Analysis: PM’s assertions that there were no lockdown parties are increasingly hard to believeIf Boris Johnson’s premiership is brought to a humiliating close in the coming days, it will not only be because he allowed Downing Street’s boozy lockdown parties to happen on his watch – but because he lied about them.When allegations of parties first emerged, Johnson told MPs in the House of Commons that Covid guidance “was followed completely in No 10”, and on another occasion – vehemently – that he had been “repeatedly assured” there were no parties. Continue reading...
Author Art Spiegelman says decision by Mcminn county, which cited inappropriate ‘curse words’ and nudity, is ‘demented’A Tennessee school board has banned a Pulitzer prize-winning novel from its classrooms over eight curse words and an illustration of a naked cartoon mouse.The graphic novel, Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by New Yorker Art Spiegelman, uses hand-drawn illustrations of mice and cats to depict how the author’s parents survived Auschwitz during the Holocaust. Continue reading...
Umaibo, a crunchy corn snack that means ‘delicious stick’, increases in price from ¥10 to ¥12 – the first rise in the face of higher import costsOne of Japan’s best-loved snacks is to go up in price – by a whopping 20% – for the first time since its launch more than four decades ago,But Umaibo – literally “delicious stick” – will still be a steal for schoolchildren at just ¥12 apiece (US10c, not including sales tax), up from the current ¥10, when the change goes into effect in April. Continue reading...
US and German officials signal hardening of position on controversial gas linkThe Nord Stream 2 pipeline between Russia and Germany will not move forward if Russia invades Ukraine, the US state department has said, in a significant strengthening of the west’s previous position on the strategically vital gas supply.As tension ratcheted up over Russia’s military buildup on its neighbour’s eastern border, state department spokesperson Ned Price said on Wednesday night that the Biden administration was “working with Germany” to ensure it could withstand the loss of the pipeline. Continue reading...
Athlete says his drive waned in recent years but his wife encouraged him to keep going towards Tokyo Games and finish career the ‘right way’Rower Hamish Bond has announced his retirement, bringing down the curtain on a glittering career during which he became the first New Zealand man to win gold at three consecutive Olympics.Bond, 35, who is also an eight-time world champion, said he had known for a while that it was the right time to hang up his oars. Continue reading...
Fears that aid missions could spark a Covid outbreak were highlighted when two dozen crew members were diagnosed with the virusBritish and Australian navy ships have arrived in Tonga and attempted to deliver aid without making contact with anybody ashore to avoid spreading the coronavirus in a nation that has never had an outbreak.The danger of spreading the disease was underscored when nearly two dozen sailors aboard the Australian ship HMAS Adelaide were reported infected on Tuesday, raising fears they could bring Covid-19 to the small Pacific archipelago devastated by an undersea volcanic eruption and a tsunami on 15 January. Continue reading...
The animal charged at the man after he got out of a car in the country’s largest safari park, authorities sayA Saudi tourist has been trampled to death by an elephant during a game drive at a popular park in Uganda, a wildlife official says.The attack happened on Tuesday at the Murchison Falls national park when the man left the vehicle he was travelling in with friends, said Uganda wildlife authority spokesman Bashir Hangi. Continue reading...
by Dan Sabbagh, Heather Stewart and Emma Graham-Harri on (#5VE9M)
PM called claims he intervened to help evacuation of animal charity ‘complete nonsense’Boris Johnson’s battered credibility was thrown further into question after new Foreign Office emails appeared to contradict his insistence he did not authorise the rescue of cats and dogs from a British charity in Afghanistan during the fall of Kabul.The release of two emails by the cross-party foreign affairs select committee prompted claims the prime minister had lied, as he faces separate accusations about misleading parliament over the Downing Street parties scandal and awaits the emergence of Sue Gray’s inquiry. Continue reading...
Guardian Australia’s summertime lolly bag of great writing selected by our lifestyle editor, Alyx GormanGood morning, happy morning tea and welcome to an upbeat edition of Five Great Reads, your summertime lolly bag of great writing, filled with love by me, Alyx Gorman, Guardian Australia’s candy, crushes and couture editor.If you’d rather be reading the news as it breaks, please head on over to our live blog, and if you just want to hear from Amy Remeikis after her absolutely scorching interview on The Project, I cannot blame you and here she is. Continue reading...
