Trevor Cadieu is the latest senior military officer to be embroiled in a misconduct investigationThe Canadian military has delayed the appointment of its next army commander after allegations of sexual misconduct were made against the man chosen for the role – the latest in a string of senior officers to be investigated for misconduct.Lt Gen Trevor Cadieu was to be sworn in as the head of Canada’s army at a ceremony in early September. But that event was cancelled after the military learned of “historical allegations” against Cadieu. Continue reading...
A dramatic rise in the number of aerial sorties over the sea separating the Chinese mainland from Taiwan has served as a reminder that the strait has the potential to be one of the most dangerous places on Earth.
For 70 years, the ramshackle Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem has been a site of displacement. Why is this ‘heritage of exile’ not enough for Unesco to grant it the status it gives Macchu Picchu and Venice?The Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem doesn’t look much like your usual Unesco world heritage site. For a start, there are no souvenir stalls or swarms of trinket hawkers. Instead, cracked concrete walls covered with Arabic graffiti frame the entrance to a corner shop, where an old photocopier stands next to a few meagre shelves of provisions. A taxi loiters on a potholed street between piles of broken breeze blocks, while electricity cables and phone wires dangle precariously overhead.But a new exhibition at London’s Mosaic Rooms sets out to argue that this ramshackle site of mass displacement should be considered worthy of the same protected status as Machu Picchu, Venice or the Taj Mahal. “We want to destabilise conventional western notions of heritage,” says Alessandro Petti. “How do you record the heritage of a culture of exile? When world heritage sites can only be nominated by nation states, how do you value the heritage of a stateless population?”
They had screaming fans and transatlantic hits as part of the 60s’ British invasion – an unlikely result for a band of jazz and blues heads. Still touring as the Manfreds, they look back on one of the strangest catalogues in UK popIn an office in the middle of Pinewood Studios, former members of Manfred Mann are discussing their EP The One in the Middle. It was recorded in 1964, at the height of their first flush of fame – between the first and second sessions for the EP, their single Do Wah Diddy Diddy had gone to No 1 in the UK and the US. But, in spite of that success, it is perfect evidence of how different Manfred Mann were from their contemporaries in what was then called the beat boom.The EP features a version of Herbie Hancock’s Watermelon Man. With the greatest respect to the Swingin’ Blue Jeans, you didn’t get a lot of repurposed hard bop from them. It also features a Bob Dylan cover, six months before the Byrds released Mr Tambourine Man and sparked a trend for taking Dylan songs in new directions. Manfred Mann, for their part, retooled With God on Our Side as a kind of epic southern soul-influenced piano ballad. And then there’s the title track, an extraordinarily early example of pop music in self-referential, meta mode. Continue reading...
Five people have died in armed clashes that broke out in Beirut during a protest demanding an end to a judicial investigation into the massive blast in the city’s port last year.
France liable for €78m in penalties every six months unless it meets its own greenhouse gas reduction targetsA French court has ordered the government to make up for its failure to meet its own greenhouse gas reduction targets, saying it needed to “repair” the emissions overshoots.Four NGOs backed by a petition signed by 2.3 million people took the French state to court in 2019 in what they called “the case of the century”, asking the judges to rule on the government’s alleged climate target shortcomings between 2015 and 2018. Continue reading...
by Lisa O'Carroll Brexit correspondent on (#5QPTB)
Paisley says Johnson told him he ‘would sign up to changing that protocol and indeed tearing it up’Boris Johnson gave personal assurances to the Northern Ireland MP Ian Paisley that he would commit to “tearing up” the Brexit protocol that is now the centre of a major row between the UK and the EU, it has been claimed.The Democratic Unionist party MP made the comments on BBC’s Newsnight just hours after the prime minister’s former adviser Dominic Cummings claimed it was always the intention to sign the withdrawal agreement in January 2020 but “ditch bits” they did not like in the protocol. Continue reading...
by Lisa O'Carroll Brexit correspondent on (#5QQ4B)
Data suggests 2 million more EU citizens want to stay in UK than was estimated in 2016The Home Office has a backlog of 400,000 applications from EU citizens and their family members to remain in the UK after Brexit, according to the latest government data.The latest monthly statistics for the EU settlement scheme also reveal the total number of applications now at more than 6.2m. This includes as many as 172,000 applications made after the deadline of 30 June for settled status. Continue reading...
