Crowds parade through cities as polling shows president’s ratings sinking to new depthsTens of thousands of protesters have returned to the streets of Brazil’s biggest cities to demand Jair Bolsonaro’s impeachment, as a poll showed the Brazilian president’s ratings had plumbed new depths.Huge crowds paraded through downtown Rio on Saturday to voice their outrage at Bolsonaro’s response to a Covid outbreak that has killed nearly 600,000 people and dealt a heavy blow to the South American country’s economy. Continue reading...
The novelist on his latest work, an 800-page tribute to the American author Stephen Crane, and why the greatest writers are monomaniacsPaul Auster is in bed. We’re speaking on the telephone and it’s in his bedroom that his reception is best. “I much prefer telephone calls,” he says. “So much better than these terrible little squares on a screen.” Known for his elegant, lapidary novels – The New York Trilogy and Moon Palace are more than 30 years old now – Auster’s later career has seen him in more expansive form. His Booker-shortlisted 4321 was almost 1,000 pages of speculative fiction, looking at the various paths a life could take. Now, in one of his regular forays into nonfiction, he has written, at 800 pages, another absolute unit of a book. His subject, the turn-of-the-century novelist and poet Stephen Crane, lived a short life – he died at 28 and his complete works could be read in a weekend. Auster’s book, though, is massive. It’s also marvellous: part biography, part literary criticism. Auster takes you deep into the heart of his own obsession with Crane’s extraordinary, radical writings and it’s almost impossible not to be infected by his enthusiasm.Auster is the author of 20 novels, has won numerous prizes and lives with his wife, the author Siri Hustvedt, in Brooklyn, New York.Burning Boy: The Life and Work of Stephen Crane is published by Faber (£25). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may applyGuardian Live will host an online event with Paul Auster on Monday 11 October. Book tickets here Continue reading...
Behind a seemingly minor dispute, the long unresolved enmity with Serbia simmersAt an abandoned petrol station, half a mile from Kosovo’s Jarinje border checkpoint with Serbia, a giant Serbian flag had been laid out on the roof. In the former forecourt, a group of young people sat on upturned beer crates, sharing bottles of water and homemade rakija in small plastic cups. “This is our squad, our special forces,” one joked, as four tall, muscular men walked over to join them.The mountain road next to them, flanked on either side by groups of protesters around tents and smouldering campfires, had been well and truly blocked by the men’s heavily laden trucks. Continue reading...
Andrew Krivine began collecting music industry flyers and posters in 1977 on his annual trip from the US to see family in London. “I’d go on expeditions to Camden Market, Rough Trade, Stiff Records and even brazenly walk into the headquarters of Virgin Records,” he recalls. By the time he’d finished college in the early 80s (spending a year in the UK as well as studying in Chicago), he’d amassed around 5,500 items of memorabilia for punk and new wave LPs, gigs and clubs. The finest of these have now been collected in the book Reversing into the Future (published by Pavilion on 14 October, £35). In a time before Spotify and YouTube, poster art was key to a band selling their sound to an audience. “Designers translated music into visual terms,” says Krivine. “This was the last great burst of graphic design creativity of the 20th century.” Continue reading...
Vibrant prints, tunics and knee-high boots are back on the couture catwalk – more than 50 years after the first ‘youthquake’The new exhibition at London’s Fashion and Textile Museum, Beautiful People: The Boutique in 1960s Counterculture, might have been 15 years in the making but it is, as head of exhibitions Dennis Nothdruft, says “timely”. The 1960s – a decade so mined for retro references that it has become the stuff of costume parties – is once again in vogue.At Prada’s first physical show since the pandemic, the big newswas the return of the miniskirt, that classic sixties shape so associated with London designer Mary Quant. Minis have also been seen at Versace and Max Mara – and worn by celebrities including Jennifer Lopez, Selena Gomez and Adele. Last week in Paris, Maria Grazia Chuiri’s show for Christian Dior harked back to the brand’s 60s designer Marc Bohan, with miniskirts and pop colours dominating. Continue reading...
Research concludes it ‘was probable’ that Menwith Hill was used to assist in the controversial assassinationCampaigners have called on ministers to explain whether the secretive Menwith Hill intelligence base in Yorkshire is involved in recent drone strike assassinations, after the publication of a report that raises questions about UK involvement in US attacks.The research concludes it “was probable” that Iranian general Qassem Suleimani was killed in January last year using information obtained from the British site, essentially an outpost of the US National Security Agency (NSA). Continue reading...
