President of federal disaster relief organisation says she does not expect to find any more survivorsAt least 155 people remain missing a week after record rainfall caused devastating floods in western Germany, as the president of the country’s disaster relief organisation said she “did not expect” rescuers to find any more survivors.“We are currently still searching for missed ones as we are clearing debris or pumping out cellars,” said Sabine Lackner of the federal agency for technical relief, a volunteering organisation belonging to the German ministry of the interior. Continue reading...
My friend Joachim Auerbach, who has died aged 93, was a refugee from Nazi Germany who built a full life from difficult circumstances. He continued to Morris dance well into his 80s and loved hill-walking.Joachim was born to Felix Auerbach, a lawyer, and his wife, Lisbeth (nee Adler) in Berlin. Theirs was an educated family of lawyers and rabbis. Continue reading...
Losing world heritage status has shone a light on the city’s redevelopment from maritime metropolis to pound-shop Shanghai, plagued by allegations of bribery and corruption
Closest aides and friends of emir’s ex-wife also began to appear on database as she moved to the UKAs her plane touched down in April 2019, Princess Haya bint al-Hussein, who was accompanied by her two children, might have hoped she was beyond the reach of her ex-husband, the emir of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum.Similarly, when he commenced custody proceedings in the high court of justice the following month, she might have imagined that the dispute would be settled in a courtroom, purely on the basis of its legal merits. Continue reading...
by Lisa O'Carroll Brexit correspondent on (#5MEA3)
Trading arrangements continue to be a significant flashpoint in relations with Dublin and BrusselsJust seven months after it came into force, the Northern Ireland protocol is proving once again a significant flashpoint in the UK’s relations with Dublin and Brussels.On Wednesday, the UK published a “command paper” on the protocol. Some will see it as an attempt to tear up the agreement Boris Johnson struck in 2019, others will see it as a serious attempt to fix a deal they argue was flawed from the beginning but signed to help the British prime minister to get Brexit done, as he had promised. Continue reading...
Notes left on defaced Manchester mural will be removed to protect from rain, amid plans for digital exhibitionThousands of messages left on the mural of footballer Marcus Rashford in Manchester will be removed and preserved on Friday, to protect them from forecasted rain this weekend.A team of archivists and conservators will detach the tributes so they are preserved for future generations to mark the national moment of solidarity that followed the mural being defaced and a torrent of racist abuse was targeted at the player on social media, as well as England teammates Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho. Continue reading...
Colombian horror about a micro-cult is rather too fascinated by the barbarity of its leader, rather than the daughters he has hidden from the worldThis bold and disturbing arthouse horror from first-time feature director Juan Diego Escobar Alzate feels like it could be set sometime in the 19th century. It’s about a tiny religious cult based in the wildly beautiful Colombian mountains: the group’s leader is El Señor (Conrado Osorio), a farmer who looks like a cowboy in the Clint Eastwood mould, with a macho growl; his trio of daughters wear frontier prairie dresses. But we must be closer to the present day: in an early scene the eldest, 23-year-old Laila (Andrea Esquivel), brings him a 1980s cassette player that she has found in the woods and she is spellbound by this unknown contraption. El Señor says the devil lurks inside.It’s an intriguing set-up, and cinematographer Nicolás Caballero Arenas shoots the lush landscape through what looks like a trippy filter; blazing sunsets and garish rainbows give the film a quasi-fairytale, almost surreal feel. El Señor has raised his daughters in total ignorance of the world outside their community of a dozen or so. But the film is depressingly thin on the women; often it seems more interested in arranging them in arty tableaux than investigating the way that isolation has shaped their personalities and how they see the world. The wafty Terrence Malick-ish voiceover written for Laila doesn’t exactly fill in the psychological gaps. Continue reading...
