A gift of a camera inspired Belmaya Nepali to rise above poverty and abuse to make documentaries• I Am Belmaya reviewBelmaya Nepali’s life changed for ever when, at 14, she was given a camera.The British film-maker Sue Carpenter had come to Pokhara, a tourist city in central Nepal, to run a photography project with disadvantaged girls living in an institution. One of those girls was Belmaya. Continue reading...
Police on alert and inquiry launched after speaker of parliament pays visit to Miloš Zeman without permissionPolice in the Czech Republic will stop unauthorised hospital visits to the country’s ailing president, Miloš Zeman, after doctors treating him in intensive care complained that a leading political figure had called on him without their knowledge or permission.Prague’s central military hospital launched an internal inquiry after the speaker of the country’s parliament, Radek Vondráček, revealed he had seen Zeman on Thursday and described him as being in good spirits. Continue reading...
Espen Andersen Bråthen transferred as investigation into motives and psychiatric evaluation continueThe man suspected of killing five people with a bow and arrows and other weapons in Norway has been transferred to the public health service, a state prosecutor has said, amid mounting questions over his mental health.“Based on an initial assessment of his health condition, this was the best solution,” the prosecutor, Ann Iren Svane Mathiassen, told the Norwegian public broadcaster, NRK. Continue reading...
by Philip Oltermann in Berlin Jennifer Rankin in Brus on (#5QRB9)
Prospect of the FDP’s Christian Lindner taking charge has ‘half of Europe quaking in its boots’Germany’s biggest neighbours are watching the formation of the country’s new government with a mixture of hope and fear, amid concerns that a fiscal hardliner hotly tipped to become the next finance minister could drag the continent back to the frosty standoffs of the eurozone crisis.The Social Democratic party (SPD), the German Greens and the Free Democratic party (FDP) are expected to inch further towards a “traffic light” power-sharing deal on Friday, with formal coalition talks likely to start next week. Continue reading...
Veteran MP for Southend West assaulted during constituency surgery in Leigh-on-SeaThe Conservative MP Sir David Amess has been stabbed multiple times while holding a constituency surgery, police and a report have said.Sky News said the veteran MP, who has represented Southend West in Essex since 1983, was attacked at Belfairs Methodist church in Leigh-on-Sea. Continue reading...
Authorities question staff of Russian NGO Memorial after mob disrupts screening of Mr Jones at its officeA group of masked men stormed the offices of a renowned human rights organisation in Moscow on Thursday evening to disrupt the screening of Mr Jones, a British co-produced film about the Holodomor, the Stalin-era famine that killed millions of peasants in Soviet Ukraine during the 1930s.The 2019 movie, starring the British actor James Norton and directed by the celebrated Polish film-maker Agnieszka Holland, depicts the real-life story of Gareth Jones, a Welshman who is widely considered to have been the first journalist to document the famine, after repeated visits to the Soviet Union. Continue reading...
Rights groups raise concerns over deal to provide services on Bhasan Char, as Bangladesh plans to increase camp’s population by 80,000The UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) is facing questions over whether it is helping to detain Rohingya refugees in prison-like conditions by providing services on a controversial island camp.Over the past year, Bangladesh has relocated almost 20,000 refugees to Bhasan Char, an island formed of silt deposits in the Bay of Bengal thought to be vulnerable to cyclones, which the refugees are unable to leave. Continue reading...
Khadar Ayderus Ahmed, who directed the acclaimed drama, reveals the struggle to portray his community ‘with dignity and compassion’“I am Somali and I made this film for Somali people to watch a film in their mother tongue without needing subtitles,” says film director Khadar Ayderus Ahmed. Ahmed made his feature debut with The Gravedigger’s Wife, and after premiering in May at the Cannes film festival’s Critics’ Week, it made headlines as the first film from Somalia to be put forward for the Oscars.“As a film-maker, I felt a sense of responsibility to tell the story of how I view my Somali community and to tell this story with dignity, tenderness and compassion – all the qualities I’ve been raised with,” says Ahmed, who was born in Somalia before moving to Finland as a teenager. Continue reading...
