Double Booker prize winner tells La Repubblica she may take Irish citizenship to feel European againHilary Mantel has said she feels “ashamed” by the UK government’s treatment of migrants and asylum seekers and is intending to become an Irish citizen to “become a European again”.In a wide-ranging interview with La Repubblica, the twice Booker prize-winning novelist also gave her view on the monarchy, told how endometriosis has “devastated my life”, and how Boris Johnson “should not be in public life”. She also addresses the criticism of JK Rowling and her stance on transgender rights. Continue reading...
Anthony ‘AJ’ Elfalak, who is non-verbal, went missing on farm in Putty, near SingletonHundreds of volunteers are scouring bushland for a three-year-old boy who went missing on his family’s 260-hectare property in the New South Wales Hunter region almost 24 hours ago.Police were called to the farm in Putty, near Singleton, about an hour after Anthony “AJ” Elfalak was last seen around 11.45am on Friday. Continue reading...
The medical team hiked for five hours in 'horrendous' terrain to reach village and deliver just 25 vaccines to small community, as Fiji battles devastating outbreak of Covid-19, with more than 5% of the country's population having tested positive for the virus. Continue reading...
North Dakota, South Dakota, Mississippi, Indiana, Arkansas and Florida eye similar measures to new Texas ban after six weeksRepublican leaders in as many as six US states are rushing to follow the lead of Texas in adopting an extreme abortion ban that critics, including Joe Biden, have slammed as unconstitutional and built to encourage vigilantism among the public.Abortion rights advocates are bracing to resist a flurry of initiatives from Florida to North Dakota in the wake of the new Texas law, the most extreme in the US, which the conservative majority on the supreme court refused to block. Continue reading...
Lawrence Casey went into Bude canal in Cornwall after daughter Jessica lost control of mobility scooterAn 86-year-old man has died while attempting to rescue his disabled daughter from a canal.Lawrence Casey went into Bude canal in north Cornwall to rescue his daughter Jessica after she suddenly lost control of her mobility scooter and plunged into the water. Continue reading...
Denis Villeneuve’s slow-burn space opera fuses the arthouse and the multiplex to create an epic of otherworldly brillianceDune reminds us what a Hollywood blockbuster can be. Implicitly, its message written again and again in the sand, Denis Villeneuve’s fantasy epic tells us that big-budget spectaculars don’t have to be dumb or hyperactive, that it’s possible to allow the odd quiet passage amid the explosions. Adapted from Frank Herbert’s 60s opus, Dune is dense, moody and quite often sublime – the missing link bridging the multiplex and the arthouse. Encountering it here was like stumbling across some fabulous lost tribe, or a breakaway branch of America’s founding fathers who laid out the template for a different and better New World.Related: Spencer review – Princess Diana’s disastrous marriage makes a magnificent farce Continue reading...
The shadow of the departing chancellor looms over a contest too close to callIn September 1998, when a relatively youthful Gerhard Schröder defeated Helmut Kohl and ended his 16-year reign as German chancellor, the victorious leader of the Social Democrats (SPD) told supporters that the country had opted for “a change of generation”. Mr Schröder’s triumph turned a page on the cold war era, aligning Germany with a fresh-faced centre-left resurgence in western democracies led by Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. It was, in the political vernacular, a quintessential “change” election.Almost a quarter of a century later, Angela Merkel will stand down of her own accord later this month – the first chancellor to do so – after equalling Mr Kohl’s longevity in office. But this time, ahead of a 26 September election, German voters seem to be somewhat reluctant to move on. None of Ms Merkel’s prospective replacements come close to matching her popularity. Fewer than one in five see the chancellor’s own preferred successor, the CDU/CSU candidate, Armin Laschet, as the best option to replace her. Caught on camera laughing during a visit to a town devastated by floods, Mr Laschet has fought a lacklustre campaign and has become a liability for his party. A poll last week found that from highs of around 35% at the start of the year, the CDU/CSU’s ratings have plunged on Mr Laschet’s watch to the low twenties and fallen just behind the SPD for the first time since 2006. The Greens electrified the contest by topping polls in the spring. Their extraordinary surge seemed to embody a widespread desire for a more environmentally driven politics to meet net zero pledges. But they too have lost their mojo as the party’s candidate for chancellor, the inexperienced Annalena Baerbock, struggles to recover from allegations of plagiarism and financial mismanagement. Continue reading...
by Emma Graham-Harrison in Kabul and Akhtar Mohammad on (#5P4KQ)
There are signs of a return to something worryingly close to the hardline restrictions of the past across Afghan lifeWhen Taliban fighters moved into Herat city in western Afghanistan last month, one thing mattered more to some of them than the battle itself. As gunmen faced off around the governor’s office, a group of militants came to Shogofa’s* workplace and ordered all the women home.“They hadn’t even taken all the city, but they came to our headquarters. The manager called an emergency meeting and they told all the women to leave,” she said. Continue reading...
