World news | The Guardian

Several thousand Germans head to Crete and Balearic islands as pandemic third wave spreads across EU

Political earthquake rattles country already grappling with one of the world’s worst coronavirus outbreaksJair Bolsonaro’s crisis-stricken administration has been rocked by the sudden sacking of Brazil’s defence minister and the subsequent resignation of the heads of all three branches of the armed forces.The commanders of the Brazilian army, navy and air force – Gen Edson Leal Pujol, Adm Ilques Barbosa and Lt-Brig Antônio Carlos Bermudez – met with the president’s new minister on Tuesday morning and reportedly tendered their resignations during a dramatic and heated encounter. On Tuesday afternoon the defence ministry confirmed all three would be replaced, a political earthquake that rattled a country already grappling with one of the world’s worst coronavirus outbreaks. Continue reading...

Ship likely to be centre of protracted legal battle over what caused it to run aground in the Suez and who is to blameAfter hauling its 240,000-ton bulk down the Suez canal a week after blocking the essential waterway, the container ship the Ever Given is likely to become the centre of a protracted battle over who will pay for its rescue.The 1,312-ft-long ship was aground on the banks of the Suez Canal for a week, causing an estimated £7bn loss each day in trade owing to ships stuck on either side, and up to £10.9m a day for the canal. “We managed to refloat the ship in record time. If such a crisis had occurred anywhere else in the world, it would have taken three months to be solved,” said Osama Rabie, the head of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA). Continue reading...

Lady Hallett vows to carry out ‘fearless’ inquiry into death of woman poisoned with nerve agentThe role the Russian state played in the death of a Wiltshire woman who was poisoned with the nerve agent novichok is to be investigated in detail at her inquest.Heather Hallett said she would carry out a “fearless” inquiry into the death of Dawn Sturgess including digging into who directed the operation to bring novichok into the UK. Continue reading...

Latin American countries scramble to protect themselves from a country where nearly 60,000 people are expected to die in March aloneIt has long been regarded as a soft power superpower, the sun-kissed, culturally blessed land of Bossa Nova, Capoeira and Pelé.But Brazil’s shambolic response to coronavirus under far-right president Jair Bolsonaro has cast Latin America’s largest country in an unfamiliar and unpleasant role: that of a Covid-riddled, science-shunning, politically-unstable outcast on whom many regional neighbors are now shutting the door. Continue reading...

Football fans are asking leaders of the game difficult questions, and it all started with a club north of the Arctic Circle“Tromsø IL thinks it is time for football to stop and take a few steps back. We should think about the purpose of football and why so many love our sport. That corruption, modern-day slavery and a high number of workers’ deaths are the fundament to our most important tournament, the World Cup, is totally unacceptable.”This surprise statement, released by Norwegian top-flight club Tromsø on 26 February, from a city located north of the Arctic Circle, quickly gained national traction. In the days and weeks that followed, six more leading clubs – including the three biggest and best-supported, Rosenborg, Vålerenga and Brann – followed suit, urging the Norwegian FA to formally boycott the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Fourteen of 16 supporters’ groups in the top flight are joining the demand. Continue reading...

Time for a clearout: use up leftover fridge-lurkers, pulses and grains with recipes you haven’t tried beforeGot a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com

Survey of experts in relevant fields concludes that new variants could arise in countries with low vaccine coverageThe planet could have a year or less before first-generation Covid-19 vaccines are ineffective and modified formulations are needed, according to a survey of epidemiologists, virologists and infectious disease specialists.Scientists have long stressed that a global vaccination effort is needed to satisfactorily neutralise the threat of Covid-19. This is due to the threat of variations of the virus – some more transmissible, deadly and less susceptible to vaccines – that are emerging and percolating. Continue reading...

The government’s plan to unlock England moved a step forward on Monday 29 March. Here’s what comes next

Queensland Liberal defends ‘completely dignified’ photo of woman bending over but apologises for ‘feelings I’ve caused’Under-seige Morrison government MP Andrew Laming says his online behaviour has been “re-invented into harassment” and that the “facts are on my side”, claiming he only ever asked “hard questions” but apologised “for how it’s made people feel”.The Queensland MP, who asked for privacy as he takes a month’s paid leave as he undertakes “clinical counselling”, and courses in “empathy and appropriate communication”, has explained his side of the story in a 16-minute interview with his local radio station. Laming has said he will not stand at the next election, but said he had no plans to leave the parliament until his term was completed. Continue reading...