Attacks by supporters of jailed former president ‘are bid for pardon or to unseat government’South African authorities fear a new wave of attacks aimed at undermining the economy, investment and the rule of law as networks loyal to former president Jacob Zuma seek to force his return to power.Investigators believe the unrest last week, which killed more than 200 and caused massive damage across a swath of the country, was deliberately provoked as part of a broader strategy by political opponents to force president Cyril Ramaphosa to pardon Zuma or even step down. Continue reading...
Pavel Durov, who built reputation on creating unhackable app, selected by NSO client governmentAmid the varied cast of people whose numbers appear on a list of individuals selected by NSO Group’s client governments, one name stands out as particularly ironic. Pavel Durov, the enigmatic Russian-born tech billionaire who has built his reputation on creating an unhackable messaging app, finds his own number on the list.Durov, 36, is the founder of Telegram, which claims to have more than half a billion users. Telegram offers end-to-end encrypted messaging and users can also set up “channels” to disseminate information quickly to followers. It has found popularity among those keen to evade the snooping eyes of governments, whether they be criminals, terrorists or protesters battling authoritarian regimes. Continue reading...
by Jamie Grierson Home affairs correspondent on (#5MEBR)
Tory MP criticises home secretary over £55m deal with France to double number of patrols off its coastHanding £55m to French authorities to clamp down on migrants crossing the Channel in small boats is “throwing good money after bad”, the home secretary has been told by a Conservative colleague as she was grilled by MPs.Priti Patel revealed late on Tuesday that she had agreed to pay the sum as part of a deal with the French interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, to double the number of officers patrolling the French coast. Continue reading...
Prime minister announces referendum on ‘child protection’ three days before Budapest Pride marchHungary’s far-right prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has announced that his government will hold a nationwide referendum on “child protection”, a euphemism for parts of a recent law widely condemned as discriminatory that bans any portrayal of LGBT people in materials meant for children.“LGBTQ activists visit kindergartens and schools and conduct sexual education classes. They want to do this here in Hungary as well,” said Orbán in a Facebook video statement placed on Wednesday. Continue reading...
The striking vocalist Brother Resistance, who died this month, started a politically powerful hybrid of hip-hop and soca that opened new possibilities in Caribbean musicYou would expect a song called Dancing Shoes to celebrate the unfettered joy of a good boogie, but Network Rapso Riddum Band’s 1981 track did quite the opposite. Lead vocalist Brother Resistance – whose death on 13 July sent shockwaves through the Caribbean music community – used Dancing Shoes to castigate his fellow Trinidadians for embracing foreign forms such as disco, delivering caustic lyrics in a flow laden with preacherly indignation.The song heralded the arrival of a new hybrid sound in Trinidad and Tobago – one that hasn’t had quite the global impact of dancehall, reggae or other Caribbean styles but which is the source of some of its most fascinating and political music, dubbed “rapso” for its melding of rap and soca. Continue reading...
by Josh Halliday North of England correspondent on (#5ME7J)
UN body says years of development have caused ‘irreversible loss’ to historic value of Victorian docksLiverpool has been stripped of its coveted world heritage status after Unesco blamed years of development for an “irreversible loss” to the historic value of its Victorian docks.The UN’s heritage body concluded at a meeting in China on Wednesday that the “outstanding universal value” of Liverpool’s waterfront had been destroyed by new buildings, including Everton football club’s new £500m stadium. Continue reading...
In Netflix’s dating show, contestants dress as animals, insects, demons and dinosaurs – so they’re not chosen for their looks. The results are so screamingly awful, you’ll end up weeping into your sofaSometimes I think it makes sense as a covert government anti-Covid strategy (now that they’ve given up on overt, data-driven, scientifically sanctioned ones): give the public a new dating show in which people are done up as figures from a plushy fetishist’s (look it up, I don’t have time to explain everything) malarial dream. This will keep them spellbound with delight, or weeping silently into the sofa at the thought that the western civilisation we once hoped for is over. But, either way indoors, alone, spreading nary an airborne droplet to the young and vulnerable.I believe it to be a multi-pronged public health strategy. First they softened us up with last week’s Apocalypse Wow on ITV2, which left the nation staring bleakly past its television screens into an unknowable future that seemed suddenly not to brim with overwhelming possibility for humanity and its endeavours. Now there is Netflix’s Sexy Beasts, a reworking of a BBC show from 2014 with no other possible justification. What comes next, I cannot imagine. After a nugatory attempt, the mind quails and halts, unwilling to go further. Thus, do I fight to explain the advent of this monstrosity into our lives. Continue reading...
