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The GuardianHumanityAustralia
Australian town defends its ‘long-valued and admired’ statue of an enslaved African American child

Australian town defends its ‘long-valued and admired’ statue of an enslaved African American child

Maitland city council condemned an art exhibit challenging the 150-year-old statue, which the artist says ‘does not represent Black skin with any dignity’•Warning: This article contains outdated and offensive languageGet our , or A 150-year-old statue of an enslaved American child in the middle of a regional Australian town has ignited a furore over race, censorship and what defines art.Originally designed as a hitching post for horses, the statue later became a Maitland landmark, with images of the boy reproduced on postcards, teaspoons and other memorabilia.

5h ago
The GuardianImmigrationSpain
Ceuta was a carnival of anti-migrant content for hateful opportunists on the right – and a lesson for the left | Jonathan Liew

Ceuta was a carnival of anti-migrant content for hateful opportunists on the right – and a lesson for the left | Jonathan Liew

It was framed as a perfect storm because nativists dearly wanted it to be. Looking on, progressives failed to meet the moment tooThe live streams are still running, training their cameras on the beach at Ceuta, where nothing is happening. The self-styled citizen journalists are still pounding the streets, capturing their shaky smartphone footage. of Reform UK was out there at the weekend, wearing a crisp white shirt and smart tailored trousers, lest anyone confuse him with the other brown people there. The bad brown people.Why was the migrant incursion at Ceuta, on the Spanish-Moroccan border, such a big story across the world? How did it manage to pique the interest of , to feature on NBC’s Nightly News, not – shall we say – a programme massively predisposed to spotlighting news stories from continental Africa? What about it so exercised Europe’s heads of government? What made it an irresistible front-page story in the Daily Mail, the Daily Express and the Daily Telegraph?

12h ago
The TelegraphScandalUnited Kingdom
How Britain’s elite destroyed our reputation

How Britain’s elite destroyed our reputation

Michelle Mone, you may remember, was elevated to the House of Lords in 2015 as a reward for her “entrepreneurial spirit”. Having impressed David Cameron with her skill at selling underwear, the new baroness went on to outdo herself during the Covid-19 pandemic, when PPE Medpro, a company with which she and her husband, Doug Barrowman, were involved, was awarded government contracts worth more than £200m to supply protective equipment for NHS workers.

14h ago
The GuardianEducationNorth West England
‘Tiger mum’ Lucy Powell on Labour’s vocational skills drive: ‘It’s about ambition for everybody’

‘Tiger mum’ Lucy Powell on Labour’s vocational skills drive: ‘It’s about ambition for everybody’

New education secretary says it is ‘false trade-off’ by critics to suggest schools cannot pursue academic excellence alongside technical skillsLucy Powell has said she wants to be an ambitious “tiger mum” for all young people, whatever their route through education, after the government was accused of dumbing down England’s schools with plans to create more vocational routes.The new education secretary said secondary pupils should be able to pursue academic excellence as well as high-quality vocational training, and it was a “false trade-off” to suggest schools could not provide both.

2d ago
The GuardianImmigrationSpain
EU chief criticises Spain’s migrant plan after Ceuta crisis meeting

EU chief criticises Spain’s migrant plan after Ceuta crisis meeting

Migration commissioner says scheme regularising undocumented people ‘not a good signal’ for EuropeThe EU’s top official on migration has criticised as “not a good signal” for Europe, after an emergency meeting intended to draw a line under divisions on the Magnus Brunner, the European commissioner for migration, said that while the EU could not currently see a direct link between events in Ceuta and Spain’s regularisation plan, the policy was “definitely not a good signal for the rest of Europe”.

3h ago
The GuardianImmigrationSpain
Stronger EU borders needed after Ceuta crisis, von der Leyen says

Stronger EU borders needed after Ceuta crisis, von der Leyen says

European Commission president says work needed in five areas of migration control including returning more peopleThe president of the European Commission has called for action to strengthen Europe’s borders after tens of thousands of people arrived and quickly left the Spanish territory of Ceuta, triggering a furious row between Madrid and other European countries.In a letter to Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, on Monday, Ursula von der Leyen said: “From this incident, it is clear that we must do more to further strengthen our borders at critical points, including vigilant monitoring and the use of physical barriers where needed.”

