Independent review said curriculum had not kept pace with changes, and exams and inspections were in need of reformScotland’s exams agency and its schools inspections system are to be substantially reformed after a damning report said the current system was cumbersome and over-complex.An independent review by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, a Paris-based agency, found the Scottish education system had failed to keep pace with the latest best practice and had no long-term strategies or vision. Continue reading...
Sanctions extended as punishment for forced landing of Ryanair flight and detention of journalistThe European Union has extended sanctions against Belarus, with pledges to make Alexander Lukashenko’s regime “run dry”, following last month’s forced landing of a Ryanair flight to arrest a dissident.EU foreign ministers on Monday agreed to add 86 people and entities to the bloc’s sanctions list, as a punishment for the arrest of the journalist Raman Pratasevich and his girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, who were detained after being hauled off a flight from Athens to Vilnius. Continue reading...
Scheme closes in nine days, with many still at risk of losing access to healthcare, jobs and homesFears have been raised that at least 100,000 EU citizens settled in the UK risk losing access to healthcare and other benefits, after the leak of government figures on the EU settled status scheme.With just nine days to go before the scheme closes, the figures show that 130,000 of the 820,000 Europeans claiming benefits ranging from children’s allowance to income support have not yet applied for settled status. Continue reading...
Appeal has so far raised more than $200,000, after the two-storey Samir Mansour bookshop, containing tens of thousands of books, was bombed in MayDonations of money and books from around the world have flooded in to help rebuild one of Gaza’s largest booksellers, the two-storey Samir Mansour bookshop, which was destroyed by Israeli air strikes in May.Founded 21 years ago by Palestinian Mansour, the shop was a much-loved part of the local community and contained tens of thousands of books in various languages covering everything from philosophy and art history to fiction and children’s books. It was reduced to rubble on 18 May, during the 11-day conflict that killed more than 250 people in Gaza and 13 in Israel. Continue reading...
Country at a ‘tipping point’ that could affect wider region, experts warn, as ‘donor fatigue’ causes aid shortfallThe continuing exodus of millions of Venezuelans is reaching “a tipping point” as the response to the crisis remains critically underfunded.More than 5.6 million have left the country since 2015, when it had a population of 30 million, escaping political, economic and social hardships. It has become the largest external displacement crisis in the region’s history, and the most underfunded. Continue reading...
From 28 Days Later to Army of the Dead, fast zombies are everywhere – but aren’t they supposed to be slow and unsteady?In the Guide’s weekly Solved! column, we look into a crucial pop-culture question you’ve been burning to know the answer to – and settle itYou used to know where you were with zombies. Normally it was 10ft ahead of them, watching them lurch pathetically towards you. This afforded plenty of time to find a baseball bat, something sharp, maybe even a chainsaw. If The Walking Dead, which wraps up after 11 seasons this autumn, has taught us anything, it’s that zombies only really become a problem if there’s a horde of them. Continue reading...
In the 1980s, there was an attempt to rename the block after Robert Mugabe, but now it will simply be Park View House. It reflects changes being made across the countrySometime in the next few weeks, a team of council maintenance staff will be dispatched to a nine-storey block of flats behind St Pancras station in central London. They will unscrew the panels that bear the name Cecil Rhodes House, and affix newly made replacement signs, making it clear that the building should now be known as Park View House.As the Rhodes Must Fall campaign in Oxford drags on into a fifth year, with 150 dons announcing this month that they refuse to teach at Oriel College because of its decision not to remove a statue of the former Cape Colony prime minister, Britain’s other Rhodes controversy has been dealt with relatively swiftly. Continue reading...
Exclusive: number of UK productions seen as ‘disproportionate’ and threat to Europe’s cultural diversityThe EU is preparing to act against the “disproportionate” amount of British television and film content shown in Europe in the wake of Brexit, in a blow to the UK entertainment industry and the country’s “soft power” abroad.The UK is Europe’s biggest producer of film and TV programming, buoyed up by £1.4bn from the sale of international rights, but its dominance has been described as a threat to Europe’s “cultural diversity” in an internal EU document seen by the Guardian. Continue reading...
