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Only people with immunity will be allowed to perform umrah; Italy death toll reaches 111,326

Thursday: Australia’s vaccine-hesitant populations need engagement for international borders to reopen. Plus: can a pain machine create empathy?Good morning. Welcome back after the long weekend. Today we have plenty of Covid news, including Australia’s need to tackle vaccine hesitant populations and a round-up of international issues – including the French elite dining out despite restrictions.Australia risks never achieving herd immunity to Covid-19 unless it ramps up its strategy for engaging with vaccine hesitant populations, health experts have warned. There are concerns Australia’s vaccine hesitancy rates – which were as high as 36% in mid-March – will remain high without early and intense targeting of hesitant groups. Herd immunity could require 65%-90% of the population to be vaccinated, and will likely be required before international borders reopen. Stephen Duckett, health program director at the Grattan Institute, said Australia’s efforts to engage and persuade vaccine-hesitant residents needed to be greater than foreign countries because of our reliance on the AstraZeneca vaccine, which has been acknowledged as the “likely” cause of a blood clot in a Victorian man last week. Continue reading...

President Buhari condemns ‘act of terrorism’ after gunmen destroy part of prison walls in Owerri, Imo state

Officers searching for missing 19-year-old find body in a pond in Epping Forest, EssexPolice looking for missing west London student Richard Okorogheye said the body of a man has been found in a pond in Epping Forest, Essex.Enquiries are under way to identify the body. The family of the missing 19-year-old are being supported by specially trained officers and kept updated with developments. Continue reading...

Huge numbers of listeners have been tuning in to our podcast series about the fishermen imprisoned on drugs chargesFour members of the Today in Focus team – presenter Anushka Asthana, producer Josh Kelly, executive producer Phil Maynard, and composer and sound designer Axel Kacoutié – talk about the success of our audio miniseries. You can listen to the Freshwater Five series here. Continue reading...

Conspiracy theorist was fighting Connecticut court sanction in defamation lawsuit brought by relatives of victims of the shootingThe US supreme court on Monday declined to hear an appeal by the Infowars host, Trump ally and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who was fighting a Connecticut court sanction in a defamation lawsuit brought by relatives of some victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting.Related: Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones ordered to pay $100,000 in Sandy Hook case Continue reading...

Dr Anthony Isaacs thinks the Labour leader must unite the party and restore the whip to Jeremy Corbyn, but Bruce Sawford has lost hopeNo new opposition leader could have been expected to gain much media attention in their first year against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the government has clearly benefited from the vaccine rollout. But after a promising start, Keir Starmer’s declining poll ratings (Keir Starmer: one year in, Labour leader’s popularity has plunged, 2 April) indicate that his cautious style and lack of defined policies have failed to gain traction. The pandemic has, paradoxically, opened the way to an alternative agenda that plays to Labour’s strengths of promoting social solidarity and investment in public services. Starmer must embrace the opportunity of the waning infection rates to move the fight away from equivocation and abstention over Tory culture wars to ground of Labour’s own choosing.Your editorial (2 April) points to Labour’s need for a transformative agenda that both rallies the party and speaks to the wider public. To bring this about, Starmer must first unite the party. Restoring the whip to Jeremy Corbyn would be an important symbolic gesture, opening the way for the party’s factions to work together in devising popular policies to combat the corruption and market failures epitomised by our current government. The second task is to unite opposition parties around an electoral strategy as the only hope of preventing continued Tory dominance. That will be a true test of leadership.

Presidential terms ‘reset’ to allow Russian leader to run for presidency twice more in his lifetimeVladimir Putin has signed a law that will allow him to run for the presidency twice more in his lifetime, potentially keeping him in office until 2036.The Russian president signed the legislation on Monday, ending a year-long process to “reset” his presidential terms by rewriting the constitution through a referendum-like process that his critics have called a crude power grab. Continue reading...

Ex-ministers and serving Tory MPs among those criticising decision to cut UK foreign aid by a thirdBoris Johnson has been told by a number of Tory former ministers and serving MPs that he risks jeopardising Britain’s leadership at the G7 and the Cop26 climate summit this year if he goes ahead with plans to cut UK aid by a third over two years.Sir David Lidington, who was Theresa May’s de facto deputy prime minister, will tell an Institute for Government conference on the G7 on Tuesday: “Sadly, the proposal to drop the UK’s commitment to 0.7% [of gross national income] will make it harder to achieve the prime minister’s ambitious objectives for both the G7 and the climate summit.” Continue reading...