Elder sister Princess Anne and King Charles I among predecessors who have had difficulties with the lawPrince Andrew has demanded a jury trial in Virginia Giuffre’s sexual abuse lawsuit against him, yet it is not the first time a member of royalty has faced court proceedings.The British monarchy faces the prospect of one of its most senior figures being questioned by legal professionals over his alleged sexual abuse of a minor in a US court, allegations he has denied. Continue reading...
Sedef Kabaş arrested for posting comment allegedly about Turkey’s president to her 900,000 Twitter followersTurkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has promised that a well-known television journalist would not go “unpunished” after she was arrested for allegedly insulting him.Police detained Sedef Kabaş at her home at 2am on Saturday, just hours after she aired the comments and then posted them on Twitter to her 900,000 followers. Continue reading...
by Julian Borger in Washington, Angelique Chrisafis i on (#5VESW)
US officials also offer negotiate on European security with Moscow but won’t move on most contentious issueThe US has presented its written response to Russian demands on Ukraine, but made clear that it did not change Washington’s support for Ukraine’s right to pursue Nato membership, the most contentious issue in relations with Moscow.The reply, which was delivered to the Russian foreign ministry by the US ambassador in Moscow, John Sullivan, repeats the US offer to negotiate with Russia over some aspects of European security, but the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said the issue of eventual Ukrainian membership of the alliance was one of principle. Continue reading...
by Tom Phillips Latin America correspondent on (#5VEZ4)
Despite the dangers, migrants use the islands as a springboard into the US – sometimes with devastating consequencesThose who survive the perilous sea crossing between the Bahamas and the US describe a nightmarish odyssey of vomit, sweat and fear.“It’s suicide – Russian roulette,” one Brazilian migrant recalled in a 2017 interview after at least a dozen fellow countrymen vanished while attempting the same illegal voyage across the Florida Straits. Continue reading...
Emir expected to tell US president Qatar can provide short-term emergency liquid gas to help replace any loss of suppliesThe emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani is expected to tell the US president, Joe Biden, that his country will provide some short-term emergency liquid gas to help replace any loss of supplies if Russia cuts off supplies to Germany.Qatar is looking to supply Europe through transferring excess supplies in storage in east Asia. It is also hoping to return to the European market on a bigger scale as its own production levels rise, but wants to see an end to an European Commission anti-trust investigation. Continue reading...
by Martin Chulov Middle East correspondent on (#5VESR)
The attack on the Kurdish-run prison in Syria was the jihadists’ most high-profile stand since 2019Up to 2,000 Islamic State inmates who had overrun a Syrian prison have surrendered to their Kurdish captors, ending a six-day siege that marked the terror group’s most dramatic stand since the collapse of its so called caliphate nearly three years ago.The peaceful finale to the standoff on Wednesday was at odds with its bloody beginnings when up to 100 extremists tried to storm the facility in the northern city of Hasakah and free those jailed inside. The raid on Thursday night, which was led by two suicide bombers, led to days of intense clashes, which claimed the lives of close to 40 members of the Syrian Democratic Forces and about 30 jihadists, and forced more than 50,000 civilians to flee. Continue reading...
by Vikram Dodd Police and crime correspondent on (#5VESS)
Some could be questioned in writing and fined if they accept the findings, while others will be interviewed under cautionPolice will ask aides of Boris Johnson who are named in Sue Gray’s report as having attended parties during lockdown if they are guilty and thus accept a fine under regulations passed by the government they work for.Some could be asked in writing to accept or dispute the findings from Gray, while others will have to be interviewed under caution. The investigation is expected to take at least several weeks, with detectives prepared to expand their inquiry if further evidence emerges. Continue reading...
Hundreds of people, mostly women, condemned during witch-hunts that persisted well into 18th centuryThe Catalan parliament has passed a resolution to pardon up to 1,000 people – the majority of them women – condemned for the crime of witchcraft in the region 400 years ago.The move follows similar gestures in Scotland, Switzerland and Norway after more than 100 European historians signed a manifesto titled: They weren’t witches, they were women. Continue reading...
