Analysis: upholding of genocide conviction for 1995 atrocities is a victorious end to a process few thought would succeedWhen Ratko Mladić’s life sentence for genocide and crimes against humanity was confirmed, marking the end of the road for the Bosnian Serb general 10 years after his capture, Munira Subašić, was in The Hague courtroom to watch.In July 1995, Subašić was outside a UN compound, a disused battery factory near Srebrenica, appealing for protection from Dutch peacekeepers along with thousands of other terrified Bosnian Muslims. Continue reading...
by Presented by Laura Murphy-Oates; produced by Miles on (#5JTDZ)
The coronavirus outbreak in Melbourne has spread to aged care, with multiple cases linked to one facility: Arcare in Maidstone. For young carer Ai-Lin, whose 86-year-old grandmother Ann lives at the facility, this outbreak raises serious questions about Australia’s aged care system and the federal government’s vaccination rollout.Laura Murphy-Oates speaks to Ai-Lin about her experience as a young carer living through the pandemicYou can also read: Continue reading...
Simon Hawxwell, formerly of Hampshire constabulary, also guilty of waving scissors in colleague’s faceA highly experienced former police officer has been found guilty of gross misconduct after he choked a new female colleague, brandished scissors in her face and aimed highly sexualised insults at her.PC Simon Hawxwell, who served in Hampshire constabulary for 18 years, left his young co-worker “fearful she would be sliced” when he held scissors to her cheek in the office. Continue reading...
The time you wake up every morning is baked into your DNA – and it could have an impact on your mood and wellbeingName: The lark advantage.Age: Suspected for years, but recently ratified. Continue reading...
by Richard Partington Economics correspondent on (#5JT74)
Global tax changes could mean Treasury loses £230m digital services tax receipts from Google, Amazon, Facebook and eBayExperts have warned that US tech companies, including Google, Amazon and Facebook, could pay less tax in the UK and several other big economies under global reforms agreed at the weekend by the G7.In a key stumbling block emerging days after the landmark deal, research from the TaxWatch campaign group indicates that the UK Treasury stands to lose about £230m from the taxes paid each year by four of the big US tech firms. Continue reading...
As the groundbreaking show ends its award-winning three season run, those involved with the show talk about its importance for trans and queer people of colorGold crowns inset with emeralds, fur-trimmed capes and gowns embellished with glittering diamonds and pearls clothed The House of Abundance as they made their last-minute entrance into a New York City ballroom and their first entrance on to our TV screens in the premiere episode of Pose in June 2018, which aired its final episode on Sunday.Related: 'I binged Six Feet Under just for the gayness of it': LGBT celebs on their favourite queer TV Continue reading...
Holidays, especially abroad, are off the cards for many this summer. So it’s good to remember they aren’t always the idyllic break we dream of. Here are our readers worst experiencesWe went on holiday for Christmas to a friend’s parents house in Marlo – a village in Victoria, Australia. We got there on Christmas Eve to find the only shop was pretty bare – so Christmas lunch was a frozen turkey roll, Fanta, chips and some frozen peas. I made a Christmas tree out of a stick and some toilet rolls, determined to be cheerful. On Christmas morning, I woke up and went outside. It was nice and hot – yay, beach day! Then I stepped on a very large brown snake on the doorstep and screamed. I found another snake in the lounge room, one in the toilet, and others all around the house. It was my idea of hell. I had no idea whether they were poisonous but it didn’t matter. I was terrified. Lesley Podesta, retired, Australia Continue reading...
Gerard Coyne says he has the 174 branch nominations required in the race to succeed Len McCluskeyThe race to succeed Len McCluskey as the leader of Unite the union is expected to become increasingly tense after the centre-left candidate Gerard Coyne disclosed to the Guardian that he has won enough nominations to reach the final ballot.The announcement is likely to prompt furious negotiations between Coyne’s leftwing rivals as they seek to persuade each other to stand down to keep him out. Continue reading...
