Largest major survey of its kind finds 70% of respondents first saw child sexual abuse material when they were under 18The largest major survey of people who watch online child sexual abuse has found that one-third of respondents attempted to directly contact a child as a result of the illegal images they watched online.The survey, by Protect Children, a Finnish human rights group, was posted on the “dark web” so users would find it while actively searching for illegal content of children. The analysis was based on more than 5,000 people who responded initially to the survey about why and how they watched children being abused online, although 10,000 responses have been received so far. Continue reading...
Hoshyar Ali has cleared more than 750,000 landmines in 104 villages, despite having lost both legs to landmines. Iraqi Kurdistan is one of the most contaminated countries for landmines and explosive remnants of war, according to a report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian AffairsA dust cloud trails behind a metallic grey Kia Sportage as it meanders along a rocky dirt road toward the last town on this thoroughfare before reaching the Iraq-Iran border.People walk along the road, waving at independent deminer Hoshyar Ali as he drives by, recognising him by the red flag on his antenna, indicating the vehicle is transporting explosives, and by the stickers of various landmines on his vehicle. Continue reading...
The UK/Australia Season is the largest ever cultural exchange between the two nations, including the sacred knowledge held in songlines, a 19th-century Indigenous cricket team and uprising anthems linking Brixton to Palm IslandMargo Neale is feeling proud. “Here we are,” she says, “250 years after the British set out to colonise and civilise us, taking our culture to the British – to teach them how to survive in this fragmenting world.” Neale, an Indigenous Australian from the Gumbaynggirr and Kulin nations, is just warming up. “It is our civilisation,” she continues defiantly, “that had the resilience to survive over millennia: the ice age, sea rises, drought, invasion, violence, all sorts of oppression and pandemics. So, this is us showing Britain we have the knowledge to survive – knowledge held in the songlines.”Neale, who is also of Irish descent, is talking about the plan to bring the National Museum of Australia’s extraordinary 2017 exhibition Songlines, which she co-curated, to Britain. The show will have its European premiere at the Box in Plymouth – which is where, Neale can’t resist pointing out, Captain James Cook set sail from in 1768, becoming the first European to set foot on the east coast of Australia. Continue reading...
Former Afghan government’s ambassador in Greece appalled by Athens’ media blitz against ‘illegal migrant flows’In other times, Mirwais Samadi would have welcomed a campaign to deter his compatriots from opting to become illegal migrants and embarking on the often dangerous trek from Afghanistan to Europe.By far the worst part of his job as Afghanistan’s ambassador to Athens – apart from the strange limbo he has found himself in representing a nation whose leaders he refuses to recognise – is notifying families back home of loved ones who died along the way. Invariably they are the victims of smuggling networks motivated solely by profit. Continue reading...
Two Israeli soldiers were also seriously wounded after violence erupted when troops tried to arrest suspected Hamas militantsFive Palestinians have been killed after gun battles erupted when Israeli troops conducted a series of raids against suspected Hamas militants across the occupied West Bank.The fighting on Sunday was the deadliest violence between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants in the West Bank in several weeks. Two Israeli soldiers were seriously wounded. Continue reading...
The former army colonel, who was sentenced to life in prison for crimes against humanity, died in hospital in MaliTheoneste Bagosora, a former Rwandan army colonel regarded as the architect of the 1994 genocide in which more than 800,000 ethnic Tutsi and Hutus who tried to protect them were killed, has died in a hospital in Mali.His son Achille Bagosora announced the death in a Facebook post: “Rest in Peace, Papa.” Continue reading...
Initial election result gave women 33 seats, but total was later revised down to 30Iceland briefly celebrated electing a female-majority parliament on Sunday, before a recount produced a result just short of the landmark for gender parity in the north Atlantic island nation.The initial vote count gave female candidates 33 seats in Iceland’s 63-seat parliament, the Althing, in an election in which centrist parties made the biggest gains. The result would have made Iceland the first country in Europe to have more women than men in parliament. Continue reading...
