Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant has been seized by Russian military forces, according to regional authorities, after a fire sparked by overnight shelling burned for several hours at the largest facility of its kind in Europe. Volodmyr Zelenskiy has accused Russia of resorting to 'nuclear terror'. 'No country other than Russia has ever fired on nuclear power units,' the Ukrainian president said
From Ukrainian history to Putin’s kleptocracy and Gogol’s stories, author and former Russia correspondent Oliver Bullough chooses the best titlesWith Russian forces pushing deep into Ukraine, bombarding Kharkiv, Kyiv and other cities, and an unprecedented wave of western sanctions pushing the rouble down to an all-time low, it is hard for any of us to tear our eyes away from the news. But the currents of history that led up to this crisis are deep and complex, and understood in profoundly different ways in Moscow and Kyiv.The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine by Serhii Plokhy is a great place to start reading up on the background to the crisis. It tells the story of this large but less well-known country without the Moscow-centric bias that many of us Russian speakers have long struggled to free ourselves of. It is learned and considered, but lightly written and leavened by anecdotes. Continue reading...
‘Truly kind soul’ Shatha Ali killed after collision involving lorry near Holborn station on TuesdayA lawyer described by her family as a “truly kind soul” has become the eighth cyclist to be killed on or near a notoriously dangerous gyratory in central London since 2008.Shatha Ali died after a collision involving a lorry near Holborn station on Tuesday morning as she battled her way through commuter traffic at the height of the tube strike. Continue reading...
As the raunchy TV show about a time-travelling nurse and an ageing highland warrior returns, its stars open up about the vibrant love lives of the over-70s – and respond to criticism of the show’s troubling use of sexual violenceOutlander isn’t a show that can be described in a nutshell. Is it a period drama? Sci-fi? Action? Romance? Caitríona Balfe, who has been the show’s star for eight years, still doesn’t know. “God, yeah,” she puffs. “It sort of defies definition, but that’s part of the appeal.” One thing agreed upon among fans is that, against a dedicated attention to historical detail and endless panoramic shots of Scotland, Balfe’s raunchy relationship with co-star Sam Heughan is the beating heart of the story. Heughan, however, insists it’s not just constant shagging: “When it’s written off as a ‘bodice-ripping drama’ I think, ‘But there’s so much more to it.’”The adaptation of Diana Gabaldon’s novel series follows the story of second world war nurse Claire, played by Balfe, who is honeymooning with her husband, Frank, when she touches a stone in the Highlands and falls back in time to 18th-century Scotland. There, she falls in love with clansman Jamie, played by Heughan. He affectionately calls her “sassenach” – gaelic for “English outlander”. Together, they travel around the world, encountering and often disrupting historical events, moving back and forth between centuries (only Claire has the gift of time travel), going into battle, saving lives, dealing with witchcraft trials, becoming a power couple and having a lot of sex. Continue reading...
James Rutherford resigns from board of Evraz, steel and mining group in which Roman Abramovich has stakeThe London Stock Exchange suspended trading in more Russian companies on Friday, while an independent director resigned from the board of Evraz, the steel and mining group in which Roman Abramovich holds a 29% stake.The LSE suspended trading in the remaining eight companies with strong links to Russia that were not included on a list of 27 companies suspended on Thursday. Continue reading...
A new trailer reveals that Secrets of Dumbledore, the third Harry Potter prequel, will throw open the doors of the wizarding school for the first time on film since 2011They say never go back. But then “they” never had to cope with derisive reviews, tumbling box office receipts and the highly public fall from grace of an A-list star. In the ranks of movies based on the works of JK Rowling, Fantastic Beasts 2: The Crimes of Grindelwald, released in 2018, was the Wizarding World equivalent of that time Neville Longbottom accidentally transplanted his own ears on to a cactus; an episode so muddled and painful that the average Hogwarts student would need a magic spell just to understand what the hell was supposed to be going on and why any of us should care.And so the saga’s next instalment, The Secrets of Dumbledore, is probably best off harking back to the good old days, when Harry, Ron and Hermione only had to worry about Voldemort’s next appearance rather than the potential cancellation of an entire movie series. Duly, the new trailer for the film arrived this week, and we were treated to our first look at the famous wizarding school since 2011’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. There’s even a clip of Michael Gambon as Professor Albus Dumbledore, just to remind everyone that this was a very successful movie series once. Continue reading...
Virus spreads through mosquito bites and people in regional areas who are in contact with pigs may be at particular riskAustralia’s chief medical officer has beefed up the nation’s response to the Japanese encephalitis virus as New South Wales reports its first case.NSW Health confirmed on Friday night a woman from the NSW-Victoria border region was in intensive care in a stable condition with the virus, marking the state’s first case after outbreaks in Queensland and Victoria. Continue reading...
