Stylish entrepreneur turned his family’s textile factory in north-west Italy into a global fashion brandPioneering Italian fashion designer Nino Cerruti has died at the age of 91, a source in the fashion industry confirmed to AFP on Saturday.Cerruti was one of the leading figures in men’s ready-to-wear fashion in the 20th century, with a style that was at once elegant and relaxed. His Cerruti 1881 brand became renowned and in his heyday he dressed many a Hollywood star. Continue reading...
Counter-terrorism officials are monitoring movement amid military-style training and lurch towards violent extremismCounter-terrorism officials and police are increasingly concerned over the trajectory of the UK’s anti-vaxxer movement as it evolves towards violent extremism and the formation of US-style militias.Boris Johnson is among those receiving direct security updates on individuals prepared to “undermine national health security”. Continue reading...
Conservative MPs could force PM out within weeks after furious reaction to Downing Street gatheringsTory MPs will be ready in sufficient numbers to force Boris Johnson out of Downing Street within weeks if he tries to dodge responsibility for rule-breaking parties at No 10, the Observer has been told.While most Conservative MPs say they are waiting for a report into so-called “partygate” by the senior civil servant Sue Gray before deciding the prime minister’s fate, large numbers admit privately that their minds are effectively made up and that they are merely observing “due process”. Continue reading...
The Communist party is obsessive in its demand for respect, at home and abroadThe Chinese Communist party appears utterly deluded. Hasn’t it learned in its 100-year history that some politicians aren’t worth buying? Wasting its money, or rather the money of the subjugated Chinese people, on Barry Gardiner, of all MPs, seems more silly than sinister. Why bother?If you’ve never heard of him, Gardiner is an unremarkable Corbynista, who has continued the far left’s tradition of excusing anti-western dictatorships. The Labour MP took £420,000, a large whack even by the lax standards of Westminster, from Christine Ching Kui Lee, an influence-peddler MI5 said had “established links” for Beijing with British politicians. Continue reading...
The renowned author on the unfinished task of replacing the patriarchy, swapping 24,000 letters with her mother, and why she gives all her books awayIsabel Allende’s books have been translated into more than 42 languages and sold some 75m copies globally. Her career spans fiction and nonfiction, and she’s also created the Isabel Allende Foundation in memory of her daughter (who died in 1992), working to empower women and girls around the world. Her new novel, Violeta, spans 100 years and recounts the turbulent life and times of its South American heroine. Allende, 79, who was born in Peru and raised in Chile, spoke from the study of her home in California, where she writes daily.How did Violeta begin?
She began creating them as an outlet during the first lockdown, now the actress’s spoof sketches are a massive internet hitThe video was, according to former Ukip leader Henry Bolton, evidence of the declining quality of MPs. Anthony Grayling, the philosopher, described her as a “bald-faced emetic” and Philip Pullman, the author, said he was “aghast”.Their collective outrage was directed at the words of Rosie Holt who, asked by an interviewer whether she attended any of the Downing Street parties, said that until Sue Gray completes her report “your guess is as good as mine: I don’t know whether I attended the party”. Continue reading...
Thousands of diabetics in region face ‘agonising death’ amid blockage on food, fuel and medicines in 14-month conflictDoctors at Tigray’s main hospital are urging the Ethiopian government to allow supplies of insulin to be airlifted into the region, warning that their stocks will run out within a week and that patients with type 1 diabetes are “at serious risk of death”.At the Ayder referral hospital in Mekelle, the largest in the region of 7 million people, staff have been told they only have 150 vials of insulin left and no oral diabetes medicines, according to a statement late on Friday. Continue reading...
Bill condemned by activists as an attack on the right to protest will be voted on in Lords on MondayProtesters have taken to the streets in cities across the UK to rally against the police and crime bill, which is reaching its final stages in parliament.The police, crime, sentencing and courts bill, sections of which have been condemned by human rights activists as an attack on the right to protest, will be voted on in the House of Lords on Monday. Continue reading...
Winner of 18 grand slam singles titles says she feels incredibly fortunate that the cancer was caught before it spreadTennis great Chris Evert has been diagnosed with ovarian cancer and is undergoing treatment.The 18-time grand slam singles champion said the diagnosis came in early December following a preventive hysterectomy after she had been informed she was at risk of cancer. Continue reading...