Subtitling is an essential art form. So why, as the streaming giant scores more global hits with shows like Squid Game and Call My Agent, isn’t it trying harder to find the right words?“Once you overcome the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” So said the director Bong Joon-ho, as he accepted his best picture Oscar for Parasite in 2020, in a not-so-subtle dig at the dominance of English language content. The success of Netflix’s Korean series Squid Game, where contestants compete in deadly playground games to win a cash prize, has proved him more than right. It has become Netflix’s biggest hit yet, earning the title of its No 1 show in 90 countries, mostly within days of release and eclipsing even the mighty Bridgerton. But it has also sparked an intense debate about what gets lost in that one-inch block of text – and raised questions over whether Netflix is investing enough in creating accurate versions of foreign-language scripts.Even before Squid Game, some of Netflix’s biggest hits were “foreign language” series, among them Lupin (France), Elite (Spain), Dark (Germany) and Money Heist (Spain). This is partly about global viewers being increasingly open to seeking out the best entertainment experiences. But it also speaks, perhaps, to a sort of secret fantasy that we might understand more in another language than we think. In the same way that everyone who lapped up the Danish series Borgen convinced themselves they could speak Danish just because they could say “Tak, tak, Staatsminister” (“Yes, yes, Prime Minister”) in a dodgy Scandinavian accent, so viewers turned to French slang YouTube videos to try to decode their best bits from Call My Agent. The optimistic inquiry “Can I speak a language fluently just by watching TV?” yields 10.4 million Google results. Continue reading...
Ruling will put pressure on UK government to address ongoing lack of abortion facilities in regionThe Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, has failed to uphold his duties to provide full abortion services in the region, a high court judge has ruled.The ruling will put the government in Westminster under pressure to address the situation in Northern Ireland, where women are struggling to access safe abortion services more than 18 months after the procedure was made legal in the country. Continue reading...
by Angelique Chrisafis in Paris and Agence France-Pre on (#5QQ1W)
Woman tells prosecutors she feels ashamed of her ‘stupidity’ after obstructing cyclists during race in JuneA spectator whose attempt to get noticed by TV cameras while cheering the Tour de France caused one of the biggest pile-ups in the race’s history has gone on trial charged with injuring dozens of riders.The 31-year-old from Brittany in France, whose identity was withheld after she was subjected to online abuse, told prosecutors she felt ashamed of her “stupidity”. Continue reading...
Brutal death of social media star Lhamo has shone spotlight on domestic violence in the countryA Chinese man has been sentenced to death after a court found him guilty of killing his former wife while she was livestreaming on social media last year.The intermediate people’s court of the Aba Tibetan and Qiang ethnic minority autonomous prefecture of Sichuan province said Lhamo, a 30-year-old Tibetan woman, died a little over a year ago in September 2020, after her former husband, Tang Lu, doused her with petrol and set her alight. Continue reading...
The accused, all members of the National Security Agency, are being tried in absentia after the researcher’s kidnap and killing in CairoA court in Rome has begun the trial of four Egyptian security service officers accused of killing an Italian researcher, Giulio Regeni, five and a half years after his mutilated body was found in a ditch by a road in Cairo.Italian prosecutors accuse Gen Tariq Saber, Col Aser Ibrahim, Capt Hesham Helmi, and Maj Magdi Abd al-Sharif of the “aggravated kidnapping” of Regeni, while Sharif is also charged with “conspiracy to commit aggravated murder”. Kidnap carries a potential sentence of up to eight years in Italy, while Sharif could receive a life sentence. Continue reading...
The EU has made an offer to cut the checks on British trade with Northern Ireland. There’s a chance Johnson might accept itAfter days of rising tensions, the European Union has agreed to drop most checks on supermarket goods arriving in Northern Ireland from Britain. But it still fears that Boris Johnson will reject the new offer.According to Britain’s Brexit negotiator Lord Frost, speaking on Tuesday, the Northern Ireland protocol is not working – either in terms of its impact on trade or in terms of the hostility towards it from parts of the unionist population. Continue reading...
