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Labor and Coalition likely to win two Super Saturday contests each, but final result unlikely to be known for at least a week

Ex-commissioner says PM should recuse himself from process of finding Cressida Dick’s replacement while under police investigationBoris Johnson should not be involved in selecting the new head of the Metropolitan police while he remains under investigation for alleged lockdown breaches, a former force commissioner has said.Ian Blair, a former Met commissioner, called on the prime minister to recuse himself from involvement in the process, describing the decision about Cressida Dick’s replacement as “an enormously important choice”. Continue reading...

UK PM asked about lockdown parties; thousands of protesters block roads in Canberra and Wellington

The green fruit has become less ubiquitous on local tables as criminal gangs fight over the trade, driving diners to distractionThe citric kick of the limes which grow abundantly across Mexico – the world’s largest producer of the fruit – help give the country’s cuisine its distinctive flavour.But aggressive price-fixing by criminal groups has sent prices soaring, prompting some eateries to stop offering limes with their tacos – and leaving diners in a sour twist. Continue reading...

Looking for kitchen inspiration to spur romance? Try these swoonworthy recipes from Guardian and Observer food writers• Read more tips for easy date-night dishesThomasina Miers suggests a lie-in to work up an appetite for this creative recipe of green brunch eggs. Continue reading...

Milton Keynes College says incident was witnessed by staff and students, some of whom administered first aidA boy has been stabbed to death outside a college in Milton Keynes.Police were called to Milton Keynes College, Chaffron Way, at about 1.30pm on Friday after reports of a boy being stabbed. Continue reading...

Epic split between Kim Kardashian and rapper now known as Ye, with wealth, parenting disputes and trolling is perfect divorce for the Instagram AgeIt promises to be the celebrity separation of the year, unfolding in a dizzying hybrid of IRL (In Real Life) and virtual spheres.The epic split between Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, with its generous cast of plus-ones, parenting responsibilities, brand fortunes, a family TV franchise, political and racial trolling, is a perfect divorce for the Instagram age. Continue reading...

Lottie, 35, teacher, meets Tim, 33, doctorLottie on TimWhat were you hoping for?

Hours after the injunction order to end the blockade, protesters opposing pandemic restrictions stayed at the bridge entranceProtesters opposing pandemic restrictions were still occupying a vital Canada-US trade corridor hours after an injunction order to end the blockade that has disrupted North America’s auto industry took effect.Prime minister Justin Trudeau has promised president Joe Biden quick action to end the crisis and earlier on Friday a Canadian judge ordered an end to the four-daylong blockade of the Ambassador Bridge, North America’s busiest land border crossing. Continue reading...

Prime minister says Australia ‘a free country’ and blames states for Covid vaccine mandates

The Austrian director torments everyone, including the audience, in this grotesque tale set in the Italian resort out of seasonWretchedness, sadness and confrontational grotesquerie once again come together in a movie by Ulrich Seidl, although it’s leavened by something almost – but not quite – like ordinary human compassion. If you’ve seen Seidl’s other movies you’ll know what to expect and you’ll know to steel yourself for horror. Perhaps this one doesn’t take Seidl’s creative career much further down the road to (or away from) perdition, but it is managed with unflinching conviction, a tremendous compositional sense and an amazing flair for discovering extraordinary locations.The Italian coastal resort of Rimini in winter is an eerie, melancholy place; Seidl shows it in freezing mist and actual snow. Refugees huddle on the street and some groups of German and Austrian tourists take what must be bargain-basement package vacations at off-season rates in the tackiest hotels. It is here that Ritchie Bravo, played by Seidl regular Michael Thomas, plies his dismal trade. He is an ageing lounge singer with a drinking problem, a cheery, bleary style, an Islamophobic attitude, a bleached-blond hairdo of 80s vintage and a spreading paunch. Ritchie makes a living crooning to his adoring senior-female fanbase, who show up in their coach parties to catch his act. (You could compare him to Nick Apollo Forte in Woody Allen’s Broadway Danny Rose or Gerard Dépardieu in Xavier Giannoli’s The Singer – except much, much more horrible.) He also tops up his income by having sex with some of the fans for money – truly gruesome scenes in the starkly unforgiving Seidl style. Continue reading...

