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- North Korea launches missile but test ends in failure
- Mélenchon puts left in contention as French election becomes too close to call
- Deadly Aleppo suicide attack kills 100 in evacuation operation
- Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: is he a threat to Turkish democracy? | The Observer profile
- Hungary’s liberals find a hero in their battle against Viktor Orbán
- Churches demand Manus Island asylum seekers be evacuated
- How factions in South Sudan’s war took shape on British campuses
- Emma Morano, world's oldest person, dies aged 117
- US 'mother of all bombs' killed 92 Isis militants, say Afghan officials
- Outcry after Arkansas judge who stayed executions joins anti-death penalty rally
- Britain set to lose EU ‘crown jewels’ of banking and medicine agencies
- Royal Navy escorts two Russian warships through Channel
- North Korea's missile launch 'threatens whole world', says South Korea – video
- Mexican governor accused of embezzling billions detained in Guatemala
- Alastair Campbell: Theresa May is wrong to hint that ‘God would have voted Leave’
- Trump sabre-rattling on North Korea has a flaw: Kim Jong-un has nothing to lose
- Hundreds feared buried in Sri Lanka rubbish dump landslide
- Labour heartland under attack in metro mayor elections
- How down-at-heel Lisbon became the new capital of cool
- Gaffe-prone press secretary Spicer is Little Gag doing work of Big Gag boss
- The great divide: what will $1m buy you in Australia's property market?
- EU rules may ruin aerial message business beloved of football fans
- Emergency workers search for survivors after Sri Lanka rubbish dump collapse – video
- Before the ascent: postcards from Everest
- Improve Gibraltar’s lot by allowing it to elect MPs | Letters
- It's a boy: world watches as New York zoo streams birth of calf to April the giraffe
- April the giraffe tends to wobbly newborn calf – video
- How the BBC’s truth offensive beat Hitler’s propaganda machine
- Arkansas executions: profiles of the eight death row prisoners
- Arkansas executions: health giant sues state as federal judge issues injunction
- Hannah Bladon's family describe her killing in Jerusalem as 'senseless'
- North Korea military parade shows off ‘new weapons’ – video
- Day of the Sun celebrations in North Korea – in pictures
- Britain doubles funding to fight tropical diseases
- Steve Bannon: is Trump's right-hand man falling from grace?
| North Korea launches missile but test ends in failure Posted: 16 Apr 2017 01:26 AM PDT Unsuccessful testfire in eastern coastal city comes hours before US vice-president is due to arrive in Seoul North Korea has defied Donald Trump's demands for it to abandon its nuclear and missile programmes, launching a missile from an eastern port city on Sunday morning. However, the test appeared to fail. "The missile blew up almost immediately," the United States Pacific Command said in a statement. "The type of missile is still being assessed." Reuters reported one US official as saying it was confident the failed projectile was not an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Continue reading... |
| Mélenchon puts left in contention as French election becomes too close to call Posted: 15 Apr 2017 12:56 PM PDT With a week until the first round of voting, support for veteran La France Insoumise candidate is rising in a four-way contest Will the real Jean-Luc Mélenchon stand up? On Tuesday, Mélenchon, the rising star of the French presidential election, will appear in the eastern city of Dijon. Simultaneously a 3D hologram of the veteran hard-left politician will be beamed to six other French cities. He may not literally be there, but just days from France's heavily contested leadership vote "JLM" will be attempting to show that his programme has more substance than his ethereal appearance might suggest. Related: French elections: all you need to know Continue reading... |
| Deadly Aleppo suicide attack kills 100 in evacuation operation Posted: 15 Apr 2017 05:47 PM PDT Bomber uses aid supply vehicle to target busloads of evacuees waiting to leave besieged towns A suicide car bomber has killed and injured at least 100 people and fractured a complex deal to evacuate four besieged towns in Syria, leaving thousands of people trapped in limbo. The bomber targeted buses full of evacuees from government-held towns as they waited in a rebel-held area on the outskirts of Aleppo. He drove his explosives up to their vehicles in a van meant to carry aid supplies. Continue reading... |
| Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: is he a threat to Turkish democracy? | The Observer profile Posted: 15 Apr 2017 04:05 PM PDT Turkey votes today on whether to cement the power of a man revered by many, reviled and feared by many others The boulevards of Istanbul are lined with posters backing both sides in today's knife-edge referendum on constitutional reform. Both camps – "evet" (yes in Turkish) and "hayır" (no) – are convinced they hold the key to resolving the republic's many troubles. But one image dominates the debate. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's face is ubiquitous. In one poster, his steady gaze is accompanied by the caption: "For security, for stability." Continue reading... |
| Hungary’s liberals find a hero in their battle against Viktor Orbán Posted: 15 Apr 2017 04:05 PM PDT Academic Michael Ignatieff's stand for academic freedom has gained attention The urbane, intellectual figure of Michael Ignatieff seems an unlikely candidate to play the role of bogeyman in the eyes of Viktor Orbán, Hungary's populist prime minister, as he strives to turn his country into an "illiberal state". Yet it was on him that Orbán's official spokesman focused while scrambling to explain recent mass protests supporting Budapest's Central European University (CEU) – a small elite institution of higher learning of which Ignatieff is rector, and which could, theoretically, be forced to close because of a new higher education law. Continue reading... |
| Churches demand Manus Island asylum seekers be evacuated Posted: 15 Apr 2017 06:46 PM PDT Advocates want those detained brought to Australia after violent clashes alleged between asylum seekers and naval personnel on Friday evening Churches and refugee advocates are calling for asylum seekers on Manus Island to be evacuated to Australia after shots were fired when local men tried to storm the facility. The Human Rights Law Centre, the Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce and Amnesty International have said the shooting incident on Friday shows the centre is not safe and the refugees and asylum seekers detained there must be removed to Australia while resettlement in the US progresses. Continue reading... |
| How factions in South Sudan’s war took shape on British campuses Posted: 15 Apr 2017 11:00 PM PDT The UK has historical links with both sides of a vicious civil war Among the South African, Palestinian and other young exiles debating revolutionary politics on campuses across early 1980s Britain, there was little at first to mark out Riek Machar, a twentysomething student from what is now the troubled young country of South Sudan. Yet within a few years – while pursuing a philosophy PhD at Bradford – he was to establish an underground student grouping in contact with rebels in his homeland and lead a delegation to Muammar Gaddafi's Libya on behalf of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM). Distinguishing himself as a field commander during one of Africa's longest-running conflicts, Machar formed a new and more personal relationship with Britain in 1991, when he married Emma McCune, a young English aid worker who subsequently died in a car accident in Kenya. Continue reading... |
| Emma Morano, world's oldest person, dies aged 117 Posted: 15 Apr 2017 10:52 AM PDT Woman, thought to have been the last person left in the world born in the 1800s, dies at her home in northern Italy The world's oldest person, Emma Morano, has died at her home in northern Italy. At the age of 117 her life spanned three centuries, having been born in the 1800s. Morano was also one of the five oldest people in recorded history. Continue reading... |
| US 'mother of all bombs' killed 92 Isis militants, say Afghan officials Posted: 15 Apr 2017 03:06 AM PDT Several mid-level Isis commanders reportedly among dead after Moab strike ordered by Trump on complex in Nangarhar province More than 90 Islamic State militants were killed when the US military dropped an 11-ton bomb on eastern Afghanistan, according to the Afghan government. The US military has not released a casualty toll and declined to comment on the Afghan numbers. "We are still conducting our assessment," it said. |
| Outcry after Arkansas judge who stayed executions joins anti-death penalty rally Posted: 15 Apr 2017 02:26 PM PDT Republican lawmakers questioned Judge Wendell Griffen's impartiality after he lay bound on a cot following his ruling to halt executions The judge who on Friday barred Arkansas from executing six prisoners in rapid succession followed his ruling by attending an anti-death penalty rally, where he lay down on a cot and bound himself as though he were a condemned man on a gurney. Related: Arkansas executions: health giant sues state as federal judge issues injunction Continue reading... |
