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- Poorer countries spend five times more on debt than climate crisis – report
- Northern Ireland Office may directly instruct trusts to offer abortion services
- Sudan coup: deposed PM allowed home as general says politicians ‘stirred up strife’
- Longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin describes sexual assault by US senator
- Budget 2021 live: Rishi Sunak to declare ‘age of optimism’ alongside spending review
- Wayne Couzens lodges appeal against whole-life sentence
- Rust film set shooting: prosecutor says criminal charges possible
- Prince Andrew’s lawyer asks to keep 2009 legal agreement sealed
- ‘Funniest of them all’: tributes paid to Mort Sahl after death aged 94
- A catamaran and a plan: desperate to get home, New Zealanders set sail across the Tasman
- Coronavirus news live: Committee chair says Harding-run test and trace ‘treated taxpayers like ATM’; Australia approves booster shot rollout
- Brazil senators support criminal charges for Jair Bolsonaro over Covid crisis
- Australian Open: no exemptions for unvaccinated tennis players, Victoria premier says
- Rebecca Hall on race, regret and her personal history: ‘In any family with a legacy of passing, it’s very tricky’
- A moment that changed me: ‘Applying to be a spy felt thrilling – until a stranger approached me on a train’
- Abba on their extraordinary reunion: ‘We are confronted by our younger selves all the time’
- When the mystical goes mainstream: how tarot became a self-care phenomenon
- Frank Mullane: how the murder of his sister and nephew changed his life and purpose
- ‘You kind of die’: life without power in the Cañada Real, Spain
- Budget 2021: what’s really going on in the UK economy?
- Heavy rain causes flash floods in Sicily – video
- Despite Nigeria’s problems, President Buhari is building a legacy of hope | Tolu Ogunlesi
- Judge blocks sale of apartment complex built on top of historical Black cemetery
- A Cop Movie review – arresting Mexican docu-drama twists police film tropes
- Scott Morrison refuses to release net zero 2050 modelling amid condemnation of climate policy
- Why pregnant women need clearer messaging on Covid vaccine safety
- Japan's Princess Mako leaves royal family to marry college sweetheart – video
- ‘This is a place of death’: the fight for a meat-free world – video
| Poorer countries spend five times more on debt than climate crisis – report Posted: 26 Oct 2021 10:00 PM PDT Charity says lower income countries handing over billions of dollars in debt is impeding their ability to tackle crisis Lower income countries spend five times more on debt than coping with the impact of climate change and reducing carbon emissions, according to a leading anti poverty charity. Figures from Jubilee Debt Campaign show that 34 of the world's poorest countries are spending $29.4bn (£21.4bn) on debt payments a year compared with $5.4bn (£3.9bn) on measures to reduce the impact of the climate emergency. Continue reading... |
| Northern Ireland Office may directly instruct trusts to offer abortion services Posted: 27 Oct 2021 01:08 AM PDT Exclusive: Brandon Lewis warns he will soon have 'no alternative but to take further steps' to ensure services are provided Brandon Lewis could override the Northern Ireland executive and directly instruct the nation's health trusts to provide abortion services, warning leaders in a leaked letter that the continued delay is unacceptable conduct in public office. The Northern Ireland secretary wrote to the first minister, Paul Givan, and his deputy, Michelle O'Neill, warning he would soon "have no alternative but to take further steps to ensure that women and girls have access to abortion services as decided by parliament, and to which they have a right". Continue reading... |
| Sudan coup: deposed PM allowed home as general says politicians ‘stirred up strife’ Posted: 26 Oct 2021 06:19 PM PDT Some ministers remain in detention and could face trial for inciting rebellion, says General Abdel-Fattah Burhan Sudan's deposed prime minister and his wife have been allowed to return home a day after they were detained when the military seized power in a coup, according to a statement issued by his office. The release of prime minister Abdalla Hamdok and his wife late on Tuesday followed international condemnation of the coup and calls for the military to release all the government officials who were detained when Gen Abdel-Fattah Burhan seized power on Monday. Continue reading... |
| Longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin describes sexual assault by US senator Posted: 26 Oct 2021 12:53 PM PDT Revelation of incident 'buried' by Abedin contained in new memoir Both/And, to be published next week Huma Abedin, a longtime close aide to Hillary Clinton, has written in a new book that she was sexually assaulted by a US senator, an incident she "buried" until allegations against the supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh triggered her memory years later. Abedin makes the shocking claim in a memoir, Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds, which will be published next week. The Guardian obtained a copy. Abedin does not name the senator or his party or give any other clues as to his identity. Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 802 9999. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html Continue reading... |
