1 June is the first day of the meteorological summer and, with fine weather forecast around the country, schools on half term and the recent relaxation of coronavirus restrictions, people are making the most of new freedoms. The UK could see records for the second day in a row after temperatures hit 25C on Bank Holiday Monday, making it the warmest day of the year so far Continue reading...
Gunmen fired bullets at a car carrying Katumba Wamala in an attempted assassination on Tuesday, wounding the former army commander and killing his daughter and driver. Speaking from his hospital bed, the government minister said: 'I have survived … the bad guys have done it, but God has given me a second chance. I will pull through.'There have been several unsolved assassinations and mysterious deaths of high-profile officials in the east African country in recent years that have fuelled speculation about perpetrators and their motivations
BoM predicts higher than average minimums across the country and more rainfall than usual across northern and eastern AustraliaAustralia is facing a warmer than average winter across most of the country, according to the Bureau of Meteorology’s annual winter outlook.It predicts higher than average minimum temperatures across Australia, with maximum temperatures in northern, south-eastern and south-western Australia also likely to be higher than average. Continue reading...
by Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Delhi and Mohammad Sartaj on (#5JGV1)
Barabanki district authorities had accused them of forging documents leading to illegal constructionAn Indian court has ruled that a local government administration in Uttar Pradesh filed a “false and unfounded” police report against eight Muslim leaders who had opposed the “illegal” demolition of their mosque.The bulldozing of the Masjid Gareeb Nawaz Al Maroof last month, carried out on the orders of the local administration of Barabanki district, caused an outcry and sent many local Muslims into hiding. Continue reading...
Police reveal results of postmortem on Everard, 33, who went missing in south London on 3 MarchA postmortem examination has found that marketing executive Sarah Everard died from compression of the neck, police said.Everard, 33, went missing as she walked home from a friend’s house in Clapham, south London, on 3 March. Continue reading...
by Joya Berrow, Lucy Jane, Orban Wallace, Ekaterina O on (#5JGS3)
Eve is the intimate story of a nine-year-old girl living in Tinkers Bubble, one of the oldest off-grid communities in the UK. A fledgling environmental activist, we follow her as she navigates her way back into traditional schooling and stands up for what she passionately believes in: the environment
Bangladeshi police say Habib Talukder lived next to forest and would flee when police closed inBangladeshi police have arrested a notorious poacher wanted for 20 years and suspected of killing about 70 endangered Bengal tigers.Saidur Rahman, the local police chief, said that Habib Talukder – nicknamed “Tiger Habib” – lived next to the forest and would flee whenever officers raided the area. Continue reading...
Federal health minister admits he made an error after ‘misreading’ departmental adviceThe federal health minister, Greg Hunt, has been forced to correct the record after he wrongly claimed that only six aged care facilities across the country had not been visited as part of the national vaccination rollout.Hunt told parliament on Tuesday he had misread information provided by the health department which had stated 20 sites were yet to receive a first dose of the vaccine. Continue reading...
by Fiona Harvey Environment correspondent on (#5JGPY)
European Environment Agency judges only 110 British coastal and inland sites to be excellentSwimmers in the UK hoping to enjoy waters certified clean and healthy this summer have been let down again. Only 110 coastal and inland sites were judged excellent in the latest bathing water quality data from Europe’s environmental watchdog.Most of the UK’s bathing sites were not classified in 2020, however, because Covid-19 restrictions prevented sampling. This meant that out of 640 sites, 457 received no verdict in the rankings, compiled annually by the European Environment Agency and published on Tuesday. Continue reading...
Celebrity endorsements, new techniques and lockdown have led to rising demand for follicular transplants. But with patchy regulation, are men being exploited when they are vulnerable?Hamish says he’s not at all vain. He wouldn’t consider getting his teeth whitened. He has an average life, with a happy marriage and two children. But when he caught sight of the top of his head in a family photo about eight years ago, something consumed him.“I just saw this massive receding hairline and it triggered intense emotions,” he says from his home in Edinburgh, where he works in marketing. “I can feel my heart rate has increased just talking about it. It somehow threatens my identity so much that the ground feels shaky.” Continue reading...
