Terrorism investigation opened after 18-year-old attacker shot dead by policeA history teacher decapitated outside his secondary school in a Paris suburb on Friday after he showed a caricature of the prophet Muhammad to his pupils has been named.Samuel Paty, 47, who taught history and geography at the school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine , north-west of the French capital, was attacked on Friday evening by an 18-year-old man who was shot dead by police shortly afterwards. Continue reading...
Parents and students have laid flowers outside a school in north-west Paris where a history teacher was decapitated on Friday after he showed a caricature of the prophet Muhammad to his pupils.
Artwork showing girl playing with a bicycle tyre appeared on street corner last weekBanksy has posted a picture of a mural of a girl hula-hooping on social media, ending speculation over whether he was behind the work.The mural appeared on a wall onTuesday on the corner of Rothesay Avenue in Lenton, Nottingham. Continue reading...
Jacinda Ardern has secured a second term as leader after a resounding victory in the country’s general election. The Labour leader had led a coalition government since October 2017, ending nearly a decade of National rule. During her first term Ardern had to deal with responses to the Christchurch terrorist atrocity, the Whakaari volcano eruption and the Covid-19 pandemic. She gave birth to her first child, Neve, in June 2018
New data reveals significant number of young vulnerable people put at risk of deportation by the Home OfficeKobe was in his final year at primary school when a drug gang recruited him. By then he’d been passed around seven different foster placements and met so many social workers he’d lost track of their names. Aged 17, Kobe was identified by the UK government as a child victim of trafficking.When Theresa May became prime minister she attempted to make tackling modern slavery a legacy of her premiership. The current government has also been keen to flag its credentials. Earlier this year, the Home Office minister Victoria Atkins stated she was committed to “safeguarding victims of this horrific crime”. Continue reading...
The Mose flood-defence system’s success will boost a centre-left government enjoying a reputation for quiet competenceVenice’s flood sirens sing, piercing through the early morning fog. Metal bulkheads are in position, securing shops and grocery stores. Wooden walkways sneak through calli and salizade – our streets. Locals sport emergency rubber boots. These are routine acqua alta (high water) preparations. But on 3 October, for the first time in our city’s history, all of it was superfluous. The Adriatic waters that have been both curse and lifeblood to the city were held back. As Tommaso, a Venetian gondolier, exclaimed in dialect familiar to me from childhood (I grew up nearby): “Xe un miracoo!” – It is a miracle.But far from being proof of divine providence, this modern parting of the waters is the work of Mose, or Experimental Electromechanical Module, an integrated system of coastal barriers and mobile dykes designed to protect the Venice lagoon from exceptional acque alte up to 3 metres above normal sea levels. It has been long in the making: construction – and controversy – started back in 2003, after decades of deliberations and tests following the destructive tide of 4 November 1966, to date the highest on record. Continue reading...
Jacinda Ardern is on track to be re-elected as the prime minister of New Zealand. The Labour party looked set for a landslide victory, attracting so many votes in the general election it could become the first party in decades to be able to govern alone.With more than 90% of the vote counted, Labour had secured 49%, with the opposition National party on 27%. Addressing supporters, Ardern said: “Tonight New Zealand has shown the Labour party its biggest support in 50 years.”
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has said France’s battle against Islamist terrorism is 'existential' after the killing of Samuel Paty, a teacher who reportedly showed his class a caricature of the prophet Muhammad.Macron, who visited the site of the killing near a school in a Paris suburb, said the 47-year-old victim had been 'assassinated' and that his killer sought to 'attack the republic and its values'. French police shot a man dead after the attack and officials swiftly announced the killing was being investigated by an anti-terrorism prosecutor.
by Tom Phillips and Cindy Jiménez Bercerra in La Paz on (#596NG)
A year after the country’s first indigenous president was controversially ousted, his party is well placed to win a rerun presidential electionDavid Ticona Mamani felt despair and foreboding when Evo Morales was forced from his Andean homeland last November amid civil unrest, electoral meltdown and what supporters of Bolivia’s first indigenous president called a racist, rightwing coup.“I wept,” remembered the 56-year-old lawyer, a fervent supporter of Morales and his Movimiento al Socialismo (Mas). Continue reading...