Skellefteå has wooden schools, bridges, even car parks. And now it has one of the world’s tallest wooden buildings. We visit Sweden to see what a climate-conscious future looks likeAs you come in to land at Skellefteå airport in the far north of Sweden, you are greeted by a wooden air traffic control tower poking up from an endless forest of pine and spruce. After boarding a biogas bus into town, you glide past wooden apartment blocks and wooden schools, cross a wooden road bridge and pass a wooden multistorey car park, before finally reaching the centre, now home to one of the tallest new wooden buildings in the world.“We are not the wood Taliban,” says Bo Wikström, from Skellefteå’s tourism agency, as he leads a group of visitors on a “wood safari” of its buildings. “Other materials are allowed.” But why build in anything else – when you’re surrounded by 480,000 hectares of forest? Continue reading...
A police official describes bow-and-arrow attacks in the Norwegian town of Kongsberg that have killed five and wounded two others. The government said police had launched a large-scale investigation. Kongsberg police chief Øyvind Aas said police would investigate whether the attacks amounted to an 'act of terror'. The death toll was the worst of any attack in Norway since 2011, when far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people, most of them teenagers at a youth camp.
Analysis: app falling offline caused frustrated users to be turned away from flights and venuesIt’s always annoying if your phone battery dies while you’re travelling – but it’s even worse if malfunctioning technology means you can’t even begin your trip.Wednesday’s outage of the NHS app for England left frustrated users unable to prove their Covid vaccination status at airport check-ins, meaning many were unable to board flights. Others were turned away from venues that require evidence that people have been double-jabbed. Continue reading...
Campaigners hail MoJ decision to allow inmates to compete for first time using prison computersThe benefits of chess have long been extolled for retaining mental agility and as an escape from boredom, making it the perfect pastime for prisoners confined to four walls.So the decision to grant inmates at two prisons in England permission to play competitive chess in an international tournament for the first time, allowing them direct access to the internet to make their moves from prison computers, has been lauded by campaigners. Continue reading...
Black musicians have often been sidelined in Brazil, but by diving deep into their complex heritage, the likes of Jonathan Ferr and Amaro Freitas are making themselves heardJonathan Ferr thinks back to his youth. “Jazz was giving me freedom, while rap was showing me my place as a Black man in a racist society,” remembers the pianist, part of Brazil’s vibrant contemporary jazz scene. “Those were two Black musics that have brought me power to be myself.”Like their US forebears, who used jazz to advocate for – and simply experience – freedom in their racist country, Black Brazilian jazz artists such as Ferr are using music to stake a claim for their heritage in a culture that often sidelines it. Despite Brazil’s contributions to jazz – from bossa nova standards to fusion avant-gardists – its Black artists have struggled to succeed (particularly when playing bluntly Afrocentric themes) and many of the most successful proponents have been white or light-skinned. Black talents dismissed by their own country include Dom Salvador, Tania Maria and Johnny Alf. Maria and Salvador left Brazil to make a living as musicians in the US and Europe, while Alf, a bossa nova pioneer, had to sell his belongings to afford treatment for a cancer that eventually killed him. “Brazilian music is Black music,” says jazz pianist Amaro Freitas. “And what happened to these artists was racism.” Continue reading...
At the age of 90, the Star Trek star is set to board Jeff Bezos’s space ship today. It’s just the latest chapter in a long relationship between the sci-fi smash and real-life space odysseys
The man suffered head and chest injuries at the St Peters gym and could not be saved by paramedicsNew South Wales police are investigating after a man fell 13 metres to his death while climbing a wall at an indoor climbing gym in Sydney.Emergency services were called to Sydney Indoor Climbing Gym in St Peters, in the city’s inner west, before midday on Wednesday following reports a man had fallen. Continue reading...
Norway’s indigenous people seek permanent ownership of artefact seized after 17th-century trialNorway’s indigenous people are asking for a sacred drum confiscated by Denmark after a witchcraft trial in 1691 to be returned to them permanently, and they have asked the Danish queen for help.The drum belonged to a Sámi shaman, Anders Poulsson, who was arrested and imprisoned, according to court records. It was confiscated and became part of the Danish royal family’s art collection before being transferred to Denmark’s National Museum in 1849. Continue reading...
