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- Famine looms in four countries as aid system struggles to cope, experts warn
- Centre-left Frank-Walter Steinmeier elected president of Germany
- Italian court rejects Raffaele Sollecito's €500,000 compensation claim
- American Civil Liberties Union rides high on the anti-Trump wave
- Hamburg airport evacuated after toxin affects 50 passengers
- Switzerland votes to ease citizenship process
- US Department of Education gets WEB Du Bois' name wrong in tweet
- Justin Trudeau faces tricky balancing act in meeting with Donald Trump
- Podemos leader tightens grip on Spanish party after landslide re-election
- Foreign billionaires in London choosing to rent to avoid stamp duty
- Postcards from Beirut: ‘Everything’s falling apart’
- Pokot (Spoor) review – Miss Marple meets Angela Carter in the trackless Polish forest
- Donald Trump is undermining the fight against corruption
- Journalists and stars lose appetite for correspondents' dinner under Trump
- Mary Kenyon obituary
- Former lover of the poet known as Iran's Sylvia Plath breaks his silence
- How long can Ethiopia's state of emergency keep the lid on anger?
- UK hit by 188 high-level cyber-attacks in three months
- C of E warns of 'corrupting pressures of politics' in response to Trump fears
- Police open fraud inquiry into 'mismanagement' at evangelical church
- Unknown toxin injures 50 passengers at Hamburg airport – video
- Hell No review: celebration of Vietnam protests can inform resistance to Trump
- Eyewitness: Farewell Spit, New Zealand
| Famine looms in four countries as aid system struggles to cope, experts warn Posted: 12 Feb 2017 02:38 AM PST Campaigners say tens of millions in urgent need in Yemen, South Sudan, Nigeria and Somalia are in hands of an overwhelmed, outdated humanitarian network Famine is looming in four different countries, threatening unprecedented levels of hunger and a global crisis that is already stretching the aid and humanitarian system like never before, experts and insiders warn. Tens of millions of people in need of food aid in Yemen, South Sudan, Nigeria and Somalia are at the mercy not only of an overwhelmed aid system but also the protracted, mainly conflict-driven crises in their own countries, the humanitarian leaders say. |
| Centre-left Frank-Walter Steinmeier elected president of Germany Posted: 12 Feb 2017 06:57 AM PST Vocal Donald Trump critic says he wants Germany to be an 'anchor of hope' after he was voted in by parliamentary assembly A centre-left politician who once characterised Donald Trump as a "hate preacher" has been elected president of Germany. The former foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was voted in on Sunday by a parliamentary assembly made up of 1,260 MPs and representatives of Germany's 16 states. Steinmeier, a member of the Social Democratic party, had guaranteed the support both of his own centre-left bloc and Angela Merkel's centre-right Christian Democratic party, who between them hold a majority of 923 seats in the assembly. Continue reading... |
| Italian court rejects Raffaele Sollecito's €500,000 compensation claim Posted: 12 Feb 2017 08:15 AM PST Man acquitted of murder of British student Meredith Kercher, who spent four years in jail, sought sum for unjust imprisonment An Italian court has rejected a compensation claim for more than €500,000 (£426,000) by Raffaele Sollecito, who was cleared of the 2007 murder of the British exchange student Meredith Kercher after spending nearly four years in jail. Sollecito, 32, had tried to claim the maximum possible sum from the state for wrongful imprisonment, after spending nearly four years in jail. Continue reading... |
| American Civil Liberties Union rides high on the anti-Trump wave Posted: 12 Feb 2017 09:09 AM PST US advocacy organisation's membership has doubled since Donald Trump's election with nearly $80m donated online The nearly century-old American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) says it is suddenly awash in donations and new members as it does battle with President Donald Trump over the extent of his constitutional authority, with nearly $80m (£64m) in online contributions pouring in since the election. That number includes a record $24m surge over two days after Trump issued and executive order banning people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. The organisation said its membership has more than doubled since the election to a record of nearly 1.2 million, and its Twitter following has tripled. Continue reading... |
