World news | The Guardian

Five Iranians are in Turkish detention, the latest in an apparent wave of arrests and deportation ordersIranian dissidents in Turkey are unsure whether the country is still a refuge after what appears to be a new wave of arrests and deportation orders targeting asylum seekers from the Islamic Republic.Afshin Sohrabzadeh, 31, a Kurdish political activist, faced torture and solitary confinement during seven years in prison in Iran before he managed to escape during a hospital visit and flee across the border to Turkey in 2016, followed by his wife the following year. Continue reading...

State premier for North Rhine-Westphalia wins support over rival Markus Söder in bid to succeed Angela MerkelArmin Laschet, leader of Germany’s Christian Democrats (CDU), won the backing of senior party members at an internal meeting to run as the conservative candidate to succeed Angela Merkel in September’s federal election, party sources have said.German news website DW reported that 77.5% of the party board – 31 members – voted in favour of the party leader. His rival Markus Söder received just nine votes. Continue reading...

Manager posts critical statement on singer’s behalf after Panic on the Streets of Springfield airs

Juventus chief under fire as La Liga condemns move and French ministers criticise ‘VIP club’

All adults to be eligible from 1 May, making jab available to at least 400 million more people

Province announces plans to make coronavirus vaccines more accessible in response to public pressureCanada’s most populous province has announced plans to make coronavirus vaccines more accessible and the federal government pledged emergency aid as authorities scramble to combat a worsening outbreak in Ontario.The shift in strategy comes after the premier, Doug Ford, was forced into a U-turn over deeply unpopular new restrictions announced on Friday. Continue reading...

Many single thirtysomethings will still find large parts of England and Wales too expensive to buyThe government’s scheme to turn generation rent into generation buy will not help single thirtysomethings get on the property ladder in much of England and Wales, Guardian analysis has found.The mortgage guarantee scheme, which came into effect on Monday, will support banks and building societies to offer 95% loans, meaning that buyers only have to raise 5% themselves. Continue reading...

Alex Sartain, previously detained under Mental Health Act, shot James Nash in the face, inquest toldA children’s author and parish councillor died after a neighbour with mental health issues shot him in the face and stamped on his head, believing he worked for Vladimir Putin and was to blame for the spread of Covid-19, an inquest heard.James Nash, 42, was repairing the garden well outside his thatched countryside cottage when his neighbour Alex Sartain confronted him and accused him of spying on him. Continue reading...

Human Rights Watch urges more coordination by governments to tackle China’s treatment of Turkic MuslimsThe Chinese government is committing crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, where it has escalated its oppression of Turkic Muslims to unprecedented levels, Human Rights Watch has said, as the NGO called on governments to take direct action against officials and companies that profit from labour in the region.HRW also recommended the EU delay ratifying its recent trade agreement with China until forced labour allegations were investigated, victims compensated, and there was “substantial progress toward holding perpetrators to account”. Continue reading...

Daw Myo Aye, labour organiser and a leader of civil disobedience protests, dragged from office by armyOne of Myanmar’s leading trade union leaders has been arrested as part of escalating attacks on pro-democracy figures by the military junta.Daw Myo Aye, director of Solidarity Trade Union of Myanmar (STUM), one of Myanmar’s largest independent unions, is a central figure in the movement for workers’ rights. Continue reading...

For many viewers, the final season ruined years of fandom. Enter HBO with a month of celebrations which they hope will lead to renewed interest in GoT – and its upcoming spinoffsIt’s time to crack open Cersei’s favourite Dornish wine and fill an incongruous takeaway coffee cup to the brim: Game of Thrones is 10 years old. To mark the occasion, HBO has inaugurated the Iron Anniversary, a month-long celebration honouring the grandiose but battle-scarred show based on George RR Martin’s as yet uncompleted cycle of fantasy doorstop novels. In traditional GoT fashion, there are merchandising tie-ins, from figurines to a commemorative IPA. But the main thrust of the Iron Anniversary seems to be the series itself: a ceremonial reminder that all eight seasons and 73 instalments are still available to watch on HBO Max (or Sky Atlantic/Now/Amazon Prime in the UK); the campaign announcements encourage fans to return to their favourite bloodthirsty battle episode or embark on a binge-watch “MaraThrone”.Related: The battle of the binge: should you watch Game of Thrones in lockdown? Continue reading...

