At least 15 people killed as blaze spread across Bangladesh camp of about 124,000 refugees from MyanmarHundreds of people are missing with at least 15 confirmed dead, including three children, after a fire tore through a camp for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.The toll was exacerbated by barbed wire fencing that caged refuges into areas of the sprawling Balukhali camp that were going up in flames, aid workers said. Continue reading...
Filling in the census form doesn’t worry Albert Beale – he hasn’t completed one for 50 years. The section on national identity ticks boxes for Juliet Chaplin, while Shelagh Garvey finds an annoying loopholeZoe Williams notes the biased census question asking people’s religion (G2, 22 March). Indeed, it’s offensive to many of us; what if it asked “What is your non-religious or anti-religious belief?” with an “Other” box for the religious? That’s no more of a leading question, yet would never be contemplated. Zoe was also concerned about a £1,000 fine if she didn’t fill it in properly. I object to many aspects of the census, so I boycott it entirely. I’ve never had any comeback in 50 years.
My father, Harry Lewis, who has died aged 93, was a carpentry and joinery teacher who spent many years working abroad, first as a Christian missionary in Malawi and then in government teaching posts there, and in Lesotho and Kenya.Harry was born in London to Minnie Lewis, a housemaid. He never knew his father, and at the age of two he was put into the Farningham Home for Little Boys in South Darenth, Kent. His time there made him strong and resilient, and it also gave him a great appreciation of life. Continue reading...
by Maya Wolfe-Robinsonand Josh Halliday on (#5FPQT)
Report ordered after arrests of five men including Labour mayor Joe AndersonPoliticians in Liverpool are braced for government commissioners to intervene in the city council in an unprecedented move following allegations of corruption.Robert Jenrick, the communities secretary, is expected to make a statement on Wednesday in response to a report from inspectors investigating whether the council has provided best value to the taxpayer. The report was ordered following the arrests of five men, including the Labour mayor Joe Anderson, last December. Continue reading...
He started out learning his craft on a school work experience programme. Now the comic is about to make history with the first standup special from Africa.It’s not every day a comedian can claim to have made history. Step forward Loyiso Gola, whose new Netflix show – its first ever standup special from Africa – was released this week. But if you’re looking for some expression of pride or excitement about that, Gola’s not your man. “It is meaningful,” he acknowledges, after a bit of arm-twisting. “But for me, I never really pegged myself as an African act. I just always thought of myself as a global act.”You can see why. Based part-time in London (pre-pandemic, at least), Gola is a UK panel-show veteran, and a regular at what he calls “all those glorious festivals all round the world”. His 2018 Live at the Apollo turn, viewed 1.5m times online, teased British audiences to great effect – about Brexit, among other things. (“You are trying to leave Europe. Where are you going to go? Because you are not welcome in Africa!”) With one prior Netflix gig under his belt, on an all-South African Comedians of the World bill, Gola hopes his solo special will cement that international appeal. “I’m extremely nervous,” he tells me, Zooming from Johannesburg. “This feels like a breakthrough album. Sometimes you can feel the moment coming.” Continue reading...
by Reported by Graham Readfearnand presented by Laura on (#5FPQX)
Days of heavy rain and flooding along Australia’s east coast have caused widespread damage and triggered the evacuation of thousands of residents – from western Sydney to the mid-north coast.
by Helena Smith in Athens and Sam Jones in Madrid on (#5FPMZ)
Test-run flights from UK to Greece will be allowed from next month while Spain says restrictions will be lifted on 30 MarchGreece will begin accepting test-run flights from the UK next month, while Spain has announced that the entry restrictions on flights from Britain that have been in place since late December will be lifted next week.Greece’s tourism minister, Haris Theoharis, said while Athens’ ambition remained to open up to holidaymakers from 14 May, border controls would also be relaxed in April when “some” airports were allowed to receive traffic from abroad. Continue reading...