The Irish musician said her statement, made on 5 June, was a ‘kneejerk reaction’ against the UK and Irish media’s ‘constant abuse and invalidation’ of her mental healthSinéad O’Connor has retracted her announcement, made over the weekend, that she would retire from music and live performance.In a new statement posted to Twitter, the Irish musician explained to fans that she had felt “badly triggered” by a series of interviews regarding her new memoir, Rememberings, in which she writes of surviving physical and psychological abuse. Continue reading...
Group of pachyderms that has been criss-crossing the countryside photographed lying down outside a village in Xiyang townshipChina’s famous herd of wandering elephants has stopped for a rest after a 15-month journey far out of their natural habitat, an odyssey that has captivated the country.Authorities have marshalled extraordinary resources to monitor the herd and keep it away from residential areas. According to Chinese media, the Yunnan forest fire brigade said a team of eight people were tracking the elephants, 24 hours a day, both on the ground and by drone from the air. Continue reading...
‘False bosomed’ floozies, or the brainiest of businesswomen? As Brian Moylan explains in an extract from his new book, the reality juggernaut might be more subversive than you thinkThe Real Housewives is one of the biggest and glitziest reality franchises on TV. But just who are its many stars; how much money do they make; which of the international offshoots, from Hungary to Cheshire, are worth watching – and how much of it is real?In an extract from his new book, The Housewives: The Real Story Behind the Real Housewives, Brian Moylan explains why some feminists love the series, why others hate it and what it really says about race and class in the US today. Continue reading...
Garish colour effects, dodgy dialogue … who’s heading for a breakdown first, Argento’s haunted artist or the audience?It might be something of a surprise to see a new movie starring Asia Argento, a leading figure in the #MeToo movement; Agony, directed by Argento’s ex-husband Michele Civetta, was actually completed in 2017.This atmospheric film hovers somewhere between a gothic horror and a giallo. Isidora (Argento) is a tightly wound Italian artist living in New York with her husband and young daughter. Plagued by strange visions of an occult ceremony, Isidora continues to unravel when she discovers that her mother, whom she believes is long dead, only passed away recently and has left her a vast estate in Tuscany. Isidora confronts her father, who confesses that he shielded her from the truth because of her mother’s debilitating mental illness. Isidora, along with her family, heads to the estate to oversee her mother’s funeral, and she is haunted by the image of a lady in red and begins to lose her grip on reality. Continue reading...
Camden residents living near high-speed rail project complain of dust, noise and vibrating in their homesA London council has accused HS2 of reneging on its commitments to residents after people living near the construction of the high-speed rail link complained of dust, noise and vibrating in their homes.Council residents living just metres away from building work on part of the project close to Euston Station say their lives have become “hellish” and have urged the rail company to rehouse them en masse, at an estimated cost of £100m. Continue reading...
by Luke Henriques-Gomes (now) and Matilda Boseley (ea on (#5JS7Y)
Victoria reports two new coronavirus cases, both linked to current outbreaks, as Delta variant traced to returned traveller; Western Australia opens vaccinations to over-30s; South Australia expands vaccine rollout
A rap tutor and a language expert dissect the various eras of music’s ever-shifting genre, from Beastie Boys to Giggs and Nicki MinajHe sound like a mosquito if it had access to a studio!”; “I played 645AR at your crib and all the mice in your walls started dancing”; “He sound like Future’s bed bugs”: not your standard rap fan comments, but the Bronx via Atlanta rapper-singer 645AR is … innovative. His lyrics may cover fierce street narratives and narcotic meanderings, but his vocal style is more Minnie Mouse than Migos. And he has fully committed to the bit: “the squeak”, as he’s happy to call it, is present throughout his discography to date and has earned him huge streaming numbers and an FKA twigs collaboration. He is not even the only squeak rapper; he has a predecessor in alien falsetto in Houston’s Voochie P.Related: The Guide: Staying In – sign up for our home entertainment tips Continue reading...
