Prosecutors say there are two living suspects allegedly linked to assassination of Patrice LumumbaBelgian prosecutors are investigating whether they can bring charges against people suspected of taking part in the killing of Congo’s first democratically elected leader, Patrice Lumumba, almost 60 years after his assassination.Belgium’s federal prosecutor Frédéric Van Leeuw said on Wednesday: “We are in the process of taking stock of the prosecutions that could be launched. The facts have been qualified as a war crime, which has been confirmed by the Brussels court of appeal. This means there is no statute of limitations.” Continue reading...

Keir Starmer questions PM over lack of local infection data; government minister warns more local lockdowns to be expected

Man held in south London on suspicion of murder of Nicole Smallman and Bibaa HenryAn 18-year-old man has been arrested over the killing of two sisters in a London park, the Metropolitan police said.The man was arrested at an address in south London overnight on suspicion of the murders of Nicole Smallman, 27, and Bibaa Henry, 46, at Fryent Country Park in Wembley, north-west London, in the early hours of 6 June. Continue reading...

Paired with chocolate for dessert or pickled and served over mackerel, there’s so much you can do with cherries this season – just invest in a stoner firstAs cherry season gets into full swing, allow me to recommend a small, but judicious, purchase – buy yourself a cherry stoner.You may already have one in a drawer somewhere – a tool you’ve inherited without ever knowing what it is: little sprung jaws featuring a spoon with a hole in it on one side and a corresponding protrusion on the other. You can pick one up for as little as three quid, and it does olives as well. Continue reading...

Residents of 10 postcodes in Melbourne’s north and west have been ordered to stay home from midnight tonight. This blog is now closed

Ad for VanMoof bike unfairly discredits automobile industry, says watchdogA TV commercial for a Dutch-made bicycle has been banned by France’s advertising watchdog for creating a “climate of fear” about cars.Despite being aired on Dutch and German television, the Autorité de régulation professionnelle de la publicité (ARPP) said the ad for the VanMoof bike unfairly discredited the automobile industry. Continue reading...

Twenty-five years ago, around 8,000 Muslim boys and men were killed in the Srebrenica genocide when the besieged enclave in Bosnia was overrun by Bosnian Serb forces. See how the Guardian reported the massacre and human rights abusesby Ian Traynor in Vienna

Dr Iván Cruz wanted to shock people out of pandemic scepticism with X-rays of his coronavirus-scarred lungsThe images of Iván Cruz’s lungs resemble a dust cloud in outer space: light patches enveloped by the gloom.Before he died in hospital, the young Mexican doctor had intended to publish them online to convince the unbelievers: coronavirus exists, and this is what it does to you. 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...

Campaigners target statues of slave owners and roads named after imperial armies as protests spread to AfricaCampaigners have asked Uganda’s parliament to order the removal of monuments to British colonialists and to rename streets commemorating imperial military forces.Uganda gained independence in 1962 after almost 70 years as a British protectorate, and more than 5,000 people have signed a petition to “decolonise and rename” the dozens of statues and street names which remain. Continue reading...

Nation living with ‘reduced visibility’ of what will happen in the coming months and a growing sense of isolationWhen Jacinda Ardern urged New Zealanders to stand firm behind her government’s decision to keep the country’s borders tightly closed against Covid-19, the prime minister described a reality that many around the world could only imagine with envy. “We get to enjoy weekend sport, go to restaurants and bars, our workplaces are open, and we can gather in whatever numbers we like,” she said.New Zealanders returned in June to normal life with strict border controls the only remnant of a pandemic that months ago had threatened to sweep the country as it had in most others before a strict lockdown quashed its spread. Continue reading...

Experts weigh in on Scott Morrison’s $270bn plan to upgrade Australia’s defence capabilitiesStrong national defence is the consequence of four interrelated factors: a vibrant economy; an educated, inclusive and resilient society; a smart defence force that exploits agility rather than bulk; and an active and engaged diplomacy. Interestingly, an invested diplomacy is what ultimately brings together all the elements of national power and focuses them on realising the national interests. Continue reading...

