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Mux is hiring across the board to build Netflix-grade video infrastructure by Heff | on Hacker News .

The pair, aged 47 and 29, are to face court charged with conspiracy to commit burglary at the heiress’s London home Two people have been charged by detectives investigating a £50 million jewellery raid on heiress Tamara Ecclestone’s London home, Scotland Yard said. Tower Hamlets residents Maria Mester, 47, and 29-year-old Emil-Bogdan Savastru have both been charged with conspiracy to commit burglary. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/391gqQO

This is my favourite home workout by far • Fitness tips: the Royal Canadian Air Force 5BX The Royal Canadian Air Force Fitness Plans were first published in the early 60s, devised to bring about maximum fitness in the minimum amount of time, and to be done indoors. You can find a video guide on YouTube, one filmed in 1959 ; it might look charmingly old-school but, trust me, this workout is timeless. I have a long-term fascination with it, going back to the 90s, when I went out with a guy whose dad had undertaken the programme at home. He made so much noise that the neighbour threatened to take them to court, saying (the neighbour, not the dad): “The judge will certainly find for me, since I’m a lawyer.” (The guy’s mum was so incensed that she had retrained in middle age as a lawyer, and by the time I met her she was incredibly successful, the Harrison Ford of the legal world.) So I know that these exercises are extremely noisy, and that great things can come of them, if only tangen...

‘You were moved to a home for difficult girls. I still wonder if I should have suggested you live with us’: the letter you always wanted to write I taught you for almost two years and attended at least 15 meetings about you, as your pastoral head of house at a London secondary school. What you don’t know is that I often thought about the idea of fostering you. How shocked would my boyfriend have been if I had brought you home – a “problem child” of almost 13? A couple who worked long hours, lived a hectic lifestyle and often ate cereal for dinner – could we have offered you much better? Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2RNiN3I

The magic dust of populism has blinded reason, and damage and diminishment lie ahead It’s done. A triumph of dogged negotiation by May then, briefly, Johnson, has fulfilled the most pointless, masochistic ambition ever dreamed of in the history of these islands. The rest of the world, presidents Putin and Trump excepted, have watched on in astonishment and dismay. A majority voted in December for parties which supported a second referendum. But those parties failed lamentably to make common cause. We must pack up our tents, perhaps to the sound of church bells, and hope to begin the 15-year trudge, back towards some semblance of where we were yesterday with our multiple trade deals, security, health and scientific co-operation and a thousand other useful arrangements. The only certainty is that we’ll be asking ourselves questions for a very long time. Set aside for a moment Vote Leave’s lies, dodgy funding, Russian involvement or the toothless Electoral Commission. Consider instead t...

While the fires rage on, residents of neighbouring towns in New South Wales look to the future Thomas Keneally: ‘These fires have changed us’ Gino McDonald, 61, builder (on left), and Patto McDonald, 56, artist , Upper Brogo Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2OiEF4M

Jack, 27, theatre revenue analyst, meets Nabil, 28, policy officer What were you hoping for? I had no socials to trawl through beforehand then feign surprise that he’d been on holiday recently, which was actually really nice. I tried to leave expectations at the door. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2teuQgW

My wife inches the car backwards. ‘Christ!’ she screams It is early on Friday afternoon, and my wife and I are somewhere on the M5, heading for a weekend away in Devon. The dog is on the back seat. Traffic is light, and we are about an hour from our destination. “Can we please have that thing?” my wife says. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2RN8cWE

Foreign ministry says US measures are ‘certainly not a gesture of goodwill’ amid rising toll in China China has reacted angrily to a US entry ban on foreign nationals who have visited the country in the past two weeks, as countries around the world raced to contain the coronavirus outbreak amid a rising death toll. The US administration on Friday declared the virus a public health emergency , although it insisted the risk to Americans remained low. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/36O2cBd

Travellers leaving Paris admit they are uncertain about what the future holds post-Brexit Three hours before Brexit, Eurostar 9061 pulled out of Gare du Nord, pushing steadily through the grimy suburbs of northern Paris, picking up speed across the flat plains of Picardy, through the Channel tunnel and onwards to St Pancras. The 8.13pm service was the last train on the last day of Britain’s 47-year membership of the European Union. For many on board, it was also the last European journey they would be making as an EU citizens. For most, it was a bit of a moment. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/36NUozp

Lakers return to action for first game since helicopter crash Roses adorned courtside seats where Kobe and Gianna sat Red roses adorned the courtside seats where Kobe and Gianna Bryant sat at the last Los Angeles Lakers game they attended. On the overhead video board, photos of Bryant in action for the Lakers alternated with those of the other seven people who were killed alongside him and his 13-year-old daughter in a helicopter crash. Friday night at Staples Center was unlike any other. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/31bSPdm

Build-up of contaminated water from wrecked nuclear plant has been sticking point in clean-up likely to take decades A panel of experts advising Japan ’s government on a disposal method for radioactive water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant has recommended releasing it into the ocean, a move likely to alarm neighbouring countries. Related: Fukushima fishermen concerned for future over release of radioactive water Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2GJ1omE

CareRev (YC S16) Is Hiring It's First Product Manager by sofia_ | on Hacker News .

