‘I’d be stupid not to say I wasn’t scared,’ 27-year-old swimmer says after testing positive in ItalyAustralian Olympic swimming gold medallist Madi Wilson says she feels “extremely unlucky” after being admitted to hospital in Europe with Covid-19.Less than two months after standing atop the podium with the 4x100m women’s freestyle team, the 27-year-old has revealed she tested positive while in Italy for an International Swim League event. Continue reading...
Ignorance about plastic recycling has tricked us into guilt-free consumption – decision makers have to give us sustainable optionsGrowing up my school lunches were covered in plastic wrapping, like those of many of my schoolmates. I was taught from a young age to pick up my rubbish and recycle, and I trusted the recycling systems in place especially because New Zealand streets were so clean. Years later, I saw a video on Facebook of a turtle with a straw in its nose, but I knew Kiwis weren’t to blame, our rubbish systems were too sturdy. Ignorance is bliss, and ignorance is the cause of the world’s plastic pollution crisis.The illusion was shattered for me when I watched For The Blue, a documentary by Project Blue, a group of young ocean enthusiasts from Aotearoa, who travelled across the globe to investigate the world’s plastic-waste crisis – only to find themselves back in clean, green New Zealand experiencing the effects of the global plastic epidemic in their own back yard. During their visit to a once pristine area in the South Island, they found plastic trash strewn across the land, after the Fox river breached a closed landfill on its banks. Continue reading...
Partial results show ruling United Russia party will retain power in parliament after winning over 45% of the voteRussia’s ruling United Russia party, which supports president Vladimir Putin, retained its majority in parliament after a three-day election and a sweeping crackdown on its critics, despite losing around one fifth of its support, partial results on Monday showed.With 50% of votes counted, United Russia was ahead with 46.11% of the vote, the election commission said, followed by the Communist party with 21.4%. Continue reading...
Playwright Morgan Lloyd Malcolm on how the groundbreaking female punk band helped her tell the story of women suffocating in the prison systemIt was a bit of a “pinch me” moment, to be honest. Earlier this month I sat in the rehearsal room for Typical Girls and watched our incredible cast play the music of the Slits to Tessa Pollitt, an original member of the band.When I first started writing this show, never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined we would get to this point. This absolute legend, punk royalty, was beaming at the liveness of it all and so were we. This is what we’ve all been aching to do. Continue reading...
Children will gain the same legal protection from assault as adults in March 2022An advertising campaign has been launched to make parents and carers aware that it will be illegal to smack children in Wales within months, with a package of almost £3m announced to help keep people who do use physical punishment out of the courts.From March it will be illegal for anybody in Wales, including visitors, to use any type of physical punishment such as smacking, hitting, slapping and shaking on children. Continue reading...
by Andrew Sparrow Political correspondent on (#5PQVE)
Exclusive: shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves tells how party would ‘start to end the unfairness’ in tax systemLabour has announced plans to raise almost £500m by closing a tax loophole enjoyed by a small number of private equity fund managers.The shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said the proposal was one example of how a Labour government would “start to end the unfairness in the tax system” by ensuring that the wealthy do not avoid tax while ordinary workers are being asked to pay more in national insurance. Continue reading...
PM is making three-day trip during which he will give speech to UN general assembly and hold talks with Joe Biden at White HouseBoris Johnson plans to press Amazon boss Jeff Bezos on the tech giant’s tax record when the pair meet face to face in New York on Monday, Downing Street has said.The prime minister will meet Bezos as part of a three-day trip to New York and Washington, where Johnson will address the UN general assembly and hold talks with the US president, Joe Biden, and his deputy, Kamala Harris, at the White House. Continue reading...
Around 80% of global trade is transported across oceans on cargo vessels powered by fossil fuels, Pacific nations are calling for decisive global action
by Dan Sabbagh in London and Julian Borger in Washing on (#5PQNF)
Paris furious at scrapping of Australian submarine contract and new three-way technology pactA Franco-British defence ministers’ summit due to take place this week has been cancelled as Paris steps up its protests over the loss of a £48bn submarine contract with Australia and its secret replacement with nuclear technology from the UK and US.Ben Wallace, the UK defence secretary, and his opposite number, Florence Parly, had been due to hold a bilateral meeting in London and address the two-day Franco-British Council, now the latest casualties of the diplomatic row. Continue reading...
