Jury at Birmingham crown court convicts Carvel Bennett for crime in 1970s in what is thought to be first case of its kindA man has been convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl, after the daughter conceived during the attack pursued charges against him.Carvel Bennett, 74, was convicted by a jury at Birmingham crown court. Members of the jury deliberated for just over two hours before finding him guilty. Continue reading...
by Joe Parkin Daniels in Cali, Colombia on (#5MVVM)
‘He died as he lived, resisting’, says mother of young artist killed in Cali, as report claims authorities used systematic ‘pattern of violence’ in cityNicolás Guerrero, a 26-year-old artist from the Colombian city of Cali, took to the streets on 2 May to protest against the lack of opportunities he saw in his country. He had a family in Spain that he had hoped one day to bring to South America. But later that night, after riot police launched a brutal crackdown, he was found lying on the pavement, seriously wounded. He died hours later in hospital. Continue reading...
The agreement promises to compensate residents and ensure drinking water infrastructure is builtCanada’s federal government has reached a C$8bn settlement in two class-action lawsuits with First Nations communities over access to clean drinking water.The agreement promises to compensate residents, ensure drinking water infrastructure is built and modernize legislation – as First Nations leaders have been demanding for decades. Continue reading...
Boris Johnson has said Iran must face up to the consequences of its 'outrageous' attack on a tanker in the Arabian Sea that killed two crew, including a British national. The Liberian-flagged Mercer Street, which is linked to an Israeli tycoon, was hit off the coast of Oman late on 29 July in what is thought to have been a swarm attack involving multiple drones
by Bethan McKernan and Quique Kierszenbaum on (#5MWC0)
Judge proposes compromise to settle dispute over home ownership with Israeli settlers in Sheikh JarrahPalestinian residents of the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah facing forcible eviction from their homes have been offered a compromise deal with Jewish settlers by Israel’s supreme court, in an unexpected development in the high-profile case.The session on Monday, which was supposed to reach a final decision on whether to accept an appeal from four Palestinian families over eviction orders in the decades-old legal battle, was instead met with a surprise entreaty from the judges for the two sides to accept a “practical solution”. Continue reading...
Exclusive: photographer casts models as characters, creating an amalgam with their ‘dæmons’The photographer Rankin has designed the covers for a forthcoming edition of Philip Pullman’s fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials.Rankin, who has photographed everyone from the Queen to David Bowie, created eye-catching images for each of the three books, which tell the story of Lyra, an intrepid young girl who encounters otherworldly characters in parallel universes. Continue reading...
Krystsina Tsimanouskaya has not directly criticised her government but her parents warned her not to returnJust two years ago, Krystsina Tsimanouskaya was greeted by smiling Belarusian athletics and academic officials as she brandished a gold medal from the 2019 Summer Universiade, the young star’s greatest victory for her native Belarus yet.Now that same bureaucracy is threatening to tear her life apart, as her coach and a delegation official warned a crying Tsimanouskaya on leaked audio that she was “caught in a spider’s web” and suggested that cases of “excessive pride” often lead to suicide. Continue reading...
Officer tells inquest convicted terrorist bolted down street and stabbed two members of public in just over a minuteA police officer has described the final moments of Sudesh Amman’s life, during which the convicted terrorist bolted down a south London high street and stabbed two members of the public in just over a minute.Det Supt Dominic Murphy of the Metropolitan police said before the attack Amman had wandered from his probation hostel to Streatham High Road “apparently aimlessly”. Continue reading...
Yellow storm warning covers areas including Cardiff, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire and LondonThunderstorms and torrential downpours could cause flooding across parts of southern England and Wales.The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for storms on Monday that covers areas including Cardiff, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire and London and is in place until 11pm. Continue reading...
by Kalyeena Makortoff Banking correspondent on (#5MVVN)
Bank helped by economic recovery from Covid-19 crisis in big markets including the UKHSBC has increased its bankers’ bonus pool and announced fresh shareholder payouts after profits grew more than fourfold in the second quarter, thanks to an economic rebound in key markets, including the UK.The London-headquartered bank said it had increased its banker bonus pool by $900m in order to compensate its star staff in the first half of the year, compared with a $600m increase during the same period in 2020 when its profits suffered from the onset of the Covid-19 crisis. Continue reading...
