Coleraine-born hero of American revolution is to feature in region’s heritage trailsHercules Mulligan, the 18th-century tailor, spy and US revolutionary, is soon to become a Northern Ireland tourist attraction.The emigrant who helped clinch America’s independence by spying on British officers and reputedly saving the life of George Washington has been honoured in his native land. Continue reading...
Planned update to Burgos Cathedral prompts online petition signed by more than 31,000 peoplePlans to mark the 800th anniversary of Burgos’s magnificent gothic cathedral with three enormous new bronze doors have ushered in an unholy row, with Unesco advising against the project and critics attacking the €1.2m portals as an “artistic outrage”.Cathedral authorities in the northern Spanish city say the new doors, designed by the renowned, award-winning artist Antonio López, are a work of contemporary art that will complement “a monument already rendered in five artistic styles that are the fruit of each stage of its eight centuries”. They also point out that the current wooden doors are old and in a poor state of repair. Continue reading...
Feared head of Neapolitan Camorra known as ‘the Professor’ had spent most of life behind barsRaffaele “the Professor” Cutolo, one of the most feared and powerful bosses of the Neapolitan Camorra, spent most of his adult life in jail. And it was in a prison bed on Wednesday that he was found dead, aged 79.His imprisonment didn’t deter him from ordering murders, forging criminal ties and sparking a war that left several hundred people dead in the early 1980s. Cutolo, whose life inspired films and songs, transformed his prison cell into his criminal office, from where he recruited thousands of members into the Camorra who, once freed, committed murders on his orders. Continue reading...
Group posed as wealthy buyers using sleight of hand and fake money to steal diamonds and a classic carDiligent research, a counterfeiting expert, an identical box and nerves as hard as the diamonds they stole helped a gang of audacious jewel thieves and con artists scam their way across Europe, pocketing stones worth almost €20m (£17m) and swindling a classic car collector out of €185,ooo.But their sleight-of-hand skills and bundles of fake banknotes eventually caught the attention of police on both sides of the Pyrenees, and eight people were arrested at the end of December following a year-long joint investigation by Spanish and French police. Continue reading...
Videos secretly filmed by an abducted princess underline the discrimination and threat of violence faced by Emirati women“I’m a hostage, I’m not free … I am enslaved, imprisoned in this jail, my life is not in my hands … I have been by myself in solitary confinement with no trial and no charge.” These are the words of Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid, the 36-year-old daughter of the ruler of Dubai. She revealed details about her alleged forced confinement in a Dubai villa in secretly filmed videos, which were broadcast in a BBC Panorama documentary on Tuesday – several months after her friends lost all contact with her.They are the first videos of Latifa to emerge since her abduction and forcible return to Dubai in March 2018, when she was captured off the coast of Goa by Indian forces working in coordination with the United Arab Emirates. In the video she says she lives in a villa “converted into a jail” with all the windows barred shut, two female police officers inside the house and five male police officers stationed outside. She says she is not allowed outside and is filming in the bathroom as it’s the only room she can lock. Continue reading...
Western foreign ministers to discuss response to Iranian plan to ban snap intrusive inspectionsThe future of the Iran nuclear deal is hanging in the balance as the west prepares its response to Iranian plans to increase pressure on Washington by banning snap intrusive inspections of its nuclear sites.The German, French and British foreign ministers are to confer urgently with the US secretary of state, Tony Blinken, on how to respond to Iran’s plans, which it is expected to implement on Tuesday. Continue reading...
LDP’s attempt to demonstrate gender equality after Olympic sexism row backfiresIt was a move designed to show that Japan’s ruling party was committed to gender equality after the sexism row that forced one of its former prime ministers, Yoshiro Mori, to resign as head of Tokyo’s Olympic organising committee.The time had come to give female members of the Liberal Democratic party (LDP) more prominence at key meetings, the party’s secretary general, Toshihiro Nikai, said this week, days after Mori had stepped down following his claim that meetings attended by “talkative women” tended to “drag on”. Continue reading...
As the soul legend is nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, we pick her 20 greatest songs from her 60s collaborations with Burt Bacharach to her later power balladsThe live album A Man and A Woman is both delightful and slightly odd: Warwick dueting with Isaac Hayes, who had just had a hit with a paen to troilism called Moonlight Lovin’ (Ménage à Trois). Its solitary single isn’t a medley, more an attempt to bind two songs together as a call-and-response. It works. Continue reading...
