by Johna Baylon in Vancouver and Leyland Cecco in Tor on (#5J5N6)
Vancouver has experienced a 717% increase in anti-Asian hate crimes, reflecting a legacy of discrimination in a country seen as welcoming of newcomersSteven Ngo had stopped at a traffic light in a residential neighbourhood in the eastern part of Vancouver when passengers in another car tossed garbage at him, shouting racial slurs as they sped off.The lawyer, a lifelong resident of the city, was stunned – but not surprised. Continue reading...
Michal Goleniewski exposed Soviet agents in the UK, but the CIA airbrushed him from history, says authorOn a cold winter’s day, eight months before the Berlin Wall went up in 1961, the west’s most valuable double agent went on the run in East Berlin. Warned that his colleagues in both the Polish intelligence service and the KGB were on to him, Michal Goleniewski spent days crisscrossing the city, desperately trying to evade their surveillance for long enough to reach the US consulate – and defect to the west.The day he managed it proved to be one of the most important of the cold war, a new book published later this month will argue. Drawing on previously unpublished documents, it reveals that Goleniewski exposed 1,693 Soviet bloc agents, including some of the most infamous spies of the period. Continue reading...
Proposed compulsory sterilisation seeks to improve animal welfare but raises concerns about pure breedsGreece’s perennial problem of stray cats and dogs has been brought into sharp focus by outrage from vets and breeders over proposed legislation that seeks to make animal neutering mandatory.The country has one of the largest stray feline and canine populations in the world, with the problem becoming ever more acute during the country’s prolonged debt crisis. Animal rights activists estimate that Athens alone may have as many as 2 million street cats and dogs. Management of strays falls to local municipalities. Continue reading...
Serena Kennedy sets out plan to look at ‘the root causes of crime’ rather than ‘just locking up the bad people’More money needs to be ploughed into tackling inequality as a way to cut crime, Merseyside police’s first female chief constable has said, arguing that “policing is a larger partner [in society] than just locking up the bad people”.Serena Kennedy, who took over the role last month, said she agreed with her predecessor, who said that if he was given £5bn to reduce crime, he would put £1bn into law enforcement and £4bn into tackling poverty. Continue reading...
Each side in this bitter conflict needs to recognise the other’s fears and aspirations‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” runs a Palestinian slogan. Originally a call for a secular state in historic Palestine between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean, it soon became a sectarian slogan, deeply inflected by antisemitism. In the hands of Hamas, it is a call for the driving out of all Jews from the region; at best, a demand for ethnic cleansing, at worst for genocide.The founding charter of Likud, Israel’s leading centre-right party, and the party of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, echoes the same words but from the opposite perspective: “Between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty”. It has continually blocked any workable two-state solution. Continue reading...
The weather couldn’t dampen spirits as the Yorkshire resort’s hoteliers and guests celebrated the return of domestic travelThe sky was overcast, a chill wind blew in from the sea, and everyone was wearing coats. But for four-year-old Caitlin and two-year-old Jim, there was little to complain about – they were on a beach and they were building sandcastles.For their parents, Lindsay and Jim Roger, a week’s holiday in the North Yorkshire seaside town of Scarborough was a blessed relief. Lindsay is a nurse who has been working on Covid wards, while Jim works in construction. As key workers with young children, lockdown has been difficult but they were “really pleased” to be able to travel again. “It’s just nice to get out and nice to see the sea,” Jim said. “It makes such a change from the house and the garden.” Continue reading...
The seaside town of Anapa hopes foreign travel ban will bring holidaymakers backIt is not yet peak season on Anapa’s Black Sea coast so there is still space to spread out on its sandy beach, the pride of a resort town that may be one of the best chances many Russians get to visit the seaside this year.Wander through the streets beyond the waterfront and you’ll find a sprawl of knick-knack shops, amusement and water parks, shashlik stands and carnival games that make up what is, this year, Russia’s resort of last resort. Continue reading...