Court grants an injunction to remove protesters from the bridge between Windsor and DetroitThe province of Ontario has invoked a state of emergency and says it will use the threat of hefty fines, jail time and vehicle licence seizures to end a blockade that has crippled trade between Canada and the United States.Border traffic at the Ambassador Bridge, which links Windsor to Detroit, has been shut down since Monday as part of a nationwide protest against pandemic restrictions, snarling nearly C$300m (US$235m) of trade each day. Continue reading...

For 10 years successive Australian governments have known the world famous species is in trouble, but neglected to do something about it

Students say LGBTQ+ safe spaces at Australian school help them grow confidence and be proud of their identitiesQuinn Clements, 16, is gender fluid. The pronouns they use can change but they prefer they/them.In year 10 they came out at their all-girls religious school in Melbourne. Continue reading...

Canstruct International’s holding company has more than $340m in cash and investments, according to accounts filed with regulator

Will efforts at achieving peace be scuppered by those who would rather see the conflict remain frozen until one side takes all, asks Theo Kyriacou. Plus letters from Russell Caplan, Jill Read and Gary BennettGabrielle Rifkind’s point that a willingness to compromise by all sides is the only way out of an unfolding international crisis certainly holds true (I’m a conflict mediator. This is our way out of the Ukraine crisis, 9 February). The USSR did pull its missiles out of Cuba as Rifkind states, but the US reciprocated by withdrawing comparable missiles from Turkey and promised not to invade the island.In 2013 in Ukraine, in the midst of a worsening political crisis, France, Germany, Russia and Poland and the then Ukrainian government led by Viktor Yanukovych and most of the Ukrainian opposition thrashed out a peace plan to take the country forward. The more nationalist elements of Ukrainian society, backed by hawks in the US and elsewhere, rejected the plan and there followed a constitutional crisis, a Russian invasion and dismemberment of Ukraine. No nuclear annihilation for the world, but a real catastrophe for the people of Ukraine. Continue reading...

David Evans recalls Philip Larkin’s poem for the silver jubilee and his pastiche of what he imagined Ted Hughes might writeThe Queen’s reign was already being marked as extraordinarily enduring 45 years ago (Report, 4 February). Around the time of the silver jubilee, Charles Monteith, the editor at Faber & Faber of many great authors between the 1950s and 1970s, asked Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes to produce short poems to commemorate the occasion. They were to be inscribed in stone and placed in Queen’s Square, London, near the Faber offices. Larkin submitted:In times when nothing stood

Anis Hemissi shot Beqiri on the doorstep of his £1.7m London home on Christmas Eve 2019A hitman has been found guilty of murdering a reality television star’s brother in “a tit-for-tat rivalry” between two major crime gangs.Flamur Beqiri, 36, was shot dead on the doorstep of his £1.7m home in Battersea, south-west London, in front of his wife as she shielded their two-year-old son on Christmas Eve 2019. Continue reading...

It is increasingly clear that Brexit is doing enormous damage to Britain’s economy. And what for, exactly?Jacob Rees-Mogg reminds me of a kipper. A very specific kipper, resting on a plastic pillow of ice, which intruded into the public consciousness back in 2019, when Boris Johnson held it aloft, proclaiming it as an example of the absurd, pettifogging rules imposed by Brussels on the yeoman traders of Britain. Naturally, Johnson’s claims fell apart on inspection. There was no European directive mandating a cushion of ice for the sleeping fish. On the contrary, the ice pillow was demanded by a British rule, drawn up by British officials. Nothing to do with the EU.The episode came back to me when Rees-Mogg, newly appointed minister for Brexit opportunities and government efficiency, appealed to readers of the Sun to write in and tell him “of ANY petty old EU regulation that should be abolished”. That’s because Johnson’s kipper illustrated not only his serial dishonesty on matters European – already well-documented – but also a gap in the Brexiters’ arsenal. That gap was fairly well concealed in the 2016 referendum campaign, but Rees-Mogg’s plea in the Sun, like Johnson’s kipper, has exposed it. Continue reading...