Making a biodegradable material strong enough to replace plastic is a tough task. But scientists are trying to do just thatWhen people think about plastic waste, they often think of the packaging that swaddles supermarket fruits and vegetables – shiny layers that are stripped away and thrown in the bin as soon as the produce is unloaded at home.It’s a wasteful cycle that California-based company Apeel says it can help end. The firm has developed an edible, tasteless and invisible plant-based spray for fruits and vegetables that works as a barrier to keep oxygen out and moisture in, increasing shelf life without the need for single-use plastic. Continue reading...
It was the day rampaging Trump supporters stormed the Capitol – and almost derailed democracy. Now, using footage from rioters’ cameras, an unsettling film takes you into the thick of the mayhemWhen Dan Reed and Jamie Roberts began approaching networks about a film focused on the storming of the US Capitol – an attack on American democracy on the scale of 9/11, and all the more shattering for having come from within – they were met with a lack of enthusiasm.“The response was, ‘Why do we need a documentary? Everyone knows what happened’,” says Reed, whose previous hits include Leaving Neverland. It is true the January insurrection – in which thousands of Trump supporters rampaged in protest over the “stolen” election, leaving five dead and 140 police officers injured – had been documented in real time. Authorities reviewed 15,000 hours of footage, making it the largest digital crime scene in history. Continue reading...
I’m not sure why the depression was so bad – though lockdown sounds like a plausible explanationIt’s great to be well enough to come back to doing digested week on a fortnightly basis. I’ve suffered with mental health issues throughout my adult life, but the last few months have been among the worst and it is only recently that I have been able to make a gradual return to work. Throughout this time I couldn’t have been looked after better as I have been supported by so many people from family, friends and colleagues at work to mental health professionals – I was lucky enough to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital at my lowest point – yet I am still unable to say exactly why I had such bad depression and anxiety at this particular point. When people ask, I’ve taken to saying that it was the result of being stuck at home and not seeing anyone during lockdown as that sounds a plausible explanation, though I have no idea if it is true. After all, I seemed to survive the first lockdown just fine. All I know for certain is that I had reached a point where I would wake up having a panic attack every morning and on some days be unable to leave the bedroom, except to go to the toilet, for the entire day. Recovery was painfully slow and I knew I was getting better only when I belatedly realised that I had gone several days without horrific nightmares and that my anxiety levels were not as high as they had been. Even then it took a while to trust that the improvement was permanent. I’m sure my mental health problems will return – they always have – but hopefully I will have a prolonged period of respite. All I can do is keep my fingers crossed, keep on taking the meds, doing as my therapist says and say thank you to everyone who helped me. Not least the readers who took the trouble to get in touch. Continue reading...
Putting off bedtime for one more boxset episode, or some ‘me time’? You may be a sleep procrastinator – and doing yourself serious harmThe hour is late, and I am tired. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to do the sensible thing and go to bed. This is the first time today that no one has needed anything from me. The first time I haven’t been expected to be working, cooking, tidying, fetching, managing, delivering, caring or doing any of the other panoply of tasks most working-age adults seem to face on any given day. It’s just me, being me, in the quiet. Why would I cut this precious moment short?I have always been a night owl – our owlish (night-time) or larkish (morning) chronotypes are set by our genetics – but in recent years I’ve become a “revenge sleep procrastinator”, too. This clunky translation of the Chinese term bàofùxìng áoyè became popular on social media during the pandemic. In China, most sleep or bedtime procrastinators are workers on the soul-sapping and horribly common 9-9-6 schedule (9am-9pm, six days a week) who, despite being exhausted, use their late-night, post-work hours to claw back some sense of self, even when they know they should be sleeping. My situation – two small children plus full-time job – is embarrassingly far from their experience, and yet many of us in the west find ourselves doing the same things. The revenge bit – which might be better translated as “retaliatory” – is that we are avenging ourselves against our busy lives, either by staying up too late or by not going to sleep once in bed, often because we’re on our screens. Continue reading...
