by Lisa O'Carroll Brexit correspondent on (#58EBP)
Head of EU exit at the port says money needs to be ‘issued rather than talked about’Dover port is not Brexit ready because it is still waiting for government funds to be released for vital infrastructure for the new border operations, it has been revealed.It comes as it emerged that the government was considering forcing drivers to obtain a special Brexit passport before entering Kent in a bid to avert queuing chaos in January. Continue reading...
EU drugs agency says availability of cocaine in Europe is at its highestMore young adults in Britain than anywhere else in Europe have taken cocaine in the last 12 months, at a time when availability is at an unprecedented level across the continent, according to the EU drugs agency.A report on the latest trends in illicit drug use suggests that 5.3% of people aged between 15 and 34 in the UK took cocaine in 2018, the most recent year for which records are available. Around half of Europe’s 15,000 crack-related treatment demands have been reported by the UK authorities. Continue reading...
Researcher says 500,000 rural workers trained for factories this year in programme likened to Xinjiang operationsChinese authorities are dramatically expanding a mass labour programme in Tibet, which analysts have compared to alleged forced labour operations in Xinjiang, according to evidence compiled by a German anthropologist and corroborated by Reuters.China has set quotas to move hundreds of thousands of Tibetan rural labourers off their land and into “military-style” facilities to train them as factory workers, according to documents analysed by researcher Adrian Zenz for the Jamestown Foundation, a US research institute. Continue reading...
More than 130 journalists – including at least three US reporters – surveilled in a country where media has long been targetedMaría Alejandra Villamizar has had a front row seat of Colombia’s civil conflict. Over a 25-year career, she has reported from rebel-held jungles to territories controlled by violent drug cartels. She also worked as an adviser to several presidents during successive attempts to make peace.But she recently discovered that her work had put her in the crosshairs of the military. Continue reading...
by Jamie Grierson Home affairs corespondent on (#58E84)
Labour peer calls on government to take in children left homeless by fire at camp on Greek islandA Labour peer who masterminded a change in the law that forced the government to give sanctuary to child asylum seekers has branded the UK’s lack of action over a devastating fire at a migrant camp in Greece an “absolute disgrace”.Alf Dubs, a former child refugee, called on the government to follow the lead of other European nations and take in some of the thousands of asylum seekers left without shelter following the blaze on the Greek island of Lesbos. Continue reading...
Aboriginal legal services say they don’t have enough funding to meet the new commitmentsThe coroner’s court of Victoria has changed the way it investigates Indigenous deaths in custody to reflect recommendations made in a royal commission almost 30 years ago, but Aboriginal legal services say they don’t have enough funding to meet the court’s new commitments.The Victorian state coroner, judge John Cain, issued a practice direction on Tuesday outlining new standards for investigating Indigenous deaths in custody. It includes a requirement that the coroner attend the scene of death where practicable, instead of relying on the report of the police officer conducting the investigation. Continue reading...
Jean-Michel Blanquer’s comments follow protests over high school dress codes for female studentsFrance’s education minister has sparked a sexism row after demanding high school pupils dress in “republican style” for classes.Jean-Michel Blanquer’s comments came a week after a protest by girls at French high schools about being hauled in front of headteachers or turned away from lessons because they were wearing mini skirts, low-cut or crop tops deemed “provocative”. Continue reading...
Revelations federal government paid company 10 times too much for land needs parliamentary scrutiny, opposition urgesLabor will push for a parliamentary inquiry into revelations the government paid $26.7m above the fair value for a parcel of land at the Western Sydney airport owned by a Liberal donor that will not be used until after 2050.Two members of the federal joint committee of public accounts and audit – Labor’s deputy chair, Julian Hill, and senator Rex Patrick – told Guardian Australia the $30m purchase from the Leppington Pastoral Company should be investigated. Continue reading...
Messages warning about security companies tabled at hotel quarantine inquiry as department heads deny responsibilityVictorian public servants tasked with recruiting private security firms for hotel quarantine warned of potential issues with the “cowboy industry” and guards potentially going rogue.Sent over WhatsApp, the messages included warnings to “be careful with security companies”. The messages were tabled in the hotel quarantine inquiry on Tuesday during questioning of the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions (DJPR) secretary, Simon Phemister. Continue reading...
Sydney University staff say protesters were fined and arrested even though they were in small groupsUniversity staff have criticised New South Wales police for being “undemocratic” and suppressing freedom of speech by repeatedly arresting protestors, even as people gathered in larger numbers at sporting events, cafes and classrooms.An open letter, signed by over 100 staff at the University of Sydney, accused police of “political censorship” in breaking up multiple protests against the federal government’s changes to higher education. Continue reading...
