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[
"Guardian Sport"
] | 2016-08-29T08:51:55 | null | 2016-08-29T08:00:00 |
Relentless Chelsea buy into Conte’s team ethic, Koeman’s pragmatism a welcome relief for Everton fans and Mané shows Levy what Tottenham are missing
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Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s action
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
1) West Ham give Bilic reason for hope once Payet returns
Unlike last year’s corresponding fixture, when West Ham beat Manchester City 2-1 at the Etihad, Slaven Bilic’s side came up short this time but they gave Pep Guardiola’s men a scare during a post-interval resurgence and the Croat can be optimistic for the season. He said: “In the second half we put them under a bit of pressure, the goal helped, but the second half I am more than happy. It gives us hope when the players are out injured. We stayed in the game. I wasn’t happy at half-time, I asked the guys to show character and spirit and a different mentality, which they did. Praise for the team for the second-half performance. A few will be back after the international break. It should be [Manuel] Lanzini and then [Dimitri] Payet. That will change the shape of the team and the quality of the team.” They only have three points from three games but expect Bilic’s team to start rising up the table. Jamie Jackson
• Match report: Manchester City 3-1 West Ham
• West Ham sign Zaza on loan with view to permanent move
Transfer window wishlists: who Premier League fans want to sign this week Read more
2) Relentless Chelsea suggest Conte can lead title charge
Chelsea topped the fledgling Premier League table on Saturday night, their record still pristine under Antonio Conte, but the Italian is offering only realism when he assesses his own immediate impact at Stamford Bridge. The early season momentum is significant only because it permits his players “to trust my methodology” more. He is not resting on his laurels after wins against West Ham, Watford and, most impressively, Burnley. “But we know we can improve,” he said. “We must improve, and improve a lot, and [we can do that] only through work. But I’m pleased today because I saw, also, the idea about our football.”
That is not all about scintillating pace and skill on the flanks. Or rugged defence in securing a first clean sheet at home since Scunthorpe visited in January. Conte, his usual demanding self on the touchline, actually reserved his most ferocious, manic show of appreciation for an interception mustered by Oscar deep inside his own half. That selfless industry and desire to put the team first is at the core of his philosophy. Chelsea have bought into what he wants, and that only bodes well for his team’s title challenge. Dominic Fifield
• Match report: Chelsea 3-0 Burnley
• Daniel Taylor: Gray’s sorry tweeting case far from straightforward
3) Benteke-Townsend combination offers hope to under-fire Pardew
If Alan Pardew’s tenure at Selhurst Park could be encapsulated in a single game then surely this was it. Terrible for one half, yet fantastic in the next, Scott Dann’s injury-time equaliser must have come as a huge relief for their embattled manager after a difficult start to the season. Some supporters have already lost patience with the club’s former midfielder after the dreadful run of just two wins in 2016, with Tottenham’s bid for the club’s player of the year, Wilfried Zaha, last week only serving to heighten anxieties. But after breaking their transfer record twice this summer and with the prospect of two players to arrive before the transfer deadline, there could be brighter times ahead. Christian Benteke’s combination with Andros Townsend for the cross that led to Palace’s first goal in the league this season was a promising start, although Pardew will know he needs plenty more where that came from after the international break. Ed Aarons
• Match report: Crystal Palace 1-1 Bournemouth
• Pardew to speak with Wilfried Zaha about his Crystal Palace future
4) Koeman’s pragmatism a welcome relief for fans after Martínez
Ashley Williams was only named in one press conference, and it wasn’t by the manager who committed £12m to bring him to Goodison Park. Yet while Stoke’s Mark Hughes complained about the Everton newcomer’s part in securing the debated, decisive penalty, his impact was apparent in both boxes. Ronald Koeman took heart from the clean sheet his side kept. That owed much to Williams, a paragon of solidity in his newly formed partnership with Phil Jagielka. They have a combined age of 66 and their experience was allied with that of a still older centre-back: the manager himself.
Koeman introduced Ramiro Funes Mori and removed Ross Barkley in the closing stages, successfully protecting the lead by deploying a five-man rearguard. Such pragmatism was welcome at Goodison Park. While Stoke only recorded one shot on target, this felt the sort of game Roberto Martínez’s self-destructive team would have contrived to find a way not to win. Koeman’s side emerged with three points. Last season Everton only mustered six home league victories at Goodison Park, five against the eventual bottom five. While Stoke prop up the table now, they are probable mid-table finishers. So although this may seem a routine home win and came coated in controversy, it represented progress nonetheless. Richard Jolly
• Match report: Everton 1-0 Stoke City
The Dozen: the weekend's best Premier League photos Read more
5) Guidolin’s odd selections leave Swansea looking lost
All is not well at Swansea City. Another defeat and another listless performance should be ringing a few alarm bells at the Welsh club. It came as a surprise when Swansea gave Francesco Guidolin the manager’s job on a permanent basis in the summer, and that decision seems likely to come under greater scrutiny over the coming weeks, unless there is an improvement. Guidolin’s side looked clueless against Leicester. There was no pattern to their play, no leadership, and it was worrying to see how brittle they are in central defence now that Ashley Williams has departed. Even the team selection seemed curious – Leon Britton and Nathan Dyer have both recently signed new contracts but were not even in the 18, while Gylfi Sigurdsson, the club’s most influential player last season, was withdrawn in the second half. Their next five league fixtures: Chelsea (h), Southampton (a), Manchester City (h), Liverpool (h) and Arsenal (a). It could be a long season. Stuart James
• Match report: Leicester City 2-1 Swansea City
• Leicester in talks with Sporting Lisbon over £30m Slimani deal
6) Hull’s precarious position makes Phelan the smart choice
Hull City’s protracted takeover is now in the hands of the Premier League after the club’s vice-chairman Ehab Allam confirmed before this defeat to Manchester United that his family is close to selling up. A purchase by Chinese investors is imminent but, given the timing and Wednesday’s transfer deadline being so close, whoever the new owners select to be their first permanent manager will have to deal with a hugely difficult situation. Mike Phelan says deals for new players are lined up but even if they get a few new faces in by the deadline, the squad will still be extremely thin. Given Phelan’s ability to get the best out of limited resources so far this season, it may be a smart move to continue with him for the foreseeable future. Phelan said: “I think it’s now a serious time to make those decisions and make those correct calls.” James Riach
• Match report: Hull City 0-1 Manchester United
• Fellaini rescues fan caught in crush amid United elation
7) Mané shows Pochettino – and Levy – what Spurs are missing
The biggest positive that Mauricio Pochettino could take from Tottenham’s draw against Liverpool – apart from the fact that his team did not lose a match in which they were often sluggish and predictable – was that the performance should help him convince his employer of the need to sign at least one more forward this week. So far the club’s interest in Wilfried Zaha has succeeded only in annoying Crystal Palace and Pochettino would like a deal to be done for Marseille’s Georges-Kévin Nkoudou. Liverpool’s performance helped him to spell out further what he wants. “We need a player who is more direct, more aggressive offensively,” said Pochettino. “Because we have players like Eriksen, Son [Heung-min] or Lamela, who like more to play into feet, we need someone who has characteristics like we saw from Liverpool, like Mané, the type of player that can break the defensive line.” Over to you, Daniel Levy. Paul Doyle
• Match report: Tottenham 1-1 Liverpool
• Wanyama: ‘Failing is just when you’re not ready to fight. I am ready to fight’
• Klopp backs Henderson as Liverpool rebuilding continues
8) Losing Koné would send Moyes back to square one
It was almost job done for David Moyes until a journalist asked the Sunderland manager about the immediate future of Lamine Koné just as the Scot thought there were no more questions. With the transfer deadline lurking, Moyes’s body language was enough to know the club faces a real fight to keep the defender, who impressed on his return to the starting lineup against Southampton, beyond 11pm on Wednesday. “I thought he played well today, I can’t really say too much on what else might happen between now and the end of the week,” said Moyes, before exiting the press conference suite at St Mary’s. Koné submitted a transfer request earlier this month after Sunderland’s proposed offer of an improved contract failed to materialise. Since then, Everton have increased their efforts to sign the Ivory Coast defender who arrived on Wearside from Lorient in January.
“He’s done what he’s had to do, and we’ll see what materialises during the week,” said Moyes. “It was an easy decision to play him because we’ve got no other centre halves. But when you’re a player who has got a four-year contract, and you’ve only served six months of it, I can’t see that worrying about your contract situation should be in your head when you’re in the third game of the season. We will see what materialises this week and what happens.” Sunderland put on a sturdy defensive showing against Southampton, until Jordan Pickford’s late mistake allowed Jay Rodriguez to score his first goal since last September. The £8m summer signing, Papy Djilobodji, partnered Koné in defence, allowing Jack Rodwell to move into midfield and the defence was stronger for it. For Moyes, it feels very much back to square one if Koné is to depart. Ben Fisher
• Match report: Southampton 1-1 Sunderland
• Southampton close to signing Boufal for club record fee
• Sunderland’s £7m bid for Iborra accepted by Sevilla
Premier League: transfer window summer 2016 – interactive Read more
9) Deeney and Ighalo must bully their way back to form
That Watford not only stayed up last season, but did so with relative ease, was significantly down to the work of Troy Deeney and Odion Ighalo; Deeney scored 13 league goals and Ighalo 15. This season, on the other hand, Deeney has yet to score in the league and Ighalo has yet to score at all, which helps explain Watford’s sketchy start: one point and a home defeat to Gillingham describe a team in difficulty. But to focus solely on their strikers’ goal returns is to miss what was special about them; it was not simply how many they scored, but what absolute misery they inflicted on anyone whose misfortune it was to mark them. Walter Mazzarri must remind his busy, bustling bullies that their job is to take defenders where they don’t want to go and upon arriving, knock them about with gay abandon; if he does, he might find that the goals follow. Daniel Harris
• Match report: Watford 1-3 Arsenal
• Wenger praises ‘excellent’ Özil on Arsenal return at Watford
10) Berahino’s time at West Brom is surely over
There was a time when the prospect of losing Saido Berahino would have come as a major disappointment to West Bromwich Albion supporters, yet the reception the striker received when he came off the bench against Middlesbrough suggested that patience has finally run out. Berahino was booed and so was his contribution at times during a 19-minute cameo when the 23-year-old gave the impression that he was going through the motions. His time at Albion now looks certain to be over and with the benefit of hindsight, it would have been better for both parties if he had been allowed to join Tottenham Hotspur when they submitted bids of £18m and £22m for him this time last year. With one goal in his last 27 Premier League appearances, Berahino has badly lost his way and needs a fresh start to reignite a career that is at a crossroads. Stuart James
• Match report: West Brom 0-0 Middlesbrough
• Michael Cox: West Brom’s direct route cut off as Pulis struggles for answers
|
https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2016/aug/29/premier-league-talking-points
|
en
| 2016-08-29T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/c2e8aaf983729e2d716b9a4ad560e9f440248c764506b9f4647585881108e1d6.json
|
|
[
"John Williams"
] | 2016-08-26T13:24:12 | null | 2016-08-19T06:30:10 |
Launching a commercial venture doesn’t need to take months. By starting small, you could be up and running in no time
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fsmall-business-network%2F2016%2Faug%2F19%2Fhow-to-start-a-business-in-30-days.json
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en
| null |
How to start a business in 30 days
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Business has changed. Thanks to the internet, it’s faster and easier than ever to start something of your own. You no longer need to spend a fortune on staff, advertising and premises. You can get something going in 30 days on the side without quitting your job and market it online. Just follow these five steps to make it happen.
1. Find your killer idea
Want to know if a business idea you’ve had is going to work? Then check you can answer “yes” to these three questions. Does this idea excite you? Do you bring something to this idea other than the idea itself (ie skills, knowledge or talents)? Is there demand for this kind of business? If you can’t find any competition, it might be a sign that there isn’t any demand.
2. Do the minimum version
You don’t need a five-year plan. Do what startups do and create a minimum viable product – the smallest version of your business idea that you can put out into the world and prove people like it.
What can you do in 30 days? Get your first client, even if it’s for free. Create your first product. Run your first comedy night or whatever it might be. Did people like it? If so, do it again and make it bigger and better. If people didn’t respond well, find out what was missing and rather than abandoning the whole thing see if there’s a change you could make to fix it.
Think 30 days is not enough? Mark Zuckerberg wrote the first version of Facebook in 30 days and my clients have started successful businesses, from dating profile photography to a historical blog to an international business network, in the same amount of time. They did it by starting small and then growing it.
3. Superniche
It’s hard to move into a crowded market with more experienced competitors. The solution is to “superniche” – focus on a particular kind of person or organisation or create a product or service that’s superb at one particular thing. Be willing to turn people away and you’ll make yourself irresistible to the right kind of person.
4. Get your first customer
Skip the fancy logo and elaborate website. Put your focus on getting your first customer or client. If you can get one, you stand a good chance of being able to get 10 and if you can get 10 you stand a good chance of making the business work.
If you need a website, create a one-page website on a system like Strikingly in an hour or two. Now is not the time to worry about how to get a million visitors to your website. Win your first client or customer from within your own network – reach out to your social and business circles and explain the value you or your product provides and get your first sales.
5. Do a back-of-an-envelope business plan
Forget writing a complex business plan. If you follow these guidelines to start without large expenditure you don’t need one but it is worth doing a rough calculation. What’s your target annual income? Given the price you’re intending to charge and any costs you have, how many clients or sales would you need to hit that target? Divide it by 52 and check you can actually sell and deliver that many sales in a week. Bear in mind that you should be able to find ways to increase your prices over time.
What’s the minimum you can survive on in a month? When you can make that from your new business, you might be ready to quit your job.
Screw Work, Break Free, by John Williams, is out now on Vermilion. Williams will be talking at Penguin Living careers 360 on 11 September.
Sign up to become a member of the Guardian Small Business Network here for more advice, insight and best practice direct to your inbox.
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https://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2016/aug/19/how-to-start-a-business-in-30-days
|
en
| 2016-08-19T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/a67a121e3c929ad7bfa4471f893a453f3e58c5418f4696a68a2d28afd44f47bb.json
|
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[
"Source"
] | 2016-08-28T14:51:47 | null | 2016-08-28T14:28:51 |
Ranieri praises Jamie Vardy and team for winning tough match
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ffootball%2Fvideo%2F2016%2Faug%2F28%2Franieri-on-vardy-a-goal-scorer-never-forgets-the-way-video.json
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| null |
Ranieri on Vardy: 'a goal scorer never forgets the way' - video
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
After defending champions Leicester City win their first game of the 2016-17 Premier League against Swansea (2-1) at The King Power Stadium on Saturday, manager Claudio Ranieri praises Jamie Vardy and the team for winning a tough match under torrential rain. Ranieri says the game was like playing ‘water polo’
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https://www.theguardian.com/football/video/2016/aug/28/ranieri-on-vardy-a-goal-scorer-never-forgets-the-way-video
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en
| 2016-08-28T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/9c5f949ef22dd81b1c531f2885a514de9267af1af444536e0af0318ef6ea0651.json
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[
"Jessica Aldred"
] | 2016-08-26T13:25:31 | null | 2016-08-19T05:01:08 |
National Trust will release 100 of the endangered animals, not seen at Malham tarn in Yorkshire dales for 50 years
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fenvironment%2F2016%2Faug%2F19%2Fwater-voles-malham-tarn-yorkshire-dales-reintroduced-to-englands-highest-lake.json
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| null |
Water voles to be reintroduced to England's highest lake
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Britain’s endangered water voles will reach new heights when they are returned to Yorkshire’s Malham tarn for the first time in 50 years.
Around 100 water voles will be reintroduced on Friday to the National Trust estate in the Yorkshire dales, home to England’s highest freshwater lake, in what the trust says is the highest-altitude reintroduction of the species it has carried out in Britain.
Immortalised as Ratty in Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows, the water vole is Britain’s fastest-declining mammal. The animal was once found in nearly every waterway in England, Scotland and Wales, but is now thought to have been lost in up to 90% of these sites, clinging on in isolated pockets, coastal marshes and backwaters.
The intensification of agriculture, pollution and development, plus poor riverside management, has brought about the loss and degradation of the riverbank habitat in which the voles live. But the sharpest declines in the past 30 years have been caused by the spread of the American mink. These animals have established themselves on the waterways after escaping from fur farms, and they prey voraciously on the water vole.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The water voles being transported to Malham tarn ahead of their release. Photograph: Richard Rayner/North News & Pictures Ltd for National Trust
Reintroduction schemes, alongside programmes to control mink and manage habitats, are providing a lifeline for the species. Water voles have recently been returned to Cornwall after being declared extinct in the county, to the South Downs national park and to Gwent in south Wales.
The Malham voles have been bred in captivity by a specialist agency and will be released over five days into the fen area of the tarn, which is unique for its flora, fauna and geology. A glacial lake set among ancient limestone pastures and upland hill farms, it is home to rare plants and animals including stonewort, sheltering pea mussels and the three-spined stickleback. The tarn also provides food for diving birds such as great crested grebes.
At 377 metres above sea level, it is England’s highest freshwater lake, and this is the highest-altitude release undertaken by the National Trust. Previous upland releases have taken place at Duchray in the Scottish Highlands (up to 300m) and Brecon Beacons in Wales (154m).
It is hoped the animals will recolonise the tarn and its surrounding streams, and play an important part in the ecosystem, grazing and burrowing into areas of the riverbank and allowing rare plants to grow, including mosses and liverworts that need patches of open habitat. The water voles will also act as a food source for predators such as barn owls and otters.
Roisin Black, a National Trust ranger at Malham tarn, said: “In the rest of Europe, water voles are common. In Britain, the creatures are incredibly rare. We know water voles have thrived at Malham tarn in the past and, thanks to work by the National Trust, the habitat here is perfect for water voles again.”
England's water voles in desperate decline Read more
The animals will spend two days in large cages on the fringes of their new home. On the third day, the doors will be opened, with food placed on rafts in the water to encourage the voles to leave the cages and burrow in the banks. After five days, the cages will be removed altogether.
Rangers will monitor the health of the population, with a view to releasing a further 100 water voles in June next year.
The reintroduction is part of a new land management approach agreed in 2015 for the 8,000 hectares of National Trust land in the Yorkshire dales. Farmers and partners will work with ecological processes to create a landscape that looks like the traditional dales but has a wider variety of natural habitats – moors, fields and woodlands – and better connections between them.
Peter Welsh, ecologist for the National Trust in the Yorkshire dales, said: “Water voles once played an important part in the ecosystem at Malham tarn. Reintroducing them to the tarn is just one of the ways we are working alongside our farmers and other partners to restore wildlife and natural processes in the Yorkshire dales landscapes we care for.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/19/water-voles-malham-tarn-yorkshire-dales-reintroduced-to-englands-highest-lake
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en
| 2016-08-19T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/d5227d55c912aa66c27f0169f05261dadf5a03fd9d55e0f23254ddcf3d33a356.json
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[
"Press Association"
] | 2016-08-29T10:52:00 | null | 2016-08-29T10:37:28 |
Ross Barkley’s omission from the England squad was the biggest decision I made for the Slovakia game, the England manager Sam Allardyce has admitted
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ffootball%2F2016%2Faug%2F29%2Fross-barkley-england-allardyce-manager-slovakia-rashford.json
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| null |
Ross Barkley’s omission was my biggest decision, says England’s Allardyce
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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Sam Allardyce admits that omitting Ross Barkley from his first England squad was the toughest decision he had to make.
Allardyce, who also confirmed that he would name his captain on Tuesday, left Barkley out of his 23-man squad for Sunday’s 2018 World Cup qualifier in Slovakia despite the Everton midfielder having enjoyed a promising start to the season.
The 22-year-old, who was an unused member of England’s Euro 2016 squad, has scored twice in his first four games but that was not enough to prevent him being left out by Allardyce.
Michail Antonio called up as Sam Allardyce names his first England squad Read more
The former Sunderland manager said: “We’ve had to make some very, very difficult decisions. None more so than Ross Barkley. It’s disappointing for him. The door will always be open for Ross but at this moment I think the squad I’ve named is right.”
On what things he and his coaching staff had looked at when selecting players, Allardyce said: “We’ve looked at all avenues, what sort of pre-season they’ve had, what happened last season, this season, look at balance of the squad …”
While Barkley, who was watched by Allardyce in Saturday’s win over Stoke and the assistant Sammy Lee in the opening-day draw with Tottenham, was left out, along with the likes of Jack Wilshere, there was better news for the recalled quartet Luke Shaw, Phil Jagielka, Danny Drinkwater and Theo Walcott.
There was a surprise first call-up for West Ham winger Michail Antonio, with the squad showing five changes from the one that went to Euro 2016.
In explaining his decision to select the 26-year-old, Allardyce said: “The journey. The quality of the player that has shown through in every league he has played. The impact he had at the end of last season and the start of this, his attacking flair, his quality for final-third delivery, and his goal record from a wide position.
“I think that that journey is something that deserves to be in this squad and me to have a look at as a potential player going forward. It shows if you’ve got guts and determination and desire, how much it means [to you] … then he goes forward and creates a career for him which finally ends in the Premier League and finally with us in this squad.”
Allardyce has also left out Marcus Rashford and believes the Manchester United striker needs to secure a first-team place at Old Trafford before he is regular at senior international level.
The 18-year-old, who was included in Roy Hodgson’s squad for the European Championship, came off the bench to score his first Premier League goal of the season at Hull on Saturday.
“I think that having international experience in the Under-21s will be invaluable for us later down the line,” Allardyce said. “And, if he’s breaking into Manchester United’s team, he will be in my squad, whenever that’s announced.
“But because of his inclusion only as a substitute – as good as it was against Hull City – I think that the value of having probably a full game with Gareth [Southgate, Under-21 manager] will be invaluable to him and, later on, for us. A bit like Harry Kane and people like that in the past.
“He made a massive impact last season, yes, but he’s only a young man, let’s not heap too much pressure on him just yet. Let him go and have a feel playing for the Under-21s; hopefully he’s a star for them, scores goals for them and gives me that decision next time around on the next squad I pick.”
England created few chances in a frustrating 0-0 draw against Slovakia in the final group game at Euro 2016 but Allardyce expects a different proposition in the forthcoming game.
He feels their opponents will have to make more of an attempt to win the game and cannot be content with a draw.
“We’ve examined that game, we’ve watched that match but we’ve really focused on the games they’ve played at home and I think that their tactics will be different when we play them in Slovakia,” he said. “They’re a team that has to come out and attack us to try and win the game, they’re playing at home whereas in the Euros we all knew that one point was enough for them and they made a very sound, solid defensive unit that was very difficult to break down in the end because they weren’t interested in playing any type of attacking football.
“I think it will be difficult in Slovakia and we have to plan for them playing on their own patch and us trying to break them down.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/aug/29/ross-barkley-england-allardyce-manager-slovakia-rashford
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en
| 2016-08-29T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/ef4111fdbbe05dc2a82656b14957ae350695c9772840cea8a9e57f614e2b0843.json
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[
"Guardian Sport"
] | 2016-08-28T18:52:04 | null | 2016-08-28T17:54:45 |
The fallout from Colin Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the national anthem continued as Rex Ryan said it is a way of paying tribute to America’s armed forces
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fsport%2F2016%2Faug%2F28%2Fcolin-kaepernick-national-anthem-rex-ryan-nfl.json
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Rex Ryan: US anthem about respect for military as Kaepernick fallout continues
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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The fallout from Colin Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the national anthem has continued as the Buffalo Bills head coach Rex Ryan said the Star-Spangled Banner is a way of paying tribute to America’s armed forces.
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Kaepernick says he will sit for the anthem because of the “oppression” of black people in the US. “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” Kaepernick said. “To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”
Colin Kaepernick sits during national anthem over treatment of minorities Read more
Ryan said the decision was a personal choice but, while not naming Kaepernick, made his thoughts on the subject clear. “If there’s personal beliefs that keep you from doing it, I understand, but at the same time, you’ve got to look at the gifts that we have, the opportunity that we have to play a great game is through the men and women that serve our country,” said Ryan on Sunday. “That’s an opportunity right there just to show respect. I think that’s why, when you see our team, every one of us are on that line. That’s kind of our way of giving thanks.”
Ryan is not the only figure in the NFL to have brought up the military angle in response to Kaepernick’s decision. The former Denver Broncos offensive tackle Tyler Polumbus said the anthem is associated with “the military that die for ur right to protest”.
— Tyler Polumbus (@Tyler_Polumbus) Activists changed USA for better but have to associate Nat Anthem w/ military that die for ur right to protest. Stand up. Find another way
The New York Giants Justin Pugh expressed a similar line:
— Justin Pugh (@JustinPugh) I will be STANDING during the National Anthem tonight. Thank you to ALL (Gender,Race,Religion)that put your lives on the line for that flag
It was noticeable that Kaepernick’s supporters in the NFL have mainly been African American and his critics white. Those who defended Kaepernick pointed out he had the freedom to choose whether to stand for the anthem.
— Damien Woody (@damienwoody) Kaep has every right to express his feelings/beliefs and ppl have every right to disagree. That's ok folks!
— Feeno (@ArianFoster) you can't be be selective and dictate what freedoms this country stands for. you're free to have any religious/political views you feel.
One fan was unequivocal in his response, choosing to burn a Kaepernick shirt while standing for the anthem:
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https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/28/colin-kaepernick-national-anthem-rex-ryan-nfl
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en
| 2016-08-28T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/6966255eb8ca460bf242b3bf25966d4d418487b351170edac5dcc661af75b975.json
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[
"Josephine Mckenna In Rome"
] | 2016-08-29T16:52:09 | null | 2016-08-29T15:34:30 |
Acclaimed architect wants anti-seismic regulations strengthened amid plans to rehouse displaced residents in lightweight wooden homes
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Italy earthquake: PM asks Renzo Piano to help in reconstruction
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Italy’s prime minister has asked the acclaimed architect Renzo Piano to play a leading role in reconstruction and disaster prevention following the earthquake that struck central Italy last week, killing at least 290 people.
Matteo Renzi launched a national plan for quake and risk prevention on Monday after meeting Piano in Genoa at the weekend to discuss housing strategies for survivors and rebuilding the medieval towns hardest hit by the 6.2-magnitude quake on 24 August.
“Reconstruction should be coordinated in the wisest and fastest way,” Renzi said in a statement on Monday. “It’s right to do it quickly but even better to be done well and above all with the involvement of the affected people.”
Ten people are still missing after the quake left the towns of Amatrice, Accumoli and Pescara del Tronto in ruins and displaced up to 3,000 people. Civil protection workers, police and firefighters sifting through the debris in search of victims have been shaken by more than 2,000 aftershocks in the days since the quake.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Renzo Piano in his workshop in Paris. The architect says Italy must strengthen laws on making structures earthquake resistant. Photograph: Benoit Tessier/REUTERS
Firefighters recovered the body of a woman buried beneath Hotel Roma in Amatrice on Monday, but two bodies were still trapped under the hotel debris.
Speaking to the Guardian on Monday, Piano said it was critical for Italy to strengthen laws on making structures earthquake resistant and ensure public and private buildings were safe.
“We have to act quickly, with the utmost urgency,” he said by telephone from Genoa. “Anti-seismic requirements must be inserted in the laws of the country to make our homes safe, just as it’s compulsory for a car to have brakes that work.”
Within the next six months the Italian government is promising to move 2,900 displaced residents from the 58 tent camps and other shelters where they are currently housed to lightweight wooden houses. In the second phase of the plan, reconstruction of the damaged central Italian towns would begin in six to eight months.
Italy must block mafia from earthquake rebuild, says prosecutor Read more
While calling for more to be done to reinforce anti-seismic regulations, Piano outlined a far more comprehensive proposal to protect Italy’s public buildings, homes and cultural sites over the next 50 years.
“We are speaking about the ridge of the Apennines, the backbone of Italy from north to south, an operation projected over 50 years and two generations,” he said. “We are talking about millions of buildings, it is not impossible if you work through generations.”
The 78-year-old architect, who was appointed an Italian senator for life in 2013, has worked with Unesco and also had experience in high-risk quake zones in Japan and California. He said it was possible to make buildings safe with a “subtle scientific” approach which he likened to modern medical diagnosis. However, he said he recognised that corruption was a perennial obstacle in Italy.
“It is not just corruption, there is bureaucracy and illegality,” Piano said. “Now there is a strong push against it and Italy is trying to do something about it. It is not impossible to overcome it, something new is coming.”
The government also plans to appoint former Emilia Romagna governor Vasco Errani as special commissioner to oversee post-quake reconstruction. He had a similar position in 2012 after two earthquakes in Emilia Romagna left 27 dead and thousands homeless.
Reconstruction of homes and businesses has been completed in 25 of the 60 stricken municipalities and the number of families on quake assistance has dropped from over 19,000 to 2,491, according to the Ansa news agency.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/29/italy-earthquake-pm-asks-renzo-piano-to-help-in-reconstruction
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en
| 2016-08-29T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/b9b9cc0bcb2fa205a913601a4595dfa67bf27a7096e5e3bb0f292c4b7e1e2647.json
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[
"Guardian Readers",
"Harry Slater"
] | 2016-08-26T14:57:02 | null | 2016-08-25T12:58:06 |
To celebrate 100 years of the National Parks Service, we asked you to share what America’s natural wonders mean to you
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'We need to preserve this beauty': your memories of US national parks
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www.theguardian.com
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The National Park Service turns 100 this week, and to celebrate its century of protecting American’s most treasured places, we asked you to share your memories and photos of the parks. Here’s a selection of your contributions. You can see all of them – and share your own – here.
Growing up in the parks
The centennial is an emotional time for Daisy Askey. Her father worked for the National Park Service and she recalls visiting a number of the country’s most beautiful spots while growing up. Today, she’s worried about what lies ahead for the parks.
I learned from an early age the importance of public lands and environmental stewardship, and I still struggle when I come across people who were raised so differently that something as simple but important as recycling and going hiking is seen as unimportant or ridiculed. I live within minutes of Aztec Ruins national monument, and less than two hours’ drive from Mesa Verde national monument and Chaco Culture national historical park. These are some of my favorite places on earth. Oil and gas development in my area threatens these historic parks and natural areas. I try to take my students on field trips to at least one park area every year and remind them that they and all people in the US own public lands. I’m worried this year that efforts to disband national parks and other public lands are intensifying. If the lovely land and history of this country weren’t protected, what would be left?
‘If you want to hike to Delicate Arch – do it at dawn’
Jeff Craddock was in Arches national park, Utah, in June 2015, where temperatures were about 45C during the day.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Delicate Arch at dawn. Photograph: Jeff Craddock/GuardianWitness
‘If you want to hike to Delicate Arch – do it at dawn’ was the advice we were given. At 4am, I set off into the semi-darkness, completely on my own, surrounded by the sights and smells of the early morning desert. The trail was easy to follow at first, but then became more difficult as it crossed the slip rock. Small piles of stones marked the route. I arrived at the arch just as the sun began to rise. It was just amazing – the fragility of the arch, and its sheer beauty. An unforgettable experience.
Riding coast to coast
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sunset in Grand Teton national park. Photograph: Diebschlag/GuardianWitness
During a few weeks off work in fall 2014, GuardianWitness contributor Diebschlag rode his Harley Davidson from New York to Los Angeles.
I soon realized that I was subconsciously trying to hit as many national parks as possible – they’re just the most raw, awe-inspiring places, full of like-minded people enjoying the land. I hope they continue to get the protection they deserve.
From dawn to dusk
Jason Lewandowski submitted a number of beautiful shots capturing sunrises and sunsets in Colorado and Washington.
I am very fortunate to call Colorado home and live so close to an amazing national park. They’re all so unique and special in their own way! They really get you away from the hustle and bustle to decompress and get back with nature. We need to preserve this beauty and think of the generations long after us so they can enjoy them just as much as us.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sunrise over Alberta Falls in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. Photograph: Jason Lewandowski/GuardianWitness
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sunset over Mount Herard, Colorado. Photograph: Jason Lewandowski/GuardianWitness
We woke up near the Sahale Glacier to a family of mountain goats making noise outside of our tent before sunrise. We were fortunate enough to enjoy our new friends in the comfort of our tent with a beautiful sunrise starting the day off right.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The sunrises over the Sahale Glacier in North Cascades national park, Washington. Photograph: Jason Lewandowski/GuardianWitness
On to the next adventure …
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Making plans in Yosemite. Photograph: nabrahamy/GuardianWitness
At the end of a nine-mile hike up the Mist trail to the John Muir trail in Yosemite, Nabrahamy met Ingrid and Lorenza, a couple from Italy.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/25/national-parks-centennial-stories-photos-experiences
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| 2016-08-25T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/8cc4271a683e8dc53dcae728434b98ff525e177dbe38b9834e5603ed89a4082a.json
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[
"Press Association"
] | 2016-08-29T02:55:05 | null | 2016-06-10T16:51:24 |
Dale Vince agrees to pay ex-wife Kathleen Wyatt £300,000 after she lodged £1.9m claim more than 20 years after their divorce
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Ecotricity founder calls for time limit on divorce payout claims
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The Green energy tycoon Dale Vince has called for a time limit on divorce cash claims after agreeing to pay his ex-wife £300,000 in a financial settlement.
Kathleen Wyatt initially sought £1.9m from the founder of Ecotricity in a claim lodged more than 25 years after the couple separated and nearly 20 years since their divorce.
The myths around divorce and gold-digging wives obscure the reality | Joanna Moorhead Read more
Vince is a former new age traveller who became a millionaire businessman long after the couple parted.
There was a legal battle over whether her claim could proceed, which Wyatt later won in the supreme court. Vince described it as a “mad” decision.
The high court family judge, Mr Justice Cobb, sitting in London, approved the pair’s decision to settle with the “modest” award to Wyatt and said it represented “a realistic and balanced appraisal of the unusual circumstances of this case”.
How much Wyatt will actually receive remains uncertain because of outstanding legal bills, which have yet to be fully quantified.
Neither Wyatt, 55, of Monmouth, nor Vince, 53, of Stroud, Gloucestershire, were in court for the announcement.
Vince later said the case had been “a terrible waste of time and money” and the settlement barely covered Wyatt’s legal fees.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kathleen Wyatt was awarded a ‘modest’ payment of £300,000. Photograph: Ryan Hooper/PA
He added: “I’m disappointed that the supreme court decided not to throw out the case, given it was brought over 30 years since the relationship ended.
“There clearly needs to be a statute of limitations for divorce cases – a time limit beyond which a claim cannot be made. Such a thing exists in commercial law for good practical reasons.”
The couple met as students, married in 1981 when they were in their early 20s, and lived a new age traveller lifestyle. They separated in the mid-80s and divorced in 1992.
In the mid-90s Vince began a business career and went on to become a green energy tycoon when he launched Ecotricity, which is worth at least £57m.
The supreme court justice, Lord Wilson, said Wyatt’s claim was legally recognisable and not an abuse of process.
He described Wyatt as being in poor health and living in a modest house in Monmouth. He said she sometimes had low-paid jobs, and at other times she relied on state benefits.
Wilson described Vince as a “remarkable man” who was a traveller with no money in his 20s, “but one year at the Glastonbury festival he rigged up a contraption from which he provided a wind-powered telephone service.
“It was the start of a business which, as a result of his ingenuity and drive, has led to his manufacture and sale of green energy on a massive scale.”
Vince lives with his second wife in a Georgian fort.
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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jun/10/ecotricity-founder-dale-vince-time-limit-divorce-payout-claims
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| 2016-06-10T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/6b7d11f223a966269f0db042639b6382c6eb0232ae587c68b86e5de4eba4cbdd.json
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[
"Phillip Inman"
] | 2016-08-26T13:28:59 | null | 2016-08-24T13:35:59 |
Approvals were down in July but credit growth was up, suggesting people delaying large not small purchases after Brexit vote
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fbusiness%2F2016%2Faug%2F24%2Fmortgage-approvals-uk-banks-fall-lowest-level-july-credit-growth-brexit.json
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Mortgage approvals by UK banks fall to lowest level so far this year
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Mortgage approvals at Britain’s banks tumbled in July to their lowest level this year as people delayed making major financial decisions in the weeks after the Brexit vote.
Banks approved 37,662 mortgages for house purchases last month, down from 39,763 in June and 19% lower than in July 2015, the British Bankers’ Association said.
But robust credit growth, especially higher credit card debt, added to signs that the decision to quit the European Union had little impact on consumers’ appetite for smaller purchases.
Scotland's North Sea oil revenues collapse - business live Read more
Net credit card lending rose in July by £291m – a 20% increase on the same month a year ago. The jump in short-term borrowing came after a similar £283m increase in June.
Warnings that Britain’s vote to leave the EU on 23 June could tip the economy into recession have so far been contradicted by surveys showing a more muted impact on the economy.
Data from manufacturers, Britain’s biggest housebuilder and UK supermarkets earlier this week pointed to the UK avoiding a recession in the second half of the year.
Some economists have argued that while business and consumer confidence, which fell in July, was bolstered by the Bank of England cutting interest rates and increasing quantitive easing, a reluctance to make investment decision, including buying a home, could harm the economy in the coming months.
Rebecca Harding, the BBA’s chief economist, said the growing use of credit cards before and after the vote showed that short-term borrowing figures were keeping high street tills ringing, but gave little clue as to the mood of bank customers.
“Consumer credit has been growing considerably faster at an annualised rate of 6% than real earnings growth of 2.4% for some months now. This arguably underpinned the growth in retail sales that we saw in July and suggests, year-on-year growth in consumer credit appears reasonably correlated with year-on-year growth in retail sales,” she said.
“The housing market may be giving us a clearer picture of trends. Net mortgage lending continued to rise annually at 3% in July. This figure is identical to the annual increase in June. However, mortgage approvals for house purchases were 19% lower in July than a year earlier.”
Coupled with a 1% monthly increase in the value of loans, “the pressures in the housing market at the moment are actually quite weak”, she added.
Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight, said: “We suspect that the fundamentals for consumers will become less favourable over the coming months with purchasing power likely diminishing and the labour market softening.”
The BBA figures do not include lending by mutually owned building societies, which accounts for around a third of mortgages.
Figures published on Tuesday by HM Revenue & Customs showed almost as many homes were sold in July as in June, suggesting buyers were not spooked at the outcome of the Brexit vote.
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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/aug/24/mortgage-approvals-uk-banks-fall-lowest-level-july-credit-growth-brexit
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en
| 2016-08-24T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/709c009b7a4be6b4bf9db0e767b895d9ff1728d5d1a9d5ce264fc89a2026633f.json
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[
"Press Association"
] | 2016-08-28T08:49:37 | null | 2016-08-28T07:51:06 |
Crews work through night to clear carriageway after digger being carried on lorry brought down footbridge
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M20 to reopen following bridge collapse
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The M20 is expected to reopen on Sunday following a chaotic Saturday when a footbridge crashed on to the carriageways, causing hours of disruption on one of the busiest weekends of the year.
The bridge came down between junctions three and four shortly after noon on Saturday when a digger being transported on the back of a lorry collided with it.
A motorcyclist in his 50s was taken to hospital in Tunbridge Wells with suspected broken ribs following the incident and the driver of the lorry was treated for shock at the scene.
A major incident was declared on the main route to the Channel tunnel and the port of Dover, with images on social media showing remains of the footbridge and damaged vehicles on the carriageway.
Alex Magaisa was driving past the lorry involved just as the bridge collapsed, with his wife and two young sons in the car. They were on their way to Gatwick airport to catch a flight to Belfast to see family for the bank holiday weekend.
The University of Kent lecturer, 41, said: “My instinct was just to drive through. My wife saw the bridge falling and there was a big noise. I had to manoeuvre through the debris.
“We stopped afterwards for about 30 minutes, and there was another car with a family behind us. Luckily no one seemed to have been hurt.
“It was a big shock. It’s only just starting to sink in now what might have happened. We were right in the line of fire and we could have been crushed.”
Highways England said that the part of the M20 between junctions two and four would remain closed until at least noon on Sunday, with crews working through the night to clean up the scene.
The adjoining M26, which was closed eastbound between the M25 junction 25 and the M20 junction three to “assist management of traffic” following the incident, is also likely to stay closed until the area is completely cleared.
Andy Sunnucks, 24, who also saw the incident, said: “We were about 15 cars back on the same carriageway as the collision.
“It looked like a lorry had jackknifed, and I could see half the bridge was missing. We went to have a look and the back end of the lorry was in pieces.”
The graphic designer, a passenger travelling from Maidstone to Sevenoaks, said: “The motorcyclist was laying down underneath his bike.”
An estimated 13 million drivers were expected to take to the road for a holiday or an outing between Friday and Monday, according to the AA.
Saturday was expected to be the busiest single day for motorists embarking on leisure journeys, with 10 million drivers predicted to be getting behind the wheel.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/28/m20-to-reopen-following-bridge-collapse
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| 2016-08-28T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/2b4c78b1fe1d37899cbb5e3b6794c499546edde174a968ac005f18522698f820.json
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[] | 2016-08-29T18:52:22 | null | 2016-08-29T16:52:16 |
Letters: The display of men controlling how women dress after burkini bans reminded me of my humiliation at an open-air pool in Ruislip in 1957
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Women in burkinis and men in suits
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www.theguardian.com
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This display of men controlling how women dress (Armed French police pictured ordering woman to remove burkini on Nice beach, 24 August) reminded me of my humiliation at an open-air pool in Ruislip in 1957 when I, beautifully suntanned and wearing a bikini, was ordered by loudhailer to leave the pool and dress suitably. Nothing changes, just a further reason – religion and terrorism are the current excuse.
Hilary Green
London
• No woman in a burqa (or a hijab or a burkini) has ever done me any harm. But I was sacked (without explanation) by a man in a suit. Men in suits missold me pensions and endowments, costing me thousands of pounds. A man in a suit led us on a disastrous and illegal war. Men in suits led the banks and crashed the world economy. Other men in suits then increased the misery to millions through austerity. If we are to start telling people what to wear, maybe we should ban suits.
Henry Stewart
London
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/29/women-in-burkinis-and-men-in-suits
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| 2016-08-29T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/fb22ddc6d8d1fa26710d798ad92fc83b23b9bada30aee85033234a122e5098bc.json
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[
"Chris Cook"
] | 2016-08-29T12:52:21 | null | 2016-08-29T10:48:44 |
Eton Rambler could upset Ickymasho and Patrick Mullins in the Amateur Derby at Epsom while Keyman is one to watch in the 4.15 at Chepstow
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Talking Horses: Monday’s best bets plus the latest racing news
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This could be another significant day in the jockeys’ title race, with Jim Crowley and Silvestre De Sousa riding against each other in four out of the five Epsom races open to professionals. I’d give Crowley the edge today, though he’ll miss out on what would have been a good chance in the second race, in which his intended mount, Sirajiah, is now a non-runner.
Horse racing tips: Monday 29 August Read more
Crowley has made a remarkable charge to the top of the table in recent weeks, De Sousa having previously seemed well on his way to a second title. Both are admirable jockeys and it’ll be interesting to see if they can keep it close over the next month or so.
But the pros will have to share the limelight today, as the Amateur Derby is a feature on the card. Patrick Mullins seeks his third success in this race in four years and gets to ride the favourite, Ickymasho. There’s not much wrong with this filly, although she has rather been gifted the run of the race for her most recent successes.
At 4-1, I’ll go instead with Eton Rambler (4.20), the mount of Simon Walker, whose recent record at Epsom is not so great but he did manage to ride the winner of this seven years ago. The horse has a win, two seconds and a ‘badly hampered’ from four previous visits to this specialist track and is only 1lb higher than his most recent winning mark, from September. Eton Rambler has been well held in recent starts but those were much stronger races and it’s interesting that George Baker’s stable has hit form recently.
All you jumps fans will, naturally, be focused on Cartmel, where Dauphine Ereine is a fascinating newcomer for David Pipe. Three times a winner over fences in France, this four-year-old filly is the only known sibling of Dynaste, who did so well for Pipe and ended up with a handicap mark more than two stone higher than the one Dauphine Ereine has now. She’s taking on some exposed-looking types, so this is a good opportunity but a mark of 130 is hardly a gimme for her British debut and I note she’s drifting in the market to 9-4 from an opening 6-5. It’s a race to watch.
Jim Best may seek High Court ruling over rehearing dispute with BHA Read more
But I see each-way appeal in Keyman (4.15) at 10-1 in the closing handicap at Chepstow. This three-year-old was given a basement rating after three poor efforts in maiden races but stayed on well into third place on his handicap debut last month. He’s a couple of pounds lower this time, having carried overweight that day, and Luke Morris is a rather stronger jockey than Mitch Godwin. The step up to a mile and a half should make a difference to this gelding, who has a half-brother that won three Listed races in Italy at middle-distances.
Finally, I shall simply note that his trainer, Jeremy Gask, has a 1% strike-rate in maiden races (2/154) against 9% in handicaps (76/805), one of the more dramatic differences that I’ve seen in a trainer’s record.
Tipping competition – a new week starts on Tuesday. As this is a Bank Holiday, the start of our new week’s tipping competition will be held over until tomorrow.
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https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2016/aug/29/talking-horses-mondays-best-bets-racing-news
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| 2016-08-29T00:00:00 |
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[
"Chris Riddell"
] | 2016-08-28T00:49:39 | null | 2016-08-27T19:05:16 |
Chris Riddell on the demise of the campaign to leave the European Union
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What ever happened to the Brexit campaign?
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2016/aug/28/what-ever-happened-to-the-brexit-campaign
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en
| 2016-08-27T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/9d8b3af7fb9f7cd58c5bb6e15ee59a850e415b45e748a47ddad7cc5f611897e5.json
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[
"Paolo Bandini"
] | 2016-08-29T10:51:56 | null | 2016-08-29T10:13:01 |
The Polish striker has big shoes to fill at Napoli after Gonzalo Higuaín’s painful departure, but he combined with Dries Mertens to put Milan to the sword and get their Serie A campaign up and running
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ffootball%2Fblog%2F2016%2Faug%2F29%2Fnapoli-milan-milik-mertens-serie-a.json
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Arkadiusz Milik and Dries Mertens help Napoli fans forget their heartache
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Decibel Bellini would be the first to tell you that he has been lucky in love. Napoli’s exuberant stadium announcer is always sharing photos of partner Valentina, with whom he is expecting a second child, on his various social media feeds. Bellini’s syllable-by-syllable serenades to every Napoli goalscorer, meanwhile, have won him endless adoration from his club’s supporters.
Life was not always like this. As Bellini explained in a Facebook post this July, “when I was a little boy, I often fell in love with the most beautiful girls in school. I was chubby and not too good looking, and in the end, despite all my love letters, offers to carry their rucksacks and everything else, I could not grab their attention.”
Arkadiusz Milik scores twice as Napoli beat nine-man Milan in thriller Read more
The story was shared with a purpose. Bellini wanted his followers to understand that sometimes, “we fall in love with someone or something that simply does not want to be loved”. A record-breaking Argentinian striker, for example. Gonzalo Higuaín would complete his transfer from Napoli to Juventus two days later.
