Iran This article is more than 12 years oldIranian woman blinded by acid attack pardons assailant as he faces same fateThis article is more than 12 years oldAmeneh Bahrami withdraws 'eye for an eye' retribution hours before surgeons prepared to blind him with acidA woman blinded with acid in Iran has pardoned her attacker, a man who was scheduled to lose his sight in an eye for an eye punishment on Sunday.
Florida‘Scientific nonsense’: experts dismiss Florida official’s Covid vaccine remarks State’s politically appointed surgeon general claims vaccines can contaminate human DNA but experts say comment has no merit
An assertion by Florida’s politically appointed surgeon general that Covid-19 vaccines can contaminate human DNA has been dismissed as “scientific nonsense” by public health experts, who say he is putting lives at risk by wanting to block distribution.
Dr Joseph Ladapo, who was handpicked by the state’s far-right governor and fellow vaccine-skeptic, Ron DeSantis, to be the state’s top public health official, called for a halt in the distribution and use of mRNA Covid boosters, in an official bulletin published on Wednesday by the Florida health department.
A nun on a bike ride in Łowicz. Photograph: Valeria LuongoPhotographer Valeria Luongo’s long-term project explores the daily life of nuns at the Holy Hearts of Jesus and Mary convent in Rome. It was born out of a fascination with the women who choose to eschew conventional modes of living. What exactly does a nun’s life entail, and what happens in their tight-knit community?
by Valeria Luongo A nun during a quiet moment of prayer
Spain This article is more than 3 years oldSpanish official apologises for spraying beach with bleachThis article is more than 3 years oldTractors were sent along beach of Zahara de los Atunes in effort to tackle coronavirus
Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage An official in southern Spain has apologised for spraying the local beach with diluted bleach in an attempt to protect residents from Covid-19.
Switzerland This article is more than 1 year oldSwitzerland’s melting glaciers reveal human remains and plane wreckageThis article is more than 1 year oldRecord high temperatures in the Alps this summer have led to the discovery of two bodies and an aircraft that crashed in 1968
Soaring temperatures are prompting Switzerland’s melting glaciers to reveal their secrets, with hikers this summer chancing upon two sets of unidentified human remains and a plane wreckage lost for more than half a century.
ComedyReviewSoho theatre, London
Key swerves Covid cliches by recreating his professional crisis in silly poems, poignant prose and punchlines involving his five-foot teddy bear companion
Struggling to adjust as pandemic restrictions end? Don’t worry, Tim Key has created a “cheeky little locky-D” in Soho theatre and we’re all invited. He paces the room in a blue velour tracksuit, as the audience files into his pseudo-flat, a shabby front door to the left of us, a magnet-covered fridge to the right.
The ObserverBiography booksReviewRussell Brand's gleeful tale of drugs and debauchery in My Booky Wook puts most other celebrity memoirs to shame, writes Andrew AnthonyMy Booky Wook
Russell Brand
Hodder & Stoughton £18.99, pp339
Russell Brand, the comedian-cum-tabloid personality, is a peculiar phenomenon. A cult performer who is a celebrity, he is less known for his work than his lifestyle. Yet his work is his lifestyle. Or as he puts it: 'My life is just a series of embarrassing incidents strung together by telling people about those embarrassing incidents.
Premier LeagueAlphonse Areola defiant as West Ham frustrate Brighton in stalemate This was a game that made it hard not to wonder if there is such a thing as too much football. West Ham and Brighton were two tired, injury-hit teams trying their best and giving their all without ever really suggesting they had the wit or energy to score a goal.
At the end the biggest takeaway was it will be tough for both to remain above richer rivals as the season wears on.
Ari UpObituaryAri Up obituaryThe Slits frontwoman, she helped to reinvent women's role in musicThe singer Ari Up, who has died after an unspecified illness aged 48, was the idiosyncratic frontwoman of the Slits, the British punk band formed in 1976. With her bird's-nest hair, gutsy attitude and wardrobe from hell, along with the band's ferocious sound, Ari confounded her audiences. The Slits fused punk with another rebel music – reggae – to create an original sound that transcended their musical limitations.
Nicholas Lezard's choiceFictionReviewA classic story about pugilists and poverty in 1950s California hits hard nearly five decades on
Many writers are drawn to boxing, though often with a tendency to express the milquetoast’s awe at the fighter’s power, or to gloss over the bloodiness and pain of the sport – to see it as primal spectacle.
Fat City is no such book. It will not make you feel like taking up boxing; nor, unless you are unusually morbid, will it make you want to watch a fight.