Prince reportedly ‘met at least nine times’ with William Bortrick, the alleged fixer at heart of the claimsClarence House is facing fresh questions over further revelations in the royal “cash for honours” scandal involving middlemen who reportedly took cuts for setting up meetings between wealthy donors and the Prince of Wales.Prince Charles “met at least nine times” with William Bortrick, the alleged fixer at the heart of the claims, who is said to have received thousands of pounds to secure an honour for a Saudi billionaire and brokered a personal thank-you letter from Charles to a Russian donor, the Sunday Times reported. Continue reading...
Though sometimes overly cautious, the German chancellor has been a standard bearer for a consensual way of doing politicsOne of the most emblematic political photographs of recent times was taken during a G7 summit in Canada in 2018. Leaning forward across a narrow table with hands outstretched, a grim-faced Angela Merkel confronts Donald Trump, who sits with his arms folded, refusing to meet her eye. Emmanuel Macron and the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, flank the German chancellor as she glowers down at the American president.As Ms Merkel prepares to stand down as chancellor following next Sunday’s German election, after 16 years, the image sums up her recent role as a bulwark of liberal values in turbulent times. Amid resurgent nationalism and deep political polarisation across the west, the longest-serving and most influential European leader of the 21st century has been a vital standard bearer for a consensual, rules-based way of doing politics on the world stage. The political virtues she has embodied during her long reign – patience, tolerance, a lack of stridency and an aversion to showmanship – have come into their own, as culture wars proliferate on all sides. Her famous decision to keep Germany’s borders open to Syrian refugees in 2015 demonstrated a generosity of spirit and compassion to which all western democracies should aspire. Continue reading...
Dougie Mitchell and Judith Reeves set out why many Scots, even unionists, prefer Sturgeon’s progressive party to the alternative, while Dr Hugh Young says anti-Brexit sentiment is not confined to the SNPYour editorial (The Guardian view on the SNP: deliver on public services, not just a referendum, 13 September) makes some salient points about the track record of the SNP in Scotland, but you also throw in a few red herrings. I am not a fervent nationalist but have voted SNP for around 10 years for three reasons. First, it is a left-of-centre governing party; second, because it is pro-Europe and would try to rejoin the EU should Scotland become independent; and third, despite a few stains on its record which you highlight, it has governed Scotland responsibly and, although not always successful, has had the country’s best interests at heart.It’s always been clear that Scotland is a more left-leaning country than England and the idea of the SNP providing a buffer to Boris Johnson’s shambolic rightwing agenda is of some comfort to me and many others. Continue reading...
Novavax volunteers fear start of vaccine passports next month could put them at further disadvantageScottish vaccine volunteers are being treated like “second-class citizens” while waiting for the Novavax jab to be approved, an MSP has said, as they continue a months-long fightto have their vaccines recognised on the standard NHS Scotland database.The trialists are worried that the introduction of vaccine passports north of the border next month could put them at a further disadvantage as they cannot access the standard electronic version – instead possessing only a piece of paper. Continue reading...
More than a dozen women staged a protest in Kabul on Sunday, holding up signs calling for the participation of women in public life. The protest came as female government employees in Kabul were told to stay home, with work only allowed for those who cannot be replaced by men. The order was given by the interim mayor of Kabul, detailing the latest restrictions on women by the new Taliban rulers.
From the climate crisis to housing, the main parties’ policies adhere strictly to the liberal, free-market scriptOn 20 September, Canada’s general election will end. Throughout the campaign, the governing Liberals, led by Justin Trudeau, and the opposition Conservatives, led by Erin O’Toole, have been neck and neck, trading the lead within the margin of error. The next closest party, the New Democratic Party (NDP), trails 10 points behind. A close seat count and a handful of tight races could mean days before the final results are known.From the first day of the campaign, the country faced an important yet unnecessary election: important because the issues at stake are monumental – climate policy, pandemic management and recovery, childcare, healthcare, housing, the overdose crisis, Indigenous reconciliation, and much more; unnecessary because the government could have kept governing. But the Liberals had a minority government and they wanted a majority. Trudeau claimed parliament was toxic. It wasn’t. And if the governing side had trouble passing legislation, it was due more to their poor management of the House of Commons than opposition intransigence, even given a handful of holdups. So off to the races the country went. Continue reading...
