Home Office says Wednesday’s flight will go ahead despite passenger numbers being depleted by appeals and Covid outbreakAlmost two-thirds of people due to board a controversial deportation flight to Jamaica on Wednesday evening have been removed from the flight, while numbers on the plane are expected to dwindle further as appeals go through the courts.The Home Office has said the flight will go ahead despite the numbers of passengers being depleted by a Covid outbreak at an immigration removal centre and by legal challenges. Continue reading...
Lawyers for publishers of Mail on Sunday argue privacy case should have gone to trialThe Duchess of Sussex’s letter to her estranged father was “written with public consumption in mind as a possibility,” the Court of Appeal has heard.Lawyers for Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL), publishers of the Mail on Sunday, argued Meghan’s privacy case should have gone to trial rather than be dealt with by summary judgment without need for a trial. Continue reading...
by Lisa O'Carroll Brexit correspondent on (#5RPZH)
Patricia Burns, whose father was shot dead in Belfast 49 years ago, is seeking judicial review to pre-empt legislationThe daughter of former Royal Navy officer who was shot dead by a soldier on the streets of Belfast 49 years ago has said the government’s planned amnesty for legacy killings was a “kick in the teeth” for thousands of victims seeking justice in Northern Ireland.Patricia Burns is seeking a judicial review in Belfast’s high court in an attempt to pre-empt legislation the Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, is expected to table shortly. Continue reading...
by Daniel Boffey in Brussels and Andrew Roth in Mosco on (#5RPTF)
Alexander Lukashenko accused of sending refugees to frontier to punish criticism of his regimeThe EU has condemned the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, for acting like a “gangster”, amid a worsening humanitarian crisis at the country’s border with Poland.The Belarusian government has been been accused of sending refugees to the EU’s external border in an attempt to punish the bloc for criticism of Lukashenko’s domestic crackdown on dissent. Continue reading...
by Hosted by Jane Lee. Recommended by Mike Hytner. Wr on (#5RPWN)
Ranging in age from eight to 87, Scrabblers hit the boards in western Sydney earlier this year vying for national supremacy. Sport editor Mike Hytner recommends this match report on a competitive board game with mind-bending wordplay
by Mark Brown North of England correspondent on (#5RPWP)
‘Pristine’ 16th-century work found beneath plaster in bedroom at Landmark Trust’s Calverley Old HallRemoving plaster in an old house and being surprised by what you find is not unusual. But discovering 16th-century paintings of fantastical laughing birds, roaring griffins, and little torsos of men sat on vases, all based on a decoration that Nero had in his Golden Villa is, historians have admitted, jaw-dropping.The Landmark Trust has announced that it has found one of the most sophisticated schemes of Tudor wall paintings found anywhere in Britain. It is, said its director, Anna Keay, “the discovery of a lifetime”. Continue reading...
Whether you’re eating in or taking away, you can expect to pay more, thanks to a perfect storm of staff shortages, dearer spices, higher utility bills …Name: Curry.Age: According to plant remains found at the bottom of ancient pots at archaeological sites in north-west India, about 4,500 years old. Continue reading...
Veteran guitarist says act should ‘be more original’ after quartet from Rome wear US-flag costumes for Rolling Stones gigAn Italian glam pop band formed in 1970 has accused Måneskin of “copying our look” after the Eurovision song contest winners wore glittery costumes depicting the American flag during their opening act at a Rolling Stones concert in Las Vegas.Ivano Michetti, the guitarist with I Cugini di Campagna (Country Cousins), said Måneskin were “looking for visibility” in trying to imitate their look and encouraged the band to “be more original”. Continue reading...
Outed in Uganda’s virulently homophobic press, the artist and activist claimed asylum in New York. Now, her sculptures and paintings stand as monuments to the nation’s persecuted LGBTQ+ communityLeilah Babirye is describing what it’s like to go on a pride march in her native Uganda. “It never ends peacefully,” she says, laughing grimly. “It’s always police raids, everybody scattering.” The artist and LGBTQ+ activist made costumes for one event in 2012, including masks for friends too frightened to show their faces. “But as soon as we step on to the beach, there’s police everywhere. So we have to go back home.”Babirye talks to me over Zoom from the place where she spends most of her time: her basement studio in Brooklyn. It’s populated by her artworks: boldly coloured, sensuous paintings of imaginary heroes; giant ceramic sculptures of faces glazed in jewel-like shades; and her signature pieces, chiselled wooden figures a bit like totem poles, lovingly painted and buffed, decorated with objects Babirye has found in the street ranging from bike chains to an old chandelier. They are bold (as tall as 15ft), idiosyncratic, and full of personality. She points her camera at one, which is heading to New York’s prestigious Whitney museum. Continue reading...
