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A new six-part documentary series follows the community of big-wave surfers at Praia do Norte in Nazaré, Portugal, and hunt for ocean’s EverestIt started as a picture. In 2005, Dino Casimiro, a sports teacher in the fishing village of Nazaré, Portugal, snapped a photo of what he had long observed from the seaside cliffs: swells in the Atlantic the size of buildings, so feared and unpredictable it seemed everyone in town knew of someone who had been lost at sea. The image was stark, magnetic – a wave that appears at level with the cliff, the whitewater break like a cumulus cloud. “I immediately thought that I need to do something,” he recalls in 100 Foot Wave, a new documentary series for HBO. So Casimiro emailed the photo to American surfer Garrett McNamara with a simple question: could you come see if my wave is that big?McNamara, 53, would know; a pioneer of big-wave surfing, in which jet skis tow a surfer in and out of pounding swells, he had pushed the boundaries of what’s considered surf-able throughout the 2000s. He’d won the Tow Surfing World Cup in Maui in 2002, traveled from California to Tahiti, surfed the tsunami of a calving glacier in Alaska. And he was looking for what seemed an unfathomable prize: a 100ft wave, the ocean’s Everest, potentially possible under fluke conditions at a few spots in the world. In 2010, five years after Casimiro’s offer, McNamara and his now wife and manager, Nicole, went straight from the airport to the Nazaré’s 17th-century lighthouse, long abandoned. It was stormy, so windy the crew could barely open their car doors. “When we pulled up and saw the waves,” Nicole told the Guardian, “Garrett just looked at the kid” – a videographer sent by the town’s city hall – “and said ‘Do not turn off the camera.’ And every day it was just a constant reminder of ‘Film this, film this, film this – because we knew what we found was super special.” Continue reading...

As women and children lose out on programmes that could change their lives, Britain’s reputation has been diminishedBukola Onyishi was delighted when she found out that the British government was going to help her realise a dream in one of the poorest parts of Nigeria. With a grant agreement that was meant to last for three years, she was finally going to be able to launch a female empowerment programme for the women of Bauchi state in the country’s north-east, many of whom had fled the militant Islamist group Boko Haram and were now living in abject poverty in camps for the internally displaced.“The grant made us very happy,” says Onyishi, country director for Women for Women International. “[Bauchi] was the right place to be.” Setting it up was not easy: Onyishi and her colleagues had a job to persuade community elders of the project’s value, encountering deep-seated patriarchal beliefs that surprised even her in their obstinacy. But they came round in the end, and the first 12-month empowerment programme began, teaching 1,200 carefully selected women about everything from their basic human rights to numeracy and business skills. Continue reading...

Russian hacking, smear campaigns and livestreamed massacres are the price of Mark Zuckerberg’s quest for connectivity, grippingly probed by two New York Times journalistsHow many books are there about Facebook? I’ve lost count. Many of them belong to the genre of the “insider” story – by an early investor in the company, perhaps; or by a supposed intimate of its founder and Supreme Leader; or by an ex-employee with a bad conscience for the societal damage for which he (and it’s always a he, by the way) has been responsible; or (occasionally) by a vigorous critic of social media such as Siva Vaidhyanathan or Franklin Foer.I’ve read most of these and so approached An Ugly Truth with a degree of scepticism on account of its subtitle: “Inside Facebook’s Battle for Domination”. But this book is different. For one thing, its co-authors are not “insiders”, but a pair of experienced New York Times journalists who were members of a team nominated in 2019 for a Pulitzer prize. Much more importantly, though, they claim to have conducted over 1,000 hours of interviews with 400-odd people, including Facebook executives, former and current employees and their families, friends and classmates, plus investors and advisers to Facebook, and lawyers and activists who have been fighting the company for a long time. So if this is an “insider” account, it’s better sourced than all of its predecessors in the genre. Continue reading...

