Video on social media appears to show clashes on the street including a chair being thrown and someone being hit with a binSix arrests were made after scuffles broke out before Manchester United’s opening match of the Premier League season against visitors Leeds United, police said.Greater Manchester police said that despite “isolated incidents of disorder” before kick-off, the event at Old Trafford on Saturday passed “largely without police incident”. Continue reading...
Move to limit Jewish people’s opportunity to seek restitution sparks furious response from IsraelPoland’s president has decided to sign a bill that would set limits on the ability of Jews to recover property seized by Nazi German occupiers and retained by postwar communist rulers, drawing fury from Israel, which said the law was antisemitic.“I made a decision today on the act, which in recent months was the subject of a lively and loud debate at home and abroad,” Andrzej Duda said in a statement published on Saturday. “After an in-depth analysis, I have decided to sign the amendment.” Continue reading...
Haiti’s prime minister, Ariel Henry, has said numerous lives have been lost after the Caribbean country was struck by a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that caused significant damage to buildings and infrastructure.
Keyham’s tight-knit community says the government has ‘big questions’ to answer about gun controlFive-year-old Evie-Rae left her grandmother Terri’s side and carefully placed a pink candle and a teddy bear on the growing pile of tributes at the foot of a tree in North Down Crescent Park.“I wanted to come because of the little girl,” she said. “It’s so sad what happened. And scary.” She scattered some petals before running off to play. Continue reading...
Hakainde Hichilema’s party is ahead in early results and Edgar Lungu looks likely to lose presidencyZambia’s official opposition, UPND, said on Saturday it was time to unite the country and urged people not to heed President Edgar Lungu’s statement that the presidential and parliamentary elections were not free and fair.The leader of the United Party for National Development (UPND), Hakainde Hichilema, had taken an early lead against Lungu on Saturday as results rolled in. Continue reading...
Labour leader also suggests gun licensing laws could be urgently tightened in the wake of Jake Davison shooting dead five peopleKeir Starmer has said police have questions to answer over how a gunman obtained a firearms licence after it was revoked but reinstated following an anger management course.The Labour leader also suggested that gun licensing laws could be urgently tightened in the wake of Jake Davison shooting dead five people in Plymouth before turning the weapon on himself. Continue reading...
Exclusive: abusive practice should also be outlawed in health bill to protect women, say gynaecologistsThe government’s pledge to outlaw virginity testing will be undermined unless fake surgery touted as “virginity repair” is also banned, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) has warned.Last month ministers committed to criminalising the invasive and unscientific “tests” offered by some private clinics to determine whether someone is a virgin through an examination to see if the hymen is intact. Continue reading...
“As a boy, my main interest in nature was finding the tallest tree to climb,” says the British photographer Levon Biss. However, after travelling the world, his curiosity shifted to nature’s most minuscule structures.For his photo series The Hidden Beauty of Seeds and Fruits, Biss immersed himself in the collections housed at Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Garden , sifting through its 3,500 historical specimens. “I was stunned by the variety of designs that exist to disperse seeds. Some are truly ingenious,” he says, singling out the hairy-stemmed electric shock plant, “an innocent-looking seed pod until an animal (or human) decides to bite!”
The First Dates star and maître d’ on what his parents taught him about service, the value of hospitality and his pride in his Olympian daughterI was born in food. My dad used to say: “We don’t have much money and we don’t have fancy cars, but we always have good food in the fridge and on the table.” My parents would buy fillet steaks, foie gras, oysters, lobster; they love good quality food. Every day we had a three-course meal: starter, main and dessert and cheese before dessert. Every single day.My parents were nurses in a hospital in Limoges and they talked a lot about work at the dinner table: about patient care and the service that was provided to the patient and how they were making the customer, the patient, feel. And, for me, this informed the way I work in restaurants [as a maître d’hôtel]. It was about organisation, it was about trust, it was aboutefficiency, it was about timing, it was about attention to detail. And it was about quality. I was cradled in it; I was almost brainwashed in a particular way of doing things. Continue reading...
