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Wealthy nations have ordered millions of doses of unproven candidates, but equal access is the key to beating virus

With a stalemate in Minsk, the next chapter of Belarusian history may be written in the KremlinCriminal charges, kidnappings, bags over the head and death threats: the Belarusian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, has deployed all the resources of his repressive apparatus this week in an attempt to suffocate the growing protest movement against his continued rule as he prepares for a crucial meeting with Vladimir Putin in Moscow.Lukashenko has made it crystal clear he has no intention of stepping down, repeating an earlier promise that he would rather die than relinquish power after 26 years in charge. “Power is not given to be taken, thrown and given away,” he said this week. Continue reading...

As the season begins, blockbuster catwalks are out – replaced by small-scale and digital events

The fire that destroyed Europe’s largest refugee camp has left thousands without provisions, shelter or medical help

Inocente Orlando Montano, 77, convicted in Madrid for carrying out civil war atrocityA former Salvadoran army colonel who served as a government security minister has been sentenced to 133 years in prison after being found guilty of the murder of five Spanish Jesuits who died in one of the infamous atrocities of the El Salvador’s 12-year civil war.Judges at Spain’s highest criminal court, the Audiencia Nacional, on Friday convicted Inocente Orlando Montano, 77, of the “terrorist murders” of the five Spaniards, who were killed along with a Salvadoran Jesuit and two Salvadoran women 31 years ago. Continue reading...

Interior minister resists calls to offer refuge to more after fire on Greek island of Lesbos

Show that gave us Kim, Kylie and Kendall is ending after 14 years, leaving behind a Kardashianised worldThe first time the Kardashian family’s private life became part of the public conversation was not in their reality TV show, Keeping Up With the Kardashians (known as KUWTK), which turned them into global phenomena and will, it was announced this week, end after 14 years and 20 seasons. Nor was it with Kim Kardashian Superstar, the notorious sex tape of probably the best known member of the family, which was released a few months before the launch of KUWTK, leading many to suspect that the family used the tape to promote their reality show (the family has always denied this.)Instead, it was back in 1994, when Kim’s godfather, OJ Simpson, sat in her childhood bedroom and contemplated suicide after the murder of his former wife, Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman, for which he was widely suspected to have been responsible. Simpson’s best friend was Kim’s father, Robert Kardashian, and Robert later gave an interview to the US journalist, Barbara Walters, in that same bedroom. “OJ was sitting right where you are, Barbara, and as I walked in I saw wrapped in a towel, a gun. I said, ‘OJ, my daughter could never sleep in this bed, she’d know what happened here,’” said the concerned father, giving global interviews in his teenage daughter’s private space. The Kardashian sisters have been accused of being artificial, but they acquired their talent for turning their lives into entertainment naturally. Continue reading...

Agreement offers more for its symbolism than what Britain stands to gain economically

Charity has made ‘significant steps’ to improve safeguarding and can now apply for government funds two years on from withdrawal

Delphine Boël, whose mother had affair with ex-king Albert II, also wants to take her father’s surnameA woman who successfully fought a seven-year legal battle to prove she was the daughter of the former king of Belgium, Albert II, will learn next month whether, against the wishes of her father, she will be able to use the titles Her Royal Highness and the Princess of Belgium.Delphine Boël, 52, an artist and sculptor, whose mother had an extra-marital affair with Albert in the 1960s and 70s, argued in the Brussels court of appeal that she should also be able to use her biological father’s surname of Saxe-Coburg. The court will give its judgment on 29 October. Continue reading...

A summary of the major developments in the Covid-19 outbreak across the country

French film Mignonnes sparks 200,000 tweets calling for boycott of streaming service over claims the film sexualises its young starsA call to boycott Netflix on Thursday over the French film Mignonnes – AKA Cuties – has been launched on social media, over claims that its young stars were portrayed in a sexualised way.The film is directed by French-Senegalese director Maïmouna Doucouré, and started streaming on 9 September. More than 200,000 tweets with the hashtag #CancelNetflix became the top trending topic one day later. Continue reading...