Not everyone in Naples was able to view this betrayal as philosophically as Bellini. Higuaín’s face was printed onto rolls of toilet paper sold at pre-season friendlies, and a photo did the rounds of somebody trying (and presumably failing) to flush his shirt down the can.
On Saturday, an opportunistic betting company parked a bus outside the Stadio San Paolo with a banner carrying the message ‘#coreNgrat’ (ungrateful heart) on its side. Any fan owning a replica shirt with Higuaín’s name on it was invited to step aboard and swap it for a new one.
Sami Khedira strikes to give Juventus the edge over Lazio Read more
All this, of course, was catharsis. Even Bellini - whilst stressing that this had never been a reciprocal love affair - confessed to being upset by Higuaín’s departure. Sometimes, though, the best way to get over a bad break-up is to throw yourself into a rebound fling. After just 33 minutes of Napoli’s home opener against Milan, supporters had tumbled happily into the embrace of a tall Polish stranger.
The name Arkadiusz does not roll of Italian tongues quite as easily as Gonzalo, but Bellini bellowed it just as gleefully all the same. “Milik!” replied the crowd at each repetition. If it felt unfamiliar the first time around, then it was already starting to sound just right by the time that the striker fired them into a 2-0 first-half lead.
Despite being the second-most expensive player in Napoli’s history, at a fee of €32m plus bonuses, Milik had arrived this summer as something of an unknown quantity. Still just 22 years old, he scored 47 goals in two seasons at Ajax, as well as starting for Poland at Euro 2016 – but these games were not well watched on the peninsula.
There was a presumption in some quarters that Napoli still needed a more senior player to replace Higuaín. Rumours persisted of a move for Fiorentina’s Nikola Kalinic, or even a bid to bring back Edinson Cavani from Paris Saint-Germain. Manolo Gabbiadini was selected at centre-forward for the season opener against Pescara, with Milik on the bench. It was only after they swapped places in that match, however, that Napoli rallied from two goals down to rescue a point. Dries Mertens played the starring role in that recovery, but Milik’s strength and aggression were also noted by manager Maurizio Sarri.
Both players were duly named in the starting XI against Milan, and both were involved in the game’s first goal. Mertens’s curling shot from the left came back off the post, and Milik was perfectly placed to prod home the rebound. If this was a clumsy finish, bobbling into the ground and taking a fortuitous hop over the legs of Milan goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, then his next goal was a fine glancing header that flew straight into the top corner. Milik had shown real menace inbetween, too, teeing up Marek Hamsik after a shimmy on the edge of the box, before having his violent shot deflected behind by a lunging defender.
Milan could not contain him, much less the brilliant Mertens - who carved them open time and again, only to be denied repeatedly by Donnarumma. Without the keeper’s sharp reflexes, this match might have been all over before the interval. Instead, Milan scored twice in the space of five second-half minutes. M’Baye Niang tore past Elseid Hysaj down the left before burying a fine finish into the far side of the net, before Suso crashed home a brilliant strike from just outside the D.
Napoli were livid over the first of those goals, arguing that Jorginho had been fouled at the start of Milan’s attack; Sarri was sent to the stand for protesting. His complaints might have been justified, but on both goals Napoli’s defending was also suspect. There had been warning signs right at the start of the match, when Niang swung a low ball across the six-yard box only for an unmarked Ignazio Abate to blaze over.
Rather than a game of two halves, however, this turned out to be a game of three thirds. Napoli roared back into the ascendancy, Mertens and José Callejón leading the charge. It was the Belgian once again who cut in from the left and shot in the 74th minute. This time Donnarumma could only palm his shot into the path of Callejón, who slotted the ball home.
Milan imploded, Juraj Kucka and Niang each getting sent off for second bookings. Gustavo Gómez was fortunate not to join them after drawing blood with an elbow to the head of Raúl Albiól. Chelsea target Alessio Romagnoli could have gone, too, for using his hands to claw the ball off the line after deflecting a Lorenzo Insigne cross goalwards. Referee Paolo Valeri did well to allow play to continue long enough for Callejón to nudge the ball in. That outcome helped Romagnoli to escape with a yellow card instead of a red.
It was a chaotic end to an entertaining match between two teams that, unsurprisingly at this early stage of the season, still have plenty of flaws to iron out. Both are expected to remain active in the final days of the transfer window, though Aurelio de Laurentiis did post a statement on Napoli’s website on Sunday clarifying that he had no intention of bringing Cavani back to the club.
As for Milik, he posted a picture on Twitter of himself and Mertens as a pair of M&Ms. What could be better than chocolate, to help mend a city’s broken heart?
Talking points
• Donnarumma might have been on the losing side this weekend, but he was rewarded for his strong form with a first call-up to the Italian national team. He is the youngest player to receive that honour since Rodolfo Gavinelli all the way back in 1911. Other new faces in Giampiero Ventura’s first Italy squad are Romagnoli, Torino’s Andrea Belotti and Genoa’s Leonardo Pavoletti. The Azzurri face France in friendly on Thursday, then Israel in a World Cup qualifier on Monday.
• Both Milik and Donnarumma were wearing the No99 shirt on Saturday. I don’t really have anything to add to that, but for some reason it felt like a fact that needed to be acknowledged.
• A disappointing weekend for Inter on the pitch, as they were unable to convert their many chances into a win over Palermo, but an exciting one off it with both João Mário and Gabriel ‘Gabigol’ Barbosa arriving in Milan to join the club. Monday’s papers carried fretful headlines about the five-point gap to Juventus, but Inter’s target for this season has only ever been a top-three finish, not a title. The more immediate concern is that this summer’s big signings are unlikely to be able to play in Europe. Inter are operating under Financial Fair Play restrictions and had agreed a maximum break-even deficit of €30m for the year ending in 2016, followed by no deficit in 2017. These latest signings will take their summer spend beyond €100m, with barely one-tenth of that sum covered by sales so far.
• Then again, Inter could always look to Juventus for guidance on how to win games without your expensive summer signings. Higuaín and Marko Pjaca entered only as second-half substitutes for the champions away to Lazio, whilst Miralem Pjanic never made it off the bench at all. It was left to Sami Khedira to score the goal that maintained their perfect start.
• Joining Juventus on six points are Sampdoria, Genoa and Sassuolo. The Blucerchiati have been aided by red cards for opponents in both of their games so far, but certainly look like a tighter unit under Marco Giampaolo, while their neighbours benefited from playing what should have been an away game against Crotone at a neutral venue this weekend. Sassuolo, meanwhile, are simply flying. Domenico Berardi, after turning down a move to Juventus this summer, has scored in all six of his team’s games across all competitions. Dating back to last season, the Neroverdi have now won six straight in Serie A.
• Crotone’s fans were certainly not happy with that decision to host Genoa in Pescara - roughly 350 miles away - while renovation works continue at their own Stadio Enzo Scida. Ultras from the Curva Sud boycotted the match, but released a statement saying that they would buy tickets anyway after their club promised to donate all proceeds to victims of last week’s earthquake.
• The future of Nikola Maksimovic remains in question after he went awol at Torino on the eve of this season - apparently in a bid to force a move to Napoli. Sinisa Mihajlovic, though, was unequivocal when asked about his centre-back this weekend, saying the player is “dead to me”.
• Kevin Strootman achieved another significant landmark in his recovery from successive knee injuries, scoring his first Serie A goal for 952 days. Unfortunately Roma, fresh from their Champions League collapse against Porto, ruined this occasion, too, by blowing a two-goal lead at Cagliari.
Results: Cagliari 2-2 Roma, Crotone 1-3 Genoa, Fiorentina 1-0 Chievo, Inter 1-1 Palermo, Lazio 0-1 Juventus, Napoli 4-2 Milan, Sampdoria 2-1 Atalanta, Sassuolo 2-1 Pescara, Torino 5-1 Bologna, Udinese 2-0 Empoli
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https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2016/aug/29/napoli-milan-milik-mertens-serie-a
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| 2016-08-29T00:00:00 |
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[
"Edward Helmore"
] | 2016-08-29T12:52:15 | null | 2016-08-29T12:44:41 |
Beyoncé invites mothers of black men killed by police to Video Music Awards; researchers leave Mars dome in Hawaii; Rousseff impeachment trial to begin
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Will a 'deportation force' remain in Trump immigration policy?
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www.theguardian.com
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Supported by Cisco
Trump in immigration muddle
Ahead of a much-anticipated policy address that the candidate said would take place in Arizona on Wednesday, close advisers said Donald Trump’s hardline stance on immigration has not altered, despite recent indications of moderation. “Nothing has changed about Donald Trump’s position in dealing with illegal immigration,” running mate Mike Pence said. Yet no aide or surrogate could confirm that Trump still plans to use a “deportation force” against the 11 million undocumented migrants who live in the US, a promise which gained traction in the primary. Pence also praised Trump for being “plainspoken”, after his controversial tweet about the death in Chicago of a cousin of the NBA star Dwyane Wade. Meanwhile, a polling slump in Republican heartlands is worrying party leaders, though as Ben Jacobs reports, Iowa could buck that trend.
Trump surrogates: Republican’s position on immigration has not changed
Beyoncé brings mothers of black men killed in US to VMAs
Pop star Beyoncé invited the mothers of Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant and Eric Garner, men who were killed when unarmed, to accompany her to the MTV music awards. The mothers –Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden-Head; Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton; Grant’s mother, Wanda Johnson and Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr – were also featured in Beyoncé’s visual album, Lemonade, holding photos of their deceased sons.
Beyoncé brings mothers to MTV VMAs
Rebels in the west
The Bundy family of Nevada are the preeminent rebel clan of the west. Sam Levin met the current generation, raised on a remote desert ranch in Bunkerville, an unincorporated desert town 80 miles north-east of Las Vegas. The clan’s disputes with the federal government and run-ins with law enforcement over land rights have made them folk heroes to many. “The west was won by people standing up,” said matriarch Carol Bundy. “It runs deep in our blood. Do you give up on something that is born in you?”
How the Bundy family sparked a new battle for the American west
Life on Mars: ‘astronauts’ leave Hawaii dome
After a year living in isolation, to simulate the isolation of a mission to Mars, six researchers left a dome on Mauna Loa. The group included a French astrobiologist, a German physicist and four Americans – a pilot, an architect, a doctor/journalist and a soil scientist. “I can give you my personal impression, which is that a mission to Mars in the close future is realistic,” said Cyprien Verseux, the crew member from France. “I think the technological and psychological obstacles can be overcome.”
Mars scientists leave dome on Hawaii mountain after year in isolation
Trudeau’s China dilemma
As the Canadian prime minister embarks on an eight-day visit to China, ending at the G20 summit in Hangzhou, officials see an opportunity to build a closer relationship. The visit places Justin Trudeau in the footsteps of his father, Pierre, whose government re-established diplomatic relations in 1971. Commentators are warning that Trudeau must strike a balance with the ambitious regional superpower. “He’s got to be seen as not overtly pro-China, to represent broad Canadian interests,” said Hugh Stephens of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.
Trudeau’s challenge in China: forging closer ties while remaining wary
Impeachment battle to get under way in Brazil
The impeachment trial of Brazil’s first female president, Dilma Rousseff, is expected to begin on Monday. The Workers Party leader, who was suspended in May, is scheduled to testify before legislators vote for her permanent ejection from office for alleged fiscal irregularities. Rousseff, a former Marxist guerrilla who was tortured during the military dictatorship, has vowed to make a final stand. “The only thing that kills anti-democratic parasites is the oxygen of debate,” she said.
Rousseff prepares to testify at Brazil impeachment hearing
Argentina forced to revisit brutal past
Earlier this month, centre-right president Mauricio Macri appeared to doubt the long-accepted historical understanding that 30,000 people died under the military regime that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. “I have no idea. That’s a debate I’m not going to enter, whether they were 9,000 or 30,000,” he said in an interview with Buzzfeed. Macri’s words may have opened the door to regime sympathizers and allowed denialist rhetoric to enter mainstream political discourse.
Argentina’s brutal history resurfaces as denialist theories creep up again
French mayors maintain burkini ban
More than 20 mayors who have banned “burkini” full-body swimsuits in resorts along the French riviera are refusing to lift the restrictions despite the country’s highest administrative court ruling that the bans on a form of dress worn by Muslim women are a “serious and manifestly illegal violation of fundamental freedoms”. The bans, which provide municipal police with authority to stop and fine any woman wearing a burkini, now pose a major problem to the avowedly secular French state.
French mayors refuse to lift burkini ban despite court ruling
Mafia ‘barred’ from earthquake reconstruction
Franco Roberti, the head of Italy’s national anti-mafia directorate, has said organised crime must be prevented from taking any role in reconstruction after the earthquake that killed 281 people. Roberti said organised crime gangs were notorious for infiltrating construction contracts after the 1980 Irpinia earthquake near Naples, in which more than 2,400 people died. “There are risks, it is useless to hide it,” Roberti told La Repubblica. “Post-earthquake reconstruction is a tasty morsel for criminal organisations and business interests.”
Italy must block mafia from earthquake rebuild, says prosecutor
German minister: UK must pay for Brexit
Germany’s economy minister, Sigmar Gabriel, has said Britain must take responsibility for having left Europe an “unstable continent”. Gabriel said Britain must not be allowed to “keep the nice things” that come with European Union membership, without taking responsibility for the fallout from Brexit. It was primarily a psychological issue, he said, but if the issue was badly handled, and other member countries followed Britain’s lead, Europe would go “down the drain”.
UK must pay for Brexit or EU is in ‘deep trouble’, says German minister
Car hackers demonstrate their art
Car companies are “finally realising that what they sell is just a big computer you sit in”, said Kevin Tighe, a senior systems engineer at the security testing firm Bugcrowd. Guardian writer Alex Hern visited Defcon, the world’s largest hacking conference, where hackers demonstrated how to take over a Jeep using only a laptop connected to the internet, cutting the brakes and transmission.
Car hacking is the future – and sooner or later you’ll be hit
In case you missed it
Two weeks after she polled even with the dead gorilla Harambe in a survey of Texas voters, Green party presidential candidate Jill Stein marked the three-month anniversary of the primate’s death with a reminder for “us to be a voice for the voiceless”. Harambe, a 17-year-old silverback gorilla, was shot dead after grabbing a three-year-old boy who fell into his enclosure. The animal has since become a social media meme, much to the exasperation of the Cincinnati zoo.
Jill Stein tweets memorial for gorilla, internet meme and poll rival Harambe
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/29/donald-trump-immigration-policy
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| 2016-08-29T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/c29e0ba9468eed8f2ea5dec96c7b6793cf3c4037f2d6fbffa79f17725a4437d6.json
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[
"Jamie Jackson"
] | 2016-08-28T20:51:44 | null | 2016-08-28T19:35:30 |
Sergio Agüero will miss the Manchester derby with United if he is retrospectively banned over an elbowing incident involving West Ham’s Winston Reid
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Pep Guardiola on potential Agüero ban: ‘If it happens, we accept and adapt’
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Sergio Agüero is facing a three-game ban that would rule the Manchester City striker out of next month’s derby after the striker appeared to elbow Winston Reid during the win against West Ham United.
The incident occurred after 76 minutes and, as the referee, Andre Marriner, did not book or send off Agüero, the Football Association can take retrospective action. However, if Marriner states he did see the incident and is comfortable with his original decision not to act upon it, the FA may not bring a charge against Agüero.
Pep Guardiola’s tactical nous upstaged by Manchester City’s sheer will to win Read more
City secured a third consecutive Premier League win under Pep Guardiola to become the early leaders, ahead of Chelsea and Manchester United on goal difference. Two goals from Raheem Sterling either side of Fernandinho’s goal sealed the win, with West Ham’s response via Michail Antonio’s 58th‑minute header.
Manchester City continue winning start as Raheem Sterling sees off West Ham Read more
The only sour note for City was the prospective loss of Agüero, who has scored six times for them this season. If the Argentinian is found guilty of violent conduct he will not only miss the visit to Old Trafford a week on Saturday but also the home game against Bournemouth and the trip to Swansea City in the EFL Cup.
“I am new here so I don’t know how it works,” Guardiola said in regards to Agüero’s potential ban. “I didn’t see [the act] so I cannot comment. Hopefully nothing happens. If it happens, we accept and adapt. If we lose him, we lose him. We are going to play with 11.”
Mark Noble, the West Ham captain, claimed Reid was left speechless by the challenge. “I didn’t see it, to be honest. I didn’t know what it was about,” he said. “I know he [Reid] couldn’t talk [in the dressing room]. He said it was because he had got something in the throat.”
Asked if Agüero had elbowed Reid in the Adam’s apple, Noble said: “I know that he can’t talk in there so that must be the case.”
Slaven Bilic, the West Ham manager, said: “I did not see the Sergio Agüero incident. We were going to change the centre-half anyway to go four at the back. Winston Reid got a little injured so we took him off [a minute later].”
During the first half John Stones took a knock and the defender was taken off after 59 minutes. The City manager insisted that the defender was fine. “I don’t think Stones is injured. I saw him tired, I saw him with problems.”
Manchester City 3-1 West Ham United: Premier League – as it happened Read more
Willy Caballero was again chosen ahead of Joe Hart with the new £17m signing Claudio Bravo watching from the stands having been signed from Barcelona on Thursday. This means the 33-year-old’s debut could come in the hostile atmosphere of the derby. “He has the personality to play everywhere,” Guardiola said of the Chilean goalkeeper. “I don’t know what will happen with the national team. When he is back here he will start to train and after I will take the decision.”
After reporting back for pre-season overweight Samir Nasri impressed in a 15‑minute cameo, his first action of the campaign. Guardiola indicated the Frenchman may stay when the transfer window closes. “Yeah, it depends on the player but he can play. Samir arrived overweight but after one week, 10 days, it was fantastic how he trained, how he competed. His quality is on another level but it depends on him. If you want to help us, want to stay, want to be part of something, it depends on him, not me.”
Of City’s performance, Guardiola said: “Of course we can do it better. No doubt about that. But we are just one and a half, two months here and I didn’t expect to play in the short time in a lot of minutes. We played good first half, started better than at Stoke or Steaua Bucharest but the goal from West Ham in the first action, we didn’t concede anything before that.
“We controlled our emotions really well after that. We created many chances so we deserved to win clearly with more goals. The performance is good. We need Ilkay and Sane and all the guys because the guys who play today cannot play every three days. From the beginning I don’t have any complaints about the behaviour of these guys.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/aug/28/sergio-aguero-miss-manchester-united-clash
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| 2016-08-28T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/7b61a21f2e049b20c007b04d7ff6508b0db195d664800fa33eaed228a51aac97.json
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[] | 2016-08-30T20:50:15 | null | 2016-08-30T18:49:35 |
Letters: You can visit the Hornby Library at Liverpool’s Central Library and see an exhibition titled ‘Richard Le Gallienne: Liverpool’s Wild(e) Poet’
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Liverpool gives Oscar Wilde a good showing in exhibition on his friend
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Readers interested in Oscar Wilde need not wait until late September or travel to Paris to view rare and unique items associated with him (Paris exhibition to celebrate life and work of Oscar Wilde, theguardian.com, 24 August). Until 31 October, they can also visit the Hornby Library at Liverpool’s Central Library and see (for no charge) an exhibition titled “Richard Le Gallienne: Liverpool’s Wild(e) Poet”, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of an English writer who was one of Wilde’s friends and disciples. Among the objects on display are an original photograph of Wilde by Napoleon Sarony; the manuscript of an unpublished book review by Wilde that he sent to Le Gallienne; a copy of Poems inscribed to Le Gallienne, in which Wilde hails him as “poet and lover”; and a letter by Le Gallienne that describes the first night of Lady Windermere’s Fan and Wilde’s famous curtain speech, congratulating the audience.
Margaret Stetz and Mark Samuels Lasner
Curators of the exhibition Richard Le Gallienne: Liverpool’s Wild(e) Poet
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
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https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/aug/30/liverpool-gives-oscar-wilde-a-good-showing-in-exhibition-on-his-friend
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| 2016-08-30T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/79442436db11d821acdecefd8436d7e2a211047e3484d4ed59617ea56c33798c.json
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[
"Zoe Wood",
"David Edgar",
"Frances O'Grady",
"Keir Starmer"
] | 2016-08-26T20:59:12 | null | 2016-07-30T23:05:19 |
Britain’s new army of self-employed are fighting for better pay and employment rights
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‘Love the job, hate the way we’re treated’: life on the frontline of UK’s delivery army
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When London bicycle courier Andrew Boxer rides over Blackfriars Bridge, the panoramic view of the capital makes his heart beat faster. But he feels less elated when he opens his weekly pay packet.
Boxer is one of four couriers involved in a legal case that could come to symbolise the fight against low pay and the lack of employment rights among the army of the self-employed powering Britain’s fast-growing “gig economy”.
“Most of us just love riding around London,” he says of his job with courier firm Excel, which can involve 60 to 70 miles a day in the saddle. “Even in appalling weather, riding along the river is an exciting experience. Most low-paid jobs aren’t this much fun.”
From parcel carriers delivering packages to online shoppers, to app-driven services such as Uber and Deliveroo, the gig economy, which has transformed delivery services, relies on large networks of self-employed contractors like Boxer. Their status means they are not entitled to earn the national living wage or receive benefits such as sickness and holiday pay.
Supporters of the gig economy claim it offers an easy way to be your own boss and earn extra cash by delivering parcels or takeaways, but a recent investigation by the Guardian exposed the dark side of this flexible labour market, with some self-employed couriers working for the parcel giant Hermes earning less than £7.20 an hour – the new minimum hourly rate for over-25s.
Boxer, 59, returned to being a courier five years ago and, with payments ranging from £2.90 up to £5.80 per hour depending on the service, says he finds it harder to make a living now than in the 1980s. His most recent weekly invoices show earnings of £337.29 and £336.20 for what he estimates were 44-hour working weeks. Taking into account weekly maintenance of £20 on his vintage Raleigh bicycle and other costs, Boxer says it is borderline whether he earns the minimum wage for his efforts.
“I always strive to do at least 20 dockets,” he explains of his daily routine. “Sometimes I can do 25, and other riders can manage a bit more, but I’m not cavalier fast.”
Self-employment in the UK is growing rapidly, up by 300,000 year-on-year to 4.79 million, according to official figures released this month. But calls are growing for these workers, many being paid for piecemeal tasks, to have employment rights. Another high-profile case involves the app-based taxi service Uber, which is fighting legal action from drivers who argue they are employees, not independent operators.
The cycle couriers are taking Excel, as well as City Sprint, Addison Lee and eCourier, to an employment tribunal with the support of their union, the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB). They want to be classified as workers, which would entitle them to rights such as the minimum wage and holiday pay.
Business owners argue that the gig economy offers workers flexibility, but Boxer says it is one-sided: “I don’t have different clients or decide how much to charge. I carry a company ID at all times. I don’t have any independence as such. The most important thing for me would be to receive some paid holiday.”
The courier companies say the tribunal claims are unfounded. Excel did not respond to a request for comment, but has previously said its London couriers “operate as independent sub-contractors” and that it is confident the tribunal would uphold this view.
The preliminary tribunal hearings have taken place and IWGB general secretary Jason Moyer-Lee says the four cases will be heard by the same judge starting in the autumn.
“Our legal advice is that we are likely to win,” he says, adding: “Although whoever loses is likely to appeal. The higher it gets [in the appeal process], the wider the implications.
“The problem is that the cycle couriers are fulfilling all the conditions required of a worker but not receiving any of the benefits. There is absolutely no reason why being flexible has to be incompatible with workers’ rights such as holiday pay and the minimum wage.”
The IWGB is trying to unionise riders working for Deliveroo, the app which sends cyclists to restaurants to pick up orders for customers.
It emerged last week that the contracts of Deliveroo’s self-employed workers, who earn an hourly rate as well as drop fees, have a clause which warns they cannot go to court to try to be recognised as staff members.
“The job itself I like,” one Deliveroo rider said. “The pay is all right too, but I hate the way they treat us as if you are just two legs and they can toss you away whenever they want. If you got hit by a car you wouldn’t be entitled to a single penny.”
Labour MP Frank Field is calling for a parliamentary inquiry into the working practices at Hermes, including what he terms “bogus self employment”.
“From what the [Hermes] couriers have told me, it seems as though they enjoy none of the benefits that are supposed to come from flexible self-employment,” he said. “But they do shoulder almost all of the risks and insecurity.”
Field says cracks are emerging in a system that has placed too much emphasis on having a flexible workforce: “The government wants stable, happy families, but you have got to have jobs paying family wages. For many people these jobs are not top-up money; it’s their wage packet.”
A DAY IN THE SADDLE
Facebook Twitter Pinterest London bike courier Andrew Boxer is fighting for better pay and employment rights. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Observer
Left home in Kentish Town, north London, at 9am and headed towards Camden Town. Over the radio I could hear other couriers picking up work - that is one of the pressures, hearing others are busy. I was ‘empty’ until 9.45am, when I got my first job in Paddington. The route involved Marylebone Road, which was congested with buses, lorries and taxis. I’m very experienced at dealing with traffic and can skim through busy streets.
“After that things started to pick up. I had a run of five jobs and was buzzing around the West End. Riding up Regent Street, I came across an injured motorbike courier. Seeing that is always a reminder of the dangers of the job.
“By midday I was zigzagging across the City for legal and accountancy firms. Because we use trade entrances, we see the dirty side of corporate life: the waste and recycling – breeze blocks, not glass, steel and plush leather seats.
“One trip took me over Southwark Bridge, which was beautiful, with the sunlight skimming the river. The afternoon involved runs between the City and lawyers’ offices in Temple, before heading back into the West End. I finished around 6pm, having covered 50 to 60 miles, made 19 deliveries and earned £65 to £70. Andrew Boxer
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https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/jul/30/job-pay-workers-gig-economy
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| 2016-07-30T00:00:00 |
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[] | 2016-08-26T13:30:41 | null | 2016-05-10T00:00:00 |
‘Ballet embraces the soft, ethereal and majestic side to women, and yet we often don’t see the media portray black women in this light,’ says the dancer and founder of the Swan Dreams Project, which ‘aims to reveal that women of color possess these qualities’
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Aesha Ash: the elite ballerina helping everyone feel welcome onstage
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
‘Ballet embraces the soft, ethereal and majestic side to women, and yet we often don’t see the media portray black women in this light,’ says the dancer and founder of the Swan Dreams Project, which ‘aims to reveal that women of color possess these qualities’
|
http://www.theguardian.com/personal-investments/ng-interactive/2016/may/10/aesha-ash-ballerina-black-inclusive-swan-dreams
|
en
| 2016-05-10T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/b35374f65141500158bf03c7a0d5d33c8c7ddacb2279b304c6fa715222e4fc39.json
|
|
[
"Source"
] | 2016-08-29T08:52:05 | null | 2016-08-29T08:40:47 |
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is evacuated on Sunday night following loud noises that were mistaken for gunfire
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fus-news%2Fvideo%2F2016%2Faug%2F29%2Flax-los-angeles-airport-evacuated-false-reports-gunfire-video-report.json
|
en
| null |
Los Angeles airport evacuated following false reports of gunfire - video report
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is evacuated on Sunday night following reports of gunfire. Police later found the reports to be false. One police source said loud noises were confused for shots. Police are investigating what happened but found no evidence of suspicious activity. Photograph: Bob Riha Jr/Reuters
Panic at Los Angeles airport after noise mistaken for gunfire
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2016/aug/29/lax-los-angeles-airport-evacuated-false-reports-gunfire-video-report
|
en
| 2016-08-29T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/eae58e92c306aad50e4b1cbeb384d16ac105634241807084c96699778d482f52.json
|
|
[
"Michael Slezak"
] | 2016-08-29T06:57:26 | null | 2016-08-29T04:55:05 |
More than 120 million of the world’s poorest depend on the coffee economy, a report says, and their livelihoods are already suffering from temperature rises
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fenvironment%2F2016%2Faug%2F29%2Fclimate-change-predicted-to-halve-coffee-growing-area-that-supports-120m-people.json
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en
| null |
Climate change predicted to halve coffee-growing area that supports 120m people
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Climate change is going to halve the area suitable for coffee production and impact the livelihoods of more than 120 million of the world’s poorest people who rely on the coffee economy, according to a new report by the Climate Institute, commissioned by Fairtrade Australia & New Zealand.
The report findings follow stark warnings by some of the world’s biggest coffee producers, including Starbucks and Lavazza, who have said climate change is posing a severe risk to the industry.
Journey to Ethiopia, the origin of coffee Read more
Climate change is already impacting coffee crops around the world, according to the report. In Tanzania, where 2.4 million people’s livelihoods rely on coffee, production has fallen by about 137kg per hectare for every 1C rise in the minimum temperature on farms. Overall there has been a 50% decline there since the 1960s.
Extreme temperatures and unusual high-altitude rains have also sparked costly waves of pests and disease through coffee farms. In 2012, coffee leaf rust affected half of the coffee across Central America – some producers in Guatemala lost up to 85% of their crop.
In 2012-13 the damage in Central America amounted to about US$500m and put 350,000 people out of work.
How climate change will impact coffee growers in coming decades will vary by region. Scientists think Nicaragua could lose the majority of its coffee-growing areas by 2050, and in Tanzania, coffee yields were projected to reach “critically low levels” by 2060.
By 2080, scientists think wild coffee, which is important for genetic diversity of farmed coffee, could be extinct.
For consumers of coffee, all of this will impact flavour, aroma and price, the report said.
Some large coffee producers have been warning the world about the impacts of climate change. In 2015, Mario Cerutti from Lavazza told a conference: “We have a cloud hovering over our head. It’s dramatically serious. Climate change can have a significant adverse effect in the short term. It’s no longer about the future; it’s the present.”
And in 2011, Jim Hanna, director of environmental affairs at Starbucks told the Guardian that climate change is a “potentially significant risk to our supply chain”.
“If we sit by and wait until the impacts of climate change are so severe that is impacting our supply chain then that puts us at a greater risk,” he said.
Since most coffee growers are poor smallholders, their ability to adapt to climate change on their own is limited.
Empowering women to empower men in Kenyan coffee producing communities Read more
To adapt, coffee farmers could move to higher ground or away from the equator. But since coffee plants take several years to become productive, that would often be impossible without assistance. Other strategies involve developing more resilient production systems and diversifying crops, which also require support.
“There are things we coffee drinkers can do to assist,” said John Connor, the chief executive of the Climate Institute.
Connor said consumers should only buy brands that “provide a fair return to farmers and their communities while helping to build their capacity to adapt to climate change”.
Fairtrade, which commissioned the report, said its “Fairtrade Climate Neutral Coffee” did that. And in 2010, several big coffee companies set up the “initiative for coffee and climate” which seeks to help farmers respond to climate change.
|
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/29/climate-change-predicted-to-halve-coffee-growing-area-that-supports-120m-people
|
en
| 2016-08-29T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/36ca185a193bd8eaef2cd53e2c689ac6023e5d5a4b1b1f4cad30f43302b888ce.json
|
|
[
"Leah Mclaren",
"Photograph",
"William Claxton",
"Copyright"
] | 2016-08-26T13:17:21 | null | 2016-08-25T22:08:51 |
In 1960, photographer William Claxton and German musicologist Joachim Berendt travelled the United States from Greenwich Village to Chicago and California, hot the heels of a musical phenomenon
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fartanddesign%2Fgallery%2F2016%2Faug%2F25%2Fjazzlife-william-claxtons-jazz-life-in-pictures.json
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en
| null |
Dancing in the streets: William Claxton's jazz life - in pictures
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Andre Previn, Hollywood
After seeing his work on album covers, Berendt asked Claxton along to photograph the journey because his pictures had ‘soul’. “He made it all sound a bit erudite,” said Claxton, “but it seemed like a very important project, and I was thrilled by his offer.”
Photograph: William Claxton
|
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2016/aug/25/jazzlife-william-claxtons-jazz-life-in-pictures
|
en
| 2016-08-25T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/399ad66dd24f21ea8d98c7d09f84aa9854d3ee55d8a09b88365d9b64fd6dcc70.json
|
|
[
"Graham Ruddick"
] | 2016-08-26T13:29:41 | null | 2016-08-08T23:01:26 |
Latest figures show like-for-like retail sales rose more than 1% in July, the best performance since January
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fbusiness%2Fblog%2F2016%2Faug%2F09%2Fretailers-benefit-as-sunshine-sends-post-brexit-spending-soaring.json
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en
| null |
Retailers benefit as sunshine sends post-Brexit spending soaring
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Britain’s vote to leave the European Union may have been a shock, but a prolonged period of warm weather in July was even more unexpected.
At least that is what the latest retail sales figures show. Like-for-like retail sales, which excludes newly opened or closed stores, rose by 1.1% in July, while total sales rose by 1.9%. This was the best performance since January according to the British Retail Consortium and KPMG index.
UK consumers keep spending despite Brexit vote shock Read more
The increase suggests there has been no post-referendum drop-off in consumer spending, despite surveys forecasting that the confidence of business and households have taken a hit.
However, this should not be a surprise. Firstly, more than half of voters wanted Brexit. It is an obvious statement but one worth remembering when considering the potential damage to the economy from the vote. The 52% who voted for Brexit presumably did not think that they would be worse of as a result, so they will be less inclined to rein in spending then those who wanted to stay in the EU. In fact, some Brexiters may have celebrated the result by spending a few bob on a nice bottle of bubbly.
As it stands, of course, nothing has actually changed yet. Britain is still a member of the EU. The impact on household spending may not filter down until businesses actually pull operations out of the country or cut jobs.
Secondly, though, the warm weather in July offset any underlying shift in consumer sentiment.
Retail sales figures for the UK are notoriously volatile, with the BRC and KPMG report considered the most accurate of a mixed bunch by retailers. However, trends are easily identifiable, and those in the July report show a textbook British reaction to a heatwave – spending on summer clothing, picnic and barbecue food went up, and spending on furniture went down.
Food enjoyed its best sales performance since November 2013, excluding distortions for the timing of Easter. In contrast, furniture fell from being the best-performing retail category in the year so far to just the fourth best. After all, who wants to do DIY inside when the sun is shining?
There is one intriguing titbit in the figures that will be worth watching in the coming month – sales of jewellery and watches rose sharply in July, making it the best performing retail category. BRC and KPMG claim this is at least partly because of international consumers taking advantage of the weakness of sterling to buy luxury items. However, Eid also took place in July, which will have boosted the market.
It will be interesting to see whether the luxury market can sustain this performance. If it does, then it could offset the effects of a Brexit slump if one hits households when the warm weather inevitably disappears.
National living wage vs executive pay
The trade associations who have written to the government calling for the national living wage to be reconsidered could not have timed their letter worse.
Their intervention was revealed on the same day that the High Pay Centre reported that the average pay for FTSE 100 chief executives rose 10% last year to £5.5m. Company bosses now earn 129 times more than their employees.
The disparity between the national living wage letter and executive pay is staggering.
The trade bodies want Greg Clark, the new business secretary, to slow or scrap the scheduled increase in the national living wage from £7.20 an hour now to more than £9 by 2020. The initiative was introduced by George Osborne and establishes a new level of base pay for workers over 25. If it does reach £9 then it will be one of the highest minimum wages in the developed world.
To be fair, some of the organisations behind the letter represent small businesses, convenience stores, pubs and farms. They are concerned about the economic uncertainty caused by the result of the EU referendum and are keen to keep their costs under control.
However, the national living wage must not fall victim to Brexit. The policy was a small step towards closing the grotesque gap between the pay of workers and their bosses. Any change would send a terrible message.
Theresa May has already said she wants the economy to work “for all, not just the few”. The new prime minister should be looking at ways to increase the national living wage further and clampdown on executive pay, not vice-versa.
Southern strike
The new five-day strike by workers on the Southern rail network does not reflect well on the RMT trade union, Govia Thameslink, the company that holds the franchise, or the government.
The long-running saga is a national embarrassment. Not one of those parties has done enough to resolve the dispute, which revolves around the phasing out of conductors on trains.
The RMT claims that the safety of commuters will be put at risk by conductors being removed from trains, but their safety is more at risk from having to squeeze on overcrowded trains during the dispute.
As for Govia Thameslink, when the dust finally settles from this dispute, they should lose the franchise. They have been unable to cooperate with trade unions and their workforce, which is surely a vital component of any service.
|
https://www.theguardian.com/business/blog/2016/aug/09/retailers-benefit-as-sunshine-sends-post-brexit-spending-soaring
|
en
| 2016-08-08T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/16968375672b802da6a4be16e294e45a1be60fcfb7868651f60442da16a18431.json
|
|
[] | 2016-08-26T13:30:42 | null | 2016-04-26T00:00:00 |
Although the award-winning restaurateur has a global following, he’s dedicating his time to life outside the kitchen – specifically, by helping kids to eat healthier and kick sugar cravings before they start
|
http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fpersonal-investments%2Fng-interactive%2F2016%2Fapr%2F26%2Fjamie-oliver-chef-kids-children-healthy-eating-sugar.json
|
en
| null |
Jamie Oliver: the celebrity chef helps his youngest fans
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Although the award-winning restaurateur has a global following, he’s dedicating his time to life outside the kitchen – specifically, by helping kids to eat healthier and kick sugar cravings before they start
|
http://www.theguardian.com/personal-investments/ng-interactive/2016/apr/26/jamie-oliver-chef-kids-children-healthy-eating-sugar
|
en
| 2016-04-26T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/c57447841b7efe908df808ee54dadc644c23b0f5468cb11c5d17830d1da52f57.json
|
|
[
"Luis Miguel Echegaray"
] | 2016-08-29T22:52:34 | null | 2016-08-29T22:25:39 |
Game-by-game report: The reigning champion opens up his campaign against the unseeded Pole. Follow all the action from Flushing Meadows with Luis Miguel Echegaray
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fsport%2Flive%2F2016%2Faug%2F29%2Fus-open-live-novak-djokovic-jerzy-janowicz-first-round.json
|
en
| null |
Novak Djokovic v Jerzy Janowicz: US Open tennis first round - live!
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
| null |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2016/aug/29/us-open-live-novak-djokovic-jerzy-janowicz-first-round
|
en
| 2016-08-29T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/4bc5c684e092d5cc57ee17a7258fa827a9dc4606e863c962832143ce89bfbd85.json
|
|
[
"Source",
"Graham Ruddick",
"Dan Milmo",
"Owen Jones"
] | 2016-08-26T13:30:37 | null | 2016-08-24T12:15:59 |
Jeremy Corbyn objected to a reporter repeatedly asking questions about the Virgin Trains controversy at a press conference on the NHS
|
http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fpolitics%2Fvideo%2F2016%2Faug%2F24%2Fjeremy-corbyn-clashes-with-journalist-over-train-row-questions-virgin-video.json
|
en
| null |
Corbyn clashes with journalist over train row questions - video
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Jeremy Corbyn objected to a reporter repeatedly asking questions about the Virgin Trains controversy at a press conference where he was expecting questions on the NHS. The Labour leader had initially refused to answer questions from Sky News’s Darren McCaffrey
|
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/video/2016/aug/24/jeremy-corbyn-clashes-with-journalist-over-train-row-questions-virgin-video
|
en
| 2016-08-24T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/7c197125762c1b9a28e588f276479612dce590824cb42fc47776a1b0cdd72087.json
|
|
[
"Louise Taylor"
] | 2016-08-26T13:18:18 | null | 2016-08-25T21:29:01 |
David Moyes will get it right at Sunderland, according to the recent signing Steven Pienaar, a protégé of the manager’s when both were at Everton
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ffootball%2F2016%2Faug%2F25%2Fdavid-moyes-sunderland-steven-pienaar-premier-league.json
|
en
| null |
David Moyes will get it right at Sunderland, says Steven Pienaar
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Steven Pienaar believes David Moyes will put things right at Sunderland but has warned Wearsiders it may take some time to alter the club’s negative mindset and the season may well be difficult.
Javier Manquillo joins Sunderland on season-long loan from Atlético Madrid Read more
“David is definitely the man to get it right,” said the former Everton midfielder who was contemplating retirement in his native South Africa before accepting his former manager’s offer of a one-year contract at the Stadium of Light.
Moyes, who succeeded Sam Allardyce in July, feels Pienaar can offer a very young, injury-hit and somewhat slender Sunderland squad invaluable experience, and the respect forged during the pair’s Goodison Park days is mutual.
“You can’t forget he’s only come into Sunderland in the middle of pre-season,” said Pienaar, who is not overly concerned by his new team having lost both Premier League games and struggling to overcome League One Shrewsbury 1-0 in the League Cup on Wednesday. “He’s still getting used to the players here and he’s got a lot of young players but he will definitely build a solid foundation. He’s definitely a safe pair of hands. And, at Everton, he often tended to start seasons slowly but finish strongly.”
The 34-year-old – currently having to fill an unusually defensive central-midfield role – suggested Moyes’s biggest challenge will be to alter a debilitating collective mentality at a club involved in many relegation scraps over recent years. “We have to try to push away from that mentality of only just avoiding relegation every season,” Pienaar said. “That’s a big problem here at the moment. We have to kick on.
“The manager wants to instil confidence in the players, and he wants the players to just go out and enjoy their football. At the moment there are a lot of young players so it will be hard, it might even be a hard season but we will make progress. There are quite a few good young players here – Duncan Watmore, Joel Asoro, Lynden Gooch and Jordan Pickford to name a few – but they need guidance on the pitch.”
That is where Pienaar comes in and he is still adjusting to the elder-statesman role. “It feels quite strange to be playing with someone who is half my age like Joel Asoro,” he said. “I feel like a dad to some of them – and already I’m one of the senior players, even though I’m new and still getting to know everyone.”
Not that he has any regrets about saying “yes” to Moyes. “I thought my Premier League career was over,” said Pienaar who was released by Everton in June. “When I was back home in South Africa I thought that could be it for me so when the opportunity came up to come back, it was great and exciting. I didn’t play a lot of games last season so it’s about getting back to the level I know I can play at. That will come with playing games. At the moment, though, I’m struggling towards the end of them, getting tired.”
Once he is fully fit again Pienaar hopes he can help Moyes achieve his ambition of turning Sunderland into a latter-day version of Everton. “I’ve had good years and also bad years with David, there’s been times when he’s got stuck into us,” he said. “But, overall, I’ve great memories of working with him and what he instilled in me as a player. Those years with him at Everton were terrific.”
Javier Manquillo has become Sunderland’s sixth summer signing after completing a season-long loan move from Atlético Madrid which offers them club an option to secure a four-year deal for the 22-year-old former Liverpool right-back next summer.
Manquillo, who spent last season on loan at Marseille, follows Papy Djilobodji, Adnan Januzaj, Donald Love, Paddy McNair and Pienaar to Sunderland.
Moyes views the full-back’s arrival as an important step in rebuilding a squad disrupted by Younes Kaboul’s move to Watford, Lamine Kone’s desire to depart for Everton and the loss of last season’s influential loanees Yann M’Vila and DeAndre Yedlin.
|
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/aug/25/david-moyes-sunderland-steven-pienaar-premier-league
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en
| 2016-08-25T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/25804e9170b0d77e5d28af85d6bbc5960bdb6b00f00af79d2714f77bc1164175.json
|
|
[
"Frank T Mcandrew"
] | 2016-08-26T13:28:07 | null | 2016-08-17T16:44:05 |
Perpetual bliss would completely undermine our will to accomplish anything at all – that’s why perfect contentment has probably been evolved out of us
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fcommentisfree%2F2016%2Faug%2F17%2Fpsychology-happiness-contentment-humans-aspire-goals-accomplish-evolution.json
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en
| null |
Don't try to be happy. We're programmed to be dissatisfied
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
In the 1990s, a psychologist named Martin Seligman led the positive psychology movement, which placed the study of human happiness squarely at the center of psychology research and theory. It continued a trend that began in the 1960s with humanistic and existential psychology, which emphasized the importance of reaching one’s innate potential and creating meaning in one’s life, respectively.
Since then, thousands of studies and hundreds of books have been published with the goal of increasing wellbeing and helping people lead more satisfying lives.
So why aren’t we happier? Why have self-reported measures of happiness stayed stagnant for over 40 years?
Perversely, such efforts to improve happiness could be a futile attempt to swim against the tide, as we may actually be programmed to be dissatisfied most of the time.
Part of the problem is that happiness isn’t just one thing.
Jennifer Hecht is a philosopher who studies the history of happiness. In her book The Happiness Myth, Hecht proposes that we all experience different types of happiness, but these aren’t necessarily complementary. Some types of happiness may even conflict with one another. In other words, having too much of one type of happiness may undermine our ability to have enough of the others – so it’s impossible for us to simultaneously have all types of happiness in great quantities.
For example, a satisfying life built on a successful career and a good marriage is something that unfolds over a long period of time. It takes a lot of work, and it often requires avoiding hedonistic pleasures like partying or going on spur-of-the-moment trips. It also means you can’t while away too much of your time spending one pleasant lazy day after another in the company of good friends.
On the other hand, keeping your nose to the grindstone demands that you cut back on many of life’s pleasures. Relaxing days and friendships may fall by the wayside.
As happiness in one area of life increases, it’ll often decline in another.
This dilemma is further confounded by the way our brains process the experience of happiness.
By way of illustration, consider the following examples.
We’ve all started a sentence with the phrase “Won’t it be great when…” (I go to college, fall in love, have kids, etc). Similarly, we often hear older people start sentences with this phrase “Wasn’t it great when…”.
Think about how seldom you hear anyone say: “Isn’t this great, right now?”
Surely, our past and future aren’t always better than the present. Yet we continue to think that this is the case.
These are the bricks that wall off harsh reality from the part of our mind that thinks about past and future happiness. Entire religions have been constructed from them. Whether we’re talking about our ancestral Garden of Eden (when things were great!) or the promise of unfathomable future happiness in Heaven, Valhalla, Jannah or Vaikuntha, eternal happiness is always the carrot dangling from the end of the divine stick.
There’s evidence for why our brains operate this way: most of us possess something called the optimistic bias, which is the tendency to think that our future will be better than our present.
To demonstrate this phenomenon to my classes, at the beginning of a new term I’ll tell my students the average grade received by all students in my class over the past three years. I then ask them to anonymously report the grade that they expect to receive. The demonstration works like a charm: without fail, the expected grades are far higher than one would reasonably expect, given the evidence at hand.
And yet, we believe.
Cognitive psychologists have also identified something called the Pollyanna principle. It means that we process, rehearse and remember pleasant information from the past more than unpleasant information. (An exception to this occurs in depressed individuals who often fixate on past failures and disappointments.)
For most of us, however, the reason that the good old days seem so good is that we focus on the pleasant stuff and tend to forget the day-to-day unpleasantness.
These delusions about the past and the future could be an adaptive part of the human psyche, with innocent self-deceptions actually enabling us to keep striving. If our past is great and our future can be even better, then we can work our way out of the unpleasant – or at least, mundane – present.
