Local councils face a shortage of refuse collectors who can earn tens of thousands more driving for supermarkets or food hauliersHouseholds are being warned of a “Christmas crisis” in bin collections as drivers quit their jobs for better pay working for supermarkets and food hauliers.Bin lorry drivers are being offered pay deals worth as much as £40,000 a year to switch to jobs in the food industry. One council in Lancashire said last week it had lost almost half of its drivers in the last three months. Continue reading...
Customer-facing workers in all sectors report greater hostility, research showsPeople in public-facing jobs are facing rising hostility and verbal abuse since the end of the Covid lockdowns, according to organisations which represent them. Half of all shop, transport, restaurant and hotel workers and others dealing regularly with the public have experienced abuse in the past six months, figures from the Institute for Customer Service (ICS) show. This is a 6% rise over May’s 44%. Of those who had been abused, 27% had been physically attacked, it found.The research comes as trades unions and industry bodies warn of growing public hostility towards workers since Covid’s second wave. Continue reading...
Speaking at the event in Riyadh on Saturday, Prince Charles said there was a 'dangerously narrow window' to accelerate climate action. In a video message to the Saudi Green Initiative Forum, and just a week before the Cop26 summit in Glasgow, the Prince of Wales said world leaders must ‘consider the kind of future existence that we are bequeathing to our grandchildren and their children's children’. He also welcomed Saudi Arabia’s target to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2060.
Law makes local authorities and parents responsible for ensuring children are spared stress of overworkChina has passed a law to reduce the “twin pressures” of homework and off-site tutoring on children.The official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday the new law, which has not been published in full, makes local governments responsible for ensuring that the twin pressures are reduced and asks parents to arrange their children’s time to account for reasonable rest and exercise, thereby reducing pressure and avoiding internet overuse. Continue reading...
Flights mark first military relocation of Afghans and British nationals since end of Kabul evacuationThe RAF has airlifted more than 100 people who had left Afghanistan and were in a neighbouring third country to the UK.The Ministry of Defence said the two flights had landed safely in the UK carrying 102 people who would receive support to begin their lives in Britain. Continue reading...
Boy of 14 among four arrested on suspicion of murder after ‘verbal dispute’ in Royal British LegionA man has died after three people were stabbed outside a Royal British Legion in Lymington, Hampshire police said.Officers were called to reports of an assault on the town’s high street shortly before midnight on Friday and arrived to find two men and a woman with stab wounds. Continue reading...
Labour describes plan as ‘smokescreen for the Conservatives’ failure to deliver’ in the pastHundreds of thousands of families are to receive extra support as part of a £500m package from the government that will include the creation of a network of “family hubs” across England, but concerns have been raised that the measures do not go far enough.The government describes the centres, which will launch in 75 local authorities, as “one-stop shops” for advice and guidance. They are similar in some respects to the Sure Start centres introduced under Tony Blair, although ministers believe they will provide a more comprehensive service. Continue reading...
Matt Gibberd, founder of high-end architectural estate agency The Modern House, shares his top tipsFor the past 16 years, I have spent my days nosing round other people’s homes like a design-obsessed basset hound. I have been granted access through hundreds of locked doors, perched on wobbly Windsor chairs, and taken tea in stylish studio flats, cleverly converted factories and even a working barge.Throughout all this, I’ve learned a lot. As The Modern House has grown, I’ve discovered that these homes – from studio flats to listed architectural masterpieces – have the same design principles in common: clever layouts, masterly manipulation of natural light, tactile materials, a connection to nature, sheer exuberance and personality in decoration – and much more. Continue reading...
The Taliban has whitewashed Kabul’s political murals – and those who created them have fled into exileNegina Azimi felt shock and fear like never before when she heard that Taliban fighters had entered Kabul on 15 August. As an outspoken female artist in Afghanistan, she knew they would come for her.“We heard reports that the Taliban might raid houses. I was scared because I live in a very central neighbourhood and every room in my house is adorned with the kind of art the Taliban won’t approve of,” she says, referring to paintings that feature messages about women’s empowerment and are critical of the Taliban’s atrocities.Negina Azimi, who is now in a refugee camp in Albania with others of the ArtLords collective. They are now planning an exhibition Continue reading...
