Most of missing financial adviser’s assets held in her name, not her company’s, which could complicate return of money to former clientsThe financial services watchdog hopes to claw back as much as possible for people who lost millions of dollars investing with missing Sydney woman Melissa Caddick.But Asic fears there is a “significant shortfall” between the pool of assets available and the claims of her suspected victims. Continue reading...
by Vikram Dodd Police and crime correspondent on (#5EFCJ)
Neil Basu says move to protest appointment of William Shawcross could harm processBritain’s best chance of reducing terrorist violence risks being damaged amid a huge backlash to the government’s choice of William Shawcross to lead a review of Prevent, the country’s top counter-terrorism officer has told the Guardian.Assistant commissioner Neil Basu’s comments came after key human rights and Muslim groups announced a boycott of the official review of Prevent, which aims to stop Britons being radicalised into violent extremism. Continue reading...
Arlene Foster and senior MPs want new post-Brexit trade arrangements to stop disruption at Irish Sea portsThe leader of the Democratic Unionist party, Arlene Foster, and senior DUP MPs are launching a legal action challenging the Brexit deal’s Northern Ireland protocol.They will be joining other unionists from across the UK in judicial review proceedings unless alternative post-Brexit trade arrangements are put in place that secure their consent. Continue reading...
by Presented by Laura Murphy-Oates and reported by Jo on (#5EFAX)
On Thursday, Facebook blocked all news on its platform in Australia. This historic move came during escalating tensions over legislation that would force Facebook and Google to negotiate a fair payment with news organisations for using their content. Reporter Joshua Taylor explains the key arguments for and against the Media Bargaining Code, and explores what Facebook may be hoping to achieve, by blocking news.
Dimitris Lignadis maintains innocence as allegations continue to shake arts and sports worldsThe former director of Greece’s national theatre has been detained on charges of rape amid mounting accusations of sexual abuse in the country’s arts scene.Dimitris Lignadis, a powerful cultural figure well known for his acting and directing, appeared in handcuffs before a public prosecutor on Sunday after being accused of assaulting two men when they were minors. The 56-year-old, who will be kept in custody until his plea on Wednesday, has vehemently rejected the accusations. Continue reading...
About our new coverage, which aims to focus attention on human rights around the worldThe journalism in this series gives a voice to those whose rights or freedoms have been removed, undermined or put at risk. It focuses on human rights abuses and gains, and potential for change. It is supported, in part, through a grant to theguardian.org by Humanity United, a US-based foundation dedicated to bringing new approaches to global problems that have long been considered intractable.All of the journalism is editorially independent, commissioned and produced by Guardian journalists, and follows the Guardian’s published editorial code. You can read more about content funding on the Guardian here. Continue reading...
by Ruaridh Nicoll photographs by Sven Creutzmann on (#5EF4B)
As Covid pushed the island’s economy to the brink of collapse, musicians and film-makers found another way to be creative – cooking, baking and sellingNot far from Havana’s Plaza de la Revolucion, where Che Guevara stares out nine storeys high from the side of Cuba’s Ministry of the Interior, Julio Cesar Imperatori perches on the edge of a table in the kitchen of a shuttered restaurant.“We started to run out of money,” he says of himself and two friends, Osmany and Wilson. “Everyone was closing down. No one was buying pictures. So we decided to do something. We thought, everyone’s gotta eat and my grandmother, Eldia, she has a recipe for pie. And so … the American Pie company.” Continue reading...
