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- New Zealand stabbings: officials tried for years to deport terrorist prior to Auckland attack, Jacinda Ardern says
- Saudi forces intercept ballistic missiles and drones fired from Yemen
- ‘The intensity has not changed’: Jason Kander on the fall of Afghanistan – and trying to get friends out
- Furlough end unlikely to resolve driver and care staff shortage, says thinktank
- Fears of violence on Brazil’s streets as millions rally to back Bolsonaro
- Elections bill is ‘a power grab to rig polls in favour of Tories’
- New York mayor: Ida devastation shows need to prepare for ‘very, very worst’
- Grenfell Tower set to be demolished over safety concerns
- NSW shark attack: surfer in his 30s dies after being bitten on north coast near Coffs Harbour
- ‘Scholz will sort it’ – the catchphrase winning the hearts of German voters
- Prince Charles’s former aide steps down as charity boss amid conduct inquiry
- Coronavirus live: Brazil suspends 12m Sinovac doses; UK set to require NHS workers to be vaccinated
- ‘A kick in the teeth’: British mothers and pregnant women fear return to workplace
- Numbers don’t always mean what they seem to mean | David Spiegelhalter and Anthony Masters
- Ready for the roaring 20s? It’s time to re-learn how to have fun, says happiness professor
- The Afghanistan Papers review: superb exposé of a war built on lies
- I can’t commit to anything, I feel no eagerness to live
- ‘The 90s seem like yesterday’: Saint Etienne on 30 years as pop auteurs
- The day before 9/11: what was life like before the world changed?
- Are you office ready as WFH comes to an end?
- Michaela Coel: ‘Sometimes pain is something to be grateful for’
- With the US becoming a less reliable ally, Britain needs to make friends in Europe | Andrew Rawnsley
- The super-rich, ‘sissy boys’, celebs – all targets in Xi’s bid to end cultural difference | Rana Mitter
- NSW confirms 1,485 new cases and three deaths; Victoria now at 60% with first dose – as it happened
- Anti-Taliban forces endure ‘heavy assaults’ in Panjshir valley – video report
| Posted: 04 Sep 2021 06:46 PM PDT Jacinda Ardern says 'every legal avenue' was used to detain Ahamed Aathil Mohamed Samsudeen until his refugee status was resolved New Zealand had tried for years to deport the terrorist who stabbed shoppers in an Auckland supermarket on Friday before being shot dead by the police officers tasked with watching him, the country's prime minister has said. Ahamed Aathil Mohamed Samsudeen, a 32-year-old Sri Lankan man, was fighting to keep his refugee status in New Zealand when he carried out the attack, which Jacinda Ardern said was inspired by the Islamic State. Continue reading... |
| Saudi forces intercept ballistic missiles and drones fired from Yemen Posted: 04 Sep 2021 07:07 PM PDT The attack comes days after a drone strike on an airport in Saudi Arabia's south left eight people wounded Saudi Arabia has intercepted three ballistic missiles fired from neighbouring Yemen targeting the oil-rich Eastern province, as well as the cities of Najran and Jazan in the south, defence officials claimed. Shrapnel from one of the missiles scattered over the city of Dammam, injuring two Saudi children and damaging 14 houses, according to the defence ministry. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 04 Sep 2021 11:00 PM PDT The Missouri Democrat has been described as a possible president – but for now he's focused on healing wounds of a 20-year war Jason Kander is tired. For weeks the former Missouri secretary of state, an Afghanistan veteran as well as a rising star of Democratic politics, has been working to get Afghans out of the country after its fall to the Taliban. That means working on Afghan time, which means working at night. Related: 'I pray they are alive': Afghans headed to US think of families left behind Continue reading... |
| Furlough end unlikely to resolve driver and care staff shortage, says thinktank Posted: 04 Sep 2021 10:15 PM PDT Resolution Foundation says mismatch between skillsets of those losing jobs in UK and those needed will continue unless government steps in Britain's shortage of lorry drivers and care staff is unlikely to be solved by furloughed workers being made redundant when the job protection scheme ends at the end of the month, according to a study by a leading thinktank. A mismatch between the types of jobs that are no longer needed and the vacancies in industries facing a significant lack of skilled staff will persist into next year without government intervention, the Resolution Foundation said. Continue reading... |
| Fears of violence on Brazil’s streets as millions rally to back Bolsonaro Posted: 05 Sep 2021 02:00 AM PDT His rural voters see the embattled president as a 'messenger from God'. And this week they will march in the cities to support him Jair Bolsonaro supporters aren't hard to find in Sinop, an agricultural boomtown in the Brazilian Amazon where nearly 80% of voters backed the country's ultra-conservative leader in the 2018 election. "He's a president of the people," said Marcos Watanabe, the head of the city's conservative association, sporting a T-shirt stamped with Bolsonaro's name. Continue reading... |