1d ago
The GuardianScandalMorocco
Fifa accused of using ‘blackmail’ to force support for Infantino’s re-election bid

Fifa accused of using ‘blackmail’ to force support for Infantino’s re-election bid

Jordan FA president says Fifa threatened to block fundsSecretary general calls selloff plan ‘sad and reproachable’The Jordan Football Association president, Prince Ali bin Al Hussein, has accused Gianni Infantino’s administration of “blackmail”, claiming Fifa threatened to withhold financial assistance from his federation if it refused to back the president’s bid for re-election.In a major intervention Prince Ali, who ran for the Fifa presidency against Infantino in 2016 and finished third, listed a number of problems dogging the global governing body and said Jordan’s players have not yet been paid for appearing in the Arab Cup last year. Prince Ali is head of the West Asian Football Federation, which includes influential states such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates that have thus far backed Infantino to stay on.

2h ago
The GuardianScandalAustralia
Afternoon Update: betting giants deny drug and sex worker allegations at inquiry; Alan Jones trial continues; and going down with the ship

Afternoon Update: betting giants deny drug and sex worker allegations at inquiry; Alan Jones trial continues; and going down with the ship

Want to get this in your inbox every weekday? , and start your day with .Good afternoon. The parliamentary inquiry into Labor’s gambling legislation heard extraordinary testimony yesterday from anti-gambling campaigners Tim Costello and Luke Bateman, who alleged that problem gamblers had been . Giving evidence today, betting giants Sportsbet and Tabcorp said to substantiate the allegations.Later in the hearing, the independent senator David Pocock asked the industry’s lobby group, Responsible Wagering Australia, about one betting platform’s promotion which featured children. Pocock claimed the gambling industry always blamed others for children’s exposure to gambling ads, and said: “This is exactly why Australians are sick and tired of the BS you try and tell us.”

13h ago
The GuardianHumanityAustralia
Alan Jones argues ‘rivalry’ and ‘treachery’ but after decades wielding the sword of public opinion, he’s the one on trial

Alan Jones argues ‘rivalry’ and ‘treachery’ but after decades wielding the sword of public opinion, he’s the one on trial

His legal strategy was apparent from the very first. Jones will, it was explicitly stated, seek to undermine the ‘credibility and reliability’ of his accusersGet our , or Alan Jones has enjoyed decades as the centre of attention, as the wielder of power.The booming voice, the vast radio audience, the bully pulpit of an eponymous TV show, the great and the good on speed-dial, a staffer in the prime ministerial office dubbed the “minister for Alan Jones”: these were not ancillaries peripheral to the Jones empire, they were central to it.

1d ago
The GuardianHumanityEast Midlands
My son has cancer. Kalshi wants you to be able to bet on his medical future | Joshua Pederson

My son has cancer. Kalshi wants you to be able to bet on his medical future | Joshua Pederson

The predictions market is planning to allow betting on clinical trial results and regulatory decisions as our family fights for his survivalMy son is 12 years old. No matter how many Legos we get him, he will only build robotic mechs. He draws haunting pictures in pen and ink but refuses to take an art class. He was devastated to learn that Chuck E Cheese is phasing out its animatronics. His guidance counselor says he’s so kind, he’s really hard to say no to. He sneezes when he steps out into the sunlight. And he also has a very aggressive tumor growing inches below his heart.Further, if Kalshi has its way, you could soon be able to bet on health treatments that could be essential to his survival.Joshua Pederson is professor of humanities at Boston University and the author of Sin Sick: Moral Injury in War and Literature

8h ago
The GuardianElectionsUSA
Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination will advance to full US Senate vote

Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination will advance to full US Senate vote

Blanche, one of Trump’s most trusted legal aides, had confirmed in writing that $1.8bn slush fund for president’s allies was deadThe US Senate judiciary committee voted along party lines to advance Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general after he confirmed in writing that a planned $1.8bn slush fund for Donald Trump’s allies was dead. Experts , however, that Trump could easily reverse the deal.His nomination will now proceed to the full Senate, where it will likely face intense skepticism from Democrats.

5h ago
The TelegraphScandalUSA
Blanche kills off Trump’s $1.8bn ‘slush fund’ to get attorney general job

Blanche kills off Trump’s $1.8bn ‘slush fund’ to get attorney general job

Todd Blanche has officially killed off Donald Trump’s $1.8bn (£1.4bn) slush fund that critics claimed would compensate political allies in an effort to get confirmed as US attorney general. Mr Blanche’s written order, issued on Sunday night, followed days of negotiations between the justice department and two Republican senators who are leaving Capitol Hill when their terms end in January.

22h ago
The GuardianScandalUSA
Republican holdouts say they will back Todd Blanche for attorney general

Republican holdouts say they will back Todd Blanche for attorney general

Move comes after Blanche gives senators written assurance he will drop Trump’s $1.8bn anti-weaponization fundTwo Republican senators who threatened to block Todd Blanche’s bid to permanently become attorney general announced they will advance his nomination after he confirmed in writing that a planned $1.8bn slush fund for Donald Trump’s allies was dead.The US Senate judiciary committee is due to vote on Tuesday on whether to approve the nomination of Blanche, who is already acting attorney general, and send it to the wider Senate for a vote.