All of this tells us something about the fleeting nature of happiness. Emotion researchers have long known about something called the hedonic treadmill. We work very hard to reach a goal, anticipating the happiness it will bring. Unfortunately, after a brief fix we quickly slide back to our baseline, ordinary way of being and start chasing the next thing we believe will almost certainly – and finally – make us happy.
My students absolutely hate hearing about this; they get bummed out when I imply that however happy they are right now, it’s probably about how happy they will be 20 years from now. (Next time, perhaps I will reassure them that in the future they’ll remember being very happy in college!)
Nevertheless, studies of lottery winners and other individuals at the top of their game – those who seem to have it all – regularly throw cold water on the dream that getting what we really want will change our lives and make us happier. These studies found that positive events like winning a million bucks and unfortunate events such as being paralyzed in an accident do not significantly affect an individual’s long-term level of happiness.
Assistant professors who dream of attaining tenure and lawyers who dream of making partner often find themselves wondering why they were in such a hurry. After finally publishing a book, it was depressing for me to realize how quickly my attitude went from “I’m a guy who wrote a book!” to “I’m a guy who’s only written one book”.
But this is how it should be, at least from an evolutionary perspective. Dissatisfaction with the present and dreams of the future are what keep us motivated, while warm fuzzy memories of the past reassure us that the feelings we seek can be had. In fact, perpetual bliss would completely undermine our will to accomplish anything at all; among our earliest ancestors, those who were perfectly content may have been left in the dust.
This shouldn’t be depressing – quite the contrary. Recognizing that happiness exists, and that it’s a delightful visitor that never overstays its welcome, may help us appreciate it more when it arrives.
Furthermore, understanding that it’s impossible to have happiness in all aspects of life can help you enjoy the happiness that has touched you.
Recognizing that no one “has it all” can cut down on the one thing psychologists know impedes happiness: envy.
This was originally published on The Conversation
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/17/psychology-happiness-contentment-humans-aspire-goals-accomplish-evolution
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en
| 2016-08-17T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/5ba0a106b81e48ba1f5724b8e52398c32d3e9560af3b5828e2d20b90560da597.json
|
|
[
"Kevin Mitchell"
] | 2016-08-27T22:51:53 | null | 2016-08-27T21:42:00 |
While doubts over Novak Djokovic’s fitness remain, Andy Murray is focused on his path to a fourth Grand Slam final of the year and chance to clinch a second US Open crown
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fsport%2F2016%2Faug%2F27%2Fandy-murray-novak-djokovic-us-open-tennis-preview.json
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en
| null |
Andy Murray in peak form before US Open while doubts linger over Novak Djokovic
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Andy Murray is right to point out that doubts over Novak Djokovic’s fitness – leaving aside the Serb’s revelation that his private life has been in turmoil – will have no effect on his own progress through the draw at this US Open.
However, while the two best players in the world are not scheduled to meet until the final, Murray knows, but dare not utter too loudly, that Djokovic is more vulnerable than he has been at any major over the past few years and his elimination would make his grab for a second major this year far easier.
Although he would savour the challenge, there is nobody Murray would less like to play if he were to emerge triumphant than the man who has beaten him 24 times out of 34, including 15 from 19 since the Scot won the final here against him four years ago.
As for Djokovic’s troublesome wrist, Murray sees it this way: “I’ve had a long summer as well. My body is not fresh and my body is not perfect either. I’ve played a lot.
“Often it’s been the case at the US Open that guys at this stage of this year are fatigued, especially ones who have been competing for the majors throughout the year. This year is the same and we will see on Monday if Novak’s wrist is fine. I am sure he wouldn’t be risking it if it was bad.
“Also, he is coming in fresh because he has not played loads the last few weeks. My advantage is that I have played a lot of matches and am coming in with the confidence of that knowing that physically I am in good shape. I don’t see this as any more of an opportunity than any of the other slams.”
However, if the world No1 were to struggle in his opening match against Jerzy Janowicz on Monday because of his injured left wrist, there is a distinct possibility he would consider withdrawing from the tournament. After the draw on Friday, he did not exactly ooze confidence.
Djokovic, who has dipped from his normally stratospheric level since going out in the third round at Wimbledon, knows he is the obvious target for several desperate carnivores on his side of the draw, chiefly Rafael Nadal and the Wimbledon finalist, Milos Raonic.
Yet on Friday he made what seemed to be a howling strategic error when he said that, after electro-magnetic treatment to ease the pain in his wrist, it was tougher for him now to hit backhands. This was either an unwitting invitation to opponents to test him on that wing or he was indulging in the sort of mind games that so spooked Murray in successive Australian Open finals.
Murray is aware that if Nadal were to beat or extend a wounded and uncertain Djokovic in the quarter-finals or Raonic were to finish the job in the semis, that the Spaniard and the Canadian have ambitions of their own. Neither of them would be a pushover. While he did a number on Raonic in the Wimbledon final and he and Nadal have split a pair of matches on clay this year, Murray pays them the utmost respect.
He opens on Tuesday against the volatile Czech Lukas Rosol, one-time conqueror of Nadal at Wimbledon, and, at 31, more difficult to overcome than his world ranking of 82 would suggest. There is the added distraction of their handbaggery in Munich last year, when Murray told Rosol after they had a minor collision on a changeover, “No one likes you on the tour. Everyone hates you.”
As a sledge, it was sub-Kyrgios, and Murray insists they have settled their differences. He is more focused on the wonderful vein of form he has mined all year and conscious that he is within reach of making his fourth slam final of the year.
“That would be big for sure,” he said. “It’s not something that happens regularly. But, because of the guys who have been around just now, again it seems to have happened a lot. It’s not an easy thing to do nowadays with three different surfaces and the conditions here and in Australia being quite different in terms of how the court plays.
“It’s a big challenge, but I do feel like I am in the position to have a good run here. I am not thinking about that right now. I’ve got a tough first match and I’ll be ready for that.”
There is another prize on offer for the Wimbledon and Olympic champion: finishing the year at No 1 ahead of Djokovic. Murray says it is not an immediate goal and he will not let the prospect distract him.
“Trying to get to No1 is a goal of all of the guys at the top. I would love to get to No1, but it’s more of a long-term thing. I don’t look at that on a week-to-week basis, it’s something that you have to take a longer term view of and, if you look at the year as a whole and even beyond that, for me March or April time is a more realistic chance than doing it this year.
“I need to continue what I’m doing, the consistency I’ve had the last few months. A lot of times that would have been enough to get to No1 but not now, because of how great Novak’s been.
“I need to try to maintain this consistency every single week and this tournament’s no different.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/27/andy-murray-novak-djokovic-us-open-tennis-preview
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en
| 2016-08-27T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/cf72ababac16d0c7c090e3b3cc61463cfd14dd658cdb4d2fba1711528d353ec9.json
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[
"Sune Engel Rasmussen"
] | 2016-08-27T10:51:23 | null | 2016-08-27T09:00:03 |
The American University of Afghanistan has long been seen as a target for militants as it attracts young people and women committed to change
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Kabul university attack survivors refuse to give up on dreams of building a future
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www.theguardian.com
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American University attack: 12 dead and 44 injured in Afghanistan Read more
On Wednesday, beginning her second semester at the American University of Afghanistan, Narges Mohammadi was on her path to something unattainable for most girls from her rural Ghazni province: a university degree and, hopefully, a career.
Her father, defying protests from his own mother, encouraged his daughter’s dreams to become a fashion designer and start a factory employing women. He even sent her to the capital to study business administration.
“He is open-minded,” Mohammadi said. “He loves me too much.”
On Wednesday, Mohammadi’s evening English class was about to start when a deafening explosion broke the classroom windows and sent everyone scrambling for cover. The students ran for the corridor, but turned around at the sound of another explosion.
Barricading the door with tables and chairs, they formed a rope out of headscarves to climb out the second-floor window. When a hand grenade hit the door, Mohammadi jumped. She hit the ground and broke her leg and several teeth. Ears ringing, she managed to crawl on her forearms to safety and was later evacuated.
At least 16 people were killed when terrorists attacked the American University in Kabul, including eight students and two professors. Mohammadi was among 36 students and staff injured. No group has claimed responsibility, but Afghan president Ashraf Ghani said the attack was planned in Pakistan.
To witness history, you have to take risks Rahmatullah Amiri
An elite institution, the university is an icon of cooperation between Afghanistan and the US. It attracts one of Afghanistan biggest assets: young people committed to building a future here, despite intimidation from militants and threats of war. Half its students are women. It has also long been seen as a possible target for Islamic militants.
Among those who died were newly admitted Alina, 18, whose father was still in Pakistan retrieving her transcripts, Naqeb Khpalwak, an Oxford PhD candidate who had returned home in 2013 to teach law and Sami Sarwari, a talented musician on a scholarship who arrived at the university on Tuesday, and posted on Facebook: “I’m in. Looking forward to a beautiful and bright future.”
The attackers struck in the evening when the university is full of students, many of whom rush to class after finishing daytime jobs. One of them, Helmand-born Rahmatullah Amiri, 31, attends political science classes at night, and researches for an NGO at day. He came to Kabul five years ago to break free, like Mohammadi, of the confines of rural life.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rahmatullah Amiri came to Kabul five years ago to break free of the confines of rural life. Photograph: Sune Engel Rasmussen
After the explosion, Amiri guided classmates towards an emergency exit. When they reached the gate, he saw a gunman in the darkness, who began shooting. A bullet struck Amiri’s arm and stomach. Another fractured his leg.
Using his bag to staunch the bleeding, he could hear someone nearby crying, “Mother, I’m dying! Mother, I’m dying.” One of his classmates died before him.
Amiri’s research takes him to Afghanistan’s most dangerous areas: in 2010, he travelled to Marjah in Helmand to witness one of the largest operations of the war. Journalists embedded with foreign troops. Amiri embedded with the Taliban.
“To witness history, you have to take risks,” he said. Faced with the irony of surviving battle, but nearly dying in the classroom, he managed a wan smile.
Amiri stands out at the university, with his hair and beard long and untidy in the style of his southern village. Every day on campus he would get a cappuccino and a doughnut, and work outside on his laptop.
“It was like a dream come true,” he said. The university, opened in 2006 on principles of critical thinking, and gender and religious equality, rubbed some the wrong way.
But Amiri, a devout Muslim, said, “Being a student of Islam, I haven’t come across a single thing [in the religion] that should stop me from studying at this university. If I had, I wouldn’t have gone. This university has improved the lives of people.”
Thursday morning, president Ghani visited injured students at Kabul’s Emergency hospital. When he reached Narges Mohammadi’s bed, “He told me, ‘I want you to go back to university’,” she said. She will, though she has yet to ask her father if he still thinks it’s a good idea.
“He was just crying the whole time when he saw me,” she said.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/27/american-university-afghanistan-survivors
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| 2016-08-27T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/0715fa13c336da2d1cb0070044d95e5a3e73ecaa4717192199f96911dcf12c12.json
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[
"Niall Mcveigh"
] | 2016-08-26T13:21:11 | null | 2016-08-26T09:00:15 |
The former Australian and French Open champion talks about Andy Murray and Serena Williams’ chances at the US Open, her dream mixed doubles match and Batman v Superman
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fsport%2F2016%2Faug%2F26%2Fmary-pierce-seeing-michael-phelps-and-usain-bolt-win-gold-was-bucket-list-stuff.json
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Mary Pierce: 'seeing Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt win gold was bucket list stuff'
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www.theguardian.com
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Hi, Mary.
Hi, Small Talk.
You’re working with Eurosport as a pundit for the US Open. Do you think this is the time for Serena Williams to break Steffi Graf’s record?
That’s the magic question, isn’t it, that we’re all wondering. It’s a difficult one to answer, because we’ve seen some surprising losses for Serena. Most of the time, we expect her to win because she’s just such a ferocious fighter, she wants it so bad, almost more than anybody else.
I think this US Open is really important for Serena, because playing your home grand slam is much more special and important than any other. I know whenever I played the French Open it was that extra special, but there’s that much more pressure as well, because the whole country is watching.
Martin Tyler: 'Bohemian Rhapsody is the worst song in Christendom' Read more
That aside, who’s going to stand in her way?
Angelique Kerber or Garbiñe Muguruza – they are able to beat Serena when they play well. I believe it’s going to be very exciting, the energy’s going be really electric because it is open, we’re going to see how she handles it. Serena’s not a robot, she’s a human being and you can’t be perfect every single day.
If Serena is dialled in, determined, healthy, she’s unstoppable. It would be great personally to see her do it at the US Open,but if she didn’t, it would be another blow and those are hard for her, you know. So it’ll be very interesting.
Indeed it will. You mentioned the Rio Olympics, which you flew out for. Any particular highlights?
[laughs] Well, a lot happened in Rio! From the tennis, or generally?
How about one of each?
Let’s see… gosh, there was so much that happened there. I was so happy for Andy Murray to win back-to-back gold medals, and Juan Martin del Potro is the most touching and inspiring story. Fourteen months ago he was in his hospital bed after his third surgery. To see where he is today, that was really special.
Then there’s Monica Puig coming out of nowhere, winning the women’s gold. For me, these are the kind of inspiring stories that we need. Puig was so determined, wanting gold from day one, you could just see she was on a mission. I think those are really special stories.
What did you enjoy away from the tennis?
This was my first time at an Olympics not competing. I played in three, and I loved it every single time, it’s just such a special experience. This time was different ... it was one of those very rare moments of my life when I could just be a fan. I got to see Michael Phelps swim three times and win three golds, I saw Usain Bolt win the 100m. I went to see Christ the Redeemer too, so it was bucket list stuff for me.
It does sound pretty good. Back to the US Open: do you think it’s between Murray and Djokovic for the men’s title?
[pauses] Yes. Yes, I do. I read on the internet that I had said Andy Murray was the best tennis player in the world, but I said he’s the best right now. It’s a big, big difference. Right now, Andy for me is in the best form. Roger [Federer] is not going to be there, Rafa [Nadal] is having problems with his wrist, and wasn’t at the top of his game in Rio. Novak hasn’t been looking good since Wimbledon. I don’t know really what’s going on with him, he hasn’t looked the same. Andy is solid, he’s consistent, he’s staying the course, and right now, in my opinion, he’s the top player.
The US Open was the first grand slam to pay men and women the same prize money. What’s your view on equal pay in tennis?
That’s a good question, I dealt with that issue a lot when I was playing. As far as entertainment value, you can look at it different ways. You can say men play five sets, we play three – but should we get paid per hour, or because we’re top players, selling tickets and bringing up TV ratings?
At the end of the day, we’re doing something that we love, but we bring a lot of fun and happiness to people. I think men and women bring equal entertainment value, so I’m for equal prize money.
You’ll be working with Greg Rudedski during the US Open. Is Greg always that happy? Do you ever catch him on a bad day?
As far as I know, he’s always happy. Every time I’ve seen him on tour, he’s always polite, always has that big smile.
Lovely. Just a couple more questions Mary. Firstly, you have Canadian, French and US nationality, so where’s home for you?
[laughs] Home is where the heart is, isn’t that what they say? I have a place in Florida, and I moved to Mauritius in 2008, so I live there and spend time in Florida. I travel quite a lot, so when I’m in all places I feel at home.
Sometimes I wish I was just born and raised in one place, and feel like I’m just one nationality. But it’s really special to feel at home in America, in France, in Mauritius. I was only born in Canada and a year later we left, so I don’t really feel Canadian.
And you always had support at Roland Garros, from French fans.
Yeah, throughout my career. I’m French at heart, at the Olympics I cheered for the French teams in different sports, and went to watch my friends in the basketball teams play.
Is there a particular city in the world that you’d call your favourite?
I love everywhere I go, because I think everywhere has something special to see, to know and to discover. I don’t know … I like everywhere I go, they’re all different.
Not one in particular?
Not yet!
Fair enough. Now – who would you pick as a partner in a dream mixed doubles match, and who would you want to play?
Wow, that’s really tough. [thinks] Oh my gosh, there’s so many people... [thinks some more] I’d probably want to play with Roger Federer, just because I think he’s the best player in the history of the game, and I could learn so much from playing with him.
Good choice. And how about your opponents?
I always wanted to play against Chris Evert, because she was my idol, the one player that I loved, and I never got to play against her. Who would be the other male player? I’d say John McEnroe, just for fun! [laughs].
That would be interesting. What was the last album you listened to?
Well, I’m a Christian so I love Christian music. I don’t really listen to albums, but I like Don Moen. He’s one of my favourites.
And is there an app on your phone you couldn’t live without?
I think everybody would say Google, because it’s like our best friend. Anything you need, it’s there.
Do you prefer cheese or chocolate?
Chocolate! No question. Dark chocolate, with nuts in.
And finally … who would win in a fight between Batman and Superman?
[laughs] This would be a question for my brother, he loves that stuff, and I’m not into all that. I’d hope Superman would win, because he’s a super man, right?! He’s got the super powers.
Small Talk agrees. Thanks for your time, Mary and enjoy the US Open.
Wonderful, thank you so much. Take care.
Bye Mary.
Mary Pierce will be a pundit for the US Open on Eurosport. Watch the US Open live and exclusive on Eurosport and Eurosport Player from 29 August to 11 September.
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https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/26/mary-pierce-seeing-michael-phelps-and-usain-bolt-win-gold-was-bucket-list-stuff
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en
| 2016-08-26T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/df0ebb601973334773dd76dad39924464bef55210db1d59d22e1d7c3a9906317.json
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[
"Australian Associated Press"
] | 2016-08-27T10:51:40 | null | 2016-08-27T10:32:19 |
Penrith’s Matt Moylan has kicked a match-winning field goal two minutes from fulltime to give the Panthers a 15-14 victory over Gold Coast
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Late Panthers field goal shatters Titans, Raiders home in a try-fest
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Penrith’s Matt Moylan has kicked a match-winning field goal two minutes from fulltime to give the Panthers a 15-14 victory over Gold Coast and confirm a berth in the playoffs.
The Titans, coming back to level at 14-14 on Saturday evening after trailing 14-0 at halftime, will need to beat North Queensland next week or rely on other results to finish in the top eight.
The game, played in front of 18,288 fans at Cbus Super Stadium, seemed to be heading into golden point when Tyrone Roberts kicked a penalty goal four minutes from time, after high tackle from Penrith’s Chris Grevsmuhl on Ryan James.
Broncos stun Melbourne Storm to keep their NRL top-four hopes alive Read more
But, Tyrone Peachey made a line break, bringing the ball to within 20m of the tryline, and Panthers skipper Moylan coolly split the uprights for a one-pointer to snatch the game.
The pre-game focus was on Jarryd Hayne’s first match at fullback for two years, but he was outshone by his opposite number Moylan who scored the Panthers’ first try.
In the eighth minute, Moylan received the ball and cut inside off his right foot, racing past some flat-footed Titans defenders, before touching down to the right of the posts.
The lead was doubled in the 17th minute when, after Bryce Cartwright broke the line and was tackled by Hayne 10 metres out, the Panthers quickly spread it wide and Waqa Blake dived over.
Nathan Cleary, who edged the battle of two possible future opposing State of Origin halfbacks with Ash Taylor, added a penalty to his two conversions to extend the lead to 14 points.
Hayne had a chance to score the first try of his NRL return, three minutes before the break, when bursting towards the line, after an offload from Leivahu Pulu, but the Panthers’ No1 stopped him 10 metres out.
Five minutes after the break, the Titans were back in it when Pulu was fed by Greg Bird five metres out and he carried three defenders with him over the line for his first NRL try.
Then Bird, bandaged after a first-half head clash with James Fisher-Harris, set up a dramatic finish when he stretched out over the line, in spite of the efforts of Moylan and Peter Wallace, to make it a two-point game.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jordan Rapana is tackled by Daly Cherry-Evans and Addin Fonua-Blake. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP
Earlier, Joey Leilua and Jordan Rapana kept Canberra in the hunt for a top-two finals spot by leading a Blake Austin-less Raiders to a 44-30 win over Manly.
Canberra’s Aidan Sezer left the field late with a shoulder injury as the Raiders survived a late Sea Eagles comeback at Brookvale Oval.
Canberra led 18-10 at the break thanks to two tries by Rapana, then two four-pointers to Leilua soon after halftime put the visitors well on track for their ninth straight win.
Rapana scored three tries overall, as did Manly’s Tom Trbojevic.
Sam Williams filled in capably for Austin – who is out indefinitely due to a hand injury – alongside Sezer in the Raiders’ halves in the eight-tries-to-six win.
Losing Sezer would be another significant blow for the Raiders.
Melbourne have already cemented a top-two spot, and whether Canberra or Cronulla will join them in hosting a home qualifying final in the first week of the playoffs will likely be decided in next week’s matches.
Wests Tigers host Canberra at Leichhardt, while Cronulla travel to Melbourne.
Soft defence from Manly allowed Paul Vaughan score the game’s first try in the 10th minute. Rapana followed that up eight minutes later for a 12-0 lead.
The Trbojevic brothers then combined to get Manly back in the game.
Jake Trbojevic scored after Jack Wighton spilled a Matt Wright bomb. Tom Trbojevic then crossed out wide to peg the Raiders’ lead to just two points.
Rapana’s second try two minutes before the break gave the Raiders a 18-10 lead at the break.
Edrick Lee and Jack Wighton also scored for the Raiders after halftime.
Rapana’s third try with a minute to go sealed the win, but only after second-half tries to Tom Trbojevic (two), Daly Cherry-Evans and Frank Winterstein gave Manly a hope of an upset win.
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https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/27/nrl-round-25-saturday-roundup
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| 2016-08-27T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/a93e25876d6d548aeead13d1967ea6a84bafe2724b422ce37cd52e93c6eaeb37.json
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[
"Kareem Shaheen"
] | 2016-08-30T12:52:32 | null | 2016-08-30T11:40:19 |
In a region racked by conflict and tension, an ambitious research centre is fostering cooperation and scientific advancement
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Open Sesame: particle accelerator project brings Middle East together
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In the sleepy hillside town in al-Balqa, not far from the Jordan Valley, a grand project is taking shape. The Middle East’s new particle accelerator – the Synchrotron-Light for Experimental Science and Applications, or Sesame – is being built.
In a region racked by violence, extremism and the disintegration of nation states, Sesame feels a world apart; the meditative peace of the surrounding countryside belying the advanced stages of construction inside the site, which is due to be formally inaugurated next spring, with the first experiments taking place as early as this autumn.
It’s a miracle it got off the ground in the first place. Sesame’s members are Iran, Pakistan, Israel, Turkey, Cyprus, Egypt, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan and Bahrain. Iran and Pakistan do not recognise Israel, nor does Turkey recognise Cyprus, and everyone has their myriad diplomatic spats.
Iran, for example, continues to participate despite two of its scientists who were involved in the project, quantum physicist Masoud Alimohammadi and nuclear scientist Majid Shahriari, being assassinated in operations blamed on Israel’s Mossad.
“We’re cooperating very well together,” said Giorgio Paolucci, the scientific director of Sesame. “That’s the dream.”
“I don’t know how many places there are where all these governments have representatives who have the opportunity to come and talk to each other,” he added.
In council meetings, representatives of governments meet and discuss technical issues, and come to agreements, the talks untainted by the perpetual enmity outside the conference halls.
At 130 metres in diameter, Sesame’s particle accelerator is dwarfed by the Large Hadron Collider, the immense structure in Switzerland that last year detected the “God particle”, otherwise known as the Higgs Boson, an elementary particle that gives other fundamental particles their mass. But the project is sophisticated and could have many applications and offer research opportunities for a region that has long grappled with funding shortfalls and lack of political will in the advancement of science.
“There are so many applications that actually we are somehow limited by our fantasy,” said Paolucci. “You can study almost anything. Here we can study everything from isolated atoms to human beings and everything which is in between these two extremes is allowed.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest A worker looks at research data at the Sesame facility. Photograph: Kareem Shaheen
Sesame is a synchrotron – a large device that accelerates electrons around a circular tube, guided by magnets and other equipment, close to the speed of light. This generates radiation which is filtered and flows down beamlines – essentially long pipes in which instruments are placed to collect the radiation and perform the various experiments.
Sesame’s scientists plan to open the synchrotron with three main beamlines, though the project can house up to 20. The first is an X-ray beam which scientists say can be used to analyse soil samples and air particles, identifying contaminants in the environment, as well as, potentially, their sources, in a region suffering from high levels of pollution.
The second will be an infrared beamline, which will allow researchers to study living cells and tissue. Some preliminary tests at the centre have focused on studying the evolution of breast cancer cells, potentially opening avenues that would help with much earlier detection.
The last beamline, currently under construction, will be used in protein crystallography, a technique that would allow scientists, among other applications, to study in more depth the structure of viruses and develop drugs that are better able to target them.
Paolucci also hopes to add an imaging beamline – which has a range of uses, from allowing researchers to study archaeological artefacts with more precision and without having to transport them outside the region, to photographing things as subtle as the muscular movements of a fly.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Imaging technology captures the movements of a fly
Archaeologists in Italy have used imaging beamlines in projects as intricate as the study of burnt manuscripts buried in the city of Herculaneum after the legendary eruption of Mount Vesuvius, allowing them to identify the Greek letters in the manuscripts without having to unfold them and risk their disintegration.
Beyond that, Sesame’s creators hope it will spur scientific progress in a region long beset by conflict and strife, offering access to resources that are plentiful in the west but limited in the Middle East, allowing scientists, whether from Israel or Iran, to come together to study the fundamental elements of nature.
Member states also hope to limit some of the region’s brain drain, which is driving young people to research facilities abroad, as well as profit from the expertise they gain from the experiments that will take place.
Those working on the project, which costs over a $100m (£75m), have not lost sight of the big picture either.
“If you go to any university in the region you see more students than any university in Europe,” said Paolucci. “Clearly there is a need there to have a centre like this, and with time it will also be beneficial from an economic point of view.”
As Paolucci walked around the massive hall housing the particle accelerator, he stopped to survey the intricate equipment and the machine taking shape before his eyes.
“It’s really amazing the things you can do,” he said.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/30/sesame-particle-accelerator-project-middle-east-jordan
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en
| 2016-08-30T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/e459695440da774b8ffa19989b936b7f78d2c320064c567bbe094f1b172ae1cc.json
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[
"Nicola Davis"
] | 2016-08-26T13:27:17 | null | 2016-08-22T22:30:16 |
Doctors discovered that trigger for fatal case of hypersensitivity pneumonitis was likely to have been fungi living inside man’s bagpipes
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fscience%2F2016%2Faug%2F22%2Fwind-musicians-warned-over-hygiene-as-fatal-case-of-bagpipe-lung-reported.json
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Wind musicians warned over hygiene as fatal case of 'bagpipe lung' reported
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Wind musicians have be warned to clean their instruments after a man died from a lung disease triggered by fungi lurking in his bagpipes.
The piper developed a serious inflammation of the lungs, known as hypersensitivity pneumonitis, that worsened over a number of years, leaving him with a dry cough, breathlessness and curtailing the distance he could walk from 10 kilometres to just 20 metres. Eventually, in 2014, the 61-year old was admitted to hospital where he later died.
While the trigger for the disease was initially a mystery, a series of clues led doctors to discover that the cause was most likely a collection of fungi living inside the man’s bagpipes.
The case has led doctors to propose that “bagpipe lung” be added to the long list of alternative monikers for hypersensitivity pneumonitis, which is already known as “bird fancier’s lung”, “farmer’s lung” and even “hot tub lung” after the wide range of activities to which it has previously been linked.
“[Musicians] need to be aware that there are risks that instruments can become colonised with mould and fungi and this can be related to serious and potentially fatal lung disease,” said Dr Jenny King, first author of the study, of North Manchester general hospital.
She added that the warm, moist environment of wind instruments is an ideal breeding ground for such organisms. “Wind instrument hygiene is really important in preventing this and [musicians] should be stringent in cleaning their instruments regularly.”
Writing in the journal Thorax, King and colleagues from the University Hospital of South Manchester warn that wind players should disinfect their musical instruments regularly with a brush and detergent. “Physicians should be aware of this potential risk factor and promote wind instrument hygiene,” they add.
The case of the 61-year-old man initially baffled doctors, with common triggers of the lung disease, such as bird-keeping and household mould, ruled out.
However, a clue appeared after the patient was admitted to hospital in 2014. Examining his history, the medical team discovered that the man had spent three months in Australia in 2011, during which time his health bounced back, before once again deteriorating upon his return to the UK.
Close scrutiny of his habits offered a lead. During his trip to Australia the man had temporarily abandoned his daily custom of playing the bagpipes, but had returned to playing them every day once back in the UK.
An investigation of the bag, neck, stock and reed protector of the instrument yielded even stronger evidence that the bagpipes were at the root of the problem. “We isolated mould and fungi that are known to be associated with hypersensitivity pneumonitis and propose that was the likely cause of it,” said King. “It is likely [down to] spores from the fungi and mould that, when you inhale them, your body and your immune system react to them,” she said, adding that while not everyone would be susceptible to the spores, it is hard to predict who was likely to experience a reaction.
It is not the first time that bagpipes have been hailed a health hazard. In 2013 the Glasgow-based College of Piping issued a warning after expert piper John Shone fell seriously ill with symptoms of breathlessness and weakness. Eventually it was discovered that he was suffering from a fungal infection that was triggered by organisms lurking inside his bagpipes. “It was very much life-threatening,” Shone, a former competing piper, told the Guardian. “I was near death.”
Shone recovered with treatment but he says not enough is done to warn players of the dangers that could be lurking in their pipes. “In the leather bagpipes we use what was called a seasoning in the bag, and that seasoning in fact has [an] antiseptic property,” he said. Seasoning, he points out, is not used in bagpipes made from modern materials as they are already airtight; this necessitates regular cleaning, which modern bagpipes are designed to facilitate.
Robert Wallace, an award-winning professional bagpiper and editor of the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association’s magazine, said that pipers should not panic. “It’s extremely rare,” he said of the incident. “However that doesn’t mean to say we should drop our guard.”
Since his brush with death Shone says he has bought a new set of pipes and is careful to disinfect them. But doctors say it is not only pipers who should heed the warning to clean their instruments, highlighting previous reports of a saxophone and a trombone player with symptoms of hypersensitivity pneumonitis. Both musicians recovered after cleaning their instruments.
Dr Tamara Everington of Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, who treated Shone, says that musicians should be aware of possible health implications of their instruments. “We spend a lot of time thinking about the technical aspects of the instrument, but we don’t spend enough time thinking about the impact on our own bodies,” she said. “If you think about them and address them early on then you have the chance of being able to play your instrument for many years and get great pleasure from it.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/aug/22/wind-musicians-warned-over-hygiene-as-fatal-case-of-bagpipe-lung-reported
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| 2016-08-22T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/7c7fc091419fb159fe1df62833e3f5f1e680dcdb1ebf4ab700971b474e4dbc18.json
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[
"Jana Kasperkevic"
] | 2016-08-26T13:23:55 | null | 2016-08-25T11:00:09 |
The cast of Financial Slavery: The College Debt Sentence is made up of students facing generation’s ‘biggest political, social, economic crisis’
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Financial Slavery: play confronts the weight of student debt at FringeNYC
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Debt-laden students don’t often make it to the theater in New York City, but this time, they are on stage. And the play’s author is hoping her work will help highlight one of the hottest issues of the 2016 election.
The cast of Financial Slavery: The College Debt Sentence, an independent play that has been selected as one of the plays for this year’s New York City fringe festival, is not made up of professional actors. Some have just graduated high school; others are in college. The one thing they all have in common: they have all been affected by the surging price of college education. And they are talking about it – the decision to attend cheaper public colleges, dropping out due to lack of money, being thousands of dollars in debt.
College students are hopeless at estimating their student loans Read more
Each performance of Financial Slavery is followed by an unscripted 30-minute conversation with the audience about student debt and its impact on students and their parents.
Alyea Pierce, who wrote the play, herself owes $47,000 in student loans for her undergraduate degree. Does she see herself paying it off anytime soon? “In the next 20 to 30 years,” she told the Guardian. She is 24.
It’s one of the reasons why she ended up writing Financial Slavery. While in college, she was asked to write a poem about debt and ended up writing about it as a form of slavery. The poem remains at the core of the play. In it, Pierce describes student debt as “the twenty-first century slave ship” and the people issuing loans as the new slave masters.
She recited the poem: “[The slave master] is always saying how we on this ship, because we special, that we financial slaves going to the new world and there no cotton-picking fields no more. These are dollar-picking fields, where all we gotta do is go to college with our ankles chained to our wrists for four years and – bam! – we will be free.”
Yet instead of being free, college graduates tend to end up thousands of dollars in debt that can take decades to pay off.
Does she feel that equating slavery and student debt is too much? Pierce says she wants to start a dialogue. “I can understand how audience members may say that the comparison is too far. When researching and receiving stories from people about their student loan journey, the language used were feelings of feeling trapped, locked in chains, heavy, and too much weight,” she says.
“With those feelings used as inspiration and my belief that the student loan debt system is used as a 21st-century oppressive tool in a patriarchal society, and it involves socioeconomic status, race, et cetera, that this connection makes sense. This connection has a lot of weight, and when it takes a 24-year-old 30 years to pay off their student loan debt, that individual is in ‘chains’.”
Ashley Krushinski, one of the actors, is about to begin her second year at a private university. She finished her freshman year with $22,000 in student loan debt. For her sophomore year, she had to take out another $25,000 loan – slightly higher than last year’s since her tuition went up by 2.59% this year.
“We are in chains. Don’t you get it? We are never going to break free,” one character says in the play.
To make their case, Pierce and the cast use various statistics and numbers throughout the performance. But it is the stories of the characters and the actors themselves that connect with the audience.
Over the past couple of years, Pierce has taken her play around some college campuses and high schools and asked the audience how they felt after watching the play. The most common responses were depressed and sad. As a result, Pierce said that the crew workshopped it to “make it less painful” and to evoke a sense of solidarity.
“They actually say that they have hope. That they feel a type of solidarity, that they are not alone,” she told the Guardian. “Too often we feel like that because it’s such a hush-hush issue. It’s a taboo to talk about your student loan debt.”
Half of black college students graduate with more than $25,000 in student loan debt Read more
On Sunday, after the first performance of Financial Slavery during its run at the Fringe festival, members of the audience said the play made them feel sad, anxious, enlightened and swindled.
One attendee was a young woman who had just finished law school with $110,000 in student debt. “I don’t regret it, but don’t know how I am going to pay for it,” she told everyone in the theatre.
There was a mother with three kids in college, who cosigned on a total of $160,000 worth of loans. “My name is on there,” she said.
There was a dad who said: “Bernie Sanders tried to get us to wake up on this issue.” And then there was a single mother who said that if she was able to figure it out, others should be able to as well.
The play does not shy away from stirring up a caldron of complicated thoughts and feelings. Yes, education is important, but should going to college result in mountains of debt? Should tuition keep going up? Who is responsible for knowing exactly what the interest will amount to? Should we talk about the cost of books, meal plans and housing that often add thousands of dollars on top of tuition? Would people be willing to pay more in taxes if tuition were free?
At one point of the play, a clip from Hillary Clinton’s convention speech played for the audience.
“Bernie Sanders and I will work together to make college tuition-free for the middle class and debt-free for all,” Clinton says in the clip. “We will also liberate millions of people who already have student debt.”
According to Pierce, this election has already helped bring the issue of student loan debt to the forefront.
“This is the biggest political, social, economic crisis – and issue – for our generation,” said Pierce. “So if you really want to tap into our generation, our vote, you have to hit something we are passionate about, and that’s student loan debt.”
As part of FringeNYC, Financial Slavery will have four more performances from 23 to 27 August at the Flamboyan Theatre in downtown Manhattan.
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https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/aug/25/financial-slavery-play-new-york-fringe-festival
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| 2016-08-25T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/662d07986f363d9cca1282f7ca3598a709458246ecadf4d643b0c96e2c1816dc.json
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[
"Colm Tóibín"
] | 2016-08-26T13:15:59 | null | 2016-08-26T09:00:15 |
Written towards the end of Wilde’s incarceration, De Profundis is bitter, seductive, hurt and passionate. Ahead of a public reading, Colm Tóibín visits the cell in which Wilde put pen to paper
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Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis - one of the greatest love letters ever written
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www.theguardian.com
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Early in 1895, while facing charges of indecency and wondering if he should abscond to France, Oscar Wilde had no idea what a two-year prison sentence would mean for him. Wilde’s misfortune was to serve his sentence just before prison conditions were officially changed by the 1898 Prison Act.
In total isolation, first in Pentonville and Wandsworth, and then in Reading gaol, to which he was moved in November 1895, Wilde slept on a plank bed with no mattress. Allowed one hour’s exercise a day, he walked in single file in the yard with other prisoners but he was not allowed to communicate with them. He could not sleep, he was permanently hungry and he suffered from dysentery. For the first month, Wilde was tied to a treadmill six hours a day, making an ascent, as it were, of 6,000 feet each day, with five minutes’ rest after every 20 minutes. Towards the end of his sentence, the governor of the jail, Major Nelson, remarked to Wilde’s friend Robert Ross: “He looks well. But like all men unused to manual labour who receive a sentence of this kind, he will be dead within two years.” Wilde was later to praise Nelson, who had arrived at Reading in July 1896, as “the most Christlike man I ever met”. Nelson was more liberal than his predecessor and was ready to relax the rules.
In January 1897, when Wilde still had more than four months still to serve, he and Nelson came up with an ingenious idea. While nothing in the prison regulations allowed prisoners to write plays or novels or essays, inmates had permission to write letters. Under the previous regime, Wilde had written to solicitors and the Home Office, or in limited quantities to friends, but his letters were inspected and the writing materials removed as he finished. But the regulations did not specify how long a letter should be. And if a letter were not finished, then the prisoner, it was supposed, could be allowed take it with him when he left the prison.
Thus Wilde, alone in his cell, was given pen and ink every day. What he wrote was removed each evening and then, it seems, handed back to him in the morning, or parts were given back to him to revise. Since “De Profundis” was in the form of a long letter, it would be his property when he was free. It took him three months, with much revision.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Oscar Wilde in around 1890. Photograph: Print Collector/Getty Images
Wilde addressed his letter to Lord Alfred Douglas. On his release, he handed the manuscript to Ross, who had two typed copies made, one of which he sent to Douglas. In 1905 Ross published extracts from the text, and a fuller version in 1908. The complete version, however, was not published until 1949.
By the time he wrote “De Profundis”, Wilde’s love for Douglas had turned into a sort of bitterness, and the tone of his long letter manages to capture that bitterness as well as the extraordinary attachment he felt for Douglas. “De Profundis”, it should be said, is neither fair minded nor consistent; it is, at times, bloated in its comparisons and its rhetoric. (Wilde, for example, compares himself to Christ.) But there is also a beautiful, calm eloquence, and a sense of urgency, of things being said because there might not be time or opportunity to say them in the future.
Wilde’s old skill at paradox and phrase making was not there now merely to amuse his audience or mock his betters, but rather to kill his own pain and grief and attempt to communicate passionately and fiercely with his lover. He wrote not as art now, but as desperately serious matter.
“The only beautiful things,” his character Vivian had told us in “The Decay of Lying”, which Wilde wrote in 1890, “are the things that do not concern us.” Seven years later, in his cry from the depths, he wrote of what most deeply concerned him: “If there be one single passage that brings tears to the eyes, weep as we weep in prison when the day no less than the night is set apart for tears.” And then, in what is perhaps the most shocking sentence in the whole letter, he wrote: “The supreme vice is shallowness.” Once upon a time it would have been, for him, the supreme virtue.
Wilde accused Douglas of distracting him from his art, of spending his money, of degrading him ethically, of constant scene-making, of deliberately and then thoughtlessly mistreating him. He went over Douglas’s bad behaviour in matters large and petty, often citing dates and places and details. The tone was fluent and sweeping, full of carefully controlled cadence and measured elegance. But the difference between this tone and Wilde’s carefully nurtured flippancy was astonishing. It was like a tenor becoming a baritone, with a new range and depth and a new attention to feeling, but the old skills and tricks with pitch and paradox still in place, despite his circumstances, or perhaps because of them.
The letter cannot be read for its accurate account of their relationship, nor taken at its word. While some of the accusations are true, others are petty and foolish. But that is not the point. “De Profundis” has neither the informality of a personal letter nor the distilled sound of a piece of imaginative writing. Its seductive, hurt and passionate tone places it in a category of its own. In all its urgency and ambiguous eloquence, it remains one of the greatest and most complex love letters ever written.
It is fascinating to witness the change that came over Wilde’s imaginative procedures as he wrote. In the dim light of the prison cell and with the memory of his suffering fresh, it was as though he sought a new sort of tension between breathlessness and breath-control. He wrote long and highly wrought sentences, loving lists of adjectives and clever, Latinate diction and elaborate punctuation. To be followed by a pure, plain statement, full of the clipped sharp tone of the Anglo-Saxon.
“Of course I should have got rid of you,” he wrote. The reader will want to know why he did not, and part of the power of the text comes from our knowledge that, once Wilde was released, despite all his bitter feeling, he and Douglas attempted to live together again and resume their relationship, to the horror of both Douglas’s family and Wilde’s wife.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Colm Tóibín in the cell of Reading prison where De Profundis was written.
Until three years ago, Reading gaol, where Wilde served most of his sentence, was used as a place of incarceration for young offenders. The cells still have bunk beds, a small table and two seats riveted into the wall, and then, closer to the small window, a flush toilet hidden from view. The four corridors that make up each floor radiate from a central vantage point. Thus it is possible for one single member of staff to note any movement in the four corridors.
While the creepy cell interiors bear all the hallmarks of recent use, the corridors and the general atmosphere in the prison, which was built in 1844, make it easy to imagine what it might have been like for Wilde in 1895.
The place where floggings happened, for example, which Wilde evoked with such passionate shock in his letters to the Daily Chronicle on his release, is close to the yard where the prisoners could exercise, close enough for the victim’s howls to be heard, as Wilde heard them in 1897. The cells that were used to house those condemned to death, evoked by Wilde in The Ballad of Reading Gaol, can still be visited. They are still part of the essential fabric of the place.
Wilde was not prepared for prison, and did not, in his heyday, dream that he would spend two years in jail. In “The Decay of Lying”, he had mocked the writer Charles Reade for “a foolish attempt to be modern, to draw public opinion to the state of our convict prisons”. In 1882, during a tour of America, when he visited a penitentiary in Nebraska, he wrote about the prisoners: “They were all mean looking, which consoled me, for I should hate to see a criminal with a noble face.”
When he found that a prisoner due to be hanged in Nebraska was reading a novel by Charlotte M Yonge called The Heir of Redclyffe, Wilde remarked: “My heart was turned by the eyes of the doomed man, but if he reads The Heir of Redclyffe it’s perhaps as well to let the law take its course.” But when he found a volume by Dante in another cell, he wrote: “Strange and beautiful it seemed to me that the sorrow of a single Florentine in exile should, hundreds of years afterwards, lighten the sorrow of some common prisoner in a modern gaol.”
The cell where Wilde wrote “De Profundis” is filled with a sense of those who recently suffered there, but the view of the sky from the small window and the heaviness of the door as it closes behind you bring back how one of the great spirits of his age was broken in body and soul in this space, and then restored to some dark approximation of life by being given pen and paper so that he too could lighten his sorrow, or make it matter more, by producing something as strange and beautiful as “De Profundis”.
• An exhibition, Inside – Artists and Writers in Reading Prison, is at the prison from 4 September to 30 October. Colm Tóibín will read “De Profundis” in its entirety on 16 October. artangel.org.uk/inside.
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https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/aug/26/oscar-wilde-de-profundis-greatest-love-letter
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| 2016-08-26T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/8002019c329b77cb9a6b9f0e55dd40ba1a16160205b9bcc23173cd2684f5cb42.json
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[
"Press Association"
] | 2016-08-28T22:49:41 | null | 2016-08-28T20:45:50 |
Police arrest man on suspicion of carrying out the attack, one of four stabbings on the first day of the London carnival
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fuk-news%2F2016%2Faug%2F28%2Fman-in-critical-condition-after-notting-hill-carnival-stabbing.json
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Man in critical condition after Notting Hill carnival stabbing
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A man is fighting for his life following a stabbing at Notting Hill carnival.
He was rushed to hospital after emergency services were called to Wornington Road in the Kensington and Chelsea area at 4.25pm on Sunday.
Scotland Yard said a man had been arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm.
The attack is one of four stabbings reported on the carnival’s first day, which is traditionally dedicated to children and families. Minutes later, officers were called to reports of another stabbing on Portobello Road, where one person was taken to hospital.
Less than an hour later, two more men were taken to hospital following a double stabbing on Ladbroke Grove.
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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/aug/28/man-in-critical-condition-after-notting-hill-carnival-stabbing
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en
| 2016-08-28T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/85139bd609da4f2d99b0f9307056dd9b2daf67a5a56d093662a82d21f223379f.json
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[] | 2016-08-26T13:31:05 | null | 2016-03-17T06:13:27 |
Stamp duty land tax is payable on the purchase of all homes in England and Wales. Use our calculator to find out how much your bill will be.
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Stamp duty calculator
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www.theguardian.com
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Stamp duty land tax is payable on the purchase of all homes in England and Wales. From 1 April 2016 anyone buying a second home will pay a higher rate of tax. Use our calculator to find out how much your bill will be.
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http://www.theguardian.com/money/ng-interactive/2016/mar/17/stamp-duty-calculator
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| 2016-03-17T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/16a6ade0e2523d9a82c70c38c452c1df83724e5f5445d494d5235f4dc6605ccb.json
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[
"Jason Stone"
] | 2016-08-31T12:50:28 | null | 2016-08-31T11:34:43 |
Watch Sister Madonna Buder in the latest instalment in the sports brand’s ‘Unlimited’ campaign, plus new adverts from McDonald’s and Subaru
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fmedia%2F2016%2Faug%2F31%2Fnike-iron-nun-triathlete-sister-madonna-buder-mcdonalds-subaru.json
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Nike ad celebrates 86-year-old 'Iron Nun' triathlete
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Bonds: ‘Think of Fathers’ (starts at 00:04) - Australia
It’s healthy for blokes to lay bare their thoughts on occasion, and, with Australia’s Father’s Day on the horizon, underwear brand Bonds give this group of dads an opportunity to get their talk on while stripped down to their briefs. With tongue-in-cheek candour, this circle of trust discusses the effects of childbirth on the body – namely, the male body.
Agency: Clemenger BBDO (Melbourne)
Director: Tony Rogers
McDonald’s: ‘Acting Masterclass’ (starts at 01:35) - France
This year’s crop of summer blockbusters may have failed to set the world alight, but this well-performed McDonald’s ad hints at a seat-filler with extra bite. One can’t help but wonder how the lead in this watery epic manages to summon such raw emotion in each and every take... but the reason has more to do with matters of the stomach than the heart.
