Fragile economies relax measures despite rapid rise in infections on continent

The song’s magic lay in its poignancy – the very quality that has led to Britain’s parochial obsession with the second world warFrom Captain Tom Moore’s chart-topping You’ll Never Walk Alone to Katherine Jenkins’ charity take on Vera Lynn’s We’ll Meet Again – a cover version as grey and sickly as 1940s rationed margarine – 2020 has been a year in which we’ve been reminded, more than ever, that British culture is unable to escape the long shadow of the second world war.Related: Vera Lynn: the best of the wartime spirit, not its continuation by other means | Stephen Moss Continue reading...

Court rejects attempt to force handover of papers relating to claims FCO obstructed prosecutionThe high court has rejected an attempt by Harry Dunn’s parents to force the Foreign Office to hand over more documents relating to allegations that it obstructed a criminal prosecution of the wife of a US intelligence officer under pressure from the US state department.Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn are bringing legal action against the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, and Northamptonshire police, claiming they acted unlawfully over the departure of Anne Sacoolas from the UK. Continue reading...

New book claims US president agreed to intervene in federal investigation into Turkish bankThe former US national security adviser John Bolton is facing calls to elaborate on a claim in his new book that Donald Trump agreed to help Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan by intervening in a federal investigation into a Turkish state-owned bank.In excerpts of the memoir seen by US media, Bolton said Trump appeared to “give personal favours to dictators he liked”, and claimed that during a 2018 phone call Erdoğan sent Trump a memo insisting that the scandal-hit Halkbank was innocent. Continue reading...

Countries in discussions over levy on tech firms such as Google condemn ‘provocation’Britain and European countries are continuing to push for a global digital tax on technology companies such as Google, Facebook and Amazon, despite the US pulling out of the negotiations this week.The prospect of a digital services tax, which the UK hopes could bring in up to £400m annually for the exchequer, has been viewed as unfair by Washington, which has threatened retaliatory tariffs on products from British car exports to French champagne and cheese. Continue reading...

Arbuthnot Latham founder owned hundreds of people and received payout when trade was abolished, UCL saysA UK private bank praised by Boris Johnson is facing scrutiny over its historical links to the slave trade after two other big British businesses pledged to pay reparations for their role.Alfred Latham and John Alves Arbuthnot co-founded Arbuthnot Latham, a private bank in the City of London that specialises in managing money for the wealthy. Continue reading...

Sentencing of Yu Wensheng behind closed doors comes after secret trial in May 2019

The Scottish first minister has condemned 'racist thugs' after clashes broke out between protesters and police in Glasgow city centre on Wednesday. National Defence League supporters arrived in George Square before a planned demonstration by No Evictions Glasgow about refugees' living conditions of refugees. The NDL supporters claimed they were there to protect the Cenotaph.

Arrest of Fabrício Queiroz is connected to investigation involving president’s sonPolice have arrested a longstanding friend of Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, in connection with a corruption inquiry involving Bolsonaro’s son.Reports in the Brazilian media said civil police investigators arrested Fabrício Queiroz, a former police officer who has known Bolsonaro since the 1980s, on Thursday morning in Atibaia, a town 40 miles north of the city of São Paulo. Continue reading...

Smith played a key role in Northern Ireland’s peace process in the 1990s as US envoyJean Kennedy Smith, the youngest sister and last surviving sibling of John F Kennedy, who as US envoy played key role in Northern Ireland’s peace process in the 1990s, has died aged 92, her daughter confirmed to the New York Times.Smith died on Wednesday at her Manhattan home in New York City, her daughter Kym told the newspaper. Continue reading...

Home Office figures suggest high take-up rate despite anxieties surrounding BrexitMore than 3.3 million EU and European Economic Area citizens have been granted the right to remain in the UK permanently after Brexit, the Home Office has said.In its latest update on the EU settled status scheme, it said 57% of those had been granted “settled status”, the term for those who have been able to demonstrate they have been in the country for five years or more. Continue reading...

