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Updated 2026-04-28 03:17
‘History’s on our side’: Turkish women fighting femicide
As Turkey quits the Istanbul convention, Gülsüm Kav’s group We Will Stop Femicide is helping keep women alive amid a rise in gender-based violence“History is on our side,” says Gülsüm Kav. She leans in and speaks intensely. She has a lot to say: Kav helped create Turkey’s We Will Stop Femicide (WWSF) group, and has become one of the country’s leading feminist activists even as the political environment has grown more hostile.Amid protests, Turkey withdrew from the Istanbul convention, the landmark international treaty to prevent violence against women and promote equality, on Thursday. The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has long attacked women’s rights and gender equality, suggesting that feminists “reject the concept of motherhood”, speaking out against abortion and even caesarean sections, and claiming that gender equality is “against nature”. Continue reading...
European region Covid cases jump 10% as WHO calls for Euro 2020 monitoring
All eyes on Israel, as countries look to see if 85% vaccination rate there will prevent deaths during surge
How residential schools in Canada robbed Indigenous children of their identity and lives – video
In Canada, more than 1,000 unmarked graves have been discovered on the grounds of three former church-run residential schools, where an estimated 150,000 First Nations children were sent as part of a campaign of forced assimilation for more than a century until 1996.On Wednesday, the remains of 182 people were found at a former school in British Columbia – weeks after 215 unmarked graves were found at an institution in the province and 751 in Saskatchewan.A historic truth and reconciliation commission was conducted in the 2000s. In 2015 it concluded that the residential school system amounted to cultural genocide and that unmarked graves would be found in the former school grounds, but the recent findings still shocked many Canadians and prompted calls for a new investigation. Leyland Cecco explains how the discovery is just the tip of the iceberg in uncovering Canada's traumatic colonial past
Uproar in Zimbabwe as teenager who ‘fought off sexual assault’ charged with murder
Activists believe the case, in which the accused says she acted in self-defence, shows the law fails womenA teenager has been charged with murder in Zimbabwe despite claims she was defending herself against a sexual predator. The action has triggered protests from lawyers and activists, who have raised concerns about how victims of sexual violence are treated in the country.Tariro Matutsa, 19, said she acted in self-defence when she picked up a piece of firewood and hit 40-year-old Sure Tsuro several times last month. She said he had cornered her as she cooked over a fire at her home in Mudzi, a rural area east of the capital, Harare, exposed himself and aggressively demanded sex. Continue reading...
Inquiry condemns policing of Sarah Everard vigil and Bristol protests
Report says police breached fundamental rights and used unnecessary and disproportionate forceThe policing of the Sarah Everard vigil in London and “kill the bill” demonstrations in Bristol breached fundamental rights to protest and involved unnecessary and disproportionate use of force, a parliamentary inquiry has found.Multiple failings were committed by the Metropolitan police service (MPS) and Avon and Somerset constabulary (A&SC), including wrongly applying the lockdown regulations and failing to understand their legal duty to facilitate peaceful protest, the all-party parliamentary group on democracy and the constitution (APPGDC) found. Continue reading...
Sweet Tooth: the prescient pandemic hit bringing joy to the masses
Centred on a killer virus, Sweet Tooth could have been the most troubling TV to watch during Covid. Instead, as its creators and star Nonso Anozie attest, the Netflix show has become a smash because it’s so redemptive – and happyThe pandemic might not be over yet, but you can already trace a line through the culture it has produced. The overenthusiastic “let’s put on a show!” mania of cast reunions filmed over Zoom quickly gave way to the gnawing listlessness depicted in Bo Burnham’s comedy special Inside. Another part of the line, however, happened by accident.Netflix’s Sweet Tooth is a series about a devastating global pandemic that kills millions of people and resets humanity. It was filmed last summer, in that brief golden gulp between Covid lockdowns. However, Sweet Tooth wasn’t rush-produced to reflect the situation; instead, it is based on a decade-old graphic novel and has been in development for five years. Continue reading...
Court rejects attempt to reopen investigation into Yasser Arafat’s death
European court of human rights rules family’s appeal over French hearing is ‘manifestly ill-founded’The widow and daughter of the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat have lost an attempt to reopen an investigation into his death in 2004.Suha El Kodwa Arafat and Zahwa El Kodwa Arafat, who are both French nationals, filed a criminal complaint to the European court of human rights that claimed Arafat had been the victim of premeditated murder. Continue reading...
