Father Olivier Maire had offered a home to the accused who was awaiting trial for cathedral arsonA man is being questioned by police after he reportedly admitted killing a priest who had offered him a home while awaiting trial for arson.The suspect walked into a gendarmerie in the Vendée in western France on Monday morning and allegedly told officers he had killed the cleric, the head of a Catholic religious order. Continue reading...

‘River Phoenix was like a 13-year-old James Dean. There was so much soul there’This was the only audition where I did the reading and was hired right there in the room. I absolutely adored Spinal Tap, so to get that kind of affirmation from a director like Rob Reiner at that time in my life was really powerful. Continue reading...

This short film collection from the True Story platform ranges across continents to look at how we interact with our environmentsDeeply psychogeographical, this collection of documentary shorts from the streaming platform True Story roams among spaces old and new, and across continents. Personal and public memories are intertwined, creating portraits of how human beings interact with their environments, and vice versa.Paul Heintz’s nocturnal Shānzhài Screens is a meditative study of liminal urban spaces, shot in a Chinese district that specialises in fine-art reproductions. Rectangular frames populate the screen, from flickering apartment windows, hurried video calls, to endless replicas of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. Authenticity is elusive, and loneliness reigns. Continue reading...

Arch-rival China has more golds but there are other ways of declaring success

Assault place took in Wood Green, north London after social worker, 61, tried to check on vulnerable childrenA 61-year-old man who was injured in a knife attack in north London was a social worker trying to check on the welfare of vulnerable children, the Metropolitan police have said.The man, who was stabbed several times, and two police officers were taken to hospital after they were allegedly assaulted by another man on Friday evening. Continue reading...

The attempt to ‘kidnap’ an Olympic sprinter and the suspicious death of an activist are signs of growing oppressionIt is a fraught and dangerous time to be a Belarusian activist or dissident abroad, where the scrambling of a MiG-29 to ground a Ryanair plane, the abortive “kidnapping” of an Olympic sprinter and a possible “murder disguised as suicide” in Ukraine have been met darkly by the growing community of Belarusian exiles.“Considering the events in Kyiv, I want to tell people that I have no suicidal tendencies,” wrote Andrej Stryzhak, a Belarusian activist currently in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, in a post on Facebook last week. “We have heightened our security measures and no matter what situation develops, we will continue our work.” Continue reading...

Opponents of Emmanuel Macron’s plans take to streets across country for fourth weekend running

Police say 32-year-old in custody after child from Dungannon was taken to hospital with serious head injuryA man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a two-year-old girl from Dungannon, County Tyrone, died in hospital.Emergency services were called to a house in Park Avenue on Friday afternoon, and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said the child, who has not been named, had been taken to hospital with a serious head injury. Continue reading...

As the vast Giant gallery opens in a former department store, the English seaside town hopes to rival Margate, Hastings …and even Santa MonicaWant culture that sails close to the wind? Well, Bournemouth might not have been the obvious place to head for. Until now. This weekend, the English seaside destination more often associated with sandcastles, retirement and the “Costa packet” villas of Sandbanks has become home to some of the most disconcerting and challenging artworks in Britain.A vast new gallery inside a former department store launched on Saturday with a show featuring the bronze suicide vests of controversial artists Jake and Dinos Chapman and provocative work of other British conceptual and alternative artists, such as Jim Lambie, Banksy, Gavin Turk, Kacey Wong and Jeremy Deller. Continue reading...

Thousands of people were forced to flee Thrakomakedones, a suburb of the Greek capital, after strong winds spread wildfires that burned down homes.More than 50 wildfires are burning across Greece as the worst heatwave in more than 30 years has hit the country.Tens of thousands of acres of forestland, homes and buildings have been destroyed and the prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has promised a radical shift in the country's approach to the climate emergency.

One-dose vaccine to be brought to India, as government warns Covid danger has not abated

Festival is part of world’s largest annual arts season which has been forced to curtail events due to CovidThe Edinburgh festival Fringe returns this weekend with a hybrid programme of nearly 800 in-person and online shows after its cancellation last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.The Fringe makes up part of the world’s largest annual arts season, alongside the Edinburgh international festival and the book and film festivals, which open later this month, and all have been forced to significantly curtail this August’s events for the second year running. One of the most famous, the military tattoo staged at Edinburgh castle, has again been cancelled. Continue reading...

