Parker faced opposition from ministers over trust’s examination of UK’s legacy of slavery and colonialismThe chairman of the National Trust is to stand down after seven years, the charity has said, as it begins the search for his successor.Tim Parker, who faced political opposition from government ministers over the trust’s examination of historical links between its properties and the UK’s legacy of slavery and colonialism, will leave the post in October. Continue reading...
Criticism of priorities as tribute to liberation leader unveiled despite foreign food aid and lack of jobsThe Zimbabwean government unveiled a statue of the liberation heroine and anti-colonialism figurehead Mbuya Nehanda in the capital, Harare, on Tuesday amid controversy about its priorities while the economy and health system collapse.President Emmerson Mnangagwa vowed that the government would “repatriate Mbuya Nehanda’s skull and the skulls of others from the UK”, and said discussions about this were “on course”. The human remains of Nehanda and others who fought British colonisers are held at the Natural History Museum in London. Continue reading...
The Chinese Communist party is promoting a campaign to study its history before the 100th anniversary in July. ‘Red’ tourism to historically significant hotspots like Yan’an and Xibaipo has increased accordingly Continue reading...
Study finds children in Ghana, Nepal and Uganda in dangerous, exploitative work, with long hours and little payGopal Magar’s father has had a drinking problem for as long as he can remember, but when Kathmandu went into lockdown last spring, it got worse. With five members of his family confined to a small room in the south of the city, tempers frayed and the 14-year-old saw his father beat his mother again and again. One day Gopal could stand it no longer. He fought back, and then fled, leaving his parents, and his school, behind.Gopal now lives with his older brother on the other side of the city, and has swapped his classroom for a construction site. “I have fewer problems now, but I need to work really hard,” he says. He starts work at six in the morning and for the next 12 hours hauls sand, loads bricks and mixes concrete. He earns about £7 a day and sends some of it to his mother to help her buy food and pay the rent. Continue reading...
by Tess McClure in Wellington and Vincent Ni on (#5J8TA)
Beijing responds to Nanaia Mahuta’s concerns that New Zealand faces a ‘storm’ of anger from China amid rising Asia-Pacific tensionsChina has urged New Zealand to work in “the same direction, make the pie of cooperation bigger, rise above external distractions”, in response to comments made by foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta in a Guardian interview.Beijing’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian, said that progress in relations could be achieved “on the premise that the two sides have long been committed to mutual respect, mutual trust and win-win results”. He urged Wellington to work with China to advance a “comprehensive strategic partnership”. Continue reading...
Have you been diagnosed with long Covid, endometriosis, fibromyalgia, migraine, ME/CFS or another chronic pain condition? We’d like to hear from youA person with a chronic pain condition can sometimes start to accumulate more than one, which is known as a chronic overlapping pain condition.As part of a project on long Covid and other chronic conditions, we would like to hear from individuals about their experience seeking treatment for them. What overlapping conditions do you have? If you’ve been diagnosed with long Covid, did you have any pre-existing chronic pain conditions? Does your healthcare practitioner treat one or all conditions? Continue reading...
Bedford-based blimp maker unveils short-haul routes such as Liverpool-Belfast that it hopes to serve by 2025For those fancying a trip from Liverpool to Belfast or Barcelona to the Balearic Islands but concerned about the carbon footprint of aeroplane travel, a small Bedford-based company is promising a surprising solution: commercial airships.Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), which has developed a new environmentally friendly airship 84 years after the Hindenburg disaster, on Wednesday named a string of routes it hoped to serve from 2025. Continue reading...
by Martin Chulov Middle East correspondent on (#5J930)
The warn-torn country’s emergence as a mafia state leaves election result in little doubtTyrant, war criminal, mob boss or, to his loyalists, their shrewd saviour: views about Bashar al-Assad rarely fall in between. As the Syrian leader faces a presidential poll on Wednesday – the result a foregone conclusion – a truer test of the authority he wields across a broken country has taken shape away from the political banners and faux campaigning.In battered towns and villages, ravaged by a decade of savagery, the now veteran president has been clawing back losses, consolidating himself as the only figure who could plot a course from the ruins of the region’s most devastating modern conflict. Slowly, over the past year, Assad and his extended family have been shoring up their influence. Seldom seen during much of the crisis, he has become a fixture in what remains of Syria’s industrial heartland, visiting factories, pressing employees on their hardships, and hosting delegations with an ease few observed at the height of the fighting. Continue reading...
