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- Myanmar coup: Facebook shuts down military's page, as thousands protest
- Smuggled diary tells how abducted women survived Boko Haram camp
- Tension haunts tiny Taiwanese isles that live in fear of war with China
- Growing number of Republican donors aim to prise party from Trump influence
- 'Something blew up': plane rains debris on Denver suburbs after engine fire
- Tobacco giant bets £1bn on influencers to boost 'more lung-friendly' sales
- Christians, Muslims and Jews to share faith centre in Berlin
- Teenagers arrested after car with small children inside stolen in Birmingham
- Michelle Wie hits back at Rudy Giuliani over crass story on Bannon podcast
- Manhattan makeover for London with floating green walkway plan
- Coronavirus live news: South Korea to begin vaccine rollout as top vaccine maker told to prioritise India
- After a year of death and solitude, Italy is a sober, serious place
- Rabbis warn over Purim celebrations Covid risk
- Kate Winslet: ‘I’ve been asked so many times about the intimate scenes’
- Texans rally to help neighbors amid big freeze as officials are caught cold
- I’m having fantasies about men who look like my father | Dear Mariella
- It’s never too late: elderly high-achievers
- After the Nobel, what next for Crispr gene-editing therapies?
- How Ottolenghi’s bright colours and vivid tastes changed the way we eat
- ‘It’s so unfair’: life on the streets of the French town branded as ‘lost to Islam’
- Hawks in Iran and Israel agree: Biden’s bid to salvage nuclear deal must not succeed
- Joe Biden to meet Justin Trudeau of Canada after Keystone pipeline order
- Aged care residents and frontline workers receive Australia’s first Covid vaccinations
- Myanmar: police use rubber bullets and teargas in bloodiest day of protest yet - video
- Navalny calls for a 'happy' Russia after losing appeal against prison sentence – video report
- Myanmar: memorials held for protester shot by police – video report
| Myanmar coup: Facebook shuts down military's page, as thousands protest Posted: 20 Feb 2021 08:35 PM PST Actor Lu Min taken from his home in Yangon as demonstrations gather pace following deaths of two people on Saturday Facebook has deleted the Myanmar military's main page for breaching its standards prohibiting the incitement of violence, as police arrested a well-known actor wanted for opposing the military coup and thousands gathered for mass protests. Facebook said it deleted the military or Tatmadaw's page under its standards prohibiting the incitement of violence. Continue reading... |
| Smuggled diary tells how abducted women survived Boko Haram camp Posted: 20 Feb 2021 12:45 PM PST There was a rescue campaign on Twitter, but the women taken from a Nigerian school were saved by their strength and diplomacy The resistance began three months after the young women were taken from their school dormitory by Islamist militants and hidden in the depths of a forest. It would end in direct confrontation and disobedience, and an unlikely victory which saved their lives. But as the extremists of Boko Haram drove them through the bush to camps beyond the reach of any rescue, freedom was years away. Continue reading... |
| Tension haunts tiny Taiwanese isles that live in fear of war with China Posted: 21 Feb 2021 02:00 AM PST The islands, three miles from the Chinese mainland, will be first to fall if antagonisms lead to an invasion Tsai Li-chu recalls being a young mother on Taiwan's Kinmen Island, when the shelling would start around 7pm most nights, launched from the People's Republic of China just a few miles over the sea. "I remember having to run to the shelter with the kids, carrying the baby," says Tsai, now a retired teacher in her 70s. The bombardments – predominantly shells filled with propaganda leaflets – stopped only when the US government formally recognised communist China and cut ties with Taiwan in the late 1970s. But the hostilities never really went away. Today relations are at their worst point in decades, with Chinese threats to take control of Taiwan growing more realistic. Kinmen, or Quemoy, a tiny archipelago nearly 200 miles from Taipei but just three miles from the Chinese city of Xiamen, sits on the frontline. Continue reading... |
| Growing number of Republican donors aim to prise party from Trump influence Posted: 21 Feb 2021 12:00 AM PST Trump's critics – and the donors backing them – are scrambling fast to try to prise control away from the pro-Trump majority Some four dozen Republican donors were on a fundraising conference call on 5 February with Liz Cheney, the congresswoman and only Republican House leader to vote for Donald Trump's impeachment for his role in the mob attack on the Capitol on 6 January. Many of the donors on the Cheney call are expected to donate the maximum amount of $5,800 to her 2022 re-election campaign before the end of the first quarter of this year, to ward off a primary challenge to her which Trump loyalists like congressman Matt Gaetz are encouraging, said Michael Epstein, a leading Maryland Republican donor. Continue reading... |