Case before Swedish court may reveal further details about Ebrahim Raisi’s role in mass executions in 1988The war crimes trial in Sweden of a former Iranian official could reveal further damaging details about the role played in the mass execution of prisoners 30 years ago by Iran’s president-elect, Ebrahim Raisi, barely a week after his inauguration.Hamid Noury, 60, was charged last week with “war crimes and murder” over the killings of more than 100 armed opponents and political prisoners during the final year of the 1980-1988 war between Iran and Iraq. Continue reading...
At least five people were wounded and holidaymakers evacuated after wildfires devastated a pine wood near a beach in Pescara, Italy, as one of the worst heatwaves in decades swept across south-east Europe.About 800 people were evacuated from their homes, including a convent of nuns, after a fire broke out in the 53-hectare (131-acre) Pineta Dannunziana nature reserve, as the fires continue to be active on different fronts
Many of us are returning to the office or socialising for the first time in a year – and may be feeling anxious about physical changes. Here’s how to feel a little bit better about yourselfAs pandemic restrictions are lifted in England, many of us will be returning to offices and meeting up with friends for the first time in more than a year – and some of us may not look the same way we did in pre-Covid times. We may have gained weight, or lost muscle, or simply look more tired than before. Perhaps we harboured vague goals of returning to the world with sculpted abs and perky posteriors, but life in a pandemic puts paid to the best-laid plans. So how do you feel OK about your body as the country begins to open up? The experts weigh in. Continue reading...
A deputy news production editor at the Guardian speaks to colleagues about how cutting and correcting copy has evolved over decadesThe internet may have revolutionised the media in the 21 years since I joined the Guardian, but my role as a subeditor has stayed essentially the same. We check facts, write headlines and cut stories to the right length, with a final spellcheck before moving it to its next stage.But until late last century, subediting looked completely different. Chris Dodd started work on the features desk, then based in Manchester, in 1965, after an “interview” in a pub (he didn’t know whether to drink or abstain, or buy a round), while Barry Johnson and Jay Sivell joined the London office in Farringdon Road in 1986. Shifts then started at various points in the afternoon, and subs (as they are called) enjoyed a leisurely start. “People used to take in chess sets and books, or do the crossword. You could sit for hours with nothing,” says Johnson, who retired in December. Continue reading...
Commons standards committee to look at conflicts of interest for members with second jobsMPs serving on informal parliamentary groups while working in second jobs are facing scrutiny from a powerful parliamentary committee over concerns that they could exploit a lobbying loophole.An inquiry by the Commons standards committee will examine whether MPs who sit on All-Party Parliamentary Groups that lobby for certain industries should no longer be paid by organisations in those same industries. Continue reading...
Stint of working from home rewrites rules for office dressing, with retailers seeing demand for hybrid wardrobeWith a return to the office now a real possibility, workers in the UK are thinking about something they haven’t for a while: what to wear. This comes after 16 months at home with only a laptop for company – and only a semblance of presentability required for video calls. The conventions of office attire are being reassessed, particularly by men who often wore suits for work. So are they ditching the jogging bottoms and dusting off their suits or are elasticated waists here to stay?With hybrid working – spending part of a working week in the office, part from home – now seen as a possible post-pandemic possible, Sam Kershaw, the buying director of menswear site Mr Porter, suggests there will be hybrid wardrobe to match. “Our customers are not ready to disregard the ‘at home’ shift of investing in comfortable, versatile pieces for their wardrobe,” he says. “Particularly as many will remain working from home in some capacity.” Continue reading...
US production house is latest major studio to find a home in region as demand for TV and film surgesHollywood’s Sunset Studios, which produced La La Land, Zoolander and the first in the X-Men franchise, has become the latest US movie production house to adopt the leafy Hertfordshire countryside as its main base outside the US.Backed by £700m from two major US investment firms, the TV and film studio complex will create more than 4,500 jobson a 37-hectare (91-acre) greenfield site in Broxbourne, close to the arc of rival studio complexes north-west of London known as Britain’s Hollywood. Continue reading...