Parents of Raman Pratasevich fear for his life, as mother of girlfriend Sofia Sapega says she was not involved in politicsThe parents of Raman Pratasevich have pleaded for international help to free the Belarusian journalist as US president Joe Biden said sanctions against Alexander Lukashenko’s regime were “in play”, without revealing further details.From their new home in Poland, Natalia Pratasevich, the blogger’s mother, told Agence France-Presse: “I’m asking, I’m begging, I’m calling on the whole international community to save him. 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 vaccinations
The Coalition’s 1,000 jobs program, which was meant to benefit Indigenous business, has created just 400 jobs in two yearsCompanies linked to tax havens and one of China’s wealthiest property developers have been handed federal government grants to employ remote Aboriginal work-for-the-dole participants under the 1,000 jobs program – a scheme that was supposed to primarily benefit Indigenous business.The $50m, 1,000 jobs program, which aims to generate employment for Aboriginal jobseekers and businesses in remote Australia, has created just 400 jobs in the two years it has been running. Continue reading...
Actor claims she was denied a fair trial when the judge refused to allow her children to testify in the caseAngelina Jolie has criticized the California judge deciding on custody arrangements for her and Brad Pitt’s children, saying in a court filing that the judge has refused to allow their children to testify.Jolie, who has sought to disqualify judge John Ouderkirk from the divorce case, said in a court filing on Monday that he declined to hear evidence she says is relevant to the children’s safety and wellbeing before issuing a tentative ruling. The documents don’t elaborate on what that evidence may be. Continue reading...
Children’s commissioners of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland say policy breaches human rightsThe children’s commissioners of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have written to the UK government calling on it to scrap the controversial two-child limit restricting the amount that larger families can receive in social security benefits.In the joint letter to the work and pensions secretary, Thérèse Coffey, the three commissioners – respectively Sally Holland, Bruce Adamson and Koulla Yiasouma – argue the policy is a “clear breach of children’s human rights”. Continue reading...
Raman Pratasevich, who was seized from diverted Ryanair flight, appeared to have been beaten, says fatherThe father of the Belarusian journalist Raman Pratasevich said it was clear his son was acting under duress and had been beaten when he recorded a video “confessing” to organising mass protests against the regime.Dmitry Pratasevich said Raman was “very nervous” and “spoke in a way that was unusual for him”. Continue reading...
Paul Broad tells Senate hearing he has known Hunter Valley developer since university so ‘deliberately excluded’ himself from negotiationsThe chief executive of Snowy Hydro, Paul Broad, has known the part-owner of the Kurri Kurri site, where a new taxpayer-funded gas plant will be developed, for 40 years but says he recused himself from negotiations about the land.Broad told a Senate estimates hearing on Tuesday evening he had known Hunter Valley property developer Jeff McCloy since they were at university together. Continue reading...
Was getting into bed with the streaming giant a huge mistake for the most prolific man in TV? It seems so: his new shows are anaemic, disposable – and will leave you feeling queasyBow down, bow down before the towering chutzpah of Ryan Murphy – who in just four years has made Feud, Hollywood, The Prom, The Boys in the Band, Ratched, two seasons of The Politician, three apiece of American Crime Story and Pose, and four of American Horror Story – for making a show about a talented gay man whose mistake was to spread himself thin.Yes, Murphy has made his TV show again – this time about the fashion designer Halston (played by Ewan McGregor), whose clothes were everywhere in the 70s and who was himself in with the Studio 54 crowd. Eventually, he fatally diluted his brand by trying to be everything to everyone, signing a deal with JC Penney to mass-market his designs, which put paid to his high-end business.
Tributes paid to Josep Almudéver, who was forced to watch his comrades shot in Franco’s campsThe man believed to be the last surviving member of the 35,000 International Brigades volunteers who travelled to Spain to fight against Franco’s fascist rebellion has died in France at the age of 101.Josep Eduardo Almudéver Mateu, who was born on 30 July 1919 in Marseille to Spanish parents, was 16 and living in the Valencian town of Alcàsser when Franco’s coup triggered the Spanish civil war. Continue reading...
by Robert Booth Social affairs correspondent on (#5J85C)
Carl Stokes, who carried out checks on tower, agrees that his six post-nominals were ‘misleading’The fire risk assessor hired to check the safety of Grenfell Tower put letters after his name suggesting professional registrations that either did not exist or which he did not have, the inquiry into the disaster has heard.Carl Stokes, a former firefighter who was recruited by the Grenfell landlord, used six “post-nominals” when he was bidding for the job but agreed under cross-examination at the inquiry into the disaster that they had either “come out of [his] own head because they didn’t exist or were thoroughly misleading truncations” of courses he had undertaken. Continue reading...