Senate voted 51-49 to block witnesses, with Republicans Mitt Romney and Susan Collins joining Democrats The US Senate voted against hearing witnesses in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump on Friday, paving the way for Trump’s acquittal on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The Senate voted 51-49 to block witnesses, with only two Republicans, Mitt Romney of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine, crossing party lines to support the Democratic call for witnesses. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/38Od3wm

Fox News Breaking News Alert Senate votes to approve final framework for Trump impeachment trial, scheduling final verdict vote for Wednesday of next week. 01/31/20 4:58 PM

PM was warned by EU leaders that “strength does not lie in splendid isolation” Brexit departure - latest updates Nearly four years after the Brexit vote, Britain has left the European Union, closing a rancorous chapter in the country’s history and beginning another viewed by some with optimism and others with dismay. Speaking ahead of Britain’s official 11pm exit on Friday, Boris Johnson acknowledged that “there are many… who feel a sense of anxiety and loss” but promised it would bring about the revival of the UK’s “power of independent thought and action”. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2SaOTWb

After a few years, I came to understand Instagram dwellers as broken people – my people. By Dayna Tortorici I had reached the point of diminishing returns. I wanted to quit Twitter, but my fingers were as if possessed, typing command+n , tw , enter at any lull in the workday, letting autofill take care of the rest. Like an old woman who finds herself at a familiar bus stop in her nightgown, I would blink at the new window and wonder how I got there and where I had intended to go. More than once I asked a friend to change my password and lock me out of my account. Weeks would go by without incident, sometimes months, but then a protest would break out, or my hometown would be on fire, and the old media was too slow with the news. I would go through the password retrieval process, log on, catch up, lose my mind and repeat the process. Finally, in July 2018, I thought: I’m going to have a heart attack if I stay on here. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2taaN3c

Hives that survived catastrophic Paris cathedral blaze are healthier than ever, says beekeeper It is a crisp winter morning and the area around Notre Dame is sealed off as it has been since the fire last April that devastated the cathedral. Those in the know, however, especially those with the keenest of eyes, might spot some small movement high up to the south of the stricken and blackened structure. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/36K84vb

In a recent episode, a man fell to the floor on hearing the value of his watch. What’s the secret to the show’s 41-year success? It’s not quite a swoon, but there’s no doubting the drama of the moment. A former US serviceman from North Dakota has become an unlikely internet star after he brought an old watch to the US version of Antiques Roadshow for appraisal, only to fall to the ground when he learned of its value. The watch, a Rolex Oyster Cosmograph which the man – known only as David - bought in 1974 for just under $400 but has never worn, is an astonishingly rare model, he is told, which could fetch $400,000 at auction. At which point its owner flings himself to the ground in astonishment. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2tS6Ssp

Hard though it is to accept, as patriots we must wish Brexit a (partial) success Britain has not left Europe; it has just stepped into another room. Its European role has always been complex and ambivalent. “The desire for isolation, the knowledge that it is impossible – these are the two poles between which the needle of the British compass continues to waver.” The words of the historian RW Seton-Watson in a history of Britain in Europe published in 1937. True then, even more true now. We ex-remainers have consistently argued that Brexit will leave the UK weaker, poorer , more divided, less influential, less attractive to the rest of the world. Some evidence is already in. According to Bloomberg Economics, by the end of this year Brexit will have cost Britain some £200bn in lost economic growth – nearly as much (adjusted for inflation) as the country has paid in to the EU budget over the entire period of its membership since 1973. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift...

Exclusive: US president will insist NHS pays higher price for drugs, says Kim Darroch ‘Irony is we got things right by 2015’ – Britain’s EU envoys on Brexit Donald Trump will put the interests of corporate America first and demand that the NHS pays higher prices for US drugs in a free-trade deal with the UK, the outgoing British ambassador to Washington has told the Guardian. Kim Darroch, in his first interview since his resignation from his post in July, from where he spearheaded attempts to grow trade with the US, insisted that Trump would reward his backers in drug firms and farming communities by opening up British markets, while questioning where the UK’s gains would be found. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2OanZfO

Britain’s nine surviving permanent representatives to the EU reflect as the UK exits after 47 years As the sun goes down on the UK’s last day as a member state of the European Union, the familiar flag of gold stars on a blue background will be lowered outside the British permanent representation and embassy on Avenue d’Auderghem in Brussels. A few hours later on Friday, at the stroke of midnight Central European time, Britain’s membership of the EU will come to an end . “If the last few years are anything to go by, I will be in my office,” predicted Sir Tim Barrow, the UK’s 12th and last permanent representative in Brussels. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/36KVOKO

Republican Lamar Alexander’s opposition to calling witnesses suggests trial could end as early as Friday evening The ninth full day of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in the US Senate has concluded. Here are five key takeaways: Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/38SR7jz

‘These days, many have died,’ says bystander as image shows emergency workers in protective suits and masks taking body away It is an image that captures the chilling reality of the coronavirus outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan: a grey-haired man wearing a face mask lies dead on the pavement, a plastic shopping bag in one hand, as police and medical staff in full protective suits and masks prepare to take him away. On what would typically be a crowded street in Wuhan, an industrial city of 11 million people under quarantine, there are only a few passersby – but they dare not go near him. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/36JKvCJ

Fox News Breaking News Alert Key senator comes out against impeachment trial witnesses 01/30/20 8:11 PM

(OCAMPO, Mexico) — Relatives of an anti-logging activist who was found dead don’t know whether he was slain or died accidentally, but they said Thursday that they are sure of one thing: Something bad is happening to human rights and environmental activists in Mexico, and people are afraid. The body of Homero Gómez González was discovered Wednesday in a holding pond near the mountain forest reserve that he long protected, where monarch butterflies spend the winter. Authorities in Michoacan state are conducting tests to determine the cause of death, though a prosecutor said there was no initial sign of trauma. “Something strange is happening, because they’re finishing off all the activists, the people who are doing something for society,” said Amado Gomez, the dead man’s brother. The threadbare clothes of the mourners and the few candles and simple floral arrangements at Gómez Gonzalez’ funeral underlined the tough background of the struggle being played out in the butterf...