Responsibility for defending what the Commonwealth stands for must not pass to the country without reformsIf Rwanda had hosted the Commonwealth heads of government meeting, which has been cancelled for the second time due to Covid-19, the UK was due to hand the country the Commonwealth chair.Rwanda would have held the responsibility for defending what the Commonwealth stands for – despite violating those same values for decades. When Rwanda was admitted as a member in 2009, I had hoped our government would apply Commonwealth values in its governance. But this did not happen. Continue reading...
by Helen Davidson in Taipei and agencies on (#5JGM9)
Qiu Ziming imprisoned under 2018 law outlawing defamation of ‘heroes and martyrs’A Chinese court has jailed a popular blogger over posts suggesting the death toll among Chinese soldiers in a China-Indian border clash last year was higher than claimed.Qiu Ziming was among at least six people arrested in February for online posts about the Galwan Valley clash between Chinese and Indian troops in a disputed border area. A tense standoff that began in May escalated to shouting matches, stone-throwing and fistfights, before culminating on 15 June into a violent bout of hand-to-hand combat with clubs and stones, leaving dozens dead. Continue reading...
Promises of better working conditions ring hollow for tens of thousands of security guards, who say they still work long hours for low payEvery day at 5pm, Samuel boards the company bus that takes him to his night shift as a guard at a luxury high-rise tower near Qatar’s capital, Doha. When his shift ends 12 hours later, he says he will have earned £9, just 75p an hour.Samuel, who is from Uganda, says he almost never has a day off. “You have to tell lies, like ‘you are sick, you’re not feeling good’, so that you get a day off,” he says. Continue reading...
Town on edge of Knowsley – and Liverpool city region’s mayor – use cultural pull to help rebuild area’s economyLevelling up Britain’s unbalanced economy comes in many guises and in Prescot, a town on the edge of Knowsley on Merseyside, it comes in the form of a replica cockpit-in-court theatre.Shakespeare is reported to have connections with Prescot when he was a travelling player in the late 16th century and the idea is to make the new theatre, scheduled to be opened by Prince Charles next summer, the third side of a cultural triangle along with London and Stratford-upon-Avon. Continue reading...
Tuesday: where did the government go wrong with its aged care Covid response? Plus: Naomi Osaka pulls out of French OpenGood morning. How is Melbourne’s aged cared sector again facing a Covid outbreak? That’s the question many are asking as the number of cases continues to rise in Victoria, despite the lockdown. If the winter blues are starting to settle in, we’ve got news on the season’s forecast and some warm grub recipes as we officially enter winter.A woman whose parents died in Melbourne’s aged care Covid outbreak last year has slammed the failure to prevent a repeat as “unbelievable”. The Melbourne outbreak has again exposed the failure to fully protect the sector, despite federal promises aged care workers would be vaccinated by March. Covid has infected staff who were working across multiple aged care homes, a practice experts and unions have repeatedly warned against. “For once I would like one of these politicians to stand up and honestly answer questions about what the fuck they’ve been doing these past few months. Why aren’t they being more proactive? Because lives are now at risk here,” says Liz Beardon who lost both parents last August. The chief executive of a national chain of care homes has described the federal government’s attempts to vaccinate staff as a “dog’s breakfast” and a “shitfight”. Continue reading...
The rise to prominence of the Brothers of Italy party and its abrasive leader, Giorgia Meloni, is a disturbing developmentBy the turbulent standards of Italian politics, it has been a relatively stable spring. The country’s new technocrat prime minister, Mario Draghi, was appointed in February to steady the ship after the previous centre-left coalition imploded. He has made a reasonably solid start. A Covid economic recovery plan is in place and Italy is cautiously welcoming tourists back to its shores. Mr Draghi’s unity government, ranging from the centre-left Democratic party to Matteo Salvini’s League on the hard right, is still intact, although Mr Salvini reserves the right to heckle from within on matters such as the pace of unlocking the hospitality industry.Outside this fragile circle of consensus, however, a new and abrasive political force has come of age. Last week, polls confirmed that Brothers of Italy, a formerly minor party with its roots in the post-fascist right, is the fastest-growing political force in the country, second only in popularity to Mr Salvini’s League. In the 2018 elections, Brothers of Italy, whose name is derived from the first words of the Italian national anthem, scored 4% of the vote. Their current ratings stand at over 19%, just behind the League, and supporters have been noisily celebrating the overtaking of the centre-left Democratic party. Continue reading...
From remixed flags to a fishermen’s feast, more than 400 works by amateur artists exploring the new Franco-British relationship have gone on showWinners of a cross-Channel competition for amateur artists to shake off the Brexit blues have gone on display in Paris.I Love You, Moi Non Plus drew more than 400 entries including paintings, illustrations, photography, music and writing aimed at exploring the new British-French relationship. Continue reading...
Figures from far-night nationalists to Arab members of the Knesset are in talks to form a coalitionAn unlikely mix of Israeli politicians from far-right nationalists to Arab lawmakers are in discussions to form a coalition government that could end Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12-year hold on power. Continue reading...
by Vincent Ni China affairs correspondent on (#5JFCJ)
Move follows data showing sharp decline in number of births in world’s most populous countryChina has announced that couples will be permitted to have up to three children in a major policy shift from the existing two-child limit, after recent data showed a dramatic decline in births in the world’s most populous country.“To actively respond to the ageing of the population … a couple can have three children,” state media Xinhua reported on Monday, citing a meeting of China’s elite politburo leadership committee hosted by President Xi Jinping. Continue reading...
