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- ‘Necessary for security’: veteran Taliban enforcer says amputations will resume
- Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont arrested in Sardinia
- ‘Eerie silence’ as Evergrande misses payment deadline
- House committee on Capitol attack subpoenas Trump’s ex-chief of staff and other top aides
- New evidence suggests spyware used to surveil Emirati activist Alaa Al-Siddiq
- Boris Johnson asked for ‘emergency’ food deal, says Bolsonaro
- Five climbers die after blizzards on Russia’s Mount Elbrus
- China sends jets and bombers near Taiwan as Beijing opposes island’s trade deal bid
- Furious French defence contractor to seek compensation over Aukus deal
- Canary Islands ‘miracle home’ stands alone against volcano’s lava flow
- ‘Absolutely madness’: Melbourne teenagers reveal they are behind leading Covid tracking website
- Covid live: Russia reports record daily deaths; ‘indictment on humanity’ as fewer than 4% of Africans vaccinated
- Desperation, misinformation: how the ivermectin craze spread across the world
- Jacinda Ardern looks to life beyond lockdowns with 90% vaccination target
- Ray Liotta: ‘Why haven’t I worked with Scorsese since Goodfellas? You’d have to ask him. I’d love to’
- The sorrowful dominatrix: cartoonists Steve Bell and Martin Rowson on drawing Angela Merkel
- ‘We’re like Mork and Mindy!’ Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, music’s odd couple
- ‘Go for an entertaining revenge’ – readers’ tips for healing a broken heart
- ‘A poem is a powerful tool’: Somali women raise their voices in the nation of poets
- Apple iPad 2021 review: still the best tablet for most people
- Damien Bendall to go on trial for murder over Killamarsh deaths
- ‘Better ugly than boring’: book celebrates bizarre Belgian houses
- House committee subpoenas key Trump aides | First Thing
- El Salvador’s adoption of bitcoin as legal tender is pure folly
- China's pledge to kick the coal habit comes at a critical moment for the planet | Sam Geall
- Victoria Covid update: Moderna vaccine to be rolled out as Brett Sutton sounds AFL grand final warning
- Salt-tolerant crops ‘revolutionise’ life for struggling Bangladeshi farmers
- ‘We buried our sportswear’: Afghan women fear fight is over for martial arts
- 16 million in Yemen ‘marching towards starvation’ as food rations run low – UN
- Once Covid world-beaters, the mood in New Zealand is changing – and Jacinda Ardern knows it | Tim Watkin
- Angela Merkel’s long reign as chancellor of Germany – in pictures
- Panda 'twerks' around pen to prepare for rare mating event at Adelaide zoo – video
- Wild boar family navigate traffic in Rome - video
- Rolling news: giant moon model escapes from festival in China – video
| ‘Necessary for security’: veteran Taliban enforcer says amputations will resume Posted: 24 Sep 2021 03:18 AM PDT Nooruddin Turabi, in charge of Afghan prisons, says executions and removal of hands will restart, but possibly not in public The Taliban will resume executions and the amputation of hands for criminals they convict, in a return to their harsh version of Islamic justice. According to a senior official – a veteran leader of the hardline Islamist group who was in charge of justice during its previous period in power – executions would not necessarily take place in public as they did before. Continue reading... |
| Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont arrested in Sardinia Posted: 24 Sep 2021 02:56 AM PDT Former head of autonomous government to appear in court to hear Spanish case for extradition The former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, who fled Spain four years ago in the wake of a failed unilateral bid for regional independence, is due to appear in court in Sardinia after being detained by police shortly after arriving on the Italian island on Thursday. Puigdemont, now an MEP living in Belgium, is wanted by Spanish courts over his alleged role in the unilateral independence referendum and the subsequent unilateral declaration of independence in October 2017. He faces charges of sedition, rebellion and misuse of public funds. Continue reading... |
| ‘Eerie silence’ as Evergrande misses payment deadline Posted: 24 Sep 2021 01:06 AM PDT As debt-laden Chinese property giant enters 30-day grace period, officials look to limit unrest and job losses The embattled Chinese property developer Evergrande is inching closer to the potential default that investors fear, after missing an interest payment deadline. The company, which has total debts of about $305bn (£222bn), has run short of cash and investors are worried a collapse could pose systemic risks to China's financial system and reverberate around the world. Continue reading... |