These sustainable stays offer the chance to share mountain views with bears, sleep easy in a low-carbon hotel and wellness experiencesThe Holenberg forest is the gateway to the Maashorst nature reserve, a rewilding pioneer in North Brabant, home to roaming bison and Tauros – a project to revive the aurochs, an ancient European ox. Tucked away in the forest, among a rusty palette of trees, heather and wetlands, sits off-grid and self-sufficient Cabin Anna. From the linen to the recycled waste-product tableware, the emphasis is on reducing your environmental impact. The cabin sleeps two and has a vast glass atrium for enjoying the natural surroundings in all weathers, and a sunken bathtub. There are safaris, cycling and hikes on the doorstep.
Claudia Marschal’s documentary about two sisters leaving the Balkans is short on the intimacy that film can deliverFeaturing Indira and Mehdina, two Bosnian sisters who try to escape their life of poverty in their homeland, Claudia Marschal’s documentary observes the xenophobia and financial insecurity faced by immigrants from the Balkans, an area already troubled by a history of political turbulence. The “paradise” hinted at in the title, however, is a mirage, as the women and their families struggle to settle down in France and Germany.Indira and her young children are placed in an immigration centre in Germany where they apply for asylum – which is ultimately denied. As Indira is turned away from what she hoped to be a brighter future, Mehdina is arguably more fortunate, as she was able to emigrate to France – though, at the time, she was only 14 and already married. While people at home presume she has a better life in her new country, she faces constant money worries, forced even to sell her jewellery. Amid such hardships, the film’s most moving sequences involve the sisters’ children, most of whom are oblivious to the adults’ turmoil: Indira’s children, for example, can still enjoy a game of hide and seek in the cramped conditions in the immigration centre. Continue reading...
The historian and author on the lessons of Covid, taking people for granted and looking grumpy in photosBorn in Israel, Harari, 45, gained his PhD at the University of Oxford. His bestselling books are Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind; Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow; and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. Next week he publishes Sapiens: A Graphic History Volume 2 – The Pillars of Civilisation. He lives with his husband near Tel Aviv, and lectures in history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.When were you happiest?
Sweet and savoury treats for the big night: black lime gummy worms, a deep-fried noodle snack with fried peanuts and curry leaves, and pumpkin spice cookiesFor anyone doing the sweet-sweep rounds next weekend, Halloween can feel more like trick and treat, rather than trick or treat. No sooner have our kids been plied with sweets than we try to trick them out of eating them. Or did Scrooge just come early to our house this year? Anyway, for 2021, I’m going to lean into making Halloween snacks instead: black lime gummy worms, pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies and something savoury to offset the night’s sugar excesses. All treats, no tricks.UK readers: click to buy these ingredients from OcadoUK readers: click to buy these ingredients from Ocado Continue reading...
Sometimes the only way to get attention is to break the rules. Fifty years after my first arrest, I’ve embraced being locked up in the name of the planet. As Cop26 nears, here’s why it’s time to rise up• The good fight: the climate activists risking everythingThe first time I was ever arrested, I was picked up for smuggling drugs into the US from Canada. They were vitamin pills, but that didn’t seem to matter to the police officer in Cleveland, who mentioned that his orders had come from the Nixon White House. It was 1970. I had just started a campus speaking tour protesting against the Vietnam war, and was under surveillance by the National Security Agency. I raised my fist for the mugshot, and after a night in jail, they let me go.I think the idea was to discredit my opposition to the war, and maybe get my speeches cancelled. Instead, students turned up in their thousands. My first arrest wasn’t for an act of civil disobedience, exactly, but the lesson I took away from that surreal experience was just how powerful it can be to set your ideals against the machinery of the state. Half a century later, it still works. And, as the extraordinary activists who tell their stories here attest, it remains an indispensable means of being heard by those who would prefer to ignore us. Continue reading...
by Harriet Sherwood Arts and culture correspondent on (#5R1XW)
Set of six copies of portraits first produced in 1579 in Venice are going up for auction in London next weekThey were powerful rulers of perhaps the mightiest empire the world has ever seen, and their portraits oiled the wheels of diplomacy. Six sultans of the Ottoman empire, which spanned more than six centuries and dominated a great swathe of the world, gaze out beneath magnificent, bulbous turbans, a symbol of their wealth and status.An original set of 14 portraits was produced in Venice in 1579, and copies were made later. The only surviving intact set is in Munich, but a set of six goes on display at Christie’s in London this weekend before being sold at auction on 28 October. Continue reading...
