Police allege a kitchen knife was used in brawl at under 20s community game between Wentworthville Magpies and Penrith BrothersThree men have been hospitalised after an alleged stabbing following an under 20s community football game in Sydney’s northwest.Emergency services were called to Old Saleyards Reserve in North Parramatta following reports of an assault after an under 20s community game between Wentworthville Magpies and Penrith Brothers on Sunday morning. Continue reading...
by Naaman Zhou with Australian Associated Press on (#56PT8)
Up to 200mm of rain falls across towns including Moruya, Nowra and Captains Flat and warning issued for flood risk on Deua and Moruya riversEvacuation orders are in place for several towns on the NSW south coast battered by heavy rain and flash flooding.Up to 200mm of rain hit a number of towns including Moruya, Nowra and inland at Captains Flat over the 24 hours to Sunday evening, with up to 300mm in some areas. Continue reading...
Shareholder payout to stay despite 73% fall in quarterly profits due to impact of Covid-19Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant still plans to pay $75bn (£57bn) to its shareholders this year even as the impact of the coronavirus caused its profits for the last quarter to plummet by 73%.The global slowdown in oil demand during the coronavirus pandemic pushed Saudi Aramco’s net income for the second quarter down to $6.57bn, from $24.7bn in the same period last year and $16.6bn in the first quarter of 2020. Continue reading...
by Tom Phillips Latin America correspondent on (#56Q1J)
Natalia Pasternak has waged a tireless media campaign to counter Bolsonaro’s chaotic, anti-science pandemic responseFor months Natalia Pasternak has implored Brazilians to take science and coronavirus seriously, in a marathon of TV appearances, newspaper columns, live streams and podcasts.“I’ve given interviews at 2am,” said the microbiologist and broadcaster who runs a civil society group called the Question of Science Institute. Continue reading...
Depicted as a warmonger, the future PM had a very modern dislike of media criticism, reveals new bookIt is one of the earliest examples of a politician accusing the media of fake news. And it illustrates that, despite having been a journalist himself, Winston Churchill had an ambivalent relationship with the press, praising it on occasions, attacking it on others.Churchill had been incensed by a picture published on the back page of the Daily Herald on 4 June 1929, that showed him outside 11 Downing Street carrying a book with the title War clearly visible. The caption suggested that war was “one of his favourite subjects”. Continue reading...
The decision 75 years ago to use atomic bombs was fuelled not by strategy but by sheer inhumanity“If we’d lost the war, we’d all have been prosecuted as war criminals.” So said Curtis LeMay after America obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki with two atomic bombs in August 1945.LeMay was no bleeding-heart liberal. The US air force chief of staff who had directed the assault over Japan in the final days of the Second World War, he believed in the use of nuclear weapons and thought any action acceptable in the pursuit of victory. Two decades later, he would say of Vietnam that America should “bomb them back into the stone ages”. But he was also honest enough to recognise that the incineration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was not regarded as a war crime only because America had won the war. Continue reading...
Presenter says he can no longer work for broadcaster after ‘slap in the face’A BBC radio presenter has quit his job after the corporation defended its decision to broadcast the N-word in a television news broadcast.Radio 1Xtra presenter Sideman said he no longer felt comfortable working for the national broadcaster after it stuck by the decision to broadcast the language in a report on a racially motivated hit-and-run attack. Continue reading...
Male employees flouted government wage subsidy scheme more than women, survey revealsCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe majority of people who have been furloughed have carried on working during lockdown, with men significantly more likely than women to flout the rules of the scheme and work for their employer when they are not allowed to do so.Working mothers have also felt more compelled to volunteer to be furloughed than working fathers, research shared exclusively with The Observer reveals. Continue reading...
One of the country’s leading publishers says his latest venture will give a voice to those hit hardest by the economic slumpCarlo De Benedetti, the former owner of La Repubblica, one of Italy’s biggest daily newspapers, is no stranger to a challenge. Now, at the age of 85, the tycoon is about to embark on what might be his biggest one to date – launching a newspaper in the midst of a serious financial slump.De Benedetti wants the newspaper, due to launch online and in print in mid-September, to be a progressive, independent voice in a market weighed down by political and economic influence. And, as its name – Domani (Tomorrow) – suggests, the focus will be on coverage that looks to the future. Continue reading...
Putin’s failure to put down unrest in Khabarovsk suggests he may be losing his grip on Russia’s regionsAfter Vladimir Putin pushed through constitutional changes enabling him to remain as Russia’s president until 2036, most people assumed that, like it or not, he was here to stay. But residents of the city of Khabarovsk, on the eastern edge of Siberia, have different ideas. They have been demonstrating each weekend since July, calling, among other things, for Putin to resign. “Down with the tsar!” is one of their more pointed slogans.
