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The Police and Bruce Springsteen drummers share memories of their late Rolling Stones counterpart, explaining his technical brilliance, his verve – and his clothes-folding skillsI’m an early-period Stones fan, and not so much because of losing interest in them, but because when you’re 16, music is 100 times more important – and the Rolling Stones were right there when I was 16. Humans are sort of like ducks. A duck comes out of the shell, the first warm thing it sees is mama; for adolescent teenage humans, the first raucous sound of rebellion, that’s daddy. And in my generation, that sound was the Stones. Continue reading...

Exclusive: in six countries surveyed, outgoing chancellor is most appreciated for handling of German economyAlmost 16 years after she first became Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel’s approval ratings in five major European countries and the United States remain higher than those of any other current world leader, a new poll shows.Asked by YouGov whether they had a favourable or unfavourable opinion of Merkel, who steps down next month after four terms in office, more respondents delivered a positive verdict than a negative one in all six countries surveyed. Continue reading...

World Cup host has not properly investigated fatalities, rights group says, citing concerns over heat stress and safetyWorld Cup host Qatar has failed to investigate the deaths of thousands of migrant workers in the past decade, according to a new report by Amnesty International.The human rights organisation said the majority of migrant worker deaths in Qatar are attributed to “natural causes”, cardiac or respiratory failure; classifications which are “meaningless” without the underlying cause of death explained, according to one expert cited. Continue reading...

Desree Pether had hoped her husband was going to be freed. Instead, she had to tell their three children their dad was not coming home

The region, which long had the lowest rate of income inequality in the US, is shifting to one of haves and have-nots – and it’s happening fastI’ve long been accustomed to people outside the American west knowing next to nothing about my home state of Montana. Real things people have said to me over the years: is it part of Canada? Overrun with nothing but meth? A mythical place with big skies and nobody but macho cowfolk?Of course, none of those statements are true. But in the last couple of years, Montana has become a destination among both the traveling and remote-work class – and my home is changing as fast as in any previous western land rush. Continue reading...

A Covid-positive woman was allegedly left to sit outside a hospital in the cold in New South Wales, Australia. Monica Kerwin, a resident of Wilcannia, says the woman was turned away and told to call an ambulance. Wilcannia has recorded more than 50 Covid cases in the past seven days, with a case rate of five for every 100 residents, the highest in Australia. It is poorly equipped to handle such a caseload as it has no ventilators

UK health officials say no decision has been made yet as new school year in England looms

Police say man allegedly injected food products using needles in three supermarkets on Fulham Palace RoadA man has been arrested on suspicion of contaminating food using a syringe at three supermarkets in west London, a council has said.Hammersmith and Fulham council said officers were called just before 8pm after a man was reported to be shouting abuse at people in the street. Continue reading...

She’s the queen of the power ballad mega hit – and has even written songs for Biden, Harris and Ringo Starr. Now the world’s most successful female songwriter is finally releasing her own albumAt the end of the 1990s, when Diane Warren was the unrivalled queen of the power ballad, her music publisher presented her with a quartet of gold discs and a plaque hailing her as “the career saviour of the 90s”. The discs celebrated the windswept mega-hits Warren had written for Toni Braxton (Un-Break My Heart), LeAnn Rimes (How Do I Live), Celine Dion (Because You Loved Me) and Aerosmith (I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing), the first two of which are still among the bestselling US singles ever.To be imperial in one pop era is usually to be defined by it for evermore, but Warren has been writing hits for almost four decades, notching up nine US No 1s and 32 Top 10 hits. In 2015, Til It Happens to You, her potent Lady Gaga collaboration for a documentary about campus rape, made her once again the pop equivalent of the striker you turn to when you absolutely have to score a penalty. Continue reading...

The families of some 9/11 victims are still pursuing compensation from those complicit in the attacks – but is Sudan, already ravaged by years of US sanctions, really the right target?Five months after the terrorist strikes by al-Qaida on 11 September 2001, a lawyer named Ron Motley received a phone call from Deena Burnett, whose husband had been killed in the attack. Thomas Burnett, she explained, had been on one of the hijacked planes. She wanted to ask whether he would help her to find a way to sue those responsible for the attack that claimed her husband.Two weeks after the call, on 2 March 2002, Motley and a team of lawyers with his firm, Motley Rice, spent a day with the Burnett family at their home in California. They described how, upon realising the plane had been taken over for a suicide mission, Thomas Burnett had led the charge on the cockpit on flight 93. He and his fellow passengers managed to divert the plane from its target – the White House. The cockpit flight recorder captured his now-famous last words before they stormed the hijackers: “We’re going in!” Shortly after, the plane crashed, killing all 44 people on board. Burnett was 38 years old. Continue reading...