What does a 163% surge in demand for red hair dye tell us about the way Marvel’s latest, and star Scarlett Johansson, have been marketed and received?If you happen to see an unusually large number of women with red hair today, do not be alarmed. We haven’t been invaded by vikings again, nor is there a Nicola from Girls Aloud convention happening in your vicinity. There is a perfectly reasonable explanation for the sudden outbreak of redheads, and it is that Black Widow was recently released.According to the website Justmylook, there has been a 163% spike in demand for the colour since the release of Black Widow, presumably because lots of people sat through two hours and 14 minutes of a film about a woman grappling with the psychological torment of knowing she was part of a Soviet military programme that brainwashed, sterilised and murdered hundreds of abandoned girls, only to think: “Ooh, I bet I’d look lovely with her hair.” Continue reading...
Swiss court ruling is not the first time plunder of DRC’s mineral wealth has been linked to the killing of Congolese people. Without accountability, it won’t be the lastAccording to the Swiss federal criminal court last week, the corruption destroying the Democratic Republic of the Congo – where devastating conflicts over minerals used in our electronics have killed more than six million people – is inextricably linked to the UK, Gibraltar and Switzerland.It was a significant moment exposing corruption that has fuelled not only grinding poverty, famine and unemployment in DRC but also the impunity and violence required to sustain it. Yet, unless there is accountability, it won’t change. Continue reading...
Footage shows water filling carriages in Zhengzhou metro system, trapping people insideAs flood water swirled around their chests, passengers on the Zhengzhou metro carriage clung to the handrails and struggled to breathe in the diminishing space between them and the roof. Some felt faint, and one woman was heard calling family members to give them banking and other information in the apparent fear she might not see them again.Across Chinese digital and social media, horrifying stories have spread of people trapped in floods caused by what authorities said was a once-in-a-millennium rain event that hit the province of Henan, prompting the highest level of weather warning. Continue reading...
Councillor says many will be unable to vote due to Covid rules, with deadline for absentee ballots passedHundreds face being excluded from elections in the Isle of Man because of a lack of contingency plans for those self-isolating, it was claimed on the eve of polling.Elections are due to take place in a third of the Isle of Man’s local authorities on Thursday, having been postponed twice due to Covid-19 restrictions. Continue reading...
Italian government earmarks €5m to help villages get rid of volcanic cinders from erupting volcanoDozens of Sicilian towns face bankruptcy due to the cost of cleaning up the volcanic ash left by Mount Etna, which has been erupting regularly since February.The Italian government on Monday allocated €5m to compensate several villages struggling to pay to get rid of the volcanic cinders, the cost of which can reach more than €1m with every eruption. Continue reading...
Government team to investigate ‘policy changes’ on cyber exports following NSO revelations, according to Israeli mediaIsrael’s government is reportedly setting up a task force to manage the fallout from Pegasus project revelations about the use of spying tools sold to authoritarian governments by the Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group.A team including representatives from the defence ministry, ministry of justice, foreign ministry, military intelligence and the Mossad, the national intelligence agency, is poised to conduct an investigation into whether “policy changes” are needed regarding sensitive cyber exports, several Israeli media outlets reported on Tuesday night, quoting unnamed officials. Continue reading...
