by Written by Ewen MacAskill & Jonathan Franklin, on (#5TERM)
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 2016:Under General Pinochet’s rule of terror in Chile, one man saved thousands of people from the dictator’s brutal secret police. How did Roberto Kozak do it – and escape death? By Ewen MacAskill and Jonathan Franklin Continue reading...
by Vincent Ni China affairs correspondent on (#5TERK)
The international context and mood music are very different 14 years after the Beijing Summer GamesSpectacular fireworks lit up the summer sky and the air filled with the smell of sulphur as trails of smoke descended on the crowds in Tiananmen Square. The throng cheered enthusiastically. “Go Beijing, go China, go Olympics,” they chanted. The collective pride was palpable.It was shortly after the opening ceremony of the Beijing Summer Olympics, which began at 8.08pm local time on 8 August 2008; the Chinese believe eight is an auspicious number. That evening, Chinese-American Kaiser Kuo was watching from the balcony of his apartment in eastern Beijing. “It was meant to be impressive, and watching as a Chinese person, it certainly was: all the pageantry of history, the flawless performances, the grand scale,” Kuo says. Continue reading...
The Bristol University and West Point graduate is the oldest of Hun Sen’s six children and has been groomed to succeed his fatherA doctor in economics, military leader, Bristol University graduate, Hun Manet, the oldest son of Cambodia’s prime minister Hun Sen, has been confirmed as the next leader of the country’s dominant political party, which described him as a “prime minister candidate [of] the future”.At last week’s congress, the Cambodian People’s party (CPP), which holds every parliamentary seat, voted unanimously for 44-year-old Hun Manet to succeed his father. Continue reading...
Then PM raised idea of monarch opening assembly but accepted it was ‘delicate issue’, newly released papers revealTony Blair considered asking the Queen to open the newly formed Northern Ireland assembly in 1998, newly released state papers show.A letter from the then prime minister’s principal private secretary, John Holmes, reveals that Blair accepted it was a “delicate issue” but “[did] not believe it would be inappropriate” for the monarch to be involved. Continue reading...
Performer and campaigner was one of the first Britons to undergo gender reassignment surgeryTributes have been paid to the “true trailblazer” transgender activist April Ashley, who has died aged 86.One of the first Britons to undergo gender assignment surgery, the model and actor was made an MBE in 2012 for her campaigning work for the transgender community. Continue reading...
What to expect in the coming months, and what you can do to manage the costsThe UK’s energy crisis deepened last week after gas market prices surpassed the record highs set in October to reach a new all-time high of £4.50 per therm, about nine times higher than this time last year. Continue reading...
For the second time in a month, conservation experts in Virginia opened an apparent time capsule found in the remnants of a pedestal that once held a statue of Confederate general Robert E Lee.State officials hope Tuesday’s opening of the aged copper box, which was discovered and carefully extracted from the monument site on Monday, will mark the end of a long search for an elusive time capsule deposited in 1887.
African nations have huddled together in face of climate and Covid storms. They must make that unity pay off for their citizens“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” So opens Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. Set in London and Paris during the late 1700s and the lead-up to the French Revolution, the novel was a warning about what happens when wealth funnels upwards while the masses stagnate. Nowhere do the best and worst of times collide with more geopolitical force than in Africa.African writers swept the board for literature awards from the Nobel to the Booker, while seven out of eight children in the continent’s sub-Saharan region are unable to read by the age of 10. This year the continent was home to the slowest internet speeds on the planet, as African judges granted the world’s first patent given to a robot inventor. About 50 million Africans are expected to fall into extreme poverty in 2021, when the continent’s richest billionaires have seen their wealth increase by a fifth. Continue reading...
