Operation combining art and engineering on a massive scale fulfils dream of late artist coupleShortly after the sun rose over central Paris, the first of the orange-clad rope technicians hopped over the top of the Arc de Triomphe and began to abseil down the landmark unrolling a swathe of silvery blue fabric that shimmered in the early light.Someone clapped as the first abseiler went over the top – 50 metres from the ground – but most in the crowd of onlookers just held their breath. It was a slow and meticulous operation, requiring them to stop make adjustments to the folds in the material every few metres while avoiding touching the arch itself. Continue reading...
Firefighters battle to contain blazes in Andalucía as Spain drafts in military to helpPeople have fled their homes in six more Andalucían towns and villages as Spain sent in a military unit to help tackle wildfires raging close to a Costa del Sol resort.A blaze fanned by strong winds has driven out almost 2,000 people and killed one emergency worker since it began on Wednesday in the mountainous Sierra Bermeja above Estepona, a popular spot with British tourists and retirees. Continue reading...
Priti Patel and Boris Johnson have surrendered whatever claim to moral leadership they might have hadWhat will the verdict of history be on a country that turns its back so flagrantly upon human rights in general and the right to seek asylum through any available means in particular (Priti Patel to send boats carrying migrants to UK back across Channel, 9 September)? Priti Patel and Boris Johnson will join Donald Trump and Viktor Orbán et al as the embodiment of all that is most repugnant in the rightwing agenda, rejecting definitively any residual claim to moral leadership these once humane countries might have possessed. I doubt that I am alone in telling European friends of the shame I feel at allowing such people to lead my country. Their contribution to the defeat of the democratic ideal should not be underestimated by history.
Church of England bishops say it is time for a reappraisal which looks again at serious multilateral approaches to refugeesAs bishops within the Church of England with a particular oversight of asylum and refugee issues, we are deeply concerned about the government’s approach to migrant crossings of the Channel.The nationality and borders bill currently before parliament would criminalise not only attempts to cross the border irregularly, nor even simply people smuggling, but even those who take part in the rescue of boats in distress at sea. Continue reading...
Socialist to campaign on her story of ‘overcoming class prejudice’ in bid to win back voters for the left in 2022The Socialist mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, has announced a bid for the French presidency, saying that as a woman with working-class, immigrant roots she will try to repair the anger and divisions in French society and win back low-income workers disillusioned with the left.“The Republican model is disintegrating before our eyes,” Hidalgo told supporters gathered on the docks in Rouen, Normandy. She warned of growing inequalities, saying: “I want all children in France to have the same opportunities I had.” Continue reading...
Talks aim to revitalise stalled inspections process and could ease path towards lifting of US sanctionsIran has agreed to allow UN nuclear inspectors to install new memory cards into its cameras monitoring the country’s controversial nuclear programme in a move that could keep the inspection process on life support, and even ease a path towards a lifting of US sanctions.Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog, struck the deal in Tehran on Sunday following two hours of talks and will report to the IAEA’s board meeting on Monday. Continue reading...
More than 350 groups join peers in challenging home secretary over ‘attack on democratic rights’ as legislation enters LordsThe home secretary, Priti Patel, is facing a growing revolt in parliament and the country over plans to restrict the fundamental right to protest, as controversial legislation that would increase police powers enters the House of Lords this week.More than 350 organisations, including human rights groups, charities and faith bodies, have written to Patel and justice secretary Robert Buckland this weekend complaining that the measures would have a “profound impact” on freedom of expression, and represent “an attack on some of the most basic democratic rights of citizens”. Continue reading...
The literary editor and novelist has form in the dark arts of the political class – he ran Thatcher’s policy unit in the 1980s – and puts it to good use in his latest, hilarious novelAs Ferdinand Mount’s publisher happily notes, his latest novel, Making Nice, is what you might get if you crossed a little light Evelyn Waugh with Armando Iannucci’s TV satire The Thick of It. But in truth, the book is far more clever and modish even than that suggests, and not only because it opens with a scene in which one of its characters goes champing (camping in a church, in case you’re not up to speed). There can’t be a person alive who would be able to read it without thinking of Dominic Cummings, the man whose antic spirit infuses its narrative like angostura bitters in a gin and tonic.The book relates the adventures of Dickie Pentecost, the diplomatic editor of a newspaper that sounds not unlike the FT. Having been made redundant (“we are reshaping our editorial capacity… who needs diplomatic briefings on Chatham House terms when the foreign secretary himself is tweeting like a bloody blue tit?”), Dickie joins a dodgy PR firm called Making Nice, founded by a charismatic but possibly insane younger man called Ethel (short for Ethelbert). Continue reading...
