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Grupa Granica strives to bring supplies to stranded migrants and help them deal with border officersThe call came in at about 1.30pm in the afternoon. A group of 15 people, all Iraqi Kurds, had been found in the woods of Narewka after managing to cross the border from Belarus into Poland. One woman could barely walk. Others had early signs of hypothermia.The young volunteer who answered the phone – one of about 40 members of Grupa Granica, a Polish network of NGOs monitoring the situation on the border – knew they had to act quickly. Continue reading...

Comedian says he is ‘blacklisting himself’ after another speaker was banned for Hitler impersonationJohn Cleese has withdrawn from an event at the Cambridge Union, saying he was “blacklisting” himself before “someone else does”.The move by the Monty Python and Fawlty Towers star was in protest after the debating society banned art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon for impersonating Adolf Hitler. Continue reading...

New research shows Tsleil-Waututh practices were destroyed during European colonization, and in recent decades wild salmon populations have collapsedA First Nations community on Canada’s west coast practiced the sustainable harvest of wild salmon for 1,000 years, before the system was largely destroyed after the arrival of European settlers, a new study has concluded.The Tsleil-Waututh, an Indigenous community whose traditional territory has been subsumed by the city of Vancouver, were long known to have used large weirs to capture salmon preparing to spawn. Continue reading...

Ex-president tells trial the government had no prior warning of Paris 2015 attacksThe former French president François Hollande has told a Paris court that authorities “did everything we could” to prevent terrorist attacks on the country – including launching military strikes on jihadist training camps in Syria and Iraq – but the government did not have information that could have stopped the 2015 Paris terror attacks.“If I had the slightest doubt on what we had done, I would tell you, say sorry and ask for forgiveness,” Hollande said. “But that is not my approach. I understand the suffering of the victims. I am trying in my answers [to the court] to give confirmation that everything was done.” Continue reading...

Call comes after Polish PM said Russia was behind flow of people from Middle East to EU bordersAngela Merkel has asked Vladimir Putin to intervene in the crisis on the Belarus-Poland border in an appeal to Minsk’s key foreign sponsor as the EU prepared a new set of sanctions against Belarus.In a phone call on a crisis that has escalated dramatically since Monday, when 1,000 people mainly from Iraqi Kurdistan arrived on the border, the German chancellor told Putin that the “use of migrants by the Belarusian regime was inhuman and unacceptable and asked [Putin] to influence the regime in Minsk”, according to the chancellor’s spokesperson, Steffen Seibert, who described the situation as “state-sanctioned human trafficking”. Continue reading...

Saleh Ibrahim Mabrouk accused over death of police officer who was shot outside Libyan embassy in 1984A former minister in Muammar Gaddafi’s government “orchestrated” the shooting of PC Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984, the high court has heard.Saleh Ibrahim Mabrouk is accused of being jointly liable for the death of 25-year-old Fletcher, who was killed by automatic gunfire aimed at anti-Gaddafi protesters and police outside the embassy in St James’s Square on 17 April 1984.Told a meeting after he and his peers took over the embassy that they had to teach a lesson to anti-Gaddafi people and spoke of carrying out “bombings and murders”.Asked a colleague on the morning of the protest to collect another man to show those at the embassy “how to put together and dismantle a gun”.Told a police officer putting out barriers before the protest: “We have guns here today, there is going to be fighting.”Instructed protesters at a pro-Gaddafi counter-demonstration where to stand “so they wouldn’t get shot”.After the shooting, sought to pass on advice to the man who had fired the shots not to comment if questioned by police. Continue reading...

Eighty per cent of American men say sex is less important to them now than it was before the pandemic. What’s going on?Name: Flaccid fall.Age: It is a relatively new thing, since the pandemic. Continue reading...

Journalist accuses Kyriakos Mitsotakis of lying over turning away of asylum seekers in AegeanThe Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has angrily defended his government’s immigration policy in a heated exchange with a journalist who accused him of lying over the alleged turning away of asylum seekers in the Aegean.During a joint press conference with his Dutch counterpart, Mark Rutte, late on Tuesday, Mitsotakis was accused of “narcissistic abuse” with his denials that Greek is refusing asylum seekers entry at its land and sea borders. Continue reading...