by Vikram Dodd Police and crime correspondent on (#5TEBS)
Exclusive: Tribunal details litany of offences over six years by PC Ryan Connolly, who resigned from Merseyside force before hearingA police officer took selfies at a murder scene where a teenager had been stabbed to death, and sent “appalling” racist, homophobic and offensive images via WhatsApp, the Guardian has learned.PC Ryan Connolly from the Merseyside force committed a litany of disciplinary offences over a six-year period while a serving officer, a tribunal has decided.Connolly had photos and graphics that were grossly racist, and one depicting Muslim people. He also had an image of a Ku Klux Klan member.In 2016 and again in 2017, while on duty, he took photos on his mobile of men detained by police under mental health powers, who were in hospital, and shared it via WhatsApp.While on duty he took and sent a photo of men in hospital on at least two occasions.He took photos of people who had been arrested.In October 2015 he took a photo, while on duty, of someone who had slashed their wrists, and shared it via WhatsApp.He took a photo of a fellow officer’s rear and shared it via WhatsApp.In 2016 he sent a graphic homophobic message.He took photos in 2018 of himself at a murder scene where he had been assigned to guard the cordon after a teenager had been stabbed to death.He took photos of crime victims, including someone missing from home, and shared details about a woman who went to police for help alleging she had suffered domestic violence.Other images mocked disabled people. Continue reading...
Readers commemorate the late South African archbishop, and the causes of peace, equality and environmentalism that he championedYour informative obituary of Archbishop Desmond Tutu (26 December) missed an important dimension – his warnings on the need to save the planet. In March 2004, he delivered a lecture entitled God’s Word and World Politics at the United Nations as part of Kofi Annan’s public lecture series on cutting-edge topics in the humanities, natural sciences, social sciences and the arts.The archbishop said: “Ecological concerns are a deeply religious, spiritual matter. To pollute the environment, to be responsible for a disastrous warming, is not just wrong and should be a criminal offence; it is certainly morally wrong. It is a sin.”
by Bethan McKernan Jerusalem correspondent on (#5TE9Z)
Noam Huppert says he is subject to travel ban until the year 9999 because he owes £1.8m to ex-wifeAn Australian national living in Israel has said he is subject to an 8,000-year travel ban unless he pays an outstanding £1.8m in child support payments.Noam Huppert, a 44-year-old analytical chemist working for a pharmaceutical company, is not allowed to leave Israel until 31 December 9999 owing to a 2013 “stay of exit” order handed down after a family court case was brought by his ex-wife, according to news.com.au. Continue reading...
by Hosted by Jane Lee, written by Ben Doherty, recomm on (#5TEA1)
Mohammad Zaman Khadimi was forced to make an impossible choice as he fled the Taliban for sanctuary in Australia.In one of our best episodes from the Guardian Australia Reads podcast in 2021 – Ben Doherty tells the story of Khadimi, a young Hazara man who walked out of class one morning and into a world entirely changedYou can read the original article here: ‘They will kill you’: a future leader of Afghanistan on the price he paid for freedomYou can find every episode of Guardian Australia Reads here, or subscribe by searching for Guardian Australia Reads wherever you get your podcasts Continue reading...
by Hosted by Jane Lee. Recommended by Alyx Gorman. Wr on (#5TE8D)
Their shed may not be state-of-the art but a community-oriented approach to fitness is working out for Barbara and Peter Hill. Lifestyle editor Alyx Gorman introduces a heartwarming story that could get you moving
Severe weather sweeping across parts of the US continues to bring record-breaking cold temperatures to the Pacific north-west and heavy snow to mountains in California and Nevada.Footage from Mammoth Lakes in central California shows blizzards of snow. To the north, the Northstar California ski resort in Truckee closed its mountain operations on Monday due to the extreme conditions
Creature named after a Gremlin bit more than a dozen people in Buckley before being caught and put downThe tale of Stripe the squirrel began cheerfully enough with Corrine Reynolds, an animal lover in north Wales, feeding the creature titbits and watching its acrobatic adventures in her back garden.But the story took a distinctly unfestive twist when Stripe – named after the sharp-toothed creature in the Christmas horror comedy Gremlins – began nipping at Reynolds and other neighbours. Continue reading...
by Andrew Roth in Moscow and Jon Henley on (#5TDVR)
Deal reached for talks on 10 January that are likely to be followed by discussions with NatoRussian and US officials will hold security talks in early January amid mounting tensions over Ukraine, officials from both countries have confirmed.The high-stakes discussions are expected to address Russia’s military buildup on Ukraine’s borders, while Moscow will press demands that Nato pledges not to admit Ukraine and roll back the alliance’s post-cold war development. Continue reading...
