World news | The Guardian

Twelve of the 24 film-makers featured in Directors’ Fortnight sidebar are women, compared to four of the 24 in main competitionThe Cannes film festival has completed its lineup with the announcement of the selections for the Directors’ Fortnight, the separate strand that runs alongside the official festival and the Critics’ Week.Highlights of the Directors’ Fortnight include new films from British directors Joanna Hogg and Clio Barnard, an Italian documentary which includes Happy as Lazzaro’s Alice Rohrwacher among its three directors, and a new musical co-directed by musician-actor Saul Williams and Rwandan film-maker Anisia Uzeyman. Continue reading...

Body of 33-year-old woman found in woodland in Kent in March a week after she went missingPolice constable Wayne Couzens has pleaded guilty to the kidnapping and rape of Sarah Everard, who went missing in March while walking home in south London.The serving Metropolitan police officer appeared in court on Tuesday accused over the disappearance and death of the 33-year-old marketing executive. Continue reading...

Sleep can go a long way in improving mental and physical health, but teens aren’t getting enough of it – and research suggests the pandemic made things worseWhen parents tell Denise Pope, an adolescent well-being expert, they’re worried for their children’s mental health, she responds with a question.“How many hours are they sleeping?” Continue reading...

Timing of vote seen as providing long-serving prime minister with more time to torpedo coalition plansIsraeli politicians will hold a confidence vote on an opposition-led government on Sunday, a move that, if successful, will unseat the country’s longest-serving leader, Benjamin Netanyahu.“The debate and vote on the new government will take place Sunday, June 13, 2021 during a special session of parliament,” the speaker of the Knesset, Yariv Levin, announced in a statement. If the vote passes, it is expected to lead to a swearing-in the same day. Continue reading...

Three-year-old and her family held in immigration facility for years as government fights to deport themThe plight of a three-year old girl who has spent nearly her entire life in Australian immigration detention facilities has galvanised opposition to the country’s offshore detention system.Tharnicaa Murugappan was evacuated to a children’s hospital on Monday where she was diagnosed with a blood infection and pneumonia, which she contracted on a remote island detention centre. Continue reading...

A council resident living metres away from construction work on part of the high-speed rail project in central London has said people in the area have been subjected to ‘a living hell’ by HS2 and have urged the rail company to rehouse them. The £106bn rail project has generated environmental campaign protests and is expected to have a major impact on urban areas. An HS2 spokesperson said they were working with partners to identify new ways to remedy the disruption experienced by residents in Euston Continue reading...

One of nine drones tracking a herd of elephants crossing through China’s south-western Yunnan province has filmed them taking a rest. All but one baby elephant can be seen lying flat out on the ground asleep. Last week, images of the herd of 15 Asian elephants walking through a residential area appeared on social media and sparked intense media interest. Chinese authorities dispatched a taskforce to track them. State TV has spent days following their every footstep

Two women, a man and a girl were killed on Sunday when Nathaniel Veltman drove a pickup truck into pedestrians, police sayA 20-year-old Canadian man has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one of attempted murder after driving his pickup truck into a Muslim family in what police described as “a premeditated attack”.Two women, aged 74 and 44, a 46-year-old man and a 15-year-old girl – a grandmother, mother, father and their teenage daughter – were killed on Sunday night when Nathaniel Veltman ploughed his black pickup truck into a group of pedestrians in the city of London, Ontario, police said. Continue reading...

Fears children not being educated on conflict amid claims of bias in content of history textbooks

When the Bad Seeds singer found a solitary child’s glove hanging over a road sign he felt a ‘jolt of grief’ which led him on a photographic journey. He talks us through it Continue reading...

