French president seeks to address France’s colonial legacy in north AfricaEmmanuel Macron has told representatives of the Pieds Noirs – the Algerian-born French citizens who fled to France after Algerian independence – that a 1962 shooting by French troops against them was “unforgivable for the republic”.Macron stressed the need for “reconciliation” over the Algeria conflict, as part of his drive to address France’s colonial legacy in north Africa ahead of his bid for re-election this spring. Continue reading...
French, German, Russian and Ukrainian diplomats are meeting in Paris in the latest effort to de-escalate the crisisThe Normandy format is an informal forum that was set up by French, German, Russian and Ukrainian diplomats in 2014, after Russia kickstarted a separatist conflict in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. It takes its name from the Normandy landings in the second world war. The first meeting took place in Normandy on the margins of the ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the allied landings. Continue reading...
Jozef Puska, 31, appeared before Cloverhill district court, Dublin, on Wednesday via video linkA man charged with the murder of Irish schoolteacher Ashling Murphy has appeared in court and been remanded in custody for a further two weeks.Jozef Puska, 31, of Mucklagh in Co Offaly, appeared before Cloverhill district court in Dublin, on Wednesday via video link. Continue reading...
After their songs were deemed blasphemous propaganda, the duo were forced to flee to Norway and claim asylum. Now a band, they are writing angrily about what they facedFor almost as long as it’s existed, heavy metal has been used as protest music. On Black Sabbath’s Paranoid, the first thing you’re barraged with is War Pigs: a seven-minute savaging of the politicians who instigated the Vietnam war. Iron Maiden once had their mascot, Eddie, murder Margaret Thatcher on a single’s artwork; Metallica and Megadeth spent the 1980s lambasting cold war superpowers that didn’t know whether to shake hands or nuke each other.Nikan Khosravi, singer and guitarist of Iranian/Norwegian thrashers Confess, views his band as another protest act in the metal lineage. “I’m the kid who told the emperor: ‘You’re naked!’” he exclaims with pride and excitement on a call from Norway. However, the five-piece don’t write their brutish tracks about some faraway conflict, or satirise a government certain to ignore them. Continue reading...
Jury acquits Nathan Smith of manslaughter over death of Craig Wiltshire in 2019 incidentA man has been cleared of killing a suspected thief who died after he pinned him down and knelt on his back for nine minutes during a citizen’s arrest.Nathan Smith, 38, was accused of using “excessive force” as he restrained Craig Wiltshire, 43, but insisted he was only trying to hang on to him as he waited for the police to arrive. Continue reading...
by Luke Harding in Kyiv and Dan Sabbagh on (#5VE9N)
Officials and experts say several elements missing for full-scale invasion despite recent troop movementsRussia does not currently have enough troops on the border with Ukraine to carry out a full-scale military invasion and occupation of the country, according to western experts and senior officials in Kyiv.They believe a Russian attack to capture most or all of Ukraine in the near future is unlikely, despite an unprecedented buildup of about 125,000 Russian soldiers, and military exercises due to take place next month in Belarus, within striking distance of the capital. Continue reading...
by Nadia Khomami Arts and culture correspondent on (#5VE9P)
Actor uses National Theatre tribute event to talk publicly for first time about wife, who died of cancerDamian Lewis has spoken publicly for the first time about the loss of his wife, Helen McCrory, who died last year from breast cancer aged 52.During an evening of poetry dedicated to McCrory at the National Theatre, Lewis paid tribute to the “one person whose thunder would absolutely not be stolen”. Continue reading...
On 1 February 1942, the leader of the country’s Nazi party became ‘minister president,’ his promotion followed quickly by demonstrations of Norwegian disgust. See how the Guardian reported eventsFrom our diplomatic correspondent
by Luke Harding, Volodymyr Yurchenko, Richard Sprenge on (#5VE5D)
The Guardian's Luke Harding travels to the eastern Ukraine coastal city of Mariupol to see how preparations are being made for a potential Russian attack. With tensions in the region high and Russian troops gathering on the border, Ukrainian soldiers remain defiant, despite their depleted firepower. And while the world's attention has returned to the region for the first time since Russia took Crimea in 2014, for Ukrainians the war has been ongoing Continue reading...
