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Illness and toxic deals held the leftfield R&B star back for too long. Now she returns with a radical rethinkRochelle Jordan is ready to let loose – even more than the rest of us right now. Coming after seven years away from the leftfield R&B scene that made her a cult star, her new album Play With the Changes is a mad-scientist merge of weird pop, futurist dance and UK garage. The sunny 2-step of Artful Dodger et al is practically part of Jordan’s DNA. Born in London and raised in Toronto, her voice can belt like a house diva or wisp like smoke curls round hectic beats. “You guys are extremely open-minded,” she says of the British music scene. “There’s no boxes, no specific genre.”Related: The Guide: Staying In – sign up for our home entertainment tips Continue reading...

Expert says global leaders must not ignore Brazil, which is ‘brewing variants left, right and centre’As a coronavirus variant traced to the Brazilian Amazon marauded through Peru’s coastal capital last month, Rommel Heredia raced to his local hospital to seek help for his brother, mother and father.“I said goodbye and promised I’d come back to take them home,” said the 47-year-old PE teacher, his voice muffled by two black masks pulled tightly over his face. Continue reading...

Completed in 2019, Christina Sweeney-Baird’s The End of Men offers some uncanny premonitions of Covid-19. Why are we drawn to disaster fiction even as a real life crisis unfolds?A plague that starts with a pangolin, doctors sounding the alarm but not being listened to, countries slow to close their borders, a virus spreading until it’s too late to contain it, a cruise ship of passengers stranded with nowhere to dock. Sound familiar? I’m describing 2020, of course, but all of those things are also present in my novel, The End of Men, which I wrote between September 2018 and December 2019. I’m now answering to Cassandra.The End of Men is set between 2025 and 2031 and shows a world in which a virus to which women are immune kills 90% of the world’s men. I didn’t actually set out to write a “pandemic” novel. I wanted to explore what the world would look like without men – what would parliament and hospitals and dating and childcare look like? What would change? What would stay the same? What would it feel like to live in a world so affected by loss and which needed to be rebuilt around, and by, women? A pandemic was the most realistic way of writing that world; a reverse-engineered thought experiment. Continue reading...

South African Olympic champion on her ECHR appeal, her 5000m ambitions and campaigning for athletes like her in the futureCaster Semenya should be angry, but she isn’t. As the clock ticks down towards the Tokyo Olympics, the South African should, like her rivals, be training for the push to land a third consecutive gold medal.Instead, the 30 year-old, who has fought a wave of prejudice and stigma throughout her life, is forlornly waiting on news from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which, in turn, could convince World Athletics that being asked to take medication is perhaps not the most humane way of dealing with a woman who has a congenital condition some believe hands her an unfair advantage. Continue reading...

Landlords may have scored a pyrrhic victory, with suggestions activists could move to expropriate empty flatsThe housing question is one of the central issues of our time, and events last week in Berlin underscored what’s at stake. In a much-anticipated ruling, Germany’s constitutional court in Karlsruhe ruled that Berlin’s Mietendeckel or rent cap was unconstitutional, and therefore null and void. The product of years of concerted organising by housing movements and leftwing parties in the city, the rent cap is wildly popular with Berlin’s tenants, who make up three-quarters of the city’s households. But it was hated by landlords, real-estate investors and members of Germany’s conservative political parties. The lawsuit against the cap was filed by 284 parliamentary members of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU), and the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP).Berlin’s rent cap was part of a new law passed by the city in January 2020. The cap prevented owners of flats built before 2014 charging more than what had been agreed in June 2019. It also stipulated that any rents that were 20% in excess of acceptable levels should be reduced, varying according to location and quality. Landlords who did not comply with the new law faced heavy fines. The policy was to be in place for five years. New-builds were exempt. Continue reading...