Carmel Barbagallo says there is physical and circumstantial evidence against Bradley Robert Edwards but defence says case hinges on tiny gram of cellular materialBradley Robert Edwards has been “unmasked” as the Claremont serial killer after months of evidence that gradually cast a light on the “enigma of the dark”, prosecutors allege.The 51-year-old denies murdering secretary Sarah Spiers, 18, childcare worker Jane Rimmer, 23, and solicitor Ciara Glennon, 27, in 1996 and 1997. He did not testify at his judge-alone Western Australian supreme court trial. Continue reading...

Council says it will review 2013 decision to leave depiction at Wardie primary school intactEdinburgh council could repaint a controversial mural in a school assembly hall that features a golliwog following the worldwide Black Lives Matter protests.The council refused to remove the image at Wardie primary school in the north of the city in 2013 after a parent complained to the police that it was racist and offensive. lt said the depiction was a historic artefact within a mural of significant artistic importance. Continue reading...

State media organisation Xinhua reports draft clarifying four major offences put before top lawmaking bodyBeijing has tabled a draft of the Hong Kong national security laws before its top lawmaking body, indicating it intends to rush through the contentious legislation which promises to drastically increase Chinese control over the semi-autonomous region.State media reported on Thursday the draft law was put before the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), charged with drafting the law, for a three-day session beginning Thursday. Typically bills should go through three readings by the NPC committee, which meets every two months, but officials said last month the laws would be implemented “without delay”. The committee could potentially pass the laws as early as this week. Continue reading...

Almost 80 million people are refugees or internally displaced, with the number doubling in the past decadeThe number of people forcibly displaced from their homes has doubled over the past decade to almost 80 million, according to the UN refugee agency.A 9 million rise in the number of those forced to flee in 2019, fuelled by conflict in Syria, Yemen, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burkina Faso, means that one in every 97 people around the world – about 1% of all humanity – is now displaced, according to numbers in UNHCR’s annual report, published on Thursday. Continue reading...

Much-loved entertainer, whose voice brought Britain together during the second world war, has died

Information commissioner says victims and witnesses in England and Wales could be put off reporting crimesPolice are extracting “excessive amounts of personal data” from the mobile phones of victims and witnesses during investigations and are in danger of discouraging the public from reporting crime, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has warned.In a critical study of data extraction policies, the ICO concludes that procedures are inconsistent across forces in England and Wales and calls for a new statutory code of practice to provide “greater clarity”. Continue reading...

Planned visit puts spotlight on massacre, where 300 black people were killed in one of the worst single acts of race violence in the USDonald Trump’s decision to stage a campaign rally in a sports stadium in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is spurring a renewed push for reparations for the racial massacre that devastated the city’s black community just 10 blocks away from where the president will be speaking on Saturday.Related: Juneteenth Independence holiday: here's what you need to know Continue reading...

Federal ALP president says acts of revenge are ‘entirely counterproductive’, after leaked texts further tarnish party’s imageThe Labor party’s federal president, Wayne Swan, has urged his colleagues to desist from tit-for-tat leaks in the wake of Victoria’s branch-stacking scandal.After derogatory text messages were leaked as part of the escalating fallout from the Adem Somyurek imbroglio, and with senior figures bracing for more damaging material to come, Swan told Guardian Australia acts of revenge “whether in politics or in human relationships” were “entirely counterproductive”. Continue reading...

Northern Territory declared Covid-free, with borders to open in July; person who attended Melbourne Black Lives Matter protest among 18 new Victorian cases. Follow live

Charles Booker is less of a long shot to beat Amy McGrath, a centrist former air force pilot, as the Democrats’ pick for a Kentucky Senate seat after weeks of anti-racist protestsAmy McGrath’s nomination was supposed to be a done deal.In the 24 hours after she announced her candidacy last July, the former marine fighter pilot raised $2.5m, a record for a Democratic Senate candidate. She had name recognition from a failed 2018 congressional bid and became more familiar soon when she was hosted on late-night comedy shows, held up as the person who could finally unseat the Senate majority leader – and liberal bete noire – Mitch McConnell. Continue reading...

The £165m sale of 301 sites to Danish group follows departure from Japan, South Korea, the US and TurkeyTesco is selling its Polish business to a Danish group in its latest retreat from international markets as it focuses on the UK.Britain’s biggest supermarket chain said it would receive a net total of £165m for the sale of its 301 stores, distribution centres, and head office in Poland, to Salling Group, which also owns the Netto Group. Tesco said the proceeds would be used for “general corporate purposes”. Continue reading...

