World news | The Guardian

Locals condemn lack of consultation over customs clearance site for 1,200 lorriesResidents of a village near Dover have mounted what they describe as a “David and Goliath” battle to try to reverse government plans to turn fields at the ends of their gardens into a giant Brexit customs clearance site for 1,200 lorries.The local Anglican priest and former chairman of the chamber of commerce accused the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, and the transport minister, Rachel Maclean, of a “clear abuse of power” over the lack of notice and consultation over the consequences of their plans. Continue reading...

For this Asian-American novelist, soba noodles flecked with gold embody new year traditionsEvery year my mother would make a bowl of Japanese New Year’s Eve noodles for my American father and me. “Just this one tradition,” she would entreat; she didn’t like American New Year, and longed for Japanese-style festivities. One year, I found one of my noodles tied in a knot, which she assured me was a sign of good fortune. I wasn’t so sure. I didn’t even really like noodles.Related: Subtle and soothing: my obsession with Thai massaman curry – plus the recipe Continue reading...

It may not be recommended, but, from necessity or choice, many of us find ourselves working from them. Here’s how to set up your perfect bed office

People ‘inadvertently’ received outdated official advice to leave Australia contrary to new Covid-era arrangementsThe Department of Home Affairs mistakenly sent outdated letters to visa applicants erroneously telling them to immediately book international return flights out of Australia in the middle of a pandemic or risk having their applications derailed.Ordinarily, the migration system requires applicants for some permanent visa types – including parent visas and partner visas – to be outside of Australia at the time they are granted. Continue reading...

Action brought by sailor Sofia Bekatorou likely to end patriarchal country’s taboo on discussing treatment of womenWhen the Olympic gold medallist Sofia Bekatorou appears before a public prosecutor on Wednesday to reveal the sexual abuse she allegedly endured at the hands of a senior sport official, all of Greece will be watching.For the sailing champion who shot to fame in the 2004 Athens Olympics, the court proceedings will mark the official end of the fear she says has kept her silent for more than two decades. As she paves the way for more women to speak out, she will lift the veil on a subject considered so taboo in Greece it was never previously aired in public. Continue reading...

Kristen Antoinette Gray accused of breaching Indonesia visa by promoting the island, selling her e-book and offering consultingAn American woman is being deported from Bali over suspected immigration violations after her tweets that celebrated the Indonesian resort island as a low-cost, queer-friendly place for foreigners to live went viral.Kristen Antoinette Gray arrived in Bali in January last year and ended up staying through the coronavirus pandemic. Her posts on Twitter, including comparisons between Bali and Los Angeles, offers to advise on travel, and links to buy her e-book, began going viral in Indonesia on Sunday. Continue reading...

The pop star’s directorial debut is a hodge-podge of giddy numbers and narrative tropes, and its star, Maddie Ziegler, lacks credibilityAustralian pop star and songwriter Sia Furler’s feature directorial debut Music is in effect two very different films with wildly disparate tones, stuck together using a sludgy mixture of by-the-book drama and hipstery eclecticism.One – a collection of music sequences presented in spanking bright colours, with sets and costumes that seem designed to replicate the experience of taking magic mushrooms during a fashion show or contemporary art exhibition – is nothing but self-conscious. Continue reading...

Music legend stirs further pandemic controversy, challenging Northern Ireland government’s recent ‘blanket ban on live music’ in courtVan Morrison will challenge the Northern Irish government in court over its “blanket ban” on live music in licensed venues arising from coronavirus restrictions, his lawyer said on Tuesday.Solicitor Joe Rice said the Northern Irish singer-songwriter, who has released several protest songs against Covid-19 rules in recent months, will ask the high court in Belfast to review the policy. Continue reading...

Bank of France chief claims ‘50 British entities’ have moved over the Channel, while Dublin, Amsterdam and Frankfurt have also benefitedThe Bank of France’s governor has said that Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union has driven almost 2,500 jobs and “at least €170bn in assets” to France.London remains the continent’s foremost financial centre but Amsterdam, Dublin, Frankfurt and Paris have all scrambled to attract businesses that wanted to remain active in the 19-nation eurozone. Continue reading...

The former prime minister also criticised outgoing US president Donald TrumpTheresa May has accused Boris Johnson of abandoning Britain’s “position of global moral leadership”, in her most unrestrained attack on her successor yet.Writing in the Daily Mail ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, the former prime minister had stern words about both the outgoing US president, Donald Trump, and her successor. Continue reading...