Chronic stress at work can lead to listlessness, fatigue – and a much higher risk of stroke and heart disease. But there are ways to save yourself before it’s too lateSpencer Carter had been signed off work for three months with stress. Before that time was up, his employers “encouraged” him back early, then doubled the size of the team he managed – and his responsibility. “In the last couple of years, everything got worse,” he says, with a degree of understatement. In fact, his GP warned him the stress was going to kill him, thanks to his astronomically high blood pressure. He took, he says, “voluntary redundancy to save my life”.Although he had tried counselling in the run-up to his redundancy, it hadn’t helped with his overly demanding working environment as a business operations manager for a global company – endless data and spreadsheets, running teams across different time zones, and being responsible for huge budgets in a highly competitive culture. Continue reading...

Dumba has spent her life performing in circuses around Europe, but in recent years animal rights activists have been campaigning to rescue her. When it looked like they might succeed, Dumba and her owners disappeared

Rupert Everett, who had lived in the UK for 50 years, died in 2019 without an apology for Home Office’s repeated errorsThe Home Office made repeated errors that caused a man who had lived in the UK for more than 50 years to be classified as an illegal immigrant and threatened with arrest, prison and forcible removal, the parliamentary ombudsman has found.The latest critical official report on the department’s handling of the Windrush scandal detailed how former HGV driver Rupert Everett died in 2019, aged 74, without having received an apology or compensation from the government. Continue reading...

Police station attacked and dozens of buses, public buildings, banks and personal vehicles damaged in Manaus after police shoot dead drug suspectA city in Brazil ordered schools closed and suspended public transport after the police shooting of an alleged leader of a drug trafficking ring sparked retribution attacks from gangs, government officials said.Dozens of buses, public buildings, banks and personal vehicles in Manaus – the capital and biggest city in the state of Amazonas – were targeted by a drug trafficking organisation in revenge for the killing, the state’s government said. Twenty-one vehicles were burned, and Governor Wilson Lima on Sunday requested deployment of the national guard. Continue reading...

India announces free jabs for over-18s; Norway to shorten vaccine interval

Cocos (Keeling) Islands suffix is one of the most commonly used top-level domains for hosting child abuse material, researchers sayThe .cc internet domain for the Cocos (Keeling) Islands should be claimed by the Australian government to stop it being abused by scammers and people hosting child abuse websites, Australian National University researchers have said.Under the system that governs domain names on the internet, the .cc suffix was set up in the 1990s for the Cocos (Keeling) Islands territory, far off the coast of Western Australia. Continue reading...

But president’s Morena party keeps its majority in the lower house of congressMexican voters have denied President Andrés Manuel López Obrador a mega-majority in midterm elections, though his Morena party kept its majority in the lower house of congress with the support of a controversial ally.Voters also showed little enthusiasm for Mexico’s rightwing opposition, which remains reviled after its decisive 2018 defeat by López Obrador, who swept to power promising to curb corruption and put the poor first. Continue reading...

Manchester suburb held up as a ‘thriving community’ rather than example of religious apartheid

Alina Joseph says death of son, Christopher Kapessa, 13, would have been treated more seriously if he had not been blackThe mother of a 13-year-old boy who died after allegedly being pushed into a river has vowed to launch a private prosecution if the authorities continue to refuse to take action against the teenage suspect.Alina Joseph, the mother of Christopher Kapessa, said she was certain that if her son had not been black, the police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) would have taken the case more seriously. Continue reading...

WHO says continent urgently needs more jabs as eight countries report rise of 30% in cases in a week

Move comes after social media firm deleted president’s tweet for violating its rulesNigeria has directed all TV and radio stations to “suspend the patronage of Twitter immediately” and described its use as unpatriotic, the country’s National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has said.The government of Africa’s most populous country said it was suspending the platform on Friday, two days after the social media company deleted a tweet from the president’s account for violating its rules. Continue reading...