Portraiture, perspective, impressionism, movement, mythology: cave artists could do the lot. And I have spent the past year on a virtual odyssey of their primordial wondersI was recently awoken in the night by lions, their eyes glaring in the dark from blunt rectangular faces as they stalked bison through an ancient, arid grassland. As I came to, however, I realised I was not about to be eaten alive. This was simply one of the perils of spending too much time looking at images of cave art on the web.Cave artists could do it all. The faces of the animals they painted are exquisite portraits, while their bodies are rendered in perfect perspective. But wait – weren’t these supposed to be the great achievements of European art? After all, in his classic study The Story of Art, EH Gombrich tells how western art took off when the ancient Greeks learned how to show movement, that the perspective was discovered in 15th-century Europe, and that the communication of sensation rather than the seen was the gift of the impressionists. Gombrich had probably not seen much cave art. Lascaux, a series of caves in the French Dordogne, was a recent discovery when he published his book in 1950 – and Chauvet, also in France, wouldn’t be found until 1994. Continue reading...

One of the fiercest voices of Middle Eastern feminism, the author of The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls explains her mission to ‘destroy patriarchy’

Norwegian climber airlifted from mountain while Sherpa reported to have also tested positiveThe first cases of Covid-19 have been identified at Everest base camp, renewing the controversy over the decision by Nepal to open the world’s highest mountain to climbers.With access from the Chinese side of Everest closed to outside climbers, and some expedition operators on the Nepalese side increasing prices, the Nepalese decision in the midst of a global pandemic has come under scrutiny. Continue reading...

Undercover investigation finds evidence that cash-for-passport practices revealed in Henley & Partners leak continueThe Maltese government continues to sell citizenship to multimillionaires who have minimal genuine links to the country, a Guardian undercover investigation has revealed.Rich applicants are signing €1m deals in return for Maltese passports after a 12-month qualifying period, secret filming suggests, in news that will further alarm Brussels after this week’s leak of documents from one of the world’s largest passport brokerage firms. Continue reading...

Will Nomadland clean up this year? Will Anthony Hopkins get best actor? Our film critic gives the low down on the contenders for the Academy AwardsWill win: Nomadland

WA premier Mark McGowan announces restrictions after Victorian man, who contracted coronavirus at the Mercure in Perth, infected a friend

Born in the Pacific north-west scene that produced grunge – but often in opposition to it – Kill Rock Stars pushed women to the front of the stage, and also gave Elliott Smith a platformIn 1991, something was brewing under the constant clouds of Olympia, Washington. Young people flocked there, DIY bands formed, fanzines were scrawled with fervour, and feminist politics galvanised young women. And a record label was founded to house it all.“Everyone was in a band, usually three,” remembers Tinuviel Sampson, who helped launch Kill Rock Stars (KRS) with Matthew “Slim” Moon. Forged in this underground crucible alongside grunge in nearby Seattle, the label is celebrating its 30th birthday with the covers compilation Stars Rock Kill (Rock Stars), having launched artists such as Elliott Smith, Sleater-Kinney and the Decemberists, plus the riot grrrl scene of feminist punk into the US mainstream. In many ways, the scene still feels sharply relevant: the rallying cries and on-stage monologues the riot grrrl groups voiced are issues still being fought today, including abortion rights, body autonomy and women’s basic safety. Continue reading...

Woman claims asylum housing staff ignored pleas for help when she was in pain while 35 weeks pregnantA woman whose baby died is suing the Home Office for negligence over claims that staff at her asylum accommodation refused to call an ambulance when she was pregnant and bleeding.The woman, who has asked to be named Adna, sought asylum in the UK in January 2020 after fleeing Chad. She was seven months pregnant when she was brought by police to Brigstock House asylum-support accommodation in Croydon. Continue reading...

As a global record for new Covid cases is set in India, hospitals are running out of vital supplies

Remains of those killed in 1985 Move bombing in Philadelphia serve as ‘case study’ in Princeton-backed courseThe bones of Black children who died in 1985 after their home was bombed by Philadelphia police in a confrontation with the Black liberation group which was raising them are being used as a “case study” in an online forensic anthropology course presented by an Ivy League professor.It has emerged that the physical remains of one, or possibly two, of the children who were killed in the aerial bombing of the Move organization in May 1985 have been guarded over the past 36 years in the anthropological collections of the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton. Continue reading...

