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There is some sustained brilliance here, but unfortunately it comes from the guest stars – and at 108 minutes, this long-awaited album is in need of an editChaotic preview events for Kanye West’s 10th studio album Donda have dominated social media feeds in recent weeks, each one promising a release date that never materialised. The coverage of the events has focused on Kim Kardashian dressed as a Balenciaga-clad sleep paralysis demon, $50 chicken tenders, potential Drake disses, levitation and cameos from alleged rapist Marilyn Manson and the homophobic DaBaby. Fans called West a genius capable of creating exciting theatre that evolves in real time; others saw him as an empty provocateur. Much like kindred spirit Donald Trump, West seems to instinctively know how to weaponise controversy to drive interest in a new project.With the eventual release of Donda (named after West’s English professor mother, who died in 2007), there is a nagging sense the spectacle has overshadowed the actual music, with this bloated 108-minute album rarely sure of what it is trying to say. The intro, Donda Chant, a sequence of eerie recitations of his mother’s name seemingly designed to send you into a sunken place, is arresting, giving you the impression you’re about to undergo an immersive religious experience. But too often the songs that follow are built on half-baked ideas from a West more concerned with self-pity and martyrdom than confronting his contradictions. Continue reading...

Experts say combustible materials were used in 20-storey building that went up in flames with no loss of lifeThe mayor of Milan has compared a fire that ripped through a 20-storey residential building on Sunday to the Grenfell Tower blaze in London that killed 72 people four years ago.The fire, which started on the upper floors of the tower on the southern outskirts of the capital of the Lombardy region, spread to the rest of the building owing to what experts described as the “chimney effect”, which turned the building into a torch. Continue reading...

A million households without power as governor says system of levees overhauled after Hurricane Katrina will face ‘most severe test’

Encounter unlikely to have banished CDU nerves after snap poll suggests SPD’s Olaf Scholz retains leadThe three politicians battling it out for the top job in German politics have clashed in a TV debate during which the leader of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats failed to regain lost momentum and ceded the role of continuity candidate to his centre-left rival.Polls published before the first of three televised debates suggested the race to lead Germany into the post-Merkel era was more wide open than ever, with Olaf Scholz’s SPD in a narrow lead over Armin Laschet’s CDU and Annalena Baerbock’s Green party following closely in third place. Continue reading...

Corrinne and Brett Giles live in Donegal and Derry counties due to ‘borderline unconstitutional’ application of immigration ruleA South African doctor and her British husband are living on either side of the Irish border because of what one MP called a “borderline unconstitutional” application of post-Brexit immigration rules.Corrinne and Brett Giles live 25 miles apart in Donegal and Derry counties respectively, with Corrinne in a “constant state of anxiety” waiting for a family permit to join her husband in the UK. Continue reading...

Federal court will soon rule on new law allowing anyone to sue abortion providers or people who help women get abortionsTexas could become the first state in decades to ban most abortions, if a federal court allows a law called SB8 to take effect on 1 September.SB8 effectively puts a $10,000 “bounty” on the head of abortion providers and anyone else who helps a woman obtain an abortion past roughly six weeks’ gestation, by allowing private citizens to sue those who “aid and abet” women in exercising this constitutional right. Continue reading...

My friend David Rudkin, who has died aged 78, was a museum curator and archaeologist who dedicated his career as director of Fishbourne Roman palace in West Sussex to widening knowledge about the Romans in Britain. His open and engaging character empowered him to spread understanding of Fishbourne – the largest Roman villa north of the Alps, with its incomparable mosaics.David was born in Old Woodhouse, Leicestershire, the second child of Harry Rudkin, a gardener, and his wife, Lily (nee Measures). Harry’s employment took the family in a peripatetic life to country estates across the Midlands, but, settled near Melton Mowbray, David passed the 11-plus exam to go to King Edward VII grammar school. Continue reading...

