World news | The Guardian

Few teams have ever deserved to make progress as much as Denmark did on a thrilling night in Copenhagen. Players who, just nine days ago, were traumatised to see Christian Eriksen suffer cardiac arrest in the middle of their first match produced a momentous performance on the same pitch, emerging as glorious victors over Russia to set up a last 16 showdown with Wales.Mikkel Damsgaard and Yusuf Poulsen ignited celebrations before Artem Dzyuba put them on pause by converting a penalty and news filtered through that the group’s other match, between Belgium and Finland, was not going the way the Danes needed. But that changed as Group B reached a dramatic climax and Denmark confirmed second spot thanks to magnificent goals by Andreas Christensen and Joakim Mæhle. Continue reading...

Tuesday: Barnaby Joyce’s reinstatement shows Nationals are ‘not listening’, rural women say. Plus: easy and comforting soups to cook in bulkGood morning. Barnaby Joyce will dominate the day’s news as he officially takes the top job at the Nationals, and concerns continue to grow about the Coalition’s climate policy. As winter settles in, we’ve got delicious soup recipes to warm your soul and get you through the lazy nights.Barnaby Joyce will be sworn in as deputy prime minister today, a move dubbed “astounding” by prominent women from rural Australia, who say it proves the Nationals are “not listening” to them. The founding member of Australian Women in Agriculture, Alana Johnson, said Joyce was one of many in the parliamentary party trapped in a “male culture of politics” dominated by “power plays between the boys”. Joyce’s return has also reignited concerns about Australia’s climate policy, after a week when senior Nationals expressed open hostility about the government adopting a net zero emissions target by 2050. A majority of voters say they fear Australia will be left behind on climate change unless the government prioritises serious action. Joyce deflected questions yesterday about whether he would make fresh climate policy demands when he renegotiated the Coalition agreement with Scott Morrison. Continue reading...

Italian designer says fashion cannot survive in exclusively virtual formSuch is Giorgio Armani’s eagerness for getting back to holding physical fashion shows that not even a nasty fall resulting in a fractured shoulder and 17 stitches 20 days ago could stop him from holding his first show in 16 months on Monday evening in Milan.Addressing the rumours that he had recently been in hospital, the 86-year-old designer explained to waiting press after taking his bow at his spring/summer 2022 menswear show that he fell down the stairs while leaving the cinema but wanted to reassure everyone that he was fine and still raring to go. Continue reading...

Labour has called upcoming bill a ‘developers’ charter’, while Tories fear it cost them the Chesham and Amersham byelectionCommunities should not have new housing shoved down their throats with no right to object, Conservative MPs have urged as they upped pressure on the government to scrap some of its controversial planning reforms.They went public with their concerns after the Tories lost the Chesham and Amersham byelection last week, a defeat partly blamed on how planning changes and HS2 would affect green belt areas such as the Buckinghamshire seat. Continue reading...

After Mario Draghi’s remarks, head of Italian football federation says they are not seeking to move matchItaly’s prime minister Mario Draghi has said he wants the final of the European football championships to be held in Rome rather than in London, because of Britain’s rising number of coronavirus infections.Asked during a news conference in Berlin if he was in favour of the move, Draghi said: “Yes … I will try to stop the final being held in a country where infections are rising quickly.” Continue reading...

The UN heritage agency says the historic centre is in danger if ships are not diverted to another portThe UN art heritage agency has said it would examine a proposal to put Venice on its endangered list if the lagoon city does not issue a permanent ban on cruise ships docking there, according to the Italian news agency Ansa.Unesco said on Monday it will discuss the issue at its plenary session on July 16-31. If approved, the agency could demand urgent action by the Italian government by next February. Continue reading...

Committee report says city should be removed from world heritage list after ignoring advice on skyscrapersUnesco has recommended Liverpool waterfront be removed from the list of world heritage sites after the city ignored its advice over the development of skyscrapers.The United Nations heritage organisation will vote at its 44th annual conference next month as to whether to delist the historic port, which was granted Unesco world heritage status in 2004. Continue reading...

