Was a royal family member once stuck in a manhole? Where is Australia’s first submarine? Test your nautical knowledge with our quick quizIt’s hard to fathom how far we’ve come since the first submarine, with greasy leather flaps, was rowed – yes, rowed! – under the murky water of the Thames. Now, hundreds of boats creep about in the ocean, armed with cruise missiles and nuclear warheads. Australia has six, ditched a plan to get 12 French ones, and now plans (well, plans to plan) to get “at least” eight from the US or the UK. These might be nuclear-powered motherships, home to fleets of drones. Or the entire idea could be sunk. Whether you’ve been adrift in Vigil or submersed in Australia’s political woes, it’s time to find out how much you know about these undersea boats. Continue reading...
Civil banning order applies to 14 locations around London after police arrest 35 climate activistsLondon’s transport network has been granted a high court injunction against Insulate Britain protesters aimed at preventing them from obstructing traffic.Transport for London (TfL) said the civil banning order, granted on Friday afternoon, applies to 14 locations around the capital including some of its busiest roads and it follows several previous injunctions against members of the group. Continue reading...
Video shows rapper C Tangana and singer Nathy Peluso grind against each other inside Toledo CathedralThe archbishop of Toledo has apologised to offended Roman Catholics after one of Spain’s most famous cathedrals was used as a location for a raunchy video that shows a couple grinding against each other in its hallowed precincts.The video for Ateo (Atheist) features the Spanish rapper C Tangana and the Argentinian singer Nathy Peluso dancing steamily in Toledo’s 13th-century cathedral, much to the fascination of onlookers, among them a priest. Continue reading...
by Martin Chulov Middle East correspondent on (#5QGRC)
Saud al-Qahtani, aide to Mohammed bin Salman, hailed as patriot on pro-government social mediaThree years after the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi royal court adviser accused of directing the murder is being quietly reintroduced by pro-government influencers as a patriotic figure who has served his country well.Social media accounts that back the Saudi leadership have in recent months been posting tributes to Saud al-Qahtani, a chief aide to crown prince and Saudi Arabia’s effective leader, Mohammed bin Salman, in a move that is seen as marking his gradual return to the seat of Saudi power. Qahtani vanished from public view in the aftermath of the gruesome killing in Istanbul that shocked the world and almost derailed his boss’s path to the throne. Continue reading...
Casey is to lead review into lax Met standards after crisis caused by Wayne Couzens scandalThe former Whitehall troubleshooter Louise Casey has been brought in by the Metropolitan police to root out misogyny and lax standards, as it battles to dig itself out of a crisis caused by its mishandling of the Wayne Couzens scandal.Lady Casey has been appointed by the Met commissioner, Dame Cressida Dick, to lead the review which came after harrowing details of the rape, kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard by Couzens while a police officer, were made public. Continue reading...
Guardian readers respond to Colm Tóibín’s essay on the island’s political futureColm Tóibín’s comparison of Sinn Féin, a pro-EU, pro-immigration, centre-left party, to Ukip, an anti-EU, anti-immigration, rightwing party, is decidedly muddled, like much of his article (Colm Tóibín: will the Brexit fallout lead to a ‘united Ireland’?, 2 October). That apocalyptic anti-republican mindset (the idea that Sinn Féin in 2021 is a “spectre” and a “tide”) is widespread among older members of the Irish upper middle-class, who are often unable to rid themselves of decades of anti-republican prejudice.This was fostered by previous Irish governments that, courtesy of section 31 of the 1960 Broadcasting Authority Act, enthusiastically operated the most draconian anti-republican censorship in western Europe. Continue reading...
The designations are the latest in a crackdown on media outlets authorities in Moscow see as hostileRussia has designated the Bellingcat investigative news outlet a “foreign agent” along with nine people who work for Russian language news outlets or non-governmental organisations.The designations, which targeted one employee of the BBC’s Russian service, are the latest twist in a crackdown on media outlets that the authorities in Moscow see as hostile and foreign-backed. Continue reading...