From going braless and wearing black – to therapists in ‘sympathetic necklines’ and politicians in fleeces, readers reflect on a year of getting dressed in the pandemicIt is a white linen suit that Perry Seymour misses the most. “It serves so many purposes, but always reminds me of summer nights,” he says.Slim-fitting and miraculously stain-free, it is what he wore in the garden to celebrate his 55th birthday last July. Not that anyone saw it. “I never thought I dressed for anyone else, but I’ve found, without occasions or parties, I have no motivation to get dressed at all. These days, I don’t wear trousers unless I leave the house.” Continue reading...
Analysis: British government will hope a deterioration in relations can be avoidedThe UK government is bracing itself for retaliatory action by China over its decision to impose sanctions on four Chinese officials in response to human rights abuses of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province.The British ambassador to China, Caroline Wilson, was summoned by the Chinese foreign ministry to hear “solemn representations” about the UK sanctions imposed for the mass detention of Muslim minorities. Continue reading...
by Ammar Kalia, Rachel Aroesti, Rebecca Nicholson, St on (#5FPJM)
Continuing our series on a year of bumper pandemic viewing, our critics finally watch the shows that had passed them by, from Downton to Twin PeaksAs with my experience of so many modern cultural touchstones, I first came to 24 via a Simpsons parody. Being only seven years old in 2001, when the 24-episode “real time” thriller first aired, my knowledge of Kiefer Sutherland’s exhausting counter-terror mission to stop the assassination of a presidential hopeful came from a 2007 Simpsons episode starring Lisa and Bart in a split-screen chase to hold off the detonation of a powerful stink bomb at Springfield Elementary. Continue reading...
Duke of Sussex’s first formal role since ending royal duties involves ‘meaty role’ as chief impact officer at BetterUpPrince Harry has been given a job by a $1bn (£730m) Silicon Valley startup which provides professional coaching, mental health advice and “immersive learning” as its chief impact officer.The Duke of Sussex said he hoped to be able to “create impact in people’s lives” by working with BetterUp to provide “proactive coaching” for personal development, increased awareness and “an all-round better life”. Continue reading...
While the Mexican spirit is most commonly consumed in shots or cocktails, it can also be a joy to cook with, whether you’re making tasty roast beef or boozy chocolate pots
by Lisa O'Carroll Brexit correspondent on (#5FPAD)
Trade bloc indicates desire to ease tensions with UK over alleged breach of protocolThe EU is pressing to reopen Brexit talks with the UK in an effort to end the bitter row over Northern Ireland a week after it formally launched legal action against the government.Ireland’s foreign minister has indicated that the EU is willing to show some flexibility despite the UK’s recent decision to unilaterally delay implementation of the special arrangements for Northern Ireland, which led to the threat of court action. Continue reading...
Thousands of extra buildings and new roads on the flood plain have changed how rainwater runs off into the Hawkesbury River, locals say“Where do they think the water is going to go? It’s not 1960 any more.”Shaun Boland was furious on Tuesday and it wasn’t because live power lines had blocked him from accessing, by boat, his two-storey house at Pitt Town Bottoms in Sydney’s north-west. His home, like dozens of others nearby, was drowned and blending into the Hawkesbury River. Continue reading...
In the pandemic, many have rediscovered the sheer pleasure of writing to strangers, with new schemes spreading hope and connection around the worldA few months ago, when the rules had been sufficiently relaxed to allow friends to sit together outside, Liz Maguire had coffee with a woman she had never met. The pair had already been communicating for months, and quickly fell into easy conversation. Later on, this woman tweeted about their meeting, to which another woman replied: “You met Liz Maguire? As in the Liz Maguire?”.The Liz Maguire is a 27-year-old American expat living in Dublin. Though undoubtedly a celebrity in her chosen field, she is not a professional, but that is simply because she is not paid to do what she loves, which is to write letters to strangers. Continue reading...
