by Reported by Graham Readfearnand presented by Laura on (#5HXZ8)
Tiny fragments of plastic, known as microplastics, have been found in many commons foods, airborne dust from homes and even at the bottom of the ocean. However, research into how microplastics could be affecting our health is scarce.Environment reporter Graham Readfearn breaks down why we know so little about these omnipresent particles and what we can do to minimise our exposure to them.
Four years after escaping her marriage, the former Spice Girl talks about confidence, family – and why the pandemic has led to a rise in abusive relationships
One of the world’s last great untamed areas needs protection. In Guardian Australia’s new series, we examine the challenges it faces and meet those caring for it
Nine-year-old Eliza Tape took part in a trial of the controversial disability assessment scheme that has left her family worriedA nine-year-old girl who sometimes uses a wheelchair was described as not having mobility concerns in a report prepared for the National Disability Insurance Scheme trial of independent assessments.As debate continues about the controversial proposal, Sue Tape, whose nine-year-old daughter, Eliza, took part in an ongoing trial of the assessments in January, told Guardian Australia the family had agreed to be involved out of “curiosity” but they were unsatisfied with the process. Continue reading...
by Oliver Holmes in Jerusalem, Bethan McKernan and ag on (#5HW68)
Health officials say up to 50 injured, as militants launch more rockets at Israel than in the whole 2014 warAt least 33 Palestinians have been killed in airstrikes and 50 injured, health officials in the Gaza Strip have said, in the deadliest single attack since fighting broke out between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas a week ago.Air-raid sirens sounded for the seventh consecutive day across southern Israel as Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza launched more rocket attacks into the country – and reaching further – than in the entirety of the 2014 war. Continue reading...
by Libby Brooks Scotland correspondent on (#5HWC7)
Three police reported injured after crowd gathered to celebrate title win despite rising Covid infection ratesThousands of Rangers supporters who marched on Glasgow’s George Square to celebrate their club’s Scottish Premiership win, as the city faces a surge in Covid infections and an extension of lockdown, have been condemned as selfish, irresponsible and endangering lives.Twenty people were arrested and police said three officers had been injured as the crowd became increasingly disorderly during Saturday afternoon, throwing missiles and flares at the police as they tried to disperse them. Continue reading...
Five thousand years of Iranian art goes on show at the V&A this month. A private collector who lent many of the works reveals what light these treasures cast on the countryThe drive from London to a certain nameless valley in rural Oxfordshire - a preposterously pretty realm of flint cottages, quaint pubs, willow trees and gentle hills - is always slightly unnerving. This part of the country is so close to London and yet the feeling is of stepping back in time, a remoteness that is sudden and unexpected. But today the experience is all the stranger, for I’m on my way to visit an institution I did not even know existed until a few days ago. Housed in a private museum whose location, hidden beneath farmland, I cannot reveal, the Sarikhani Collection is one of the most extraordinary and significant assemblies of art in Britain, if not the world. It comprises, in all its magnificence, some 1,000 items: ceramics, metalwork, textiles and manuscripts that together tell the long and wondrous story of Iran and its culture from 3000BC until the 18th century.The driving force behind this collection is Ina Sarikhani Sandmann, the warm and curious person who greets me when I finally arrive (there is no mobile signal and I twice get lost). Her passion for Iranian art is, as I’m about to discover, disconcertingly infectious. Talk to her about an object for only two minutes and you will quickly be overcome by the feeling that you cannot possibly sit still until you’ve seen this inlaid candlestick or that turquoise ewer; an exquisite 11th-century fragment of the Qur’an written in a script called Eastern Kufic; a magnificent 400-year-old carpet on which, if you look carefully, you can see a bixie (a leonine animal) locked in combat with a qilin (in this case a type of deer with a dragon’s face). She knows a lot, but she makes her expertise so accessible you hardly notice the learning involved, let alone the fact that you left home without having eaten any breakfast. Continue reading...