The author and professor of public protection on the red flags of coercive control and how courts should change to give abuse victims an equal voiceJane Monckton Smith is a criminologist specialising in domestic homicide. A former police officer, she is professor of public protection at the University of Gloucestershire, and is recognised for her groundbreaking work on coercive control and stalking. In her new book, In Control: Dangerous Relationships and How They End in Murder, she lays out the eight stages of a domestic homicide timeline that flag up the potential for the coercively controlling to kill.What is the empirical basis for your eight-stage homicide timeline?
by Interview by Holly O'Neill recipes by Reem Kassis on (#5EF36)
The Arabesque Table tells of Kassis’s Palestinian family, while giving a modern twist to such dishes as fatteh, lentil soup and pistachio cakeBefore writing The Arabesque Table, Reem Kassis thought that its predecessor, 2017’s The Palestinian Table, might be her only cookbook. To start with, she didn’t think of herself as a food writer. After she left her home in Jerusalem in 2005, aged 17, she was ambitious, ticking boxes for a fast-track corporate career: a business degree from the University of Pennsylvania; an MBA; a postgraduate degree at the London School of Economics; stints at the global management consultancy McKinsey and the World Economic Forum.But growing up in a food-obsessed family of excellent home cooks meant her mother had sent her off to university with olive oil, za’atar and instructions to write down everything she made. On moving to the US, then London in 2011, Kassis was surprised how little was known about Palestinian food – and people. Putting together the proposal for what would become her first book also prompted a change of priorities. “There are thousands of people who could do the job that I was doing,” she says, from her home in the suburbs of Philadelphia. “But how many people could be the mother to my children that I am, and also safeguard this culinary treasure and share it with the world.” Continue reading...
The postponement last year of an exhibition of the artist’s work led to a fraught debate over race and culture. His daughter Musa Mayer fears his complex images are being misrepresentedMusa Mayer has been “holed up” in Woodstock, upstate New York, which she describes as “a liberal community in the midst of Trump land”, since the beginning of lockdown in March of last year. She is staying in a house she inherited from her parents and nearby is a building that was once the art studio of her father, Philip Guston. It is now the Guston Foundation, which she established in 2013 to promote his work and further his legacy. Of late, she has had her hands full.Last September Mayer answered a call from Matthew Teitelbaum, the director of the Museum of Fine Art in Boston, one of four galleries (including Tate Modern in London) that had agreed to host Philip Guston Now, a much anticipated touring retrospective of her father’s work. It had been scheduled to open in Washington DC in July, but had been pushed back to 2021 by the pandemic. Now, to Mayer’s astonishment, Teitelbaum informed her that he and the other three museum directors had decided to postpone the exhibition until 2024. (They have since announced it will go ahead from May 2022.) Continue reading...
Inclusive spirit shown during pandemic has dispelled ‘dangerous fantasies’ of individualism, Labor leader saysAnthony Albanese says political leaders must not “walk past those who are in need or suffering” while declaring the Covid-19 pandemic has dispelled some “dangerous fantasies” about individualism.In a speech aiming to reach out to faith groups on Monday, the Labor leader will cite the parable of the Good Samaritan and say that “our care for others should be neither conditional nor transactional”. Continue reading...
Allegations against Wasim Jaffer of favouritism raise fears that anti-Muslim sentiment is infecting the gameIt is often described as India’s greatest unifier, a sport that – at least on the field – has been insulated from the religious schisms that have long divided the country.But in recent weeks cricket’s position as one of the final bastions of a secular India has come under attack, as the anti-Muslim sentiment that has been on the rise in India under the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) reared its head in an ugly cricketing scandal. Continue reading...
Joe Biden may have become US president at 78, but imagine becoming a comedian at 89 or writing your first book at 94. We talk to six senior high-flyers…It’s fair to say I didn’t expect, aged 93, to become Britain’s oldest debut author. My story is just my life, really. It never crossed my mind that anyone else might care to know more. Continue reading...
The islands, three miles from the Chinese mainland, will be first to fall if antagonisms lead to an invasionTsai Li-chu recalls being a young mother on Taiwan’s Kinmen Island, when the shelling would start around 7pm most nights, launched from the People’s Republic of China just a few miles over the sea. “I remember having to run to the shelter with the kids, carrying the baby,” says Tsai, now a retired teacher in her 70s.The bombardments – predominantly shells filled with propaganda leaflets – stopped only when the US government formally recognised communist China and cut ties with Taiwan in the late 1970s. But the hostilities never really went away. Today relations are at their worst point in decades, with Chinese threats to take control of Taiwan growing more realistic. Kinmen, or Quemoy, a tiny archipelago nearly 200 miles from Taipei but just three miles from the Chinese city of Xiamen, sits on the frontline. Continue reading...
