Defence minister says he wasn’t ‘pre-committing’ Australia to war; Labor’s caucus confirms opposition to voter ID bill; Jacqui Lambie calls Scott Morrison worst PM on record; Malcolm Roberts denies leaking Lambie’s phone number; Victoria reports 19 Covid deaths and 827 cases; NSW two deaths and 173 cases. This blog is now closed
by Rowena Mason, Rajeev Syal and Jessica Elgot on (#5S7W4)
Downing Street declines to praise home secretary over attempts to stem record crossings in small boatsPriti Patel is being put under “immense pressure” from Downing Street and Conservative MPs over government efforts to halt Channel crossings in small boats, with No 10 refusing to say the home secretary had done a good job.As figures revealed, the number of people making perilous crossings has tripled since 2020, Boris Johnson’s spokesperson twice declined to praise Patel’s strategy on Monday. He said the prime minister had “confidence in the home secretary” but would only say she has “worked extremely hard and no one can doubt this is a priority for her”. Continue reading...
• Reconstruction after Covid: a new series of long readsWhile the rich nations focus on booster jabs and returning to the office, much of the world is facing devastating second-order coronavirus effects. Now is the time to build a fairer, more responsible international system for the futureFor the past year and a half, people everywhere have been in the grip of a pandemic – but not necessarily the same one. In the affluent world, a viral respiratory disease, Covid-19, suddenly became a leading cause of death. In much of the developing world, by contrast, the main engine of destruction wasn’t this new disease, but its second-order effects: measures they took, and we took, in response to the coronavirus. Richer nations and poorer nations differ in their vulnerabilities.Whenever I talk with members of my family in Ghana, Nigeria and Namibia, I’m reminded that a global event can also be a profoundly local one. Lives and livelihoods have been affected in these places very differently from the way they have in Europe or the US. That’s true in the economic and educational realm, but it’s true, too, in the realm of public health. And across all these realms, the stakes are often life or death. Continue reading...
Lawyers say judgment demonstrates increasingly harsh stance taken by authorities over lese-majesty lawIt was last December that Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul, a Thai student activist, and her friends strolled into a shopping mall in Bangkok wearing crop tops. They ate ice cream and carried dog-shaped balloons. Phrases such as “I have only one father” were written in marker pen on their skin.Now, four of them are in pre-trial detention over the outing, which royalists say was an insult to the monarchy. Continue reading...
BBC programme is a compelling analysis of the troubled relationship between media and monarchyA few days before her wedding, Meghan decided she wanted to wear a particular tiara with emeralds. True, this isn’t the sort of issue that should trouble citizens of a mature democracy but when it comes to royals, Britain is neither mature nor, let’s face it, democratic. Indeed, Amol Rajan, the BBC media editor who presented the Princes and the Press (BBC Two), is a declared republican who once branded the royal family as “absurd” and the media as a “propaganda outlet” for the monarchy. As his measured, compelling analysis of the troubled relationship showed, he may have been right about the former, but the latter? Not so much. The media, we might conclude from his programme, may be driving the monarchy to self-destruct, which would, ironically enough, suit his earlier republican views.Back to tiaras. There was a problem: the Duchess of Sussex could not be allowed to wear the emerald tiara because it had some unfortunate history to do with Russia, according to the Sun’s former correspondent Dan Wootton. We never learned what that history was nor why it should matter. What we did learn from Wootton’s report is that Harry reportedly shouted at a royal dresser (who is a person, not a thing) that “whatever Meghan wants, Meghan gets.” This in turn prompted the Queen to tell somebody off. Continue reading...