Terror inquiry launched as police kill 18-year-old suspect who decapitated Paris teacher who showed pupils caricatures of the prophet MuhammadPresident Emmanuel Macron has said France’s battle against Islamic terrorism is “existential” following the killing of a teacher after he showed his class caricatures of the prophet Muhammad from the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.Macron, who visited the site near a school in a Paris suburb, said the victim had been “assassinated” and that his killer sought to “attack the republic and its values”. “This is our battle and it is existential. They [terrorists] will not succeed … They will not divide us.” Continue reading...
Elite Models boss Gérald Marie was one of the most powerful men in fashion. Was he also a sexual predator? As French prosecutors investigate, four women tell their stories for the first timeA special investigation by Lucy OsborneIn the spring of 1980, Wendy Walsh and her mother flew to Paris from their home in a suburb of Toronto, Canada. Walsh was 17, a straight-A student who excelled at maths. She was also an aspiring model whose blond, blue-eyed, girl-next-door look had already got her noticed; at a local hairdressing event, a couple of stylists from a Paris salon had offered to send her headshots to a leading model agency, Paris Planning. Letters and phone calls had been exchanged, and Walsh was invited to Paris.At the agency’s offices, Walsh and her mother, Ellen, were introduced to the charismatic 30-year-old boss, Gérald Marie. Marie offered to take them to lunch. “So we went to a little outdoor bistro in the Place de la Madeleine, around the corner from the agency,” says Walsh, speaking on the phone from her home in Los Angeles. “It was the first time I ever had a croque monsieur, and he was explaining what it was. I realise now it’s a fancy grilled cheese sandwich. And I remember distinctly him fawning over my mother, and this was surprising to me. She had been an extremely beautiful woman in her youth, but lupus had left scars on her face. Continue reading...
Rescuers pull men, women and children out of rows of houses turned to rubble in latest escalation of conflictAzerbaijan has said at least 12 people have died after shelling levelled a row of homes in the city of Ganja, with 40 more wounded in a sharp escalation of the conflict with Armenia over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.The Azeri prosecutor general’s office said that two shells hit apartment buildings in the country’s second largest city. There has been no official reaction from Armenia as yet. Continue reading...
Businesswoman appears to confirm relationship in interview with Daily MailJennifer Arcuri has reportedly admitted having an affair with Boris Johnson after allegations that he used his position as London mayor to get the businesswoman favourable treatment.The prime minister avoided a criminal investigation after the police watchdog found no evidence that he influenced the payment of thousands of pounds of public money to Acuri, or secured her participation in foreign trade trips that he led. Continue reading...
Italy’s southern orchards have been affected by hailstorms, drought and the Xylella bacteriaItaly, the world’s second-largest exporter of olive oil, has seen output drop by a quarter this year, an agricultural lobby said, due to bad weather and a deadly bacteria.Italian production for 2020 is estimated at 270,000 tonnes, down 26% from 2019 due to a sharp drop in output in the southern Puglia region, which usually accounts for almost half of the country’s olive oil, the farming lobby Confagricoltura said in a statement on Friday. Continue reading...
Election results expected to come out quickly, with many advance votes already castNew Zealanders are heading to the polls today in a general election that could see the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, strengthen her left-of-centre hold on government or socially sonservative Judith Collins installed after only three months as opposition leader.Labour party leader Ardern and National party chief Collins are the faces of the election to form the country’s 53rd parliament, in essence a pandemic-focused referendum on Ardern’s three-year term. Continue reading...