As Nottinghamshire’s top officer, she saw the best of the police – and the very worst, experiencing two indecent assaults. Now she is working to make misogyny a hate crime
Oliver Dowden’s comments come after reports of large vessels bringing goods from Asia being diverted awayThe backlog at the UK’s largest container port is “improving”, so Britons should shop normally for Christmas, a cabinet minister has said, after reports of large vessels bringing goods from Asia being diverted away.Oliver Dowden, the new Conservative party co-chair, told Sky News that authorities at Felixstowe “have said the situation is improving” at the Suffolk port, which handles about 40% of containers coming in and out of the UK. Continue reading...
by Caitlin Cassidy (now) and Matilda Boseley (earlier on (#5QN2W)
So there has been a bit of drama in the South Australian parliament, with a Liberal party defector somehow taking the Speaker of the House role in a late-night upset.Dan Cregan, who left the Liberal party to sit on the crossbench last week, managed to take the job in a secret ballot. Continue reading...
Survey of 1,718 performers, creatives and staff reveals microgression, pay disparities and discrimination are rifeDespite increased representation within the British music industry, the UK sector remains hostile to Black creators and professionals, according to a report that highlights the effects of systemic racism on mental health and a racial pay gap that disproportionately affects Black women.The first Black Lives in Music study found that 63% of Black music creators had experienced direct or indirect racism, including explicit racist language or different treatment because of their race or ethnicity, and 67% had witnessed such behaviour. Racial microaggressions were rife, experienced by 71% of Black music creators and witnessed by 73%. Continue reading...
In a new exhibition, the female abstract artists between 1930 and 1950 whose work was sidelined at the time finally get their space in the spotlightIn 1934, the abstract painter Alice Trumbull Mason wrote her sister, Margaret Jennings, a letter, noting that she was eager to resume painting, which she had temporarily stopped in order to raise her children.“I am chafing to get back to painting and of course it’s at least a couple of years away,” Mason wrote. “The babies are adorable and terribly interesting. I’m not saying anything against them, but … I can’t be just absorbed in them.” Continue reading...
A new trailer has surfaced for Home Sweet Home Alone, which looks to be a sequel that’s also a carbon copy of an original that doesn’t need betteringThe trailer for the Disney+ movie Home Sweet Home Alone is really quite something. In it, a large and chaotic family tie themselves in knots ahead of a holiday to Tokyo only to discover that, in their haste, they have accidentally left one of their children behind. While they scramble to return to their home, the boy is left to fend for himself – a danger that is only compounded when two sly burglars pick his home to be robbed. What follows is an orgy of cartoonish violence as the abandoned boy jerry-rigs a selection of household items to cause maximum damage to the intruders. Brilliant.Basically, then, Home Sweet Home Alone appears to exist in order to answer one simple question: what if Home Alone was, um, Home Alone? Continue reading...
by Ludo Hekman, Ana Rojas, Dani Dominquez and Ashifa on (#5QNCA)
Exclusive: pork industry’s role in pollution of one of Europe’s largest saltwater lagoons may be greater than publicly acknowledged, investigation revealsPollution from hundreds of intensive pig farms may have played a bigger role than publicly acknowledged in the collapse of one of Europe’s largest saltwater lagoons, according to a new investigation.
They are working three jobs, changing careers or moving to faraway areas with affordable housing in order to drum up enough money for children of their own. Sadly the numbers still don’t add up
Shortage of specialised doctors in Afghanistan means patients seek lifesaving care in Pakistan, but conventions have changedFareed Ullah has crossed Afghanistan’s border to Pakistan 10 times for treatment for his three-year-old son, Taha, who has thalassaemia major, an inherited blood disorder. Up until the Taliban takeover in August he had never experienced a problem, but when he tried to transit via the Torkham crossing late last month, he was stopped by the Taliban from entering.Doctors and family members of patients say conventions at the border have changed since the Taliban takeover, which has made it more difficult for Afghan patients to seek lifesaving care in Pakistan. “There is no system, still,” said Ijaz Ali Khan, the founder and chairman of Hamza Foundation, a charity organisation in Peshawar that provides treatment for thalassaemia and other blood disorders. Continue reading...
We are forced to take on more risk with every shift. And for patients, the emergency department is no longer always the safe place it should beIt wasn’t a surprise that working as a junior doctor in a Melbourne hospital emergency department during a pandemic comes with challenges.Covid-19 will be one of the biggest challenges of our generation, but despite pleas to politicians and the public to do everything they can to help us get through the pandemic safely, each shift there are new reminders that coronavirus will continue to wreak havoc on our jobs and lives. Continue reading...
