Royal speaks of struggling to cope with her new life in interview for ITV documentaryThe Duchess of Sussex has revealed she was warned before her marriage to Prince Harry that the British tabloids would “destroy†her life, as she spoke of struggling to cope with the reality of being part of the royal family.In an interview for the ITV documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey, she said the last year had been “hard†and that she had had “no idea†of what she would face. Continue reading...
Global acclaim for the peace he forged with Eritrea should buoy a leader facing the persecution of ethnic minorities at homeThe Nobel prize awarded last week to Ethiopia’s prime minister, Dr Abiy Ahmed, honoured his achievements as a peacemaker. Most widely recognised was his success in thawing relations with Eritrea, the breakaway republic with which Ethiopia had remained on a war footing since the country gained independence in 1993.No less significant, however, was his management of the internal conflict between the Ethiopian government and protesters in Oromia, the region surrounding Addis Ababa, the capital. Rather than attempting to shut down the protests by force, Abiy acknowledged their grievances, and opened up political space. He freed political prisoners jailed by previous administrations, and restored the legitimacy of parties formerly branded as terrorist organisations. Continue reading...
President is ahead in early counting but could be vulnerable to a united opposition in a runoffBolivia’s president, Evo Morales, was ahead in the first round of the nation’s presidential election, but he appeared to have failed to get enough votes to avoid a runoff in the tightest political race of his life.The Andean country’s top electoral authority said on Sunday night that a preliminary count of 84% of the votes showed Morales, who leads the Movement towards Socialism (MAS) party, was ahead with 45.3%, compared to 38.2% for his closest rival, former president, Carlos Mesa. If the results hold, the two men will face off in December and Morales could be vulnerable to a united opposition in the first runoff in his nearly 14 years in power. Continue reading...
After 1994, the architecture of apartheid – the separation of rich and poor, black and white – was to be eradicated with creative and determined urban planning. It has not quite happenedIt doesn’t take long after I drive out of the sleek OR Tambo international airport for the penny to drop. Again. Johannesburg is the bastard child of the worst aspects of capitalist greed and 20th-century racism. Nearly 150 years after its formation, this sprawling metropolis is still scarred by the sins of its genesis.Even with the explosive rise of the black middle class, the presence of blacks in formerly white suburbs remains low Continue reading...
After almost a thousand murders in the first six months of this year on the Cape Flats, national authorities sent in the army, and armoured convoys have patrolled the rutted streets of the worst neighbourhoods• Photography by James OatwayMarcelliano Reitz, lean and toothless, rolls up his sleeve. The sun is setting behind the world-famous silhouette of Table Mountain. A plane on its way to Cape Town’s international airport flies low overhead. Children play on a rusting climbing frame, jumping on an abandoned mattress.Reitz has only just returned to his home in the poor and violent neighbourhood of Bonteheuwel after five years in jail for a firearms offence. He is a member of the Americans, one of the area’s biggest and most violent criminal gangs. On his wrist is the tattoo that marks him out as also being a member of one of South Africa’s major prison gangs. Yards away, police search a line of teenagers turned to a wall. Continue reading...
The comedian’s childhood was defined by racist abuse and his mother’s violence. As he publishes his autobiography, he talks about how it shaped him as a performer and activist“I’m fascinated by it. It’s history.†Lenny Henry is explaining why he has decided to write an autobiography (Who Am I, Again?) about his childhood in Dudley and the beginning of his 45-year comedy career. For Henry, this isn’t just a bit of navel-gazing and the odd anecdote featuring Chris Tarrant (although there is some of that). It is about bearing witness. “I grew up in a period where, just down the road in Smethwick, a Tory politician got in with the slogan ‘If you want a nigger for a neighbour vote Labour’,†he says, referring to Peter Griffiths’ notorious 1964 election win for the Conservatives. “I’m living just down the road from Wolverhampton, where the Rivers of Blood speech was made. So I’m in a place where there are toxic elements that you think would be an obstacle to my progress in life. But, actually, I think those things are part of what makes us stronger.â€Henry tells me this as we sit in the corner of a lounge bar that looks out over the old BBC Television Centre in west London. The place is decked out in mid-century modern decor, with plush stools and mood lighting. If we were meeting in the evening, you would expect him to order an old fashioned, but it is not even 10am and all he wants is a bit of toast. Henry – who is half incognito in a flat cap, glasses and a polka dot scarf – seems to be on first-name terms with all the staff and politely asks one of them to turn the muzak down a bit. This is very much his domain. “All that used to be offices,†he says, gesturing toward a section of the building that has been turned into luxury flats. “You’d go in there and get your ideas ripped apart.†Continue reading...