His portraits of his Paris neighbourhood summed up its residents’ anger. Now his subversive installations straddle borders, float on boats and envelop favelas. We speak to the elusive artist“I didn’t spend enough time in school for any of the teachers to remember me. The only role models I had were the guys in the neighbourhood doing graffiti,” reflects JR, on his journey from street-smart tagger to world-famous conceptual artist. “I guess what’s nice is now, at 38, I can tell my mother I am not a vandal but an artist.”The career trajectory of the first-generation Frenchman, who refuses to publicly reveal his real name, has been fascinating to observe. With a mother from eastern Europe and a father from Tunisia, JR grew up on the wrong side of the Périphérique, a ring-road that acts as a barrier between the middle-class districts of central Paris and the concrete jungle of project buildings on the city’s outskirts that are home to a largely immigrant population. “It was tough, but there was always such a great sense of community,” he says from a plush art studio that’s only a few minutes away from the Parisian grave of Jim Morrison. “Doing graffiti meant that I had to have eyes in the back of my head. Even today, I am always naturally looking around [for the police].” Continue reading...

Protesters who want statue of slave trader restored to plinth book up tickets for M Shed museumCampaigners who want the statue of the slave trader Edward Colston restored to its plinth in Bristol are urging supporters to block-book tickets to the museum where it is on display daubed with graffiti, so that that no one can see it there.As the 19th-century bronze memorial went on display in Bristol, the Save Our Statues campaign group, which calls for the preservation of Britain’s “precious cultural furniture”, mobilised supporters to book tickets to the M Shed museum. Continue reading...

The most dramatic murder alleged to have been committed by the Australian soldier has been outright denied by his legal teamThe most dramatic murder alleged to have been committed by Australian soldier Ben Roberts-Smith – that he kicked an unarmed, handcuffed Afghan civilian off a cliff before ordering him shot – has been outright denied by his legal team, who say the allegation is “ludicrous” and the man’s killing was justified.The Victoria Cross recipient’s high-profile defamation trial over war crimes allegations began in Sydney on Monday, with his barrister Bruce McClintock SC opening his case in combative fashion, saying those accusing Roberts-Smith were “fabulists” without credibility, or “failures as soldiers” motivated by jealousy. Continue reading...

Isis ordered death of Abubakar Shekau over concerns about indiscriminate targeting of ‘believers’The death of the leader of the Nigerian militant Islamist group Boko Haram has been confirmed by a rival extremist faction that said it carried out the killing on the direct orders of Islamic State’s leadership thousands of miles away in the Middle East.Abubakar Shekau, one of the most infamous leaders of Islamic militant groups anywhere in the world, died last month after detonating an explosive device while being pursued by fighters from the Islamic State West African Province (Iswap). The Iswap fighters had stormed the Sambisa forest, a swath of strategically important dense forest in Nigeria’s north-east, which was Shekau’s base. Continue reading...

Ceremony takes place at Ver-sur-Mer for 22,442 soldiers under British command who died during D-day and Battle of Normandy

Liam Curtin says lack of maintenance has left Blackpool High Tide Organ in a poor conditionAn artist is calling on council officials to take down his most famous work after claiming that a lack of maintenance has left it in a poor state and a threat to public safety.Liam Curtin’s Blackpool High Tide Organ was constructed along the town’s new promenade in 2002. Commissioned by Blackpool council and designed by Curtin and John Gooding, the structure is primarily made of Corten steel – the same material used for the Angel of the North sculpture. Continue reading...

Dwindling band of veterans sadly missing as Normandy marks D-day anniversary with tribute to more than 22,000 soldiers under UK commandAlong the coast of Normandy the flags were out. The pipe-and-drum bands were touring the cemeteries and memorials commemorating the dead. The motley ranks of war re-enactors in their khaki wool uniforms sped through the narrow lanes in their vintage jeeps and trucks.For the second year in a row, however, the veterans whose bravery on 6 June 1944 they were here to honour were missing. Continue reading...

How did a boy from a Mormon farming family become social media’s most powerful ‘skinfluencer’?Truthfully, I didn’t expect to blow up to this scale. And yes, I know this is going to sound clichéd, but if you told me, even a year ago, that it was going to be this big, I would not have believed it.” Considering the trajectory of Hyram Yarbro, the 25-year-old Gen Z skincare guru set on making skincare “accessible”, it is easy to believe him.His success in the past year, driven by a lockdown-fuelled obsession with skincare and social media, has made Yarbro the world’s most powerful “skinfluencer”. His young, captivated, skincare-obsessed disciples – 1.2m on Instagram, 4.5m on YouTube, 6.8m on TikTok (pre-lockdown 1.0, it was 100,000) – all diligently follow his skincare recommendations via his unfiltered, straight-shooting videos. At the beginning of the pandemic, he says he was uploading content on YouTube five to six times a week and posting three TikToks a day. “But I’ve scaled it back a little,” he says now, “because I was literally not sleeping”. Continue reading...

