World news | The Guardian

From the DJ fined £12,000 to the host of a small new year’s gathering – the people who did get busted for breaking lockdown restrictions tell their storiesThe knock on the door came just before midnight on New Year’s Eve. Chloé Gardiner and her boyfriend were at home, but not alone. After a hard year, they had invited two friends over to see in 2021 with them, breaking strict rules in force in her area as the UK entered its second wave of the pandemic.“There were three carloads of police in the end,” says Gardiner, a 23-year-old care assistant from the small town of Portstewart in Northern Ireland. “And there were only four of us.” It was hardly a wild party, she says – they were just hanging out, listening to music and posting the odd picture to social media – and she doesn’t know who reported them; they weren’t being loud, and they have no close neighbours. They were fined £200 each for breaching Covid regulations, deducted automatically in her case from her wages. Gardiner, who works two jobs, says money went from both pay packets, and she is still trying to recoup £100 she thinks was wrongly deducted in the confusion. Continue reading...

A roundup of the coverage of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Mandalay to Montevideo Continue reading...

Andy Haldane says city’s crucible-like atmosphere created ‘combustion’ for economic prosperityThe government’s new levelling-up strategy should help Britain’s left-behind towns and cities emulate Renaissance Florence in cooking up the “secret sauce” of economic success, according to its co-author Andy Haldane.The hefty report, published on Wednesday, was mocked by some for its frequent historical references – including to 15th-century Florence under the Medici – but Haldane, a former Bank of England chief economist, is deadly serious. Continue reading...

In Cameroon’s Minawao refugee camp, young Nigerians use the game to help rebuild lives put in danger by Boko HaramLucy is the team’s captain, so she looks after the ball. Her family’s house is about 10 minutes’ walk from the pitch: it is one of the more established dwellings in Minawao, a permanent structure largely screened behind a high mud wall. She greets her mother, who is sitting outside with an aunt, in Hausa before disappearing inside. Once she has retrieved what she came for, the day’s training can begin. “We play football with our friends to ease our minds,” she says. “That’s why they give girls this ball to play with: to forget about what happened to us.”This could barely seem further from Yaounde, where the Africa Cup of Nations final will take place on Sunday. We are 500 miles away in Cameroon’s extreme north region, tropical greenery having given way to the parched fringes of the Sahel. Continue reading...

Since his early days in the underground comix scene, Spiegleman has reveled in ‘saying the unsayable’ and subverting conventionIn 1985, at the height of popularity for the faddish baby dolls, the Cabbage Patch Kids, the cartoonist Art Spiegelman debuted a subversive line of trading cards, the Garbage Pail Kids.Featuring viscerally queasy drawings of, say, a mushroom cloud detonating from the roof of a cheery toddler’s skull, or a Raggedy Ann facsimile barfing up dinner into a pot, the Garbage Pail Kids were a sensation among edgy preteens all over the world. They were also swiftly banned in a slew of schools. To this day, Mexico has a law restricting the import and export of Garbage Pail Kids material. Continue reading...

Many of the thousands of people who attempt the deadly Channel crossing in tiny boats land in towns like Folkestone. Local resident James Harkin meets some on the shoreOnly the hardy wade into the Channel in winter, and this year I’m one of them. Nearing the end of my stone-cold morning swim at Mermaid Beach in Folkestone, Kent, I notice something out of the ordinary. A commotion has broken out around a small inflatable dinghy a few beaches away as it skirts a vicious pile of rock groynes there to protect the shingle beach. Shortly afterwards, a fellow swimmer hollers in my direction, wondering whether I’ve seen the arrivals. They tossed their lifejackets in the water when they landed, he says, with what sounds like disdain.I swim back to shore and walk up the beach, following a coastguard car. The dinghy is still bobbing up and down on the rocks, surrounded by military-looking jetskis; by the time I get there, it’s empty. Six men sit, soaking, on two semicircular stone banquettes adjoining the beach, surrounded by police and medics. According to the chatter on police radios, other men might have fled into a nearby coastal park, perhaps because they had contact information for people to help them. All six have been handed rugs and bottles of water; they look stunned, and a little sheepish. I ask a police officer if I can talk to the men and he shrugs his shoulders. “They haven’t been checked for Covid,” he says. Continue reading...

Flo, 27, graphic designer, meets Toby, 29, producerWhat were you hoping for?

