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- White House-GCHQ row reveals a leader willing to alienate allies to save face
- Trump and Merkel can't hide fundamental differences in first visit
- Basque separatist group Eta announces plan to lay down all weapons
- The girl who said no to FGM – video
- Irish American politicians working with Trump urged to remember their history
- Call the exorcist: pope tells priests to consult experts in casting out demons
- Trump administration appeals partial block of travel ban by Maryland judge
- Peru floods kill 67 and spark criticism of country's climate change preparedness
- French political system fights for survival as presidential campaign begins
- Film to follow teenager who crossed the Mediterranean and competed at Rio
- 'We sat drinking beer, flinching at gunfire': recalling Lebanon's 'little war' of 2008
- CO2 emissions stay same for third year in row – despite global economy growing
- Governments must keep reforming to win back voters' trust, says OECD
- Military action against North Korea 'an option', warns Rex Tillerson
- Goa murder: 245 tourists died in four local districts in past 12 years
- The reindeer herder struggling to take on oil excavators in Siberia
- Immigrants still caught in legal limbo despite travel ban block
- Pakistan asks Facebook and Twitter to help identify blasphemers
- Japanese government held liable for first time for negligence in Fukushima
- Bush Theatre boss Madani Younis: ‘I want to provoke culture’
- Man shot dead at Paris airport after trying to grab gun
- Storm Stella, Ramses II and Mosul – the 20 photographs of the week
- Put us on the map, please: China's smaller cities go wild for starchitecture
- Torrey Canyon disaster – the UK's worst-ever oil spill 50 years on
- 'We feel very close to her': can 'fake feminist' Marine Le Pen win the female vote?
- 'We are not slaves': Europe's most repressive state is reawakening
- 'Brothers bling': lawsuit puts Nick and Christian Candy in spotlight
- Famine and its causes in the Horn of Africa | Letters
- Donald Trump anti-China tweet gives Rex Tillerson a fresh wall to climb
- NSW floods: SES responds to hundreds of calls for help after deluge
- A good-looking bird: the bush stone-curlew that loves its own reflection
- Angela Merkel looks bemused by Donald Trump's wiretapping joke
- Sicilian bishop bans mafia godfathers from baptisms
- Bali police killing: prosecutors to challenge Sara Connor's sentence
- They say opposites attract … but nobody told Trump and Merkel
- Fleeing from Dante’s hell on Mount Etna | Letters
- Time for a declaration of war – on happiness | Letters
- The week in patriarchy: the BBC family saved this from being a terrible week | Jessica Valenti
- Irish PM tells Trump: ‘St Patrick was an immigrant’ – video
- Undocumenteds fade from the city they helped build
- Trump funding cuts would imperil tens of thousands of women, activists warn
- Trump jokes about wiretapping at Angela Merkel press conference – video
- No shake: Donald Trump snubs Angela Merkel during photo op – video
- Trump quotes 'Irish proverb' while meeting Irish PM on St Patrick’s Day – video
- US 'strategic patience' with North Korea has ended, says Tillerson – video
| White House-GCHQ row reveals a leader willing to alienate allies to save face Posted: 17 Mar 2017 09:58 AM PDT Sean Spicer's latest defense of the evidence-free assertion that Barack Obama had the Trump campaign placed under surveillance risks shattering an allegiance dear to both Washington and London The extraordinary public rebuke by the United States' closest surveillance partner has revealed an emerging characteristic of Donald Trump's White House: a willingness to antagonize even its allies instead of admitting error. GCHQ, the UK surveillance mammoth intimately linked to the National Security Agency (NSA), has taken public exception to an allegation repeated from the White House podium that, if true, would probably shatter the Five Eyes intelligence alliance so dear to both Washington and London. Continue reading... |
| Trump and Merkel can't hide fundamental differences in first visit Posted: 17 Mar 2017 12:56 PM PDT German leader defended stance on refugees and globalisation while US president again used the phrase 'radical Islamic terrorism' in first face-to-face meeting Donald Trump and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, struck a conciliatory tone at their first face-to-face meeting on Friday, but there was little disguising their fundamental differences in policy and style. Merkel said she was "gratified" that the US president pledged support for Nato and the Minsk peace process in Ukraine. Trump insisted that he is a believer in free trade and declared: "I am not an isolationist." Continue reading... |
