What are the restrictions within Victoria and the border closures with NSW and Queensland? How far can I travel, and how many people can I have over at my house? Untangle Australia’s Covid-19 laws and guidelines with our guide
The writer and ‘romcomoisseur’ on her debut short story collection, romcom chemistry, and her clinch with Michael B JordanBorn and based in London, Bolu Babalola, 29, is a self-proclaimed “romcomoisseur” and writer. She worked as an assistant producer at BBC Comedy and was shortlisted by the 4th Estate B4ME prize for her debut story, Netflix and Chill. Her first short story collection, Love in Colour, retellings of mythical tales from around the world, is out this month and comes heaped with praise from authors including Meg Cabot and Candice Carty-Williams.Romcoms are a big part of your life and the inspiration for your book. Why?
Grigory Rodchenkov was head of Russia’s ‘anti-doping’ centre but, in 2015, he fled to the US. He talks to the Observer’s former Moscow correspondent about the lies, the truth and life on the runThe man in front of me is wearing a disguise. We are talking on Skype. I’m at my home near London and Dr Grigory Rodchenkov is at an undisclosed location somewhere in America, guarded 24/7 by armed FBI agents. How is he? “My life is good. My mood is very good,” he says. He’s grinning, I think. Since he’s wearing a black scarf over his face and dark glasses, it’s hard to tell.The cloak-and-dagger atmospherics surrounding our interview might seem a little overblown. Until, that is, you remember, Vladimir Putin’s roving assassins are trying to establish Rodchenkov’s secret location so they can snuff him out, a traitor to the state. Russia’s president has a long list of enemies. But Rodchenkov – the most significant sports whistleblower of the 21st century – is probably at the top. Continue reading...
Premier Daniel Andrews has announced tougher rules, including a limit of travelling 5km for shopping and exercise, in an attempt to contain rising community transmission
David Goldblatt’s photo essay from 1972 is a key document of an era. Now he is the subject of a major show in LondonThe photographer David Goldblatt, the great chronicler of the apartheid era in South Africa, is to be celebrated by one of the first London art galleries to re‑open this month.Goldblatt, who died in 2018, has not been the subject of a major London show for more than 30 years. The new exhibition, David Goldblatt: Johannesburg 1948-2018, at the Goodman Gallery in Mayfair, will focus on a particularly moving photo essay, Soweto, from 1972. The photographs in the series were taken over six months in a febrile atmosphere that would lead to an uprising in this impoverished area of Johannesburg four years later. Continue reading...
Dissidents urge united stand against Chinese and look to eastern bloc tactics for inspirationProminent Hong Kong democracy activists have responded to China’s crackdown on opposition politicians, student campaigners and tenured academics by considering tactics that would have seemed exaggerated in the open city a few months ago.The student leader Nathan Law, who was placed on a police “wanted” list just weeks after flying into exile in the UK, said he would cut off all contact with relatives living in his home city, in an apparent bid to protect them from suspicion or pressure. Continue reading...
A small fishing hamlet in Portugal has become a magnet for the world’s most fearless big-wave surfers. Tim Lewis reveals how Nazaré became the ocean’s EverestEveryone you meet in Nazaré tells you the waves here are different: heavier, more powerful, less predictable, somehow menacing. So, on my last afternoon in the Portuguese town in February, I went out on the back of a jet ski piloted by Andrew Cotton, a big-wave surfer from Devon, to see for myself. Cotton is easygoing, with cropped, gold-tipped hair and pale eyes, but he turns serious as we leave the harbour. He explains that jet skis are set up differently in Nazaré: the kill switch, which cuts the engine if the rider is thrown off, is not attached to the driver’s wrist as usual because… I miss the exact reason as Cotton guns the engine and sea spray covers us and I’m distracted, wondering if they really had to call it a “kill” switch. I’m already freaked out enough that I’ve promised to check in with my family as soon as I’m back on dry land.Nazaré, specifically Praia do Norte or North Beach, is home to the biggest surfable waves on the planet. Ten years ago, it was unknown even in big-wave circles, but that changed when Garrett McNamara, a 52-year-old Hawaiian who is one of the pioneers of the sport, was given a tip-off by local bodyboarders. He came to Portugal for the first time in 2010; the following year, he rode a monstrous wave measured at 23.77m (78ft) and entered the Guinness World Records. In 2017, also in Nazaré, Brazilian Rodrigo Koxa nudged up the mark to 24.38m (80ft). If one day someone conquers a 100ft wave – a holy grail of surfing – almost certainly it will take place in Nazaré. Continue reading...
