More than 400 infections traced to Seoul church, whose leader has tested positive

The Windrush scandal brought the cruelty of Britain’s deportation policies to light, but the practice continues to this day – and shockingly, it is made possible by UK aid money. By Luke de NoronhaSitting in the computer room of Open Arms drop-in centre, a homeless shelter in Kingston, Jamaica, I turned on my recorder and asked Jason to tell me about his life there. In his distinct east London accent, he described arguments and fights with other residents – about chores, use of the showers, missing possessions. Then, checking no one was around, he complained about the management, claiming that they spoke to him like a child and had threatened to kick him out. Nor did he feel safe when he left the shelter. “People are trying to kill me down here. I need to get back to England,” he said. But having been deported from the UK, and finding himself destitute in Jamaica, he had few options. Jason had been exiled home.Jason was born in 1984 in Kingston. When he was about five, his mother and grandmother moved to the UK, and so for most of his childhood he was raised by his aunties in Kingston. He had a good childhood in Jamaica. For his wider family, though, the option to move to the UK was viewed as “the dream ticket”, and so, in August 2000, when he was 15, Jason and his 13-year-old brother were put on a flight to London to join their mother. (The official story was that they were just planning to visit their grandmother for a few weeks.) This was the first time Jason had ever been on a plane, and it remains the only commercial flight he has taken. Continue reading...

Amenities designed so prospective users can inspect their cleanliness from the outsideIt sounds like the worst kind of anxiety dream – a public toilet cubicle that appears to offer the promise of blessed relief, but which on closer inspection turns out to be entirely see-through.That, though, is the design feature behind several toilets that recently opened in public parks in Tokyo. Continue reading...

New case is not linked to main outbreak in Auckland, which has so far infected 69 people

Departures come amid backstage turmoil and complaints of bullying, racism and sexual misconduct against three producersThree top producers on the The Ellen DeGeneres Show have exited the popular television talkshow, Warner Bros said on Monday, after an internal investigation into complaints of bullying, racism and sexual misconduct against them.A spokesperson for Warner Bros, which produces the show, on Monday said that three senior producers had “parted ways” with the show. Continue reading...

Water supply and road traffic disrupted for seven hours after main power station suffers ‘technical issue’The entire nation of Sri Lanka was left without power on Monday for seven hours after a failure at a key electricity facility.Power minister Dullas Alahapperuma said an unspecified “technical issue” at the Kerawalapitiya power complex just outside the capital Colombo was the cause of the blackout, which hit the entire nation of 21 million people at about midday. Continue reading...

Malta closes down bars and nightclubs; 70 workers test positive at UK desserts factory; Czech Republic sees resurgence of coronavirus infections

Embattled Belarus president looked shaken as people yelled ‘liar’ in fresh blow to regime

Tuesday: FBI asked to investigate whether Trump mega-donor is abusing position. Plus, $7m of grants awarded to firm represented by Christopher PyneGood morning, this is Richard Parkin bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Tuesday 18 August. Continue reading...

Ten-year-old girl was forced to fly more than 900 miles to north-eastern city of Recife for the procedure after being rapedScores of Brazilian women have taken to the streets to protect a 10-year-old child who was being persecuted by religious extremists for trying to legally undergo an abortion after allegedly being raped by her uncle.The girl, from São Mateus, a small town in the south-eastern state of Espírito Santo, was admitted to hospital on 7 August complaining of abdominal pain and doctors confirmed she was pregnant. Continue reading...

A Japanese ship that has leaked hundreds of tonnes of fuel oil off the coast of Mauritius has broken up. The MV Wakashio ran aground on a coral reef on 25 July with 4,000 tonnes of the fuel, causing an ecological emergency

Local authority says its capacity to provide safe care has been exceeded with latest arrivalsKent county council has said it is unable to look after any more unaccompanied child refugees who arrive in Dover, because it has reached the limits of its capacity to provide safe care for them.The council said social workers and other professionals who provide care and support for this vulnerable group of children had been put under “impossible strain”. Continue reading...

Social organisation that’s raised more than $1m for projects abroad says it hopes move sends a message on ‘rort’ of packaged waterThe social enterprise Thankyou has permanently stopped production of its founding product – bottled water – saying it could no longer justify the environmental harm caused by selling it in a developed country such as Australia.The Melbourne-based company launched in 2008 with bottled water and has since expanded to products including handwash, lotions and baby products. Continue reading...

In 2018, one hundred artists made banners to celebrate a century since women won the right to vote in the UK. A new book collects them allOrganiser Helen Marriage on why the government needs to rethink banning mass cultural gatheringsWomen Making History is available through Profile Editions Continue reading...