PM’s assertion comes as national death toll since pandemic began surpasses 1,000 and states seek more Pfizer amid Delta outbreak

The livelihoods of 1.5 million people are at risk as the lake’s occasional dry spells occur ever more frequently

Experts say this week is ‘crunch’ time as country waits to see whether numbers will continue to fallAuckland will remain in full lockdown for another two weeks despite a drop in community cases of Covid-19.New Zealand reported 53 new cases in the community on Monday, bringing the total number in its outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant to 562. It is a drop of 30 cases from Sunday, which was the biggest single day for the outbreak, with 83 cases. There were 82 cases on Saturday. Continue reading...

Households prepare offerings in prayer for their ancestors and gods, but many temples are closedOn the 15th day of Ghost Month, when the gates to hell are believed to open and spirits walk the earth, Taoist masters are invited to the Zhupu Altar, a massive temple built on a hillside in Keelung, northern Taiwan. The masters hold a ceremony to assist the spirits of those who died without family or friends to pray for them, known as “hungry ghosts” but commonly referred to as good brothers and sisters to avoid offence.Ghost Month is marked across east Asia, including Hong Kong, southern China, Indonesia and Malaysia. In Taiwan, Keelung is a significant site, with a history of violent disputes during the Qing dynasty, and it hosts the island’s biggest events. The ceremonies often draw tens of thousands of onlookers from afar, but these are Covid times. Continue reading...

Public indifference to abuse of the Pasifika community is especially concerning – we all need to show compassion in this crisisThe past week in lockdown has been tumultuous for many in my community. I was on my way to pick up my daughter from school when media outlets began reporting that New Zealand was headed for a possible level 4 lockdown, suggesting the Delta variant had breached our borders and there was a probable case in the community. By the time I arrived at the school, notifications were filling my messenger feed with supermarkets packed to the brim as the rush for toilet paper began. New Zealand went into full lockdown that night in its fight against Covid-19.Within a matter of hours, news emerged that a person from the North Shore of Auckland had tested positive followed by people who had attended a large church gathering in south Auckland. Church plays a pivotal role in the Pacific community. It serves as a hub to express our faith, language and culture, where we reconnect with friends and family. It grounds us and allows us to recharge before we head back into a society that is different to what we knew in our home islands dotted around the Pacific. Continue reading...

Rescue workers ‘knocking down doors’ to make sure none of the 70 families remained insideFire has ripped through a 20-storey residential building in Milan, leaving rescue workers scrambling to make sure no one had been caught in the flames and thick smoke.The blaze on Sunday started on the upper floors of the tower on the southern outskirts of the capital of the Lombardy region. Continue reading...

By deeply connecting with the people and idyllic landscape of his island, Perry channelled a stream of ideas into mindblowing music

Decline in exports from Taiwan combines with port closures in China and Japan to hinder growthA recovery in global trade during the summer is beginning to wane, according to some early warning signs pointing to the negative effects of widespread Covid-19 outbreaks in the manufacturing centres of east Asia.A dramatic decline in exports from Taiwan, which makes many of the computer chips used in cars and mobile phones, has combined with temporary port closures and lockdowns in Australia, China and Japan to cut the level of global trade. Continue reading...

A dedicated crew of people helped the women’s national football team and others to flee the Taliban over two remarkable weeks“We have been working like fingers on one hand, with different roles, and we came together as a big strong punch,” says the former captain and one of the founders of the Afghanistan women’s national football team, Khalida Popal. She is talking about the small team that pulled off the mission to evacuate 100-200 Afghan athletes and a number of individuals connected to them from the Hamid Karzai international airport in Kabul.Across a two-week period those fingers worked tirelessly around the clock and across numerous time zones, tracking the real-time movements of the Taliban and military personnel on the ground to pull off what seemed completely impossible: to get a group of female football players, many teenagers, and a host of others, including family members, into the airport and on to planes. Continue reading...

