World news | The Guardian

Ashley Bloomfield urges everyone to be kind amid rise in online abuse after outbreak at Auckland church service that took place before lockdown

Guardian journalists Lorenzo Tondo and Clare Longrigg discuss the largest mafia trial in three decades. At the centre is Emanuele Mancuso, son of boss Luni Mancuso, who has been revealing the clan’s secrets after accepting police protectionThe Guardian’s Lorenzo Tondo tells Rachel Humphreys about the trial against the ’Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia syndicate who are Italy’s most powerful organised crime group. The trial has 900 witnesses testifying against more than 350 people, including politicians and officials charged with being members of the syndicate.All eyes will be on Emanuele Mancuso, who has been revealing the clan’s secrets after accepting police protection. His testimony will be used against his uncle Luigi Mancuso, said to be the region’s most powerful mafia figure. Continue reading...

Dedicated to the art of monochrome and black-and-white photography in Australia and New Zealand, the Mono awards has announced its winners across three categories: people, places and animals Continue reading...

Newly released documents show government backed a vaccine patent waiver only after the US changed its position

Used to cook everything from racks of lamb to gummy worms, airfryers are a social media sensation – but food professionals are split on their utilityWhen the Sydney chef Dan Hong posted a video to his 104,000 Instagram followers of a lamb rack emerging from his home airfryer, its fat aureate and twinkling, the caption had a caveat: “Edit,” it read, “please don’t take this too seriously guys. It’s a lamb rack cooked in the air fryer ‍♂️ ‍♂️ ‍♂️”“Some people were commenting ‘it’s undercooked’ or this or that you should’ve rendered the fat a bit more and it’s like, bro, I cooked it in a bloody airfryer,” Hong says. Continue reading...

Exclusive: small window for RAF flights evacuating those at risk after Johnson fails to convince Biden to extend deadlineAfghanistan latest news – liveBritain’s evacuation from Kabul is expected to end within “24 to 36 hours”, potentially abandoning thousands of Afghans, defence sources said as the increasingly bullish Taliban moved to prevent them travelling to the airport to flee.The US president, Joe Biden, rejected pleas from the UK for the humanitarian airlift to continue beyond 31 August at a virtual meeting of G7 leaders on Tuesday, triggering claims from Conservative MPs that the “special relationship” is over and that US-UK relations were “about to enter their lowest point since Suez”. Continue reading...

Martial arts actor with an economical style who starred in The Street Fighter and later in Kill Bill and Immortal CombatIn the early 1990s Quentin Tarantino helped extend Sonny Chiba’s appeal beyond the martial arts enthusiasts who had admired the actor’s work for decades. Chiba, who has died aged 82 from Covid-19, had already made more than 120 movies by that point. But it was in Tarantino’s screenplay for True Romance (1993), directed by Tony Scott, that many western viewers first heard his name.Clarence, the amiable hero played by Christian Slater, declares Chiba to be “bar none, the greatest actor working in martial arts movies today”. He then spends his birthday watching a triple-bill of the actor’s explosively violent films. Continue reading...

Analysis: US president dashes hopes he might acknowledge damage done by handling of Afghan withdrawalIn the end it took only seven minutes for Joe Biden to pour salt into the wounds of his fractured relationship with European leaders, telling them firmly on a video call that he would not extend the 31 August deadline for US troops to stay in Kabul, as he had been asked by the French, Italians and most of all the British. The rebuff follows Biden’s earlier decision in July to insist on the August deadline previously set in 2020 by Donald Trump for the withdrawal, a decision the US president relayed to his EU colleagues as a fait accompli.For Europe the episode has been a rude awakening, and a moment of sober reassessment. Only on 25 March Charles Michel had afforded Biden the chance to address a meeting of the European Council, the first foreign leader given the honour since Barack Obama 11 years earlier. Biden after all had said his foreign policy would only be as strong as his system of alliances, the true shield of the republic, and Europe would be at the heart of that system. Continue reading...

Shortage of workers and disruption cauused by Covid and Brexit push retail stock to 38-year lowBritain’s economy has been plunged into a supply chain crisis, with major retailers’ stock levels at their the lowest since 1983 as a result of worker shortages and transport disruption caused by Covid and Brexit.In a development that suggests recovery from the pandemic could be at risk, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said stock levels in relation to expected sales fell to their lowest level in August since it began tracking retail industry trends almost four decades ago. Continue reading...