Actor said he had four days left in isolation when he was told his dad had died from Covid in BelfastThe actor Jamie Dornan has revealed he was stuck in hotel quarantine in Australia when he received the news that his father, Jim, had died from Covid after being hospitalised for a routine knee operation.Dornan, 39, most famous for Fifty Shades of Grey and crime drama television series The Fall, found himself on the other side of the world with four days of his quarantine remaining when his father died last March, and was unable to travel back to his native Northern Ireland. Continue reading...
The bassist and saxophonist recreate an old photo and look back at a mortifying incident in a German saunaPioneers of the New Romantic movement, Spandau Ballet’s career launched in the late 70s within the walls of Blitz, an enigmatic club in Covent Garden known for influencing the sound and style of 80s pop. Formed by London school friends Gary Kemp, Tony Hadley, Steve Norman and John Keeble – and later Gary’s brother and former roadie Martin – Spandau Ballet went on to soundtrack the bombast and excess of the decade, selling 25m albums globally. Known for their bitter breakup – Tony, Steve and John launched an unsuccessful case against Gary for a share of the band’s songwriting royalties – they’ve since reformed but are now on hiatus. Martin has gone on to have a successful television career, while saxophonist Steve and his band, the Sleevz, celebrate the 40th anniversary of Spandau’s debut album with a UK tour later this year. Continue reading...
It was a regular family home – just one in which I learned not to run around the garden when the funeral processions passed, and to jump over, never on, any bluish grey powder I might findWhen I was eight, roller skates were things you stepped into while wearing your outdoor shoes. They had laced, red leather toe-pieces that you pushed your shoes into, and red straps to buckle round your ankles. Two chunky black wheels sat either side of your toes, and two either side of your ankles. The metal base could be shortened or lengthened as needed. The skates made a loud clacking noise and didn’t roll well on -carpets or bumpy -pavements. If my sister and I were to build up any momentum at all, there was only one place to go. Down the crem.The crematory was cavernous. The clackclackroll of skates was loud on the tiled floor, which was cold and hard to fall on, but goodness, you could pick up some speed. On the other side of the immense wall was the chapel. We knew that during the day coffins came through one hatch and were rolled across to three steel ones on the opposite side: cremators 1, 2 and 3. But we only went down the crem – as we all called it – when the room was still and the furnaces empty and cold. Each cremator had a small, nautical-style wheel that, when spun, opened the doors on to the scorched bricks of the incinerators. These wheels were handy to grab hold of when we needed to slow down. Occasionally, we’d spin one to see inside. My sister climbed in once, and her trousers were never the same again. Continue reading...
In an age of catastrophe, humour is more important than ever, argues the satirical author.• Plus, 10 terrific 21st-century comic novelsI do not write historical fiction. But I envy those who do. I can picture them sitting in the lamp-lit halls of the New York Public Library on 42nd Street, thumbing through fraying, early 20th‑century telephone directories or spinning the roulette of the microfiche machine, or meeting at a nearby coffee dispensary with fellow history-minded wordsmiths in the wee hours of the day, like hunters getting ready to put a bullet through the heart of a wildebeest. The best are able to address the current moment through deft metaphysical journeys between the present and the past, to illuminate our wayward realities by reminding us that it has ever been so, that the past is not even the past, or whatever Faulkner said.Personally, I have trouble building a literary time machine. A decade ago, when I wrote a memoir set primarily in the 1980s, all I could remember of that era was Michael J Fox running around in a varsity jacket. The rest of my memories were just volumes of mist that sometimes trickled out of my minor brain holes, tantalising but highly suspect emissions that bore news of events which may or may not have been. When one’s teenage years are a distant Greek island, imagine trying to write a novel about the romantic entanglements of the Italian futurists or the political cataclysms of Meiji-era Japan, or anything at all about the ancient Egyptians. Continue reading...
Academics and clinicians say bill ‘will have a profound negative impact on young people’s mental health’Hundreds of clinical psychiatrists and psychologists have warned that the police and crime bill reaching its final stages in parliament “will have a profound negative impact on young people’s mental health”.“We cannot think of better measures to disempower and socially isolate young people,” they say in an open letter signed by more than 350 academics and clinicians and published online. Continue reading...
Six months after demonstrations, courts have quietly started imposing harsh charges such as seditionOne Sunday last summer, 18-year-old Eloy Cardoso left his mother’s house on the outskirts of Havana to collect an Atari game console from a friend.He’d stayed at home the previous day, while the largest anti-government demonstrations since the revolution had ripped through Cuba. Continue reading...
