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Anthony Albanese says it should ‘never have come to this’ as Jacqui Lambie implores immigration minister to ‘stop this debacle’

South Korean military says projectile was fired into the sea, and comes after US imposed further sanctions on regime officialsNorth Korea has fired a possible ballistic missile, Japan’s Coast Guard said on Friday, which would be the country’s third such launch in two weeks.South Korea’s military said an unidentified projectile had been launched into the sea off its east coast. Continue reading...

Care International report highlights ‘deep injustice’ neglected by world’s media, as extreme weather along with Covid wipes out decades of progressFrom Afghanistan to Ethiopia, about 235 million people worldwide needed assistance in 2021. But while some crises received global attention, others are lesser known.Humanitarian organisation Care International has published its annual report of the 10 countries that had the least attention in online articles in five languages around the world in 2021, despite each having at least 1 million people affected by conflict or climate disasters. Continue reading...

The folk-rockers have weathered divorce and trauma to become one of the US’s best bands. Loved up with one another on tour, they explain their need for imperfection – and why recording is like sexIt is early afternoon in downtown Nashville, and the party is already going strong. Bachelorettes in pink cowboy hats are flowing, mask-free, in and out of the honky-tonks. The members of Big Thief, though – Adrianne Lenker, Buck Meek, Max Oleartchik and James Krivchenia – are sitting outside the Ryman Auditorium like dots of oil floating atop the water. No one seems to notice that one of the US’s best bands is scattered around a patio table a few hours before their show tonight, just yards above the 24/7 bacchanal.“There’s a pigeon-keeper up there,” says the band’s frontperson Lenker, leaning forward in her chair in a horse-print shirt, jeans and a bandanna, her gaze fixed on a small skyscraper. She points, and the rest of the band follows her finger to a group of birds on top of a building, furiously in motion. “They’re flying in circles, so there has to be a cage up there. They only do that when there is someone conducting them.” Continue reading...

Long-delayed report into killings of 19 people says the police displayed ‘collusive behaviours’An official investigation into police handling of loyalist paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland that resulted in 19 murders has identified “collusive behaviours” and “significant concerns” about officers’ conduct.The long-delayed report by the Northern Ireland police ombudsman into the killings included an investigation into the circumstances around the 1993 Greysteel pub massacre, which left eight people dead and 19 injured. Continue reading...

Rights groups say the ban penalises those who cannot travel in a private vehicle or work from home

Analysis: sentencing of former colonel to life by German court may not be last chink in Assad’s armour

The regime has launched at least seven cyber-attacks on cryptocurrency platforms, say blockchain expertsNorth Korea has launched at least seven attacks on cryptocurrency platforms that extracted nearly $400m worth of digital assets last year, one of its most successful years on record, according to a new analysis.“From 2020 to 2021, the number of North Korean-linked hacks jumped from four to seven, and the value extracted from these hacks grew by 40%,” said the report by blockchain experts Chainalysis, which was released on Thursday. Continue reading...

Analysis: Wang Xiaolong’s prior role suggests Beijing keen to widen economic ties with New Zealand as diplomatic relationship becomes rockierA new Chinese ambassador who has previously worked on the country’s controversial belt and road initiative (BRI) has arrived in New Zealand, prompting speculation Beijing is planning to focus on deepening economic ties with New Zealand as the two countries navigate growing diplomatic challenges.Wang Xiaolong, who replaced former ambassador Wu Xi, previously served as director-general of the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s department of international economic affairs. In that role, Wang helped oversee the BRI – which seeks to deepen economic ties between China and other countries and is a key focus of President Xi Jinping. Continue reading...

Up to 170,000 people are thought to have left homes in Myanmar’s Kayah state due to intensified fightingNan and her family had just one hour to gather their belongings and prepare to flee their home. A charity had offered to drive them away from Loikaw, the capital of eastern Myanmar’s Kayah state, to relative safety. She considered staying behind, with the plants, dogs and pigs that she had raised, but knew she had to leave.Since last week, Loikaw has seen intense fighting between groups opposed to last year’s military coup and the armed forces, which have launched airstrikes and fired artillery. An artillery shell had dropped near Nan’s fence, terrifying her cousin’s children, who ran to hide under their bed. “It was so loud,” she said. “My grandma was shocked and sweating, we had to give her medication to calm her down.” Other homes in Nan’s neighbourhood have been hit. Continue reading...