by Kalyeena Makortoff and Juliette Garside on (#5R1Y1)
Millionaire stockpicker Terry Smith is battling his former partner of 13 years in the courts of MauritiusHe is one of the City of London’s most successful investors, with a fortune estimated at £300m, a luxury yacht and a collection of beautiful homes. But the star fund manager Terry Smith has hit heavy weather in the tropical paradise of Mauritius, from where he runs his business.Since February, Smith has been locked in an acrimonious public legal battle with his former partner of 13 years. He has launched a barrage of court cases and complaints against Teresa de Freitas, covering at least eight separate matters ranging from alleged embezzlement from a joint account, to disputes over cars and household items. She has retaliated with at least four claims of her own. Continue reading...
by Harriet Sherwood Arts and culture correspondent on (#5R1WZ)
Known for his wild parties and proud queerness, he went to church, met the pope and prayed daily with his motherHe is celebrated for his Marilyn Monroe and Campbell’s Soup prints, legendary parties, proud queerness and worship of celebrity.But Andy Warhol was raised by a devout Catholic mother with whom he prayed daily throughout the two decades in which they shared a New York home. The wild prince of pop art went to church, met the pope and financed his nephew’s studies to become a priest. Continue reading...
The two women killed and three tourists injured were believed to have been caught in crossfire of clash between drug gangsA Californian travel blogger was one of two foreign tourists killed at a restaurant in Mexico’s Caribbean beach resort of Tulum during a shootout between suspected gang members.The two women killed were identified as Anjali Ryot, an Indian national who lived in San Jose, and German national Jennifer Henzold, though no hometown was immediately available for her. Two German men and a Dutch woman were also injured during the shootout late on Wednesday, the district attorney’s office in Quintana Roo state said. Continue reading...
The first community case in the south was reported in Blenheim, but officials play down risk of further contagionNew Zealand has reported 104 new coronavirus infections, including the first community case of the virus in the country’s South Island in nearly a year, health officials said.Most of the new infections reportedon Saturday were in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city that has been under a strict lockdown for more than two months. Looser restrictions are in place in most of the rest of the country of 5 million. Continue reading...
The progeny of animals brought illegally to Colombia and kept in the drug lord’s private zoo must now be put on birth controlWhen Gina Paola Serna studied to become a biologist and veterinarian in Colombia, she never expected to one day be tasked with neutering an invasive herd of hippos that once belonged to Pablo Escobar.When they were smuggled into the drug lord’s private zoo in the 1980s, there were just four hippos. But in the 26 years since Escobar’s death, their numbers have steadily grown : the herd now includes about 80 animals – threatening to disrupt ecosystems in Colombia. So now, Serna spends her days tracking and sterilizing the hulking riverine mammals. Continue reading...
Human Rights Watch has logged illegal seizures of land and homes then given to Taliban supportersThousands of people have been forced from their homes and land by Taliban officials in the north and south of Afghanistan, in what amounted to collective punishment, illegal under international law, Human Rights Watch has warned.Many of the evictions targeted members of the Shia Hazara community, while others were of people connected to the former Afghan government. Land and homes seized this way have often been redistributed to Taliban supporters, HRW said. Continue reading...
by Nadeem Badshah (now); Tom Ambrose, Martin Belam an on (#5R0K7)
Offshoot of Delta designated a variant under investigation in UK; Pfizer says child-size doses effective at stopping infections in five- to 11-year-olds
Australian cartoonists cast a satirical and sceptical eye over politicians. The results are informative, insightful, cutting, acidic and hilarious. Russ Radcliffe created the annual Best Australian Political Cartoons series in 2003 to highlight and record the year’s top offerings. Here, Guardian Australia’s photographer-at-large Mike Bowers picks out some of his favourites from this year’s edition• The 2021 edition is published on 1 November and can be pre-ordered at Scribe Publications Continue reading...
European Commission president commits to keeping up pressure on Lukashenko regime after migrant deathsThe EU will not fund “barbed wire or walls”, the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has said, in defiance of calls from some governments to build protective defences against migrants seeking to enter the bloc.A number of EU leaders have voiced concerns in recent weeks over a rise in numbers of people seeking to cross the bloc’s borders, with eight having died at the Polish border with Belarus in recent months. Continue reading...
Analysis: China recently tested a nuclear-capable manoeuvrable missile and Russia and the US have their own programmesA new focus on hypersonic glider weapons, after a reportedly successful Chinese test, is helping drive an arms race that is eclipsing hopes of a return to disarmament by the world’s major powers.The Chinese test on 27 July, first reported by the Financial Times, involved putting into orbit a nuclear-capable glider, travelling at five times the speed of sound, which then re-entered the atmosphere and performed some turns on its way to a target. Continue reading...
