Countries must close gap on funding target for developing countries says European Commission presidentThe European Commission president has urged wealthy countries to close the gap to meet a $100bn annual climate finance target for developing nations a year earlier than expected.Speaking before crucial meetings on the climate emergency at the G20, and at the UN Cop26 talks, in Glasgow, the president, Ursula von der Leyen, said rich countries had “to try harder” to close the shortfall in climate finance. Continue reading...
Decades of economic imperialism and conditional aid have inspired authors from Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o to Graham Greene to explore continued western controlThe nations of Africa waved a joyful goodbye to their European occupiers in the second half of the 20th century. But in many cases, their freedom was short-lived: for after the colonisers had left through the front door, they returned quietly round the back. And this time the US came, too – the new and hungry kid on the block, collaborating with big business and local elites to exploit Africa’s rich resources.This process underpins White Malice, my account of the CIA’s secret infiltration into the newly free nations of Africa. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president, watched in dismay as new states became independent in theory, with “all the outward trappings of international sovereignty”, but their economic and political policies were directed from outside. This, he lamented, is the “essence of neocolonialism”.White Malice by Susan Williams is published by Hurst. To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply. Continue reading...
Sarah Buckle, a student at the University of Nottingham, believes she was spiked by injection while out clubbing with friends during freshers' week.She describes becoming aware of her surroundings in hospital the next morning with a 'black hole in my memory', with no idea of what had happened to her during the night. Medics told her she showed signs of having been spiked. It was then that she noticed a small pinprick on her hand, which was bruised and throbbing.
Airline, which even barred some people who sought redress, commits to refunds within five working daysRyanair has promised to start refunding customers for cancelled flights within five working days, after criticism of its reimbursements policy during the pandemic.The Dublin-based carrier, which has previously described itself as a “no-refunds airline”, has also announced significant improvements to the way it treats customers whose flights are delayed or cancelled. Continue reading...
With strong drinks and stronger music, rock bars are fiercely independent havens for UK metalheads, who have been donating thousands to keep them alive after CovidIt’s Friday night in north London’s Black Heart, a rock and metal bar tucked away on a Camden side street. The walls and ceiling are – inevitably – painted black, the beer taps are furnished with antlers, and the speakers are blasting out Metallica’s Enter Sandman. As the chorus hits, the whole bar breaks into song, and the bartender turns down the volume so all that can be heard is a room full of joyous metalheads belting out: “We’re off to never-never land!”As pints splash and voices echo, the scene feels poignant: pandemic lockdowns left rock fans wondering when they might have moments like this again, with the Black Heart nearly closing down until it was saved by a crowdfunding campaign with prize draws that raised more than £150,000 in seven weeks. Continue reading...
After three decades on the stage and screen, the star is still worrying about where his next job will come from. Meanwhile, at home, he frets about letting down his familyMark Strong has a good face for villainy – spare and inscrutable, with thin lips and “eyes like tunnels”, as Arthur Miller might have put it. On camera, he gives a sort of fractional disclosure, expressions altering in tiny increments, so that watching him perform is often an exercise in judging how much good can reasonably be seen in the bad. He specialises in antiheroes and authority figures, from gangsters (Kick-Ass, The Long Firm) to heads of intelligence (The Imitation Game, Body of Lies, Zero Dark Thirty). His latest incarnation – as a surgeon who operates in the criminal underground in the TV drama Temple, now in its second series – melds these roles as he crosses and recrosses the line between conscientious and cruel.Although highly regarded for his work across stage, film and TV, Strong is not a big winner of awards (though he earned an Olivier for his outstanding portrayal of Eddie Carbone in Miller’s A View from the Bridge in 2015). He comes across as somehow outside the system. He is reputable rather than starry, plays parts rather than leads and has retained the air of a jobbing actor. Surely at 58, after 30 years of nearly constant work and more than 100 screen credits, with a voice so sonorous and distinctive it draws you to the depths, he deserves a bigger breakthrough. Is he frustrated by the lack of leading parts? Continue reading...
