Private lenders hampering responses to pandemic in poorest countries, say activists outside HSBC in LondonActivists at a demonstration outside the annual general meeting of HSBC in London have demanded the bank and other financial giants provide debt relief to African countries hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.In an attempt to highlight the role of private creditors in the debt crises of the world’s poorest countries, campaigners with “drop the debt” banners gathered outside HSBC’s AGM at the Southbank Centre. Continue reading...
I was carefully selected to help my parents with their new television. It’s not over yetMy husband and child stood on the front step waving me off. White handkerchiefs aloft and fluttering in the breeze, faces sombre, they wished me well. Continue reading...
It is understood the text of the joint declaration will call German atrocities ‘genocide’ but omit the words ‘reparations’ or ‘compensation’Germany has to agreed to pay Namibia €1.1bn (£940m) as it officially recognised the Herero-Nama genocide at the start of the 20th century, in what Angela Merkel’s government says amounts to a gesture of reconciliation but not legally binding reparations.Tens of thousands of men, women and children were shot, tortured or driven into the Kalahari desert to starve by German troops between 1904 and 1908 after the Herero and Nama tribes rebelled against colonial rule in what was then named German South West Africa and is now Namibia. Continue reading...
Some facilities say they experienced challenges preparing residents after being given short notice that medical teams would be arrivingThe Morrison government was scrambling to administer first doses of Covid vaccines to unvaccinated aged care homes across Victoria on the first day of a week-long lockdown, as federal ministers refuted criticism of the program’s rollout.Facilities hurriedly prepared residents for rushed vaccines on Friday as the commonwealth raced to vaccinate neglected populations within the highest priority group it had initially promised to two months ago. Continue reading...
Journalists and activists targeted in most wide-reaching crackdown since days of Soviet UnionChurch bells rang in the city of Byarozawka as hundreds of mourners laid Vitold Ashurak to rest. They draped the white-red-white flag favoured by the Belarusian opposition over his body, as local police kept a wary eye on the funeral.Sentenced to five years in prison after last year’s mass demonstrations against Alexander Lukashenko, the 50-year-old protest leader survived less than one. When Ashurak’s body was returned to his family, his head was entirely covered in bandages – only his mouth was visible, a family friend said. Continue reading...
Obaida Jawabra was weeks from turning 18 when he was shot by an Israeli soldier, after a life shaped by arrests and imprisonmentRoute 60, the north-south artery that carves its way through the West Bank, is both the lifeblood of the region and a source of daily fear.Flanked in parts by 2.5-metre-high (8ft) separation barriers, military checkpoints and watchtowers crewed by Israeli snipers, the 146-mile highway that starts and finishes in Israel but passes Hebron and Bethlehem in the West Bank, has been the scene of many fatal attacks and violent clashes. Continue reading...
The star of Peaky Blinders on his late colleague, how he convinced the producers to cast him rather than Jason Statham as Tommy Shelby – and returning to the monster-movie genre in A Quiet Place Part IICillian Murphy, star of the new horror sequel A Quiet Place Part II, is something to behold: X-ray eyes at once penetrating and ethereally blue, cheekbones so pronounced you could stretch out and go to sleep on them. Unfortunately, the beholding will have to wait. We have barely exchanged greetings over Zoom when his voice breaks up, the screen freezes and the room falls silent. A quiet place, indeed.We switch to phones. We can do this, I tell him. “I have faith,” he replies, in a soothing Cork accent that compensates for the lack of visuals. Murphy’s gift for intensity has made him a natural fit for characters damaged (Dunkirk, The Edge of Love) or outright villainous (Batman Begins, Red Eye), but today he is quick to laugh and keen to talk. He is speaking from a flat in Manchester, where he is staying while he shoots the sixth and final series of Peaky Blinders. That stylish crime drama, which rocketed from BBC Two cult success to global phenomenon, revolves around a 1920s Birmingham gang led by Murphy as the vicious Tommy Shelby. With his eyes, looks could kill – although he keeps razor blades in the brim of his cap, just in case. Continue reading...
by Robert Booth Social affairs correspondent on (#5JC5X)
Dominic Cummings’ litany of claims against the government should be formally investigated, say familiesBoris Johnson is facing a growing clamour to bring forward the start of the coronavirus public inquiry after Dominic Cummings’ allegations triggered a “political pantomime” that disrespects the victims of the pandemic, their relatives said.The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, which represents thousands of grieving people, called for an urgent start to the inquiry, which is due to begin in spring 2022. Continue reading...