Why do we play? How do games work? From games philosophy to sci-fi, here are 20 delightful and essential reads for gamersAt this stage in the pandemic, you may have started to question the amount of time you’re spending playing video games. Publishers have reported huge increases in the numbers of players on titles such as Call of Duty Warzone and Fifa 21, while Animal Crossing, launched in the first weeks of last year’s lockdown, has sold more than 30m copies, mostly on its seductive promise to bring friends together for tea parties on cute little islands.Perhaps now, however, you want to spend some time away from games – but without abandoning them. Or maybe you want to find out why Assassin’s Creed Valhalla has such an unassailable grip on your attention. Either way, here are 20 books that tell us more about games, or are likely to be interesting to people who play them a lot. I own and love them all, and they will definitely make you feel better about putting 500 hours into Crusader Kings III. Continue reading...
While researching her latest novel the author spent weeks walking the canals and streets, and unearthing the Old Town’s hidden historyFebruary and it’s not yet quite spring in Amsterdam. Soon, the buds in the rose garden in Vondelpark will start to blush pink and yellow; the leaves on the trees surrounding the lake will begin to shimmer with silver and green. Soon, at least in a normal year, people will gather again at the bandstand and the Blauwe Theehuis, the blue teahouse, in this elegant 19th-century park named after the poet Joost van den Vondel, and the diagonal paths that cross the museum quarter between the Rijksmuseum and the Concertgebouw – once a region of small farms and market gardens – will be filled with conversation and bicycles again.But our focus lies not in the 19th-century city – nor the 20th century with the Anne Frank House beside the Westerkerk – but rather in the old medieval centre of Amsterdam. I should be there now, conducting a walking tour for English and Dutch readers around the canals and overlooked alleyways that inspired my latest adventure novel, The City of Tears. I should be explaining how, in the bloody aftermath of the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in Paris in August 1572, my imaginary first family, the Jouberts, flee persecution to the city of tears itself, Amsterdam, to build a new life for themselves. Continue reading...
Comments on singer’s Instagram account say wearing likeness of god is cultural appropriationThe singer Rihanna has angered the Hindu community with a “disrespectful” Instagram picture in which she wears a diamond-studded pendant featuring the Hindu god Ganesha.Commenters on her Instagram account have called the wearing of the likeness of the god around her neck cultural appropriation. Continue reading...
Inquiry hears Arconic failed to share results with certifiers despite being ‘legally obliged’ to do soThe company that made the cladding panels used on Grenfell Tower did not tell certifiers about a “disastrous” failed fire test on one of its products despite being “legally obliged” to do so, the inquiry into the fire has heard.Claude Schmidt, the president of Arconic’s French arm, denied the test results were “deliberately concealed”, but agreed the omission amounted to a “misleading half truth” during proceedings on Wednesday. Continue reading...
Nazir Ahmed is accused of carrying out repeated offences when he was a teenagerA former Labour peer repeatedly sexually abused two younger children when he was a teenager, a court has heard.There were claims that Nazir Ahmed, previously known as Lord Ahmed of Rotherham, had carried out serious sexual acts on others even before he was 14, jurors were told. Continue reading...
Duke of Edinburgh taken to King Edward VII’s hospital in London, Buckingham Palace saysThe Duke of Edinburgh has been admitted to hospital after feeling unwell, Buckingham Palace has said.Prince Philip, who is 99, was admitted on the advice of his doctor and a palace statement said it was a precautionary measure. Continue reading...
Family of Paul Rusesabagina accuse Rwandan authorities of kidnapping him and say he will not get fair trialThe businessman whose role in saving more than 1,000 lives inspired the film Hotel Rwanda has gone on trial in Kigali.Paul Rusesabagina faces nine charges including terrorism and murder, and if convicted could spend the rest of his life behind bars. Continue reading...
Commission finds Jamaican government responsible for violating the rights of two gay peopleThe Jamaican government is responsible for violating the rights of two gay people and the country’s homophobic laws should be repealed immediately, according to a ruling by an international human rights tribunal.The decision by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights sets a precedent for LGBT rights across the Caribbean and is the commission’s first finding that laws that criminalise LGBT people violate international law. Continue reading...
Prime minister awaiting results of UN investigation after video appears to tell of imprisonment by fatherBoris Johnson has said he is concerned about the case of a missing Emirati princess whose secret video messages from what she describes as a villa turned prison have led to calls for international intervention and proof she is still alive.The UK prime minister said on Wednesday he was “concerned” over Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid’s situation but said it was being investigated by the UN commissioner for human rights. “I think what we’ll do is wait and see how they get on. We’ll keep an eye on that,” Johnson said. Continue reading...
Wednesday: League considers establishing a multimillion-dollar fund for players who suffer head injuries. Plus: sweet tooths sign up to international snack exchangeHappy hump day! It’s Tamara Howie here on Wednesday 17 February with fingers crossed that the Victorian lockdown lifts tonight. We’ve got news of a watershed proposal for the AFL and all the reaction to Scott Morrison’s handling of a shocking rape allegation. Plus, Trump and Giuliani are being sued by a Democratic congressman over the insurrection. Continue reading...