by Lisa Cox (now) and Michael McGowan and Matilda Bos on (#5MDPS)
PM’s office says CMO prefers only vaccinated reporters attend today’s press conference; New SA cases linked to potential super-spreader events; NSW records 110 local cases; Victoria records 22 local cases overnight
With a third of the state’s close contacts located outside Melbourne, anxiety is mounting over long testing lines, lack of surge workforce and limited vaccine supply
Police appeal for rider, who stopped and apologised to girl’s mother after incident, to come forwardA three-year-old girl has been left with “life-changing” injuries after being hit by a man riding an e-scooter in south London, police have said.The incident happened in Myatt’s Fields Park, Lambeth, at about 8.30pm on Monday. She had been in the park with her family when the collision happened, and was taken to a south London hospital by her relatives. Continue reading...
Oxford University researchers urge people to reduce consumption by three-quarters or give it upEating processed meat raises the risk of heart disease by a fifth, according to the largest ever analysis of research into the impact of meat consumption on cardiac health.Researchers at the University of Oxford are urging the public to cut their red and processed meat consumption by three-quarters, or to give it up entirely, to lower their risk of dying from coronary heart disease. Continue reading...
The latest in our series of writers sticking up for maligned movies is a defence of the Arnie-free alien sequelPredator is a bona fide classic of science fiction. Predator 2 is, by most accounts, utter trash – one of countless sequels from the late 80s and early 90s that live in the shadow of their predecessor. Yet such is the way that the predator has been tarnished by almost every film that has come since, Predator 2 stands up as one of the creature’s best outings. Stephen Hopkins’s film stands up well to repeat viewings and is far less dumb than it first appears. It has its dumb moments but still has more brains behind the brawn than it receives credit for.Related: Hear me out: why Gnomeo & Juliet isn’t a bad movie Continue reading...
Across the UK, there are long waiting lists for a beach hut – and prices go up and up. A day on Hove promenade reveals why they are so popular and the problems that persist (mainly locks)Everyone who meets Bonny Holland says the same thing: she really loves beach huts. “Bonny posts in our Facebook group about four times a day,” says the Hove and Portslade councillor Robert Nemeth, who founded the Hove Beach Hut Association. “I have to approve the posts.”Inside Holland’s beach hut, the 62-year-old retired headteacher keeps a double-ring stove, a frying pan, a griddle pan, graffiti removal wipes, and, best of all, a loo. “You sit on this,” Holland says merrily, unfolding a portable toilet seat for my benefit, “and go in here.” Continue reading...
by Damian Carrington Environment editor on (#5MDZY)
Both spend similar amounts of money but men use cars much more, Swedish analysis showsMen’s spending on goods causes 16% more climate-heating emissions than women’s, despite the sum of money being very similar, a study has found.The biggest difference was men’s spending on petrol and diesel for their cars. The gender differences in emissions have been little studied, the researchers said, and should be recognised in action to beat the climate crisis. Continue reading...
Judge criticises immigration department for being ‘missing in action’ and not investigating visa status of victimA woman who has shown no remorse, regret or sorrow for holding another woman captive as a slave for eight years in Melbourne has been sentenced to a jail term of the same length.Kumuthini Kannan was found to be more morally culpable than her husband, Kandasamy Kannan, who was described in court as being susceptible to a degree of domination by his wife and having a weak character. Continue reading...
by Martin Chulov Middle East correspondent on (#5MDY8)
Analysis: War may be winding down, but with Assad in charge for seven more seven years the country remains splinteredStanding on a podium on Saturday to take an oath of office, Bashar al-Assad declared himself the only man who could rebuild Syria.His first foreign guest, China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, seemed to enhance his claim, endorsing the president’s win in a May poll described by Britain and Europe as “neither free nor fair” and laying a marker to help get the job started. Continue reading...