Taipei calls ‘no limits’ agreement announced after Xi-Putin summit an insult to the Olympic spiritTaiwan has condemned as “contemptible” the timing of China and Russia’s “no limits” partnership at the start of the Winter Olympics, saying the Chinese government was bringing shame to the spirit of the Games.China and Russia, at a meeting of their leaders hours before the Winter Olympics officially opened, backed each other over standoffs on Ukraine and Taiwan with a promise to collaborate more against the west. Continue reading...

Environmentalists spot floating carpet of blue whiting covering thousands of square metres after spill from the FV MargirisDutch-owned trawler FV Margiris, the world’s second-biggest fishing vessel, has shed more than 100,000 dead fish into the Atlantic Ocean off France.France’s maritime minister, Annick Girardin, called the images of the dead fish – which formed a floating carpet of carcasses spotted by environmental campaigners – “shocking” and has asked the national fishing surveillance authority to launch an investigation. Continue reading...

From honjok – taking part in activities alone – to bihon – pledging never to marry – a pushback against the traditional family unit is reshaping societyMin Kyeong-seok is not shy about eating in restaurants alone, or staying in luxury hotels by himself, and shares his experiences online in his blog “One happy person”.“I want to show people that I am living a happy life despite being single,” says Min, 37. Continue reading...

After refusing to sign a statement condemning North Korea’s latest missile tests, China called for US to create ‘attractive and practical’ solutionsChina’s ambassador to the UN has called on the United States to be more flexible in its dealings with North Korea, as Beijing joined others in refusing to sign a US-drafted security council joint statement condemning Pyongyang’s missile launches.Kim Jong-un’s regime conducted an unprecedented seven weapons tests in January, including launching its most powerful missile since 2017 as it hinted it could restart long-range and nuclear testing. Continue reading...

RMT members will walk out on 1 and 3 March, as TfL and government extend funding arrangement for two weeksTube workers are to go on strike for two days next month over fears for jobs, pensions and working conditions, threatening widespread disruption across London.The RMT union announced that its members on the tube would walk out on 1 and 3 March. Continue reading...

Sajid Javid has joined Rishi Sunak in rejecting slur on Keir Starmer as two more MPs call for PM to goBoris Johnson’s attempts to rally his dilapidated top team floundered on Friday after a second cabinet minister distanced himself from the prime minister and two more Conservative MPs called for him to go.In a bid to shore up support, Johnson wrote to MPs promising them a “direct line to Downing Street”, but his move came as Sajid Javid followed the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, in rejecting Johnson’s remarks linking Starmer with the failure to prosecute paedophile Jimmy Savile. Continue reading...

Turkish daily death toll highest in four months as cases surge; UK health agency says number of cases each day could be rising

Parliament backs no-confidence motion after internal disputes and weeks of political deadlockMontenegro’s conservative pro-Serbian governing coalition collapsed on Friday amid internal disputes, after parliament backed a no-confidence motion tabled by a junior coalition partner.Lawmakers voted 43-11 in favour of the motion against prime minister Zdravko Krivokapić’s government after weeks of political deadlock. Other lawmakers in the 81-seat parliament either abstained or left the session before the vote. Continue reading...

Letter to former Afghan guard at British embassy in Kabul says measures will come into effect on 11 FebruaryAsylum seekers staying in hotels have been told by the Home Office that it will stop providing them with free access to non-basic toiletries and over-the-counter medication from next week.According to a letter seen by the PA news agency, the measures will come into effect on 11 February. Continue reading...

Deceased included three Dutch tourists, two Chilean tourists and two Peruvian members of crew, local police saidA light plane carrying sightseers for a tour of the Nazca lines in the Peruvian desert has crashed, killing all seven people onboard.Local police said that the deceased included three Dutch tourists, two Chilean tourists and two Peruvian members of crew. Continue reading...

Official says separatists’ assault timed to ‘sabotage’ prime minister Imran Khan’s visit to ChinaPakistani troops battled separatist militants for a third day on Friday in the troubled province of Balochistan, where hundreds of residents in a town near the Iranian border remained trapped by shellfire and heavy fighting.The violence erupted on Wednesday when insurgents from the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) launched twin assaults on bases of the paramilitary Frontier Corps in the Naushki and Panjgur districts, leading to the deaths of at least 12 soldiers and nine militants. Continue reading...