The app’s snappy videos are the new gateway to food fame. Its breakout stars explain the secrets of their successWhen Poppy O’Toole was made redundant from her job as junior sous chef at the AllBright private members club in Mayfair during the first wave of the pandemic, she expected to return to work soon enough. “I thought, I’ve got three weeks to cook some nice food at home,” 27-year-old O’Toole remembers, “and be back in work in a few weeks.”With lockdown opening up in front of her, O’Toole decided to upload the recipes she was cooking for herself on to the video-sharing app TikTok. “I’d always wanted to do the social media thing,” she says, “but I never had time, because I worked 70-hour weeks.” On 1 April 2020, O’Toole uploaded her first TikTok video under the handle @poppycooks. “Hi everyone … I’m going to start cooking at home doing TikToks,” said O’Toole. She captioned the video “hope this TikTok doesn’t flop like my career”. Continue reading...
The former EU Brexit negotiator joins many other European politicians with his rhetoricMichel Barnier seems to have ruffled as many feathers in France with his latest comments on immigration as he did in Britain during his stint as EU Brexit negotiator. Positioning himself to run as the rightwing candidate in next year’s presidential elections, Barnier told a TV interviewer that he wanted to suspend immigration to France from outside the EU, including family reunions, for three to five years.Immigration, he suggested, was linked to terrorism and was a threat to the stability of French society. He also called for talks with other members of the Schengen group (the 26 European countries that have abolished all passport controls at their mutual borders) to strengthen the EU’s external borders. Continue reading...
Campaigning groups support idea that the building could be turned into ‘vertical forest’ insteadRelatives of Grenfell Tower fire victims have put forward plans to turn the building into a “vertical forest”, days after the government announced it was prepared to pull it down.A group representing the immediate family members of people who died in the blaze suggest that nature could be allowed to take over the 24-storey tower in west London. Continue reading...
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will mark the killings of 303 Chinese people during the revolution that the city of Torreón has tried to forgetThe first to die were Chinese agricultural workers, who were killed in the orchards and gardens surrounding the Mexican city of Torreón by advancing revolutionary forces in the early hours of 13 May 1911.After skirmishes at the outskirts of the city, the outnumbered federal garrison abandoned their positions and slipped away under the cover of darkness. Continue reading...
Imad Alarnab lost everything to the war. He never dreamed he could rebuild his restaurants in the UKWhen Imad Alarnab, a Syrian chef, arrived in the UK as a refugee five years ago, he could barely afford to eat. Meals were regularly skipped and a Snickers bar could be eked out over a whole day to help him survive. On Monday, the 43-year-old father of three will be celebrating lockdown rules easing with a fairytale twist: Alarnab will be opening the doors to his very own central London restaurant.“This is not because I am strong or brave,” says Alarnab, who begins to well up as staff scurry through the restaurant, prepping for their first service. “I am proof that if you try to do something good for people, something good will happen to you. This is a fact.” Continue reading...
Loved for her biting comedy roles, the actor is enjoying a late-blooming career. She talks about playing a convert to Islam in After Love, and her TV series about women’s sex lives during lockdownJoanna Scanlan is sitting in splendid isolation in a country house hotel in Sussex, where she has been transforming herself into HE Bates’s voluptuous matriarch, Ma Larkin, for a six-part ITV miniseries. But we’re not here to talk about the Larkins, or any of the other TV roles that have earned her a place as one of the UK’s funniest actors, from hopelessly disengaged press officer Terri in Armando Iannucci’s The Thick of It, to gobby Detective Inspector Deering in Paul Abbott’s No Offence, and status-obsessed ward sister Den in her own award-winning hospital comedy, Getting On.I’ve dropped in remotely on her filming bubble to discuss a role that could not be more different, more heart-wrenchingly serious, even as it draws on the very qualities that have so often made us laugh. In After Love, a beautifully restrained debut feature from writer-director Aleem Khan, she stars as Mary, a devout middle-aged convert to Islam, whose quiet certainties are torn apart by a betrayal that comes to light after the sudden death of the husband for whom she converted. Continue reading...
by Paul Karp and Australian Associated Press on (#5HW94)
Prime minster says rigorous testing essential for entering country but Anthony Albanese says government failed stranded citizensScott Morrison has rejected suggestions Covid-positive Australians were “unfairly blocked” from returning from India, despite conceding problems with the pre-flight testing regime.About 80 returnees are now in quarantine in the Howard Springs facility in the Northern Territory after they landed from India on Saturday following the lifting of the travel ban from the virus-ravaged country. Continue reading...
