Analysis: As clock runs down on Vienna talks, key obstacles remain to be cleared by Tehran and the westThe countdown to the end of the six-month-long talks in Vienna on the future of the Iran nuclear deal has begun. No deadline has been formally set, but if there is no progress in less than two weeks the process will come to an end leaving a dangerous vacuum.The White House has already been rolling the pitch preparing its political lines for a breakdown by saying the US withdrawal from the agreement by Donald Trump in 2018 has proved to be a disaster. If there is no agreement, the Biden team intend Trump will take the blame. Continue reading...
by Justin McCurry in Tokyo and agencies on (#5V35V)
South Korean military says Pyongyang launched two ballistic missiles, which Tokyo says threaten its ‘peace and security’North Korea has launched two suspected ballistic missiles, in the fourth test this month, drawing condemnation from Japan and adding to pressure on the US.South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said Monday’s launch appeared to involve two short-range ballistic missiles, fired east towards the sea from the Sunan airfield in the capital Pyongyang. Continue reading...
Artist James Concannon claims in lawsuit that toy company made a ‘blatant copy’ of a jacket he made for Queer Eye cast member Antoni PorowskiAn artist has accused Lego of recreating a leather jacket he made for Queer Eye cast-member Antoni Porowski without the artist’s permission, claiming that a toy jacket included in a Lego set based on the Netflix show is a “blatant copy” of his design.James Concannon, whose clothes have been regularly worn by Porowski on the popular program, filed a lawsuit against the Danish toy giant in a Connecticut district court last month. The designer, who is seeking damages, alleges that one of the outfits included in the set for Porowski’s figurine copies “the unique placement, coordination, and arrangement of the individual artistic elements” on the jacket. Continue reading...
There has been no update on the fate of Angela Glover who is missing after a tsunami following a volcanic eruptionThe brother of a British woman who was swept away from the coast of Tonga by the tsunami on Saturday and is still missing, has told the Guardian he has grave fears for her safety.“What are we, 48 hours later? I don’t think this is going to have a happy ending,” an emotional Nick Eleini said. Continue reading...
Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić criticises the Australian federal court's decision to dismiss Novak Djokovic's visa appeal as 'political'. 'Of course, all of us in Serbia are very much disappointed with the court's ruling,' says Vučić. 'I think Australian authorities humiliated themselves with these kinds of procedures against Novak Djokovic.'Djokovic was trying to use a medical exemption to get around the requirements that everyone at the Australian Open - players, their support teams, spectators and others - be vaccinated against Covid-19.
Mortgage approvals have dropped from 30,000 a month to 23,000 as lenders apply stricter rules introduced in DecemberBanks in New Zealand are rejecting home-loans over minor frivolous spending, including a $187 Kmart Christmas shop and a daily drink bought at a corner store, and money spent on pets or petrol, pushing the government to investigate whether banks are overreacting to new finance rules designed to protect vulnerable borrowers from predatory lenders.The Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act (CCCFA), updated in early December, requires all lenders to complete thorough checks to ensure loans are suitable and affordable for their customers. Continue reading...
Former Scottish Tory leader says she almost did not run for post in 2011 because of concerns that medical records would come outThe former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson has said she almost did not run for the position because she feared her history of mental health problems would be exposed.The life peer was diagnosed with clinical depression in her first year at university and said she was concerned that standing for the role of leader in 2011 would result in her medical history coming out. Continue reading...
Hollywood heavyweights including Kyle MacLachlan bring coronavirus-hit week to a closePrada called on Hollywood heavyweights Jeff Goldblum and Kyle MacLachlan to bookend its catwalk on Sunday afternoon, bringing a close to a quiet menswear fashion week that saw multiple brands cancel their shows in light of increasing Covid cases across Europe.The appearance of the actors at the Fondazione Prada punctuated the second physical catwalk show from founder Miuccia Prada and her co-creative director Raf Simons since the latter came onboard in early 2020, marking an unprecedented union of two of the fashion industry’s most influential and famed designers. Continue reading...