At least three explosions took place at al-Anad airbase, officials saidA missile and drone attack on a key military base in south Yemen has killed at least 30 troops, a Yemeni military spokesman said. It was one of the deadliest attacks in the country’s civil war in recent years.Mohammed al-Naqib, the spokesman for Yemen’s southern forces, said the attack on Sunday on al-Anad airbase in the province of Lahj wounded at least 65. He said the casualty toll could rise since rescue teams were still clearing the site. Continue reading...

When journalist Mary Ann Sieghart set out to document the ways that women are held back by a cultural presumption of their inferiority, she found reams of data to support her case – and heard stories of how it affects even the most successful women in the world. She explains why the authority gap persists, and asks what we can do about itFrom the very beginning of her career as a journalist in the 1980s, Mary Ann Sieghart found herself pushing against a set of assumptions which accorded her less authority than her male peers – and and led to her being viewed as bigheaded if she showed the same ambition and confidence as they did. When she came to write a book about how experiences such as hers still shape women’s lives, she found a huge range of empirical evidence that confirmed the existence of those prejudices. And when she asked some of the most accomplished women in the world – from Bernardine Evaristo to Hillary Clinton – she learned that they had all experienced the same “authority gap”, no matter how remarkable their CVs.Sieghart speaks to Rachel Humphreys about why the authority gap remains a pervasive phenomenon, and what tactics women can use to try to circumvent it. We also hear excerpts from some of Sieghart’s interviews, featuring examples of the problem perpetrated by everyone from literary prize judges to restaurant staff to ... the pope. Continue reading...

He has been eligible for release since 2017 but has remained in prison because he consistently denies committing the crimeA man who has spent almost 40 years in prison in South Australia for a murder he says he did not commit will soon make a final bid for freedom.Derek Bromley was jailed for life for the murder of Stephen Docoza, whose body was found floating in Adelaide’s River Torrens in 1984. Continue reading...

They’re big business … in Hollywood. But did you know Australia also has a small but rich seam of compelling and bizarre superhero movies?The phrase “nobody makes superhero movies like Australia” has, I dare say, never before been written. Our humble government-subsidised film and TV industry is no more than a lemonade stand in the shadow of Hollywood’s arena spectacular, unable to compete budget-wise with the deep pockets of Tinseltown or produce bombast on the scale of American studios.But scratch the surface of Australian film and TV history and you will find a small but rich vein of super strange locally made superhero productions with their own – forgive me – true blue je ne sais quoi. Their eclecticism and off-kilter energy provides a refreshing counterpoint to the risk-averse kind falling off the Hollywood assembly line. Continue reading...

Reggae producer who had a profound effect on Bob Marley’s sound and helped propel him on to the world stageLee “Scratch” Perry, who has died aged 85, was one of Jamaica’s finest and most unpredictable record producers, as well as a much recorded singer. But perhaps his greatest global legacy was the profound effect he had on the king of reggae, Bob Marley.As a singer in the Wailers with Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston, Marley had experienced a modest degree of success in Jamaica before he came into Perry’s charismatic orbit in 1970. Hooking up with Perry changed the way Marley saw things, pulling him away from the measured harmonies of a trio towards something more heartfelt. Continue reading...

Priti Patel and Dick discussed the commissioner’s future last week, it is understoodMinisters and the Metropolitan police commissioner, Cressida Dick, have begun discussions about whether her turbulent term in charge of Britain’s biggest force will be extended, with a decision said to be “imminent”.Dick, the first woman in charge of the London force since it was established in 1829, is on a five-year contract that expires in April 2022. She could step down then or have the contract extended for a period. Continue reading...

This Has Gotta Stop lines include ‘I can’t take this BS any longer’ and follows negative comments about restrictions

Opposition voices have been silenced and rules tweaked to make monitoring parliamentary elections harderThe Russian government has silenced opposition voices, approved cash payouts to potential voters, and made it nearly impossible to monitor the polls as it prepares for parliamentary elections next month that the opposition has warned will be marred by fraud.United Russia, the ruling party that has supported Vladimir Putin through nearly his entire presidency, is expected to maintain a majority of the seats in the next Duma, despite state polling that shows that just 26% of Russians are ready to vote for the party– its lowest rating since 2008. Continue reading...

