Disadvantaged areas already ravaged by the virus will be devastated when government subsidies are cutIf the slogan of 2020 is “We’re all in this together”, perhaps it should come with an asterisk: *except for those with less, who are hurting more.Covid-19 hasn’t torn through Australia as it has the United States, Brazil, India and much of Europe, but the economic impact has exposed gaping inequities in almost every facet of our lives. Continue reading...
Former Daily Mail editor could head Ofcom, while ex-Daily Telegraph editor considers BBC chairman jobBoris Johnson is reported to have offered jobs at the head of two of Britain’s most important media organisations to two outspoken critics of the BBC.Paul Dacre, former editor of the Daily Mail, has been asked to run the national broadcasting regulator, Ofcom, while Lord Moore, the former editor of the Daily Telegraph and biographer of Margaret Thatcher, is believed to be considering accepting the role of chairman of the BBC. Continue reading...
by Martin Chulov Middle East Correspondent on (#58K11)
The acting prime minister failed to form a government from among the feuding political blocs that have led the country to ruinLebanon’s prime minister designate, Mustapha Adib, has stood down after failing to form a government in a month of negotiations, in a further blow to a country reeling under the weight of multiple crises.The talks were brought down by the issue of who would nominate key cabinet ministers, particularly the finance minister. The government is made up of feuding political blocs, and the powerful Shia groups Hezbollah and Amal insisted on controlling the finance ministry, despite demands for a technocratic government that could Continue reading...
Scrutiny of procedures urged following fatal shooting of officer in Croydon police stationPolice officers believe there needs to be an urgent review of the stop and search protocols used when arresting suspects, following the fatal shooting of Sgt Matiu Ratana.As the Metropolitan police and the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) launch investigations into the death of the popular 54-year-old custody sergeant, questions remain as to how it happened. Continue reading...
Concerns frontline officers face increasing threats to welfare with ‘devastating consequences’More firearms are finding their way on to Britain’s streets with devastating consequences, the head of the body representing rank-and-file police officers has warned.John Apter, chair of the Police Federation, which speaks for more than 120,000 officers in England and Wales, spoke out amid growing concerns about the welfare of frontline officers. He said the death of Sgt Matiu Ratana at Croydon custody centre in south London was a “poignant reminder of how dangerous the job is”. Continue reading...
Interview part of investigation into film industry following death of actor Sushant Singh RajputDeepika Padukone has been questioned by India’s narcotics agency as part of an investigation into the film industry following the death of the actor Sushant Singh Rajput.The Bollywood star was among three actors summoned by the Narcotics Control Board (NCB) for questioning on Saturday. Continue reading...
Detained man, believed to be 18 and from Pakistan, arrived in France as unaccompanied minor three years agoThe man arrested after a knife attack on two people outside the former offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo told detectives he had been angered by its publication of cartoons mocking the prophet Muhammad, French media reported yesterday.The suspect, believed to be an 18-year-old born in Pakistan, is thought to have arrived in France three years ago as an unaccompanied minor. Continue reading...
As his third novel is published, the television presenter talks about growing older, Eurovision and resuming his talk show in a pandemicGraham Norton is chipper as we chat in West Cork, where he spends much of his time when his eponymous BBC TV show is not on air, and to which he has repaired during lockdown. Despite the disappointing weather – Storm Ellen is about to wreak havoc on the west, and the following week will bring flooded roads and power outages across the area – and the daily waves of worse and worse news, he’s been quietly getting on with his other career, and the publication of his third novel, Home Stretch. “You know,” he says, “when I was rereading the proofs, it was in lockdown, Black Lives Matter and the world going to hell in a handcart, and I sort of thought, I’ve written an incredibly Pollyanna version of the world. But even if I have it’s a version of the world I like.”It’s a lighthearted characterisation of his writing, but not entirely accurate. Although his novels are undoubtedly story-based, plot-driven and warmly entertaining – he described his first, Holding, as a “yarn” – they are not without darkness. His second, A Keeper, described the lengths that those in rural isolation will go to in the search for a partner, and Home Stretch is centred on the devastation visited on a small town after a fatal car crash. Beginning in 1987 and bringing us up to the present day, it focuses on an abiding theme of Irish life and literature – the relationship between those who remain and those who leave their families and communities – and also contains a vivid portrait of the evolution of gay life in Ireland. Continue reading...
