World news | The Guardian

Hundreds of people surrounded vehicle men were held in and chanted ‘these are our neighbours, let them go’Campaigners have hailed a victory for Glaswegian solidarity and told the Home Office “you messed with the wrong city” as two men detained by UK Immigration Enforcement were released back into their community after a day of protest.Police Scotland intervened to free the men after a tense day-long standoff between immigration officials and hundreds of local residents, who surrounded their van in a residential street on the southside of Glasgow to stop the detention of the men during Eid al-Fitr. Continue reading...

MPs grill former prime minister for four hours about his text message and WhatsApp campaignDavid Cameron was on Thursday told that his persistent lobbying of ministers, begging for favours on behalf of the controversial bank he worked for, had “demeaned” the position of the prime minister and left his “reputation in tatters”.The former prime minister was forced to deny that his text message and WhatsApp lobbying campaign on behalf of Greensill Capital was driven by fears that an “opportunity to make a large amount of money was at risk”. Continue reading...

Amnesty International says private military firm in Cabo Delgado abandoned others to their fateSurvivors of a recent attack by Islamist insurgents in Mozambique have told Amnesty International that private military contractors prioritised white workers for evacuation as the extremists closed in during days of confused fighting.An estimated 220 civilians sought refuge in the Amarula hotel in Palma, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, during the attack in late March. Continue reading...

Emilie Tant from the Overseas Development Institute says solidarity in the international community is the only way to end Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territoriesWe don’t need the Israeli army to tell us that it is not particularly interested in a ceasefire (Israel-Gaza violence: death toll rises as UN envoy warns over escalation, 12 May) to recognise that these fresh UN warnings against escalating violence will not be heeded. For years the UN has been clear on Israel’s crimes against international law, yet the settler colonial project of successive Israeli governments has expanded unabated. Perhaps this is why the United Nations is referred to as the United Nothing by Palestinians across the West Bank.The balance of power in the occupied Palestinian territories is one of coloniser against the colonised, of the oppressor against the oppressed, and of perpetrator against victims. Only widespread solidarity from the international community, rooted in sustained strategies of digital and direct action, will force Israel to face the consequences of its crimes. To end the occupation, people around the world must mobilise together to draw a line in the sand. Mirroring strategies that built pressure against South Africa’s regime will do far more than diplomatic statements of condemnation that have so far failed to restrain Israel. Continue reading...

PM’s position echoed by president Reuvin Rivlin, who said a civil war would be ‘a danger to our existence’Israel’s political leaders have said violent street clashes between Jews and Arabs inside the country pose a bigger threat than the escalating military conflict with Gaza.The country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, visited the town of Lod, where there has been rioting, burning of cars, destruction of property and violent attacks on individuals. Continue reading...

Senior Security Service figure says there was nothing it could have done to change the outcome in this case

Gaza health ministry says nine Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes after Palestinian groups fired rockets into IsraelTensions between Israel and the Palestinians escalated dramatically on Monday as militant groups in Gaza fired rockets into Israel and Israel responded with strikes on the Palestinian coastal territory following a police raid on the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem that left hundreds injured.The rocket attacks were launched just minutes after the passing of a Hamas-issued ultimatum for Israel to withdraw security forces from both the Jerusalem compound that is home to the al-Aqsa mosque and the Old City’s Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood. Continue reading...

A series of events come together to inflame an already volatile situation in the holy city

Last week the United States became the latest country to declare its support for a vaccine patent waiver, which would allow cheaper versions of vaccines to be manufactured and sold. Many believe this measure will improve access to vaccines in developing countries and could significantly alter the global fight against Covid-19 – so why are so many countries still against it? Elias Visontay breaks down the case for a vaccine patent waiver, and how Australia continues to stand in the wayYou can also read: Continue reading...

Analysis: people have had right to hug whoever they want throughout pandemic - they were simply advised not to

‘Religious groups didn’t like Jesus wearing a Superman shirt or the lack of a resurrection. So we told them the curtain call was the resurrection – when Jesus runs on and takes a bow’Godspell opened in London in November 1971 and ran at the same time as Jesus Christ Superstar. It was the Rolls-Royce to our Ford Fiesta. I was 23, had just left the Bristol Old Vic company and was auditioning for everything. There were 30 of us lined up along the stage for the audition. I was on the end and taller than everyone else. I knew the Americans loved a level chorus line so I kept trying to sink down. I’d already done a few musicals including The Boy Friend and Oh What a Lovely War. But I’ve always said I sing like an actor and dance like a duck. Continue reading...