The teenage skateboarder heads a list from Great Britain taking part in debut sports at a decidedly odd Olympic GamesThe Olympics is happening – and for that we can only be grateful. But these Games, the 32nd of the modern era, are likely to be odd ones in, for the first time, an odd-numbered year. Some of the dominant characters of the past decade will be absent, either retired or finally showing human fallibility: so no Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps or Mo Farah. Nor will there be many fans. International supporters have been banned from entering Japan, while spectators will be barred from most events.But Simone Biles, the gravity-scoffing US gymnast will be there, as will her compatriot, swimmer Katie Ledecky, the closest the world has seen to an actual mermaid. And giving Tokyo 2020 (as it is still called) a much-needed pep, the Olympics will welcome five new sports: skateboarding, karate, surfing, sport climbing and BMX freestyle. That eyebrows might be raised at a couple of these even being “sports” is now moot; the International Olympic Committee has decreed it, so best deal with it, grandad. Continue reading...

For all the corruption of recent years, Cyril Ramaphosa’s ‘rainbow nation’ can still make good on Nelson Mandela’s valuesToday is the anniversary of the birthday of Nelson Mandela, the first president of a free South Africa and a global symbol of tolerance, sacrifice, integrity and the battle against racism.When, in 2009, the UN declared 18 July a day to honour Mandela’s values, South Africa was still seen worldwide as a success story. The “rainbow nation” had overcome the violent racial oppression of its past and was fighting apartheid’s toxic legacy of economic inequality. It had one of the most progressive constitutions in the world and a steady record of economic growth. The challenges the new democracy faced were all too evident, but South Africa’s recent history seemed a message of hope for us all nonetheless. Continue reading...

General Sir Nick Carter has been arranging meetings with contacts in Kabul and Pakistan to try to prevent a descent into civil warBritain’s top general, Sir Nick Carter, has been using his personal connections with Afghan and Pakistan leaders in a behind-the-scenes effort to stop Afghanistan sliding into full-blown civil war, and help bolster stalling US-brokered peace talks in Qatar.At the weekend a senior Afghan delegation arrived in Doha to try to restart the virtually dormant negotiations, after months which have seen the Taliban sweep across much of rural Afghanistan, although they still do not hold any cities. Continue reading...

To move on you need to recognise that your type is not your type, says Philippa PerryThe question I am a gay man with a relationship problem. I was very much in love with my ex-boyfriend for the first three years of our relationship. Problems started when he asked me to marry him. I felt us disconnecting and asked to go and see a relationship counsellor. It didn’t help. He said some things in session that still smart today. For example, he said our partnership was like a whining child he wants to run away from. I became more distraught about the deterioration of the relationship as he became more distant.The wedding plans stalled. The final straw was him arranging a big holiday with his friend and I was not consulted or invited. I was desperate and one day after he’d insulted me, I said I was ending it. Once I’d calmed down I tried taking that back, but he wasn’t having any of it. I never saw him again. Continue reading...

After a year’s delay, the Games begin this week. But it is an event that few in a fearful host nation now want as infections rise againThe joy and anticipation that greeted the International Olympic Committee’s decision in 2013 to award the 2020 Games to Tokyo feels like it belongs in another age, let alone a different decade.Related: Who needs Usain Bolt when there’s Sky Brown? New stars set to shine at Tokyo Olympics Continue reading...

In the latest twist of her legal battle, the singer says she would rather share videos from her living room than go on stageBritney Spears has refused to perform again while her father retains control over her career, and said the conservatorship she has been under for 13 years had “killed my dreams”.Her remarks, in a lengthy Instagram post, were the latest in a series of emotional public comments about the conservatorship that controls her personal and financial affairs and which she has begged to be brought to an end. Continue reading...

Wi Spa, a Koreatown business with a trans-inclusive policy, has become the target of a rightwing media stormDozens of people have been arrested in Los Angeles following a chaotic and at times violent demonstration by anti-transgender protesters who targeted a Koreatown spa that has a trans-inclusive policy allowing trans women to use women’s facilities.Saturday marked the second weekend of violent protests this month in the streets around Wi Spa, a neighborhood business that has found itself at the heart of a right-wing media storm over an alleged incident in which a customer filmed herself complaining about a trans woman in the women’s area of the spa. Continue reading...

Fans have ‘questions to answer’, says Met, as two 18-year-olds are arrested for allegedly helping people get past securityPolice have released images of 10 men being sought in connection with violence and disorder at the final of Euro 2020.After two men were arrested earlier on Saturday for allegedly enabling people without tickets to enter Wembley stadium during last Sunday’s final, the Metropolitan police issued the images and an appeal for help identifying fans “who we think have questions to answer”. Continue reading...