Viche – traditionally produced by women on the Pacific coast – is poised to be for Colombia what mezcal is for Mexico, experts sayLucía Solís, an African-Colombian artisan distiller from Buenaventura on Colombia’s Pacific coast, has spent much of her life making and selling viche, a pungent liquor believed to cure snakebites. Now, with a new law on the horizon, she’ll be able to sell the ancestral home-brew across the country –and perhaps beyond. Continue reading...
Site ridicules far-right suggestion that people should be made to have ‘more French’ namesWhen a far-right political journalist and possible presidential contender began talking about people having “un-French” names, there really was only one response: satire.The humorous website Vite Mon Prénom (My Name, Quick) was set up to offer a one-click test to find out if your name is French enough, based on a repealed 1803 law, and suggest alternatives if it is considered unacceptably foreign. Continue reading...
by Interviews by Tim Lewis and Holly O'Neill on (#5PQB2)
The food writer discusses her new book, Med, while Yotam Ottolenghi, José Pizarro and Sam Clark pick their favourite dishesClaudia Roden wasn’t sure that anyone would be interested in her writing another cookbook. “I kept telling my agent, ‘Nobody will want a book from an octogenarian!’” she says on a video call. Roden has just turned 85 to be exact, and she knew she wouldn’t have the energy for her usual process: travelling across countries and regions, painstakingly collecting recipes and stories from food lovers and chefs. But she is still a formidable home cook and relentless entertainer – for friends, for her children, now in their 50s and 60s, and their children – and, with a nudge from her agent, Roden wondered if there might be something in that.“I was thinking, ‘What do I want from my life now?’” she says. “And I found that having people for dinner was what I enjoyed more than going to the theatre or to a concert. To have them just around my kitchen table was my idea and it will be what we cook. So I cooked hundreds of dishes and when we thought, ‘This is marvellous,’ it went in the book. I didn’t plan it to be Mediterranean. But it just was Mediterranean. Because that’s where I went.” Continue reading...
‘It was beautiful,’ says Nathan Paulin after traversing slackline over Paris river to mark country’s Heritage DayA French highline walker has crossed the River Seine in Paris at a height of 70 metres, in a breathtaking feat watched by cheering crowds on the Eiffel Tower and along the banks.Attached by a strap to a safety lanyard, 27-year-old Nathan Paulin slowly progressed barefoot on a line stretched across the river between the Eiffel Tower and the Chaillot theatre. He stopped for a few breaks, sitting or lying on the rope. Continue reading...
Only those who cannot be replaced by men may remain, in further sign of Taliban’s hard-line rule over AfghansFemale employees in the Kabul city government have been told to stay home, with work only allowed for those who cannot be replaced by men, the interim mayor of Afghanistan’s capital said Sunday, detailing the latest restrictions on women by the new Taliban rulers.The decision to prevent most female city workers from returning to their jobs is another sign that the Taliban, who overran Kabul last month, are enforcing their harsh interpretation of Islam despite initial promises by some that they would be tolerant and inclusive. Under their previous rule in the 1990s, the Taliban had barred girls and women from schools, jobs and public life. Continue reading...
My parents are Bangladeshi Muslims. My husband is an Ashkenazi Jew. And our baby son? He’ll eat chicken soup and chicken curry…Even before my son was born, I used to imagine all the things I would feed my future children. They would come home from school, backpacks hanging off their shoulders and tummies rumbling, and ask what was for dinner. I pictured them round-faced and cheerful, tucking into the same meals that I grew up with. I would heap their plates with hot white rice, garlicky dal garnished with coriander, and spicy fried fish. They would eat with their hands of course, like any well brought-up child of Bangladeshi origin, deftly picking out the tiny bones, and squeezing wedges of lime over the crispy fish skin, which they would save until last as a treat, licking the tangy juice off their fingers.I already knew the satisfaction I would get from watching them eat; and knew too, the importance of warding off chok – the Evil Eye – by saying “Masha’Allah”, thanking God for their hearty appetites and chubby legs. I would teach them to say “Bismillah” before every meal and “Shukr alhamdulillah” when they finished, making sure they were aware of the gift of nourishment they had received. Continue reading...
