Michael Gunner says lockdowns and lockouts no longer effective; At least 88 Covid deaths recorded around the country as Kerry Chant says Omicron sub-variant is circulating in NSW; Queensland reveals back-to-school plan. This blog is now closed
Michael Todd’s viral moment highlights pastors’ push to connect with an audience beyond the walls of the churchIt was meant to be a sermon on the importance of having faith in God’s vision, even when that task seems difficult. An object lesson from the book of Mark, in which Jesus heals a blind man by spitting on his eyes. But it’s how Pastor Michael Todd brought this message home that made the sermon unforgettable.Addressing congregants and a live-streaming audience, Todd placed one hand on the shoulder of a closed-eyed worshipper on stage before letting out a deep snort and twice hacking phlegm into his other hand. The audible gasps inside the Transformation Church, a Tulsa, Oklahoma-based mega ministry rooted firmly in Black Baptist tradition, turned to full on outcry when Todd smeared said loogie on the worshipper’s face. Continue reading...
Test marks Pyongyang’s seventh weapons launch this month, highlighting expanding arsenal amid stalled denuclearisation talksNorth Korea fired what appeared to be the most powerful missile it has tested since the US president, Joe Biden, took office, possibly breaching a self-imposed suspension on the testing of longer-range weapons and sparking condemnation from the United States and its allies.The Japanese and South Korean militaries said the missile launched on Sunday travelled on a lofted trajectory, apparently to avoid the territorial spaces of neighbours, and reached a maximum altitude of 2,000km (1,242 miles) and traveled 800km (497 miles) before landing in the sea. Continue reading...
Dan Rosenfield watched England v India at Lord’s three days before Taliban forces entered capital, according to reportsBoris Johnson’s chief of staff spent the day watching cricket just days before Kabul fell to the Taliban last year, according to reports.Dan Rosenfield was at the first day of the England v India Test at Lord’s on 12 August, three days before Taliban forces entered the Afghan capital, the Sunday Telegraph has claimed. Continue reading...
Boris Johnson said the UK would send extra land, air and sea forces to support the defence of alliance nationsThe UK has offered to deploy land, air and sea forces to bolster the defence of Nato countries on their northern and eastern borders as tensions over Russia’s military ambitions in Ukraine deepen.Boris Johnson is expected to speak to the Russian leader Vladimir Putin this week, and travel to the region, despite intense domestic pressure over a possible leadership challenge in the wake of the “partygate” scandal. Continue reading...
Lisa Nandy slams claim of boost for 20 towns, saying ‘new’ fund for poorer areas is recycled pledgeThe government has been accused of trying to manipulate announcements on extra funding for poorer parts of the UK in a desperate attempt to save Boris Johnson’s premiership.An extraordinary row blew up after Michael Gove’s Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities released a press statement – before publication of a levelling up white paper this week – saying 20 towns and cities would benefit from a “new £1.5bn brownfield fund”. The release, which named only Sheffield and Wolverhampton as recipients, said the 20 areas “will benefit from developments combining housing, leisure and business in sustainable, walkable beautiful new neighbourhoods”. Continue reading...
Dozens of people have been on trial for more than four years over the killing of Michael Sharp and Zaida CatalánA military court in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has sentenced 51 people to death, several in absentia, in a mass trial over the 2017 murder of two UN experts in a troubled central region.Capital punishment is frequently pronounced in murder cases in the DRC but is routinely commuted to life imprisonment since the country declared a moratorium on executions in 2003. Continue reading...
80-year-old did not want a new term but was persuaded to stay on after failure to find successorSergio Mattarella has been reelected as Italy’s president, ending days of a farcical parliamentary voting process that has exposed deep divisions within the country’s governing coalition.Mattarella won a second seven-year mandate with 759 votes, far exceeding the threshold of 505, after being persuaded to stay on in the role after ruling party leaders failed to reach an agreement on a candidate who could secure broad support from the 1,009 parliamentarians and regional representatives electing the president. Continue reading...