EU states set to vote on proposal after commission found deficiencies including ‘the granting of citizenship to applicants listed in Interpol’s databases’The European Commission has proposed suspending a visa-free travel arrangement with Vanuatu due to concerns about the Pacific nation’s controversial “golden passports” scheme.The proposed suspension, which still needs to be voted on by EU states, would prevent all holders of passports issued as of 25 May 2015 – when Vanuatu started issuing a substantial number of passports in exchange for investment – from travelling to the EU without a visa. Continue reading...

The Queen’s second son is given blanket front-page coverage as he faces prospect of legal proceedings over sexual assault allegationThe Queen’s humiliating removal of Prince Andrew from military and royal roles over his sexual assault case dominates the front pages today.Using a photograph of a grim-looking Duke of York being driven to Windsor Castle to face his defenestration, the Telegraph headline says “Queen freezes out Andrew”. Continue reading...

UK cases and deaths down on the previous day; variant now accounts for 73.3% of cases in Germany compared with 44.3% seven days ago

Warning circulated to MPs and peers about Christine Lee, accused of targeting parliamentariansAn unprecedented security warning from MI5 was circulated to MPs and peers on Thursday that accused a lawyer, Christine Lee, of seeking to improperly influence parliamentarians on behalf of China’s ruling Communist party.It is the first time that MI5 has issued an “interference alert” relating to China and concerns a high-profile Anglo-Chinese lawyer who received an award from Theresa May and who has donated £584,177 to the office of Labour MP and former shadow cabinet member Barry Gardiner. Continue reading...

About 30 people said to have been at social events night before the Queen mourned her husband aloneStaff inside Downing Street held two staff leaving events featuring alcohol, and one with loud music, on the evening before Prince Philip’s funeral in April last year, when such social contact remained banned, according to new allegations reported on Thursday.Eyewitnesses told the Daily Telegraph that a combined total of about 30 people took part in what appeared to be social events in different parts of Downing Street, before both gatherings combined in the garden. Continue reading...

The man’s eight-year-old son, also in the Earlsdon house, appears to be physically unharmed, police sayA siege involving a man who barricaded himself and his young son in a house has ended after five days.The standoff in the Earlsdon area of Coventry began after a concern for welfare check by West Midlands police officers at the address at 12.20am on Sunday. Continue reading...

Scott White yelled in court during a pre-trial hearing on Monday that he was guilty, having previously denied the crimeAn Australian man has pleaded guilty to murdering a US mathematician who fell from a Sydney cliff in 1988 in a homophobic hate crime that was dismissed by police at the time as suicide.Scott White was charged in 2020 with murdering 27-year-old Los Angeles-born Scott Johnson, whose naked body was found at the base of North Head cliff on 8 December 1988. Continue reading...

Duke of York’s loss of royal patronages and military titles reveals inner workings of familyWhen the announcement of Prince Andrew’s sudden royal demotion came at a few minutes past 5pm on Thursday, the level of its brutality didn’t take long to sink in for people who know how the royal family works.“I don’t know what the richter scale goes up to but this is a big earthquake,” one source told the Guardian. “This feels to me like a straightforward ejection or excommunication. This is the most serious step they could have taken.” Continue reading...

Saskatchewan premier Scott Moe said he tested positive even as region resumes events, hockey games and in-person learningA day after dismissing the need for more restrictive measures to combat the coronavirus, the premier in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan has tested positive for Covid-19.“I’m feeling fine, but will be self-isolating and working from home for the next five days,” wrote Scott Moe on Twitter, alongside an image of a positive antigen test. Continue reading...

Duke will no longer use HRH title in any official capacity, and will fight US sexual assault lawsuit as private citizenThe Queen has sought to distance the monarchy from the Duke of York by stripping him of his military affiliations and royal patronages as the fallout from his sexual assault case continues.In a devastating blow to Prince Andrew, who was born His Royal Highness, Buckingham Palace also said he would no longer use the HRH royal style in any official capacity. Continue reading...