by Lisa O'Carroll Brexit correspondent on (#5JSGF)
Plea comes as Joe Biden urged to send special envoy amid concern Good Friday agreement being ‘wilfully boycotted’Northern Irish businesses have called on UK and EU leaders to stop the Brexit “blame game” and deliver urgent solutions to end growing tensions over the checks on food and goods crossing the Irish Sea into the region.Their plea comes as a US political committee involving five former US ambassadors says Joe Biden should appoint a special presidential envoy to Northern Ireland amid concern that the Good Friday agreement is being “wilfully boycotted in protest over the protocol”. Continue reading...
In the eye-opening new book Unwell Women, Elinor Cleghorn uses her own misdiagnosis at the hands of male doctors as a jumping point for an alarming history lessonHippocrates, the founder of modern medicine, believed that women were controlled by their uteruses. The father of modern gynecology, James Marion Sims, in the mid 1800s experimented on enslaved black women without anesthesia, convinced that they felt less pain than white women. (Until its removal in 2018, his statue stood in New York City’s Central Park for over a century.) Doctors claimed that women’s suffrage would cause injury to women’s fragile bodies and diminished minds. Such examples cast an abhorrent pall over “first, do no harm.”Related: Unwell Women by Elinor Cleghorn review – battle for the female body Continue reading...
Far-right candidate’s statement attracts criticism as international observers say ballot passed off correctlyKeiko Fujimori, one of the two candidates fighting vote by vote for the presidency of Peru, has alleged fraud and irregularities in the count of Sunday’s election as her rival leftist teacher Pedro Castillo widens a narrow lead.An inter-American observer mission did not report any irregularities and said the ballot passed off correctly, complying with international standards. Continue reading...
Man, 18, in coma with broken neck and severe head injuries after whale lands on boatAn 18-year-old man from New South Wales is fighting for his life in a coma after he was crushed by a whale in a freak accident on the state’s south coast.Friends Nick and Matt were fishing in waters off Narooma on Sunday when the whale surfaced and landed on their boat. Continue reading...
British actor tells magazine about precautions she takes walking home and says situation is ‘depressing’Keira Knightley has spoken about how sexual harassment is such a big problem she “literally” does not know any woman who has not been subjected to it, including herself.The British actor said that, from groping to being flashed, “everybody” has been harassed in some way. Continue reading...
Abdul Elahi, who extorted adults and minors globally while posing as online sugar daddy, admits 158 chargesA paedophile who exploited and blackmailed almost 2,000 victims globally has admitted 158 charges in what has been described as “industrial-scale” offending.Abdul Elahi, 26, admitted a host of charges – thought to be among the highest number of offences one individual has ever pleaded guilty to – after a lengthy investigation, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said. Continue reading...
Critics question whether push against corruption and human trafficking marks genuine change amid growing povertyKamala Harris, the US vice-president, has announced a new anti-corruption drive, economic aid and tougher enforcement against human trafficking during a visit to Guatemala.But Harris, on her first foreign trip as vice-president, faced sceptical questions over whether the measures she announced would represent a real change in US policy in the region, at a time of worsening poverty and corruption. Continue reading...
Tuesday: youngest daughter of Tamil family detained on Christmas Island taken to Perth for emergency medical care. Plus: meet our TitanosaurGood morning. It’s Tuesday 8 June and this is Imogen Dewey with today’s main stories: one in four voters think the Morrison government is doing a “poor” job of managing Covid-19, the Ben Roberts-Smith trial continues, and a massive new dinosaur has been found in Australia.The youngest daughter of the Tamil family from Biloela who have been detained for more than 18 months on Christmas Island has been taken to Perth for emergency medical care, advocates said last night. Tharnicaa Murugappan has been evacuated along with her mother, Priya, for treatment for a suspected blood infection, but her father, Nades, and sister, Kopika, were not allowed to travel. The Department of Home Affairs said it was “committed to the welfare of detainees”. The government has been ordered to pay an Iraqi asylum seeker $350,000 in damages for unlawfully detaining him for more than two years, after a legal battle that could set a precedent for similar cases. Continue reading...
