The year promises murder mysteries, slashers and fan service sequels hoping to tempt audiences back to the big screenNow arguably more than ever, it’s hard to predict what will and won’t connect with cinemagoers over the next 12 months, a tumultuous time of uncertainty extending until an unknowable date. While the rough release schedule is more than certain to change (a number of January releases have already moved as a result of Omicron), what it does do is show us what the industry is banking on right now, outside of the bread-and-butter business of superheroes.Here’s a look at what you’ll be seeing the most of in 2022: Continue reading...
Prime minister Scott Morrison says he expects authorities to be ‘implementing the policy of the government’ when it comes to Covid vaccination exemptions
Watchdog says younger children were targeted by online predators on an industrial scale during lockdownsInternet grooming of children has surged during lockdown, according to new research that found a threefold increase in online sexual abuse imagery featuring seven to 10-year-olds.The Internet Watch Foundation reported its worst year on record for child sex abuse online in 2021 as it confirmed 252,000 URLs containing images or videos of children being sexually abused, compared with 153,000 in the previous year. The UK-based charity said it had seen a large increase in self-generated material – where children are manipulated into recording their own abuse before it is shared online – with the fastest growing increase in such material occurring among seven to 10-year-olds. Continue reading...
Sarwar Danish arrived in the country from Turkey in December, while other Afghans who worked for New Zealand forces remain in fear of their livesNew Zealand’s decision to resettle a former vice-president of Afghanistan and 13 family members has sparked controversy, with some asking why hundreds of Afghans who helped New Zealand forces or were associated with them remain trapped abroad and in fear for their lives.Sarwar Danish had already escaped to Turkey before recently arriving in New Zealand, according to Stuff, which first reported the news. Continue reading...
by Denis Campbell Health policy editor on (#5TYVF)
Economy would get a major boost if people in most-deprived regions were as healthy as those in rich areasEndemic ill-health in England’s “left behind” neighbourhoods costs the country almost £30bn a year because people are often too ill to work and die earlier, a report claims.The cost of lost productivity results directly from those very deprived areas having much worse health than the rest of the country, according to parliamentarians and academics. Continue reading...
Influential singer of hits including Be My Baby, who married abusive producer Phil Spector, dies of cancerRonnie Spector, the singer who defined the sound of mid-century girl groups as the frontwoman of the Ronettes, has died aged 78.A statement on her website states:Our beloved earth angel, Ronnie, peacefully left this world today after a brief battle with cancer. She was with family and in the arms of her husband, Jonathan.Ronnie lived her life with a twinkle in her eye, a spunky attitude, a wicked sense of humor and a smile on her face. She was filled with love and gratitude. Continue reading...
Police were called to reports a man had scaled front of building with chisel to attack artwork by Eric GillA man has been arrested after allegedly damaging a statue outside the BBC’s Broadcasting House on Wednesday.Officers were called to reports of a man scaling the building in Portland Place, central London, and using a chisel to damage the statue in question. Continue reading...
France says Fariba Adelkhah’s unexplained return to prison will damage efforts to revive 2015 curbs on nuclear programmeIran has sent back to prison from house arrest French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah, a shock development in the midst of delicate talks on the Iranian nuclear drive.Adelkhah was sentenced in May 2020 to five years in prison for conspiring against national security, accusations her supporters have always denounced as absurd. She was allowed home in Tehran in October 2020 with an electronic bracelet. Continue reading...
US state department says it is seeking clarification over detention of Omar Abdalmajeed As’adAn 80-year-old Palestinian-American manhas been found dead after being detained and handcuffed during an Israeli raid on a village in the occupied West Bank.The US state department said that Omar Abdalmajeed As’ad was a US citizen and that it had sought clarification from Israel over the incident. His body was found in Jiljilya in the early hours of Wednesday morning with a plastic zip-tie still around one wrist. Continue reading...
It remains unclear if the North America’s largest music festival, rescheduled four times since 2020, will go on due to the Omicron surgeKanye West, Billie Eilish and Harry Styles are expected to headline the 21st Coachella music festival in April, Variety reported on Wednesday ahead of the festival’s official full lineup announcement, which is expected later this week. The trio will also be joined by Swedish House Mafia, though it is unclear whether the house music supergroup will also headline.North America’s largest music festival, which has already sold out, is scheduled to take place on the weekends of 15-17 April and 22-24 April at its usual haunt, the Empire Polo Ground in Indio, California, east of Los Angeles. Continue reading...