The pandemic has prompted a rethink of tourism’s role on the island as some call for only ‘quality’ visitorsAfter being shuttered for 17 months, the upmarket Hujan Locale restaurant in the Balinese town of Ubud is slowly coming back to life.Outside, staff greet a box truck driver who delivers fresh vegetables and stacks of lemongrass, ginger flowers and kaffir lime leaves. Kitchen workers are busy preparing for the day ahead. A chandelier above a stairway is once again casting a warm yellow shimmer across the walls. Continue reading...
The prime minister was responding to book arguing old laws would prevent same-sex marriage for a monarch or their heirsA Dutch monarch can marry a person of whatever gender they choose without forfeiting their right to the throne, prime minister Mark Rutte has said.Rutte was responding to questions from parliament that arose from a recent book, Amalia, Duty Calls, which argued that old laws would appear to exclude the possibility of a same-sex couple on the throne, despite same-sex marriage being legal in the Netherlands since 2001. Continue reading...
Daughter of 1930s Stonehenge custodian shares memories as part of English Heritage projectShe recalls the skylarks soaring overhead and the dog violets in the woods, as well as her father’s battles with moles and his all-night shifts when the druids arrived for midsummer celebrations.Most of all Jean Grey, whose father, John Moffatt, was the custodian at Stonehenge in the 1930s, remembers the fun of the great stone circle being her extraordinary childhood playground. Continue reading...
Former health secretary’s role comes as MPs release damning report into UK’s pandemic responseMatt Hancock has announced he has been appointed a special representative to the United Nations. The former health secretary will focus on helping African countries recover from Covid-19.Hancock said he was “honoured” to have been given the role, adding on Twitter: “I’ll be working with the UN, the UN Economic Commission for Africa to help African economic recovery from the pandemic and promote sustainable development.” Continue reading...
What is the proposed EU solution – and will it please David Frost?Within the UK’s Brexit withdrawal agreement with the EU, a protocol lays out arrangements that effectively keep Northern Ireland in the single market, drawing a customs border between it and the rest of the UK, with checks on goods passing from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. Continue reading...
Leaders agree in principle that funds can be channelled through UN agencies to avert ‘humanitarian meltdown’G20 leaders and ministers have agreed they will have no option but to involve the Taliban in sending humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, but say that this stops short of political recognition of the Taliban as a government.The consensus view came at a video conference on the Afghan crisis at which the EU stepped up its aid to a total of €1bn (£850m), and it was agreed in principle that the IMF and World Bank could provide aid. Nearly $9bn of Afghan assets in overseas banks have been frozen by the US. Continue reading...
by Vikram Dodd Police and crime correspondent on (#5QMTF)
Review of indecent exposure and domestic abuse claims over last two years follows murder of Sarah EverardPolice chiefs have been told to review all allegations of sexual misconduct, indecent exposure and domestic abuse involving their officers over the last two years.The review comes after a fall in public trust over the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by Wayne Couzens while he was a serving Metropolitan police officer, and fears that forces were not doing enough to identify and stop offenders in their ranks. Continue reading...
Despite his party losing election, Andrej Babiš says he was Miloš Zeman’s choice to lead next governmentCzech politics has been thrown into fresh uncertainty after the billionaire prime minister, Andrej Babiš claimed the president had promised him a shot at heading the next government despite being defeated in a general election.In a statement that was met with widespread scepticism, Babiš told journalists thatMiloš Zeman, gravely ill in hospital, told him “repeatedly” that he would choose him to lead a new administration when the pair met on Sunday, a day after the unexpected poll result. Continue reading...
by Hosted by Jane Lee. Recommended by Steph Harmon. W on (#5QMSJ)
The director says his film was sympathetic to Mark Brandon Read and ‘on his side’. It had to be – to understand his violence. Culture editor Steph Harmon recommends this story about the depiction of a notorious Australian criminalYou can read the original article here: Andrew Dominik on 20 years of Chopper: ‘Ethics have nothing to do with it’ Continue reading...
Minister reprimands top bishop for claiming the secrecy of confessional ‘above laws of the Republic’Catholic priests must report all child sexual abuse allegations to police, including if they hear about it in the secrecy of the confession box, the French interior minister has said after reprimanding France’s top bishop for claiming that the secrecy of the Catholic confessional was “above the laws of the Republic”.France is reeling from the publication last week of a devastating independent report which found that at least 330,000 children were victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy and lay members of church institutions over the past 70 years, and that the crimes were covered up in a “systemic way” by the church. Continue reading...
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