Written by Ron and Russell Mael and set in Los Angeles, Annette is the first English-language film by Holy Motors director Leos CaraxThe rescheduled 2021 edition of the Cannes film festival has picked Annette, a new film from Holy Motors director Leos Carax and starring Marion Cotillard and Adam Driver, for its high-profile opening slot.The musical, written by Sparks duo Ron and Russell Mael, is described by the festival as “the story of Henry, a standup comedian with a fierce sense of humour, and Ann, a singer of international renown … They are the perfect couple, healthy, happy, and glamorous. The birth of their first child, Annette, a mysterious girl with an exceptional destiny, will change their lives.” It is Carax’s first English-language film and is set in Los Angeles. Continue reading...

Meryem Benm’Barek’s smart debut lays bare the scandalous consequences for a Casablanca woman who finds herself single and pregnantIn Morocco, sex outside marriage is punishable by up to 12 months in prison. But when unmarried Sofia gives birth, in this debut feature from Meryem Benm’Barek, her family’s biggest fear is not her going to jail, it’s preserving their honour. The film is straightforward, a blunt social-realist drama. (Sofia goes into labour at a kitchen sink, while washing up.) Only at the end does it dawn on you how carefully the story is plotted: something happens that recasts everything that has gone before – and, if anything, makes the story even more grim.Maha Alemi stars as 20-year-old Sofia, who doesn’t know that she is pregnant until her waters break during a family party in Casablanca. It’s never clear whether Sofia, who didn’t gain much weight, was completely unaware of the pregnancy; perhaps she suspected it but had blocked it out. Her face is mostly blank, and she walks through the film numbed and zombie-like. After the birth, her family is disgusted – and terrified that a scandal will blow her dad’s business deal with wealthy entrepreneur named Ahmed. (Ahmed is played by Mohamed Bousbaa. Like a bit character in a murder mystery, watch him – he’ll be important later.) Continue reading...

Untreated waste regularly flows into waters across England and Wales. Is it time to radically rethink sewerage – or do away with sewers altogether?The pandemic has not been the only crisis we’ve been wading through over the past 12 months: 2020 was a banner year in much of Britain for sewage spills.Last July a Guardian investigation revealed that raw sewage had been pumped into English rivers via storm overflows more than 200,000 times in 2019. In November, Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) published data showing that untreated wastewater was discharged on to English and Welsh beaches on 2,900 occasions in a year. Continue reading...

Doctors say opposition leader, who is on hunger strike, is in danger of a heart attack or kidney failureAlexei Navalny has been transferred to a prison hospital as concerns have grown among supporters that the opposition leader is dangerously ill and could die “at any minute”.Navalny’s transfer came after his doctors released paperwork showing that the Kremlin critic, who has been on hunger strike for nearly three weeks, said he was in danger of a heart attack or kidney failure. Continue reading...

Last year three riders died within weeks of each other and company had 74 reports of ‘serious notifiable injuries’

Fourth Perth hospital health worker goes into self-quarantine while scammers target people seeking vaccines. This blog is now closed9.08am BSTThat is where we will leave the live blog for Monday. Thanks for following along. Here’s what we learned today:8.51am BSTThe PM’s office has just released the statement out of the national cabinet meeting tonight. This is the bit on what was agreed to:National cabinet agreed in-principle to a series of changes to the Australian Covid-19 vaccination strategy that will be put forward for approval at the next meeting of national cabinet, including options to bring forward the commencement of vaccinations for over-50-year-olds under the Australian Covid-19 vaccination strategy priority group 2A, and the readiness of more state- and territory-operated vaccination sites, including mass vaccination sites, as vaccine supplies increase.National cabinet reinforced that general practice will continue to be the primary model of rolling out vaccinations for Australians over 50 years of age, with states and territories to consider options to supplement rollout through expanded state vaccination centres. Continue reading...

After a year of closed borders, Wellington airport in New Zealand was filled with emotional reunions as hundreds of travellers touched down on the first day of quarantine-free travel from Australia

Boris Johnson likely to announce proposal, including Official Secrets Act update, in Queen’s speechBritain plans to force those working for foreign governments to sign a central register in an attempt to counter hostile spy activity, the Home Office has confirmed.Boris Johnson, according to the Times, hopes to formally announce the proposal in the Queen’s speech next month, making it a criminal offence not to declare work in the UK on behalf of a foreign government. Continue reading...

As sole provider for his family, nine-year-old Gift is exhausted and, despite hopes of being a teacher, gets little chance to studyWhile other children play football or watch cartoons at home after school, nine-year-old Gift Phiri goes to work.After his day at primary school in Mchengautuwa, in Malawi’s northern city of Mzuzu, the nine-year-old goes home to start work, hammering sharp-edged metal sheets, shaping them into charcoal cooking stoves. Gift, who lives with his grandmother, two younger siblings and another relative, started making the stoves after being trained by his grandfather when he was six. Continue reading...

