Protective measures taken and social media erased as both question how they can operateJournalists and lawyers in Hong Kong are scrambling to adapt as Chinese authorities set up the apparatus to enforce a controversial national security law, including appointing a hardline party official to head a new security agency.Zheng Yanxiong, who is best known for tackling protests on the mainland, is to run the office established under the law that empowers mainland security agents to operate in Hong Kong openly and unbound for the first time. Continue reading...
Expert on Hans Christian Andersen says it is ‘hard to see what is racist’ about fairytaleThe statue of the Little Mermaid in the entrance to Copenhagen harbour has been daubed with the words “racist fish”.The 107-year-old statue has often been vandalised by protesters, ranging from pro-democracy activists to anti-whaling campaigners. As recently as January, “Free Hong Kong” was scrawled on the rock on which the 1.65-metre bronze sits. Continue reading...
Barrister says Home Office’s unwillingness to protect 11-year-old makes a mockery of FGM protection ordersHuman rights lawyers have launched a scathing attack on the Home Office for failing to grant asylum to an 11-year-old girl found by judges to be at high risk of female genital mutilation if removed from Britain.The girl, who is thriving at school and only speaks English, was brought to the UK in 2012 by her mother, herself a victim of what is known as type 3 FGM whose two sisters died after being cut in their native Sudan. Continue reading...
A summary of the major developments in the coronavirus outbreak across AustraliaGood evening, here are the latest developments on the coronavirus pandemic in Australia. This is Josh Taylor and it’s Friday 3 July. Continue reading...
Officer Joseph Mensah was found to have acted in self-defence in two of the shootings, with another currently under reviewJay-Z’s social justice initiative Team Roc has called for a Wisconsin police officer to be fired and prosecuted, after he shot and killed three people while on duty.Joseph Mensah, of Milwaukee suburb Wauwatosa, killed Alvin Cole, Antonio Gonzales and Jay Anderson in three separate incidents between 2015 and 2020. He is under review for the most recent killing, of Cole, but the earlier two were deemed self-defence and he did not face charges. Continue reading...
Latest updates: how has Covid-19 progressed where you live? Check the week-on-week changes across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern IrelandThe map shows local authorities where the number of cases has increased week-on-week and where it has fallen. Some of this is due to natural fluctuations, especially in areas where there are very few cases, and so a rise from 1 to 2 is a doubling. Increased testing also means that more cases may be being detected than previously, although the impact of this between one week and the next is likely to be slight. Continue reading...
NGOs warn of rising uncertainty over programmes to tackle poverty and Covid-19 despite assurances from ministersThe government’s plans to merge the Department for International Development (DfID) with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office have been criticised for a chaotic lack of clarity as NGOs are told to cut aid programmes.DfID said it was due to review its aid spending because of a fall in gross national income, but stressed no decisions had been made. However, experts in the aid sector say there are already signs of cuts among programmes tackling poverty and Covid-19. Continue reading...
Khan choreographed more than 2,000 songs during a 40-year careerSaroj Khan, a top Bollywood choreographer, has died in a Mumbai hospital, her family has announced. She was 71.The three-time National Award winner was hospitalised last Saturday after she complained of breathlessness. She tested negative for Covid-19, the Press Trust of India news agency said, and died early on Friday. Continue reading...
Coronavirus thwarts plan by survivors to light candles for dozens of detainees who died in airstrike on detention centre during Tripoli fightingOne year on from the migrant detention centre bombing in Tajoura, eastern Tripoli, dozens of refugees and migrants who died have never been formally identified.At least 53 people were killed and 130 injured on the night of 2 July 2019, according to the UN, after an airstrike by a foreign aircraft supporting eastern warlord Khalifa Haftar’s forces hit a hall where migrants and refugees were locked up. Continue reading...