Ireland sees its highest number of deaths since pandemic began; Lombardy health chief suggests GDP should count towards number of jabs

Each firm can claim up to £100,000 from food and environment ministry for losses due to trade dealSeafood exporters hit by Brexit red tape and delays will be able to claim up to £100,000 in compensation, the government has said.The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) confirmed that it was putting in place a £23m compensation package for firms exporting fish and shellfish to the EU that can show they have suffered “genuine loss”. Continue reading...

Decision would mean US could assign blame for death on to Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin SalmanThe Biden administration will declassify an intelligence report into the murder by the Saudi government of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to Avril Haines, who has been nominated to serve as director of national intelligence.The decision means that the US is likely to officially assign blame for Khashoggi’s brutal murder to the kingdom’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Continue reading...

Fiji won a fierce contest to head the global rights group, but coalition of NGOs says repression and abuses domestically must be addressedFiji has won an intense and secretive geo-political battle to become the first Pacific island nation to win presidency of the United Nations Human Rights Council, but its ascension has come with demands from critics for it to address systemic rights abuses at home.Overcoming last-minute challenges from Bahrain and Uzbekistan, both backed by China, Russia and Saudi Arabia, Fiji decisively won 29 out of 47 votes to take control of the powerful and influential global body. Continue reading...

Wednesday: Mitch McConnell acknowledges Capitol mob was ‘provoked by the president’. Plus: batteries with five-minute charging timesGood morning, this is Tamara Howie bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Wednesday 20 January. US politics will likely dominate today’s news as Donald Trump’s last day in the White House draws to a close. On home shores, more Australian Open players have tested positive to Covid and the inventor of the internet weighs in on Australia’s proposed media laws.US Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has acknowledged the violent mob that attacked the Capitol earlier this month was “provoked” by Donald Trump. Speaking on the Senate floor, McConnell said, “The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people.” Meanwhile, two US army national guard members have been removed from the mission to secure Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration because of their connections to far-right militia groups. We’re still waiting to hear who will be in the flurry of presidential pardons Trump is expected to make before Joe Biden is sworn in. Sources suggested that neither the president himself, nor Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, or former aide Steve Bannon would be on the list, but rapper Lil Wayne was among those reportedly expected to receive a pardon or clemency. Continue reading...

Conservationists are strongly critical of the system used to prevent shark attacks off the beaches of KwaZulu-Natal, an area where sharks can be viewed by divers without cages Continue reading...

Holyrood move means covert police bill will not cover Scotland when it comes into lawThe Scottish parliament has rejected a controversial bill from Westminster that potentially allows undercover agents to commit crimes, after Labour MSPs again ignored Keir Starmer’s policies.Scottish Labour’s MSPs voted alongside the Scottish National party, Scottish Greens and the Lib Dems to refuse legislative consent by Holyrood for the so-called “spy cops” bill after a short debate on Tuesday afternoon. Continue reading...

Denmark and Netherlands set to follow suit, while France says virus still at ‘worrying’ level

Father of Duchess of Sussex’s statement says letter extracts in Mail showed ‘no concern’ for his health

Surge in infections dampens optimism over country’s advanced immunisation programme

Germany became a unified state 150 years ago this week – and no other country has produced such original, provocative and powerful art since, from Richter to Klee, from Dix to HöchSituated on the edge of the Alps, Neuschwanstein Castle may not look like the birthplace of modern art. Best seen from a perilously crowded footbridge across a vertiginous gorge, it floats in misty rains, a cloudy dream of white spires and battlements. Yet this 19th-century colossus is an architectural homage to one man: a composer who inspired the avant garde to make the leap to modernism.Richard Wagner’s music so enflamed King Ludwig II of Bavaria, he built this magnificent medieval vision in honour of the composer. But, in artists across Europe, Wagner’s musical might released much more futuristic impulses. The abstract leitmotifs and unearthly symbolism of his operas fascinated artists from Aubrey Beardsley to Paul Cézanne. The impressionists, too, were entranced: Renoir travelled to Palermo, Sicily, to portray Wagner when he was composing Parsifal. Continue reading...

