Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news

Author ‘over the moon’ after Buckie Thistle raise £900 from signed copy of If It Bleeds, which the club feature in

Investigation continues into the leaking of photographs taken when the former AFL coach was in custodyMore than a dozen Victoria police staff have now been suspended or transferred over the leaked Dean Laidley photos.Seven employees are suspended and six have been transferred to other duties, Victoria police has confirmed. Continue reading...

Agriculture minister says origins of outbreak unclear after seven farm workers – and 87% of the mink – test positive

The conservative South American country has high levels of sexual violence against minors and a shocking child pregnancy rateHuman rights activists in Paraguay have led a wave of fierce public indignation after a series of alarming cases in which sexual violence towards young girls has culminated in murder and child pregnancy.The highly conservative South American country has long struggled with high levels of sexual violence towards children. Continue reading...

Gale died of prostate cancer at his home in California, following an illustrious career playing with John Coltrane, Sun Ra and moreEddie Gale, the free jazz trumpeter with two celebrated albums on the Blue Note label, has died aged 78. His wife confirmed to the New York Times that he died at his home in California on 10 July, from prostate cancer.Born in Brooklyn in 1941, Gale’s music career started when he played bugle for his cub scout brigade. He grew up surrounded by jazz. “People like Jackie McLean, Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Cecil Payne and Randy Weston were in the neighbourhood. Bud Powell lived around the corner from me,” he told Jazz Times. “I will never forget hearing Lester Young wailing from outside of the Club Continental on Ocean Avenue, not far from where I lived.” Continue reading...

Warning labels have been voluntary since 2011, but AMA president says they can not be left in the hands of those motivated by profitThe alcohol industry has been given a 12-month extension but will have to ensure pregnancy health warning labels are placed on all bottles and cans within three years.Australian and New Zealand ministers on Friday granted beverage makers an extra year for the transition with the labels to say “pregnancy warning” rather than “health warning” as initially proposed. Continue reading...

Latest updates: how has Covid-19 progressed where you live? Check the week-on-week changes across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern IrelandThe map shows local authorities where the number of cases has increased week-on-week and where it has fallen. Some of this is due to natural fluctuations, especially in areas where there are very few cases, and so a rise from 1 to 2 is a doubling. Increased testing also means that more cases may be being detected than previously, although the impact of this between one week and the next is likely to be slight. Continue reading...

The UK government's chief scientific adviser has said working from home is still the best option where possible to maintain physical distancing, as he acknowledged that the outcome of Britain's response to the Covid-19 outbreak 'has not been good'. Sir Patrick Vallance's advice during a two-hour appearance before the science and technology select committee contrasts with Boris Johnson's recovery 'roadmap' under which the prime minister is encouraging more people to return to their workplaces in an effort to help city centre economies recover

Brawls erupted inside and outside Taiwan’s parliament on Friday over the disputed nomination by President Tsai Ing-wen of a senior aide to a top government watchdog post, which the main opposition party has said is cronyism Continue reading...

A mapping project led by the conservationist Klaus Thymann has revealed a rich, varied habitat off the coast of Jutland Continue reading...

A summary of the major developments in the coronavirus outbreak across Australia

I was afraid my inability to breastfeed her or engage in skin-to-skin contact would harm her, but I was also burdened by another history

Mining magnate allegedly diverted funds to the benefit of his Palmer United party in the weeks before the 2013 electionMining magnate Clive Palmer has been charged with fraud and corporate misconduct offences that carry lengthy prison sentences over the alleged diversion of at least $10m to the benefit of his Palmer United party in the weeks before the 2013 election.Palmer denied the allegations, telling Guardian Australia the charges were “nonsense” and rehashed matters over which a court had already ruled in his favour. Continue reading...

New analysis finds economic shock of pandemic coupled with existing grievances makes widespread public uprisings ‘inevitable’The economic impact of coronavirus is a “tinderbox” that will drive civil unrest and instability in developing countries in the second half of 2020, according to new analysis.Highest risk countries facing a “perfect storm”, where protests driven by the pandemic’s economic fallout are likely to inflame existing grievances, include Nigeria, Iran, Bangladesh, Algeria and Ethiopia, the analysis said. Continue reading...

Concerns about a turf war in Kobe prompts police to seek legislation to halt traditional handoutPolice in Japan are planning to deprive children of their trick-or-treat goodies this Halloween – but only because the gifts come from members of the country’s biggest underworld organisation.Yamaguchi-gumi gang members, based in the western port city of Kobe, have been distributing sweets to local children at Halloween most years since 2013. Continue reading...