This new Irish drama expertly manages a large cast of characters, with seeds of suspicion, red herrings – and a monstrous patriarch left for deadSmother (Alibi), a new County Clare-set thriller by novelist and television writer Kate O’Riordan, reminds me – and I have few higher compliments – of the work of Maeve Binchy, if she had ever turned her hand to whodunnits. It has a seemingly effortless mastery of a large cast of characters, warm intelligence pervading everything, and promotes the gorgeous general sense of being held for the duration in a very safe pair of hands indeed. Like Binchy, it is also entirely addictive.It opens with an altercation on a clifftop that ends with a man dead on the beach below. Then, as is currently TV fashion, we spool back to earlier that night, as successful businessman Denis (Stuart Graham) hosts his wife Val’s (Dervla Kirwan) 50th birthday party. Their three daughters are there – Jenny (Niamh Walsh), a heavily pregnant single doctor who works eternally for Daddy’s approval, Anna (Gemma-Leah Devereux), who is in the final stages of a custody battle with her husband Rory’s ex-wife for the latter’s two sons, and Grace (Seána Kerslake), the fragile youngest, struggling with mental illness and currently off her medication. Continue reading...
by Jessica Elgot Deputy political editor on (#5JS18)
At least 40 Conservative MPs are fighting on to get overseas funding restored after setback in CommonsBoris Johnson has set himself on a collision course with scores of his MPs as No 10 suggested it would defy an order by the House of Commons speaker to bring a vote on swingeing foreign aid cuts.Between 40 and 50 Conservative MPs were said to be considering defying the government on Monday before an ambush in the Commons was thwarted, with rebels now exploring options including legal action. Continue reading...
Pedro Castillo is about 0.2% ahead of his far-right opponent, Keiko Fujimori, with more than 94% of the vote countedThe scion of a jailed autocrat and the son of illiterate peasant farmers are fighting vote by vote for the presidency of Peru, in an election which has thrown into sharp relief the Andean country’s deep fault lines of class and geography.Related: Peru faces poll dilemma: a leftist firebrand or the dictator’s daughter? Continue reading...
by Presented by Laura Murphy-Oates and reported by Do on (#5JRWW)
Nearly half of Australia’s cattle is treated with growth hormones to speed up weight gain. Australian regulators say these hormones are safe and legal, but in the EU and the UK, they’re banned. However a new free-trade agreement currently under negotiation could see a change in policy in the UK, and cause Australia’s beef exports to the UK to rise tenfold. Science writer Donna Lu speaks to Laura Murphy-Oates about this trade agreement, and the impact of hormone-treated beef on humans, animals and the environmentYou can also read: Continue reading...
Former Fleetwood Town manager goes on trial accused of assaulting Daniel Stendel at Barnsley game in 2019The former England footballer Joey Barton pushed over a rival manager, causing serious injuries to his face, after defeat in a League One match, a jury has been told.Barton, 38, went on trial on Monday accused of assaulting Daniel Stendel, the then Barnsley manager, in the tunnel at the South Yorkshire side’s Oakwell Stadium in April 2019 after a 4-2 defeat for Fleetwood Town, where Barton was then manager. Continue reading...
Former vice-president who led 2017 bid for independence says ‘Scottish-style’ referendum is best way forwardThe former Catalan regional vice-president jailed for his role in the failed attempt to secede from Spain almost four years ago has signalled his support for a pardon from the Madrid government and suggested that unilateral efforts to secure independence are now “neither viable nor desirable”.Oriol Junqueras, who leads the Catalan Republican Left party (ERC), said the best way to end the political standoff over regional independence remained a Scottish-style referendum agreed with the Spanish government. Continue reading...
