Lawyers call for meeting with defence secretary and accuse government of waiting for US permission to pay money owed to IranThe British government has deliberately delayed taking steps necessary to secure the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – including payment of a £400m debt owed to Iran – for fear of offending the Trump administration, lawyers acting for the British-Iranian woman have alleged.The lawyers requested a meeting with the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, and his advisers at the “earliest convenience” to discuss the approach the government was taking on the issue of debt owed to Iran. Continue reading...
Tuesday: Hong Kong man diagnosed with coronavirus four months after recovering from first bout. Plus: how to grow potatoes in small spacesGood morning, this is Emilie Gramenz bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Tuesday 25 August. Continue reading...
Suffering of many could have been avoided if government had acted on previous reviews, commissioners sayThe aged care royal commission has criticised the Morrison government for failing to establish independent monitoring and reporting of aged care quality outcomes, as the government’s performance during the pandemic dominated the first day of federal parliament since June.In a statement, the commission said new research showed Australia “could immediately establish independent, transparent, routine monitoring and public reporting of many aspects of aged care quality outcomes similar to leading countries”. Continue reading...
Justice Anna Katzmann says alleged defamatory meanings were likely to lead to an ordinary reasonable person thinking less of the nine-year-oldA judge has said nine-year-old Indigenous boy Quaden Bayles has an arguable case that he was defamed by columnist Miranda Devine.Justice Anna Katzmann has approved moves to serve court documents on the controversial New York-based columnist. Continue reading...
by Josh Taylor (now) and Amy Remeikis (earlier) on (#578AE)
Brisbane watches hotspots after youth detention centre outbreak, Victoria’s hotel inquiry continues and politicians gather in Canberra for the first time in 10 weeks. Follow today’s latest updates
Photographer Melissa Ianniello’s long-term project investigates the double taboos of homosexuality and old age in Italy. The subjects of her intimate portraits are a group of gay men and lesbians between 60 and 90 years old, captured as couples or alone in their own homes Continue reading...
Exclusive: MoD data shows 660 army personnel were dismissed in 2019 after failing a drug testHundreds of British army personnel are being dismissed every year after testing positive for drugs in compulsory tests, with the number of sackings rising steadily, the Guardian can reveal.Ministry of Defence data released under Freedom of Information laws shows that about 660 soldiers and reservists – nearly the equivalent of a battalion – were discharged last year after testing positive for illicit substances, mostly cocaine, in the mandatory tests (CDTs). Continue reading...
Covid and a campaign to encourage cashless payments prompts credit card companies to consider adding 17th digitJapan is running out of credit card numbers amid a surge in online shopping during the coronavirus pandemic.The country’s credit card companies are struggling to come up with original 16-digit numbers as consumers eschew regular shop visits and opt for plastic over hard cash, the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper reported. Continue reading...
Internal review finds mining giant failed to meet Indigenous cultural heritage standards but critics say penalties are ‘pocket change’Rio Tinto chief executive Jean-Sébastien Jacques has lost almost $5m in bonuses and the head of Rio Tinto’s Australian iron ore group will lose more than $1m over the destruction of a 46,000-year-old Aboriginal heritage site at Juukan Gorge, after an internal review found “systemic failures in the cultural heritage management system”.The mining company destroyed two rock shelters in Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara region of Western Australia on 24 May, despite having received five separate reports on the significance of the sites, both archeologically and to the local Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) people, since 2013. Continue reading...
by Andrew Roth in Moscow, and agencies on (#578J6)
Russian opposition leader’s wife visits him in Berlin hospital as founder of NGO that evacuated him to Germany says he is expected to surviveKremlin critic Alexei Navalny will survive what his allies believe was a poisoning but could be out of action for months, the founder of the activist group that sent the air ambulance to fly him to Germany has said.“Navalny will survive the poison attack, but be incapacitated for months as a politician,” Jaka Bizilj, the founder of the NGO Cinema for Peace Foundation, told German tabloid Bild on Sunday. Continue reading...
Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir and Adelaide’s STCSA are among the main stages pushing ahead. No one expects a profit – and many will take a lossSydney Theatre Company has announced it is ready to open the doors of the Roslyn Packer theatre and present its first show since March.Wonnangatta, a new drama written by the award-winning Melbourne playwright Angus Cerini and featuring the actors Hugo Weaving and Wayne Blair, will play from 21 September to 31 October in a socially distanced production for audiences numbering no more than 147 (the Roslyn Packer can usually seat 880 patrons). Continue reading...
Chief minister Michael Gunner ‘very confident’ Labor will form government as battle comes down to handful of key seatsVote counting is set to resume in the knife-edge Northern Territory election, with incumbent Labor edging closer to a majority.The three-way race, which includes the County Liberal party and newcomers Territory Alliance, is the first major political test of the Covid-19 pandemic. Continue reading...
Landmark became stuck open on Saturday after letting a ship to pass, causing traffic gridlockTower Bridge remains closed to vehicles after it was stuck open on Saturday because of a mechanical fault.The London landmark’s Twitter account confirmed that only pedestrians and cyclists could use it on Sunday morning, adding to the closure of several other of the capital’s Thames crossings. Continue reading...
Brexit and the pandemic have fuelled fresh calls for Scottish independence. For Westminster, the battle may already be lostCovid-19 is a great accelerator. In most of the countries it has struck, whatever inequalities, divisions and tensions were festering before its arrival have now sped into the political foreground. And so it has proved here. Race, class, gender, poverty, wealth, the north-south divide – even though it often feels it as if time has stood still, all of these things are now vividly in front of us, demanding attention. And one key issue has come roaring back: the fate of the United Kingdom itself. Brexit and the pandemic are pushing its countries and regions in strikingly different directions.Clearly, nothing highlights our increasingly unsettled, estranged national condition better than the politics of Scotland. One should always hesitate before claiming that mere polls represent historic shifts, but in the last few months, a number of surveys have found support for Scottish independence running at more than 50%. Leaving aside undecideds, a Panelbase poll last week put the for-and-against numbers at 55 and 45 respectively: an elegant inversion of the 2014 referendum result, and another excuse for stories about political shockwaves supposedly now spreading from Edinburgh to London. Continue reading...
Remains of hundreds of bodies also discovered at site used as burial ground for monksA lost medieval sacristy used by 13th century monks has been uncovered in the grounds of Westminster Abbey along with the bones of hundreds, if not thousands, of buried bodies.“You do have to be careful where you’re walking,” said archaeologist Chris Mayo, pointing to a fragment of skull poking out of the sandy soil. “You can see from the ground there are burials everywhere.” Continue reading...
Artwork at Tel Aviv beach painted over after outrage over assault on teenage girlIsraeli authorities have removed a “peeping toms” mural that had long been a fixture of a Tel Aviv beach in response to public outrage over the suspected gang rape of a 16-year-old girl in the southern resort of Eilat.Painted 18 years ago and often criticised as sexist, the mural on the wall of a women’s changing room was painted over by a municipal worker on Sunday. It had depicted two young men in bathing suits peering inside. Continue reading...
England's chief medical officer has warned that failing to return children to school in September would pose a greater risk to them than catching Covid-19.Whitty and the chief medical officers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland released a rare joint statement advising on children returning to schools
Netanyahu-Gantz coalition could collapse as deadline for new financial plan loomsIsrael risks being thrust into a fourth round of elections and further financial strife as coalition rivals clash over meeting a Monday deadline to pass the country’s budget.The veteran prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, secured his political survival earlier this year by clinching a coalition deal with his rival Benny Gantz. But the unhappy alliance faces imminent collapse if the two cannot agree on money matters. Continue reading...