Ireland has started trying to rectify the wrongs of its history. The UK is lagging behindWhen the pope said mass in Ireland in 2018, a vast field in Dublin’s Phoenix Park was turned into a grid of “pilgrims’ corrals” to control the expected massive crowds, which never materialised. Out of a dozen people in my section, two nuns talked to me about a priest back home who had abused a young woman.Another pilgrim, down from Belfast for the occasion, said her aunt had been sent to a religious-run institution as a teenager because she was pregnant. Her son was taken away. On her deathbed, her aunt was still asking the priest for forgiveness. Continue reading...
What makes great poetry? An exclusive extract from the late critic’s final book The Fire of Joy celebrates the poems he loved mostThe French expression feu de joie refers to a military celebration when all the riflemen of a regiment fire one shot after another, in close succession: ideally the sound should be continuous, like a drumroll. I first saw a feu de joie performed at an Australian army tattoo, in the main arena at the Sydney Showground, while I was still in short trousers. Later on, when I was doing national service in longer trousers, I saw the ceremony performed again, on the parade ground in Ingleburn, New South Wales, in 1958. Symbolically, the fire of joy is a reminder that the regiment’s collective power relies on the individual, and vice versa.Imprinted on my mind, the succession of explosions became an evocation of the heritage of English poets and poetry, from Chaucer onwards. It still strikes me as a handy metaphor for the poetic succession, especially because, in the feu de joie, nobody got hurt. It was all noise: and noise, I believe, is the first and last thing that poetry is. If a poem doesn’t sound compelling, it won’t continue to exist. This is an especially important thing to say in the present era, when the pseudo-modernist idea still persists that there might be something sufficiently fascinating about the way that words are arranged on the page. Continue reading...
Fears that shift from paper to digital permits could prevent those with settled status accessing jobs, banking and healthcareThousands of EU nationals could face problems accessing essential services because the government is refusing to issue physical proof of their right to live in the UK.The settlement scheme grants EU citizens the right to remain in the UK after Brexit. Unlike other foreign nationals, they are not provided with a biometric residency permit proving their status. Continue reading...
From starring roles in Moonlight and Hidden Figures, to a genre-busting musical career, the actor and singer has always gone her own wayA downside, perhaps, to the sheer imaginative power of Janelle Monáe is that it’s hard not to bring unreasonable expectations to any conversation one has with her. The musician and actor is on the phone from her home in Los Angeles, where for the last six months she has been sitting out lockdown. Monáe’s music career is dominated by sci-fi imagery, thrilling story arcs and inventiveness of a kind that has earned her comparisons to Prince, with whom she worked and could go toe-to-toe, not only on talent but also outlandish wardrobe decisions. The voice on the line, by contrast, is quiet, serious and devoid of all whimsy. She’s also terrifically earnest. To give an idea: Monáe is 34 but, asked to confirm her age, she says with what sounds like complete sincerity: “I’m timeless.”She isn’t wrong, in a way; there is something about Monáe’s work that defies time and space, from her iconic first EP in 2007, Metropolis – in which she introduced her robotic alter ego, Cindi Mayweather, a character she used over the course of three albums to explore what happens when you break from convention – to the iconic 2018 feminist anthem Pynk, to her collaborations with everyone from Stevie Wonder to Grimes. Her music ranges wildly across the spectrum, taking in influences as various as cabaret, electronica, rap, orchestral, plastic pop and English folk, while falling within a cultural movement combining black history with sci-fi known as Afrofuturism. And this is before you even get to her acting career. Continue reading...