Brussels points to UK’s repeated failure to live up to its obligations but will offer concessions in effort to find solutionBrussels is preparing to make concessions over Northern Ireland but has warned Lord Frost ahead of a key meeting that the EU’s “patience is wearing thin” over the UK government’s repeated failure to fulfil its obligations.In response to claims from the Brexit minister in recent weeks that the bloc had been insufficiently flexible, EU officials pointed to a series of decisions by Downing Street that had eroded trust while signalling that it was prepared to bend on some issues. Continue reading...
Plans blocked after a similar parade stoked tensions that contributed to last Gaza conflictIsraeli police have blocked a planned march by Jewish nationalists through Palestinian neighbourhoods of Jerusalem after a similar parade last month played a key role in building the tensions that led to the latest Gaza conflict.In a statement, police said a permit for a different time or route might be considered. Continue reading...
The pandemic has seen audio shows fill a hole in our lives, providing companionship that is increasingly difficult to distinguish from the real thingSome of my friends have no idea I even exist. These are people I know intimately, extensively, profoundly: I know what they had for dinner last night, the petty arguments they have at home, their obsessions, their insecurities, their fears, what time they wake up in the morning. No piece of minutiae is too minute, no idle thought too inconsequential, no detail too mundane: I want to hear it all.If this is beginning to sound slightly alarming, I should point out that they tell me all of these things – and try to make me laugh in the process. I think of podcasters as my friends – and I am not alone. Continue reading...
UN officials unsure whether Iran building nuclear weapons but UK, France, Germany and US push for breakthrough in talksThe US and Europe have decided to set aside a fresh warning from the director general of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it is no longer possible to say with confidence whether Iran is seeking to build a bomb, as they press on with attempting to revive its nuclear deal with the west.Rafael Grossi says Iran is not co-operating or providing any answers to questions his agency has posed after it found nuclear particles at four undeclared sites. Continue reading...
Artin, previously listed as missing, died alongside his Iranian-Kurdish relatives when boat sank last OctoberA body that was found on a Norwegian shore several months ago has been identified as that of a 15-month-old child named Artin, who died alongside his relatives as they tried to cross the Channel to start a new life in the UK last October, local police have said.The body was found near Karmøy in south-west Norway on New Year’s Day – more than two months after the vessel carrying the Iranian Kurds Rasul Iran Nezhad, Shiva Mohammad Panahi and their three children sank. Continue reading...
‘I heard German fans singing it after they knocked England out. I had to resist throwing a TV out of the window’I knew that New Order had done a football song [Italia 1990’s World in Motion], but I was hesitant when the FA asked me to do Euro 96. Fantasy Football with Frank Skinner and David Baddiel was big on TV at the time, so I thought they should sing it and the band could go uncredited. But everybody was like, “No. It’s got to be the Lightning Seeds as well.” Continue reading...
On the 25th anniversary of her death, the novelist Jan, who was free-spirited and self-destructive like her father, has almost been entirely erased from his storyThe King of the Beats, Jack Kerouac, was renowned for laying bare his life in more than a dozen roman a clef novels, his most famous being On the Road, which documented the birth, rise and final days of an enduring counterculture.But while larger-than-life characters such as Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and Neal Cassady wandered in and out of Kerouac’s works under a variety of pseudonyms, one important figure in the writer’s life is conspicuously absent: his daughter, Jan Kerouac, who died 25 years ago this week. Continue reading...
The massive Titanosaur, which lived more than 90m years ago, was discovered in south-west QueenslandA new species of dinosaur discovered in south-west Queensland has been officially recognised as the largest ever found in Australia and among the biggest in the world.The Australotitan cooperensis, a plant-eating dinosaur of the family known as titanosaurs, likely lived between 92m and 96m years ago, during the Cretaceous period. Continue reading...
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