Agency: TBWA (Paris)
Director: Ben Gregor
Subaru: ‘The Boy Who Breaks Everything’ (starts at 03:16) - US
Subaru choose a lovely way to communicate its Legacy model’s enduring properties by introducing us to a child whose mere touch turns lifetime guarantees to dust. Everything the poor boy touches at home, at school, and on the street somehow malfunctions in quietly spectacular fashion. Great if you’re a kid after some free candy, but not so great if you can’t open a door, turn on a light, or play on a bouncy castle without causing a fuss.
Agency: Carmichael Lynch
Director: Peter Thwaites
Nike: ‘Sister Madonna Buder’ (starts at 04:21) - US
Nike once again flummox Oscar Isaac in the voiceover booth – this time by introducing Sister Madonna Buder aka the ‘Iron Nun’. No, don’t worry, she isn’t the latest addition to cinema’s ever-increasing roster of superheroes – 86-year-old Buder is a triathlete with a spry attitude to the whole mind, body, and soul business. Another engaging distillation of the sporting brand’s universal message of boundless endeavour.
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy (Portland)
Director: Max Malkin
Jason Stone is the editor of David Reviews
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https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/aug/31/nike-iron-nun-triathlete-sister-madonna-buder-mcdonalds-subaru
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| 2016-08-31T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/6ab3510d30f2d063a1bc49902c82e6bb0e7891fe48e958dc511a26681f114064.json
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[
"Philip Oltermann"
] | 2016-08-28T10:51:54 | null | 2016-08-28T10:15:29 |
The conservative rebel touted as a future German leader is young, combative and ‘burkaphobic’
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fworld%2F2016%2Faug%2F28%2Fjens-spahn-man-who-could-replace-merkel-interview-germany.json
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Jens Spahn: the man who could replace Merkel as chancellor
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Over the 11 years that Angela Merkel has been at the top of German politics, steering her country through global financial crashes, European debt crises and the aftershocks of wars in the Middle East, she has been able to rely on one constant: the loyalty of her party. If Merkel’s reign has looked so solid, it has partly been because the Christian Democrat leader hasn’t had to see off challenges from within her own ranks.
But one year on from the height of Europe’s refugee crisis, that situation is changing. While Merkel’s ratings are still strong enough for only a minority to expect her not to run for re-election next year, her liberal stance on the refugee question has for the first time opened up a political space for a challenger from her own party.
Over the summer, the darkening tone of Germany’s political debate has been set not by Merkel’s optimistic slogan of “we will manage”, but by a politician who describes himself as a “burkaphobe”, who calls on Muslim men to be less uptight about showering naked in public gyms, and criticises his leader’s crisis management in all but name. Meet Jens Spahn, the MP for Steinfurt and Borken, deputy finance minister and, if some commentators are to be believed, Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting.
Defending the partial ban of the full-face veil that the government wants to introduce following his proposal, he says bluntly: “Germany may not be the right country for those who want to keep their wife in a burka or niqab, especially now that we have become such a sought-after destination for so many. We need to send some strong signals about what is acceptable and what isn’t.”
He told the Observer: “The German people want to help refugees, but they want to help in an orderly way.”
Only 36 and openly gay, Spahn may not seem the most likely candidate to lead a conservative rebellion within Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union. “A political path like mine would certainly have been rockier 10 years ago,” he admitted. When he first ran as a candidate in the deeply Catholic Münsterland region, some in his party ran a smear campaign to stop him. “Obviously, it didn’t work.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest A Syrian refugee with a picture of Merkel after reaching Munich in September 2015. Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images
But he rejects the idea that his lifestyle runs counter to his politics. “I don’t see the contradiction. Germany’s dominant culture and lifestyle has become a lot more liberal in the last 10 years, whether you are looking at gays and lesbians or at immigration. But my biggest fear is that this new openness is under pressure – from a very conservative form of Islam and a rightwing backlash against immigration – and that we will have to fight very hard to preserve it.” When criticising cultural norms in the Arabic world, he deliberately uses the word spiessig, meaning prissy or narrow-minded – a term in the past often associated with his own party.
With a combativeness that can border on arrogance, Spahn first gained a profile as the CDU’s health policy spokesman, repeatedly calling for reforms of the pension system and data protection regulation – usually two holy cows in German political debate. Having looked like a shoo-in for a ministerial post, Spahn was parked in a junior role in the finance ministry after the 2013 federal election – a move that some read as a slapdown for the uppity young politician. But in his current role, reporting to influential veteran finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble, Spahn has been granted a licence to roam across the political field, holding forth on anything from dual citizenship to raising the pension age.
Coming from a party that has never openly rebelled against its leader, Spahn is still careful in phrasing criticism of the government. He insisted that he hoped Merkel would run again at the federal elections in 2017 and vehemently rejected the notion that Germany made a “mistake” at the height of the refugee crisis: “The decision of 4 September was correct and logical,” he says. The “but” is not long in the coming. “But we should have been quicker to make clear that it was an exceptional situation.
“We all underestimated the power of how mobile phones and social media could change migration movements … It is certainly not false that no one in Germany had predicted the extent to which other countries were not prepared to help with the refugee crisis.”
But his demands on the party leader are unequivocal. “It is very important that the German government makes it clear that we have won back control since September and October last year, when we had clearly lost control of the situation due to irregular immigration on the Greek-Turkish border,” he said. “And it’s very important that we make clear we are aware of the vast challenge of integration. Integration is not just a matter of a two-week language course.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Angela Merkel in Prague during a visit to the Czech Republic: ‘It’s very important that we make clear we are aware of the vast challenge of integration,’ said Jens Spahn. Photograph: Matej Divizna/Getty Images
On the consequences of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, by contrast, Spahn sounds more doveish than others in his party, or even in the finance ministry. While he said there was “nothing I regret more than Britain leaving the European Union”, he criticised politicians “putting the boot into Britain”. Instead, he said, “we should ask what drove so many people to say: ‘That European Union is not my own.’ That’s the debate we should be having in Germany, too: does Germany want to be part of a European Union that a majority of Brits don’t feel belongs to them?”
In words that will be received with interest in the offices of the British “Brexit ministers”, David Davis and Liam Fox, Spahn appeared supportive of the idea of Britain leaving the single market and instead negotiating a bespoke, “Canada-style” trade deal with the EU. “You can’t have the one-for-one rules of the single market without free movement. And if you want to have the single market, why leave in the first place? Because in that case you would have to subscribe to the very same rules that are being decided in Brussels without having a say. You may want that, but it wouldn’t make much sense.
“Both sides, and especially Germany, have a great interest in strong economic ties. If you can have a free trade agreement with the US, with Canada, and even with communistic Vietnam, then we’ll get a sensible trade agreement with Great Britain if the will is there.”
Spahn dismissed the EU’s delays in ratifying a free-trade deal with America and Canada as uniquely German reservations rooted in anti-American prejudice. Striking a deal with Britain, he said, would be easier to communicate politically. “Most Germans have a positive image of Britain, and I don’t think the majority of Germans are against free trade, per se.”
Nevertheless, Spahn said it should be up to the EU to negotiate such a deal. “If you say the European Union is responsible for free-trade deals, which it is, and the European parliament has got democratic legitimacy too, then it would be up to the EU to negotiate such a deal with Great Britain. But before we start talking about how we can start to couple again, we need to talk about the decoupling first.”
RISE OF JENS SPAHN
16 May 1980 Born in Ahaus near Münster, then in West Germany.
1997 Became a member of the Christian Democratic Union.
2002 Elected to parliament for the constituency of Steinfurt and Borken in North Rhine-Westphalia.
2003-08 Studied political science and law at the university of Hagen, graduating with a master’s degree.
2012 His homosexuality made public in an article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
2015 Appointed deputy minister in the finance ministry.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/28/jens-spahn-man-who-could-replace-merkel-interview-germany
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en
| 2016-08-28T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/ecc9a22a7364106c85db4a181cbe7489a4021f14c56605c0a8558a00e7975ff8.json
|
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[
"Caroline Sullivan"
] | 2016-08-26T13:24:13 | null | 2016-05-26T16:49:45 |
With the charts dominated by North American titans such as Beyoncé and Drake, it is getting harder and harder for the UK’s rising stars to break in. Will we ever see another Adele?
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fbusiness%2F2016%2Fmay%2F26%2Fthe-british-pop-talent-crash-where-have-all-the-new-acts-gone.json
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en
| null |
The British pop talent crash: where have all the new acts gone?
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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Imagine a UK music chart with almost no UK acts in it. A Top 40 comprising North Americans, Scandinavians and, down at the bottom reaches, a British outlier or two. That is the gloomy prediction being made in some corners of the British music industry because of two problems: the difficulty of finding new artists capable of becoming global stars, coupled with the slog of pushing them into a chart dominated by streaming.
“At the moment, it’s not great. [Potentially big new acts] aren’t coming through,” says one insider. Even recent international successes have failed to lift the market: take the 1975, who are doing pretty well. After their current album entered the charts at No 1 both here and in the US, it dropped swiftly, spending only three weeks in the UK Top 10. What’s more, they have yet to produce the kind of inescapable hit singles that tip groups into worldwide stardom. Lee Thompson of industry website Record of the Day is even less optimistic: “Just see what happens with streaming [which has been included in sales calculations since 2014]. Our presence, our ability as a country to break through, will lose its importance.”
The dominance of North American acts such as Beyoncé, Bieber and Drake seems to bear that out: their tracks are streamed billions of times, guaranteeing both high chart positions and A-list radio play (old-fashioned airplay is still an important factor in breaking acts in Britain). Few British artists can compete, and brand new ones not at all. But, short of crying: “British charts for British bands!” what can be done?
“It depends on how labels define success,” says Welsh singer-producer Catherine Anne Davies, who records as the Anchoress. “If you’re looking at whether your YouTube streams are 3m and you’re on Radio 1, that’s a different kind of success from what I’m looking for.” After releasing her debut album, Confessions of a Romance Novelist, on the independent label Kscope, Davies is critical of major label risk aversion that she says has created “an ever disintegrating divide between whether you’re a creative musician or an entertainer. I don’t think the majors are aware that people want personality, so they churn out sanitised karaoke singers.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Watch he BBC’s Sound of 2016 hopefuls.
One response, if you are a major, is to send your entire A&R department around the country to find out what people want to listen to (and, more importantly, buy). The label doing this, which can’t be named, has instructed its team to speak to promoters, club owners and others connected to local music scenes, until they have an idea of why new acts aren’t connecting. It has been spurred by the fact that this is the time of year when the frontrunners for 2017’s next-big-thing polls should be gathering at the starting gate. However, according to another insider, there is an unprecedented lack of viable hopefuls, let alone those with the potential to be the next Sam Smith, Adele or even James Bay.
“There’s nothing on the horizon, no music scene at the moment. It seems to be that the talent isn’t out there, [or if it is] they don’t know what to do with it,” says the label source. “[Labels] just chase data and click-throughs. They’ll say: ‘Oh, this new band has three No 1s on Hype Machine [a site that tallies the most popular songs on music blogs], let’s go, go, go!’ But just because it’s on a blog doesn’t mean it’s a song that people will buy.”
Some will feel little sympathy for the plight of the big three majors, Warners, Sony and Universal, but independents are also affected. Geeneus, the head of east London station Rinse FM and the label Rinse Recordings, is voluble: “The problem with new acts is that there’s nowhere to get into it. For a long time, radio stations have looked at statistics. They don’t think: ‘Amazing song,’ they look at how many YouTube plays, how many Facebook likes. Your sales are in the hundreds, and people think it’s not good.” Radio 1’s head of music, Chris Price, has a theory about that: “The debate about data versus passion is a very live one for us. Music comes from a place of passion, and so does the point at which it connects to new audiences. We believe this should be the defining factor in the decisions we make on behalf of our listeners.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest See the video for Jack Garratt’s Surprise Yourself.
He could have a point: Radio 1’s staunch support for Jack Garratt, whose career hasn’t taken off as quickly as expected, is clearly a case of passion over data. Garratt won the BBC Sound of 2016 and Brits critics’ choice awards this year, but hasn’t matched the trajectories of James Bay and Sam Smith, critics’ choice winners in 2015 and 2014. His debut album reached No 3, but it spent only one week in the Top 10, and four in the Top 40. Now it is not even in the Top 100. His only song to reach the singles charts, Worry, peaked at No 67, and stayed on the chart for just three weeks. By the same point in their careers, Smith and Bay had both had No 1 albums and major hit singles. It might turn out to be a marathon rather than a sprint for Garratt, but the pressure is on.
Clare Maguire knows about the pressures of being hotly tipped. She came fifth in the Sound of 2011 poll (won by Jessie J) and soon found herself floundering. “Nobody [at her former label, Polydor] was a bad person, it’s just a bad situation to be involved in. If it doesn’t work instantly, there’s not much support; you’re left, and people are quick to forget.” Her first album went Top 10, but Maguire’s life was complicated, and after promoting the album, she entered rehab for alcoholism. She’s only just started releasing music again (her second album, Stranger Things Have Happened, is out this week). “Labels are definitely focused on signing young people who have a level of media training,” she says warily. “They sign people who are then very slowly stripped of their identity.”
Ryan Bassil, UK editor of Vice’s music site Noisey, calls the music generated by young signings “landfill electronica”, a follow on from the landfill indie of the mid-2000s. “The majors have jumped on teenagers who bought production software and make music for New Music Friday [Spotify’s compilation of the week’s best new releases]. If any of these new ones released a sick track, they’d do fine. But it’s much harder for bands to break through, because so much stuff is coming out every single day, so there needs to be more than just a tune. There needs to be a character there.”
There are optimists around, such as Ben Mortimer. As an A&R scout, he was responsible for bringing Jamie T, Florence + the Machine and Years & Years to major labels, so he has experience in breaking British acts. Now, as newly appointed co-president of Polydor, he acknowledges that although there has not been “the same proliferation of breaking acts in the last six months”, the industry shouldn’t be pessimistic. “Things are really healthy and we’ll be breaking acts again really soon,” he says. But it’s hard not to heed the words of the Anchoress, whose CV (degrees in literature and queer theory; author of a book about Walt Whitman’s epic poetry) qualifies her as one of pop’s more interesting outliers. “It’s hard not to talk about Bowie and Prince when you’re talking about careers, which should be measured in decades. If even the person presenting the music isn’t invested in it, the public can’t get invested.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/may/26/the-british-pop-talent-crash-where-have-all-the-new-acts-gone
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en
| 2016-05-26T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/e61cf63f9adc5c016aaf643ffd1204773dc5e5382fcb8f3b22743c24b0075922.json
|
|
[
"Jill Papworth"
] | 2016-08-26T13:29:55 | null | 2016-07-22T06:00:48 |
Acres of parkland, palatial rooms and leisure facilities including a bowling alley and dance floor make this Georgian-style new-build a grand proposition
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fmoney%2Fgallery%2F2016%2Fjul%2F22%2Fa-magnificent-manor-house-in-west-sussex-in-pictures.json
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en
| null |
A magnificent manor house in West Sussex - in pictures
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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All this, plus Millicent’s location in the South Downs national park, equidistant between Guildford and Chichester and just 46 miles from London, gives it an eye-watering £19.5m price tag. The agent is House Partnership
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https://www.theguardian.com/money/gallery/2016/jul/22/a-magnificent-manor-house-in-west-sussex-in-pictures
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en
| 2016-07-22T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/9363be820f3e77479a94aaa7ae644236e24b77b69415cbafe450b7bdb4c0e8a5.json
|
|
[
"Rob Smyth"
] | 2016-08-27T10:51:00 | null | 2016-08-27T10:46:10 |
Minute-by-minute: Join Rob Smyth as Tottenham Hotspur host Liverpool in the Premier League’s lunchtime kick-off at White Hart Lane
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ffootball%2Flive%2F2016%2Faug%2F27%2Ftottenham-v-liverpool-premier-league-live.json
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en
| null |
Tottenham v Liverpool: Premier League - live!
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
| null |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2016/aug/27/tottenham-v-liverpool-premier-league-live
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en
| 2016-08-27T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/f9da0acea116cc57d69ec6f7a52c6e4f6e402b0091e11d7a0624c2529ea6f2de.json
|
|
[
"Press Association"
] | 2016-08-30T16:52:46 | null | 2016-08-30T16:13:36 |
Hull have completed the signing of Ryan Mason for a club-record fee
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ffootball%2F2016%2Faug%2F30%2Fhull-city-sign-ryan-mason-from-tottenham-for-club-record-fee.json
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en
| null |
Hull City sign Ryan Mason from Tottenham for club record fee
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Hull have completed the signing of Ryan Mason for a club-record fee.
The sum they will pay Tottenham for the 25-year-old midfielder remains undisclosed, but Hull have confirmed it is a new record.
Mason will further strengthen their squad following the earlier signing of goalkeeper David Marshall from Cardiff, and becomes the latest to leave White Hart Lane for East Yorkshire, following Tom Huddlestone, Jake Livermore and Michael Dawson.
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https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/aug/30/hull-city-sign-ryan-mason-from-tottenham-for-club-record-fee
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en
| 2016-08-30T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/a97c4a0e08c0cd7a6937e440d70cbcb48154d5a67637051b0ce36d4f88c0a191.json
|
|
[
"Greg Wood"
] | 2016-08-26T13:21:28 | null | 2016-08-25T21:14:05 |
Black Type Bet, a new bookmaking website, has promised it will trade in a traditional way and will not close winning accounts
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fsport%2F2016%2Faug%2F25%2Fbetting-black-type-bet-.json
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en
| null |
New betting site Black Type Bet promises not to ban customers
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
A prominent campaigner for increased consumer rights for punters has offered a cautious welcome to a new player in the crowded internet gambling market: a bookmaking site that claims it will not ban or restrict its customers for winning, and will guarantee to lay any price to lose at least £500.
“It’s positive that an online bookmaker is trying to trade in a traditional way,” Brian Chappell, the founder of the website justiceforpunters.org, said on Thursday. “This type of approach, if it continues, will certainly be welcomed by most punters, especially the thousands who have their bets restricted to pennies by the major players.”
Shareholders in Black Type Bet, which launched on Wednesday, include Mylo Sangster, the grandson of the famous owner-breeder Robert, whose blue and green silks were among the most famous of the last 50 years. The new firm is seeking a niche in a highly-competitive market which has seen a number of bookies come and go in recent years, on occasions taking their customers’ deposits with them, but Black Type is staking its claim to be different on a willingness to lay bets at advertised prices.
A bookie that accepts your money might not sound revolutionary but in recent years increasing numbers of online gamblers have suffered the frustration of attempting to place bets on racing and sport with major firms, only to find their stakes restricted to tiny amounts, or refused altogether.
The Horserace Bettors Forum, a group launched by the British Horseracing Authority to represent the interests of racing punters, also recently claimed at least 20,000 accounts were closed by bookmakers in the first six months of 2016. This, according to Simon Rowlands, the HBF’s chairman, raised fears that “the appeal of betting on horse racing is possibly being seriously eroded by the trading practices of individual bookmakers.”
Black Type is adamant that it will not close winning accounts, with the sole caveat that customers using computer programmes to “arb” bets via betting exchanges – that is, take a price on their site and lay it on an exchange for a small, guaranteed profit – will be barred on a “three-strikes-and-out” basis. There are no gaming products – such as virtual slot machines and roulette – on the site, and Stephen Davison, a spokesman for the company, said its promise to lay its prices to lose at least £500 is cast iron.
“It’s there on the site in big letters and there’s no hiding away from it,” Davison said. “This is not a project that’s been built up overnight.
“We’re after day-to-day £20 each-ways, £50 to win and £1 Lucky 15s, and there are plenty of punters like that out there who are disillusioned because they’ve won a bit somewhere and been closed, or they’ve backed something at 12-1 that’s gone off at 6-1 and the bookie has decided they don’t want their business.”
To maintain its margins, Black Type will not offer the “Best Odds Guaranteed” concession on racing that is widespread among major firms, or offer inflated odds or free bets to new customers. It is, in a sense, an attempt to return to traditional bookmaking practices in the internet age, and only time will tell how successful that can be.
Chappell, a fierce and persistent critic of bookmakers on the issue of restrictions and account closures, is one of many who will watch with interest. He also points out that the Australian state of New South Wales introduced legislation in January 2015 which forces bookies to honour guarantees on the minimum bets they will lay, and that a number of firms have seen their turnover and profitability rise as a result.
He would like to see the Gambling Commission, which regulates the industry in Britain, introduce equivalent rules for bookies trading in the United Kingdom. “At the moment, bookmakers are advertising prices but they are discriminating,” he said. “It’s not just a few people, as they claim. It’s thousands and thousands of people.”
|
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/25/betting-black-type-bet-
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en
| 2016-08-25T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/6f6fbacfe22fb469d2c42a3d4a91caf6206ab1e16deb5a1cfaf46189c1bf91c5.json
|
|
[
"Jamie Grierson",
"Chris Johnston"
] | 2016-08-26T13:05:14 | null | 2016-08-26T11:08:06 |
The child, about six or seven, is thought to have been taken away in a VW Transporter in Redstone Hill on Thursday afternoon
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fuk-news%2F2016%2Faug%2F25%2Fsurrey-police-appeal-for-witnesses-after-boy-forced-into-van.json
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| null |
Surrey police appeal for witnesses after boy 'forced into van'
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Detectives are continuing to investigate a claim that a boy was taken into a van in Surrey, although no missing person reports have been received more than 12 hours after the alleged incident.
A member of the public reported seeing the child, who was described as being around six or seven years old, being taken into a black Volkswagen Transporter at 4.43pm in Redstone Hill, Redhill.
A small mountain bike, believed to belong to the child, was left at the scene. It is a Frantic Giant make and has a silver frame with black and yellow detail.
The force is searching for the modified van, which is described as having an 02 registration plate and three BBS alloy wheels, with one missing at the front driver’s side. The vehicle also had no rear windows, as well as a sliding side door and chrome sidesteps.
The boy is described as white, about 4ft tall and wearing a red T-shirt and navy blue jeans.
A statement from Surrey police on Friday said a “large” police operation involving a significant number of officers took place overnight to trace the van and to establish the identity of the child. “Reports of this nature involving children are extremely rare, which is why we are treating it so seriously,” the statement said.
Supt Bex Smith of Surrey police said: “This is an incident we are taking extremely seriously and are asking for anyone with any information regarding the child, the van or what happened to come forward.
“If you were in the area, perhaps commuting to or from Redhill train station at the time please get in touch with us if you saw anything suspicious. At this stage we are not ruling out a number of options, including whether the child and the person in the van know each other.”
Surrey police issued a CCTV image of a van on Thursday but have since ruled out the vehicle after tracing the owner.
Anyone with any information should contact Surrey police by calling 999 in an emergency or 101. The independent charity Crimestoppers can also be called anonymously on 0800 555 111.
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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/aug/25/surrey-police-appeal-for-witnesses-after-boy-forced-into-van
|
en
| 2016-08-26T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/92fc77c6333b221b6c5c77707b9680efd5c22861e2a99bf4c029fec6fcacbd67.json
|
|
[
"Patrick Collinson",
"Dawn Foster"
] | 2016-08-26T14:49:40 | null | 2016-08-26T13:03:24 |
Fewer adults took out individual savings accounts in 2015-16 as critics say government’s help-to-buy Isa is a ‘sham’
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fmoney%2F2016%2Faug%2F26%2Fdrop-in-new-isas-amid-criticism-of-help-to-buy-version.json
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| null |
Drop in new Isas amid criticism of help-to-buy version
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Individual savings accounts are becoming less popular among the British public, according to official figures published amid widespread criticism of the government’s help-to-buy Isa.
About 12.7m Isas were taken out by adults in 2015-16, said HM Revenue & Customs, down from 13m the year before. The number of new Isa openings peaked at about 15m in 2010-11.
But the amount saved into new Isas rose by £1bn to a record high of £80bn. The typical saver put £6,338 into an Isa, up 5% on the year before.
Historically low interest rates may have deterred some people from opening a tax-free Isa, although the evidence suggests that those who do have them – particularly older savers – are pouring in more money than ever.
The figures come amid sharp criticism of the government’s help-to-buy Isa, which has been called a “sham” for misleading aspiring homebuyers. It has emerged that the government bonus is not paid until a property sale is completed, and so cannot be used towards the initial deposit demanded by mortgage lenders. Separate figures for help-to-buy Isas were not published, but it is understood that close to half a million have been opened so far.
Since they were introduced by Gordon Brown as chancellor in April 1999, vast sums have poured into Isas, particularly after the tax-free investment limit was raised to £15,000 in 2014. The total market value of all Isas stood at £518bn at the end of 2015-16, up 7% on the year.
Most savers opt for a cash Isa, where the money is held on deposit and interest is paid tax-free, rather than a more risky stocks and shares Isa. HMRC said the share of cash Isas in the total of new Isa openings remained broadly static last year at just under 80% of the total.
However, there is evidence that more cash is now heading into stocks and shares rather than cash Isas, where interest rates have fallen below 0.5% for those wanting instant access.
The amount of new money invested in stocks and shares Isas jumped from £17.9bn last year to £21.4bn, while the amount put into cash Isas fell from £60.9bn to £58.8bn.
Danny Cox, of the financial advisers Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Record subscriptions to stocks and shares Isas are a reflection of interest rates being at the lowest of the low. Equities are pretty well the only game in town for yield, for those happy with the additional risk.”
The tax incentives for opening a cash Isa are expected to decline over the next few years, following the introduction on 6 April of the new personal savings allowance.
The decades-old system under which tax is deducted at source from savings accounts has been swept away, with all the interest earned on savings now paid out in full. Individuals are allowed to earn up to £1,000 a year in interest without having to pay tax, which will mean the tax advantages of a cash Isa will, for many, become redundant.
The HMRC figures reveal that the biggest users of cash Isas have an income between £10,000 and £20,000, while stocks and shares Isa investors typically have an income of £30,000-£50,000.
The average Isa saver has managed to build up a total savings pot worth £19,538. However, for high earners, (those with incomes of £150,000 or more) the average saved in Isas is £64,148.
Women are more likely to save through an Isa than men. About 10.6 million men have an Isa, compared to 11.1 million women.
The big increase in Isa subscription limits, which jumped from £11,520 to £15,000 in April 2014, has largely benefited the already well-off.
Only 9% of subscriptions into Isas were at the maximum limit in 2014-15, although this jumped to 49% for those on incomes above £150,000. It is estimated that the tax relief on Isas cost the Treasury £2.6bn in 2015-16.
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https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/aug/26/drop-in-new-isas-amid-criticism-of-help-to-buy-version
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en
| 2016-08-26T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/008b5981f116c3b99adb2bef835efc9ed96933fb1e9eafa7ace9beeab362946c.json
|
|
[
"Australian Associated Press"
] | 2016-08-29T08:52:15 | null | 2016-08-29T03:14:57 |
The AFL has released a preliminary 40-man All-Australian squad that features 24 potential debutants
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fsport%2F2016%2Faug%2F29%2Fafl-announces-40-man-all-australian-squad-featuring-24-new-faces.json
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| null |
AFL announces 40-man All Australian squad featuring 24 new faces
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
The AFL’s All Australian side will be stacked with new faces this year, with some 24 potential debutants included in a preliminary squad. The final 22-man team will be revealed on Thursday but the league revealed its 40-man squad on Monday.
Adelaide superstar Rory Sloane, Richmond gun Dustin Martin and Melbourne ruckman Max Gawn were included and are fully expected to earn All-Australian honours for the first time.
Greater Western Sydney co-captain Callan Ward, Hawthorn forward Jack Gunston and Sydney on-baller Luke Parker are among the other notable names in the the mix to earn their first All-Australian gong.
Women's game well placed to produce the AFL's next great entertainer | Craig Little Read more
Collingwood skipper Scott Pendlebury, Geelong veteran Corey Enright and Sydney superstar Lance Franklin are in line for their sixth All-Australian selection. Brisbane and Essendon were the only clubs without at least one representative.
40-man All Australian squad:
Adelaide: Eddie Betts, Josh Jenkins, Rory Laird, Tom Lynch, Rory Sloane, Daniel Talia. Carlton: Sam Docherty, Kade Simpson. Collingwood: Scott Pendlebury, Adam Treloar. Fremantle: Lachie Neale. Geelong: Patrick Dangerfield, Corey Enright, Joel Selwood. Gold Coast: Tom Lynch. Greater Western Sydney: Stephen Coniglio, Toby Greene, Tom Scully, Heath Shaw, Callan Ward. Hawthorn: Jack Gunston, Sam Mitchell, Cyril Rioli. Melbourne: Max Gawn. North Melbourne: Robbie Tarrant. Port Adelaide: Jasper Pittard. Richmond: Dustin Martin, Alex Rance. St Kilda: Jack Steven. Sydney: Lance Franklin, Dan Hannebery, Josh Kennedy, Luke Parker, Dane Rampe. West Coast: Andrew Gaff, Josh Kennedy, Jeremy McGovern, Luke Shuey. Western Bulldogs: Marcus Bontempelli, Matthew Boyd
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https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/29/afl-announces-40-man-all-australian-squad-featuring-24-new-faces
|
en
| 2016-08-29T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/5b73eef2d259f5f8aaf7f5d881d93c89fd70cbbe6a99ede3fb064f6849c480da.json
|
|
[] | 2016-08-26T13:30:48 | null | 2016-08-23T10:10:30 |
The Girls Who Code founder is making it her mission to improve the technology sector’s diversity
|
http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fpersonal-investments%2Fng-interactive%2F2016%2Faug%2F23%2Freshma-saujani-the-entrepreneur-kickstarting-girls-tech-careers.json
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en
| null |
Reshma Saujani: the entrepreneur kickstarting girls' tech careers
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
The Girls Who Code founder is making it her mission to improve the technology sector’s diversity
|
http://www.theguardian.com/personal-investments/ng-interactive/2016/aug/23/reshma-saujani-the-entrepreneur-kickstarting-girls-tech-careers
|
en
| 2016-08-23T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/f1263b7e5d819a1190159b37c182a489dfa945320eca75f12663a6edd31a01a1.json
|
|
[
"Jack Schofield"
] | 2016-08-26T13:26:43 | null | 2016-07-28T08:51:25 |
Kevin’s laptop has been hijacked by ransomware. He has no files worth paying for, but he wants to keep using his PC
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ftechnology%2Faskjack%2F2016%2Fjul%2F28%2Fhow-can-i-remove-ransomware-infection.json
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en
| null |
How can I remove a ransomware infection?
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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My laptop has been hijacked by the ransomware virus. I really have no files on my computer worth paying for. However, how do I continue to use my computer after it has been hijacked? I did a system restore back to when it came in the box, but the ransom screen still covers my home page. Kevin
Ransomware is a type of malware that demands money with menaces: it takes control of your PC, and wants you to pay to get it back. In general, it’s best to avoid paying. If you feel you have no choice, then the malware has exposed critical flaws in your malware protection, and backup and recovery procedures. No reputable business should ever find itself in this position. However, some have been caught out by ransomware that infects files on the server as well as on individual PCs, when they did not have adequate offline or cloud backups.
Ransomware shouldn’t even get through if a PC is running a fully updated copy of Windows, Microsoft’s SmartScreen or Google Safe Browsing, and up-to-date anti-virus software. Nowadays, most anti-virus software is familiar with all the common variants of ransomware, and if not, should include heuristics that recognise potentially dangerous activities, such as encrypting files. Unfortunately, users can install ransomware themselves, either by downloading infected files or by running files that arrive in phishing emails.
Of course, anti-virus programs should scan those files as well. If you have doubts, upload the file to Virus Total and have it checked by more than 50 anti-virus programs.
In principle, it should be possible to defeat all ransomware by immediately disconnecting your PC from the internet, reformatting the hard drive, and reinstalling everything from a backup. If your laptop is running Windows 8, 8.1 or 10, then I would expect the “Restore factory settings” option to solve the problem, if you can get to it. Try typing “reinstall” in the Windows search box, then click on “Remove everything and reinstall Windows”.
This is different from the “system restore” function in earlier versions of Windows, which tries to take the PC back to an earlier state. You can do that by starting your PC in Safe Mode, choosing “Safe Mode with Command Prompt” from the Advanced Boot Options menu, typing rstrui.exe and pressing Enter. Apparently this works with some early types of ransomware, but I suspect that’s not what you did.
Alternatively, you may be able to run a program such as MalwareBytes Anti-Malware from a CD/DVD or a USB thumb drive, possibly after using Process Explorer to kill the browser or other malware process. I keep a USB thumbdrive with a selection of repair utilities in case I need them for this sort of purpose. Many people use a “rescue disk” such as the ones from Comodo and Kaspersky. These include utilities that can run from a USB device. Kaspersky also explains How to record Kaspersky Rescue Disk 10 to a USB device and boot a computer from it.
Types of ransomware
There are many different types of ransomware, and they work in different ways. You need to know which bit of malware has infected your laptop so that you can search for removal instructions. There are at least a couple of dozen to choose from. The most common include Crowti, FakeBsod, Reveton and Tescrpt, while Petya is one of the worst.
The new No More Ransom! website, backed by the European Cybercrime Centre, has useful advice plus screen shots of some common ransomware screens, while Jen Ruhman has a LinkedIn page with 27 screenshots. Alternatively, you could do an image search for ransomware, or even upload your own screenshot and do a reverse image search.
The type of laptop also makes a difference, as does the operating system. Most ransomware infections are aimed at Microsoft Windows, but a couple have targeted Apple Macs, Linux machines and Android smartphones. When it comes to Windows laptops, older models running Windows 7, Vista or XP are more vulnerable: the malware can infect the MBR or Master Boot Record. (Boot sector viruses have been common for many years.) Newer Windows 8/8/1/10 systems with UEFI startup sequences and SecureBoot are less vulnerable.
Removal
Some ransomware viruses are relatively easy to remove, while others are hard. The easiest ones are “scareware” browser screens that claim your laptop has been locked by the FBI or a local police force. This is never true. You can usually stop them by using the Windows Task Manager to close the browser, or force quit on Macs, then run an anti-virus program to remove them.
The harder ones encrypt either the Master File Table in Windows, or individual files, or the whole hard drive.
The Master File Table keeps track of all the sectors on the hard drive, and which bits of which files are stored in those sectors. It the MFT is encrypted, it’s theoretically possible to rescue files by using an undelete program such as EaseUS’s Undelete (Windows or Mac) or Piriform’s Recuva. However, untangling and identifying more than a few files could be a huge task.
The worst ransomware programs encrypt files or hard drives with military strength encryption. However, all is not necessarily lost. There are at least 20 programs designed to decrypt these files, from companies such as AVG, Emissoft, and Kaspersky Lab. The Windows Club has a good List of free Ransomware Decryptor Tools to unlock files, with links.
However, if your ransomware encrypts each file with its own unique key, like Rokku, then you will probably not get your files back. This is why offline and possible offsite backups are essential for protecting valuable data.
The future
Ransomware has been around for a long time, starting with Joseph Popp’s PC Cyborg in 1989, but it only started to become more common about a decade ago. Fortunately, it was hard for the criminals to harvest money without being tracked and identified.
That problem was largely solved by the arrival of the dark web (via Tor) and Bitcoin, the pseudonymous digital cryptocurrency. Most ransomware victims have probably never used Bitcoin, so infected PCs have to provide clear instructions on how to make payments, and then how to decrypt their files.
The standard recommendation is never to pay the criminals who propagate ransomware, because financial success will attract more criminals to the industry. In some cases, people will pay, because they think the chance of recovering their files is worth more than the cost.
For home users, of course, it’s always cheaper and easier to buy an external hard drive and make a back-up than pay for files to be decrypted. In most cases, it’s also cheaper to buy a USB DVD or Blu-ray drive and make backups on optical discs. No ransomware can encrypt files on those.
Have you got another question for Jack? Email it to Ask.Jack@theguardian.com
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https://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2016/jul/28/how-can-i-remove-ransomware-infection
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en
| 2016-07-28T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/0138e694fb3ba8ff7421ec64cee8c40c1cfb9aebe4b68cfcca398c98731d5661.json
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[
"Kareem Shaheen"
] | 2016-08-30T10:52:25 | null | 2016-08-30T09:48:28 |
Excavations, mapping and testimony offer clearest evidence yet of scale of militant group’s crimes in conquered territories
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fworld%2F2016%2Faug%2F30%2Fup-to-15000-bodies-may-be-buried-in-mass-graves-in-syria-and-iraq-survey.json
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Up to 15,000 bodies may be buried in mass graves in Syria and Iraq - survey
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www.theguardian.com
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A survey of mass graves has identified 72 sites in which Islamic State buried the victims of its atrocities in Syria and Iraq.
Up to 15,000 victims of genocide and mass slaughter may be buried in the sites across territory where the militants formerly held sway, according to a comprehensive assessment by the Associated Press.
Syrian troops ‘discover mass grave in Palmyra’ Read more
The figures are based on the documentation and mapping of the 72 mass graves as well as excavations by Iraqi officials, the testimony of survivors, Isis propaganda campaigns and analysis of the ground where the victims were buried.
The numbers offer the clearest evidence yet of the scale of Isis’s crimes as it eliminated enemies and minorities in Syria to establish its stronghold in Syria and the violence it wrought as it surged into Iraq in 2014 and conquered the plains of Nineveh, killing and enslaving thousands of members of the Yazidi religious minority as well as members of the Shia community.
Further mass graves are expected to be uncovered as Isis retreats in the face of a US-led coalition and allied forces on the ground in Iraq and Syria, ceding ground outside of Mosul and Raqqa – the two most populous cities under its control.
The study identified 17 mass graves in Syria alone, including one with the bodies of hundreds of members of a single tribe that was largely exterminated when Isis captured the region. Sinjar mountain, Iraq, where the Yazidis took refuge as the militants raided their ancestral home, contains six burial sites and the bodies of more than 100 people.
Some areas where mass graves were uncovered are still too dangerous for a comprehensive excavation that would allow an accurate count of the victims.
Isis has often flaunted its mass atrocities, justifying the enslavement and murder of the Yazidis on obtuse religious grounds, and publishing propaganda videos and images of their crimes. Their most infamous large-scale killings were the Camp Speicher massacre in Iraq, when the group murdered more than 1,500 Shia army cadets in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s birthplace, and the August 2014 massacre of more than 700 members of the Shaitat tribe in eastern Syria for their opposition to Isis rule.
One site outside the Badoush prison in Iraq is believed to contained the bodies of 600 inmates killed by the militants in their summer 2014 rampage.
The Associated Press estimated the number of known victims as between 5,200 and more than 15,000, a figure the agency described as staggering. The largest mass grave is believed to hold thousands of victims.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/30/up-to-15000-bodies-may-be-buried-in-mass-graves-in-syria-and-iraq-survey
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en
| 2016-08-30T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/c4b825df640b93a4ca78ca6b85b8ddcdb807a29502e0bdd150f377b1e591f217.json
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[] | 2016-08-26T13:26:18 | null | 2016-08-22T12:31:55 |
Abe popped up at the Olympic closing ceremony dressed as the video-game plumber to introduce Tokyo as the next host city
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fworld%2Fshortcuts%2F2016%2Faug%2F22%2Fjapanese-pm-shinzo-abe-super-mario-rio-olympic-closing-ceremony.json
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Why Japanese PM Shinzo Abe was dressed as Super Mario in Rio
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www.theguardian.com
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Name: Shinzo Abe.
Age: 61.
Appearance: Italian plumber.
That’s not what he looks like, is it? It’s not a full-time thing. It’s a sometimes thing.
When? At the Olympics.
What sort of person who isn’t a full-time plumber dresses up like just one for the Olympics? The prime minister of Japan, that’s who.
Do his family know? They do now: as part the Olympic closing ceremony in Rio, Abe made an appearance dressed as the popular video-game character Super Mario, holding a big red ball in his hands.
Let’s forget about the why for a minute. How did he look? Supremely ill at ease.
I meant how much did he look like Super Mario? Hard to say. His costume fell away almost the instant he appeared, leaving him standing in a sober suit.
OK, I think I’m ready for the why now. As Japan is hosting the games next time round, the country was given a brief segment to showcase its plans, right after the Olympic flag was passed to the governor of Tokyo.
Uh-huh. The flashy pre-recorded segment, featuring other Japanese exports including Pac-Man and Hello Kitty, ended with Abe turning into Super Mario, diving into a pipe and drilling his way through the earth to reach the Maracanã stadium, where he made his live entrance.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest An actor dressed as the Queen parachutes during the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Photograph: Olivier Morin/AFP/Getty Images
At the risk of generalising, Japan is weird. It’s no weirder than the Queen parachuting into London’s opening ceremony in 2012.
Except, according to my sources, she didn’t really do that. I’m fairly certain Abe didn’t drill through the planet either.
I’d have to review the footage. Anyway, I’m intrigued. Tell me a bit more about him. Born into a politically prominent family, Abe was first elected PM in 2006, and now heads up a coalition with a huge majority.
Sorry, I was asking about Super Mario. Before gaining the honorific Super, plain old Mario debuted in the arcade game Donkey Kong in 1981. Originally a carpenter, he retrained as a plumber to work with his brother Luigi. He used to take a lot of mushrooms.
Do say: “I can’t wait for Tokyo 2020, the SuperMarioLympics!”
Don’t say: “Thank God you’re here. The toilet block has flooded again.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2016/aug/22/japanese-pm-shinzo-abe-super-mario-rio-olympic-closing-ceremony
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en
| 2016-08-22T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/12df197c87db690b02180cb88ca5fb0a33a7265864366c58bdce7bb0989313c3.json
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[
"Mark Brown"
] | 2016-08-28T12:49:37 | null | 2016-08-28T11:09:40 |
Late architect’s creation for Serpentine Gallery summer party will be the highlight of sculpture exhibition at stately home
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fartanddesign%2F2016%2Faug%2F28%2Fzaha-hadid-lilas-pavilion-erected-chatsworth-house-sculpture-show.json
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Zaha Hadid pavilion erected at Chatsworth House for show
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www.theguardian.com
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An enormous, curvy, mushroom-like pavilion designed by the late architect Dame Zaha Hadid has been installed in the grounds of one of Britain’s grandest stately homes.
For the last two weeks, workers have been unpacking and erecting the 23 sq m structure, called Lilas, on the south lawn of Chatsworth House, the Derbyshire home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire.
It is a highlight of the annual Beyond Limits sculpture exhibition organised by Sotheby’s at Chatsworth and is for sale – although buyers without a substantial parcel of land might need to think twice.
Simon Stock, the Sotheby’s specialist curating the show, said the pavilion and the historic backdrop were clearly very different but “they don’t clash, they complement in a way the pyramid does at the Louvre. It is a very beguiling structure, it draws you in, it is an extraordinary thing”.
The pavilion was an unexpected addition to the roster of temporary pavilions commissioned each year by the Serpentine Gallery in London. When rising steel prices meant the 2007 pavilion coming from artist Olafur Eliasson and architect Kjetil Thorsen was delayed, Hadid offered to step in with a stopgap
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Lilas pavilion was created for the Serpentine Gallery’s summer party in 2007. Photograph: Sothebys
Julia Peyton-Jones, the former Serpentine director who introduced the annual pavilion idea in 2000 recalled being thrilled.
“It was one of those little miracles,” she said. “It was uncomfortable to be in the position of not having a pavilion on time that year – [but] stuff happens and it is how you deal with it that is the major issue.
“As a result we had this gorgeous project that was unexpected and it was an absolute little gem… so typical in its simplicity and so relevant to her work.”
It is now, rightly, recognised as an important Hadid work, said Peyton-Jones.
The pavilion was designed, built and erected at breakneck speed, hosted the gallery’s summer party, and within a few weeks was gone – sold on to a private individual who is now selling it through the auction house.
Stock said the plan to exhibit at Chatsworth was hatched before Hadid’s unexpected death, aged 65, in March. But the timing undoubtedly added emotion to its exhibition.
“It is very poignant,” said Peyton-Jones. “But all the more marvellous that this master work should be presented to remind us what an extraordinary contribution she made.”
Stock said Chatsworth was an appropriate venue because of a historic precedent in the remarkable great conservatory that was built there in 1840 by the architect Joseph Paxton.
It was in effect a vast greenhouse, 84m long, 37m wide and 19m high, and was the largest glass building in England until Paxton went further and created the Crystal Palace in London in 1851.
Paxton’s conservatory, created when architects were using metal structures for the first time, was cutting edge; just as Hadid’s Lilas, a metalwork frame with a tensile fabric stretched over it, was.
The conservatory lasted until the first world war when a lack of coal meant it could not be heated and many plants died. It was demolished in 1920.
Stock said installing Lilas had taken about two weeks and had been a challenge. “This is certainly the most complex undertaking we have done at Chatsworth, it is also one of the most imposing and beautiful.”
He said there were many ways to describe Lilas and was probably best to let visitors decide. “Is it principally sculptural? Is it a piece of architecture... do you see it was a building, in other words? Do you see it as something organic that has grown out of the ground? It is all of those things combined.”
It will be for sale, although Sotheby’s is not publicly saying how much it would cost. If previous Serpentine pavilions are anything to go it could be upwards of £500,000. That was the figure that the gallery reportedly sold its 2013 pavilion designed by Sou Fujimoto, while Smiljan Radic’s 2014 pavilion was sold to the Hauser & Wirth gallery at Bruton in Somerset.
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https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/aug/28/zaha-hadid-lilas-pavilion-erected-chatsworth-house-sculpture-show
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en
| 2016-08-28T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/600726180dd9048b02a19ff4b03e4c6b12901f9f6d9362f534023592918b75f9.json
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[
"Michelle Mcgagh"
] | 2016-08-26T13:29:34 | null | 2016-08-23T06:00:07 |
I spent six days cycling around the Norfolk coast with my husband. It was such a change from my usual trips, where I’d get on a flight to drink beer in another city
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fmoney%2Fblog%2F2016%2Faug%2F23%2Fno-spending-best-holiday-cycling-norfolk.json
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My year of no spending: I've been on one of the best holidays ever
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www.theguardian.com
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In the past nine months my bicycle has become my most important possession, taking me to work but also enabling me to get away from home in my spare time.
As part of my no spend challenge I cut my travel budget to zero. As I usually rode to work I didn’t think tacking on a few extra miles each week would make much difference, but I hadn’t factored in the extra miles I would have to do to be part of events and to spend time with friends and family.
This summer has seen me riding to the New Forest (125 miles each way) for a friend’s wedding, climbing Ditchling Beacon en route to Brighton and pedalling 35 miles each way to my brother’s house to meet my new niece. (Add to that another 100 miles to raise money for Mind.)
All the rides were worth it but the fact they happened within a short space of time has been exhausting. And it’s not just me who’s tired, my bike is looking a bit worse for wear as well. In fact, I thought I would have to put my hand in my pocket for the first time since November and shell out for new brake pads as mine were dangerously close to the end of their life.
