Staff may embark on industrial action over Priti Patel’s ‘morally reprehensible’ ploy to turn back refugeesBorder Force officials could strike over Priti Patel’s “morally reprehensible” plans to turn back dinghies in the Channel, a union has said.The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), which represents the vast majority of Border Force staff who would implement the “pushbacks”, has joined forces with the refugee charity Care4Calais to seek a judicial review of the policy, a tactic campaigners warn could put lives at risk. Continue reading...
My aunt Anne Mobbs, who has died aged 84, was a community organiser and activist who was fully committed to promoting social justice.Born into a Jewish family in Tottenham, north London, Anne was one of the five children of Miriam (nee Weinberg), a seamstress, and Nathan Wrightman, a carpenter. She and her two sisters were evacuated to Cornwall during the second world war, and after finishing her schooling she worked in secretarial roles at Granada TV, the BBC World Service and the National Film Theatre. Continue reading...
Asia can teach the UK much about keeping schools open during a pandemic, says Edward Vickers, while Jo Campion warns that deaf pupils are likely to fall behind because of the return of face masks in classComparing the experience of European education systems in handling the Covid-19 pandemic is doubtless instructive (Masks in schools: several EU countries already enforce them in primaries, 3 January). Your article presents the salutary examples of countries such as France, which imposed a mask mandate on all pupils over 11 last November, and Belgium, which since December has required all pupils over six to be masked.However, as an educational comparativist usually based in Japan, I read reports like this while inwardly screaming: “What about east Asia?” There has been some lurid coverage in the UK press of China’s draconian lockdowns. But we see very little discussion of the very different cases of Taiwan, South Korea and Japan, which have managed the pandemic far more effectively than their western counterparts, and with far less disruption to schooling. Continue reading...
Convicted murderer Gioacchino Gammino tracked down in Galapagar, where he had lived undetected for 20 yearsAn Italian mafia boss on the run for 20 years was tracked down to a Spanish town after being spotted on Google Street View.Gioacchino Gammino, a convicted murderer listed among Italy’s most wanted gangsters, was arrested in Galapagar, a town near Madrid, where over the years he had married, changed his name to Manuel, worked as a chef and owned a fruit and vegetable shop. Continue reading...
Sir Keir Starmer seems to have forgotten his principles, writes Keith Flett. How can the Queen be so out of touch, asks Dr Patrick HoyteKeir Starmer, while approving a knighthood for Tony Blair, notes that Iraq remains an issue for many (UK government urged to rescind Tony Blair’s knighthood, 4 January). The problem is that elevating the former prime minister to the Order of the Garter is an official attempt to say that the Iraq war doesn’t matter any more. The current Labour leader had it right when, as a QC and human rights lawyer, he wrote in the Guardian on 17 March 2003 that “flawed advice does not make the unlawful use of force lawful”. Many of us remember the point; it’s a pity Sir Keir seems to have forgotten it.
Asset freezes and visa bans after Dodik’s threat to withdraw Serbs from Bosnian national army and other state-level institutionsThe US has imposed new sanctions on the Bosnian Serb leader, Milorad Dodik, a television station under his control and two other officials for “significant corruption and destabilizing activities”.The sanctions, involving asset freezes and visa bans, follow Dodik’s threat to withdraw Serbs from the Bosnian national army and other state-level institutions, potentially destroying the 1995 Dayton peace treaty and opening the way for a return to conflict. Continue reading...
As well as revealing the full shortlist, newly opened archives show that the 1971 judging panel were concerned the Chilean winner’s politics were ‘incompatible with the purpose of the prize’Pablo Neruda may have won the Nobel prize for literature in 1971, but newly opened archives in Stockholm reveal the judging panel’s concerns about the Chilean poet’s “communist tendencies”.The list of writers in the running for the Nobel prize, and the deliberations of the secretive members of the judging panel at the Swedish Academy, are kept confidential for 50 years. But the newly opened archives show that, although 1971’s winner Neruda was praised by the prize-givers for “a poetry that with the action of an elemental force brings alive a continent’s destiny and dreams”, behind the scenes some members of the Swedish Academy were hesitant. Continue reading...
