World news | The Guardian

Diplomatic talks calm tensions for now but Europe is left looking feeble and irrelevantTalks about the Ukraine crisis between senior US and Russian diplomats, held in Geneva at the end of last week, appear to have calmed tensions, at least for now. The situation on Ukraine’s land and sea borders, where Moscow has amassed troops and powerful military assets, remains grave. But alarmist predictions of imminent, large-scale conflict have proved wide of the mark.The dogged insistence of Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, on pursuing diplomatic means to address Russia’s security concerns clearly made an impression on his notoriously intransigent opposite number, Sergei Lavrov. Russia’s foreign minister said the talks had been “constructive and useful” and agreed to continue them this week. Continue reading...

Students and teachers in NSW will be required to take rapid Covid tests twice a week when school resumes; Victoria mandates third vaccine dose for teachers and staff, masks for year three and above; NSW records 34 Covid deaths, Victoria 14 and Queensland 10; ACT reports 694 cases and no deaths, SA 2,062 cases, WA 24 as health minister signals move to ‘suppression’ strategy. This blog is now closed

CDC director stresses need for full vaccination as data shows vulnerabilty of those without and ER backlogs stretch for hoursThe surge in cases of the Omicron variant has not only swamped US hospitals with record numbers of patients with Covid-19, it has also caused frightening moments and major challenges for people seeking treatment for other problems.Less-urgent procedures have been put on hold. Emergency room waits are stretching hours longer than usual. Continue reading...

Matt Johnson conducted an undercover exposé of cruel practices used to mass exterminate pigs at Iowa Select Farms facilities

Be interested, not in your lover, but in your longing and how it came into being, says Philippa Perry. And develop appreciation for what you haveThe question I had a very intense two-year affair with someone who, like me, had long been married. Eighteen months in, I left my wife, feeling sure my affair partner was the love of my life, and in the hope it might lead to us being together. This led to the loss of my home and much of my social network, and the need to change jobs.My affair partner decided to stay in her marriage, citing the wellbeing of her children. She wanted to keep the relationship with me going indefinitely in secret. This rapidly became unbearable to me and I have now cut off all contact, which was not her wish. She was evasive about whether she intended, or even wanted, to leave her marriage and be with me openly. Her final message to me expressed that this was now her intention, but that she could give no sense of a timescale. Continue reading...

In his new book, Quinones investigates how the explosion of synthetic drugs spurred an ‘epidemic of addiction’For the last nine years, Sam Quinones has been studying the changing face of drug use, sales, and addiction in the United States.In his new book The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth, he tracks the explosion of synthetic drugs that has hit the streets of America, increasing the danger of drug use and making addictive chemical substances far cheaper and more plentiful than ever before. Continue reading...

A must-have for today’s musicians, actors and models, the hot trend for opera gloves harks back to Hollywood’s golden eraThe gen-Z demographic who use TikTok may be too young to remember a time before smartphones, but one of the most popular fashion trends on the app harks back to a bygone era. Opera gloves – as worn by screen stars such as Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn and Rita Hayworth – are taking off. Videos with the hashtag have had 275,000 views on TikTok. According to a study carried out by Clothes2Order, that represents a Google search increase of 84% in the second half of 2021.The surging interest in a clothing item that would once have been worn to an elite cultural event, the opera, has been repurposed over the years and is now being sported by popular musicians and actors. Adele, Olivia Rodrigo and Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion have worn them in videos, while Julia Fox and Euphoria’s Sydney Sweeney have worn them to events. The red carpet at the Fashion Awards in December saw attenders get behind the trend – Demi Moore, Alexa Chung and Kristen McMenamy wore opera gloves. Beyoncé, meanwhile, has made them something of a signature. At the Grammys last year, she sported leather opera gloves with matching dress. Continue reading...

Sedef Kabaş faces imprisonment for saying a proverb, with colleagues condemning arrest as attempt to intimidate mediaA prominent Turkish TV journalist has been detained and could face imprisonment after being charged with insulting the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.Police detained Sedef Kabaş at her home at 2am on Saturday and took her to a police station, before she faced court and was jailed pending a trial. Continue reading...

Jean-Jacques Savin, a former paratrooper, wanted ‘to laugh at old age’ but got into difficulties off the AzoresA 75-year-old Frenchman attempting to row across the Atlantic “to laugh at old age” has been found dead in his cabin at sea, his support team said.Portuguese coast guards found Jean-Jacques Savin’s overturned boat off the archipelago of the Azores on Friday. Continue reading...