Scientists design lightweight device to identify suspicious ships and send location back to authorities Albatross cops may soon be taking to the skies over the subantarctic Isles to scan remote parts of the Pacific Ocean for illegal fishing boats. In a trial using technology designed by New Zealand and France , 169 albatrosses were fitted with radar detection tags in November 2018 and released to the south of the Indian Ocean. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/36KFHNo

From fake alerts over no-go suburbs to pro-Trump conspiracy theories, crackpot stories and dangerous advice have gone viral Fake news and conspiracy theories about the origin of the coronavirus have swiftly followed the outbreak around the world. The quick spread of the virus from its origins in China’s Hubei province, and the lack of early detail about where it comes from or how to treat it, has provided ample room for speculation. One week after the city of Wuhan was placed under effective lockdown, the tide of misinformation is so high that Twitter, Facebook, and Google are struggling to cope. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2RXpXBa

Anushka Asthana looks back on an extraordinary period of chaos in politics since David Cameron called the EU referendum. Plus: on the day the UK leaves, Faiza Shaheen argues that remainers must now put their energy into ideas to take Britain forward Ever since David Cameron called a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union, politics in the UK has been chaotic and unpredictable. Some of the biggest names in Westminster were forced into taking huge gambles with their careers – and many of them lost in spectacular style. Anushka Asthana has been reporting from in and around Westminster for the entire Brexit period. She looks back to the big decisions and the pivotal moments that resulted in the UK formally exiting the EU at 11pm tonight. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2u4efNn

British evacuation of citizens from Wuhan underway as more international airlines stop flights to China. Follow live updates and latest news WHO declares coronavirus a global health emergency How does coronavirus spread and how can you protect yourself? Disabled teenager in China dies alone after relatives quarantined Share your stories 2.26am GMT We understand the British citizens being evacuated are on a Wamos Air 747 aircraft. According to Flightradar24, a Wamos Air 747 flew from Hanoi to Wuhan on 31 January, landing in Wuhan at 04.45 local time. We assume it’s the same plane that are taking the British nationals out. I’ll bring you more on that shortly. 2.24am GMT We have been closely following the departure of British citizens being evacuated from Wuhan. We are hearing from the Foreign Office in London that the flight carrying 110 passengers, including 83 Britons, has left Wuhan for the UK. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2GCJKkf

From flag-waving enthusiasm to anger in Scotland, newspapers tell a wide-ranging story about a historic moment for Britain Poster-style front pages abound this morning as the newspapers mark Britain’s looming departure from the European Union. The Daily Mail says it is “A new dawn for Britain”, with the headline running over an imposing picture of the white cliffs of Dover. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/38TWsqV

Fox News Breaking News Alert State Department: 'Do not travel' to China as coronavirus outbreak spreads 01/30/20 6:12 PM

Controversial rightwing commentator locked out of the social media site after complaints from anti-racism campaigners The controversial rightwing commentator Katie Hopkins has had her Twitter account suspended for violating the terms of the social media site. Hopkins’ account was still visible online on Thursday night, but Twitter said that Hopkins had been temporarily locked out of the platform for violating its anti-hate policy. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3185fTu

As many as 56% of people in some parts of England are only diagnosed when they visit A&E People with lung cancer are dying after being diagnosed late in A&E because their GP missed signs of the disease despite often repeated visits, experts have revealed. As many as 56% of people in some parts of England who get lung cancer are only diagnosed when they visit A&E, according to a report by the UK Lung Cancer Coalition. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2RGpUe7

Governments risk derailing global fossil fuel demand with ‘handbrake turns’ in future The oil industry is at risk of a global market shock that could halve the value of fossil fuel investments if governments delay setting policies to tackle the climate crisis, according to new analysis. A report by Carbon Tracker, a financial thinktank, warned that a “handbrake turn” in climate policy could have a “forceful, abrupt, and disorderly” impact on the global oil industry by derailing fossil fuel demand. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/38Sw3tt

The academic’s latest TV show investigates the line between art and pornography The academic and TV presenter Mary Beard has taken a bold approach to her new two-part investigation of the history and impact of the nude in art by choosing to sit as the subject of a naked portrait herself. Beard’s new programme , Shock of the Nude, sees the academic examine famous examples from Michelangelo’s David to John William Waterhouse’s pre-Raphaelite painting Hylas and the Nymphs, and discuss the experience of sitting as a subject for Catherine Goodman . Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2te7JmT

Just as my career was taking off, I realized I couldn’t manage my own money. The solution to my dilemma was not what I expected On a warm spring day in March 2015, I fluttered around our family home with nervous energy. In one hour, I had a phone interview with one of Canada’s largest newspapers, the Globe and Mail. As a budding freelance writer, I had pitched the story of my family’s downsizing journey, hoping to get my first big assignment. Instead, one of Canada’s most well-known finance reporters would be calling to interview me. Six months earlier, my husband and I, used to going against the grain in many ways, had chosen to leave our trendy home with natural sunlight, cherry-wood cabinets and fossil gray carpet, and move into an underground abode without a speck of color or luxury. The trade-off: we could finally afford diapers. To pass the time before my interview, I read Sometimes I Like to Curl Up in a Ball to my two daughters. From my position, cocooned in their room, I had...

An unusual quandary for Manchester City, crunch games at Bournemouth and Newcastle, plus the rise of Wilfried Ndidi Credit to Leicester. Or should that be shame on Chelsea? Wherever you choose to put the emphasis, the fact is that Wilfried Ndidi is now a more influential Premier League midfielder than N’Golo Kanté. The Frenchman has been good this season, of course, but Frank Lampard, like Maurizio Sarri, has not been getting the best out of him. Ndidi, meanwhile, has been outstanding and, if he dominates central midfield again on Saturday, then Leicester will probably put their Carabao Cup disappointment behind them, take a significant step closer to Champions League qualification, and make the jostling for fourth place very interesting. PD Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2u4953W

Fox News Breaking News Alert PROGRAMMING ALERT: Sen. Rand Paul talks impeachment fight on 'The Story,' 7 pm ET 01/30/20 3:52 PM

Committee demands overhaul of how police and mayor’s office handle problem There has been a more than tenfold increase in the number of people identified as victims of modern slavery and human trafficking in London, and more than 30% of all cases nationally are discovered in the capital, according to new research. In London in 2018, the Metropolitan police recognised 2,346 people as victims of modern slavery, compared with 187 in 2013, analysis of government data by the London assembly reveals. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/38RkFOK

Twenty years after her debut album, the singer talks about refusing to be pigeonholed, her fallout with Pharrell, and why she has moved to a remote farm To find Kelis these days, you don’t just have to leave Los Angeles, the city where, until last summer, she had lived and worked for almost all her adult life. You have to go to the opposite of Los Angeles. LA attracts people who believe they exist only if other people are watching them. Kelis wanted to go where no one could see her. “Over in that front corral is where the vegetable garden is, and then I’ve got my seedlings here. I’m waiting for my greenhouse to be built. We have chickens coming and also baby goats,” she says as we sit on her front porch on a cool, cloudy day. She is, she adds, considering “a cow situation”. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2vqivHd

US policy for the Middle East cannot work because it requires the Palestinians to accept they are a defeated people. By Rashid Khalidi In 1919, Arthur James Balfour, the foreign secretary, wrote that in Palestine, the British government did not “propose even to go through the form of consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants of the country”. The great powers were committed to Zionism, he continued, “and Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-long traditions, in present needs, in future hopes, of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land”. In 2017, President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, saying: “We took Jerusalem off the table, so we don’t have to talk about it any more.” Trump told Benjamin Netanyahu: “You won one point, and you’ll give up some points later on in the negotiation, if it ever takes place.” The centre of the Palestinians’ history, identity, culture an...