| House committee on Capitol attack subpoenas Trump’s ex-chief of staff and other top aides Posted: 23 Sep 2021 04:48 PM PDT Mark Meadows, Steve Bannon and Dan Scavino among advisers called to testify over president's connection to 6 January events The House select committee scrutinizing the Capitol attack on Thursday sent subpoenas to Trump's White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and a cadre of top Trump aides, demanding their testimony to shed light on the former president's connection to the 6 January riot. The subpoenas and demands for depositions marked the most aggressive investigative actions the select committee has taken since it made records demands and records preservation requests that formed the groundwork of the inquiry into potential White House involvement. Continue reading... |
| New evidence suggests spyware used to surveil Emirati activist Alaa Al-Siddiq Posted: 24 Sep 2021 03:00 AM PDT Citizen Lab confirms human rights campaigner probably hacked by a government client of NSO Group from 2015 to 2020 Even in death, there was little peace for Alaa Al-Siddiq. When the body of the 33-year-old Emirati activist, who died in a car accident in Oxford in June, was shown in a viewing to mourners at Regent's Park Mosque, a number of her close friends stayed away. Continue reading... |
| Boris Johnson asked for ‘emergency’ food deal, says Bolsonaro Posted: 24 Sep 2021 02:35 AM PDT No 10 denies Brazilian president's claim but some speculate food item is turkeys for Christmas The Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, has claimed Boris Johnson asked him for an "emergency" deal to ease shortages of an unspecified food product, amid concerns about further disruption to supermarket supplies. A lack of drivers and food pickers, as well as carbon dioxide used to stun animals for slaughter and create dry ice to keep food fresh, has led to fears that some goods will be missing from shelves in the run-up to Christmas. Continue reading... |
| Five climbers die after blizzards on Russia’s Mount Elbrus Posted: 24 Sep 2021 01:20 AM PDT Fourteen also rescued in operation hampered by strong winds, low visibility and sub-zero temperatures Five climbers have died after a blizzard on Mount Elbrus, Europe's highest peak, Russia's emergencies ministry has said. Thursday's incident happened when a group of 19 climbers were at an altitude of over 5,000 metres (16,000ft). Continue reading... |
| China sends jets and bombers near Taiwan as Beijing opposes island’s trade deal bid Posted: 23 Sep 2021 05:02 PM PDT Nuclear-capable bombers entered air defence zone, says Taipei, amid simmering row over competing bids to join regional trade agreement China has voiced opposition to Taiwan joining a major trans-Pacific trade deal as it flew 24 planes – including two nuclear-capable bombers – into the self-ruled island's air defence zone, the biggest incursion in weeks, Taiwanese officials said. Last week Beijing submitted its own application to become a member of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Continue reading... |
| Furious French defence contractor to seek compensation over Aukus deal Posted: 23 Sep 2021 02:17 PM PDT Head of Naval Group attacks Australia's 'political' decision to cancel €56bn contract with his firm Australia has signed up to an empty promise by agreeing to a US nuclear powered submarine deal for which there is no clear delivery date or technology transfer agreement, the furious head of the French defence contractor Naval Group has warned. Pierre Eric Pommellet also said his firm will be seeking compensation for Australia's cancellation of a €56bn (£48bn) contract for 12 new Attack-class submarines, which he described as a purely political decision which came without warning. Continue reading... |
| Canary Islands ‘miracle home’ stands alone against volcano’s lava flow Posted: 23 Sep 2021 07:25 PM PDT Eruption on La Palma has destroyed hundreds of homes, but one escaped the devastation all around Like a cartoon house with its own raincloud, a Canary Islands home has survived rivers of lava flowing from the volcanic eruption on La Palma, with images showing the untouched residence and nearby landscape surrounded by charred black landscape. Social media users called it the "miracle house", the BBC reported. Its owners, a retired Danish couple who are not on the island, said they were "relieved it's still standing", according to Ada Monnikendam, who built the house. Continue reading... |