The usual deluge of invective prompted by coronavirus and vaccine issues is absent – Russia’s invasion may be a factorWhen David Fisman tweets, he often receives a deluge of hate within moments of posting. Fisman, an epidemiologist and physician, has been outspoken about Covid and public health.Even when he tweets something innocuous – once, to test his theory, he wrote the banal statement “kids are remarkable” – he still receives a flood of angry pushback. Continue reading...
More than half of women in South Africa projected to have condition, with no country expected to meet WHO target of halting rise, according to World Obesity Atlas figuresMore than a billion people around the world will be obese by 2030 – double the number there was in 2010, according to new global estimates.No country is on track to meet the World Health Organization’s (WHO) target to halt obesity by 2025, with one in five women and one in seven men predicted to have the condition by 2030. Continue reading...
by Stefanie Glinski in Kabul, Afghanistan on (#5WR59)
The photojournalist Stefanie Glinski reports on a country traumatised and tired, with an uncertain future as unemployment and poverty spread and memories of freedoms fadeAugust’s adrenaline may have worn off but the harrowing memories have not faded. It’s been six months since the Taliban took Kabul, the country’s then president and his cabinet fled and thousands of people flooded the airport in panic, so desperate for a way out that several men tried to hold on to a departing plane and fell to their deaths.Food distribution in the northern Jowzjan province. Due to the economic crisis, many people cannot afford food, even though it’s widely available in the market. Continue reading...
As they reboot the classic Buffalo Stance, the friends talk sisterhood, being Swedish and fighting the systemAs two of pop’s most innovative stars convene on Zoom – Neneh Cherry in bed in London, Robyn at home in Stockholm – it’s telling that they spend most of their conversation celebrating their collaborators and creative communities.Thirty-three years since Cherry emerged from the punk underground into the pop mainstream with Buffalo Stance, Robyn (alongside the producer Dev Hynes and the Swedish rapper Mapei) has covered that timelessly bolshie hit for a new covers collection celebrating Cherry’s first three albums. What may appear to be a pop year zero, says Cherry, was simply a threshold in an ongoing continuity that started in her native Sweden’s collectivist spirit, grew through New York City’s burgeoning rap scene and London punk and street style, and, ultimately, swept a preteen Robyn into its orbit. Continue reading...
Woman says officer suggested she and husband talk to alleged attacker ‘to set record straight’Greater Manchester police (GMP) have paid out £8,000 to a woman who reported being drugged and raped, only to be pressed into dropping the case without a proper investigation “because nothing will come of it”.The 31-year-old woman, who is married with three children, reported the rape on 14 July 2019, a few hours after waking up disoriented at the alleged perpetrator’s house in Wigan, Greater Manchester. Continue reading...
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has accused Russia of nuclear terrorism after a fire burned for several hours at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. The shelling of the nuclear plant, the largest of its kind in Europe, prompted widespread concern about the safety of Ukraine’s atomic infrastructure. 'We are warning everybody – not a single state apart from Russia has ever shelled nuclear reactors,' Zelenskiy said. 'It is the first time in our history, in the history of humankind, that the terrorist state turned to nuclear terrorism'
by Rebecca Ratcliffe and Navaon Siradapuvadol in Bang on (#5WR1X)
Big brewers maintain monopoly as smaller operations incur huge fines for even sharing photos of their beerNaamcial’s craft beers often have distinctly Thai flavours, as he experiments with the country’s native produce, boiling the pulp of jackfruit and mango to mix into different creations. Yet his homemade products are forbidden in the kingdom.Talking to the Guardian under a pseudonym, Naamcial says he would like to operate a legal brewery, but Thailand’s laws around alcohol production make this ambition almost impossible for newcomers. Current laws restrict brewing licences to manufacturers that have capital of 10 million baht (£230,000), while brewpubs must produce at least 100,000 litres a year and only serve their beer on their premises. The legislation effectively blocks new, small breweries from opening, and tips the market firmly in favour of two powerful companies – Thai Beverage, which produces Chang beer, and Boon Rawd Brewery, which produces Singha and Leo. Continue reading...
Disagreement is a sign of healthy democratic debate not of dysfunction – and hard-core conspiracists remain marginalThe occupation of New Zealand’s parliament was fractured from the outset: fascists vied for control with controversial pastors, conspiracy theorists and more moderate anti-mandate protesters. And even as the occupation violently collapsed with rioters lobbing cobblestones at police, the divisions remained. Some shouted “burn it down”, while others tried to restrain them.As New Zealand reacts to some of its darkest days in recent memory, these internal rivalries are, obscurely, a hopeful sign – a reminder there was far more division inside the protest than between the protesters and the wider nation. Continue reading...
