SAS soldier also tells court he saw Ben Roberts-Smith order another soldier to shoot a man during a raid on a compound in Afghanistan as Roberts-Smith denies both claimsGet our free news app; get our morning email briefingBen Roberts-Smith shot dead an unarmed civilian outside a compound in Afghanistan – firing his machine-gun into the back of the man lying on the ground – one of his former SAS comrades has told the federal court.Minutes earlier, the court was told, Roberts-Smith had allegedly ordered a subordinate soldier to execute an elderly man.Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Continue reading...
To avoid arrest, the staff of the 74 Media left their home city, only to face shellfire in their border refuge. The editor describes the risks faced by his media outlet
Starring the exceptional Lily James and Sebastian Stan, the tale of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s sex tape is funny, clever and really rather moving. What a pity she didn’t approveAbsurd as it seems, and resist it though we may, the universe continues to insist that the 90s were 30 years ago instead of 10 minutes. Thus, we are increasingly confronted by dramas that take the headlines of our youths and examine them as the pivotal moments of history they in fact were.At least they are not (quite yet) ancient enough to be treated with reverence or mystification. We 70s babies are still not Stonehenge, or the ruins of Herculaneum. But the bouncily interrogative spirit of the king of the genre, Ryan Murphy (who has dramatised the OJ Simpson case, the killing of Gianni Versace and the Clinton-Lewinsky affair) still seems to be setting the tone for those who follow in his train. Continue reading...
Analysis: Diplomatic network hoping to show UK is not turning into a global irrelevanceThe Russian threat to Ukraine may be the first major foreign policy crisis since Brexit in which the UK can play to its strengths, and show that Britain with its military muscle is not turning into the global irrelevance that many had predicted. That at least is the hope in parts of Whitehall.The two other big post-Brexit foreign policy moments – the withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the announcement of the Aukus security partnership in the Indo-Pacific – did not exactly see Britain in the cockpit in the same way. The UK departed from Afghanistan under US duress and then executed that withdrawal so chaotically that it cost Dominic Raab his foreign secretaryship. Aukus was largely a US-Australian deal, even if puts the UK in a potentially leading role in the Indo-Pacific in future. Continue reading...
Talkshow host will not appear on the show for two weeks as network ABC News asks her to ‘take time to reflect and learn’US talkshow host and actor Whoopi Goldberg has been suspended from The View for two weeks for saying the Holocaust “isn’t about race” on Monday’s episode.Her suspension from the The View was announced in a statement released by US network ABC News on Tuesday night, after Goldberg issued a public apology. Continue reading...
by Aakash Hassan and Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Delhi on (#5VP8F)
Claims that people are being registered as double vaccinated without receiving both dosesHealth workers on the frontline of India’s Covid vaccination programme say people are being officially registered as double vaccinated without receiving both doses because of pressure to meet government targets.Workers described how easy it was to falsely register second vaccine doses for people who did not attend appointments, by using personal records from their first dose and opting to bypass a code sent to their mobile phone. Continue reading...
Witness describes water and rocks pouring in through doors and windows before buildings destroyedA rain-weakened hillside collapsed in Ecuador’s capital, Quito, sweeping over homes and a sports field and killing at least 22 people, city officials have said.The Quito Security Department also said on Tuesday that 32 people were injured and eight houses had collapsed, with more damaged. Continue reading...
Heavily armed men and gunfire reported near government offices but statement says attack against democracy failedGuinea-Bissau’s president, Umaro Cissoco Embaló, has said the situation in the country is “under control” following fears of an attempted coup and heavy gunfire in the capital.Gunshots erupted near the government palace in Guinea-Bissau’s capital on Tuesday afternoon, sparking fears of a coup attempt in the west African country, which has suffered repeated military takeovers. Continue reading...
by Aubrey Allegretti, Rowena Mason and Peter Walker on (#5VNZC)
Exclusive: sources say PM dropped in at prosecco-fuelled farewell in 2021 now being investigated by policeBoris Johnson attended a prosecco-fuelled leaving do for a No 10 aide during the strict post-Christmas lockdown, which is now under police investigation, the Guardian has learned.Sue Gray’s investigation into lockdown parties this week revealed several events that had not previously been publicised, including a gathering on 14 January 2021 “on the departure of two No 10 private secretaries”. But the redacted report revealed no further details. Continue reading...
