Louisa Wall’s comments mark a relatively rare departure from the government’s usually cautious statementsA member of New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s Labour party has denounced alleged human rights abuses by China, including illegal organ harvesting, saying Beijing has no regard for human rights.The comments by MP Louisa Wall mark a relatively rare departure from the government’s typically cautious statements on alleged human rights violations in China. Continue reading...
Prime minister’s announcement that most coronavirus rules will be scrapped is dissected by the pressBoris Johnson’s announcement that most coronavirus restrictions will be lifted from 19 July – while acknowledging that new cases could reach 50,000 a day before then – dominates today’s front pages.The Guardian’s top story, under the headline “Johnson sweeps away lockdown restrictions in Covid-19 gamble”, focuses on the PM raising the possibility of reintroducing restrictions in the autumn, warning the public not to go “de-mob happy” and saying “we will be helped by the arrival of summer and by the school holidays”. Continue reading...
Borders bill will allow for charges against migrants ‘knowingly’ arriving in UK without permissionMinisters are to reveal proposals for a suite of new laws paving the way for offshore centres for asylum seekers and criminal charges for migrants “knowingly” arriving in the UK without permission.The nationality and borders bill, formerly known as the sovereign borders bill, has been described by the Home Office as containing “the most radical changes to the broken asylum system in decades” making it harder for those who enter illegally to stay in the UK. Continue reading...
The New York-born film-maker worked on hits ranging from The Twilight Zone to Lethal WeaponRichard Donner, the prolific Hollywood director and producer who helmed some of the biggest hit films of the 1970s and 80s including Superman and The Goonies, has died aged 91.Donner died on Monday, his wife, the film producer Lauren Shuler Donner, told Deadline. Continue reading...
If it becomes law, residing on land without permission would be a criminal offence, threatening a way of life for communities across the UK“I am worried that not everyone knows what is coming,” says Amy, sitting in the truck she has turned into a cosy home for her and her two children. “If this bill is passed it will mean the end of our culture. The end of our way of life.”Amy, who wanted to be known by her first name, lives with her two sons on a small Travellers’ site down a quiet country lane in the west of England, along the edges of an ancient forest. Continue reading...
Florida governor declares state of emergency in 15 counties, including site of collapsed condoTropical Storm Elsa was expected to make landfall in Cuba on Monday afternoon, after 180,000 people were evacuated from southern regions amid fears of heavy flooding.Elsa is expected to bring tropical storm conditions to Florida, where Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency in 15 counties, including Miami-Dade county, where the partially-collapsed Champlain Towers condominium was demolished with explosives on Sunday night. Continue reading...
Gunmen overpowered security staff at Bethel Baptist high school in Kaduna stateGunmen have kidnapped 140 children from a boarding school in north-western Nigeria, a school official has said, in the latest in a wave of mass abductions targeting schoolchildren and students.Heavily armed criminal gangs in north-west and central Nigeria often attack villages to loot, steal cattle and abduct people for ransom, but since the start of the year have increasingly targeted schools and colleges. Continue reading...
Star of music, TV and film who had UK Top 10 hit in 1978 with Do It, Do It Again had been suffering an undisclosed illnessRaffaella Carrà, the pop singer and actor who was an entertainment icon in her native Italy, has died aged 78.Her long-term partner, Sergio Iapino, announced her death, saying: “Raffaella has left us. She has gone to a better world, where her humanity, her unmistakable laugh and her extraordinary talent will shine forever.” He said she had been battling an unnamed illness for some time. Continue reading...
Reports claim Brazilian president, already accused of mishandling Covid, was involved in embezzlement schemeThe Brazilian president has come under further pressure after being personally implicated in an alleged corruption racket involving the supposed misappropriation of his workforce’s wages.Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right populist who admires Donald Trump, took office in January 2019 vowing to “forever free the fatherland from the yoke of corruption”. Continue reading...
by Lisa O'Carroll Brexit correspondent on (#5KWZM)
Home Office figures caused speculation that number of Europeans in UK had been underestimatedLast week, the Home Office announced it had received 6m applications for the EU settlement scheme, prompting some to conclude the number of Europeans living in the UK was almost double previous estimates.Some on social media claimed that it meant 9% of the UK’s population of 67 million was now made up of Europeans. Continue reading...
