Guide will not rate Sukiyabashi Jiro in Tokyo as it is no longer open to the public
The world’s best sushi restaurant has been stripped of its three Michelin stars.
But the decision, which was announced in Tokyo on Tuesday, has nothing to do with the quality of the restaurant’s tuna belly or the consistency of its vinegared rice. It is because it is no longer open to the public.
Continue reading...Only one student found during hours-long search of Polytechnic University campus
Staff at Polytechnic University in Hong Kong, the site of a days-long police siege, say they have thoroughly swept the campus and found only one remaining protester, suggesting a bitter standoff between anti-government protesters and police is close to an end.
A team of university staff, counsellors, medics, social workers and security personnel searched the campus for more than six hours and found one female demonstrator lying on a couch who “appeared physically weak and emotionally unstable”, according to a statement from the university.
Continue reading...Westpac chief executive’s resignation draws little sympathy on all sides of politics. All the day’s events, live
And here is another indication of where question time is headed:
Last week, a bank broke money laundering laws 23 million times.
But instead of going after them, the Liberals are going after unions – trying to take away their right to exist.
This Government hates working people. We'll fight them every step of the way. pic.twitter.com/9vMhFquk4W
A group of north Queensland dairy farmers are on their way to Canberra to express their frustrations at what is happening within their industry.
That’s at the same time the Nationals are trying to get ahead of Pauline Hanson, who may have come late to the issues, but certainly has been running full steam ahead since becoming aware of it.
David Littleproud, the drought minister, some time ago said he fixed the supermarket [milk price] problem. He said he thumped his chest, waved his fists at them, and demanded they put their milk prices up.
Well, we know that solution lasted about five minutes.
Continue reading...Foreign Office responds after leaked China cables appear to confirm brainwashing centres
The UK has urged China to give United Nations observers “immediate and unfettered access” to detention camps in Xinjiang, where more than a million people from the Uighur community and other muslim minorities are being held without trial.
The call from the Foreign Office was in response to the China cables, a leak of classified documents from within the Communist party which appear to provide the first official confirmation that the camps were designed by Beijing as brainwashing internment centres.
Continue reading...Beijing re-emphasises its rule in response to defeat for pro-government candidates
China’s government has responded to a stunning landslide victory for pro-democracy candidates in the Hong Kong elections by emphasising that the city will always be ruled from Beijing, and warning against further protest violence.
The foreign minister, Wang Yi, warned against “attempts to disrupt Hong Kong”, as a few hundred people took to the streets again in support of protesters holed up in a university that has been under siege by police for over a week.
Continue reading...Aged-care package ‘falls well short’ of what is required, Labor says; Morrison responds to Chinese spy plot allegations; and Jacqui Lambie ‘not supporting a repeal’ of medevac, Rex Patrick says. All the day’s events, live
And on that note, we are going to ground this plane - but we will be back tomorrow morning for more fun and games.
There are officially seven sitting days left. Medevac and ensuring integrity are still high on the government’s wish list, but, as always the crossbench is the key. It looks like the government has agreed to Pauline Hanson’s amendments for the union bill, but she is still holding out. Jacqui Lambie has a diary full of meetings when it comes to medevac. Keep a close eye on that one.
Something to watch out for, tomorrow
Our 2019 Mapping #SocialCohesionReport launches tomorrow, 26 November. The report produced in partnership with @MonashUni researchers uses a comprehensive survey to gauge a nuanced understanding of shifts in public opinion on social cohesion and population issues.
Continue reading...These were the words of China's ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, after he was asked about a chain of detention camps holding more than a million people from the country's Muslim minority population in Xinjiang. The footage, due to be broadcast by BBC Panorama on Monday evening, was recorded prior to publication of the China Cables, a leak of what appear to be classified documents from within the Communist party. The BBC's Richard Bilton asked Liu to tell him the truth about these camps. The ambassador responded: 'There's no so-called labour camps, they are what we call vocational, education and training centres. They are there for the prevention of terrorists'
'Don't listen to fake news': Chinese ambassador pressed over detention camps in Xinjiang – video
Read the Guardian's coverage of the China cables:
Analysts say China’s response to victory of pro-democracy candidates in local elections will determine whether protests continue
The unprecedented landslide victory of the pro-democracy camp in the Hong Kong district council election was a “slap on the cheek” for the city’s government but the violent protests that have roiled the city for nearly six months will not stop if authorities continue to ignore citizens’ political demands, analysts have said.
