Copenhagen will not renew residency rights – and families fear being sent back to homes that no longer existDanish authorities say Mesbah Mshleem must take three of his children, the youngest a Danish-born five-year-old, and return to Damascus, to a home that no longer stands, in a neighbourhood destroyed by the war and often shut off to former residents. There is little hope of compensation for those losses.“I do not know what is left to go back to. How can I protect my children there?” says Mshleem, one of more than 100 Syrians living in Denmark who have effectively lost their refugee status. His lawyer had to challenge an order for his five-year-old to leave the country immediately and alone. Continue reading...
Jim Campbell exchanged hundreds of emails and letters with the financier whose crimes brought him a 150-year sentenceWhen Bernie Madoff died in April, at 82, he was serving a 150-year sentence. His fraud topped $17.5bn. The investors who trusted him were many and varied. Many went bankrupt, many lost their homes, some were driven to suicide. At sentencing, judge Denny Chin called Madoff’s crimes “extraordinarily evil”. He was not mourned. One investor announced: “Death is too good for him.”Related: Antitrust: Hawley and Klobuchar on the big tech battles to come Continue reading...
It sounds like she is the one with self-worth issues, says Mariella Frostrup. Tell her how this makes you feel and establish boundaries and ground rulesThe dilemma My partner of two years told me that she had been single for 12 years before I asked her out, but then, six months into our relationship, she told me her last partner was the love of her life and, after they broke up, they continued to regularly have sex for 10 years. She also recently told me she still loves him, but is no longer in love and that he is incredibly good-looking. She maintains she was single for 12 years because they “just” had sex together regularly.I don’t understand how this could happen. You are with someone or you’re not. I am scared she will be unable to resist him and never really be able to love me. It is haunting. She has never said I am good-looking. She once said our sex is OK, but hopes it will get better and that, based on her own experience, sex gets better the longer the relationship. Should I be worried? Continue reading...
Sydney man charged with terrorism offences after he allegedly travelled to Turkey in 2013 and on to Syria, where police say he recruited foreign fighters for IsisA 30-year-old Sydney man who is alleged to be an Islamic State recruiter has been arrested and charged with terrorism offences upon his return to Australia.Mohamed Zuhbi arrived in Melbourne on a flight from Turkey about 4pm on Saturday and was taken into custody by counterterrorism authorities at the airport. Continue reading...
Coup leaders ban opposition national unity government, and contact with them, as they seek to quell ongoing protestsMyanmar’s military rulers have branded a national unity government formed by MPs forced to flee in the wake of the coup a terrorist group and blamed it for bombings, arson and killings as part of a propaganda campaign in state-controlled media on Saturday.Myanmar’s army overthrew the elected government on 1 February and detained elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking months of protests during which hundreds of people have been killed by security forces. In response, local militias have been formed to confront the army while anti-junta protests have continued across the south-east Asian country and strikes have paralysed the economy. Continue reading...
Victory was less emphatic than predicted after late increase in support for Tory Shaun BaileySadiq Khan has been elected as mayor of London for a second term, following a victory that was less emphatic than predicted after a late increase in support for his Conservative opponent.As recently as March, polls had given Khan a 25-point lead over his Tory rival, Shaun Bailey, handing him 53% of the vote. Continue reading...
Steve Aiken’s move throws unionism in Northern Ireland into further flux after Arlene Foster was forced to quitPolitical unionism in Northern Ireland has been thrown into further flux after the leader of the Ulster Unionist party announced his resignation.Steve Aiken’s move comes 10 days after the Democratic Unionist party leader Arlene Foster was forced to quit after an internal heave against her. Continue reading...
Kaukab Stewart makes history as she wins for SNP in Glasgow KelvinHistory was made in Scotland on Saturday as the country elected its first woman of colour to serve as a member of the Scottish parliament (MSP).Kaukab Stewart won her race for the Scottish National Party (SNP) in the Glasgow Kelvin constituency, describing the achievement as an “honour”. Continue reading...
