Guardian Headlines
Guardian Headlines
Fri, 26 Apr 2024 09:11:17 GMT
Rain in Kenya, Tanzania and Burundi kills at least 90 people and damages farmland and infrastructure
Eastern Africa has experienced heavy rain in recent weeks, with flooding in Kenya, Tanzania and Burundi. About 100,000 people have been displaced or otherwise affected in each country, with 32 reported deaths in Kenya and 58 in Tanzania, alongside damage to farmland and infrastructure.
There are also fears that large areas of standing water could give rise to outbreaks of waterborne diseases.
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 07:28:52 GMT
Micheál Martin says UK asylum seekers fearful of being removed to Rwanda are seeking sanctuary in Ireland
The UK government’s Rwanda policy has been described as a “kneejerk reaction” to migration by Ireland’s deputy prime minister, who said an influx of asylum seekers could arrive in Ireland as a result.
Micheál Martin, Ireland’s Tánaiste, reportedly said asylum seekers fearful of being removed from the UK to Rwanda were seeking sanctuary in Ireland.
Continue reading...Thu, 25 Apr 2024 04:00:18 GMT
Few economic and social benefits will come to Africans if processing is all done overseas, says Wanjira Mathai
Africa must take greater control in the industries it supplies with raw materials to lift its people from poverty and seize its own destiny in a low-carbon world, one of the continent’s leading environmentalists has urged.
Wanjira Mathai, the managing director for Africa and global partnerships at the World Resources Institute thinktank, said much more of what the continent produced must be processed and made use of close to where it is produced, if the world is to shift to a low-carbon footing.
Continue reading...Thu, 25 Apr 2024 03:00:13 GMT
Human Rights Watch demands investigation into killings in two villages just weeks after Russian troops fly in, amid intensifying conflict
Burkina Faso’s military summarily executed 223 civilians, including at least 56 children, in a single day in late February, according to an investigation into one of the worst abuses by the country’s armed forces for years.
The mass killings have been linked to a widening military campaign to tackle jihadist violence and happened weeks after Russian troops landed in the west African country to help improve security.
Continue reading...Wed, 24 Apr 2024 23:01:09 GMT
Home secretary visits Lampedusa in Italy as National Audit Office says scheme could surpass £580m by 2030
Several flights a month will deport asylum seekers to Rwanda “indefinitely”, the home secretary has said, as he argued that the £1.8m a person cost of the scheme was justified.
James Cleverly, in his first interview since the government’s plan was approved by parliament on Monday, said he had booked a succession of initial flights and was preparing to order the detention of people seeking refuge in the UK so they could be sent to east Africa.
Continue reading...Wed, 24 Apr 2024 16:52:08 GMT
Government U-turn as PM Mia Mottley acknowledges anger from reparations movement over plan to buy Barbados land from Dorset MP Richard Drax
The prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, has halted plans for a multi-million-pound payout to the British Conservative MP Richard Drax for the purchase of 53 acres of the Drax Hall plantation, which he owns.
As revealed in the Observer last Sunday, the payout plan had angered those involved in the Caribbean reparations movement, who said Drax, the MP for South Dorset, should hand over all or part of the 617-acre plantation to the people of Barbados.
Continue reading...Thu, 25 Apr 2024 16:18:52 GMT
‘Transitional council’ takes oath of office after prime minister formally resigns as gang violence continues to rock capital
Haiti’s prime minister, Ariel Henry, has formally resigned and a new provisional government has been sworn in during a secret ceremony at the presidential palace, nearly two months after a criminal insurrection plunged the capital into chaos.
The nine-person “transitional council” was officially established on Thursday during an event at the national palace in Port-au-Prince. As its members took their oaths, Henry, who is in the US having been locked out of Haiti by the gang uprising, announced in a letter that he was stepping down.
Continue reading...Wed, 24 Apr 2024 14:58:08 GMT
Critics of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa say behind remarks is lack of national recognition that slavery should be discussed in schools
Portugal needs to “pay the costs” of slavery and other colonial-era crimes, the country’s president has said, in a rare instance of a European leader seemingly backing the need for reparations.
Portugal has long grappled with calls by campaigners to address its legacy as the European country with the longest historical involvement in the slave trade. During the span of four centuries, nearly 6 million Africans were kidnapped and forcibly transported across the Atlantic by Portuguese vessels.