A 38-year-old has been arrested with none of the victims believed to be in a life-threatening conditionA man has been arrested after four people were attacked with a hammer in central London.The 38-year-old first attacked two women on Regent Street at approximately 10.45pm on Friday, the Met police said. Continue reading...
The Tyneside rocker on his favourite bath time podcast, a second world war memoir and where to get the best breakfast kippersSam Fender was born in 1994 and raised in North Shields. He began writing songs aged 14, building on an affinity with Bruce Springsteen, and started acting a few years later, appearing in the ITV series Vera. After releasing his first single, Play God, independently in 2017, Fender featured in the BBC’s Sound of 2018 poll. He won the critics’ choice award at the 2019 Brits and his debut album, Hypersonic Missiles, entered the UK charts at No 1. His second album, Seventeen Going Under, is out this week on Polydor. Continue reading...
The Queen spoke of her 'deep and abiding affection' for Scotland during the formal opening of the Scottish parliament's sixth session.The pandemic and the Cop26 climate conference, which starts in Glasgow on 1 November, were mentioned in a short speech by the monarch, who told MSPs they would have a 'key role' in tackling climate change Continue reading...
Women who turn down advice from health service staff say they are being coerced with threats of referrals to agencies and policePregnant women and new mothers are being referred to social services by midwives for refusing to follow their advice, patient advocacy groups have warned.Expectant parents who have declined care, including opting out of scans, refusing inductions or failing to attend antenatal appointments, are among those who have faced threats from healthcare professionals amounting to coercion, according to the Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services (Aims). Continue reading...
The 40-year-old actor on living with Frodo, coping with fans and why he loves fatherhoodI grew up in a blue-collar, working-class family in Cedar Rapids in Iowa. My dad worked at the box factory, and my mum worked at the Quaker Oats factory. Eventually they pooled resources and built a deli called Souper, which sold soups, sandwiches and salads. There’s normally a moment of inspiration that inspires an actor’s origins. For me it was minestrone soup… Of course it wasn’t! I never had that moment.When I was six a talent manager spotted me and asked me if wanted to become an actor. I was like, “Yeah, why not?” My mother took me and my brother, Zack, who is seven years older than me, to LA for six weeks to a talent-spotting event and I ended up getting a job on a Paula Abdul video. Things moved relatively fast in the grand scheme of things. Continue reading...
Met Office says strong winds could also cause delays to transport and a short loss of powerHeavy rain and up to 60mph winds will hit parts of England and Scotland and could cause flooding, travel disruption and power outages on Saturday.The Met Office has issued yellow weather warnings for the east and south of England and the north-east of Scotland, over Aberdeenshire, Orkney and Shetland. Continue reading...
Inspired by hit podcasts and documentaries, ordinary people are trying to track down fugitives and reopen cold cases. But should they be?Although the story you are about to read involves a fugitive, law enforcement and a six-month chase across Mexico, for Billy Jensen it was just another day on the job. In 2017, Jensen was on the hunt for a pale, ginger, tattooed California killer hiding out in Mexico. Jensen uploaded a photo of the fugitive to Facebook. “¿Has visto a este hombre?” he asked, using Facebook’s targeted ad tools to ensure the post was seen by people living near American bars. Tips came flooding in. One tipster snapped a photo. In just 24 hours, Jensen had his guy.Unfortunately, the killer was on the move. It took half a year of similar posts for the 49-year-old Jensen to finally get the suspect apprehended by the Mexican police – for Jensen isn’t a police officer himself, or a detective, or an FBI agent. He is a podcaster, author, journalist, and self-described “citizen sleuth”. Continue reading...
Alessandra Clemente’s plan to end the cycle of violence relies on winning over the mothers and wives of the Camorra mobstersOn 11 June 1997, a 10-year-old girl named Alessandra Clemente heard 41 gunshots from an open window at her home in Naples, as she was waiting for her mother to return for lunch. When the shooting stopped, she ran to the window and saw her mother, Silvia, lying in a pool of blood. Alessandra’s little brother stood next to their mother, wailing. Silvia Clemente was not the assassin’s target, but, at age thirty nine, she had been killed by a stray bullet. Until that day, Alessandra had never heard of the organisation that had ended her mother’s life, and would now begin to shape the rest of hers: the Camorra—the Napolitan mafia.Twenty-four years later, Alessandra Clemente, now a 34-year-old woman, is running to become the next mayor of Naples. Her campaign includes other relatives of Mafia victims and the son of a top Camorra mobster. At each election rally, Clemente recalls the occasion of her mother’s death. Continue reading...
