↩ Accueil

Vue lecture

Israel-Gaza war: Israeli defence minister announces expansion of military operations in Gaza – latest updates

Defence minister Israel Katz says large areas of the territory would be seized and added to the security zones of Israel. Follow the latest developments

Al Jazeera reports there have been two Israeli airstrikes on the south of Gaza City. There is no information on casualties at present, however medical sources have told the news network that 21 Palestinians have been killed since dawn by Israeli attacks.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has banned Al Jazeera from operating inside Israel.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Jehad Alshrafi/AP

© Photograph: Jehad Alshrafi/AP

  •  

Story of a Murder by Hallie Rubenhold review: the real Cora Crippen

The author of The Five, about the Ripper murders, turns her attention to another tragically misunderstood victim

In the canon of British true crime, the case of Dr Crippen routinely gets billed as the first “modern” murder. It wasn’t that there was anything particularly original about the doctor’s motives or methods: in January 1910 he slipped poison into his wife’s bedtime drink so that he could marry his secretary instead. Rather, it was the way that Crippen was caught that turned this run-of-the-mill suburban love triangle into an international cause célèbre.

Realising that it would only be a matter of time before his wife’s dismembered remains were discovered in the cellar of the marital home in north London, Crippen and his secretary Ethel Le Neve fled to Canada in disguise. Such was the media hoopla surrounding the case that the sharp-eyed captain of the SS Montrose quickly spotted the runaway lovers among his passengers. This was despite their unconvincing cover story of being “father and son” (the hand-holding and kissing gave the game away). Using the ship’s brand-new Marconi wireless, Capt Andrew Kendall alerted the British authorities that he had the infamous fugitives in his sight. Within hours, Insp Dew of Scotland Yard had boarded a faster ship from Liverpool with the intention of reaching Newfoundland first, so that he would be ready to arrest Dr Crippen and his companion when they made landfall. To a fascinated public, following the unfolding drama in the newspapers, it was as if time travel were being invented before their very eyes.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Mirrorpix/Getty Images

© Photograph: Mirrorpix/Getty Images

  •  

Les Etats-Unis dans le chaos des « Trumponomics »

L’administration républicaine a hérité de l’équipe Biden une situation économique favorable. Or, depuis deux mois, chaque décision prise par la Maison-Blanche vient assombrir la conjoncture. A commencer par la guerre commerciale, qui va connaître un nouveau développement ce mercredi 2 avril avec l’annonce attendue de droits de douane réciproques.
  •  

Women behind the lens: ‘Through needle and thread, a quiet defiance of patriarchy’

One of a series of photographs taken across India in which women, many of them abuse survivors, use traditional needlework to embellish portraits of themselves

This is a portrait of Praween Devi, a woman I met in 2019 through a local organisation while working on my project Nā́rī. I met her alongside other women who gather in their back yards to embroider together, sharing stories over cups of chai.

When I asked to take her photograph, she suggested the main hall of her home, mentioning its lack of decoration and how the walls were bare except for a framed image of flowers and, notably, a photograph of all the men in the house. Before we began, she brought in a rug from another room, subtly curating the space. As I composed the shot, I included the photograph of the men, wondering how she would choose to alter the image through embroidery.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Spandita Malik

© Photograph: Spandita Malik

  •  

‘A Med island holiday without the crowds’: family-friendly Corsica

A holiday park on the lesser-known Côte Orientale offers lower prices, activities for all ages, and secluded sandy beaches

I had held out as long as I could, but there was no getting out of it. The catcalls were rising; the baying, cackling audience of under-11s intoxicated by a combination of ice-cream sugar rushes and my obvious, clammy fear. It was day 14 of a two-week summer holiday, and our final afternoon in blissful 30C Corsican sunshine. I just needed one more chapter, lounging with my book, soaking in the last of the bone-warming sun slowly edging down towards the island’s dramatic mountainous spine.

But my calculating offspring had not forgotten ill-fated promises made on a previous evening, probably a little too deep into the second carafe. I was probably caught off-guard at Barny’s, a sensational sushi restaurant in the town of Ghisonaccia, enjoying our best meal of the holiday. They know when my defences are down; when I’m fully relaxed into holiday “yes” mode, and prime for being taken advantage of.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Nazia Parveen

© Photograph: Nazia Parveen

  •  

A moment that changed me: I used a pseudonym on a dating app - and started exploring my sexuality

This new identity gave me confidence and the freedom to discover different relationships. It also helped me understand, more broadly, what I really want from life

I’ve never been a good liar. I can trace it back to my early school days, where my excuses for unfinished homework were never convincing, or I’d guiltily double back on even the smallest of fibs. With a knowing look, my mother would say: “Georgina …” She instilled a reverence for the truth, which was bound to the idea of doing the right thing. She wasn’t wrong: building trust is crucial in forming strong bonds in any relationship dynamic.

