by Presented by Rachel Humphreys with Martin Chulov, on (#56F1T)
Scenes of economic despair are visible across Lebanon – from shops to homes, businesses to hospitals. Guardian journalist Martin Chulov discusses why the country is verging on financial collapse
US House speaker Nancy Pelosi says she has lost trust in Dr Deborah Birx, a senior scientist on Donald Trump’s coronavirus taskforce, after the US surpassed 154,000 deaths due to the virus. Pelosi criticised Birx's role in the White House's handling of the pandemic, claiming president Trump had been spreading disinformation about Covid-19, and Birx was his appointee
Capital could lose £178m in 2021 as companies decline to send all workers back to officesMajor cities such as London face more economic pain as some companies resist the government’s efforts to encourage workers back to their desks this week, economists have warned.Pablo Shah, a senior economist at the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), fears that the capital could have lost its aura as a “fun” place to work, particularly in the digital and creative industries. Continue reading...
by Charlotte Graham-McLay in Wellington on (#56ER7)
Veteran politician, who is being aided by Brexiteers Arron Banks and Andy Wigmore, is bullish about New Zealand First’s chances at the election“When you talk about populism, let me ask you this question,” says Winston Peters, the MP who has at times been in a position to handpick who will lead New Zealand. “In your profession or mine: who wants to be unpopular?”The eccentric veteran politician – rich-voiced and finely-tailored – has held seats in New Zealand’s parliament since 1979 with only two breaks from his time in office, advancing his minor party on a platform of curbing immigration, benefits for pensioners, and exhortations to “common sense”. Continue reading...
Politicians say withdrawal of up to 12,000 soldiers will hurt local economy and makes little strategic senseThe US government’s decision to withdraw thousands of troops from bases across southern and western Germany will have a huge impact on affected communities, local politicians have said.Up to 12,000 troops from the air force and army are due to leave the region, the US defense secretary, Mark Esper, said this week in a move attributed to long-term planning by the Pentagon, but which Donald Trump said was a punishment for Berlin’s low defence spending. Continue reading...
by Oliver Holmes Jerusalem correspondent on (#56EP1)
Israeli PM says media makes demonstrations seem more significant than they are – he could have a pointImages of thousands of people in the streets and police scuffling with protesters paint a picture of an increasingly isolated prime minister whose lengthy grip over Israel may finally be loosening.The visuals are striking, and the protests have certainly grown in size, yet whether they can hurt more than Benjamin Netanyahu’s ego is still to be seen. Continue reading...
by Presented by Gabrielle Jackson and reported by Ben on (#56EP2)
Queensland is often a conservative stronghold in federal elections, but in recent years the Liberal National party has struggled to gain and hold power at state level. Now, three months away from an election, tensions in the LNP are on the rise. Ben Smee explains why backroom powerbrokers could be holding the party backYou can read Ben Smee’s reporting on the LNP here: Continue reading...
Exclusive: Legislation already in place should be used so workers are not forced to make ‘terrible choices’, Greens leader Adam Bandt saysThe Australian government has the power to roll out paid pandemic leave via regulation, rather than having to pass new legislation through the parliament, according to advice from the parliamentary library.The Greens, which shared the advice with Guardian Australia, said it showed the government should act immediately to prevent workers from “being forced to make terrible choices” when they felt they could not afford to stay at home while waiting for Covid-19 test results. Continue reading...
Law academic Elaine Pearson says safeguarding the human rights of people in Hong Kong ‘is not something that should be controversial’The University of New South Wales says it deleted social media posts promoting the comments of a prominent academic – calling for international pressure on China to temper human rights infringements in Hong Kong – because the comments were “being misconstrued as representing the university”.The situation has mired the Sydney-based institution in an increasingly uncomfortable national debate about Chinese influence on university campuses. Continue reading...
by Vikram Dodd Police and crime correspondent on (#56EMP)
Robyn Williams was sacked in March despite never having viewed unsolicited videoA decorated former police chief has won two key battles in her fight to overturn her conviction for possessing a child abuse video and get her job back, the Guardian has learned.Former superintendent Robyn Williams was convicted under paedophilia laws in November 2019 after being sent an unsolicited video via WhatsApp of a child being abused, despite never viewing the images. The prosecution accepted she had no sexual interest in children. Continue reading...
Crowds protest against alleged corruption and PM’s handling of coronavirus crisisThousands of demonstrators took to the streets outside Benjamin Netanyahu’s house over the weekend in what appeared to be the largest protest to date calling for the embattled Israeli prime minister to resign.Rallies on Saturday night and into the early hours of Sunday morning were held in Jerusalem, home to the official residence of the 70-year-old leader, as well as his beach house in central Israel, near Tel Aviv, and at dozens of road intersections across the country. Continue reading...