The actor, comic and writer talks about her bestselling debut novel, the cruelty of costume fittings, how it felt to be in the Harry Potter franchise – and finding hope in small thingsAs a compulsive diary writer – she has kept one since she was eight – Jessie Cave knows that, unless it gets written down, life gets forgotten. She is glad, then, that she wrote her debut novel, Sunset, because the way she felt at the time “would have just gone, and then you’re in a different place and you don’t remember”. This book, says Cave, was “absolutely the only thing I could write during that period”.In March 2019, her younger brother Ben died in an accident aged 27. Her book was written in the aftermath, that manic feeling that sometimes comes with grief pushing her on. It went straight to No 1 on the Sunday Times’ bestseller list after being published in June. “I don’t know if I would have that energy now,” she says. Continue reading...
Labour’s deputy leader opens up about being a carer, byelections, and achieving a ‘cultural shift’ in the workplaceLabour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, has said her own experience as a care worker helped to convince her more flexible working could be a “win-win” for staff and employers.Speaking to the Guardian after announcing new policies last week on employment rights and flexible conditions, Rayner said she had helped negotiate family-friendly working when she was a trade union representative. Continue reading...
Senate inquiry hears of upset over $21m in grants being given to companies while Indigenous community lacks even basic infrastructureTraditional owners opposed to fracking in the Beetaloo Basin have condemned the Morrison government for handing tens of millions of dollars to gas companies while Indigenous communities lack basic housing and health infrastructure.A Senate inquiry on Monday heard from a series of traditional owners in the Northern Territory about plans to open up the Beetaloo Basin to gas exploration and fracking. Continue reading...
The men’s gold and women’s bronze medals meant everything to Fiji, which has the highest per-capita Covid infection rate in the worldWhen the Fijian men’s sevens team beat New Zealand to win gold at the Tokyo Olympics on Wednesday, the entire nation celebrated.The win could not have come at a better time. Fiji is in the grip of a deadly second outbreak of Covid-19, on top of a potential political crisis over controversial native land legislation. Continue reading...
West Midlands police seek contact details of family of Brahane Yordanos, who do not yet know of her killingDetectives are trying to find the family of a 19-year-old woman found fatally stabbed at her home in Birmingham. West Midlands police named the victim as Brahane Yordanos, from Eritrea in north-east Africa, on Sunday.Just after 6am on Saturday, officers were called to Unett Street, Newtown, where the teenager was discovered with stab wounds. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Continue reading...
by Daniel Hurst Foreign affairs and defence correspon on (#5MVCE)
Former Australian prime minister has signed a conflict of interest declaration due to his role as a trade adviser to the UK governmentThe Morrison government will spend about $19,000 to send former prime minister, Tony Abbott, on a five-day trade mission to India this month.Guardian Australia can also reveal Abbott has signed a conflict of interest declaration, due to the former Liberal party leader’s ongoing role as a trade adviser to the British government. Continue reading...
The increasingly draconian approach to irregular migration betrays the spirit of the 1951 refugee conventionSeventy years ago, the 1951 UN refugee convention established the rights of refugees to seek sanctuary, and the obligations of states to protect them. Increasingly, it seems that much of Europe is choosing to commemorate the anniversary by ripping up some of the convention’s core principles.So far this year, close to 1,000 migrants have died attempting to cross the Mediterranean, more than four times the death toll for the same period in 2020. Many will have been economic migrants. Others will have been fleeing persecution. Increasingly, Europe does not care. All were “irregular”. And all must be discouraged and deterred through a strategy of cruelty. Continue reading...
by Bethan McKernan, Middle East correspondent on (#5MVAN)
Mural artist Hussein Sabbagh, 13, one of 27 children killed in government attacks in north-west Syria in two monthsAmid the rubble of bombed homes in Binnish, a town in north-west Syria, a brightly painted mural stands out. The image shows an intact house, with love hearts streaming from the windows. Overhead, however, the dark silhouettes of birds are accompanied by helicopters, warplanes and missiles, and the garden’s red and yellow flowers look like flames.Related: Syria: Assad shells former opposition stronghold Deraa Continue reading...
