Government has prioritised rescue of current scholars but estimated 70 alumni are still in countryA group of former Chevening scholars have accused the British government of abandoning them in Afghanistan, where they say their lives are at grave risk from the Taliban.The UK government has prioritised the rescue of 35 current Chevening scholars who were due to embark on their studies in the UK before the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, but an estimated 70 former scholars are also thought to still be in the country. Continue reading...
Lawyers documented deterioration in health of asylum seekers while staying in accommodationConditions in hotels used by the Home Office to accommodate asylum seekers during the pandemic are akin to detention centres, according to a report that also says accommodation is often sub-standard and sometimes unsafe.The report, Safe Environment: investigating the use of temporary accommodation to house asylum seekers during the Covid-19 outbreak, explores experiences in hotels and similar accommodation. It was conducted by academics at Edinburgh Napier University in partnership with grassroots organisation Migrants Organising for Rights and Empowerment. Continue reading...
Dating apps can be difficult and daunting at the best of times, and many users give up on them entirely. But for some the pandemic was a chance to reassess their priorities, and they were able to forge a much deeper connection
Her huge-hearted portrayal of Blanca has made Rodriguez the first trans performer to be up for a leading actress Emmy. Will she take the crown on Sunday? We join her for a Zoom call with a twistMJ Rodriguez can see me but I can’t see her. This is not the sort of existential issue that afflicted pre-pandemic interviews, but minutes before my Zoom encounter with the actor and singer I get an email from Rodriguez’s rep saying she will no longer be appearing on camera. This comes hot on the heels of another message saying Rodriguez, who this year became the first trans actor in history to be nominated for an Emmy award in a lead acting category, for her fantastic performance in Pose, would rather I didn’t ask her about the ballroom scene. Which is basically the entire world of Pose, Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s era-defining drama, set in the New York underground vogueing culture of the late 1980s and early 1990s.I take from this nervy preamble two things. First, constantly being seen as the living embodiment of the importance of representation is exhausting, and curiously diminishing. And second, Rodriguez is ready to walk out of the shadow of her character on Pose: Blanca Evangelista, the no-nonsense “house mother” who takes all of queer New York under her wing, has a seemingly never-ending supply of wise words for them, and a heart bigger than any disco ball. Continue reading...
The pandemic has forced many of us to rethink our lives, not least of which is how we work. For me, it meant returning homeTen days before our birthday, I drove my 2005 blue Nissan Sentra over the Verrazano Bridge and let the tears roll out. He didn’t know it, but I was almost home. The Verrazano spills into Brooklyn, where Scott and I entered the world.We were born a little after 11am on 28 July 1994 in Maimonides hospital, fraternal twins. “Two boychiks!” my father boasted, still in his blue scrubs, as he burst into the waiting room. The cheering section – two grandmas, two grandpas – erupted. Continue reading...
Amid a global call to tear down offensive statues, one Australian city council is asking: what do we do with ours?A large bronze statue of a noble-looking white man stands in a park in central nipaluna/Hobart. Adjacent to the city’s bus mall, it honours William Lodewyk Crowther, a doctor and early premier of Tasmania.Crowther is praised on the accompanying plaque for his “long and zealous political and professional service in this colony.” But the plaque makes no mention of William Lanne, the palawa leader whose corpse he mutilated and skull he stole. Continue reading...
Experts say Aukus military deal underlines Australia’s increasingly close alignment with the US on China – and New Zealand’s relative distanceNew Zealand is not part of a new security pact between Australia, the UK and US, in what experts say is an illustration of the distance between the country and its traditional allies.On Wednesday, the three countries announced a trilateral security partnership, Aukus, aimed at confronting China, which will include helping Australia to build nuclear-powered submarines. New Zealand and Canada were notably absent. Continue reading...
