World news | The Guardian

Explore the dynamism and contradictions of one of Asia’s most beguiling cities through its culture, novels and cuisineFew cities assail the senses as viscerally as Bangkok, from the kinetic cacophony of its street life to its aromatic herbal cures and the incendiary spice of the food. Social distancing has only briefly withheld the touch of Thai massage and the jostle of its markets. Juxtapositions startle the eye, with designs often decided by fortune tellers or sacred colours. Timber shacks abut glitzy towers of novelty shapes in the world’s third least equal society.Breakneck modernisation has sparked tensions between the cosmopolitan “hi-so” (high society) and grassroots values, while young reformers protest at the seniority system that enforces a hidden order behind the apparent chaos. Amid the hi-tech towers, a vast informal economy wheels food stalls and makes street furniture from found materials. It’s both fun and poignant to ride around the teeming centre on motorcycle taxis, converted pickup trucks or canal boats with a hinged canvas roof that lowers under bridges. Continue reading...

Nigel Skea, 52, from Southampton, flouted coronavirus quarantine order to visit fiancee

The actor talks about the struggle for pay parity, sympathising with Britney Spears, fond memories of Chadwick Boseman – and her frustration at tabloid headlines overshadowing her workNo excuses for lateness in the era of Zoom, perhaps, but cut Sienna Miller some slack. The 39-year-old has just appeared on This Morning, where she struggled valiantly to pitch her new film Wander Darkly, in which she plays a woman who may or may not have survived a car crash. (“It’s really hard to describe!”) Then she dashed to the bathroom to scrape off all that TV-friendly makeup. Now here she is in her bedroom, with her fresh, non-shiny face framed by bright blond locks. “Like a normal person again,” she says cheerfully. Yeah, right.Take her current lockdown viewing habits. In between homeschooling Marlowe, her eight-year-old daughter with her former partner Tom Sturridge, and shooting a six-part Netflix thriller, Anatomy of a Scandal, she has been watching the documentary Framing Britney Spears. She identifies with the public suffering of that beleaguered star. She even recognises the faces of individual paparazzo who once hounded and harassed her, too. Continue reading...

Private school in central Kenya is welcoming pregnant teenagers, teenage mothers and their babies to ensure they have the chance to finish an education otherwise denied to them by stigma, logistics and lack of money Continue reading...

Former prime minister tells the Guardian the world must be better prepared for the next pandemicWorld leaders could have cut the length of the Covid outbreak by three months if they had collaborated on vaccines, testing and drugs, Tony Blair has claimed as he launched a report on preparing for the next deadly pandemic.The former Labour prime minister urged the UK to take the lead in developing a new “health security infrastructure” that would ensure countries coordinate better in identifying emerging new threats as well as developing, testing and manufacturing vaccines and treatments. Continue reading...

Whistleblower says birds are dying ‘in a pretty rough way’ from heat stress and lack of water on journeys in England and WalesChickens are “dying like flies” in their millions while being transported from farms to abattoirs because of poorly ventilated lorries, a whistleblower has told the Guardian.Around one million chickens are dead on arrival at slaughterhouses in England and Wales every year, according to data collected by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and analysed by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the Guardian.

Written by and starring comedian Jia Ling, the film has started a conversation about mother’s love and women’s identityA Chinese comedian’s directoral debut about a woman who travels back in time to see her dead mother has become the fourth highest grossing film in the country’s history and the highest ever for a female director.Jia Ling’s Hi Mom opened a fortnight ago and has drawn ticket sales of more than 4.5bn RMB ($700m US), according to box office tracker Maoyan. It is the fastest any Chinese movie has sold that much, the tracker said. Continue reading...

Unanimous decision by highest court hailed a step towards acceptance of LGBT+ peopleA Malaysian man has won a landmark court challenge against an Islamic ban on sex “against the order of nature”, raising hopes for greater acceptance of gay rights in the mostly Muslim country.In a unanimous decision, Malaysia’s top court ruled on Thursday that the Islamic provision used against the man was unconstitutional and authorities had no power to enact the law. Continue reading...

Fremantle’s ‘tent city’ has shed light on Western Australia’s growing number of rough sleepers – and a Labor government presiding over a ballooning public housing waiting listJust a few blocks from Western Australia’s parliament, dozens of vulnerable people have had to leave a city hotel and continue to face an uncertain future.These are some of the people at the centre of Perth’s homelessness crisis, one of the few election issues on which WA’s “most popular premier in history”, Mark McGowan, does not control the narrative. Continue reading...