Gloucestershire police say they have broken up an event in the forest and warned others to stay awayPolice have warned people to stay away from the Forest of Dean, where they have been forced to break up a rave attended by a “large volume” of partygoers.Gloucestershire police said in a tweet early on Sunday morning: “Police are currently in the Forest of Dean near to Speculation car park dispersing a rave. People are advised not to attend the area due to safety and Covid risks.” Continue reading...
Anger is growing on the left after Labour peerages were blocked, as Lord Fowler, a Tory, criticised the chamber’s expansionJeremy Corbyn has raised renewed concerns over the decision to reject his nominees for seats in the House of Lords, amid anger on the left over a raft of peerages announced last week.It is understood the former Labour leader has again complained to the cabinet office about the rejection of a peerage for Karie Murphy, a former Labour official and a close ally. Continue reading...
Documentary reveals evidence confirming a British spy’s role in restoring the Shah in 1953 – and how the Observer exposed the plotThe hidden role of a British secret service officer who led the coup that permanently altered the Middle East is to be revealed for the first time since an Observer news story was suppressed in 1985.The report, headlined “How MI6 and CIA joined forces to plot Iran coup”, appeared in the 26 May edition but was swiftly quashed. It exposed the fact that an MI6 man, Norman Darbyshire, had run a covert and violent operation to reinstate the Shah of Iran as ruler of the country in 1953. Yet just a few days after the newspaper came out, all fresh evidence of this British operation and of Darbyshire’s identity disappeared from public debate. Continue reading...
Hassan Akkad fled Damascus after he was tortured by Assad’s regime. But nothing prepared him for his job as a cleaner on a Covid-19 ward in London…There have been times in the past 10 years, Hassan Akkad says, that his life has felt more like a movie. Thinking that occasionally kept him sane – and, more important, kept him going.Akkad’s walk-on part in world events began in 2011, when as a young English teacher he put himself in the frontline of Arab spring democracy protests in his native Syria. He was beaten and imprisoned by the regime – and at one point given a face-to-face audience with Bashar al-Assad, his torturer, to plead his case. Having fled Damascus in fear of his life during the civil war, Akkad became for three years one of those 12 million “displaced persons” searching for a home on the six o’clock news. Unflinching cameraphone clips of his long journey to Britain – clinging to a sinking people-smuggler dinghy off the coast of Turkey, en route to the “Jungle” in Calais – made the most vivid and affecting footage of the BBC’s Bafta-winning Exodus: Our Journey to Europe series. Continue reading...
What happened after the fall of the Berlin Wall involved money, and lots of itBefore the government was forced into locking down British regions, it wanted to level them up, closing productivity gaps between north and south. That’s a valuable objective, reinforced by new research on UK regional inequality from academics appropriately spread across Sheffield, Birmingham and London. The paper reminds us that the UK has some of the biggest productivity gaps between regions in the developed world, with global leaders in parts of London and the south-east very different to some cities in the north and Midlands.There’s nothing new in politicians or academics pointing to the north-south divide, but more interestingly the work notes that the UK has not always led the way in this inequality between places. Most countries had higher regional gaps than the UK for most of the 20thcentury. Indeed, the UK’s productivity gaps fell postwar and their surge is only a post-90s phenomenon. Continue reading...
by Bethan McKernan Middle East correspondent on (#56E7Y)
A showdown looms in the fight for control of the country – with Africa’s largest oilfields as the prizeIn August 2011, as Libya’s rebels and Nato jets began an assault on Tripoli, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi delivered a speech calling on his supporters to defend the country from foreign invaders.“There is a conspiracy to control Libyan oil and to control Libyan land, to colonise Libya once again. This is impossible, impossible. We will fight until the last man and last woman to defend Libya from east to west, north to south,” he said in a message broadcast by a pro-regime television station. Two months later, the dictator was dragged bleeding and confused from a storm drain in his hometown of Sirte, before being killed. Continue reading...