Dissent in the face of rampant corruption is no longer being dampened by pointing to the failures of the Arab springThere is a bogeyman that haunts the Arab world. Its spectre looms large and sinister over Arab politics. Its arrival is threatened, like a curse, as a warning by parents to precocious children when they misbehave. Its name is Syria. A suppurating wound that will not heal, the Syrian civil war continues to bleed lives, and draw in neighbours and allies involved in their own proxy battles.Just as it seems one front is closed, a twist restarts hostilities – the latest involving a capricious US president and an insecure Turkish one, with the Kurds in northern Syria bearing the brunt. An abrupt American withdrawal paved the way for yet another conflagration, yet another power calculus – as Bashar al-Assad extends support to the Kurds – and yet another lease of life for Islamic State. More than 100,000 people are on the move in northern Syria. And at least 750 people with suspected links to Isis have reportedly broken out of a camp in north-east Syria, raising the possibility of a new shot in the arm for the terror group. Continue reading...
Surfers Not Street Children is transforming the lives of homeless children and vulnerable youths. Ilvy Njiokiktjien’s 12-year project Born Free: Mandela’s Generation of Hope documents the lives of the first generation born after apartheid“I wanted to get that fresh air,†says 21-year-old Nonjabulo Ndzanibe, explaining why she ran away from her unhappy childhood home to the coastal city of Durban. “I just needed space for myself.â€Having grown up with a distant father – who spent part of her youth in prison – and a mother whom she didn’t feel loved by, it seemed like a welcome escape when a friend invited her to come and stay in Durban. In reality it would be a long time before she would eventually find refuge through surfing. Continue reading...
A captivating run to the quarter-finals could provide an enduring rugby legacy in JapanThe Japanese juggernaut finally came to a halt in the face of a South African roadblock on Sunday. The sequel to the Brighton miracle lacked the drama and romance of four years ago but this, according to their fans, was when the Brave Blossoms truly came of age against the world rugby elite.“I think South Africa looked down on Japan four years ago but today they knew they had to be at their best, and that’s a huge compliment to Japan,†said Shigeki Takagi, a company worker from Tokyo who had just witnessed his country play in a World Cup quarter-final for the first time. “We’ve beaten Ireland and Scotland and now I think we’re getting really close to the level of the northern hemisphere teams. Who knows what could happen four years from now?†Continue reading...
Protestors hurl petrol bombs and smash pro-Beijing businesses as crowds descend on luxury shopping areaHong Kong police have fired water cannon and tear gas at crowds holinding an illegal march, with hardcore protesters throwing petrol bombs and trashing businesses to cap a week of anger after recent attacks on pro-democracy demonstrators.Authorities had forbidden Sunday’s rally in Tsim Sha Tsui, a densely-packed shopping district filled with luxury boutiques and hotels, citing public safety and previous violence from hardcore protesters. Continue reading...
United campaign by media companies highlights government moves to penalise whistleblowing and criminalise journalism• Lenore Taylor: Concrete action rather than nice words are needed on press freedomThe front page of every newspaper in Australia was blacked out on Monday as part of a campaign against moves by successive federal governments to penalise whistleblowing and, in some cases, criminalise journalism.The campaign, by the Australia’s Right to Know Coalition, follows raids on the ABC’s Sydney headquarters and the home of a News Corp journalist in June, the legality of which is being challenged in the high court. Continue reading...
Former Guardian Weekend editor remembered by friends and colleagues as ‘one of the cleverest, most unconventional, most fearless people’Deborah Orr, the award-winning journalist and author prized by friends and colleagues for her fierce honesty, inspiring work and barefoot dancing, has died of cancer at the age of 57.Her death was confirmed by her family, who asked for privacy. Continue reading...
Local media say 15-year-old boy fell out of seventh-floor window in city of CórdobaA British child has died in the city of Córdoba in southern Spain, reportedly after falling out of a seventh-floor window while on a school exchange trip.According to local media, the child was a 15-year-old boy who fatally fell from an apartment block on Saturday at about 11.30pm. Continue reading...
Dissent gains momentum with country’s largest protests since Cedar revolution of 2005The largest protests in Lebanon in 14 years are set to shut down the country for a fifth day on Monday, as a revolt against a weak government, ailing services and a looming economic collapse continues to gain momentum.Demonstrators took to the streets of most urban centres on Sunday to rail against officials who they say are preventing badly needed reforms that would cut into the pockets of the ruling class, and are instead trying to recoup state revenues by taxing the poor. Continue reading...