| Britain set to lose EU ‘crown jewels’ of banking and medicine agencies Posted: 15 Apr 2017 01:13 PM PDT Rival member states vie to attract prestigious agencies currently located in London as diplomats agree to block talks on future comprehensive trade deal The EU is set to inflict a double humiliation on Theresa May, stripping Britain of its European agencies within weeks, while formally rejecting the prime minister's calls for early trade talks. The Observer has learned that EU diplomats agreed their uncompromising position at a crunch meeting on Tuesday, held to set out the union's strategy in the talks due to start next month. Continue reading... |
| Royal Navy escorts two Russian warships through Channel Posted: 15 Apr 2017 10:22 AM PDT HMS Sutherland will monitor two Steregushchiy-class corvettes and two other Russian ships at time of heightened tension Two Russian warships are to be escorted by a Royal Navy ship as they pass through the Channel. HMS Sutherland will monitor Steregushchiy-class corvettes Soobrazitelny and Boiky as well as a Russian support tanker and ocean-going tug when they sail close to UK territorial waters on Saturday. Continue reading... |
| North Korea's missile launch 'threatens whole world', says South Korea – video Posted: 15 Apr 2017 11:42 PM PDT South Korea's foreign ministry says North Korea's latest missile launch threatens the entire world with its missile launch, warning of a punitive action if it leads to further provocations such as a nuclear test or a long-range missile launch. Foreign ministry spokesman Cho June-Hyuck also condemned the recent military parade in in Pyongyang which showcased vehicles carrying different types of missiles. Continue reading... |
| Mexican governor accused of embezzling billions detained in Guatemala Posted: 15 Apr 2017 11:02 PM PDT Fugitive Javier Duarte fled Mexico in 2016, becoming a symbol of the country's fight against corruption and impunity A fugitive former Mexican governor was captured Saturday night in a Guatemala tourist town, ending a six-month manhunt for a politician accused of egregious acts of graft in a country accustomed to corruption scandals. Javier Duarte was detained by Guatemala's national police in Panajachel, 140km west of Guatemal City, acting on an Interpol warrant for his arrest. Mexico's foreign ministry said in a statement it would ask for Duarte's extradition. Continue reading... |
| Alastair Campbell: Theresa May is wrong to hint that ‘God would have voted Leave’ Posted: 15 Apr 2017 10:00 PM PDT Former Labour spin doctor attacks Theresa May for bringing her personal faith into her Easter message Theresa May has drawn on her childhood memories of growing up in an Oxfordshire vicarage to emphasise her Christian values, which she says "can and must bring us together" over Brexit. Related: Theresa May condemns National Trust for axing 'Easter' from egg hunt Continue reading... |
| Trump sabre-rattling on North Korea has a flaw: Kim Jong-un has nothing to lose Posted: 15 Apr 2017 09:55 PM PDT Strategy of sending in the US navy and attacking Syria and Afghanistan likely only to boost Pyongyang's nuclear resolve In the lead-up to North Korea's latest missile test, Donald Trump had battled to convince Kim Jong-un he was picking a fight with the wrong guy. The US president pounded Syria with 59 Tomahawk missiles and then ordered a naval "armada" into the waters around the Korean peninsula. He dropped the "mother of all bombs" on eastern Afghanistan and used Twitter to hammer home his message. Continue reading... |
| Hundreds feared buried in Sri Lanka rubbish dump landslide Posted: 15 Apr 2017 09:54 PM PDT Emergency workers to resume search for missing on Sunday after 20 bodies extracted from rubbish and mud Emergency workers looking for survivors after a massive rubbish dump collapsed in Sri Lanka suspended their search on Saturday night, having already extracted 19 bodies from the rubble and mud. The 90-metre-high dump in the capital Colombo collapsed after flames engulfed it late on Friday, the nation's New Year's Day, and witnesses said around 100 houses could have been buried. Continue reading... |