Carrie Lam toasts ‘success and affluence of our motherland’ at flag-raising ceremony as first arrest is made under new lawProtests have broken out in Hong Kong during its first day under controversial national security laws imposed by Beijing, and after China confirmed that some suspects could be extradited to the mainland under the new rules.On the 23rd anniversary of the handover from Britain to China, crowds defied a ban on protests and gathered on the streets of the busy shopping district Causeway Bay, where there were large numbers of riot police. Continue reading...

The actor, who stars in the National Theatre’s stream of Les Blancs, says schools must acknowledge the damage done by colonialism – to strengthen the bonds of a multicultural societyLes Blancs was staged at the National Theatre in 2016 and is Lorraine Hansberry’s final play. It’s not as well known as her iconic A Raisin in the Sun. When did you first read it?

He has worked with Tennessee Williams, Robin Williams – and, controversially, Roman Polanski. The former 007 discusses fatherhood, family and the lonely childhood that shaped himI am 10 minutes into my Zoom interview with Pierce Brosnan when his son Dylan arrives off-screen with his father’s coffee. “Did you put sugar in this?” he says to the 23-year-old. “Some more milk, please, I don’t take mine black.” Dylan is sent back to correct it.“He’s a wonderful musician and a great academic,” Brosnan says. “He just graduated from USC film school.” The graduation, like so many others, was cancelled. “We got him a cap and gown and sat here watching it [the online ceremony] on the sofa”. Continue reading...

Thaçi says he will leave office if The Hague confirms charges made against him last weekKosovo’s president, Hashim Thaçi, has promised to resign immediately if a war crimes indictment filed against him at a special court in The Hague is confirmed.The indictment, yet to be ruled on by the pre-trial judge, was made public in dramatic fashion last week, as Thaçi was on his way to Washington for negotiations at the White House. Continue reading...

Verdi’s La Traviata reimagined with cast and orchestra wearing face masks

Eva Longoria, Zendaya and Awkwafina are among the new class of invitees which is 36% people of color and 45% womenEva Longoria, Zendaya and Awkwafina are among the Hollywood figures invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences this year, as the Oscars voting body continues its push to diversify.The Academy announced it had invited 819 new members on Tuesday, including Cynthia Erivo, John David Washington and Constance Wu. The new class of invitees is 36% people of color and 45% women. Those who accept will have voting privileges at this year’s Oscars. Continue reading...

Unit based in No 10 will help researchers navigate post-Brexit immigration systemDowning Street is to set up a cross-departmental unit called the “office for talent” as a way to help leading scientists, researchers and others live and work in the UK in the post-Brexit immigration system.The plan, which the Liberal Democrats said was simply trying to make up the damage caused by Brexit, is intended to “ensure excellent customer service across the immigration system”, a government announcement said. Continue reading...

Mike Pompeo opposes lifting embargo, which is due to end in October, citing risk to stabilityA US attempt to destroy the Iran nuclear deal, reimpose sanctions and extend a UN embargo on arms sales to Iran risks a “generational setback for the cause of multilateralism and international law”, Iran’s foreign minister has told the UN security council.Russia’s ambassador to the UN also said the latest US moves to isolate Tehran was like “putting its knee to the neck of the Iranian people”. Vassily Nebenzia described the policy as “a maximum suffocation policy” and said the US’s goal was to make Iran the scapegoat for an uncontrollable escalation in the Middle East. Continue reading...

Covid-19-related developments throughout the Pacific Islands

Allegations come as city begins second lockdown after infection rates increase

Adviser Pirc says Musk’s pay and Twitter outbursts pose ‘serious risk of reputation harm to the company’Tesla investors are being urged to vote to remove Elon Musk, the electric vehicle company’s founder and chief executive, from the board of the firm as anger mounts over his bonus deal that could pay him a record $55.8bn (£40bn).Pirc, an influential adviser to shareholders, including the UK’s local authority pension funds, on Tuesday recommended that investors voted against Tesla’s executive pay deal because it “unfairly enriches the chief executive”. Continue reading...

Critics say broad scope of crimes targeted by law marks full takeover by China

Shadow health secretary says government must pinpoint how new restrictions will work

Aircraft manufacturer, which has a plant in Broughton, north Wales, has been hit hard by pandemicThe planemaker Airbus has announced plans to cut as many as 15,000 jobs – including 1,700 in the UK – as it warned the coronavirus pandemic had triggered the “gravest crisis” in its history.The planned cuts represent almost 15% of the European aerospace company’s global workforce of 135,000, underlining the depth of the crisis hitting the aviation and aerospace industries. Airbus said the cuts would be made no later than 2021 after commercial aircraft business activity dropped by close to 40% in recent months. Continue reading...