| Elections bill is ‘a power grab to rig polls in favour of Tories’ Posted: 05 Sep 2021 12:15 AM PDT Charities and unions slam move as an attack on fundamental rights Boris Johnson's government is today accused of trying to rig future elections by stifling opposition and deterring participation, as a storm of protest erupts over its controversial elections bill, which is to be debated in parliament this week. In an open letter, charities including Save the Children, independent campaign groups such as Greenpeace, and the trades union movement, condemn the legislation as "an attack on the UK's proud democratic tradition and some of our most fundamental rights". Continue reading... |
| New York mayor: Ida devastation shows need to prepare for ‘very, very worst’ Posted: 05 Sep 2021 02:00 AM PDT Dozens died across the north-east as the storm system passed through and the climate crisis makes extreme weather more likely As the north-eastern US reeled from catastrophic damage caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ida, politicians and city officials warned that the climate crisis will bring more such events. According to the mayor of New York City, people should prepare for the "very, very worst". Related: New York floods: calls for action after 11 die in basement apartments Continue reading... |
| Grenfell Tower set to be demolished over safety concerns Posted: 04 Sep 2021 12:41 PM PDT Structural experts have 'unambiguously' advised that building poses a risk and should be carefully taken down Ministers are expected to announce this month that Grenfell Tower will be demolished because of safety concerns, more than four years after the fire that killed 72 people. Robert Jenrick, the housing secretary, has been told that the building poses a risk to the local community including the Kensington Aldridge Academy in west London, a secondary school located near the charred remains. Continue reading... |
| NSW shark attack: surfer in his 30s dies after being bitten on north coast near Coffs Harbour Posted: 04 Sep 2021 10:37 PM PDT Paramedics rushed to Emerald Beach but were unable to save the man, who had critical injuries to his arm and back A surfer has died after he was bitten by a shark on the NSW north coast on Sunday morning. NSW police said emergency crews rushed to Shelly Beach at Emerald Beach, north of Coffs Harbour, just before 11am on Sunday. Continue reading... |
| ‘Scholz will sort it’ – the catchphrase winning the hearts of German voters Posted: 04 Sep 2021 09:30 AM PDT A savvy electoral campaign against two lacklustre opponents has put the SPD leader ahead in the polls to succeed Angela Merkel Of all the political posters and billboards that line the streets of German towns and cities this late summer, the ones most likely to stop commuters in their tracks are those bathed in traffic-light red. Using a stark colour scheme usually exclusive to the Marxist-Leninist parties on the fringe of the German left, the posters are surprising in more ways than one: in the centre of the picture sits a bald, suited man who looks less like a leftwing rabble-rouser promising you radical change than a middle manager at a regional building society scrutinising your loan application. Continue reading... |
| Prince Charles’s former aide steps down as charity boss amid conduct inquiry Posted: 04 Sep 2021 03:43 PM PDT Michael Fawcett, who was CEO of Prince's Foundation, faces claims about honour for a Saudi businessman A former aide to the Prince of Wales has stepped down temporarily from his role as a charity boss while an investigation into allegations about his conduct takes place. Michael Fawcett, a former assistant valet to Charles, has stepped down as chief executive of the Prince's Foundation amid claims about an honour relating to Saudi businessman Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz. Continue reading... |
| Coronavirus live: Brazil suspends 12m Sinovac doses; UK set to require NHS workers to be vaccinated Posted: 05 Sep 2021 01:49 AM PDT Brazil suspends use of over 12m Chinese Sinovac doses; UK reportedly pushes ahead with plans to require NHS workers to be vaccinated
Coronavirus will come back to haunt the west unless vaccination rates in Africa are improved, former UK prime minister Gordon Brown has said. Brown said hundreds of millions of doses are lying in warehouses in Europe and North America, when they could be used in African countries. 70% of the west has been vaccinated, only 2% in Africa and the other low-income countries of the world. So, 98% are unprotected. "It's bad for them, it's bad for us, because the disease will come back to haunt us from Africa and hurt even the fully vaccinated here with new variants. You'll find African leaders will be demanding it too. Faith and church leaders know that this vaccine divide between vaccine-rich and vaccine-poor is really a terrible stain. It's a moral failure on the part of the whole of the world.