But, like most teenagers, I gently smudged the boundaries of truth, from concealing my bellybutton piercing, to “borrowing” my brother’s car to meet a boy I fancied. Notably, my untruths were told in the knowledge that they would probably later be discovered (although I hadn’t banked on the flat tyre) and, looking back, they were often linked with an early exploration of my sexual identity.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Courtesy of Georgie Wedge

© Photograph: Courtesy of Georgie Wedge

  •  

Le QD-OLED débarque chez ACER avec deux engins, vous pouvez d'ores et déjà économiser !

Le QD-OLED commence à arriver sur le marché, de plus en plus, mais pas assez pour que les prix soient concurrentiels. Certes, il a ses avantages (contraste, temps de réponse, etc), mais aussi ses inconvénients (luminosité, phénomène de brûlure, etc), mais quelle technologie n'a pas ce côté bipolaire...

  •  

Monster surf batters Bondi Icebergs pool and leaves trail of carnage across Sydney beaches

Wild 5.5 metre swells hammer the eastern NSW coastline, causing damage to key walkways and closing beaches

Locals in Sydney’s east woke on Wednesday to discover some of the city’s most famous beaches and walkways battered and damaged by huge overnight swells.

Bondi, Bronte, Clovelly and Cronulla beaches were among the areas smashed by 5.5 metre swells.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

© Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

  •  

Stranger than fiction MI5 tales revealed in first National Archives collaboration

From Guy Burgess’s briefcase to microdots secreted in talc, an exhibition reveals remarkable items from the agency’s archives – and the extraordinary stories behind them

The agency that would become MI5, originally known as the Secret Service Bureau, employed just 17 staff in 1914; by the end of the first world war, the number working for Britain’s domestic counter-intelligence agency had swelled to 850, including a number of female administrators.

While valuable for managing the card index records, noted Edith Lomax, the controller of women staff in 1918, only women under the age of 30 should be recruited “on account of the very considerable strain that was thrown on [their] brains”.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA

© Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA

  •  

Val Kilmer: an ethereally handsome actor who evolved into droll self-awareness | Peter Bradshaw

Kilmer, who has died aged 65, made his name with Top Gun and The Doors – but his exceptional talents were often under-appreciated by the mainstream film industry

Why do some movie careers take off … and others go a bit sideways? Val Kilmer was a smart actor, a looker, a terrific screen presence and in later years an under-appreciated comic performer. His finest hour as an actor came in Shane Black’s comedy action thriller Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in 2005, when he was quite superb as the camp private investigator Gay Perry Shrike: a gloriously sleek, plump performance which was transparently – and outrageously – based on Tom Ford. If only Kilmer could have started his acting life with that bravura performance, and shown the world what he could do. Instead, and at a crucial stage in his career, he was trapped in the body and face of a staggeringly beautiful young man.

He could somehow never quite persuade Hollywood to accept him as a leading man and above-the-title player in the mould of his Top Gun contemporary Tom Cruise, who in 1986 played Pete “Maverick” Mitchell to Val Kilmer’s Tom “Iceman” Kazansky. As the 80s and 90s rolled by, Kilmer never ascended to the league of Cruise, Hanks, Clooney and Pitt. Medication for the illness he latterly suffered can’t have helped, and it is a great sadness that fate never allowed him to mature in the same way as, say, Kurt Russell.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Moviestore collection Ltd / Alam/Alamy

© Photograph: Moviestore collection Ltd / Alam/Alamy

  •  

US says China military drills targeting Taiwan put region’s security ‘at risk’

China’s military says drills will continue in the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday and will use live fire

The US has accused China of putting the region’s security at risk after it launched a second day of military drills targeting Taiwan with a rehearsal blockade and attack.

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) began the joint drills without notice on Tuesday morning, sending 76 aircraft and more than 20 Navy and Coast Guard ships, including the Shandong carrier group, to positions around Taiwan’s main island.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Eastern Theatre Command/Reuters

© Photograph: Eastern Theatre Command/Reuters

  •  

Queensland’s recovery to ‘take months and years’ after floods sweep across vast interior

Bureau of Meteorology predicts flooding could continue for weeks as stock losses already estimated at over 150,000

Queensland’s premier has declared “day one” of a recovery that will take years as the state prepares to wake to clear skies that should reveal the vast scale of its outback floods.

But despite forecasts the rain will pass for soaked central and south-west Queensland by Thursday, towns and homesteads could be cut off or at risk of flooding for weeks to come, according to the Bureau of Meteorology’s senior meteorologist, Dean Narramore.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Daniel Roy

© Photograph: Daniel Roy

  •  

Booker makes a stand against Trump – and doesn’t stop for 25 hours

Democrats have appeared lame and leaderless for 72 days, but then Cory Booker stood up and did something

“Would the senator yield for a question?” asked Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.