Continue reading...Wed, 24 Apr 2024 05:00:31 GMT
Petition filed on behalf of woman known as as Fausia, who underwent a forced pregnancy after being raped
Honduras is being taken to a global human rights body for the first time over its total abortion ban, which campaigners say violates women’s fundamental rights and the country’s international commitments.
The Center for Reproductive Rights and the Honduras-based Centro de Derechos de la Mujer (Center for Women’s Rights, CDM) filed a petition with the UN human rights committee this month on behalf of a woman known as Fausia, who underwent a forced pregnancy after being raped and denied an abortion under Honduras’ draconian laws.
Continue reading...Tue, 23 Apr 2024 00:24:56 GMT
Celebrity fashion designer, who recruited couriers to transport bags from her native Colombia to US on commercial flights, receives 18-month sentence
A leading fashion designer whose accessories were used by celebrities from Britney Spears to the cast of the Sex and the City TV series has been sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty in Miami federal court on charges of smuggling crocodile handbags from her native Colombia.
Nancy Gonzalez was arrested in 2022 in Cali, Colombia, and later extradited to the US for running a sprawling multiyear conspiracy that involved recruiting couriers to transport her handbags on commercial flights to high-end showrooms and New York fashion events – all in violation of US wildlife laws.
Continue reading...Mon, 22 Apr 2024 11:39:42 GMT
Historic hearing will receive submissions from people whose human rights have been affected by climate change
Julian Medina comes from a long line of fishers in the north of Colombia’s Gulf of Morrosquillo who use small-scale and often traditional methods to catch species such as mackerel, tuna and cojinúa.
Medina went into business as a young man but was drawn back to his roots, and ended up leading a fishing organisation. For years he has campaigned against the encroachment of fossil fuel companies, pollution and overfishing, which are destroying the gulf’s delicate ecosystem and people’s livelihoods.
Continue reading...Mon, 22 Apr 2024 08:37:34 GMT
Anticyclonic conditions have allowed temperatures to reach 35-45C across much of the country
Mexico has been undergoing its first heatwave of the season. The heatwave started on Sunday 14 April, when Mexico City recorded a new date record with a high of 32.9C, surpassing the previous record of 32C from 1998.
Anticyclonic conditions over the region have been responsible for this heatwave by inhibiting cloud formation, allowing temperatures to rise significantly. These conditions persisted through much of last week, allowing temperatures to reach 35-45C across much of the country.
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 09:25:43 GMT
Wang Yi tells Antony Blinken ‘disruptions’ could arise amid threat of sanctions over China’s support for Russia’s defence industry
China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, has warned the US that the recent improvements in the two countries’ relations were being jeopardised by “disruptions” that could take them back to a “downward spiral” leading to rivalry, confrontation and even conflict.
Wang was speaking at the start of a meeting in Beijing with the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, at a time of renewed tension in the relations between the superpowers. The US, he said, should not step on China’s “red lines”.
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 06:46:56 GMT
Fujikawaguchiko town official says choice to erect huge barrier is ‘regrettable’ and last resort
A huge barrier to block views of Mount Fuji will be installed at a popular photo spot by Japanese authorities exasperated by crowds of badly behaved foreign tourists.
Construction of the mesh net – 2.5 metres (8ft) high and the length of a cricket pitch at 20 metres – will begin as early as next week, an official from Fujikawaguchiko town said on Friday.
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 05:42:37 GMT
Arrests as Chinese authorities working with UK police and international trademark agencies seize millions of parcels bound for customers worldwide
Chinese authorities have targeted a major online sales platform accused of supplying counterfeit goods, raiding warehouses holding millions of packages destined for overseas buyers.
Earlier this month police raided the Hangzhou office and several warehouses of Pandabuy after reported legal action by 16 brands over copyright infringement. More than 200 public security branch officers, 50 private sector investigators and local police were involved, according to reports.
Continue reading...Thu, 25 Apr 2024 05:23:50 GMT
Rivals had said February election won by former general was undermined by state interference and unfair rule changes
Indonesia’s electoral commission has formally declared Prabowo Subianto president-elect in a ceremony, after the country’s highest court rejected challenges to his win by rival candidates.