| Labour heartland under attack in metro mayor elections Posted: 15 Apr 2017 04:05 PM PDT Conservatives are in upbeat mood in the West Midlands as they invoke Victorian values of reformer Joseph Chamberlain The great mayor of Birmingham Joseph Chamberlain, one of the most famous Victorian reformers, presided over slum clearance, the introduction of clean water and public works that included swimming pools, libraries and schools. He is commemorated in the city with a fountain and a clock tower – though, surprisingly, no statue. Those achievements belong to a very different age. The candidates in the election on 4 May for a new "metro" mayor for the West Midlands are under no illusions that they will ever be honoured in the same way as Chamberlain. Even if their ambitions matched his, the powers being granted by Theresa May's government in this experiment in English devolution would make it near impossible to emulate him. But that will not stop the Conservative candidate, Andy Street, from trying. Continue reading... |
| How down-at-heel Lisbon became the new capital of cool Posted: 16 Apr 2017 12:30 AM PDT Four years ago, Portugal's capital felt like a 'city on its knees'. Now it is being touted as hip, cheap and innovative. But is the socialist government failing Lisbon's poor in its rush to revitalise? In Lisbon people keep telling me about the surfing. It's great. The beaches are 20 minutes from the beautiful, historic and lively centre of Lisbon. You get the best of everything: Bondi meets old Europe. I hear this from Patrick, a Kentuckian whose digital marketing business was formerly based in Costa Rica and at another time in Bali; from Matthieu, a French life coach; and from Tariq, a British property specialist. I hear it from the Yorkshire-raised, London-based Rohan Silva, whom the British press likes to describe as a "tech scenester" or "techpreneur", and from João Vasconcelos, Portugal's suave secretary of state for industry. Until recently, most of the news coming out of Portugal was of what Vasconcelos calls "the worst crisis in 100 years", with stories of professionals sleeping in their cars because they'd been evicted from their homes. On my last visit, for the architecture triennale in 2013, an event full of ingenious low-cost ideas for reviving empty spaces and struggling businesses, Lisbon felt like a city on its knees. Now, according to one of the 2013 triennale's organisers, Mariana Pestana, "there's a psychological improvement. People are starting to dream again, they're starting to consume again." Economic change is "no longer something that happens to us. There is some control." There are also early outbreaks of the complaints that come with urban success, rising property prices and loss of character. Continue reading... |
| Gaffe-prone press secretary Spicer is Little Gag doing work of Big Gag boss Posted: 15 Apr 2017 11:00 PM PDT Public relations folk know they should avoid becoming the story. And they should definitely avoid becoming a running gag The first commandment for public relations officers (aka communications directors) is: "Don't become the story you're trying to manage." So, perhaps shortly before his move to run communications at United Airlines, it's instructive to grease the White House slipway for Sean Spicer. He makes huge mistakes of the "even Hitler" never stooped to using chemical weapons on "his own people" variety. But it's the countless little mistakes – the "Joe" Trudeau, or the Aussie PM called "Malcolm Trumball" – that have sapped Spicer so. He has become a running gag. If he served a popular boss who was pursuing popular policies, that might be survivable. But Spicer is really Little Gag doing Big Gag's botched work. He's a bargain-basement version of his boss. Continue reading... |
| The great divide: what will $1m buy you in Australia's property market? Posted: 16 Apr 2017 01:22 AM PDT From inner-city apartments to suburban cottages or a few acres in the rainforest, the answer depends on where you're buying With talk of the Sydney and Melbourne housing markets racing away from prices in other cities and regions, we decided to ask: what can you buy in Australia for a million dollars? From inner-city apartments to suburban cottages or a few acres in the rainforest, the answer depends on where you're buying. Continue reading... |
| EU rules may ruin aerial message business beloved of football fans Posted: 15 Apr 2017 11:00 PM PDT Pilots of single-engined planes find that they have been classified as conducting 'high risk specialised operations' For the modern football manager, it is the circling of a small plane above the stadium on match day, rather than the traditional vote of confidence once offered by the club's board following a string of defeats, which now signals that their job hangs by a thread. Related: Ukip's Nigel Farage injured in aeroplane crash Continue reading... |
