by Presented by Laura Murphy-Oatesand reported by Mos on (#5NEKZ)
The NSW government continues to enforce stricter lockdown measures in 12 local government areas at the centre of Sydney’s Delta outbreak. Operation Stay at Home, launched this week, increases police and ADF numbers and imposes larger fines of $5,000 for breaching public health orders. However, some residents question whether tougher enforcement is the answer.Laura Murphy-Oates speaks to reporter Mostafa Rachwani and NSW Labor MP Jihad Dib about policing, financial support and how this lockdown has left some residents on the verge of a breakdown
by Lisa O'Carroll Brexit correspondent on (#5NEJ4)
Republic and other EU exporters benefit from the UK’s phased 12-month transition for border checksExports from Ireland to Great Britain soared in the first six month after Brexit as imports sent in the opposite direction declined, according to Irish government figures.In a sign of post-Brexit imbalances in trade, the Irish Central Statistics Office (CSO) said goods exports to Great Britain (excluding Northern Ireland) rose by 20% to €6.7bn (£5.7bn) in the first six months of 2021, an increase of more than €1.1bn compared with the same period in 2020. Continue reading...
Almost a million women have left their jobs because of menopausal symptoms. Countless others are discriminated against, denied support and openly mocked. Do they need new legal protections?In 2019, Mara’s weekly performance review meetings grew intolerable; she would sit in a cramped conference room with her supervisors only to be told that she wasn’t performing well enough. “I felt like a child,” says Mara, who is 48, lives in Hampshire and works and works as a public servant. “They would tell me off. They’d say: ‘You won’t meet this deadline, will you? You didn’t put a paragraph in this document.’”A year earlier, Mara had had a hysterectomy, to alleviate her endometriosis. Afterwards, in surgically induced menopause, she began to experience debilitating brain fog, anxiety and depression. “I was drowning,” she says. “I was overwhelmed. I couldn’t see or think.” Doctors prescribed antidepressants and oestrogen gel, but nothing helped. Mara could barely function at work. “I couldn’t retain anything,” she says. “I had no memory. I couldn’t see or think clearly enough to do my work. I had no confidence at all. I thought I was useless.” Continue reading...
In 1961, as a very raw third secretary at the British embassy in Dakar, Senegal, I looked after the first four VSO volunteers sent outside the Commonwealth or colonies. Edward Mortimer was the first, and I took him to St Louis du Senegal, the oldest French settlement in Africa. Situated on the boundary between the Sahel and Sahara regions, it had a rich mixture of French, Creole and Wolof cultures.Mortimer, with his intellectual curiosity and natural warmth, took full advantage of the experience. His fascination with Africa, Islam and France would remain. Continue reading...
Man rejected for official relocation scheme because he was not directly employed by British governmentAn Afghan guard who helped provide security for the British embassy in Kabul has said he fears for his life after being rejected for the official relocation scheme to the UK because he was a contracted employee rather than a direct member of staff.The man, whose name the Guardian is not printing to avoid exposing him to further risk, has been working for more than a year for GardaWorld, which provides security services to the British embassy. His role was to guard the accommodation where the British embassy bodyguards were housed. Continue reading...
The role of DJ Jason Mendoza catapulted the 33-year-old to fame. Now he’s starring with Kidman in Nine Perfect Strangers – and being entranced by Cruise in the Top Gun rebootOn YouTube, you can see Manny Jacinto getting the surprise of his life. During a break from filming, the stars of The Good Place are informed of the smash-hit comedy’s mind-boggling plot twist. Castmate Jameela Jamil covers her face with her hands. William Jackson Harper shouts out loud. Jacinto jerks his head around frantically, as if trying to make sense of this astonishing development purely through the power of repetitive neck movement.“I wish I could bottle up that feeling and have everybody experience it,” says Jacinto wistfully, five years later. “It was incredible.” Fans of the heaven-set sitcom will know what he means: the revelation was up there with the best plot twists of all time (spoiling it would be a crime). Yet for Jacinto the show did far more than pull the rug from under him. Winning the role of nice-but-ridiculously-dim DJ Jason Mendoza sent shockwaves through his entire life, catapulting the 33-year-old from relative obscurity to the kind of stardom that invariably accompanies a Netflix success story. Continue reading...
