by Tom Phillips Latin America correspondent on (#5RMX7)
Authoritarian leader who has been in power since 2007 on course to secure another five-year termNicaragua’s authoritarian leaders, Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, appeared to have secured another five years in power on Monday in an election that the US president, Joe Biden, condemned as an undemocratic “pantomime”.In the early hours of Monday Nicaragua’s supreme electoral council said Ortega, a one-time revolutionary icon who has governed continuously since 2007, had received 75% of votes, with about half of the 1.3m ballots counted. Continue reading...
Perth police have called off search for Paul Millachip, 57, saying it is apparent that attack was fatalThe wife of a man who is believed to have been killed by sharks off Australia’s west coast has paid tribute to a “wonderful father” .Paul Millachip, 57, who is understood to have been from the UK, was last seen in the water on Saturday by two teenagers who witnessed what they believed was a shark attack off Port Beach in North Fremantle, Perth. Continue reading...
Majority of billionaire’s 62.5 million followers vote that he should sell 10% of his stock in electric car firmTesla’s Frankfurt-listed shares fell about 9% in early trading on Monday as investors prepared for the chief executive Elon Musk’s proposed sale of about a tenth of his holdings in the electric carmaker after his Twitter poll.Musk, the world’s richest person, tweeted on Saturday that he would offload 10% of his stock if users of the social media network approved the proposal. Continue reading...
With a disregard for people’s lives, countries from the UK to Poland are toughening up, as if in preparation for climate displacementIt is bad enough when states break their own rules and mistreat people – but it’s when they start to change the rules that we really need to worry. Three recent stories, from three different corners of Europe, suggest that governments are crossing a new threshold of violence in terms of how they police their borders. These developments are harmful in their own right, but they also set a disturbing precedent for how countries in rich parts of the world might deal with future displacements of people – not just from war and persecution, but from the climate crisis as well.In the UK, the Home Office has quietly tried to amend its draconian nationality and borders bill, currently at committee stage, by introducing a provision that gives Border Force staff immunity from prosecution if they fail to save lives at sea. Priti Patel, the home secretary, claims this is an essentially benevolent measure: if boats in the Channel are turned around, it will eventually stop people attempting the dangerous trip in the first place. In fact, it undermines a key principle of international maritime law that makes it a duty to rescue people in distress. Continue reading...
From extreme weather obliterating homes to rising sea levels ruining crops, climate breakdown is a terrifying daily reality for manyThroughout the 2021 United Nations climate change conference, the Guardian will be publishing the stories of the people whose lives have been upended – sometimes devastated – by the climate breakdown. Continue reading...
There is help out there to ease your worries and put your finances on the right pathThe first step in dealing with debt is knowing exactly what you owe and who you owe it to. Payments for any formal debts, such as loans or credit cards, are usually taken from a bank account. Go through old statements and add up all of the direct debits each month. Continue reading...
A mixed martial artist known as ‘the Hitman’ wants to teach me all about pummelling and anaconda chokes. What could possibly go wrong?I walk past a very smiley man in reception, past a smelly changing room, into a matted space. It’s like walking into a Street Fighter II level. On one side, teenage boys practise sit-ups in tandem. They rise and fall, like grubs. On the other, tough guys pretzel each other in submission holds. Punchbags lie around bearing words such as “Venum” [sic] and ‘“Blitz”. I’ve come to 10 Planet Jiu Jitsu at Diesel Gym, London, to try wrestling, but I’m not happy about it. Wrestling is a thing brothers do, to littler brothers, to sisters, to the cat. As an only child, I never had any interest in the performing of piledrivers over sofa cushions. I like ferns.I’m looking for John, I say, to a muscular, topless man. An awed look passes over his face. My trainer today, mixed martial artist John “the Hitman” Hathaway, is clearly revered. “Hey!” says a voice behind me. It’s the man from reception, who was smiling at nothing. Standing up, he looks different. He looks like Jonathan Rhys Meyers, playing a French baker in a Jean-Pierre Jeunet film. He has soft eyes, and the widest smile. I later look up videos of Hathaway in action, mercilessly raining elbows on to his opponents’ heads. I’m very confused. Continue reading...
After her husband’s death in 2015, Khadija Mackenzie felt there was no light at the end of the tunnel. Then she tried a sport that gave her freedom and a deep connection to natureAs a child, Khadija Mackenzie saw a horse only if she happened to pass the polo club. “It’s very urbanised in Singapore,” she says. “We don’t have much wildlife … I think every Singaporean would associate horse-riding with a certain demographic.” Yet horses rescued her from a deep slump.In 2015, Mackenzie’s husband, David, died suddenly of a heart attack. “There was no time for goodbye … I felt very bleak. There was no light at the end of the tunnel.” Three years passed. She realised: “Either you are going to dig a deeper hole or you are going to find a way out.”Tell us: has your life taken a new direction after the age of 60? Continue reading...
