by Rebecca Ratcliffe South-east Asia correspondent on (#57QX7)
Liu Yifei, who stars as Chinese heroine, has voiced support for Hong Kong police during suppression of protestsCalls to boycott Disney’s live-action remake of Mulan have been reignited ahead of its release on Friday, with Thai pro-democracy activists joining those vowing to shun the film.Controversy over Mulan erupted last year, when its star, Liu Yifei, voiced support for police in Hong Kong, who have been accused of using excessive force against protesters. Continue reading...
Sex, surf and scuba diving make Nicole Garcia’s crime drama easy on the eye but there’s little substance behind the style“You look like a painting,” a rich gentleman tells the heroine, Lisa, in the early stages of Nicole Garcia’s stylish, silly thriller. “I forget the name of the painting. A dark, gloomy one.” Minutes later he’s dead, laid out on the carpet while Lisa clutches her bathrobe. Whether he was killed by the purple prose in his mouth or the contaminated cocaine in his nose is best left for the coroner to decide.In any case, the rich gentleman was not entirely right. Lisa (played with blank sullenness by the Nymphomaniac star Stacy Martin) looks like a model in a glossy magazine photo-shoot. A dark, gloomy model posed against a series of eye-catching backdrops (grungy Paris; tropical paradise) with a hackneyed plot scaffolded around her slender frame. Amants, unaccountably, is competing for the top prize here in Venice. At least if it wins the presentation pictures will be pretty. Continue reading...
The writer and democracy activist has denied Chinese reports he confessed to espionageAn Australian writer who has been detained by Chinese authorities for more than 19 months has revealed he’s been interrogated more than 300 times and taken to meetings handcuffed and blindfolded.Yang Hengjun, in his first external communication in months, has rejected Chinese reports he had confessed to espionage, stating: “I am innocent and will fight to the end.” Continue reading...
We would like to hear from those returning to the UK early due to Portugal and Greece potentially being added to the coronavirus quarantine listBritish travellers who are on holiday in Portugal may face a 14 day quarantine when returning as coronavirus cases reached levels considered dangerous by the UK government.In Scotland, travellers from Greece already have to quarantine, whereas in Wales, this only applies to those arriving from the island of Zante. Continue reading...
It is hard to gauge the chances of the Russian opposition leader regaining his former healthAlexei Navalny is likely to survive his poisoning with novichok but his long-term prospects and chances of making a full recovery are unknown, the hospital treating him in Berlin said on Thursday.The Russian opposition leader “continues to improve”, doctors at the Charité hospital said. But they stressed: “Recovery is likely to be lengthy. It is still too early to gauge the long-term effects which may arise in relation to this severe poisoning.” Continue reading...
Dwayne Johnson says he, his spouse and their daughters caught the virus less than three weeks ago from ‘very close family friends’Pro-wrestler turned Hollywood actor Dwayne Johnson, known as The Rock, said in a video message posted on social media on Wednesday that he, his wife and their two young children tested positive for Covid-19 in recent weeks and he had “a rough go”.They all have recovered and are healthy, he said, while urging the public to wear face masks to help prevent the spread of coronavirus. Continue reading...
Soldiers, accountants, children … Luke Holland persuaded elderly Germans to account for what they did under Nazi rule, and the air of shrugging unrepentance is damningHeinrich Schulze is a kindly-looking old man who lived as a child near the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen in Lower Saxony, Germany. In the course of Luke Holland’s quietly searing Final Account, Schulze returns to the old family farm to point out the hayloft where a group of escaped prisoners had once taken shelter. The escapees were starving and had begged him for some food. But then the guards came and retrieved them, which was of course very sad. Under further questioning, with a sheepish shrug, Schulze admits that yes, the prisoners were recaptured because he himself called the guards. As to what became of them after that? “Oh,” Herr Schulze scoffs. “Nobody knows that!”Round them up and bring them out: the bystanders and functionaries, the children who pitched in and the adults who turned a blind eye. Holland, a British documentary-maker, spent the last decade of his life with these straggling survivors of history, those with first-hand experience of the Nazi regime, and the results are damning; the testimonies chill the blood. Monsters, Primo Levi once wrote, are always aberrations. But the small men who watch from the sidelines and occasionally lean in to lend a hand: these are the real danger. They’re even worse than the monsters. Continue reading...