U-turn affects around 4,000 people refused asylum who were facing eviction with ‘immediate effect’The Home Office has reversed its plan to evict thousands of migrants during the pandemic, the Guardian has learned.The U-turn affects around 4,000 migrants who were facing eviction from Home Office accommodation. Continue reading...
European Commission president says Brexit rather than protocol is disrupting trade across Irish seaDowning Street has hit back at Ursula von der Leyen’s “disappointing” lack of recognition of the anger in Northern Ireland and of the EU’s duty to ease tensions after the European Commission president blamed Brexit for recent problems.Following a summit with leaders in Brussels, Von der Leyen reiterated her offer to find “practical solutions” to issues destabilising politics in the region but insisted arrangements in the withdrawal agreement to avoid a border on the island of Ireland must be fully implemented. Continue reading...
This contemporary western about a young Texan fugitive who flees south of the border is handsomely shot but didacticJust north of the border between the United States and Mexico, the Greer family – patriarch Bill (Frank Grillo), mom Monica (Andie MacDowell), and grown sons Lucas (Alex MacNicoll) and Jackson (Jake Allyn) – work the land as ranchers. They raise cattle, ride horses and, being red-blooded Texan types, play sports – in Jackson’s case well enough that he’s got a chance to go pro as a baseball player. They also spend the odd evening riding the range with a vigilante militia group, rounding up immigrants who may have crossed the border illegally, to “help” the border patrols. On one such night, Jackson joins his dad and big brother, even though they try to keep him out of this sort of thing so he can get out of Dodge and become a sports hero – and what do you know, the dumb lug ends up shooting and killing a boy (Alessio Valentini) just a little younger than himself. In the back no less.Ashamed, distraught and worried that his father will try to take the rap for him, Jackson confesses to local Texas Ranger Ramirez (venerable character actor George Lopez), but then bolts across the border to Mexico on his trusty horse Sundance. Soon, the fugitive is learning some life lessons and about what Mexico is really like, and he becomes a hired hand for a nice middle-class family. A flirtatious friendship blooms between him and the family’s pretty daughter, Victoria (Esmeralda Pimentel), while he tries not to get caught by the dead kid’s dad Gustavo (Jorge A Jimenez) and a skeevy people-trafficking “coyote” (Andres Delgado), who are out to get him. Continue reading...
Former celebrity chef unlawfully advertised his ‘BioCharger’ device, static magnet products and oral medicines, drugs regulator allegesThe celebrity chef turned conspiracy theorist Pete Evans has again been fined for promoting an array of devices and drugs as miracle cures for ailments including the coronavirus.The former Seven Network star was on Tuesday hit with $79,920 in fines for breaching advertising requirements. Continue reading...
At least 15 states are trying to ban schools from teaching critical race theory and the 1619 Project. The reactionary movement stretches back to the 1920s and the KKKOn 25 May 2020, a man died after a “medical incident during police interaction” in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The man was suspected of forgery and “believed to be in his 40s”. He “physically resisted officers” and, after being handcuffed, “appeared to be suffering medical distress”. He was taken to the hospital “where he died a short time later”.It is not difficult to imagine a version of reality where this, the first police account of George Floyd’s brutal death beneath the knee of an implacable police officer, remained the official narrative of what took place in Minneapolis one year ago. That version of reality unfolds every day. Police lies are accepted and endorsed by the press; press accounts are accepted and believed by the public. Continue reading...
Fresh row brews over final resting place of late president after ruling by traditional chiefThe family of Robert Mugabe have been ordered to exhume the remains of the late dictator for reburial at a monument to Zimbabwe’s national heroes, in a move likely to rekindle a row over the memory of one of Africa’s foremost revolutionary leaders.A traditional chief made the order after accusing Mugabe’s second wife, Grace, of breaking local custom by interring him at his rural home. Continue reading...
by Bryan Avelar in Chalchuapa and Tom Phillips on (#5J7SB)
Authorities have sought to portray the ex-policeman at whose home up to 40 bodies, mostly female, may be buried, as a freakish psychopath, despite the arrest of nine other suspectsDay after day they flock to the emerald green house on Estévez Street, seeking news of loved ones who have vanished without a trace.“They say there are lots in there, maybe 40,” said Jessenia Elizabeth Francia, a 38-year-old housewife who had travelled 20 miles to reach the heavily guarded building under a punishing midday sun. Continue reading...