Large number of worshippers killed or wounded during Friday prayers in blast claimed by ISKPAt least 100 worshippers have been killed or injured in a suicide bombing that targeted a packed Shia mosque in Afghanistan during Friday prayers.Responsibility for the blast, which took place in Kunduz, the capital of the province of the same name in the north-east of the country, was claimed by the Islamic State’s local affiliate, Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), which has a long history of attacking Afghanistan’s Shia minority, who make up about 15-20% of the population. Continue reading...
by Rebecca Ratcliffe south-east Asia correspondent an on (#5QGMZ)
Since she launched news site Rappler, the Philippine journalist has faced abuse from Rodrigo Duterte’s supportersMaria Ressa, the Philippine journalist and 2021 Nobel peace prize laureate, spent two decades working as an investigative reporter, foreign correspondent and CNN bureau chief before heading the news division of her country’s biggest TV news channel.But none of it prepared her for the torrent of threats, hatred and abuse she has faced from supporters of President Rodrigo Duterte since she co-founded the investigative news site Rappler with three fellow female journalists in 2012, growing it into one of the country’s most popular news outlets. Continue reading...
Rumoured for release in mid-November, record is being tipped to outdo new LPs by Ed Sheeran and ColdplayThere has been a rush to define the remaining months of 2021. It will be a winter of discontent, of supply chain disruption and potential blackouts; a post-lockdown return to dressing up and going out.It will also, undoubtedly, be the season of Adele. Continue reading...
David Fuller, 67, denies murder of Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce and his trial is expected to begin next monthA 67-year-old man has admitted responsibility for the killings of two women more than three decades ago, marking a significant development in one of the UK’s longest unsolved homicide cases.David Fuller admitted killing Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, Maidstone crown court heard on Friday. The women were subject to separate attacks in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, in 1987. Continue reading...
On morning Anthony Walgate was found dead, police were aware of previous rape allegation against serial killerThe serial killer Stephen Port was identified as a “significant witness” and police knew of a previous male rape allegation against him within hours of the body of his first murder victim being found, an inquest has heard.Notes made by Ch Supt Andy Ewing, borough commander at Barking and Dagenham police, on the morning Anthony Walgate’s body was found, read “caller previous sex assault”, referencing an allegation found on the police national computer (PNC). Continue reading...
We shouldn’t single out football fans: the country has long since made its peace with the power of capital, whatever its originsFootball, no longer merely the national game, is England’s political theatre. The way in which the spasm of fan protest stopped the European Super League in its tracks in April, and which the prime minister erroneously claimed as his own victory, spoke to both a residual – if often dormant – public sense of justice and communitarianism, and the shamelessness of our snake-skinned political conversation. The open conflict between the England men’s team, the Conservative government and a section of the England fanbase over taking the knee at Euro 2020 was a battle over who gets to define the terms of our debate over structural racism. Now, the long anticipated sale of Newcastle United to Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund points to England’s practically and morally diminished place in the world, and the roads that have taken us there.The crown prince of Saudi Arabia is not the first politician to take an interest in Newcastle United. In the early 1990s, Tony Blair, then leader of the opposition, was busy burnishing his local credentials by declaring his fidelity to the team, decrying Andy Cole’s transfer to Manchester United in the Sun, and playing keepy-uppy with Kevin Keegan. Like Blair, Newcastle United were the coming thing. After four decades without a trophy, but now under the new ownership of Sir John Hall, both a Thatcherite property developer and an advocate for regional government and regeneration in the north-east, Keegan’s Newcastle were challenging for the Premiership title and playing fabulous football to raging full houses. In 1996 Alan Shearer arrived, on a then record transfer fee, and declared to a delirious crowd that he was still “the son of a sheet-metal worker”. One could have been forgiven for thinking that, after the hammer blows of 17 years of Thatcherism, there was hope for an English working class and regional revival.David Goldblatt is the author of The Ball is Round: A Global History of Football and The Game of Our Lives Continue reading...
Twitter trolls targeted Rupa Huq after Rafał Ziemkiewicz was prevented from entering UKThe Labour MP Rupa Huq has hit back against racist abuse she received online from supporters of the Polish rightwing journalist and ideologue Rafał Ziemkiewicz, who was prevented from entering the UK last Saturday.She said she was faced with a “concerted campaign” of hostile Twitter traffic including “‘go back to Bangladesh’ type comments” after Ziemkiewicz was told by the Home Office that his exclusion would be “conducive to the public good”. Continue reading...