Labour leader demands that UK shows leadership and calls meetings of Nato and UN security councilThe UK government must show leadership over the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan, the Labour leader has said, as a former head of the British army called on the prime minister to launch an urgent humanitarian aid operation.Keir Starmer said there was a risk of a global terror group taking control of the country after the withdrawal of British and US forces, while Richard Dannatt said there was still time to show Afghans they were not being completely abandoned. Continue reading...
Nosrat Bazoft, mother of the Observer reporter executed by the tyrant in 1990, reveals for the first time how the unreported theft of a briefcase of documents on a secret Iraqi weapon may have sealed her son’s fate.Leaning back in a loose cotton shirt within the lobby of Baghdad’s Royal Tulip Al Rasheed hotel, Farzad Bazoft looks like a man at ease. Despite investigating Iraq’s secret arms programme in the back yard of Saddam Hussein, the Observer journalist knew that the following day he would be gone, back to the safety of London.Farzad never made it to the UK. The picture chronicles his last night of freedom. Within 24 hours he would be imprisoned in solitary confinement. Then he would be starved and beaten, the start of a chain of events that would culminate, amid international furore, with his execution at the behest of Saddam. Continue reading...
Flordelis dos Santos de Souza arrested in Rio after losing protection of parliamentary privilegeThe Brazilian gospel star turned congresswoman accused of masterminding the murder of her preacher husband has been arrested after she was expelled from congress earlier this week.Flordelis dos Santos de Souza, an evangelical celebrity famed for raising more than 50 children she claimed to have rescued from lives of poverty and crime, was detained on Friday night at her home near Rio de Janeiro. Continue reading...
More than a million people have been urged to seek shelter as torrential rain triggered floods and landslides in western Japan, leaving at least one dead and two missing. Scientists say the climate crisis is intensifying the risk of heavy rain in Japan and elsewhere, because a warmer atmosphere holds more water
Leila Picker arrested after boy died having been found seriously injured at house in JacksdaleA woman is to appear in court charged with the murder of a three-year-old boy who died after being found injured at a home in Nottinghamshire.Leila Picker, 22, of Jacksdale, was arrested this week and will appear at Nottingham magistrates court on Saturday. Continue reading...
Leftwing film-maker claims move by party is because he would ‘not disown those already expelled’The veteran leftwing film-maker Ken Loach has said he has been expelled from the Labour party.Loach, whose films are regarded as landmarks of social realism, claimed the move by the party was because he would “not disown those already expelled”, and he hit out at an alleged “witch-hunt”. Continue reading...
A large crowd gathered in Plymouth on Friday for a vigil after a mass shooting killed five people, including a three-year-old girl. People laid flowers and held candles in North Down Crescent Park in Keyham to remember those who were killed by a gunman. The incident was Britain’s worst mass shooting in more than a decade
Ashraf Ghani says focus is on preventing ‘further instability, violence and displacement’Afghanistan’s president, Ashraf Ghani, said he was in urgent talks with local leaders and international partners as Taliban rebels pushed closer to Kabul, capturing a town south of the capital that is one of the gateways to the city.“As your president, my focus is on preventing further instability, violence and displacement of my people,” Ghani said in a brief televised address, as the US and other countries rushed in troops to help evacuate their embassies. Continue reading...
Sarah Rainsford says she is caught up in wider diplomatic game as country ‘turns in on itself’A senior BBC journalist who is to be expelled from Russia has condemned “an increasingly repressive environment” for critical journalists in the country.Sarah Rainsford, whose visa is due to expire at the end of the month and will not be renewed, said her impending departure came in the context of “a massive deterioration in relations between Russia and the UK” and attacks on press freedom. Continue reading...
Only remaining print paper raided as part of ‘customs fraud and money laundering’ investigationNicaraguan police have raided the offices of the main opposition newspaper La Prensa.The national police said the raid on Friday was part of an investigation into “customs fraud and money laundering”, and the newspaper’s offices remained under police custody. Continue reading...