Russia's coronavirus cases hit 7 million on Sunday, with the country reporting 18,645 new infections in the past 24 hours and 793 more deaths. The latest figures took the total number of cases to 7,012,599, with the overall death toll at 187,200, Reuters reports. Continue reading... |
| ‘A kick in the teeth’: British mothers and pregnant women fear return to workplace Posted: 04 Sep 2021 07:58 AM PDT Companies recalling staff this month have been accused of not offering flexitime and failing to protect employees Before the pandemic, every morning and night was a cycle of stress and rushing around for single mother Emma Woodburn, getting her two young sons to and from school, childcare before and after work and staying on top of housework. But when, 18 months ago, the 39-year-old from Lancashire was told by her employer she could work from home, everything changed. "It was like a weight was lifted. It was less rush in the morning. I could put the washing on throughout the day and hang it out on my dinner break. It just felt easier." Continue reading... |
| Numbers don’t always mean what they seem to mean | David Spiegelhalter and Anthony Masters Posted: 05 Sep 2021 02:00 AM PDT It pays to always check what is actually being counted Last Wednesday, the Evening Standard trumpeted "Covid deaths rocket to 207 in deadliest day in nearly 6 months". In fact, deaths within 24 days of a positive test were slightly down over the previous week. So what did it get wrong? It appears it fell for the common misunderstanding, even after 18 months of pandemic, that the daily death figure represents those occurring in the last 24 hours, whereas it is deaths that have been reported in that period and reports are fewer on weekends and holidays. The spike of 207 picked up the backlog from the bank holiday weekend – only 50 had been reported the previous day. Continue reading... |
| Ready for the roaring 20s? It’s time to re-learn how to have fun, says happiness professor Posted: 04 Sep 2021 11:45 PM PDT A conscious decision to bring more joy into our lives can boost both mind and body After a year-and-a-half of loss, sickness and stress caused by the pandemic, burnout is high and morale is low. But in some positive news, according to Laurie Santos, Yale's "happiness professor", the way to feel better need not depend on restrictive diets, gruelling fitness regimes or testing mental challenges, but in something far more attractive: fun. The American psychology professor and Happiness Lab podcaster, who rose to international fame when her course "psychology and the good life" became the Ivy League university's most popular course of all time, says that consciously injecting more fun into our lives – which she refers to as a "funtervention" – can not only improve mental health and help prevent burnout but also improve physical health. Continue reading... |
| The Afghanistan Papers review: superb exposé of a war built on lies Posted: 04 Sep 2021 11:00 PM PDT Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post used freedom of information to produce the definitive US version of the war In the summer of 2009, the latest in a long line of US military commanders in Afghanistan commissioned the latest in a long line of strategic reviews, in the perennial hope it would make enough of a difference to allow the Americans to go home. Continue reading... |
| I can’t commit to anything, I feel no eagerness to live Posted: 04 Sep 2021 10:00 PM PDT Something or someone stole the steering wheel of your life, you need to get it back, says Philippa Perry The question I have reached a point in my life where I am having to make the major commitments expected, like marriage, homeownership and children. Decisions that shape your life. I recently chose to end a relationship and step away from buying a house, though, because I felt unable to commit wholeheartedly. In some ways, it only felt I reached those significant events because it was forced upon me rather than getting excited and choosing for myself. It's not that I don't take a plunge – sometimes I have to, after all I have to live somewhere. But it always seems to be someone else doing the deciding. I just don't have any eagerness or desire for anything. The more I think about it, the more I feel that I have this across my whole life and for all my life. I have a very short-term outlook where I can look forward to small things, like a holiday or starting a new job. But I can't look forward to anything that has future implications. I never stay with an employer for a long time, or even commit to a savings plan. Continue reading... |