Scott Morrison tells Mark McGowan commonwealth will no longer join high court challenge due to rising Covid-19 cases in other statesScott Morrison has ended the federal government’s involvement in Clive Palmer’s high court case challenging Western Australia’s border closure, amid rising fears over the Covid-19 outbreak in Victoria.With Victoria poised to announce tougher lockdown measures aimed at reducing community transmission of the virus, the prime minister has written to the WA premier to reveal he is shifting his position – in part because the pandemic “has worsened since these matters were first brought to the high court”. Continue reading...
NSW premier says masks ‘strongly recommended’ in certain circumstances as state announces 12 new casesNew South Wales authorities have urged people in the state to wear face masks in certain circumstances after two workers at a western Sydney childcare centre contracted coronavirus from an unknown source.Twelve new cases were reported in NSW in the 24 hours to Saturday night with only one case having no known source of infection. Continue reading...
A wreck boasting a trove of fifth-century BC amphorae has been opened to divers off the island of AlonissosGreece has inaugurated its first underwater museum, a trove of fifth-century BC amphorae labelled the “Parthenon of shipwrecks”, off the coast of Alonissos island in the western Aegean.The site of the wreck will be open to tours by certified amateur divers from 3 August to 2 October, while those who can’t dive can follow a virtual reality tour at an information centre in the main town of Alonissos. Continue reading...
Allegation about incidents from July 2019 to January 2020 reportedly relate to ex-ministerA former Conservative minister has been arrested after a woman accused him of rape, sexual assault and coercive control, it was reported last night.The Metropolitan police confirmed they had launched an investigation into four alleged incidents between July 2019 and January 2020 at different locations in London. They said “a man in his 50s” was taken into custody early yesterday and was still in a police station in east London last night. Continue reading...
Afraid of nuclear war, natural disasters, economic meltdown? The Survival Condo could be the answer“Mechanical level”, “medical level”, “store level” the voice announces as the lift descends into the earth. I’d entered at parking lot level, the building’s apex. I am travelling through an inverted skyscraper, the floor numbers ascending – third, fourth – as we plumb the building’s depths. A hulking man in his late 50s called Larry Hall stands next to me, whistling, black shirt tucked into blue jeans.When the doors open, I can’t suppress a laugh. In front of us, four storeys below central Kansas, is a supermarket complete with shopping baskets, cold cabinets and an espresso machine behind the counter. Hall smiles. Continue reading...
One thing is clear, the government is very worried about a resurgence of coronavirus in the UKA week is a long time in a coronavirus pandemic – a fact the government has learned all too painfully. Avoiding a one-week delay to lockdown in March would potentially have halved the death toll, it has previously emerged.Which goes some way to explain why there have been not one but two screeching U-turns this week – on travel to Spain and lockdown measures for 4.6 million people in northern England – both announced late into the evening and imposed within hours. The ensuing chaos and anger have been palpable, and all point to one thing: that the government is very, very worried about a resurgence of the virus on UK soil. Continue reading...
Kurdish Iranian journalist is adapting to quietness and isolation of New Zealand after six years of struggleIt’s the middle of the day in a sleepy, affluent suburb of Christchurch and Kurdish Iranian refugee Behrouz Boochani is burning lunch.It has been seven months since he arrived in New Zealand and the subtleties of cooking elude his grasp – and interest. His large house down the road from the University of Canterbury has a bachelor-pad vibe. Books are stacked untidily on every surface, and two broken heaters sit on the floor beside a heat pump turned to max. Continue reading...
High-profile Tory donor and Brexit backer denies indecent assault in 1998Hedge fund manager Crispin Odey has denied indecently assaulting a woman more than 20 years ago.The Tory donor, 61, was charged on 14 May this year over an alleged incident at an address in Chelsea, west London, in 1998. Continue reading...
by Lucy Campbell and Ben Quinn (earlier) on (#56BWJ)
Follow rules to avoid second national lockdown, warns Boris Johnson. This live blog is now closed - please follow the global coronavirus live blog for latest updates
Environmentalists say the impact of the project will lead to irreversible damageThe broadcaster Chris Packham has lost his case against HS2 in the court of appeal.Environmentalists say the high-speed rail project is leading to irreversible destruction of ancient habitats and woodlands. Continue reading...
