World news | The Guardian

Canberra weighs into dispute saying it wants ‘an Indo-Pacific region that is secure, prosperous and based on the rule of law’

Defence ministry says it detected at least 56 flights hours after US urged Beijing to cease ‘provocative’ activityChina sent a record number of military aircraft into Taiwan’s air defence zone on Monday, the fourth consecutive day of such air incursions by Beijing amid growing fears of further escalation.Taiwan’s ministry of defence said it had detected at least 52 flights during daylight hours on Monday, including 36 fighter jets, 12 H-6 bombers, two transport aircraft and two surveillance aircraft. Late on Monday it reported another four fighter jets crossing into the zone after dark. Continue reading...

Firm led by Tory donor admitted failing to prevent corruption by executives between 2011 and 2017A multinational firm that was headed by a Tory party donor has been fined £70m after admitting it used “systemic” bribery to secure large contracts.The fine was imposed on Petrofac on Monday after it admitted to paying bribes to land multibillion pound contracts in three Middle Eastern countries. Continue reading...

The holy grail of Japanese photobooks, Kawada’s Chizu was five years in the making and changes hands for £25,000 a copy. Now a new edition revisits his personal archeology of a nation’s painKikuji Kawada was 25 when he visited Hiroshima for the first time. It was July 1958 and he had been assigned by a Japanese news magazine to assist Ken Domon, a renowned photographer 14 years his senior. As Domon worked in and around the Hiroshima Peace Park, Kawada found himself drawn to the ruined shell of a once ornate, steel-framed building that had been badly damaged, but somehow remained standing, when America dropped the first atomic bomb on the city at 8.15 am on 6 August 1945, obliterating everything else within a mile radius.“That’s when I found them,” he would later recall, “the stains on the walls of the rooms beneath the dome.” The bomb had been dropped from almost directly above the building, which was then called the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall. Alone in the dank ruins, Kawada realised that the stained walls held the only traces of some of the dead. “When the place was destroyed,” he told Aperture magazine in 2015, “there were about 30 people (who) had arrived for work and ended up vaporised. The place had a horrible atmosphere. Just looking at it was overwhelming.” Continue reading...

Swedish artist, who had been attacked and threatened, died in car crash along with two police bodyguardsPolice have said they have found no evidence so far of criminal intent in a car crash that killed two police bodyguards and the Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, best known for his 2007 portrayal of the prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog.“We want to completely exclude any external act targeting the car in which Lars Vilks found himself,” the head of the Swedish southern regional investigation unit, Stefan Sinteus, told reporters on Monday. “There is nothing to indicate that, but we want to be certain so we can rule it out.” Continue reading...

Judge says court will look at possible submarine links as to how fishing boat sank off Cornish coastThe families of a fishing boat crew who believe their deaths 17 years ago were caused by a military submarine becoming entangled in their nets off the Cornish coast have told an inquest they hope they will finally learn the truth of what happened to their loved ones.A full inquest began in London on Monday into the deaths of two of the five men lost when the fishing trawler the Bugaled Breizh sank off the Lizard peninsula in January 2004. Continue reading...

Creative director Matthew M Williams showed accessory at Paris fashion week, with many comparing it with Burberry’s noose hoodieGivenchy and its creative director Matthew M Williams have been called out after a “blatantly offensive” necklace, which resembled a noose appeared in their collection.The spring/summer women’s and men’s show, which debuted in Paris yesterday, featured an accessory that resembled a broken noose. Many online noted its similarity to Burberry’s ‘noose hoodie’, which appeared in their autumn/winter 2019 collection. At the time, Marco Gobbetti, the chief executive of Burberry, apologised saying he was “deeply sorry for the distress.” Creative director Riccardo Tisci, who was Williams’ predecessor at Givenchy, said it was “ insensitive.”In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 800-273-8255 or chat for support. You can also text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org Continue reading...

More than 25,000 new cases on Monday as country battles Delta wave with low vaccine takeup

Public can see tapestry with mysterious past at Montacute House in Somerset after 1,300 hours of conservation workA 15th-century tapestry with a mysterious history, the oldest owned by the National Trust, is returning to display after experts spent four years cleaning and conserving it.The tapestry at Montacute House in Somerset depicts a knight in armour parading his elegantly decorated horse against a dark blue background covered with a highly detailed flower pattern, called millefleurs, or a thousand flowers. Continue reading...

