Fighting between Rwandan forces and insurgents linked to Islamic State breaks out in Cabo DelgadoForeign troops sent to reinforce local security forces in Mozambique have clashed with Islamist militants for the first time, as the conflict in the east African country moves into a new and potentially dangerous phase.Rwandan soldiers who recently arrived in Mozambique fought a series of engagements against the extremists last week. Few reliable details of the fighting, which took place near Mozambique’s border with Tanzania, have emerged, but officials claim the insurgents suffered dozens of casualties. Continue reading...
Vice foreign minister Xie Feng described relations between the superpowers as a ‘stalemate’ in discussions with US deputy secretary of state Wendy ShermanChina has blamed the US for what it called a “stalemate” in bilateral relations and accused Washington of “demonising” Beijing as high-level face-to-face talks began in the Chinese city of Tianjin.Vice foreign minister Xie Feng urged the US “to change its highly misguided mindset and dangerous policy,” the official Xinhua news agency reported. Continue reading...
Jacinda Ardern said it was the ‘right step’ to allow return of woman and her children from TurkeyNew Zealand has agreed that a suspected member of Islamic State who grew up in Australia can be repatriated from Turkey along with her two young children, a decision prime minister Jacinda Ardern said was “not taken lightly”.The woman was a dual Australian-New Zealand citizen until Australia revoked her citizenship and refused to reverse the decision, prompting a furious response earlier this year from Ardern, who accused Australia of shirking its responsibilities. Continue reading...
Video captures the moment a huge rockfall hit the Sangra valley in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh on Sunday, destroying a bridge, cars and killing at least nine tourists.
World Health Organization has called on government to impose tighter virus curbsIndonesia’s government has said small businesses and some shopping malls can reopen despite warnings that loosening curbs could spark another Covid wave.President Joko Widodo said measures imposed in early July would continue until 2 August as the Delta variant spreads across the country, which has been overtaking India and Brazil as the world’s virus epicentre. Continue reading...
Environment Agency issues five flood warnings across southern England and 19 flood alerts including parts of WalesTorrential rain has flooded roads and tube stations in London after thunderstorms hit the south of England on Sunday.Barts Health NHS trust declared a major incident after the flooding led to problems at Whipps Cross hospital and Newham Hospital in the east of the city. Continue reading...
Allen’s climbing partners were rescued from world’s second highest mountainA Scottish climber has died in an avalanche on K2 as he attempted to take a new route to the summit.Rick Allen was attempting to climb the world’s second highest mountain to raise money for the Partners Relief & Development charity. Continue reading...
Driver reportedly fell asleep on journey between Frankfurt and Pristina, the capital of KosovoAt least 10 people have died after a bus swerved off a highway and crashed in Croatia, police have said.The incident, believed to have happened when the driver fell asleep early on Sunday, has left at least 44 others injured, some seriously. Continue reading...
Edina Olahova, 29, son Raza Haris Ali, 9, and a family friend, Mohammad Asim Raza, 41, were survived by Raza’s sonA man, woman and child have died in Loch Lomond, bringing to six the number of people who have been killed after getting into difficulty in the water in Scotland in 24 hours.Edina Olahova, 29, and her son Raza Haris Ali, nine, died along with a family friend, Mohammad Asim Raza, 41, on Saturday evening. Continue reading...
Parts of London were left waterlogged after heavy thunderstorms on Sunday. The Met Office has issued an amber warning for storms covering London and parts of the home counties where homes and businesses are at risk of flooding, lasting until 7pm on Sunday. Pudding Mill Lane station was under what appeared to be at least a foot of water, and cars were left stranded underneath a bridge in Worcester Park
by Presented by Michael Safi with Nina Lakhani ; prod on (#5MJYH)
Michael Safi hears from Nina Lakhani on how 15,000 Mexicans, including journalists and politicians, appeared on a list of possible targets for surveillanceThis episode first aired on our global news podcast, Today in Focus.In March 2017, a 38-year-old freelance reporter named Cecilio Pineda Birto was shot dead in Altamirano, a town in the southern Mexican region of Tierra Caliente – a battleground for organised crime factions. His phone vanished from the crime scene. A few weeks earlier, a number connected to that phone had been selected as a possible surveillance target by a client of the spyware company NSO Group. Continue reading...
