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• Trump tweets 'not much headway' on shutdown as key services threatened
• Czech democracy ‘under threat’ from rising debt crisis
• Brain scans show social exclusion creates jihadists, say researchers
• UK's 12-sided pound coin goes global with rollout to overseas territories
• Senator Fraser Anning will charge taxpayers for travel to attend far-right rally
• Tourists in India warned to avoid crowds as tension over temple ban mounts
• Cyclist, 90, stripped of world record after failing drugs test
• Labour faces ‘mass challenge’ over Brexit policy
• Two British special forces soldiers injured by Isis in Syria
• Hyams beach: thousands turned away as NSW tourism hot spot 'loved to death'
• Tim Roth: ‘As messy as your life can be, there has to be a window you can escape through'
• The death of Venice? City’s battles with tourism and flooding reach crisis level
• Some US troops could remain in Syria, Trump official says
• The Death of Murat Idrissi by Tommy Wieringa – review
• Star-spangled shutdown: how nationalism and nationalization warped US politics
• Venezuela crisis takes deadly toll on buckling health system
• To woo China, Apple must learn that it’s not in California any more
• Sydney man dies after stepping on fallen power line in driveway
• Is the tide at last on the turn for the world’s ‘strongman’ leaders?
• Why Italy regrets its Faustian pact with tourist cash

Trump tweets 'not much headway' on shutdown as key services threatened Posted: 05 Jan 2019 02:23 PM PST Pence and Kushner lead talks with Democratic aides Opinion: Trump will lose 'bigly' on immigration Saturday was day 15 of a partial government shutdown that Donald Trump said could go on for months or years, if he is not given funding for a wall on the Mexican border. As new talks were held without result, potentially devastating effects of the standoff were coming into focus. Related: Shutdown over border wall is crucial test for Trump's presidency Continue reading...

Czech democracy ‘under threat’ from rising debt crisis Posted: 06 Jan 2019 12:00 AM PST MPs to vote on new law to ease punitive collection system Snowed under with debts from a failed business, Renata's hands shook as she told a tale of financial misery that drove her to contemplate suicide and visited fear on her ageing parents. "I was so scared of the debt collectors because they were coming to my parents' house," she said, depicting a nightmare scenario as hungry creditors closed in. "If you are a debtor here, the state criminalises you, worse than if you're a real criminal. Even a murderer can be released early with good behaviour. I didn't kill anyone or hurt anyone, I didn't want my business to collapse – but I will not be free until the end of my life." Continue reading...

Brain scans show social exclusion creates jihadists, say researchers Posted: 06 Jan 2019 02:06 AM PST International studies of young Muslim men show that radicalisation follows a sense of isolation from society For years western policymakers have tried to establish what causes individuals to be radicalised. Now a pioneering study has used medical science to gain fresh insight into the process – in the brains of potential jihadists. University College London (UCL) researchers were part of an international team that used neuroimaging techniques to map how the brains of radicalised individuals respond to being socially marginalised. The findings, they claim, confirm that exclusion is a leading factor in creating violent jihadists. Continue reading...

UK's 12-sided pound coin goes global with rollout to overseas territories Posted: 05 Jan 2019 07:43 PM PST Coins expected to bring increased security to economies of British territories and dependencies The UK's 12-sided one pound coin is "going global", the Treasury has announced – as overseas territories and crown dependencies will be able to design and mint their own versions of it. The coin, which was introduced in 2017 and boasts features designed to thwart criminals trying to produce copies, has been described by the government as "the most secure of its kind in the world". Continue reading...

Senator Fraser Anning will charge taxpayers for travel to attend far-right rally Posted: 05 Jan 2019 10:43 PM PST Labor's acting leader, Tanya Plibersek, says PM should speak out against Queensland senator The Queensland senator Fraser Anning will charge taxpayers for his return flights to Melbourne to attend a rally involving far-right extremists and film a video alongside its leaders, the convicted criminals Blair Cottrell and Neil Erikson. The senator defended his attendance at the rally, telling the New Daily: "It's official business. I am a senator. I didn't go there for a picnic." Continue reading...

Tourists in India warned to avoid crowds as tension over temple ban mounts Posted: 05 Jan 2019 06:11 PM PST UK tells holidaymakers to 'remain vigilant' amid simmering row about women's access to Sabarimala shrine in Kerala Britain has warned tourists visiting the southern Indian state of Kerala to be vigilant and avoid large crowds after sporadic violence in recent days over the admission of women to one of Hinduism's holiest temples. In updated travel advice, the Foreign Office advised UK nationals in Kerala, popular with tourists particularly at this time of year, to "monitor media reports closely, remain vigilant and avoid large public gatherings". Continue reading...