Military officials in Yemen say UAE is building runway on Mayun Island, a crucial shipping chokepointA mysterious airbase is being built on a volcanic island off Yemen that sits in one of the world’s crucial maritime chokepoints for energy shipments and commercial cargo.While no country has claimed the Mayun Island airbase in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, shipping traffic associated with a prior attempt to build a massive runway across the 3.5-mile-long island years ago links back to the United Arab Emirates. Continue reading...
The father of the dissident journalist Roman Protasevich, who was detained in Belarus after his plane was forced to land there, said he believed his son was forced in a video posted online to admit guilt and appeared to have a broken nose. 'I think he was forced. It's not his words, it's not his intonation of speech,’, Dzmitry Protasevich said over Skype from Poland.Appearing on several channels of the Telegram messaging app, Roman Protasevich acknowledged playing a role in organising mass disturbances in Minsk last year. His father said the video seemed to be the result of coercion. ‘It's likely his nose is broken, because the shape of it has changed and there's a lot of powder on it’, he said
In Netflix’s High on the Hog, an often misunderstood or untold history of Black food is investigated with the help of culinary historian Jessica B Harris“Through food, we can find out that there is more that connects us than that separates us. What we eat and what we discover brings us together. It’s a communal table. It’s how we know who we are, and it’s how we know we’re connected,” says culinary historian Jessica B Harris. She sits beside food expert Stephen Satterfield and across from Benin-based food blogger Karelle Vignon Vullierme. On the shaded patio, the trio eat the feast visual artist Romuald Hazoumè has prepared: bowls of ata tchichi, mangi mangi, ayiman, and kan kan, ancient dishes eaten by the people of Benin before the advent of the transatlantic slave trade. As they eat, the trio comment on the taste and the familiarity of these foods they have never experienced before.Related: Collard greens and macaroni cheese: African American food classics – recipes Continue reading...
The designer, known for her subversive take on the everyday, reveals her England supporter’s shirt on the cover of the Face magazineSince its reboot in 2019, the Face magazine has featured Jorja Smith, Tyler, the Creator and Dua Lipa on the cover. The June issue out this week, is – in the spirit of reemergence – less about solos and more about the collective. Or, indeed, the team. It is Euro 202o ready. The cover features Chelsea’s Mason Mount and Arsenal’s Leah Williamson, along with a cast of 22 other characters including fashion designer Martine Rose. Rose – along with Mount – is wearing the England supporter’s shirt she has designed in collaboration with Nike.While Rose is not a household name, she has the reputation within the right circles that means fashionable football fans are likely to buy this shirt when it is released in July. Rose’s clothes have been worn by Rihanna and A$AP Rocky, and Drake starred in her video presentation, What We Do All Day, released in January. Continue reading...
by Daniel Boffey in Brussels and Andrew Roth in Mosco on (#5J74Y)
Joe Biden welcomes EU moves as father of opposition blogger Roman Protasevich says video confession appears forcedEU leaders triggered new economic sanctions against Belarus and punitive measures against its national airline as a dissident taken from a “hijacked” Ryanair flight was paraded on the country’s television news apparently confessing to crimes against the state.In a summit communique swiftly agreed in Brussels on Monday night, the EU’s 27 heads of state and government condemned the forced landing of flight FR4978 in Minsk and called for the immediate release of opposition blogger Roman Protasevich and his Russian girlfriend, Sofia Sapega. Continue reading...
Human rights campaigners urge world leaders to agree to restrict use of bombs in built-up areasCivilians accounted for 91% of those killed or injured by explosive weapons in populated areas worldwide over the last 10 years – a total of 238,892 people – according to a study of thousands of incidents.The stark statistic – encompassing both state and terrorist violence – has prompted the report’s authors to call on governments to agree to an international ban on the use of explosive weapons in built-up areas, which is now in draft form. Continue reading...
During the second world war, Chinese merchant seamen helped keep Britain fed, fuelled and safe – and many gave their lives doing so. But from late 1945, hundreds of them who had settled in Liverpool suddenly disappeared. Now their children are piecing together the truthOn 19 October 1945, 13 men gathered in Whitehall for a secret meeting. It was chaired by Courtenay Denis Carew Robinson, a senior Home Office official, and he was joined by representatives of the Foreign Office, the Ministry of War Transport, and the Liverpool police and immigration inspectorate. After the meeting, the Home Office’s aliens department opened a new file, designated HO/213/926. Its contents were not to be discussed in the House of Commons or the Lords, or with the press, or acknowledged to the public. It was titled “Compulsory repatriation of undesirable Chinese seamen”.As the vast process of post-second world war reconstruction creaked into action, this deportation programme was, for the Home Office and Clement Attlee’s new government, just one tiny component. The country was devastated – hundreds of thousands were dead, millions were homeless, unemployment and inflation were soaring. The cost of the war had been so great that the UK would not finish paying back its debt to the US until 2006. Amid the bombsites left by the Luftwaffe, poverty, desperation and resentment were rife. In Liverpool, the city council was desperate to free up housing for returning servicemen. Continue reading...