Tributes spring up across the city, where many saw him as a beacon of hope in an era of deep division Murals honor Bryant and his daughter Gianna – in pictures In Los Angeles, everyone is mourning Kobe Bryant in their own way. Within hours of his death on Sunday morning, his name was popping up on city buses and commuter trains, in graffiti spray-painted on random walls, and in a thousand tributes left outside the downtown Staples Center, which witnessed the peak of his glory as one of basketball’s towering greats. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2REBqXF

The social liberalism of the 90s is crumbling, and the people who hated it all along are finding their voice again BBC Question Time made a brief foray onto the national news agenda recently after panellist Laurence Fox accused an audience member of racism when she described him as a “white, privileged male” during a discussion about the media’s treatment of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. The exchange set in motion a predictable chain of events: Fox began a tour of Britain’s TV and podcast studios, making a series of increasingly reactionary and attention-seeking statements. Across left-leaning social media, meanwhile, Fox was mocked with a mix of amusement, disdain and pity. But focusing on the shallowness of Fox’s opinions elides the most important element of the Question Time spectacle: the fact that a significant chunk of the audience groaned as soon as the phrase “white privilege” was uttered. Fox was not the only person in that studio who was weary of contemporary antiracist disco...

Labour can’t assume it will take power once voters realise the prime minister is a conman. What if he means what he says? Few long-suffering Northern Rail passengers will mourn the news that it has been taken into public ownership. The company has a woeful record of delays, cancellations and quality of service. Nationalisation means the government can chuck money at the problem, as it undoubtedly will. Related: Northern rail franchise to be renationalised Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2O7y1y7

Join Dover (YC S19) – building a modern recruiting agency by mkx | on Hacker News .

Guardian callout suggests many are worried about key issues settled with withdrawal agreement British citizens living in the EU remain confused and worried about their post-Brexit healthcare and pension provision, despite the fact that both issues were settled satisfactorily in the withdrawal agreement, a Guardian callout suggests. More than 100 of over 600 British nationals on the continent, who responded to the callout, cited fears of shrinking pensions and losing the right to medical treatment. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2ObiQEb

Steel panels being installed between Calexico and Mexicali are part of the US president’s attempt to enhance the border barrier A section of Donald Trump’s much-vaunted border wall between the United States and Mexico has blown over in high winds, US border patrol officers have been reported as saying. The steel panels, more than nine metres (30ft) high, began to lean at a sharp angle on the border between the Californian town of Calexico and Mexicali in Mexico amid gusts on Wednesday. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2uG5dWW

American 14th seed wins 7-6 (8-6), 7-5 World No 1 Barty falls at penultimate hurdle Ashleigh Barty’s hopes of emulating Christine O’Neil, the last local woman to win the Australian Open all the way back in 1978, were ended in memorable fashion by the 14th seeded American, Sofia Kenin, in front of a stunned Rod Laver Arena crowd. Unfazed by the partisan galleries, nor by the searing temperatures at Melbourne Park on Thursday or a player ranked No 1 in the world, Kenin put in the performance of her career to advance to a maiden grand slam final against either Garbiñe Muguruza or Simona Halep. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2RE3Xww

(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration on Wednesday imposed sanctions on a Moscow-based private railway company that last month opened passenger service between Russia and Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014. The sanctions target Grand Service Express, its CEO and seven people who were slapped with European Union sanctions earlier in the week for their role in organizing Russian local elections on Crimea in September. The EU and the U.S. imposed economic sanctions on Russia after the annexation and refuse to recognize Moscow’s authority over the region. The Treasury Department handed down the new sanctions two days before Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is due in Kyiv to meet with the Ukrainian president and other officials. They may be intended to send a message of support from the Trump administration during the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump over his dealings with Ukraine. “Treasury’s action, taken in close coordination with our interna...

Shy seven-year-old girl is the only student after exodus to private schools in rural Bihar Each day that seven-year-old Janhavi Kumari arrives at school, her red bag slung over her shoulder, she receives a celebrity welcome. It is not simply that this shy Dalit girl is the star pupil – she is also the only pupil. For the past year, this tiny rural school with pink walls, located in the village of Mansa Bigha, Gaya district, in the Indian state of Bihar, has remained open solely to provide Janhavi with the education she craved, providing her with two teachers and a cook who makes lunch most days. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/38R26Ky

The landmark’s concert hall closes on Saturday for a two-year renovation. It has been plagued by compromises since architect Jørn Utzon’s walkout in 1966 Significant buildings generate their own mythology. For the Sydney Opera House, the story that the Unesco world heritage-listed design was fished out of a rejection pile before being declared a work of genius is a pleasing fable, despite its dubious origins. What is not in dispute is that the clashes that plagued the Opera House’s origins have reverberated – not always pleasingly – down the decades. The ambition of the Danish architect Jørn Utzon’s design, his walkout mid-project, and Peter Hall’s subsequent takeover in 1966 resulted in compromises that have bedevilled the building ever since. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2uGmkYy