Government expands border ban in a move experts say could be constitutionally invalid and unfairly affect Australians from multicultural backgroundsThe Australian government has quietly expanded its ban on Australian citizens leaving the country to include people who are ordinarily residents in another country, meaning that even people who live overseas may not be allowed to leave Australia.Prof Kim Rubenstein, an expert in citizenship law from the University of Canberra, said the change would unfairly affect Australians from multicultural backgrounds and could be constitutionally invalid. Continue reading...

Katharine Murphy speaks with Prof Jodie McVernon, the director of epidemiology at the Doherty Institute, about how lockdowns went from being unacceptable in democracies to front and centre of the pandemic response – and she predicts public health measures will remain for some time to come Continue reading...

Pair charged with conspiracy ‘to assault and make a violent attack’ on Myanmar’s UN envoy, Kyaw Moe TunTwo Myanmar citizens have been arrested in New York state for plotting with an arms dealer in Thailand – who sells weapons to the Burmese military – to kill or injure Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations.The US attorney’s office for the southern district of New York said on Friday that Phyo Hein Htut, 28, and Ye Hein Zaw, 20, had each been charged with one count of conspiracy to assault and make a violent attack upon a foreign official, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Continue reading...

Man convicted for July 2020 murder of Chechen government critic granted political asylum in ViennaA Chechen man has been handed a life sentence in Austria after being convicted of murdering a Chechen dissident, a court spokesperson said.Mamikhan Umarov, 43, who was granted political asylum in Austria in 2005 and known locally as Martin Beck, was found dead with gunshot wounds near Vienna on 4 July last year. Continue reading...

Loss of Zaranj in Nimroz, near the border with Iran, a major blow to the western-backed governmentThe Taliban has captured an Afghan provincial capital after pleas for reinforcements by local security forces went unheard, in a major blow to the western-backed government.Zaranj, in the south-western province of Nimroz, fell after just three hours of fighting becoming the first provincial capital to be taken by the insurgents who have intensified their nationwide offensive as foreign forces withdraw from Afghanistan after 20 years of war. Continue reading...

Krystsina Tsimanouskaya has arrived in Poland under diplomatic protection after seeking help in Japanese airportA Belarusian sprinter who took refuge in the Polish embassy to avoid being bundled on a plane back to Minsk has spoken out about her dramatic experience, telling Belarusians “not to be afraid and, if they’re under pressure, speak out”.In her first press conference from Poland, where she arrived under diplomatic protection this week, the Olympic athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya said she had decided not to return to Belarus after her grandmother told her by telephone that she had been slammed on television as a traitor and called “mentally ill” for criticising her coaches’ “negligence”. Continue reading...

Eurostar and easyJet report surge in ticket sales while package holiday operators anticipate bumper weekend

Health minister wants restaurants, hairdressers, stadiums and hotels to be off limits to the unvaccinated

‘Shortly after arriving, I was kidnapped by a militia group who said I was a spy. A decade later, I went back to show life and beauty returning to the city’I spent my childhood in Madrid and I went to the Prado every week from the age of seven. I would cry at the works by Goya. His paintings of the Spanish civil war moved me like nothing else. I never grew up around photography – I grew up around Goya. Even as a child, I was attracted to the dark fates of the world.Over the course of my career, I’ve covered 13 conflicts, more than many of the famous war photographers of my generation. I’ve worked in Vietnam and Cambodia, Eritrea and Northern Ireland, Afghanistan and Iran. I’ve always tried to capture a glimpse of hope against a background of drama and destruction. That has not always been possible. Continue reading...

If UK authorises vaccinations for those aged 16-17 it will bring it more into line with US and others

Lawyers say not allowing evidence from tram operators in former hearing risked making inquests an ‘expensive farce’Families of the victims of the Croydon tram crash have issued a formal request for a fresh inquest, after a jury reached a verdict last month without hearing evidence from the tram’s operators.Lawyers representing families of five of the seven people killed have written to the attorney general urging a fresh hearing, citing the coroner’s decisions which they said risked making inquests an “expensive farce”. Continue reading...

From the US and UK, drill has spread to Ghana, where it provides a voice for the excluded. On the streets of Kumasi, the scene’s MCs tell their storyAhead of a music video shoot on a leafy street in Kumasi, Ghana’s second city, Yaw Tog and his friends lounge on a kerb. Passersby approach the teenage star for pictures. “Fame is crazy, it came almost overnight,” he says. “I’m proud because I had a vision of what I wanted to do and I did it. Now we’re here.”A year ago, the 18-year-old could move between classes relatively unnoticed around his high school campus, but his thin and unassuming figure is now impossible to hide. Yaw Tog, currently finishing his exams, is one of the most popular MCs emerging from the city’s booming asakaa scene – a Ghanaian take on the drill subgenre of rap that has earned the city’s young artists thousands of fans around the world. Continue reading...

