Sperm Positive launched in New Zealand in 2019 in an effort to reduce the stigma faced by HIV-positive peopleOlivia and Amy are sitting outside in the shade, trying to escape from New Zealand’s early-summer humidity. Amy, 10 months old, burbles happily in the background as her mother talks. She is healthy, happy, and oblivious to her status as a world first: one of a handful of babies born from the first sperm bank for HIV-positive donors.The bank, Sperm Positive, launched in New Zealand in 2019, in an effort to reduce the stigma faced by HIV-positive people – and raise awareness that with treatment, the virus was undetectable and untransmissible. It grabbed international headlines when it was launched, but has been more than a publicity gimmick. Two years on, the bank is bearing fruit. Continue reading...
Chair of cross-party watchdog tells PM there are signs ‘security is no longer a priority for the government’Boris Johnson has been accused of spending too little time on protecting Britain’s national security in a highly critical letter sent directly to Downing Street by the chair of a cross-party watchdog.The chair of the national security committee, the former Labour foreign secretary Dame Margaret Beckett, writes: “We are deeply troubled by the persistent signs that our nation’s security is no longer a priority for the government”. Continue reading...
You need to talk about your feelings of guilt and insecurity so you can start to forgive yourselfI’m 26 years old, and have been having a really hard time in the past few months due to a breakup I brought upon myself.Last year I started a long-distance relationship with a girl. I loved her, but felt I was constantly struggling with my emotions and honesty due to my insecurity. This caused me to be needy, desperate and always seeking some sort of validation from her, and we had a few breaks because of this. Continue reading...
by Maya Wolfe-Robinson North of England correspondent on (#5T5E6)
Frank Thomson (not his real name) worked as safeguarding locum in 2018 but left after feeling unsafeFrank Thomson* has been a social worker for more than a decade, but describes a short stint in Bradford council’s child safeguarding team as “without exaggerating, the scariest place I’ve ever worked in”.This week, the spotlight has turned to the troubled social work department after the murder of Star Hobson, a 16-month-old toddler, who was beaten to death by her mother’s partner last September. On Wednesday, Savannah Brockhill, 28, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for murder; Frankie Smith, 20, Star’s mother, received an eight-year sentence for causing or allowing her death. Continue reading...
Contentious security guarantees Moscow is seeking include a ban on Ukraine from entering NatoRussia has put forward a highly contentious list of security guarantees it says it wants the west to agree to in order to lower tensions in Europe and defuse the crisis over Ukraine, including many elements that have already been ruled out.The demands include a ban on Ukraine entering Nato and a limit to the deployment of troops and weapons to Nato’s eastern flank, in effect returning Nato forces to where they were stationed in 1997, before an eastward expansion. Continue reading...
Should a polymath professor be expected to defer to the politicians on public health guidance?Conservative MPs have been taking out their frustration on England’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, for what they see as his promotion of “lockdown by stealth”. Chief among them is the American-born Joy Morrissey, who said Whitty should “defer” to politicians like her.In a now deleted tweet, Morrissey, who is on the government payroll as a parliament aide, said: “Perhaps the covid unelected public health spokesperson should defer to what our ELECTED members of parliament and the prime minister have decided. I know it’s difficult to remember but this is not how democracy works. This is not a public health socialist state.” Continue reading...
Twenty-seven people are feared dead after a fire swept through a mental health clinic in the Japanese city of Osaka, the local fire department said.The blaze is being treated as suspected arson, the Kyodo news agency said, quoting police sources saying that a man who appeared to be in his 60s had been seen carrying a paper bag leaking an unidentified liquid
With his teenage neuroses and gawky vulnerability, Spidey isn’t your ordinary superhero, but despite the dodgy wrist action he still resonates with armies of fansNot a spider – and not a man – but the most powerful teenage kid in pop-culture history. Spider-Man is the lonely, sensitive, adolescent underdog whose high-school miseries and humiliations, combined with his secret superheroic triumphs, have been comic-book crack for generations of fascinated fans and a gateway drug to the Marvel world itself.He first appeared in Marvel Comics almost 60 years ago: the orphaned young science prodigy, Peter Parker, bitten by a radioactive spider at an educational exhibit. (Like Godzilla, Spider-Man is a product of the nuclear age.) He acquires the proportionate strength of a spider, a tingly “spider sense” for danger, and the ability to climb up walls. He designs his own body-hugging web-motif costume and web-shooting wrist modules and becomes a superhero, battling people such as the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus. But he is somehow unable to reveal his secret to his high-school crush Mary Jane Watson and, as humble Parker, gets bullied by the high-school jock Flash Thompson who – ironically – fan-worships Spider-Man. So Spider-Man’s victories coexist with despair and depression: he fails to save his Uncle Ben, killed by a street criminal, and his entire superhero career is driven by that primal scene of failure and guilt – a Rosebud of wretchedness. Continue reading...