Warning that lack of agreement means more young people will risk lives crossing ChannelThe EU has rejected a British proposal for a system to reunite children seeking asylum with their families in the UK or Europe, prompting warnings that more young people will risk their lives in dangerous Channel crossings.The government had proposed a post-Brexit agreement to continue transfers of unaccompanied child asylum seekers to families living in either the UK or EU, although with no obligation on either side. Continue reading...
The Victorian Chamber of Commerce reveals the draft Covid-19 roadmaps the government is using in consultationsThe head of the Victorian Chamber of Commerce says Covid-19 roadmap templates for business are based around a four-step “traffic light” system, as Victorians eagerly await the government exit roadmap from lockdown on Sunday.The chamber’s chief executive, Paul Guerra, has outlined to Guardian Australia the draft Covid-19 roadmaps the government is using to consult with Victorian business ahead of easing restrictions. Continue reading...
Heavy winds and rain lashed much of the Korean peninsula after Typhoon Maysak made landfall, even as damage from a previous typhoon last week was still being repaired and a third typhoon gathered strength off the coast Continue reading...
During the cold war, eight US-backed military dictatorships jointly plotted the cross-border kidnap, torture, rape and murder of hundreds of their political opponents. Now some of the perpetrators are finally facing justice. By Giles Tremlett
Educators call for more resources as figures show 23,000 Australians abroad want to return but cannot amid coronavirus restrictionsEducation experts are warning that schools will need to be specially equipped to help students stranded overseas to catch up on missed classes when they return, as trapped Australian children contemplate repeating a grade.The alarm has been echoed by federal opposition’s education spokeswoman, Tanya Plibersek, with the Australian Education Union also warning that schools in general are under-resourced to support Covid-19-affected student learning. Continue reading...
‘Woeful’ result puts country in bottom 15% for overall child wellbeing which Ardern says reflects previous government’s underinvestmentUnicef says New Zealand is failing children after a new report revealed the country’s poor childhood obesity and suicide statistics have pushed it to near the very bottom on child wellbeing.The latest Unicef Innocenti report card shows that, out of 41 developed countries in the OECD and European Union, New Zealand ranks 35th. Continue reading...
Police chiefs to introduce new safety measures but warn against increasing Taser useTwo out of five officers reported being assaulted on duty in the previous year, with police chiefs vowing to introduce measures to keep them safer without adopting a “paramilitary” style of policing.A survey for the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) covering the year to 21 March 2019 found that officers were assaulted and injured 10,409 times, up 26% on the previous year. There were another 20,476 assaults without injury, up 13% on the previous year. Continue reading...
International students in Australia are easy prey for exploitative bosses with hourly rates as low as $5, but some are fighting backWhat happened to Naomi* has happened a thousand times before, it’s just that now, she says, people are speaking out.Two years ago, the 25-year-old moved from China to Australia to study a course in early childhood care and education. Continue reading...
Sources say authorities make two prisoners follow the British Australian academic everywhere in the Covid-ravaged Qarchak jailKylie Moore-Gilbert has enough money to buy food and water inside Iran’s notorious Qarchak prison, but is closely surveilled everywhere she goes, sources inside the jail say.Fellow prisoners report that the British Australian academic appears to have so far escaped infection in the wave of Covid-19 sweeping through the prison, but that her communications with the outside world are strictly proscribed, according to Roya Boroumand, executive director of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center (ABC) for Human Rights in Iran. Continue reading...
