‘Marriage for All’ proposal backed by 64.1% of voters in nationwide referendumSwiss voters have decided by a clear margin to allow same-sex couples to marry, in a referendum that brings the Alpine nation into line with many others in western Europe.Official results showed the measure passed with 64.1% of voters in favour and won a majority in all of Switzerland’s 26 cantons. Continue reading...
Police say they are questioning 36-year-old on suspicion of murder in ‘significant development’Detectives are questioning a 36-year-old man on suspicion of the murder of the London schoolteacher Sabina Nessa, in what they called a “significant development” in the case.The man was arrested at 3am on Sunday at an address in East Sussex and was taken into police custody. He is the third man arrested over the killing. Continue reading...
Leeds United have offered support but players face return to Taliban regime unless accepted soonThe UK government is being asked to urgently resettle female players from Afghanistan’s junior football team who fled the Taliban and have been offered a new life with Leeds United.The 35 young women – many of whom are in their teens – their families and football coaches are in Lahore, Pakistan, on 30-day visas. But the 136-strong group face returning to Afghanistan unless they are accepted by a third country soon – they have to leave Pakistan by 12 October. Continue reading...
The painter expresses sadness at how social media, Covid and new buildings have made it a challenge to find places to create artThe far south-west of Britain has long been regarded as a wild and romantic spot, a place where you can lose yourself in rugged landscapes beloved of artists and dreamers.But a renowned Cornish-based artist celebrated for his images of the world’s great wildernesses has expressed sadness and frustration that social media, new building and the rush to the countryside caused by Covid has made it a challenge to find remote, lonesome places in his backyard to paint. Continue reading...
A coalition is inevitable but there are likely to be months of complicated negotiations in the months aheadPolling stations have opened in Germany as the nation decides who will succeed in the race to replace Angela Merkel as chancellor after 16 years.As final rallies were held across the country by the the main candidates on Saturday, with polls showing the lead held by the Social Democrats’ Olaf Scholz over Armin Laschet of the Christian Democrats to have narrowed to a tiny margin, voter participation among the more than 60 million Germans eligible to vote, was predicted to be high. Continue reading...
Tough controls on immigration, a restricted role for European courts, a new politics of patriotism: why is the EU’s former Brexit chief negotiator, now running for the French presidency, sounding more and more like a Eurosceptic? As his Brexit diaries are published in English, he reveals allMy Secret Brexit Diary, Michel Barnier’s blow-by-blow account of the Brexit negotiations, is at times quite a dry and technical read. But every now and then it offers glorious moments of comic relief. There is, for example, the day that Lord Digby Jones and a jovial bunch of leave-voting businessmen pitch up optimistically at Barnier’s Brussels office, plonking a patriotic gift-basket on his desk. Running his eye over it, the European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator spies some cheddar, wine, tea and jam, a book of Shakespeare’s plays and an essay on Winston Churchill’s life and political philosophy. With a smile, Barnier points out that some of the foodstuffs are processed from European products and protected by EU designations of origin. As for Shakespeare and Churchill, one, he suggests, was a very “continental playwright” and the other a “very European British statesman” who backed a united Europe.This false start is the prelude to some unsuccessful lobbying by the British delegation on behalf of the City’s financial services industry. When Barnier bats away demands for full post-Brexit access to European markets, he writes that the mood suddenly turns sour: “Digby Jones dares to say to me: ‘Mr Barnier, your position is contrary to the interests of the economy. You are going to make life even more difficult for the worker in the Ruhr, the single woman in Madrid or the unemployed man in Athens.’” The rhetoric and tone, concludes Barnier in his diary entry for 10 January 2018, was “morally outrageous”; the desired bespoke agreement on financial services never materialises. Continue reading...
Scott Gottlieb has written a fine account of what went wrong and what we must do better next timeCovid deaths in the US have passed 680,000. More than 2,000 lives are lost every day. The south and south-east are the new killing fields, intensive care units operate at near capacity, vaccination rates stall. In Florida, Republicans contemplate scrapping vaccine mandates for measles and mumps too. Talk about turning back the clock.Related: Peril review: Bob Woodward Trump trilogy ends on note of dire warning Continue reading...