Victory for the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt would be a devastating blow for Armin Laschet’s CDUGermans in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt headed to the polls on Sunday, with the far right posing a tough challenge to Angela Merkel’s conservatives in the final major test before the first general election in 16 years not to feature the veteran chancellor.Saxony-Anhalt is one of Germany’s smallest states with a population of 2.2 million, but with Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union running neck-and-neck with the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) there, the stakes could not be higher for the regional vote. Continue reading...

Despite a resurgence in lowland Europe, numbers almost halve in the countryWolves could become extinct again in Denmark and other lowland European countries unless the population is topped up by migrating animals, according to a new study.A wolf pack crossed the border from Germany into Denmark in 2017, ending a 200-year absence of wolves in the country. But 48% of Denmark’s wolf population has subsequently been illegally killed or disappeared, with shooting the only plausible explanation. Continue reading...

‘We are a city built on ashes, this is our chance to rebuild again,’ say organisers as celebrations get under wayAs they rode through the streets of Coventry on horseback, 14 local women channelled the same spirit of social justice as Lady Godiva supposedly did on those streets about 900 years ago – only this time they did it fully clothed.These modern-day Godivas, following in the footsteps of the woman who legend says rode naked through the city to force her husband to lower taxes, have created a new manifesto for Coventry which they presented to the elected women of the city. Continue reading...

Resident is fully vaccinated and asymptomatic and nurse last worked on Saturday as health authorities struggle to contain cluster of two variants

We all believe we should exercise more. So why is it so hard to keep it up? Daniel E Lieberman, Harvard professor of evolutionary biology, explodes the most common and unhelpful workout mythsYesterday at an outdoor coffee shop, I met my old friend James in person for the first time since the pandemic began. Over the past year on Zoom, he looked just fine, but in 3D there was no hiding how much weight he’d gained. As we sat down with our cappuccinos, I didn’t say a thing, but the first words out of his mouth were: “Yes, yes, I’m now 20lb too heavy and in pathetic shape. I need to diet and exercise, but I don’t want to talk about it!”If you feel like James, you are in good company. With the end of the Covid-19 pandemic now plausibly in sight, 70% of Britons say they hope to eat a healthier diet, lose weight and exercise more. But how? Every year, millions of people vow to be more physically active, but the vast majority of these resolutions fail. We all know what happens. After a week or two of sticking to a new exercise regime we gradually slip back into old habits and then feel bad about ourselves. Continue reading...

The consequences are acutely personal for one of Australia’s most decorated soldiers, who will take the stand as the very first witnessIn the quiet formality of court 18D of Sydney’s federal court, one of the most decorated soldiers in the history of Australia’s military will this week swear an oath, sit in the witness box, and begin giving evidence about what he saw and did during the war in Afghanistan.Ben Roberts-Smith, the former SAS corporal and recipient of both the Victoria Cross and Medal for Gallantry, begins defamation proceedings against three Australian newspapers on Monday. Continue reading...

In the summer of 1981, public health professionals faced a terrifying crisis. Their work helped shape victories against the current pandemic – but some fear hard-won ground is lostAs Anthony Fauci marks 40 years since HIV emerged, he regrets how the extraordinary disruptions that Covid-19 have wreaked upon society have hampered efforts to tackle the major pandemic that preceded it.Related: 'Brand-new disease, no treatment, no cure': how Anthony Fauci's fight against Aids prepared him to tackle Covid-19 Continue reading...