Six-party grouping ahead by four points after choosing Péter Márki-Zay as prime ministerial candidateA six-party opposition alliance that aims to topple Hungary’s Viktor Orbán in elections next year has pulled four points clear of the authoritarian prime minister’s Fidesz party after electing a common leader, according to an opinion poll.The poll, published late on Wednesday, 10 days after the alliance chose a small-town mayor, Péter Márki-Zay, as its prime ministerial candidate, showed support for the united opposition at 39%, compared with 35% for Fidesz and 23% who were unsure. Continue reading...
As Cop26 opens in Glasgow, we provide the soundtrack, ranging from Gojira’s metal fury to gorgeous environmental paeans by Childish Gambino, Neil Young and Joni MitchellFrom its cover shot of a submerged bedroom down, 2019’s Titanic Rising feels like an album informed by the climate crisis, but the lyrics seldom address it explicitly. Something to Believe is the perfect example: a plea not to feel overwhelmed by or nihilistic about the challenges faced, beautifully steeped in the lush sound of early 70s Los Angeles. Continue reading...
by Vincent Ni China affairs correspondent on (#5R839)
Buildings higher than 250 metres to be banned in cities with fewer than 3 million peopleChina has said it will restrict smaller cities from building “super skyscrapers”, as part of a broader crackdown on “vanity projects” and to reduce energy consumption.Skyscrapers taller than 150 metres (490ft) will be strictly limited, and those higher than 250 metres will be banned for cities with a population of fewer than 3 million. Continue reading...
After releasing her introspective debut EP last year, the 21-year-old emerged from lockdown with millions of listeners and a major label deal. Can she protect the intimacy behind her success?Perched on a wall outside a cafe in Haggerston, east London, Holly Humberstone looks like a harried off-duty waitress. She leans on her knees and stares at the pavement as she smokes. It is only when she looks up, revealing racoon-sized orbs of copper eyeshadow at odds with her well-loved brown hoodie, that her identity becomes clear.She is, in fact, a harried, very briefly off-duty pop star. The makeup is from a photoshoot that had her holding uncomfortable poses in the street while van drivers yelled abuse. After returning from her first US tour two days ago, the 21-year-old songwriter from Lincolnshire found that the London flat she shares with her older sister had been burgled. Work has left little time for her friends back home, relationships she is trying to hold fast to because “everything else is so alien to me,” she says of life now, sounding shellshocked. “It’s a weird job.” Continue reading...
Agnes Wanjiru’s body was found in Nanyuki, Kenya, in 2012, behind room where soldiers had stayedThe head of the army has said he is “appalled” by allegations that British soldiers may have been involved in the killing of a Kenyan woman.Gen Mark Carleton-Smith said he was determined to work with the authorities to establish the facts in the killing of Agnes Wanjiru. Continue reading...
Teenager was convicted in July of murdering Nicole Smallman, 27, and Bibaa Henry, 46, in June 2020A teenager who murdered two sisters in a London park has been handed two concurrent 35-year jail sentences, at the Old Bailey on Thursday.Danyal Hussein, 19, killed Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman in a random attack which he believed would act as a “sacrifice” to enable him to win the lottery. Continue reading...
DUP and Ulster Unionist opposition to 2019 legislation is denounced as ‘shameful and disgraceful’Sinn Féin has welcomed a demand by the British government for progress on the introduction of abortion services in Northern Ireland as the party denounced Democratic Unionist opposition to the provisions as “shameful and disgraceful”.Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister, Michelle O’Neill, accused the DUP and the Ulster Unionist party of trying to reverse legislation imposed by Westminster in 2019, which provided for terminations in cases of fatal foetal abnormalities. Continue reading...
A familiar face on Countryfile and other TV shows, Fields escaped being shot when he was barely out of his teens. Now 37, he’s determined to keep exploring the world – and open it up for young peopleIn 2005, Dwayne Fields found himself staring down the barrel of a gun in east London. The explorer, who in 2010 would become the first black Briton to reach the north pole, had got himself into a very different, but still extreme environment. Now a presenter on Countryfile, he had gone to a neighbouring housing estate to demand the return of his motorbike, which had been stolen by boys he recognised. “Walking on to someone else’s estate is the stupidest thing you can do. But I was blinded by anger and frustration.” While negotiating the bike’s return, Fields found himself in a physical confrontation with a man who pulled out a gun. “Before I could say, ‘You don’t have to go that far!’, I heard the click.” The man had fired twice. But for some reason the gun jammed – and Fields escaped with his life.All these years later the experience has not left Fields. Now 37, he still feels “phantom pains” in his stomach where he anticipated an entry wound would be. “It’s something I’ll never forget,” he says. It was not a Damascene moment, but the night he was almost shot – and the paranoia he felt in the days following – was “the straw that broke the camel’s back”. Continue reading...
Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy and Matt Smith star in an entertaining horror-thriller that takes a trip to the sleazy heart of London’s pastA trip to the dark heart of London’s unswinging 60s is what’s on offer in this entertaining, if uneven, film from screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns and director Edgar Wright, serving up a gorgeous soundtrack and some marvellous re-creations of sleazy Soho and the West End. There’s a tremendous image of the marquee for the 1965 Thunderball premiere in Coventry Street, and a show-stopping crane shot of Soho Square, apparently filmed from where the 20th Century Fox sign is now no longer to be found atop that company’s former premises.Last Night in Soho is a doppelganger horror-thriller about a wide-eyed fashion student called Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie) who has brought her mum’s old Dansette record player and Cilla Black and Petula Clark LPs up to London from Cornwall on the train. Eloise has a fetish for the lost innocent glamour of the 60s but, moping all alone in her manky bedsit, finds herself stricken with neon phantasms. Like a ghost from the future, Eloise dreams her way through a portal in time back into 60s London clubland, where she witnesses Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy), a blonde singer – exactly the kind of retro showbiz princess Eloise moonily idolises – who is being forced by her slick-haired manager Jack (Matt Smith) into having sex for money with creepy old men. Gradually, Eloise feels her identity merging with Sandie’s. Is she having a breakdown, or is this nightmare really happening? Continue reading...
by Josh Toussaint-Strauss Ali Assaf Joseph Pierce Rya on (#5R81G)
Tax havens cost governments at least $245bn a year in lost revenue – and many of these havens are British. In fact, the country is leading the world in hiding legitimate money and laundering dirty cash. So how did we get here, and how has Britain managed to preside over a third of the world's lost taxes? Continue reading...
Even if the embattled property giant manages to avoid default again, many other firms are heading the same way, warns S&POne third of China’s property developers will struggle to repay their debts in the next 12 months, according to a new report, as the sector reckons with increasingly serious headwinds from falling sales, restricted access to credit and a wider downturn.Even if the embattled developer Evergrande manages to meet its latest debt repayment on Friday and head off a potentially disastrous default, analysts at the credit rating agency S&P warned that many other property companies could be heading towards bankruptcy. Continue reading...
Two of the victims are in critical condition while the other two men have serious but not life-threatening injuriesFive men have been arrested in Norwich after four men were found with stab wounds on Wednesday evening.The victims were all taken to the Norfolk and Norwich university hospital for treatment. Two of the men are in a critical condition while the other two men have serious but non life-threatening injuries. Continue reading...
The US is appealing to Britain’s high court over a refusal to extradite the WikiLeaks founder on espionage charges, saying he ‘has no history of serious and enduring mental illness’US authorities have told British judges that if they agree to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges, the WikiLeaks founder could serve any US prison sentence he receives in his native Australia.In January, a lower UK court refused a US request to extradite Assange over WikiLeaks’ publication of secret US military documents a decade ago.Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Continue reading...
Industrial action abandoned as trade union leaders confirmed pay talks with ScotRail have been settledRail strikes planned for next week’s Cop26 climate conference have been abandoned after trade union leaders confirmed negotiations on a pay rise have been settled.The announcement was made after talks between the RMT union and transport bosses on Wednesday. Continue reading...
Thursday: vaccination providers are destroying thousands of expired doses. Plus: how fossil fuel lobbies have influenced local politicsGood morning. Scott Morrison’s poll troubles, wasted AstraZeneca vaccine doses and pressure for a papal apology all lead the agenda today.Nearly 1,000 vaccine providers have confirmed destroying expired AstraZeneca supplies, with more than 31,000 doses going to waste nationally. Wastage rates have been low until now, but waning uptake and ongoing local production have prompted fears a larger proportion of Australia’s 7m AstraZeneca stock could fail to go to use. Meanwhile businesses in Victoria have urged the state’s government to drop deep clean mandates, in line with emerging evidence of the “small role” surface transmission plays in spreading the virus. Hospitals in regional NSW are bracing for rising infections, with 60% of the state’s new cases recorded outside of Sydney. Continue reading...