Cyclist, 90, stripped of world record after failing drugs test Posted: 05 Jan 2019 07:59 PM PST Carl Grove accepts public warning from Usada Violation likely caused by contaminated meat A veteran American cyclist has accepted a public warning issued by the US Anti-Doping Agency after being stripped of a world record he set earlier this year for failing a drugs test. Carl Grove set a new record when winning the 90-94 age group sprint title at the US Masters Track National Championships in July, only to test positive for epitrenbolone, a metabolite of trenbolon, which is a substance prohibited by Usada. Continue reading...

Labour faces ‘mass challenge’ over Brexit policy Posted: 05 Jan 2019 02:08 PM PST Thousands of members demand second referendum as poll reveals party's share of vote would plunge if it backed exit deal Thousands of Labour members have demanded their party oppose Theresa May's Brexit deal and back a second referendum over EU membership. The call comes before a key party gathering which will be held amid warnings that some are already ending their membership over the issue. The pressure emerges as the biggest Brexit poll conducted since the referendum suggests support for Labour would fall significantly should it back or allow its MPs to back a Brexit agreement. More than 5,000 Labour members and supporters have contacted the party before its policy meeting of senior figures this week. Continue reading...

Two British special forces soldiers injured by Isis in Syria Posted: 05 Jan 2019 11:27 PM PST Attack comes after Trump said he would withdraw US troops as 'we have defeated Isis' Two British special forces soldiers have been seriously injured in a missile attack by the Islamic State (Isis) in Syria. The incident is thought to have happened on Saturday morning and the soldiers were airlifted by US forces for medical treatment. Rudaw, a Kurdish news outlet, reported that the British soldiers were hurt in an attack on a Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) base in the town of Deir ez-Zor, in the east of the country. Continue reading...

Hyams beach: thousands turned away as NSW tourism hot spot 'loved to death' Posted: 05 Jan 2019 05:41 PM PST Shoalhaven council uses traffic controllers to redirect visitors after area 'inundated' with thousands of cars Thousands of drivers have been turned away from the New South Wales beach billed as having the world's whitest sand as the local council brainstorms solutions with residents over its booming popularity. Shoalhaven city council has appointed traffic controllers to redirect visitors from the Hyams beach village in Jervis Bay, given its parking capacity is 400 but up to 5,000 vehicles are around each day during peak season. Continue reading...

Tim Roth: ‘As messy as your life can be, there has to be a window you can escape through' Posted: 06 Jan 2019 12:00 AM PST From south London to LA, Tim Roth has been Hollywood royalty for almost three decades. He talks about Brexit, unlikely role models, and always being in the right place at the right time A young man walks into a bar and meets Sam Shepard, Christopher Walken and Al Pacino. The man is Tim Roth. The year is 1990, and the actor is in New York to film Jumpin' at the Boneyard, a bleak movie about drug abuse. Roth, who planned to nurse a quiet beer while watching American football, found himself in conversation with Walken and Shepard. "I thought: 'What the fuck have I walked into?'" he says. "It was purely by chance." By the time he left, Shepard had promised to write him a part in his next play. It was not the first time Roth had been in the right place at the right time, and it wouldn't be the last. This unlikely encounter took place at a propitious time, just as Roth was starring as Van Gogh in Robert Altman's Vincent & Theo, and shortly before his comic double act with Gary Oldman in Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead hit the festival circuit. Writing in the New Yorker, Pauline Kael described Roth's acting as "a form of kinetic discharge". After a decade in which the film industry had largely curdled into a hit machine of bland studio blockbusters, independent film was stirring into life and craft was back in vogue. Continue reading...

The death of Venice? City’s battles with tourism and flooding reach crisis level Posted: 06 Jan 2019 01:00 AM PST A tax on daytrippers has hit the headlines, but La Serenissima's mounting problems also include rising waters, angry locals and a potential black mark from Unesco Why Italy regrets its Faustian pact with tourist cash Venice's Santa Lucia railway station is packed as visitors scuttle across the concourse towards the water-bus stops. Taking a selfie against the backdrop of the Grand Canal, Ciro Esposito and his girlfriend have just arrived and are unimpressed with what may greet them in future if the Venetian authorities get their way: a minimum city entry fee of €2.50 throughout the year, rising to between €5 and €10 during peak periods. It is the price of a cappuccino, but for them "it's going too far". "They are using people like a bank machine," says Esposito. "We are in Europe and can travel freely across borders, yet we have to pay to enter one of our own cities." Continue reading...

Some US troops could remain in Syria, Trump official says Posted: 05 Jan 2019 11:01 AM PST Trump made controversial decision to withdraw US troops John Bolton to discuss pullout with Netanyahu and Erdogan The US could leave some troops at a key military outpost in southern Syria, a Trump administration official told reporters on Saturday, despite the president's controversial decision to withdraw all troops from the war-racked country. Related: Trump slows Syria pullout but claims 'hero' status Continue reading...