A sweet-sour cherry and apricot pie, and a creamy Italian cheese that’s just made to go with charred peachesI quite like a fruit pie; I really like a “slab” fruit pie (because: the corners); and I love a slab pie filled with naturally sour fruits. Rhubarb and gooseberries are the obvious choice for fans of seasonal British fruit – and, as it happens, 800–900g of either substitute perfectly in today’s first recipe without any other changes. However, there’s something about an apricot pie that sucks me in, largely because of that fruit’s transformation from mellow and sometimes dull when raw to always tart once cooked. The mix of burnt peach, basil, pistachio and burrata, meanwhile, feels like peak summer on a plate; the perfumed fruit and herbs relax so effortlessly into cold, creamy, fresh cheese. Indeed, it is something you’ll most likely want to eat if the weather matches, or your mind is in holiday mode. Continue reading...
The Norwegian author recalls a summer spent kicking a ball against a wall – and dreaming of scoring at Wembley• Read other authors on their memorable urban summersI have a clear image of the summer from the time when I was growing up. Not of diving into the waters of a Norwegian fjord, or barbecuing with my parents at a camp site or savouring the view from the top of a mountain I’ve just climbed. But of myself alone in the city, when everyone has gone off on holiday. I’m in a school playground, and now everyone has gone it feels like a strangely alien place. There are no kids on the gravel pitch where we’ve played football all year round, even through the winter on the snow and ice; no echoing shouts of delight when a fight breaks out between two boys, or someone has stuffed a frog down a girl’s tights. The only echoes come from the ball as it hits the wall below the teachers’ room, over and over again. Suddenly everyone had vanished. I’d heard a lot of talk about car trips to Sweden, cabins in the south, grandparents in the country; but still, it felt like a betrayal, this synchronised evacuation. Continue reading...
A Mexican wave of flavours join together in this rousing medley of nutty black rice, caramelised corn, creamy avocado and smoky chilliesIf there were awards given to countries for cultivating ingredients, Mexico would be gleaming with trophies. Corn, chillies and avocados are all said to have spilled forth from its borders, and are now well loved across the world. Given the country’s incredible food culture, it’s a place I think about a lot in the kitchen, and today’s recipe is a homage to some of its treasures. In this salad, the sweetcorn is fried hard until caramelised, then given a bit of punch with smoky, sharp chipotle in adobo, before being cushioned by creamy avocado and rice. Continue reading...
Woman alleges rapper and Kenneth Petty have been harassing her to force her to recant her storyThe rap superstar Nicki Minaj and her husband, Kenneth Petty, have been sued by the woman he was accused of raping in 1994 after allegedly harassing her to recant her story.The woman, now 43, alleged she was attacked at knifepoint as a 16-year-old in Queens, New York City, by Petty. Continue reading...
The US author and critic recalls a summer of cycling in the German capital in 2018• Read other authors on their memorable urban summersEvery summer when I come to Berlin, someone says, “Wouldn’t you rather be at the beach?” No. I want to drink beer from the Späti (corner shop) and marvel at the sudden appearance of disparate architectures. But increasingly, there are heatwaves.If pressed, even these I can romanticise: everyone is carefree and dirty (even more so than usual) and doesn’t work (even more so than usual). I always end up crossing Alexanderplatz on a bike thinking, this is like a desert, but more than once I’ve run into someone I know in the bike lane, which renders the scene even more hallucinogenic. Still, I dread the heatwaves as if they are worse than they are. “They’re going to have to get air-conditioning,” I mutter with the rest of the Americans. The only real respite is, unfortunately, to go to the beach. Continue reading...