West Australian capital also setting records for most days above 40C in a summer with the tally now at 10 days

Thompson gives an emotionally generous performance as a former teacher seeking sexual gratification in an amusing and compassionate two-handerEmma Thompson gives us a very personal, emotionally generous and intimate performance in this entertaining theatrical two-hander from screenwriter Katy Brand and director Sophie Hyde. Despite some moments of sentimentality and naivety, it is really watchable and conceived with a flair for commanding the audience’s attention. It’s not exactly right to call it a crowd-pleaser, but Brand – who has her own record in comedy writing and performance – has a comic’s sense of how and where to elicit an audience response.Thompson plays Nancy, a middle-aged widow and former RE teacher who after a lifetime of unsatisfying conjugal relations with just the one man (her late husband) has decided to pay for discreet afternoon sex in an upmarket Norwich hotel room.

Beijing government says officials in Henan province were found to have deliberately underreported the disasterOfficials in a Chinese province deliberately underreported or concealed 139 deaths from last year’s devastating flood disaster, the country’s central government has said, amid arrests of some of those involved.Record-breaking rainstorms hit Henan province in central China between 17 and 23 July, overflowing reservoirs, breaching riverbanks, and overwhelming public transport systems and roads in major cities. In the city of Zhengzhou, more than 600mm of rain, equivalent almost to an average year, fell in just three days, flooding metro stations and a cross-city tunnel. Continue reading...

Mark Spencer says accusations are ‘completely false’ after Nusrat Ghani says she was told her faith made colleagues ‘uncomfortable’Mark Spencer, the chief whip, has said a Conservative MP was referring to him when she accused a member of government of telling her she had been sacked from her ministerial post because her Muslim faith was “making colleagues uncomfortable”.Boris Johnson faces calls for an inquiry into Nusrat Ghani’s claim in an interview with the Sunday Times that, when she lost her job as a transport minister, she was told that “Muslimness” had been raised as an problem at a meeting in Downing Street. Continue reading...

A Senegalese immigrant nanny battles micro-aggressions and otherworldly forces in a novel yet loosely assembled debutIt’s remarkable how infrequently modern-day domestic workers are portrayed as fully formed characters in TV and film, given their ubiquity and necessity in the lives of so many. Perhaps part of that is because “the help” isn’t meant to be noticed (the flamboyant Fran Fine notwithstanding) or that the lives of low-wage people of color, many of whom are immigrants, haven’t traditionally piqued the interest of privileged Hollywood. When domestic workers do see screen time, it’s often through the gaze of the privileged.Enter film-maker ​​Nikyatu Jusu, whose mother, an immigrant from Sierra Leone, had been a domestic worker. Raised in Atlanta, the young Jusu watched her parent “put her dreams to the side to be a peripheral mother in other mother’s narratives”.Nanny is showing at the Sundance film festival with a release date to be announced Continue reading...

Singer extends apologies and tears by FaceTime and social media after Covid delays to her residency datesAdele has personally apologised to fans after cancelling a series of highly anticipated shows in Las Vegas because of Covid production issues.The singer addressed disappointed concert-goers, some of who had travelled in from around the world, via FaceTime after her residency was postponed at the last minute. Continue reading...

Strong social networks have been shown to improve wellbeing, but what are the extra perks of having a really close friend? And why are women more likely to have one?“We met when we were five. I don’t know how I would have managed without her.” As children, Barbara Kastelein, from Ashford in Kent, and her best friend, nicknamed “Tulip”, both had alcoholic fathers. Their friendship was an escape from unhappy homes.The best friends are now both 55 and their relationship is as solid as ever. Barbara says they are more like sisters – and still there for each other during tough times. When Barbara’s father died, Tulip drove for hours to be at the funeral and to help Barbara empty her father’s flat. “I can’t imagine life without her,” says Barbara. “She is my guardian angel.” Continue reading...

Film star and California governor pictured at scene of accident in which police confirm one woman taken to hospitalArnold Schwarzenegger has been involved in a multi-vehicle crash that resulted in a woman being taken to hospital.The film star and former bodybuilder and governor of California was pictured at the scene, in photos shared by the TMZ website, in Los Angeles on Friday afternoon. Continue reading...