Reindeer breeder rescues man after bad weather foils attempt to cross over mountains from Sweden

The Israeli prime minister’s efforts to remain in power face a double-pronged challenge, as he attends a Jerusalem courtroom for his corruption trial. Meanwhile critical talks on his political future were held after last month’s inconclusive election.The witness testimony and evidence stage of a case assessing whether the 71-year-old leader is guilty of bribery, fraud and breach of trust – repeatedly delayed because of the pandemic - began on Monday morning

We have to make a credible case that western opposition to China’s policies is not geopolitical manoeuvring“Wholly counterproductive”, was how Newcastle academic Joanne Smith Finley described China’s sanctions on her, along with a series of British politicians and lawyers, as punishment for their advocacy for the Uyghurs. That was putting it mildly. But is it the case that western sanctions on China will be, by contrast, productive? Sadly, that seems unlikely.International outrage at China’s policies of incarceration and social coercion in Xinjiang continues to grow. As someone who has been engaged with the region for two decades, I see that as much needed. But it’s crucial the energy being generated is put to good use. The gloves may be off, but what is the strategy? Continue reading...

The Square Mile has the UK’s best paid workers, but it’s tough for the people whose jobs rely on them

Restrictions in city contrast with those in Spanish capital as Agut and Can Soteras shut for good

Prince Bandar bin Sultan has reportedly sold Glympton Park to family of King Hamad bin Isa al-KhalifaA Saudi prince has sold a large country estate in the Cotswolds to the king of Bahrain for more than £120m.Prince Bandar bin Sultan, a senior Saudi royal as well as former ambassador to the US and former director general of the Saudi intelligence agency, has reportedly sold Glympton Park estate to the family of Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa and his son Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa. Continue reading...

Even finally winning the most prestigious award in your field can’t stop you from being drowned out by pesky time-keepersIn the Guide’s weekly Solved! column, we look into a crucial pop-culture question you’ve been burning to know the answer to – and settle it, once and for allWinning an Oscar is the highlight of a career. It’s peer validation on the largest possible stage. As your name is called and you approach the podium, your heart bursts and your head spins. You look out and see every famous person on Earth, all staring straight at you. Beyond them, cameras are beaming your face into hundreds of millions of homes. Time to gather your thoughts and articulate exactly what this means to you. Continue reading...

About 6cm settles on Orkney, substantial falls seen in Manchester and Sheffield and flurries in southLarge parts of Scotland and the north of England – and even as far south as London – had snow flurries on Monday morning as temperatures dropped by an average of 11C overnight.The Arctic winds responsible for the snow showers are expected to continue into the week, with most of the country at risk of snow or hail on Tuesday as temperatures will struggle to rise above 9C, even in the south of England. Continue reading...

I started listening to tales of yore in 2019, when long drives with my infant son became essential. They soothed him to sleep – and transported me to a different worldFans of Paul Cooper’s podcast Fall of Civilizations will know that it usually begins in a particular way. A traveller, often far from home, encounters a ruin that hints at a vast and forgotten story of the past.Hiding from bandits in the desert, the Italian nobleman Pietro della Valle takes shelter in the shadow of the crumbling Ziggurat of Ur. Clambering through the rubble of a once magnificent site of Roman Britain, an unknown poet of the eighth or ninth century writes an elegy to the broken “work of giants”. Continue reading...

Officials interpret criticism of plans for new Istanbul waterway as direct challenge to civilian government

Westworld actor tells Vogue she is reverting to Shona spelling, saying ‘I’m taking back what’s mine’Thandie Newton has said she will reclaim the original Shona spelling of her name for use in her professional career, declaring: “I’m taking back what’s mine.”For more than 30 years, the actor, born Melanie Thandiwe Newton Parker, has been known by an anglicised version of her name since the “w” was dropped “carelessly” from her first acting credit. Continue reading...

King Abdullah’s half-brother says he will disobey the army’s orders not to communicate with outside worldJordan’s estranged Prince Hamzah bin Hussein has said in a voice recording that he will disobey orders by the army not to communicate with the outside world after he was put under house arrest.The half-brother of King Abdullah and the former heir to the throne said in the recording released on Monday by the country’s opposition that he would not comply after being barred from any activities and told to keep quiet. Continue reading...