The actor said the film industry should step back from the Hollywood Foreign Press AssociationThe actor Scarlett Johansson urged the film industry on Saturday to “step back” from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association as criticism of the opaque film industry group, which controls the influential Golden Globe awards, continues to mount for sexism and racism.In a carefully-worded statement, the Avengers star said the “HFPA is an organization that was legitimized by the likes of Harvey Weinstein to amass momentum for Academy recognition.” Continue reading...
Under the government’s current plans it will be half a century before house prices return to affordabilityOne-third of New Zealanders rent. In my electorate and home, Auckland Central, the centre of the largest city in the country, it’s even more: 54%.For a really long time, the conversation around housing was one of avocados and flat whites. Renters, we were told, were in a temporary moment of their life. They were, the story went, on a path to homeownership, if only they could reign in their spending on fancy cafe food. Continue reading...
From chips on a stick to camel burgers and kanafeh, crowds come to Lakemba’s annual street bazaar for the food and the energyWhen the Canterbury Bankstown council announced it had cancelled the annual and extremely popular Ramadan night markets in Lakemba, there was disappointment all round.The markets have grown to become a staple during Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar when Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. Continue reading...
Reduced demand comes as Joe Biden has announced a plan to vaccinate 70% of US adults by the Fourth of JulyDeclining demand for Covid-19 vaccines in the US is causing states across the country to refuse their full allocations of doses from the federal government, despite concerted efforts to raise national take-up rates.Reduced demand, which is contributing to a growing stockpile of doses, comes as nearly 46% of the US population has received at least one dose of a two-shot vaccine and about 34% are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. Continue reading...
Orthodox priest releases video statement on suppression of Tigray districtEthiopian government forces and their allies are committing genocide in the country’s war-torn northern province of Tigray, the head of Ethiopia’s Orthodox Church has claimed in a videoed statement demanding urgent international intervention.The appeal by Abuna [Patriarch] Mathias follows fresh allegations of ethnic cleansing, gang rapes, extrajudicial killings and other atrocities by soldiers loyal to Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, who ordered an invasion of Tigray last November. Continue reading...
Last year, the population of Europe’s fourth biggest economy dropped by the equivalent of a city the size of Florence. Yet the northern hamlets of Val d’Ultimo have found ways to buck the trendRead more: As the global family shrinks, migrants and the planet benefitAs if having a baby wasn’t expensive enough, fathers of newborns in the mountain hamlets that make up Italy’s Val d’Ultimo have an additional cost. In a revival of an ancient myth that white storks deliver babies, carved wooden storks carrying a newborn child in a sling are a common feature outside homes in the valley. They are put there by friends of the father and there they remain until he stumps up for a round of drinks.“There has been a noticeable increase in storks and other symbols of birth being put outside someone’s house, especially in recent years,” said Stefan Schwarz, the mayor of Ultimo, home to almost 3,000 people spread over three hamlets. Continue reading...
The bestselling author on reimagining Hillary Clinton’s life, what novelists have learned from Covid and the mood in her home town, Minneapolis, since the murder of George FloydCurtis Sittenfeld, 45, is the author of two short story collections and six novels, including Prep, her 2005 debut about a teenage girl at boarding school, and American Wife, narrated by a White House first lady, based on Laura Bush. Both books were bestsellers longlisted for the Orange prize (now the Women’s prize for fiction). Her latest novel, Rodham, out in paperback next month, imagines how Hillary Clinton’s political career might have looked had she not married Bill. Sittenfeld, who was born in Ohio and studied at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, spoke to me on Zoom from Minneapolis, where she has lived since 2018. What led you to write a counterfactual novel about Hillary Clinton?
The 20-year-old’s debut album is up for three Brits this week – and has captivated fans from Billie Eilish to Michelle ObamaThere were fewer than a dozen people out in east London on a Saturday night in Paper Dress Vintage when Arlo Parks arrived on stage. The clothes shop by day turned live music venue by night had the then 17-year-old second on the bill, where she performed with a band made up of schoolfriends. Most of the audience were mates from sixth form. But there was also a scout from Transgressive Records; he spent the first half of the show in total dismay.“It just wasn’t very good,” said Mike Harounoff apologetically. As the artists and repertoire manager for Transgressive, Harounoff’s job is to find and bring in talent to sign. He had high expectations for Parks – her manager was a friend – and he had already hyped up the teenager to his colleagues. “No discredit to the band, they were just kids,” he told the Observer, “but it didn’t click. It was bad.” Continue reading...