It can feel as if our options narrow with every passing year. But taking a big risk could mean the second half of your life is much more exciting and fulfilling than the firstAlison Webster was once showing prospective students around the university where she was studying medicine when a sixth former said: “You’re so old – why are you even doing this?” Webster laughs at the memory, home after the end of a shift as an A&E doctor. “I said, ‘When you go home, ask your mum if she likes her life. I bet there’s something your mum’s always wanted to do that she’s not had the opportunity to do because of you. Ask what her dreams were, and see if she has fulfilled them.’”Webster’s childhood dream was to be a doctor, but she didn’t do well in her A-levels, “so that got put to one side. But it was always in there.” She ran a music distribution company, but as she approached her 40s, the business was struggling and she had started to wonder what to do with the rest of her life. Was a career in medicine really out of reach? Continue reading...

Russian opposition leader tells of brainwashing and propaganda in jail but remains optimistic Putin regime will end ‘sooner or later’Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has given his first interview from prison, comparing it to a Chinese labor camp and saying he is forced to watch eight hours of state television a day.Navalny, who built his political career on exposing corruption in Russia, is being held in a maximum security prison colony in Pokrov, 100km east of Moscow. Continue reading...

Officers confident man found seriously injured on a canal barge in Ealing, London, is Lee PeacockPolice have said they have found a man wanted in connection with two fatal stabbings in Westminster on a canal barge in west London with serious injuries.Lee Peacock was seen at North Wembley station on the evening of 19 August, the evening the two people were killed. Continue reading...

At least 10,000 people at Kabul airport waiting for flight according to Major General Hank Taylor; 2,000 people who worked for UK still to be airlifted

Thursday: some Coalition MPs want vaccine mandate extended to in-home carers and disability sector. Plus: Australia’s gold start to ParalympicsGood morning. Calls for mandatory vaccinations to be extended in Australia, thousands scramble to escape Kabul, and Australia’s Paralympians go top of the world on day one in Toyko.Coalition MPs are urging the prime minister to extend a Covid vaccine mandate to all aged care workers, with national cabinet also pondering mandatory vaccinations for disability workers. Queensland MP Warren Entsch and former doctor Katie Allen have both called for an extension to include home care workers as well, amid reports that hundreds of aged care centres are struggling to meet the initial deadline. State and federal governments remain locked in discussion over whether meeting vaccination targets will signal an end to lockdowns, with finance minister Simon Birmingham walking back more inflammatory statements from the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, who earlier threatened withdrawing economic supports if states failed to phase out lockdowns once 70% of Australians over 16 were vaccinated. Meanwhile, debate continues over the topic of at what age children should be vaccinated to help reach herd immunity. Continue reading...

New chief executive Michael Murray, 31, who is Mike Ashley’s future son-in-law, has till 2025 to achieve targetThe incoming 31-year-old boss of Sports Direct owner Frasers Group could be handed shares worth more than £100m if he more than doubles its share price.The company, which also owns the House of Fraser department stores and the designer fashion chain Flannels, revealed the bumper potential payout on Wednesday night, weeks after it announced that Michael Murray would be taking over from his future father-in-law, Mike Ashley, next spring. Continue reading...

Ben Wallace signals few places remain on UK rescue flights as fears of attack grow and deadline loomsAfghans who want to flee to Britain may be better off “trying to get to the border” than awaiting RAF evacuation, the defence secretary has said as British troops made last-ditch attempts to airlift at least 1,500 remaining interpreters and others who have supported the UK.Ben Wallace, in a briefing to MPs, signalled there were few places left on British rescue flights, which have evacuated more than 10,000 people from Kabul since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan less than two weeks ago. Continue reading...

The Pentagon has responded to the unexpected arrival of two US Congress members in Kabul airport, in what the congressmen claimed was a fact-finding mission but critics have dismissed as grandstanding. “They certainly took time away from what we had planned to do that day,” said John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary.Seth Moulton, a Democratic representative from Massachusetts, and Peter Meijer, a Republican representative from Michigan, astonished state department and military officials in the Afghan capital when they flew in on Tuesday.

