Muhammadu Buhari has given a speech after the Nigerian government dissolved a controversial police unit alleged to have carried out extrajudicial killings. The announcement came after days of protests against police brutality. Outrage had been fuelled over the last week by the emergence online of graphic footage and shared experiences of abuses by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, commonly called Sars Continue reading...
The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, became emotional during a speech at a military parade marking the 75th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers' party. Kim removed his glasses and wiped away tears in an indication, analysts say, of mounting pressure on his regime. He said his 'efforts and devotion' had not been enough to help all North Koreans
Ahmed Fadol Adam was with Abdulfatah Hamdallah when dinghy capsized in ChannelThe survivor who was with Abdulfatah Hamdallah, the Sudanese refugee who drowned in the Channel in August, has made it safely to the UK after taking the same route.Ahmed Fadol Adam, 21, who said he spent five years enslaved in Libya, travelled with 11 other Sudanese refugees and one Chadian on an inflatable dinghy on 29 September. It was his fifth attempt to reach the UK. Continue reading...
Danish film-maker Mads Brügger’s latest documentary is an absurdly brave look at Kim Jong-un’s regime that has all the intrigue of a spy thrillerPhysically, Ulrich Larsen doesn’t stand out. Polite, unassuming, his unmemorable 44-year-old face is how I imagine an efit template might be, what you start with before you add distinguishing features. You get to decide who he is. Perfect for blending in. Or infiltrating the world’s most secretive regime perhaps, which, as it happens, is what he did. Larsen is “the Mole”.Jim Latrache-Qvortrup is the opposite. Forty-eight, big, bold, bearded, inked, with an expensive-looking set of teeth and an explosive laugh. Ex-military? Better still, he joined the French Foreign Legion at 19. Crime? Tick; he spent eight years in jail for drug dealing. International arms dealer, buying stinger missiles from North Korea for anyone who will have them? Actually no, but he does a very good job of pretending to be one, hardly has to act at all in fact. Latrache-Qvortrup is “Mr James”. Continue reading...
Eldercare advocates argue that facilities have allowed asymptomatic staff members with Covid-19 in, but kept loved ones outMartha Marie Duncan was as bright as the blue Texas sky of the Rio Grande Valley where she was born, and when she was young, she styled her hair to just about touch it. She was clever, fashionable, and determined to climb the corporate ladder.She worked her way up to become vice president of one of America’s largest advertising firms, and bought a dark red Porsche and mauve Pendleton suits along the way. Continue reading...
Carrie Lam to consult Beijing in attempt to protect city’s status as international finance hubHong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, has postponed a key annual policy address scheduled for Wednesday, claiming she must consult Beijing on some of her proposals.The unprecedented delay to the speech was also attributed to plans by the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, to visit Shenzhen to mark the 40th anniversary of the special economic zone on Wednesday, which was announced only on Monday and which Lam would also attend. Continue reading...
Single migrant women left destitute by Covid can’t leave until they have served sentences for sex outside marriage – but virus restrictions mean prisons won’t accept themWhen Reyna* took a taxi to Al-Awir prison in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, she was hoping to turn herself in and be admitted as an inmate. The former domestic worker from the Philippines had brought her three-month-old son along with her.Reyna lost her job during the pandemic; she can no longer pay for their rent or food and wants to return to her homeland. But in order to be permitted to leave the UAE she must first serve a jail sentence for having sex outside marriage, which is illegal under the country’s Islamic laws. Continue reading...
NSW premier is under pressure to resign after disclosing secret relationship with disgraced former MP Daryl MaguireThe New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, has admitted she “stuffed up” in her personal life, but has stared down calls to resign following extraordinary revelations she had for years maintained a secret “close personal relationship” with the disgraced former Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire.In a press conference following her explosive appearance before the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) on Monday, Berejiklian declared she had not considered resigning “because I haven’t done anything wrong”. Continue reading...
Shenzhen residents can win one of 50,000 ‘red packets’ to spend in local shopsAuthorities in the Chinese city Shenzhen have begun giving away more than 10m yuan ($1.49m) in a citizens lottery, as part of trials of a new digital currency.Almost 2 million people applied to be one of 50,000 randomly selected citizens receiving a “red packet” valued at 200 yuan (about US$30) on Sunday, to spend at 3,800 designated outlets in the district of Luohu. Participants must download the official digital Renminbi app, which is not yet publicly available, to receive the currency for purchases within the next week. Continue reading...
by Christopher Knaus (now) and Michael McGowan (earli on (#5914H)
NSW premier earlier denied at an Icac hearing knowing about improper conduct by the former Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire, despite being in a ‘close personal relationship’. Follow live
Lack of specialist support and growing unemployment are factors in growing mental health crisis, doctors sayOne Tuesday morning in March, 48-year-old farmer Lokoliyo Bwanali set off for his maize plot. He never came back. Neighbours discovered his body later in the small field where he had poisoned himself.“The wife of the deceased said her late husband was under pressure from creditors and was failing to settle his debts,” said Edward Kabango, from Malawi’s Dedza district police department. “The deceased left his home without explaining to his family members where he was heading until he was later found lying dead in a field, a kilometre from his home.” Continue reading...