Josep Borrell warns ‘severe costs’ would follow any aggression against Kyiv by Russian-backed separatistsThe European Union’s top diplomat has pledged “full support” to Ukraine on a visit to the frontline of the country’s war with Moscow-backed separatists.Josep Borrell is the first EU high representative for foreign policy to have visited the Donbass region since war broke out nearly eight years ago. Continue reading...
by Presented by Laura Murphy-Oatesand reported by Sha on (#5TPHN)
In one of our best Full Story episodes from 2021, we look at the formation of a vibrant and strange genre of music called hyperpop. Its growth has been spurred on by the internet – through Soundcloud, Twitter and now Spotify – and it has been linked to some of the most exciting young artists worldwide.Freelance music writer Shaad D’Souza speaks to Laura Murphy-Oates about the rise of hyperpop and what it tells us about the influence of big corporations such as Spotify.Read more: Continue reading...
Ahmed found guilty of two counts of attempted rape and one of buggery when he was a teenager in 1970sThe former peer Nazir Ahmed has been found guilty of serious sexual assault against a young boy and the attempted rape of a girl when he was a teenager in the 1970s.Ahmed, 64, was found guilty on Wednesday of buggery against a boy in Rotherham, and twice attempting to rape a girl. Buggery was the legal term for the specific sexual assault at the time of the offences. Continue reading...
Pope Francis suggested people who own cats and dogs instead of having children exhibit 'a certain selfishness', during a speech on parenthood and adoption at the Vatican.
Actor says Meir’s Jewishness is ‘integral’ to role and that Ben Kingsley would ‘never be allowed’ to play Nelson MandelaMaureen Lipman has criticised the casting of Helen Mirren as Golda Meir in a forthcoming film about the former Israeli prime minister, saying that the character’s Jewishness is “integral”.In comments reported by the Jewish Chronicle, Lipman said she “disagreed” with Mirren’s casting. She added: “I’m sure [Mirren] will be marvellous, but it would never be allowed for Ben Kingsley to play Nelson Mandela. You just couldn’t even go there.” Continue reading...
Hisham Abu Hawash, who has been held without charge for more than a year, began refusing food in AugustA Palestinian man on a hunger strike in protest against detention without charge has agreed to end his fast after a deal was struck for his release owing to fears of unrest if he died.Hisham Abu Hawash, 40, a construction worker from Dura in the West Bank, had previously served time in an Israeli jail after pleading guilty to terrorism offences related to membership of Islamic Jihad. He was rearrested and has been held without charge or trial for more than a year, and began refusing food in August. Continue reading...
Loan deal could renew pressure on Britain to repatriate ancient Parthenon marbles to AthensItaly is returning a fragment belonging to the Parthenon’s eastern frieze to Greece in a breakthrough deal that could renew pressure on Britain to repatriate the 2,500-year-old Parthenon marbles removed by Lord Elgin in the early 19th century.The marble fragment, which depicts the foot of a goddess, either Peitho or Artemis, peeking out from beneath an elaborate tunic, is currently held at the Antonino Salinas Regional Archaeological Museum in Palermo, Sicily. It was originally bought by the University of Palermo from the widow of Robert Fagan, the British consul for Sicily and Malta, after his death in 1816. Continue reading...
‘It was clear that these two had each other in their lives, and that was pretty much it’In the 1970s I lived in SoHo in New York, which is not far from the Bowery, but the two districts were like separate universes. SoHo was full of artists and creative types but the Bowery was known as the place where you ended up when you were at the bottom of the barrel. There were a lot of flophouses and a lot of alcoholism and drug use. It was the darkest place in New York City for a long time.The Bowery Mission is a Christian rescue centre for homeless people. Only men are allowed to stay overnight but it feeds anybody. I used to go there around Thanksgiving and Christmas time to help serve dinner. The face-to-face contact and interactions I had with people meant that I always felt a real connection with them, and it also made me grateful for what I had in my own life. Continue reading...
