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Family of Agnieszka T say they want to ‘save other women in Poland from a similar fate’, as case met with anger over restrictive termination laws

• Polish state has ‘blood on its hands’ after death of woman refused an abortion

Protests are under way across Poland after the death of a 37-year-old woman this week who was refused an abortion, a year since the country introduced one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe.

On the streets of Warsaw on Tuesday night, protesters laid wreaths and lanterns in memory of Agnieszka T, who died earlier that day. She was pregnant with twins when one of the foetus’ heartbeat stopped and doctors refused to carry out an abortion. In a statement, her family accused the government of having “blood on its hands”. Further protests are planned in Częstochowa, the city in southern Poland where the mother-of-three was from.

Ahead of Saturday’s protest in Ottawa, Trudeau dismisses the group as a ‘small fringe’ that holds ‘unacceptable views’

A convoy of truckers and their supporters is set to converge on the Canadian capital in a protest which has spiralled from frustrations over vaccine requirements into calls for the repeal of all public health measures – and even the overthrow of the federal government.

Ahead of Saturday’s protest in Ottawa, the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, dismissed the group as a “small fringe” that held “unacceptable views” and didn’t reflect the majority of Canadians.

Germany’s health minister Karl Lauterbach says Omicron wave is below projections; Russia sets record daily caseload for eighth consecutive day

• European Commission guilty of ‘maladministration’ over Pfizer texts
• Australia records deadliest day of Covid pandemic
• Canada truckers’ vaccine protest spirals into calls to repeal all rules
• Is it time to ditch cloth face masks for FFP2 or alternatives?
• UK Downing Street parties investigation – live

Nightclubs will be allowed to reopen in Wales from today as Covid restrictions are eased further and “alert level zero” came into effect from 6am this morning.

First Minister Mark Drakeford said in a statement overnight:

We have passed the peak of this omicron wave and there are encouraging signs that cases of coronavirus may be starting to stabilise. But we all need to continue taking steps to stay safe – unfortunately the pandemic is not over yet.

We are moving to alert level zero and we will retain some important protections, such as face coverings in most indoor public places and risk assessments.

For the events the Met is investigating, we asked for minimal reference to be made in the Cabinet Office report.

The Met did not ask for any limitations on other events in the report, or for the report to be delayed, but we have had ongoing contact with the Cabinet Office, including on the content of the report, to avoid any prejudice to our investigation.

Regulator heavily critical of aides to European Commission president in relation to Covid vaccine messages

An investigation by an EU watchdog into text messages sent by European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, to Pfizer’s CEO has found the EU’s executive arm guilty of “maladministration”.

Von der Leyen’s aides are heavily criticised in the ruling from Emily O’Reilly, the European ombudsman, for their handling of requests for publication of the messages sent during negotiations over vaccine purchases.

Set 20 years after a virus has decimated Earth, this 10-part TV epic suggests that humanity will bounce back after the apocalypse – finding joy in a brave new world where smartphones and the internet are mere memories

There is art that mirrors life, life mirroring art – and then there is Station Eleven. In February 2020, filming was under way on an HBO Max adaptation of the critically acclaimed novel, which is set 20 years after a deadly flu outbreak has decimated the global population and brought civilisation as we know it to an end. Its plot centres on a nomadic troupe of actors who perform Shakespeare to the scattered settlements of the Great Lakes. But after shooting two episodes showing the “Georgia flu” bringing the city of Chicago to a stop, production was shut down by the very threat it depicted.

The book, which was a bestseller in 2014, was discovered anew as the real-life pandemic made us seek out stories to help process the emergent threat. (See the spike in streams of Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 pandemic thriller Contagion; the return of Camus.) Its author, Emily St John Mandel, is often declared to have “predicted” the future, a claim she resists.

Vote on proposed peace deal to placate warring factions pushed to an electronic ballot next week after Friday night meeting of state executive

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The New South Wales Liberal party has failed to resolve its preselection impasse for federal candidates and has delayed the issue until next week, dramatically raising the prospects that a federal intervention will be required.

