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A collection of wickedly funny, rousing polemics takes aim at ecotourism, the beauty industry … and crime fictionIn 1938, three years before her suicide at 59, Virginia Woolf published Three Guineas, a long-form essay on patriarchy and its seemingly inevitable trajectory, war – a forceful indictment of the fascism that was then sweeping Europe and beyond. Her most conspicuously pacifist work, Three Guineas was contentious for its time. It argued that subjugation of women in the domestic sphere (notably, Woolf refers to “the daughters of educated men”, women of her own privileged class) is reflected in an equal lack of representation in the public domain of education and influence: “The public and private worlds are inseparably connected ... the tyrannies and servilities of one are the tyrannies and servilities of the other,” she wrote. As part of a solution, Woolf proposed supporting three causes with a guinea each: specifically, a society to avert war, a campaign for the rebuilding of a women’s college and an organisation to encourage women’s professional employment. Always elegant, Three Guineas nevertheless throbs with justifiable anger and fear. Its rallying cry and the recognition that the personal is also political would go on to, for example, inspire female peace activists of the 1960s, who took various of its sentences as antiwar slogans. “Set fire to the old hypocrisies,” urges Woolf. Unsurprisingly, its central themes have not dated.Ellmann is hellbent on upbraiding the deleterious forces of the prevailing misogyny Continue reading...

Tedi Fanta Hagos, 25, charged over fatal stabbing of 60-year-old man in central London on Friday eveningA man has been charged with murder after a 60-year-old was stabbed in central London.Tedi Fanta Hagos, 25, of Ravenhill, Swansea, was charged with murder and possession of an offensive weapon on Friday and is expected to appear at Westminster magistrates court on Saturday, Scotland Yard said. Continue reading...

This week Katharine Murphy interviews Nationals senator Matt Canavan on Australia’s climate wars. The Nationals’ reinstated party leader, Barnaby Joyce, is an outspoken critic of policies that address climate change and target net zero, so how does the party justify its stance? Why is it fighting the inevitable global transition to renewables?Here are some links to pieces that directly address some of the claims made in this interview: Continue reading...

Leftwing Israelis accuse new government of kowtowing to right in deal to evacuate Evyatar outpostLeftwing Israelis have accused the new government of kowtowing to the right over the handling of an illegal settlement near the West Bank city of Nablus, in what is viewed as an early test of the ideologically divided coalition’s stability.About 50 Jewish families who have moved to the Evyatar settlement over the last two months, building on a hilltop claimed by Palestinian olive farmers, agreed to vacate the land on Friday afternoon. Continue reading...

Sources say end to official role in two-decades long conflict imminent despite resurgent TalibanBritain is expected to bring the last of its regular troops home from Afghanistan over the weekend, ending its official role in a two-decades long conflict even though the Taliban are resurgent across the country.Defence sources told the Guardian that the exit of the last of the UK’s 750 soldiers – part of a Nato stabilisation and training mission – is expected to be complete “in the next few days” before formal announcements. Continue reading...

Security stepped up at airport, bars and Olympic Stadium ahead of Saturday’s quarter-final clash

Italy tries for second time to block Croatia’s efforts to win special EU recognition for its dessert wineCroatian winemakers have leapt to the defence of their centuries-old dessert wine, prošek, amid a renewed prosecco identity war sparked by Italy.Italy said it would defend prosecco at all costs after Croatia applied to the European Commission for special recognition of prošek. Continue reading...

Christos Pappas was last of far-right group’s cadres to evade justice after dozens of operatives jailed last yearThe far-right extremist long regarded as Golden Dawn’s chief ideologue has been placed behind bars after nine months on the run, starting a 13-year prison sentence handed down by a Greek court in October.Flushed out of his lair – a flat where he had been hiding in Athens – Christos Pappas, the now-defunct group’s deputy leader, was driven in a whirl of sirens on Friday from police headquarters to the courts and then on to jail in central Greece. Continue reading...