Melted cheese is always good, and especially on the gloomiest of days: indulge in this German spin on mac’n’cheese, or a Georgian bread filled with a lake of cheese and egg, or winter veg on super-cheesy mashBlue Monday may or may not be the most gloomy day of the year, but it’s a good idea to have some pre-emptive preparations in place either way. For me, that always takes the form of food and its unfailing ability to comfort. From there, it tends to be a very short step to melted cheese: grilled cheese sandwiches, pizza, mac’n’cheese, tuna melt … it’s no coincidence that so many people’s favourite comfort food is basically an excuse to melt, stretch and eat cheese. No need to smile for the camera, but we can all still say, “Cheeeeese!”UK readers: click to buy these ingredients from OcadoUK readers: click to buy these ingredients from Ocado Continue reading...
In his new film Nightmare Alley, the Oscar-winning director abandons fantasy for gritty noir – but, as he knows from his childhood, humanity has its own share of monstersGuillermo Del Toro used to describe Hollywood as “the Land of the Slow No”. Here was a place where a director could die waiting for a project to be greenlit. “The natural state of a movie is to be unmade,” he says over Zoom from his home in Los Angeles. “I have about 20 scripts that I lug around that no one wants to make and that’s fine: it’s the nature of the business. It’s a miracle when anything at all gets made.”Nevertheless, Del Toro has established himself as this century’s leading fantasy film-maker, more inventive than latter-day Tim Burton and less bombastic than Peter Jackson (with whom he co-wrote the Hobbit trilogy). From the haunting adult fairytale Pan’s Labyrinth and the voluptuously garish Hellboy romps to his beauty-and-the-fish love story The Shape of Water, which won four Oscars, he is the master of the glutinous phantasmagoria. Continue reading...
Actor’s phone is turned over to authorities investigating fatal shooting on New Mexico film set in OctoberAlec Baldwin has handed over his cellphone to investigators who are looking into the fatal shooting on the New Mexico set of the film Rust in October, his attorney and a law enforcement official said.A search warrant for Baldwin’s iPhone was issued in December. The Santa Fe County, New Mexico, sheriff’s office had said earlier this week that it was still trying to obtain the device from the 30 Rock actor. Continue reading...
Oath Keepers leader is one of the most high-profile arrests yet in the year-long investigation into the insurrectionThe arrest this week of Stewart Rhodes, the founder and leader of the Oath Keepers militia, marks one of the most significant moments thus far in the federal investigation into the January 6 Capitol attack.Rhodes, along with ten other associates, is charged with seditious conspiracy for plotting to violently overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election – the first sedition charges prosecutors have brought related to the insurrection. Continue reading...
Things fall apart … unfortunately there is rather more to know about door handles and cat flaps than I imaginedIt is the season of things coming off in your hands: drawer knobs, door latches, cupboard handles. Everywhere is disintegration and fatigue, down to the very metal. Reach out, turn it, pull it towards you, and it’s yours.On Monday evening the youngest one snaps off the brass latch handle while trying to open the front door. He shows me the piece, shorn away by the force of his grip. Continue reading...
Nicholas Rossi, 34, whose alias was supposedly cremated, was caught after needing treatment for CovidAn American fugitive who is believed to have faked his own death to evade a rape charge is facing extradition after being arrested in a Glasgow hospital.Nicholas Rossi, 34, was wanted by Interpol in connection with the alleged sexual assault in Utah, US, in 2008. Continue reading...
Attorneys say they have ‘reason to believe’ that Robert Olney has ‘relevant information’ about duke’s relationship with EpsteinPrince Andrew’s longtime accuser Virginia Giuffre is seeking testimony from his former equerry, according to court papers in her sexual abuse lawsuit against the royal.Giuffre’s attorneys said on Friday that they had “reason to believe” that Robert Olney, the Duke of York’s past assistant, has “relevant information about Prince Andrew’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein”. Continue reading...
by Caroline Davies, Mark Brown and Lucy Campbell on (#5V17C)
Growing clamour for royal to lose dukedom and taxpayer-funded Scotland Yard security detailThe Duke of York faces calls to pay for his own security and relinquish his dukedom after being stripped of his military affiliations and royal patronages in the fallout over the civil sexual assault case against him.The calls come as his accuser, Virginia Giuffre, welcomed the New York court ruling that paved the way for her lawsuit against Prince Andrew to proceed to trial, as she pledged to “continue to expose the truth”. Continue reading...