| ‘The 90s seem like yesterday’: Saint Etienne on 30 years as pop auteurs Posted: 05 Sep 2021 12:30 AM PDT Sarah, Bob and Pete talk about recording their mesmeric new album via Zoom, the reality of the 90s and the oddness of pop parenthood In the concrete balcony bar of the BFI Southbank on a late summer's afternoon, three old friends are sitting on mid-century seats, talking about the passing of time. Thirty years ago this month, Saint Etienne – Bob Stanley, Pete Wiggs and Sarah Cracknell – released their debut album, Foxbase Alpha, which stitched together samples from Dusty Springfield, the Four Tops and James Brown records, clips from old films and electronic beats that had their heart and soul in the clubs. Renowned music journalist Jon Savage wrote the sleevenotes, laying out how their approach to music-making could be a blueprint for a new kind of British pop culture. It might come from somewhere like London's grimy Camden Town, home to "a myriad of sounds, looks and smells from all over the world, each with its own memory and possibility". In Saint Etienne's London, Savage wrote, you could immerse yourself in dub, reggae, old psychedelia and Northern soul, combining these sounds with contemporary ideas. Continue reading... |
| The day before 9/11: what was life like before the world changed? Posted: 05 Sep 2021 01:00 AM PDT The age of Big Brother and famous football victories seems like another time. But did the terrorists' planes, as it seemed, really come out of nowhere? There is always an eeriness in the archives of days that immediately precede tragedy. The newspapers of the day before the Titanic's maiden voyage, or the reports from the eve of President Kennedy's visit to Dallas, forever after take on the shadow of innocent, sunlit photos of a suddenly lost loved one. We have come to accept that, 20 years ago this week, on the morning of 11 September, the world as we knew it changed for ever. But from what? What were the immediate befores of that indelible after? I've spent the last few days reading through the papers of the week beginning 3 September 2001, looking for any clues that suggested those were times of relative security and a certain naivety or blitheness, at least in the affluent corners of the west; wondering, with hindsight, if the terrorists' planes really came out of nowhere, with their era-defining message of hate, as it appeared to so many. Continue reading... |
| Are you office ready as WFH comes to an end? Posted: 05 Sep 2021 12:00 AM PDT Maybe you're desperate to go back – or clinging to the kitchen table. Either way, the workplace beckons. Our writers are on hand to dispense orientation, sympathy and new lanyards For anyone in charge of a school-age child, this is "school supplies" season: queueing in the only shop that sells your scratchy uniform, picking a pencil case, the narky crush in Clarks. (If you think that's stressful, try living in Belgium, where school supplies demands are as esoteric and difficult to parse as the Voynich manuscript). All that preparation – the sharpening of crayons, ironing of name tags and ticking of lists – gives a welcome focus for the galloping anxiety the new academic year often awakens. Because September is the real high-stakes "new year, new you" and this time round, it's not just for kids. Many companies are taking advantage of the new school year to encourage – or a more muscular verb – workers back in-person, not on-screen. Those of us who worked remotely are the lucky ones, but from doctors to delivery riders, a huge swathe of the workforce did not have the luxury of elastic waistbands and a safe, cosy home office. Now we're anxious. We haven't seen our colleagues unpixellated for 18 months and these were not, if I can generalise, our finest months. We grieved, feared and vegetated; we got addicted to Bourbons, or videos of cats sneezing. Our working routines became, hmm, idiosyncratic – the third breakfast, the 2pm nap, the 4am primal scream – and we forgot what "business casual" means, or whether it's a good thing. As with school, getting back to the office going back might mean boredom, bullies and the grey, alienating drag of doing what you're told all day. But like school, it might also be a chance for reinvention: who are we now? Perhaps we're actually wiser, kinder, better. Failing that, there's the consolation prize of a functioning printer. So write your adult supplies list – blister plasters, emergency biscuit, stain remover, paper bag to breathe into if it gets too much – and look out your lanyard: the office is back. Emma Beddington Continue reading... |
| Michaela Coel: ‘Sometimes pain is something to be grateful for’ Posted: 04 Sep 2021 11:00 PM PDT The actor, writer and creator of I May Destroy You, has written a manifesto, Misfits, in praise of being an outlier. Here she answers questions from famous fans and Observer readers Michaela Coel has one enormous eye, looming at me like a cyclops. She's deliberately pushing different parts of her face at her laptop camera – "Boom!" – trying to make me laugh (it works). The award-winning Coel has been laying low since the genre-shattering TV series I May Destroy You came out during lockdown last year. Having admitted that she wanted to run away when it came out – "I struggle with that bit… I tend to go somewhere to hide" – she's come off social media, stopped giving interviews for a little while. But in person, laying low is not Coel's style. She's a communicator. She talks in long, descriptive sentences and even when she's not messing with the camera, her face is always moving, her thoughts and emotions flooding her features. At formal events, she can present a serious front – face and body held still and dignified – but today she's upbeat. Her laugh is big. Sometimes, she stops in the middle of an answer and asks herself questions, wondering out loud about whether she's being honest enough: "Do I feel that?" she says. "Do I really feel that?" Continue reading... |