Younger brother of Argentine football legend died after suffering heart attack, says Napoli football clubDiego Maradona’s younger brother, Hugo, has died in Naples at the age of 52 just a year after the death of the Argentine football legend, the Italian football club Napoli has confirmed.“Hugo Maradona has died,” Napoli said in a brief statement on Tuesday, confirming reports in the Italian press that the former footballer had suffered a heart attack. Continue reading...
by Martin Pengelly in New York and agencies on (#5TE5H)
US health authorities half recommended isolation time and say asymptomatic people should wear a mask for another five daysUS health authorities have halved, to five days, the recommended isolation time for Americans with asymptomatic Covid.The US is facing a huge surge in Covid cases, fueled by the Omicron variant, which contributed to travel chaos over Christmas and stoked worries about damage to the economy and education. Continue reading...
Supreme court ruling on Memorial is watershed moment in Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on independent thoughtRussia’s supreme court has ordered the closure of Memorial International, the country’s oldest human rights group, in a watershed moment in Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on independent thought.The court ruled Memorial must be closed under Russia’s controversial “foreign agent” legislation, which has targeted dozens of NGOs and media outlets seen as critical of the government. Continue reading...
Charity says the two men, both new fathers, were killed in massacre of more than 30 people blamed on junta troopsSave the Children has confirmed that two of its staff were killed in a Christmas Eve massacre blamed on junta troops that left the charred remains of dozens of people on a highway in eastern Myanmar.Anti-junta fighters said they found more than 30 bodies, including women and children, on a highway in Kayah state where pro-democracy rebels have been fighting the military. Continue reading...
Second attack on cargo hub this month reported to have caused ‘significant material damage’An Israeli airstrike hit Syria’s Latakia port before dawn on Tuesday, sparking a fire that lit up the Mediterranean seafront in the second such attack on the cargo hub this month, Syrian state media reported.Since the outbreak of Syria’s civil war in 2011, Israel has routinely carried out airstrikes on its neighbour, mostly targeting Syrian government troops as well as allied Iran-backed forces and Hezbollah fighters. Continue reading...
Man, 19, charged after Denis and Mary Fell were found dead at their house in Raeburn RiggA teenager has been charged in connection with the deaths of a couple at their home on Boxing Day.Denis and Mary Fell, both aged 73, were found dead at their house in Raeburn Rigg, Livingston, West Lothian, at about 11.40pm on Sunday. A sudden death had earlier been reported at the property. Continue reading...
Singer also says not releasing new music is a way of hitting back at those who took advantage of herBritney Spears has said the years she spent under conservatorship have left her scared of the entertainment industry.The singer revealed her reasons for not being ready to return to the music business after her conservatorship was terminated in November in an Instagram post. Continue reading...
Sir Lindsay Hoyle’s comments come after Stella Creasy was reprimanded for bringing her infant sonMPs should be allowed to bring their babies with them to parliamentary debates, the Commons Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, has said.In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, he said that it should be up to the chair of the debate to decide whether the presence of a baby would cause any disruption. Continue reading...
Leona Peach was reported missing from Newton Abbot area on 20 DecemberPolice in Devon are ramping up a search for a 12-year-old girl who vanished from her home eight days ago, missing Christmas celebrations with her family.Devon and Cornwall police said there were growing increasingly concerned for the welfare of Leona Peach, who was reported missing from the Newton Abbot area on 20 December. Continue reading...
One of the city’s most wanted, Peter Wainaina was given a second chance and used it to turn his life around and help others find different path out of povertyAt the entrance of Kibagare, a slum in Nairobi’s outskirts, boots of dead gangsters dangle from electricity wires that hover over ramshackle homes of wood and iron sheets.With little state protection from crime, angry local people will often take the law into their own hands and beat an offender who is caught in the act, sometimes to death. Continue reading...