Musician’s publicist says he died peacefully in a London hospital surrounded by his family

Britain’s armed forces are dodging responsibility for failings in Afghanistan and Iraq, argues Prof Paul Dixon. RC Pennington fears military history is doomed to repeat itself. Plus letters from Margaret Phelps, Diana Francis and Jim GolcherSimon Akam is right, the military does want to ignore its failure in Afghanistan (Britain’s military will want to ignore its failure in Afghanistan. It must face reality, 22 August), but it does so by deflecting responsibility on to the politicians.There is also a strong reluctance to publish books and articles that are critical of the military, even by those who served. All three books cited by Akam are by journalists who are ex-military. Continue reading...

G7 also agree not to extend 31 August deadline for evacuations; Taliban spokesperson says Afghans should not try to leave the country

Thirty-five-year-old, a chef at the University of York, disappeared more than a decade agoPolice in York are searching a flooded quarry for the remains of Claudia Lawrence, who went missing in 2009.The search is focused on Sand Hutton gravel pits, a popular spot for angling in Sand Hutton, a village eight miles north-east of York. Continue reading...

Prosecutor warns city faces ‘difficult moment’ after recent killings, including that of 14-year-old boyA series of murders in Marseille has sparked a political row over the growing turf wars between drug gangs who are terrorising poor housing estates, where one recent shooting victim was only 14 years old.Dominique Laurens, the public prosecutor in Marseille, warned this week that France’s second-biggest city was facing “a very difficult moment” as she detailed an explosion in violence and score-settling killings that were defined by “extreme cruelty and a complete lack of humanity”. Continue reading...

The leaked Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer was the latest in a long line of early sneak peeks that have helped certain films create or sustain buzzSocial media platforms were buzzing on Monday after a post emerged that appeared to show the trailer for Marvel’s much-anticipated Spider-Man: No Way Home. Despite the poor quality of the clip, which seems to be filming a phone playing the watermarked trailer, fans across the world squinted at the footage to ascertain what lies ahead for Tom Holland’s Peter Parker as he appeared to encounter Doctor Strange, and some faces from the past. It was catnip for Spidey followers, who had become frustrated with the lack of promotional material for a film that is less than four months from cinemas. It has also been the subject of furious speculation, as Marvel’s multiverse arc opens the possibility of several Spider-men crossing paths.Related: Spider-Man: No Way Home rumours could mean this is the multiverse’s last hurrah Continue reading...

Police say mother and three other children escaped caravan blaze at Ingoldmells, near SkegnessA two-year-old girl has died after a caravan caught fire at a holiday park in Lincolnshire.Police said the toddler’s mother and her three other children survived after escaping the vehicle at Sealands caravan park in Ingoldmells, near Skegness. Continue reading...

Lawmakers say kicking a ball over the hedge to look around is not allowed, neither is taking anything you fancyThe problem of the grumpy neighbour who refuses to return a wayward ball over a fence will be a thing of the past in Belgium.From 1 September, anyone who accidentally kicks or throws their ball into a neighbour’s garden will have the legal right to retrieve it – if they are willing to brave the frowns and disapproval. The same will apply for pet owners who want to rescue animals who have gone astray. Continue reading...

Several people experience nausea and some watch their limbs change colour after using campus kitchensSeven people have fallen ill after consuming a variety of food and drink from kitchens at Darmstadt Technical University in Germany, in what police suspect may have been an attempted poisoning.Several students and members of staff experienced nausea and some watched their arms or legs turn blue after using kitchen facilities and a drinks machine at the university’s Institute of Materials Science on Monday, Hesse state police reported. Continue reading...

Westmead hospital in Sydney’s west calls ‘yellow emergency’ due to rising Delta cases at the facility

Deputy foreign minster Yevhen Yenin said plane was diverted to Iran by armed attackers, which Iran has also denied

Covid and the boom in streaming platforms are being touted as a huge threat to cinema-going. But so was telly. And surely we’re all desperate to leave the house and make a big social occasion of it all?So are we in or out? Is this going to be the old normal or some new normal that the business still hasn’t yet grasped? As we look forward to what’s on offer in cinemas this autumn, we see new films mixed in with a deja-vu raft of old product delayed from the distant “before times” of pre-Covid. These films are beginning to feel like pizzas removed from the freezer cabinet, thawed out, and then unhygienically put back in the freezer. And of course we are all still absorbing the fact that Covid conforms neither to the accepted news cycles or movie distribution release structures. There could still be a fourth or a fifth wave. Cinemas could still be shut down again.Covid might have changed the movie world temporarily or permanently or not at all, but as we fret fruitlessly about the discomfort of wearing masks in cinemas, the revolution could have already arrived in the new economy of streaming – which had been changing the game anyway. Continue reading...

