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Report lays out ‘multiple instances’ where the Coalition used public interest immunity to block access• Doctor did not get vaccine training before giving nursing home residents excessive dose

Villages in southern Afghanistan have become frontline of conflict as peace talks stall and uncertainty surrounds US withdrawal

After Italy’s government loosened Covid-19 restrictions in much of the country – including Lazio, the region that contains Rome and Vatican City – newly reopened museums are offering local visitors the opportunity to enjoy artworks undisturbed by the usual crowds of international tourists Continue reading...

Case is believed to be the first to set a monetary value on housework since the implementation of a new civil codeA Chinese divorce court has ordered a man to pay his wife the equivalent of US $7,700 as compensation for housework during their five-year marriage.Under a new civil code that came into effect last month, a person may seek compensation from their partner during a divorce if they were the primary carer for children or elderly parents, or did most of the unpaid household work. The amount should be negotiated, but if that fails then it will be decided by court. Continue reading...

One in 10 Londoners hold assets worth more than £720,000 as Covid crisis makes the rich richer

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In the end it came down to Chelsea’s ambition. While Atletico Madrid were held back by Diego Simeone’s negativity, Thomas Tuchel told his team to play. Liberated, Chelsea stood up to be counted. They let their football do the talking instead of rising to Luis Suárez’s provocation, earning their reward when Olivier Giroud gave them a slender advantage to take back to Stamford Bridge with a special goal.Tuchel could celebrate a perfect away display in Bucharest, where the tie was played due to Covid-19 restrictions. Chelsea, who have a wonderful chance to progress beyond the last 16 for the first time since 2016, were far more progressive than Atlético. It was a complete performance and the only disappointment is that Jorginho and the outstanding Mason Mount will be suspended for the second leg on 17 March. Continue reading...

Emma Coronel is ‘not a big fish’, experts say, but indictment accuses her of assisting dramatic jailbreak in 2015The wife of the world’s most notorious drug cartel boss, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, has appeared in court charged with helping him run his drug empire from jail, a day after she was arrested at Washington’s international airport.Emma Coronel Aispuro, a 31-year-old Mexican-American who married the drug kingpin in 2007 after he spotted her in a beauty pageant, is also accused of helping organise her husband’s breathtaking jailbreak in 2015, which involved a mile-long tunnel leading from his prison shower and a motorbike adapted to run on rails from one end to the other. Continue reading...

Wednesday: Peter Dutton refuses to say if he was told about rape allegations according to standard police practice. Plus: Facebook, Google and the reality of regulationGood morning. It’s Wednesday 24 February and allegations of inappropriate behaviour from Australian politicians and staffers will continue to dominate the news today. US Senate hearings into the Capitol attacks have begun, and don’t miss the latest in the Guardian’s Web of Lies series: today’s instalment looks at how the rise of rightwing conspiracies on Sky News is capturing digital audiences. Continue reading...

My father, Frank Edgar, who has died aged 87, was one of Northern Ireland’s most experienced civil servants and made significant contributions to many aspects of life in the province. He was one of a postwar generation that fundamentally believed in the value of public service.Frank was born in Belfast, the oldest of two sons to Mae (nee McNeice), a hairdresser, and Bob, a mechanic, and won a scholarship to attend Methodist College. An enthusiastic cricketer, sailor and golfer, he once undertook school detention with a fellow pupil, James Ellis (later an actor, and star of Z Cars) for throwing snowballs in the quadrangle. Continue reading...

Unlike England’s roadmap, Nicola Sturgeon’s ‘strategic framework’ gives approximate dates for reopening

Museum and gallery leaders say Covid timetable ‘makes no sense’, with venues closed until 17 May

Bank also reaffirms greater shift towards Asia-Pacific, where most of its earnings come fromHSBC is to reduce its office space around the world by nearly 40% as part of sweeping cost cutting designed to capitalise on new part office-part homeworking arrangements after the pandemic.The decision to move to new hybrid working arrangements was announced as HSBC confirmed it was accelerating its pivot towards Asia, including China and Hong Kong, despite concerns about the political crackdown in the former British colony. Continue reading...

Lockdown has triggered a boom in the exchange of intimate shots – and now a new book called Sending Nudes is celebrating the pleasures and perils of baring all to the cameraHave you ever sent a nude selfie? The question draws a thick red line between generations, throwing one side into a panic while the other just laughs. And yet, as far back as 2009, that fount of moral wisdom, Kanye West, was advising how to stay safe. “When you take the picture cut off your face / And cover up the tattoo by the waist,” he rapped in Jamie Foxx’s song Digital Girl.As the pandemic forces relationships to be conducted remotely, more people than ever are resorting to the virtual exchange of intimacies. Last autumn, a poll of 7,000 UK schoolchildren by the youth sexual health charity Brook put the figure at nearly one in five who said they would send a naked selfie to a partner during a lockdown. Continue reading...

