Coronavirus bans have forced Jewish communities to adapt and innovate as the year’s high holy days draw near

British-Iranian dual national said to be relieved but angry at surprise moveA new trial of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian dual national detained in Iran for the past four years, has been postponed at the last minute.Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, confirmed the news, which came as a surprise to both his wife and her London-based family. Her MP, Tulip Sidiq, said Zaghari-Ratcliffe was relieved but also frustrated, angry and stressed. Continue reading...

Police ‘making inquiries’ after photographs of officer wearing US flag bisected by thin blue line circulated on social mediaQueensland police have said they are “making enquiries” after an officer was photographed allegedly wearing a patch associated with far-right extremism at a Black Lives Matter protest on Friday.Photographs circulating on social media showed an Australian police officer wearing a patch depicting the US flag bisected diagonally with a blue line. It appears very similar to popular variations of the “thin blue line” flag used by extreme rightwing groups in the US. Continue reading...

Cases are increasing here and across Europe as universities plan to reopen. What is the outlook for autumn?

Friends stage ‘Run for Kylie’ events for the Australian academic jailed on spying charges, as her family say they remain strong and hopefulThe family of the detained academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who faces 10 years in jail in Iran on espionage charges – have said they “remain strong and are far from giving up hope”, as hundreds of her friends marked the second anniversary of her detention on Sunday.Moore-Gilbert, a dual UK and Australian citizen, was seized by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as she attempted to fly out of the country following an academic conference at which she had spoken. Continue reading...

Lawyer seeks pardon for 2,500 Scots who were tortured and killed in ‘satanic panic’ begun by James VIIt spanned more than a century and a half, and resulted in about 2,500 people – the vast majority of them women – being burned at the stake, usually after prolonged torture. Remarkably, one of the driving forces behind Scotland’s “satanic panic” was no less than the king, James VI, whose treatise, Daemonologie, may have inspired the three witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.Now, almost 300 years after the Witchcraft Act was repealed, a campaign has been launched for a pardon for those convicted, an apology to all those accused and a national memorial to be created. Continue reading...

Former prime ministers urge MPs to reject legislation, saying it endangers Irish peace processBoris Johnson is facing mounting criticism over his plans to introduce legislation to override his Brexit deal, as former prime ministers Sir John Major and Tony Blair criticised the threat to break international law.

Riot squad marches through fruit stalls at Queen Victoria market as protest of about 250 people ends in scufflesPolice arrested 74 people on Sunday as anti-lockdown protesters massed in Melbourne for a second day, with some throwing fruit at police after raiding market stalls.About 250 protesters chanting “Freedom” and “Power to the people” were encircled by officers at Queen Victoria Market. Continue reading...

Attendees of this year’s virtual gatherings may be spared any gaffes, but at what cost?Utter the phrase “conference season” to a Westminster veteran and don’t be surprised if their initial reaction is a shudder. For regular attendees of the annual party gatherings, which kick off next weekend, they raise the prospect of lengthy policy sermons and curled cheese sandwiches by day, followed by sweaty bars and third-hand gossip by night.Related: Keir Starmer's conference challenge is to avoid the shadow of past leaders | Zoe Williams Continue reading...

As Liguria prepares for next week’s regional elections, an unlikely candidate has energised the fight against the far rightA procession of about 100 people, most of them young, departs from the church of San Martino di Struppa, up a track into the mountains around Genoa. Above, every shade of green; below, the port and the sea, like an aqueous mirror reflecting the blue sky.There’s history on these steep slopes, and that is why these people are here: the ancient paths were used by partisans during the war, and when they blew up a bridge, severing German troops from their supply lines, the priest of San Martino, Don Andrea Ricchini, was taken to Auschwitz in reprisal. He survived, and – after a funeral had been held, in absentia – returned to serve the parish for 30 more years. Continue reading...

Critics fear end of an era because of plans to make audio journalists work across media platformsBBC radio voices have described and defined modern British history. Live reports from inside a British bomber over Germany during the second world war, or with the British troops invading Iraq in 2003, or more recently from the frontline of the parent boycott of a Birmingham school over LGBT lessons have also shaped the news agenda.But now the BBC plans to axe all its national radio reporters and ask them to reapply for a smaller number of jobs as television, radio and digital reporters, rather than as dedicated audio journalists. Many fear it is not just the end of their careers but the premature end of an era for the BBC. Continue reading...

Heather Cox Richardson offers an eloquent history of the negation of the American idea, with clear lessons for NovemberHeather Cox Richardson’s How the South Won the Civil War is not principally about that war. Instead, it is a broad sweep of American history on the theme of the struggle between democracy and oligarchy – between the vision that “all men are created equal” and the frequency with which power has accumulated in the hands of a few, who have then sought to thwart equality.Related: A disputed election, a constitutional crisis, polarisation … welcome to 1876 Continue reading...