With his new album, Deacon, the US singer-songwriter has finally left heartbreak and anger behind. It’s been a journeyAcross the long stretch of the pandemic, with formal face-to-face interviews replaced by cosy conversations over phones and laptops, we have become used to images of kitchens, living rooms and carefully selected bookshelves. For today’s conversation, though, singer-songwriter Serpentwithfeet has offered up a far more novel setting in the current locked-down climate: an airport. After struggling to connect, he appears, most of his face covered with a mask, his neck tattoos just visible through the compressed video image. “Can you hear me?” he asks, before a disembodied voice interrupts to announce that a flight is now boarding.Related: The Guide: Staying In – sign up for our home entertainment tips Continue reading...
Australians deceived into risking nest eggs after clicking on Mayfair 101 sponsored links, court rulesThe corporate regulator has warned Google to carefully consider the implications of a court decision that found people were misled into tipping money into high-risk investments after following sponsored links in search results.In a decision handed down on Tuesday, the federal court judge Stewart Anderson found the search ad campaign formed part of a broader pattern of misleading and deceptive conduct by Mayfair 101, an investment company best known for buying Queensland’s Dunk Island. Continue reading...
Chief executive Jakob Stausholm says he will make heritage protection be ‘felt in the hearts and minds’ of his employeesRio Tinto chief executive Jakob Stausholm has pledged to make protecting cultural heritage an issue which is “felt in the hearts and minds” of his employees in an effort to avoid another Juukan Gorge-style disaster.The mining company on Tuesday announced it would publicly report to investors on its progress on improving cultural heritage systems and renewing trust with traditional owners, as it attempts to rebuild its shattered social capital. Continue reading...
Eighteen years ago, 24 photographers agreed to document New Year’s Day for 24 years. Each was allocated one hour of the day to record what was going on around them and each moves forward one hour every year. Here is a selection of their work, which will be displayed in Soho Square, London, from 24 March until 16 April at one of the first exhibitions to reopen in the UK after a series of coronavirus lockdowns Continue reading...
From an R-rated Mrs Doubtfire to an ultra-violent Event Horizon, film history is littered with rumours of cuts that may or may not existSnyder Cut fever has taken over America, with streaming viewers responding to the reinstatement of one man’s unchecked vision over the mucking-about from interferers at the studio. The shifting fate of Justice League retells an old showbiz narrative – talent v industry – with a heartening victory for the David of the dynamic, as the global conglomerate yields to the ceaseless requests of a vast and ardent fanbase. But more frequently, the money-men win out and get their way in edits, wresting control from the creators for the sake of marketability.Below, we’ve surveyed eight of the most prominent stories in this vein, tales of mythical cuts without an army of devotees to force them into release. Tinkered with for the sake of length, profit and taste both good and bad, they’re playing in an exclusive engagement in the public imagination. Continue reading...
Chinese embassy accuses Australia of the ‘despicable tactic of smearing China’ after foreign minister raises ‘grave concerns’ about human rightsAustralia and New Zealand have raised “grave concerns” about human rights abuses against Muslim minorities in China’s Xinjiang region, citing “the growing number of credible reports” of severe violations.But while both countries have welcomed new coordinated sanctions announced by the UK, US, the EU and Canada, they have not announced any such measures of their own. Continue reading...
Tuesday: Dozens of NSW communities declared disaster zones after flooding as the downpour continues. Plus: Concussion tests for AFL and NRLIt’s Tuesday 23 March and today we’ll be covering all the latest from widespread flooding on Australia’s east coast. There’s more trouble in Canberra with an adviser sacked for a “disgusting and sickening” lewd act. Plus Chinese officials are facing sanctions over the country’s treatment of Uighur people. Continue reading...