The 27-member state executive met on Friday night for less than two hours, but did not consider a controversial deal which was designed to placate the warring factions and settle a number of key seats by bypassing branch votes.

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As the Covid pandemic has unfolded, the choice of face coverings has mushroomed

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During the early days of the pandemic the choice was simple: you either wore a reusable cloth mask or a disposable surgical mask. As the months have progressed, the choice of face coverings and other forms of protection has mushroomed, while the emergence of more transmissible variants has prompted some countries to mandate the wearing of full protective filtering face piece (FFP) masks in public spaces.

Although face coverings are no longer legally required in England, the government has suggested continuing to wear one in crowded, enclosed spaces where you may come into contact with other people you do not normally meet.

Average Briton produces more carbon in two days than Congolese person does in entire year, study finds

In the first two days of January, the average Briton was already responsible for more carbon dioxide emissions than someone from the Democratic Republic of the Congo would produce in an entire year, according to analysis by the Center for Global Development (CGD).

The study, which highlights the “vast energy inequality” between rich and poor countries, found that each Briton produces 200 times the climate emissions of the average Congolese person, with people in the US producing 585 times as much. By the end of January, the carbon emitted by someone living in the UK will surpass the annual emissions of citizens of 30 low- and middle-income countries, it found.

Friend of suspect in Italy who returned to scene of robbery told guard he was looking for a ‘finger with a ring on it’

Italian police are trying to catch a suspected thief by fingerprinting a digit he accidentally cut off on barbed wire while fleeing the scene of a robbery, although they hope the suspect will surrender in the hopes of retrieving his lost wedding ring.

The injured man sent a friend back to the area, a recycling plant in Milan, to search for his body part and the ring, but the friend was spotted by a security guard rummaging through leaves, local media reported.

Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique worst affected with 77 people reported dead and 80,000 more forced from their homes

Humanitarian agencies have mounted an emergency response across southern Africa this week as the death toll from tropical Storm Ana reached 77.

Officials reported that at least 41 people had been killed in Madagascar, 18 in Mozambique and 11 in Malawi. The EU’s aid agency Echo said on Thursday that at least 350,000 people have been affected across the three countries, including more than 80,000 displaced from their homes. Flooding has cut off roads and damaged power and water supplies.

Suggestion true number of deaths in England and Wales could be as low as 17,000 is factually incorrect, says ONS

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Claims shared on social media, including by the former Brexit secretary David Davis, that the true number of deaths in England and Wales caused by Covid 19 could be 17,000 have been debunked as “spurious” and factually incorrect by the Office for National Statistics.

The ONS responded following tweets by Davis suggesting that the figure 17,371 represented the toll of deaths that had occurred in people with no other underlying causes.

The death toll from Tropical Storm Ana, which struck three southern African countries, has risen to 77 as emergency teams work to repair damaged infrastructure and help tens of thousands of people. Ana made landfall in Madagascar on Monday before tracking across Mozambique and Malawi during the week, bringing high winds and torrential rain

• Dozens killed in Tropical Storm Ana as southern Africa braces for more wild weather

NSW health minister Brad Hazzard said the number of people turning up to get their Covid-19 boosters ‘are not where we need them to be’. Addressing the media outside Sydney’s Royal North Shore hospital, he said, ‘there are seven people in ICU and not one of them has had the booster'. Hazzard said it was 'ridiculous' that health staff were being diverted to work in vaccine hubs when only a handful of people were turning up. NSW Health deputy secretary Susan Pearce said appointments were ‘going begging’ but that doses were not being wasted 

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Hopes continue for diplomatic solution to Ukraine standoff but Berlin swings behind Washington’s threat on Nord Stream 2

The United States and Germany have stepped up warnings to Russia that the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline will be at stake if it invades Ukraine, as Washington voiced hope for a diplomatic way out despite frigid statements from Moscow.

A day after the US and its allies formally responded to security demands issued by Russia, officials in Moscow said their chief concerns were not addressed but notably did not rule out new talks.