Two former British army soldiers had faced prosecution over Bloody Sunday killings and murder of Derry teenagerProsecutors in Northern Ireland have dropped murder charges against two former British army soldiers for Troubles-era killings, including on Bloody Sunday.The decision halted the trial of the veteran known as Soldier F, the only member of the Parachute Regiment to be prosecuted in connection with the killing of 14 people during a civil rights demonstration in Derry in January 1972. Continue reading...

In her final visit to UK as German chancellor, Merkel says Brexit is ‘good opportunity to open a new chapter in our relationship’

Exclusive: hundreds of al-Hawl camp detainees have been smuggled out using bribes gifted by husbands they met onlineHundreds of foreign women with links to Islamic State in Syria’s sprawling al-Hawl detention camp have “married” men they met online and several hundred have been smuggled out of the facility using cash bribes gifted by their new husbands.The camp’s inhabitants have been sent wire payments totalling upwards of $500,000 (£360,000), according to testimony from 50 women inside and outside Hawl, local Kurdish officials, a former Isis member in eastern Europe with knowledge of the money transfer network and a foreign fighter in Idlib province involved in smuggling. Continue reading...

Uniqlo France among four firms suspected of profiting from crimes against humanity in XinjiangFrench prosecutors have opened an investigation into four multinational fashion retailers on suspicion of concealing and profiting from crimes against humanity in China’s Xinjiang region by sourcing goods produced using forced Uyghur labour.Judicial sources confirmed to French media on Friday the investigation concerned Uniqlo France, owned by Fast Retailing; Inditex, which owns Zara and Bershka; SMCP, the owner of the French fashion labels Sandro and Maje; and the footwear company Skechers. Continue reading...

The sister of the murdered MP Jo Cox holds West Yorkshire seat for party by 323 votes

Statues brought down as part of protests at treatment of Indigenous children in notorious residential schoolsStatues of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II have been toppled in Canada amid growing outrage over the discovery of unmarked graves belonging to Indigenous children.A group gathered at the Manitoba legislature in Winnipeg pulled down the statue of Victoria on Canada Day – an annual celebration on 1 July that marks the country’s confederation. Continue reading...

Withdrawal comes just before 20th anniversary of start of US operations to topple Taliban in wake of 9/11US troops have left Bagram, the sprawling airbase north of Kabul that was the symbolic and operational heart of its military operation in Afghanistan.With that hub handed over to Afghan security forces, the final departure of US troops from the country is likely to be completed within days – and only months before the twentieth anniversary of the start of US operations to topple the Taliban, launched in response to the 9/11 attacks. Continue reading...

Israel says technical issues have scuppered deal to give UK Covid vaccines expiring on 30 July

The day after I rang my mother to ask her why she never smacked me, there was a great roarNews that researchers have concluded – from what I presume ethical considerations meant was not as painful a study as it sounds – that children’s behaviour is not improved by smacking them prompted me to ring my mother. Continue reading...

Protesters in Manitoba have pulled down a statue of Queen Victoria outside the state legislature as outrage grows over the discovery of unmarked graves belonging to indigenous children sent to the country’s notorious residential schools. A smaller statue of Elizabeth II was also toppled on the east side of the grounds. Both royals are seen as representative of the country’s colonial history

Lewis Hughes, 23, of Romford in east London, to appear in court on Friday after incident in London parkA man has been charged with common assault after England’s chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, was accosted in a central London park.Lewis Hughes, 23, of Romford, east London, was charged on Thursday evening and would appear at Westminster magistrates court on Friday 30 July, the Metropolitan police said. Continue reading...

Disability rights activists say proposed reforms don’t go far enough and that flaws in the system trap people in abusive arrangementsLast week, Britney Spears testified in court about the conservatorship that has long controlled her life, and noted there were a thousand people stuck in “abusive” arrangements like hers.In California, lawmakers have responded to the international outcry about the singer’s peculiar legal arrangement with proposed reforms that aim to expand the rights and due process of people in conservatorships. Continue reading...

