Channel 4 News uncovered allegations socialite groomed young women and girls in UK for Jeffrey EpsteinScotland Yard has said it will review allegations that British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell trafficked, groomed and abused women and girls in the UK.Maxwell, 59, the former girlfriend of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and other charges in the US over her alleged role in procuring four teenage girls for Epstein to abuse between 1994 and 2004. She is currently in a US prison awaiting trial after proceedings were delayed until autumn. Continue reading...
Wednesday: Some under-40s encouraged to get jab by nurses who say rollout should be opened up. Plus: how to help children battle anxietyGood morning. Environmental activists are in the firing line of the resources minister, Keith Pitt, today. Covid testing centres are providing relief for burnt-out nurses and hope for “queue jumpers” who are finding few obstacles to getting jabbed, despite not being eligible.Australians under 40 are receiving a Covid vaccine despite not being eligible. Some are being encouraged to do so by some nurses who say they want to see vaccines in the arms of people willing to receive them as soon as possible – others are finding there’s no one checking their eligibility. It comes as exhausted nurses are opting for shifts in vaccination hubs instead of emergency departments and GP surgeries for the higher pay and so they can get some much-needed respite from overcrowded public hospitals and clinics. Meanwhile, Victoria halted new bookings for the Pfizer vaccine and locked down a large block of units in central Melbourne after two more people tested positive to Covid, while in Sydney authorities are investigating a possible spread of the virus in the quarantine system. Abroad there has been another grim milestone as the US passes 600,000 Covid-related deaths. Continue reading...
Family celebrate success of campaign to halt deportation of 22-year-old, who has autismA 22-year-old man who has autism and his family are celebrating after the Home Office abandoned plans to deport him to Jamaica.Osime Brown, who left Jamaica aged four to settle in the UK with his mother, Joan Martin, was facing deportation after being released from prison where he had been serving a sentence for stealing a friend’s mobile phone, though he and others said he did not do it. Continue reading...
Portugal left it late but they secured a thoroughly deserved victory over Hungary7.00pm BSTThank you very much for joining me.Here is the match report.Related: Cristiano Ronaldo double helps Portugal finally sink stubborn Hungary 6.54pm BSTThey really weren’t.@Will_Unwin
Marián Kočner and suspected accomplice accused of 2018 murder of reporter and fiancee, which prompted huge protestsSlovakia’s supreme court has overturned the acquittals of a businessman and his suspected accomplice for the murder of a journalist in a case that triggered mass protests and toppled the country’s previous government.Well-connected multimillionaire Marián Kočner and Alena Zsuzsová will now face a new trial for the murder of Ján Kuciak and his fiancee, Martina Kušnírová, who were killed in their home in 2018. Continue reading...
He resigned amid the fallout from a government report that dismissed institutional racism. In his first interview since, he says some ministers are waging a culture war – and endangering the country
Stormont executive expected to collapse unless Westminster follows demand to interveneSinn Féin has appealed to the British government to bypass the Northern Ireland assembly and to introduce Irish-language legislation via Westminster to defuse a political crisis that threatens to collapse Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government.Conor Murphy, the Sinn Féin finance minister, said on Tuesday that the party would end a standoff over rebooting the stalled Stormont executive if London delivered the legislation. Continue reading...
Michael O’Leary tells MPs of ‘hostile and threatening’ actions towards flight crewAirlines must remain free to fly over rogue states despite the “state-sponsored hijacking” of a plane by Belarus, according to the boss of Ryanair, as he told MPs of the “hostile and threatening” actions towards the flight crew in Minsk.The captain and five crew of Ryanair flight FR4978 from Athens to Vilnius were put under armed guard in Minsk after diverting the plane for a fake bomb threat – apparently staged to allow the Belarus government to capture an opposition journalist among the 126 passengers. Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega were arrested on landing. Continue reading...