Agreement in principle comes as Britain races to secure deals before Brexit transition endsJapan and the UK have agreed a “historic” free trade deal, as Britain races to secure easy access to overseas markets as it prepares to leave the European Union.“This is a historic moment for the UK and Japan as our first major post-Brexit trade deal,” Liz Truss, the international trade secretary, said after a video call on Friday with the Japanese foreign minister, Toshimitsu Motegi. Continue reading...

Dublin minister says UK plan to undo Brexit deal would have ‘unthinkable’ consequences

Britain’s beleaguered picture palaces desperately need bums back on seats. But some filmgoers have to consider the risks more than othersLockdown in the UK cost its cinemas an estimated £111m in lost revenue, and their annual income could be down 60% on last year’s. Abandoned filming means there are few enticing titles in the pipeline, and production safety guidelines are hampering new production. If cinemas are to survive while socialdistancing slashes their capacity, they’ll have to fill as many as they can of their remaining available seats.Filmgoers will need to show up in force, whatever their age, gender or physical condition. I’m an ardent film fan; unfortunately, I’m also male and medically vulnerable, which makes me low-hanging fruit for Covid’s scythe. An over-75-year-old is 623 times more likely to die from the disease than an under-45-year-old. Men are over twice as much at risk as women, and a dodgy cardiovascular system doesn’t improve your chances. Continue reading...

Minors were at house party in a villa in Marconia di Pisticci in southern Basilicata regionItalian police have arrested four people in connection with the alleged gang-rape of two British girls in a small town in the south of the country.The rape reportedly took place on Monday night at a house party in Marconia di Pisticci, a town of about 8,000 people in the Basilicata province of Matera. Continue reading...

China says allowing ABC’s Bill Birtles and AFR’s Michael Smith to stay in Australian diplomatic compounds went ‘beyond the scope of consular protection’The Chinese foreign ministry has accused Australian consular officials of having “wantonly obstructed and disrupted the normal law enforcement activities” of Chinese authorities when they sheltered journalists Bill Birtles and Mike Smith last week.Birtles and Smith, China correspondents for the ABC and the Australian Financial Review respectively, were flown out of China this week after a tense five-day diplomatic standoff. Chinese state security services sought to interview the two men in relation to the case of Cheng Lei, another Australian journalist who was detained in August and is believed to be in one of China’s secretive black jails. Continue reading...

Family incomes plummet at cooperative that helped empower women as lucrative trade with China is suspendedFemale crab farmers in Bangladesh are struggling to feed their families after exports to China collapsed due to Covid-19, a charity has warned.Despite the crab harvesting season being in full swing in Mongla, southern Bangladesh, continued lockdown across the nation and the closure of lucrative external markets have impacted not only farmers’ livelihoods but also the country’s GDP, which relies heavily on the $43m (£33m) crab export industry, according to the charity Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO). Continue reading...

The story of a young Jewish boy’s odyssey through occupied Poland during the second world war is filled with almost unimaginable horrorCzech film-maker Václav Marhoul has created a monochrome epic of anguish set in wartime Poland: a gruelling odyssey of almost unimaginable horror, featuring – but not limited to – violence, disfigurement, bestiality and rape. This had audiences groping blindly for the exits at last year’s Venice film festival, and there can’t be many movies whose closing credits want to reassure you not only that no animals were harmed, but that adult body doubles were used for sex scenes involving children. It is surely intended to echo Elim Klimov’s harrowing war movie Come and See from 1985, whose star Alexei Kravechenko is given a cameo here as a fiercely partisan Red Army commander.It is based on the 1965 novel and succès de scandale by the Polish-American author Jerzy Kosiński, whose later political satire Being There was famously filmed by Hal Ashby, with Peter Sellers as the gardener whose bland platitudes are mistaken for visionary insights. The Painted Bird is the story of a young Jewish boy in occupied Poland who becomes a survivor-refugee when his parents are taken away to the concentration camps, but who is to find paranoid resentment and antisemitism wherever he goes and is the intimate witness to violence and the degradation of the nation’s soul. Continue reading...