Staff posted emergency messages on social media as several hospitals in the capital exhausted oxygen supplies on Thursday nightHospitals in Delhi issued SOS alerts on Friday morning, warning they had just a few hours supply of oxygen left, as another unprecedented surge in Covid-19 cases overwhelmed health systems in major Indian cities.Hospital staff posted emergency messages on social media throughout Thursday and Friday, saying they were unable to cope with demand and pleading for assistance from government. Continue reading...

Scotland will be a first choice for the many Brits holidaying in the UK this year, but these active breaks avoid the country’s famous Highland and island honeypotsTravellers have for years hurtled past the Scottish Borders, eyes on the prize that is the heart-stopping Highlands. But with UK holidaymakers swamping the traditional hotspots, it’s time to check out the southern hinterlands. The Borders mat not have the mighty Munros, but its softly rounded hills, wooded valleys, sleepy towns and ivy-tangled abbeys have their own magic. Continue reading...

Unscientific ‘morality’ examination linked to low conviction rates and violates women’s rights, says Equality NowPhysical vaginal tests are still used to determine whether women and girls have been raped in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, according to a new report.The practice remains widespread in all three countries and some courts refer to the test in judgments, despite it having no scientific basis and being banned in India. Continue reading...

This year’s awards will be a battle between political propriety and cinematic excellence. But will medium or message finally triumph?What is the point of cinema? For most people: entertainment; for some: art. And for a few: a means of shaping attitudes. Such purposes are not mutually exclusive – just ask Ken Loach (or even, perhaps, the Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl).Proudly political engagement isn’t new. The movies fought the cold war, decried Vietnam and took sides on many grand issues of the past. Continue reading...

Lin Shu’s forgotten 1922 text, The Story of the Enchanted Knight – with a less deluded Don Quixote – in edition for China and SpainIn the early 20th century a pioneering and appropriately idiosyncratic man of letters took it upon himself to translate the first part of Don Quixote into classical Chinese.Undaunted by his lack of Spanish – or indeed any western language – and helped by a friend who had read two or three English translations, Lin Shu published The Story of the Enchanted Knight in 1922. Continue reading...

Palau was hit by Typhoon Surigae last week, but even the typhoons that don’t claim lives or flatten cities are devastating for those who live through themMy adopted home country of Palau, in the northern Pacific, was hit by a typhoon last week. Thankfully no one died here, though it did lead to deaths in the Philippines.The impact on Palau of Typhoon Surigae didn’t make headlines overseas and this might be the first you will have heard of it. Compared to other natural disasters and other cyclones or typhoons in the Pacific, it was a relatively “good” one. But it left me shaken, exhausted and our community rattled. Continue reading...

Plans for a breakaway super league rocked European football this week as fans, politicians and the game’s governing bodies united in fury. After two chaotic days, the whole scheme had collapsed. David Conn looks back on a week of humiliation for football’s richest clubsPlans released on Sunday night for a breakaway European Super League have stunned the world of football and provoked a massive backlash against the clubs involved. Six English teams joined three each from Spain and Italy to announce the new venture which they say would involve midweek matches supplanting Uefa’s Champions League.The announcement was met with fury from Europe’s football governing bodies, from fans and politicians who pledged to do everything in their power to prevent the breakaway league going ahead. Two days later, all six English clubs had pulled out and the entire scheme had spectacularly unravelled. Continue reading...

Exclusive: scripts also used example of ‘borrowing leggings’ instead of ‘touching your butt’ to teach students sexual consentScripts of earlier versions of the controversial video series commissioned by the federal government included a bizarre reference to the 1950s as a “modern progressive society” and used the example of “borrowing leggings” rather than “touching your butt” to teach students sexual consent.In other videos, it appears explicit references to sex were removed in the drafting process. A video eventually published under the title “Kiss”, was also originally called “Sex”, although the script itself still refrained from using the word “sex”. This was one of the key videos in the “consenting to sex” modules. Continue reading...