Singer also generates $2.2m in sales of NFTs, including one linked to an unreleased song sold for $490,000Pop singer the Weeknd has donated $1m (£722,000) in food aid to Ethiopia, amid the ongoing conflict in the country’s Tigray region.“My heart breaks for my people of Ethiopia as innocent civilians ranging from small children to the elderly are being senselessly murdered and entire villages are being displaced out of fear and destruction,” he wrote on Instagram. “I will be donating $1 million to provide 2 million meals through the United Nations World Food Program and encourage those who can to please give as well.” Continue reading...

Whether it is Vera Brittain or Elena Ferrante, women’s relationships have provided succour in troubled times, writes Lucy JagoWhat I miss most about pre-lockdown life is not festivals, or even foreign travel, but time with my female friends. The malaise, I believe, is widespread, so here are some books in which to immerse yourself in complex, occasionally wounding, but always irreplaceable female friendships.In Sula, by Toni Morrison, Nel and Sula are best friends in a poor, black Ohio community, where women can take many roles but not that which Sula chooses, free from social and sexual restraint. She is shunned by everyone, even Nel, whose marriage crumbles in the face of Sula’s seductive presence. Nel mourns for years but comes to understand, as Sula does before her, that it was not her husband she was missing but the relationship with her best friend. Morrison says that it was the women around her, all struggling, all poor, who inspired the book. “The things we traded! Time, food, money, clothes, laughter, memory – and daring. Daring especially …” Continue reading...

Dukes, earls and marquesses, some of them owners of inherited estates, have drawn on public fundsDozens of members of Britain’s land-owning aristocracy have claimed under the taxpayer-funded furlough scheme to pay staff at their ancestral estates and personal businesses.Analysis of publicly available data reveals the names of at least 50 nobles, including dukes, earls, viscounts, barons and marquesses, who have drawn on public funds. Continue reading...

Percentage of churchgoing Americans is steadily falling, and the swirl of rightwing politics and Christianity is playing a key roleFewer than half of Americans belong to a house of worship, a new study shows, but religion – and Christianity in particular – continues to have an outsize influence in US politics, especially because it is declining faster among Democrats than Republicans.Just 47% of the US population are members of a church, mosque or synagogue, according to a survey by Gallup, down from 70% two decades ago – in part a result of millennials turning away from religion but also, experts say, a reaction to the swirling mix of rightwing politics and Christianity pursued by the Republican party. Continue reading...

At least eight people were on the vessel north of Sydney when it caught fire on Sunday afternoonA woman is fighting for her life after suffering critical burns in a boat explosion on the Hawkesbury River north of Sydney.Eight people suffered burns and smoke inhalation in the explosion at Brooklyn near Dangar Island on Sunday afternoon. Continue reading...

Government hopes to jumpstart tourism with mass inoculation programIn Thailand, it’s the all-important tourism sector that has jumped to the head of the Covid-19 vaccination line, with the country’s most popular resort island embarking on a mass inoculation programme two months ahead of the rest of Thailand.The island of Phuket aims to deliver shots to at least 460,000 people – the majority of its population – as it gears up for 1 July, when vaccinated overseas visitors will no longer be required to quarantine. Continue reading...

Petrol bombs thrown at officers in loyalist areas in Newtownabbey and CarrickfergusPolice have come under attack as violence flared during another night of sporadic disorder in parts of Northern Ireland.Petrol bombs and bricks were thrown at officers in loyalist areas in Newtownabbey and Carrickfergus on Sunday night. Continue reading...

Victorian premier says he’s making ‘steady progress’ after a ‘pretty painful’ few weeksDaniel Andrews says he’s making steady progress in his recovery from a serious back injury and is now walking about 18 minutes a day.Victoria’s premier 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...

Portugal extends restrictions on travel via land and sea to Spain; non-essential retail and transport services shut will also shut in Bangladesh

Greens senator Lidia Thorpe accuses the Coalition of using the Indigenous Advancement Strategy as a ‘slush fund’ for ‘their big donor mates’

New Zealand may have moved to curb rising prices but could cheap money have permanently rewritten the rules?It’s hard to disagree with the New Zealand government’s recent assessment that the country’s runaway housing market has moved from mere boom to a bubble that endangers the whole economy. Prices rose a staggering 23% over the past year, putting home ownership way beyond most people not already on the fabled ladder – younger, first-time buyers especially. If it walks like a bubble and talks like a bubble, then it must be a bubble, right?The only problem is that bubbles might not be what they used to be. House prices are being steadily inflated in many other developed economies such as the US and UK. In Australia, prices rose 2.8% in March, the fastest monthly growth for 33 years. But governments are in no hurry to copy Jacinda Ardern’s canary in the coalmine moment, as the renowned Société Générale economist and market sceptic Albert Edwards has dubbed it, and instruct central banks to make dampening prices part of monetary policy. Continue reading...