States and territories say more GPs will be needed to dispense Pfizer when supplies increase later in the yearShortages of the Pfizer Covid vaccine are expected to slow Australia’s rollout through June and July, as states and territories call on the commonwealth to sign up more GPs to dispense doses when supplies increase in August.The national cabinet met on Monday to discuss Australia’s coronavirus vaccine rollout in the wake of updated health advice that AstraZeneca is not the preferred vaccine for those aged 50 to 59 due to the risk of rare blood clots. Continue reading...
The actor charms the pants off everyone he meets in his new culinary travelogue that will whet your appetite for a trip abroad when it’s finally allowedYou may not realise this at the moment, but your heart has been crying out for a series like Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy. If you saw last night’s first episode, tucked away on CNN International, you will already be aware of this. If you didn’t, stop what you’re doing and seek it out. It’s less a TV show and more an hour of full-body relaxation. By the time the episode ended, I felt as if my entire brain had been taken out and massaged in olive oil.Although the title suggests a different series, in which a beloved actor receives a concussion then forlornly attempts to navigate Google Maps, this is actually a culinary travelogue. Tucci visits a different Italian region in every episode and contentedly samples its food. It is a formula you will have seen thousands of times before, albeit with a couple of key differences. Continue reading...
by Jason Burke Africa correspondent and agencies in A on (#5KAPF)
Frontrunner Abiy Ahmed needs popular mandate to bolster his grip on power amid growing criticismVoters have begun casting their ballots in delayed elections in Ethiopia that supporters of the prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, say are proof of his commitment to democracy and critics warn could be the launchpad for consolidation of an increasingly authoritarian rule.The national and regional polls take place against a background of a gruelling military conflict in the northern Tigray region, the looming prospect of a famine, rising ethnic violence and deep economic problems. Continue reading...
Premier is first in country’s history to be ousted by opposition MPs and has a week to decide next moveSweden’s parliament has backed a no-confidence vote in the centre-left prime minister, Stefan Löfven, making him the first premier to be ousted by opposition MPs in the country’s history and giving him a week to resign or call snap elections.The vote, called by the nationalist Sweden Democrats barely a year before a general election, plunges Sweden back into political uncertainty four years after the last inconclusive poll produced a deadlocked parliament and led to months of negotiations to form a coalition. Continue reading...
by Josh Taylor (now) and Amy Remeikis (earlier) on (#5KA6A)
Barnaby Joyce set to become Australia’s new deputy PM after retaking Nationals leadership; Senate Covid committee hears from authorities and TGA. Follow latest updates
Adviser to jailed owner Jimmy Lai says newspaper cannot pay staff after officials froze banking facilitiesHong Kong’s Apple Daily newspaper and website could shut down this weekend if authorities do not agree to the board’s request to unfreeze its assets, after the arrest of its senior editors and executives last week.According to various local reports on Monday afternoon, an internal memo said Next Digital, Apple Daily’s parent company, would seek restored access to its accounts so it can pay staff, but that if this did not happen by Friday it would make a decision to stop publication of the pro-democracy title. Continue reading...
Poor families cannot afford healthcare and schooling but good harvests offer some hope, World Bank findsThe number of Zimbabweans in extreme poverty has reached 7.9 million as the pandemic has delivered another economic shock to the country.According to the World Bank’s economic and social update report, almost half of Zimbabwe’s population fell into extreme poverty between 2011 and last year, with children bearing the brunt of the misery. Continue reading...