In casting waif-like Liu Yifei in its live-action remake, Disney squandered its chance to show a Chinese audience that girls can be both beautiful and toughAs a child who grew up in China with little exposure to Disney until I was eight, the idea of a princess marrying a prince and living happily ever after was something entirely foreign. I was more familiar with the fox and snake spirits in Chinese folklore that transformed into beautiful women and sorceresses, and the cross-dressing heroines of wuxia martial-arts TV shows of the 90s.It’s no surprise, then, that Disney’s 1998 film Mulan was more relatable than Sleeping Beauty. Mulan was not only Chinese but had a mission greater than marriage – to save her father and country – and she didn’t need saving herself. For Disney, she was the first “non-princess” who did not end up marrying a prince. It was a mortal’s story: there were no spells or supernatural forces to help her fight her battles, and she did not levitate off rooftops like the wuxia women. Her only celestial remedy was a plump, cheering squad of ancestor spirits and a funny little serpent called Mushu. Continue reading...
The UK continues the fiction that racial exploitation is in the past, says Matthew Smith. He hopes his London appointment will help change thatMatthew Smith did not plan to quit Jamaica. Until last year the historian, who previously headed the history and archaeology department of the University of the West Indies at Mona, near Kingston, had made a point of staying. “I wanted my career to be an example that you don’t have to leave,” he explains on a video call. But when the directorship of UCL’s Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slave-ownership came up, he couldn’t resist. “I couldn’t think of a better job,” he says. “For me it was the perfect way to bridge research on the Caribbean with meaningful public engagement.”Smith, 46, takes over the reins of the centre at an extraordinary time. Awareness of the UK’s role in slavery is arguably at an all-time high after the toppling of the statue of the Bristol slave trader Edward Colston in June. Continue reading...
Queensland police have admitted Aboriginal woman was not checked for more than six hoursA lawyer representing the family of Sherry Fisher-Tilberoo has called for an independent investigation into the Aboriginal woman’s death in a Brisbane police cell after senior police officers downplayed suggestions that the case highlighted racism or systemic problems.Queensland police have admitted that Fisher-Tilberoo, 49, was not checked for more than six hours before her body was discovered in the Brisbane police watch house on 10 September. Continue reading...
The worst parts of UN events will be on display, the endless speechifying first among them, but none of what normally makes the general assembly indispensableIt has been billed as the world’s worst Zoom meeting, but the United Nation’s 75th general assembly could be even worse than that.It is called the “general debate” but, unlike a Zoom meeting, there will be no discussion – just a week-long procession of pre-recorded video messages from the world’s leaders, stating their positions, very much with their domestic audience in mind. They were supposed to have sent their videos at the end of last week. As of Monday, only half had been turned in. Continue reading...
by Nick Evershed, Andy Ball, Hannah Izzard, Patrick L on (#58E1M)
Guardian Australia brings together all the latest on active and daily new Covid-19 cases, as well as maps, stats, live data and state by state graphs from NSW, Victoria, Queensland, SA, WA, Tasmania, ACT and NT to get a broad picture of the Australian outbreak and track the impact of government response
by Rebecca Ratcliffe South-east Asia correspondent on (#58E1N)
An unprecedented wave of protests is sweeping the nation, with calls for major democratic reforms. Here is all you need to knowAn unprecedented wave of protests has swept across Thailand over recent months, led by high school and university students who are calling for major democratic reforms. Some have also broken a longstanding taboo, and risked prison sentences, to demand the power and wealth of the country’s monarchy be curbed. Continue reading...
The Iuventa ran hundreds of missions to save migrants from drowning off the coast of Libya. But after Europe cracked down on migration, its crew found themselves facing prosecutionAs patrol boats with flashing blue lights surrounded the Iuventa, just outside the port of Lampedusa on the evening of 1 August 2017, its crew were more annoyed than alarmed. For three days, the old fishing trawler, crewed by volunteers from the German NGO Jugend Rettet (Youth Rescue), had answered a string of requests from the Italian coastguard that to them made no sense. “This madness hopefully will soon be over,” read a message sent from the ship’s bridge to Jugend Rettet base camp shortly after 10pm.In the summer of 2017, two years on from the peak of Europe’s refugee crisis, smugglers in Libya were still sending hundreds of people a day to sea in unsafe rubber boats, and the Iuventa’s crew wanted to be where the action was. In a patch of sea just off the coast of north Africa, about a dozen NGO ships were searching for boats in distress – a direct challenge, as many of them saw it, to European governments that had scaled back state-run rescue efforts. Continue reading...
