by Vikram Dodd Police and crime correspondent on (#5W4SK)
Metropolitan Police Federation chair attacks London mayor and claims members have ‘no faith’ in himCressida Dick was ousted by London’s mayor to deflect from his own failings, the chair of the Metropolitan Police Federation has said.Ken Marsh, who leads the body representing rank-and-file officers in Britain’s largest force, claimed his members had “no faith” in Sadiq Khan, and needed to support any changes otherwise they would not work. He insisted the Metropolitan police commissioner had been reforming the force’s culture before she was pushed out. Continue reading...
Frank Jackson says the Labour leader’s eulogy for Nato is a travesty of history, while Richard Ashwell wonders if he understands what being opposed to war means. Plus letters from Dr Alan Lafferty and Blaine StothardI hold no brief for Vladimir Putin, and I am not a member of the Stop the War coalition, but Keir Starmer’s attack on it and his eulogy for Nato is a travesty of history (Under my leadership, Labour’s commitment to Nato is unshakable, 10 February). When the UN was founded in 1945, the imperialist concept of spheres of influence should have become obsolete. But instead of developing common security policies, Nato was established – allegedly – as a defence against a threat from the Soviet Union to attack western Europe. In fact there was, and is, no evidence that there was a plan to overrun the west. When the Soviet Union collapsed and the Warsaw Pact was disbanded, Nato’s alleged raison d’etre disappeared and it too should have been closed down.The standoff with Ukraine must not lead to war. But an arms buildup on both sides makes war more likely. Only discussion and diplomacy can avoid this catastrophe. Constructive dialogue should be brokered by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which operates with a fraction of the budget of Nato, yet gets no publicity for its successes. Increased support for the OSCE would make a much greater contribution to peace in Ukraine and the rest of Europe than flooding the region with more arms.
Sadiq Khan blames second consecutive annual increase on government’s refusal to fund TfL properlyThe cost of travelling on London’s tube and bus network will rise by almost 5% from next month, the biggest increase in more than a decade, as the body responsible for running the capital’s transport network struggles to plug a funding shortfall.The average 4.8% rise, which matches the rate of inflation, means that most fares will increase by between 10p and 20p. However, some bus fares will rise by 6.5%. Continue reading...
This reimagining of the popular 90s sitcom is full of annoying caricatures, is monotonously intense and doesn’t seem to know what it is – or where it’s goingBel-Air is a reboot with its own remarkable origin story. In 2019, the independent film-maker Morgan Cooper had the audacity to make a trailer for an imaginary new version of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, reshaping the 1990s sitcom as a tough, Ryan Coogler-style drama. Cooper might have dreamed that the clip would go viral and that the show would actually be made, with him still on board directing episode one. That’s happened, but this is a fairytale with a sad ending. The new Bel-Air (Peacock/Sky/NOW) is confused and joyless, a remake without a reason to exist.Another kid called Will Smith moves hastily to LA to live with his rich aunt, uncle and cousins after an incident on a west Philadelphia basketball court. That run-in with the neighbourhood bad guys is much graver than the one the previous incarnation of Will experienced – involving guns and the threat of jail time – and when Will gets to Bel-Air, everyone there is a serious operator, too. Continue reading...
Coleen Rooney’s lawyers wanted Caroline Watt added to proceedings over alleged leaks to Sun newspaperColeen Rooney has suffered a serious setback in her legal battle with Rebekah Vardy, after a high court judge refused to grant permission to add Vardy’s former agent to the legal proceedings.Rooney’s lawyers had attempted to bring Caroline Watt into the “Wagatha Christie” case, alleging she misused Rooney’s private information and worked in cahoots with Vardy to leak stories to the Sun. Continue reading...
Snap election called by conservative People’s party backfires as it fails to secure absolute majoritySpain’s far-right Vox party is pushing for a place in the new regional government of Castilla y León following a snap election that has proved a tactical misstep for the ruling conservative People’s party (PP).The PP called Sunday’s vote in the hope of securing an absolute majority after spending three years governing the region in partnership with the centre-right Citizens party. Continue reading...
