They produce half the country’s sugar needs, but expect new trade deals to make their tough situation worseIn a field in Norfolk, the sight of lush green leaves sprouting from the soil are giving farmer Ed Lankfer cause for optimism. “I think this is one of the best crops we have ever grown,” he says, surveying one of his fields of sugar beet.The signs are promising so far for this year’s harvest – known in the trade as a campaign – which takes place later than for other crops, during the autumn and winter. It would mark quite the turnaround from 2020’s terrible harvest, when bad weather and pests caused yields of the white sugar-yielding root to plummet by as much as 60%, leaving Lankfer with a £12,000 loss. Continue reading...

Analysis: PM fails to make convincing defence of foreign policy amid criticism from across the Commons

Council scraps four-week trial of alternative to existing shuttlebus after swift and fierce oppositionFor centuries, pilgrims have walked in the footsteps of monks who once inhabited Lindisfarne, connected by a tidal causeway to the ancient kingdom of Northumbria.They have marvelled at the birthplace of the Lindisfarne gospels, one of the most celebrated illuminated manuscripts in the world, admired the castle that towers over crashing waves and the ruins of the ancient priory, and watched thousands of grey seals basking on the sand banks. Continue reading...

The Delta variant is wreaking havoc in the poorly vaccinated region, which has recorded 38,522 deaths in the past fortnight

Heartbroken, sunburned and without my makeup, I felt totally lost. Perhaps the handsome stranger at my table could offer some excitement?It was high summer on the Italian island of Procida, too hot but somehow still green, and I was eating dinner at a beachside cafe that spilled on to the black sand of the west-facing Spiaggia di Ciraccio.I wasn’t supposed to be here. Ten days earlier, a long-building romance with a screenwriter from Milan had ended abruptly. It had begun when our knees touched in his car. Long emails full of agony and promise followed, made all the less real for jumping between English and Italian, but then stopped. A short trip to Naples to try things in a new context was cancelled. I was desperately sad, but had already booked my flight to Italy and, as it happened, a friend was staying on the island nearby. So, I tagged along. Continue reading...

In an impassioned Commons speech during the debate on Afghanistan, the Conservative MP speaks about the impact of the Taliban takeover on veterans. He criticises Joe Biden's assertion that the Afghan army did not adequately resist the Taliban

Source says investigators want to speak to Duke of York as part of their inquiry into possible co-conspiratorsThe Duke of York is considered a “person of interest” in the US investigation into disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, it has been claimed.An unnamed source, said to be close to the inquiry, told the Reuters news agency that investigators viewed Prince Andrew as a “person of interest” over his friendship with Epstein as part of their investigation into possible co-conspirators. Continue reading...

Malta’s attorney general formally lays charges against businessman Yorgen Fenech over journalist killingMalta’s attorney general has called for a life sentence for the businessman Yorgen Fenech for allegedly masterminding the murder of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, which rocked the country four years ago.The attorney general, Victoria Buttigieg, laid formal charges against Fenech, who was arrested in November 2019 trying to leave Malta on his yacht, accused of complicity in the murder and criminal conspiracy. He has since been undergoing a pre-trial compilation of evidence where he pleaded not guilty. Continue reading...

Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, has castigated the government over its reaction to events unfolding in Afghanistan, saying the prime minister's response to the Taliban 'arriving at the gates of Kabul' was 'to go on holiday', and that the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, could not 'coordinate international response from the beach'.

