Fourteen men, including an ex-president, on trial 34 years after assassination of icon of pan-AfricanismThe landmark trial of a former president and 14 others has begun in Burkina Faso over the assassination of Thomas Sankara, a much revered revolutionary leader killed in a 1987 coup.Sankara, a Marxist icon of pan-Africanism widely hailed across Africa and beyond, was killed alongside 12 others by a hit-squad. His death led to his former friend Blaise Compaoré assuming power – denying any role in his murder. Compaoré ruled for the next 27 years before being deposed by mass protests in 2014 and fleeing to neighbouring Ivory Coast, where he is on trial in absentia. Continue reading...
The actor’s in-costume Instagram post has caused social media users to accuse the film-makers of “making Willy Wonka sexy” – but Wonka-lust is hardly newIn a sentence I never thought I’d ever write, Timothée Chalamet has revealed his Wonka on Instagram. Chalamet is, of course, currently filming the Willy Wonka movie prequel, and his post last night gave the world its first look at this new iteration.Judging by the internet, there are essentially two ways to react to it. The first is to be disgusted that Hollywood has bastardised one of the all-time great children’s characters by inventing a brand new backstory, with no input from its creator, for cash. The second is just to get really, really horny. Continue reading...
Swedish academics think they can explain why the derogatory term appears at the end of Steinbeck’s textThe word “slut” scrawled at the end of the manuscript for John Steinbeck’s seminal novel The Grapes of Wrath may have been explained, thanks to a handful of Swedish academics.The Grapes of Wrath was written by Steinbeck in a frenzy of creativity in under 100 days, between May and October 1938. Independent press SP Books released the first ever facsimile of the handwritten manuscript last week, showing Steinbeck’s increasingly tiny handwriting, his swear words, which were excised from the final novel – and a faint “slut”, written in red, at its conclusion. Continue reading...
by Lisa O'Carroll Brexit correspondent on (#5QK5J)
Point will come when EU says ‘enough, we cannot compromise any more’, warns Irish foreign ministerThe EU is close to the end of the road with the UK over the Northern Ireland protocol, accusing David Frost, the Brexit minister, of trying to undermine serious attempts to solve the problem, the Irish foreign minister has said.Simon Coveney said he had spoken to Lord Frost’s counterpart, the European Commission vice-president, Maroš Šefčovič, on Sunday. They have agreed there would come a point when “the EU will say: enough, we cannot compromise any more”, Coveney said. Continue reading...
Campaigners say president’s veto is ‘absurd and inhumane’ in country where period poverty keeps one in four girls out of schoolPresident Jair Bolsonaro’s decision to block a plan to distribute free sanitary pads and tampons to disadvantaged girls and women has been met with outrage in Brazil, where period poverty is estimated to keep one in four girls out of school.Bolsonaro vetoed part of a bill that would have given sanitary products at no charge to groups including homeless people, prisoners and teenage girls at state schools. It was expected to benefit 5.6 million women and was part of a bigger package of laws to promote menstrual health, which has been approved by legislators. Continue reading...
Police say remains found last week belong to 22-year-old Moree man missing since he was seen entering the Gwydir River in JuneNews South Wales police have confirmed human remains found in the Gwydir River in the state’s north belong to an Indigenous man who was last seen allegedly running from police.The Gomeroi man from Moree was seen entering the river north of the town on 10 July. His remains were found on Thursday 500 metres from where he was last seen and they were identified on Monday. Continue reading...
From Dan Lepard’s strawberry and mascarpone to Claire Thomson’s leek and cheddar, these mouthwatering dishes redefine the humble dessert. But in a good way …There are two types of people in the world: pie people and crumble people. As we all know, you cannot trust a pie person. Their need for structure is too restricting; their pursuit of rules loses them friends and respect at every turn. Give me the loose informality of a crumble any day. A warm bowl of crumble, lazily spooned out of a dish and drenched in custard, is one of the greatest things on this planet. Better yet, a crumble refuses to be pigeonholed. Sure, there are apple crumbles. Yes, there are rhubarb crumbles. But there is also a multitude of equally worthy less traditional crumbles – as these recipes prove. Continue reading...