Health editor Sarah Boseley tells Rachel Humphreys that the coronavirus outbreak that began in the Chinese city of Wuhan is serious but not yet a global crisis. Plus Louisa Egbunike looks back at the legacy of the Biafran war in west Africa, 50 years on The British government is advising against all but essential travel to China as the coronavirus outbreak that began in the central city of Wuhan last month continues to spread. More than 100 people in China have died and the number of confirmed cases has reached 6,000. The virus, which has no known cure, has flu-like symptoms and can lead to pneumonia. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2vzeO27

Updates from the first semi on Rod Laver Arena Any thoughts? Email or tweet @emmavkemp 3.24am GMT First set: Barty* 2-1 Kenin (* denotes server): Still on serve here as Barty holds to love. She kicks off with two consecutive aces, cool as you like, followed by a forehand down the line that’s heavy on the top spin and sneaky on the direction. 3.22am GMT First set: Barty 1-1 Kenin* (* denotes server): Two unforced errors from Barty allow Kenin to take control of this game but the American dispatches one of her own off her forehand to make it 30-30. Two more unforced backhand errors later and Kenin holds. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/38LFB9y

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Royal Ballet’s Liam Scarlett was suspended back in August 2019 The Royal Ballet’s top choreographer has been suspended over allegations of sexual misconduct involving his students. Liam Scarlett, 33, has been banned from the ballet company while an inquiry is carried out by independent investigators. The Royal Opera House, home to the Royal Ballet, said it was made aware of the allegations in August last year and had suspended Scarlett. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2UiBez9

Healthy cells can emerge to replace damaged areas, according to research published in Nature Smokers can turn back time in their lungs by kicking the habit, with healthy cells emerging to replace some of their tobacco-damaged and cancer-prone ones, a study shows. Smokers have long been told their risk of developing diseases like lung cancer will fall if they can quit, and stopping smoking prevents new damage to the body. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2RD40bN

West Suffolk hospital downgraded after catalogue of failings and staff bullying “Threatening” and “intimidating” tactics used against doctors at health secretary Matt Hancock’s local hospital has contributed to the biggest rating downgrade by the NHS regulator. West Suffolk Hospital’s demand for fingerprints to track down a whistleblower – as revealed by the Guardian last month – was “unprecedented and concerning”, according to the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/314OY1D

Chief inspector criticises ‘sophistry’ of claims jails are under nominal capacity Inspectors discovered that 700 prisoners were doubling up in cells designed to hold one person at a “badly overcrowded” private jail in South Yorkshire where five inmates took their own lives in the space of a year. Widespread drug use, self-harm and “worrying” levels of violence were also found at Doncaster prison, a report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons says. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/36AlN7B

Report from The People’s Pension says divide is even greater from gender perspective The average total pension received by an ethnic minority woman is 51% less than that of a typical white older man, according to a report that highlights “large inequalities” in UK retirement incomes. The researchers behind the analysis said it exposed a sizeable “ethnicity gap” in pensions, with part of this down to issues with the state pension system. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3aV5m9y

Devices ‘dominate children’s lives’ as 39% say they could not live without their phone The majority of children own a mobile phone by the age of seven, according to a study. The devices have become a fundamental part of life for most young people, it indicates. Many admit that they are fearful of being without their phone and more than half sleep with it by their bed. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2U2LbjY

Aim to redirect resources in bid to attract a younger audience is risking existing viewers Fran Unsworth knows she has a problem – and it goes far beyond the 450 job losses that the BBC’s head of news announced today. Not only is the government looking for ways to reduce the the broadcaster’s funding even further in coming years, but younger viewers are increasingly tuning out of the BBC altogether. And if the BBC doesn’t find ways to reach these younger viewers, Unsworth asked the corporation’s news staff on today, “How can we continue to take money off them?” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/38TV2gd

The Swiss photographer found both friendship and a lifelong subject in the indigenous people – whose existence under Bolsonaro is more threatened than ever At 89, Claudia Andujar still has her work cut out. For five decades she has photographed the Yanomami indigenous people, an Amer-Indian tribe who number 33,000 and live in 192,000 square kilometres of rainforest that straddle the borders of Brazil and Venezuela. Until the early 20th century they had lived almost entirely in isolation from the outside world, but since then disease, deforestation and climate change have taken their toll. The election of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil has proved a further threat. Vehemently against legislation protecting indigenous lands, last week the far-right president commented : “Indians are undoubtedly changing … They are increasingly becoming human beings just like us.” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3aQ0T7Z

A medical emergency gave me some perspective on the denial that has characterised the past three years in British politics Being massive is not the same as being obvious, as I learned by having a heart attack. The symptoms should not have left doubt: sudden, severe chest pain; a burning lash down the left arm; air refusing to enter the lungs; a vibrating sense of ill-being, the world turning sour and dark. Still I hesitated before getting help. At some level I knew what was up, but really not wanting a heart attack seemed like a compelling reason why I wasn’t having one. Forty-five seemed a bit premature for that sort of thing. Later, recovering in hospital, I was described as young with a frequency that would be flattering in other contexts. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2t5VUyW

Women make up 90% of all nurses, but less than a third of senior positions. This deep-rooted gender inequality must change When I talk to nurses about their jobs, as I do constantly, they tell me about the pressures of working with too few staff, and about how it hurts not be able to provide the level of care they would like. We talk about why things have got to this, and chances are they will say something along the lines of: “They wouldn’t treat other professions this badly.” Usually the other professions they are thinking of are dominated by men. They look around at other all-graduate professions – law, medicine, accountancy – and wonder whether their employees are also expected to put up with high levels of verbal and physical abuse, stress, work pressure and low pay. They also wonder why their own profession can’t seem to shake off the image of being doctors’ helpers instead of the autonomous, highly technical, safety-critical clinical occupation it really is. Continue reading.....