Many women working in restaurants and bars say men routinely asked them to remove their masks in return for tips, putting their lives at riskAfter working as a bartender in Washington DC for many years, Ifeoma Ezumaki’s body reached its limit during the pandemic. For Ezumaki and millions of other restaurant employees, working during the pandemic – often, in the US, for a “sub-minimum” wage – became a source of immeasurable suffering. Tips went down because sales went down, while customer harassment and hostility went up. Ezumaki and her colleagues had to become public health marshals, in addition to cocktail servers; she was asked to enforce social distancing, mask wearing and even vaccination requirements.One evening, a customer at the bar asked her to pull down her mask so that he could see her face – a request that became so common from male customers during the pandemic that hospitality workers started referring to it as “maskual harassment”. When Ezumaki refused, he said: “Well, I guess you’re not going to eat tonight.” Continue reading...
Clarence House says Camilla is self-isolating after Prince Charles contracted Covid last weekThe Duchess of Cornwall has tested positive for coronavirus, Clarence House has announced.A spokesman said: “Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall has tested positive for Covid-19 and is self-isolating. We continue to follow government guidelines. Continue reading...
Our beliefs about difficult feelings may do more damage than the feelings themselvesIn the late 19th-century America, a somewhat bizarre form of abstinence emerged. The vice was not alcohol but anxiety. Citizens of New York began to attend regular “Don’t Worry Clubs” in which they encouraged each other to look on the bright side of life. Their founder, Theodore Seward, argued that Americans were “slaves to the worrying habit”, which was the “enemy which destroys happiness”. It needed to be “attacked” with “resolute and persevering effort”.By the early 20th century, the psychologist William James described how people had developed a kind of “religion of healthy-mindedness” with the aim of turning the mind away from all negative thoughts and feelings. Continue reading...
Jamie Butler, former Man City medic, died last year near spot where he proposed in 1994, inquest hearsA former team medic for Manchester City died falling 100 metres from a Lake District ridge where he proposed to his wife 27 years earlier.Dr Jamie Butler, from Altrincham in Greater Manchester, fell from the Striding Edge section of Helvellyn when hiking with his wife, Margaret, last year. They had returned to the mountain to find the exact spot where he had asked Margaret to marry him in 1994. Continue reading...
From Cyrano to The Last Duel, the world of medieval chivalry is big on screen – and its preoccupation with appearances isn’t so far from our ownAgainst our backdrop of revenge porn, dick pic-strewn online dating and embittered incel manifestos, the notion of courtly love couldn’t seem more remote. Cilla Black and Blind Date now seem like something from medieval times – so where does that leave an actual medieval sentimental convention? A goodly knight inspired to perform virtuous deeds and compose the sublimest verse in honour of an idealised lady-love – it’s enough to make a 21st-century onanist yawn and reach for their Fleshlight.But romance and chivalry aren’t quite dead yet. Cyrano de Bergerac is back in a new musical version this month, as Peter Dinklage lends his alexandrines to help a mate woo the beautiful Roxanne. Married off to no-nonsense bruiser Matt Damon in Ridley Scott’s 14th-century drama The Last Duel, Jodie Comer’s sequestered damsel becomes subject to the attentions of courtly smooth operator Adam Driver. And a silky-voiced consort, played by Alicia Vikander, gave Sir Dev of Patel’s mettle the stiffest of examinations in the penultimate trial of last year’s The Green Knight. Continue reading...
Keen to re-establish the album in the age of the playlist, artists are peppering their work with voice notes and sketches – to profound and annoying endsDe La Soul played a gameshow on 3 Feet High and Rising, kids discussed love on The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Eminem faced his irate manager on The Marshall Mathers LP, Outkast parodied themselves at a record store on Aquemini, Biggie Smalls actually received fellatio on Ready to Die, and Eazy-E probably didn’t actually receive fellatio on Just Don’t Bite It.There was once a time where skits like these, particularly in the age of tapes and CDs, were a staple of hip-hop. Interspersed between songs, these comedy sketches or spoken-word interludes aimed to bring you deeper into the album, with records such as the Fugees’ The Score showing how poignant this could be (a child being shot at the end of Cowboys) or how puerile (the Chinese restaurant at the end of The Beast). Such interludes were not solely the preserve of rap, though: Meat Loaf’s You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth opened with an attempted seduction on that hot summer night, Destiny’s Child recited lines from the Bible on the outro track to Survivor, and Britney had an ill-fated exchange with an earnest astronaut on Oops! … I Did It Again. Continue reading...