Supporters of a ‘failed’ asylum seeker who has now won her fourth appeal count the cost to both her and the stateWe have been supporting a “failed” asylum seeker in her struggle against the asylum system. Her case, though exceptionally strong, was never accepted as she had not been willing in her first interview to reveal to a male interpreter details of abuse at the hands of the police.For the last 20 years, her claims were dismissed on the basis that she lacked credibility. We knew otherwise. She was a trained teacher. If one calculates the costs, taking into account the lost income from her not working (tax, national insurance etc), the cost to NGOs that supported her with food, clothing and accommodation, the cost of tribunals, legal and clerical work, and the associated costs of processing her four appeals, the overall cost to the UK state is of the order of £250,000. Continue reading...
by Jon Henley Europe correspondent and Milivoje Panto on (#5V124)
Fans say Australia’s visa denial a witch-hunt, while Belgrade starts to distance itself from player’s anti-vaccine stanceNovak Djokovic’s supporters in Serbia have reacted furiously to Australia’s decision to cancel the world tennis No 1’s visa for a second time, but the government has yet to respond officially and previously vociferous politicians have stayed quiet.The unvaccinated tennis star on Friday asked a court to block his deportation before the Australian Open after Australia’s immigration minister revoked his visa, citing strict Covid-19 entry regulations and stating it was in the public interest. Continue reading...
John Sillett, who trained riders for the 2016 Rio Olympics, was acquitted by a juryA former Olympic showjumping coach has been found not guilty of the rape and sexual abuse of a teenage girl.John Sillett, who trained riders for the 2016 Rio Olympics, was acquitted by a jury of five counts of rape, five of assault by penetration and two of sexual assault after a trial at Winchester crown court. Continue reading...
After another extraordinary day in the Novak Djokovic saga ahead of the Australian Open, what now for the world No 1?Another extraordinary day in the Novak Djokovic saga began at 5.52pm local time when Australia’s minister for immigration, Alex Hawke, exerted his personal powers to cancel the men’s world No 1’s visa for the second time. In a statement Hawke said he had done so “on health and good order grounds, on the basis that it was in the public interest to do so”. Continue reading...
German MEP Rainer Wieland spent £20,000 on a light fitting and the same amount on bespoke doorsA vice-president of the European parliament is facing questions after it was revealed he had spent nearly €690,000 (£576,000) on lavish office renovations.Rainer Wieland, a Christian Democrat MEP from Germany, spent €486,011 on a state-of-the-art office and €134,774 “showroom” next door, both built from scratch on the 15th floor of the European parliament in Brussels, according to a leaked report seen by the Guardian. Continue reading...
A group of 31 men started a 10-week intensive training program to become members of the Taiwan navy’s elite amphibious reconnaissance and patrol unit. It involved sleep deprivation and intense physical training, all while soaking wet. Only 15 finished Continue reading...
Court rejects case brought by four people who arrived in UK as adults to join family membersFour Windrush generation descendants have lost their high court battle for the scheme for victims to be widened to include them.Yvonne Williams, Yvonne Smith, Jennifer Ulett-Hall and Damian Gabrielle argued in the high court that the Windrush scheme should be extended beyond its current parameters to include descendants of the Windrush generation such as them. Continue reading...
Supplies for more than 5 million people in need of food are running out, says World Food ProgrammeThe Tigray region of northern Ethiopia stands on the edge of a humanitarian disaster, the UN has said, as fighting escalates and stocks of essential food for malnourished children run out.The World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday that it would be distributing its last supplies of cereals, pulses and oil next week to Tigray, where more than 5 million people are estimated to be in need of food assistance. Continue reading...
Rescuers in France find 25 other people on board boat in trouble and five others on sandbankA person has been declared dead after being pulled from the Channel, French authorities have said.One individual was found overboard and unconscious in the early hours of Friday after a boat believed to be heading for the UK got into difficulty off the French coast. Continue reading...
‘It’s like a museum,’ says princess caught in inheritance feud over sprawling property in Italian capitalAs legend goes, tossing a coin into the Trevi fountain guarantees a return visit to Rome. When, as a 16-year-old American tourist, Rita Carpenter participated in the ritual and made a wish to one day marry a Roman and live in the Italian capital, little did she know that almost five decades on she would return to marry a prince and home would be a 16th-century villa stuffed with history, including the only ceiling mural ever painted by Caravaggio.But now Princess Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi is facing the prospect of having to move out of the sprawling Villa Aurora, and the vast treasures it contains are at risk of being closed off to the public. Continue reading...