If they want us back, will we go? And how can managers make workplaces more enticing? Emma Beddington wonders if office life will ever be the same againMy husband is standing in the kitchen, asking me if his shirt is stained. He looks different: clean-shaven, sharper. I like it. “I think it’s just the light,” I say. “It’s fine.” He changes anyway, then comes in again, looking preoccupied. “I don’t know whether these trousers work,” he says. “What would you usually wear?” I ask. “My Japanese jeans,” he replies. “But I’ve been wearing them every day for about six months.” “No, not those,” I agree. “Have you found an Oyster card?”He’s heading back to the office. It’s not even his own, but a client’s – his regular co-working space was another casualty of Covid. He went into an office on an almost daily basis for 20-plus years, but now doing so has the intimidating aura of a polar expedition. Will he get blisters wearing proper shoes? Can he locate a respectable notebook? Will he know what to say when he gets there? Continue reading...
by Bethan McKernan, Middle East correspondent on (#5J5HK)
The sham election this week is designed to give the president a veneer of legitimacy at home and abroadThe last time Syria held presidential elections, in 2014, there was no question over whether President Bashar al-Assad would win – but with opposition forces in control of the country’s cities, as well as the suburbs of Damascus, his future was still far from certain.Seven years later, after the regime’s Russian and Iranian allies intervened and turned the tide of the war, most of Syria is now back under Assad’s grip. On Wednesday, his citizens will return to the polling booths for a sham democratic display designed to give the president a veneer of legitimacy both at home and abroad. Continue reading...
Hail, freezing rain and high winds hit runners at high-altitude, 100km race in Yellow River stone forest in Gansu provinceTwenty-one people have died after hail, freezing rain and high winds hit runners taking part in a 100km (62-mile) ultramarathon in a mountainous part of northern China.More than 700 rescuers and army personnel used thermal-imaging drones and radar detectors to try to find runners caught by the storm in the race in Yellow River stone forest near Baiyin in north-western Gansu province, officials said. Continue reading...
Maneskin win with rock song Zitti e Buoni while the UK’s James Newman scores nothing with either juries or the public11.59pm BSTAlso, you lot below the line, over 3,000 comments! I hope you’ve had fun and you’ve enjoyed the live blog and hanging out together. I’ve had an absolute blast.11.57pm BSTWhat a night though. I genuinely genuinely think tonight had a lot of baggage to carry, but they put on a great show and it was a STRONG selection of songs. Continue reading...
While the death to dixers movement certainly has a strong following, the theatrics are probably here to stayA Westminster tradition, used in most commonwealth countries, question time is meant to be one of the linchpins of democracy, a chance where constituents, through their representatives, can ask the government of the day “what’s going on?”In reality, it’s where questions go to die, suffocated in the sludge of government lines, opposition grandstanding and backbenchers grasping for their moment in the sun. Continue reading...
Thousands of people have gathered in central London in solidarity with the people of Palestine. Organisers estimated that more than 180,000 joined the protest on Saturday, and that it could be one of the largest pro-Palestine demonstrations in British history. The protest went ahead despite the announcement of a ceasefire on Friday morning after a 11-day Israeli bombing campaign, with organisers saying they wanted to demand that the UK government implement sanctions on Israel
The characters she plays do not match her own life, the actress insists, but it’s hard not to see parallels with her own journeyBillie Piper has occupied a near continual, if shifting, position in the public imagination for almost a quarter of a century. That’s a notable achievement by any reckoning of a performer’s career, but it’s also rather alarming, given that she’s still only 38.Having started out as 15-year-old chart sensation, she walked away from the pop music treadmill, enjoyed a boozy marriage with the DJ Chris Evans, returned to frontline fame in Doctor Who, struck out on a path of acclaimed dramatic performances on TV and the stage, and has now made her directorial debut with the feature film Rare Beasts. Continue reading...
A live audience of 3,500 will watch as the UK’s James Newman hopes to pull off a victory in RotterdamActs from 26 nations are getting ready to perform at the Eurovision song contest, the world’s most popular live music event.The final of the competition, which returns after being cancelled last year because of the coronavirus pandemic, is taking place in the Netherlands. Continue reading...