Supreme court says Salvatore Girone and Massimiliano Latorre should now be tried in their own countryIndia’s top court has dropped long-running proceedings against two Italian marines who shot dead two fishermen off Kerala in 2012, but said the soldiers should now be tried in their own country.Salvatore Girone and Massimiliano Latorre killed the unarmed men off the southern Indian coast in February 2012 while protecting an Italian oil tanker as part of an anti-piracy mission. Continue reading...
Actor and director acknowledged musical failed to adequately represent Afro-Latinos, saying: ‘I can hear the hurt and frustration’Actor and director Lin-Manuel Miranda has apologized for failing to adequately represent Afro-Latinos in his latest musical project, In the Heights, that is centered on New York’s Latino communities.The Hamilton star posted a note to social media on Monday acknowledging that casting for his latest project, set the in diverse neighborhood of Washington Heights in upper Manhattan, had lapsed into colorism, broadly defined as prejudice or discrimination against darker skin tones within the same racial group. Continue reading...
Refugees tell Human Rights Watch they fear forced repatriation and persecution after personal details passed on to MyanmarThe UN may have put hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees at risk of persecution or involuntary repatriation back to Myanmar after improperly collecting and sharing refugees’ personal information with Bangladesh, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), which is urging an investigation.Over the past three years, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has registered more than 800,000 Rohingya refugees living in Bangladeshi camps in order to provide them with identity cards needed to access essential aid and services. Continue reading...
Sotheby’s to auction digital artefact, This Changed Everything, more than 32 years after world wide web first proposedSir Tim Berners-Lee will sell an NFT representing the source code of the world wide web at Sotheby’s, the auction house has announced, more than 32 years after his first proposal for the project was dismissed by a supervisor as “vague, but exciting”.The sale, proceeds from which will be used to benefit initiatives that Berners-Lee and his wife, Rosemary Leith, support, is the first time the auction house’s historic artefacts division has been able to sell such a “digital-native artefact”. Continue reading...
Anger, confusion and despair are the keynotes of this one-night-in-a-city film that leads towards a horrendous scene of abuseA one-night-in-the-city movie from Hungary with an ensemble cast interconnecting and interrelating in bizarrely unexpected ways; the city in question is perhaps Budapest, though it was filmed in Cluj, in Romania. The keynotes are anger, confusion and despair, and to some degree the film could have been opaque or contrived but its malaise ultimately finds expression in a truly horrible #MeToo moment, one of the most brutally plausible and unsettling I have seen in any film recently.The cast are various: the organisers of a protest against the reactionary government have a row over competency, and an associate of theirs has a romantic moment with a Mohawk-haired teen son of a sourly depressed pastor and his angry wife. A woman has a furious row with a rude and supercilious sales assistant in a flower shop. Her husband is enraged to hear of a sad romantic escapade in the past and their 10-year-old daughter turns out to have magic powers. They have a link with an intimate and experimental “living room theatre” troupe whose deeply unpleasant director is a predatory rapist, furnishing this movie with the climactically horrendous scene near the end. And so it goes on, with the various lives playing out more or less simultaneously. Continue reading...
Arrests of opposition figures, including revered former guerrillas, represent ‘last gamble of a dictator’s family’Nicaragua’s Sandinista rulers have launched an unprecedented crackdown on the country’s opposition, arresting a string of prominent critics of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice-President Rosario Murillo, in an apparent attempt to crush any serious challenge in November’s elections.Six opposition figures were arrested at the weekend, including revered former guerrillas who fought alongside Ortega during the campaign to topple the dictator Anastasio Somoza and went on to serve in the first Sandinista government. Continue reading...
Four experts from DR Congo’s Goma Volcano Observatory took the trail up Mount Nyiragongo last week to get a closer look at the volcano which last month spewed rivers of lava and forced the evacuation of a city Continue reading...