We are raiding the Audio Long Read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors.This week, from 2017: What began as an investigation into money laundering quickly turned into something much greater, uncovering a vast and intricate web of political and corporate racketeering. By Jonathan Watts Continue reading...

Krystsina Tsimanouskaya expected to head to Poland amid fears she would be punished if she returned homeThe Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya has left Japan on a Vienna-bound plane after refusing to return to Belarus because she feared she would face punishment for publicly criticising her coaches for their “negligence”.Tsimanouskaya has received a humanitarian visa from Poland after she said Belarus officials attempted to bundle her on a plane. She requested police protection at Haneda airport and later took refuge at the Polish embassy in Tokyo in a scandal that has rocked the games. Continue reading...

Thousands of residents in the northern outskirts of Athens have been forced to leave their homes as a forest wildfire reached residential areas. The blaze sent a huge cloud of smoke over Athens and prompted multiple evacuations near Tatoi, 13 miles to the north.It comes as Greece is experiencing the worst heatwave since 1987, according to local authorities. Temperatures have reached 42C in parts of the Greek capital.

Every province has advised residents not to leave as flights are cancelled and Beijing suspends more than a dozen rail lines

Lt Gen John Frewen says demand still exceeds supply but incentives may be needed to counter vaccine hesitancy later in the year

Two deaths overnight in Sydney and 233 new local cases in NSW; Queensland to reschedule public holiday as 17 cases recorded. Question time returns. Follow latest updates

Find out who is leading the polling to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor of GermanyGermans will vote on Sunday 26 September to elect a new Bundestag, or federal parliament. The result – after coalition negotiations likely to involve two or three parties – will decide who will succeed Angela Merkel, who is standing down after 16 years as chancellor.Some recent polls put Germany’s Green party in the lead, as Merkel’s successor at the conservative CDU, Armin Laschet, struggles to inherit her appeal, but the governing party has since recovered a little ground. Continue reading...

One year on from the huge explosion in the port of Beirut in Lebanon the devastation from the blast is still visibleAt least 200 people were killed, and more than 6,000 injured in the Beirut blast that devastated the port area on 4 August 2020. The explosion is believed to have been caused by an estimated 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse.Away from the broken grain silos, and their rotting contents, Lebanon remains paralysed and anguished. The investigation into the blast has flatlined, and its perpetrators are as far away from accountability as ever. The global aid pledged in the wake of the destruction remains forsaken by the country’s rulers, who prefer the narrow privileges that flowed to them from a crippled system to a global rescue plan that could save the country. Continue reading...

Amid economic crisis, Kim Jong-un wants restrictions relaxed on necessities as well as luxury goods, South Korea lawmakers sayNorth Korea wants a raft of international sanctions eased – including on imports of luxury items such as high-class liquors and suits – before it will restart denuclearisation talks with the United States, South Korean lawmakers have said.Pyongyang has also called for sanctions banning its metal exports and imports of refined fuel and other necessities to be lifted, the lawmakers said on Tuesday after being briefed by Park Jie-won, head of the South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS). Continue reading...

An unpopular new law that critics say will remove power from landowners has triggered political and social upheavalFiji has experienced escalating political tensions over the past fortnight, with opposition politicians arrested, extra police deployed across the country and fierce political debate, amid concerns the tensions could lead to civil unrest and violence. Continue reading...

Officials said the three tried to avoid authorities after returning from abroad, sparking a social media flurry

Response of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling party seen by many as out of touch as blazes rage for seventh dayPeople across Turkey are looking for answers as to how summer wildfires got so desperately out of control, after seven straight days of unusually ferocious fires that continue to blaze throughout the south and west of the country.Eight people, including two firefighters, have died in the wildfires that have engulfed large parts of Turkey’s Mediterranean coastline since last week and destroyed huge swathes of pine forest and agricultural land. While 137 fires in more than 30 provinces have been extinguished, at least nine are still burning, and more than 10,000 people have yet to return to damaged homes, resorts and hotels evacuated in the middle of the tourism season. Continue reading...

Force insists it was correct to sack decorated black female officer who was sent unsolicited child abuse videoThe Metropolitan police want go to the high court to insist it was correct in its decision to sack a decorated black officer after she was found with a child abuse video on her phone sent to her on WhatsApp.Supt Robyn Williams was reinstated in June having been dismissed in 2020, following a conviction for possessing child abuse images sent to her unsolicited on a chat group. Continue reading...