Instead of implementing policy, ministers are spending their time defending PMBoris Johnson’s plight is leaving government in a state of near-paralysis, with key decisions delayed while No 10 focuses on defending the prime minister amid the Downing Street parties scandal, sources say.“It’s not as easy to get policy through if it has to involve No 10 at the moment. I’m aware the civil servants feel it – feel the slowdown,” said one frustrated aide in a Whitehall department. “You just need to have things to carry on doing.” Continue reading...
Residential school operated between 1891 and 1981 and has a dark history abuse, becoming latest to come under scrutiny in CanadaA First Nation in Canada says it has discovered 93 potential grave sites on the grounds of a former residential school.The chief and council of Williams Lake First Nation said that a preliminary search of St Joseph’s Mission Residential School had revealed “potential human burials” in a small portion of the school’s sprawling grounds. Continue reading...
by Daniel Boffey in Brussels and Philip Oltermann in on (#5VEPM)
Kyiv mayor ‘left speechless’ by move as Berlin faces pressure from other EU members to back military training missionGermany’s approach to the Russian threat to Ukraine has been described as a “joke” after Berlin responded to requests for arms by offering 5,000 protective helmets.Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv and former world heavyweight boxing champion, who previously lived in Germany, said he could not understand the lack of support. Continue reading...
Family says young mother’s health deteriorated rapidly after the twins she was carrying died a week apart in the wombThe family of a Polish woman who died on Tuesday after doctors refused to perform an abortion when the foetus’s heart stopped beating have accused the government of having “blood on their hands”.The woman, identified only as Agnieszka T, was said to have been in the first trimester of a twin pregnancy when she was admitted to the Blessed Virgin Mary hospital in Częstochowa on 21 December. Her death comes a year after Poland introduced one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe. Continue reading...
Boy, who was struggling with homework, referred to Prevent after he was accused of saying he wished school would burn downAn 11-year-old schoolboy who was struggling with his homework was referred to the Prevent counter-radicalisation programme after a fellow pupil reported him saying during a fire drill that he wished his school would burn down.The boy is deemed to be vulnerable and is on the school’s special educational needs register owing to suffering from anxiety after witnessing domestic violence in the family home at the age of four and having to move to a safe house for a year with his mother and sibling. The boy is Muslim and of Asian heritage. Continue reading...
Ohad Zemet of the Israeli embassy responds to an article accusing the country of ‘sportswashing’. Plus, Salle Dare on The Big Ride for PalestineJonathan Liew’s article (Sportswashing is associated with certain countries – why not Israel?, 24 January) stated that Israel uses sport as a “tool of repression”. I wonder what Bibars Natcho, the Muslim captain of the Israeli football team, would think about this statement; or the Sports in Service of Peace programme which enables Israeli and Palestinian children to play together to promote coexistence, and who participated in the Argentina-Uruguay match. While Israel may not be renowned as a sporting powerhouse, on a human level, sport is clearly an invaluable tool for promoting cooperation between peoples.According to the article, even Israelis engaging in sport is considered illegitimate. So we, Israelis, cannot do anything. Even our contributions to the international community are deemed illegitimate. Pinkwashing, greenwashing, vaccinewashing – even a peace agreement with Arab countries receives similar accusations. This is particularly dangerous, implying that Israel is not a state like any other, whose contribution to the world can be celebrated. This week marks the greatest catastrophe to the Jewish people, and it is 73 years since the UN recognised the Jewish people’s right to self-determination in Israel. Israel can be criticised, even harshly, but it is about time it was treated the same as any other country in the world.
British judges are lending credibility to an increasingly anti-democratic justice system in Hong Kong, argues Siobhain McDonaghThe Orwellian reports coming from Hong Kong will come as no surprise to those of us who have been watching its legal system deteriorate (New Hong Kong barristers’ chief warns profession to stay out of politics, 21 January). Since the draconian national security law was imposed in 2020, Beijing’s interference in Hong Kong has been increasingly flagrant. As shocking as the attack on the rule of law in Hong Kong is, we should also be asking why British judges are still propping up a broken system.British judges have sat in Hong Kong’s court of final appeal since the territory was returned in 1997. But the deterioration of the city’s legal system means they are now lending a false veneer of respectability to Beijing’s campaign against human rights and political freedom. Continue reading...