| Basque separatist group Eta announces plan to lay down all weapons Posted: 17 Mar 2017 10:43 AM PDT Militant organisation, which renounced its armed struggle in 2011, says it will disarm by next month and reveal stockpile sites Six years after renouncing violence in its long and bloody pursuit of a Basque homeland, the militant separatist group Eta has announced it will lay down all arms by early next month. On Friday, Le Monde reported that Eta was ready to give up its weapons once and for all and intended to reveal the locations of its hidden stockpiles very soon. Continue reading... |
| The girl who said no to FGM – video Posted: 17 Mar 2017 02:43 AM PDT Jaha Dukureh, a survivor of FGM and forced child marriage, became a lightning-rod for change in the Gambia, her activism contributing to the eventual government ban on FGM and child marriage. She was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Here she confronts her past, her family, her culture, her religion, her country and its leaders
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| Irish American politicians working with Trump urged to remember their history Posted: 17 Mar 2017 08:46 AM PDT Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, the Irish senator who called Trump a 'fascist', says Irish are immigrants who were once branded terrorists and stigmatized for their faith Irish American politicians working with Donald Trump should have more awareness of how Irish people had been treated in the 19th and 20th centuries in the US and elsewhere, according to an Irish Labour party senator who made headlines after calling Trump a "fascist". "[Historically] we were the ones who were called terrorists when bombs were going off [in the UK]," Aodhán Ó Ríordáin told the Guardian in an interview. "You call someone a terrorist or give an impression that a certain entire religious faith is connected with terrorism and that's really undermining." Continue reading... |
| Call the exorcist: pope tells priests to consult experts in casting out demons Posted: 17 Mar 2017 01:24 PM PDT Pope Francis advised confessors to refer to an exorcist to better address parishioners' who have 'real spiritual disorders' with supernatural origins Pope Francis has advised priests who hear troubled confessions from parishioners to not hesitate to call on the services of an exorcist. A good confessor has to be very discerning, particularly when he has to deal with "real spiritual disorders", the 80-year-old pontiff told priests at a Vatican training seminar on the art of hearing believers recount their sins. Continue reading... |
| Trump administration appeals partial block of travel ban by Maryland judge Posted: 17 Mar 2017 01:26 PM PDT Ruling by Judge Theodore Chuang relates to visa issuances from the six Muslim-majority countries covered by the ban The Trump administration has appealed against a federal court order issued in the state of Maryland that partially blocks the president's revised travel ban. The Department of Justice's acting solicitor general, Jeffrey Wall, informed Maryland's southern district court in a filing on Friday that the government will challenge the ruling in the fourth circuit appeals court. Continue reading... |
| Peru floods kill 67 and spark criticism of country's climate change preparedness Posted: 17 Mar 2017 07:57 AM PDT Devastating downpour, caused by high ocean temperatures, could not have been predicted, president said, months after state of emergency declared for wildfires Sixty-seven people have been killed and thousands more forced to evacuate by intense rains which damaged 115,000 homes and destroyed more than 100 bridges in Peru's worst floods in recent memory. "We are confronting a serious climatic problem," said Peru's president, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, in a broadcast to the nation on Friday afternoon. "There hasn't been an incident of this strength along the coast of Peru since 1998." Continue reading... |
