Traditional war dance, often performed by top sports teams, has been subject to controversial appropriation in the UKIt may not be enough to prevent the dance being butchered by dance troupes, in TikToks or at pub crawls, but a historic new UK-New Zealand free trade deal includes commitments from the UK to protect New Zealand’s iconic haka, Ka Mate.The deal is expected to boost New Zealand’s GDP by $970m, and eventually lift tariffs on all its exports to the UK. But its provisions extend beyond the economic: unusually, it also notes “a commitment by the UK to cooperate with New Zealand to identify appropriate ways to advance recognition and protection of the haka Ka Mate ... [and] acknowledge Ngāti Toa Rangatira’s [the leaders of Ngāti Toa tribe’s] guardianship of the haka”. Continue reading...
Activists say the presence of the countries most affected by climate crisis is key to pressuring leaders to agree aggressive targetsA third of Pacific small island states and territories do not plan to send any government figures to the Cop26 summit in Glasgow due to Covid-19 travel restrictions.The lack of high-level representation of Pacific nations at the meeting has led to fears that the concerns of these countries, which are among those most at risk due to the climate crisis, will not be appropriately represented at the summit. Continue reading...
Ofcom research finds 45m people received at least one fraudulent message in last three monthsA government taskforce is to meet on Thursday to discuss ways to tackle the sharp rise in scams that has hit the UK since the start of the pandemic.Groups representing banks, telecoms companies and consumers will meet with the minister for security, Damien Hinds, to discuss measures to tackle online fraud, and increase public awareness. Continue reading...
by Aubrey Allegretti, and Tess McClure in Christchurc on (#5QYMS)
‘Groundbreaking’ agreement criticised by UK farmers is part of 10-year plan to pivot to Indo-PacificBritain has struck a trade deal with New Zealand, a key ally, as ministers hope to stem the country’s reliance on China – but the agreement is expected to add no value to the UK’s gross domestic product.Despite the Department for International Trade heralding the deal as a “groundbreaking” achievement that was a “vital part” of Boris Johnson’s commitment to levelling up, the prime minister has been accused of selling out British farmers. Continue reading...
Thursday: The number of unused AstraZeneca doses in Australia has ballooned above 7m. Plus, an AI artist robot causes a diplomatic fracasGood morning. There is a push to send Australia’s excess AstraZeneca stock abroad, the Brazilian president is facing calls he be charged with crimes against humanity, and Aboriginal child welfare advocates call for legislative review in NSW.Doctors and pharmacists are being urged to use excess AstraZeneca vaccine stock amid fears much of the current 7m surplus doses could go to waste, Guardian Australia has revealed. None of the excess stock has been earmarked for foreign aid, with the volume of supply available to Pacific neighbours declining to just 26,500 last week. Former AMA president, Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, condemned “a very good vaccine going to waste”, as declining public take-up causes stock held by suburban GPs to pass expiration dates. Continue reading...
Yat-Sen Chang sentenced to nine years after using ‘fame and prestige’ to sexually abuse young dancersA former English National Ballet (ENB) principal dancer who used his “fame and prestige” to sexually abuse young dance students in his care has been jailed for nine years.Yat-Sen Chang, 49, a leading figure on the British and international ballet scene, had been convicted in May of 12 counts of sexual assault and one count of assault by penetration. Continue reading...
by Emmanuel Akinwotu, west Africa correspondent on (#5QBJS)
UN study finds streaming services have increased demand for film productions from across the continent, but warns piracy and underinvestment hampering growthFilm industries in Africa could quadruple their revenue to $20bn (£15bn) and create an extra 20m jobs in creative industries, according to a UN report about cinema on the continent.The booming film industry in Nigeria – Nollywood is the world’s second-largest film industry in terms of output – and Senegal were examples of African countries with defined business models and growing avenues for local film productions, which are increasingly sought after by television and streaming services such as Netflix and Disney+, said the report by the United Nation’s cultural body, Unesco. Continue reading...
A man in Windsor received an unwelcome and surprising gift in his garden, courtesy of a passing aeroplane. Was he especially unlucky, or should all of us keep an eye on the skies?Name: Aeroplane toilets.Location: At the back, sometimes in the middle – and at the front if you are rich enough. Continue reading...
Former French president told he must appear in trial over misuse of public funds to finance opinion pollsFrance’s former president Nicolas Sarkozy has been ordered to testify in the trial of one-time aides and allies who are accused of misusing public money to finance opinion poll contracts, a judge has ruled.Sarkozy was at the Élysée Palace at the time and has presidential immunity in this specific case but had said he would not appear in court as a witness. Continue reading...