The former Arsenal manager has lived the best and worst of football. He discusses self-destruction, single-mindedness and the toll his job took on his lifeArsène Wenger knows that his love for the beautiful game is actually an all-consuming addiction. For the 34 years he spent managing football teams – 22 of them at his beloved Arsenal – he was possessed by the need to win. Little else mattered. At times this devotion produced magnificent results. At others, self-destruction.“Competition is something that eats slowly at your life and it makes of you a little monster,” he says, video calling from his office at Fifa’s Zurich headquarters, where he has worked since 2019. “That’s what I became, yes. I spent my whole life in top-level competition and it makes you slowly somebody who is psychologically obsessed and one-dimensional, someone who kicks out everything on the road that is not winning the next game.” Continue reading...
Imam says killer is ‘grandstanding’ and should not be allowed to re-traumatise New ZealandersThe Christchurch mosque terrorist has filed complaints alleging that his treatment in New Zealand custody – including the refusal to refer to him by name – constituted a violation of his human rights, and that his guilty pleas were obtained under duress.Brenton Tarrant, an Australian white supremacist who murdered 51 people in an attack on two Christchurch mosques in March 2019, said via a memorandum from his lawyer Dr Tony Ellis that his guilty pleas were obtained under duress due to mistreatment in custody. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole in August 2020. Ellis told local media outlets that he expected the gunman, Tarrant, to file an appeal against his convictions. Continue reading...
Imam says killer is ‘grandstanding’ and should not be allowed to re-traumatise New ZealandersThe Christchurch mosque terrorist has filed complaints alleging that his treatment in New Zealand custody – including the refusal to refer to him by name – constituted a violation of his human rights, and that his guilty pleas were obtained under duress.Brenton Tarrant, an Australian white supremacist who murdered 51 people in an attack on two Christchurch mosques in March 2019, said via a memorandum from his lawyer Dr Tony Ellis that his guilty pleas were obtained under duress due to mistreatment in custody. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole in August 2020. Ellis told local media outlets that he expected the gunman, Tarrant, to file an appeal against his convictions. Continue reading...
The island, once a pandemic success story, is effectively closed off to the world and despite the toll on tourism, trade and lifestyle there is no plan to reopen
Players and umpires dropped like flies as bees descended on a Plunket Shield match between Wellington and CanterburyIt’s usually rain that stops play in New Zealand, but on Sunday it was the unfamiliar sight of a swarm of bees that brought a halt to the cricket being played at Wellington’s Basin Reserve.Players and umpires dropped like flies as they took cover from the descending bees on the relative safety of the oval’s turf on the opening day of the Plunket Shield match between Wellington and Canterbury. Continue reading...
Seventy-year-old last seen at Waterloo railway station, London, on 6 November at 6pmPolice have launched a missing persons appeal after the British Black Panther movement’s official photographer, Neil Kenlock, went missing on Saturday.The 70-year-old, who co-founded the Choice FM radio station in the early 1990s, was last seen at Waterloo railway station in London on 6 November at 6pm. Continue reading...
Saiqa Parveen planned to have jab after giving birth but died from disease after daughter was delivered by emergency caesareanShe was eight months pregnant and weeks from welcoming her fifth daughter to the world, but Saiqa Parveen died of Covid after putting off getting the coronavirus jab. Her family have now issued an emotional plea for pregnant women to get vaccinated.Parveen, 37, had planned to delay having the jab until her baby was born, her family said, but she was admitted to hospital with breathing difficulties in September and put on a ventilator. Continue reading...
by Martin Chulov Middle East correspondent on (#5RMAA)
Officials see strike on premier’s home as assassination attempt by Iran-backed groups trying to overturn election resultSenior figures in Iraq believe a brazen drone attack on the home of Iraq’s prime minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, marks an unprecedented escalation between the country’s leaders and Iran-backed militant groups attempting to overturn last month’s election.The overnight attack is seen by Iraqi officials as an assassination attempt, and the first of its kind against a prime minister since the US-led invasion to remove Saddam Hussein nearly 19 years ago. Continue reading...