The director’s new documentary weaves together hours of unseen footage to dispel many myths about the band’s final weeks. John Harris, who was involved in the project, tells the inside story
Critics say the leader has hijacked the gathering by getting bogged down in voting issues and losing sight of a focus on policyWhen Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, stood up to huge cheers to address her party’s conference on Saturday, the slogan “Stronger Future Together” was projected on the big screen behind her and all around the vast hall.Before what had been billed as Keir Starmer’s defining conference, when he would reveal the real Keir to the nation, the party leader had also spoken last week of the need for togetherness in the party in a 35-page pamphlet spelling out his vision for Britain. Continue reading...
A former model has launched a website to help online creatives compare deals with brands to prevent exploitationPublic support for workers’ rights and pay equality may be growing but at least one group feels left out: Gen-Z professionals in the modern and comparatively nebulous field of online content creation and influence.It’s a state of affairs that Lindsey Lee Lugrin, a former model with a degree in finance, plans to change with some collective organisation. She has launched an advocacy site, aptly titled F*** You Pay Me, on which influencers review and compare deals with brands, pay-scales and what it’s like to work with them. Continue reading...
The likelihood of a compromise coalition is bad news for both Germany and BritainAngela Merkel’s long goodbye as Germany’s chancellor finally draws to a close this weekend as votes in the federal election are tallied – at least in theory. If the latest opinion polls are to be believed, there will be no clear winner. No party is expected to command an overall Bundestag majority. Coalition talks on forming a new government could take months. In the meantime, in practice, Merkel remains in charge.The uncertainty over who will replace her is a big change from the often predictable politics of the past 16 years. But it would not do to get overexcited. Neither Olaf Scholz, who leads the Social Democrats (SPD), the biggest centre-left party, nor Armin Laschet, Merkel’s conservative choice as her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) successor, offers radically different agendas. Both men stress continuity while promoting modest, incremental change. Continue reading...
The actor and comedian, on Desert Island Discs, tells of her push for non-comic roles and how she stole a note from Kirsty MacCollTracey Ullman does not regret playing characters of different ethnicity in her comedy shows in Britain and America, but would not do so again. “No, I wouldn’t do it,” she said. “It would be different now. But I don’t regret anything or apologise for anything. Just move onwards.”The actor and impressionist from Slough, Berkshire, first made her name on television in the BBC show Three of a Kind, alongside Lenny Henry and David Copperfield, in the early 1980s. Continue reading...
It may not be logical that your heart is broken but it’s important to let the feelings outThe question As soon as I started writing this letter I could feel the hot tears generating in their ducts. I’ve got great friends and family, but I need an outsider’s take.I was seeing a man, for a few months. This ended around eight weeks ago. He was unhappy living in this country and had plans to move even before we met, which he was always very open about, and I was aware the entire time that he was emotionally unavailable and planning to leave. So I feel I should have been prepared for the end of the relationship when it happened. Continue reading...
The Pacific island nation wants clarity on the legal responsibilities owed to its people related to climate changeVanuatu will ask the International court of justice for an advisory opinion on the rights of present and future generations to be protected from climate change.With a population of about 280,000 people spread across roughly 80 islands, Vanuatu is among more than a dozen Pacific island nations facing rising sea levels and more regular storms that can wipe out much of their economies. Continue reading...
by Jon Henley, Michael Savage and James Tapper on (#5Q022)
Emergency visa plan will not resolve Britain’s road transport crisis, says industry as majority blame Brexit in pollThe government’s emergency programme to issue temporary visas to thousands of lorry drivers is far too little to resolve Britain’s supply-chain crisis and is unlikely to attract them to the UK, haulage chiefs have warned.Downing Street on Saturday night confirmed hastily compiled plans to add 5,000 HGV drivers and 5,500 poultry workers to a visa scheme until Christmas, to help the food and fuel industries with shortages. Continue reading...
