• French readout of call with Biden included phrase• Macron said of Afghan allies: ‘We cannot abandon them’The White House’s readout of a call between Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron on the crisis in Afghanistan leaves out an impassioned plea from the Fr…
‘We’re beating this together’: Jemaine Clement on Covid, crime and his friend Taika Waititi
The co-creator of Wellington Paranormal and Flight of the Conchords is busy with new projects and looking forward to bingeing friends’ workIt’s a blustery Wellington night and we’re on the brink of the second nationwide lockdown of the pandemic. There’…
‘No second chances’: Can New Zealand beat Delta?
Jacinda Ardern has led a global Covid success story, but other countries have come unstuck when facing the Delta variantSee all our coronavirus coverageAs epidemiologist Michael Baker scrolled through a growing list of New Zealand’s Covid-exposed locat…
‘No one wanted to come near us’: what it’s like being pregnant amid Fiji’s Covid outbreak
As Fiji battles to contain the coronavirus, pregnant women are having to give birth in isolationFor 34-year-old Jane, being told she had tested positive for Covid-19 just a few days before giving birth was an experience she would never forget.“There we…
Capitol bomb claim suspect charged with weapon of mass destruction threat
Floyd Roseberry told to undergo mental competency hearingThursday threat prompted evacuations and hours-long standoffA man who claimed he had a bomb in a pickup truck near the US Capitol, prompting evacuations and an hours-long standoff with police, ha…
Twenty photographs of the week
The fall of Kabul, forest fires in California and the earthquake in Haiti – the most striking images from around the world this week Continue reading…
Deforestation in Brazilian Amazon hits highest annual level in a decade
Rainforest lost 10,476 sq km between August 2020 and July 2021, report says, despite increasing global concernDeforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has hit the highest annual level in a decade, a new report has shown, despite increasing global concern …
Reporter killed in Veracruz – the fifth murder of a journalist in Mexico this year
Jacinto Romero Flores had received threats after he reported on allegations of abuses by Veracruz policeA radio reporter in the Mexican Gulf coast state of Veracruz has been shot and killed, becoming at least the fifth Mexican journalist to be murdered…
Afghanistan refugees: how many are being evacuated and where will they go?
The Taliban takeover has sparked a hurried exodus of people associated with the western intervention in the countryHow many people have been evacuated from Afghanistan?At least 12,000 people have been evacuated via Kabul airport since the start of a tu…
Desperate crowds, empty flights and rage in Afghanistan at governments who failed to plan
The US and UK say evacuations are gathering pace, but there seems to be little sign of that in KabulThe Kabul airport gates were a path not to escape but to hospital for one Afghan human rights activist this week.A relative was shot in the head in the …