The charming series combines Ocean’s Eleven’s slickness with the implausibility of National Treasure to become the first French series to crack the US top 10The greatest trick by Lupin, a new French series on Netflix, is disguising substantiveness in plain sight. The show, created by the British showrunner George Kay and inspired by the beloved French character Arsène Lupin, packages over 115 years of inspiration (dating back to the character’s invention by writer Maurice Leblanc in 1905) in a slick, swift escape easily binged in a day. Its star, the French actor Omar Sy, towers over his scene partners, perpetually unreadable yet brimming with charisma; his character, Assane Diop, is a con man with a heart of gold able to turn his outsized presence into an uncatchable master of deception.Related: Call My Agent: get au fait with the smash hit French comedy-drama Continue reading...

Museum shut due to coronavirus was unaware that 500-year-old painting had been missing

Politician, 91, accused of financing failed 1995 presidential campaign with illegal kickbacks in ‘Karachi affair’Former French prime minister Édouard Balladur has gone on trial accused of financing his failed 1995 presidential campaign with illegal kickbacks from international arms deals.The 91-year-old rightwing politician is the latest high-ranking French politician to find himself in the dock over the so-called Karachi affair that has poisoned the country’s political life for more than 25 years. Continue reading...

Paternalism and racism must be tackled if the EU is to rebuild trust with a young, economically dynamic continentBlack Lives Matter protests last summer sparked an uncomfortable reckoning for many European nations with a legacy of slavery and colonialism.Excavating this dark history via revised school curriculums and initiatives such as Black History Month is difficult. But it is badly needed, and not just to dispel the self-congratulatory and entirely false narratives about Europe’s “civilisational” past still being driven by nationalist and populist politicians. Continue reading...

US ambassador blocked from seeing opposition leader, who is under house arrest since voting in disputed pollUganda has accused the US of trying to subvert last week’s presidential elections after the US ambassador attempted to visit the main opposition candidate at his home, which has been surrounded by security forces since the vote.The military surrounded the home of pop star-turned-legislator Bobi Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, shortly after he cast his ballot in Thursday’s presidential elections. Continue reading...

Plans to get rid of hard shoulders have heightened motorway safety fears but the government is determined to press aheadFor the most part, in the UK, this simply means a motorway without a hard shoulder, allowing traffic to utilise the additional lane. There are two main types: all-lane running, where the hard shoulder has been permanently converted to become the inside lane, and dynamic, where it is only used by moving traffic at certain times. All have overhead electronic signs to signal emergency lane closures and reduced speed limits to manage congestion. Continue reading...

Claiming to be inspired by true events, the story of a young Jewish man who stays alive by pretending to be half-Iranian strains credibilityHere’s a superbly acted, though worryingly polite, Holocaust survival drama by the Ukrainian film-maker Vadim Perelman. It’s the story of a Jewish man from Belgium called Gilles (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart), who stays alive in a transit camp by pretending to be half-Iranian and teaching Farsi to a savage-tempered SS officer, Klaus Koch (Lars Eidinger). In truth, Gilles doesn’t know a word of Farsi; the language he makes up is gibberish, and he lives in constant terror of slipping up, forgetting one of the words he’s invented – almost 600 in six months.The film opens with the line “inspired by true events”, but given the plausibility issues here surely it is safe to prefix that claim with “very loosely”. The setting is France, 1942; Gilles, the son of a rabbi, is transported to a transit camp with other Jews caught trying to flee to Switzerland. A hustler by nature, Gilles easily – too easily – persuades Nazi officer Koch that he speaks Farsi. Koch is a chef by training and dreams of opening a restaurant in Iran after the war. Suspecting Gilles of lying, he grills him, with laughably easy questions: “What is the capital of Persia?” “What language do they speak?” Continue reading...

The government continues to rely on repression, but Navalny’s rallying cry has galvanised the oppositionLess than 24 hours after returning to Russia, Alexei Navalny – the most internationally recognisable political opponent of Vladimir Putin – was jailed for 30 days following a brief court hearing held inside a police station in a suburb of Moscow. Navalny, having survived a nearly lethal poisoning by the Soviet-era nerve agent novichok in August, now faces a possible three-and-a-half year prison sentence.The official explanation of his arrest and detention? Navalny allegedly violated the terms of his suspended criminal sentence by remaining in Germany for further treatment after he was released from hospital. The suspended sentence, which expired on 30 December 2020, is from a 2014 trial that was deemed to be “arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable” by the European Court of Human Rights and for which Russia was ordered to pay Navalny and his brother nearly €76,000 in compensation. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Mike Cunningham, who has just retired as head of College of Policing, calls for ‘humility’ from former colleaguesThere is “widespread dissatisfaction” with the police among black communities with it being clear young black men are being disproportionately stopped and searched at an “eye-watering” rate, a former senior police chief has said.Mike Cunningham, who retired last month as chief executive of the College of Policing which sets standards for law enforcement, said stop and search was the “totemic” issue and called for “humility” from police leaders faced with sustained criticism after a tumultuous year. He said law enforcement had achieved a lot but had much more to do on the issue. Continue reading...