Zalmay Khalilzad says militants agreed not to enter Kabul and to discuss future government before president’s swift departureThe US negotiator on Afghanistan has said that President Ashraf Ghani’s abrupt exit scuttled a deal for the Taliban to hold off entering Kabul and negotiate a political transition.In his first interview since the collapse of the 20-year western-backed government, Zalmay Khalilzad, who brokered a 2020 deal with the Taliban to withdraw US troops, told the Financial Times that the insurgents had agreed to stay outside the capital for two weeks and shape a future government. Continue reading...
by Eva Corlett in Wellington and Tess McClure in Chri on (#5PKF4)
Experts say it’s too soon to say whether measures have failed entirely but it’s already too late for many young peopleAs New Zealand’s average house price closes in on $1m, a generation says they’re being locked out of the market – and the glacial impact of government reforms may come too late, if it arrives at all.“It’s urgent,” says Isla Stewart, 20, a housing advocate living in Auckland, New Zealand’s most expensive city. “The government’s failure to quickly address the housing crisis could result in a generation being frozen out of the housing market. Disconnected from their communities, living in unhealthy, unstable housing situations.” Continue reading...
Minister says health officials found no evidence that any patient reported such side effects: ‘We wasted so much time running down this false claim’Trinidad and Tobago’s health minister has dismissed claims by the rapper Nicki Minaj that a cousin’s friend had become impotent after receiving the Covid-19 vaccine, saying that health officials in the Caribbean country had found no evidence that any patient had reported such side-effects.“As we stand now, there is absolutely no reported side effect or adverse event of testicular swelling in Trinidad … and none that we know of anywhere in the world,” the minister, Terrence Deyalsingh, said in a press conference on Wednesday. Continue reading...
The chair of the joint chiefs of staff sought to prevent the former president from ‘going rogue’, according to new Woodward book• US politics – follow liveJoe Biden threw his weight behind the top US military officer on Wednesday, saying he had “great confidence” in the general who, according to a new book, took steps to prevent the outgoing Republican president Donald Trump from “going rogue” and launching a nuclear war or an attack on China.Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, also defended phone calls he made to his Chinese military counterpart in the tumultuous final months of Trump’s presidency, signaling that the hitherto secret conversations were in keeping with his duties. Continue reading...
by Richard Adams, Sally Weale and Peter Walker on (#5PK32)
Former vaccines minister promoted by Boris Johnson after winning plaudits for efficient and fuss-free jab rolloutNadhim Zahawi, whose star has risen during the pandemic as vaccines minister, is to become education secretary after Gavin Williamson’s gaffe-prone tenure came to an end.Zahawi has been promoted by Boris Johnson after winning plaudits over the efficient and fuss-free Covid vaccine programme, a style that may serve him well in an education sector buffeted by Williamson’s more confrontational style. Continue reading...
The government must stop trying to re-enact old battles with Brussels and focus instead on building new relationsIt is usually worth paying more attention to what ministers do than what they say, especially when the subject is Europe. At the start of this week, the Brexit minister, David Frost, told the House of Lords that Britain was unafraid to invoke article 16 – the emergency suspension clause – of the trade and cooperation agreement (TCA) that Boris Johnson signed with Brussels last year. Days later, the government deferred the introduction of customs controls on goods being imported from the continent.The message is consistent to the extent that Lord Frost’s comments and waiving of border regulation both demonstrate that the UK was unready for Brexit on the terms it negotiated. But there is a difference between menacing rhetoric that is meant to assert UK power and policy action that surrenders border control. Continue reading...
Met makes announcement after looking at Lord Dyson’s report into 1995 interview with royalThe Metropolitan police will not launch a criminal investigation into the then BBC journalist Martin Bashir’s 1995 interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, the force has announced.The decision was made after examining Lord Dyson’s report into the controversial documentary, which found Bashir had acted in a “deceitful” manner by commissioning fake bank statements to get the interview, and which criticised the BBC’s internal investigation into the matter. Continue reading...
