Crowds will be banned amid surging cases in Japan; UK cases up 5% on the week before, latest data shows

Although confronting, the act of getting my affairs in order has provided much space for reflection – and gratitudeIt’s lockdown number whatever, and this time I’m going to make it count. No sourdough therapy, no binge watching Schitts Creek, no ordering recklessly expensive artisan cakelets. This time I’m preparing for death.A few years ago I helped my mother write her advance care plan. Now it’s my turn. I download it and work my way through the personal details to the end-of-life section. Who do I want to make medical decisions on my behalf? When do I want the plug pulled? I surprise myself with the strength of my written response. Continue reading...

Bill Kingdom says the battle against Covid provides lessons in how to cut consumption to ease global warming. Plus letters from Sue Dalley, David Hughes and Dave HunterIn Adam Tooze’s article (By pushing for more oil production, the US is killing its climate pledges, 13 August), he surmised that economic activity and fossil fuel consumption are hardwired together. It may be more that economic activity and energy consumption are hardwired together – and thus the need to move to renewables or low-carbon energy sources. That must be part of the strategy, along with as yet unavailable technical solutions such as carbon capture.However, we seem to tiptoe around the consumption part of any strategy. Lower consumption results in lower carbon emissions. The government has managed to exert strong influence over personal actions during the Covid pandemic using a myriad of three-word slogans. We need a similar push linked to consumption and climate change.

Analysis: Joe Biden and Boris Johnson five weeks ago claimed Afghan government would not fall so easily

Economic output defies expectations to expand in Q2 – but analysts warn of contraction risk

Analysis: three countries have all signalled a readiness to engage with Taliban authorities to some degree

Daniel Raboldt’s low-budget but visually impressive film has more than a whisper of A Quiet Place about it, as two survivors fight their robotic overlords without making any noiseThis plucky Kickstarter-funded German sci-fi from director Daniel Raboldt comes with a distinct whisper of A Quiet Place, as well as Luc Besson’s almost dialogue-free film The Last Battle. Taking place in a war-against-the-machines future, its purist approach poses a few storytelling challenges, leaving its two protagonists at times gesticulating at each other as if in a post-apocalyptic game of charades.Tomasz (Stefan Ebel) is a survivor in a man v machine conflict in which the latter are decidedly on top. He hunkers down in an abandoned house in the wilderness, setting up a perimeter forcefield to protect himself. That done, there’s not much to do other than get high on a weird blue narcotic. But out inspecting his generators one day, he’s waylaid by Lilja (Siri Nase), a fierce-eyed woman in a pair of Uggs (which, like cockroaches, appear able to survive armageddon). He wakes up bound and gaffer-taped, with her furiously soldering robot parts as though she’s trying to root out their secrets. Continue reading...

Beachgoers give chase, with more than 700kg of cannabis found onboard vessel, say policeIt was meant to be a leisurely break as Spain sweltered through record-breaking temperatures. But beachgoers in the southern province of Granada inadvertently found themselves in pursuit of a pair of alleged drug smugglers after a cannabis-laden boat careened on to their pebbled shore.The chase began on Saturday evening after maritime police spotted a suspicious boat off Melicena beach. Police boat in tow, the small vessel headed full tilt towards the beach, seemingly oblivious to the bathers, chairs and umbrellas that dotted the shoreline. Continue reading...

Desperate Afghans clung to the side of a moving US military plane leaving Kabul airport on Monday, with at least three people apparently falling to their deaths from the undercarriage immediately after takeoff. Video footage shows hundreds of people running alongside the plane as it moves along the runway of Kabul international airport. A number of people hang on to the side of the C-17A aircraft, just below the wing. Others run alongside waving and shouting

Astrid Roemer, the Surinamese winner of the Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren, came under fire after showing support for Dési Bouterse, who was convicted of murderFive months ago, Astrid Roemer became the first author from Suriname, a former Dutch colony in South America, to win the prestigious Dutch-language literary award the Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren, and was praised by the judges for her “unconventional, poetic” works. But last week, the organisers announced that a ceremony for the poet and novelist, due to be attended by the king of Belgium, would be cancelled, after she came under fire for her comments about the former Suriname president Dési Bouterse.While Roemer will still receive the £40,000 prize, plans for King Philippe to present her with the award in October have been dropped. Organisers said in a statement that “as a result of Ms Roemer’s recent views and statements”, a ceremony was “not appropriate”. Continue reading...