China says curbs ‘legitimate and necessary’ as tensions riseThe US has called a decision by Beijing to impose restrictions on all American diplomats on Chinese soil an “escalation”, the latest rebuke in a tit-for-tat dispute over foreign missions.Relations between the world’s top two economies have deteriorated in recent months, with both sides locked in fierce recriminations over trade disputes, human rights and the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading...

As coronavirus community transmissions rise in New South Wales, here are the current hotspots and what to do if you’ve visited them

Home affairs minister attacks state border closures, saying there is no equivalence with denying permission to leave Australia on compassionate groundsPeter Dutton has defended the decision to allow Tony Abbott to travel to the UK, while hundreds of Australians are fighting for permission to leave the country on compassionate grounds.The Morrison government closed Australia’s international borders in March. Since then, thousands of Australians have fought to prove they have “compelling and compassionate” reasons to travel, with at least 20% of applications rejected. Continue reading...

Spirits are low but this one-night-only virtual event reminded us of what’s waiting out there: fancy food, great music and dumb trendsSmiling can actually make you happier. Right? That’s what we’ve heard from social researchers and Nat King Cole and passive-aggressive family members for decades. The idea goes back more than a century. In 1872 Charles Darwin wrote: “Even the simulation of an emotion tends to arouse it in our minds.”In 2020 the science no longer fully backs this up. But it’s what I’m thinking about as I dutifully follow an acclaimed chef’s advice to boil exactly 20 currants in half a can of beer and set up a YouTube livestream of a DJ set tastefully lit by a tealight candle inside a cheese grater. Continue reading...

Coup leaders under pressure to appoint civilian president to prepare country for electionsMali’s military junta, which staged a coup last month, has agreed to an 18-month transition government led by a military or civilian leader that would pave the way to elections.Three days of consultations with leaders of political and civil society groups laid out a charter for the transition on Saturday, which will also include a vice-president and transitional council that will serve as the national assembly. The president and vice-president will be chosen by a group of people appointed by the junta, according to Moussa Camara, spokesman for the talks. Continue reading...

Ex-prime ministers Tony Blair and John Major unite to condemn internal market billSir Keir Starmer has committed Labour to back Boris Johnson’s new Brexit legislation if the prime minister addresses “substantial cross-party concerns”.The Labour leader accused the prime minister of having “turned the clock back” and of “reigniting old rows” by working to override his own withdrawal agreement. Continue reading...

Words to Land of Hope and Glory also heard after row that reached as far as Boris JohnsonThe traditional songs Rule, Britannia! and Land of Hope and Glory have been sung during the Last Night of the Proms after weeks of controversy over the event.The BBC previously said the pieces would be performed without lyrics but executed a U-turn following heated debate over the decision. Continue reading...

Drama featuring McDormand as a retiree forced on the road after the 2008 recession takes top honours on the Lido, while Vanessa Kirby is named best actressChloe Zhao’s Nomadland, a recession-era road trip drama starring Frances McDormand, won the Golden Lion for best film on Saturday at a slimmed-down Venice film festival, which was held against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic.Zhao and McDormand appeared by video from the United States to accept the award, as en virus-related travel restrictions made reaching the Lido in the Italian lagoon city difficult if not impossible for many Hollywood filmmakers and actors. Continue reading...

Record-breaking wildfires are threatening thousands of acres of one of the most biologically diverse areas on the planet, Brazil's Pantanal region.'Sometimes we are a bit frustrated, but we try to have hope and to rescue the few animals we can,' said 26-year-old vet Karen Ribeiro at one of the shelters, where rescue units and volunteers are bringing in animals including jaguars for evacuation Continue reading...

Dunn’s mother, Charlotte Charles, has demanded an explanation from Boris JohnsonA Downing Street staff member labelled the spokesman for Harry Dunn’s family a “bad guy” after he voiced concerns of a potential cover-up over the teenager’s death.The internal email sent by an employee at No 10, seen by the PA news agency, followed a statement on Twitter from Radd Seiger in which he said the teenager’s family were intent on exposing “misconduct ... on both sides of the Atlantic”. Continue reading...

‘Stop the world’ the musical hero said whenever things went wrong. I’ve been feeling this way for a few years now

Delays are causing further suffering for almost 200 refugees whose requests for transfer or resettlement were approved in 2019A group of almost 200 refugees on Nauru who have had either medical transfers or resettlement requests approved since 2019 still remain on the island, and their cases have stalled, despite the Coalition claiming to have dealt with the backlog.The delays and policy inertia is causing further suffering for refugees and raises questions about why the resettlement and medevac processes have ground to a halt. Continue reading...