Opposition steps up attacks on coronavirus support measure that allows people in financial distress to withdraw up to $20,000Young people will bear the brunt of the Covid-19 economic crisis, Labor has said, as it estimates a 25-year-old who withdraws $20,000 from superannuation may be left up to $100,000 worse off in retirement.The opposition is stepping up its attack on the government’s handling of the early access to superannuation scheme, which allows people dealing with the adverse economic effects of Covid-19 to withdraw up to $10,000 this financial year. People were also able to access up to $10,000 last financial year. Continue reading...
A corruption-riddled government has presided over rising poverty for decades. Could the anger released after the catastrophe in Beirut’s docks finally topple it?The first violent jolt seemed like a neighbourhood accident; a blown generator, or a car crash. Five seconds later, the thundering secondary blast arrived; a crushing surge of energy that instantly sucked the air out of the city, then plunged it back with devastating weight. Giant shards of debris blew through rooms, door frames collapsed and furniture became missiles – all in what seemed like a paralysing slow motion.A deathly still followed, and then came a cascade of shattered glass from what appeared to be every home, or tower block; hundreds of thousands of panes and pieces falling to earth at once. Many who survived the blast wave did not live beyond the seconds that followed. Days later, giant pools and trails of blood littered pavements and roads, each telling their own tale of life or death in Beirut’s apocalypse. When the glass stopped falling, the screaming started. A yellow pall of dust, smoke and chemicals shrouded the eastern suburbs. Continue reading...
A week after going into exile, the scandal-hit former monarch is said to be staying in a $12,000-a-night suite in the Emirates palace hotelAt first it was Portugal, then the Dominican Republic, but now Abu Dhabi is firming as the most likely place of residence for Spain’s scandal-hit former king Juan Carlos.On Saturday, Spain’s NIUS media group published an image that showed a man with at least the likeness of Juan Carlos in a face mask, descending from a plane. Continue reading...
Daniel Andrews reports 394 new cases of Covid-19 and a record number of deaths, most of which are linked to aged careAustralia has recorded its deadliest day of the coronavirus pandemic so far, after 17 people died in Victoria in the 24 hours between Saturday and Sunday.Ten of the 17 deaths were linked to aged care homes, and the state also recorded 394 new cases of Covid-19, premier Daniel Andrews announced. Continue reading...
The mercury is set to hit 35C in Kent and Sussex on Sunday before thunderstorms arrive early in the weekMany Britons are set to bask in another hot day, with temperatures well above 30C.The mercury looks set to reach as high as 35C on Sunday – with Kent, Sussex and parts of London being the most likely to see the warmest temperatures, according to Met Office forecaster Craig Snell. Continue reading...
Australia’s finance minister indicates openness to more economic support and explicitly backs state border closures for first timeAustralia’s finance minister has kept the door open to making further changes to economic support measures such as the jobkeeper wage subsidy, saying the government would act “if facts change”.Mathias Cormann foreshadowed the Coalition’s openness to further changes in an interview on Sunday, during which the senior minister from Western Australia also declared that the federal government now supported the border restrictions imposed by numerous states, including WA. Continue reading...
Canada reportedly increases security around Saad Aljabri, who is suing Prince Mohammed bin Salman over alleged 2018 assassination attemptA former senior Saudi intelligence official who has accused Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of trying to have him assassinated in 2018 has been placed under heightened security after a new threat on his life, a Canadian newspaper has reported.The Globe and Mail said Canadian security services had been informed of a new attempted attack on Saad Aljabri, who lives at an undisclosed location in the Toronto region. Continue reading...
Two ex-Green Berets hired to oust president were sentenced in a secretive hearing that their lawyers say breached their right to a defenceA Venezuelan court has sentenced two former US special forces soldiers to 20 years in prison for their part in a blunder-filled beach attack aimed at overthrowing president Nicolás Maduro.Lawyers for the former Green Berets, Luke Denman and Airan Berry, said they were barred from the secretive jailhouse proceedings Friday night in what they consider a violation of their constitutional rights to a defence. Continue reading...
Family of Isaac Oehlers say they are ‘heartbroken by the sudden and tragic loss of our beautiful boy’A two-year-old has been named as the Australian victim killed of the Beirut explosion which tore through the Lebanese capital.The Department of Home Affairs is helping the family of Isaac Oehlers, who is believed to be from Western Australia. Continue reading...