Japan and US airlift hundreds out of Wuhan as death toll rises to 132 with almost 6,000 confirmed cases inside China Australia to fly out 600 citizens – latest updates Japan and the US have airlifted hundreds of their citizens from Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, as officials in China said the death toll from the disease had risen sharply overnight to 132, with nearly 1,500 new cases in the country. A government-chartered plane carrying 206 Japanese nationals arrived in Tokyo from Wuhan on Wednesday morning. Officials said four of the passengers – a woman and three men – had coughs and fevers and had been taken to a hospital in separate ambulances for treatment and further tests. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/36y7tNa

Evacuees arrive in Tokyo as Australia plans island quarantine … private schools say pupils will be squeezed out of Oxbridge … the men who want to be single dads Morning everyone. I’m Martin Farrer and these are the best stories from the Guardian this morning. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/37N7ZYM

National Union of Journalists set to battle BBC management over redundancies The BBC is expected to announce hundreds of redundancies today, as staff brace themselves for heavy cuts to high-profile news programmes and an increasingly centralised system for producing the corporation’s journalism. In an email to staff, Fran Unsworth, head of news, said she will use an all-staff meeting to explain how the corporation will put the BBC News mission statement of being “distinctive, trusted, engaging everyone, every day” into action. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2RASbms

Doteveryone thinktank says workers suffer from financial insecurity and loss of dignity Far from providing flexible jobs for complex modern lives, gig economy companies, such as Uber and Deliveroo , increasingly trap workers in a precarious existence where they need to devote ever-more time to the platform in order to remain financially stable, a new report argues. Based on research and collaboration with a group of gig workers, the report by digital thinktank Doteveryone argues that the spiral can be reversed by government action – or by the platforms themselves adopting changes, which could be implemented rapidly. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2GyP5sY

A growing number of men are pursuing parenthood through surrogacy, adoption or fostering – without a partner. Here, dads who have gone it alone share their stories The first night Joe Norton brought home his adoptive sons, Tarren and Owen, he considered his new life, then thought: what have I done? “It’s a monumental decision you’re making, and you’re making it on your own,” says the 54-year-old educational manager from Yorkshire. “The enormity hit me.” Going from being a single man to the sole carer for two children was tougher than he had expected. There was the misbehaviour, particularly when the boys, who are brothers, began to settle in. (Experts call this period “regression”, but it is usually a sign that children are beginning to relax around their new parents.) He was also stumped by unexpected questions – what size socks did the boys wear? Norton had no clue what to buy. “You have an idea what size a T-shirt should be, but socks are a different thing,” he says, chuckling. C...

Greta Gerwig’s remake of the classic is a clever balance of staying true to Louisa May Alcott and updating her feminism This article contains spoilers Greta Gerwig embarked upon her remake of Little Women with fanatical attention to detail. She took the cast on tours of Louisa May Alcott’s home in Concord, Massachusetts, and wangled the budget to shoot the film nearby. She gave her actors extracurricular reading to get into character. She even had Alcott’s and her own birth charts compared (Gerwig is probably the only director who could say something so wafty and not make me pull a muscle rolling my eyes). Clearly, she had also anticipated the resistance that her Little Women would engender: a film about women’s domestic lives remade at a time when it seems as if the greatest accolade available to female directors and actors is helming a superhero movie and proving they can play with the boys. It’s there in the first scene of her reordered adaptation: the adult Jo March (Saoirse R...

A Guardian investigation of 218,100 ads reveals how the campaign’s sophisticated social media machine targets conservative voters As the Democratic candidates for president spent 2019 battling each other in early voting states, Donald Trump’s re-election campaign built a sophisticated social media machine to communicate with conservative voters, grow its email list and fine-tune its messaging. Over the course of 2019, the Trump campaign spent nearly $20m on more than 218,000 different Facebook ads, a new Guardian analysis shows. Among the ads were some of the images and videos that made front-page news for their xenophobic , fear-mongering, vitriolic, and outright false rhetoric. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2GvUelp

A glass of dairy milk produces almost three times more greenhouse gas than any plant-based milk. But vegan options have drawbacks of their own ‘Like sending bees to war’: the deadly truth behind your almond milk obsession For environmentally minded consumers, the news is hard to swallow: almond milk is not healthy for the planet and the popular milk substitute is especially hard on bees. Our recent investigation into the connection between California’s industrialized almond industry and a record 50bn commercial bee deaths created quite a buzz. The widely read story prompted one primary response from readers: “What should we be drinking instead?” This is a thorny question, and food sustainability experts are reluctant to single out any one plant milk as best because all have pros and cons. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3aOUb20

The Committee on Climate Change’s new report sets minimum targets for reducing greenhouse gases. It’s too little, far too late The crisis is not imminent. The crisis is here. The recent infernos in Australia; the storms and floods in Brazil , Madagascar , Spain and the US ; and the economic collapse in Somalia , caused in part by a devastating cycle of droughts and floods, are not, or not only, a vision of the future. They are signs of a current and escalating catastrophe. This is why several governments and parliaments, the UK’s among them, have declared a climate emergency. But no one in government acts as if it is real. They operate within the old world of incremental planning for a disaster that has yet to arrive. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/37CT6Iu

Aurora enthusiasts in Facebook group discover new phenomenon in Finland A new form of the northern lights has been captured by amateur enthusiasts, researchers have revealed. The phenomenon of glowing green lights rippling across the night sky, also known as the aurora borealis, have long captivated the public and experts alike. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/38NQrfn

Wisconsin sheriff’s deputy has beef with novelty vehicle after it fails to make room for another car A Wisconsin sheriff’s deputy pulled over a 27ft Wienermobile and grilled the driver for failing to obey traffic laws. On Monday, the Waukesha sheriff’s office, outside Milwaukee, tweeted the image of a deputy’s SUV parked behind a giant, roving hotdog with the hashtags #MoveOver #SlowDown #Wienermobile, a reference to state law that requires all vehicles, including mobile frankfurters, to change lanes or slow down when emergency vehicles are on the side of the road. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2RXh4Yn

(SANTA ANA, Calif.) — An airplane evacuating as many as 240 Americans from a Chinese city at the center of a virus outbreak departed Wednesday before dawn, and is en route to the U.S., a U.S. State Department official has told The Associated Press. The U.S. government chartered the plane to fly out diplomats from the U.S. Consulate in Wuhan, where the latest coronavirus outbreak started, and other U.S. citizens. The plane will make a refueling stop in Alaska before flying on to Ontario, California, the U.S. Embassy in China has said. Wuhan is the epicenter of a new virus that has sickened thousands and killed more than 100 and the official said Tuesday that the plane left the city before dawn Wednesday, China time. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly. During the refueling stop in Anchorage, the travelers will be re-screened for the virus. Hospitals have been notified and are prepared to treat or quarantin...