Monday: Serbia’s leaders hit out at treatment of Novak Djokovic, who boarded a flight out of Australia on Sunday night. Plus: how American tinned meat, Spam, came to be loved in AsiaGood morning. Novak Djokovic has left Australia after his last-ditch court challenge failed. And the England Test side has once again failed to turn up with much fight, handing Australia a 4-0 Ashes series win.Novak Djokovic has been deported from Australia after the full federal court dismissed his bid to restore his visa. The Serbian tennis player was seen boarding a flight from Melbourne to Dubai hours after the court rejected his challenge to the decision of Australian immigration minister, Alex Hawke, to cancel the visa. In a statement Djokovic said he was “extremely disappointed” with the ruling. “I respect the court’s ruling and I will cooperate with the relevant authorities in relation to my departure from the country,” he said. Serbia’s leaders have hit out at Djokovic’s treatment. The prime minister, Ana Brnabić, criticised the decision to cancel the visa as “scandalous”. “I find it unbelievable that we have two completely contradictory court decisions within the span of just a few days,” she said. The tennis world reacted with a mixture of silence and disappointment to Djokovic’s deportation and frustration that it had overshadowed the Australian Open. Continue reading...
One woman reportedly taken to hospital after protest calling for right to work and education is stoppedTaliban forces have fired pepper spray at a group of women protesting in Afghanistan’s capital to demand rights to work and education.Since seizing control of the country by force in August, the Taliban authorities have imposed creeping restrictions on Afghans, especially on women. Continue reading...
Gul Bano and Karima’s former offices are in the hands of the Taliban – and they fear for their livesGul Bano* and Karima* are activists who ran provincial branches of the ministry of women’s affairs in two different parts of Afghanistan. Their former offices have been taken over by the Taliban’s feared enforcers, the ministry for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice. They are now in hiding, afraid of the men they helped put in prison for domestic violence and other abuses, many of them in the Taliban or with family links to the militants.In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 and the domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 1-800-273-8255 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org Continue reading...
by Jon Henley and Milivoje Pantovic in Belgrade on (#5V2WN)
President and prime minister condemn Australia’s ‘farcical’ deportation of world tennis No 1Serbia’s president has said Novak Djokovic had been “harassed … but not humiliated” and the prime minister called his treatment “scandalous” as the world tennis No 1’s home country reacted furiously to his deportation from Australia.After an 11-day saga, three judges unanimously upheld a decision by the immigration minister to cancel Djokovic’s visa because his presence might risk ‘civil unrest’ by stoking anti-vaccination sentiment, removing any chance of him winning a 21st grand slam at the Australian Open. Continue reading...
Man in his 40s held on suspicion of manslaughter after accident in region of Flaine, Haute-SavoieA five-year-old British girl has died after being hit by a skier in the French Alps, according to French media.A man in his 40s was being held on suspicion of manslaughter on Sunday after the accident in the resort of Flaine, Haute-Savoie, at about 11am on Saturday, Le Dauphine reported. The girl was said to have been taking part in a group ski lesson run by ESF (Ecole du Ski Français) with four other children on a blue (intermediate) piste. Continue reading...
Duke of Sussex taking legal action against UK government to allow him to pay privately for securityThe Duke of Sussex believes the UK is too dangerous for him and his family to visit without state protection as it emerged he is taking legal action against the government to allow him to pay privately for police security while in Britain.Prince Harry lost taxpayer-funded police security when he and Meghan stepped back from royal duties in 2020. The couple pays for private security in the US, where they now live. Continue reading...
The Sky News presenter Trevor Phillips held back tears recalling his daughter’s death in lockdown as he quizzed a senior Conservative MP about 'partygate'.After recalling the events around his daughter's death, the presenter asked the Conservative chair, Oliver Dowden: 'Does the prime minister really understand why people are angry?'
First in a new series about people left behind in Afghanistan, meet Asif, who worked for the UN and Adam Smith International before fleeing to PakistanAsif* has lost almost everything since the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan. His wife was shot dead. He fled to Pakistan but has no legal status there and is living in a mosque while seeking treatment for recurrent cancer. He worked for the United Nations and other international organisations including the former UK Department for International Development (DfID). Until 2016 he also worked for Adam Smith International on British government-funded projects.In September, my wife went to the house of one my relatives with another family member to collect some of our belongings – she was three months pregnant with our first child. They went at midnight, so they wouldn’t be seen or recognised. Continue reading...
by Ching-He Huang, Erchen Chang, Fuchsia Dunlop on (#5V2Q8)
Three food writers suggest celebratory Cantonese, Sichuanese and Taiwanese dishes that will have you over the moonTraditionally, a whole fish is steamed at the new year to symbolise abundance and unity, because the homonym for fish means “abundance”. I’m using sustainable hake fillets which are tender and succulent. They belong to the cod family so they still have a wonderful texture, slightly smaller flakes than cod but still a delicious sweet taste. For this recipe, I am using hake fillets with the skin on (to keep their shape), sliced into 2cm chunks. I love to shallow fry the fish pieces, make a hot, sour and sweet General Tso’s sauce with dried red chillies, peppers and onions, and then toss the fish pieces back into the dish. Continue reading...