| 'Something blew up': plane rains debris on Denver suburbs after engine fire Posted: 20 Feb 2021 07:23 PM PST
A United Airlines plane has rained debris on Denver suburbs, narrowly missing a home, after it suffered a catastrophic engine failure shortly after take-off on Saturday. The Boeing 777-200 returned to the airport safely for an emergency landing, with no reports of anyone hurt. United said in a statement there were no reported injuries on Flight 328 from Denver International Airport to Honolulu, which had 231 passengers and 10 crew on board. Continue reading... |
| Tobacco giant bets £1bn on influencers to boost 'more lung-friendly' sales Posted: 20 Feb 2021 09:00 AM PST As smoking falls out of fashion, BAT is pinning its hopes on younger users of e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches Flashing an ice-white smile for her 50,000 followers on TikTok, a fresh-faced young woman pops a flavoured nicotine pouch into her mouth, as one of Pakistan's most popular love songs plays in the background. More than 3,000 miles away, in Sweden, another social media starlet lip-syncs for the camera, to a different pop tune. The same little pouches, made by British American Tobacco, appear in shot. Continue reading... |
| Christians, Muslims and Jews to share faith centre in Berlin Posted: 20 Feb 2021 11:30 PM PST €47m building will feature a church, a mosque and a synagogue all linked to a central meeting space On the site of a church torn down by East Germany's communist rulers, a new place of worship is set to rise that will bring Christians, Jews and Muslims under one roof – and it has already been dubbed a "churmosquagogue". The foundation stone of the House of One in Berlin will be laid at a ceremony on 27 May, marking the end of 10 years of planning and the beginning of an estimated four years of construction, and symbolising a new venture in interfaith cooperation and dialogue. The €47m building, designed by Berlin architects Kuehn Malvezzi, will incorporate a church, a mosque and a synagogue linked to a central meeting space. People of other faiths and denominations, and those of no faith, will be invited to events and discussions in the large hall. Continue reading... |
| Teenagers arrested after car with small children inside stolen in Birmingham Posted: 20 Feb 2021 09:06 PM PST Police alerted to 'shocking incident' when man reported car taken from driveway with his children, aged two and four, inside Two teenage boys are in custody on suspicion of kidnapping after a car was stolen in Birmingham with the owner's two children still inside, police say. West Midlands Police were alerted to what they have called the "shocking incident" soon after 5pm on Saturday when a man reported his car had been stolen from his driveway with his two- and four-year-old boys still inside. Continue reading... |
| Michelle Wie hits back at Rudy Giuliani over crass story on Bannon podcast Posted: 20 Feb 2021 11:52 AM PST
Michelle Wie has hit back at Rudy Giuliani after the former personal attorney to Donald Trump shared a story about being able to see the golfer's underwear while she putted during a charity fundraiser in 2014. Guiliani was appearing on Steve Bannon's War Room podcast on Thursday for a discussion on Rush Limbaugh, the influential rightwing talk radio host who died earlier that day, when he asked if he could tell a story about a golf outing with Limbaugh and Wie. Continue reading... |
| Manhattan makeover for London with floating green walkway plan Posted: 21 Feb 2021 01:15 AM PST The man who helped revitalise New York with a linear park on a disused elevated railway hopes to do the same for the UK capital New York was revitalised by the High Line, a ribbon of parkland floating above Manhattan on a disused elevated railway that has become one of the city's biggest tourist attractions. Now the High Line's designer hopes to give London its own green thread, after being chosen to create the Camden Highline. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 21 Feb 2021 01:49 AM PST South Korea to begin vaccinating people by 27 February; Serum Institute of India says it has been directed to prioritise 'huge needs of India'
Teachers and school staff in Malta will start being vaccinated next week, after they were pushed up the vaccine list back in January following a two-day strike. The country's over 70s are however still waiting for their jabs, the Times of Malta reports: People aged between 70 and 79 will be vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine once all those in 80 to 85 age group have been vaccinated, Superintendent of Public Health Charmaine Gauci told Times of Malta. She said that since the AstraZeneca vaccine is not being given to the elderly, the health department does not want to keep any vaccine doses aside or on hold.