Famed for portraying bad guys in Skyfall and No Country for Old Men, the Spaniard opens up about his marriage to Penélope Cruz, his formidable mum, and his hopes for his kidsThe bad news is that, at the last minute, my interview with Javier Bardem is changed from being a face-to-face encounter to one conducted by the less risky means of video chat (damn you, Omicron!) But the good news is this means I get to snoop around Bardem’s home in Madrid, where he Zooms me from, and which he shares with his wife, the actor Penélope Cruz, and their two children, Leonardo, 10, and Luna, eight. OK, I don’t actually see the whole house, but he does give me a panoramic view of his study while his kids shout and play outside.“You can see my little bookcase here,” Bardem says, picking up his laptop and giving me the grand tour. “And my map of the world. It’s very chaotic.” Continue reading...
Nobel laureate faces two years in jail after being sentenced for incitement and breaching Covid regulationsMyanmar’s ousted leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has appeared in court wearing prison uniform, a source with knowledge of the court proceedings said.The Nobel laureate, 76, was sentenced by a court this month to four years in jail for incitement and breaching coronavirus regulations. Her sentence was later reduced to a two-year term of detention in her current, undisclosed location. Continue reading...
Twenty-seven-year-old held on suspicion of child neglect after death of two pairs of twin boys in blaze in SuttonA 27-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of child neglect after two pairs of twin boys died in a house fire in south London, the Met police said.The London fire brigade (LFB) said eight fire engines and about 60 firefighters were sent to Collingwood Road, Sutton, shortly before 7pm on Thursday in response to reports of a fire. Continue reading...
by Justin McCurry in Tokyo and agencies on (#5T4SX)
Footage shows firefighters at eight-storey building that housed mental health servicesTwenty-seven people were feared dead after a fire swept through a mental health clinic in the Japanese city of Osaka, the local fire department said.The blaze is being treated as suspected arson, the Kyodo news agency said, quoting police sources saying that a man who appeared to be in his 60s had been seen carrying a paper bag leaking an unidentified liquid. Continue reading...
What should have been an end-of-schoolterm treat – a jumping castle on school grounds – resulted in a tragedy that has left the township of 26,000 in shock
Ukraine says separatists in east of country targeted its positions with grenade launchers and mortarsUkraine has said one of its soldiers was killed in fighting with pro-Russia separatists in the east of the country, as tensions with Moscow rise.Kyiv has been battling a pro-Moscow insurgency in two breakaway regions bordering Russia since 2014, when the Kremlin annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. Continue reading...
by Mostafa Rachwani (now) and Matilda Boseley and Tor on (#5T4D9)
Paul Kelly speaks as Australia passes 90% vaccine milestone; NSW records 2,213 Covid cases and one death; Victoria reports 1,510 cases and seven deaths as premier Daniel Andrews returns negative test; new mask mandate for Queensland as 20 cases reported; 64 cases in SA as state to relax restrictions on 28 December; NT locks down Tennant Creek after four new cases; ACT records 20 cases. Follow all the day’s news live
West Side Story, Dear Evan Hansen and In the Heights have all been box office flops this year, which has led to a questioning of the genre’s place in HollywoodIn a very strange year for movies, the failure of Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story is perhaps the most head-scratching development of all. The remake of the beloved 1961 musical grossed just $10m on its opening weekend, and while the film could certainly improve upon its lackluster debut over the holidays, it caps a year of disappointments for fans of the movie musical. In the Heights kicked off the summer with poor ticket sales and accusations of colorism for failing to have enough Afro-Latino actors in its cast. Dear Evan Hansen created the rare consensus of the year, hated by critics and audiences alike, and endured prolonged mockery on social media for its casting of the crow’s-footed Ben Platt as its teenaged protagonist. The less said about Diana: The Musical, a filmed version of the Broadway bomb that made its way to Netflix, the better.At least people seemed to like Tick, Tick… Boom!, the Lin-Manuel Miranda-directed adaptation of a work by the late Jonathan Larson, although we don’t really know how many – Netflix continues to be cagey about viewing numbers, and the film had only a nominal release in theaters. All in all, it was a catastrophic year for a genre that has been a mainstay of cinema since the advent of talkies. Historically, movie musicals have been an opportunity to highlight the best of the theatrical experience: these are films with big budgets, melodramatic plots that play well on the big screen, and expansive dance numbers, and they just don’t play as well at home, no matter how big your flatscreen or how expensive your sound system. Continue reading...