The producer behind Get Out, Paranormal Activity, the Purge series and now Halloween talks about Blumhouse’s runaway success, gun control and giving new talent a leg upThe nights are drawing in, Halloween is approaching and cinemas are back to full capacity. This can only mean one thing: horror movies, hordes of them. In recent years it feels as if the autumnal horror wave has become a year-round tsunami. Horror is everywhere on our screens these days, and if there’s one person to blame, it might well be Jason Blum.The 52-year-old producer seems to have cracked the code when it comes to low-budget, high-profit, endlessly sequelisable horror product. His 2007 breakthrough, the camcorder freakout Paranormal Activity, set the tone. Made on a $15,000 (£11,000) budget, it took nearly $200m at the box office worldwide. Blum has churned out a steady stream of hits ever since: The Purge, Insidious, Sinister, Happy Death Day, Split, Get Out and Us to name a few. His company, Blumhouse, is also custodian of vintage horror properties such as the Halloween franchise (2018’s revamp took more than $250m worldwide; its follow-up, Halloween Kills, is out now), and Universal’s monster gallery (after last year’s The Invisible Man, a Ryan Gosling-led Wolfman and a Karyn Kusama-directed Dracula are in the works). These are just edited highlights of Blum’s sprawling empire, which also includes dramas, streaming miniseries, documentaries and podcasts. According to IMDb, he currently has more than 30 titles in the pipeline. Continue reading...
Justice Sonia Sotomayor said oral argument rules were revamped after a study found women were more prone to being interruptedJustice Sonia Sotomayor has revealed that changes have been made in the supreme court’s structure of oral arguments following studies confirming what women on the court have long noticed – that female justices were more prone to being interrupted by male justices and attorneys.Speaking at a New York University School of Law event on Wednesday, Sotomayor said the new format now allows justices to ask questions individually, in order of seniority, after an attorney’s time is up. Continue reading...
After a painfully slow start, the rate of vaccine uptake in three Australian states and territories has risen swiftly, allowing millions to exit lockdown
The doctor told me I’d be lucky to see uterine transplants happen in my lifetime. But I never gave up hopeWhen I was 17, my periods still hadn’t started. Blood tests and ultrasound scans confirmed the devastating news: I had Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome – I had been born without a uterus. One in 5,000 women have the condition. I had functioning ovaries, which could help me make a baby, but without a womb, I couldn’t carry one.I stared at the medical drapes in front of me and tried to keep breathing. “Couldn’t I have a uterus transplant?” I asked the doctor, only to be told that I’d be lucky to see the procedure developed in my lifetime. Continue reading...
by Nadia Khomami Arts and culture correspondent on (#5QR3J)
Jesus College will give sculpture of a cockerel back to Nigeria, which could spark a wave of repatriationsA Cambridge college is to become the first British institution to return one of the Benin bronzes to Nigeria later this month in what has been described as “a historic moment”.Jesus College, University of Cambridge, will return the bronze cockerel to Nigerian delegates on 27 October, in a handover ceremony that Nigerian officials say offers “hope for amicable resolutions” to the ongoing disputes over the ownership of cultural properties. Continue reading...