Members of the Ukrainian parliament sang the country's national anthem as they gathered in the capital of Kyiv amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine.This footage, posted to Twitter by Ukrainian MP Sasha Ustinova, shows people in the meeting singing the anthem while some held their hands to their chest. About 300 MPs attended the meeting, which approved a bill to allow the seizure of assets or property in Ukraine owned by Russia or Russian citizens amid the Russian invasion
The case was filed by Abu Zubaydah, a Guantánamo prisoner arrested and held without charge since 2002, in PolandTwo psychologists who devised the CIA’s post-9/11 system of US “enhanced interrogation”, which has been widely denounced as torture, cannot be called to testify in a case in Poland brought by a terrorism suspect subjected to the abuses, the supreme court has ruled.In a 6-3 ruling on Thursday, the court allowed the US government to block the psychologists from giving evidence in a case brought by Abu Zubaydah, a Guantánamo prisoner who was arrested in 2002 and has been held without charge ever since. The majority of the justices granted the government the privilege of “state secrets” – a power that prevents the public disclosure of information deemed harmful to national security. Continue reading...
Thursday: Vladimir Putin tells Emmanuel Macron he will continue to pursue his war. Plus: are the catastrophic floods really a one-in-1,000 year event?Good morning. Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called for direct talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin as “the only way to stop this war”. The US and UK have announced additional sanctions on Russia. And more rain threatens the floods crisis in NSW.Concern is mounting over the movements of a huge column of Russian military vehicles outside Kyiv, amid a lack of fresh information about its position and the threat it poses. Vladimir Putin has told Emmanuel Macron that Kyiv’s “refusal to accept Russia’s conditions” means he will continue to pursue his war, the Élysée palace has said, adding: “We expect the worst is yet to come.” As the number of refugees fleeing the conflict passed a million and Russian forces, backed by heavy shelling, advanced on cities and key ports in the south and east, Russia’s president said in a 90-minute call to his French counterpart he was “prepared to go all the way”. Meanwhile, members of the public are paying for Airbnb rentals in Ukraine to help get money to residents. The world’s leading energy adviser said Europeans should turn down their thermostats by a degree to save on gas and reduce dependency on Russian imports. Macron has also warned that Europe must become more independent. Ikea has temporarily closed all stores and factories across Russia in a move affecting 15,000 workers, becoming the latest in a swathe of western firms to halt operations in the country. These efforts come as some countries scramble to speed up imposing sanction. Continue reading...
by Peter Walker Political correspondent on (#5WQFJ)
MP presided over exams debacle after being sacked as defence secretary for alleged leakBoris Johnson has awarded a knighthood to Gavin Williamson, who was sacked as defence secretary for allegedly leaking secure information before presiding over a series of exams debacles as education secretary.The announcement was made by No 10 in a brief statement, which also said that Susan Williams, a Home Office minister in the Lords, has been made a member of the Privy Council. Continue reading...
A missile appeared to hit a residential building in central Chernihiv, northern Ukraine, in footage captured on dashcam. The state emergency service of Ukraine said an oil depot in Chernihiv was on fire on the same day after being hit by a shell
Top brands from M&S to Apple, Jaguar Land Rover, Expedia and Coca-Cola are suspending operationsIkea has temporarily closed all stores and factories across Russia in a move affecting 15,000 workers, becoming the latest in a swathe of western firms to halt operations in the country since it invaded Ukraine.The Swedish flatpack furniture company has mothballed its 17 outlets across Russia but said it would keep its Mega shopping centres open to allow access to essential retailers, such as food shops and pharmacies. Continue reading...
by Presented by Gabrielle Jackson with Lenore Taylor on (#5WQDE)
Catastrophic flooding has left at least 14 dead and thousands of homes destroyed in Queensland and NSW. In the middle of this crisis the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report was released, outlining how human actions are closing an ever-narrowing window to a liveable future. Gabrielle Jackson speaks to editor in chief Lenore Taylor and Queensland correspondent Ben Smee about how we report on severe weather events in a climate emergency.Read more: Continue reading...
From a failed attempt to dress as Hermione Granger to a Hungry Caterpillar who truly committed to the role, parents and former students on the mad dash to put together a literary outfitA few years ago my son’s school organised a World Book Day in which pupils were asked to turn up in costume. Two kids turned up wearing full Viking outfits, complete with plastic axes and horned helmets. They looked brilliant. Only trouble was their parents had got the day wrong: they turned up in costume the day before the actual event, and as they had been dropped off by taxi, they had to spend the first part of the day in costume while their fellow pupils were in normal school uniform.