Dawn Elrick set up an Instagram account for women to share their stories of workplace abuse and bullying in TV and film – and she has been inundatedDawn Elrick had only been working as a runner in the TV industry for a few months when two male assistant producers told her they’d like to spit roast her. She was 22. She didn’t know what spit roasting meant so, that evening, she Googled it. “When I realised what they had said,” says Elrick, who is now 43, and works as a producer in Glasgow, “I felt so horrible.” She dreaded having to go back to work the next day.A few years later, Elrick was working on an entertainment show. A presenter would pull her in for bear hugs, grabbing her buttocks as he did. At the wrap party, he cornered her. “He said that he wanted to come on my face,” Elrick remembers. She did not feel that she could complain to her supervisors. “It was such a busy production,” she says. “Everyone was trying so hard to get through it … No one had the space to deal with it.” Continue reading...
Princess Beatrice is the latest public figure to use new terminology, which many prefer to words such as ‘stepfamily’The wicked stepmother of fairytales and bad films is no more: welcome, instead, to the “bonus” mum, dad and children of the blended families of the 21st century.Princess Beatrice, the Queen’s granddaughter, spoke this week of her “bonus son” after her marriage last year to Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi. Continue reading...
Yes, the pandemic has made it harder to connect with strangers. But, from fitness classes to social media, there are plenty of ways to meet people in a new area – especially if you assume you’re naturally likableFreed from the shackles of the office and the misery of the commute, and with a newfound appreciation for space and air, it may suddenly have seemed as if a new kind of life was possible. Last summer, a few months after the first lockdown, data from Rightmove found searches by city residents looking for village properties had risen by 126%. But for those who took the plunge, leaving behind everything and everyone they know in return for a garden and a spare room, the pandemic has not made it easy to meet people in a new area. With this in mind, here’s some expert advice on how to build a new community. Continue reading...
by Vania Turner, Kyri Evangelou and Katie Lamborn on (#5NE7F)
Shepherd Giannis Tsiboukas, 36, confronts the ‘total destruction’ caused after a wildfire ravaged his land on the island of Evia in Greece. Tsiboukas lost more than 40 animals to the fire that destroyed more than 50,000 hectares. Peoples homes and livelihoods have been decimated.Hundreds of wildfires have torn through Greece this month on the heels of its most severe heatwave in decades, which left its forests tinder dry. Other Mediterranean countries – Turkey, Italy, Algeria and Spain among them – have suffered similar problems.Scientists say there is little doubt that climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas is driving more extreme weather events. Continue reading...
Martin Tugwell says UK government must look at whether to make car use pricier and public transport cheaperThere needs to be an “honest conversation” about making driving more expensive in order to subsidise public transport, according to the new head of the north of England’s strategic transport body.Martin Tugwell, who took over as chief executive of Transport for the North (TfN) earlier this month, is trying to persuade the government to pay at least £30bn to build a transpennine rail line called Northern Powerhouse Rail, as well as HS2 spurs to Manchester and Leeds. Continue reading...
Army says warships, anti-submarine aircraft and fighter planes sent to the south-west and south-east of islandChina has launched live-fire air and sea exercises near Taiwan in response to what it called “external interference and provocations by Taiwan independence forces”.According to a statement from Col Shi Yi, the spokesperson of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theatre Command, warships, anti-submarine aircraft and fighter planes were dispatched to the south-west and south-east of Taiwan on Tuesday. Continue reading...
Warsaw says it will shut down supreme court chamber that Brussels says is a breach of EU lawPoland has told the European Union it will shut down a chamber at its supreme court devoted to disciplining judges, an issue that has been at the heart of a dispute between Warsaw and Brussels.The Polish government said on Tuesday that it had sent a letter to the European Commission on Monday, the deadline for Warsaw to inform the EU’s executive branch of how it would proceed after the EU’s top court said the chamber undermined judicial independence and contravened EU law. Continue reading...
New Zealand will go into a national lockdown on Tuesday night after detecting one case of Covid-19, the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, announced on Tuesday. ‘Delta has been called a gamechanger and it is,’ Ardern said, adding that her government had ‘planned for this eventuality’.