Home Office urged to investigate allegations, including unsafe living conditions, while staff say they are paid below the legal wageThe Home Office has been urged to investigate the network of hotels holding thousands of asylum seekers following allegations of sexual harassment, intimidation and claims that staff have been paid significantly below the minimum wage.A joint investigation by the Observer and ITV News suggests privately contracted staff at some asylum hotels have been paid little over £5.50 an hour. Continue reading...
Critics of the Foreign Investment Review Board do not agree on much – except that the system is brokenFor the lawyers and investment bankers trying to bring billions of dollars of investment from China into Australia, it has become an immovable roadblock.For politicians alarmed at Chinese investment in nationally important infrastructure such as power and ports, it is a regulator that has been asleep at the wheel. Continue reading...
Duke of Edinburgh was admitted to King Edward VII’s hospital in London on Tuesday after feeling unwellThe Prince of Wales has visited his father the Duke of Edinburgh in hospital.Prince Philip, 99, was admitted to King Edward VII’s hospital in London on Tuesday evening as a precautionary measure after feeling unwell and walked unaided into the medical centre. Continue reading...
by Mattha Busby, Rebecca Ratcliffe and agencies on (#5EE1A)
Second reported victim, a 36-year-old carpenter, was shot in the chest and died en route to hospitalAt least two anti-coup protesters in Myanmar have been shot dead by riot police, emergency workers have said, amid continuing demonstrations demanding an end to military rule and the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and others.The deaths, in the country’s second-largest city Mandalay, mark the bloodiest day in more than two weeks of increasingly fraught protests as a civil disobedience movement grows. Continue reading...
Seven poultry workers found to be infected, but no evidence of transmission between humansA H5N8 strain of bird flu has been detected in humans for the first time, among seven workers who were infected at a Russian poultry plant in December.There is no evidence of the strain being transmitted between humans, but Russia has reported the transmission to the World Health Organization. Continue reading...
It’s easy to go into a culinary slump when you live alone. So go ahead and indulge yourselfI don’t live alone now. But I did for quite a few years on and off, and for all that I loved having a room of my own at last (how pleasant, not to have to extract someone else’s hair from the shower), there were always lonely moments. When I was burgled, there was no one to comfort me after the police had left. A couple of boyfriends dumped me (though to be fair, I dumped a couple back). Sometimes, having cooked myself a proper supper, I would have one of those sad, out-of-body experiences when you suddenly see yourself as if in a heavy, gilt frame, and think: oh my God, I look like Picasso’s absinthe drinker, only a bit less cheery.I have found myself worrying about all sorts of people during this lockdown; it isn’t easy for any of us. But thanks, perhaps, to memories of that first mushroomy basement flat, my mind turns most often to those who, for whatever reason, are cloistered alone like secular nuns (or monks, if you prefer). “I’m sick of my cooking,” said my friend, C, the other day, an announcement that made me both happy (good, she’s cooking for herself) and a bit anxious (oh no, I hope she’s not going to stop cooking for herself). It’s so easy not to bother when you’ve only yourself to please – a habit that’s also dangerously cyclical. The less you bother, the less you’re capable of bothering. Continue reading...