Agriculture minister announces an end to cruel mass culling method, and castration of piglets without anaesthesia France has said it will ban the controversial but widespread practices of live-shredding male chicks and castrating piglets without anaesthesia, in a move cautiously welcomed by animal welfare activists. Some 7bn male chicks, unwanted because they provide neither meat nor eggs, are culled around the world every year. Many are ground up alive, others are gassed, electrocuted, or asphyxiated in plastic bags. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2RzTbr3

John Palmer was the Guardian’s correspondent in Brussels in 1973 when the UK entered the European Economic Community. Now, 46 years later, Jennifer Rankin is in Brussels for the Guardian as British MEPs are packing up and leaving. They tell Anushka Asthana how membership has changed Britain. Plus: Dan Sabbagh on Huawei’s role in British infrastructure From the moment Britain entered the European Economic Community in 1973, the question of how closely to align with other European countries has been a vexed one. Britain emphatically voted to remain in the club in a referendum in 1975 but throughout the 1980s the relationship began to fray. By the 2000s, Britain had opted to remain outside the single currency and support for the separatist UK Independence party was growing until David Cameron took the fateful decision to call a referendum on membership of what was then a 27-member European Union. John Palmer was the Guardian’s Brussels correspondent in 1973 as Britain entered the EEC. ...

Trump’s defense team and his Republican allies have argued against the inclusion of witnesses at impeachment trial Republicans do not yet have the needed votes to block witnesses from appearing at the Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump, the majority leader, Mitch McConnell, told his caucus in a meeting on Tuesday night, according to multiple reports . With an unknown number of Republican senators still undecided on the question of calling witnesses, McConnell could still get the votes he needs to block witnesses and stop the trial from reeling off into unpredictable – and potentially hazardous – territory for the president. At least four Republicans would need to join Democrats to force witness testimony. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2O8eMEG

Hundreds of Japanese and Americans airlifted out of city at heart of outbreak in China. Follow the latest news, live What is the coronavirus and how worried should we be about it? Coronavirus: how to protect yourself from infection Share your stories 12.17am GMT This morning Australian scientists have become the first in the world, outside of China, to replicate the coronavirus in a lab – in what they hope could lead to a vaccine. Researchers at Melbourne’s Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity recreated the virus from an infected patient. 11.56pm GMT The death toll in China has now risen to 131 people, according to the updated coronavirus tracker from Tencent News. There are now also 5515 confirmed cases and 6973 suspected cases. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2Rxv0JH

• Woodward understood not to be at home at the time • ‘Anybody found guilty will be banned for life by the club’ The home of Ed Woodward was attacked on Tuesday night in a sickening escalation of the tensions between supporters and the Manchester United executive vice-chairman. Fans, who are unhappy at the way in which the club is being run, have recently sung songs celebrating the death of the 48-year-old who has become a figure of hate among some sections of the United support. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/37BAGrO

Regulator’s pledge to boost university access in England ‘may discriminate based on class’ Leading private schools have challenged plans to widen access to the most selective universities in England, warning they could lead to discrimination against young people “on the basis of the class they were born into”. The intervention by the Headmasters’ & Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC), which represents many of the country’s most expensive independent schools, reflects members’ concerns that new measures to improve access for the most disadvantaged students could lead to discrimination against students from elite private schools. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/36BQ6eh

More than 86,000 households are currently in temporary accommodation Growing numbers of homeless families and the increasing cost of putting them up in bed and breakfast hotels caused two-thirds of English local authorities to break their homelessness budgets last year, say councils. Analysis by the Local Government Association (LGA) found that councils collectively spent £663m on homelessness services in 2018-19 – a 28% overspend amounting to a £140m excess budget. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3aQfe4a

China, an important market for Apple products and critical part of its supply chain, has been rocked by the outbreak Sales of the iPhone 11 propelled Apple to all-time record revenues and profits for the final three months of 2019, a strong performance that comes amid concerns over the impact of the coronavirus on the Chinese economy. Apple’s $91.8bn in quarterly revenue topped analyst expectations thanks to $56bn in iPhone sales. The strong performance marks a rebound for the company, which suffered a rare setback in holiday sales one year ago. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/36BBSdn

Andy Woodward, Steve Walters and Chris Unsworth say their appearance on programme helped change the law Three former footballers who appeared on the Victoria Derbyshire programme to tell their story of being abused as children have urged the BBC to save the programme, as journalists at the corporation prepare for a wave of job cuts to be announced on Wednesday. Andy Woodward, Steve Walters, and Chris Unsworth have written to the BBC director general, Tony Hall, to urge him to reconsider scrapping the show, saying their emotional appearance to discuss abuse at the hands of paedophile football coach Barry Bennell helped change the law. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2U1lfVV

I’ve taken part in quizzes all my life: in schools, in pubs and on TV shows, from India to the US. But the biggest secret is that curiosity, not knowledge, is the key to success. By Samanth Subramanian Last March, when I went to Las Vegas for the very first time, I made sure to pack pens and paper. I knew we would need the supplies. We converged from various points on the US map: six of us, a guys’ weekend in Sin City. On Friday afternoon, we dawdled in the Hard Rock hotel, waiting with impatience for the action to begin. Dusk fell, the neon rose, and we gathered in the lobby. Together we walked through the maze of slot machines and blackjack tables, past the bar and the steakhouse, past the flyers for burlesque revues and up into the nightclub. And there, having spurned the vices of Vegas, we indulged our own, clustered around our team’s answer sheet as a quizmaster barked questions at us. The weekend, Geek Bowl XIII, had been put together as a blowout for quiz fiends who attended b...