Travel agents report Australians’ interest in cruising increasing 40% each month since June, with one analyst describing it as ‘the Teflon market for travel’On 16 September, Miami-based Oceania Cruises, a luxury culinary-focused cruise company that is a division of Norwegian Cruise Lines, set an all-time, single-day booking record. It was driven by the introduction of its newest ship, Vista, due to take its first passengers in April 2023. Nearly half the available inventory of Vista’s inaugural season was sold in one day. These were new cash bookings, 30% of which came from people booking with the company for the first time.It’s hard to know what this means for Australia. According to Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), 1.34 million Australians took a cruise in 2018, one of the highest rates in the world by population, yet international travel is currently off limits. Continue reading...
In what’s been described as a ‘paradigm shifter’ for psychiatry, Australian clinical trials are exploring the therapeutic benefits of illegal substancesIt was out of desperation that Michael Raymond found himself sitting in a remote retreat in the Peruvian Andes, sipping a cup of bitter tea.Raymond had reached breaking point. His 16-year career as an electrical engineer in high–security situations for the Australian air force had seen him deal with near-death experiences, crashes, casualties and “the aftermath of human remains”. Continue reading...
Four corpses taken to main square and hung from cranes by Afghanistan’s Islamist regimeTaliban authorities in the western Afghan city of Herat killed four alleged kidnappers and hung their bodies up in public to deter others, a local government official has said, in a sign of Afghanistan’s new rulers’ return to their harsh version of Islamic justice.Graphic footage shows the dead bodies of at least four men with their clothes covered in blood hanging from cranes in the city’s main squares as people watch. Continue reading...
Police hunting killer of teacher, 28, in south-east London study CCTV footage of mystery figureDetectives hunting a man of interest in the Sabina Nessa murder inquiry believe that a “reflective red item” the suspect was seen carrying on the night of her death may have been used in the attack.CCTV footage of the figure shows him looking over his shoulder, putting up his hood and attempting to conceal the red item on the night of Nessa’s death in Kidbrooke, south-east London. Continue reading...
The historian and TV presenter on the story of former slave Olaudah Equiano and the significance of Black History MonthHistorian and broadcaster David Olusoga has been the face of a decolonial turn in British broadcasting that, in recent years, with series including the Bafta-winning Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners, A House Through Time and Black and British: A Forgotten History, has inspired new conversations about injustice in the story of Britain and Britishness in living rooms across the country. Anticipating this year’s Black History Month (October), he has contributed a foreword to the republication by Hodder & Stoughton of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, the memoir of an 18th-century formerly enslaved man that is also widely recognised as a foundational text of Black British literature.What led you to get behind this republication of Equiano’s memoir?
All eyes are on Xi Jinping as expectation grows that the government will have to intervene to protect small creditorsIn May 2020, Chen (not his real name) decided to invest 300,000 yuan (£34,000) in property in the north-eastern Chinese city of Shenyang. “I thought the price was not too expensive and I had some extra money so I invested it,” he said. “I thought it was going to be all right because Evergrande is such a big name and enterprise.”Chen was following in the footsteps of countless fellow Chinese, getting in on a booming property market that had turned big cities such as Beijing, Shenzhen and Shanghai into some of the world’s most expensive, amid the huge transfer of the population from rural to urban areas. Continue reading...
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Exclusive: deal in which UK government would take stake in Sizewell C would risk inflaming geopolitical tensionsMinisters are closing in on a deal that could kick China off a project to build a £20bn nuclear power station on the Suffolk coast and pump in tens of millions of pounds of taxpayer cash instead – a move that would heighten geopolitical tensions.The government could announce plans to take a stake in Sizewell C power station, alongside the French state-backed power giant EDF, as early as next month, ahead of the Cop26 climate summit. Continue reading...
The country faces ‘Dutch-style’ political era with main parties neck and neck before Sunday’s pollGermany is braced to enter a new “Dutch-style” political era after federal elections on Sunday, as a knife-edge vote points to months of complicated coalition wrangling.Outgoing chancellor Angela Merkel joined the campaign trail at a rally in the western city of Aachen on Friday night in an attempt to help her designated successor from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Armin Laschet, close the gap on the centre-left Social Democratic party (SPD). Continue reading...