A primitive Australian fish living in a San Francisco museum is believed to be the oldest living aquarium fish in the world. Methuselah is a four-foot-long (1.2-meter) Australian lungfish, weighing around 40lb (18.1kg). The species has both lungs and gills and is believed to be the evolutionary link between fish and amphibians. The lungfish was brought to the San Francisco museum in 1938 from Australia and now lives at the California Academy of Sciences. The species is threatened and can no longer be exported from Australian waters so biologists at the academy say it's unlikely they'll get a replacement once Methuselah passes away

• Methuselah: oldest aquarium fish lives in San Francisco and likes belly rubs

Ron Johnson doesn’t believe the state should give help to parents – but he’s very keen to stop a woman’s right to choose

Ron Johnson, the US senator for hot takes, famed for such hits as “[the Capitol riot] seemed like a peaceful protest to me” and “mouthwash has been proven to kill the coronavirus”, is at it again. On Wednesday, Johnson, the senior Republican senator from Wisconsin, told local news station WKBT: “People decide to have families and become parents. That’s something they need to consider when they make that choice.”

He continued: “I’ve never really felt it was society’s responsibility to take care of other people’s children.”

New South Wales has reported 35 deaths in people with Covid-19 overnight, 2,737 people in hospital and 13,333 new cases. Kerry Chant said another 35 people, in addition to those previously reported, had died in aged care facilities in south-western Sydney between 2 and 20 January. There was a delay in reporting those deaths to the health department, she said

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• Follow the Australia Covid live blog for the latest updates
• Analysis: The simple numbers every government should use to fight anti-vaccine misinformation
• Only one approved rapid test in Australia explicitly states it detects Omicron
• ‘Catastrophic failure’: Covid out of control in the NT, say Aboriginal groups

Analysis: president faces high expectations as he prepares make one of his most consequential decisions

In his spare time, Justice Stephen Breyer enjoyed taking the bench at humorous “mock trials” of characters such as Macbeth and Richard III for Washington’s Shakespeare Theatre Company. The case usually turned on epic battles over succession.

Now Washington is about to be consumed by the question of who will inherit Breyer’s crown following his reported decision to retire from the US supreme court. At 83, he is its oldest member, one of three liberals outnumbered by six conservatives.

Playing the flute on one leg, Anderson’s jester-like image turned the prog rockers into global stars in the 70s. With their first new album in 20 years, he talks about the passion behind the pomp – and why he could never be ‘generic, like the Stones and the Who’

When I last interviewed Ian Anderson, leader of multimillion-selling prog rockers Jethro Tull, in 1993, he told me that 2000 would be a good time to hang up his flute. “I think I was confusing myself with British Airways pilots who, when they turn 65, are out,” he counters today. “If you’re a professional tennis player and fully vaccinated, you might manage to play on until you’re in your late 30s. But those of us in arts and entertainment get to die with our boots on, like John Wayne in a black-and-white western.”

Appraising Anderson’s face on my laptop screen, I could easily knock a decade off his 74 years, but it’s still hard to reconcile this loquacious, informed analyser of politics and history with the wild hippy dervish he was circa 1970, famous for playing his flute on one leg. His troll-like hair vanished long ago, but that passage of time is “both romantic and encouraging, because it means we can keep on paying our grandchildren’s school fees in our old age. There are others older than me who are still doing their stuff. Mick Jagger’s trousers keep going up and down, so all’s well with the world.”

The Guardian's Luke Harding travels to the eastern Ukraine coastal city of Mariupol to see how preparations are being made for a potential Russian attack. With tensions in the region high and Russian troops gathering on the border, Ukrainian soldiers remain defiant, despite their depleted firepower. And while the world's attention has returned to the region for the first time since Russia took Crimea in 2014, for Ukrainians the war has been ongoing

• Duke of York ends 30-year association with golf club
• Andrew is preparing to fight a civil sexual abuse lawsuit

Prince Andrew’s 30-year association with the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews has ended, after the club confirmed he is no longer an honorary member. The Duke of York informed the R&A of his decision, which should remove the potential for controversy around the 150th Open due to be staged at St Andrews in July.