| French political system fights for survival as presidential campaign begins Posted: 17 Mar 2017 09:20 AM PDT Contest kicks off on Saturday with traditional left and right at risk of being knocked out by far-right and centrist outsiders France's traditional political party system is fighting for survival as the presidential campaign kicks off this weekend, with the mainstream left and right at risk of being knocked out by two outsiders: the independent centrist Emmanuel Macron and the far-right Front National's Marine Le Pen. The two-round presidential vote in April and May – followed immediately by parliamentary elections – is the next focus of the European political calendar after the centre-right party of Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, beat the populist, anti-Islam, anti-EU Geert Wilders into second place in Netherlands parliamentary elections this week. Continue reading... |
| Film to follow teenager who crossed the Mediterranean and competed at Rio Posted: 17 Mar 2017 09:45 AM PDT Billy Elliot director Stephen Daldry's latest protagonist is Yusra Mardini, who fled conflict in Syria and became Olympic swimmer Stephen Daldry's films have chronicled the lives and struggles of Brazilian street children, the madness and melancholy of Virginia Woolf, and, most famously of all, the trials and triumphs of a young boy from County Durham who dreams of becoming a ballet dancer. Few of his characters, however, have had to show quite as much resilience and determination as his latest protagonist, Yusra Mardini. Continue reading... |
| 'We sat drinking beer, flinching at gunfire': recalling Lebanon's 'little war' of 2008 Posted: 17 Mar 2017 08:27 AM PDT Travelling through Beirut as the Hezbollah seized parts of the city, Carl Shuker's New Zealand passport allowed him to pass across borders like a ghost. Nine years on, he remembers glimpsing a political shift that reverberates today From the balconies in east Beirut we looked toward the west, listening to the gunfire. It was the third night of the conflict and we were locked down in a hostel. All the foreigners had the same fixed grins, drinking Almaza beer, sharing cigarettes and furtive trips through the dead streets to ATMs for emergency cash. The owner was an old, bald Christian, and his family had arrived to support him – a son and daughter-in-law with a baby, various aunts. We all holed up together in the lounge, flinching at the gunshots and checking our emails. As the old Christian drank, he got playful. Soon he dressed up and began to dance. He put on a red fez, and pulled out a plastic cat o' nine tails, before dancing around the room, playfully whipping himself, moaning merrily in imitation of the Shia festival of Ashura. His family applauded. It was the whole Lebanese farce enacted for us. Over six days in May 2008, 84 people were killed and nearly 200 wounded. Continue reading... |
| CO2 emissions stay same for third year in row – despite global economy growing Posted: 17 Mar 2017 07:25 AM PDT International Energy Agency report puts halt in emissions from energy down to growth in renewable power Carbon dioxide emissions from energy have not increased for three years in a row even as the global economy grew, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said. Global emissions from the energy sector were 32.1bn tonnes in 2016, the same as the previous two years, while the economy grew 3.1%, the organisation said. Continue reading... |
| Governments must keep reforming to win back voters' trust, says OECD Posted: 17 Mar 2017 07:40 AM PDT Thinktank says progress has slowed and governments must push through change or face sluggish growth and inequality Governments must push through more fundamental reforms to boost growth, cut inequality and protect workers from rapid changes in technology if they are to win back the trust of voters, the west's leading economics thinktank has warned. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development says stagnating living standards in many countries have left people disenchanted and unwilling to support more changes by their governments in areas such as jobs markets. Continue reading... |
| Military action against North Korea 'an option', warns Rex Tillerson Posted: 17 Mar 2017 04:14 AM PDT US secretary of state says policy of strategic patience has ended due to threat posed by Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme A pre-emptive US military strike against North Korea may be necessary if the threat posed by its nuclear weapons programme reaches a level that "requires action", the US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, has warned. Speaking in Seoul on the second day of a visit to the Asia-Pacific region, Tillerson said Washington's policy of "strategic patience" towards the regime in Pyongyang had ended. Continue reading... |
