Exclusive: high representative says threat by Serb separatists to create their own army risks return of conflictThe international community’s chief representative in Bosnia has warned that the country is in imminent danger of breaking apart, and there is a “very real” prospect of a return to conflict.In a report to the UN seen by the Guardian, Christian Schmidt, the high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, said that if Serb separatists carry out their threat to recreate their own army, splitting the national armed forces in two, more international peacekeepers would have to be sent back in to stop the slide towards a new war. Continue reading...
Delphi, an online AI bot, promises to answer any moral question users pose. We put it to the testCorporal punishment, wearing fur, pineapple on pizza – moral dilemmas, are by their very nature, hard to solve. That’s why the same ethical questions are constantly resurfaced in TV, films and literature.But what if AI could take away the brain work and answer ethical quandaries for us? Ask Delphi is a bot that’s been fed more than 1.7m examples of people’s ethical judgments on everyday questions and scenarios. If you pose an ethical quandary, it will tell you whether something is right, wrong, or indefensible. Continue reading...
by Fiona Harvey Evironment correspondent on (#5RDFJ)
Exclusive: Boost for attempts to focus Glasgow Cop26 summit on limiting temperature riseThe US has rejoined the High Ambition Coalition at the UN climate talks, the group of developed and developing countries that ensured the 1.5C goal was a key plank of the Paris agreement.The decision by the world’s biggest economy and second biggest emitter, after China, to return to the High Ambition Coalition group of countries marks a significant boost to attempts to focus the Cop26 summit on limiting temperature rises to 1.5C, the tougher of the two goals of the Paris agreement. Continue reading...
The New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, abruptly halted a media conference after being heckled by at least two people who appeared to be anti-vaxxers. One man claiming to be a journalist continued interrupting, asking Ardern: 'Why is the vaccine not working in Israel? And you are still pushing it.' Ardern replied: 'Sir, I will shut down the press conference if this continues.'For context, Israel is recording a seven-day average of about 600 new daily cases, compared with a peak of about 11,000 daily infections in September. No vaccine on the market claims to be 100% effective at preventing transmission
His most famous satires are often seen as part Shakespeare comedy, part Carry On film. But Tate Britain’s Hogarth and Europe exhibition shows the artist was no Little EnglanderIn one of his most celebrated paintings, O the Roast Beef of Old England, William Hogarth appears as himself, sketching the fortifications at Calais at the very moment of being mistakenly arrested as a spy in 1748. It is not what you would call a subtle scene. The raggedy French soldiers are on their last legs, barely sustained by watery soup, while a gaggle of fishwives resemble the flounder they are selling from their tatty basket. There’s a fat, greedy friar trying to get his hands on a sumptuous joint of beef which has just been unloaded and is on its way to one of the many English restaurants that thrive in Calais (only 200 years earlier the town had belonged to Britain). Spying, by implication, is not something that Britons resort to, although the figure of Hogarth busily sketching to one side is a warning not to dismiss John Bull as dense. The “Old England” Hogarth conjures up here is affluent, abundant and free. The French, meanwhile, are reduced to a series of humiliating stereotypes: silly, salacious and in thrall to the absolutist Roman Catholic church (you can just make out some gorgeously attired priests and abasing peasants in the background).It is easy to see why Hogarth is so often positioned as the founding father of a particular strand of art which is essentially British: figurative, storytelling and not afraid to poke fun at itself. His most famous social satires including A Rake’s Progress and Marriage A-la-Mode are often read as a cross between a Shakespearean comedy and a Carry On film, with more disguises, reversals of fortune, libidinous ladies and drunken lads than you can shake a bottle of gin at. Continue reading...