Tour de France withdraws lawsuit against spectator who caused crash
New DUP leader targets end to Northern Ireland protocol
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson seeks to draw line under party infighting and adopts hard line on Irish Sea borderSir Jeffrey Donaldson has demanded the removal of the Northern Ireland protocol, in his first speech as leader of the Democratic Unionist party.The MP for Lagan Valley took a hard line over the Irish Sea border on Thursday, calling it the “greatest threat to the economic integrity of the United Kingdom in any of our lifetimes”. Continue reading...
Today marks the day in Britain that millions of neighbours become foreigners | Daniel Trilling
However the government sugarcoats the EU settlement scheme, European citizens living in the UK will now be seen as outsiders“We asked for workers, we got human beings instead,” was how the Swiss author Max Frisch summed up the “guest worker” schemes that helped wealthy European countries rebuild their economies after the second world war. His quip lives on because it expresses the absurdity of societies that treat immigration as purely a question of economic need, reducing people to units that can be moved here and there as capital sees fit.However partial and flawed it may be, the EU’s system of internal free movement is an attempt to escape that trap. In stripping away the obstacles and restrictions that continue to govern migration for most of the world, it is an acknowledgment that when people move, they develop new attachments to the places they come to call home and to the people they come to call neighbours – and a wager that the best way to grow a shared sense of belonging is to make that process as easy as possible. Continue reading...
27 years, prison and youth detention: how two friends survived a rotten penal system
Wisconsin’s hardline criminal justice policies ensnared Hamid Abd-Al-Jabbar and David Thompson. Over decades, they helped each other find freedomThis story was originally published by The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom covering gun violence in America. Sign up for its newsletters here.On a December afternoon in 2018, Hamid Abd-Al-Jabbar pulled into the parking lot of a McDonald’s on Milwaukee’s north side. Overhead, under the company’s iconic arches, the “M” was smashed out. A stretch of cracked pavement connected the restaurant to the headquarters of 414LIFE, the violence prevention nonprofit where he worked. Continue reading...
Sex/Life review – they’re coming in their droves … and not for the dialogue
This hot and heavy shagathon has raced to the top of Netflix charts, despite its plot being sparse and almost criminally silly. Wonder whyTo paraphrase the ever relevant Mrs Merton: what first attracted viewers to the sex-strewn, nudity-heavy saucefest Sex/Life (Netflix)? The show, an adaptation of BB Easton’s novel 44 Chapters About 4 Men, shot to the top of Netflix’s Top 10 when it was released last week. Call me suspicious, but after sitting through eight episodes of shagging strung together with the occasional splash of melodrama, I don’t think it’s the dialogue that has people streaming it in their droves.Sarah Shahi is Billie Connelly (and if this doesn’t make you consider an alternative version with a dishevelled Scottish comedian as the lead, you are a better person than me), a thirtysomething woman with two small children, who lives in a big house in the suburbs with her Ken-doll husband, Cooper. Cooper has the sort of vague TV business job that means he goes to meetings, seems tired and wears a suit. Every interior, from penthouse to mansion to restaurant to “small” apartment, looks like the lobby of an upmarket hotel; every hairstyle is coiffured and sprayed solid to within an inch of its follicles. Continue reading...