Autumn Assembly is the highest and most important Yazidi holiday. It takes place in the holy city of Lalish, which is believed to be the place where creation began and where the seat of God descended to rule the earth. It also houses the tombs of Sheikh Adi and other holy figures. The town is considered so sacred that you are not allowed to enter while wearing shoes, especially during the assembly Continue reading...
High-profile Britons urge return of plundered altar tablets that British Museum has never put on displayThey are hidden religious treasures that have been in the British Museum’s stores for more than 150 years, never on public display – with members of the public strictly forbidden from seeing them.Now hopes have been raised that Ethiopian tabots, looted by the British after the battle of Maqdala in 1868, could finally be returned home following a new legal opinion and an appeal backed by Stephen Fry, the author Lemn Sissay and the former archbishop of Canterbury George Carey. Continue reading...
While 99% of us are still fast asleep, members of the Win the Morning, Win the Day movement are throwing themselves into a dawn walk or swim. We join them where it all started, on a beach in HampshireA minute’s silence – a chance to listen to the wind and the waves crashing on to shingle, and look across the Solent to the lights of a cruise ship in the distance – and then we charge into the water, although some of us (me) are more tentative. There are shrieks and gasps from the shock of the cold; grimacing, grinning faces lit up by a portable floodlight.It is barely 6am, and still dark. It’s also the windiest, rainiest weather this group has ventured out in, but an impressively hardy 12 have turned up. On a good day, about 30 meet each Friday at 5.30am in Gosport, Hampshire, for a two-mile walk along Stokes Bay, followed by a dip in the sea. “It has changed my life,” says one man, who has been coming since the group started last year. He says meeting strangers, and the welcoming atmosphere, has allowed him to open up about his mental health and seek some help. Kerry started coming in October last year and says the weekly meet has helped relieve the seasonal affective disorder she usually suffers from at this time of year. “I used to sleep for 10, 11 hours,” she says. “If you had told me last year I’d be getting up at this time each week to do this, I wouldn’t have believed it.” Continue reading...
In the Spanish enclave of Melilla, young Nepalis share stories of survival while they await the next chapter of their livesOpening with a solemn quote from the Qur’an defining “Barzakh” – a liminal space between the dead and the afterlife – Alejandro G Salgado’s sombre documentary evokes the same atmosphere of indeterminacy, creating both a geographical and emotional state of perpetual longing. Shot entirely at night on the coastline of Melilla, which turns otherworldly once darkness falls, the film observes, often from a distance, young and undocumented Nepali boys who are waiting and hoping to cross to Europe.Hiding among the cavernous hollows of the rocky cliffs of this tiny Spanish enclave, these boys are wrapped in shadows. Besides hiding their identities, the nocturnal cinematography also points up the stark outlines of their makeshift shelters, which seem to swallow their small figures whole. The boys sing traditional devotional songs together: the gentle yearning sharply contrasts with the cacophony of the ocean waves, suggesting the arduous journeys on which they will soon embark. Continue reading...
by Caitlin Cassidy (now) and Matilda Boseley (earlier on (#5QJP5)
Victoria will be open for summer, health minister says, as state records 1,612 new local Covid-19 cases and eight deaths; Andrews government minister Luke Donnellan quits cabinet after appearing before Ibac. This blog is now closed
With a side order of charm and anecdotes, the actor and gourmand makes our reviewer crave a plate of his zeppoleZeppole are deep-fried balls of a dough made with flour and, sometimes, mashed potatoes. The sweet version, dusted with sugar, are often filled with pastry cream, like the more famous cannoli. The savoury version, favoured in Calabria, in southern Italy, may contain anchovies, and go down very well indeed with a martini, or a glass of something cold, fizzy and unforgivably expensive.I sound authoritative, but to be truthful I hadn’t heard of these parcels of deliciousness – bring me a crate of them and I’ll show you what a good appetite looks like – until the other day. There I was, innocently reading Taste: My Life Through Food, a memoir by the notable actor and gourmand Stanley Tucci, when the word zeppole (doesn’t it sound elegante?) roared, metaphorically speaking, right up to me on a mint-coloured Vespa, wearing a black polo neck and flashy sunglasses. Hello, I thought, closing my eyes in anticipation of an afternoon reverie. Not too long after this, I began frantically searching for recipes for zeppole on Google. Continue reading...
