World news | The Guardian

There’s nothing wrong with being proud of our national dishes, but focusing on cheese makes us look ridiculousThere are differing visions of Britain. You hear it in the way we talk about the second world war: the nation split into those who think we were fighting Nazis and those who think we were fighting Germans. Patriots have long looked at their country and cherrypicked the parts that appeal. To some, being British is about the armed forces and the royal family. To others, it is the BBC and the NHS. To Liz Truss, national identity seems to be largely about cheese.In 2014, Truss, then environment secretary, gave a mesmerising address to the Conservative party conference that must rank as one of the slowest speeches in modern political history. If you watch the video, everyone in it seems to be on a time delay, despite the fact they’re in the same room. But it isn’t just the awkward pauses, it’s also the tone: Truss delivering her early punchlines with the dreamy, otherworldly air of Mr Burns from The Simpsons that time he turned radioactive and kept appearing in the woods. If you judge the quality of a speech by how confused the applause is, this one takes some beating. Continue reading...

Netflix now accounts for quarter of all actors’ earnings as the Rock takes home biggest pay packet for second year runningDwayne Johnson, the wrestler turned actor formerly known as the Rock, has again topped Forbes’s list of the highest-paid actors having made an estimated $87.5m (£67m) in the fiscal year ending June 2020.Next on the list were Ryan Reynolds and Mark Wahlberg, with $71.5m and $58m respectively. Save for Johnson, the names mark a considerable contrast to those on last year’s top 10, which was dominated by the stars of the Marvel franchise. Continue reading...

Amid the coronavirus crisis, most countries avoided the rows and recriminations experienced in Britain

The Hong Kong pro-democracy figure and media mogul Jimmy Lai has received a hero’s welcome on return to his newspaper after his arrest on allegations of foreign collusion. Chinese state media labelled him a 'genuine traitor'. Lai, his sons, senior executives from his Next Digital media company and others including the activist Agnes Chow were detained under Beijing’s national security law on Monday. Hundreds of police officers raided the offices and newsroom of Apple Daily, the tabloid Lai founded, in a move decried as an assault on press freedom. Most of the 10 arrested were released on bail

Officers ‘could not have known Labour MP was black before they targeted car’

NDIS quality commission says Integrity Care SA is being banned for a number of contraventions following an investigation into the ‘appalling circumstances’ of Smith’s deathThe disability care provider for an Adelaide woman with cerebral palsy who died in “disgusting and degrading” conditions earlier this year has been banned from operating under the NDIS.The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission on Wednesday announced it was revoking the registration of the company responsible for caring for 54-year-old woman Anne Marie Smith before her death in what police described as deeply shocking conditions in April. Continue reading...

James Cleverly criticises ice-cream company for Twitter posts about Channel crossingsThe Conservative minister James Cleverly has criticised ice-cream company Ben & Jerry’s for “virtue signalling”, after the company spoke out on social media about the plight of migrants and refugees attempting to cross the Channel.The spat between the ice-cream manufacturer and the government began when the company’s social media team published a thread about migrants and refugees directed at the home secretary, Priti Patel. Starting “the real crisis is our lack of humanity for people fleeing war, climate change and torture”, the thread pulled together a series of facts and resources about asylum seekers. Continue reading...

Apple Daily founder and pro-democracy activist returns to office following arrest under national security lawThe Hong Kong pro-democracy figure and media mogul Jimmy Lai received a hero’s welcome as he returned to his newspaper after being arrested on allegations of foreign collusion, while Chinese state media labelled him a “genuine traitor”.Lai, his sons, senior executives from his Next Digital media company and others including the activist Agnes Chow were detained under Beijing’s national security law on Monday. Hundreds of police officers also raided the offices and newsroom of Apple Daily, the popular tabloid Lai founded, in a move decried as an assault on press freedom. Continue reading...

Informed by baile funk, metal and more, Linn da Quebrada and Jup do Bairro – with producer Badsista – are dodging racism, transphobia and music industry resistance to tell their own storiesJup do Bairro and Linn da Quebrada first met at a festival in São Paulo through mutual friends. It didn’t go well, Jup says while we wait for Linn to join our Zoom call. “I looked at her and joked: Is it Linn for linda?”, meaning beautiful in Portuguese. “I remember she rolled her eyes and I thought: Yikes, game over!”But the two musicians kept running into each other. “Linn often performed at the same parties I was invited to and since we both lived far from the city centre, we’d always wait for the bus together,” Jup says. In the end, they became close friends and eventually musical partners. Continue reading...