Prabowo, 72, a former general dogged by allegations of human rights abuses, won a landslide victory in February’s elections, but his two opponents claimed that the vote had been undermined by state interference and unfair rule changes.
Continue reading...Wed, 24 Apr 2024 22:45:34 GMT
A bill passed by Congress and signed by Biden requires owner ByteDance to sell or face a US ban – it’s its biggest threat yet
The House of Representatives passed a bill that would require TikTok owner ByteDance to sell the social media platform or face a total ban in the United States. The Senate passed it less than a week later. Joe Biden signed it a day after the Senate voted yes.
TikTok is facing its biggest existential threat yet in the US. The app was banned in Montana last year, but courts found that prohibition unconstitutional, and it never went into effect.
Continue reading...Wed, 24 Apr 2024 16:49:38 GMT
President says legislation is ‘going to make the world safer’ after months of congressional gridlock threatened support for Kyiv
Joe Biden has signed into law a bill that rushes $95bn in foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, a bipartisan legislative victory he hailed as a “good day for world peace” after months of congressional gridlock threatened Washington’s support for Kyiv in its fight to repel Russia’s invasion.
The Senate overwhelmingly passed the measure in a 79 -18 vote late on Tuesday night, after the package won similarly lopsided approval in the Republican controlled House, despite months of resistance from an isolationist bloc of hardline conservatives opposed to helping Ukraine.
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 09:24:22 GMT
Muslim organisations say they were not consulted before counter-terrorism raids that resulted in arrests relating to a church stabbing in Sydney
Representatives of the Australian Muslim community have called out what they called “questionable law enforcement tactics” after seven minors were arrested and six of them charged with counter-terrorism-related offences this week.
Three major bodies, the Australian National Imams Council, the Alliance of Australian Muslims and the Australian Muslim Advocacy Network, have also demanded the government revise Australia’scounter-terrorism laws, saying they “target specific communities”.
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 08:20:36 GMT
All-share proposal had potential to be one of biggest deals in sector for decade but deemed ‘opportunistic’
The board of Anglo American, the London-listed mining company, has rejected a £31bn takeover approach from the Australian rival BHP.
BHP’s all-share proposed offer for Anglo American had the potential to be one of the biggest deals in the global mining sector for a decade but has attracted criticism from Anglo’s shareholders as being too low and “highly opportunistic”.
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 07:37:45 GMT
This blog has now closed
As we reported, X has provided an update on its legal challenge against Australia’s eSafety commissioner, stating it had complied with a direction to remove content from the Wakeley church stabbing.
However, underneath the post from the platform’s global government affairs team (which we quoted in our previous post), the video is available to watch in a reply to the post, as of 7.45am AEST.
The eSafety Commissioner required X to remove posts containing a video of the attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, filmed by an innocent bystander. [The bishop] has expressed his desire for the video to remain online.
X believes it has complied with the notice issued by eSafety, and with Australian law, by restricting all the posts at issue in Australia.
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 06:38:43 GMT
Co-founder leaving ‘to spend more time with his young family, improve the world via philanthropy, and help further the technology industry globally’
Scott Farquhar, the Australian tech billionaire and joint chief executive of software company Atlassian, will step down from his role at the end of August to spend time with his young family and focus on philanthropy, the company says.
Farquhar’s co-CEO, Mike Cannon-Brookes, will lead the Sydney-headquartered company, which has found huge success developing software that allows teams to coordinate resources on complex projects.
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 05:14:49 GMT
Lehrmann will pay the columnist $4,616 to cover cost of producing documents during failed defamation case against Channel Ten and Lisa Wilkinson
Bruce Lehrmann has agreed to pay the columnist and author Peter FitzSimons’ costs for complying with a subpoena during Lehrmann’s failed defamation proceedings against Network Ten and former Project presenter Lisa Wilkinson.
Lehrmann lost his defamation case against Network Ten and Wilkinson in the federal court earlier this month. Justice Michael Lee found on the balance of probabilities that Lehrmann raped Brittany Higgins on a minister’s couch in Parliament House in 2019. Lehrmann has consistently denied the allegation and pleaded not guilty at the criminal trial into the matter which was aborted due to juror misconduct.