| Hamburg airport evacuated after toxin affects 50 passengers Posted: 12 Feb 2017 09:22 AM PST Fire services rule out terrorist attack after toxin believed to be pepper spray leads to air traffic shutdown of more than one hour Hundreds of passengers were temporarily evacuated, more than 50 people were injured and air traffic was halted for more than an hour on Sunday afternoon after an irritant gas was circulated around Hamburg airport via its air-conditioning system. Fire services ruled out suggestions of a terrorist attack, saying they believed the toxin to be pepper spray that had emanated from a cartridge discarded by a passenger in a bin outside security gates. Continue reading... |
| Switzerland votes to ease citizenship process Posted: 12 Feb 2017 08:54 AM PST Voters support proposal to make it easier for third-generation immigrants to become citizens, despite opposition from populists Switzerland has voted to make it easier for third-generation immigrants to become citizens, rejecting rightwing politicians' complaints that the proposed measures would pose a security risk. Until now, a fast-track route to citizenship was only open to foreigners who had been married to Swiss citizens for more than six years, including those who have never lived in the country. Continue reading... |
| US Department of Education gets WEB Du Bois' name wrong in tweet Posted: 12 Feb 2017 09:30 AM PST Tweet erroneously calling African American author and activist 'W.E.B. DeBois' is latest Black History Month embarrassment for the Trump administration The US Department of Education suffered an embarrassment on Sunday, when a tweet published to its official account misspelled the surname of the African American author and civil rights activist WEB Du Bois. Related: The 100 best nonfiction books: No 51 – The Souls of Black Folk by WEB Du Bois (1903) Continue reading... |
| Justin Trudeau faces tricky balancing act in meeting with Donald Trump Posted: 12 Feb 2017 02:00 AM PST The two men are a study in contrasts but Canada's prime minister must be mindful of the high economic stakes when he visits the US president on Monday One is a self-described feminist who champions trade and has opened Canada's doors to tens of thousands of Syrian refugees. The other has sought to curb abortions, threatened to tear up the Nafta trade deal and temporarily halted the admission of refugees to the US. Between them sits a border crossed by nearly 400,000 people each day – the nexus of a deeply intertwined relationship that has spawned millions of jobs and cooperation on everything from intelligence to climate change action. Continue reading... |
| Podemos leader tightens grip on Spanish party after landslide re-election Posted: 12 Feb 2017 06:12 AM PST Pablo Iglesias sees off challenge from more moderate deputy after months of public infighting about direction of anti-austerity party Pablo Iglesias has emphatically reasserted his leadership of Podemos, winning re-election as secretary general of the Spanish anti-austerity party with 89% of the vote and easily seeing off a challenge from his more moderate deputy. The young party, which was born from Spain's economic crisis and the indignados movement, has been mired in months of very public infighting since failing to live up to expectations in last June's general election. Continue reading... |
| Foreign billionaires in London choosing to rent to avoid stamp duty Posted: 12 Feb 2017 08:04 AM PST Number of lettings costing more than £3,000 a week increased by 28% in the last three months of 2016, research shows Foreign billionaires are renting rather than buying luxury homes following increases in tax bills on upmarket properties. Lettings that cost more than £3,000 a week – £156,000 a year – increased by 28% in the last three months of 2016, according to research by the property data service LonRes. The number of prime central London lettings has been steadily rising since the introduction in April 2016 of a 15% stamp duty tax on properties bought via offshore trusts, and a three percentage point surcharge on stamp duty on second homes. Continue reading... |
| Postcards from Beirut: ‘Everything’s falling apart’ Posted: 12 Feb 2017 08:00 AM PST Photographer Séverine Sajous of the Jungleye photography project handed over her camera to women in Lebanon to document their families, surroundings and lives at a refugee camp Nuzha, a Syrian refugee, lives with her four young children in the Burj al-Barajneh camp in Beirut, Lebanon. She is one of a number of women taking part in a photography project called Behind Closed Doors, run by French photographer Séverine Sajous. Last year, Sajous did a similar project with refugees in camps around Calais where participants were given cameras to document their own lives. This time, women take the cameras into their homes, photograph their children and surroundings, and write about their lives on the back – like postcards. "The aim of the project is to give them a voice back, to sensitise the international community to the migration issue," says Sajous. "They understood that this project was also a way to have more self esteem, gaining in autonomy and becoming real photographers." Continue reading... |