| ‘Absolutely madness’: Melbourne teenagers reveal they are behind leading Covid tracking website Posted: 23 Sep 2021 10:44 PM PDT The brains trust behind CovidbaseAU was anonymous before Wesley, 14, and 15 year olds Jack and Darcy tweeted a photograph of themselves It turns out one of the most authoritative Covid-19 tracking sites in Australia is run by three teenagers. The trio, who have been running CovidbaseAU, became part of their own statistics after getting their first doses of the Moderna vaccine in Melbourne. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 24 Sep 2021 04:19 AM PDT Russia reports 828 deaths, its highest daily Covid toll; South African president condemns fact wealthy countries have 82% of vaccine doses
About one in 90 people in private homes in England had Covid-19 in the week up to September 18, down from one in 80 the previous week, according to the Office for National Statistics. The ratio is equivalent to about 620,100 people. At the peak of the second wave in early January it was one in 50 in England.
Rules that have limited social interaction and hit businesses during the pandemic will be dropped from Saturday in Norway, Reuters reports. Social distancing will no longer be required, nightclubs can reopen and restaurants can return to capacity, prime minister Erna Solberg announced in a press conference. Continue reading... |
| Desperation, misinformation: how the ivermectin craze spread across the world Posted: 24 Sep 2021 03:00 AM PDT With Peru's health system overhelmed last year, many residents began self-medicating, an indicator of things to come As Covid-19 cases in Peru rose rapidly during the early months of the pandemic, public interest in the drug ivermectin surged. Misleading information suggesting the drug, used to treat parasites in humans and livestock, had been proven effective against coronavirus reached many Peruvians online, doctors told the Guardian. Continue reading... |
| Jacinda Ardern looks to life beyond lockdowns with 90% vaccination target Posted: 23 Sep 2021 07:02 PM PDT News that jabs may soon be approved for children could allow New Zealand to achieve milestone, experts say, but equality in access must be improved Jacinda Ardern wants to make New Zealand a world leader in Covid vaccinations, inoculating 90% of the population, but experts warn there will be challenges ahead as the prime minister seeks to find a way to take the harshest lockdowns "out of the toolbox". Ardern's aim to make the population one of the most vaccinated in the world may seem ambitious but it was made as Covid modellers warned that anything less could result in 7,000 deaths, and 60,000 hospitalisations in the event of a community outbreak. So far, New Zealand has recorded a total of just 27 deaths. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 24 Sep 2021 12:00 AM PDT After years of avoiding crime films, he's back as a mafioso in the Sopranos prequel The Many Saints of Newark. He talks about being adopted and getting into acting – and saves a surprise for the end I am a little trepidatious ahead of my interview with Ray Liotta because the reviews, shall we say, are mixed. Not about his acting, which has been accoladed and adored from his first major film role, as Melanie Griffith's crazy ex in 1986's Something Wild, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe. No, the problematic reviews are about Liotta personally. One person who worked with him described him to me as "the rudest arsehole I ever met"; another said he's "a bit of a wildcard", and I suspect that the latter is a euphemism for the former. This would explain a long-running movie mystery: why isn't he more successful?' It took Liotta, now 66, until he was 30 to bag Something Wild, but after that, movie stardom seemed assured. He went from there to starring opposite Tom Hulce in the little-remembered Dominick and Eugene, and then playing "Shoeless" Joe Jackson in the extremely well-remembered Field of Dreams. Continue reading... |