It’s been dubbed ‘tangping’ – shunning tough careers to chill out instead. But how is the Communist party taking the birth of this new counterculture?Name: Low-desire life.Age: People – young ones especially – have been rebelling, dropping out, rejecting the rat race for pretty much ever, since the rat race began. But in China, it’s becoming more common. On trend, you might say. Continue reading...
by Vincent Ni China affairs correspondent on (#5KWAQ)
Cyberspace regulator claimed the company had illegally collected users’ personal dataChina’s cyberspace regulator has ordered smartphone app stores to pull Didi Global Inc’s app after it alleged the ride-hailing company had “illegally collected users’ personal data”.On Sunday, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said it had told Didi to make changes to comply with data protection rules, four days after its initial public offering (IPO) in New York, which raised $4.4bn (£3.2bn) – the biggest Chinese overseas IPO in the first half of the year. Continue reading...
Officials to be investigated after film appears to show patrol boat firing shots at a vessel carrying 64 people in the MediterraneanProsecutors in Sicily have launched an investigation against the Libyan coastguard after footage emerged appearing to show officials firing on a boat of migrant families in the Mediterranean Sea.On 30 June, rescue workers from the German organisation Sea-Watch recorded the Libyan coastguard patrol vessel coming dangerously close to the small wooden boat and apparently firing shots in an attempt to force the 64 people onboard back to Libya. Continue reading...
Priest and human rights activist was denied bail despite being weakened by Parkinson’s and CovidIndia’s oldest political prisoner, an 84-year-old Jesuit priest who was denied bail as his health deteriorated, has died, prompting an outpouring of anger among lawyers, writers, politicians and activists.Father Stan Swamy, a priest and human rights activist who spent five decades fighting for the rights of the tribal community in the state of Jharkhand, was arrested in October 2020, charged under draconian terrorism laws and held in judicial custody. Continue reading...
Event in Georgian capital cancelled after protesters storm activists’ headquarters and attack journalistsOrganisers have cancelled a Pride march in Georgia after far-right demonstrators stormed LGBTQ activists’ headquarters and attacked journalists in violence that the country’s prime minister appeared to blame on the event itself.Video and photographs showed anti-gay protesters scaling a three-storey building to break into the headquarters of the Tbilisi Pride march in the Georgian capital, while elsewhere men with long beards in priests’ clothing punched and kicked journalists, with as many as 20 injured. Continue reading...
Influenced by British bands, the Zamrock movement dominated the 1970s until social unrest and Aids dismantled it. As a new documentary is released, Witch frontman Jagari takes a break from gemstone mining to tell his extraordinary life storyEmmanuel Chanda works as a gemstone miner in the Zambian countryside, blasting apart rock faces in search of amethyst. Surrounded by rock and noise, there’s a poetic similarity to what he is best known for: electrifying a nation as the frontman of Witch, the most popular band in 1970s Zambia who released five full-length albums in as many years and were the driving force for the decade’s Zamrock movement. Blending African rhythms with garage rock inspired by imports from the country’s former British colonisers, they were dubbed their country’s own Beatles, and were renowned for incendiary, seven-hour live shows led by Chanda, for whom the stage was simply too small.Nearly 45 years on from his last studio recordings with the band, Chanda – known as Jagari, after Mick Jagger – has regained some of his stardom. A new documentary by Gio Arlotta, Witch: We Intend to Cause Havoc, has just been released, and traces the band’s legacy from the mines of the Zambian Copperbelt province to festival stages in Europe after an unlikely revival that, in the late 2010s, brought Witch out of Africa for the first time. Continue reading...
by Nazia Parveen Community affairs correspondent on (#5KWJM)
Victim’s family say antisemitic attack on bus and at tube station was because of his ‘obviously Jewish’ appearanceA Jewish man who suffered antisemitic abuse twice in an hour in central London was physically threatened because of his appearance, his family have said.The man, named only as Yosef, was on his way home when he was subjected to a “torrent of abuse”, with threats also being made to his life. Continue reading...
by Nino Bucci (now) and Matilda Boseley (earlier) on (#5KW80)
New Zealand restarts the travel bubble with Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and the ACT; infected aged care resident at SummitCare home in NSW was not vaccinated. Follow latest updates
Authorities called assailant a ‘lone wolf’ domestic terrorist who had been politically radicalisedPolice in Hong Kong have told citizens that mourning the death of a man who stabbed a police officer last week is “no different to supporting terrorism”, as the case was taken over by the national security department.The comments followed the stabbing of an officer in the back on Thursday night by a 50-year-old man at Causeway Bay. Police said the man then took his own life. The 28-year-old officer sustained a punctured lung in the attack and remains in hospital in a critical condition, according to local media. Continue reading...