The Death of Murat Idrissi by Tommy Wieringa – review Posted: 05 Jan 2019 11:00 PM PST A tale of an unlikely pair of female people-traffickers in Morocco is gripping and intense It was supposed to be a great adventure. But for the two young women, born in the Netherlands of African parents, and considered Dutch, their badly planned trip to Morocco, home of their forefathers, begins with some expensive minor bother with a rented car. It ends in a ghastly tragedy, which leaves at least one of the girls questioning her humanity. The gifted Dutch writer Tommy Wieringa is a bold, intelligent stylist, unafraid of exposing the ugliness of society juxtaposed with the vagaries of human nature. In this taut, intense contemporary thriller of multiple exploitations, he initially appears to be studying the dynamics of a young female friendship set against the broader theme of cultural assimilation. Continue reading...

Star-spangled shutdown: how nationalism and nationalization warped US politics Posted: 05 Jan 2019 10:00 PM PST Three new books help us understand how Trump's spat with Democrats over 1,000th of one percent of the federal budget came to be so weighted with meaning As I write, the federal government sits in partial shutdown, ostensibly over a measly $3.7bn difference in funding, less than one 1,000th of one percent of the 2019 federal budget, for construction of a wall along the US-Mexico border. Related: It's the demographics, stupid: party loyalties are shifting as 2020 looms Continue reading...

Venezuela crisis takes deadly toll on buckling health system Posted: 05 Jan 2019 11:00 PM PST With hospitals lacking even soap, a 'perfect storm' of poor hygiene, malnourished patients and shortage of drugs has left families grieving and experts fearing a total collapse In the dusty squatter settlement where she spent her short life, Victoria Martínez is remembered as a vivacious, dance-loving child who showered "buenos días" on all those she met. Related: The fallen metropolis: the collapse of Caracas, the jewel of Latin America Continue reading...

To woo China, Apple must learn that it’s not in California any more Posted: 05 Jan 2019 11:00 PM PST Developing markets offer growth: but the firm's phones must become cheaper and its services must compete with local rivals After years of boom, Apple looks set for a rockier road in 2019 – partly through faults of its own and partly through social and economic factors that are affecting all the big smartphone manufacturers. The company's chief executive, Tim Cook, laid the blame for a shock cut in sales forecasts – and the subsequent share price tumble – on the economic downturn in China. A convenient excuse, but far from the whole picture. Continue reading...

Sydney man dies after stepping on fallen power line in driveway Posted: 06 Jan 2019 12:00 AM PST Dr Hossam Ibrahim mourned by friends after being electrocuted by 11,000-volt power line in Punchbowl A Sydney man electrocuted when he stepped on a fallen power line outside his home has been remembered as a "great humanitarian" by the charity he chaired. Dr Hossam Ibrahim died after coming into contact with the 11,000-volt power line in his driveway in Punchbowl about 10.30pm on Saturday. Continue reading...

Is the tide at last on the turn for the world’s ‘strongman’ leaders? Posted: 06 Jan 2019 01:00 AM PST The fall of the Saudi crown prince after the Khashoggi affair is a cautionary tale for all authoritarian rulers The trial of 11 people charged with the murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi opened and was quickly adjourned in Riyadh last week. It may be that the outcome is fixed in advance. Yet that the hearing took place at all could be seen as progress of a kind. It suggests even a state as autocratic, inward-looking and undemocratic as Saudi Arabia is not immune to international opinion and can be forced, in extremis, to respect the human right to justice. The Khashoggi affair has provided a chastening lesson for Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince, who is widely believed to have ordered the journalist's slaying in Istanbul in October. Until then, Salman was riding high, courted by Donald Trump, lauded at home for modest social reform and feared, if not respected, across the Arab Middle East for his war of attrition in Yemen and determination to face down Iran. Continue reading...

Why Italy regrets its Faustian pact with tourist cash Posted: 06 Jan 2019 01:00 AM PST Venice, Florence, Rome are all struggling to cope with selfie-stick sightseers, but turnstiles at city gates will worsen the problem Until a few years ago, every nation wanted to bring in the most tourists possible. Receiving visitors wasn't just a means of promoting a country and its culture, but a sure-fire way to fill the coffers. Tourism offered money for old rope, or at least for old ruins. Blessed with beauty, culture and class, Italy assiduously promoted itself as a dream destination throughout the postwar period. For centuries it had welcomed aristocrats and connoisseurs on the Grand Tour, so thought coping with the less demanding masses would be simple. Continue reading...

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