Repression in the north-western region takes many forms. They all deserve scrutinyWhen a million Uighurs and other Muslims have been locked up in Xinjiang’s detention camps, and as documentation of forced labour mounts, it might seem perverse to pay attention to fashion shows, beauty salons and a park. Yet these developments are not trivial. They form part of China’s efforts to erase Uighur culture. Recent research details official efforts to change Uighur women’s style, which began with 2011’s “Project Beauty†initiative, encouraging them to shun the niqab and jilbab, and has recently has seen the establishment of hair salons and beauty parlours. These, explained an official, would transform women’s body image, then their way of life, and finally their way of thinking.Meanwhile, satellite photos have revealed that dozens of cemeteries in the north-western region have been destroyed in the last two years. In Aksu, at the graveyard where a prominent Uighur poet was buried, tombs were moved and the land turned into Happiness Park, with panda models and a children’s ride. Similar evidence has already shown the demolition of Islamic religious sites. Like the attempts to coerce Uighurs into celebrating Chinese new year and to discourage the use of the Uighur language, these developments represent the hollowing out of a culture. Writers, entertainers and academics have all fallen foul of authorities. The family of Tashpolat Tiyip, president of Xinjiang University until his disappearance in 2017, believe he has been convicted of separatism and sentenced to death. The crackdown on Muslim cultural practices is also spreading to Hui Muslims in Ningxia. Beijing portrays its camps as “vocational centres†and part of a necessary campaign to root out extremism following violent attacks. But far from being a targeted response to terrorism, China’s draconian detentions, surveillance and broader repression amount to treating an entire population and its way of life as a potential threat. Continue reading...
Two 17-year-olds killed and two other males seriously injured in incident on Saturday nightTwo 17-year-old boys have died and two other males have been seriously injured in a stabbing incident in Milton Keynes.Thames Valley police said one of the teenagers died at the scene and the other in hospital. A double murder investigation has been launched and their next of kin have been informed. Continue reading...
The government has spent just $2.2m of a $3.5bn fund designed to tackle ‘immediate priorities’, the opposition saysThe Morrison government has spent just $2.2m of a $3.5bn fund designed to tackle “immediate priorities†in regional infrastructure, with construction yet to begin on 98% of projects identified under the ‘roads of strategic importance’ initiative.Announced in the last budget by Michael McCormack, as part of the “significant infrastructure transport projectsâ€, the roads of strategic importance program identified four “immediate priorities†to help upgrade key corridors in regional Australia, for tourism, freight and resource transportation. Continue reading...
Archaeologists say natural pearl was found on island off capital of United Arab EmiratesAn 8,000-year-old pearl that archaeologists say is the world’s most ancient is to be displayed in Abu Dhabi, according to authorities who said it was proof that the objects have been traded since neolithic times.The natural pearl was found during excavations at Marawah Island, off the capital of the United Arab Emirates, that revealed the earliest architecture yet found in the country. Continue reading...
Macron may have doubts, but if the deal isn’t approved the EU must grant the UK an extension – for its own sake as well as oursGranted, Brexit is driving everyone mad. We Brits owe all our European friends a sincere apology, a bottle of whisky and complimentary tickets to a Royal Shakespeare Company performance of Hamlet. For Britain is now Hamlet, forever agonising over whether Brexit is to be or not to be.So I can perfectly understand why Europeans such as French president Emmanuel Macron just want to be shot of us, so as to push ahead with an important, ambitious agenda for the whole European Union. Nonetheless, it remains in Europe’s own enlightened, long-term interest to go the extra kilometre. This means, concretely, that if the British parliament does not approve Boris Johnson’s new deal this week, the EU should offer an article 50 extension, as formally requested in the letter sent (though childishly not signed) by Johnson. Continue reading...
When Mona Adams won her seat on Richmond council in south-west London last year with a massive swing from the Tories to the Lib Dems, it was in large part because of the energy and commitment she had brought to the East Sheen community over many years.Our family had reason to be grateful to Mona for her emotional intelligence as a governor in my daughter’s school nearly 20 years ago. While there, she was subjected to serious bullying, but our formal complaint got nowhere. One of the few people in the school who came out of this sad saga with some credit was Mona. She said: “Giles, on the basis of staff confidentiality I can’t say anything to you, but I can’t stop you saying whatever you like to me.†She then listened to me for more than an hour. Continue reading...
George King to appear at Royal Courts of Justice after scaling the 72-storey skyscraper in JulyThe freeclimber who scaled the Shard in July is being taken to court by the skyscraper’s owners for breaching an injunction.George King, 20, who climbed the 72-storey building without ropes or suction cups, will appear at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Monday. Continue reading...