Nasser Sari has grown a huge social media after documenting life in one of the poorest French neighbourhoods. Now he wants to enter national politicsInfluence is not a word readily associated with St Jacques, the Gypsy quarter of the city of Perpignan. Yet, on a recent chilly night shortly before 8pm, the ineffable hand of influence is behind an outbreak of street theatre on the plane tree-lined oblong of Place Cassanyes. People are arriving in droves. By 7.50pm, there must be more than 200, mostly young men, in rowdy clusters. Smoking, yelling, stretching, one group doing can-can legs: it’s like Fast & Furious without the automobiles.One man in a red Adidas tracksuit is trying to line everyone up across the square’s breadth. A beacon in a sea of dark casual-wear, the influencer known as NasDas – St Jacques born and bred – is responsible for this circus. The previous night, NasDas posted to his 1.2 million followers a picture of one of his posse holding up a crinkled €500 bill, followed by footage of a previous Place Cassanyes footrace. Tonight is a rerun, only with a bigger prize. But this time the turnout is far bigger, too. Streaming live on Snapchat, he’s antsy: “On my mother’s life, I didn’t expect this kind of crowd – from Avignon, from Marseille, from everywhere.” Continue reading...
He experienced horrendous abuse in foster care, then suffered terribly years later when the case came to court. Now a police officer, he is determined to change how the system treats survivorsJon Needham looks like a copper. Tall, broad and imposing, he works in a lifetime offender management unit, where he deals with serious and organised criminals. So when he speaks, his gentleness comes as a surprise. “I joined the police because I was passionate about helping people,” he says. “It sounds like a cliche to say you want to make a real difference, but I genuinely mean it.”Needham gets paid for working with “nominals” – people who are on the police database (“That’s what the police call them, I call them people,” he says). But he is also transforming how his colleagues deal with victims of rape and sexual assault. Continue reading...
Yellow warnings issued for band of sleet, hail, snow and lightning that could cause power outages and travel disruptionForecasters say “thundersnow” that could disrupt travel and cause power outages is expected to hit the UK as a band of sleet, hail and snow showers passes through the country.The Met Office issued three yellow warnings for dangerous weather conditions, including lightning strikes from isolated thunderstorms and as much as 10cm of snow falling on the highest ground, from 10am on Thursday until 11am on Friday across Scotland, Wales and northern England.
Bolsonaro said he was discharged on Wednesday, two days after being admitted with intestinal obstructionThe Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, has been discharged from hospital, two days after being admitted with an intestinal obstruction, his latest health complication from a 2018 stabbing.“Being discharged now. Thank you all,” Bolsonaro posted on Twitter on Wednesday morning alongside a religious message and a photo of himself and his doctors giving a thumbs up. Continue reading...
A writer who had felt shut out from stage plays finds out how Curve Leicester’s A Chorus Line is presented with audio description and a guide to the costumesGrowing up, trips to the theatre for me involved squinting at the stage, unable to follow what was happening. Being partially sighted, plays have felt out of my reach. But now here I am standing on the stage at Curve theatre in Leicester, running my fingers along the delicate gold sequins of a costume for A Chorus Line. There are around a dozen of us at this pre-show talk for visually impaired people, which gives us a chance to familiarise ourselves with the performance we’ll be watching in an hour’s time.Before the pandemic, this pre-show talk would have taken the form of a touch tour, where we’d get to feel more of the costumes and set. Today we can only touch two costumes due to Covid safety precautions, but even through the thin gloves we wear, I can feel the texture, the snag of chiffon and sequins, and see details up close. Our guide, Nadine Beasley for Talking Sense Audio Description Services, tells us how the bright lighting in the show’s finale will make these outfits dazzle. Continue reading...
by Agence France-Presse in Vatican City on (#5TP68)
Pontiff says denial of fatherhood and motherhood diminishes people and takes away their humanityPope Francis risked the ire of the world’s childless dog and cat owners by suggesting people who substitute pets for children exhibit “a certain selfishness”.Speaking on parenthood during a general audience at the Vatican, the pontiff lamented that pets “sometimes take the place of children” in society. Continue reading...