The Battersea Poltergeist is just one of many surging up the charts. Its creator, and others, explain why the pandemic has led people to seek out scary storiesBy his own admission, Danny Robins has always been “obsessed with ghosts”. “I think it might have been growing up with atheist parents,” says the writer and broadcaster, who co-created Radio 4’s lauded Sir Lenny Henry vehicle Rudy’s Rare Records, among many other works. Among them is the 2017 investigative podcast about the paranormal, Haunted. “As a kid, I was very aware of the absence of belief,” he continues. “I think I might have just wanted to be part of a club. To be part of a club of believers.”Now in his early 40s, Robins is trying to recruit as many believers as possible to the club via his new docudrama podcast, The Battersea Poltergeist. Available on BBC Sounds, it tells the story, beginning in 1956, of a bizarre 12-year-long haunting that resulted in Shirley Hitchings (just 15 at the start of it all) and the victim of the titular spook, fleeing to Bognor Regis. A poltergeist in Enfield in 1977 may have inspired Hollywood, but it’s south-west London’s one that put in the longest shift. Continue reading...

Servier accused of covering up potentially fatal side-effects of the Mediator diabetes drugA French court has fined one of the country’s biggest pharmaceutical firms €2.7m (£2.3m) after finding it guilty of deception and manslaughter over a pill linked to the deaths of up to 2,000 people.In one of the biggest medical scandals in France, the privately owned laboratory Servier was accused of covering up the potentially fatal side-effects of the widely prescribed drug Mediator. Continue reading...

Tony Barry resigned his second job after tribunal president said it was ‘not appropriate’ for him to also work as a lobbyist, robodebt hearing told

A grand jury indicted Johnson on charges of ‘wilful torture, wilful abuse, and cruelly beating or otherwise wilfully maltreating a child under the age of 18’Steven William Johnson, the drummer with Grammy-winning rock band Alabama Shakes, has been arrested on charges of child abuse.The charges include “wilful torture, wilful abuse, and cruelly beating or otherwise wilfully maltreating a child under the age of 18”. Continue reading...

Norwegian Refugee Council says move to pull funding for its legal support programme will leave many in ‘destitution’Tens of thousands of Syrians will no longer receive legal support, leaving many “in utter destitution” without documents they need to work, travel or return home, after the British government pulled £4m in funding from a charity programme, according to its director.News of the cut to a Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) project supporting refugees and internally displaced Syrians, comes amid reports of a planned 67% aid reduction in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) budget for Syria, which would place hundreds of thousands of lives at risk. Continue reading...

To remake society after the pandemic, we must swap Insta self‑improvement for something more radical, argues author Sam ByersAcross much of the west, March is a milestone both surreal and distressing: a full year of life in Covid-19’s shadow. Twelve months ago, we couldn’t imagine what we were about to experience; now we can’t process what we’ve endured.This was a year of seemingly irresolvable contradictions. Our grief was collective, yet rituals of communal mourning were denied us. We hymned the “global effort” to produce a vaccine, then recoiled into vaccine nationalism the moment that effort bore fruit. Even as Zoom held us together, Covid denial and conspiracy theories in the family WhatsApp tore us apart. Continue reading...

Corruption watchdog investigates allegations former minister hired planners to lobby councillors, which he deniesA New South Wales MP has been accused of seeking to influence local councillors and council staff to make planning decisions in order to benefit his family’s property holdings, an inquiry by the state’s anti-corruption watchdog has heard.John Sidoti, the former minister for sport who announced earlier this month that he would sit on the crossbench pending the investigation, is accused of hiring town planners to lobby Canada Bay council during a review of zoning regulations in the inner-west Sydney suburb of Five Dock. Continue reading...

From Simon Hopkinson’s classic roquefort salad to Meera Sodha’s paneer butter masala, this versatile ingredient is given a starring roleThe first thing I ever “cooked”. When Mum let us grate cheddar on to day-old bread. Eyes level with the electric grill. Watching the alchemy, seeing the cheese become molten, stringy. The early magic of making your own tea. I still crave Jeremy Lee’s cheese straws, and now I can bake my own. Chef Tim Siadatan has shared Padella’s perfect pici cacio e pepe, Alex Jackson his brilliant aligot. Simon Hopkinson offers his elegant roquefort salad, Tomos Parry his famous cheesecake. We have Marcella Hazan’s definitive parmesan risotto and Kitty Travers’s ricotta ice-cream. Plus, of course, the ultimate toastie. All the cheese pleasers. From OFM to you. Continue reading...

