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- ‘Someone lied’: French foreign minister accuses Australia of submarine betrayal in latest broadside
- Top Republicans rub shoulders with extremists in secretive rightwing group, leak reveals
- ‘There’s cameras everywhere’: testimonies detail far-reaching surveillance of Uyghurs in China
- Nicolas Sarkozy sentenced to one-year for illegally financing 2012 election
- Kim Jong-un orders hotline with the South to reopen as he condemns ‘cunning’ US
- Top US general says Afghan collapse can be traced to Trump-Taliban deal
- Britney Spears’ father suspended from conservatorship in victory for singer
- Hong Kong seeks to resurrect legislation to further crush dissent
- China’s factory activity in shock slowdown as energy crisis hits home
- Former Nazi concentration camp secretary, 96, faces trial
- Coronavirus live news: Ukraine reports highest daily cases since April; Denmark falls short on vaccination target
- ‘I’ll never go back’: Uganda’s schools at risk as teachers find new work during Covid
- Brazil hospital chain accused of hiding Covid deaths and giving unproven drugs
- YouTube to remove misinformation videos about all vaccines
- Anish Kapoor on vaginas, recovering from breakdown and his violent new work: ‘Freud would have a field day’
- ‘I pleaded for help. No one wrote back’: the pain of watching my country fall to the Taliban
- ‘Haves and have-nots’: how the housing crisis is creating two New Zealands – a photo essay
- ‘Shark calling’: locals claim ancient custom threatened by deep-sea mining
- ‘We have to fight for these conditions’: why Danish meat plant workers are Europe’s best paid
- ‘I’ve been dead so many times’: the life and times of New Orleans’s blues king
- Sarah Everard: Wayne Couzens to be sentenced for kidnap, rape and murder
- Tunisia’s president names Najla Bouden as country’s first female PM
- Cities scramble to ban ‘ghost guns’ as untraceable weapons’ popularity soars
- Death toll in Ecuador prison riot exceeds 100 with some inmates beheaded
- Rex Patrick’s plan for referendum on federal takeover of Murray Darling Basin rejected
- Indigenous children set to receive billions after judge rejects Trudeau challenges
- Fears grow for photojournalist arrested by Taliban as executions resume
- Kenya bans LGBTQ+ documentary for ‘promoting same-sex marriage’
- We’re told not to bottle up bad experiences – but a stiff upper lip can be for the best | Adrian Chiles
- In its latest cut-and-paste child welfare report, New Zealand fails Māori again | Aaron Smale
- Democrats barrel toward make-or-break vote as crucial 24 hours begins
- Meng and the Michaels: why China’s embrace of hostage diplomacy is a warning to other nations
- Trump-Taliban deal had 'psychological' effect on Afghan government says top US general – video
- Steaming pyramid of rock emerges from water off La Palma as lava reaches the sea and cools – video
| ‘Someone lied’: French foreign minister accuses Australia of submarine betrayal in latest broadside Posted: 29 Sep 2021 11:56 PM PDT Jean-Yves Le Drian says Australia reassured France everything was fine right up to the day the Aukus pact was announced France has accused Australia of lying shortly before Canberra cancelled a major submarine contract, with the French foreign minister declaring "someone lied". With no sign of any imminent easing of tensions between the two countries, Jean-Yves Le Drian told a parliamentary hearing that Australia had never expressed doubts about the €56bn (A$90bn) submarine contract or the strategic Indo-Pacific pact before breaking the contract. Continue reading... |
| Top Republicans rub shoulders with extremists in secretive rightwing group, leak reveals Posted: 30 Sep 2021 02:00 AM PDT Wealthy entrepreneurs and media moguls also named on membership list for influential Council for National Policy A leaked document has revealed the membership list of the secretive Council for National Policy (CNP), showing how it provides opportunities for elite Republicans, wealthy entrepreneurs, media proprietors and pillars of the US conservative movement to rub shoulders with anti-abortion and anti-Islamic extremists. Related: In deep red West Virginia, Biden's $3.5tn spending proposal is immensely popular Continue reading... |