I lost my virginity to someone whose sexual needs far exceeded mine. Years later, I still hunger for a trusting relationship, but am haunted by the pain of that initial experienceI am a man in my 30s and have recently admitted to myself that I cannot form an intimate sexual relationship. I am not, and never have been, interested in sex for its own sake; I want trust and intimacy even more than sex, although I hunger for both together.I have been close with potential partners many times, but each time I get to the point where the other person wants to progress to sex, I freeze and cannot carry on, until one of us breaks it off. I then hate myself for not following through yet again.Pamela Stephenson Connolly is a US-based psychotherapist who specialises in treating sexual disorders.If you would like advice from Pamela on sexual matters, send us a brief description of your concerns to private.lives@theguardian.com (please don’t send attachments). Each week, Pamela chooses one problem to answer, which will be published online. She regrets that she cannot enter into personal correspondence. Submissions are subject to our terms and conditions: see gu.com/letters-terms.Comments on this piece are premoderated to ensure discussion remains on topics raised by the writer. Please be aware there may be a short delay in comments appearing on the site. Continue reading...
At the heart of the row is the Brexit deal’s failure to spell out what proof French fishers need to get a permitBritain and France have been at loggerheads over post-Brexit fishing licences for UK waters since the start of the year. Talks are continuing but both sides have threatened action – and mistranslations have not helped. Continue reading...
The futuristic Ravi Riverfront City development, championed by Imran Khan’s government, has been met with determined oppositionIt has been called Pakistan’s answer to Dubai, a brand new multitrillion-rupee development of towering skyscrapers, futuristic domes and floating walkways.But Ravi Riverfront City, described as the “world’s largest riverfront modern city” also faces accusations of rampant land grabs by prime minister Imran Khan’s government, which has championed the project. Hundreds of thousands of farmers who could never afford to live in the modern urban utopia are now at risk of eviction. Continue reading...
From extreme weather obliterating homes to rising sea levels ruining crops, climate breakdown is a terrifying daily reality for manyThroughout the 2021 United Nations climate change conference, the Guardian will be publishing the stories of the people whose lives have been upended – sometimes devastated – by the climate breakdown. Continue reading...
With her images of models on the streets of Paris and refugees fleeing the Algerian war of independence, the 96-year-old blazed a trail for female photographers Continue reading...
Peers question home secretary’s basis for saying 70% of people on small boats are ‘economic migrants’There are calls for Priti Patel to withdraw or justify claims she made before parliament that most people who travel to the UK in small boats are not genuine asylum seekers.Two Labour peers, David Blunkett and Shami Chakrabarti, have also questioned whether the home secretary has evidence that backs her claim that “70% of individuals on small boats are single men who are effectively economic migrants”. Continue reading...
Listening to the women who alleged abuse, and fighting to get their stories heard, helped change the treatment of victims by the media and the justice system
The singer died at 33 of cancer before the world got to hear her sing. Those who knew and worked with her look back on an unusual talentOn a late May day in 1996, the singer Eva Cassidy and her bandmate Chris Biondo drove to a remote factory in rural Virginia to collect copies of the recording that turned out to be the last she would ever make. “We picked up a total of about 1,100 cassettes and CDs,” Biondo recalled. “When we got in the car, Eva cracked open a box and started getting very worried. She felt she wasn’t going to be able to sell them all. I’ll never forget her comment: ‘When I’m dead and they find me, there’s going to be boxes of these in my basement,’ she said. Her expectations for the record could not have been more minimal.”After all, Cassidy had been performing for nearly a decade by then in relative obscurity and, while she had a number of meetings with record company executives in that time, they never went beyond the talking stage. Worse, by the summer of 96, the 33-year-old was facing something dire. Over the course of the next few months, she would receive increasingly grim diagnoses of a cancer that had already begun to make quickening race through her body, robbing her of any chance of making a mark during her time on earth. Given that, who could have foreseen that Cassidy’s music would one day generate a sustained catalogue that would sell in the multi-millions, creating chart hits all over the world? “At the time, we just hoped to make enough money to buy a PA system,” Biondo said. Continue reading...
Rescue workers retrieve at least three survivors from rubble of luxury apartments under constructionAt least six people have died after a luxury residential high-rise under construction in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos, collapsed, trapping construction workers under a pile of concrete rubble, the state emergency services chief said.The official, Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu, said a search and rescue effort had been launched for survivors late on Monday. Continue reading...
