The CBD and Darling Harbour were ghost towns, but Newtown, Redfern and Kings Cross were vibing as pubgoers braved the Monday night rain to toast ‘freedom day’

The offensive marks the end of a ceasefire declared in June in a political conflict that has claimed thousands of livesTigray forces say Ethiopia’s government has launched its threatened major military offensive against them in an attempt to end a nearly year-old war.A statement from the Tigray external affairs office alleged hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian “regular and irregular fighters” launched a coordinated assault on several fronts. It blamed Ethiopian forces and those from the country’s Amhara region, where much of the recent fighting has occurred after Tigray forces retook much of their own region in June. Continue reading...

Actor recounts conversation about casting of disabled roles and ridicules billionaires’ space raceThe Succession star Brian Cox has said authentic casting, where roles are reserved for actors with the same lived experiences as a character, ignores the “craft of acting”.Cox, who plays the media tycoon Logan Roy in the hit HBO show, said he had spent a lot of his recent time off from filming watching movies, including Russell Crowe as a mathematician with mental illness in A Beautiful Mind and Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. Continue reading...

Holidaymakers say they were given just hours to pay back cash claimed though credit cardsRyanair has been accused of barring passengers who pursued chargebacks against the airline during the pandemic from taking new flights this year – unless they return their refunds.An investigation by MoneySavingExpert (MSE) has found that holidaymakers who sought refunds from their credit card provider have faced last-minute demands of up to £600 if they want to board a Ryanair plane. Continue reading...

Early handling and belief in ‘herd immunity’ led to more deaths, Commons inquiry finds

Visitors from Britain and the US among those permitted as country seeks to boost its crucial tourism sector

Penelope Jackson heard to say ‘I thought I’d get his heart but he hasn’t got one’ on recorded emergency callA 66-year-old former military administrator stabbed her 78-year-old husband at their Somerset home and told a 999 operator: “I thought I’d get his heart but he hasn’t got one,” a murder jury has been told.Penelope Jackson allegedly murdered her husband, David, a retired army lieutenant colonel, on 13 February at their home in the coastal village of Berrow, claiming he was abusive and controlling. Continue reading...

Ingmar Bergman’s powerful 70s series has been reimagined for our pandemic times, with its two leads navigating the pain and frustration of a brutal breakup, and agonising separationIngmar Bergman’s original Scenes from a Marriage miniseries, released in 1973, was blamed for a spike in divorce rates. Whether this was factually true or just felt true enough, it was a recognition of the acuity of Bergman’s depiction of a disintegrating union. Indeed, his series – brought to life by an anguished Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson – has gone on to influence many films and television dramas that have since examined the same subject.It is possible that the new reworking (under the same name) by Hagai Levi (and his collaborator Amy Herzog who co-wrote two of the five episodes) will have the same effect on a pandemic population who have been cooped up with partners for far too long. This take on Scenes from a Marriage (Sky Atlantic) is relentlessly intimate, focusing almost wholly on the one fracturing couple, with an all-killer, no-filler script that captures the impossibility of either saying or construing anything neutrally once the rot has set in. It is also set almost entirely in one house, which may be a dose of reality too far for some. Continue reading...

Incident in which car caught fire happened early on Sunday morning near village of Heath and ReachFour people have died after a single-vehicle road collision in Bedfordshire in the early hours of Sunday morning.Police said the casualties had been confirmed following “highly complex work” by emergency services. Continue reading...

Tuesday: Australians want stronger climate policies as Coalition negotiations continue. Plus: why the Nicholas Building is the creative heart of MelbourneGood morning. The climate crisis is in the news today as politicians prepare for the Cop26 climate summit at the end of the month. NSW enjoys eased Covid restrictions but confusion remains over its vaccination record system. And if you’re dancing your way out of lockdown, we had some expert advice on how to keep your shoes in good nick.As Scott Morrison continues negotiations with the Nationals over climate policy ahead of the Cop26 talks in Glasgow, the latest Guardian Essential poll suggests a majority of Australians want the Coalition to set a higher emissions reduction target for 2030 and a net zero target for 2050. Morrison has been signalling his support for a net zero target for many months and there has been persistent speculation the government may increase Australia’s current 2030 emissions reduction target of a 26-28% cut on 2005 levels. But with some Nationals hostile, and some MPs demanding high price tags before any agreement on targets, the weight of predictions suggest the Coalition is more likely to trumpet a projected overachievement on the current 2030 commitment than increase ambition. Continue reading...