Brazil’s president is set to be released from a São Paulo hospital after treatment for an obstructed intestine related to his 2018 stabbingBrazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, undergoing hospital treatment for complications following a near-fatal 2018 stabbing, said on Saturday that he feels fine and cannot wait to get back to work.The Vila Nova Star hospital where Bolsonaro has been since Wednesday said that is making satisfactory progress and may be discharged within days, while chief surgeon Antonio Macedo told journalists that he could be released on Sunday. Continue reading...

The company’s wide portfolio has been perfectly suited to pandemic shopping. This week’s results will be strong againA vast portfolio of food and household brands has allowed the consumer goods giant Unilever to navigate its way through the pandemic.The maker of Domestos bleach, Dove soap and Cif cleaner benefited from a surge in demand for cleaning products in the initial stages of the health crisis. Its shares rose, and Unilever briefly became the most valuable company in the FTSE 100 index last year. And the company behind Marmite, Colman’s mustard and Magnum ice-cream benefited from the forced shift to eating out less and cooking at home, which some analysts think could be a long-term change. Continue reading...

Denmark makes exception for Wales; French people hold rallies against measures proposed by President Macron

Julia Ducournau has became the second woman ever to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Her triumph is a suitably rock’n’roll ending for this year’s festivalCannes let rip a punk power chord of glorious mischief by giving the Palme d’Or to Julie Ducournau’s gonzo genderqueer body-horror shocker Titane, and the jury and the movie’s many fans will have savoured the delicious applecart-upsetting thrill of it all. It’s the biggest épat since Lars Von Trier won it for Dancer in the Dark — and, importantly, it’s an award that makes Julie Ducournau only the second female Palme-winner in the festival’s history, since Jane Campion.I must admit I was not a fan of Titane, being in my view not the best movie in competition, and not the best film that Ducournau has directed — being less interesting than her first film, the more complex and more shocking Raw. But I’m an enormous fan of challenging the consensus and overturning the tyranny of anaemic good taste, and perhaps there’s something in the perennial stateliness of cinéma that cries out to be trolled, a bit. Tonight Titane put its steel toe-capped boot through the origami flower of received wisdom. And there’s something refreshing in that. Continue reading...

Cressida Dick backs Hendon methods, despite leaked documents and internal sources revealing alarming incidents and poor applicantsThe head of the Metropolitan police, Cressida Dick, has been forced to defend recruitment standards as leaked documents reveal cases of violent disorder, cheating and dishonesty among trainees at Britain’s biggest police force.The incidents relate to recruits at the Met’s main training centre and will raise concerns about its ability to provide an effective service as sources within the force allege declining standards for trainees as recruitment has been ramped up. Continue reading...

Verdict endorses victory of acting prime minister Nikol Pashinyan’s party in last month’s parliamentary voteArmenia’s constitutional court on Saturday rejected an appeal challenging the results of the country’s snap parliamentary election.The court’s verdict upheld the victory of acting prime minister Nikol Pashinyan’s party in last month’s vote. Continue reading...

CCDH finds ‘disinformation dozen’ have combined following of 59 million people across multiple social media platformsThe vast majority of Covid-19 anti-vaccine misinformation and conspiracy theories originated from just 12 people, a report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) cited by the White House this week found.Related: ‘They’re killing people’: Biden slams Facebook for Covid disinformation Continue reading...

All four nations experience hottest day of year as Ballywatticock in County Down hits 31.2CThe hottest day of the year so far has been recorded in all four UK nations and forecasters believe it could be even warmer on Sunday.It was the hottest day on record in Northern Ireland with 31.2C recorded in Ballywatticock, in County Down, at 3.40pm, beating the previous highest temperature of 30.8C, reached on 12 July 1983 and 30 June 1976. Continue reading...

Residents of some of the worst hit towns return to salvage the pieces of their lives and businesses“It looks like a bomb went off. Everything’s destroyed. There’s nothing left of the city centre,” said Michaela Wolff, a winemaker from one of the German towns worst hit by last week’s catastrophic flooding.Her family vineyard and guesthouse, the Weingut Sonnenberg, would normally be filled with tourists descending the red wine trail. This weekend it was filled with desperate refugees from homes destroyed when the Ahr burst its banks on Wednesday after days of heavy rain. Continue reading...