In 2005, a Bahraini prince welcomed the deposed king of pop and wrote a Hurricane Katrina charity single with him. But Jackson’s erratic behaviour sent plans off courseOmar Shaheen remembers the moment well. In early 2005, the young Bahraini was driving when he received a surreal job offer: the chance to work with Michael Jackson. “It was totally out of left field,” he recalls. “It is a pinch-yourself kind of moment when you get a call to say you’re going to be working with someone who you idolise and is the biggest superstar of all time.”The request came from Sheikh Abdulla bin Hamad al-Khalifa, the second son of the king of Bahrain, who asked Shaheen to set up a state-of-the art recording studio on his grounds in anticipation of the star’s arrival. “There are so many adjectives to use,” Shaheen says of what was to unfold. “It was bizarre. It was crazy.” Continue reading...

When it comes to Melbourne now, by some counts, becoming the most locked-down city in the world, premier Daniel Andrews says he is proud of the sacrifices Melburnians have made over the pandemic.Yesterday he called on them to make a final push before lockdown ends in coming weeks, reports Callum Godde from AAP.We are going to get past this. We are going to end this lockdown and open up, and all that we will enjoy then will be a result of all that we have given.If we let it rip last year, we would have had severe mortality and morbidity. It’s just that we haven’t had the same luck as other place. Continue reading...

Trading halt sends markets Asian stocks falling amid speculation debt-laden group will sell off property management armTrading in shares of debt-laden China Evergrande has been suspended by the Hong Kong exchange after the enormous Chinese developer missed a key bond interest payment last week, its second offshore debt obligation in a week.Evergrande, which has $305bn (£225bn) of debts, said on Monday trade was suspended “pending the release by the company of an announcement containing inside information about a major transaction”, sparking speculation it could sell its profitable property management unit. Continue reading...

Criminals are using students and others to unwittingly move funds through their bank accounts

Small private plane crashed near a suburban subway station, killing all onboardA small single-engined plane carrying six passengers and a crew of two has crashed into the side of an empty two-storey office building in a Milan suburb, killing everyone onboard.Investigators opened an inquiry into what caused the private plane to crash shortly after take-off from Milan’s Linate airport en route to Olbia airport on the Italian island of Sardinia. A thick column of dark smoke rose from the crash site and was visible for miles. Several parked cars nearby went up in flames. Continue reading...

Christians in Chhattisgarh say Hindu nationalist BJP has revived claims to tarnish reputation of rival CongressIt was a stifling July afternoon when the crowd moved into the small district of Lakholi, in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh, and gathered outside the house of Tamesh War Sahu. Sahu, a 55-year-old volunteer with the Home Guard who had begun following Christianity more than five years previously, had never before had issues with his neighbours.But now, more than 100 people had descended from surrounding villages and were shouting Hindu nationalist slogans outside his front door. Sahu’s son Moses, who had come out to investigate the noise, was beaten by the mob, who then charged inside. Continue reading...

Tensions rise as Algiers imposes airspace ban in latest response to visa dispute and Macron criticismThe diplomatic discord between Algeria and France has deepened after Algiers banned French military planes from its airspace, its latest response to a row over visas and critical comments from President Emmanuel Macron.France’s jets regularly fly over the former French colony to reach the Sahel region of western Africa, where its soldiers are helping to battle jihadist insurgents as part of its Operation Barkhane. Continue reading...

Figure from head of commission investigating sexual abuse comes days before publication of reportThe head of an independent commission investigating child sexual abuse in the French Catholic church has said about 3,000 paedophiles have operated inside the institution since 1950.Days before publication of its report, Jean-Marc Sauvé said the commission’s investigations had uncovered between 2,900 and 3,200 paedophile priests or other church members, adding that this was “a minimum estimate”. Continue reading...

Business magnate who also turned his hand to sport, politics and acting, dies four years after cancer diagnosisBernard Tapie, the businessman, actor, former politician and one-time president of Olympique de Marseille football club, whose larger-than-life career and recurring legal problems made him one of France’s best-known personalities, has died aged 78.Tapie, who led Marseille to the Champions League title in 1993 and whose business interests also included a major stake in the German sportswear brand Adidas acquired in 1990, had been suffering from stomach cancer for nearly five years. Continue reading...