UK records 40,224 new infections as well as 28 further deaths; WHO recommends extra jab for immunocompromised people

The Ugandan novelist, who was tortured in prison over his book The Greedy Barbarian, has been selected by Tsitsi Dangarembga as part of the PEN Pinter prizeThe Ugandan novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, who was tortured by the Ugandan government in prison over his novel The Greedy Barbarian, has been named this year’s International Writer of Courage by Tsitsi Dangarembga.The award is part of the PEN Pinter prize, which goes to an author deemed to have fulfilled Harold Pinter’s aspiration to “define the real truth of our lives and our societies”. This year’s PEN Pinter winner, the Zimbabwean writer and activist Dangarembga, chose Rukirabashaija as the International Writer of Courage, an award for an author who has been persecuted for speaking out about their beliefs, with whom she will share her prize. Continue reading...

Second convictions for Nadia Ali, headteacher of Ambassadors Home school in Streatham, and her fatherA headteacher and her father have been sentenced for the second time for running an illegal unregistered school in south London after a crackdown by the schools watchdog Ofsted.Nadia Ali, the headteacher of Ambassadors Home school, an unregistered private school in Streatham, was sentenced on Monday to eight weeks’ imprisonment suspended for 12 months, two years after a prior conviction for the same offence. Continue reading...

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Domestic abuse officer accused of asking woman out and ‘sexualising’ relationship, at misconduct hearing in Eastleigh

Fourteen countries likely to take tough stance in future talks about fisheries if access to UK waters does not improveFourteen EU member states are preparing to issue a joint declaration accusing the British government of risking “significant economic and social damage” to their fishing communities, as wider relations appear close to breaking point.In the statement, seen by the Guardian, France, Belgium, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Cyprus, Portugal, Denmark, Italy, Lithuania, Sweden, Malta and Latvia will call for the UK to act “in the spirit and the letter” of the Brexit deal struck last Christmas Eve. Continue reading...

Slower vaccination rates in east lead to dramatic surge in cases, while UK remains outlier in westHigher vaccination rates are translating to lower Covid infection and death rates in western Europe than in parts of central and eastern Europe, the latest data suggests – except in the UK where case numbers are surging.Figures from Our World In Data indicate a clear correlation between the percentage of people fully vaccinated and new daily cases and fatalities, with health systems in some under-inoculated central and eastern EU states under acute strain. Continue reading...

Sami Jasim al-Jaburi is a veteran of IS’s rise and fall and was subject of $5m US bountyIraq’s prime minister has claimed the country’s forces have helped to capture Islamic State’s deputy leader and financial controller in a cross-border operation and bring him to Baghdad.Sami Jasim al-Jaburi, a veteran of IS’s rise and fall, was seized days before Iraqi parliamentary elections due on Sunday. The prime minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who announced the capture, is likely to be a contender for what would be his second term as leader in horse-trading for government positions expected in the months ahead. Continue reading...