Bookings to Portugal were most popular with people opting to stay for longer than one weekTravel companies have recorded a boom in holiday sales, after the government announced that Britons would be able to travel to a dozen countries without quarantining on their return from 17 May.Travel firms described the “best day” for sales in months after the announcement on Friday. The government included 12 countries on its “green list” for quarantine-free travel, including Portugal, Israel and Gibraltar. Continue reading...
Move paves way for Nika Melia’s release and end to political crisis that has gripped the countryThe European Union said on Saturday it had posted bail for Georgia’s jailed opposition leader, Nika Melia, paving the way for his release and ending a protracted political crisis in the Caucasus country.Melia, the chair of Georgia’s main opposition force, the United National Movement (UNM), was arrested in February in a violent police raid on his party headquarters, sparking protests and condemnation from the west. Continue reading...
The award-winning actor on the genius of Fritz Lang, the human cost of Homer’s Iliad and where to find the best live music in IrelandBorn in County Cork, Ireland, in 1958, Fiona Shaw studied philosophy at University College Cork before training at Rada. Her stage roles have ranged from Sophocles to Shakespeare, Beckett to Brecht; she has won two Olivier awards and directed theatre productions and operas including Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia. She has also appeared in numerous films, including My Left Foot and the Harry Potter movies, and television series such as True Blood and Killing Eve, for which she won a Bafta. Her latest film role is in Ammonite, a romantic drama about fossil hunter Mary Anning, now streaming and in cinemas from 17 May.
Head of a Bear is to be sold in London in July by Christie’s auction houseA drawing of a bear by Leonardo da Vinci is expected to fetch up to £12m at auction.The picture, titled Head of a Bear, is being sold in London by Christie’s. It will go on display in New York and Hong Kong before being auctioned and is expected to fetch between £8m and £12m, according to the auction house. Continue reading...
Donoghue’s bestseller drew on the case of Felix Fritzl, who was held captive in a dungeon by his father, and her observations of her own childrenI got the notion to write Room in 2008 when I was driving to a book event and mulling over a news story from a few days before about a five-year-old called Felix Fritzl, rescued from the Austrian dungeon where his mother had raised him and his siblings. By the time I parked, and grabbed a napkin to scribble down my thoughts, I knew my novel had to be from the child’s point of view, would begin on his fifth birthday and be split into two halves by the escape, and would be called (in an echo of womb) Room. To tone down some of the horror, and distance Jack’s story from Felix’s, I made him a well-nourished only child, the captor a stranger rather than his ma’s father, their home a locked shed with a skylight and ventilation somewhere in the US.But the novel really started years earlier, when I gave birth to the first of our two kids. From day one – or middle-of-the-night one, rather – I found child-rearing fascinating. I was a youngest-of-eight who had never had a job that required set hours or responsibility, and motherhood broke and remade me. Only when I got the idea for Room did I realise that I had three and a half years’ worth of things to say. About what a huge gap separates an adult and a small child, with only curiosity, humour and love to bridge it. About how a mother is her baby’s captor and prisoner, sometimes both at the same time. About how you long to give your growing kid freedom while somehow, impossibly, keeping them perfectly safe. Jack’s story was an intensification of every childhood, so I wasn’t writing a crime novel so much as a coming-of-age story in which the growing up had to happen overnight when that door opened. It was also sci-fi, because he’d be an alien among us; and a fairytale that would have to find its way into realism. Continue reading...
Man held in connection with death of PCSO whose body was found in Kent woodland on 27 AprilA man in his 20s has been arrested in connection with the death of PCSO Julia James, Kent police have said.James was found dead in Akholt wood near her home in Snowdown, Kent, on 27 April. A postmortem examination revealed the 53-year-old had suffered significant head injuries and died as a result of blunt force trauma. Continue reading...