Thomas Morel-Fort went undercover to capture the lives of undocumented workers toiling inside the Paris and Côte d’Azur homes of the wealthyAt first glance, French photographer Thomas Morel-Fort’s work has all the trappings of a modern-day fairytale: princesses in lavish Parisian mansions; holidays in hilltop villas on the Côte d’Azur; promises of wealth and prosperity.But his photographs reveal a grittier reality. Morel-Fort’s lens instead alights on the unseen Cinderellas, the Filipino women hired to cook, clean, iron, babysit and obey any commands that come their way, completely beholden to the whims of their demanding, powerful employers. Continue reading...
by Justin McCurry in Tokyo and agencies on (#5915K)
Analysts say emotional speech suggests Kim is feeling pressures on his leadership linked to Covid and nuclear sanctionsThe North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, shed tears as he issued a rare apology for his failure to guide the country through tumultuous times exacerbated by the coronavirus outbreak.Speaking at a huge military parade held at the weekend to mark the 75th anniversary of the ruling Workers’ party, Kim removed his glasses and wiped away tears – an indication, analysts say, of mounting pressure on his regime. Continue reading...
Inquiry to examine whether late MP received deferential treatment from police, CPS, council and Labour partyThree weeks of partially closed hearings into the way police, prosecutors, local government and the Labour party dealt with child sexual abuse allegations involving the late Lord Janner will start on Monday.In order to protect the identities of those who allege they were assaulted by the former Leicester West MP, most of the evidence sessions will not be live-streamed to the public. Continue reading...
Schemes to reclaim city streets for pedestrians are flourishing during the Covid-19 pandemicWhere once there was parking, now there are decks. At the start of the year, Rotterdam’s Witte de Withstraat was a car-choked thoroughfare. Today, cars are banned after 4pm, locals stroll leisurely down the middle of the road and special wooden terraces have taken the place of parking spaces.“The terraces are a fantastic solution,” says Iris Wulffraat, teh owner of Eetcafé Opa (‘Cafe Grandpa’) and Bierboutique. “They give the extra space we need right now. And they’ve been decorated in a very attractive way – there’s a completely different energy to the area now.” Continue reading...
by Oliver Holmes, Jerusalem correspondent on (#59138)
Palestinians across Middle East suffering unprecedented poverty, says Philippe LazzariniPeople in Gaza are searching through rubbish to find food as Palestinians battle unprecedented levels of poverty, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said.Across Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Gaza and elsewhere, Palestinian refugees are suffering at new depths because of the pandemic, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency chief, Philippe Lazzarini. “There is despair and hopelessness,” he said in an interview. Continue reading...
Lee Meng-chu is accused of filming Chinese troops gathering at the border with Hong Kong during protests in 2019A Taiwanese man detained in China and accused of endangering national security appeared on Chinese television on Sunday evening, “confessing” to illegally filming military exercises in a city bordering Hong Kong during protests there last year.Human rights organisations accuse China of regularly forcing detainees to deliver public confessions broadcast on television, in a country where the opaque judicial system remains subject to the ruling Communist party. Continue reading...
Former Catholic school teacher from Lismore victim, who spent 461 days behind bars, alleges he was the victim of an extortion racketFormer Catholic school teacher Garry Mulroy has flown out of Phnom Penh, protesting his conviction for indecent assault against children and alleging he was the victim of an extortion racket.The Australian had spent the past week in a safe house in the Cambodian capital amid fears for his safety after he was released from prison in Siem Reap, in the north-west, where he was serving a two-year prison term for assaulting six boys. Continue reading...
Jackson tracks the journeys of the men and women trafficked by ships that delivered them into slavery – or often a watery graveThis year has seen a proliferation of freshly commissioned shows examining racism in response to the Black Lives Matter movement. Enslaved (BBC Two, Sunday), however, predates the death of George Floyd, and would surely have been prominently screened regardless of this year’s events. After all, it has a bona-fide superstar presenter in Samuel L Jackson, alongside Afua Hirsch of the Guardian and investigative journalist Simcha Jacobovici.Clearly aware that there have already been numerous slavery documentaries, this four-part series seeks to tell a different story by uncovering new evidence. Full of wide, breathtaking aerial shots of the rivers and coastline of west and central Africa, where the slave trade flourished, it tracks the slave ships’ journeys from Africa to Brazil, the US, the Caribbean or, says Jackson, “the bottom of the ocean”. Up to 1,000 slave ships are thought to have ended up as wrecks. Using new diving technology to locate and examine some of these sunken ships, the series aims to offer a fresh perspective. Continue reading...
Unofficial early results show first round voting has narrowed field to leftist incumbent and rightwing nationalistVoters in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus are to face a stark choice between candidates in a run-off presidential election deemed crucial for the resumption of peace talks that could end 46 years of ethnic division on the Mediterranean island.Following a campaign fraught with allegations of overt meddling from Ankara, the 200,000-strong electorate cast votes yesterday in a first-round contest that narrowed the field to a pro-reunification moderate and a Turkey-backed nationalist who wants two clear states on the island. Continue reading...