After bottles were recovered in top shape from a world war one wreck, winemakers have started to exploit the sea’s cool, dark environmentSlipping into the chilly waters of the Baltic sea, the divers descended more than 60 metres to where the masts of the Jönköping lay strewn across the seabed. They glided past the wounds left when the Swedish schooner was sunk by a German U-boat in 1916 to home in on the rare treasure they had come for: thousands of bottles of 1907 Heidsieck champagne.Related: Champagne found at sea turns out to be world's oldest vintage Continue reading...

My family is in Lagos. I’m in London – and there’s no chance of a flight home. Zoom does many things, but it can’t give hugs

Informal games are a lifeline while the Premier League is locked down, but at what risk to players?Sweaty and tired, the players tussle before the winning goal is scored on a red-dust pitch at the No 1 ground in Mufakose, a township west of Harare. The football fans start up a chant on the touchline, triggering a frenzied response from opposing supporters, who break into rapturous song.This parched pitch and others like it have become a source of livelihood for some Zimbabwean footballers, struggling to earn a living during the Covid-19 pandemic’s lockdown regulations. Continue reading...

Property investors have railed against last week’s policy changes, which sought to dampen skyrocketing house pricesNew Zealand’s government is playind down the impact of its housing policy changes on rents, despite economists warning that they are likely to rise in response.In a report responding to the housing policy changes announced last week, the ANZ Bank identified “the big negative externality [as] the possible impact on renters – the very people the government is trying to help into the housing market”. Continue reading...

Skiing is a beacon of hope for the brave young women who have taken up the sport at Bamyan Ski Club amid political turmoil in the countryIt is 6.30am and Nazira Khairzad, 18, and her older sister Nazima, 19, are sat with their family trying to eat the spread of breakfast laid out in front of them, despite their nerves. It is the start of the two-day Afghan Ski Challenge in the central highland province of Bamyan, and the women’s race is kicking off in just a few hours’ time. Not only are the pair the ones to watch but, as soon as they are on the slopes, they are one another’s direct competition.“I’m nervous but I think I have a good chance of placing first this year,” says Nazira. “That’s what I’m aiming for.” Continue reading...

With Wet Wet Wet, Pellow was one of the biggest-selling musicians of the 90s. But heroin and alcohol soon became a problem. He talks about heroes, love and conquering his demons

Rememberingtheoscars.com

It’s hosted opera greats, suffragette rallies, Hitchcock films, sports events, sci-fi conventions – and, of course, the Proms and countless rock gigs. Artists from Led Zeppelin to Abba recall their moments on the hallowed stageThe Royal Albert Hall is 150 years old today (and the Guardian was there to see it opened by Queen Victoria). With a design based on a Roman amphitheatre, stacked balconies pack the audience close to the action – and at a capacity touching 6,000, the number of visitors entertained at the London venue runs to many millions. But what is it like to play as a performer? We asked artists and sportspeople for their memories of being centre stage at the iconic venue. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Home Office refusal to disclose how many women are in same position as Shamima Begum prompts actionThe Home Office’s refusal to disclose the number of women who, like Shamima Begum, have been deprived of their British citizenship after travelling to join Islamic State is under investigation by the information commissioner.The watchdog said it would step in after the government refused to share the data with a human rights group concerned about the conditions of British women and children detained in camps in north-east Syria, where conditions are dire. Continue reading...

Leaders rally in support of ‘father of Italian language’ after withering comments in German newspaperItalian political and cultural leaders have sprung to the defence of their much-revered poet Dante Alighieri after a German newspaper downplayed his importance to the Italian language and said he was “light years” away from William Shakespeare.In a comment piece in Frankfurter Rundschau, Arno Widmann wrote that even though Dante “brought the national language to great heights”, Italian schoolchildren struggled to understand the antiquated verse of his Divine Comedy, which was written in 1320. Continue reading...