| Goa murder: 245 tourists died in four local districts in past 12 years Posted: 17 Mar 2017 06:24 AM PDT Relatives of foreigners whose deaths were classified as natural or accidental say some cases could be the result of foul play An Irish-British dual national whom police believe was murdered in Goa was one of more than 245 foreigners to die in four districts of the Indian state in the past 12 years, according to police records obtained by the Guardian. A postmortem on the body of Danielle McLaughlin has revealed the 28-year-old had been sexually assaulted and strangled in the hours after leaving a party on Monday at Palolem beach, a popular spot in the south of the state. Continue reading... |
| The reindeer herder struggling to take on oil excavators in Siberia Posted: 17 Mar 2017 04:22 AM PDT Sergei Kechimov, appointed guardian of a holy lake by his community, says the indigenous way of life is under threat Sergei Kechimov, an indigenous Khanty reindeer herder, lives in a one-room cabin with no running water more than 20 miles from the nearest village in Western Siberia. But his home is not as silent as you might think. Across the swampy woodlands the beeping and rumbling of excavators are audible as they search for oil to prop up Russia's slumping economy. Environmental protection for indigenous lands has recently been abandoned. Continue reading... |
| Immigrants still caught in legal limbo despite travel ban block Posted: 17 Mar 2017 06:19 AM PDT For many who come from countries targeted by Trump's order, relief has been short-lived as obstacles for green card applications and traveling abroad remain After moving over from Iran to attend graduate school in Utah seven years ago, Pooya has settled into life in the US. He works as an architect at a busy firm in New York City, lives with his American girlfriend, and supports the Brooklyn Nets. Continue reading... |
| Pakistan asks Facebook and Twitter to help identify blasphemers Posted: 17 Mar 2017 02:50 AM PDT Companies approached in effort to locate Pakistanis at home or abroad so they can be prosecuted or potentially extradited Pakistan has asked Facebook and Twitter to help identify Pakistanis suspected of blasphemy so it can prosecute them or pursue their extradition. Under the country's strict blasphemy laws, anyone found to have insulted Islam or the prophet Muhammad can be sentenced to death. Continue reading... |
| Japanese government held liable for first time for negligence in Fukushima Posted: 17 Mar 2017 03:25 AM PDT Court rules government should have used regulatory powers to force nuclear plant's operator to take preventive measures A court in Japan has ruled that negligence by the state contributed to the triple meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in March 2011 and awarded significant damages to evacuees. Although courts have awarded damages arising from the disaster in other cases, Friday's ruling is the first time the government has been held liable. Continue reading... |
| Bush Theatre boss Madani Younis: ‘I want to provoke culture’ Posted: 18 Mar 2017 02:00 AM PDT As London's Bush theatre prepares for a grand reopening, its artistic director Madani Younis explains why his vision for it is nationally important – and what people really mean when they talk about 'diversity' Most interviewees keep up a best-behaviour version of their public self while the Dictaphone is on, leaving me to work out what they're really like from the clues they unwittingly drop. Deploying guesswork in order to divine authenticity might sound odd, but I like to flatter myself that I can be quite good at it. have to admit, however, that had Madani Younis stuck to the smooth, PR-friendly persona he greets me with, no private version I might have imagined would have come close to the sweary reformer who gradually emerges before my eyes. The artistic director of the Bush theatre very much wants to publicise its imminent grand reopening, but his subversive side is so much more interesting that in the end I think even he couldn't bear to keep it quiet. We meet at the theatre, on Uxbridge Road in west London, just before its relaunch. It smells of fresh paint and sawdust. The builders vacated just a fortnight ago – electrical cables dangle from the ceiling, and there is a palpable air of last-minute adrenaline and first-night nerves. But Younis is smartly dressed, unflappably upbeat, and maintains a word-perfect commentary about every detail of the building as he shows me around. Continue reading... |