In our series in which readers ask the questions, the film-maker behind Friends with Money and The Last Duel on popping Valium in a snowstorm on a flight to her first premiere – and Scorsese nodding off during her student filmA lot of your films have, I think, been autobiographical. How much of yourself were you able to put into The Last Duel [Holofcener focused on the section from the point of view of Jodie Comer’s Marguerite]? Is the “concept” of your third to debunk the ways in which male narratives distort women’s stories? Did that feel apiece with your previous work? And if this was a big break from the norm for you – in terms of period, location etc – how did that feel? Refreshing or unnerving? bumble1
The Queen has criticised world leaders’ inaction on addressing the climate crisis, saying she was 'irritated' by individuals who 'talk but don’t do'. She made the remarks, which were picked up on a livestream, at the opening of the Welsh parliament in Cardiff on Thursday during a conversation with the Duchess of Cornwall and Elin Jones, the parliament’s presiding officer. The Queen also referred to the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow starting on 31 October, saying: 'I’ve been hearing all about Cop ... still don’t know who is coming. No idea'
Plan announced to temporarily change ‘cabotage’ rules to prevent shortages in run-up to ChristmasForeign lorry drivers will be able to make an unlimited number of pick-ups and drop-offs in a fixed period in the UK under changes to rules proposed by the government to prevent shortages of products in the run-up to Christmas and into the new year.On Thursday, ministers announced a consultation on a plan to increase deliveries in the UK by temporarily changing so-called “cabotage” rules, which govern how many trips foreign transport firms can make within another country. Continue reading...
Activists highlight the poverty, stigma and abuse faced by women deserted by spouses living abroadKamala Reddy*, 33, a software engineer from Andhra Pradesh, married Vijay Kumar* in a traditional Hindu wedding in 2012. Kumar, who was working in the UK, was chosen by Reddy’s family. “But he didn’t take me to the UK after our marriage. He made excuses such as problems with the visa and so on,” says Reddy.In 2016, Reddy became pregnant. Under pressure from the family, Kumar brought her to England. On arrival, she was shocked to discover Kumar’s secret. He had a British partner, two children and a stepchild. Neither Kumar’s nor Reddy’s families knew about the other family. Kumar threatened to leave Reddy if she told anyone. Continue reading...
by Caitlin Cassidy (now) and Matilda Boseley (earlier on (#5QQNA)
PM to attend Glasgow summit; Hobart to enter three-day lockdown; NSW to end hotel quarantine, 6,000 weekly seats into Sydney to come online in next two days; Victoria to receive NSW travellers as state records 2,179 local cases and six deaths; NSW records 399 local cases and four deaths – follow the latest news
Conviction of Claudia Webbe could lead to byelection in seat where Tories have been gaining groundThe constituents of Leicester East have become accustomed to seeing their local MP in the news. Often for all the wrong reasons.The former Labour MP Keith Vaz, who held the seat for 32 years, stepped down after he was caught offering to buy class A drugs for sex workers, and has subsequently been found to have bullied a parliamentary staffer. Continue reading...
A decades-long policy of criminalising asylum seekers is filling prisons with innocent men, according to analysis by rights groupsItalian police have arrested more than 2,500 migrants for smuggling or aiding illegal immigration since 2013, often using anti-mafia laws to bring charges, according to the first comprehensive analysis of official data on the criminalisation of refugees and asylum seekers in Italy.The report by three migrant rights groups has collected police data and analysed more than 1,000 criminal cases brought by prosecutors against refugees accused of driving vessels carrying asylum seekers across the Mediterranean. Continue reading...
Diving with tiger sharks off Fuvahmulah brought a tourist boom that has led to a destructive tide of plastic waste. But now locals are pushing back“People used to think I was crazy,” says Lonu Ahmed. “Even my mum thought I was insane. Fishermen used to beg me not to dive with sharks.”Ahmed lives on the island of Fuvahmulah in the Maldives, an island surrounded by tiger sharks. The islanders have traditionally been terrified of the creatures: fishermen would regularly kill them. Ten years ago, however, believing the sharks were misunderstood, Ahmed jumped into the water, to the horror of onlookers. He says he saw something they didn’t. Continue reading...
Chris Ayres was a climber and mountain guide, who first sailed in his 50s. He hadn’t planned to make his six-year voyage alone, but it was the adventure of a lifetimeChris Ayres was 66 when he moved aboard his yacht “with a circumnavigation in mind”. He had read about people setting off on adventures. “I thought, let’s try it. I liked the idea that you could just get on a boat and head off.”He was ready to sail when the friend who was to join him as crew backed out. “I’d sailed solo before, but only for a day or so. Not like heading into the ocean, where you’re sailing for 24 hours,” he says from his home in Sheffield. A map of the world hangs on the wall beside him.Tell us: has your life taken a new direction after the age of 60?
