Exclusive: Russian football union accuses Oleksandr Petrakov of discrimination and political biasRussia is urging Uefa to ban the manager of the Ukraine men’s national team from football after he expressed a wish to fight Vladimir Putin’s invading forces, the Guardian can reveal.The Football Union of Russia has written to the governing body accusing Oleksandr Petrakov of discriminating against Russians and failing to remain politically neutral. Continue reading...
It played host to Hendrix and the Stones and was a haven for acid-house parties. After lying dormant for years, Manchester’s iconic concert hall is back“I was standing in line late 1966 with a lot of people to see the Jimi Hendrix Experience,” says John Cooper Clarke. “I noticed that everyone in the queue except me was wearing a tie.” The renowned punk poet, speaking over the phone on the way to a gig in Kidderminster, hastens to add that he still looked dapper, wearing a Fred Perry (“You can’t wear a Fred Perry and a tie, you’d look like a schnorrer!”) and a striped sports coat. “I couldn’t get in,” he says, mimicking the doorman: “No tie!”The venue was Manchester’s New Century Hall, a 1,000-capacity space adjacent to New Century House. Designed by Gordon Tait for the Co-Operative Insurance Society in 1962, it played host to major acts such as Hendrix, the Stones, Tina Turner and the Kinks, before becoming an unexpected haven for acid-house parties thrown by local producers A Guy Called Gerald and 808 State. Continue reading...
Police said groups of men were gathering in North Evington after incidents of violence and damage in the city’s eastFifteen people have been arrested during a policing operation in east Leicester “to deter further disorder”.It comes after two arrests were made when police said disturbances broke out at an unplanned protest on Saturday night and Sunday morning. Continue reading...
by Nadeem Badshah (now) and Martin Belam (earlier) on (#63RQB)
Decision taken to close entry to queue permanently after it reached capacity before Monday’s funeralThe New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has told the BBC that in her conversation with King Charles he expressed gratitude for the condolences of the people who had come out to take part in the week’s events. PA Media reports she said:I’ll keep my comments here very, very general because we always try to keep in close confidence the conversations we are lucky enough to have with His Majesty.But the overriding sentiment was just the gratitude for the great effort that people were putting into coming and paying their respects, and by that I mean not just leaders, but people.What you’re going to expect is the best of funeral services, the prayer book service, the words which were an inspiration to Shakespeare.You’re going to hear this wonderful English at its best, also you’re going to hear angelic voices of the choir of the abbey plus the Chapels Royal, you really hear voices that are singing to the glory of God. Continue reading...
King’s ‘accession tour’ of UK draws to a close as prime ministers and presidents gather to pay their respectsAfter 10 days receiving the condolences of the British people, King Charles III was embraced by world leaders before Monday’s funeral for the Queen, after which he will finally lay his mother to rest in a private ceremony in a Windsor chapel.The King’s black Rolls-Royce swept on to the forecourt of Buckingham Palace on Sunday morning as prime ministers and presidents from the US to Rwanda gathered. He waved to cheering crowds which have followed him around Britain over the last week on his “accession tour”, before holding his second meeting with Liz Truss, the prime minister. Continue reading...
Royal family procession at Queen’s state funeral to include Prince George and Princess CharlotteThe royal family and the country will say a “last farewell” to Queen Elizabeth II during a state funeral at Westminster Abbey on Monday in which nine-year-old Prince George and his seven-year-old sister, Princess Charlotte, will walk behind their great-grandmother’s coffin.George and Charlotte, now second and third in line to the throne, will follow their parents, the Prince and Princess of Wales, as the coffin is carried through the abbey in front of a 2,000-strong congregation including world leaders. Continue reading...
Two arrested during latest disturbance in east of city after cricket match last month between India and PakistanPolice and community leaders have called for calm after scuffles between large crowds led to arrests after “serious disorder” in Leicester over the weekend.Two arrests were made and a large number of people were searched under section 60 stop-and-search powers, police said. Continue reading...
by Helen Davidson in Taipei and Associated Press on (#63RX9)
Train partially derails and residents are trapped inside collapsed block after 6.9-magnitude quakeAt least one person has died after a strong earthquake shook much of Taiwan, toppling a three-storey building and temporarily trapping four people inside, leaving about 400 tourists stranded on a mountain and derailing part of a train.The 6.9-magnitude quake was the largest of more than 75 that rattled the island’s south-eastern coast between Saturday evening, when a 6.4-magnitude quake struck the same area, and Sunday afternoon. Continue reading...