The rude, raucous and revolutionary comedy is back for another term. The stars and creators reveal how it became one of Netflix’s biggest British hitsSex Education is back with a bang. Several, in fact. The Netflix hit’s third series starts with an epic sex montage. There’s sex in a car; in a living room; in a variety of teenage bedrooms. There are casual encounters, committed relationships, sex together, alone, virtually, playing the drums and with a sci-fi theme. It is a symphony of shags, an opera of orgasms, all set to the thumping beat of the Rubinoos’ I Think We’re Alone Now. As the old saying goes, there’s nowt so queer as folk, and Sex Education is determined to prove it.The Netflix comedy-drama only began in 2019, but thanks to its cross-generational, multinational appeal, it already seems like part of the cultural landscape. The funny, frank, flamboyant show about teenage life, sex and identity is an awards magnet and has made stars of its young cast, who now front fashion campaigns and appear regularly on stage and cinema screens. Gillian Anderson and Asa Butterfield star as mother and son Jean and Otis Milburn, who live in an enviable, chalet-style house overlooking the gorgeous Wye valley. Continue reading...
Supporters say attacks over choice of name similar to 17th-century Muslim Mughal emperor rooted in prejudice against inter-faith marriageBollywood star Kareena Kapoor has received abuse online from extremists over her new baby’s name.Kapoor has been attacked on social media for calling her second son Jehangir, the imperial name of the 17th-century Mughal emperor, which means “conqueror of the world”. Kapoor, a Hindu, and her husband, Saif Ali Khan, a Muslim and also a Bollywood star, have faced abuse for their marriage. Continue reading...
Lighter nights, orange sunsets, straying killer whales: Wayne Davidson has observed the subtle signs of a tragically warming Arctic for four decadesWayne Davidson has been taking atmospheric readings from the Arctic Weather Station at Resolute Bay on Cornwallis Island, Nunavut, for 40 years.The climate of the high Arctic, he believes, is a guide in many respects to our past and is also the place from which our climate future can be previewed, as this week’s IPCC climate change report laid out in stark terms. Continue reading...
After backlash over the 100,000-plus crowd of mostly unmasked faces at Chicago’s Lollapalooza, festival organisers reckon with a safe way forwardIt could have been an image from 2019 – a sea of mostly unmasked faces, shoulder to shoulder, singing to live music in Chicago’s Grant Park. The mass gathering of about 100,000 people daily for Lollapalooza 2021, one of the country’s most prominent music festivals, featuring Foo Fighters and Post Malone, on the last weekend of July was a welcome sight to music lovers – and a worrisome event for public health officials as cases of the Delta variant of Covid-19 surge in the US.The photos now appear like the last naive gasp of pandemic-free fantasy; in the two weeks since Lollapalooza, which required either proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test to attend, the rapid spread of the Delta variant has forced a slate of upcoming music festivals to reassess health and safety plans at a pivotal moment for handling of the pandemic in the US. Continue reading...
Thousands of western nationals and vulnerable Afghans to be airlifted out of country as insurgent forces draw ever closer to capitalUS troops have begun arriving in Afghanistan to help evacuate thousands of people, including embassy staff, and Afghans and their families who worked for them as a sweeping Taliban offensive draws ever nearer to Kabul.Diplomats and nationals from a host of western countries are scrambling to leave the capital, with insurgent fighters now camped just 50km (30 miles) away after a campaign that has seen provincial capitals swiftly fall. Continue reading...
An anti-media demo outside a block of flats in west London the BBC left eight years ago tells you how clued up these protesters areAnti-vaxxers gathered outside the BBC today to protest against – well, the clue’s in the name, but specifically this time against the idea of vaccination passports being introduced and/or jabs being given to children. Perhaps they’re anti-passport generally (the Venn diagram of anti-vaxxers and rabid Brexiters would, I suspect, be not far off a perfect circle), or maybe just pro-child death. I don’t know. Rising infant mortality was a background feature of most of England’s past, so maybe it has a roseate glow in some hankering minds that I’m missing. Continue reading...
Afghanistan’s second city was the capital of the jihadist group until 2001 and has vital strategic and symbolic importanceIn the sprawling compound of Mullah Omar, the Taliban’s first emir, outside the southern city of Kandahar, curious onlookers were poking through his rooms.There was the little mosque inside the walls, a camel stable damaged by a US rocket, and a series of bare rooms, some scattered with pages torn from a religious text, one a bedroom hung with a picture of an Alpine scene. Nearby, armed men sat on a strange sculpture of a mountain surrounded by spindly palm trees. Continue reading...