Prime minister says it is a ‘national priority’ and ‘moral duty’ to get all pupils back into classroomsBoris Johnson has spoken of “a moral duty” to get all children back in class amid indications he would force pubs, restaurants and shops to close ahead of schools in the event of severe coronavirus flare-ups.The prime minister is understood to favour only closing schools as the last resort after scientific advisers warned more restrictions may be needed to reopen classrooms in England next month. Continue reading...
Lebanese riot police fired teargas at demonstrators in Beirut on Saturday and shots were heard in growing protests over this week's devastating explosion. Scores of protesters have taken to the streets calling for the government to be punished for their negligence that protesters say led to Tuesday's gigantic explosion that killed 158 people and injured more than 6,000.
On a writing grant to the eternal city an Italian-born Australian encounters its two faces – the tourist’s fantasy and the residents’s realityMy desire to live in Rome germinated on a European holiday almost 20 years ago. I exited Trastevere train station, bleary eyed after the long-haul flight, and was instantly revived by the sight of women in tight skirts and stilettos zooming past on their Vespas. Men at the local bar made fun of my Italian pronunciation. Come si dice ‘tre’? they would tease each time I turned up to buy tram tickets or the paper. How do you say three? Tre, trre, trrrrrre, I’d sputter, trying desperately to roll my Rs.Last year my fading dream of living in Rome for more than a tourist heartbeat came true. Scrolling listlessly through emails after a night out, I found one from the Australia Council for the Arts with the subject heading: Grant Notification. It could only be a fail. Wouldn’t there be trumpet blasts and marching bands, a phone call at least, if I had passed? Continue reading...
by Charlotte Graham-McLay in Wellington on (#56PP0)
Nation is facing shortage of shearers for its 68 million sheep as hundreds are barred from taking their usual trip across the Tasman SeaIt’s a tradition that stretches back decades. Every year, hundreds of New Zealanders fly in to Australia for the spring shearing season – a huge mobilisation of workers essential to the success of the nation’s wool industry.In dusty sheds on outback farms they join up with local shearers and, between them, relieve five million sheep of their fleeces over eight weeks. Continue reading...
Landowners turn to camping and cottage rentals to boost income after lockdown lossesJonathan Simper is busy preparing his family’s idyllic farm on the sandy shores of the River Deben in Suffolk for the influx of weekend campers.“We are in a beautiful place, down by the estuary,” he says. “We are fully booked this weekend.” Continue reading...
Employer aims to remove stigma in a nation where menstruation is still taboo to someIndian food delivery company Zomato has said it will give female employees up to 10 days of “period leave” a year, as part of an effort to combat what it said was stigma around the issue.Zomato is the most high-profile organisation to institute the policy in India, a country where menstruation is still taboo to some. Continue reading...
Anger rises in the capital as crowd demands resignation of the Lebanese government following Tuesday’s explosionTens of thousands of demonstrators demanded the resignation of Lebanon’s embattled government yesterday, clashing with police and soldiers and railing at a political class they universally blamed for the catastrophic explosion that destroyed parts of Beirut last Tuesday.The rally in the capital’s Martyrs’ Square was preceded by the resignation of three MPs from the nearby Lebanese parliament. The seething crowd called for others to follow, and Hassan Diab, the Lebanon prime minister, called for early elections, potentially after two months. Continue reading...
Suspect Alex Sartain, who died in motorbike crash as he fled, reportedly thought victim was spying on himA children’s author who was shot in the head at his home in Hampshire has died.James Nash was critically injured in the attack at his cottage this week. The man thought responsible fled on a motorcycle and crashed and died as police gave chase. Continue reading...
Action supported by Black Lives Matter calls for end to ‘institutionally racist policing’Chants of “no justice no peace” echoed around Tottenham police station on Saturday afternoon as hundreds of peaceful demonstrators gathered outside the building calling for an end to what they say is institutionally racist policing in this part of north London.The event marks the ninth anniversary of the fatal shooting by police in Tottenham of Mark Duggan. His death was followed by the biggest riots in recent times. The event is supported by Black Lives Matter, Tottenham Rights and Stopwatch. Continue reading...
by Bethan McKernan and Martin Chulov in Beirut and Em on (#56PBQ)
Thousands turn out to call for accountability for one of world’s biggest non-nuclear blastsPolice in Beirut fired teargas and rubber bullets at thousands of people who had turned out to demand accountability for one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions the world has seen. They also shot live ammunition in the air, in an attempt to disperse the furious crowds.Driven by anger at the corruption and incompetence that appears to have fostered Tuesday’s tragedy, people gathered from early afternoon in the city’s central Martyrs Square, where activists have erected a mock gallows for Lebanon’s top politicians. Continue reading...