President Sebastián Piñera has suspended an increase in metro ticket prices after the plan triggered anti-government demonstrations across the country Continue reading...
After concluding his bestselling My Struggle sequence, he will write a work for the Future Library, alongside previous contributors Margaret Atwood and David Mitchell
Soldiers and civilians killed on both sides as India and Pakistan blame each otherIndia and Pakistan have blamed one another for cross-border shelling in the disputed Kashmir region that has killed and injured soldiers and civilians on both sides and made it one of the deadliest days since Delhi revoked Kashmir’s special status in August.India said there was heavy shelling by Pakistan across the border in the Tangdhar region of northern Kashmir on Saturday night, killing two Indian soldiers and one civilian. Islamabad said one of its soldiers and three civilians died after India violated the ceasefire, according to a spokesman for the Pakistani armed forces. Continue reading...
The ex-REM frontman talks us through his new collection of photographs - and explains why he’s giving all profits from his new single to Extinction Rebellion
Readmission of Dr Peter Hutchinson to Trinity Hall events a ‘slap in the face for survivors of sexual harassment’Cambridge academics and students have called for the reform of the university’s collegiate system after a don accused of sexually harassing undergraduates was readmitted to his college less than two years after being permanently excluded.Dr Peter Hutchinson agreed to permanent exclusion from Trinity Hall two years ago following allegations that he had breached a ban preventing him from contacting undergraduates. Continue reading...
If we fail to learn how to use it to our advantage we fall into the hands of those have mastered itCast your mind back to 2011 and the Arab uprisings that began in Tunis before spreading to Egypt and beyond. Protesters used social media to communicate and coordinate, so it became the “Twitter revolution†and the “Facebook revolutionâ€. It was the peak of techno-utopia, a moment of hope that technology would transform our political lives and put citizens in control.Today, techno-utopia has given way to techno-dystopia. Many worry that technology is undermining democracy, spreading misinformation, equipping criminals and the authorities with new tools. This month, Apple, under pressure from the Chinese government, pulled an app that let protesters track the movements of Hong Kong police with crowdsourced data. It has been a long road from Tunis to Hong Kong. There is an element of truth about techno-utopia and dystopia. Social media makes it easier for protesters to communicate, create forums for discussion and spread information. Technology also makes it easier for authorities to snoop on citizens and control dissent. Continue reading...
Self-interested and reckless leadership defines too much of our past – and presentBoris Johnson concludes his Churchill biography with splutters against historians who insist the “story of humanity is not the story of great men and shining deedsâ€. The story of Winston Churchill, he cries, “is a pretty withering retort to all that malarkey. He and he alone made the difference.â€The story of Boris Johnson withers too. He is shrivelling Britain: making it cramped, poor and irrelevant. Modern historians may sniff at the 19th-century notion that “the history of what man has accomplished in this world, is at bottom the History of the Great Men†to use Thomas Carlyle’s words. The rest of us should not be so complacent and register the capacity of catastrophic men and women to change the world for the worse. Continue reading...
When the fast-food giant’s lawyers swooped on a small Canadian restaurant over its fish burger, the response was pithyWhen Canadian chef Paul Shufelt decided to market a new burger at his Edmonton restaurant, he wanted to pay homage to the fast-food greats that have come before him – not find himself embroiled in a legal battle with a multinational corporation.After creating a cod burger with coleslaw and red onions, Woodshed Burgers named their newest item the Effing Filet O’ Fish, a reference to both local company Effing Seafood, which provided the seafood, and the famous McDonald’s sandwich. Continue reading...
Two women take on heritage organisation over its contract with the chocolate makerIn one corner were two women, a teacher and a graphic designer, from Cambridgeshire. In the other was the guardian of the country’s heritage and green spaces. Both were engaged in a high-intensity battle – over chocolate.The usually staid proceedings of the National Trust annual general meeting in Swindon yesterday erupted into a heated row about the conservation charity’s longstanding deal with one of the largest confectionery giants in the world. Continue reading...
In Lisburn, once the home of the Ulster Defence Regiment, there was confusion about the DUP’s role in a dramatic weekLisburn’s Britishness is etched in stone and bronze, its town centre dotted with plaques, monuments and statues to those who built the empire and served the United Kingdom.General John Nicholson towers over Market Square, cutlass in one hand, pistol in the other, the plinth declaring he fell mortally wounded “in the hour of victory†during the 1857 Indian mutiny. Continue reading...
