Two officers and four protesters hospitalised, and 20 people arrested, after clashes in BrusselsBelgian police have fired water cannon and used teargas to disperse protesters opposed to compulsory health measures against the coronavirus pandemic.About 8,000 people marched through Brussels towards the headquarters of the EU, chanting “freedom” and letting off fireworks. Continue reading...
Exclusive: failure to prevent children seeing online porn puts them at risk of abuse and lifelong trauma, say children’s safety groupThe UK data watchdog must introduce age verification for commercial pornography sites or face a high court challenge over any failure to act, children’s safety groups have warned.The demand in a letter to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) states that the government’s failure to stop children seeing porn is causing lifelong trauma and putting children at risk of abuse and exploitation. It urges the ICO to use the powers under the recently introduced age appropriate design code (AADC) to introduce rigorous age-checking procedures for publicly accessible porn sites. Continue reading...
Éric Zemmour formally declared his candidacy on Tuesday, highlighting his anti-migrant and anti-Islam viewsThe far-right French presidential candidate Éric Zemmour appeared to be put in a headlock by a protester at his first campaign, a few days after he formally declared his candidacy in a video highlighting his anti-migrant and anti-Islam views.Videos online appeared to show Zemmour being grabbed by a man at the heated rally near Paris on Sunday, during which anti-racism activists were also reportedly attacked. Continue reading...
Monday: A terminally ill patient has his funding slashed. Plus: Guardian Australia’s top music picks this monthGood morning. More NDIS participants are speaking up about funding cuts putting them in positions that would reduce their quality of life, and Australia’s diplomatic influence in Asia has waned.A terminally ill NDIS patient is facing re-hospitalisation after his funding for a 24-hour nurse was cut. Ian Haywood is the latest NDIS participant to speak out about what the federal Labor party and disability advocates say are “stealth cuts”. Haywood, who lives with motor neurone disease, had his plan cut to cover just six hours of nursing care each day, far less than the round-the-clock care he has previously been approved for. “They don’t think it is ‘reasonable and necessary’ for Ian to have nursing funding,” said his partner, Bianca*. “We think it is reasonable for him to stay home and it is necessary in order for him to live. It’s cheaper for them if he dies.” Continue reading...
Candidate for Les Républicains seeks rightwing votes on weekend Éric Zemmour launches new partyEmmanuel Macron came under fire from the French right at the weekend as Valérie Pécresse was chosen as the presidential candidate for Les Républicains, while the far-right TV pundit Éric Zemmour launched a new party and Marine Le Pen travelled to Poland for a show of force with the Polish prime minister and other European populist parties.Pécresse said her “mission” was to stop Macron. She called him a “zigzagging” president who had “run France into the wall with debt and taxes, a society where there is no more respect or authority”. In her first interview, with the Journal du Dimanche, she said Macron had saddled future generations with a wealth of problems including “debt, commercial deficit, taxes, struggling public services [and] a chronic crisis of authority”. She added: “France is damaged and divided, everything has to be repaired.” Continue reading...
by Nadia Khomami Arts and culture correspondent on (#5SPWQ)
Artist would sell stencil used to paint mural depicting what was thought to be Oscar Wilde on listed buildingBanksy has offered to raise millions of pounds towards buying Reading prison, where Oscar Wilde was once held, so that it can be turned into an arts centre.The street artist has promised to match the jail’s £10m asking price by selling the stencil he used to paint on the Grade II-listed building in March, a move campaigners hope will prevent it from being sold to housing developers. Continue reading...
Her supporters call her Emmanuel Macron’s worst nightmare, but she faces a tough task to unseat himWhen Valérie Pécresse crossed rural France this summer, visiting farms and villages to escape what she called her grotesquely unfair image as a “blond bourgeoise” from Versailles, she promised to smash the French Republic’s glass ceiling. “I will be the first female president of France,” she told meeting halls to cheers.Since Emmanuel Macron won the presidency in 2017 as a shock outsider with no election experience and a party put together in a few months, French politics has thrived on novelty. Pécresse’s supporters say her status as a woman is refreshingly new and makes her Macron’s worst nightmare. Continue reading...
