Olympic body said tennis player was ‘safe and well’, as momentum grows for boycott of Winter GamesThe International Olympic Committee has been accused of engaging in a “publicity stunt” over the wellbeing of the Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, amid growing momentum behind a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics.The IOC, under increasing pressure to intervene in Peng’s case after the former doubles world No 1 accused a former senior Chinese government official of sexually assaulting her, held a video call with Peng on Sunday and subsequently announced she was “safe and well”. Continue reading...
The PM may believe voters don’t care about politicians lying because they think all politicians lie. Maybe he is that cynicalI could open with pro-forma generosity, noting politicians are humans, and they, like the rest of us, sometimes forget things, and have rushes of blood to the head.But honestly, we are well past that. Continue reading...
Exclusive: documents also indicate prisoners who pay £6,000 being freed from cells in north-east SyriaKurdish-led forces in charge of jails in north-east Syria housing about 10,000 men with alleged links to Islamic State are releasing prisoners in exchange for money under a “reconciliation” scheme, according to interviews with two freed men and official documents.Syrian men imprisoned without trial can pay an $8,000 (£6,000) fine to be freed, a copy of the release form shows. Continue reading...
by Sarah Martin Chief political correspondent on (#5S6FX)
After being shut out since early last year, a range of international visa holders will be able to access exemption-free travel to Australia from 1 December – but there’s still no decision about tourists.International students and skilled workers will be allowed exemption-free travel to Australia from next week, in what the prime minister, Scott Morrison, has hailed a “major milestone” for the country returning to normal.From 1 December, travel exemptions will no longer be required for fully vaccinated eligible visa holders – including students, skilled workers, and those on humanitarian, working holiday and family visas – for the first time since borders closed in early 2020. Continue reading...
‘Do not sing for the murderers of my beloved Jamal,’ Hatice Cengiz urged Bieber in an open letterThe fiancee of murdered Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi has called on Justin Bieber to cancel his performance in the kingdom’s second-largest city Jeddah scheduled for 5 December.Khashoggi was killed and dismembered in 2018 after walking into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul the day before his wedding. His fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, was waiting outside. Continue reading...
Critics call for planned rule change on outside work to include restricting use of personal companies to avoid taxCritics have urged Boris Johnson to restrict MPs using personal companies to skirt tax bills under the planned new rules on second jobs, as the Conservative sleaze row continues to dominate Westminster.Using a personal company to accept payments for consultancy work can provide benefits such as avoiding income tax of up to 45% at source on the earnings, with an investigation by the Times finding multiple MPs were paid in total about £1m via the arrangements. Continue reading...
by Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent on (#5S6BY)
Volunteer passengers will be aboard central TfL section of Elizabeth line as part of final testing phaseHopes that Crossrail will open in central London in early 2022 – this time on schedule – have been boosted as the troubled £19bn scheme moved into its final phase of testing at the weekend.The start of months of trial operations, which will involve thousands of volunteer passengers to test how the system will function, including in emergencies, was described as a “significant milestone” by Transport for London and the mayor. Continue reading...
Supporting actor Sheila Atim saves Berry’s earnest directorial debut about a disgraced mixed martial arts fighterWhat if, rather than defeating an opponent in the ring, a fighter was in fact doing battle with their personal demons? What if sporting triumph could be viewed as a metaphor? Well, quite. The directorial debut from Halle Berry approaches the bloodied, battered tropes of the fight movie genre so earnestly, it’s almost as if she simply isn’t aware that the plot is chock full of the biggest cliches since the slow motion shot of blood spraying across the canvas.Berry also stars, playing a disgraced mixed martial arts fighter now working as a cleaner who hides liquor among her detergents and stoically accepts the abuse of her boyfriend/manager. It’s not badly made, necessarily, just entirely unsurprising. The saving grace is British theatre actor Sheila Atim, arresting and intriguing in a key supporting role.In cinemas now and on Netflix from 24 November Continue reading...