That was until a conversation on Twitter ended with a kind Glaswegian called Bean sending me some new brake pads with an order to “pay it forward” when I asked what I could do in return. It was such a generous gesture, but unfortunately they got lost in the post. Luckily, a cycle geek friend with a house full of bike parts then came to my rescue with some pre-used pads that he’d stripped off one of his many bikes, and I’m safely still on the road.
But getting hold of brake pads was only half the job, I also had to fit them. Despite cycling for a few years I’d never bothered to learn how to fix my bike, instead taking it to a local bike shop for repairs. Not any more.
Being forced to take care of my bicycle has given me so much more confidence when it comes to repairs. I was able to fix a problem with my derailleur early in the year thanks to great tutorial recommendations from Guardian readers and I’d recommend anyone London-based who wants to learn more about their bike gets to know DIY bike workshop London Bike Kitchen.
The fact that I could fix the basics meant I felt confident taking my creaking bike on holiday. Along with my husband, I spent six days cycling around the Suffolk and Norfolk coastline, camping on beaches and in forests.
Although wild camping is not allowed outside of Scotland and some areas of England, you can camp with permission from land owners.
We loaded up our bikes with a tent, sleeping bags, clothes and as much food as we could carry, and headed out on an adventure. Other than plotting a rough route and checking Google maps for deserted places we had to leave most of the trip to chance.
It was such a departure from the holidays I usually take, where I’d jump on a budget flight to drink beer in a different city and tick off a list of must-see museums and monuments.
Six days out in the wilds of Norfolk was something I hadn’t done since I was a kid. Being in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do and no phone signal meant we had no choice but to relax, something that I find hard to do, and enjoy the scenery.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Winterton, Norfolk: ‘Being in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do meant we had no choice but to relax and enjoy the scenery.’ Photograph: Michelle McGagh
It was one of the best holidays I have ever had. Of course, it wasn’t without its struggles, including the lack of facilities that meant washing in the freezing sea and emergency dashes around town to find public toilets. Eating was also problematic as we couldn’t nip into a pub for lunch, instead we had to rely on what we had brought with us (mostly peanut butter and banana bread) and food from shops that don’t stock the best selection unless you want to live on crisps.
The choice was so limited in one village, where pork pies reigned supreme, that I bought a portion of chips – the only hot food we ate and the first time I’ve bought food from anywhere but a supermarket in nine months.
After 370 miles of cycling our holiday was complete and we arrived home bedraggled and with the most ridiculous tan lines. I’m already planning another camping and cycling holiday next year when my challenge is over, meaning next time I’ll be able to enjoy the pubs en route as well as the scenery.
If anyone has any tips for cycle and camping holidays I would love to know where your favourite spots are.
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https://www.theguardian.com/money/blog/2016/aug/23/no-spending-best-holiday-cycling-norfolk
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en
| 2016-08-23T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/38eca3a1dc40afbf5f9c8bde639d085e354f1adae60db5b22c070a17d31980a5.json
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[
"Dominic Fifield"
] | 2016-08-26T13:18:49 | null | 2016-08-25T14:53:34 |
Chelsea have been knocked back in their attempts to sign the 21-year-old Milan centre-back
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ffootball%2F2016%2Faug%2F25%2Fmilan-reject-chelseas-35m-offer-for-alessio-romagnoli.json
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Milan reject Chelsea’s £35m offer for Alessio Romagnoli
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www.theguardian.com
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Chelsea have been shunned in their attempts to sign Alessio Romagnoli after Milan rejected an offer potentially worth £35m and insisted the player is not for sale at any price.
Eager to add to their central defensive options, Chelsea had turned to the Milan 21-year-old after failing to agree a deal with Napoli for their Senegalese defender Kalidou Koulibaly. Napoli fended off interest by insisting the player would cost £60m, a price Antonio Conte admitted was over the odds.
The left-footed Romagnoli had appeared to represent a more realistic target. He arrived at the San Siro from Roma for around £20m last summer and is contracted to 2020, earning around £35,000-a-week. Chelsea offered around £30m up front with further fees based on honours and appearances, only for their bid to be knocked back.
“Milan have received a very lucrative offer from Chelsea for Alessio Romagnoli,” the Serie A club said on their website. “The player, however, is untransferable and therefore this offer will not be accepted. We thank Chelsea, a club Milan always have had the best of relationships with.”
Confirmation of the rejection may force Chelsea to revive interest in Torino’s Nikola Maksimovic, who had been interesting Napoli while they were expecting to lose Koulibaly earlier in the summer. Conte has only four fit senior defenders – John Terry, Gary Cahill, César Azpilicueta and Branislav Ivanovic – and has made clear Chelsea should make defensive recruits a priority in what remains of the window.
They also have an interest in the Swiss full-backs Ricardo Rodríguez of Wolfsburg and Juventus’s Stephan Lichtsteiner. The midfielder Mario Pasalic is joining Milan on a season-long loan in a separate deal that has not been affected by the Romagnoli negotiations.
Chelsea have secured the goalkeeper Eduardo Carvalho, 33, from Dinamo Zagreb, with the Portuguese to work as the backup to Thibaut Courtois and Asmir Begovic. “I am leaving Dinamo with the club qualified for the Champions League and I am thrilled with that success,” said Carvalho. “I hope people remember me in Zagreb as a person who always gave his best for the club and the fans, and that everyone will keep a nice memory of me.”
Chelsea have reopened talks with their young forward Dominic Solanke to resolve a long-running contract dispute that had threatened to leave the England Under‑21 international in limbo. The 18-year-old has entered the final year of his deal and had requested, via his stepfather, new terms worth around £50,000-a-week at the end of last season, as well as guarantees of senior football.
The club were unwilling to loan out Solanke before he had agreed a long-term deal, as has become policy in recent years. He scored seven goals in 26 games for Vitesse Arnhem in the Eredivisie last season. Yet the striker was on the substitutes’ bench against Bristol Rovers in the League Cup in midweek with talks having resumed aimed at reaching a compromise. Two other forwards at Chelsea, Loïc Rémy and Patrick Bamford, are expected to leave on loan before the 31 August cutoff.
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https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/aug/25/milan-reject-chelseas-35m-offer-for-alessio-romagnoli
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en
| 2016-08-25T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/a4903ad850a8929d5e4512108ebf2f23c8e15137be6761128e4f793ed91d1446.json
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[] | 2016-08-26T13:24:47 | null | 2016-08-21T17:43:36 |
Letters: The environmental effects of sea-level rise will dramatically alter the Severn estuary, and all its inhabitants, if we do little to deploy alternatives to fossil fuels now
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fenvironment%2F2016%2Faug%2F21%2Flisten-to-the-sand-eels-on-climate-change.json
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Listen to the sand eels on climate change
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www.theguardian.com
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Michael Grange (Letters, 19 August) recommends “not asking the frogs first” before building tidal barrages on the Severn. But we are already being spoken to by the sand eels, mosquitoes, birds, butterflies and even the humble Highland saxifrage (Climate change threatens UK’s mountain plant life, 18 August) if only we would listen.
They are on the move already. The environmental effects of sea-level rise will dramatically alter the Severn estuary, and all its inhabitants, if we do little to deploy alternatives to fossil fuels now. Can the seriousness of the crisis justify the sacrifice of some present wetlands in order to avoid them being found far inland by our great grandchildren?
Professor Terry Gifford
Research Centre for Environmental Humanities, Bath Spa University
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/21/listen-to-the-sand-eels-on-climate-change
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en
| 2016-08-21T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/a048d7e33c0736c2be96aa160c2614dedaa4af0fa2cb8f91bd3460cc4d4dbcb5.json
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[
"Samuel Gibbs"
] | 2016-08-26T13:27:06 | null | 2016-04-01T11:27:26 |
iOS 9.3.1 update should fix bug and make URLs on affected iPhone and iPads work again after disruption of Universal Links system by errant third-party apps
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ftechnology%2F2016%2Fapr%2F01%2Fapple-update-fix-iphone-broken-links-bug.json
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Apple pushes out update to fix iPhone broken-links bug
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www.theguardian.com
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Apple has pushed out an update for iPhones and iPads to fix a bug that caused devices to lock up, batteries to drain and links to be completely inoperative.
The updated version of iOS 9.3.1 is available now through the Settings app on an iPhone or iPad, or though iTunes on a Windows or OS X computer. It fixes a problem caused by rogue third-party apps that overload one of the core components of iOS that handles links within apps from Safari, Mail and Messages to many third-party apps.
The problem was pinned down to apps, including Booking.com, using large lists of URLs within Apple’s Universal Links system, which lets apps claim certain URLS and open them within the app rather than Safari. For instance, if a user tapped on a theguardian.com link, and had the Guardian app installed, that link would open the Guardian app by default, rather than load the Guardian website in Safari.
The problem was highlighted by users updating to iOS 9.3, which launched 21 March, causing iOS to re-catalogue the links and their associations with apps across all third-party, Universal Link-using apps installed on the phone.
Some apps, including the Booking.com app, had incorrectly formatted lists of URLs. In Booking.com’s case it had a database of thousands of URLs individually listed, which came to 2.3MB in size. Most apps have databases of only a few kilobytes, and use wildcards to denote that every link with a certain domain would open in the app.
The size and complexity of the URL list broke the Universal Links system, sending the iPhone or iPad into a constant loop and making all links inoperable across most of the system and with it incurring the wrath of users infuriated by broken phones.
Booking.com updated its app to remove the massive database of URLs, but that did not fix the problem, requiring Apple to push out an update to all iPhones and iPads running iOS 9.
Updating via the phone, tablet or computer should fix any broken iPhones or iPads, and prevent the problem from happening again.
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https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/01/apple-update-fix-iphone-broken-links-bug
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| 2016-04-01T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/58463e9a33df64d63ce5778517b3c2ca650f722230b4d7b4c4984065741b87ac.json
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[] | 2016-08-30T20:52:55 | null | 2016-08-30T19:01:37 |
Editorial: President Assad’s regime has forced agencies to make painful choices. What have they got to show for them?
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The Guardian view on the UN aid mission in Syria: access at a high price
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In November 2012, an internal report into the shortcomings of the United Nations in the final stages of the war in Sri Lanka urged: never again. The secretary general embraced it, speaking frankly about the UN’s failure to meet its responsibilities and the need to learn lessons. Ban Ki-moon went on to note that the conflict in Syria was the latest reminder of how crucial the organisation’s work was.
Almost four years on, however, the Syrian crisis shows the dilemmas still faced by UN humanitarian missions, and persistent deficiencies in its response. The $4bn (£3bn) aid effort is its most expensive and challenging to date. The dedication of its staff is to be commended. It is also all the more reason to be dismayed by the Guardian’s revelations that contracts worth tens of millions of dollars have gone to people close to Bashar al-Assad. They include payments to businessmen whose companies are under US and EU sanctions and to charities set up by the president’s wife, Asma al-Assad, and his friend and cousin Rami Makhlouf, linked to pro-regime militia groups.
The problem is clear: operating in the country forces humanitarians to make difficult choices, as a UN spokesman has said. One could be blunter: it forces them to make bad choices, since those are the only kind available. Faced with choosing between dealing with unsavoury partners or turning its back on needy civilians, it has opted for the latter course. Yet the decisions it has made in Syria are of deep concern to many within the organisation as well as outside it. These unhappy compromises have left millions of desperate civilians without aid, and enabled a flow of aid to government-controlled areas which bolsters Mr Assad.
Concerns that the regime might kick the UN out of Syria entirely, should it become too outspoken, are real. With Moscow on his side, the president feels he has little to fear. Yet it is worth considering the precedents again. The 2012 Sri Lanka review found that the UN had failed to adequately confront the government over its obstructions to humanitarian assistance. Thousands died from inadequate medical care and lack of food. In at least one instance, the report noted, the expectation that the UN would not confront the government may have influenced the latter’s actions.
The international community has failed to halt the war. A robust and fair humanitarian response is the very least required. The UN’s scope for leverage may be extremely limited, but it is not nonexistent. In one of the most disturbing cases in Syria, the World Health Organisation has spent more than $5m to support the national blood bank – controlled by the defence department. Insiders questioned the legality of dealing with defence rather than health officials, and acknowledged concerns that supplies could be directed to the military first. Blood bags and testing kits are not included on UN convoys from Damascus to areas outside government control. Yet when the agreement was drafted, the Syrian government could not obtain the supplies that it needed. This was, surely, a prime opportunity to push back.
The UN now faces calls for an independent inquiry into its actions. Such a review would be valuable. But the record shows that asking the right questions and drawing the appropriate conclusions are one thing; putting them into action is the much harder but more important task.
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/30/the-guardian-view-on-the-un-aid-mission-in-syria-access-at-a-high-price
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en
| 2016-08-30T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/bdcf4482533932848c4fb8aed5ae835a19c33c1f05156575fce42f15fe6f66c0.json
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[
"John Vidal"
] | 2016-08-28T08:51:45 | null | 2016-08-28T07:00:26 |
Across the world, governments are protecting habitats. But indigenous peoples are being evicted
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fglobal-development%2F2016%2Faug%2F28%2Fexiles-human-cost-of-conservation-indigenous-peoples-eco-tourism.json
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The tribes paying the brutal price of conservation
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www.theguardian.com
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The Botswana police helicopter spotted Tshodanyestso Sesana and his friends in the afternoon. The nine young Bushmen, or San, had been hunting antelope to feed their families, when the chopper flew towards them.
There was a burst of gunfire from the air and the young men dropped their meat and skins and fled. Largely through luck, no one was hit, but within minutes armed troops arrived in a jeep and the nine were arrested, stripped naked, beaten and then detained for several days for poaching in a nature reserve.
Welcome to 21st-century life in the vast Central Kalahari game park, an ancient hunting ground for the San, but now off-limits to the people who forged their history there. The brutal incident took place last week, just days after Botswana’s wildlife minister Tshekedi Khama, the brother of President Ian Khama, announced a shoot-on-sight policy on poachers.
Khama claims the policy, which is supported by conservation groups, will deter poaching and the illegal wildlife trade, which is widely seen by Europe and the US as disastrous for biodiversity. But there are no rare or endangered species such as elephants or rhinos in the areas where the bushmen hunt. Sending a helicopter gunship and armed guards to arraign the hunters looks rather like an escalation of the low-grade war that Botswana has waged for years on one of the most vulnerable indigenous groups in the world.
For the past 20 years, the San have been systematically stripped of their homes, land and culture. In a series of heavy-handed evictions, houses have been burned, schools and health centres closed, and water supplies cut off. Now these people live, dispossessed, on the edge of the huge game park, forbidden to hunt in or enter the land they have lived on sustainably for centuries.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest San men preparing for hunting in Grashoek, Namibia Photograph: Alamy
Meanwhile, one of the largest diamond mines in the world has been allowed to open in the park, and wealthy big game hunters from abroad are welcomed to newly constructed state-of-the-art game lodges. Is this conservation, or something more akin to bullying of the weak and exploitation of the land in the interests of the powerful?
What has happened in Botswana is happening all over the world, according to an increasingly vocal group of campaigners, academics and environmentalists. They claim that indigenous peoples are being appallingly treated and abused, all in the name of a conservation philosophy that carries a heavy human cost. In order to make room for wildlife, tourism and industry, governments are using conservation as a pretext to drive the world’s most endangered peoples away from the lands and animals they have lived with for generations.
This week, the issue will be raised in Hawaii at the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s congress. “The world’s most vulnerable people are paying the price for today’s conservation,” says Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples. She has already sounded the alarm at the UN over the impact that conservation is having on tribal peoples in Kenya, Uganda, Bangladesh, Namibia, Botswana, Ethiopia, South Africa, Argentina, Chile and Ecuador.
Tauli-Corpuz will tell the congress that nature conservation is not working for people or for wildlife. “Houses are still being burned down, and people are being displaced violently. Protected areas continue to expand, yet threats against them are also increasing,” she will say. Vulnerable tribal peoples are being removed by force from India’s tiger reserves and forests; tribal groups such as the Ogiek and Sengwer, the San, Maasai and Baka are being forced out of forests and wildlife-rich plains in Africa; and from Thailand to Ecuador, Cameroon to Bangladesh, ethnic groups are being dispossessed in the name of protecting nature.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Group of Baka pygmy women Photograph: Alamy
“It is happening all over Asia and Africa. We can agree with the goals of conservation, but if these protected areas are then being overrun by mining companies, what is the point of conservation?” Tauli-Corpuz said.
What’s more, human rights groups claim, governments are accessing wealthy conservation groups based in the US and Europe to take advantage of the billions of pounds of conservation money being offered by global banks, northern governments and foundations for climate change and biodiversity protection. The international money duly flows in, but recipient governments are not abiding by international laws to protect communities.
“Governments like conservation because there is a lot of money in it. It brings money from the Global Environment Facility and elsewhere. But when your economic priority is to generate money from conservation, you want to get rid of people from these protected areas. That is what is now happening,” Tauli-Corpuz told the Observer.
Most of the world’s 6,000 national parks and 100,000 protected places have been created by the removal of tribal peoples. Hundreds more parks are being created every year as countries commit to meeting the UN’s goal to protect 17% of land by 2020. And the human toll is rising accordingly. “Eviction numbers are declining,” says Rosaleen Duffy, a political ecologist at Sheffield University. “There are still large-scale, violent evictions, generally in national parks, but they are less common now. But much more common is the everyday form of exclusion [of tribal groups] which makes it impossible for anyone to live in protected areas.”
Gonzalo Oviedo is head of social policy at the IUCN. He told the Observer: “Conservation has changed a lot. Governments are more likely now to restrict the rights of people who live in protected areas. They may ban hunting, or farming, the cutting down of trees or fishing. The effect is to force people to move.
“They are more careful now about evictions. But in practice they are reducing access to resources and reducing people’s ability to live in protected areas. People in reserves may not be allowed to do anything. They are often poorer than they were before, and the impact can be bigger than if they are moved out,” said Oviedo.
Simon Counsell, director of the UK’s Rainforest Foundation, agrees: “Much conservation is still in the mindset of being in opposition to people. The ‘conservation v people’ approach to protecting wildlife has worsened the lives of thousands of native people.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest A woman from the San tribe Photograph: Jorge Fernández/LightRocket via Getty Images
The foundation this year documented dozens of cases of human rights abuses in central Africa, where up to $500m has been spent in the last decade by the US, EU and other western donors to protect the world’s second largest swath of rainforest.
The irony is that “anti-people” conservation doesn’t appear to be having a beneficial effect on wildlife and may in fact be self-defeating. Analysis this year of 34 large protected areas in Congo DRC, Cameroon, Gabon, the Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo found that conservation had displaced villages and led to conflict and multiple human rights abuses – and that animals including elephants, gorillas and chimps were still declining at alarming rates anyway.
“Conservation is clearly not working,” said Counsell. “Despite billions of dollars being poured into protected areas over this period and in spite of legally binding commitments to respect people’s rights, there was evidence that local indigenous and local communities across the world continue to pay a heavy price for protected areas,” he said.
“A new model of saving nature is urgently needed because the anti-people agenda now being practised by many countries is not working and undermines attempts to protect nature. Not only is the present anti-people model which is being practised unjust. It marginalises the very people who have protected forests for millennia and who represent one of our best hopes for doing so in the future.”
Life for the Baka Pygmies of Central African Republic Read more
Meanwhile, tension is mounting between human rights groups who seek to protect people and conservationists who are paid to effectively run protected areas for government. The ill-feeling came to a head this year when the WWF was accused by tribal defence group Survival International of funding and logistically aiding anti-poaching eco-guards in Equatorial Africa. The guards were allegedly victimising pygmy groups in the region.
According to a 228-page complaint made to the OECD, the Baka people in Cameroon had been forbidden to enter many of their traditional hunting areas, despite the fact that their hunting is reported to have minimal impact on the environment.
The WWF responded that it provides human rights training for the eco-guards, and that it was working in a complex area overrun with military groups. Adjudication by the OECD on that row is expected shortly.
According to Duffy: “Some groups are in danger of becoming complicit in government wrongdoing. They rely on national governments to allow access. Some have very significant links with corporates and corporate sponsorship, and tend not to be very critical of what is going on. It can be difficult for them to talk out of turn. Some facilitate the process.”
The IUCN’s Gonzalez believes conservation groups and western governments need to monitor what is happening on the ground far more closely. “A lot has changed in the big groups but there is still a lot to be done. Countries often impose no conditions on money for conservation. EU countries give money but do not have sufficient safeguards on how it is used. They don’t care what is going on. But multilateral groups like the World Bank have social safeguards and are more careful now. Why don’t governments have the same safeguards? Foundations and private money also do not care much about the impact of their spending,” he said.
According to Kristen Walker at Conservation international’s Policy Center for Environment and Peace, the big conservation groups are attempting to adapt to often difficult dilemmas and relationships. “We can find ourselves in tricky situations. We are invited guests in countries, but we also try to advocate and support communities, too. There are countries we have pulled out of because we felt we could not work there, and in some places people expect us to be more outspoken advocates.
“Governments sometimes look at the short term. We have adopted a rights-based approach and we are guided by an indigenous advice group. There has been a lot of change in conservation in 10 years. But how do you make sure governments are not shortsighted? How do you make sure communities are recognised? These are challenges,” she said.
The lobby in favour of returning more protected land to the original “owners” is growing. Studies by the Centre for International Forestry Research and the World Bank have found that when traditional communities are given full legal rights to their land, they protect the environment efficiently and cheaply.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Apatani Village, India. Photograph: AGF/UIG via Getty Images
“In India, tribal peoples face arrest and beatings, harassment, threats and trickery and feel forced to ‘agree’ to leave their forest homes. But the evidence proves that tribal peoples are better at looking after their environment than anyone else”, says Sophie Grig of Survival.
“In the BRT tiger reserve in southern India where tribal people have been allowed to stay, tiger numbers have increased at above the national average. There is no reason to believe that evicting tribes helps tigers. In fact, it’s harming conservation.”
In Hawaii this week, Tauli-Corpuz will make the same argument. She will tell delegates that indigenous-owned lands are effective at resisting deforestation in Brazil; that in Namibia, community-based wildlife management has resulted in significant growth in wildlife populations; and in the US and Australia, indigenous peoples manage protected areas effectively. “Studies have demonstrated that the territories of indigenous peoples who have been given land rights have been significantly better conserved than the adjacent lands”.
Leading environmentalists and human rights advocates, including Noam Chomsky, Jonathon Porritt and Ghillean Prance, agree. Last year they appealed to conservationists to protect endangered tribes. In a letter to the Guardian, they stated: “Tribal peoples have managed their lands sustainably for generations. Forcibly removing them usually results in environmental damage. Such removals are a violation of human rights. The cheapest and quickest way to conserve areas of high biodiversity is to respect tribal peoples’ rights. The world can no longer afford a conservation model that destroys tribal peoples: it damages human diversity as well as the environment.”
The argument is still a long way from being won. But could 2016 be the year that some of the world’s most ancient tribes began to return to the land of their ancestors?
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Maasai warriors Photograph: Design Pics Inc/REX/Shutterstock
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Baka pymy Photograph: Alamy
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bushmen girl Photograph: Jorge Fern?ndez/LightRocket via Getty Images
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Duhkha Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo
MAASAI
Thousands of pastoralist Maasai groups in Tanzania have been evicted from a 1,500 sq km area close to the Serengeti, Maasai Mara and Ngorongoro national parks. The government has tried to remove them to establish exclusive game-hunting in the area. In 2009, a mass eviction left more than 200 homes burned and 3,000 people homeless.
BAIGA
Thousands of these tribespeople in India are being forcibly evicted from Kanha tiger reserve, though they do not hunt tigers and have lived in the forests with the animals for centuries. Many other adivasi, or tribal groups, are under notice to leave their forest homes to make way for tourism and tiger conservation. The Baiga have now set up a project to “save the forest from the forest department”.
BAKA
The indigenous forest pygmy tribe which lives near Nki national park in south-east Cameroon, and the Bagyeli ethnic group of South Kribi have been forced out of their forests or massively restricted in what they hunt and fish. The groups says that they have become squatters on their own land, with entry into the forest restricted.
HMONG
Thousands of ethnic Hmong and Karen hill tribes groups in northern Thailand have been displaced from their forests after they were designated national parks or protected areas. The groups have been classed as “illegal occupants” or “squatters” even though they have been living there for more than 100 years. The Hmong and Karen are routinely blamed for resource degradation but say their traditions protect nature.
BARMAN
These tribespeople, who have lived in the forests of central Bangladesh for centuries with other ethnic groups, have been evicted or prevented from living in traditional lands rezoned by the government as protected reserves in the 1980s. They are now restricted in where they live, move, and what they grow.
SENGWER
Kenya Forest Service guards have for years harassed and tried to evict Sengwer indigenous people from the western highlands. The 5,000 hunter gatherers were barred from their ancestral forests in 1964 but continue to return. Many now live in makeshift homes, camped out on roadsides.
SAN
The San, or Bushmen, peoples of the Kalahari desert in Botswana have been outlawed from their traditional lands to make way for tourism and mining. Even though they have lived in the desert for generations, they are considered a threat to wildlife. In a series of evictions, they have had their homes destroyed and water cut off and have been restricted from hunting. In 2006 the high court granted the Bushmen the right to return to their land, but the government has continued to enforce a permit system.
OGIEK
The Kenyan government has long been seeking to drive the Ogiek and others from the Mau forest to protect national water supplies and wildlife. The forest has been severely degraded after an influx of logging companies and illegal settlers, but the Ogiek, who have lived there for centuries, say they are not responsible and are resisting eviction. Many communities have had their homes burned but continue to fight to return.
DUKHA
The nomadic reindeer-herding Dukha tribe of northern Mongolia are struggling to survive after being banned from hunting in the name of conservation. Their traditional land was declared a protected area in 2013 and they face prison and restrictions on where they migrate to and hunt. The Dukha have hunted sustainably for generations, with their own strict rules governing the number of animals they can kill, and when and where they can hunt.
LICKAN ANTAY
The Lickan Antay indigenous people from the Atacama desert in northern Chile live in a state-protected reserve but have been overwhelmed by tourism and conservation which leaves them little water and restricts them from access to many places. “Before the creation of the reserve there wasn’t a single tourist, and suddenly they’re everywhere. Our existence is now a constant battle,” says one member of the community.
WANNIYALA-AETTO
The “forest people” of Sri Lanka were evicted from their homeland in what is now the Maduru Oya national park. Until recently, they hunted deer and wild boar, and collected honey, fruit and nuts. Today, they live outside their forest with small plots of land to grow rice and vegetables. They need a permit to enter the forest and those caught hunting risk arrest and violence.
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https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/aug/28/exiles-human-cost-of-conservation-indigenous-peoples-eco-tourism
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| 2016-08-28T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/75b9f4401f71494390dd9af3625c0e1e76ef6521e8e6b59fcf0f40c325ed055b.json
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[
"Source"
] | 2016-08-30T14:52:44 | null | 2016-08-30T14:43:42 |
Bastian Schweinsteiger maintains that it is his dream to continue playing football under José Mourinho despite the fact he has yet to feature for the club this season
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ffootball%2Fvideo%2F2016%2Faug%2F30%2Fschweinsteiger-no-problem-manchester-united-boss-mourinho-video.json
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Schweinsteiger has 'no problem' with Manchester United manager Mourinho - video
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Bastian Schweinsteiger maintains that it is his dream to continue playing football under José Mourinho at Manchester United, despite the fact that the German has yet to feature for the club this season. Speaking at a news conference in Mönchengladbach, Germany, on Tuesday, Schweinsteiger says he there is no problem between him and Mourinho and that he will wait for developments over the next two months. Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images
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https://www.theguardian.com/football/video/2016/aug/30/schweinsteiger-no-problem-manchester-united-boss-mourinho-video
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en
| 2016-08-30T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/d1f701162af77d5ac2993a3b3ace56989e437610b70e94306083526c1cfed20b.json
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[
"Source"
] | 2016-08-26T13:17:19 | null | 2016-08-24T20:10:37 |
At a private fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Cher praised Clinton while comparing Donald Trump to Stalin and Hitler
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Cher compares Donald Trump to Hitler at Clinton fundraiser - video
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At a private fundraiser on Sunday in Provincetown, Massachusetts, for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Cher praised Clinton while comparing Donald Trump to Stalin and Hitler. ‘Do you remember Fun With Dick and Jane? It’s like racist Fun With Dick and Jane! “We’re going to build walls!” He doesn’t mean: “We’re going to make America great again.” He means: “We’re going to make America straight and white.”’
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2016/aug/24/cher-trump-hitler-video
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| 2016-08-24T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/e4514d61d5953e6d0a404cad2c83d194e066191ad2392bb14f637a9e329a3551.json
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[
"Grant Atterbury"
] | 2016-08-30T14:55:20 | null | 2016-07-25T13:05:03 |
The chain that once provided 11,000 jobs will disappear from the high street by 20 August. An employee describes the months of uncertainty as all rescue attempts failed and depleted stores were stripped by bargain-hunting ‘vultures’
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Diary of a BHS worker: ‘If there were a Dignitas for department stores, I would make the call’
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Thursday 16 June
The overnight appearance of brightly coloured “Store Closing” and “Everything Must Go” signs has sent the shoppers of Tunbridge Wells into a frenzy. I’ve been allocated the job of keeping order in the bedding department but it’s proving impracticable. Pillowcases are ripped from their packaging, examined and then discarded in crumpled heaps. Duvet covers are perused and then dumped among piles of cushions.
“Excuse me. Do you have these in a white double, fitted?” asks a customer, pointing at a grey, king-sized, flat sheet.
“No, I’m afraid that’s all we have,” I say, attempting a friendly smile, which I realise probably looks more like a grimace.
“Oh. Are you sure? There’s none out back?”
Sir Philip Green's reputation ripped apart in damning report on BHS demise Read more
(For a second I wonder whether or not to explain that we keep our stock in the bowels of the building, which can be reached only when our ancient and decrepit elevators are working.)
“I’m afraid not, no. The storeroom is practically empty. Sorry,” I reply, trying to soften the grimace. And failing.
In the 30 seconds that it has taken me to disappoint her, someone has scattered a dozen garish floral-print bedding sets. I return them to their plastic stand, where they remain for two minutes before being ransacked once again.
It’s officially the beginning of the end of BHS, and it’s not a pretty sight.
Friday 17 June
The store is much busier than it was a few months go, but the initial buzz that followed BHS falling into administration in April has died down. It’s possible that shoppers have realised that, regardless of the signs hanging from the ceiling and the posters in the windows, everything still costs exactly what it did just under a month ago.
I spend a mind-numbingly dull shift folding towels to help maintain the illusion that the place is still a fully functioning department store, rather than a shambolic jumble sale. While there appears to be an abundance of goods, many of our popular lines are almost sold out and the gaps are filled with items of dubious appeal that have been languishing unsold elsewhere in the building for months or even years. Damaged items have started appearing on the shelves, as well as other interesting storeroom discoveries, such as toilet brushes without brushes, handles or lids. These have not proved a big seller.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The vultures have been out in force ... nothing left to sell at a north London store. Photograph: Bryan Roberts
I’m able to visit the stockroom, one of the malfunctioning lifts having been fixed. There are bits and pieces of kitchenware and numerous bath mats, but mostly empty shelves and stacks of promotional signs, announcing reductions of progressively higher percentages. I wonder what we’ll have left to sell by the time we finally break out the “80% off” ones.
Saturday 18 June
I am one of the few members of staff not required to work weekend shifts. However, I message a friend and colleague in the evening, curious to know whether there will be anything left for me to do when I return on Monday. She replies that the vultures, as she calls the hordes who have flocked to the store since everything went belly up, have once again been out in force and that the bedding department has been picked clean.
She also informs me that a friend will be going on maternity leave at the end of the week. A wave of sadness sweeps over me, realising that what should have been the start of a temporary absence of 10 to 12 months is now to be a final farewell. With a heavy heart, I spend the rest of the evening online, shopping for a leaving gift and card.
Sunday 19 June
I begin to contemplate my uncertain future and wonder whether the exceptionally disagreeable fellow that I dealt with eight years ago at the jobcentre still works there and how many hoops you have to jump through these days to get jobseeker’s allowance. My colleagues and I have had to learn to live with months of constant gnawing uncertainty. First we were assured that myriad “white knight” bidders were eager to save our jobs. As the weeks passed and deadlines were moved back again and again, it began to seem less and less likely. Throughout this process, it almost felt like a conscious effort was being made to keep us shopfloor workers out of the loop. I started to suspect that our fate had been decided and the constant hints that a buyer may have been found were nothing more than a charade designed to keep our spirits up. When we were eventually told that no such saviour had been found, there was, in some ways, a sense of relief. At least we could start to formulate plans.
Monday 20 June
My mood is not improved by an article claiming that BHS’s former owner Philip Green has just taken delivery of a £46m private jet while he awaits his new £100m superyacht. I try to remind myself that money doesn’t buy you happiness (although his millions would certainly take the sting out of being on the brink of joblessness).
An excited manager informs me that we’ve taken delivery of more stock. However, these three pallets (a fraction of our old daily deliveries) make little impression on the dwindling homeware department. A large wall that was once home to storage jars, tea towels and oven gloves is now taken up with rows of oversized kitchen rolls from the small food store that we were once promised would help turn our fortunes around.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘My mood isn’t improved as I read that Philip Green has taken delivery of a £46m private jet’ ... Green at a fashion show. Photograph: David M Benett/Getty Images for Topshop
I spend part of the afternoon working alongside the visual merchandiser, a woman in her mid-20s who was once charged with making sure the products were displayed in the most attractive way possible. During the early stages of administration, while she was still doing her utmost to keep the store at its best, I dubbed her “the turd polisher”. Since liquidation was announced, her meticulous approach has become impossible to maintain.
I ask if it’s OK to mix some muted pastel bedding sets with psychedelic ones, knowing she would have once considered this a heinous crime. “Yeah, just chuck it anywhere,” she replies with a shrug.
Somehow her resignation is at once hilarious and heartbreaking.
Tuesday 21 June
The question I keep hearing is: “So when are you actually closing?” Mostly it’s asked by savvy shoppers hoping to work out when we’ll be making all the serious reductions. A few people, however, seem genuinely bothered by the prospect of losing a store they have been visiting their entire lives. Unfortunately I have no answer for them. We’ve simply been told that our services will be required for as long as the store remains open.
As we are leaving at the end of our shift, we are handed a letter from the administrators, dated 14 June (news really does travel slowly down the chain of command) telling us that they “envisage that the store will cease trading at some time in the next 12 weeks”.
As if that uncertainty wasn’t bad enough, an article has appeared online claiming that there’s a chance that up to 80 stores might still be “saved” by Mike Ashley of Sports Direct fame/infamy. God help us all if that turns out to be true. I can’t help but wonder why BHS seems to be so irresistible to all these overfed, self-serving clowns. First Green, then Dominic Chappell and now, perhaps, this rambling bullyboy? What kind of terrible crimes could BHS staff have committed in their previous lives to deserve that?
Wednesday 22 June
There are moments, towards the end of the afternoon, when you would be forgiven for thinking the store had already closed down. There’s barely a customer, and staff members stand around making chitchat. No one seems in the slightest bit interested in keeping this dying show on the road today. If there were an equivalent of Dignitas for department stores, I think we would have all been prepared to make the call today.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘I can’t help but wonder why BHS seems so irresistible to all these overfed, self-serving clowns’ ... Dominic Chappell being questioned by MPs. Photograph:PA Wire
Thursday 23 June
Staff are wilting in the heat. More stock has been delivered: microfleece throws, which arrive already marked down at 50%. Supplies of our most popular all-season items, such as pillows, towels and bed sheets remain unreplenished. A new sign has appeared in the shop’s window declaring “new stock in store”. Presumably this is an attempt to entice back those people who visited earlier in the week and weren’t tempted by the brushless toilet brushes.
On the bright side, nothing more has been heard regarding Mike Ashley’s attempt to “save” us.
Friday 24 June
It’s the day of the EU referendum result. No one discusses it and I have long since learned not to engage in political conversations at BHS. It seems that this should be a time for celebrating the friendships we’ve formed and remembering the good times, rather than highlighting our differences.
Monday 27 June
In the evening, many staff attend a recruitment event arranged by Sainsbury’s. The evening turns out to be an uniformative Power Point presentation with uninspiring talks from managers, culminating in us being handed a piece of paper with the url for the Sainsbury’s jobs website.
Tuesday 28 June
There has still been no official word on when the store is shutting down. The homeware department now has enough beach towels to cover a medium-sized coastal resort, but little else. A few bags of cushions arrive. In a corner of the basement, I discover a stack of posters. On a black background in a bold white font are single numbers, counting down from 9 to 2. Next to those is a pile of signs that read “Last Day Today!”
There’s an overwhelmingly depressing atmosphere. Those colleagues who have reasoned that their redundancy pay won’t be worth hanging around for have left already. The general consensus among the staff is that the store will be closed by the end of July. It’s going to be a long month.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘The homeware department now has enough beach towels to cover a medium-size coastal resort.’ Photograph: Alamy
Wednesday 29 June
Everything in the lighting department is now for sale at 50% of its actual original value. I spend four hours alone in the menswear department, unpacking boxes of garish shorts and placing them on hangers. It is a new low point.
Since the company collapsed, the administrators have cut day-to-day running costs by, among other things, no longer paying the royalty fees required to play music over the shop speakers. The deafening silence somehow makes what is already a fairly depressing atmosphere considerably worse. It was previously possible to gauge, to some extent, the financial health of BHS through the music that was played in its stores. When I first started in late 2007, it was a mix of contemporary chart stuff along with golden oldies. Shortly before the first wave of rumours began circulating that Green was looking to offload the company, the playlist switched to almost entirely forgotten 80s pop songs (Howard Jones, anyone?). This continued until Chappell took over. The big-name chart songs returned to the playlist for a while, only to be replaced shortly before we went into administration with amateurish atrocities performed by people who I would imagine describe themselves as “semi-professional musicians”.
Now, in the silence, I listen to customers moan that they can’t find anything they want to buy or that everything’s overpriced, while in the same breath saying how sad they are that we’re closing down.
Thursday 30 June
Having been interviewed for a job at the new Wilko store that is due to open practically on BHS’s doorstep next month, I am told, by a slightly dishevelled old man with a frayed tie, that they will not be offering me the post as I didn’t provide sufficiently detailed or enthusiastic answers to such inquiries as: “Tell me about a time you really went above and beyond the call of duty to offer excellent customer service.”
Friday 1 July
I’m increasingly finding myself with nothing to do in the afternoon. At a loose end, I volunteer to help the food store manager, on the grounds that his is the only department receiving stock on a daily basis. I ask him how long it will be until the shelves are empty and he replies that they almost certainly never will be. Green’s BHS Food project has been far from a great success. There are, I’m told, a great many items throughout the store that have been on the shelves ever since it opened, shortly after Chappell’s motley crew took over at the helm of the sinking ship.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Shopping at the BHS Kensington branch in 1978. Photograph: Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Our branch is next to a Marks & Spencer, with both a Tesco Metro and a Poundland a minute away. Quite why anyone ever believed that people would abandon those to shop a limited range of budget food in what was once the bathroom accessories section of BHS is anyone’s guess.
I recall the evening just over a year ago when we were required to attend a presentation that served both as an introduction to Chappell’s Retail Acquisitions company and a reassurance that, despite BHS having just been sold for £1, these new food stores would ensure a bright future. I never could quite work out if the people making the speeches believed what they were saying any more than I did.
Monday 4 July
Only today has the chaos really hit with full impact. It feels like someone took the whole place apart and then made a half-arsed attempt to reassemble it from memory before giving up entirely. The bathroom accessories section has been filled with women’s shoes. The second floor, where the women’s shoes would normally be, has a lone pair of mannequin legs, pallets loaded with unused shelves and a magazine stand – it is to become a giant salesroom for all the fittings that could feasibly find a buyer.
To add to the already slightly surreal spectacle, the store manager is in jeans and T-shirt, prying fixtures off the wall with a crowbar.
Once home, I watch Chappell’s interview on Newsnight, in which he claims that the £2.6m he pocketed while driving BHS into the dirt was a “drip [sic] in the ocean” in terms of what was needed to turn the company around. By my reckoning, it’s a “drip” that would take a shopfloor worker, on a full-time contract, approximately 160 years to earn, if they were willing to put in overtime. He also says that the impending unemployment of 11,000 staff is playing heavy on his mind. My heart bleeds for him.
Wednesday 6 July
Word comes down from High Command that, contrary to everything that’s been said and done so far, under no circumstances should the contents of the first floor be moved to the ground floor. Word among the staff is that someone may have suddenly remembered that the restaurant up there is reliant on customers being in the vicinity. The upshot is that the store is now still trading over two floors, with randomly placed women’s wear in the homeware department.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘It’s hard to walk away from this experience with anything other than a total distrust of big business’ ... Philip Green giving evidence to the Commons business select committee. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
Thursday 7 July
The arrival of more stock is greeted by groans from staff. Finding the motivation to unbox it isn’t easy. It’s been a little over a month since we learned that we would all be out of a job, but we’re forced to soldier on at minimum wage to sort out the mess left behind by the greed of others. The only people smiling are those due to start new jobs at Wilko next week.
Wednesday 20 July
Morale among the staff has reached an all-time low, as we toil through the heatwave. A display wall, now devoid of product and shelving, leads me to reminisce about the day last summer when I was asked to abandon my normal duties and assist a good friend of mine in hanging the rolls of brick-patterned wallpaper that now cover it. Neither of us had hung wallpaper in our lives, and the project soon descended into a messy farce. She and I ended up laughing so hard that I was almost sick. We got that wallpaper up though, and actually did a very fine job of it. There’s never been a shortage of laughter among the staff, and I’ve worked alongside some great people I otherwise would never have met. It’s those memories I’ll be taking with me when they finally lock the doors.
Boredom, scavenging and stifling heat: the final days of BHS Read more
Monday 25 July
The publication today of a scathing report into the collapse of the company by a Commons select committee doesn’t do much to raise anyone’s spirits. Sadly, a disapproving tut at those whose greed has caused our predicament does nothing to remedy the problems we all face. For those of us still working in the stores, the recent announcement that all BHS branches will cease trading by 20 August is weighing even more heavily on our minds.
Even now, with increasingly empty shelves and the shop fixtures themselves up for sale, we are struggling to fully come to terms with the fact that in just four weeks we will all be going our separate ways. The coming months will undoubtedly be a challenging time. Perhaps, for some, the ordeal may turn out to be a blessing in disguise. It’s still hard to walk away from this experience with anything other than a deep sense of pessimism and a total distrust of big business.
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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jul/25/bhs-worker-diary-department-store-jobs
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en
| 2016-07-25T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/41db65f620b5fc628bdd94463e908484aea83dc5b01ae3a967a2c6ea1ad7290a.json
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[
"Michael White"
] | 2016-08-29T16:51:56 | null | 2016-08-22T16:15:06 |
The anatomy of Downing Street is complicated. The prime minister doesn’t live at No 10, No 9 has become a power address since the Brexit vote, and then there’s the house at the end …
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Who lives at No 9 Downing Street?
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www.theguardian.com
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No 9: That’s the boring property next to the security gates on the west side of Whitehall, the one that TV news crews never bother to film because it leads a quiet life. All this may change now that it is set to become Brexit HQ, David Davis’s centre of Leave EU planning, or possibly of panic, plots and pique. No 9 used to be the office of the judicial committee of the privy council until that moved into the old Middlesex Guildhall along with the new-fangled supreme court in 2009. In recent years, it has been the office of the chief whip, though their official address remains No 12. But Davis, an old Whitehall hand, refused to be fobbed off with a base so far from Theresa May that it was almost in Wales. He has what he wants: his officials have a power address.
Boris Johnson forced to share mansion with Liam Fox and David Davis Read more
No 10: Unlike the Great Pyramid of Giza, the world’s most famous jerry-built house wasn’t meant to last. It was a speculative venture overlooking St James’s Park, erected on soft soil and shallow foundations (after a 30-year planning dispute) by spy/turncoat/property developer, Sir George Downing (“a perfidious rogue” said Samuel Pepys). Even the brickwork’s mortar was painted on and No 10 was originally No 5. It subsumed two other properties, one of them a cottage, when George II gave it a makeover in 1735 to become a tied super-cottage for Robert Walpole, Britain’s first PM. It would be 20 years before any other PM lived there, because most aristos had bigger, better London houses of their own. Much repaired and modernised, few PMs have liked the house or its sunless street, literally overshadowed by the very pompous Foreign Office building across the road. At least No 10 still feels like a proper house, homely in a posh way, you could imagine watching Corrie over a curry in the white drawing room. And the big black door, fitted in the 1770s, makes for a great, photogenic brand.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Prime minister Theresa May and Chancellor Philip Hammond have swapped residences. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo
No 11: One of Downing’s original terrace of mansions, officially it has been the residence of the chancellor of the exchequer since 1806. In reality, it is part of the knocked-through rabbit warren of offices that form the PM’s (minuscule) department, though it is never called that. When Tony Blair moved into No 10 with a young and growing family, he chose to live in the larger flat above No 11, leaving bachelor Gordon Brown the No 10 flat, with its homely furnishings that Cherie B didn’t like. As PM, Brown (by now married) preferred the No 10 flat, but David Cameron opted for No 11, while chancellor George Osborne stayed at home in Notting Hill. Theresa May and Philip Hammond live in each other’s flat again. Complicated, isn’t it?
No 12: It’s the one at the end, at 90 degrees to No 11 and is also part of Sir George’s interconnected rabbit warren. Long the residence of the government whips, it is still the chief whip’s official residence. Actually, it is now the home of the No 10 press office since Alastair Campbell commandeered it in the imperial phase of the Blair premiership. So it looks like a rather grand newspaper newsroom: handsome panelling offset by blinking computer flat screens. But it has some lovely views of the park and of Oliver Letwin dropping private correspondence in the bins.
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http://www.theguardian.com/politics/shortcuts/2016/aug/22/who-lives-no-9-downing-street-brexit
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en
| 2016-08-22T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/4227c79d325631d946325ec3c6f429d138c640351b5a683e93e2d2fcf600e01f.json
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[
"Jamie Jackson"
] | 2016-08-30T12:52:49 | null | 2016-08-30T10:50:36 |
The Manchester City goalkeeper has joined the Serie A side Torino on loan
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ffootball%2F2016%2Faug%2F30%2Fjoe-hart-torino-manchester-city-loan.json
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Joe Hart set to join Torino on season-long loan from Manchester City
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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Joe Hart’s loan agreement with Torino does not include a clause that allows him to accept a permanent move in January so the 29-year-old is likely to play at the Italian club for the rest of the season.
Hart flew to Turin on Tuesday morning before undergoing a medical and his expected completion of the loan from Manchester City. Both City and Torino will contribute to the 29-year-old’s salary of around £135,000 a-week. However it is understood that his contract has no stipulation in it he can be transferred in the winter window should a club wish to bid for him.
