Call comes as outrage over Covid and corruption drags president’s ratings to lowest ever levelOne of Brazil’s leading conservative newspapers has demanded the removal of the country’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, as public outrage over his coronavirus response and corruption dragged the rightwing populist’s ratings to their lowest ever level.“Jair Bolsonaro is no longer in a position to remain in the presidency,” O Estado de S Paulo (the State of São Paulo, or Estadão) declared on Sunday as polls showed that for the first time a majority of citizens backed impeachment and considered their leader incapable of governing. Continue reading...
Government accused of ‘culpable passivity’ after dozens of journalists were attacked covering Pride protestA Georgian TV cameraman has died after being badly beaten by far-right assailants during a protest against an LGBTQ Pride march, his station said on Sunday, as pressure mounts on authorities over attacks on journalists.Alexander Lashkarava, a 37-year-old cameraman working for the independent station TV Pirveli, was found dead in his bed in the early hours on Sunday, the channel reported. Continue reading...
by Jamie Grierson Home affairs correspondent on (#5M2WM)
Health board in south Wales calls for users to take extreme care after 12 overdose cases in four daysA man has died after a spate of drug overdoses in Swansea over the last four days, a health board has said.There have been 12 overdose cases in the area in south Wales since Wednesday, prompting warnings from Swansea Bay University health board over the dangers of taking drugs. Continue reading...
Agustín Ibarrola’s 1977 version was painted as part of campaign to get the original returned from New YorkThe grief-snapped mother is still there, cradling her dead child 84 years on, as is the fallen soldier with his stigmata and the horse with its silent screams.However, the Guernica now on its way to a museum in the Basque country is not Pablo Picasso’s monochrome howl of anti-fascist fury but a retelling of the work intended to help bring the original to the market town whose agonies beneath waves of German and Italian bombers inspired its creation – and to denounce the subsequent horrors of the Franco dictatorship. Continue reading...
Haitian president whose five-year rule was mired in allegations of corruption and brutalityThe five-year rule of the Haitian president Jovenel Moïse, who has died aged 53 after being assassinated at his home, was dominated by allegations of corruption and brutality. At the time of his death there was a dispute about the handover of power, and Moïse, who last year had dissolved the country’s parliament, was essentially running Haiti by decree, much as Napoleon had done more than 200 years before.In 2016, Moïse inherited a country still trying to recover from the 2010 devastating earthquake as well as Hurricane Matthew, which had hit just a month before. However, under his presidency, Haitians endured worsening living standards, including rampant unemployment, in a nation where more than half the population live below the poverty line. Inflation spiralled upwards and food and fuel became scarcer. Continue reading...
Masks will still be 'expected' in indoor, enclosed places when most remaining Covid restrictions are lifted later this month, Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccines minister, says in a toughening up of rhetoric amid concerns about soaring infection rates. He says the move to the final stage of reopening from 19 July is responsible, adding that data shows that an eight-week interval between vaccine doses offers additional protection
Here are the current coronavirus hotspots and Covid-19 public exposure sites in Sydney and regional New South Wales, and what to do if you’ve visited them. Our analysis and map shows where Covid cases are increasing, and a live data update tracks the daily case numbers in NSW
Looting in former president’s home province of KwaZulu-Natal spreads to economic hub of JohannesburgShops were looted overnight and a section of the M2 highway was closed in Johannesburg on Sunday as violence following the jailing of the former South African president Jacob Zuma spread to the country’s main economic hub.Violence had mainly been concentrated in Zuma’s home province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), where on Wednesday night he began a 15-month sentence for contempt of court. Continue reading...
‘Moral victory’ claimed by veterans’ lawyers as Ministry of Defence grants indefinite leave to remainA group of Fijian-born soldiers who sued the government after being classified as illegal immigrants have been granted leave to remain in the UK, despite losing their legal battle against the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Home Office.Seven of the group, who claimed they were the victims of serious and systemic administrative mistakes because they were not properly advised on how to claim the right to stay legally in the UK after completing their service, have now been granted indefinite leave to remain, and a final applicant is expected to receive the status imminently. Continue reading...