Everything has its place at the dump, no matter how abject or broken. No wonder there were queues when it reopened after lockdownA couple of miles from my home, down on the other side of the motorway, in a semi-industrial scrubland of building-supply merchants, gearbox specialists and a mysterious warehouse called Limbs and Things, lies the Household Waste Recycle Centre. At least, the council calls it the “HWRC”; everyone else calls it the dump. I have visited this enchanted acre seven or eight times this past year, and I always emerge feeling happy and serene. I see it as my favourite piece of municipal infrastructure – and clearly, I am not alone. “People love it here. Honestly, with some of them, it’s like they’ve seen the Second Coming,” said one of the waste-management officers on a recent visit. When the dump reopened after the first lockdown, the queue to get in stretched 200 cars long. Like pubs, like school, like the touch of our loved ones, we missed it when it wasn’t available.There’s a number-plate system in place now to limit the hordes, but it’s still massively popular – queues 30, 40, 50 cars long. Imprisoned in our homes this last year, we all have a lot to process, a lot to throw away. I have unloaded the contents of a garage there, a couple of tons of concrete from our front garden, a floor’s worth of carpet and underlay, plus various defunct appliances, a broken chair, a sawn-up tree and much emotional baggage, too. I don’t mind waiting for my turn. If anything, the restrictions have heightened the pleasures of the dump: the gruff camaraderie; the clang of rubble against corrugated metal; the fascination of other people’s waste; the stellar levels of customer service, particularly from Pete, the soulful maître-d’ who directs each car to the appropriate bay: “What you bringing, my friend?” “Hardcore.” “Go straight on through.” Continue reading...
The artist, whose latest work is currently gracing Tate Britain’s Duveen Galleries, on the joy of weather forecasts, a gripping memoir, and the greatness of Theaster GatesBorn in 1978 in London, award-winning artist and poet Heather Phillipson completed a PhD in fine art practice at Middlesex University in 2007. Her work encompasses digital media, music and sculpture, and she has published five volumes of poetry. Her sculpture The End, which depicts a cherry-topped swirl of whipped cream and transmits a live feed from a drone’s perspective, is on the Fourth Plinth, Trafalgar Square until August 2022. Her latest work, RUPTURE NO 1: blowtorching the bitten peach, a new commission for the Duveen Galleries at Tate Britain, runs until January 2022, and her work will be part of Poet Slash Artist at this year’s MIF. Continue reading...
The actor, 43, on hiding from her children in bed, hanging out with Matt LeBlanc and her love of WotsitsI do all my writing in bed. Not due to decadence, but because it’s the place I can hide from my children most effectively.My recent Bafta nomination genuinely came as a huge shock. I assumed it was Breeders that had been shortlisted, not me [for female performance in a comedy programme]. When I finally clicked, I blurted out, “Good God!” I don’t think I’ll win, but if by some miracle I did, my kids would immediately steal the trophy and put hats on it. Continue reading...
Tony Hall says continuing in role ‘would be a distraction to an institution I care deeply about’The former BBC director general Lord Hall has resigned as chairman of the National Gallery saying continuing in the role “would be a distraction to an institution I care deeply about”.More details soon…
Tinder and OKCupid team up with The White House to make vaccinations ‘attractive’Dating Apps are attempting to make getting vaccinations “sexy” in a new partnership with the White House.Tinder, Hinge and OkCupid are amongst the dating apps that are part of the initiative, which will allow users to see if their potential dates are either fully vaccinated, not yet vaccinated or ‘prefer not to disclose’. Continue reading...
Group, which also includes Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner, will make their debut at Live at Worthy Farm, filmed on the Glastonbury festival siteRadiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood have formed a new project called the Smile.It is a trio with jazz drummer Tom Skinner, who plays in Sons of Kemet and other groups including solo project Hello Skinny. Nigel Godrich, Radiohead’s longtime producer who also plays with Yorke in Atoms for Peace, is also involved. The Smile are named after a Ted Hughes poem. Continue reading...
Series of quakes and aftershocks left at least 33 injured in north-west and south-west ChinaA series of earthquakes and aftershocks have rattled south-west and north-west China, leaving at least three people dead and 33 injured, according to Chinese media.Both Yunnan province in south-western China and Qinghai province in the north-west on the Tibetan plateau are prone to earthquakes. Continue reading...