Police allege Mark De Hesselle collected 139 boxes of the pulp and searched through them to remove the drugA Sydney man is facing life in prison after federal police intercepted cocaine worth $248m concealed in frozen fruit products from Brazil.AFP and Border Force officers seized 552kg of the drug hidden in pallets of banana pulp and branded with koala pictures in Sydney on Friday. Continue reading...
by Christopher Knaus and Michael McGowan on (#596EE)
The revelations at Icac have prompted the question: did the Liberal leader turn a blind eye to Daryl Maguire’s actions?In early September 2017, the New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, spent a busy morning visiting sick and dying children at Sydney’s Westmead hospital when her phone rang.On the other end of the line was a jubilant Daryl Maguire, then the Liberal member for Wagga Wagga. It wasn’t what you might imagine a typical call from a local MP to the state’s premier would sound like. Continue reading...
Prime minister says Canada will ‘stand up loudly’ for human rights after China’s ambassador against welcoming Hong Kong pro-democracy activistsCanada will continue to defend human rights in China, prime minister Justin Trudeau has pledged, after a top Chinese diplomat warned Ottawa against welcoming Hong Kong pro-democracy activists.China’s ambassador to Ottawa, Cong Peiwu, warned Canada on Thursday against granting asylum to Hong Kong activists, which he said could have consequences for the “health and security” for the 300,000 Canadians living in the theoretically autonomous Chinese territory. Continue reading...
by Joan E Greve in Washington and Joanna Walters in N on (#5968S)
Trump claims virus will ‘peter out’ in country with most cases and highest death tollThe US passed 8m recorded coronavirus cases on Friday, another unwelcome mark for the country with the most cases and the worst death toll from the global pandemic, approaching 220,000.Despite there being no sign that the pandemic is under control in the US, on Thursday Donald Trump said that the virus would “peter out”. Continue reading...
by Hosted by Katharine Murphy, produced by Hannah Izz on (#5967B)
Katharine Murphy talks to Liberal MPs Katie Allen and Jason Falinski about Covid’s impact on aged care in Australia and the royal commission findings that the sector is ‘unfit for purpose’. With the pandemic highlighting and exacerbating its problems, how can aged care be transformed in time for the baby boomer surge? Continue reading...
Panguna mine is often cast as the economic key to Bougainville’s potential independence, but young MP Theonila Matbob says her people, and their land, must come firstFor all of Theonila Roka Matbob’s three decades, the scar on her land that was once the world’s largest copper mine has cast a pall.The Panguna mine in Bougainville, eastern Papua New Guinea, has not yielded a single ounce in her lifetime – forced shut the year before Matbob was born - but she grew up in the shadow of the violent civil war it provoked. Continue reading...
Exclusive: supermodel speaks out after four more women accuse Gérald Marie of sexual misconductThe supermodel Linda Evangelista has praised the “courage and strength” shown by a growing number of women accusing her ex-husband, the model agency boss Gérald Marie, of sexual misconduct and rape.Speaking exclusively to the Guardian’s Weekend magazine, Evangelista said she believed the women’s accounts of their experiences with Marie, who for over three decades was among the most powerful figures in the fashion industry. Continue reading...
by Nadeem Badshah and Andrew Sparrow (earlier) on (#595RP)
Patrick Vallance says Sage recommended circuit break in September and adds tier 3 measures not enough to get R below 1; weekly UK death toll up by more than 80%. This live blog is now closed – please follow the global live blog for latest updates
Alice Bordon says she is still shocked co-worker drugged her to make her underperformAn Italian woman has described how a bitter workplace rivalry resulted in a colleague spiking her morning cappuccino with a sedative as job cuts loomed.Alice Bordon, the target of the plot, told the newspaper La Stampa that she had always trusted the colleague and was still incredulous that she had tried to “eliminate” her by slipping a tranquilliser into her coffee so that she would feel sleepy and underperform at work. Continue reading...
