Three men and 16-year-old boy charged with more than 50 offencesThree men and a boy who allegedly drugged and raped three teenage girls in Brisbane have been charged with more than 50 offences.Queensland police launched an investigation in December, culminating in the arrests on Thursday. Continue reading...
Diplomats from three countries said they ‘shared their concerns’ about Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmesThe United States, Japan and South Korea have promised “concerted trilateral cooperation” towards the denuclearisation of North Korea.Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, held a rare in-person meeting with his counterparts from South Korea and Japan, Suh Hoon and Shigeru Kitamura, at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Continue reading...
Zampatti had been hospitalised after fall on stairs at opening night of opera La Traviata at Mrs Macquarie’s PointLegendary Australian fashion designer Carla Zampatti has died.The 78-year-old had been hospitalised after a fall on some stairs at the opening night of the opera La Traviata at Mrs Macquarie’s Point a week ago. Continue reading...
Dozens of people have died in the attacks launched by Islamic State-linked insurgentsFrench energy company Total has withdrawn all its staff from its Afungi natural gas site in northern Mozambique, sources say, as clashes between Islamic State-linked fighters and the military rage nearby.The company, which last week called off the planned resumption of construction at the $20bn development due to the violence, declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. Continue reading...
Mike Pompeo had imposed sanctions and refused visas after Fatou Bensouda launched investigation into alleged war crimesThe United States have lifted sanctions and a travel ban imposed by Donald Trump’s administration on the top prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, calling for a more cooperative relationship.The former secretary of state Mike Pompeo last year imposed sanctions and refused visas for the outgoing prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, after she launched an investigation into alleged war crimes by US military personnel in Afghanistan. Continue reading...
Joe Biden has encouraged Americans to ‘buckle down’ as coronavirus cases rise but he was optimistic on the state of the economy and celebrated the latest jobs report.The US economy added 916,000 jobs last month according to the report which Biden credited to the resiliency of the American people and his administration’s new economic vision
As Covid deaths climb the president seems to be throwing the country into an abyss that will be difficult to escape fromIt is no exaggeration to say that Brazil is going through the most serious crisis in its history. With nearly 4,000 deaths a day and moving quickly towards a figure of 500,000 people killed by Covid-19, Brazil is not just the epicentre of the pandemic. It has also become the breeding ground for new variants of the virus: a real threat to its own people and the whole of humankind.In the midst of a public health war that is being lost, its president, Jair Bolsonaro, is throwing the country more deeply into an abyss, from where it will be hard to emerge. Apart from the suffering caused to hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of relatives and friends of the victims, the economy has been plunged into recession, with 14% of the workforce condemned to the dole. In contrast to what happened during the first wave of the pandemic, when Congress forced the government to distribute relatively significant financial aid to a large portion of the population, now fewer people will benefit with a smaller amount. Continue reading...
by Patrick Butler Social policy editor on (#5G3SZ)
Behind the Aspinall Foundation is a history of power, riches and links to the Tory partyWhen Carrie Symonds was welcomed to her job at the wildlife conservation charity the Aspinall Foundation in January, her new boss gushed that she had arrived at an “exciting time” for the organisation. Symonds, said Damian Aspinall, would be a “huge asset to us”.Coverage of Boris Johnson’s fiancee’s appointment as head of communications focused on her well-publicised love of animals – useful, given the foundation’s charitable mission. It oversees Howletts and Port Lympne wildlife parks in Kent, home to exotic threatened species including rhinos, elephants, gorillas and cheetahs, which are prepared for a return to the wild in Africa. Continue reading...
At least 50 people die as train crashes near Hualien City at the start of holiday weekendDozens of people have been killed in a train derailment on the east coast of Taiwan, the island’s worst rail disaster in decades.The 408 Taroko Express was travelling south on the first day of a long weekend, carrying hundreds of passengers towards Taitung, when it crashed inside a tunnel just outside Hualien City at about 9.30am local time, authorities said. Continue reading...