Shortly before schools will reopen in ten of Germany's federal states on Monday, there are increasing indications that a third coronavirus wave could be imminent in the country. Despite the strict lockdown, the number of new infections every day has hardly or not decreased at all recently. Experts attribute this to the spread of much more contagious virus variants. |
| After a year of death and solitude, Italy is a sober, serious place Posted: 20 Feb 2021 10:15 PM PST As the first European country into lockdown, the nation's suffering touched the world This weekend marks exactly a year since the first, tentative lockdown in Italy. The closures were only in certain regions (such as Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna), and in specific sectors (such as schools), but the drastic measures still shocked the world. The country had recorded only 152 cases of, and three deaths from, Covid-19, so it all seemed like an overreaction. But with every passing day, the closures became more draconian. By 4 March 2020 every school in Italy was closed; a week later the whole country went into full lockdown. By 12 March there had been 1,000 deaths (it seemed like a terrible benchmark back then), and only four days later, we passed 2,000. Most other countries were still partying at a time when we were prisoners in our own homes, watching scenes from an apocalyptic film on the news: medics in hazmat suits, hospital wards full of oxygen hoods and mortuaries so packed with coffins that the army was called in. Continue reading... |
| Rabbis warn over Purim celebrations Covid risk Posted: 20 Feb 2021 11:15 PM PST Ultra-Orthodox community in north London told to keep socially distant after last year's festivities led to huge spike in infections Ultra-Orthodox rabbis in north London have issued unprecedented guidance on the eve of the Jewish festival of Purim in a bid to avoid a repeat of last year's celebrations that led to a huge spike in Covid infections. The advice was issued by the Office of the Rabbinate of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations in the form of a notice to be displayed in synagogues and shared on WhatsApp groups before the 24-hour festival, which starts at sundown on Thursday. Continue reading... |
| Kate Winslet: ‘I’ve been asked so many times about the intimate scenes’ Posted: 21 Feb 2021 12:00 AM PST Kate Winslet on facing down misogyny in film, strange lockdown habits and the unexpected joys of fossil hunting A man is adjusting the angle of his laptop. "Hello!" he waves. Is that a dishwasher behind him? A little wooden knick-knack, painted with "Let's Dance" in a jaunty font, balances on an Aga. I have landed in a cheery overlit garage, somewhere on the south coast. And then the nice man moves to the side and bloody hell there's Kate Winslet. Movie-star Kate Winslet – "Hiya!" – in a smart black jacket with her hair tied back, and that famous smile where it looks like she's trying not to laugh at a filthy joke. The man is her husband, Ned [Abel Smith, previously Ned Rocknroll] and the garage is their "little barn". "It's not actually a particularly nice little barn," she says, her energy very much that of a kindly lady doing your bra fitting at Marks & Spencer – I like her immediately. "But over here, can you see the amazing sink? That's from the set of Mildred Pierce. It's got shit taps. But I do like to try to take a little something from my films. I took all the curtains from the cottage in The Holiday…" Her children, Mia (20, her daughter with her first husband Jim Threapleton), Joe (16, from her second marriage, to Sam Mendes) and Bear (born in 2013 soon after she married Ned) keep cutting them up, smaller and smaller: "To, like, upcycle their jeans. Also, I did a film called All the King's Men where Jude Law and I had to do this snogging scene at a table, where we snog, snog, snogged our socks off. And it was so fabulous. As the scene was happening I kept thinking: 'I'm going to have to buy this table.' So I did!" Continue reading... |
| Texans rally to help neighbors amid big freeze as officials are caught cold Posted: 20 Feb 2021 10:00 PM PST With huge gaps in the state and local response to the winter crisis, volunteers are stepping up to provide vital services When a deadly Arctic blast pummeled Texas, Kenna Titus, a law student in Austin, panicked about whether she and her partner would be able to keep themselves and their dog warm, and whether friends and neighbors had what they needed. Continue reading... |