Prime minister Tuilaepa Sailele Lupesoliai Malielegaoi has ruled for 22 years, but a former ally leads a new coalition of challengersThe 22-year rule of one of the world’s longest-serving prime ministers, Samoa’s Tuilaepa Sailele Lupesoliai Malielegaoi, faces its most significant challenge, with a new coalition – fronted by a former political ally – threatening his grip on power.The elder statesman of Pacific politics, Malielegaoi has been prime minister and foreign minister of Samoa since 1998. Continue reading...
by Jason Burke and Nyasha Chingono in Harare on (#57NMW)
Filmmaker was held in Harare for six weeks after carrying out investigations into corruptionHopewell Chin’ono, the Zimbabwean journalist held in a high-security prison for almost six weeks pending trial on charges of inciting violence, has been freed on bail.Chin’ono was arrested at his home in Harare in July after publishing a series of investigations into corruption in Zimbabwe. He has since been held in an overcrowded cell in Chikurubi jail on the outskirts of the capital, Harare. Continue reading...
by Lisa O'Carroll Brexit correspondent on (#57NGZ)
EU negotiator says UK refusing to put proposals on the table on state aid or fisheriesThe EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, has said he is “worried and disappointed” over the UK’s approach to the talks, fuelling fears that the UK will leave the bloc in January without a deal.He said there was no breakthrough at a meeting on Tuesday with the UK’s negotiator, David Frost. “We didn’t see any change in the position of the UK, which is why I expressed publicly what I say, that I am worried and I am disappointed because, frankly speaking, we have moved, [and] shown in many issues real openness in the past months,” Barnier told the Institute of International and European Affairs in Dublin. Continue reading...
Police raided homes and hospitals to arrest suspected demonstrators, according to human rights groupIranians accused of involvement in mass protests that gripped the country in November were hunted by authorities in the days and weeks after, with many disappeared, tortured and jailed, a human rights group has alleged.Detainees including children were subjected to beatings, extreme temperatures, stress positions and electrocution, according to a report by Amnesty International, which said it had collected the names of more than 500 people investigated in connection with the protests. At least three have been sentenced to death so far. Continue reading...
Firm to review language and marketing as cosmetics industry accused of hypocrisyEstée Lauder is reviewing the language and marketing around its skin-lightening creams, after accusations of cultural insensitivity levelled at rival cosmetics firms.The company, which owns 25 brands including Bobbi Brown, Clinique and La Mer, did not disclose which products would be affected. It will assess the use of terms such as lightening and brightening on its products and if certain product lines should have a wider range of shades, Estée Lauder’s senior vice-president, Susan Akkad, told Bloomberg. Continue reading...
As students begin to return to universities around the world, four British-Somali students talk about navigating one of Britain’s most elite institutions: Cambridge University. Their identity is rooted in Somalinimo (‘the essence of being Somali’) and in this love letter to Somali culture, blackness and Islam, they reflect on both belonging and marginalisation. The women discuss conflicts with their parents, the sense of solidarity they have built at Cambridge, and the legacy they are creating for the next generation of British-Somalis. They give new meaning to an old Somali proverb: ‘Clothing that is not yours cannot shelter you from the cold’ Continue reading...
A gay teen comes of age in a a desperate situation in this audacious and elegant debut made on a shoestringBrazilian-American film-maker Alexandre Moratto makes a bold feature debut with Socrates, a very personal, good-looking film resourcefully made on a micro-budget with the help of an LGBT charity in Brazil – and produced by the Iranian film-maker Ramin Bahrani.Christian Malheiros plays Socrates, a gay teen in São Paulo who becomes homeless when his mother dies. (Moratto puts this agonising moment, almost worthy of a Victorian melodrama, at the top of the film.) It leaves him desperate to pay the rent, desperate to find a job and desperate to find his way in the world. And the death of his mum creates a situation in which he can’t avoid dealing with his bitter, vengeful and homophobic dad, who has the legal right to his mother’s ashes. Continue reading...