Open thread: the pandemic dragged even celebrities down so how were the rest of us mortals meant to hold it together?In the latest celebrity attempt to prove they had it just as hard as normal people in the pandemic, Gwyneth Paltrow has admitted she was driven to extremes during quarantine.Things got dark. She admitted to drinking as many as two cocktails a night during lockdown (quinoa-based whiskey cocktails, of course); and even sometimes eating bread and pasta – shock, horror! Continue reading...

More than 300 people reported injured as hardline Israelis prepare for parade through Old CityIsraeli police have stormed the sacred Jerusalem compound that holds the Dome of the Rock amid mounting international concern over the worsening violence in the city.Following the most serious clashes in the city since 2017, the Palestine Red Crescent reported 305 people had been injured after officers in riot gear clashed with Palestinian demonstrators in East Jerusalem. Continue reading...

Suspect held after woman was found in bushes in Little Heath, Romford

Parliamentary standards watchdog says it is looking into a possible breach of MPs’ code of conductBoris Johnson is under investigation over who paid for his Caribbean holiday with Carrie Symonds during Christmas 2019.The parliamentary standards commissioner, Kathryn Stone, confirmed on Monday morning that she was investigating a possible breach of the MPs’ code of conduct. Continue reading...

Boris Palmer posted comment online about former footballer Dennis AogoThe leadership of Germany’s high-flying Green party is facing the first test of its authority ahead of national elections in September, after a prominent Green mayor posted a racial slur about a German national footballer on social media.Regional leaders of the party voted at the weekend to expel Boris Palmer, the provocative mayor of Tübingen, over a Facebook post in which he referred to the former Germany international Dennis Aogo as an “awful racist”, in reference to an unsubstantiated anecdote on social media that the footballer, who has a Nigerian father and a German mother, had once bragged about the size of his penis, using the n-word. Continue reading...

Passengers advised against travelling as routes from London to south-west and Scotland hitPassengers on Britain’s intercity rail services face a third day of disruption as engineers continued to check high-speed trains for cracks.Trains between London and the south-west and between London and Scotland on the East Coast line are affected. Continue reading...

Second letter from military staff says threat of punishment ‘quite perverse’ and repeats: ‘Civil war is brewing in France’Serving members of the French military have fired a second salvo at Emmanuel Macron’s government in an open letter accusing it of “cowardice, deceit, perversion”, just weeks after a first letter warned the country was heading for “civil war”.Like the first letter, it appears in the rightwing magazine Valeurs Actuelles. It was reportedly signed anonymously “by active military personnel” and is appended with a petition on the magazine’s website for others to sign. Continue reading...

Navigating an uncharted landscape, I found solace in an unlikely placeAfter my third consecutive miscarriage I began baking bread.This was 2019, a year and change before quarantine boredom ignited a sourdough craze that lit up everyone’s lockdown Instagram feeds with images of fresh and hot loaves. Continue reading...

From ADHD to alopecia and learning the alphabet at 28, the Happy Mondays singer has had a wild, eventful life. He discusses hedonism, parenting – and why he has to spend so much time correcting Bez

The Good Place star plays a free man helping slaves to escape in Barry Jenkins’ epic series. The actor talks about the trauma of re-enacting such violent times – and the need to face up to historyWhen he was a child growing up in Texas in the 1980s, William Jackson Harper went to a show at the Cotton Bowl stadium in Dallas. “There was some part of the programme where some guy, somewhere in the stands, screams out, ‘The south will rise again!’ Things like that just came up that I didn’t clock as major moments. But as I got older I was like, ‘Oh, that was messed up.’”He continues: “There’s a point in a lot of black people’s lives where, especially if you’re around a lot of white people, all of a sudden your race becomes a thing. For me, it was middle school. It makes everything that’s happening now seem like, ‘Oh well, nothing ever really changed. It just went underground and now it’s back on the surface.’” Continue reading...