European Commission proposes withholding funds as it awaits ‘gamechanger’ reforms from Orbán governmentThe EU’s executive arm on Sunday proposed suspending €7.5bn in financing for Hungary, as it awaited potential “gamechanger” anti-corruption reforms from Budapest.The EU and Hungary have been at loggerheads for months, with Brussels suspecting the government led by the nationalist prime minister Viktor Orbán of undercutting the rule of law and using EU money to enrich its cronies. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Ukraine lobbying UN and allies to clear legal path for extracting Russian compensation for war damageUkraine is facing a battle to persuade its western allies, including the UK, to back its proposal for any peace settlement with Moscow to include multibillion reparations by Russia, in part using seized Russian state and oligarch assets.Ukraine is lobbying the UN general assembly to adopt a resolution that will become the basis for the creation of an international compensation mechanism that could lead to the seizure of as much as $300bn (£260bn) of Russian state assets overseas. Continue reading...
Latest Department of Social Services figures highlight the difficulties facing those who do not qualify for disability support – despite health problems
Amini, 22, reportedly beaten by morality police in Tehran for not complying with hijab regulationsMore than 30 Iranians were injured, some seriously, while taking to the streets to protest after the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman three days after she was arrested and reportedly beaten by morality police in Tehran.The circumstances of Mahsa Amini’s death on Friday are hotly contested, but her family denied official reports that she suffered from epilepsy and instead claimed she was beaten by the police. She had been visiting Tehran with her brother when she was picked up by police outside a metro station and put into a van, for allegedly not complying with the country’s hijab regulations. Continue reading...
by Denis Campbell Health policy editor on (#63S4E)
Doctors say job is too intense to safely work more, with four-hour shifts actually meaning six or seven hours of workAlmost two-thirds of trainee GPs plan to work part-time just a year after they qualify because being a family doctor is so stressful, research shows.Their intention to work two-and-a-half or three days a week threatens to exacerbate the NHS’s already acute shortage of GPs and make it even harder for patients to get an appointment. Continue reading...
BBC and Channel 5 broadcaster says firms such as YouTube and Twitter have no moral valuesJeremy Vine has criticised social media companies for failing to take action against online hate in the wake of the jailing of stalker Alex Belfield.Companies such as YouTube and Twitter had no moral values, said the BBC Radio 2 and Channel 5 broadcaster. Continue reading...
Giorgia Meloni once railed against Brussels, but experts suggest favourite to replace Draghi has no interest in rocking boatAt a gathering of Europe’s far right in February 2020, the leader of the Brothers of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, railed against the “Brussels techno bureaucrats” who she said wanted to impose “the Soviet plan to destroy national and religious identities” – a typically bombastic claim of Eurosceptic nationalists. Now on the brink of becoming Italy’s first far-right prime minister, Meloni is sounding a rather different tune.In an opinion article for Il Messaggero newspaper last month, Meloni said she wanted to work “in compliance with European regulations and in agreement with the [European] Commission” to use EU resources to promote Italy’s growth and innovation – a line so conventional it could drop into the speech of any aspiring pro-EU technocrat. Speaking in a video message broadcast in English, French and Spanish, she hit back at the “absurd narrative” her party would jeopardise Italy’s access to €191.5bn (£166.26bn) in EU Covid recovery funds. Meloni, who has sought to distance the Brothers of Italy from its fascist origins, said her party shared “values and experiences” with British Conservatives, US Republicans and Israel’s Likud party. Continue reading...
by Lisa O'Carroll Brexit correspondent on (#63RYQ)
British prime minister and Micheál Martin understood to have agreed there is opportunity for reset of relationsHopes that talks between the UK and the EU will resume over a protracted dispute about the Brexit arrangements in Northern Ireland have risen after a 45-minute meeting between Liz Truss and the Irish prime minister in Downing Street on Sunday morning.The taoiseach, Micheál Martin, was one of five world leaders to have “leaders’ meetings” with the British prime minister before the Queen’s funeral on Monday, in what was seen by some as a mark of the UK’s determination to reset soured relations with its neighbour. Continue reading...
A total blackout on TV advertising was agreed with Buckingham Palace following the death of the Queen• Death of the Queen and King Charles’s accession – latest updatesThe death of the Queen and coverage of her funeral will top the ranks of the most-watched broadcasts in British television history, while newspaper publishers have seen an unprecedented boost in sales as mourners seek commemorative copies. And yet the biggest national event in decades will not provide a commercial bonanza for media firms.ITV has planned its largest-ever outside broadcast, with all of its channels simulcasting ad-free blanket live coverage for the first time in history. The day of the funeral will also be the first time in Channel 4’s four decades on air that it has instituted a 24-hour ad block across its channels. Continue reading...
Former Israeli prime minister rallies supporters from behind bulletproof glass of modified delivery vanAs Israel prepares to head to the ballot box for the fifth time in less than four years, the former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has turned to a new gimmick in the hope of energising a weary electorate: the “Bibibus”.Likened to the popemobile or an aquarium, the rightwing Likud party leader is on the campaign trail in a modified delivery van, one of the sides of which has been replaced with bulletproof glass. Continue reading...