Alex Tostevin kept a cricket bat next to his bed after return from AfghanistanThe family of a British special forces corporal believed to have taken his own life after suffering years of mental health issues has branded the care he received as “casual and incompetent”.The mother of Alex Tostevin, 28, a member of the Special Boat Service (SBS), told his inquest that his commanding officers and medics knew he was a suicide risk and needed more help.In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org. Continue reading...
Meteorologists link such weather patterns to the climate crisis, which exacerbates the frequency and severity of climatic extremes and variationsThe unusual rains began to fall in Shanxi on 3 October, and the torrential downpours lasted for three days.According to Chinese media, the 59 observatories across Shanxi province all recorded historic levels of rain. According to the local weather bureau, the average rain in the province reached 120mm (4.7 in) between 2 and 7 October. The average rainfall across the US over a whole month is 71mm. Continue reading...
Crisis charity’s research finds job loss is main reason for European citizens becoming homeless in BritainEU citizens living in Britain are nearly three times more likely to experience rough sleeping than the general population, according to research from the homelessness charity Crisis.The joint research project, led by Heriot-Watt University and the Institute for Public Policy Research, is the first of its kind to explore the scale, causes and impact of homelessness experienced by people from the European Economic Area (EEA) who have made their home in Britain. Continue reading...
Husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe does not yet want to back down in his protest outside Foreign OfficeFears are growing for the welfare of Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of the detained Iranian-British dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who is on the 17th day of his hunger strike outside the Foreign Office.Some of his allies are urging him to stop, saying they are concerned he may damage himself permanently. Ratcliffe is also aware of his responsibility to look afterhis seven-year-old daughter, Gabriella. But after five and a half years of no tangible progress, and most campaigning avenues exhausted, Ratcliffe, who is spending his nights outside the Foreign Office in a tent, does not yet want to back down. Continue reading...
An injured man was rescued from a cave in south Wales after being trapped for more than two days at least 300 metres from the surface. The man was brought out of Ogof Ffynnon Ddu in the Brecon Beacons at around 7.45pm on Monday following a 54-hour ordeal.Speaking on BBC Breakfast, rescuer Steve Thomas said cavers were very aware of the environment they explored. 'It’s not a reckless thing we do,' he said. 'It’s no more dangerous than anything else. I think it’s more dangerous sitting on the sofa watching the TV.'
Thousands of migrants are in the freezing region trying to get into Poland and aid is prevented from reaching themMore than 1,000 people, many fleeing dangerous conditions in Middle Eastern countries, arrived en masse at Poland’s border with Belarus this week, in a dramatic escalation of a simmering migration crisis on the edge of the EU. They had been escorted to the border by Belarusian authorities. Continue reading...
The ex-attorney general has spent months at a corruption inquiry – acting not for a UK constituent but the PM of the British Virgin IslandsDay after day, Sir Geoffrey Cox, the UK attorney general during the Brexit crisis, has been sitting hunched over a pile of court papers trying to prove to the UK government not that a member of his Torridge and West Devon constituency is innocent of corruption, but the innocence of the prime minister of the British Virgin Islands.His understanding of the complex constitution of the BVI, a British overseas territory, is masterful, including its relationship with London, auditor reports on how the BVI spent hurricane cash, or indeed the procedures for chairing the BVI cabinet. Continue reading...