The country star is not always remembered for his politics, but his about-face to withdraw support for Nixon and the Vietnam war may be his finest moment“I speak my mind in a lot of these songs,” Johnny Cash wrote in the liner notes to the album Man in Black, released 50 years ago today. He might be better known now for the outlaw songs of his youth or the reckonings with death in his final recordings, but Cash used his 1971 album to set out his less-discussed political vision: long on feeling and empathy, and short on ideology and partisanship. The United States seemed hopelessly polarised, and Cash confronted that division head-on, demanding more of his fellow citizens and Christians amid the apparently endless war in Vietnam. Continue reading...
How does Australia’s coronavirus vaccine rollout compare with other countries and when will you be eligible to get vaccinated? We bring together the latest numbers on daily new Covid-19 cases, as well as stats and live data on total vaccination figures in Victoria, NSW, Queensland and other states.
by Agence France-Presse in Le Lardin-Saint-Lazare on (#5JFN7)
Suspect is shot and wounded after exchanging fire with police in the Dordogne regionPolice in south-west France have detained a former soldier who fled into a forest after firing on security forces in an incident that sparked a huge manhunt.The government’s most senior official in the Dordogne region, Frederic Perissat, told a press conference in Le Lardin-Saint-Lazare that the suspect was shot and wounded after exchanging fire with police, and had been taken into custody. Continue reading...
One victim aged 20 is in critical but stable condition following ‘unprovoked attack’ in MerseysideThree men have been airlifted to hospital with stab wounds after an “unprovoked attack” at Formby beach in Merseyside.One of the victims, a 20-year-old man, is in a critical but stable condition. The conditions of the other two men, aged 16 and 20, are described as serious but not life-threatening. Continue reading...
Talks on defence are first signs UK is willing to forge positive bilateral relations with its European partnersFrance, Italy and Germany, the three leading European powers, are each trying to reach bilateral post-Brexit agreements with the UK, after Britain said it was not interested in closer security and foreign policy cooperation with the EU.The behind-the-scenes discussion at ambassadorial and ministerial levels runs in contrast to some of the negative rhetoric from Downing Street about its approach to its EU partners. The discussions have focused on defence cooperation but go far wider, and would be the first signs that the UK was capable of forging positive bilateral relations with its European partners. Continue reading...
by Written by Yepoka Yeebo , read by Jennifer Saayeng on (#5JFGY)
In 2016, the US state department said it had uncovered a fake embassy in Accra that had been issuing a stream of forged visas. The story went viral – but all was not as it seemed. By Yepoka Yeebo
At least 34 candidates have been murdered since campaigning began in April, with the assassination clear-up rate close to zeroTuesday started off like any other day on the campaign trail for José Alberto Alonso, a union leader running for mayor in the Mexican beach resort of Acapulco: he kissed his family goodbye, boarded his Nissan Extreme SUV and headed off to start knocking on doors.But barely 200m from his home, a motorcycle closed in and the pillion passenger pulled a handgun, peppering the car with bullets. Alonso’s bodyguard returned fire, and the attackers fled. The candidate had escaped injury, but was later sent to hospital suffering from stress. Continue reading...
Peter Murimi’s film vividly conveys resilience, contrasting the intimacy of a brave couple with the brutality of prejudiceFilmed over five years, this documentary, directed by Peter Murimi, opens on a striking note that contrasts intimacy with cruelty. A date between Sam, the film’s subject, and his boyfriend Alex is juxtaposed with the brutal footage of a violent attack on one of Murimi’s own friends. Witnessing the tender connection between the couple in a society where people in such relationships can undergo physical harm as well as legal punishment affirms the courageous, moving joy of queer love and the bravery of the men who participate in the documentary.Having grown up in a small Kenyan village, Sam struggles with his sexuality until he moves to Nairobi, where he finds romance and acceptance. The bustling city might seem claustrophobic, with its rows of cramped apartments, yet introspective moments, captured by shots of laundry hung on balconies, gently rustling in the wind, offer breathing spaces. Continue reading...
by Mostafa Rachwani (now) and Amy Remeikis (earlier) on (#5JF26)
Three aged care workers and a nursing home resident confirmed to have coronavirus; tensions between state and federal government continue over financial support as Victoria enters its fourth day of lockdown
Using individual children to ‘sell’ schemes to rich donors is similar to ‘poverty porn’ images of past, say experts, as calls grow to decolonise aidInternational child sponsorship schemes have come under attack for perpetuating racist thinking, as an apology by a charity to thousands of children in Sri Lanka has sparked a debate over the money-raising schemes.Plan International last week admitted it had made “mistakes” over its exit from Sri Lanka in 2020, following criticism from donors and former employees that it had failed 20,000 vulnerable children in the country. Continue reading...