The athlete, 38, talks about winning the Olympics in London, jogging down the Thames, his strict training regime and how often he shaves his headI don’t have many memories of growing up in Somalia – I was so young. I remember coming to the UK, age eight, going to school – even though I couldn’t speak any English – and suddenly having all these friends to play with.I owe a lot to my PE teacher, Mr Watkinson. He saw me running around the playground, he watched me run in a figure of eight around the gym. Then he thought: “That kid is good at running.” He encouraged me to join a local running club. We’re still in touch. Continue reading...

A skier in northern Finland was treated to a stunning display as the vivid aurora borealis and a bright moon shone in the sky early on Saturday 15 January. Jari Romppainen filmed the footage in Ranua, a municipality in the Finnish province of Lapland. According to Finland's national tourist site, the northern lights are visible for about 200 nights a year from Lapland

The supreme court decision in Roe v Wade was made 49 years ago, making abortion a protected right. Now, with that right under threat, people recall life before the landmark rulingThis article is published in partnership with The 19th, an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting at the intersection of gender, politics and policy. Read the full version hereSaturday marks the 49th anniversary of the supreme court’s Roe v Wade decision, the landmark ruling that guaranteed the right to an abortion in the US. It could be the last anniversary before it is overturned. Continue reading...

Coronavirus pandemic’s finishing line has not yet come clearly into focus for millions of people

From tomato-scented candles to perfumes reeking of intimate body parts, the world of smell is getting weirder. But are we ready to take our olfactory desires to the next level?One night last week, I sat in my kitchen with my eyes closed, inhaling the rich, earthy scent of tomatoes. I felt transported: I was in an Italian garden, sun-dappled leaves swaying as I picked the plump, ripe fruit for a late pasta dinner with my large and beautiful family. I was, in essence, one of the puppets from the Dolmio adverts. But the smell wasn’t coming from a tomato. It was coming from a candle.How did they make it smell so real? I called my boyfriend over to share in this miracle. He put his face right over the flame, said that it smelled like burnt nose hair and quickly lost interest. But I remained tickled by this magic trick. A candle, that smells like tomatoes! Continue reading...

These 15 small venues – all run or founded by immigrants to Britain – are part of the fabric of the nation’s high streets. But after two hellish years, can they survive?Plus 15 great recipes – from Scandinavia to Tibet, via the Caribbean and Cambodia• Yotam Ottolenghi on his favourite ingredient Continue reading...

Owners want to bring venue up to date while maintaining heritage of cinema that first opened in 1909In the 112 years since it began, the Electric cinema in Birmingham has lived through the history of film-making. When it first opened its doors in 1909 it showed silent movies with a piano backing, rolling newsreels and cartoons in the 30s, adult films in the 60s, and blockbusters in the 80s.But the Covid pandemic nearly marked the end of what is believed to be the UK’s oldest working cinema when its owners decided to sell up after more than a year of continuous closure. Continue reading...

Outbreak at factory challenges zero Covid strategy that has kept the island largely free of the diseaseTaiwan has reported a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases with a cluster among workers at a factory threatening authorities’ tenuous control of an Omicron outbreak on the eve of Lunar New Year.On Saturday, Taiwan’s centre for disease control reported 82 domestic cases, including 63 found at the Taoyuan factory in a first round of testing on Friday. Most of those sick are migrant workers, health and welfare minister Chen Shih-chung said. Continue reading...

Former Olympic cycling champion vows to take back streets from motor traffic as head of Active Travel EnglandFormer Olympic champion Chris Boardman has promised to take England’s streets back from motor traffic after being given a powerful new official role which will see councils rated, Ofsted-style, for how well they make space for cycling and walking.Boardman, who won gold in the velodrome at the 1992 Games and raced in the Tour de France, has been named as the first head of Active Travel England (ATE), which will hand out funding for cycling and walking schemes and oversee designs. Continue reading...

An increase in domestic dogs and cats is not just good news for their new owners – it’s also a boost for the US economyHer name was Peanut. I was drawn to her because she looked like the Jack Russell terrier from the TV show Frasier (the only likable member of the cast) and maybe also because of some bottomless loneliness. The pandemic seemed to nudge so many people into getting pets so maybe I should also become a mother to this oversized rat?A lot of people in the US got a dog in the pandemic. Almost 9 million dogs have been acquired by households since the start of the pandemic (a number equivalent to the population of New York City) bringing the total number of dogs in the US to 108 million (that’s roughly one dog to every three humans in the US). And cats crept up too – an additional 5 million in the space of just a few years bringing the total US feline count to 79 million. Continue reading...