The Australian soap has kept me hooked since 1986, becoming a major part of my daily existence – even when I didn’t have a TV signal. Ramsay Street, you will be missed• Beloved soap Neighbours to end after 37 years on airFrom the upbeat opening bars of its theme tune and the declaration that “Everybody needs good neighbours”, Neighbours was like a blast of fresh air blowing across British TV screens in 1986. Here was a show that was on BBC One twice a day; lunchtime and a repeat in the late afternoon. This was when Netflix was but a twinkle in Reed Hastings’s eye and a “streaming service” was probably a water-feature option offered by landscape gardeners. You watched Neighbours or you missed it.Centred on Ramsay Street, the Lassiters hotel complex, and the lives of the Ramsays and the Robinsons (think Jim Robinson and mother-in-law Helen Daniels), it was soon a must-watch for students in the UK because – despite being watched “ironically”, however one does that – it had young people at its heart. This is the show that brought us Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Guy Pearce and Panda from The Masked Singer, Natalie Imbruglia. Talk about a hit factory. But, wandering the banks of Lassiters lake, we were also in the company of Harold and Madge, Dr Karl and Susan Kennedy, “Toadfish” Rebecchi and more. But now, the curtain falls. After almost 9,000 episodes, Neighbours is to come to an end. Continue reading...
Renaissance works transported for first time since the artist installed them in churches 600 years agoA collection of bronzes sculpted by Renaissance master Donatello has been moved for the first time from the Italian churches where he installed them 600 years ago so that they can be displayed at a ground-breaking exhibition in FlorenceThree of the four pieces, a relief, a statue and two bronze doors, from Siena Cathedral and San Lorenzo baptistery in Florence, are also being restored to their former glory using techniques ranging from chiselling with porcupine needles to thermographing to discover structural weaknesses. Continue reading...
Michael and Maria Spressler’s surprise could be worth $10,000. That’s a cut above the mice, frogs and condoms that diners have discovered elsewhereName: Food surprises.Age: Well, there was a 34th anniversary the other day. Continue reading...
The basement of a Kyiv hospital is now the maternity ward, where expecting and new mothers bring new life into a world violently upended by a Russian military invasion.Alina Shinkar is 32 weeks pregnant with her first child. She was admitted to one of Kyiv’s maternity hospitals two weeks ago because of pregnancy complications. 'I woke up on the 24th of February, at 5 o’clock in the morning from the hit, that I heard. The explosion. And then I heard women started to cry and scream. The war started.'
A series of explosions were reported in Kyiv in the early hours of Thursday following Russian airstrikes.At least four explosions were reported in Ukraine’s capital around 3am, not long after Ukraine’s state special communications service had issued an alert saying: “Air alarm, Kyiv!” CBS reporter Charlie D'Agata had justfinished a cross when a bright flash andlarge boom happened behind him
by Eva Corlett in Wellington and Tess McClure in Auck on (#5WPKK)
Occupation a confronting shift in tone from first two years of pandemic, which were characterised by high support for government“We will not be defined by this,” prime minister Jacinda Ardern said, as New Zealand’s parliament grounds descended into chaos, fire and violence in a shocking end to the anti-mandate protests that have occupied the capital city’s centre.An undercurrent of violence had simmered throughout the weeks-long Ottawa-inspired occupation, which was blighted by abusive behaviour, conspiracy theories, and death threats. On Wednesday, riot police moved in with pepper spray and rubber bullets, and the powder keg exploded. Protesters set their tents alight, and lit a bonfire beneath the parliamentary children’s playground. People could be heard whooping and yelling, “burn it down, burn it down.” As fires burned across the lawns, some protesters worked to spread them and set more tents alight, while a woman screamed “What are you doing? People will get hurt”. Gas bottles exploded as they were consumed by the blaze. At a bonfire next to the cenotaph war memorial, protesters threw tents, trash and wooden pallets on the flames. Others hurled anything within reach at lines of riot police: chairs, fireworks, rubbish bins, and paving stones ripped from the parliamentary paths. Continue reading...
Yelena Osipova, a 77-year-old activist and a survivor of the infamous wartime siege of Leningrad, was marched away by a group of police while she protested against the war in Ukraine in the city, which was renamed St Petersburg in 1991. Thousands of people have been defying police threats and staging protests across Russia. Authorities have a low tolerance for demonstrations and marches, and attending them can have serious consequences including fines, arrests and even imprisonment
Complaint filed in Los Angeles accuses Wood and partner Illma Gore of ‘malicious falsehood’ that has derailed Manson’s careerMarilyn Manson has filed a lawsuit against Evan Rachel Wood for defamation over the actor’s sexual abuse allegations against him.Manson, the American “shock rocker” born Brian Warner, filed the complaint in Los Angeles superior court on Wednesday. The complaint accuses Wood and her “on-again, off-again” partner Ashley “Illma” Gore, of depicting him as “a rapist and abuser – a malicious falsehood that has derailed Warner’s successful music, TV, and film career.” Continue reading...