From the Himalayas to Palestine; north London to south Devon, hiking gives the film-maker and climate activist a sense of belongingFrom the age of eight, I attended a little boarding school on the Derbyshire-Staffordshire border where I’d often get in trouble on a Sunday afternoon. The teachers would leave us to roam the edge of the grounds where we were supposed to pass time making fires, toasting marshmallows or playing cricket but my habit was to set out over the fences and stiles into the landscape and often, much to the teachers’ chagrin, no one knew where to find me.That was the point. To stand on unfamiliar ground and, for a moment, feel the world as something new brought with it a feeling I would crave and it formed a habit that stuck with me. By my mid-20s, I was a committed pedestrian, buoyed up by a privileged encounter on the streets of Whitechapel with east London’s resident visionary, Iain Sinclair, who warned against the underground as a way of getting around the city. He likened its subterranean networks to rabbit warrens that would cut us off from instinct and make it hard for us to know where (or who) we really are. Continue reading...
by Laurence Blair. Photographs by Santi Carneri on (#5TP4A)
Forced from their homes by missionaries, the Ayoreo cling on in the Chaco. Now the Bioceanic Corridor cuts through the fastest-vanishing forest on Earth, refuge of some of the Americas’ last hunter-gatherersIn 1972, Catholic missionaries entered the Chaco forest of northern Paraguay and forced Oscar Pisoraja’s family, and their nomadic Ayoreo people, to leave with them. Many perished from thirst on the long march south. Settled near the village of Carmelo Peralta on the Paraguay River, dozens more died from illnesses. Still, the survivors kept up some traditions – hunting for armadillos; weaving satchels from the spiky caraguatá plant. “We felt part of this place,” says Pisoraja, now 51.Today, his community – and other indigenous peoples across the Chaco, a tapestry of swamp, savanna and thorny forest across four countries that is South America’s largest ecosystem after the Amazon – are confronting a dramatic new change.Mario Abdo Benítez, Paraguay’s president, and Reinaldo Azambuja Silva, governor of Mato Grosso do Sul state in Brazil, at the site of a new bridge across the Paraguay River, due to be completed in 2024 Continue reading...
The island nation struggles to keep the lights on but has inoculated 90% of population with home-developed vaccinesGeneral Máximo Gómez, a key figure in Cuba’s 19th-century wars of independence against Spain once said: “Cubans either don’t meet the mark – or go way past it.”A century and a half later, the aphorism rings true. This downtrodden island struggles to keep the lights on, but has now vaccinated more of its citizens against Covid-19 than any of the world’s major nations. Continue reading...
Support for España Vaciada in villages such as Milmarcos could threaten the old ruling duopolyJudith Iturbe grimaces as she thinks about August and what it means for the residents and rhythms of Milmarcos.At the height of summer, the population of this small and beautiful Spanish village, which sits close to Castilla-La Mancha’s border with Aragón, rises from just 44 to about 1,000. Continue reading...