The R&A, whose corporate wing presides over the Open, informed members of the situation on Friday morning. A spokesperson for the club in Fife said: “I can confirm that the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews has received notification that the Duke of York will relinquish his honorary membership. We respect and appreciate his decision.”

Photojournalist Guillaume Herbaut’s latest visit to Ukraine reveals a disturbing silence on the frontline as international posturing ramps up tensions and diplomats work to avert a full-scale conflict

Since 2014, the French photographer Guillaume Herbaut has been going to Ukraine several times a year to cover the war in a country divided between those turned toward Europe, and those drawn to Russia.

A Ukrainian soldier walks in a trench in the former Zenit military airbase. The base has become one of the Ukrainian army’s positions on the frontline

A faith healer in the Dominican Republic falls foul of the US in this arresting, ambiguous drama

Here’s a striking and mysterious debut from the Dominican Republic, where film-maker Nino Martínez Sosa recounts a fascinating true-life story of occupation and resistance from the turn of the last century. Olivorio Mateo was a peasant and faith healer who became known to his disciples as Papa Liborio; he built a self-sufficient community in the mountains. But when US forces occupied in the 1910s, Liborio was branded a bandit, and killed.

Not that you’d know any of the historical facts from watching this, which is set squarely in the arthouse endurance-test genre: there is little to no scene-setting or explainers, with the kind of pacing often euphemistically described by critics as “deliberate”. It begins after Liborio vanishes from his village during a hurricane, presumed dead. When he is found alive, he claims to have returned from God with healing powers and takes a band of followers up into the mountains.

Aid workers call for ‘humanitarian pause’ so crucial supplies can be delivered, after first assessment of hunger in the region since war broke out

At least 2 million people in the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray are suffering from an extreme lack of food, with the 15-month conflict between rebel and government forces pushing families to the brink, the UN’s emergency food agency has found.

In the first comprehensive assessment the World Food Programme (WFP) has carried out in Tigray since the start of the war, 37% of the population were found to be severely food insecure, meaning they had at times run out of food and gone a day or more without eating.

Country’s ‘corrupt’ approach to conservation leaves protected forests facing ‘oblivion’, human rights watchdog warns

Rampant illegal logging of protected forests is threatening the cultural survival and livelihoods of indigenous people in Cambodia, according to Amnesty International.

Members of the Kuy people, one of the largest of Cambodia’s 24 indigenous groups, told Amnesty how deforestation in two protected forests, along with government restrictions on access have undermined their way of life and violated their human rights.

As Derry prepares to mark the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, we revisit the archive to show how the day unfolded on 30 January 1972, when British paratroopers opened fire on a civil rights march and killed 13 civilians

Analysis: Differing views over Russia within Nato alliance resurface in Ukraine crisis

Can the western alliance against Russia over its buildup of troops on the Ukrainian border hold together? It is a question that politicians and diplomats are increasingly grappling with amid fears that Germany and, to a lesser extent, France are in danger of dividing from the US and the UK, not only over how to respond to any future Russian act of aggression in Ukraine, but also in their assessment of the imminence of the threat.

Every effort is being made to minimise the differences within the Nato alliance, including through regular calls such as the one led by Joe Biden on Monday, but they may be impossible to avoid since they reflect not just different short-term assessments on intelligence, but a deep fissure going back decades about what Germany and France, as opposed to the Anglosphere, regard as the best way to handle Russia.

Verdict on same day as deadline to decide whether British businessman can be extradited to US to face proceedings

Hewlett-Packard has won its civil fraud trial against Mike Lynch, after the US firm claimed that the man once hailed as Britain’s answer to Bill Gates duped it into paying £8.2bn for his software firm Autonomy.

The verdict, handed down at the high court by Mr Justice Hildyard, comes on the same day as a deadline for home secretary, Priti Patel, to decide whether Lynch can be extradited to the US to face a criminal fraud trial there.