| Pokot (Spoor) review – Miss Marple meets Angela Carter in the trackless Polish forest Posted: 12 Feb 2017 07:30 AM PST Agnieszka Holland's new film is a mix of forensic crime story and magical realist fairy tale that, adapted from Olga Tokarczuk's novel, doesn't always hang together Agnieszka Holland, renowned Polish director of works including Europa, Europa, is back with a new film taking us on an eco-fabulist murder mystery tour deep into the central European forest, starring a beautiful ageing woman with a long grey hair and a passing resemblance to Angela Carter. She is the eccentric Janina Duszejko (Agnieszka Mandat-Grabka) a part-time teacher and full-time mystic living alone in a village on the Polish-Czech border, loved by her young pupils but hated by the boorish menfolk thereabouts for her passionate hatred of their hunting and animal slaughter; she will disrupt shooting parties, screaming and crying, and often makes angry complaints to the lazy uncaring police when animals are killed out of season. Continue reading... |
| Donald Trump is undermining the fight against corruption Posted: 12 Feb 2017 07:25 AM PST Senate vote to repeal law forcing US energy and mining companies to disclose payments to foreign governments has gladdened the hearts of kleptocrats Corruption is a curse. It stunts development, breeds conflict in fragile states, makes taxpayers in rich countries dubious about providing aid to poor countries, and gives crooked firms an advantage over those that play by the rules. Governments have become less tolerant of dirty business dealings over time, as Rolls-Royce has found to its cost. The aerospace company – one of the UK's genuinely world class manufacturing firms – will this week announce one of Britain's biggest ever corporate losses, in part the result of the £671m cost of settling bribery actions. Continue reading... |
| Journalists and stars lose appetite for correspondents' dinner under Trump Posted: 12 Feb 2017 06:00 AM PST The annual event is a chance for politicians and the media to share an evening of good-natured roasting – but this year goodwill is in short supply on both sides The White House correspondents' dinner is a fixture of the Washington scene, a spring event at which the cream of political journalism shares bonhomie, fine food and comedy roasting with the politicians it reports on – including the president. Under Donald Trump, however, the dinner is facing uncertainty. Trump, who has repeatedly attacked "the very dishonest press" and accused leading news outlets of peddling "fake news" about him, is expected nonetheless to attend the dinner, at the Washington Hilton on 29 April. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 12 Feb 2017 09:21 AM PST Visitors returning from a trip to see my mother, Mary Kenyon, who has died aged 94, would never be asked how she was, but always "what did you eat?" She was an artist with a four-ring 1970s cooker. Born in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, the daughter of Mabel (nee Rowell) and Captain Claude Humphrys, Mary grew up in Nottinghamshire. When her father retired from the navy, he bought a fruit farm in Essex. She went to Chelmsford high school, where she was head girl in 1939. She recalled going with the headteacher to give sweets to the girls sheltering in the trenches dug in the school playing fields during the second world war. Continue reading... |
| Former lover of the poet known as Iran's Sylvia Plath breaks his silence Posted: 12 Feb 2017 08:22 AM PST Fifty years after Forough Farrokhzad's death, Ebrahim Golestan talks about his affair with the giant of Persian literature Forty miles south of London, in a quiet West Sussex village, lives a 94-year-old Iranian intellectual who has for half a century kept silent about his former lover, a giant of modern Persian literature who was killed in a car accident aged just 32. But 50 years after Forough Farrokhzad's sudden death, the reclusive Ebrahim Golestan has finally broken his silence, speaking out about the seriousness of their relationship and describing her as a poet who wrote honestly about the most fundamental human emotions. Continue reading... |