More than 12 years have passed since xenophobic violence swept unexpectedly through South Africa’s townships, leaving more than 60 people dead, hundreds injured and tens of thousands displaced from their homes. Photojournalists James Oatway and Alon Skuy document the unrest in a new book, [BR]OTHERIn May 2008, a series of xenophobic attacks accompanied by widespread looting and vandalism left at least 62 people dead, 1,700 injured and 100,000 displaced in South Africa. The violence began in Alexandra in Johannesburg after a local community meeting at which migrants were blamed for crime and for “stealing” jobs. Within days the attacks had spread around the country, with Ramaphosa settlement on the East Rand becoming one of the areas that witnessed inhumanity on an unthinkable level. Continue reading...
Valérie Bacot, who had four children with alleged abuser, will say she believed he would kill them allOn Monday, a French woman, Valérie Bacot, will walk into a court to be tried for killing her stepfather turned husband. She has admitting shooting him dead and believes she should be punished.In her defence, she is expected to tell the the hearing at at Chalon-sur-Saône in Burgundy how Daniel “Dany” Polette made her life hell from the day he raped her when she was 12, to the day he died 24 years later while prostituting her. Continue reading...
by Haroon Siddique Legal affairs correspondent on (#5KACP)
Former pupils of Treloar College in Hampshire in 1970s and 80s to give evidence and demand accountability“Every time we meet, in the back of our mind we remember the school friends that should be there with us,” says Richard Warwick, one of scores of people with haemophilia who attended Treloar College in Hampshire in the 1970s and 80s. “It’s hard to comprehend, we’ve been to hell and back.”By the time he left the specialist boarding school in 1982 he had been infected with hepatitis C and HIV through contaminated blood products, and yet he describes himself as lucky because unlike many of his fellow pupils, he is still alive. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Former president lauds convicted bugging whistleblower for exposing ‘Australian government perfidy, bad faith and dishonesty in robbing world’s poorest country’José Ramos-Horta will formally request that Timor-Leste award Witness K the nation’s highest honour, praising him for exposing “Australian government perfidy, bad faith and dishonesty” in a bugging operation conducted for the sole purpose of “robbing the poorest country in the world”.Witness K, a former Australian Secret Intelligence Service officer, was convicted on Friday and handed a three-month suspended jail term for his role in exposing a spy operation targeting Timor-Leste during negotiations to carve up oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea. Continue reading...
Opposition says it will not recognise Nikol Pashinyan’s quick claim to victory, which came when just 30% of precincts had been countedArmenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan has claimed victory in a snap parliamentary election he called in an effort to defuse a political crisis after last year’s disastrous war with Azerbaijan.But the electoral alliance of his top rival, former president Robert Kocharyan, swiftly contested the vote results and alleged election fraud. Continue reading...
by Presented by Anushka Asthana; produced by Courtney on (#5KA9S)
Ten years since the Arab spring rocked Egypt and removed its president, the country is still detaining human rights workers and locking up political prisonersKarim Ennarah, a human rights worker for the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, was at a beach resort in South Sinai when he was arrested and accused of joining a terrorist group and “spreading false news”. He was detained in a prison in Cairo and became one of thousands of political prisoners in the country.Ennarah tells Anushka Asthana that his arrest was only the beginning of his separation from his British wife. Jess Kelly describes to Anushka the moment that she found out her husband had been arrested by the security services as she rode her bike along a London street, and the great difficulties she herself has faced to be reunited with him. Continue reading...
Year’s shortest day and longest night celebrated in period when sun only appears for two and a half hours a dayAntarctic-based Australian expeditioners have taken a sub-zero polar plunge to mark the winter solstice, keeping an icy tradition alive.Each year expeditioners at Australia’s three research stations in Antarctica and on sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island celebrate the year’s shortest day and longest night by taking a dip in sea ice or the ocean. Continue reading...