Half of 24 new Covid cases in NSW infectious while in community as NT flags extending Darwin lockdown
New coronavirus cases in New South Wales include aged care worker and healthcare worker, while the NT records one new case
‘Six chickens somehow turned into 60!’ Meet the families trying to live the Good Life in the pandemic
Many people yearn to grow their own food and live a simpler life – but, when coronavirus hit, some decided it was now or never. Have their dreams of burgeoning veg patches and frolicking livestock come true?On their one-acre plot of Hertfordshire countryside, Sarah Apps and Liam Armstrong live with three chickens, 59 tomato plants and – until this morning – three pigs. “It’s been an emotional day,” says Apps. They plan to get more pigs later in the summer, and next week more chickens are arriving; then ducks and a goat, a couple of turkeys for Christmas and, maybe next year, bees. Living on their own land, and becoming more self-sufficient, had been a bit of a dream for the couple, but it took the Covid pandemic to make it happen. “You just didn’t know what was going to happen,” says Apps. “Young people were dying, older people were dying … I think you really need to live for the days that you’ve got.”When they spotted a run-down bungalow that came with an acre of land, they went for it. They had been living in Romford, East London. “We could hear the roar of the M25 and I could barely be bothered to mow the small patch of lawn we had,” says Apps. They moved in November and spent the winter creating raised vegetable beds, putting in fencing and making animal enclosures. It has been gruelling physical work – they have done it mostly by hand – moving around 30 tonnes of soil. “It was our fitness thing through lockdown,” says Apps. But now they have growing just about every type of vegetable you’d find in a well-stocked supermarket, eggs every day, and in a few days the pigs will return for the freezer. She breaks off to check on a chicken who is in their kitchen. “She’s just had a bath. She’s not very well.” Continue reading...
Australia Covid live update: Covid case confirmed at NSW vaccination hub; NSW reports 24 local cases, Qld two and NT one
Gladys Berejiklian says half of new cases were active in the community while infectious; Simon Birmingham admits Australia is ‘back of the queue’ for Pfizer vaccines; Atagi co-chair says AstraZeneca should only be used by under-40s in ‘pressing’ circumstances; Follow latest updates
King Otto review – Greece’s Euros winner earns his place in football’s history books
The national hysteria surrounding Greece’s improbable 2004 Euros win is a sight to behold in a thoughtful portrait of the manager who made it happenNot many football documentaries kick off with a quote from Homer, but this profile of Otto Rehhagel, the German coach who steered Greece to their improbable European Championship win in 2004 is more thoughtful and, indeed, erudite than most. First pictured reflecting on classical Greek civilisation while standing inside Athens’s Panathenaic stadium (“As Greek history teaches us, the gods have their own plans”), Rehhagel is presented as football’s ultimate transnational sophisticate, able to ally his innately Teutonic sense of discipline with the Greek’s more emotional relationship to the game.Well, most football documentaries are there to replay the greatest hits, and this one doesn’t disappoint: the Greeks fight their way past France, the Czech Republic and Portugal in the final rounds (all by 1-0) after managing to get out of the group stage by the skin of their teeth. All this is well known, if such an extraordinary outlier in world football that it’s since almost been blanked out of the collective consciousness. Nevertheless the increasing national hysteria during the team’s progress is a sight to behold, as is the glee with which Rehhagel and his assistant Ioannis Topalidis mug one side after another to win the title. (My personal favourite cameo, though, is from Vassilis Gagatsis, the perpetually doleful president of the Greek football federation; to see him screaming to the heavens when the final whistle eventually blows is one of the most uplifting things I’ve ever seen.) Continue reading...
New Zealand has lost thousands of hectares of wetlands in past decades, study shows
Country has just 10% of its wetlands left, endangering fragile ecosystems home to threatened speciesThousands of hectares of New Zealand’s wetlands have been lost in the past twenty years, leaving the country with just 10% of its pre-European wetland areas and posing significant risks for biodiversity, according to new research.Wetlands are considered “high value” ecosystems in New Zealand and are home to a disproportionately large number of threatened birds and animals, including 67% of freshwater and estuarine fish, and 13% of endangered plants. They also play important roles capturing carbon, maintaining water quality, regulating atmospheric gases, and are culturally significant to Māori. Continue reading...
From pedestrians to drag queens: everyday Africans – in pictures
Couples, shantytowns, refugees, soldiers … here are the highlights from Events of the Social, a show gathering together 10 years of images from Africa that’s currently at PHotoEspaña 2021 Continue reading...
Kim Jong-un signal for help could mark a turning point in North Korea’s Covid fight
Analysis: leader’s talk of huge crisis, despite no admission of Covid cases, comes amid concerns over health infrastructure and food shortagesAlmost 18 months after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, North Korea has come close to conceding that its attempts to keep the virus from its borders have failed.While North Korea’s state-controlled media have not reported any cases, some analysts assume the virus has breached the country’s defences, prompting its leader, Kim Jong-un, to issue a coded request for outside help this week. Continue reading...