by Damian Carrington Environment editor on (#595T5)
Farmers accuse plant-based food producers of ‘cultural hijacking’ before key parliament voteThe terms “veggie burger” and “veggie sausage” could be banned by the EU next week when the European parliament votes on proposals that would also outlaw descriptions such as “yoghurt-style” and “cheese-like” for plant-based alternatives to dairy products.Sales of these products are growing fast but farming and meat lobbyists say the terms mislead people and amount to a “cultural hijacking” of the meat industry. Opponents, backed by major food companies including Unilever and Nestle, say the claims of consumer confusion are ridiculous. They say a ban would also contradict the EU’s drive to help consumers choose more sustainable food and cut climate-heating emissions. Continue reading...
Last friends visits are bittersweet as I ready to spend the next few months surrounded by my potsA follow-up to the auction of the Leonard and Alison Shurz ceramics collection I mentioned last week. As you may remember, their three bedroomed home near Welwyn Garden City had been so full of pots that the auctioneer could barely make his way round the house without breaking anything, and after I bought what I thought were a few very reasonably priced pots, my wife suggested that our own home could soon resemble theirs. Which was a bit of a cheek as she had successfully bid on a few pots herself. What we really need is more shelf space. In any case, I certainly did not suffer any buyer’s remorse. Quite the reverse in fact. My only regrets were over the lots I did not buy. Non-buyer’s remorse if you like. There were several Lucie Ries that seemed to go quite cheaply and I would happily have snapped one up if I had had several thousand pounds to spare. But the lot that bugged me the most was one on which I had put an internet bid at several times higher than the guide price – I couldn’t follow the auction live all day as I had to work – and it had never occurred to me that I wasn’t going to get it. Yet when I checked the results later, I discovered that the pot had gone for over 10 times the guide price. Curiously, though, rather than thinking I had dodged a bullet by not paying a price that would have caused me to gulp nervously, my main feeling was that I must have missed out on something very special. That I hadn’t been the only person to have fallen in love with this pot and seen something in it that the valuers had clearly missed. I was also left with the sinking feeling the pot had gone to a gallery and that in a year or so’s time I will see it on sale for twice the price it sold for. Continue reading...
Far-right harassment of asylum seekers and refugees in emergency accommodation comes as Home Office gears up for mass evictionsThousands of asylum seekers and refugees temporarily housed in emergency accommodation across the UK are being “unfairly and inaccurately” blamed for the national housing crisis, according to a coalition of more than 100 housing organisations.Charities including Shelter, Homeless Link and the Big Issue say the housing emergency is the fault of the government, not those who have fled trafficking, violence and conflict. Continue reading...
A campaign by Quebec separatists culminated in two kidnappings, a killing and the suspension of civil libertiesTanks rumbled down Montreal streets. Soldiers stood guard in Quebec City. After the declaration of martial law, police conducted warrantless raids, detaining nearly 500 people. Two high-profile kidnappings – of a British diplomat and a senior politician – ended with a grisly murder.For a brief period in October 1970, Canada was gripped by fear as separatists in the province of Quebec dramatically escalated their battle for independence. Continue reading...
As the game enjoys a boom online, players ranging from grandmasters to preteens are getting caught ‘computer doping’In one chess tournament, five of the top six were disqualified for cheating. In another, the doting parents of 10-year-old competitors furiously rejected evidence that their darlings were playing at the level of the world No 1. And in a third, an Armenian grandmaster booted out for suspicious play accused his opponent of “doing pipi in his Pampers”.These incidents may sound extreme but they are not isolated – and they have all taken place online since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading...
Exclusive: stark conclusion shared between London, Berlin and Paris in effect points finger at KremlinWestern security agencies have privately concluded that the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned by the country’s FSB domestic spy agency, in effect pointing the finger at the Kremlin for ordering the attack.The stark conclusion has been shared between London, Berlin and Paris, among others, and underpins the decision this week by the UK and the EU to target the FSB chief, Alexander Bortnikov, with sanctions. Continue reading...