Work-experience saviours fight the forces of evil in an anime adventure overloaded with Japanese bizarro zealA second feature-length outing for the popular shonen (teenage boys) anime from Tokyo’s Bones studio, Heroes Rising milks the 21st-century superhero fetish with Japanese bizarro zeal. One of the villains here isn’t just an anthropomorphised wolf – he’s an anthropomorphised wolf with an alligator tail in a trench coat smoking a fat stogie. He’s one of a trio of malefactors who alight on Nabu island in order to steal a unique “Quirk” – a special ability exhibited by 80% of the world’s population in the My Hero Academia universe – from a local boy. Only Class 1-A – the apprentice saviours sent out on superhero work experience to what was supposed to be an evildoing backwater – stand in their way.Heroes Rising starts out endearingly low-key: less Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters than a manga-haired version of the Prince’s Trust. At first, the greenhorn superheroes are stuck on mundane service provision for the villagers – the excellently Ronseal-named Chargezuma, for example, helps out with rundown car batteries. Unfortunately, this begets an annoying line in small-deeds-count-most pedagogy that sits uneasily with the ballistics frenzy that follows once the villain squad shows up. Badboy pupil Bakugo (voiced by Nobuhiko Okamoto), determined to outdo his nice-guy classmate Midoriya (Daiki Yamashita) and marmalise the invaders, is the film’s chief outlet for this destructive urge. Continue reading...

Domestic violence campaigners appalled force wants to consider suggestions Rowan Baxter was ‘driven too far’ when he set fire to his family in their car in BrisbaneQueensland police have revealed that a man who killed his wife and three children by dousing them with petrol and setting them alight had a history of domestic violence and was known to them.But in comments that have shocked domestic violence campaigners, the force says they are keeping an “open mind” about suggestions the 42-year-old Rowan Baxter had been “driven too far” and are appealing to people who knew the couple to come forward to understand his motives. Continue reading...

Femicide Census for 2018 shows 149 women killed, the highest number since census beganMore than half the women killed by men in the UK in 2018 were killed by a current or former partner, many after they had taken steps to leave, according to a report on femicide.The fourth Femicide Census, conducted by Women’s Aid and the campaigner Karen Ingala Smith, found 149 women were killed by 147 men in 2018. The number of deaths is an increase of 10 on the previous year and the highest number since the census began. Continue reading...

UN warns 25 million people could be affected as wartorn country is beset by fresh wave of insectsSwarms of desert locusts, which have been ravaging crops and grazing land across east Africa, have now crossed the border into South Sudan, a country already struggling from widespread hunger and years of civil war.The UN has warned that an imminent second hatch of the insects could threaten the food security of 25 million people across the region. Continue reading...

Scott Morrison says inquiry will explore how national response could include military, as well as the role of climate adaptation and hazard reductionExpanding federal government powers to call out the military, national standards for hazard reduction and the mitigation of natural disasters – but not climate change itself – will be the focus of the bushfire royal commission.On Thursday, Scott Morrison released the letters patent establishing the national inquiry, pushing ahead despite concerns over federal overreach into states’ emergency management powers and pressure from Labor jurisdictions to focus more explicitly on reducing emissions. Continue reading...

Hardliners aiming to take advantage of fury over corruption to take power and keep President Rouhani on a tight leash“They’ve been stealing the money. Cut off their hands, make them pay and answer,” shouted an elderly woman in a black chador, suddenly standing up at a conservative election rally in south Tehran.Mohammad Hosseini, Iran’s minister for culture and Islamic guidance from 2009 to 2013 under the then president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, replied. If elected, he said, he would always be available to his people. He even read out his phone number to the crowd to underline his sincerity. Continue reading...