Former Israeli PM understood to be in advanced talks with state attorney’s office over admitting to two counts of breach of trustThe former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly close to reaching a plea bargain in his corruption trial, a development that could mean an unexpectedly swift end to his turbulent political career and once again upend Israeli politics.Israeli media were dominated on Sunday by the news that Netanyahu, the chair of the Likud party and leader of the opposition since being ousted last year from a 12-year-stint in government, has reached advanced talks with the state attorney’s office. Continue reading...
The singer-songwriter is back with a new album after a decade spent nurturing her award-winning musical. She reflects on white privilege, finding a musical community – and moving back to rural Vermont“Anything that you love can become a trap,” says the singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell. She’s talking about the career-defining stage musical Hadestown, an energetic Depression-era retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice which dominated her life for more than a decade.Mitchell first toured it as a lo-fi theatre production in 2006, travelling through Vermont in a converted school bus, turned it into a concept album in 2010, and then spent several years reworking it for the stage with director Rachel Chavkin. Since opening on Broadway in 2019, Hadestown’s timelessly American tapestry of folk, blues, jazz, gospel and cabaret has won her a Tony award (and collected eight in total), a Grammy and a place on Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people of 2020. But it left her facing the question: what now? Her new book of exhaustively annotated Hadestown lyrics, Working on a Song, feels like a final clearing of the decks prior to the release of her self-titled seventh album, her first collection of original songs since 2012 and her “escape pod” from the musical. Continue reading...
South Korea is no promised land for escapees from a brutal regime – loneliness and poverty are common fatesNo one knows what awaited Kim Woo-joo when he arrived back in North Korea, just over a year after he had fled the world’s most oppressive regime for a life of freedom in the South.Earlier this month, the 29-year-old former gymnast approached the border separating the two Koreas, scaled a tall barbed-wire fence and walked the 2.5 miles across the heavily armed demilitarised zone (DMZ), dodging landmines but not security cameras, which captured his escape no fewer than five times. Continue reading...
How the story unfolded – from testing positive for Covid in mid-December to Sunday’s court rulingThe tennis star Novak Djokovic’s bid to win a record-breaking 21 men’s Grand Slam titles at the Australian Open ended on Sunday with a court decision to uphold the government’s cancellation of his visa. Here are the key dates in the saga:16 December 2021: Djokovic tested positive for coronavirus, according to his affidavit to the Australian federal court. His accompanying PCR result by the Institute of Public Health of Serbia shows he was tested at 1.05pm with the result time of 8.19pm. Continue reading...
The BBC stalwart and thriller writer on breaking down over the plight of an Afghan family, his new current affairs show – and failing to be enthused by Emily in ParisBroadcast journalist John Simpson has been a face and measured voice of the BBC for more than half a century. For most of his career he has been world affairs editor, reporting from Tiananmen Square in 1989, both Gulf wars and the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 among many other places. Some of his expertise and experiences also now find their way into his fiction: his latest novel is Our Friends in Beijing. Simpson, 77, lives in Oxford with his wife and teenage son.In Our Friends in Beijing, a journalist called Jon is tortured, which you only recently revealed owes much to your own experiences in Beirut covering the Israeli invasion of 1982. Why did you keep this secret for so long?