He’s lived within a boulder, hatched a nest of hen’s eggs, and now plans to encase himself in a beehive. Is this France’s most extreme performance artist –and how does he go to the toilet?Last month, in a smart gallery in Paris, the back of a sculpture was removed and a man was lifted out. He looked around, disoriented, as his body slowly unfurled. A doctor rushed to his side and, after inspecting him, announced he was in good health. The crowd cheered. He’d been in there for seven days.Abraham Poincheval, possibly France’s most extreme performance artist, specialises in surreal feats of endurance, often in tight spots. He has lived inside a rock for seven days, and a stuffed bear for 13. For this latest work, Hartung, he decided to look at a painting by abstract artist Hans Hartung for seven days straight. He even built a special contraption for it: an aluminium shell of a man sitting on a block, looking down a large square funnel. Continue reading...
Victorian Covid-19 restrictions are easing further as the Melbourne coronavirus outbreak comes under control. Is the 25km travel limit being lifted? How many visitors are allowed? Is mask-wearing compulsory? Are schools closed? Here are the new rules
Despite chronic pain and deadly infections, Palestinians wounded in protests three years ago still hope to recover without surgerySitting on his hospital bed, with external fixators screwed into his right leg, Mohammed al-Mughari has been in pain and on medication since he was shot in the leg more than three years ago.He lives with a chronic bone infection – from bacteria now resistant to most antibiotics. Doctors, including in Jordan and Egypt where he sought treatment previously, have all recommended that an amputation could end his long-term suffering, but he has steadfastly refused. Continue reading...
The Guardian’s outgoing Jerusalem correspondent Oliver Holmes talks to predecessor Ian Black about how much – and how little – the job has changed over the yearsIt was the end of the 1980s and the Guardian’s Middle East correspondent, Ian Black, was talking shop with his competitor at the Sunday Times, the late Marie Colvin. “We were discussing when there might be a Palestinian state,” Black recalls of their conversation in Jerusalem. “We thought maybe it would happen in two or three years.”Israel and the Palestinian territories were deep into the first intifada, an uprising against the occupation that lasted from 1987 until the early 90s. It was a period in which violence spiked, but also a time of nascent hope that the lengthy military grip over Palestinian life might finally end. Continue reading...
by Justin McCurry in Tokyo and agencies on (#5KWDT)
Number rose after officials in Atami checked residential registers rather than relying on reports of missing people following mudslideOfficials in Japan have dramatically raised their estimate of the number of people still missing after a mudslide ripped through a seaside town at the weekend.Reports said three people had died in the disaster, which occurred after days of torrential rain in Atami, a famous hot spring resort about 60 miles (90 km) south-west of Tokyo. Continue reading...
Mayor aims to remove all reference to former Yugoslav leader Marshall Tito from street in RadenciThirty years after Slovenia achieved independence, a bitter dispute over a street that since 1979 has been named in honour of Marshal Josip Broz Tito has highlighted how the former leader of the federation of Yugoslavia continues to divide opinion in central Europe.A municipal decree changing the name of Tito Road, or Titova cesta, in Radenci, a town in north-east Slovenia, to Cesta osamosvojitve Slovenije, or Road of Slovenian Independence, has been debated in the country’s highest court. A referendum was even mooted as a solution in the face of opposition. Continue reading...