Several former financial backers report rejoining, with some ‘ready to give again’ in wake of Jeremy Corbyn’s departureFormer Labour donors who had abandoned the party are already considering renewing their support under Keir Starmer’s leadership, it has emerged.Figures who have given the party large sums in the past said they had rejoined Labour, with one major donor saying they were already prepared to give again. Another former supporter said there was “a long road” ahead after allegations of antisemitism in the party, but that they had been impressed with Starmer’s start. Continue reading...
Home Office asked for patrols after saying migrants should face ‘real consequences’Alarm is growing over UK proposals to introduce hardline measures to discourage refugees and illegal migrants from seeking sanctuary after the Ministry of Defence confirmed it was considering a Home Office request to deploy navy vessels in the Dover Straits.It comes after the immigration minister, Chris Philp, called for migrants caught crossing the Channel to be fingerprinted and face “real consequences”, before a meeting next week with his French counterparts. Continue reading...
Greenpeace investigators say the firm, which also donated to the Conservatives, will be sole beneficiary of rule changes on importing raw cane sugarA company that backed Brexit and has donated to the Conservatives is in line to save £73m as the only direct beneficiary of a post-Brexit trade reform.Under plans that will come into force at the end of the year, the government has confirmed that companies will be able to import 260,000 tonnes of raw sugar cane from anywhere in the world, tariff-free. Continue reading...
by Tom Phillips Latin America correspondent on (#56PFG)
Luiz Henrique Mandetta says the Brazilian president’s ‘misguided’ handling of the crisis has failed to comfort familiesJair Bolsonaro’s former health minister has accused the Brazilian president of failing to offer “a single word of comfort” to the families of the 100,000 Brazilians who have lost their lives to Covid-19.In an interview marking Brazil’s latest Covid-19 milepost, Luiz Henrique Mandetta – who was sacked in April after challenging the president’s internationally condemned coronavirus response – expressed consternation that Brazil’s leaders had failed to recognise so much pain. Continue reading...
Residents describe wildfire that began on Chobham Common and spread to golf courseSurrey fire and rescue service has declared a major incident as crews continue to battle a 40-hectare wildfire after up to 100 homes were reportedly evacuated as a precaution.The blaze started in Chobham Common on Friday amid soaring temperatures in the south-east and spread to Wentworth golf course, halting play in the Rose Ladies Series Grand Final tournament as competitors became within eyeshot of the fire. Continue reading...
The Nigerian pop star on Black Lives Matter, how British fans find it easier to tune into his wavelength – and why everyone’s got it wrong about Muammar Gaddafi
In a world where big cinema releases are all but extinct, we go back in time to find the greatest movie summer of them allPlanet-killing asteroids! Alien invasions! Sneaky dinosaurs! These were the existential threats that 45 years of summer blockbusters had pre-programmed us to expect. Instead, something rather more insidious wiped 2020’s May-to-August movie slate clean, depriving audiences of their usual buffet of unmissable communal spectacles and/or over-marketed idiotainment. Starved of popcorn entertainment, it seems natural to look back hungrily. So what were the most explosive movie summers of the past? Continue reading...
The disaster has roots in a global network of maritime capital and legal chicanery designed to protect businesses at any costAt about 6pm on Tuesday, a seemingly small warehouse fire near Beirut port’s grain silos began to fizz with red sparks. The sparks led to an enormous explosion, a mushroom cloud of water and debris, and a column of orange-red and black smoke rising out of the warehouse.The shockwave pulverised nearby warehouses and apartment blocks, lifted doors off their hinges and shattered windows several miles away. At the time of writing, 154 people have been reported killed over 5,000 injured and 300,000 have been left homeless. Dozens of people are still missing. Continue reading...
More 18- 24-year-olds are anxious about careers as coronavirus hits jobs and mental healthRaymond Christie is having sleepless nights. The 18-year-old is worrying about how difficult it will be to find work opportunities as he anticipates an upcoming recession. Christie left school at 16 with no qualifications and went into training on a construction scheme that went into administration during the pandemic. Since then, he has had to rely on his family for financial support.“My mental health has never been as bad as it has been over the last few months since my mid-teens,” he says. “Losing my place in something that I really enjoyed doing and the overwhelming feeling of uncertainty has made me struggle with deep moods of depression and boredom. Most days, I don’t want to do anything or get up from my bed and I find it hard to motivate myself with nothing to do.” Continue reading...
World news | The Guardian