Muhyiddin Yassin offers resignation to king after months of political instability but elections put on holdMalaysia’s embattled prime minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, has resigned but will stay on as interim premier, the royal palace has said, as the country struggles with its deadliest Covid outbreak yet.Muhyiddin offered his resignation to the king on Monday morning after holding a special meeting with his cabinet. His resignation follows months of political instability that led to the loss of his majority in parliament. Continue reading...

Mentally ill man was heard saying ‘I can’t breathe’ while being restrained by Met officers in LondonThe Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has reopened its investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Kevin Clarke, a mentally ill black man who could be heard saying the words “I can’t breathe” while he was being restrained by police shortly before he died.The watchdog has admitted the words heard on police body-cam footage were not explored with the police officers when they were interviewed by IOPC officials. Continue reading...

Television and radio services disrupted for up to 500,000 people including elderly and isolatedElderly and isolated people are among thousands who face being without television or radio for nearly three weeks after a fire at a Yorkshire transmission mast.Television and radio services have been disrupted for up to 500,000 people across North Yorkshire and north-east England since Bilsdale mast caught fire last Tuesday. Continue reading...

Nationals leader tells Queensland senator fall of Kabul and fight over climate change policy are disparate issues ‘and should not be conflated’The Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce has criticised his “friend” and outspoken colleague Matt Canavan for asking whether the Taliban would sign up Afghanistan to a net zero carbon emissions policy.As Afghans sought to flee the capital after insurgents stormed the presidential palace in Kabul on Monday, the Queensland Nationals senator took to Twitter to ask: “Does anyone know whether the Taliban will sign up to net zero?” Continue reading...

Now more than ever, children are cooped up indoors and monitored 24/7. But how can they build confidence and social skills if adults never let them out of their sight?She describes herself as having been a “fairly cautious” parent before the pandemic, but Shannon now worries about her children’s safety more than ever. “The pandemic has made me more paranoid and fearful of other people,” she says. She has two sons, aged seven and four, and she’s anxious about them falling ill “because they are too young to get vaccinated”. When her elder son’s school reopened last year, she kept him at home. “We don’t go inside other people’s houses, and, if we have play dates, we do them outside,” she says. As a hospital chaplain in Indiana, Shannon has seen people dying of Covid, so her fear is understandable.There have been benefits – her sons are closer than ever – but she acknowledges the downsides. “That social aspect of their development is something I’m definitely worried about. There’s a part of me that’s like: ‘Let them be kids,’ and there’s a part of me that’s like: ‘I need to keep them safe.’” Continue reading...

Angry premier criticises people breaking Covid rules saying their actions ‘will keep us all locked down for longer than we should be’

Greens and senators Rex Patrick and Jacqui Lambie suggest they will oppose bill requiring minimum party memberships and banning certain words in names

The hippy movement may have been in decline since its 1960s heyday, but there are still Europeans who choose an alternative lifestyle. During the pandemic, when many people are considering whether there might be a different way to live rather than returning to old ways, journalist Roberto Palomo journeys through Portugal with some of those who are living outside established societyThe pandemic disrupted so many people’s plans, including mine. As a freelance reporter, my scheduled trip through South America in search of stories disappeared and I had to look for alternatives. In spite of everything, I got a job during lockdown in a logistics warehouse and was able to save some money. Once the restrictions began to relax, I bought an old van and, with the help of some friends, adapted it to make it my new home for the next months.I am from Badajoz, a small city in the south-west of Spain a few kilometres from the Portuguese border. I have been visiting Portugal since I was a child but I never had the opportunity to explore the neighbouring country in more depth. With the world paralysed, this was my chance. Continue reading...

NSW transport authorities yet to comment on cause of Campbelltown blaze which is second such incident in Sydney this yearA bus driver and three passengers have been evacuated from a bus that was engulfed in flames in Sydney’s south-west, seven months after another bus was similarly destroyed by fire.Monday’s incident occurred outside the Macarthur Square shopping centre in Campbelltown before 11am with heat from the burning passenger bus activating nearby sprinklers. Continue reading...

With 93,000 children in Peru losing a parent to Covid, many face depression, anxiety and povertyWhen Covid-19 began shutting down Nilda López’s vital organs, doctors decided that the best chance of saving her and her unborn baby was to put her into a coma.Six months pregnant, López feared she would not wake up, or that if she did, her baby would not be there. Continue reading...