| ‘There’s cameras everywhere’: testimonies detail far-reaching surveillance of Uyghurs in China Posted: 30 Sep 2021 03:00 AM PDT China's surveillance machine has grown with the aid of Chinese and international technology companies. But few have faced repercussions Abdusalam Muhammad recalls local police interrogating him and his family in their home of Yakan in China's Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region as early as 1995. At the time, his family was deeply involved with the local mosque. His father was the imam, and his grandfather was the mosque's secretary. As for Muhammad, he said he prayed five times a day, was a "non-smoker" and a "well-behaved man". "The head of the religious affairs of our village noticed me and reported everything to the police," a translation of his statement submitted to the tribunal read. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Nicolas Sarkozy sentenced to one-year for illegally financing 2012 election Posted: 30 Sep 2021 03:05 AM PDT Former French president is expected to appeal sentence that could be served at home under electronic surveillance. The former French president Nicolas Sarkozyhas been sentenced to a one-year prison term after a Paris court found him guilty of illegally financing his unsuccessful 2012 re-election effort. Sarkozy, who was not in court for the verdict, has denied wrongdoing and is expected to appeal. Continue reading... |
| Kim Jong-un orders hotline with the South to reopen as he condemns ‘cunning’ US Posted: 29 Sep 2021 06:34 PM PDT North Korean leader said Biden offer of dialogue is 'a facade' and blamed the US for 'hostile policy' Kim Jong-un has condemned a US offer of dialogue as a "facade", state media reported, but said he had ordered officials to restore communication lines with South Korea to "promote peace". Speaking in parliament on Wednesday, the North Korean leader accused the US of continuing a "hostile policy" against his nuclear-armed country, despite the Biden administration's offers of negotiations without preconditions. Continue reading... |
| Top US general says Afghan collapse can be traced to Trump-Taliban deal Posted: 29 Sep 2021 12:44 PM PDT The Doha agreement, signed in February 2020, set a date for the US to fully withdraw troops by May 2021 The collapse of the Afghan government and its security forces can be traced to a 2020 agreement between the Taliban and the Trump administration that promised a complete US troop withdrawal, senior Pentagon officials have told Congress. Gen Frank McKenzie, the head of central command, told the House armed services committee that once the US troop presence was pushed below 2,500 as part of President Joe Biden's decision in April to complete a total withdrawal by September, the unraveling of the US-backed Afghan government accelerated. Continue reading... |
| Britney Spears’ father suspended from conservatorship in victory for singer Posted: 29 Sep 2021 03:45 PM PDT Star has sought liberation from Jamie Spears' control of her finances and personal life for years A Los Angeles judge has suspended Britney Spears' father from the conservatorship that has controlled her life for 13 years, marking a major victory for the singer, who has long objected to the arrangement that has stripped her of independence. At a court hearing on Wednesday, Judge Brenda Penny ordered Jamie Spears suspended as conservator effective immediately. Continue reading... |
| Hong Kong seeks to resurrect legislation to further crush dissent Posted: 30 Sep 2021 01:48 AM PDT Article 23, shelved in 2003, may target foreign organisations and bans 'subversion' against Chinese government The Hong Kong government is pushing ahead with its own national security legislation to "fill gaps" around the Beijing-imposed law already being used to crush dissent and jail opposition figures. On Wednesday, the city's security secretary, the former police chief Chris Tang, said the government would consider targeting Taiwanese and other foreign political organisations when drafting the new legislation, known as Article 23. Continue reading... |
| China’s factory activity in shock slowdown as energy crisis hits home Posted: 29 Sep 2021 10:08 PM PDT Output, orders and employment all fell in September, according to official data, as Beijing turns to Russia to ease its electricity shortages China's factory activity has shrunk unexpectedly amid curbs on electricity use and rising prices for commodities and parts, raising more concerns about the state of the world's second biggest economy. A closely watched survey released on Thursday showed that China's factory activity contracted in September for the first time since the pandemic took a grip in February 2020. Continue reading... |
| Former Nazi concentration camp secretary, 96, faces trial Posted: 29 Sep 2021 09:00 PM PDT Irmgard Furchner faces charges of aiding and abetting the murder of thousands of prisoners at Stutthof A 96-year-old woman who worked as a secretary for a Nazi concentration camp commandant is to face trial in northern Germany on Thursday on charges of aiding and abetting the murder of thousands of prisoners. Irmgard Furchner, who was just 18 when she started work at Stutthof camp on the Baltic coast in Nazi-occupied Poland, is the first woman to stand trial in decades over crimes connected to the Third Reich. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 30 Sep 2021 02:58 AM PDT Latest updates: more than 12,000 new cases recorded in Ukraine yesterday amid renewed surge; Denmark set to miss target of having 90% over 12 fully vaccinated by 1 October