Three years after the death of her husband at 41, Kat Lister describes the posthumous conception dilemma she facesIt’s the hottest week of the year and I am sitting in a windowless room on the lower ground floor of London’s University College Hospital discussing the precise temperature of frozen sperm. At -196C, these glacial swimmers are biologically inert, I’m told, as I’m handed two props: a thin plastic straw that bends to the will of my fingertips and a cylindrical cup segmented by colourful tubes – blue, green, purple, orange, red – that gives this storage container the look of a rainbow-hued toy, a playful wagon wheel you might buy for a child.“Is this how you imagined it?” the manager of the fertility laboratory asks me – “it” being the process of posthumous sperm banking. I can’t quite find the words to answer that, no, this isn’t what I imagined at all because when I close my eyes, I think of poppy seeds and ice cubes. And that, at the age of 38, this isn’t the way my story was supposed to go. Continue reading...
Book reveals how the jazz musician unwittingly became party to secret cold war manoeuvres by the US in AfricaIt was a memorable evening: Louis Armstrong, his wife and a diplomat from the US embassy were out for dinner in a restaurant in what was still Léopoldville, capital of the newly independent Congo.The trumpeter, singer and band leader, nicknamed Satchmo as a child, was in the middle of a tour of Africa that would stretch over months, organised and sponsored by the State Department in a bid to improve the image of the US in dozens of countries which had just won freedom from colonial regimes. Continue reading...
Shopkeepers in the market town have mixed emotions about the apparent demise of the acclaimed sporting eventOn Saturday mornings the West Yorkshire market town of Otley is a hive of activity, an increasingly rare example of a thriving high street full of independent shops and cafes which does not seem to need much help attracting visitors.The pretty and historic stone buildings line one of the most popular parts of the Tour de Yorkshire route, one of the country’s most popular new sporting events. But next year’s event was cancelled last month and does not seem likely to be held again. Continue reading...
Lashana Lynch, star of the new Bond movie, on ninja training, doing her own stunts and why now’s the time for an agent who’s a ‘real woman’Lashana Lynch knew she was on a very short shortlist. She had taped a couple of auditions for Barbara Broccoli, the producer of the James Bond films since 1995. She met and read with Daniel Craig, who would be making his fifth and final appearance in No Time To Die, the 25th 007 adventure, a new release that you may have caught wind of by now. Then, finally, there was the stunt test, overseen by the Bond stunt and armoury teams (yes those are actual departments).Is that like circuit training? “Deeper than that,” Lynch replies. “They hand you a bunch of weapons and they teach you a routine for a few seconds or a minute and then you basically have to copy the routine. So it was like, ‘OK, grab the gun! Shoot! Get down on your knees! Shoot! Roll on your back! Land on your feet! Shoot! Run, run, run! You’ve run out of ammo! Throw that away! Assemble this gun! Shoot!’ And that was the first out of five routines they taught me.” Continue reading...
The Taliban claim to have changed, but the crackdown has begun for women across the countryIn two months, Parwana estimates she has crossed the threshold of her home perhaps four times. She used to leave early in the morning, for work that supported her entire family, and then go on to an evening degree course.After the Taliban took over Kandahar, her manager told her not to come to work and her university hasn’t yet sorted out how to put on the gender-divided classes they demanded. Continue reading...