| Man shot dead at Paris airport after trying to grab gun Posted: 18 Mar 2017 01:56 AM PDT Interior ministry confirms shooting as police evacuate part of Orly airport and warn people to stay away as security operation continues French soldiers shot dead a man at Orly airport in Paris on Saturday morning after he tried to grab a weapon, the interior ministry confirmed. The soldier was part of the Sentinel special force installed around France to protect sensitive sites after a string of deadly Islamic extremist attacks. Continue reading... |
| Storm Stella, Ramses II and Mosul – the 20 photographs of the week Posted: 18 Mar 2017 01:01 AM PDT Storm Stella unleashes its fury on the north-eastern United States, archaeologists unearth two 19th-dynasty royal statues and the ongoing offensive in Mosul – the news of the week captured by the world's best photojournalists Continue reading... |
| Put us on the map, please: China's smaller cities go wild for starchitecture Posted: 18 Mar 2017 01:00 AM PDT From mountain-shaped apartment blocks to the centre of braised chicken reinventing itself as 'Solar Valley', China's second (and third) tier cities are hiring big-name architects to get them noticed From egg-shaped concert halls to skyscrapers reminiscent of big pairs of pants, China's top cities are famously full of curious monuments to architectural ambition. But as land prices in the main metropolises have shot into the stratosphere, developers have been scrambling to buy up plots in the country's second and third-tier cities, spawning a new generation of delirious plans in the provinces. President Xi Jinping may have issued a directive last year outlawing "oversized, xenocentric, weird" buildings, but many of these schemes were already well under way; his diktat has proved to be no obstacle to mayoral hubris yet. From Harbin "City of Music" to Dezhou "Solar Valley", provincial capitals are branding themselves as themed enclaves of culture and industry to attract inward investment, and commissioning scores of bold buildings to match. Even where there is no demand, city bureaucrats are relentlessly selling off land for development, hawking plots as the primary form of income – accounting for 80% of municipal revenues in some cases. In the last two months alone, 50 Chinese cities received a total of 453bn yuan (£54bn) from land auctions , a 73% increase on last year, and it's the provincial capitals that are leading the way. Continue reading... |
| Torrey Canyon disaster – the UK's worst-ever oil spill 50 years on Posted: 18 Mar 2017 01:00 AM PDT The UK's biggest ever oil spill in 1967 taught invaluable lessons about the response to disasters, toughened up shipping safety and stirred green activism "I saw this huge ship sailing and I thought he's in rather close, I hope he knows what he's doing," recalled Gladys Perkins of the day 50 years ago, when Britain experienced its worst ever environmental disaster. The ship was the Torrey Canyon, one of the first generation of supertankers, and it was nearing the end of a journey from Kuwait to a refinery at Milford Haven in Wales. The BP-chartered vessel ran aground on a rock between the Isles of Scilly and Land's End in Cornwall, splitting several of the tanks holding its vast cargo of crude oil. Continue reading... |
| 'We feel very close to her': can 'fake feminist' Marine Le Pen win the female vote? Posted: 18 Mar 2017 12:00 AM PDT Women are crucial for the far-right leader's bid to become France's first female president, but can she avoid scaring them off? In a room normally used for an evening bridge club, Christiane, 60, was clutching a plate of cured pork sausage with a mini French flag stuck in it at a pre-dinner drink for Front National supporters. Dressed in colourful knitwear and a chunky wooden necklace, she used to vote Communist and was a feminist who burned her bra in the 1970s. But she now wants Marine Le Pen to be president. Christiane, a former TV freelancer, said it was her "experience as a woman" that had led her to gradually shift to the far right. "I was pregnant, single and in financial difficulty so I went to inquire about benefits, but I was entitled to nothing. Yet next to me there was a Pakistani woman with an interpreter who was entitled to everything. Something was not right," she said. "We can't give everything away without protecting our own. When I tried to get housing help, I was told: 'Move back in with your mother.' I raised my son on my own in a studio flat in a block in northern Paris; there was a rape below me, burnt-out cars." Continue reading... |