Former Liberal leader and PM defends decision to support independent rather than National in NSW upper Hunter byelectionMalcolm Turnbull is not ruling in or out supporting more independent candidates in forthcoming election contests, noting he has resigned from politics “but I haven’t resigned as an Australian citizen”.With a New South Wales state byelection looming in the upper Hunter, Turnbull has urged voters to support independent candidate Kirsty O’Connell – who has been upfront about the inexorable decline of the coal industry as a consequence of climate change – rather than a National party candidate. Continue reading...

As the UK pours millions into security measures, migrants say the gangs who control the Channel just get more powerful“Sorry, my battery’s low because I drained it watching YouTube tutorials on how to assemble dinghies,” Abuzar says. He is speaking on a video call from the abandoned shed in Calais he calls home. “I want to join my brother for asylum in the UK, but I have to work for smugglers because I don’t have enough money to pay for the crossing.“They hide boat parts on the beaches for me to assemble at night, but I’m so scared– – if I mess it up, children could drown on the boat.” Continue reading...

Three leopards from Hangzhou Safari Park were spotted by villagers on 1 May, but the park only reported the missing leopards on SaturdayA search for the last of three leopards that escaped from a safari park in eastern China was ongoing, authorities said Monday, as the park came under fire for concealing the breakout for nearly a week.The three leopards from the Hangzhou Safari Park were spotted by villagers as early as 1 May, according to the state-owned Global Times newspaper. However, the safari park only reported the missing leopards and alerted the public on Saturday. Continue reading...

Wife says Khet Thi, whose poetry inspired resistance to junta, died after being taken for interrogation on SaturdayMyanmar poet Khet Thi, whose works declare resistance to the ruling junta, has died in detention and his body was returned with the organs removed, his family said.A spokesperson for the junta did not answer calls to request comment on the death of Khet Thi, who had penned the line “They shoot in the head, but they don’t know the revolution is in the heart.” His Facebook page said he was 45. Continue reading...

In this extract, top atmospheric scientist Dave Lowe explains why despite political inaction he believes we can build a sustainable futureWhen it comes to the political will and leadership needed to drive the world towards a sustainable future, I’m a pessimist. Time and time again, I’ve heard rhetoric from politicians focusing on short-term goals at the expense of planning for the future. In 2021, the mainstream media promote responsible journalism and take a hard line with climate deniers. Many journalists hold governments to account over climate change goals. However, hard scientific data is often still manipulated and cherrypicked by politicians. I’ve spoken to many and liken the experience to walking through treacle.Does their bland decision-making have to do with the structure of democracy itself, with its short electoral terms and lack of incentives for incumbent politicians to make hard and binding decisions for the decades ahead? Continue reading...

Senior figures such as Andy Burnham are backing the deputy leader who is believed to be furious over treatmentKeir Starmer’s leadership of the Labour party was plunged into crisis on Sunday as a plan to demote his deputy, Angela Rayner, was derailed by a backlash from her supporters, leading to a prolonged standoff between the pair.Rayner was locked in negotiations with Starmer’s team for hours on Sunday after leaked plans to sack her as party chair and national campaigns coordinator triggered an outcry. Continue reading...

Emergency services attend scene on Grand Union near Park Royal as police cordon off areaThe body of a newborn baby has been found in the Grand Union canal in north-west London, police have said.The Metropolitan police said officers and paramedics were called at just before 1.20pm on Sunday to the body of an infant found in the water near Old Oak Lane. Continue reading...

Taliban deny responsibility after secondary school targeted in bloody attack in KabulDozens of girls were buried on Sunday at a desolate hilltop cemetery in Kabul, a day after a secondary school was targeted in the bloodiest attack in Afghanistan in over a year.A series of blasts outside the school during a peak holiday shopping period killed more than 50 people, mostly female students, and wounded more than 100 in Dasht-e-Barchi, a suburb of west Kabul populated mostly by Hazara Shias. Continue reading...

Honorary position challenged by Labour after Queen’s cousin allegedly told reporters he could be hired for £10,000 a day to contact Putin’s teamClaims that the Queen’s cousin was willing to use his royal status to sell privileged access to Vladimir Putin’s regime have raised questions over whether he should keep his honorary position in the British army, according to Labour.Prince Michael of Kent allegedly told undercover reporters posing as investors from South Korea that he could be hired for £10,000 a day to make “confidential” representations to the Russian president’s team. Continue reading...