Austria had spent the buildup to this game batting away concerns that they might inflict another Anschluss on their rivals and the watching public, but they duly disabused everybody of that notion. There had been a temptation to wonder whether they and Ukraine might play out a draw that would see both through to the last 16, evoking memories of their famous entente with West Germany in 1982. Perhaps they did not get the memo: instead they offered a vigorous, insistent performance and deserved more than the Christoph Baumgartner goal that ensured they beat Andriy Shevchenko’s desperately disappointing team to second spot in Group C. Given they face a rampant Italy at Wembley next, they may come to regret their honesty; at least they have made it that far, though, while Ukraine’s prospects hang by a thread until the ranking of third-placed contenders shakes down.This was an unrecognisable Austria side to the one that had barely made any impression upon the onlooker in losing to the Netherlands. It was a very different Ukraine to that which gave the group winners an altogether wilder ride, too, and such a marked switch in personalities made for a one-sided contest in which Austria should have been virtually out of sight by half-time. Continue reading...

Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National failed to break through, but the biggest loser in regional elections was Emmanuel MacronWherever you look, it is said, nationalism in Europe is rising. In Spain and Italy, the far right is making gains. On Monday the nationalist Sweden Democrats plunged the country into a political crisis by driving through a no-confidence vote in the centre-left prime minister. Yet the first round results of regional elections on Sunday in France, a major test of public opinion before presidential polls next year, dashed Marine Le Pen’s hopes of turning the vote into a launchpad for her run at the top job.Ms Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National did much worse than expected. Her party managed only a fifth of the vote nationally and topped the list in only one region, rather than the expected six. Unfortunately, Emmanuel Macron’s La République en Marche – her probable opponent in next year’s race to the Elysée Palace – did even worse, with only 11% of the national vote. The winners were the traditional parties, especially the centre-right Les Républicains – which won 27% of the national vote. Continue reading...

New president offers blunt preview of Iran’s global relations but vows to salvage nuclear deal with the westIran’s president-elect staked out a hardline position in his first remarks since his landslide election victory, rejecting the possibility of meeting Joe Biden or discussing Tehran’s ballistic missile programme and support of regional militias.The comments by Ebrahim Raisi on Monday offered a blunt preview of how Iran might deal with the wider world in the next four years as it enters a new stage in negotiations to resurrect its tattered 2015 nuclear deal with global powers. Continue reading...

Gary Webster, who went to Treloar College, was part of a cohort of 89 children, less than a quarter of whom are still aliveA man who was one of scores of pupils infected with contaminated blood products at a specialist boarding school has told a public inquiry neither he nor his parents were told that he was taking part in medical trials.Out of 89 haemophiliac children who attended Treloar College in Hampshire in the 1970s and 1980s, less than a quarter of former pupils are still alive, the public inquiry into the contaminated blood scandal heard on Monday. Continue reading...

Message comes ahead of major UN meeting of foreign ministers in Berlin on WednesdayThe EU has warned that anyone judged to be delaying elections in Libya beyond the planned date of 24 December will be at risk of sanctions, ahead of a major meeting of foreign ministers intended to tighten the screw on those obstructing either elections or the withdrawal of foreign forces from the country.The meeting in Berlin will set our proposals for a coordinated and sequential withdrawal of foreign forces, principally Russian and Turkish, and again call for elections at the end of the year. Previous deadlines for the withdrawal of foreign forces have been ignored. Continue reading...

Pieces worth €11m returned from a Belgian collector after an investigation that began in 2017Italy has recovered hundreds of illegally gathered archeological finds from a Belgian collector dating as far back as the sixth century BC and worth €11m (£9.4m), police have said.The nearly 800 pieces “of exceptional rarity and inestimable value”, including stelae, amphorae and other items, came from clandestine excavations in Puglia in Italy’s south-eastern tip, according to the carabinieri in charge of cultural heritage. Continue reading...