Alexandra Wilson says legal system should introduce ambitious measures to tackle discrimination in professionThe barrister who was mistaken for a defendant three times in one day at court has called for compulsory anti-racism training at every level of the UK legal system.Alexandra Wilson, who specialises in criminal and family cases, put in a complaint on Wednesday and spoke of her frustration about the incident on Twitter. Her tweets, which quickly went viral, resulted in an apology by the head of the courts service in England and Wales. Continue reading...
Voting starts in the eastern state of Sabah, seen as a referendum on Muhyiddin Yassin’s unelected governmentMalaysia’s embattled prime minister faces a crucial test on Saturday as polls opened in elections in the eastern state of Sabah, seen as a referendum on his seven-month-old, unelected government.The leader of the opposition-ruled state dissolved its assembly on 30 July to seek early elections and thwart attempts by Muhyiddin Yassin’s ruling alliance to take over Sabah through defections of lawmakers. Continue reading...
Temperatures plummet as snowfall reported in parts of NSW, Victoria and the ACTSpringtime snow has fallen in parts of south-eastern Australia and a severe weather warning is in place as a cold front moves across New South Wales.Damaging winds hit Sydney on Friday night, with winds of 115km/h recorded at Camden in the city’s south-west, while gusts reached 106km/h in the city. Continue reading...
South’s president Moon Jae-in faces growing public and political outrage over the shooting of the fisheries officialSouth Korea will ask North Korea to further investigate the shooting death of one of its officials, as public and political outrage over the killing grew.After a national security council meeting on Friday, South Korea said on Saturday that it would call for a joint probe into the case with the North if needed, saying there were discrepancies in accounts of the accident from the two sides. Continue reading...
Most of those killed in the crash near Kharkiv were military cadets, officials sayAt least 22 people including military cadets were killed and two others were seriously injured when a Ukrainian air force plane crashed near Kharkiv in the east of the country, the interior ministry said.Deputy interior minister Anton Gerashchenko confirmed the death toll, describing the incident as a “shock”, and saying that the cause of the crash on Friday was being investigated. Continue reading...
Manus Island’s Nahau Rooney, at one time the only woman in PNG’s parliament, dedicated her life to advancing women in her countryHardworking, audacious, occasionally controversial, but always vivacious: one of Papua New Guinea’s political pioneers, Nahau Rooney, has been remembered as a trailblazer for PNG women in power following her death on 15 September, aged 75.In 1977, Rooney was one of just three women elected to PNG’s first post-independence parliament – out of 109 members – where she served as the regional member for the province of Manus. Continue reading...
Shehroze Chaudhry, 25, gained notoriety from the podcast, Caliphate, but his account of grisly murders for Isis have been questionedPolice in Canada have arrested a man for lying about his participation with the Islamic State, while charging another for joining the terror group in Syria.
Metropolitan police commander Cressida Dick said Sgt Matiu Ratana was known as a 'big guy' with a 'big heart' who was respected by colleagues and the suspects he dealt with in custody. 'His service will never be forgotten,' she added. 'It is a really distinguished service from a lovely, much respected police officer.'The 54-year-old officer, known as Matt, had served with the Metropolitan police for nearly 30 years. He was killed after a suspect opened fire at Croydon custody centre in south London in the early hours of Friday.
Victoria has a long and tragic history of police shootings of people in extreme mental health crisis. What are the factors contributing to excessive use of force?On 15 September, a man brandishing a large kitchen knife was spotted inside a toilet in the Lilydale Marketplace. Armed with the knife, he made his way to a medical centre where he filled out a new patient form. The police were called to the busy shopping complex at 8.30am. First responders confronted the man outside the medical centre. He was asking the officers to kill him.“We now have two more police vehicles,” a bystander told a live radio broadcast on 3AW. On mobile phone footage, the 24-year-old man appears agitated as he sparks a cigarette. The police had been negotiating with him for half an hour. They urged him to put down the weapon. The man rushed towards the police officers. “And we now have police in black,” the bystander continued. “Oh shit, they’re shooting. They’ve just shot. There’s just been three or four rounds. I can’t see.” Two officers fired their weapons and shot the man. Police believed the man, who remains in a stable condition, suffered from mental health issues. Continue reading...
by Hosted by Katharine Murphy, produced by Hannah Izz on (#58JMN)
Katharine Murphy talks to Joel Fitzgibbon, the member for Hunter, about Labor’s stance on climate and fossil fuel industries. They discuss Labor’s response to Scott Morrison’s push for a ‘gas-led recovery’, as well as Anthony Albanese’s potential as the next prime minister Continue reading...