Postmortem says Omar Abdalmajeed As’ad, a Palestinian-American, suffered internal bleeding in soldiers’ raidA postmortem has confirmed that an elderly Palestinian-American man who died after being detained in an Israeli raid suffered a “stress-induced sudden cardiac arrest stemming from external violence”, after witnesses challenged soldiers’ accounts of events in the high-profile incident.Omar Abdalmajeed As’ad, 78, was detained in his village of Jiljilya in the occupied West Bank at an impromptu road checkpoint on 12 January and “apprehended after resisting a check”, according to an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) statement. He was handcuffed, gagged and blindfolded for between 20 minutes to an hour, and his body discovered by local residents and others detained in the raid after the soldiers left. Continue reading...
French president seeks to address France’s colonial legacy in north AfricaEmmanuel Macron has told representatives of the Pieds Noirs – the Algerian-born French citizens who fled to France after Algerian independence – that a 1962 shooting by French troops against them was “unforgivable for the republic”.Macron stressed the need for “reconciliation” over the Algeria conflict, as part of his drive to address France’s colonial legacy in north Africa ahead of his bid for re-election this spring. Continue reading...
French, German, Russian and Ukrainian diplomats are meeting in Paris in the latest effort to de-escalate the crisisThe Normandy format is an informal forum that was set up by French, German, Russian and Ukrainian diplomats in 2014, after Russia kickstarted a separatist conflict in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. It takes its name from the Normandy landings in the second world war. The first meeting took place in Normandy on the margins of the ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the allied landings. Continue reading...
Jozef Puska, 31, appeared before Cloverhill district court, Dublin, on Wednesday via video linkA man charged with the murder of Irish schoolteacher Ashling Murphy has appeared in court and been remanded in custody for a further two weeks.Jozef Puska, 31, of Mucklagh in Co Offaly, appeared before Cloverhill district court in Dublin, on Wednesday via video link. Continue reading...
After their songs were deemed blasphemous propaganda, the duo were forced to flee to Norway and claim asylum. Now a band, they are writing angrily about what they facedFor almost as long as it’s existed, heavy metal has been used as protest music. On Black Sabbath’s Paranoid, the first thing you’re barraged with is War Pigs: a seven-minute savaging of the politicians who instigated the Vietnam war. Iron Maiden once had their mascot, Eddie, murder Margaret Thatcher on a single’s artwork; Metallica and Megadeth spent the 1980s lambasting cold war superpowers that didn’t know whether to shake hands or nuke each other.Nikan Khosravi, singer and guitarist of Iranian/Norwegian thrashers Confess, views his band as another protest act in the metal lineage. “I’m the kid who told the emperor: ‘You’re naked!’” he exclaims with pride and excitement on a call from Norway. However, the five-piece don’t write their brutish tracks about some faraway conflict, or satirise a government certain to ignore them. Continue reading...
Jury acquits Nathan Smith of manslaughter over death of Craig Wiltshire in 2019 incidentA man has been cleared of killing a suspected thief who died after he pinned him down and knelt on his back for nine minutes during a citizen’s arrest.Nathan Smith, 38, was accused of using “excessive force” as he restrained Craig Wiltshire, 43, but insisted he was only trying to hang on to him as he waited for the police to arrive. Continue reading...
by Luke Harding in Kyiv and Dan Sabbagh on (#5VE9N)
Officials and experts say several elements missing for full-scale invasion despite recent troop movementsRussia does not currently have enough troops on the border with Ukraine to carry out a full-scale military invasion and occupation of the country, according to western experts and senior officials in Kyiv.They believe a Russian attack to capture most or all of Ukraine in the near future is unlikely, despite an unprecedented buildup of about 125,000 Russian soldiers, and military exercises due to take place next month in Belarus, within striking distance of the capital. Continue reading...
by Nadia Khomami Arts and culture correspondent on (#5VE9P)
Actor uses National Theatre tribute event to talk publicly for first time about wife, who died of cancerDamian Lewis has spoken publicly for the first time about the loss of his wife, Helen McCrory, who died last year from breast cancer aged 52.During an evening of poetry dedicated to McCrory at the National Theatre, Lewis paid tribute to the “one person whose thunder would absolutely not be stolen”. Continue reading...