There is an outside possibility Hart could be recalled by City. But this appears remote given Pep Guardiola’s demotion of him as the City No1. Claudio Bravo’s arrival for around £17m means Hart would be at least the No3, given Willy Caballero replaced him as first-choice before Bravo was signed.
Hart could actually be as low as fourth in line due to Angus Gunn’s emergence. So it would require an unprecedented series of injuries for the manager to consider that Hart might be recalled.
Changes to the loan rules by Fifa means there are no longer emergency deals for clubs, and so Hart could only return if an extraordinary scenario occurred before or during the January window.
Hart’s agent, Jonathan Barnett, confirmed the goalkeeper is set to join, telling Tuttosport: “Yes, Joe Hart will play at Torino. It’s done. He has said ‘yes’ to the club and now Manchester City have given the OK. It’s all true, it’s certain.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/aug/30/joe-hart-torino-manchester-city-loan
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en
| 2016-08-30T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/01d431909f7f947c7f9ae7ab286612084bcefb9158f677e4906f472e050f8944.json
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[
"Stephen Moss"
] | 2016-08-26T13:25:06 | null | 2016-08-21T20:30:26 |
Birdwatch An exotic visitor, that should should have been sunning itself by the Mediterranean, attracts crowds of birdwatchers to the Ham Wall reserve
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fenvironment%2F2016%2Faug%2F21%2Fcollared-pratincole-rare-visit-somerset-ham-wall-birdwatch.json
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A collared pratincole pays a rare visit to Somerset
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www.theguardian.com
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My birding friend Rob may have got married only the day before, but nothing stops him from looking regularly at his pager to check out the latest sightings of rare birds. Fortunately, he then took the trouble to text me the news: that a collared pratincole had turned up at the RSPB’s Ham Wall reserve, just down the road from my home.
It would have been rude not to pay this bird a visit, especially as it should have been sunning itself on some Mediterranean marsh, not flying around the Somerset Levels. I had never actually seen this species before in Britain, so I walked along the disused railway line that bisects the marshes with more than the usual spring in my step.
It was impossible to miss it – or at least hard to avoid where it had last been sighted. The usual crowd of locals and visitors clustered around their telescopes like a Masonic meeting, swapping stories and occasionally taking a look at where the bird had last been seen.
For a few moments, I thought this would be another case of “you should have been here earlier”, as vagrant birds have a nasty habit of heading off after a few hours. But then an excited cry went up, as this exotic visitor flew straight past our appreciative gathering.
The name pratincole means “meadow-dweller”, though it usually lives in marshes. Technically it is classified as a wader, but it looked far more like a tern, as it bounded to and fro across the sky, hawking for insects on long, slender, curiously kinked wings. From time to time, it took a rest, usually out of sight behind clumps of reeds, before appearing once again to delight its audience.
At one point the bird came close enough for me to see its main distinguishing features: mid-brown above and white below, with a forked tail and white rump, making it look rather like a giant house martin. As it twisted in mid-air I caught a glimpse of the reddish-brown underwings.
There were other exotic birds here too. A pair of glossy ibis was feeding on the marsh, while several great white egrets flapped lazily across the reed beds, as if in slow motion. A few years ago these would have attracted just as much attention as the bird we had all come to see, but now they are such a regular sight that most birders barely give them a second glance. Maybe in a few years time the same will be true of the collared pratincole.
A jack snipe plays hide and seek in the Somerset reedbeds Read more
Eight pairs of great white egrets have nested here this year, a new record, which, considering the species had not even bred in Britain before 2012, is quite astonishing. Along with the bitterns and marsh harriers that have also colonised in recent years, these exotic waterbirds simply confirm the fact that this is now one of the very best places to watch birds in the whole of the country. I’m certainly glad this amazing site is right on my doorstep.
I let the pratincole do one more fly-past on those spring-loaded wings, before heading back home to the usual work and domestic duties. In the meantime I can look forward to the next rare and unexpected bird to turn up here on the Avalon Marshes. I suspect I won’t have too long to wait.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/21/collared-pratincole-rare-visit-somerset-ham-wall-birdwatch
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en
| 2016-08-21T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/5ee1c2dbf01e135e83dda1eef7a73f5c26e8f972ab4da052cb67830eca3f42b8.json
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[
"Sean Farrell",
"Ruchir Sharma"
] | 2016-08-30T10:55:20 | null | 2016-08-30T08:56:22 |
French trade minister blames lack of progress on US intransigence and echoes recent comments from German counterpart
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fbusiness%2F2016%2Faug%2F30%2Ffrance-demands-end-to-ttip-trade-talks-matthias-fekl.json
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| null |
France demands an end to TTIP talks
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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France’s trade minister has increased the pressure on the proposed EU-US trade deal by calling for the talks to be called off.
Matthias Fekl, the French minister for foreign trade, tweeted that his government demanded negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) should cease.
— Matthias Fekl (@MatthiasFekl) La France demande l'arrêt des négociations du #TAFTA #TTIP
France has been sceptical about TTIP from the start and has threatened to block the deal, arguing the US has offered little in return for concessions made by Europe. All 28 EU member states and the European parliament will have to ratify TTIP before it comes into force.
TTIP: the key to freer trade, or corporate greed? Read more
Fekl’s statement follows similarly gloomy comments from the German economy minister, Sigmar Gabriel. He said on Sunday: “The negotiations with the United States have de facto failed, even though nobody is really admitting it.”
Gabriel’s views were at odds with public comments by the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, who said last month that the proposed US-EU deal was “absolutely in Europe’s interest”.
However, Gabriel, who leads Germany’s centre-left Social Democratic party and is vice-chancellor in Merkel’s coalition government, said: “We mustn’t submit to the American proposals.”
Gabriel said on Sunday that in 14 rounds of talks on the transatlantic pact, the two sides have not agreed on a single common item out of the 27 chapters being discussed. His spokesman blamed lack of movement by the US and said Gabriel had concluded there would not be a deal this year.
The US and the EU have been negotiating TTIP for three years to forge a free trade zone covering half the world economy. Both had sought to conclude talks this year, but differences remain.
However, a spokesman for the US trade representative, Michael Froman, said talks had not stalled. He told Germany’s Der Spiegel: “Negotiations are in fact making steady progress.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/aug/30/france-demands-end-to-ttip-trade-talks-matthias-fekl
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en
| 2016-08-30T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/49d0632212dd9347f6a9ce08e8ea0c5ddb98c586cc6875de20a29b6755c7bc18.json
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[] | 2016-08-26T13:22:36 | null | 2016-08-25T18:11:44 |
Letters: Both series were hugely popular but I always found it hard to enjoy them, regarding them as subtle propaganda for Thatcherism
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ftv-and-radio%2F2016%2Faug%2F25%2Fwhy-margaret-thatcher-loved-her-yes-man-antony-jay.json
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| null |
Why Margaret Thatcher loved her yes-man, Antony Jay
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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I am reminded, reading Antony Jay’s obituary (24 August) of the popularity of Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister outside the UK. In 1996, I had the great pleasure of meeting Eric Molobi. He was a South African businessman, who was brought up in a township, and who, in his youth was a political prisoner on Robben Island at the same time as Nelson Mandela. During our conversations, he mentioned that his favourite television of all time was Yes Minister. Upon my return to the UK I sent him the full sets, which were then on tapes, and they gave him many hours of enjoyment.
Given Margaret Thatcher’s sanctions policy, it is interesting that the machinations of our civil service and the wonderful Sir Humphrey were appreciated by two such different political personalities.
David Shannon
Woore, Shropshire
• I’m glad to see it now acknowledged that Antony Jay, co-creator of the 1980s BBC comedy series Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister was a “rightwing free marketer” because such political leanings were denied at the time.
Both series were hugely popular but I always found it hard to enjoy them, regarding them as subtle propaganda for Thatcherism, repeatedly reinforcing key assumptions about the pointlessness of government intervention in the economy or public services. The sitcoms had a lasting effect on the way the public viewed politicians and bureaucrats, with consequences that have lasted to this day.
A typical line from Yes Minister found Jim Hacker assert, without contradiction, that the NHS was “an advanced case of galloping bureaucracy”. Both series were peppered with claims like that, never seriously contested. No wonder Margaret Thatcher loved the series.
Giles Oakley
London
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
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https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/aug/25/why-margaret-thatcher-loved-her-yes-man-antony-jay
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en
| 2016-08-25T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/1445c89c5ab26f71c2c49dbe94b05bb2e6fb12a6ab5cbd068a22fe9d5584c3ec.json
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[
"Chris Johnston",
"Matthew Goodwin"
] | 2016-08-30T20:52:16 | null | 2014-12-06T00:00:00 |
David Coburn, the party’s sole Scottish MEP, said the account, based in Chippy Minton’s fictional hometown, was fake
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http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fpolitics%2F2014%2Fdec%2F06%2Fukip-mep-ridiculed-twitter-call-ban-spoof-trumpton-account.json
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Ukip MEP ridiculed on Twitter after call for ban on spoof Trumpton account
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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A UK independence party (Ukip) MEP has been ridiculed on Twitter after calling for a spoof account based in the fictional town of Trumpton to be banned.
David Coburn, the party’s sole Scottish MEP, said on Tuesday that the @Trumpton_UKIP account was “fake”, asking his 9,000 followers to “please block/report”.
Since making his appeal, the Trumpton account has gained thousands of new followers, bringing the total to more than 11,000.
The account was set up in September by Mike Dicks, whose aim was to “gently take the mickey out of Ukip”. He wrote on Facebook today: “It struck me that most Ukip supporters, or ‘Kippers’, were reminiscing about a Britain of their youth that was more like the classic kids show Trumpton than the reality I remembered, so I chose to start Trumpton Ukip and pretend the Mayor and Mr Troop had defected to the people’s army.”
The stop-motion animation was first broadcast on BBC1 in 1967, and chronicled the adventures of characters including Mr Troop the town clerk and carpenter Chippy Minton. It was the second in the Trumptonshire Trilogy and followed Camberwick Green.
Dicks said Coburn had threatened to take legal action over the account’s use of the Ukip trademark – and even the use of the letters U, K, I and P.
“Twitter being Twitter, many people piled in to follow us, and then something magical happened. A Trumpton BNP, EDL, Labour Party, Tory and Lib Dem appeared (not my doing) and then a Trumpton WI, local radio station – even a Trumpton BBC arrived. When Windy Miller defected from us to the Greens, after Roger Helmer from Ukip told him to take down his windmill, we even got a Green candidate and then communists, feminists and libertarians popped up,” he added.
Someone then suggested the Trumpton account should try to get more followers than Coburn. Dicks initially laughed at the suggestion, but momentum steadily built as the week wore on.
“Last night in the wee hours, Mr Troop and I witnessed the last ballot paper counted – we had 9,041 followers when I went to bed – to David’s 9,030 – a decisive victory for a bunch of puppets over a big muppet,” he wrote. “This morning, Trumpton woke up to a story on the front page of the Financial Times and a phone call from Radio 4 (I’ve really made it now mum!) and over 11,000 Twitter followers.”
Some readers were unimpressed by the FT’s selection for the prized “basement” slot on page one: “This article is puny, risible and unfit for the FT,” wrote “RHAR”. “Everyman” commented: “I wish someone would do an equivalent ‘Carry On’ parody of the government.”
Dicks tweeted on the Trumpton account on Saturday: We do not mean to offend the great Gordon Murray who created us all. We do not mind if we cause offence to #ukip
Coburn, 55, who lives in Edinburgh, was elected as an MEP in May and has described himself as “spectacularly homosexual”. He told the Huffington Post in October that Ukip was a “gay-friendly” party and that he had never felt uncomfortable about any controversial statements made by his party colleagues about homosexuality.
In the same interview he described same-sex marriage as “false bollocks”. “What you’re doing with the gay marriage issue is you’re rubbing people’s noses in the dirt. Everyone had agreed and been quite happy with the idea of civil partnership, it was all bedded in and people were happy with it, they got used to the idea,” Coburn said. “But when you go across the road to pick a fight with someone of faith, that’s not got anything to do with it, that’s the equality Nazis trying to give Christianity a jolly good kicking.”
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http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/dec/06/ukip-mep-ridiculed-twitter-call-ban-spoof-trumpton-account
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en
| 2014-12-06T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/7e9b448c5004947f226ccbc26708f7b1e84aeb2f094ff4202c7f0e2504e66e24.json
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|
[
"Sarah Ewing"
] | 2016-08-27T06:54:52 | null | 2016-08-27T06:00:00 |
The expense of kitting out children can vary depending on their school, but clothing swaps on social media sites and council grants can help
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fmoney%2F2016%2Faug%2F27%2Freduce-cost-school-uniforms-social-media-council-grants.json
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| null |
How parents can reduce the cost of school uniforms
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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New research from American Express shows heading back to school will cost the average family with two children £332 – the equivalent of nearly six weeks’ worth of food shopping – just to get the prescribed items from their uniform lists. Another survey found that British parents spend a whopping £4,000 on school uniforms throughout their child’s education.
So what can families do to cut the cost? Supermarkets have become the choice for parents seeking to save on school uniforms with Morrisons, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Marks & Spencer all offering a range of deals.
However, a recent study by Morrisons found that four in five parents needed to replace uniforms within the same year of purchase and two-thirds of school uniforms were replaced within six months.
Social media, such as Facebook selling groups in your local area, is a great way to grab school bargains from parents keen to declutter outgrown clothes, many in fantastic condition.
One version of this word-of-mouth selling is Schoolreviewer.co.uk, a website that has a buy/sell feature on the page for every educational establishment listed. It is, in essence, a captive audience of parents so sales are quicker and you save on postage – which makes it a more efficient selling route than other sites such as eBay.
In addition, a portion of proceeds from each transaction will be given to the parent-teacher association of each participating school, so you’re saving money and helping a good cause too.
For parents who are really feeling the pinch, there are some local authority grants available, but they are patchy. The Gov.uk/help-school-clothing-costs site directs you to local councils in England that may be able to offer some help.
We tested various authorities – East Sussex and Newcastle said there were no grants, but York said it had vouchers worth £40 to £70 available to those entitled to free school meals, while the City of London said it had grants worth up to £135.
Separate arrangements apply in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Northern Irish education authorities offer parents whose children qualify for free school meals £35.75 at primary age and £51-£56 once they are at secondary school. Wales offers up to £105 to those on free school meals.
£90: ‘It’s Morrisons for us’
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Matt Hazeldine and his son Cayden. Photograph: David Sillitoe for the Guardian
Matt Hazeldine, a father of three, lives in Tarvin, Cheshire, with his wife Michelle. His 12-year-old son, Cayden, is starting at Tarporley High School. He spends £20 at Morrison’s for the core items and £70 for the school logo items.
“We have three boys, five, 12 and 15, so all of school age, which means going back to school can be a very expensive time of year. It’s essential that we keep costs down where possible but without reducing the quality. It’s easier than it used to be now that supermarkets like Morrisons do good value clothes.
“For Cayden’s start at his new school, we’ve got to get grey trousers, pale blue shirts, a navy jumper and black shoes. The school isn’t strict on where we get these from so we can go to the supermarket, but we do get the school blazer, PE shirts and PE shorts from the school shop as they have to be emblazoned with the school logo. The main restrictions on what they can’t wear to school are skinny jeans and designer canvas shoes like Vans.
“We have to have clothes that will last the wear and tear of the schoolyard. We’ve had problems where the price has been reasonable, but the durability has let us down, which meant costly and regular replacements.”
£250: ‘The school sent a very strict list’
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Linda Greenwood with her son, Charlie, in his new school uniform. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian
Linda Greenwood, mum of one, is a civil servant and lives in Redcar, North Yorkshire. Her 11-year-old son Charlie will be attending Rye Hills School. She spends about £250.
“Buying Charlie’s school uniform used to be pretty easy when he was younger. He starts secondary school this September and it’s been far from easy. And much more expensive! The school sent us a very specific and strict list of what we had to buy and there was no deviating from it.
“I’ve easily spent upwards of £250. So far, I’ve paid £74.15 for PE kit and £38 for a tie and blazer and for the trainers, football boots, shin pads and black shoes, it’ll be around £100-£150. I’ve bought six white shirts (3x2 packs from Tesco, phew!) and five pairs of black trousers, which have been a problem. Charlie’s very tall and into boys age 15-16 or men’s medium. There is one style he likes from Next, but they only go up to a 16-year-old size, so next year I’m going to struggle. The school have a contract with a local shop and they supply all the embroidered uniforms. It’s quite the monopoly.
“I wish the school would let us choose where we buy the items and take them to be embroidered.”
£800: ‘My children are at private schools’
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sue Lemmer with two of her children, Alfie and Evie. Photograph: Sue Lemmer
Sue Lemmer lives in Cobham, Surrey, and has three children including 11-year-old Evie at Notre Dame School in Cobham and 15-year-old Alfie at Seaford College, West Sussex. She can spend upwards of £800 per child for uniforms and sports kit.
“My eldest son left Reed’s School in Cobham last year and the setup with regards to uniform was ideal, with a school shop on site. I could pop in or make an appointment or even set an account limit which allowed my son to get things himself at any time, food or uniform with an online stock list complimenting this.
“It’s a totally different story for Evie and Alfie. Their costs have been astronomical, with their blazers costing £100 a piece.
“Now maybe £100 isn’t too much if the quality will last everyday usage and it doesn’t have to be replaced yearly, but I fear that won’t be the case and it’ll be an annual expenditure for us.
“All their uniform has been overpriced, with a white girl’s shirt being £23 at age 11! In Marks & Spencer, you can get three for that price so it shows the school is looking to make quite a hefty profit. Every year, it sets me back around £600 to kit them out at the start, especially as they are all growing, and then they need another £200 on sports gear on top of this, so it adds up very quickly! Their uniform costs more than normal because it has the school logo printed on all items and it often has names sewn into them.
“Ideally, I would love all schools to have a school shop on site, especially if their uniform is lost or taken. It makes the experience easier and cuts out the stress of waiting on deliveries and clothes fitting. The benefit to having a shop is that labels can be printed on site and done while you wait – it saves having to iron on tags.
“Alfie’s uniform isn’t so simple to get. You have to book to go to London for a fitting or everything has to be done online. Annoyingly sizes never seem to be accurate, so sometimes half the uniform has to be sent back.
“It’s very hit and miss, especially with sport kits. Every sport has a different kit – cricket, rugby, hockey or netball – so with the kids all playing sport, they need Astros, and relevant boots or trainers for these sports which adds on another £300 for six pairs.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/aug/27/reduce-cost-school-uniforms-social-media-council-grants
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| 2016-08-27T00:00:00 |
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[
"Patrick Kingsley"
] | 2016-08-26T13:20:06 | null | 2016-08-25T12:00:10 |
Hundreds of unaccompanied minors are among the 80,000 people who have fled to Uganda since July, when civil hostilities resumed in South Sudan
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'We just want to live' - South Sudanese refugees bear scars of brutal civil war
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Global development is supported by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
“Let’s avoid cholera by washing our hands,” reads a sign in a refugee camp just south of Uganda’s border with South Sudan. It’s a new sign, handwritten in a hurry – and the commotion a few metres away at the entrance to the camp hints at why it’s so necessary.
Hundreds of South Sudanese refugees are arriving from the border, further swelling the numbers of an overcrowded camp that is already at four times its capacity, and increasing the risk of disease. Crammed into three coaches, these are the latest of more than 88,000 South Sudanese refugees to seek asylum here since early July, when civil war restarted in the world’s newest country. Earlier arrivals reached Uganda by canoe. Now they come by bus.
The huge influx has caused a crisis in northern Uganda, with twice as many refugees arriving in the past six weeks as during the first half of the year. On the most chaotic days, up to 8,000 people have arrived.
They came with stories of profound brutality, of soldiers looting villages and raping their residents. “They went home to home,” 16-year-old Lilian said of the attack on her village in late July. “If there was a boy inside, they would beat him. If there was a woman, and the woman would not sleep with them, they would beat them, and then rape them. They would rape any woman. They wanted us to fear staying there.”
So Lilian fled into the bush the following day with her two sisters. First, they dug a hole to hide in, she said. Later, they sheltered inside a truck, the driver of which had been shot. In early August, the sisters finally reached Uganda.
Aid workers and officials were unprepared. About 750,000 South Sudanese have fled to other east African countries since the civil war started in 2013, but the worst was thought to be over after warring factions signed a fragile peace deal last year. That deal was broken in July, when supporters of President Salva Kiir clashed once more with those of the opposition leader, former vice-president Riek Machar, leaving Uganda and Sudan to shoulder the bulk of the humanitarian fallout.
“The response from the international community – we don’t know if it’s because their attention is elsewhere, but it hasn’t been operating as it has been previously,” said Uganda’s commissioner for refugees, David Kazungu.
Since the surge began, food rations have been slashed, halving the calorie intake for all but the most vulnerable. The UN refugee agency’s funds are at only 20% of what they should be. Some reception centres are housing four times more refugees than their limit, leading to water shortages, and a cholera outbreak at one of the most overcrowded camps.
“Physically and mentally, I am tired,” said Pascal Aklusi, one of the officials overseeing the aid effort in northern Uganda. “We really require support in terms of funding.”
A few South Sudanese head for Europe, but the number within east Africa is comparable in scale to recent refugee flows to Europe from the Middle East. And their experiences are often just as hellish.
“This is such an important issue,” said Charlie Yaxley, the UN refugee agency’s spokesperson in Uganda. “Almost every refugee we speak with has incredibly traumatic tales of what they’ve left behind, [of] these armed groups who are burning down people’s entire homes, sexually assaulting young women and girls, and forcibly recruiting young men.”
Fighting has subsided in the capital, Juba, where Human Rights Watch reported women being assaulted outside UN compounds, and the Associated Press said aid workers were raped in their lodgings by government soldiers. But brutal clashes continue in the rural south, prompting this summer’s exodus.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jen Gune, seen here with her daughter and husband, witnessed the summary execution of a teenage motorcyclist before fleeing South Sudan. Photograph: Patrick Kingsley for the Guardian
“We have people fleeing what is an active conflict [outside Juba],” said Casie Copeland, senior South Sudan analyst for the International Crisis Group, a thinktank, “whereas people fleeing from Juba are fleeing from a conflict that is already over, because they fear a new one.”
Ottoviana, a 70-year-old former teacher, described an attack on a 50-year-old female relative near the town of Loa. “She was raped in her house,” Ottaviana said. “Other people escaped, but she could not escape because she was caring for her lame son.”
Victims described cruel and random attacks, perpetrated by government troops and rebels, that took place across the south-east of the country. Jen Gune, a 30-year-old police officer, was on duty on 21 July when she said she saw soldiers stop an 18-year-old on his motorcycle, and summarily execute him. At a nearby funeral service, Gune said: “Someone stood up to see what was happening – and was also shot.”
As a constable, Gune said she documented four cases of soldier-led rape in recent months in her area of Pageri. Since fighting broke out in July, however, she had seen only murder and looting. “When they come to your home, if your door is open, they will come in and loot everything, and if it’s locked, they will break it, enter and take everything anyway,” said Gune. “Whether you were on the road, and whether you were at home, they would kill you.”
Elsewhere in the state, 16-year-old Grace Mandera said her neighbours had been abused by rebels and government troops. First the rebels took over the town and started forcing young men to join their ranks, she said. Then, once the army re-took it, soldiers sexually assaulted at least three girls, Mandera was told by a victim after she escaped with her brother. “I thought to myself,” Mandera said, “if I had been held up in the village I would have been raped.”
Rape, survivors said, is being used as a weapon of war. “It’s a way of forcing the people of that area to go out,” said Sam Siyaga, 34, a civil servant who escaped a nearby area. “It is very common.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest South Sudanese refugee Sam Siyaga says rape is being used as a weapon of war to force people to leave areas. Photograph: Patrick Kingsley for the Guardian
Armed groups have robbed people trying to escape, with men and young people sometimes prevented from leaving, and forced to join the fighting. To evade detection, some refugees described hiding in the bush for days on end, surviving mainly on leaves and wild cassava plants. Others waited near a main road until the arrival of a Ugandan military convoy, returning from Juba after rescuing stranded Ugandan expatriates.
Neither the South Sudanese government nor the rebels inspired confidence, several survivors said after reaching safety. “For us in the communities, we blame all of them,” said Peter Paul Odong, a headteacher from Magwi, as he dangled from the back of a truck just inside the Ugandan border. “After the [peace agreement] was agreed, the conflict still continued. And that is both sides’ fault.”
Amid this chaos, officials say, a wider mix of people has been sucked into the fighting than usual. Kiir and Machar fought for different factions within the country’s liberation movement – and represent the country’s two largest ethnic groups, respectively the Dinka and the Nuer. But many of the newly displaced are from smaller tribes, include the Madi. “We’ve seen refugees from tribes and areas that we didn’t see previously, which means the fighting has spread to the villages,” said Kazungu.
There has also been a worrying spike in unaccompanied child refugees, according to the charity Save the Children, which is appealing for donations to help care for the new arrivals.
Since early July, nearly 1,500 unaccompanied minors, or children separated from their parents, have arrived in Uganda, around seven times the number recorded during the first half of the year, Save the Children said. The youngest was five. Some came alone because their parents were forced to stay and fight. Others got separated amid the chaos of the situation, prompting Save the Children to begin a programme to reunite separated families, and find foster care for lone children.
“Many of the separated children arrived in their school uniforms because there was no chance for them to go back home,” said Tonny Kasiita, the NGO’s acting team leader in one of the border provinces. “They just came with their teachers and classmates.”
In the rush to accommodate so many new children, many teenagers have yet to be placed in secondary education. But Uganda is otherwise comparatively generous to refugees. Unlike countries such as Britain, Uganda lets refugees work as soon as they arrive in the country. Families are also given a plot of land, and equipment to build a new home.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest At Maaji refugee settlement in northern Uganda, new arrivals are given a plot of land, equipment to build a home, and the right to work. Photograph: Patrick Kingsley for the Guardian
The decision is partly altruistic; several of Uganda’s leaders were themselves once refugees. But it is also born of enlightened self-interest, says Kazungu. “We are not seeing refugees as a burden, but as part of the economic development of the nation,” he said. “Where they are, there is development, schools are built, health services are built, and they are also a market for the nationals. They buy food from the nationals, and nationals also buy from them.”
Research by Oxford University’s Refugee Studies Centre highlights the economic benefits of Uganda’s refugee policies. More than one in five refugees in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, run businesses that employ at least one person – and 40% of those employees are Ugandans.
“Our research in the country highlights the positive benefits of moving beyond encampment and giving refugees basic socio-economic freedoms,” said Professor Alexander Betts, the centre’s director. “Refugees become producers, consumers, entrepreneurs, employees and employers. They help themselves and their communities. The policy is not perfect but in offering basic autonomy to refugees, its offers a model from which other countries should learn.”
In the short-term, however, many of Uganda’s newest refugees were just happy to find any kind of sanctuary. “I’m not happy to leave my home,” said Ottoviana. “But what I want most of all, and what my children want most of all, is to live.”
Some refugees’ names have been changed
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https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/aug/25/south-sudanese-refugees-scars-civil-war-uganda
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| 2016-08-25T00:00:00 |
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[
"Paul Macinnes"
] | 2016-08-26T22:50:58 | null | 2016-08-26T21:30:45 |
The Arsenal manager said Premier League clubs will spend more than £1bn in this transfer window
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ffootball%2F2016%2Faug%2F26%2Farsene-wenger-panic-buying-shkodran-mustafi-lucas-perez.json
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Arsène Wenger denies panic buying on Shkodran Mustafi and Lucas Pérez
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Arsène Wenger has confirmed Arsenal are close to completing the signings of Lucas Pérez and Shkodran Mustafi for around £52m but denied suggestions he is panic buying and warned that football fans will be “amazed” at the amount of money spent by Premier League clubs before the transfer window closes on Wednesday.
Pérez, from Deportivo La Coruña, and the Germany defender Mustafi, of Valencia, were due to have medicals on Friday with fees of £17.1m and £35m respectively agreed with the two La Liga clubs but the Arsenal manager believes the late nature of the deals and the sizeable price is a natural consequence of the Premier League’s new £5bn three-year TV deal. “Look at my face. Is this the face of someone who tends to panic buy?” Wenger said, smiling.
“No, it is the case that everybody is waiting to get the deals done. When a [foreign] club wants to sell to an English club today they ask for a huge amount of money. So it takes a long time to settle [on a price]. In the next two or three days everybody will find agreements.”
Granit Xhaka: a born leader who will finally bring some grit to Arsenal | Marcus Christenson Read more
The amount spent by Premier League clubs this window has already gone past £900m, a record, eclipsing last year’s total of £870m, with five days still to go before the deadline. When asked if he expected this window to exceed £1bn in spending, Wenger replied: “A billion? Higher than that. I don’t know the final level but I’m convinced there are many, many clubs in England who have a big amount of money available who have not spent yet. Many. You can say all of them. Who has finished the market? Nobody. You will see how many transfers will happen in the next three or four days. You’ll be amazed.”
While keen to make clear that the deals were yet to be completed, Wenger was happy to talk about his prospective new players. Of the 27-year-old striker Pérez, who scored 17 goals in La Liga last year, he said: “He’s a late developer because he played in a different position [on the right-hand side of attack]. He has moved centrally and in a successful way. I think he has good link-up qualities, he’s goodat receiving the ball and he’s a good finisher. But let’s see if we can finish the job first.”
While the Pérez deal came as something of a surprise, Arsenal have been linked with Mustafi for much of the summer. The 24-year-old started his professional career at Everton before moving to Sampdoria and then Valencia. He has 12 caps for his national side and scored in their 2-0 win over Ukraine at Euro 2016.
“I think he’s a good signing but time will tell,” Wenger said. “He had two years at Everton, he went to Italy, then Spain. But, you know, 19 is a difficult age to play centre-half in the Premier League. He was Valencia’s captain last season and, if we get it done, we’ll have achieved what we wanted [this window].
Arsène Wenger insists he is ready to spend after Arsenal draw at Leicester Read more
Wenger’s late splurge comes after another summer of supporter discontent at the lack of new faces arriving at the Emirates. While Manchester United have brought in Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and Manchester City John Stones and Leroy Sane among others, Arsenal fans have had to make do with defensive midfielder Granit Xhaka and young English defender Rob Holding.
But Wenger believes that late dealing has turned out to be an inevitability, despite his initial expectations to the contrary.“This season I thought we would have the easiest transfer market ever,” Wenger added. “We knew what we wanted to do, we knew who we wanted to get but it didn’t come off. So you have to restart and, when you restart, some leagues are on holiday and then we had the European Championship. Nothing happened during the entire Euros. We couldn’t find anybody. That’s why it was very late.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/aug/26/arsene-wenger-panic-buying-shkodran-mustafi-lucas-perez
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en
| 2016-08-26T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/edac96cbba89118420638cbdd65446e398be47b2c9ed1ab28ab40c18d657a5a4.json
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[
"Chitra Ramaswamy"
] | 2016-08-28T22:59:11 | null | 2015-11-09T13:54:50 |
Photographer Gaia Squarci followed a Nasa simulation of mission conditions on the red planet
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http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fscience%2Fng-interactive%2F2015%2Fnov%2F09%2Fspace-oddity-how-astronauts-prepare-life-on-mars.json
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Space oddity: how do astronauts prepare for life on Mars?
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| 2015-11-09T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/fb7399b1b810f334543af173573aed99d3e26e91ffe4e8a734da9b5089833359.json
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[
"Associated Press"
] | 2016-08-29T12:52:11 | null | 2016-08-29T11:08:53 |
Ignacio Garcia Bercero counters comments over the weekend from the German economy minister, Sigmar Gabriel
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EU trade negotiator talks down TTIP failure report
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The European Union’s lead negotiator in trade talks with the US is downplaying an assertion from the German economy minister that negotiations on the proposed pact have failed.
When asked on Monday by AP whether the claims were true, the chief EU negotiator on the Transtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), Ignacio Garcia Bercero, said: “No, no. Remember what Mark Twain said.”
What is TTIP and why should we be angry about it? Read more
Twain once quipped that reports of his death were an exaggeration.
The German economy minister, Sigmar Gabriel, who is also vice-chancellor, said on Sunday: “In my opinion, the negotiations with the United States have de facto failed, even though nobody is really admitting it.”
Gabriel noted that in 14 rounds of talks on the massive transatlantic pact, the two sides had not agreed on a single common item out of 27 chapters being discussed.
Washington and Brussels have pushed for a deal by the end of the year, despite strong misgivings among some EU member states over TTIP.
Gabriel accused Washington of being angry about the deal that the EU struck with Canada, known as CETA, because it contains elements the US does not want to see in TTIP.
“We mustn’t submit to the American proposals,” said Gabriel, who is also the head of Germany’s centre-left Social Democratic party (SDP).
Gabriel’s comments contrast with those of Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, who said last month that TTIP was “absolutely in Europe’s interest”.
Popular opposition to a free trade agreement with the US is strong in Germany. Campaigners have called for nationwide protests against the talks on 17 September, about a year before Germany’s next general election.
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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/aug/29/eu-trade-negotiator-talks-down-ttip-failure-report-sigmar-gabriel
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| 2016-08-29T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/44ee4d7ce6a77ba699268a978d443bf8be3570af80a680894772bdcdf406110d.json
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[
"Source"
] | 2016-08-26T13:19:29 | null | 2016-08-24T15:36:30 |
Chris Coleman is disappointed that midfielder Aaron Ramsey has been forced out of Wales’ first squad of the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign through injury
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ffootball%2Fvideo%2F2016%2Faug%2F24%2Fchris-coleman-ramsey-injury-wales-world-cup-qualifier-video.json
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Chris Coleman disappointed with Aaron Ramsey injury - video
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Chris Coleman is disappointed that midfielder Aaron Ramsey has been forced out of Wales’ first squad of the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign through injury. Ramsey suffered a hamstring strain on the opening day of the Premier League season playing for Arsenal. Speaking at a news conference in Hensol on Wednesday, Wales manager Coleman also rejects the idea of his players featuring as part of a Great Britain football team at future Olympic Games.
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https://www.theguardian.com/football/video/2016/aug/24/chris-coleman-ramsey-injury-wales-world-cup-qualifier-video
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| 2016-08-24T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/2cc7fb6f8a18f69bc79ab1adc3b910ae324ec2003d8018d39fbe5f68e19b825e.json
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[
"Source",
"Ap Reuters"
] | 2016-08-26T20:51:05 | null | 2016-08-26T20:02:32 |
A French Muslim called Myriam says on Friday that the suspension of the burkini ban won’t change the ‘atmosphere of fear’ in France
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fworld%2Fvideo%2F2016%2Faug%2F26%2Freactions-burkini-ban-suspended-it-doesnt-change-anything-video.json
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Reactions as burkini ban is suspended: 'It doesn't change anything' - video
| null | null |
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A French Muslim called Myriam says on Friday that the suspension of the burkini ban won’t change the ‘atmosphere of fear’ in France. Marwan Muhammad, spokesman for the Collective Against Islamophobia in France, praises the decision by France’s top administrative court to overturn the ban. Beachgoers in Corsica have mixed feelings.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2016/aug/26/reactions-burkini-ban-suspended-it-doesnt-change-anything-video
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| 2016-08-26T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/1ddd3cd9145e995d59fe88c396d5760a6c926ed94128d72769f1af3c794d02b1.json
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[] | 2016-08-26T13:30:10 | null | 2016-07-01T22:45:28 |
Your budget will stretch to a spacious property in Cumbria or part of an old mill in Oxfordshire
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fmoney%2Fgallery%2F2016%2Fjul%2F01%2Fhomes-for-250000-in-pictures.json
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| null |
Homes for £250,000 - in pictures
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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Penrith, Cumbria
This place with a guide price of £250,000 is spacious – there are three double bedrooms, two receptions and a large kitchen and utility room. And it’s been recently renovated in keeping with its Grade II listing. It’s near the edge of the Lake District national park with parking behind. It opens straight onto the street and the garden is a small courtyard. Savills , 01325 370 500
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https://www.theguardian.com/money/gallery/2016/jul/01/homes-for-250000-in-pictures
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en
| 2016-07-01T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/84b60f539f5a50be90e6bf8eb9b863e23fb3cea34449c341b0de9725b2200df8.json
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[
"Jasper Jackson"
] | 2016-08-30T16:50:10 | null | 2016-08-30T16:08:03 |
President to edit issue focusing on frontiers in areas such as urban planning, cybersecurity, medicine and AI
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fmedia%2F2016%2Faug%2F30%2Fbarack-obama-wired-magazine.json
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Barack Obama to guest edit Wired magazine
| null | null |
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Barack Obama is to guest edit Wired at the end of October, the first time a sitting president has edited a magazine.
In an article announcing Obama’s involvement, the magazine said the “completely bespoke” issue would focus on frontiers in areas such as urban planning, cybersecurity, medicine and artificial intelligence. The issue will be sold on newsstands from 25 October.
His editorship is designed to coincide with a White House conference on the topic which aims top “bring together some of the world’s leading innovators in Pittsburgh to discuss how investing in science and technology frontiers will help improve lives, including progress and investments that are keeping America and Americans on the cutting edge of innovation”.
Fairness and balance falters before Trump in the US media Read more
Wired editor-in-chief Scott Dadich said Obama’s involvement followed in the footsteps of the country’s founding fathers and leaders who had been at the forefront of technological innovation.
“When the founders wrote the Declaration of Independence and the constitution, they were at the bleeding edge of Enlightenment philosophy and technology,” he said.
“Franklin was talking about crazy stuff like electricity and communications networks. Paine gave up the copyright to Common Sense so it could get wider publication.”
“Jefferson was radically rethinking design and land use. We want to wrestle with the idea of how today’s technology can influence political leadership. And who better to help us explore these ideas than President Obama?”
Obama has previously written about feminism for Glamour magazine, which is also owned by Wired publisher Condé Nast.
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https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/aug/30/barack-obama-wired-magazine
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| 2016-08-30T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/4ba7291bdddd218028620fef114329666f5414cdff07a76d2a886aa9b878ff6d.json
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[
"Rupert Jones"
] | 2016-08-26T18:59:13 | null | 2016-08-20T06:01:06 |
More than a quarter of a million people were expected to boost their pension; fewer than 4,000 have signed up so far
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fmoney%2F2016%2Faug%2F20%2Fstate-pension-top-up-no-one-wants.json
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en
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The state pension top-up that no one seems to want
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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It’s the great deal no one seems to know about. The government is running a scheme whereby older people can buy extra state pension on what experts say are “very favourable” terms – but the take-up so far has been shockingly low.
The official prediction was that 265,000 people would take advantage of the chance to boost their retirement income by making an upfront payment. But figures published this week show that fewer than 4,000 signed up in the first six months. Here we explain how the scheme works, why you should do it, and things to watch out for.
So what’s the deal?
This is called “state pension top-up”. Basically, you hand over some cash and in return get an extra slice of state pension. You can get between £1 and £25 more a week, and it’s guaranteed extra income for life. It’s protected against inflation, and the top-ups can usually be inherited by your spouse or civil partner.
Women caught in pension age trap ‘are £40,000 out of pocket’ Read more
You are eligible if you are entitled to a UK state pension and reached your state pension age before 6 April 2016. This includes men born before 6 April 1951 (ie, age 65-plus now) and women born before 6 April 1953 (ie, 63-plus).
In technical terms, the government has created a new class of voluntary national insurance contributions, Class 3A, and those eligible are being invited to top up their “additional state pension” (the extra amount you get with your basic state pension that is made up of the state second pension and its predecessor, Serps) via this new class of contributions.
How long is this scheme running for?
It went live last autumn and is available until 5 April 2017.
How much will it cost me?
As little as £127 and as much as £23,350, depending on how much extra pension you want, up to £25 a week. However, the cost falls as your age increases, so it may make sense to wait until your next birthday before making the payment.
Because the deal is the same for males and females, it’s likely to be particularly attractive to women, who typically live longer.
As an example, an extra £1 of pension a week (£52 a year) for life will cost a 65-year-old £890, while an extra £5 a week (£260 a year) will cost £4,450. To get the maximum extra £25 a week (£1,300 a year) of state pension, someone aged 65 would need to hand over £22,250. For a 75-year-old looking to buy an extra £1, £5 or £25 of pension a week, the lump sum payments required would be a fair bit lower: £674, £3,370 and £16,850 respectively.
How do I find out how much I could get?
A calculator is available online which allows people to input their date of birth and how much they would like to receive, and find out what that would cost them. Go to gov.uk/state-pension-topup
Because the deal is the same for males and females, it’s likely to be attractive to women because they live longer
Is this a good deal?
The longer you live, the better value it represents. In basic terms, someone aged 65 who pays £890 now to receive an extra £52 a year would need to live for more than 17 years – beyond 82 – for the deal to work in their favour. On the face of it, that’s not a bad deal. According to the Office for National Statistics, the average life expectancy for a man currently aged 65 is 86, and for a 65-year-old woman it’s 89; some will reach 100-plus. To find out your life expectancy, go to visual.ons.gov.uk/how-long-will-my-pension-need-to-last/
One big advantage of this scheme is that it provides an index-linked return – what you get will increase in line with the consumer price index. Also, in most cases your spouse or civil partner can receive between 50% and 100% of the extra pension after your death.
What do the experts think?
Pensions and investment firm Old Mutual Wealth says the rates on offer are “attractive”. It adds that the inflation protection and the fact the top-ups can be inherited means the deal is “comparable with an index-linked, joint-life annuity available on the private market, but at better rates”. Jon Greer, a pensions expert at the firm, suggests that many of those who bought an annuity during the past few months would have been better-off going down the top-up route.
So why the low take-up?
The scheme was unveiled in the December 2013 autumn statement and received quite a bit of publicity. But data provided by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in response to a freedom of information request by Old Mutual Wealth shows that just 3,848 people took advantage of the scheme during its first six months. The average amount of extra pension bought was £21 per week at a typical cost of £16,500.
Greer says relatively few people seem to be aware of this option, perhaps because of the “confusing” Class 3A label, or because pensioner bonds and the “pension freedom” reforms grabbed all the headlines last year. The more prosaic answer is that many older people do not have a sizeable lump sum they can use to buy extra state pension. Some may feel that spending hundreds of pounds now to get, say, an extra £1 of pension a week isn’t worth the hassle.
Younger generation in UK face overwhelming pensions bill, says report Read more
A DWP spokesman says: “We have been clear that many people stand to benefit from topping up their state pension, and those who do will receive guaranteed payments for life, which in many cases can be inherited by spouses or civil partners. Anyone considering the top-up scheme should consider whether it’s right for their individual circumstances.”
Any downsides?
State pension top-up is taxable as income, so check how much you would receive after tax. For some, a product such as an Isa may be a better bet. It may also affect any income-related benefits you receive now or in future. If you have gaps in your national insurance record it may be more cost-effective to make voluntary NI contributions first. Another option is deferring your state pension.
How do I make a payment?
You can apply online at gov.uk/statepensiontopup, or by phone (0345 600 4270). You will then receive a form explaining how to pay. Once you have coughed up, your higher pension amount will be payable from that date. There is a cooling-off period, so you can get a refund if you change your mind.
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https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/aug/20/state-pension-top-up-no-one-wants
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en
| 2016-08-20T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/1ee520014b1576c72f096cbdc2f024fac56c972a1c32819ff4c98deadd949053.json
|
|
[
"Tom Mccarthy"
] | 2016-08-28T18:51:57 | null | 2016-08-28T18:11:28 |
RNC chairman says new campaign manager is doing a ‘phenomenal job’ andrefrains from speculating about Breitbart’s Stephen Bannon
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fus-news%2F2016%2Faug%2F28%2Freince-priebus-donald-trump-new-hires.json
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en
| null |
Reince Priebus on Trump campaign hires: 'I go with the flow'
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Channelling Lao Tzu, Glenn Frey and Jeffrey “the Dude” Lebowski, Republican national committee chairman Reince Priebus said on Sunday that when it came to personnel issues with the Donald Trump campaign, “I go with the flow.”
Libertarian Gary Johnson: crazy election cycle means 'I might be next president' Read more
“Look, you know, I go with the flow based on what the campaign wants to do,” Priebus told NBC’s Meet the Press. “I think Kellyanne is doing a phenomenal job. I don’t know Steve Bannon, to tell you the truth, very well.”
Kellyanne is Kellyanne Conway, the pollster who was promoted to campaign manager by Trump two weeks ago. Bannon is the driving force behind the rightwing Breitbart website who was named campaign “CEO” in the same round of musical chairs.
For a less chill national party chairman, the kind of headlines about Bannon that have surfaced in the last week could be a real bummer. Bannon’s past includes domestic violence charges, allegations of antisemitism and a mysterious arrangement in which he was registered to vote at a home where he did not live.
“I’m going to get to know him,” Priebus told Meet the Press host Chuck Todd, 72 days before the election.
Todd asked whether Bannon might hurt Trump’s attempt to appeal to women.
“Look, and I don’t know how much of it is true or not and neither do you,” Priebus said. “And so, I don’t speculate based on what other third parties say about people. I tend to judge people based on what I see and what I interact with.”
Police documents regarding the domestic violence charges against Bannon, charges which were eventually dropped, were published by Politico this week.
Presidential nominees typically work closely with their party’s national committee to raise money and coordinate on strategy, messaging and ground operations. As RNC chair, Priebus said, he speaks “every day” with Trump.
Priebus, who has been noted for his gallows humor, is not known as a “go-with-the-flow” type. Asked in April about the stress of running a party often at odds with its presidential nominee, he said: “I’m not pouring Bailey’s in my cereal.”
He appeared to be kidding and serious both.
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/28/reince-priebus-donald-trump-new-hires
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en
| 2016-08-28T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/413c3a56780082617bd3fb04ed1a17231775889ddabb471b9ff7a77c2421d5f6.json
|
|
[
"Eric Hilaire",
"Photograph",
"Gemunu Amarasinghe Ap",
"Kham Reuters",
"Usfws Photo Alamy Stock Photo",
"International Fund For Houbara Conservation Birdlife International",
"Sandor Ujvari Ap",
"Tony Margiocchi Barcroft Images",
"Xinhua",
"Barcroft Images"
] | 2016-08-26T14:51:02 | null | 2016-08-26T13:00:20 |
Soldier crabs, a family of brown bears and spotted hyenas are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fenvironment%2Fgallery%2F2016%2Faug%2F26%2Fthe-week-in-wildlife-in-pictures.json
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en
| null |
The week in wildlife - in pictures
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Animal activists protest outside MetLife Plaza in New York to ask MetLife to use its power as the NY Blood Center’s largest corporate donor to restore funding for 66 lab chimpanzees in Liberia and Ivory Coast that they say have been abandoned with no food by New York Blood Center and are in danger of dehydration and starvation
Photograph: Erik Mcgregor/Pacific Press/Rex/Shutterstock
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2016/aug/26/the-week-in-wildlife-in-pictures
|
en
| 2016-08-26T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/8dd4e7ef16d0840b34a51d633c6372254b1e6525b66e538ee8692e28edcddbb7.json
|
|
[
"Guardian Sport"
] | 2016-08-27T22:51:45 | null | 2016-08-27T19:15:51 |
Injury-prone Cowboys quarterback will miss up to 10 weeks with injury suffered in Thursday preseason game
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fsport%2F2016%2Faug%2F27%2Fcowboys-tony-romo-facing-six-to-10-weeks-out-with-broken-bone-in-back.json
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en
| null |
Cowboys' Tony Romo facing six to 10 weeks out with broken bone in back
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo has a broken bone in his back and will miss a significant portion of the upcoming season, the team’s coach Jason Garrett said Saturday.