Hotel bookings plummet by 40,000 in recent weeks as ban on incoming flights from China bites local businessesThe idyllic holiday island of Bali has been hit by the ripple effect of the coronavirus crisis, with tourism plummeting and suggestions it “does not have the capacity” to treat patients if they become sick.Indonesia, the largest country in south-east Asia, claims to have no cases of coronavirus, but according to the Bali’s tourism board, there have been around 40,000 cancellations of hotel bookings in recent weeks nonetheless. In the first half of February about 740,000 people visited the island – 16.25% fewer than the same period last year – Bali’s airport spokesman told state news agency Antara this week. Continue reading...

The J5 tax enforcement group from five countries, including Australia, are focusing on professionals organising tax evasion structuresThe UK’s chief tax fraud investigator says offshore accountants and lawyers who assist in hiding the assets of criminals and the rich from authorities will face the full force of a five country taskforce.Simon York, director of fraud investigations at Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, said the joint chiefs of global tax enforcement, or J5, a group made up of revenue authorities from the UK, US, Australia, the Netherlands and Canada, were focusing on professionals who helped set up structures used to hide money from authorities in high-tax jurisdictions. Continue reading...

City council releases plans to build an ‘erotic centre’ to prevent rowdy touristsAmsterdam is considering moving part of its red light district indoors to an “erotic” complex where prostitutes no longer beckon customers through street-front windows that often attract rowdy tourists.In plans released on Wednesday, the Dutch city said the complex could include a bed and breakfast for prostitutes as well as a sex club, sex theatre and cafes. Continue reading...

Travel options have been narrowed by a growing list of countries denying entry to passengers from the shipThe cheers of celebration have faded. The waving of roses has ceased. Having finally reached a friendly port willing to accept them after nearly two weeks of uncertainty at sea, hundreds of cruise ship passengers stranded in Cambodia by the new coronavirus outbreak are now simply trying to find a way home.“It’s a weird feeling to travel and go on a trip and you don’t know when you can come home,” said US citizen Lydia Miller, 55, who is camped out at a hotel in Phnom Penh, waiting to hear how she and her husband might be able to return home. Continue reading...

Lawyers say suspected victims of trafficking have not received ‘adequate access to justice’The Home Office is planning to deport vulnerable asylum seekers and suspected victims of trafficking on a new charter flight on Thursday, the Guardian has learned.The flight will be going to Switzerland, Germany and Austria under Dublin convention legislation, EU rules that require asylum seekers to claim asylum in the first safe EU country they arrive in and not move from one to another. Continue reading...

Sector fears missing out on desperately needed staff as a result of government’s plansCare for elderly and infirm people will be put at risk if the government presses ahead with plans to block entry to the UK for low-paid workers from the EU, leaders in the sector have warned.They say Britain will miss out on desperately needed staff unless the government changes the proposed salary threshold for immigrants post-Brexit and classifies care workers as skilled. Continue reading...

Two masked and hooded men are reported to have attacked the rapper, regarded as one of the most promising talents in the USNew York rapper Pop Smoke has been shot and killed in an apparent home invasion, according to multiple sources speaking to NBC and TMZ.The rapper, real name Bashar Jackson, 20, was at home in Hollywood, Los Angeles, when two men wearing hoodies and masks entered the house and fired multiple shots, according to police sources quoted by TMZ. He was pronounced dead at a hospital in West Hollywood early on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Claire Boucher has spent a decade battling the press to reclaim her reputation. Dating Elon Musk means she’s never been more controversial – but could her new album set her free?Grimes has always had a tortured relationship with visibility. No sooner had Claire Boucher broken beyond the Montreal warehouse scene at the turn of the 2010s than she was telling journalists that she only fronted her music because she couldn’t afford to hire someone to do it for her. She wanted to be Phil Spector – though maybe she also wanted to be Britney. “I really hate being in front of people,” she told Pitchfork in 2012. “But I’m also obsessed with being a pop star.”That ambivalence colours Boucher’s earliest press. She could make “dumb fucking hits all day” but didn’t, because “that’s obviously not how I want Grimes to be perceived”. She once asked: “What’s the difference between Napoleon and everyone else? Napoleon had great image branding.” Given that her style and hair colour changed in every photo, Boucher disrupted the possibility of ever solidifying into the kind of stable pop silhouette connoted by either bicorne hat or cone bra. She craved a new archetype: whether she resembled a space lieutenant or racoon-eyed wraith, the one consistent would be her iconoclastic skill as the sole producer of her music. Continue reading...