Prized collection smuggled across Europe by Jewish owners in 1930s expected to fetch more than $2mA collection of prized Meissen porcelain smuggled across Europe after its Jewish owners were forced to flee the Nazis and later procured for Hitler before being uncovered in a salt mine by the “Monuments Men”, is to be auctioned in New York next month.The extraordinary journey that the 18th-century artworks have undergone, reflecting the turmoil of the second world war years, has been reconstructed by art historians and restitution lawyers before their sale by Sotheby’s, the international auction house. Continue reading...

Campaign group Republic believes bad headlines are increasing support for the abolition of the monarchyIt has been another run of weeks in which the royal family’s open sores have been publicised around the world.Prince Andrew was confirmed to be a “person of interest” in a new US investigation into the disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein. Days later, it transpired that a new epilogue of a biography of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex states the pair believe the royal family did not take accountability for the concerns raised in their interview with Oprah Winfrey. Continue reading...

Producer and performer who worked with Bob Marley and pioneered both dub and roots reggae styles dies in hospital in Jamaica• Obituary: one of Jamaica’s finest and most unpredictable musiciansLee “Scratch” Perry, whose pioneering work with roots reggae and dub opened up profound new depths in Jamaican music, has died aged 85.Jamaican media reported the news that he died in hospital in Lucea, northern Jamaica. No cause of death has yet been given. Andrew Holness, the country’s prime minister, sent “deep condolences” to Perry’s family. Continue reading...

Paintings commissioned by East India Company in 18th and 19th century up for sale at Sotheby’sRemarkable paintings of the flora and fauna of India, including a work once owned by Jackie Kennedy Onassis depicting a stork eating a snail, are to go on sale in the first auction dedicated to Company School art.Sotheby’s has announced details of a sale that shines light on overlooked Indian artists today regarded as forgotten masters. Continue reading...

Prince’s Foundation investigating claims that individuals could pay £100,000 for dinner with royal heirA charity founded by the Prince of Wales has launched an ethics investigation into “cash for access” claims that middlemen took cuts for setting up dinners involving wealthy donors and the heir to the throne.The Prince’s Foundation said it was taking the allegations “very seriously” after it was claimed that individuals could pay £100,000 to secure a dinner with the charity’s founder and an overnight stay at Dumfries House, his mansion in Scotland. An email was said to reveal that fixers could take up to 25% of the fees, which were intended for the royal’s charity ventures, the Mail on Sunday reported. Continue reading...

There will soon be enough Pfizer and Moderna jabs to offer to those who don’t want AstraZeneca, but politicians say 12- to 15-year-olds should get priorityOlder Australians could have to wait months to get a choice of vaccines, despite the technical advisory group on immunisation (Atagi) calling on the government to consider making mRNA vaccines such as Pfizer available to them.With supplies of mRNA vaccines set to increase from 1m Pfizer doses per week from July to at least 3m per week of Pfizer and Moderna from October, there will soon be enough doses to offer choice to older Australians, who currently can only take the AstraZeneca vaccine. Continue reading...

Reports of ‘powerful explosion’ thought to have been rocket attack in Afghan capital, following warnings from US of ‘specific, credible’ threats

Concern as scientists say vaccinating adults is more important than inoculating children or booster shots

The climate emergency and state neglect caused this disasterAfter the second world war, Greece’s countryside experienced two debilitating human surges – an exodus of villagers, then a most peculiar human invasion of its fringes. These two surges, aided by a weak state and abetted by the climate crisis, have turned the low-level drama of naturally redemptive forest fires into this summer’s heart-wrenching catastrophe.After heatwaves of unprecedented longevity, wildfires across the summer months have so far destroyed more than 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) of ancient pine forests. They have blackened swathes of Attica, scorched parts of ancient Olympia and obliterated north Evia’s magnificent forests – whose rural communities lost their homes, not to mention their livelihoods and landscapes. Continue reading...