Duke of Edinburgh, being treated for an infection, is not expected to leave for several days, says palace

The last days of Pinochet’s regime form the backdrop of this exciting dramatisation of a real prison-break plotHere is the story of the biggest prison escape in Chilean history. In 1990, during the final days of the Pinochet regime, 49 leftwing prisoners escaped from a Santiago jail via a 60-metre-long tunnel dug over 18 gruelling months with spoons and screwdrivers. Local newspapers called it “The Great Escape” and “An Escape for the Movies”; the event was a natural for the big screen. Jailbreak digs into this historic episode with thrilling oomph and awe.Much of the film’s pleasure derives from the ingenious ways the prisoners manage to dig the tunnel right under the noses of the watchful, sadistic guards. At one point, the crew use a pornographic poster to cover the opening to the crawl space where they would ultimately stack more than 50 tonnes of dirt. The guard takes no notice; he quips that the model is still wearing too many clothes. Later, the camera pulls back to reveal the real scope of the tunnel, all masterfully rigged with lights. Goosebumps. Continue reading...

Europe’s most active volcano produces one of most striking eruptions in decadesMount Etna’s spectacular eruptions reached a peak on Monday when the volcano’s lava fountains soared to 1,500 metres – a display described by one expert as “one of the most striking in the last few decades”.Europe’s most active volcano has been on explosive form in recent weeks, spewing incandescent magma and a copious shower of ash, reaching as far as Catania. Continue reading...

Guardian Australia’s media correspondent Amanda Meade looks at why the Australian government has gone into battle with two of the world’s biggest tech companies Continue reading...

All election participants will have to swear allegiance or face five-year ban under bill to be tabled next monthHong Kong’s government has announced electoral changes requiring office-holders to pledge and maintain an oath of loyalty to Hong Kong and Beijing, or face disqualification and a five-year ban on running for re-election.A bill to “ensure patriots govern Hong Kong” has been endorsed by the chief executive council and will be tabled in March, the secretary for constitutional and mainland affairs, Erick Tsang, told a press conference on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Authorities say the man yelled racial obscenities during the ‘cowardly and random attack’West Australian police are hunting a man who had a swastika painted on his head when he allegedly attacked a woman with a makeshift flamethrower.Police say the 40-year-old woman and her teenage daughter were approached by the man in the southeast Perth suburb of Gosnells on Saturday night. Continue reading...

After the former Liberal’s brawl with Tanya Plibersek, the PM told him to stop promoting unproven Covid therapies and also to ‘look at his office’When you pull this story apart, a lot of people have been talking to Craig Kelly over the past couple of weeks. It’s interesting, so let’s work through the list.Scott Morrison spoke to the outspoken MP after he brawled in unseemly fashion with Tanya Plibersek in the press gallery corridor on 3 February. According to Kelly, Morrison told him to stop freelancing about unproven Covid-19 therapies and also to “look at his office”. Continue reading...

ACTU president Michele O’Neil says jobseeker changes not enough for people to ‘live with dignity’; social media giant reaches agreement with Australian government. This blog is now closed

The key is ventilation, ventilation and more ventilation – but isolation must be properly supported too

Descend through the different zones of the ocean to discover its mesmerising marine life, how human pollutants are interfering – and what we can still do about it Continue reading...

The men – plus one teenager living overseas – were targeted for allegedly posting ‘defamatory’ material about soldiers who died in clashes last yearChinese authorities have arrested at least six people, and is targeting a teenager living overseas, for posting online about Chinese soldiers killed in a border clash last year.Last week the Chinese government bestowed posthumous honours on four soldiers who died after the Galwan valley clash with Indian forces, in the disputed Himalayan border regions. Continue reading...

The Australian has spent four weeks in isolation – double the usual requirement – to ensure she did not have coronavirusThere are calls to deport an Australian woman who has spent four weeks in New Zealand hotel quarantine because she is refusing to be tested for Covid-19.Last month, Lucinda Baulch travelled to New Zealand from Victoria with three foster children who were moving into the care of local families in a trip arranged by the country’s child protection authorities. Continue reading...

Airline aims to ‘streamline health verification’ for travel as vaccinations begin

Swathes of England’s landscape were shaped by the immense block of chalk that has lain beneath it for 100 million years. For a long time, even geologists paid it little heed – but now its secrets and symbolism are being revealedOn the British Geological Survey’s map, chalk is represented by a swathe of pale, limey green that begins on the east coast of Yorkshire and curves in a sinuous green sweep down the east coast, breaking off where the Wash nibbles inland. In the south, the chalk centres on Salisbury Plain, radiating out in four great ridges: heading west, the Dorset Downs; heading east, the North Downs, the South Downs and the Chilterns.Stand on Oxford Street in the middle of the West End of London and beneath you, beneath the concrete and the London clay and the sands and gravels, is an immense block of white chalk lying there in the darkness like some vast subterranean iceberg, in places 200 metres thick. The Chalk Escarpment, as this block is known, is the single largest geological feature in Britain. Where I grew up, in a suburb of Croydon at the edge of south London, this chalk rises up from underneath the clays and gravels to form the ridge of hills called the North Downs. These add drama to quiet streets of bungalows and interwar semis: every so often a gap between the houses shows land falling away, sky opening up, the towers and lights of the city visible far in the distance. Continue reading...