| I’m having fantasies about men who look like my father | Dear Mariella Posted: 20 Feb 2021 10:00 PM PST You need therapy to help you resolve this painful experience, says Mariella Frostrup. And keep away from internet pornography which can only be more damaging The dilemma I'm a very happily married man and sex with my wife is loving and satisfying. Recently, however, through viewing porn on the internet, I have become increasingly drawn towards watching older men having sex. Occasionally, I dream of my deceased father and some of these dreams are sexual in nature. The men I find myself watching often remind me of my dad. He was successful and well liked, but was also physically and emotionally abusive to his children. I don't ever recall feeling any true fatherly love, affection or security in my life from him. Often I wonder if I am now seeking out my father's love. Continue reading... |
| It’s never too late: elderly high-achievers Posted: 21 Feb 2021 02:00 AM PST Joe Biden may have become US president at 78, but imagine becoming a comedian at 89 or writing your first book at 94. We talk to six senior high-flyers… It's fair to say I didn't expect, aged 93, to become Britain's oldest debut author. My story is just my life, really. It never crossed my mind that anyone else might care to know more. Continue reading... |
| After the Nobel, what next for Crispr gene-editing therapies? Posted: 21 Feb 2021 01:00 AM PST Hailed as the 'molecular scissors' that will allow us to rewrite our genes, the DNA tool is being trialled in treatments for everything from sickle-cell anaemia to cancer When last year's Nobel prize for chemistry was awarded to biochemist Jennifer Doudna and microbiologist Emmanuelle Charpentier for their work in developing the technique of gene editing known as Crispr-Cas9 (pronounced "crisper"), headlines hailed their discovery as "molecular scissors" that would allow us to "rewrite the book of life" – with all the complicated ethical questions that ability raises. But much of the excitement has nothing to do with visions of designer babies. The real promise of Crispr is for treating diseases caused by genetic mutations, from muscular dystrophy to congenital blindness, and even some cancers. The first human trials of Crispr therapies are happening already, and researchers hope that they are on the brink of reaching the clinic. "The speed at which Crispr research has progressed has been truly astonishing," says Doudna from the University of California at Berkeley. Continue reading... |
| How Ottolenghi’s bright colours and vivid tastes changed the way we eat Posted: 20 Feb 2021 10:00 PM PST The sheer vibrancy and joy of Yotam Ottolenghi's Mediterranean-inspired dishes caught everyone's imagination In 2002 the literary agent Felicity Rubinstein found herself drawn to a white-walled deli that had just opened around the corner from her home in London's Notting Hill. It was called Ottolenghi and its food display was a riot of colour and promise. Eating it looked like it might be a quick route to feeling good about yourself. "I became rather obsessed with it," she says now. "I reckoned it wasn't difficult to make this food. I just had to know what was in it." Soon Ottolenghi opened an outpost in Islington. Sarah Lavelle, then an editor at Ebury Books, lived close by. "I went down one weekend and people were queueing out the door. I thought, 'Something's going on here.'" Merope Mills, then editor of the Guardian's Weekend magazine, also visited. "I was looking for a new vegetarian cooking columnist," she says. "And I was struck by all these brilliant-looking salads." Ottolenghi and Tamimi took simple ingredients and made them sing Continue reading... |