The boxer turned actor anchors this tale of a UK photographer who travels to Senegal after the death of his estranged fatherBritish-Nigerian director Joseph Adesunloye’s feature debut – made in 2016 but only now seeing the light of day – is the story of a London photographer travelling to Senegal for his father’s funeral. It’s a drifting movie, not entirely successful but grounded by the undeniable screen presence of boxer turned model turned actor Dudley O’Shaughnessy. (He was in the recent season of Top Boy; in his modelling days he appeared opposite Rihanna in the video for We Found Love.)Here he plays Leke, a fashion photographer living the dream in Hackney; home is a loft-style flat overlooking the city and Leke is about to open a major show in China. The film begins with a couple of fake-feeling gallery scenes, everyone head-to-toe in black and air-kissing with extravagant mwah-mwahs (this is the art world recognisable from other movies rather than real life). Despite his success, Leke seems detached from his life in London. He is also ignoring telephone messages from Senegal, where his father is seriously ill. When the inevitable call comes – his dad has died – Leke flies to Dakar. A family friend has arranged for a taxi driver to be his guide. “What do you speak? French? Wolof?” Leke shakes his head no. “Mon ami,” says the guy. “Tu est perdu. You are really, really lost.” Continue reading...
by Jamie Grierson Home affairs correspondent on (#5E7Y5)
Coalition of 17 groups says appointment of William Shawcross shows review will ‘rubber-stamp’ anti-radicalisation strategyA coalition of human rights and community groups have said they will boycott the government’s review of the anti-radicalisation programme Prevent in protest at the appointment of William Shawcross as its chair.The appointment last month of Shawcross, who chaired the Charity Commission between 2012 and 2018, was met instantly with criticism over previous remarks he has made about Islam. Continue reading...
Even if you’re secretly in pyjama bottoms, the usual rules apply – plus a few extra. Look at the camera, check your backdrop, and try to keep the room clear of other people and petsIf job interviews are awkward and nerve-racking at the best of times, this is magnified by the prospect of having to do it from a corner of your home on screen, while hoping your children or pets don’t put in an appearance. Unfortunately, the pandemic has made interviewing for a job via the internet an increasingly common experience. Here is some expert advice on how to look like a pro, even if you are wearing pyjamas from the waist down. Continue reading...
by Luke Henriques-Gomes (now) and Amy Remeikis (earli on (#5E79B)
PM addresses former Liberal staffer’s allegation of rape; AstraZeneca vaccine approved for Australia; hotel quarantine back in the spotlight. Follow live
Guardian photographer Murdo MacLeod and crew embarked on a lockdown exploration of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Union Canal in a Canadian canoe Continue reading...
A cool ocean current and a high capital bring surprising variety to a country of vast desertsKnown in colonial times as German South West Africa, the name Namibia derives from a word meaning “vast place”. This aptly describes a country more than three times the size of the UK, yet with fewer than 2.5 million inhabitants.Much of Namibia is either desert or semi-desert, with very low rainfall. The capital (and largest city), Windhoek, gets about 360mm (roughly 14 inches) of rain a year, almost all between spring and autumn, from October through to April. Temperatures here also vary from season to season, from an average daily maximum of 30C (86F), peaking at 36C, at the height of summer, to a more comfortable 20C in winter, helped by the capital’s altitude of 1,730 metres (5,670ft) above sea level. Continue reading...
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said she was focused on delivering results after becoming the first woman and first African to be appointed director general of the World Trade Organization. 'I want to make sure that people remember my continent producing the first leader of the WTO that made a difference,' Okonjo-Iweala said.
Almost 200 threatened Florida manatees have been filmed together basking in shallow waters off the state’s west coast. The remarkable drone footage also shows a pod of playful dolphins swimming through the group. The video of the manatees and dolphins at play, taken by See Through Canoe, is unusual in that it captures the species together in such high numbers. The Florida fish and wildlife conservation commission estimates that only about 7,500 manatees exist in the wild in the south-eastern US.
Gun control campaigners appalled after Brazil’s pro-gun president announces four decrees to facilitate acquiring weaponsJair Bolsonaro’s latest efforts to make guns more easily available to Brazilians have sparked anger and trepidation with some calling the moves a threat to the South American country’s young democracy.Brazil’s pro-gun president announced four presidential decrees designed to facilitate legal access to weapons on Saturday morning, as the country’s coronavirus death toll swelled to nearly 240,000. Continue reading...