Dearth of delivery drivers, abattoir staff and fruit pickers caused by Covid and Brexit are fuelling wage rises with 5% hike in prices forecastFood prices could rise by about 5% by the autumn – and turkeys and pigs in blankets could be in short supply this Christmas – as shortages of delivery drivers, abattoir staff and other workers drive up pay and other costs.Industry insiders say that pay for lorry drivers and other supply chain workers, including abbatoir workers, plus vegetable and fruit pickers and packers have all risen because of difficulties in finding sufficient staff. Continue reading...
by Lisa O'Carroll Brexit correspondent on (#5M2RB)
Europe’s strictest border controls to be relaxed as Ireland prepares to allow visits for essential reasonsUp to 400,000 Irish people in Britain are to be given the green light to visit family and friends at home for the first time in six months as Ireland prepares to lift the strictest border controls in Europe.Only those with essential reasons such as haulage, health or funeral attendance have been allowed to enter the country since the border restrictions were imposed in January. Continue reading...
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation among organisations picking up some of bill for health projectsA group of global philanthropists, including Bill Gates, have pledged £93.5m to help cover the shortfall left by the UK government’s cuts to foreign aid.After the government cut funding by about a third in the autumn spending review, many “critical” projects have stalled or been put at risk. Continue reading...
A voice recording on Martine Moïse’s Twitter page accuses enemies of trying to stop democratic changeThe widow of the murdered Haitian president Jovenel Moïse has accused shadowy enemies of organising his assassination to stop democratic change, as a struggle for power intensified in the Caribbean nation.Haiti has been reeling since Moïse was gunned down early on Wednesday at his home in the capital, Port-au-Prince. Martine Moïse, who was wounded in the attack, said her husband was targeted for political reasons. Continue reading...
Eight-hour series about Nursultan Nazarbayev criticised for stoking cult of personality of 30-year rulerOliver Stone has interviewed Kazakhstan’s former president Nursultan Nazarbayev for a new eight-hour film series which has been attacked as a hagiography that contributes to the leader’s cult of personality.In the film, Qazaq: History of the Golden Man, Stone employs the same non-confrontational approach to interviewing autocrats that has made him a favourite of Vladimir Putin, Ukraine’s former president Viktor Yanukovych and others seeking to polish their reputations by sitting down with the Oscar-winning director of Platoon and JFK. Continue reading...
Iraqi special forces hunt Isis in lowlands south of Kirkuk, where the militants keep on the move, seeking to regain territorial controlA long convoy of humvees, trucks and troop carriers moved slowly through the countryside to the south of the city of Kirkuk, ferrying dozens of Iraqi special forces. Their target was a string of hideouts used by Islamic State militants in the rough terrain of hills and lowlands crisscrossed by canals and long-dried seasonal river gullies, or wadis as they are called in Arabic.In the lead vehicle sat the commanding officer, a young lieutenant-colonel, Ihab Jalil, with a clipped moustache and hazelnut-coloured eyes. He charted the routes of the convoy on his tablet. At the same time, switching between three radio sets, he talked to the pilots of two helicopters that circled over the convoy, scouting the road ahead. Continue reading...