Here is a brief round-up of the day's top Covid news stories so far:
The UK government needs to speed up Covid vaccine donations to developing countries or risk causing "irreparable damage" to both global health security and Britain's reputation, a committee of MPs has warned. In a report released today, the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee said "glaring inequality" in access to vaccines risked allowing new variants to spread in developing countries. The rapid creation of an effective vaccine is a remarkable achievement for international cooperation and has saved a huge number of lives. However, glaring inequalities in vaccine access mean that lower-income countries have been left far behind. Bolstering vaccination rates in these countries is not only a moral imperative but will benefit us all by slowing the spread of a deadly disease. Continue reading... |
| ‘I’ll never go back’: Uganda’s schools at risk as teachers find new work during Covid Posted: 29 Sep 2021 11:00 PM PDT Many private schools may not reopen after staff laid off during lockdown say they will not return to the profession The last message Mary Namitala received from the private school in which she taught was in March last year, the day all schools in Uganda were ordered close due to Covid-19. The message read: "No more payments until when schools open." "My husband and I decided to leave our rented house in town and shifted to the village, to our unfinished house. We could not afford to continue paying rent," says Namitala, from her home in Bombo in central Uganda, about 20 miles north of the capital Kampala. Continue reading... |
| Brazil hospital chain accused of hiding Covid deaths and giving unproven drugs Posted: 29 Sep 2021 11:45 AM PDT Group of whistleblowing doctors gave 10,000-page dossier to investigators last month with allegations against Prevent Senior One of Brazil's biggest healthcare providers has been accused of covering up coronavirus deaths, pressuring doctors to prescribe ineffective treatments, and testing unproven drugs on elderly patients as part of ideologically charged efforts to help the Brazilian government resist a Covid lockdown. Related: Trump may be gone, but Covid has not seen off populism Continue reading... |
| YouTube to remove misinformation videos about all vaccines Posted: 29 Sep 2021 06:00 AM PDT Streaming site cracks down on harmful content about all approved Covid jabs YouTube is to remove videos that spread misinformation about all vaccines, as it steps up a crackdown on harmful content posted during the coronavirus pandemic. From Wednesday, the video streaming site, which has already banned Covid jab falsehoods, will take down content that contains misinformation such as claiming any approved vaccine is dangerous, causes chronic health defects or does not reduce spread of disease. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 29 Sep 2021 10:00 PM PDT Why has the artist painted scenes of bloodletting, decapitation and a woman with 10,000 breasts? He's scared to talk about it – but he can explain his fascination with vaginas and the world's blackest black At 67, Anish Kapoor, with a knighthood, a Turner prize and a retrospective due at the Venice Biennale next year, appears determined to strip away his own artistic skin. Like Marsyas – the satyr flayed alive by Apollo, whose gory fate Kapoor once commemorated in a 150m-long, 10-storey-high sculpture – the artist is exposing his innards. That's the only way to describe his latest works. One of the world's most renowned sculptors is about to go public as, well, a painter. Yet it is the content of the works he's about to unveil that may disconcert. "They're very, very violent," he confesses. "And I just wonder what the hell that has to do with what's in me. I can't sit here and psychoanalyse them. I don't know how to. But I recognise that it's there." The works, about to go on display at Modern Art Oxford, are beautifully painted yet brutal: full of images of bloodletting, decapitation and disembowelling. Kapoor seems to have taught himself to paint the human figure in order to desecrate it. At his London studio, there are stacks of these blood-soaked canvases depicting huge wounded bits of bodies and purple organs spattered on the walls. Continue reading... |