Man unhappy with state of his road told officers they would have to come in a snowplough to arrest himA Ukrainian man confessed to a fictitious murder in the hope police would clear his snow-covered road when they came to arrest him, regional authorities have said.The man called police on Saturday evening to tell them he had killed his mother’s partner by stabbing him in the chest. Continue reading...
by Emmanuel Akinwotu West Africa correspondent on (#5E732)
At least four people have died in the epidemic, causing heightened alarm across west AfricaHealth officials in Guinea are racing to contain a new outbreak of Ebola that has killed at least four people and raised concerns across west Africa, which previously suffered the worst from the virus.On Monday morning, a fourth victim died in Guinea and four others are being treated in an isolation centre, suffering vomiting, diarrhoea and bleeding. At least seven of the people who contracted the virus attended the funeral of a nurse in Goueke, a town near the Liberian border, on 1 February the government said on Sunday. Continue reading...
According to a new poll, all manner of everyday occurrences are now over for good – from sharing crisps in the pub to swapping gym equipmentName: Kissing strangers.Age: Ancient. Continue reading...
by Michael Safi and a Guardian reporter in Yangon on (#5E69R)
Protests against military coup continue despite overnight internet blackout and extra soldiers deployedTroops have joined police in forcefully dispersing marchers in the city of Mandalay in northern Myanmar, as protests against the military coup continued despite the deployment of extra soldiers in some areas and an eight-hour internet blackout overnight.Images and reports from the city on Monday showed police and soldiers using rubber bullets and slingshots to disperse protesters. A student union in the city said several people had been injured. Continue reading...
Radu Jude dramatises the case of a disenchanted teenager turned in to the secret police in 1980s Romania in this chilling work of filmed theatreThe anger and despair in this Romanian filmed theatre work are kept in check by its ice-cold manner: it is spoken throughout in the kind of deadened official style that Ceaușescu-era apparatchiks might have used for reports on wrongdoers and dissidents, and the style that these same people might have used to defend themselves, and convince their political masters that they had internalised the right kind of torpid, soulless submission.Director Radu Jude (who made the much-admired I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians) has adapted a verbatim-theatre stage play by Gianina Cărbunariu, working with the writer herself; it chillingly dramatises an actual 1981 Securitate case file concerning a high school student called Mugur Călinescu. This teenager was discovered to be chalking protest slogans on walls (in scandalously large “uppercase print” letters) calling for an end to poverty and for free trade unions of the sort permitted by Romania’s ally Poland. To discover and punish the author of these innocuous sentiments, hundreds of informants were mobilised, phones bugged, schoolchildren bullied into turning snitch – all with coldly fanatical pettiness. Continue reading...
A corporate destruction project offers a symbolic backdrop for this poignant drama about a father-son relationshipIts plot featuring a giant mining corporation known as “the monster” tearing up the landscape and causing bitter division among the hard-drinking local populace, this handsomely shot drama could be taking place in rust-belt America. But this is backwoods Greece, where forest rancher Nikitas (Vangelis Mourikis), first seen fending off a landslide caused by the miners’ activities, is fighting a running battle to keep them from despoiling the haven he loves. A motorbike throttle at midnight announces the arrival of his estranged son Johnny (Argyris Pandazaras), whose need to claim his inheritance adds to the pressure on Nikitas to ship out.Related: Europe in 25 films: the critics’ choice Continue reading...
Helen Coonan to take dual role of chief executive and chair, an arrangement previously criticised as compromising board’s independenceCrown Resorts chief executive Ken Barton has stepped down and will probably walk away with at least a $3m payout as the beleaguered casino giant takes urgent steps to restore its suitability in the wake of the Bergin report.But Barton’s departure has forced Crown to return to having an executive chairman for the time being, an arrangement that has been criticised in the past as compromising the independence of the board. Continue reading...
by Jane Simpkiss, fine art curator, Leamington Spa Ar on (#5E6B5)
With public art collections closed we are bringing the art to you, exploring highlights from across the country in partnership with Art UK. Today’s pick: Leamington Spa’s Self-Portrait by Candelight by SchalckenGodfried Schalcken was already famous in his homeland of the Dutch Republic when he sailed for England in 1692. Celebrated for his small, intricately detailed nocturnal scenes, Schalcken hoped to grow his following across the Channel in the court of King William and Queen Mary and vie for the position of official portrait painter to the Crown.This self-portrait acted as his visual CV. Aware that no other portrait painter in England at that time could rival his mastery of light and shade, Schalcken bathes the scene in candlelight, promoting his unique skill. He identifies himself as the author of this work by blatantly pointing to the artist’s palette in his left hand. Light shimmers off the red silk swag and Schalcken’s silk slashed doublet, recalling the portraits of Anthony Van Dyck. In this way, Schalcken claims his place in a distinguished line of Dutch artists working as court painters in England. Continue reading...
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