So much, yet so little, has happened since early March, not least Grant Shapp’s ruined holidayMondayYou can’t help but feel a little sorry for Grant Shapps’s family. After all, if you can’t trust the transport secretary not to ruin his own holiday, then who can you? Back in April, Grant told the Today programme that he definitely wouldn’t be travelling abroad this summer, but some time between then and last Saturday he must have changed his mind after having negotiated safe “air corridors” between Britain and various countries. Continue reading...
Jeffrey Epstein victim says orgy on late financier’s island was attempt to blackmail princeThe sex offender Jeffrey Epstein allegedly tried to gather incriminating material against Prince Andrew by forcing an underage girl to have sex with him, according to newly released court documents.The papers released by a court in New York say the alleged encounter took place on the late US financier’s private island in the US Virgin Islands. A document claims Epstein instructed the girl, referred to as Jane Doe #3, to “give the prince whatever he demanded and report back to him on the details of the sexual abuse”. Continue reading...
Director who first made his mark in the 1970s and had later hits including Fame and The Commitments, became the chair of the UK Film Council•Peter Bradshaw on Alan Parker: a maker of glorious films with a gift for connecting with audiencesAlan Parker, the British director behind a string of hits including Midnight Express, Bugsy Malone, and The Commitments, has died aged 76.The news was announced by a representative, who said he had died on Friday “after a lengthy illness”. Continue reading...
At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the government failed to heed warnings from other countries, writes Giselle Green – it must not do so again. Plus letters from Phil Coughlin, Geoff Naylor, Heather Massie and David WilkinsonInstead of waiting to see which countries experience a surge in coronavirus cases, I would hope that the government is actively looking into the reasons why. Among the factors being blamed for Spain’s spike are “a rush out of lockdown, opening the borders, patchy compliance with physical distancing, and inadequate contact tracing”, with outbreaks emerging from bars and clubs, and seasonal fruit and vegetable pickers (Why are travellers to the UK from Spain being asked to quarantine?, 28 July). With the exception of reopening nightclubs, it appears we are making the same mistakes as our Spanish neighbours. Right at the start of the pandemic we ignored the lessons of other countries, with devastating consequences. Let’s not do so again.
Popular with celebrities, the Instagram trend was intended to draw attention to violence against women in TurkeyFeminists in Turkey have called on the rest of the world not to forget the original context of Instagram’s #challengeaccepted trend, which was supposed to draw attention to skyrocketing rates of gender-based violence in the country before it was co-opted by western celebrities.Femicide, violence against women and so-called “honour” killings are deeply rooted issues in Turkey. Last week, the country was rocked by the brutal killing of Pınar Gültekin, a 27-year-old student, who was allegedly killed by an ex-boyfriend. Continue reading...
Company may have artificially raised share price with ‘false information’ in 2014, says AMFThe French market watchdog has levelled a €5m (£4.5m) fine against the energy giant EDF for misleading investors about the cost of the Hinkley Point C new nuclear project.The regulators found that the French state-owned energy company spread “false information” about its agreement with the UK government to build Britain’s first nuclear reactors in more than 20 years. Continue reading...
by Jamie Grierson Home affairs correspondent on (#56C8T)
Case goes to UK’s highest court as Home Office appeals decision to let 20-year-old returnThe UK’s highest court is to consider whether Shamima Begum, who left London as a schoolgirl to join Islamic State in 2015, should be allow back into the UK to fight the stripping of her British citizenship.Begum, 20, fled to Syria as a child to assist Isis in its mission to establish a caliphate. She lived under Isis rule for more than three years before she was found, nine months pregnant, in a Syrian refugee camp in February last year. She had already lost two children and the third died shortly after being born. Continue reading...
Opposition candidate, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, backed by leaders disqualified from pollTens of thousands of supporters of a Belarusian opposition candidate crowded into a Minsk square on Thursday evening before upcoming elections for what may have been the largest political rally in the country’s modern history.More than 63,000 people attended the event, according to the human rights organisation Viasna, which has sent monitors to the opposition protests. That number would mark it as the “largest in Belarus since 1991”, according to Charter97, a prominent opposition website. Continue reading...
Former Crewe coach is serving 30-year jail term after being convicted of 50 child sexual offences in 2018The convicted child sex offender and former football coach Barry Bennell has pleaded guilty to nine sexual offences.The 66-year-old former Crewe Alexandra coach, also known as Richard Jones, entered the pleas at Chester crown court on Friday via video link from HMP Littlehey in Cambridgeshire. Continue reading...