After starring in Will & Grace and American Horror Story, his life took a twist in lockdown and he became an Instagram superstar at 65. He discusses fame, fun and sharing a cell with Robert Downey JrFor a man of such diminutive stature – 4ft 11in in shoes – Leslie Jordan loves a tall tale. A cursory question at the start of our interview about where he is calling from, for example, results in this glorious flight of fancy: “I got on a bus in 1982, from the hills of Tennessee. I had $1,200 sewn into my underpants by my mother and I arrived in LA and found West Hollywood, which is where I currently live.”Such vivid storytelling – delivered in a honey-thick southern drawl, accentuated perfectly by a knowing campness – is part of the reason for Jordan’s unexpected career boost at 65. A jobbing actor best known for his role in American Horror Story and his Emmy-winning turn as Beverly Leslie, the acid-tongued rival of Megan Mullally’s Karen in Will & Grace, Jordan spent most of 2020 becoming an accidental internet sensation, racking up 5.6 million Instagram followers – including the likes of Rihanna and Lily Allen – thanks to his charmingly chaotic videos. Continue reading...
Philippe Robrecht was living the quiet life with his wife and hens when stardom came calling backSomething odd happened to Philippe Robrecht while hunkered down in lockdown on Inishbofin, a tiny island with just 170 inhabitants off Ireland’s Atlantic coast: he became, again, a pop star.The 55-year-old musician and singer had not made an album in almost a decade and was all but forgotten in his native Belgium when the Covid-19 pandemic reached Ireland last year. Continue reading...
by Tom Phillips and Analy Nuño in Guadalajara on (#5G3HK)
The Jalisco cartel’s violence has taken a horrific toll on the state and experts say it poses a threat to Mexico’s governmentIt was mid-spring when residents of the wasteland behind Guadalajara’s international airport noticed a dog roaming their community with a strange object in its mouth: a human forearm.Search teams in the ramshackle neighbourhood of La Piedrera entered a roofless red brick shack flanked by trees decked with bright orange mistletoe. Under several layers of dusky earth they made an even more grotesque discovery. Continue reading...
Ahead of the grand final of the brain-squeezing series next Monday, test your mental mettle with 15 questions set by the show’s quizmastersThe opening scene of which of Shakespeare’s plays comprises just 61 words, the longest of those words being "lightning", "hurlyburly" and "graymalkin"?MacbethTwelfth NightTimon of AthensComedy of ErrorsWhat term for a type of particle accelerator also applies to a type of electromagnetic radiation generated by charged particles spiralling in magnetic fields?CyclotronGammaSynchrotronColliderThe works of which Italian artist, born in 1449, include St Jerome in His Study and the frescoes for the Sassetti chapel in Florence? His numerous apprentices included Michelangelo.Fra AngelicoDomenico GhirlandaioLeonardo Da VinciSandro BotticelliFor which film set in Rome did Paolo Sorrentino win the 2014 Academy Award for best foreign language film?Life Is BeautifulThe Great BeautyParasiteThe PostmanWhat bird does the British Trust for Ornithology describe as: "By far the biggest passerine, with a similar wingspan to a buzzard. The bill is strikingly long and heavy"?Long-tailed titRookRavenTawny owlIn March 1969, the Ussuri River was the scene of armed clashes between which two major powers?China and the Soviet UnionThe Soviet Union and the USChina and the USThe UK and ArgentinaIn April 1912, Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly solo over which body of water, crossed earlier by Louis Blériot?The ChannelAtlantic OceanBlack SeaLake SuperiorDescribed as "the little town keeping the lights on in France", Arlit in Niger was until 2021 the site of one of the world’s largest mines of which toxic metal?BismuthMercuryLeadUraniumWhat colour links the field of the flag of the Basque country, William Morris’s house in Bexleyheath and leading football clubs in Belgrade and Salzburg?RedGreenPurpleBlueWho wrote the Nebula-award-winning novels Doomsday Book and All Clear?George R R MartinNeil GaimanConnie WillisUrsula Le GuinNenagh, Clonmel and Cashel are towns in which inland Irish county, bordering Galway and Cork?KerryTipperaryKildareOffalyAccording to Jeff Bezos, what "has some magical ability to turn off the politeness gene in the human being"?Online reviewsSocial mediaEmailHungerIn materials science, the ratio of the contractile to the tensile strains is named after which French scientist, born in 1781?Pierre-Simon LaplaceCharles FriedelSiméon-Denis PoissonLouis PasteurWhich English cathedral is noted for stained-glass rose windows known as the Dean’s Eye and the Bishop’s Eye?LincolnDurhamElyYork MinsterTotem and Taboo, and Civilisation and Its Discontents are early 20th-century works by which thinker?Otto RankFrantz FanonCarl JungSigmund Freud15 and above.You may not confer – and you certainly don't need to, with a score like that! Bravo14 and above.You may not confer – and you certainly don't need to, with a score like that! Bravo13 and above.You may not confer – and you certainly don't need to, with a score like that! Bravo12 and above.You may not confer – and you certainly don't need to, with a score like that! Bravo11 and above.You may not confer – and