Greek police recover stolen Picasso after nine years, drop it in front of media – video
A Picasso painting stolen nine years ago from Greece's National Gallery and recovered by police has had yet another mishap after the valuable artwork slipped and fell from its display. Police were exhibiting the recovered painting - along with a Mondrian piece from 1905 - when it slipped from its display. It was hastily returned to its position by an official not wearing gloves. The paintings were stolen in 2012 and recovered after they were found hidden in bushland
Rebel Hearts: the story of the 1960s nuns who challenged the system
In a new documentary, a group of LA-based nuns took on the Catholic church by pushing for more independence and the rights of minority groupsOn one side stood the patriarchal Vatican and an austere archbishop called Cardinal James McIntyre. On the other, a group of creative and courageous nuns determined to challenge the status quo and embrace the 20th century.There was only going to be one winner. Continue reading...
Chinese Communist party celebrates 100th anniversary – in pictures
Since its origins in Shanghai in 1921, the Chinese communist party has grown to be one of the world’s most powerful political parties. It celebrated its 100th birthday on 1 July.President Xi Jinping told a crowd of 70,000 in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square that the era of China being bullied was ‘gone forever’ and the country would not allow ‘sanctimonious preaching’ from foreign forces. Anyone who tried ‘will find themselves on a collision course with a steel wall forged by 1.4 billion people’ Continue reading...
Pregnant women in England denied mental health help because of Covid
In 2020-21, only 31,261 out of 47,000 managed to access perinatal mental health servicesThousands of pregnant women in England were denied vital help for their mental health because of the pandemic, analysis from leading psychiatrists shows.In 2020-21, 47,000 were expected to access perinatal mental health services to help with conditions such as anxiety and depression during or after giving birth, but only 31,261 managed to get help in the most recent data for the 2020 calendar year only, according to analysis from the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Continue reading...
‘Culture has been wrecked’: swimmers lament changes to Hampstead ponds
New fees have saddened many who use the area to connect with friends and nature
Britney Spears: judge denies request to remove father from conservatorship
A week after Spears delivered dramatic testimony calling the conservatorship ‘abusive’, a court filing reveals her petition to remove Jamie has been unsuccessfulA judge has denied Britney Spears’s request to remove her father from his role overseeing her conservatorship, a court filing reveals.The singer’s lawyer, Samuel Ingham, asked a court in Los Angeles to oust Jamie Spears from his position managing the multimillion dollar estate. Continue reading...
Xi Jinping warns China won’t be bullied in speech marking 100-year anniversary of CCP
Chinese Communist party leader warns foreign forces seeking to oppress China are on a ‘collision course’ with 1.4 billion peopleChina will not allow “sanctimonious preaching” or bullying from foreign forces, and anyone who tries “will find themselves on a collision course with a steel wall forged by 1.4 billion people”, its president, Xi Jinping, has said on the centenary of the Chinese Communist party.In a speech before a crowd of 70,000 in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, Xi praised the ruling party for lifting China out of poverty and humiliation, and pledged to expand China’s military and influence. Continue reading...
Chinese Communist Party 100th anniversary: Xi Jinping vows China will never be bullied – live updates
Tight security in Tiananmen Square as country marks CCP centenary and China’s president warns against oppression by ‘foreign forces’3.16am BSTOur China affairs correspondent Vincent Ni has written about what today means for Xi and the CCP:Related: ‘Making China great again’: pomp and propaganda as CCP marks centenary3.10am BSTMeanwhile, Reuters reports that Hong Kong’s acting chief executive, John Lee, said the city has returned to order from chaos since China imposed a sweeping national security law on the global financial hub last yea., the city’s acting chief executive, John Lee, said on Thursday.Beijing imposed the security law just before midnight on 30 June last year to punish anything China deems as subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison.The security law was Beijing’s first major step to put the global financial hub onto an authoritarian path, kick-starting a campaign dubbed “patriots rule Hong Kong,” which included moves to reduce democratic representation in the city’s legislature and various screening mechanisms for politicians.Lee was speaking for the first time as acting city leader at a flag-raising ceremony marking the 24th anniversary of the former British colony’s return to Chinese rule in 1997, which coincides with the centenary of the Chinese Communist Party.” Continue reading...