In this extract from Real Estate, the final instalment of Deborah Levy’s ‘living autobiography’ series, she reflects on fantasy properties, empty nests and the relationship between property and freedomI walked to Central Park. It had suddenly become warm and I was so jet lagged I thought I might faint. I found a place near the entrance to the park under a tree and collapsed on to the grass. Lying on my back, looking up at the big American sky between the leaves, I saw something hanging from the branches. It was a key. A key on a red ribbon that someone had hung on a branch and forgotten to take with them. I wondered if they had deliberately left it behind because they were never going to return to wherever the key belonged. Or perhaps they wanted to close a door on a chapter of their life and leaving the key behind was a gesture of this desire. There is always something secret and mysterious about keys. They are the instrument to enter and exit, open and close, lock and unlock various desirable and undesirable domains. Continue reading...
Police make two arrests in connection with explosion at Mohamed Nasheed’s family home in MaléThe former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed is conscious after life-saving surgery, his family said on Saturday, as police made two arrests in connection with an explosion they said was being treated as a terror attack.Nasheed, the president of the ruling Maldivian Democratic party and the current parliament speaker, was critically injured after a bomb exploded as he left his family home in the capital Malé on Thursday. Continue reading...
As police continue murder inquiry, locals in Aylesham describe fear and worry as they wait for case breakthroughTwo weeks ago, Kira and Sam Mandon-Jones walked their rescue dog, Mocha, through fields to Akholt Wood near their home in the Kent village of Aylesham. “And we said: ‘This is such a lovely route. We’ll do it every week.’ But not now,” said Kira, 29.Two days after their Sunday stroll, the body of Julia James, 53, was found with “significant head injuries” at 4pm on Tuesday 27 April on the edge of that same wood. The police community support officer was walking her jack russell, Toby, a few hundred yards from her home in the hamlet of Snowdown. Continue reading...
When we started training, I thought it was for her sake. So why do I dread the day my daughter hangs up her boots?One day you’ll understand that this was never about football. It could have been anything. I just wanted to be where you were, as much as possible, for as long as you let me.When you were five we had an argument in the car on the way to a training session. I don’t know exactly what it was about. As I mentioned, you were five, so it could have been anything: how I’d packed the wrong sort of corn crackers, or how after you’d bitten into one of them it had corners on it and you hated corners, or how I didn’t understand how much you hated corners because I obviously never cared about your feelings because I probably wouldn’t even care if you like died! If I really loved you, I would have bought the right corn crackers, the corner-less kind. It was one of those arguments. It ended as we stopped at a red light and you said something and I said something back, and you said something kind of mean and I lost my temper and said: “If you’re going to fight this much with me every time we go to train, I really don’t have to put this much time into being the coach!” Continue reading...
Confrontations at holy site leave 17 Israeli police officers wounded, with international calls for calmMore than 205 Palestinians and 17 Israeli police officers were wounded during a night of intense clashes at a sacred Jerusalem site that holds the Dome of the Rock, medics and police said, a serious escalation in a weeks-long rise in violence.Tensions in Jerusalem have soared recently, with Palestinians complaining of oppressive restrictions during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. An upcoming Israeli court ruling on whether authorities can evict dozens of Palestinians – and give their homes to Jewish settlers – has further inflamed the situation. Continue reading...
An alfresco duo that you can cook outdoors or in: baked potato with onion and harissa butter, and peas in the pod with wasabi dressingOne game I’m definitely playing in the next year or so is Spot the Park/Common/Outdoor Scene in every film or TV series I watch, because I’ve seen so many film crews at work outside over the past year. And, just as I predict a spate of outdoor film and TV action, I also predict that, this summer, there will be a whole lot of recipes for outdoor cooking and eating. So long as the weather allows, and our freedoms continue, such delicious predictability is a very nice problem to have, so, tongs at the ready, here are two from me. Continue reading...
by Simon Armitage, Hollie McNish, Roger McGough, Kae on (#5HKGJ)
Six of the UK’s best poets reveal exclusive new work and reflect on the last year, losing relatives, long-distance relationships and ‘artistic claustrophobia’ Continue reading...
