Opal Sandy can hear almost perfectly after groundbreaking surgery that took just 16 minutes
A British toddler has had her hearing restored after becoming the first person in the world to take part in a pioneering gene therapy trial, in a development that doctors say marks a new era in treating deafness.
Opal Sandy was born unable to hear anything due to auditory neuropathy, a condition that disrupts nerve impulses travelling from the inner ear to the brain and can be caused by a faulty gene.
The ‘Mriya’ unit made up of members of the legal profession patrols the capital region’s skies with antique weapons
In a small wood in the Kyiv region Anatoliy Shyshak stared at the night sky. Dusk was falling. The only sounds came from a thrush nightingale and a faraway yapping dog. Shyshak – a sergeant in Ukraine’s territorial army – was listening for something else: an enemy drone. “It sounds like a moped. Not a classy Italian one, but something cheap and horrible,” he said. “They fly between 100 and 300 metres above the ground. You hear a rattling.”
For the past year Shyshak’s brigade, the 241st, has scoured the heavens for Russian flying objects. Its task is to shoot them down before they can reach the capital. He and his territorial defence colleagues are based about 100km east of Kyiv, along one of several drone flight paths. “I like my job. We are pretty successful. We stop death here. Our families are in Kyiv so we are protecting our wives and children,” he said.
Some believe little will change even with a far-right surge, but others say ballot could be defining moment for bloc
Up to 450 million citizens in the EU’s 27 member states will go to the polls between 6 and 9 June to elect more than 700 members of the European parliament, the world’s only directly elected transnational assembly.
The European parliament elections – more commonly called the European elections – take place every five years and, since the parliament plays an essential role in elaborating EU law, help shape the political direction of the bloc.
My poems were written in anger after Tiananmen Square. But what motivates most prison writing is a fear of forgetting. Today I am free, but the regime has never stopped its war on words
Most of my manuscripts are locked up in the filing cabinets of the ministry of security, and the agents there study and ponder them repeatedly, more carefully than the creator himself. The guys working this racket have superb memories; a certain chief of the Chengdu public security bureau can still recite the poems I published in an underground magazine in the 1980s. While the literati write nostalgically, hoping to go down in literary history, the real history may be locked in the vaults of the security department.
The above is excerpted from my book June 4: My Testimony, published in Taiwan in 2011. I wrote that book three times, the later drafts on paper much better than the paper I used for writing in prison, which was so soft and brittle I had to write very lightly. Paper outside prison is solid and flexible enough that you don’t have to worry about puncturing it with the tip of a pen. Thus, I restrained myself and filled in a page of paper, and then how many thousand – ten thousand? More? How many ant-sized words can be packed on to a page? Who knows.
On 10 October 1995, at two in the afternoon, three police cars carrying about a dozen special agents burst in on me. Everything was carried out in accordance with “legal procedures”, the officers’ IDs and search warrant were presented, the entire search process was meticulously videotaped, and all written matter in the house (including manuscripts, letters, and notes) was confiscated. And this included the very nearly completed draft of this testimony – more than 300,000 characters representing my painstaking efforts of the past year and a half.
I was breathing normally, signed with a smile, and asked: “Should I bring clothes?” The answer: “No.” I was uneasy leaving my money and valuables at home as I prepared to be the guest of the state for a long time. The agents laughed.
At 10 o’clock in the evening, I exited the Baiguolin police station in the Xicheng district of Chengdu and was politely told: “Don’t leave the city for the next month.” Thank God, my head was still on my shoulders and I could still write.
I cursed my carelessness with the foulest language imaginable and set about rewriting with all my might. Without inspiration or passion, the pen slashed the paper to ribbons, and often I could only produce a few hundred words a day. Staring at the paper was useless, and cold sweat couldn’t solve my writer’s block. But I’d made a bet; I couldn’t admit defeat. I wanted to use this to validate my own stupid way of living as an insignificant individual – a bet with the world’s largest dictatorship – with writing materials, so that in future my kids won’t think their dad was just talking big.