Inauguration follows election dismissed by US, UK and other countries as ‘neither free nor fair’President Bashar al-Assad took the oath of office for a fourth term in war-ravaged Syria on Saturday, after officially winning 95% of the vote in an election dismissed abroad.It was the second presidential poll since the start of a decade-long civil war that has killed almost half a million people and battered the country’s infrastructure. Continue reading...

TV station also hit by internal dispute over its direction after Guto Harri dropped for ‘taking the knee’Nigel Farage is to take centre stage at GB News in a victory for the rightwing faction at the beleaguered television channel. The former leader of Ukip is to host a nightly primetime show from Monday as part of a reboot of programming designed to attract more viewers.The new channel is facing plummeting viewing figures and a split in management between those angling to keep broader-based regional news coverage and those planning to boost coverage of the “culture wars”. Continue reading...

Silsila Alikhil, 26, was badly beaten and held for over five hours in Islamabad, according to diplomatic sourcesThe daughter of Afghanistan’s ambassador to Pakistan was abducted in the middle of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, held for several hours and brutally attacked, officials in both countries said on Saturday.No one has been arrested in connection with Friday’s assault on Silsila Alikhil, 26. The Afghan foreign ministry issued a statement demanding a quick investigation, saying she was “severely tortured”. Continue reading...

Male officers in Bristol protests investigation burst into 21-year-old woman’s bedroom but will not face disciplinary actionAvon and Somerset police have apologised to a young woman who was handcuffed in her bedroom by a group of male police officers while partially undressed.Katie McGoran, who had attended a “kill the bill” demonstration in Bristol in March, claims she was left “traumatised and humiliated” when police officers pretending to be postal workers tricked their way into her shared student house and burst into her bedroom. The Observer reported at the time that the 21-year-old photography student, who has no police record, was put in handcuffs for more than 20 minutes by the four male officers, while wearing a short dressing gown. She says she was not released even though she became increasingly distressed and suffered repeated panic attacks. Continue reading...

Melanie Dawes vows to weed out online abuse and enforce new powers to fine platforms for slow responseThe head of Britain’s communications regulator will vow to take on social media firms over their failure to weed out online abuse this week, as she condemns their lack of success in dealing with the racism aimed at three England footballers.The abuse aimed at Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka after they missed penalties in England’s Euro 2020 final loss has led to a huge outpouring of support for the trio. However, they have also been targeted by a stream of racist messages and tropes that have plagued their social media accounts. Continue reading...

Javid says he has had two jabs and is self-isolating with mild symptoms after feeling ‘a bit groggy’

The comedian and Masked Singer panellist on his fascination with chicken, mum’s Caribbean specials and the secret to great mac and cheeseAt home, my mum did the cooking. It was me, my two sisters and my mum. She mainly cooked Caribbean dishes: mutton and rice, curry chicken and rice, sometimes curry goat, rice and peas, but that would be for a wedding or something. You wouldn’t have curry goat all the time. It’s mad when I think about it, because when you’ve got kids and you’ve just come back from work, I can see how easy it is to put some chips in the oven. But my mum was always cooking from scratch. To this day, she still does it.We couldn’t afford the supermarket. My mum would get a lot from the markets, predominantly East Street or Brixton Market. We’d eat a lot of fish: snapper, sometimes red bream. It’s only since I’ve gotten a bit older that I’ve had other fish, like sea bass for example. Yeah, we weren’t eating sea bass. Continue reading...

Sophia Spring’s photographs celebrate how London’s many parks became a lifeline for locals during the pandemic, writes novelist David Nicholls

The diver, 27, talks about fear on the diving board, marrying an older man, becoming a father and maintaining his six-packI’ve always been an adrenaline seeker. I love rollercoasters, waterslides – diving is an extension of that. I grew up by the sea in Plymouth. From an early age my parents encouraged my brothers and me to swim in case we got into trouble in the water. Diving gives me that mix of being in the water, but at the same time the adrenaline rush of jumping off something really high.I went through a stage of not being able to take off on the diving board. When I was younger and my arms and legs were growing at different rates, I used to get scared to go out there. I would stand on the end of the board and literally not be able to move my body. It’s called Loss Move Syndrome, where you suddenly freeze mentally and physically, forget how do to things. Even today, there are times when I get scared standing on the 10m board, but you need that little bit of fear, that adrenaline rush, to make you focus, to stop you making mistakes. Continue reading...