Francis says fear, indifference and cynical disregard continue to condemn people to death at seaPope Francis has returned to Lesbos, the Greek island long at the centre of Europe’s refugee crisis, to offer comfort to asylum seekers and harsh words for a continent that has all too often rejected them.Five years after his last visit, the pontiff admonished the west for its handling of the humanitarian crisis. Instead of welcoming people fleeing poverty and war, its indifference and cynical disregard had continued to condemn people to death, he said. Continue reading...
Helping Darling to relax has been vital – but unlike a human, she isn’t dealing with the ethical and cognitive issues often involved in post-traumatic stress
by Reported by Cait Kelly and presented by Laura Murp on (#5SPSY)
In early November, fruit pickers on Australian farms were granted a minimum wage, in a historic decision handed down by the fair work commission. However, unfair pay is just one example of the shocking conditions plaguing this sector, where it’s alleged that workers – many from the Pacific islands – are routinely exploited.Laura Murphy-Oates speaks to reporter Cait Kelly about the dark side of Australian farm workYou can also read: Continue reading...
by Haroon Siddique Legal affairs correspondent on (#5SPRR)
Open letter condemning Harriet’s treatment has been signed by hundreds of students and supportersStudents at an Oxford University college have accused staff of disregarding their welfare after a postgrad who alleged she was sexually assaulted said she was treated with hostility after making a complaint.Harriet, a PhD student at Balliol, who has multiple disabilities, alleged she was repeatedly sexually assaulted in 2019 by a fellow student. The college has announced an independent inquiry into its handling of her complaint after she said staff made inappropriate comments about her appearance and behaviour and concluded no further action should be taken without interviewing or accepting evidence from her.The chaplain, Bruce Kinsey, asked her if she was aware of the effect she had on men, called her very physically attractive and said she should be wary of the impact on her alleged attacker.Kinsey told her: “You don’t want to piss people off who you might meet again downstream.”When she reapplied for disability access accommodation she received an email from the praefectus, Tom Melham, implying that her behaviour was a problem, including drinking. Continue reading...
Dozens more injured as highest volcano on densely populated Java island spews huge ash cloud into airRescuers have been sifting through smouldering debris and thick mud in search of survivors a day after the highest volcano on Java island erupted, killing at least 14 people with searing gas and ash.Mount Semeru in the Lumajang district in East Java province spewed thick columns of ash more than 12,000 metres (40,000 feet) into the sky in a sudden eruption on Saturday, triggered by heavy rains. Villages and nearby towns were blanketed and several hamlets were buried under tons of mud from volcanic debris. Continue reading...
Iran’s natural allies are said to have been surprised by how much it had gone back on its own compromisesThe US is hoping pressure from Russia, China and some Arab Gulf states may yet persuade Iran to moderate its negotiating stance in regards to the steps the Biden administration must take before both sides return to the 2015 nuclear deal.Talks in Vienna faltered badly last week, when the new hardline Iranian administration increased its levels of uranium enrichment and tabled proposals that US officials said at the weekend were “not serious”since they had gone back on all the progress made in the previous round of talks. Continue reading...
Her silver win with a lift of 161kg was the first ever medal for the UK in women’s weightlifting – a thrill made all the sweeter, she says, by Team GB camaraderie
A 'formal party' in Downing Street in December 2020 would have been contrary to guidance, the justice secretary has admitted, saying it would have been 'the wrong thing to do'. Dominic Raab told BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show, however, that Boris Johnson had assured him no rules had been broken, despite reports from various sources in several newspapers
by Jessica Murray Midlands correspondent on (#5SPM7)
Government review to seek answers regarding circumstances that led to Arthur’s deathThe government is launching a national review into the killing of six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes to protect other children from harm and identify improvements needed in the agencies that came into contact with him before his death.Announcing the review on Sunday, the education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, said the government would “not rest until we have the answers we need”. Continue reading...
Local media and witnesses say dozens injured and at least 15 arrested in incident in YangonFive people were killed and at least 15 arrested after Myanmar security forces rammed into an anti-coup protest in a car in Yangon on Sunday, according to local media.Witnesses on the scene said dozens had been injured. Photos and videos on social media show a vehicle that had crashed through the protesters and bodies lying on the road. Continue reading...