How has Covid-19 progressed where you live?The 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...

Haze from last year’s fires forced airports and schools to close, and are thought to have cost the economy at least $5.2bnThe Indonesian government is deploying artificial rains ahead of the dry season’s peak as the country attempts to prevent a repeat of the devastating fires that ravaged millions of acres of forests and land last year.Toxic haze was spewed across south-east Asia, forcing the closure of airports and hundreds of schools, and prompting a diplomatic spat with Malaysia in September last year. Continue reading...

Farmers report devastating losses as poor control measures are blamed for spread of infection across the countryHundreds of thousands of pigs have been culled by Nigerian farmers in response to an explosion of African swine fever (ASF). The outbreak began around Lagos and parts of neighbouring Ogun state earlier this year, pig farmers say, but has now spread to many other parts of the country.In the absence of official data, farmers who spoke to the Guardian estimated that nearly a million pigs had been put down so far. Mrs Bello, a farmer at Lagos-based Oke-Aro, the largest pig co-operative in west Africa, who preferred not to give her first name, said the co-operative alone had culled around 500,000 pigs. So far the virus has spread to more than a quarter of Nigeria’s 36 states. Continue reading...

Royal commission hears from 15 witnesses on cultural burning at the end of three days of hearings on hazard reductionOne in eight Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia were directly impacted by the 2019-20 bushfires, the bushfire royal commission has heard.And according to a study of the geological records of large fires in Australia’s history, the summer bushfires were “unprecedented”. Continue reading...

Conservationists say clearance of Bugamo reserve for plantation is blow to biodiversity and country’s reputation on wildlifeConservationists have branded a decision by the Ugandan high court to allow swathes of forest to be cleared for a sugarcane plantation “an unforgivable shame for all people”.Work to clear 900 hectares (2,223 acres) of Bugoma Forest Reserve, in Hoima, began last month after the court ruled that the land, leased by Hoima Sugar Company Ltd, lay outside the protected area of the forest. The court ordered the National Forestry Authority (NFA), which manages it, to vacate the land and remove the military officers who had been guarding it. The NFA has appealed the decision. Continue reading...

Use of invasive digital and physical tracking measures soars as the pandemic spreads

Both sides have accused each other of instigating the clash on Himalayan frontier in which at least 20 troops diedIndia on Thursday cautioned China against making “exaggerated and untenable claims” to the Galvan valley area even as both nations tried to end a standoff in the high Himalayan region after their armies engaged in a deadly clash.Twenty Indian troops were killed in the clash on Monday night that was the deadliest conflict between the sides in 45 years. China has not disclosed whether its forces suffered any casualties. Continue reading...

President says he hopes officer charged with felony murder gets ‘a fair shake’ at his trialPresident Donald Trump has weighed in on the shooting of Rayshard Brooks, saying “you can’t resist a police officer” and that, more widely, police have not been treated fairly.His comments during a Fox news interview came after Garrett Rolfe, the Atlanta officer who fatally shot Brooks in the back after he fled with a stun gun, was charged with felony murder among other charges. Continue reading...

The pandemic has devastated global tourism, and many will say ‘good riddance’ to overcrowded cities and rubbish-strewn natural wonders. Is there any way to reinvent an industry that does so much damage? By Christopher de BellaigueOf all the calamities that befell tourists as the coronavirus took hold, those involving cruise ships stood apart. Contagion at sea inspired a special horror, as pleasure palaces turned into prison hulks, and rumours of infection on board spread between fetid cabins via WhatsApp. Trapped in close proximity to their fellow passengers, holidaymakers experienced the distress of being both victims and agents of infection, as a succession of ports refused them entry.When it began, the deadly situation at sea was seen as a freakish outgrowth of what many still thought of as a Chinese problem. The first ship to suffer a major outbreak was the Diamond Princess. By mid-February, 355 cases had been confirmed aboard, and the ship was held being in quarantine in the port of Yokohama. At the time, the ship accounted for more than half of reported cases outside China. Fourteen passengers on the Diamond Princess would die of the virus. Continue reading...