Hogir Hirori’s film follows Mahmud as he and his team of volunteers infiltrate the dangerous al-Hawl camp in Syria to liberate Yazidi women trafficked as sex slavesThe first 20 minutes of Hogir Hirori’s extraordinary documentary has the beat of a gripping thriller, full of hushed voices, car chases, and the terrifying sounds of gunfight. Much of it shot at night, the film follows Mahmud, a member of an organisation called the Yazidi Home Center (YHC), and his trips with other volunteers to the dangerous al-Hawl camp in Syria which holds people with Isis links. The group’s goal is to retrieve and rescue Yazidi women who were kidnapped and sex-trafficked by Isis. Termed “sabaya” by their captors, the women endured unimaginable abuse, leaving them with debilitating lifelong trauma.Intertwining with these tense, heartbreaking moments is the mundane daily life at Mahmud’s house, which doubles as a temporary shelter for the women. Recurring moments of his mother making food or his young son playing about the courtyard act as a calming balm to the victims’ psychological hurt, a semblance of the normality that hopefully awaits them in their home town in Sinjar. Sabaya is also especially poignant in how it doesn’t see Mahmud as a heroic figure. There’s a moving matter-of-factness to his routine of checking the continuous messages from people seeking their loved ones or his calm confrontation with Isis sympathisers who hide the Yazidi women in the camp. Continue reading...

Woman also reported missing as 1,200 firefighters and a dozen aircraft try to contain blaze in Var regionOne person has died during France’s biggest wildfire of the summer, local authorities have confirmed as the blaze continued to rage in the countryside behind Saint-Tropez.The body was found in a house in the village of Grimaud after the fire passed through. A 32-year-old woman has also been reported missing, a local prosecutor, Patrice Camberou, told the TV channel France 3. Continue reading...

Video of pontiff urging vaccine take-up comes after scepticism from traditionalist cardinals

After the death of my mother, I wasn’t sure how my father, brother and I would knit ourselves into a unit. Could a sweaty nightclub in Lisbon hold the answer?“We should go to the Ibiza closing parties,” my dad blurts out, driving through the rain in Hounslow. It is 2015; I am 21 and for the past few months he has been mentioning the phrase “Ibiza closing parties” as if it were a Buddhist chant. The radio is tuned to Magic, playing Fat Larry’s Band’s Zoom, and I mumble “yep, sure” so I don’t have to listen again.I had been to Ibiza three years before, on a 72-hour school leavers’ bender – a series of “hot summer nights” of their own – and was awed by the tiny island’s cavernous clubs and the fact that they could charge €8 for a pocket-sized bottle of water. It was the trip that cemented my love for the dancefloor. In those warehouse spaces I realised that there is something deeply soulful about being surrounded by bodies locked into the communal groove, each of us moving to our own personal rhythms, unencumbered by the day’s worries and instead – hopefully – free to be how we want to be in this darkened space. Continue reading...

Draughty homes contribute to 14% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, but a wave of eco-refurbs is changing that

Amid powerful resistance to mandates from Florida’s governor and his supporters, some parents are frustrated that others are ignoring safety protocolsIn Pinellas county, Florida, Maggie, a mother of three, is sending her kids to school every day with two or three extra masks even if, in her fourth grader’s class, only a third of the children are wearing them. Just two days into the new school year, she received a call from school officials saying there were already five known cases of students with Covid-19.“Based on my kids’ school, and the number of parents that have chosen to not mask their kids, it looks like we’re in the minority,” said Maggie, who asked to be identified by just her first name. “I think the voices who are very anti-mask are very loud.” Continue reading...

Afghanistan's government collapsed as the Taliban militant group took control of all of the country's major cities in only nine days, including Kabul, the capital of more than 4 million people.The Guardian’s senior international correspondent Emma Graham-Harrison explains how the Taliban took control so quickly and what this could mean for the future of the country

Non-urgent elective surgery at private hospitals postponed as staff redeployed to public system that government admits is ‘under stress’

Comedian’s agent says Lock died at home from cancer, surrounded by his familyThe comedian Sean Lock has died at the age of 58.The TV star, known for his surreal content and deadpan style, was a team captain on Jimmy Carr’s Channel 4 comedy panel show 8 Out of 10 Cats and the spin-off, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. He also wrote and starred in the popular BBC sitcom 15 Storeys High. Continue reading...

