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Revolution of Our Times looks at the 2019 demonstrations, which some Taiwanese saw as a warning sign about their own futureA film on the pro-democracy protests that rocked Hong Kong in 2019 has broken a box office record in Taiwan for an overseas Chinese-language documentary within the first fortnight of its release.Revolution of Our Times, directed by Hong Kong film-maker Kiwi Chow and which premiered at the Cannes film festival last year, has grossed around $17m NTD (US$600,000) as of Wednesday, the film’s distributor said. Continue reading...

Analysis: Indian PM is reliant on Putin’s nation for arms and is conscious of shifting relations between Russia and its foe, China

Ukrainian president calls bombing in Mariupol ‘beyond atrocity’ and urges world to ‘stand united in condemning Russia for this crime’

Problems of cost and ‘unmanageable’ volume of abuse cited as eSafety commissioner says proposed bill should be renamed

Kristo Langker was arrested at his home in June last year after an investigation into alleged stalking

More than 1,000 people have been killed by Russian shelling, says mayor, amid outcry over attacks on residential areas and maternity hospital

Move comes after neighbouring Latvia changed the Russian embassy’s address to ‘Independent Ukraine Street’The Lithuanian capital Vilnius has given the Russian embassy a new address on “Ukrainian Heroes’ Street” to protest Moscow’s invasion of its pro-western neighbour.“From today, the business card of every employee of the Russian embassy will be decorated with a note honouring Ukraine’s fighting, and everyone will have to think about the atrocities of the Russian regime against the peaceful Ukrainian nation when writing this street name,” Vilnius mayor Remigijus Simasius claimed in a statement. Continue reading...

Scott Morrison continues to defend flood response as Queensland premier says offer to declare a national emergency in the state’s south-east is ‘too late’

Mette Frederiksen apologises in person to six surviving Greenlandic Inuits who were snatched from families as children more than 70 years agoDenmark’s prime minister has apologised in person to a group of Greenlandic Inuits who were removed from their families and taken to Copenhagen more than 70 years ago as part of an experiment to create a Danish-speaking elite.“What you were subjected to was terrible. It was inhumane. It was unfair. And it was heartless,” Mette Frederiksen told the six surviving members of that group at an emotional ceremony in the capital. “We can take responsibility and do the only thing that is fair, in my eyes: to say sorry to you for what happened.” Continue reading...

Health minister Brad Hazzard says modelling shows the state will see a sharp rise in coming weeks and urges more people to get their booster shot

Judge tells court those interested in criminal case against Bruce Lehrmann for alleged rape need to be ‘careful with the words they publish’ ahead of trialThe Australian Capital Territory’s chief justice has warned the more the public talk about Brittany Higgins’ alleged rape, the more likely the prosecution could be halted, with a lawyer for the defence raising concerns recent public speeches may have the potential to prejudice the case.Bruce Lehrmann has pleaded not guilty to raping the former Liberal staffer in a federal minister’s office in 2019. Continue reading...

While the east coast has flooded, other areas see below average rainfall as climate crisis means ‘the wet getting wetter and the dry getting drier’

Network Rail failed to notice that works by Carillion on Aberdeen to Glasgow line did not match the designA drainage system wrongly built by Carillion and unchecked by Network Rail led to the Stonehaven train crash, investigators have found, when a Scotrail train hit debris washed by rain on to the railway track.Three people died on 12 August 2020 in the worst fatal event on the UK railways in 18 years, when the passenger train from Aberdeen to Glasgow derailed at Carmont, near Stonehaven, after heavy rainfall. Continue reading...

Henry will also star in August in England, to be staged at London’s Bush theatre as part of 50th birthday celebrationsLenny Henry is to make his debut as a playwright with a drama about the injustice of the Windrush scandal.Henry will also star in the one-man show, August in England, which is to be staged at the Bush in west London in spring 2023 as part of the theatre’s 50th birthday celebrations. The play, he said, “is a story that needs to be told about the scandal, and the massive effect it had and continues to have on our community”. Continue reading...

World Health Organization says there are now just eight other countries that have not reported any cases of the virus

Hill’s horseshoe bat, which conservationists feared was extinct, discovered clinging to life in Nyungwe rainforestA critically endangered species of bats not sighted in 40 years has been found in Rwanda, with the “incredible” discovery delighting conservationists who had feared it was already extinct.But the Hill’s horseshoe bat was in fact still clinging to life in Rwanda’s Nyungwe forest – a dense rainforest that is home to endangered mountain gorillas – the consortium behind the discovery said. Continue reading...