by Lorena Allam and Australian Associated Press on (#57N26)
Body-worn video footage of the shooting, which took place during an attempted arrest in 2019, was played to courtA Northern Territory police officer has told a court he saw Constable Zachary Rolfe shoot Kumanjayi Walker twice at “very close” range during an attempted arrest of the young man at his Yuendumu home in November 2019.Body-worn video footage of the shooting, described by the prosecutor, Phil Strickland, as of an “extreme nature”, was played to the court several times during Tuesday’s committal hearing for Rolfe who has been charged with Walker’s murder. Continue reading...
Zoe Buhler the fourth person charged with incitement in Victoria in recent days as police take hardline approach to ‘Freedom Day’ protestsPolice in Victoria have arrested a pregnant 28-year-old woman in front of her partner and two children for planning an anti-lockdown protest in regional Victoria this weekend.Police arrested the woman, Zoe Buhler, at her home in Miners Rest near Ballarat on Wednesday after she created a “freedom day” event on Facebook calling for people to protest against the Victorian government’s lockdown measures. Continue reading...
Malaita’s promised poll pits pro-Taiwan province against a pro-Beijing national governmentThe largest province in Solomon Islands has announced plans for an independence referendum as tensions with the country’s national government over China policy rise.Malaita, a province of 200,000 people in the country’s east, “will soon conduct a provincial-wide referendum on the topic of independence”, a statement from premier Daniel Suidani said on Tuesday. Continue reading...
CGTN presenter is being held in ‘residential surveillance at a designated location’, classified by the UN as a type of enforced disappearanceAustralian journalist Cheng Lei is at risk of torture by Chinese authorities, human rights observers have said.On Monday the Australian government revealed Chinese authorities had detained Cheng, a Chinese-born Australian citizen and business news anchor for CGTN, China’s English-language state media channel. The government has not been told why she has been detained, and amid deteriorating relations China’s foreign minister has not returned calls from Australian representatives for months. Continue reading...
The reassessment of China highlighted by Wang Yi’s trip has political, economic and security implicationsThe Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi did not exactly end his week-long European tour with his tail between his legs but he may have been chastened if he ever believed Beijing could simply win over Europe by pointing to the extremist cold war rhetoric of Europe’s natural ally America.The five-nation tour surely marked the end of an era where China can any longer get away with simple homilies on win-win solutions, multilateralism and non-interference in another’s internal affairs. Pointing to Donald Trump is also no longer enough to win European friends. Continue reading...
Jacinda Ardern will talk to families of those killed, who say New Zealand should not pay for keeping the Australian terrorist locked up for lifeSome survivors of the mosque massacre in Christchurch are calling for Australia to pay for the lifetime prison sentence of the gunman, who killed 51 worshippers last year.Last week Justice Cameron Mander sentenced Brenton Tarrant, who is an Australian citizen, to life in prison without parole for the murders of 51 people at two inner-city Christchurch mosques in March of 2019. Continue reading...
Wednesday: Grant money announced for a regional business association flows to firm run by LNP figures and donors. Plus: five bizarre moments from Trump’s latest interviewGood morning, this is Lauren Waldhuter bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Wednesday 2 September. Continue reading...
Vessels off Galicia warned to keep away after Spanish navy yacht and French boat damagedMaritime authorities in Spain have warned sailors off the coast of Galicia to give orcas a wide berth after a naval yacht lost part of its rudder following a brush with two of the whales and a similar incident left a French boat with minor damage.Both encounters took place hours apart on Sunday in the Rías Baixas area of north-west Spain. The French boat was found to have marks consistent with the orcas rubbing against its hull, while the Mirfak – a Spanish naval yacht en route to a regatta – lost part of its rudder after the boat attracted the animals’ attention. Continue reading...
by Emmanuel Akinwotu West Africa correspondent on (#57M0B)
US-Senegalese star says smart city will be built in mould of fictional nation WakandaThe US-Senegalese music mogul Akon has said he is pressing ahead with lofty plans to create a futuristic Pan-African smart city in Senegal next year, built in the mould of Wakanda - the fictional, technologically advanced African nation depicted in the Marvel blockbuster Black Panther.The 2,000-acre, surrealist, solar-powered “Akon City”, backed by the Senegalese government and funded by unnamed investors, was first announced by Akon in 2018. Continue reading...