From financial damages to military titles, the cost of Virginia Giuffre’s case going ahead could be highPrince Andrew has been forced to scale back his royal duties in the wake of sexual assault allegations from Virginia Giuffre, claims he strenuously denies.Aside from his royal roles, private firms such as BT and Barclays have also severed ties with him in recent years. Continue reading...
Two men are suspected of staining the famed Sicilian beauty spot with red powder on FridayItalian police have identified two men suspected of having vandalised the famed white limestone Scala dei Turchi (Stairway of the Turks) cliff in Sicily, which features prominently in the Inspector Montalbano books by the late author Andrea Camilleri.The cliff, shaped like a huge staircase jutting into the Mediterranean from the coast of Realmonte, was on Friday defaced with red iron oxide powder which left red stains running down the limestone. Continue reading...
by Maya Wolfe-Robinson North of England correspondent on (#5TYD0)
Attorney general says she believes Frankie Smith’s punishment over child’s death to be ‘unduly lenient’The eight-year jail sentence handed to Frankie Smith for causing or allowing the death of her toddler daughter, Star Hobson, has been referred to the court of appeal.Suella Braverman, the attorney general, said the case was “tragic and extremely upsetting” and she believed 20-year-old Smith’s sentence was “unduly lenient”. Continue reading...
Skiing holidays could soon be given the green light, following the ease of travel restrictions in the ‘next few days’British skiers could soon be able to return to French slopes after an announcement that France is due to lift its blanket ban on non-essential travel from the UK.The French government’s official spokesman, Gabriel Attal, said after a weekly cabinet meeting on Wednesday that Paris would ease travel restrictions from the UK to France in the next few days. Continue reading...
Analysis: Win or lose, sexual assault case is unprecedented chapter in royal family’s modern historyThe New York court ruling that the civil sex assault case against the Duke of York will proceed is a devastating blow for Prince Andrew and the royal family after more than a decade of allegation and innuendo.Aside from any appeal Prince Andrew may be able to mount against Wednesday’s ruling, he faces the ignominious prospect of having to give evidence in a sex assault lawsuit and face cross-examination on aspects of his private life to clear his name. Win or lose, it is an unprecedented chapter in the royal family’s modern history. Continue reading...
Amiri, 34, back in UK after Iran’s supreme court overturned 2019 conviction and 10-year prison sentenceAn Iranian woman who worked for the British Council has been freed from detention in Evin prison and returned to the UK after being acquitted of spying charges.Aras Amiri’s lawyers had mounted an appeal to the Iranian supreme court that led to her release. She is now at an undisclosed address in the UK. Continue reading...
No one has been charged over attacks on forest road near Lake Annecy in French AlpsA man has been detained in connection with the unsolved case of three British family members and a French cyclist who were shot dead in the French Alps in 2012.Saad al-Hilli, an Iraqi-born engineer, his wife Ikbal and her mother, Suhaila al-Allaf, were gunned down in a lay-by on remote forest road outside the village of Chevaline, near Lake Annecy. The couple’s two young daughters survived the attack. Continue reading...
Postwar Japan embraced the music of its former enemy – and, powered by anti-establishment feeling, remade it. As they find a new global audience, the country’s jazz innovators explain what drove themThe story of Japanese jazz is about music and a movement, but also a nation’s state of mind – a daring vision of a better future after the second world war, sounded out on piano, drums and brass. Jazz is a distinctly American art form – the US’s greatest cultural achievement, in fact, along with hip-hop – and a healthy scene had formed in the 1920s and 30s as American players toured the clubs of Tokyo, Kobe and Osaka. But Japan had historically been an insular nation – its policy of sakoku, which for more than two centuries severely limited contact with the outside world, had only ended in the 1850s – and an increasingly nationalist government, feeling jazz diluted Japanese culture, began to crack down. By the second world war, “the music of the enemy” was outlawed.After the country’s surrender, occupying forces oversaw sweeping reforms. American troops brought jazz records with them; Japanese musicians picked up work entertaining the troops. There was a proliferation of jazz kissa (cafes), a distinctly Japanese phenomenon where locals could sit and listen to records for as long as they wanted. For some, jazz was the sound of modernity. Continue reading...
Chief executive addresses first legislative sitting since pro-Beijing sweep in ‘patriots only’ electionHong Kong’s leader has vowed to introduce a swathe of new security laws for the city, in an address opening the first legislative sitting since the “patriots only” election cemented the removal of opposition from government.Carrie Lam did not detail the new crimes that would be created in the planned “local legislation”, which would meet a constitutional requirement for Hong Kong to have its own national security law. Continue reading...