A month after the birth of her son, the writer, poet and illustrator was on suicide watch in a psychiatric ward, experiencing severe delusions. Now her podcast is raising awareness of a condition that affects one in a thousand new mothersLaura Dockrill told herself she was the worst case the psychiatric hospital had ever seen, and was untreatable. But that was only one of her delusions. Dockrill thought her father-in-law had hypnotised her. She would stalk the hospital corridors, feeling “like this badass”, as if she were a trained assassin. The reality was painfully different, but in Dockrill’s words it comes coloured with a comic touch.“I was frumpy, quiet, wore my sister’s cupcake socks and a pink T-shirt with breast milk blooming over my boobs,” she says, smiling, her neon pink lipstick beaming through my laptop screen. There were times when she was on to her partner’s devious “plan” to take their newborn baby away from her, but would act like some kind of femme fatale, convinced he couldn’t resist her dangerous sexiness. He would play along – Dockrill’s psychiatrist had advised him not to try to reason with her – while gently reminding her that she would get better. Continue reading...

On his centenary, the veteran producer recalls adding punch to Coronation Street, bringing Brideshead to the screen and his ‘turbulent’ relationship with one of the acting world’s greatsThere are more than 22,000 centenarians in the UK, and on 23 April there will be a sprightly addition to their number: Derek Granger, a former Granada TV producer whose credits include Brideshead Revisited and Coronation Street. Talking to Granger in his Thames-side flat, I don’t get the sense of a man who lives in the past: the latest books are on his desk alongside current copies of the New Yorker and the Times Literary Supplement, and he talks enthusiastically of pre-lockdown theatre visits to see Andrew Scott in Present Laughter and Ian McKellen in King Lear.One figure who threads his way through Granger’s extraordinary life – and about whom he talks with caustic candour – is Laurence Olivier. It was through Olivier’s intervention that Granger, then a drama critic at the Brighton Evening Argus, was recommended in the mid-50s to the managing editor of the Financial Times, Garrett Moore, who later became Lord Drogheda. Continue reading...

People in Havana more concerned about buying chicken suspect little will change with Raúl’s departureNews travels swiftly through Havana, bumping against people so they turn, then rolling on. Cubans have a phrase for it: la bola en la calle, the ball in the street.Raúl Castro’s announcement on Friday that he is to retire and bring 62 years of Castro rule on the island to a close caused barely a ripple, even if it sent waves around the world. Continue reading...

Hugs, tears and kisses on both sides of the ditch as quarantine-free travel opened on Monday morning between Australia and New Zealand

A passenger train on the way to Mansoura derailed on Sunday, also injuring at least 98 peopleA passenger train derailed north of Cairo, killing at least 11 people, Egyptian authorities have said, in the latest in a string of rail accidents to hit the country in recent years.Four train wagons ran off the railway track by the city of Banha in Qalyubia province, just outside Cairo, the railway authority said in a statement on Sunday. Videos on social media showed wagons overturned and passengers escaping to safety along the railway. Continue reading...

The scene has been made safe but members of the public are being advised to keep clear of the areaBeachgoers enjoying the warm April sunshine in Brighton were interrupted by police on Sunday afternoon after a possible unexploded mortar shell was found.A large cordon was put in place by officers on the seafront. Continue reading...

Mary Lou McDonald says she is sorry the late Duke of Edinburgh’s uncle was killed by IRA bomb in 1979The Sinn Féin president, Mary Lou McDonald, has apologised for the IRA’s 1979 murder of Lord Mountbatten, the Duke of Edinburgh’s uncle.Speaking after the funeral of Prince Philip, she told Times Radio she was sorry that Mountbatten, 79, had been killed when the fishing boat he was on was blown up by an IRA bomb. Continue reading...

Retiring head of Merseyside force says if he had £5bn he would spend 20% on policing and 80% on cutting povertyCutting poverty and inequality is the best way to reduce crime, a police chief has said, calling for more money for deprived areas to thwart criminals’ attempts to recruit those left desperate by deprivation.In an unusually frank interview for a senior officer, given to mark his retirement as chief constable of Merseyside police, Andy Cooke said that if he was given £5bn to cut crime, he would put £1bn into law enforcement and £4bn into tackling poverty. Continue reading...