Progressive former student leader Gabriel Boric and far-right José Antonio Kast are neck-and-neck ahead of Sunday’s first roundVoters in Chile head to the polls on Sunday in a general election in which the two frontrunners for president offer starkly contrasting visions for the country’s future after two years of street protests and political unrest.Polls suggest that the progressive former student leader Gabriel Boric, 35, and the far-right candidate, José Antonio Kast, are neck-and-neck ahead of five other candidates – though neither seems likely to cross the 50% threshold needed to avoid a December runoff. Continue reading...
Mark Cavendish is one of the greatest bike racers of all time. But riding is the easy part, it’s the other stuff that’s hardMark Cavendish has just been out on his bike. He went out on his bike this morning, he’ll be back out on his bike tomorrow morning, he went out on his bike this afternoon, and when training was over and he needed to get back to his hotel in order to do this interview, there was really only one method of transport that fitted the bill. The point – and admittedly, it’s not a particularly earth-shattering one – is that he loves riding his bike. Anytime, anywhere, anyhow. It’s his sanctuary, his freedom, his reason for being.And so, while most of us conceive of professional cycling in terms of suffering – lung-busting sprints, brutal training rides, the tortuous mountain ascents of the Tour de France – Cavendish sees things differently. For all the sweat and pain he endures in the saddle, he knows from bitter experience that the real agony is not being able to ride at all. Continue reading...
by Salmaan Farooqui in Nelson, British Columbia on (#5S5QS)
Locals traumatised by the scorching heat of the summer are having to rebuild their lives once again after massive floodingWhen flood waters swept away the highways in and out of Tricia Thorpe’s small town in the Canadian province of British Columbia, there was no way in or out for days. For a while, it seemed the road out of her property would be destroyed too.“My eldest daughter thought I was going to flip out when there was no road access out,” said Thorpe, who lives in the small community of Lytton in Canada’s mountainous west, nearly 185 miles (300km) north-east of Vancouver by road. Continue reading...
After years of searching, DNA tests, social media and old-fashioned tenacity have played crucial roles in reuniting fractured families. Here, six people tell their storiesI used to go by Larecia Whitehead, I changed my second name to Buford – my real father’s name – when a DNA test led us to each other after decades apart. For most of my childhood, Mum told me another guy was my father, a man I never knew and who left us when I could barely walk or talk. I was never convinced. Then, at 15, a girl in school recognised my then surname and introduced me to the man my mother always said was my dad. We looked nothing alike. He didn’t think I was his daughter either. Fastforward to me being 31, and I needed certainty. Once again I tracked down the man my mum said was my dad and asked him to do a DNA test. The results came back: there was a 0% chance we were related. I’d been right all along. Continue reading...
The US painter is famous for reimagining the western portrait tradition with Black protagonists – and for his painting of Barack Obama. Now he aims to refresh the Romantic landscape canon for his new show at the National Gallery in LondonKehinde Wiley has a love-hate relationship with western art history. “There’s something glorious about the portraits that you see of aristocrats and royal families. Something beautiful in those expansive imperialist landscapes.” But there’s a dead end. Such paintings, from the baroque, rococo, renaissance and Dutch golden age eras, are ultimately displays of European power, wealth, and beauty. “What I wanted to do was to take the good parts, the parts that I love, and fertilise them with things that I know to be beautiful – people who happen to look like me.”Wiley, 44, beloved by hip-hop superstars, signed to a Hollywood talent agency, and the first Black, gay artist to paint a US president’s official portrait, rose to art world fame in the 2000s for reimagining such classic European paintings with Black protagonists. His brightly coloured work is easy to identify: glowing brown skin, statuesque poses, richly patterned, often floral, backgrounds and a roster of unfamiliar but photogenic faces. His subversion of the conventions of the medium often involved creating pastiches that foreground Black youth and hip-hop culture and fashion; his works include remakes of Napoleon Crossing the Alps, by Jacques-Louis David, Jacob de Graeff by Gerard ter Borch and The Dead Christ in the Tomb by Hans Holbein the Younger. While he is famed for painting celebrities and cultural figures, from Spike Lee to LL Cool J, Questlove to Ice-T (his best known work is his 2018 portrait of Barack Obama, sitting relaxed on a wooden chair and surrounded by an abundance of leafy flowers), his work is just as likely to feature ordinary Black people he has found by scouring the local neighbourhoods. Continue reading...
