganda

The Canadian model and Ifad ambassador explains how she and husband Idris Elba hope to make a difference to rural communities in AfricaSince her marriage to British actor Idris Elba last year, Sabrina Dhowre Elba has found her love of Africa being rekindled. But it was her mother who persuaded Elba to take up her new role as an activist.The actress and Vogue cover model is being credited with convincing the Canadian government to be the first to pledge $6m (£3.5m) to a UN agency Covid fund for struggling farmers after a persuasive Zoom chat with ministers while the Elbas were themselves in isolation with mild cases of the virus. Continue reading...

‘My arms still ache to this day to hold him,’ foster mother tells inquest into three-year-old’s 2014 disappearanceWilliam Tyrrell’s foster parents fear the prime suspects in his 2014 disappearance will die before the truth is uncovered and they say being harassed by suspicious members of the public left them “devastated”.The final hearing in the long-running inquest into William’s disappearance closed on Thursday with statements from the boy’s biological and foster families. The three-year-old was last seen at his foster grandmother’s home in Kendall on the New South Wales mid-north coast in September 2014. Continue reading...

Analysis of trade figures reveals huge power imbalance as suppliers and workers in poorest parts of the world bear cost of Covid downturn

Budget announcement that applicants must have made ‘reasonable efforts’ to learn language is greeted by concern• Follow our Australian politics live blog hereThe federal government’s plan to force people seeking a partner visa to learn English could leave them without a safety net from family violence, critics have said, despite the Coalition’s claim that the measure is aimed at protecting women.The government announced in Tuesday’s budget that from late 2021 it would require partner visa applicants applying for permanency to have made “reasonable efforts” to learn English. The same test would apply to their permanent resident sponsors. Continue reading...

At least 223 social leaders have been murdered this year as Amnesty International report condemns government inactionActivists in Colombia have warned that they continue to face extermination despite the coronavirus pandemic, as Amnesty International accused the country’s government of doing little to protect them.At least 223 social leaders – community activists defending human, environmental, and land rights – have been murdered this year, according to local watchdog Indepaz. Continue reading...

Giuseppe Conte under pressure from Italian exporters to ensure favourable outcome on withdrawal agreementItaly’s prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, has urged the British government to come good on a Brexit deal but admitted it was currently “difficult to feel optimistic” amid legal wrangling over the withdrawal agreement.“Obviously the legislative move in the UK creates tension,” said Conte, referring to Boris Johnson’s tabling of a bill that violates key elements of the agreement reached with Brussels last year. Continue reading...

Users complain about Genshin Impact, one of the biggest games ever released by a Chinese developer, which was released this weekA popular new game, Genshin Impact, is censoring words including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Falun Gong and Putin in the in-game chat function, according to players.The role-playing quest game from Chinese developer miHoYo was released last week, in what has been called the biggest global launch of a Chinese game ever. Continue reading...

‘I don’t agree with anything that comes with seeing Iran as our enemy,’ says singer Liraz CharhiAn Israeli singer of Persian heritage is set to release an album she made by working in secret with Iranian musicians, her long-held aspiration for artistic collaboration despite bitter animosity between the two states.Using encrypted instant-messaging apps like Telegram and by wiring money through third countries, such as the UK and Turkey, Liraz Charhi said she spent months of sleepless nights fearing those who associated would be in danger. Continue reading...

Labor has not reached a position on credits that pay employers to hire under-35s, but warns it needs more safeguardsScott Morrison has accused Labor and unions of pitting the young against older workers after warnings youth wage subsidies exclude people aged over 35.At a press conference on Thursday, the prime minister brushed off calls for more safeguards in the $4bn jobmaker hiring credit as Labor sharpens its attack about workers left behind and the potential for abuse of the new program. Continue reading...

As mediators prepare to meet in Geneva, officials say up to 75,000 people have been forced to flee fighting in breakaway regionClashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces have displaced half of the population of the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, according to its rights ombudsman, as international mediators were set to hold their first meeting in Geneva.Russian president, Vladimir Putin, urged an end to a “huge tragedy” in an interview with state-run television on Wednesday, as new strikes hit Karabakh’s main city Stepanakert and Armenia said the fighting was raging along the entire frontline. Continue reading...

Pham Doan Trang was charged with opposing the state just after the country held talks with the US on human rightsVietnamese authorities have arrested Pham Doan Trang – one of the nation’s most prominent independent journalists.Trang was detained on Tuesday evening in Ho Chi Minh City, the same day Vietnam and the US held the 24th annual US-Vietnam human rights dialogue, which included talks on issues such as the right to freedom of expression. Continue reading...

Villages in Ryazan region south-east of Moscow cleared after grass fire reaches military facilityRussia has evacuated more than 2,000 people from nearby villages after a wildfire set off explosions at a munitions depot in the Ryazan region south-east of Moscow, officials said.More than 400 firefighters were battling into the evening on Wednesday to extinguish a blaze that broke out at the depot that day, with the authorities saying five people were injured but there were no deaths. Continue reading...