A new book reveals 29-year-old was captured by the Gestapo in 1943 after her clothing gave her awayShe was the daughter of an Indian Sufi mystic, who gave her life as a British agent fighting with the French resistance and for the cause of freedom. Now, 76 years after 29-year-old Noor Inayat Khan was captured by the Gestapo and executed in the Dachau concentration camp, a previously-unpublished account reveals that it was her love of the colour blue that betrayed her to the enemy.The author of a forthcoming book has had access to a memoir that sheds new light on a heroine who, in sending vital messages back to London as a wireless operator behind enemy lines, significantly aided the success of the allied landing on D-day. Codenamed Madeleine, she became a high-value target for the Gestapo. Continue reading...

‘Joy was dancing in church with her children in London. She was in her element – her dress speaks to her sense of cultural pride’Her name is Joy and I photographed her outside one of the many African churches in south-east London. I had just finished photographing a mosque on the same bland industrial estate when I found the blue wall, then spotted Joy dancing in the church with her children. I thought: “That’s a portrait I’ve got to get,” and asked if she’d come outside and have her photograph taken.Her dress speaks to her sense of cultural pride. She’s in her element, in church, in a place where she can showcase her Nigerian clothes. When you put that across in the divisive time in which we’re living, it paints a positive story about her identity as a Londoner, especially when you consider the wider context. Six countries in Europe have banned the burqa (16 worldwide) and Quebec has banned all religious symbols, but London has created spaces for people to celebrate their cultural heritage, and that’s special. Continue reading...

In rural Florida, a lack of healthcare access and a dearth of testing has led to one of the densest concentrations of Covid-19 cases in the stateThe threat of falling ill haunted Angelina Velasquez as spring spilled into summer. It followed her like a ghost as she boarded a bus alongside 40 other farmworkers every day. “I’ve been worried,” she said. “But our bills don’t wait, and we have to continue living despite the pandemic. We have to keep risking our lives.”The sound of Mexican corridos blanket the tiny town of Immokalee in south-west Florida every morning. At the center of town, dialects from Guatemala meld with Haitian creole as farmworkers load on to buses and push off into the state’s fruit belt. But since April, a new sound cuts through the quiet streets. Continue reading...

Washington legislation allows US to freeze assets of Chinese officials it deems responsible for arbitrary detentions in Xinjiang regionBeijing has criticised a new US law that would sanction Chinese officials over the mass incarceration of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities, saying it “maliciously attacks” China’s policy in the Xinjiang region.China will “resolutely hit back and the US will bear the burden of all subsequent consequences”, the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement after US President Donald Trump signed the Uighur Human Rights Act into law on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Charges come after a three-year investigation of the actor, who is being held on $3.3m bailDanny Masterson, the actor known for That ‘70s Show, has been charged with the rapes of three women in the early 2000s, Los Angeles prosecutors said Wednesday.The three counts of rape by force or fear come after a three-year investigation of the 44-year-old Masterson. The charges were filed Tuesday and Masterson was arrested late Wednesday morning, jail records showed. He was released a few hours later after posting bond and is scheduled to be arraigned 18 September. Continue reading...

Poland’s nationalist leader gets photo-opportunity at climax of close-run campaignDonald Trump will receive Poland’s nationalist president in the White House next week, giving Andrzej Duda a probable electoral boost just four days before a tightly-contested presidential vote.Duda will be the first foreign politician to visit the US president at the White House since Venezuela’s Juan Guaidó in early February, after a break of several months as the world dealt with the coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading...

The French president visits No 10 for talks on Thursday during trip to commemorate WWII allianceThe French president Emmanuel Macron is expected to call on the UK to revisit its decision of imposing a 14-day quarantine period on visitors from abroad during his trip to the UK on Thursday.Macron, on his first visit abroad since the coronavirus outbreak, is in London to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Gen Charles de Gaulle’s broadcast announcing an alliance with Winston Churchill, “the leader of the British empire”, and the launching of the French resistance. Continue reading...

