World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk |
- Venezuela president says US pressured Smartmatic to make turnout claims
- Divisive Kagame set for third landslide as Rwandans prepare to go to polls
- Donald Trump proposes law to cut immigration numbers by half in 10 years
- Gulag grave hunter unearths uncomfortable truths in Russia
- 'Chubby fool': Duterte lambasts North Korea's Kim Jong-un for nuclear ambitions
- China accused over 'enforced disappearance' of Liu Xiaobo's widow
- Brazil's president keeps job as congress votes against corruption charges
- Scaramucci memo reveals his plan to 'professionalize' press office before firing
- Deadly gene mutations removed from human embryos in landmark study
- Climate change to cause humid heatwaves that will kill even healthy people
- Montreal turns stadium into welcome centre for asylum seekers from US
- Former Netanyahu chief of staff 'in negotiations to become state witness'
- Hilly Lisbon launches electric bike share system in bid to solve congestion
- The day the credit crunch began, 10 years on: 'the world changed'
- The war America can't win: how the Taliban took back Afghanistan
- Shadow of leprosy falls again as experts claim millions of cases go undiagnosed
- Labour speaks out on Venezuela as pressure mounts on Corbyn
- Roads could be covered with 'tunnels' to absorb pollution
- Briton who shot himself to avoid capture by Isis was 'heroic young man'
- Police hunt Oxford University worker and US professor over Chicago murder
- Maduro has stopped torturing democracy in Venezuela – by killing it | Christopher Sabatini
- Australian nurse sentenced to 18 months' jail in Cambodia on surrogacy charges
- Nurofen class action could yield very small individual payments, lawyer says
- Thursday briefing: 'Corbyn needs to condemn Venezuelan regime'
- What is a black professor in America allowed to say?
- West Papua protest: Indonesian police kill one and wound others – reports
- Two sunbathers killed by plane landing on Portuguese beach – video
- Two sunbathers killed as plane lands on beach in Portugal
- Two US soldiers killed in Taliban suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan
- 40 countries protest Venezuela's new assembly amid fraud accusations
- Peter Skrine obituary
- Italy impounds NGO rescue ship and sends navy patrol boat to Libya
- A bridge too far from Europe’s past conflicts to present troubles? | Letters
- The animal-exploiting hypocrites who condemn hunting | Brief letters
- Venezuela poll turnout figures ‘manipulated by at least 1m votes’
- Brazil's president set to hold on to power despite corruption allegations
- Ken Wilkinson, one of the last Battle of Britain veterans, dies aged 99
- Are you a woman who has faced workplace discrimination?
- ‘The wounds have never healed’: living through the terror of partition
- Bus seats mistaken for burqas by members of anti-immigrant group
- Hungry, poor, exploited: alarm over Australia's import of farm workers
- US plan to improve Afghan intelligence operations branded a $457m failure
- Blame the Saudis for Yemen's cholera outbreak – they are targeting the people | Jonathan Kennedy
- White House aide Stephen Miller calls CNN journalist 'ignorant' – video
| Venezuela president says US pressured Smartmatic to make turnout claims Posted: 03 Aug 2017 12:34 AM PDT Nicolás Maduro stands by official vote count and says the tech platform is 'pressured to the neck by gringos' Venezuela's president has accused the company that provides the technological platform for the country's voting system of bowing to US pressure after it said the official turnout figure in Sunday's vote had been manipulated by at least a million votes. Nicolás Maduro stood by the official count of more than 8m votes and said an additional 2 million people would have voted if they had not been blocked by opposition protesters. "That stupid guy, the president of Smartmatic, pressured to the neck by the gringos and the Brits, said there were 7.5 million [voters]," Maduro said in televised remarks. "I think there were 10 million Venezuelans who went out." Continue reading... |
| Divisive Kagame set for third landslide as Rwandans prepare to go to polls Posted: 02 Aug 2017 10:00 PM PDT Friday's presidential election is a one-horse race for Paul Kagame, revered by some as a visionary leader but reviled by others as a ruthless despot Millions of Rwandans will cast their votes on Friday in the country's third presidential election since an estimated 800,000 people were killed in a genocide in the central African country 23 years ago. Few doubt the result of what even the most fervent supporters of the incumbent Paul Kagame admit is a one-sided contest. Continue reading... |
| Donald Trump proposes law to cut immigration numbers by half in 10 years Posted: 02 Aug 2017 10:40 AM PDT