The support scheme has proved positive for some, but others will have no jobs to return to. We hear their storiesSince March 2020, 11.6 million UK workers have been furloughed by their employees as a result of the Covid pandemic, with the government paying up to 80% of their wages in order to keep jobs open.At the scheme’s peak in May 2020, 8.9 million workers – almost a third of the UK workforce – were being paid to stay at home; by the end of July this year, that number had dropped to 1.6 million. Continue reading...
We talk to the man behind an extraordinary project in Turkey, where children, most of them refugees, have been given old analogue cameras and taught the art of photographySerbest Salih studied photography at college in Aleppo, before fleeing Syria with his family in 2014 as Islamic State fighters advanced on his home town of Kobani. He is now one of an estimated 100,000 refugees living in the historic city of Mardin in south-eastern Turkey, just a few miles from the Syrian border. Having initially found work as a photographer for a German NGO, Salih’s life changed dramatically in 2017 when, while wandering with a friend through the city, he discovered a sprawling refugee community living in a group of abandoned government buildings in the working-class Kurdish district of Istayson.“It was a place where Turkish Kurds and Syrian Kurds lived as neighbours, but did not communicate,” he says, “They were strangers who spoke the same language. It was at that moment that I thought to use analogue photography as a means to integrate the different communities.” Continue reading...
In order for true diversity to flourish, we need to first become unswervingly anti-racist. That means doing more than watching a few documentaries or reading some books, says Nova Reid. Consciously ‘unlearning’ racism is the crucial first stepI felt overwhelmed: 40,000 hits to my website – 50 times more than the average month – plus 2,000 emails, people tagging me in social media posts to let their followers know they had signed up to my online anti-racism course – but not always actually signing up. The murder of George Floyd had thrown up a very apparent collective sense of white guilt around the world.I had been doing anti-racism work long before the summer of 2020, so I didn’t understand why – increased volume aside – some of these interactions felt so different to the usual business inquiries I receive. I felt there was such a sense of ownership over me, my time, my words, what I should talk about and when. The more boundaries I put up, the more they would trample over them. Continue reading...
by Timothy Pratt in Flowery Branch, Georgia on (#5PQ7M)
Grassroots groups are mobilizing churches, soccer coaches and cartoon abuelas to reassure underserved Spanish-speaking communities and remove barriers to get them their shotsLiliana Borrero balanced her sleeping baby on one leg as she sat and waited out the 15 minutes a nurse asked her to stick around in case she had any reactions to her first dose of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine.Borrero, 38, was accompanied by all nine of her children, three of whom also received the shot. Continue reading...
The career of the Observer’s former China correspondent who died last week, was marked by a willingness to review his convictionsJonathan Mirsky, the Observer’s former China correspondent who has died aged 88, was acutely aware of the mounting danger from the bullets criss-crossing Tiananmen Square on 4 June 1989 as units of the People’s Liberation Army were sent in to break up the protests. He was aware too that he desperately needed to get his copy to London.Writing about the experience 30 years later, Mirsky admitted that few at first had any sense of the scale of the violence that was being unleashed either on the students in the square. All that, however, was to change quickly. Continue reading...
Toddler had been riding with members of the hunt near Northallerton, North YorkshireA two-year-old girl has died after falling from a pony during a hunt meeting in North Yorkshire.The toddler had been riding with members of the Bedale Hunt on land in a village near Northallerton on Wednesday morning when the incident occurred. Continue reading...
by James Tapper, Jillian Ambrose and Michael Savage on (#5PPTX)
No cause for alarm now, says Kwasi Kwarteng as energy discussions are likened to early Covid crisis talksThe government was scrambling on Saturday night to reassure Britons that rising gas prices would not plunge the country into an energy crisis, as ministers held a series of emergency meetings with energy companies and regulators to establish whether the nation could keep the lights and central heating on this winter.A senior industry insider likened the meetings held between the business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, and energy industry leaders to the early crisis talks held following the outbreak of Covid-19. Continue reading...