Many European services have resumed and there are some excellent deals on national rail pass. Our expert gives the lowdown on summer train travelAs I explored Switzerland by train in early March, the coronavirus clouds were gathering on the horizon. Within a few days, borders closed and Europe’s rail network fragmented. Eurostar scaled back to just a handful of journeys a day. Slovenia suspended its entire rail network, while in Croatia, Portugal, Spain, Finland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia not a single train ventured beyond its borders.But the big surprise was how quickly the international network revived. That process started in early May, initially with local cross-frontier services being reinstated (mainly to support border-hopping commuters), closely followed by longer-distance Eurocity and high-speed international services. Continue reading...
Campaigner Simon Cheng, granted asylum in UK, says shadow parliament would send ‘clear signal’ to BeijingHong Kong pro-democracy activists are discussing a plan to create an unofficial parliament-in-exile to preserve democracy and send a message to China that freedom cannot be crushed, campaigner Simon Cheng has said.Hong Kong, a former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997, was convulsed by months of often violent, pro-democracy and anti-China demonstrations last year, resisting Chinese interference in its promised freedoms and posing the biggest political crisis for Beijing since the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Continue reading...
by Libby Brooks Scotland correspondent on (#55AJD)
Grassroots groups have rallied to help traumatised former residents of the Park InnWhen Gabriel Vest ran into Asda on Sunday evening with £300 to spend on underwear and socks, staff at Glasgow’s southside branch were initially bemused. He explained he was buying emergency supplies for around 90 asylum seekers evacuated from the Park Inn hotel last Friday after Badreddin Abedlla Adam, from Sudan, stabbed six people before being shot dead by police. “Then they just wanted to help. I didn’t even have to queue.”Vest, who ordinarily works with Bikes for Refugees, was bulk-buying for Maslow’s, a nearby community shop that supplies second-hand clothing for newly arrived migrants, and that day was hurriedly putting together packages for residents who had had to leave their belongings behind the police cordon. “I got a message from another volunteer who was at the hotel, to say there was one man who was still in his underwear because that was how he’d left his room when the fire alarm had gone off. He was left like that for two days. It was grim.” Continue reading...
Websites the Leaky Cauldron and Mugglenet say they won’t provide links to Rowling’s website or use photos of the authorTwo of the biggest Harry Potter fan sites have distanced themselves from author JK Rowling because of her beliefs on transgender rights, calling them at odds with the message of empowerment in her best-selling books.Websites the Leaky Cauldron and Mugglenet said on Thursday they would no longer provide links to the British author’s personal website, use photos of her, or write about achievements that do not relate to the world she created. Continue reading...
Friday: British socialite and ex-girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein charged with enticing of minors to engage in illegal sex acts. Plus, Kate Grenville on her new bookGood morning, this is Richard Parkin bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Friday 3 July. Continue reading...
The march of Europe Ecology is yet another example of how parties of the environment are steadily acquiring power and influence across the continentLyon, Strasbourg and Bordeaux; Besançon, Poitiers and Tours: the list of powerful cities that turned green, after France’s municipal elections last weekend, was long and impressive. Marseille has been a conservative fiefdom for decades. But a leftwing alliance propelled Michèle Rubirola, the candidate of Europe Ecology – France’s Green party – to the mayoralty. These were totemic victories, turning the once-peripheral Green party into a significant player in urban France.Sunday’s polls should have taken place in March but were postponed as France locked down. Perhaps because of that delay, and the lingering presence of Covid-19, turnout was low. That may have disproportionately helped Green candidates, whose voters tend to loyally turn out for local elections, and Europe Ecology is still well down the pecking order in national polls. But these caveats aside, the “green wave” in France offers heartening evidence that environmental priorities are truly beginning to shape and influence politics in Europe. Continue reading...