Donald Trump announced plans for new immigration laws on Wednesday that would cut the total number of immigrants admitted to the US by half over a decade and prioritize those who can speak English or are well educated. Related: A one in a million chance at a better life: will the US green card lottery survive? Continue reading... |
| Gulag grave hunter unearths uncomfortable truths in Russia Posted: 02 Aug 2017 10:00 PM PDT Supporters of Yury Dmitriyev say he is being held as a political prisoner by a state that would rather forget Soviet repression The pine trees creak and rustle ominously beneath even the faintest breeze, as if the vast forest between Lake Onega and the Finnish border remains reluctant to give up its dark secrets. The secret police brought 6,241 gulag prisoners to these woods during Joseph Stalin's Great Terror in 1937-8, put them face-down in pits dug in the sandy soil, and shot them in the back of the head with a revolver. As their remains decayed, the earth above each mass grave sank into the ground. |
| 'Chubby fool': Duterte lambasts North Korea's Kim Jong-un for nuclear ambitions Posted: 02 Aug 2017 05:43 PM PDT Philippines president says Kim is 'playing with dangerous toys' ahead of meeting of Association of South East Asian Nations in Manila next week The Philippines' president, Rodrigo Duterte, has described North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as a "fool" and a "son of a bitch" just days before Manila hosts an international meeting certain to address Pyongyang's long-range missile tests. Duterte held nothing back in rebuking Kim for "playing with dangerous toys", setting the stage for next week's rare get-together, to be attended by foreign ministers of all the countries involved in the standoff on the Korean peninsula. Continue reading... |
| China accused over 'enforced disappearance' of Liu Xiaobo's widow Posted: 02 Aug 2017 08:06 PM PDT Liu Xia not seen since sea burial of late Nobel peace prize winner in July, lawyer says in formal complaint to UN Chinese authorities are guilty of the Kafkaesque enforced disappearance of Liu Xia, the wife of late Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, the couple's US lawyer has claimed. Jared Genser, a Washington-based human rights attorney who has represented them since 2010, made the claim in a formal complaint submitted to the United Nations on Wednesday. Continue reading... |
| Brazil's president keeps job as congress votes against corruption charges Posted: 02 Aug 2017 05:11 PM PDT Lawmakers overwhelmingly oppose charges for Michel Temer despite broad popular support, as observers condemn 'bankruptcy of political system' The credibility of Brazil's congress has been left in rags after its lower house overwhelmingly voted not to approve corruption charges against the president, Michel Temer – even though 81% of his countrymen said in a recent poll that they should. Temer was charged with corruption after a close aide was given $150,000 in cash – part of $12m in bribes prosecutors allege he and the aide were due to receive after intervening in a business deal. Continue reading... |
| Scaramucci memo reveals his plan to 'professionalize' press office before firing Posted: 02 Aug 2017 06:03 PM PDT During his brief stint as Donald Trump's communications director, Anthony Scaramucci authored a plan to overhaul West Wing staff culture During the brief moment that he was White House communications director, Anthony Scaramucci authored a memo detailing his plans for an overhaul of the West Wing staff culture, including "professionalizing initiatives" that included always treating people "respectfully". The so-called "communications plan", which was published Wednesday by right-wing media personality Mike Cernovich, called for the White House press office to "professionalize" its operations and make more use of Donald Trump's senior counselor, Kellyanne Conway. Continue reading... |
| Deadly gene mutations removed from human embryos in landmark study Posted: 02 Aug 2017 10:00 AM PDT Groundbreaking project corrects faulty DNA linked to fatal heart condition and raises hopes for parents who risk passing on genetic diseases Scientists have modified human embryos to remove genetic mutations that cause heart failure in otherwise healthy young people in a landmark demonstration of the controversial procedure. It is the first time that human embryos have had their genomes edited outside China, where researchers have performed a handful of small studies to see whether the approach could prevent inherited diseases from being passed on from one generation to the next. Continue reading... |