UK regulators say the latest surge in interest-free credit does not offer enough protection for those who are slipping into debitFamilies hit by the cost-of-living crisis are being targeted by credit firms offering “buy now, pay later” deals on weekly groceries, pet food and hot drinks.Shoppers are urged to spread their payments for staple foods and treats to help cope with “these difficult times”. One promotion states: “Regardless of your credit rating, we will offer you a tonne of credit to do your shopping with.” Continue reading...
by Luke Henriques-Gomes Social affairs and inequality on (#5VJGM)
Amid staff shortages and rapid test requirements services say they feel frustrated by lack of government supportStephanie Oatley recalls a day in late December when she needed to get a whole unit of young people experiencing homelessness tested for Covid. “We had a young person who started showing symptoms, and a second young person got an itchy throat,” says Oatley.“In the van they hopped. There was only one place open … They got there at 9am, and waited for nine hours.” Continue reading...
Chau Van Kham’s family urges Australian government to intervene as 72-year-old remains in prison for his pro-democracy workThe Vietnamese New Year, Tet Nguyen Dan, is a time of family reunion and feasting, of wishes of good fortune and health.For three years now, Quynh Trang Truong has spent the Tet festival without her husband, Chau Van Kham, who languishes in a Vietnamese prison on terrorism charges, described by human rights groups as a “travesty of justice”. Continue reading...
Winds of more than 100mph reported in parts of Scotland, with widespread disruption to travel and power suppliesTwo people have been killed by falling trees as Storm Malik battered northern parts of the UK on Saturday, cutting off power from thousands and causing widespread disruption.A nine-year-old boy died in hospital after a tree fell on him and a man in Winnothdale, near Stoke. Emergency services were called at 1pm on Saturday, and they were taken to the Royal Stoke university hospital. The man is still receiving treatment. Continue reading...
Norfolk police detain man in his 40s and woman in her 30s after incident in Vale Green area of cityTwo people have been arrested after a fatal stabbing in Norwich.Officers from Norfolk constabulary were called to Vale Green shortly before 7pm on Friday after reports that a man in his late teens had been stabbed. Continue reading...
Star who racked up almost 50m sales dies of coronavirus complications at age of 70The Mexican-Argentinian singer-songwriter Diego Verdaguer, whose romantic hits such as Corazón de Papel, Yo te Amo and Volveré sold almost 50m copies, has died of complications from Covid-19, his family said. He was 70.Verdaguer died on Thursday afternoon in Los Angeles, his daughter Ana Victoria said in a statement released by Diam Music, his record company. Continue reading...
Changes include a new hierarchy of road users, and expectation that drivers give way to pedestrians at junctionsCyclists and pedestrians are better protected as of Saturday as a revamp of the Highway Code comes into force, despite concerns that millions of drivers are confused by or unaware of the changes.An AA survey of more than 13,700 drivers carried out this month indicated that 33% were unaware of the changes, including 4% who had “no intention” of looking at the details.Hierarchy of road users
by John Harris, Kelefa Sanneh, AS Hamrah, Hadley Free on (#5VJ1P)
Is it 1965, with Dylan, the Stones and James Brown? 1984, with Eddie Murphy and Madonna? Or 1999, with The Sopranos and Britney v Christina? Writers and critics stake their claim for the most important ever Continue reading...
The Pentagon has already placed 8,500 troops on stand-by in response to Russia’s build-up near Ukraine’s borderJoe Biden said on Friday that he will be moving US troops to eastern European and Nato countries “in the near term” as tensions rise over Russia’s military buildup on the borders of Ukraine.The Pentagon has already placed about 8,500 US troops on stand-by for possible deployment to Europe amid Russia’s military build-up near Ukraine’s border. Continue reading...
by Hosted by Jane Lee. Written by Tom Slater, Michael on (#5VHN1)
We take you to the beach and get among the sand and saltwater. Hear four very different stories about memorable moments at the beach. Together they celebrate and remember the feeling of elation – both big and smallYou can read the original articles here:A day at the beach: ‘As our list of secret sex locations grew, so did our ambition’ Continue reading...