Turkish leader hits back after criticism from French president over warship deploymentThe Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on Saturday warned his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, “not to mess” with Turkey, as tensions between the Nato allies escalated.“Don’t mess with the Turkish people. Don’t mess with Turkey,” Erdoğan said during a televised speech in Istanbul on the 40th anniversary of the 1980 military coup. Continue reading...

Protests aimed at toppling autocratic leader have been led by women and show no sign of slowingOne evening last week, a stylised image of the Belarusian opposition leader, Maria Kolesnikova, was projected on to the wall of a Minsk apartment block.Mocked up to look like the famous Soviet war poster The Motherland Calls, the image created by Anna Redko shows Kolesnikova heroically holding out a torn passport – a reference to her actions on the border with Ukraine on Tuesday when Alexander Lukashenko’s security services tried to deport her. Continue reading...

Tensions mount after authorities rush to replace camp destroyed by fireGreek riot police fired teargas at protesting refugees clamouring to leave Lesbos as the situation on the island became more explosive days after devastating fires forced thousands to flee its notorious migrant camp.Tensions mounted as asylum seekers, desperate to make their way to other parts of Europe, watched authorities, including the Greek army, rush to replace the now gutted facility of Moria with a new holding centre. Continue reading...

Rally in Minsk against disputed re-election of Lukashenko was attended by thousandsBelarusian riot police detained several dozen women demonstrators and threw them into vans, as thousands took to the streets of the capital to protest against police violence and electoral fraud.Before a massive protest expected on Sunday, columns of female protesters gathered in central Minsk for a peaceful women’s protest. Some beat saucepans with ladles and others chanted “Bring back our Masha”, referring to opposition leader Maria Kolesnikova by her diminutive name. Continue reading...

Family pay tribute to Habitat founder as ‘visionary who revolutionised the way we live in Britain’

Securing a ceasefire and safeguarding rights of women and minorities are key challengesThe Taliban and Afghan government negotiators launched historic peace talks on Saturday, aiming to end decades of war through a political settlement that would be unprecedented in the country’s recent history.Negotiations will be long and complicated; there is a yawning gulf between the Taliban’s vision of an austerely Islamic state and the government’s commitment to the constitution that guarantees democracy and women’s rights, even if its implementation is mixed. Continue reading...

Over past 24 hours, 221 people have tested positive – the highest figure since 8 May

‘My lucky charms are my songs’, the reggae icon told Miranda Sawyer as he promoted his final album, Got to Be Tough

Metropolitan police arrested a man in his 20s in Cambridge on SaturdayCounter-terrorism police have arrested a man in his 20s after a package containing a small improvised explosive device was sent to a residential address in north London.The Metropolitan police said the suspect was detained in Cambridge on Saturday morning on suspicion of attempting to cause an explosion, or making or keeping explosives with intent to endanger life or property. Continue reading...

Afkari had been convicted of killing security guard during anti-government protests in 2018Iran has executed a champion wrestler convicted of murdering a security guard during anti-regime protests in 2018, state media said on Saturday, despite an international campaign to spare his life.Navid Afkari, 27, was executed “this morning after legal procedures were carried out at the insistence of the parents and the family of the victim”, the Islamic Republic News Agency quoted the head of the justice department in the southern Fars province as saying. Continue reading...

Movement returned to capital after being dampened by coronavirus outbreakFrench authorities deployed a heavy police presence in Paris and used teargas as the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) movement returned to the capital after being dampened by the coronavirus crisis.Several hundred demonstrators gathered at two squares in Paris for authorised marches. One cortege set off without incidents but the other march was delayed after police used teargas to disperse protesters who left the designated route and some of whom set fire to waste bins and a car. Continue reading...

Group of 11 men who were ‘left in the street’ in Madrid after being deported are now waiting to cross Channel againEleven Syrian asylum seekers who were removed from the UK on a charter flight to Spain nine days ago and who were abandoned in the streets of Madrid have all returned to Calais, hoping to reach the UK once again, the Guardian has learned.One of the men who returned to Calais on Friday evening, said: “We were left in the street after the Home Office deported us last Thursday. It was impossible to survive like this.” Continue reading...

He’s my all-time favourite comic character. But do the real heroes still wear spandex?A decade ago I got married in a wedding outfit that, because of the shambles of assembling it, I can remember thread for thread. I had a new suit (dark grey, secret pockets) that I was shyly proud of; but with a couple of hours to go, I hung it in the wrong place in a public bathroom and the jacket was sprayed at close range by an auto-dispersing air freshener, the rich and tangy scent of which I could never scrub clear. My smart shoes, fine in the shop, turned out to be so unrealistically sleek-soled that I couldn’t stay upright on the walk to the venue and had to arrive in trainers. Way too late in the day, I noticed that my fancy dress-shirt needed cufflinks and all I had in my drawer was a pair of bug-eyed scarlet superhero heads, given to me once as a joke. I wound up at the altar, making my solemn vows, wearing a little Spider-Man on either wrist.The older I get, the more that Spider-Man cameo, at such a big juncture in my life, comes to feel right. Where some people look to religious texts for spiritual comfort and a sense of continuity, others to Shakespeare or spirit animals, or the Harry Potter series, I’ve always been a sucker for the relentless reliable churn of superhero stories. I’ll watch or read just about any of them in a pinch. But Spider-Man has always been the one. Continue reading...