We wouldn’t condone litter in our parks and countryside, so why do we put up with sound pollution? Alex Moshakis meets the people tasked with ‘saving quiet for the benefit of all life’ and hears their storiesLast month, I spent a cold morning wandering around Hampstead Heath, one of London’s largest green spaces, with a sound designer named Nicholas Allan. For many, the Heath is an escape. There are almost 800 acres of it: meadows and woodland, hollows and springs, hills and ponds. It is big and important enough to have its own 12-person constabulary, which upholds the park’s 47 bylaws, including firm restrictions on drone flying and car driving. Locals I know walk dogs in and out of old forests and along curling gravelly pathways. On the few days in summer, when the sun shines on the city, the park becomes so busy it seems to vibrate, festival-like. But for the rest of the year it remains mostly hushed.In July, Allan awarded the Heath “Urban Quiet Park” status. He was acting on behalf of Quiet Parks International, or QPI, a non-profit based in Los Angeles that is “committed to saving quiet for the benefit of all life”. QPI’s purpose is to identify locations around the world that remain free from human-made noise for at least brief pockets of time. As humanity grows louder, these places are in danger of extinction, the organisation argues, even though they are integral to our wellbeing and to the health of the natural world. Some of the locations already identified, like stretches of the Zabalo River in Ecuador, where quiet might linger for several consecutive hours, are in the wilderness. Remarkably, others are in urban centres. The Heath, which QPI calls “a refuge from the noise of the city” that “has shown it provides the experience of being able to fully immerse oneself within the natural environment”, is one of them. Continue reading...
by Nino Bucci (now) and Christopher Knaus (earlier) on (#5V2AP)
This blog is now closed. For the latest on Djokovic, follow our Covid blogDjokovic issues statement after federal court dismisses visa cancellation appeal; Victoria records 13 Covid-19 deaths and 28,128 new cases; NSW records 20 deaths and 34,660 new cases; Queensland records three deaths and 17,445 new cases; ACT records two deaths and 1,316 cases. This blog is now closed
For nine years, New York Times journalist Andrea Elliott followed the fortunes of one family living in poverty. In this extract from her new book, Invisible Child, we meet Dasani Coates in 2012, aged 11 and living in a shelter• Read an interview with Andrea Elliott hereShe wakes to the sound of breathing. The smaller children lie tangled under coats and wool blankets, their chests rising and falling in the dark. They have yet to stir. Their sister is always first. She looks around the room, seeing only silhouettes – the faint trace of a chin or brow, lit from the street below. Mice scurry across the floor. Roaches crawl to the ceiling. A little sink drips and drips, sprouting mould from a rusted pipe.A few feet away is the yellow mop bucket they use as a toilet, and the mattress where the mother and father sleep, clutched. Radiating out from them in all directions are the eight children they share: two boys and five girls whose beds zigzag around the baby, her crib warmed by a hairdryer perched on a milk crate. Continue reading...
After bursting on to our screens a decade ago, Rylan Clark became a ‘national treasure’. But last year the TV personality disappeared. Here, for the first time, he talks about his rise to fame, his breakdown and recovery – and why he will always love Barbara WindsorAt the end of 2021, Rylan had his teeth knocked out. During two operations under general anaesthetic, then a third under local, his teeth, £25,000 veneers which had become both a trademark and a punchline, were hammered, then chiselled away. “New teeth,” he smiles, his grin now modest, “New hair, new start,” and then he frowns, “New me.”Neither of us were expecting the interview to go like this. Rylan (born Ross Clark in east London – his mother moved the family to Essex after homophobic bullies fractured his skull when he was in his early teens) was intending to talk about his charming new podcast, Ry-Union, his latest project in a series of jolly presenting gigs that began after his appearance on X Factor 10 years ago and really never stopped. “I started off as the joke,” he glitters, “and I’m still laughing.” We were expecting a hoot, is what I mean. We were expecting to chuckle through stories of his unlikely stardom, the cosy place he holds in the heart of the British public, the way he ascended from comedy figure to national treasure over the course of a decade, but he’s had a very bad, no-good year, and though he was not expecting to talk about it, having not yet explained its depths to most of his friends, suddenly there we are. Continue reading...
Linguists concerned as regional languages dwindle amid push to strengthen uniform national identityTwo years ago, Qi Jiayao visited his mother’s hometown of Shaoxing in eastern China. When he tried to speak to his cousin’s children in the local dialect, Qi was surprised. “None of them was able to,” recalls the 38-year-old linguist, who now teaches Mandarin in the Mexican state of Oaxaca.The decline in local dialects among the younger generation has become more apparent in recent years as China’s president, Xi Jinping, has sought to strengthen a uniform Chinese identity. Mandarin is now being spoken by more than 80% of China’s population, up from 70% a decade ago. Last month, China’s state council vowed to increase the figure to 85% within the next four years. Continue reading...