The Gateshead-born journalist toured former left strongholds, talking to politicians and local people, to write this illuminating study of a seismic shift in British politicsHalfway through this immensely readable compendium of local reportage, interviews and analysis, Neil Kinnock regales Sebastian Payne with a splendid anecdote from the 1974 election campaign. Doing the rounds in his safe south Wales seat, accompanied by a “theorist comrade” named Barry Moore, the future Labour leader came away from the only Tory street in the constituency with a flea in his ear. “I said to Barry and my agent: ‘What a bunch of bastards,’ recalls Kinnock. “And Barry said: ‘Yep, but you better hope those bastards never get organised.’ And I’ve remembered that to this day. The working-class Tories are not an isolated crop who are separated from the rest of the communities in which they live. They have relatives, they have friends, they have workmates, they have drinking buddies. When an area switches, it switches rapidly and suddenly.”Broken Heartlands is an exploration of how, in the election of December 2019, just such a seismic switch to the Tories took place across huge swathes of the Midlands and northern England. The collapse of the “red wall” of safe Labour seats was a pivotal moment in British political history. It handed an 80-seat majority to Boris Johnson and plunged Labour into an existential crisis from which it has yet to emerge. So how did Labour lose the loyalty of the kind of people it was set up to fight for? Brexit confusion, Jeremy Corbyn, deindustrialisation, New Labour neglect, globalisation, “wokeism”, the excesses of the hard left and the impact of austerity: all have been offered in partial explanation. Between the autumn of 2020 and the spring of 2021, Payne bought a red Mini Cooper and embarked on a road trip to reach his own conclusions, following up on his own reporting over the past few years for the Financial Times. Having grown up in Gateshead in the 90s and 00s, in a mixed political household, he can claim some northern skin in the game. Continue reading...
The football star, with help from the author, has turned his experiences of triumph over adversity into a novel for pre-teens, Here the friends discuss fathers, racism and the redemptive power of sportSometimes the detail of a single life story can stop half a nation in its tracks. One such arresting moment was the footballer Ian Wright’s extraordinary Desert Island Discs interview with Lauren Laverne in February last year. I had the radio on in the kitchen in the background while I was working to a tight deadline. As soon as Wright started to talk about his childhood, though, I gave up all hope of finishing what I was writing and gave the broadcast my fullest attention. I texted Lisa, my wife, and my daughters to tell them to stop what they were doing and turn it on. By the end, I was crying nearly as much as Wright was.In recent weeks, when I’ve mentioned to various friends that I was due to talk to Wright for this piece, they have, unprompted, recalled a similar reaction to hearing him as a castaway: a couple of them remembered blubbing and that compulsion to call loved ones to tell them they had to listen too. Continue reading...
The 91-year-old tabloid columnist, the star of a new Showtime documentary, on Murdoch, Trump – and why New York is the capital of the worldCindy Adams, the long-serving gossip queen of the New York Post, was battling Hurricane Ida in her Manhattan apartment. Her terriers were disturbed, and she was not sleeping. “A glass-enclosed penthouse is not good,” she said. “The pounding of the rain. And not just rain, the thunder. I was up all night.”Related: The trial of Elizabeth Holmes: perfect for the age of the Instagram influencer | Emma Brockes Continue reading...
In what seems a valedictory to his work on the American revolution, Nathaniel Philbrick considers the legacy of the first president – and of slavery“George Washington slept here” used to be a common sign along the eastern seaboard, even giving rise to a film starring Jack Benny.Related: ‘America is not a perfect country’: David Rubenstein on Trump, Biden and a nation’s troubled history Continue reading...
Love is something you do rather than a thing you fall into, says Philippa PerryThe question My partner and I are both 33. We met around two years ago. He is a kind, attractive person, and from the start it felt safe, relaxed and comfortable, but not especially sparky. This is still true. Yet the more we get to know each other, the more some things improve. Unlike some of my previous partners, he is sensitive, intelligent, consistently kind, caring and generous – qualities I really value and, having had many negative experiences of dating in the past, can appreciate.The problem is, there is some part of me that is unsure and I don’t know why. I think I’d like someone who initiated more conversation or more adventure. I love and care for him very much. I enjoy his company and feel loved; we have good sex. It all seems to be there, but I want to feel more excited, more thrilled by the relationship. The sense of passion and excitement I had in previous relationships probably came from an unhealthy dynamic, because I never knew where I stood. Continue reading...
Ceremony marks formal beginning of Taliban rule in Afghanistan following chaotic US withdrawalThe Taliban raised their flag over the Afghan presidential palace on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, as news emerged that the regime’s fighters had killed the brother of the country’s former vice-president at a checkpoint in Panjshir province.Rohullah Azizi, the brother of former vice-president and anti-Taliban resistance leader Amrullah Saleh, was travelling in his car on Thursday when he and his driver were shot dead at a Taliban checkpoint, his nephew said on Saturday. Continue reading...