Elisabeth Moss has always made this impressive if horrifying TV. But as the new series turns June into queen of the rebels, it has a shot of new lifeI am not sure if “enjoyment” is quite the right word in relation to watching The Handmaid’s Tale (Channel 4). It has been, at various points over the last three seasons, either a harrowing slog or an extremely harrowing slog. But at its best, it is impressive, inventive drama that pushes unfamiliar buttons with great skill. It had a magnificent, haunting first season, which largely stuck to the plot of Margaret Atwood’s classic novel, but afterwards it struggled under the weight of its own misery. June (Elisabeth Moss) escaped from Gilead, and was captured, ad infinitum, which made it feel like a gruesome hall of mirrors in which hope was pointless. It made me wonder whether continuing to watch was pointless, too. But a diversion into global politics gave it a shot of new life, and season four continues to explore new ground. It needed it, and it works.The lengthy recap at the beginning is useful, given that the pandemic delayed production. According to its showrunner, Bruce Miller, the logistics of shooting in Canada also had a direct effect on shaping the story. June organised a cohort of rebels, pulling together an underground network of Marthas and Handmaids, to smuggle 86 children out of Gilead, saving them from life under a brutal regime. The Waterfords have been arrested by the Canadian government and are in captivity, but at the end of season three, it looked as though June may have run out of luck. Still, without her, this is Handmaids’ Tales, rather than The Handmaid’s Tale. If the question is, how much more can one woman endure, then the answer comes quickly: using no anaesthetic, Janine cauterises the shotgun wound in June’s abdomen with a red-hot poker. Welcome to season four. Continue reading...
Monday: Barnaby Joyce may take Nationals leadership. Plus: national cabinet to hold emergency meetingGood morning. Weeks of leadership rumblings within the Nationals are expected to come to a head today, with some party members saying Barnaby Joyce could retake the top job from Michael McCormack. The other most likely leadership contender, David Littleproud, has told colleagues that as deputy leader he cannot challenge McCormack. But Littleproud could be clear to run if McCormack spilled his own leadership or chose not to stand again after a successful no-confidence motion in the Nationals party room. Two Nationals MPs have told Guardian Australia that Joyce has or is very close to having the numbers to topple McCormack. “I think he’s really close,” one said. “I think he’s always been close but I have heard increased noise over the last two weeks.”Australia’s troubled vaccine rollout will be discussed in an emergency national cabinet meeting by federal, state and territory leaders today. The vice president of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Chris Moy, urged anyone who has had their first dose of AstraZeneca not to waste it by cancelling their second shot in response to Thursday’s updated federal health advice, which recommended the vaccine not be administered to under 60s. “The bottom line is the risk of getting a clot from the second dose is one-tenth of an already tiny risk on the first one. And you need [the second shot] for long-term protection and to protect yourself from the variants. “You’re kind of almost wasting the first dose if you don’t have the second. It’s a no-brainer – for God’s sake have it.” Continue reading...
Half an hour before kick-off, when the team sheets were read aloud for the first time, the loudest Roman roar was reserved for the Italy manager, Roberto Mancini. On the front of Gazzetta dello Sport’s pullout last week, Mancini was mocked up in the dugout alongside Albert Einstein but a third successive victory, which extended their unbeaten run to a record-equalling 30 matches, required little genius. In fact, they barely broke sweat on a muggy evening on which Matteo Pessina scored the only goal to beat Wales.Wales, who had Ethan Ampadu sent off 10 minutes into the second half, became their latest victims but Italy’s failure to press home their one-man advantage ensured Robert Page’s side will qualify from Group A in second place, teeing up a last-16 date in Amsterdam on Saturday. Italy’s supporters enjoyed themselves and by the end there was a carnival atmosphere as a Mexican wave made its way around this cavernous stadium. It was an outcome that suited both teams, even if Ampadu’s red card will rankle. Continue reading...
Families and friends share memories of three men killed in Forbury Gardens last JuneFamily and friends of the three men killed in a terror attack in Reading have told of their heartache at a memorial service.James Furlong, a 36-year-old history teacher, Dr David Wails, a 49-year-old scientist, and Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, 39, who worked for a pharmaceutical company, were murdered in Forbury Gardens on 20 June last year. Continue reading...