Three decades after leaving Bougainville as the island descended into civil war, the mining giant will assess impact of its former mineThirty-two years since it fled Bougainville island, Rio Tinto has promised to fund an independent assessment of the ongoing environmental damage caused by its Panguna mine, a move landowners have welcomed as “a start” towards repairing decades of contamination.The mining giant has committed to a multi-million dollar “environmental and human rights impact assessment” of its former copper and gold mine in Panguna, which was the flashpoint for Bougainville’s decade-long civil war. Continue reading...
Time could be running out for killer whale named Toa, who has charmed the nation but depends on round-the-clock care to stay aliveWhen Toa, the orphaned baby orca, sees food coming he sticks his large pink tongue out of his wide gummy mouth in happy anticipation. He gurgles and belches as he hungrily tugs at the specially designed latex teat. Four volunteers in wetsuits and beanies cradle him and coo that he is “a good boy” as he feeds. When he is done, he rolls over, revealing his cream white skin, and nudges a volunteer for a belly rub. If they dare stop, he nudges them again. When he is excited he zooms about his holding pool, playing with the volunteers, and when a large tentacle-like piece of kelp is heaved into the water, he snuggles under it, as though it were a blanket, or the protective weight of his missing mother.The young calf, thought to be between two and six months old, became stranded in the rocks near Plimmerton, north of Wellington 10 days ago with minor injuries. Continue reading...
Diplomat warns of law breach as Turkish president promotes two-state solution for island and scheme for abandoned town VaroshaThe EU’s foreign policy chief has criticised Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, for his statements while reopening the town of Varosha in Cyprus.On Tuesday the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said plans announced by Erdoğan and the Turkish Cypriot leader, Ersin Tatar, to further open the former resort, abandoned since Ankara’s invasion of the island in 1974 and viewed as a ghost town, constituted an “unacceptable unilateral decision”. Continue reading...
A heatwave in one of the world’s coldest regions has sparked forest fires and threatened the Siberian city of Yakutsk with an 'airpocalypse' of thick toxic smoke, atmospheric monitoring services have reported.Local authorities have warned the 320,000 residents to stay indoors to avoid choking fumes from the blazes, which are on course to break last year’s record.Officials have described this summer’s weather as the driest in the past 150 years
Court told Lulu Lakatos posed as gem expert to steal seven diamonds from Boodles in Mayfair, LondonA woman stole diamonds worth £4.2m from a luxury London jewellers’ by posing as a gem expert and swapping them for garden pebbles in a highly sophisticated heist, a court has heard.Lulu Lakatos allegedly posed as a gemologist and pretended to examine and value seven diamonds at the Boodles showroom on New Bond Street in Mayfair, central London. Continue reading...
by Aubrey Allegretti Political correspondent on (#5MDCQ)
BBC interview reveals people decided Johnson was unfit to be PM within weeks of 2019 election victoryBoris Johnson’s closest aides decided he was unfit to be prime minister within weeks of his 2019 election victory and began plotting to oust him, Dominic Cummings has claimed.In his first TV interview since quitting as one of the most senior advisers in No 10, Cummings levelled repeated criticism of his former boss, saying aides feared Johnson had no plan to run the country and was only obsessed with “stupid” infrastructure projects. Continue reading...
Canstruct has been awarded another ‘limited tender’ contract from the government, but company says it follows ‘all commonwealth procurement guidelines’Canstruct International, the Brisbane company and Liberal party donor running Australia’s offshore processing regime on Nauru, has won another uncontested contract extension – $180m over six months – bringing its total revenue from island contracts over the past five years to more than $1.5bn.There are 108 people held on Nauru under Australia’s offshore processing regime. It costs Australian taxpayers more than $8,800 every day for each person held on the island, or $3.2m a person each year. Continue reading...
The Queensland capital wants the world to know how far it has come, with the IOC set to confirm winning Olympic Games bid on WednesdayThe last time Brisbane bid to host the Olympic Games, many locals still referred to the place as “a big country town”.The Queensland capital’s opponents to host the 1992 games argued the city was too small and unknown. There are few similar doubts this time around, as Brisbane is set to be anointed host of the 2032 Olympics. Continue reading...