Ridley Scott’s pantomimey soap entertainingly tracks fractures in the fashion world as Patrizia Reggiano plots to kill her ex, Maurizio GucciRidley Scott’s fantastically rackety, messy soap opera about the fall of the house of Gucci is rescued from pure silliness by Lady Gaga’s glorious performance as Patrizia Reggiani, the enraged ex-wife of Maurizio Gucci, grandson of the fashion-house founder Guccio Gucci. She singlehandedly delivers the movie from any issues about Italianface casting: only she can get away with speaking English with the comedy foreign-a accent-a. Every time Gaga comes on screen, you just can’t help grinning at her sly elegance, mischief and performance-IQ, channelling Gina Lollobrigida or Claudia Cardinale in their early-50s gamine styles. There is a truly magnificent scene in which Patrizia is wearing nothing but weapons-grade lingerie in the marital bathroom – and yet somehow Maurizio, played by Adam Driver, is somehow even more sexy in his demure monogrammed pyjamas.Until seeing this film I had no idea that in 1995, Reggiani, through a bizarre confidante and professional psychic called Pina Auriemma, played here by Salma Hayek, paid a hitman to kill Maurizio, so incensed was Reggiani by his infidelity and the resulting divorce. It is like hearing that Karen Millen thought about whacking her husband or finding out that the retailer Michael Marks planned to garrotte Thomas Spencer outside Marble Arch tube station. But there it is. Continue reading...
by Aubrey Allegretti, Rowena Mason, Joanna Partridge on (#5S7GE)
Senior party members concerned after chaotic fortnight, with PM said to be losing his grip over key policiesConservative MPs are increasingly worried about Boris Johnson’s competence and drive after he gave a rambling speech to business leaders and was accused of losing his grip over a series of key policies from social care to rail.Senior members of his own party said they needed Johnson to get the government back on track after a disastrous two weeks amid dismay about his performance at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) conference, where he lost his place in his speech for about 20 seconds and diverted into a lengthy tangent about Peppa Pig. Continue reading...
by Nick Evershed, David Fanner and Adam Adada on (#5S7CV)
Using an experimental mapping method, the outbreak of Covid-19 across the two states can be plotted from the start of the pandemicThe coronavirus pandemic in Australia has caused almost 2,000 deaths and resulted in close to 200,000 cases.In the worst-hit states of New South Wales and Victoria, high vaccination rates have now reduced the rate of hospital admissions. Continue reading...
Survivors of group of 22 say they were deprived of their families and culture when taken from GreenlandSix Inuit who were snatched from their families in Greenland and taken to Denmark 70 years ago are demanding compensation from Copenhagen for a lost childhood.In 1951, Denmark took 22 children from its former colony away from their families, promising them a better life and the chance to return to Greenland as part of a new Danish-educated elite. Continue reading...
by Vikram Dodd Police and crime correspondent on (#5S77S)
Dame Elish Angiolini to examine policing failures that allowed Wayne Couzens to attack 33-year-oldThe Home Office inquiry into the rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a police officer will be chaired by Dame Elish Angiolini, formerly Scotland’s top prosecutor, the department has said.It will examine whether chances to identify her murderer, Wayne Couzens, as a danger to women before he attacked Everard in March 2021 were missed. Continue reading...
Huang Chia-lu responds to the news that a Chinese official is seeking election to Interpol’s executive committee, and urges the international community to support Taiwan’s participationYou rightly point out the concerns of human rights activists and international politicians that China could misuse Interpol’s capabilities to track down overseas dissidents if Hu Binchen is elected as an executive committee member (Chinese official seeks Interpol role, sparking fears for dissidents, 15 November). One should also note that Taiwan is not included in Interpol, meaning there is a missing part in the global fight against international crime and cybercrime.As cybercrime transcends borders, transnational cooperation is key to bringing international crime rings to justice. Taiwan’s police authorities have a hi-tech crime investigation unit and professional cybercrime investigators. Taiwan’s expertise will benefit global efforts to build a safer cyberspace. Continue reading...
Long-lost mosaic commissioned by Emperor Caligula disappeared from Italian museum during second world warA priceless Roman mosaic that once decorated a ship used by the emperor Caligula was used for almost 50 years as a coffee table in an apartment in New York City.Dario Del Bufalo, an Italian expert on ancient stone and marble, described how he found the mosaic in an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes on Sunday. Continue reading...
by Vincent Ni China affairs correspondent on (#5S76N)
Analysis: Olympic committee is accused of engaging in a ‘publicity stunt’ by taking part in video callAs human rights organisations and the world’s media questioned the whereabouts of the Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, the International Olympic Committee opted for a “quiet diplomacy” approach, arguing that was the most effective way to deal with such a case.“Experience shows that quiet diplomacy offers the best opportunity to find a solution for questions of such nature. This explains why the IOC will not comment any further at this stage,” the Lausanne-based organisation said in an emailed statement on Thursday about the case of Peng, who disappeared from public view after she made an accusation of sexual assault against a former senior Chinese official. Continue reading...
