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Rolling Stone said that rock’n’roll peaked with Pere Ubu’s debut album. Now, after two near-death experiences, the ‘avant garage’ band are back – with an adaptation of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales‘I’ve been dead twice,” grins Pere Ubu’s David Thomas, over Zoom from his flat in Hove. “Death is very overrated. It was like being asleep. Once I was brought back by the ambulance crew. My wife said ‘Those guys worked like demons on you.’ The other time I woke up in ICU with all this stuff attached to me and it turned out I’d died again. I woke up and the doctor said, “You’re David Thomas!’’ It turned out that he’d been at the same Pere Ubu show that Ian Rankin had seen in the 70s, and was a lifelong fan.”Now 68, seated in front of his computer in a furry hoody, the drily-humoured Ohioan cuts a more subdued figure than the “enigmatic giant of a singer” Rankin has subsequently remembered shouting requests at during that gig at Edinburgh University in 1978. Thomas needs kidney dialysis three times a week, and when he gets up to answer the door he needs a walker. But while he may no longer bark out lyrics while careering about the stage, his spirit is indefatigable. “I’m not in the best of health, but my singing voice is better than it’s ever been,” he insists, cheerily. “I’m sort of glad that I can’t jump around any more because I don’t have to worry about falling into the drums. All my concentration goes into singing.” Continue reading...

Amendment would block move that could also prevent protection for those at risk from forced marriage, FGM and traffickingPeers are attempting to block plans which could prevent women who are fleeing rape, forced marriage, trafficking or female genital mutilation from securing refugee status – a move that critics say was sneaked into the nationality and borders bill.The Labour peer Lady Lister, with support from the crossbencher Lady Coussins, the Liberal Democrat Lord Paddick and the bishop of Gloucester, have tabled an amendment to the bill due to be discussed on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Prosecutor in murder trial of Kumanjayi Walker tells court Rolfe knew his actions were not reasonable but defence says he made ‘split-second decision’

Offered a route into Europe by the Lukashenko regime in Belarus, thousands of asylum seekers are now stranded on the EU’s frontierBy Lorenzo Tondo. Photographs by Alessio MamoOn 13 August last year, a villager in Ostrówka, in the east of central Poland, posted two pictures on Facebook featuring groups of men, women and children walking through the cornfields with bags on their backs.They were families from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraqi Kurdistan, and they were among the first asylum seekers to enter the country from Belarus. The post was accompanied by the following short text: “In the heat of day through wheat, at night through corn, they sneak through, they wander, just to get to the west. Great politics and slight refugees leave their print on the fields near Ostrówka.”The makeshift shelter of a Syrian family with small children in the forest near Narewka, Poland Continue reading...

From Qatari fishermen to Peruvian chimpanzees, these images represent the best of the Sony World Photography awards 2022, taken from 61 countries Continue reading...

Zimbabweans hoping for a better life abroad or smuggling a few goods over the border face police, soldiers and a dangerous riverA bushy pathway leads to the crossing points along the Limpopo River that are the most treacherous part of the journey for Zimbabweans seeking a better life in South Africa. The river has flooded after weeks of incessant rain, resulting in three drownings of “border jumpers” last month alone.A few kilometres away, where the roar of the river can still be heard, men and women clutching small bags of belongings trudge along a different dusty track near Malindi Transit Shed. At 9am on a Friday morning in February, the route to the bridge connecting South Africa and Zimbabwe is already heavily patrolled by soldiers clasping rifles. Continue reading...

After years of playing insecure braggarts, the actor is taking on a new challenge – as star of the improvised celebrity cop show Murderville. He talks about his ‘weird’ period, his split with Amy Poehler, and having a baby in his 50sNo one is better at playing idiotic egomaniacs than Will Arnett, and I mean that as the highest of compliments. From his malevolent ice skating champion in Blades of Glory, to the nefarious TV executive Devon Banks in 30 Rock, to most famously, Gob (pronounced, biblically, “Job”) Bluth, the inept eldest son on Arrested Development, Arnett has cornered the market on fools who brag about themselves to compensate for how little they have to brag about.“Like the guy in the $4,000 suit is holding the elevator for the guy who doesn’t make that in three months. Come on!” Gob shouts at his employees. So it is extremely pleasing that when we connect by video chat, and Arnett appears on my screen from his home in Los Angeles, that he is sitting in front of a clutch of awards. Like the actor with a shelf of awards is going to talk to the journalist with nothing. Come on! Continue reading...