About 200 Australians face another 14 days of isolation after more than two weeks in quarantine on the ship in JapanA horror holiday is close to being over for the hundreds of Australians stuck on a coronavirus-hit cruise ship in Japan.About 200 Australians will be evacuated on a Qantas flight to a former workers’ site near Darwin on Wednesday to begin a two-week isolation period to prevent the potential spread of the virus. Continue reading...

Man dies in The Rocks after being struck by gas bottle in severe wind gusts as Ausgrid says lightning storm cut electricity to 72,000 properties in SydneyA man is dead, thousands of people are without power and transport services are disrupted on Wednesday morning after thunderstorms wreaked havoc across Sydney and coastal regions, just weeks after record downpours caused major flooding.Damaging winds of about 110km/h hit North Head, with other areas also blasted by gusts over 100km/h on Tuesday night. Continue reading...

Cummings’ strategy under fire after exit of adviser who argued intelligence is linked to raceDowning Street has come under intense pressure to say whether it vetted a No 10 adviser who argued that intelligence is linked to race, amid fresh questions about chief aide Dominic Cummings’ drive to employ “misfits and weirdos” to work under him.A day after Andrew Sabisky said he would step down as a “contractor” to Downing Street because of the furore about his posts online, Labour wrote to Boris Johnson asking him to explain how the appointment was made, and whether the prime minister agreed with Sabisky’s views. Continue reading...

House of Lords changes rules after survey finds BAME workers excluded from facilities for mostly white peersParliament has been accused of operating a form of apartheid after a report found that minority ethnic staff were asked to show their security passes more often than white counterparts.Black and minority ethnic staff who responded to a survey carried out last year also complained that historic parliamentary rules meant that they were not allowed to eat or drink in the same rooms or even use the same toilets as the mostly white members of the House of Lords. Continue reading...

Premier says practice unfairly targets innocent people and is often carried out by ‘thugs and bullies’Wheel clamping will be banned in Western Australia under proposed legislation backed by the opposition, with the state government labelling the practice predatory and a “disgraceful scam”.The announcement on Monday follows public outrage over a series of wheel clamping blitzes at strip shopping precincts and popular locations including Scarborough beach. Continue reading...

Acid attacks have been on the rise in Uganda. Organisations such as End Acid Violence Uganda are pushing for a law that would see harsher punishments for perpetrators such as a ‘no bail policy’, satisfactory compensation for victims, and implementation of a medical care policy paid for by the government. End Acid Violence Uganda officers make regular home visits to survivors to offer support and guidance. Continue reading...

How a campaign of kidnapping, intimidation and killings is being used to try to quell uprisingAs the sun began to set, the evening of 14 December seemed destined to be no different to any other for Hayder, a former military medic in Baghdad. After leaving the protest camp in Tahrir Square, where he had been treating the wounds of injured anti-government demonstrators, he went out for dinner with friends in the neighbouring district of Karrada.Like thousands of other young Iraqis, Hayder first took to the streets two months earlier on 1 October. He was chanting slogans demanding better services and denouncing the corrupt ruling parties when security forces opened fire on the crowd. He stood on a highway leading to Tahrir Square and saw young, unarmed protesters fall around him, some dead, others injured. Continue reading...