Experts find hundreds of errors in the writer’s works, mostly made by editors and typesettersErnest Hemingway’s published writings are riddled with hundreds of errors and little has been done to correct them, according to a forthcoming study of the legendary writer’s texts.Robert W Trogdon, a leading scholar of 20th-century American literature, told the Guardian that Hemingway’s novels and short stories were crying out for editions that are “as accurate to what he wrote as possible” because the number of mistakes “ranges in the hundreds”. Although many are slight, he said, they were nevertheless mistakes, made primarily by editors and typesetters. Continue reading...
Cache of documents raises questions about early 2011 killings by SAS soldiersThe UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, has been ordered by a court to explain why the government withheld evidence suggesting SAS soldiers executed 33 civilians in Afghanistan in early 2011.The minister has until autumn to explain why key emails and documents revealing official concern about the string of killings were not previously disclosed in a case relating to the deaths of four men from one family in a night raid. Continue reading...
Diaries and manuscripts turn spotlight on little-known acts of endurance and braveryFrom quiet acts of bravery, to overt acts of rebellion, Jewish resistance to the Holocaust took many forms, yet research shows they remain largely unacknowledged in traditional UK teachings about the genocide.A new exhibition, drawing on thousands of previously unseen documents and manuscripts, is placing some of the little-known personal stories of heroism, active armed resistance, and rescue networks in the extermination camps and ghettos at the forefront. Continue reading...
Downing Street accused of flouting rules while FDA claims ministers will be forced to accept special advisers picked by PMDowning Street is being accused by Labour of flouting Whitehall rules to hire a new White House-style spokesperson to host daily government press conferences on live TV.A new special adviser is being recruited to reply to questions from journalists including rebuffing criticisms from opposition politicians. Continue reading...
Metal detectorist had posted images online of artefacts including Phoenician earringPolice in Spain have recovered a haul of ancient artefacts, including Phoenician gold jewellery, that could date to 1,200BC, after the metal detectorist who found them posted pictures of the treasures online.The investigation began when specialist officers from the national police force noticed that images of archaeological and cultural items were being shared on different websites. Continue reading...
Declaring a ‘state of disaster’ in Victoria gives police more authority, and hope that Covid cases can be contained within six weeksEven the vast majority of Victorians who accepted stage 3 restrictions as necessary, if depressing, would have been confronted by what premier Daniel Andrews announced on Sunday. They were the tightest coronavirus restrictions ever imposed in Australia and among the toughest in the world.Melburnians had just got used to compulsory mask wearing and now are to be confined to their homes from 8pm to 5am except for medical reasons or for essential work, at the risk of a $1,652 fine if they break curfew. Had this ever happened outside war time? There was no such curfew in New Zealand even in their “go early and go hard” response earlier this year. Continue reading...
What are the restrictions within Victoria and the border closures with NSW and Queensland? How far can I travel, and how many people can I have over at my house? Untangle Australia’s Covid-19 laws and guidelines with our guide
The writer and ‘romcomoisseur’ on her debut short story collection, romcom chemistry, and her clinch with Michael B JordanBorn and based in London, Bolu Babalola, 29, is a self-proclaimed “romcomoisseur” and writer. She worked as an assistant producer at BBC Comedy and was shortlisted by the 4th Estate B4ME prize for her debut story, Netflix and Chill. Her first short story collection, Love in Colour, retellings of mythical tales from around the world, is out this month and comes heaped with praise from authors including Meg Cabot and Candice Carty-Williams.Romcoms are a big part of your life and the inspiration for your book. Why?
Grigory Rodchenkov was head of Russia’s ‘anti-doping’ centre but, in 2015, he fled to the US. He talks to the Observer’s former Moscow correspondent about the lies, the truth and life on the runThe man in front of me is wearing a disguise. We are talking on Skype. I’m at my home near London and Dr Grigory Rodchenkov is at an undisclosed location somewhere in America, guarded 24/7 by armed FBI agents. How is he? “My life is good. My mood is very good,” he says. He’s grinning, I think. Since he’s wearing a black scarf over his face and dark glasses, it’s hard to tell.The cloak-and-dagger atmospherics surrounding our interview might seem a little overblown. Until, that is, you remember, Vladimir Putin’s roving assassins are trying to establish Rodchenkov’s secret location so they can snuff him out, a traitor to the state. Russia’s president has a long list of enemies. But Rodchenkov – the most significant sports whistleblower of the 21st century – is probably at the top. Continue reading...