Australia to scrap PCR test requirement for international arrivals; Triple J counts down Hottest 100. This blog is now closed

In Chonhar a blue and yellow flag marks the de facto border as Russian forces amass across a shimmering expanse of waterPeering through binoculars, Mykola Chekman pointed to the bridge connecting Ukraine to Russian-controlled Crimea. “It’s not the first time the peninsula has been occupied,” he observed. He added: “Crimea has seen a lot of war.”Chekman – a Ukrainian army photographer – was standing on the castellated tower of what was once a tourist cafe. It is now a base for Ukrainian forces, facing off against their invisible Russian counterparts across a shimmering expanse of water and duck-filled lagoons. Continue reading...

Hospitals overwhelmed in Sa’ada after attack levels buildings in Houthi northern heartlandAn airstrike on a prison in northern Yemen killed at least 60 people and wounded 200 more, while a separate attack shut down the country’s internet, as Saudi-led reprisals to a Houthi drone attack on the United Arab Emirates intensified.The violence marked an especially deadly day in the seven-year war, leaving bystanders searching through rubble with their bare hands to rescue those trapped in two locations: a prison in the city of Sa’ada and a telecommunications centre in the port city of Hodeidah, where three children playing football nearby were reported to have been killed. Continue reading...

Travel restrictions have stranded almost 150,000 students, workers and others hoping to join relatives

Shane McInerney allegedly refused to wear a mask, threw a can at another passenger and mooned at a flight attendantAn Irishman who refused to wear a Covid mask during a flight from Dublin to New York and exposed his rear end to a flight attendant faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of assault, the US justice department said on Friday.Shane McInerney, 29, from Galway, was alleged to have caused the disturbance on a Delta Airlines flight on 7 January. Continue reading...

Gunman shoots three Canadians in Playa del Carmen, with foreigners again caught up in drug cartel violenceThree Canadian visitors have been shot by a lone gunman in their hotel in the Mexican resort town of Playa del Carmen – in an attack security officials are calling targeted and alleging involved individuals with criminal records.One of the tourists died of their injuries while being transported to hospital following the incident on Friday, according to the Quintana Roo state public security secretary, Lucio Hernández Gutiérrez, who confirmed the nationality of the victims. Continue reading...

The blast, which flattened hundreds of buildings, followed a collision between a truck carrying mining explosives and a motorcycleAt least 13 people have been killed after a truck carrying mining explosives collided with a motorcycle in western Ghana, sparking an explosion that has left hundreds of buildings destroyed.The accident happened around noon in Apiate, near the mining city of Bogoso, 300km (180 miles) west of the West African country’s capital, Accra. Continue reading...

Joshua Hendry, 30, was named as one of Britain’s 12 most wanted fugitives on WednesdayOne of Britain’s most wanted fugitives has been arrested by Spanish police just 24 hours after an appeal to track him down was launched.Joshua Hendry, 30, was arrested in the town of San Pedro de Alcántara in Marbella, southern Spain, on Thursday after police spotted him out walking a dog. Continue reading...

Ireland’s premier Micheál Martin says ‘we have weathered the Omicron storm’; France reports 400,851 daily cases and 233 Covid-linked hospital deaths

NLD politician and hip hop artist Phyo Zayar Thaw handed sentence alongside democracy activist Kyaw Min YuA military tribunal in Myanmar has sentenced a member of Aung San Suu Kyi’s ousted party to death for terror offences, as the junta ramped up a crackdown on the toppled leader’s party.The south-east Asian country has been in chaos since the February coup, with more than 1,400 killed in a subsequent crackdown on dissent, according to a local monitoring group. Continue reading...

Tesla billionaire says he could send Starlink terminals via SpaceX to Pacific island nation where communication is downElon Musk has offered to send Starlink internet terminals to Tonga, after the recent volcanic eruption and tsunami left the Pacific island nation without communication links to the rest of the world.Replying on Twitter to a Reuters story that Tonga could be without internet connection for a month, the billionaire entrepreneur wrote: “Could people from Tonga let us know if it is important for SpaceX to send over Starlink terminals?” Continue reading...

