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- Hong Kong police say nine arrested over alleged bomb plot
- Tigray forces mobilise against militias from neighbouring province
- Afghan anger over US’s sudden, silent Bagram departure
- UK faces reckoning after unmarked Indigenous graves discovered in Canada
- French authorities accused of ‘grave negligence’ over Notre Dame lead dust
- Israeli PM suffers setback in vote on Arab citizenship rights law
- Britney Spears’s manager quits and suggests singer may retire
- Priti Patel to reveal proposals for offshore centres for asylum seekers
- MPs say 1,000 babies die preventable deaths in England each year
- Rest room: tiny Vancouver ‘micro studio’ combines bedroom and toilet
- Coronavirus live: Germany should lift all Covid curbs by September, says minister; Indonesia flies in oxygen
- Covid death risk ‘almost four times higher’ for poorest in England
- Tokyo Olympics: attendance to be slashed at opening ceremony
- Australia denies using ‘plants’ to undermine China’s Covid vaccine rollout in Pacific
- My summer of love: ‘I made my move on a coach trip to Kathmandu’
- ‘A cascade of catastrophic failings’: the UK’s baby death scandals
- The invisible addiction: is it time to give up caffeine?
- Pandemic polaroids: how bleach made visible the invisible
- Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino review – from auteur to author
- Richard Donner, master of macho blockbusters with a human touch
- Second man charged after Chris Whitty accosted in London park
- Mammoth journey ahead as elephants leave Kent zoo for the Kenyan savannah
- ‘The spirit of our ancestry’: how California’s Black Wall Streets are changing their cities
- Australia Covid update: epidemiologists say NSW premier has no choice but to extend Sydney lockdown
- ‘The police bill is wiping out a culture’: New Travellers take a stand
- Italy to investigate Libyan coastguard’s ‘attempted shipwreck’ of migrant boat
- Why living with Covid would not be the same as flu
- 'Eye of fire' after underwater gas leak in Gulf of Mexico – video
- Getting vaccinated is patriotic, says Joe Biden on Fourth of July – video
| Hong Kong police say nine arrested over alleged bomb plot Posted: 06 Jul 2021 02:36 AM PDT Suspects aged 15-39 accused of attempting to make the explosive TATP in makeshift hostel laboratory Hong Kong's national security police say they have arrested nine people on suspicion of engaging in terrorist activity after uncovering what they described as an attempt to make explosives and plant bombs across the city. According to police, the suspects were aged 15-39 and included six secondary school students, a teacher, an unemployed person and a management-level university employee. Continue reading... |
| Tigray forces mobilise against militias from neighbouring province Posted: 05 Jul 2021 09:00 PM PDT Fighters prepare to face paramilitaries from Amhara following withdrawal of federal troops from region Insurgent forces in Tigray are mobilising for new conflict against militia from a neighbouring province in Ethiopia, with thousands of new volunteers joining their ranks after federal forces withdrew following more than eight months of war. Ethiopian federal forces declared a unilateral ceasefire and pulled out of Mekelle, the capital of Tigray province, as well as dozens of other towns eight days ago. Continue reading... |
| Afghan anger over US’s sudden, silent Bagram departure Posted: 06 Jul 2021 02:21 AM PDT Military officials say troops turned off power and slipped away without notifying new commander The US left Afghanistan's Bagram airfield after nearly 20 years by shutting off the electricity and slipping away in the night without notifying the base's new Afghan commander, who discovered the Americans' departure more than two hours after they left, Afghan military officials said. Afghanistan's army showed off the sprawling airbase on Monday, providing a rare first glimpse of what had been the centre of America's war. Continue reading... |
| UK faces reckoning after unmarked Indigenous graves discovered in Canada Posted: 06 Jul 2021 02:00 AM PDT Activists call on Britain to acknowledge its role in efforts to erase Indigenous culture The United Kingdom is facing growing calls to re-examine the troubling legacy of its colonial history in Canada after the discovery of more than 1,000 unmarked graves at former residential schools for Indigenous children. At least 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend such church-run schools as part of the campaign to strip them of their cultural identity, and amid anger over Catholic church's role in operating the institutions, churches across the country have been set on fire. Continue reading... |