Police officer who was shot nine times is on trial for assault after allegedly attacking sergeant in confrontation over bathroom breakA Canadian police officer who was shot nine times by a colleague is now on trial for assault over the confrontation that began over a bathroom break.Constable Nathan Parker, 55, of the Niagara regional police, stands accused of assault with a weapon, intent to resist arrest and assaulting a police officer after allegedly attacking detective sergeant Shane Donovan. Continue reading...
by Angelique Chrisafis in Paris and agencies on (#5PJY2)
Salah Abdeslam says attacks ‘nothing personal’ and François Hollande ‘knew risks’ of targeting ISThe sole survivor of the jihadist cell alleged to have killed 130 people in Paris six years ago has told his trial the attacks were revenge for French airstrikes in Syria and Iraq, and that France had known “the risks” of attacking Islamic State.“We fought France, we attacked France, we targeted the civilian population – but it was nothing personal against them,” Salah Abdeslam said of the coordinated gun and suicide bomb attacks across Paris on 13 November 2015, which began at the national football stadium, continued at bars and restaurants and ended with a massacre inside a rock gig at the Bataclan concert hall. Continue reading...
The director’s latest film, in which he stars as a former rodeo star who travels to Mexico to save a friend’s son, is an inert disappointmentCry Macho, the new 70s-set film from the world’s most prolific nonagenarian director Clint Eastwood, has endured an almost 50 year journey to the screen, a journey that, after actually watching Cry Macho, is of far more interest than what’s ended up in front of us. After his screenplay was rejected in the 70s, writer N Richard Nash turned it into a novel before then pitching the exact same screenplay, which this time got bought by Fox. Eastwood was offered it in the late 80s but decided to star in The Dead Pool instead, while offering to direct Robert Mitchum in the role. In the 90s, Roy Scheider signed on but production was never completed. Over time, Pierce Brosnan and Burt Lancaster were also attached before in 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger picked it as his next role but stepped back when he became governor. As his term ended, he announced that it would be his next project but just as production was set to start, his affair with a household employee who mothered his child caused it to fold.Related: The Eyes of Tammy Faye review – Jessica Chastain nails gaudy TV evangelist Continue reading...
CBS programme has caused a social media storm for its crass choice of format and ill-qualified judging panelProducers have billed it as an exciting new twist on reality television: an X-Factor style competition between campaigners that will give them the chance to lobby world leaders at the G20.But The Activist, a show announced last week by the American network CBS, has already learned to its cost that people power can be unpredictable, ruthless and highly effective. Continue reading...
by Lisa O'Carroll Brexit correspondent on (#5PJEQ)
Lawyers say government data for first six months of 2021 raises questions over possible racial profilingMore than 60% of EU citizens stopped and questioned at ports by British border officials post-Brexit are from Romania, figures have shown, raising questions from lawyers about possible racial profiling.Data issued by the government shows that in the first six months of the year 7,249 people were stopped either at ferry ports or on Eurotunnel and Eurostar vehicle and train services. Continue reading...
Un Mismo Equipo allows unemployed and often homeless people to advertise their skills to potential employersThe Covid crisis came scything through Alejandro’s* life with a speed, ferocity and vindictive thoroughness that stuns him to this day. Almost overnight, the widowed craftsman’s business supplying leather pieces to shops, markets and the military folded, his meagre savings gave out, his father died from coronavirus, the electricity was cut off and he found himself relying on food banks to feed himself and his teenage daughter.“Things were hard before the pandemic,” he says. “But if you’d told me one day that everything that’s happened to me would happen to me, I’d never have believed you. Continue reading...
A province that has long boasted of its loose coronavirus restrictions has also been the site of North America’s highest caseloadsA surge in coronavirus cases has pushed the healthcare system in the Canadian province of Alberta to the verge of collapse, as healthcare workers struggle against mounting exhaustion and a growing anti-vaccine movement in the region.The province warned this week that its ICU capacity was strained, with more people requiring intensive care than any other point during the pandemic – nearly all of them unvaccinated. Continue reading...