A great teacher can change a child’s life. As this school year ends, we ask cultural figures including Charles Hazlewood and Kerry Hudson to remember a teacher who inspired themSo, it’s July. Finally. The UK is half-way through the summer of sport and, in schools up and down the country, teachers, classroom assistants, pupils, students and their parents are starting to believe the finishing line is in sight. No matter that there are still sports days to be negotiated, end of term assemblies and awards’ days, leavers’ proms or tea parties. For those whose children are staying on, the moment of learning if your child has got the form teacher that they (or you) wanted for next year, or if they’ll be in the same class as their best friends. From reception and infant school, primary to secondary, it’s a timetable that has altered little since the 1960s and 1970s when I was at school. Taking all the posters down from the walls, emptying lockers and desks, marks on the walls and dust. The slightly melancholy atmosphere of corridors suddenly empty, of another year over. I remember the texture of those last goodbyes, the making of a card for the teacher or a present. Nowadays, these leave-takings are commercialised – printed cards, special gifts, beautiful biscuits or baskets of flowers. Then, it was more homespun but, as the daughter of a teacher, the wife of a teacher, the daughter-in-law of a teacher I know how much those moments mean.This year, more than any year, teachers deserve our thanks. It’s too soon to know the true cost of the pandemic on students’ and teachers’ mental health, but it’s clear that the lack of clarity, the incompetence and mismanagement of examinations, the bias and the appalling lack of knowledge shown by government about the majority of children and young people’s experiences of education, have had a profound effect on attainment, on confidence, on a generation’s love for learning. And all the time, from those first uncertain days in March 2020 to this imminent end of term in July 2021, teachers have been on the front line – trying to support pupils, to teach students, to decipher the mixed messages coming from politicians and local authorities, withstanding unwarranted and ill-informed attacks from sections of the media. Because, in the end, teachers have done their best to keep things going for the students in their care, in spite of the obstacles put in their way. They have been frontline staff without the protection, they have kept a watching brief for vulnerable children to make sure they didn’t slip through the cracks. A year and a half of never quite knowing where they stand, what the rules are, what they are allowed and are not allowed to do. Many months of educational leaders not being listened to or being criticised by those who know nothing about what it means to stand up in front of a class of 30 boisterous 12-year-olds and bring history to life, maths to life, music to life. Continue reading...
Diaz’s latest opus lampoons a Duterte-esque president struggling with a rebel enclave while a deadly flu epidemic ragesAt four and three-quarter hours, the latest butt-numbing opus by Filipino auteur Lav Diaz is a veritable TikTok video by his standards. A needling and occasionally deranged assault on the Philippines’ most recent turn into authoritarianism, this monochrome sci-fi dystopia takes place in 2034 after a series of volcanic explosions has permanently darkened the skies, and the “Dark Killer” flu epidemic is tearing through the population (it was shot pre-Covid). President Nirvano Navarra (Joel Lamangan) – whose stocky physique and wild pronouncements make a fairly obvious match for real-life incumbent Rodrigo Duterte – decides to use the crisis to put a heavy lid on a simmering crockpot of dissidents.Meted out mostly in long and often patience-stretching static takes, and in humdrum locations despite sci-fi inflections such as omnipresent flying drones, Diaz follows both Navarra’s retinue and the opposition. The leader is mollycoddled by two buttoned-up aides, Martha Officio (Hazel Orencio) and Marissa Ventura (Mara Lopez) – who are having an affair, though the latter also moonlights with history teacher turned sex worker Haminilda (Shaina Magdayao). Meanwhile, soulful resistance fighter Hook Torollo (Piolo Pascual) swans in like something from a Wong Kar-wai film. He hangs moodily with the oppressed, but is forced into an assassination attempt after Navarra unleashes Operation Black Rain, a plot to poison rebel enclaves under cover of the epidemic. Continue reading...
The industry has a growing number of women earning plaudits at its renowned bodegas. But are they really better than men?“I think of my wines as barefoot children that need love and care,” says winemaker Marta Casas, holding her glass up to the light. Below her, the vineyards of Penedès roll away almost to the sea, but she could be virtually anywhere in Spain.Just as they fought their way into the male domain of haute cuisine, a growing number of Spanish women are seeking a career in winemaking, with three times as many taking courses in oenology compared with 10 years ago. This was given an added boost in 2018 when Almudena Alberca was made Spain’s first female master of wine, one of only 149 in the world. Continue reading...
‘Complacent reliance’ on overseas produce and computer ordering has put supply at riskBritain’s food supply is highly vulnerable to cyber-attacks, a leading food expert has warned, saying greater emphasis on domestic production would boost the UK’s food security.“If anyone wanted to really damage the British food system, they could just take out the satellites,” said Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City, University of London. “Our ‘just-in-time’ system is entirely dependent on computerised logistics. When you pay for your food at the checkout, the computer isn’t just adding up the bill, it’s reordering the stock.” Continue reading...