Reforms come after controversy surrounding sexual harassment claims against Alex SalmondScottish civil servants will be stripped of their role investigating complaints against government ministers after the controversy surrounding sexual harassment claims against Alex Salmond.Nicola Sturgeon, Salmond’s successor as first minister, said on Monday her government had accepted it needed sweeping reforms to its handling of ministerial misconduct allegations and its ethics policies, after three independent reports criticised its policies. Continue reading...

Whether you are pregnant, have back pain or bad knees, Norway’s public broadcaster has advice on the best position to try. But not everyone is happyName: Clamping koala.Age: Newly coined. Continue reading...

The Last Week Tonight host digs into a government program whose lack of oversight has left many risking their homesJohn Oliver turned his attention this week to a public lending program called Pace, whose state-supported clean energy loans have stranded many vulnerable homeowners in overwhelming debt or at risk of losing their homes. The program, which stands for Property Assessed Clean Energy, “is a cautionary tale about how good intentions when not paired with careful, smart design, can end in disaster”, the Last Week Tonight host explained.Through Pace, local governments borrow money at low rates made available to low-income borrowers for energy-saving home improvements, which are then paid back through increases to property taxes. Continue reading...

Low turnout in French regional elections helps keep traditional parties on left and right in control across much of countryTraditional parties on the left and right are likely to keep control of most regions in mainland France after a historically low turnout in Sunday’s first-round vote and disappointing scores for both Emmanuel Macron’s ruling centrist party and Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National (National Rally).Lists of candidates from the mainstream right topped the vote in six out of 13 regions in mainland France, leaving Nicolas Sarkozy’s old party, Les Républicains, as the dominant force, while left lists, where the Socialists dominate, finished first in five. Continue reading...

Former sprinter, 34, and his partner, Kasi Bennett, announce news of twin boys in Father’s Day Instagram postThe Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt has become a father to twin boys, Thunder Bolt and Saint Leo Bolt.Bolt, 34, and his partner, Kasi Bennett, announced the news in a Father’s Day Instagram post, with a lightning bolt emoji next to each of their three children’s names. The couple have a daughter, Olympia Lightning, aged one. Continue reading...

A public inquiry was the only way to get justice for those affected by this scandal, which went on for two decades and was covered up for 20 years more, writes Diana Johnson MPI categorically disagree with the comments from Simon Jenkins about the use and purpose of public inquiries, and with his particular reference to the NHS infected blood inquiry (Public inquiries are institutionally corrupt, we should just give the money to victims, 17 June) .After nearly 40 years of campaigning and the refusal by the state to acknowledge the harm done to thousands of people, the NHS infected blood inquiry was finally announced in 2017 when all opposition parties in the Commons came together, threatening to vote against Theresa May’s minority government. Continue reading...

Young players excluded from matches because of their religious dress find a way to play on and encourage other hijab-wearing women into the sportFouné Diawara was 15 years old when she was first told she could not wear her hijab in a football match.It was an important game. She had recently got into the team of a club in Meaux, the town north-east of Paris where she grew up, and they were playing a local rival. Diawara had been wearing her hijab during training, but as she was about to walk on to the pitch, the referee said she must remove it if she wanted to play. Continue reading...

Hong Kong demanded Taiwanese staff sign commitment to Beijing’s one-China principle in visa renewalsTaiwan says it has pulled back all but one staff member from its Hong Kong trade office after they refused to sign a commitment to the one-China principle required for visa renewals.The officials returned from Hong Kong on Sunday, leaving just one colleague at the office, which acts as Taiwan’s diplomatic presence. Continue reading...