Police Service of Northern Ireland says the men have been detained under the Terrorism ActPolice in Northern Ireland have arrested four men as part of the investigation into the murder of the journalist Lyra McKee in 2019.The four men, aged 19, 20, 21 and 33, were arrested under the Terrorism Act 2006 on Wednesday morning. They were in the Derry area, and are now being questioned at Musgrave police station in Belfast. Continue reading...
Jean-Gabriel Périot’s slow-burn doc asks current students to re-enact films from a different political era and share their thoughtsFilmed in collaboration with students from Ivry-sur-Seine on the edge of Paris, Our Defeats is a snapshot of their feelings about 21st-century society and commitment, or lack of it, to political change. But it conducts this litmus test with a twist: having them first stage scenes from films, including largely soixante-huitard-flavoured ones by Jean-Luc Godard and Chris Marker, featuring disenchanted workers, fulminating strikers and revolutionary manifestos. And then – comprehension exercise-style – it asks the actors what they think of the ideas expressed in each.Confronted with teenagers struggling to define “trade union” or “revolution”, initially it feels like juxtaposing them with such fervent material is a passive-aggressive move on the part of director Jean-Gabriel Périot. There is indeed a striking gap between the often highly charged and persuasive performances they give, and the embarrassed bemusement with which many engage with Périot’s questions. But these rec-room Brechtian tactics seem to have a double purpose: to highlight the theatre inherent in all forms of politics while also to suggest that only by leaping between watcher and actor, and actively grappling with the concepts batted about, do they actually start to have any meaning. Continue reading...
by Justine Landis-Hanley (now) and Matilda Boseley (e on (#5PHTK)
Melbourne public transport will be shut for six hours on Saturday in a bid to prevent anti-lockdown protests; Deadliest day for NSW as state records 12 deaths and 1,259 cases; Berejiklian government will ‘seek legal advice’ over venues refusing entry to unvaccinated people; Victoria records 423 cases and two deaths; no new cases in Qld – follow updates live
The movement launched a generation of leftist activists –and gave them a vision of real changeI sprinted down 7th Avenue, down 6th Avenue, across Canal Street. Trucks and cars stood still as the bodies flooding the street halted their movement. People walked out of stores to cheer. Children pressed their faces to backseat windows while parents held up peace signs from the front.Minutes earlier, I’d been standing in a crowd in New York City’s Union Square. Then the running had commenced, outpacing the police as we took the streets on our way to join another march. Continue reading...
President praises ‘splendid combat skills’ and resolution to defend airspace amid near-daily infringements of its airspace by ChinaTaiwanese fighter jets landed on a makeshift runway on a road on Wednesday as annual drills reached their peak, practising skills that would be needed in the event of an attack by China.In exercises overseen by President Tsai Ing-wen, three aircraft – an F-16, French-made Mirage and a Ching-kuo Indigenous Defence Fighter plus an E-2 Hawk-Eye early warning aircraft – landed in rural southern Pingtung county on a road specially designed to be straight and flat for rapid conversion into a runway. Continue reading...
A 20-member panel questioned whether a single explanation fitted all symptoms and raised possibility of psychological suggestionCuba has issued its most detailed report to date from prominent local scientists criticizing allegations that US and Canadian diplomats were subject to mysterious attacks while posted on the island and developed health problems.Related: Microwave weapons that could cause Havana Syndrome exist, experts say Continue reading...
The socialite arrived at the prestigious event dressed head to foot in black - complete with a full head covering. Is it a tribute to Kanye’s new album or bondage chic?Name: Fashionable fetish wear.Appearance: Chic bondage apparel, probably in black. Continue reading...
Utility Point and People’s Energy are the latest of seven companies to fail in the past year amid record energy market pricesAbout half a million households will be moved to a new energy supplier after Utility Point and People’s Energy became the latest energy companies to go bust amid record energy market prices.The latest casualties bring the total number of failed energy suppliers to seven in the past year, including five within the past five weeks, as the market price for gas and electricity has reached new all-time highs. Continue reading...