Suicide rates among Japanese women rose sharply during the pandemic, prompting calls for support for low-income householdsThe coronavirus had barely begun its surge across the globe when Ayako Sato was told that the nursery where she worked would temporarily close as part of Japan’s efforts to curb the outbreak.The mother of two teenage daughters expected a few weeks of belt tightening, believing it wouldn’t be long before she was working again. Continue reading...

Workers from South Africa, UK and France feared to be among those ambushed while trying to flee besieged town of PalmaAs many as 60 people – mostly foreign citizens – are unaccounted for following a deadly ambush on their convoy by Islamist militants in northern Mozambique.According to recordings of security calls reviewed by the Guardian describing the aftermath of the attack, only seven vehicles in a convoy of 17 made it to safety after the attack on Friday, with seven confirmed dead and many injured in the recovered vehicles. Everyone in the other vehicles is assumed dead. Continue reading...

Prime minister James Marape to set up investigation into AU$200,000 contract for Caring Ltd to provide catering services

First the Rose family’s former mansion hit the real estate lists – now it’s the 10-room motel they called homeThe motel home of the Rose family in the Emmy-sweeping Canadian TV series Schitt’s Creek is up for sale for C$2m.The Hockley Motel in the Canadian town of Mono, Ontario, was a key filming location throughout the six seasons of the hit CBC sitcom. Continue reading...

More than 360 vessels have been stranded since giant container ship MV Ever Given became wedged diagonally across the SuezA vast range of goods from Ikea furnishings to tens of thousands of livestock is stuck in a maritime traffic jam caused by the Suez canal blockage.More than 360 vessels have been stranded in the Mediterranean to the north of the canal and in the Red Sea to the south since the giant container ship MV Ever Given became wedged diagonally across the vital waterway on 23 March. Continue reading...

Mission to check out treatment of Uighur minority is backed by Beijing, says secretary-general António GuterresThe UN has begun negotiations with Beijing for a visit “without restrictions” to Xinjiang to see how the Uighur minority is being treated, secretary-general António Guterres said in an interview broadcast.At least one million Uighurs and people from other mostly Muslim groups have been held in camps in the north-western region, according to US and Australian rights groups, which accuse Chinese authorities of forcibly sterilising women and imposing forced labor. Continue reading...

About 57% of UK adults have had jab; Macron expects France to catch up with UK within weeks

Made with the full cooperation of its 81-year-old subject, this one-off about the astonishing life of Tina Turner is not a gritty documentary, but rather a loving swan songSky Documentaries’ two-hour film Tina, a retrospective on the now 81-year-old Tina Turner’s career is stuffed full of footage of her performances over the years. Black and white film of Anna Mae Bullock (as she was then) in the late 50s singing with Ike Turner’s Kings of Rhythm. Then on into the 60s, after he had realised what an asset he had on his hands and married the singer thus known as Tina Turner. Then flowering in the late 60s and early 70s, as the duo rose to greater and greater fame thanks to the Grammy-winning Proud Mary and the multimillion-selling hits River Deep – Mountain High and Nutbush City Limits.Then come the 80s, when she made an astonishing comeback and dominated every stage she set foot on as a solo performer. And on into the 90s and the new millennium – including performing at the Grammys with Beyoncé and a 50th anniversary tour in 2008 – until she chose to step back. Apart, that is, from a second memoir, a Grammy lifetime achievement award, a musical about her life and a remix of What’s Love Got to Do With It that made her the first artist to have a top 40 hit in seven consecutive decades in the UK Continue reading...

Outdoor group socialising allowed from Monday but ad campaign stresses Covid risks of indoor meeting

Five women taken to hospital as a result of car hitting a lamppost in Streatham, south London, and four arrestedA teenage girl is in a critical condition after a car being chased by police crashed into a lamppost.The Met has launched an investigation into the collision, which happened in the early hours of Sunday morning in south London and left five women in hospital. Continue reading...

Former coronavirus taskforce coordinator tells CNN deaths could have been prevented if Trump administration acted soonerThe “vast majority” of the almost 550,000 coronavirus deaths in the US could have been prevented if Donald Trump’s administration had acted earlier and with greater conviction, according to one of the public health experts charged with leading the pandemic response at the time.Related: CDC ‘deeply concerned’ about rising Covid cases as vaccinations accelerate Continue reading...