A bomb attack in Damascus has killed 14 people and left three injured, Syrian state TV Sana reported, releasing video of emergency services searching the charred remains of a bus. Two bombs struck the military bus on Wednesday morning, the deadliest attack in the Syrian capital since a bombing claimed by Islamic State at the Justice Palace in March 2017 that killed at least 30.No group has yet claimed responsibility for the bus bombing but soon after the attack shelling by government forces killed eight people in the Idlib region, which is controlled by groups that have claimed to have carried out such attacks in the past
Assad’s forces kill eight in Idlib strikes following bombing in heart of Syrian capitalA bomb attack on an army bus in Damascus has killed 14 people, the deadliest attack in the Syrian capital in four years, the Sana state news agency reported.No group has yet claimed responsibility for the bombing but moments later shelling by government forces killed eight people in the Idlib region, which is controlled by groups that have claimed to have carried out such attacks in the past. Continue reading...
State media report that device launched on Tuesday had ‘lots of advanced control guidance technologies’North Korea says it has successfully tested a “new type” of submarine-launched ballistic missile, as the nuclear-armed country pursues ever more improved weapons.The device had “lots of advanced control guidance technologies”, the official Korean Central News Agency said on Wednesday, adding that it was launched from the same vessel that the North used in its first submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) tests five years ago. The latter point casts doubt on claims by Pyongyang in 2015 that it had launched a submarine-based missile. Continue reading...
Special taskforce convened by IAEA to look into Aukus deal as Iran hints at fresh pursuit of its 2018 naval nuclear propulsion programThe head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog has said other states could follow Australia’s example and seek to build nuclear-powered submarines, raising serious proliferation and legal concerns.Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said during a visit to Washington that he had sent a special team to look into the safety and legal implications of the Aukus partnership announced last month, in which the US and UK will help Australia build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines. Continue reading...
Terminal was evacuated on Tuesday afternoon but police investigation found ‘no security threat’Manchester airport’s Terminal 2 has reopened after a police investigation found “no security threat” following reports of a suspicious package.The terminal was closed and passengers evacuated on Tuesday afternoon after Greater Manchester police set up a cordon to deal with the incident. Continue reading...
A family of four were seriously hurt after an explosion ripped through a terraced house on a South Ayrshire council estate, destroying their home and severely damaging others. Continue reading...
Starring Sarah Paulson and Beanie Feldstein, Ryan Murphy’s 10-part series on the infamous White House affair is propulsive, addictive and shot through with comedyThere is nothing stranger than the recent past. For that reason, it can be a goldmine for writers, and none has extracted more from it in the past few years than Ryan Murphy. The late 90s is his most fertile seam, furnishing all three parts of his American Crime Story anthology. The opening season gave him his first – and unexpected – post-Glee hit in the glorious The People v OJ Simpson, which retold the story of the 1994 killing of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman and the most infamous murder trial of modern (media) times that followed. Then came The Assassination of Gianni Versace, about the death of the designer at the hands of Andrew Cunanan in 1997. Now we have Impeachment (BBC Two), which focuses on the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal that occupied minds, headlines and the House of Representatives for much of 1998.This new 10-part instalment, written mainly by Sarah Burgess, puts the bureaucrat Linda Tripp – played by the most revered of his repertory company, Sarah Paulson – rather than the US president or his intern front and centre. The drama opens in 1998 with her leading the FBI to Monica (Beanie Feldstein) and leading her away to a hotel for questioning (“It’s for your own good,” Tripp assures her) as part of the Paula Jones investigation and pending lawsuit. We then move back to 1993, the suicide of Vince Foster and the Whitewater investigation, presented as the beginning of Tripp’s move from loyal (if abrasive and self-aggrandising) White House civil servant to embittered employee ready to put a metaphorical bomb under the place. Continue reading...
Draft text says neglect, incompetence and opposition to science fueled ‘stratospheric’ death tollThe Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, should face murder charges for his role in the country’s “stratospheric” coronavirus death toll, a draft report from a senate inquiry into Brazil’s Covid crisis has recommended.The 1,078-page document, published by Brazilian media on Tuesday afternoon, is not due to be voted on by the commission until next week and could yet be modified by senators. Continue reading...