Governments told to focus on stopping young from taking up habit that killed 8 million people in 2019Smoking killed almost 8 million people in 2019 and the number of smokers rose as the habit was picked up by young people around the world, according to new research.A study published in the Lancet on Thursday said efforts to curb the habit had been outstripped by population growth with 150 million more people smoking in the nine years from 1990, reaching an all-time high of 1.1 billion. Continue reading...
The health secretary has admitted it 'wasn’t possible' to test all hospital patients discharged into English care homes for Covid, as he tried to salvage his reputation after a series of bombshell allegations made against him by Dominic Cummings. Hancock said: 'We worked as hard as we could to protect people who live in care homes,' but did not deny the central allegation that he promised all patients would be tested before being discharged to homes last March
UN rights chief says Israel attacks on Gaza could constitute war crimes and accuses Hamas of firing indiscriminate rocketsThe UN’s main human rights body will launch an investigation into “systematic discrimination and repression” in Israel and Palestine, with the aim of identifying what it said were the root causes of recent Gaza bloodshed.The proposal for unprecedented levels of scrutiny of alleged abuses, called at the request of Muslim states, was passed by the 47-member UN human rights council on Thursday. Continue reading...
Exclusive: both privatised job providers and employers are unsatisfied with the regime, a draft report saysPrivatised job agencies concluded welfare mutual obligations did not “improve the likelihood of employment” for jobseekers in unreleased evidence to a government-commissioned review of the Disability Employment Services (Des) program.Guardian Australia on Thursday revealed a report by Boston Consulting Group had found recent reforms to the $1bn a year scheme had delivered a windfall to privatised job agencies but not improved outcomes for the unemployed. Continue reading...
Rawdah Mohamed’s Instagram image opposing a proposed hijab ban in France went viral in AprilRawdah Mohamed, the Somali-Norwegian model whose protest against a proposed ban on the hijab in France went viral, has been announced as editor of the soon-to-be-launched Vogue Scandinavia.Mohamed will become the first hijab-wearing editor of colour at a fashion magazine in the west. Continue reading...
Family of Mary Bastholm, who disappeared in 1968, were hoping to get closure to put her to restThe family of a teenager suspected to have been a victim of the serial killer Fred West have expressed sadness that her remains have not been found after the basement of a Gloucester cafe was excavated by police.Relatives of 15-year-old Mary Bastholm, who vanished in 1968, said they still hoped the mystery of what happened to her will one day be solved. Continue reading...
Swiss say terms unacceptable despite Brussels’ claims they are better than those offered to UKSwitzerland has walked out of talks on a closer trading relationship with the European Union despite being offered better terms than the UK in key areas, EU officials have claimed.On Wednesday the country’s foreign minister, Ignazio Cassis, pulled the plug on long-running discussions with the EU, saying that Berne’s conditions were “not met”. Continue reading...
UK is pushing for agreement to stop use of tax havens by companies such as Google, Apple and AmazonA global tax deal that would impose a minimum 15% tax on the profits of big international tech companies could be given the green light ahead of the G7 summit in Cornwall next month, as the UK government pushes for a deal.Talks between the US president, Joe Biden, Boris Johnson and the other leaders of the richest seven nations are understood to be delicately balanced as they seek to hammer out a framework agreement before they meet in Carbis Bay on 11 June. Continue reading...
France’s move to prevent the import of Covid variant B.1.716.2 – now on the increase in the UK – could deter British film-makers and press from attendingBritish participation in at the Cannes film festival is under threat after new quarantine regulations put into place by the French government as the country seeks to successfully exit lockdown.After delays caused by Covid, the festival confirmed it would take place in early July, but France has announced a seven-day isolation period for visitors from the UK in response to rising concerns over the Covid variant B.1.617.2, first detected in India. The move is likely to affect thousands, both among the press corps and industry delegates, and large numbers of unregistered attendees. Continue reading...
