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guardianworldnews_feedUkrainian president embarks on busy week of diplomacy as US ups pressure to end war
Arriving at the ministerial meeting in Brussels, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said this week could be “pivotal” for diplomacy on Ukraine.
“It is clear that Russia does not want peace, and therefore we need to make Ukraine as strong as possible in order to them to be ready to stand up for themselves in this very, very difficult time,” she said.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedA disaffected Portuguese NGO worker dallies with a drag queen as he wrestles with white man’s privilege in Pedro Pinho’s intelligent drama
‘What disgusts me the most are good men,” says a Bissau-Guinean sex worker to Sérgio (Sérgio Coragem), a Portuguese environmental engineer working for an NGO on a road construction project in the country. He’s struggling to perform, as if his private life is letting slip some fundamental doubt about his role in Africa.
There’s a good dose of self-flagellation about western paternalism and hypocrisy in Pedro Pinho’s fifth feature, but it’s smart enough to know that this hand-wringing, extended over three hours, is yet another form of white man’s privilege. First seen driving through a sand blizzard like one of Antonioni’s existential wanderers, Sérgio seems to want to avoid thinking about the power dynamics at play around him. Being “here now”, in the moment, is his superpower – as he tells Gui (Jonathan Guilherme), the lofty Brazilian drag queen he dallies with. Gui’s gender-fluid posse, who hang out at the bar run by market hustler Diara (Cleo Diára), is a racial and sexual utopia ready to accept anyone, including this white expat. But, as Gui intuits, Sérgio’s bisexuality mirrors something noncommittal, even opportunistic, about him. He both lives in the expat enclave and the streets, without belonging to either.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedHundreds remain missing in Indonesia and Sri Lanka as rescue efforts continue after Cyclone Ditwah
The Sri Lankan president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, declared a state of emergency on Saturday to deal with the aftermath of Cyclone Ditwah and appealed for international aid. He called it the “most challenging natural disaster” Sri Lanka has seen.
The extreme weather system had, as of Sunday, destroyed more than 25,000 homes and forced 147,000 people into state-run temporary shelters. A further 968,000 people required assistance after being displaced by the floods.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedUkrainian president embarks on busy week of diplomacy as US ups pressure to end war
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to meet France’s president Emmanuel Macron in Paris in just under an hour as he kicks off another busy week of diplomacy amid growing pressure from the US to end the war with Ukraine.
“Peace is within reach, if Vladimir Putin abandons his delusional hope of reconstituting the Soviet empire by first subjugating Ukraine,” the French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, told La Tribune Dimanche.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedCompany failed to protect thousands of people switching from analogue to digital landline, Ofcom rules
Virgin Media has been fined £23.8m for putting thousands of vulnerable people “at risk of harm” when switching them from an analogue to a digital landline.
The media watchdog, Ofcom, found the company failed to protect people who relied on telecare alarms to call for help, after Virgin Media self-reported a number of “serious incidents” in November and December 2023.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedExclusive: PM hits back at critics as he insists Rachel Reeves right to impose £26bn worth of tax rises at budget
• Keir Starmer: Labour is getting on with the job of economic renewal
Labour’s economic plan will take years to deliver in full, Keir Starmer has said as he tries to regain the narrative after a turbulent response to last week’s budget.
In an article for the Guardian, the prime minister hit back at his political opponents, insisting the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, was right to impose £26bn-worth of tax rises.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedExclusive: Pollution targets set out alongside nature recovery projects to allay concerns over housebuilding
Wood-burning stoves are likely to face tighter restrictions in England under new pollution targets set as part of an updated environmental plan released by ministers on Monday.
