Film shows officer telling man in Accrington he is prepared to fabricate evidenceLancashire police have apologised after an officer was filmed threatening to “make something up†in order to lock up a young man.After the incident in Accrington, the man reportedly complained that the officer had not respected physical distancing guidelines when he approached him and loudly demanded he surrender his car keys on Friday afternoon. Continue reading...
Nobel prize-winning songwriter follows 17-minute Murder Most Foul with I Contain Multitudes, referencing everything from Edgar Allan Poe to William Blake and the Rolling StonesBob Dylan has continued to release his first original music in eight years, with a song in which he seemingly compares himself to Anne Frank, Indiana Jones, the Rolling Stones and William Blake.At four and a half minutes, I Contain Multitudes is less lengthy than the song he returned with, Murder Most Foul, a 17-minute long track about the JFK assassination. Like that song, though, I Contain Multitudes is drifting and percussion-free, backed by acoustic, electric and pedal steel guitars. Continue reading...
Photographer Sam Edmonds was the team leader on the cruise ship that found itself stranded in South America in late March after travelling to the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia. He documented the journey from idyllic island to isolation in a Sydney hotel room
At 8pm on Thursday, people across the UK stood at their front doors and open windows, in gardens and on balconies, to raise a thunder of gratitude for those working on the frontline against coronavirus for the fourth consecutive week.Some people played instruments and sang to show their appreciation
Friday: Australia to begin easing coronavirus restrictions within weeks. Plus, former PM says Barnaby Joyce initially denied relationship with stafferGood morning, this is Richard Parkin bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Friday 17 April. Continue reading...
Ursula von der Leyen has offered 'a heartfelt apology' to Italy on behalf of the EU for the delays and lack of responses from other member states at the start of the coronavirus outbreak in the union.As the World Health Organization warned that the continent remained firmly 'in the eye of the storm', the president of the European commission said that 'too many were not there on time when Italy needed a helping hand at the very beginning'
Dramatic career took in escapes from Pinochet’s regime in the 70s, sailing with Greenpeace and writing books including The Old Man Who Read Love Stories
Benny Gantz loses chance to lead coalition after talks with Benjamin Netanyahu stallIsrael’s opposition leader, Benny Gantz, has failed to form a coalition government after talks with Benjamin Netanyahu stalled, pushing the country further towards an unprecedented fourth round of elections.Gantz had until midnight on Wednesday to build a majority government and now loses the mandate given to him by the president, Reuven Rivlin. Continue reading...
Deputy PM says a domestic aviation network servicing capital cities and major regional centres is ‘critical to Australia’s success’The Australian government will pay Qantas and Virgin Australia up to $165m to maintain key domestic flight routes over the next two months.The move means Virgin Australia, which is under intense financial pressure and had grounded its fleet, will resume flying on Friday and continue the routes for at least the next eight weeks. Continue reading...
Australia’s corporate regulator had raised concerns about Mayfair 101’s solvencyA court has banned the high-profile group behind the redevelopment of the stricken Dunk Island resort, Mayfair 101, from advertising two of its investment products after the corporate regulator raised concerns about the group’s solvency.On Thursday afternoon, federal court judge Stewart Anderson also ordered Mayfair 101 not to compare its products to bank term deposits and put a notice on its website alerting potential investors to the risk of placing money with it. Continue reading...
Violent unrest at Ethiopia’s universities has been quelled by police, but the root causes will prove harder to tackleOn a December morning last year, students at Ambo University in Ethiopia’s Oromia region awoke to find threatening notices pinned to the walls of their dormitories. The message was simple: boycott classes. Anyone failing to do so would face punishment.Written by Oromo student activists calling themselves the Qeerroo, the notices demanded solidarity with fellow Oromos at universities in the neighbouring region of Amhara, after a spate of deadly ethnic clashes there. Similar boycotts had been called in universities across Oromia, the country’s largest region. Continue reading...