Public consultation opens over broadening Ivory Act from elephants to other species including hippos and killer whalesHippos, walruses and killer whales could receive greater legal protection under government proposals to extend the ban on ivory poaching.The plans would see the Ivory Act broadened to cover more animals, with ministers saying elephants are not the only species at risk. The proposed protections opened for public consultation on Saturday, and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has urged industry stakeholders and members of the public to share their views. Continue reading...

This latest rehash by Disney+ is family-friendly and fine enough but plays out like telly commissioned by computerI’m convinced, now, that 60% of shows are being commissioned not by a human, a skeleton wrapped in flesh and blood, but by an algorithm, a pulsing blue computer in a bunker server room beneath the depths of Disney. Executives – who previously read scripts, and gave feedback on them, and had ideas and thoughts – now exist only to descend into the temperature-controlled hangar where the Commissioning Computer lives. “Enter,” the computer says in an eerie voice, at once inside their brains and not: “Do not be afraid.”Related: The Guide: Staying In – sign up for our home entertainment tips Continue reading...

Warm evenings mean mealtimes take a slower, easier pace – serve these as light meals, starters or as small plates to sharePrep 5 min

For those times when you crave nourishing comfort, this simple, risotto-like bowlful will definitely satisfyKitchari is a mixture of rice and lentils, cooked with usually only a few spices. It is the height of comfort for most Indians, and what most women in my family make when everyone’s tastebuds need a rest. It’s a vote for a simpler meal, the equivalent of a pleasant cycle ride down a winding country lane. In our family (the youngest being just one), it is one of only a few meals we can put in the centre of the table and eat together - as a cook, that is the ultimate comfort. Continue reading...

Therapists are meant to help people change their lives, but those who behave badly may end up doing more harm than goodCourtney thought it was strange when her therapist asked her to follow him on Instagram. She had begun seeing Michael – a psychoanalyst who has written books and appeared on television – to treat her fear of flying in 2018 (both of their names, and those of all the patients in this article have been changed). After a few sessions, he suggested the pair connect on Instagram, where he posted everything from mindfulness tips to topless gym selfies. As she didn’t use the app much, Courtney shrugged off her concerns and continued therapy, discussing her childhood abuse, depression, anxiety and sex life. Then, around five months after she had begun seeing him, Michael asked if she had been offended by a message he had sent.What message? Courtney hadn’t seen one, so Michael demanded that she check her Instagram inbox then and there. “All this sex talk has got me gagging for it,” his message began, “I can’t wait to get home and sort myself out.” Continue reading...

Foreign travel may be curtailed, but from Germany’s Mariana Leky to Japan’s Shiori Ito, there is plenty of exciting writing coming to our shores. Meet the writers who are making waves Continue reading...

A roundup of the coverage of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Turkey to Colombia Continue reading...

When the country entered lockdown just before St Patrick’s day last year owners were hopeful they’d be back within months

Books show how close the US came to disaster, and document an unprecedented moment in US history that is not yet over

Hauser & Wirth is known for its galleries in Zurich, Monaco, Hong Kong, New York, LA and Bruton.For all the lizards, the loquats and the lantana, Menorca’s newest art gallery, which lies amid the blue waters and lolling yachts of Mahón harbour, carries the faintest whiff of a corner of Somerset.Illa del Rei, a 40,000-sq-metre island a short boat ride from the Menorcan capital, Mahón, has a long and unique history. As well as being the site of a sixth-century Christian basilica and a staging post for Alfonso III’s conquest of Menorca 700 years later, the island is home to a decommissioned naval hospital founded by the Royal Navy in 1711 when Menorca was in British hands. Continue reading...