After disappointment in past tournaments, there has never been as good a time to be a Ukraine fanKyiv doesn’t look like a city gripped by Euro 2020 fever. Take a walk through Ukraine’s capital on a non-game day and there are few banners or flags to suggest the national team is on a historic run to its first quarter-finals of a European football championship.But scratch the surface and you’ll find a city of diehards. “I’m set for a Ukraine victory,” said Andriy, 29, the head of a marketing agency, outside the popular Espressoholic cafe in the Podil district. “I know, of course, that England are stronger, but I want to believe.” Continue reading...

The first three months were torrid. Kathleen would be sick in the morning, and I’d be sick in the afternoonI met my partner, Kathleen, when we were both aid workers in Zimbabwe, when I was 28. I liked her politics and her blue eyes. Four years later, in 1993, my family lost a generation when my beloved niece, Lucy, was killed in a car crash. Like many lesbian couples in the 90s, Kathleen and I had discussed having children, but this crushing loss changed the conversation: I was 34 and she was 36, and it turned from something we chatted about to something we needed to do. Section 28 (a law banning the promotion of homosexuality) was still around, with its clear message that our love should be discouraged, and the hurdles seemed insurmountable. We had wombs to spare, but no sperm.Our GP explained that while heterosexual couples have only to prove one of them is infertile to get treatment, lesbians didn’t qualify. We looked into private fertility clinics but they charged too much, so we drew up a very short shortlist of potential donors. Continue reading...

Scott Morrison announces four-step pandemic exit plan after meeting with state leaders. This blog is now closed

Plans to allow 10,000 locals into events at risk with Tokyo’s Covid restrictions unlikely to be lifted

Prime minister says it may take until 2022 before moving to next phase, which would see focus on reducing hospitalisations rather than coronavirus cases

Lack of phone and internet hampering humanitarian efforts in war-torn Ethiopian province, UN warnsHumanitarian organisations in Ethiopia are demanding that phone lines and internet are restored to the troubled northern province of Tigray, warning that the ceasefire declared by Addis Ababa this week will only help alleviate famine if aid workers can operate safely.Since the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) withdrew from Mekelle, Tigray’s capital, on Monday, all telecommunications have been down, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha). Unicef said ENDF personnel had entered its office and dismantled crucial satellite equipment. Continue reading...

Noor Mohammad Shah has given traditional Sufi music a new lease of life after a chance encounterNoor Mohammad Shah had always happily lived a life of obscurity. Born in a small village in the conflict-ridden state of Kashmir in India, Shah had been introduced to the mystical world of Sufi music as a child and for decades since had made a meagre but fulfilling living singing traditional songs and performing on his rabab, a lute-like music instrument, at weddings and village festivals.Yet it was a chance encounter between Shah and a group of young men, who happened to pass by as the god-fearing musician was playing his instrument on a dusty street corner, that would propel him into becoming one of Kashmir’s most famous modern rabab musicians. Continue reading...

Here are the current coronavirus hotspots and Covid-19 public exposure sites in Sydney and regional New South Wales, and what to do if you’ve visited them. Our analysis and map shows where Covid cases are increasing, and a live data update tracks the daily case numbers in NSW

Lawyers say commission’s emissions budgets are inconsistent with aim of limiting global warming to 1.5CHundreds of top New Zealand lawyers are suing the Climate Change Commission for what they say are substantial errors in its advice to the government over reducing carbon emissions.Lawyers for Climate Action is a group of more than 300 solicitors, barristers and academics seeking to ensure Aotearoa New Zealand meets its international climate obligations. Continue reading...

Hamas, the Islamist group that runs Israeli-blockaded Gaza, said the strikes hit training sitesIsrael hit Islamist militant sites in Gaza with airstrikes on Friday in retaliation for incendiary balloon launches from the Palestinian enclave, in the latest unrest since a ceasefire ended May’s conflict.Security sources with Hamas, the Islamist group that runs Israeli-blockaded Gaza, said the strikes hit training sites. There were no injuries reported. Continue reading...