White House press secretary Jen Psaki says false Russian claims about alleged US chemical weapons in Ukraine may be pretext

Foreign secretary says in Washington that democracies must never again allow authoritarian aggression to grow uncheckedThe Russian invasion of Ukraine is causing a paradigm shift on the scale of 9/11 in how democracy will confront future threats, the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, will predict in Washington on Thursday.She will call for the west to stand up to authoritarian regimes, saying the west must rise to this moment and pledge that it must never allow such aggression to grow unchecked as it had over the past decade. Continue reading...

For two weeks Kharkiv’s Vera Lytochenko has been raising the spirits of her 11 bomb-shelter mates

Congress passes law targeting LGBTQ+ community, while women now face up to 10 years in prison for terminating pregnanciesGuatemala’s congress has increased prison sentences for women who have abortions, bucking a recent trend in Latin America toward expanding access to the procedures.As some of Latin America’s largest countries – Mexico, Argentina, Colombia – have expanded abortion access in the past two years, there remain countries where conservative religious trends continue to hold sway. Continue reading...

The men were sentenced to between eight years and life for aiding in the attack on Father Jacques Hamel in his churchFour men have been convicted in Paris of terrorist conspiracy after the murder of a Catholic priest in a Normandy church in 2016, an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.The four were handed sentences of between eight years and life in prison over the attack on Father Jacques Hamel, 85, who was stabbed in his church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray by two 19-year-olds as he finished mass. Two nuns and an elderly couple were held hostage before the assailants slashed the priest’s throat and seriously injured another elderly churchgoer. Continue reading...

US secretary of state says Russian leader’s ‘clear plan to brutalise Ukraine’ will end in failure

Analysis: Putin used the same false justification for brutal bombings in Syria, in the glare of western mediaWhen a Russian spokeswoman took to a podium in Moscow on Wednesday and warned of a “biological weapons programme” in Ukraine, fighters on another battlefield – Syria – understood what she meant.The anti-Assad opposition groups that still held northern Syria had heard it all before. From 2015, when Russia took a prominent stake in the conflict, and throughout the gruesome years that followed, claims that they, instead of the Assad regime, had used chemical weapons were a ready-made slur that put them on notice of an imminent assault. The allegations were made by Moscow, whenever ground forces it was supporting wanted to clear a town or city. Brutal, indiscriminate bombardment followed. So did impunity. Continue reading...

Zelenskiy says international community will be responsible for ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ if it does not agree a no-fly zone

Change would mean Ukrainians with temporary visas would be able to bring their relatives to Britain

Deputy mayor of southern Ukrainian city says people living in ‘medieval conditions’ after week of continuous shelling

Labour said seeking to appoint Orlando Fraser ignored due process and showed Tories ‘looking after their own’The government has been accused of “looking after their own” after choosing a former Tory party candidate with links to a rightwing thinktank as its preferred candidate for the chair of the charities’ watchdog.Labour said by seeking to appoint Orlando Fraser, a founding fellow of the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), to the chair of the Charity Commission, ministers had ignored due process in favour of another Conservative supporter. Continue reading...

Lord Agnew said Treasury measures to tackle fraudulent Covid business loans were a ‘Dad’s army operation’Treasury officials trying to stop fraudsters making off with vast Covid loans have been called a “Dad’s Army operation” by a former Tory minister who condemned the lacklustre bid to stop “suitcases of cash leaving the country”.Lord Agnew, who quit as the government’s anti-fraud minister earlier this year, said the first few months of taxpayer-funded emergency loans being issued were “happy days for crooks”. Continue reading...

Covid travel requirement on course to be dropped before Easter after pressure from Conservative MPs

Orchestra faces ridicule over decision to remove Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture

Authorities say at least 17 wounded including women in labour as shelling again halts evacuations

Latest updates: No 10 has not ruled out lifting the government’s moratorium on fracking, saying ‘all options’ would be considered

Scientists resort to unconventional solution to problem of centuries of dirt on Medici family monumentA Medici family chapel created by Michelangelo that was cleaned with the help of bacteria has been presented to the public to mark the 545th anniversary of the Renaissance master’s birth.Michelangelo was commissioned to sculpt the New Sacristy, in the Medici chapels in San Lorenzo church in Florence, in 1520. Continue reading...

Analysis: invasion sending grain prices soaring, compounding effects of climate crisis on food production

Citgo’s Gustavo Cárdenas and Jorge Fernández released Tuesday while US representatives visited Caracas over the weekendVenezuela has released two jailed Americans as the two countries seek to improve relations amid an energy crisis caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine.Gustavo Cárdenas, an executive with US oil refining company Citgo was released on Tuesday night, along with Jorge Fernández, who was arrested last year on terrorism charges the White House described as “spurious”. Continue reading...