New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern implies opposition leader is a 'Karen' in parliament debate – video
New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern has told opposition leader Judith Collins changes to the country's hate speech laws won't prevent her from being called a Karen. The opposition leader referenced a tweet she was sent asking if calling "a middle-aged white woman a 'Karen’ now be a crime under Jacinda Ardern’s law?" Ardern responded, telling parliament: "That is absolutely incorrect and I apologise that means these laws will not protect the member from such a claim."
Jacinda Ardern suggests opposition leader Judith Collins is a ‘Karen’
Comments by New Zealand PM came during a parliamentary debate on the country’s new hate speech lawsNew Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has suggested her opposition party counterpart could be called a “Karen” during a fierce debate in parliament over laws governing hate speech.Judith Collins, the leader of the opposition, has argued strongly against changes to the country’s hate speech laws, saying the new rules could mean “people feeling insulted being able to criminalise people who make them feel insulted.” After the 15 March mosque attacks by a white supremacist, the New Zealand government has proposed introducing much harsher penalties for those who incite or “normalise” discrimination or hatred. Continue reading...
Man filmed accosting Chris Whitty loses job as estate agent
Lewis Hughes, 24, apologises for ‘any upset caused’ after video of incident in London went viralA man who was called a “thug” by Boris Johnson after being filmed accosting Prof Chris Whitty has apologised for “any upset I caused”.Lewis Hughes, 24, said if he made England’s chief medical officer feel “uncomfortable”, then “I am sorry to him for that”. He said he had lost his job as a result of the video. Continue reading...
Employers warned not to discriminate amid rush for EU settled status
Citizens told to complain if rights have been breached, as number of applicants surges before deadlineBusinesses and public bodies have been warned by the Brexit rights regulator not to discriminate against EU citizens as the new post-Brexit immigration regime enters into force at midnight.The warnings come as Home Office helplines for EU citizens living in the UK were reported to be “jammed” by a last-minute surge in EU citizens applying to remain in the UK by the midnight deadline. Charity workers helping applicants said they were also struggling to get through to the specialist hotline reserved for advisers. Continue reading...
Covid live news: UK records 26,068 cases, most since January; pandemic end is ‘distant future’ in Latin America
UK records 14 further deaths as cases surge; new infections declining in north America but warning for Latin America as vaccinations lag
Latest First Nations discovery reveals 182 unmarked graves at Canada school
Lower Kootenay Band finds human remains at former residential school in British Columbia – the third such discovery in weeks
Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction overturned by Pennsylvania court
London park stabbings: boyfriend found sisters’ bodies as police failed to ‘deploy sooner’
Trial told of police use of DNA and CCTV to track accused after discovery of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman at parkThe boyfriend of one of two sisters, both stabbed to death last year, would not have discovered their bodies if police had searched the London area sooner, a senior investigating officer told the trial of the teenager accused of the murders.Det Ch Insp Simon Harding led the investigation into the killing of Bibaa Henry, 46, and Nicole Smallman, 27, in Fryent Country Park, north London, in 2020. He gave evidence on Wednesday at the trial of the man charged, Danyal Hussein. Continue reading...
Australian universities may allow pseudonyms to protect students including those critical of China
University leaders considering major changes as research shows students have faced intimidation for criticising BeijingAustralian universities may allow students to submit written assignments under pseudonyms and in hard copy amid growing concerns about foreign government-linked harassment over politically sensitive topics.The Guardian has learned university leaders are considering a range of options to protect academic freedom, including making it a disciplinary offence if students record some classes or share them with outside groups. Continue reading...
Priti Patel’s plan to ‘offshore’ asylum seekers is callous | Letter
We should be deeply pained by the way we are with the stranger who lives in our midst, writes Alexandra Wright, senior rabbi at the Liberal Jewish SynagoguePriti Patel’s proposed legislation to send asylum seekers overseas while their claims or appeals are pending is ruthless (Report, 28 June).There are 41,700 asylum seekers or resettled persons in the UK. Many have been waiting for years for their claim to be dealt with by the Home Office. They live in poor and often squalid dispersal accommodation, on less than £40 per week. They cannot work. Poverty and uncertainty often lead to serious physical and mental health issues in asylum seekers and their children. Continue reading...