Political rather than scientific choices lie behind UK decision to be first nation to lift restrictions, say specialists

Border requirements loosened for non-EU 12 to 17-year-olds in time for UK half-term holidaysSpain has announced it will loosen its border requirements, with children over 12 from non-EU countries no longer needing to be fully vaccinated.The Spanish government announced that it is relaxing its travel rules from Monday, which will be a boost for British holidaymakers planning to head abroad in February half-term. Continue reading...

Journalist, a second foreigner and Afghan colleagues held while on assignment with UNHCRThe Taliban have detained a British journalist, a second foreigner and some of their Afghan colleagues in Kabul while they were on assignment for the UN refugee agency, their employer and the family of one of those detained have said.Though the Taliban have detained and beaten Afghan journalists, the arrests earlier this week are the first time Afghanistan’s new rulers are known to have held foreign reporters since they took power last summer. Continue reading...

Hard work and creative friends from local youth club drove genre-defying rapper to mainstream recognitionWhen Little Simz invited her mum on stage to help collect her Brit award for best new artist this week, it quickly became the evening’s standout moment. “Look at what you’ve done, Mum!” she told her, kicking off a powerful acceptance speech that turned her journey from council estate to awards ceremony podium into an inspirational allegory. The 27-year-old said she was “living proof that if you work hard at something, no matter where you come from, your background, your race, you can be something extraordinary”.Yet fans of the rapper were confused by the prize for new artists. Having released her debut mixtape in 2010, Simz now has four critically lauded albums under her belt, including last year’s Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, a thought-provoking and utterly unique record that earned many five-star reviews and was widely considered a new high-water mark for British rap. It reached No 4 in the UK albums chart, the accomplishment that earned her Brit nomination – artists must have had a Top 40 album or two Top 20 singles to qualify. Before that, she had been endorsed by huge stars including Kendrick Lamar and Stormzy. In other words, the north Londoner, born Simbiatu Ajikawo, is far from a fledgling talent. Continue reading...

We get the body we get at birth. But I learned eventually that I didn’t have to accept it, that changes are within our graspWhen I was 16, I asked my best friend, Kerry, why she was so into piercings. Because I was young, naive and suburban, I did slightly subscribe to the “you’d be so pretty if you didn’t have all that metal in your face” attitude – echoing my mother, probably. Kerry explained that she refused to let her body be arbitrary. At the time, I didn’t know fully what “arbitrary” meant, but I did not want to appear dense, so I waited until I got home to look it up.For the most part, our bodies are arbitrary. We get the body we get at birth: our eye colour, our hair colour, our skin colour. We have no say in those things at the moment we are born but, talking to my friend, I realised that subsequent changes are within our grasp. We can go against the grain. My first act of defiance came in 1999, when I bleached my hair. Rather than platinum blonde, it turned the colour of Berocca piss. I quickly dyed it fire engine red instead; why would I want to look like my peers when I could look like Ginger Spice? Continue reading...

Shahi Exports, which makes clothes for the UK high street, has agreed to pay staff minimum wage and arrearsIndia’s largest garment company has paid out an estimated £3m in unpaid wages to tens of thousands of workers, after two years of refusing to pay its workers the legal minimum wage.Last month Shahi Exports, which supplies dozens of international brands, agreed to pay nine months of back pay to about 80,000 workers, with further payments expected in the coming months that will increase the total paid back to workers to £7m. Continue reading...

Tukwini Mandela launches augmented reality Snapchat experience that also brings grandfather Nelson’s statue to lifeNelson Mandela’s granddaughter has launched an augmented reality project to help people understand more about the stories of black Britons.On the 32nd anniversary of Mandela’s release from prison, Tukwini Mandela said the initiative would “make black history more visible, so it’s never forgotten”. The technology allowed her grandfather’s statue in Trafalgar Square in London to be “brought to life”, she added. Continue reading...

Campaign calls for citizenship route to be opened up to offspring of BNO passport holders at heart of protestsThe UK government has given its strongest indication yet that it will agree to calls to extend its visa lifeboat scheme to cover Hongkongers aged between 18 and 24 who were at the heart of recent civilian protests.The current scheme, opened a year ago, is available only to British national (overseas) (BNO) passport holders born before 1997, the date of the handover of the city to China and the ending of the BNO scheme. Continue reading...