Premier Daniel Andrews has announced tougher rules, including a limit of travelling 5km for shopping and exercise, in an attempt to contain rising community transmission
David Goldblatt’s photo essay from 1972 is a key document of an era. Now he is the subject of a major show in LondonThe photographer David Goldblatt, the great chronicler of the apartheid era in South Africa, is to be celebrated by one of the first London art galleries to re‑open this month.Goldblatt, who died in 2018, has not been the subject of a major London show for more than 30 years. The new exhibition, David Goldblatt: Johannesburg 1948-2018, at the Goodman Gallery in Mayfair, will focus on a particularly moving photo essay, Soweto, from 1972. The photographs in the series were taken over six months in a febrile atmosphere that would lead to an uprising in this impoverished area of Johannesburg four years later. Continue reading...
Dissidents urge united stand against Chinese and look to eastern bloc tactics for inspirationProminent Hong Kong democracy activists have responded to China’s crackdown on opposition politicians, student campaigners and tenured academics by considering tactics that would have seemed exaggerated in the open city a few months ago.The student leader Nathan Law, who was placed on a police “wanted” list just weeks after flying into exile in the UK, said he would cut off all contact with relatives living in his home city, in an apparent bid to protect them from suspicion or pressure. Continue reading...
A small fishing hamlet in Portugal has become a magnet for the world’s most fearless big-wave surfers. Tim Lewis reveals how Nazaré became the ocean’s EverestEveryone you meet in Nazaré tells you the waves here are different: heavier, more powerful, less predictable, somehow menacing. So, on my last afternoon in the Portuguese town in February, I went out on the back of a jet ski piloted by Andrew Cotton, a big-wave surfer from Devon, to see for myself. Cotton is easygoing, with cropped, gold-tipped hair and pale eyes, but he turns serious as we leave the harbour. He explains that jet skis are set up differently in Nazaré: the kill switch, which cuts the engine if the rider is thrown off, is not attached to the driver’s wrist as usual because… I miss the exact reason as Cotton guns the engine and sea spray covers us and I’m distracted, wondering if they really had to call it a “kill” switch. I’m already freaked out enough that I’ve promised to check in with my family as soon as I’m back on dry land.Nazaré, specifically Praia do Norte or North Beach, is home to the biggest surfable waves on the planet. Ten years ago, it was unknown even in big-wave circles, but that changed when Garrett McNamara, a 52-year-old Hawaiian who is one of the pioneers of the sport, was given a tip-off by local bodyboarders. He came to Portugal for the first time in 2010; the following year, he rode a monstrous wave measured at 23.77m (78ft) and entered the Guinness World Records. In 2017, also in Nazaré, Brazilian Rodrigo Koxa nudged up the mark to 24.38m (80ft). If one day someone conquers a 100ft wave – a holy grail of surfing – almost certainly it will take place in Nazaré. Continue reading...
Gloucestershire police say they have broken up an event in the forest and warned others to stay awayPolice have warned people to stay away from the Forest of Dean, where they have been forced to break up a rave attended by a “large volume” of partygoers.Gloucestershire police said in a tweet early on Sunday morning: “Police are currently in the Forest of Dean near to Speculation car park dispersing a rave. People are advised not to attend the area due to safety and Covid risks.” Continue reading...
Anger is growing on the left after Labour peerages were blocked, as Lord Fowler, a Tory, criticised the chamber’s expansionJeremy Corbyn has raised renewed concerns over the decision to reject his nominees for seats in the House of Lords, amid anger on the left over a raft of peerages announced last week.It is understood the former Labour leader has again complained to the cabinet office about the rejection of a peerage for Karie Murphy, a former Labour official and a close ally. Continue reading...
Documentary reveals evidence confirming a British spy’s role in restoring the Shah in 1953 – and how the Observer exposed the plotThe hidden role of a British secret service officer who led the coup that permanently altered the Middle East is to be revealed for the first time since an Observer news story was suppressed in 1985.The report, headlined “How MI6 and CIA joined forces to plot Iran coup”, appeared in the 26 May edition but was swiftly quashed. It exposed the fact that an MI6 man, Norman Darbyshire, had run a covert and violent operation to reinstate the Shah of Iran as ruler of the country in 1953. Yet just a few days after the newspaper came out, all fresh evidence of this British operation and of Darbyshire’s identity disappeared from public debate. Continue reading...