A year after fighting began, the war is intensifying. How many more civilians will pay?That wars are easy to begin and hard to end is a commonplace, but one which ambitious leaders still forget. Within weeks of launching his assault on the region of Tigray last November – saying its authorities had attacked a military camp – the Ethiopian prime minister announced that the operation had been completed. In fact, one year on, the conflict continues to escalate. Thousands of Ethiopians have died and millions have been forced from their homes. Atrocities have been committed by all parties, including massacres of civilians, extensive sexual violence and the use of food as a weapon. Last week, the prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, declared a state of emergency as the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) suggested its soldiers might advance towards the capital. The Nobel peace prize laureate urged ordinary citizens to take up weapons and told them that “dying for Ethiopia is a duty [for] all of us”. A country already in dire straits is on the brink of catastrophe, Amnesty International warned on Friday.Bolstered by Eritrean troops, federal forces briefly captured Tigray’s capital, but were forced out this summer. Though Mr Abiy has sought to buy more weapons and enlist more recruits, Tigrayan forces have broken through the blockade of their region and seized towns to the south, towards Addis Ababa. They could also seek to take the Djibouti corridor, the main trade artery, allowing them to reroute aid to Tigray, where desperate food shortages persist – and potentially to hit supplies to the capital. On Friday, eight anti-government factions vowed to ally with the TPLF – though the most significant element, the Oromo Liberation Army, already fights alongside it. Continue reading...
WikiLeaks founder and Stella Moris are preparing legal action against Dominic Raab and Belmarsh jail governorJulian Assange and his fiancee, Stella Moris, say they are being prevented from getting married and are preparing legal action against Dominic Raab and the governor of Belmarsh prison.The action accuses the justice secretary and Jenny Louis, who runs the prison where the WikiLeaks co-founder is being held while the US is seeking his extradition, of denying the human rights of the couple and their two children. Continue reading...
Union says teargas used against members outside education ministry building for Khartoum stateNearly 100 teachers have been arrested in Sudan as two days of civil disobedience and strikes in protest at last month’s military coup began.A teachers’ union said security forces had used teargas against its members outside the education ministry building for Khartoum state, where 87 were arrested and many were beaten. Continue reading...
Princess’s close friend says story was not handled ‘as respectfully and compassionately’ as she had hopedJemima Khan, a close friend of Princess Diana, pulled out of helping to script Netflix’s The Crown because the story was not being handled “as respectfully or compassionately” as she had hoped, she has said.Khan said she was brought in to help the show’s creator, Peter Morgan, write the script of the fifth series, which includes the years leading up to Diana's death in a Paris car crash in 1997. Continue reading...
Misleading images shared on social media after mosques vandalised and homes ransacked in Tripura stateIndian police are seeking the owners of about 100 social media accounts accused of sharing “fake news” after mob attacks on mosques in the north-east of the country.Last month’s violence in Tripura state erupted on the sidelines of a rally for hundreds of followers of a rightwing Hindu nationalist group. The incident appeared to be a revenge attack prompted by the killing of several Hindu worshippers across the border in Muslim-majority Bangladesh. Continue reading...
The carved falcon belonging to the ill-fated queen is being loaned back to Hampton Court PalaceIt was catalogued as an “antique carved wooden bird” when it was auctioned for £75 in 2019. Now it has been identified as Anne Boleyn’s heraldic emblem, the 16th-century royal falcon that probably adorned her private apartments at Hampton Court Palace – only to be removed after Henry VIII ordered her execution and the eradication of all traces of her. Its true worth is believed to be about £200,000.The exquisite and richly decorated oak carving is in such extraordinary condition that it even bears its original gilding and colour scheme. In 1536, barely three years after it was made, Boleyn was beheaded on bogus adultery charges – just because she could not give Henry a male heir, only a daughter, the future Elizabeth I. Continue reading...
Campaigners say there is little sex education or discussion of sexuality in the Catalan education systemIt’s hard work maintaining the macho image of the Spanish man. But help is at hand in the shape of Barcelona’s new Centre for Plural Masculinities, which offers men the chance to cast off the machista straitjacket.“This isn’t a place for men to come and beat themselves up for being bad men,” says Laura Pérez, the Barcelona councillor for feminism and LGBTI, who has overall responsibility for the project. Continue reading...