| ‘I pleaded for help. No one wrote back’: the pain of watching my country fall to the Taliban Posted: 29 Sep 2021 10:00 PM PDT As the fighters advanced on Kabul, it was civilians who mobilised to help with the evacuation. In the absence of a plan, the hardest decisions fell on inexperienced volunteers, and the stress began to tell In the weeks before Kabul fell, my mind was strangely calm. There is a moment just before the world falls apart, when human beings almost believe they can reverse the sequence of events that has brought them to this point – a flash of magical thinking in which they can will a different reality into existence. On 2 July, when the Americans left Bagram airbase, I woke up in London with a horrible headache. My phone was inundated with messages of disbelief. "I am so sorry about it," a few friends wrote, but they couldn't name "it". I couldn't name it either. Continue reading... |
| ‘Haves and have-nots’: how the housing crisis is creating two New Zealands – a photo essay Posted: 29 Sep 2021 08:24 PM PDT The next generation will be increasingly divided into those can leverage intergenerational wealth to buy a home, and those who cannot Returning home to a country he couldn't afford to secure a home in, New Zealand photographer Cody Ellingham began to roam suburban streets at night with his camera. In a new series of photographs, he reflects the unease and discomfort of a generation locked out of one of the world's most unaffordable housing markets. Earlier this month, property data analytics companies said the average national house price was hitting between NZ$937,000 and $1m, nearly eight times the annual household income. Real Estate Institute data shows there was a 31% increase over the year to July. Continue reading... |
| ‘Shark calling’: locals claim ancient custom threatened by deep-sea mining Posted: 29 Sep 2021 10:30 PM PDT 'Shark calling', a Papua New Guinea tradition of singing to sharks then catching them by hand, could vanish – and locals blame deep-sea disturbances More in this series To catch a shark in the waters off Papua New Guinea, first the men sing. They sing the names of their ancestors and their respects to the shark. They shake a coconut rattle into the sea, luring the animals from the deep, and then catch them by hand. Continue reading... |
| ‘We have to fight for these conditions’: why Danish meat plant workers are Europe’s best paid Posted: 29 Sep 2021 10:00 PM PDT Denmark has secured decent pay and conditions within the sector. Will other EU countries finally follow suit? Read more: 'The whole system is rotten': life inside Europe's meat industry In meat plants, there's a golden rule: the production line never stops. For 28 years, Frank Vestergaard has worked in Denmark's meat processing industry. When he started, he says, workers were expected to slaughter 80 pigs an hour on the line; today, that number has rocketed to 432 animals. He starts work at 6am and deals with animal carcasses. The pigs are first put to sleep with gas, then the workers slit their throats to let the blood drain out. Vestergaard's job is to remove any injuries from the carcasses, such as broken bones, which the vets on the line identify. If the gallbladder is accidentally punctured, for example, a yellow fluid can seep on to the meat, and Vestergaard has to remove it. |
| ‘I’ve been dead so many times’: the life and times of New Orleans’s blues king Posted: 29 Sep 2021 09:01 PM PDT Little Freddie King has survived three shootings, stabbings, a near fatal bike accident, a stomach ulcer, an accidental electrocution, Hurricane Katrina, and now a pandemic In a dark, wood-panelled room, thick with humidity and reeking of smoke, the bluesman sits on a battered red couch that droops in the middle. He takes a moment to reflect before walking to the stage. He's dressed in a pair of shades, a straw fedora, and a technicolor suit jacket splashed with turquoise, pink and peach. His flamboyance is an instant contrast with the dingy surroundings. He takes a final drag of a cigarette, down to the butt, before adjusting his tie. Little Freddie King has played this venue – BJ's Lounge, a ramshackle bar in the Bywater neighbourhood of New Orleans – for the past 27 years. But tonight is special. Tonight is his 81st birthday. Continue reading... |
| Sarah Everard: Wayne Couzens to be sentenced for kidnap, rape and murder Posted: 30 Sep 2021 01:36 AM PDT Met officer used police ID card and handcuffs to lure Everard into car before killing her and burning body The former Metropolitan police officer Wayne Couzens is to be sentenced for the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard, amid calls for a formal law to set out the rights of victims. Couzens, 48, used his police warrant card and handcuffs to lure Everard off the street before strangling her with his police belt and burning her body, a court heard. Continue reading... |