There is exactly a year until a tournament designed to promote the tiny, super-rich Gulf state but that is laced with controversyWhen Sepp Blatter, with that pained fixed grin, gingerly pulled the name Qatar out of the fateful envelope to anoint the host of the 2022 World Cup, widespread global bafflement accompanied the shockwaves propelled by the decision. The outcry that led ultimately to an earthquake at Fifa, followed by the fall of Blatter’s presidency and many other long-term chiefs, was prompted by astonishment and suspicion at the vote to send football’s greatest tournament to a tiny country so seemingly obscure.Now, with one year on Sunday to go before the tournament kicks off, football and the world are much more familiar with the name Qatar, which in itself can be seen as fulfilling a key aim of the bid. The 11 years since the November 2010 vote have been filled with rolling investigations into Fifa, leading to a governance overhaul and the 2016 election of Gianni Infantino as president, and a piercing focus on conditions for the migrant workers building Qatar’s stadiums in the heat of the Gulf. Continue reading...
The rail debacle may have been the last straw for a party painfully divided between ‘red wallers’ who believed the levelling-up spin and more traditional ConservativesAfter a particularly difficult few days for Boris Johnson and his government, a senior figure involved in decision making in Whitehall was tearing his hair out on Friday afternoon.Johnson and transport secretary Grant Shapps had spent the previous day announcing almost £100bn of spending to improve rail links across the north of England. It was supposed to be great news for levelling up and for people behind the red wall. But despite the colossal expenditure, the announcement had gone down like a lead balloon, and the north was crying betrayal. Continue reading...
Diversity report alleges that the FA’s referee system is obstructing black and Asian people from reaching elite levels of the gameEnglish football has been rocked by a fresh racism scandal after black and Asian referees revealed the scale of abuse and prejudice that, they say, is holding them back.A dossier compiled by match officials, and seen by the Observer, alleges that racism in the Football Association’s refereeing system is undermining efforts by black and Asian people to reach the highest levels of the game. Continue reading...
Corsets and crystals will be traded for ‘abandon and a free-flowing physicality’ next year, but tulle lovers needn’t despairFlipping through the Australian Ballet 2022 season program, you could be forgiven for thinking something was missing.Where are the tutus? Continue reading...
Astute farm business owners and managers are recognising the need to invest in and develop their people – whether they are related or notThe Covid pandemic turned off the cheap labour tap. That has delivered a “come to Jesus” moment for employers of farm labour.But people shortages are not a new thing in the bush. The underemployment dilemma has been building for a while. John Goldsmith, the former principal of Longerenong Agricultural College, said a decade ago: “It’s not a skills shortage, it’s a people shortage.” Continue reading...
The linguist and computer scientist discusses her optimistic assessment of a misunderstood generation – and delves into the nuanced ways to text ‘OK’Dr Sarah Ogilvie is a linguist, lexicographer and computer scientist at Harris Manchester College, Oxford, who works at the intersection of technology and the humanities. With Roberta Katz, Jane Shaw and Linda Woodhead, she is the author of Gen Z, Explained: The Art of Living in a Digital Age, which paints an optimistic portrait of a much misunderstood generation that has never known a world without the internet.Define Gen Zers.
