Former scientific adviser to No 10 says earlier restrictions could have halved death toll

Tommy Robinson among supporters of ‘defend our memorials’ eventBusloads of far-right demonstrators are feared to be planning to travel hundreds of miles to “defend” memorials at the weekend, campaigners have said.There are concerns that hundreds are mobilising to attend a “patriotic unity” event at Winston Churchill’s statue in Westminster on Saturday morning, in response to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests. Continue reading...

Figures show huge divergence in figures for different parts of the country

‘Refined’ 2cm carving found in Henan dates to palaeolithic period up to 13,000 years agoA tiny figurine of a bird, carved from burnt bone and no bigger than a £1 coin, is the earliest Chinese artwork ever discovered, according to an international team of archaeologists.The carving, less than 2cm in length, has been dated to the palaeolithic period, between 13,800 and 13,000 years ago, which pushes back the earliest known date of east Asian animal sculpture by more than eight millennia. Continue reading...

With nods to telenovelas and Persepolis, this animation, a film of Power Paola’s vivid graphic novel memoir of growing up in South America, is truly beautiful

Search of house uncovers work, stolen from venue where 90 people were killed in terrorist attackA stolen mural created by the British street artist Banksy on a door of the Bataclan concert hall in Paris, where terrorists killed 90 people in 2015, has been recovered in Abruzzo, Italy, prosecutors said on Wednesday.The work, thought to have been created as a tribute to the victims of the Bataclan terrorist attack, is one of a series of murals painted in the French capital attributed to Banksy. It shows a veiled and mournful female figure. Continue reading...

The head of the Royal College of Nursing on why the health service is failing people of colour – both patients and its workforceAfter university, I signed up for Marks & Spencer’s management trainee scheme. When I was pregnant with my first child, I went to see a nurse. I said to her: “I’ve always wanted to be a nurse, you know.” She said: “I don’t see any reason why you can’t be.”I started my training in 1983 at the Royal London hospital when my son was six months old. My sister had applied to do nursing at that same hospital a year before me – she was the first black nurse at the hospital. When she went for her interview, they tried to persuade her to train as a state-enrolled nurse, which is a lower grade than a registered general nurse. Continue reading...

Murder inquiry launched after bodies of Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry discovered in Wembley

Brussels shifts position by accusing Beijing for first time of running false campaigns

Government senator supports motion for investigation, while three new cases of Covid-19 were all from overseas travellers and Queensland court calls bid to access border closure documents ‘a fishing expedition’. This blog is now closed

Pop star urges fans to vote for candidates committed to fighting police brutality, and shares Barack Obama essayTaylor Swift has accused local and state governments in the US of harbouring institutional racism, and has called on her fans to elect candidates committed to fighting police brutality.The pop star told her 86 million Twitter followers: “Racial injustice has been ingrained deeply into local and state governments, and changes MUST be made there. In order for policies to change, we need to elect people who will fight against police brutality and racism of any kind. #BlackLivesMatter.” Continue reading...

How far can you drive and what are the travel restrictions in NSW, Queensland and Victoria? How many people can you have over at your house in Tasmania, ACT, SA, WA or NT? Untangle Australia’s Covid-19 laws and guidelines with our guide

WHO expert backtracks after saying asymptomatic transmission ‘very rare’. This blog is now closed

Wednesday: Legal experts urge new investigation into high-profile Indigenous deaths. Plus, stars say music needs a rescue packageGood morning, this is James Murray bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Wednesday 10 June. Continue reading...

But Moscow warns against insisting on including China in New Start negotiations

A statue of 18th-century slave owner Robert Milligan has been removed from its place in London’s docklands. The Canal and River Trust earlier said it was working with local authorities and a local museum to organise its safe removal.

Ali Kushayb, wanted for human rights abuses and war crimes, faces trial in The HagueOne of the most notorious Sudanese militia leaders in the brutal conflict in Darfur has been arrested in the Central African Republic and handed over to the International criminal court.Ali Kushayb, who had been on the run for 13 years, surrendered to authorities in a remote corner of northern CAR near the country’s border with Sudan, said a spokesman for the ICC. Continue reading...

Ashbourne sculpture will be given ‘lick of black paint’ and put back, its defenders sayA bust of a black man with exaggerated features that was about to be removed from a Derbyshire town by the local council has instead been seized and taken to a “secret location” by residents for a “lick of black paint”.The wooden sculpture, which was positioned on an arch in the centre of Ashbourne, has been condemned by campaigners as a racist caricature. After the toppling of a statue of the slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol on Sunday, a petition for the removal of the Ashbourne figure reached 42,000 signatures. Continue reading...