The Cowboys said there is no timetable for Romo’s return except that it’s not a season-ending injury, but Pro Football Talk reports the four-time Pro Bowl signal-caller will be sidelined for six to 10 weeks, citing a source.
Romo lasted only three plays in the Cowboys’ preseason loss on Thursday night before leaving with an injury that initially appeared serious. But the 36-year-old walked off the field without assistance and threw passes on the sideline afterward.
He played in a career-low four games last season due to two separate fractured collarbones.
The injury means the Cowboys could be with a rookie quarterback (Dak Prescott) and rookie running back (Ezekiel Elliott) for their season opener.
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https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/27/cowboys-tony-romo-facing-six-to-10-weeks-out-with-broken-bone-in-back
|
en
| 2016-08-27T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/2f93c9adf11d62ef3cc980f10b6ffc838241cbe552af91da4f1a1afb39ce41fc.json
|
|
[
"Angelique Chrisafis"
] | 2016-08-26T14:51:08 | null | 2016-08-26T13:59:57 |
The beach has become an ideological battlefield amid simmering tensions following the Bastille Day terrorist attack
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fworld%2F2016%2Faug%2F26%2Fnice-france-burkini-ban-response-after-bastille-day-truck-attack.json
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en
| null |
Sadness, anger and fear: how Nice is responding to the burkini ban
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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Just after 8am, the sun was already beating down on Nice’s Carras beach and Dalila, a French pensioner, was treading water in the sea in her pink and purple floral burkini. “I spend a long time in the water every morning, to ease the pain from the arthritis in my hands and feet,” she said. “A dip in the sea soothes the aches and makes all the difference to my health.”
But since last week, Dalila has been trying to arrive at the beach much earlier – 6am, if she can – before the municipal police begin their patrols.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Dalila wears a burkini as she prepares to swim on the beach of Carras. Photograph: Jean Christophe Magnet/AFP
Nice, on the French Riviera, last week became the latest of around 30 coastal areas in France to ban the burkini, a full-body swimsuit, citing a risk to public order. The city is still reeling from a terrorist attack in July, in which 86 people were killed when a truck ploughed into crowds watching fireworks on Bastille Day.
Controversy over the anti-burkini decrees has intensified this week after a woman in a headscarf on a Nice beach was photographed removing her long-sleeved top surrounded by armed police. A woman in Cannes complained she was stopped by police for simply wearing a headscarf and loose, long clothing while standing on a beach.
On Friday afternoon, France’s highest administrative court suspended a burkini ban in the Côte d’Azur town of Villeneuve-Loubet. This will set a precedent for the other beach-spots, mostly on the Côte d’Azur, where local mayors had controversially issued decrees against full-body swimsuits. Those mayors will now have to decide whether to withdraw the decrees, or keep their bans in place and face further legal action from human rights groups.
The row has caused political divisions in France, with the Socialist prime minister, Manuel Valls, supporting the bans and his education minister, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, saying they were “letting loose” racist rhetoric.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Dalila swimming in the water. Photograph: Jean Christophe Magnet/AFP
As Dalila bobbed in the clear blue sea, she stayed close to the rocks, chatting to her brother and an Italian friend as they swam nearby. Few of the couples putting up their parasols on the beach seemed to notice. Amateur fishermen cast out their lines, sunbathers changed in and out of their trunks and bikinis. and a dozen jet skis sat on the water waiting for the day’s tourist trade to begin. No one looked over. Once she had finished her swim, Dalila quickly put on her regular headscarf and a long covering that hid her burkini and walked the five minutes home.
I’ve invited Dalila to Italy, just along the coast, where anyone can swim in whatever they like Paola Brambilla, from Milan
She said a court decision suspending the ban should be seen as a victory for common sense.
“The ban and the row over burkinis make me feel very sad and it seems unfair,” she said. “We pay taxes like everyone else and I just want to do some exercise for my health on a public beach.” She bought her burkini a while ago from a shop in Nice. This week, she went to a sports shop that sells full-body wetsuits to see if she could get one as an alternative.
“Wetsuits that you’d use for diving aren’t banned and I wanted to buy one. I thought that might be an answer, but I couldn’t find one in my size,” Dalila said. “The saddest thing is that even mothers who wear headscarves have been staying away from the beach because of this. They’re staying at home instead, which is heartbreaking for the children, because there are only a few days left of the school holidays to get out and enjoy the beach. Now, many women don’t feel they can even step on to the beach wearing headscarves and long sleeves.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Dalila with her friend Igidio and Paola, after swimming. Photograph: Jean Christophe Magnet/AFP
Her brother Mohamed, who works in a restaurant, had come to swim with her. He shrugged: “This is really all about the French elections coming up. It’s politics, that’s all. We should be focusing on everyone living together harmoniously in all our diversity.”
Paola Brambilla, a 53-year-old kindergarten teacher from Milan whose 83-year-old father has a holiday home in Nice and often meets Dalila on the beach, said: “It’s not right to single people out. Next year, I’ve invited them to Italy, just along the coast, where anyone can swim in whatever they like.”
The terrorist attack in Nice affected all of the city’s diverse mix of people. Those killed included local women in headscarves and Muslim children.
Michel Le Pivert, a retired driving instructor, 73, was stretching out to sunbathe just after Dalila left. He lives in an apartment nearby and comes to the beach daily from spring to autumn. “I’m here every day, but I’ve never actually seen anyone in a burkini in real life,” he said. “Only in the newspapers.” He said he was worried that politicians “making a fuss” over a “marginal issue” could prove counterproductive and alienate people.
Jeanne Pêcheur, a local pensioner wearing a strapless swimsuit, had never seen anyone in a burkini either, but firmly supported the ban. “I agree wholeheartedly with the burkini bans. You can’t go into the water dressed, it’s dirty and unhygienic,” she said. “This is France, not Saudi Arabia – people must conform to what we do here. There is a lot of tension in Nice since the terrorist attack; that tension needs to be calmed. People are angry and sad, people are both crying and raging.”
But she didn’t think politicians had the answers, including Nicolas Sarkozy, who, as he seeks his party’s nomination to run again for president in 2017, has called the burkini a “provocation” and urged a nationwide ban. “Oh no, not him again,” Pêcheur said. “He did nothing when in office, so what is he going to do now?”
Thouraya, 25, an administrator in a local firm, was waiting at a nearby bus stop in a light pink headscarf. She has a young daughter and would normally take her to play on the beach every evening at around 6pm. Although she never swims, she has been afraid to even sit on the beach since the ban, fearing she would be stopped and fined for wearing a headscarf and loose, long clothing.
“I’m shocked by this ban,” she said. “France is a country of liberty and equality. This ban goes against that, and it just seems so inhuman.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/26/nice-france-burkini-ban-response-after-bastille-day-truck-attack
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en
| 2016-08-26T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/3d55aa0332d5eb0435dc54cb349951924ec759a894207389e9fc04ac0456f71e.json
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|
[
"Rowan Moore"
] | 2016-08-27T22:49:33 | null | 2016-08-27T21:00:13 |
Nice towers ‘in the right place’ seem to be OK with most people. But with terms as vague as these, developers enjoy a free-for-all
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fcommentisfree%2F2016%2Faug%2F27%2Fskyscrapers-poll-planners-developers-strategy.json
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en
| null |
A clear strategy on tall buildings can cut developers down to size
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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In the debate about London’s skyline there are certain points on which most of the protagonists – developers, architects, planners, mayors, campaigners – agree. There’s nothing wrong with towers in principle, they say, but they should be well-designed and in the right place. The various policies regarding tall buildings say much the same thing.
Londoners back limit on skyscrapers as fears for capital’s skyline grow Read more
Now it seems that ordinary citizens agree, too. Ipsos Mori’s poll finds large chunks of opinion on both sides of most of its questions, but in general it suggests that most Londoners are tolerant of tall buildings, or at least not outraged by them.
But there is widespread concern about their impact on the city as a whole and on individual neighbourhoods. A clear six out of 10 respondents want some kind of limit on skyscrapers, and more than half (56%) want them limited to specific areas, which presumably means they should be “in the right place”.
They also like towers more if they help meet housing need, which is often used as an argument for giving them planning permission. On the face of it, towers should do this: it seems common sense that a tall building should create more living units than a short one.
The snag is that the terms “well-designed” and “in the right place” have proved so vague as to be largely ignorable by the developers of towers, and by the planners who approve them.
What is lost below by building above | Letters Read more
The clusters that will dominate the Thames at Vauxhall and Blackfriars are not by any reasonable definition in the right place. The meretricious junk appearing in outer suburbs is not well-designed. Nor have towers so far done much to address the most pressing housing needs – rather, their planning applications come with ingenious arguments as to why they should be excused from requirements for providing affordable housing.
There are some glimmers of hope that the skyscraper free-for-all promoted during the mayoralty of Boris Johnson might be calming down. The proposed Paddington Pole, a Shard-sized tower in west London, has been significantly reduced in height. And the palisade of towers planned for Bishopsgate Goodsyard in east London has been knocked back.
It’s also certain that many of the 400-plus plans for tall buildings will never be realised, especially if there is a Brexit-induced property slump. But it will only take a few ill-considered proposals to inflict severe damage on the city’s fabric and views.
The case is as strong as ever for a coherent and considered strategy for building tall in London, one that defines where towers are and are not acceptable and sets out basic principles – about their impact at street level, for example, and their relationships to each other and to existing buildings. Not only is it basic common sense – it’s also what most of the public would like.
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/27/skyscrapers-poll-planners-developers-strategy
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en
| 2016-08-27T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/284d6fb6a8eb1cdcc13ea45e4e8aea95463dab499273007431644d47184d17b5.json
|
|
[
"Raphael Honigstein"
] | 2016-08-29T22:52:32 | null | 2016-08-29T15:45:24 |
Bayern hammered hapless Werder 6-0 but matchday one in the Bundesliga did offer some shiny, genuine newness in other quarters
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ffootball%2F2016%2Faug%2F29%2Fbayern-begin-as-they-mean-to-go-on-schalke-are-in-a-sticky-patch-bundesliga.json
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en
| null |
Bayern begin as they mean to go on but Schalke are in a sticky patch
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Hermann Hesse was born in Baden-Württemberg, the future ground zero for German football hipsters, and even though he didn’t leave behind any explicit musings on the game, he 110% understood the pressing need of setting your stall out early doors. “A magic dwells in each beginning, protecting us, telling us how to live,” he wrote in Steps, his most famous poem, in 1941.
After much anguished ruminating about the threat from the Premier League moneybags, the suffocating dominance of Bayern Munich and proliferation of no-name-no-fans teams, the Bundesliga was firmly banking on the enchantment of the new (season), too, at the weekend.
Arkadiusz Milik and Dries Mertens help Napoli fans forget the heartache Read more
Tim Bendzko, a world-famous singer/songwriter in one of the 210 countries broadcasting the opening game at the Allianz Arena live on Friday night, was singing the national anthem for novelty effect. Instead of hapless former northern powerhouse Hamburger SV (5-0 losers in Fröttmaning a year ago), the league had cleverly cast hapless former northern powerhouse Werder Bremen to provide much more resistance against the champions this time around.
And Bayern Munich, perhaps themselves bored with constantly winning the league under the freakishly brilliant Pep Guardiola, have kindly installed the much-more-easy-going Carlo Ancelotti, to give the opposition a bit of a chance. Carletto’s way, history books have shown, tends to lead to the Champions League but relatively rarely to league titles.
The illusion of the new soon revealed itself as such, however, as Viktor Skripnik’s Green and Whites were destroyed 6-0 with frightening ease. As an advertisement for the competition, the result did not exactly send the desired message, even if Werder Bremen was briefly trending in the US on Twitter. The league president, Reinhard Rauball, professed himself “shocked” by the docility of the visitors in the non-contest, and Skripnik admitted that his team had made him feel like “the arse of the world”. Him and his coaches had been “embarrassed” on the bench, the Ukrainian admitted.
Two competitive defeats (in the cup and the league) into the season, the 46-year-old has already been forced to employ some hefty endgame rhetoric. The home game against Augsburg after the international break will be “a final” he claimed. For him personally, it might well be.
Aubameyang double gives Borussia Dortmund winning start against Mainz Read more
The distinct lack of originality scoreline-wise aside, Bayern’s stroll to the top of the table at least fed into the media narrative in Bavaria. Relieved from the “shackles of Guardiola”, TV pundit/frustrated coach Mehmet Scholl explained, Bayern’s players have rediscovered the joy of attacking football, without all those pesky, minute instructions.
There is an element of truth in that, of course, but a less self-serving, less reactionary analysis would probably uncover that the much-vaunted freedom in Bayern’s game is largely the function of more space ahead of them, which is being found at the expense of ceding possession in spells. Werder in any case were not in the slightest bit able to put the tweaked system to the test.
The next day at Frankfurt, it was business as usual for Schalke too. The Royal Blues have a new coach in Markus Weinzierl, a new sporting director in Christian Heidel and a bunch of interesting new signings. But on the whole, it was a startling case of deja vu, all over again.
Süddeutsche Zeitung’s long-suffering S04 correspondent Philipp Selldorf had flashbacks to a litany of mishaps and accidents past as “the familiar weirdness” of the visitors’ passivity in the opening 20 minutes allowed Eintracht’s Alex Meier to give his side the lead. Schalke did wake up to create some decent chances towards the end of the match, when the Chelsea-loanee Michael Hector was sent off for the second time in as many games, but the hopes of a fresh start dissipated into the hot August air and left Schalke in a sticky patch. They will host Bayern next.
The new and possibly improved Borussia Dortmund, meanwhile, showed that the pre-season hype has some justification, a slight wobble against Mainz 05 notwithstanding. Two goals from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang saw the Gabon international (almost) keep pace with the hat-trick hero Robert Lewandowski, and by and large Thomas Tuchel was pleased with the progress shown.
Narrow-minded fears of a “loss of identity”, as expressed by some ultras, seem as unfounded as concerns about the time it might take for the team to gel in the wake of all the changes. With players such Ousmane Dembélé and André Schürrle up front, Dortmund are certainly fast enough to catch Bayern at the top. Only their endurance (and solidity at the back) is still in question.
So far so fairly expected, you might say, but matchday one did offer some shiny, genuine newness in other quarters. At the Borussia Park, for example, Gladbach v Leverkusen didn’t just live up to its fourth-v-third-from-last-season billing but exceeded expectations with a surprising punchline: the Foals’ superb counterattacking and impressive depth suggested that they might be better placed than Roger Schmidt’s hard-pressing Werkself to make an assault on the duopoly at the top.
Goals from André Hahn and Lars Stindl helped to overcome the visitors in a high-quality game that showcased just how far German club football has come in recent years.
Can anything stop Bayern making it five Bundesligas in a row? Only complacency | Raphael Honigstein Read more
Similarly enjoyable, albeit on a slightly lower plane technically, was Hoffenheim’s 2-2 draw with RB Leipzig on Sunday. Few people would have watched it live on German TV – a self-deprecating fan banner greeting “the four viewers on Sky” might not have been too far off the truth – but the game between the billionaire-sponsored village club and the Red Bull-owned newcomers was entertaining enough despite being rather deficient in terms of historical resonance or, if you will, authenticity. “We showed that we can enrich the league,” the RB coach Ralph Hasenhüttl said after the successful debut in the top flight. No pun intended, to be sure.
The Bundesliga’s most disliked club did not just win a point yesterday, they also struck a small blow for the league as a whole by signing the Nottingham Forest winger Oliver Burke from underneath the noses of a host of Premier League clubs, some of whom had frantically upped their wage offers as news of the 19-year-old’s medical broke, according to Kicker. Late transfer-window raids were supposed to go the other way this summer.
Leipzig’s arrival as a super-charged force in waiting cannot possibly mark the beginning of the Bundesliga’s financial fightback against the all powerful English, not even the beginning of the beginning. But maybe the envy/horror their inevitable ascent to the top is bound to generate can at least temporarily end overblown worries that the league has lost its capacity to surprise and excite in middle-age. Matchday one already showed there will be enough going on here, both familiar and new, to keep the attention.
Results: Bayern 6-0 Bremen; Frankfurt 1-0 Schalke; Augsburg 0-2 Wolfsburg; HSV 1-1 Ingolstadt; Dortmund 2-1 Mainz; Gladbach 2-1 Leverkusen; Hertha 2-1 Freiburg; Hoffenheim 2-2 Leipzig.
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https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/aug/29/bayern-begin-as-they-mean-to-go-on-schalke-are-in-a-sticky-patch-bundesliga
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| 2016-08-29T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/ae79bd5383a42bf437814ceed32d15d17ba882baca78caaeda817906a037f4e7.json
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[
"Patrick Butler"
] | 2016-08-26T13:14:05 | null | 2016-08-26T06:00:11 |
Charity releases records of first to benefit from ‘boarding out’ scheme that evolved into modern-day system
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Barnardo's archives reveal early lives of UK's first fostered children
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Previously unseen Victorian archive records of the first fostered children in Britain have been released by Barnardo’s, showing what life was like for children when the scheme was originally launched by the charity in 1887.
They reveal a period of no social workers, no welfare state and chaotic family arrangements. Elizabeth Mouncey and her parents eked out a miserable existence marked by destitution, violence and squalor; her father, an East End docker, drank heavily and beat his wife. Today she would probably be on the child protection register and her parents enrolled on a troubled families programme.
When her parents died within a year of each other (Elizabeth was six when she was found next to her dying mother), she was taken in by neighbours. Relatives refused to give her a home, so church missionaries contacted a children’s charity, Barnardo’s, which put her on an innovative scheme called “boarding out” .
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Lilian Murray was placed in Barnardo’s care at the age of two. The archive files paint a picture of a Britain devoid of a welfare state or social workers. Photograph: Barnardo’s
Elizabeth became the first known black foster child in the UK, in 1891. She was sent to live with “respectable foster parents of the labouring class” in the village of Headcorn, Kent, for six years, before returning to a Barnardo’s home to train as a cook. The 1911 census records that she was working as a cook in Croydon, south London.
Elizabeth’s story is one of several published on Friday from the archives of Barnardo’s, which this year celebrates its 150th birthday. Collectively they put human faces to the development of a system of care for poor and at-risk children that would evolve over time into the modern fostering system. Today, three in every four children who are taken into care are fostered.
Lilian Murray, for example, was placed in Barnardo’s custody at the age of two after a Westminster magistrate found her mother, a career petty criminal, to be guilty of neglecting and ill-treating her. Placements of girls were often made to prevent “moral danger” (sexual exploitation). Lilian was boarded out in Cambridgeshire, during which time Barnardo’s inspectors found her “greatly improved”, before going into service as a maid in Surrey.
Elizabeth Matthews was twelve when her stepfather signed an agreement for her to be cared for by Barnardo’s. Her mother had died two years earlier and she had subsequently attempted to run away from her stepfather, who is described in the archives as “a cripple [who] earns his living by hawking, begging and singing ... roaming the country with one of this two children, a boy, and lodging in the lowest lodging houses”. After nine years in Barnardo’s care she became a domestic maid.
Thomas Barnardo began his foster experiment in 1887 by dispatching 320 orphan boys of “good conduct and character” from the East End slums of London to board out with “homely folk” in rural villages who were paid five shillings a week to bring up their charges. The location was important: not just the wholesome benefits of clean air, but an upbringing free from the temptations and moral hazards of the city.
EU states are denying child migrants essential services Read more
Barnardo’s initiative was in part a response to Victorian public outrage over “baby farming”, effectively deregulated fostering, whereby a string of women who took in numerous children for money were convicted for murder and neglect. The charity’s archives show the development of a pre-placement assessment and inspection system designed to ensure the children were looked after by “Christian people” in “kind homes”.
Prospective foster parents were expected to sign up to a commitment to bring up the child “as one of my family”, providing them with food, clothes, washing and schooling, as well as to “endeavour to train the said child in habits of truthfulness, obedience, personal cleanliness and industry”.
According to Barnardo’s archivist Martine King, it is the child-centred aspect of boarding out that is so remarkable, along with the attention paid not just to ensuring that children went to good homes, but that their progress was monitored. “It was the first time we had a system in place to make sure the parents were looking after the children properly,” she said.
In 1889, 586 boys and 124 girls were boarded out by Barnardo’s. By 1905, 4,000 children were looked after in foster care. Latest figures for 2015 show that 52,000 children in England were in foster care – a 30 year high – and Barnardo’s and other foster agencies say that with many foster carers going into retirement, there is a shortfall of families willing to take in vulnerable children.
“Much has changed over the past 130 years, but there are still vulnerable children in foster care who simply need someone who can always be there for them,” said Barnardo’s chief executive, Javed Khan. “Just as in Victorian times, today we’re looking for people, with a genuine desire to make life better for some of the country’s most vulnerable children, to become foster carers.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/aug/26/barnardos-archives-reveal-early-lives-of-uks-first-fostered-children
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| 2016-08-26T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/52d228f54e3d74837be1ac27d740a0ba5e3cc1707396f6edcf890c4e3e8104bf.json
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[] | 2016-08-28T06:54:56 | null | 2016-08-28T06:00:24 |
EU rules enable passengers delayed for more than three hours to get compensation far in excess of the fare. This needs to change
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Airline passengers have had too much of a good thing over delay payouts
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When flight schedules go wrong, they go horribly wrong. Terminals become chaotic, with long-delayed and increasingly dishevelled passengers spread all over the concourse. There are queues for €5 vouchers to join other queues for overpriced food. Tempers get frayed. This correspondent once spent 13 very unhappy hours in a sweaty Palma de Mallorca airport waiting for a flight to transport us to the relative luxury of Luton.
Delays such as these are why the EU introduced its flight compensation rules. Brussels declared that when flights arrive at their final destination three hours or more late, the passenger is eligible for €250-€600 in compensation, depending on the distance flown. They were cited by some as a reason to vote to remain in the EU.
Since the EU261 rules came into force, the airlines have spent much of their time trying to wriggle out of them, as the Observer has highlighted. Many will define routine problems as “extraordinary circumstances” to avoid paying refunds. Online applications are made deliberately obtuse in the hope that frustrated applicants will give up along the way. And many do.
But, while newspapers traditionally campaign for consumer rights, could it be that the compensation awards (we’ll whisper this very quietly) are just a bit too generous?
Take, for example, a colleague recently back from the Costa Dorada this summer. His Ryanair flight from Barcelona to London was delayed for more than three hours. He has since obtained €1,000 (£853) compensation for himself, wife and two children. How much did he pay for those flights? Less than £400. He feels like he has been given a free holiday.
The same colleague flew British Airways from Heathrow to Hawaii last year for a once-in-a-lifetime treat with the family. That flight was also delayed, by just over three hours, and because it was more than 3,500km, they qualified for the big one: €600 compensation per person. The family picked up €2,400 (just under £2,000 at the time) from BA. Not quite the whole cost of the tickets, but not far off.
You may be left thinking: “I wish I got delayed like that.” Passengers delayed for two-and-a-half hours often find themselves praying the delay will go on for at least another 30 minutes.
If they were in America, they wouldn’t be. The US has no formal compensation rules for flight delays. Travellers can be delayed 24 hours on a flight from LA to Manchester and receive nothing, but they can pick up £500 if they are held up for three hours flying in the opposite direction.
The EU261 rules are designed to knock the airlines into shape, and keep delays to a minimum, argue their proponents. These proponents include an increasing number of lawyers keen to snaffle a one-third cut of any “award” from the airline.
Back in 2014, easyJet complained that “paying compensation far in excess of the fare price places a huge financial burden on us as an airline and will ultimately lead to higher fares for all.”
The average ticket at easyJet costs £61.93, and half of all sold are below £50. That means the airline has to pay around three times the ticket revenue it receives when there is a delay.
Curiously, the airlines were reluctant when the Observer reached out for comment on this issue. They don’t want to appear to be campaigning against consumer rights.
But, off the record, their dissatisfaction with the rules is intense – and understandable. Limiting compensation just to the fare price may make them a little too sloppy when it comes to avoiding delays. But mightn’t it be fairer to repay travellers their ticket price, plus a set fee, such as €50 or €100? Still generous, but not excessive.
And we need to be thinking about this, because it’s one of those many EU rules which we may have to renegotiate on Brexit.
Could there be an ‘Opec for news’?
Finding a way to give newspapers a slug of the advertising cash they have lost to Google is one of those old-media dreams that won’t die. There have been many attempts, most recently in Germany and Spain, but they have all failed. The European commission, we learned on Thursday, is hatching the latest cunning plan.
A draft working paper sets out options for a new law. Publishers will have an exclusive right to make their content available to the public and to reproduce it for digital purposes. The intention is to create a better regulatory tool to extract licensing payments from services like Google News.
Legislation on its own will change nothing. Publicly funded organisations like the BBC may choose not to demand a fee. And Google could simply stop displaying articles from those who want to charge. The effects can be devastating: when the publisher of Bild, Germany’s biggest tabloid, tried to enforce licensing fees in 2014, its traffic dropped by 80% in two weeks.
For licensing to work, news groups will have to act collectively. The creation of Opec in the 1960s transformed the fortunes of oil nations, redressing the balance of power with western-owned oil firms. Should Europe form an Opec for news?
Political support for a fightback is at fever pitch in France and Germany, but has been lacking so far in the UK. David Cameron’s links to Google were close. Theresa May, on the other hand, spent years at the Home Office pushing for search engines and social media to take down links to extremist material. She may not be such a fan.
But Google is really the wrong target. For many, Facebook is now their primary news source. Publishers voluntarily upload their journalism for free on the platform, where it is then shared between users. The commission’s proposed licensing rights probably wouldn’t apply to the Facebook model. Obtaining fair payment for Europe’s journalistic black gold looks set to remain a pipe dream.
A new chancellor should face up to old poverty statistics
What does a government do when the numbers stop going its way? Stop publishing the numbers, of course.
That’s how it looked when former chancellor George Osborne ditched the Treasury’s analysis of how his budgets affected the very poorest and the richest in Britain. Instead, after the Conservatives’ election victory, an inferior substitute of this “distributional analysis” was concocted. Rather than looking at 10 income groups, it covered just five – so the impact of austerity on the very poorest was no longer clear. Instead of showing what households actually received, the new model showed changes in the share of public spending received. The newer analysis also projected future effects, not how households were faring in the present.
Now Andrew Tyrie MP, chair of the Treasury select committee, is asking the new chancellor Philip Hammond to revert to the old, more transparent analysis. In a government that pledges to create “a country that works not for a privileged few, but for every one of us”, let’s hope Hammond listens.
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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/aug/28/airline-passengers-delayed-too-much-good-thing-eu261-compensation
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| 2016-08-28T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/2b458f437eda43c4435579ffdc073b6082260dc522b2fd813f6c09b1402ff1f6.json
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[
"Giles Richards"
] | 2016-08-27T14:51:42 | null | 2016-08-27T13:28:59 |
Nico Rosberg took pole for the Belgian Grand Prix but was unopposed by his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton who, having taken engine penalties that mean he will start from the back of the grid, opted to run only once in qualifying
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Nico Rosberg on pole for Belgian Grand Prix as Hamilton incurs penalties
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Nico Rosberg took pole for the Belgian Grand Prix but was unopposed by his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton who, having taken engine penalties that mean he will start from the back of the grid, opted to run only once in qualifying. Rosberg, who set his best time on the first run in Q3 was kept honest by a good drive from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen who was second, just 0.150sec back, his career best qualifying position which makes him the youngest ever driver on the front row, and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen in third. Nonetheless the German driver did exactly what he needed in a bid to gain the maximum from Hamilton’s penalty, with a time of 1min 46.744seconds.
The fans, however, were denied a real shootout for pole as Hamilton opted to do only the one mandatory run that is required to set a time in Q1, having already received a 55-place penalty for taking new power units that would see him start at the back of the grid regardless of where he finished in qualifying. He and the team opted instead to conserve their tyres for the race, where he will be bidding to make a recovery to limit the points he drops to his team-mate.
Lewis Hamilton set to start from back of F1 grid at Belgian Grand Prix Read more
It is Rosberg’s 28th career pole and his sixth of the season, he has converted three of those to race wins and with Hamilton starting in 22nd place, has the best possible chance to make it a fourth and narrow the 19-point gap by which he trails his team-mate in the world championship.
It is only his second pole at Spa, a race the German has still yet to win, with second places for the previous two years being his best finish here.
Hamilton and Mercedes had made their intent to take the penalties here clear on Thursday although they were cagey as to exactly how many new parts the British driver would take. Failures earlier in the season had meant they were resigned to having to do so at some point. Ultimately he fitted two entirely new power units (upgraded for this race with the use of five tokens) on Friday and a third on Saturday before final practice, ensuring he would be starting from the back of the grid. However it means he has a stock of parts that should see him through to the end of the season with no further penalties.
“Now I have three engines and I have a 55-place penalty,” said Hamilton. “The key to today is it so hot which is unusual and these tyres aren’t lasting. They’re buckling, blistering and not lasting so tomorrow is the hardest day to come through. Today has been about getting the car set up to go as far as possible. I want to get as high up as I can but I think it is going to be hard tomorrow. Its not going to be smooth sailing.”
With 65% of a lap spent at full throttle, Spa suits the power advantage Mercedes enjoy and with several overtaking opportunities the team’s intent is to give Hamilton the best chance to take the hit in one fell swoop, while minimising the points damage as much as possible. A top four finish at least will be his target.
The use of his tyres in race strategy may prove to be key in how many places can be gained. The temperatures all week have been very high, up to 40C on the track in qualifying which, combined with the high pressures Pirelli have insisted upon, has made degradation a crucial issue. The qualifying super-softs look to have very few race laps in them and the front runners will have to pit early. Having preserved all his rubber by sitting out of qualifying, Hamilton will be able to exploit the extra grip in the race. In the practice sessions he largely focussed on long-runs with fuel loads on, utilising the medium and soft tyres.
The odds are heavily stacked against him turning it into a win however. John Watson’s comeback at Long Beach in 1983, when he stared his McLaren 22nd in a field of 26 and in 70 minutes had carved his way through to the win, is still the furthest back from which a driver has won a grand prix. Michael Schumacher took a remarkable and controversial victory here in 1995 from 16th on the grid after a fierce battle with Damon Hill but had the advantage of mixed conditions, while the weather for the race is expected to be fine throughout.
Sebastian Vettel was in fourth for Ferrari, followed by the second Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo. The Force India’s of Sergio Pérez and Nico Hulkenberg were in sixth and seventh and the Williams of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa in eighth and tenth.
McLaren had used seven engine upgrade tokens before the weekend and Jenson Button did a sterling job to put the car into Q3 and qualified in ninth but his team-mate Fernando Alonso, who took an entirely new power unit after a water leak on Friday and subsequently a 35-place grid penalty, then also suffered a failure in Q1 and will start in 21st place. However if the team have to fit a further new power unit, he will fall one place behind Hamilton.
The Renault’s of Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer are in 12th and 13th respectively. Esteban Gutiérrez qualified his Haas in 13th place but will take a five-place penalty for impeding another car during practice and will start 18th on the grid; his team-mate Romain Grosjean is in 11th. Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz Jr is in 14th and Manor’s Pascal Wehrlein did well to make 15th.
Sauber, who have brought considerable upgrades to their car, placed Felipe Nasr in 16th, while Marcus Ericsson, who has a 10-place penalty for replacing his turbo charger, will start in 20th. Manor’s Esteban Ocon on his debut qualifying session, will start in 17th, with Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat also eliminated in the first session in 19th place.
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https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/27/nico-rosberg-pole-belgian-grand-prix-hamilton-penalties
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| 2016-08-27T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/ef3465802d2b91a66107512f589a23e4bf9267df0e2075e5f040be936c50b312.json
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[
"Lee Glendinning"
] | 2016-08-26T14:54:44 | null | 2007-08-02T10:15:15 |
A history of tensions between British Airways and Virgin Airlines.
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Row over dirty tricks led to decade of hostilities
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There was a series of disputes throughout the 1990s between the recently privatised British Airways and its emerging competitor Virgin Atlantic. As tensions increased between the two airlines, Lord King, the BA chairman, was said to have been particularly irritated by the transfer of some of BA's London-Tokyo routes to Richard Branson's Virgin Airlines, along with the decision in 1991 to allow Virgin to operate from Heathrow.
The tipping point came later that year after a highly publicised mission was put together by Mr Branson to fly hostages of Saddam Hussein back to Britain.
Lord King is reported to have summoned Colin Marshall, the company's chief executive, and David Burnside, his PR director, to an urgent meeting to tell them: "Do something about Branson."
What followed led to accusations from Virgin that BA was poaching its passengers, hacking into its computers and leaking anti-Virgin stories to the press.
Mr Branson asked BA to investigate and it responded by saying there was no foundation to the claims.
BA's weekly staff newspaper, BA News, ran an article suggesting the claims were a Virgin invention. This article was used by Mr Branson in 1992 as the basis of a libel claim against Lord King and British Airways.
BA countersued but, faced with the increasing likelihood that it would not succeed, it was then forced to concede that there was some foundation to the allegations.
It admitted in the high court that staff had engaged in "disreputable business practices" including shredding documents, passenger poaching and trying to plant "hostile and discreditable" stories about Virgin in the press.
BA apologised unreservedly and settled the case by paying Mr Branson £500,000, which was divided among his staff and became known as the "BA bonus". A further £110,000 was given to Virgin Atlantic. BA was saddled with legal fees which are believed to have topped £3m.
In 1993, Virgin lodged a $1bn lawsuit for compensation over the dirty tricks affair in a New York court, but it was thrown out in 1999. When a call came from Robert Ayling, BA's then chief executive, for the two companies to bury the hatchet, Mr Branson rejected it.
Two years later, the pair worked separately lobbying against liberalisation of routes to the US which would allow rivals to enter the market.
In June 2000, Mr Branson met Rod Eddington, the new head of BA, to discuss a truce over tea.
Afterwards, Mr Branson said that he had been greeting "an old friend" and hoped that the "days of dirty tricks were well behind us".
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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2007/aug/02/theairlineindustry.britishairways
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| 2007-08-02T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/98d1c369e4e4a4119b51d281ed18210ac018be6e2862a103656e0a24dfb80d2a.json
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[
"Frances Ryan"
] | 2016-08-31T06:53:09 | null | 2016-08-31T06:30:30 |
An up and coming wheelchair basketball player and a university student are among many disabled people whose life chances have been hit
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Potential Paralympic star forced to pull out due to cuts in disability support
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You wouldn’t expect a member of Great Britain’s Paralympic wheelchair basketball team to be living in an old people’s home. But Freya Levy, 20, has had to live in sheltered accommodation for the over-60s since April because it was the only accessible option offered to her by her local council when she became homeless.
Levy, who has been playing wheelchair basketball for four years, has muscular dystrophy. When the tenancy on the privately rented home where she lived with her mother and brother in Rayleigh in Essex wasn’t renewed at the end of last year, the family couldn’t find another property for all of them that had a ramp to the front door or a downstairs bathroom.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Freya Levy defends the ball during the wheelchair basketball at the 2013 Sainsburys School Games. Photograph: Tony Marshall/PA
To get a roof over their heads the family had to split up. Her mum was in a flat, her brother at their grandma’s. Levy lived at a Premier Inn hotel for two months borrowing money from a friend to pay the hotel bills of at least £40 a night.
In April, Rochford district council accepted that Levy was officially homeless and offered her emergency accommodation, in a building with a broken lift. With nowhere else to go, she moved into the only accessible option the council gave her: a block of flats for older people.
“I’m just desperate for my own little bungalow that’s accessible so I can get on with growing up,” says Levy. “It’s very frustrating to know that if I was able-bodied, I would not at the age of 20 be in sheltered accommodation for the over-60s.”
Not only is it tough to be in this environment where she is often lonely, but it has put paid to her chances of competing at the Rio 2016 Paralympics which start next week. Levy had trials to be part of the GB Paralympic wheechair basketball team, but was forced to pull out because the rules of the sheltered housing scheme require her to sleep there every night. In order to try out for Rio she would have had to stay at the Paralympic training programme in Worcester every other week from spring.
Levy says that she was “gutted” to miss out on taking part in the Paralympics, but the stress of her housing situation would have made it impossible for her to stay motivated enough to compete. “My energy was spent on finding somewhere to sleep that night and then somewhere more permanent.”
When the London 2012 Paralympic Games brought disability into the country’s living rooms, there was an optimism, encouraged by the rhetoric of politicians, that the event would mark a turning point to greater equality for the more than 10 million disabled people in Britain.
But listen to disabled people like Levy and the reality has been damningly different: from continued inaccessible housing and deepening poverty to the dismantling of state support. According to a new survey by the disability charity, Scope, more than three-quarters of disabled people say coverage of the London Paralympics had a positive impact on the public’s attitudes to disability, but access to basic rights is still often out of reach. Britain’s equality watchdog warned just last month that disabled people are being treated like “second-class citizens”. Branding it society’s “badge of shame”, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) pointed to inequalities such as the lack of political representation, the failure to make adjustments to housing, and the deficit in access to anything from transport and sports stadiums to music venues. It also announced a series of inquiries, including one into the pay gap between disabled and non-disabled workers, and another into the impact of social security changes.
This comes at the same time as the UK is being investigated by the United Nations for alleged grave and systematic violations of disabled people’s rights as a result of government welfare reforms – notably the first country in the world to be under such.
You are simply not allowed to be chronically sick or disabled any more. I’m one of many who's had their life dismantled Jo Cole, Stockton-On-Tees
As Britain celebrated its Paralympians four years ago, disabled citizens were about to face unprecedented cuts to vital benefits and social care. Policies such as the bedroom tax and the abolition of disability living allowance (DLA) have helped drive disabled people to food banks, and into debt and homelessness. At the same time, punitive work measures have been brought in, including a 580% increase in benefit sanctions against sick and disabled claimants between March 2013 and March 2014, and the acceleration of the highly controversial work capability assessment (WCA), sparking ongoing investigations into deaths and suicides of disabled people who had recently been found fit to work.
“I suffered a breakdown about a week afterwards,” says Handel Thomas who applied for the sickness benefit, Employment and Support Allowance last June. Thomas, 35, had been forced to leave his job as a charity support worker in Swansea during the spring due to worsening depression. “Too many sick days,” he says. On the day of his WCA, he told the nurse conducting the test that he was considering suicide. Regardless of this, he was awarded zero points and declared “fit for work”. He appealed but the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) upheld the decision. “By this point, I was broke, unwell and quite frankly terrified,” he says. “I’d worked all my life but I felt like I was being accused of being a liar or a skiver.”
Jo Cole, in Stockton-On-Tees, says: “You are simply not allowed to be chronically sick or disabled any more. She adds: “I’m one of many who has had their life dismantled.” A brain tumour left Cole, 60, partially deaf in 2013 and chronic osteoarthritis means she regularly trips and falls (she’s broken her arm and four toes since becoming disabled). For more than a decade she has used part of her disability living allowance to lease a car under the Motability scheme, which, in her words, has stopped her being housebound. But after being partly rejected for DLA’s replacement support, personal independence payments (PIP) last month, she was forced to give up her car.
“It broke my heart to hand it back,” she says. Without her car, Cole, a part-time manager for a charity, would have no way to get to work, the hospital, or help her ill daughter. Motability agreed to give Cole a one-off charitable payment of £2,000 but, in order to buy another car, her husband has “maxed out” his credit card and the family now has to find £300 a month to pay off the new car: money they would normally save to pay heating bills during the winter to stop Cole getting seriously ill from the cold.
“Since the PIP notice, I’ve not had a night’s sleep and am exhausted and racked with pain,” Cole says. “I think stress is reacting with [my medication] causing my hair to fall out again.”
Since PIP was introduced in April 2013, up to 500 disabled people each week have had to hand back their Motability vehicles, many of which would have been specially adapted to meet their specific needs.
The campaign group, Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC)is launching a series of austerity protests in a week of action to time with the Rio Paralympics. It says that over the past few years, the series of cuts to disability benefits and support have turned back the clock on disabled people’s rights by decades. “These are attacks in every area of our lives,” says Ellen Clifford, from DPACs national steering group. “Support to eat, drink and use the toilet is being taken away.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Alice Dunn faced seven months on a waiting list for a wheelchair from the NHS. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian
Even something as fundamental as a wheelchair is not always available to disabled people now. When 20-year-old Alice Dunn became suddenly unable to walk last summer, she went to her GP for a referral to wheelchair services. But Dunn, a student from Manchester who has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome – an inherited condition that weakens connective tissue – was told she would have to wait seven months for an appointment. “It was so long, I would have had to drop out of university while waiting,” she says.
Without any help from the NHS, Dunn bought a £200 wheelchair online. Because it was cheap and ill-fitting, after trying to propel herself, she dislocated her elbow and has been left with permanent damage. To buy a suitable wheelchair, Dunn had to borrow £2,500 from her family. Paying them back got even harder, she says, when she was rejected for PIP this year.
Whether it is cuts to housing, benefits, or transport, the deficit in support for disabled people is in the context of existing, widespread poverty. Almost half of people in poverty in the UK are either disabled themselves or in a household with a disabled person, according to the latest research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Since the 2012 Paralympics, a further 300,000 disabled people are living in poverty.
A DWP spokeswoman says: “We’re committed to creating a Britain that works for everyone and our welfare reforms are helping more people find and stay in work. As well as offering the targeted support disabled people need to live independent lives, we are spending nearly £50bn a year to support people with disabilities or health conditions.”
Back in Essex, a spokesman for Rochford council says: “Due to a shortage of suitable housing within our districtparticularly for residents with disabilities, finding accommodation poses a challenge. In some cases it may involve short-term placing them in sheltered accommodation as this may be the only accessible housing on offer. We will seek to find alternative accommodation when a more suitable placement becomes available.”
Levy says she is now relying on help from the charity Muscular Dystrophy UK to find a way out. Of her Paralympic dream, she says: “Now I’m looking ahead to 2020, 2024, 2028 …”
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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/aug/31/paralympic-star-disability-support-cuts
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en
| 2016-08-31T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/38d4371d708968566730a32ffeceb35896d34e36f116eefa8d1a8ecba71c5da8.json
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[] | 2016-08-26T13:30:47 | null | 2016-05-24T00:00:00 |
Dermalogica’s global impact director says: ‘When we saw our industry growth and the need for young women to find jobs, I realized we needed to throw conventional corporate social responsibility off the table’
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http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fpersonal-investments%2Fng-interactive%2F2016%2Fmay%2F24%2Fnatalie-byrne-skincare-jobs-women-corporate-responsibility.json
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Natalie Byrne: the skincare executive dedicated to creating jobs
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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Dermalogica’s global impact director says: ‘When we saw our industry growth and the need for young women to find jobs, I realized we needed to throw conventional corporate social responsibility off the table’
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http://www.theguardian.com/personal-investments/ng-interactive/2016/may/24/natalie-byrne-skincare-jobs-women-corporate-responsibility
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en
| 2016-05-24T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/e289e9912b589ec3543557533671e607f97844a6c329913d29a61e313bec0357.json
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[
"Greg Nicholson For The Daily Maverick",
"Part Of The Guardian Africa Network"
] | 2016-08-31T12:52:52 | null | 2016-08-31T11:19:27 |
Girls describe prejudice at prestigious Pretoria school where natural hair was deemed ‘untidy’ and ‘un-ladylike’
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fworld%2F2016%2Faug%2F31%2Fsouth-african-students-speak-out-ban-afro-hair-pretoria-school.json
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South African students speak out against 'aggressive' ban on afro hair
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www.theguardian.com
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Malaika Maoh Eyoh, a 17-year-old student at the prestigious Pretoria high school for girls, remembers the first time she was told by a teacher that her afro was “distracting others from learning”.
Racism row over South Africa school's alleged hair policy Read more
She said the comment was “aggressive”, and made her feel “really scared to come to school”. With her hair now braided, Eyoh was one of more than 100 young women to protest against the school for allegedly forcing black students to straighten their hair.
“There were a lot of emotions because the last five years of our high school student careers had built up to this,” said Eyoh.
“[After the march] it blew up a lot faster and harder than we thought it would,” she added. Images of the protest went viral in South Africa and an online petition against the alleged hair policy gathered more than 10,000 signatures after it was created on Friday.
In response, Panyaza Lesufi, the head of education in Gauteng province, has ordered an independent audit of the school “to investigate all the claims of racism”.
“The code of conduct ... is insensitive to different people and discriminates badly against black pupils as it asks them to straighten their hair,” Lesufi said on Tuesday. “That is not fair because some pupils have natural[ly curly] hair so we have agreed with the student governing body that it be suspended.”
— The Daily VOX (@thedailyvox) Her name is Zulaikha. She's 13 years old. She's been in detention for her hair before. She is the future. pic.twitter.com/xCmvVAfbnI
— The Daily VOX (@thedailyvox) The feels. The chills. School girls threatened with arrest. And how they respond ✊🏾 #StopRacismAtPretoriaGirlsHigh pic.twitter.com/DNr1lhpiN4
Political parties also jumped on the issue, with the ANC Women’s League and Democratic Alliance issuing statements denouncing the alleged policy. The Economic Freedom Fighters party accused the school of seeking “to directly suppress blackness in its aesthetics and culture”.
‘I’m still angry’
Eyoh, sitting with her friend, Palesa Sidibe, two days after the protests, said the pair could recall many instances of discrimination over the past few years.
I’m 23 years old now and the wounds from my high school experience have really affected me Busiwe Kabane
They described a student who was pulled out of class and given Vaseline to flatten her hair. And a time when a teacher referred to Nelson Mandela and the ANC as terrorists. Eyoh and Sidibe say collectively these stories show how many young women in South Africa’s prestigious schools have been told “not to be black”.
The Pretoria girls’ school was historically attended by whites only, but now admits black children following the end of apartheid in 1994. The school’s code of conduct has a list of rules about hair, but does not specifically mention the afro hairstyle.
Leago Mamabolo, 18 and in her final year at the school, said students had simply had enough of the discriminatory treatment. Leago’s hair was referred to as a “bird’s nest” because of her dreadlocks. “You’re in fear when you go to school because you know you will be policed,” she said.