Hassan Akkad fled Damascus after he was tortured by Assad’s regime. But nothing prepared him for his job as a cleaner on a Covid-19 ward in London…There have been times in the past 10 years, Hassan Akkad says, that his life has felt more like a movie. Thinking that occasionally kept him sane – and, more important, kept him going.Akkad’s walk-on part in world events began in 2011, when as a young English teacher he put himself in the frontline of Arab spring democracy protests in his native Syria. He was beaten and imprisoned by the regime – and at one point given a face-to-face audience with Bashar al-Assad, his torturer, to plead his case. Having fled Damascus in fear of his life during the civil war, Akkad became for three years one of those 12 million “displaced persons” searching for a home on the six o’clock news. Unflinching cameraphone clips of his long journey to Britain – clinging to a sinking people-smuggler dinghy off the coast of Turkey, en route to the “Jungle” in Calais – made the most vivid and affecting footage of the BBC’s Bafta-winning Exodus: Our Journey to Europe series. Continue reading...
What happened after the fall of the Berlin Wall involved money, and lots of itBefore the government was forced into locking down British regions, it wanted to level them up, closing productivity gaps between north and south. That’s a valuable objective, reinforced by new research on UK regional inequality from academics appropriately spread across Sheffield, Birmingham and London. The paper reminds us that the UK has some of the biggest productivity gaps between regions in the developed world, with global leaders in parts of London and the south-east very different to some cities in the north and Midlands.There’s nothing new in politicians or academics pointing to the north-south divide, but more interestingly the work notes that the UK has not always led the way in this inequality between places. Most countries had higher regional gaps than the UK for most of the 20thcentury. Indeed, the UK’s productivity gaps fell postwar and their surge is only a post-90s phenomenon. Continue reading...
by Bethan McKernan Middle East correspondent on (#56E7Y)
A showdown looms in the fight for control of the country – with Africa’s largest oilfields as the prizeIn August 2011, as Libya’s rebels and Nato jets began an assault on Tripoli, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi delivered a speech calling on his supporters to defend the country from foreign invaders.“There is a conspiracy to control Libyan oil and to control Libyan land, to colonise Libya once again. This is impossible, impossible. We will fight until the last man and last woman to defend Libya from east to west, north to south,” he said in a message broadcast by a pro-regime television station. Two months later, the dictator was dragged bleeding and confused from a storm drain in his hometown of Sirte, before being killed. Continue reading...
Scott Morrison tells Mark McGowan commonwealth will no longer join high court challenge due to rising Covid-19 cases in other statesScott Morrison has ended the federal government’s involvement in Clive Palmer’s high court case challenging Western Australia’s border closure, amid rising fears over the Covid-19 outbreak in Victoria.With Victoria poised to announce tougher lockdown measures aimed at reducing community transmission of the virus, the prime minister has written to the WA premier to reveal he is shifting his position – in part because the pandemic “has worsened since these matters were first brought to the high court”. Continue reading...
NSW premier says masks ‘strongly recommended’ in certain circumstances as state announces 12 new casesNew South Wales authorities have urged people in the state to wear face masks in certain circumstances after two workers at a western Sydney childcare centre contracted coronavirus from an unknown source.Twelve new cases were reported in NSW in the 24 hours to Saturday night with only one case having no known source of infection. Continue reading...
A wreck boasting a trove of fifth-century BC amphorae has been opened to divers off the island of AlonissosGreece has inaugurated its first underwater museum, a trove of fifth-century BC amphorae labelled the “Parthenon of shipwrecks”, off the coast of Alonissos island in the western Aegean.The site of the wreck will be open to tours by certified amateur divers from 3 August to 2 October, while those who can’t dive can follow a virtual reality tour at an information centre in the main town of Alonissos. Continue reading...
Allegation about incidents from July 2019 to January 2020 reportedly relate to ex-ministerA former Conservative minister has been arrested after a woman accused him of rape, sexual assault and coercive control, it was reported last night.The Metropolitan police confirmed they had launched an investigation into four alleged incidents between July 2019 and January 2020 at different locations in London. They said “a man in his 50s” was taken into custody early yesterday and was still in a police station in east London last night. Continue reading...
Afraid of nuclear war, natural disasters, economic meltdown? The Survival Condo could be the answer“Mechanical level”, “medical level”, “store level” the voice announces as the lift descends into the earth. I’d entered at parking lot level, the building’s apex. I am travelling through an inverted skyscraper, the floor numbers ascending – third, fourth – as we plumb the building’s depths. A hulking man in his late 50s called Larry Hall stands next to me, whistling, black shirt tucked into blue jeans.When the doors open, I can’t suppress a laugh. In front of us, four storeys below central Kansas, is a supermarket complete with shopping baskets, cold cabinets and an espresso machine behind the counter. Hall smiles. Continue reading...
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