Millions of Soviet citizens were sent to vast network of prison camps under Stalin. Now their descendants seek recompense

US reveals preliminary results of inquiry into Pratt & Whitney engine fire that led to grounding of dozens of Boeing 777s around the worldMetal fatigue in the fan blades may have been behind the engine failure of a Boeing jet in Denver at the weekend, the US National Transportation Safety Board has said.The Pratt & Whitney engine caught fire shortly after take off on a United Airlines Boeing 777-200, during a flight from Denver to Honolulu, with 231 passengers and 10 crew onboard. Pilots issued a mayday call and returned to Denver. Continue reading...

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announces a compromise has been reached at the 11th hour as the legislation is debated in the SenateFacebook will restore Australian news pages in the next few days after the government agreed to changes to the Australian government’s landmark media bargaining code that makes the social network and Google pay for news.Last week Facebook blocked all news on its platform in Australia, and inadvertently blocked information and government pages including health and emergency services. Continue reading...

After more than 30 years in the role, Shearer’s replacement reflects show’s commitment to no longer have white actors voicing black charactersAfter more than 30 years playing Dr Julius Hibbert on The Simpsons, Harry Shearer will be replaced by voice actor Kevin Michael Richardson – seven months after the show’s producers committed to no longer have white actors voicing black characters.On Monday, Fox confirmed the episode that aired last night in the United States, Dairy Queen, would be Shearer’s last as Hibbert. From Sunday, the doctor will be played by Richardson instead. Shearer will continue voicing his other characters, which include Mr Burns, Smithers, Principal Skinner, Ned Flanders and Reverend Lovejoy. Continue reading...

Parliament’s move was not supported by Trudeau and likely to raise diplomatic tensions between the two nationsCanada has become the second country in the world to describe China’s treatment of its Uighur minority as a genocide, following a contentious parliamentary vote which is likely to further raise diplomatic tensions between the two nations.Lawmakers approved the non-binding motion, brought forward by opposition Conservatives, to recognize China’s actions in the north-western Xinjiang province as a genocide against Muslim Uighurs. Continue reading...

Car carrying women, in North Waziristan to train people to open their own businesses, was ambushed by suspected militantsGunmen on motorcycles ambushed a vehicle carrying instructors from a private vocational school in north-west Pakistan on Monday, killing four women and wounding the driver before fleeing.The attack took place in the village of Ippi near Mir Ali, a town in the North Waziristan district in a former tribal region bordering Afghanistan, said Shafi Ullah Khan Gandapur, a district police chief. Continue reading...

Preparations not reviewed since 2006 but self-reporting in February 2020 claimed they were at highest level

Trade bodies say many firms and workers face uncertain future, with 10 days to go until budgetBusiness leaders have told Boris Johnson that his roadmap for exiting the third Covid lockdown in England remains incomplete without fresh financial support for companies and workers hardest hit by the pandemic.The prime minister promised the government would “not pull the rug out” from under struggling firms and workers while restrictions remain in place during the phased relaxation of lockdown, but to the disappointment of company bosses and trade unions he deferred details of future economic support to the budget in 10 days’ time. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Cyclist on his career-threatening crash, doping in cycling and the hunger for a fifth Tour de France title with his new team, Israel Start-Up NationIt is almost 11pm when Chris Froome leans closer to the screen in his hotel room in Abu Dhabi. We have been talking for 40 minutes and while he has sometimes looked tired and vulnerable Froome has been cheerful and friendly. Of course there has been some difficulty when addressing doping in cycling and sobering memories of the accident that left him with fractured vertebrae and sternum, a shattered elbow, a collapsed lung and a double break of his femur that nearly ended his career.Froome has also told me how much happier he is in the role of an underdog, as the new leader of a developing team in Israel Start-Up Nation (ISN), than riding at the front of a monster organisation such as Team Sky, which became Team Ineos, while winning his seven grand tours. There is less pressure and less tension. But, as he moves nearer to the camera, Froome insists the intensity of his sporting desire remains. Continue reading...

Firm did not stop sale of panels despite two blazes involving similar materials, inquiry hearsOne of the most senior US executives at the company Arconic was likely told its cladding panels were unsafe for buildings above 12 metres in height, two years before the Grenfell Tower disaster, the public inquiry has heard.The $7bn a year turnover aluminium specialist sold the plastic-filled panels for use on the apartment block in west London, which was more than five times taller than that maximum and went up in flames in June 2017 – killing 72 people. Continue reading...