El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey, held in detention for two years, transferred to America and charged with terrorism offencesTwo British-born citizens alleged to have members of an Isis execution squad infamous for beheading hostages have been flown to the US to face trial after two years in detention.Related: The jihadist 'Beatles': Britons who became the face of Isis cruelty Continue reading...

Charity reveals over a third of families say they are financially worse off since lockdown

Rise in home working during the pandemic means many companies are assessing their needsNearly three-quarters of City firms are reviewing how much office space they really need following a boom in home working during the pandemic, new research shows.The latest CBI/PwC financial services survey found 74% of companies – particularly banks and insurance firms – have been taking stock of their office requirements in the hope of either using the space differently, or reducing it. Continue reading...

Lord Neuberger condemns internal market bill for exempting some of its powers from legal challengeThe government’s Brexit strategy is in danger of driving the UK down a “very slippery slope” towards “dictatorship” or “tyranny”, according to a former president of the supreme court.Addressing an online meeting of lawyers, Lord Neuberger on Wednesday evening condemned the internal market bill, which enables the government to breach international law and exempts some of its powers from legal challenge. Continue reading...

The Chinese-backed gold, silver and copper mine at Frieda river risks catastrophic environmental destruction, special rapporteurs argueThe plan for the largest mine in Papua New Guinea’s history carries a risk of catastrophic loss of life and environmental destruction and “appears to disregard the human rights of those affected”, according to United Nations officials.In an extraordinary intervention, 10 UN special rapporteurs have written with “serious concerns” to the governments of Papua New Guinea, Australia, China, and Canada, as well as the Chinese state-owned developers of the gold, copper and silver mine proposed for the remote Frieda river in the country’s north. Continue reading...

Thursday: Only 10% of infrastructure budget due this year and a third of ‘jobmaker’ held until 2022. Plus: National Gallery of Victoria’s ambitious art revivalGood morning, this is Richard Parkin bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Thursday 8 October. Continue reading...

Hostage-taking and multiple murder among charges levelled against Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee ElsheikhThe grisly allegations of hostage-taking, brutality and multiple murder in the lengthy charge sheet against Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh represent more than just a summary of US case against the British-born Isis followers.It amounts to an indictment of Isis, the brutal terror organisation that drew murderous strength from adherents who came from around the world, and its dead leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Continue reading...

Labour leader speaks after union reportedly moved to cut its contributions to partyKeir Starmer has said he has a “very good relationship” with the Unite boss, Len McCluskey, after the union moved to cut its affiliation money to the Labour party.McCluskey, who was a strong supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, first ordered a review into Unite’s contributions in August following Starmer’s decision to pay damages to former party staff who became whistleblowers over antisemitism. Continue reading...

Deputy director says museums must start telling a more honest story about provenanceThe Victoria and Albert Museum in London has started talks with the Ethiopian embassy over returning looted treasures in its collections, including a gold crown and royal wedding dress, taken from the country more than 150 years ago.Ethiopians have campaigned for the return of the items since they were plundered after the 1868 capture of Maqdala in what was then Abyssinia. Ethiopia lodged a formal restitution claim in 2007 for hundreds of important artefacts from Maqdala held by various British institutions, which was refused. Continue reading...

Alarming rise in cases puts pressure on ministers to act as Nicola Sturgeon imposes Scotland crackdown

Information commissioner closes three year investigation into collapsed firm after Brexit voteThe data watchdog has closed its investigation into Cambridge Analytica, concluding that the controversial data company did not directly misuse data to influence the Brexit referendum.Elizabeth Denham, the information commissioner, said her team also found no evidence Cambridge Analytica aided Russian intervention in the UK political process. However, she warned that the company’s data protection practices were lax “with little thought for effective security measures” and its activities raised broader concerns about the influence of technology in politics. Continue reading...

Ex-leader and MPs found guilty after biggest trial of fascists since NurembergGreece’s neofascist Golden Dawn has been convicted of being a criminal organisation in disguise, in a court verdict with ramifications for the far right across Europe that has been met with jubilation in Greece and internationally.Tens of thousands people who had converged near the heavily guarded court complex in Athens in anticipation of the judgment roared in excitement as the news emerged. Many broke into spontaneous applause and punched the air as it became clear that the three-member tribunal had found the far-right group guilty of operating a gang of hit squads bent on eliminating perceived enemies. Continue reading...

Water cannon and teargas used on demonstrators against ‘omnibus’ job creation billHundreds of protesters were detained after heated demonstrations swept across Indonesia on Wednesday in response to a law that weakens environmental protections and workers’ rights.Labour unions have vowed to continue their protests until the government cancels the bill, despite a police warning that demonstrations are violating measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Continue reading...