Expectations are slim that the troubled Chinese developer will make $148m worth of payments due on Monday, as it wrestles with more than $300bn in liabilitiesFinancial markets were braced for more bad news about the shaky Chinese property market as struggling giant Evergrande looked set to miss a fresh round of debt repayments worth $148m, and another developer pleaded for more time to repay what it owes.China Evergrande Group missed two coupon payment deadlines last month worth $131m amid widespread concern of huge losses as the developer wrestles with more than $300bn in liabilities. Continue reading...
Party say Maori would be ‘sacrificial lambs’ if Covid restrictions are lifted before vaccination rates riseNew Zealand’s government would be committing “modern genocide” by reopening the country as Covid spreads among under-vaccinated indigenous people, the Māori party has said.The comments come as the country is struggling to contain its current Delta outbreak, with 95 cases reported over the weekend, and another 35 on Monday. Most current cases and hospitalisations are among Māori and Pacific New Zealanders, despite the fact those groups make up less than 30% of the total population. New Zealand is also in the process of pivoting away from its longstanding elimination strategy. Continue reading...
It used to be a four-month period. Now fires are starting earlier and burning more intensely amid extreme conditionsIt’s only October, and 2021 has already been a horrendous year for wildfires in the American west. The Dixie fire leveled the town of Greenville. The Caldor fire forced the evacuation of tens of thousands in Lake Tahoe. Some fires sent plumes so high into the atmosphere that the toxic air reached the east coast thousands of miles away.Fire is an important part of life in the American west and essential for the health of the landscape, but as the climate has changed so have wildfires in the region.
After a decades-long slump, the actor’s career came roaring back with the role of Connor Roy. He talks about his 80s success, his ‘attitude problems’ and his excitement about Succession’s new seriesAlan Ruck is talking to me by video about the present, but he appears to be sitting in the past. The present we are discussing is the forthcoming third season of Succession, the wildly adored HBO series about plutocracies and dysfunctional families, created by Jesse Armstrong, a co-creator of Peep Show. Ruck plays Connor, the neglected eldest son of a media magnate, Logan Roy (Brian Cox). Like all the actors on the show – as the Guardian’s unofficial Succession correspondent, I have interviewed Cox and Jeremy Strong – Ruck has thought deeply about his character and is very eloquent on the subject. It is, however, a little hard to focus on what he’s saying because the bright and spacious kitchen in which he’s sitting bears a striking resemblance to another kitchen audiences associate with him. More than 30 years before Ruck played Connor, he was Cameron Frye, another neglected son of a cruel and wealthy man, in the 1986 John Hughes classic film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Alan, I say, are you actually sitting in Ferris Bueller’s kitchen?“Ha! No, I see what you mean, but this is my lovely kitchen. And upstairs are my lovely children,” he says in his occasionally ironic, lightly mocking tone, although that mockery is always directed inwardly rather than outwardly. At one point, he makes a fleeting reference to “a western I was once in”, and I interrupt him to say he cannot casually refer to the great 1990 movie Young Guns II as just some western. Continue reading...
by Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent on (#5QJX5)
Exclusive: Campaign for Better Transport calls on government to end ‘climate disaster’ of internal flightsDomestic flights should be banned and long-distance train fares subsidised, transport campaigners have urged, highlighting the relative environmental and financial costs of air and rail travel.The Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) called on ministers to outlaw internal UK flights if an equivalent train journey took less than five hours and to resist calls for any cut in air passenger duty. Continue reading...
Pacific country says it faces ‘diabolical challenges’ due to larger nations and that they play a much bigger role in controversial industryThe financial regulator of Samoa, a Pacific nation implicated in the Pandora papers as a tax haven for wealthy individuals, has defended the country’s involvement in the offshore industry and pointed the finger at “larger economies” such as the UK and Singapore for their role in it.“Samoa is a proud, law-abiding country that has suffered much due to its harsh colonial past and diabolical challenges that it now faces, such as climate change. Both calamities were brought on to us by larger countries that continue to enjoy much respect,” said Tuifaasisina Sieni Tualega-Voorwinden, the chief executive officer of the Samoa International Finance Authority. Continue reading...
by Martin Chulov, Middle East correspondent on (#5QJJR)
Electoral commission says turnout was 41% as disillusioned youth and middle classes opt to stay homeIraqis have turned out in low numbers in a national election, with many boycotting a poll that people feared could reinforce a political system that had failed them.Nationwide turnout at the sixth ballot since the ousting of Saddam Hussein in 2003 was 41%, the electoral commission said. In recent elections, turnout has averaged just over 65%, according to non-profit the International Foundation for Electoral Systems. Continue reading...