In Holyhead, traffic has fallen 50% as hauliers stymied by Brexit find their way from Ireland to France without entering the UKPerched on the shores of Anglesey, the island linked by road bridges to the north-west coast of Wales, Holyhead’s geography has given it a leading role in British-Irish trade since the early 19th century.About 50 miles directly across the Irish Sea from Dublin, a journey of just three-and-a-quarter hours by ferry, Holyhead was until December the second busiest roll-on roll-off port in the UK after Dover. About 450,000 trucks rumbled through each year on their way to Dublin, with cargoes of meat and agricultural produce, secondhand cars and items destined for the shelves of Irish supermarkets. Continue reading...
by Oliver Holmes in Jerusalem and Emma Graham-Harriso on (#5EEEM)
Russia mediated deal in which Israeli woman was exchanged for two Syrian shepherdsIsrael secured coronavirus vaccines for the Syrian regime as part of a Russian-mediated prisoner swap agreed this week, according to an Israeli source and local media reports.
The Suede frontman on his latest musical discoveries, the brilliance of Michael Clark and the enduring appeal of mudlarking by the ThamesBorn in Sussex in 1967, Brett Anderson founded alternative rock band Suede in 1989 with then-girlfriend Justine Frischmann and childhood friend Mat Osman. Billed by Melody Maker as “the best new band in Britain”, Suede released five albums including their self-titled debut and Coming Up, before disbanding in 2003. Anderson went on to front the Tears and release four solo albums. In 2010 Suede reformed and released a further three albums, the latest of which is 2018’s The Blue Hour. Anderson will perform with Charles Hazlewood and Paraorchestra as part of the Gŵyl 2021 festival, 6-7 March. Continue reading...
The close associate of the journalist killed by the Saudi regime is determined to speak out in a new documentary, despite the arrest of family membersNot long before he was murdered, the journalist Jamal Khashoggi told his young friend Omar Abdulaziz two things that have subsequently never been far from his thoughts. The first was: “Never forget, your words matter.” And the second: “Be careful, this kind of work might get you killed.”Omar Abdulaziz, 29, lives in exile in Montreal, Canada, where he has been, before and after Khashoggi’s death, among the most vocal critics of the Saudi regime that killed his friend. His words do matter – his tweets have been viewed nearly a billion times in the past year; he has an almost daily YouTube programme that has clocked up 45m views. And he is left in no doubt of their potential consequence: death threats are routine; both of his younger brothers and dozens of his friends have been arrested and imprisoned in Saudi Arabia in failed attempts to silence him. Continue reading...
The Danish actor, 53, on multilingualism, nudity, the joy of being in a band and why playing Dracula was such a gift of a roleMy schooling in Denmark was quite a mess. I went to something like eight or nine primary schools. My parents moved around a lot and then they got divorced. I had new classmates every Monday.We did a play in high school. Someone said, “Would you like to be in it?” and I said, “How could I? I’m not an actor.” They said, “Let’s just try, it might work.” I was terrified of applying to drama school. I was sure they would say: “Thank you very much for coming, but no thanks.” I was lucky to have been accepted. Continue reading...
Anti-coup protesters in Myanmar have paid tribute to the young woman who died a day earlier after being shot by police during a demonstration against the military takeover. Impromptu memorials were held in Yangon, Mandalay and the capital city, Naypyidaw, where Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing was shot on 9 February, two days before her 20th birthday
It was one of the last major sporting events before Britain went into lockdown in March 2020. Racegoers recall a tense week and its aftermathWhen the roar of 65,000 people greeted the first race of the third day, at 1.30pm on Thursday 12 March last year, Geoff Bodman was feeling just fine. The 56-year-old painter and decorator from Tremorfa in Cardiff, whose friends call him “Boddie”, had been going to the Cheltenham Festival every year for 25 years. He had paid £30 for a ticket to the affordable Best Mate enclosure, where he planned to have a punt on the horses and a day on the beer. The following morning he’d be back in Cardiff, getting on with a job painting the outside of a house.The week before, Bodman and his wife Julie, who worked in a Cardiff care home, had cancelled their second wedding anniversary trip to Venice. They had been looking forward to it for months, but Italy had become a hot spot for the new coronavirus. “We didn’t want to take the risk. We lost money because easyJet wouldn’t repay us, but we played safe. We thought it wasn’t that bad in Britain.” According to government figures, there were 1,302 confirmed cases of Covid across the UK by 11 March; data from the Office for National Statistics later revealed that there had been 26 Covid deaths. Continue reading...