Database known as the ‘Karakax list’ shows people sent to internment camps for reasons such as ‘minor religious infection’Growing a beard, wearing a veil or accidentally visiting a foreign website were among the justifications for sending Uighurs to China’s notorious detention camps, according to a leaked database, casting doubt on Beijing’s claim to be conducting a re-education campaign to root out extremism.The newly revealed database – known as the “Karakax list” after the county where it was compiled – comprises 137 pages and exposes in detail the main reasons for the detention of more than 300 people on the edge of Xinjiang’s Taklamakan desert. Continue reading...

Labour says PM’s decision not to visit flood sites or call Cobra meeting is ‘a disgrace’Severe flood warnings remain in place and rescue operations were continuing in stricken communities on Monday evening, as the government faced criticism for its response to what has been described as unprecedented flooding in parts of the country.With thousands of properties flooded after a month’s worth of rain fell on parts of Britain over the weekend, and more than 200 flood warnings still in place, Labour said it was “a disgrace” that the prime minister was not visiting affected towns and villages and was resisting calls to convene the Cobra emergencies committee. Continue reading...

The DJ, producer, remixer and musician, who took acid house into the mainstream, suffered a pulmonary embolismAndrew Weatherall, the British musician, DJ and record producer known for helming Primal Scream’s Screamadelica, has died aged 56.His management wrote in a statement: “We are deeply sorry to announce that Andrew Weatherall, the noted DJ and musician passed away in the early hours of this morning, Monday 17th February 2020, at Whipps Cross Hospital, London. The cause of death was a pulmonary embolism. He was being treated in hospital but unfortunately the blood clot reached his heart. His death was swift and peaceful.” Continue reading...

From naked dating to dirty Scrabble, singles nights and speed dating have been reinvented. Can these increasingly quirky events lead to lasting love?‘I used to torture frogs when I was young,” the man was telling me, with a stare that would make the most experienced serial killer uneasy. I wasn’t at a Halloween party. It was Friday night in London and I was attending my first singles event. When my friend suggested it, I had expected the evening to be awkward. I hadn’t expected to be nursing a glass of a wine while a stranger described the many brutal ways he had culled the north London amphibian population. After two hours of painful conversation with other guests, we eventually escaped, although not before our new friend leaned in for a bum grope.I was unlucky at this mixer. But even when attendees don’t turn out to be on an RSPCA watch list, singles events can feel more forced than a 90s school disco. I am not alone in my phobia of organised mixers; a recent survey by the Inner Circle revealed that 41% of daters in the UK would refuse to attend one, citing embarrassment and awkwardness as the main reasons. Continue reading...

Public warned away from MV Alta, which ran aground on Cork coast during Storm DennisAbandoned by its crew, the cargo vessel made a lonely odyssey across the Atlantic, a ghost ship seemingly destined never to make port.The 77-metre MV Alta drifted for over a year, skirting the Americas, Africa and Europe, rusting and derelict yet resolutely afloat. Continue reading...

Police say rescue operation has become recovery mission, as 230 flood alerts remain in UKHopes were fading for a woman swept into flood water in the West Midlands, as Britons braced for another day of disruption after one of the worst winter storms of recent times.More than 230 flood warnings were still in place across the UK on Monday morning. The scale of flooding was described as “unprecedented” in Wales, where a man died after falling into the River Tawe. Continue reading...

In an interview on Channel Ten’s The Project, Parker said he had been told to leave RFS leading to the hashtag #IStandWithPaulParker trending in AustraliaThe Rural Fire Service is investigating claims that a volunteer firefighter who told the prime minister to “get fucked from Nelligen” in a viral news clip was “sacked’”by his local brigade.Paul Parker told Channel Ten’s The Project on Sunday that he was chastised by the RFS for directing the expletive toward Scott Morrison and that he had been booted from the organisation, contrary to reports from the time that he had been stood down due to exhaustion. Continue reading...