NSW confirms 633 cases and three deaths; Victoria records 24 new local cases as CHO says outbreak disproportionately affecting children; New Zealand cluster rises to 10 cases. This blog is now closed

But Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram call for more support from Home OfficeThe mayors of Greater Manchester and the Liverpool city region have said they will welcome Afghan refugees but that those fleeing persecution must be fairly distributed around the country.In an interview with Radio 4’s Today programme on Wednesday, Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, said: “We of course – as always – stand ready to help and to welcome people here who need our help, but it does need to be fair to places like Greater Manchester. The truth of the matter is there is a fractured relationship between places like Greater Manchester and the Home Office.” Continue reading...

Analysis: pressure to calm UK economy with higher borrowing costs has eased for now

The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday, after weeks spent banning local mask requirements and meeting maskless crowds. The Republican is fully vaccinated against the virus and is not experiencing symptoms, his office said.Texas has once again emerged as a hotspot for coronavirus, with only 314 available intensive care unit beds statewide. Paediatric ICUs are running out of space while children head back to class.

The singer and his wife, Trudie Styler, bought an Italian wine-producing estate after being given a glass of plonk by the owner. There was just one problem...Name: Sting.Age: 69. Continue reading...

The actor struggled to find shows and films that excited him so he turned to music but reveals that he’ll never say never to another X-Files rebootIn 2015, deep into an acting career that had kept him busy for the better part of three decades, the then 54-year-old David Duchovny released his first novel and his first album. His hit series Californication had just concluded after seven seasons, and while he was hardly done with acting – another, shorter-lived series, Aquarius, premiered that same year – he was in the mood to explore what else he could do. Six years on, his writing and his music aren’t so much side projects as side-by-side ones: this year, another restless surge of activity has seen Duchovny release his fourth novel, Truly Like Lightning – a knotty all-American saga of Mormonism, capitalism and the vanishing old west – and his third album, Gestureland.Related: ‘Take it easy, nothing matters in the end’: William Shatner at 90, on love, loss and Leonard Nimoy Continue reading...

Much has been squandered since 1991, but the biggest threat to democracy today is the global contagion of cynicismOn 19 August 1991, citizens of the Soviet Union woke up to the news that Mikhail Gorbachev, the general secretary of the Communist party, was standing down due to ill health. That news was a lie, as many of those citizens had come to expect from their media. Tanks rolling through Moscow told the true story: a coup by politburo hardliners, determined to abort Gorbachev’s experiments in democratisation. They failed. The coup unravelled within two days. Five months later the USSR had ceased to exist.No one in the west saw it coming, but shock at the unpredicted event yielded to conviction that it had been inevitable. The implosion of a superpower built to fulfil Marxist prophecy should have served as a warning against all claims to know the rules of history and chart its destination. But no. The fashionable idea took hold in western policy that liberal democracy was the ideological terminus. Continue reading...

Huge vessels used to transport farm animals are an attractive option for criminals smuggling drugs, arms and people

Jacinda Ardern warns of more cases as Auckland cluster grows to 10, marking New Zealand’s first local transmissions of Delta variant

Asked what she would say to people who questioned the need for a level 4 lockdown, the prime minister responded with one word: ‘Australia’

The man had handed himself in to authorities, but was dragged out of a police van and set on fireAlgerian police have announced another 25 arrests over the lynching of a man falsely accused of starting deadly forest fires last week, taking the total number of suspects to 61.The latest arrests were made in several provinces across the country, police said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that the suspects were also accused of damaging public and police property. Continue reading...

The Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban for publicly advocating education for women and girls, has said she is "deeply concerned" about the safety of those in Afghanistan."We cannot just look at our screens and not do anything" she said, citing reports of girls as young as 12 being forced in to marriage.

Police at scene and public evacuated as about 20 demonstrators enter landmark in bid to ‘take power back’A group of about 20 protesters entered Edinburgh Castle on Tuesday evening, claiming to have “seized” the landmark under article 61 of Magna Carta.Members of the public were evacuated as the demonstrators entered the grounds of the castle without a ticket. Police Scotland said that officers were dealing with the protest. Continue reading...