Research finds rise in hospital car park usage and web searches for ‘diarrhoea’ and ‘cough’

Aerospace rescue package calls for investment in electric and hydrogen planes

Watchdog publishes highly critical report after charitable trust is required to return cashA charitable trust supporting the work of Prince Andrew has been required to return more than £350,000 in payments made to a trustee after a public watchdog intervened.The Charity Commission has revealed the Prince Andrew Charitable Trust broke the law by handing over large sums to the prince’s household to compensate for time spent on other activities by one of his employees. Continue reading...

Tehran says Iranian citizen who passed on information was in jail at the time of the general’s assassinationAn Iranian responsible for leaking information about the powerful general Qassem Suleimani but without direct involvement in his assassination by the US in January has been sentenced to death and will be hung shortly, the Iranian judiciary has said.Speaking on Tuesday, at a regular judicial press conference, the alleged culprit was named as Seyed Mahmoud Mousavi Majd, an Iranian citizen. Continue reading...

Penny Mordaunt tells MPs she hopes to have post-Brexit deal agreed by autumnThe UK government will tell the EU on Friday it is not going to seek an extension to the Brexit transition period, the paymaster general, Penny Mordaunt, has said.She told the House of Commons in an update on Brexit talks that she and Michael Gove would “emphasise that we will not be extending the transition period” when they meet EU counterparts at a Brexit joint committee meeting on Friday. Continue reading...

Peaceful demonstration in Nairobi a response to increase in violence and killings during the coronavirus curfewPhotographs by Ed Ram

Review announced in January 2019 to look at counter-terrorism scheme is still without a chairThe government has been accused of “incompetence and complacency” in its handling of an independent review of Prevent, the programme that aims to stop people from becoming terrorists, amid further delays to its completion.The review was first announced in January 2019 and it has been beset by delays. Its first chair, Lord Carlile, was forced to step down in December 2019 and it took four months for the Home Office to launch a recruitment campaign for his replacement. Continue reading...

Hong Kong used to be seen as cautious, pragmatic and materialistic. But in the past year, an increasingly bold protest movement has transformed the city. Now, as Beijing tightens its grip, how much longer can the movement survive? By Tania Branigan and Lily Kuo

Exclusive: Irish woman says an earlier assault by new McCann suspect is similar to that on herAn Irish rape victim has asked detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann to review her case, after learning that a new suspect in the British girl’s abduction was convicted of a sexual assault bearing a similarity to her own experience.Hazel Behan was working in Praia da Rocha, Portugal, 30 minutes’ drive from where Madeleine was abducted, when she was viciously assaulted by a stranger in her apartment in 2004. The assailant was never caught. Continue reading...

The number of deals drops by 43% in the past financial year as China shifts focus to developing nationsChinese investment in Australia has fallen by almost 60% as Beijing shifts its focus towards developing nations that have signed up for its Belt and Road Initiative.Despite record trade between the two nations, Chinese investment in Australia fell from $8.2bn in 2018 to $3.4bn in 2019, with 43% fewer deals struck. Continue reading...

Surely Alex Hawke must realise that he represents Australia to a region of largely black and brown Indigenous peoples

Fourteen-year-old with nonverbal autism became separated from family on south side of summit in Victoria

A figure that had caused such division for so long was felled in minutes, bringing catharsis for some of those presentFor Jagun Akinshegun, the toppling of a 17th-century slave trader’s statue was a moment of catharsis, making it easier to let go of the past. For his daughter Robishia Temple, it was a sign that it could be possible to imagine a more hopeful future.“It didn’t represent Bristol,” said Temple, who is a learning and development adviser. “Now he’s at the bottom of the river. That says a lot more about who we are.” Continue reading...

Health secretary says number of deaths have fallen to lowest daily total since 22 March

Rhodes Must Fall rally planned at Oriel College four years after officials said statue would stayThe dramatic toppling of a statue of the slave trader Edward Colston at a Black Lives Matter protest in Bristol has reignited the campaign to remove a statue of the Victorian imperialist Cecil Rhodes at Oxford University.The Rhodes Must Fall campaign has called for a demonstration on Tuesday outside Oriel College, where a likeness of the controversial 19th-century figure – who supported apartheid-style measures in southern Africa – is mounted on the wall. Continue reading...