New Zealand PM says ‘vaccine nationalism’ behind fast-spreading virus variants; WHO proposes second phase of studies into Covid origins

Former diplomatic police officer dismissed after admitting the kidnap and killing of 33-year-oldThe Metropolitan police has sacked PC Wayne Couzens with immediate effect, a week after he admitted in court to murdering Sarah Everard after abducting her as she walked home in south London.The police constable, 48, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey having admitted to her kidnap and rape at an earlier hearing. He faces a mandatory life sentence. Continue reading...

A group of talented teens push the boundaries of their religious society by putting on a concert in Nabil Ayouch’s earnest filmFranco-Moroccan director Nabil Ayouch has made a likable, high-energy youth movie that could almost be called the Moroccan answer to Fame and which features that time-honoured plot device: putting on a concert.Using nonprofessionals playing docu-fictionalised versions of themselves, Ayouch has created a drama revolving around an arts centre for young people that he himself helped to set up in the tough district of Sidi Moumen, called by someone here the Bronx of Casablanca. The school includes a special programme called the Positive School of Hip-Hop. A crowd of smart, talented teens join the class and we watch as they find out the challenges, limits and opportunities of learning self-expression through western-style rap in a Muslim society. Continue reading...

Belgian TV station VTM recorded the partial collapse of a house in the town of Pepinster while interviewing its mayor, Philippe Godin, on Thursday. The back wall of the flooded house began to cave in as he spoke, with the situation deteriorating quickly as furniture and other household goods fell through the collapsing floors. Moments later cameras caught two people jumping from the rooftop of the house into a neighbouring building. Continue reading...

Public health chiefs warn of ‘extraordinary surge’ as less than half the US population fully vaccinatedCovid cases are rising in all 50 US states as the Delta variant spreads coast to coast, news outlets reported on Friday , and with less than half the US population fully vaccinated, public health chiefs warned of an “extraordinary surge”.Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said at a White House briefing: “This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated.” Continue reading...

Lorry driver arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving, while busy stretch of motorway remains closedA lorry driver has been arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving after three people died in a motorway collision.Police said the six-vehicle crash, which involved two lorries, took place on the northbound carriageway of the A1 near Bowburn, County Durham, at 6.20pm on Thursday. Continue reading...

Tortured and executed in Nazi-allied Hungary, Hannah Szenes is fêted in Israel but largely unknown in her native landIn Israel, even schoolchildren know the name of Hannah Szenes, but in her birthplace of Hungary she has largely been forgotten.Szenes was born to a Jewish family in Budapest 100 years ago, on 17 July 1921. In 1944, at the age of 22, she undertook a daring mission into Nazi-occupied Hungary. She was arrested and executed later that year after refusing to crack under torture. Continue reading...

Recent traumas in the US have energised a fresh wave of academic studies that are finally telling the full story of centuries-long abuse and forgotten resistanceIbram X Kendi dubs this time the “black renaissance”. Owing to activism on the ground, he says, “there’s been a growing awareness of racism itself, and a recognition that folks don’t understand the lives that black people have lived and are living today. And that awareness has led to a growing demand that is being supplied by this incredible number of black creators across genres.”Related: Four Hundred Souls, edited by Ibram X Kendi and Keisha N Blain review – a resounding history of African America Continue reading...

Some pay smugglers to take them to Istanbul as withdrawal of US troops rekindles fears of civil warTwenty-eight days into their journey out of Afghanistan, a woman and her five children are sitting in the shade near a bus station in Tatvan, a town on the shore of Lake Van in eastern Turkey.She is waiting for a smuggler, who was paid in advance, to take the family to Istanbul. Tired and dirty, the younger children are playing in the dust and laughing; the youngest boy wants a piggyback. The smuggler is two days late. Continue reading...

Once a bastion of Covid success, now two of the country’s largest cities are under tight restrictions amid mishandled vaccine program and growing Delta outbreak

Gen Mark Milley saw that the US was in a ‘Reichstag moment’ – four days before the Capitol riot. With this and much more startling reporting, Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker of the Washington Post deliver the goods once againCocooned at his resorts, the Trump Organization indicted, Donald Trump has come to embrace the insurrection.Related: Trump told chief of staff Hitler ‘did a lot of good things’, book says Continue reading...