One of pop’s biggest, and most outspoken, young stars, the Swedish musician now wants to leave her Twitter beefs behind – but she’ll never stop talking about the issues she cares aboutWhile some artists are keen to cultivate the perfect video call mise-en-scene (“Oh, these coffee table art books? Love them!”), or tap up their stylist for designer loungewear, the Swedish pop star Zara Larsson doesn’t have time for that. Literally. “I didn’t know this interview was going to be on Zoom!” she apologises as she enters the chat five minutes late. It is 11am in Stockholm and Larsson is not camera-ready. However, rather than insisting we talk via her assumed communication medium – the humble telephone – she finds a comfy spot on her boyfriend’s sofa, scrapes back her unstyled hair and tightens the belt on her navy blue dressing gown. “This is what I look like 90% of the time now anyway,” she shrugs.Related: The Guide: Staying In – sign up for our home entertainment tips Continue reading...
Heir to Swiss commodity trading empire takes helm at Sunderland pledging to match the fans’ passionMeet Kyril Louis-Dreyfus. The 23-year-old heir to a Swiss commodities fortune has bought a majority stake in Sunderland AFC and installed himself as the youngest chair in English football.Louis-Dreyfus, whose family owns the Louis Dreyfus Group trading empire, has been interested in football since going to Olympique de Marseille (OM) games with his late father, Robert Louis-Dreyfus, who owned the French club until his death in 2009. Continue reading...
The Arabian Sea, Russia’s far east, lunch on a sunny Balearic beach? Our experts can’t wait to get on the move againWhen I moan (increasingly) about how desperate I am to go to Ibiza, I think people imagine I’m planning some massive rager in a superclub once I’m off the Covid leash. And OK, yes, fine, after a year and whatever of being trapped inside with my kids, the idea of a wholly responsibility-free night in a room full of happy, sweaty strangers doesn’t repulse me. Continue reading...
Neighbours’ disputes become increasingly heated as new data reveals wood burning causes more pollution than trafficIf you’re looking to perfect your rural idyll, you can’t go wrong with a wood burner. A mainstay of glamorous Instagram “cottagecore” accounts and Airbnb listings with a cachet somewhere between an Aga and a yurt, they produce a mood of peace and warmth that glows as softly as their embers.But lately, some of their owners have ascended the temperature scale from cosy to hot and bothered – and so have their neighbours. Continue reading...
Long-term social isolation is as bad for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. What has the last year meant for those who don’t share their homes?When the first headlines about coronavirus began to appear in January 2020, they had little impact on south Londoner TJ, 25. “It seems outrageous now, but I thought: ‘I’m young, I’m healthy, I’ll be fine.’” By the time the first lockdown was announced, his mindset had begun to shift. He’d been single “for ever” and his housemate was spending lockdown with her parents, but he felt that same batten-down-the-hatches optimism many did in the era of weekly clapping and Zoom quizzes. “But that first weekend, the silence of the house and all the hours to fill – I got this inkling… mentally, I don’t know where I’ll be at the end of this. Four weeks in, I was genuinely scared for my mental health, I wasn’t coping at all.”TJ is one of an estimated 7.7 million people in the UK who lived alone for most or all of the last year. “It’s not a game of Top Trumps, it’s not like my anxiety is more profound,” he says. “But it is different when you’re experiencing it all on your own.” In November 2020 the Office for National Statistics released findings that showed acute loneliness had climbed to record levels, with 8% of adults (around 4.2 million people) feeling “always or often lonely”, and 16-29-year-olds twice as likely as the over-70s to experience loneliness in the pandemic. “You’d never think fear of missing out would exist when we’re all stuck at home,” TJ says. “But I’d be scrolling through Instagram, seeing friends with their boyfriends or housemates, and thinking: ‘I wish I had someone. I feel so alone.’” Continue reading...