| Budget 2021 live: Rishi Sunak to declare ‘age of optimism’ alongside spending review Posted: 27 Oct 2021 02:25 AM PDT Latest updates: chancellor to pledge 'stronger economy' despite cost of living crisis as improved forecasts provide a short-term windfall
Rishi Sunak is also expected to unveil new fiscal rules, after suspending restrictions on government borrowing early in the pandemic. Those rules could force the government to balance the books for day-to-day spending with income by the end of the parliament, bring down the national debt in relation to the size of the economy, or rethink its spending plans if inflation pushes up debt repayment costs. We will not borrow to fund day-to-day spending, but will invest thoughtfully and responsibly in infrastructure right across our country in order to increase productivity and wages. Our fiscal rules mean that public sector net investment will not average more than 3 per cent of GDP, and that if debt interest reaches 6 per cent of revenue, we will reassess our plans to keep debt under control. Public debt is indeed higher than in recent years, but it was more than double the current level after the second world war, when the economy grew particularly strongly. The ratio of debt to GDP is not a significant number, whether 100% or any other. Economically what matters is the cost of servicing the debt, and the value of the things that government borrowing is paying for. Due to near-zero rates, the interest payments the government makes on its debt are now at their second lowest level in 70 years, at just 6% of tax receipts. The Bank of England now owns 37% of all government gilts, and repays the profit it makes on the interest back to the Treasury. (This has saved the government as much as £100bn over the last decade.) The Bank can continue to finance government debt at low interest rates, which means that financial institutions will continue to buy UK bonds: there is no sign of demand for them falling away. Continue reading... |
| Wayne Couzens lodges appeal against whole-life sentence Posted: 27 Oct 2021 02:18 AM PDT Police officer was handed whole-life tariff for the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard The police officer who murdered Sarah Everard has lodged an appeal to reduce the length of his jail sentence. Wayne Couzens was handed a whole-life tariff in September after kidnapping, raping and murdering the 33-year-old. Continue reading... |
| Rust film set shooting: prosecutor says criminal charges possible Posted: 26 Oct 2021 04:56 PM PDT Santa Fe county district attorney tells New York Times weapon Alec Baldwin fired was 'legit' antique gun Criminal charges have not been ruled out in the fatal accidental shooting by Alec Baldwin on the Rust film set, the local district attorney handling the case has said in an interview. Speaking with the New York Times on Tuesday, the Santa Fe county district attorney, Mary Carmack-Altwies, also said it was incorrect to refer to the firearm used in the incident as a "prop gun", as media reports have. Continue reading... |
| Prince Andrew’s lawyer asks to keep 2009 legal agreement sealed Posted: 26 Oct 2021 04:57 PM PDT Attorney says the deal can protect the prince against a lawsuit that claims that he assaulted Virginia Giuffre when she was 17 Prince Andrew's lawyer has asked a New York judge to keep sealed a 2009 legal agreement that he says can protect the prince against a lawsuit's claims that he sexually assaulted an American woman when she was under 18. The request was made in court papers in Manhattan federal court, where the US district judge Lewis A Kaplan is presiding over an August lawsuit filed on behalf of Virginia Giuffre. The lawsuit said the prince abused her on multiple occasions in 2001 when she was 17 and a minor under US law. Continue reading... |
| ‘Funniest of them all’: tributes paid to Mort Sahl after death aged 94 Posted: 27 Oct 2021 12:31 AM PDT Canadian-born comedian who rose to fame in the 1950s credited with 'yanking comedy into the modern age' Tributes have been paid to the trailblazing standup comedian Mort Sahl after his death at the age of 94. The Canadian-born comic was credited with revolutionising American comedy in the 1950s thanks to his acerbic political satire. Continue reading... |
| A catamaran and a plan: desperate to get home, New Zealanders set sail across the Tasman Posted: 26 Oct 2021 07:43 PM PDT With government-controlled quarantine spots in very short supply and long waiting lists for flights home, some stranded citizens are taking to the seas New Zealanders stranded in Australia are sailing across the Tasman Sea aboard small boats with seasick strangers in a desperate bid to get home, saying the notoriously perilous trip is easier to navigate than the country's fraught border system. The country's borders have been strictly controlled since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic – only citizens, permanent residents and a handful of essential workers can enter, and all of them must make a booking to spend two weeks in government-controlled quarantine (MIQ). Continue reading... |
| Posted: 27 Oct 2021 02:03 AM PDT The UK's flagship system to help prevent the spread of Covid-19 failed to achieve "its main objective," committee says; Australians soon to get a Covid booster shot after regulator approval