Contents will be trucked to Lebanon to ease energy crisis, a plan that could challenge US resolve towards two foesAn Iranian tanker carrying fuel bound for Lebanon was at anchor in the Red Sea on Friday ahead of the final leg of a voyage to Syria, which is set to pose the biggest test yet to US sanctions imposed on two arch regional foes.The tanker is expected in the Syrian port of Baniyas early next week, in defiance of US sanctions that prevent oil exports from Iran and imports to Syria, which have both been subject to stringent US-imposed restrictions on trade. The imminent arrival is being hailed by the Lebanese militant group turned political bloc, Hezbollah, as a sanctions-busting solution for an energy crisis that has brought Lebanon to a standstill and led to widespread blackouts. Continue reading...
Song written in 1998 by singer who left Afghanistan during the civil war has taken on new significanceAs yet another generation of Afghans fled their homeland over the past fortnight, one song has resonated as a poignant anthem for the exodus.My Homeland – Sarzamin i Man in Farsi – was written in 1998 by the singer Dawood Sarkhosh, who himself had to leave Afghanistan in the civil war that erupted following the Soviet withdrawal. Continue reading...
Warm air from Mediterranean predicted to push temperatures in parts of Britain to 28C next weekAfter weeks of soggy weather, temperatures are expected to soar in parts of the UK next week.The south-east is predicted to experience the hottest weather, with the mercury rising to 28C thanks to warm air sweeping in from the Mediterranean after a grey and cooler August. Continue reading...
Kristen Stewart’s entirely compelling Di has no escape from the dress-up game of monarchy in Pablo Larraín’s unreverential movieSandringham, Christmas 1991. Bare trees, frosted fields, dead pheasants on the drive. Inside the grand house the dining table has been laid in readiness, but one of the principal guests – arguably the main course – is running late and lost. She grinds her car to a halt, tosses her perfect hair in frustration. “Where the fuck am I?” asks Diana, Princess of Wales.And so begins this extraordinary film, which bills itself as “a fable from a true tragedy” and spotlights three days in the dissolution of Charles and Di’s marriage. Working off a sharp script by Steven Knight, Chilean director Pablo Larraín spins the headlines and scandals into a full-blown Gothic nightmare, an opulent ice palace of a movie with shades of Rebecca at the edges and a pleasing bat-squeak of absurdity in its portrayal of the royals. Larraín’s approach to the material is rich and intoxicating and altogether magnificent. I won’t call it majestic. That would do this implicitly republican film a disservice. Continue reading...
Swedish pop group shows cross-generational appeal, amassing 5.5m likes on TikTok since 1 SeptemberTwo singles released from Abba’s first album in 40 years have raced to the top of the streaming charts, in a comeback that has generated praise and excitement among fans who remember the original releases and a new younger audience.The first two singles from Abba’s forthcoming album, to be released on 5 November, were in first and third place on YouTube’s trending rankings in 12 countries on Friday, including the UK. I Still Have Faith In You gained 4.4m views within 24 hours in Britain and Don’t Shut Me Down 1.4m views.
Judge said court report suggested man shot dead by police posed high risk of reoffendingThe man shot dead by police after stabbing six people in an Islamic State-inspired attack on Friday was reportedly sentenced by a New Zealand court earlier in the year for possessing IS propaganda that encouraged acts of violence and terrorism.The man, whose name is covered by legal suppression orders and who is referred to only as “S” in court proceedings, was reportedly found guilty by a jury of possessing objectionable material, and failing to assist a police officer exercise a search power. Continue reading...
20 men accused of involvement in 2015 massacre, but it is unclear whether the key accused will break their silenceDeep inside Paris’s historic law courts on the bank of the River Seine, builders were putting the finishing touches to an extraordinary architectural structure described as a cross between a high-security bunker and modern church.Its sleek pale wood and white lighting were chosen by the French justice ministry to create “a sense of calm” in contrast to the horrific events which will soon be examined there. This temporary structure will from next week host the biggest criminal trial ever held in France, when 20 men are accused of planning, aiding and carrying out the November 2015 Paris terrorist attacks on a stadium, bars and restaurants and the Bataclan concert hall. Continue reading...