The former president of the United States was at a crossroads in his life when he wrote his first book, Dreams from My FatherI was in my early 30s when I wrote Dreams from My Father. At the time, I was a few years out of law school. Michelle and I were newly married and just beginning to think about having kids. My mother was still alive. And I was not yet a politician.I look back now and understand that I was at an important crossroads then, thinking hard about who I wanted to be in the world and what sort of contribution I could make. I was passionate about civil rights, curious about public service, full of loose ideas, and entirely uncertain about which path I should take. I had more questions than answers. Was it possible to create more trust between people and lessen our divides? How much did small steps toward progress matter – improving conditions at a school, say, or registering more people to vote – when our larger systems seemed so broken? Would I accomplish more by working inside existing institutions or outside of them? Continue reading...
In our new column, in which we make nice things happen for nice people, Khaled Wakkaa starts to turn his passion into a livelihoodIn a Lebanese hospital in 2015, Khaled Wakkaa watched as his wife Dalal grew weaker. She was emaciated and jaundiced. In the two years since they had fled the Syrian civil war, they’d lived on the brink, sleeping on the street or on friends’ floors. “Me and my wife had started to die,” he says. The hospital wanted $500 for medical bills. Wakkaa left her in the waiting room and went begging at mosques and churches. Nobody would help.Some friends posted about his situation on Facebook. Fellow Syrian refugees in Beirut started calling. “I received phone calls from people who don’t have money,” he says. “But they wanted to help me.” They gave him everything they’d managed to scrounge together: $200. At first, the hospital refused to accept the smaller amount, but relented after much pleading, and Dalal was admitted. Continue reading...
With negotiations souring an already uneasy relationship to England, the Irish novelist surveys the mood of his nation, and considers the prospect of unificationIn late 2010, I sat in a discreet space in the lounge of a Dublin hotel with two British diplomats who were planning the first state visit of Queen Elizabeth to Ireland the following May and were consulting widely. The questions were the basic ones: What should she say? What should she not say? Where should she go? Where should she not go?When I said she should visit a stud farm and get to see some horses, the diplomats were uneasy. Would that not seem too posh? I explained that following horses in Ireland was part of ordinary life. And also, if she didn’t see some horses, people would think that she was not enjoying herself, and, oddly enough, despite 700 years of strife, most people in Ireland would want the Queen to enjoy her visit. Continue reading...
Strong’s role as the self-destructive media heir takes commitment – and the actor goes all in• Plus: inside the Succession writers’ roomEarlier this year, Jeremy Strong left his apartment in Brooklyn, walked across the bridge to Manhattan and headed towards the far west side of the island, where he was filming the third season of the feverishly adored and heavily accoladed HBO series Succession. Strong plays Kendall, the alternately bullied and rebellious son of the vilified, Murdoch-esque media tycoon Logan Roy, played by Brian Cox, and Succession follows the jostling among the patriarch’s four children for his affection and respect, both of which he generally withholds. None of them is as visibly crushed by this as Kendall, who bears more than a slight resemblance to James Murdoch, even down to the dabblings in hip-hop. With every timid step Strong makes on screen, every apologetic dip of his chin when he starts to talk, he captures the pain of a son who knows he has failed to live up to his father’s expectations from the first time he cried. He won an Emmy last year for the role, beating, among others, Cox, in neatly Freudian style.Strong likes to walk while learning his lines, so on that day in New York as he was walking he was also talking, reciting a speech he would soon be saying to Cox, in which Kendall tries to curry favour with his father, but also to be seen as his own man. “Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a ghost-grey Tesla rolling to a stop, so I looked in it, and there was James Murdoch,” Strong says when we meet in a London hotel. “He looked at me and I looked at him, and there was a flicker between us. Then he was gone. So we had a moment.” Continue reading...