Roman Bondarchuk handles this strange tale about an interpreter left stranded with some locals with deadpan poise“That’s our wandering buoy. It slipped its anchor near the dam. It appears and disappears at will.” A light, unfathomable absurdity governs this 2018 fiction debut by Ukrainian documentarian Roman Bondarchuk, set in the area around the city of Kherson; a sun-roasted steppe north of the Crimea where Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) interpreter Lukas (Serhiy Stepansky) becomes stranded. He’s escorting an SUV full of foreign delegates when it breaks down and he wanders off in search of a mobile signal. On his return, both car and foreigners have vanished.Hitching a ride, Lukas is invited to stay with Vova (Viktor Zhdanov), a middle-aged potterer living with his mother and daughter in a capacious ramshackle construction on the banks of the Dnieper river. So begins Lukas’s initiation – like a milder Ukrainian version of Wake in Fright – into the local anomie. Vova enjoys sticking spoons to his forehead using the supply of glue that was his severance payment from the Soviet fish farm he worked for; then Lukas gets an invite to a listless student party where someone nicks his jacket and wallet. Constantly slipping sly details into the frame, Bondarchuk handles the whole farrago with a lovely deadpan poise. Incensed by the theft, Lukas heads to the police station to make a complaint. Cut to him in the cells. Continue reading...
Mother pays tribute to ‘beautiful’ son attacked while out playing with a friendA boy who died after being attacked by a dog in Caerphilly in south Wales while he was out playing with a friend has been named as 10-year-old Jack Lis.Gwent police were called to the Penyrheol area of the town at about 3.55pm on Monday and confirmed Jack had died at the scene. The dog was destroyed by firearms officers, the force said. Continue reading...
Versatile actor had worked in Hollywood since childhood, and was Oscar nominated for his role in 1988 comedy Married to the MobDean Stockwell, the former child star who became a key figure in the Hollywood counter-culture and enjoyed late success in popular TV shows, has died aged 85. According to Deadline, his family said he died at home “of natural causes”.Born in Los Angeles in 1936, Stockwell had become a major name while still in high school, starring in the anti-racism parable The Boy With Green Hair in 1948 and alongside Errol Flynn in the 1950 adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s Kim. However, Stockwell found the transition to adulthood difficult and after dropping out of university he re-established his film career with a lead role in Compulsion, the 1959 crime film based on the Leopold and Loeb murder case, for which he won a best actor award at the Cannes film festival alongside co-stars Orson Welles and Bradford Dillman. Continue reading...
Economic meltdown heaps pressure on Pakistani PM, with record inflation bringing threat of unrestOn Friday night, 27-year-old Asadullah, who sold old shoes on a cart, set himself on fire in the Pakistani city of Karachi.Ghani, a relative, blamed the state of an economy where rampant inflation is hitting those least able to cope. In comments to local media, he said Asadullah used to get calls from his wife and parents asking him for money, but he could not afford to pay the rent and meet his own expenses and sending money back home was no longer possible. Continue reading...
by Andrew Roth in Moscow with agencies on (#5RP2D)
German interior minister says Poland needs support to deal with ‘hybrid threat’ of politically organised migrationGermany needs to get the “whole of the democratic world” on board to support orderly immigration to Europe, its interior minister has said, amid a worsening crisis at the Poland-Belarus border.Horst Seehofer accused Belarus and Russia of exploiting refugees and migrants in an attempt to destabilise the west, and said EU countries must stand together in the face of a “hybrid threat” posed by “politically organised migration”. Continue reading...
New campaign will encourage survivors to access help and support in response to spate of femicides and rise in reports of abuseGreece is to launch a public campaign urging victims of domestic violence to “speak up” after a spate of femicides whose ferocity has stunned the nation.The country has seen a rise in domestic violence cases so far in 2021, accentuated by multiple cases of brutal murders of women that have dominated media coverage as people from the arts and sports worlds – including the Olympic gold medallist Sofia Bekatourou – have come forward with allegations of sexual abuse. Continue reading...