Allegation comes as nation reels from similarly horrific crime and prompted protests in BogotáColombian soldiers have been accused of raping a 15-year-old indigenous girl, in the second such case to emerge in a week.Troops in the southern Guaviare region were accused in September of kidnapping, torturing and repeatedly raping a 15-year-old girl from the Nukak Makú tribe, but the case was not widely reported until this week. Continue reading...

When international correspondent Michael Safi began looking into why Jordan had become the country with the world’s highest smoking rates, he began to uncover what public health advocates have described as widespread interference in policymaking by multinational tobacco companiesGuardian international correspondent Michael Safi tells Anushka Asthana about why he decided to look into smoking rates in the Middle Eastern kingdom of Jordan. They have become the highest in the world, with more than eight in 10 Jordanian men smoking or regularly using nicotine products including vapes and e-cigarettes, according to a government study carried out in 2019 in collaboration with the World Health Organization. Jordanian men who smoke daily consume an average of 23 cigarettes a day, the survey found.But Michael’s story soon turned into an investigation as he began to uncover what public-health advocates say is widespread interference in policymaking by multinational tobacco companies. The industry casts itself as a major investor and job creator, an especially potent argument in a country with high unemployment, where tobacco taxes amount to around 18% of the government’s annual revenue. The impacts of so much smoking are already stark: tobacco use is linked to one in eight deaths in the country, compared with one in 10 deaths worldwide, and costs Jordan’s GDP an estimated three times the global average. Continue reading...

One expert warns if employees give up a super increase to get more pay, they will get none of bothCome 1 July next year, the amount your boss contributes to your superannuation is scheduled to rise ever so slightly, from 9.5% of your wage to 10%.Under the current law, this amount, known as the “super guarantee”, is due to go up by 0.5 percentage points every year until it reaches 12% in 2025. Continue reading...

Confusion over city boundaries and a lack of warning marked the return of coronavirus restrictions

Administrators from Germany’s first local outbreak want more precise way of dealing with flare-ups

Economy faltering with half the population out of work and 80% living below poverty line

PIA will not be able to fly into the EU for at least six months because of doubts over validity of pilot licencesThe European Union’s aviation safety agency announced today that Pakistan’s national airline would not be allowed to fly into Europe for at least six months after the country’s aviation minister revealed that nearly a third of Pakistani pilots had cheated during their pilot’s exams.Pakistan International Airlines spokesman Abdullah Hafeez said PIA had not been flying to Europe because of the pandemic. But the airline had hoped to resume its flights to Oslo, Copenhagen, Paris, Barcelona and Milan within the next two months. Continue reading...

PM speech on post-Covid recovery comes as Leicester faces local lockdown and ONS reports excess deaths have stopped

Deadline to agree regulatory equivalence for financial services and allow business after Brexit likely to be missedBritain and Brussels have each accused the other of holding up a decision on the City of London’s ability to do business in EU markets from next year, prolonging the financial services’ state of uncertainty about the future.Both parties had agreed to complete assessments of the other’s regulatory regimes for financial services by Tuesday 30 June, with the expectation that they would deemed “equivalent”, allowing business to continue in the new year. Continue reading...

A woman who was challenged by police for wearing an anti-Boris Johnson T-shirt at a Black Lives Matter demonstration is launching legal action against them over the right to free speech and political debate.

The heavy metal pioneers talk about drugs, groupies, pink Cadillacs, the curse of Motörhead’s Lemmy – and being huge in SwedenIt’s hard to fathom why Girlschool aren’t more celebrated. Forty years on from their first album, Demolition – released in June 1980 – and they are still the most successful all-female British rock band ever. They reached the Top 10 of both the singles and albums charts; they headlined the Reading festival in 1981; they filled Hammersmith Odeon; they appeared on Top of the Pops with two different singles – and they did so on their own terms. No svengali put them together; they never glammed themselves up to try to be sex symbols. They simply played raucous, high-energy rock’n’roll.There had been all-female punk bands, such as the Slits and the Raincoats, and there had been women in – and leading – rock bands, but nothing quite like Girlschool. This summer, though, there will be no deluxe edition of Demolition. Unlike their near contemporaries in LA, the Runaways, there has been no starry biopic, no acclaim for Girlschool as a landmark band. They still tour, still record, but their mark on history is far fainter than it should be. Continue reading...