President’s ‘sacrifice’ paves way for leader to stay in power beyond June next yearThe Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, has agreed to be the ruling political party’s vice-presidential candidate in next year’s elections, laying the groundwork for the leader to stay in power beyond his term.The PDP-Laban party made the announcement before a national assembly on 8 September, where it is also expected to endorse Duterte’s aide and incumbent senator, Christopher “Bong” Go, to be its presidential candidate in the 2022 poll. Continue reading...

With their major-label deal and collaborations with Dev Hynes, the Baltimore five-piece are pushing at rock music’s boundariesAll music scenes have a splintering. In 1989, grunge fans were excited about Nirvana and Tad. By 1991 it was a different story. One had transcended a scene. The other remained simply a part of it. And so to Turnstile, the Baltimore, Maryland-based five-piece who arrive at their third album, Glow On, on the precipice of becoming the standout band of the new hardcore punk scene.Related: The Guide: Staying In – sign up for our home entertainment tips Continue reading...

Spielberg revamps Bernstein, young Tony is lured by the mob, Phyllida Lloyd tackles spousal abuse, Top Gun returns – and Daniel Craig calls time on 007 with bangs galoreQuite the strangest film of the year: the glam art-pop duo Sparks – Ron and Russell Mael – have created what fans think may be their masterpiece: a colossal movie-opera melodrama, directed by the French auteur Leos Carax. Adam Driver plays a moody LA standup comedian who is in love with an opera singer played by Marion Cotillard. Together, they have a baby (named Annette) who looks weirdly like a marionette doll and this semi-alien creature’s own staggering singing voice enraptures the world and leads her father to a tragic destiny. Freaky.

Laws intended to tackle child abuse are resulting in young men in consensual relationships being imprisoned. Activists argue a more nuanced approach is neededMani*, 21, began dating Noor*, 17, two years ago. They couldn’t see each other during the Covid lockdowns, but when restrictions began to ease, they would meet on the deserted banks of a canal in a small town in Tamil Nadu. The couple hoped to marry one day, but then Noor fell pregnant, and life turned into a nightmare.Two months ago, Mani was charged with rape under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) law. After 48 days in jail, he was released on bail. If convicted, he faces life imprisonment. Continue reading...

Beset by earthquakes, poverty and gang violence, the country is desperate for aid. However it must be the right kind, say localsThe death toll is still rising 10 days after a catastrophic earthquake struck southern Haiti on the morning of 14 August, levelling much of Les Cayes and the surrounding region.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. Continue reading...

Investigation finds lack of understanding of how to use measures to protect womenPolice are failing to impose restraining orders or bail conditions on men accused of rape, domestic abuse, harassment and stalking, a watchdog has found, placing women and girls at increased risk of harm.A police super-complaint, submitted by the Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ), raised concerns that police were failing to use protective measures in cases involving violence against women and girls. Continue reading...

Famed since Roman times, the Spanish city’s artisans are all but extinct. But a reprieve is at hand from the TV and film industryIts sturdy presence has threaded through more than 2,000 years of history, fuelled by fans that were said to have ranged from the Carthaginian general Hannibal to Roman legions.These days, however, the longstanding tradition of swordmaking in the Spanish city of Toledo has dwindled to just two artisan swordmakers – the last living link to a tradition that stretches back millennia. Continue reading...

New Zealanders, visa holders and others are struggling to battle through chaotic crowds and red tape to reach planes to carry them homeAs New Zealand begins to evacuate people from Afghanistan, those awaiting evacuation say they are struggling to reach the planes that would carry them to safety, and growing “more desperate with each passing day.”“Access into Kabul airport is extremely difficult and travel into Kabul from the provinces is almost impossible,” minister of defence, Peeni Henare, said on Monday. Continue reading...