Covid restrictions extended for greater Sydney, with 11 LGAs now in hard lockdown, including stricter mask rules and a 5km radius travel limit. Large parts of regional NSW are also subject to stay-at-home orders. The ACT went into a seven-day lockdown from 5pm Thursday. Here’s the full list of what you can and can’t do in NSW and the ACT
Anonymous artist posts Instagram video charting his coastal tour in an ageing camper vanBanksy has confirmed that he is indeed the author of a number of works that have appeared recently in seaside towns on the UK east coast.An Instagram video clip, just over three minutes long called “A Great British Spraycation”, shows the elusive artist taking a summer road trip in a beaten-up camper van with cans of spray paint stashed inside a cooler. Continue reading...
by David Hytner at the Brentford Community Stadium on (#5NABN)
The anticipation had been building. For generations. Not since 1947 had Brentford hosted a top division match and, when it happened – in the club’s lovely new-ish stadium, which was packed out for the first time – it unfolded exactly how everybody would have dreamed.There was a blockbusting first-half strike from the wing-back, Sergi Canós, to get the place rocking and, after resolute defending, as Arsenal tried to launch the salvage operation, Brentford eased home when Christian Nørgaard leapt to head the second. Continue reading...
by Hosted by Katharine Murphy. Produced by Karishma L on (#5NA8W)
Katharine Murphy speaks with the federal resources minister, Keith Pitt, about the government’s gas-fired recovery plan, the export of energy resources and Australia’s record on climate actionRead more on this topic: Continue reading...
A noisy minority in NSW’s northern rivers are pushing back against Covid-19 restrictionsBenny Zable has lived in Nimbin on and off since 1973, when he arrived in town for the Aquarius festival – the event that seeded counterculture and escapist lifestyles into the northern rivers of New South Wales.The 75-year-old artist and activist is a storied figure in this part of Australia, now a heartland for alternative health and wellness advocates, and notorious for low immunisation rates. He was also the first person from Nimbin to show up for a Covid-19 vaccine. Continue reading...
by Vikram Dodd, Jamie Grierson, Steven Morris, Matthe on (#5NA5N)
Jake Davison had licence revoked in December but it was restored after he attended anger management courseA gunman who killed his mother and four passersby, including a three-year-old girl, had his firearms licence revoked in December, but police reinstated it last month after he attended an anger management course.Police will face an investigation over their dealings with Jake Davison, 22, who expressed sympathy for the “incel” movement and a keen interest in mass shootings. One resident from Plymouth, where the killing spree took place, said Davison’s family had sought treatment for his mental health issues. Continue reading...
State media call Sarah Rainsford’s expulsion a response to alleged UK barriers for Russian journalistsRussia is to expel a senior BBC journalist in Moscow by refusing to extend her accreditation in a move the broadcaster condemned as a “direct assault on media freedom”.Sarah Rainsford’s visa is due to expire at the end of August and will not be renewed. The state broadcaster Rossiya-24 first reported the decision on Thursday evening, calling it a response to alleged UK refusals or delays in issuing visas to Russian journalists. Continue reading...
Hundreds of sexual assaults reported in south-eastern Tanganyika province as armed groups fight over goldminesThe UN has raised the alarm over widespread, systematic sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), saying there have been reports of armed groups carrying out mass rape.The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN refugee agency, said its staff had heard horrific testimonies from forcibly displaced people in south-eastern Tanganyika province. Continue reading...
Tributes paid to doctor whose NGO set up world-class hospitals in war zones such as Iraq, Yemen and SudanTributes have been paid to Gino Strada, the Italian surgeon and “maestro of humanity” known for setting up world-class hospitals for the victims of war, who has died aged 73.The medic, who in 1994 co-founded the humanitarian organisation Emergency to provide free, quality healthcare for those injured in conflict, died on Friday in France, reports said. Continue reading...