US says it discussed aid in talks in Doha but Taliban say deal agreed that stops short of formal recognition of new rulersThe United States has agreed to provide humanitarian aid to a desperately poor Afghanistan on the brink of an economic disaster, but refused to give political recognition to the country’s new rulers, the Taliban said on Sunday.The statement came at the end of the first direct talks between the former foes since the chaotic withdrawal of US troops at the end of August. Continue reading...
The Singapore government is now free to act on suspicions of foreign influence, and their targets will struggle to clear their namesSingapore’s parliament has passed a controversial anti-foreign interference bill, just three weeks after its first reading on 13 September.It was only to be expected that the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Bill, or Fica, would pass – the ruling People’s Action Party has had a supermajority in parliament for decades, allowing them to push whatever legislation they want through the House. But the concerns that activists, journalists, academics and legal practitioners had before the bill’s passage persist.Kirsten Han is a freelance journalist who runs the newsletter We, The Citizens, covering Singapore from a rights-based perspective. Continue reading...
Up to 100,000 people gathered in Warsaw alone after a Polish court ruling that raised fears of a Brexit situationMore than 100,000 Poles demonstrated on Sunday in support of European Union membership after a Polish court ruled that parts of EU law were incompatible with the constitution, raising fears of a “Polexit”.Politicians across Europe voiced dismay at the ruling by Poland’s constitutional tribunal on Thursday, which has thrown relations between Brussels and Warsaw into a crisis. Continue reading...
by Rebecca Ratcliffe South-east Asia correspondent on (#5QJSR)
Up to 30,000 are believed to have died since the president urged police to start killing drug users – now their families want justiceOn 11 May 2017, Crisanto Lozano set off early in the morning from his home in Manila. He was going to renew his security guard licence, a requirement for his profession. By afternoon, he still hadn’t returned, nor was he picking up his phone. Then the family realised that Crisanto’s younger brother, Juan Carlos, was also missing.The next day, they heard news that two bodies had been discovered nearby. The brothers had been shot dead during a police operation. Continue reading...
Officers made decision after reportedly talking to Giuffre and a review of documentsThe Metropolitan police are taking no further action after a review prompted by Virginia Giuffre, who is taking legal action against Prince Andrew.Met officers made the decision to drop their investigation on Sunday, after reviewing several documents, including one relating to an ongoing US civil lawsuit concerning Giuffre, who alleges she was forced to have sex with the prince when she was 17 years old. Continue reading...
Police say that Jason Bell, 40, has been arrested on suspicion of murderA man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a woman with stab injuries died in Camden.The Metropolitan Police were called shortly before 1am on Sunday to a disturbance at a flat in Broxwood Way, Primrose Hill, London. Continue reading...
Monday: bars, retail, gyms and hairdressers reopen across NSW. Plus: the Coalition push to fast-track international travelGood morning. Millions in New South Wales awaken to new freedoms after 106 days of lockdown. Australian deportation law changes described as “authoritarian”. The campaign for Australia to donate vaccines across Asia Pacific ramps up.Bars, retail, gyms and hairdressers reopen across NSW and Scott Morrison has backed plans to fast-track the resumption of international travel as soon as the state’s home quarantine program is ready. In a Facebook livestream on Sunday, the prime minister said he had had discussions with NSW premier Dominic Perrottet about bringing forward the start date of international travel for fully vaccinated people. Continue reading...
Jonathan Toebbe and wife arrested in West Virginia after nuclear engineer makes ‘dead drop’ to undercover FBI agentA US navy nuclear engineer with access to military secrets has been charged with trying to pass information about the design of American nuclear-powered submarines to someone he thought was a representative of a foreign government – but who turned out to be an undercover FBI agent.In a criminal complaint detailing espionage-related charges, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) said Jonathan Toebbe sold information for nearly a year to a contact he believed represented a foreign power. That country was not named in the court documents. Continue reading...