Over 40% of residents of landlocked state in central Italy voted to end total ban in place since 1865Residents in San Marino have voted overwhelmingly to legalise abortion.Over 40% of the population of about 33,000 in the tiny state, which is landlocked within central Italy, participated in the referendum, with 77.3% voting in support of allowing abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy, according to results published by San Marino TV. Continue reading...
Exit polls suggest Olaf Scholz’s centre-left SPD will be the largest party in Germany’s federal parliament. Get all the latest results as they come in, and find out what coalitions will be possible to form the country’s new governmentGerman election 2021 – live coverage
Ministers to discuss emergency plan Operation Escalin after BP reveals a third of its forecourts have shortagesHundreds of soldiers could be scrambled to deliver fuel to petrol stations running dry across the country due to panic buying and a shortage of drivers under an emergency plan expected to be considered by Boris Johnson on Monday.The prime minister will gather senior members of the cabinet to scrutinise “Operation Escalin” after BP admitted that a third of its petrol stations had run out of the main two grades of fuel, while the Petrol Retailers Association (PRA), which represents almost 5,500 independent outlets, said 50% to 90% of its members had reported running out. It predicted that the rest would soon follow. Continue reading...
Serious themes are undercut by the flippant tone of this story about a Syrian refugee who becomes a conceptual art objectHere is a muddled caper of movie that doesn’t know what it wants to say; it doesn’t work as a satire of the international art market, nor as a commentary on the racism of white European culture. And its attitude to Syria is undermined by a silly and unconvincing ending that leaves a strange taste in the mouth. It is inspired by the Belgian conceptual artist Wim Delvoye and his human artwork called Tim: in 2008, Delvoye tattooed an elaborate punk-crucifixion scene on the back of a Zurich tattoo parlour owner named Tim Steiner, who in return for a cash payment agreed to sit still with his tattooed back on show in galleries for a certain number of times a year and have his tattooed skin surgically removed and put on display after his death. And of course it is this macabre destiny that lends fascination to the ongoing live events.This movie from writer-director Kaouther Ben Hania imagines a Syrian man, Sam Ali (Yahya Mahayni) in love with a well-born woman Abeer (Dea Liane). But when he is wrongfully arrested by the tyrannical Assad government, Abeer’s family pressures her into marrying a smooth diplomat, Ziad (Saad Lostan), who takes her to live with him in Brussels where he is an embassy attache. Sam Ali manages to escape from police custody (the least of the film’s implausibilities) and get over the border into Lebanon where, hungry and hard up, he gatecrashes art exhibitions and gobbles the free canapes. And this is where he is approached by a preeningly arrogant artist, Jeffrey Godefroi (Koen De Bouw), who looks like Roger De Bris, the theatre director in Mel Brooks’s The Producers. If Sam will agree to the humiliation of having a massive “Schengen visa” tattooed on his back, then Jeffrey will be legally able to transport him to Brussels as a conceptual art object rather than a human being, as part of a show about the commodification of humanity, and Sam will be able to see Abeer. Continue reading...
Alan Partridge star will take on ‘complex’ character of notorious paedophile in The ReckoningSteve Coogan will play Jimmy Savile in a forthcoming BBC drama series about how the high-profile presenter spent decades living a double life as one of the country’s most notorious paedophiles.The Alan Partridge star said the decision to portray Savile on screen was not one he “took lightly” but the series had “an intelligent script tackling sensitively an horrific story which – however harrowing – needs to be told”. Continue reading...
Melanie Chisholm, Boyzone’s Shane Lynch and S Club 7’s Hannah Spearritt latest to allege voicemail interceptionA group of 1990s pop stars are among the latest individuals to launch phone-hacking cases against Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, as the scandal that has dogged the company for more than 15 years continues to rumble on at the high court.Melanie Chisholm from the Spice Girls, Shane Lynch from Boyzone, Hannah Spearritt from S Club 7, and Steps’s Ian Watkins and Lee Latchford-Evans have recently filed claims against the company. Continue reading...