FTSE 100 down 2% and oil prices hit seven-year high on back of fears of Russian invasionMounting fears of an imminent Russian attack on Ukraine triggered a global share sell-off on Monday, and prompted oil prices to hit a seven-year high.European markets followed Asian shares sharply lower, with the UK’s FTSE 100 down 160 points, or 2%, at 7,501 in morning trading. Travel-related stocks were hardest hit, including the British Airways owner, IAG, which was the biggest faller on London’s blue-chip index, down 7%. The jet engine maker Rolls-Royce was down 4%, as only five companies on the FTSE 100 made it into positive territory. Continue reading...
Five applicants deemed ‘ineligible’ under program’s guidelines received moneyGrants awarded under the Coalition’s $184m Safer Communities Fund were “not appropriately informed by departmental briefings”, with more than half delivered without a “clear basis for the decision”, an auditor general’s report into the program has found.The auditor general also found that a total of $1.12m in grant funding was paid out to five separate applicants despite them having projects deemed “ineligible” under the program’s guidelines. Continue reading...
His outrageous stunt show ran for just 10 months, but became wildly popular. He tells of being inspired by his hard-drinking father, his years in therapy and suffering brain damageI hear Johnny Knoxville’s Tennessee drawl before I see him. “I’m gonna getcha!” he barks – part children’s entertainer, part axe murderer – as he chases the small child of one of his entourage down the hotel corridor. “Where’s my little honey bunny?” His infectious cackle and her giggling shrieks ricochet into the room where I am waiting to meet him.Knoxville has been provoking shock and delight for 22 years, ever since his TV show Jackass first aired on MTV. The formula was beautifully simple: a ragtag group of skateboarders and oddballs with a punk-rock aesthetic filmed themselves undertaking painful, grotesque DIY stunts – no context necessary. Audiences tuned in for the back yard suburban anarchy, but stayed for the gang’s camaraderie. It was absurd and puerile – the New York Times dismissed the film that followed the TV series as “a documentary version of Fight Club, shorn of social insight, intellectual pretension and cinematic interest”. Continue reading...
Campaigning coalition estimates ‘unworkable and cruel’ schemes will cost taxpayers an extra £2.7bn a yearA coalition of hundreds of pro-refugee organisations has estimated the astronomical costs of five Home Office policies to block refugees, which are due to become law in a matter of months.The campaign coalition Together With Refugees, which is made up of about 360 community groups, refugee organisations, trades unions and faith groups, is publishing a report on Monday. It attempts to calculate the cost of policies such as offshoring refugees – with the bill running into the billions. The Home Office is yet to publish this information itself.New large, out-of-town accommodation centres to house up to 8,000 people seeking refugee protection – £717.6m a year.An offshore processing system to send people seeking refugee protection to another country to be detained while they wait for a decision on their claim, based on Australian government costings, which the Home Office said it is modelling its plans on – £1.44bn a year.Imprisoning people seeking refugee protection who arrive via irregular routes, such as in a small boat across the Channel – £432m a year.Removing people seeking refugee protection from the UK to another country if the government said they should claim asylum elsewhere – £117.4m a year.Extra processing costs for additional assessments of people allocated a new temporary protection status, who have already passed a rigorous assessment recognising them as a refugee, every two and a half years – £1.5m a year. Continue reading...
Monday: The situation in Ukraine has reached a dangerous stage, Scott Morrison warns citizens in the country. Plus: romantic Australian mini-breaks for under $500Good morning. Australia has ordered the evacuation of its embassy in Kyiv as the Ukraine crisis worsens. Some countries are warning their citizens to leave the country entirely. And vulnerable Australians are being forced to hide at home due to expensive Covid tests.Roughly one in three Australians have confidence in the Morrison government, which is the lowest approval since the 2019-20 summer bushfires, according to a survey. The longitudinal survey of 3,472 Australians was conducted in the final two weeks of January, as the Omicron wave and eased restrictions resulted in some days with more than 100,000 new Covid cases. The ANU’s Centre for Social Research and Methods found 34.5% of adult Australians had confidence or were “very confident” in the federal government, down from a peak of 60.6% in May 2020. Continue reading...