you certainly don't need to, with a score like that! Bravo10 and above.And at the gong ... you've done pretty well. Not quite well enough to be in the University Challenge final ... but who needs that kind of stress anyway?9 and above.And at the gong ... you've done pretty well. Not quite well enough to be in the University Challenge final ... but who needs that kind of stress anyway?8 and above.And at the gong ... you've done pretty well. Not quite well enough to be in the University Challenge final ... but who needs that kind of stress anyway?7 and above.And at the gong ... you've done pretty well. Not quite well enough to be in the University Challenge final ... but who needs that kind of stress anyway?6 and above.And at the gong ... you've done pretty well. Not quite well enough to be in the University Challenge final ... but who needs that kind of stress anyway?5 and above.Oh, do come on! You tried your best, but unfortunately there's no way you're going through to the next round4 and above.Oh, do come on! You tried your best, but unfortunately there's no way you're going through to the next round3 and above.Oh, do come on! You tried your best, but unfortunately there's no way you're going through to the next round2 and above.Oh, do come on! You tried your best, but unfortunately there's no way you're going through to the next round0 and above.Oh, do come on! You tried your best, but unfortunately there's no way you're going through to the next round1 and above.Oh, do come on! You tried your best, but unfortunately there's no way you're going through to the next roundThe University Challenge grand final airs Monday 5 April at 8.30pm on BBC Two Continue reading...
Family of 28-year-old killed in 2015 ‘blindsided’ by discovery about officer facing misconduct chargesThe family of a man shot dead by a Metropolitan police firearms officer say they have been “blindsided” by the discovery that the officer is training colleagues in how to handle guns despite facing gross misconduct charges over the fatal shooting.The firearms officer, known only as W80, shot dead Jermaine Baker, 28, who was sitting in a car close to Wood Green crown court in north London in December 2015. Baker and others were attempting to free a prisoner, Izzet Eren, who was being brought to court in a prison van to be sentenced for a firearms offence. Baker died from a single gunshot wound. Continue reading...
Lockdown has prompted many readers to plant flowerbeds and grow vegetables in their neglected front gardens – while smaller spaces have benefited from a proliferation of potsThe garden is long and thin, sunny but exposed to the wind. To make the most of the space we used pots and containers and filled them with a mix of annuals and perennials. In the ground we planted ammi majus, fennel, thalictrum and gaura to create a delicate feathery look, and in the pots we went for cosmos, zinnia, dahlias and hollyhocks to create a cottage garden feel. We also plant with pollinators in mind, putting in flowers such as viper’s bugloss. Paul Collins, retired, Bournemouth Continue reading...
Marie-Louise and René Glémarec, 86 and 87, caused storm at Paris fashion week in gender-neutral clothesLast month Jane Fonda set the internet ablaze with her Harper’s Bazaar cover in a sequined body-con Ralph Lauren dress, Dolly Parton inspired a cold-shoulder fashion trend with her vaccination video, and Joan Collins’s Instagram has been instructional on how to do lockdown in fabulous style.The latest “granfluencers” are Marie-Louise and René Glémarec, 86 and 87 respectively, who went viral after appearing at the last physical Paris fashion week dressed in the punk-inspired, gender-neutral clothes made by their grandson Florentin Glémarec for his label EGONlab, which he runs with partner Kévin Nompeix. Continue reading...
The medical staff had never seen anything like it. They told us the chances were one in 50 millionThe day I gave birth, there were 24 people in the room, most of them fascinated medical students. At 10.11am they watched as my daughter, Bonnie, came into the world, and five minutes later they saw Watson emerge, from my other womb.The twins were not our first children. Our eldest daughter, Agyness, was born two months early, in 2015, but doctors said early labour was “one of those things”. When I became pregnant with Margot, born six weeks early, in 2017, scans revealed a bicornuate uterus, which means it’s heart-shaped. But no one spotted the second one. Continue reading...
Workers were furloughed without pay amid the pandemic at the Dominican garment factory, the only one in the developing world that pays a living wageWhen Alta Gracia launched in 2010 it was hailed as an experiment to show the world that garment factory workers in the developing world could aspire to a living wage and that their labor rights could be respected. But in order to survive the company, which sells T-shirts and sweatshirts made in the Dominican Republic to US college students, also needs to make a profit. And then came Covid-19.Nine months after the pandemic hit, Alta Gracia workers were furloughed without pay and the US based company is struggling to stay afloat. This is not the first time the company has struggled and its failure to keep its head above water over a decade led some to question whether a clothing business can pay a decent wage and still be profitable. Continue reading...