| French authorities accused of ‘grave negligence’ over Notre Dame lead dust Posted: 06 Jul 2021 02:43 AM PDT Workers and residents exposed to dangerous levels of toxic dust in wake of 2019 fire, lawyers claim French and Paris authorities are facing further legal action over worrying lead levels around Notre Dame Cathedral in the wake of the devastating fire two years ago. Lawyers for a branch of one of the country's most powerful unions, which has joined forced with a health association and local residents, will submit a legal case on Tuesday for "endangering life … by persons unknown". Continue reading... |
| Israeli PM suffers setback in vote on Arab citizenship rights law Posted: 06 Jul 2021 02:57 AM PDT Parliament fails to renew law barring Arab citizens from extending citizenship rights to spouses The Israeli parliament has voted down an extension to controversial legislation that bars Arab Israelis from extending residency or citizenship rights to Palestinian spouses, in an early blow to the country's new coalition government. After a marathon all-night voting session that ended on Tuesday morning, the Knesset decided not to renew the law in a 59-59 vote. The outcome is widely seen as a stinging defeat for the prime minister, Naftali Bennett, who failed to unite the coalition's disparate ideological wings in what he reportedly himself referred to as a "referendum" on the new government. Continue reading... |
| Britney Spears’s manager quits and suggests singer may retire Posted: 06 Jul 2021 02:02 AM PDT Larry Rudolph wishes Spears 'all the health and happiness in the world' as singer's future remains uncertain amid conservatorship battle Britney Spears's manager Larry Rudolph, who has managed the singer since her mid-90s breakthrough, has resigned and said the singer possibly intends to retire. In a letter sent to Spears' conservators, father Jamie Spears and Jodi Montgomery, and first reported by Deadline, he wrote: Continue reading... |
| Priti Patel to reveal proposals for offshore centres for asylum seekers Posted: 05 Jul 2021 02:30 PM PDT Borders bill will allow for charges against migrants 'knowingly' arriving in UK without permission Ministers are to reveal proposals for a suite of new laws paving the way for offshore centres for asylum seekers and criminal charges for migrants "knowingly" arriving in the UK without permission. The nationality and borders bill, formerly known as the sovereign borders bill, has been described by the Home Office as containing "the most radical changes to the broken asylum system in decades" making it harder for those who enter illegally to stay in the UK. Continue reading... |
| MPs say 1,000 babies die preventable deaths in England each year Posted: 05 Jul 2021 04:00 PM PDT Commons health committee says NHS has reduced baby deaths significantly but could do more to improve safety A thousand babies die preventable deaths every year in England because a culture of shifting blame and keeping tight-lipped means lessons are not learned after mistakes happen on NHS maternity wards, a report by MPs has said. Almost two in five childbirth units still provide care that is unsafe to some extent, despite maternity care improving in recent years after a series of scandals, the health select committee said in a hard-hitting report published on Tuesday. Continue reading... |
| Rest room: tiny Vancouver ‘micro studio’ combines bedroom and toilet Posted: 05 Jul 2021 10:24 PM PDT Just a few footsteps separate bed and bathroom in an unusual rental that appeared on Craigslist Being single can be tough. But should you be so despondent about your lack of a partner that you can barely make it from the bed to the bathroom, one Vancouver apartment might be the answer. An ad for a "micro studio" posted on Craigslist this month described the apartment – which includes new flooring, a window and a single bed, but does not include a kitchen – as "ideal for a single individual looking to live downtown at an affordable rate, and who does not need much space". Continue reading... |
| Posted: 06 Jul 2021 02:24 AM PDT German minister says Covid restrictions no longer justified once everyone is offered a vaccine; Indonesia seeks oxygen supplies from neighbouring countries as Covid situation worsens
Very brief from Reuters here just to confirm that Indonesia today has again set record numbers – health ministry data showed there were 31,189 new coronavirus infections and 728 deaths on Tuesday, both record daily increases.