Man was cleaning stables when he was hit by female, knocking his head against bars of enclosureA zoo worker in Spain has died after he was struck by an elephant’s trunk, knocking his head against the bars of an enclosure, the zoo and local officials said.The female elephant weighing around 4,000kg (8,800lb) hit the 44-year-old with her trunk on Wednesday morning at the Cabarceno Natural Park near the northern city of Santander, the zoo said. The man was rushed to hospital where he died from his injuries some three hours later. Continue reading...

PNG’s Grand Chief led the country to independence in 1975 and served four terms as prime ministerThe man who led Papua New Guinea to independence, the country’s Grand Chief and longest-serving prime minister, Sir Michael Somare, has died in Port Moresby, aged 84.Known throughout the country as “Papa blo Kantri” – Father of the Nation – Somare served as prime minister for a total of 17 years, over four terms, and was revered as a pivotal figure in the country’s peaceful transformation from colony to independent nation. He is depicted on PNG’s 50 Kina banknote. Continue reading...

NSW police say Caddick’s remains were found on the NSW south coast and her identity confirmed by DNAPolice have found the remains of missing businesswoman Melissa Caddick on the NSW south coast months after she disappeared following raids on her home last year.At a hastily arranged press conference on Friday, the NSW police assistant commissioner Michael Willing confirmed part of Caddick’s body had been discovered on the state’s south coast. Continue reading...

Commission head reassures leaders she will ban vaccines leaving EU if suppliers fail to deliver again

Runner says man on moped ‘grabbed her bum’ on canal towpath in BirminghamAn athlete who competes for Great Britain has spoken of her shock after she was assaulted on a canal towpath in Birmingham while training for the Olympics.Sarah McDonald, a middle-distance runner, tweeted that a man on a moped had “grabbed her bum” as she was warming up for a training session. She said she would be reporting the incident to the police. Continue reading...

105 black people were victims of murder and manslaughter in year up to March 2020The number of black victims of homicide in England and Wales has climbed to its highest level in nearly two decades, official figures have revealed.A total of 105 black victims of murder and manslaughter were recorded in the 12 months to March 2020, up from 96 the previous year, and the highest since the 12 months to March 2002, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. Continue reading...

Australia’s vaccination program has officially begun. What do we know, and what don’t we know about how the program will work? Does the government’s promise to vaccinate the adult population by October seem a little too optimistic? Continue reading...

Police officers shot into a crowd of pro-democracy protesters in Yangon’s Tamwe township in Myanmar, as thousands continued to rally against the military coup across the country.Hundreds of people took part in the first pro-military demonstration in Yangon on Thursday, with the crowd a fraction of the size of anti-coup protests

At least two people stabbed after pro-junta demonstrators march through central YangonSupporters of Myanmar’s military armed with iron rods, catapults and knives have attacked anti-coup protesters in Yangon, after weeks of rallies calling for the return of democracy in the country.At least two people were stabbed in the attacks, which occurred after hundreds of pro-military demonstrators marched through central Yangon towards the main railway station. Pro-democracy supporters met them with crossed wrists and banged pots and pans. Continue reading...

MPs and unions criticise proposal to move work carried out in Erdington plant to France and PolandPoland and France will benefit from the planned closure of GKN’s factory in Birmingham, with local plants taking on work currently carried out by 500 of the group’s UK employees, under plans being considered by its owner, Melrose.Melrose, a private-equity group, announced plans in January to close the factory run by its GKN subsidiary in Erdington, Birmingham, in a blow to the embattled British manufacturing sector. The plant produces drivetrain components for petrol and diesel cars. Continue reading...

Nikol Pashinyan rallies supporters after military calls on him to step down amid anger at Nagorno-Karabakh defeatThe Armenian prime minister has accused the armed forces of an attempted coup against his government after top military officers signed a letter calling on him to resign, in an escalation of the political crisis sparked by Armenia’s defeat in the war in Nagorno-Karabakh last year.Tensions between Nikol Pashinyan and the military erupted into open conflict on Thursday as the chief of the armed forces general staff, Onik Gasparyan, and other senior commanders accused the prime minister of bringing Armenia to “the brink of collapse”. Continue reading...

Can Grammer successfully reprise his role in the classic comedy as fastidious radio psychiatrist Dr Frasier Crane?

Work is under way to see whether an abandoned 14th-century building is part of the legacy of the country’s exiled JewsThe rambling, 14th-century building that sits off a narrow alley in the historic heart of Utrera, its patio walls furred with moss and its inner ones painted pugnacious shades of purple and orange, has led a long and varied existence.Over the centuries, it has served the Andalucían city as a hospital, a home for abandoned children, a restaurant and, in its final incarnation, a bar. Continue reading...