Fears of a political crisis as Miloš Zeman, an ally of Andrej Babiš, is admitted to intensive care unitThe Czech Republic is facing political upheaval and a possible power vacuum after its billionaire prime minister, Andrej Babiš, suffered a surprise general election defeat and then saw his most powerful backer and sole potential saviour, the country’s president, Miloš Zeman, taken to hospital, apparently gravely ill.In a stunning upset that confounded pollsters’ forecasts, Babiš’ populist Action for Dissatisfied Citizens (ANO) 2011 party finished second in this weekend’s popular vote behind the centre-right Spolu (Together) alliance, which previously vowed not to form a government with him. Continue reading...
by Denis Campbell Health policy editor on (#5QJKW)
Chronic underfunding, Covid and staff shortages blamed for increase in physical and verbal assaultsNHS staff across the UK are facing a “growing tide of abuse” including assaults from patients, which they say is being caused by frustration at long waits for care.In a strongly worded joint statement, which has been shared with the Guardian, six key medical bodies and staff groups blame patients’ increasingly long delays in receiving treatment on years of successive governments underinvesting in the NHS and not fixing severe workforce shortages. Continue reading...
An investigation into paedophile priests in France reveals an institution in desperate need of reformThe findings of an inquiry into sexual abuse and paedophilia in the French Catholic church, published last week, are difficult to read and painful to contemplate. Over the past 70 years, the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church found that at least 216,000 children were subjected to abuse at the hands of Catholic priests and members of religious orders. Sexual exploitation within the church and associated institutions, the commission stated, had been a “massive phenomenon”. Beyond immediate family and friends, the prevalence of sexual violence in the church outstripped that in any other social environment.These conclusions represent, as Pope Francis rightly acknowledged, “a moment of shame” for the Catholic church. They should also be the catalyst for far-reaching reform of its practice and culture. The French report is only the latest in a dismal, heart-rending sequence. Last year, an investigation found that the Catholic church in England and Wales had failed to adequately deal with sexual abuse perpetrated over decades by clergy and others associated with the church. It had, the report’s authors stated, prioritised its own reputation over the welfare of abuse victims. Other investigations have reached similarly damning conclusions in the United States, Ireland, Germany, Chile, Australia and Poland. Continue reading...
Education systems that treat teachers as trusted professionals adjusted better to pandemic disruption, research suggestsIf remote learning has shown parents anything, it is a renewed appreciation for the job that teachers do. Now as teachers return to school in the coming weeks, at least in New South Wales, it’s a chance to ask some consequential questions: Are the teacher policies what they should be to improve education in these uncertain times? Is teaching such an attractive career choice that there will be enough qualified teachers in all parts of this country? Can we promise that all children will have a teacher who is able to teach the complex skills and knowledge they will need in life?The short answer to all these questions is unfortunately “no”. Right now, Australia and many other countries are facing serious teacher shortages. Many teachers are leaving the profession before they reach their fifth year. At the same time the number of young people interested in becoming teachers has declined. Continue reading...
Social media and online marketplaces have facilitated a boom in Australian home cooking businesses – but many operate without regulationDuring the Sydney lockdown I ordered from a different home cook every Friday night, for me and my neighbours. I discovered each cook from community groups or social media pages for migrant communities in Sydney – east African, Thai, English.Sometimes the home cooks had a professional social media presence, a delivery prmovider, or even a website to order from; but often my lead was just a person’s name – I’d then have to find and befriend them on Facebook before asking about a food delivery for the following Friday. Some had menus, others just asked “what do you want?” and let me pick from the full range of their specialty cuisine. Continue reading...
Outrage ensued when Zelda Perkins revealed her non-disclosure agreement in 2017 but the expected reforms never cameIn the weeks after she first broke her non-disclosure agreement, Zelda Perkins, Harvey Weinstein’s former personal assistant, felt dizzy with optimism.After an appearance on Newsnight in 2017, in which she spoke publicly about the oppressive non-disclosure agreement (NDA) she had been silenced by as a 24-year-old two decades earlier, Perkins found herself feted in parliament. The end of the use of NDAs as a means to cover up abuse was, she thought, in sight. Continue reading...