Ten passengers escape injury but trapped train driver has to be freed by fire and rescue before being taken to hospitalA passenger train has partially derailed on a track near Wollongong, south of Sydney, with reports it hit a car before the front carriage overturned.Emergency services at the scene said the driver of the train had been trapped, while 10 passengers had been helped off the train with no injuries. Continue reading...
by Scott Bryan and Michael Chakraverty on (#5QX3M)
It was German Week in the tent, and the bakers said hallo to layer cakes, Christmas biscuits – and a yeasty showstopper. But who got Das Boot?“Just another one of Jürgen’s weeks,” says Lizzie. “We’re all just here for the ride.” At least they’re aware of it too.“What is German Week?” asks Amanda. Well I reckon, and I could be wrong, that it’ll be a week of German bakes. But it’s anybody’s guess! Continue reading...
by Maya Wolfe-Robinsonand Libby Brooks on (#5QX3N)
One man arrested after woman reports ‘scratching sensation’, as campaign group calls for boycottsA man has been arrested as Nottinghamshire police investigate reports of women being injected with needles on nights out in the past fortnight, and there have been calls for a boycott of nightclubs in at least 30 towns and cities.Police said a 20-year-old man was arrested after one woman reported “a scratching sensation” and suspected her drink had been spiked at a club in Nottingham city centre on Saturday. He was later released on bail. Continue reading...
Group of 11 were forced to watch killing spree and then used as human shields, trial over Paris attacks hearsSurvivors of the 2015 terrorist attack on the Bataclan concert hall in Paris have described their fear and panic when they were held hostage in a corridor for more than two hours by two gunmen armed with Kalashnikovs and wearing explosive vests.Three witnesses – one a 23-year-old barman at the time of the attack and two IT workers who were in their 30s – told France’s biggest ever criminal trial how they were among 11 people first forced to watch as the gunmen took pleasure in targeting and shooting concertgoers from a balcony, and then taken to a narrow upstairs corridor and used as human shields. Continue reading...
Penelope Jackson, 66, said she hoped ‘bully’ David Jackson, 78, could not be saved, in video shown to Bristol crown courtA retired accountant who stabbed her husband to death has told a jury that he repeatedly beat her and once held a knife to her throat, as footage was released of her being arrested and telling police she hoped he would die – and asking officers to fetch her coat.Penelope Jackson, 66, said her husband, former army Lt Col David Jackson, 78, once head-butted her when he returned from home and threw her down cellar stairs during a Mother’s Day celebration at an officer’s mess. Continue reading...
Irmgard Furchner, who tried to flee last month, is accused of complicity in killings at Stutthof death campA 96-year-old former secretary at a Nazi concentration camp has gone on trial in Germany for alleged complicity in the murder of more than 11,000 people imprisoned there, three weeks after she attempted to flee the proceedings.Irmgard Furchner was pushed into the court in Itzehoe, northern Germany, strapped into a blue ambulance wheelchair and clutching a brown cloth bag. A silk patterned scarf, sunglasses and a medical mask covered her face. Continue reading...
Footage has emerged of the moment an Insulate Britain protester was pushed by a Range Rover driven by a woman taking her son to school.When the protesters refuse to move the driver gets back into her car and inches it forward on to them.
Authorities are negotiating for their release but reluctant to pay money that will be used for ‘more guns and more munitions’A Haitian gang that kidnapped a group of American and Canadian missionaries has demanded a $17m ransom for their release, according to the country’s justice minister.Liszt Quitel told the Wall Street Journal the FBI and Haitian police were in contact with the kidnappers from the 400 Mawozo gang, who seized the missionaries at the weekend outside the capital, Port-au-Prince. Continue reading...
by Jessica Elgot Chief political correspondent on (#5QWGP)
Anne-Marie Trevelyan says she has no doubt PM and his wife followed the rules during ‘really tough time’Carrie Johnson needed her friend in her “childcare bubble” with Boris Johnson for extra support over Christmas because of the challenges of running the country and experiencing difficult pregnancies, a cabinet minister has claimed.It has been revealed that the Johnsons’ friend Nimco Ali, godmother to their son Wilfred, spent Christmas with the family at a time when lockdown restrictions in London prevented almost all household mixing. Continue reading...
by Helen Davidson in Taipei and Vincent Ni on (#5QW8Y)
Authorities using predictive policing and human surveillance on Muslims in Xinjiang, thinktank saysAuthorities in the Chinese region of Xinjiang are using predictive policing and human surveillance to gather “micro clues” about Uyghurs and empower neighbourhood informants to ensure compliance at every level of society, according to a report.The research by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) thinktank detailed Xinjiang authorities’ expansive use of grassroots committees, integrated with China’s extensive surveillance technology, to police their Uyghur neighbours’ movements – and emotions. Continue reading...