Coroner says Julie Sharrock, 59, ‘felt lonely, isolated and in fear of the outside’ during Covid pandemic

Recipe using bacon and parmesan cheese attracts ire of chefs, foodies and farmers’ associationThe New York Times has cooked up a controversy in Italy after tinkering with the recipe for the classic Roman dish pasta carbonara.Called “Smoky Tomato Carbonara”, the recipe, by Kay Chun, was published by NYT Cooking. To be fair to Chun, she did premise her version of the recipe by saying that “tomatoes are not traditional in carbonara, but they lend a bright tang to the dish”. Continue reading...

She blazed a trail as gangsters’ molls and slinky lounge acts, then returned from a career break to essay a variety of wicked witches, comic turns and grand dames. Next month she’ll be seen as a penniless heiress in acclaimed comedy French Exit. But which are her best roles?Kenneth Branagh’s all-star revival of the classic Agatha Christie murder mystery gives us a traditional exotic cross-section of high society (with picturesque servants and bits of rough) on board the snowed-in Orient Express, on which someone has been whacked. The film has Pfeiffer in one of her late-career grande dame roles: the manhunting American widow Mrs Hubbard, which she plays a little softer than Lauren Bacall, who had had the role in the 1974 version. Pfeiffer sang the melancholy Never Forget over the end credits, with lyrics by Branagh. Continue reading...

‘Jens F’ sent data storage device to employee at Russian embassy who worked for GRU, say prosecutorsGerman federal prosecutors have charged a German citizen with espionage, saying he passed floor plans of the Bundestag parliament building to Russian intelligence.The man, identified only as Jens F, obtained PDF files with the floor plans during the course of his work for a company that was hired to maintain electrical equipment in the Bundestag’s buildings, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. Continue reading...

Author of first study of Israel’s vaccination programme to be peer-reviewed hails ‘surprising’ real-world results

Scott Morrison says alleged sexual assaults are ‘serious and traumatic events for anyone to deal with’Scott Morrison has stepped around a question about whether he agrees with Peter Dutton’s characterisation of Brittany Higgins’ rape allegation as “she said, he said” as the home affairs minister defended his decision not to alert the prime minister to the potential reopening of the police investigation.Dutton’s office earlier this week declined to answer questions from Guardian Australia and other media outlets about his contact with police but the home affairs minister finally confirmed on Wednesday the AFP told him about the allegation of sexual assault on 11 February. Continue reading...

I was unmoved by the Provençal thriller when I first saw it, but it landed on All4 at a time when absurd escapism is neededIt took me a while to warm to Walter Presents/All 4’s French drama Torn. I first saw it in a cinema a couple of years ago, when I was on the jury for the French television festival Series Mania.Back then, its charms were not immediately apparent. It was – is – about a woman cheating on her husband with a chef in Provence; it felt as if the story was secondary to all the nice things on display. The cast members were all attractive and the characters lived in houses so beautiful that it made me angry. “That wasn’t a drama,” sniffed one of the other jurors as we filed out of the screening. “That was a tourism advert.” Continue reading...

Marathon runner Eddie Izzard, solo sailor Pip Hare and explorer Levison Wood explain what they have learned about enduring the seemingly unendurable

Data does not reflect structural changes to women’s position in the workforce and gap could increase in post-Covid world, equality advocate says

The integration of live passenger data is part of the Victorian government’s push to maintain social distancingCommuters in Melbourne will be able to see how crowded specific trains are on Google Maps as part of a Victorian government push to preserve social distancing on traditionally crowded services.The integration of live passenger data in the mapping service – to be launched on Friday – comes as Victorian offices last week increased to 50% capacity. It is the latest move to help stagger when people use Melbourne’s public transport. Continue reading...

Wave of migration comes amid worsening crackdown on freedoms following the introduction of Beijing’s national security lawTaiwan issued nearly twice as many residence permits to Hongkongers in 2020 compared with the previous year, new government data have shown, further evidence of the continued exodus of people from the city that is under a worsening crackdown.Pro-democracy supporters and basic freedoms in Hong Kong have been under pressure since the introduction of a national security law by Beijing in late June. Continue reading...

Law would widen strict rules in country where thousands suffer complications from unsafe terminationsA bill to liberalise Malawi’s abortion laws will be debated by MPs today in the face of opposition from faith groups.If passed, the termination of pregnancy bill would allow abortions when a woman’s mental or physical health is in danger, in cases of rape and incest, and when there are serious foetal abnormalities. Continue reading...

Church court had objected to loving tribute to Margaret Keane for fear of arousing political ‘passions’A grieving family has won its battle to erect a gravestone with an inscription in Irish after overturning a church court ban issued on the grounds that it might arouse political “passions”.The family of Margaret Keane, a Coventry dinner lady who died aged 73 in 2018, now hope a Celtic cross bearing the words “In ár gcroíthe go deo” – “in our hearts forever” – will be in place on her grave in the grounds of St Giles church in Exhall, near Nuneaton, in time for St Patrick’s Day on 17 March. Continue reading...