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 05:06:10 GMT
Asic finds arrangements posed ‘significant risk’ of financial hardship but clothing store says it will appeal ‘racist and paternalistic decision’
The Australian Security and Investments Commission has permanently banned the clothing store Urban Rampage from using the government’s Centrepay system to sign up mostly vulnerable Indigenous customers to “inherently inappropriate” credit arrangements that place them at risk of financial harm.
Coral Coast Distributors – which operates 10 Urban Rampage stores in regional and remote locations across Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland, selling household items – can no longer sign-up customers into Centrepay credit arrangements.
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 12:38:14 GMT
Mykola Solskyi is first known minister under Volodymyr Zelenskiy to be named in a corruption case
France is working with Germany to convince their European partners to provide more air defence capacities to Kyiv, the French defence minister, Sebastien Lecornu, said today, Reuters reported.
“The advance of Russian forces west of Avdiivka, Donetsk Oblast, has accelerated within the past week,” according to a British intelligence update.
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 12:09:42 GMT
Exhibition explores how a Spanish-Filipino artist in 1966 opened a trailblazing cultural outpost in Cuenca’s ‘hanging houses’
In July 1966, as the Beatles were preparing to release Revolver and Spain was approaching the 30th anniversary of the coup that birthed the Franco dictatorship, a Spanish-Filipino artist called Fernando Zóbel threw open the doors of an improbable but visionary cultural outpost.
Based in a clutch of 15th-century houses overhanging a precipitous gorge in the small city of Cuenca, the Museo de Arte Abstracto Español, or Museum of Spanish Abstract Art, had a simple if daunting mission. As Manuel Fontán del Junco, the director of museums and exhibitions at the Juan March Foundation in Madrid and one of the curators of a new exhibition about the institution, puts it, “it was a museum for artists in a country of artists without museums”.
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 11:37:04 GMT
French singer dedicates top prizes at Les Flammes ‘to all the blacks’ after backlash over rumoured Paris show
The French pop star Aya Nakamura, who found herself at the centre of a racist row after rumours she was going to sing at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony, has thanked fans for their support after winning three big prizes at France’s Les Flammes awards for rap, R&B and pop.
“I’m very honoured because being a black artist and coming from the banlieue is very difficult,” Nakamura told the audience at the ceremony, which she opened with a medley of her songs. She dedicated her awards – female artist of the year, pop album of the year, and international star of the year – “to all black women”.
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 11:00:38 GMT
Exclusive: Environmental groups say bank is misleading public over ‘sustainable’ financing for Eni as company vastly expands fossil fuel production
Barclays is being accused by environmental groups of greenwashing after helping to arrange €4bn (£3.4bn) in financing for the Italian oil company Eni in a way that allows them to qualify towards its $1tn sustainable financing goal.
Environmental groups have said the London-based bank is deliberately misleading the public by labelling the financial instruments as “sustainable” at the same time that Eni is in the midst of a multibillion-pound fossil fuel expansion drive designed to increase production.
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 08:16:15 GMT
Mykola Solskyi accused of illegally seizing land worth more than $7m when he was head of major farming firm and an MP
Ukraine’s agriculture minister, Mykola Solskyi, has been detained after being named as a formal suspect in a multimillion-dollar corruption inquiry.
Blighted by corruption scandals since the fall of the Soviet Union, Kyiv has pledged to bolster its anti-graft efforts as part of its bid for EU membership.
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 07:00:32 GMT
Open letter calls for green policies that empower farmers, after months of protests jeopardise future of flagship biodiversity deal
The EU’s nature restoration law will only work if it is enacted in partnership with farmers, a group of leading scientists has said, after months of protests have pushed the proposals to the brink of collapse.
In an open letter, leading biodiversity researchers from across the world said that efforts to restore nature are vital for guaranteeing food supplies – but farmers must be empowered to help make agriculture more environmentally friendly if the measures are to succeed.
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 12:55:30 GMT
War has left estimated 37m tons of debris in area, requiring years of work with ‘100 trucks’, says UN official
A premature Palestinian infant, rescued from her mother’s womb by an emergency caesarean section shortly after the woman was killed by an Israeli airstrike, has died, her uncle said Friday.
Associated Press reports Rami al-Sheikh said Sabreen Jouda died in a Gaza hospital on Thursday after her health deteriorated and medical teams were unable to save her.
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 11:07:48 GMT
Infant dies five days after caesarean delivery following death of mother in Israeli airstrike in Rafah
A premature Palestinian baby rescued from her mother’s womb shortly after the woman was killed in an Israeli airstrike has died, the baby’s uncle has said.