| 'We are not slaves': Europe's most repressive state is reawakening Posted: 17 Mar 2017 02:58 AM PDT Street protests that began with anger at a new tax have Belarus's authoritarian government in their sights "Basta!" the placards read. "We are not slaves." These are the most popular slogans brandished at the street protests that have been rippling through Belarus. The trigger for the demonstrations was a presidential decree imposing a tax on people who declare fewer than 183 days of work a year. The underlying cause is general despondency about life in Europe's most repressive state. Continue reading... |
| 'Brothers bling': lawsuit puts Nick and Christian Candy in spotlight Posted: 18 Mar 2017 02:00 AM PDT Billionaires have denied allegations of threats and extortion that emerged in case brought by former friend Mark Holyoake There is a saying in the property world: "You only deal with Candy & Candy once". Those were the words of a witness at a £132m high court trial for damages which has turned the private and financial affairs of billionaire property moguls Nick and Christian Candy into a succession of lurid headlines. The former Monaco tax exiles are known as the "brothers bling" for their high-rolling lifestyles: the silk carpeted private jet, the Candyscape yachts and the Swiss watch collection. Elder brother Nick married actor and singer Holly Valance at a celebrity-studded event in Los Angeles five years ago. Christian's other half is the socialite Emily Crompton. Continue reading... |
| Famine and its causes in the Horn of Africa | Letters Posted: 17 Mar 2017 11:29 AM PDT As members of the Eritrean community, we were deeply moved by the appeal for assistance in the Horn of Africa, launched by British aid organisations (Charities redouble efforts to avert east Africa famine, 15 March). But we cannot understand why Eritrea is not included in the appeal. Unicef has confirmed what we know from our friends and families inside the country. In a report in January, the agency said that the El Niño drought has hit half of all Eritrea's regions. Acute malnutrition is widespread. As Unicef put it: "Malnutrition rates already exceeded emergency levels, with 22,700 children under five projected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition in 2017 ... Half of all children in Eritrea are stunted, and as a result, these children are even more vulnerable to malnutrition and disease outbreaks." This situation – confirmed by information smuggled out of Eritrea – has been denied by President Isaias Afwerki, who said in January last year that "the country will not face any crisis in spite of reduced agricultural output". It would be unforgivable if the international community turned its back on the Eritrean people. While working in the country might be difficult, this should not be allowed to stand in the way of delivering aid to those who are in such dire need. |
| Donald Trump anti-China tweet gives Rex Tillerson a fresh wall to climb Posted: 17 Mar 2017 06:46 PM PDT As secretary of state arrives in Beijing, his mission to set stage for a leaders' summit is hampered by president's hectoring messages Donald Trump took his latest online swipe at China's leaders as his secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, flew into Beijing to finalise plans for a high-stakes summit designed to soothe tensions after months of bad blood and uncertainty. Trump is expected to host Xi Jinping at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach on 6-7 April for an informal "no necktie" encounter similar to the 2013 Sunnylands summit between Barack Obama and the Communist party chief. |
| NSW floods: SES responds to hundreds of calls for help after deluge Posted: 17 Mar 2017 11:18 PM PDT The NSW mid north coast is enduring another drenching but forecasters say conditions will ease after Saturday's downpour The SES received more than 550 calls for help on Saturday and responded to 2,748 requests after another drenching on the mid north coast of New South Wales. There were also more than 70 flood rescues, most on the mid north coast and in the Hunter, SES spokesman Brent Hunter said. Continue reading... |