The daughter of an octogenarian aged care resident who has tested positive to Covid is outraged that two-thirds at the Baulkham Hills home’s staff are unvaccinated, and that families were not told
The passenger death toll from the crash was 47, officials said, and three civilians on the ground were also killedAll 96 passengers on the Philippine air force plane that crashed on Sunday have been accounted for, military chief Cirilito Sobejana has said. The passenger death toll from the crash was 47, while 49 military personnel were injured, Sobejana told Reuters in a phone message.The Department of National Defence said on Sunday that three civilians on the ground were also killed, and that four civilians were injured when the Philippine military aircraft carrying troops crashed and burst into flames after missing the runway in the south of the country. Continue reading...
Vatican says pontiff had general anaesthetic during operation for diverticular stenosis of the colonPope Francis “reacted well” to planned intestinal surgery on Sunday evening at a Rome hospital, the Vatican has announced.In a statement late in the evening, Matteo Bruni, a Holy See spokesman, said Francis, 84, had general anaesthesia during the surgery necessitated by a stenosis, or narrowing, of the sigmoid portion of the large intestine. Continue reading...
Monday: Two-thirds of staff at Covid-stricken aged care facility aren’t vaccinated. Plus: how to entertain kids in lockdownGood morning. Covid cases are dropping around the country, but the flaws in the aged care vaccine rollout continue to emerge. Two-thirds of staff working at a Sydney aged care facility in the midst of a Covid outbreak are unvaccinated, SummitCare’s chief operating officer has confirmed. Three aged care residents at the facility in Sydney tested positive on Saturday night, while two staff members were infected last week. NSW reported 16 locally acquired cases on Sunday, more than halving Saturday’s high of 35. Gladys Berejiklian, said 13 of the new cases had spent their entire infectious period in isolation. “We are seeing numbers go the right way. But I do say cautiously that that could still bounce around,” she said. Meanwhile a group of St George Illawarra Dragons players are under investigation for potentially breaching lockdown orders after being caught at the house party of a veteran player.In Covid news abroad, Luxembourg’s prime minister, Xavier Bettel, has been admitted to hospital as a precautionary measure after testing positive last week. And the US will soon see surges in cases of the highly infectious Delta variant in areas where vaccination rates are low, Anthony Fauci has predicted, calling resistance to vaccination “sad” and “tragic”. Continue reading...
by Denis Campbell and Aubrey Allegretti on (#5KW62)
Prime minister defies warnings from his own MPs concerned that bill to shake up health service will prove gift to LabourBoris Johnson is set to spark a political row this week by announcing plans to seize greater control of the NHS, despite warnings that the “power grab” will see ministers blamed for delays in treatment and closure of local hospital units.The prime minister has told the new health secretary, Sajid Javid, to put the long-awaited health and care bill before parliament despite Javid’s own misgivings and concerns among hospital bosses and doctors’ leaders. Continue reading...
Deadly blaze that killed four people and forced evacuation of 10 villages is now close to being under controlAuthorities in Cyprus have said a deadly forest fire that was the worst to hit the island in decades was close to being brought under control after water bombing by Greek and Israeli aircraft.Fanned by strong winds, the fire broke out on Saturday afternoon and swept through the southern foothills of the Troodos mountain range as the country grappled with a blistering heatwave. Continue reading...
by Presented by Rachel Humphreys and reported by Laur on (#5KW38)
A legal arrangement set up in the wake of a mental health crisis has left the singer with little control of her personal or professional affairs. Laura Snapes and Sam Levin describe how she’s challenging the situation in courtThis episode first aired on our global news podcast Today in Focus.Britney Spears shot to global fame in 1998 with her hit single Baby One More Time, released when she was 17. It was the first of a string of hits that made her a millionaire many times over. But the rapid rise came not without cost for her personal life. A mental health crisis led to a very public breakdown, and in 2008 she was placed under a a conservatorship which, overseen by her father, took control of her finances and many of her personal affairs. Continue reading...
by Emma Graham-Harrison in Kabul and Dan Sabbagh on (#5KW1T)
Militants’ advance continues as Britain nears end of its two-decade deployment to countryThe Taliban’s rapid advance through northern Afghanistan continued on Sunday with more than a dozen districts falling to the militants, as Britain entered the final days of its two-decade deployment to Afghanistan.More than 300 members of the Afghan security forces fled across the border into Tajikistan to escape the militants, and Badakhshan and Takhar provinces are now largely under Taliban control, beyond the respective regional capitals. Continue reading...