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...
At least 38 people killed and up to 20 passengers trapped in wreckage of derailed Millat ExpressAt least 40 people have been killed and more than 100 injured in a pre-dawn crash between two express trains in Pakistan, as rescuers and villagers worked throughout the day to pull survivors and the dead from the crumpled cars.Cries for help pierced the night as passengers climbed out of overturned or crushed rail cars and local people rushed to the scene in the district of Ghotki, in the southern province of Sindh. Later in the day, heavy machinery arrived to cut open some cars, in the hopes of rescuing several people still believed to be trapped. The military deployed troops and helicopters to assist. Continue reading...
From Connell and Villanelle sharing a moment to Michaela Coel with her mum, The Guardian’s Sarah Lee had exclusive behind-the-scenes access to this year’s ceremony
by Haroon Siddique Legal affairs correspondent on (#5JR8E)
Exclusive: files at national archives suggest different version of eventsA minister privately expressed concerns that Aids was being transmitted by contaminated blood products while the government publicly insisted there was no “conclusive evidence”, newly uncovered documents from 1983 show.Among the victims of the contaminated blood scandal, which is the subject of a public inquiry, were 1,240 British haemophilia patients, most of whom have since died. They were infected with HIV in the 1980s through an untreated blood product known as Factor VIII. Continue reading...
National team shirt features map of Ukraine that includes Russian-annexed CrimeaRussian officials have reacted angrily after the head of Ukraine’s football association unveiled a new national team shirt emblazoned with a map of Ukraine that includes Crimea.Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and has sought to integrate the peninsula into Russia permanently, but it is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine. Continue reading...
The professor and broadcaster discusses writing black Britishness back into history, the backlash this provokes – and why he’s so proud of his heritageHistory’s purpose isn’t to comfort us, says David Olusoga, although many in the UK seem to think it is. “History doesn’t exist to make us feel good, special, exceptional or magical. History is just history. It is not there as a place of greater safety.”As a historian and broadcaster, Olusoga has been battling this misconception for almost two decades, as the producer or presenter of TV series including Civilisations, The World’s War, A House Through Time and the Bafta-winning Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners. His scholarship has been widely recognised: in 2019, he was awarded an OBE and made a professor at the University of Manchester. (He is also on the board of the Scott Trust, which owns Guardian Media Group.) Yet apologists for empire, in particular, like to dismiss him as a “woke historian” in an attempt to politicise his work or flatly deny the realities that he points out. Continue reading...
Australian-born Tharnicaa Murugappan in Perth hospital with suspected blood infection after Tamil family’s 18-month detention on islandThe youngest daughter of the Tamil family from Biloela who have been detained for more than 18 months on Christmas Island has been evacuated to Perth for emergency medical care, advocates have said.Tharnicaa Murugappan has been evacuated along with her mother, Priya, after being hospitalised with a suspected blood infection. Continue reading...
Members of the body that awarded the 2019 peace prize to Ethiopia’s premier, Abiy Ahmed, should all depart in protestThe war on Tigray in Ethiopia has been going on for months. Thousands of people have been killed and wounded, women and girls have been raped by military forces, and more than 2 million citizens have been forced out of their homes. Prime minister and Nobel peace prize laureate Abiy Ahmed stated that a nation on its way to “prosperity” would experience a few “rough patches” that would create “blisters”. This is how he rationalised what is alleged to be a genocide.Nobel committee members have individual responsibility for awarding the 2019 peace prize to Abiy Ahmed, accused of waging the war in Tigray. The members should thus collectively resign their honourable positions at the Nobel committee in protest and defiance. Continue reading...
He charmed as slimeball lawyer Saul in the drugs drama and its spinoff – but now Bob Odenkirk has gone badass in action thriller Nobody. Has he left his comedy days behind?On the surface, Bob Odenkirk’s new film is entirely preposterous. As the story of a man who goes on a murder spree after his house is broken into, Nobody is an all-out, full-throated action movie. In one scene, 58-year-old Odenkirk tears a handrail off the inside of a bus and beats a man senseless with it.However, as he explains, the story stems from something much more personal. “My family had two break-ins,” he reveals from his home in LA, where he’s sitting beneath a vast Chinatown poster. “It was very damaging.” Continue reading...
During the pandemic, every pet became an emotional support animal – and many people decided they wanted to commemorate them indelibly and incrediblyAlice was a double rex rat we adopted from the local RSPCA. She was such a special girl and we had a great bond, so she was the natural choice for my first tattoo. Sadly, Alice died earlier this year, so I’m getting a second tattoo in tribute in a couple of weeks, on the spot where she loved to sit.
New Zealanders increasingly believe you need money and connections to get ahead in lifeJacinda Ardern can take heart: in the last decade, public attitudes have swung sharply against New Zealand’s persistently high levels of economic inequality. Space has opened up for her to pursue the egalitarian agenda she cherishes – although, conversely, her excuses for not acting have sharply diminished.Public opinion surveys from the two decades after 1990 showed a consistent trend: decreasing concern over economic inequality, and decreasing support for government action to tackle it, especially through taxes. The pro-market ideas of New Zealand’s 1980s reforms seemed invulnerable. Continue reading...
Conservative win in Saxony-Anhalt seen as last big test ahead of national election in SeptemberAngela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) fought off a challenge from the far right in a state election on Sunday seen as the last big test for Germany’s political parties before a national vote in September that will end the chancellor’s 16 years atop German politics.The CDU, whose current leader, Armin Laschet, will vie for the top job in September, improved on its 2017 performance to gain 37% of the vote in the eastern state, according to public service broadcaster ARD early on Monday. Reiner Haseloff, the state premier, said the result symbolised “a clear demarcation against the far right”. Continue reading...
Red Army soldier David Dushman used his T-34 Soviet tank to mow down the electric fence of the Nazi death campDavid Dushman, the last surviving soldier who took part in the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz in 1945, has died at the age of 98.He died in a Munich clinic on Friday night, the city’s Jewish IKG cultural community said on Sunday, describing him as a liberating “hero of Auschwitz”. Continue reading...
Critics say PNG does not have adequate governance or welfare systems to deal with problems casino may bringPlans to build Papua New Guinea’s first casino in Port Moresby have sparked criticism from transparency advocates and experts who say the country’s industry regulator has undermined its independence with the deal and fear it could worsen social problems.The agreement to build the US$43m venue was signed on 28 May by Paga Hill Development Corporation and the National Gaming Control Board (NGCB), drawing immediate condemnation from Transparency International. Continue reading...
Journalism has been outlawed in all but name since the coup, with reporters and editors fleeing the country or leading double lives to surviveAs a cyclone rolled over the Bay of Bengal on 24 May, American journalist Danny Fenster, 37, contemplated the brooding skies near a terminal window at Yangon international airport.For a while, the threat of foreigners being seized at the airport by Myanmar’s military was real, but after watching international reporters exit the country safely in April, the Michigan native was more worried about turbulence. Continue reading...