Ancient Roman building with ‘magnificent frescoed walls’ appears to have been survived a fireAn ancient Roman building has been found during excavations at a former cinema in the northern Italian city of Verona in what has been described as a “miniature Pompeii”.The discovery was made during excavations in the basement of Astra cinema, which is undergoing renovation after lying abandoned for more than 20 years. Continue reading...
Agreement struck on Monday night and details expected to be announced on Tuesday morningDetails of a trade deal between the UK and Australia will be announced on Tuesday morning, the Guardian understands.A Department for International Trade spokesperson confirmed that the broad terms had been struck on Monday night, after Boris Johnson and the Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, had dinner at Downing Street. Continue reading...
by Harry Taylor (now); Kaamil Ahmed ,Martin Belam and on (#5K1BN)
Nearly 40,000 new cases reported in Brazil in last 24 hours; hospitals in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta already at 75% capacity; Bangkok cancels vaccine appointments
The hosts dominated in Seville but Sweden, who defended superbly, may rue a golden chance passed up by Marcus Berg10.05pm BSTAnd here’s a report from the master, Sid Lowe.
Tuesday: Murugappans expected to be released from detention on Christmas Island but are unlikely to return to their home town. Plus: translating international potato varietiesGood morning! There’s good news today for the Biloela family and their supporters, with the family set to be released after nearly two years in detention on Christmas Island. We also have news on Australian emergency departments struggling with an overloaded system and more on the ongoing government mishandling of the vaccine rollout in the aged care sector. Hungry for more? Check out our recommended reads for everything you need to know about Australian spuds.The Biloela family will soon be reunited on the Australian mainland, where the youngest daughter, Tharnicaa, is being treated in hospital after suffering sepsis and pneumonia while in detention on Christmas Island. The immigration minister, Alex Hawke, is set to announce today that the Murugappan family will be released from detention. Hawke will use his ministerial discretion to allow the family to return but the government is not expected to make any substantive changes to their visa status, which is still being argued in the courts. It’s expected the family will be initially reunited in Perth while Tharnicaa is in hospital. Continue reading...
Police are accused of unlawfully killing thousands of civilians between 2016 and 2019 during drug crackdownThe international criminal court’s chief prosecutor has sought authorisation to open an investigation into crimes against humanity during the Philippines’ deadly “war on drugs”, in one of her last acts before stepping down this week.Fatou Bensouda asked judges at the world’s only permanent war crimes court to authorise an investigation into allegations that police unlawfully killed as many as tens of thousands of civilians between 2016 and 2019. Continue reading...
Hot weather bakes in disadvantage. Regenerating natural and living ecosystems will help us allA century ago the British critic and crime writer GK Chesterton declared that crime fiction is the poetry of the city. Chesterton’s point was that the city is more attuned to the poetry of contemporary life than the country, but his observation also hit upon something no less important, which is that the structures that shape social and economic life are visible in their concentrated forms in the urban environment.This is especially true when it comes to the impacts of global heating. As our cities get hotter the inequities embedded in them are intensifying rapidly. A 45C day in Sydney’s inner city isn’t fun, but residents of the affluent suburbs close to the centre tend to live in well-appointed, air-conditioned houses and apartments, as well as enjoying easy access to beaches, parks, pools and libraries where they can find refuge from the heat. Continue reading...
by Vincent Ni China affairs correspondent on (#5K23A)
Analysis: some observers say Beijing may well seek to undermine Nato unity in response to being accused of posing a systemic challenge to western valuesWhen the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) was established on 4 April 1949, its mission was to counterbalance armies from the Soviet Union that were stationed in central and eastern Europe after the conclusion of the second world war.After Emmanuel Macron, the current leader of one of its founding members, France, called it “brain-dead” in 2019, some analysts said the alliance will have to look for a new unifying mission to keep itself relevant in the new age of great power competition between the US and China. Continue reading...