A new stage production aims to tell the Sufi poet’s story beyond his aphorisms – and challenge assumptions about Islam and the Middle East in the processHe is everywhere and nowhere. The words of Jalal al-Din Rumi are found on sunset images pasted on Instagram and coffee mugs sold on Etsy; his poems have been featured in recordings from Madonna and Coldplay and he is reputed to be the bestselling poet in the US. Rumi’s observations and aphorisms on life may be endlessly cited – “You are not a drop in the ocean, you are the entire ocean in a drop” – but few in the west know him as anything more than a bearded Sufi mystic.“Rumi has become a mystical, almost deified figure,” says Nadim Naaman. “The reality is that he was the opposite of an untouchable deity.” Naaman, a British Lebanese singer, actor and writer, has collaborated with the Qatari composer Dana Al Fardan to create Rumi: The Musical. “Our approach was to take the man out of the myth,” says Al Fardan, “and to present him as human being.” This is the second time Naaman and Al Fardan have brought a beloved Middle Eastern poet to the London stage. Their 2018 show Broken Wings, which is returning to London in the new year, was based on a novel by the Lebanese poet and writer Kahlil Gibran. It was the success of that production that convinced them there may be an appetite for a musical that delved into the life of Rumi. Continue reading...
Documentary director Dénes Nagy explores how conflict erodes loyalty, morality and human consciousness in his award-winning first featureHungarian director and documentarist Dénes Nagy makes his feature debut with this gruelling, slow-burning drama set in the vast trackless forests of the eastern front during the second world war, a film which won him the Silver Bear for best director at this year’s Berlin film festival. This is a world of brutality and fear from which the movie averts its gaze at key moments, but the chill is unmistakable. The title appears to refer to a light which is inexorably fading.Having joined the Axis powers, Hungary sends troops into the grim, freezing forests of Ukraine to secure the territory, keep order, establish supply lines and root out pockets of pro-Soviet “partisans”, naturally making an example of them to cow the other resentful civilians into submission. István Semetka, played by Ferenc Szabó, is a corporal with a machine-gun unit on this grim mission: a diffident, blank-faced man with the semi-official job of taking photographs, who is mocked a little by his commanding officers. They move in on a village which is, at least apparently, docile enough. But having taken food from these peasants, the Hungarian unit move on and are set upon in the forest, the villagers having evidently told partisans their movements. Almost all the officers are killed except Semetka, who gets back to the village with the other survivors, to be met by Hungarian reinforcements, led by Koleszár (László Bajkó), a friend of Semetka’s. It is Koleszár who, via his insolent sergeant-major, orders Semetka out on a spurious task searching the forest, simply in order to get his gentle old friend out of the way, so that he can get on with the job of carrying out the necessary terrible reprisals. Continue reading...
Fabiola Campillai was shot in the face by a teargas canister as she walked to work in 2019 amid nationwide protests against social inequality. Now she is running for office as an independentOn a November evening two years ago, Fabiola Campillai stepped out into the fading sunshine to head for her night shift at a food processing plant.For weeks, Chile had been racked by a wave of mass protests against social inequality, but there were few signs of demonstrators in Cinco Pinos, the quiet neighbourhood on the outskirts of Santiago where Campillai lives. Continue reading...
Returning with new album The Tears of Hercules, the six-decade hitmaker takes questions on his astonishing careerNearly 60 years after his career began, Rod Stewart is returning on 12 November with what he’s talking up as “by far my best album in many a year”, The Tears of Hercules – and he will answer your questions about it and anything else in his long career.Stewart, 76, has had an astonishing life, starting out as a teenage busker and aspiring footballer who ditched the beautiful game for music: “I can also get drunk and make music, and I can’t do that and play football,” he later reasoned. He was a journeyman singer and harmonica player in London’s blues and R&B scenes in the mid-1960s, getting his break with the Jeff Beck Group alongside Ronnie Wood. Continue reading...