Royal commission hears hundreds of residents will die because of government failure to develop a coronavirus response plan, and that some care homes are cutting staff

NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian strongly encourages mask-wearing as Victoria’s hotel quarantine system goes under the microscope. Follow live updates today

Thunderstorm warnings in place for much of country as heatwave conditions continueThunderstorm warnings are still in place for most of the UK on Wednesday, while high temperatures are forecast again for many parts of England.The Met Office has issued a yellow storm warning for all of England and the eastern half of Scotland, and a more serious amber warning for eastern Scotland between Edinburgh, Inverness and Aberdeen. Continue reading...

Fight to eradicate disease getting ‘back on track’ after surge in cases due to pause in vaccination campaignsPolio vaccination campaigns have resumed in Afghanistan and Pakistan – the last two polio-endemic countries in the world – after a “surge” in cases.The pandemic halted campaigns in both countries in March and confirmed cases have now reached 34 in Afghanistan and 63 in Pakistan – where cases are being recorded in areas of the country previously free of the disease. Continue reading...

Italy is facing an influx of people trafficked on fishing boats, desperate to escape Tunisia’s deepening economic crisisUnsurprisingly for a coastal town perched upon Tunisia’s border with Libya, it’s hot when Ahmed climbs into the back of the car outside the petrol station in Zarzis.It’s clear from the outset he feels uncomfortable talking to a journalist. Nevertheless, he’s here. Continue reading...

With access to information and the voting process remaining open, there is no reason to postpone the September poll because of Covid-19 outbreakThe reintroduction of lockdowns as a result of evidence of community transmission of Covid-19 in Auckland has New Zealand electoral politics in a bit of a tizz. The general election is due in only 38 days, overseas voting commences on 2 September and advance voting is scheduled to open three days later. On learning of the move to higher alert levels, most parties announced they were suspending their election campaigning, at least until midnight Friday or until the extent of the community transmission is understood.With luck, the outbreak will be able to be quickly contained, and election campaigning can resume. But this cannot be taken for granted, and already there is speculation about whether the 19 September general election will have to be deferred. On Wednesday, National leader Judith Collins called on Jacinda Ardern move the vote to November on the grounds that it would not be possible to have a fair and free election in September. She said that with Auckland in level 3 lockdown and the rest of the country at level 2, it was unsustainable to expect a fair campaign. She said New Zealanders deserved better than to wonder if they can vote on election day. Continue reading...

GDP falls 20.4% as coronavirus fuels biggest quarterly decline in growth since 1955

‘It’s the same every year. He talks gibberish and leaves,’ says one survivor after plagiarism app detects 93% match in speeches given days apartSurvivors of the atomic bombings of 75 years ago have accused Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, of making light of their concerns after he delivered two near-identical speeches to mark the anniversaries of the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.A plagiarism detection app found that Abe’s speech in Nagasaki on Sunday duplicated 93% of a speech he had given in Hiroshima three days earlier, the Mainichi Shimbun reported. Continue reading...

Coronavirus restrictions have been reintroduced across New Zealand after four new Covid-19 cases were diagnosed in Auckland Continue reading...

Survivors who say alleged assailants go unpunished have begun publicly shaming them onlineEgypt is witnessing a wave of online outrage targeting rape culture and sexual assault, as survivors use social media to shame alleged abusers and demand change.A growing number of social media accounts gather survivors’ testimony and attempt to shame alleged attackers, angry at elite perpetrators they say routinely go unpunished. Continue reading...

A campaign has highlighted plight of unmarried couples from different countries parted for months

Anger has been building since 2014 coup in which prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha seized power, with students now holding rallies almost dailyThai protesters have broken a long-standing taboo, risking lengthy jail terms to criticise the king, after weeks of student-led pro-democracy rallies that have swept across the country.Over recent weeks, high school and university students have targeted the government of prime minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, calling for its dissolution and for democratic reforms. Now, some protesters have begun openly criticising the country’s wealthy and powerful monarchy. Continue reading...