Dean Morrice described by judge as ‘dangerous neo-Nazi’ who pumped out racist propaganda onlineA former Ukip member who posted violent racist, antisemitic and Islamophobic propaganda online and collected the means for making bombs has been jailed for 18 years.Dean Morrice had ball bearings, pipes and instructions for an improvised explosive device (IED) by the time his home was raided last year, and the judge at Kingston crown court said it was “fortunate” that police arrested him when they did. Continue reading...
Patrik Schick’s sensational long-range goal knocked the stuffing out of Scotland4.28pm BSTSteve Clarke speaks to the BBC. “It was quite an even game, I don’t think there was much in it. Obviously they were a little bit more clinical with their chances. Losing the goal with a second-phase set play was disappointing and we went in at half-time on the back foot, then the boy’s hit a wonderful strike from just inside our half. It was a shot that got blocked that fell perfect for them. So those moments went against us. When we had our chances to get back, we didn’t take them. It’s a good learning experience. We didn’t come here to learn, but you still learn your lessons, that’s what happens. I thought we played decent. At times we played some good stuff. Lots to learn for everybody. I’ll have a good think about it. We’ll go back to base camp, lick our wounds for 24 hours, then get ready for the game on Friday.”4.22pm BSTThe hero of the hour, Patrik Schick, talks to the BBC. “The first game is so important and we are happy to have won this game. It’s always hard to play against us, because we have a lot of hard-working players. Scotland was a tough opponent, but we were ready. I saw the keeper off his line, I checked already in the first half. I thought maybe this situation will come. I knew he stays very high, so when the ball came, I quickly checked where he was standing, and it was a nice goal. Croatia will be a little bit different but we will prepare.” Continue reading...
Investigators have found 3,787 fragments as items in house from people who disappeared suggest killings may go back yearsInvestigators digging under the house of a suspected serial killer on the outskirts of Mexico City have found 3,787 bone fragments so far, apparently belonging to 17 different victims.Prosecutors in the state of Mexico, which borders Mexico City, suggested the grisly finds may not end there. In excavations carried out since 17 May, authorities have dug up the floors of the house where the suspect lived. They now plan to extend the search to the soil beneath several other rooms he rented out on the same property. Continue reading...
Volunteers respond to politically polarised film footage from Israel and the Palestinian territories in this critical look at interpretationEven though he tries to maintain a cool, scientific demeanour, Israeli director Ra’anan Alexandrowicz finally lets slip a twinge of despair at the end of this interesting geopolitical Rorschach test. Alexandrowicz sits studiously behind a monitor as he invites a succession of volunteers to enter an adjacent booth. There, they have a choice of 40 clips to watch, snippets of life in Israel, while he asks them to share their thoughts on what they see. Half of the clips are from rightwing Israeli sources; the other half are from B’Tselem, an Israeli human-rights organisation that aims to document abuses of power in Palestinian territories.Alexandrowicz quickly zeroes in on the pensive Maia, a Jewish American who supports Israel, but brings an insistent scepticism to everything she watches. He is the director of pro-Palestine documentaries such as The Inner Tour (2001) and The Law in These Parts (2011) – and believes her to be his ideal audience: a possible convert. Continue reading...
If the UK and EU’s wrangling over the agreement is to end, both sides must honour their commitment to pragmatismBrexit, by definition, was always going to be disruptive. And the harder the Brexit, the greater the disruption.Leaving a customs union and a single market, even if you subsequently secure a free trade agreement, means the reintroduction of customs formalities, regulatory checks and other non-tariff barriers. And if you agree with the European Union that part of the state will de facto remain in the EU’s customs territory and its internal market for goods, those frictions will be within the UK. Continue reading...