Last week’s ridicule is not the worst sign of the PM’s plummeting standing. The anger of families who have suffered in the pandemic will not go away. It’s now just a question of how long he survivesAfter another dreadful week for Boris Johnson that was dominated by news of yet more rule-breaking parties at No 10, the comedian Andy Zaltzman opened BBC Radio 4’s News Quiz at 6.30pm on Friday by announcing his two teams. One he named “team apologise” and the other “team pack of lies”.Zaltzman added: “This show is best listened to when not at work. If you are unsure whether you are at work or not at work, please check whether anyone you normally work with has turned up with a bottle of wine and is getting hammered.” Continue reading...
Before he helped bring down Richard Nixon, the reporter grew up in a school of hard knocks. His memoir is a treasureFew reporters are synonymous with their craft. Bob Woodward of the Washington Post is one, his former partner, Carl Bernstein, another. Together, they broke open the Watergate scandal, helped send a president’s minions to prison and made Richard Nixon the only man to resign the office. On the big screen, Robert Redford played Woodward. Bernstein got Dustin Hoffman.These days, Bernstein is a CNN analyst and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. Chasing History, his sixth book, is a warm and inviting read. Continue reading...
In 2016, I set out to understand why a border wall appealed to so many. I realized Americans are increasingly boxing themselves in – with vast impacts on the way we see the world“The border’s like our back door,” a concrete salesman named Chris told me in January 2017. “You leave it open, and anyone can walk right in.” It was the day of Trump’s presidential inauguration, and we were chatting on the exhibition floor of a trade show in Las Vegas, called World of Concrete. Circular saws, cement mixers, gleaming new trucks – it was an unusual place to talk about the politics of immigration.But the simple promise of a concrete wall between the US and Mexico had flung a business tycoon into the White House, and I wanted to understand what this was about. Continue reading...
If you really want a less responsible job, it may be time for a new adventure – your time as a teacher will not be wastedThe question You said in a previous column that “a person is not their job”, which really resonated with me, because why do we define people by what they do? I’m wondering whether this is limiting my life. Whenever we meet someone, the small talk inevitably turns to “And what do you do?” For now, I am ready for that question. I am a teacher.Although there is satisfaction from the work there is also the mental load of overseeing not only the education of pupils, but increasingly their welfare, and I struggle to juggle responsibilities of family and work. I regularly think about packing it in for something that does not take up so much headspace. Being a teacher is how I have defined myself for 20 years. How could I square it with myself, if I had to describe myself with a non-professional job? I can’t imagine saying “I stack shelves” or “I work in doggy daycare.” When I try to discuss it with my dad, he says he would be “disappointed because I like telling people you are a teacher”. Continue reading...
Duke of Sussex seeks judicial review of Home Office refusal to let him pay for protection after being chased by photographers last summerThe Duke of Sussex has filed a claim for a judicial review against a Home Office decision not to allow him to personally pay for police protection for himself and his family while in the UK.Harry wants to bring his son Archie and baby daughter Lilibet to visit from the US, but he and his family are “unable to return to his home” because it is too dangerous, a legal representative said. Continue reading...
Killing of the 23-year-old while out running reignites debate about violence against womenHundreds of people gathered in London on Saturday for a vigil to remember Ashling Murphy, a primary school teacher murdered while she was on an afternoon run in Ireland last week, and call for an end to violence against women.Murphy, a talented amateur musician and athlete, was attacked on the banks of the Grand Canal in Tullamore, County Offaly. The area is known as Fiona’s Way, in memory of another local woman who disappeared 25 years ago, while seven months pregnant. Her death has renewed debate about women’s safety, in Ireland and beyond. Continue reading...
Warnings issued for Australia, Alaska, Hawaii and US west coast as waves observed in Tonga, American Samoa and FijiAn undersea volcano erupted in spectacular fashion on Saturday near the Pacific nation of Tonga, sending tsunami waves crashing across the shore and people rushing to higher ground. Tsunami advisories were issued for other Pacific islands, the Australian east coast, Hawaii, Alaska and the US Pacific coast.There were no immediate reports of injuries or on the extent of the damage because all internet connectivity with Tonga was lost at about 6.40pm local time. Continue reading...
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