Online video shows man claiming he is putting health secretary on notice for ‘harming’ people in BritainA 60-year-old man has been charged after reports of an anti-vaccine protest outside the health secretary’s London home.A video posted online appears to show a person delivering a letter with an anti-Covid-vaccine message to what they claimed was Sajid Javid’s home in Fulham, south-west London. Continue reading...
by Sarah Martin Chief political correspondent on (#5TP1N)
More than 6 million people with a concession card will be given 10 free rapid antigen tests over the next three months as Australia reports 64,000 cases
The Philippines adds little to global emissions but faces some of its worst effects in extreme weather. Climate justice is neededA few days before Christmas, Super-typhoon Rai – known locally as Odette – ravaged the Philippines. The morning after the onslaught, on my way back to Iloilo City from San Jose, Antique, I could see the ocean still boiling; houses blown away and great trees knocked down, making roads impassable. The sights were terrifying.Lost lives continue to climb two weeks on. Vast numbers of buildings were destroyed – from houses to schools; food crops lost to flooding. At first, I did not know what to feel – anger, helplessness? Later, I knew what I wanted: climate justice. Continue reading...
by Shaun Walker Central and eastern Europe correspond on (#5TNHW)
President appoints acting prime minister after earlier declaring a state of emergency to tackle widespread demonstrations over rising fuel pricesKazakhstan’s president has accepted the resignation of the government, hours after he declared a state of emergency in large parts of the country in response to a rare outbreak of unrest.Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has appointed Alikhan Smailov as acting prime minister, the president’s office said early on Wednesday. Smailov was previously the first deputy prime minister. Continue reading...
Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut, adapted from the short novel by Elena Ferrante, unravels the myth that motherhood comes naturally to womenIt is clear from the opening minutes of The Lost Daughter, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s melancholic, bristly directorial debut on Netflix, that a dark secret stalks the sunny Mediterranean vacation of Leda Caruso, (a luminous Olivia Colman), a 48-year-old English professor of comparative literature. Her “working holiday” at a Greek island is immediately beset by increasingly ominous intrusions: a spectral foghorn, a bowl of rotting fruit, a shrill cicada, a boisterous Italian American family from Queens who disrupt her beachside reading. Memories pull at her focus; when the young daughter of Nina (Dakota Johnson), a beautiful, languid member of the Queens bunch who immediately catches Leda’s attention, goes briefly missing, Nina’s panic elides with a flashback to twentysomething Leda’s (Jessie Buckley) frantic search for her daughter Bianca at a beach.It’s a familiar language of buried secrets, sinister subtext and unspooling memories – the building blocks of suspense – but the landmines in The Lost Daughter aren’t the usual culprits of dark revelation: unspeakable trauma or abuse, evil spirits, suppressed desires, the ravages of capitalism or greed. Instead, the molten core of The Lost Daughter is one of our culture’s most enduring and least touchable taboos: the selfish, uncaring, “unnatural” mother – one who doesn’t shift easily to care-taking, who does not relish her role, who not only begrudges but resents her children. Continue reading...
Every year millions of us resolve to learn a new language, get super fit or master a new skill ... then never start. How can we make it happen? Experts explain allThis year, my new year resolution is to finish the first draft of a novel. It’s a realistic goal – I’m not saying it has to make money, or even be any good. I just want the words on the page, even if all they do then is languish for ever in a folder.Well, I say that’s what I want – but of course finishing a draft was my new year resolution last year, and the year before that, and before that. In truth, I’ve been pushing back this particular ambition since 2017. Continue reading...
Newspaper accepts defeat and will pay additional unspecified sum for infringing her copyrightThe Mail on Sunday will pay the Duchess of Sussex just £1 in damages for invading her privacy by publishing a private letter she had sent to her father.The nominal sum is set out in court documents that also formally confirm that the newspaper – and its sister website MailOnline – has accepted defeat and will not be taking the long-running case to a supreme court appeal. Continue reading...