Host dismisses Anti-Defamation League after organization urges network to drop himAfter the Anti-Defamation League renewed its call for Tucker Carlson to be fired from Fox News for voicing the racist “great replacement” theory about immigration, the primetime host had a pithy response: “Fuck them.”Related: ‘Rudy is really hurt’: Giuliani reportedly banned from Fox News Continue reading...
by Helen Davidson in Taipei and agencies on (#5PZ8J)
The men, who were detained by Beijing in 2018, were released hours after Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou was freed in CanadaTwo Canadian citizens who were detained by Beijing for more than 1,000 days have arrived back in Canada on Sunday morning, greeted by the country’s prime minister, Justin TrudeauThe plane carrying Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor arrived in Calgary, a location which had not been publicly disclosed. They were met and embraced by Trudeau on the tarmac. The plane had left Chinese airspace around 7.30pm Ottawa time, just hours after US authorities reached an agreement allowing Chinese Huawei executive, Meng Wanzhou, to return to China in exchange for admitting wrongdoing in a fraud case. Shortly before Trudeau spoke, Meng boarded a chartered flight organised by the Chinese government to Shenzhen, Chinese state media reported. Zhao Lijian, ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson, said her return was enabled by the “unremitting efforts of the Chinese government”. Continue reading...
Memorial service on 29 November will take place more than a year after Ratana was shot dead at south London custody centreA special memorial service for Metropolitan police sergeant Matiu “Matt” Ratana, who was shot and killed on duty last year, will be held so police officers get the chance to say a final farewell to their colleague.A memorial service is to be held on Monday 29 November, more than a year after Ratana was shot dead at a south London custody centre, in place of a usual full force funeral, which could not be held because of Covid-19 restrictions. Continue reading...
England and Wales victims’ commissioner says there needs to be more onus on police to protect publicPolice need to do more to make the streets safe for women and girls after the death of Sabina Nessa, the victims’ commissioner for England and Wales has said.Dame Vera Baird, who said she attended a vigil in Wood Green, London, in honour of the suspected murdered 28-year-old primary school teacher, on Friday evening, said there needs to be more onus on police to protect the public than on women to take precautions. Continue reading...
The Nobel laureate has produced plays, poems, essays and even inspired a pop duo but he hasn’t written a novel for nearly half a century - until nowAt 87, Wole Soyinka is a Nigerian icon. His plays have been performed around the world, his poems anthologised, his novels studied in schools and universities, while his nonfiction writing has been the scourge of many a Nigerian dictator. He was imprisoned for 22 months during the Nigerian civil war in the late 1960s for attempting to broker peace; his activism led him again into exile two decades later during the era of General Sani Abacha, military ruler of Nigeria, when the environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa was hanged.In 1986, he was awarded the Nobel prize in literature and became the first African laureate, but his status in Nigerian letters was secured long before then. For a generation of young Nigerian writers, his work has been transformative. It has inspired artists, too – in Lagos, many display their skill by painting famous faces, his among them. There was even a musical duo called Soyinka’s Afro. Continue reading...
The world’s most famous teen activist opens up about how she’s been transformed since she started her school climate strike in 2018 Continue reading...
When Covid stalled his film work, the writer took revenge on the virus in the form of a poem about Britain, Brexit and the pandemic – exclusively extracted hereWhere do you start with the pandemic? It may have been one of the most universally shared moments in history but that collective experience was instantly refracted into billions of entirely unique memories. How also do you address the weird paradox that for many the pandemic was an uncomfortable blend of positive and negative? “Me being at home was great for the children, but we’ve had to close our business.” “It was nice to spend more time with the family, but we lost my uncle.” It’s a mesh of contradictions; the cheerful banging of pans mingling with the distant screech of an ambulance siren. The pre-pandemic era feels both a long time ago and yesterday. As we emerged from lockdown, everything was both totally different and kind of the same.And how do I respond to the pandemic as a writer and a director? Like many working in film and television, I had mixed fortunes. My film, The Personal History of David Copperfield, never made cinemas around the world, but it got shown on streaming platforms. As a writer, I’m used to working at home anyway, and, though work slowed, it never went away. I’m currently starting up a shoot we shut down eight months previously and I feel both blessed and guilty to have been one of the lucky ones. Strangely, although I thought about it often, my response to the pandemic won’t be a film or TV show. Unexpectedly, it’s emerged spontaneously as a poem. Continue reading...