State department concerned by new laws that authorise Chinese coastguard to use weapons against foreign shipsThe United States has warned China against the use of force in disputed waters as it reaffirmed its view that Beijing’s assertive campaign in the South China Sea is illegal.The state department voiced “concern” about new legislation enacted by China that authorises its coastguard to use weapons against foreign ships that Beijing considers to be unlawfully entering its waters. Continue reading...
Australian prime minister says there are problems with ‘workplace culture’ at Parliament HouseScott Morrison says he is “upset” after reports a second woman was sexually assaulted by the same man who allegedly raped former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins inside Parliament House.The prime minister said he was disturbed by the allegations, which were published by the Australian newspaper on Saturday. The woman argued that if the government had adequately dealt with the incident involving Higgins in 2019, her assault would never have occurred. Continue reading...
Petition includes allegations from girls who were as young as 13 at time of alleged assaultsA viral online petition generating more than 500 testimonies of sexual assault from current and former Australian private school students has sparked calls for an overhaul of sexual consent education in schools and at what age it is taught.The petition, which called for more thorough and earlier education about consent, was started on Thursday by Chanel Contos, a former student of Sydney’s Kambala girls’ school, who is hoping to draw attention to how frequently girls experience sexual assault from all-boys’ school students in Sydney. Continue reading...
by Hosted by Katharine Murphy, produced by Hannah Izz on (#5EDSG)
This week Katharine Murphy speaks to Labor MPs Peta Murphy and Kate Thwaites after the allegations made by a former Liberal staffer, Brittany Higgins, revealed the toxic culture embedded within Australia’s parliament. The MPs discuss parliamentary workplace norms, lack of training and HR management, and the steps needed to address it. Continue reading...
The former finance minister’s ‘climate pivot’ has been met with a mixture of exasperation and bemusementWhen the outgoing head of the OECD urged countries this week to “put a big fat price on carbon”, it might not have gone down well with the Australian vying to replace him.Mathias Cormann, one of the final four contenders to replace Ángel Gurría as OECD secretary general, was finance minister in the conservative government that abolished a carbon pricing scheme that had driven cuts in Australia’s emissions. Continue reading...
Micronesia had no choice to but to abandon the Pacific Islands Forum after being ‘thoroughly and publicly disregarded’, the President of Palau writesWhat becomes of an organisation when it disregards one-third of its membership? What happens when “we” stops being inclusive?As the eldest of four, I have always felt responsible for the safety, security, and well-being of my siblings. In my family, “I” has always been synonymous with “we”, the collective, being one inclusive family and ensuring no one is left out. This is what I understand to be the Palauan way; this is what I understand to be the Pacific Way. Continue reading...
Duke of Edinburgh was admitted to King Edward VII’s hospital in London after feeling unwellThe Duke of Edinburgh is expected to remain in hospital for “observation and rest” into next week, sources have said.Prince Philip was admitted to King Edward VII’s hospital on Tuesday evening after feeling unwell and walked unaided into the medical centre. Continue reading...
Violent protests over treatment of Pablo Hasél are forcing government to confront laws and the judiciaryPablo Hasél had promised he wouldn’t go quietly, and he kept his word.The Spanish rapper, whose jailing this week has sparked violent unrest and a political row within Spain’s socialist-led coalition government, barricaded himself in the university of the Catalan city of Lleida on Monday. Continue reading...
Tumultuous exit of Canada’s governor general prompts questioning of role and monarchyThe tumultuous exit of Canada’s governor general has left Canadians questioning the need for a constitutional monarchy, according to new polling which shows that 55% of respondents believe the royal family is no longer relevant.In Canada, the governor general is the representative of Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. The role has long been seen as largely ceremonial, but moved to the political centre stage last month when Julie Payette stepped down from her position amid allegations of bullying and harassment of staff. Continue reading...
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