Secret audio reveals League leader swearing and hitting out at Giorgia Meloni of the Brothers of ItalyMatteo Salvini, the leader of the League party, was left red-faced after a secret recording revealed him swearing and implying his far-right challenger, Giorgia Meloni, was a “pain in the ass”.The recording, taken during a closed-door meeting with politicians from his party and published by Il Foglio newspaper, further exposes the friction in what was once a tight-knit coalition between the League, Meloni’s Brothers of Italy and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia. Continue reading...
by Tom Phillips, Latin America correspondent on (#5R17P)
Ortega has detained 39 opponents ahead of November electionDaniel Ortega’s pre-election crackdown on the Nicaraguan opposition has claimed another prominent scalp with the arrest of one of the Central American country’s top business leaders.Michael Healy, the president of Nicaragua’s leading business federation, the council for private enterprise (Cosep), was detained in the capital, Managua, on Thursday, in what opposition activists called an illegal “kidnapping”. The group’s vice-president, Álvaro Vargas, was also arrested. Continue reading...
Chancellor given paperweight as parting gift but she may not be done yet if German coalition talks falterAfter nearly 16 years and 107 EU summits, Angela Merkel, the outgoing chancellor of Germany, might have expected more from her fellow leaders than a glass paperweight and praise for being a “monument”.But at what was expected to be Merkel’s final meeting in Brussels, touching on issues ranging from energy prices to Poland’s laissez faire attitude to EU law, the former US president Barack Obama at least offered a little glamour to proceedings in a surprise appearance in a farewell video. Continue reading...
State media says the pianist is being held by Beijing police along with 29-year-old womanChinese police have detained a prominent concert pianist and reality TV personality, Li Yundi, dubbed the “piano prince”, on allegations of hiring a sex worker.The charges were revealed by Beijing police in posts on a Chinese social media network that read more like a trailer for a TV show than an official law enforcement notice. Continue reading...
Rumours are rife that, with its star nearing 80, Indy 5 will resort to the oldest trick in the book to keep him youngHow do you solve a problem like your action-movie leading man being nearly 80 and presumably no longer able to get under those rolling boulders quite as he once did? For the new 1960s-set Indiana Jones movie, once again starring Harrison Ford as the ageing adventurer and disturber of ancient tombs, there are rumours that the answer might just be time travel.Fans this week have been all over suggestions that Indy will head back to Roman times, as suggested by recent set pictures, though of course he might just be on the 1960s Hollywood set of a swords-and-sandals epic. Then again, there was also that video, published in June, suggesting the archaeologist will be facing off once again against the Nazis, despite the second world war having finished more than two decades earlier. Continue reading...
Police seeking at least two suspects in killing of teenager, who reportedly was due to testify in trial next weekOne of Sweden’s most popular rappers has been shot and killed in Stockholm, further fuelling public anger over a deadly wave of gang-related violence that has hit the country in recent years.Einar, 19, whose full name was Nils Kurt Erik Einar Gronberg, was Sweden’s most streamed artist on Spotify in 2019 and released three chart-topping albums, winning several Swedish Grammys and other music awards. Continue reading...
Meteor showers, mass nosebleeds, missing people … this small-screen tale of extra-terrestrials coming to Earth could be thrilling – if only something would actually happenAs someone who is currently being destroyed by Squid Game – with which Netflix has played upon our collective anxiety strings like the world’s most gleefully malevolent violinist – I wholeheartedly welcome an epic tale of global takeover by alien beings in which almost nothing, in fact, happens.Invasion (Apple TV+) is balm to my harrowed soul. It starts off traditionally enough. A mysterious something falls out of the sky and lands with a kerpow! in an isolated part of the world (here, the Arabian desert), witnessed by a lone traveller whose curiosity about this strange happening soon proves fatal. Mr Inquisitive meets his end by being sort of carbonised and liquidised at the same time. The special effects throughout the 10-part series are intriguingly off-beam and satisfying. Unfortunately you get about one per episode. Continue reading...
Footage shows how the Cumbre Vieja volcano eruption has affected the marine ecosystem at the lava delta. Habitats are seen covered by volcanic ash and lava landslides down to depths of 400 metres in La Palma. The delta emerged on 29 September when lava from the volcano crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. The Cumbre Vieja volcano erupted on 19 September, with the eruption showing few signs of abating so far after destroying 2,000 buildings and forcing thousands to leave their homes
As bed shortages leave patients waiting for hours to reach Welsh hospitals, the Guardian speaks to paramedics on the frontlineBy the time Caroline was finally stretchered into the Grange university hospital in south Wales, it had been more than seven hours since she dialled 999.The 46-year-old, who lives in a one-bedroomed bungalow up in the hills, woke with severe chest pain. She thought she was having a heart attack and called for help at 3.30am. An ambulance crew reached Caroline at 8am and drove her down the valley to the Grange. She then spent the best part of two hours in the back of the truck in the hospital car park before a bed could be found. Continue reading...