Despite the premier saying restrictions would ease when at least 80% of over 16-year-olds were fully vaccinated, there has been no notable spike in uptakeQueensland’s Covid vaccination rate is lagging the rest of Australia, with health experts warning targeted messaging is needed to boost uptake and protect vulnerable people.The state was projected to pass 80% first dose vaccination on Tuesday, 9 November. But, with an average of 10,000 people jabbed a day in the past week, it has only just passed national cabinet targets.Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Continue reading...

Constitutional court’s ruling in case against three protest leaders is denounced as ‘judicial coup’A Thai court’s ruling that protesters’ calls for reform of the monarchy amounted to an attempt to overthrow it has been likened to “a judicial coup”.Thailand’s political establishment was shocked last year when the leaders of a wave of youthful protests that broke a long-held taboo in calling for curbs on the royal family issued a 10-point list of demands, including that the royal budget be reduced and that the king not interfere with politics. Continue reading...

The Israeli ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, was rushed to her car by bodyguards after a large crowd of protesters gathered outside a London School of Economics event she was addressing. Footage shows activists jeering and chanting: ‘Shame on you!’ as Hotovely is led away at speed with heavy police protection. The protests outside specifically targeted Hotovely, saying she had ‘advocated for settler colonialism, engaged in Islamophobic rhetoric and has perpetuated anti-Palestinian racism’

Two Germans and a Chilean held over murder of luthier Bernard von Bredow and his 14-year-old daughterTwo Germans and a Chilean have been detained over the murder in Paraguay of a German man and his daughter in a crime police believe was related to the theft of rare Stradivarius violins.Bernard Raymond von Bredow, 62, a museum owner and luthier, was slain along with his 14-year-old daughter Lydia last month at their home in Aregua, east of the Paraguayan capital. Police said Von Bredow’s body showed signs of torture. Continue reading...

MP under scrutiny for lobbying against tougher regulation of British overseas territory after working for firms based thereThe former UK attorney-general Sir Geoffrey Cox is facing a conflict of interest claim after it emerged that he had lobbied against imposing tougher financial regulation on the Cayman Islands just months after he gained more than £40,000 from legal firms based in the tax haven.The Conservative MP is under the spotlight over MPs’ second jobs as the fallout from a sleaze scandal engulfing the Conservative party continues. His £1m of extra earnings raised questions about how much time he was devoting to his job funded by the public purse. Continue reading...

No animal industry attracts more criticism than research, where emotive images of lab rats, vivisection and cosmetic testing rub up against medical breakthroughs, genetic research and treatment for disease. The Guardian's Richard Sprenger visits three research labs to find out how the use of animals for research continues to evolve, and why the current conversation about sentience provides a bedrock for animal welfare Continue reading...

UK home secretary says she is ‘disgusted’ at the treatment of Tzipi Hotovely after a meeting in LondonPriti Patel, the UK home secretary, has given support to a police investigation of protests outside the London School of Economics on Tuesday night that led to the Israeli ambassador being led away at speed with heavy police protection after addressing a meeting with students.A large group of protesters gathered outside the building at which Tzipi Hotovely spoke. Video from the scene showed security guards rushing Hotovely, who was clutching a bouquet of flowers, into a vehicle, while others tried to fend off a group of jeering and booing activists, who chanted, “Shame on you!” At least one protester tried to rush towards her. Continue reading...

Prosecutors say alleged abduction of Eitan Biran, who was taken to Israel, was ‘premeditated strategic plan’Italy has issued an international arrest warrant for the grandfather of Eitan Biran, the sole survivor of a cable car crash who is caught up in a bitter custody battle, over the child’s alleged abduction.Prosecutors in the northern Italian city of Pavia have also filed an arrest warrant for an Israeli man who allegedly drove the car in which the six-year-old was taken to the Swiss city of Lugano, from where he was flown by private plane to Tel Aviv. Continue reading...

Mayor pleads with residents not to treat new Bee Bikes like the failed Mobike schemeAndy Burnham has pleaded with residents of Greater Manchester not to chuck its latest fleet of hire bikes into the canal when the region’s £17m rental scheme opens this month.Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester and a recent convert to cycling, admitted he was nervous about the launch of the Bee Bikes after their predecessors ended up swimming with the fishes. Continue reading...