Tom Phillips, the Guardian’s Latin America correspondent, is back in Venezuela a year after the start of a dramatic, but so far unsuccessful, attempt to topple Nicolás Maduro. While conditions in Caracas appear slightly improved, outside the capital conditions in schools and hospitals are appalling – and getting worse. Also today: Jess Cartner-Morley on pocketsA year ago, the crisis in Venezuela reached a new pitch as the politician Juan Guaidó led an attempt to overthrow the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro. As the bulk of Venezuela’s military remained loyal to the president, the attempt failed and Maduro maintained his grip on power. In the months since, he has boasted that Venezuela has enjoyed “the highest levels of nutrients and access to food”. But outside of the capital Caracas, the story is very different.The Guardian’s Tom Phillips tells Anushka Asthana of his journey through the crisis-hit country and how the worst effects are being felt by children. Hospitals are falling into disrepair, schools are being repeatedly looted and some parents have fled the country, leaving their children behind. Continue reading...

Top diplomats disagreed over the global relevance of the west at the Munich security conferenceThe chosen theme of the Munich security conference – once a party for Nato and now a Davos for the world’s diplomats – was “westlessness”. The organisers wanted to capture the fear that the west is now so divided and challenged by the rise of China its whole existence has become imperilled.It was not a concept that won universal acclaim. Margrethe Vestager, the EU vice-president, hit back in one session: “I never thought about ’westlessness’ before. Are we here discussing our own depression and asking the rest of the world to join in as a sort of collective mindfulness exercise? I don’t really don’t get this.” European values – the rule of law and the integrity of the individual – had spread across the world, she insisted. Continue reading...

French foreign minister says it will be hard for UK to strike deal by end of year given differencesBritain and the European Union are going to rip each other apart in talks over a future trade deal, the French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, has predicted, while also holding out hope that UK defence co-operation with Europe will continue.Speaking at the Munich security forum, he added it would be tough for Britain to achieve its aim of a free trade deal by the end of the year given the differences between the two sides. Continue reading...

As YouTube celebrates its 15th birthday, we talk to five early adopters about how the all-singing all-dancing platform has evolvedLate on the evening of 14 February 2005, Jawed Karim, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen registered the website YouTube.com. Two months later, when the first video (of Karim briefly describing the elephant enclosure at the San Diego Zoo) was uploaded, a platform was launched that has gone on to change the world.Today, more than 2bn of us visit YouTube monthly, and 500 hours of footage is uploaded every minute. That’s a far cry from the 18-second video that started it all. Its stars are multi-millionaires: YouTube’s highest earner in 2019 was an eight-year-old called Ryan, who netted $26m. The number of creators earning five or six figures has increased by more than 40% year on year. At first, users earned a few hundred pounds for mentioning products in their videos; now they can make hundreds of thousands, and much more through exclusive brand deals. Not many like talking about their income: it makes them less relatable. Continue reading...

One of the first women to describe abuse by the former film mogul salutes witnesses’ bravery amid backlashRosanna Arquette, one of the first women to share details of Harvey Weinstein’s abuse, has been closely following the New York trial that could send the disgraced Hollywood producer to prison for life.The actor and advocate rallied at the courthouse at the start of the trial, which is now coming to a close after dramatic testimony by six women. Continue reading...

More than 3 million Australians are living with chronic pain, and the medical system is struggling to help them as it turns away from its reliance on opioidsRead part one of this series here“Right out of the gate,” says Prof Beth Darnall. “Number one rule: first do no harm.” It is the core commitment of the medical profession. But for many chronic pain patients swept up in a tide of opioid overprescription, the Stanford pain psychologist believes the system failed to uphold this oath.And now, as the world grapples with weaning itself off a deadly epidemic of opioid overuse, the question is: are we letting those people down again? Continue reading...

Covid-19 cases pass 66,000 in China as residents in capital who flout new restrictions told they will be ‘held accountable under the law’Beijing has ordered people returning to the city from holidays to quarantine themselves for 14 days to try to contain the coronavirus spread, as the death toll in China from the outbreak passed 1,500.On Saturday, the country’s National Health Commission said 2,641 new cases were confirmed in the previous 24 hours, taking the total number of confirmed infections across mainland China to 66,492. There were also 143 deaths in the 24 hours to midnight on Friday, taking total fatalities from the virus to 1,523. Continue reading...