| Climate change to cause humid heatwaves that will kill even healthy people Posted: 02 Aug 2017 11:00 AM PDT If warming is not tackled, levels of humid heat that can kill within hours will affect millions across south Asia within decades, analysis finds Extreme heatwaves that kill even healthy people within hours will strike parts of the Indian subcontinent unless global carbon emissions are cut sharply and soon, according to new research. Even outside of these hotspots, three-quarters of the 1.7bn population – particularly those farming in the Ganges and Indus valleys – will be exposed to a level of humid heat classed as posing "extreme danger" towards the end of the century. Continue reading... |
| Montreal turns stadium into welcome centre for asylum seekers from US Posted: 02 Aug 2017 12:43 PM PDT More than 3,300 asylum seekers have entered Quebec from the US, driving authorities to create temporary welcome centre at 56,000-seat stadium A recent surge in asylum seekers arriving from the United States has prompted Canadian authorities to open a temporary welcome centre in one of Montreal's best-known landmarks. Since the start of the year, the numbers of asylum seekers entering Canada from the US has soared. More than 4,000 of them – many of them driven by fears of Donald Trump's crackdown on immigrants – have entered Canada at remote, unguarded locations along the border. Continue reading... |
| Former Netanyahu chief of staff 'in negotiations to become state witness' Posted: 02 Aug 2017 05:20 AM PDT Ari Harow reportedly in talks with police to give evidence in investigation into the Israeli prime minister and his inner circle Benjamin Netanyahu's former chief of staff is reportedly in negotiations to become a state witness – which would make him the second prominent figure to do so – in a series of police investigations into the Israeli prime minister and his inner circle. According to widespread reports in the Hebrew media, Ari Harow, for years one of Netanyahu's closest political associates, is in talks with police to give evidence, allegedly in exchange for a lesser sentence over accusations of wrongdoing in the sale of his consulting company. Continue reading... |
| Hilly Lisbon launches electric bike share system in bid to solve congestion Posted: 02 Aug 2017 11:30 PM PDT Madrid has its scheme, while Muswell Hill's never happened. Hilly cities from Rome to Rio will be watching as Lisbon starts e-bike hire Wander around Lisbon's city centre with its vertiginous cobbled streets, treacherous enough on foot in the rain, it's hard to imagine cycling ever taking off. Some streets are so steep there are funiculars to help you scale them, and Lisboetas on bikes are a rare sight outside of summer. Like many hilly cities around the world, Lisbon has a serious congestion problem, and its urban planners know that if more people were persuaded to cycle they could reap huge benefits in air quality, health and liveability. |
| The day the credit crunch began, 10 years on: 'the world changed' Posted: 02 Aug 2017 11:25 PM PDT Key players in the drama recall the day that sparked the first UK bank run in 140 years and heralded a global financial crisis The ninth of August 2007 was the first day of Mervyn King's holiday. The governor of the Bank of England spent it at Lord's cricket ground where he was interviewed by the former England cricket captain Michael Atherton. While Lord King was watching the cricket, the French bank BNP Paribas announced it was freezing the assets of hedge funds that were heavily exposed to the US sub-prime mortgage market. It was the first and last day of King's holiday. He would not have another for several years. Within six weeks, members of the Bank's court – its oversight body – were being whisked into the back entrance of Threadneedle Street in a people carrier with blacked-out windows to be told that money was haemorrhaging out of Northern Rock. Continue reading... |
| The war America can't win: how the Taliban took back Afghanistan Posted: 02 Aug 2017 11:00 PM PDT The Taliban controls places like Helmand, where the US and UK troops fought their hardest battles, pushing the drive toward peace and progress into reverse In a rocky graveyard at the edge of Lashkar Gah, a local police commander was digging his sister's grave. Her name was Salima, but it was never uttered at her funeral. As is custom in rural Afghanistan, no women attended the funeral, and of the dozens of men gathered to pay their respects, few had known the deceased. Continue reading... |
| Shadow of leprosy falls again as experts claim millions of cases go undiagnosed Posted: 02 Aug 2017 11:00 PM PDT Widespread belief that disease was all but beaten may have bred complacency, specialists warn, amid fears that number of cases is 50% higher than reported Millions of new leprosy cases are going undiagnosed and untreated, 15 years after one of the world's most feared and infamous diseases was declared to be virtually eliminated. Related: Myanmar's leprosy village offers outcasts a place to call home | David Doyle Continue reading... |