Federal health minister says 42% of all Victorians over 50 have had the vaccine as Anthony Albanese calls for purpose-built quarantine facilities in every state• Victoria records two new Covid cases as official says Delta variant likely leaked from hotel quarantine

Teaching leaders call for rollout of vaccination programme for pupils but joint committee says issue needs further debate

Australian beef could soon be sold in UK supermarkets under a trade deal to be finalised soon, but some are worried about the health implicationsA potential increase in exports to the UK of Australian beef pumped with hormones has raised alarm food safety standards could be compromised.In Australia, the use of veterinary drugs to make cattle grow bigger is widespread and deemed safe by regulatory bodies. But hormonal growth promotants have long been banned in Europe, and the UK government has pledged not to allow hormone-treated beef into British supermarkets. Continue reading...

Temperatures reach 23C but Met Office warns of risk of showers on SundayCrowds have flocked to the beaches to soak up the sunshine as temperatures hit almost 23C across parts of England amid warnings the warm weather is not going to last.Photographs show hundreds of people packed on to Bournemouth beach in Dorset on Saturday, while in the north kayakers took to Derwentwater in the Lake District. Continue reading...

Police ‘acting on information’ arrest two boys aged 14 and 16 on suspicion of Reid’s murderTwo more teenage boys have been arrested in connection with the fatal stabbing of 14-year-old Dea-John Reid.Reid was killed in College Road in the Kingstanding area of Birmingham at about 7.30pm on Monday. Continue reading...

As the UK’s post-lockdown hospitality sector struggles to find staff, one obvious solution presents itselfFrom Michel Roux Jr to Tim Martin, from swanky Le Gavroche in London to Wetherspoons pubs, the message is the same: we need more staff. Labour shortages were not a problem envisaged when the UK was plunged into lockdown in the spring of 2020. Then, the fear was of massive job losses and the highest unemployment since the 1930s.Now, the hospitality sector says a lack of chefs, bar staff and waiters is affecting trade. Roux has announced he is closing Le Gavroche at lunchtimes. At Wetherspoons, Brexit-supporting boss Martin has urged ministers to use their ability to set immigration laws to grant visas to EU citizens. Continue reading...

The veteran Benin singer emerges as leader of a new generation of African musicians in this joyful blend of new and old soundsWith a booming population that is overwhelmingly young, it’s only a matter of time before west Africa produces a global pop star as universally renowned as Beyoncé or Prince. When that happens, she or he will owe a big debt to Benin’s Angélique Kidjo who, now aged 60, has been a trailblazer for the continent over the course of 14 albums.Kidjo has always been about inclusivity, whether in her pan-African songs, or with numerous collaborators, who include Philip Glass and Indonesia’s Anggun, or in her past two albums – her reworking of Talking Heads’ Remain in Light in 2018 and 2019’s Celia, a tribute to the late salsa diva Celia Cruz. On Mother Nature she returns home, collaborating with an array of young voices on an exuberant album couched in contemporary R&B and hip-hop, but laced with traditional flavours. Continue reading...

Homes burned in Solhan village in one of worst attacks in country beset by jihadist violenceSuspected extremists have killed around 100 civilians in an overnight attack on a village in northern Burkina Faso, the government said on Saturday, in one of the worst attacks in the country beset by jihadist violence.

Emily Blunt is back as the mother silently protecting her kids from aliens in John Krasinski’s skilful if unsatisfying thrillerJohn Krasinski’s slick, skilful follow-up to his 2018 post-apocalyptic thriller works well as a genre exercise; with patriarch Lee (Krasinski) sacrificed to the first film, Evelyn (Emily Blunt, Krasinski’s real-life partner) and her three children must once again outwit an army of aliens with exceptional hearing. The brains behind the operation is the hearing-impaired Regan (Millicent Simmonds), who is teamed up with reluctant protector Emmett (Cillian Murphy) while Noah Jupe’s nervy little brother tends to the family’s newborn. To suggest Krasinski is only interested in surface thrills feels at odds with the seriousness of his craft. Judicious pacing, clever cross-cutting and visceral sound design build tension, but there’s an absence of soul, and no satisfying sense of what the monsters might be a metaphor for. Continue reading...