Rejection of the government’s proposed budget after weeks of negotiations expected to trigger an early electionPortugal’s parliament has rejected the minority Socialist government’s proposed state budget for 2022, a move expected to trigger an early election and put a brake on the country’s post-pandemic recovery plans.After weeks of negotiations, the moderate Socialists were deserted by their hard-left allies from the Communist party and the Left Bloc. Those two parties have helped shore up the government’s power over the past six years by voting for its policies or abstaining. Continue reading...
Live bullets, including the round it is believed killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza, were found on the set of the movie Rust last week after Alec Baldwin fired a gun as part of the action, officials said on Wednesday.Santa Fe county sheriff Adan Mendoza said police believed they had the firearm and the spent shell casing from the bullet involved. No decisions have been made yet about any criminal charges relating to last week’s tragedy on set in New Mexico
A congressional investigation has laid bare the disregard with which the Brazilian president treated the lives of his compatriotsTo describe the Brazilian senate’s 1,180 page report on Jair Bolsonaro’s handling of the Covid pandemic as damning would be inadequate. Formally approved on Tuesday by a cross-party committee, the report chronicles not just bad leadership but wilful, lethal acts of folly, carried out by a Donald Trump mini-me who sacrificed lives on the altar of his own unfounded presumptions. It recommends that President Bolsonaro face criminal indictments for a catalogue of actions and omissions that could have led to as many as 300,000 avoidable deaths.As Mr Bolsonaro presided over a death toll which is now the second-highest in the world (after the United States), the report finds he deliberately sent his citizens over the top without defences in the battle against Covid. Other countries scrambled to buy up vaccines when they became available; the president delayed for half a year while ruthlessly pursuing a herd immunity strategy. He himself claims not to have yet been vaccinated. When Brazilians suffered a record rise in deaths during a 24-hour period last March, their president told them to “stop whining”. The wearing of masks and social distancing was treated by Mr Bolsonaro as a kind of weakness in the face of what he described as a “little flu”, and he trolled regional governments’ attempts to introduce Covid restrictions. By presidential decree he tried to keep businesses such as gyms and spas open at the height of the pandemic. Emulating his political hero in Washington, Mr Bolsonaro has disseminated misinformation online and recommended quack treatments for the virus, in the teeth of all scientific evidence. This week, Facebook and YouTube removed a video by him which falsely linked vaccines to the Aids virus. President Bolsonaro’s guiding philosophy during the pandemic is best summed up by the comment he made to journalists a year ago: “All of us are going to die one day … There is no point in escaping from that, in escaping from reality. We have to stop being a country of sissies.” Continue reading...
Amber warnings issued in Cumbria and southern Scotland with month’s worth of rain forecast in some spotsThe Met Office has warned of life-threatening flooding and has issued amber weather warnings for rain in north-west England and south-west Scotland.As of 6.25pm, there are currently three flood warnings in England and 15 flood alerts. Continue reading...
Some ministers remain in detention and could face trial for inciting rebellion, says Gen Abdel-Fattah BurhanSudan’s deposed prime minister and his wife have been allowed to return home “under heavy security” a day after they were detained in a military coup, as the African Union suspended the country from its organisation citing the “unconstitutional” seizure of power.The release of Abdalla Hamdok and his wife late on Tuesday to effective house arrest followed international condemnation of the power grab and calls for the military to release all the government officials who were detained when Gen Abdel-Fattah Burhan seized power on Monday. Continue reading...
Exact date for talks aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal to be announced next weekIran said on Thursday it would return to talks with world powers aimed at reviving a 2015 nuclear deal by the end of November, the first time it has set a date for the resumption of the long delayed talks.Iran’s new nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani broke the news on Twitter after holding talks with his EU counterparts in Brussels. Continue reading...