The killing of its president came amid growing violence, poverty and disaffection with politicsOn Friday, Haiti buried its assassinated president, Jovenel Moïse, at a funeral itself marred by unrest, with shots fired outside. The truth about his killing may have gone to the grave with him. Much remains uncertain, and a senior government minister has suggested that the “big fishes” behind it are still at large.But the more important question is what the future holds for a desperately poor, unequal and troubled country. The murder is the latest iteration of a long-running political crisis, in which Haitian elites and foreign powers call the shots while ordinary people suffer. It is a bitter paradox that the people of the world’s first black republic, born of a successful slave revolt, have rarely had a chance to seize their destiny since. Continue reading...
Labour blames Tories for cuts to neighbourhood officers after Boris Johnson unveils policing policiesMinisters have been accused of “hypocrisy that knows no bounds” after Boris Johnson said he would increase efforts to get more police on the street despite having cut the number of frontline officers.The prime minister said the government would “redouble our efforts, to continue to put more police out on the street, and to back them all the way”. Continue reading...
by Justin McCurry at Fuji International Speedway on (#5MJXG)
Host country sets aside its concerns – at least for now – to cheer wins in judo and skateboardingTwo days of Olympic sport in Tokyo have created a moral dilemma for millions of people in the host country who had hoped the day would never come when Japan’s athletes would win their first gold medals of the summer.Having invested so much in opposing the Games, would it then be possible, in good conscience, to take pleasure in the feats of the athletes once they became an inevitability? Continue reading...
The restoration of a Spanish ‘railway cathedral’ reminds us how seductive train travel can beEarlier this month, a 12-metre-long model train carriage was deposited at Barcelona’s El Prat airport, which the Spanish airports authority controversially plans to expand. “More trains, less planes” was the accompanying message from Greenpeace activists, who intend to take their model on a European tour in the coming months.As they do so, a celebratory stop-off at the French-Spanish border might be in order. In a village high in the Pyrenees, Europe’s most stunning railway station is to be restored to its former glory, and the line it majestically served reopened. Completed in 1928, Canfranc international station was conceived as a railway “cathedral” as grand as anything that the world’s greatest cities could offer. Overlooked by mountains, the vast edifice is 240 metres in length and has 365 windows and 156 doors, dwarfing London’s St Pancras; but mere numbers cannot convey the sense of grandeur evoked by its architecture and ravishing setting. Intended to combine in one building the French and Spanish border stations, Canfranc is a moving monument to the internationalist spirit and pride in architectural achievement that marked the golden age of rail. Continue reading...
Following Brazilian swimmer Susan Schnarndorf’s road to the 2016 Games, we see the athlete’s willingness to deal with the impact of multiple system atrophyHere is a film that accomplishes the difficult task of capturing the heroic trials of its subject without overly valorising and mythologising the real person. It is reminiscent of the excellent Time Trial documentary about cyclist David Millar, which ruminated on the turmoil that comes with the waning power of a once exceptional athlete’s body. Here, the struggle is even more heartbreaking, as the film recounts the road to the 2016 summer Paralympics of Brazilian swimmer Susana Schnarndorf, a six-time Ironman Triathlon winner who now suffers from multiple system atrophy (MSA), a rare neurological disorder.Though dealing with a terminal illness, A Day for Susana has a matter-of-fact, fly-on-the-wall approach as it calmly chronicles the two years leading up to the Paralympics where Schnarndorf competed in numerous championships. As MSA affects the human body slowly, causing autonomic and mobility impairments, it proves exceptionally difficult for the 48-year-old Schnarndorf to not only train but to pick the right category to compete in – these latter are divided according to the severity of the disability. As a result, her individual race times change drastically from one year to another. Continue reading...
by Peter Walker Political correspondent on (#5MJW1)
FoI figures from Home Office indicate that nationals of particular countries who commit crimes appear more likely to be removedPeople from Caribbean countries such as Jamaica appear to be disproportionately targeted for deportation from the UK if they commit crimes, according to Home Office data obtained by the Guardian following a year-long freedom of information battle.One pressure group said the high percentage of Jamaican nationals deported was particularly glaring given their greater likelihood of having family ties in the UK, and warned that it could further erode the trust of people affected by the Windrush scandal. Continue reading...
by Lanre Bakare Arts and culture correspondent on (#5MJMH)
Mason, who was a rabbi before turning to comedy, was known for his sharp wit and piercing social commentaryJackie Mason, the rabbi-turned-comedian who was known for his pugilistic, self-deprecating stand-up routines has died at the age of 93.Mason died on Saturday in Manhattan after being in hospital for more than two weeks, the celebrity lawyer Raoul Felder said. Continue reading...