On 1 February 1942, the leader of the country’s Nazi party became ‘minister president,’ his promotion followed quickly by demonstrations of Norwegian disgust. See how the Guardian reported eventsFrom our diplomatic correspondent
by Luke Harding, Volodymyr Yurchenko, Richard Sprenge on (#5VE5D)
The Guardian's Luke Harding travels to the eastern Ukraine coastal city of Mariupol to see how preparations are being made for a potential Russian attack. With tensions in the region high and Russian troops gathering on the border, Ukrainian soldiers remain defiant, despite their depleted firepower. And while the world's attention has returned to the region for the first time since Russia took Crimea in 2014, for Ukrainians the war has been ongoing Continue reading...
As his term ends, Juan Orlando Hernández could be extradited on drug charges to the country that once saw him as a key allyAlong a paved road that climbs the hillside to Celaque Mountain national park in south-western Honduras, one-room shacks are overshadowed by high-walled mansions – including the homes of President Juan Orlando Hernández and his political allies.Local people say the results of Hernández’s eight years as president are on full display. Continue reading...
Police say body of 49-year-old was found by other fishermen in water near Washaway Bay on Wednesday morningThe body of a man missing since a boat capsized on Sydney Harbour on the weekend has been found in Middle Harbour.The 49-year-old fisherman had been missing since the early hours of Saturday when he was thrown from a boat along with another man, aged 25, and a dog off North Harbour. Continue reading...
Director wants visit to former Nazi concentration camp to spark reflection on ‘silence of bystanders’Piotr Cywiński has spent a lot of time pondering a question that has exercised historians, philosophers and politicians ever since the end of the second world war. What lessons should we draw from one of the darkest pages in human history, the organised mass killing at Auschwitz?A 49-year-old Polish historian, Cywiński has been director of the Auschwitz Museum since 2006. His office is housed in a former hospital and pharmacy built for the camp’s SS guards, and his windows look out over a crematorium and gas chamber. Continue reading...
Photographer Jonathan Donovan has produced a series of portraits focusing on the strength of single parents and celebrating their resilience and love. The project aims to raise awareness of Gingerbread – the leading national charity working with single-parent families.An exhibition of his work opens in Granary Square in London’s Kings Cross from the end of January and will run until the beginning of AprilSince 1918, Gingerbread has been supporting, advising and campaigning with single parents to help them meet the needs of their families and achieve their goals. Today, there are 1.8 million single-parent families in the country. Continue reading...
Growing up in the care system, I believed I was an only child. Then a man messaged me on Facebook, and left me with a head full of questions.I was a toddler when I entered the care system. By the time I left, at 18, I had been shunted between four foster homes and a residential care home, all across south-east London.I met my biological mum for the first time since entering care when I was about 10. I never met my dad. To the knowledge of my various social workers and foster parents, I had no siblings. Continue reading...
Human Rights Watch reports cases of mob attacks, gang-rape and death threats, with LGBTQ+ people living in fear and unable to fleeThe lives of LGBTQ+ people in Afghanistan have “dramatically worsened” under Taliban rule, according to a new survey, which highlights cases of violence, gang-rape and death threats since the group seized power last year.The report, by Human Rights Watch (HRW), recorded nearly 60 cases of targeted violence against LGBTQ+ people since August 2021, many of whom described how Taliban rule has destroyed their lives. Continue reading...
Analysis from Greenpeace finds deserted flights are generating millions of tons of harmful emissionsAt least 100,000 “ghost flights” could be flown across Europe this winter because of EU airport slot usage rules, according to analysis by Greenpeace.The deserted, unnecessary or unprofitable flights are intended to allow airlines to keep their takeoff and landing runway rights in major airports, but they could also generate up to 2.1 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions – or as much as 1.4 million average petrol or diesel cars emit in a year – Greenpeace says. Continue reading...
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