As his term ends, Juan Orlando Hernández could be extradited on drug charges to the country that once saw him as a key allyAlong a paved road that climbs the hillside to Celaque Mountain national park in south-western Honduras, one-room shacks are overshadowed by high-walled mansions – including the homes of President Juan Orlando Hernández and his political allies.Local people say the results of Hernández’s eight years as president are on full display. Continue reading...
Police say body of 49-year-old was found by other fishermen in water near Washaway Bay on Wednesday morningThe body of a man missing since a boat capsized on Sydney Harbour on the weekend has been found in Middle Harbour.The 49-year-old fisherman had been missing since the early hours of Saturday when he was thrown from a boat along with another man, aged 25, and a dog off North Harbour. Continue reading...
Director wants visit to former Nazi concentration camp to spark reflection on ‘silence of bystanders’Piotr Cywiński has spent a lot of time pondering a question that has exercised historians, philosophers and politicians ever since the end of the second world war. What lessons should we draw from one of the darkest pages in human history, the organised mass killing at Auschwitz?A 49-year-old Polish historian, Cywiński has been director of the Auschwitz Museum since 2006. His office is housed in a former hospital and pharmacy built for the camp’s SS guards, and his windows look out over a crematorium and gas chamber. Continue reading...
Photographer Jonathan Donovan has produced a series of portraits focusing on the strength of single parents and celebrating their resilience and love. The project aims to raise awareness of Gingerbread – the leading national charity working with single-parent families.An exhibition of his work opens in Granary Square in London’s Kings Cross from the end of January and will run until the beginning of AprilSince 1918, Gingerbread has been supporting, advising and campaigning with single parents to help them meet the needs of their families and achieve their goals. Today, there are 1.8 million single-parent families in the country. Continue reading...
Growing up in the care system, I believed I was an only child. Then a man messaged me on Facebook, and left me with a head full of questions.I was a toddler when I entered the care system. By the time I left, at 18, I had been shunted between four foster homes and a residential care home, all across south-east London.I met my biological mum for the first time since entering care when I was about 10. I never met my dad. To the knowledge of my various social workers and foster parents, I had no siblings. Continue reading...
Human Rights Watch reports cases of mob attacks, gang-rape and death threats, with LGBTQ+ people living in fear and unable to fleeThe lives of LGBTQ+ people in Afghanistan have “dramatically worsened” under Taliban rule, according to a new survey, which highlights cases of violence, gang-rape and death threats since the group seized power last year.The report, by Human Rights Watch (HRW), recorded nearly 60 cases of targeted violence against LGBTQ+ people since August 2021, many of whom described how Taliban rule has destroyed their lives. Continue reading...
Analysis from Greenpeace finds deserted flights are generating millions of tons of harmful emissionsAt least 100,000 “ghost flights” could be flown across Europe this winter because of EU airport slot usage rules, according to analysis by Greenpeace.The deserted, unnecessary or unprofitable flights are intended to allow airlines to keep their takeoff and landing runway rights in major airports, but they could also generate up to 2.1 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions – or as much as 1.4 million average petrol or diesel cars emit in a year – Greenpeace says. Continue reading...
Director Daniel Roher tells of panic after team recorded Alexei Navalny pranking one of his Russian poisoners into confessingA documentary film about Alexei Navalny, who narrowly survived an apparent poisoning attempt with novichok, has premiered at the Sundance film festival.The 90-minute film, simply titled Navalny, features fly-on-the-wall footage of the Russian opposition leader, filmed during the several months he spent in Germany in late 2020 as he recovered from the poisoning. There are interviews with Navalny, his wife, Yulia, and his closest team. Continue reading...
Joplin, Missouri, was left unrecognizable after the 2011 disaster. Its recovery offers lessons for other communitiesThe tornado struck Joplin, Missouri, in May 2011 with such fury that afterward, even those who had lived here their entire lives struggled to recognize it.The nearly mile-wide storm wiped away entire neighborhoods and killed 161 people in less than an hour. It felled trees, leveled buildings and flung power lines and vehicles all over the roads with winds of more than 200mph. Continue reading...
Lauren Malt died in hospital on Sunday after being hit by a car in the West Winch areaA man has been charged with the murder of his 19-year-old daughter.Nigel Malt, 44, will appear at King’s Lynn magistrates court on Wednesday accused of the murder of Lauren Malt. Continue reading...