Emir expected to tell US president Qatar can provide short-term emergency liquid gas to help replace any loss of supplies

The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, is expected to tell the US president, Joe Biden, that his country will explore providing some short-term emergency liquid gas to help replace any shortages if Russia cuts off supplies to Germany.

Qatar is looking to supply Europe through transferring excess gas in storage in east Asia. It is also hoping to return to the European market on a bigger scale as its own production levels rise, but wants to see an end to a European Commission anti-trust investigation.

Analysis: school absences are soaring, but experts disagree about the importance of vaccinating young children

Covid cases in the UK have fallen sharply in the past few weeks, and hospital admissions appeared to have turned a corner. But now, it seems, the situation has stalled, with cases bobbing around 90,000 a day.

The reason for the change is that while case rates are falling among adults, they are rising among children – where vaccination rates remain sluggish.

Force says it has asked for report to make minimal reference to Downing Street events it is investigating

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The prospect of the Sue Gray report being published soon has shrunk after Scotland Yard revealed it had asked for references to matters it is now investigating to be removed.

Key parts of the long-awaited report on allegations of parties in No 10 that may have broken Covid rules could be pared back after the move..

That night was unquestionably the worst I’ve experienced during my 100 years on this earth

I was born in Budapest in 1921 and was living there when war broke out. I received my army call-up in May 1943; at the time, Hungary was one of the Axis powers and had been fighting the Soviet Union on the eastern front for the past two years. I received basic military training but, because I was Jewish, I wasn’t given a regular uniform. Instead, I was conscripted into a labour corps and sent with 3,600 others to the mines in Bor, Serbia, which provided copper for the German army.

The labour camps were harsh environments, but I spoke good German and was able to secure a job as a stoker on a train that carried rocks from the mine, which meant I managed to stay warm. In September 1944, the approach of the Russian army led to the hurried closure of the mine and, to our delight, we learned we were to head back to Hungary, accompanied by the Hungarian guards from the camp.

Speaking to reporters in Washington, Joe Biden said he would consider personal sanctions against Vladimir Putin if Russia invaded Ukraine, citing 'severe consequences'. The threat of sanctions came as the US helped prepare for the diversion of natural gas supplies from around the world to Europe in the event that the flow from Russia is cut

• Biden threatens Putin with personal sanctions if Russia invades Ukraine

Legal action planned against Hungary and NSO, the spyware’s maker, in what could become template for other cases

Hungarian journalists targeted with Pegasus spyware plan to take legal action against the Hungarian state and the Israeli company NSO, which manufactures the tool.

The Pegasus Project, a consortium of news outlets including the Guardian, revealed last summer that forensic analysis of mobile devices showed that a number of journalists in the country had been targeted with Pegasus.

Madagascar, Mozambique and Malawi lashed by high winds and torrential rains, leaving nearly 80 people dead

The death toll from a storm that struck three southern African countries has risen to 77 as emergency teams battled to repair damaged infrastructure and help tens of thousands of victims.

Tropical Storm Ana made landfall in Madagascar on Monday before ploughing into Mozambique and Malawi through the week, bringing torrential rains

The 11,000 foreign athletes, media crews and guests will be met at the airport by workers in biohazard suits

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Before Zhang Hua goes down for breakfast, he puts on a mask and rubber gloves. He leaves his hotel room and walks through halls while keeping a safe distance from others. Then he boards a specially commissioned bus driven along dedicated lanes to his job assisting foreign broadcasters preparing for the Winter Olympics.

In the media centre he takes his daily Covid test, and he could eat a meal delivered by a robot. Depending on where he’s staying, Zhang may be allowed to visit his hotel gym later, or go to another hotel’s restaurant, but otherwise this is the only journey he can take.

Two-year-old, gray and white farm cat made an impression on Jill Biden during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania in 2020

Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden have finally added the long-promised cat to their pet family.

Her name is Willow, and she’s a two-year-old, green-eyed, gray and white farm cat from Pennsylvania.