A portrait of Lisbon, saudade and the fado folk music of the city and its relationship with tourism. Henri Kisielewski is the 2019 recipient of the Joan Wakelin bursary, administrated in partnership with the Royal Photographic SocietyFado is Lisbon’s urban folk music, born in and around the brothels, alleyways and ​tascas ​of the city’s poorest neighbourhoods. Fado is to Lisbon what the Blues are to the Delta. Written records trace it back to the early 19th century, though some argue it is much older, connecting it to oral traditions imported from across the Portuguese empire.At the heart of fado is ​saudade.​ This elusive word – apparently untranslatable from the original Portuguese – broadly refers to a sense of sorrow, of yearning, and a resigned desire for what once was. This is the underlying emotion of all fado and perhaps of Lisbon itself. Continue reading...

Action director Isaac Nabwana has switched from shootouts to parody rap to fund rural projects during lockdownThe helicopter and the bling are made of cardboard and the dollar bills carefully drawn on paper by local children. But the people are very real and the music is totally authentic.A new video from Ugandan film director Isaac Nabwana is a move away from his previous output – movies heavy on blood and gore and ultra-low on budgets – which is gaining him an international cult following. And he says the pandemic’s impact in pushing film online, with the trend towards all-digital film festivals, has helped. Continue reading...

He was once the embodiment of youthful rage and rebellion. Now, the Clockwork Orange star is reconciled to a life of golf, gangster flicks and the odd glimpse of geniusMalcolm McDowell was the insolent prince of early-70s cinema, the Liverpool salesman who stormed the establishment’s barricades. You can see him on screen in Lindsay Anderson’s If…., kickstarting a bloody revolution inside an English public school. You can see him in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, hanging with his droogs at the Korova milk-bar, making up his rassoodock what to do with the night. The sky was the limit. The world was his oyster. One felt he could achieve pretty much anything.If McDowell’s life was a movie, he would either have gone on to be crowned king or he would have exploded and vanished, ideally before he turned 30. But real life has a way of monkeying with the script, which may explain why McDowell is now a snowy-haired 77-year-old. He is a father of five, an avid golfer and a jobbing Hollywood actor specialising in baddies. His wild youth is behind him. He has made peace with his lot. “I had an incredible first few years,” he explains. “And of course that was the golden age. But you can’t keep playing the rebel for ever.” Continue reading...

Customers ended up forking out as much as, if not more than, they would otherwise, the ACCC saysOnline retailer Kogan misled customers with a 10% discount just a day after hiking prices on hundreds of products, the federal court has found.Kogan launched its “TAXTIME” 10% promo code in June 2018, immediately after raising prices on more than 600 products. Continue reading...

Tane Chatfield’s family say police and corrections should not be allowed to ‘investigate their own’The family of a young Aboriginal man who died in jail after two years on remand has called for independent investigations into Aboriginal deaths in custody, in order to end the “monstrous loophole” where police and corrections “investigate their own”.“I’ve been through this prison system, the system that killed our boy, the system that needs to change,” Colin Chatfield said outside the New South Wales coroner’s court on the final day of the inquest into his 22-year-old son’s death in prison in 2017. Continue reading...

Leaders gathering for Brussels talks are asked to wear masks on arrival and avoid shaking handsThe air will be freshly piped, the rooms deep-cleaned, and handshakes will be banned. As EU leaders gather for their first physical meeting in Brussels to thrash out a coronavirus recovery plan, no effort has been spared to avoid a local outbreak of the disease.The two-day meeting, thought to be the largest gathering of world leaders since the start of the pandemic, will be the first featuring all 27 heads of state and government since February, when an attempt to agree the EU’s €1tn seven-year budget collapsed in acrimony. On Friday and Saturday, they will return to the same task and will also seek to hammer out a €750bn (£689bn) recovery plan in response to the biggest economic shock forecast in EU history. Continue reading...

A narrow win for the populist incumbent Andrzej Duda in Poland’s presidential election cleared the path for the right-wing Law and Justice party to pursue anti-LGBT policies and further assault the courts and free press. The Guardian’s Christian Davies reports from WarsawThe re-election of Andrzej Duda as Poland’s president this week was by the narrowest of margins and has sent liberals in the country into a tailspin. Duda’s campaign pivoted away from pro-welfare messaging to one dominated by “family values” and hostility to the country’s LGBT communities.Christian Davies was covering the election for the Guardian and tells Rachel Humphreys that the result now clears the way for Poland’s ruling populists in the Law and Justice party to continue their politicisation of independent institutions such as the judiciary and the media.