Historians, film-makers and forensic scientists try to answer question once and for all as centenary nearsIt is the shot that a century later still echoes around Ireland as an unanswered question: who killed Michael Collins?On this much, everyone agrees: a bullet to the head killed the revolutionary leader on 22 August 1922 near Béal na Bláth, a village in County Cork, during Ireland’s civil war. Who did it, and why, remains a source of controversy and speculation that now bubbles as strong as ever. Continue reading...
Thanks to an online search error, an architect transformed a tumbledown building into a three-bedroom houseMelanie Schubert and partner Paolo Vimercati didn’t set out to buy a derelict double garage when they were looking for a new home. In one online search, Schubert forgot to include a minimum value – “and this was the cheapest property you could buy here”, she says. As architects, the couple realised that, with planning permission, this seven-metre-square plot with no garden in south-east London might just be a route to the best possible home for their budget. Continue reading...
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The cases of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, arrested in 2018, have prompted accusations of ‘hostage diplomacy’On a drizzly December day in 2018, Huawei’s chief financial officer landed in Vancouver international airport after a 12-hour flight from Hong Kong.Meng Wanzhou, whose father founded the telecoms giant Huawei, planned to stay just a few hours in the coastal Canadian city before traveling on to Mexico. Continue reading...
Veteran presenter, who quit after eight shows, says technical faults and other problems ‘would have killed him’ if he had carried onAndrew Neil has revealed that he came close to having a breakdown while at GB News and believes “it would’ve killed me to carry on” due to the technical problems at the channel.The veteran broadcaster, 72, resigned last week from his role as the rightwing network’s lead presenter and chairman after weeks of speculation about his future. Continue reading...
Issue of whether royal had been notified about the case had previously been contestedThe Duke of York has received court papers relating to a sexual assault lawsuit, US officials have confirmed.The complainant, Virginia Giuffre, is seeking damages after alleging Prince Andrew sexually assaulted her, a claim he vehemently denies. Continue reading...
Recent history suggests Liberals and Nationals have little to fear from Craig Kelly and One Nation, but the dynamics of the next vote are unclearOne of the federal government’s Queensland MPs was enjoying some downtime at home recently, watching the reality show SAS Australia. They were interrupted by a sudden jolt – not an abseiling mishap or some other epic fail by a hapless contestant – but the sudden appearance during an ad break of their former colleague Craig Kelly.You may remember him as the Liberal backbencher with brimming feelings and wild theories on pretty much everything. Kelly parted ways with the government back in February. These days, he’s the federal leader of the United Australia party, fronting ads for Clive Palmer’s political operation. Continue reading...
A coalition appears inevitable after two surveys suggest almost equal support for CDU and former favouriteThe race to succeed Angela Merkel as German chancellor remains completely open two days before western Europe’s most populous country goes to the polls, with the latest predictions showing the leading parties almost neck and neck.Two leading polls published on Friday ahead of Sunday’s election indicate the Social Democrats (SPD) have lost their lead over the Christian Democrats (CDU). One, carried out by Civey for the broadcaster ZDF, showed the SPD to be stable on 25%, but the CDU to have risen to 23%. A poll released later in the day for the polling institute Allensbach for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung showed the race to be even tighter, with the SPD on 26%, the CDU on 25%. Continue reading...
Rally to demand government action on climate crisis is first worldwide since start of pandemicHundreds of thousands of people in 99 countries have taken part in a coordinated global climate strike demanding urgent action to tackle the ecological crisis.The strike on Friday, the first worldwide climate action since the coronavirus pandemic hit, is taking place weeks before the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow, UK. Continue reading...