Sabreen Jouda died in a Gaza hospital on Thursday after her health deteriorated and medical teams were unable to save her, Rami al-Sheikh said on Friday.
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 01:06:42 GMT
About 1,000 US troops will support the military construction efforts, but Joe Biden has ordered them not to set foot on the Gaza shore
US troops have begun construction of a maritime pier off the coast of Gaza that aims to speed the flow of humanitarian aid into the territory, the Pentagon has said, but the complex plan to bring more desperately needed food to Palestinian civilians is still mired in fears over security and how the aid will be delivered.
“I can confirm that US military vessels, to include the USNS Benavidez, have begun to construct the initial stages of the temporary pier and causeway at sea,” Pentagon spokesperson Maj Gen Patrick Ryder told reporters.
Continue reading...Thu, 25 Apr 2024 17:38:27 GMT
UK and US leaders among those calling for release, as families renew pressure on Netanyahu to restart negotiations
The leaders of 18 countries including the US and the UK have called on Hamas to free Israeli and dual-national hostages held in Gaza.
“The fate of the hostages and the civilian population in Gaza, who are protected under international law, is of international concern,” they said. “We strongly support the ongoing mediation efforts in order to bring our people home.”
Continue reading...Thu, 25 Apr 2024 15:02:25 GMT
World Weather Attribution group says intensified El Niño effects caused torrential rain, but rules out cloud seeding as cause
Fossil fuels and concrete combined to worsen the “death trap” conditions during recent record flooding in the United Arab Emirates and Oman, a study has found.
Scientists from the World Weather Attribution team said downpours in El Niño years such as this one had become 10-40% heavier in the region as a result of human-cased climate disruption, while a lack of natural drainage quickly turned roads into rivers.
Continue reading...Thu, 25 Apr 2024 13:59:37 GMT
White House releases joint letter signed with 17 other countries saying such a deal would lead to the ‘credible end of hostilities’
Here are some of the scenes in Jerusalem, where people, including Israeli interior security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, have been worshipping during the Passover holiday.
Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Rafah for Al Jazeera, states that two people have been killed there by drone strikes. He writes for the news network:
A surge in attack drones flying over Rafah has taken place over the past couple of hours. At least two people have been hit in what appear to be targeted killings – one in the western part of the city and the other in the east. They were killed when the drones fired missiles about half an hour apart. The tragedy keeps unfolding. The destruction is overwhelming. Everywhere you go, you see rubble-filled roads.
Continue reading...Tue, 23 Apr 2024 06:33:49 GMT
Despite eventual visa backflip by authorities, ABC’s south-Asia correspondent Avani Dias left after being made to ‘feel so uncomfortable’
The south-Asia correspondent for Australia’s national broadcaster, Avani Dias, has been forced out of India after her reporting fell foul of the Indian government, in a sign of the increasing pressure on journalists in the country under Narendra Modi.
Dias, who has been based in Delhi for the ABC since January 2022, said she felt the government had made it “too difficult” for her to continue to do her job, claiming it blocked her from accessing events, issued takedown notices to YouTube for her news stories, and then refused her a standard visa renewal.
Continue reading...Mon, 22 Apr 2024 17:35:16 GMT
Opposition says prime minister targeting Muslim minority with ‘hate speech’ and violating election rules
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has been accused of hate speech during a campaign rally where he called Muslims “infiltrators” who had “many children” and claimed they would take people’s hard-earned money.
The opposition accused Modi of “blatantly targeting” India’s 200 million Muslim minority with comments made while addressing voters at a speech in Rajasthan on Sunday.
Continue reading...Sat, 20 Apr 2024 18:58:40 GMT
Thousands of civilians flee as resistance fighters fight to flush out soldiers holed up at eastern bridge border crossing
Fighting raged at Myanmar’s eastern border with Thailand on Saturday, both governments said, forcing 3,000 civilians to flee as rebels fought to flush out Myanmar junta troops holed up for days at a bridge border crossing.
Resistance fighters and ethnic minority rebels seized the key trading town of Myawaddy on the Myanmar side of the frontier on 11 April, a blow to a well-equipped military struggling to govern and facing a test of battlefield credibility.