| The sorrowful dominatrix: cartoonists Steve Bell and Martin Rowson on drawing Angela Merkel Posted: 24 Sep 2021 03:00 AM PDT With her generous features and a dolorous countenance, the German chancellor has been an artist's dream Sixteen years is a very long time in politics, and since 2005 we've had Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron (and Nick Clegg), Theresa May and Boris Johnson – while the Germans have just had Angela Merkel. It usually takes time to get the hang of drawing a politician, particularly one from a foreign country, and Merkel was no exception. I'd only just about got a handle on the SPD's Gerhard Schröder when he was replaced by the CDU's first female leader, and my first attempts were a little shaky and somewhat speculative. Was she a Thatcherite? Would she be pro-Bush, like Blair, or continue Schröder's opposition to the war in Iraq? Would she be easy to draw? Continue reading... |
| ‘We’re like Mork and Mindy!’ Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, music’s odd couple Posted: 23 Sep 2021 10:00 PM PDT Fourteen years after their Grammy-winning debut, the roots duo have reunited – facing high expectations. They explain how they left their comfort zones with a 'nuts but tasteful' all-star band More than half a century since arriving to play his first show in the US with Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant was in the strange position of having to explain himself to the authorities. "I had to prove that I was contributing to the betterment of the American system somehow, which is kind of cute, really," Plant says of this post-lockdown trip to Nashville. He is sitting in the city's famous Sound Emporium studio with his collaborator, the bluegrass legend Alison Krauss. It is the same place where they recorded their second, highly anticipated record as a duo, Raise the Roof, before the pandemic put the world on pause. Continue reading... |
| ‘Go for an entertaining revenge’ – readers’ tips for healing a broken heart Posted: 24 Sep 2021 03:30 AM PDT Breaking up is never easy and breaking up during lockdown made it even harder. Take a lesson from our contributors' experiences Take up Muay Thai – it's a great way to get really sweaty on a weekly basis. If the heartbreak is really bad, travel solo, going as far and as for as long as you can, preferably somewhere with a lot of open space – I ended up in Newfoundland and Mongolia after separate heartbreaks. Put your face into the wind and scream, or cry, or whatever it is you need to do to let it go. Remind yourself to keep looking forward when you find yourself ruminating. Then, like all things, give it time. |
| ‘A poem is a powerful tool’: Somali women raise their voices in the nation of poets Posted: 24 Sep 2021 02:24 AM PDT A childhood encounter with a hyena inspired Hawa Jama Abdi's first verse. Now she is part of an arts project designed to encourage women storytellers - and unite all Somalis When Hawa Jama Abdi was eight years old, she got lost in a forest and found herself in the path of a hyena. In her place, many would have run, some would have frozen – but Jama Abdi, the blind daughter of Somali pastoralists, kept her cool, and composed her first poem. The verse ran: I lived in fear of you, day and night |
| Apple iPad 2021 review: still the best tablet for most people Posted: 23 Sep 2021 11:00 PM PDT Faster chip, more storage and huge video call camera upgrade keep Apple's cheapest tablet in front Apple's updated low-end iPad looks set to continue its dominance of the market with newer chips, twice the storage and a brilliant new video-calling camera. The 10.2in iPad costs £319 ($329/A$499) – £300 for students – making it Apple's best-value tablet, sitting below the £479 iPad mini and £579 iPad Air. Continue reading... |
| Damien Bendall to go on trial for murder over Killamarsh deaths Posted: 24 Sep 2021 04:00 AM PDT Man charged with four counts of murder after woman and three children found dead near Sheffield A 31-year-old man is due to go on trial next year charged with four counts of murder after a woman and three children were found dead in a house near Sheffield. The bodies of John Paul Bennett, 13, Lacey Bennett, 11, their mother Terri Harris, 35, and Lacey's friend Connie Gent, 11, were discovered at a property in Killamarsh on Sunday morning. Continue reading... |
| ‘Better ugly than boring’: book celebrates bizarre Belgian houses Posted: 24 Sep 2021 04:05 AM PDT Hannes Coudenys' Ugly Belgian Houses updated with more from the 'chaos known as Belgium' Ever since he was a child, Hannes Coudenys was annoyed by the "visual chaos" around him. On the road from home to his school in Bruges, he found a mishmash of architectural styles – haciendas, villas, farm-style houses, all mixed up with boxy malls and carpet shops. One day, as an adult, still exasperated, he took a photo of a house that was split into two jarringly different styles: a grey urban semi whose other half was a jaunty brick cottage. He put the photo online with the title "ugly Belgian houses", and an internet trend was born. Continue reading... |