Family had been told they could not remain together in UK as father travelled by plane, sons by boatA family of asylum seekers from Yemen who were told they could not remain together in the UK because the father travelled to the country by plane and his three sons arrived by small boat have been told their case will be considered together after a Home Office U-turn.The government change of heart emerged days after an announcement from the home secretary that how people enter the UK would have a bearing on the progress of their asylum claim. Priti Patel said asylum seekers should stay in the first safe country they arrive in rather than travelling onwards to the UK. Continue reading...

Great-grandmother Lucille Downer, 85, died after ‘sustained’ attack by two dogs from neighbouring propertyA woman killed in a “sustained” dog attack in her garden after two dogs escaped from a neighbouring property through a hole in the fence has been named as 85-year-old great-grandmother Lucille Downer.Downer’s family paid tribute to her, saying they would “miss her dearly”. Continue reading...

Canal authority says investigation into the cause of Ever Given grounding is nearing completionThe last ships stranded by the grounding of a giant container vessel in the Suez canal passed through the waterway on Saturday, according to the Suez Canal Authority (SCA).More than 400 vessels were stranded in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea when the giant container ship Ever Given became wedged across the vital waterway on 23 March. The ship was freed on Monday. Continue reading...

The singer, 80, on enthusiastic audiences, singing Sex Bomb at 90, meeting a young Michael Jackson and losing the love of his lifeI’ve been singing since I was a kid growing up in Pontypridd in South Wales. I would sing in school. I would sing in chapel. Any chance I got to get up and sing, I took it.I was quarantined for two years with tuberculosis. I was in hospital or confined to my house from 1952 to 1954, from the age of 12 to 14. There was an old gas lamp-post at the end of the street I could see out of the window from our house where the local kids used to gather. I used to think, “When I can walk to the lamp-post again, I’ll never complain about anything as long as I live.” I still see that lamp-post in my mind and think, “What am I complaining about?” Continue reading...

Figures show more than 420,000 applications were made from 2016-2020

Who wants to turn their excess Easter eggs into chocolate fondant, chocolate cereal clusters and chocolate and hazelnut spread? Bring it on!Can you bake with Easter egg chocolate? Sure you can. After getting my hands on a variety of Easter eggs this year (dark chocolate, caramelised white chocolate, orange-flavoured, nougat-filled mini eggs, the ones with pretzels stuck all over them … ), I found a place for them all: melted and turned into something else. For these recipes, I encourage you to use up whatever chocolate you have. Easter eggs are typically sweetened (even the dark varieties), so taste them beforehand (as I’m sure you have already) and judge if you need to add any salt, for example. Continue reading...

Most marine accidents involve human error, but the real story of how Ever Given came to block global shipping is not so easily explained awayThe trouble started at 5:17am. Ever Given, an Ultra Large Container Vessel (ULCV) loaded with 20,000 containers, had set off up the Suez canal a quarter of an hour earlier from the south, in the bay of Suez.This is how the canal works: ships anchor the night before and wait to set off early the following morning – one convoy southbound from Port Said starting at 3.30am, the northbound one at 5:00am. They meet each other at Great Bitter Lake, where the southbound convoy anchors to let the other pass. Consider a country lane with passing spots, only for ships the height of buildings, travelling at the speed of a scooter. Continue reading...

‘You are not in trouble’ and only concern is your safety, police tell missing London teenagerPolice investigating the disappearance of 19-year-old Richard Okorogheye have implored him to get in touch, saying: “Our only concern is your safety.”Okorogheye, who has sickle cell disease, has not made contact with his family since leaving his home in Ladbroke Grove, west London, on Monday 22 March at about 8.30pm. He was reported missing two days later. Continue reading...

Abigail Disney has parted with $72m – and thinks the rich need to pay far more tax. As Covid widens the inequality gap, she and an international league of the super-rich are urging governments to take their moneyAbigail Disney has always been very, very rich, or, as she describes it, “too rich”. The money came with her name: she is the granddaughter of Roy Disney who, with his brother Walt, founded the Walt Disney Company in 1923. Disney, 61, refuses to say how much she has, but acknowledges she would have been a billionaire in her own right had she not realised in her 20s that it was her fortune that was making her miserable, and decided to start giving it away.She has been donating to good causes ever since – $72m (£52m) and counting, mostly to groups helping women in prison, women living with HIV, and victims of domestic violence. But giving it away is no longer enough. She wants the tax collector to take more money, not only from her, but from “all of the absurdly rich people across the world”. Continue reading...