by Oliver Holmes Jerusalem correspondent, Hazem Balou on (#58E1P)
The accords signed in Washington are seen as diminishing the leverage for independenceDiplomatic breakthroughs between Israel and Gulf monarchies have revealed fissures in the relationship between Palestine and Arab governments – and raised questions over whether they can still be relied on to champion the Palestinian cause.For years, Israel has vigorously pursued ties with the Arab world, focusing on powerful Gulf countries with whom it shares a common enemy in Iran and who crave its hi-tech security and espionage products. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Jess Price-Purnell the latest National member to resign after John Barilaro threatened to blow up Coalition over wildlife protectionThe former head of the New South Wales Young Nationals and chair of its women’s council has resigned from the party joining a growing list of high-profile members to quit in the wake of the koala policy saga.Jess Price-Purnell, an almost decade-long member of the Nationals, has left, describing the threat by John Barilaro to blow up the Coalition government over the koala policy saga “despicable”. Continue reading...
Party set to end 25 years of leftist rule and take second presidency in regional electionsA candidate for the far-right Brothers of Italy has ended 25 years of leftwing rule in the eastern Marche region, giving the party its second regional presidency, according to incomplete results.However, the centre-left managed to retain its stronghold of Tuscany, in what the region’s centre-left candidate Eugenio Giani called “an extraordinary victory”. Continue reading...
Coalition-controlled Senate committee asks for reform bill to be blocked – despite the fact it originated as a government draft legislationLabor has accused the Coalition of failing to back its own plan to crack down on payday lending by opposing a bill designed to protect vulnerable Australians.On Monday the Coalition-controlled Senate economics legislation committee called for the small amount credit contract bill to be blocked to give the government time to enact “sensible reform” – despite the fact it originated as a government draft bill. Continue reading...
Prime minister says her attention is focused on running the country, but her challenger says she is looking forward to the showJacinda Ardern and Judith Collins are preparing for the first TV debate of the New Zealand election, amid a campaign dominated by coronavirus.The pair will face off in a debate in Auckland held on the same day that Covid-19 restrictions eased in most parts of the country, but not the nation’s largest city, which has been battling an outbreak. Continue reading...
Police search off coast of Granite Island after after reports it was taking in waterJust weeks after the high-profile search and rescues of a pair of missing fishermen off the coast of Granite Island in South Australia, the same boat has gone missing again.South Australian police say around 5am Tuesday they received a call from a man – believed to be the boat’s owner Tony Higgins – on board the timber-hulled boat named Margrel, saying it was taking on water off Victor Harbor, an hour south of Adelaide. Continue reading...
Ang Rita made his ascents without the use of oxygen and was known in Nepal as the ‘snow leopard’ for his climbing skillsAng Rita Sherpa, the first person to climb Mount Everest 10 times, has died after a long illness, his family has said, in what fellow sherpas called a major loss to Nepal and the climbing community.All the ascents to the 8,850-metre (29,035ft) summit of the world’s tallest mountain between 1983 and 1996 by Ang Rita, who went by his first name, like many Sherpas, were made without bottled oxygen. He was among the first Sherpa guides to receive international fame for his accomplishments. Continue reading...
by Hannah Ellis-Petersen and Shaikh Azizur Rahman on (#58DXK)
Group says it has been held in jail-like conditions on Bhasan Char since AprilRohingya refugees allege they are being held against their will in jail-like conditions and subjected to rape and sexual assault on a Bangladeshi island in the Bay of the Bengal.A group of more than 300 refugees were taken to the uninhabited, silt island of Bhasan Char in April, when a boat they were travelling on was intercepted by Bangladeshi authorities. Continue reading...
Churchill’s home Chartwell and Lundy island listed in report highlighting owners’ links to British empire and slaveryA report laying bare the extent of connections that National Trust properties have with colonialism and slavery is just the beginning of a process to better examine history that is often “complex, nuanced and messy”.The trust on Tuesday published research it commissioned a year ago to explore in more detail than ever before what are sometimes less palatable links to the past. Continue reading...
Tuesday: UK on track for 50,000 new daily cases by mid-October. Plus: how scrapping the planned super increase would affect youGood morning, this is Emilie Gramenz bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Tuesday 22 September. Continue reading...
Large protests against the veteran Belarus president, Alexander Lukashenko, continued with tens of thousands of people taking to the streets of the capital, Minsk, for the sixth weekend in a row.The demonstrations began when Lukashenko secured a sixth term after claiming victory in an election that has had its legitimacy called into question.The leader of the main opposition party, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, was in Brussels on Monday to push the European Union to agree on sanctions against officials accused of election-rigging in Belarus, but the EU failed to reach unanimity on the decision, despite not recognising Lukashenko’s legitimacy.As violent arrests of protesters continue in Belarus, anonymous hackers leaked the personal data of 1,000 police officers in retaliation.