Investigation by Sue Gray expected to unearth more lockdown drinks events in government buildings

Friday: PM’s response to Omicron staffing crisis widely criticised. Plus: Duke loses military affiliations and royal patronagesGood morning. Spiking Covid cases are disrupting goods needed for PCR testing. Nearly a quarter of the world’s population experienced a record hot year. And Novak Djokovic has been included in the Australian Open draw with a decision on his visa still pending.The impact of Covid-19 on supply chains has begun to disrupt goods needed for PCR testing, forcing the closure of clinics in one jurisdiction. The highly contagious Omicron variant has caused widespread staff shortages and a “crisis” in transport and other supply chain businesses, leading to shortages at supermarkets, retailers and other key industries. The supply chain issues are so severe that the Australian Capital Territory on Wednesday announced it was closing three testing clinics – a significant chunk of its testing capacity – until Monday. The federal health department bought $62m worth of rapid antigen tests earlier this week to cope. But small businesses and unions have condemned as inadequate Morrison’s response to a burgeoning staffing crisis caused by the Omicron wave. Meanwhile, business and unions say national cabinet’s response to the Omicron staffing crisis falls short. Continue reading...

Force says it does not look into flouting of Covid restrictions ‘long after they have taken place’

Critics say bill, now moving to senate, could curb access to teaching on LGBT and reproductive rightsPoland’s lower house of parliament has passed a bill by the ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party that would step up government control of schools, which critics say could curb access to teaching on LGBT and reproductive rights.The bill passed on Thursday with 227 votes in favour and 214 against, and will now move to the senate. Continue reading...

King Willem-Alexander will mothball the controversial carriage that glorifies the Netherlands’ colonial pastThe Dutch king, Willem-Alexander, has announced that he is mothballing – at least for now – the royal golden coach which has been embroiled in a racism controversy.The opulent horse-drawn carriage, called De Gouden Koets, has traditionally transported the Dutch monarch to the opening of parliament and other state occasions, but has not been used since 2015. Continue reading...

Prosecutor says explanations rule out man’s participation in French Alps killings in 2012French authorities have released a man who had been arrested over the unsolved murder of three members of a British-Iraqi family and a French cyclist in the French Alps in 2012, saying he has been ruled out as a suspect.Police detained the man on Wednesday for questioning as part of a new investigation into the killings. Continue reading...

US says ‘drumbeat of war is sounding loud’ as talks with Russia over Ukraine head towards dead endRussia has refused to rule out a military deployment to Cuba and Venezuela if talks with the west on European security and Ukraine fail to go its way, while warning the latest discussions with Nato were hitting a dead end.In an apparent attempt to up the ante with the Biden administration, Sergei Ryabkov, who led Russia’s delegation in a meeting with the US on Monday, told Russian television he could neither confirm nor exclude sending military assets to Cuba and Venezuela if talks fail. Asked about these steps, he said “it all depends on the actions by our US counterparts”. Continue reading...

Helen Naslund was originally sentenced to 18 years, one of the longest in a case of an abused woman killing her partnerA Canadian court has halved the sentence of a woman who killed her husband, revisiting a controversial case that revealed the legal system’s “outdated thinking” of the realities of domestic abuse.In a 2-1 ruling released on Wednesday, Alberta’s court of appeal determined that Helen Naslund’s 18-year sentence should be reduced to nine years.In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women’s Aid. In Australia, the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org Continue reading...

2021 was an important year in the fight for gender equality, and the national women’s safety summit in September was a platform for experts and advocates to discuss key issues surrounding gender equality and violence against women and children. But Scott Morrison’s keynote address – and his failure to enact meaningful reform on key issues – left some underwhelmed and others furious.

Stocks run perilously low, with main supply route into region of northern Ethiopia unusable since DecemberHumanitarian organisations in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia are running perilously low on food and fuel stocks as an intensified wave of airstrikes further hampers a threadbare aid effort already stymied by lack of access.In what it calls a de facto blockade, the UN says fighting between Tigrayan rebels and forces loyal to the Ethiopian government has rendered the main supply route into the war-torn region unusable since mid-December. Continue reading...