20 August 1921 My door leads on to the open hillside, a rough trellis forming a shady arbour outside while the grass all around is made beautiful by fallen plumsAfter the sweltering heat of Vienna it is like coming to heaven to be in the Salzkammergut. My quarters are in a peasant’s house with a spacious room containing the usual excellent spring bed and the usual quilted cover which is the despair of English sleepers. My door leads on to the open hillside, a rough trellis forming a shady arbour outside. The grass all around is made beautiful by fallen plums, unripe and useless, but most exquisite to see in their slender oval form and colours, shot rose and lilac and purple; the drought here has been very destructive. Now the rain has come heavily and such corn as is not yet stacked has been pitched upon long poles, and there are rows of these standing melancholy in the fields like gigantic Capuchin friars.Related: Plant of the week: ivy-leaved cyclamen Continue reading...

Experts offer their advice on how companies and staff can move to a more flexible model of workWorking 3:2, what a way to make a living – but a new way that may take a little getting used to, according to experts.As coronavirus restrictions lift, many companies whose staff have worked from home for 18 months are asking those workers to dust off their bras and smart trousers and return to the office part-time. Continue reading...

Turning her camera on her customers, the sex worker and photojournalist exposed the male gaze to itself – and opened up a world of shame and desire“As a rebellious preteen, I sat down and made a list of my life goals,” writes Cammie Toloui in her photobook 5 Dollars for 3 Minutes. “It was pretty simple: 1. Sex. 2. Drugs. 3. Rock’n’roll.”Born in the San Francisco Bay Area in the Summer of Love, Toloui was in the right place to hit these targets, and by 1990 was a member of a feminist punk band, Yeastie Girlz, and working at the Lusty Lady strip club. Stripping was part-rebellion and part-necessity because Toloui was studying photojournalism at San Francisco State University and the Lusty Lady paid well, but when she was given an assignment to shoot her own life, it also became a project. Deciding not to photograph herself or her colleagues, because female nudes have been seen so many times before, she trained her camera on the customers. Continue reading...

Jacinda Ardern said New Zealand would also attempt to evacuate Afghan nationals who worked with the countryNew Zealand is racing to get its remaining citizens out of Afghanistan, and will deploy troops to assist with their evacuation after the Taliban swept to power overnight.Prime minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday that the country would also try to evacuate a number of Afghan nationals and their families who worked with the New Zealand deployments or in-country operations, many of whom are now in hiding and fear they will be targeted by the Taliban. Continue reading...

PM says national plan is ‘very clear’, despite WA saying it may pursue zero Covid strategy even when adult vaccination rates reach 70-80%

Friends of the musician, who also mentored young people, have described him as a ‘kind, generous person’Tributes are pouring in for New Zealand hip-hop artist Louie Knuxx, whose real name is Todd Williams, after he died of a heart attack, in Melbourne on Friday morning. He was 42.He was running on a treadmill in his home gym when he died, his family said. Continue reading...

The IPCC’s alarming report has Chinese environmentalists wondering how to push a government that brooks no criticism into taking more actionIn the wake of the IPCC’s alarming warning last week that human induced climate change is affecting every corner of the planet, China’s environmental activists were left wondering what they could do to push their government into taking more action.Having prioritised rapid economic development for decades, China is responsible for a long list of environmental disasters and concerns, and produces around a third of the world’s carbon emissions. It has made ambitious pledges to hit peak emissions by 2030 and be carbon neutral by 2060, but still drawn warnings that it may not be possible under their current trajectory. Continue reading...

After being ousted as New Zealand opposition leader, Simon Bridges has returned to himself – a likeable maverickHe walked in the door at the same time as my cat, which heightened the impression that he looked like something the cat dragged in. It was the day after Simon Bridges had been rolled as leader of the National Party. I’d sent him a friendly text and he replied that he was in my neck of the woods the next day so maybe a cup of tea might be in order. I put on the jug. The occasion deserved a whiskey or something, but neither of us are social drinkers, or even very social.Related: Resolutions but no revolution as National ends its annual conference as divided as ever Continue reading...

Local authorities say more than 5,700 injured as the search for survivors continues following 7.2-magnitude earthquakeThe death toll from a powerful magnitude 7.2 earthquake in Haiti has climbed sharply, with at least 1,297 dead and more than 5,700 injured.The updated figures from Haiti’s office of civil protection follow a previous count of 724 dead. Continue reading...