Party leaders hope public will draw its own conclusions from last week’s catastrophic floodsIt was a slogan that cut to the chase: “Everybody is talking about Germany. We talk about the weather.”The provocative message – itself an inversion of the title of an essay by Red Army Faction terror group founder Ulrike Meinhof (“Everybody talks about the weather. We don’t”) – was at the heart of the West German Green party’s 1990 election campaign, but has rarely felt more relevant than today as catastrophic floods in western Germany have brought extreme weather events to the centre of the national debate little more than two months before federal elections. Continue reading...
by Bethan McKernan Middle East correspondent on (#5MCTV)
Naftali Bennett hits back at Unilever after subsidiary stops selling ice-cream in occupied territoriesThe decision by Ben & Jerry’s to stop selling its ice-cream products in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem has been met with fierce criticism from the Israeli political establishment, including a warning from the prime minister, Naftali Bennett, that the decision will have “serious consequences” for Ben & Jerry’s and its parent company, Unilever.The announcement from the ice-cream maker, which has also taken political stances on the climate crisis and social justice issues such as Black Lives Matter, is one of the highest-profile rebukes of Israeli settlement building to date by a well-known brand. Continue reading...
After 17 years of setbacks, it is hoped Intempo skyscraper will help transform resort into Miami of the MediterraneanTo some it is a grotesque eyesore, to others, a key step on the road to transforming Benidorm into the Miami of the Mediterranean.In any case, after 17 years of setbacks, the gargantuan Intempo skyscraper has finally been completed. At 187 metres, it is the tallest apartment building in the European Union. Its twin towers also boast Spain’s fastest lift, which rises at a rate of 4.2 metres a second and can reach the top floor in 52 seconds. Continue reading...
Col Assimi Goïta escapes unharmed after incident during Eid al-Adha celebrations in BamakoA man has tried to stab Mali’s transitional president, Col Assimi Goïta, during Eid al-Adha celebrations at the Grand Mosque in Bamako.Witnesses said the incident happened after the imam went to slaughter sheep at the mosque in the capital. One man with a knife and another with a gun participated in the attack, the witnesses said. Continue reading...
A screwdriver and a torch, tools of a nocturnal trade, carried to altar at funeral of Dean MaguireFather Donal Roche called it the most disturbing funeral he has ever attended, a homage to a life of crime played like a scene from The Sopranos.Dean Maguire, 29, an Irish burglar with more than 25 convictions, had died in fiery motorway crash and mourners decided to give a memorable farewell. Continue reading...
This imaginative and unique Ivorian tale blends modern-day thriller dynamics with older storytelling traditionsThe Maca prison, outside Abidjan, is a world with its own codes and rules, we are told, and this imaginative, energetic Ivorian drama follows suit, blending modern-day thriller dynamics and fluid handheld visuals with older storytelling traditions to produce something unique and locally specific. As well as a testament to the power of storytelling to transcend the grimmest of circumstances, it could also be read as a commentary on Ivory Coast’s own war-torn, postcolonial reality.The prison in question feels more like a slum than a penitentiary. Rather than being locked in cells, the inmates seem to have free run of the place, while armed guards observe nervously from behind barricades. According to Night of the Kings, the true ruler of the Maca is an inmate named Blackbeard (Steve Tientcheu, last seen in Ladj Ly’s Les Misérables). But he is dying and others are vying to take his place, which means a violent power struggle is imminent. Into this volatile situation arrives a timid young man (Bakary Koné) who, for reasons he cannot fathom, is nominated “Roman”, or storyteller. “When the red moon comes out tomorrow night you must tell us stories,” Blackbeard commands him. Roman realises his own survival, and the prison’s stability, depend on his ability to spin a yarn, Scheherazade-like, through the night till dawn. Continue reading...