Williamson and Ofqual apologise, scrapping standardisation model after outcry

Victims from town of Calne died after their vehicle hit a house and caught fire on A4Floral tributes have been left to four young men who died after their car crashed into a house and caught fire.The incident happened at 3am on Sunday on the A4 in Derry Hill, near Calne, Wiltshire. Police said the occupants of the house immediately called 999 and were evacuated while the fire service extinguished the blaze. Continue reading...

Chlorination of hens and use of pig sow stalls among disparities highlighted by charity ahead of post-Brexit trade talks

Berlin officials say Elsa and her piglets pose a danger and may have to be ‘withdrawn’A wild boar that has become a frequent visitor at a lakeside bathing resort in Berlin is attracting a growing band of supporters following authorities’ suggestion that it could have to be killed.The animal, nicknamed Elsa, has earned something akin to celebrity status after a series of photos of it and its piglets stealing a nude bather’s laptop at Teufelssee lake in west Berlin went viral this month. Continue reading...

The Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, walked off stage to chants of 'step down' after a speech to workers at the Minsk tractor works on Monday. The factory is one of the large state-run industrial plants that are the pride of his Soviet-style economic model and core support base. During his speech, Lukashenko said he would be willing to hand over power after a referendum in an apparent attempt to pacify mass protests and strikes

European council chief says EU must show Russia there are peaceful ways to resolve situationEU leaders have been called to an emergency meeting on Belarus, as tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Minsk for the largest rally in the country’s recent history.The president of the European council, Charles Michel, has invited the European Union’s 27 heads of state and government to an extraordinary meeting by video conference on Wednesday. “The people of Belarus have the right to decide on their future and freely elect their leader,” Michel tweeted. “Violence against protesters is unacceptable and cannot be allowed.” Continue reading...

The Chinese billionaire did not challenge the freeze on his Australian assets, including two Sydney homes worth an estimated $3.28 millionA freezing order on the worldwide assets of Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo over a $140m tax bill was unlawful, an appeal court has ruled.The property developer, whose association with Sam Dastyari led to the Labor senator’s downfall in 2018, had challenged the international element of the order on the grounds it was unenforceable in China and Hong Kong, where most of his assets lay. Continue reading...

90,000 Africans fought the Japanese in Myanmar on behalf of Britain in the second world war. Feelings are mixed in the few remaining survivors about being sent by a colonial power to fight a battle that wasn’t theirs Continue reading...

Taitusi Ratucaucau has been barred from working and could face £50,000 bill for brain op

Eight Fijian-born soldiers went public five months ago and have yet to receive positive response

Falling household consumption and Olympics postponement drag on growth

People gathered in Bangkok on Sunday for one of the biggest demonstrations against the country's military rulers since the 2014 coup. The student-led movement has three core demands: hold new elections, amend the constitution and end the intimidation of government critics

Master Builders Australia is calling for an extra $5.1bn in support as it expects new housing construction to plummet 27%Labor has seized on new housing industry forecasts of construction activity to argue the Morrison government’s homebuilder scheme isn’t enough to stop a “bloodbath” in the sector.Master Builders Australia on Monday revealed it expects new house construction to plummet 27% from 170,000 in 2019-20 to 125,000 in 2020-21, and called for an extra $5.1bn in economic supports. Treasury estimates, released on Friday, forecast a drop to 140,000 new homes in 2020-21. Continue reading...

Department secretary asked at inquiry if she stands by earlier statement she did not ‘accept people have died’ over programThe mothers of two young men who took their own lives after receiving Centrelink debts have challenged a top bureaucrat who said she did not “accept that people have died” over the Coalition’s income compliance – or robodebt – program.Kathryn Campbell, the secretary of the Department of Social Services, made the comments while under questioning from the Labor senator Deborah O’Neill at a Senate inquiry into Services Australia’s income compliance program last month. Continue reading...

Ofqual model scrapped as ex-chief inspector of schools says England should follow suit

Interview given by MI6 officer in 1980s was discovered in research for new documentaryA first-hand account of Britain’s role in the 1953 coup that overthrew the elected prime minister of Iran and restored the shah to power has been published for the first time.The account by the MI6 officer who ran the operation describes how it took British intelligence years to persuade the US to take part in the coup. Meanwhile, MI6 recruited agents and bribed members of Iran’s parliament with banknotes transported in biscuit tins. Continue reading...

Jacinda Ardern has postponed the New Zealand general election by four weeks, to 17 October, but ruled out delaying it any further, as the country tackles a new outbreak of the coronavirus. The outbreak centres on New Zealand's biggest city, Auckland, after the country had been free of coronavirus cases for 102 days

Signs Liberals increasingly support freezing guarantee at 9.5% because of Covid-19 recession, even though rise is already legislatedLiberal MPs have stepped up calls for the superannuation guarantee to remain frozen at 9.5% after the assistant minister, Jane Hume, said she was “ambivalent” about an already legislated rise to 12%.The Liberal senator Andrew Bragg told Guardian Australia the “first recession” since compulsory superannuation started in 1992 was “not a good time to increase the cost of private employment”. Continue reading...