As she plays Laurie Strode for the sixth time in Halloween Kills, she discusses sisterhood, survival – and the parallels between Michael Myers and Donald TrumpJamie Lee Curtis is describing herself to me. “I’m in a black hole wearing an orange suit,” she says. “It’s early morning in Los Angeles and I’m feeling really good. Fit as a fiddle.” The visual pointers are unnecessary, since we are talking via a video call and that suit could be seen from space: she looks like a human Tic Tac. It is almost as dazzling as the raspberry ensemble she wore, offset by her trademark silver crop, in the whodunit Knives Out.“I have a very close friend who’s a fashion girl, and she posted a picture of herself in that top and pants, so I sent it to our wardrobe designer and said: ‘That’s my character!’” Curtis has told the story before, but no matter: when she talks, it is as though she is linking her arm through yours. She takes you along for the ride. Continue reading...
Khin Maung Zaw has been the only source of information on the ousted Myanmar leader’s trial and wellbeingThe head lawyer representing Myanmar’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said that authorities in the military-ruled country have imposed a gag order on him because they said his communications could cause instability.Myanmar’s state media has not reported developments in Aung San Suu Kyi’s multiple legal cases, filed after she was ousted in a February coup, and her lawyer, Khin Maung Zaw, has been the only source of public information on her trial and her wellbeing. Continue reading...
Attracting more than half a million views within an hour of the song being uploaded, the emotional ballad is the singer’s first release in six yearsAdele has finally released a much-anticipated new single, Easy on Me – with a film clip that attracted more than half a million views within an hour of being uploaded to YouTube.After a six-year hiatus for the 15-time Grammy-winning singer, the song is the first track from her fourth album, 30, due out on 19 November, which reflects the “inner turmoil” she experienced after her divorce from Simon Konecki in 2019. Continue reading...
The controversial film’s first Tasmanian screening was described as ‘like going to a funeral’. How will it be received in a town that won’t speak the killer’s name?There were no posters advertising the Tasmanian premiere of Nitram at the independent State Cinema, which took place on Thursday night.Justin Kurzel’s new film dramatising the lead-up to 1996’s Port Arthur massacre, opened to a quiet, small crowd in the mass shooter’s home town of Hobart. Its trailers were not included in any other scheduling, and the film’s opening lagged two weeks behind its national release. Continue reading...
by Haroon Siddique Legal affairs correspondent on (#5QQT1)
Security experts say technology on iPhones could open door to mass surveillance and be misusedTechnology like that proposed by Apple to search iPhones for child sexual abuse images would open the door to mass surveillance and be vulnerable to exploitation, world-leading security and cryptography experts have said.Client-side scanning (CSS) gives access to data on users’ devices, including stored data, which “brings surveillance to a new level”, according to analysis from academics at Harvard Kennedy school, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Cambridge, among others. Continue reading...
Company cites ‘challenging operating environment’ in announcing site will be replaced with jobs app without social networking featuresMicrosoft says it will shut down LinkedIn in China, citing a “challenging operating environment” as Beijing tightens control over tech firms.The US-based company will replace the career-oriented social network in China with an application dedicated to applying for jobs but without the networking features, according to the senior vice-president of engineering, Mohak Shroff. Continue reading...
Overheard comment suggests anger at possible no-shows at Cop26 by leaders of countries with worst CO2 emissionsThe Queen has criticised world leaders’ inaction on addressing the climate crisis, admitting she is “irritated” by individuals who “talk but don’t do”.She made the remarks, which were picked up on a livestream, at the opening of the Welsh parliament in Cardiff on Thursday. Continue reading...