The company, which created an app that is now used in more than 180 countries, wanted to thank its 53 employees for helping it growAn education app founded by a group of university students nine years ago has surprised its 53 employees with a NZ$10,000 bonus, after being named the fastest growing company in New Zealand.Kami, meaning paper in Japanese, is a digital classroom platform and app, which allows teachers and students to interact with, and collaborate on, documents and learning resources, either within the classroom or remotely. Continue reading...
Joe Exotic’s nemesis accuses streaming giant of breach of contract for using footage of her and husband in trailer for second seriesJoe Exotic’s nemesis Carole Baskin may throw the second series of the hit Tiger King Netflix documentary into disarray after taking legal action in Tampa, Florida.The founder of Big Cat Rescue and her husband, Howard Baskin, have accused Royal Goode Productions and Netflix of breach of contract by using footage of the couple in the trailer of Tiger King 2. Continue reading...
A more truthful understanding of history is largely dependent on education. A lot is riding on the success of this new curriculumAotearoa New Zealand has come a long way in the past few years in its efforts to engage with its history in a more upfront and honest manner. For those of us who have campaigned for such a change, this is not before time.This newfound willingness to move beyond a rose-tinted approach to the nation’s past in which anything uncomfortable or considered to reflect poorly on the Pākehā (European) majority is shunned and ignored has taken considerable effort and is still very much a work in progress. Continue reading...
A residential high-rise building under construction in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos collapsed, trapping up to 100 workers under a pile of concrete rubble. The building was in the affluent neighbourhood of Ikoyi, where many blocks of flats are under construction. Building collapses are frequent in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, where regulations are poorly enforced and construction materials often substandard.
Kendall serves up more unconvincing psychobabble and rage-fuelled stunts, leading to all-out war with a humiliated Shiv. What a cracking episodeSpoiler alert: this recap is for people watching Succession season three, which airs on HBO in the US and Sky Atlantic in the UK. Do not read on unless you have watched episode three.A large bowl of snake linguine with a side order of sibling betrayal? Don’t mind if we do. Here’s your guide to the eventful third episode, titled The Disruption … Continue reading...
by Daniel Boffey, Rowena Mason and Jamie Grierson on (#5RD2Z)
UK was braced for immediate measures but French president says ‘talks need to continue’France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, has shelved his threat to clog up UK exports and ban its fishers from landing catches at French ports from midnight in a dispute over access to British fishing waters, as his deadline approached.Discussions resumed after a proposal was put forward by Macron’s government late on Monday. Downing Street had previously said it was bracing for Paris to deliver on its vow to retaliate over the issue of fishing permits. Continue reading...
Money will be directed to projects in Pacific and south-east Asia, Australia’s PM saysThe Morrison government has unveiled an additional $500m for international climate finance on the first day of the Cop26 summit in Glasgow.But Australia’s prime minister says the funding will be directed to projects in the Indo-Pacific rather than distributed through the green climate fund. Continue reading...
David Fuller, 67, sexually abused dead women in hospitals where he worked, trial hearsA man who sexually assaulted two women after killing them performed similar sex acts on bodies at two hospital mortuaries, a court has heard.David Fuller, 67, is on trial for the murder of Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, in two separate attacks in Tunbridge Wells, Kent in 1987. He initially denied killing the women but changed his plea to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility after learning of DNA evidence, Maidstone crown court heard on Monday. Continue reading...
Summary of the main developments on kick-off day of the UN climate summit in GlasgowThe main things that happened on day one of the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow included:It’s one minute to midnight on the doomsday clock and we need to act now. If we don’t get serious about climate change today, it will be too late for our children to get serious about it tomorrow.In my lifetime, I have witnessed a terrible decline. In yours, you could and should witness a wonderful recovery. Continue reading...