Gorō Miyazaki’s foray into computer generation, a magical tale of a gleeful brat adopted by a witch, falls far short of Ghibli’s hand-drawn outputEighty-year-old animation legend Hayao Miyazaki once described computer-generated imagery as “thin, shallow, fake”. Now Studio Ghibli has made its first ever fully CG feature, and it’s, well, erm … The politest thing to say about Earwig and the Witch is that it’s not a patch on Ghibli’s hand-drawn output, with plasticky-looking characters and an aimless plot. More painfully still, the film-maker responsible is Miyazaki’s son, Gorō Miyazaki (who previously directed the pretty decent Tales from Earthsea and From Up on Poppy Hill).To be fair, Earwig was made for Japanese TV, but there are so many echoes here of Ghibli films past that it’s impossible not to compare and despair. Like Howl’s Moving Castle, the script is based on a classic children’s book by Diana Wynne Jones; and just like Kiki’s Delivery Service the heroine is a plucky young witch. It begins on the doorsteps of an English orphanage where baby Earwig is left by her rock star mum along with a note: “Got the other 12 witches all chasing me. I’ll be back for her when I’ve shook them off. It may take years.” Continue reading...
Meeting revealed in Senate hearing as Labor seeks answers on 10-day gap between 2019 sexual assault allegation and Liberal staffer’s sackingScott Morrison and then-special minister of state Alex Hawke were both represented at a meeting in April 2019 to discuss dismissing the Liberal staffer who Brittany Higgins has accused of sexual assault.At the 4 April 2019 meeting, revealed at a Senate estimates hearing on Thursday, finance department officials provided advice on the process to terminate the staffer’s employment before the then-defence minister, Linda Reynolds, sacked him the following day. Continue reading...
My parents have been eating pheasants killed on the roads for years and encouraging me to try them. Is this the most ethical approach to meat-eating?Motorists shoot me funny looks as I sheepishly cross a scrubby verge, trying my best to conceal the dead pheasant under my arm. I am in a part of Saddleworth Moor called the Isle of Skye by locals, and have just collected a free meal from the middle of the road.Nobody can agree on how this area of moorland, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, earned its nickname. Some think it comes from a Victorian navvy, who exclaimed in a broad Irish brogue: “Look, there’s an ’ole in the sky,” as he considered a parting in the thick mist above him. Others think it was named after an inn of the same name. But either way, the area should be immediately renamed Pheasant Cemetery. Because, before I picked up my own bird, I counted 46 pheasant carcasses in various stages of decomposition, scattered and splattered on the road over several miles as I drove to Holmfirth for a day out. Continue reading...
Tens of thousands of people flee Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as Nyiragongo threat risesThe risk of further eruptions from the Nyiragongo volcano has led authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to order the evacuation of parts of Goma, causing an exodus of tens of thousands of people from the city.“Current data on seismicity and the deformation of the ground indicate the presence of magma under the urban area of Goma, with an extension under Lake Kivu,” the local military governor, Gen Constant Ndima, said in a public address. Continue reading...
Beloved children’s author who inspired millions of children died at summer home in Massachusetts, say familyEric Carle, the children’s author and illustrator whose classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar and other works gave millions of children some of their earliest literary memories, has died at age 91.Carle’s family said he died on Sunday at his summer studio in Northampton, Massachusetts, with family members at his side. Continue reading...
Government agency appears to support introduction of system which uses insecticide US termed an ‘environmental hazard’The Scottish government appears ready to approve a banned insecticide blamed for destroying bee populations for use in Scottish salmon farms, according to internal documents seen by the Guardian, as MEPs warn of its potentially “devastating” impact on aquatic life.The insecticide is one of three nicotine-based, or neonicotinoid, chemicals banned by the European Union in 2018 for agricultural use on crops, a decision upheld this month by the EU’s top court, the European court of justice, which rejected an appeal by the Bayer chemical multinational. The ban does not apply to rivers or the sea. Continue reading...
by Kim Willsher and Angelique Chrisafis in Paris on (#5J9P2)
President to address France’s role in 1994 genocide during visit aimed at normalising ties between countriesThe French president, Emmanuel Macron, has arrived in Rwanda to “write a new page” in the relationship between the two countries that was poisoned by France’s role in the 1994 Tutsi genocide.The Élysée said the visit was important and symbolic, aimed at making “the final step” in the normalisation of Franco-Rwandan relations by finally addressing Paris’s role in the slaughter. Continue reading...