Moscow authorities likely to block protests planned for Saturday in support of jailed opposition leaderVladimir Putin is not scared of Alexei Navalny, a Kremlin spokesman has said, but Moscow authorities still appear likely to block Saturday’s planned protests in support of the jailed opposition leader.Navalny “has no relation to the Russian president and can in no way be associated with the president”, said Dmitri Peskov, when asked whether Putin viewed Navalny as a rival. Continue reading...

Cressida Dick calls on government to prioritise frontline officers after spate of spit attacks

Experts warn fatalities could rise sharply and call for state of emergency to be extended

Victoria police says it never registered the murdered lawyer as an informant after a court reveals his roleThe slain gangland lawyer Joe Acquaro gave Victoria police information on his former client and convicted drug trafficker Francesco “Frank” Madafferi.The revelation, confirmed by Victoria’s court of appeal on Tuesday, follows a lengthy fight by the force to keep the murdered lawyer’s role secret. Continue reading...

Frontext director Fabrice Leggeri accused over failure to appoint officers to protect rights, with home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson calling for ‘clarity’

Food price increases and economic impact of lockdowns have left a quarter of the kingdom’s population reliant on food aid, UN warns

High-profile barrister says 10th arrest warrant for Duterte critic showed the Philippines was trying to silence RessaHuman rights lawyer Amal Clooney has accused the Philippine government of an “increasingly transparent campaign” to silence Maria Ressa after the journalist was charged with cyber libel for the third time.Ressa, one of the Philippines’ most prominent journalists, already faces a series of legal charges that could lead to about 100 years in prison. Continue reading...

Prof Paul Kelly says even when coronavirus vaccines are rolled out across the country the border will likely stay closedAustralia’s chief medical officer, Prof Paul Kelly, has said that even when the coronavirus vaccine is rolled out “international borders will be one of the last things to change”.Kelly on Tuesday said the criteria for when the country’s international borders could be reopened was “a very dynamic space”. “On travel, we have to be very careful … the first vaccinations, as they roll out in a few weeks in Australia, will not change everything back to normal,” he told reporters in Canberra. Continue reading...

If sharing a car is unavoidable, there are a few ways to reduce the risk of transmission

People high on list for jabs in UK ready to make 2021 and 2022 bookings

New poll finds 42% of respondents would get vaccinated ‘as soon as possible’ but 11% ‘never’ willState and territory leaders have poured cold water on Gladys Berejiklian’s suggestion that Covid vaccination could be required to travel, enter pubs and clubs and access government buildings.The ACT chief minister, Andrew Barr, said on Tuesday that if vaccines prevented the spread of coronavirus the idea could have “some merit in high-risk circumstances”, but otherwise the New South Wales premier’s call seemed “a little odd”. Continue reading...

Volcanoes in Java continue to show worrying signs, with authorities closely monitoring seismic activity as they spew lava and ash many kilometres into the atmosphere.

Independent panel criticises WHO for not declaring emergency until 30 January and Biden and Trump camps clash over easing travel restrictions

Restaurant ONA in the city of Ares rewarded after initially struggling to get funding to open its doorsA vegan restaurant in south-west France has won a Michelin star, the first for an establishment serving only animal-free products in France.Claire Vallee runs the restaurant ONA – which stands for Origine Non Animale – in the city of Ares, near Bordeaux, which she launched in 2016 thanks to crowdfunding from supporters and a loan from a green bank. Continue reading...

Creators say they hope the work encourages people to build bridges between communitiesA collection of bright pink seesaws that allowed people to interact over the US-Mexico border has won the prestigious Design of the Year award, with its creators saying they hoped the work encourages people to build bridges between communities.The Teeter Totter Wall, which bridged across El Paso in Texas and Ciudad Juárez in Mexico during a 40-minute session, was described as not only feeling “symbolically important” but also highlighting “the possibility of things” by the judging panel. Continue reading...

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