The Women’s prize for fiction winner discusses plague and avenging Anne HathawayIn the run-up to publication of her novel Hamnet at the end of March, Maggie O’Farrell bought herself a vintage dress. “There was going to be a party and a book tour and I thought I’d wear it to the launch,” she says. “I remember waking up that morning and seeing that Covid had reached Italy. I took it to the dry-cleaners and, five days later when I went to collect it, everything had been cancelled. It was a very weird and rapid turnaround.”There were no party frocks this week either, when O’Farrell overtook five other writers – including Booker laureates Hilary Mantel and Bernardine Evaristo – to become the 25th winner of the Women’s prize for fiction. “I was totally gobsmacked. There wasn’t an atom of me that wasn’t surprised,” says the 48-year-old author from her home in Edinburgh, where she has spent much of the year locked down with her novelist husband William Sutcliffe and their three children. Continue reading...

Cabinet Office minister says new legislation ‘entirely consistent with the rule of law’Michael Gove has defended the government’s plan to override parts of its own Brexit deal with the EU, claiming the internal market bill was necessary to protect the territorial integrity of the UK.He also insisted that the government was acting “within the rule of law” and was behaving in a “constructive and pragmatic” way, despite the Northern Ireland secretary admitting the new legislation would breach international law. Continue reading...

Frontman of Toots and the Maytals helped make reggae globally famousToots Hibbert, whose glorious songcraft as frontman of Toots and the Maytals helped make reggae globally famous, has died aged 77.A statement from his family on Saturday read: “It is with the heaviest of hearts to announce that Frederick Nathaniel “Toots” Hibbert passed away peacefully tonight, surrounded by his family at the University Hospital of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. Continue reading...

Foreign ministry says new rules will apply throughout country without giving any detailsChina has announced new restrictions on the activities of US diplomats working on the mainland China and Hong Kong, in what it called a justified response to similar measures imposed on Chinese diplomats in the US last year.In a statement posted online late Friday, a foreign ministry spokesperson said the rules would apply to senior diplomats and all other personnel at the American embassy in Beijing and consulates throughout China. Continue reading...

Bollywood star’s tragic story has spiralled into a national obsession, with his girlfriend at its centreFor 90 days, the death of a young Bollywood star has transfixed India.The story that began in June, when the actor Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead in his Mumbai apartment, was initially one of grief and tragedy. Police ruled that he had killed himself. Continue reading...

US marine who had served in Iraq was caught with specialised weapons and a large amount of cash, says presidentVenezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, has claimed that a “US spy” was captured while spying on the largest refining complex in the country, which is going through a severe fuel shortage crisis.In a live broadcast on state television on Friday, Maduro said the man was arrested on Thursday in the north-west state of Falcon where he was spying on the Amuay and Cardon oil refineries. Continue reading...

Liberal premier played key role in bid for Sydney Olympics and also helped thwart attack on Prince CharlesJohn Fahey, the former premier of New South Wales and federal finance minister, has died aged 75.In a statement on Saturday morning, the NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, paid tribute to Fahey and offered his family the option of a state funeral for the former premier. Continue reading...

Cave-in occurred at artisanal mine, in an industry where fatalities are commonAt least 50 people are thought to have died when an artisanal gold mine collapsed near Kamituga in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a local mining NGO said.The cave-in occurred on the Detroit mine site at around 3pm local time (13:00 GMT) on Friday following heavy rains, said Emiliane Itongwa, president of the Initiative of Support and Social Supervision of Women. Continue reading...

Former chief scientific adviser issues warning to government after huge surge in cases

Arab country is latest to make agreement as part of US president’s diplomatic pushBahrain has agreed to establish diplomatic relations with Israel, and will join the United Arab Emirates in signing an agreement at the White House on Tuesday.“Even great warriors get tired of fighting, and they’re tired of fighting,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, portraying the deals as peace agreements, although neither Gulf monarchy has ever been at war with Israel, and both had already established extensive informal ties. Bahrain has long advocated Israel’s integration in the region. Continue reading...

Thousands of refugees on Lesbos protested in the street on Friday outside what was the largest migrant camp in Europe, which burned to the ground on Tuesday night.Greek officials have pledged new temporary tents for the close to 13,000 refugees who were staying in Moria, as 11 European countries agreed to take 400 unaccompanied minors from among those left homeless by the fire