Prime minister will welcome German leader at Chequers in her last visit as chancellor

German vaccine committee says mixing and matching gives ‘clearly superior’ immune response; Uefa and UK government warned over Euro stadium crowds

Buildings, cars and trees are shown ablaze in footage taken by a resident fleeing a wildfire in the British Columbia village of Lytton. Flames tore through the settlement 95 miles north-east of Vancouver so fast that officials did not even have time to issue evacuation orders. Within hours, most of the village's buildings had been consumed by flames.A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help people who have lost their homesThis video has no sound.

The charges against the company and Allen Weisselberg seem small in scope – but experts say this could be just the beginningAfter three years of investigations by New York’s top prosecutors against Donald Trump, many people in his circle and the sprawling Trump Organization business empire, it is perhaps no surprise to see charges finally laid in a New York courtroom.Related: Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg pleads not guilty to tax crimes – live Continue reading...

We speak to three people after the late surge in EU citizens trying to meet the deadline for applications

Officials didn’t have time to issue evacuation orders while dry conditions make suppressing wildfires in Canada impossibleAfter three days of unrelenting heat, the people in the British Columbia village of Lytton were hoping for a modest respite.Temperatures which had shattered longstanding national records – at one point reaching a blistering 49.6C (121.28F) – eased slightly on Wednesday, raising hopes that the worst was over. Continue reading...

Procedural issue prompted release of a man more than 60 women have accused of rape or sexual assaultSexual assault advocates and survivors said Bill Cosby’s release from prison should be a “battle cry” amid concerns the decision could have a chilling effect on survivors seeking to hold their abusers accountable.Cosby was freed on Wednesday after the supreme court of Pennsylvania reversed his 2018 convictions on charges of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand. Pennsylvania’s highest court overturned the conviction because a previous district attorney had promised in 2005 that Cosby would not be charged. Continue reading...

Scott Morrison’s shift on eligibility for under-40s blamed for eroding vaccine confidence while being at odds with leading doctors’ adviceGeneral practitioners say they are being “left to hold the mess” created by the confused and conflicting statements about the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is making it harder for them to obtain informed consent from patients.The confused messaging around AstraZeneca continued on Wednesday after Christopher Blyth, the co-chair of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (Atagi), said the vaccine should be considered for under-40s only in rare circumstances and Dr Jeannette Young, the Queensland chief health officer, continued to insist that under-40s in her state should not get AstraZeneca. Continue reading...

Data supplied by councils could be used to help remove foreign nationals from UK – either voluntarily or forciblyTen English local authorities have signed up to a controversial Home Office service that could lead to the removal of some migrant rough sleepers from the UK, the Guardian has learned.A freedom of information response from the Home Office obtained by the Public Interest Law Centre has revealed that at least 10 councils have signed up to the Home Office’s Rough Sleepers Support Service between 15 September 2020 and 13 May 2021. Continue reading...

Brexit requirement to be dropped for UK-registered vehicles, including those from Northern IrelandMillions of UK motorists will no longer have to obtain an insurance “green card” before taking their car to EU countries after the requirement for extra Brexit-related paperwork was dropped.The European Commission announced it had waived the obligation when it unveiled several other concessions designed to defuse tension around the implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol. Continue reading...

Plan inspired by 1839 painting chosen for reshaping of historic but overgrown burial groundHundreds of “spindly” trees at Highgate cemetery are set to be felled under a proposed revamp that aims to open the famous burial ground to views across London.The first images have been released showing how the final resting place of Karl Marx, George Eliot and Michael Faraday might look in future. Continue reading...

Wales is rightly proud of achieving a footpath all the way round its coast. This project has sabotaged that, say Neil Wilson, Bob Denley and Guto ap GwentYour article on the new salt marsh at Cwm Ivy on Gower (Gŵyr) (‘It wasn’t pretty at first’: the Welsh wildlife haven born out of disaster, 10 May) was one-sided and contained many questionable statements.The Gower peninsula (Penrhyn Gŵyr) is a beautiful area and strenuous efforts are made to keep it this way. Wales is rightly proud of achieving a footpath all the way round its coast. This project has sabotaged both. A rare area of freshwater wetland with a site of special scientific interest has been lost, and the Wales coast path has been blocked. Continue reading...