CEO Jacek Olczak says product should be treated like petrol cars, which will be outlawed from 2030The chief executive of tobacco business Philip Morris International has called on the UK government to ban cigarettes within a decade, in a move that would outlaw its own Marlboro brand.Jacek Olczak said the company could “see the world without cigarettes … and actually, the sooner it happens, the better it is for everyone.” Cigarettes should be treated like petrol cars, the sale of which is due to be banned from 2030, he said. Continue reading...
Hungarians joined the annual Budapest Pride march to support LGBTQ people and oppose a law that limits teaching about homosexuality and transgender issues in schools. Organisers said in a statement the rally would show opposition to 'power-hungry politicians' and reject intimidation of LGBTQ people
Latest updates: Sajid Javid sorry for ‘poor choice of words’ after criticism from victims’ families; Indonesia has extended its Covid-19 restrictions by a week
The company’s stand against illegal Israeli settlements is a small but welcome contribution to an ongoing shift in opinionThere is possibly only one thing worse for social justice movements than getting no recognition, and that is getting too much. Over the past few years, the subversive energy of popular movements for equality, whether #MeToo or Black Lives Matter, has regularly been appropriated by corporations.Big businesses tend to have a good nose for trends that could affect their bottom lines, and so move early to show support for whatever fashionable cause has broken through. There is little actual activism going on here. These solidarity shout-outs are a safe, low-cost way both to get ahead of any internal issues that might end up being exposed, and to win over the sorts of customers who make political change part of their consumer habits. But the appearance of change, rather than any seismic shift, is what these corporates seem to prefer. The year since the Black Lives Matter protests has exposed the gap between internal practices and pledges of support for racial equality in many companies, with employees coming out to protest against what they see as tokenistic gestures. Continue reading...
Viewers complain after rights-holder Discovery puts majority of events behind paywallThe BBC has faced a series of complaints about the lack of live Tokyo Olympics coverage on its channels, after viewers failed to realise the International Olympic Committee has sold the majority of UK television rights to pay-TV company Discovery.During the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics the BBC was able to offer dozens of free livestreams of different sports, revolutionising how British viewers watched the games and providing much-needed publicity to niche events that would not normally have enjoyed their moment in the public eye. Continue reading...
Though in later years he fell from fashion, his rabbinical style in early routines felt very much like live comedy’s native tongueIf Jackie Mason could speak to us now, he’d surely be reporting back on the amusing ways in which Jews do the afterlife. But if we’ll never get to hear that particular hot take (“If it’s in the news,” he used to say, “it’s in the show”), in his long career in comedy Mason made sure to cover his people’s every other trait and proclivity. If anyone ever doubted that Jewish America had created standup comedy as we now know it, Mason – born Yacov Moshe Maza – stood as living proof.That’s part of what made his shows compelling long after his opinions curdled and his comedy fell from fashion. The theatres he played in were like Tardises spinning us back to the so-called Borscht Belt of the Catskill mountains in the 1950s, where Jewish America spent its summers laughing at Sid Caesar, Milton Berle, Jack Benny – and Mason himself, who worked as a busboy and a lifeguard there before turning his hand to jokes. He was good at them, so he quit working as a rabbi – a career path followed by his three brothers and all their male forebears – and the rest was comedy history. Continue reading...
The UK has legitimate concerns about the deal, but threatening to tear it up will destroy the trust that’s so vitalTaking responsibility should be the flipside of taking back control. But admissions of responsibility are in short supply in the government document published on the Northern Ireland protocol on Wednesday. According to this, the protocol was the responsibility of (delete according to taste) Theresa May, Hilary Benn or indeed the 2019 parliament. Anyone, in other words, except the people who negotiated it – the prime minister and his chief negotiator, David Frost.The blame shifting should not, however, lead us to ignore the fact that the British government has legitimate concerns about the way the protocol has functioned. Continue reading...
After 40 UK drownings in July, national park says TikTok and Instagram are leading visitors to isolated party spotsDrunk swimming is becoming an “increasing challenge” in the Lake District this summer, a national park spokesman has said, as visitors try to replicate boozy foreign holidays at home.An estimated 40 people have drowned in the UK since the heatwave began on 14 July, triple the normal rate of water deaths, according to the National Water Safety Forum. Continue reading...