The Rev Megan Rohrer will lead nearly 200 congregations of one of the largest Christian denominations in the USThe Evangelical Lutheran Church of America has installed its first openly transgender bishop in a service held in San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral on Saturday.The Rev Megan Rohrer will lead one of the church’s 65 synods, overseeing nearly 200 congregations in northern California and northern Nevada. Continue reading...
Finding love across the back fence or apartment corridor is a high risk, high reward proposition. Convenient? Yes. But also, potentially, mortifyingOne night, Hayden Starr returned home to find his neighbours having a party. He lived in an apartment complex in Canberra, with only one other unit on his floor, its front door just “a metre apart” from his own. Keen to see who lived there, he invited himself in.“I grabbed a cheap bottle of wine I had lying around, go in and see this delightful, lovely girl,” he says. “And that’s how I met Sophie. It was her party, but we ended up spending ages chatting and she tells me all these crazy stories. After that I was like ‘oh man, there’s something about this girl. There’s something about this neighbour of mine.’” Continue reading...
Mohammad Zaman Khadimi was forced to make an impossible choice as he fled the Taliban for sanctuary in AustraliaOn an August morning, Mohammad Zaman Khadimi walked out of class and into a world entirely changed.“I heard the news that the Taliban were coming,” he says. “They had captured Herat and Lashkar Gah and they would come to Kabul. Nothing would stop them. Everything changed. I knew I would be vulnerable.” Continue reading...
Founder of Maoist insurgents that terrorised Peru in 1980s and 1990s dies in military prison where he was serving life sentenceAbimael Guzmán, the founder and leader of the Shining Path, the Maoist insurgents which terrorised Peru in the 1980s and 1990s, has died in military hospital aged 86, the Peruvian government has said.After nearly 30 years serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison inside a naval base, Guzmán died at 6.40am on Saturday due to “health complications”, Peru’s prison service confirmed. Continue reading...
by Vincent Ni China affairs correspondent on (#5PE1K)
Populists and nationalists are spreading anti-Muslim, anti-feminist messages – but also backing the Communist party lineIn the early days of the 2016 US election campaign, Fang Kecheng, a former journalist at the liberal-leaning Chinese newspaper Southern Weekly and then a PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania, began fact-checking Donald Trump’s statements on refugees and Muslims on Chinese social media, hoping to provide additional context to the reporting of the presidential candidate back home in China. But his effort was quickly met with fierce criticism on the Chinese internet.Some accused him of being a “white left” – a popular insult for idealistic, leftwing and western-oriented liberals; others labelled him a “virgin”, a “bleeding heart” and a “white lotus” – demeaning phrases that describe do-gooders who care about the underprivileged - as he tried to defend women’s rights. Continue reading...
Lawyers claiming to represent Duke of York question whether papers were properly servedA US court will hold a pretrial conference on Monday in the civil suit filed by a woman who claims Prince Andrew sexually assaulted her, as the two sides argue over whether the prince was properly served with documents in the case.Lawyers for Virginia Roberts Giuffre say the documents were handed over to a Metropolitan police officer on duty at the main gates of Andrew’s home in Windsor Great Park on 27 August. Continue reading...
Speaking at the Shanksville memorial ceremony, Kamala Harris called for the US to come together, as passengers and crew of Flight 93 did on 9/11 to fight the hijackers. She was joined by former president George W Bush, who also criticised the divisiveness affecting the US, saying that it turns 'every argument into a clash of cultures'. Continue reading...
Will an oppressive new law stifle independent media outlets – or lead to a weakening of the president’s authoritarian regime?Usually the bad news is dumped late on Friday when most Muscovites are heading out for the evening: a new list of names of journalists and outlets declared “foreign agents”, a label that for some Russians evokes such Soviet-era terms as “enemy of the people” and has sent a chill through newsrooms under threat.“We are being told that we are the enemy,” said Tikhon Dzyadko, the editor of Dozhd, Russia’s main independent television station and a recent addition to the list. “And I am not an enemy and I am not an agent. It’s a spit in the face.” Continue reading...
Rafael Grossi will meet with Iranian officials, in his first visit to the country since president Ebrahim Raisi took officeIran says that the head of the International Atomic Energy Organisation (IAEA) is due to arrive in the country for talks with Iranian officials.Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s envoy to the IAEA, said in a tweet that Rafael Grossi is arriving on Saturday, and will travel to Tehran. He is scheduled to meet Iran’s vice-president and the head of the country’s atomic organization, Mohammad Eslami, on Sunday. Continue reading...