| Emergency workers search for survivors after Sri Lanka rubbish dump collapse – video Posted: 15 Apr 2017 07:31 PM PDT Sri Lankan emergency workers search for survivors following the collapse of a massive rubbish dump which buried houses in Colombo. Nineteen bodies have been extracted from the rubble and mud. Aerial footage shows the extent of the destruction, with up to 100 houses feared buried Continue reading... |
| Before the ascent: postcards from Everest Posted: 15 Apr 2017 04:05 PM PDT Waiting to summit Everest gives mountaineers time for introspection. Artist Derek Eland travelled to Base Camp to ask those on their way up to write down their hopes and fears Why do people risk their lives to climb Everest? Artist Derek Eland spent six weeks living in a one-man tent at the Everest Base Camp in 2016 to find out. Fascinated by our intimate thoughts in the most challenging moments, and drawing on a previous project on the frontline in Afghanistan, he set up a confessional-style diary room where climbers were asked to write postcards about why they were there. "You hear all the success stories about those who summited," he says, "but you never hear about the rest of the people, their lives and dreams and stories." By the end of the climbing season Eland had accumulated hundreds of postcards written in 12 different languages, from more than 25 different countries. For Eland the written word allows people to be far more open: "There's something poignant about seeing someone's thoughts on a piece of paper. It provides a small portal into their soul." Tragically, many climbers were injured and some killed, among them people who had become friends. "I got close to many of these people," he says. "You feel like you are with them on this journey. It took me a long time to recover when I got back home." Continue reading... |
| Improve Gibraltar’s lot by allowing it to elect MPs | Letters Posted: 15 Apr 2017 04:05 PM PDT Proper government support would have halted the slide towards becoming a dodgy tax haven The status of Gibraltar was not resolved when the UK had a veto before Spain joined the EEC in 1986 and I doubt whether this would have happened had the Rock been French. Its overseas territories are an integral part of France and are not expected to become dodgy tax havens to earn a living ("Defend Gibraltar? Better condemn it as a dodgy tax haven", Comment). In return, they get to elect députés to the Assemblée Nationale in Paris. Even Saint Pierre et Miquelon, with around 5,000 voters, will get a seat in this May's elections. Post-colonial geography is complex, given how such distant territories can be uneconomic to maintain, but it's a false economy to expect them to become tax havens. Over the last few centuries, they have helped support the growth in our collective wealth and security and, if they wish to remain part of the UK, our Caribbean islands, Bermuda and Gibraltar should be allowed to elect MPs and pay taxes and, in return, get proper financial support from the British government. Continue reading... |
| It's a boy: world watches as New York zoo streams birth of calf to April the giraffe Posted: 15 Apr 2017 03:06 PM PDT
A New York zoo's much-discussed livestream video of its pregnant giraffe showed her giving birth on Saturday. Related: April the pregnant giraffe: live stream attracts millions – and YouTube censors Continue reading... |
| April the giraffe tends to wobbly newborn calf – video Posted: 15 Apr 2017 09:13 AM PDT April, a 15-year-old giraffe, tends to her newly born calf after giving birth live on a New York zoo's YouTube channel on Saturday. Adventure Park in Harpursville had been livestreaming its pregnant giraffe throughout her labour, and captured the big moment shortly before 10am ET. At least 1.2 million people watched the event
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| How the BBC’s truth offensive beat Hitler’s propaganda machine Posted: 15 Apr 2017 08:49 AM PDT Accurate radio reporting of British defeats helped win trust of German listeners When it came to winning the war against Hitler's sophisticated propaganda machine, the BBC hit upon an ingenious idea: tell the unvarnished truth. An academic trawl of the corporation's archives has revealed that while the Nazi regime used puppet broadcasters such as William Joyce – nicknamed Lord Haw-Haw – to spin messages of German invincibility, the BBC was choosing to broadcast detailed news of Britain's military setbacks. The decision was part of a deliberate strategy to win the hearts and minds of the German people, says Dr Vike Martina Plock of the department of English at Exeter University, who discovered memos from the time during research at the BBC Written Archives Centre in Caversham Park, Reading. Continue reading... |