Royal College of Anaesthetists criticise West Suffolk hospital chief executive after staff complaintsA hospital boss championed by Matt Hancock has been told to end “a toxic management culture” after doctors were asked to provide fingerprint samples to identify a whistleblower.The Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA) has urged the chief executive of West Suffolk hospital, Steve Dunn, who Hancock described as an “outstanding leader”, to take urgent action to improve the wellbeing of senior clinicians and “thereby the safety of patients”. Continue reading...

In a statement to Australian Stock Exchange the company confirms move that follows the blowing up of 46,000-year-old caves in Western AustraliaThe Rio Tinto chief executive, Jean-Sébastien Jacques, and two other senior executives are leaving the global miner after its board bowed to intense investor pressure for strong action over its decision to blow up 46,000-year-old rock shelters at Juukan Gorge in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.Rio Tinto said Jacques was leaving “by mutual agreement” with the board. Continue reading...

Academics, historians, researchers and scholars feel a literary crime is taking place during the distraction of the global pandemicSheltered in the bunkers beneath the National Library in New Zealand’s capital rests a treasure trove of books, including nearly 2,200 first editions that have been carefully looked after for decades. But not for much longer.The “overseas collection” – which includes a first edition of Richard Neville’s Play Power, a 1912 edition of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility and multiple first editions of Graham Greene novels – is now headed out the door. Continue reading...

UK-study claims solidarity in early weeks of coronavirus pandemic has given way to distrust

Residents of Moria camp struggle to salvage what they can as protesters try to block efforts to rebuildPlumes of smoke rise above the ashes and twisted metal. In many parts this is all that remains of Europe’s largest refugee camp.Just a few days ago, the Moria camp in Lesbos was home to thousands of children and their families. Now all that is left are the smoldering ruins and jagged outlines of scorched tents. Continue reading...

Foreign ministers issue joint statement after meeting in Moscow, promising to ‘avoid actions that may escalate the situation’India and China have agreed to “disengage as soon as possible” after troops were involved in a series of clashes at their disputed Himalayan border, according to a joint statement from the two countries.The nuclear-armed neighbours accused each other this week of firing shots across the contested border in Ladakh, known as the line of actual control (LAC), intensifying a months-long standoff that has already claimed at least 20 lives. Continue reading...

Premier finds herself under mounting criticism, including from prime minister, as pressure to ease border restrictions grows

Deepening dispute between Nato allies has dragged in neighbours and is in danger of spiralling out of controlAn increasingly fractious standoff over access to gas reserves has transformed a dispute between Turkey and Greece that was once primarily over Cyprus into one that now ensnares Libya, Israel, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, and feeds into other political issues in the Mediterranean and has raised fears of a naval conflict between the two Nato allies in the Aegean Sea.The crisis has been deepening in recent months with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, leading those inside the EU opposing Turkey’s increasingly military foreign policy and saying Turkey can longer be seen as partner in the Mediterranean. He has offered French military support to the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, including the possible sale of 18 Rafale jets. Continue reading...

Even Labour’s tax policy cant’t spark fury. The only numbers people are concerned about are coronavirus-relatedParents will be only too familiar with this scenario. It’s family holiday time. The car is packed with everything but the kitchen sink. Each child is strapped in with their own screen and headphones. You slip the car into gear and drive off. Finally you can let out a sigh of relief; the holiday has begun! Then a small voice from the back says: “I need to go the toilet.” You divert to the nearest petrol station, and sit back and wait for the journey to restart.That, folks, is the New Zealand general election campaign of 2020. Continue reading...