February issue cover shot is an important statement of anti-tokenism, says magazine’s editorBritish Vogue has hailed a new era that centres African fashion. The magazine’s February issue features nine dark-skinned models of African heritage on its cover, including Adut Akech.Seemingly referencing Peter Lindbergh’s “Supers” Vogue cover from 1990, which introduced the world to the idea of the supermodel, the shot is a challenge to the traditionally white fashion industry which has, since the murder of George Floyd, been under pressure to change and become more inclusive and diverse. Continue reading...
Crown Prosecution Service issues statement saying talks with alleged killer’s legal team to continueHarry Dunn’s alleged killer, Anne Sacoolas, will no longer face a court hearing, to enable “ongoing discussions” with the Crown Prosecution Service to continue.The CPS previously said in a statement that the 44-year-old’s case would be heard at Westminster magistrates court on Tuesday, but the hearing has now been vacated. Continue reading...
New documentary Taming the Garden follows an ancient tree’s journey to a Georgian tycoon’s property – a tale of limb-cracking ruthlessness and mythic beautyVillagers gather round kitchen tables, squabbling about the fate of huge trees, some of which have stood for centuries in front of their homes. What does one tree matter if its removal means the roads will be improved, argues a man, while an old woman mutters ominously about payback in the next life.Outside, majestic oaks and limes quiver as bulldozers carve trenches round their roots and industrial pipes are driven beneath their gnarled and mossy trunks. The aim is not to destroy them but to move them to a new home: a lush arboreal Shangri-La that is being conjured up by one of Georgia’s richest and most powerful men. Continue reading...
The indie veteran has confirmed he will appear in the new Ant-Man film. As a master of sardonic asides, he’s the perfect fitBill Murray’s confirmation that he is to play an unnamed villain in the upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania isn’t the first time a prestigious star has deigned to join the weird world of Marvel. Glenn Close turned up as a space colony administrator in the Guardians of the Galaxy films, and Jeff Goldblum played the enthusiastically freaky Grandmaster in 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok. Cate Blanchett was the Norse God’s evil big sister in that movie, while Benicio del Toro appeared as the mysterious Collector in three films, culminating in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, where Thanos dispensed with him.Murray, the ageing doyen of indie cinema, has of course appeared in blockbusters before. Before becoming the kind of guy Wes Anderson and Sofia Coppola have on speed dial, he was king of 80s and 90s comedy, his leading turns in the original Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day perhaps even marking the commercial zenith of that period. Continue reading...
An affair needn’t signal the end of a relationship. Whether you’re the one who strayed or the one betrayed, here’s how to come through itWhat counts as an affair?
Sick personnel push hospitals to their breaking point as the Omicron variant tears through the regionAs the Omicron variant rips through the US, states in the south continue to report record case numbers amid serious concern around hospital staff shortages.In Mississippi, officials warned this week the hospital system was on the verge of crisis due to staff shortages as local media reported most hospitals in the state were at or had reached capacity during the Omicron surge. Continue reading...
by Nino Bucci (now) and Caitlin Cassidy (earlier) on (#5TZZN)
NSW records 29 Covid deaths on state’s deadliest day of pandemic as new cases expected to ‘plateau’ next week; Victoria to establish two Covid medi-hotels after 18 deaths recorded; three Covid deaths in Qld, six in SA; Tasmania reports 1,201 cases, ACT 1,125, NT 546; more than 4,300 in hospital nationally; decision on Djokovic’s visa expected today. Follow all the day’s news live
While wealthiest got richer, 140m people fell into poverty as jobs were lost, wiping out years of gains for poorest, report findsTwenty new “pandemic billionaires” have been created in Asia thanks to the international response to Covid-19, while 140 million people across the continent were plunged into poverty as jobs were lost during the pandemic, according to Oxfam.A report by the aid organisation says that by March 2021, profits from the pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and services needed for the Covid response had made 20 people new billionaires as lockdowns and economic stagnation destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of others. Continue reading...
Guardian photographer Sarah Lee describes her experience as a stills photographer on the set of the joint British-German Netflix production starring Jeremy IronsMunich, based on the Robert Harris novel, is a German-British TV production that was filmed in Germany and subsequently in England in late 2020. I was invited to join the crew as an on-set stills photographer for the UK leg of shooting.We started in Liverpool, which was doubling for 1930s London. The historic Liver Building, which stood in for Gotham city in the forthcoming Batman movie, made a very convincing Whitehall. The production later moved south to Amersham in Buckinghamshire where we shot in historic houses used as sets for Chequers and Downing Street.Liverpool doubled for 1930s London – with the historic Liver Building making an impressive substitute for Whitehall Continue reading...
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