Reports say 550 people dead, including 46 children, and almost 3,000 detained since February coupSecurity forces in central Myanmar opened fire on anti-coup protesters on Saturday in violence that a human rights group said has left 550 civilians dead since the military takeover.Of those, 46 were children, according to Myanmar’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Some 2,751 people have been detained or sentenced, the group said. Continue reading...

The British actor shot to fame in Good Will Hunting with Matt Damon, but didn’t fit the Hollywood mould – and she’s fine with thatMinnie Driver first realised the film industry might be a strange place for a woman who didn’t fit its tiny mould when she was standing in some mud. A ditch, in fact, that had been dug for her, on a hill, so that she looked shorter than the actor she was snogging. “I was hock high in a bog, as they say in Ireland,” she says merrily, in an accent that instantly reminds me of that scene in Good Will Hunting where she tells a dirty joke and spits out her drink. This was on a different film, the first but not the last time it happened. She was young, new to the game. “I was thinking, ‘Oh my God, this is just bananas – can’t he stand on something? Or why don’t we both sit down and shoot it like that?’” But it had to be her, “in the earth, trying to be romantic and sexy when there’s mud squishing through your lace-ups”.We are talking over video chat, Driver from her family home in London, to which she has temporarily decamped after decades away in Los Angeles. She apologises for how nice she looks, the sort of apology that can only be made after a year in lockdown. “I’m only dolled up like this because I just did the photoshoot,” she explains. “And my fucking phone, the facial recognition thing wouldn’t recognise me. It was like, ‘Where’s the hag who usually opens the phone? Who’s this person?’ I often feel insulted by my own phone, but that was legendary.” Continue reading...

Anti-Asian racism is on the rise around the world. The Pulitzer-winning author reflects on his own experiences as a Vietnamese American – and the dark history that continues to fuel the current hateOn 16 March eight people were killed in Atlanta, Georgia, by a 21-year-old white man: all but one were women, and six were Asian. The shootings take their place in a much longer story of anti-Asian violence. The Covid pandemic has given us a particular insight into this phenomenon: verbal and physical assaults against Asians have accelerated in the US over the last year, with 3,800 documented incidents involving spitting, knifings, beatings, acid attacks – and murder. The majority of the victims have been women.Though the Atlanta killings took place in Asian massage parlours, the shooter has said he did not target the women because of their race. Instead, he claimed to be a sex addict bent on “removing temptation”. Regardless of his denial – whether it is a lie or self-deception – it is obvious that he targeted these women because they were Asian. “Racism and sexism intersect,” says Nancy Wang Yuen, a sociology professor. This intersection has been a driving force in western attitudes towards Asia and Asian women, who are routinely hypersexualised and objectified in popular culture. Continue reading...

Stripped of its prestige and power, this year’s awards season is the weirdest ever. But it could also mark a moment for real change when it comes to celebrating diversity

Beijing is attempting to draw attention away from reports it is holding at least one million in Xinjiang internment campsA new state-produced musical set in Xinjiang inspired by the Hollywood blockbuster “La La Land” has hit China’s cinemas, portraying a rural idyll of ethnic cohesion devoid of repression, mass surveillance and even the Islam of its majority Uyghur population.China is on an elaborate PR offensive to rebrand the north-western region where the United States and other western nationals and human rights groups say genocide has been inflicted on the Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities. Continue reading...

A new Chinese state-produced musical set in Xinjiang portrays a rural idyll of ethnic cohesion devoid of repression, mass surveillance and even the Muslim religion of its majority Uyghur population. The musical appears intended to culturally reframe the debate on the region. Western countries, including the US and UK, have imposed sanctions on Chinese officials they say are involved in the mass interment of up to one million Uyghur Muslims. Continue reading...

While modern indoor farms aim to recreate outdoor life minus its hazards, scientists say having a choice may be best for animals’ wellbeingIt’s springtime in the UK and hundreds of thousands of cows are being let outside for the first time since the onset of winter. Social media is full of videos of the animals joyfully jumping and galloping as they rush through farm gates into grassy fields.It’s always a great day when our Mixed Breed Herd of Dairy Cows come skipping back out into the fields! After spending the past few winter months sheltering from the cold and rain in our barn, this joyful moment signifies warmer times ahead as we move into spring.Look at them go! pic.twitter.com/xhyoSlb1yP Continue reading...

ONS says at least 122,000 health service workers have condition, threatening patient care