by Toby Helm, Rachel Stevenson and James Tapper on (#5M2PE)
The prime minister seems intent on lifting England’s remaining Covid restrictions on 19 July. But many in the NHS fear it could be overwhelmed – and tourist hotspots are fearful too
by Elias Visontay (now) and Naaman Zhou (earlier) on (#5M2FC)
Masks must be worn in all indoor construction sites across NSW and from 13 July in residential common areas as new restrictions placed on people entering greater Sydney. This blog is now closed
Skateboarding makes its debut at the Tokyo Olympics next month. We talk to the UK’s top skateboarders to find out why more women are taking up the sportIn 2003, the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Sunday Times selected 20 British under-21s who they believed would be multimillionaires by the year 2020. Some of the names on the “rich list” will be familiar: Keira Knightley or Wayne Rooney, who has earned considerably more than the projected £25m. Others were more of a punt, such as the 19-year-old skateboarder Lucy Adams from Horsham, west Sussex. Adams had won a competition called King of the Streets and there was burgeoning interest in skateboarding thanks to the American legend Tony Hawk’s hit video game Pro Skater. The list estimated that Adams would be worth £10m by 2020.Adams, who is 37 now and still “shredding” (riding hard) pretty much every day, snorts when I ask if that figure was on the optimistic side. “Yeah, I think you’d be right in saying that,” she sighs. “Definitely don’t even have a million.” Continue reading...
The home secretary has pinned her future on cutting the refugee influx. But critics say her tough measures could quickly unravelBlue skies appeared above Dover, and for the crew of the Valiant, moored off the harbour wall, it was a signal to start readying for action. Fine weather meant more migrants would soon be heading towards them. For those on board the Border Force cutter, it was a familiar routine. Already this year it has brought ashore hundreds of asylum seekers, another 65 last Sunday alone.So far, 6,000 people have crossed the Channel in small boats during the first six months of the year. The figure for the whole of 2020 was 8,417, a total expected to be eclipsed during the next two months as clement weather makes the treacherous crossing more tempting. Continue reading...
The Renaissance thinker, despite his reputation, believed politicians should act decisively to benefit the state. The PM has not done soThe Queen has recognised the achievements of doctors, nurses and ancillary staff by awarding the National Health Service the George Cross. Honours do not come much higher than that. And the government of Prime Minister Johnson and Chancellor Sunak? It has rewarded NHS workers with a 2% wage cut.The figure of 2% is the real wage cut that results from the already miserly 1% pay award once the impact on it of an estimated 3% rise in prices is taken into account. Continue reading...
The television presenter describes his perfect lazy days: reading the papers, watching soap operas, listening to jazzWhat time do you get up? I normally don’t on Sundays. I often lie in bed all day long. Sunday is my lazy day. If I move, it’s down to the cricket field to watch a match. I have a drop of beer or two, then put my feet up and watch television. I’m not very adventurous – I close down my brain and do nothing.What’s for breakfast? I make rather good porridge, so I’ll have that or boiled eggs, a cup of tea. Continue reading...
Instead of trying to control her, be curious about her experience, says Philippa PerryThe question My wife and I are both 51 and have been together 30 years. She is experiencing terrible perimenopausal symptoms and I am trying to support her as much as possible. I have always been sensitive to her needs – period pain, labour, postnatal depression and three years of anorexia –and I have researched all I can about the perimenopause. I adore my wife and find her sexy, but I know that intimacy is not something she wants at the moment and I respect that. Our sex life has never been regular during our marriage, but I still desire her and wish for some form of intimacy when she is ready. I do not want anyone else and my outlet is self-pleasure when needed, although the teenage guilt is still there! Is there still hope for us to continue a sexual relationship when the time is right? I just don’t want to accept our physical relationship could be over.Philippa’s answer There you are, living with your sexy wife and, oh dear, you don’t know if you are ever going to get a shag again. Not that you put it like that, that’s just how I read it. You are very measured in your email, showing me just how well you behave, almost as though you’re walking on egg-shells. Got me wondering whether you must walk around your wife on egg-shells, too. By being too tentative you may be losing authenticity. If you over-adapt to your partner, what happens to you? Is there anything left of you for her to have a relationship with? It is a difficult balancing act to be who you really are when you obliterate it by being who you think you should be. Be careful the real you doesn’t get lost with the supreme effort you put into doing what seems to be the right thing. Continue reading...