49-year-old woman arrested on suspicion of murder was known to dead boy, say policeA woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder by police investigating the death of a five-year-old boy in Coventry.The boy was found with serious injuries at an address in Poplar Road, Earlsdon, just after 5.55pm today. He was confirmed dead at the scene. A 49-year-old woman, who is understood to be known to the child, has been arrested and taken into custody for questioning, police said. Continue reading...
Shooting of pair on Caribbean coast allegedly linked to ‘transnational illegal activities that the victims participated in’The killing of two Canadians at a resort on Mexico’s Caribbean coast last week was motivated by debts between international gangs apparently dedicated to drug and weapons trafficking, according to a senior Mexican prosecutor.“The investigations indicate that this attack was motivated by debts that arose from transnational illegal activities that the victims participated in,” said Oscar Montes, the chief prosecutor of the Quintana Roo state, on Tuesday. “The information [is] that they were involved in weapons and drug trafficking, among other crimes.” Continue reading...
by Daniel Boffey in Brussels and Vincent Ni on (#5VDB9)
Analysis: minister has been attacked in Chinese media, but Maroš Šefčovič’s warm remarks could be of more concernIt was only a few months ago that Liz Truss, perhaps best known until recently for her strong feelings about the “disgrace” that is imported cheese, was appointed foreign secretary.Some had questioned Truss’s suitability for the role given a patchy record in the cabinet, but the liberty-loving minister has seemingly already made a mark on the global stage. Continue reading...
Wednesday: Paralympian and disability advocate Dylan Alcott named Australian of the Year. Plus: Guardian Australia readers’ favourite public toiletsGood morning! Australia Day honours have been handed out to a record number of women, including Australia’s richest person, mining magnate Gina Rinehart, a decision likely to spark controversy. Tennis champion, Paralympian and disability advocate Dylan Alcott has been named the 2022 Australian of the Year, the first person with a disability to receive the top gong. Australia Day and Invasion Day rallies are expected across the country, and today also marks the 50th anniversary of the Tent Embassy. Mununjali and South Sea Islander woman Chelsea Watego reminds us that for First Nations people 26 January “is a day that tells a story of a violent and heartless nation that insists upon our forgetting”.An aged care provider says it has “no faith” in the commonwealth’s supply of rapid antigen tests after a delivery failed to show for almost three weeks after an outbreak of Covid. When it did arrive, the delivery contained less than half of the order. Supply at St Basil’s Homes in South Australia is so precarious that the provider wrote to residents and their families warning the tests were “like liquid gold”. The facility had ordered 1,300 rapid tests from the national stockpile three weeks ago, but received just 600 on Friday. Continue reading...
by Vikram Dodd Police and crime correspondent on (#5VDFY)
Analysis: Cressida Dick has had ringside seat for some of Met’s past painful encounters with politiciansThe 48 hours before Cressida Dick’s bombshell announcement of a criminal investigation into “partygate” was intense, busy and momentous for the leadership of the Metropolitan police.It was only on Sunday that the Met decided it had enough evidence to merit a criminal investigation into claims of parties in Downing Street and Whitehall, attended by those who made the onerous lockdown rules. Continue reading...
A gig worker turns to credit card fraud in a tense debut feature with an electrifying central performanceIt’s hard to really blame Emily (Aubrey Plaza) for choosing a life of crime. A low-paid service gig brings nothing but stress. A seemingly inescapable student loan is gathering interest by the day. A couple of minor, years-back criminal charges have closed off a world of employment. It’s a familiar predicament that plagues many in America and even though first-time writer-director John Patton Ford might only show it in the broadest of strokes, it’s an effectively infuriating set-up.When Emily is offered an opportunity for an extra income, she nervously inches down the rabbit hole. It starts off simple. She’s given a cloned credit card and has to buy a TV. She then takes it to her new bosses and gets paid $200. It’s easier than she anticipated and soon she’s doing it on the regular, edging closer to taskmaster Youcef (Theo Rossi) who slowly becomes more than her mentor. But how far is she willing to go?Emily the Criminal is showing at the Sundance film festival with a release date to be announced Continue reading...