Continue reading...Fri, 19 Apr 2024 12:08:31 GMT
Experts say Indian PM is hoping to be ‘bigger than Gandhi’ as he aims to win a third term in office
As the distant rumble of a helicopter drew closer, cheers erupted from the gathered crowds in anticipation. By the time India’s prime minister finally stepped on to the stage, bowing deeply while immaculately dressed in a white kurta and peach waistcoat and with a neatly trimmed beard, the chants had reached a deafening pitch: “Modi, Modi, Modi.”
These scenes, at a campaign rally on the outskirts of the Uttar Pradesh city of Meerut, have been replicated across the country in recent weeks as Modi and his Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) seek to win a third term in India’s election, which begins on 19 April and goes on for six weeks.
Continue reading...Fri, 19 Apr 2024 02:30:01 GMT
First phase in world’s largest democratic exercise begins, with 969 million people eligible to vote over six-week period
Voting has begun in India’s mammoth general election, as Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party hopes to increase its parliamentary majority amid allegations that the country’s democracy has been undermined since it came to power 10 years ago.
India’s elections are the largest democratic exercise in the world, with more than 969 million voters, amounting to more than 10% of the world’s population. The voting began at 8am on Friday, when polling opened at 102 constituencies across the country, and will continue over the next six weeks, in seven phases, until 1 June. All the results will be counted and declared on 4 June.
Continue reading...Thu, 18 Apr 2024 16:46:20 GMT
Scientists estimate Vasuki indicus was up to 15 metres long, weighed a tonne and would have constricted its prey
Fossil vertebrae unearthed in a mine in western India are the remains of one of the largest snakes that ever lived, a monster estimated at up to 15 metres in length – longer than a T rex.
Scientists have recovered 27 vertebrae from the snake, including a few still in the same position as they would have been when the reptile was alive. They said the snake, which they named Vasuki indicus, would have looked like a large python and would not have been venomous.
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 12:51:57 GMT
Scottish Labour’s no confidence motion could require first minister and all other ministers to resign if it passes
Humza Yousaf is expected to make an announcement about housing this afternoon. It is expected early afternoon rather than late afternoon.
Despite a report in the Times this morning saying he was considering his position, he is not going to be announcing his resignation, the BBC says.
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 12:51:54 GMT
Pair from Sudan and South Sudan charged with immigration offences in UK
Two people have been charged with immigration offences in connection with the investigation into the deaths of five people, including a child, who were trying to cross the Channel.
One has been charged with assisting unlawful immigration and attempting to arrive in the UK without valid entry clearance.
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 12:50:20 GMT
Doctors’ ability to sign people off work is crucial, say readers, particularly for those with mental health problems
Guardian readers have reacted with horror and distress to Rishi Sunak’s plans to strip GPs of their power to sign people off work, in favour of “work and health professionals”.
We received an unusually high level of responses to a callout asking people about their experiences of being signed off work and their thoughts regarding Sunak’s proposals.
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 12:38:18 GMT
Philip Pullman will help choose this year’s winners of award set up in memory of the keen young writer who died aged 13 in 2021
The Martha Mills young writers’ prize has opened for entries on the theme of “A Secret”.
The competition, run by the London Review Bookshop, invites 11- to 14-year-olds living in the UK to submit up to 500 words of any type of prose – such as a fictional story, a piece of schoolwork, or a diary entry – based on this year’s theme.
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 12:28:50 GMT
UK company’s offer from Thoma Bravo is 44% higher than average share price over past three months
The Cambridge-based cybersecurity and artificial intelligence company Darktrace is likely to become the latest British technology champion to be swallowed up by a US suitor, after it agreed a $5.3bn (£4.2bn) sale to US private equity business Thoma Bravo.
Darktrace, whose co-founding investor Mike Lynch is currently on trial for fraud and conspiracy in the US, agreed to an offer 44% higher than its average share price over the past three months.
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 12:18:46 GMT
Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry bailed for trial on charges of breaching the Official Secrets Act
Two men charged with spying for China have appeared in court in central London.
Christopher Cash, 29, and Christopher Berry, 32, spoke only to confirm their names and addresses when they appeared at Westminster magistrates court on Friday.