1d ago
The GuardianAIGermany
Ring Cycle review – AI staging dispenses with drama to create banal bric-a-brac

Ring Cycle review – AI staging dispenses with drama to create banal bric-a-brac

Bayreuth festival theatre, BayreuthFor the festival’s 150th anniversary, the creative team have turned to AI to generate visuals reflecting Wagner’s tetralogy’s past, present – and future. The hyperactive result is a dismal, mindless messUnveiled the same week in which tech company Anthropic admitted that its , Bayreuth festival’s new AI-generated staging of Wagner’s four-part is at least timely. But anyone who assumes that the cycle’s obsession with knowledge, power and possession might make it an ideal forum for reflection on AI as a major contemporary frontier will be disappointed, as will anyone hopeful about AI’s creative potential within opera.Commissioned to mark the festival’s 150th anniversary, the production is “curated” – emphatically not “directed” – by a team led by German stage director . He apparently spent weeks in dialogue with AI models about possible interpretations of the Ring. According to the programme book, “power structures, capitalism, mythology, gender roles, nationalism”, all came up. So far, so mainstream Wagner reception. But if these human-machine exchanges were revelatory, you wouldn’t know it from the resulting staging, which uses AI “as an extension of a cultural memory that is never complete”.

1d ago
The GuardianScandalUnited Kingdom
‘We fought for a tougher sentence’: victims’ families’ fury over early release scheme

‘We fought for a tougher sentence’: victims’ families’ fury over early release scheme

Partner of woman killed by dangerous driver among those who say they are devastated at killers leaving jail earlyWhen Calvin Buckley, whose pregnant partner was killed by a dangerous driver in 2023, secured a tougher sentence for the man who took her life, he felt some justice had been served. Now, under plans to release prisoners early to ease overcrowding, Adil Iqbal, who filmed himself speeding at 123mph before he crashed into 38-year-old Frankie Jules-Hough, may serve less time in prison than he would have under his original sentence.“He could actually serve less time than he originally was going to before we appealed,” Buckley said. “We’ve fought for a tougher sentence. What is the point of having an actual sentence if the government can just reduce that?”

3h ago
The GuardianScandalUSA
US federal judge blocks New York’s ban on ICE officers wearing masks

US federal judge blocks New York’s ban on ICE officers wearing masks

Judge puts hold on mask ban while allowing state law prohibiting cooperation between police and ICE to standA New York law banning US Immigration and Customs Enforcement () agents from wearing face coverings and requiring that they wear visible identification has been put on hold by a federal judge. But a state law prohibiting cooperation between local police departments and ICE has been allowed to stand.The mask ruling comes after federal judges have blocked similar laws in California, and that sought to ban federal immigration agents from covering their faces. They are still required to wear agency identification badges and badge number.

6h ago
The GuardianBusinessmenUSA
‘This quarter was otherworldly’: Palantir earnings surge past expectations

‘This quarter was otherworldly’: Palantir earnings surge past expectations

Shares soar as yearly revenue up 93%, even as opposition grows to company’s role in Trump immigration agendaIn a sea of companies reporting mixed financial results this quarter, Palantir stands out. Although Palantir was not immune to the AI jitters that caused industry-wide drops in share prices earlier this year, the AI and analytics company reported that its overall revenue grew 93% year over year to $1.94bn. That’s well over the $1.8bn Wall Street expected Palantir to bring in for the second quarter.The glowing financials sparked a 10% surge in share prices in the immediate aftermath. Despite growing to Palantir’s with various governments including the crucial role the company plays in the Trump administration’s agenda, Palantir’s revenue from US government contracts grew 90% year over year to $809m.

21h ago
The GuardianSustainability
‘Nobody cares’: the Turkish farmers bearing the burden of UK’s plastic waste problem

‘Nobody cares’: the Turkish farmers bearing the burden of UK’s plastic waste problem

Britain exported 139,000 tonnes of rubbish to Turkey last year, leaving smallholders and poor districts of Adana to cope with the debris, microplastics and toxic smokePlastic debris clings to the reeds in a waterway metres from where Ayhan*, a farmer in Adana, southern Turkey, is harvesting aubergines. “We get pollution from all sides here,” he says, referring to the plastic recycling zone upstream, as well as a nearby textile plant that he suspects is making the water acidic. “The plastics are all there, by the bank, and the fumes come this way.”Between May 2021 and July 2024, 13 British companies sent 545 shipments of household and supermarket plastic waste, totalling 52,000 tonnes, to the Kemal Deniz recycling zone, under a mile from Ayhan’s aubergine fields, according to data analysed for the Guardian by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), an international NGO.