As Strictly returns for a 19th series, its host talks dream guests, turning 50 and the childhood trips that inspired her passion for art“Strictly Come Dancing is basically Christmas,” grins Claudia Winkleman. “It’s all about sparkle and kindness. It’s a snowglobe of a show. Even the make-believe baddie isn’t really evil. He’ll hate me for saying so but Craig Revel Horwood might be one of the loveliest men I’ve ever met.”The 49-year-old is, of course, the Bafta-nominated co-host of the hit BBC One contest, which this week returns to the ballroom for its 19th series. Winkleman, who is married with three children and lives in central London, also presents a weekly Radio 2 show, a hit podcast and last year published her debut book, Quite, a frank and funny guide to life. Not bad for someone who self-deprecatingly claims: “I only work a few months of the year. It’s like doing panto season. I’m basically Christopher Biggins.” Continue reading...
The actor, 69, talks about crying over his kids, not being able to cook and still having 80% of his dance movesI am actually one of the few people on the planet who is a heterochromiac syndactylite. I have webbed middle toes on both feet. I also have different coloured eyes: one is brown, one is green. I don’t know how many of us there are: I heard seven.I think I still have the lizard brain of a 20-year-old. I wake up every morning and I have the same vision, the same perception – except when I start to move. The lag between my perception of how young I feel and that mobility… There’s a lag there. Continue reading...
The newly discovered painting of Emily Treslove, the artist’s neighbour, was redone to lose her double chinA previously unknown painting by John Constable has been discovered, to the excitement of art historians. A portrait of a Regency woman in all her finery has not only been identified for the first time, but it has survived with the sitter’s diaries in which she had written about it.In various diary entries, Emily Treslove described receiving the portrait in 1826 from Constable and sitting for him again three years later so that he could make “the likeness stronger” – the artistic equivalent of a nip and tuck. Constable slimmed down her cheek and nose and painted out her double-chin, a technical study reveals. Continue reading...
Analysis: ties between Paris and Washington in worse state than at time of Iraq war after Australia’s cancellation of submarine dealThe recall of the French ambassadors to Australia and the US – without precedent in two centuries of diplomacy between Paris and Washington – has plunged relations to depths unknown for decades.Rifts over the Iraq war or Nato pale into insignificance. True, the French recalled their ambassador to Rome a couple of years ago, irked by the insults sent their way by the upstart Five Star leader Luigi di Maio, but that was a little warning to populists to stop encouraging the disruption of the yellow vest protests. Continue reading...
Since its creation in late 1988, the Guardian’s Saturday supplement has been lauded for front covers and features that have caught the eye and sparked joy or sometimes controversy. As its final edition is published, some of the team who worked on it explain how they brought the magazine to lifeIn 1988, Guardian editor Peter Preston was feeling jealous. The recently launched Independent had a new supplement on Saturday. Edited by the late Alexander Chancellor, it was shot artfully in black and white, and was receiving praise for its inventive use of photography. Meanwhile, the Guardian had barely any feature writers; interviews usually ended up buried in the middle of the paper.“Saturday had traditionally been the weakest day of the week in terms of circulation,” says former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger who was, at the time, the parliamentary sketch writer. “The Guardian had experimented with some not very successful newsprint sections – one called Friday had flopped. The Independent had broken the mould with their magazine and it had given them a massive boost in circulation. Something had to be done.” Continue reading...