Monday: Taliban claims it is on the verge of taking Afghanistan; NSW waits for extra Pfizer doses. Plus: the charm of Jane the VirginGood morning. The United Nations security council is expected to meet today to discuss Afghanistan as the country is on the brink of complete takeover by the Taliban. New South Wales wakes to tougher restrictions as the entire state endures lockdown. And comedy series Jane the Virgin might be just the tonic for lockdown blues.The United Nations security council will hold an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss the political emergency in Afghanistan, where the Taliban are on the verge of claiming full control of the country and declaring “the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”. After a rapid capture of most of the provinces and major cities, the Taliban fighters entered the capital of Kabul on Sunday. President Ashraf Ghani left the country and is reportedly in neighbouring Uzbekistan. Australia is preparing to evacuate hundreds of people from Afghanistan, but but Afghans who worked as interpreters and contractors for the Australian forces have said they hold out little hope of rescue as their visa application have been held up by Australian bureaucracy. Continue reading...

Research by thinktank finds women’s mental health particularly affected as home working increasesCovid working from home has caused an “epidemic of hidden overtime” that particularly affects women, leading to a need for new “right to disconnect” laws, according a report from Autonomy thinktank.The organisation said unpaid labour was a growing problem in the age of increased home working, with women at a greater risk of negative health impacts and mental distress. Continue reading...

Aftershocks sow fear, hospitals swamped and aid workers race to provide food as tropical storm loomsWinnie Hugot Gabriel was presenting her Saturday morning radio show when a 7.2-magnitude earthquake ripped through southern Haiti, sending terrified listeners racing into the streets.“Even here in Port-au-Prince you could feel it. It was strong,” said the 32-year-old journalist from the Magik 9 station, who abandoned her microphone and sprinted outside after the tremor. Continue reading...

Analysis: The speed of the fall of the country to the Taliban leaves many questions unanswered

American folk-country singer and songwriter best known for Love at the Five and Dime and her album Other Voices, Other RoomsGreatly admired by her fellow artists and a devoted army of fans, Nanci Griffith, who has died aged 68, exemplified a style of musical storytelling with a literary flavour, focusing on the small details of the lives of her characters. Songs such as Love at the Five and Dime and Gulf Coast Highway have become permanent fixtures in the folk-country canon (Griffith described her music as “folkabilly”), and the Grammy award she won for her album Other Voices, Other Rooms in 1994 seemed a long overdue reward for her carefully crafted body of work.While that album comprised versions of other people’s songs, other artists appreciated the quality of her own material. Love at the Five and Dime, from Griffith’s album The Last of the True Believers (1986), was a Grammy-nominated country hit for Kathy Mattea, while Emmylou Harris and Willie Nelson sang Gulf Coast Highway on Harris’s hit album Duets (1990). Suzy Bogguss had a country Top 10 hit with Griffith’s Outbound Plane. Continue reading...

Gerd Müller, who scored 68 goals in 62 appearances for West Germany including the winning goal in the 1974 World Cup final, has died aged 75 Continue reading...

Unconfirmed reports suggest Ashraf Ghani has resigned as president, to be replaced by the Taliban’s leader• Taliban enter Kabul – live updatesThe Taliban are poised to take full control of the Afghan capital, Kabul, after their fighters took up positions on the outskirts of the city and the US sent helicopters to evacuate diplomats from its embassy.In deeply humiliating scenes for the Biden administration, embassy personnel were ferried from the compound to the nearby airport by military helicopter. Diplomatic armoured SUVs were also seen leaving. The exodus began early on Sunday after the insurgents captured the eastern city of Jalalabad. Continue reading...

Vineyards are blooming in the desert of Coahuila state, but vintners must make do with increasingly scarce waterFrom the patio of his winery high in the north Mexican desert, David Mendel surveys vineyards spread across a bowl-shaped valley under a scorching afternoon sun.Related: Salud! Spain’s female winemakers use their intuition to rise to the top Continue reading...

Shoppers in capital and parts of Med coast will have to show pass sanitaire as case numbers rise

Firm used water to generate cheap electricity while price to customers in grip of heatwave is at record highThe Spanish government has launched an inquiry after it emerged that a power company drained two reservoirs during a heatwave and drought in order to profit from exceptionally high electricity prices.Iberdrola, the country’s second biggest producer, drained the dams in Zamora and Cáceres provinces in western Spain over a period of a few weeks to produce cheap hydroelectricity while the price to consumers is at a record high. Continue reading...

UK defence secretary is worried that ‘al-Qaida will probably come back’ – but it is already there

A victim of its own success, the industry behind cult dramas such as The Killing struggles amid bullying claimsThis week, the award-winning makeup artist Bjørg Serup made her bitter public farewell to the Danish film industry.“I am on sick leave with a work injury due to serious stress and cannot expect to be able to return to the film industry or any other full-time job again,” she wrote in an article published in Ekko, the country’s film industry magazine. Continue reading...