Tripoli follows Italian government in declaring its seaports ‘unsafe’Libya’s UN-recognised government in Tripoli has refused to authorise the landing of migrants stopped at sea and sent back to Libyan territory by its coastguard vessels.The Libyan coastguard stopped about 280 migrants on Thursday, but when it attempted to return them to Libya, the country’s authorities refused to let them disembark, according to the UN migration agency IOM, due to fighting around the capital. Continue reading...
As Port Douglas, Cairns and Airlie Beach turn into ghost towns, businesses are wondering how to survive the dual spectres of a pandemic and global heatingAbout this time of year, the weather in tropical north Queensland takes a turn towards glorious. Last Saturday in Cairns would have made a postcard, had any tourists been in town to experience the onset of the dry season.Hotel occupancy rates in Cairns have fallen to single digits and most tourism businesses have closed their doors – some forever – as the region’s lifeblood industry is brought to a standstill by coronavirus travel bans and other restrictions. The local tourism lobby estimates losses of about $2.5bn and 11,000 jobs this year. Continue reading...
News Corp says acquitted cardinal faces new claims over alleged incident in the 1970s when he was a priest in BallaratCardinal George Pell is being investigated by police over a new allegation of child sexual abuse, according to News Corp reports.Pell was released from jail last Tuesday after the high court acquitted him on five historical child sexual abuse charges. Pell, 78, spent more than 400 days in jail after being convicted by a jury in December 2018. The high court acquitted Pell after finding the jury should have held a reasonable doubt as to his guilt. Continue reading...
Sixty-four-year-old lands in field after grabbing ejection handle to steady himself, French air investigators findA surprise outing in a fighter jet unnerved one defence company executive so much he accidentally ejected himself while flying at over 500km/h (320mph), an investigation into the debacle in France has found.The 64-year-old civilian got the most unwelcome ride of his life after the force of the take-off made him “float†off his seat, causing him to stand up and involuntarily grab the ejection handle to steady himself. Continue reading...
The Australian government has passed legislation for a $1,500 per fortnight wage subsidy for eligible employers amid the coronavirus. Check your eligibility, how much you’ll get and how it works with the jobseeker payment
Jessica Salfia’s widely shared poem First Lines of Emails I’ve Received While Quarantining has the refrain ‘As you know, many people are struggling’Everyone has received at least one and now they’ve been elevated to poetry: a US teacher has highlighted corporate opportunism during the coronavirus outbreak, in a viral poem titled First Lines of Emails I’ve Received While Quarantining.Jessica Salfia, an English teacher and writer in West Virginia, posted the poem on Twitter on Saturday. “In these uncertain times / as we navigate the new normal, / Are you willing to share your ideas and solutions? / As you know, many people are struggling,†the poem begins. Continue reading...
This is the most remarkable account so far of Putin’s rise from a KGB operative to deadly agent provocateur in the hated westIn 1985, a young KGB officer arrived in provincial East Germany. His name was Vladimir Putin. What exactly Putin got up to in Dresden is a mystery. The official version says not much: he drank beer, put on weight, lived in an ordinary apartment with his wife, Lyudmila, and their two daughters. While other Soviet spies were having adventures, Putin – so the story goes – sat out the late cold war in a paper-shuffling backwater.The investigative journalist and former Financial Times reporter Catherine Belton has dug deeper. Her groundbreaking book, Putin’s People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and then Took on the West, offers a far more terrifying version. Putin was a senior liaison officer with the Stasi, East Germany’s secret police, she suggests. And Dresden was a key base for KGB operations, including murderous ones, in which Putin allegedly played a direct part. Continue reading...
The Queen has given an Easter message to reassure the people of the UK that this pandemic can be beaten. The monarch’s speech is said to be her contribution to those marking the occasion at home.
Following a year of triumphs, including an Oscar nod, the actor talks about suddenly finding himself ‘the guy of this moment’“I knew it would be a flame that would die down very quickly, and that’s exactly what happened,†Richard E Grant tells me, talking about the comedown that’s following a frenetic, flashy 12-month period.He’s sitting across from me at a hotel in Manhattan, pre-quarantine, and reflecting on a year that started with a role in true-crime black comedy Can You Ever Forgive Me?, for which he received an Oscar nomination, and ended with a part in the 2019 film Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Continue reading...