In these underpowered short stories, the female characters are mere pretexts for male epiphanyEight stories are told in the first person, with each narrator a man in late middle age who shares interests, such as jazz and baseball, with his author. Only one narrator is given a name: “Haruki Murakami”. Murakami, by his own account, is less interested in creating complex characters than in the interaction his characters have with the world in which he imagines them. Even so, the women in this book are remarkably less complex, less individual, than the men, existing primarily as a pretext for the male characters to find out, or fail to find out, about themselves.The playfulness with the identity of the narrator might be more rewarding, were it not for the stretches of tepid, underpowered writing. The conversational style can be slack and cliched, speckled with reflections on philosophical questions about ageing, identity, memory and what it is to know oneself. In “The Yakult Swallows Poetry Collection”, it is hard not to read “It’s true that life brings us far more defeats than victories” as merely trite. When the situation repeats of the older man, looking back at his youth, surprised by ageing, and having learned very little (an acute enough observation), the reader, too, learns very little, and might begin to conclude that these are tales of the slightly remarkable, which one would not be tempted to read more than once. Continue reading...
by Mostafa Rachwani and Michael McGowan on (#5G376)
Acting chief medical officer says authorities are taking reports of clotting disorder after vaccination ‘very seriously’ but says no causal link has yet been proven
‘Our prime minister should have given his jab to a nurse,’ co-founder of advocacy group saysThe rollout of Covid-19 vaccinations in aged care “has been a shemozzle”, with some residents and staff in homes throughout Australia still not being given any indication of when they might receive their first dose, according to the researcher and co-founder of the advocacy group Aged Care Reform Now, Dr Sarah Russell.Her criticism comes as data from the federal Department of Health shows that residents at less than a third of aged care facilities have received the vaccine. Continue reading...
Family of Philip Mawer say it appears he died trying to escape the assault in Palma last weekA body matching the description of a missing British man has been found, eight days after he was caught up in an attack by Islamic State-linked insurgents in Mozambique.The family of Philip Mawer said on Thursday that it appeared that he had died while trying to escape the deadly assault on the town of Palma last week. Continue reading...
Guardian Australia analysis and graphic shows the trend in cases and where they’re located. Live data updates will track the numbers throughout the stateBrisbane has just lifted its lockdown but other restrictions will remain for up to two weeks.Here you can see the trend in cases, the source of those cases and their locations, using data from Queensland Health. Continue reading...
Musician faces violent disorder charge in relation to death of Fidel Glasgow outside Coventry nightclub in 2018The rapper Pa Salieu has said he is “engaging with the justice system” after being charged with violent disorder by detectives investigating the killing of a man outside a nightclub in Coventry.West Midlands police said 10 men, including the musician, had been charged in relation to the death of Fidel Glasgow. The 23-year-old, the grandson of Specials singer Neville Staple, died in hospital after being stabbed outside Club M in the early hours of 1 September 2018. Continue reading...
President hits back over critical US human rights report but also singles out Mexican press freedom group Article 19 for censureA growing row over press freedom has engulfed Mexico after the country’s nationalist president maligned a routine US human rights report which highlighted his government’s failure to protect journalists – and the behaviour of some officials against media members.Andrés Manuel López Obrador, commonly called Amlo, condemned Mexico’s mention in the state department’s annual human rights report as an unwelcome intervention in Mexican matters. Continue reading...
Boat docks in Pemba carrying those rescued from Islamic State insurgency in north of countryA boat carrying 1,200 survivors of a deadly attack by Islamic State-linked insurgents in northern Mozambique has reached safety in the port of Pemba, some of them crying on arrival after spending days hiding in the bush.Aid workers were at the port to give food to those disembarking the ferry, while police and soldiers controlled crowds of people excited to see relatives rescued during the attack that began last week in Palma, a Reuters reporter at the port said. Continue reading...