| Labour speaks out on Venezuela as pressure mounts on Corbyn Posted: 02 Aug 2017 10:47 PM PDT Emily Thornberry describes Maduro's presidency as 'increasingly authoritarian' and calls for rule of law to be respected Labour's shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, has said Venezuela's government has a duty to answer concerns about Nicolás Maduro's "increasingly authoritarian rule", as pressure mounted on Jeremy Corbyn to speak out. The party leader was a longtime admirer of Venezuela under its late socialist leader Hugo Chávez, saying in 2013 he was "an inspiration to all of us fighting back against austerity and neoliberal economics in Europe". Continue reading... |
| Roads could be covered with 'tunnels' to absorb pollution Posted: 02 Aug 2017 05:07 PM PDT Highways Agency studies Dutch scheme using 'cantilevered canopies' covered with pollution-absorbing material in effort to improve air quality Major roads could be turned into tunnels covered with pollution-absorbing material in an effort to cut emission fumes and improve air quality. Highways Agency officials are studying a Dutch scheme in which cantilevered canopies are constructed over the most polluted sections of road to prevent local residents breathing in noxious car fumes. Continue reading... |
| Briton who shot himself to avoid capture by Isis was 'heroic young man' Posted: 02 Aug 2017 10:10 AM PDT Coroner refuses to record verdict of suicide in death of Ryan Lock, 20, telling inquest that the chef from Havant had sacrificed his life for a cause A British man who left his comfortable home and job to fight against Islamic State as a volunteer died a hero when he turned his weapon on himself after being hopelessly surrounded by enemy troops, a coroner has ruled. Ryan Lock, 20, a chef from Havant in Hampshire, was badly wounded in the leg during a gun battle in Syria and, realising he was about to be captured, shot himself, the inquest in Portsmouth was told. Continue reading... |
| Police hunt Oxford University worker and US professor over Chicago murder Posted: 02 Aug 2017 06:21 PM PDT Andrew Warren and Wyndham Lathem suspected of murder after Trenton Cornell-Duranleau was found stabbed to death An Oxford University employee and a US professor are being hunted by police on suspicion of murdering a 26-year-old man in Chicago. Arrest warrants for Andrew Warren, who works at Oxford's Somerville College, and Wyndham Lathem, a microbiology professor at Northwestern University, were issued on Monday. Continue reading... |
| Maduro has stopped torturing democracy in Venezuela – by killing it | Christopher Sabatini Posted: 03 Aug 2017 01:00 AM PDT This oil-rich country is on the brink of becoming a failed state. Only collective action by regional actors – not just the US – can stop the slide to totalitarianism • Christopher Sabatini is a lecturer at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs It's hard to pinpoint when democracy died in Venezuela. It's been a long, slow, painful – though predictable – slide to authoritarianism. Now, though, that slide is bringing the country to anarchy and potential civil war, risking a black hole of a failed state in South America in an oil-rich nation. Related: Nicolás Maduro: will Venezuela's president drag his people to the edge? | Observer profile Continue reading... |
| Australian nurse sentenced to 18 months' jail in Cambodia on surrogacy charges Posted: 02 Aug 2017 10:07 PM PDT Tammy Davis-Charles found guilty of sourcing clients for a clinic after authorities abruptly banned commercial surrogacy An Australian nurse has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for sourcing clients for a surrogacy clinic in Cambodia, as authorities tackle "womb for rent" businesses. Tammy Davis-Charles, 49, has been in custody since her arrest in November last year, weeks after Cambodia abruptly banned commercial surrogacy. Continue reading... |
| Nurofen class action could yield very small individual payments, lawyer says Posted: 02 Aug 2017 11:23 PM PDT Painkiller manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser settled an Australian class action over its specific pain range last month A $3.5m class action over Nurofen tablets that falsely claimed they could target specific types of pain could yield very small payments for individual claimants, if everyone who bought the products steps forward. The painkiller's manufacturer, Reckitt Benckiser, settled the class action over its specific pain range at the federal court in Sydney last month. Continue reading... |
| Thursday briefing: 'Corbyn needs to condemn Venezuelan regime' Posted: 02 Aug 2017 10:26 PM PDT Past praise of socialist leadership under scrutiny … Oxford University worker wanted over US murder … and the online ethics of 'sharenting' Good morning – Warren Murray here to help you get on top of UK and world news. Continue reading... |