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy complains war talk causing panic in financial centres and depleting gold reservesUkraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has talked down the threat of an imminent Russian invasion and said the UK and US were wrong to pull out non-essential diplomatic staff from Kyiv, adding: “We don’t have a Titanic here”.Zelenskiy said on Friday he was acutely aware of the dangers posed by the 100,000 Russian troops gathered on Ukraine’s border. But he appeared to disagree with the Biden administration’s bleak assessment that a Russian attack was “distinctly possible” next month. Continue reading...
Bruno Kahl believes decision ‘has not been made’, as Biden warns Ukraine Russia may invade in FebruaryRussia has not yet decided whether to attack Ukraine but is prepared to do so, the head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service has said, amid soaring tensions about the Kremlin-ordered military buildup.“I believe that the decision to attack has not yet been made,” Bruno Kahl told Reuters. Continue reading...
Loyal Tory apologists told us Boris Johnson was ‘ambushed with cake’ and hadn’t robbed a bankFans of FC Magdeburg clearly have a sense of humour. Back in 2012 when their team was lying bottom of the fourth tier of German football and had gone five successive games without scoring, supporters gathered behind the goal with a banner saying “Don’t worry, we’ll show you where the goal is” and hundreds of large luminous arrows all pointing to the back of the net. Continue reading...
The Oxford quartet’s song Heat Waves is the most played globally on Spotify this week, and a curveball amid pop’s solo artists. Frontman Dave Bayley explains how it happenedWith solo artists currently dominating the charts and the zeitgeist, now is not the ideal time to be in a band – unless it’s Glass Animals. This week, the Oxford quartet became the first British group to top Spotify’s global songs chart with their synthpop single Heat Waves, racking up 4.26m plays per day on the streaming platform. It was a feat their fans saw coming: last year, Heat Waves was the fourth most-streamed song in the US and the most-streamed in Australia, having been played more than 1bn times worldwide.This is a remarkable achievement for an act with no previous big hits – but that’s not the only strange thing about their success. A sultry, wistful number with an extremely catchy chorus, Heat Waves has had an unusually slow rise to prominence: it was released in June 2020 and for months it failed to break into the UK Top 40 or US Billboard Hot 100. Its subsequent ascent up the charts – peaking at No 5 in the UK, No 1 in Australia and No 3 in the US, where it currently stands – was unprecedented in its leisurely nature; it now holds the record for the longest climb to the Top 5 in the US chart’s history. Continue reading...
Marine Le Pen calls Marion Maréchal’s decision not to back presidential bid ‘brutal, violent and painful’France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen has described her niece’s decision not to support her presidential campaign as “brutal, violent and painful”.Marion Maréchal, who dropped Le Pen from her name in 2018, said she was considering whether to transfer her allegiance to Éric Zemmour, who is even further to the right. Continue reading...
From surveillance to enforced holidays for activists, possible measures Beijing could take to prevent or deal with protestsIn the lead-up to the Beijing Winter Olympics there have been two major side issues unrelated to sport: Covid, and human rights protests.Chinese authorities have implemented an ambitious “closed loop” system to try to keep the Games free of a coronavirus outbreak, or at least keep any outbreaks away from the general population. When it comes to protests, authorities have put in a great deal of effort to contain them. Below we look at what issues may arise during the Games, and how authorities could react. Continue reading...
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 conflictSince 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 Continue reading...
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 memoriesThere 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. Continue reading...
Aid workers call for ‘humanitarian pause’ so crucial supplies can be delivered, after first assessment of hunger in the region since war broke outAt 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. Continue reading...
Regulator heavily critical of aides to European Commission president in relation to Covid vaccine messagesAn 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. Continue reading...
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.” Continue reading...