Retired healthcare workers could also help fill shifts in Covid-ravaged nursing homes, union says

This week’s intransigent gestures on Brexit from Northern Ireland’s largest party suggest it is facing electoral defeat in MayThe Democratic Unionist party pulled the plug on post-Brexit Irish Sea border checks this week and then resigned its joint leadership of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing executive. These were dramatic gestures. They are a reminder of the chronic instability that has continued to dog Northern Ireland governance, in spite of the Good Friday agreement. They are also a reminder of the particularly destabilising effects of Brexit for Ireland as a whole.But they are, above all, a sign of DUP political weakness, not strength. They are a foolish gamble that the DUP can get its way in a Brexit argument to which compromise is, in the long run, the only solution. In the short term, however, the DUP’s action has been provoked by electoral fear. An assembly election is due in Northern Ireland in three months’ time. The DUP’s positions as both the dominant unionist party and as the largest party in the assembly are under threat amid the anxieties triggered by Brexit. The party has been losing support to more moderate and more fundamentalist rivals alike. Continue reading...

Ottawa police announce 150 more officers will be deployed as 400 more trucks and 2,000 protesters expected to arrivePolice in Canada have promised tougher action against the “unlawful and unacceptably dangerous” protests paralyzing the nation’s capital, but admitted the situation was increasingly out of their control.With 400 more trucks and 2,000 protesters expected to arrive in the city this weekend, Ottawa police on Friday announced that 150 additional officers will be deployed and concrete barricades set up to prevent more vehicles from reaching the city’s downtown core. Illegally parked vehicles will be towed and highways and bridges could be closed. Continue reading...

The playwright found acclaim with works about the devastation caused by austerity. He returns with a drama exploring the realities of ageingThere is one no-no in an Alexander Zeldin rehearsal, and that’s being theatrical. As the cast of his first French play, A Death in the Family, rehearses carefully choreographed entrances set in a care home, the British playwright and director keeps returning to the theme. “Factual, simple. No theatre here,” he tells one actor. “You’re wonderful as you are,” he says to another. “If you do more, it becomes theatre.”It’s a delightful paradox for someone who is singularly obsessed with theatre, as I realise when I meet him close to his Paris flat. The 36-year-old, who found international success with an arresting trilogy, The Inequalities (Beyond Caring, Love, and Faith, Hope and Charity) that laid bare the human cost of austerity in Britain, moved here temporarily last September. Continue reading...

Chinese and Russian leaders call on west to abandon ‘cold war’ approach at pre-Olympic meetingChina’s Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin of Russia have signed a joint statement calling on the west to “abandon the ideologised approaches of the cold war”, as the two leaders showcased their warming relationship in Beijing at the start of the Winter Olympics.The politicans also said the bonds between the two countries had “no limits”. “[T]here are no ‘forbidden’ areas of cooperation’,” they declared. Continue reading...

Protesters lead by Women’s Equality party want government to launch full inquiry into police misogynyMock “appeals for information” posters highlighting misogynistic, racist and homophobic comments made by police officers in the Charing Cross police station have been erected in London to increase pressure on the government to launch an inquiry into misogyny within the police.A-board signs were put up on Friday mimicking those used by police after a serious incident, which protesters lead by the Women’s Equality party said was an exchange that took place between police officers, in which one said: “Knock a bird about and she will love you. Human nature. They are biologically programmed to like that s***.” Continue reading...

Analysis: Social democratic parties that have adapted to the political landscape are winning elections againThe unexpected triumph of António Costa’s Socialist party in Portugal’s elections this week continues a cautious comeback by Europe’s centre-left – and, analysts say, may hold some lessons in what remains a mixed picture for the continent’s social democrats.After wins last autumn by Germany’s SPD and Norway’s Labour party, the Portuguese prime minister’s unexpected victory – with 41.7% of the vote, five points up on 2019 – was further good news for a movement that five years ago looked in terminal decline. Continue reading...

Dora María Téllez and Lesther Alemán found guilty in trials campaigners called a shamTwo of the most emblematic figures of Nicaragua’s beleaguered opposition are facing years behind bars after being convicted of alleged acts of political conspiracy in trials campaigners and members of the international community called a sham.Dora María Téllez, a legendary guerrilla leader during the Sandinista revolution, was found guilty during a closed-door trial at the notorious El Chipote political prison in Nicaragua’s capital Managua on Thursday. Continue reading...

Victim, ‘used and exploited’ for 40 years, was found living in a squalid shed north of CarlisleA man who exploited a modern slavery victim found living in a squalid shed has been given a suspended prison sentence.Peter Swailes Jr, 56, was sentenced to a nine-month jail term, suspended for 18 months, at Carlisle crown court on Friday. Continue reading...

