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Australia revisited – a country changed by Covid

After eight years in the US, Nick Bryant returned to Australia to find a country that had retained many of its finest qualities. But it had also turned in on itself and become a more fractured nation. It was the final full day of our summer holiday – January is the August of the southern hemisphere – and our friend had returned to the beach, in the golden hour of the late afternoon, to capture a few last snapshots. By then, the sands had largely emptied. The sea looked too rough to swim in. But over the crash of the

Australia politics: Deputy keeps job despite calling Scott Morrison a liar

Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has said he offered to quit after calling the prime minister “a hypocrite and a liar” in a text. Mr Joyce apologised after learning that the message – sent last year and passed to a former staffer of Scott Morrison’s Liberal Party – was being made public. The text was dated 22 March, before Mr Joyce took on his current role. Rejecting his resignation, Mr Morrison said: “We all have our frailties and none of us are perfect.” Mr Joyce, 54, told reporters on Saturday: “I want to apologise to the prime minister… I

Women’s Ashes: Australia beat England by five wickets to seal series win

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Australia sealed an Ashes series victory with a game to spare thanks to a five-wicket win over England in the second one-day-international in Melbourne. From 40-1 after 10 overs, England lost six wickets for 28 runs before being bowled out for 129 with almost five overs unused. Ellyse Perry picked up 3-12 and Tahlia McGrath continued her fantastic Ashes series by taking 3-4 in 3.2 overs. Left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen took the key wickets of Nat Sciver, who struggled to get going with eight off 25 balls, and England captain Heather Knight, for 18, in consecutive overs. A steady 39-run

Parrots for sale: The internet’s role in illicit trade

Row after row of thin barred cages hold brilliantly coloured birds whose screeches fill the air with a deafening noise. Faiz Ahmed sits at a desk, oblivious, as he turns to a team of undercover BBC News journalists. He’s busy with his business of importing and selling birds. It’s a popular line of trade in Bangladesh, where he’s based, particularly among people with connections and money to invest. The conversation had started over the purchase of legal captive-bred parrots, but turned to a particular species, the African grey. “Wild grey parrots are good. Many people are breeding from wild ones,”

Mount Everest: Mountain’s highest glacier melting rapidly, new study shows

Climate change is causing the highest glacier on Mount Everest to melt at a rapid pace, a new study has found. Researchers led by the University of Maine found that the South Col Glacier has lost more than 180ft (54m) of thickness in the last 25 years. The glacier, which sits around 7,906m (25,938 ft) above sea-level, is thinning 80 times faster than it first took the ice to form on the surface. The rate of decline has been blamed on warming temperatures and strong winds. Scientists leading the study found that since the 1990s, ice that took around 2,000 years

China: What does it want from the Ukraine crisis with Russia?

As the war of words between the US and Russia grows louder over Ukraine, one major player on the international stage has spoken up firmly as well: China. In recent days, Beijing has called for calm on both sides and the end of a Cold War mentality, while also making it clear it supports Moscow’s concerns. It would seem obvious that China would side with its longtime ally and former Communist comrade Russia. But how and why it is doing this goes deeper than their history. ‘China and Russia protect the world’ Last week, China’s foreign minister Wang Yi called

China joins Russia in opposing Nato expansion

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China has joined Russia in opposing further Nato expansion as the two countries move closer together in the face of Western pressure. Moscow and Beijing issued a statement showcasing their agreement on a raft of issues during a visit by Russia’s Vladimir Putin for the Winter Olympics. Mr Putin claims Western powers are using the Nato defence alliance to undermine Russia. It comes amid tensions over Ukraine, which he denies planning to invade. Some 100,000 Russian troops remain at the border with Ukraine, which is a former Soviet republic. Mr Putin, who has written that Russians and Ukrainians are “one

Lata Mangeshkar: Beloved Indian singer dies at 92

Lata Mangeshkar, one of India’s most beloved singers who provided the soundtrack to hundreds of Bollywood films, has died aged 92. Mangeshkar was admitted to a hospital in Mumbai in January after testing positive for Covid-19. Her extraordinary career spanned more than half a century and she recorded thousands of songs in 36 languages. She will receive a state funeral in Mumbai on Sunday and there will be two days of national mourning. During this period, the national flag will be flown at half-mast throughout the country. A the news broke, tributes began pouring in for Mangeshkar who was often

Tigray conflict: What do we know about drone strikes in Ethiopia?

Dozens of people have been killed in airstrikes in the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray in recent months. Some of the attacks have involved the use of armed drones, and there’s growing concern about the number of civilian casualties. The government, which has been fighting rebels for over a year, says it has the right to use whatever arms it sees fit. It denies that it has targeted civilians. 8 January: Attack on camp for displaced An air attack on a camp for internally displaced people in Dedebit in Tigray on 8 January, killed more than 50 people and left more

Sudan’s feared secret police make a comeback

Sudan’s once notorious secret police are back in action, abducting people who it is feared might never be seen again. Last month, in the middle of the night, about 30 armed men in plain clothes stormed into the Khartoum home of Amira Osman. The trained engineer is a prominent women’s rights activist here. She is also a member of the Sudanese Communist Party. It is believed that she was arrested by the General Intelligence Service (GIS) formerly known as the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) but the authorities have not commented. Ms Osman’s older sister, Amani, who is a

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