Faced with crowd stampedes and Taliban reprisals, even those eligible for travel to UK have begun to give up hopeFor the past four days, Nangyalai, a 42-year-old minicab driver from south London, has been queueing with his wife and 11-month-old baby outside the Baron hotel on the edge of Kabul airport, trying to get close enough to the entrance gate to show guards his British passport.There is a sign by the gate stating “British passport holders only”. Inside the hotel, officials are working to grant evacuation visas for thousands of UK nationals and Afghan citizens who have worked for British organisations. Diplomatic staff say they are “processing hundreds every hour”, but there is a growing sense of despair among the crowds who have been waiting outside since the start of the week – and tensions are rising. Continue reading...

Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi lost the recent election and was succeeded by the country’s first female leader, an outcome he is blaming on the New Zealand PMThe former prime minister of Samoa has accused Jacinda Ardern of being behind the recent political crisis in Samoa, suggesting she had wanted to install a female prime minister.“I am starting to get suspicious maybe New Zealand is behind all of this,” said Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi, during an interview with TV1 on Sunday night. Continue reading...

Greens go for wide appeal with reworked campfire song with no mention of devastating floodsGermany’s Green party has been accused of attempting to revive its hippyish origins rather than tackle the challenges of the present with the release of a campaign ad for next month’s federal election that revives a 19th-century folk song.Five weeks before a general election, in which at one point the party was leading in the polls, the one-minute-long commercial is being seen by some critics as a deliberate and last-ditch attempt to appeal to as wide a constituency as possible as it battles for second place against the resurgent Social Democrats. Continue reading...

Hotel where refugee Mohammed Munib Majeedi died was subject of fire enforcement actionThe hotel where a five-year-old Afghan refugee fell to his death last week was the subject of a fire enforcement action when the Home Office placed Afghan families there, the Guardian has learned.Mohammed Munib Majeedi, known as Munib, fell from a ninth-floor window at the Oyo Metropolitan hotel, where he was quarantining with his family after arriving from Afghanistan, last Wednesday. Continue reading...

Nia DaCosta’s quasi reboot develops the horror myth as an expression of rage against racism in the era of Black Lives MatterCandyman, in its first incarnation, stepped daintily out of the mirror in 1992, in writer-director Bernard Rose’s US-set version of the Clive Barker novella The Forbidden, a parable of English class shame set in a Liverpool housing estate. Rose shifted the locale to Chicago’s deprived Cabrini-Green projects, switched the racial identity of the demon from white to black and gave filmgoers that inspired premise of exactly how he is summoned by rash unbelievers and giggling teens. Since then, Candyman has spawned sequels, references, memes and gags: such as Handyman – say his name five times in the mirror and he shows up three hours later and does a horrific job on your boiler.Related: Candyman’s Yahya Abdul-Mateen II: ‘Black people are so much more than our trauma’ Continue reading...

Unidentified number of rights activists, judges, LGBTQ+ advocates and others also waiting to get out, sources say

The Guardian’s picture editors select photo highlights from around the globe Continue reading...

Late in life, maverick composer Cage decided to stop finding ‘alternatives to harmony’. The results have been rediscovered by a new generation of musiciansIn the summer of 1990 John Cage gave a lecture at the International New Music gathering in Darmstadt, Germany, and effectively admitted defeat. The then 76-year-old US composer announced that his philosophical ideas of freedom and collaboration, concepts built into his avant garde musical compositions since the 1950s, had failed to influence reality. The world had got worse, not better. It was “a life spent … beating my head against a wall”, he announced. There was, however, one consolation. “I no longer consider it necessary to find alternatives to harmony,” he said. “After all these years I am finally writing beautiful music.”Cage was referring to his Number Pieces, around 40 late works named after the quantity of performers involved (from 1 to 101) in which individual musicians could choose when and how long to play (within designated time brackets) resulting in often quiet and meditative pieces, a marked contrast to the previous, often abrasive compositions he’d built his 40-year reputation on. Continue reading...

The death toll is still rising 10 days after a catastrophic earthquake struck southern Haiti on the morning of 14 August. More than 2,200 deaths have been recorded so far, while at least 30,000 families have had to abandon their homes. Many were sleeping on the streets when Tropical Storm Grace struck two days later, bringing high winds and pelting rain. But despite the hardship, many Haitians are wary of the massive international aid response that is under way

Decision taken in consultation with allies after Biden says US sticking to 31 August withdrawal deadline

Multiple studies seem to suggest immunity declines over time, though what this means is unclear

The best images from the first day’s action in Tokyo, including cycling, fencing, swimming, table tennis and wheelchair rugby Continue reading...

My friend Kevin Young, who has died of cancer aged 62, was a former businessman and prominent campaigner for the rights of victims of child sex abuse, whose civil action against his own abusers led to an important change in the law, enabling others to seek compensation many years after suffering abuse.Born in Newcastle, to Margaret (nee Loveley) and John Young, Kevin was taken into care in 1961 suffering from neglect and malnutrition. His parents were convicted of his wilful neglect. Continue reading...