My drinking and drug use pushed me over the edge into a complete breakdown. Then a stint in rehab made me question how much we really understand about addictionI’m lying in bed when I hear the commotion. I peer through the doorway of my room, and right outside, the new guy is getting in Ruiz’s face. There’s a phone right outside the door, one of those sturdy metal payphones like one you’d see on a street corner, and Ruiz, a gentle older man with shoulders stooped by the demoralisation of his nth relapse and hospitalisation, is just trying to talk to his family. But the new guy has been manic and pacing since he arrived a few hours ago, and he won’t take no for an answer.I watch the new guy stalk the other way across the doorway, muttering to himself, menacing even in retreat. Then a warning shout echoes from much too far in the distance, and he appears once again – flying, near horizontal – to tackle Ruiz, dragging him off the phone. Continue reading...

Our reporter rides the smooth new trains – but transport chief says line will open only when he is certain about reliabilityThe Elizabeth line must be “flawless” before it can officially launch this year, London’s transport chief told a press tour on Monday, amid speculation that the £18.9bn Crossrail project’s opening could be moved to the spring – before the Queen’s jubilee celebrations.On the first media trip to see the line in action, riding on spacious trains along the tunnels winding from Paddington to Liverpool Street, flaws appeared conspicuously absent. Twelve trains an hour are now running in the central section excavated under the capital, with an official deadline for opening at the end of June. Continue reading...

China does not recognise dual citizenship of Australian-Chinese man held for 11 months under national security law

Airbnb rents out colourful replica of Heeler family home for one weekend, complete with red letterbox, playroom and Bluey’s toysThe beloved Heeler family home from the hit Australian children’s TV series Bluey has been recreated in real life and will be made available to stay in for one weekend.Brisbane, the city which inspired the show’s colourful animated backdrop, is home to the replica of the Heeler’s home, featuring details such as the red letterbox and Bluey’s toys. Continue reading...

Prime minister says number of people who get booster vaccines will dictate how high the peak will beAs New Zealand hits new records for daily case numbers, prime minister Jacinda Ardern has said she expects Omicron infections to start peaking in late March.The country reported 202 cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday, following several days of numbers sitting around the 200 mark – including a record 243 cases on Saturday. The past seven days are among the highest weeks of case numbers since the pandemic began. Continue reading...

Defence sale will help ‘maintain political stability, military balance, economic and progress in the region’, says USThe United States has approved a possible $100m sale of equipment and services to Taiwan to “sustain, maintain, and improve” the Patriot missile defense system used by the self-ruled island claimed by China, the Pentagon said.A statement from the US defence security cooperation agency on Monday said it had delivered the required certification notifying Congress after state department approval for the sale, which was requested by Taiwan’s de facto embassy in Washington. Continue reading...

Mourners stood in the remote forested hills to farewell five-year-old Rayan Awram, who died after being trapped in a well for daysHuge crowds laid to rest Rayan Awram, a five-year-old Moroccan boy who spent four days trapped down a well and sparked a rescue operation that gripped the world but ended in tragedy.Hundreds stood to mourn in a cemetery in the remote forested hills of the northern Chefchaouen region on Monday, a few kilometres (miles) from the site of the accident, as an imam read funeral prayers. Continue reading...

GoFundMe blocked fundraising after Canadian city declared emergency over protests against vaccine mandatesA trucker-led protest against vaccine mandates in Canada has raised several million dollars on a Christian crowdfunding site after being removed from GoFundMe, sparking debate over how online platforms moderate campaigns.GoFundMe blocked fundraising for the “Freedom Convoy” over the weekend, after the mayor of Ottawa declared a state of emergency over a week-long protest led by truck drivers over Covid-19 restrictions. Continue reading...

Arthur Hughes says decision for 2022 production will allow lived experience to be ‘shown properly’He is one of Shakespeare’s most reviled characters, distinguished by his “deformed, unfinish’d” figure. Now, for the first time, the Royal Shakespeare Company has cast a disabled actor in the title role of Richard III in a new production opening later this year.For Arthur Hughes, it is a “dream come true” although his first reaction to being cast as the 15th-century king of England was disbelief. “It’s a part I’ve always wanted to play, it’s a very complex role, and it’s the biggest thing I’ve done,” said Hughes, 30. Continue reading...