As he releases new album The Boy Named If, the veteran songwriter will answer your questions on his decades-spanning careerNext month marks the return of one of the UK’s most enduring and versatile singer-songwriters: Elvis Costello, whose new album with his band The Imposters, The Boy Named If, is out on 14 January. Alongside the release, he’ll answer Guardian readers’ questions, which you can post in the comments section below.Initially rooted in the righteous anger of the punk scene and the populism of pub rock, Costello has been a fount of strident, melodious songwriting since his breakthrough in 1977. Oliver’s Army, Pump It Up and I Don’t Want to Go to Chelsea are defining moments in the new-wave era, while ballads such as Alison remain equally celebrated. Continue reading...
Admirably uncompromising depiction of what may or may not be its hero’s subconscious is intensely realised but not all that much fun to watchBy turns fetid and febrile, pyretic and putrid, and all things hot and sticky, this unique avant garde work is the result of a collaboration between writer-director Stefan Lernous and his colleagues at Abattoir Fermé, a theatre company based in the Belgian Flemish-speaking city of Mechelen. It has a plot, of sorts: there’s a guy named Dave (Tom Vermeir, caked like everyone else in the film with white make-up that makes him look like a zombie) who looks after his family’s supposedly empty hotel, an elaborate set full of rooms encrusted with mould, grot and dead stuff, all of it in the process of mulching down into one sludgy, semi-organic mass. Perhaps the title is a clue that this is all taking place in some para-aquatic terrain, which would explain the abundance of tridents and fishtanks and other watery kit.Anyway, Dave is not entirely alone; this soggy hell has other people in it. There is an unseen neighbour who is watching some extremely noisy porn with whom Dave communicates via shouts. A young woman named Nora (Anneke Sluiters) who insists on renting a room; another husky-voiced woman (Ruth Becquart) in fleshy pantyhouse who complains that she’s bored with “fingerbanging” herself all day. Dave’s angry shouty mother (Tania Van der Sanden) is on hand, and Dave’s dead Aunt Lucy (Dirk Lavryssen) who seems to have died on a sofa some time ago, her altered state only noticed when Nora takes a closer look. Later, there are wild parties, autopsies in the kitchen, and a whole lifetime for Dave lived inside a glass case with a pretty strawberry blonde and a football team’s worth of ginger kids. Continue reading...
Home secretary tells officials to look at possible ways to strengthen controls on weapons in wake of Christmas Day arrestA review into crossbow ownership has been ordered by the home secretary just days after a 19-year-old man was arrested at Windsor Castle on Christmas Day allegedly carrying the weapon.The Metropolitan police are investigating a video, which has been linked to the suspect, which appears to show a masked figureholding a crossbow and saying they want to “assassinate the Queen”. Continue reading...
After one too many rainy nights waiting for the bus, I decide to face my ultimate fear. Can I learn to drive, despite a disastrous attempt in my teens?It has been 10 years since I last stalled a car. I was 18 and drifting across several lanes of an A-road roundabout while my driving test examiner gripped his seat. It was my second attempt at taking the test and my brain had turned into sweaty spaghetti. As I casually cut in front of an HGV, the examiner gasped and demanded I take the next exit. I mirrored, signalled and manoeuvred, found a safe space to pull up, and promptly stalled metres from the curb.I failed – of course I did – and didn’t get back in the driver’s seat in a hurry. I finished school and went to university, always deferring the prospect of booking another test. Years passed, priorities shifted, and even though I kept telling myself that driving is a scourge on the environment, a decade of scrounging lifts from my friends and family has taken its toll. Continue reading...
by Donna Lu (now) and Tory Shepherd (earlier) on (#5TDQ1)
Daily cases in Australia top 11,000 for first time; more positive cases after Sydney lab testing error; ‘sacred’ SCG Ashes Test to go ahead, NSW minister says; Queensland reports 1,158 cases, scraps day five testing requirement after Brad Hazzard criticises ‘tourism testing’. This blog is now closed
Licence application of Missionaries of Charity is rejected on Christmas day amid a wave of anti-Christian sentimentThe Indian government has blocked Mother Teresa’s charity from receiving funds from abroad, just days after it faced a police investigation for “hurting religious sentiments of Hindus” amid rising intolerance towards Christians in India.The Missionaries of Charity, which was started by Mother Teresa in 1950 and runs a network of shelters across India led by nuns to help the poor, was denied the licence to continue to receive funds from abroad, cutting the charity off from vital resources. Continue reading...