Simon Birmingham moves to reassure Australians the government will not ‘walk away from them’ following Josh Frydenberg comments

Unable to travel to a family funeral due to Covid, Ben Jackson used his sheep in a farewell messageA sheep farmer stuck in lockdown in New South Wales who was unable to attend his aunt’s funeral has honoured her memory with the ultimate tribute: a love heart made from sheep.Ben Jackson from Guyra couldn’t make it to Brisbane to be with his aunt during her final moments after a two-year fight with cancer that began at the start of the pandemic. Continue reading...

Some distrust kvetching in print, but writers from Shakespeare to Valerie Solanas show there’s nothing wrong with constructive – and even destructive – criticismI probably started griping as soon as I could talk. I know I was a good sulker, and sulking usually solidifies into gripes. Many readers are oddly wary of rants in novels, but I’m all in favour of a good, free-wheeling tirade. What’s wrong with offering a little constructive criticism – or even destructive criticism, as long as it’s funny? You think the world needs no improvement?Related: Things Are Against Us by Lucy Ellmann review – feminist pyrotechnics Continue reading...

NSW deputy premier says he’s subsequently spoken to deceased man’s brother ‘to apologise for any distress my comments may have caused’Follow our Covid live blog for the latest updates

Cecilia Malmström warned climate change is an urgent global crisis and Australia, as a big economy and big emitter, needs to do more

Spencer Elden, who appeared at four months old on iconic album design, claims the image is child pornographySpencer Elden, who appeared as a naked baby on one of rock music’s most iconic album covers – Nevermind by Nirvana – is suing the band, claiming he was sexually exploited as a child.In a lawsuit filed in a Californian district court against numerous parties, including the surviving members of the band, Kurt Cobain’s widow Courtney Love, and the record labels that released or distributed the album in the last three decades, Elden alleges the defendants produced child pornography with the image, which features him swimming naked towards a dollar bill with his genitalia visible. Continue reading...

Nadia El-Nakla and health secretary Humza Yousaf allege Little Scholars refused children with Muslim namesCourt action is proceeding against a Dundee nursery over claims it discriminated against the wife and daughter of the Scottish government’s health secretary.Humza Yousaf, who is Muslim, and his wife, Nadia El-Nakla, allege Little Scholars day nursery refused to offer places to three children with Muslim names, including their two-year-old daughter, Amal, but found space for children with western-sounding names. Continue reading...

Rapper, whose new album Donda is expected this week, previously announced name change in 2018Kanye West has filed court documents to formally change his name to Ye.In the filing with Los Angeles Superior Court, West aims to distil his full name – Kanye Omari West – to just Ye, with no other first name or surname, citing “personal reasons”. A judge will now need to approve the filing. Continue reading...

Feline fancies began in the UK in 1871, with proud cat owners grabbing the chance to show off their perfect pets. What is the secret of their enduring appeal?The air in the sports centre has a base note of urine. A soundtrack of plaintive mewling is interrupted occasionally by the sharp scratch of a hiss. Humans dart around the floor, attending to the whims of their lusciously furred, bouffant companions. Hairbrushes are wielded; coats are teased to 80s volumes. Over the PA system, an announcement is made. “Long-haired kittens are required in ring five!”The first cat show took place in Crystal Palace, south-east London, in 1871. I have come to the LondonCats Worldwide (LCWW) 150th anniversary celebration show. Over two days, 200 competitors will converge on the Crystal Palace national sports centre, cat carriers in hand. In six rings along one wall of the show floor, judges will assess each animal for temperament, condition and conformity to the breed standard, before an audience of paying spectators. Continue reading...

‘AutoVacc’ draws out extra 20% from vials to optimise supplies and ease pressure on health workers

Acceleration of vaccine rollout and test-and-trace improvements credited for turnaround

For many refugees who fled to India decades ago, the Taliban’s ascent in Afghanistan has dashed hopes of them ever being able to return homeThey call it little Kabul and it’s not hard to see why. In this lively corner of south Delhi, the streets of Lajpat Nagar are lined with Afghan pharmacies, supermarkets, travel agents and beauty parlours, with Dari Persian signage almost as common as Hindi. Delhi’s residents will trek across the city just for the Afghan restaurants, and for a taste of the thick, steaming ovals of naan bread baked in the numerous Afghan bakeries in the neighbourhood.But in recent days, a sombre mood has taken over this usually bustling enclave, where thousands of Afghans have settled, some as early as 1979. As Kabul fell to the Taliban last Sunday, many of those who had sought safety in India as refugees feared it sounded the death knell for them ever being able to return home. Continue reading...