English Heritage axes sunrise coverage after people disregarded advice not to travel to monument

The pandemic has left many of us feeling tired, out of sorts and beaten. But it is possible to get your exercise rhythm back. Here’s howMany of us have been working at home for more than a year now, without the “ambient” exercise we used to get during the 9 to 5 – walking to and from the station, say, or up and down the office stairs. And so we’ve made a conscious effort to get our feet moving and our hearts pounding.Even in the gloomy months of January and February, it was surprisingly easy to stay motivated. Endless mournful laps of the neighbourhood park, brisk jogs past shuttered high streets and empty window displays; they gave you a legitimate excuse to get out of the house. But now that pubs and bars have reopened and we can finally see our friends, many of us have found that our fitness and enthusiasm have plunged off a cliff. Continue reading...

Abstention rate estimated at 68%, and exit polls suggest Le Pen’s National Rally failed to get expected supportEmmanuel Macron’s centrist party received what one of its own MPs called a “slap in the face” in regional and department elections on Sunday.The president and his government failed to mobilise supporters, with an estimated 68% of voters shunning the polling stations – an unprecedented rate of abstention. If there was any consolation for the ruling party it was that exit polls suggested Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally had failed to garner its expected support. Continue reading...

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National cabinet will meet on Monday to discuss the Covid vaccine rollout amid the changed advice on AstraZeneca

People are starving in the Tigray region. The culprit is the devastating warIn the early 1980s, as a terrible famine claimed between 400,000 and 1 million lives in Ethiopia, the international community responded to what was widely misunderstood and misreported as a natural disaster. Famines are never just a matter of drought. Human Rights Watch later noted that Ethiopia’s repeated crises – especially the devastating one of 1983-85 – “were in large part created by government policies, especially counter-insurgency strategies”. Tigray was “the very nadir of the famine”, as a destructive army offensive was accompanied by the deliberate blocking of aid.Now famine has reached Tigray again – and once more, it is because an Ethiopian government is at war with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. The federal government wants to celebrate the beginning of twice-delayed parliamentary elections on Monday, portraying them as the advent of democracy. But the polls are overshadowed by questions over electoral conditions and multiple crises, most of all in Tigray (where there will be no voting). Over 350,000 people in the region are in famine conditions, and 2 million more are on the brink – more than a third of the region’s population. They include 33,000 children at imminent risk of death. Continue reading...

Up to 3,000 people flocked to remote South African village, but experts say value of the crystals is very lowUnidentified stones that lured thousands of fortune seekers to a rural South African village were not diamonds as hoped, officials said on Sunday, but quartz stones with relatively low, if any, value.People from across South Africa travelled to KwaHlathi in the country’s eastern KwaZulu-Natal province where villagers had been digging with picks and shovels since 12 June after a herder discovered the first stone in an open field and put out the word. Continue reading...

Initial evidence indicates body found in woods is that of Jurgen ConingsBelgian police have said a body has been found in the search for a fugitive far-right soldier who was the target of a huge manhunt.Hundreds of security forces scoured a swath of north-east Belgium after the disappearance on 17 May of Jurgen Conings, who was on an anti-terrorism watchlist, had threatened a senior virologist involved in the country’s Covid-19 programme and had hoarded heavy weaponry. Continue reading...

Animal thefts surged alarmingly during the pandemic. But for heartbroken owners around the world, a new breed of dedicated sleuth is ready to

After Twitter appeal Mathew O’Toole’s family makes contact with Danielle who stopped on London street to helpThe family of a man who had a stroke on a street in central London has found the “guardian angel” who saved his life after an appeal on Twitter.Mathew O’Toole, 47, was sitting on a bench outside a coffee shop on Wigmore Street in Mayfair on 10 June when he began vomiting and sweating. Continue reading...

‘Plantrepeneuers’ are springing up on social media to dig out space for black people in the natural worldMore than 1.4 million people watch Alexis Nikole Nelson, the ‘Black Forager’, eat weeds on TikTok.Related: Champ, Joe Biden’s German shepherd and ‘sweet, good boy’, dies aged 13 Continue reading...