Cinema’s classiest actor on being wooed by Wes Anderson for The French Dispatch, playing Bond’s CIA buddy Felix and why he’s fighting for thinkers in an age of vulgarityWith his soulful gravitas, rich vocal tones and understated cool, Jeffrey Wright is one of those actors who brings dramatic heft to anything in which he appears. Which, these days, is an awful lot. He broke through on the New York stage, winning a Tony award for 1994’s Angels in America, then on screen with his portrayal of Jean-Michel Basquiat in Julian Schnabel’s 1996 biopic, and he has not stopped since. As well as voicing Marvel’s animated series What If…? he will be seen in the coming months as James Bond’s CIA buddy Felix Leiter in No Time to Die; in a new series of Westworld, and as James Gordon to Robert Pattinson’s Batman. Meanwhile, Wright has joined the Wes Anderson Extended Universe with The French Dispatch, a characteristically intricate hymn to New Yorker-style journalism. As we speak, Wright is in Spain working on Anderson’s next movie. “I feel I’m part of the travelling troupe now,” he says over Zoom, at the end of a day’s shootingSo how did you join Anderson’s troupe? I’m imagining an embossed invitation slipped under your hotel room door …
After a famously damning verdict on the Brexit process, the supreme court queen and her spider pin became an unlikely viral sensation. Who better to model this season’s brooches?The woman who used to be president of the highest court in the land is surveying a table bedecked in brooches, mostly with an insect theme. Cooperative and engaged, she looks for all the world like a person who is enjoying herself, nothing on her face but the cool clarity for which she is known; not a trace of impatience at the frippery. You would think a photographic studio in London was as natural a habitat as a courtroom.Lady Hale has made history a number of times, of course – the first woman to be appointed to the supreme court, the youngest and first female commissioner to be appointed to the Law Commission. She has always been popular in legal circles as a reformer, known as the “Beyoncé of the legal world” owing to her pioneering reputation among students and young lawyers. It must strike her as rum that her breakthrough viral moment came as a result of the spider brooch she sported at a critical point on the road to Brexit. It doesn’t take much to raise other judges’ eyebrows with accessories, and colleagues have long remarked on her marvellous collection, which hovers on the edge of Halloween. Continue reading...
A toxic culture of misogyny among some officers disrupts investigations and erodes women’s faith in forcesPolice sexism is an institutional problem that simply has not gone away.It has hampered investigations from the Yorkshire Ripper to John Worboys – and, despite repeated attempts at reform, a toxic culture among some male officers has persisted for decades, affecting colleagues as well as victims. Continue reading...
A left-behind Baltic Sea state took revenge on Angela Merkel’s CDU, which had done too little for too long to help the regionLess than four years ago, Erik von Malottki’s main objective was to keep the party he loved as far away from political power as possible. Inspired by young activist grassroots movements in the US and the UK, the trade unionist was one of a band of young Social Democratic Party (SPD) members who in January 2018 urged delegates to vote against joining another coalition with Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats.Yet this week, the now 35-year-old and a band of similarly aged delegates propelled the German centre-left to an unlikely election victory. While the British Labour party remains entrenched in factionalism, the SPD has constructively channelled the energy of its youthful rebels, edging ahead in Sunday’s vote through a seismic shift in the country’s north-east. Continue reading...
by Jessica Elgot, Heather Stewart and Rowena Mason on (#5Q8C9)
Analysis: The prime minister needs to shake a sense of national paralysis and reassure his party before a daunting winterWhen preparations began for this year’s Conservative party conference, what most struck Boris Johnson and his senior aides was research suggesting voters feel the country is paralysed – that valuable time has been lost to the pandemic and that everything else is at a standstill.Above all, Johnson’s aim for the conference will be to try to shake that sense of inertia. He will characterise himself as the delivery prime minister, even if his own MPs complain there has been precious little delivery so far. Continue reading...
The man started swallowing metal objects, some measuring 10cm long, when he gave up alcohol, hospital official saysDoctors in Lithuania have removed more than a kilogram of nails and screws from the stomach of a man who started swallowing metallic objects after quitting alcohol.The man, who was not identified for reasons of patient confidentiality, was admitted to hospital in the Baltic port city of Klaipeda with severe abdominal pain. Continue reading...
by Eva Corlett in Wellington and Tess McClure in Chri on (#5Q7ZG)
Judith Collins criticises America as ‘foolish’ for walking away from free trade agreementsNew Zealand’s opposition leader has hit out at the US and UK over China, saying their failure to adopt free trade agreements was “foolish” and increased Chinese dominance in the Indo-Pacific.“If any criticism comes to New Zealand, as it often does about this close relationship with China and trade, my answer to everybody – whether they’re the US or UK – is: ‘So where’s our free trade agreement?’,” Judith Collins, leader of the centre-right National party, said in an interview with the Guardian on Friday. Continue reading...