Caught on the frontline between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists, Marinka is a town forgotten by the worldVera Basova stands by her house holding a local newspaper. The front page headline says Russia is bringing tanks to the eastern Ukrainian border. “What do they want from us? Why are they dragging those tanks here?” Basova asks her neighbour.The 90-year-old worries she will have to go back to hiding in her basement to escape shelling in the war between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Donbas region that recently entered its eighth year and has taken more than 13,000 lives. Continue reading...

Fresh violence breaks out as TLP calls for action over ‘blasphemous’ cartoons in Charlie Hebdo magazine

The poll on 26 May is all but certain to return Bashar al-Assad for a third term as presidentSyria will hold a presidential election on 26 May that is virtually certain to return Bashar al-Assad for a third term, an event Washington and the opposition say is a farce designed to cement his autocratic rule.Assad’s family and his Baath party have ruled Syria for five decades with the help of the security forces and the army, which are dominated by his Alawite minority. This year is the 10th anniversary of the crackdown on pro-democracy protesters that triggered a civil war that has left much of the country in ruins. Continue reading...

The two-week period of royal mourning continues, during which the Queen will mark her 95th birthdayMore than 13 million people in the UK watched live television coverage of the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral which saw a Queen in mourning, masked and sitting alone, during her first public appearance since the death of her husband of 73 years.The BBC’s coverage of the scaled-back military procession and St George’s chapel service at Windsor Castle attracted 11 million viewers at its peak, with ITV seeing 2.1 million and Sky about 450,000. The Queen Mother’s 2002 funeral was watched by 10.4 million, while that of Diana, Princess of Wales, had a record 32 million in 1997. Continue reading...

From relaxing baths to seaside swims, water can be a balm in difficult times. Catherine Kelly, the author of a new book on blue spaces, shares her tipsIt was after her mother died that Catherine Kelly learned the healing power of water. Following instincts that she did not yet understand, she moved to live alone by the sea in County Mayo, on the west coast of Ireland, and over the next few years began to heal. “It’s an ebb and flow that water gives us that allows us to connect with ourselves. It’s an allowing,” she says.After eight years studying the therapeutic effects of nature, she has written a book called Blue Spaces, packed with ideas about how to make the most of being in or near water. You don’t have to live near the coast to benefit. “There’s being in it, being next to it, thinking about it,” she says. Nor does it matter how much water is available. From raindrops to the ocean, urban fountains to canals and fast-moving rivers, there is a blue space for everyone. And although the phrase “blue space” typically refers to natural waters, Kelly says the possibilities for meaningful connection are the same whether it is the sea or your shower. Continue reading...

Resident who predicted the fire months in advance, and six other survivors will be cross-examinedGrenfell Tower’s “rebel residents” will finally testify on Monday at the public inquiry into the disaster, delivering evidence about what their lawyers have claimed was “indifference and hostility” from their council landlord.After more than 200 days of evidence from fire fighters, builders, cladding manufacturers and safety experts, seven survivors from the 2017 blaze that killed 72 people will be cross-examined about how they were treated by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and its arms length tenants management organisation (TMO) during the disastrous refurbishment. Continue reading...

The actor, who died at age 52, had kept her cancer private and told her children she’d lived the life she wantedBefore she died, the actor Helen McCrory repeatedly urged her teenage children to be courageous and not sad about her death, her husband Damian Lewis has said.In a moving tribute to the Peaky Blinders star, Lewis said: “She’s left our beautiful children, Manon and Gully, too early, but they have been prepared for life.” Continue reading...

Novelist Mario Vargas Llosa says Fujimori’s opponent Pedro Castillo would undermine democracyThe Nobel prize-winning Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa has called on his compatriots to support Keiko Fujimori’s bid to become president, despite once running against her now jailed and disgraced father, Alberto, and spending years savaging the dynasty for its corrosive effects on Peru and its politics.Vargas Llosa said the rightwing Fujimori – who faces Pedro Castillo, a far-left but socially conservative union leader and teacher in June’s presidential runoff – was “the lesser of two evils”. Castillo won 19.1% of the vote in last week’s first round, while Fujimori took 13.4%. Continue reading...

This fictionalised account of the Egyptian uprising of 2011 has an eye for telling detail in the choice between struggle and self-preservationEarly on in Alaa al-Aswany’s new novel, The Republic of False Truths, a conversation takes place between an older and a younger man that proves bleakly prophetic for what is to follow. Essam Shaalan, once a student protest leader in the 1970s, is now the manager of a foreign-owned Cairo factory; Mazen Saqqa, a young engineer, is the son of Shaalan’s former comrade and a union representative for the striking workers.“You want to know the truth?” Shaalan tells Saqqa. “Egyptians don’t revolt, or if they do, their revolution is bound to fail because they’re cowardly and submissive by nature… The Egyptians love a dictatorial hero and feel safe when they submit to despotism. In Egypt, the only thing your struggle can lead to is your own destruction.” Continue reading...