MPs and experts demand immediate action after shock resignation of minister over £4.3bn Covid loans fraud billMPs and anti-corruption experts have warned that the UK government must not delay long-awaited measures to tackle economic crime, after a minister resigned over the government’s failure to prevent more than £4.3bn in fraudulent claims for Covid business loans.Lord Agnew dramatically quit on Monday as a minister at the Treasury and Cabinet Office with oversight of fraud prevention, in another blow to the embattled prime minister. In a resignation letter to Boris Johnson, published on Tuesday, Agnew revealed that in a decision apparently taken last week, a key piece of legislation, the economic crime bill, had been rejected for consideration during the next parliamentary year. He described the decision as “foolish”. Continue reading...
Campaigners say comments during Konstancja Duff’s strip-search show sexism ‘deeply embedded’ in the police forceWomen’s rights groups have called for a statutory inquiry into misogyny in the Metropolitan police after derogatory comments by officers about an academic while she was strip-searched showed how “deeply embedded” sexism is in the force.In CCTV footage published by the Guardian, police officers made disparaging remarks about Konstancja Duff while she was strip-searched at Stoke Newington police station. Continue reading...
Boris Johnson’s day goes from bad to worse, with only a hardcore of loyalists left defending himBig Dog was having a bad morning. Normally he could rely on Grant Shapps to put up a spirited defence of any government lie, which is why he had been sent out to do the morning media round.But not even the transport secretary had been bothered to put a positive spin on the latest birthday party revelations. He had even made the schoolboy error of calling a party a party, when everyone knew that word was a no-no inside No 10. Continue reading...
Christopher Jotischky, a Briton of Ukrainian descent, former MEP Veronica Hardstaff and former army officer Simon Diggins respond to Simon Jenkins’ articles on what Britain should do about the dispute between Russia and its neighbourSimon Jenkins (Britain should stay well out of Russia’s border dispute with Ukraine, 20 January) claims that Russia’s “border disputes” with Ukraine have “nothing whatsoever to do with Britain” – but it has everything to do with the more than 20,000 diaspora Ukrainians and Britons of Ukrainian descent who live in the UK, of whom I am one.Mr Jenkins appears to be of the opinion that Ukrainian sovereignty is less important than the desire of those who govern Russia not to be humiliated on the international stage. This is incorrect. Ukraine is not and has never been an integral part of Russia: it is an independent nation with a separate language, history and religious and political traditions. It was, for centuries, under the colonial rule of Tsarist Russia (or the Habsburg empire, depending on the region) and then of the Soviet Union, suffered unspeakably at the hands of the Soviet government in the 1930s and was subjected to extreme cultural suppression in the 19th century. Continue reading...
Salomé Jashi’s film follows the journey of hundreds of mature trees as they are uprooted across Georgia to populate a rich man’s gardenLike a sad, greedy king in some fairytale or parable, the Georgian billionaire and former prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili set out, six years ago, to buy and uproot hundreds of magnificent mature trees and transport them at colossal expense and difficulty across Georgia to be transplanted in his own huge private garden. It sometimes involves taking a tree by water, along the Black Sea coast – a truly surreal image.Salomé Jashi’s fascinating and deadpan film shows, in a series of tableau-type shots, the effect that these purchases are having up and down the land. Local workers squabble among themselves at the dangerous, strenuous, but nonetheless lucrative job of digging them up. The landowners and communities brood on the sizeable sums of money they are getting paid and Ivanishvili’s promises that roads will also be built. But at the moment of truth, they are desolate when the Faustian bargain must be settled and the huge, ugly haulage trucks come to take their trees away in giant “pots” of earth, as if part of their natural soul is being confiscated. (Surely at least some of these trees will have died en route, although this is not revealed.) Continue reading...
Items have been in storage since 1946, when Umberto II was banished as Italians voted to abolish monarchyDescendants of the last king of Italy have made their first formal request to reclaim the crown jewels, which for almost 76 years have been stashed in a treasure chest in a safety deposit box at the Bank of Italy amid a long-running mystery over their ownership.The bank took delivery of the jewels, comprising more than 6,000 diamonds and 2,000 pearls mounted on brooches and necklaces worn by various queens and princesses, on 5 June 1946, three days after Italians voted to abolish the monarchy and nine days before King Umberto II, who ruled for just 34 days, was banished into exile along with his male heirs. Continue reading...
Lisa Smith ‘enveloped’ herself in the ‘black flag of IS’ in Syria, prosecutor saysA former Irish soldier accused of joining Islamic State was prepared to die a martyr, a court in Dublin has heard.Lisa Smith, 39, from Dundalk, County Louth, has pleaded not guilty to being a member of the terrorist organisation between October 2015 and December 2019. Continue reading...