Lax punishments, police inaction and inadequate laws serve to embolden abusers, say campaigners – and stark figures bear them out

The New Yorker has released an astonishing, must-listen project: The Clearing, a poetic musical rumination on how ‘disfluent’ speech can articulate a new way of livingPlease don’t finish JJJJJerome Ellis’s sentences. The New York composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist and writer, who has a stutter – hence the repetition of Js in his name – asks for patience from whoever he is in conversation with. “Sometimes people just walk away,” he says. “Perhaps because I didn’t adhere to t-t-the choreography t-t-that we are often used to.” These kinds of experiences have left him feeling extremely vulnerable, he tells me candidly over a video call. “So much of the pain comes from not feeling fully human. Not feeling intelligent. People thinking that I might be evading a question.” This reality is most apparent to Ellis whenever he is stopped by police. “I don’t want my Blackness to come off as a threat and I don’t want my stuttering to come off as evidence of lying.”Ellis is interested in bringing awareness to this intersection of stuttering (that he also calls disfluency) and Blackness. His latest project The Clearing is a profound and richly textured 12-track album with an accompanying book, that blends spoken word and storytelling with ambient jazz and experimental electronics to create a soundscape that is both meditative and theatrical. Continue reading...

Valencia declares beloved – and often abused – dish an item of cultural significanceOne of Spain’s best-known, beloved, and frequently abused, dishes has been given protected cultural status on the grounds that a proper paella celebrates the “art of unity and sharing”.On Wednesday, the government of Valencia – the region where paella originated – declared the dish an item of cultural significance, extolling its history and virtues in an eight-page announcement in the official gazette. Continue reading...

‘I warned him his platform was allowing a coup to be staged. I haven’t heard from him since,’ Harry saysPrince Harry has said he warned Twitter’s boss Jack Dorsey about his platform allowing political unrest a day before the Capitol riot that led to five deaths.The Duke of Sussex made the comments at the RE:WIRED tech forum in the US. He said: “I warned him his platform was allowing a coup to be staged. That email was sent the day before. And then it happened and I haven’t heard from him since.” Continue reading...

The actor learned to roll cigarettes one-handed and didn’t wash as part of his method for playing a 1920s Montana rancherBenedict Cumberbatch said he “gave ‘[himself] nicotine poisoning three times” by smoking cigarettes as part of his performance in his new film The Power of the Dog.Speaking to Esquire magazine, Cumberbatch said that his role as Phil Burbank in the adaptation of Thomas Savage’s western novel required consumption of copious amounts of rolled-up cigarettes. “Filterless rollies, just take after take after take … When you have to smoke a lot, it genuinely is horrible.” Cumberbatch also said he had to learn how to roll them with one hand, as specified in the original novel.The Power of the Dog is released in the UK on 19 November. Continue reading...

The actor, who wore a gown to the Oscars in 2019, is set to bring his gender non-conforming style to fashion’s starriest night, at London’s Royal Albert Hall later this monthBilly Porter, the actor best known for his role as Pray Tell in Ryan Murphy’s series Pose, will host this year’s Fashion Awards, to take place in London on 29 November.Porter – who is also a singer, director, writer, composer and playwright – has made a name for himself in fashion, too. The black bustled gown he wore to the Oscars in 2019, the gold wings at the Met Gala and the hat with remote controlled sparkly fringing for the Grammies in 2020 (this quickly became a meme), saw to his status as a style inspiration. Speaking on Zoom, he described his new gig as evidence that he has finally been embraced by the industry. “I have been a fashion person for my entire life,” he said. “To be inside of the fashion conversation for real is a manifestation of what I always dreamed could be possible.” Continue reading...

MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine becomes first party figure to step down as a matter of conscience over scandal

From MPs to GPs, reality TV contestants and even teachers, it seems that anyone in public life can be made to fear for their survival. What’s behind the abuse – and how can it be stopped?When Jon Burke went into local politics in 2014 he never imagined there would come a time when he considered carrying a rolling pin hidden inside his raincoat when he left the house – “just in case someone jumped out of a car at me with a wrench”. But his mind turned to raiding his kitchen drawers for protection last September, after Hackney council officials called him to say they had received a handwritten letter that threatened to burn down his house while he was sleeping and hurt not just him, but his wife and children.His crime? Trying to make Hackney a better, safer place – in his eyes – to walk or ride a bike, via the introduction of low traffic neighbourhoods. As the London borough’s cabinet member for transport, Burke found himself at the centre of a row that had become part of the culture wars in which four wheels were pitted against two. The anonymous letter writer made clear they were a car driver: “You fucking cunts ride a bicycle,” they observed. Continue reading...