This blog is now closedPolice rescue Keir Starmer from protesters; Sweden move comes as country plans to remove Omicron restrictions on Wednesday

French president says both sides need to work quickly to avoid escalation after five-hour session at the KremlinEmmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin did not appear to reach a breakthrough in marathon talks at the Kremlin on Monday evening aimed at fending off a Russian attack on Ukraine.After five hours of negotiations, Macron warned that the two sides needed to work quickly to avoid the risk of an escalation. Continue reading...

The baby’s mother was injured after the Trinidad and Tobago coast guard shot at the boat, later saying it fired in ‘self defence’A Venezuelan woman was shot and wounded and her nine-month-old baby was killed in her arms when Trinidad and Tobago’s coast guard opened fire on the boat carrying migrants fleeing their home country.In a statement posted on Facebook, the coast guard said its personnel had opened fire “in self-defence” on Saturday after “aggressive manoeuvres” by the migrant craft when it was intercepted as it entered Trinidadian waters late on Saturday. Continue reading...

More than 30 elders were arrested on Mauna Kea in 2019 in dramatic scenes, but many are still waiting for their day in courtOn a cold morning in July 2019, more than 30 Native Hawaiian elders gathered on top of a mountain, committed to getting arrested.“I wasn’t afraid,” says 83-year-old Maxine Kahaulelio. “The moment when the kahea [the call] went out, they said the big machines were coming and they were going to start the desecration … We stood there from 2:30 in the morning … freezing, 9,000 feet above sea level. They had all their gear but we didn’t have anything, just blankets and sweaters.” Continue reading...

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MPs defend PM’s wife after criticism of her in extracts from book by Conservative peer Michael AshcroftSenior political figures, from Keir Starmer to Sajid Javid, have criticised negative briefings that suggest Carrie Johnson is partly to blame for the troubles of her husband’s premiership.MPs came to the defence of the prime minister’s wife after the publication of extracts from a new book by the Conservative peer Michael Ashcroft which suggested her “behaviour is preventing [Boris Johnson] from leading Britain as effectively as the voters deserve”. Continue reading...

Boris Johnson criticised after anti-vax protesters shout ‘traitor’ and ‘Jimmy Savile’ at Labour leaderMPs from all sides angrily rounded on Boris Johnson and accused him of whipping up political poison after the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, was set upon by protesters who accused him of protecting the paedophile Jimmy Savile.Johnson provoked widespread fury last week when he suggested Starmer had protected Savile during his time as director of public prosecutions. The comments drew criticism from two former Tory chief whips and prompted the resignation of a long-serving aide. Continue reading...

Reports say troops and weapons are leaving their bases for forward staging posts in Kursk and VoronezhThe military train lurched into the rail depot at Kursk on a recent afternoon, carrying more snow-dusted main battle tanks, self-propelled artillery, and other heavy weapons to within a few hours’ drive by car of the Ukrainian border.At the depot, the flatbed railcars parked between heavy containers carrying chemical products, leaving them visible only from a small pedestrian footbridge overhead. There, military police with red armbands kept watch as locals looked on curiously at the latest arrivals in Russia’s vast military buildup. Continue reading...

Stuart Garner admitted three offences of illegally investing millions of pounds of pension savings into his businessThe former owner of Norton Motorcycles faces up to two years in prison after pleading guilty to illegally investing millions of pounds of people’s retirement savings into his own businesses.Stuart Garner, who acquired the classic marque in 2008 and was feted by a series of UK government ministers including the MP Stephen Barclay, the prime minister’s new chief of staff since Saturday, admitted three offences at Derby magistrates court on Monday. Continue reading...

Eric Zemmour says foreign leader he feels ‘culturally and intellectually’ closest to is the British PMThe far-right French presidential candidate Eric Zemmour has said of all world leaders he is compared to he feels most like the British prime minister, Boris Johnson.The former journalist, who is often compared to Donald Trump, was speaking on France Inter’s morning news programme when asked about “populist” foreign leaders. The interviewer mentioned Trump, the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, and Italy’s former prime minister Matteo Salvini and asked if they were models for Zemmour. Continue reading...

Newspaper claims businesspeople, politicians, activists and Netanyahu’s son were targeted by phone interceptsIsrael’s police minister has announced the formation of a cabinet-level inquiry after a newspaper alleged that police had used powerful Pegasus spyware against a wide range of public figures including politicians from the left and right, businessmen, officials and activists.Pegasus, a mobile phone hacking tool made by Israel’s NSO Group, was used to “phish for intelligence even before any investigation had been opened against the targets, and without judicial warrants”, Calcalist newspaper said in an unsourced report. Continue reading...

