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Trevinano, with just 142 residents, beats 13 other candidates to windfall from EU’s post-Covid recovery fund

Digitally innovative galleries will put emphasis on community, and look at collection’s links to slave tradeOne of the best-known personal art collections ever amassed will reopen to the public in Glasgow next month after a six-year refurbishment costing £68m.The Burrell Collection, which consists of more than 9,000 objects spanning six millennia, uses digital innovation to connect 21st-century viewers to ancient artefacts. Continue reading...

Discovery of 70-year-old’s remains years after she died prompts calls for better care for older people in ItalyItalian police have discovered the mummified remains of a 70-year-old woman sitting at a table more than two years after she died, prompting calls for better care for older people in the country.Marinella Beretta, who had no living relatives, was found in her house in Prestino near Lake Como in northern Italy. Police stumbled upon her remains when they made a house call during high winds in Lombardy, which risked uprooting neglected trees in her garden. Continue reading...

Ottawa’s occupation was a result of unrivaled coordination between anti-vax and anti-government organizationsThousands of demonstrators have successfully occupied Canada’s frigid capital for days, and say they plan on staying as long as it takes to thwart the country’s vaccine requirements.The brazen occupation of Ottawa came as a result of unprecedented coordination between various anti-vaccine and anti-government organizations and activists, and has been seized on by similar groups around the world. Continue reading...

Jane Campion’s repressed western up for 12 prizes at 94th Academy Awards, with Dune scoring 10 nominations and Belfast and West Side Story both bagging eightThe Power of the Dog, Jane Campion’s Montana-set drama starring Benedict Cumberbatch as a threatening rancher, has swept the board at the Oscar nominations.The film is up for a dozen prizes, including best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay, best actor for Cumberbatch, best supporting actress for Kirsten Dunst and best supporting actor for both Kodi Smit-McPhee and Jesse Plemons. Continue reading...

Vardy is suing Rooney for libel over allegation that Vardy leaked stories from Rooney’s private Instagram accountRebekah Vardy said she would “love” to leak stories about Coleen Rooney to the media, according to messages disclosed at the high court.The court filings suggest that Vardy and her former agent Caroline Watt had an ongoing relationship with reporters at the Sun newspaper and discussed at length how to leak stories to the tabloid. Continue reading...

Bodies of Neuman, pilot of Cessna 172 and two other passengers discovered in lake using remote submarine and sonarThe 22-year-old skateboarder and rising social media star Josh Neuman was killed in a plane crash in Iceland along with the pilot and two other men, authorities have confirmed.Neuman created the most popular skateboarding videos of all time, and his YouTube channel had approximately 1.2 million followers. Continue reading...

Volodymyr Zelenskiy hosts meeting in Kyiv amid confusion over French claims of private agreement with PutinEmmanuel Macron has held talks with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in Kyiv amid confusion over French claims that Russia has privately agreed not to carry out any new “military initiatives”.French officials made the suggestion after six hours of talks late on Monday between Macron and Vladimir Putin. The officials, speaking anonymously, said Putin had agreed to pull Russian troops out of Belarus once military exercises conclude later this month. Continue reading...

Lawyers bringing first complaint to Africa’s top rights body over conflict in country say violations ‘could amount to war crimes’Ethiopia has committed a wide range of human rights violations in its war against Tigrayan rebel forces, including mass killings, sexual violence and military targeting of civilians, according to a landmark legal complaint submitted to Africa’s top human rights body.Lawyers acting for Tigrayan civilians said the complaint, filed on Monday, marked the first time that the African Union’s human rights commission had been asked to look into the conduct of Ethiopian troops in their war with the northern region’s rebel forces. Continue reading...

Latest updates: health secretary tells MPs NHS waiting list backlog could rise to 10 million; ministerial changes expected this afternoon

The late Indian star sang of love in all its glorious and terrible forms – but also rooted listeners in history and spiritualitySitting in the back of my parents’ Peugeot 504 as a child, we listened to songs by the likes of Mukesh, Mohammed Rafi and, of course, Lata Mangeshkar. We were too young to understand what they were about – love, loss, and romance – but we knew all the lyrics.Well, not quite all of them. During her 92 years, Mangeshkar recorded 50,000 songs in 18 languages, breaking records as the most recorded artist in human history. As a playback singer for Bollywood films, she was never seen on screen, but her voice, dubbed in place of the actors’, was unmistakable. She got her start in 1942, and for a woman to have a career this long and distinguished in India, Mangeshkar must have been steely beneath those silk saris – her voice, though, remained gentle, and she was known as “the nightingale”. Continue reading...

In a suspenseful film that quietly builds tension, a widow battles her in-laws after her husband is executed and meets a new manA woman outside a jail in Tehran asks to see her husband. Visiting hours have finished, the guard tells her. The woman pleads: “He’s about to be executed.” Inside, her husband looks up as she walks into his cell, silent, despairing. As the door slams shut, the camera is left staring at the closed door, listening to the woman’s agonised sobs. So begins this restrained Iranian drama about her fight for justice. It’s a film that quietly builds tension, almost suffocating by the end. Made in the austere Iranian tradition, the style is spare, no soundtrack, little to no camera movement – but with a real intimacy between the characters and screen.Maryam Moghaddam (who also co-directs) plays Mina: one year after her husband Babak’s execution, she is blandly informed by an official that he has been exonerated – the real murderer has been identified and arrested. It’s all been a terrible mistake, everyone is sorry. But there is nothing to be done. “After all, it was God’s will.” As a widow living alone, Mina is powerless. Her late husband’s brother bullies her to move in with the family. Reading between the lines he would like to marry her and his father appears to want to get his hands on the blood money due to Mina as compensation. When she refuses, they threaten her with a custody battle over her daughter Bita (Avin Poor Raoufi), who is deaf. Continue reading...

The exclusive buildings, which make up most of Manhattan’s apartment stock, operate with impunity. Getting access can be a nightmareAt the end of last summer, Claire and her partner, Alan, found the perfect New York apartment.“At the time we naively thought the mortgage process would be the most difficult part,” recalled Claire. “Little did we know.” The first-time buyers were suddenly confronting the reality of trying to purchase an apartment in a market-rate co-op building. Continue reading...

With the military increasing its use of informants, rappers and artists must keep their identities secret, even from one anotherEarly one morning last February, a group of young people gathered on a street corner in Myanmar armed with brushes and buckets of paint. In the faint light of dawn, they quickly completed their task and dispersed.“I felt excited and nervous. I was scared too, because I didn’t want to get caught,” says Tu Tu, a pseudonym for the group’s organiser. Continue reading...

Pictures from Dakar as the newly-crowned champions of Africa arrived home to a colourful welcome Continue reading...

Apology was recommended by landmark review into workplace culture of bullying, abuse, harassment and sexual assault

Company follows Shell in benefiting from energy crisis, which will prompt calls for windfall taxBP’s annual profits reached an eight-year high of $12.8bn (£9.45bn)in 2021 as it benefited from a surge in energy prices, prompting renewed calls for a windfall tax on fossil fuel companies to relieve the financial pressure on households facing a sharp rise in bills.The bumper annual results were aided by a $4.1bn profit in the final quarter of 2021 as global gas demand recovered and oil prices rallied to seven-year highs. The annual profits compared with a $5.7bn loss in 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic reduced demand for energy. Continue reading...

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