Australia’s biggest city remains in lockdown while South Korea records 1,324 more infectionsAustralia has reported its first death of 2021 from locally acquired coronavirus, while cases of Covid-19 have grown in China and continued to surge in South Korea.The Australian state of New South Wales is battling an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant, setting a 2021 record of 77 new cases of the virus on Sunday. Continue reading...
Organisation known for annual Tiananmen vigil lets go of all paid staff and halves its steering committeeOne of Hong Kong’s most established pro-democracy civic organisations has said it is letting go its paid staff and halving the size of its steering committee after Beijing stepped up its crackdown on opposition activity.The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China is best known for its annual rally and candlelight vigil remembering those killed in the bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Continue reading...
Researchers warn of international public health risk and urge authorities to raise awarenessAntibiotic-resistant “superbugs” – which the World Health Organization calls one of the top global threats to public health – usually conjure images of hospital settings. But research may point to a less-obvious source: the family dog.Researchers warned of “an international public health risk” after finding antibiotic-resistant bacteria in a range of different types of raw dog food. Continue reading...
Albanese has been attacked for seeking to win by attrition, but could he just be Australia’s Joe Biden?Tony Windsor didn’t have much time for Anthony Albanese when he first arrived in Canberra. The former independent from regional New South Wales felt he had the measure of the current Labor leader. “A smart arse, a student politics type,” he says.But Windsor’s perception changed during the 43rd parliament, when he was a kingmaker in the House of Representatives, and Albanese wrangled the daily parliamentary business of the minority Gillard government. Continue reading...
The crucial fix is more housing supply, experts say, as well more money for Māori-led initiativesOnce a world leader in social housing, New Zealand now faces what the UN has called a “human rights crisis”. Although the government is pouring money in, the waitlist for social housing has ballooned to 23,000 – triple that of three years ago – and there are more than 4,000 children living in motels.The government has repeatedly said it is rectifying a problem it inherited from the former National government, which saw the sell-off of state housing and underinvestment in social housing. The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, told local media in January the government would leave “no stone unturned” to fix the problem. Continue reading...
Second term for prime minister whose handling of Tigray conflict has drawn international criticismEthiopia’s ruling Prosperity party has been declared the winner of last month’s national election in a landslide, assuring a second term for the prime minister, Abiy Ahmed.The National Election Board of Ethiopia announced on Saturday night that the ruling party won 410 seats out of 436 in the federal parliament, which will see some seats remain vacant because no vote was held as a result of unrest or logistical reasons. Continue reading...
While Peter R de Vries fights for life in an Amsterdam hospital the nation reflects on how to end the grip of drug gangsFive gunshots blasted like fireworks on a sunny evening, just behind Amsterdam’s busy Leidseplein. To the horror of the Netherlands, a cold-blooded shooting has left prominent Dutch crime journalist Peter R de Vries fighting for his life in hospital.Everyone from European leaders to the Dutch king Willem-Alexander and Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema have expressed their shock at the ambush of “national hero” De Vries as he walked back to his car on Tuesday after recording a chatshow, on a busy street in broad daylight. Continue reading...
An archaeology student is on her way to Russia’s remote north-west when she has to share a compartment with a shaven-headed drunkDespite the bone-chilling cold of its location in Murmansk in Russia’s remote north-west, there’s a wonderful human warmth and humour in this offbeat romantic story of strangers on a train. It comes from Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen, whose 2016 film The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki was a lovely comedy about a real-life Finnish boxing champ in the 1960s.His new film is adapted from a novel of the same name by Finnish artist and author Rosa Liksom, and concerns a young Finnish student of archaeology, Natalia (Yuliya Aug) who is in Moscow sometime in the early 90s; she has begun an impulsive affair with her professor, Irina (Dirana Drukarova). Under Irina’s tutelage, with her encouragement, and perhaps because this older woman does not care to have Natalia hanging around much longer, Natalia has resolved to make the tough rail journey up to Murmansk where she wants to view the petroglyphs there - mysterious rock drawings, thousands of years old. Continue reading...