Foreign secretary backs Israeli PM’s claims Iran was behind attack that killed one Briton and one RomanianThe UK has said it is “highly likely” that Iran carried out an “unlawful and callous attack” on a ship in the Middle East, which left a Briton dead.The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said the government believed the drone attack on the oil tanker off the coast of Oman was “deliberate, targeted, and a clear violation of international law by Iran”. Continue reading...
Railway folly | Barclays bonus | Country diary | Dinner in Ireland | Mixed-up names | New heights for CovidSimon Jenkins makes compelling points regarding HS2, but surely the reality is that it cannot now be stopped (Depleted and unwanted, HS2 hurtles on as Johnson’s £100bn vanity project, 30 July). Were sense ever to prevail, then across London and the home counties, half-abandoned projects would for ever stand like the legs of Ozymandias. They would be enduring testaments to folly, and so cannot be permitted to remain as they would for ever point a finger towards those (ir)responsible. The rest of us can but despair – and pay.
by Bethan McKernan Middle East correspondent on (#5MV6X)
Verdict due in case that could lead to Palestinians being forcibly displaced to make way for Jewish settlersIsrael’s supreme court is due to make a decision on whether to evict Palestinian families from the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, in a final hearing in the controversial case that helped spark communal violence inside Israel and a new war with Hamas earlier this year.A verdict in the deeply contentious case, which could lead to the neighbourhood’s current residents being forcibly displaced to make way for Jewish settlers in a decades-old dispute, is expected on Monday morning. Continue reading...
by Nazia Parveen Community affairs correspondent on (#5MV6Y)
Shazad Ali and Abdul Musavir went into the city to protect their business as rioters clashed with police but never returnedIn her golden years Rukaya Begum’s home should have been full of the patter of grandchildren’s feet and the hustle of family get-togethers but instead there is an overwhelming silence.On 9 August 2011, Begum had been surrounded by her family; her husband, Ghazanfar, her three sons, Abdul Quddoos, Shazad Ali and Abdul Musavir, and her daughter, Sumera Ali. It was Ramadan and she remembers in detail the food that she had cooked that night – keema kebabs, masala haandi with warm chappattis and sweet fruits for pudding. Just before they sat down for the family meal her son, Shazad, had affectionately fed her a date to break her fast. Continue reading...
Afghan forces defend western city of Herat and Lashkar Gah in south as Kandahar airport hit by rocketsThe Taliban escalated its nationwide offensive in Afghanistan on Sunday, launching renewed assaults on three major cities and rocketing a major airport in the south amid warnings that the conflict is rapidly worsening.As Afghan government forces struggled with a resurgent Taliban following the withdrawal of US-led foreign forces, hundreds of commandos were deployed to the economically important western city of Herat while authorities in the southern city of Lashkar Gah called for more troops to rein in the assaults. Continue reading...
Man is in custody after what police described as ‘domestic incident’ in Ty Mawr in TowynA man has been arrested after a 15-year-old girl died at a holiday park in north Wales.Police officers were called to Ty Mawr holiday park in Towyn, near Abergele, on Saturday afternoon to attend what police described as a “domestic disturbance”. Continue reading...
The Home Office appears to be in breach of the Brexit withdrawal agreement, says legal charityEuropean citizens who have applied for settled status are being detained and threatened with deportation, a development that contradicts assurances from ministers and appears to contravene the Brexit withdrawal agreement.The Home Office has served EU nationals with removal directions even though they could prove they had applied for settled status, which should protect their rights to remain in the UK. Continue reading...
Sailing into imperial delusions is no way to run foreign policyWhat would Jack Aubrey have made of it? When Patrick O’Brian’s fictitious Royal Navy hero sailed HMS Surprise to the far side of the world, the enemy was the USS Norfolk, a lone American frigate marauding in the Pacific. Full speed ahead from the war of 1812, to 2021, and today’s maritime sparring partners are HMS Queen Elizabeth, Britain’s new £3bn aircraft carrier, and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army navy and its 360 “battle-force” ships.It’s hardly an equal fight, though that would not have stopped Captain Aubrey. In any case, the government insists, slightly disingenuously, that it is not courting confrontation by parading modern-day gunboats under Beijing’s nose. The defence secretary, Ben Wallace, says the aim is “fly the flag for Global Britain”. Thus do deluded Brexiters spread their foolish, neo-imperial fantasies to points as distant as the hotly contested South China Sea. Continue reading...