When Randy Sue first saw a picture of Courtney on a friend’s wall, she jokingly called him her future husband. They finally met three years later, married and now live in Houston, TexasRandy Sue was studying at college in Texas in the spring of 1966 when she went to visit a friend in Raymondville, near the Mexican border. “I spotted a picture of a handsome man on the wall and asked who it was. My friend told me it was her brother, Courtney, who was in Germany with the army,” she says. Randy Sue joked to her friend’s mother that she was going to be her daughter-in-law. “She hugged me and said she’d been praying for me,” she laughs.But when Courtney received a letter from his sister telling him she had met “his future wife”, he was less than impressed. “I was 5,000 miles away and definitely didn’t want my sister telling me what to do,” he says. In 1968, he returned to Texas and found a job at a company that made office equipment. His sister continued her matchmaking attempts. “She kept telling each of us that the other one really wanted to meet up,” says Randy Sue. “But I’d just seen it as a joke.”Want to share your story? Tell us a little about yourself, your partner and how you got together by filling in the form here. Continue reading...
Inter-American court of human rights rules Colombia was ‘internationally responsible’ for violation of Jineth Bedoya’s rightsThe Colombian state has been found responsible for the kidnap, torture and rape of a prominent journalist who was abducted while reporting on her country’s civil war, in a landmark ruling from the inter-American court of human rights.Jineth Bedoya, who has been pursuing justice for over 21 years and now campaigns against sexual violence, was recognised by the court on Monday as having suffered “grave verbal, physical and sexual aggressions” for which the state was responsible. Before now, only three of her attackers had faced justice, receiving sentences in Colombian courts in 2019. Continue reading...
Ellie Smith says she woke to find her four-year-old daughter and her sleeping bag missing from their campsite near CarnarvonGet our free news app; get our morning email briefingThe mother of Cleo Smith says she woke to find the tent open and her daughter missing, along with her sleeping bag, on the morning the four-year-old vanished from a popular Western Australian campsite.Ellie Smith said she had barely slept since her daughter’s disappearance and called for Cleo’s safe return after the search entered its fourth day. Continue reading...
by Elias Visontay (now) and Amy Remeikis (earlier) on (#5QVNA)
Joint Coalition party room meeting avoids net-zero talk; second day of Berejiklian Icac hearing; Victoria and NSW record 15 Covid deaths overnight; ACTU calls on Labor to oppose regional trade agreement. Follow latest updates
In a country where gay sex is against the law, it can be almost impossible for the LGBT community to access services tackling domestic violence – and during the pandemic, lockdowns saw abuse soarAll photos by DeLovie Kwagala* Names have been changed. Since these interviews took place all the subjects have ceased living with their abusers and are finding ways to heal Continue reading...
Launch, possibly from a submarine, comes as US, South Korean and Japanese spy chiefs meet for talks in SeoulNorth Korea launched a ballistic missile – possibly from a submarine – into the Sea of Japan, South Korea’s military has said, in the latest in a series of tests by Pyongyang over recent weeks.One ballistic missile was launched about 10:17am local time from the vicinity of Sinpo, South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said, where North Korea keeps submarines as well as equipment for test firing submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs). Continue reading...
by Nadia Khomami Arts and culture correspondent on (#5QW1V)
Actor says he was up for role in Pierce Brosnan 007 film but fluffed it after night out with future BondThe actor Mark Strong has revealed he fluffed an audition to be a Bond villain because he went out drinking the night before with Daniel Craig.Strong – best known for his roles as Lord Henry Blackwood in Sherlock Holmes, Merlin in the Kingsman films and Daniel Milton in the medical drama Temple – said he was up for a role as a villain in a Pierce Brosnan 007 movie, but a night out with Brosnan’s eventual successor scuppered his chances. Continue reading...