New analysis reveals misogyny increasingly prevalent online and being used to steer people into racism and antisemitismSexual violence is increasingly being promoted by the British far right, according to new analysis documenting how misogyny is used to steer individuals towards adopting racist and antisemitic views.Investigators found that pro-rape comments were “not uncommon” among the UK extreme right and that a culture has taken root that endorses sexual violence. Analysing misogyny and anti-feminist channels on the messaging app Telegram, a key online platform for the far right, they found sexual assault was a “prominent theme”. Continue reading...
Parliamentary delegation to hold talks with university in effort to shed light on student’s killing in EgyptAn Italian parliamentary delegation is to travel to Cambridge this week to hold talks with the university over the 2016 death of the postgraduate student Giulio Regeni, who was abducted and killed in Cairo while researching Egyptian trade unions.Four senior members of Egypt’s powerful security services were last year charged by a Rome judge over their suspected role in the disappearance and murder of the 28-year-old Italian. The trial will take place in absentia after the Egyptian state refused to recognise the Italian legal process or extradite the four suspects. Continue reading...
Andrew Hickman’s obituary of Carmel Budiardjo, the campaigner for human rights and justice in Indonesia, refers to the political effects of the cold war in south-east Asia. One consequence was that the west turned a blind eye to the 1965 massacre in Indonesia and to the anti-left purge under General Suharto.Carmel’s organisation Tapol was a lonely voice in exposing the plight of tens of thousands of political prisoners and their families. She was wonderfully forthright and focused on the cause. In 1990 when I visited Indonesia for the Guardian to cover the – largely ignored – 25th anniversary of the massacre, her help with contacts included the great novelist and ex-prisoner Pramoedya Ananta Toer, and proved to be invaluable. Continue reading...
‘Marriage for All’ proposal backed by 64.1% of voters in nationwide referendumSwiss voters have decided by a clear margin to allow same-sex couples to marry, in a referendum that brings the Alpine nation into line with many others in western Europe.Official results showed the measure passed with 64.1% of voters in favour and won a majority in all of Switzerland’s 26 cantons. Continue reading...
Police say they are questioning 36-year-old on suspicion of murder in ‘significant development’Detectives are questioning a 36-year-old man on suspicion of the murder of the London schoolteacher Sabina Nessa, in what they called a “significant development” in the case.The man was arrested at 3am on Sunday at an address in East Sussex and was taken into police custody. He is the third man arrested over the killing. Continue reading...
Leeds United have offered support but players face return to Taliban regime unless accepted soonThe UK government is being asked to urgently resettle female players from Afghanistan’s junior football team who fled the Taliban and have been offered a new life with Leeds United.The 35 young women – many of whom are in their teens – their families and football coaches are in Lahore, Pakistan, on 30-day visas. But the 136-strong group face returning to Afghanistan unless they are accepted by a third country soon – they have to leave Pakistan by 12 October. Continue reading...
The painter expresses sadness at how social media, Covid and new buildings have made it a challenge to find places to create artThe far south-west of Britain has long been regarded as a wild and romantic spot, a place where you can lose yourself in rugged landscapes beloved of artists and dreamers.But a renowned Cornish-based artist celebrated for his images of the world’s great wildernesses has expressed sadness and frustration that social media, new building and the rush to the countryside caused by Covid has made it a challenge to find remote, lonesome places in his backyard to paint. Continue reading...
A coalition is inevitable but there are likely to be months of complicated negotiations in the months aheadPolling stations have opened in Germany as the nation decides who will succeed in the race to replace Angela Merkel as chancellor after 16 years.As final rallies were held across the country by the the main candidates on Saturday, with polls showing the lead held by the Social Democrats’ Olaf Scholz over Armin Laschet of the Christian Democrats to have narrowed to a tiny margin, voter participation among the more than 60 million Germans eligible to vote, was predicted to be high. Continue reading...