Patients with a range of debilitating symptoms but no positive Covid test may not qualify for specialty clinics – and may be told it’s ‘all in your head’For months, Andrea Tomasek suspected she was suffering from debilitating symptoms brought on by a Covid-19 infection. She had a fever and her breathing was so labored she said it felt like her “lungs were sponges full of fluid”. She later experienced dizziness and periods where she would pass out.But when the 37-year-old first started to feel sick in March 2020, the pandemic was still in its early days, so she couldn’t access a test in her home city of Savage, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. Continue reading...

Violence, when it happens, is clumsy and banal. The possibility of a repeat kicking lurked around every corner and the hometown I loved was cast in sinister huesThe first time I was beaten up in the street I was 16 and had intervened when a boy tried to throw a friend of mine through a shop window. The third time, I had my nose broken at 2am in Luton for laughing when three jeering lads called me “John Travolta” (a reference to Grease, presumably; I was going through a big Rocket From The Crypt phase).But the second time was the most significant. It was 1993, the summer before I failed my A-levels majestically, and two friends, D and M, and I were stumbling home several miles from a Durham nightclub (whose door was run by a young Dominic Cummings) back to our estate outside a north-east town. We were innocent indie kids; we played in punk bands, changed hairstyles regularly and took absolutely nothing seriously save for books, music and high times. We were not fighters. Life was for laughing at. Continue reading...

Shipments of aid from many countries have been arriving in the south-western Tiburon peninsula of Haiti, which was struck by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake on 14 August Continue reading...

Movies deemed a security threat can bring penalties of up to three years’ jail under stricter law that also covers previously approved titlesHong Kong will scrutinise past films for national security breaches under a tough new censorship law in the latest blow to the city’s political and artistic freedoms.Authorities announced in June that the financial hub’s censorship board would check any future films for content that breached the security law. But on Tuesday they unveiled a new, hardened censorship law that would also cover any titles that had previously been given a green light. Continue reading...

Fashion and beauty expert David Yi has written a book that reveals how prejudice has kept men’s beauty routines hiddenThe history of the male beauty ritual has been largely undocumented – and forgotten about – due to a combination of gender prejudice and misogyny, according to a new book by David Yi, writer and founder of the gender-inclusive skincare website Very Good Light. “For centuries, it is as if speaking about a king’s cosmetics predilections or a famed ruler’s aesthetics meant they were feminine which meant them being less powerful,” he says.The author of Pretty Boys: Legendary Icons Who Redefined Beauty concludes that history omits the grooming rituals of leaders and rulers in an attempt to put a modern, heteronormative-filter on the past. Yi says: “Many historians are fearful that the men they have studied and revered would be stripped of their dignity, or perhaps even deemed less powerful, if it was discovered that they wore makeup or had a passion for being pretty.” Continue reading...

When she began experiencing head pain as a student, Dawson was diagnosed with a breakdown and sectioned. She actually had encephalitis. Five years on, now paralysed in one leg, she is speaking out for disability rightsLucy Dawson was skating through life. Everything came so easily to her: she had friends, confidence, academic success. At the age of 20, she was studying criminology at the University of Leicester, determined to join the police. Then, in the summer of 2016, she got a terrible headache that refused to go away.The headache was to change Dawson’s life. It took almost four months for her to be diagnosed with autoimmune encephalitis, an acute inflammation of the brain that leaves many people with permanent brain damage and has a mortality rate of about one in 10. She was showing classic symptoms of encephalitis from the off (confusion, personality change, hallucinations and the headaches) which should have been spotted within a couple of days. Continue reading...

This bounteous feast for Beatles fans sees Paul McCartney dive into the back catalogue with producer Rick Rubin – who then does something truly amazingLong before their mop-topped world domination, Paul McCartney and George Harrison went hitchhiking. Paul, being the sensible one, had packed a camping stove and a can of rice pudding. “Ambrosia,” confided McCartney to his interviewer, music producer and Beatles superfan Rick Rubin, who, being American, hid bewilderment at this dismal 63-year-old English tragical mystery tour behind a polite rictus.It was on this road trip that the pair wrote one of their first songs. I imagine George with a little quiff, Paul with the can opener, sitting on a verge outside Widnes whiling away the hours to the next ride by writing Thinking of Linking, a song inspired by a long-defunct firm, Link Furniture, that McCartney has admitted elsewhere, was terrible. Continue reading...