Decision follows hours of deliberation over whether it is fair for four Egyptian security officials to be tried in absentiaA court in Rome has suspended trial proceedings against four Egyptian security officials accused of kidnapping, torturing and murdering the Italian student Giulio Regeni in Cairo, following hours of deliberation over whether it is fair for the men to be tried in absentia.The trial was returned to a preliminary court, after judges debated for seven hours about whether hearings could continue amid any doubt they were aware of proceedings against them. Continue reading...
Transport secretary under pressure to resolve ongoing dispute with 54,000 HGV licences awaiting processingStaff at the DVLA have been promised payments worth £735 as the government seeks to avoid strike action that risks exacerbating the backlog of tens of thousands of licences awaiting renewal.It is understood the money will come in two payments, and has been offered as though unrelated to the fact the PCS trade union is currently balloting staff over renewed strike action. Continue reading...
Friday: teachers fear schools are not ready to return amid ongoing Covid outbreak. Plus: the fashion side hustle promoting city prideGood morning. Schools in New South Wales and Victoria may open their doors next week, but teachers are concerned not enough has been done to welcome them back safely. Restaurants and bars are also slowly reopening as restrictions ease, but many found a lucrative side-hustle during lockdown – fashion.Teachers are warning that some students will be left out in the cold – literally – when schools go back next week, as plans to make classrooms Covid-safe will not be ready. Concerns have been raised over poor ventilation, a lack of air filters and no guidance on how to safely manage class sizes. Principals say they will not be able to fit every student in classrooms if they adhere to the NSW government’s ventilation report, which says how many students should be in each room. “We have situations where room capacity leaves eight to 10 students out in the cold, literally,” the senior vice-president of the NSW Teachers Federation, Amber Flohm, said. Schools in NSW and Victoria have been promised air purifiers and ventilators, but do not currently have them. Continue reading...
After disastrous City presentation now is moment for senior independent director Zillah Byng-Thorne to earn her feeShares in THG, or The Hut Group, finally bounced on Thursday, but, given how far they’re fallen, even a 10% move doesn’t repair the damage. At 306p, the price is still only modestly above its level on Tuesday after the disastrous City presentation where founder Matthew Moulding tried to display the wonders within the Ingenuity subsidiary but drew a collective gasp of: “Is that it?”In a blistering research note, Numis analyst Simon Bowler ascribed a value of precisely zero, or “option value”, to Ingenuity, the bit that provides “end-to-end technology services” – web-hosting, marketing and logistics – for brands, include THG’s own. “Ingenuity is critical in many ways, but feels increasingly nascent, opaque and lacking sufficient proof points to justify a significant valuation,” he wrote. He values the whole company at 230p, or less than half last year’s float price. Continue reading...
Group of 17 organisations including the Guardian win inaugural Daphne Caruana Galizia prize for journalismThe European parliament has jointly awarded a major journalism prize to a consortium of 17 media outlets including the Guardian for the Pegasus spyware scandal revelations.A series of stories over the summer revealed evidence that global clients of the Israeli surveillance company NSO Group had identified human rights activists, journalists, lawyers and leading political figures, including the French president, Emmanuel Macron, as potential targets for phone-hacking software. Continue reading...
A witness of a bow and arrow attack that killed five people in the town of Kongsberg recalled on Thursday seeing one of the victims walking on a street with an arrow in his back. Investigators named the suspect as Espen Andersen Braathen, a 37-year-old living in the municipality where the attacks took place. Police had been concerned about signs of radicalisation in the suspect before the attacks, carried out with a bow and arrow and other weapons, a senior officer said.
Everyone in the Pacific has stories of times the climate crisis hit our lives. For me, it is the birth of my daughter between cyclonesMy daughter was born between cyclones.It was January 2013, and as we drove to the hospital, we passed the wreckage left by Cyclone Evan which had devastated my home island weeks earlier. Evan had been the worst tropical cyclone to hit Samoa in over two decades. There were huge holes in the road. Debris where homes once stood. Continue reading...