Yesim Dikmen writes for Reuters this morning that Turkey has identified three cases of the new Delta Plus Covid variant in three provinces. The health minister also said that the separate Delta variant had additionally been identified in some 284 cases across 30 provinces. Turkey, which eased most restrictions on 1 July, has reported nearly 5.5m Covid cases and some 50,000 deaths in total. A vaccination programme has ramped up to more than a million shots per day. Related: Delta Plus Covid variant: what is it and should we be concerned? Continue reading... |
| Covid death risk ‘almost four times higher’ for poorest in England Posted: 05 Jul 2021 10:00 PM PDT Inquiry reveals far worse prospects for working-age adults and says inequality has 'frayed nation's health' The chances of dying from Covid-19 were nearly four times higher for adults of working age in England's poorest areas than for those in the wealthiest places, an inquiry into of the health impacts of the pandemic has found. The nine-month inquiry by the Health Foundation charity said a decade of widening health inequalities and cuts to public services had "frayed the nation's health" and contributed to the UK's disproportionately high Covid death toll compared with similar countries. Continue reading... |
| Tokyo Olympics: attendance to be slashed at opening ceremony Posted: 06 Jul 2021 01:25 AM PDT Covid pandemic means only a limited number of VIPs will be allowed in 68,000-seat stadium The coronavirus pandemic is forcing organisers of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics to restrict attendance at the Games' opening ceremony to a limited number of VIPs, Japanese media have reported. The curtain-raiser at the 68,000-seat main stadium on 23 July will be watched only by people connected to sponsors, along with diplomats and other special guests, with the number sharply reduced from an initial estimate of 10,000, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper said on Tuesday, citing multiple unidentified sources. Continue reading... |
| Australia denies using ‘plants’ to undermine China’s Covid vaccine rollout in Pacific Posted: 05 Jul 2021 10:03 PM PDT Canberra says allegation Australia is 'working in the shadows' to sabotage emergency use of Chinese vaccines in Papua New Guinea 'absolutely not' true The Australian government has denied undermining China's plan to roll out Covid vaccines to Pacific countries after Beijing lashed Canberra's purported "callous" and "irresponsible behaviour". The allegation, first aired in Chinese state-controlled media and then amplified by the foreign ministry in Beijing, was "absolutely not" true, the Australian government said on Tuesday. Continue reading... |
| My summer of love: ‘I made my move on a coach trip to Kathmandu’ Posted: 06 Jul 2021 02:30 AM PDT The eight-hour journey provided plenty of time to snuggle up on the back seats - and it turned out this wasn't just a holiday romance A meet-cute on the Annapurna trail might sound like the premise for a romcom, but, at 19, I was thin-skinned, surly and hadn't developed the knack of talking to girls my age. Besides, I wasn't there for a holiday romance; I was in Nepal with my best friend, Sam, and his mother, in whose home I was living at the time. It says a lot about my state of mind back then that I deemed a bumper quiz book essential for a walking holiday in Nepal. After two solid performances, my Cambridge college was through to the quarter-finals of University Challenge, and bringing the book was a sign that I was finally taking it seriously. Continue reading... |
| ‘A cascade of catastrophic failings’: the UK’s baby death scandals Posted: 05 Jul 2021 04:01 PM PDT The failures in maternity care that have been unearthed at hospital trusts around the country over past few years An investigation into baby deaths at Furness general hospital in Barrow between 2004 and 2013 found a "lethal mix" of failings at almost every level. Continue reading... |
| The invisible addiction: is it time to give up caffeine? Posted: 05 Jul 2021 10:00 PM PDT Caffeine makes us more energetic, efficient and faster. But we have become so dependent that we need it just to get to our baseline After years of starting the day with a tall morning coffee, followed by several glasses of green tea at intervals, and the occasional cappuccino after lunch, I quit caffeine, cold turkey. It was not something that I particularly wanted to do, but I had come to the reluctant conclusion that the story I was writing demanded it. Several of the experts I was interviewing had suggested that I really couldn't understand the role of caffeine in my life – its invisible yet pervasive power – without getting off it and then, presumably, getting back on. Roland Griffiths, one of the world's leading researchers of mood-altering