Resignation of Austrian chancellor follows Germany’s CDU crashing to its worst federal election resultEurope’s ailing centre-right is mourning the departure of a second high-profile conservative leader in the space of a month, as Austria’s chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, on Saturday evening announced he would resign over allegations he encouraged the use of public funds to buy himself positive media coverage.The fall from grace of the 35-year-old leader of the Austrian People’s party (ÖVP) comes just weeks after its German sister party failed to fill the space left by the outgoing chancellor, Angela Merkel, and crashed to the worst result in its history at federal elections. Continue reading...
by Lisa O'Carroll Brexit correspondent on (#5QHXP)
EU leaders urged to push back against No 10’s brinkmanship over role of European court of justiceFears that the UK is heading for a trade war with the EU have been fuelled by strong indications from the government that it thinks proposals to be unveiled in Brussels on Wednesday over Brexit arrangements do not go far enough.The Brexit minister, David Frost, will use a speech in Portugal on Tuesday to say that the EU scrapping its prohibition on British sausages to resolve the dispute over the Northern Ireland protocol does not meet the UK and unionists’ demands. Continue reading...
Twenty-seven allegations about officers passed on in week Couzens sentencedAlmost a third of police forces in England and Wales referred allegations of sexual assault and harassment against their own officers to the police watchdog in the days following the sentencing of Wayne Couzens for the murder of Sarah Everard, the Observer can reveal.The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) received 27 detailed referrals involving officers and serious sexual offences in the week after Couzens was handed a whole-life term on 30 September for the kidnap, rape and murder of Everard while he was a serving officer. Continue reading...
by Shah Meer Baloch in Islamabad and Julian Borger in on (#5QJ4F)
With relations frosty over Taliban victory and Pakistani repression, deputy secretary of state visits for ‘specific and narrow purpose’A senior US official visiting Islamabad has made clear to Pakistan that the Biden administration has downgraded the bilateral relationship.On the eve of her arrival, the deputy secretary of state, Wendy Sherman, used a public event in Mumbai to lay out in blunt terms the new parameters of US-Pakistan relations, stressing there would be no equivalence with Washington’s deepening ties to India. Continue reading...
The California Democrat’s new memoir, Midnight in Washington, examines his life before politics as well as his leading roles in impeachment and other dramas on Capitol HillGreat crises in American political life often produce a new hero, someone whose courage and charisma capture the imagination of the decent half of the country.In the 1950s, when Joe McCarthy terrorized America with wild claims of communists lurking in every army barracks and state department corridor, it was an attorney, Joseph Walsh, who demanded of the Wisconsin senator: “At long last, sir, have you no sense of decency?” Continue reading...
One of the team who found the 12 young footballers tells of restaging the mission for a filmIn October 2020, Rick Stanton readied his wetsuit, dive harness, cylinders and regulators. He was preparing to plunge into the underwater filming stage at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire: a six-metre deep tank, surrounded by dark walls prepared with an artificial cave passage.Stanton, along with six other British divers, was recreating the extraordinary Tham Luang cave rescue mission in which he took part, an operation that gripped the world’s attention in 2018, and which saved 12 teenage footballers and their assistant coach who had become trapped in the north Thailand cave. Continue reading...
Thank you for a really beautiful email, writes Philippa Perry. I will store your lesson away for myselfThe question I need your help. Specifically, a woman therapist’s help, in fact. Even though I’ve got a perfectly good and helpful therapist, who’s helped me a lot in the three years since I was diagnosed with stupid cancer aged 43, I’m finding that the thing I want to do is probably quite female and when I mentioned it to him, he said: “That’s what women do.”Long story short: happily married to a lovely man. No kids of my own, wicked stepmother to a 24-year-old. I was busy-busy-busy working when I got a terrible cancer diagnosis. Loads of chemo, loads of weeping. Grim prognosis. Still, I’m cracking on and writing this from a hotel on a jolly to London. Quite at peace with death, although obviously I’m sorry it’s coming so soon. It’s the living through to the end that’s killing me. Continue reading...
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