Those shortlisted for job managing Tighard guesthouse warned that living on Canna can be testingIt is one of the most inaccessible guesthouses in Britain, on a tiny Hebridean island that is home to 15 people and a two-hour sail from the mainland. Undaunted, more than 100 people have inquired about running the place.Interest about taking over Tighard guesthouse on Canna, an island south-west of Skye just 4.5 miles long and one mile wide, came from across the world. The island’s owners, the National Trust for Scotland (NTS), are now whittling those down to a shortlist of 10 applicants. Continue reading...

Anwar Raslan’s conviction in Germany sends signal that Assad regime systematically uses torture, say detention system survivorsFor survivors of Syria’s brutal detention system, the landmark conviction of a former Syrian intelligence official for crimes against humanity represents a vital step towards justice.“We initially hoped for a trial at the international criminal court, but nevertheless this is an important step,” said Hussein Ghrer, one of 24 former detainees of Branch 251, a military intelligence unit with its own prison in Damascus, who testified against Anwar Raslan. Continue reading...

Man denied any wrongdoing after pair caught together in conservative Aceh provinceAn Indonesian woman has been flogged 100 times in Aceh province for adultery while the male involved, who denied the accusations, received just 15 lashes.Ivan Najjar Alavi, the head of the general investigation division at the East Aceh prosecutors’ office, said the court handed down a harsher sentence for the woman after she confessed to investigators she had sex outside of her marriage. Continue reading...

European media paints devastating picture of Boris Johnson as emperor with no clothesPartygate could mark the end of Boris Johnson, European media have concluded, painting a devastating picture of a “vain, fickle, hypocritical opportunist” with an “elastic relationship to the truth” who only ever “played at being prime minister”.Germany’s Suddeutsche Zeitung said in a brutal op-ed that it had “only ever been a matter of time” before the British prime minister was exposed to one and all as the emperor with no clothes. Continue reading...

Health secretary confirms reduction in self-isolation period, in decision that could help ease pressure on Boris Johnson

Wang Chen-wei and Chen Chun-ju sign papers after ruling allows Chen to register as parent alongside WangA married same-sex couple have become the first in Taiwan to legally adopt a child neither of them are related to, after they challenged local laws in court.Wang Chen-wei, Chen Chun-ju, and their daughter, nicknamed Joujou, were surrounded by press at the Taipei household registration office, as the couple formally signed adoption paperwork after a long battle. Clutching Joujou, her face hidden behind a hoodie, face mask and sunglasses, Wang and Chen told of their bittersweet victory. Continue reading...

Give us over-50s a menu we can read, grownup waiters and the chance to hold a conversation. It’s not too much to ask – and it makes business sense tooThere is only one thing worse than having to thumb your smartphone torch into life so that you can read a restaurant menu: the youthful twentysomething waiter noticing you do so, and bringing you one of those LED clip-on lamps. Short of wheeling the house Zimmer frame to the table for you to use while popping to the loo, there’s nothing better calculated to make you feel like an old git. It’s profoundly irritating, partly because it’s so unnecessary; it’s entirely possible to have moody lighting while also dropping enough on to a table so that those of us whose sight is not quite what it once was can read the damn small print without recourse to Wembley Stadium’s floods.But mostly it’s irritating because it’s a huge own goal. It makes any restaurant seem exclusive; as in it was designed to exclude those of us not in the very first flush of youth. All too often this is literally the case, albeit usually by happenstance. The restaurant business is generally a younger person’s game. Setting them up and running them requires the sort of long hours that those of us with a few years on the clock may no longer find appealing. And people in their 20s and 30s may well have no idea what older customers want or need, simply because they haven’t got there yet. If a restaurateur only wants punters their own age, then fine. Turn down the lights. Turn up the music. Print the menu in six point Comic Sans. Continue reading...