12 Sydney LGAs to get half of the one million extra Pfizer doses secured from Poland; rapid antigen testing to be trialled in some Sydney aged care homes. This blog is now closed

Three months on from the devastating conflict, little has been rebuilt of the bombed high-rises that were homes and officesFour years ago, Jehad Judah was pleased to be able to afford to buy his family a flat in al-Jalaa, a 14-storey building in downtown Gaza City, home to about 700 people as well as lawyers, computer software businesses and journalism bureaus belonging to the Associated Press of the US and Qatar’s Al Jazeera.The 54-year-old bespectacled civil servant spent the first 30 years of his life living in a refugee camp, a jumble of breeze-block housing with poor amenities. After he met his wife in 2001, the couple moved to Gaza to start a family. The Israeli and Egyptian blockade of the strip which came along a few years later made life in the city hard, but al-Jalaa still offered a decent standard of living, he said. Continue reading...

The primetime host and brother of the disgraced New York governor is one of a number of cable TV hosts accused of blurring the lines of journalismThe New York Post columnist Maureen Callahan put it succinctly: “One down. One to go.”After New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, finally agreed to step down this week over sexual harassment allegations, attention in American media swiftly turned to his brother Chris. Continue reading...

As city after city falls to the Taliban, women fear that the freedoms won since 2001 will be crushedIn a market in Kabul, Aref is doing a booming trade. At first glance, the walls of his shop seem to be curtained in folds of blue fabric. On closer inspection, dozens and dozens of blue burqas hang like spectres from hooks on the wall.As the Taliban close in on Kabul, women inside the city are getting ready for what may be coming. “Before, most of our customers were from the provinces,” says Aref. “Now it is city women who are buying them.” Continue reading...

Analysis: The Plymouth shootings heralded a new type of terrorist threat, but what hasn’t changed is the socially isolated individuals behind itFor several years, those whose job description includes making the nation safe from terrorism have been documenting something novel and quite chaotic. Thursday’s murderous rampage on the streets of Plymouth merely confirmed the new terror threat has arrived.The traditional silos of far right and Islamist extremism are disappearing. Instead, the security services are monitoring individuals who have gone for a mixed approach to extremist ideologies, able to accommodate the views of Tommy Robinson alongside Osama bin Laden, often adding a layer of conspiracy theory and fantastical tropes for good measure. Individuals who jump casually between fascist dogma, Islamism or misogyny are increasingly cropping up on the radar of intelligence agencies. Continue reading...

Three people were presumed dead after a mudslide swept away a house in Okaya City, as millions have been urged to evacuateTorrential rain triggered a mudslide and more floods across Japan on Sunday, leaving three people presumed dead and forcing the evacuation of dozens of residents.A mudslide early Sunday hit a house in Okaya City in the central Japanese prefecture of Nagano, burying eight residents. Three of the people were presumed dead when rescue workers found them, and two others were injured, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency. The other three people were safely rescued. Continue reading...

The benefits of flexible working practices are manifold but not all employers have embraced themCommuting from the kitchen to the study, workwear from the waist up, an end to traffic jams and awkward office parties – flexible working was supposed to be one welcome legacy of the Covid-19 pandemic. But in New Zealand, employees are starting to question what went wrong.During the level-3 lockdown in New Zealand last year, a study of people working from home showed that 89% wanted to continue in some form post-lockdown – but by June, when most restrictions had been lifted, almost the same number of employees had gone back to the workplace. Continue reading...

Siren kings battle their way through several carefully judged rounds to establish who has the loudest, clearest soundOn the streets of south Auckland, Pasifika youth equipped with plastic siren cones have created a new sound – one that stormed TikTok, and took over a moment in pop music. Sometimes disparaged or dismissed, they say their work with sirens is more than just a sound or a hobby. It’s also about community, creativity and respite from struggle.These are the Siren Kings – a street subculture devoted to the volume and clarity of music, channelled through the unusual vector of emergency-evacuation sirens. Continue reading...

EU’s ambassador in Canberra Michael Pulch says developed economies need to lead the way in upgrading their pledges to reduce emissionsA senior European diplomat says he “absolutely” hopes Australia and other developed countries embrace stronger 2030 climate targets, describing the coming decade as “crucial” in the fight against global heating.With just 80 days until the next major climate summit, the EU’s ambassador to Australia, Michael Pulch, said developed economies should lead by example in reducing emissions. He said a landmark scientific report confirmed “that we are facing a global fundamental challenge and that we have to act now”. Continue reading...