Do you want to love how you look but always compare yourself with others? There are plenty of ways to overcome this, from life drawing to CBT to social media detoxes
Perhaps more than ever we are bombarded with images of other people’s bodies, and it is only human to compare ourselves with these unrealistic ideals.How can you learn to love your body for what it is? Therapists share their advice on improving body confidence.
The mountain roads of Ethiopia’s north have long ensured it is a hotbed of cycling, until two years of conflict devastated the region. Now, fragmented teams are reforming, determined to triumph
Words and pictures by Fred Harter in Axum, Ethiopia
As the cyclists wind through the mountains, team coach Tadesse Mikiele, trails in a blue minivan, making observations and discussing tactics with his staff. At one point, he beckons over the captain, Genet Mekonen, who has been trailing at the back.
“Why are you slowing down on the declines?” he asks her. “You need to be brave. Increase your speed, attack when you go downhill.”
Consumers have been encouraged to be vigilant when shopping online after research showed fraud was rife on secondhand marketplaces, with Depop, Shpock and Preloved named the worst sites, and problems also discovered with industry giants Amazon and eBay.
A survey of 1,300 buyers by Which?, the consumer champion, found that 32% had been scammed on a secondhand marketplace in the two years to January. The most common ruse involved consumers receiving incorrect goods or nothing at all, while others were delivered an empty package or counterfeit goods.
Sales of cottage cheese are booming thanks to a boost from protein-hungry social media influencers. But do we really need all this extra protein? Madeleine Finlay speaks to Joanne Slavin, a professor of food science and nutrition at the University of Minnesota, to find out what exactly protein is doing in our bodies, and what happens to it when we consume it in excess
Eighteen-year-old will be among delegates to officially nominate his father, Donald Trump, as candidate for upcoming presidential election
Barron Trump, who is former president Donald Trump’s youngest son, has been chosen to serve as a Florida delegate to the Republican National Convention, the state party chairman has said.
Evan Power said the 18-year-old high school senior will serve as one of 41 at-large delegates from Florida to July’s national gathering, where the GOP is set to officially nominate his father as its presidential candidate for the November federal election.
Earth’s greatest living structure is dying. But the humanity of reef scientists is as beautiful as any coral I’ve ever seen
From the dry lab on One Tree Island research station – about 100km off the coast from Gladstone and in the southern region of the Great Barrier Reef – I watch a steady procession of scientists walk to their next encounter with what has become the biggest palliative care unit on the planet.
These scientists head out to the reef like doctors heading to a hospital with no control over saving their patients. They head to a hospital where there is no medicine they can administer to alleviate the pain or to make death easier.
Pieces from Diamonds are Forever singer’s collection will be exhibited by Sotheby’s London before being auctioned for charity in Paris
Diamonds Are Forever singer Shirley Bassey is to auction some of her extensive and “meaningful” jewellery collection, including a diamond ring given to her by Elton John.
Top lots from her collection, which will be exhibited by Sotheby’s London later this month before being auctioned for charity in Paris, include a diamond necklace estimated to sell for between €270,000 and €320,000 (£232,420 and £275,460). A diamond and gold parure created by Cartier is estimated to fetch between €200,000 and €250,000 (£172,170 and £215,210).
We hear from two Palestinians living in tents in the city of Rafah. As the threat of an Israeli invasion hangs over them, they decide whether to stay or leave
On Monday morning, the Israeli military dropped leaflets over eastern Rafah. They warned residents that military operations were going to start there, and they needed to go to ‘safe zones’ further north. The information caused chaos, as thousands of people tried to leave.
The decision of whether to stay or go is a complicated one.
Long-serving leader Frank Bainimarama has been sentenced to a year in prison for perverting the course of justice, local media reports
Fiji’s former long-serving prime minister Frank Bainimarama has been sentenced to a year in prison for perverting the course of justice, local media reported.
Bainimarama was initially spared jail in the case during sentencing last month, before an appeal by the country’s director for public prosecutions. On Thursday, that appeal was upheld by Fiji’s high court.
The territory’s justice minister has called for the anthem to be removed from the internet in the wake of the ruling
Hong Kong has demanded a protest song that was made popular during pro-democracy demonstrations in the territory be removed from the internet, in the wake of a court ruling which banned it.