Monday: Nationals MP trades barbs with One Nation leader over $23m grant for Rockhampton stadium. Plus: US president claims he no longer has Covid-19Good morning, this is Imogen Dewey bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Monday 12 October. Continue reading...
Announcement comes after growing protests, but critics say it does not go far enoughNigeria’s government has dissolved an infamous police unit plagued with allegations of extrajudicial killings and abuse after days of protests against police brutality.A wave of outrage had been fuelled over the last week by the emergence online of graphic footage and shared experiences of abuses by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, commonly called Sars. Continue reading...
Casual workers and international students among ‘newly food insecure groups’, Foodbank report saysDemand for food relief has risen by 47% on average during Covid-19, Australian charities say, with the trend driven by growing numbers of international students and casual workers asking for help.In a report to be released on Monday, Foodbank surveyed about 500 charities once a month between April and September, as well as 1,000 Australians aged 18 and older who had experienced food insecurity in the past 12 months. Continue reading...
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners admits malfunction was so bad no candidate could finish exams, which cost nearly $5,000 and require months of studyMore than 1,400 aspiring GPs around Australia have had their career paths thrown into chaos by technical faults that forced the cancellation and rescheduling of key exams.The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, the body that administers the exams, has acknowledged the technology used to allow general practice registrars to sit the exams remotely using their own computers – a Covid-19 measure – suffered such a serious malfunction that not one of the 1,436 candidates was able to complete the first of the two exams on Friday. Continue reading...
Modelling shows moving towards a net zero emissions economy would unlock financial prospects in sectors including renewables and manufacturingAustralia could unlock an investment boom of $63bn over the next five years if it aligns its climate policies with a target of net zero emissions by 2050, according to new economic modelling.The analysis, by the Investor Group on Climate Change (IGCC), finds the investment opportunity created by an orderly transition to a net zero emissions economy would reach hundreds of billions of dollars by 2050 across sectors including renewable energy, manufacturing, carbon sequestration and transport. Continue reading...
Libyan forces holding Italian crew demand release of footballers convicted of people smugglingAt two docks on opposite shores of the Mediterranean, two sets of families have been drawn into a small international crisis as the fate of 12 Italian fishermen held in Libya appears to hinge on that of four Libyan footballers jailed in Italy for people smuggling.In Mazara del Vallo, in Sicily, family members have been calling for the immediate release of 12 men, part of a crew including six Tunisians, whose vessel was seized on 1 September by Libyan patrol boats accusing them of fishing in territorial waters. They were taken to Benghazi, Libya, where the warlord Gen Khalifa Haftar reportedly ordered them detained unless Italy released the four Libyans whose families claim were wrongly convicted. Continue reading...
by Jamie Grierson Home affairs correspondent on (#590N9)
Nets could be used to clog propellers and halt boats, says former Royal Marine in chargeThe Home Office is considering permitting the use of nets to prevent migrants from crossing the Channel in small boats to the UK to claim asylum, according to a former Royal Marine tasked with preventing the journeys.In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, the Home Office’s clandestine channel threat commander, Dan O’Mahoney, said nets could be used to clog propellers and bring boats to a standstill as they attempt the crossing over the Dover Strait. Continue reading...
About 40 unidentified people armed with metal bars and using fireworks as projectiles tried to storm a police station in the Paris suburbs on Saturday night, officials have said. Police posted this video showing a barrage of fireworks going off in the direction of the police station in Champigny-sur-Marne, about nine miles south-east of the city centre. Continue reading...
In the aftermath of the second world war, my friend Stuart King, who has died aged 98, believed that aircraft could be used for peace rather than war. As an RAF engineer he was able to put that belief into practice by helping to create Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), a Christian missionary organisation that also acts as a humanitarian air service, flying life-saving supplies into countries that need them.Stuart was born in Wandsworth, south London, to Alfred Sendall-King, a telephone engineer, and Hetty White, a teacher. Moving to Cardiff in 1937, he attended Cardiff Technical College and read engineering at the University of Wales. Enrolling in the RAF in 1941, he joined No 247 Squadron to support the Normandy landings. Continue reading...
by Agence France-Presse in Stepanakert on (#590HV)
Armenia and Azerbaijan accuse each other shelling civilian areas and escalating clashesHopes that a Russian-brokered ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan would hold have been dashed after each side accused the other of shelling civilian areas and escalating two weeks of fierce clashes.Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry said that overnight shelling by Armenian forces on the country’s second largest city, Ganja, had left seven people dead and 33 wounded including children, less than 24 hours after the halt to fighting was supposed to take effect. Continue reading...
Duchess of Sussex speaks of ‘almost unsurvivable’ online abuse she has experiencedThe Duchess of Sussex has revealed she was told last year she was the “most trolled person in the entire world” in a podcast in which she opened up about the “almost unsurvivable” online abuse she has experienced.Meghan and her husband, the Duke of Sussex, joined three Californian high school students during an episode of their podcast, Teenager Therapy, and discussed topics including mental health stigma, self-care and online abuse. Continue reading...