Race to find missing navy vessel as authorities warn oxygen in KRI Nanggala-402 will run out within 24 hours

Analysis: Country has confirmed itself the weak link in the intelligence chain it joined with the US, UK, Canada and AustraliaJacinda Ardern, the New Zealand liberal prime minister has offended devotees of the Anglosphere by indicating she is not prepared to take her country into the kind of trade war with China that Australia has found itself facing.Her stance, asserting her country’s sovereignty, has potentially deep implications for the “Five Eyes” alliance, the intelligence sharing partnership that emerged after the second world war and blossomed in the cold war. Indeed some say New Zealand has confirmed itself as the weak link in the intelligence chain that it joined with the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia. Continue reading...

Dozens of bodies have been spotted near a capsized vessel which had about 130 people on boardAt least 120 asylum seekers are feared dead after their rubber boat capsized in stormy seas off the coast of Libya while they were attempting to reach Europe, charities and the UN migration agency say.Dozens of bodies were spotted near a capsized vessel on Thursday, which had about 130 people on board, a rescue charity said. Continue reading...

Alison McAlpine’s documentary draws out tales from locals and astronomers to evoke the magic and mystery of Chile’s stargazing hotspotCielo means “sky” in Spanish, and “heaven”, too. And it’s with a sense of humbled wonder at the immense mystery of it all that the Canadian film-maker Alison McAlpine casts her camera upwards in this beautiful documentary about the night sky. It’s filmed at the stargazing hotspot of Chile’s Atacama desert, where there is virtually no light pollution; the heavens appear to be within touching distance – as if a seam in the sky has been unpicked and the stars tumble out like diamonds.For those of us who live in urban areas, we look up from noisy streets and bright city lights to the vast emptiness of the sky. In Atacama, it’s the reverse; the sky seems more alive than the earth – a bare, Martian landscape of rock and sand. With her cinematographer, Benjamín Echazarreta, McAlpine shoots some astonishing time-lapse photography, which features alongside interviews with astronomers at the European observatories in the desert and locals who eke out a living somehow. One man is a UFO photographer; he thinks that humans are more evil than the aliens and, knowing this, the aliens don’t bother to land. Continue reading...

Former prime minister tells Q+A climate change has become matter of identity politics for rightwing politiciansFormer prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has clashed with a former member of his ministry, Keith Pitt, accusing the resources and water minister of living in a “coal-hugging bubble” in a heated episode of ABC’s Q+A.As the audience was filing into the Q+A studio, US president Joe Biden announced the United States would cut its emissions by at least 50% by 2030. While the world appears to be moving ahead on climate change, the former Liberal prime minister said climate change in Australia, in particular, had become stuck as an issue of identity politics for rightwing politics, the Murdoch media and the fossil fuel lobby. Continue reading...

Opponents say first minister, Mark Drakeford, is making capital out of timing of announcements during election campaign

Former prime minister sent string of emails to Bank officials and argued firm should be a priority for Treasury fundingDavid Cameron repeatedly pushed the Bank of England and the Treasury to risk up to £20bn in taxpayer cash to help Greensill Capital, just as the lender started to face “significant” financial pressure at the start of the pandemic.The UK’s central bank was urged to provide support to Greensill, including by setting up a fund that would buy loans made by the financial services company and its competitors, in a string of emails to senior officials. Continue reading...

Landlord took five years to replace ventilation system after 2010 fire spread smoke across 11 storeysThe landlord of Grenfell Tower took five years to replace a smoke ventilation system that the London fire brigade said had suffered “catastrophic failure” in a fire in 2010 that spread smoke across 11 storeys and injured three people, the inquiry into the disaster has heard.The Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) was told by the LFB that the system needed a full test after it failed causing injuries to residents, including Sayeda Ahmed who lived in flat 156. She received an admission of liability from the council landlord after she inhaled heavy smoke that had spread from the fire on the sixth-floor landing, the inquiry heard. Continue reading...

Vote does not compel government to act but marks further decline in relations with ChinaBritish MPs voted to declare that China is committing genocide against the Uyghur people in Xinjiang province.The motion passed on Thursday does not compel the government to act but is likely to mark a further decline in relations with China. Continue reading...