Analysis: calls growing after Xinjiang allegations and Peng Shuai affair, but Beijing takes slights very seriouslyBoycotting the Beijing Winter Olympics in February may seem a simple, symbolic diplomatic gesture – when put alongside the allegations of labour camps in Xinjiang province and the apparent sexual exploitation of the Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai – but such is the contemporary economic power of China that the step will only be taken after much agonising.The threats and economic boycotts that Australia, Canada and more recently Lithuania have suffered at the hands of the Chinese for challenging Beijing’s authority in one way or another are not experiences other countries will want to copy lightly. Continue reading...
After Adele’s tearful reunion with a former teacher, four readers recall their own school memories“So bloody cool, so engaging.” That’s how Adele described her English teacher at Chestnut Grove school in Balham, south-west London, Ms McDonald, when asked who had inspired her.Answering a question from the actor Emma Thompson during ITV’s An Audience With Adele on Sunday, Adele said: “She really made us care, and we knew that she cared about us and stuff like that.” Continue reading...
‘Ralph Fiennes strode into the dressing room and said he loved the show – we booked him there and then. The whole thing was very kick-bollocks-scramble’Sean Foley, co-writer and performerIt was all [producer] David Pugh’s fault. In 1988 I’d set up a small two-person theatre company, The Right Size, with Hamish McColl, creating work that was somewhere between European physical theatre and British variety. We’d had some success; one of our shows had transferred to the West End. One day in 2001, David called us in and said, “I want you to make a show about Morecambe and Wise.” Continue reading...
In more than 80% of countries surveyed women were disproportionately hit, from loss of income to caring duties, report showsThe social and economic burden of Covid has fallen disproportionately on women around the world, the Red Cross has warned, in a stark analysis of the impact of the pandemic.Women were particularly affected by loss of income and education, rises in domestic violence, child marriage and trafficking, and responsibility for caring for children and sick relatives, according to the comprehensive report published by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) on Monday. Continue reading...
With fellow Europeans leaving the UK, and no British workers taking their place, Eleanor Popa’s job harvesting strawberries has gone from tough to tough and lonely. Will the farm survive another year?Eleanor Popa used to sleep in a six-berth caravan on the site of Sharrington Strawberries, a 16-hectare (40-acre) strawberry farm in Melton Constable, Norfolk. Now, there are only four people in her caravan: everyone else has left to work in EU countries. “My friends,” she says, “they went home, or to work in Spain and Germany. A lot of them did not come back to work this year.”Popa, who is from Bulgaria, has been a fruit picker for two years. “It’s hard work,” she says. “We have to get up early and pick. It’s 6am in the summer. Now we get up at 7.30am. And we work in tunnels. Sometimes it’s cold, sometimes it’s hot. Sometimes it’s windy. It can be boring.” Picking strawberries is skilled work. “It took me a month to learn how to pick the fruit,” she says. Continue reading...
Key prosecution witness Nir Hefetz testifies that former prime minister was obsessed with image in pressThe star prosecution witness in the corruption trial of the former Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described the veteran politician as a “control freak” obsessed with his image in the press.The long-awaited testimony of the former Netanyahu spokesman Nir Hefetz came in a Jerusalem courtroom where the 72-year-old is on trial accused of trading preferential treatment for a major Israeli telecom company in exchange for positive articles on its Walla news site. Continue reading...
Abdul Hamid Dbeibah announces candidacy in 24 December election, joining more than 60 othersLibya’s interim prime minister has registered as a presidential candidate, joining a bulky and growing list of candidates that includes Saif-al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the former dictator Muammar Gaddafi, and Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, a warlord.Abdul Hamid Dbeibah’s decision to run in the 24 December poll breaks a pledge that current holders of office in the interim government would not seek election so as not to abuse their position. Continue reading...
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...
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