The Canadian government blocked a visit by Carles Puigdemont days before the former Catalan president was to travel to the country at the invitation of a group advocating Quebec independence, his lawyer said on Monday. Puigdemont had been scheduled to speak in Quebec earlier this month on his experiences as a leader of the Catalonian…

There are conflicting reports as to whether a planned three-day concert to mark the 50th anniversary of the Woodstock festival has been cancelled or not. Woodstock 50 was scheduled to take place on 16 to 18 August in Watkins Glen in upstate New York state with a lineup including the rapper Jay-Z, the singer Miley…

Just when you think you’ve got the measure of Leonardo da Vinci – painter, anatomist, pioneer of flight, animal-rights prophet – he turns out to have one more talent up his sleeve. On the 500th anniversary of his death on 2 May, art historian Martin Kemp has collaborated with early music singers I Fagiolini to…

The hunt for octopus begins soon after we arrive in Sagres, in the western Algarve. Within minutes we find it at Restaurante Gigi, where tender chunks are served in olive oil and garlic, and garnished with sweet potato. The craving for Portuguese soul food sated for now, we wander down Sagres’s main drag of low-slung…

A federal government campaign to vaccinate more than 40 million children under five against polio in Pakistan has been suspended following a series of attacks on workers and police over the past week. On 23 April a police officer responsible for protecting polio workers was gunned down in Bannu. The same day, a polio worker…

German police have said they are bracing themselves for violent protests in the capital on 1 May, a traditional day for leftwing demonstrations. As many as 20,000 activists are expected to concentrate their protests on the eastern district of Friedrichshain, railing against the spread of gentrification in the part of Berlin where the majority of…

A terror plot by an army veteran who converted to Islam and planned to bomb a white supremacist rally in southern California as retribution for the New Zealand mosque attacks was thwarted, federal prosecutors said Monday. Mark Domingo, 26, an infantryman who served a combat stint in Afghanistan, was arrested by federal agents Friday while…

The dilemma I am a 30-year-old man and I had, until last year, identified as a straight man. One night, after an office dinner party, I went to my colleague’s flat. We were good mates then, but nothing more. We are both architects and I went to see some of his latest work. He offered…

Former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and Green Party MP Caroline Lucas are among the contributors to a forthcoming handbook about how to become an Extinction Rebellion activist, which will feature instructions on everything from organising roadblocks to dealing with arrest. As 65,000 copies of Swedish student Greta Thunberg’s manifesto Rejoignez-nous (Join Us) hit French…

Sri Lankan police have raided the headquarters of a hardline Islamist group founded by the suspected ringleader behind the Easter suicide bombings of churches and hotels. It comes as a ban on face coverings is due to come into force on Monday. Armed police in the town of Kattankudy searched the headquarters of the National…