Wednesday: Liberals, Labor and Nationals received $959,115 from oil and gas fossil fuel companies or their lobby groups. Plus: how Married at First Sight got Australia hooked
Finds date to sixth-century BC Battle of Alalia, in which the Greeks defeated Etruscans and CarthaginiansTwo ancient warrior helmets, metal fragments believed to have come from weapons, and the remains of a temple have been discovered at Velia, an archaeological site in southern Italy that was once a powerful Greek colony.Experts believe the helmets, which were found in good condition, and metal fragments date to the sixth-century BC Battle of Alalia, when a Greek force of Phocaean ships clinched victory over the Etruscans and their Carthaginian allies in a naval battle off the coast of Corsica. One of the helmets is thought to have been taken from the enemies. Continue reading...
Britain says new legislation will hit the oligarchs around Vladimir Putin if Ukraine is invaded. A serious attempt to tackle kleptocracy is long overdue“Those in and around the Kremlin will have nowhere to hide,” the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, told the Commons on Monday, promising new legislation to impose sanctions on those with links to the Russian government should it invade Ukraine. It would be applicable to any company (and its owners) with ties to the Russian state and of economic significance to it – extending well beyond the existing sanctions regime, which covers only those linked to the destabilisation of Ukraine.The Kremlin says that it does not want war, but with more than 100,000 troops near the borders of Ukraine, and more arriving in Belarus, fear is growing of a major land offensive or – as Kyiv suspects – longer-term destabilisation and a continuing hybrid assault using cyber-attacks, sabotage and other means. While diplomacy continues, there is no sign of progress. Vladimir Putin says that Russia’s proposals have been ignored. The US succeeded in forcing a UN security council debate, with Moscow responding by warning that Ukraine may “destroy itself” if it undermines existing peace agreements. On Tuesday, Boris Johnson flew to Kyiv to show support, Monday’s attempt to play international statesman having been hobbled when he had to cancel a phone call with the Russian president to address MPs about the Sue Gray report. Standing next to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, he warned that a Russian invasion would be a disaster. Continue reading...
by Andrew Roth Moscow correspondent, and Julian Borge on (#5VP2D)
In first public comments on crisis since December, Putin says west is using Ukraine as ‘tool to hinder Russia’Vladimir Putin has accused the US of ignoring Russia’s security proposals in his first public comments on the growing crisis over Ukraine since December.During a press conference at the Kremlin, Putin told journalists he was unsatisfied with the US response to Russian demands that Nato remove troops and infrastructure from eastern Europe and agree never to accept Ukraine into the alliance. Continue reading...
Stores and vaccine clinics remain closed in Ottawa as protesters refuse to leave while federal Conservative leader faces criticismDays of protests against pandemic policies and a deep rift within Canada’s conservative movement have highlighted the growing power of rightwing populist movements in the country.On Tuesday, retail stores and vaccine clinics in Ottawa remained closed as protesters, who had travelled to the nation’s capital under the guise of protesting vaccine mandates for truckers, refused to leave. Continue reading...
Ian Stewart, jailed in 2016 for killing his fiancee, Helen Bailey, says he found wife collapsed in garden in 2010A man convicted of murdering his fiancee, who is now accused of murdering his wife six years earlier, told a jury his marriage was “perfect” and that he tried to resuscitate his spouse after finding her collapsed in their garden.Ian Stewart, 61, who in 2016 was convicted of murdering Helen Bailey, author of the Electra Brown series of children’s books, denies killing his wife, Diane Stewart, 47, at their home in Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire, in 2010. Continue reading...
Admission follows allegations of snooping on mobile phones of protesters, politicians and criminal suspectsIsrael’s national police force has found evidence pointing to improper use of spyware by its own investigators to snoop on Israeli citizens’ phones.The announcement on Tuesday came two weeks after an Israeli newspaper reported a string of allegations that the police had used the NSO Group’s Pegasus software to surveil protesters, politicians and criminal suspects without authorisation from a judge. Continue reading...
Footage shows plane almost toppling on to its side as its tail appears to make contact with the groundA British Airways jet had a near-miss when the pilot was forced to abort a landing attempt at Heathrow airport as it was buffeted by high winds during Storm Corrie.Footage captured by plane spotters on Monday showed the jet, which had departed from Aberdeen, sway heavily on to its left side as it approached the runway. Continue reading...