As North Korea marks the 10th anniversary of the death of Kim Jong-il, we look at how official portraits of his son and successor have sought to portray him as both increasingly authoritative and popularThree generations of the Kim family have ruled North Korea with absolute authority since 1948, and analysts say the regime has used carefully crafted images to ensure their power.Outsiders regard Kim as a ruthless tyrant with an undying obsession about developing the country’s nuclear weapons, even at the cost of starving the population. But North Korea’s tightly-controlled state media shows something softer: Kim caressing weeping orphans, being mobbed by gushing female soldiers, or smiling broadly on a mound of potatoes. Continue reading...
Five children in Australia are dead and another three are in critical condition after a bouncy castle was blown into the air in an incident at Hillcrest primary school in Devonport
US lawmakers have ramped up pressure on China in a bid to censure the country’s treatment of the Muslim minorityThe United States has unleashed a volley of actions to censure China’s treatment of the Uyghur minority, with lawmakers voting to curb trade and issuing new sanctions on Beijing.The United States has been ramping up pressure on China amid a crop of disputes, with president Joe Biden’s administration a day earlier targeting producers of painkillers that have contributed to America’s addiction crisis. Continue reading...
The panel cited the risk of rare but sometimes fatal cases of blood clotting as well as a lower level of effectiveness against Covid in the J&J shotA panel of outside advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday voted to recommend directing Americans towards the mRNA vaccines for protection against Covid-19 – meaning the shots by Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna in the US – in preference to Johnson & Johnson’s vaccines, because of the risk of rare but sometimes fatal cases of blood clotting.The CDC’s advisory committee on immunization voted unanimously to make the recommendation. The regulator still needs to sign off on the guidance. Continue reading...
by Libby Brooks Scotland correspondent on (#5T47T)
Scottish Greens support investigation into 100 instances of alleged police intimidation against activistsThere are calls for an urgent Holyrood inquiry into more than 100 instances of alleged police intimidation, harassment and aggression towards activists at the Cop26 summit in Glasgow as a report challenges Police Scotland’s insistence that it would carry out a human rights-based operation.Supported by the Scottish Greens – now government partners after their post-election deal with the SNP – an extensive report by Network for Police Monitoring (Netpol) and the Article 11 Trust argues that “systemic abuses of power” demand critical consideration by MSPs after Police Scotland’s repeated insistence that policing of protests at November’s climate conference would be “human rights-based” and “welcoming, friendly and proportionate”. Continue reading...
Resolution condemns ‘climate of hostility, distrust and polarisation’ in current holder of EU presidencyThe European parliament has rebuked Slovenia’s government for “attacks, smear campaigns and slander” against journalists and critics, in a vote that underlines rising alarm about the threat to media freedom.MEPs backed a resolution condemning the Slovenian government for a “climate of hostility, distrust and deep polarisation” and seeking to weaken independent prosecutors and interfere with state-funded media. Continue reading...
by Staff and agencies in Port-au-Prince on (#5T401)
Group of hostages, originally numbered 17 people, were abducted by a gang known as 400 Mawozo after visiting an orphanageThe remaining members of a group of Canadian and American missionaries who were kidnapped in October by a gang in Haiti have been released, police announced on Thursday.The group of hostages, which originally numbered 17 people, traveled to the Caribbean nation on a trip organized by Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries and was abducted by a gang known as 400 Mawozo after visiting an orphanage. Continue reading...