Chinese state media says the Australian government has fired a ‘major shot’ in what could be another trade warChina has threatened to take further action against Australia after the Morrison government cancelled Victoria’s two Belt and Road agreements, in a sign the diplomatic dispute between the two countries may worsen.China’s foreign ministry said on Thursday it had lodged a “solemn” protest with Australia and reserved the right to take further action, just hours after the Chinese embassy in Canberra warned Australia would “only end up hurting itself”. Continue reading...

With travel from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh banned, some UK families are stuck abroad, while others cannot visit frail relatives

Readers respond to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s report into the unequal commemoration of soldiers in the first world warIt is gratifying that the Commonwealth War Graves Commission will finally apologise, after 100 years, for denying black African soldiers and labourers war graves for their service to the British empire in the first world war (UK inquiry blames ‘pervasive racism’ for unequal commemoration of troops, 21 April). Many people in Britain and Europe will have seen headstones in cemeteries to colonial servicemen from the British West Indies Regiment, the South African Native Labour Corps, the Chinese Labour Corps, and Indians, alongside others, and will wonder what the fuss is. These troops were considered Christian and given the privilege of a headstone by the commission.But on the African continent, where there was fighting in east and west Africa, you will not see any native African soldiers from the King’s African Rifles, the West Africa Frontier Force and the Carrier Corps given a headstone, as they were considered “heathen” and “uncivilised”. There should be at least 200,000 war graves to these men. It is important that the commission creates new headstones so that the racist construct that the war was a “white man’s war”, where only white soldiers paid the ultimate price, can finally be laid to rest.

Campaign Against Arms Trade claims UK-made weapons have been used in airstrikes in Yemen that breach humanitarian law

Politicians from the UK, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania tricked by fake meetings with opposition figuresA series of senior European MPs have been approached in recent days by individuals who appear to be using deepfake filters to imitate Russian opposition figures during video calls.Those tricked include Rihards Kols, who chairs the foreign affairs committee of Latvia’s parliament, as well as MPs from Estonia and Lithuania. Tom Tugendhat, the chair of the UK foreign affairs select committee, has also said he was targeted. Continue reading...

Officer used alias Alan Bond while infiltrating the Socialist Workers party between 1981 and 1986, inquiry hearsA fourth undercover officer who spied on political campaigners is alleged to have fathered a child with a woman he met while using a fake identity, a public inquiry has heard.The officer used the alias Alan Bond while infiltrating the Socialist Workers party between 1981 and 1986. Continue reading...

Writers including Maria Stepanova and Éric Vuillard are up for the £50,000 prize, with the judges swaying for essays and autofiction over ‘good, straightforward, old-fashioned novels’From Maria Stepanova’s family memoir to a historical essay by Éric Vuillard, this year’s shortlist for the International Booker prize for translated fiction is highlighting works that “are really pushing the boundaries” of fiction and nonfiction.The International Booker goes to “the finest fiction from around the world” that has been translated into English. Six books are now in the running for the £50,000 award, which is split equally between author and translator, all of them displaying “an extraordinary amount of ingenuity and originality”, said chair of judges Lucy Hughes-Hallett. Continue reading...

Leader Anas Sarwar launches manifesto as party steps up attempts to become main opposition at HolyroodScottish Labour has pledged to spend £4.5bn on a Covid recovery plan, offering guaranteed jobs and £75 high street gift vouchers, as the party steps up attempts to become the main opposition at Holyrood.Anas Sarwar, Scottish Labour’s recently-elected leader, said his party wanted to transcend the bitter constitutional battle between the Scottish National party and the Tories by focusing instead on a national recovery plan. Continue reading...

Nero: the man behind the myth brings together more than 200 artefacts from across EuropeNero, one of the most notorious Roman emperors of them all, murdered his mother and two wives, ruthlessly persecuted early Christians, including Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and even set fire to Rome itself – famously fiddling amid the flames – to make room to build himself a vast, luxurious palace.Or did he? That is the question posed by an exhibition opening at the British Museum next month which seeks, if not to rehabilitate Nero’s reputation, at least to challenge some of history’s assumptions about him. Continue reading...

Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus jab rolled out after backing from European Medicines Agency

Inquest into deaths of victims of 2019 incident told intelligence concluded Usman Khan ‘might commit an attack’There was intelligence that Usman Khan “might commit an attack” when released from prison a year before his deadly terror assault at London’s Fishmongers’ Hall, an inquest has heard.Khan, a convicted terrorist who had been released on licence when he stabbed Jack Merritt and Saskia Jones at a prisoner rehabilitation event in November 2019, was known in prison as “High Risk Khan”, the inquest into their deaths was told on Thursday. Continue reading...

Without extension of legally binding 2013 accord, life-saving changes still required in factories will not go aheadThe future of a landmark deal to improve safety at clothing factories in Bangladesh is in doubt, unions have said, ahead of the eighth anniversary of the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in which more than 1,100 garment workers died.More than 200 brands, including Primark, Marks & Spencer and H&M, signed up to the Bangladesh Accord on fire and building safety after the 2013 disaster at the factory building in the outskirts of Dhaka. That deal, agreed with international clothing workers’ unions UNI Global and IndustriALL, is due to expire next month. Continue reading...

Defence secretary Ben Wallace also says he will explore ‘decolonising’ schools’ teaching of first world warThe defence secretary has apologised for Britain’s failure to properly commemorate tens of thousands of black and Asian soldiers who died serving the country , and pledged to explore “decolonising” schools’ teaching of the first world warBen Wallace said “historic failings” had been identified in committee’s inquiry set up by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). Continue reading...

Mobiles are now a luxury in world’s fifth most costly place for data as cooking oil tax adds to rising pricesHundreds of people have taken to Malawi’s streets to protest against rising mobile call and data charges.There were demonstrations in Lilongwe, the capital, in the city of Blantyre, and in the southern district of Mulanje on Wednesday. Continue reading...

The lead character in United States of Al is a bumbling, one-dimensional cliche whose sole purpose is helping his white peers. How sad that shows like this still get madeIt feels sad, amid a wave of such positive, nuanced, complex depictions of immigrants on TV, that United States of Al had to launch this month in the US.“How do you say: ‘We’re so happy to see you’ in – what language do they speak in Afghanistan? Afghanistanish?” is the first line of the new show, about an American war veteran whose Afghan friend, Al, comes to live with him in the US. Chuck Lorre, the writer known for other big hits such as The Big Bang Theory, Roseanne and The Kominsky Method, knows that one of the country’s two native languages is Pashto, not “Afghanistanish” – he wrote it into the script in the next line – but what better way to signify how irrelevant you think another country is than writing in a joke for which the punchline is a question that could be answered by Google in a second? Continue reading...

Inquiry comes as senior MPs meet to discuss concerns over PM’s undisclosed text messagesThe Cabinet Office is to launch an internal investigation into the leak of Boris Johnson’s text messages with the billionaire businessman James Dyson after concerns were raised about the prime minister’s texted promises to change tax rules.The announcement came as parliament’s most powerful committee of MPs will discuss whether to question Johnson on the use of his personal phone. Sources said the prime minister has liberally distributed his number over the years. Continue reading...

Appalled by the botched European Super League plans, many want a reset in England. But there are cultural and legal barriersNow that the so-called European Super League has collapsed in on itself amid a flurry of fan revolt, recriminations and stilted apologies from billionaires, we can gaze back to those heady moments long ago when the plan was announced on Sunday night. It was clear from the start that there were flaws with the proposed breakaway competition hatched by a dozen of football’s megaclubs.Notably, three major teams were conspicuous by their absence: Paris St Germain, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. Leaving aside the more opaque motives of the Qatar-owned French side, the two German clubs not being involved was pointed. Bayern are one of the real heavyweights on the international stage, in terms of sporting prowess and financial power. But the resolute rejection of the idea by Dortmund was even more surprising. Continue reading...

Held mostly in a train station, this year’s Academy Awards will be the most unusual ever. Get ready, with our guide to the oddest incidents in its 92-year history Continue reading...