| Tunisia’s president names Najla Bouden as country’s first female PM Posted: 29 Sep 2021 10:29 AM PDT Political unknown to form government with limited powers while President Kais Saied rules by decree Tunisia's president named geologist Najla Bouden as the country's first ever female prime minister-designate on Wednesday, to form a government with limited executive clout after the president seized wide-ranging powers two months ago. Bouden, a university lecturer and political unknown, will take office after President Kais Saied on 25 July sacked the government of Hichem Mechichi, suspended parliament, lifted MPs' immunity and took over the judiciary. Continue reading... |
| Cities scramble to ban ‘ghost guns’ as untraceable weapons’ popularity soars Posted: 30 Sep 2021 03:00 AM PDT Concern grows in California as guns appear in homicides, school shootings and domestic terror incidents Cities across California are ramping up efforts to try to stop the flow of so-called ghost guns into their jurisdictions, as the do-it-yourself weapons appear with increasing frequency at homicide scenes, traffic stops, and community gun buybacks. As state and federal laws meant to bring ghost guns into compliance with traditional firearm laws await implementation, local officials and prosecutors across California are increasingly resorting to bans and lawsuits to regulate the weapons in their cities. Continue reading... |
| Death toll in Ecuador prison riot exceeds 100 with some inmates beheaded Posted: 29 Sep 2021 03:09 PM PDT Clash is the most deadly act of violence ever reported in the country's prison system The death toll in a gang battle at one of Ecuador's largest prisons rose to 116, president Guillermo Lasso said, as authorities discovered the bodies of more victims including at least six that had been beheaded. Another 80 inmates were injured during the Tuesday night clashes at the Penitenciaria del Litoral in Guayas province, which has been the scene of bloody fights between gangs for control of the prison in recent months. Continue reading... |
| Rex Patrick’s plan for referendum on federal takeover of Murray Darling Basin rejected Posted: 30 Sep 2021 03:01 AM PDT A Senate inquiry shot down the senator's bid to avert what he calls a 'slow-motion disaster', finding the states were better attuned to local needs The major parties have rejected a proposal from South Australian independent Senator Rex Patrick to hand sole responsibility for the Murray Darling Basin to the commonwealth through a constitutional amendment. A Senate inquiry into Patrick's bill, which would have put the question of control of Australia's biggest river system to the Australian people through a referendum at the next election, found that while there were "frustrations" from many stakeholders, "it is not clear that the commonwealth is better placed than the states to manage the basin." Continue reading... |
| Indigenous children set to receive billions after judge rejects Trudeau challenges Posted: 29 Sep 2021 02:08 PM PDT
A federal court in Canada has paved they way for billions in compensation to First Nations children who suffered discrimination in the welfare system, after a judge dismissed a pair of legal challenges by the government. Two years ago, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled that the federal government had "wilfully and recklessly" discriminated against Indigenous children living on reserves by failing to properly fund child and family services. Continue reading... |
| Fears grow for photojournalist arrested by Taliban as executions resume Posted: 29 Sep 2021 06:26 AM PDT Taliban deny Morteza Samadi, 21, has been sentenced to death but family concerned for his safety after he was detained while covering women's protests in Herat Fears are growing for a photojournalist who has been detained by the Taliban for more than three weeks after being arrested while covering the women's protests in Herat. Morteza Samadi, 21, a freelance photographer, was one of several journalists who were arrested at street protests at the beginning of September. All were quickly released except Morteza, whose whereabouts is not known. Some of those detained in Kabul have alleged they were badly beaten and tortured. Continue reading... |