Embassies of Britain, US and Canada have sent staff home or to the western city of LvivDozens of Western diplomats in Kyiv were packing their bags and preparing to leave the city on Sunday evening, as many countries issued a clear warning to all citizens still inside Ukraine: get out now.Six months after Western decision-makers were taken by surprise by the speed with which Kabul fell to the Taliban, politicians in many countries are taking extra precautions over a potential Russian assault that has not yet begun. Continue reading...
Prof Lewis Lesley on Sheffield’s tram network, Judith Martin on the importance of local knowledge and Jane and Simon Clements on the city’s musical heritageJohn Harris’s article about Sheffield and the impact of the closure of Debenhams and John Lewis (The death of the department store, 10 February) raised many questions, not least “What are city centres for?” Historically, they were the most accessible locations in a large urban area. The advent of the private car, and free use of roads, has made almost anywhere easy to get to. The cost, however, of sprawl, pollution and energy usage will become limiting as we move towards a zero-carbon economy. As the architect Adam Park said in Harris’s article: “We shouldn’t be demolishing buildings any more.”The out-of-town Meadowhall shopping centre was approved by the city council to replace a brownfield former steelworks site. Surprisingly, no mention was made of Sheffield’s tram network; prior to the pandemic, this had provided a counter to Meadowhall by carrying passengers parked there into the city centre. There are three other lines, making the centre nearly as well-connected as Manchester through Metrolink. As an acceptable alternative to car travel, this offers a sustainable way to get people into the centre and, learning from the Strong Towns movement, is a good starting point for the reinvention of Sheffield.
Home secretary is understood to be keen on outsider to head London force who could push through reformsCould the UK’s most powerful police officer be brought in from outside the force? Or might Priti Patel look even farther afield – to Australia, or even the United States – instead of recruiting from within Scotland Yard?Reports this weekend claimed that the unexpected resignation of Cressida Dick, the head of the Metropolitan police, has driven the home secretary to look for an outsider to transform the force. Continue reading...
Natalia López Gallardo’s feature debut unfolds with a mix of woozy uncertainty and shock tactics that mirror the murky criminal dealings at its heartThe film that everyone is talking about this year in Berlin is the dazzlingly accomplished and confident debut feature from the 42-year-old Mexican-Bolivian film-maker Natalia López Gallardo; as a former editor, she has worked with Lisandro Alonso and Carlos Reygadas, whose various influences are detectable in the movie’s mixture of languour and shock. The title appears to refer to a Buddhist parable about the man who lives in poverty, not knowing that a wealthy friend has securely but invisibly sewn a precious gem into his robe so that he would not have to live like this: the allusion is one of the many opaque and difficult things about this film.It is a disturbing and unsettling piece of work, a psycho-pathological moodboard of a film, in which guilt, horror and shame poison the atmosphere. Exactly what is going on has to be inferred through the indirect hints and cloudy indications; these are never finally and definitively revealed, and I can’t be absolutely sure that this obscurity is not a first-time film-maker’s flaw. But Gallardo certainly has a fluent cinematic language at her command. Continue reading...
Two years of the pandemic have meant drops in essential screening and detection, while cancer patients undergo treatments alone and isolate to avoid Covid risksWhen Claire Simpson turned 50 in early 2020, she received a letter telling her to get a mammogram. Then the pandemic hit, and Victoria went into lockdown.“Like many people, I put it off until we were coming out of that lockdown, but by then it was September and I couldn’t get an appointment until December,” she says. Continue reading...
Energy meter numbers were used instead of amount payable in 74 Storm Arwen compensation chequesAn energy company has thanked “honest” customers who did not try to cash compensation cheques for trillions of pounds sent out in error.Compensation is being paid to tens of thousands of people who were left without power when severe “once in a generation” winds swept across the UK in November last year during Storm Arwen. Continue reading...
Police had previously investigated suspect in 2018 but case dropped for ‘insufficient evidence’A doctor has been arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a child patient, prompting a widespread police investigation into his conduct at two hospitals in the West Midlands.The Royal Stoke university hospital in Stoke-on-Trent and Russells Hall hospital in Dudley have both opened up helplines for parents of children who may have been treated by the 34-year-old, as well as past patients. Continue reading...