Skunks, iguanas, terrapins, big cats… Britain has more invasive and exotic animals than you imagine. Meet the search and rescue enthusiasts dedicated to capturing them and keeping them safeSometime in 2016, Chris Mullins received a message about a missing skunk. Mullins, 70, who lives in Leicestershire, had founded a Facebook group, Beastwatch UK, in 2001 as a place to document exotic animal sightings in the British countryside, so it was natural for news of this sort to trickle his way. In that time there had been a piranha in the Thames and a chinchilla in a post box, so a skunk on the loose in a local village seemed a relatively manageable misadventure. He loaded up some traps and headed to Barrow upon Soar to see if he could help locate the wayward creature.Mullins, who has a white beard, smiling eyes and maintains a steady, gentle rhythm when he speaks, had always nurtured a passion for wildlife – chasing it down, catching it. The interest took hold amid a challenging childhood. Aged five, Mullins was victim of a hit and run that left him with amnesia and he spent two years in hospital before his parents sent him to a special school to catch up with his education. Continue reading...
Research shows the decline of religious influence in the 18th century explains the puzzle of lower fertility ratesI know the rows over fish and migration mean we’re not talking to the French these days, but pondering their history is still allowed.A huge historical puzzle is why France, from the 1760s, underwent the demographic transition to lower fertility rates a century before the rest of Europe. It’s a puzzle because economists usually argue that fertility declines are driven by technological progress, making human capital more useful and raising the cost of kids. But pre-revolution France was backwards on most development measures, with half the literacy of England and Wales. Continue reading...
by Kim Willsher on the Charles de Gaulle aircraft car on (#5SPKB)
Top French commander cites ‘rapid rearmament’ of China and Russia as danger to maritime securityFrance’s most senior naval commander has said future conflicts are likely to be fought at sea and in the cybersphere, citing the “rapid rearmament” of countries such as China as a potential threat.Adm Pierre Vandier made his comments after the French Marine Nationale and forces from five allied countries, including the UK, took part in what he described as a unique two-week exercise intended to prepare for “composite threats”. Continue reading...
Mother-and-daughter team scoop gong at Gourmand awards in Paris for volume of traditional leaf-wrapped recipesA Colombian mother and daughter’s celebration of their country’s traditional leaf-wrapped dishes has been named best cookbook in the world at the Gourmand awards in Paris.Colombia’s envueltos are part of a culinary heritage that stretches across much of Latin America, from the tamales of Mexico and Guatemala to the humitas of Chile. Continue reading...
Local group hopes to take on tech giant and help keep hold of tourist revenueRhoda Meek knows the power of Scottish islands working together. During the first lockdown she created a website for more than 360 businesses from Arran to Ulva to sell their wares while the pandemic prevented visitors.Now she and her neighbours have launched a holiday lettings website that aims to take on Airbnb and ensure that more of the islands’ tourism revenue stays local. Continue reading...
Continuing our series looking behind the headlines of 2021, we speak to the philosophy professor who resigned from Sussex University after protests over her views on gender and transgender rights
Tulum, jewel of the Mayan Riviera, risks emulating Acapulco, another once glamorous resort now overwhelmed by violenceBright yellow police tape fluttered in the breeze outside a restaurant just off the main strip in the Mexican resort town of Tulum, as the lights of a nearby police truck flashed blue and red.Troops in camouflage fatigues stood guard outside the deserted late-night eatery La Malquerida, “The Unloved” – the site of a gangland shooting that killed two female tourists and wounded another three holidaymakers. Continue reading...
by Jessica Murray Midlands correspondent on (#5SPJA)
British driver says he had ‘nothing’ to do with sponsorship deal with company linked to Grenfell fireLewis Hamilton has distanced himself from his Formula One team’s partnership deal with Kingspan, an insulation company linked to the Grenfell Tower fire, saying he had “nothing” to do with the decision.He also cast doubt on Kingspan branding remaining on his Mercedes car, saying “whether that remains the same we shall see”. Continue reading...