Event chaired by former Tory MP Nick Herbert will aim to ‘drive collective action for real change’The first-ever global conference on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights is to be hosted in the UK next year, as the government races to fulfil its pledges to the international 42-country Equal Rights Coalition.The “Safe To Be Me” event is expected to be the largest of its kind and will invite elected officials, activists and policymakers from across the world to participate in London over two days in June 2022, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the first official London Pride marches. Continue reading...
With such high-profile splits at Bill and Melinda Gates and Jeff and Mackenzie Bezos, some say the wealthy play by their own rules but celebrities often set standards the rest of us followA cascade of recent high-profile divorces of the very rich and famous has presented new questions for the divorce industry – and offered a voyeuristic thrill-ride for millions of the less well-known.Some of the divorces of recent years have apparently been amicable or pseudo-amicable, such as the tech billionaires Bill and Melinda Gates, and the Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, and Mackenzie Scott. The same is largely true of the split between the reality star billionaire Kim Kardashian and singer Kanye West. But other splits have been decidedly less so, such as the long-running epic divorce and now custody battle between two of Hollywood’s A-listers, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Continue reading...
Taliban and government forces clash in Helmand, the scene of intense battles following US troop withdrawalFighting between the Taliban and Afghan government forces has resumed in the southern province of Helmand, officials said, ending a three-day ceasefire agreed by the warring sides to mark the Eid al-Fitr holiday.There were clashes on Sunday on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, which has seen intense fighting since the United States began its final troop withdrawal from Afghanistan on 1 May, an Afghan military spokesperson and a local official said. Continue reading...
As the gown of the 80s goes on show, David Emanuel, its co-designer, describes working with his ‘sweet as pie’ royal clientFor David Emanuel, the memories are always close to the surface. Straightening the veil, smoothing ruffles of ivory silk taffeta, whispering “a few sweet things” to Diana Spencer before she walked down the aisle in St Paul’s Cathedral and became the Princess of Wales.“It was a long time ago, darling,” he says, of creating what is probably still the world’s most famous wedding dress, with his ex-wife Elizabeth in 1981, “but when we talk about it it comes back in a flash, like it was yesterday. It was magical.” Continue reading...
From Sally Rooney to Raven Leilani, female novelists have captured the literary zeitgeist, with more buzz, prizes and bestsellers than men. But is this cultural shift something to celebrate or rectify?In March, Vintage, one of the UK’s largest literary fiction divisions, announced the five debut novelists it would be championing this year: Megan Nolan, Pip Williams, Ailsa McFarlane, Jo Hamya and Vera Kurian.All five of them are women. But you could be forgiven for not noticing it, so commonplace are female-dominated lists in 2021. Over the past 12 months, almost all of the buzz in fiction has been around young women: Patricia Lockwood, Yaa Gyasi, Raven Leilani, Avni Doshi, Lauren Oyler. Ask a novelist of any gender who they are reading and they will almost certainly mention one of Rachel Cusk, Ottessa Moshfegh, Rachel Kushner, Gwendoline Riley, Monique Roffey or Maria Stepanova. Or they will be finding new resonances in Anita Brookner, Zora Neale Hurston, Natalia Ginzburg, Octavia Butler, Ivy Compton-Burnett. The energy, as anyone in the publishing world will tell you, is with women. Continue reading...
As the orchestra prepares to welcome back live audiences, the conductor urges ministers to act on new touring rules in EuropeSir Simon Rattle and his top team at the London Symphony Orchestra have appealed for government support to help them survive the difficulties created by Brexit and Covid.The orchestra depended on international touring – much of it in Europe – for 40% of its revenue before the coronavirus, with tours cancelled by the pandemic. Continue reading...