City government declares slogan ‘subversive’ and says anyone using it risks prosecutionHong Kong on Thursday banned the most resonant slogan of its protest movement as those who had taken to the streets over the past year appeared to be laying low the day after the introduction of sweeping draconian national security laws prompted demonstrations, violence, and mass arrests.A statement from the city government declared that “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our time” had separatist connotations and was “subversive”, and that anyone using it risked prosecution under the new security legislation. Continue reading...
by Owen Bowcott Legal affairs correspondent on (#55A0A)
Sentencing delayed after Safiyya Amira Shaikh tells friend she wanted to ‘go through with it’Sentencing of an Islamic State supporter who plotted to blow up St Paul’s Cathedral at Easter has been postponed after she was recorded in a prison phone call saying she had wanted to “go through with it” and had only been delayed because she had been “doing drugs”.In an unusual delay, an Old Bailey judge was told on Thursday that after Safiyya Amira Shaikh listened to what was said on her behalf in courtroom mitigation last week, she contradicted her lawyers and denied that she had got “cold feet”. Continue reading...
by Andrew Sparrow (now) and Amelia Hill (earlier) on (#559BF)
Labour leader criticises government lack of leadership on schools; Scotland’s distancing rule to be relaxed for some sectors; lockdown-easing paused in some Scottish towns
China said UK will ‘bear all consequences’, raising possibility of retaliationChina has responded angrily to a UK promise to offer nearly 3 million residents of Hong Kong with British national overseas status (BNO), the right to settle in the UK.China’s foreign ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, said Britain would “bear all consequences”, and China’s ambassador to the UK later said that Beijing “reserve[d] the right to take corresponding measures”. Continue reading...
by Jamie Grierson Home affairs corespondent on (#559TF)
Disproportionate use of stop and search risks alienating black men, says Sir Thomas WinsorEfforts to improve diversity among police officers are at risk of being thwarted by the disproportionate use of stop and search powers against black men, a senior policing watchdog has warned.Police chiefs have previously said that a drive to restore officer numbers by 20,000 over the next three years would help “accelerate” plans to improve diversity in policing. At the end of March last year, 93.1% of police officers were white and 6.9% were from other ethnic groups. Continue reading...
Neither Trudeau nor the governor general, Julie Payette, were present at the residences on the grounds man accessedCanadian police have arrested an armed man who had gained access to the Ottowa estate which includes the official residences of the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, and the country’s governor general.Neither Trudeau nor the governor general, Julie Payette, were present at the time of the incident early on Thursday, police said. Continue reading...
by Daniel Boffey in Brussels and Lisa O'Carroll on (#559PD)
EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier complained of lack of respect and engagement by UKThe latest negotiations in Brussels on an EU-UK trade and security deal have broken up early, with the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, complaining of a lack of respect and engagement by the British government.The two sides ended the week’s talks – the first held in person since February – a day ahead of the jointly-agreed schedule amid evident frustration at the lack of progress in bridging what both Barnier and his UK counterpart, David Frost, described as “serious” disagreements. Continue reading...
Hunspach, in Alsace, a ‘peaceful’ settlement of 652 inhabitants, is unlikely to remain so for longFrench people have chosen Hunspach, once part of Sweden, in Alsace as their favourite village of 2020.The village of 652 inhabitants, on France’s eastern border with Germany, was selected in a TV poll of 700,000 viewers. Continue reading...
Scores of people have died in clashes following Haacaaluu Hundeessaa’s death on MondayEthiopian authorities are braced for further violence after two days of unrest following the assassination of the popular musician Haacaaluu Hundeessaa earlier this week.So far as many as 88 people are thought to have died since protests following Haacaaluu’s murder at his home in Ambo, a city 70 miles, (110km) outside the capital, Addis Ababa, on Monday. Continue reading...
Decision follows recent revelation country has highest rates of tobacco use in the worldThe Jordanian government has banned smoking and vaping in all indoor public spaces a week after a Guardian investigation revealed tobacco use in the country had become the highest in the world.The country’s health ministry said on Wednesday all enclosed public areas would now be “100% smoke-free environments”, building on an existing but widely flouted ban on smoking inside government buildings and ending an exemption for hotels, cafes and restaurants provided they separated smokers from non-smokers. Continue reading...
by Lily Kuo in Beijing, Patrick Wintour and agencies on (#5590D)
Beijing says Britain will ‘bear all consequences’ of helping fleeing HongkongersChina has said it will take countermeasures against the UK should it grant residency to Hongkongers fleeing a harsh new national security law, promising that the UK would “bear all consequences”.On Thursday, senior Chinese officials said the UK had no right to give residency to Hongkongers in response to Beijing forcing a sweeping anti-sedition law on the territory. Continue reading...