Speaking to the Guardian before the publication of the updated environmental improvement plan (EIP), the environment secretary, Emma Reynolds, said it would boost nature recovery in a number of areas, replacing an EIP under the last government she said was “not credible”.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedRuben Amorim is happy to ‘steal’ from others, Phil Foden is central to City and Thomas Frank is in trouble at Tottenham
As Barney Ronay has noted, Arsenal are facing a weekly renewal of the Game You Just Have to Win If You Want to Be Champions. Did this represent a Game You Just Have to Win Because Chelsea’s Moisés Caicedo Was Sent Off? Yes and no. The hosts will naturally be more pleased with a point in the context of the first-half red card, while Arsenal perhaps looked a little jaded and below their best overall. But Enzo Maresca’s side were excellent throughout, despite having to play so much of the match with 10 men, and they deserved something from it. Compared with some Chelsea v Arsenal encounters from the olden days (when more overtly physical iterations of the Blues traditionally used to crush the fragile Gunners) there were no signs of weakness, mental or otherwise, from Arteta’s Premier League leaders in a fierce and physical derby. They will experience few harder tests than this, and a point was fair. Luke McLaughlin
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedSan Francisco are a flawed team with serious injuries. But with no great teams in the league this year, the playoffs are wide open
The 49ers’ season felt over after Week 6’s loss to Tampa Bay. Yes, they were 4-2. Yes, they were tied with the Seahawks and Rams and had already won head-to-head games against both. But that’s when they hit rock bottom. All Pro linebacker Fred Warner was the latest casualty, following in the footsteps of All Pro edge rusher Nick Bosa with a season-ending injury. Brock Purdy had also struggled with injuries. George Kittle was hurt in Week 1. Both were not expected to return for several games. Brandon Aiyuk had no plans to play any time soon, at least not for San Francisco. By Week 7, the only big names in action were Christian McCaffrey and Trent Williams.
Dire as the 49ers appeared on paper, they hung in. It helped that the Cardinals, Falcons, Giants, and Panthers featured in their upcoming schedule. They beat all four of them, losing only to the Texans and Rams in the next few weeks. None of the wins inspired much confidence, though. The Cardinals outgained the 49ers by 200 yards. Purdy threw three interceptions against the Panthers.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedThe actor himself has promised to accept all future cameos as the beloved claw-gremlin, but this will only wear out his superpowers
There was once a time when Hugh Jackman Wolverine cameos made a sort of sense. Bursting out of a cell in full Weapon X gear, massacring half a bunker, then vanishing, in 2016’s otherwise pretty forgettable X-Men: Apocalypse. Telling potential recruitment team Magneto and Professor X to, er, go fuck themselves while propping up a bar in 2011’s X-Men: First Class. Even popping up via archived footage from X-Men Origins: Wolverine in 2018’s Deadpool 2. These were cameos we could accept: quick, self-contained sideshows that understood the sacred rule that such things ought to be fun and brief. They also arrived at a time when Jackman didn’t yet carry the weight of 25 years of audience investment.
Last week, in an appearance on the BBC’s Graham Norton Show, Jackman revealed that he has banned himself from saying no to future appearances as the surly mutant. “I am never saying ‘never’ ever again,” he said. “But I did mean it when I said ‘never’, until the day when I changed my mind. But I really did for quite a few years, I meant it.” There are suggestions that he could make a brief appearance in the forthcoming Avengers: Doomsday, in order to capitalise on the success of Marvel’s recent $1bn megahit Deadpool & Wolverine, even though he wasn’t mentioned in an interminable name-on-chair live stream from earlier this year, in which most of the main cast members were revealed.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedModerate wine consumption may benefit your cardiac health, but foods such as grapes and berries offer similar advantages without the negative effects
“People shouldn’t think that drinking wine is good for you,” says Dr Oliver Guttmann, a consultant cardiologist at the Wellington hospital in London.
Alcohol consumption is linked to high blood pressure, liver disease, digestive, mental health and immune system problems, as well as cancer.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedThe case of a planned Cumbrian coalmine shows how governments around the world are being threatened by litigation in shadowy offshore courts
How do you reckon our political system works? Perhaps something like this. We elect MPs. They vote on bills. If a majority is achieved, the bills becomes law. The law is upheld by the courts. End of story. Well, that’s how it used to work. No longer.
Today, foreign corporations, or the oligarchs who own them, can sue governments for the laws they pass, at offshore tribunals composed of corporate lawyers. The cases are held in secret. Unlike our courts, these tribunals allow no right of appeal or judicial review. You or I cannot take a case to them, nor can our government, or even businesses based in this country. They are open only to corporations based overseas.
George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedAs Ethiopia teeters on the brink of renewed conflict the Fano, a local nationalist militia, are already fighting the government across the remote highlands, cut off from the outside world by federal forces. This photographic report offers a rare glimpse into the tensions tearing the country apart
Three years after the end of the Tigray war, Ethiopia is grappling with a violent armed insurgency devastating the north-west of the country. The Fano, an ethno-nationalist militia composed mainly of former soldiers from the Ethiopian regional special forces, now control large areas of the Amhara region.
Abuses committed by federal forces in an attempt to quell the insurgency are widespread: kidnappings, massacres, sexual violence, and attacks on humanitarian personnel. The situation is out of control, and more than 2 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance in a region that is also hosting refugees from the war in Sudan.