Federal police are close to preparing a report for ACT prosecutors on Brittany Higgins’ rape allegationFederal police say they are close to concluding their inquiries into the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins as they revealed that a further 19 allegations of sexual misconduct involving parliamentarians, their staff or “official establishments” had been reported to police since the former Liberal staffer went public.The AFP commissioner, Reece Kershaw, revealed in Senate estimates on Tuesday that his Australian Capital Territory counterpart had told him in relation to the Higgins case that “a brief of evidence is likely to be provided to the ACT director of public prosecutions in coming weeks”. A brief of evidence is sent to prosecutors once investigators consider enough evidence has been gathered to substantiate a criminal charge. Continue reading...
Roma, sub-Saharan Africans and other minorities stopped frequently by police across Europe, rights agency findsThe scale of the discrimination faced by people from minority ethnic backgrounds at the hands of European police forces has been detailed in an EU agency report marking the anniversary of the killing of George Floyd by an officer in the US.The findings of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) highlight a general trend in which minority ethnic people are stopped and searched more regularly across the continent, and the particularly stark picture in some European countries. Continue reading...
Move in Delhi comes after tweet by spokesperson of the ruling Hindu-nationalist party was tagged as ‘manipulated media’Police in India’s capital served a notice at Twitter’s offices late on Monday, seeking information for a complaint about why a tweet by the spokesperson of the ruling Hindu-nationalist party was tagged as “manipulated media”.Tensions have been high between the Indian government and the US social media giant after Twitter this year reversed its blocking of a number of accounts related to farmers’ protests near Delhi following a request from authorities. The government claimed the posts were aiming to incite violence. Twitter said it believed the directives were not in line with Indian laws. Continue reading...
Family of Danny Fenster voice concern for his welfare after he was held by authorities in Yangon international airportThe US editor of a Myanmar-based news outlet has been detained by authorities while trying to board a flight out of the country, his employers have said.Danny Fenster, a US citizen and managing editor of Frontier Myanmar, was detained at Yangon international airport, the outlet said in a statement on Monday. Continue reading...
Tuesday: Genomic testing under way after four new cases discovered in Victoria. Plus, what the portrait prize reveals about AustraliaGood morning! Residents in Melbourne will be keeping a close eye on today’s new Covid case numbers after four new cases were detected yesterday. At least four Liberal MPs are in the firing line ahead of the next federal election, we can reveal today. And if you’re staring out at your lawn as you read the morning news with a cuppa in hand, check out our recommended reads for the perfect story to ponder the turf.Victorian health authorities hope genomic sequencing will establish the source of four new cases of Covid discovered in Melbourne’s northern suburbs. The four positive cases belong to the same family, spread across two households, in the Whittlesea local government area. South Australia and NSW have already imposed new travel restrictions on people who have been to key sites in Melbourne. Victoria’s health minister said there was no current plan to impose a lockdown but as more information came to hand from contact tracers and genomic testing “the evidence will determine our response”. Continue reading...
In an interview with the Guardian, Nanaia Mahuta says exporters must diversify to protect themselves from a potential cooling of ties with BeijingNew Zealand could find itself at the heart of a “storm” of anger from China, foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta has warned, saying exporters needed to diversify to ensure they could survive deteriorating relations with Beijing.Mahuta’s comments come as the New Zealand government faces increasing pressure to take a firmer stance on human rights violations and crackdowns by China, putting the spotlight on the potential repercussions for countries who provoke Beijing’s ire. Continue reading...
The former motorsport chief devoted the last 13 years of his life to campaigning for reforms in press regulationEven those who crossed swords with Max Mosley in the course of the privacy crusade he waged over many years before his death on Monday aged 81 readily accept the multimillionaire’s position in future textbooks on the subject is assured.The spark was the News of the World’s report on his involvement in an alleged sadomasochistic orgy in 2008. Mosley sued the newspaper for breach of privacy and won, although a personal tragedy came into play when his eldest son Alexander died at the age of 39 from a cocaine overdose. Mosley believed his son might have been spared a descent into deep depression and death were it not for the furore around the newspaper’s coverage. Continue reading...
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