Jesse Vinaccia was jailed for more than eight years over the death of his girlfriend’s son in 2016A man found guilty of killing his girlfriend’s baby son will be allowed to appeal the conviction, after a Victorian court agreed to hear from forensic experts who he says contradict evidence given during his trial.Jesse Vinaccia was found guilty of child homicide and sentenced to eight and a half years’ jail in 2019, in part because of evidence about so-called “shaken baby syndrome”. Continue reading...
by Alessio Perrone and Darren Loucaides on (#5NDZ2)
Understaffed and underpowered, a Brussels taskforce tries to fight a fake news tide that threatens to undermine the union itselfIn April 2020, near the start of the global pandemic, Felix Kartte was working 14-hour shifts as an EU policy officer, struggling to monitor a barrage of coronavirus-linked disinformation.Articles claiming that the pandemic was a hoax, that it was caused by 5G, that it could be cured by hydroxychloroquine or alternative medicine were going viral across the continent – part of a global phenomenon the World Health Organization warned was becoming an “infodemic.” Kartte and colleagues in StratCom, the EU diplomatic service’s strategic communications division, could detect what they say were patterns of Covid-denier and anti-vaxxer disinformation linked to Russia and to a lesser extent China, being disseminated in several languages across Europe. Continue reading...
Two women’s escape from the law takes on racial undertones in a thriller that veers boldly from humorous to harrowingSouth African masculinity does not come off at all well in this off-kilter drama, which pits an improbable number of gender, race and class tensions against each other but remains watchable throughout. Set in the striking, desolate landscape of the Karoo desert outside Cape Town, it’s a Thelma and Louise-like tale of two women on the run from predatory menfolk, although the cop pursuing them is another woman with her own man-related issues. Nobody’s hands are particularly clean.It’s clear from the opening wedding scene between poor, beautiful Natalie (Nicole Fortuin), who is Black, and awkward white cop Bakkies that this is not a match made in heaven. Things don’t improve on their wedding night, which ends in a rape and a killing, with Natalie fleeing the scene on horseback in her blood-stained wedding dress. She seeks sanctuary with her wayward white “sister” Poppie (Izel Bezuidenhout), who is eight months pregnant but still up for some outlaw high-jinks. They are not actually sisters: Natalie’s mother worked as a nanny for Poppie’s, so their relationship is strained from the outset. Continue reading...
The Broadway favourite, who died of complications from Covid last summer, is remembered by his wife and co-starWhen you’re on Broadway and suddenly find out that your show is closing, you feel this wave of sadness. As a cast member, there was nothing you could have done to save it. You didn’t write the script; you didn’t call the shots. You just had to show up, and smile, and dance, and perform, and give it your all every day. Your cast has become like your family, the theatre like your home, and your dressing room like your own personal bedroom in that house, your space filled with photos, cards, and memories. After your last show, you have to take that all down, pack everything into a box, and walk out of the theatre as it goes dark.Related: Nick Cordero: Broadway star dies aged 41 of coronavirus complications Continue reading...
Crescent-shaped landmass 50km south of Minami Ioto could disappear due to erosionThe 6,000-plus islands that make up the Japanese archipelago have a new addition, after scientists said an undersea volcanic eruption 1,200km (745 miles) south of Tokyo had created a new landmass.The island was formed in the Pacific Ocean about 50km south of Minami Ioto, the southernmost island of the Ogasawara group. Continue reading...
Following the Taliban’s military takeover of the country, westerners continue to leave. Afghans hoping to escape Taliban rule have gathered in Kabul, with many making desperate attempts to flee. There was chaos at the airport, where troops used guns and helicopters to clear the runways, and several people died in frantic last-minute attempts to escape by clinging to departing planes
More Britons than ever are flocking to wild places – but you need more than a mobile phone to avoid dangerLast month, I spent five days walking across the Peak District during that wonderful week of searing heat. Along the way, I ran into one tired-looking older gentleman who had no map and a scrounged bottle of water, a group of “lads” with an insufficient tourist map and no plan, and a lady unable to read her map.
A new photo book documents Marvel Harris’s gender reassignment surgery, as well as confronting his struggles with autism and depression Continue reading...