Landscapes in the Lasta mountains, in Ethiopia’s Amhara region. This area spans a vast mountainous and hilly zone, bordering Tigray and Sudan. Its geography, typical of the Ethiopian highlands, offered a strategic position to the early kingdoms, making it the country’s main political, economic, and religious centre for centuries.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedMP for Hampstead and Highgate in London denies allegations and condemns ‘flawed and farcical’ trial
A court in Bangladesh has sentenced the British MP Tulip Siddiq to two years in jail after a judge ruled she was complicit in corrupt land deals with her aunt, the country’s deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
In a ruling on Monday, a judge found Siddiq, the Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate, guilty of misusing her “special influence” as a British politician to coerce Hasina into giving valuable pieces of land to her mother, brother and sister.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedSiddiq, who serves as an MP for Hampstead and Highgate in London, has denied the allegations
A court in Bangladesh has sentenced the British MP Tulip Siddiq to two years in jail after a judge ruled she was complicit in corrupt land deals with her aunt, the country’s deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
In a ruling on Monday, a judge found Siddiq, the Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate, guilty of misusing her “special influence” as a British politician to coerce Hasina into giving valuable pieces of land to her mother, brother and sister.
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crowdfundingcrowdfunding Creative Jam will run Saturday 17-Sunday 18 with a theme of "Memories." That will be our 150th Creative Jam, wow! I hope everyone shows up for it.
guardianworldnews_feedThe route showcases the North Pennines’ unsung landscapes. We road test a 50-mile section that takes in golden forests, high moors and pretty villages
Up on Langley Common the wind is rising. The tussocks under my boots cover the Maiden Way, perhaps the highest Roman road in Britain, but the sense of being close to the sky – today a simmering grey – remains as palpable as it would have been 2,000 years ago. Looking north, a rainbow arcs across the horizon, the full reach of it clearly visible from this high ground. Buffeted by the squall with every step, it feels as though I’m striding across the top of the world, which is apt, since I’m following the new Roof of England Walk.
This 188-mile, multi-day trail was developed by the North Pennines national landscape team, and launched in September. Taking in lofty footpaths and some of the best-loved elements of the North Pennines – among them High Force, Cross Fell, High Cup Nick, the Nine Standards and England’s highest pub, the Tan Hill Inn – the aim is to showcase this sometimes overlooked corner of the country.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedOne-time wunderkind of UK energy market faces battle for new investment – but it continues to pay out millions to its founder’s company
As Britons braced for freezing wintry weather in early months of the 2022 energy cost crisis, the country’s fourth largest gas and electricity supplier urged struggling households to try “doing a few star jumps” to keep warm.
This poorly judged suggestion, alongside others such as “having a cuddle with your pets”, was branded insulting and offensive by consumer groups. For many, the gaffe marked the beginning of Ovo Energy’s precipitous fall from grace.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedThe return of Nobel laureate Han Kang; film-making under the Nazis; stuck in a time loop; Scandinavian thrills; and essential stories from postwar Iraq
We Do Not Part
Han Kang, translated by e yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris (Hamish Hamilton)
The Korean 2024 Nobel laureate combines the strangeness of The Vegetarian and the political history in Human Acts to extraordinary effect in her latest novel. Kyungha, a writer experiencing a health crisis (“I can sense a migraine coming on like ice cracking in the distance”), agrees to look after a hospitalised friend’s pet bird. The friend, Inseon, makes films that expose historical massacres in Korea. At the centre of the book is a mesmerising sequence “between dream and reality” where Kyungha stumbles toward Inseon’s rural home, blinded by snow, then finds herself in ghostly company. As the pace slows, and physical and psychic pain meet, the story only becomes more involving. This might be Han’s best novel yet.
On the Calculation of Volume I and II
Solvej Balle, translated by Barbara J Haveland (Faber)
“It is the eighteenth of November. I have got used to that thought.” Book dealer Tara Selter is stuck in time, each day a repeat of yesterday. Groundhog Day it ain’t; this is more philosophical than comic – why, she doesn’t even bet on the horses – but it’s equally arresting. Tara slowly begins to understand how she occupies space in the world, and the ways in which we allow our lives to drift. At first she tries to live normally, recreating the sense of seasons passing by travelling to warm and cold cities. By the end of volume two, with five more books to come, we get hints of cracks appearing in the hermetic world – is Balle breaking her own rules? – but it just makes us want to read on further.
guardianworldnews_feedWeird tales of meter mix-ups, incomprehensible bills, and to foment the drama, a teenager threatened with a trashed credit rating
On a dark winter’s night, what could be more engrossing than my latest tragifarce about energy firms, guaranteed toset spines tingling?
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