Country’s interior minister says supporters of outlawed party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan opened fire at rally near LahoreAt least three Pakistani police officers were shot dead and 70 more wounded when supporters of a banned Islamist party opened fire at a rally near Lahore on Wednesday, the country’s interior minister has said.The outlawed party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) has been behind major anti-France protests that earlier this year led to the embassy issuing a warning for all French citizens to leave the country. Continue reading...
This store-cupboard staple is fantastic in curries and works brilliantly in sweet dishes too, whether you fancy panna cotta, grapefruit cheesecake or a super-rich hot chocolateCoconut milk has a reliable transformative power, turning humble ingredients into something exotic, enticing and a little festive. In a short amount of time, a couple of aubergines become aubergine curry, for example. Discovering a tin of coconut milk in the cupboard opens up possibilities.But if you are not a regular user of the stuff, you may be alarmed to find that it’s one of a bewildering array of related by-products, including coconut water, coconut oil, coconut cream, creamed coconut (which comes in a block) and cream of coconut. Are any of these ingredients similar or interchangeable? Sort of. Coconut milk and coconut cream are both made from squeezing the grated flesh of the fruit, with coconut cream being the richer version from the first pressing. If you have a fresh coconut, it is possible to do this yourself. Continue reading...
Dublin Port trade with EU has leapt by more than a third since Brexit as new sea routes to continent bypass Great Britain entirelyFreight traffic from Great Britain to Dublin Port has dropped by a fifth since Brexit while business with the EU has leapt by more than a third, a report shows.Exporters and importers in Ireland have been avoiding the Holyhead-Dover-Calais route over the past nine months, bypassing Great Britain on one of the dozens of new ferry services to the continent that have opened up since 1 January. Continue reading...
by Vikram Dodd Police and crime correspondent on (#5R6KP)
Police officer was handed rare jail tariff for the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah EverardWayne Couzens, sentenced to a whole-life tariff for the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard, is seeking to have his sentence reduced, the court of appeal has confirmed.Couzens, 48, received the rare whole-life term in September because his crimes involved him abusing his position as a Metropolitan police officer to kidnap Everard, 33, from a London street in March. Continue reading...
With government-controlled quarantine spots in very short supply and long waiting lists for flights home, some stranded citizens are taking to the seas
Ousted leader faces multiple criminal charges that supporters say are contrived to discredit her and legitimise the militaryOusted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi testified in court for the first time in one of several cases against her, but details of what she said were not available because of a gag order on her lawyers.Since last week, all defence lawyers in Suu Kyi’s cases have been barred from providing details of the court proceedings. Continue reading...
In total Tripadvisor penalised 34,605 properties for fraudulent activity and banned 20,299 membersAlmost 1m reviews submitted for inclusion on Tripadvisor – equivalent to 3.6% of the total – were determined to be fraudulent by the website last year.In its second transparency report – the first was released in 2019 – the travel guidance platform said 67.1% of the fake reviews had been caught before making it on to the platform by its pre-posting moderation algorithm. Continue reading...
Wednesday: The government’s 2050 plan is denounced as a ‘political scam’. Plus: the most absurd fan theory of all timeGood morning. The federal government’s plan for net zero by 2050 is under scrutiny, as Torres Strait communities launch a class action for more urgent climate action.Doctors are being offered thousands of dollars in bribes for fake Covid vaccine certificates, while others face abuse and threats from anti-vaxxers demanding doctored paperwork to overcome mandates. The issue is so pervasive that the Medical Council of NSW has published guidelines around the strict criteria for exemptions. President of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Dr Karen Price, says vaccine misinformation was driving requests, but that doctors are approaching the issue sensitively. “I’ve heard numerous stories of GPs who’ve had frank discussions with hesitant patients and have allayed their fears by providing evidence-based information, and they’ve gone on to receive the vaccine,” she said. Continue reading...
Monarch, 95, was due to attend evening reception but will send video message insteadThe Queen has pulled out of hosting a major reception for world leaders at the Cop26 climate change summit, Buckingham Palace has confirmed.The 95-year-old monarch was due to travel to Scotland for the high-profile engagement on Monday 1 November. Continue reading...
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