In its second season, the hit HBO drama on drugged-out and love-crazed teens has finally tipped into too much style over substanceEuphoria, the slick, explicit, high-budget teen drama halfway through its second season on HBO, has from the start been a soap layered in heady seriousness. The show, adapted by Sam Levinson from an Israeli series of the same name and co-produced by Drake, took on a near encyclopedia of Today’s Teen Issues – sex shaming, drug addiction, body insecurity, web personas, revenge porn, pregnancy and abortion, emotional abuse, toxic masculinity, self-harm and depression, and more – with a bracing, revelatory frankness and thick lacquer of gloss (and full-frontal nudity).By its first season finale in 2019, in which main character Rue (Zendaya, who won an Emmy for the role) nearly dies in a graphic drug overdose, Euphoria had drawn a legion of fans (the finale drew 1.2 million night-of viewers and became HBO’s most second-most tweeted-about series ever, behind Game of Thrones) and managed to balance shock with sensitivity. It established beloved characters – in particular the fragile, alchemical bond between Rue and Jules (Hunter Schafer), a trans character – as well as a distinctive visual palette: saturated color, shimmery beats, high-voltage fantasy, meta narration, a zeitgeist-aiming show with a small hint of irony and a large dollop of excess. Continue reading...
If Boris Johnson is serious about helping Ukraine, the most resolute action he can take is at homeThe prospect of war in our continent is more than enough to avert our gaze from the latest Whitehall troubles.However, a prime minister who has found it so hard to speak the truth throughout his career surprised us all with a hard dose of it when he stood before parliament last week to address the situation in Ukraine, saying: “Ukraine asks for nothing except to be allowed to live in peace and to seek her own alliances, as every sovereign country has a right to do.” It was a sentiment echoed by the leader of the opposition, by my own party’s Westminster group leader, Ian Blackford MP, and by every other SNP MP who responded to the statement.Nicola Sturgeon is first minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National party Continue reading...
Protests against the coup mean hospitals and schools are on the brink of collapse, while workers have left their homes to avoid arrest and interrogation
Israel calls for report to be withdrawn and accuses human rights group of antisemitismAmnesty International has joined other leading human rights groups in stating that Israel’s “system of oppression and domination” over the Palestinians amounts to the international definition of apartheid.The report immediately prompted fury among Israeli politicians who called for it to be withdrawn. Continue reading...
He was the fake medium from Florida whose scandalous cons almost got him shot. So why did M Lamar Keene then blow the whistle on psychic swindlers? A new podcast finds outWhat does it take for someone to impersonate a dead teenager to the grieving mother of the deceased? For M Lamar Keene, a prominent Tampa-based medium in the 1960s and 70s, it was a cinch – all it required was a cocktail of cunning, charisma and sheer audacity. In front of the congregation of his spiritualist church, Keene would enter a trance state and appear to speak as the deceased 17-year-old, Jack, and ask Jack’s mother, Lona, to donate thousands of dollars to the church. One day, Lona asked Jack about the secret name he used for her, to prove it was really him, and Keene was stumped – until he attended a gathering at her house and feigned a headache. While pretending to rest in her bedroom, he searched her belongings and found the name scribbled in a family Bible: “Appleonia”. He pulled it off.Keene confessed to being a conman in his 1976 book, The Psychic Mafia. Jack and Lona’s was just one of many audacious cases he revealed in the exposé, which shook the world of spiritualism so much that it led to an attempt on his life. Someone took a shot at him on his lawn but missed, leaving a bullet in the side of his house. In the book, Keene described how mediums shared client information so that they could conduct “hot readings” based on solid facts. He recounted how they would steal jewellery from clients for a few months, only to pretend a dead family member’s spirit had made it reappear (which usually resulted in generous tips). Ultimately, he confirmed that mediums formed a vast network to fraudulently monetise people’s grief. So why did Keene – the so-called Prince of the Spiritualists – choose to blow the whistle on everyone? Continue reading...
China has been repressing minorities and targeting dissenters but anyone who chooses to speak out faces the threat of reprisal from a hostile regimeZumretay Arkin is remembering the day she thought she might change the International Olympic Committee’s mind. It was October 2020, and human rights groups, representing Uyghur Muslims, Tibetans, and the democracy movement in Hong Kong, were granted a meeting with senior IOC figures to discuss their concerns about the Winter Olympics in Beijing.“I explained how millions of Uyghurs are being arbitrarily detained in concentration camps,” she says. “The IOC was told survivors’ stories of rapes and torture, forced sterilisation and repression. And about families who have not heard from relatives for years. Continue reading...