Tracker finds sales about 40% down on same period last year among venues that reopened

Millard Scott, 62, fell down some stairs during incident in June filmed by his son, the artist Wretch 32The family of a man Tasered in his own home are considering suing Scotland Yard after the police watchdog said it had not exonerated officers involved in the case – despite the Metropolitan police claiming it had done so.Millard Scott, 62, fell down some stairs and lost consciousness after being shot with a Taser during a raid by five officers on his home in Tottenham, north London. Police were looking for someone else connected to the address and part of the incident was captured on a short video that was put out by Scott’s son, the artist Wretch 32. Continue reading...

Commons committee chair warns of ‘damage beyond repair’ over abolition of overseas aid departmentA cross-party committee of MPs has said Boris Johnson’s “rushed and impulsive” merger of the Foreign Office and Department for International Development will “severely impact the UK’s superpower status”.Attacking the prime minister’s decision as “coming out of the blue”, a report published on Thursday from the Commons international development committee (IDC) said it was likely it would be disruptive and “incredibly costly”. Continue reading...

Schools and nurseries can reopen but hospitality in city centre to remain closed

Leonid Slutsky hits back at hacking and meddling claims in familiar strategy of denialRussia has denied accusations that its hackers sought to meddle in the 2019 UK election and steal data from labs and research centres seeking a coronavirus vaccine, once again blaming anti-Russia sentiment in the west.“The British administration is making the same anti-Russian mistake again and thus not only further undermining bilateral relations with Moscow but also its own authority,” Leonid Slutsky, the head of the Russian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said on Thursday evening. Continue reading...

Foreign secretary accuses Russia of seeking to interfere in last year’s general election by amplifying an illegally acquired NHS dossier that was seized upon by Labour during the campaign. Raab also confirms reports that Russian state-sponsored hackers are targeting UK, US and Canadian organisations involved in developing a coronavirus vaccine, describing it as ‘completely unacceptable’.

Study findings suggest more needs to be done to protect rainforest in pending trade agreementsLarge quantities of the soy and beef imported to Europe from Brazil have been “contaminated” by deforestation, research shows.The findings suggest much more needs to be done to protect Brazilian land as pending trade agreements are likely to increase sales to European consumers. Continue reading...

Dominic Raab says Russia amplified an illicitly acquired NHS dossier on social mediaRussian actors “sought to interfere” in last winter’s general election by amplifying an illicitly acquired NHS dossier that was seized upon by Labour during the campaign, the foreign secretary has said.Dominic Raab’s statement is the first time ministers have admitted that the Kremlin has tried to distort the workings of British democracy – a practice the foreign secretary said was “completely unacceptable”. Continue reading...

Once bustling financial district in east London is much emptier, but workers are starting to come backThe businesses that ordinarily pack thousands of workers into the gleaming towers of London’s Canary Wharf have paid little heed to the government’s recent calls to get staff back to the office.On an overcast weekday, the few people walking along the streets of the financial district in the east of the capital were casually dressed for shopping rather than a day at a desk in the headquarters of a bank or a law firm. Continue reading...

PM proposes £1.4bn in handouts to all Israelis as country braces for possible new lockdown measuresBenjamin Netanyahu has been accused of attempting to deflect public anger around his handling of the pandemic by proposing cash handouts to all Israelis, as the country looked poised to impose fresh lockdown measures.Following a second, more aggressive, surge in coronavirus infections, the cabinet met on Thursday evening to consider whether to implement new measures. Proposals included weekend lockdowns as well as shutting all kindergartens and gyms throughout the week, according to local media reports. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Pablo Iglesias calls alleged targeting of independence movement figures unacceptableThe Spanish deputy prime minister, Pablo Iglesias, has become the most senior political figure to call for a parliamentary investigation into the use of spyware to target prominent members of the Catalan independence movement, saying such practices are “unacceptable in a democracy”.A joint investigation this week by the Guardian and El País has revealed that Roger Torrent, the speaker of the Catalan parliament, and former regional foreign minister Ernest Maragall are among at least four pro-independence activists who have been targeted using Israeli spyware that its makers said is sold only to governments. Continue reading...

Ex-partners Ryder and Vanessa Paradis say allegations against actor are ‘impossible to believe’Two of Johnny Depp’s former partners, Winona Ryder and Vanessa Paradis, have said he was never abusive or violent towards them and that allegations he is a “wife-beater” were “impossible to believe”.The two women had been due to give evidence at the high court in London on Thursday via remote video links from the US. Continue reading...

Through months of illness, I held his sturdy, consistent and loving hands, knowing he would muster the strength until he truly could no longer

Care homes and members of public told to immediately stop using kits produced by firm

Wesley Ira Purkey spoke out against capital punishment before receiving lethal injection in IndianaThe United States on Thursday carried out its second federal execution this week, killing by lethal injection a Kansas man whose lawyers contended he had dementia and was unfit to be executed.Wesley Purkey was put to death at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. Continue reading...