Further eruptions from Cumbre Vieja volcano on the Canary Island of La Palma have blown open two more fissures, sending molten rock spewing towards the sea.Since Cumbre Vieja began erupting on 19 September, activity has "intensified" with earthquakes registered near the active volcano.Residents have been ordered to stay indoors to avoid worsening air quality, or to evacuate from nearby towns

PM says he will ‘stop at nothing to make sure we get more rapists behind bars’ after Sarah Everard case

The ongoing eruption in the Canary Islands has raised concerns over cancelled holidays and a potential tsunami. Here a volcanologist weighs the risksOn 19 September, after 50 years of magmatic quiescence, the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the Spanish island of La Palma roared back to life. Ash speckled the sky, and molten rock cooking at 1,075C (1,967F) oozed from several fresh fissures and cascaded down the volcano’s western flanks in the form of hadean rivers, ploughing through houses and farms with insouciance. Fortunately, thanks to the work of local scientists and emergency services, thousands of people were evacuated ahead of time, and no deaths have yet been reported.So, what happens next? What new threats will emerge from the volcano? How long will this go on for? And why would anyone want to live in the shadow of such a menacing volcano in the first place? Continue reading...

Questions mount over vetting of former Met officer, who had access to Houses of Commons and LordsThe Metropolitan police officer who raped and murdered Sarah Everard guarded parliament five times, it has emerged, as a senior Conservative criticised the force for appearing to have “overlooked” warning signs about his behaviour.Wayne Couzens, 48, worked in the parliamentary and diplomatic protection command and finished a shift guarding the US embassy hours before he carried out a false arrest of Everard on 3 March and abducted her. Continue reading...

Taipei says Chinese jets and bombers crossed zone as Beijing marked the anniversary of the founding of the People’s RepublicA record 38 Chinese military jets crossed into Taiwan’s defence zone as Beijing marked the founding of the People’s Republic of China, officials in Taipei have said.The show of force on China’s national day on Friday near the self-ruled democratic island, which Beijing claims as part of its territory, came in the same week it accused Britain of sending a warship into the Taiwan strait with “evil intentions”. Continue reading...

Gifted as a cub by a maharajah to a young British boy, Singh lived at a house in Surrey before outgrowing his home and being driven in a black cab to the zoo. Head of news, Mike Ticher, recommends this surprising story by Ben DohertyYou can read the original article here: The lion in the London black cab: the remarkable story of Singh, and the boy who loved him Continue reading...

Cameras credited with crucial role in solving Everard case as public surveillance reaches new heightsThe crucial role of CCTV in solving Sarah Everard’s disappearance emerged on Saturday along with fresh details about how police caught one of their own.Detectives leading the search for Everard revealed that analysis of thousands of hours of CCTV footage enabled them to piece together the 33-year-old’s final moments as she walked home in south London – as well as helping identify her murderer. Continue reading...

Campaigners say the horrific killing by a Metropolitan police officer must prompt a debate about the culture of forces across the countryDame Vera Baird

With overseas travel opening up again, we have family ideas for cities, coast and countryside

New cases were children of a Covid-positive man who has been linked to a cluster that started at Eatons Hill, north of Brisbane

Figures on English schools come as infection levels remain high in UK; India measures in response to requirements imposed on Indians visiting UK

He has the most evoked name in Australia thanks to the Covid-19 modelling that bears it. Features editor Lucy Clark recommends Paul Daley’s profile on Peter Doherty, which ranges from politics to books, misinformation and that tweet

In Australia’s dead heart, telling yarns about the many ways to die in the bush is practically a pastimeWe’re only part way through our first cup of tea and a series of anecdotes about goannas, when Karl Roth disappears. While we wait for his return, we chat to his wife Bobbie about the palms and frangipani in their garden. How have they managed to tame this harsh landscape into something so orderly and colourful, we ask. It’s a question that comes up every time we come here.We’re several years into our investigation of the disappearance of Paddy Moriarty from the 12-person town of Larrimah, 500km south of Darwin in the Northern Territory. It’s a strange case; the stuff TV shows are made of. On 16 December, 2017, 70-year-old Paddy finished his last drink at the bright pink Larrimah Hotel, also known as the Pink Panther. He and his dog, Kellie, jumped on his quad bike to ride a few hundred metres home on the other side of the Stuart Highway. Nobody has ever seen them again. Continue reading...

Exclusive: England and Wales figures show ‘epidemic’ of flashing against women, after allegations against Wayne Couzens emergedWomen are facing an “epidemic” of flashing and other forms of indecent exposure, with police in England and Wales recording more than 10,000 cases last year but taking fewer than 600 people to court over them, Guardian analysis reveals.The findings come after Wayne Couzens was reported for repeated instances of alleged indecent exposure in the years and days before he raped and murdered Sarah Everard, but faced no action. Police accepted they may have had enough clues to identify the police officer as a threat to women sooner, amid fears that flashing is a gateway to other sex crimes. Continue reading...