Five years after Willie Kimani’s death, his father is still waiting for a resolution. But as killings continue, cases like his pile up within a crippled justice systemPaul Kinuthia will never forget the moment he saw his son’s body lying on the bank of the river he played in as a child. He threw his hands up in despair and begged God to intervene.It has been five years since Kinuthia’s son, Willie Kimani, a lawyer, was murdered along with his client, Josephat Mwenda and driver, Joseph Muiruri, in Nairobi in June 2016. At the time, Kimani was representing Mwenda in court, after Mwenda had been shot and injured by police. Continue reading...
Despite the risks, Anchana Heemmina wants justice for victims of the Malay Muslims’ decades-old insurgency – and for herselfMuch of Anchana Heemmina’s work involves listening to stories of immeasurable pain, all part of her campaign to stop the cycle of violence that has long haunted Thailand’s troubled southern provinces.Her work striving for human rights and to prevent torture by state authorities has put Heemmina’s life in danger. Continue reading...
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called on the security council to 'use all tools at its disposal to suppress the global terrorist threat in Afghanistan' and guarantee that basic human rights will be respected. Ashraf Ghani left Afghanistan on Sunday as the Taliban took over the country 20 years after they were ousted by a US-led invasion. 'We are receiving chilling reports of severe restrictions on human rights throughout the country,' said Guterres. 'I am particularly concerned by accounts of mounting human rights violations against the women and girls of Afghanistan'.
The task facing the new head of state will be more challenging than 1996. But who is in the running for a governing role?Last time the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan – in 1996 – there was never any question of what form of government they would install and who would rule the country. They were filling a vacuum, and Mullah Mohammed Omar, the reclusive cleric who had led the movement since its beginnings two years earlier, took charge.Then, Kabul was a shattered husk, with a tiny hungry, scared population, almost no economic activity, no telephones and public transport provided by ancient Russian-made cars or 1970s buses once driven from Germany. The Taliban could impose whatever they wanted. Continue reading...
by Vincent Ni, China affairs correspondent on (#5NDNH)
Analysis: Difficult to predict how China will deal with its volatile neighbour, but Uyghur issue could prove contentiousThe US’s hasty departure from Afghanistan has provided much material for China’s propaganda agencies to discredit Washington’s foreign policy. But Beijing is also treading a careful line in navigating an increasingly uncertain security situation in one of its most volatile neighbours.On Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying, said that while Beijing will “continue developing good-neighbourly, friendly and cooperative relations with Afghanistan”, it also urges the Taliban to “ensure that all kinds of terrorism and crimes can be curbed so that the Afghan people can stay away from war and rebuild their homeland”. Continue reading...
The puzzle enthusiast and publisher is credited with turning the grid-based maths problem into a worldwide phenomenonMaki Kaji, a Japanese publisher who popularised the numbers puzzle sudoku played daily by millions around the world, has died from cancer aged 69.A university dropout who worked in a printing company before founding Japan’s first puzzle magazine, Kaji took hints from an existing number puzzle to create what he later named “sudoku” – a contraction of the Japanese for “every number must be single” – sometime in the mid-80s. Continue reading...
New Zealand police are looking for the baby’s mother, saying they are worried she needs ‘urgent medical attention’The body of a baby has been discovered at a recycling facility in south Auckland, New Zealand police have said.The baby, believed to be a newborn, was discovered at the plant in the suburb of Onehunga on Monday evening, detective inspector Scott Beard said in a statement. Continue reading...
Rich guests – including a spaced-out Jennifer Coolidge – rub shoulders with downtrodden workers on a holiday from hell, in Mike White’s superb satire about inequalityThe White Lotus is Big Little Lies with another two and a half turns of the screw – an equally sumptuously set miniseries with a mystery fatality at its heart. But this time, its subject is the monstrousness of affluence rather than mere snobbery.We open with newlywed Shane (Jake Lacy) batting away questions from a friendly couple in an airport departure lounge about where his wife is, as he gazes down at cargo labelled “Human remains” that is being loaded on to their flight. Then we flash back a week to his arrival (with his starry-eyed wife Rachel – Alexandra Daddario) at the exclusive White Lotus spa in Hawaii, as part of a similarly Waspy group of guests. Continue reading...