Answering readers’ questions, the hardman actor discusses his bust-up with Jean-Claude Van Damme, his degree in chemical engineering – and ham sandwichesIf someone said: here’s loads of money, but we get the right to CGI you into movies for ever after you die, would you accept? LarboIrelandI’ve been in about 80 movies already. I guess part of being an actor is there’s some immortality. That’s why people are interested in showbusiness, because you kind of live for ever. So maybe I would. It depends how bad the movies are. Continue reading...

Anwar Raslan found to have overseen murder of at least 27 people and torture of at least 4,000 at Damascus prisonA German court has sentenced a Syrian former intelligence officer in Bashar al-Assad’s security services to life in prison.Anwar Raslan, a former colonel loyal to the regime who later defected and gained asylum in Germany, was deemed by the judge at Koblenz higher regional court to have verifiably overseen the murder of at least 27 and torture of at least 4,000 prisoners at a detention facility in Damascus. Continue reading...

Government says Twitter has agreed to conditions on management of unlawful content and to register in NigeriaNigeria has lifted a ban on Twitter, restoring access to millions of users, seven months after it clamped down on the social media site when it deleted a post by the president.Twitter was restored on Nigerian networks after midnight for the first time since June, with the government saying the company had agreed to its conditions on the management of unlawful content, to register its operations in Nigeria and to a new tax arrangement. Continue reading...

Fifteen questions on general knowledge and topical trivia plus a few jokes every Thursday – how will you fare?More mysterious than the riddle of the Sphinx: the mystery of how this increasingly ridiculous quiz keeps getting published. Ahead of you are 15 topical and general knowledge question in a bizarre set of categories including “Blowing things up, but at sea”. You’ll also meet Kate Bush, Ron from Sparks, and have a hidden Doctor Who reference to spot. It is just for fun, there are no prizes. Let us know how you get on in the comments – but do try not to take it so seriously that you end up fact-checking the jokes.The Thursday quiz, No 38If you do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers, please feel free to email martin.belam@theguardian.com but remember, the quiz master’s word is always final, and he is seething about people relentlessly banging on about the completely made up January “Blue Monday”. Continue reading...

At just 17, the schoolgirl began a campaign to ensure every school offered free sanitary products. Now 22, she talks about tackling stigma, her new book and her fears about the UK’s new police billAmika George, 22, didn’t set out to be an activist. “None of my immediate family were involved in formal politics in any way,” she says. And yet, while still a teenager, she ran the successful Free Periods campaign that led to free sanitary products being placed in schools and now she has a book, Make It Happen, about how to get involved in politics from the grassroots.Featuring prominent voices from Arundhati Roy to the Egyptian writer and radical Wael Ghomin, its worldview is that there is an infinite possibility for change, situated in the hands of every one of us. In other words, it is a remix of Hannah Arendt with a sunnier chorus. So I am surprised when I speak to her, not just by her hinterland but by her manner. I was expecting a punchy, studs-first Marxist; instead I find a quietly spoken, very thoughtful committed Christian, who is constantly challenging, often playful but always with serious intent. Continue reading...

Footage of parishioners revelling at church’s annual youth camp sparks anger at religious groups’ exemption from Covid restrictions

The Trinidadian-British stage actor – and star of Death in Paradise and Rising Damp – pays tribute to a Black Hollywood pioneerWhen I was in my late 30s, someone came up to me in the street and started talking to me as if I were Sidney Poitier. To the extent that they called me “Sidney”. I said: “I’m sorry – my name is Don.” And they looked at me and said: “Oh Sidney, when did you change your name?” They simply would not accept I was somebody else.Even if you didn’t model yourself after Poitier, other people would. He was just the go-to reference. I’ve yet to meet a Black actor who hasn’t been compared to him – which is both irritating and enjoyable. And says more about the one making the comparison. Continue reading...

Mohamed al-Amin’s alleged victims, all teenage girls, said he abused them in an orphanage he owned and in his holiday homeAn Egyptian media tycoon with close ties to the government has been detained pending an investigation into allegations of sexual assault. The Egyptian public prosecution service says it is investigating reports that businessman Mohamed al-Amin sexually abused girls living in an orphanage that he owned and took them on trips to his holiday villa.Amin, best known for establishing the pro-government CBC network in 2011, was arrested on Friday to be held for four days. The court decided to extend Amin’s pre-trial detention for a further 15 days in a hearing on Sunday where he told the court: “I never did anything wrong. I treated those girls like my own children.” Continue reading...