Revamped gallery to reveal the importance – and presence – of Mary Moffat in missionary’s life and travelsDr Livingstone, the Scottish explorer and Christian missionary in Africa, was a hero for Victorian schoolboys, his reputation enhanced by exuberant biographies. But next month the reopening of a museum on the banks of the River Clyde, following a £9.1m investment, is to set his famous story in a broader context.The cliche runs that behind every great man stands a great woman. In Livingstone’s case, the reputation of his fearless wife, Mary Moffat, actually went before him, smoothing his path through remote regions. Continue reading...

George Packer finds the US caught in a ‘cold civil war’ between incompatible versions of the country after its ‘near-death experience’ with Donald TrumpGeorge Packer’s incisive, deftly argued book about the moral and political quandary of the United States begins and ends with his declaration: “I am an American.” The statement is self-evident but also self-congratulatory: Americans regard their citizenship as a spiritual credential, a gesture of faith in the country that has always claimed to be the last, best hope of beleaguered mankind. Packer’s native land, however, no longer deserves to be quite so certain of its exceptional virtue or its automatic pre-eminence. Early in the pandemic it had to accept charitable handouts from Russia and Taiwan, and Packer sadly accepts a new, reduced reality by calling America “a beggar nation” and even “a failed state”. After this he twists his title from a boast into an abject plea: “No one is going to save us. We are our last best hope.”The need for salvation became urgent before the election last November when Packer, having moved his family from Brooklyn to a Covid-free rural retreat, noticed a sign beside the road on a neighbouring farm. His car headlights flashed across a red rectangle branded with five white capital letters. Even here, Packer realised with a shudder, he was not safe. He doesn’t need to say what the letters spelled out: they were as succinctly satanic as the number 666 – the mark of the beast in the Book of Revelation – which made Nancy Reagan alter the street address of a house where she and the retiring president were due to live in Los Angeles. Continue reading...

David Littleproud could be clear to run for top job if Michael McCormack stood asideLeadership rumblings in the Nationals are expected to come to a head on Monday, with opponents of Barnaby Joyce saying he could retake the top job.The other most likely leadership contender, David Littleproud, has told colleagues that as deputy leader he cannot challenge Michael McCormack. But Littleproud could be clear to run if McCormack spilled his own leadership or chose not to stand again after a successful no-confidence motion in the Nationals party room. Continue reading...

With foreign travel tricky this summer, some people are make a difference closer to home, be it building chicken coops or trekking with llamasDjembe Askins had planned to be very far from home this summer, travelling around south-east Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Then the pandemic hit. But rather than completely abandon his gap year-style trip, the 24-year-old decided to transplant it to the UK.Askins, who left his job at a bank in London, has spent the past nine months volunteering at farms, mostly in Wales, through World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (Wwoof), a network where people volunteer for four to six hours a day in return for food and accommodation. Although the weather was “a bit wetter and not as sunny” as his original destinations, he found the experience of living in a different part of the UK and learning how to be “self-sustaining” a revelation. “It does make me think about what else there is across the UK that I’ve never even been to.” Continue reading...

When our brains evolved we didn’t have to grapple with risks this small. So we struggle to make sense of themLast week’s announcement that the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine would now only be recommended for Australians over 60 has highlighted the many ways we think about risk.The decision reflects a greater understanding of the real, but extremely low, risk of the clotting disorder called thrombosis with thrombocytopenia for people aged 50 to 59, who are now recommended to have the Pfizer vaccine. Continue reading...

Eritara Aati Kaierua is one of more than a dozen observers who have died since 2009. A year later his family are still waiting for answersIn his last email to his family, Eritara Aati Kaierua told them he loved them and apologised for not being in touch sooner. “Fish is a little scarce or maybe this location is not fertile, we are now fishing in Papua New Guinea and we are still here,” he wrote to his wife, Tekarara, on 21 February 2020.“Please try to stay well … and I will try my best to stay healthy from here too,” he wrote. Continue reading...