A sword believed to have belonged to a crusader who sailed to the Holy Land almost a millennium ago has been recovered from the Mediterranean seabed thanks to a sharp-eyed amateur diver. Though encrusted with marine organisms, the metre-long blade, hilt and handle became noticeable after undercurrents apparently shifted sands that had concealed it. The location, a natural cove near the port city of Haifa, suggested it had served as a shelter for seafarers, said Yaakov Sharvit, director of the authority's marine archaeology unit. The sword, believed to be about 900 years old, will be put on display after it is cleaned and restored
Emergency services at scene after blast in western Scottish town that was heard several miles awayTwo adults and two children were taken to hospital after an explosion at a house in Ayr that caused severe damage, with the blast being heard for miles around. Residents were evacuated from part of the Kincaidston area.Police, firefighters and the ambulance service – including an air ambulance – were at the scene in Gorse Park, a residential street in the town in western Scotland, after reports of an explosion just after 7pm on Monday. Continue reading...
Trial of Dennis Hutchings, who was 80, has been adjourned for three weeks after he contracted the virusAn army veteran whose trial at Belfast crown court over a Troubles shooting was adjourned due to his ill health has died after contracting Covid-19, it has been reported.It is understood that Dennis Hutchings died on Monday. The trial had been adjourned for three weeks after he contracted Covid. Continue reading...
This series opener didn’t disappoint, as battle commenced in the wake of Kendall’s biblical backstab, and the Roys became mired in more dirty corporate double-dealing
by Presented by Laura Murphy-Oates and reported by Jo on (#5QV9G)
Australia’s Covid-19 vaccination certificates can be displayed digitally on a series of apps, developed by both state and federal governments. However experts claim they’re able to hack into these apps and fake these certificates – all in under 10 minutes.Laura Murphy-Oates speaks to software engineer Richard Nelson and reporter Josh Taylor about the key flaw that’s undermining this whole systemYou can also read: Continue reading...
Chancellor said to be keeping wary eye on inflation amid pressure from PM and Tory colleagues to spendWith less than a fortnight to go before Rishi Sunak’s budget, the message from the Treasury is, “don’t expect fireworks”. There have been pyrotechnics aplenty offstage, however, as the chancellor tries to hold the line against big-spending colleagues – not least the prime minister himself.After a spat with Kwasi Kwarteng burst into the open last weekend over backing for businesses hit by the energy crisis, with a Treasury source effectively accusing the business secretary of lying, Boris Johnson weighed in on Kwarteng’s side from his Marbella bolthole. Continue reading...
The Guardian writer’s collection of her columns is a droll and open-hearted bite-size readIn 2018, when things seemed bleak, both in her personal life and in the world at large, the journalist Hannah Jane Parkinson started writing a column for the Guardian on small things that gave her joy. The idea, she freely admits, was nabbed from JB Priestley, who wrote a book some 70 years earlier called Delight. “If this grouchy Yorkshireman could take the time to sit down and document his everyday exultations,” she reasoned, “then I, someone whose default is a sort of droll cynicism, could do the same.”After three years of celebrating dogs in parks and night buses, regional accents and the subtle pleasure of closing browser tabs – a period that spanned the onset of a pandemic, when even small pleasures were in short supply – the column came to an end in September. Now Parkinson has turned it into a book, gathering together more than 100 entries, each one short and snappy as befits the theme. Continue reading...
Once used in the hunt for fugitive criminals, the global police agency’s most-wanted ‘red notice’ list now includes political refugees and dissidentsFlicking through the news one day in early 2015, Alexey Kharis, a California-based businessman and father of two, came across a startling announcement: Russia would request a global call for his arrest through the International Criminal Police Organization, known as Interpol.“Oh, wow,” Kharis thought, shocked. All the 46-year-old knew about Interpol and its pursuit of the world’s most-wanted criminals was from novels and films. He tried to reassure himself that things would be OK and it was just an intimidatory tactic of the Russian authorities. Surely, he reasoned, the world’s largest police organisation had no reason to launch a hunt for him. Continue reading...
Protesters say post-dictatorship interim government has failed them politically and economicallyHundreds of pro-military Sudanese protesters have rallied for a second day in Khartoum, in an escalation of what the prime minister, Abdalla Hamdok, called the “worst and most dangerous crisis” of the country’s precarious transition.The protesters are demanding the dissolution of Sudan’s post-dictatorship interim government, saying it has failed them politically and economically. Continue reading...
Local MP who was killed on Friday mentioned campaign almost every week in parliament in recent yearsPoliticians from all sides of the political spectrum have joined a campaign to make Southend-on-Sea a city, in honour of the local MP Sir David Amess who was fatally stabbed on Friday.Southend is one of several towns competing for city status as part of the Queen’s platinum jubilee celebrations in 2022. Amess championed Southend’s case for city designation for more than two decades, mentioning it almost every week in parliament in recent years. Continue reading...
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