Wednesday: Militants tell reporters they seek ‘no revenge’. Plus: how to get kids to help around the houseGood morning. The Taliban have held their first press conference since taking power as Afghan Australians continue to fear for the safety of loved ones in the region. NSW Health is investigating what could be the first instance of Covid leaking into hotel quarantine. And if you need some lighter reads for your morning, Wil Anderson tells us about his “knob of the year award” and we take a look back at the classic flick Chopper, 20 years on.Western forces have secured Kabul’s international airport, allowing mass airlifts out of the region as the Taliban say they seek no “revenge” on opponents and that everyone will be “forgiven” during their first press conference since taking power in Kabul on Sunday. Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has said they do not seek “internal or external enemies” and has encouraged people who fled to the airport with their families to return. The Taliban’s efforts to project a milder version of themselves may be aimed at ensuring that international aid money continues. Continue reading...

Hector Bejar is first cabinet member to fall under leftist President Pedro Castillo after video dated last year emergedPeru’s foreign minister has resigned after footage emerged in which he suggested that a Maoist rebel group that killed tens of thousands of Peruvians had received support from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), making him the first cabinet member to fall under leftist President Pedro Castillo.Hector Bejar, 85, who in his youth participated in a socialist guerrilla movement, had said he believed the Shining Path rebel group had emerged in part because of backing from the US Central Intelligence Agency. Continue reading...

The documentary The Smartest Kids in the World follows four frustrated American students as they explore different high schools abroadSadie, a 16-year-old high school junior in Harpswell, Maine, felt off-kilter in her American high school – too much memorization, not enough relevance to hands-on work in prospective careers. “I know it doesn’t have to be like this,” she says of her school days in The Smartest Kids in the World, a new documentary on international educational systems. Brittany, a junior outside Orlando, Florida, spends hours on homework but finds her curiosity unchallenged. “I kinda just wonder … what are we doing?” she muses. Jaxon, 16, from the small town of Saratoga in south-eastern Wyoming, finds himself torn between wrestling practice and sleeping two extra hours before his ACT, where one point marks the difference between free college tuition and $30,000 a year. “It’s only my life,” he shakes his head, “practically, everything in it.”Related: 'It's a wake-up call': behind the film urging investment in pre-school education Continue reading...

Analysis: For 20 years Home Office has gone to extreme lengths to return Afghans to country they risked their lives to fleeAnnouncing that Britain is looking at a “bespoke arrangement” for Afghan refugees, the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, declared on Tuesday that Britain was a “big-hearted nation” which had “always been a country that has provided safe haven for those fleeing persecution”.This is not a picture of Britain’s asylum system that many Afghan asylum seekers in the UK will recognise. Over the past 20 years, the Home Office has gone to extreme lengths to return thousands of them back to the country they risked their lives to flee. Continue reading...

As I look to today’s Liberal prime minister, I’m not entirely sure if another 100,000 refugees might find a home in AustraliaAfter more than 20 years of fighting in a hot, unforgiving terrain, the allied forces left. They took flight in helicopters and planes and whatever vessel or moving vehicle they could get their hands on. And within days, the local government fell. I’m not talking about Afghanistan. I’m talking about the war in Vietnam.The Vietnam war was the seminal tragedy in the recent history of my family. We owe our existence here in Australia to it. All our joys and sorrows come from this one failed war. Continue reading...

A story for children about families with same-sex parents has been published in Russia as part of a campaign to have the country’s ‘gay propaganda’ law repealedA month after a Hungarian bookshop chain was fined for selling a children’s story about a day in the life of a child with same-sex parents, the same picture book has been published in Russia – but with an “18+” label on it in deference to the country’s so-called “gay propaganda” law.American author Lawrence Schimel and illustrator Elīna Brasliņa’s picture book tells about a morning and an evening in the lives of two children with same-sex parents. It is published as two titles in English – Early One Morning, about a young boy’s morning with his two mothers; and Bedtime, Not Playtime!, which follows a girl with two fathers at bedtime. The Russian translation, by Dmitriy Kuzmin, combines both books under the title Mothers, Fathers and Kids from Dusk till Dawn. Continue reading...