Since news of the protests went viral, many former students of South Africa’s historically white schools have spoken up, reflecting on their own experiences.
Lizwe Ncakula, who went to a school in Cape Town, said she was told her hair was not “ladylike”.
“It took years to undo that damage not only to my scalp but my sense of self-love and appreciation for who I am.”
Luister: the viral film exposing South Africa's ongoing racism problem Read more
Busiwe Kabane said she was still hurt by her experience at a school in Bloemfontein. “I’m 23 years old now, I’m still angry. It has affected my confidence in my abilities. I’m hyper-vigilant and mistrusting of almost any white space.”
In response to Lesufi’s announcement, the head of the school’s governing body released a statement pledging that Pretoria girls “will work closely with the learners, teachers, the department of education and the broader school community to ensure that everybody can feel included and welcomed in the school”.
Eyoh said despite the examples of racism there are positive aspects to the school. You can get a good education and the teachers are decent, “but there’s stuff like this that needs to be spoken about. It’s not just irises and fun green dresses”.
A version of this article first appeared on the Daily Maverick
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/31/south-african-students-speak-out-ban-afro-hair-pretoria-school
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en
| 2016-08-31T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/2b609c5875e475eaa58cca3c553c1a3eabff10551a42c6725e27dfde01bbbed1.json
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[
"Amelia Hil"
] | 2016-08-27T18:49:16 | null | 2001-07-28T23:15:27 |
Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire has been outed as the Sapphic capital of Britain. And no one's complaining.
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Lesbians the toast of the Two Ferrets
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www.theguardian.com
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Berbard Ingham, Margaret Thatcher's press secretary, used to say that if it wasn't being talked about in the tap room of the Two Ferrets in Hebden Bridge, the Pennine home of his birth, then it wasn't a matter of public interest.
Ingham's Two Ferrets was a fictional pub, but the revelation last week that humble Hebden Bridge could be the lesbian hub of Britain comes as no surprise - nor any great concern - to real-life drinkers in the small Yorkshire town.
Proudly woven into the Pennines, between the steep, rugged cliffs and the heather-strewn woodlands, stands a pink house with big blue spots. A rainbow windchime hanging from a pink drainpipe moves gently in the breeze as a group of women millaround a ceramic fountain in the garden, discussing what should be done with the flowerbeds.
It would be a graceful scene in most people's eyes, but for some it is an idyll they had lost hope of ever discovering: according to Dr Darren Smith, acceptance towards female homosexuality in the Upper Calderdale Valley has seen the proportion of lesbian to heterosexual residents outstripping that of Manchester, London or Brighton.
It was an accidental discovery, made when Smith was conducting door-to-door interviews for his PhD into the revitalisation of Hebden Bridge. 'I found doors opened by one lesbian household after another,' he said. 'And I was being told the same tale of local acceptance and openness by them all.'
Smith began a study into the phenomenon. 'I was astonished: all received knowledge has it that lesbians gravitate towards large metropolitan spaces; this mass movement into the countryside is bucking every known trend.'
He was given £700 last month by Leeds University to complete a pilot study and hopes to win full funding from the Economic and Social Research Council for a year-long investigation.
Ever since hippies turned Hebden Bridge into a counter-culture paradise after it was abandoned by a desperate population of redundant mill workers in the early Sixties, the whole Upper Valley has seen wave after wave of idealistic incomers.
In the early Seventies the blackened façades of local millhouses were scrubbed clean of their industrial past and remarketed to a middle-class population eager to reproduce the Good Life lifestyle within easy reach of Leeds and Manchester.
The less affluent lesbian contingent began making tentative forays into the area in the early Eighties, Smith believes, with each generation arriving younger and staying longer than the one before.
'I hoped but never dreamt I'd find somewhere I felt as comfortable and at home as I do here,' said Sue Jacob, a social sciences student at Bradford University. 'I lived in London for 15 years but there it's so spread out. Here you see lesbians everywhere; it's like having an extended family which, considering all of us have had to move away from our families to find somewhere we could be accepted, is a wonderful feeling.'
The Pie Club meets at the Stubbing Wharf pub on the outskirts of Hebden Bridge every Tuesday, with the all-you-can-eat curry night on Wednesdays. On Thursday the tables are crowded for a weekly quiz. As 12 lesbians bicker over which Hollywood starlet was almost called Pansy, Pat Kingswell, part-owner of the lesbian-run Nelson's Wine Bar in Hebden Bridge, describes how local acceptance and the support of a strong lesbian network has allowed her to escape the lesbian straight-jacket she felt forced into in the city: 'The biggest thing for me is not having to think about my sexuality any more. Back home in Coventry I was aware of my sexuality all the time - I was always looking over my shoulder. Here I don't think about it from one day to the next because no one else seems to think of it either.'
The local community is happy to acknowledge the phenomenon: 'Twenty years ago I imagine there would have been a serious problem with the wave of lesbian households that have settled here,' said Kathryn Cassidy, who has lived in Hebden Bridge for 60 years. 'But we have had such a wide variety of foreigners coming in over the years that a different sexuality is now seen as just another type of alternative lifestyle. There's no resentment of them as newcomers - if anything, we're grateful: we were just another dying mill village before.'
Beryl Camon, who helps run the local cricket and Conservative clubs, agreed: 'You'd have trouble finding anyone around here with anything bad to say about the lesbian community. Why should we? They're an active part of the community, they bring money in and they're no trouble at all.'
The acceptance has encouraged lesbian mothers to move to the area, hopeful that their children can grow up without having to bear the stigma of their parent's sexuality. 'I came here seven years ago because of my daughter,' said Joanne Clohessy. 'She was four years old and about to start school. I didn't want her to pay for my sexuality, feel that she had to lie for me, and for me to have to lie to make things easier for her.'
Why, then, hasn't liberal, tolerant Hebden Bridge also attracted large numbers of gay men? Tim, a gay resident, believes this is because many gay men prefer a lifestyle that revolves around bars and nightclubs.
In an area close to the race riots of Oldham, Bradford and Burnley, prejudice against racial minorities seems to be as scarce as that against sexual minorities. 'None of the trouble going on within a few miles of us has had any effect on relations between the communities here,' said Abid Hussain, a Pakistani who has lived in Todmorden since he was 12. 'And unless some outside influence comes in and causes trouble, I don't think it ever will.'
Peter Thomas, a local historian, believes the lesbians have escaped the usual prejudices partly because they bought their own, inclusive, community with them: 'There's no resentment towards the lesbian community because they're no economic threat to anyone here,' he said. 'They either work outside Hebden Bridge or they create their own jobs within the alternative community. 'And let's face it - no local is going to complain that any job which involves aromatherapy and meditation is theirs by right.'
Kingswell is concerned that rising house prices - an average £25,000 rise in the cost of a three-bedroom house over four years - could see an end to the idyll: 'There's a possible backlash of resentment coming from the local community because no one earning a local wage can afford to live here,' she said. 'It's not our fault any more than other incomers but when something goes wrong, people look for a minority to pick on and we're pretty visible.'
For the moment, though, the acceptance appears to be universal. Raymond Wolsey, a proud Daily Mail reader who was born nearby and has lived in Hebden Bridge for more than 40 years, is stalwart. 'I don't care what people's sexual preferences are,' he said. 'They're nice people and they're part of our lives. Who cares about anything else?'
amelia.hill@observer.co.uk
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https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/jul/29/theobserver.uknews2
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| 2001-07-28T00:00:00 |
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[
"Zoe Williams"
] | 2016-08-28T16:49:45 | null | 2016-08-28T15:54:40 |
The prime minister is trying to placate those who voted for Brexit, but will shy away from radical solutions. That will be an opportunity for her opponents
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fcommentisfree%2F2016%2Faug%2F28%2Ftheresa-may-inequality-audit-conservatives-brexit.json
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Theresa May’s inequality audit seems clever, but it will backfire
| null | null |
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Don’t listen to the words: Theresa May has signalled her real Brexit intentions. She scoured the party for its three least consensual, most solipsistic, least assiduous, most attention-seeking members, and put them in charge of it. It will be a miracle if Boris Johnson, Liam Fox and David Davis can get on with one another, let alone any actual job. Brexit means Brexit – one day in the future, when everything else has happened first.
Theresa May announces audit to tackle public sector racial disparities Read more
So May needed a way to address and placate what is now accepted to be the tremendous well of anger that the Brexiteers gave voice to, some way other than giving them what they voted for. She could have chosen immigration. If the conventional wisdom is now that the leave vote was a yelp of outrage, the attendant consensus is that foreigners were its source.
The prime minister went instead to the issue that is the functional, rhetorical and ideological opposite of immigration: inequality. She has ordered a government audit into racial disparities in public service outcomes. By 2017, a citizen armed only with his or her age, postcode and racial profile will be able to determine the likelihood of being unemployed, detained under the Mental Health Act, arrested or excluded from school.
The audit will be updated annually. There are reasons to be sceptical, principally the simultaneous announcement of huge cuts to NHS services, which makes a mockery of the language. It’s no good becoming more equal just because everybody’s access to healthcare has worsened. Yet the fact is, she has done something exceptional.
With bold, relentless and unscrupulous repetition, the combined forces of the leave movement established truisms that were never true: that immigrants milked the benefits system, filled up the insufficient housing and put unbearable pressure on public services. There was a time, before Ed Miliband’s famous mug, when Labour would have challenged these perceptions with evidence; now we see Owen Smith trotting out lines about an influx of refugees squeezing natives out of primary schools, in a country (Wales) that has accepted just 112 Syrians, and where most of its primary schools have surplus places. It is extraordinary to witness the new political compact with the Daily Mail: ask not what is accurate, but only how cleverly you can parrot it before you turn even your own stomach.
How deeply entrenched is racial inequality in the UK? | Lola Okolosie, Kehinde Andrews, Diane Abbott, Onjali Rauf and Liz Fekete Read more
May has undermined that agenda altogether by simply refuting its primacy. She has eschewed the fiction of direct causation – that your low wages are the result of a cheaper foreigner – in favour of indirect causation: your wages are ratcheted down by your limited opportunities. She treats the new distrust of experts with the respect it deserves – precisely none – and sets about creating the data set from which expertise proceeds.
She has done more than reject the Crosbyfication of politics, which demands every debate be reduced to its basest question. She has chosen her own frame for the debate.
It is unlikely, of course, that she’ll be able to act on her findings. Having simultaneously kicked off this audit, and Brexit, with a data-heavy, sector-by-sector analysis of what every business wants and needs, she’ll wind up in 2017 with a roomful of beautiful data visualisations, all requiring contradictory actions.
Let’s say we intuit correctly that some elegant way will be found to avoid Brexit; possibly laying out its implications, slowly and clearly enough, will suffice. Inequality is different. As evidence of it builds and deepens over time, the old platitudinous equilibrium, where everyone is against it but nobody thinks they can do anything about it, will become harder to maintain.
Inequality is highly abstract and seems to have a momentum of its own, given that it constantly travels in the opposite direction to the one everybody claims to want. This gives it the inevitability of gravity or weather. The academic’s answer is to try tethering it back to something concrete and actionable, with demonstrable outcomes: a wealth disparity of X leads to a longevity difference of Y.
As vital as that is, it answers only half the question: how do we know that inequality is damaging? It doesn’t answer the more important riddle, the one that would wrest from inequality its status as a physical feature of the universe, and bring it back to level of human agency: by what mechanism does inequality do this damage? How can one child’s education be stunted by the existence of a richer child five streets away? How does one person’s bonus drive down another’s wages?
The answers lie not in regrettable prejudice but in balance of power: as profit is distributed more towards capital than labour, and the workforce becomes more precarious, its precariousness can be leveraged against it to drive down pay and conditions further, and the insecurity deepens. As capital concentrates and finds a haven in property, the balance of power shifts between landlords and tenants. Owning a house becomes impossible and rents get more expensive, creating a feedback loop where the power of the tenant in the workplace diminishes further, as saving becomes impossible.
It would be unthinkable for a Conservative of any pedigree to formulate solutions to this. Yet with her focus, May will make the problem steadily more urgent, while furnishing more radical minds than her own with the evidence they need to make ambitious demands. Far from appropriating inequality for her own rhetorical advantage, as George Osborne did with the “living wage”, May has actually opened it up as a field of play in which her own moves are obsolete and new thinking is not just possible but irresistible.
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/28/theresa-may-inequality-audit-conservatives-brexit
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en
| 2016-08-28T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/a59f642bde54d20b3e7496e75cbd6636b0b779ac08f3f2b0ba9c68b19d3e93e2.json
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[
"Rebecca Carroll"
] | 2016-08-26T13:15:31 | null | 2016-08-24T20:47:52 |
The hacking of the actor’s website is symptomatic of the culture we’ve built. If you want to take a stand, more than a tweet of sympathy is required
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fcommentisfree%2F2016%2Faug%2F24%2Fleslie-jones-abuse-racism-hacking-website.json
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Leslie Jones faces constant abuse - because that's how racism works
| null | null |
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What else do people need to see before they realize that racism is a vile, vicious daily assault that faces black Americans today – in every sphere and on every platform, but egregiously so online?
Leslie Jones's site taken down after personal information leaked Read more
Actor and comedian Leslie Jones has been attacked again – her website hacked, filled with racist images and stolen nude photos, along with pictures of her driver’s license and Harambe, the gorilla killed in an Ohio zoo earlier this year. These actions make me think that racism is so integral, so regular a thing in this country, like water running from the kitchen faucet, that the majority of people see it as merely who and how we are. Racism: it’s what we do.
Where is the practical response to this grotesque, debilitatingly mean-spirited violence? It’s one thing to offer her digital apologies for others’ racism. It’s another to actually take a stand to help eliminate it from our society.
Ostensibly, the initial attacks were the apex of ongoing negative reaction to Jones starring in the all-female remake of Ghostbusters. Trolls went after her looks, her skin, her body – everything that makes her who she is, and makes her black. She was called an ape. The attacks were unequivocally racist. Twitter issued a bland, cookie-cutter response.
But this all didn’t happen just because she did a movie. It was because she is a statuesque dark-skinned black woman, sister in spirit and posture to Nina Simone; elegant in her vocal command, towering with a feverish, ebullient talent that cannot be contained. It’s asinine to say that the racists who are targeting Leslie Jones are Ghostbuster purists, and that’s really what this is all about.
And while the New York Times reported that Jones “and her white cast mates have endured months of criticism since the announcement of a reboot of the blockbuster franchise,” those same white cast mates were not called a “big lipped coon”. What stopped one or all of these actors from saying during one of the myriad talk shows they appeared on: “You know what’s not cool? Racism. You know why? Because it targets and maims people we love and respect and live on the planet with.”
The film’s director, Paul Feig, did come to her defense, tweeting: “Leslie Jones is one of the greatest people I know. Any personal attacks against her are attacks against us all.” But again, if it really were an attack against us all – assuming he means himself and the rest of the mostly white cast – and it actually felt like an attack in the same way these feel like attacks to Leslie Jones, you can be sure he’d be doing more than tweeting about it. You’ll note he didn’t mention the R-word.
Leslie Jones's Twitter abuse is a deliberate campaign of hate | Ijeoma Oluo Read more
Here’s the thing: those who limit their allyship to tweeting their support when we’ve been targets of online racism have absolutely no idea how far removed they are, and yet how intricately tied they are to this thing that is killing us. Racism’s unceasing power lies in the way in which it can weaponise words: now, in 140 characters.
By all means up the Twitter support, which is all well and good, but then go deeper. Particularly those in positions of power or who have public platforms – call your friends, call your state representatives, send group emails and reply all to everyone; be vigorous in your accountability and encourage the same in those around you, call into radio shows, launch Kickstarter campaigns, think about ways you can help dismantle racism all the time. Because it is happening all the time.
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/24/leslie-jones-abuse-racism-hacking-website
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| 2016-08-24T00:00:00 |
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[
"Jennifer Rankin"
] | 2016-08-31T08:59:56 | null | 2015-06-10T00:00:00 |
Many new mothers continue to be forced out of their jobs while on maternity leave, and are unable to stand up for their rights
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| null |
Workplace discrimination: when a pregnant pause becomes more long-term
| null | null |
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At first Carol found it hard to believe her job was being axed as part of a mysterious “restructuring” plan. As a fundraiser for a large national charity she had consistently beaten her targets and knew the organisation’s finances were healthy. But surprise turned to anger when she realised her role was the only one being cut – and that this lone act of “restructuring” was happening halfway through her maternity leave.
Carol’s employer invited her to apply for other roles, but she faced “ridiculously unrealistic” deadlines. Either she had to submit a detailed application within five hours, or attend an early morning interview hundreds of miles away the next day – near-impossible demands for someone with no alternative childcare on tap.
She eventually returned to work in a more junior role paying £5,000 less – a 25% pay cut. But the new job description was almost identical to the old one.
After filing a complaint to Acas, the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, her employer agreed to pay £4,000 to settle the dispute. “By the time of this I was totally in depression, crying all the time.”
Today, Carol is still on the lower salary and feels angry that no one ever owned up to demoting her. She is now looking for another job. “I feel like people are talking about me and I really can’t be myself at work.”
Carol also thinks she was lucky to be able to bring a claim through Acas after discovering her home insurance provided limited legal expenses cover. Often available as an optional add-on when people take out a policy, the cover typically protects individuals against the costs of being sued or having to make a claim against someone else, and employment disputes are usually included. Policies typically provide up to £50,000 of cover and you can expect to pay around £20 – for example, the Halifax allows people to add it to their annual home policy for £19.99.
There is 100% no doubt that access to justice has been reduced. We know discrimination is still rife in the workplace Kiran Daurka, Slater and Gordon Lawyers
“If I hadn’t stumbled across the cover I wouldn’t have been able to fight this,” Carol says. But her insurance didn’t stretch to a tribunal, so she was never able to challenge a costly demotion. “Even though they settled, they never admitted they were wrong. I still feel I haven’t had closure.”
Carol is just one of thousands of women who face discrimination when on maternity leave. Later this year the Equality and Human Rights Commission will publish the results of an investigation into maternity discrimination, which campaigners expect to show a sharp rise in bullying and harassment. The last detailed work on this problem in 2005, by the Equal Opportunities Commission, found that 30,000 new mothers were forced out of jobs each year, but the charity Maternity Action estimates the number is twice as high.
It argues there has been a sharp rise in discrimination since the financial crisis, pointing to the proliferation of zero-hours jobs, as well as the introduction of hefty fees for anyone taking their employer to an employment tribunal. These took effect in July 2013 and for discrimination claims, a fee of up to £1,200 is payable, made up of a £250 claim fee and a £950 hearing fee (these charges also apply to unfair dismissal, equal pay and whistleblowing claims).
Other surveys have acknowledged that the problem is widespread. More than 60% of women have said they faced discrimination after becoming pregnant, while 40% of managers admitted they were wary of hiring women of childbearing age, according to a poll by law firm Slater and Gordon.
Kiran Daurka, a lawyer at the firm, says mothers face big hurdles in making claims against their employers. Since the coalition government introduced the fees, the number of cases of maternity discrimination has fallen by 88%.
One Conservative politician last year claimed the reduction represented a fall in “vexatious” claims that had been “squeezing the life and energy from Britain’s wealth creators”. But the legal profession has poured cold water on such claims. “There is 100% no doubt that access to justice has been reduced,” says Daurka, pointing out that there has been no change in the proportion of cases that are won, lost or settled, which might have been expected if there had been a high number of vexatious claims. “We know that maternity discrimination is still rife in the workplace.”
Her doubts are shared by more than 400 employment barristers, including 40 QCs, who have concluded that the fees are a barrier to justice. The total number of claims from people challenging unfair dismissal, race, sex or disability discrimination has fallen by 60% since fees were introduced.
The fees are essentially a charter for rogue and dinosaur employers Richard Dunstan, Maternity Action
The Liberal Democrats called for a review of the fees while in coalition, and Vince Cable said the government appeared to have reneged on a promise to conduct a “rigorous” review within a year of their introduction. A spokesman at the Ministry of Justice says no decision has been taken to do this.
Although the former business secretary said in March that a review had been “set in motion”, a spokeswoman at his old department says: “We have no plans to publish anything.” She declined to comment on what has happened to Cable’s review, and referred questions back to the MoJ, which said in a statement: “We want people to resolve employment disputes using quicker and simpler alternatives such as arbitration and mediation. Going to court should be a last resort. That is why we set up a new early conciliation scheme which has already been used by over 60,000 people in its first nine months. For those cases which do reach tribunal, we have made sure fee waivers are available for those who can’t afford to pay.”
You may be able to get help paying the fee if you are getting certain benefits or are on a low income.
Richard Dunstan at Maternity Action believes no review could avoid the conclusion that the fees are a barrier. “They are essentially a charter for rogue and dinosaur employers. The chances of having a tribunal brought against you are very small indeed.”
Neil Carberry, the CBI’s director for employment and skills, says: “Given concerns around the level of fees, we would happily participate in any future review to check they are not putting off legitimate claimants. Maternity leave and flexible employment practices are hugely important to companies, as they help retain key staff and maintain diversity in the workplace. This is something which is both the right thing to do and good for business.”
‘Women are afraid to tell their stories’
Joeli Brearley founded Pregnant Then Screwed, “a website for women who have been discriminated against while they were pregnant or after having a baby”. She claims 60,000 women a year are forced out of their jobs due to pregnancy.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Joeli Brearley, founder of Pregnant Then Screwed. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian
Brearley is a freelance project manager who was sacked by her main client soon after telling them she was pregnant. “It played on my mind a lot, and the more women I met who had suffered discrimination, the more I thought ‘we need to do something’.”
The first few entries on the website were written by Brearley’s friends and acquaintances, but strangers’ stories started to trickle in. Since the site launched with little fanfare in March, more than 200 women have related their experiences. Partly catharsis for women to share bruising experiences, the site is also a way to expose a problem. “This is not talked about. Women are afraid to tell their stories because they are afraid to lose their jobs, and some have to sign confidentiality agreements.”
Not all the “bad” bosses featured on the site are men, she says. “It is not women against women or men against men – it is society against pregnancy.”
The site is both depressing and compelling. One mother was warned by her boss not to get pregnant, while her colleagues opined that women with children shouldn’t do PhDs. Another faced a disciplinary procedure after taking a month off because of acute all-day morning sickness.
* Some names have been changed to protect identities
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https://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/jun/12/discrimination-work-pregnant-new-mothers-forced-out-jobs
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en
| 2015-06-10T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/a48f54222f787db840bfb9d3a6984e8fa7370238cbc51311280502c9e587251f.json
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[
"Michael Slezak"
] | 2016-08-30T16:52:31 | null | 2016-08-30T15:00:03 |
Finding gives hope that the carnivorous marsupials could survive devil facial tumour disease, which was predicted to make them extinct in the wild
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fworld%2F2016%2Faug%2F31%2Ftasmanian-devils-rapidly-evolving-to-resist-contagious-cancer-study-finds.json
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Tasmanian devils rapidly evolving to resist contagious cancer, study finds
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Within just a handful of generations, Tasmanian devils appear to have evolved resistance to an unusual contagious cancer that was widely expected to make the ill-tempered carnivorous marsupials extinct in the wild.
The remarkable finding gives hope that the unique animals could survive the disease, which has already wiped out 80% of the animals in just a few decades. It could also give scientists an insight into human cancer.
First detected in 1996, devil facial tumour disease is one of just three transmissible cancers seen outside the laboratory. It kills virtually every animal it infects and has spread across 95% of Tasmania, affecting almost every known devil population.
Despite models suggesting some long-infected populations of the devils should have been extinct by now, most were clinging on. That led Andrew Storfer from Washington State University and his colleagues to suspect that those populations might have evolved some degree of resistance to the disease.
Unusually for research of this kind, the scientists had access to tissue samples collected from Tasmanian devils from several points in time, including before the devil populations were infected.
Tasmanian devils can catch second strain of facial cancer, say researchers Read more
Menna Jones, a co-author on the study from the University of Tasmania, had collected nearly 10,000 tissue samples since 1999, allowing the team to compare the DNA of populations before, during and after disease arrival.
The researchers examined the genomes of almost 300 individuals from three different populations, looking for genes that changed in frequency over that time.
“Our hope was that we would find some genes that were perhaps associated with cancer or resistance to cancer or immune function,” said Storfer. “And in fact we did find seven different genes in two small regions of the genome that seem to have implications for cancers in other animals, including humans.”
Storfer said some of those genes thought to be involved in directing immune cells to attack dysfunctional cells or pathogens were particularly promising. If they do help confer resistance to the cancer, it meant the immune system might be evolving to recognise and attack the tumour cells.
Since the same changes were seen in three independent populations, the researchers said it was very unlikely that they were a result of a more random process.
Storfer said the next step was to try to figure out exactly what those genes do in Tasmanian devils. He said the team was growing the tumour cells in the lab and were editing their genome to examine the influence of the genes on their growth.
The researchers said it was unlikely these genes made animals completely resistant, but they might allow the devils to survive long enough to reproduce.
They said the finding of such fast resistance – occurring between four and six generations – to highly lethal disease in wild populations was unique. The only other example was rabbit resistance to myxomatosis in Australia, but that occurred over many more generations.
“First and foremost … this gives us hope for the survival of the Tasmanian devil, which was predicted to be extinct but isn’t,” said Storfer.
Other researchers in Australia, including Greg Woods from the University of Tasmania, have been trialling a promising vaccine against the devil facial tumour disease.
“This research provides support for vaccine research as devils appear to respond to the tumours,” Woods said. “This will require functional data to confirm.”
Smoke signals: DNA adaptation helped early humans deal with toxic fumes Read more
Devil facial tumour disease is one of just three known contagious cancers that exist in the wild.
About 11,000 years ago, dogs developed canine transmissible venereal tumours, which is usually not lethal, suggesting they might have developed resistance to it. And just this year, it was discovered that mussels, clams and other bivalves have a contagious cancer that is similar to leukaemia, which can even spread between species.
Storfer said contagious cancers in animals, and resistance to them, could help understand the causes of different responses to human cancer. Since the same cancer line is spread from one animal to the next, it is like studying a very long-lived cancer in a single patient.
“So this may give us some insights into cancer remission and recurrence in humans,” Storfer said.
The results were published in the journal Nature Communications.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/31/tasmanian-devils-rapidly-evolving-to-resist-contagious-cancer-study-finds
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en
| 2016-08-30T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/a3aa567d4c39c718cc6811df320ef174d197697fe3451a6cec40badcfc149a30.json
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[
"Associated Press"
] | 2016-08-27T00:51:10 | null | 2016-08-27T00:01:16 |
Schedules drew attention after investigation found majority of people outside government who met with Clinton at state gave money to Clinton Foundation
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US won't release Clinton's schedule as secretary of state before election day
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www.theguardian.com
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Seven months after a federal judge ordered the state department to begin releasing monthly batches of the detailed daily schedules showing meetings by Hillary Clinton during her time as secretary of state, the government told the Associated Press it won’t finish the job before election day.
The department has so far released about half of the schedules. Its lawyers said in a phone conference with the Associated Press’s lawyers that the department now expects to release the last of the detailed schedules around 30 December, weeks before the next president is inaugurated.
The Associated Press’s lawyers late Friday formally asked the state department to hasten that effort so that the department could provide all of Clinton’s minute-by-minute schedules by 15 October. The agency did not immediately respond.
What is the Clinton Foundation? And are the latest rumors 'smoke without fire'? Read more
The schedules drew new attention this week after the Associated Press analyzed the ones released so far. The news agency found that more than half the people outside the government who met or spoke by telephone with Clinton while she was secretary of state had given money – either personally or through companies or groups – to the Clinton Foundation. The Associated Press’s analysis focused on people with private interests and excluded her meetings or calls with US federal employees or foreign government representatives.
The reporting was based on official calendars covering Clinton’s entire term plus the more-detailed daily schedules covering roughly half her time as secretary of state. The Associated Press first asked for Clinton’s calendars in 2010 and again in 2013. It then sued the state department in federal court to obtain the detailed schedules, and the department so far has provided about half of them under court order.
Clinton has said the Associated Press’s analysis was flawed because it did not account fully for all meetings and phone calls during her entire term as secretary. She also said the analysis should have included meetings with federal employees and foreign diplomats. The Associated Press said it focused on her meetings with outsiders because those were more discretionary, as Clinton would normally meet with federal officials and foreign officials as part of her job.
Clinton said she met with people outside government regardless of whether they gave money or charitable commitments to her family’s charity.
“These are people I would be proud to meet with, as any secretary of state would have been proud to meet with, to hear about their work and their insights,” Clinton said this week on CNN.
With the foundation drawing continued attention, Clinton promised Friday to put in place additional safeguards to prevent conflicts of interest with the charity should she win the White House.
New batch of Hillary Clinton emails obtained by legal group Read more
The foundation issue, along with continued focus on her use of a private email server, has dogged Clinton politically throughout the week, drawing strong criticism from opponent Donald Trump.
Former president Bill Clinton said last week that if she is elected president, the foundation will no longer accept foreign or corporate donations.
The state department is now estimating there are about 2,700 pages of schedules left. Under its process, it is reviewing and censoring them page-by-page to remove personal details such as private phone numbers or email addresses. In some cases it has censored names of people who met privately with Clinton or the subjects they discussed.
A state department spokeswoman, Elizabeth Trudeau, declined to discuss the ongoing case and noted the agency is struggling with thousands of public records requests.
In court, the Associated Press in December had asked US District Judge Richard Leon to order the state department to produce specific percentages of the remaining schedules every 30 days under a formula so that all would be released before the presidential primary elections were complete.
Instead, because the state department said it did not know how many pages were left, Leon ordered it in January to release at least 600 pages of schedules every 30 days. Each 600-page group covers about three months of Clinton’s tenure.
Under the present rate, a government attorney working on behalf of the state department notified the Associated Press’s lawyers, it will take about four-and-a-half months – or until 30 December – to release all the remaining schedules through the end of Clinton’s term, in February 2013. The government’s notice late Thursday was the first time the state department has provided the Associated Press with a measure of how many pages were remaining and when it expected to complete the job.
It was unclear whether the judge will reconsider his earlier decision and order faster results. In the Associated Press’s lawsuit over other Clinton-related files, Leon has said it would be “ridiculous” to allow the state department to delay until even weeks before the election. He also cited “mounting frustration that this is a project where the State Department may be running out the clock”.
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/26/hillary-clinton-foundation-meeting-schedule-release
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en
| 2016-08-27T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/da6f358340617bedaf277a2dbedb4a86703d8ced54ae8b696f5a7e6d90df1e6c.json
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[
"Damien Gayle",
"Iman Amrani"
] | 2016-08-30T16:50:17 | null | 2016-04-14T12:16:31 |
As a talented young man is stabbed to death in south-east London, parents and community elders say talk of gang violence is misleading
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fuk-news%2F2016%2Fapr%2F14%2Fmyron-issac-yarde-and-the-community-grieving-a-lost-generation.json
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Myron Yarde and the community grieving a lost generation
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www.theguardian.com
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In the African-Caribbean tradition, nine nights after the death of a loved one family and friends get together to celebrate their life. The ghost of the deceased is believed to mingle with guests, gathering food and saying goodbye, before finally departing this world.
Such events are normally quiet family affairs. But at the Nine-Nights for Myron Yarde, the 17-year-old stabbed to death earlier this month, badged security manned the doors. At strategic points nearby were vans full of police. The atmosphere was tense.
Why Myron Yarde’s death affects us all Read more
Police officers found Myron bleeding to death in a residential street on 3 April. They had been responding to reports of a fight between up to 10 youths on New Cross Road. He was rushed to hospital, but died a couple of hours later. Three teenagers have now been charged over his murder. A 15-year-old boy, who can’t be named was charged earlier in the week and will stand trial in the autumn. On Thursday night it was announced that Fauz Richards, 18, from south-east London, and a 16-year-old boy who cannot be named, had also been charged and will both appear at Bromley magistrates court on Friday morning.
Hundreds turned out to the community hall on the Woodpecker estate in Lewisham, south-east London, on Monday to mourn for Myron. But there was a wider grief hanging over the occasion, for what many fear is becoming a lost generation of young people.
“We are crying for Myron, but, remember, there’s a young man who has been arrested and charged, and people are grieving for him too,” said Darna Sepaul, who had worked with Myron at the adjacent Woodpecker centre youth club. Young people, she said, had been caught up in a “brute madness” on London’s streets. “I don’t know if there’s a generation that’s not had a war that’s been exposed to so much death,” Sepaul added. “A lot of these young people have lost very, very dear friends.”
Although still below the peaks of four years ago, gun and knife crime are on the rise again. Last year 15 young people were stabbed to death on London’s streets, almost as many as the previous two years combined. There were more than 6,200 victims of serious youth violence in the city over the past 12 months.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Myron Yarde was described as a local role model and a rising star
Politicians, police and the press have often blamed gangs; millions of pounds have been ploughed into initiatives to tackle gang violence. But parents, community elders and, increasingly, academics say the problem is far more complex and nuanced.
“Gang”, they say, is a convenient but misleading catch-all term used by those with little idea of how to deal with those youths increasingly excluded from mainstream society. Critics also say that the notion of the gang, often identified with black culture, racialises the problem of youth violence. The backbench Labour MP Chuka Umunna, whose constituency is also badly affected by the problem, has called for his colleagues to “consign it to the bin”.
I don’t know if there’s a generation that’s not had a war that’s been exposed to so much death
Young, black and an aspiring rapper, some might say Myron fitted the lazy stereotype of the teenager who might run with gangs. Under the stage name MDOT, he postured in YouTube videos, with lyrics that were peppered with expletives and references to sex and violence. Yet locals on the Woodpecker estate say Myron absolutely did not “run road”. Despite his stage persona, Myron was just as likely to be found performing in a school assembly, teachers have said. Last September, the “respectful” teenager had earned a place at Big Creative Academy, a Walthamstow college that specialises in creative industries, to study music performance. His tutor there, Tor Cesay, described him as an “exceptional talent”. Others described him as a local role model and a rising star.
Myron’s violent death has deeply shocked both his peers and his elders. They expected he would be the one to escape deprivation in an area they call the ghetto. There were others they expected to lose, but not Myron.
“This is a travesty, to be honest,” said Sepaul, who built the studio at the Woodpecker where Myron recorded much of his music. “Myron was a beautiful young man, taken too soon. He was always willing to contribute to the things Woodpecker was doing, never talked about having payment for anything. If we had any discussion groups, Myron would be leading. He was a peer mentor.
“He was just a lovely guy. If he was in a different area I don’t believe Myron would have gone today, but this area is so volatile. You can have months and months of silence and then another person is just taken.”
Myron did his best with the cards he had been dealt. The youngest of five siblings, he had been effectively left an orphan after his mother, Marcelle, died of cancer last year. Neighbours on the estate said that the day after Myron’s death his estranged father had come down to a memorial event there, but how much involvement he had in his son’s life is not known. It is understood that his sisters, in their 20s, had been caring for him.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Police at the scene in south-east London after Myron was stabbed to death. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock
But growing up on the Woodpecker estate, Myron was immersed in a youth culture that is faced with almost day-to-day violence. One local mother, who declined to give her name, told the Guardian she believed Myron was the 14th young murder victim from the neighbourhood in 17 years. In 2013, a report by the Institute for Economics and Peace identified Lewisham as the “least peaceful area” in England and Wales.
Even Myron’s brother, Aaron, said he wasn’t surprised by the killing. “It’s not a shock, really, in that Woodpecker estate a lot of people have been dying there,” he told the Guardian. “But it’s a shock because it’s my little brother. That’s why it’s a shock, because I was supposed to be protecting him.”
In the days following Myron’s death, tensions were running high on the Woodpecker estate. Community activists said work had been done to dissuade anyone from attempting reprisals against those they believed had been involved. One group which had come down to help keep the peace was Stop Killing Our Kids On Our Streets, whose red-shirted activists kept watch over the youths.
Nicola Calica-Myall, an activist with the group, had experienced the worst. Her own son was stabbed 37 times – with 11 different knives – when he was just 17. He survived, but the experience left her with a stern message for parents.
“We’re not advocating that any parent starts taking a very heavy-handed approach with children and start chastising them in a very physical way,” she said. “However, if your child needs to get a grip, you grip your child. I’m all in favour of that. I’m not telling you to beat your child, but if your child needs a grip isn’t it better that, as a parent, you can take control? Before either the police do, or somebody out on the road.”
At Myron’s Nine-Nights, there was also anger among guests at what they believed was a demonisation of black youth, who are overwhelmingly targeted by police. More than three-quarters of those the Metropolitan police identifies as gang members in London are black or mixed race. Black youths are four times as likely to be stopped and searched as whites.
“Their understanding of the problem is wrong,” said Richard, a bouncer at the event, who declined to give his surname. “It’s not necessarily a gang problem. Let’s say I grew up in block C and I grew up with five guys from primary school right through to secondary school. We become like a brotherhood and what happens is we start looking out for each other. And that’s what it is. It’s not to do with all this nonsense to do with gangs.”
This understanding is now beginning to finally penetrate into the minds of academics, and even politicians. Umunna has called on the government to establish a new independent commission to identify the root causes of serious youth violence and its links to gang culture.
Questioning the value of gang terminology in a Commons debate on the issue last month, Umunna, MP for Streatham, south-west London, said: “Let us face the fact that using the term enables officialdom to put all these young people in a bracket – ‘Oh, they’re part of a gang. If they lose their lives, oh well, that doesn’t matter. They’re part of a gang,’” Umunna told a Commons debate last month. “I am not sure we should allow this to carry on.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Chuka Umunna said the term ‘gang’ should be consigned to the bin. Photograph: Anthony Devlin/PA
Umunna cited the work on UK gangs being done by Ian Joseph, an ethnologist from the University of East London, who says the notion of the gang – as a cohesive group involved together in criminal activity – has become a criminological construct with little grip on reality.
Worse, Joseph fears that the notion of the gang, constantly thrown back at young people through the media, youth work and the criminal justice system, is self-defeating. “It’s become part of what’s called a double hermeneutic,” he said. “You have a representation of me, that gives me some credence and credibility in my social networks, I take that on to myself and then I align my behaviour to the typification: tough, resilient, independent, earns money, attractive to women, good fighters.
“Youngsters take that on and then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. That’s the danger that the current definition of the gang and its use within the police and the criminal justice system have now embarked us on.”
Tackling the problem of youth violence requires a more nuanced approach, Joseph says. He calls for a tripartite analysis of youth behaviour as either gang-like, gang-type or gang-related.
“Then we can move away from that and actually begin to say: is this youngster really at the core of what’s happening, or are they actually on the margins of it? That’s what [the three categories] begins to do. It begins to break down the gang into smaller chunks which are then useful for practitioners if they meet a youngster who is displaying the symptoms of exposure to criminal activity, to give them another instrument or hanger to interpret that behaviour so that they don’t automatically engage youngsters in a punitive approach.”
To get a job you need experience. Who’s going to give that to them?
But alternatives require funding, and that is not forthcoming. Emmanuel Imuere, head of Lewisham’s stop and search monitoring group, said that even if he and other activists are able to get the ear of youngsters, there is little they can offer them.
“What the community is starting to say time and time again is nothing ever gets done,” he said. “We are promised things, but it is hard to see a light at the end of the tunnel, we often say. Myself and other community leaders organised a meeting. They all downed tools and said: ‘Yes, we are willing to start a new life.’ But what can we offer them?
“To get an apprenticeship you need five GCSEs. A lot of them don’t have that. To get a job you need experience. Who’s going to give that to them? What have we put in place for young people to leave this culture?”
Myron created a chance for himself with his music, but his bright future was cruelly cut short. On the Woodpecker, one local mother, Angie, said she felt the killing of someone like Myron, who had so much promise, would only make the alienation worse for the estate’s children.
“It takes hope away. Why bother? Why not run road? Because it’s open season on the lot of us, unless someone puts a stop to it,” she said. “We need to give back hope. We need to give back a future. And until we start to do that, we are going to find ourselves in these situations where boys are just dying.”
• This article was amended on 29 April 2016 to correct the spelling of Emmanuel Imuere’s surname.
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| 2016-04-14T00:00:00 |
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[
"Claire Provost"
] | 2016-08-31T06:52:43 | null | 2016-08-31T06:00:29 |
Ventimiglia is feeling the impact of heavier French border controls and deterrent measures, but the tension masks a wider humanitarian issue
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England is the dream for many migrants trapped on the Italian Riviera
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Alma* began her journey two years ago, before France increased controls on its border with Italy, before Brexit. Today the young Palestinian woman is among hundreds of people stuck in Ventimiglia, a seaside city on the Italian Riviera, a few kilometres from France.
“We have dreams to go to other countries. We don’t want to stay here,” she says, exasperated. After crossing Egypt, Libya and the Mediterranean to get here, Alma hopes to reach Belgium, where she has friends. “But the dream is to go to England.”
Gambian migrants who risk death find life less than sweet in Italy | Louise Hunt Read more
Alma, 30, says she was caught by French police after crossing the border, and sent back to Italy. Yet she is determined to try again. “I will do many things to achieve my dream,” she insists.
A short drive from the Riviera’s beaches and casinos, Ventimiglia is a quieter city at the door to the Côte d’Azur. Streets dotted with small piazzas, hotels and family restaurants stretch along the coast on one side. On the other, there are rolling hills covered in olive trees.
For generations, the city has been a place of transit into and out of France. Jewish families in Italy used trails through the woods to leave the country in the 1930s.
More recently, thousands of people – primarily from Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia, but also from Somalia, Syria and Palestine – have come here after crossing Italy in the hope of reaching France. For many the goal is to get to Calais, and then to the UK. But the journey has become increasingly risky.
Last summer, France instituted heavier border controls. Italy, meanwhile, has chosen to remove informal encampments and transfer people from Ventimiglia to reception centres in southern Italy and Sardinia.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Migrant children play on the premises of St Anthony’s church in Ventimiglia. Photograph: Luca Zennaro/EPA
The result, according to humanitarian charities, is a strategy of deterrents and controls that has only “created stress and worsened conditions for people”.
Some migrants still make it into France by following trails over the hills. Others pay smugglers, or passeurs, €150 (£129) to take them across the border. For most who come, staying in Ventimiglia is neither an option nor a desire.
In early August, more than 100 migrants broke through the border, fleeing over the rocks and through the sea to France, where they were chased by police. Those caught were put on buses and sent back to Italy.
Angelino Alfano, Italy’s interior minister, has pledged that “Ventimiglia will not be our Calais,” referring to the sprawling French camp known as “the Jungle”.
Since March, at least 2,000 people have been removed from the area, caught after being returned to Italy by French police, or during raids on the city’s streets.
Dozens of Italian activists, who had supported people at Ventimiglia’s informal camps, have also received foglio di via – a controversial preventative policing tool that effectively banishes them from the city for several years.
We must move from a fortress approach to one that responds to the needs of people, their health, their mental health Tommaso Fabbri, Médecins Sans Frontières
This month, an ordinance forbidding members of the public from giving food and water to migrants was reinstated. It was introduced last summer but had been revoked in the spring.
In an industrial area several kilometres from the town centre, a heavily policed camp run by the Italian Red Cross is tucked underneath an overpass and surrounded by fences. It is a men-only camp.
From the outside, it looks more like a detention centre than a humanitarian reception point.
As many as 600 men eat and sleep here daily – about twice as many as the number of beds available in the camp’s metal containers. Blue camp beds are laid outside for the overflow. People who enter the camp are issued passes with barcodes that expire after seven days.
Women and children are housed in St Anthony’s church, in the city. Before the Red Cross camp opened in July, as many as 1,000 people evicted from informal camps were sheltered at the church, assisted by the Catholic charity Caritas. Now, only women and children are allowed to sleep there. Husbands and fathers may visit during the day.
Tommaso Fabbri, head of mission for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Italy, says the situation at Ventimiglia is “a sign that Europe’s response [to the migrant crisis] is completely failing – not only to meet humanitarian and medical needs, but also because it is itself impacting negatively on peoples’ health and lives”.
“It was an irresponsible decision to close the border … [which] has created stress and worsened conditions for people,” says Fabbri. “New routes are often much more dangerous,” he adds.
Europe’s investments in “deterrents and control measures” is the wrong strategy, he says. “We must move away from a fortress approach and to a reception approach that responds to the needs of people, their health, their mental health.”
Before the Red Cross camp opened, Maurizio Mauro, head of the Ventimiglia branch of Caritas, says, he used to see people coming back from the French border with injuries “either because they fell while running, breaking their ankles or their legs, or other cases of people with signs of beatings”.
“This year at least half of the people that arrived [in Italy] have then tried to leave, because they have different destinations, families to reach, friends … it’s obvious that not all of them want to remain in Italy,” Mauro adds, estimating that as many as 20,000 people have passed through Ventimiglia over the past year.
He says the Dublin regulation, which requires migrants to claim asylum in the first country they reach, is a major problem.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Red Cross camp for migrants unable to cross the French-Italian border at Ventimiglia. Photograph: Claire Provost
Across northern Italy, thousands of people have been blocked at the country’s borders with France, Switzerland and Austria as these states have increased controls to keep people out.
Two weeks ago, Amnesty International sounded the alarm about rising numbers of stranded people – including unaccompanied minors – in Como, on the border with Switzerland, where hundreds have camped out at the city’s main train station.
On 14 August, an open letter from migrants requesting “a humanitarian corridor to legally cross the border and be reunited with family and friends” was circulated in Como.
“To get to Europe we had to go through horrific situations, cross deserts, mountains, forests, roads and prisons, and finally cross the Mediterranean Sea … For this we are still suffering: so much pain, nightmares, loss and sad memories,” read the letter.
“We are starting to lose hope and patience … Here, on the Swiss border, we continue to suffer and do not yet know how long this situation will last.”
The tension in Ventimiglia is almost palpable. On a sunny August morning, two buses full of people being removed from the city rumbled down the road in a police escort towards the motorway to Genoa.
On Wednesday, 48 Sudanese migrants were reportedly deported from Italy after having been stopped at Ventimiglia – despite concerns from human rights advocates about what treatment they might receive in Sudan.
Enrico Ioculano, mayor of Ventimiglia, says even the Red Cross camp “has a limited life span”, though it will probably exist until the end of next year. “Keep in mind that all of that area is intended for development and it is unthinkable to keep that centre as it is,” he says.
And yet still people will come, and still they will try to leave. “Everyone here has a dream,” explains Naima*, a 16-year-old girl from Eritrea. “If people knew about us, would they help us?” she asks. The question sounds rhetorical, as if she already knows the answer.
*Names have been changed to protect identities
Additional reporting by Simone Lia
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https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/aug/31/england-dream-migrants-italian-riviera-ventimiglia-french-border
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en
| 2016-08-31T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/d57f709886d12bdfbb679d6f2151225969cffb9b7afa9c6d0e0326845fbbd4ee.json
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