11h ago
The GuardianHumanityTurkey
UK plastic ‘waste colonialism’ found to be polluting Turkey’s farming heartland

UK plastic ‘waste colonialism’ found to be polluting Turkey’s farming heartland

A Guardian investigation finds irrigation canals polluted with microplastics in Turkey, a major destination for UK waste• High levels of microplastics and other plastic contamination have been discovered in a waterway close to a major recycling hub in Turkey supplied with plastic waste by British companies.The polluted waterway, which floods into agricultural fields after heavy rain, feeds into a larger canal used for irrigating crops on the Çukurova plain, in the city of Adana, in the south of the country. It is one of the largest and most fertile agricultural basins in Turkey.

11h ago
The GuardianSustainabilityNorth East England
‘There’s no nurdle fairy’: thousands mobilise to clean up plastic spillage in north-east England

‘There’s no nurdle fairy’: thousands mobilise to clean up plastic spillage in north-east England

Volunteers painstakingly gather plastic pellets washing up on beaches after ship collision on 19 July“You’ve got a local community that really cares about the coastline,” said Alice Laverty, reflecting on the huge army of volunteers who had taken to crisis-hit beaches in north-east England with passion and only the most basic tools. “They’ve all got a dustpan, a brush, a bucket, a kitchen sieve.”On beaches from Cambois in Northumberland to Seaburn on Wearside, up to 2,000 dedicated volunteers have been painstakingly sifting through sand to find tiny, lentil-sized pellets of plastic.

2d ago
The GuardianScandalSouth Wales
NSW Liberal admits to leaking confidential report to young conservative powerbrokers, inquiry hears

NSW Liberal admits to leaking confidential report to young conservative powerbrokers, inquiry hears

NSW shadow attorney general, Damien Tudehope, tells inquiry Jean-Claude Perrottet had a talent for recruitingThe leader of the opposition in the New South Wales upper house has admitted to leaking a confidential draft report from a 2023 parliamentary inquiry to a member of a group of young conservative Liberal powerbrokers now under investigation by the corruption watchdog, an inquiry has heard.On Tuesday, Damien Tudehope, the NSW shadow attorney general and Liberal leader in the upper house, gave evidence as part of the ’s (Icac) Operation Rosny.

13h ago
The GuardianHumanity
UN experts urge Canada to protect Sikh activist amid credible threats to his life

UN experts urge Canada to protect Sikh activist amid credible threats to his life

Special rapporteurs say ‘transnational repression by Indian authorities’ has put Moninder Singh in dangerUN rights experts have urged Canada to take all feasible measures to protect , who has been repeatedly warned by the Canadian authorities of credible threats to his life.In a letter to the Canadian government, the five UN experts raised “concerning allegations of foreign intimidation and reprisals” against Singh, a Canadian national.

8h ago
The GuardianScandalUSA
We are US civil rights lawyers. Trump’s policies have driven us to seek justice internationally | Thomas Becker and Antonio Romanucci

We are US civil rights lawyers. Trump’s policies have driven us to seek justice internationally | Thomas Becker and Antonio Romanucci

On Tuesday, a human rights commission will hold an extraordinary hearing over the administration’s alleged attacks on protesters, journalists and othersWe are constitutional law, civil rights, and human rights scholars and practitioners who have spent decades litigating government abuse cases in the United States. Despite the US legal system’s flaws, our work – from securing a record civil settlement for George Floyd’s family to holding Bolivia’s ex-president accountable in US federal court for the massacre of Indigenous protesters – has demonstrated that US courts can reign in state power and provide a path to accountability. But this pathway is narrowing.As Donald Trump attacks the courts, weaponizes the Department of Justice, and targets attorneys who challenge his administration, we have been forced to seek justice beyond our borders.

10h ago
The GuardianScandalUSA
‘Completely hollow’: critics denounce Blanche deal to halt Trump slush fund

‘Completely hollow’: critics denounce Blanche deal to halt Trump slush fund

Democrats say agreement – which clears way for Blanche’s confirmation – makes promises president can easily reverseA compromise between Todd Blanche and two Republican senators that potentially cleared the way for Blanche’s confirmation as attorney general is weak, Democrats and several experts said, as it makes promises Donald Trump can easily reverse.Blanche, the acting attorney general, on Sunday evening showing he was withdrawing an 18 May order allowing for the creation of a $1.8bn weaponization fund and clarifying that broad tax immunity the justice department granted to Trump only applied retroactively to the president, his sons, and businesses.

23h ago