| House committee subpoenas key Trump aides | First Thing Posted: 24 Sep 2021 03:10 AM PDT Mark Meadows, Steve Bannon and Dan Scavino among advisers called to testify over Capitol attack. Plus: the right to clean air Good morning. The House select committee scrutinizing the Capitol attack has subpoenaed Donald Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows along with three of the former president's top aides. Continue reading... |
| El Salvador’s adoption of bitcoin as legal tender is pure folly Posted: 23 Sep 2021 10:00 PM PDT Cryptocurrencies are a baffling entity but adopting it as legal tender is the strangest, most worrying aspect of all El Salvador this month became the first country to adopt a cryptocurrency – in this case, bitcoin – as legal tender. I say the first, because others might follow. But they should think twice, because the idea is highly dubious – and likely to be economically dangerous for developing countries in particular. I will admit that I don't understand the need for cryptocurrencies at all. Like many economists, I fail to see what problem they solve. They aren't well designed to fulfil any of the classic functions of money – a unit of account, store of value, or means of payment – because their prices are so extraordinarily volatile. This volatility is not surprising, because cryptocurrencies are backed neither by reserves nor by the reputation of a well-established institution, such as a government or even a private bank or other trusted corporation. Continue reading... |
| China's pledge to kick the coal habit comes at a critical moment for the planet | Sam Geall Posted: 24 Sep 2021 04:00 AM PDT The devil will be in the details, but ending investments in overseas coal shows Beijing takes the climate crisis seriously
"China will step up support for other developing countries in developing green and low-carbon energy," said China's president, Xi Jinping, at the United Nations on Tuesday, "and will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad." It was a short, ambiguous and not entirely unexpected sentence, but it came at a critical moment. UN-led climate talks in November at Cop26 in Glasgow will represent the first opportunity since the signing of the 2015 UN Paris agreement for countries to ratchet up the commitments in their pledges, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs). Countries need to increase their NDC ambitions by five times if the world is to reach the goal of not warming by more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Xi's announcement, which effectively amounts to the end of international public financing for coal power, seems to match the ambition necessary for this moment. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 24 Sep 2021 04:01 AM PDT Victoria reports 733 new cases and one death as chief medical officer condemns 'wacky' protesters The Moderna vaccine will be rolled out at state-run Covid-19 vaccination sites from next week as Victoria pushes to reach its 80% first-dose target. The Victorian health minister, Martin Foley, said 32,000 Moderna vaccines had been provided by the commonwealth to be administered at state-run clinics, following supply constraints of the Pfizer vaccine flagged for next month. Continue reading... |
| Salt-tolerant crops ‘revolutionise’ life for struggling Bangladeshi farmers Posted: 23 Sep 2021 10:01 PM PDT As sea levels rise, growers are employing innovative methods to adapt to saline soils Like millions of people across Bangladesh, Anita Bala, 45, relies on a small plot of land to feed her family. But for years nothing would grow. Her husband farmed shrimp in the salty ponds on their land, but the surrounding ground was barren. Bala's efforts to cultivate beans and pulses failed repeatedly. Eventually she gave up. Continue reading... |
| ‘We buried our sportswear’: Afghan women fear fight is over for martial arts Posted: 23 Sep 2021 06:01 AM PDT Female taekwondo and karate trainers are forced to practise in secret since the Taliban takeover and fear they may never compete again On the morning of 15 August, when the Taliban were at the gates of Kabul, Soraya, a martial arts trainer in the Afghan capital, woke up with a sense of dread. "It was as though the sun had lost its colour," she says. That day she taught what would be her last karate class at the gym she had started to teach women self-defence skills. "By 11am we had to say our goodbyes to our students. We didn't know when we would see each other again," she says. Soraya is passionate about martial arts and its potential to transform women's minds and bodies. "Sport has no gender; it is about good health. I haven't read anywhere in Qur'an that prevents women from participating in sports to stay healthy," she says. Continue reading... |