Stroll down Britain’s canals these days and you’ll encounter waterside businesses of all kinds trading out of narrowboats. Here, five floating traders share their storiesWhen Stuart Fenwick first moved to London seven years ago, he spent a lot of time on foot exploring the capital’s towpaths. His wanderings prompted a recurring dream in which he ran a floristry studio aboard a narrowboat. “I’ve been working with flowers since I was 15 and I’ve always wanted a shop, but could never really afford it,” he explains. “The overheads in London are just too high and unfortunately, retail floristry has been in decline for a long time.” Fenwick found the solution in Bria – a 42ft narrowboat that roves the city’s waterways. Continue reading...

In 1982, Julie Bindel joined 30,000 women ‘embracing the base’ in protest over nuclear arms. Here she recounts the pivotal role the protest played in their livesIn September 1981, 32 women, four men and several children marched from Cardiff to Berkshire to protest over nuclear weapons being sited at RAF Greenham Common. The following year, the founders declared the camp “women only”, and the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp became one of the longest and most famous examples of feminist protest in recent history.The camp was set up outside the RAF base to protest against US nuclear weapons on British common land. Facing police and soldiers, the women sang: “Are you on the side of suicide, are you on the side of homicide, are you on the side of genocide, which side are you on?” Continue reading...

Despite the balancing act – home schooling, a second baby, a fifth album and a nationwide tour – Paloma Faith always comes out fighting… and full of storiesHere’s a nice little exclusive for you,” Paloma Faith leans into my voice recorder generously, grinning, “and you’ll like this because it’s about lactation!” We are huddled outside a café on a day that promised sun but delivered rain, and she pulls her jacket around her a bit tighter – on the back, in big letters it reads: IT’S ALL BOLLOCKS.So, she says, a week ago she put a post on Instagram about her second baby’s aversion to breastfeeding, and minutes later got a call. “‘Don’t bin the milk!’ they said. Six months of milk, I’d been pumping since my baby was born, and a lactation consultant called and told me she’d pick it up, give it to a new mother who couldn’t breastfeed and was beside herself with worry. It was all marked, dated, so I put it in a freezer bag stuffed with ice packs and sent it off.” Does the woman know… “That it’s pop star milk? Nope!” Continue reading...

Two-thirds of people say a border poll should be held at some point in the wake of BrexitTwo-thirds of voters in Northern Ireland believe there should be a vote over its place in the UK, but only 37% want it to take place within the next five years, according to a new poll for the Observer.Some 31% of voters said there should be a vote at some point about Northern Ireland’s place in the UK but after 2026, the LucidTalk poll found. A further 29% said there should never be such a vote. There is currently a seven-point lead for Northern Ireland remaining part of the UK should any vote take place. Continue reading...

Here are the current coronavirus hotspots and Covid-19 public health exposure sites in Sydney, regional New South Wales and Canberra, and what to do if you’ve visited them. Our analysis and map shows where Covid cases are increasing, and a live data update tracks the daily case numbers in NSW

Children are allowed to make mistakes – and they help us to learn, says Philippa PerryThe question A while back my son physically hurt a friend at school. He stopped when the teacher told him off. The friend has moved on, forgiven him and even invited him to his birthday party, but it is haunting my son as he still feels bad and really anxious about it. What happened was very much out of character and he can’t explain why he did it.Here is my son’s letter to you: I am a nine-year-old boy. A couple of months ago, I hurt my friend by squeezing his neck tight. I don’t know why. Maybe I was overtired. Now I deeply regret this and have been feeling guilty almost every day since. I apologised and I keep apologising. The boy I hurt forgave me quickly, but I can’t seem to forgive myself. What doesn’t help is that I’m not religious so I can’t speak to God and ask him for forgiveness. After it happened, I was so distressed and quiet, but those feelings were bottled up inside me. Sometimes when I think about it my stomach hurts. I’m writing in the hope you’ll teach me how to move on. Continue reading...