Long-overdue search for unmarked graves at notorious Mohawk Institute prompts renewed calls for full transparency

Volkswagen embraces the future with €35bn investment, including in its Zwickau plantTwo bronze statues that guard the entrance to Zwickau train station in Saxony tell the tale of Germany’s struggle to wean itself off fossil fuels.A crouching miner cradles a lamp in a nod to the lignite, a particularly dirty form of coal, that was dug from this part of former East Germany, fuelling its factories and power stations. His companion, an engineer, represents the car industry that dominates Germany’s industrial heartland. Continue reading...

Parliamentary committee on human rights warns Coalition’s plan could disproportionately impact disadvantaged groups

From fashion with va-va-voom to veganism – ahead of the release of his new book, America’s starriest designer takes a moment to reflectTom Ford answers my phone call in precisely the way I’d hoped he would: with a voice as smooth as butter and the grace of Cary Grant.We are in touch to discuss his latest project, a coffee-table book charting the past 15 years of his career – or “post-Gucci”, as those familiar with luxury fashion prefer to describe the era that has followed Ford’s departure from the Italian super brand. Continue reading...

Former Australian prime minister also says Britain ‘like an old theme park sliding into the Atlantic’ compared to modern China

Cop26 summit focusing on slowing down global heating at expense of current impact on water-stressed regions, says head of WaterAid

The dwindling flow of the Euphrates River combined with Turkey’s occupation of Alouk water station has disrupted access to water for 460,000 people

Obviously I eschew all material possessions – yet there may be some ‘objets’ tucked away that might fulfil your gauche yearning for clickbait

Prosecutors successfully claim criticism of Hong Kong by US and UK show Cheung Kim-hung has links to foreign political groupsA Hong Kong newspaper executive on trial for national security offences had his bail denied in part because of comments made by Dominic Raab after his arrest, which prosecutors cited as evidence of a “close association” with foreign political groups.The ruling handed down on 5 November against Cheung Kim-hung, the former chief executive of Apple Daily’s parent company Next Digital Media, also cited the US awarding of a congressional medal to Cheung and his colleagues, and a statement by the US state department. Continue reading...

Survey also finds majority of UK respondents believe fewer people care about Holocaust today than used toJust over half of Britons did not know that 6 million Jewish people were murdered during the Holocaust, and less than a quarter thought that 2 million or fewer were killed, a new survey has found.The study also found that 67% of UK respondents wrongly believed that the government allowed all or some Jewish immigration, when in fact the British government shut the door to Jewish immigration at the outbreak of the war. Continue reading...

Duke of Sussex says the term was created by a troll to describe their decision to quit royal duties, which was then amplified by the pressPrince Harry has said the word “Megxit”, used by the British press to describe the decision by him and his wife Meghan to quit their royal duties, was a misogynistic term.He said the word was an example of online and media hatred. “Maybe people know this and maybe they don’t, but the term Megxit was or is a misogynistic term, and it was created by a troll, amplified by royal correspondents, and it grew and grew and grew into mainstream media. But it began with a troll,” Harry said. He did not elaborate. Continue reading...

Asia Pacific Investment Development and its subcontractor have also allegedly failed to rehabilitate land affected by bauxite miningA mining operation in Solomon Islands owes millions in unpaid taxes and royalties, according to a former senior government figure, with a report showing that the mining companies had not paid taxes or royalties on one-third of their exports over the last five years.According to a summary of a royalty payments report into mining on West Rennell Island from the Central Bank of Solomon Islands, seen by the Guardian, the Asia Pacific Investment Development (APID) company and its subcontractor Bintan Mining Solomon Islands Ltd (BMSI) have paid royalties for only 67 of the 100 shipments of bauxite ore exported during their operation. Continue reading...

Former Kayin state minister jailed for 90 years and 75 years, with more charges added against US journalist Danny FensterA court in Myanmar has sentenced two members of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s political party to 90 years and 75 years in prison after finding them guilty of corruption, their lawyer said.The sentences on Tuesday appeared to be the most severe so far for any of the dozens of members of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy who were arrested after the military seized power on 1 February. Continue reading...