From highlighting black history to tackling everyday racism, the powerful athlete is determined to use his platform for changeJust under a year ago, Maro Itoje popped into his local branch of Waitrose to do some shopping. Despite being one of this country’s finest and most recognisable rugby union players – a 6ft 5in second-row forward who has played in a World Cup final and won virtually every major prize in the club game with his team, Saracens – he still enjoys the luxury of being able to walk the streets of his quiet London neighbourhood largely undisturbed. This, however, would not be one of those occasions.“So basically, a member of staff mistook me for one of the workers,” he remembers. “This is not the first time this has happened. Normally it’s a member of the public asking me where they can find the milk. This was an actual member of staff; she asked me what time I was starting my shift. Which is ludicrous.” He speaks quietly and evenly. “But it highlights some of the biases people have. And I think this is an experience that’s shared by many people of colour. It shows you how deep-rooted some of these things are.” Continue reading...
Daughter of 59-year-old criticises consular officials’ response and says her mother has been abandoned by her own governmentAn Australian permanent resident has died of Covid-19 while stranded in India, days after the government’s strict ban on arrivals from the country began.The family of the 59-year-old claim their father was “disowned” by the Australian government before he died. Now, they are pleading for help so their mother, who is also stuck in India, can return to Australia so they can grieve together. Continue reading...
Beijing’s mission asks other members not to attend, with Human Rights Watch saying it continues pattern of ‘trying to bully governments into silence’China is trying to convince UN member states to boycott an event planned next week by Germany, the US and Britain on the repression of Uighur Muslims and other minorities in Xinjiang, according to a note seen by Reuters on Friday.China charged that the organisers, who include several other European states along with Australia and Canada, use “human rights issues as a political tool to interfere in China’s internal affairs like Xinjiang, to create division and turbulence and disrupt China’s development”. Continue reading...
Succession battle in South Africa takes latest turn after king and queen both died within less than two monthsPrince Misuzulu Zulu – the eldest son of South Africa’s late Zulu king Goodwill Zwelithini and his more recently deceased regent queen – has been designated heir to the monarchy amid a turbulent succession battle.Misuzulu Zulu, 46, whose name means “strengthening the Zulus”, was named heir in the last will of his deceased mother and queen, Shiyiwe Mantfombi Dlamini Zulu. The will was read out on television on Friday. Continue reading...
Up to 178 Palestinians and six officers injured in skirmishes at al-Aqsa mosque and around east JerusalemIsraeli police have fired rubber bullets and stun grenades towards rock-hurling Palestinian youth at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque amid growing anger over the potential eviction of Palestinians from homes on land claimed by Jewish settlers.At least 178 Palestinians and six officers were injured in the night-time clashes at Islam’s third-holiest site and around east Jerusalem, Palestinian medics and Israeli police said, as thousands of Palestinians faced off with several hundred Israeli police in riot gear. Continue reading...
PM tried not to gloat at Jill Mortimer’s win, claiming no knowledge of Brexit party demise, vaccine bounce ... and even his new MPThe real surprise was that anyone was surprised. Over the last few days the polls had looked desperate for Labour and it would have been astonishing if the Conservatives hadn’t easily won the Hartlepool byelection.And sure enough those who had voted for the Brexit party in the 2019 general election moved en masse to the Tories and Hartlepool went blue for the first time since the constituency had been created back in the mid-1970s. So what with the end of the Brexit party and the vaccine bounce, the byelection had been an accident waiting to happen for Labour. Continue reading...
by Manoj Chaurasia in Bihar and Hannah Ellis-Petersen on (#5HJT5)
The pandemic overwhelming the big cities is reaching areas of Bihar where there is one doctor for 40,000 peopleIn the small rural village of Kathail, in the east of India’s poorest state, Bihar, access to healthcare has always been scarce. But when 34-year-old Umakant Singh fell sick with a cough and fever last week, his brother Mantu Singh did all he could to find help.For four days Mantu rushed around, collecting the limited medicines he could find for his younger brother and nursing him at home. But he knew what these symptoms meant: Covid-19 had reached their village. Continue reading...
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