From his breakthrough in Deliverance to a memorable turn in Toy Story 3, the authenticity of Beatty’s middleman gone bad made him the perfect co-star – and often stole the show
Picasso was so enthralled by African art, he used it to start a revolution. But did it give rise to a fantasy of Africa that still endures? British-Nigerian artist Shonibare tells us why he’s revisiting that seismic momentIn 1998, in a hilarious work called Diary of a Victorian Dandy, Yinka Shonibare inserted himself, impeccably attired, into the sitting rooms, drawing rooms, billiards rooms and bedrooms of high society Victorian Britain, invariably causing a sensation in each of the perfectly mocked-up photographs. The work mimics William Hogarth’s The Rake’s Progress, but instead of ending up in Bedlam, like Hogarth’s protagonist, Shonibare the Dandy triumphs over white society at everything from financial dealing to fine conversation. It all climaxes with him having a great time in a brothel with no apparent guilt or punishment. Well, it was the 1990s – and Shonibare was a bona fide Young British Artist. Also, he says with a laugh, “Hogarth was the first YBA.”Shonibare has played plenty of games with art and history since, including refitting a model of HMS Victory – that most British of all vessels, the flagship of the Battle of Trafalgar – with sails of (supposedly) African batik fabric and sticking it in a giant bottle. But now the British-Nigerian artist is turning his attention to the birth of modern art in Picasso’s Paris. Not many artists come away from an encounter with Pablo looking good. A 2012 Tate exhibition about the Spaniard and modern British art left Henry Moore and Francis Bacon looking very small indeed. But Shonibare engages with the old Minotaur in a relaxed, funny yet profoundly insightful way. Continue reading...
Standoff between DUP and Sinn Féin blocking ratification of Arlene Foster’s designated successorA dispute between Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) over an Irish-language act is threatening to derail the Northern Ireland assembly and executive.Arlene Foster was due to resign as first minister at 1pm on Monday but a standoff between the two biggest parties at Stormont is blocking her designated successor, Paul Givan, 39, from taking the post. Continue reading...
Helen, 47, and Ray, 49, met in 1999 when she interviewed his band for a magazine. They got together in 2001 and now live in Staffordshire with their two sonsHelen landed her dream job at the end of the 1990s, working as a writer for Total Guitar magazine. She was living in Bath, travelling across the country for gigs whenever she got the chance. In May 1999, she went to Reading to interview the band Witness, who were supporting Hurricane #1, and met the lead guitarist, Ray. “The band were so friendly and down to earth,” she remembers. “I met a lot of musicians who were egotistical, but Ray wasn’t like that.”Witness had been working on their first album in Bristol, where Ray was based at the time. “We’d done a few interviews, but that one felt like a big deal,” he says. “We were worried about what to say and I thought she might ask lots of technical guitar questions that I didn’t know how to answer.” But the interview went “really well” and he was taken with Helen. “She caught my eye and I thought: ‘She’s nice.’” Continue reading...
The Chicago rapper’s last album spent 47 weeks in the UK chart, testament to the power of his raw, introspective tracks. He discusses his journey out of crime and drug use towards being one of rap’s biggest stars“Every day a battle, I’m exhausted and I’m weary / Make sure I smile in public, when alone, my eyes teary / I fought through it all, but that shit hurt me severely.” Even acknowledging the widespread vulnerability and emotional honesty in today’s rap scene, these are still startling lyrics for a US No 1 hit. They’re written by 22-year-old Chicago rapper Polo G, and taken from Rapstar, the lead single on his new album, Hall of Fame. The track also reached No 3 in the UK in April, and his previous album The GOAT has spent 47 weeks on the UK album chart, with his brand of mournful melodic rap perhaps particularly appealing during the introspection of lockdown. A candid but tense meeting with him shows the reality of those lyrics.His recent success means his schedule is filling to the point where our video call gets repeatedly pushed back due to flights and late-night chatshow recordings. When it does happen, the camera shows the ceiling of a car as he is driven to the bank. The disorienting whirl of album promo is taking its toll. “It’s kind of stressful: the constant ‘we need you to do this’,” he says. “But it’s just a matter of me getting back into the loop of the world opening back up.” Continue reading...