Following up on those comments, Dame Meg Hillier has been on the BBC this morning, saying that the Conservative government's test and trace programme treated taxpayers as if they were an ATM. PA Media quote her saying: There was a lot of gung-ho confidence from No 10 that we would have a 'moonshot' towards mass testing. Those messages kept getting more optimistic. Baroness Harding was also very optimistic about what they achieved. But in the end it massively over-promised for what it delivered and it was eye-watering sums of money. The national Test & Trace programme was allocated eye watering sums of taxpayers' money in the midst of a global health and economic crisis. It set out bold ambitions but has failed to achieve them despite the vast sums thrown at it. Only 14% of 691m lateral flow tests sent out had results reported, and who knows how many took the necessary action based on the results they got, or how many were never used. The continued reliance on the over-priced consultants who "delivered" this state of affairs will by itself cost the taxpayer hundreds of millions of pounds. For this huge amount of money we need to see a legacy system ready to deliver when needed but it's just not clear what there will be to show in the long term. This legacy has to be a focus for government if we are to see any value for the money spent. Continue reading... |
| Brazil senators support criminal charges for Jair Bolsonaro over Covid crisis Posted: 26 Oct 2021 10:41 PM PDT Committee votes to support push to hold president responsible for many of Brazil's more than 600,000 Covid deaths A Brazilian Senate committee recommended that president Jair Bolsonaro face a series of criminal indictments for actions and omissions related to the world's second highest Covid-19 death toll. The seven-to-four vote on Tuesday was the culmination of a six-month committee investigation of the government's handling of the pandemic. It formally approved a report calling for prosecutors to try Bolsonaro on charges ranging from charlatanism and inciting crime to misuse of public funds and crimes against humanity, and in doing so hold him responsible for many of Brazil's more than 600,000 Covid-19 deaths. Continue reading... |
| Australian Open: no exemptions for unvaccinated tennis players, Victoria premier says Posted: 26 Oct 2021 06:50 PM PDT
The Victorian government will not apply for exemptions for unvaccinated players travelling from overseas to appear at next year's Australian Open, the state's premier has said. Daniel Andrews said refusing to consider exemptions for players like Novak Djokovic, who has repeatedly refused to reveal his vaccination status, was "the only fair thing to do", given fans and people working at the tournament are required to be double-jabbed. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 26 Oct 2021 10:00 PM PDT The actor has just directed her first film, an adaptation of Nella Larsen's 1929 novel Passing. She discusses the family story that inspired her, cultural appropriation and class in Hollywood It would be easy to assume that Rebecca Hall has never had to fight for anything in her life. Now 39, she made her screen debut at the age of 10 in The Camomile Lawn, the 1992 TV series directed by her father, the British theatre grandee Sir Peter Hall. Her stage debut came a decade later, in his production of Mrs Warren's Profession. There followed 15 hugely successful years as an actor, working with Steven Spielberg (The BFG), Christopher Nolan (The Prestige), Woody Allen (Vicky Cristina Barcelona) and many more. But for more than a decade she has been struggling to build a second career, as the director of a movie that some would say she has no right to make. That movie is Passing, which Hall has adapted herself from the 1929 novel by the Harlem Renaissance writer Nella Larsen. It is an emotionally resonant study of racial identity, seen through the eyes of two Black women, Irene (played by Tessa Thompson) and Clare (Ruth Negga), both of whom, to varying extents, "pass" as white. Hall remembers first encountering the book in her early 20s and feeling a rush of inspiration: "I was sat there reading and I could just suddenly start seeing it: their two faces, seeing each other in that tea room, and I had that idea of looking from Irene's perspective and panning through someone staring at you and then coming back. That was really there, and very potent, in black and white in my head." Continue reading... |
| Posted: 26 Oct 2021 11:00 PM PDT One lunchtime, bored at work, I began the application process for MI5. It felt like a whirlwind romance, until an eerie and unexpected encounter In 2010 I was 23, and had just moved to London from Manchester, where I had trained as a journalist. I had a dream job – a junior role on a magazine – but it turned out to be quite a miserable place. My manager was open about regretting having hired me and my confidence, which had never been high, plummeted. I was single, my friends were scattered all over the city, and I was renting a basement room with no windows that cost exactly half my monthly salary. It was on one of these lonely days that a link popped up: MI5 was running a recruitment drive and it sent you to a verbal reasoning test that was part of the application process to become an intelligence officer – a spy, in other words. Continue reading... |