Luca Attanasio and two others killed in attempted kidnapping north of Goma in eastern DRCItaly’s ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and two other people have been killed in an attack on a United Nations convoy in the restive east of the central African country.The convoy from the World Food Programme (WFP) was attacked at about 10.30am local time (0830 GMT) during an attempted kidnapping near the town of Kanyamahoro, about 10 miles north of the regional capital, Goma, a spokesperson for Virunga national park said. Continue reading...

Rwanda National Congress describes shooting of Seif Bamporiki as an ‘assassination’A Rwandan opposition figure exiled in South Africa has been shot dead in Cape Town in what his party described as an “assassination”.Seif Bamporiki, 49, who was the Rwanda National Congress (RNC) coordinator in South Africa, was killed as he delivered furniture in the crime-ridden township of Nyanga. Continue reading...

Relatives, friends and neighbours name couple as Daniel and Kaylie Rudge and their child as Lilly

Member states agree to impose measures under so-called Magnitsky act over arrest of opposition leaderRussians responsible for the “arrest, sentencing and persecution” of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny will be hit by EU sanctions in the first use of the bloc’s so-called Magnitsky act.Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, said the 27 member states had agreed to impose restrictive measures under powers adopted earlier to target people behind human rights abuses. Continue reading...

Readers respond to an article by Ian Jack on proposals for a rail tunnel between Scotland and Northern Ireland and a long-lost railway lineIan Jack (A tunnel linking Scotland and Northern Ireland? Fantasy has replaced British modesty, 19 February) mentioned “a vast munitions dump on the seabed” on the route of the proposed rail tunnel between Scotland and Northern Ireland. The dump lies in the Beaufort Dyke, a deep trench in the North Channel. I reported its presence nearly 30 years ago for BBC News. The Ministry of Defence originally told me that it had dumped munitions there since the end of the second world war, that it knew what they were and that they totalled around 100,000 tonnes.Some months later, with British Gas by then planning an undersea pipeline there, the MoD rang me with an update. It had been using the dyke since the end of the first world war, it said. It did not know what munitions were down there, but the total was about a million tonnes. I’d fancy my chances of crossing the North Channel in a tunnel as little as on a bridge.

First real data from mass vaccinations programmes in England and Scotland is promising

Ban comes as Boeing urges airlines to ground all planes with Pratt & Whitney PW4000 enginesThe UK has barred from its airspace Boeing 777s with the same type of engine that caught fire in the US at the weekend, as the plane’s manufacturer urged airlines to ground all 120 of these aircraft worldwide.Boeing said carriers using 777 planes with Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines should suspend operations until full inspections could be carried out, after the United Airlines jet was forced to make an emergency landing having scattered debris over residential areas in Denver. Continue reading...

Scott Morrison responded last week to Brittany Higgins’ allegations of sexual assault in parliament by a former Liberal party staffer by saying he was taking the advice of his wife to think about what he would want to happen ‘if it were our girls’. Amy Remeikis has heard this rhetoric before – after her own assault. On this episode, she shares her story as an assault survivor and explores the problems with selective empathyIn Australia support for sexual assault survivors is available at 1800 RESPECT or 1800 737 732. Children and young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, and adult survivors of child sexual assault can seek help at the Blue Knot Foundation.You can read the columns Amy Remeikis discusses in the episode here: Continue reading...

Tax breaks announced for companies who pay for manuscript by the Marquis de Sade, valued at €4.5mThe French government is appealing for corporate help to acquire the manuscript of the Marquis de Sade’s notorious The 120 Days of Sodom, valued at €4.5m (£3.9m), for the National Library of France.Related: ‘The most impure tale ever written’: how The 120 Days of Sodom became a ‘classic’ Continue reading...

Angela Constance says she is committed to introducing full range of treatments in ‘national mission’Scotland’s new minister for drugs policy, Angela Constance, has said she is determined to see a reduction in the country’s horrific drug-related death toll and significantly more people in treatment within the year.“I’m talking about the full range [of treatment]: residential, in the community, harm reduction, recovery services, medication where it’s appropriate … I’m not punting my preferred option,” Constance said. Continue reading...

Survey of people in France, Germany, Italy and UK shows high level of belief in conspiracy theories – with mistrust highest in France

Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo do not explain split, after big hits including Get Lucky and One More TimeDaft Punk, the French duo whose sci-fi aesthetic and euphoric sense of pop transformed electronic music forever, have split up.They announced the split with a YouTube video featuring a clip from their film Electroma, featuring an intertitle with the dates 1993-2021. Their publicist Kathryn Frazier confirmed the split to Pitchfork, but did not elaborate. Continue reading...