Officer morale sinks in the 43 forces as attacks rise by 20% during the Covid crisisA major increase in attacks on police has been recorded during the pandemic, according to official figures revealing that there were more than 100 assaults on officers in England and Wales every day.With senior police figures warning that officers have faced deliberate spitting and coughing since the start of the crisis, it has emerged that there were 36,969 assaults on police in the year that followed the outbreak in March 2020. It represented a 20% rise on the previous year Continue reading...
Even by the standards of this extraordinary cases, this was a remarkable weekAfter two full days giving evidence Mohammed Hanifa Fatih was formally excused.But he wasn’t yet finished. Continue reading...
WG Sebald’s writing on the Holocaust was driven by the anger and distress he felt over his father’s service in Hitler’s armyHis books are saturated with despair. Over and over again, his emotionally traumatised characters are caught – inescapably – in plots that doom them to a life of anguish. Often, they kill themselves.Now, the psychological wounds and suicidal thoughts that blighted WG Sebald’s own life and secretly inspired him to begin writing fiction are to be laid bare for the first time in a forthcoming biography. Continue reading...
Beijing police detain the ex-boy band member after social media allegations of date rapeChinese-Canadian pop star Kris Wu has been detained by Beijing police on suspicion of rape.The 30-year-old former member of the Korean boyband EXO had previously been accused by a teenager of having sex with her while she was drunk. Wu denied the accusation. Continue reading...
Report after report is reaching the same conclusion: exporters, including many in the red wall, will be suffering for a long timeBrexit is beginning to take its toll. Trade with the EU is suffering and foreign investment is heading south. Neither trend is temporary and both harm the government’s stated aim of “levelling up” regions that until now have depended on overseas trade to create well-paid jobs.It’s not clear if the red wall has noticed. Or anyone among the 17.4 million people who voted for Brexit. So far, all the in-depth polling shows there is little movement on the vexed question of EU membership. Continue reading...
A massive landslide in the Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh in India has led to a road collapsing down the side of a mountain. The footage, captured on 30 July, has been widely shared on social media and Indian news channels. It is not clear whether there were any casualties. There have been incidents of landslides in the area amid heavy rains. Recently a huge rockfall hit the Sangla valley, destroying a bridge, cars and killing at least nine tourists Continue reading...
by Hannah Ellis-Petersen South Asia correspondent on (#5MTF6)
The spiritual leader has mused that he may return as a woman. But his succession has turned into a political battleA couple of years ago, during a meeting of Tibetan leaders in Dharamshala in India, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, was asked about his reincarnation. Addressing the room of monks, religious teachers and Tibetan politicians, the Dalai Lama asked them to look into his eyes. “Do you think it’s time now?” he asked.It was a meeting that would end with the Tibetan leaders agreeing that the issue of reincarnation was one that would be decided only by the Dalai Lama himself. But China, which annexed Tibet in 1951 and has retained tight control over the region ever since, has other ideas. It insists that the choice of the next Dalai Lama lies only with China, and have even enshrined this right into Chinese law. Continue reading...
So often we interact with the world via phones and apps, but what if you struck up a converastion with a random person? A growing body of research suggests we shouldIt’s 7am on a Monday and my heart is racing. Normally my Mondays are reserved for tedious activities, but this morning I’m chasing a high. I’m not in a nightclub greeting sunrise with a tequila, sadly, but in an east London café. The source of my palpitations? I’m steeling myself to strike up a conversation with an unsuspecting man a few tables away.Given that I’m a journalist who interviews people for a living, you might think I’m being overly dramatic. But talking to strangers can be terrifying. The unpredictability of how they will respond to your overture, and the possibility of rejection, is paralysing. Perhaps the worst fear of all: might they find me annoying? Continue reading...