Bloody crackdowns and massacres initiate anger and stronger desire for a future without the TatmadawFrom soldiers randomly shooting passersby in the street to imminent economic collapse, anxieties have been plentiful in Myanmar since its military seized power on 1 February.But unease was surging ahead of Armed Forces Day on Saturday when the military was expected to meet protesters with a brutal crackdown. Continue reading...

Freedom of information data will increase calls for country to be granted debt amnestyWhen Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, was in Sudan in January he offered £40m in aid to help its poorest people, who are facing unprecedented food scarcity in a debt-laden country where austerity is deepening.Sudan, ruled by an unelected military-led transitional government after longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir was deposed in 2019, owes the UK almost £900m. But the Observer can reveal that almost 80% of that was accrued from interest, leading to calls for an unconditional debt amnesty. Continue reading...

As many countries faced restrictions and lockdowns to battle the coronavirus pandemic, communities adapted in surprising ways, with some of the most uplifting moments being filmed and shared across the world.From concerts for plants, to animal roaming empty streets, here are some of the most memorable videos from 12 months of fight against Covid-19

Nearly half the population has received at least one vaccine dose but residents of the capital and other regions faces strict new curbsDespite mounting the world’s fastest per-capita Covid-19 vaccination campaign, Chile has been forced to announce strict new lockdowns as it plunges deeper into a severe second wave of cases which is stretching intensive care capacity.

The artist on fostering hope, why he doesn’t want a retrospective, and making work inspired by Picasso’s African art collection

Ex-Observer journalist tells of role in trap to expose disinformation tactics of defenders of the Assad regimeA more sceptical academic than Paul McKeigue might perhaps have wondered if the emails flooding into his inbox from “Ivan”, a purported Russian spy, were too good to be true.Ivan appeared to share many of McKeigue’s own personal obsessions, particularly his desire to discredit investigators who compile evidence of war crimes committed in Syria. And he claimed access to both ready cash and secret intelligence. Continue reading...

Angela Merkel’s apology for cancelling the Easter lockdown was the latest example of the EU elite making a critical misstepAngela Merkel likes to say there is no alternative to her policies; and when she does make U-turns, she tends not to admit to them. So it was highly unusual when last week, amid growing anger about her government’s response to the pandemic, the chancellor apologised to the German people. The government had planned to put the country in a tight lockdown for five days over Easter in an attempt to curb the sharp rise in infections, but abandoned the idea after it was widely criticised.In the early phase of the pandemic, Germany seemed to stand out as one of the few western democracies that had handled it relatively successfully. A chorus of commentators attributed this to Merkel herself and in particular to her technocratic approach, based on her background as a scientist. By contrast, they saw other countries such as the UK and the US, where “populist” leaders were in power, as mishandling the crisis. Continue reading...

Group online tests of food and drink have given participants’ spirits a welcome liftPatrick Fogarty, who runs Dr Ink’s Curiosities, an award-winning cocktail bar in Exeter, estimates that 10,000 people have taken his virtual masterclasses since they started last March. “Everybody is looking for something to do. We have never been busier,” he said.Desperate to relieve lockdown boredom, many people in the UK and across the world have turned to virtual tastings, which have soared in popularity over the past 12 months. Continue reading...

New government report includes excess deaths and shows fatalities may exceed those of Brazil, the world’s second worst-affected country

Campaigners claim Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock acted unlawfullyClaims that Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock acted unlawfully by appointing their “chums” to three top jobs in the fight against Covid-19 – without opening the processes to competition – are to be the subject of an official legal challenge in the high court.Campaigners won an initial victory in the case last Thursday, when Mr Justice Swift granted their applications for a judicial review. In court, they will argue that the prime minister and the health secretary broke the rules and acted in a discriminatory way, running a “chumocracy” at the top of government. Continue reading...

Politicians facing Beijing ban for views on Uighurs are welcomed to Rose GardenBoris Johnson has made an orchestrated gesture of defiance to Beijing, and of support for its critics, by on Saturday meeting a cross-party group of MPs and peers sanctioned by China for their stance on human rights abuses in Xinjiang.Barely a month ago, the prime minister declared himself “fervently Sinophile”, determined to pursue trade and investment deals with Beijing “whatever the occasional political difficulties”. Continue reading...