| Abba on their extraordinary reunion: ‘We are confronted by our younger selves all the time’ Posted: 26 Oct 2021 11:00 PM PDT Here we go again! After nearly 40 years, Benny, Björn, Agnetha and Anni-Frid are back together. We get the inside story of the greatest reunion in pop It started with a mysterious image on billboards all over the world (and the internet). The sun rising above four dark planets; the only words Abba: Voyage. By the time an announcement was made on 2 September, it had fair claim to call itself the most anticipated comeback in pop history. And the details exceeded expectations. Not only was there a new album, Voyage, the first in 40 years: 10 new songs that brought the original band together in the studio for the first time since a split that had been precipitated by the couples in the band divorcing. Not only that, but there was to be a new "immersive live experience", in a bespoke stadium in London – nobody seemed to have noticed the planning application being published online – featuring futuristic de-aged "Abbatars" playing a potentially never-ending series of gigs. In the depths of a miserable year, it seemed, Abba were coming to rescue 2021. Continue reading... |
| When the mystical goes mainstream: how tarot became a self-care phenomenon Posted: 27 Oct 2021 01:00 AM PDT Tarot used to be seen as the domain of the credulous. It's now seen as a means of coping with the present, thanks to psychology-minded practitioners like Jessica Dore When Jessica Dore was growing up, her mother had a tarot deck from which she'd pull cards – much to the mounting mortification of her daughter. As a child, Dore went along with it as fortune-telling fun. But "as an adolescent, it was sort of like 'Mind your own business'", she says wryly. It meant Dore was at least familiar with tarot. The deck of 78 cards, split between major arcana and minor arcana ("greater" and "lesser secrets"), is used with varying degrees of sincerity to divine past, present and future. "But I never had any sense that it could be something that would be of value for me in my life," Dore says. Continue reading... |
| Frank Mullane: how the murder of his sister and nephew changed his life and purpose Posted: 27 Oct 2021 02:00 AM PDT Julia Pemberton was terrorised for 14 months by her husband before he shot her and their son dead. In the 18 years since, her brother has devoted his life to preventing similar crimes and supporting other families The first time Frank Mullane's sister Julia confided that her marriage was unhappy, that her husband of 23 years was controlling and abusive, and that she intended to ask for a divorce, Mullane responded in what he now calls "a John Wayne kind of way". "I asked: 'When can I give him a thump?'" he recalls. "My life is completely different now, but at the time I didn't have a clue. I knew nothing about domestic abuse, but I felt 100% solidarity. I wanted to show I was on her side – the cavalry." Mullane and Julia were two of eight siblings from a close Irish family. Their parents had come from Cork to London, then Wiltshire, where their father built a house big enough for all of them. As adults, they stayed close. "We were a loving family, always in each other's houses," says Mullane. He was unmarried and had remained in Wiltshire as a business consultant for Nationwide. Julia had trained as a nurse before marrying Alan Pemberton, an accountant and businessman. She later retrained as a health visitor. They lived with their two teenage children 25 miles away, near Newbury, in a house they built – large, secluded, set in acres of woodland. Continue reading... |
| ‘You kind of die’: life without power in the Cañada Real, Spain Posted: 26 Oct 2021 09:00 PM PDT Little has changed in Europe's largest shantytown since the UN said the lack of electricity 'violates children's rights' in 2020 Few parts of Europe's largest shantytown speak quite as plainly of the past 12 months as Luisa Vargas's sparse, tidy and dim front room. A thin curtain hangs across a window cut into the wooden wall to admit a little light, the bookshelves bear the sooty scorches of candles, and a wood-burning stove squats near the door, its chimney punching through a damp scab of ceiling. A big TV sits forlorn and powerless, its place usurped by a portable model perched on a child's chair and powered, in carefully rationed sessions, by a car battery. Continue reading... |
| Budget 2021: what’s really going on in the UK economy? Posted: 26 Oct 2021 10:00 PM PDT Rishi Sunak will be looking at key indicators such as GDP growth, public debt levels and inflation as he draws up his autumn budget Britain's economic recovery from Covid is at growing risk from severe shortages of workers and materials, as well as mounting living costs for households, as Rishi Sunak prepares his budget and spending review. Here are five key charts that will underpin the chancellor's statement on Wednesday afternoon. Continue reading... |
| Heavy rain causes flash floods in Sicily – video Posted: 27 Oct 2021 01:05 AM PDT At least two people have died after a powerful storm battered Sicily, leaving parts of the Italian island submerged. Streets were flooded and many vehicles were stranded in Catania, and power cuts were reported in the city centre Continue reading... |