England-Italy match may be clouded by insects after Met Office radar detects start of ‘nuptial flights’Swarms of flying ants could swarm to Wembley and cloud the Euro 2020 final, after a radar detected millions of bugs over London and the south-east on Friday.As luck has it, the final between England and Italy is taking place on Sunday, which could fall into the mating period of ants, which go on a “nuptial flight” in huge numbers between June and September. Continue reading...
by Tom Phillips , Joe Parkin Daniels in Bogotá and J on (#5M26K)
Police claims that Jovenel Moïse was killed by a mainly Colombian hit squad thrown into doubtQuestions have been raised over Haiti’s official narrative for the assassination of its president, Jovenel Moïse, who was gunned down at his mansion in Port-au-Prince last Wednesday.Haitian police and the politicians who stepped into the political vacuum created by Moïse’s killing have claimed he was shot at about 1am by members of a predominantly Colombian hit squad who had stormed the president’s hillside residence. “Foreigners came to our country to kill the president,” police chief Léon Charles alleged after the shooting. Continue reading...
The singer, 59, talks about music, family, relationships – and reveals she’s shorter than we thinkMusic was my life as a kid. My earliest memory is singing as we drove through Missouri in our powder-blue station wagon. Having swing-band-player parents meant the house was filled with dancing. Music was my identity; I never thought about any other future.I skipped school at 15 to enter a best-legs competition – and won. The contest was being run by a local radio station. I don’t remember who was judging – a bunch of dirty old men, I’m sure – but I proudly walked across that stage to victory. I may have been grounded and thrown in detention, but I kept hold of my $100 winnings. Continue reading...
Finance chiefs endorse landmark move to prevent profits being shifted to low-tax countriesFinance chiefs of the G20 economies have endorsed a landmark move to stop multinationals shifting profits to tax havens and will also warn that Covid variants threaten the global economic recovery.At talks on Saturday, they also acknowledged the need to ensure fair access to vaccines in poorer countries. But a draft communique to be rubber-stamped at the meeting in Venice did not contain specific proposals on how to achieve that. Continue reading...
At my lowest ebb, I found hope in wickedly funny Leah, who lit up the crisis centre where we met. But just months later, she was dead. Could I stop my grief pulling me back under?Over the years there have been only a few people I would have classed as best friends. People whom I counted on in my darkest moments. When I was at my lowest, and feeling more alone than ever, I met Leah. She was an incredible person who showed me how to find joy and belonging even in the worst possible circumstances. But within less than 12 months she was dead, and life was changed for ever.We first met at Scarborough Survivors, the mental health crisis cafe I started attending in December 2018. I was 21, homeless and sofa-surfing, and I didn’t want to be alive any more. The cafe – open until 1am every morning – was my last option. It was a Saturday night, just before Christmas. Leah came in wearing a bright pink Adidas tracksuit and one of her many pairs of Nike Airs. Her thick Welsh accent echoed around the place, and as soon as she started talking, the atmosphere changed. I could tell from the off that humour was one of her coping mechanisms. It was hard to tell how old she was; I sensed some immaturity, but also a deep wisdom. I later learned that she was only 28, and the wisdom came from experiencing unimaginable trauma. Continue reading...
Police chief says entrance was padlocked; separate inquiry looks into use of child labour at food plantBangladeshi police have arrested the owner of a factory where at least 52 people died in an inferno, as it emerged that children as young as 11 had been working there.Police said the owner of the food factory and four of his sons were among eight people detained over the fire that broke out on Thursday and raged for more than a day. The blaze began in the evening at the five-storey Hashem Foods factory in Rupganj, just outside Dhaka. Continue reading...
Al-Shabaab claims responsibility for suicide attack on convoy of senior police official in Somali capitalA suicide car bomb targeting a government convoy exploded at a busy junction in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, killing at least nine people and injuring eight others, a health official said.The convoy was carrying a senior police official, Farhan Mohamud, who survived the attack on Saturday, the government news agency reported. Continue reading...
Sebastian Eubank, also a boxer, found dead days before his 30th birthdayFormer middleweight champion Chris Eubank has led tributes to his son Sebastian Eubank, who has been found dead in Dubai days before his 30th birthday.In a statement, Chris Eubank said the third oldest of his five children had died on Friday. He leaves behind his wife, Salma, and son Raheem, who was born a month ago. Continue reading...
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