Health department refuses to say how much it is costing taxpayers for private company Cox Inall to distribute PDF of vaccination data

Keith Flett on enduring anger at a system that delivers for the few, Prof Joe Sim on punitive retribution, and Andy Stelman on lessons unlearnedOn 4 August it will be 10 years since police shot dead Mark Duggan in Tottenham Hale (Conditions that led to 2011 riots still exist today, experts warn, 30 July). It is true that things have changed since the shooting and the events that followed it. Tottenham became a centre for craft beer and London’s only urban cheesemaker. New multi-storey flats surround my central Tottenham abode, very few affordable for existing inhabitants.But none of that, as David Lammy argues (A decade after Tottenham burned, social alienation means riots could happen again, 30 July), is of much use to those – far too many – who have to rely on food banks to get by and whose future job opportunities look difficult at best. Continue reading...

Victim was mauled while planting trees after logging operationPolice in Canada say a 26-year-old woman working on a tree-planting operation in Alberta was killed by a black bear on Saturday, in a rare attack by one of the country’s largest predators.The woman was mauled by what witnesses believe was an adult black bear in a remote area of northwest Alberta. A co-worker who witnessed the attack helped scare off the bear before calling for help. Continue reading...

In new BBC show Blind Ambition, MacDonald and Jamie O’Leary meet artists who have lost their sight – including a rapper, a photographer and a wood turner ‘who still has all his fingers’I’m a blind standup comedian, currently co-starring in the BBC Two documentary Blind Ambition. As the title suggests, the show is about blindness. But please don’t think this is a violins, tissues at the ready, “oh didn’t they do well” type of documentary. The show creator and Essex wide boy Jamie O’Leary wanted to make a different kind of show about disability.You’ll know the classic disabled show formula: person has a dark phase then overcomes their disability and achieves something wonderful. In this paradigm the disability is a hurdle that needs to be jumped over. Or, if there are mobility issues at play, an obstacle to get around. In the Blind Ambition paradigm, blindness – a disability readers of the New York Times voted the worst thing a person could have in the world (which is bollocks as blind people can’t read the flipping New York Times so couldn’t vote) – is positive. Continue reading...

Nicola Sturgeon confirms blanket self-isolation measures for school pupils will also end from 9 August

Public largely sceptical about effectiveness of move last month aimed at reducing pressure in hyper-competitive education fieldIn 2018, Ms Hu spent a third of her annual income sending her child to summer school in Shanghai. In the following year, the cost went up. Still, she and her partner paid the fees, such is the competitiveness in Chinese children’s education.“My son started to learn English at age five. I feared he would be left behind if we don’t do so,” she said. Continue reading...

Ministers need to get a grip on ‘reckless U-turns and confusion’, shadow transport secretary says

As two women are rescued in Syria after being kidnapped by Isis years earlier, Yazidis renew calls for international help to find the thousands still unaccounted forFor seven years, their families waited and hoped for news. In July, they finally received it. Two young women, kidnapped by Islamic State as teenagers, had been found alive in Syria.Salma*, now 25, was located in Deir el-Zour province, in the east of the country. She had “suffered all kinds of injustice”, said the Yazidi House in the Al-Jazira region, an organisation that assisted with the rescue of both women. Continue reading...

It is more than three months since Mauro Morandi left Budelli after living alone there for 32 yearsEvery morning, Mauro Morandi woke up to the uninterrupted sea view that only he was privy to. Immersed in nature, he was intimately in tune with the dawn sounds and habits of the wildlife that surrounded his home, a former second world war shelter on Budelli, the Mediterranean island where he had lived alone for more than 30 years.Now the 82-year-old is adjusting to life in a one-bedroom apartment next to a shop with a Sky TV sign outside, surrounded by neighbours and with only a glimpse of the ocean in between the gaps separating the buildings opposite on nearby La Maddalena, the largest of an archipelago of seven islands off the north coast of Sardinia, Italy. Continue reading...

The World Bank and IMF should step in to finance a recovery of children’s learning chances devastated by the pandemic“Education,” wrote Nelson Mandela, “is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” One wonders what he would have made of the response to the education crisis triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic. A crisis threatening to derail social and economic progress, trapping millions of children in poverty. The UN secretary general has warned of a “generational catastrophe”, yet the international response has been marked by staggering complacency.That lack of concern was on public display at last week’s Global Education Summit in London. Fresh from cutting UK aid to education by 40%, Boris Johnson – a self-styled champion for universal girls’ education – opened proceedings by declaring that education was “the single best investment we can make in the future of humanity”. Continue reading...