Police chief decries ‘siege’ after thousands of protesters join rallies against Covid restrictions

Officials confirm 614 new cases but insist outbreak can be controlled if people stay at home

The 90s pop star recreates an old photograph and talks food, fame, family – and taking his top offBorn Peter James Andrea in Harrow, London, in 1973, and raised in Sydney, Australia, Andre is one of the quintessential 90s pop stars. After winning the TV talent show New Faces in Australia aged 16, he signed to a record label and launched his career in the UK, finding fame with the breakout hit Mysterious Girl and the accompanying video in which Andre body-rolls in a pair of jeans in the tropical sea.After two No 1 singles, Andre retreated from the limelight before appearing on I’m a Celebrity … in 2004. On the show he met model and entrepreneur Katie Price, whom he married in 2005 and divorced in 2009. After a decade of reality TV, with multiple fly-on-the-wall franchises, Peter now lives in Surrey with his wife, NHS doctor Emily MacDonagh, and children. He is the co-founder of the “no guilt” health and fitness app #itsfine, available via Apple App Store and Google Play. Continue reading...

Scientist who worked on jab criticises ‘bad behaviour’ by scientists and politicians who damaged reputation of Covid vaccine

Tying gender to military intervention has often been disastrous. Is there another way?From Laura Bush’s famous radio speech declaring that the invasion of Afghanistan would liberate its women, to the Trump administration’s invocation of women’s rights as it pulled out of the nuclear deal with Iran, war-making in the modern world is often linked to gender equality. Those who push the west to take a muscular approach to advancing its interests in distant places, through bombing, droning or economic warfare, like to weave sepia-tinted images of women in miniskirts into their advocacy. Whatever the actual motives, accompanying them with rhetoric about securing women’s freedom has become standard practice during western interventions.These cynical moves are often what come to mind when we hear the words “ethical foreign policy”. But a whole realm of quiet work lies beyond them. As it stands, much of western foreign policy is concerned with shoring up peace and stability in areas of strategic interest to governments. That includes dispatching advisers to improve developing countries’ militaries, supporting healthcare and education through development aid, and doing diplomatic work to get disagreeing parties to negotiate before things deteriorate too far. For years now, various governments have woven gender equality into these efforts. When development aid sits formally in the same department as foreign policy, as it now does in Britain, those efforts can get serious political backing. Continue reading...

Health secretary joins condemnation of comedian’s comment about Holocaust deaths in Netflix showPeople should consider boycotting the comedian Jimmy Carr because of his widely criticised comment about the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities in a Netflix special, the UK health secretary, Sajid Javid, has suggested.Carr has been condemned by groups including the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, the Auschwitz Memorial and Hope Not Hate for comments he made in the His Dark Material section of his show. Continue reading...

‘It will be welcome - even if it’s a bit late, and by the time they get in there, more than 500 people have already died’, union chief says

‘Dystopian’ reversal of 1999 cult film’s ending showed police winning outThe Chinese streaming platform Tencent Video has restored the original ending to the film Fight Club after it amended the Chinese edition to tell viewers police had “rapidly figured out the whole plan and arrested all criminals”, prompting a widespread backlash.The wholesale reversal of the anti-capitalist, anarchist denouement to the 1999 hit film, which stars Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter, made international headlines last month. Continue reading...

Scott Morrison confirms international borders will reopen to double-vaccinated visa holders from 21 February; defence force personnel to support aged care sector; Craig Kelly says UAP financially backing Canberra protests; Queensland scraps check-ins as nation records at least 46 Covid-19 deaths; Bridget Archer to vote against religious discrimination bill – follow all the day’s news live

Durham police confirm they will take no further action against Labour leader over April 2021 incident

As temperatures fall below freezing, children as young as four trying to make a living on the Afghan capital’s streets are all that stand between their family and starvationAmid the roadside restaurants and bustling crowds in one of Kabul’s busiest markets, a 10-year-old girl is trying to sell plastic bags to shoppers squeezing past her. “If I don’t work, we will go hungry,” Shaista says. Shops in the Afghan capital are stacked with food, but her family cannot afford any of it.Each morning, Shaista buys a few shopping bags for 5 afghani (4p) each, then goes to the market to sell them for double that. As the UN predicts that 97% of Afghans could be living below the poverty line by June, the number of child labourers and beggars has tripled in Kabul, aid workers say. Many are fighting just to survive. Continue reading...