Woman assaulted by stranger as she slept accused Greater Manchester police of failing to investigate properlyA homeless woman who was sexually assaulted by a stranger as she slept in a tent has been awarded damages by police after she accused them of failing to investigate properly.The woman was sleeping rough in Manchester city centre in August 2020 when she awoke to find a man in her tent with his hand inside her clothes while he carried out a sexual act on himself. Continue reading...

Paul Magnette, the Socialist party leader, describes e-commerce as ‘social and ecological degradation’The leader of a party in Belgium’s governing coalition has sparked a debate after proposing that the country abolish internet shopping to let its high streets thrive and reduce night warehouse work.Paul Magnette, the leader of the Socialist party and mayor of Charleroi, Belgium’s third biggest city, said he feared the current trends were hollowing out urban centres and driving down working conditions. Continue reading...

Inspired by Canadian truckers, motorists are protesting against Covid restrictions and Emmanuel Macron

Andy George praises outgoing commissioner, but says it was right that she stood downCressida Dick was “the most defensive and dismissive” leader of a British police force, with problems worsening under her tenure as Scotland Yard’s commissioner, the leader of the National Black Police Association (NBPA) has said.Dick announced her departure on Thursday after a falling out with London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, who lacked confidence that she could improve an allegedly misogynistic, racist and closed culture blighting Britain’s biggest force. Continue reading...

US secretary of state Antony Blinken says Russia’s actions could embolden other countries to pursue military aggressionThe stability of the Indo-Pacific will also be in danger if Russia is allowed to threaten Ukraine with impunity, the US secretary of state has warned during a visit to Australia.Antony Blinken said on Friday there were “very troubling signs of Russian escalation”, adding: “We’re in a window when an invasion could begin at any time – and to be clear, that includes during the Olympics.” Continue reading...

Onyeama became the first black person to complete his studies at the prestigious school, and a 1972 book, which Eton tried to quash, detailed the daily racist abuse he sufferedAs soon as Dillibe Onyeama was born, in January 1951, his father put his name down for Eton, the UK’s most prestigious and expensive public school. No black child had gone there, but his father, a senior judge in Nigeria who had studied at Oxford, wanted him to have the best education he could possibly afford.Onyeama did go on to receive a fantastic education – and made history as the first black person to complete his study at Eton College. But the personal cost was staggering. Continue reading...

After almost three decades, I still miss my daughter. But losing her taught me that grief is something to venerate, not denyGrief is not a medical disorder to be cured. Grief is not a spiritual crisis to be resolved. Grief is not a social woe to be addressed. Grief is, simply, to be felt in our hearts and our minds and our bodies.

The Chilean American author on the allure of Arabian Nights, the inspiration of Gabriel García Márquez and the heartbreak of Jack LondonMy earliest reading memory

I applied for the quiz show to get bragging rights over my pub quiz teammates. Then I found myself sweating in the famous chair. What had I done?In all honesty, I have no idea why I decided to go on Mastermind. I love pub quizzes, sure, and I’m good at them. Pre-Covid, I was part of a crack team called Quizlamic State, who regularly took home first prize in our local one. As team coordinator, I developed a reputation for ruthlessness, brutally ejecting friends and, on one occasion, my boyfriend, if I thought they were underperforming. At university, I was picked for our college’s University Challenge team, though we didn’t get on the show: too boring, apparently. (The producers picked a team of historical re-enactors and archers from a different college.)All of this stuff is what I say when people ask why I went on the show. But if I’m being honest, I don’t know why I did it. I don’t know why I do most things. I’m an incredibly impulsive person; always have been. To paraphrase Kim Kardashian West’s reply when asked why she filmed the sex tape that made her famous: because I was bored, and I felt like it. Continue reading...