Asma al-Assad among dozens targeted in campaign to deny regime revenue and support

Britain persuades all G7 nations including Japan to sign joint statementBritain has for the first time persuaded all G7 industrialised nations including Japan to sign a statement expressing deep concern about China’s plans to impose new security laws in Hong Kong.The Chinese government is due to take the next steps to introduce the laws imminently. Continue reading...

Gang used fleet of motorbikes to guarantee delivery time of 20 minutes and operated loyalty scheme to reward best customersPolice in Madrid have broken up a sophisticated “cocaine hotline” gang that allegedly used a call centre and a fleet of motorbikes to ferry the drug to more than 2,000 customers with a guaranteed delivery time of 20 minutes.The network apparently sold its wares in single doses bearing a seal of quality and operated a loyalty scheme to reward its best customers. Continue reading...

Chechen leader and Moscow deny sending hitman after journalist’s expletive-laden TV tiradeGeorgia has thwarted a plot to assassinate a journalist who made an expletive-laden attack on Vladimir Putin on live television last year, the Georgian prime minister said.“Georgian secret services have foiled a very serious crime,” Giorgi Gakharia told journalists on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Far-right groups have been using images of girl who was fatally stabbed in a Bolton parkThe parents of a seven-year-old girl fatally stabbed in a Greater Manchester park have issued a plea against her image being used as part of counter-protests to the Black Lives Matter movement, saying it is causing them “huge distress”.Far-right groups have been using photographs of Emily Jones as part of the “All Lives Matter” meme, claiming that her killing has been ignored by the media because she was white. Continue reading...

Since Brownyn Bishop’s infamous helicopter ride, have politicians stopped charging the taxpayer for things they shouldn’t be? Transparency reporter Christopher Knaus investigates the latest expense reports, including one involving the deputy prime minister, an RAAF chartered plane and the Melbourne cup.You can read Christopher Knaus’ reporting on transparency here. Continue reading...

Commission president draws attention to less well-known area where two sides are at oddsUrsula von der Leyen has highlighted the UK’s rejection of an all-encompassing punishment mechanism to keep it true to any Brexit deal with the EU as the emerging threat to an agreement, as a leaked document revealed Germany wants to draw up plans for “no deal 2.0”.Despite the most recent mood music around the negotiations being positive, the European commission president sought to draw attention to one of the less well-known areas where the two sides are at loggerheads. Continue reading...

VBS Mutual collapsed in 2018 with £100m of debts allegedly looted in ‘pattern of racketeering’A number of people have been arrested by police investigating one of South Africa’s most notorious corruption scandals, the looting and collapse of VBS Mutual Bank.VBS, which held the savings of many disadvantaged people and local municipalities, collapsed with more than £100m in debts in 2018. Much of the money had been siphoned into private bank accounts and some spent on property or luxury cars, investigators found. Continue reading...

Court also orders confiscation of Rifaat al-Assad’s French and London assetsFrench judges have sentenced the uncle of Syria’s leader, Bashar al-Assad, to four years in prison after convicting him of money laundering and misappropriating Syrian public funds to build up a €90m (£80.6m) property empire in France.The court also ordered the confiscation of Rifaat al-Assad’s assets in France as well as property worth €29m in London. Continue reading...

‘Balikpapan Seven’ accused of promoting West Papua independence movement at Indonesia ralliesSeven Papuan activists have been found guilty of treason and sentenced to up to 11 months in prison for their involvement in anti-racism rallies in West Papua last year, a verdict that has been condemned by human rights groups.The men, known as the “Balikpapan Seven”, were convicted over protests that were sparked last summer by a viral video in which Papuan students were called “monkeys” and subjected to other racist taunts. Thousands of people took part in the rallies, some of which turned violent.

Exclusive: City should twin with metropolises in west Africa most affected by slavery, says Philip Colston RobinsA descendant of Edward Colston has written to Bristol’s mayor to suggest ways of “making peace with the past” such as twinning Bristol with cities in west African countries most affected by slaveryPhilip Colston Robins, a former university dean and Treasury civil servant, told the Guardian he was disappointed that a peaceful demonstration with “a moral cause” had descended into an “unruly mob”, after Black Lives Matter demonstrators toppled Colston’s statue in the city. Continue reading...