Brussels to offer substantial package of proposals to improve post-Brexit arrangementsThe EU will seek to sweeten its package of proposals over the post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland by lifting a prohibition on sausages made in Britain.The EU’s Brexit commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič, will table four papers on Wednesday as to how the Northern Ireland protocol can be improved. Continue reading...
Aster Healthcare pleaded guilty to corporate manslaughter after Frances Norris died in 2015 suffering from burnsThe owners of a care home where a 93-year-old woman died after being scalded in a bath have been fined £1.04m by a judge who handed suspended prison sentences to its former manager and a member of staff.Aster Healthcare had pleaded guilty to corporate manslaughter after the death of Frances Norris, a dementia patient who died in 2015 days after being placed into a bath, at a cost-cutting and “grossly negligent” nursing home. Continue reading...
Western politicians seem complacent about or complicit in the iniquity of hidden wealthIt was a classic TV doorstep. After doing the morning media round, Boris Johnson emerged from a booth and set off with his minders across the main hall of the Conservative party conference in Manchester. What was his reaction to the Pandora papers?And would the Tories be giving back the money they had taken from certain donors? Continue reading...
by Nemo Kim in Seoul and Justin McCurry in Tokyo on (#5QG9A)
Household debt is now equivalent to over 100% of GDP and has gone hand in hand with a dramatically widening income gapAfter midnight, when the crowds of revellers have gone, Choi Young-soo* crouches in a shabby alleyway in Seoul’s wealthy Gangnam district. This is the only time that the 35-year-old, a part-time food delivery rider, dare leave his tiny room at a cheap hostel he shares with about 30 other people.The rooms, he says, are “only slightly bigger than coffins”. Continue reading...
Riverside restaurant owner Titiporn Jutimanon was convinced a bout of flooding in Thailand could be the end of a business already struggling from the pandemic. But with the rising tide of the Chao Phraya River this week came an unexpected opportunity. Instead of closing for the floods, Titiporn’s eatery is making waves in Thailand, staying open for customers who are revelling in shin-deep dining, and the thrill of avoiding the rush of water set off as boats go by
This week, horror everywhere: a failing eyesight fail, Roblox violence and a killer batBefore you can even get to the story, the numbers are staggering: there are 78,000 teachers in the New York City public school system, employed across 1,800 schools and with an annual operating budget of $38bn (£28bn). The substitute teaching pool is 9,000 people strong, beyond which there are a further 5,000 substitute teaching assistants who as of this morning, said the mayor’s office, were ready to step in should the Covid vaccine mandate for teachers lead to gaps in the system. Continue reading...
Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage shook the world – and spiked divorce rates. Could the remake, with Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac, be even more controversial? Its director Hagai Levi bares all
Australia will offer vaccine booster doses to severely immunocompromised people after a recommendation from the regulatorSeverely immunocompromised Australians will be able to get Covid-19 vaccine boosters from Monday, after Australia’s vaccine regulatory body approved the jab for the vulnerable section of the community.In advice released on Friday, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (Atagi) recommended the third vaccine dose for all people aged above 12 who either have conditions that severely weaken their immune defences, as well as patients receiving cancer treatment and other therapies. Continue reading...
The road below was lined with tanks rolling out. Troops flooded the streets. The roof started shakingThe third of October 1993 was a beautiful day in Moscow. The sky was blue, the streets were busy and the air was chilly. I was a US paralegal living my best 23-year-old life, with a head full of dreams and a job at an international law firm.I grew up in New Jersey, then rural Pennsylvania. At university I did politics and Russian studies, and took a class in US and Soviet relations. I was fascinated by these two countries at odds. Continue reading...
Broadcaster ZDF targets international sales and will dub eight-part series for domestic audience⁸It topped Germany’s list of bestselling novels for eight months, and to great local excitement Frank Schätzing’s science-fiction page-turner Der Schwarm is being turned into an eight-part drama series for the German public service broadcaster ZDF. Continue reading...
by Josh Taylor (now) and Caitlin Cassidy and Mostafa on (#5QFJJ)
So, today is the final Friday under (this) lockdown in NSW, with the state due to emerge from stay-at-home orders on Monday.But you’d be forgiven for losing track of what you can and can’t do once lockdown is lifted, considering the changes made and many, many annoucements. Continue reading...