France prides itself on ‘universalism’. But bigotry festers in its ‘colour blind’ pose“How does it feel to be a white man?” Simeon was not a white man. He was an African American who had left his homeland to escape the ferocious racism every African American faced and sought shelter in Paris. There, he had got into a fight in a bar with an Algerian. The police threw the Algerian into jail. Simeon they let go. In Paris, it was the light-skinned Algerian who was treated like blacks back home, the dark-skinned American to whom the authorities show deference. “How does it feel to be a white man?” taunted the Algerian.Simeon is the central character in William Gardner Smith’s newly republished 1963 novel The Stone Face. Smith, like Simeon, like many black Americans in the middle decades of the last century, found in France a refuge from the segregation and bigotry that scarred America. “There is more freedom in one square block of Paris than there is in the entire United States of America!” claimed the novelist Richard Wright in his essay I Choose Exile. Continue reading...
Group seeks cultural protection for music that defined reunification eraGetting into Berlin’s famous Berghain nightclub is a formidable task, even for some of the world’s best-known DJs. So they are unfazed by the challenge of persuading Unesco to grant heritage status to Berlin techno.The artists behind the Love Parade festival, DJs who pioneered the genre, and the impresarios of the German capital’s biggest clubs believe the backing of the UN body is vital for securing the future of the countercultural music genre. Continue reading...
Professionals urged to be more sceptical and ready to remove at-risk children after death of Arthur Labinjo-HughesSocial workers need to be more sceptical and decisive when confronted by “manipulative and deceitful” parents, one of the UK’s leading child protection experts has urged following the torture and killing of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes at the hands of his stepmother and father.Martin Narey, a former head of children’s charity Barnardo’s and senior government adviser, said social services should view potentially abusive parents “more critically” and not shy away from taking children into care. Continue reading...
Why didn’t the writer, the US justice system and the media ask more questions given the miscarriage of justice, asks the film producer whose investigation led to exoneration of Anthony Broadwater Anthony Broadwater, a 61-year-old resident of Syracuse, New York state, and former marine, was exonerated last week of the brutal rape, assault and robbery of best-selling author Alice Sebold. He was convicted in 1982.Sebold was savagely attacked while walking home from a friend’s house late one night. Five months later, Sebold said she saw her attacker in Syracuse town centre. Continue reading...
A short history of the Rose decision’s emergence as a signature cause for the rightPublic opinion on abortion in the US has changed little since 1973, when the supreme court in effect legalized the procedure nationally in its ruling on the case Roe v Wade. According to Gallup, which has the longest-running poll on the issue, about four in five Americans believe abortion should be legal, at least in some circumstances.Yet the politics of abortion have opened deep divisions in the last five decades, which have only grown more profound in recent years of polarization. In 2021, state legislators have passed dozens of restrictions to abortion access, making it the most hostile year to abortion rights on record. Continue reading...
The model and actor cooks apple pancakes or else pasta bolognese, stares at the clouds, walks the dogs, enjoys a calm family dayWhat does Sunday feel like? Calmness. I wake up naturally, no alarm. Monday to Friday, I’m up at 7am to make breakfast and do the school run. We live in the English countryside: rolling hills, fields, farmland. I love being surrounded by nature. Even when it’s raining I just watch the clouds.Do you cook? We normally have a long brunch with local produce – I like making my mother’s apple pancakes. That and pasta bolognese are about the only things I can cook. Drinking is seasonal: summer is perfect for a rosé; red wine, cheese and a game of cards is my absolute favourite winter afternoon. Continue reading...
Diaries of band’s road manager, Mal Evans, revealing chaos at gig to feature in major biographyThe police famously tried to shut down the Beatles’s rooftop concert on 30 January 1969, over concerns of breach of the peace, in what was to be the band’s final public performance. Now a further backstage drama has emerged with the revelation that Paul McCartney afterwards used his charm to stop a police officer from arresting their road manager and confidant, Mal Evans.Kenneth Womack, one of the world’s foremost Beatles scholars, told the Observer: “It turns out that Mal was actually arrested that day but managed to get out of it only when Paul went into PR mode and changed the copper’s mind after the show.” Continue reading...