Country’s death toll nears 500,000 as opposition to the president grows and vaccination rates remain low

Police not looking for anyone else in connection with deaths in Duckmanton as reports name woman as Gracie SpinksPolice are investigating after the bodies of a 23-year-old woman and a man in his 30s were found within hours of each other in fields near a Derbyshire village.The woman was found in a field near Staveley Road in Duckmanton at about 8.40am on Friday, and was pronounced dead at the scene. She has been named in reports as Gracie Spinks, a keen horse rider. Continue reading...

Desmond Ziggy Mombeyarara was hit seven times in Stretford, Manchester, in May 2020An investigation into Greater Manchester police’s use of a Taser on a man in a petrol station last year found no evidence that the officers acted out of line with force or national policies, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has said.However, the body said it plans to publish a report “so that there is greater clarity about when Tasers should be used”. Continue reading...

Former business secretary claims UK’s economic recovery under threat with firms struggling to persuade staff back to the officeThe former business secretary Andrea Leadsom has said some people are reluctant to return to work because furlough has been “great” for them while others were “terrified” of going back to the office, sparking criticism from workers and business owners.The Conservative MP said some businesses in her South Northamptonshire constituency were struggling to get employees to go back to work because “people have, to be perfectly frank, become used to being on furlough”. Continue reading...

The actor, 54, on childhood activism, studying drama at Oxford, bringing up his daughter and learning to fight the good fightMy parents are my heroes. I marvel how they were able to work as young lawyers while keeping family as a priority. They raised my sister and me with a hyper-awareness of justice, equality and gay rights. I have memories of protesting on picket lines. It really informed my worldview and perspective.I wanted to be a surgeon. I was fascinated by the human body: I knew everything about the lymph lymphatic, the vascular and the skeletal systems. I was a big science geek, but I found that I could talk to more girls in acting class than in the science lab. So that kind of derailed my medical career. Continue reading...

More supplies and vaccination centres have put France, Italy and Germany back on track in battle against coronavirusOn Friday morning, Leyla Çelik woke up with butterflies in her stomach. For weeks, the 22-year-old student at Berlin’s Freie Universität had tried in vain to get an appointment for her first Covid-19 vaccine shot so she could volunteer as a polling station administrator at federal elections in September. “I’d basically given up hope.”But last week her university had suddenly got in touch via email, offering her a chance to get a first dose of Moderna vaccine on campus, and within a few days. By 9am on Friday, the anxiety has turned into euphoria: “It’s such a relief,” said the native Berliner, nursing her achey shoulder at Freie’s biology institute, converted into a vaccine delivery point as of this week. “At last I can catch a train or a bus without feeling anxious.” Continue reading...

Italian 31-year-old walking along Seine suffered head injury after collision with two women on electric scooterPolice are searching for two women after a pedestrian died after being hit by an electric scooter while walking in Paris.The victim, a 31-year-old Italian named only as Miriam, had been in a coma since she was hit by the e-scooter, which was reportedly travelling at speed, while she walked along the Seine in the early hours of Monday. Continue reading...

Son of murdered private detective slams ‘cancerous’ culture of the Metropolitan police after findings of institutional corruptionThe son of Daniel Morgan, a private detective who was brutally murdered in 1987, has said that the Metropolitan police commissioner, Cressida Dick, should consider her position and labelled the culture of the force “cancerous” after it was found to be institutionally corrupt.Morgan was found dead with an axe embedded in his head in a Sydenham pub car park on 10 March 1987. Despite five police inquiries and an inquest, nobody has ever been brought to justice over his death and the force has admitted corruption over the original investigation. Continue reading...

Raisi has been accused of systematically sending as many as 3,000 people to slaughter in late 80sIf Joe Biden thinks Vladimir Putin deserves to be called a killer, his description of Ebrahim Raisi, the 60-year-old president-elect of Iran, is likely to be unprintable.The youngest member of the 1988 Tehran death committee, Raisi has been accused of systematically sending as many as 3,000 people to slaughter. When he was head of the judiciary floggings and executions flourished, yet many see this election as a staging post to his becoming supreme leader when Ayatollah Khamenei dies. Continue reading...