Foreign secretary says Afghanistan’s fall came ‘faster than anyone anticipated’ during Islamabad visitDominic Raab has said there was widespread surprise including among the Taliban at the speed with which the group swept to military victory in Afghanistan, but the UK now wanted direct communication with the militants.Raab was speaking after holding talks with officials in Pakistan, the country with the greatest sway over the Taliban. It was his first visit to Islamabad as foreign secretary, and follows criticism that he had not engaged with the Pakistan foreign policy elite in the six months prior to the crisis erupting. Continue reading...
Three performers – among the one million people suffering from long Covid – explain the painful process of getting back on stageIn 2019, the actor and director Helen Oakleigh was hired to stage a number of shows in China that would be playing throughout 2020. They flew from London to Wuhan on 1 January last year and then on to Chengdu but, soon after arriving, began to feel unwell with a virus that would later be diagnosed as Covid-19. Although able to return to work soon afterwards, they struggled to concentrate and experienced sensory overload. Today, Oakleigh is “unrecognisable” from her former self and, along with many others working in the stage industry, is dealing with both the effects of the pandemic on the arts as well as long Covid.Oakleigh is one of around a million people in the UK with long Covid. After working all around the world on stage and screen projects, from Harry Potter to Shakespeare, the actor is now also an advocate for helping fellow sufferers. Oakleigh never felt 100% better but by July 2020 was getting there and, thinking she was just “deconditioned”, began to push slowly back to previous fitness levels and enjoy hockey, netball and cycling again. “I was doing a lot and also working. I was really proud that I had got to that level.” Continue reading...
Security contractors among hundreds from the Philippines, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka stuck without clear plans for evacuationWhen Taliban fighters started to kick at the door of a UN compound in a northern province 250 miles (400km) from the Afghan capital, Kabul, Rajesh* was certain he was going to be killed.The Taliban had taken control of the area on that day. Rajesh, a UN security contractor from India, hurried with his colleagues into an emergency steel-doored room. Before they sealed themselves in, they saw a group of seven or eight heavily armed men. Continue reading...
Natalia López and Eneko Abad crisscross Aragon serving elderly customers who cannot get to salonsWhen Natalia López travels to her parents’ village in northern Spain, she packs the essentials: scissors, combs and clippers.As the Zaragoza-based hairdresser strolls the streets of Huesa del Común, an isolated hamlet of 69 residents, her skills are in high demand. “I style my mother’s hair, give my father a haircut, and there are always neighbours who say: ‘Since you’re here, can you cut my hair as well? Or touch up my colour?’” Continue reading...
by Eva Corlett in Wellington and Tess McClure in Chri on (#5P3VX)
Jacinda Ardern says attack was carried out by a ‘violent extremist’ who followed Islamic State ideology and was being monitored by policeAn attack at a New Zealand supermarket was “a terrorist attack” by a “violent extremist” who follows Islamic State ideology and who had been under heavy surveillance by police, prime minister Jacinda Ardern has said.A man was shot dead on Friday afternoon by police after entering a West Auckland supermarket and stabbing at least six people, who are now in hospital. Continue reading...
Secret documents reveal scale of funeral strategy and government anxieties over resourcesThe UK government’s vast security operation to manage the immediate aftermath of the death of the Queen include official social media blackouts and a ban on retweets.The secret documents, codenamed Operation London Bridge and seen by Politico, reveal the scale of the plans for the funeral and government anxieties about whether the UK has the resources to execute them. Continue reading...
The newsletter platform has poached big names including Salman Rushdie along with a slew of comic book authors from DC and MarvelThe subscription newsletter platform Substack announced on Wednesday it had signed an exclusive deal with Salman Rushdie – but he is just the latest in a growing number of authors making the leap to write serialised fiction delivered straight to the inboxes of subscribers who pay a monthly fee.Several comic book writers and artists have announced lucrative deals to provide exclusive content for the California-based company founded four years ago, in some cases eschewing contracts with Marvel and DC to do so. Continue reading...
Move comes on back of Beijing encouraging firms to share wealth as part of a drive to ease inequalityChina’s Alibaba Group will invest 100bn yuan ($15.5bn) by 2025 in support of “common prosperity”, it said, becoming the latest corporate giant to pledge support for the initiative driven by the president, Xi Jinping.Beijing has been encouraging companies to share wealth as part of the effort to ease inequality in the world’s second-largest economy. Other companies that have made similar announcements include Tencent Holdings, which also pledged 100bn yuan, and Geely Automobile. Continue reading...