| Despite Nigeria’s problems, President Buhari is building a legacy of hope | Tolu Ogunlesi Posted: 27 Oct 2021 12:00 AM PDT Investment in infrastructure will underpin a stronger economy, improved security and the country's fight against corruption Nigeria has faced challenges for as long as anyone can remember. But one problem Nigerians don't talk about is our collective inability to acknowledge where progress is being made. Fixating only on what is not working robs us of the chance to analyse and replicate our successes, and demoralises a populace in dire need of optimism. Continue reading... |
| Judge blocks sale of apartment complex built on top of historical Black cemetery Posted: 27 Oct 2021 02:00 AM PDT Potential sale in Maryland halted after local activists opposed the deal as judge says: 'Bodies of African Americans remain there' A judge has blocked the sale of a suburban apartment complex in Maryland that was previously used as a cemetery for freed Black slaves, arguing that "many bodies likely still remain on the property". The potential $50m sale of Westwood Tower in Bethesda, Maryland, 30 minutes outside of Washington DC, to the investment firm Charger Ventures was halted after local activists opposed the deal, reported NBC and Bethesda Magazine. Continue reading... |
| A Cop Movie review – arresting Mexican docu-drama twists police film tropes Posted: 27 Oct 2021 02:00 AM PDT Alonso Ruizpalacios' film starts off as an addictive cop show, breaks the fourth wall and then rebuilds it in a film bristling with ideas "Cops are like actors – you have to put on an act so people respect you." The speaker is one of the police officers, or possibly actors playing police officers, in this startlingly clever and yet heartfelt docudrama about the contractual nature of power and authority from Mexican film-maker Alonso Ruizpalacios, who in just five years has established himself as one of the most potent talents in world cinema, with his new wave-style debut Güeros in 2014 and his true-crime heist drama Museum in 2018. Now he gives us what looks at first glance like a conventionally gripping cop drama in chapter-length sections, about a couple of young officers, Teresa (Mónica Del Carmen) and Montoya (Raúl Briones), on the tough streets of Mexico City; they are partners, fall in love, get nicknamed "the love patrol" and then fall foul of the corruption higher up the food chain. Ruizpalacios gives his movie catchy music and bold graphics over the opening credits, making it look like an addictive TV cop show: but he also experimentally makes his characters talk direct to camera in a mockumentary manner and also lip-sync mid-scene to their own voiceover commentary on what's happening in verbatim cinema style. Continue reading... |
| Scott Morrison refuses to release net zero 2050 modelling amid condemnation of climate policy Posted: 27 Oct 2021 02:11 AM PDT Labor derides government's proclaimed technology-driven plan as a 'steaming pile of nothingness'
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, is resisting pressure to release the modelling underpinning the Coalition's plan to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, amid growing criticism that Australia's climate policy lacks credibility. Morrison has committed Australia to a net zero by 2050 emissions reduction target ahead of the Glasgow climate summit next week, but he hasn't announced any new policies or legislation to achieve it. Continue reading... |
| Why pregnant women need clearer messaging on Covid vaccine safety Posted: 26 Oct 2021 11:35 AM PDT Analysis: early uncertainty around vaccination advice for expectant mothers has left them confused and hesitant
In the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, there was uncertainty around almost everything, from who was more adversely affected by Covid-19 to who should get vaccinated first – or at all. But as awareness about the illness and vaccine safety has grown, one group in particular remains confused and torn about the risk of immunisation: expectant mothers. Continue reading... |
| Japan's Princess Mako leaves royal family to marry college sweetheart – video Posted: 26 Oct 2021 06:17 AM PDT The now former Princess Mako of Japan has married Kei Komura, losing her royal status. The couple struggled with a financial scandal that plagued their engagement but said in a press conference to announce their marriage that they were ready to move forward with their lives together. The couple did not have a formal wedding ceremony or hold a reception banquet or any of the traditional rites associated with imperial weddings Continue reading... |
| ‘This is a place of death’: the fight for a meat-free world – video Posted: 26 Oct 2021 05:15 AM PDT Humans' relationship with animals is under greater focus than ever, as part of a drive to lessen our impact on the planet. In the UK, animal rights activists, buoyed by the rise in veganism and a developing understanding of animal sentience, have spotted an opportunity to grow what has traditionally been a fringe cause. The great majority of these activists are non-violent, dispensing with some of the tactics of their predecessors and aiming to harness this momentum to win hearts and minds. But can they really force the changes they are demanding?
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