27 May 1986: British premier holds talks with political figures from the occupied West Bank and GazaMargaret Thatcher promised last night to help the Palestinians to achieve self-determination, but she leaves Israel today without any sign that she has advanced the Middle East peace process significantly.The prime minister went to the British Consulate in East Jerusalem to hear eight prominent political figures from the occupied West Bank and Gaza express their views on possible ways out of the present impasse in negotiations. Continue reading...
A giant tortoise foundin the Galápagos Islands has been confirmed as a species thought to be extinct a century ago. The tortoise was found in 2019on Fernandina Island and identified as the Chelonoidis phantasticus species by scientists from Yale University. The Galápagos national park is preparing an expedition to search for more of the giant tortoises in an attempt to save the species
Exclusive: The racist and violent comments appear below a video news report about Sasha Johnson who was shot in the head in LondonSky News Australia’s YouTube channel has published more than 9,000 comments mostly celebrating and mocking the shooting of a Black Lives Matter activist in Britain who is fighting for her life.The racist and violent comments, which could be described as hate speech, appear below a short video news report uploaded on Monday about the activist Sasha Johnson. Johnson remains in a critical condition after sustaining a gunshot wound to her head in an incident in south London. Continue reading...
The first total lunar eclipse in more than two years coincided with a supermoon. The reddish-orange colour of the super ‘blood’ moon was the result of all the sunrises and sunsets in Earth’s atmosphere projected on to the surface of the eclipsed moon. It captured viewers from China to California, Turkey to Canberra.• Video: the lunar phenomenon around the world Continue reading...
by Lucy Campbell (now); Mattha Busby, Damien Gayle, M on (#5J93X)
Restriction on J&J jab ‘provisionally’ applied pending further guidance from EMA in Belgium; France to impose a quarantine on travellers arriving from UK
Thursday: Victorian ministers meet to consider if a snap lockdown is needed to contain the Melbourne outbreak. Plus: Celebrity cook Kylie Kwong on her friendship with Aunty Beryl Van-OplooGood morning. Coronavirus continues to dominate local and international headlines, as Victoria contemplates strict measures once again, and US intelligence probes the pandemic’s origins.Victoria appears set to re-enter lockdown, with leading ministers from the state government to meet this morning to discuss its response, as the Melbourne Covid-19 cluster grows to at least 15. As the outbreak prompts a surge in Victorians getting vaccinated, the Australian Medical Association has called for any Australian approved for overseas travel to be forced to have a vaccine, in a bid to reduce the threat from Covid and to incentivise vaccination. The federal cabinet approved the fast-tracking of vaccines for Australians given permission for travel earlier this month, but on a voluntary basis. More than 144,000 Australians have been given permission to leave since the pandemic begun, but around 40,000 remain stranded overseas due to caps on quarantine places. Continue reading...
Overloaded vessel sank in the Niger River with four confirmed dead, according to local officialsMore than 150 people were missing and feared drowned in northwest Nigeria on Wednesday after an overloaded boat ferrying passengers to a market sank in the Niger River, local officials said.The boat was travelling between central Niger state and Wara in north-west Kebbi state when it went down, National Inland Waterways Authority local manager Yusuf Birma told reporters. Continue reading...
The theatre director and writer looks back at the spirit of protest that fuelled daring dramas staged in South Africa 50 years agoI grew up in South Africa during the bleak, violent, seemingly never-ending iron age of apartheid. In 1971, when I was studying acting at Cape Town University, the National Party government built a monolithic 1,500-seat theatre complex in a commanding position near the centre of the city. The Afrikaner Nationalists had an easy rule of thumb by which to distinguish between the value of white people and black people – we have culture and they don’t. The purpose of the monolith, with its elaborate stairways, fancy colonnades and picture windows, was to declare and celebrate this belief. White musicians, actors and dancers were to perform to exclusively white audiences.Afrikaans theatre was bursting with contradictions. The finest Afrikaans playwright was William Shakespeare. From the 1950s to the 70s, Afrikaans-language productions of the European modernists – Pirandello, Maeterlinck, Strindberg and especially Chekhov – toured to church halls all over the country. Uncle Vanya was a quintessential Afrikaans cultural experience. Continue reading...