Trust urges public to ‘come out and support us’ after £1m hit from lockdown closureDuring lockdown the only visitors to Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s great iron ocean liner SS Great Britain have been a skeleton crew retained to make sure the venerable vessel stays rust-free, and Izzy the dockyard cat.From this weekend the first members of the public will be welcomed back to the ship in time to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of its return to its home port of Bristol after an extraordinary rescue mission. Continue reading...

Twenty-year-old has won right to return to UK from Syria to challenge citizenship decisionThe case of Shamima Begum, the now 20-year-old woman who fled to Syria to join Islamic State as a child, has sparked fierce debate over how the UK should deal with “foreign fighters”.Opponents of her return say she is a threat to the country’s security and must live with the consequences of her actions, while critics of her exile say greater human rights principles are at play, and the UK must not shirk its responsibility to administer justice for any alleged crimes she may have committed. Continue reading...

Family of Cédric Chouviat, who died of asphyxiation, say manslaughter charge is too lenientThree French police officers have been charged with manslaughter over the death of a delivery man who was pinned to the ground and put in a chokehold during an arrest in January.Cédric Chouviat, 42, died in hospital two days after a heated exchange with the officers. He was held down while still wearing his scooter helmet for about 20 seconds, near the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Continue reading...

Inquiry says possible collision averted in Irish Sea in 2018 after ferry altered course

São Paulo is transformed into a spooky fairytale landscape in this elegant, unsettling tale of a pregnant woman and her prospective employeeThere’s an enjoyably inscrutable performance at the heart of this Brazilian fairytale for grownups. Clara (Isabél Zuaa), an unsmiling mystery women, arrives at the luxurious São Paulo apartment of pregnant Ana (Marjorie Estiano), to be interviewed for the position of nanny. But is that really the role on offer? And is Clara an entirely honest applicant?The first third of this two-hour-plus film keeps us wondering. It’s clear that something is off between the women, but impossible to determine where the balance of power lies. Is this a Rosemary’s Baby-style horror about satanic foetus worship? A Parasite-like study of the subversive intimacy between domestic servant and employer? Or some unholy combination of the two? Then, with all the sprightly mischief of one of Ana’s country-music workout videos, the plot dances off again, in an entirely different direction. Continue reading...

The newspaper Bild has long poured vitriol on the country’s left-wingers and ‘do gooders’. But now it has a new target: the chancellor. By Thomas Meaney‘It would be ideal if you could hit a deer,” Julian Reichelt, editor-in-chief of Europe’s largest tabloid, Bild Zeitung, told his chauffeur. “Guardian readers could do with a bit more colour.” We had reached escape velocity out of ice-encrusted Düsseldorf. The Mercedes S-Class locked into place like a bobsled on the Autobahn. I sat shotgun with Reichelt’s assortment of sports gear, a hockey stick between my legs. “We are lucky in our driver today,” Reichelt said, deadpan. “Last time we hit a wild boar and the boar and the car went flying.”I was travelling with Reichelt on one of his publicity tours across Germany. For the past two years, he has made an appointment once a month to commune with groups of Bild’s 1.3 million readers. “You have to feel their emotions,” he told me from the backseat. “You have to listen to their hearts.” Continue reading...

Exclusive: Doctors and nurses say the number of healthcare workers in isolation may limit capacity to deal with surge in infections

Two others being treated with antibiotics after death of 15-year-old, health ministry saysA 15-year-old boy has died of bubonic plague in western Mongolia after eating an infected marmot, the country’s health ministry has said.Two other teenagers who also ate the marmot were being treated with antibiotics, said a ministry spokesperson, Narangerel Dorj. Continue reading...

PM says city should be in frame if Commons or Lords have to move during restoration workBoris Johnson has confirmed that Downing Street is thinking of setting up a “government hub” in York, telling officials drawing up restoration plans for the Palace of Westminster that they should consider the city if the Commons or Lords have to be moved.Restoration of the parliamentary estate, which is crumbling in many places and viewed as a significant fire risk, could cost an estimated £6bn, and the plans are still being debated. Continue reading...

Julian Lewis kicked out of parliamentary party after beating Boris Johnson’s pickBoris Johnson was humiliated tonight after Chris Grayling, his pick to lead parliament’s powerful intelligence and security committee, was unexpectedly rejected in an ambush by MPs.The former cabinet minister was defeated by fellow Conservative Julian Lewis – prompting an embarrassed Downing Street to kick the victor, who was accused of duplicitous behaviour, out of the parliamentary party. Continue reading...