In the years since its launch party ended in violence, 66 Records survived a racist media storm to secure a major deal. Its bosses say nothing can stop them nowAt the September 2018 launch of Melbourne rap label 66 Records at the Gasometer Hotel in Collingwood, a heaving crowd bounced under the venue’s giant disco ball to booming bass. But that jubilation ended at about 2am when a fight broke out.The violence culminated in the street with one intoxicated attendee losing control of a car, pinning another teenager between two parked cars. The victim David Dada – a third cousin of the label’s founder Abraham Poni – lost his leg. Continue reading...

Fears Beijing would export its strict control of the media to Hong Kong have been borne out by arrest of pro-democracy media mogul and raid on his paper

Electoral commission assessing implications for September election, as Auckland placed on level 3 lockdown due to four new cases

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya left for Lithuania after election result prompted protest actionSvetlana Tikhanovskaya, the main opposition candidate in Sunday’s disputed elections in Belarus, has left the country after an apparent threat to her children.Opposition supporters took the streets of the capital, Minsk, and several other cities for the third night running on Tuesday despite a huge police crackdown as anger at the 26-year rule of president Alexander Lukashenko continued to grow. Continue reading...

Labour seeks review after police and RSPB link sharp rise in killings to hunting season

The conclusion of this two-part documentary charted the end of the Soviet Union to the Clinton years and beyond, with the former US president joining a superb cast of talking headsIt’s been so long since I experienced it – either personally or simply as a possibility in the wider world – that for a minute or two I couldn’t identify the feeling that arrived as Cuba: Castro vs the World (BBC Two) concluded. It was, I realised after rummaging through distant memory, the sense of having become better informed about some aspect of the world rather than even more flailingly confused about it.The two-hour film, produced by Norma Percy (The Death of Yugoslavia, Inside Europe: Ten Years of Turmoil) traced the history of Cuba from 1959, when “the bearded men from the mountains” – led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara – vanquished US-backed military dictator Fulgencio Batista and began a revolution that would prove it is not the size of your country that matters, it’s what you do with it. Continue reading...

Wednesday: medical experts say NSW needs tighter restrictions on indoor gatherings as clusters grow. Plus, Harris makes history as Biden’s running mateGood morning, this is Emilie Gramenz bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Wednesday 12 August. Continue reading...

Convicting all the suspects would also have offered the police a measure of redemption​Convicting all of the suspects in the racist gang of five or six people that killed Stephen Lawrence would have delivered justice for his family, and some measure of redemption for the Metropolitan police. Scotland Yard’s decision to close the case means neither will get what they longed for.For Doreen and Neville Lawrence the loss of their first child, Stephen, was a personal catastrophe that over the years turned into a symbolic case for the nation, and remains so. Continue reading...

Live footage of people crossing Channel to UK is like ‘grotesque reality TV’, says MP

Many have taken jobs in new industries, while others are underemployed and struggling with bills

Many in Lebanon hope a new government of national unity will pave the way for reform after last week’s explosionIn the wake of Lebanese prime minister Hassan Diab’s announcement that his government will resign, the country has been left wondering whether the explosion that decimated Beirut is also strong enough to uproot Lebanon’s rotten political system.In a televised address on Monday night after more than a third of ministers quit their posts, forcing him to do the same, Diab said that the corruption of the country’s entrenched ruling class “created this tragedy” but avoided taking personal responsibility. Continue reading...

The overarching project of my life has been making myself safe. But what is the point if everyone else is drowning and burning and starving?

Almost three-quarters back Daniel Andrews’ public health measures, but premier’s approval rating stagnates while Morrison’s is buoyedThe lockdown might be draconian, but Victorians overwhelmingly support the public health restrictions imposed to curb the second wave of coronavirus infections, with support for the measures highest among voters aged over 55, according to a Guardian Essential poll.New research shows 72% of the sample backs the decision of the Andrews government to impose a curfew between 8pm and 5am, 71% supports curbs on leaving the house, while 70% endorse restrictions on business and the requirement that people travel no further than 5km from their house. Voters aged over 34 are more likely to support the current lockdown measures than younger people. Continue reading...