Raids by the security forces leave at least one man dead, as official observers decry ‘inhumane’ detention conditionsMore than 5,000 refugees and migrants have been arrested by the Libyan authorities in the past week with some allegedly subjected to severe physical and sexual violence, before being held in increasingly “inhumane conditions” in detention centres in Tripoli.Many of those arrested escaped wars or dictatorships across Africa, and have already undergone years of detention. They were intercepted at sea trying to reach Europe by the EU-supported Libyan coastguard. Continue reading...
As Covid hit, thousands of Filipinos were left trapped in the capital without work. Many ended up on the street and are still waiting to rebuild their livesLike so many others before her, Michelle Sicat, a 28-year-old single mother from the province of Nueva Ecija, had come to Metro Manila to get a job to support her family. She left her daughter with her parents so she could work as a shop assistant in one of the city’s busiest commercial districts. Sicat’s sacrifice was one that many Filipinos from rural areas have to make.Despite missing home, Sicat was happy to have a job. But then the Covid-19 pandemic struck. The Philippine government placed the entire island of Luzon – where the Metro Manila region is located – under the strictest level of lockdown. The restrictions forced most businesses to close. Most people were ordered to stay at home.For many living on the streets, there is no shelter from the elements Continue reading...
When her daughter’s hair began to turn grey, Marsha Coupé decided she had to say goodbye to her own dyed locks. It was like being rebornFor her first 65 years, Marsha Coupé had dark hair. She wore it in a blunt pageboy style, with red lipstick. She was wedded to her look, she says. Six weeks ago, she got a No 1 shave. Afterwards, she looked at the floor of the salon in her home town of Davis, California. Seeing the black locks scattered, she put her hands to her head. “I could not believe how good it felt. Like a baby’s head,” she says, rubbing her scalp as she speaks. “Almost like you’re a baby who just got born.”It was Coupé’s daughter, Antoinette, 48, who suggested the cut. “She said: ‘Mom, hair is an accessory. Women make too big a deal. Every woman should shave her head at least once,’” Coupé says.Tell us: has your life taken a new direction after the age of 60? Continue reading...
Analysis: insiders say French belief that No 10 cannot be trusted has intensified amid Brexit, Covid, migration and AukusThe British embassy in Paris held a splendid James Bond soiree this week, guests in black tie and evening dress sipping Bollinger and Martinis shaken, not stirred, playing blackjack and admiring the gleaming Aston Martin DB5 in the courtyard.As projections of British soft power go, it was as potent as any could wish for. Except, as one experienced observer said: “There don’t seem to be many French policy people about.” Another wondered: “Were they not invited – or didn’t they come?” Continue reading...
When personal tragedy struck Roland Orzabal, he found solace returning to a band with its own fractious history. Now, with their first album in 17 years, he and Curt Smith say they’ve come full circleSome years ago, Curt Smith, the singer and songwriter best known as one half of Tears for Fears, found himself in Vancouver. He was filming one of several guest spots he made on the US TV detective series Psych, and after work that day he joined the rest of the cast at a local karaoke bar.There, before the stage, Smith was struck by the idea to get up and sing one of his band’s most famous hits, 1985’s UK platinum-selling Everybody Wants to Rule the World. How hilarious it would be, he thought, when people clocked that he was the actual singer of the song. “And no one paid a blind bit of attention,” he says now. “No one! They didn’t realise it was me.” Continue reading...
by Aubrey Allegretti Political correspondent on (#5QFZK)
Report by centre-right thinktank will increase pressure on Boris Johnson to deliver on his ‘levelling up’ promiseWorkers living in northern England can access far fewer local jobs on public transport than those living in the south, according to a damning new report that will increase pressure on Boris Johnson to deliver on his “levelling up” promise.Those in the south can access up to seven times as many jobs by bus, train or tram, the report suggests. Continue reading...
Surviving on oranges they’d packed, coconuts from the sea and rainwater they collected, they floated about 400km in the Solomon Sea before being rescuedTwo men from Solomon Islands who spent 29 days lost at sea after their GPS tracker stopped working have been rescued off the coast of Papua New Guinea – 400 kilometres away from where their journey began.Livae Nanjikana and Junior Qoloni set out from Mono Island, in Western province, Solomon Islands, on the morning of the 3 September in a small, single 60 horsepower motorboat. Continue reading...
by Chi Hui Lin and Helen Davidson in Taipei on (#5QFY0)
Many people are too scared to confront the groups of middle-aged and older women who take over public parks and sports grounds to exercise along to musicAcross China’s public parks and squares, in the early hours of the morning or late in the afternoon, the grannies gather.The gangs, made up mostly of middle-aged and older women who went through the Cultural Revolution, take to a corner of a local park or sporting ground and dance in unison to Chinese music. Loud music. Continue reading...