| Kenya bans LGBTQ+ documentary for ‘promoting same-sex marriage’ Posted: 29 Sep 2021 04:02 AM PDT 'Discriminatory' banning of I Am Samuel, about a gay man's struggles with his sexuality, criticised by activists and producers Activists and film producers have criticised a decision by the Kenya Film Classification Board to ban a documentary that tells the story of a Kenyan man struggling with his sexuality. They said banning the 52-minute film, I Am Samuel, amounted to "discrimination and persecution" of LGBTQ+ people. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 29 Sep 2021 11:00 PM PDT As an inveterate over-sharer, I learned a lesson this week from a former army nurse. Perhaps airing our worst moments gives them too much space to grow Sometimes people I speak to on my radio programme say something that will stay with me for a long time. Marguerite Turner, 98, said two such things to me last week. She was talking about her work in the second world war. Her most vivid memory is of a single night in May 1942. As a nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment, she was stationed in the south of England at a large private house being used as a medical facility. Around midnight, she stepped outside to take a break in the blissful scented silence of the garden. Then: "I heard a sort of engine noise from somewhere. There was no light. The noise grew louder and louder, then a whole lot of planes flew over. You couldn't see them; they were so high up. They went on and on. I knew they must be ours because there was no one shooting at them. I stood listening in that garden. Then they grew fainter and fainter, obviously going somewhere." Those planes, it turned out, were among the first of Bomber Harris's so-called "thousand bomber raids" on German cities. That night the target was Cologne. Nearly 500 Germans were killed outright and 45,000 were made homeless. Forty-three of the aircraft she had heard didn't return. And there, deep in the darkness a long way down, stood this young nurse, her tranquillity overwhelmed by the deafening din of violence. Seventy-nine years on, the viciously juxtaposed smell and sound are with her as if it was yesterday. As she puts it: "The scent of lilac and a curtain of engines." Continue reading... |
| In its latest cut-and-paste child welfare report, New Zealand fails Māori again | Aaron Smale Posted: 29 Sep 2021 10:29 PM PDT The Māori who have been screwed by the system are once again being silenced and ignored Sorry means you don't do it again. So goes a phrase used by Aboriginal protesters in Australia in recent years. The phrase references the national apology in 2008 by prime minister Kevin Rudd to Aboriginal peoples for the Stolen Generations, the thousands of children who were taken from their families. Continue reading... |
| Democrats barrel toward make-or-break vote as crucial 24 hours begins Posted: 29 Sep 2021 10:00 PM PDT White House admits talks 'precarious' as series of legislative and fiscal deadlines loom for Biden's $1tn public works measure The next 24 hours will make clear whether Democrats are on the verge of pushing through a once-in-a-generation expansion of the social safety net or nearing a complete collapse of Joe Biden's ambitious domestic agenda. Related: Fate of Biden's economic agenda at stake as House faces crucial vote Continue reading... |
| Meng and the Michaels: why China’s embrace of hostage diplomacy is a warning to other nations Posted: 29 Sep 2021 02:58 PM PDT Analysis: Beijing's increasingly hardline approach sends a chilling message The release of two Canadian hostages by China has ended a lengthy feud between the two countries, but experts caution the saga foreshadows a deepening rift between the two nations. After facing charges of espionage and spending more than 1,000 days in detention, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were set free by Chinese authorities late last week. Accompanied by Canada's ambassador to China, the pair arrived home early on Saturday morning. Continue reading... |
| Trump-Taliban deal had 'psychological' effect on Afghan government says top US general – video Posted: 29 Sep 2021 01:33 PM PDT The collapse of the Afghan government and its security forces can be traced to a 2020 agreement between the Taliban and the Trump administration that promised a complete US troop withdrawal, senior Pentagon officials have told Congress. Gen Frank McKenzie, the head of central command, told the House 'the signing of the Doha agreement had a really pernicious effect on the government of Afghanistan and on its military'. He identified a troop reduction ordered by Joe Biden as the 'second nail in the coffin'. Continue reading... |
| Steaming pyramid of rock emerges from water off La Palma as lava reaches the sea and cools – video Posted: 29 Sep 2021 01:13 PM PDT A steaming pyramid of black rock has emerged from the Atlantic waves off the coast of the Canary island of La Palma after lava from the volcanic eruption, which began 10 days ago, finally reached the sea late on Tuesday. The eruption – which began on 19 September on the Cumbre Vieja ridge, one of the most active volcanic regions in the archipelago – has destroyed more than 650 properties, forced the evacuation of more than 6,000 people, and devastated La Palma's banana plantations |
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