An intrepid expert with dozens of books to his name, Stéphane Bourgoin was a bestselling author, famous in France for having interviewed more than 70 notorious murderers. Then an anonymous collective began to investigate his pastOne night in the early 1990s, at a dinner party at his home in Paris, Stéphane Bourgoin, an author and bookseller then of no particular renown, began to hold forth on the matter of serial killing. The topic was, at the time, quite novel. As a cultural trope, the string of mysterious homicides had of course been a fixture around the world since at least the time of Jack the Ripper, and the French more specifically had been acquainted with the idea since as early as the 15th century, when the nobleman Gilles de Rais was found to have kidnapped, tortured and ritualistically murdered nearly 150 young children. But these people had not been understood as “serial killers”. That phrase, and the notion that such criminals were a breed apart, impelled by a special, sexualised depravity, really entered into the popular imagination only in the 1970s, and then mostly in the US, where the FBI had established a unit of so-called “profilers” to catch them. The serial killer was not yet a cultural vogue in France, much less the cliche it was already becoming elsewhere. Bourgoin’s guests were barely familiar with the concept at all. They listened, as millions of other French-speakers would listen in the decades to come, horrified, nauseated and rapt.Bourgoin told his invitees of the FBI programme, of the traits of the typical killer, and of some of the more awful American specimens. “We were utterly captivated,” Carol Kehringer, who was among Bourgoin’s guests that night, recalled recently. Kehringer was then in her 20s, starting out as a television producer. “I started asking him all sorts of questions,” she said, “and the more he spoke, the more I thought to myself: ‘We’ve got to do a film!’” Continue reading...
Injured caver brought out of Ogof Ffynnon Ddu at about 7.45pm on Monday following a huge rescue effortAn injured man has been rescued from a cave in south Wales after being trapped for more than two days at least 300 metres from the surface. The man was brought out of Ogof Ffynnon Ddu in the Brecon Beacons at around 7.45pm on Monday following a 54-hour ordeal.After being lifted to the surface, he was clapped and cheered by rescuers before being helped into a cave rescue Land Rover to be transported down to a waiting ambulance. Continue reading...
Column of people including children led by border guards in escalation of deadly crisisBelarusian authorities have escorted an estimated 1,000 people, most of whom are from the Middle East, to the Polish border in an escalation of a deadly crisis that has already left people desperate to reach the EU trapped between borders and at least eight dead due to exposure.Videos published by Belarusian media on Monday showed armed Belarusian border guards in combat fatigues guiding the column of people, which included families with children, along a highway from the border town of Bruzgi towards a forest that runs alongside Poland’s Podlaskie region as European countries accused the state of using the migrants in a “hybrid attack”. Continue reading...
Michael Rousseau’s decision not to speak French in Quebec address inflames longstanding grievances over linguistic rightsThe head of Canada’s largest airline is facing public outrage and calls for his resignation after giving a speech in English to business leaders in Quebec – a misstep that has inflamed longstanding grievances over linguistic rights and protections in the country’s lone Francophone province.The row began last week, when in his first major public appearance as head of Air Canada, Michael Rousseau chose to address the city’s chamber of commerce without speaking French. Continue reading...
The Viagras and the Jalisco New Generation cartel are vying for influence but soldiers merely patrol the lines between territoriesA small squad of soldiers with about a half-dozen trucks and sandbag emplacements stands guard on a rural highway in western Mexico. In one direction, almost within earshot, one drug cartel operates a roadblock extorting farmers. In the other direction, a rival cartel carries out armed patrols in trucks bearing its initials.The Mexican army has largely stopped fighting drug cartels here, instead soldiers guard the dividing lines between gang territories so they won’t invade each other’s turf – and turn a blind eye to the cartels’ illegal activities just a few hundred yards away. Continue reading...
South African Paralympic champion has served half his sentence for murdering model Reeva SteenkampSouth African Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius could be considered for parole, after serving half his sentence for murdering his girlfriend, according to an official and a lawyer.The athlete shot dead model Reeva Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine’s Day in 2013 when he fired four times through the door of his bedroom toilet. Continue reading...
The Olympic gold medal winner opens up on her violent childhood and the inequality and sexism she overcame in boxingThere was so much chaos and violence in Nicola Adams’s life as a young girl that, for her, boxing offered a refuge. The ring felt like a safe place where she could discover bravery and resolve deep within herself even when she felt lost and frightened. “I was beaten by my dad and it wasn’t until my mum, my brother and I left, and I started boxing, that things changed,” Adams says all these years later.She is a double Olympic champion, having won gold at London 2012 and then again four years later in Rio, but it is only now that Adams can reveal that she told her mother that they should murder her father to end their distress. Her mum had other relationships with violent men in later years and Adams says she slept with a hammer under her bed as a way of fighting back. Continue reading...