A tangy, garlicky sauce given texture and crunch by breadcrumbs and walnuts, spiked with spice, and melded with creamy baked aubergineThe aubergine has an air of mystery to it until it hits the oven. Various food writers over time have argued over whether it should be salted to remove any bitterness (it shouldn’t) and whether it needs drenching in oil to cook (it doesn’t), but, when cooked in the oven, there’s only one way the aubergine will go, and that is creamy – and, because of that, a baked aubergine is as popular in my house as a jacket potato. The only thing up for debate is what to stuff it with. Here, I’ve used walnuts and peppers, loosely inspired by the Levantine dip muhammara. Continue reading...
Tofu’s versatility is unbound: use the firm stuff in beer-battered dippers or fry and douse in a spicy sambal, while the silken variety is as good in an egg-free aïoli as it is in coffee-caramel coconut flanTofu is often praised for its versatility and ability to take on other flavours. That might sound like I’m damning it with faint praise, but far from it – I find the difference in texture between firm and silken tofu, for example, just a little bit wondrous. Firm tofu, for which soybean milk is curdled and pressed of all its moisture, retains its shape when cooked, making it ideal for stir-fries, barbecues, skewers and so forth. With silken tofu, on the other hand, the soy milk isn’t curdled or pressed, so it retains all its moisture, and crumbles and collapses easily into dressings, sauces, desserts and so on. So, today, three recipes to showcase how being sponge-like and versatile is, in fact, high praise indeed. Continue reading...
Culture of silencing any challenge to prevailing ideology is damaging academic freedom, says professorThe press release that accompanies Prof Kathleen Stock’s new book says she wants to see a future in which trans rights activists and gender-critical feminists collaborate to achieve some of their political aims. But she concedes that this currently seems fanciful. As far as she is concerned, the book, Material Girls, sets out her stall – and she knows a lot of people will find it distasteful.Stock, a professor of philosophy at the University of Sussex, says the key question she addresses – itself offensive to many – is this: do trans women count as women? Continue reading...
President Bhandari dissolves parliament after declaring that neither the prime minister nor opposition have a majority to form a new governmentNepal’s parliament has been dissolved for the second time in five months and new elections called for November as the Himalayan country battled political turmoil alongside the coronavirus pandemic.President Bidhya Devi Bhandari made the order on Saturday after declaring that neither Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli nor Sher Bahadur Deuba, leader of the opposition Nepali Congress, had a majority to form a new government. Continue reading...
In Asif Kapadia’s new Apple TV+ docuseries, the music of the year, and its cultural and political impact, receives much-deserved attentionVolume is paramount on the new Apple docuseries 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything, both in the play-it-loud sense as well as the sheer-quantity sense. The watershed social and artistic moment explored across the eight episodes contained a staggering amount of genius, to the point that an interview quickly dissolves into the same awed name-cataloguing one might expect to hear around a college radio station or independent record shop.“It’s a predictable answer,” executive producer James Gay-Rees tells the Guardian, “but my favorite is What’s Going On, really one of the greatest songs of all time.” Continue reading...
While writing about the notorious laundries for ‘fallen women’, novelist Esther Freud was chilled to discover how close her own mother came to ending up in one
Senator leading Covid response inquiry suggests president Jair Bolsonaro preferred herd immunity over a vaccine strategyBrazilian president Jair Bolsonaro never wanted to buy Covid-19 vaccines and originally bet on herd immunity beating the coronavirus, the senator leading the upper house’s inquiry into the government’s handling of the crisis said.In an interview, senator Renan Calheiros said on Friday it was too early to say if Bolsonaro had committed any criminal offense in his management of the public health crisis, and that more investigation was required. Continue reading...