Families say there are lessons to be learned as first Covid cases in 16 European countries came from Italy

His lyrical novels about exile and loss enjoy critical acclaim but modest sales. Now he’s Zanzibar’s second most famous son – and £840,000 richer. The writer talks about racism on British buses, Priti Patel, and why books have to entertainAbdulrazak Gurnah seems preternaturally calm for someone who has suddenly found themselves in the full glare of the world’s media. “Just very good,” he answers when I ask how he’s feeling. “A little bit rushed, with so many people to meet and speak to. But otherwise, what can you say? I feel great.” I meet the newly minted Nobel literature laureate surrounded by books in his agent’s office in London, the day after the announcement. He looks younger than his 73 years, boasts a full head of silver hair, and speaks evenly and deliberately, his expression barely changing. The adrenaline rush, if he experienced one, is hardly in evidence. He even slept quite well.All the same, a little over 24 hours ago, he was merely the critically acclaimed author of 10 novels, at home in his kitchen in Canterbury, where he lives after having retired as a professor of English at the University of Kent. Now, a new level of celebrity beckons – albeit of a rarefied kind. The Swedish Academy’s citation referred a little ponderously to “his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents”. Others celebrate the lyricism of his writing, its understated, wistful brilliance. Continue reading...

A draft report from the disability royal commission found the federal health department’s approach to the vaccination rollout has been ‘seriously deficient’, having overlooked people with disabilities in favour of aged care residents.Laura Murphy-Oates speaks to David Belcher, a disability advocate and city council member in Lake Macquarie, about the difficulty he faced in accessing a Covid-19 vaccination. And inequality editor Luke Henriques-Gomes talks about the failures of the Australian government in protecting some of its most vulnerable populationsRead more: Continue reading...

Shehroze Chaudhry, who featured in New York Times podcast, had been charged under terrorism hoax lawsCanadian prosecutors have dropped charges against a man who claimed to be an Islamic State executioner after he admitted fabricating his tales of violence.In September 2020, Shehroze Chaudhry was charged under Canada’s rarely used terrorism hoax laws, which carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Prosecutors withdrew those charges on Friday, after Chaudhry admitted that his account of travelling to Syria was fictitious. His trial was due to begin in February. Continue reading...

It can now be found everywhere – in cans at Asda and in cakes on The Great British Bake Off. But the caffeinated classic certainly isn’t popular with everyoneName: The espresso martini.Age: 38. Continue reading...

Analysis: minister’s pre-emptive response to EU offer leaves planned talks looking potentially futileBefore the unveiling on Wednesday of a package of proposals from the EU for Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit arrangements designed to becalm inflamed tensions and unblock its trade with the rest of the UK, David Frost, the prime minister’s tough-talking Brexit minister, has thrown a spanner in the works.In a UK government command paper published in July, Lord Frost had laid out a series of changes that he believed needed to be considered. One of those had been the role of the European court of justice (ECJ) in enforcing EU law in Northern Ireland and at the regulatory border with the rest of the UK. Continue reading...

From period poverty to blockchain, initiatives raising awareness of girls’ rights abound on 11 October, but long-term help is needed after Covid setbacksInternational Day of the Girl is critical in highlighting girls’ rights globally, but action is urgently needed to reverse the damage of the pandemic, campaigners have said.“Girls who were once hopeful about their futures say to us: ‘We’re not sure if we’re going to achieve our dreams now, if we’re ever going to go back to school’,” said Emily Wilson, chief executive of UK and Uganda-based organisation Irise International, which works to combat period poverty. Continue reading...

Inquest asked DCI Christopher Jones if initial delays were because Anthony Walgate was a young gay escortA senior Metropolitan police officer has denied that unconscious bias affected his investigation into the death of serial killer Stephen Port’s first victim because he was “young, gay and working as an escort”.DCI Christopher Jones, from the Met murder investigation team, declared the death of Anthony Walgate, 23, a fashion student from Hull, to be “unexplained” rather than “suspicious”, an inquest heard. Continue reading...