Cluster has grown to 148 people, with experts saying it could grow to 1,000 and take four to six weeks to stamp outNew Zealand is bracing for its biggest coronavirus outbreak yet as cases rise, the locations of interest balloon to more than 400 sites, and the number of close contacts swells to more than 15,700 people.On Tuesday, the country recorded 41 new positive cases, bringing the total number in its outbreak to 148 – the majority of whom are Samoan, and linked to a sub-cluster who assembled at the Assembly of God church in Mangere, Auckland before the lockdown. Continue reading...

Twin Peaks star, who is in Australia to film Joe Exotic, employs local lingo during a monologue about life locked in a hotelAnyone who has survived hotel quarantine knows the importance of keeping the brain active – and US actor Kyle MacLachlan, currently holed up in Sydney, has chosen to spend at least one of his 14 days practising the Australian accent.It needs a little work. Continue reading...

Comedian to interview ‘cancelled’ subjects while examining ‘all aspects of political correctness … there’s so much I don’t understand’John Cleese will take on the topic of “cancel culture” in a forthcoming television series for the UK’s Channel 4.The new documentary will reportedly explore “why a new ‘woke’ generation is trying to rewrite the rules on what can and can’t be said”. Continue reading...

Warnings from senior diplomat that staying past deadline next week would cross ‘red line’Britain has begun a last-ditch scramble to get people out of Kabul amid warnings from the senior diplomat on the ground that staying past the 31 August deadline may not be realistic and risks provoking the Taliban.Speaking to MPs from Kabul, Sir Laurie Bristow, the British ambassador to Afghanistan, said trying to hold Kabul’s airport any longer would be fraught with risk. Continue reading...

Tuesday: new research calls for 90% vaccination rates before opening Australia. Plus: the pitfalls of online shoppingGood morning. The 2020 Paralympic Games begin today and we have stories from some of the 179 Australian athletes competing and all the information on how to watch. Plus plenty on Australia’s Covid vaccination rate and the debate over when it’s safe to reopen the country.Australia’s national plan to end lockdowns once 80% of the adult population is vaccinated could result in 25,000 deaths and 270,000 cases of long Covid, new modelling warns. It predicts more than 10 times as many deaths as the Doherty Institute modelling that underpins the national four-phase roadmap. It comes as the Doherty Institute director, professor Sharon Lewin, confirmed vaccination rates of 70% and 80% would still protect Australia from “healthcare overload” even with a higher starting case load. Co-authors of the new report are calling for a 90% vaccination rate among all Australians, including children, and a 95% rate for vulnerable populations. Dr Zoë Hyde warned the new modelling showed it was “simply too dangerous to treat Covid-19 like the flu”. Changes in Pfizer access has led to 10,000 people a day cancelling or failing to turn up to their Covid-19 vaccination appointments in Victoria. The premier, Daniel Andrews, urged Victorians to show up for AstraZeneca bookings. Continue reading...

Organisers of Boardmasters say event had measures in place ‘above and beyond national guidelines’

World Food Programme calls for urgent aid as chaos of Taliban takeover and second drought in three years create dire humanitarian situationUN agencies have warned of food shortages to Afghanistan as early as September without urgent aid funding, as it emerged first aid supplies, including surgical equipment and severe malnutrition kits, were stuck due to restrictions at Kabul airport.The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday the closure of the airport to commercial flights has held up key deliveries. Continue reading...

Analysis: Tuesday’s meeting called by Boris Johnson may include postmortem on Joe Biden’s handling of crisisThe emergency meeting of G7 nations on Tuesday – called by Boris Johnson as this year’s chair of the G7 – is in essence a gathering of the vanquished but faces a threefold agenda: how to ensure as many Afghans as possible can leave Kabul, and whether the US is prepared to stay beyond the original 31 August deadline for the withdrawal of all US forces; how a resettlement programme can be coordinated for the medium term; and finally, how to encourage the Taliban to form an inclusive government, including by threatening sanctions or withholding recognition.But each country will bring its own concerns and an ugly postmortem on Joe Biden’s handling of the crisis cannot be ruled out. Continue reading...

Latest updates: Taliban spokesman says group will not agree to foreign troops staying longer than 31 August

The Lyrics will feature a ‘self-portrait’ in 154 songs, including the unrecorded Tell Me Who He IsPaul McCartney will include the previously unseen lyrics to an unrecorded Beatles song in his forthcoming book The Lyrics.On Monday, the former Beatle revealed the 154 songs to feature in the book, which will be based on conversations McCartney had with the poet Paul Muldoon. Described as a “self-portrait in 154 songs”, The Lyrics will feature songs from throughout McCartney’s career, including Blackbird, Live and Let Die, Hey Jude, Band on the Run and Yesterday. Continue reading...