With confidence in public health system high, 95% of kids aged 2-18 are fully vaccinated and Omicron infection rates are lowThe Swedes have rejected it, Dr Fauci says the US may soon approve it, the Chinese have started, but the Cubans have already vaccinated almost all young children against Covid.The island is the only country vaccinating toddlers as young as two against the disease, and more than 95% of two- to 18-year-olds have now been fully vaccinated, according to the ministry of public health. Continue reading...
Debate over treatment of people with mental illness revived as authorities launch investigationA video of a woman apparently locked against her will in a filthy shack has gone viral in China, prompting an investigation as well as a conversation about the country’s treatment of people with mental illness.The footage, taken on 26 January, was posted to the video-sharing site Douyin the following day by a man who was shocked to find the woman locked in the rubbish-filled building in a village in Jiangsu province in the east of the country. Continue reading...
The Danish synth star was nearly broken by years of gruelling tours and stepped back from the business. But now, she says, the planets are aligning for her againNO!” cries MØ in mock defeat, clutching the purple beret she was crocheting before our conversation, hook and half-constructed hat held to heart. I have just told her that Mercury retrograde is set to fall this week: a celestial event believed to throw certain star signs into flux. MØ, a Leo and Gemini rising sign, is among those potentially affected by this planetary shift. I assure her that it’s actually good given her circumstances: it’s supposed to facilitate new beginnings. Fitting, as she is on the cusp of releasing her make-or-break third album Motordrome.MØ is in London to shoot a music video for the aptly titled New Moon. It’s the central banger on the album, which articulates the past two years spent taking back control of her life and work. “I was super burnt-out at the beginning of 2019,” the Danish singer says. “I was having panic attacks. My voice was broken. Everything was spinning.” Continue reading...
by Mostafa Rachwani and Matilda Boseley on (#5VMJS)
Scott Morrison announces packages for aged care and NDIS as anti-vaccine protesters mass outside the National Press Club; 77 Covid deaths recorded across NSW, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia. This blog is now closed
by Josh Halliday North of England correspondent on (#5VMZ3)
Questions of fairness and trust linger for constituents in Tonge Fold, in the most marginal of Tory-won red wall seatsWhen Boris Johnson addressed MPs an hour after the release of Sue Gray’s redacted report, he will have hoped his apology would travel far beyond the Commons chamber and reached places like Tonge Fold, on the outskirts of Bolton.But the immediate reaction suggests the prime minister might be in trouble. “It’s just extremely disappointing and very frustrating. There’s no other words for it,” said Adele Warren, a Conservative councillor, after watching Johnson’s Commons statement with some of her party colleagues. Continue reading...
He escaped death, fled across the Baltic, and eventually found love and a new life. Jonas Poher Rasmussen describes how he turned Amin’s often harrowing story into an uplifting, award-winning animationWhen the Danish film-maker Jonas Poher Rasmussen was 15, an Afghan refugee moved to his small village. Rumours circulated about how the boy, Amin, had got there. Some said he had walked all the way from Kabul, others that he had seen his whole family slaughtered. Rasmussen became the newcomer’s friend and confidant – Amin even came out to him as gay when they were teenagers – and their closeness endured into adulthood. When they both suffered bad break-ups in their 20s, for instance, Rasmussen went to stay with Amin; they refer to that period now as “the heartbreak summer”. He still didn’t know the truth about how his friend came to Denmark, though, so he did what any documentarist might do: he proposed making a film about him. Amin refused to reveal his identity on screen – but what if the film were animated?The result is Flee, which alternates between scenes of Rasmussen interviewing his friend, dramatisations of Amin’s perilous journey to Copenhagen via Moscow, and present-day interludes showing him househunting with his boyfriend in which the concept of settling down presents unique challenges for someone who has spent his life running. Aside from the occasional excerpt of archive footage – the war-scarred streets of Kabul, the unruly waves seen from a boat smuggling people across the Baltic – every frame of the movie is animated, most of it in a simple, straightforwardly realistic fashion that matches Amin’s narration. Continue reading...
Figures represent first time abuse allegations against the church in New Zealand have been collated in one placeNew Zealand’s Catholic church has admitted that 14% of its diocesan clergy have been accused of abusing children and adults since 1950.The church released the figures at the request of the royal commission on abuse in care, set up in 2018 by prime minister Jacinda Ardern, who said the country needed to confront “a dark chapter” in its history, and later expanded it to include churches and other faith-based institutions. Continue reading...