The It’s a Sin actor on loving Eurovision, going back to 1971 with Asif Kapadia, and Channel 4’s female Muslim punk comedyActor Omari Douglas was born in Wolverhampton in 1994 and trained at the Arts Educational Schools in London, graduating in 2015. Earlier this year he made his TV debut playing Roscoe Babatunde in It’s a Sin, Russell T Davies’s Channel 4 drama about the 80s Aids crisis. His theatre credits include Rush (King’s Head theatre), Jesus Christ Superstar (Regent’s Park Open Air) and Emma Rice’s Old Vic adaptation of Wise Children. On 16 June, Douglas will be in conversation with Davies for a Guardian Live event; next month he appears in Constellations at the Donmar. Continue reading...

Lockdowns may have eroded people’s swagger, but research suggests there are ways to remedy the situationIn July 2007, the Irish golfer Padraig Harrington won one of golf’s most coveted competitions, the British Open. The story of how he did this, one of the most remarkable finishes in golfing history, illustrates one of the ways confidence works.The Claret Jug – the Open’s famous prize – was within Harrington’s grasp as he teed off at the penultimate hole of the tournament. He had a one-shot lead on his arch-rival, Sergio García. He was entirely in the zone – “I am literally the most confident person at that point in time,” he said later. Then, something strange happened – a twinge of doubt came out of nowhere at the top of his back swing and he sliced the ball into the murky waters of the notorious Barry Burn river. Continue reading...

With Dior, Cartier and Asprey as neighbours, Ollie Claridge is now the only true local on the famous street. He reveals what it’s like to live among the super-richFrom his vantage point at the oriel windows of his Bond Street flat, Ollie Claridge has an unrivalled view of the super-rich going about their business. In London’s most opulent shopping street, where a billion pounds is spent each year, this might involve choosing a £5,000 handbag, trying on a £3m diamond ring, bidding at auction for a Mercury Cougar used in a James Bond movie or sipping pink champagne mid-morning as flawless shop assistants flutter around.Claridge is a part of this world and apart from it. “I’m a bit of an anomaly,” he says. “Lowering the tone.” Continue reading...

We’ve spent a year obscured by masks and pixellated by Zoom. Are you ready to go back to reading real-life facial expressions in all their fascinating glory?This has been the year of a thousand faces. Every face is an inch or two high on my laptop screen, and trapped inside a rectangle. The rectangles form a wall of faces that builds up brick by brick. As each new face arrives, the wall shifts and rearranges itself. Outside, in the real world, other people’s faces have been frustratingly elusive, half-hidden by masks. Or they have averted their gaze, focused on completing their essential journeys and not wishing to exchange their spittle with mine. But here the faces keep coming, popping up magically from wherever they are in the world, happy to be seen.During lulls in meetings, my eyes scan the virtual room. You can look long and hard at people’s faces online in a way that would be rude in real life. I have never before paid this much attention to how a hairline runs along the top of a forehead, or an eye sits in its socket, or a jawline segues into a neck. I hadn’t noticed how vulnerable faces are – so soft, fleshy and bruisable – and how mercurially they move between moods. The faces look by turns dazed, dogged, sweetly attentive, full of faraway thoughts that no one could guess at, and as if they are trying hard to be bright-eyed and smiley but might suddenly dissolve into tears. It’s been that kind of year. Continue reading...

The actor, 44, on learning to relax, the double edge of kindness, and the power of herbsI don’t know which memory came first: falling down the stairs and knocking down our Christmas tree, being bought my first nail varnish and getting it on my Wonder Woman pyjamas, or accidentally setting my brand-new parka on fire the first day I wore it. Each probably reveals something about my soul.Pop stardom was my plan for a while, although briefly. Coming from an Irish family, I’d often walk into the living room to find 15 musicians going at it. My voice was my instrument, how I discovered self-expression. But deep down I wanted to be a barrister fighting for justice. Continue reading...