Virtual kidnappings targeting young Chinese adults are estimated to have netted billions of dollars worldwideWhen someone falls victim to fraud, the common lament is that the con sounded too good to be true. But for the victims of so-called ‘virtual kidnappings’, it is the opposite; it sounds so terrible that it couldn’t be real.In the latest case revealed by police in New South Wales this week, a 22-year-old man was convinced by the scammers that he had to take a female high-school student – a complete stranger – into witness protection at his apartment. Continue reading...
During the pandemic, the EU dropped its austerity-inducing budget rules and restrictions on its central bank’s ability to finance government spending. It get should rid of them permanentlyIn an emergency, the normal rules do not apply. Coronavirus has shown the EU can do things differently. Early on the commission dumped its obsession with balancing the books. The prohibition on monetary financing of government debt by the European Central Bank (ECB) was dropped. This allowed member states the freedom to mitigate the damage of a Covid recession without worrying too much about borrowing levels.That fear was well-founded. The EU had used high debt levels as a reason to intervene in public policy. Emma Clancy, an economist for the leftwing block of MEPs, has noted the commission had used debt burdens to ask member states to cut spending on, or privatise, healthcare services 63 times between 2011 and 2018. In the EU there is often an Olympian disdain for critics of its fiscal and monetary rules. This is understandable. No one likes to be reminded of one’s own mistakes. Continue reading...
by Jamie Grierson Home affairs correspondent on (#58JHH)
National Police Memorial roll has recorded more than 1,600 officers who have died in line of dutyThe police officer who died after being shot in Croydon will be added to the National Police Memorial roll of honour in London.The roll records more than 1,600 officers who have died in the line of duty. Continue reading...
by Daniel Boffey and Jennifer Rankin in Brussels and on (#58JHM)
EU sources fear Boris Johnson hasn’t yet got backing for compromises on state aid to businessBrussels has sought to puncture an outbreak of optimism over an imminent Brexit deal, amid fears Boris Johnson has not secured the backing of key advisers and his party for the compromises needed in the final stretch of negotiations.With the UK government yet to offer a way forward on the most contentious issues, and trust in Downing Street at a low ebb, senior EU officials treated with scepticism reports that the UK could see a way to secure a deal. Continue reading...
A de facto border can only mean one thing: seven-mile tailbacks. And no one, whatever their political persuasion, is in favour of thatThere is to be a new land border with Kent. Technically, it isn’t a border; it is just that lorries won’t be allowed into the county from the rest of England unless they have their paperwork in place, which in the absence of a drone-recognition system means police patrolling the boundaries. So, a border.It throws up a few technical questions: does this mean Kent is now in France, or is it a Liechtenstein-style principality? Can it have its own currency, and will it be pegged to sterling? What ramifications, if any, does this have for Scottish independence? Can Kent ever have a referendum on rejoining the United Kingdom? Will some county cricket matches now become tests? Will we be all right if we have a Kentish grandparent? Because, happily, I did. Continue reading...
Brexiter Ineos boss, who has an estimated £17.5bn fortune, officially changes tax domicileSir Jim Ratcliffe, the UK’s richest person and high-profile Brexiter, has quit Britain for tax-free Monaco.Ratcliffe, a petrochemicals magnate with an estimated £17.5bn fortune, has this week officially changed his tax domicile from Hampshire to Monaco, the sovereign city-state that is already home to many of the UK’s richest people. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Gloves from Malaysian company Top Glove found in NHS supply chain despite multiple allegations of worker exploitationThe UK government has been continuing to source medical gloves used as PPE by frontline healthcare workers from a manufacturer in Malaysia repeatedly accused of forcing its workers to endure “slave-like conditions” in its factories, the Guardian can reveal.Top Glove, the world’s biggest producer of rubber medical gloves, has faced multiple allegations of exploitation from migrant workers mostly from Bangladesh and Nepal. Continue reading...