Families from Pakistani backgrounds found to be affected disproportionately by high level of infant mortalityA taskforce is being set up to tackle baby deaths in Birmingham, after a report revealed infant mortality rates in the city are nearly twice the national average, with families from Pakistani backgrounds disproportionately affected.Councillors described the situation as “distressing” and said the report made for uncomfortable reading after it highlighted deprivation, ethnicity and health inequalities as key factors in the stubbornly high numbers, which equate to more than 100 babies dying before their first birthday in the city every year. Continue reading...

Whether acting in Chekhov on stage or a Bond film, the star – who has died aged 52 – was incredibly exciting to watch, remembers the Skyfall directorMost actors are liked by those they work with. A few are loved. With Helen it was unquestionably the latter. People would light up at the mention of her name. I was one of those people.When I was directing Uncle Vanya and Twelfth Night as my final productions as artistic director of the Donmar in 2002, I asked Helen to play the role of Sonya in Uncle Vanya. Word came back that she would love to have a chat about it. She strode into my office, sat on the sofa and immediately told me I had it all wrong. She told me she should be playing Yelena – the other young female role – and then proceeded to spend the next hour telling me exactly why. She left the room with the part. This has never happened to me before or since. All I can say by way of explanation is that it just felt inevitable. She was clearly already half way to giving a superb performance, I simply had to get out of the way and let her complete the job. Which, of course, she did – with utter brilliance. Continue reading...

The ‘quiet’ eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula lets scientists, the public and even marrying couples enjoy the spectacle close upIt was not the wedding they planned when they got engaged in 2017. But for Sumarliði and Jón, their ceremony in front of neon orange lava erupting from a volcano in Iceland was “weird, gorgeous and terrifying all at the same time”.The grooms hiked for more than two hours through snow and wind to reach the spot on the Reykjanes peninsula. “I thought I might freeze to death at my own wedding,” Sumarliði told the Observer. Continue reading...

In an exchange of emails for Observer Food Monthly’s 20th anniversary, the broadcaster and writer explains how Twitter helped her through lockdown and what she eats on a night offWhat were you doing 20 years ago this month?

Simone Biles not ruling out the 2024 Paris Olympics, when she will be 27, is part of a trend of maturity showing benefits

UK’s greater inequality levels made impact worse for the less well off, study suggests

Historians will judge America’s longest war. Now, the sounds of helicopters over my home take me back to Losano Ridge, Gardez, the men I fought for and those who did not returnI am one of more than 800,000 American military veterans who have served in Afghanistan since 2001. Tens of thousands more served in other capacities, from intelligence and diplomacy to aid and development. It’s fair to ask whether the end of the war affects how one views his or her own small role in the effort. If we didn’t “win”, whatever winning means in a war like this, did we matter? Were the sacrifices in vain?Related: Damned either way, Biden opts out of Afghanistan as US tires of ‘forever wars’ Continue reading...

There’s been much debate about lateral flow tests – their accuracy depends on context and the theories of a 18th-century cleric

The premier had intended to take six weeks off after breaking his ribs and fracturing a vertebra, but now expects to return to work in JuneVictorian premier Daniel Andrews has delayed until June his return to work after a serious back injury and will now miss next month’s state budget.Andrews suffered broken ribs and a fractured T7 vertebra after slipping on wet stairs at a holiday home on the Mornington Peninsula on 9 March. Continue reading...

Next year’s Élysée race looks like a battle between a fading Emmanuel Macron and the far-right leader. And some believe she might win this timeIn Paris’s symbolic Place de la République, under the watchful gaze of France’s allegorical figurehead Marianne, the skateboarders are not in the mood to discuss politics.For the young here, as everywhere, life has been paused during a pandemic that has halted studies, jobs, socialising and parties. What they want is their lives back, not to talk about an election. Continue reading...

The poet’s generosity 200 years ago helped to pave the way to independence, and he is still seen as a heroRacked by fever, prone to fits of delirium, consumed by his last great passion – the liberation of Greece – Lord Byron lay on his sickbed. It was 18 April 1824. The great Romantic poet would be dead the next day.“I have given her [Greece] my time, my means, my health,” he is recorded as saying in a moment of lucidity. “And now I give her my life! What could I do more?” Continue reading...