Minister speaks of ‘devastating blow’ as Scotland Yard suggests actions to take if feeling unsafePolice will have to work hard to rebuild public confidence after the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer, a minister has said, as Scotland Yard said people stopped by a lone plainclothes officer should challenge their legitimacy and could try “waving a bus down” to escape a person they believe is pretending to be police.Wayne Couzens, who joined the Metropolitan police in 2018, was handed a rare whole-life sentence on Thursday for the kidnap, rape and murder of 33-year-old Everard as she walked home in south London in March. Continue reading...

This filmed version of the Broadway show, with its accidental comedy and cringeworthy lines, is a guilty-pleasures singalong in waitingAnd … so … it’s … springtime for glamour and victimhood, winter for Windsors and Charles. Netflix have now given us the filmed version of the entirely gobsmacking and jawdropping Broadway show Diana: The Musical, shot at the Longacre theatre on West 48th Street last summer with no audience while the show itself was on pause due to the Covid pandemic. And while you’re waiting for Pablo Larraín’s movie Spencer, starring Kristen Stewart as Diana, this will have to do. Although there is a danger it will cause you to hyperventilate.Not since the Cats movie have I literally shouted from my seat: “What? What? WHAT?” Only by having Diana ride on stage on the back of a Jellicle cat could this be more bizarre. If it was deliberate satire it would be genius, but it’s not. It’s a saucer-eyed retelling of the life of Diana, Princess of Wales, with bobbing chorus lines of footmen and flunkies who with a costume change morph into step-in-time phalanxes of snarling tabloid hacks, while Diana solemnly warbles downstage about her loneliness and determination in a pool of follow spotlight. Continue reading...

François Vérove took his own life and mentioned crimes in suicide note after being called in for questioningA retired police officer has been identified as the serial killer behind a spate of murders and rapes in and around Paris in the 1980s and 1990s, in which he used his police card, handcuffs and professional restraint techniques to stop young women and girls, but eluded capture for decades until he took his life this week.In one of the biggest cold-case reviews in the history of the Paris police, investigators had been seeking DNA evidence to identify the notorious serial killer and rapist known as the “pockmarked man” who had avoided capture for 35 years. Continue reading...

On top of a plague of pipe-climbing vermin, the country is facing Boris Johnson’s battle to save ChristmasHunters of old, as Robert Baden-Powell once noted, pursued the white stag – “the miraculous stag” – not because they expected to kill it but because “it led them in the joy of the chase to new and fresh adventures, and so to capture happiness”. Continue reading...

He used to sell alarms door-to-door then turned to acting, clawing up the TV ranks in grabby supporting roles. Now, as a violent sociopath in Guilt, the Scot has hit his stride as a leading manTwo brothers are driving home from a wedding slightly the worse for wear. In the middle of an argument, the car careers into an old man, killing him instantly. The older brother, played by Mark Bonnar, snaps into focus. If they call the police and admit their crime, he says, their lives will be over. However, if they do exactly what he says – move the body, drive off, forget about it – then it will be like it never happened. But can they live with themselves afterwards? Could you?That’s how Guilt – the gripping, Hitchcockian show about their descent into more and more law-breaking – kicked off, instantly living up to its name. “I didn’t need to read any more than that,” says Bonnar, recalling his decision to take the role. “It’s an amazing opening. I went: ‘Absolutely, yes.’” Continue reading...

Thanks for following along – this blog is now closed. You can catch up with the latest coronavirus coverage here.Technology allowing Australians to travel overseas with an internationally recognised vaccine certificate will be ready within weeks, as the government prepares to announce a plan for the country’s borders to finally reopen.In evidence to the Senate’s Covid committee on Thursday, the chief executive of Services Australia, Rebecca Skinner, said the department had developed a visible digital seal for vaccine status that would be ready by the end of October. She said:Our plan is to have all of the technology in place so that it is a settled and tested situation before the policy decisions need to be made.We don’t want to be in a situation where policy decisions can’t be taken because the technology isn’t ready. Continue reading...

Campaigners say continuing violence has dashed hopes of rapid change to make the streets saferThis week, as the grim details about what happened to Sarah Everard in her final hours were revealed at the Old Bailey, there has been a sense of despair among women, and the campaigners pushing to make society safer for them.The hope that Everard’s murder would bring about rapid change has all but evaporated. On 18 September, nearly seven months after the 33-year-old was killed, a member of the public found the body of the schoolteacher Sabina Nessa in Cator Park in south-east London. Continue reading...