The runaway success of the Colombia-set animation, with its infectious Lin-Manuel Miranda songs, is in no small part thanks to its Latinx characters, cast and key film-makers

“My kids LOVE it!” “It’s MASSIVE in our house!” The WhatsApp group for my daughter’s reception-year class – usually home to messages about lost school jumpers and tips for half-term clubs – explodes into emojis and capital letters at the mention of Disney’s Encanto. One obsessed eight-year-old has learned the words to all the songs – and so have most of their classmates. A’s five-year-old is demanding to know how to say the words in Spanish. Encanto-mania is taking over kids’ lives.

For the uninitiated, Encanto (which is Spanish for “charm”) is Disney’s 60th animated feature film, featuring ridiculously catchy songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the composer of Hamilton. It tells the tale of the magical Madrigal family who live in an enchanted house hidden in the mountains of Colombia. Every member of the clan is blessed with an extraordinary gift – except 15-year-old Mirabel (voiced by Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Stephanie Beatriz) who is struggling to find her place in the family.

Despite aching backs and stiff joints, a growing number of elite athletes – from Zlatan Ibrahimović to Serena Williams – are pushing the clock back. So why can’t you? We ask the experts how to do it

Six years ago it looked as if Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s footballing career was approaching the final whistle. After Sweden’s early exit from Euro 2016, the striker announced his retirement from international competition. At 34, he was getting on a bit for an elite athlete. Cut to November 2021 and, days after firing in a spectacular free-kick for his club, AC Milan, Sweden’s record goalscorer was helping keep alive his country’s hopes of making the next World Cup. The retirement chat was over. “I am trying to prove that 40 is just a number,” he said.

Ibrahimovic had joined what feels like a growing club: the quadragenarian athlete holding back the clock. In an era of ever more punishing professional sport, these twilight stars seem to challenge notions that youth trumps all else. Members include American football superstar Tom Brady (44), the tennis legends Venus and Serena Williams (41, 40), Roger Federer (40), and Oksana Chusovitina (46), the eight-time Olympic gymnast from Uzbekistan.

From the beginning, China’s response to coronavirus has been to quash outbreaks with ultra-strict lockdowns. But has the Omicron variant left its leaders trapped in the wrong strategy?

Ever since the first Covid-19 outbreak was detected in Wuhan, China has countered the virus with incredibly harsh social measures designed to restrict interpersonal contact and eliminate opportunities for the disease to spread. Closed borders, mass testing and entire neighbourhoods and cities quarantined in response to a single case – that’s what it has taken to maintain China’s strict “Covid zero” policy. And it’s been successful: officially, China’s lost fewer than 5,000 people to coronavirus since the start of the pandemic – that’s fewer than the number of people in the US killed by the virus in the past week.

As our China affairs correspondent, Vincent Ni, tells Michael Safi, for Chinese leaders, Covid zero isn’t just a policy – it’s a major achievement for their authoritarian system of government. But with the mutation of the Omicron variant now causing shutdowns in cities across the country, Covid zero is presenting officials with a new dilemma: what’s the exit strategy?

Barrier will stretch for almost half the length of the border and cost 10 times migration department’s budget

Poland has started building a wall along its frontier with Belarus aimed at preventing asylum seekers from entering the country, which cuts through a protected forest and Unesco world heritage site.

The Polish border guard said the barrier would measure 186km (115 miles), almost half the length of the border shared by the two countries, reach up to 5.5 metres (18ft) and cost €353m (£293m). It will be equipped with motion detectors and thermal cameras.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken has said 'there will be no change 'to Washington’s support for Ukraine’s right to pursue Nato membership, the most contentious issue in relations with Moscow.

The US has presented its written response to Russian demands on Ukraine, offering to negotiate with Russia over some aspects of European security, but not the issue of eventual Ukrainian membership to the Nato alliance.

Blinken was speaking hours after his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, threatened 'retaliatory measures' if the US response did not satisfy the Kremlin

• US holds firm on Ukraine’s right to join Nato in its response to Russian demands
• US politics latest updates