A lawsuit, filed Friday, alleges the Nobel laureate plied a girl with drugs and alcohol and abused her over six weeks in 1965A new lawsuit alleges that Bob Dylan, the Nobel-winning folk singer-songwriter, plied a 12-year-old girl with drugs and alcohol before sexually abusing her in 1965.The lawsuit alleges that the Times They Are A-Changin’ singer “befriended and established an emotional connection with the plaintiff”, identified in Manhattan supreme court papers, obtained by the Guardian, only as “JC” and groomed her over the course of six weeks in April and May 1965. Continue reading...
Tuesday: Chaos at Kabul international airport as residents attempt to flee. Plus: could we avoid the climate crisis by sleeping for a year?Good morning. Desperate scenes continue in Afghanistan as civilians die attempting to flee the country after the Taliban’s seizure of Kabul. Meanwhile, Australia’s Covid crisis continues to worsen, with more areas in lockdown and fears NSW case numbers could skyrocket.US and other allied troops struggled to reopen Kabul airport after seven people were killed in chaotic scenes as desperate civilians converged on the only route out of the Afghan capital. Videos widely shared on social media showed desperate Afghans trying to cling to a US military plane as it departed Kabul and then falling to their deaths. US president Joe Biden is speaking on the situation in Afghanistan at the White House this morning after bipartisan criticism over his lack of any formal comments on what has been dubbed “the biggest crisis of his presidency”. In the UK, Boris Johnson is under pressure from his own MPs to urgently set up a new resettlement scheme for Afghan refugees while French president Emmanuel Macron said the European Union would be setting up an initiative to thwart the expected arrivals of refugees as divisions over immigration in Europe reopen. Continue reading...
Britain will use all the means at its disposal, including sanctions and diplomacy, to hold the Taliban to account in Afghanistan, foreign secretary Dominic Raab said.In his first public appearance since the crisis began, Raab said that 'everyone was caught by surprise by the pace and the scale of the Taliban takeover', in which Kabul fell to the Islamist group over the weekend. Britain, which had initially committed 600 members of the armed forces to evacuate British nationals and former British staff, will shortly have 900 troops in Kabul.
Case has raised questions about freedom to research Poland’s wartime pastA Polish appeals court has overturned a ruling against two leading Holocaust historians accused of defamation, in a closely watched case that raised questions about the freedom to research Poland’s second world war past.The civil case was brought against Prof Barbara Engelking and Prof Jan Grabowski for a book they co-edited about the complicity of Catholic Poles in the genocide of Jews during Nazi Germany’s occupation of Poland. Continue reading...
Singer earlier denied accusation made by teenager that he had sexually assaulted her while she was drunkThe Chinese-Canadian pop star Kris Wu has been arrested on suspicion of rape in a high-profile case that followed an accusation that the singer had sexually assaulted a 17-year-old while she was drunk and lured young women into sexual relationships.The prosecutor’s office of the Beijing district of Chaoyang said in a one-sentence statement that Wu’s arrest was formally approved but gave no details of the charges. Continue reading...
Police looking into placards seen at demonstrations against Covid health passFrench prosecutors have launched hate speech and incitement of violence investigations into antisemitic banners seen at demonstrations against the country’s coronavirus health pass, which is now required for many daily activities.At recent anti-health-pass demonstrations, protesters have brandished placards featuring syringes forming swastikas, wearing yellow stars or carrying banners bearing the word “Qui?” (who?), which has emerged as the latest antisemitic slogan of the far right and conspiracy theorists. Continue reading...
by Haroon Siddique Legal affairs correspondent on (#5NCXZ)
Aysha Khanom claims discrimination after Leeds Beckett accused her of using ‘racist language’ in tweetsAn academic is suing Leeds Beckett University after she was dropped from her advisory role over tweets calling a mixed-race man a “house negro”, alleging the decision was discriminatory because of her belief in critical race theory and Black radicalism.The university ended its association with the academic adviser Aysha Khanom after accusing her of “racist language” in relation to tweets using the terms “house negro” and “coconut” – the former in a question. Continue reading...