Hundreds sign petition after the jobs of Tanya Barson and Pablo Martínez, two senior figures at Macba, are axedA row has broken out in the international art world over the departures of Tanya Barson, the English curator, and Pablo Martínez, the head of programmes, from the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (Macba).The pair departed on 16 July, the day after Elvira Dyangani Ose, the director of the Showroom in London, was appointed as the museum’s new director. Continue reading...
One man has serious injuries and another is in serious condition after shots fired at engagement party in Longsight, say policeA 16-year-old girl was among four people hurt during a shooting at an engagement party in Manchester, police have said.Police were called just after 1am on Sunday following reports of four people arriving at hospital with apparent gunshot wounds. Continue reading...
Former Manchester City midfielder who is now Bristol Rovers boss will appear in court on MondayFormer footballer Joey Barton has been charged with assault by beating after a woman suffered a head injury at a residential address in London.Barton, who is currently manager of League Two club Bristol Rovers, will appear at Wimbledon magistrates court on Monday. It follows an incident at a house in Kew, south-west London, on 2 June. Continue reading...
Around the world, activists are pushing to protect their rivers by giving them legal personhood. Is this just symbolism, or can it drive lasting environmental change?The Magpie River winds majestically through the forests of Quebec for nearly 200 miles. Its thundering ribbon of blue is cherished by kayakers, white-water rafters and the indigenous Innu people of Ekuanitshit. Earlier this year, in a first for Canada, the river was granted legal personhood by local authorities, and given nine rights, including the right to flow, the right to be safe from pollution – and the right to sue.Uapukun Mestokosho, a member of the Innu community who campaigned for the recognition of the Magpie’s rights said spending time on the river was “a form of healing” for indigenous people who could revive their traditional land-based practices that had been abandoned during the violence of the colonial era. “People are suffering a lot, with intergenerational traumas linked to the past,” Mestokosho told CBC. As well as this benefit for people, she said that her ancestors had always protected the Magpie, known as the Muteshekau-shipu, in the past, and a recognition of its rights would help protect it for future generations. Continue reading...
Charities call for more accountability as data shows sharp increase in deaths in last 18 monthsMore than 50 people have died in Home Office asylum seeker accommodation in the last five years, with the number increasing steeply over the past 18 months, the Guardian has learned.Three babies are recorded to have died, as well as three people who died as a result of Covid and four dying by suicide. Some of the deaths were due to health conditions such as heart problems, cancer or stroke. Continue reading...
Request follows discovery of possible human remains in the Pyrenees, near where 37-year-old disappearedFrench police have asked for the dental records of a missing British hiker following the discovery of possible human remains in the Pyrenees, the woman’s mother said.Esther Dingley, 37, had been walking alone in the mountains near the Spanish and French border and was last seen on 22 November. Continue reading...
Only 1.6% of the Guatemalan population has been fully vaccinated, and amid corruption allegations critics are calling on the president to quitThe last time René García spoke with his family, he was having a coffee at home south of the Guatemalan capital last year after receiving an insulin shot that failed to improve his health.Related: Argentina threatens to cancel deal for Sputnik vaccine as Russia fails to deliver Continue reading...
The two countries revived Olympic tradition and former colonial tensions with politically charged gestures• With early coverage of the Games inevitably focused on coronavirus, geopolitical tensions have barely had a look-in. But South Korea and its former colonial ruler Japan are doing their best to revive the Olympic tradition. They have clashed over politically charged banners hanging from the South Korean team’s balconies, while a planned appearance by the country’s president, Moon Jae-in, was abruptly cancelled after a Japanese diplomat in Seoul accused him of “masturbating” over a potential summit with his Japanese counterpart, Yoshihide Suga.• Visiting reporters are unlikely to elicit much sympathy from the Japanese public as they document the coronavirus-shaped hoops they have to jump through to cover events at Tokyo 2020. After all, they are guests in a country where most people would rather they had stayed at home. Continue reading...