Talks to join forces and end the deadlock have broken down at the last minute, with each side blaming the otherA proposed unity government deal involving Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and opposition leader, Benny Gantz, appears to be in jeopardy as initial progress stalls and a deadline this week looks set to be missed.The pair – who have battled for more than a year in three inconclusive elections – had both expressed a desire to come to an understanding as the country faces the coronavirus pandemic. Talks to join forces and end the crippling political deadlock appeared to be in the final stages. One power-sharing deal would see them rotate the role of leader over a four-year term. Continue reading...
Videos on social media show buildings alight in prison near Angarsk near Lake BaikalFire has engulfed a penal colony in Siberia after a riot broke out – reportedly sparked by accusations of brutality.Videos posted to social media on Friday showed buildings ablaze at the IK-15 prison in the Siberian city of Angarsk, 2,500 miles southeast of Moscow and near Lake Baikal’s southern shore Continue reading...
President condemns mob justice and says fears of a cult are baseless rumours designed to sow fear and panicVigilante groups have killed at least eight people in northern Malawi claiming to be protecting communities from “bloodsuckersâ€, a local official has said.The latest victims were from Mozambique and were attacked on Monday while travelling to Tanzania through Malawi’s northern region. Continue reading...
Rami Aman and others held for ‘establishing normalisation activities ... via the internet’Hamas security forces in the Gaza Strip have arrested local peace campaigners for treason after they held a Zoom virtual conference with Israeli activists.Eyad al-Bozom, a spokesperson from the Hamas-run interior ministry, said the prominent Palestinian figure Rami Aman and others had been detained on charges of “establishing normalisation activities with the Israeli occupation via the internetâ€. Continue reading...
Tropical Cyclone Harold lashed the South Pacific island of Vanuatu , ripping off roofs and downing telecommunications, before moving towards Fiji and Tonga. The powerful cyclone made landfall on Monday in Sana province, an island north of Vanuatu's capital Port Vila, with winds as high as 235 kilometres an hour. Aerial videos showed buildings with missing roofs, with some flattened to the ground from the impact of the cyclone. The weather system weaken slightly as it moved towards Fiji but still brought high winds and flooding before moving towards Tonga
Guinness World Records changes rules to use road’s centre rather than sides for measurementsLast summer the townsfolk of Harlech, in north-west Wales, were celebrating the accolade of having the steepest street in the world.A mere eight months on, they are in the doldrums after being informed by Guinness World Records that a New Zealand rival for the title has usurped them. Continue reading...
by Ian Anderson, Joseph Pierce, Ryan Baxter and Paul on (#51W6S)
In the space of one month, the UK has gone from business as usual to deserted cities as it is forced to deal with the menace of Covid-19. It poses a clear and present threat to our health, but what are the other concerns? Using search and traffic data from the Citizens Advice's website for March 2020, a picture emerges of the worries of a nation as it battles the disease
by Harriet Sherwood Religion correspondent and agenci on (#51TFS)
Vatican praises Australian cardinal for having ‘waited for the truth to be ascertained’Pope Francis has recalled the “persecution that Jesus suffered†and has prayed for those who suffer “unjust sentences†hours after Australia’s highest court acquitted cardinal George Pell of child sexual abuse.The court in Canberra quashed convictions that Pell sexually assaulted two choirboys in the 1990s, allowing the 78-year-old former Vatican economy minister to walk free from jail, ending the most high-profile case of alleged historical sex abuse to rock the Roman Catholic church. Continue reading...
Federal and state education ministers rule out a mass repeating, with every student to receive an AtarSign up for Guardian Australia’s daily coronavirus email
Scottish care worker pleads for them to be treated as key workers as she shopped for elderly womanAldi has apologised after a care worker in Scotland was turned away from priority access at the supermarket when trying to buy food for an elderly client.Marion Kilmurray posted a plea on Facebook for care workers to be treated as frontline workers after the incident on Sunday in Wishaw, North Lanarkshire, which quickly went viral and has been shared over 100,000 times. Continue reading...
World news | The Guardian