From a visit to a historic church to a flutter on the horses, there are many ways to escape the doldrums during Monday’s big shutdown• Accession of King Charles and death of Queen Elizabeth – latest updatesWatching the state funeral on Monday is not compulsory, even if some public figures have claimed it should be. But anyone looking to avoid it has other options.The bank holiday shutdown stretches from supermarkets and big retailers to leisure centres and tourist attractions. No English Heritage site will open, not even its historic churches, it confirmed last week, nor any National Trust garden or stately home. Continue reading...
Polls show former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is on course for a return to powerIt was a scene that could have been plucked from Brazil’s history books: an enraptured crowd, a sea of flags and, on stage above them, a bearded leftist in a bright red shirt.“The president of hope is here!” the master of ceremonies roared as the star of the show arrived in a police convoy to address the people whose country he is promising to save. Continue reading...
Celebrities including Bono and Liam Neeson hope to bring their homeland’s bard to a global audience with an album of read poemsPatrick Kavanagh is one of Ireland’s most revered poets – a genius from a rural backwater who made the parochial universal. Yet his fame never really reached other shores.While William Butler Yeats and Seamus Heaney won Nobel prizes and were quoted by US presidents, acclaim for Kavanagh remained largely confined to his homeland. Continue reading...
More than 7 million people urged to take refuge as Typhoon Nanmadol hits south-west of country with 150mph windsTyphoon Nanmadol made landfall in south-western Japan on Sunday night, authorities urged millions of people to take shelter from the powerful storm’s high winds and torrential rain.The storm officially made landfall at about 7pm local time (11am BST) as its eyewall – the region just outside the eye that is it most devastating region – arrived near Kagoshima, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. Continue reading...
by Bethan McKernan in Tulkarm, West Bank on (#63RS7)
Joke by joke, standup sensation Sherihan El Hadwa is challenging lazy stereotypes about victimhoodOn a small stage in Tulkarm, a city in the north of the occupied West Bank, Sherihan El Hadwa emerges from the wings to a Palestinian pop song. Dancing and waving the long white cane she uses to navigate the world, the visually impaired comedian already has her audience laughing and clapping along to the music.Hadwa did not have an obvious route into standup comedy, and the many difficulties of life as a disabled woman in the Palestinian territories are not a straightforwardly humorous topic. Continue reading...
Met detained Muhammad Khan, 28, amid reports of disturbance in Westminster HallA man has been charged with a public order offence after he allegedly attempted to grab the Queen’s coffin.Muhammad Khan, 28, from east London, was charged on Saturday under the Public Order Act for “behaviour intending to cause alarm, harassment or distress”. Continue reading...
Mohammed Rahman charged with multiple offences as one Met police officer remains under medical supervisionA 24-year-old man has been charged with attempted murder and grievous bodily harm with intent after the stabbings of two police officers in Leicester Square on Friday, the Metropolitan police have said.Mohammed Rahman, 24, from west London, was also charged with assault and two counts of threatening a person with a blade, charges relating to three other constables. He was also charged with robbery and possession of a knife. Continue reading...
Local media report arrests of unruly counter-protesters as pride marchers flout ban with shortened walk in rainSerbian police arrested more than 64 people as thousands of LGBTQI+ activists turned out for Belgrade’s EuroPride march on Saturday, despite a government ban.The event had been intended as the cornerstone event of the EuroPride gathering. But the interior ministry banned the march earlier this week, citing security concerns after rightwing groups threatened to hold protests. Continue reading...
As the Ukrainian city’s five-month ordeal ends, the evidence of dead bodies and survivors’ testimonies suggests Izium could be another BuchaStanding in the gloom, Maksim Maksimov pointed to the spot where he was tortured with electric shocks. Russian soldiers took him from his cell in the basement of Izium’s police station. They sat him on an office chair and attached a zig-zag crocodile clip to his finger. It was connected by cable to an old-fashioned Soviet military field telephone.And then it began. A soldier cranked the handle, turning it faster and faster. This sent an excruciating pulse through Maksimov’s body. “I collapsed. They pulled me upright. There was a hood on my head. I couldn’t see anything. My legs went numb. I was unable to hear in my left ear,” he recalled. “Then they did it again. I passed out. I came round 40 minutes later back in my cell.” Continue reading...
West Yorkshire police have said an investigation by their major collision inquiry team is under wayA one-year-old girl has died after being hit by a car on a driveway outside her home in West Yorkshire, according to reports. Police were called to an address in Beeston, Leeds, at just after 8pm on Friday night to a report that the baby had been seriously injured following a collision with a car.Emergency services were called to the scene and the child was taken to hospital. West Yorkshire police confirmed that she had died of her injuries and said an investigation by their major collision inquiry team was under way. Continue reading...
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