Curator of Galician show honouring surrealist admits ‘we knew there would be a fuss’ over authenticityA year after an exhibition celebrating the works of the pioneering Spanish surrealist artist Maruja Mallo closed its doors, a letter from experts has emerged claiming that none of the works displayed actually sprang from the hand of the avant garde painter.Mallo, who died in 1995, was associated with the so-called literary Generation of 27, whose members included Federico García Lorca, Ernestina de Champourcín, Pedro Salinas, Rosa Chacel, María Teresa León and Rafael Alberti. Her striking, stylised works were painted in her home country and in South America, where she lived in exile for a quarter of a century following Franco’s victory in the Spanish civil war. Continue reading...
Inclusivity in the armed forces | Festival of Brexit | Casual sexism | Boris Johnson | Signs of springWomen at the Aldermaston peace camp outside the Atomic Weapons Establishment welcome the introduction of female underwear for Swiss female armed forces recruits (Report, 31 March). They hope that the British defence review and the Ministry of Defence’s climate change and sustainability review will retrospectively copy the Swiss, inculcating a more female, peaceful and caring element into the British armed forces.
The ATP and WTA support Covid-19 vaccination but some players have shrugged their shoulders as they would have to remain in tournament bubbles regardlessAs the Miami Open marched towards its climax, one of the many off-court discussions that have raged on during the event is the simple question of the sport’s attitude towards vaccination during the pandemic. Players were asked during the week about their stance, and a trend of ambivalence became clear.For Andrey Rublev, the Russian world No 8, vaccination would make little difference to him as he would still have to remain in the tournament bubbles: “I don’t know,” Rublev said. “There is no reason. Just – I don’t know. Just by the feelings, because I never have any vaccine since I was a kid, so I don’t know. I feel OK with this way. I never had any problems with my health.” Continue reading...
Visitors urged to ‘share the space’ but latest revision lacks clear rules over barbecues and dogs on leadsSeventy years ago, visitors to the countryside were warned in rhyme that the farmer would “frown” on “lad or lass who treads his crops, or tramples grass”.Now the revised Countryside Code will encourage the unprecedented number of domestic holidaymakers to “be nice, say hello, share the space” and “make a memory” when they visit parks, coasts, woods and farmland this summer. Continue reading...
Thursday: Morrison government criticised for lack of ‘clear strategy’ on vaccinating aged care workers. Plus: Why do people discard me when I am no longer of use to them?Good morning. Political ructions in South America, frustration over aged care vaccination schedules, and praise for Australia’s resistance to China dominate the national and international headlines this Thursday. Here are your top stories.The federal government has faced criticism for failing to vaccinate aged care staff, while only half of Australia’s care residents have received priority vaccinations, despite a plan for both groups to receive their shots in the first six weeks of the rollout. The Council on the Ageing chief executive, Ian Yates, condemned the apparent lack of a “clear strategy” from Canberra, saying, “there’s no clarity around the timetable and process for the vaccination of aged care workers”. Yates also emphasised that staff could potentially be vectors for the virus, and that their prompt vaccination was critical to the safety of care residents. Despite missing its original target of 4m vaccinations by the end of March, the federal health minister, Greg Hunt, said the national program was now “accelerating as intended”. Continue reading...
It won’t improve trans people’s material conditions, but it’ll definitely make me feel greatI awoke this morning as I do every morning with a burning, unquenchable lust to be seen. Thankfully, what with it being Transgender Day of Visibility and all, I might finally have that need met.In case you’re unfamiliar, the annual holiday aims to uplift trans people and affirm our existence. It was created in 2009 by Rachel Crandall-Crocker, the executive director of Transgender Michigan, to “celebrate the living”. The community already had Transgender Day of Remembrance, but the annual November observance’s focus on death and violence always left her feeling depressed and alienated. Continue reading...
Fans of star, a professional wrestler, decry court fine of £59 as ‘too lenient’ punishment for cyberbullyA Japanese man who sent hateful online messages to a professional wrestler who later killed herself has been charged but is not to face trial.Police told AFP that the man, who has not been identified, was charged with cyberbullying Hana Kimura, who was also a TV reality show star. She died in May 2020. A Tokyo court issued an order to fine the man 9,000 yen (£59). Continue reading...
by Vikram Dodd Police and crime correspondent on (#5G0WW)
Exclusive: Whistleblower claims HMICFRS decided to support Priti Patel in seeking stronger powers before gathering evidenceThe official policing inspectorate showed repeated bias in favour of the police and against peaceful protesters as it compiled a report which backed a government clampdown, a whistleblower has alleged.The complainant says a report on protest released in March this year was skewed in favour of the government view, with conclusions reached before evidence was gathered and assessed. Continue reading...
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