Pope Francis to meet Indigenous survivors of Canadian schools abuses
First Nations, Metis and Inuit groups to travel to Vatican amid calls for papal apology over children’s deathsPope Francis has agreed to meet Indigenous survivors of Canada’s notorious residential schools in December, amid calls for a papal apology for the Catholic church’s role in the abuse and deaths of thousands of children.The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) said Francis had invited delegations to the Vatican and would meet three groups – First Nations, Métis and Inuit – separately before presiding over a final audience with all three. Continue reading...
Serbian secret police chiefs sentenced to 12 years over Bosnian war atrocities
The Hague rules Jovica Stanišić and Franko Simatović supported Serb paramilitaries in ethnic cleansing in Bosanski ŠamacTwo Serbian secret police chiefs have been sentenced by The Hague war crimes tribunal to 12 years in prison for their role in atrocities during the Bosnian war.Jovica Stanišić, the former head of the state security service (DB) and his deputy, Franko “Frenki” Simatović, who ran DB’s special forces, were ruled to have been “involved in providing some support” to the Serb paramilitaries who carried out ethnic cleansing in the Bosnian town of Bosanski Šamac. Continue reading...
German Greens say plagiarism claims are ‘character assassination’
Party hires prominent libel lawyer to defend its lead candidate, Annalena Baerbock, against allegationsGermany’s Greens have accused their opponents of dirty campaigning and hired a prominent libel lawyer to defend their lead candidate against plagiarism accusations, as the ecological party seeks to get its challenge for the chancellory back on track three months before the national elections.The Green party on Tuesday dismissed claims that its co-leader Annalena Baerbock had lifted five passages in her recently published book from news articles and Wikipedia entries without crediting them. Continue reading...
Britons in France urged to apply for post-Brexit permit amid deadline confusion
Conflicting messages over whether or not 30 June cutoff date has been extended by three monthsBritish nationals in France are being urged to apply for post-Brexit residency permits before midnight amid confusion and conflicting messages over whether or not a 30 June deadline to secure their rights has been extended.A French interior ministry spokesperson last week confirmed to media outlets that the cutoff date for applications for the new permit, guaranteeing local residence, healthcare, employment and other rights had been extended by three months. Continue reading...
EU agrees to delay Brexit meat checks in Northern Ireland
Decision allows continued movement of chilled meat products between Great Britain and Northern Ireland until 30 SeptemberThe European Commission has granted the UK a three-month extension on the sale of sausages in Northern Ireland in an attempt to defuse a row that has poisoned post-Brexit relations.In a widely trailed decision, Brussels said fresh sausages and other chilled meats could continue to move between Great Britain and Northern Ireland until 30 September, giving the two sides more time to resolve a fierce dispute over the Northern Ireland protocol, a centrepiece of the Brexit deal. Continue reading...
Furlough phase-out in UK may cause steep fall in workers’ income
Job loss or need for universal credit add to vulnerability once firms required to pay more into plan, thinktank findsThousands of workers in the UK will suffer a steep fall in income as employers make redundancies after the furlough scheme begins winding down from Thursday, the Institute for Fiscal Studies warned.Workers who live with higher earners will be unable to claim benefits and could see their income drop to zero should they lose their job. Families with children could lose as much as a third of their income if they are forced to rely on universal credit, the thinktank said. Continue reading...
‘Making China great again’: pomp and propaganda as CCP marks centenary
Messages of Beijing’s ‘invincibility’ have been spread far and wide as party approaches its 100th birthdayIn the summer of 1921, 13 young men severely disillusioned by China’s post-imperial development gathered in Shanghai to form a communist party. On 23 July, they convened in Shanghai’s French Concession and held the first “national congress”.None of them would have thought that in 30 years’ time the organisation they had founded would rule the nation, or that in 100 years’ time it would be the world’s largest political party, with nearly 92 million members – today also an enigma to many outsiders. Continue reading...
Muslim women in Batley and Spen call out actions of ‘loud minority’ of men
In open letter women condemn behaviour that brought community ‘into limelight for all wrong reasons’A group of Muslim women from Batley and Spen have written an open letter condemning “shameful” behaviour that has brought the community “into the limelight for all the wrong reasons”.The women, who write anonymously citing safety fears, say that a “loud minority” of Muslim men have been “endlessly heard” during the tense byelection campaign, described as “the same faces that have plagued our area as ‘community leaders’ for many years” but do not represent them. Continue reading...