Conte deal is close and that means club will need to get serious after spending millions going nowhere and demotivating KaneFarewell then, Nuno. It was, let’s face it, almost entirely doomed from the start, to the extent there is pretty much zero point in analysing the gains, the losses and the legacy of Nuno-era Spurs.What memories will Tottenham’s 35th permanent managerial appointment leave in north London? A way of standing. An expression of sympathetic bafflement. The sense, above all, of a head coach who seemed at all times to be encrusted with an ancient sadness, a courtly keeper of the grail in someone else’s castle, whose final words, dispatched by the hand of Daniel Levy, will be “He chose … poorly”. Continue reading...
Chun Xu, 31, pleads guilty to manslaughter of Wenjing Lin at Chinese takeaway in Ynyswen in TreorchyA man murdered a 16-year-old girl and attempted to kill her stepfather at a Chinese takeaway in south Wales because he wanted revenge on her mother after they fell out over money, a jury has been told.Chun Xu, 32, is accused of murdering Wenjing Lin – also known as Wenjing Xu – at the Blue Sky takeaway in the village of Ynyswen in Rhondda Cynon Taf. Continue reading...
by Martin Chulov Middle East correspondent on (#5RCHQ)
Addis Ababa at risk after fall of Dessie and Kombolcha as PM urges a fight to the death against rebelsThe weekend seizure of two key towns on the main road to Addis Ababa has alarmed Ethiopian leaders who fear that the rapid advances by Tigrayan rebel forces may soon threaten the capital itself.The sudden push into the towns of Dessie and Kombolcha was accompanied by short bursts of intense fighting that had reportedly subsided by Monday evening. While Dessie was confirmed to have fallen to the rebels on Sunday, the fate of Kombolcha was less clear, with accounts of continuing sporadic gunfire. Continue reading...
Ian McKellen, Stephen Fry and the former archbishop of Canterbury appear in a chummy documentary recounting the gay rights activist’s most outrageous stunts and impressive achievements“My doctors have said very clearly: ‘No more head injuries.’” So says Peter Tatchell, one of the world’s most tenacious, divisive and necessary activists, as he prepares to fly to Moscow in 2018 to protest against state-sanctioned homophobia. The trip, which returns him to the city where he was beaten and arrested in 2007, forms one of the few present-tense sections of this greatest hits-style documentary. Tatchell has sustained numerous injuries from his lifetime of protest, though claims of memory loss are comically undermined during a kid-gloves interview with Ian McKellen. “Fifty two years of civil disobedience, Peter!” gasps the actor admiringly. “Fifty three now,” Tatchell replies, unable to resist the lure of being right.As of this year, it’s 54. Tatchell was already an activist when he moved from Melbourne to London in 1971 at the age of 19. Among other achievements, he went on to stage the first gay rights protest in a communist country (East Germany, 1973), co-found the gay pressure group OutRage!, and attempt citizen’s arrests of Robert Mugabe (London, 1999 and Brussels, 2001). The former MP Chris Smith correctly identifies those run-ins with the Zimbabwean dictator as turning points which softened public hostility toward Tatchell. Continue reading...
Far-right Brazilian president given honorary citizenship by Anguillara VenetaBrazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, was met with cheers and jeers as he visited a small Italian town on Monday to collect honorary citizenship.Bolsonaro’s great-great-grandfather was born in Anguillara Veneta, a town of 4,200 people in the Veneto region. Tensions have been brewing since its far-right mayor, Alessandra Buoso, approved granting honorary citizenship to the far-right leader. Continue reading...
by Lisa O'Carroll Brexit correspondent on (#5RCVF)
Loyalists reportedly claim attack in Newtownards in which driver was held at gunpoint, according to ministerArmed and masked men hijacked and set fire to a double-decker bus at dawn on Monday, fuelling fears of a fresh wave of Brexit-related violence in Northern Ireland.The charred and smouldering remains of the vehicle remained in the Newtownards area on Monday afternoon. Continue reading...