| ‘It’s so unfair’: life on the streets of the French town branded as ‘lost to Islam’ Posted: 21 Feb 2021 01:40 AM PST Mayor of Paris suburb labelled an extremist centre says stoking division will not help his town The HairCoiffure salon on Rue Jean Jaurès, a short walk from Trappes station, is offering a cut-and-blow-dry for women at €18 (£15.50) and €15 for men, a banal observation at the centre of the latest battle in France's toxic debate over religious extremism. Hairdressers and their clients hit the headlines after local teacher Didier Lemaire claimed there were no mixed salons in Trappes – suggesting the town was in the stranglehold of Islamic radicalisation. He also claimed schoolchildren were banned from singing and some women barred from cafes. Lemaire has since been placed under police protection following alleged death threats. Continue reading... |
| Hawks in Iran and Israel agree: Biden’s bid to salvage nuclear deal must not succeed Posted: 20 Feb 2021 11:00 PM PST With elections looming in both states, and hardliners out to ensure the collapse of the 2015 deal, time is running short for the US president to save it For sworn enemies, Iran and Israel have much in common. Both are regional powers, projecting their interests beyond their borders. Both are beholden, in different ways, to shifting US policy. Both have secretive nuclear programmes. And both are heading towards national elections – in Israel next month, in Iran in June – that could decide whether cold-hearted enmity turns into hot-blooded war. The stand-off over Iran's alleged attempts, which are always denied, to acquire atomic bomb-making capacity has gone on for so long that its dangers are often underestimated. Yet the coming days are crucial. Iran has set 21 February as a deadline for an easing of unilateral US sanctions. If it is ignored, Tehran is threatening to ban snap UN inspections of its nuclear facilities and further ramp up proscribed atomic activities. Continue reading... |
| Joe Biden to meet Justin Trudeau of Canada after Keystone pipeline order Posted: 20 Feb 2021 11:22 AM PST
Joe Biden will hold his first bilateral meeting with the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, on Tuesday, the White House said on Saturday. Related: Alberta leader says Biden's move to cancel Keystone pipeline a 'gut punch' Continue reading... |
| Aged care residents and frontline workers receive Australia’s first Covid vaccinations Posted: 20 Feb 2021 10:42 PM PST The country's long-awaited vaccine rollout began at a suburban medical clinic in Sydney, with a second world war survivor first in the queue After months of anticipation at times bordering on the obsessive (with news helicopters following the arrival of the vaccine at the airport), it was an unflappable 84-year-old who became the first person in Australia to be given the jab. Jane Malysiak, who survived the second world war and immigrated to Australia from Poland more than 70 years ago, sat alongside the prime minister as the injection was delivered. Continue reading... |
| Myanmar: police use rubber bullets and teargas in bloodiest day of protest yet - video Posted: 20 Feb 2021 12:53 PM PST Two anti-coup protesters in Myanmar were shot dead on Saturday by riot police who fired live rounds, local media reported. The deaths occurred in Mandalay, the country's second-largest city, after security forces ratcheted up their pressure against protesters, using water cannon, teargas, slingshots and rubber bullets Continue reading... |
| Navalny calls for a 'happy' Russia after losing appeal against prison sentence – video report Posted: 20 Feb 2021 08:33 AM PST The opposition leader Alexei Navalny has appealed to Russians after a Moscow court on Saturday rejected his appeal against his prison sentence, despite the European court of human rights' order to free the Kremlin's most prominent foe. The judge slightly reduced his sentence to just over two and a half years in prison, ruling that the month and a half Navalny spent under house arrest in early 2015 would be deducted from his sentence Continue reading... |
| Myanmar: memorials held for protester shot by police – video report Posted: 20 Feb 2021 04:42 AM PST Anti-coup protesters in Myanmar have paid tribute to the young woman who died a day earlier after being shot by police during a demonstration against the military takeover. Impromptu memorials were held in Yangon, Mandalay and the capital city, Naypyidaw, where Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing was shot on 9 February, two days before her 20th birthday
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