Eva B, who was brought up in a notorious slum, has become Pakistan’s latest music sensationHer phone has been buzzing with non-stop messages and calls. Eva B, once a little-known rapper from the Karachi urban-slum settlement of Lyari, has become Pakistan’s newest music sensation, racking up millions of views on YouTube.She is not just the first female rapper from Pakistan, she is the first veil-wearing female rapper from Pakistan’s Baloch minority. She says her brother had told her if she wanted to rap she had to wear a veil, but that it is now a part of her identity and personality as a musician. Continue reading...
The Portrait of a Lady on Fire star talks about her role in Jacques Audiard’s new dating drama, making a documentary about her own family, and the Hollywood actor who inspires herThe French actor Noémie Merlant is in demand these days – especially since 2019, when Céline Sciamma’s acclaimed Portrait of a Lady on Fire massively boosted her international profile. When I talk to her on Zoom, she’s rushing between two films, on her mobile in a car travelling from one shoot in Brest in northern France to another in the Pyrenees.Despite her busy schedule, and the distraction of having just lost her bank card, Merlant is focused enough to talk with enthusiastic intensity (and no, she’s not driving the car) about Jacques Audiard’s Paris, 13th District, which is released in the UK next month. The film is something of a departure for the 69-year-old director, who is often associated with crime dramas (A Prophet, The Beat That My Heart Skipped). It’s about young people in a multiracial Paris, and the 21st-century digital economy of passion: dating apps, instant hookups and webcam sex. And given that he’s often considered a very male film-maker, this feature notably adopts a very female perspective; it’s co-written, in fact, with Sciamma, and the writer-director Léa Mysius. Continue reading...
by Haroon Siddique Legal affairs correspondent on (#5W3DH)
Exclusive: Shadow minister says pardon would be ‘significant step in Britain’s acknowledgement of its role in history of slavery’David Lammy has written to the government asking it to pardon 70 abolitionists convicted for their role in the historic 1823 Demerara rebellion by enslaved people against British colonialists in the Caribbean.The shadow foreign secretary described the revolt, involving 10,000 enslaved people, as a “seminal moment” in the history of slave resistance. Although unsuccessful at the time, the event contributed to the abolition of slavery 10 years later, in 1833. Continue reading...
Social media means adoring fans can keep up with the ins and outs of their favourite celebrities. But for those in the public eye, a dedicated fanbase isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be – especially for womenA few years ago, I had a fan. She had read my writing and listened to my podcast, and often replied warmly to my tweets. Occasionally, she would send me private messages, and eventually I started following her back. It was nice. At some point, the volume of communication increased – I began receiving emails, and the notifications and messages spread to Instagram. Then they grew more frequent, uncomfortably so. She wanted things from me: to work for me, to meet up with me, to know how my weekend had gone, to tell me how hers had gone, to tell me about the job she disliked, for me to help her with a project she was launching.My heart began to sink whenever I saw her name appear on my phone and I started responding less and less in the hope of discouraging her overtures. Then she came to an event I’d organised – the first time we’d actually met – and to my mortification, presented me with a bundle of gifts (which I obviously sent a thank you message for – I’m not a monster). Continue reading...
Charity worker’s husband demands transparency from No 10 amid fears she is being used as ‘bargaining chip’ in nuclear talksThe husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian charity worker detained in Iran, has said she is “very, very angry” after learning about the collapse of a deal to bring her home.Zaghari-Ratcliffe fears she is a “bargaining chip” in ongoing nuclear talks and is filled with “anger at her life being stolen” and the government’s “lack of urgency” in securing her release, Richard Ratcliffe said. Continue reading...
While many are making contingency plans, life continues as normal in a city that has grown weary of the constant talk of warAs news of the latest grim White House briefing on Ukraine broke late on Friday evening in Kyiv, the bars and restaurants were as full as on any other Friday night, the atmosphere remained jovial, and anyone without access to a Twitter feed would have struggled to divine any sense of foreboding.While US officials and the Washington journalists briefed by them prophesied a “horrific, bloody” campaign to be launched against Ukraine imminently, nobody except journalists was paying much attention to what, to many in Kyiv, seems like just the latest in a line of apocalyptic briefings. Continue reading...