Former boxer Agustín Álvarez jailed for piloting a sub carrying 3,000kg of cocaine across the AtlanticTwenty-eight months after it began in a clandestine shipyard deep in the Brazilian Amazon, one of the more unlikely criminal voyages of all time came to an end on Tuesday with the seven sentences handed down by a court in north-west Spain.Agustín Álvarez, a 31-year-old former Spanish amateur boxing champion, was jailed for 11 years for piloting a semi-submersible “narco-submarine” carrying 3,068kg of cocaine worth an estimated €123m (£104m) across the Atlantic. His two crewmates, Ecuadorian cousins Luis Tomás Benítez Manzaba and Pedro Roberto Delgado Manzaba, received the same sentence, while four Spaniards who conspired with Álvarez to help guide the sub ashore were jailed for between seven and nine years. Continue reading...

The opening ceremony for the Beijing Winter Olympics is underway at the distinctive Bird’s Nest stadium, its rim bedecked with the flags of the 91 competing nations and regions. The ceremony, a spectacle of music, choreography and technology, will culminate in the lighting of the Olympic cauldron

Like other modern entertainment, a self-help script aims to lift the evening from merely diverting to inspirationalAt the weekend, we went to the Big Apple Circus, and let me tell you those places have changed. Instead of a sad elephant chained up outside the Big Top – standard in my childhood, unthinkable today – there is “Diana Vedyashkina and her adorable dachshunds!” Creepy clowns are out; Jim Carrey-type stuntmen are in. The ringmaster is called Alan and delivers a long speech about realising one’s dreams and the tightrope artist brings on his 70-year-old mother, who, he informs us, has just had a hip replacement, and has her do a quick turn on the wire. It is an extremely satisfying night out. Continue reading...

Joyce said he did not ‘get along’ with the PM in message dating from before his return to the Nationals leadership

They were invented so surfers and swimmers could get undressed without flashing. So why are Dryrobes – half-towel, half-jacket – taking over our high streets?During the spring lockdown in 2020, Christopher Sloman was walking down a street in Hove when he saw what looked like a green dinosaur looming towards him. The 48-year-old charity shop worker was baffled by the figure in the distance – until he realised it was a woman whose coat was so oversized that her hands (one carrying a phone, the other a coffee) “looked really small,” Sloman says. “I thought: My God, what on earth is that?”“That” turned out to be a Dryrobe – the £160 ankle-length, waterproof robe designed as an outdoor changing robe for surfers in 2010 which has become the go-to piece of kit for any half-serious outdoor swimmer. Continue reading...

Faced with increasing state violence, young people across Myanmar are learning to fight. This is one young woman’s story

Joe Biden says military has removed Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi from the battlefield

I rarely feel hungry and only eat when I feel I should – food smells are physically repulsiveI caught Covid in October 2020, and lost my sense of smell and taste. Back then I worked in a school, so catching the virus felt inevitable. At first, I didn’t think too much about it: anosmia (loss of sense of smell) is a common symptom of the virus. After four weeks or so, and a brief stint in hospital, I regained some of my ability to taste things: salty, sour, sweet. My nose was still misbehaving, but my tongue was starting to slowly whirr back into action. I thought I was on the mend.By the middle of December, however, things started to get strange. In the house, I was certain I kept smelling stale ashtrays. I’m not a smoker, so it made no sense. Then I started smelling exhaust fumes. I looked online and found other people reporting similar experiences of phantosmia (smelling of odours that aren’t there). I’d be consumed by these aromas even in pure, clean air. Continue reading...

Democratic Unionist party leader says prime minister made admission during private meeting last weekBoris Johnson privately conceded that there is less than a 30% chance of negotiating a new Brexit deal for Northern Ireland this month, it has emerged.Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the leader of the Democratic Unionist party, said the prime minister made the admission during a private meeting last week. Continue reading...

Prime minister backs slow reopening of Western Australia as nation records at least 84 deaths from Covid-19; Victoria announces $1.4bn health package; government sought Labor support to wave religious bill through unamended; police attempt to clear ACT anti-vaccine protest camp. This blog is now closed

The new chancellor has faced criticism abroad for his stance, and is now coming under fire at homeGermany’s new chancellor Olaf Scholz is waving goodbye to the honeymoon period of his tenure, as his “inaudible” stance over the brewing crisis on the Ukrainian border is failing to impress not just Russia-hawks abroad but also more ambivalent voters at home.Scholz, whose liberal-left “traffic light” coalition was sworn in less than two months ago, has been criticised by Kyiv and other east-central European capitals for sticking to his country’s restrictive stance on weapons export to crisis regions and looking slow to spell out the potential sanctions that could be triggered by a Russian invasion into Ukraine. Continue reading...