Move comes despite European court of human rights injunction saying that it should be postponedSerbian authorities have extradited a Bahraini dissident in cooperation with Interpol despite an injunction by the European court of human rights, in the first test for the international policing organisation under the presidency of a top Emirati security official.Authorities in Belgrade approved the extradition of Ahmed Jaafar Mohamed Ali to Bahrain earlier this week. Days earlier the ECHR had issued an injunction saying the extradition should be postponed until after 25 February to allow Serbian authorities time to provide more information to the court, which was responding to a request by the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights to consider Ali’s case. Continue reading...
by Josh Halliday North of England correspondent on (#5VD2F)
Teenager flown to hospital after allegedly being attacked by 16-year-old fellow pupilA 15-year-old boy has been flown to hospital after being stabbed multiple times at school, allegedly by a fellow pupil.Police were called to Walney school in Cumbria after the knife attack at about 10am on Tuesday. Continue reading...
Hendrix and Janis Joplin warned her off drugs, she sang for James Brown and Salvador Dalí offered to paint her. Janis Ian’s confessional folk-pop is still sensational – so why is she retiring from recording?‘I learned the truth at 17 / That love was meant for beauty queens / And high school girls with clear-eyed smiles / Who married young and then retired.” Janis Ian’s At Seventeen is an indelible portrait of life from the perspective of a socially awkward unattractive teen, inspired by a newspaper article that the singer-songwriter read about a young woman who thought her life would be perfect. “I learned the truth at 18,” the girl told the journalist. Ian changed her age and spent three months working on the intimate and confessional lyrics.“You couldn’t write a song like that without having gone through it,” Ian says, video-calling from her home in New Jersey. Now 70, her hair is short and white, no longer the dark curls she sported on her album covers during the 60s and 70s. “The first time I sang At Seventeen in public I did it with my eyes closed. I felt like I was naked and I was sure the audience was going to be laughing.” Continue reading...
Move to outlaw procedures to reconstruct the hymen welcomed by campaigners and survivors of ‘honour’-based abuse“Virginity repair” surgery known as hymenoplasty has no place in the medical world, British healthcare professionals were warned today, as legislation to criminalise the practice was introduced by the government.An amendment added to the health and care bill on Monday will make it illegal to perform any procedure that aims to reconstruct the hymen, with or without consent. Continue reading...
Haute couture show in Paris starts with Charlotte Casiraghi on horseback in honour of maison’s founderThe best outfit in which to weather a pandemic? Try a bouclé suit, two-tone kitten heels and a chain-strap handbag with a double C logo.In defiance of all business forecasts, Chanel is emerging from two challenging years for retail virtually unscathed. Revenues at the luxury brand grew by double digits in the first six months of 2021, the most recent period for which earnings have been published, and the house expects soon to return to 2019 levels of profitability. Strong demand has led to eye-watering price hikes, with some classic handbag styles now priced at 40% more than in the first months of 2020. In anxious times, it seems a Chanel handbag is the gold bullion of fashion. Continue reading...
From London to North Carolina, Guardian readers share their tributes to and memories of the singer and actorMy parents had just split up, and my mum, caring for two young daughters, took us to Bournemouth for a few days to get away. It was the year Jurassic Park came out and she would have been about 36, a few years older than I am now. She found a tape of Bat Out of Hell in a bargain bin at a service station on the drive there and the second she put it into the tape player in the car and heard the opening track, she was hooked. As kids, we loved it too – it was so fun, theatrical and a bit naughty. We played that tape over and over on our car journeys. I saw how his music empowered my mum and made her feel good at a very vulnerable and painful time. He has brought her pure joy since she found that tape and his songs remind me of the close bond my mum, sister and I share. Vicky, 33, editor, London Continue reading...
Actor who has a form of dwarfism says the studio’s pride in casting a Latina Snow White is undercut by stereotypes retained elsewhereGame of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage has taken aim at Disney for what he called its “fucking backwards” forthcoming live action adaptation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.Dinklage, who stars in Joe Wright’s new film, Cyrano, accused the studio of double standards by attending to racial diversity in its cast but falling back on other damaging stereotypes. Continue reading...
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