Unions warn against a rush back to workplaces as government departments told to return to ‘full occupancy’

The man who lifted the lid on racism at Yorkshire has faced death threats but has no intention of letting up in his quest for equality“I am exhausted,” Azeem Rafiq says quietly as, just before eight in the morning, he takes a deep breath and straightens his black tie. The 30-year-old former cricketer, who exposed the institutional racism at the heart of a sport he once loved, is dressed in a sombre black suit. His mood is as composed and candid as it was when he gave his harrowing testimony in parliament to the DCMS select committee two months ago. “It’s a burden I’ve been carrying a very long time,” Rafiq says. “So to get all that off my chest to the select committee was a massive relief. I slept well that night. But since then it’s been a whirlwind.”Rafiq feels under threat, unsettled by warnings that he and his family are in danger. There are also sustained attempts to undermine him and Rafiq is convinced some powerful forces are intent on muzzling him. Continue reading...

‘Humans are social and we Irish more than most,’ Micheál Martin tells country after ending 20 months of social restrictions

Labour and Lib Dems call for full transparency as it emerges Sue Gray’s report may just summarise findings

Exclusive: Controversial MP with large Facebook following has registered business name which appears to be a media brand

West Australians are torn between wanting to see loved ones and wanting to stay safe behind the barricade. Most of us in the eastern states feel that conflict too

Nicholas Rossi is wanted by Interpol and faces extradition to the US over an allegation of sexual assaultA man who appeared in a Scottish court using a wheelchair and attached to an oxygen cylinder has denied being an international fugitive with 16 aliases.The man, who was traced to an intensive care unit in Glasgow while being treated for Covid 19 last December, denied being 34-year-old Nicholas Rossi, who is wanted by Interpol and faces extradition to the US over an allegation of sexual assault in Utah. Continue reading...

Move comes amid ‘frank and substantive’ talks in Geneva and announcement by Russia of new military exercisesThe US has offered to hold a summit between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin as a last-ditch effort to stop the slide to a new war in Europe, as Russia continued to build up its forces along the Ukraine border and announced new naval exercises in the Black Sea.The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said Washington and its allies were also ready to respond in writing next week to Russian demands on the future of Nato and European security, which Moscow has said must be addressed to avoid it taking “military measures”. But, speaking in Geneva where he held talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, Blinken repeated the US and Nato position there could still be no compromise on the central issue of the right of Ukraine and other countries to join Nato in the future. Continue reading...

Sam Duckor-Jones has transformed an unused church into what he hopes will be a place for rural queerness to thriveOn the wild and remote west coast of New Zealand’s South Island, an old dame is getting a hot-pink makeover, with all the synthetic flowers, coloured beads and glitter she can take. Her name is Gloria, and she is an 83-year-old church, on her way to becoming a public sculpture and “queer beacon” for the local community.“I didn’t grow up in the church, I grew up in a Jewish household, but mostly I grew up making things, and in recent years I’ve become more and more excited about queer celebration,” says poet and artist Sam Duckor-Jones. Continue reading...

Seven days after a massive volcanic eruption that spawned a tsunami and ash cloud, communications are still largely down and the scale of the catastrophe unknownIt was the week Tonga disappeared.Riveted by the shocking satellite images of the eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano and subsequent tsunami, the eyes of the world turned to the South Pacific island country, home to about 100,000 people, on Saturday. But just as the world was desperate for news from Tonga, it went dark. Continue reading...

Gabriel Boric, 35, picks youthful team including at defence the granddaughter of Salvador Allende, who was deposed in a coupChile’s millennial president-elect, Gabriel Boric, has named a progressive cabinet, with a ministerial team which for the first time anywhere in the Americas is dominated by women.Boric, a 35-year-old former student leader, will replace the billionaire rightwing president Sebastián Piñera on 11 March as he becomes the youngest president in Chile’s history. Continue reading...

Matthew Willson from Surrey was shot in ‘reckless’ shooting as he was visiting his girlfriendAn astrophysicist from Surrey has died after being hit by a stray bullet while lying in bed during a trip to Atlanta.Dr Matthew Willson, 31, from Chertsey, was shot in the early hours of Friday when a weapon was discharged by a group of individuals on a neighbouring block of flats in the suburb of Brookhaven. No suspects have been arrested. Continue reading...