The famed director and lead actor Achouackh Abakar Souleymane talk about the challenges of making a female-led movie in Chad, and being overwhelmed by audience responsesAs a young boy in Chad, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun grew up surrounded by women – mother, aunties, four sisters, one formidable grandmother. The day after he was beaten by a teacher at Koranic school, his grandmother marched up to give the man a piece of her mind: “My grandson will never come back to your school.” Haroun mimics her angry finger jabbing and smiles warmly. “She had a very strong personality. Normally, a woman would never do this. The shame!”Haroun’s boyhood instilled in him, he says, a respect for women. But in his career as Chad’s only prominent film-maker – and one of Africa’s best known cinematic exports – he has told stories about men and boys. His gorgeous film Abouna is about two young brothers searching for their father. A Screaming Man told the tale of a hotel pool attendant who packs his son off to war; after it won the jury prize at Cannes in 2010, the government in Chad rebuilt the country’s only cinema (it has been closed since the beginning of the pandemic). Continue reading...

Despite Covid hospitalizations trending downward, 80% of hospitals across the country are under ‘high or extreme stress’Dr Brian Resler, an emergency physician in the San Francisco Bay Area, recently polled a group of doctors on an overnight shift about their jobs.“Everyone of us said if we could go back, we would choose a different career,” said Resler, who spoke on the condition that the Guardian does not identify his hospital. Continue reading...

NHS England says Libmeldy is ‘life-saving’ for babies and young children with metachromatic leukodystrophyChildren in England with a rare and fatal genetic condition will soon be able to get the world’s most expensive drug after NHS bosses negotiated a substantial cut in its £2.8m price.NHS England hailed the deal that will make the “life-saving” therapy, called Libmeldy, available to the small number of babies and young children who have metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD). Those who receive it will be able to enjoy a normal life, it said. Continue reading...

Cost of living crisis, departure of top aides and Rishi Sunak’s rebuke dominate the newspapers on another bad day for the PMThree big stories dominate Friday’s front pages – and none of them are good news for Boris Johnson. Editors were spoilt for choice with the “big squeeze” in living standards, the “bloodbath” of departing Downing Street aides and Rishi Sunak’s less-than-total backing for his leader.Several papers combine the stories in what the Mail calls “Meltdown in Downing Street” above an image of a forlorn-looking prime minister and the subhead, “will the last one to leave please turn out the lights” evoking the Sun’s infamous 1992 election front page. Continue reading...

The youngster, named Rayan, became trapped down the 32m-deep well on Tuesday, sparking frantic efforts to free himRescue workers in northern Morocco have entered the third day of digging to reach a five-year-old boy trapped down a 32-metre (105ft) deep well.The boy has been stuck in the well, located in the northern village of Ighran in Morocco’s Chefchaouen province, since Tuesday evening. Rescuers said on Thursday they had managed to get down oxygen and water to him, and got a response from him. Continue reading...

Zach Smith recorded himself jamming out to a tune he found in his car. Now it’s racked up 3m plays – and might be on its way to MarvelZach Smith never expected the song to go so viral.On 4 January, the 19-year-old pressed play on an old track he found in his car; he was struck by how catchy it was – he’d never heard this song before. Continue reading...

Unicef confirms that at least six children were killed and one girl badly injured in Atme; Joe Biden says Islamic State leader blew himself up

Does movement against vaccine mandates herald Canada’s tea party moment?For nearly a week, Paul Aubue has lived and slept in the cab of his truck, parked in downtown Ottawa.The 64-year-old grandfather travelled from New Brunswick to join hundreds of others as they descended on the Canadian capital. Aubue, the owner of a trucking company, said he’d been driven to protest by a recent requirement that truckers crossing from the US into Canada be vaccinated against Covid. Continue reading...

Europe could enter ‘long period of Covid tranquility’ due to high vaccination rates, WHO says; record 1.33 million UK long Covid patients

The prime minister has parted ways with key aides seven times since September 2020All prime ministers lose advisers at various points, but those working for Boris Johnson seem to jump ship or otherwise exit at a faster rate than most. Here is a list of significant people who have left his No 10. Continue reading...

Officials say they have evidence of plot to mock up scenes of attack using corpses, Turkish-made drones and actors playing mournersUS officials claim they have evidence of a Russian plan to make a “very graphic” fake video of a Ukrainian attack as a pretext for an invasion.The alleged plot would involve using corpses, footage of blown-up buildings, fake Ukrainian military hardware, Turkish-made drones and actors playing the part of Russian-speaking mourners. Continue reading...