At a summer camp for kids from conflict zones, I met my brave, funny friend Aseel. He was Palestinian. I was Israeli. When he was killed by police, my hope for our future died with himOn 11 May 2021, I was sitting with a small group in a cafe in southern Tel Aviv, studying Arabic. Our teacher, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, had been telling us that he and his pregnant Jewish wife kept getting turned down by landlords who would not rent their property to a “mixed” couple. We were almost at the end of the three-hour class when air raid sirens sounded. A few days earlier, missiles had been launched from Gaza into Israel, but this was the first time they had hit Tel Aviv. Beyond the fear of an airstrike, I had a sad, heavy feeling. I had recently returned to live in Israel after 15 years studying and working abroad. I remembered a time, in the mid-1990s, when I had believed that Israel was going to be different, more just and less violent. That belief now felt like a distant memory.My faith in Israel’s future had been inspired by an experience I shared as a teenager with a group of extraordinary people. As we waited for the rocket fire to stop, I recalled one of those people in vivid detail, a person I have barely been able to talk about in my home country for more than 20 years. His name was Aseel Aslih. Continue reading...

There are 7,000 Buy Nothing groups with more than 5 million members worldwide. But their appeal goes beyond the chance to swap everything from nettles to power toolsWho on earth wants fish tank wastewater, chicken poo, tumble-dryer lint, loo roll tubes, “a plaster mould of a Komodo dragon’s foot” or half a broken toilet? No one, you might think, but the Buy Nothing community begs to differ: these are all real “gifts” snapped up by more than 5 million members worldwide, who give away their unwanted items in the local community. It’s living proof that “one person’s trash is another’s treasure”, as Alisa Miller, the administrator of the Blackheath/Charlton/Lewisham group puts it.Miller offered her daughter’s broken toy birdcage with little hope anyone would want it; it was snapped up by a local flower-arranging enthusiast, and filled with succulents and trailing plants. Her co-administrator’s son is the current custodian of a toy helicopter that has been played with by five Buy Nothing families to date. Members ask for what they want and usually get it: anything from household appliances, furniture and gardening tools to clothes and baby gear. Continue reading...

After independence in 1960, the country cast off western influences and forged a new African style full of triangular forms, rocket-shaped obelisks and rammed earth. Is this spirit now being suffocated? Our writer takes a tour of the capitalVisiting the International Fair of Dakar is like taking a stroll through the ruins of some ancient Toblerone-worshipping civilisation. A cluster of triangular pavilions rises from a podium, each clad in a rich pattern of seashells and pebbles. These are reached by triangular steps that lead past triangular plant pots to momentous triangular entranceways. All around, great hangar-like sheds extend into the distance, ventilated by triangular windows and topped with serrated triangular roofs. All that’s missing is triangular honey from triangular bees.Built on the outskirts of the Senegalese capital as a showcase for global trade in 1974, this astonishing city-sized hymn to the three-sided shape was designed by young French architects Jean Francois Lamoureux, Jean-Louis Marin and Fernand Bonamy. Their obsessive geometrical composition was an attempt to answer the call of Senegal’s first president, the poet Léopold Sédar Senghor, for a national style that he curiously termed “asymmetrical parallelism”. Continue reading...

Rejection of men’s claims was against UK guidance not to force returns to Afghanistan and YemenThe Home Office has told asylum seekers from some of the world’s biggest conflict zones that it is safe for them to return there, the Guardian has learned.A 36-year-old from Yemen and a 21-year-old from Afghanistan have both had their asylum claims rejected by government officials on the basis that they would not be at risk in their home countries. Continue reading...

Mercury in Roebourne hits new high, according to the bureau of meteorology, as a severe weather warning issued in the state’s far-northParts of Western Australia’s Pilbara region have sweltered through their hottest day on record with the temperature hitting 50C.The mercury in Roebourne soared to its new high just before 12.30pm on Thursday, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. Continue reading...