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 12:59:51 GMT
Trial will see more questions for publisher following his testimony about ‘catch and kill’ schemes to buy up negative stories
Meanwhile, over at the US supreme court, there was a different Trump issue at play yesterday – arguments on whether the president should be immune from prosecution for acts done while in office.
The justices expressed interest in returning Trump’s criminal case over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election back to a lower court to decide whether certain parts of the indictment were “official acts” that were protected by presidential immunity.
A guide to Trump’s hush-money trial – so far
What to know about the arguments, players and jurors
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 10:59:16 GMT
New York appeals court has thrown out 2020 conviction, but disgraced movie mogul is staying jailed from separate rape conviction. Plus, scheme launched for reparations to Ukrainian sexual violence survivors
Good morning.
The disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 conviction for sexual crimes was overturned by a New York appeals court on Thursday. Prosecutors intend to retry the case.
What did the ruling say? “We conclude that the trial court erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes.”
What was Weinstein’s prison term? He got 23 years in 2020 for two sex crimes: forcing oral sex on a production assistant in 2006 as well as rape in the third degree of an actor in 2013. In total, more than 80 women accused Weinstein of various acts of sexual assault and harassment.
Does this mean he will walk free? No. Weinstein, 72, will remain imprisoned because he was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape, and sentenced to 16 years in prison. But we can expect a rerun of the New York case.
Here’s what makes the scheme so significant: It will be the first time survivors have been awarded reparations during an active conflict, according to the Global Survivors Fund (GSF), which is administering the project with Ukraine using funds from donor governments.
This is what we know about who was affected: GSF estimates thousands of Ukrainians were affected, but the total number suffering sexual violence by occupying troops is unknown, as most survivors do not report the crimes.
Go deeper: Check out this gripping story about the Ukrainian investigators closing in on Russian war criminals.
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 10:27:27 GMT
‘Coastal elites’ feel the pinch of fast-food price hikes too. Plus: Liz Truss bars Guardian journalists from book launch. Lol
Donald Trump’s appearance in criminal court on Monday has raised many questions, constitutional and otherwise, but on the evidence of the first day I find myself most curious about the former president’s McDonald’s order. During jury selection last week, the Daily Mail reported on a $700 (£560) McDonald’s order put in by Trump staffers that included 27 orders of fries, 27 quarter pounders, a bunch of nuggets and no drinks. A McDonald’s employee complained anonymously that they didn’t leave a tip – in line with everyone who eats at McDonald’s – but still.
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 10:00:37 GMT
The indictment details the steps to push the concept of alternate electors in an alleged effort to overturn Biden’s victory
The indictment against the slate of fake electors in Arizona and the Trump allies who advanced the scheme there includes a host of public statements and private exchanges that show how the group intended to overturn the state’s electoral votes for Joe Biden in 2020.
Arizona’s Democratic attorney general Kris Mayes announced Wednesday that a state grand jury charged the 11 false electors and seven others with nine felony counts of fraud, forgery and conspiracy. The indictment from Mayes’ office is sure to be a talking point in this year’s elections , nearly four years after the acts themselves occurred.
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 10:00:36 GMT
Plan to break up Noaa claims its research is ‘climate alarmism’ and calls for commercializing forecasts, weakening forecasts
Climate experts fear Donald Trump will follow a blueprint created by his allies to gut the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), disbanding its work on climate science and tailoring its operations to business interests.
Joe Biden’s presidency has increased the profile of the science-based federal agency but its future has been put in doubt if Trump wins a second term and at a time when climate impacts continue to worsen.
Continue reading...Fri, 26 Apr 2024 10:00:36 GMT
As support for abortion even in states as red as Kentucky and Kansas grows, the GOP appears to be breaking ranks with the hardliners
In the two years since the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, the 50-year-long partnership between Republicans and anti-abortion activists has steadily fractured as political backlash to abortion bans has mounted. But perhaps the biggest crack emerged on Wednesday, when Arizona’s Republican-controlled state legislature moved to repeal the state’s 1864 near-total abortion ban.
After days of national outcry over an Arizona supreme court ruling that upheld the 1864 ban, passed before Arizona became a state, three Republicans in the state house broke ranks to vote with Democrats to support a repeal. Last week, two Republicans in the state senate also voted with Democrats to advance a similar repeal. As long as those Republican votes hold firm, Democrats will likely send the repeal to Arizona’s Democratic governor in May.
Continue reading...