Swansea and Llanelli are expected to go into lockdown on Saturday, and Cardiff on Sunday, after a spike in coronavirus cases, the Welsh health minister, Vaughan Gething, has announced.Meetings between extended households, known as ‘bubbles’, will be suspended. Travel will be monitored and can only be for essential reasons
The prime minister warns nations will be severely judged if they try to profit from hoarding a vaccineScott Morrison will use a speech to the United Nations general assembly in New York to urge countries to share a Covid-19 vaccine as soon as a successful candidate emerges, characterising such collaboration as a “global and moral responsibility”.Morrison will use his contribution to the general assembly 75th anniversary general debate, scheduled for Saturday morning Australian time, to revive concerns that some countries might see “short-term advantage or even profit” in hoarding the vaccine rather than sharing it with the world. Continue reading...
Five US senators have written to question plans to adapt The Three-Body Problem after its author voiced support for China’s mass internments in Xinjiang
Six more months of pandemic in Boristime may mean at least one more year of dread in real timeThere was a heartbreaking story in the Times on Saturday about how Boris Johnson was feeling overworked and underpaid. How the flat in No 10 was a bit small, how the rent from the home he shares with Carrie Symonds in Camberwell has to be offset against his income as prime minister and how he even has to pay for any food the No 10 kitchen sends upstairs. Now you might have thought that someone who appears to have spent his whole life believing that becoming prime minister was the fulfilment of his destiny would have spent rather more time investigating the financial implications of his decisions. After all if he had been looking for a cushy job to keep his still growing family in the style to which he aspired, Boris would have been better off remaining a backbench MP on £80,000, while raking in another £350,000 from the Daily Telegraph for the occasional column dashed off in an hour and who knows how much more for after-dinner speaking. But we all have our crosses to bear, so I suppose we should treat the prime minister falling on hard times on a salary of £150,000 as a personal tragedy. With that in mind, several members of a WhatsApp group of which I am a member began to wonder what we could do to help Boris at his time of crisis. Two ideas came to mind. The first was a telethon in which stars of stage and screen could do comedy turns in between sad black and white footage of Boris sleeping in a cardboard box in the No 10 attic. The second was to set up a JustGiving page for Boris. So far it has raised £5 of its hoped for £1m. That donation has come from a “Matt Hancock” with the message, “We send the EU £350m a week. Let’s Give it to Boris instead.” Feel free to contribute. Or not. Continue reading...
Sergeant shot by man detained in custody centre, police say, and suspect is in hospitalA police officer has died after being shot by a man who was being detained inside a police station in south London.The police sergeant was shot dead overnight by the man who had been brought into the Croydon custody centre. The gunman then shot himself at about 2.15am. Continue reading...
Alleged altercation between star rappers ended with Lanez being arrested and charged with carrying a concealed weaponRapper Tory Lanez has denied shooting chart-topping rapper Megan Thee Stallion in a July incident in Los Angeles.On his new album Daystar released today, Lanez raps “I ain’t do it” and alleges: “Megan[’s] people trying to frame me for a shooting.” Megan has not responded to the allegation. Continue reading...
Exclusive: proposed rewriting of data protection rules said to put vital cooperation in doubtA radical “pro-tech” plan championed by Dominic Cummings to rewrite Britain’s data protection laws is endangering future cooperation with the EU worth billions to the British economy, Brussels has warned.The government’s newly published national data strategy, promising a “transformation” long sought by Boris Johnson’s chief adviser and the former Vote Leave director, has sparked concern at a sensitive time with the continued flow of data between the UK and EU member states in question. Continue reading...