Senator Cory Booker, who on a long day’s journey into night had turned himself into the fighter that many Democrats were yearning for, replied with a wry smile: “Chuck Schumer, it’s the only time in my life I can tell you no.”

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Aaron Schwartz/EPA

© Photograph: Aaron Schwartz/EPA

  •  

An elusive worm: the Salinella is shrouded in mystery

A 19th-century zoologist found the ‘little salt dweller’, which could be a portal to the past – if only we could locate it again

Last February, with colleagues Gert and Philipp and my daughter Francesca, I made the long journey to an unremarkable city called Río Cuarto, east of the Argentinian Andes. We went in search of a worm of unusual distinction.

Why a worm? As humans, we naturally love the animals that are most familiar. But from a zoologist’s point of view, the vertebrates, from mammals and birds to frogs and fish, can be seen as variations on a single theme. We all have a head at one end (with skull, eyes and jaws); in the middle, a couple of pairs of limbs (a goldfish’s fins, or your arms and legs); and, holding all this together, a backbone ending in a tail.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Max Telford

© Photograph: Max Telford

  •  

Last summer was second worst for common UK butterflies since 1976

More than half of Britain’s 59 native species are in long-term decline, UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme finds

Last summer was the fifth worst in nearly half a century for butterflies in Britain, according to the biggest scientific survey of insect populations in the world.

For the first time since scientific recording began in 1976, more than half of Britain’s 59 native species are in long-term decline.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Iain H Leach/SEE CAPTION

© Photograph: Iain H Leach/SEE CAPTION

  •  

Trump set to announce new round of tariffs on his so-called ‘liberation day’

President’s plans have rattled global stock markets and triggered heated rows with US’s largest trading partners

Donald Trump will announce his latest round of tariffs at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, threatening to unleash a global trade war on what he has dubbed “liberation day”.

Trump has rattled global stock markets, alarmed corporate executives and economists, and triggered heated rows with the US’s largest trading partners by announcing and delaying plans to impose tariffs on foreign imports several times since taking office.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: ABACA/REX/Shutterstock

© Photograph: ABACA/REX/Shutterstock

  •  

The world is missing out on the real Yemen: we are not just war, headlines or suffering | Nada Al-Saqaf

After a decade of conflict, loss is constant, as is fear for our children’s future. But we are more than this

A decade of war in Yemen has left us in a place we never could have imagined. Our biggest worries were once exams, work and weddings. Today, we live with the weight of constant fear. You wake to the sound of explosions or the silence of grief, leave your home uncertain if you will return, look at your child and wonder what kind of future awaits.

Yet life goes on. We carry our losses, our broken hearts, our grief, and we continue. Ten years of war, ten years of mourning, of learning to survive with a lump in our hearts.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Nariman El-Mofty/AP

© Photograph: Nariman El-Mofty/AP

  •  

Thousands of Ford Kuga hybrid drivers ‘left in limbo’ after fire risk warnings

Carmaker reportedly has yet to announce plan for repairs after telling motorists not to charge their cars

Thousands of drivers have reportedly been left in limbo after warnings that their car could catch fire due to a battery defect.

Ford issued an urgent recall of its Kuga plug-in hybrid car in early March, warning drivers not to charge the battery because of a risk it might short-circuit while on the road. The problem could cause a loss of power or a fire, according to the recall notice. Four weeks later, the manufacturer has yet to announce a timescale for repairs and owners report that it is failing to respond to their requests for an update.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Ford

© Photograph: Ford

  •  

Val Kilmer, star of Top Gun and The Doors, dies aged 65

Known for his roles in Batman Forever, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and Tombstone, the prolific actor’s cause of death was pneumonia

Val Kilmer, the actor best known for his roles in Top Gun, Batman Forever and The Doors, has died at the age of 65.

His daughter Mercedes told the New York Times that the cause of death was pneumonia. Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 and later recovered, after treatment with chemotherapy and trachea surgery that had reduced his ability to speak and breathe.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Karen Robinson/The Observer

© Photograph: Karen Robinson/The Observer

  •  

Outrage in New Zealand after 11-year-old girl sent to psychiatric ward and drugged in identity mix-up

Report finds police mistook girl for missing woman in blunder that has appalled political leaders

An 11-year-old girl was restrained, injected with anti-psychotic drugs and placed on a mental health ward after New Zealand police mistook her for a missing woman, a report found on Wednesday.

Health officials and police have scrambled to explain the mix-up, which has appalled political leaders and stoked outrage across the country.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Jivko/Getty Images/iStockphoto

© Photograph: Jivko/Getty Images/iStockphoto

  •