Move agreed by Speakers of Commons and Lords follows imposition of sanctions on British MPs by BeijingThe new Chinese ambassador to the UK has been barred from parliament by the Speakers in the Commons and Lords following the imposition of sanctions on British MPs by Beijing.The new ambassador, Zheng Zeguang, was due to attend a meeting of the broadly pro-Chinese all-party group on China, but following a letter from MPs sanctioned by China, including the former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith, the Commons Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, has said the meeting is not appropriate. Continue reading...
by Angela Giuffrida Rome correspondent on (#5PH6T)
Boy’s maternal grandfather already under investigation after cable car crash survivor, six, was taken to IsraelThe maternal grandmother of a six-year-old boy who is the sole survivor of a cable car crash in northern Italy is being investigated over the alleged abduction of the child after he was flown to Israel at the weekend against the wishes of his paternal relatives in Italy, according to local press reports.Eitan Biran, whose parents and two-year-old brother died in the Stresa-Mottarone aerial tramway crash on 23 May, has been at the centre of a bitter custody battle between relatives in Italy and Israel. Continue reading...
Footage filmed from a car window shows flooding on Tower Bridge in London after torrential flooding in the capital on Tuesday.The Met Office issued a yellow weather warning for rain, warning of travel disruption and possible flooding of homes and businesses Continue reading...
Brendon Prince about to become first to circumnavigate mainland on a standup paddleboard, all to raise awareness of water safetyHe has had close encounters with orcas, sharks and more dolphins than he could count. He has negotiated fierce tidal flows and picked his way through offshore windfarms, shipping lanes and busy ports.After a 141-day adventure, Brendon Prince, a 48-year-old former teacher, is about to become the first person to complete a circumnavigation of mainland Britain on a standup paddle board, covering nearly 2,500 miles. Continue reading...
Elijah Wood among stars to laud project of Nicolas Gentile to transform land into personal ‘shire’Lord of the Rings actors including Elijah Wood have expressed their support for the project of an Italian man who lives as a hobbit and is building his personal “shire” from JRR Tolkien’s fictional Middle-earth in Italy.In a series of video messages posted on Monday on Instagram, the actors who played the hobbits in Peter Jackson’s movie expressed their appreciation for the project by Nicolas Gentile, a 37-year-old Italian pastry chef who dresses and lives as a hobbit and whose goal is to transform 2 hectares (5 acres) of land in the countryside of Bucchianico, near the town of Chieti in Abruzzo, into a hobbit village. Continue reading...
Over the past four years, photographer Giles Clarke has reported from Yemen for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), documenting the tragedy of a country devastated by war but also the resilience of its people. The photojournalism festival Visa pour l’image is featuring his work at an exhibition in Perpignan, France Continue reading...
by Damian Carrington Environment editor on (#5PH2V)
Almost half a trillion dollars of support a year harms people’s health, the climate and drives inequalityAlmost 90% of the $540bn in global subsidies given to farmers every year are “harmful”, a startling UN report has found.This agricultural support damages people’s health, fuels the climate crisis, destroys nature and drives inequality by excluding smallholder farmers, many of whom are women, according to the UN agencies. Continue reading...
European parliament resolution criticises bloc’s patchwork policy, as some countries ignore recent rulingsThe continued failure of EU governments to respect the residency and benefits rights of same-sex partners as they move between countries in Europe has been condemned in a European parliament resolution.Marriages and registered partnerships formed in one member state should be recognised in all of them, with same-sex spouses and partners treated equally to others, according to a text supported by 387 MEPs, with 161 voting in opposition and 123 abstaining. Continue reading...
Labour leader Jonas Gahr Støre hopes to create coalition including Centre party and Socialist LeftNorway’s left-leaning opposition parties have begun talks to form a new coalition government after winning a landslide victory in elections dominated by the climate crisis and the future of the country’s huge oil and gas industry.The Labour party leader, Jonas Gahr Støre, is hoping to persuade the agrarian Centre party and left-wing Socialist Left to join a government that would have 89 MPs, four more than needed for an absolute majority in the 169-seat parliament. Continue reading...
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