England’s football clubs may be of Champions League quality, but the current political debacle reveals our politicians are notIt turns out that throughout the Brexit discussions with the British government, the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, was keeping a diary. That he managed to do this at the end of days of usually frustrating talks says something for Barnier’s staying power. And to judge from speculation about the next French presidential election, he intends to stay around for some time.His diary has been published in France. Surprise, surprise: with one or two exceptions, the British side does not come too well out of what our football commentators would call “the Frenchman’s” reflections. Continue reading...
It’s time for the international community to address this crisis with greater honesty about the key players and solutionsThe sudden rekindling of the Israel-Palestine conflict, and the ensuing horrors, is a shameful reminder of the international community’s almost criminal neglect of the crisis. There have been no substantive peace talks for more than a decade. Donald Trump’s “deal of the century” was a cruel sham. Efforts now under way to engineer a ceasefire, or what is called a “sustainable calm”, amount to applying a sticking plaster to a deeply felt, long-festering wound.This story of neglect, cementing in place injustices and inequities stretching back to the 1948 Palestine war, made a new explosion of violence all but inevitable. It has played into the hands of extremists on both sides who seek victories, not peace. It threatens the future of Israel and Palestine and regional stability. The events of the past week have rendered the prospect of a lasting settlement more distant than ever. Continue reading...
Richard Cohen’s new book, which has reportedly been dropped by his US publisher despite extensive additions, is still set for British release next monthIt has taken nearly a decade to research and write, and runs to more than 750 pages. But The History Makers, described as “an epic exploration of those who write about the past”, has itself been rewritten after its author failed to take into account enough black historians, academics and writers.Richard Cohen was told by his publisher to produce new chapters and expand others after failing to sufficiently acknowledge the roles of black people and African Americans. Continue reading...
Historian Rebecca Hall works with a graphic artist in her new book to reclaim the stories of the female rebels on ships and plantationsGrowing up in New York in the 1970s Rebecca Hall craved heroes she could relate to – powerful women who could take care of themselves and protect others. But pickings were slim. The famed feminists of the time, Charlie’s Angels and The Bionic Woman, didn’t cut it for her.But every night when she went to sleep, her father would recount stories of her grandmother’s life. Harriet Thorpe was born into slavery 100 years earlier, in 1860, and was the “property”, she was told, of one Squire Sweeney in Howard County, Missouri. Continue reading...
These are serious warning signals about your future happiness which you should not ignore, says Mariella FrostrupThe dilemma My boyfriend and soon-to-be husband doesn’t like my parents. He is not rude to them. In fact, he can be very welcoming. However, each time I bring up a conversation about my parents he criticises their parenting method in raising me and my siblings. He feels they didn’t do a good job with us. For example, my parents encouraged us to come home with our boyfriends. But from his upbringing that is a taboo, unless you are ready to get married. He feels my parents spoilt us and didn’t instil any moral values.When I try talking about how often we will visit my parents after we get married, his response is not encouraging. This really bothers me. I do not like to think that he sees my family like this. And when I confront him about it, he boldly tells me that he had a better upbringing than me so there is nothing to argue about. I feel not visiting would affect our parental roles when we have children. He might start to act as if I’m a cancer that needs to be removed. Continue reading...
NSW police said the operation concluded two hours later. Train services have since resumedThe railway platforms at Sydney airport were evacuated on Sunday in response to a police operation.A spokesman for NSW police said the operation began about 12.30pm. In a statement on Twitter, police said the platforms of the international and domestic airport train stations have been evacuated “as a precaution”. Continue reading...
Event organisers say police are threatening to some in the LGBTQ+ community, while NYPD called decision ‘disheartening’Organisers of New York City’s Pride events say they will ban police and other law enforcement personnel from marching in their annual parade until at least 2025 and will also seek to keep on-duty officers a block away from the celebration of LGBTQ+ people and history.In a statement released on Saturday, NYC Pride urged members of law enforcement to “acknowledge their harm and to correct course moving forward”. Continue reading...
Victoria also recorded snow across the alps on Friday night and Saturday, while Perisher had its coldest May night since local records began 12 years agoSydney woke up to near-freezing temperatures on Sunday as south-east Australia shivered through an early cold snap, bringing snow falls one month out from the start of the ski season.The official temperature at Observatory Hill did not dip below 7.8C on Sunday morning, but clear skies and a chilly wind meant the air felt “pretty close to zero” at 5.30am, the Bureau of Meteorology’s Helen Kirkup said. Continue reading...