Tough controls on immigration, a restricted role for European courts, a new politics of patriotism: why is the EU’s former Brexit chief negotiator, now running for the French presidency, sounding more and more like a Eurosceptic? As his Brexit diaries are published in English, he reveals allMy Secret Brexit Diary, Michel Barnier’s blow-by-blow account of the Brexit negotiations, is at times quite a dry and technical read. But every now and then it offers glorious moments of comic relief. There is, for example, the day that Lord Digby Jones and a jovial bunch of leave-voting businessmen pitch up optimistically at Barnier’s Brussels office, plonking a patriotic gift-basket on his desk. Running his eye over it, the European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator spies some cheddar, wine, tea and jam, a book of Shakespeare’s plays and an essay on Winston Churchill’s life and political philosophy. With a smile, Barnier points out that some of the foodstuffs are processed from European products and protected by EU designations of origin. As for Shakespeare and Churchill, one, he suggests, was a very “continental playwright” and the other a “very European British statesman” who backed a united Europe.This false start is the prelude to some unsuccessful lobbying by the British delegation on behalf of the City’s financial services industry. When Barnier bats away demands for full post-Brexit access to European markets, he writes that the mood suddenly turns sour: “Digby Jones dares to say to me: ‘Mr Barnier, your position is contrary to the interests of the economy. You are going to make life even more difficult for the worker in the Ruhr, the single woman in Madrid or the unemployed man in Athens.’” The rhetoric and tone, concludes Barnier in his diary entry for 10 January 2018, was “morally outrageous”; the desired bespoke agreement on financial services never materialises. Continue reading...
Scott Gottlieb has written a fine account of what went wrong and what we must do better next timeCovid deaths in the US have passed 680,000. More than 2,000 lives are lost every day. The south and south-east are the new killing fields, intensive care units operate at near capacity, vaccination rates stall. In Florida, Republicans contemplate scrapping vaccine mandates for measles and mumps too. Talk about turning back the clock.Related: Peril review: Bob Woodward Trump trilogy ends on note of dire warning Continue reading...
The director’s new documentary weaves together hours of unseen footage to dispel many myths about the band’s final weeks. John Harris, who was involved in the project, tells the inside story
Critics say the leader has hijacked the gathering by getting bogged down in voting issues and losing sight of a focus on policyWhen Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, stood up to huge cheers to address her party’s conference on Saturday, the slogan “Stronger Future Together” was projected on the big screen behind her and all around the vast hall.Before what had been billed as Keir Starmer’s defining conference, when he would reveal the real Keir to the nation, the party leader had also spoken last week of the need for togetherness in the party in a 35-page pamphlet spelling out his vision for Britain. Continue reading...
A former model has launched a website to help online creatives compare deals with brands to prevent exploitationPublic support for workers’ rights and pay equality may be growing but at least one group feels left out: Gen-Z professionals in the modern and comparatively nebulous field of online content creation and influence.It’s a state of affairs that Lindsey Lee Lugrin, a former model with a degree in finance, plans to change with some collective organisation. She has launched an advocacy site, aptly titled F*** You Pay Me, on which influencers review and compare deals with brands, pay-scales and what it’s like to work with them. Continue reading...
The likelihood of a compromise coalition is bad news for both Germany and BritainAngela Merkel’s long goodbye as Germany’s chancellor finally draws to a close this weekend as votes in the federal election are tallied – at least in theory. If the latest opinion polls are to be believed, there will be no clear winner. No party is expected to command an overall Bundestag majority. Coalition talks on forming a new government could take months. In the meantime, in practice, Merkel remains in charge.The uncertainty over who will replace her is a big change from the often predictable politics of the past 16 years. But it would not do to get overexcited. Neither Olaf Scholz, who leads the Social Democrats (SPD), the biggest centre-left party, nor Armin Laschet, Merkel’s conservative choice as her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) successor, offers radically different agendas. Both men stress continuity while promoting modest, incremental change. Continue reading...
The actor and comedian, on Desert Island Discs, tells of her push for non-comic roles and how she stole a note from Kirsty MacCollTracey Ullman does not regret playing characters of different ethnicity in her comedy shows in Britain and America, but would not do so again. “No, I wouldn’t do it,” she said. “It would be different now. But I don’t regret anything or apologise for anything. Just move onwards.”The actor and impressionist from Slough, Berkshire, first made her name on television in the BBC show Three of a Kind, alongside Lenny Henry and David Copperfield, in the early 1980s. Continue reading...
It may not be logical that your heart is broken but it’s important to let the feelings outThe question As soon as I started writing this letter I could feel the hot tears generating in their ducts. I’ve got great friends and family, but I need an outsider’s take.I was seeing a man, for a few months. This ended around eight weeks ago. He was unhappy living in this country and had plans to move even before we met, which he was always very open about, and I was aware the entire time that he was emotionally unavailable and planning to leave. So I feel I should have been prepared for the end of the relationship when it happened. Continue reading...
The Pacific island nation wants clarity on the legal responsibilities owed to its people related to climate changeVanuatu will ask the International court of justice for an advisory opinion on the rights of present and future generations to be protected from climate change.With a population of about 280,000 people spread across roughly 80 islands, Vanuatu is among more than a dozen Pacific island nations facing rising sea levels and more regular storms that can wipe out much of their economies. Continue reading...
by Jon Henley, Michael Savage and James Tapper on (#5Q022)
Emergency visa plan will not resolve Britain’s road transport crisis, says industry as majority blame Brexit in pollThe government’s emergency programme to issue temporary visas to thousands of lorry drivers is far too little to resolve Britain’s supply-chain crisis and is unlikely to attract them to the UK, haulage chiefs have warned.Downing Street on Saturday night confirmed hastily compiled plans to add 5,000 HGV drivers and 5,500 poultry workers to a visa scheme until Christmas, to help the food and fuel industries with shortages. Continue reading...
Travel agents report Australians’ interest in cruising increasing 40% each month since June, with one analyst describing it as ‘the Teflon market for travel’On 16 September, Miami-based Oceania Cruises, a luxury culinary-focused cruise company that is a division of Norwegian Cruise Lines, set an all-time, single-day booking record. It was driven by the introduction of its newest ship, Vista, due to take its first passengers in April 2023. Nearly half the available inventory of Vista’s inaugural season was sold in one day. These were new cash bookings, 30% of which came from people booking with the company for the first time.It’s hard to know what this means for Australia. According to Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), 1.34 million Australians took a cruise in 2018, one of the highest rates in the world by population, yet international travel is currently off limits. Continue reading...
In what’s been described as a ‘paradigm shifter’ for psychiatry, Australian clinical trials are exploring the therapeutic benefits of illegal substancesIt was out of desperation that Michael Raymond found himself sitting in a remote retreat in the Peruvian Andes, sipping a cup of bitter tea.Raymond had reached breaking point. His 16-year career as an electrical engineer in high–security situations for the Australian air force had seen him deal with near-death experiences, crashes, casualties and “the aftermath of human remains”. Continue reading...
Four corpses taken to main square and hung from cranes by Afghanistan’s Islamist regimeTaliban authorities in the western Afghan city of Herat killed four alleged kidnappers and hung their bodies up in public to deter others, a local government official has said, in a sign of Afghanistan’s new rulers’ return to their harsh version of Islamic justice.Graphic footage shows the dead bodies of at least four men with their clothes covered in blood hanging from cranes in the city’s main squares as people watch. Continue reading...
Police hunting killer of teacher, 28, in south-east London study CCTV footage of mystery figureDetectives hunting a man of interest in the Sabina Nessa murder inquiry believe that a “reflective red item” the suspect was seen carrying on the night of her death may have been used in the attack.CCTV footage of the figure shows him looking over his shoulder, putting up his hood and attempting to conceal the red item on the night of Nessa’s death in Kidbrooke, south-east London. Continue reading...
The historian and TV presenter on the story of former slave Olaudah Equiano and the significance of Black History MonthHistorian and broadcaster David Olusoga has been the face of a decolonial turn in British broadcasting that, in recent years, with series including the Bafta-winning Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners, A House Through Time and Black and British: A Forgotten History, has inspired new conversations about injustice in the story of Britain and Britishness in living rooms across the country. Anticipating this year’s Black History Month (October), he has contributed a foreword to the republication by Hodder & Stoughton of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, the memoir of an 18th-century formerly enslaved man that is also widely recognised as a foundational text of Black British literature.What led you to get behind this republication of Equiano’s memoir?
All eyes are on Xi Jinping as expectation grows that the government will have to intervene to protect small creditorsIn May 2020, Chen (not his real name) decided to invest 300,000 yuan (£34,000) in property in the north-eastern Chinese city of Shenyang. “I thought the price was not too expensive and I had some extra money so I invested it,” he said. “I thought it was going to be all right because Evergrande is such a big name and enterprise.”Chen was following in the footsteps of countless fellow Chinese, getting in on a booming property market that had turned big cities such as Beijing, Shenzhen and Shanghai into some of the world’s most expensive, amid the huge transfer of the population from rural to urban areas. Continue reading...
by John Collingridge and Jillian Ambrose on (#5PZNE)
Exclusive: deal in which UK government would take stake in Sizewell C would risk inflaming geopolitical tensionsMinisters are closing in on a deal that could kick China off a project to build a £20bn nuclear power station on the Suffolk coast and pump in tens of millions of pounds of taxpayer cash instead – a move that would heighten geopolitical tensions.The government could announce plans to take a stake in Sizewell C power station, alongside the French state-backed power giant EDF, as early as next month, ahead of the Cop26 climate summit. Continue reading...
The country faces ‘Dutch-style’ political era with main parties neck and neck before Sunday’s pollGermany is braced to enter a new “Dutch-style” political era after federal elections on Sunday, as a knife-edge vote points to months of complicated coalition wrangling.Outgoing chancellor Angela Merkel joined the campaign trail at a rally in the western city of Aachen on Friday night in an attempt to help her designated successor from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Armin Laschet, close the gap on the centre-left Social Democratic party (SPD). Continue reading...
Host dismisses Anti-Defamation League after organization urges network to drop himAfter the Anti-Defamation League renewed its call for Tucker Carlson to be fired from Fox News for voicing the racist “great replacement” theory about immigration, the primetime host had a pithy response: “Fuck them.”Related: ‘Rudy is really hurt’: Giuliani reportedly banned from Fox News Continue reading...
by Helen Davidson in Taipei and agencies on (#5PZ8J)
The men, who were detained by Beijing in 2018, were released hours after Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou was freed in CanadaTwo Canadian citizens who were detained by Beijing for more than 1,000 days have arrived back in Canada on Sunday morning, greeted by the country’s prime minister, Justin TrudeauThe plane carrying Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor arrived in Calgary, a location which had not been publicly disclosed. They were met and embraced by Trudeau on the tarmac. The plane had left Chinese airspace around 7.30pm Ottawa time, just hours after US authorities reached an agreement allowing Chinese Huawei executive, Meng Wanzhou, to return to China in exchange for admitting wrongdoing in a fraud case. Shortly before Trudeau spoke, Meng boarded a chartered flight organised by the Chinese government to Shenzhen, Chinese state media reported. Zhao Lijian, ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson, said her return was enabled by the “unremitting efforts of the Chinese government”. Continue reading...
Memorial service on 29 November will take place more than a year after Ratana was shot dead at south London custody centreA special memorial service for Metropolitan police sergeant Matiu “Matt” Ratana, who was shot and killed on duty last year, will be held so police officers get the chance to say a final farewell to their colleague.A memorial service is to be held on Monday 29 November, more than a year after Ratana was shot dead at a south London custody centre, in place of a usual full force funeral, which could not be held because of Covid-19 restrictions. Continue reading...
England and Wales victims’ commissioner says there needs to be more onus on police to protect publicPolice need to do more to make the streets safe for women and girls after the death of Sabina Nessa, the victims’ commissioner for England and Wales has said.Dame Vera Baird, who said she attended a vigil in Wood Green, London, in honour of the suspected murdered 28-year-old primary school teacher, on Friday evening, said there needs to be more onus on police to protect the public than on women to take precautions. Continue reading...