Prof John Edmunds says millions still unvaccinated and warns that surge on continent ‘shows how quickly things can go wrong’The surge in coronavirus infections across Europe shows the “critical” need for people in the UK to get vaccinated, a government scientific adviser has said.Prof John Edmunds, of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, told Sky News that the rise in cases on the continent underlined “how quickly things can go wrong”. He pointed out that there were still “many millions” across the UK who were still not fully vaccinated, while some have not had any Covid shots at all. Continue reading...
Fire crews are attempting to put out the blaze on boulevard des Capucines, near the Place de L’OpéraA large fire has broken out in a building on boulevard des Capucines, near the Place de L’Opéra in central Paris, sending clouds of smoke rising into the air. People were told to avoid the area, which is popular with tourists, as fire crews tackled the blaze on Saturday.“Firemen are intervening,” the préfecture de Police said in a statement on Twitter. Continue reading...
As a new staging of Cabaret starring Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley opens in London, director Rebecca Frecknall and 94-year-old composer John Kander, the only survivor of the original creative team, swap storiesJohn Kander peers over the top of his glasses and smiles broadly. “What are you most scared about? Was there any moment when your heart sank?” he asks, kindly. Rebecca Frecknall grins back. “We’re most scared about 600 people coming to see it,” she says. “There are just so many unknowns.”The pair are thousands of miles apart – one in upstate New York, the other in London - and they are talking via Zoom. But the tie that binds them overcomes distance and space. Composer Kander, with his late, long-time professional partner, the lyricist Fred Ebb, created Cabaret, the show that invented the concept musical. Frecknall is currently directing a starry new production (previews have just started) with Eddie Redmayne as the mysterious and sinister Emcee, Jessie Buckley as lost show girl Sally Bowles and Omari Douglas, so brilliant on TV this year in Russell T Davies’s It’s a Sin, as the bisexual writer Cliff Bradshaw. Continue reading...
As the fragrance turns 100, Chanel’s perfumer-in-chief Olivier Polge describes what it takes to create and curate a classic brandThrough the floor-to-ceiling windows of his seventh-floor office at Chanel’s chic Parisian HQ, Olivier Polge can look out over the French capital. From here, in the western suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, much of the city’s iconic skyline is in full view: the Eiffel Tower, mansard roofs, and the greenery of Bois de Boulogne; the Sacré-Cœur atop Montmartre opposite.It’s a vista that has captivated some of Europe’s most celebrated visual minds, but from here Polge takes inspiration for another of his senses. He is, after all, the fashion house’s nose, Chanel’s perfumer-in-chief: the steward of its iconic scents past, and the man charged with creating their fragrances of the future. Continue reading...
The late diagnosis of Melanie Sykes and Christine McGuinness came as no surprise to those who, like Sara Gibbs, have trodden the same pathThe news of Melanie Sykes and Christine McGuinness’s late autism diagnoses may have come as a surprise to many. After all, they are glamorous career women. They look nothing like the stereotype of autism we as a culture are used to. I, however, was not shocked, knowing only too well that you can’t tell anything about someone’s private reality from their public image.As I read their stories, I couldn’t help but imagine what they might be feeling. Were they elated? Confused? Excited? Terrified? Angry? Relieved? All of the above? Continue reading...
Ministers argue that accepting asylum seekers creates a ‘pull factor’, but are refusing to release their evidenceThe Home Office is covering up its own research into why refugees and asylum seekers travel to the UK because ministers “know their arguments don’t stand up,” charities claim.Officials are refusing to release its evidence on whether so-called “pull factors” play a part in asylum seekers making journeys to the UK. Continue reading...
The men’s world No 1 Novak Djokovic voiced his concern for missing Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai. Djokovic said he supported “100%” the WTA’s threat to pull events out of China.Peng, a former doubles world No 1, has not been seen in public since she accused the former high-ranking official Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault on 2 November. A journalist from China's state broadcaster has revealed a set of photos, which he said were posted on Peng’s WeChat social media account on Friday, but analysts debated the authenticity of the images.