Decision comes after criticism by Jolie of judge’s decision not to let children testifyBrad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have been awarded joint custody following a protracted court battle.The former couple have been in dispute for five years over access to their six children and hired a private judge, John Ouderkirk, to oversee the case. Continue reading...
by Reported by Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson and present on (#5JA1V)
For nearly two months, the Polynesian island nation of Samoa has been in the grips of a political crisis after one of the most dramatic elections in the country’s history. After a supreme court intervention, a parliamentary lockout and a swearing-in ceremony unlike any other, two groups continue to claim they are the legitimate government of Samoa. Reporter Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson explains what led to this crisis, and the dire implications of this for the people of SamoaYou can also read: Continue reading...
by Daniel Hurst Foreign affairs and defence correspon on (#5JA1T)
Department concedes fault found in Taipan chopper could have led to ‘catastrophic consequences’Australia’s defence department has revealed it is spending $37m to hire private helicopters as it grapples with low availability of the trouble-plagued Taipan choppers.The move comes as defence officials concede a fault found in one of the helicopters in 2019 – when it was on its way to pick up the Australian defence force chief, Angus Campbell – could have led to “catastrophic consequences” if left unfixed. Continue reading...
Analysis: left-of-centre parties struggle to cut through as survey shows ‘everyone thinks they are middle class’It is a country with levels of wealth inequality more similar to the United States than France, and one where the richest 10% of the population already owned two thirds of the national wealth before the pandemic further widened the gap.Yet the inequality of German society and how to fix it is likely to play a minor role in the race to September elections this year, with those parties expected to offer solutions – the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the leftwing Die Linke – struggling in the polls. Continue reading...
European countries begin to block flights from Minsk, with flight to Barcelona turned around at Polish borderAlexander Lukashenko has made his first public remarks defending his grounding of a Ryanair flight last week, accusing the west of launching a “hybrid modern war” against Minsk and calling the backlash over the incident a “planned provocation”.Addressing a session of parliament, Lukashenko also appeared to suggest the plane could have been shot down because it was flying over a nuclear power plant when it was diverted by the Belarusian government, which appeared to have concocted a bomb threat and scrambled a Mig-29 to ensure the plane landed. Continue reading...
Aide of the vice-president who led last year’s coup claims both leaders have stood down while in detentionMali’s interim president and prime minister have reportedly “resigned”, two days after they were arrested by the military in a widely condemned coup, according to an aide to the military-appointed interim vice-president.Both civilian leaders, president Bah Ndaw and prime minister, Moctar Ouane, remained under military arrest on Wednesday in the Kati army base, outside the Malian capital Bamako, amid widespread international condemnation and promises of sanctions. Continue reading...
Researchers have discovered that prolonged immersion in a piping hot bath has many of the same medical benefits as aerobic exerciseName: Hot baths.Age: First used by the ancient Egyptians 4,000 years ago. Continue reading...
by Nazia Parveen Community affairs correspondent on (#5J9ZV)
Leeds headteacher forced to apologise after saying Palestinian flag was seen as ‘call to arms’The recent Middle East conflict has prompted a wave of pro-Palestine protests in British schools and controversy over the staff response, with pupils being accused of antisemitism and one headteacher describing the Palestinian flag as a “call to arms”.Mike Roper, the headteacher of Allerton Grange high school in Leeds, was forced to apologise after he claimed in an assembly that some people saw the flag as a “symbol of antisemitism”. Continue reading...
by Larry Elliott and Richard Partington on (#5J9XP)
US pushing UK hard over minimum corporate tax and swift action on global Covid vaccinationsBoris Johnson is facing mounting pressure from Joe Biden and grass roots activists to be bolder at next month’s G7 summit amid signs that rows over vaccines and tax will dominate what the prime minister hoped would be a low-key event.The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, kicks off two weeks of intense international diplomacy ahead of the June gathering of the leaders of major western economies in Cornwall when he hosts a virtual meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors on Friday. Continue reading...
Analysis: Raman Pratasevich and Sofia Sapega are just the latest to be forced into the widespread tacticThe videos are formulaic: Raman Pratasevich and his girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, each sit alone in front of a camera in a police station and deliver their “confessions” as though a loaded gun is pointed at their heads.“I’m also the editor of the Telegram channel Black Book of Belarus that publishes personal information about employees of the interior ministry,” said Sapega, quickly repeating a memorised statement in a video released late on Tuesday that could lead to years in jail. Continue reading...
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