More than 120 injured in continuing Palestinian protests over planned evictions in the Sheikh Jarrah areaIsrael’s supreme court has delayed a deeply contentious decision on whether Palestinians can be evicted by force to make way for Jewish settlers, after hundreds of Palestinians were wounded in confrontations with the police in some of Jerusalem’s worst unrest in years.A former Israeli defence official described the atmosphere as like a powder keg ready to explode at any time, after more clashes erupted outside the Old City overnight on Saturday. Continue reading...

The Guardian’s former deputy editor recalls his time reporting from Belfast during the TroublesPaul Johnson has a vivid memory of one of his most dispiriting moments as the Guardian’s Ireland correspondent.It was April 1986 and he was covering a Democratic Unionist party (DUP) conference. A warmup speaker for the party leader, Ian Paisley, electrified the audience with a suggestion. Continue reading...

Exclusive: US-owned warehousing and delivery company XPO Logistics has M&S and Asos among its clients

Rare exhibits on display for first time will reveal widespread impact of archbishop of Canterbury’s deathThe murder of Thomas Becket in 1170, cut down inside Canterbury Cathedral by knights of King Henry II’s retinue, sent shock waves throughout England and beyond – an act as scandalous, according to one of his successors as archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, as the assassination of JFK or Martin Luther King.The extent to which those ripples reverberated across Europe will be illustrated by a number of rare exhibits on display for the first time at the British Museum, as part of its forthcoming exhibition later this month about Becket, his murder and its powerful aftershocks. Continue reading...

Palestine Red Crescent says 80 people were hurt during clashes with Israeli police outside Jerusalem’s Old CityFresh clashes have erupted between Palestinians and Israeli police outside the Old City of Jerusalem, extending some of the city’s worst unrest in years, as a former Israeli defence official warned of an atmosphere like a powder keg ready to explode at any time.At least 80 people were injured, including a one-year-old, and 14 were taken to hospital, the Palestine Red Crescent said. Israeli police said at least one officer was hurt. Continue reading...

Three of four suspects in explosion targeting Mohamed Nasheed in custody as he recovers in hospitalMaldives police have arrested a person believed to be the prime suspect in an explosion that critically wounded the country’s former president and was blamed on Islamic extremists.Police said on Sunday they had in their custody three of the four suspects in Thursday’s blast targeting the former president Mohamed Nasheed, who is recovering in hospital after multiple operations. Continue reading...

Elizabeth Miki Brina’s memoir about coming to terms with her Japanese-American heritage is warm and affectingMost memoirs are about resolving an identity crisis of some kind. And this is an extreme one. Born to a mother from Okinawa and a father who was a US soldier, Elizabeth Miki Brina grows up in New Jersey and Fairport, New York, faintly aware of her history but unable to really assimilate it for years. As a child, she clings to her father, to Beverly Hills 90210, to Chuck E Cheese dinners, to Aerosmith cassette tapes; she cuts up her mother’s kimonos and, as soon as she is old enough, dyes her hair blond. She wants blue contact lenses but her parents draw the line at that. Even at the age of 18, when she starts to say the words “half-Japanese” out loud, she is not able to explain “what Okinawa is”, the place where her mother was born and raised.As the author explains, the words “internalised racism” were not in anyone’s vocabulary at that time – and they certainly weren’t familiar to her parents, two people who were young and naive when they fell in love and spend the rest of their marriage just trying to do their best, with the kind of quietly disastrous consequences that secretly make up many ordinary family lives. With the benefit of hindsight and the beady eye of a ruthless biographer, Miki Brina’s life story becomes an extraordinarily compelling and involving account of what it means to grow up denying a part of yourself. Continue reading...

Locals in the port of Granville think the row between France and the UK over fishing makes no senseIf you look out to sea from the Christian Dior museum on the cliffs above Granville, you see the grey outline of what appears to be another part of the Norman coast.It is. But it isn’t. Continue reading...