Whitehall sources are working with local agencies to bring back minors born to Islamic State fightersBritish officials have taken the first steps to repatriate children stranded in Syria by liaising directly with agencies on the ground to identify unaccompanied minors for “safe passage†back to the UK.Whitehall sources have confirmed they are working with “various agencies†in north-east Syria – believed to include the International Committee of the Red Cross – to kickstart the process of transferring children of British parents linked to Islamic State back to the UK. Continue reading...
In confronting Bulgarian extremism, the players upheld values that our leaders casually spurnIf you want to feel good about Britain right now, or at least England, where do you look? Not to our parliament, in the latter stages of its descent into something close to chaos, the green spaces around the Palace of Westminster slowly being churned into mud by ceaseless protests. And there is little comfort to be had turning to our prime minister, a man so renowned for dishonesty that the likelihood that he will break his word is baked into the political calculations of his opponents.Across the world, our reputation as a serious-minded, pragmatic (even perfidious) nation is in tatters and our former sense of ourselves as a reasonable, level-headed, no-nonsense people is difficult to sustain after the past three and half years of political turmoil. Continue reading...
The Tranquility, seized by authorities and sold for a ‘bargain’ $126m in April, is back on market after stint as celebrity hangoutA superyacht once owned by Jho Low, a fugitive at the centre of Malaysia’s 1MDB financial scandal, has been put back on the market after a few months as a celebrity party venue.The vessel, now named Tranquility, is being sold for US$200m, an increase of more than $70m on its previous price tag. It is currently owned by the Genting Group, a Malaysian conglomerate with business interests in real estate, hospitality, plantations and energy supply. Continue reading...
PM sends to Donald Tusk a photocopy of the request required by Benn Act, with a conflicting view in a second letterBoris Johnson has sent an unsigned letter to European council president Donald Tusk requesting a further Brexit delay beyond 31 October – accompanied by a signed one arguing against it.The prime minister sent three letters: an unsigned photocopy of the request he was obliged to send under the Benn Act, an explanatory letter from the UK’s ambassador to the EU and a personal letter explaining why Downing Street did not want an extension. Continue reading...
Former gun runner claims republicans plotted to bomb London power supply in 1990sThe IRA planned to attack power stations in south-east England in the final years of its terror bombing campaign, a former member has claimed.The plan is alleged to have been made in the mid-1990s, shortly before the Belfast Agreement peace accord. Continue reading...
PM to attend Joko Widodo’s inauguration and hold talks on FTA, which opposition leader says will be good for jobsScott Morrison’s whirlwind trip to Indonesia is a “good thingâ€, his political opponent says, as Labor embraces bipartisan support for Australia’s latest free trade agreement.Morrison travelled to Indonesia for Joko Widodo’s second inauguration as president, with talks between the two leaders planned at the presidential palace. Continue reading...
Attorney general’s admission comes as media chiefs raise increasing concerns over state of Australian press freedomThe federal attorney general, Christian Porter, maintains he would be “seriously disinclined†to sign off on the criminal prosecution of journalists for public interest journalism, but added he cannot give any guarantees.“I can’t, though, give anything more definitive than that, because my role in this process is to assess a brief that may or may not come up, and a recommendation that may or may not come up, to the commonwealth director of public prosecutions,†he told the ABC. Continue reading...
Kurdish forces reveal plans to begin evacuation on Sunday following Turkish president’s ceasefire ultimatumRecep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish president, has said his country would “crush the heads†of Kurdish militants if they did not withdraw from a planned “safe zone†in northern Syria in time.Speaking at an opening ceremony in the central Turkish province of Kayseri, Erdoğan said he would discuss the deployment of Syrian government forces in the safe zone during talks with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, next week, but warned Ankara would “implement its own plans†if a solution was not reached. Continue reading...
ABC chair says journalism’s importance to Australia’s interests in region ‘cannot be underestimated’ABC chair Ita Buttrose has called for additional funding for international broadcasting so the public broadcaster can be a “clarion†voice of trusted news and play a bigger role in soft diplomacy in the region.“The importance of journalism to our country’s Asia-Pacific interests cannot be underestimated and I believe a renewed ABC focus on international broadcasting would greatly benefit Australia,†Buttrose said in her Lowy Institute media lecture. Continue reading...
A 19-year-old democracy activist was allegedly stabbed by a man shouting pro-China slogansA man handing out leaflets for a Hong Kong pro-democracy protest was attacked by a knife-wielding assailant who slashed his neck and abdomen on Saturday, days after a leading activist was left bloodied in another street attack.The injured 19-year-old, wearing black clothes and a black face mask, was knifed near one of the large “Lennon Walls†that have sprung up around the city during months of demonstrations, police said. Continue reading...