From 2016 to the Capitol riot, Jeremy Peters of the New York Times delivers a meticulously reported and extremely worrying tale of how and why the US came to thisAfter the Iraq war and the Great Recession, public trust in government plummeted while the flashpoints of race, religion and education moved to the fore. Barack Obama’s mantra of hope and change left many unsatisfied, if not seething. On election day 2016, Donald Trump lit a match. But the kindling was already there, decades in the making.Staring at the mess is Jeremy Peters of the New York Times, with Insurgency, his first book. A seasoned national political reporter and MSNBC talking head, Peters chronicles how the party of Lincoln and Reagan morphed into Trump’s own fiefdom. He writes with a keen eye and sharp pen. Beyond that, he listens. Continue reading...
by Elias Visontay(now) and Justine Landis-Hanley (ear on (#5W34W)
Uncertainty over jobs data due to Omicron; Mark McGowan says WA border reopening still to be decided; Daniel Andrews announces LGBTQ+ support package; Victoria’s Covid rules under review as nation records least 47 Covid-related deaths; Scott Morrison condemns ‘bullying’ on Ukraine border. This blog is now closed
The British anti-vax community is small – but well organisedThe most comprehensive analysis of the UK’s anti-vax community reveals that just 0.32% of the population is active in the movement, contradicting its claim to represent “the 99%”.The first analysis of its kind shows that the anti-vax movement is far smaller than expected, with about 220,000 unique active users identified within a network of 427 groups on the messaging app Telegram, its preferred platform. Continue reading...
You are dancing from rescuer to persecutor to victim, says Philippa Perry. Change how you react and see what happens – or leaveThe question My partner has suffered from depression for decades, but only saw the doctor once, stopped taking the medication after a few months, and refuses to go on it again. They won’t talk to anyone or seek help professionally or from family – not even me.In the last two years, Covid has had a major impact on their mental health, and their behaviour on top of this is now affecting me massively. In the past, I’ve been told I’m very positive and happy. I’m certainly not that now. But I don’t want to go on medication myself. Continue reading...
Police had early success in clearing Ambassador Bridge, but demonstrators still choke vital trade routeProtesters opposed to Covid-19 vaccine mandates and other restrictions withdrew some of their vehicles from a US-Canadian border bridge on Saturday, but ramped up demonstrations in cities across Canada, including the capital, where police said they were awaiting more officers before ending what they described as an illegal occupation.Late on Saturday police made the first arrest of a protester blocking the Ambassador Bridge linking Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, more than a day after authorities moved in seeking to end the blockade of the important trade corridor. Continue reading...
Yemeni officials say workers taken in southern province of Abyan on Friday and taken to unknown locationSuspected al-Qaida militants have abducted five UN workers in southern Yemen, Yemeni officials said on Saturday.The officials said the workers were abducted in the southern province of Abyan late on Friday and taken to an unknown location. They include four Yemenis and a foreigner, they said. Continue reading...
by Julian Borger in Washington, Shaun Walker in Kyiv, on (#5W35N)
US president fears ‘widespread human suffering’ in the event of an invasion as Russia denies there are any plans for an attackJoe Biden on Saturday night warned Vladimir Putin that the US would “impose swift and severe costs on Russia” if his forces invaded Ukraine. In a phone call that lasted more than an hour, the US president said an invasion would “produce widespread human suffering and diminish Russia’s standing”.The call was the culmination of a frantic day of diplomatic activity aimed at averting a war in Ukraine, which the US has warned could start as soon as Wednesday. Continue reading...
Report by senior diplomat Rina Amiri raises concerns about number of ‘unjust detentions’ in AfghanistanThe Taliban have detained 29 women and their families in Kabul, a senior US diplomat said on Saturday, adding to concerns about rising numbers of people seized and held indefinitely in Afghanistan.Rina Amiri, US special envoy for Afghan Women, Girls and Human Rights, said that women were among 40 people seized on Friday. “These unjust detentions must stop,” she said in a tweet. Continue reading...
French police fire teargas in Paris, while convoy of vehicles brings The Hague’s city centre to standstillDemonstrators against Covid-19 restrictions in France and the Netherlands staged protests on Saturday inspired by the “Freedom Convoy” demonstrations in Canada.In France police fired teargas at demonstrators on the Champs Élysées in Paris shortly after a convoy protesting against restrictions made it into the capital. Continue reading...