Grief is EXHAUSTING so give yourself a break. Or if you can’t do that leave me alone I am tired

The actor, who broke through in 1983 playing a welder who dreamed of being a dancer, reflects on a life of activism, why gen Z give her hope and joining the Star Wars universeJennifer Beals is talking to me by Zoom from … “Do I have to say?” she asks. Not really, I tell her. “I can tell you there’s a blizzard outside and it’s really beautiful.” Her reticence, which lasts about 30 seconds, is because she is in New York, filming a yet to be announced new season of Law & Order. You could imagine her taking a friend’s secret to the grave; she is very cagey about where she lives, tending to call herself “nomadic” and describing her home as “the middle of nowhere” (in reality, somewhere near Los Angeles). Commercial discretion, though? Not so much.It is creepy to go on about how young actors still look, as though that were a goal in itself, but Beals, 58, is so unchanged – since she first played Bette in The L Word in 2004; since Devil in a Blue Dress in 1995 – that my brain thinks it is making a mistake. She definitely, positively starred in Flashdance in 1983, her breakthrough role after a tiny part in My Bodyguard three years earlier, yet that can’t be right – it was 40 years ago! It is like walking past someone you think you knew at school, then realising that it can’t be them because this person is 21. Continue reading...

Samiel Asghedom, Nipsey’s brother, also told the Guardian of plans for a free music program for youth at Crenshaw and Slauson

Urine and faeces creating nitrogen and phosphorus levels that would be illegal on farms, scientists calculateDog faeces and urine are being deposited in nature reserves in such quantities that it is likely to be damaging wildlife, according to a new study.The analysis found that the resulting overfertilisation of the ground with nitrogen and phosphorus by footpaths could reach levels that would be illegal on farmland. Continue reading...

Theodor Lessing’s newly collected early writings shine light on writer who later prophesied climate changeIn a nation of great thinkers who preferred the clean air of ivory towers over the hubbub of the streets, Theodor Lessing stood out for digging his knuckles into the dust.The great brawler of early 20th-century German philosophy picked fights with those he dismissed as “self-hating” fellow Jewish intellectuals, challenged the towering man-of-letters Thomas Mann to a duel, and skewered the holy cows of the Nazis, who brutally murdered him shortly after seizing power in 1933. Continue reading...

Australia’s borders will open to all visa holders from 21 February on the provision that they are double vaccinated. 'Events earlier in the year would have made Australia’s position on vaccination clear', Australian prime minister Scott Morrison said referring to the debacle involving tennis player Novak Djokovic. Morrison also announced 'a package of measures; so the ADF can support the health department and support the aged care sector. 'I want to be very clear about this ... the defence force are not a surrogate workforce for the aged care sector'► Subscribe to Guardian Australia on YouTube

French leader, who will travel to Kyiv on Tuesday, is optimistic he can secure peace, despite the US saying Russia could invade ‘tomorrow’French president Emmanuel Macron believes he can deliver “a historic solution” to the Ukraine crisis ahead of his arrival in Moscow for talks with Russian president Vladimir Putin.After a flurry of diplomatic activity that included talks with US president Joe Biden this weekend and three phone calls with Putin, Macron will land in Moscow on Monday seeking a “de-escalation” of the tense standoff on Ukraine’s eastern borders. Continue reading...

Damage from the storm compounded the destruction wreaked by Cyclone Ana, which hit the island two weeks agoA cyclone has killed at least 10 people in southeastern Madagascar, the second to hit the Indian Ocean island in just two weeks, triggering floods, bringing down buildings and cutting power.One of the worst-hit towns was Nosy Varika on the east coast where almost 95% of buildings were destroyed “as if we had just been bombed” and floods cut access, an official said. Continue reading...

Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi said the move was ‘an opportunity to reimagine a more meaningful and fulfilling partnership’The Māori party of New Zealand has called for a “divorce” from the crown and removal of the British royal family as New Zealand’s head of state.The call came on the 182nd anniversary of the signing of the treaty of Waitangi, or Te Tiriti o Waitangi, New Zealand’s foundational legal document. Continue reading...

Accord signed by Alberto Fernández and Xi Jinping at Winter Olympics also supports Chinese claim to TaiwanLiz Truss has defended the Falklands as “part of the British family” after China backed Argentina’s claim over the South American islands.The foreign secretary tweeted that “China must respect the Falklands’ sovereignty” after the Argentinian president, Alberto Fernández, met China’s President Xi on the fringes of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Continue reading...