In its judgment on Wednesday, the court of appeal described the song Glory to Hong Kong as a “weapon” to incite violent protests in 2019.
Hind’s Hall pays tribute to US campus protesters while condemning Israel’s campaign in Gaza
The US rapper Macklemore has performed live for the first time his new track Hind’s Hall, expressing solidarity with Palestine and condemning Israel’s military campaign, in front of a sellout crowd in New Zealand’s capital, Wellington.
“I stand here today and every day forward for the rest of my life in solidarity with the people of Palestine, with an open heart, in the belief that our collective liberation is at stake – that we all deserve freedom in this life of ours,” Macklemore said in a short speech 40 minutes into his two-hour set.
Fears ‘deadbots’ could cause psychological harm to their creators and users or digitally ‘haunt’ them
Digital recreations of dead people are on the cusp of reality and urgently need regulation, AI ethicists have argued, warning “deadbots” could cause psychological harm to, and even “haunt”, their creators and users.
Such services, which are already technically possible to create and legally permissible, could let users upload their conversations with dead relatives to “bring grandma back to life” in the form of a chatbot, researchers from the University of Cambridge suggest.
Joe Biden has issued a blunt warning to Israel that his administration will stop supplying bombs and artillery shells if its military pushes ahead with an offensive on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, in what could mark the start of a turning point in relations between the two countries.
The US president delivered the warning in a television interview in which he brushed aside Israeli and Republican complaints and made clear his administration would not provide the weapons for an offensive on Rafah, which the US, the UN and other aid agencies warn would trigger a humanitarian disaster.
In the CNN interview, Joe Biden said that Israel’s actions in Rafah had not so far crossed a red line, because the military had not yet entered heavily populated areas. He said:
They haven’t gone into the population centres. What they did is right on the border. And it’s causing problems with, right now, in terms of – with Egypt, which I’ve worked very hard to make sure we have a relationship and help.
I’ve made it clear to Bibi [Netanyahu] and the war cabinet: They’re not going to get our support, if in fact they go on these population centres.
I said to Bibi, ‘Don’t make the same mistake we made in America. We wanted to get bin Laden. We’ll help you get Sinwar [the Hamas leader in Gaza]. It made sense to get bin Laden; it made no sense to try and unify Afghanistan. It made no sense in my view to engage in thinking that in Iraq they had a nuclear weapon.
A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington had carefully reviewed the delivery of weapons that might be used in Rafah and as a result paused a shipment consisting of 1,800 2,000-pound (907-kg) bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs.
US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said the decision was taken out of concern for Rafah, where Washington opposes a major Israeli invasion without civilian safeguards.
National champion suffers serious Achilles injury in training
26-year-old’s hopes of competing at a second Olympics dashed
Australia’s Olympic team has been robbed of its one of its most prominent athletes after top gymnast Georgia Godwin suffered an Achilles injury in training, ruling her out of the Paris Games.
The loss of the 2022 Commonwealth Games all around gold medal winner is a disastrous development for the gymnastics team, which was compounded by an injury to Australia’s top-ranked men’s trampolinist Blake Rutherford.
Foreign secretary will say too few states have stepped up to spend on defence, take on Iranian proxies or champion women’s rights
David Cameron is to warn that the west is not learning the lesson of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, that authoritarian adversaries will only be spurred on if the west shows hesitation or caution.
The foreign secretary will call for the west to be tougher and more assertive and realise it is locked in a battle of wills in which “we all must prove our adversaries wrong – Britain, and our allies and partners around the world”.
Llamas report focuses on responsibilities to workers
Amnesty International calls on Fifa to reveal findings
Fifa must publish an independent report into its responsibilities to migrant workers in Qatar and begin the process of providing financial compensation, Amnesty International has said.
The human rights organisation has called on Fifa to finally publish the report by Michael Llamas, president of the Gibraltar Football Association, before its congress in Bangkok next week. It claims the Llamas report has found Fifa has a responsibility to provide financial remedy to workers or the families of workers involved in 2022 World Cup projects in Qatar and that its conclusions were approved by the executive Fifa council in March. The Guardian understands the report is under review by Fifa stakeholders but that the governing body remains committed to its publication.
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