| A good-looking bird: the bush stone-curlew that loves its own reflection Posted: 17 Mar 2017 09:41 PM PDT Bird appears on campus in Queensland where it was spotted standing in front of a glass door admiring itself A bird that was photographed staring at its own reflection has risen to fame in Australia after university students made it its own Facebook page. The bush stone-curlew appeared on campus at Queensland University of Technology in Kelvin Grove, Brisbane, on Tuesday, where it was spotted standing in front of a glass door, apparently admiring itself. Continue reading... |
| Angela Merkel looks bemused by Donald Trump's wiretapping joke Posted: 17 Mar 2017 08:37 PM PDT From bafflement to a cold stare, the German chancellor's reactions during her visit to Washington have been dissected on social media Angela Merkel has reacted with surprise and bemusement to an attempted joke by Donald Trump that suggested one thing they had in common was that they had both been wiretapped by the Obama administration. The US president's indelicate quip was made during a media conference in which the difficult relationship between the pair was put on show. Continue reading... |
| Sicilian bishop bans mafia godfathers from baptisms Posted: 17 Mar 2017 07:46 PM PDT Michele Pennisi accuses criminals of using the term godfather to 'give its bosses an air of religious respectability' A bishop in Sicily has banned known mafia criminals from acting as godfathers at baptisms in churches in his diocese. Michele Pennisi, bishop of Monreale, near Palermo, said Friday he had issued a decree to that effect in a bid to challenge any notion that the bosses of organised crime have a paternalistic side to them. Continue reading... |
| Bali police killing: prosecutors to challenge Sara Connor's sentence Posted: 17 Mar 2017 06:35 PM PDT They say four years is too short but will not appeal against the six-year term handed to her British boyfriend, David Taylor
They are not, however, planning to appeal against the six-year term handed to her British boyfriend, David Taylor. |
| They say opposites attract … but nobody told Trump and Merkel Posted: 17 Mar 2017 02:05 PM PDT The German chancellor and US president represent contrasting poles of the western alliance, and every moment of their awkward encounter shouted it The cameras clicked and the photographers asked Angela Merkel and Donald Trump to shake hands. "Do you want to have a handshake?" she asked. Trump looked straight ahead with a presidential grimace frozen on his face but gave no response. If he had heard her, he did not show it. |
| Fleeing from Dante’s hell on Mount Etna | Letters Posted: 17 Mar 2017 11:28 AM PDT In June 1967, on honeymoon with my Sicilian wife, I persuaded her one night to climb the mountain under which she'd spent her childhood, and to whose craters she had never ventured (BBC volcano crew run for their lives as Mount Etna comes to life, 17 March). Etna was in eruption and the guides who accompanied us eager to use their "irons", making ashtrays from the molten lava. We stood watching them, figures against the fire as in a circle of Dante's hell; until we suddenly felt the ground move under our feet. As we stepped away and ran, the mountainside split open to produce another lava stream. And effectively cut us off. One guide managed to reach us and we were forced to retreat around the east side of the crater, in those days nothing but a steep scree slope of lava ash falling 1,000 metres into one of Etna's valleys. The guide carried my wife across the "death slide", as he described it, telling us not to breathe for the next 100 metres. We were in the middle of the sulphur cloud. We did miraculously survive; as also did our marriage. And that same morning, trembling still on the summit, watched the sun rise over Calabria. |
| Time for a declaration of war – on happiness | Letters Posted: 17 Mar 2017 11:25 AM PDT Pointless wars | Nuclear weapons ban treaty | Boris Johnson's hair | Fish | Guardian merchandise | Naked statues | First class Nicholas Searle is right to warn against a "war on terror" (To defeat terrorists we have to get inside their minds, 17 March), as demonstrated rigorously by Professor Louise Richardson in What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Terrorist Threat. Hence the observation that, since the war on drugs led to in increase in drugs crime, and the war on terror led to an increase in terror, should we not declare a war on happiness and enjoy the concomitant increase in happiness? • A nuclear weapons ban treaty is being discussed this month at the UN. The UK is not planning to attend, a scandal. It is likely a treaty will be agreed. It is essential that we attend and play our part in ridding the world of these weapons of mass destruction whose only function is to slaughter civilians in the millions. |