The oldest snake in captivity – known only as 361003 – hasn’t been near a male python for two decadesExperts at a US zoo are trying to figure out how a 62-year-old ball python laid seven eggs despite not being near a male python for at least two decades.Three of the eggs from the snake in St Louis zoo remain in an incubator, two were used for genetic sampling and snakes in the other two eggs did not survive, the St Louis Post-Dispatch reported. The eggs were laid on 23 July and should hatch in about a month. Continue reading...

Lawyers for wife of US diplomat say the are ‘willing to discuss resolution’ with UK authoritiesLawyers acting on behalf of Harry Dunn’s alleged killer Anne Sacoolas have said she drove on the “wrong side of the road for 20 seconds” before the fatal crash.Legal representatives for the 43-year-old issued a public statement on Thursday detailing her side of the story, in which they claim she was “otherwise driving cautiously and below the speed limit”. Continue reading...

Negotiations to end the long civil war were agreed as part of a withdrawal deal signed by the USThe Afghan government and the Taliban will open peace talks on Saturday, trying to reach a power-sharing deal as American troops leave the country after nearly two decades.The negotiations to try to end the long civil war were agreed as part of a withdrawal deal that the US signed with the Taliban in February, but have stalled for months over details of a promised prisoner exchange. Continue reading...

Friday: Gladys Berejiklian gives John Barilaro ultimatum after threat to move to crossbench. Plus, US wildfires kill at least seven peopleGood morning, this is Emilie Gramenz bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Friday 11 September. Continue reading...

Annual deaths have dropped to 1990 levels after 2013 peak thanks to concerted action in key cities

European ‘E3’ ministers reach consensus during Kent meeting hosted by UK foreign secretary Dominic RaabForeign ministers from the UK, France and Germany have agreed to hold out against US demands to snapback all UN sanctions on Iran, despite intensified pressure from the US specifically on the UK government to fall into line.The US was left isolated at the UN security council last month when it said it wished to reimpose snapback sanctions, with the European nations – known collectively as the E3 – arguing that the US was no longer a participant in the deal and so unable to act unilaterally. The US, which left the deal in 2018, described the E3 position as crackers and pandering to terrorists. A further showdown on the issue at the UN is expected this month. Continue reading...

From kick-ass screen roles to award-winning theatre and TV ones, with a curious sideline in nuns, the Yorkshire-born actor’s class and spirit earned her a magnificent career

The UK internal market proposals turn Britain into a country whose word cannot be trusted. Conservative MPs must use their power to stop this shameful planThe damage is real, the damage is mounting and the damage must be ended as soon as possible. By trumpeting its readiness to override some of its treaty obligations towards the European Union, Boris Johnson’s government has cast Britain as a country that does not act in good faith and cannot be trusted to keep its word. The irresponsibility makes the Brexit process more difficult, triggering Thursday’s EU ultimatum to withdraw the plan. It subverts the rule of law at home and abroad. It pulls the rug from under Britain’s reputation everywhere from Ireland to Hong Kong, and wherever else people hope they can rely on Britain to play fair. The plans set out this week in the United Kingdom internal market bill read like an application for rogue state status.The pushback against this law-breaking bill is already international. The government may have been relaxed about causing consternation in Brussels and exasperation in Berlin. But did it not stop to think of the impact on the politics of Ireland, north and south, or on already alienated opinion in Scotland and Wales, or on trade negotiators in Tokyo and other capitals? Did the government factor in the inevitably frosty response of the Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, who is proud of his Irish ancestry and a friend of the EU, or of Democratic lawmakers (and some Republicans too) in Washington? Did it think about the multitude of other places around the world where goodwill towards Britain cannot always be assumed? Did it not realise that the promise-breaking would be welcomed by the likes of Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Donald Trump, all of whom will feel that Britain has just made it a bit easier for them to go on defying the rules too? If ministers did not think of these things, they are fools. If they did, and still went ahead, they are rogues. Continue reading...