Antony Blinken pressed to investigate West Bank death of 78-year-old who was handcuffed, gagged and left by soldiers last monthIsrael’s military has said it is dismissing two officers and would reprimand a battalion commander over the death of a Palestinian-American at a West Bank checkpoint after he was stopped by Israeli troops.The death of Omar Abdalmajeed As’ad, who had lived in Milwaukee before retiring to his native village of Jiljilya, resulted from “a moral failure and poor decision-making”, it added. Continue reading...
Roberto Toledo was shot dead by three gunmen in a carpark in Zitácuaro, where he reported for a local news outletJournalists in Mexico have responded with fury and despair at the murder of a fourth reporter in the country this year, cementing its reputation as the world’s most murderous country for media workers.Roberto Toledo was shot dead by three gunmen on Monday afternoon in a carpark in the city of Zitácuaro, where he reported for a local news outlet, Monitor Michoacán. Zitácuaro is best known for the nearby monarch butterfly reserves, but the region is rife with violence as drug cartels and criminal groups fight to control illegal logging. Continue reading...
Effortlessly chic, completely unexpected and with a knowing wink, music’s perennially best-dressed couple reinvent genreThe glossy, posed, era of celebrity pregnancy announcement photo in effect ended last September when Gen Z’s imp prince Lil Nas X expertly parodied the genre with a People magazine exclusive in which Nas posed with a baby bump to announce the release of his debut album Montero.Leave it to music’s perennially best-dressed couple, Bajan superstar Rihanna and her boyfriend, rapper A$AP Rocky, to reinvent the genre; “papped” by the fashion-friendly photographer Miles Diggs; walking the streets of Harlem, where Rocky grew up, in a snowstorm wearing a hot pink archive Chanel coat fastened with a single button and a Christian Lacroix necklace draped over her bare stomach, in what can only be described as the most Rihanna way to let the world know she is expecting a baby. Continue reading...
by Helen Pidd, North of England editor, and Josh Hall on (#5VKT3)
Thousands of homes still without power, transport severely affected and some schools to remain closed on Tuesday after back-to-back stormsThousands of people are facing another night without power in Scotland and north-east England after two storms battered parts of the UK.Some schools in Scotland will remain closed on Tuesday after winds of up to 92mph were recorded in northern parts of the UK over the weekend as the storms Malik and Corrie hurtled in from the Atlantic. Continue reading...
Foreign secretary echoes US plans for sanctions on Russian elite but offers no new curbs on money laundering in UKLiz Truss, the British foreign secretary, has said Russian oligarchs and key supporters of Vladimir Putin will be targeted by UK sanctions if Russia invades Ukraine, but left Britain’s existing much-criticised anti-corruption laws largely untouched.Insisting that the Russian president’s allies would have nowhere to hide their assets if an invasion went ahead, the Foreign Office, clearly working in lockstep with the US, threatened to seize the wealth of Putin’s inner political circle and business backers. Continue reading...
by Beatriz Ramalho da Silva in Lisbon and Sam Jones i on (#5VMCK)
Ruling Socialist party wins absolute majority in snap election, as populist anti-Roma party also increases sharePortugal’s ruling Socialists are preparing for a third consecutive term after winning a surprise absolute majority in a snap general election that confounded predictions, pundits and pollsters and saw the far-right become the third-largest group in parliament.The prime minister, António Costa, has pledged to use his unexpectedly large mandate to bring in reforms and investments that will make Portugal “more prosperous, fairer, and more innovative”. Continue reading...
Manchester United footballer was arrested on Saturday after a woman made claims on social mediaPolice have been given extra time to question the Manchester United footballer Mason Greenwood on suspicion of rape and sexual assault.The 20-year-old was arrested on Sunday afternoon after a woman posted images, a video and audio online alleging he had assaulted her. Continue reading...
France requires wet signatures on post-Brexit paperwork even though much is produced digitally, says BCCDemands by French customs officials over the type of signature they will accept on post-Brexit paperwork has been blamed by UK business leaders for causing long queues of lorries on approach roads to Dover.Two year after Boris Johnson smiled for the cameras, fountain pen in hand over the EU withdrawal agreement, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said a minor disagreement over signatures on customs paperwork had arisen between Britain and France. Continue reading...
War photographer David Douglas Duncan rang bell of artist’s home one day, leading to 17-year friendshipOne hundred photographs chronicling the private world of Pablo Picasso up to and after his death in 1973 at the age of 91 have been donated to the Musée de l’Élysée in Switzerland.The pictures are a sample of 25,000 taken of the artist by David Douglas Duncan, an American war photographer who first met Picasso in Cannes in 1956. Continue reading...
World news | The Guardian