Ahead of his epic series Get Back, the director reveals the secrets of 60 hours of intimate, unseen footage of the Fab Four – and why it turns everything we know about their final days upside downWhen the world closed down in March 2020, most of us had to make do with pretending to enjoy video calls with friends or baking bread. Peter Jackson, meanwhile, was busy sifting through a mountain of unseen footage – 60 hours in total – of the Beatles, shot by the director Michael Lindsay-Hogg in 1969.His four-year project is now finished – “we finally completed it on Friday,” says a relieved-looking Jackson from his home in New Zealand – and the resulting series, The Beatles: Get Back, will be released on Disney+ from 25 November. Originally envisaged as a feature film, Covid uncertainty saw plans revised. It is now three two-hour episodes, using the mass of outtakes from Lindsay-Hogg’s work on what would become Let It Be, the band’s fourth feature film. Continue reading...
by Naomi Larsson. Photographs by Irina Werning on (#5S505)
Antonella Bordon’s hair was her family’s pride and joy. But as the pandemic kept her out of school for 18 months, the 12-year-old Argentinian vowed to lop it all off as soon as she could return to classWhen she finally cut her hair, Antonella Bordon had trouble sleeping. At the age of 12, her first haircut meant more to her than a simple change of style.For most of her childhood, Bordon’s silky hair ran all the way down her back to her calves, such a deep brown it looked like a black mane. Her mother and sister would comb it every day, rubbing the locks with rosemary oil, and helping her style it in a way to keep her cool during the hot Argentinian summer. Continue reading...
The actors recreate their Victor & Barry comedy duo – and recall their unique creative sparkAlan Cumming and Forbes Masson met at Glasgow’s Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in 1982. Together, they created Victor & Barry, a double act who became legends of the Scottish comedy scene. They went on to present several TV shows, and starred in the BBC sitcom The High Life, as two narcissistic air stewards. Appearing in series such as Catastrophe and EastEnders, Masson has since become a celebrated writer and performer for theatre and musicals, and is an associate artist with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Meanwhile, Cumming’s career skyrocketed in the late 90s, with his Tony award-winning performance in the musical Cabaret on Broadway, before he starred in Spice World, Eyes Wide Shut and GoldenEye, and on stage in Macbeth and Bent. Cumming’s new memoir, Baggage: Tales from a Fully Packed Life, is published by Canongate. Continue reading...
Stephen Barclay asked to oversee efforts to stop voyages after more than 24,500 people arrive in 2021Boris Johnson has ordered a review into Channel small-boat crossings to find a way of cutting the number of people making such voyages from France.The prime minister is said to have grown “exasperated” that there are no current policies in place that will tackle the issue. More than 24,500 people have arrived on the south coast during 2021. Continue reading...
by Aakash Hassan in Srinagar and Hannah Ellis-Peterse on (#5S50A)
Indian police say four men killed in shootout were militants but families say gunfight was staged and they were innocent civiliansTensions in the Indian state of Kashmir remain on a knife edge after a shootout by the Indian authorities this week left four people dead, with families alleging the gunfight was staged and that police used innocent civilians as a “human shield”.Police initially described the incident, which took place on Monday when officers raided a shopping complex, as a counter-insurgency operation in which two militants and their associates had been killed in a shootout. Continue reading...
As the first Black woman – and the oldest person – ever to win the Turner, the artist reflects on being a trailblazer, and how her early life moulded her
Iván Duque says ‘any apology for Nazism is unacceptable’ after photos of cultural exchange ceremony posted on TwitterColombia’s president, Iván Duque, has issued a rebuke after cadets at a police academy caused outrage by dressing up as Nazis for a cultural exchange event in honour of Germany.Photos of the ceremony were shared on an official police Twitter account on Thursday. Continue reading...