Police found the 29-year-old on the footpath outside her home severely injured but she later died in hospitalA 29-year-old woman has died after being stabbed in the neck with a hunting knife at a Townsville home, sparking a homicide investigation.Neighbours called police to the Condon property about 7.20pm on Friday and found the severely injured woman lying on the footpath outside the property. Continue reading...
by Edna Mohamed (now) and Jedidajah Otte, Rachel Hall on (#5J37Y)
Pandemic worsens in Latin America and the Caribbean, the region with the worst per capita death rate from Covid; Germany declares Britain and Northern Ireland a virus variant region
by Peter Walker, Mark Sweney and Ben Quinn on (#5J44R)
Ex-chair of BBC Trust warns criticism could lead to ‘destroying something it would be impossible to recreate’A former chair of the BBC Trust has warned against the “feeding frenzy” engulfing the corporation as ministers said they would look at how it is governed in the wake of damning findings about its 1995 interview with Diana, Princess of Wales.As the broadcaster faced further searching questions over its handling of the crisis, Sir Michael Lyons, who chaired its governing body at the time, said there was a danger of destroying something that “would be impossible to recreate”. Continue reading...
Bombardier Chelsea Cogswell faces 18 charges at a court martial for serving edibles to unsuspecting members of artillery batteryA Canadian soldier is facing court martial after alleging serving cannabis-laced cupcakes to unwitting members of her artillery unit during a live fire exercise.Bombardier Chelsea Cogswell faces 18 charges for her baking, including administering a noxious substance and behaving in a disgraceful manner. Continue reading...
by Libby Brooks Scotland correspondent on (#5J3W5)
Campaigners demand greater transparency over police operations week after protest foils detention of two men in cityLeading Glasgow politicians have written to the Home Office telling officials to stop unannounced immigration raids, as the Scottish Refugee Council urged Police Scotland to “push back” against further operations.Their demands came a week after a peaceful protest prevented the detention of two men in the south of the city. Continue reading...
Judge rejects new request for Osman Kavala, among 16 other people on trial, to be freed from custodyA Turkish court has begun the retrial of the philanthropist Osman Kavala and 15 other people over their alleged role in nationwide protests in 2013, an expanding case that critics and even Ankara’s western allies say aims to quash dissent.Kavala and eight others accused of organising the protests that began in Istanbul’s Gezi Park were acquitted of all charges in February 2020 but an appeal court overturned that ruling in January. Continue reading...
From Lil Wayne to Willow Smith, the pop-punk drummer is making his mark across the musical landscape – is it more than mere nostalgia?The most influential person in music right now is Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker. Don’t believe us? This year alone, 25 tracks featuring or produced by Barker have been released. He has worked with the new pop-punk era Willow Smith and TikTok e-boy turned singer Lil Huddy, signed TikTok emo Jxdn, produced Trippie Redd’s Neon Shark album, and drummed on Bebe Rexha’s new single.Related: The Guide: Staying In – sign up for our home entertainment tips Continue reading...
Mother and four children offered flat by council but pictures show state of serious disrepairA single mother and her four children are the last remaining family on an east London housing estate that is being demolished around them, in a case described as “beyond shocking”.Demolition work on Marian Court, a council estate in Hackney, began in February, while the woman was home-schooling her children, aged five to 13, during lockdown. Residents have described severe noise and disruption, and claim the family’s water and broadband have regularly been cut off. Continue reading...
The royal recounts his mother’s funeral and celebrities including Lady Gaga talk about trauma, in a well-meaning but sanitised TV series on mental healthThe latest addition to the teeming tide of contributions to the mental health debate – all promising to dismantle stigma and help us all recognise the trauma in ourselves and others – is led by Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry, who have launched a new series on Apple TV+ called The Me You Can’t See.I have been knocking back the anti-emetic medication since the trailer dropped, and the series itself is as cloying as expected. After some soaring music, sweeping introductory shots of various soothing natural landscapes and an equally soothing voice assuring us that “it’s never too late to heal”, we join Oprah and Harry in a cream-toned, simply dressed room with cameras therein – no artifice here! The fourth wall, she is broken! Here, they begin what they would probably call their “journey” together. Continue reading...
Grand achievements in Preston. Is there something in the water? Well me, eventuallyOh frabjous day – callooh callay! Monday 17, that long-awaited day that marks our arrival at the next staging post of the roadmap out of lockdown. Swap your horses, adjust your britches, take a draught of small beer and regard with pleasure the great plains of freedom lying before you (ignore any musterings of variants you think you see on the horizon. They are not there). Continue reading...
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