The author talks about his book set among small time crooks in 1960s Harlem, the joy of switching it up - and why he looks up to Stanley KubrickSomething strange happened the morning after Colson Whitehead finished his forthcoming novel. “I put the book to bed, and then I got up the next morning and Minneapolis was on fire,” he says. It was 26 May 2020, the first of three days of riots last year after the murder of George Floyd. Whitehead had chosen to conclude his latest novel, Harlem Shuffle, against the backdrop of the Harlem riot of 1964, which erupted after a 15-year-old black boy, James Powell, was shot dead by police lieutenant Thomas Gilligan. What were the odds that the day after he wrapped up a fictional contemplation of “how we pull ourselves together” in the aftermath of such an incident, there would be another one? As Whitehead himself observes, the coincidence was proof of a point he’s always making: “If you write about fucked up racial shit, wait five minutes and something else will happen.”Long before our conversation, I’d resolved that I wouldn’t let the topic of race dominate it. For a start, it’s the subject (often the only one) that black writers are always asked to offer opinions about – an architecture of expectation that builds itself up around us. But also, it has never dominated Whitehead’s work, which has ranged in nine previous books over areas as diverse as elevator inspection, the World Series of poker and the zombie apocalypse. And there’s plenty else to talk about. Music: “I’ve done homework, college papers on Ice Cube’s first record and I’m still listening to it now. I’m brought back to other moments in my life when I’ve been writing really hard and Radiohead’s been there, Public Enemy’s been there.” Lockdowns: “I guess the cliche is that writers’ lives didn’t change that much, I’m pretty much sitting right here all day.” Whether he regrets chickening out of accepting Toni Morrison’s invitation to coffee several years ago: “When I’ve had the opportunity to meet some of my idols at conferences, I’m very reserved.” Continue reading...
It takes a band of global talents to create Yotam Ottolenghi’s distinctive dishes. In an exclusive extract from his latest book, he introduces some of their finest new creations
Sources say presenter was in legal battle with rightwing channel’s bosses over his £700,000-a-year contractWhen Andrew Neil took a leave of absence from GB News a fortnight after its 13 June launch, the rightwing news channel and its star presenter spent weeks insisting he was taking a long break to “recharge [his] batteries”.The reality, sources have told the Guardian, is that rather than merely being on holiday Neil was locked in an increasingly fierce legal battle with the channel’s bosses from mid-July, with the station in turmoil as their lead presenter attempted to renegotiate and then exit a four-year contract believed to worth about £700,000 a year. Continue reading...
The Last Generation, a six-strong group, is camping out near the Reichstag determined to force a commitment to limit global heatingIn a cluster of tents close to the Reichstag building in Berlin are a group of activists who have said they are prepared to starve themselves to death to highlight the lack of ambition among Germany’s main political parties to confront the climate emergency.Since 30 August the six-strong group who call themselves The Last Generation have been on hunger strike in what is the most radical domestic political protest Germany has seen for decades, in the weeks before one of the most decisive German elections for almost 20 years. Continue reading...
In new film The Eyes of Tammy Faye, the unusually accepting religious TV star is brought to life by Jessica ChastainThirty-six years have passed but, at a cinema in New York this week, the memories came flooding back for Steve Pieters.The Aids activist was attending the premiere of The Eyes of Tammy Faye, a film that includes a recreation of a seminal TV interview he gave to Christian televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker in 1985. Continue reading...
Behind the headlines about Gen Milley, China and the threat of nuclear war lies a sobering read about democracy in dangerDonald Trump is out of a job but far from gone and forgotten. The 45th president stokes the lie of a rigged election while his rallies pack more wallop than a Sunday sermon and a bottle of Jack Daniel’s.Related: Melania Trump like Marie Antoinette, says former aide in hotly awaited book Continue reading...
Everyone here has tales of lost loved ones, but many want foreigners back – with aid not weaponsA parade of white Taliban flags lines Musa Qala bazaar right up to the central monument where two kidnappers were hanged in a public execution earlier this year. The flags flutter from almost every shop in celebration, some rough and handmade, others printed and lined with tinsel.The dusty town, an opium trading centre reached most of the year by driving up the gravel bed of a seasonal river, was the Taliban’s southern capital from 2015 until the militant group took over the national capital. Before that it was the site of intense fighting by British and US forces for more than a decade, including a bitter 2006 British siege in which 88 men were holed up for two months, leading to the first – albeit hyperlocal – international ceasefire negotiations with the Taliban. Continue reading...
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