The two sides have agreed settlement to avoid what would have been a hugely expensive trial after mediationOne of the most anticipated court cases in Australian history has been avoided, after the former attorney general Christian Porter agreed to a pre-trial settlement with the ABC.A hastily scheduled hearing in the federal court was initially due to go ahead on Monday, but was scrapped after intense backroom negotiations between the two parties. Continue reading...
The great British artist’s home in Mexico has been turned into a wonderful museum, full of her sculptures, books, diaries and unsmoked cigarettes. Our writer, Carrington’s cousin, takes an emotional tourIn October 2010, a few months before her death, I said my last goodbye to my cousin Leonora Carrington. As I left her home in Mexico City, she stood waving on the doorstep. Today, I’m back for the first time – to see Leonora’s house recreated as a visitor attraction. It feels surreal, but the surreal has become the everyday since I set off to find Leonora in 2006, almost 70 years after she checked out of our family and Britain. She travelled first to Paris to be with her lover, the German artist Max Ernst, before moving on to Mexico with a diplomat she met after she and Ernst were separated by the second world war.This house, 194 Calle Chihuahua, is where she was anchored for more than 60 years. Here, she painted some of her best-known works, including The Juggler, which sold at auction in 2005 for £436,000; And Then We Saw the Daughter of the Minotaur, now at MoMA in New York; and her mural The Magical World of the Mayans, now at the National Anthropological Museum in Mexico City. Continue reading...
Campaigners want urgent action to save neglected and vandalised graves in West Norwood CemeteryIts beautiful Grade II* listed monuments were erected in memory of leading members of the Greek community in 19th-century London, but the graves in West Norwood cemetery are now in a dire state of neglect – with one decaying casket recently photographed covered in a thick layer of pigeon droppings, with a limb protruding.Lambeth council, which compulsorily purchased the cemetery more than 50 years ago, recently withdrew security to save money and campaigners are calling for urgent action to protect listed monuments from ruin. Continue reading...
One person shot dead after armed gang on motorcycles attack town in north-central Nigeria, ‘shooting indiscriminately’An armed gang has abducted students from an Islamic school in the north-central Nigerian state of Niger.The school’s owner, Abubakar Tegina, told Reuters he witnessed the attack and estimated about 150 students had been taken. “I personally saw between 20 and 25 motorcycles with heavily armed people. They entered the school and went away with about 150 or more of the students,” said Tegina, who lives around 150 metres from the school. Continue reading...
The MetService has issued a red warning for heavy rain in Canterbury and multiple warnings elsewhereHundreds of people have been evacuated and many more face the risk of abandoning their homes in New Zealand’s Canterbury region as heavy rains raise water levels and cause widespread flooding.A state of emergency was declared for the entire Canterbury region and at least 300 homes were evacuated overnight as water levels rose in rivers across the region in a “one-in-100-year deluge”, local media reports said on Monday. Continue reading...
Interviews with more than 30 witnesses also used in investigation by BBC Africa Eye into deaths in KampalaA single truck carrying eight police officers was responsible for a mass shooting in the centre of the Ugandan capital, Kampala, in November last year in which at least four people died and many more were injured, an investigation by BBC Africa Eye has found.The shootings were part of a crackdown on protests in Kampala following the arrest of opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi, a singer turned politician known as Bobi Wine, who was campaigning as a candidate for presidential elections held two months later. Continue reading...
National Popular Front takes 6.8% of vote amid government corruption scandals and ‘xenophobic climate’A far-right party with links to Greece’s defunct neo-Nazi Golden Dawn has doubled its support in Cyprus after widespread disaffection over corruption scandals dominated elections for a new parliament on Sunday.The National Popular Front (Elam) garnered 6.8% of the vote, narrowly replacing the Movement of Social Democrats (Edek) as the fourth biggest political force in the island’s Greek Cypriot party system for the first time in 45 years. Continue reading...
The rightwing Israeli politician Naftali Bennett and opposition leader Yair Lapid have agreed to forge a coalition government that would oust the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, after 12 years in power.In a televised address, Bennett announced his intention to form 'a national unity government' alongside Lapid. Minutes after the speech ended, Netanyahu went on air to rail against Bennett
China received more than half of all seafood, wood, and minerals exported from the region in 2019. Experts warn this is creating ‘enormous challenges for sustainable development’
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