Putin regards Ukraine as stolen territory and as the US focuses on China and Covid, Moscow is waiting to strikeVladimir Putin is an old-fashioned sort of guy. He yearns for the days when the Soviet Union was a great power. He still views western democracies as adversaries, to be confounded whenever possible. And he has never reconciled to the post-Soviet loss of cold war-era satellite republics in eastern Europe. This is especially true of Ukraine.The Russian view that Ukraine is stolen territory to which it has a natural right has roots in tsarist times and before. Ukrainians (and Belarusians) were habitually called “little Russians”. Indigenous narratives stress a common history and common faith indissolubly linking two brotherly eastern Slavic races. Putin has repeatedly stated that “Russians and Ukrainians are one people”. Continue reading...
Villagers burn army vehicles after coalminers were mistaken for insurgents, with Indian home minister promising full investigationAngry villagers who set fire to army vehicles are among more than a dozen civilians killed by soldiers in India’s remote north-east region along the border with Myanmar.An army officer said the soldiers fired at a truck, killing six people, after receiving intelligence about a movement of insurgents in the area. As villagers reacted by burning two army vehicles, the soldiers fired at them, killing seven more people, the officer said, adding that one soldier was also killed in the clash. Continue reading...
A compatible friend needs treasuring. You might need to look elsewhere for sexThe question I met Tom online. We have now been dating for nearly two years, sometimes on Zoom as we live three hours away from each other. This is long-term relationship potential – except, from my side, for one thing.I am a deeply sexually alive person. Sex is an immense joy to me. Not only the explicit physical acts of it, but also the sharing, the play, all the openness and openheartedness. Tom is divorced and I suspect has not had much sexual experience. I think he is sexually repressed. I have always been open with him about wanting our relationship to become fully sexual. It never has been. Continue reading...
In a rare interview with foreign media, Sanna Marin says she is determined to defend human rights, despite asylum policy challengesEquality, a well-funded education system and a strong welfare state are the secret to the success of the world’s happiest nation, according to Finland’s prime minister.In a rare interview with foreign media, Sanna Marin – who briefly became the youngest world leader when she became prime minister of the Nordic nation in 2019 at the age of 34 – said Finland was committed to preserving its generous welfare state in an “environmentally sustainable way”, and saw the development and export of green technology as the key to its future prosperity. Continue reading...
Human Rights Watch says 47 former members of Afghan national security forces have been killed or forcibly disappearedThe US has led a group of western nations and allies in condemnation of the Taliban over the “summary killings” of former members of the Afghan security forces reported by rights groups, demanding quick investigations.“We are deeply concerned by reports of summary killings and enforced disappearances of former members of the Afghan security forces as documented by Human Rights Watch and others,” read a statement by the US, EU, Australia, Britain, Japan and others, which was released by the state department on Saturday. Continue reading...
Crowds chanted slogans condemning government of Aleksandar Vučić, which backs planned Anglo-Australian $2.4bn mineThousands of demonstrators blocked major roads across Serbia on Saturday as anger swelled over a government-backed plan to allow mining company Rio Tinto to extract lithium.In the capital, Belgrade, protesters swarmed a major highway and bridge linking the city to outlying suburbs as the crowd chanted anti-government slogans while some held signs criticising the mining project. Continue reading...
Poll reveals huge public cynicism, with just 5% of respondents believing politicians work for public goodTrust in politicians to act in the national interest rather than for themselves has fallen dramatically since Boris Johnson became prime minister, according to figures contained in a disturbing new study into the state of British democracy.The polling data from YouGov for the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) shows a particularly sharp fall in trust in the few weeks since the Owen Paterson scandal triggered a rash of Tory sleaze scandals. Continue reading...
Former Brexit secretary David Davis says Priti Patel’s plans could foster a situation similar to notorious US detention campA former Conservative cabinet minister has warned that the Home Office’s controversial borders bill risks creating a “British Guantanamo Bay”. David Davis, who served as Brexit secretary from 2016 to 2018, said that the home secretary’s plans to send asylum seekers to another country while their claims are processed may create a facility as notorious as the US detention camp in Cuba.Guantanamo Bay has been described as a “stain on the human rights record” of the US and the “gulag of our times” with detainees making repeated allegations of torture, sexual degradation and religious persecution. Continue reading...
World news | The Guardian