Only one region voted against reforms, with results appearing to contradict independent exit pollsThe Kremlin and its supporters have won a controversial vote to amend the constitution and reset Vladimir Putin’s term limits, potentially allowing him to rule as president until 2036. Critics have challenged the result, saying that the voting was rigged to produce a blow-out win.The ad hoc vote, which did not fulfil legal criteria to be classed as a referendum, saw 77.92% of voters endorse constitutional amendments, with 21.26% against the changes, after all the ballots were counted. Turnout was nearly 68%, the election commission said. Continue reading...
by Calla Wahlquist (now) and Amy Remeikis (earlier) on (#558VZ)
Prof Michael Kidd says the milestone was passed in the last 24 hours; stay-at-home orders in place for 10 postcodes in Melbourne’s north. This blog is now closed
Therapy is helping some of the thousands forced over the border to Uganda to cope, but funding shortfalls mean resources are becoming scarcerAs darkness fell, Rebecca closed the door to her makeshift home. The day was over.The 29-year-old, who had been uprooted from South Sudan to a north Ugandan refugee settlement, sat on the bed where her four children slept and, at around 10pm, tried to take her own life. “By then I didn’t care about anything – not myself, not even my kids. The pain was too extreme,” she says. Her children awoke and their cries brought help from neighbours. Continue reading...
Sotheby’s will auction 1931 charcoal drawing that shines light on artist’s affair with Marie-Thérèse WalterA tender and largely unseen portrait by Picasso of his lover and muse Marie-Thérèse Walter, which the artist personally kept until his death, is to appear at auction for the first time.The 1931 charcoal drawing shines light on one of the great love affairs of the 20th century and was made by Picasso when his affair with Walter was still a closely guarded secret. Continue reading...
Crackdown on illegal excavation and smuggling amid fears that scientific and historic heritage is being lostNew Zealand’s conservation minister has released plans to tackle the lucrative trade in the bones of the extinct giant flightless moa bird amid fears that millions of years of science is disappearing as entire skeletons are broken up and sold over the internet or smuggled overseas.Palaeontologists have been lobbying the government for years to crack down on the trade, with fossils illegally excavated and poached from crown land. Continue reading...
Oscar winner to be awarded full $2.9m in damages after judges reject all publisher’s grounds of appealThe Sydney Daily Telegraph will have to pay the actor Geoffrey Rush a record $2.9m in damages after the tabloid lost its appeal against a historic defamation ruling.The newspaper and its publisher, Nationwide News – part of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, had challenged an Australian federal court decision from April 2019 that found claims conveyed in two of its news articles from 2017 that the Oscar winner had behaved inappropriately towards a colleague were not credible. Continue reading...
US president Donald Trump says he hopes the coronavirus will “just disappear”, despite states across the country experiencing record numbers of new Covid-19 cases. Speaking to Fox Business, the president was asked if he believed the virus will simply disappear. "Yeah sure. At some point. And I think we’re going to have a vaccine very soon too," he added. Trump has consistently been criticised for not promoting safety measures such as wearing masks, but told Fox Business he "thinks masks are good" and that when he wore one, he liked the way he looked "like the Lone Ranger".
Border officials say shipment contained 13 tons of weaves and other hair products worth $800,000US federal authorities have seized a shipment of products made from human hair believed to have been taken from Muslims in labor camps in China’s western Xinjiang province.Customs and Border Protection officials said that 13 tons (11.8 metric tonnes) of weaves and other hair products worth an estimated $800,000 were in the shipment. Continue reading...
Referring patients to anti-radicalisation scheme can worsen illness, charity saysMental health appears to be a significant factor behind referrals from the NHS to Prevent, the government’s controversial anti-radicalisation programme, a UK-based medical charity says.In an 18-month study, researchers at Medact found that a significant proportion of NHS referrals to Prevent came from mental health trusts or mental health departments. Continue reading...