Researchers find four dogs can identify biomarkers associated with the virus with 97.5% accuracyWith a sense of smell up to 100,000 times more sensitive than humans’, dogs have been employed in the service of sniffing out everything from contraband to crop molds to cancer.Yet while researchers first began exploring whether canines could be effective agents in the fight against Covid-19 early in the pandemic, only in recent months have conclusive, peer-reviewed studies begun verifying the hypothesis that dogs know Covid when they smell it. Continue reading...
L’empire des lumières depicts street in Brussels thought to be near where the Belgian surrealist livedA masterpiece by the Belgian surrealist René Magritte, described as one of the most desirable works in private hands, is expected to sell for a record-breaking £45m when it goes to auction for the first time this year.Helena Newman, the chair of Sotheby’s Europe, said the “show-stopping” painting, L’empire des lumières, depicting a street at night underneath a bright blue sky, would be the star of an auction on London on 2 March. Continue reading...
by Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro and Uki Goñi in Bu on (#5TXTB)
Signs of an incipient return to normality have been dashed as case numbers soar but high vaccination rates offer reason for hopeAs the pandemic’s second, gruelling year drew to a close and Covid rates in Rio de Janeiro plunged to levels unseen since it began, the Brazilian city’s health secretary, Daniel Soranz, celebrated a desperately needed respite.“We’ve been through such painful, difficult months … this is now a moment of hope,” the 42-year-old doctor said last November as carioca life regained some semblance of normality, hospitals emptied and the city’s effervescent cultural scene was reborn. Continue reading...
Trial of coach who allegedly raped 11-year-old in 2010 comes after Olympic champion spoke out about abuseThe landmark trial of a Greek sailing coach accused of raping a child has opened in Athens, a year after an Olympic champion effectively launched the #MeToo movement in the country by speaking out about her experiences.The case is one of many that came to light after Sofia Bekatorou, a former Olympic sailing gold medal winner, broke the taboo on speaking out on such matters in December 2020. Continue reading...
Corentin Emile Franck Huens handed corrections order over September 2020 attack when he told victim ‘You will remember me – I am from Arrowfield’A French national who attacked a stallion handler in a regional New South Wales pub toilet after they argued over what was Australia’s best horse stud has been placed on a 19-month intensive corrections order.French national Corentin Emile Franck Huens, 28, was working for the Arrowfield horse stud in Scone when he head-butted and glassed stallion handler Keelan Dempsey, 29, from the rival Newgate stud at Aberdeen. Continue reading...
Government report on post-Brexit recruitment finds staff citing no health and safety equipment, racism and unsafe accommodationSeasonal workers in the UK on a post-Brexit pilot scheme to harvest fruit and vegetables were subjected to “unacceptable” welfare conditions, according to a government review.Issues cited by workers included a lack of health and safety equipment, racism, and accommodation without any bathrooms, running water or kitchens. Continue reading...
My self-esteem was at rock bottom, but on a break from my academic job I found myself in Paris. As I wandered through the city, an impulse buy gave me hope I could value myself againA couple of years ago, after a bad academic year, I’d thought things would get better over the summer. They didn’t. I kept walking out of shops without buying what I’d gone in for, because it felt wrong to be taking up space and expecting attention. I couldn’t buy train tickets, even at the machine, because other people deserved to go first and, as soon as there was someone behind me, I gave up mid-transaction. I wasn’t eating much – food was for other people – but at the same time I was travelling and appearing at literary events and festivals, confident on stage as I’d been confident in the classroom all year. It seemed to me that my low estimation of myself off stage was correct and so I didn’t think to seek help any more than I’d seek help for believing that rain is wet.One day in September (kids at school, students still on summer vacation, a time when work can be done from a train or hotel), I was in Paris, changing trains, really, but still with enough sense to know that a person arriving at night and leaving the next day might as well leave late the next day and give herself a day in Paris. I wasn’t sure it would work, knew myself perfectly capable of walking the streets hour after hour telling myself that any competent person would be enjoying museums and shops and cafes and what kind of privileged neurotic steals a day from her work and her family and then doesn’t even have the guts to buy a croissant, days off are wasted on me and I don’t deserve … I knew the city, a bit, from teenaged (mis)adventures, and I set off into the Marais, hungry from missed meals the day before and carrying a backpack too heavy with books. Sunlight through plane trees, the streets still quiet. Old stone, balconies, geraniums, city squares with those perfectly geometric arrangements of trees and municipal planting that we don’t do in England. Continue reading...