Leak to newspaper is apparently intended to show Navalny was not poisoned in city of TomskA Russian newspaper has alleged there was extensive government surveillance of the Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny during a trip to Siberia before he collapsed from a suspected poisoning on Thursday.Navalny’s press secretary, Kira Yarmysh, had complained of being followed during the trip, calling the police surveillance “absolutely obvious” during a stopover in the city of Novosibirsk. The next leg in the city of Tomsk was “relatively calm”, she said, until Navalny fell ill during a return flight to Moscow on Thursday. He was transferred to Berlin’s Charite hospital on Saturday for treatment. Continue reading...
President has vowed to ‘solve’ demonstrations and told army to prepare for foreign invasionBelarusians are preparing for a second Sunday of massed rallies against Alexander Lukashenko, after the country’s authoritarian president told his military to be on full combat alert to deal with supposed external threats.Last Sunday saw the biggest demonstration in the country’s recent history, over Lukashenko’s rigged election win and subsequent police violence against protesters. The protest has continued throughout the week, with the riot police largely absent, but Lukashenko has promised to “solve” the issue of protests within a few days, leaving some wary of a new crackdown. Continue reading...
Five apparent murder-suicides in north-west may have been murders, coroner’s officer saysPolice in the north-west of England are reviewing claims that a serial killer may have been behind five apparent murder-suicides of elderly couples over the past 24 years.Stephanie Davies, Cheshire police’s senior coroner’s officer, has produced a 197-page report raising concerns that the deaths of Harold and Bea Ainsworth in April 1996 and Donald and Auriel Ward in November 1999, all in the wealthy town of Wilmslow, were double murders by a third party who is still at large, the Sunday Times reported. Continue reading...
Horrors of all kinds abound in HBO’s brilliant new drama; Afua Hirsch explores African history; and inside the mind of Derren BrownLovecraft Country (Sky Atlantic) | sky.com
Dr Dominic Pimenta resigned from his cardiology post after Boris Johnson’s chief advisor made his controversial car journey. Was it the right decision?
NT will have to wait at least another day to find out if Michael Gunner’s team has polled enough votes to form a majority governmentMichael Gunner’s Labor team is expected to retain government in the Northern Territory, where counting continues in a knife-edge election.The Northern Territory will have to wait at least another day to find out if incumbent Labor has polled enough votes to form a majority government. Continue reading...
Heavily supervised visits to indoctrination centres present reporters with smiling inmates and tales of cultural acceptanceJournalist Sherif Sonbol was taking pictures of ethnic dancers during an official tour of China’s far western Xinjiang province when he noticed a room full of women being trained to use sewing machines. He realised he was in one of Beijing’s network of political indoctrination camps, where – according to the United Nations – China is detaining up to one million members of the mostly Muslim Uighur minority.Sonbol, an Egyptian photographer and editor, was one of at least 80 journalists taken to Xinjiang since 2015 on the “Silk Road Celebrity China Tour”. He left convinced that accounts of mistreatment inside the re-education centres were untrue. “I keep hearing people saying the education centres were where they torture people,” he said. But the enthusiasm of the dancers impressed him, “Look at their faces! You know these are very happy people.” Continue reading...
NSW reports four new cases while two more people test positive in Queensland in cluster linked to Brisbane youth detention centre• Follow the live blog for latest updates
A candid shot of the young senator by Life magazine’s Ed Clark portrayed him as a man to lead a new generation into a new decadeEd Clark, a Life magazine staff photographer, was commissioned to photograph the Kennedy family at home in Georgetown in 1958. JFK was campaigning to be elected to a second term as Massachusetts’s senator and, if successful, there were strong rumours that he would make a run for the presidency in 1960. After several days taking pictures of husband and wife, Clark asked over lunch at the house if he could get a picture of the senator with his baby daughter, Caroline. “Jackie said no,” he recalled, “that she was upstairs asleep. But Jack bounded up the stairs, and I followed.”Clark took a spontaneous roll of film up in the nursery. It included this picture capturing the moment Caroline woke up, wide-eyed with delight to see her father. The nation was starting to share that excitement. Clark’s cover story for Life did much to advance the growing conviction that Kennedy was a leader for a new generation and a new decade. Up until that moment, presidents were far more likely to be grandparents than new dads, and family photographs were largely awkwardly staged compositions. Continue reading...