Complaint to Human Rights Commission alleges the AEC discriminates against people in remote Indigenous communities by making enrolment difficultTwo Indigenous men from Arnhem Land have lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission, alleging the Australian Electoral Commission has suppressed votes through indirect discrimination – including strict rules about how people enrol to vote.Matthew Ryan, the mayor of West Arnhem Regional Council, and Ross Mandi, the chairman of Yalu Aboriginal Corporation in Galiwinku, made the complaint last week alleging that the requirement for people to have a street number and postal address to be listed on the electoral role is discriminatory. Continue reading...
by Presented by Laura Murphy-Oates and produced by Ry on (#5KA1Q)
The reality TV show RuPaul’s Drag Race is an international sensation with multiple Emmy awards and spin-offs around the world. Australia’s first season – RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under – has been marred by controversies around race and a lack of diversity, but it also saw the debut of the show’s first Aboriginal drag queen: Biripi and Worimi queen JoJo Zaho.
The hardliner president-elect has caused alarm in some countries, though Iran and the US say agreement can still be foundWorld powers attempting to revive the Iran nuclear deal have warned of complications on the path to an agreement as they met for the first time since the election as Iranian president of Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline conservative cleric deeply antagonistic towards the west.Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, said the arrow was pointing in the right direction, but he refused to say if sanctions imposed on Raisi by the Trump administration would be lifted. The German government’s human rights commissioner, Bärbel Kofler, said it was concerning that Raisi had not distanced himself clearly from human rights abuses. A European diplomat meanwhile warned the talks could not be open-ended, hinting strongly they needed a deal before Raisi took power in early August. Continue reading...
Legitimacy concerns will haunt the new president, Ebrahim Raisi, after non-voters outnumbered voters for the first timeThe first thing you need to know about Iran’s recent elections is that while they produced a new president, there are no real winners. “Engineered” – yes, an actual term in usage in Iran – to pave the way for an ayatollah-approved leadership succession, the polls have achieved what has long eluded the Islamic Republic’s foes: effective regime change in Tehran. Only, with hardliners now firmly in charge, it is not the type of change that many in the west had sought.Reaching his twilight years, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been looking for a successor. To the 82-year-old head of state, the ideal successor is a pliant loyalist who could emulate his own journey from the presidency to the top position in the land. On paper, this is precisely what is unfolding. However, as always, the devil is in the detail. Continue reading...
UK-based Petrofac accused of making payments over more than 15 years to secure contractsA multinational oil firm which was led by a major Conservative donor has been under investigation for allegedly paying million-pound bribes to secure contracts in nine countries.The anti-corruption agency the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has been examining allegedly suspicious payments made by the UK-based firm Petrofac. Continue reading...
The rapper has worked with Kanye and Madonna and blazed a trail for black queer pop. Their new mini album, they say, feels like the start of a new chapter…Mykki Blanco has just moved to Hollywood, and five minutes into our conversation, the 35-year old rapper’s beloved mother calls. “She needs to chill out. Like, I don’t work?” laughs Blanco. “She’s helping me pick out furniture and she’s gone crazy about the whole thing.” There is something pure about one of hip-hop’s most experimental figures having their mother help them decorate. The non-binary musician (who uses the pronouns they/them) has been living outside the US for the past five years, residing mostly in Europe: London and Portugal’s countryside. They also lived in Paris during the city’s second lockdown in late 2020 – an experience Blanco describes as “emotionally distressing”. But now, back living near family and friends, Blanco’s spirits seem high. Their new mini album, Broken Hearts & Beauty Sleep, an electric collection of love songs featuring Blood Orange and Jamila Woods, is a fresh beginning. For starters, it’s the first time they have had a record deal.That may come as a surprise considering Blanco has not only worked with Kanye West, Charli XCX and Madonna, but was also a founding member of “queer rap”, a sub-genre of hip-hop that allowed LGBTQ+ people to express themselves freely. Tattooed and 6ft 2in tall, Blanco has long played with drag and gender presentation, whether donning waist-length braids and a pink corset or a shirt and a shaved head; rapping bluntly over trippy synths, their hyperactive lyrics address sexuality, partying and bravado from a queer perspective. In 2012 Elle magazine declared them “hip-hop’s new queen”, and in the New York Times Michael Schulman enthused about their “glamazon alter ego… a redoubtable presence on the New York downtown art and cabaret scene”. They self-released their 2016 debut album, Mykki, to critical acclaim: it was described by the Observer’s Kitty Empire as “one of the year’s most riveting musical self‑portraits”. Continue reading...