With queues for petrol, inflation and Abba on the radio, it’s easy to compare the two decades. But you wouldn’t if you were there, says Polly Toynbee, as she revisits the styles of her youthQueueing for petrol, I turn on the radio and there are Abba, singing their latest hit. Shortages on shop shelves are headline news, with warnings of a panic-buying Christmas. And national debt is sky high. But this isn’t the 1970s; it’s 2021. People who weren’t born then have been calling this a return to that decade. There are similarities, of course: this retro-thought was sparked by the recent petrol queues, people as frantic to fill up to get to work as I remember back then. Elsewhere, flowing floral midi dresses are back, just like the ones I wore; Aldi is selling rattan hanging egg chairs; and, as well as Abba, the charts have been topped by Elton John. But is this really a 1970s reprise?No, nothing like it; not history repeated, not even as farce – just a stylist’s pastiche, as bold as the wallpaper I’m posing in front of here. Folk memory preserves only the 1974 three-day week; the miners’ strike blackouts, with no street lights and candle shortages; the embargo that quadrupled the price of oil. True, I did queue at the coal merchant’s to fire up an ancient stove for lack of any other heat or light. But the decade shouldn’t be defined by this, or by 1978-79’s “winter of discontent” strikes, a brief but pungent time of rubbish uncollected and (a very few) bodies unburied by council gravediggers. Continue reading...
Spokesman says ship’s 11 crew were detained for interrogation after ship was seized in GulfIranian Revolutionary Guards have seized a foreign ship in Gulf waters for allegedly smuggling diesel, a Guards commander said.“A foreign ship carrying smuggled diesel was seized,” Iran’s state broadcaster quoted Col Ahmad Hajian, commander of the Naval Type 412 Zulfaqar, as saying. Continue reading...
When his Broadway show became a global phenomenon, the rigours of daily performance kept the actor and songwriter grounded. Then Disney and Hollywood came calling. Now, the ‘musical theatre fanboy’ has returned to his first love
by Helen Davidson in Taipei, Vincent Ni and Tumaini C on (#5S3B4)
The men’s world No 1 Novak Djokovic has also raised concerns as the WTA threatens to pull events out of ChinaThe UN has called on Chinese authorities to give proof of the whereabouts of tennis star Peng Shuai, as the White House said it was “deeply concerned” and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) said it was prepared to pull its tournaments out of China over the matter.Peng, a former doubles world No 1, has not been seen in public since she accused the former high-ranking official Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault on 2 November. Continue reading...
by Tory Shepherd and Stephanie Convery (earlier) on (#5S4FZ)
NSW reports 182 cases and ACT 14; anti-fascist activists vow to counter ‘freedom rallies’ they claim have been infiltrated by far-right groups. This blog is now closed
Melbourne ‘freedom’ rally draws largest crowds as counter-protesters avoid confrontationThousands of people have marched in “freedom” rallies in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide, with the largest crowds in the Victorian capital as protests against the state government’s pandemic legislation ramped up again.Protesters marched from Victoria’s state parliament, down Bourke Street and up to Flagstaff Gardens, carrying Australian flags and placards bearing anti-vaccination, anti-lockdown and anti-government slogans, while chanting “kill the bill”, “sack Dan Andrews” and “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi”. Continue reading...
Nevres Kemal demands Miles Scott quits as chief executive of Maidstone and Tunbridge NHS trustThe mother of one of the victims of the morgue rapist, David Fuller, is campaigning for the boss of the hospital where Fuller serially abused corpses undetected for 12 years to resign.The body of Azra Kemal was raped three times in July 2020 in the morgue of Tunbridge Wells hospital by Fuller, a hospital electrician, who is known to have violated at least 100 corpses between 2008 and 2010. Continue reading...
Okehampton welcomes revamp of service connecting Dartmoor town to Exeter and beyondIn 1972, the people of Okehampton turned out in force to wish a fond farewell to the Devon moorland town’s regular passenger rail service.The mayor, Walter John Passmore, carried a funeral wreath and his wife, Daisy, waved the green flag to signal the final train’s departure, just about managing a sad smile for the cameras. Continue reading...