The government has been criticised for apparent inaction as evidence mounts that mercury contamination is causing illness in fishing communitiesOutside a small brick house shared by four families, Daniela Prada, who is heavily pregnant, gathers guava leaves to make a tea for her two-year-old son.“My baby gets sick a lot,” she says, boiling a pot of water in her outdoor kitchen. “He always has diarrhoea and last night he had a fever. Most of the time I give him natural medicine.”
by Nino Bucci (now) and Caitlin Cassidy (earlier) on (#5TXCN)
Second deadliest day of pandemic with 21 deaths recorded in both NSW and Victoria and seven in SA; NSW reports 34,759 Covid cases and 2,242 hospitalisations, Victoria 40,127 cases with 946 in hospital, Queensland 22,069 and 525, SA 3,715 and 190, Tasmania 1,583 and 22, ACT 1,078 and 23; $1,000 fines for not reporting positive rapid antigen tests in NSW. Follow all the day’s news
Maureen Lipman sparked fury by suggesting the ex Israeli PM should not be played by Mirren. But, says David Baddiel, why shouldn’t ‘authentic casting’ apply to all minorities? And where is the outcry over Bojack Horseman?Soon after the brilliant It’s A Sin came out, Russell T Davies justified his decision to cast only gay actors in gay parts by saying: “They are not there to ‘act gay’ because ‘acting gay’ is a bunch of codes for a performance. You wouldn’t cast someone able-bodied and put them in a wheelchair … authenticity is leading us to joyous places.”It would be wrong to suggest that no one questioned this statement, but it became part of an ongoing conversation about casting and minorities. Davies was not, thankfully, mightily abused on social media for saying it – which is what happened last week to Maureen Lipman, after she suggested, on being asked about the casting of Helen Mirren in a biopic of Israel’s former prime minister Golda Meir, that Jewish parts should perhaps be played by Jewish actors. Continue reading...
With the climate crisis becoming ever more urgent, a growing number of young, childless men are taking the drastic decision of being sterilised for environmental reasons
by Vikram Dodd Police and crime correspondent on (#5TXNE)
Former assistant commissioner Robert Quick says lockdown parties scandal could damage image of policingPolice officers who saw laws broken while on guard duty at Downing Street would be expected to report it, a former Scotland Yard police chief has said.The former assistant commissioner Robert Quick was head of specialist operations at the Metropolitan police from 2008 to 2009, including counter-terrorism and protection officers for Downing Street. Continue reading...
The creator of the viral word game has pledged to keep it completely free – but a host of since-removed apps have been accused of trying to cash inNo good deed goes unpunished – as is the case with Wordle, the viral linguistic guessing game which found itself with a deluge of apparent clones flooding Apple’s App Store this past week.Initially created by software engineer Josh Wardle for his partner, a puzzle aficionado, the brainteaser skyrocketed in popularity earlier this year, blooming from just 90 daily players in November to now more than 2 million. Continue reading...
Campaigners plan arts centre for magnificent medieval church to lure tourists and new inhabitantsNot for nothing is the parish church of the Spanish village of Villamorón known as la catedral del páramo – the Cathedral of the Moorland.For eight centuries, the church of Saint James the Apostle has held out in the northern wilds of Castilla y León, a Romanesque-creeping-into-Gothic treasure that sits beneath a low sky, amid endless fields and at the edge of a village that gave up the ghost almost 50 years ago. Continue reading...
by Written by Hannah Rae Armstrong , read by Kelly Bu on (#5TXMM)
We are raiding the Audio Long Read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors.This week, from 2018: For millions of Algerians, life has been shaped by years of conflict, unemployment and state repression. Sheep fighting offers an arena where young men can escape the constant supervision of the state. By Hannah Rae Armstrong
Kim Jong-un personally oversaw test, state media reports, and confirms South Korean belief that launch was more advanced than last week’sNorth Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un personally oversaw the successful test of a hypersonic missile, state media reported on Wednesday, the second such launch by the nuclear-armed nation in less than a week.Tuesday’s launch forced the US to briefly halt some flights on its west coast, the Federal Aviation Administration said, and was more advanced in nature than the test last week of a hypersonic missile according to South Korean military chiefs. Continue reading...
Civilians leave on visiting HMNZS Canterbury after pandemic combined with medical condition had left them strandedNew Zealand’s navy has conducted an unusual mercy mission to retrieve two people stranded in Singapore for 18 months due to Covid-19.A medical condition meant the two could not fly to New Zealand, and their shrinking bank balance made staying in Singapore difficult. Continue reading...
World news | The Guardian