| 16 million in Yemen ‘marching towards starvation’ as food rations run low – UN Posted: 23 Sep 2021 03:59 AM PDT Aid worker describes 'horrific' scenes in one hospital where starving and malnourished children 'look like skeletons' At least 5 million people in Yemen are on the brink of famine and a further 16 million are "marching toward starvation", as the country's humanitarian crisis spirals out of control. The situation in Yemen, which has been torn apart by civil war, has been described as "rapidly deteriorating" by experts. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 23 Sep 2021 05:42 PM PDT Frustration in Auckland has been rising and the cabinet would have been aware it risked losing the crowd One of the many quotes attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte that he probably never said, was that he preferred his generals lucky, rather than able. When it's a matter of life and death, "give me lucky generals," he's reputed to have pleaded. It's a view that New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern echoed this week when she announced that Auckland – home to about a third of all New Zealanders – was moving out of the strict level 4 lockdown to level 3. Replace "generals" with "policy" and you get a pretty accurate sense of cabinet's big call this week. In a country that has essentially tattooed "go hard, go early" on to one collective arm and "stay home, stay safe" on to the other, the decision to let about 300,000 people go back to their places of work when Auckland's still getting 15-30 cases a day in the community is a turning point in the government's approach to this pandemic. Both in public health terms and politically. A year ago, public opinion wouldn't have worn such faith in "lucky generals". But that was a year ago. Continue reading... |
| Angela Merkel’s long reign as chancellor of Germany – in pictures Posted: 23 Sep 2021 11:00 PM PDT After 16 years in power, Angela Merkel is to retire as chancellor after a general election on Sunday, leaving a gaping hole in German politics. Merkel announced in October 2018 that her fourth term in office would be the last. The decision marks the first time since 1949 that an incumbent chancellor has not run for re-election. Appointed chancellor for the first time on 22 November 2005, Merkel has been in office for almost as long as Helmut Kohl, Germany's longest-serving leader, who was in power for just over 16 years |
| Panda 'twerks' around pen to prepare for rare mating event at Adelaide zoo – video Posted: 23 Sep 2021 10:30 AM PDT Australia's only two giant pandas are getting ready to rumble. Once a year, a tiny mating window opens. The notoriously sex-shy animals will have about 36 hours to try for a cub. Thanks to the pandemic, which kept a Chinese reproduction expert out of the country, and a better understanding of the panda (research shows it's best to just 'let them be pandas'), Adelaide zoo now sees natural breeding as the best option for Wang Wang and Fu Ni. Giant pandas are no longer endangered, but with just over 1,800 in the wild, they're still vulnerable. Around the world, panda keepers have met the goal of having 600 in breeding programs. Continue reading... |
| Wild boar family navigate traffic in Rome - video Posted: 23 Sep 2021 04:11 AM PDT A family of wild boar were filmed walking on the Via Trionfale in the northern suburbs of Rome. In recent years wild boar have been wreaking havoc in Rome, even causing fatal car crashes. The animal is believed to be responsible for an average of 10,000 road accidents a year in the country. |
| Rolling news: giant moon model escapes from festival in China – video Posted: 23 Sep 2021 01:34 AM PDT A giant 'moon' rolled to freedom in Henan province after it escaped festival celebrations. It was not the first time a large inflatable satellite went rogue: in 2016 another model moon was blown into the streets of Fuzhou in south-east China during Typhoon Meranti. The moon festival is celebrated in many east Asian countries and coincides with the full harvest moon in September Continue reading... |
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