Sanctions over treatment of Uighurs mark first time for three decades UK or EU has punished China for human rights abusesBritain and the EU have taken joint action with the US and Canada to impose parallel sanctions on senior Chinese officials involved in the mass internment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province in the first such western action against Beijing since Joe Biden took office.The move also marked the first time in three decades that the UK or the EU had punished China for human rights abuses, and both will now be working hard to contain the potential political and economic fallout. China hit back immediately, blacklisting MEPs, European diplomats and thinktanks. Continue reading...
Young women quickly come to realise that our world is a very different place from that of our male friendsCreatures that are hunted need survival strategies. I watched a video clip of a cat seeing off a black bear. Despite the ridiculous size difference, the cat flies at the bear – all ferocity and flashing claws. Small animals turn fear into rage, and sometimes – only sometimes – rage saves them.These thoughts come to me in the quiet garden of my Wellington home. Sexual assaults have increased in this city by 50% over the past five years. In the news, I read about an appalling killing in London. Women protesting, holding vigils and being beaten by the police as “activists”. Continue reading...
by Dan Sabbagh Defence and security editor on (#5FN9Y)
Cuts come despite Boris Johnson’s pre-election pledge not to cut armed services ‘in any form’Britain’s army, navy and air force will all be cut back over this parliament, despite promises made by Boris Johnson during the election campaign “not to be cutting the armed services in any form”.A five-year defence review, published on Monday afternoon, confirms that the army target size will be cut by 9,500 to 72,500 by 2025, its lowest level since 1714, and the number of navy frigates and destroyers will drop from 19 to 17 in the next 18 months. Continue reading...
‘Sleep-inducing’ is rarely a compliment, but Meditation app Calm hopes to have listeners nodding off with its hour-long remixes of hits by the likes of Ariana Grande and Katy PerryIt is 11.30pm on a Thursday and I have taken to my bed with my headphones on and an hour-long “sleep remix” of Post Malone’s multi-platinum 2019 hit Circles for company. As you’ve presumably guessed, the idea is that the remix is supposed to help me drift off to sleep: the vastly successful meditation app Calm has just launched a Sleep Remix Series of tracks by big pop artists – Post Malone, Ariana Grande, Shawn Mendes and Katy Perry among them – as the latest addition to their huge library of sounds designed to send users off for the night.If the author of Beerbongs & Bentleys – a man who has barbed wire tattooed across his forehead, and indeed the words “always tired” inked beneath his eyes – doesn’t seem the most obvious candidate for a job as a soothing bedtime accompanist, the arrival of Calm’s Sleep Remix Series isn’t entirely unexpected. For one thing, not since the chillout compilation boom of the early 2000s – when record stores shelves were groaning under the weight of collections featuring Röyksopp, Zero 7, Kinobe, Blue States, tracks from Moby’s album Play and a variety of other purveyors of gentle advert-soundtrack-friendly electronica – has music that wafts unobtrusively in the background been such a big deal. Continue reading...
Yu Tsai condemns magazine publisher for offering editor’s role to Alexi McCammond, who then resigned over racist tweetsA Teen Vogue photographer has said the hiring and swift axing of editor-in-chief Alexi McCammond over anti-Asian tweets shows Condé Nast does not “value” its Asian staff members.McCammond apologised for comments she tweeted in 2011 and which had been reported before. Condé Nast announced last week that she would no longer start in the job on Wednesday as planned. Continue reading...
‘We were at a Whitney Houston concert in LA. I glanced up and saw a shooting star. It felt like a sign from the heavens’We’d written How Will I Know and I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) for Whitney Houston, so were given tickets when she played the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on her first tour in 1986. After she sang How Will I Know, I glanced up and there was a shooting star in the night sky above the amphitheatre. I pulled out my notebook and wrote down: “Waiting for a star to fall.” It felt like a sign from the heavens. Continue reading...
About 40,000 logistical workers hold national walkout over working conditionsItalian consumers were urged by unions to refrain from buying from Amazon for the day on Monday as about 40,000 of the online shopping giant’s logistical workers held a national strike over working conditions.It is the first walkout in Italy to affect Amazon’s entire supply chain and involves warehouse and logistical hub workers as well as drivers provided by third-party services. Continue reading...