Africa has its first confirmed case of coronavirus after a person in Egypt tested positive for the disease, it has emerged

Exclusive: offenders avoid prosecution if they take part in rehabilitation programme

Prime minister’s spokesperson says new system – of which details are sketchy – will reduce immigration

The ruthless quest for gold in eastern Cameroon has left the landscape peppered with deadly open pitsIt was the last day of the summer holidays when, on his way to meet friends in his hometown of Batouri, eastern Cameroon, 12-year-old Saustem Brandon Samba slipped on reddish mud and fell into what at first looked like a large puddle.

National Archives exhibition includes letters from first Labour PM to aristocratic loverThe “my Darling Morris” love letter is like many across history. “I just lived for tonight when I was to have seen you,” it reads. “I only wish that I was going away with you, just you and I to eat and sleep and make love together.”The letter though is different to others because it was filed away in government records: seized by police and used in a criminal trial because the writer to Morris was a man. Continue reading...

Anti-immigration groups said campaign was disrespectful of Scandinavian culture

Government has ignored laws intended to prevent stigma, discrimination and bullying, Human Rights Watch claimsYoung people in Vietnam continue to be taught at home and at school that same-sex attraction is a “disease” and a “mental illness” that can be cured and treated, despite legislation designed to support and protect LGBTQ+ rights.Stigma and discrimination about sexual orientation and gender identity contribute to the verbal harassment and bullying of LGBTQ+ young people, which in some cases leads to physical violence, according to a report published on Thursday by Human Rights Watch (HRW). Continue reading...

Health centres step up preparations as World Health Organization raises fears about ability to cope with major outbreakAfrican health authorities are stepping up preparedness for coronavirus after the head of the World Health Organzation described the outbreak as a “very grave threat for the rest of the world”.The number of African countries that can test for the virus tripled to 15 this week, with more expected to have testing labs up and running in the coming days. The head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said health centres were on “high alert” for new cases. Continue reading...

When he was interior minister, Salvini prevented 131 migrants from disembarking in ItalyItaly’s senate has formally authorised a criminal case against Matteo Salvini, the far-right leader accused of kidnap last year when, as interior minister, he prevented 131 migrants from disembarking from a coast guard ship.Last December, the Italian court of ministers in Catania, Sicily, ruled that Salvini should be tried for allegedly depriving the asylum-seekers onboard the Gregoretti coastguard ship of their liberty by refusing to allow them to leave. Continue reading...

Andy Anokye denies imprisoning and repeatedly raping four womenA grime artist accused of imprisoning and raping four women is a narcissist and bully with convictions for violence and a belief he is superior to his alleged victims, a jury has been told.Andy Anokye, who uses the stage name Solo 45, is accused of imprisoning and repeatedly raping four women. The prosecution at Bristol crown court has claimed he held the women against their will, physically and sexually abusing them while filming much of what happened. Continue reading...

After grueling training, a rare few civilians and their dogs are allowed to participate in criminal investigations by searching for cadaversRob Ward keeps baby wipes, canned soup, and bottled water in his truck. “If I need a bath or a meal, there it is,” he explained in a Walker, Louisiana Waffle House. Calls can come at anytime, and his truck remains loaded, his bag packed.Today is a rare day off from both of his jobs: a nine to five at a printing company and volunteer work looking for dead bodies with his Australian shepherd, Niko. Ward and Niko are one of approximately 500 volunteer cadaver dog-handler pairs across the country who assist law enforcement in recovering human remains. Continue reading...

Thailand has become the fifth country to deny the MS Westerdam permission to dock over fears that some of its more than 2,000 passengers and crew may be infected with the new coronavirus. A passenger describes life onboard, with no cases of the virus yet found