| The week in patriarchy: the BBC family saved this from being a terrible week | Jessica Valenti Posted: 17 Mar 2017 09:16 AM PDT With the full-scale planned attacks on health insurance, the National Endowment for the Arts and Meals on Wheels, it's hard to find any silver-linings • Get this newsletter via email – sign up Between the Congressional Budget Office report that predicts 24 million Americans losing their health insurance if the Republican party has its way, and Trump's budget that eradicates the National Endowment for the Arts and even guts Meals on Wheels, this week has been just as horrible as all the rest. No break for us! Oh yeah, and if that doesn't worry you, consider that the president of the United States just might start a war with North Korea via Twitter burns. Continue reading... |
| Irish PM tells Trump: ‘St Patrick was an immigrant’ – video Posted: 17 Mar 2017 08:54 AM PDT With Donald Trump standing only a few feet away, Irish PM Enda Kenny identifies St Patrick with immigrants – 'the patron saint of immigrants' – at the annual St Patrick's Day lunch in Washington on Thursday. Kenny quotes from Emma Lazarus's The New Colossus, saying the Irish were 'the wretched refuse on the teeming shore'
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| Undocumenteds fade from the city they helped build Posted: 17 Mar 2017 03:45 AM PDT In the first of a three-part investigation of how Charlotte, North Carolina would look without undocumented people, Amanda Holpuch hears how the construction industry would fall apart It becomes easier every week to imagine America's cities without undocumented workers. Consider Charlotte, North Carolina, where the construction industry has relied on them in the past couple of decades as both its skyline and its appeal to business have grown. But now they are vanishing from its building sites, fearful of Donald Trump's expansion of the deportation net. Continue reading... |
| Trump funding cuts would imperil tens of thousands of women, activists warn Posted: 17 Mar 2017 03:54 AM PDT Question marks over support for short-term projects run by UN population fund prompt concern over future of programmes in Syria, east Africa and beyond Funding cuts threatened by the Trump administration will jeopardise the lives of tens of thousands of women and girls, including many who have fled violence in Syria, Yemen and Iraq, campaigners warn. A total of 27 short-term UN population fund (UNFPA) projects, worth almost $23m (£19m), are supported by the US. Continue reading... |
| Trump jokes about wiretapping at Angela Merkel press conference – video Posted: 17 Mar 2017 02:26 PM PDT In an apparent reference to reports that the US bugged German chancellor Angela Merkel's phone during the Obama presidency, Donald Trump said 'at least we have something in common,' when asked about his own unsupported wiretap claims during a joint-press conference on Friday. Trump also deflected criticism about a White House official who on Thursday repeated a charge that a British intelligence agency helped Obama wiretap Trump Continue reading... |
| No shake: Donald Trump snubs Angela Merkel during photo op – video Posted: 17 Mar 2017 11:09 AM PDT Donald Trump appeared to deny the German chancellor Angela Merkel a handshake during a photo opportunity with the press at the White House on Friday. Trump and Merkel met earlier for a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office where they were expected to talk about strengthening Nato, fighting the Islamic State group and resolving Ukraine's conflict Continue reading... |
| Trump quotes 'Irish proverb' while meeting Irish PM on St Patrick’s Day – video Posted: 17 Mar 2017 08:16 AM PDT President Donald Trump meets the Irish prime minister Enda Kenny at the annual St Patrick's Day lunch in Washington on Thursday, and quotes what he says is an Irish proverb. On social media, however, many commenters said it was neither Irish nor a proverb
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| US 'strategic patience' with North Korea has ended, says Tillerson – video Posted: 17 Mar 2017 02:21 AM PDT Speaking on a visit to South Korea on Friday, US secretary of state Rex Tillerson says efforts to achieve stability with North Korea have failed. The threat represented by North Korea's growing nuclear and missile arsenal is the principal reason for Tillerson's trip to the region Continue reading... |
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