French leader calls for clarity on financial crisis on second visit to Beirut after port explosionEmmanuel Macron has pledged to host another aid conference to support Lebanon during a follow-up visit to blast-ravaged Beirut, in which he cautiously backed the new prime minister, but made any French bailout conditional on a cabinet that implements widespread reforms.The French president’s return to Lebanon, nearly one month after his last visit in the wake of the huge explosion that destroyed swathes of its capital, was seen by local officials as a sign that a financial package they had been pleading for was edging closer. Continue reading...
Heroism, tragedy – and lots of tanks … the Russian film industry’s obsession with the war is as strong as the west’s – but they convey a very different messageThe second world war ended – as we all know – 75 years ago. Many things have happened since then, yet the war retains an unending fascination for politicians and for makers of big-budget cinema. Since films aren’t made by accident, there’s a reason for the many, costly movies about events that happened long ago. War movies aren’t historical documents, but signs of our current times. Saving Private Ryan (1998) persuaded us that Americans fight wars justly, and with a moral conscience. The mega-budget Pearl Harbor (2001) suited the aspirations of the Project for the New American Century. Dunkirk (2017) celebrated Britain going it alone, gamely and successfully improvising her European exit.In Russia, however, things are very different. In 1985, the director Elim Klimov made that rare thing, a genuinely anti-war movie: Come and See. But such things are rare. What do the current generation of Russian war films have to tell us? I sat down to watch as many as I could. Most stand in the shadow of Klimov’s film and detest war. But they did so with widely different budgets, and in different ways. Continue reading...
Paul Rusesabagina, who appeared in handcuffs in Kigali on Monday, has been living outside Rwanda since 1996The man portrayed in the film Hotel Rwanda as saving the lives of more than 1,200 people from genocide was “kidnapped” while in Dubai, his daughter has said.The appearance of Paul Rusesabagina in handcuffs in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, on Monday prompted concern among some human rights activists who worried that the outspoken critic of Rwanda’s government was the latest example of officials targeting dissidents beyond the country’s borders. He had been living outside Rwanda since 1996, first in Belgium and then in Texas in the US. Continue reading...
Trip led by Czech speaker follows news of US policy changes in favour of islandChina has pledged to take “corresponding measures” over a visit by the Czech parliamentary speaker to Taiwan, where he channelled John F Kennedy to declare to the island’s parliament “I am Taiwanese”.The comments by the foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, were reported in state media without details of what such measures would be. They follow other threats from Beijing over countries fostering relationships with Taiwan, and came shortly after the US announced “significant adjustments “ to its One China policy in favour of Taiwan. Continue reading...
Mark Sedwill’s replacement as cabinet secretary will do a ‘fantastic’ job, says PMSimon Case has been confirmed as the UK’s new top civil servant, with the prime minister saying he would do a “fantastic” job as cabinet secretary.The 41 year old replaces Mark Sedwill, who announced at the end of June that he would stand down from his twin posts of national security adviser and cabinet secretary. Continue reading...
Leading online reference announces more than 15,000 changes, intended to foreground people over clinical languageDictionary.com is making major changes to more than 15,000 of its definitions, from capitalising Black to updating entries about sexual orientation, aiming to foreground people over “clinical language”.On Tuesday the website, which with 70m monthly users describes itself as the world’s leading digital dictionary, released what it called its largest ever update. Continue reading...
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