Mask usage will not be compulsory on public transport after midnight on Sunday after another day with no new local coronavirus infectionsCoronavirus-related restrictions across greater Sydney will lift from Monday, with New South Wales again recording no new local cases of the virus.The zero new local cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Saturday came from more than 12,200 tests, while three new cases were uncovered in hotel quarantine. Continue reading...
Voting at the oil giant’s annual meeting this week could see Follow This activists making trouble over emissionsShell is braced for its largest climate rebellion this week as shareholders face the choice between backing the oil giant’s carbon-cutting plans or siding with an activist investor who is calling for tougher emissions targets.With its annual meeting planned for Tuesday, the Anglo-Dutch company has called on its investors to vote against a shareholder resolution from campaign group Follow This in favour of its own plans to reduce its emissions to “net zero” by 2050. Continue reading...
Prince of Wales is said to want Buckingham Palace, Sandringham and other royal homes to go from ‘private spaces to public places’The Prince of Wales reportedly plans to give people greater access to the royal palaces when he becomes king.Charles wants Buckingham Palace, Clarence House, Windsor Castle, Sandringham and Balmoral to be transformed from “private spaces to public places”, according to the Sunday Times. Continue reading...
The Met said nine of its officers were injured while dispersing crowds outside the Israeli embassyThirteen people have been arrested after a day of largely peaceful protest in solidarity with the people of Palestine outside the Israel embassy on Saturday.The Metropolitan police said nine of its officers were injured while dispersing crowds outside the embassy in west London. The force said missiles were thrown at officers during “small pockets of disorder”. Continue reading...
Jayne and Jodie first got together in a way they describe as ‘so unplanned and so random’, but two decades on they’re more settled than everNames: Jodie Nancarrow and Jayne Watson
New Zealand band the Chills is releasing a new album, Scatterbrain. To celebrate, we count down 10 of their top songsA singular band, the Chills are difficult to stylistically define because their diverse sound traverses lush psychedelia, whimsy and gloom, punk rock and bright jangly pop. Known for their revolving door policy on band members, perhaps rivalled only by the Fall (there have been at least 33 members of the Chills over their 41-year career), the one constant is Martin Phillipps. And they’re back with Scatterbrain, their first album since 2018. Continue reading...
To counter the court’s ruling against unlawful detention, the government simply wrote a new law allowing it to do whatever it wantsIn 2012, a person placed in immigration detention in Australia was held, on average, for less than 100 days.In 2021, that figure is 627 days – 20 months – the highest it has ever been. Continue reading...
by Bethan McKernan Middle East correspondent on (#5HVPE)
15-storey block hit on Saturday housed offices of Al Jazeera and Associated Press and private flatsThe Israeli air force has destroyed a tower block in Gaza City housing the offices of the Associated Press and Al Jazeera in what has widely been decried as an attack on press freedom.The airstrikes on Saturday – the sixth consecutive day of hostilities between Israel and Hamas – came roughly an hour after the Israeli military ordered people to evacuate al-Jalaa tower. Continue reading...
by Vincent Ni China affairs correspondent on (#5HVSP)
A mother’s search for the truth about her son’s death exposes the level of public distrust in China’s authoritiesOn Mother’s Day last Sunday, 17-year-old Lin Weiqi wished his mother – referred to only as Madame Lu in Chinese media – a good day. “Mum, enjoy your day,” he said to her that morning. He was Lu’s only child. Like most Chinese parents of the one-child generation, Lin was her pride and joy.Late in the afternoon, before Lin had gone back to his school in the south-western city of Chengdu, Lu prepared snacks for him in case he was hungry in the evening. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until an hour later. Continue reading...
An Israeli airstrike destroys a 15-storey building in Gaza City that housed offices of the Associated Press and Al Jazeera among other media outlets as well as private flats. The Israel Defence Forces ordered people to evacuate the building about an hour before the strike brought the entire tower down
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