Last Man Standing review – Biggie and Tupac murder case reinvestigated
Nick Broomfield returns to the deaths of the two titans of 90s gangsta rap, and the disturbing influence of record label boss Suge KnightNearly 20 years ago, Nick Broomfield released his sensational documentary Biggie and Tupac, in which he uncovered hidden facts about the violent deaths of US rappers Tupac Shakur and Christopher “Biggie” Wallace, and found that intimate witnesses to this murderous bicoastal feud were willing to open up to a diffident, soft-spoken Englishman in ways they never would to an American interviewer. Since then, there have been two very unedifying movies about Tupac: the sugary docu-hagiography Tupac: Resurrection (2003), produced by the late rapper’s mother, and the similarly reverential drama All Eyez on Me (2017).Now Broomfield returns to the same subject, updating his bleak picture of the 90s rap scene, a world in which energy, creativity and radical anger were swamped with macho misogyny, drug-fuelled gangbanger paranoia and a poisonous obsession with respect. Marion “Suge” Knight, head of Death Row Records in Los Angeles, cultivated a violent gang-cult image by associating with the Bloods, and encouraged his acts and proteges to do the same, including Tupac – and Biggie’s perceived oppositional identity condemned him. But even more disturbingly, the LAPD allowed its officers to moonlight at Knight’s firm as “security” (a term that euphemistically covers all manner of paramilitary violence and intimidation). Continue reading...
Belfast court dismisses legal challenge to Brexit Northern Ireland protocol
Ruling is boost to UK and EU negotiators, who are expected to announce new arrangementsThe high court in Belfast has thrown out a legal challenge to the Northern Ireland Brexit protocol.The ruling is a setback for the applicants including the Democratic Unionist Party and a relief for UK and EU negotiators who are planning to announce a package of new arrangements later on Wednesday aimed at taking the heat out of the current dispute over Brexit checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea from Great Britain to Ireland. Continue reading...
UK making trade deals with countries abusing workers’ rights, says TUC
TUC says UK should use its leverage to ensure countries respect labour and human rightsBoris Johnson’s government has been accused of rushing into post-Brexit trade deals with countries where workers’ rights are systematically violated or denied, including five out of the 10 worst offenders worldwide.Trade union leaders and Labour said the UK government was turning its back on workers around the world and neglecting its commitment to fundamental human and labour rights in the scramble to demonstrate the benefits of Brexit by striking free trade deals outside the EU. Continue reading...
WITCH: We Intend to Cause Havoc review – the forgotten history of Zamrock
Film-maker Gio Arlotta and two young musicians are on a quest to track down the legendary leader of a 1970s Zambian rock bandWho knew 1970s Zambia had its own thriving musical genre? This modest documentary revisits the brief, almost-forgotten history of “Zamrock” – or at least what remains of it, which appears to be very little beyond the back catalogue of its leading band, Witch. Witch’s rhythmic blend of British blues, funk, psychedelic and garage rock has aged very well, and reissues of their albums in the 2010s found a new audience, including Italian film-maker Gio Arlotta, who consequently undertook an expedition to Zambia to try to find the band, accompanied by two young Dutch musicians, Jacco Gardner and Nic Mauskovic.There’s now a well-trodden route for such musical travelogues, laid down by the likes of Buena Vista Social Club and Searching for Sugar Man, and while this lacks the polish or drama of either of those, it’s an engaging and uplifting journey. One of the problems it runs into is a lack of surviving footage of Witch in action. Arlotta and co scour Zambia’s pre-digital archives, but the best they come up with is some unseen footage of James Brown. Nor does it help that most of Witch’s original lineup are dead. Continue reading...
Calls to cancel Canada Day after graves found: ‘Indigenous people paid with their lives’
Two grim discoveries on the grounds of former residential schools have shifted country’s mood as national day loomsIndigenous groups have called for Canada’s national celebration to be cancelled over the discovery of nearly 1,000 unmarked graves, most of which are believed to belong to Indigenous children.July 1 marks 154 years since Canada became a country – and until recently, festivities in cities across the country were expected, amplified by the arrival of summer and the pent-up excitement of a country emerging from the coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading...
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