by Lisa Cox (now) and Josh Taylor (earlier) on (#5RKMT)
NSW restrictions to ease further from tomorrow for fully vaccinated; greater Darwin lockout extended, Katherine to switch to lockout; Victorian government announces $44m package for Melbourne CBD; Labor says Morrison is ‘impacting national security’ in submarine row with France; NSW woman wins $1m vaccination campaign. Follow updates live
Mustafa al-Kadhimi was unhurt when drone targeted his residence inside the fortified Green Zone, says governmentAn exploding drone aimed at the Iraqi prime minister’s house has failed to kill him, the government has said. Mustafa al-Kadhimi was reported by the government to be unharmed.In a statement released early on Sunday, the government said the drone tried to hit al-Kadhimi’s home in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses foreign embassies and government offices. Residents of Baghdad heard an explosion followed by gunfire in the area. Continue reading...
by Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent on (#5RKPJ)
The reopening of US routes saw improved forecasts and rising shares, but there may still be turbulence to comeThe golden goose is airborne again. The reopening of the US border to leisure travellers from the UK and most of Europe – with the accompanying fattening of transatlantic schedules – has finally given the long-haul airlines something to be cheerful about.The first flights for non-essential foreign visitors – holidaymakers, friends and family – will take off on Monday. For British Airways owner IAG, not to mention rival Virgin Atlantic and other carriers, it will feel like Christmas, Thanksgiving and all their birthdays rolled into in one. Continue reading...
The resumption of international travel pits new lives against old dreams for Australians who returned from overseas during the Covid-19 pandemicTo live and work overseas is a rite of passage for many Australians. Life abroad, however, took on a new sense of fragility with the rise of Covid-19. More than a million Australian citizens were forced to choose between riding out the pandemic in a foreign country, or returning to the relative safety of Australia.Since March 2020, it is estimated about half of those living abroad chose to come back, while tens of thousands wished to return but were unable to. Continue reading...
It’s not often a young actor finds himself shooting scenes with the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Aniston or Michael Keaton. But such has been the meteoric career of Will Poulter. He talks to Tim Lewis about boomerang eyebrows, acting and activism – and his sneaker obsessionThe actor Will Poulter arrives for our lunch date alone, 15 minutes early and, perhaps counter-intuitively, carrying a bag of his own food. He explains that he’s on a strict diet for a film role, but can’t tell me what the part is. He buys a juice from the café that I’m not sure he actually wants, and suggests we sit outside, which is pretty damp and cold if I’m honest, because he thinks it would be taking the piss somewhat to occupy a table inside when he’s only bought a drink. Poulter’s thoughtful like that. He then unwraps what looks like a chocolate Rice Krispie square, but tastes much less fun apparently, and apologises that I have to watch him chomp his way through it. “I’m speaking fluent cake,” he says, chewing dutifully. He has just come from a workout and it’s clear that his pandemic experience has included more than just the occasional Joe Wicks session. He wears a black Nike compression shirt, mercifully less figure-hugging shorts and, though it’s not very 2021 to note this, the guy is shredded.The whole, slightly strange scene makes a lot more sense a couple of weeks later when the reason for Poulter’s carb-loading and gym-bunnying is revealed. The gig he couldn’t talk about is that he has been cast in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 as Adam Warlock. Even if you’re not that invested in the superhero universe this, in Hollywood power terms, is a big deal. It’s rumoured that pretty well every 20-something actor here and in the US and beyond wanted the role. It is a huge coup for Poulter and the 28-year-old from west London is taking the transformation into Warlock, a character genetically created by scientists to be the perfect, invincible human, seriously. And if that means eating bland, protein-packed oat snacks, so be it. Continue reading...
by Angela Giuffrida, Rome correspondent on (#5RKAD)
Cramped room contains beds, chamber pot and other items used in slave family’s ‘precarious’ existenceA perfectly intact room that was lived in by slaves has been discovered in a suburb of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii. Three wooden beds, a chamber pot and a wooden chest containing metal and fabric items were among the objects found in the cramped living quarters of what was a sprawling villa in Civita Giuliana, about 700 metres north-west of Pompeii’s city walls.The discovery comes almost a year after the remains of two victims of the AD79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius, believed to have been a master and his slave, were found in the same villa. Continue reading...
At least 92 people were killed and dozens more injured in the capital, Freetown, when a fuel tanker exploded following a collision, according to local authorities
The actor and her mother recreate an old photograph, and reflect on the ‘craziness’ of family lifeA poster girl for 90s cool, Sadie Frost rose to prominence as a Vivienne Westwood model, before starring in Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The daughter of Mary Davidson and psychedelic artist David Vaughan, who died in 2003, Frost began her acting career with a Jelly Tots advert in 1968. She has since ventured into fashion (with the label FrostFrench), stage performance (one-woman play Touched … Like a Virgin) and film production (Set the Thames on Fire). She makes her feature-length directorial debut with Quant, a documentary about the influence of fashion icon Mary Quant. She lives in London and has four children: Finlay with her first husband, Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp, and Rafferty, Iris and Rudy with Jude Law. Continue reading...