Greater Manchester fire service called to the blaze on Saturday night, which caused minor damage to the doorPolice are investigating an arson attack on a mosque in Greater Manchester as a hate crime.Officers were called to a report of a fire at Didsbury mosque, which is on the junction of Barlow Moor Road and Burton Road, just after midnight on Saturday. Continue reading...
Big name directors at their best feature alongside daring visionaries from the farther realms of art cinema – but to whom will Bong Joon-ho’s jury award the Golden Lion?Critics are allegedly very hard to please. There’s a joke told in the 19th-century drama Lost Illusions, which premiered in Venice this week. Two critics are in a boat when they see Jesus walking on the water. One says to the other: “Look at that – he can’t even swim.”Yet this year on the Lido, the critics were dizzy with delight at a formidably good festival. Last year, the Mostra happened during the gap between European lockdowns, leaving viewers gratefully receptive to a superb selection – but this year’s crop, miraculously, has outdone it. The competition jury – headed by Korean maestro Bong Joon-ho and including Chloé Zhao, director of 2020’s Golden Lion winner Nomadland – will have a tough time picking the plums from this year’s cornucopia. Continue reading...
‘Levelling up’ British society will take 10 years, the prime minister writes as Tories slip in pollsReports that Boris Johnson has ambitions for another decade in power as he aims to outlast Margaret Thatcher’s 11-year tenure in No 10 have been met with consternation.The Times reported that Johnson wanted to build a legacy. One cabinet member reportedly told the newspaper: “Boris will want to go on and on. The stuff Dom [Dominic Cummings] was saying about him going off into the sunset was nonsense. He’s very competitive. He wants to go on for longer than Thatcher.” Continue reading...
‘It’s just one of those things,’ says the British celebrity snapper, 83, who is still busy with new workDavid Bailey has revealed he has dementia, a life-limiting condition the British photographer described as a bore.Speaking to the Times, Bailey, 83, said: “I’ve got vascular dementia. I was diagnosed about three years ago. Continue reading...
by Gregory Robinson, Hibaq Farah, Kemi Alemoru, Danie on (#5PDPW)
AJ Odudu and Mo Gilligan revived the morning show, Trevor McDonald took over Countdown and Celebrity Gogglebox had an all-black cast – but was Channel 4’s diversity initiative a success? Our writers decideThe day kicked off at 6am with four episodes of Desmond’s, the Norman Beaton comedy about a Guyanese barber whose outdated haircuts both mortified and bonded Peckham between 1989 and 1994. Continue reading...
President Rumen Radev announces new vote, after polls in April and July produced fragmented legislaturesBulgaria will hold snap general elections on 14 November to try to resolve a political crisis that has left it without a regular government for months, the country’s president, Rumen Radev, said on Saturday.Bulgarians voted in April and July but both polls resulted in fragmented legislatures. No party has been able to form a government to succeed the almost 10-year tenure of former conservative prime minister Boyko Borisov. Continue reading...
Actor says Washington, who died earlier this month aged 71, was diagnosed eight months before her deathRichard E Grant has revealed his wife of 35 years, Joan Washington, was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer eight months before her death.The actor, 64, known for films including Withnail And I and Can You Ever Forgive Me?, announced Washington, a voice coach, died earlier this month, aged 71, by sharing a video of the pair dancing together to Only You by the Platters on Twitter. Continue reading...
by Mike MacEacheran. Photographs: Robert Ormerod on (#5PDNC)
In the rolling peaks of western Scotland, amateurs and professionals are digging and panning for the chance of a fortune. Is there gold in them hills?Beyond the old buildings of Cononish Farm at Eas Anie, beyond the corrugated sheep sheds and the deer-control fence, Stanley Lister has a weird calm for a man standing so close to a truck of explosives. Nearby, an incinerator bin smokes with detonators cooling off in the late summer breeze and the air is thick with the smell of phosphorus. “Here, the dangers are the midges,” he says through his face mask, before donning a hard hat and ear guards. “Oh, and watch out for the clegs [horseflies]. Nasty buggers.”Lister, a 29-year-old mining engineer from Lochgilphead, is high up a hillside inside the Loch Lomond and Trossachs national park in Argyll, standing outside the Cononish goldmine near Tyndrum, a petrol stop on the road north to the wildest places in Britain. Action-ready, he is preparing for the next blast, a ritual that takes place twice a day deep inside Beinn Chùirn, home of the only commercial goldmine in the UK, where the mine’s Australian-founded owners, Scotgold Resources, claim £200m is hiding in plain sight. With each detonation, the miners advance three metres down one of three headings, or gold caves, ever closer to their prehistoric reward. “It’s a bit romantic, but I love being underground,” Lister says, splashing through a silvery pool of rainwater towards the mouth of the 1km-long mineshaft with his colleagues. “It’s peaceful and quiet. No distractions.” Continue reading...