| What is a black professor in America allowed to say? Posted: 02 Aug 2017 10:00 PM PDT Tommy J Curry thought forcing a public discussion about race and violence was part of his job. It turned out that people didn't want to hear it. By Steve Kolowich One Thursday morning in May, Tommy J Curry walked through the offices of the philosophy department at Texas A&M University with a police officer at his side and violence on his mind. The threats had started a few days earlier. "Since you said white people need to be killed I'm in fear of my life," one person had written via email. "The next time I see you on campus I might just have to pre-emptively defend myself you dumb fat nigger. You are done." Curry didn't know if that person was lurking on the university grounds. But Texas is a gun-friendly state, and Texas A&M is a gun-friendly campus, and he took the threat seriously. Curry supports the right to bear arms. It was part of how he ended up in this situation. In 2012 he had appeared on a satellite radio show and delivered a five-minute talk on how uneasy white people are with the idea of black people talking about owning guns and using them to combat racist forces. When a recording of the talk resurfaced in May, people thought the tenured professor was telling black people to kill white people. This idea swept through conservative media and into the fever swamps of Reddit forums and racist message boards. The threats followed. Continue reading... |
| West Papua protest: Indonesian police kill one and wound others – reports Posted: 02 Aug 2017 09:26 PM PDT 28-year-old man reportedly killed during the incident in Deiya regency, with up to seven wounded, including two children Indonesian paramilitary police have shot and killed one person and wounded a number of others at a protest in a West Papuan village, according to human rights groups and local witnesses. A 28-year-old man was reportedly killed during the incident in Deiya regency on Tuesday afternoon, and up to seven wounded, including at least two children. Continue reading... |
| Two sunbathers killed by plane landing on Portuguese beach – video Posted: 02 Aug 2017 12:00 PM PDT A small aircraft has made an emergency landing on a beach in Portugal, killing two people. A 56-year-old man and an eight-year-old girl died as the plane came down on São João de Caparica beach, south of Lisbon. The two occupants of the plane are being questioned, according to authorities Continue reading... |
| Two sunbathers killed as plane lands on beach in Portugal Posted: 02 Aug 2017 11:20 AM PDT Portuguese media says 56-year-old man and eight-year-old girl died after being struck by aircraft on beach at Caparica Two people were killed when a light plane made an emergency landing on a beach near Lisbon, Portuguese authorities have said. The two sunbathers, a 56-year-old man and an eight-year-old girl, died while others ran into the sea when the plane came down on Wednesday. Continue reading... |
| Two US soldiers killed in Taliban suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan Posted: 02 Aug 2017 11:17 AM PDT The attack on a Nato convoy near Kandahar was confirmed by the Pentagon; the Taliban maintain the attack killed 15 soldiers, but the reports are unconfirmed Two US service members have been killed in a suicide bomb attack on a Nato convoy near Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan, a Pentagon spokesman said. There was no information on the number of troops wounded. Continue reading... |
| 40 countries protest Venezuela's new assembly amid fraud accusations Posted: 02 Aug 2017 10:52 AM PDT Opposition decries election of new constituent assembly made up of Socialist party and allies after claims eight million people voted were proved wrong Venezuela's opposition has announced plans to block the inauguration of a contentious constituent assembly whose election was further clouded on Wednesday by fresh allegations of ballot fraud. The opposition coalition called for mass protests "against the installation of the constituent fraud" to prevent the new assembly – made up entirely by the ruling Socialist party and its political allies – from beginning its sessions on Thursday. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 02 Aug 2017 10:37 AM PDT My husband, Peter Skrine, who has died aged 81, was a distinguished scholar and academic. Professor of German at the University of Bristol from 1989 to 2000, he was a gifted and entertaining lecturer who loved to share his knowledge and communicate his enthusiasms, with a winning combination of erudition and sometimes impish humour. Peter lectured on German literature from the 16th to the 20th centuries at universities and academic conferences, but was equally at home giving informal talks to non-specialist groups of adults in Bristol and Bath, and to branches of the Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaft (Anglo-German Society) in German cities. Continue reading... |
