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...

While the English lockdown eases, Welsh families are still separated and shops remain closed. But how long can the Senedd’s cautious Covid-19 strategy last?

Ground and air operation targets 150 suspected PKK positions, Ankara saysTurkey has launched launched a major joint air and ground operation against Kurdish militants over the border in northern Iraq, a move that suggests Ankara is growing bolder in its campaign against the decades-old Kurdish insurgency.Special forces were airlifted and deployed overland to the border region of Haftanin in the early hours of Wednesday for Operation Claw-Tiger. The campaign targeted 150 suspected Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) positions and was supported by jets, helicopters, drones and artillery, the Turkish defence ministry said. Continue reading...

India shocked by Himalayan border clash in which unarmed troops fought in the darkThe hand-to-hand combat lasted hours, on steep, jagged terrain, with iron bars, rocks and fists. Neither side carried guns. Most of the soldiers killed in the worst fighting between India and China in 60 years lost their footing or were knocked from the narrow Himalayan ridge, plunging to their deaths.India has reacted with shock and caution to the loss of at least 20 soldiers on its disputed border with China, with images of the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, burned in Indian cities. Continue reading...

We risk development priorities becoming secondary to other foreign policy interests, at a time when they’re needed most

The actor has made a film about fathers – including her own, director Ron. She talks about the racist role that caused ‘a disturbance’ in her soul – and why working with Lars von Trier gave her acneWhen actor Bryce Dallas Howard started making the documentary Dads, her family was clear: this was not going to be about them. Her father Ron, the Oscar-winning director of A Beautiful Mind, was adamant that he wouldn’t appear on screen, despite having signed on as producer, while her husband, the actor Seth Gabel, told her: “Don’t make this ‘The Howard Show.’” Then, during production, her brother Reed found out he was going to become a parent. “I needed an expectant father in the film,” she tells me. “So I was, like, ‘All bets are off!’” Now her brother, father and late grandfather all feature in the end product, which is as frothy and sweet-smelling as anyone would expect from something made in partnership with Dove Men+Care.With her pale skin, copper hair and faintly febrile manner, the 39-year-old Howard is far more interesting than the film. There’s been an eclectic element to many of her career choices: she took over from Nicole Kidman as Grace, the well-meaning reformer whose good intentions go awry, in Lars von Trier’s harrowing Dogville sequel Manderlay, a disquisition on slavery that was shot, like its predecessor, on a bare sound stage with minimal props. (A final instalment, with Howard and Kidman playing sisters, was proposed by Von Trier but never materialised.) She was haunting in two M Night Shyamalan mysteries, one eerie (The Village), the other disastrous (Lady in the Water), and brought some pep to a run of tired franchises (Spider-Man, Twilight, Terminator, Jurassic World) as well as the odd prestige project. She was central to the only memorable scene in The Help, as the segregationist housewife chowing down on poo pie, and appeared last year as Elton John’s brittle, acidic mother in Rocketman. Continue reading...

Voiceover actor worked on all the Die Hard films and dubbed Tom Cruise and Spike Lee tooHe may have had a long and illustrious career in films, TV and radio, but it is fair to say Patrick Poivey, who has died in France at the age of 72, was not a familiar face to most people either in his home country or abroad.However, as soon as he opened his mouth, Poivey became Bruce Willis, and occasionally Tom Cruise, Kyle MacLachlan, Charlie Sheen and Spike Lee, not to mention the scruffy mutt in the French version of Disney’s Lady and the Tramp. Continue reading...

Record label announces ‘the most unfortunate, sorrowful news’ about singer from boyband TSTKim Jeong-hwan, known as Yohan in the Korean pop group TST, has died aged 28.TST’s record label, KJ Entertainment confirmed the news, saying: “We are sad to relay the most unfortunate, sorrowful news. On June 16, TST member Yohan left this world. The late Yohan’s family is currently in deep mourning.” The cause of death has not been announced. Continue reading...