Proposal criticised for not allowing the auditing of individual decisions about developments or the environmentConservation groups say a new environmental assurance commissioner proposed by the Morrison government would be effectively “toothless” because it would have no power to investigate individual development approval decisions.They also expressed concern that ministers would have the authority to make decisions that are inconsistent with new national environmental standards if they considered it in the public interest to do so. Continue reading...

It was a spring afternoon in 1955 when a teenager’s spontaneous act of defiance changed US history. Why did it take 40 years for her to get any credit?

Exclusive: Draft code aimed at encouraging staffers to speak up if they experience sexual harassment, assault or bullyingAllegations of sexual harassment, assault and bullying within the federal Labor party would be dealt with by officials outside parliament under a proposed national code of conduct that aims to encourage staffers to speak up.The draft code, seen by Guardian Australia, would ensure alleged victims can access external advice – creating a degree of separation from their offices. It would also mandate compulsory training for Labor MPs, elected officials and senior staff to help professionalise human resources management in political offices. Continue reading...

Family of politician, who is a dual Australian and Iraqi citizen, allegedly targeted via attacks on a Sydney home and online extortion attempts linked to an address in western CanadaFour people have been charged in Sydney and Canada over alleged attempts to extort $10 million from a senior Iraqi politician, after what was described as a year-long campaign of intimidation.Dual raids were launched at dawn on Wednesday after a string of attacks on a Sydney home and online extortion attempts linked to an address in Canada. Continue reading...

Escaped merino ram found on the lam in regional Australia is said to be recovering wellA rogue overgrown sheep found roaming through regional Australia has been shorn of his 35kg fleece – a weight even greater than that of the famous New Zealand sheep Shrek, who was captured in 2005 after six years on the loose.The merino ram, dubbed Baarack by rescuers, was discovered wandering alone with an extraordinarily overgrown wool coat, and was promptly shorn to save his life. Continue reading...

Officers in Dunedin say having a few large pubs would place students into a ‘controlled environment’It’s an unusual request from police: more pubs.But officers in a South Island city renowned for student recklessness and couch burning say they wish more drinking holes would open, as it helps them manage the revellers. Continue reading...

Vidam Perevertilov, a supply ship engineer, fell overboard between New Zealand and the isolated British territory of PitcairnA sailor who fell overboard from a supply ship in the Pacific Ocean at 4am spent more than 14 hours clinging to an old fishing buoy before being rescued.Alone in the middle of the ocean, and without a lifejacket, at dawn he chose to swim towards a black speck on the horizon, a decision that would ultimately save his life. Continue reading...

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Angelo Gafa says all those who masterminded killing of Maltese journalist now apprehended or chargedEvery person involved in the 2017 murder of the anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has been apprehended, Malta’s national police chief has declared.Commissioner Angelo Gafa was speaking before a court hearing on Wednesday evening at which two new suspects were arraigned. Continue reading...

Government criticised for falling behind UK, which has vaccinated three times as many people

The number of people doing their business alfresco has shot up. But what else can you do when nature calls and there aren’t any public loos?Name: Wild toileting.Age: Dates back to Homo erectus. Urinating and defecating are part of the human condition – “I shit, therefore I am” (“Coshito, ergo sum”), as Descartes almost said – and was undomesticated until the Mesopotamians invented toilets almost 4,500 years ago.

Sylvie Bermann, former French ambassador, puts PM’s handling of pandemic alongside Donald Trump’sBoris Johnson is “an unrepentant and inveterate liar” who feels he is not subject to the same rules as others, Sylvie Bermann, the former French ambassador to the UK during the Brexit vote, says in a new book.She also claims some Brexiters are consumed with hatred for Germany and gripped by a myth that they liberated Europe on their own, describing Brexit as a triumph of emotion over reason, won by a campaign full of lies in which negative attitudes to migration were exploited by figures such as Johnson and Michael Gove. Continue reading...

Scène de rue à Montmartre has been part of same French family’s private collection for more than a centuryA major Paris work by Vincent van Gogh that has been part of the same French family’s private collection for more than a century is to go on public display for the first time since it was painted in the spring of 1887.Scène de rue à Montmartre is part of a very rare series depicting the celebrated Moulin de la Galette, on the hilltop overlooking the capital, painted during the two years the Dutch artist spent sharing an apartment with his brother Theo on rue Lepic. Continue reading...

Two out of three supply chain managers report experiencing import delays of ‘two to three days’

Gavin Williamson was challenged on logistics of administering Covid tests to pupils