| With the US becoming a less reliable ally, Britain needs to make friends in Europe | Andrew Rawnsley Posted: 05 Sep 2021 01:00 AM PDT Britain urgently needs to repair its relations with its neighbours but Boris Johnson's government is singularly ill-equipped to do so After the rout, the recriminations. British fingers furiously jab at the Americans for a shaming scuttle from Kabul that will embolden the west's adversaries. Sir John Major yesterday called the withdrawal of western forces a "strategically very stupid" decision. Tony Blair, the prime minister who sent British forces into Afghanistan 20 years ago, goes so far as to call the precipitous exit "imbecilic". Number 10 has been forced to deny that Boris Johnson refers to the US president as "Sleepy Joe", the insult minted by Donald Trump. Supporters of Joe Biden counter-accuse the British and other European countries of expecting the US to continue to expend its blood and treasure in Afghanistan when most Nato members had wound down their commitments long ago. In Whitehall, an ugly three-way blame game rages between the Foreign Office, the Ministry of Defence and the Home Office about why the government didn't anticipate the swiftness of the fall of Kabul or make timely preparations to help vulnerable people to whom Britain owes obligations. We'd be in a better place if they'd devoted as much energy to planning for the evacuation as they are expending on excoriating each other. There will be more finger pointing when the Commons returns tomorrow. Yet it is not buck-passing between politicians desperate to save their careers that this country needs if anything useful is to be learned from this debacle. What is required is a cool reassessment of where this leaves Britain in a perilous and unpredictable world. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 05 Sep 2021 12:00 AM PDT Fearful of the growing influence of entrepreneurs and entertainers, the Chinese leader now demands conformity across all of society Since the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist party (CCP) on 1 July, political edicts have been flowing out of Beijing. President Xi Jinping declared that China's economy would now work to provide "common prosperity". Social media has read this as a rhetorical assault on the country's billionaires, who have become used to flaunting their wealth. There has been a well-publicised crackdown on entrepreneurs in the technology sector, in part because of the CCP's increasing concern that figures such as Alibaba's founder, Jack Ma, were becoming more prominent than the party itself. New anti-trust legislation may well break up some of the big companies that have dominated the sphere, creating more, smaller companies that the CCP hopes will power innovation through increased competition and also be easier to control politically. Related: China bans reality talent shows to curb behaviours of 'idol' fandoms Continue reading... |
| NSW confirms 1,485 new cases and three deaths; Victoria now at 60% with first dose – as it happened Posted: 05 Sep 2021 12:23 AM PDT Gladys Berejiklian says October will bring 'relief'; New Zealand confirms 20 new cases. This blog is now closed.
There's rain coming (don't worry, I'm inside) and the umpires are checking the light, so we might call stumps for today. Thanks all for your comments, correspondence and company. All of you, be well (and listen to Professor Peter Doherty (no relation - or none that I'm aware of): get vaccinated if you can). A summary of today's Covid-19 developments in Australia.
This man is a national treasure... Apologies for the intemperate language, but I've been doing the best I can to persuade those with a healthy immune system to be vaccinated. Trying to understand, I've been engaging with those against vaccines, and not getting anything back from them that is supported by hard data https://t.co/DRSQh7Hmok I've decided that I will not to waste any more time responding to anyone who is abusive or who is embedded in one or other of anti-vaxxer conspiracy narrative. There's nothing useful to learn here, it's a time sink, so I'm automatically blocking them. Some are obviously bots. Related: Covid, Twitter, and Dan Murphy's opening hours: Peter Doherty on his not-so-restful retirement Continue reading... |
| Anti-Taliban forces endure ‘heavy assaults’ in Panjshir valley – video report Posted: 04 Sep 2021 05:35 AM PDT Afghan resistance fighters clashed with the Taliban in the Panjshir valley, the final province holding out against hardline Islamist control. Celebratory gunfire rang out across Kabul late on Friday as rumours spread that the valley had fallen. The Taliban made no official claim to victory and the former Afghan vice-president Amrullah Saleh, among other opposition leaders, said his side had not given up Continue reading... |
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