Pyongyang news agency steps up war of words against Seoul as Kim Jong-un’s sister says South’s president has put his neck in ‘noose of US flunkyism’North Korea has accused South Korea of behaving like a “mongrel dog” bent on confrontation in a state media report that explains the regime’s decision to blow up a liaison office – a move that has significantly raised tensions between the two countries.A commentary carried by the state KCNA news agency said the South’s defence ministry was “bragging and bluffing, rattling the dialogue partner and stoking a confrontational atmosphere”, and warned that Tuesday’s destruction of the office – which opened in 2018 to foster better cross-border ties – could be a prelude to a “total catastrophe” in North-South relations. Continue reading...

‘Exceptional’ correspondence sent from Arles in 1888 is bought by Van Gogh MuseumA letter written by two of the greatest artists of the 19th century, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin, about their visits to French brothels has been bought for the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam for €210,600 (£189,000).The correspondence, previously held in private hands, has been described as “exceptional”. The two painters entwine descriptions of their experiences living together in Arles, Provence, with claims of certainty that their work is leading a “great renaissance of art”. Continue reading...

In a powerful statement to the Senate, Malarndirri McCarthy has read out the names of First Nations people who have died in custody, citing Guardian Australia's Deaths inside project.

Foreign secretary says cutting troop numbers will weaken security of both Europe and USGerman ministers have criticised Donald Trump’s plans to withdraw about 9,500 US troops from German soil, saying the move is likely to weaken America’s own security architecture as well as European security.“We think that the US presence in Germany is important for the security not just of Germany but also for the security of the United States and especially for the security of Europe,” Heiko Maas, the foreign minister, said during a state visit to Poland on Tuesday. Continue reading...

‘They call you and tell you the place and the date’ – but there are risks, with about 20 praying elderly women busted in one police raidThe invitations arrive via text message or social media. “They ask you for a kind of password to let you in,” said Jesús Preciado, whose father has attended the secretive gatherings in the Mexican state of Jalisco.Diego Martínez, whose mother has attended the backstairs events, said they were off-limits to anyone not in the know. “It’s invitation-only,” he said. “They call you and tell you the place and the date.” Continue reading...

Charities had called for clarity after confusion about when scheme in England would end

Victorian ALP administrator says the legitimacy of the membership must be established and it should be possible to do ‘reasonably quickly’The new administrator of the Victorian branch of the ALP, Steve Bracks, has attempted to calm internal tensions, saying it should be possible to conduct an audit of the membership “reasonably quickly” allowing the party’s federal executive to then determine whether or not to restore voting rights before 2023.The ALP’s national executive has launched an extraordinary intervention into the state branch as it grapples with the damaging fallout of the Adem Somyurek branch-stacking scandal, appointing party veterans Bracks and the former federal minister Jenny Macklin as administrators, and suspending all voting rights until at least 2023. Continue reading...

Chinese embassy in Canberra accuses Australian media of ‘rumours, lies and malicious slanders against China’ that has been picked up by politiciansChina has hit back at “baseless accusations” that are “completely rubbish” after Australia accused Beijing of spreading disinformation during the pandemic.At a press briefing in Beijing on Wednesday, the Chinese government spokesman Zhao Lijian accused Australian officials of undermining international efforts to combat the virus. Continue reading...

Protesters in India burned effigies of the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, and called for boycotts of Chinese goods on Wednesday after a deadly clash at a disputed border site in the western Himalayas left 20 Indian soldiers dead. The deaths were the first since the last major border clash in 1967 between the nuclear-armed neighbours - also the world's two most populous countries - which have been unable to settle the dispute along their lengthy frontier

The anti-corruption body is urging anyone with relevant information to reach out; fifteen of the people who have tested positive in Vic are in quarantine. Follow live

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...

After three months of empty squares and alleys, and stranded gondoliers, Venice is welcoming tourists back

One month window to challenge convictions in England and Wales means women who have experienced trauma are unfairly criminalised, campaigners sayWomen who have been unfairly convicted or sentenced to jail are being denied the chance to redress miscarriages of justice because the appeals system in England and Wales is not fit for purpose, the law group Appeal has alleged.In particular, those who have been victims of trauma or domestic abuse are unable to make a legal challenge due to the “unrealistic” 28-day window allowed to make an application to the criminal Court of Appeal, the report highlights. Continue reading...