| Arkansas executions: profiles of the eight death row prisoners Posted: 15 Apr 2017 08:06 AM PDT Before state and federal courts intervened, eight men were scheduled to be executed in Arkansas over 11 days. Who are they and what are their crimes? Davis was convicted of the 1990 execution-style murder of Jane Daniels during a robbery and home invasion. "What I did was an act of cowardice; it was cold blooded; it was evil," Davis told Arkansas Matters. Davis has said the state should not execute him, not because he is innocent but because he is no longer the same person. Davis's lawyers have argued that he has intellectual disabilities and has not been subject to a proper mental health evaluation. |
| Arkansas executions: health giant sues state as federal judge issues injunction Posted: 15 Apr 2017 07:41 AM PDT Medical supply company McKesson says state deceptively purchased drugs for lethal injection, becoming first in history to sue a death penalty state for misuse
A US healthcare giant has accused the state of Arkansas of effectively lying to it over the sale of a pharmaceutical drug that the Republican governor had been poised to use in a historic killing spree of eight prisoners in 11 days. The medical supply company McKesson has become the first private company in US legal history to sue a death penalty state for the misuse of its products in executions. Its unprecedented action has succeeded – for now – in frustrating the ambition of the Republican governor, Asa Hutchinson, to stage what critics have called a "conveyor belt" of death. Continue reading... |
| Hannah Bladon's family describe her killing in Jerusalem as 'senseless' Posted: 15 Apr 2017 04:11 AM PDT Student, 20, who died after being stabbed on a tram had been on archaeological dig earlier in day, family statement says The family of a British exchange student who died after being stabbed in Jerusalem have said they are "devastated" by the "senseless and tragic attack". Hannah Bladon, 20, was attacked on a tram on Friday afternoon, allegedly by a Palestinian man with a history of mental health issues. Continue reading... |
| North Korea military parade shows off ‘new weapons’ – video Posted: 15 Apr 2017 02:09 AM PDT North Korean leader Kim Jong-un watches a military parade in Pyongyang on Saturday, marking the 105th 'Day of the Sun', the birth anniversary of the state's founder Kim Il-sung. The parade showcases military vehicles carrying different types of missiles. International fears have been mounting over whether the regime is preparing to conduct a nuclear test Continue reading... |
| Day of the Sun celebrations in North Korea – in pictures Posted: 15 Apr 2017 02:03 AM PDT North Koreans celebrate the 105th anniversary of founder and former leader Kim Il-sung with a military parade Continue reading... |
| Britain doubles funding to fight tropical diseases Posted: 15 Apr 2017 04:05 PM PDT Programme will help protect 200 million in world's poorest countries The UK has pledged to double the funding it gives to fighting neglected tropical diseases, in a move that will protect more than 200 million people around the world from debilitating and painful conditions. The funding programme is expected to wipe out the parasitic disease visceral leishmaniasis in Asia, eliminate Guinea worm and save hundreds of thousands of people from blindness and other disabilities. Speaking ahead of the World Health Organisation conference on neglected tropical diseases in Geneva on Wednesday, Priti Patel, the international development secretary, said such diseases belonged to the last century. "They cause unimaginable suffering and pain to some of the world's poorest people, forcing them into a deeper cycle of poverty with no way out. Yet they are treatable," said Patel. Continue reading... |
| Steve Bannon: is Trump's right-hand man falling from grace? Posted: 15 Apr 2017 04:00 AM PDT Once dubbed the second most powerful man in the world, the hard-right adviser seems to be losing influence amid policy shifts and rumored infighting The Trump era was only two weeks old when Steve Bannon was elevated to the cover of Time magazine, lauded as the Great Manipulator and second most powerful man in the world. By the administration's 82nd day, the former investment banker and provocative CEO of the rightwing website Breitbart, was facing another momentous headline, based on a New York Post interview, where his boss, Donald Trump, said: "I like Steve, but..." Continue reading... |
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