Simon James Green had been due to appear at John Fisher boys’ school in Purley, but the archdiocese of Southwark said the event could not be permittedThe Catholic church has banned a visit to a London school by a gay author and removed a number of governors who supported the event, in a move that has drawn comparisons to the notorious 1980s section 28 ban on “promoting homosexuality”.The church said a visit by Simon James Green, an acclaimed author of books for children and young adults, fell “outside the scope of what is permissible in a Catholic school”. Continue reading...

Flood, storm and rainwater policy inclusions and wording vary across providers as government-backed standardisation stalls

Anecdotal evidence from scuba divers of draughtsboard sharks sleeping backed up by researchers

Norway’s largest pension fund KLP also excludes Israeli defence contractor, Elbit, from its portfolio

Those over 55 driving increase in keratinocyte – or non-melanoma – skin cancers, despite years of sun-smart campaigns

Complainant Lord Lisvane says refusal to accept verdict is ‘hysterical petulance from someone caught bang to rights’Lord Lisvane, one of three complainants in the successful bullying claim against John Bercow, has said the former Speaker’s protests against the verdict have “not a shred of credibility”, as he praised the system that allowed a historical case to be brought.Lisvane, a former clerk of the House of Commons, criticised Bercow’s “farcical” refusal to accept the verdict of the panel, calling it “hysterical petulance from someone caught bang to rights”. Continue reading...

Exclusive: UK video website known for far-right content says it will show content while legally allowedA British-based video website once called the “far right’s YouTube” has said it will continue to make content available from RT, despite the Kremlin-backed TV channel being removed or blocked by TV broadcasters and rival sites including YouTube.BitChute, a UK-registered video sharing platform (VSP) with British directors that has a global following, said RT, formerly known as Russia Today would remain on its platform for as long as it was legally allowed to do so. Continue reading...

Report warns that rise in support for conspiracy theories is fuelling recruitment for far right

Labour leader calls for investment in nuclear, renewables and insulating homes to cut use of Russian oil and gasKeir Starmer has accused Boris Johnson of presiding over a “failed energy policy” which is seeing bills rocket, calling for the government to invest in nuclear and renewable energy sources and insulate homes to cut reliance on Russian oil and gas.The Labour leader used prime minister’s questions to repeatedly link the impact of the invasion of Ukraine to the cost of living, an issue where many Conservative MPs want to see more robust action from ministers. Continue reading...

Transport secretary tells servicemen ‘you cannot just get up and go’ and Britons risked worsening ‘dangerous situation’

Minister says women’s march violates Islamic values, prompting counter-events organised by religious groupsMore than 1,000 veiled women attended marches to promote Islamic values in cities across Pakistan on International Women’s Day in an attempt to counter pro-gender equality rallies.In Islamabad and Karachi, well-attended “hijab marches”, organised by religious groups, competed with those participating in aurat – Urdu for women – rallies, which call for an end to systemic discrimination in the country. Continue reading...

Contest between People Power party candidate Yoon Suk-yeol and Democratic party rival Lee Jae-myung too close to callExit polls in South Korea showed the two main contenders in the presidential election neck and neck, after a campaign overshadowed by personal attacks and the worst coronavirus wave of the pandemic.The People Power party’s candidate, Yoon Suk-yeol, a conservative who supports a tougher stance on North Korea, has 48.4% of the vote, according to a joint exit poll by three TV networks, with his Democratic party opponent, Lee Jae-myung, on 47.8%. Continue reading...

Aaron Sanderson named as council’s preferred candidate to run pub on island off Furness peninsulaA 33-year-old submarine engineer is set to become landlord of a pub with a unique perk: he will pull pints and be king of a tiny, idyllic island which was once the launchpad for an invasion of England.Piel Island is half a mile off the Furness peninsula in Cumbria. It has a castle, a few cottages and a pub, the Ship Inn, for which the local council has been seeking a new custodian. Continue reading...

Warning that laundering of Kremlin-linked cash will be possible despite PM’s claim there is ‘nowhere to hide’Russian oligarchs will be able to exploit legal loopholes around Britain’s art market to evade sanctions and launder money, experts have warned, despite Boris Johnson’s claim there will be “nowhere to hide” from a clampdown on Kremlin-linked wealth.It comes as the Labour MP Chris Bryant warned that “valuable assets” are likely to be traded by supporters of Vladimir Putin, and called on Christie’s and Sotheby’s – the leading auction houses – to refuse to handle them. Continue reading...

Government ‘knew about’ consequences for vulnerable women and girls around the world months before plans confirmed, NGOs sayThe British government has been accused of “betraying” women and girls after the harmful impacts of its aid cuts were outlined in a leaked report.Completed months before the government confirmed in September which aid programmes would be cut, the equalities assessment report warned a reduction in aid would have a significant impact on programmes for vulnerable groups, including women and people with disabilities. Continue reading...