After winning Sundance in 1992, the director’s career stalled, thanks in part, he says, to Harvey Weinstein. It was making films with his family that saved himWhen Alexandre Rockwell’s basement flooded a few years ago, he spotted an opportunity. Why not do the repairs himself and put the $80,000 (£58,000) insurance payout towards making a new film? He hired graduate students from New York University, where he is the head of directing at the graduate film school, as crew and cast his children, Lana, 18, and Nico, 15, in the leading roles. Lana is on our video call, too, laughing at her dad as he finishes the story. “I’ll do whatever I have to do to make a film,” he jokes. “I just hope I don’t have to burn my house down next time, or cut my leg off.”Lana was 15 when the family shot Sweet Thing. It is the second movie directed by their dad that she has appeared in with her brother Nico – a follow-up of sorts to 2013’s Little Feet. In both, the Rockwells play siblings growing up dirt poor, constantly in harm’s way, but whose innocence is a kind of magical overcoat, protecting them from the world – up to a point. Little Feet was about two little kids taking their goldfish to the ocean to set it free. The new one is a coming-of-age tale, Stand by Me meets Badlands. Shot in black and white on 16mm film, the two movies share a freewheeling energy and a fairytale quality; the world seen through a child’s sense of wonder. Continue reading...
An innovative community project has brightened buildings, ‘brought people together’ and provided an emotional outlet after traumatic journeysJadhav*, 18, from Bangladesh, arrived in Italy 10 months ago, but is still haunted by memories of his journey with people smugglers across the Mediterranean Sea.“There were 156 people packed into a small boat. There were women and children,” says Jadhav in broken Italian and Bengali translated on a smartphone app. “Waves were coming over the side. People were weeping. There was no hope of survival.” Continue reading...
by Jamie Grierson Home affairs correspondent on (#5P3XB)
Thieves will face tougher penalties under legislation unveiled by government after surge in crimesDognappers will face tougher penalties under government plans to introduce a criminal offence of pet abduction.Pet theft is currently prosecuted under the Theft Act and is subsequently treated as loss of property to the owner, which for years campaigners have been saying fails to recognise the emotional distress caused by the crime. Continue reading...
Statement comes after allegations king helped George Brown’s killers return to TongaTonga’s royal family has denied an allegation that the late King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV was involved in covering up the murder of Australian horse trainer George Brown almost four decades ago.Brown’s incinerated body was found in a burnt out car in bushland near Sydney in 1984. Continue reading...
Leader dogged by poor opinion ratings unexpectedly announces intention to step down after just a year amid anger over Covid responseJapan’s prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, is to step down from his party’s leadership this month amid mounting discontent at his government’s handling of the pandemic.“The battle against the coronavirus takes a vast amount of energy and I don’t feel it is possible to carry on with that and fight the upcoming election for the party leadership,” said Suga in a brief statement to reporters, during which he took no questions. Continue reading...
Unicef says country wants to send its UN-backed allotment of 3m Sinovac shots to other nations, with some experts believing it may want other vaccinesNorth Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered officials to wage a tougher epidemic prevention campaign in “our style” after he turned down some foreign Covid-19 vaccines offered via the UN-backed immunisation program.During a Politburo meeting on Thursday, Kim said officials must “bear in mind that tightening epidemic prevention is the task of paramount importance which must not be loosened even a moment”, the official Korean Central News Agency reported on Friday. Continue reading...
Alexanda Amon Kotey, one of a gang of four IS militants, admits to hostage taking and conspiracy to murder in US courtA British terrorist accused of beheading western hostages for Islamic State has pleaded guilty to multiple charges in a US federal court.Alexanda Amon Kotey, 37, was one of the gang of four IS militants nicknamed “the Beatles” by their captives due to their British accents. Continue reading...
Social media delights in the gaffe of a Movie Max employee at Timaru as a tonic during Covid lockdownAn expletive-ridden voicemail recording, accidentally uploaded by a New Zealand cinema, is giving the nation a dose of cheer as it races to stamp out an outbreak of coronavirus.An employee of Movie Max Cinemas in the South Island port city of Timaru attempted to record a temporary closure voicemail while the region is in a level-3 lockdown, the country’s second-highest setting. Continue reading...