The scent of rosemary stirs childhood memories and inspires this rustic dish of hunter’s chicken cooked in the style of the southern Roman countrysideI once saw a woman pull a plant from a bed, then put it in her handbag. I must have been about eight, and visiting a garden – probably one padding a National Trust house. Either my brother or sister had fallen over, because we were all crouched on the gravel, and Mum was examining a knee. While she pulled things out of her bag on one side of a flowerbed, so did a much older woman on the other side. Namely, a small trowel, which she used to dig up a plant and its wispy roots, and a plastic bag to receive the plant, which she then dropped into her open handbag. Now, I probably wouldn’t remember anything about this particular incident were it not for what happened next. As the woman snapped her handbag shut, she looked up, and straight at me. She held my eyes for a few seconds before breaking into a small smile that was both sheepish and victorious. I found myself smiling back and, as I did so, I understood that she was stealing the plant and that now I was her accomplice! After all, I, too, had a handful of leaves and gravel in my pocket.It is human nature, I know, that of the billions of memories stored and indexed in our frontal lobes, it is the ones with high emotion that repeat on us most often. In this case, it is both guilt and excitement at having witnessed a garden crime, and also admiration at how brazen it all was, to bring a trowel and a bag, and to dig in broad daylight. Later, we would see the same woman in the coffee shop eating coffee cake, her bag hanging on the chair just metres from a National Trust volunteer. Continue reading...
Benjamin and Blanca, 41 and 40, hit it off after their first meeting, but didn’t meet up again for another year. They are now married and live in LABenjamin Speed was on holiday in Los Angeles when his friend suggested he meet Blanca Lista, a film producer. “I am a composer working in the film and TV industry, and he thought we’d have common interests,” Benjamin remembers. Blanca set aside some time one afternoon for the meeting. “I noticed he was handsome and radiated confidence, which was very attractive.” Benjamin instantly fell for her and asked her out via email, but she turned him down. “I thought he was just passing through town and I had my mum staying at the time,” she says. Benjamin says he returned home to Australia feeling “really sad”.A year later, in September 2012, Blanca was offered the chance to visit Australia for work. She visited four states over the course of her month-long trip, ending in New South Wales. Once there, she visited Sydney, where Benjamin was living. “Our old mutual friend recommended getting in touch again, so I wrote to him.” He was delighted to hear from Blanca and took her to his favourite restaurant in Chinatown. Blanca had been due to leave the following day, but before their meeting she extended her trip another 24 hours. “I think I already knew I would want more time with him.” Continue reading...
Guy Brice Parfait Kolelas, who urged voters to ‘fight for change’, died as he was being flown to France for treatmentThe Republic of the Congo’s main presidential opposition candidate, Guy Brice Parfait Kolelas, has died from coronavirus aged 60.Kolelas died on Sunday of Covid-19 as he was being flown to France for treatment, his campaign director said on Monday, the day after presidential elections. Continue reading...
Critics say handing police and home secretary more discretionary powers will undermine civil libertiesThe police, crime, sentencing and courts bill has come under scrutiny after the handling of the Sarah Everard vigils. What are the bill’s provisions and why is it generating so much controversy? Continue reading...
Philippines defence chief says vessels at Whitsun reef are manned by militias rather than fishermen, and accuses Beijing of ‘provocation’The Philippines’ defence chief has demanded more than 200 Chinese vessels he said were manned by militias leave a South China Sea reef claimed by Manila, saying their presence was a “provocative action of militarising the area.”“We call on the Chinese to stop this incursion and immediately recall these boats violating our maritime rights and encroaching into our sovereign territory,” defence secretary Delfin Lorenzana said in a statement on Sunday, adding without elaborating that the Philippines would uphold its sovereign rights. Continue reading...
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