Russian oligarch’s firms donated £74m to Elad, who are accused of trying to seize Palestinian neighbourhoodsCompanies controlled by Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich donated tens of millions of pounds to a highly controversial Israeli settler group accused of displacing Palestinian families from Jerusalem, according to leaked documents seen by BBC News Arabic.The billionaire Russian oligarch, who was granted Israeli citizenship in 2018, has been an avid philanthropist in Israel, donating huge sums to research and development projects and investing in local firms. Continue reading...
by Lisa O'Carroll Brexit correspondent on (#58DN4)
Ex-PM says internal market bill could lead to a united Ireland and undermine trust in UKTheresa May has launched a blistering attack on the government’s plan to give itself powers to renege on the special arrangements for Northern Ireland in the Brexit deal.She described the plans as “reckless” and “irresponsible” and said they “risked the integrity of the United Kingdom”, as they would not only tarnish Britain’s reputation globally as an upholder of the law but could contribute to a reunited Ireland. Continue reading...
The government is considering ditching the superannuation increase from 9.5% to 12% by 2025. Find out what that would mean for your retirementThe Morrison government’s looming decision on whether to proceed with promised increases in superannuation contributions could have a big effect on the amount of money saved for your retirement.The superannuation guarantee contribution is legislated to increase from its current rate of 9.5% of income to 12% by 2025 – and the Coalition promised at the last election to stick with that schedule, but is now rethinking it amid the Covid-19 crisis. Continue reading...
Woman taken into custody by Customs and Border Protection officers at the New York-Canada borderA woman suspected of sending an envelope containing the poison ricin to the White House, has been arrested at the New York-Canada border and is also suspected of sending similar poisoned envelopes to law enforcement agencies in Texas.The letter was intercepted earlier this week before it reached the White House. The woman was taken into custody by US Customs and Border Protection officers at the Peace Bridge border crossing near Buffalo and is expected to face federal charges, three law enforcement officials told the Associated Press. Continue reading...
Cypriot government refuses to back measures unless bloc imposes sanctions on TurkeyEuropean foreign ministers have failed to break the deadlock over sanctions on Belarus, after Cyprus blocked the plan citing the lack of EU action against Turkey.Nearly one month after the EU took a political decision to sanction Belarusian officials accused of falsifying the 9 August presidential poll and orchestrating a brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters, the bloc failed to agree the legal text. Continue reading...
Prisoner under death sentence dug hole from cell in Jakarta into waste pipes to road outsideA Chinese drug trafficker facing a death sentence has escaped from jail on the outskirts of Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, by tunnelling through the sewers, police have said.Cai Changpan, 37, who was convicted of methamphetamine smuggling, dug a hole from his cell at the prison in the Tangerang area into waste pipes and from there to a road outside, a Jakarta police spokesman, Yusri Yunus, said. Continue reading...
The Swedish health agencies had clear and consistent guidelines from the start. But they also have a sensible population, notes David ReedSorry to see no mention of Sweden or other Nordic countries in your roundup of global actions on Covid-19 (Covid test and trace: how does UK compare with other countries?, 18 September). You ran a report earlier in the week (16 September) showing that Sweden has one of the lowest infection rates in the world, at 22.2 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last two weeks, less than half the rate in the UK. Surely that is important as we look set for a second wave even before winter starts.Sweden initially closed high schools and universities, and told vulnerable people to self-isolate, while encouraging people to be more hygiene-conscious. The Swedish health agencies had clear and consistent guidelines from the start, unlike the shambolic approach from our government. But they also have a sensible population who did as they were told, and a more equal society without the dire levels of poverty created by Tory austerity policies. Continue reading...
Social media users pointed out scenes from Transformers, The Rock and The Hurt Locker filmsA high-octane PR video for China’s air force crash-landed on social media after users questioned why the world’s second-largest military power spliced clips from Hollywood blockbusters into its own propaganda material. Continue reading...
Sisters helped compile Umpithamu lexicon, but knew they would likely die before its completionThe first dictionary of the dying Indigenous Australian language of Umpithamu has been completed by a Belgian professor after 17 years of research – but not before its last two active speakers passed away.Jean-Christophe Verstraete, a professor of linguistics at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, worked closely with sisters Florrie Bassani and Joan Liddy on a 500-page book and an audio app on which their voices were recorded for posterity. Continue reading...