With our international reputation in tatters, we need to take a long, hard look at ourselves and our place in the world“ ‘Very well, alone’ did good service for Winston Churchill as a wartime rallying cry in 1940,” says Andrew Rawnsley (“Boris Johnson’s Global Britain is exposed as impotent and friendless by Afghanistan”, Comment). The myth that Britain “stood alone” in the Second World War and that Europe was then liberated from “our island fortress” was woven by Margaret Thatcher in her 1988 Bruges speech and became one of the driving fictions of Brexit.“Where is Global Britain in the streets of Kabul?” was a little rich coming from Theresa May, who declared, when triggering article 50 of the Lisbon treaty in 2017: “I want Britain to be… a great, global trading nation that is respected around the world and strong, united and confident at home.” Continue reading...

Brazilian president’s remark to evangelical leaders came as he questioned country’s voting systemBrazilian president Jair Bolsonaro says he sees three options for his future: winning the 2022 presidential election, death or prison.“I have three alternatives for my future: being arrested, killed or victory,” he said on Saturday, in remarks to a meeting of evangelical leaders. Bolsonaro later added that the first option is out of question. “No man on Earth will threaten me.” Continue reading...

Survey by Shanghai University that asked colleges to research the political stance and ‘state of mind’ of members of LGBTQ+ communities has sparked alarmA well-known Chinese university appears to have asked its colleges to make lists of their LGBTQ+ students and report on their “state of mind”, according to a purported internal directive published online on both Chinese and foreign social media platforms.Shanghai University has not confirmed the request or responded to queries about its intention, but it has sparked alarm among young Chinese people, coming after a crackdown on campus groups and organisations supporting LGBTQ+ and feminist communities. Continue reading...

Since the pandemic hit, the world’s altered attitude to fossil fuels is throwing doubt over the industry’s futureThe UK’s North Sea oil industry may have survived one of the darkest market downturns in history during the Covid-19 pandemic, but the deepest gloom lies over the future of the fossil-fuel industry.Companies are braced for this week’s annual economic report from industry body Oil and Gas UK (OGUK). It is expected to lay bare the full toll of the pandemic on the ageing oil and gas basin last year. Continue reading...

• Category 4 storm forecast to make landfall on Sunday• Mayor warns: ‘Time in not on our side’As Hurricane Ida bore down on the Louisiana coast, projected to arrive as a “life-altering” category 4 storm, thousands evacuated from New Orleans and other communities in Ida’s projected path.Related: A Katrina survivor's tale: 'They forgot us and that's when things started to get bad' Continue reading...

Ex-marine Pen Farthing said to have left expletive-laden message for defence secretary’s adviser as he sought to fly out staff and petsA former Royal Marine who founded an animal shelter in Kabul left an expletive-laden message for a government aide as he sought to place his staff and pets on a flight out of Afghanistan, according to reports.The Times newspaper said it had obtained a leaked audio recording of Paul “Pen” Farthing berating Peter Quentin, a special adviser to the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, who he accused of “blocking” efforts to arrange a flight. Continue reading...

The early European explorers understood the power of naming and so do Māori todayNew Zealand is, in its own imagination, a progressive utopia. The first country in the world where women won the right to vote, the first country in the world to introduce workplace arbitration, the Anglosphere’s chief critic of nuclear weapons, and the former British colony with “the fairest treaty ever made by Europeans with a native race”.Related: New Zealand Māori may have been first to discover Antarctica, study suggests Continue reading...

Omar Hassan Abu al-Nile was hit on the sidelines of a demonstration near the fence separating the Gaza StripA 12-year-old Palestinian boy shot last week by Israeli soldiers during clashes along the border with Gaza has died of his injuries, the territory’s health ministry said on Saturday.Omar Hassan Abu al-Nile was hit last Saturday on the sidelines of a demonstration near the border fence separating the Gaza Strip from Israel, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa said. He “succumbed to his injuries”, Gaza’s health ministry said in a statement. About 100 mourners attended his funeral in the afternoon. Continue reading...

Taliban say US should have informed them before conducting airstrike; Final UK evacuation flight purely for Afghan nationals has departed