After time in a children’s home, then jail, I got a break that helped me turn my life around and become a writer. Shamefully, I am a walking, talking anomalyMy first time at rock bottom came early. I was an infant when my mum fled with me and my brother to a refuge, to escape violence at home. This period of fear was brief, but it left an indelible mark. The chaos and trauma from these years manifested in my flailing limbs during desperate temper tantrums, in which my mum would hear every epithet I could think of while her whole bookcase crashed down our stairs.For as long as I can remember, I have been told that there is something wrong with me, that I am different, naughty, need help; and that chemicals would make me better, make me good. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is the medicalised term for my condition, which proved incompatible with mainstream schools, where pirouetting in maths class like a drunk gymnast was not appreciated. Continue reading...
Government struggling to persuade councils to find permanent homes for those who have arrived since AugustAbout 12,000 Afghan refugees will begin 2022 in UK hotels as the government struggles to persuade enough councils to find permanent homes for the new arrivals, the Guardian has learned.Of the 16,500 people airlifted from Afghanistan to the UK since August, “over 4,000 individuals have either moved into a settled home or are in the process of being moved or matched to a suitable home”, according to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Continue reading...
Owners worried about the climate cost of traditional pet food are switching to crickets, mealworms and black soldier fliesFirst there was recycling, then cutting down on flights, now feeding your pets insects is the latest lifestyle choice to help tackle climate breakdown.Environmentally minded pet owners are choosing to feed their animals meals made out of crickets, mealworms and black soldier flies in an attempt to curb the huge carbon emissions produced by raising livestock for traditional, meat-based diets. Continue reading...
From Morgan’s on-set wobbly to Meghan’s Oprah bombshell, TV prompted countless shocking moments this year. Here are the biggestYes, we have chosen the best television of the year. Yes, we’ve celebrated how great TV can be at its finest. But where were the prank calls? The flouncing presenters? It’s time to turn our attention to the shocking, infuriating and stupid incidents that plotted the way through our television year. Here are the most controversial TV moments of 2021. Continue reading...
The party is riding high in polls and could complete a seismic shift in Irish politics in three years’ timeJust 30 years ago the IRA was bombing Downing Street, launching three mortar bombs at No 10 while John Major presided over a cabinet meeting.In 2021, Sinn Féin, the political party associated with the IRA for much of the Troubles, has moved into pole position to lead the Irish government in what could be the biggest shake-up of the state’s politics since its foundation 100 years ago. Continue reading...
Author won the prize in 1985 for her first novel, The Bone People, which was described as a ‘unique example of Māori magical realism’Acclaimed author and poet Keri Hulme, who was the first New Zealander to win the Booker prize, has died aged 74.The reclusive writer, who won the prestigious literary prize in 1985 for her first novel The Bone People, died on Monday at her home in Waimate in New Zealand’s South Island. Continue reading...
Unite union criticises ‘excessive’ figure while Labour says ‘Tory waste’ letting down taxpayersThe Ministry of Defence (MoD) has come under fire after revelations that it has spent almost £13m on hire cars for staff this year.A freedom of information (FoI) request by PA Media also showed that the Department for Transport spent more than £1.1m in the year to October, while other departments have spent tens of thousands of pounds. The total figure from responses to the FoI request was more than £14.2m. Continue reading...
Nancy Meherne is determined to keep surfing as long as she can ‘do a little jump’ to get on the wavesNancy Meherne lives a simple life by the sea, gardening and riding the soft, mellow waves at Scarborough Beach just a couple of blocks from her house.The 92-year-old’s now pumice-like board was made in New Zealand in the 1970s by a factory that churned out gumboots and other rubber and foam products. Continue reading...
Guardian Australia’s summer wrap of brilliant and juicy writing selected by our lifestyle editorWelcome to Five Great Reads, our daily summertime wrap of brilliant journalism and juicy writing, selected by me, Alyx Gorman, Guardian Australia’s sandals, sex and sandwiches editor.This has either landed in your inbox, in which case thank you for your leap of faith in subscribing; or you’ve stumbled across it some other way. If you fall into the latter category and like what you see, put your email in this little box to hear from me again.Sign up for Five Great Reads Continue reading...
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