Former prime minister adds to outcry over David Frost’s appointmentTheresa May has launched a forthright attack upon Boris Johnson’s government for the appointment of the EU negotiator David Frost as the UK’s national security adviser.The former prime minister accused the Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove of promoting someone “with no proven expertise” to a crucial role at the heart of the UK’s safety. Continue reading...

President plays patriotism card on eve of vote on constitutional changes

Director of Steve Martin comedies The Jerk and The Man With Two Brains was also famed for his collaboration with Mel Brooks• Hadley Freeman meets Reiner and Brooks, February 2020

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as BoE chief economist says Covid-19 recovery is underway

Scott Morrison will outline a more muscular defence posture in an increasingly contested Indo-Pacific regionAustralia’s defence force is set to acquire long-range missiles and research hypersonic weapons systems, as Scott Morrison warns the country to prepare for a more dangerous post-Covid-19 world and an increasingly contested Indo-Pacific region.The Australian prime minister will use a speech on Wednesday to outline a more muscular defence posture, arguing the ADF needs “stronger deterrence capabilities” as the Indo-Pacific becomes “the focus of the dominant global contest of our age” amid tensions between China and the United States. Continue reading...

Beijing move to stamp out anti-government protests poses diplomatic test for UKEuropean leaders condemned China’s “deplorable decision” to press ahead with its new security laws in Hong Kong, warning that it will speed up the reassessment of China as a trustworthy economic partner.The European Union council president, Charles Michel, said “we deplore the decision” and the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said the bloc was now discussing with international partners on any possible measures in response. Continue reading...

Judges throw out demand by two MPs and human rights charity for public hearingA judicial review aimed at overturning a decision to ditch a judge-led inquiry into the involvement of British intelligence in torture and rendition will be heard in secret after a challenge involving two MPs failed.The Conservative David Davis and Labour’s Dan Jarvis had joined with human rights charity Reprieve to demand the case be heard in public after it emerged that a further 15 potential cases of post 9/11 human rights abuses may exist. Continue reading...

Print of the Beeckestijn, now identified as a slave ship, forms part of Amsterdammers and Slavery exhibitionThe only known contemporaneous drawing of a Dutch West India Company slave ship from the early 1700s in which more than 1,000 people died has been identified and is being exhibited as part of a wider attempt by the city of Amsterdam to reckon with its past.The Beeckestijn transported about 4,600 slaves from the African west coast to the Dutch colonies of Suriname and St Eustatius over seven voyages to South America and the Caribbean between 1722 and 1736. At least 1,000 slaves died on board. Continue reading...

New charges brought to circumvent Covid-19 prison release scheme, say human rights groupsFemale human rights activists imprisoned in Iran are facing a slew of new charges to prevent them from being temporarily released because of the Covid-19 epidemic, rights groups say.Since Covid-19 spread rapidly through the country in early March, Iranian authorities have been under pressure to release all prisoners who pose no risk to society. Around 85,000 prisoners were temporarily released under a furlough scheme earlier this year in response to the coronavirus outbreak, half of whom were believed to be political detainees. Continue reading...

Human rights group says all sides in long war responsible for shocking abuseThe scale of abuse suffered by Yemenis in unofficial detention centres and prisons has been revealed in a report, which shows how extrajudicial detentions and killings have rocketed during the five-year-long conflict.Between May 2016 and April 2020, Mwatana, a leading Yemeni human rights group, documented 1,605 cases of arbitrary detention, 770 cases of enforced disappearance, and 344 cases of torture carried out by all of Yemen’s warring parties, according to research published on Tuesday. Continue reading...

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

Picture of Hemi Pomara posing in London in 1846 was discovered at the national library of Australia by researchersThe oldest surviving photograph of a Māori person has been discovered in the national library of Australia, a historical “scoop” being lauded on both sides of the Tasman.Hemi Pomara was kidnapped from his home on the Chatham Islands in the early 1840s by British traders, after his family were slaughtered by a rival Māori tribe. Continue reading...