Legal action planned against Hungary and NSO, the spyware’s maker, in what could become template for other casesHungarian 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. Continue reading...
by Caitlin Cassidy (now) and Calla Wahlquist (earlier on (#5VGB2)
At least 98 Covid deaths recorded across NSW, Victoria, Queensland, SA and ACT; Scott Morrison comments on viral photos of Grace Tame meeting; Russia’s ambassador to Australian condemns ‘propaganda’ reporting; additional Covid deaths in Sydney aged care homes confirmed. Follow all the day’s news
Russia says it’s not irrational after Australian defence minister calls president an ageing dictator amid tensions over UkraineRussia’s ambassador has hit back at the Australian defence minister, Peter Dutton, for branding Vladimir Putin an ageing and irrational dictator, amid growing tensions over the buildup of more than 100,000 Russian troops near Ukraine’s border.The ambassador to Australia, Alexey Pavlovsky, said if that was “the level of analysis informing Australian policy then it is definitely a worrying sign” and argued that some western politicians had been “convinced by their own propaganda”. Continue reading...
Hopes continue for diplomatic solution to Ukraine standoff but Berlin swings behind Washington’s threat on Nord Stream 2The 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. Continue reading...
by Tess McClure in Auckland and Guardian readers on (#5VGP8)
Kiwis are experiencing a range of emotions over the expected surge in Covid cases, from resignation to relief, trepidation to fearThis week we asked Guardian New Zealand readers about the arrival of Omicron and how they are feeling and preparing. Hundreds of New Zealanders wrote in, about their hopes and anxieties, preparations and frustrations, confidence and worries.The country has spent almost two years relatively sheltered from the pandemic’s worst effects, and many said they felt some trepidation at the prospect of widespread Covid, and the threat it could pose to the country’s small health system, as well as its immunocompromised or under-vaccinated communities. Some were concerned about divisions the pandemic had produced: between the vaccinated and unvaccinated, those inside the border and those locked out. Continue reading...
Fears that subs from China, which claims the area, could be first to reach wreckage that plunged from deck of aircraft carrierThe US navy is racing to salvage an F-35C fighter jet from the bottom of the South China Sea after it crashed on an aircraft carrier and plunged overboard – taking with it highly classified technology that would be a coup if China retrieved it first.The F-35C crashed-landed on the deck of the USS Carl Vinson during routine operations on Monday, the navy said, injuring six sailors and the pilot, who ejected from the plane before it fell into the sea. Continue reading...
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
Pyongyang’s regime has carried out six tests in January ‘confirming the power of conventional warhead’North Korea has test-fired more long-range cruise missiles and short-range ballistic missiles, state media says, part of a record-breaking streak of launches this year.Pyongyang has conducted six weapons tests since the start of the year, including hypersonic missiles, one of the most intense barrages in a calendar month on record, while ignoring US offers of talks. Continue reading...
by Samantha Lock (now); Tom Ambrose , Lucy Campbell a on (#5VFBD)
Protection against death increases to around 95% two weeks after receiving a booster dose, UK health agency says; UK reports another 96,871 Covid cases
Zoë Wilson took her own life while under psychiatric hospital care after telling staff voices were telling her to kill herselfA string of failings may have contributed to the death of a “deeply vulnerable” law student who killed herself while being treated in a psychiatric hospital in Bristol, an inquest jury has said.Zoë Wilson, 22, had informed staff she was hearing voices in her head telling her to kill herself and 30 minutes before she died was seen by a nurse through an observation hatch looking frightened and behaving oddly but nobody went into her room to check her. Continue reading...
Sale of historical document produced by the Red Brigades, who eventually killed the Italian statesman, criticised as in poor tasteA leaflet claiming responsibility for the 1978 kidnapping of the Italian statesman Aldo Moro by the ultra-left Red Brigades has been sold at auction, despite criticism the sale was in poor taste.Rome’s Bertolami auction house sold the historical document for €26,000 ($28,960) on Thursday, far surpassing its original estimate of €1,300-1,700. Continue reading...
Suspect, who was caring for five-year-old at the time, sectioned under Mental Health Act after her arrestA five-year-old boy who was fatally stabbed at his home in Coventry has been named as David-Mario Lazar.The boy, known to his family as Mario, was found with serious injuries at his home in the Earlsdon area of the city just before 6pm on Tuesday. Continue reading...