| Italy impounds NGO rescue ship and sends navy patrol boat to Libya Posted: 02 Aug 2017 10:20 AM PDT Moves part of attempt to close off migrant and refugee route to Europe and come as figures show fall in numbers arriving in Italy Italy has seized a rescue ship operated by an NGO and dispatched a navy patrol boat to Libya as part of an Italian attempt to end the Mediterranean migrant and refugee crisis. The twin moves came as figures revealed a surprise drop in July in the number of refugees and migrants arriving at southern Italian ports. Continue reading... |
| A bridge too far from Europe’s past conflicts to present troubles? | Letters Posted: 02 Aug 2017 09:21 AM PDT Readers debate the connections between the slaughter of two world wars, the peace that has ensued for the past 72 years, the European Union and Brexit I agree with Zoe Williams (Dunkirk offers a lesson – but it isn't what Farage thinks, 31 July) that fellowship is a valuable lesson from Dunkirk, but fellowship is even more powerful when combined with another quality on display in 1940: pragmatism. Winston Churchill deployed a powerful blend of fellowship and pragmatism against Nazi Germany, playing to the nation's heart with his rhetoric of fighting on the beaches, but not letting his passions run away with his brain. After Dunkirk, he warned the nation that "wars are not won by evacuations". Though he despised the ultra-pragmatism of the appeasers, Churchill was not fighting just for some romanticised dream of mighty little England, but for liberty, perhaps the greatest blend of head and heart in politics. Continue reading... |
| The animal-exploiting hypocrites who condemn hunting | Brief letters Posted: 02 Aug 2017 09:15 AM PDT Hunting | Pets | Tacitus on Trump | Case for a republic | Onanism How many people who condemn trophy hunting as vile and depraved (Arsenal owner 'appals' Corbyn, 2 August) are vegans who've never profaned their body with so much as a slice of cheese, have never worn leather shoes or belts, have suffered nobly through illnesses without taking medicines tested on animals, or have never shackled an animal into the slavery we dub "keeping a pet", and have never called Rentokil to purge an infestation? Many anti-hunting advocates are rank hypocrites are quite happy to benefit from the exploitation and death of animals, provided it's hidden from sight. At least hunters have the honesty to look their prey in the eye. • I disagree with Linda Rodriguez McRobbie's claim that "our animals can't tell us whether they are happy being pets" (Should we stop keeping pets?, G2, 2 August). My half-grown ginger kitten tells me clearly he is blissfully happy as he follows me about the house, purring loudly and demanding cuddles. He has a cat flap into my wild garden so he could vote with his paws and leave anytime. I don't think it's just the warmth and food he comes back for. This feels like love. |
| Venezuela poll turnout figures ‘manipulated by at least 1m votes’ Posted: 02 Aug 2017 08:35 AM PDT Election company Smartmatic casts doubt on outcome of vote for constituent assembly to write a new constitution Turnout figures in Venezuela's constituent assembly election were inflated by at least 1m votes, according to a company that has worked with the country on its voting system since 2004. "We know, without any doubt, that the turnout of the recent election for a national constituent assembly was manipulated," Antonio Mugica, the chief executive of Smartmatic, said in London. Continue reading... |
| Brazil's president set to hold on to power despite corruption allegations Posted: 02 Aug 2017 08:02 AM PDT Numbers appeared to be on Michel Temer's side in a key vote by the lower chamber of congress on whether to suspend him, despite 5% approval rating Brazil's president, Michel Temer, appeared to have the upper hand in a key vote by the lower chamber of congress on whether to suspend him and put him on trial over an alleged bribery scheme to line his pockets. Despite a 5% approval rating in opinion polls and myriad calls for him to resign the last few months, Temer has been able to maintain most of his governing coalition in the chamber of deputies, where he was the presiding officer for many years. Continue reading... |
| Ken Wilkinson, one of the last Battle of Britain veterans, dies aged 99 Posted: 02 Aug 2017 07:55 AM PDT Spitfire pilot, who was among group Winston Churchill dubbed 'The Few', later famed for telling Prince William a dirty joke One of the last surviving Battle of Britain Spitfire pilots, Ken Wilkinson, has died, keeping a twinkle in his eye and a taste for red wine and blue jokes to the end. Wilkinson, who celebrated his 99th birthday in June, was one of the last of those dubbed "The Few" by Winston Churchill, at a time when the life expectancy of a Spitfire pilot was about four weeks. Continue reading... |