Leading radicals are raising their voices against the demand for uncritical backing for the governmentLuis Emilio Aybar is a voice from the left, which in Cuba means pretty far left. By any measure, he should be a stalwart defender of the island’s communist regime. After widespread public protests that two weeks ago roiled the nation, the 34-year-old published an article in the magazine La Tizza, which bills itself as “a space to think about socialism”.After the prerequisite denunciation of the US, he wrote: “What happened on 11 July is also because we communists and revolutionaries do not fight with sufficient force and efficiency the harmful practices of the state. Continue reading...
by Matilda Boseley (now) and Justine Landis-Hanley (e on (#5MJAD)
Scott Morrison confirms extra 85 million Pfizer doses; NSW records 141 new local cases and two deaths, including a woman in her 30s; too soon to tell if Victorian lockdown will end Tuesday as state records 11 new local cases. This blog has now closed
One of 11 children, Séamas O’Reilly was just five years old when his mother died. In an extract from his touching new memoir, he recalls with awful day of her wakeOne thing they don’t tell you about mammies is that when they die you get new trousers. On my first full day as a half-orphan, I remember fiddling with unfamiliar cords as Margaret held my cheek and told me Mammy was a flower. She and her husband, Phillie, were close friends of my parents and their presence is one of the few memories that survive from that period, most specifically the conversation Margaret had with me there and then. “Sometimes,” croaked Margaret in a voice bent ragged from two days’ crying, “when God sees a particularly pretty flower, He’ll take it up from Earth, and put it in his own garden.”It was nice to think that Mammy was so well-liked by God, since she was a massive fan. She went to all his gigs – mass, prayer groups, marriage guidance meetings. She had all the action figures – small Infant of Prague statuettes, much larger Infant of Prague statuettes, little blue plastic flasks of holy water in the shape of God’s own mammy herself. So, in one sense, Margaret’s version of events was kind of comforting. It placed my mother’s death in that category of stories where people met their heroes. Continue reading...
‘David Taylor’ claims hooding, sensory deprivation and waterboarding was to persuade him to cooperate with the CIAA British citizen has claimed he was tortured in Somalia and questioned by US intelligence officers, raising concern that controversial practices of the post-9/11 “war on terror” are still being used.The 45-year-old from London alleges he has endured hooding, sensory deprivation and waterboarding at the hands of the Somali authorities to persuade him, he believes, to cooperate with the CIA. Foreign Office officials are aware of the allegationsof torture and US involvement, but their failure to act has raised questions over UK complicity. Continue reading...
At 81, after years of suffering, Clare Devlin has joined the campaign to stop sex crime against children by revealing her own ordeal at the hands of her celebrated judge parentClare Devlin’s first memory of being sadistically and sexually snared by her father was when she was seven. But she knows that wasn’t the first time it had happened. She remembers a feeling of dread of something already known, a “recognition of feelings of fear and anger and grief”. The abuse continued throughout her childhood and adolescence until she finally found a way to stop the man who was the most powerful person in her universe.Her father, Patrick Devlin, was one of the most celebrated judges in the country. Now Clare is 81 years old and, with her family’s support, she is going public about his behaviour, lending herself to the international movement to stop child sexual abuse. As well as telling her story to the Observer, she has also made a submission to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, which finishes taking evidence in October. Continue reading...
It was billed as a return to freedom, but the week ended with empty supermarket shelves and cancelled trains as many thousand workers – including the PM and chancellor – self-isolated
The fastest woman Britain has ever seen is also thoughtful, inspirational and willing to talk about things that athletes often avoid, like politics and periods. But in the countdown to the Tokyo Olympics, sprinter Dina Asher-Smith knows that every second countsAround 9am local time, this coming Friday, Dina Asher-Smith will crouch on a starting line in Tokyo, ready for her first race of the Olympic Games. Nose this close to the ground, hugger-mugger with the other athletes, the moment will smell to her of skin cream and sweat, also the rubber of the track, a smell that might remind you or me of a playground’s springy surface, but which always makes Asher-Smith think of home. She has been a competitive sprinter since primary school. She started medalling in major 100m and 200m races about the time she was old enough to drive. Now, at 25, she is one of the fastest two or three women alive, and surely Britain’s best hope for athletics gold this summer.On Friday morning, she’ll try to rid her mind of any such expectations. Crouched on the track she’ll place herself in an imaginary bubble, ignoring smells, impressions, sounds, even ready to ignore the echoing pop of the starter’s pistol. Wastes time, Asher-Smith has learned, listening for that. Better to try to feel the gun go and in the very same instant go herself. Ballerina focus will be required, next, to recreate a precise pattern of initial steps that she’ll have planned in advance with her coach. That ought to be the end of any conscious effort on her part. Over the next eight or nine seconds in a 100m race, or the next 20-something seconds in a 200m race, she says: “I shouldn’t really know what the sensations are. I shouldn’t be in a place to be reflective at all. I shouldn’t be feeling, only doing.” Continue reading...