Seventeen-year-old assaulted by two men in north of city on Sunday nightDetectives are appealing for information after a 17-year-old girl was raped while walking her dog in a park in Manchester.The teenager was approached by two men at Boggart Hole Clough park in Blackley, in the north of the city, at about 9.30pm on Sunday. Continue reading...

‘I wrote it on a $50 piano with eight or 10 keys missing, but I could hear in my head the notes that weren’t there’All fairytales that are read to little girls feature a Prince Charming who comes and saves them. But Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland did not. Alice was on her own, and she was in a very strange place, but she kept on going and she followed her curiosity – that’s the White Rabbit. A lot of women could have taken a message from that story about how you can push your own agenda. Continue reading...

Police hunt for suspect after Sharon Pickles and Clinton Ashmore found dead in separate locations in LondonPolice have released the names of a man and a woman who were killed in separate locations in Lisson Grove area of north-west London last week.Scotland Yard identified them as Clinton Ashmore, 59, and Sharon Pickles, 45. Police continue to search for the chief suspect in their killings – Lee Peacock, 49. Continue reading...

Intended to bring shoppers back to the West End, the hill has become a financial and political disasterConsidering it is known as London’s “worst attraction”, the Marble Arch Mound was strikingly busy when the Guardian paid a visit. But, then again, it is now free – and many people were only there to see if it was as bad as was being made out.“Underwhelmed is probably a fair description of what we think,” said lawyer John Strange, visiting with his wife, Christine. “The views are not great, although you can pick out a few landmarks. There’s a lovely view of Battersea Power Station.” Continue reading...

National Hurricane Center says storm to slow down further and likely stall near Connecticut-New York lineThe slow-rolling storm Henri was taking its time drenching the US north-east on Monday.Henri, which made landfall as a tropical storm on Sunday afternoon in Rhode Island, had moved north-west through Connecticut. It hurled rain westward far before its arrival, flooding areas as far south-west as New Jersey before pelting north-east Pennsylvania, even as it dropped to tropical depression status. Continue reading...

Tom Cruise doesn’t just have a single chicken tikka masala when he goes to Birmingham – he has another one straight after. Has any man ever been more on-brand?When Tom Cruise commits to something, he commits. When a Mission: Impossible stunt called for him to climb up the outside of the world’s tallest building, he actually climbed up the outside of the world’s tallest building. When Collateral required him to become an invisible assassin, he temporarily became a Fed-Ex driver to teach himself anonymity. When he fell in love with Katie Holmes, he did it with such couch-leaping intensity that it derailed his career for half a decade.So when Tom Cruise went to Birmingham to have a curry, he really went to Birmingham to have a curry. When Tom Cruise went to Birmingham to have a curry, he did it with the same vigour that he uses to ride motorbikes or jump out of planes or scream at crew-members for not following Covid compliance protocols. Which is to say that when Tom Cruise went to Birmingham to have a curry, Tom Cruise went to Birmingham and had two curries, one after the other. Continue reading...

High court judge rules that Paul Cook and Steve Jones are entitled to use material in Pistol TV seriesThe former Sex Pistols frontman, Johnny Rotten, has lost a high court attempt to block the punk band’s songs from being used in a forthcoming drama series.The group’s former drummer, Paul Cook, and guitarist, Steve Jones, sued the band’s ex-singer, whose real name is John Lydon, to allow their songs to feature in Pistol, a TV series directed by Danny Boyle. Continue reading...

In over my head at work, I headed to Morocco in search of respite. Awake in the wee small hours, I realised I could draw strength from my anxietiesIt was a never-ending, sleepless night in the Sahara that gave me the space I needed to reassess one of my biggest anxieties.I was in my 20s when a friend and I settled on a trip to Morocco in the height of summer in 2007. I was desperate for a break from the stresses of a job where I was in over my head. Continue reading...

Data analysis highlights the human cost if thousands of overseas projects lose fundingExperts have warned of “devastating” consequences of the UK’s foreign aid cuts after Guardian analysis revealed the UK is cutting funding at a time when major recipient countries are at risk of becoming more politically unstable.Thousands of activities providing life-saving support are being cut due to the government’s decision to reduce aid spending to 0.5% of gross national income. Continue reading...