Police in Bavaria arrest man after incident in which at least three people suffered injuriesSeveral people have been wounded in a knife attack on a high-speed train in the German state of Bavaria, local police have said, adding that the alleged perpetrator has been arrested.“According to preliminary information, several people were injured,” police in Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz said in a statement, assuring that “there is now no more danger”. Continue reading...
Gina Yashere, Stephen K Amos, Lenny Henry and Daliso Chaponda discuss rejecting stereotypes, unwittingly becoming spokespeople and the strides that have been made in representation
by Dan Sabbagh Defence and security editor on (#5RK43)
Several million pounds paid to resolve claims that troops subjected Iraqis to inhumane treatment, arbitrary detention or assaultThe Ministry of Defence has quietly settled 417 Iraq compensation claims and paid out several million pounds to resolve accusations that British troops subjected Iraqis to cruel and inhumane treatment, arbitrary detention or assault.Individual claims that have been settled run into the low tens of thousands and follow high court rulings that concluded there were breaches of the Geneva conventions and the Human Rights Act, during the military operation that followed the invasion in 2003. Continue reading...
She was Hillary Clinton’s aide and the wife of a star politician when a sexting scandal sent him to prison, destroyed their marriage – and derailed her boss’s bid to become president. How did she cope?
Pair aged 22 and 23 expected to make full recovery, as 11 lions and two tigers at the zoo also test positiveTwo hyenas at the Denver zoo have tested positive for Covid-19, the first confirmed cases among the animals worldwide.Samples from a variety of animals at the zoo, including the spotted hyenas, were tested after several of its lions became ill, according to the National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL). The hyena samples tested presumptive positive at a lab at Colorado State University and were confirmed by the national lab. Continue reading...
Youth climate activists appeared sceptical about how genuine the political will to change is when they spoke at the Fridays for Future protest in Glasgow discussing youth empowerment.Campaigners and pressure groups have been underwhelmed by the commitments made by governments during the Cop26 conference's first week, many of which are voluntary or set deadlines decades away
Down to just one breeding pair 40 years ago, the bird bounced back after extraordinary efforts – now its survival is again under threatForty years ago, on a remote rocky island in the Pacific, 800km east of New Zealand, a conservationist set out to bring the rarest bird in the world back from the brink of extinction.Don Merton, wearing a check shirt and shorts, climbed 200 metres up the rockface of Little Mangere Island, part of the Chatham Islands (Rēkohu in the indigenous Moriori language and Wharekauri in Māori), and laid a soft netted trap for the black robin, also known as kakaruia and karure – a tiny endemic bird that lives up to its name, with black plumage, black eyes and a little pointy black beak. Once captured, he gently placed the bird inside a wooden box, strapped it to his back, descended the cliff and jumped on a boat to the neighbouring island – Mangere, a larger, more verdant habitat. Continue reading...
Can you tell a political comedy from actual #AusPol? Put yourself to the test by guessing where these quotes came fromWay before Malcolm Turnbull chose to adopt a Veep joke as an actual election campaign, the line dividing sharp political satire and Australian politics’ somewhat less incisive moments blurred into invisibility.That was made clear during the New South Wales Icac investigation into disgraced former MP for Wagga Wagga Daryl Maguire. Continue reading...
Readers share how they spent festival of lightsI have lived in the Algarve for the last two years, so it was lovely to come home with the diyas (oil lamps) lit in the hallway, and the rangoli (beautiful designs using bright colours) already put out by my mum. Since Tuesday, we’ve been praying together in the evenings. The first day of celebrations begin with Dhanteras, which was marked with Laxmi Pooja to the goddess of health and wealth to usher in prosperity for the year to come. This day always stands out to me as we wash coins and silver collected over the years: the highlight is seeing a British Indian rupee from the 1920s with King George V and inscriptions in Hindi, Urdu and English. It reminds me of how long my family has been holding and washing this little pot of coins – a history that goes across India, Uganda and the UK, and is lovingly looked after every year. Continue reading...
Sinking in which five died led to years of allegations – and denials – that a submarine was involvedIt sounds like the plot of a thriller. A fishing boat sinks off the Cornish coast as submarines converge for a naval exercise. Years of allegations, conspiracy theories, and denials by military chiefs follow.More than 17 years after the Bugaled Breizh sank with the loss of its five crew members, bereaved relatives remain convinced a submarine pulled the trawler down, but an inquest has now ruled otherwise. Continue reading...
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