Michele Rech aka Zerocalcare’s book signings attract huge crowds and now he has a hit Netflix animated series inspired by his lifeMichele Rech is uncomfortable with success. The shy 38-year-old comic book artist, who works from a modest apartment on the outskirts of Rome, does not use the word “fame” but refers instead to his rise to national prominence as a “thing” he struggles to manage.In the art world, he is known as Zerocalcare and is the cartoonist’s equivalent of Hunter S Thompson. Rech’s graphic novels are a form of gonzo journalism – inspired by his own adventures as a protester on the frontlines of police violence in Italy, and in Syria, where he was embedded with Kurdish forces. Continue reading...
Book explores unseen archive papers relating to Prince Louis Rwagasore’s murder, which led to years of unrestA popular prime minister of Burundi, Prince Louis Rwagasore, was shot dead just over 60 years ago with the complicity of Belgium, the departing colonial power, a researcher has claimed.The Belgian state has an “overwhelming responsibility” for the assassination of Rwagasore, according to Ludo De Witte, a Flemish sociologist who has spent five years investigating the killing. His previous work on the assassination of Congo’s first elected prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, led to a parliamentary inquiry that concluded Belgium had a “moral responsibility” for the death of the charismatic leader. Continue reading...
Canada has reached an in-principle agreement totalling C$4bn (US$31.bn) to compensate First Nations children who were taken from their families and put into the welfare system, a major step toward reconciliation with the country's Indigenous people. David Sterns, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said: ‘This settlement is the largest class action settlement in Canadian history and it is believed to be one of the largest anywhere in the world.' The agreement includes C$2bn for potentially hundreds of thousands of First Nations children who were removed from their families. Another C$2bn is to reform the system over the next five years
So many young people in Australia are testing positive to Covid that videos about their experiences are going viral on TikTok. 'Gorgeous gorgeous girls Afterpay their rapid antigen test,' writes TikTok user @eilishgilligan, in a statement that attempts to capture the mood of young people living in Australia’s major cities
French president stokes divisions as parliament debates tighter requirements for mandatory health passEmmanuel Macron has prompted a furore after saying that his government’s vaccination strategy is to “piss off” people who have not had coronavirus jabs by continuing to make daily life more and more difficult for them.“I am not about pissing off the French people,” the president said in an interview with readers of Le Parisien daily on Tuesday. “But as for the non-vaccinated, I really want to piss them off. And we will continue to do this, to the end. This is the strategy.” Continue reading...
Weary abductees including children and babies ‘freed unconditionally’, say police in troubled northern statesNearly 100 hostages, most of them women and children, have been rescued more than two months after they were abducted by armed groups in northwest Nigeria.Among the 97 freed hostages were 19 babies and more than a dozen children, Ayuba Elkana, police chief in Zamfara state, said on Tuesday. Continue reading...
Mario Antonio Palacios had been detained in Panama en route to Colombia from JamaicaA suspected member of the group involved in the assassination of Haiti’s president, Jovenel Moïse, has been arrested by US authorities after he was detained while transiting through Panama following his deportation from Jamaica to Colombia.Mario Antonio Palacios, 43, a former member of the Colombian military, is accused by Haitian authorities of being part of a mercenary group that tortured and killed Moïse and wounded his wife, Martine, during an attack on Moïse’s private home in July. Continue reading...
Wednesday: Tennis tournament organisers confirm world No 1 will play grand slam. Plus: how the pandemic changed parentingGood morning. Weeks of speculation about Novak Djokovic’s involvement in the Australia Open have come to an end after the world No 1 last night revealed he has a medical exemption to get around Melbourne’s strict quarantine rules. Meanwhile, more hospital staff in NSW speak out about the pressure of staff shortages and record Covid infections.Djokovic is on his way to Melbourne to defend his Australian Open title after he refused to divulge his Covid vaccination status. Australian Open organisers confirmed he had received a medical exemption and said two panels of experts had reviewed the case. The Australian Technical Advisory Group allows exemptions for reasons including acute major medical conditions to any serious adverse effect from previous doses of the Covid-19 vaccine. The reason for Djokovic’s exemption is unclear and has garnered mixed responses from his peers. Continue reading...
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