| How long can Ethiopia's state of emergency keep the lid on anger? Posted: 12 Feb 2017 04:00 AM PST A state crackdown has silenced ethnic Oromo people in Ethiopia, but grievances over land and rights, and a lack of political options, could reignite protests In a muted show of defiance near Ethiopia's capital city, a tall farmer glanced around before furtively crossing his arms below his waist to make the Oromo people's resistance symbol. Ethiopia's government outlawed the gesture made famous by Olympic men's marathon silver medalist Feyisa Lilesa – who formed the "X" above his head at last year's Rio games – when it enacted a draconian state of emergency in October in an attempt to stem 11 months of protests. Although that decree has suppressed unrest, the farmer thinks demonstrations will start anew. Continue reading... |
| UK hit by 188 high-level cyber-attacks in three months Posted: 12 Feb 2017 07:06 AM PST Britain's new cybersecurity chief says Russia- and China-sponsored attacks are among those that have threatened defence and foreign policy Britain is being hit by dozens of cyber-attacks a month, including attempts by Russian state-sponsored hackers to steal defence and foreign policy secrets, GCHQ's new cybersecurity chief has said. Ciaran Martin, head of the new National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), told the Sunday Times there had been a "step change" in Russia's online aggression against the west. Continue reading... |
| C of E warns of 'corrupting pressures of politics' in response to Trump fears Posted: 12 Feb 2017 08:53 AM PST In a reply to a question on the US president, church says it can offer example to those who 'face the temptations of high office' The Church of England has responded to concerns over the election of Donald Trump by drawing attention to the "corrupting pressures of politics" and the "temptations of high office". In an unusually pointed formal reply to a question referring specifically to the US president, the church said it could "offer an example and encouragement to all those who confront the potentially corrupting pressures of politics – not least those who bear the burdens and face the temptations of high office". Continue reading... |
| Police open fraud inquiry into 'mismanagement' at evangelical church Posted: 12 Feb 2017 08:11 AM PST Charity Commission report found Kingsway International Christian Centre lost most of £5m invested by the former Charlton footballer Richard Rufus The City of London police are investigating an alleged fraud involving a former Premier League footballer who lost £3.9m from one of Britain's richest evangelical churches in a disastrous investment scheme. The criminal investigation follows a Charity Commission report into "mismanagement" at Kingsway International Christian Centre, which invested £5m with the former Charlton Athletic player Richard Rufus. Rufus was found by a civil court judge in 2015 to have operated a Ponzi-style scheme between 2007 and 2011, losing or spending £8m from several investors. Continue reading... |
| Unknown toxin injures 50 passengers at Hamburg airport – video Posted: 12 Feb 2017 06:08 AM PST Passengers evacuate from Hamburg airport in northern Germany on Sunday after an unknown chemical injured 50 people, causing burning eyes and breathing problems. The chemical is thought to have spread through the building's air conditioning system, halting flights from the airport for several hours. Air traffic resumed at 2pm local time Continue reading... |
| Hell No review: celebration of Vietnam protests can inform resistance to Trump Posted: 12 Feb 2017 04:00 AM PST A new book by Tom Hayden, the peace movement leader who died in October, is a posthumous call for recognition that has much to say to those who march today Tom Hayden's death, in late October at the age of 76, could not have been more untimely. The 60s protest leader missed by just three months the dawn of a new US mass movement, the likes of which we have not seen since Hayden led the charge against the Johnson and Nixon administrations' relentless escalation of the Vietnam war. If it's any consolation, his sage voice lives on in a posthumously published book, Hell No: The Forgotten Power of the Vietnam Peace Movement. Indeed, for the same reasons that Hayden's death was untimely, his book could not be more timely. Millions are taking to cities, airports and town halls across the US and around the world, protesting against the Trump administration and its policies. Continue reading... |
| Eyewitness: Farewell Spit, New Zealand Posted: 12 Feb 2017 03:28 AM PST Photographs from the Eyewitness series Continue reading... |
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