Composer says one good thing that came out of the big screen version of his stage musical was ‘my little Havanese puppy’Andrew Lloyd Webber has admitted he hated the 2019 film adaptation of his smash-hit musical Cats so much he bought a dog.The composer has never shied away from expressing his distaste with Tom Hooper’s star-studded and much-maligned big screen version of the stage musical. Continue reading...
The rising Chao Phraya river has proved a unique drawcard as footage of diners dodging the wake of passing boats goes viralRiverside restaurant owner Titiporn Jutimanon feared that the floods afflicting many parts of Thailand could be the end of a business already struggling from the pandemic.But with the rising tide of the Chao Phraya river this week came an unexpected opportunity. Continue reading...
Lingering quarantine rules anger would-be travellers from seven targeted countriesEngland’s decision to maintain strict Covid travel rules for seven South American and Caribbean countries has prompted further fury and confusion in the nations which remain on the “red list”.Ministers announced on Thursday that restrictions would be lifted for 47 countries – including Brazil, South Africa and Thailand – allowing travellers to enter England without being subject to draconian and expensive quarantine restrictions. Continue reading...
Defeat for western states as Bahrain, Russia and other nations push through vote to shut down investigationsBahrain, Russia and other members of the UN human rights council have pushed through a vote to shut down the body’s war crimes investigations in Yemen, in a stinging defeat for western states who sought to keep the mission going.Members narrowly voted to reject a resolution led by the Netherlands to give the independent investigators another two years to monitor atrocities in Yemen’s conflict. Continue reading...
by Martin Chulov Middle East correspondent on (#5QFN4)
Riyadh will hope acquisition can not only improve kingdom’s image but also serve as a highly conspicuous display of wealthFrom heavyweight boxing to horse racing, from wrestling events to a grand prix; Saudi Arabia’s association with sport has become an integral, and contentious, part of its efforts to rebrand.But its latest play – taking a majority stake in Newcastle United Football Club – is the kingdom’s boldest move yet, placing it firmly on the world’s sporting stage, and squarely in the crosshairs of its critics. Continue reading...
by Jon Henley Europe correspondent and Jennifer Ranki on (#5QF71)
Country takes big step towards ‘legal Polexit’ against backdrop of rows between ruling nationalists and BrusselsPoland’s constitutional tribunal has ruled that some EU laws are in conflict with the country’s constitution, taking a major step towards a “legal Polexit” with far-reaching consequences for Warsaw’s funding and future relations with the bloc.The tribunal, whose legitimacy is contested after multiple appointments of judges loyal to the ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, said some provisions of EU treaties and EU court rulings clashed with Poland’s highest law, adding that EU institutions “act beyond the scope of their competences”. Continue reading...
Small contingent of US special forces and marines training local forces in latest sign of rising US-China tensionsThe US has been secretly maintaining a small contingent of military trainers in Taiwan for at least a year, according to a new report, the latest sign of the rising stakes in US-China rivalry.About two dozen US special forces soldiers and an unspecified number of marines are now training Taiwanese forces, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The trainers were first sent to Taiwan by the Trump administration but their presence had not been reported until now. Continue reading...
Armin Laschet intends to oversee search for candidate to unite fractious centre-right partyThe leader of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has signalled he is prepared to step down after his party’s historic defeat at last month’s federal elections, but intends to oversee the search for a candidate to unite the fractious centre-right.Armin Laschet, Angela Merkel’s designated successor who ended up leading the party to its worst result in postwar history, said at a press conference on Thursday evening the time had come to renew the personnel at the front of his party. Continue reading...
Can Arslan, 51, accused of stabbing Matthew Boorman to death and attempted murder of another neighbourA man has been charged with the murder of his neighbour in Gloucestershire.Can Arslan, 51, will appear in court on Friday accused of stabbing to death father-of-three Matthew Boorman. Continue reading...
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