(Mais Um)

The father of former NSW police minister was found guilty last year of charges including dangerous driving causing death

Peter Dutton confirms Scott Morrison was misled by Liberal MPs who crossed floor on religious discrimination bill; Martin Foley says code brown declaration for Victoria’s hospitals will end Monday; at least 49 Covid deaths recorded nationally. Follow all the day’s news

Thirty-five years on from the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, and despite the continued danger of radiation, Ukrainians displaced by the conflict in Donbas have come to settle in low-cost, dilapidated housing in border areas close to the exclusion zone. Photojournalist Gaëlle Girbes met the people who are trying to rebuild their lives in the most unlikely of places.On 26 April 1986, the core of reactor 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant melted down, causing the world’s biggest nuclear disaster. About 130,000 people were urgently evacuated, leaving towns and villages deserted across 2,200 sq km in the north of Ukraine. The area became a ghost region, forming the forbidden zone – estimated to be dangerous for 24,000 years according to specialists – and its adjacent regions, free to access but also contaminated.Despite the danger of radiation, 35 years later Ukrainians are moving into dilapidated houses in the border areas of the exclusion zone. In 2014, the war in the Donbas region forced more than 1.5 million people into exile, fleeing the conflict that has been going on in the east of the country for almost eight years.Lydia is cut off from the world. Her dogs, found by chance, are her companions, her family that help her to bear the immense loneliness in which she now lives in the village of Bazar, Jytomyr region, Ukraine Continue reading...

Five decades after David Bowie’s seminal tour, our music writers reflect on the concerts that have left a mark, from Billie Holiday to Billie EilishCafé Society, New York City, early 1939

After years of disgust, I saw the possibility of beauty in my body just as it is. Now I am the happiest I have ever beenMy body is an accordion. Not because it sounds horrible. I mean, it does. It clicks and cracks and honks, and when I try to sing nicely my son screams from the pit of his soul, like I’ve brandished an axe. No, what I mean is, it’s like an accordion because, for 32 years I was squeezing her in. In and in, for a half-life.On a BMI chart, I’ve always been “obese” – technically, ill. So for decades I saw my body as defective, disappointing and disgusting. If I looked at it, I felt the kind of hatred and repulsion I normally reserve for racists or people who say “hashtag justsayin’” out loud. Continue reading...

Heber López, director of the online news site Noticias Web, was killed in the port city of Salina Cruz in Oaxaca stateA journalist has been shot dead in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, the fifth killed in the country this year, state authorities said.Heber López, director of the online news site Noticias Web, was killed leaving a recording studio in the port city of Salina Cruz, said an official with the Oaxaca state security agency, who requested anonymity. Continue reading...

The best thing about recovery plans is nobody pays any attention except for a few greenists and weary scientists

US president urges all Americans to leave Ukraine immediately, while British defence secretary heads to MoscowUS president Joe Biden has warned that “things could go crazy quickly” in Ukraine and again urged American citizens to leave immediately, as the UK’s defence secretary headed to Moscow in the latest round of diplomacy.“American citizens should leave, should leave now,” Biden said in an interview with NBC News. “We’re dealing with one of the largest armies in the world. This is a very different situation and things could go crazy quickly.” Continue reading...

While many front pages say the Met chief was ‘forced out’, some cheer her departure after a series of ‘catastrophic blunders’The departure of Cressida Dick as Britain’s most senior police officer is the main story in most of the papers on Friday, although there is some difference in emphasis about whether she deserved her fate.The Guardian led with the line that the Metropolitan police commissioner had to leave because London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, lost confidence in her ability to reform the scandal-hit force. Continue reading...

Documents compiled by protest organisers give a glimpse into a conspiracy theory-drenched outlookLeaders of the Ottawa “Freedom Convoy” protest have warned fellow protesters that the risk of violence is growing, amid speculation the police may move to disperse the nearly two-week occupation of Canada’s capital.Daily “intelligence reports” compiled by protest leaders and seen by the Guardian – as well as public comments by the organisers – have grown increasingly alarmist in recent days. Continue reading...

Get Back and Lord of the Rings director made an estimated $580m last year, topping annual list that also features Bruce Springsteen, Dwayne Johnson and Kanye WestThe Lord of the Rings and Get Back director, Peter Jackson, has topped the Forbes magazine rich list as the highest paid entertainer of 2021.Jackson made US$580m (A$809m, £428m) last year, primarily through the sale of part of his visual effects business Weta Digital to Unity Software, for $1.6bn. Forbes estimates Jackson personally made about $600m in cash and $375m in stock from the deal, making him the third person in history to become a billionaire from making films, after Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning Continue reading...

Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge