Five global thinkers were each awarded a grant worth £1m to develop their ideas and technologiesCelebrities have joined Prince William in London for the inaugural awards ceremony of his Earthshot Prize, an ambitious environmental program aimed at finding new ideas and technologies around the world to tackle the climate crisis and Earth’s most pressing challenges.Actors and activists strode down a green carpet at Alexandra Palace in north London. Emma Watson, Emma Thompson and David Oyelowo joined Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, in handing out the awards, with a £1m going to each winner. Continue reading...
US artist returns to site for third time to highlight plight of Dead Sea, which is receding by about a metre a yearHundreds of models wearing only white body paint have walked across a stark desert expanse near the Dead Sea, part of the latest photography project of American artist Spencer Tunick.The 54-year-old photographer visited the spot in southern Israel as a guest of the tourism ministry to portray for the third time the shrinking Dead Sea via nude subjects. Continue reading...
Trade body says one in five businesses had to close or cut hours last month for lack of security staffNightclubs are suffering from a growing shortage of bouncers, in the latest staffing squeeze to hit the UK’s economic recovery, with some estimates suggesting venues are having to pay security staff as much as 25% more.The lack of security personnel comes at a time when hospitality businesses are being hit by a cocktail of rising costs and are trying to rebound from months of closures during the pandemic. Continue reading...
Rescuers search for survivors after days of rain bring devastation to south-eastern stateAt least 25 people have died in landslides and floods triggered by heavy rains in south-western India, officials said on Sunday, as rescuers scoured muddy debris for survivors and the military flew in emergency supplies.Residents were cut off in parts of the coastal state of Kerala as the rains, which started to intensify from late on Friday, swelled rivers and flooded roads. Continue reading...
Systematic partisan lying and misinformation from the media, both mainstream and social, has done enormous damage to liberal democracies, the former PM writesThe United States has suffered the largest number of Covid-19 deaths: about 600,000 at the time of writing. The same political and media players who deny the reality of global warming also denied and politicised the Covid-19 virus.To his credit, Donald Trump poured billions into Operation Warp Speed, which assisted the development of vaccines in a timeframe that matched the program’s ambitious title. But he also downplayed the gravity of Covid-19, then peddled quack therapies and mocked cities that mandated social distancing and mask wearing. Continue reading...
Five children were among group of 16 US citizens and one Canadian abducted by gang members after orphanage visitA group of 17 missionaries, including five children, have been kidnapped by an armed criminal gang in Haiti.The group – 16 Americans and one Canadian citizen – were on their way home from building an orphanage, according to a statement from the Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries, which supports 9,000 children in Haitian schools and sent out a message asking supporters to pray for its members. Continue reading...
Home secretary says MPs’ surgeries could get police protection but some raise concerns about deterring publicBoris Johnson will lead tributes to Sir David Amess in the House of Commons on Monday as debate rages about how drastically to step up security in the wake of the fatal attack on the Southend MP at his constituency surgery.On Sunday night Amess’s family appealed for public unity, urging people to “set aside their differences and show kindness and love to all”. In a statement, his relatives said they were “absolutely broken” but had drawn strength from the tributes to him from across the political spectrum. Continue reading...
Before his fatal stabbing the Southend West MP had been making plans for a Cop26 children’s parliamentSir David Amess made no secret of where he was going to be on Friday 15 October: details of his constituency surgery at Belfairs Methodist church were pinned at the top of his Twitter account several days in advance.Among those who turned up, according to witnesses, was Ali Harbi Ali, a 25-year-old British-born man whose family had fled to the UK from Somalia. Sources close to the investigation into Amess’s killing indicated on Sunday that Ali had booked an appointment to see the MP. Continue reading...
Exclusive: diplomatic effort by US following Australia cancelling $66bn deal with France not matched by LondonThe US has urged Britain to follow its example and try to repair its relations with Paris in the wake of the row over France’s loss of its submarine contract with Australia.Australia pulled out of the $66bn (£48bn) contract for 12 diesel electric-powered submarines, signed in 2016, to opt instead for nuclear-powered submarines to be developed with America and the UK. The secretive and sudden cancellation of the contract has created a crisis of trust between Paris on the one hand and London, Canberra and Washington on the other. Continue reading...
The tone of France’s presidential election campaign suggests a society that is becoming increasingly illiberalSince the election of Emmanuel Macron as president in 2017, it has been tempting to view French politics in somewhat Manichean terms. Four years ago, Mr Macron won by (comfortably) beating Marine Le Pen in the second round runoff. Until this autumn, it seemed extremely likely that next spring’s election would be a rematch. Division and disarray on the French left, and the continuing slump of the centre-right Républicains party, left voters with a seemingly stark choice: centrist liberalism or far-right nationalism. This normalisation of the Le Pen dynasty was bad enough. But recent polls suggest a more complicated picture; and from a progressive standpoint, perhaps a more disturbing one.The xenophobic right has found a new star in Éric Zemmour, an author and television pundit who made his name on the French equivalent of Fox News. Mr Zemmour has yet to officially declare his candidacy, but this month he outstripped Ms Le Pen in the polls for the first time. Ms Le Pen has been attempting to woo more moderate voters by toning down the inflammatory rhetoric of her party, Rassemblement National (RN). This has given Mr Zemmour an opening. His extreme Islamophobia, culturally supremacist language and focus on immigration have made him a magnet for those disillusioned by Ms Le Pen’s detoxification strategy. Cultivating an independent, erudite persona, he has also been able to attract ultra-conservative Catholics from Les Républicains who would never vote for the RN. Continue reading...
Jethro Watson-Pickering, 23, was in an armoured vehicle that was involved in a collisionA soldier who died during an army training exercise on Salisbury Plain on Friday has been named as Pte Jethro Watson-Pickering.The 23-year-old was from the village of Boosbeck, North Yorkshire, and had been “part of a crew operating an armoured vehicle”, a spokesperson from Wiltshire police said. Continue reading...
Derek Niemann | Snacks in exams | Cop26 | John CraceA big thank you to Derek Niemann for visiting the Isle of Man and writing a country diary about one of its outstanding habitats, the limestone pavements and rock pools of the Scarlett peninsula (13 October). Having read the column since the days of William Condry and Harry Griffin, I believe this is the first Manx country diary; may the tide surging through the wrack which Niemann describes so well bring him back to write more.
Laramba’s Indigenous residents fear they are at risk of long-term illness and say they need to know who is responsible for fixing the problemJack Cool is looking to hitch a lift out of town.The 71-year-old former stockman has lived in Laramba, a remote Indigenous community in the Northern Territory, for most of his life. Continue reading...
Countries ‘colluded to provoke and stir up trouble’ in region that China claims as its territoryThe Chinese military has condemned the United States and Canada for each sending a warship through the Taiwan Strait last week, saying they were threatening peace and stability in the region.China claims democratically ruled Taiwan as its own territory, and has mounted repeated air force missions into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone (ADIZ) over the past year, provoking anger in Taipei. Continue reading...
Analysis: about half the capital, Port-au-Prince, is controlled by criminals, many of whom do dirty jobs for business and politiciansThe kidnapping of 17 foreign missionaries in Haiti marks the latest escalation in a wave of criminality in the impoverished and politically fragile Caribbean state, which has long seen waves of gang-related crime coincide with heightened political turmoil.According to some estimates, Haiti’s powerful gangs, numbering about 90 criminal organisations in total, control territory amounting to half of the sprawling capital of Port-au-Prince and cost the country over $4bn a year. Continue reading...
Dedicated Conservative politician who served as Southend West’s MP in Essex for nearly 25 yearsSir David Amess, who has died aged 69 after being stabbed while holding a constituents’ surgery at a church in Leigh-on-Sea, was the Conservative MP for Southend West in Essex. Though he spent more than half his life in the Commons without ever attaining ministerial office, the likelihood is that he would not have wanted it any other way.He devoted his career to the promotion of his constituencies – first Basildon, then from 1997 Southend West – and to dealing with their voters’ concerns. He had a high local profile and was always willing to meet constituents, advertising his regular weekly surgeries in advance. Continue reading...
by Harriet Sherwood Arts correspondent on (#5QTA1)
Three-metre tall figure will land on Folkestone beach after walking thousands of miles across EuropeThe transcontinental odyssey of Little Amal will begin its final stage this week when the giant puppet of a nine-year-old Syrian girl reaches the shores of the UK after walking thousands of miles across Europe.Bells will chime and choirs will sing as Little Amal appears on the beach on Tuesday in Folkestone, Kent, after making the same cross-Channel journey that has been taken so far this year by more than 17,000 people seeking refuge from conflict, hunger and persecution. Continue reading...
Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters, featuring Indigenous cultural works, opens in PlymouthOn one level, it is a vivid treat for the eye: astonishing bursts of reds, oranges, yellows that are bound to warm up visitors during the bleak British winter months. But dig deeper and ancient stories about sustainability, community and acceptance that could hardly be better timed emerge.After being viewed by more than 400,000 people in Australia, winning prizes and attracting rave reviews, the exhibition Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters opens this week at The Box in Plymouth on the first leg of a European tour that will take in Paris and Berlin. Continue reading...
Latest updates on the aftermath of the killing of the Conservative MP Sir David Amess on FridayWes Streeting, the Labour MP for Ilford North, said politicians need to take their security more seriously in the wake of the killing of David Amess.He said:The uncomfortable truth that lots of us are wrestling with is that if someone wants to attack you in this way, they will do it and there is a risk that comes with this job.MPs are having really difficult conversations with their families this weekend about the risk that we carry, about whether it’s worth it, and what we might do to make sure that we’re keeping ourselves, our staff and our families safe.I can recall in my six years as an MP one moment when I thought that a constituent might hit me in my advice surgery, but most of the time people are coming to you for help, and you deal with people in advice surgeries who are distressed, who are having a really hard time - that’s why we really want to protect those advice surgeries.If I could say one thing to the politicians who will come after me, it would be this: Jo’s words now written on the wall of the House of Commons – “More in Common” – are not there to remind you what she said. They are an organising instruction. They are there to tell you how to move our country on.I know many people will find it hard to understand how the bickering they see from us correlates with that instruction. Can it really be the case that the political world forever at war with itself could be any good at bringing people together? True, it is hard sometimes but the answer is not to give up, and David never did, on any of the many campaigns he ran. The answer is to listen more. Think hard about where others are coming from. Empathy, understanding, compassion. These are the skills that make our politics function. Continue reading...
Home secretary says safety measures for constituency surgeries under discussionThe home secretary, Priti Patel, has said she is considering offering police protection for MPs at their constituency surgeries, as a review takes place to “close the gaps” in security in the wake of the killing of David Amess on Friday.Patel said local police forces had already contacted all MPs to advise them about measures to improve their safety, and a review is taking place involving the House of Commons authorities and the police. Continue reading...
From Cabaret to Hamlet, Alan Cumming has relished every role he’s played. In this extract from his uproarious memoir, he reveals what made Stanley Kubrick cross and the amazing gift the Spice Girls gave himTom Cruise and Stanley Kubrick were standing before me. I had met Tom briefly when he had come to see me in the stage show of Cabaret in London, but this was my first encounter with Stanley, who was peering at me over his glasses. “Hey, Stanley, I’m Alan,” I said, proffering my hand to this old man who, on first glance, reminded me of a Hobbit version of Salman Rushdie. “You’re not American!” he retorted gruffly.I had heard tales of Stanley being formidable and demanding, so I was slightly on guard already. “I know,” I said, still rather taken aback. “I’m Scottish!” Continue reading...
by Paul Lashmar, Nicholas Gilby and James Oliver on (#5QT17)
Declassified documents reveal how in 1965 a shadowy dirty tricks arm of the Foreign Office incited anti-communist massacres that left hundreds of thousands deadIn early 1965 Ed Wynne, an official from the Foreign Office in London in his late 40s, arrived at the door of a two-storey villa set in the discreet calm of a genteel housing estate in colonial Singapore.But Wynne was no ordinary official. A specialist from the Foreign Office’s cold war propaganda arm, the Information Research Department (IRD), he had been assigned to lead a small team. A junior official, four local people and two “IRD ladies”, seconded to the unit from London, would join him. Continue reading...
Critics compare figure of famous soprano erected in Greek capital to an Oscar statuetteDrama in life, drama in posterity. For Maria Callas, Greece’s greatest diva, there is, even 44 years after her death, no let up from the artistic wrangling that was her lot.But this time the uproar is focused on a statue erected at the foot of the ancient Acropolis, opposite the Roman theatre where the world-renowned opera singer made her debut. Continue reading...
by Jon Ungoed-Thomas and John Lichfield in Normandy on (#5QT0C)
Energy firm and director Alexander Temerko have given £1.1m between them to ConservativesFrench mayors and residents along the Normandy coast are campaigning to block a project for a cross-Channel electricity cable backed by a Ukrainian-born businessman who has donated hundreds of thousands of pounds to the Conservative party.Kwasi Kwarteng, Britain’s business secretary, is due to decide this week on whether to give the go-ahead to a £1.2bn project for the 148-mile cable between Normandy and Hampshire. The firm says the link, which will run through Portsmouth, could supply up to 5% of Britain’s electricity needs. Continue reading...
Newly opened archive of art patron’s papers reveals a previously unseen sketch for the surrealist workOne of the world’s best-known pieces of furniture, Salvador Dalí’s Mae West lips sofa, started life as a sketch on the back of an envelope, research in the archive of a Sussex country house has revealed.The sketch was unearthed at West Dean near Chichester, the former home of Dalí’s patron Edward James, and experts say it reveals the extent to which James was involved in the creation of the 1930s sofa. Alongside the lobster telephone, also the result of a collaboration between Dalí and James, it is one of the emblems of the surrealist movement. Continue reading...
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has announced Melbourne’s lockdown will end from Friday 22 October. Here’s what you need to know about schools, travel, childcare and work, then and now
A celebration of the achievements of the Britain’s oldest para veteran, who died last week aged 101I first met Victor Gregg on a freezing afternoon in 2009 when we were to talk about his experiences in the second world war.He was 90 and had sent me an email saying he would pick me up at Winchester station. When I arrived there was no sign of him. After 10 minutes a car parked up the road flashed its lights. It was Vic practising a routine he had learned more than 50 years earlier in the Western Desert, when Rifleman Gregg was assigned to Vladimir Peniakoff, the founder of “Popski’s Private Army”, a unit of British special forces. Vic’s job was to drive thousands of miles, alone, through the dunes, carrying stores and intelligence to Popski’s contacts. Vic said Popski had told him: “Before you go in, suss out how you are going to get out.” This was a life lesson for Vic, I had just been “sussed out” by him before going further. Continue reading...
Mollie Hemingway says the 2020 election ‘went terribly wrong’. In a divided America, her deeply flawed book will find readersThe state of the union is sulfurous. Donald Trump’s defeat did not change that.More than 80% of Trump and Biden voters think elected officials from the other party “present a clear and present danger to American democracy”. Half of Trump supporters and two-fifths for Biden think secession would be a good idea.Rigged is published in the US by Regnery Continue reading...
A magical glimpse inside the house museums of five pioneers of art and designIf you are reading these pages, chances are you like nothing more than having a good snoop around other people’s houses. Below is a selection of five of the world’s best house museums – inspiring, creative, but ultimately delightfully domestic spaces that have been preserved as they were when the owners lived in them. Continue reading...
The shoe firm was founded in Street in Somerset in 1825. Now workers there are on strike and feel a proud history is being erasedWarehouse workers for Clarks have accused the 200-year-old shoemaker of betraying its philanthropic roots by threatening them with the sack if they don’t accept significant pay cuts.More than 100 staff in Clarks’ main distribution centre in Street, Somerset, where the brand was founded by two Quaker brothers in the 19th century, claim the firm is seeking to cut their wages by almost 15% from the average of £11.16 an hour to £9.50 an hour by using controversial fire and rehire tactics. Continue reading...
You’ve been working hard to tick the expected boxes, maybe it’s time to find and tick you ownThe question I am 37, have a lovely husband and a wonderful child, and a job in the creative industries. The problem is that I haven’t been happy in my career for a long time and have felt very stuck, and every now and again I end up crying because I just don’t know what to do with my life. I was an over-achiever at school (worked hard, got the grades, went to a good university), but am now in a role where there is little progression and I’m not sure I even want to stay in this career.I am realising that I have spent so much time trying to do what is expected of me that I have absolutely no idea what it is that I want to do. I also cringe at how much I put up with in my 20s. I chased men I knew deep down I didn’t really like and took on all kinds of extra tasks at work with the promise that it would look good on the CV, but got few promotions. Continue reading...
With just months to go before presidential polls, the centre-right Les Républicains, under pressure from both flanks, are scrambling for a suitable candidateSix months before a presidential election and France’s mainstream right finds itself squeezed – between the hammer and the anvil as they say here – without a candidate and facing an existential threat from either side.On one flank are the far-right Marine Le Pen and Éric Zemmour, a polarising television pundit who wants to talk about immigration, identity and Islam – the three i’s – and ban “non-French” names such as Mohamed. Continue reading...
Alex Saab, an ally of president Nicolás Maduro, was extradited to face money laundering charges after a 16-month legal battleVenezuela’s government is halting negotiations with its opponents in retaliation for the extradition to the US of a close ally of president Nicolás Maduro, who prosecutors believe could be the most significant witness ever about corruption in the South American country.Jorge Rodríguez, who has been heading the government’s delegation, said his team wouldn’t travel to Mexico City for the next scheduled round of negotiations. Continue reading...
Filed under ‘forever favourites’, the classic shirt has upsized and moved on from the confines of the neat workwear uniform shirt favoured by city workersAn oversized shirt is the neutral power player of your wardrobe. Choose a striped fabric, or classic white or blue, and you will find that its versatility is limitless. Style it slightly dishevelled, à la Patti Smith, with narrow pants, or offset a miniskirt with its volume – think Julia Roberts in the shopping scene from the 1990 blockbuster Pretty Woman – with sleeves rolled up.Alternatively, you could supersize your whole look as the Row did with an open shirt over a tucked-in tank top worn with wide-leg trousers (swap the tank out for a fine-gauge black polo neck worn underneath on days when the weather is colder). Comme des Garçons’ aptly named “Shirt” line is top of the class. Top tip: go for men’s styles if you’re after a looser fit. Palmer/Harding are shirting maestros, creating statement seasonless pieces that are destined to be wardrobe talking points. Look for their dual styles with detachable sleeves suitable for year-round wear. Continue reading...
debbie tucker green’s adaptation of her stage play mixes spoken word, physical theatre and music to offer a vital perspective on racial injustice on both sides of the AtlanticA mother is talking to her teenage son about what to do when approached by the police. He shows his palms. “Inflammatory,” she says. He puts his hands in his pockets. “Belligerent,” she says. “I didn’t even …” he protests. “Attitude,” she bats back, her voice matter-of-fact but tinged with despair. No matter what he says, wears, does, the list goes on. “Arrogance, insolence, defiance.” What if he looks confidently at them? “Good,” says his mum, “but not.” If he turns away? “Impudence, disobedience.” If he looks at the floor? “We didn’t raise you to look at no floor, son.”And so begins ear for eye (BBC Two), debbie tucker green’s vital, eloquent and beautifully acted screen adaptation of her original stage play, which opened at the Royal Court in 2018 to rave reviews. I say adaptation, but this is so much more than a straight-up piece of filmed theatre. Which is great, because no matter how brilliant a play is, when the fourth wall becomes the black mirror of my own TV screen my suspension of disbelief is dismantled and the whole theatre comes crashing down. Happily, in making the delicate transfer from stage to screen, ear for eye ends up pushing the boundaries of both forms. Here is a blistering experimental film about British and American black experience, rarely seen side by side. The sparest and most unsparing of cine-poems. A play with extras using spoken word, physical theatre, installation and music to verbalise what remains beyond the bounds of articulacy. Continue reading...
Trio step out from behind pseudonym marketed as ‘Spain’s Elena Ferrante’ to accept €1m prizeA million euro literary prize has lured three Spanish men out of anonymity, to reveal that they are behind ultra-violent Spanish crime thrillers marketed as the work of “Spain’s Elena Ferrante”The men had published under the pseudonym Carmen Mola, which roughly translates as “Carmen’s cool”. Continue reading...
Richard Ratcliffe criticises failure to ‘deal with problems until they become crises’ after wife loses appealThe husband of jailed British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe last night criticised the government’s handling of his wife’s case after it was revealed she had lost her appeal against a second jail sentence in Iran.Richard Ratcliffe accused the government of failing to deal with problems “until they become crises”. Continue reading...
Rodolfo Martín Villa, interior minister between 1976 and 1979, ‘played a key role in the repressive structures of the dictatorship’An Argentinian judge investigating cases that happened during the Franco dictatorship in Spain has indicted a former Spanish minister on four counts of homicide.Judge Maria Servini de Cuba, sitting in Buenos Aires, issued the ruling against Rodolfo Martín Villa, 87, interior minister between 1976 and 1979. Continue reading...
Experts say there are important lessons for Australia in order to reduce the rate of transmission and hospitalisationAs Victoria and New South Wales prepare to reopen schools for face-to-face learning, experts who have studied the experiences of other countries are warning that not all lessons have been learned, particularly on mask-wearing and ventilation.NSW, which has about 5,500 active cases of the virus, and where 75% of the eligible population over the age of 16 are fully vaccinated, is preparing for students in kindergarten, years 1 and 12 to return to school on Monday. Continue reading...
Inclusion of Māori legal customs could profoundly alter the way law is applied in areas as diverse as defamation and trust lawWhen English settlers first arrived in New Zealand, they brought with them pests, diseases and England’s common law. Indigenous Māori already had legal customs in the form of tikanga, a set of rules and principles which governed daily life. But the settlers dismissed Māori as “savages” and tikanga as primitive. As their power grew, so did the common law’s. Eventually, though many Māori still followed tikanga, it was pushed to the legal margins.That is starting to change. In 2020 New Zealand’s supreme court allowed a dead man’s appeal to continue, apparently on the basis that his mana (the Māori concept of status) continues to fluctuate after death. This year the court quashed a mining company’s appeal over a resource consent application partly on the basis that it was inconsistent with tikanga. Continue reading...
Former health secretary will no longer become special envoy for UN’s economic commission for AfricaMatt Hancock, the former UK health secretary, will no longer become a special envoy for the United Nations, after the job offer was withdrawn.Hancock said on Tuesday he was “honoured” to be working with the UN’s economic commission for Africa (Uneca) to help the continent recover from the pandemic. Continue reading...
The chef on 13 years of MasterChef: The Professionals, the many uses of Marmite and why she can’t have a banana in peaceI grew up in Samoa and, looking back, I don’t think I realised how wonderful life was back then. The chickens used to run wild on the family plantation and we’d collect their eggs. We’d pick guavas, pineapples, papayas. It was such a normal thing to do.Every Sunday, we’d have an “umu” – a big fire pit with volcanic rocks. When the fire dies down, the rocks are taken off and you lay it with the meat or palusami [wrapped bundles of taro leaves with a coconut and onion filling]. Then it all gets topped with the rocks and covered with banana leaves and left for an hour to cook. The whole family get involved, everyone had a role. Continue reading...
by Hannah Ellis-Petersen South Asia correspondent on (#5QS82)
Dozens of temples attacked over claims a Qur’an was desecratedDeadly communal violence has broken out in Bangladesh after allegations of the desecration of an Islamic holy book led to dozens of Hindu temples being attacked and police opening fire on a crowd, leaving at least six people dead.The government deployed paramilitary troops to 22 districts after religious tensions and violence broke out in the city of Cumilla on Wednesday, resulting in the deaths of four Hindus. On Friday, further communal violence erupted in the capital, Dhaka, as well as the southern town of Begumganj, with two more Hindus killed in the unrest. Continue reading...