Italy’s justice minister orders an investigation after images from the 2020 incident are publishedItaly’s justice minister, Marta Cartabia, has ordered a report into conditions in the country’s prisons after the release of video footage showing guards brutally beating inmates at a jail near Naples who had demanded better coronavirus protections.The shocking scenes of prisoners being kicked, slapped and beaten with truncheons at Santa Maria Capua Vetere prison in Caserta were caught by surveillance cameras on 6 April 2020, the day after a riot erupted in the prison as inmates demanded face masks and Covid-19 tests in reaction to an outbreak of the virus. The footage was published this week by the newspaper Domani. Continue reading...

Public health bodies and families say term carries racial bias and is used to justify lethal use of force by policePublic health bodies, charities and the families of men who died after being restrained by police have condemned the inclusion of a controversial medical term in one of the UK’s leading medical handbooks.Acute behavioural disturbance (ABD), more commonly known as “excited delirium”, a contentious expression used in fatal cases of police violence, has recently been added to the Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines (MPG). Continue reading...

As Turkey quits the Istanbul convention, Gülsüm Kav’s group We Will Stop Femicide is helping keep women alive amid a rise in gender-based violence“History is on our side,” says Gülsüm Kav. She leans in and speaks intensely. She has a lot to say: Kav helped create Turkey’s We Will Stop Femicide (WWSF) group, and has become one of the country’s leading feminist activists even as the political environment has grown more hostile.Amid protests, Turkey withdrew from the Istanbul convention, the landmark international treaty to prevent violence against women and promote equality, on Thursday. The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has long attacked women’s rights and gender equality, suggesting that feminists “reject the concept of motherhood”, speaking out against abortion and even caesarean sections, and claiming that gender equality is “against nature”. Continue reading...

All eyes on Israel, as countries look to see if 85% vaccination rate there will prevent deaths during surge

In Canada, more than 1,000 unmarked graves have been discovered on the grounds of three former church-run residential schools, where an estimated 150,000 First Nations children were sent as part of a campaign of forced assimilation for more than a century until 1996.On Wednesday, the remains of 182 people were found at a former school in British Columbia – weeks after 215 unmarked graves were found at an institution in the province and 751 in Saskatchewan.A historic truth and reconciliation commission was conducted in the 2000s. In 2015 it concluded that the residential school system amounted to cultural genocide and that unmarked graves would be found in the former school grounds, but the recent findings still shocked many Canadians and prompted calls for a new investigation. Leyland Cecco explains how the discovery is just the tip of the iceberg in uncovering Canada's traumatic colonial past

Activists believe the case, in which the accused says she acted in self-defence, shows the law fails womenA teenager has been charged with murder in Zimbabwe despite claims she was defending herself against a sexual predator. The action has triggered protests from lawyers and activists, who have raised concerns about how victims of sexual violence are treated in the country.Tariro Matutsa, 19, said she acted in self-defence when she picked up a piece of firewood and hit 40-year-old Sure Tsuro several times last month. She said he had cornered her as she cooked over a fire at her home in Mudzi, a rural area east of the capital, Harare, exposed himself and aggressively demanded sex. Continue reading...

Report says police breached fundamental rights and used unnecessary and disproportionate forceThe policing of the Sarah Everard vigil in London and “kill the bill” demonstrations in Bristol breached fundamental rights to protest and involved unnecessary and disproportionate use of force, a parliamentary inquiry has found.Multiple failings were committed by the Metropolitan police service (MPS) and Avon and Somerset constabulary (A&SC), including wrongly applying the lockdown regulations and failing to understand their legal duty to facilitate peaceful protest, the all-party parliamentary group on democracy and the constitution (APPGDC) found. Continue reading...