Care facilities for older people used to be thought ‘un-African’. But destitution caused by Covid has seen demand for care homes soarLunch is Angelica Chibiku’s favourite time. At 12pm she sits on her neatly made bed waiting for her meal at the Society of the Destitute Aged (Soda) home for older people in Highfield, a township in south-west Harare.Chibiku welcomes a helper into her room and cracks a few jokes. She loves to interact with those who bring her food and supplies. Continue reading...
World Food Programme scrambles to provide relief through air and sea to earthquake victims as local violence soarsThe World Food Programme (WFP) is now using seafaring barges to ship supplies to earthquake victims in southern Haiti, after escalating gang violence made overland journeys unsafe for aid convoys.Since the 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck the country’s southern peninsula in August, thousands of survivors have been sporadically cut off from Port-au-Prince, the capital, by roadblocks set up by warring gangs, leading relief workers to employ novel workarounds, including shifting aid to barges and helicopter airlifts. Continue reading...
As we reach the 20th anniversary of the magical British blockbusters, the real magic lies in the way its young stars have stayed on the rails – unlike many before themThere are many magical things about the Harry Potter film series, which marks its 20th anniversary this month with a re-release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Perhaps the most miraculous one, though, is that its three stars – Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint – are still alive, apparently content, and not noticeably addicted to class A drugs.Each continued acting, occasionally even starring in bona fide hits: Radcliffe in The Woman in Black; Watson, who is also a UN women goodwill ambassador, in Beauty and the Beast. Grint, star of the M Night Shyamalan series Servant, also became a father last year – his partner is another former child actor, Georgia Groome of Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging – and celebrated by joining Instagram. Even there, he has shown a characteristic level-headedness by posting a mere six times in 11 months. Continue reading...
Administration insists there is no change of policy after president says US has ‘a commitment’ to defend islandChina has urged the US to “avoid sending any wrong signals” after President Joe Biden for a second time in three months said the US would come to Taiwan’s defence if it was attacked.In both incidents, the White House has clarified that there has been no change in US policy, which officially maintains so-called “strategic ambiguity” regarding Taiwan. Still, Biden’s words will rattle Beijing. Continue reading...
On the streets of Taipei, Beijing’s rhetoric is a hot topic but people are focused on a peaceful futureIn a small urban park on Yong Kang Jie, Taipei’s famous eat street, an elderly woman leans across the frame of her friend’s parked bicycle and shouts. “Taiwan is an independent country!”It’s a quiet autumn morning. Children play on a nearby slide, and a young mother enjoys a takeaway bento box. Continue reading...
First-class constable also acquitted of manslaughter over 2019 death of woman known as JC in Geraldton streetA police officer who shot dead an Indigenous woman carrying a knife on a suburban West Australian street has been acquitted of her murder.The first-class constable faced a three-week trial in the WA supreme court over the September 2019 killing of the 29-year-old woman, known as JC for cultural reasons, in the state’s Mid West. Continue reading...
Covid in Ethiopia, fishermen reducing their carbon footprint in Kenya and domestic violence in LGBTQ+ relationships in Uganda were some of the winning projects by visual storytellers from across East Africa in the EAPA 2021 Continue reading...
Jon Hopkins timed his upcoming album to the length of a ketamine high, while apps are using AI music to tailor drug experiences. Welcome to a techno-chemical new frontierTwo hundred psychedelic enthusiasts have converged in Austin, Texas for a “ceremonial concert” on the autumn equinox. People sprawl on yoga mats around a circular stage as staffers pace the candlelit warehouse, jingling bells and spritzing essential oils. While psychedelic drugs are prohibited, some attenders seem in an altered state, lying on their backs and breathing heavily as rumbles of bass from Jon Hopkins’ upcoming album, Music for Psychedelic Therapy, shakes the hushed space.This is the first time Hopkins – known for acclaimed solo electronic albums as well as production for Coldplay and Brian Eno – has played his new record in public, and the crowd is visibly moved. As recordings of spiritual guru Ram Dass’s teachings fill the room on the final song, the woman next to me begins silently weeping. Continue reading...