Man’s mother said she had called police on her son when he left home in Auckland after receiving his positive test resultA man who tested positive for Covid-19 before absconding from a quarantine facility in Auckland on Thursday had attempted to escape three times before he was successful, health officials report.New Zealand police arrested the man at a south Auckland address on Thursday afternoon, roughly 10km from the Novotel Ibis hotel in Ellerslie, where he was quarantining. He had been in the community for at least 12 hours at the time of his arrest. Continue reading...
by Charlie Moloney (now), Tom Ambrose (earlier) and R on (#5P2D3)
Bulgaria currently least vaccinated EU country; Taiwan receives delivery organised by tech giants and a charity; likelihood of long Covid in double-jabbed adults who get coronavirus almost half
by Robert Booth Social affairs correspondent on (#5P3QM)
Possession could be criminalised as home secretary vows to ‘take tough action’ on use of laughing gasPossession of nitrous oxide, one of the most popular drugs among 16- to 24-year-olds, could be criminalised after the home secretary ordered experts to review its effects.Priti Patel said she was ready to “take tough action” on the widespread use of laughing gas, which is taken mostly through balloons filled from small metal cylinders often seen littering areas around nightclubs and music festivals. Continue reading...
Chair of commission scrutinising post-Brexit trade deals says ministers must act now to get shelves stocked for ChristmasThe government is being urged to “get a handle” on the supply chain crisis, as the chair of a cross-party commission created to scrutinise the UK’s post-Brexit trade deals said ministers need to act now to avoid empty shelves in the run-up to Christmas.“Red tape and labour shortages from Brexit have exacerbated problems that are being acutely felt across production, processing, manufacturing, retail and of course logistics,” said Aodhán Connolly, who chaired an extraordinary session of the UK Trade and Business Commission, a group of cross-party MPs and business representatives set up as an independent adviser to government in April. Continue reading...
It was an evening when, yet again, England had more than mere footballing problems thrown at them. It started with a hail of plastic cups, first for Raheem Sterling and then Luke Shaw, from the diehard Hungary supporters behind one of the goals, and it escalated to a firework – which was hurled in the wake of Harry Maguire’s header for 3-0.England’s players were celebrating as a group and it was a mighty relief that it missed its target, fizzing for a while before burning out. And then in the closing stages came the low point that everybody had dreaded. Continue reading...
Oscar Isaac is a blank-eyed poker player with a past in Schrader’s latest gathering of lost, tormented soulsPaul Schrader makes films about lost souls in torment and unachievable goals, the sort of bleak existential purgatories that speak to our own uglier moments. Ahead of the Venice press screening of his latest production, an impromptu security cordon makes more than 100 guests late, after which they are only allowed into the cinema in small dribs and drabs - a tense, shuffling progress that extends throughout the film’s opening half-hour. The critics are in uproar; the ushers get lairy. Wherever he is, I imagine that Schrader himself would approve of the show.On screen, The Card Counter provides another stylish, slow-burning account of Schrader’s lonesome samurai, a figure who can crop up in all walks of life: as a taxi driver, an escort, a drug dealer, a priest. On this occasion he’s embodied by a blank-eyed Oscar Isaac, who wears his scuffed leather jacket like a bulletproof vest. William Tell (formerly Tillich) is a veteran of Abu Ghraib and served eight years for his crimes. He now earns a living at the card tables and roulette wheels of middle America. The film has him driving the strip malls at night or prowling the stygian bowels of interchangeable casinos, with their patterned carpets and heavy black drapes. These joints have lights blazing everywhere and yet always appear cloaked in shadow. The gamblers, one worries, bring the darkness in with them. Continue reading...
Musician will be best remembered for scoring the film Zorba the Greek and defiance during military ruleThe renowned Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis, who scored the 1964 classic film Zorba the Greek and was an icon of resistance to the former military junta, has died in Athens, aged 96.A prolific talent and political maverick, Theodorakis was revered in his home country for his inspirational music and defiance during the junta that ruled from 1967 to 1974. Continue reading...
Swedish hitmakers to release album of brand new material in November, and digital avatars will appear in London concert residency in 2022One of the most anticipated comebacks in pop culture has finally come to pass: the return of Abba.Forty years after the bitter songs written in the wake of two band divorces for their last album, 1981’s The Visitors, the Swedish pop quartet have reunited for Voyage, an album of brand new songs that will be released on 5 November – including, they say, a Christmas song. Two tracks from it, the stately and epic ballad I Still Have Faith in You and the shimmying Don’t Shut Me Down, are out now. Continue reading...
Five-year-old dies and six-year-old brother critically ill after undergoing liver transplant near WarsawDoctors at Poland’s main children’s hospital have said a five-year-old Afghan boy, recently evacuated from Kabul, has died and his six-year-old brother, who has undergone a liver transplant, remains in life-threatening condition after they ate poisonous mushrooms.The boys and their older sister fell ill last week after their family picked and ate death cap mushrooms in the forest around the refugee centre where they were staying in Podkowa Leśna, near Warsaw. Continue reading...