Nearly two years after fires devastated the NSW south coast, families still live in caravans as they struggle to rebuild in the face of red tape, a skills shortage and dwindling government supportAs the early morning sun rises over the hills of Wandella, a small hamlet of farms and rural properties near Cobargo, it is possible to momentarily overlook the devastation that tore through the area almost two years ago. Birds chirp, dairy cows roam the valley and a wet winter has left the area carpeted in verdant greenery. The national gaze has long since moved beyond Australia’s black summer bushfires, and even here at ground zero it is possible to imagine that day can be forgotten.But only for a brief moment. When the sun pokes above the adjacent ridge, it illuminates row after row of barren trees that betray the tranquillity. A potent reminder of the fire’s enduring impact, the trees are upright but still yet to recover. The same is true of those who inhabit this beautiful but now melancholy part of far-south New South Wales. For many, the long road to recovery has only just begun. Continue reading...
Analysis: while identity of hackers is not known in this case, Palestinians have long been spied on by Israeli militaryThe disclosure that Palestinian human rights defenders were reportedly hacked using NSO’s Pegasus spyware will come as little surprise to two groups of people: Palestinians themselves and the Israeli military and intelligence cyber operatives who have long spied on Palestinians.While it is not known who was responsible for the hacking in this instance, what is very well documented is the role of the Israeli military’s 8200 cyberwarfare unit – known in Hebrew as the Yehida Shmoneh-Matayim – in the widespread spying on Palestinian society. Continue reading...
President expected to move to consolidate power at four-day closed-door meeting in BeijingA meeting of hundreds of members of China’s political elite, which is expected to pave the way for Xi Jinping to consolidate power with an extraordinary third term as president, has opened in Beijing.The four-day, closed-door meeting of the ruling Chinese Communist party (CCP) central committee, known as the sixth plenum, is expected to produce a resolution on the history of the party, which analysts say will shape domestic politics and society for decades to come. Continue reading...
Nine out of 10 Britons bought ‘treats’ to get them through lockdown – and now many are suffering from buyer’s remorseName: Pandemic buyer’s remorse.Age: Approximately 20 months old. Continue reading...
Naturalist Chris Packham calls for legal action over ‘appalling abuse’ at Hertfordshire eventThe RSPCA is investigating after a woman was filmed by a hunt saboteur group apparently punching and kicking a horse.The woman was condemned by the anti-hunting campaigners, as well as the naturalist Chris Packham and the organisation that oversees hunting with hounds in the UK. Continue reading...
Richard Soliz from Seattle, who spent month ill in hospital, thanks staff and says he ‘deeply regrets’ not getting vaccineAfter being hospitalized for 28 days with Covid-19, a man returned to the Seattle hospital that saved his life – to apologize for not getting vaccinated.Richard Soliz, a 54-year old graphic artist, developed blood clots on his lungs after contracting the coronavirus. Admitted to Harborview medical center in late August, he spent close to a month on a ventilator and heart monitor, as doctors worried one of his blood clots might transfer to his brain or his heart. Continue reading...
Claustrophic tale of a woman falling apart in her flat is familiar territory, but told here with fresh panacheDocumentary-maker Frida Kempff makes her feature debut with a Swedish-set thriller drenched in urban paranoia. Molly (Cecilia Milocco), who has recently finished a stay at a psychiatric hospital following a personal tragedy, has moved into a new flat hoping for a fresh start. The plan proves futile: she is soon plagued by mysterious, relentless sounds of knocking coming from her ceiling. Convinced that someone is being hurt, Molly is determined to trace the origin of this mysterious cry for help, only to be faced with others’ disbelief and her own deteriorating sanity.Such a premise is by no means novel – apartment angst has been done to death since at least the mid-60s, after Polanski’s Repulsion – yet the eerie visuals and Milocco’s heart-wrenching performance elevate Knocking above its otherwise thin plot. Set during a scorching heatwave, the film beautifully pairs the restlessness of the summer with Molly’s own wandering mind, which scissors back and forth between her claustrophobic present and sun-drenched memories of a former lover on the beach. Natural light only exists in these aching echoes of the past. Mostly shot inside Molly’s flat, the imagery is smothered in jaundiced fluorescent tones, only accentuating her isolation and worsening state of mind. Continue reading...
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