Mohammed bin Nayef and Ahmed bin Abdulaziz have not been seen in public since MarchA group of MPs and lawyers have asked to visit Saudi Arabia to discover the fate of two high-profile Saudi princes, the former crown prince Mohammed bin Nayef and Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz.The panel has been set up to investigate and report on the detention of the princes as well as other key political figures detained in the region. The princes have reportedly been denied legal advice, medical care and contact with their family since they disappeared in March. Continue reading...

Temporary street closures, backed by local businesses, will be made permanent in early 2021A scheme to turn Bristol’s historic centre into a pedestrian-only zone has been officially launched as part of moves to get the city back on its feet following the shock of the coronavirus pandemic.A chunk of the Old City, which includes restaurants, cafes, independent shops and some civic buildings, has been cleared of traffic. Continue reading...

Licensed premises across central belt to close completely as coronavirus cases rise

Head of Greece’s Pakistani community says justice is sweet but might have come sooner“Justice is so sweet,” smiled Javied Aslam. “And when you have waited so long, it is beautiful too.”The head of Greece’s Pakistani community and one of the key witnesses in the marathon trial of Golden Dawn punched the air in joy as the trial verdict came through. Continue reading...

The Coalition has allocated only $46m to Aboriginal community-controlled organisations to meet new Closing the Gap targetsIndigenous groups and Labor have criticised the Coalition for allocating more than $39m of extra funding to a non-Indigenous sport-based initiative for boys, but failing to adequately fund Aboriginal community-controlled organisations to meet the new Closing the Gap targets in its budget.The government has set aside only $46.5m over four years to support capacity-building in Aboriginal community-controlled organisations to meet targets set out in the new Closing the Gap agreement. Continue reading...

Unsent messages recovered from mobiles reveal occupants feared they would not surviveThirty-nine desperate Vietnamese migrants suffocated as they were transported across the Channel, enduring unbearable temperatures, sealed in pitch darkness inside an airtight container for almost 12 hours, the Old Bailey has heard on the opening day of the trial of four men allegedly involved in a people smuggling conspiracy.The people smugglers who organised the transport of the migrants loaded too many people into one container, starving them of oxygen and exposing them to the toxic effects of excess carbon dioxide, the court heard. The migrants, 10 of whom were teenagers, travelled in a refrigerator unit, but the refrigeration was not turned on, and temperatures rose to 38.5C during the journey. Continue reading...

Scientists say idea of ‘focused protection’ for vulnerable people is very hard to achieve and likely to lead to even higher death toll

Hong Kong police say person who bought scroll thought it was a fake and too long to displayA calligraphy scroll by China’s former leader Mao Zedong, estimated to be worth millions, was cut in half after it was stolen last month in Hong Kong, police have said.The scroll was found damaged when police arrested a 49-year-old man in late September on suspicion of handling stolen property. The South China Morning Post, quoting an unidentified police source, reported that the scroll was cut in two by a buyer who had purchased it for 500 Hong Kong dollars (about £50) and believed the scroll to be counterfeit. Continue reading...

Labour leader tells Boris Johnson country is owed explanation of rationale behind key restrictions

UK prepared to retain act in order to secure security ties with EU, sources sayBoris Johnson is prepared to make a major compromise to secure security ties with the EU by pledging in a deal on the future relationship not to rip up the Human Rights Act.The UK is said by EU sources to be “moving” in negotiations on the issue in Brussels after previously insisting that the government would not tie its hands in any agreement on the future relationship. Continue reading...

Boris Johnson is due to tell European council president UK still wants deal by 15 OctoberThe EU’s Michel Barnier will not move Brexit talks into the so-called tunnel phase of more intense negotiations unless he gets a “very clear signal” from the UK that it is “willing to show some flexibility and realism” in its approach to a deal, Ireland’s foreign affairs minister has said.Simon Coveney’s warning came as Boris Johnson was due to call the European council president, Charles Michel, to tell him the clock was ticking on a deal. Continue reading...

Prolific reggae and dub pioneer worked with decades of stars from John Holt and Slim Smith to Beenie Man and Buju BantonJamaican producer Bunny “Striker” Lee, who helped cultivate rhythms of reggae and dub working with many of the island’s biggest stars, has died aged 79.His cause of death is not known, but it he was reported to have suffered kidney disease in recent months. DJ David Rodigan was among those paying tribute, saying: “The reggae world has lost another iconic figure; Bunny “Striker” Lee was unquestionably one of the most charismatic and inspirational record producers in Jamaican music with a phenomenal catalogue of hits. He drove the music forward across the decades & will be sorely missed.” Continue reading...

Force pays confidential sum to man who discovered at the age of 26 that his father, Bob Lambert, was a police officer rather than a leftwing activistScotland Yard has apologised and paid substantial compensation to a man who was fathered by an undercover police officer who formed a long-term relationship with his mother in the 1980s in order to spy on political campaigners.The Metropolitan police has been compelled to pay the confidential sum after the man said in a lawsuit that he suffered psychiatric damage after discovering, at the age of 26, that his father was not the committed leftwing protester he had been led to believe. Continue reading...