In this weekly series, readers tell us about their favourite trees. This week: a tree in Burkina Faso that is the focal point of village lifeTom Skirrow discovered this magnificent mango tree on a trip to Burkina Faso in 2018. He was spending the week in the tiny village of Torem, home to 781 people, as part of his work as director of operations for Tree Aid. “If I ever wanted to find anyone, that was the tree I went to,” he says. “It was the place to have a conversation or a meeting.” Underneath its branches, villagers also prepared food and did other work.The tree provided delicious fruit, but it also gave people somewhere to escape the intense sunlight and scorching heat – temperatures could reach 40C (104F). Skirrow, 39, would often find refuge in its shade. “Imagine stepping out of a very bright, cloudless environment, where you’re almost squinting to be able to see, into a very dense-leaved tree where it’s almost too dark and you have to adjust your eyes. You’ve got this cooling feeling because you’ve been in the heat – it’s almost like stepping into a cave.” Continue reading...

National Library of Israel has digitised collection of manuscripts and books dating back to ninth century

Bright plumage linked to aggression when squabbling with rivals

Police appeal for information on Belfast shooting of Jean Smyth-Campbell

Six-year-old and 33-year-old died and others were injured after fire engulfed property in regional VictoriaDetectives will speak to family members in hospital after a fatal house fire in regional Victoria killed a man and a six-year-old boy and left several others injured, one fighting for his life.The 33-year-old and the boy died in the Tyaak holiday home in Cunninghams Road on Saturday after fire engulfed the property about 11.40pm. Continue reading...

UN-backed GNA intends to capture airbase with Russian jets and strategic city of SirteLibya’s resurgent UN-recognised government has said it will defy any Russian warnings and press ahead with the capture of at least two more strategic sites in the west of Libya, with the aim of preventing Russia from setting up an airbase in the country. It made the announcement as oil production restarted in Libya after being shut down since January.The UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), supported by Turkey, said it intended to press ahead with the capture of both the coastal town of Sirte and the al-Jufra airbase currently housing 14 Russian MiG-29s and Su-24s. Continue reading...

Black Lives Matters protesters in Bristol have pulled down a statue of the slave trader Edward Colston, whose company transported more than 100,000 slaves from West Africa to the Caribbean and the Americas between 1672 and 1689. Demonstrators attached a rope to the Grade II-listed statue, pulled it down and rolled it into the city's harbour. It follows the toppling of several Confederate statues during Black Lives Matter protests in the US

Beijing denies cover-up or delay, while countries easing lockdowns face spike in cases

Boris Johnson refuses to support immigrants who have lost jobs and have no recourse to public funds

Surrender of Breda, immortalised by painter, was significant moment in Dutch war of independence

Madrid exhibition highlights literary trailblazers including Ana Caro, who was paid to write a play as far back as 1638Centuries after their deaths and months after their big moment was almost thwarted by Covid-19, a saint, a cross-dressing soldier, an early professional playwright and a group of intrepid nuns are the subject of an exhibition that celebrates the often overlooked female writers of Spain’s Golden Age.While the names and works of male authors such as Cervantes, Calderón de la Barca and Lope de Vega live on, the same cannot always be said of the women who wrote around the same time. Continue reading...

Father of six-year-old who vanished in Portugal in 1996 hopes to finally learn what happened to his son

A 60-year-old man has died after being bitten by a shark while surfing at Casuarina Beach near Kingscliff in the NSW northern rivers regionA 60-year-old man has died after being bitten by a shark while surfing near Kingscliff in northern NSW.NSW Police confirmed the death after witnesses reported seeing a three-metre-long shark attack the man’s left leg while surfing at Salt Beach shortly after 10am on Sunday. Continue reading...

Indonesia reports biggest rise in infections; India overtakes Italy as sixth worst-hit country; galleries reopen in Madrid

Allan Adam claims police attacked him and his wife after he was stopped over licence tagA prominent First Nations chief in Canada has said he and his wife were assaulted by police officers over an expired licence plate, an incident that came as the country grapples with continued violence against ethnic minorities at the hands of police.Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, a well-known businessman whose community has extensive operations in Alberta’s oil sands, said he and his wife, Freda Courtoreille, had a violent encounter with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on 10 March that has left the community in anguish. Continue reading...

First came the disaster, then the trauma and then the endless paperwork. Surely we can do something about the paperwork, one homeowner tells the royal commissionThe house burned down on New Year’s Eve. And at least once a month, for the past five months, Prof Sue Townsend has been asked to show proof.Proof that the house has indeed burned, swallowed up in the 300,000-hectare Dunns Road fire that flowed down the mountain toward the small town of Tumbarumba on the western slopes of the Snowy Mountains. Continue reading...

Suspect held after man in his 20s pronounced dead at the scene in east London on Friday nightA 22-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder following a fatal shooting in north-east London, police said.The Metropolitan police said they were called to Brackenfield Close in Hackney at about 11.30pm on Friday following reports of shots being fired. Continue reading...