Far-right Britain First party leading the charge against asylum-seekers with false claims of ‘crime surge’ in EppingJabbing a finger in the direction of the Bell hotel, Paula Clarke was in no doubt as to what needed to happen to it. “They need to build an electrified fence around the place. It’s the only way to protect us,” said the 68-year-old.The hotel, which was originally a 16th-century coaching inn and is sited on the southern approach to the town of Epping in Essex, can never before have generated so much fear and loathing. Some nearby residents want its current occupants deported. Others feel very differently, proud to offer them sanctuary. Continue reading...
Agricultural minister accuses states of focusing on capital cities and ignoring impacts of coronavirus restrictions on rural areasAgricultural minister David Littleproud has made another plea for “common sense” to prevail in regards to border restrictions, to clear a path for agricultural producers to navigate Australia’s closed states.The Queensland minister accused state politicians of making coronavirus restriction decisions around capital cities and not taking into account the impact on regional communities, which have so far escaped the brunt of the pandemic. Continue reading...
Charges under the Terrorism Act come as part of police investigation into the New IRAThree men have been charged under the Terrorism Act in Northern Ireland as part of a police investigation into the New IRA.Barbara Gray, the assistant chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), said detectives from its terrorism investigation unit had charged the men “on suspicion of a wide range of offences under the Terrorism Act as part of Operation Arbacia” – an ongoing investigation into the activities of the New IRA. Continue reading...
Lukashenko regime supporters wave Soviet-era green and red banners but Minsk is shrouded in red and whiteFor the past two weeks, Minsk has been a red and white city. On Saturday afternoon, in the latest in a long series of protests against Alexander Lukashenko’s regime, more than 2,000 women gathered outside a central market, again displaying the familiar colour scheme.Some wore white dresses with red belts, a few brought white dogs with red ribbons tied on them, and many waved the white-red historical Belarusian flag that has become the symbol of protest over the past fortnight. Continue reading...
The massacre drew authorities’ attention to Australian extremists, but Covid has given the toxic movements fresh impetusIn the weeks after the New Zealand Christchurch massacre, the attention of the international media turned to a small town on the New South Wales mid-north coast.Grafton, population 18,000, is the home town of the far right extremist who killed 51 people at two mosques in March last year. Previously best known for its annual jacaranda festival, the town quickly became a beacon for journalists searching for clues about the gunman’s past in the wake of the shooting. Continue reading...
Worker alleges she was unfairly sacked from Covid-19 testing site, but G4S disputes claimsA mixed race woman was disciplined and later sacked from a G4S coronavirus testing centre after suggesting colleagues could adopt the black power salute for a photo in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.The outsourcing giant said Kenya Scarlett had previously been confrontational and demanding; it claimed no one had taken issue with expressing support for BLM. Continue reading...
Fredie Blom said earlier this year he had ‘lived this long because of God’s grace’A 116-year-old South African man believed to be one of the world’s oldest people has died, his family said.Born on 8 May 1904, Fredie Blom told Agence-France Presse this year that he had “lived this long because of God’s grace”. South African media have described Blom as “unofficially” the world’s oldest man. Continue reading...
by Jamie Jackson and Helena Smith in Greece on (#576YX)
Man Utd footballer charged with attacking police officer on Mykonos after late-night brawlHarry Maguire was set to fly back to England on Saturday night, cutting short a holiday on the Greek island of Mykonos that ended with the Manchester United and England defender accused of attacking a police officer after a late-night brawl.Maguire was released on Saturday morning after spending two nights in police cells, but will be tried in a Greek court on Tuesday on two charges of “serial bodily harm” and “serial insult”. After the hearing, Maguire was asked by reporters outside the courthouse if he was still at liberty. “Right now, yes,” the 27-year-old’s lawyer said, according to Sky News. Continue reading...