It was impossible to predict the Taliban would retake Afghanistan so swiftly after the withdrawal of international troops, Dominic Raab has said, arguing: ‘No one saw this coming.’Speaking to the media following his return from holiday, after chaotic and deadly scenes at Kabul airport on Sunday, the UK foreign secretary said US and British troops had stabilised the airport, allowing evacuations to resume

Court throws out Victoria lockdown challenge; NSW records 452 local cases; Victoria records 24 cases; Queensland records one case; ACT and parts of NT under lockdown. Follow all the day’s news

Whitehall whistleblower says Matt Hancock was told of mistake where people were classed as close contacts for five days, not two, before he resigned

Tropical depression makes landfall over areas already hit by Saturday’s quake that killed at least 1,419Medical teams and aid workers were racing to save lives and provide food and shelter on Monday amid fears that the official death toll from Saturday’s earthquake could rise further and a tropical depression bore down on the crisis-stricken Caribbean country.The official death toll rose on Monday to 1,419, and at least 6,000 were injured by the 7.2-magnitude quake – a tremor even more powerful than the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 200,000 Haitians in 2010 and levelled much of Port-au-Prince. Continue reading...

Former soldiers express anger and heartbreak as service in 20-year war rendered ‘pointless’

‘If Mr Morrison has had to resort to accessing vaccines intended for developing countries, he should be upfront,’ Penny Wong says

Officers across the state also conducted 3,800 welfare checks to see if people were following stay-at-home orders

The departure of US forces was followed by a rout of Afghan government forces. Now, after 20 years of western intervention, Afghanistan is back under the control of the TalibanIt began with a steady trickle of military defeats. First Afghan government control was ceded to the Taliban in provincial towns and cities. Then, as the lack of resistance became apparent, bigger cities and regional capitals began to fall. Finally on Sunday the Taliban entered Kabul as the western-backed government fled the country.The Guardian’s senior international correspondent, Emma Graham-Harrison, tells Michael Safi that it marks a stunning reversal for the Afghan government, which had begun negotiating a deal with the Taliban in recent months. And as deeply flawed as the government in Kabul has been for the past 20 years, it has created space for the education of girls and a free press. All of that is now in grave doubt as Afghans wait to see whether their new Taliban rulers plan to carry on where they left off in 2001. We hear voices from inside Afghanistan including reporter Zahra Joya, who was a child when US forces invaded in 2001 and drove out the Taliban. She describes her fears for what will come next. Continue reading...

No injuries have been reported but Greek media said a few buildings had been damagedFanned by strong winds, two large new wildfires have erupted in Greece, triggering evacuation alerts for villages south-east and north-west of Athens – only days after blazes consumed large tracts of forest north of the Greek capital.No injuries have been reported but Greek media said a few buildings had been damaged. Continue reading...

Defra agrees to hearing with owner of UK alpaca, which has twice tested positive for bovine tuberculosisAn alpaca that faces being destroyed after testing positive for bovine tuberculosis has been given a temporary reprieve, the animal’s vet has said.The government had twice turned down requests to save Geronimo, but Dr Iain McGill said the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) had now agreed to a hearing with owner Helen Macdonald. Continue reading...

Jake Davison shot dead five people and also wounded a 55-year-old woman and her son after police reinstated his gun licenceFamily of a mother and son who were shot through their front door by the Plymouth attacker have voiced anger at police for reinstating his gun licence weeks before the mass shooting.Jake Davison, 22, shot dead five people including his mother on Thursday before turning the gun on himself. He also shot and wounded a 55-year-old woman and her son, 33, who lived near the house Davison shared with his mother in the suburb of Keyham. Continue reading...