Without a radical overhaul the next government could look like the one that resignedLike a break in a merciless heatwave, the fall of Lebanon’s failed government has reduced by a few degrees the political temperature in the country’s towns and cities. One week after the enormous explosion that levelled much of Beirut, its rulers have rightly paid a price. The power of the street had exposed the fragility of Lebanese leaders. Impunity hadn’t won the day after all.But what seemed like much needed relief is more likely to be the start of a familiar pattern; the same line up of ministers who quit in disgrace will now take on a caretaker role, while those who really control the country haggle over the next incarnation of a government that is likely to look very similar to the one that has just resigned. Continue reading...

All teacher-awarded grades to be reinstated as pressure grows in England; Scottish football games axed after lockdown breaches

Met police chief announces there are no further lines of inquiry into murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993The father of Stephen Lawrence will attempt to overturn a decision by Scotland Yard to end the active hunt for his son’s murderers, saying it would leave racist killers out on the streets.Neville Lawrence was speaking after the Metropolitan police shifted the status of its search for at least three white men who were part of the gang that attacked Stephen, saying active work to catch them would cease. He and his ex-wife, Doreen, Stephen’s mother, expressed dismay at the decision. Continue reading...

Alexander Lukashenko has cut off entire population’s internet to try to stifle election dissent

Aleksandar Antonov says he made remarks about footballer in a private group chat

Readers share their views on the UK government’s response to Channel migrant crossings

New infections nearly back to peak in Netherlands as France reports ‘worrying increase’

Britain's minister for immigration compliance, Chris Philp, says the Channel will be made completely 'unviable' for people attempting to make illegal crossings from France into the UK. Speaking in Paris, Philp said the route was facilitated by 'ruthless criminal gangs' and that the UK and France shared an 'unshakeable' commitment to making sure illegal crossings end as soon as possible

Experts offer other options as UK government seeks to reduce numbers crossing in boats

Sputnik V’s development has been marked by worrying opacity and ethical issues

No, it’s not a careless whisper: a nine-metre-high image of the singer, by artist Dawn Mellor, is set to adorn BrentTurn a different corner in the London borough of Brent from September and you’ll be confronted with the strangest thing: a nine-metre mural of local hero George Michael.No this isn’t just a careless whisper. British artist Dawn Mellor has been commissioned to paint a permanent public artwork in Kingsbury, celebrating the life of the singer, who grew up in the area. Continue reading...

Nigel Wright, 45, from Lincolnshire, allegedly claimed to have planted jars laced with metal in numerous storesA sheep farmer allegedly tried to extort cryptocurrency from Tesco in exchange for revealing in which of its stores he had planted jars of baby food laced with metal, a court has heard.Nigel Wright, 45, from Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, is accused of bombarding the supermarket chain with letters and emails in the name of “Guy Brush” between May 2018 and February 2020. Continue reading...

Police seize drugs valued at up to €6m and arrest at least 17 suspects at stablesAt least 17 people are in custody in the Netherlands after police raided a former riding stables that had been transformed into the country’s largest ever illicit drugs “laundry” capable of producing up to 200kg of cocaine a day.Thirteen of those detained were Colombian nationals, police said on Tuesday. Three Dutch citizens – including the 64-year-old owner of the stables, in the northern village of Nijeveen – and one Turkish suspect were also arrested. Continue reading...

Pair believed to have been using inflatable dinghy seen drifting out at sea

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the main opposition candidate in Belarus' disputed elections, is thought to have left the country for Lithuania as clashes between heavily armed police and demonstrators escalated during a second night of protests follow re-election of longtime ruler Alexander Lukashenko.In an emotional video posted to social media, Tikhanovskaya indicated she had faced an ultimatum and urged people to 'please be careful' adding that 'children are the most important part of our lives'.Lithuania’s foreign minister, Linas Linkevičius, told the Guardian that Tikhanovskay had been detained by Belarusian authorities for seven hours after filing a complaint against vote-rigging

War Office feared war movie would ‘not go down well with British public’The adventure war film The Bridge on the River Kwai may have swept the board of awards and attracted acclaim as one best films of the 20th century, but the War Office was very nervous “it would not go down well with the British public”, documents reveal.Letters between the Hollywood producer Sam Spiegel and the UK War Office, from whom he was seeking permission for RAF cooperation in making the 1957 film, show tensions over how its plot depicted the conduct of British officers. Continue reading...