Monarch seen alone in green Jaguar that she usually uses to take her dogs to go for a walkThe Queen, who is following medical advice to take it easy for two weeks, donned a headscarf and sunglasses as she got behind the wheel to drive herself around her estate at Windsor on Monday.Forced to cancel her appearance at Cop26 in Glasgow after a recent overnight stay in hospital for tests, she was seen alone in the green Jaguar estate that she usually uses to take her dogs to go for a walk. Continue reading...
Legislation for minimum delivery price aims to stop ‘distorted competition’ against independent bookshopsAt her independent bookshop in the small, rural town of Puy-en-Velay in southern France, Anne Helman had seen an influx of customers since the coronavirus pandemic who said they would rather buy books in person than online.“I’ve never sold as many copies of Albert Camus’s The Plague,” she said. “Children wanted fantasy books. Adults wanted novels and the classics, particularly stories about viruses and the apocalypse. There has been a newfound enthusiasm for buying locally and supporting independent bookshops; it’s seen as the virtuous thing to do.” Continue reading...
‘I was famous for casting unknown actors. I had Nicolas Cage, Robert Downey Jr and Matt Dillon in a circle watching each other try for parts’Francis Ford Coppola, director
Boys and young men neglected in efforts to tackle mortality in 10- to 24-year-olds, Lancet report says, with a failure to address violence, substance use and accidentsBoys and men are more likely than women to die as teenagers or young adults, according to new research that warns the gender gap in mortality rates for that age group is widening in many countries.In 2019, boys and young men aged 10 to 24 accounted for nearly two-thirds (61%) of all global deaths. Continue reading...
The British foreign secretary criticises the French, accusing Paris of making unreasonable and unwarranted threats and again hinting that President Emmanuel Macron is playing to the crowd, with the forthcoming election in mind. 'The French have behaved unfairly. It’s not within the terms of the trade deal,' she adds. 'And if someone behaves unfairly in a trade deal you’re entitled to take action against them and seek some compensatory measures'
Give peas a chance – as well as pistachios, fava beans and pumpkin seed paste. These are just some of the ingredients being used to replace one of the world’s most popular fruitsOn the one hand, they are deliciously creamy, versatile and gloriously Instagrammable. On the other, they have an enormous carbon footprint, require 320 litres of water each to grow and “are in such global demand they are becoming unaffordable for people indigenous to the areas they are grown in”, according to Thomasina Miers, the co-founder of the Mexican restaurant chain Wahaca.For some time, the chef has struggled to balance the devastating environmental impact of avocado production with her customers’ appetite for guacamole. Now, she thinks she has found the answer: a vibrant, green guacamole-inspired dip, made from fava beans, green chilli, lime and coriander. Continue reading...
by Kalyeena Makortoff Banking correspondent on (#5RCF6)
Executive plans to challenge findings of FCA inquiry and will be replaced by CS VenkatakrishnanBarclays chief executive Jes Staley is stepping down after an investigation by the City watchdog over his links to the sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.The bank said its board reached an agreement over Staley’s resignation after being notified on Friday of the preliminary conclusions in an investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority into how Staley had characterised his relationship with Epstein to Barclays. Continue reading...
Processing companies fear loss of jobs but fishers say tough action is neededFrance’s seafood sector is divided over government sanctions on British trawlers due to start on Tuesday, with processing companies warning they will cost jobs but fishers insisting that after 10 months waiting for UK permits, tough action is needed.Paris has said it could ban British trawlers from unloading in French ports, carry out extra licence checks on boats, tighten checks on trucks and reinforce customs and hygiene controls unless London grants more licences to fish in UK waters. Continue reading...
Budget airline returns to quarterly profit but plans to cut winter ticket pricesRyanair will pull its share listing from the London Stock Exchange in the next six months because of Brexit, as the airline made a quarterly profit for the first time since 2019.The Irish carrier has pulled voting rights from non-EU shareholders but because of foreign ownership and control rules said it needed to deter UK investors. Continue reading...
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