| Are you a woman who has faced workplace discrimination? Posted: 02 Aug 2017 07:30 AM PDT If you've ever been discriminated against because an employer thinks you may have plans to have children, we'd like to hear from you It took just seven hours into the job for Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand's new Labour leader, to be asked about her plans to have children. Related: Jacinda Ardern: how the New Zealand politician shamed the TV dinosaurs Continue reading... |
| ‘The wounds have never healed’: living through the terror of partition Posted: 02 Aug 2017 07:25 AM PDT The creation of India and Pakistan in 1947 led to horrific sectarian violence and made millions refugees overnight. Seventy years on, five survivors remember In the early 90s, I went from Lahore to Delhi to attend a wedding in the family of some Hindu friends. At one of its many events, I bumped into a friend from Lahore who was also visiting the city. We were chatting in Punjabi when we noticed a well-dressed, middle-aged man lurking nearby, apparently eavesdropping on our conversation. Noticing our discomfiture, he apologised. "When you mentioned Lahore, I couldn't tear myself away," he said. "You see, we are Hindus, but my family was Lahori. We had a house in Model Town and I attended Aitchison college. We left at partition. I have never gone back. When my wife passed away, 17 years ago, I thought that even though I had no children or siblings I would get by. But now I feel the creeping loneliness of old age and what I think of most is the happiness of my childhood. I have a yearning to return to Lahore. I want to see it once before I die." Continue reading... |
| Bus seats mistaken for burqas by members of anti-immigrant group Posted: 02 Aug 2017 03:26 AM PDT Comments posted on Norwegian 'Fatherland first' Facebook group call empty seats on bus 'terrifying' A Norwegian anti-immigrant group has been roundly ridiculed after members apparently mistook a photograph of six empty bus seats posted on its Facebook page for a group of women wearing burqas. "Tragic", "terrifying" and "disgusting" were among the comments posted by members of the closed Fedrelandet viktigst, or "Fatherland first", group beneath the photograph, according to screenshots on the Norwegian news website Nettavisen. Continue reading... |
| Hungry, poor, exploited: alarm over Australia's import of farm workers Posted: 02 Aug 2017 11:00 AM PDT Each year thousands of Pacific island workers come to Australia to work on farms. Allegations of mistreatment are worryingly reminiscent of the era of bonded labour 'blackbirding', campaigners say Silas Aru had never known a day's work where all he had to eat were some of the tomatoes he'd picked. The Ni-Vanuatu man had come to Australia seeking the chance to work, in order to pay school fees for his children's education. Continue reading... |
| US plan to improve Afghan intelligence operations branded a $457m failure Posted: 02 Aug 2017 06:03 AM PDT Pentagon's use of taxpayers' money under scrutiny after special watchdog finds contracts to train and mentor Afghan soldiers fell short of stated objectives A $457m (£345m) Pentagon-funded programme to develop the intelligence capacity of Afghan defence and security forces has failed to meet its aims, according to a US watchdog. The claim comes weeks after a scathing report found the US government had wasted $28m on Afghan uniforms with "forest" camouflaged patterns rather than the desert pattern better suited to 98% of the country's terrain. Continue reading... |
| Blame the Saudis for Yemen's cholera outbreak – they are targeting the people | Jonathan Kennedy Posted: 02 Aug 2017 04:54 AM PDT The cholera crisis in Yemen is due largely to the Saudi-led coalition's strategy of deliberately attacking civilians and infrastructure in rebel-held areas Over the past four months, Yemen has been ravaged by a cholera outbreak that the UN has branded the worst in the world. About 7,000 new cases are reported daily – 436,625 have been recorded since the end of April – and already there have been more than 1,915 deaths. The epidemic is one aspect of a broader humanitarian emergency in Yemen. Two-thirds of the population – 18.8 million people – require some form of emergency aid. Food production has collapsed and 4.5 million children and pregnant and lactating women are acutely malnourished. Only 45% of health facilities are functioning, and 14.8 million people lack access to basic healthcare. About the same number require assistance to access safe drinking water and sanitation. Continue reading...This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| White House aide Stephen Miller calls CNN journalist 'ignorant' – video Posted: 02 Aug 2017 02:15 PM PDT During the White House press briefing on Wednesday, Trump's senior adviser Stephen Miller called the CNN journalist Jim Acosta 'ignorant' and accused him of 'cosmopolitan bias' |
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