Israeli police and Palestinian protestors clashed around al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem during the final nights of Ramadan

Waverley Council reconsidering popular practice, which could lead to new restrictions, a reduction in nets or a ban on the sportAustralia’s most famous beaches may restrict volleyball following complaints the sport poses a risk to other beachgoers.Informal games of beach volleyball are a regular sight at Sydney’s Bondi and Tamarama beaches, which allow three and four nets respectively. Continue reading...

The world’s biggest holiday firm is setting sail for a brighter summer as Brits grab their chance to seek some (Algarve) sunTristan da Cunha, here we come. Travel firm Tui will have given one tiny cheer at the end of last week, when the UK government finally confirmed the resumption of international leisure travel with a threadbare “green list” of far-flung countries, where desperate holidaymakers can safely venture without a 10-day quarantine on return.For those who want to stay in the northern hemisphere, at least Portugal made the cut, although Tui executives are doubtless examining the pool facilities in fellow green-lister the Faroe Islands right now. Tui, the world’s biggest tourism company, will give more details of the state of the holiday market when it reports first-half results on Wednesday. Continue reading...

In both states, where the majority of incarcerated youths are Indigenous, the oscillation from ashamed to ruthless has occurred in the space of a few years“Please, I beg you, do not just put it in the filing cabinet,” Pat Anderson, an Alyawarre woman and prominent Indigenous leader, told the first hearing of the royal commission into youth detention in the Northern Territory. “The very survival of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory depends on this commission making a real impact here.”That was 2016. Footage of teenagers in the Don Dale detention centre – one stripped half-naked, hooded and strapped to a chair – was likened to the treatment of prisoners in Abu Ghraib. Malcolm Turnbull, the prime minister who called the inquiry, was “deeply shocked”. Continue reading...

Metaphorically and literally, Clive and Mary have spent their almost four decades together learning to speak each other’s languageNames: Clive Smallman and Mary Haropoulou

First minister says there is ‘no democratic justification’ for No 10 denying second vote

For decades, scientists and economists have been making wagers about the outcome of human population growth. Now, more than ever, their speculations need to be taken seriouslyIn 2011, when the global population hit 7 billion, economist David Lam and demographer Stan Becker made a bet. Lam predicted food would get cheaper over the next decade, despite continuing population growth. Becker predicted that food prices would go up, because of the damage humans were doing to the planet, which meant that population growth would outstrip food supply. Becker won and, following his wishes, Lam has just written out a cheque for $194 to the Vermont-based nonprofit Population Media Center, which promotes population stabilisation internationally.$194, about £140, equates to the amount by which a basket containing five food types – oils and fats, cereals, dairy, meat and sugar – and worth on average $1,000 in the decade to 2010, increased in price over the following decade, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s Food Price Index (FFPI) and allowing for inflation. Continue reading...

Passengers face ‘significant’ disruption as GWR and LNER suspend services in order to inspect trains

Israeli police broke into the prayer room at the mosque in East Jerusalem as several hundred Palestinians stayed on after Friday prayers to protest against potential evictions of Palestinians from homes on land claimed by Jewish settlers.

Preselection vote leaves the long-serving powerbroker in hard-to-win third place at the next federal electionThe influential Tasmanian conservative powerbroker Eric Abetz has been demoted to third place on the Liberal party’s Tasmanian Senate ticket in a shock preselection vote.It could signal the end of Abetz’s almost three-decade Senate career, given that third place on the ticket is difficult to win. Continue reading...

The musician on his Raquel Welch wallpaper, crying when Maradona died and breaking his back in four placesBorn in Glasgow, Bobby Gillespie, 58, founded Primal Scream in 1982. The band’s third album, Screamadelica, won the 1992 Mercury music prize. Utopian Ashes, Gillespie’s album with Jehnny Beth, is released on 2 July; their single, Remember We Were Lovers, is out now. He lives in London with his wife, fashion stylist Katy England, and two sons.When were you happiest?

Lawyer gives details of airman’s complaint over Corsica incident where he was tied to target while bombs and bullets hailed aroundA French pilot has filed a legal complaint after being subjected to a hazing ritual in which he was tied to a target and had fighter jets open fire around him, his lawyer has said.The young man had just been posted to an airbase in the south of the island of Corsica in March 2019 when he was grabbed by colleagues and tied up with adhesive tape, his lawyer said, confirming details first published in La Provence newspaper. Continue reading...