Businessman Spavor reunites with family after his release last week from detention along with former diplomatCanadian citizen Michael Spavor has expressed joy at being reunited with his family after being released from jail in China last week.“I’m overjoyed to be finally reunited with my family. It’s humbling as I begin to understand the continued support that we’ve received from Canadians and those around the world, thank you,” Spavor said on Friday in a first statement since his release. Continue reading...
Ozy faced questions about its viewership figures and claims that its co-founder impersonated a YouTube executive on a call with Goldman SachsOzy, a digital media startup, is shutting down less than a week after a New York Times column raised questions about the organization’s claims of millions of viewers and readers, while also pointing out a potential case of securities fraud.The story triggered canceled shows, an internal investigation, investor concern and high-level departures at the company. Continue reading...
Drone footage captures the devastation wrought by the Cumbre Vieja volcano, which has been ejecting ash, smoke and lava over the Canary island of La Palma for more than 10 days.Since erupting on 19 September, the volcano has destroyed more than 800 buildings, as well as banana plantations, roads and other infrastructure.About 6,000 people have been evacuated and are yet to return to their houses, a local government spokesperson said.
Threat of Christmas being ruined by driver shortages forces ministers to expand range and duration of visasBoris Johnson’s government has made a dramatic U-turn in an attempt to save Christmas – with a raft of extended emergency visas to help abate labour shortages that have led to empty shelves and petrol station queues.New immigration measures will allow 300 fuel drivers to arrive immediately and stay until the end of March, while 100 army drivers will take to the roads from Monday, the government announced late on Friday. Continue reading...
As Auckland grapples with Delta outbreak, opposition leaders dare to break with Jacinda Ardern on pandemic plan“Things have changed,” Judith Collins declares, sitting in her Beehive government office. New Zealand’s National party leader is fresh off launching her alternative pandemic response plan, marking the first time the main opposition has significantly diverged from prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s largely popular elimination strategy.The arrival of the Delta variant in New Zealand two months ago, causing an outbreak that the government is struggling to stamp out, has shown that elimination is “clearly not working,” Collins says. Continue reading...
Irmgard Furchner, 96, was arrested after failing to turn up at court and absconding from retirement homeA 96-year-old woman who was arrested on Thursday after failing to turn up for the start of her trial in Germany on charges of aiding and abetting the murder of thousands of concentration camp prisoners had warned the judge in advance that she would not show up.Irmgard Furchner was discovered about 38 miles from the courtroom after escaping her retirement home in a taxi, which dropped her off at an underground station in the early hours of the morning. She had written to the judge that to “avoid embarrassment” and due to her “advanced age and physical impediments” she would not be attending the trial. Continue reading...
by Josh Halliday North of England correspondent on (#5Q7ME)
Philip Allott accused of victim-blaming for advising women to be better informed about legalities of being arrestedA police commissioner is facing calls to resign for saying that women “need to be streetwise” about powers of arrest in the wake of the Sarah Everard murder.Philip Allott, who oversees North Yorkshire police and the region’s fire service, was accused of victim-blaming after saying women should “just learn a bit about that legal process” in case they are falsely arrested. Continue reading...
Nygard faces sex trafficking and racketeering charges in US, as well as sexual assault and forcible confinement charges in CanadaThe Canadian fashion designer Peter Nygard has consented to extradition to the US, where he faces sex trafficking and racketeering charges, lawyers for the prosecution and defence said at a hearing on Friday.Separately, Toronto police service issued a statement saying it had an arrest warrant for Nygard on six charges of sexual assault and three charges of forcible confinement between 1987 and 2006. Continue reading...
Readers react to the murder of Sarah Everard and the threat of male violence that women faceWhile I welcome calls for the police to be more active in addressing violence against women, it will have little impact on most women’s lives (Sarah Everard murder: Wayne Couzens given whole-life sentence, 30 September). The tragic murder of Sarah Everard is at one end of a very wide spectrum of men’s behaviour towards women.At the other end is my son’s GCSE English syllabus, where in two years, not one book by a female author was studied. How will boys learn that girls are their equals when, in an A-level history course, the only woman mentioned was Elizabeth I? When will pupils be taught how women have been held back – socially, morally, legally? Everything children learn in school tells them men have achieved and women haven’t – but not why. The truth is that men are only superior in physical strength and that ultimately it is the possibility, however slight, of it being used that facilitates gender inequality.