MPs promise to raise situation of Ali Mushaima’s father, Hassan, who has been detained in Bahrain for 10 yearsA Bahraini man whose father has been detained for 10 years in the Gulf country will end a 23-day hunger strike outside Bahrain’s embassy in London on Friday after MPs vowed to raise his father’s case in the Commons.Ali Mushaima said he was suffering from back pain and had found the cold nights on a pavement outside the embassy “tough to take”. Continue reading...
by Dan Sabbagh Defence and security editor on (#5T42G)
Rusi researchers propose hybrid court to try accused terrorists, and taskforce to oversee repatriation of childrenTens of thousands of former Islamic State members held in detention in north-east Syria need to be put on trial or repatriated and deradicalised, a security thinktank has said.Researchers at Rusi argue that the current situation, in which 30,000 adults and 40,000 children from more than 60 countries are being held in camps and jails by Syrian Kurdish forces, cannot endure and requires a new global taskforce to resolve. Continue reading...
Witnesses say Ethiopian government behind atrocities after it launched a military offensive last yearGovernment-aligned forces in western Tigray have systematically detained thousands of ethnic Tigrayan people, while torturing and killing many in a campaign of violence, according to a report by two major rights groups that further reveals the scale of abuses in war-hit Ethiopia.In the past few weeks, Tigrayans identified by local police in the Amhara region and ethnic militia forces called Fano, have been routinely rounded up in house-to-house raids, with adults and teenagers over 15 detained in overcrowded prisons where scores are tortured and face starvation. Continue reading...
Investigation recovers 200 artefacts including statue unwittingly bought by reality TV star Kim Kardashian WestThe US is returning 200 antiquities, including an ancient Roman sculpture that almost ended up in the possession of Kim Kardashian West, that were stolen and smuggled out of Italy.The variety of Roman, Etruscan and Greek artefacts, valued at $10m (£7.5m), had been looted since at least the early 1980s before being smuggled out and sold to private collectors, museums or auction houses. Half were found at New York’s Fordham Museum of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Art as part of an investigation led by the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance. Continue reading...
The new addition to the Sex and the City universe has tried to introduce a well-intentioned yet clumsy awareness of the show’s overwhelming whitenessMinor spoilers aheadRejoice! The new Sex and the City (SATC) reboot is not quite the depressing slog it appeared to be. Following two lackluster debut episodes, the third installment of And Just Like That finds our girls regaining their former strides. Carrie, spiraling from the discovery that her late husband just left his ex-wife $1m, is back to peak Carrie hijinx, unsuccessfully stalking Natasha only to barge in on her on the toilet. Charlotte stops crying, and an initially unbearable Miranda feels newly revitalized, with fans across the internet delighted to find out she might actually be queer!The latter remains unconfirmed, but what we do see is Miranda lingering at the afterparty of Che’s (Sara Ramirez) standup special, lavishing emphatic praise on to Carrie’s new boss. Seeking to quell Miranda’s hyper-enthusiasm, Che offers weed: “Do you mind if I shotgun you?” they ask, exhaling a stream of smoke in scintillating proximity to Miranda’s lips. As the scene unfolds in slow motion, guitar feedback drowns out all surrounding noise. It feels as though something profound in Miranda’s world has just changed. Continue reading...
Minister could have applied discretion when considering citizenship applications, says judgeMembers of the Windrush generation had their human rights breached when the Home Office refused to grant them citizenship, the high court has ruled.Eunice Tumi and Vernon Vanriel were refused citizenship after being told by the home secretary they did not fulfil the residence requirement of having been in the UK on the date five years before they made the application for citizenship, the court heard. Continue reading...
by Luke Harding , Volodymyr Yurchenko, Richard Spreng on (#5T3XZ)
With tensions escalating along the border with Russia, Luke Harding visits troops in Ukraine's Donbas region to gauge the mood ahead of a possible invasion. The war here has continued since 2014, when pro-Russian separatists seized Ukrainian cities. But in recent weeks large numbers of Russian troops have gathered on Ukraine's border, while talks between Vladimir Putin and US president, Joe Biden, have not provided the diplomatic solution many had hoped for Continue reading...
Move is seen as essential to preserve broader nuclear talks and lifting of US sanctionsIran and the UN inspector have reached an agreement on the imminent reinstallation of cameras at the Karaj nuclear facility, a move that is seen as indispensable to keeping alive the broader nuclear talks and the lifting of US sanctions on Tehran.Those negotiations appear to be hanging by a thread judging by a string of negative comments from European diplomats when they discussed the progress of the talks at the UN security council on Tuesday. Continue reading...