Le Désordre et la Nuit, shown as part of a retrospective for the great thriller director at Lyon’s Lumière film festival, is a well-crafted treat for fans of the genreA big feature, and an even bigger pleasure, of this year’s Lumière film festival in Lyon is the retrospective for the French master of policiers and crime, Gilles Grangier, a director who enjoyed great commercial success in movies and later in TV from the 1950s to the 80s, working with actors such as Jean Gabin and Lino Ventura and the great screenwriter Michel Audiard (father of Jacques). He was a working-class film-maker who came up from the streets of Paris, and started in the movies as a stuntman, grip, prop boy, any job he could get.Grangier is a name perhaps eclipsed now by Jean-Pierre Melville and made to feel obsolete in the 60s by the New Wave as he was making the kind of well-crafted, unpretentious genre pictures that the new generation of revolutionaries affected to despise (while admiring the Hollywood equivalent). But his movies here have been a revelation – the late Bertrand Tavernier, the founder of this festival, was always a great ally of Grangier’s – particularly his amazingly dry, witty, briskly unsentimental lowlife crime melodrama Le Désordre et la Nuit from 1958. This thriller was adapted by Grangier and Audiard from a novel by the French wartime journalist Jacques Robert, celebrated for his 1945 reports from Berlin and being one of the few writers who saw the inside of Hitler’s bunker. Continue reading...

Nusrit Mehtab says police unit where Wayne Couzens once served is male-dominated and ripe for changeThe Metropolitan police shelved plans to reform its unit dedicated to protecting politicians and diplomats because of “resistant and uncooperative” officers, according to a former superintendent who was the force’s most senior woman of colour.Nusrit Mehtab, who resigned in January last year, said the parliamentary and diplomatic protection command (PADP), where Sarah Everard’s killer, Wayne Couzens, once served, was “very male-dominated” and ripe for reform. The Met had had a chance to “put things right and they didn’t”, she added. Continue reading...

Doubts persist over whether Miloš Zeman, Andrej Babiš’ political ally, will be able to carry out dutiesThe populist Czech president remained in hospital on Monday as news sank in that Andrej Babiš, the billionaire prime minister, had suffered a shattering general election defeat days after the release of the Pandora papers and that Miloš Zeman, his main political champion, may be too ill to save him.Zeman, 77 – whose constitutional powers invest him with a kingmaker’s role potentially allowing him to keep Babiš in office – remained in Prague’s central military hospital a day after being rushed there for emergency treatment for an unspecified chronic illness. Doctors said on Monday that they had stabilised his condition, although doubts persist about his future ability to carry out his duties. Continue reading...

More than 150 turbines may be torn down after licences to operate and build them are declared voidTwo windfarms in western Norway are harming reindeer herders from the Sami people by encroaching on their pastures, the country’s supreme court has ruled.It was not immediately clear what the judgment’s consequences of would be, but lawyers for the herders said the 151 turbines on the Fosen peninsula could be torn down. The turbines, whose construction was completed in 2020, form part of the largest onshore windfarm in Europe. Continue reading...

Thomas Schreiber also enters not guilty plea to the attempted murder of his mother, Anne SchreiberA man has admitted killing the millionaire businessman Richard Sutton, who was found with stab wounds at his Dorset mansion, but has denied murder.Thomas Schreiber, 34, also entered a not guilty plea to the attempted murder of his mother, Anne Schreiber, who was Sutton’s partner. Continue reading...

Source close to royal speaks as Met says it will take no further action over Virginia Giuffre’s allegations of sexual assaultThe Metropolitan police’s decision to take no further action over Virginia Giuffre’s allegations of sexual assault against Prince Andrew “comes as no surprise”, a source close to the royal has said.The force said on Sunday it had dropped the investigation 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...

Founder of far-right party among 12 arrested after mob storms A&E department and trade union HQCalls are growing in Italy to abolish neofascist movements after violent protests against Covid-19 vaccine passes in Rome, during which demonstrators tried to force their way into the official residence of the Italian prime minister.Twelve people, including Roberto Fiore, the founder of the far-right Forza Nuova party, were arrested in connection to Saturday’s unrest, in which a group of about 30 raided a hospital accident and emergency unit – injuring four medical workers – and the offices of a trade union were stormed. Continue reading...

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...

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...

Minister for disability, ageing and carers, and for child protection announced his resignation within hours of claims at branch-stacking inquiry

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...

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...

Thousands defied grey skies to flock to newly-reopened cafes, barbers and gyms to kick off what some have described as ‘freedom day’