A debut feature written and directed by an Irish peer creates the wintry atmosphere of the best ghost storiesWho knows what this says about industry accessibility, but here’s a rare chance to see a genre movie directed by an actual peer of the realm. Randal Plunkett – 21st baron of Dunsany, interviewed in the Guardian this month – has taken leave from rewilding his estate to turn out a literary chiller about the relationship between a boozy blocked writer and the itinerant waif she takes in after a drunken car shunt. It’s the kind of potential folly that’s meant to have critics sharpening their knives. In fact, while it’s not devoid of first-feature fumbles and stumbles, and carries over the movies’ traditionally wobbly estimation of How Writing Gets Done, The Green Sea’s stronger stretches invoke a wintry atmosphere that suggests Plunkett has spent his leisure time in the library with many of the right ghost stories.The smartest choice was made in the casting, with the deployment of Katharine Isabelle, Canadian star of the Ginger Snaps trilogy. Lending heart and spirit to Plunkett’s troubled scribe Simone, a snarly recluse in death-metal T-shirts that scream “keep your distance”, Isabelle also fosters a credible sisterly bond with newcomer Hazel Doupe; her response to news that her houseguest turned home help is a boyband aficionado proves winningly tart. Continue reading...
Thousands of Afghans and foreign nationals have surged on to the tarmac at Kabul airport trying to get a place on a flight out of the country, amid chaotic scenes that unfolded as the Taliban took control of the city. Fearful that the Taliban may reimpose the brutal rule they enforced before 2001, Afghans are seeking ways out of the country, lining up at cash machines to withdraw their life savings
Israel says its forces came under fire while trying to arrest a suspect, and none of its troops were injuredIsraeli troops have clashed with Palestinian gunmen during a late-night arrest raid in the occupied West Bank, killing four Palestinians in one of the deadliest battles in the area in years, Palestinian health officials said.The incident occurred in Jenin, a city in the northern West Bank where tensions have been high since a man was killed in fighting with Israel earlier this month. Continue reading...
Upending arthouse tropes with musical numbers and lashings of sex, this witty debut about a Peruvian domestic worker refuses to see its heroine as a victimWriter-director María Paz González’s first feature takes a well-worn miserabilist trope out of the arthouse drawer – a domestic worker struggles with homesickness and faces economic inequality – and upcycles it with warmth and wit to make something quite original. It’s even funny and upbeat in its final lap. It’s something of a shock, since so many films about hard-up migrant women who go in search of better lives abroad end up with their protagonists grieving, dead or punished in some other way.It’s hard to imagine Lina (Magaly Solier) would ever let anything like poverty or despair cramp her natural style. Plucky, hard-working and sexy AF, she’s sometimes down but never out. Originally from Peru, where she has left a fast growing-up son with her mother and ex-husband, Lina lives in Santiago, Chile, where she works for a wealthy family, mostly looking after teenage Clara while Clara’s dad is away, as he always is, on business. The two of them have a giggly, conspiratorial bond, more like cousins than employer and employee. When she’s not with Clara, lonely Lina enjoys quick and dirty hook-ups with an assortment of men, as well as daydreaming that she is the star of movie-musical sequences. González films these with aplomb, spoofing Esther Williams one minute, dressing up Lina as a chorus line Virgin Mary the next. Solier, meanwhile, busts out a lovely, expressive singing voice. Continue reading...
Australia sends 250 troops for rescue mission but ex-defence force chief says ‘we’ve just left it far too late’The Australian government has been accused of waiting far too long to organise a military evacuation mission to Afghanistan, as it sends 250 defence force personnel to the region in a last-ditch bid to help people flee the Taliban.Amid shock at the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, the Australian government promised to “continue to work with key partners in the days ahead” to seek the safe passage of more than 130 Australians in the country, along with Afghan nationals who worked alongside its troops and diplomats, and humanitarian visa holders. Continue reading...
The UK defence secretary has admitted 'some people will not get back' as Britain tries to evacuate Afghan allies from Kabul, along with its own citizens, with British forces aiming to repatriate more than 1,000 people a day. Ben Wallace appeared to hold back tears as he spoke to LBC radio about the effort to repatriate Britons and process visas for Afghan interpreters and other staff following the Taliban takeover
by Luke Henriques-Gomes (now) and Matilda Boseley (ea on (#5NC73)
ACT records 19 new Covid cases; snap lockdown for Greater Darwin and Katherine; NSW reports 478 new cases and seven deaths; Victoria records 22 cases, Queensland zero; Operation Stay Home begins across NSW. Follow all the day’s news
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