Julia Szlakowski has spoken out after AMP described Boe Pahari’s conduct as ‘lower-level breaches’

Olga Freeman will appear at Uxbridge magistrates court on MondayA 40-year-old woman has been charged with the murder of a 10-year-old boy in west London.A woman walked into a police station in the early hours of Sunday to speak to officers and the boy was later found dead at a property in Acton, west London. Continue reading...

White European and American practitioners have not taken charges of discrimination seriously. It’s time to do our homework and learn to changeWe are long overdue a reckoning around race in gender and development work. The number of women who have recently issued public claims of racism or discrimination against global women’s rights organisations is testament to that.The Nobel Women’s Initiative is the latest to come under fire with allegations of toxic workplace practices, joining the International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC) and Women Deliver, among others. (I’ve previously been employed by IWHC and Women Deliver.) Continue reading...

Photojournalist Ada Luisa Trillo has won the Guardian’s Portfolio Review award at Format photography festival this year. Her powerful piece of work on the migrant caravan follows the people who left Central American countries to reach the USIn January 2020, fleeing violence and poor economic conditions, a group of Hondurans organised a huge migrant caravan that travelled through Guatemala into Mexico. After travelling for eight days, the caravan crossed the Suchiate River into Mexico and were met by the recently established Guardia Nacional composed of former federal, military and naval police. Continue reading...

Daniel Andrews says further tragedy is in store, with 44 people in intensive care and 282 new cases, while Frankston hospital closes wards

Sameer Anwar’s parents thought the lost piece of Lego was long gone – until their son took a great big sniff of a plate of cupcakesA missing piece of Lego has dropped out of a child’s nose two years after he pushed it up.Seven-year-old Sameer Anwar of Dunedin, in the south of New Zealand, inserted a tiny piece of Lego up his nose in 2018. Sameer’s father, Mudassir, and his wife became alarmed when their son told them he had lost a piece of Lego up his nose, and couldn’t find it. Continue reading...

Complimentary wine flights are a cornerstone of Australian cellar door visits – but as wineries reopen, they’re rethinking the traditionFor decades free wine tastings have been an essential part of the Australian cellar door experience. They helped turn a nation of beer drinkers on to the charms of shiraz, sémillon and sagrantino.Before the Covid-19 shutdown, there was already a move away from this tradition: the number of Australian wineries charging for tastings went from 29% in 2017-18 to 50% in 2019, according to Wine Australia’s 2019 cellar door survey report. As wineries have reopened post-shutdown, more are questioning the value of giving away their product free. Continue reading...

Guardian Australia brings together all the latest on active and daily new Covid-19 cases, as well as maps, stats, live data and state by state graphs from NSW, Victoria, Queensland, SA, WA, Tasmania, ACT and NT to get a broad picture of the Australian outbreak and track the impact of government response

The health department recommends masks where community transmission of Covid-19 is occurring and physical distancing is difficult, and Victoria has made face masks mandatory in the state. From washable cloth face masks to reusable ones and how to wear them, here’s what you need to know

Connection of phone service represents the first concrete sign of the agreement made last week to establish diplomatic tiesA telephone service between the United Arab Emirates and Israel has begun working as the two countries opened diplomatic ties, part of a deal brokered by the US that required Israel to suspend its contentious plan to annex the West Bank.UAE foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan called his Israeli counterpart, Gabi Ashkenazi, in what Israel hailed as an important step. Continue reading...

Guardian Australia analysis and map shows how the pattern of Covid-19 has changed by region and throughout Melbourne. Live data updates will track the numbers as the Vic lockdown continues

Country is entering a dangerous new phase of rising infections in small towns and villages with limited access to healthcare

Failures in system believed to have led to state’s second wave of Covid-19. Sydney Girls High School closes for cleaning after a student diagnosed with Covid-19. Follow live

New French cases exceed 3,000 for second day; localised restrictions in north of England may soon be eased; Italy closes all discos

Alexander Lukashenko claims Vladimir Putin has offered him ‘comprehensive help’Tens of thousands of Belarusians have gathered in Minsk for the biggest protest in the country’s history, as an extraordinary week of rising sentiment comes to a close.Seven days after the country’s authoritarian ruler, Alexander Lukashenko, claimed to have secured 80% of the vote in a presidential election, his legitimacy is in tatters and his regime faces its biggest crisis since he came to power 26 years ago. The mood at Sunday’s rally was stoked further by egregious police violence against thousands of protesters earlier in the week. Continue reading...

Monday: Victorian quarantine inquiry will hold hearings into source of outbreak. Plus: the people who have turned their lives around in lockdownGood morning, this is Lauren Waldhuter bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Monday 17 August. Continue reading...