We start our annual series with the frontrunner: Sam Mendes’s cinematic groundbreaker, which immerses us in the horror of war as never before Ever since All Quiet on the Western Front , the least we’ve come to expect from a war-is-hell actioner is grungy realism. Yet in Sam Mendes’s 1917, the trenches are dry, wide and handsomely constructed. Uniforms look fresh out of Brooks Brothers. Even the rats seem pet-shop friendly. The flatlands of Flanders improbably furnish rapids and a plunging cataract, while corpse-strewn, shell-ravaged battlefields quickly give way to flower-strewn meadows. The incineration of a town becomes an alluring firework display. This unconvincing backdrop foregrounds cardboard cutout protagonists devoid of backstory or interiority. Minor roles are cliched caricatures, peppered with pointlessly distracting star cameos. Wooden dialogue limits the scope for acting prowess. A bald, subplot-less storyline embraces both sentimentality and implausibility, as our hero-...

Mark Power aims to photograph all 50 US states during this time of great change. ‘I’ve just passed 40,’ he says. ‘I’m building an enormous jigsaw puzzle – with little idea what the final picture will be’ Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2GvtWji

She caused outrage as a wide-eyed teen in her very first film. As the actor returns in a spooky Agatha Christie, she relives life as a 60s icon – and the taunts she endured in the street One day nearly 60 years ago, Rita Tushingham was walking through Soho with her friend, the late British actor Paul Danquah, when a passerby yelled: “Blacks and whites don’t mix!” Tushingham looks troubled by the memory. “It happened to Paul a lot,” she says. “I remember he shouted back, ‘Don’t worry! She’s only been on holiday and got a tan.’” That was Britain in 1961, before London swung, before sex between men was decriminalised, before a black man and a white woman walking in Soho might pass unremarked. There’s a photo in the National Portrait Gallery of the pair that very year, her leaning in care-free, him eyeing the street as if on alert for the next racist. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/37zDpSD

A week-long mountain leader course teaches the skills to navigate and lead expeditions in some of Scotland’s remotest and potentially hazardous terrain I go to the mountains to breathe. To look out over huge vistas. To put my body in a different environment. To have fun with friends. To get cold, tired and hungry. To wax lyrical about tea and hot showers. To see the world anew. The mountains of the UK and Ireland offer unique environments for adventure, exploration and nature connection. Over the years, I have had many amazing experiences in the remote wilds, but there are risks: paths are rarely signposted and weather can change quickly. Go out without the right skills, knowledge or equipment and things can soon turn deadly serious. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2GvMq3e

Affection for Corbyn remains but on the ground party members have seen why people didn’t back him The postmortem was grim. In the room, leading Labour MPs, recent party staffers and assorted Labour figures of long experience pored over the entrails exposed by the high priests of polling and academia. Pointers for the future lie in this gruesome raking over of the details. Too many in Labour give only token nods to the cataclysmic abyss that has opened up between the party and the voters out there. To win, Labour needs 60% more MPs, another 124 seats: that’s never been done by any party ever. According to Greg Cook, the former Labour head of political strategy, among those 124 hypothetically “most winnable” seats are an improbable 16 from the SNP and two from Plaid Cymru. Failing that, if all gains must come from Tories, Labour must seize North East Somerset, held by Jacob Rees-Mogg with more than 50% of the vote. Gerrymandering Tory plans for boundary changes will take at least 1% of...

I’ve had to ditch my Fitbit, and am tempted to bin my phone, too, since it started badgering me to exercise. Why can’t we just relax? I can’t wait until the end of January. This has nothing to do with Brexit, and everything to do with people telling me they haven’t had a drink since Christmas and that their skin is so much brighter. Or that veganism is working out so well, as they eat some heavily processed mush that has no resemblance to any plant, living or dead. Especially fascinating was the chat I had with a young woman who asked if I was hydrated enough. Did I keep water on my desk or in a special bottle? “I get it from the tap after some yummy heroin,” I told her. I mean, is this what passes for conversation? I can hear my youngest’s “OK boomer” now, which is her retort to almost everything I say. The worst is that now I want to bin my phone. I haven’t signed up for any apps, but it informed me suddenly: “Last week was a challenge for you. Try to be more active this week.” Wha...

Employment practices akin to dubious fashion outlets mean qualified professionals are used as poorly paid casual labour When senior academics go on strike, it is not usually because of financial hardship. Pay, while modest, is comfortable. Instead, academics’ motivation to strike runs much deeper: universities have been fast-tracked towards a market system that sits uneasily with their public role and employees’ values. Institutional managers say they are powerless to resist structural reform. Highest fees in Europe? Blame the government. Yet more league tables and metrics? Blame the regulator. But casualisation can’t be blamed so readily on external forces. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/37AQivB

Teenager’s mother, Charlotte Charles, welcomes Johnson’s words but says action is needed The refusal to grant an extradition request for the suspect charged in connection with the death of Harry Dunn is a “denial of justice”, the prime minister has said. Boris Johnson’s comments were welcomed by the teenager’s mother, Charlotte Charles, who said they were “words that need action behind them” on Monday. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/36x4YdN

Mayor urges backing as report sets out predicted gains from walking and cycling scheme A joined-up cycling and walking network in Greater Manchester could provide a national blueprint for reducing congestion and air pollution and improving health, a report says. Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, and Chris Boardman, the region’s cycling and walking commissioner, are calling on the government to back plans for an 1,800-mile network of protected routes for pedestrians and cyclists. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/315MoZd

(WELLINGTON, New Zealand) — Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern may be lauded around the world as a liberal icon but whether she can translate that into a reelection victory in September remains uncertain. Ardern on Tuesday announced the general elections would be held on Sept. 19. She is seeking a second term in office and is expected to face tough competition from conservative challenger Simon Bridges. Voters will also decide on two contentious social issues in referendums on the same date: whether to legalize euthanasia, and whether to legalize recreational marijuana. Ardern promised to run “a positive, a factual and a robust” election campaign. “New Zealanders deserve freedom from misinformation and some of the negative style of campaigning that we have seen take place overseas,” she said. She said her government was responsible for overseeing a strong economy and making crucial investments in health, education and reducing child poverty. Ardern is seen by many of her s...