The prime minister is expected to pardon those convicted over 2017’s attempted secession this weekSpain’s Socialist-led coalition government is expected this week to approve its hugely controversial pardons for the 12 Catalan independence leaders convicted two years ago over their roles in the illegal, failed attempt to secede from the rest of the country in October 2017.The prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has said the pardons, which could be signed off by the cabinet on Tuesday, are needed to restore social and political coexistence and to help Spanish society “move from a bad past to a better future”. Continue reading...
Promise to donate 100m doses highlights questions about Canada’s seriousness in helping poorer countries vaccinateCanada has secured enough potential coronavirus vaccines to fully protect every resident nearly seven times over, even as a global shortage has forced poorer nations to wait.After initial hiccups with its vaccination plan, more than 65% of Canadians have now received at least one dose, edging ahead of early leaders Israel and the UK, and on Friday, Justin Trudeau said 68m doses will have arrived in Canada by the end of July. Continue reading...
Sunday’s poll could help far right step further towards political mainstream ahead of 2022 presidential electionsFrance is voting in the first round of regional elections that could see Marine Le Pen‘s far-right party make gains and step further into the political mainstream.In Sunday’s election, new assemblies will be elected for mainland France’s 13 regions and 96 departments, with Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) tipped to win at least one region for the first time in what would be a major coup. Continue reading...
Claims of rightwing candidate, trailing Pedro Castillo in the polls, emboldens far right, who have vowed not to accept resultThe prospect of the son of illiterate Andean peasants becoming president as his rival cries fraud has shaken Peru’s entrenched class system and its fragile democracy, letting loose a torrent of racism in the bicentennial year of the country’s independence.With 100% of the official vote counted, leftist Pedro Castillo had 50.12% – and advantage of about 44,000 votes over his far-right rival Keiko Fujimori. But Fujimori has claimed fraud, challenging about 500,000 votes, calling for half to be annulled, and obliging officials at Peru’s electoral board to reexamine ballots – despite the lack of evidence of wrongdoing. Continue reading...
This summer is officially sexy – and the hottest look for men is short shorts. But are we ready for this much male flesh?In April the US actor Milo Ventimiglia, star of This Is Us, was photographed leaving the gym in a sleeveless vest and a pair of shorts so short you could barely tell they were there: two thumb-sized rims of black material gave way to legs so round and meaty they could be shoved in the oven for three hours at 180C.It was one innocuous paparazzi photo that broke a dam of desire. The image was reshared on social media tens of thousands of times, users claiming: “Every thought in my head has been replaced with these images.” Continue reading...
The work highlights the plaques and art that celebrate a neglected side of the capital’s cultureShe’s 10ft tall, barefoot, with a simple wrap dress stretching across her breasts and belly. She holds aloft an infant, gazing into its eyes. This is Bronze Woman, a statue on a busy traffic junction in Stockwell, south London. Unveiled in 2008, it was then the first public statue of a black woman on permanent display in England.“I used to pass by but never knew what it was for many years. One day I found myself in front of it and I was truly blown away,” said Avril Nanton, who runs walking tours of London’s black history. Continue reading...