drugs, and the man most responsible for getting the diagnosis of "caffeine withdrawal" included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the bible of psychiatric diagnoses, told me he hadn't begun to understand his own relationship with caffeine until he stopped using it and conducted a series of self-experiments. He urged me to do the same. For most of us, to be caffeinated to one degree or another has simply become baseline human consciousness. Something like 90% of humans ingest caffeine regularly, making it the most widely used psychoactive drug in the world, and the only one we routinely give to children (commonly in the form of fizzy drinks). Few of us even think of it as a drug, much less our daily use of it as an addiction. It's so pervasive that it's easy to overlook the fact that to be caffeinated is not baseline consciousness but, in fact, an altered state. It just happens to be a state that virtually all of us share, rendering it invisible. Continue reading... |
| Pandemic polaroids: how bleach made visible the invisible Posted: 05 Jul 2021 11:00 PM PDT Unseen is an ongoing series of polaroids taken during the past 15 months of pandemic and lockdowns in London. Using household cleaning products, photographer Nicola Muirhead 'disinfected' each image to metaphorically reveal this unseen virus in her pictures Continue reading... |
| Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino review – from auteur to author Posted: 05 Jul 2021 11:00 PM PDT You've seen the film, now read the director's own novelisation. And it turns out that his way with words is infectious and fun Quentin Tarantino's most recent film, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, seemed to split audiences along generational lines. Despite its charms and Tarantino's customary flair, I came out of it frustrated and a bit bored, wondering if it was finally time to divorce this film-maker who'd shaped the sense of cinematic possibility of anyone who grew up in the 1990s. Tarantino's essential shallowness, which in the past he has alchemised as aesthetic vitality, and his adolescent moral outlook had come to seem dismayingly inflexible: I didn't feel he could surprise me any more. But everyone a couple of decades older than me, who remembered the late 1960s televisual and cinematic golden-age Hollywood so lovingly elegised, seemed to adore the film. Now Tarantino has surprised us all by turning his hand to writing books, beginning with this novelisation. It's far better than I expected it to be. Anyone who admired the movie will have a great time with this spin-off work. Interestingly, it is not a straightforward translation of the events in the film. The two versions of Rick and Cliff's story do share a number of scenes, but even those are altered and lengthened and there numerous new scenes and characters, some of them real-life figures (Steve McQueen has a cameo). Continue reading... |
| Richard Donner, master of macho blockbusters with a human touch Posted: 05 Jul 2021 01:29 PM PDT Superman, Lethal Weapon, The Omen, Scrooged – the movie director's CV tracked Hollywood's most bankable genres from the 80s onwards Richard Donner was the classic studio director and an action blockbuster maestro, the Michael Curtiz of the VHS age; he was the great inventor, or reinventor, of so many Hollywood genres and styles. When Hollywood invented the "franchise property", Donner was at the centre of things. His macho Lethal Weapon movies with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover were far from enlightened on sexual politics. But they gave a black man equal billing with a white man in a top-flight Hollywood movie: rare in 1987 and rare even now. Related: Richard Donner, director of Superman and The Goonies, dies aged 91 Continue reading... |
| Second man charged after Chris Whitty accosted in London park Posted: 05 Jul 2021 11:43 PM PDT Man charged with assault and obstructing police after incident involving chief medical officer A second man has been charged with common assault and obstructing police after England's chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, was accosted in a central London park, the Metropolitan police said. Jonathan Chew, 24, of no fixed address, was charged on Monday and will appear at Westminster magistrates court on Tuesday. Continue reading... |
| Mammoth journey ahead as elephants leave Kent zoo for the Kenyan savannah Posted: 05 Jul 2021 02:00 PM PDT All but one of the herd of 13 were born in captivity, but conservationists hope they can be 'rewilded'
The herd of 13, which includes three calves, were all but one born at Howletts Wild Animal Park, a private zoo near Canterbury. The mammoth mission to "rewild" the elephants is being carried out by the Aspinall Foundation, the Kenya Wildlife Service and Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. Continue reading... |