Victim of raid on flat in Minsk in which one officer also killed named locally as Andrei Zeltser, age 31A 31-year-old man shot dead by Belarusian security forces this week in a raid on an apartment block in the capital Minsk was an employee of the US-based software firm Epam Systems, the company has said.Footage shown on state television showed plainclothes officers breaking down an apartment door and a man firing at them as they entered. Continue reading...

Age, disadvantage and reduced access are mixing together in lower socio-economic areas to create a perfect Covid cocktail

Priti Patel is facing growing pleas to let 70,000 claimants seek employment pending a resolution of their statusPriti Patel’s department is resisting growing demands to allow asylum seekers to work following a public intervention from her cabinet colleague Dominic Raab to say that he would be “open-minded’ about the proposal.Labour leader Keir Starmer, Conservative MPs and refugee charities have all called for the Home Office to allow 70,000 current claimants to seek employment after the justice secretary said a rule change could help to solve the UK’s current labour shortage. Continue reading...

President accused of chasing rightwing votes by making sudden, tough gestures on immigrationThe Algerian foreign ministry has summoned the French ambassador for talks in “formal protest” against France’s decision to sharply reduce the number of visas granted to Algerian nationals, as opposition parties in Paris accused Emmanuel Macron of using the row to court rightwing voters.The French government announced this week that it would substantially cut the number of visas granted to people from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, three north African countries which were all part of France’s former colonial empire and where many people have strong family ties in France. Continue reading...

Met says plainclothes officers will no longer patrol on their own as force admits it needs to do more to earn trustPolice have told women to ask an officer for his warrant card if worried about his identity in the aftermath of the sentencing of Sarah Everard’s murderer – despite the fact her killer used his official ID to ensnare her.Senior policing figures have been asked how women can be sure they are not being deceived in the light of Everard’s murder by Wayne Couzens, who was a serving officer with the Metropolitan police at the time. Continue reading...

Calls for an investigation after Mohib Ullah killed by unidentified assailantsA prominent Rohingya leader widely praised for his devotion to serving his community has been shot dead at close range at a refugee camp in Bangladesh, prompting calls for an urgent investigation.Mohib Ullah, chair of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights (ARPSH), was killed by gunmen on Wednesday evening as he spoke to other community leaders outside his office, police said. Continue reading...

Domenico Lucano, who welcomed migrants to tiny town of Riace, also convicted of ‘irregularlities’The former mayor of an Italian town who revitalised his community by welcoming and integrating migrants has been sentenced to more than 13 years in jail for abetting illegal migration and for “irregularities” in managing the asylum seekers.Domenico Lucano, 63, known locally as Mimmo, the former mayor of Riace, a tiny hilltop town in the southern Calabria region, was put under house arrest in 2018 for allegedly abetting illegal immigration, embezzlement, and fraud. Continue reading...

Tribunal rules in favour of Kate Wilson over breach of human rights, citing ‘lamentable failings’Police have been been severely criticised by judges who ruled that they grossly violated the human rights of a woman who was deceived into a long-term intimate relationship by an undercover officer.The judges ruled overwhelmingly in favour of Kate Wilson, an environmental and social justice activist, who has pursued a decade-long campaign to uncover the truth. Continue reading...

The Matrix and Bad Boys actor on growing up in the New Jersey projects, his love of Ginger Rogers and Margaret Rutherford, and dodging the Vietnam warI grew up functionally illiterate. In most urban communities you were just pushed to the side and disregarded, so long as you were quiet. I was evaluated and told I had a third-grade reading level. I was frustrated and ashamed that I couldn’t fit in and comprehend the work, so I turned my back on it all. The teachers would say: “Did you do your homework?” I would say: “No, I didn’t.” I frightened them into leaving me alone. I spent the last three years of high school in detention because I didn’t fit the mould. Continue reading...

Karel Pinxten will lose two-thirds of his pension after EU court throws out his appealAn auditor of EU finances accused of fraudulently claiming €570,000 in expenses for hunting trips, holidays in Cuba and Switzerland, fuel for his son’s car and the purchase of a vineyard in Burgundy, will lose two-thirds of his pension after a ruling by the union’s highest court.Karel Pinxten, a former Belgian government minister, was paid €17,000 a month after tax when he worked as a member of the EU’s court of auditors for 12 years. On Thursday his appeal against the cut to his pension, on right to privacy grounds among others, was thrown out by the European court of justice (ECJ). Continue reading...