by Vikram Dodd Police and crime correspondent on (#5Q7QX)
Exclusive: under-fire force places two police officers on restricted duties, while other forces suspend officersTwo Metropolitan police officers allegedly involved in a chat group that included Wayne Couzens that swapped alleged misogynistic and racist messages have been left on duty after being placed under criminal investigation, the Guardian has learned.The two Met officers are said to have been part of a WhatsApp group involving constables from three forces that is under investigation after Couzens’s phone was seized following his arrest for the murder of Sarah Everard in March. Continue reading...
by Rebecca Ratcliffe South-east Asia correspondent on (#5Q7MF)
Allegations are among most serious of those filed against ousted leader by Myanmar’s military juntaAung San Suu Kyi has appeared in a closed court to face allegations of corruption, one of the most serious of a number of legal charges filed against the ousted leader by the military junta.In a hearing at the Naypyidaw Council compound, Aung San Suu Kyi was accused of breaching the anti-corruption law in four cases. This includes accepting packets of US bank notes and gold bars in bribes from Yangon’s former chief minister, Phyo Min Thein; renting government land at a discount; and using funds of the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation, a charity founded by Aung San Suu Kyi in the name of her mother, to build a home. Continue reading...
Seven senior officials responsible for ‘delivering lifesaving aid’ told to leave amid de facto blockade of food, medicine and fuelThe Ethiopian government has told seven senior UN officials to leave the country, accusing them of “meddling in internal affairs”.A statement from the foreign ministry said the officials – who include staff from the UN humanitarian agency, the UN human rights office and the children’s agency, Unicef – must leave Ethiopia within 72 hours. Continue reading...
Women interviewed on Poynders Road in Clapham say the case has shattered their trust in the police“It could have been anyone. We would all have done the same thing and got into the car, especially during Covid restrictions,” says Jenny, 33, holding her five-month-old daughter in her arms.On Poynders Road, in Clapham, south London, where Sarah Everard was last seen alive before police officer Wayne Couzens used his Met ID to falsely arrest and kidnap the 33-year-old before murdering her, this sentiment is repeated among female residents. Continue reading...
Lord Frost told triggering article 16 would add to legal uncertainty for traders and damage economyBusiness leaders have warned Lord Frost that triggering article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol would be a “lose-lose” move.As Frost prepares to reiterate his threat to suspend the protocol using article 16 in two appearances at next week’s Conservative party conference, businesses in Northern Ireland have said such a step would add to the legal uncertainty for traders and damage the economy. Continue reading...
Chemical engineer turned alternative bacon producer Benjamina Bollag on the trouble with animal farming, and how lab rashers are madeThere are many complicated words for my diet – flexitarian, reducetarian, carnesparsian (from carne meaning meat, and eating it sparsely, because there is nothing like using Latin to give heritage to something made up online). I’m not alone: a third of Britons have reduced eating meat because of concerns about industrial farming. Soon to launch into this space is “lab-grown meat”, promising to take the slaughter and environmental exploitation out of your steak. But how does it work? And can it deliver? I spoke to Benjamina Bollag, founder of lab-grown bacon producer Higher Steaks.Hi Benjamina! So you’re bringing home the bacon …
Warsaw defies critics to extend state of emergency as it seeks to portray migrants as dangerousConcerns over Poland’s treatment of migrants stranded on its border with Belarus are mounting after Warsaw this week ignored domestic and international criticism to extend a state of emergency and sought to portray them as dangerous deviants.The European commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, met the Polish interior minister, Mariusz Kamiński, in Warsaw on Thursday night but won no concessions on the bloc’s request for monitors from the EU’s Frontex border force to be allowed into the zone, despite growing fears for the migrants’ safety after the deaths of at least five people. Continue reading...
Veronica Ryan creates UK’s first permanent artwork dedicated to people affected by the scandalThe first permanent artwork to honour the Windrush generation in the UK has been unveiled in the east London borough of Hackney, as councils across the country kick off the first day of Black History Month.The work, created by the artist Veronica Ryan, is one of two permanent sculptures that symbolise the council’s respect and commitment to the Windrush generation and their legacy and contribution to the area. The second, by Thomas J Price, will be unveiled next spring. Continue reading...
From a wedding ring washed away in the surf to tickets for Leonard Cohen’s first London gig, these are the possessions that refused to give up on their ownersMany years ago, as a twentysomething in Dublin, I had to leave a flat I had been living in quickly, and inadvertently left behind a shelf full of books. When I went back a week later, the landlord had thrown them out. Twenty years on, I returned to Dublin with my daughter and found three of the books in a secondhand shop, with the date and my signature on them.