| ‘The spirit of our ancestry’: how California’s Black Wall Streets are changing their cities Posted: 06 Jul 2021 03:00 AM PDT Business districts in cities across the US offer economic opportunity – but can they have an impact beyond the world of retail? Like hundreds of other shopping districts, Sacramento's Florin Square had to shut its doors during the pandemic. The space in California's state capital is part cultural center and incubator and has been home to Black entrepreneurs since 2003. At the mercy of Covid-19 closures, evolving guidelines and elusive government aid, many similar operations failed to recover, with an estimated 200,000 more small businesses shuttering in 2020 than in the average year. Continue reading... |
| Australia Covid update: epidemiologists say NSW premier has no choice but to extend Sydney lockdown Posted: 06 Jul 2021 02:18 AM PDT Gladys Berejiklian will announce on Wednesday if greater Sydney lockdown will continue beyond Friday night
Epidemiologists say an extension of greater Sydney's Covid lockdown is likely given daily case numbers are continuing to fluctuate. New South Wales reported 18 locally acquired Covid cases on Tuesday with the premier, Gladys Berejiklian, saying she would announce on Wednesday whether the state's lockdown would be extended beyond Friday. Continue reading... |
| ‘The police bill is wiping out a culture’: New Travellers take a stand Posted: 05 Jul 2021 12:53 PM PDT If it becomes law, residing on land without permission would be a criminal offence, threatening a way of life for communities across the UK "I am worried that not everyone knows what is coming," says Amy, sitting in the truck she has turned into a cosy home for her and her two children. "If this bill is passed it will mean the end of our culture. The end of our way of life." Amy, who wanted to be known by her first name, lives with her two sons on a small Travellers' site down a quiet country lane in the west of England, along the edges of an ancient forest. Continue reading... |
| Italy to investigate Libyan coastguard’s ‘attempted shipwreck’ of migrant boat Posted: 05 Jul 2021 07:16 AM PDT Officials to be investigated after film appears to show patrol boat firing shots at a vessel carrying 64 people in the Mediterranean Prosecutors in Sicily have launched an investigation against the Libyan coastguard after footage emerged appearing to show officials firing on a boat of migrant families in the Mediterranean Sea. On 30 June, rescue workers from the German organisation Sea-Watch recorded the Libyan coastguard patrol vessel coming dangerously close to the small wooden boat and apparently firing shots in an attempt to force the 64 people onboard back to Libya. Continue reading... |
| Why living with Covid would not be the same as flu Posted: 05 Jul 2021 09:27 AM PDT Analysis: coronavirus is more contagious and more lethal than influenza, and we lack the same global protection mechanism As England prepares to ease coronavirus restrictions further, the messaging from ministers has changed. We have reached, it seems, a tipping point in the pandemic where rules will be replaced by personal decisions. The mantra now is about living with coronavirus, much as we do with seasonal flu. The pandemic has invited countless comparisons between coronavirus and influenza and the diseases do have some features in common. Both are contagious, potentially lethal respiratory viruses. They can spread through aerosols, droplets and contaminated surfaces. And they share some of the same symptoms in the form of fever, cough, headaches and fatigue. In the winter ahead, one challenge the NHS faces is separating the Covid patients from the flu cases. Continue reading... |
| 'Eye of fire' after underwater gas leak in Gulf of Mexico – video Posted: 05 Jul 2021 02:52 AM PDT An underwater gas leak caused a whirling vortex of fire to spew out of the ocean surface west of Mexico's Yucatán peninsula on 3 July. The fire began in an underwater pipeline connected to a platform owned by the state oil company Pemex. The fire took more than five hours to put out and no injuries were reported Continue reading... |
| Getting vaccinated is patriotic, says Joe Biden on Fourth of July – video Posted: 05 Jul 2021 01:29 AM PDT Speaking at a White House party marking the Fourth of July, Joe Biden urged Americans to get vaccinated to stave off a rise in cases of the coronavirus Delta variant. 'Think back to where this nation was a year ago,' the president said in a speech on the theme of 'Independence Day and independence from Covid-19'. The Biden administration has missed its aim of having 70% of adult Americans with at least one shot by the holiday weekend Continue reading... |
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