A buttery, gluten-free variation on a traditional Swedish cake, packed with almond flavourThe sweet almond topping on this tart was inspired by toscakaka, a delightful Swedish almond cake that I fell in love with a few years ago. A buttery mix of brown sugar, toasted almonds and cream comes together to create a shell-like layer that sits on top of a soft, frangipane filling. Buckwheat flour is my go-to when seeking out a gluten-free option for pastry because it’s not too difficult to work with and brings such a nutty, earthy flavour. Continue reading...
by Josh Taylor (now) and Nino Bucci (earlier) on (#5PD6T)
NSW reports 1,599 new cases and eight deaths; Victoria records 450 cases, ACT 15 and South Australia one; Queensland premier flags possible lockdown. Follow live
This adaptation of Ferdinand von Schirach’s thriller about a grandfather with a murky past is let down by conventional storytelling and clunky acting“We need to know about the evil,” said the German lawyer-turned-bestselling-novelist Ferdinand von Schirach. “That’s the only way we can live with it.” His grandfather was head of the Hitler Youth and his grandmother served as Hitler’s secretary. Now, Von Schirach’s thriller about the legacy of Nazism featuring a grandfather with a murky past has been adapted into a watchable if sluggish and dated courtroom drama – let down by cliched storytelling and clunky acting that drains the movie of tension.Elyas M’Barek plays newly qualified public defender Caspar Leinen, who is constantly being reminded that his Turkish heritage puts him on the outside of the establishment. Three months into the new job, he lands the case of his career, representing an Italian man accused of murdering a well-known business tycoon. The evidence leaves no doubt as to what happened: Fabrizio Collini (Franco Nero) shot Hans Meyer (Manfred Zapatka) in the head three times and stamped on his face with such force that brain matter was found on his shoe. But Collini isn’t talking and the central mystery of the movie is his motive, which has it roots in wartime events revealed in sepia flashback so conventional they sometimes feel close to parody. Continue reading...
Find a course at one of the top universities in the country. Our league tables rank them all subject-by-subject, as well as by student satisfaction, staff numbers, spending and career prospects Continue reading...
by Rachel Aroesti, Miriam Gillinson, Simran Hans, Kat on (#5PDHD)
From online comedy to cinema’s new blockbusters to all-night rave festivals, a look at the cultural highlights for all levels of commitmentNew streaming gems to enjoy from within the comfort of your own four walls. Continue reading...
Two men were found hiding in a truck carpark after two others were caught earlier in northern IsraelIsraeli police have caught two of the six Palestinians who escaped a maximum-security prison this week in a daring prison break that has captured the country’s attention.Police said the two were caught in northern Israel on Friday night. Continue reading...
Villagers report school students mong those killed amid fighting with government troops near Gangaw townshipFifteen to 20 villagers, including several teenagers, have been killed in some of Myanmar’s deadliest fighting since July between government troops and resistance forces, a villager and reports by independent media said.The fighting near Gangaw township in the north-western Magway region started on Thursday, two days after a call for a nationwide uprising was issued by the National Unity Government, an opposition organisation that seeks to coordinate resistance to military rule. Continue reading...
The country’s goal of eliminating Covid transmission looks within reach – but health experts’ optimism is cautiousLess than a month ago, New Zealanders disappeared into their homes, retracting from the public domain like spilled water into a dry sponge. The motorways and city streets stood mostly empty, shops closed, schools and playgrounds were deserted. A single case of the highly contagious Delta variant had been detected and the government called a snap level-4 lockdown, introducing some of the strictest restrictions in the world.It was a new threat for a country whose Covid-zero pandemic response had been ranked one of the best globally. New Zealand had never faced a Delta outbreak before, and no one knew if its past strategies would prove up to the task. Continue reading...
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