Gulf-based TV journalist Rasha Abdullah Al Harazi was killed and her husband injured, according to witnesses and medical sourcesA pregnant Yemeni journalist has been killed in a car explosion in Aden, witnesses and medical sources said, in the latest incident of violence in Yemen’s southern port city.An initial police investigation indicated an explosive device was planted on Tuesday on the vehicle carrying Rasha Abdullah al-Harazi and her husband, Mahmoud al-Atmi, also a journalist, Reuters reported. Continue reading...

Government says it has detained people suspected of supporting rival Tigray forces as long-running conflict escalatesAt least 16 United Nations local employees have been detained in Ethiopia’s capital, the UN said, and a government spokesperson asserted they were held for their “participation in terror” under a state of emergency as the country’s year-long war escalates and ethnic Tigrayans face a new wave of arrests.All the detained staffers are Tigrayan, a humanitarian worker told the Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. Continue reading...

The Wellington-based studio built characters and scenes for films including Avatar, Lord of the Rings, Wonder Woman and Planet of the ApesThe special effects studio co-founded by Sir Peter Jackson, which has brought blockbusters including Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones to life, has been sold for more than $1.6bn, in the latest blow to New Zealand’s film and TV industry.The cash and shares deal, which will see Weta Digital sold to US-based video game company Unity Software for $1.63bn, comes less than three months after Amazon made the shock decision to move its $1bn-plus development of a small screen adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings (LOTR) from New Zealand to the UK after shooting just one series. Continue reading...

Cape York man, 60, was fishing on his property when the reptile clamped its jaws around his boots

Russian officials say cases still remain quite high; UK figures come on day government announces NHS vaccine mandate

The New Zealand prime minister was trying to explain changing Covid rules when her three-year-old daughter appeared off-screenThe New Zealand prime minister has been interrupted by a persistent heckler: her three-year-old daughter, who had “escaped” and was up past her bedtime while Jacinda Ardern was trying to give a live update on the country’s Covid response.The prime minister was conducting a livestream about shifting public health restrictions when she was interrupted by an apparently wide awake Neve. Continue reading...

Caver in hospital and expected to make good recovery as family thank rescuers and call for donationsA man extricated from caves after a 54-hour operation was named on Tuesday evening as George Linnane, as friends and family thanked his rescuers and called for donations.Linnane, 38, a company director from Bristol, describes himself on social media as an engineer, scuba diver, caver, snowboarder and DJ. Continue reading...

French president also announces many people will need third jab to keep valid health pass

Activist and Nobel laureate shares pictures from wedding to husband Asser Malik on her social mediaThe activist and Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai announced she had got married on Tuesday in a small ceremony in Birmingham.The campaigner for girls’ education and the world’s youngest winner of the Nobel peace prize said on social media she had married her partner, Asser Malik. Continue reading...

Wednesday: National broadband network costs on par with full-fibre plan. Plus: the etiquette on sending food backGood morning. Cop26 is in its second week but, despite optimistic talk, new analysis of pledges paint a far more grim picture of our future.The NBN has ended up costing almost as much as the estimated cost of a full-fibre plan. The technology in the Coalition’s cut-down version cost up to three times more than forecast and was closer to the initial estimated cost of a revised version of Labor’s full-fibre plan, according to figures the government has sought to keep secret for almost a decade. Redacted figures, obtained by Guardian Australia, show NBN Co estimated the cost of using the hybrid fibre-coaxial was between $800 and $850 a premises and fibre-to-the-node was $600 to $650 a premises. In reality, as NBN Co encountered upgrade issues with both types of technology, pushing the average costs to $2,752 and $2,330 respectively. Continue reading...

Darrell Meekcom, 55, says he has reported incident in which he was arrested by six officers at his Midlands homeA retired lecturer recently diagnosed with a terminal illness has complained of police heavy-handedness after claiming he was injured when six officers raided his home after he achieved his bucket-list desire to moon at a speed camera.Darrell Meekcom, 55, from Kidderminister, who was diagnosed with multiple system atrophy (MSA) last month, pulled down his trousers and bared his bottom to a camera believing it was “a good laugh,” he told his local newspaper. Continue reading...