PM’s office does not dispute it received marginal and target seat list but says program was expanded to ‘meet demand’Scott Morrison has denied considering whether proposed sports grant projects were located in marginal or target seats at a meeting with Bridget McKenzie in November 2018 that resulted in a $70m expansion to the program.In answers to Guardian Australia, the prime minister’s office has addressed new evidence from the Australian National Audit Office about its involvement in the controversial program. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Scottish advocate general warned of breach of ministerial code but two other advisers disagreed, letter shows

Gove says UK will not withdraw legislation that Brussels says may trigger sanctions

From the £100bn cost to the plan for getting football crowds back: what the official documents reveal

Reviled by Playboy, her 1976 study of 3,500 women challenged male assumptions about sexThe pioneering feminist Shere Hite, known for her research on female sexuality, has died at the age of 77. She was best known for The Hite Report: A Nationwide Study of Female Sexuality, which has sold more than 50m copies since publication in 1976.Based on the views of 3,500 women, it challenged male assumptions about sex by revealing that many women were not stimulated by sexual penetration. It also encouraged women to take control of their sex lives. It was dismissed as “anti-male” and dubbed the Hate Report by Playboy. Continue reading...

First minister says restriction must be followed immediately amid rise in coronavirus cases

Rieli Franciscato struck in chest as he approached indigenous group he was seeking to shieldA Brazilian government official and expert on isolated Amazon tribes was killed by an arrow as he approached an indigenous group he was seeking to shield.Rieli Franciscato, 56, spent his career in the government’s indigenous affairs agency Funai working to set up reservations to protect uncontacted tribes. Continue reading...

Belgian policeman had admitted taking tooth from Patrice Lumumba’s body in 1961A Belgian judge has said that a tooth taken from the remains of the Congo’s first elected leader, Patrice Lumumba, should be returned to his family almost 60 years after his assassination by rebels overseen by Belgian officers.The tooth had been seized from a Belgian policeman who admitted taking it while helping to dispose of Lumumba’s body after the politician was murdered in 1961. The Belgian government of the time, the CIA and MI6 have also been implicated. Continue reading...

Musée d’Orsay, home to some of world’s most famous nudes, apologises for barring visitorOne of Paris’s biggest museums, whose galleries feature some of the world’s most famous nudes, has been accused of discrimination and sexism after refusing entry to a woman in a low-cut dress.In a case of life not imitating art, a zealous official told a literature student whose name was given only as Jeanne that “rules are rules” and ordered her to cover her cleavage if she wanted to be allowed into the Musée d’Orsay, a popular tourist attraction and bastion of the beaux arts. Continue reading...

Local route managers and signallers will be given more power to cut speeds or close linesHeavy rain could lead to more trains being cancelled or told to travel at low speed in future, following the Stonehaven crash that killed three people in Aberdeenshire last month.An interim report by Network Rail into the tragedy spelled out strengthened procedures that could hasten line closures in bad weather, pending safety inspections. Continue reading...

More than 85 significant fires are burning across the west, where a record 2.5m acres have been destroyedLarge, fast-moving fires raged on across the American west on Thursday, destroying hundreds of homes in the Pacific north-west and sending a dense plume of smoke that turned skies amber across parts of the region.Related: California, Oregon and Washington battle dozens of fires – live updates Continue reading...

Former deputy prime minister throws his weight behind John Barilaro as other Nationals warn it’s impossible to ‘out shoot the Shooters’While some federal Nationals watched the runaway events in New South Wales on Thursday with bemusement, the former federal leader of the party, Barnaby Joyce, rushed to the defence of John Barilaro for blowing up the state government over koala protection policy.Joyce, who used the first sitting day of federal parliament in 2020 – a day of bushfire condolences – to launch an unsuccessful leadership tilt against the man who replaced him, Michael McCormack, told the ABC on Thursday afternoon it was time for the Nationals to declare that enough was enough. Continue reading...