In an effective proxy referendum on the city’s pro-democracy movement, nearly 3 million people voted, representing more than 71% of the electorate and nearly half of Hong Kong’s population.
Continue reading...Allan and Wilma Hyrons located in mountainous hinterlands of Sulu province, where they had been taken by an Islamic State-affiliated group
Philippine troops have rescued a British man and his Filipino wife who were abducted by gunmen at a southern beach resort last month and taken to the jungle hideouts of local militants allied with the Islamic State group.
Regional military commander Lt Gen Cirilito Sobejana said troops caught up with the Abu Sayyaf militant captors of Allan Hyrons and his wife, Wilma, in the mountainous hinterlands off Parang town in Sulu province and rescued the couple safely after a brief gunbattle.
Continue reading...‘Australia is not naive’ to threats of foreign interference, PM says, but cautions against ‘leaping to conclusions’
Prime minister Scott Morrison says Australia is “not naive” to the threat of foreign interference amid explosive claims that the Chinese communist party wanted to infiltrate Australia’s parliament.
Describing the alleged plot as “deeply disturbing and troubling”, Morrison said the government was determined to protect Australians from foreign interference and had bolstered laws to strengthen the powers of intelligence agencies.
Continue reading...Carrie Lam says she will respect vote in which pro-democracy politicians are set to win control of 17 out of 18 councils
Hong Kong’s voters have turned out in record numbers to deliver a landslide for pro-democracy campaigners in local elections, handing them control of almost every one of the region’s 18 councils for the first time.
The results are a powerful rebuke to the government in a vote that was widely seen as a proxy referendum on the city’s protest movement.
Continue reading...Documents confirm largest mass incarceration of an ethnic-religious minority since second world war
The internal workings of a vast chain of Chinese internment camps used to detain at least a million people from the nation’s Muslim minorities are laid out in leaked Communist Party documents published on Sunday.
The China Cables, a cache of classified government papers, appear to provide the first official glimpse into the structure, daily life and ideological framework behind centres in north-western Xinjiang region that have provoked international condemnation.
Continue reading...Police trying to establish cause of death of girl group Kara’s former member
The K-pop singer Goo Hara has been found dead at her home in Seoul, according to police.
The body of the 28-year-old, a former member of the girl group Kara, was found early on Sunday evening, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported. Police said they were trying to establish the cause of death.
Continue reading...Grand Tour host says impact of global heating on lake bed in Cambodia was ‘genuinely alarming’
Jeremy Clarkson has made what could be the biggest reversal of his 30-year career. The anti-environmental columnist has, for the first time, accepted the existence of global heating after seeing the impact for himself.
Clarkson’s epiphany came as he and his Grand Tour co-stars ran into difficulty while filming a 500-mile boat race from Siem Reap in Cambodia to Vung Tau in Vietnam.
Continue reading...Residents stand in long queues to have their say in polls expected to be a proxy referendum on pro-democracy campaign
Hong Kong residents have turned out in unprecedented numbers for local elections that many in the city are treating as a proxy referendum on months of anti-government protests.
Hour-long queues stretched outside many polling stations and by early afternoon more than 1.5 million people had voted, exceeding the total ballots cast in the 2015 elections.
Continue reading...A look back at the archipelago’s history, from German colony to civil war, and from reconciliation to independence referendum
Continue reading...Last of the species in country, a female rhino named Iman, ‘died sooner than expected’
The Sumatran rhinoceros has become extinct in Malaysia, zoologists have announced.
The last of the species in the country succumbed to cancer in the state of Sabah on the island of Borneo, it was revealed.
Continue reading...Children under five account for all but one of deaths as 1,644 suspected cases are identified
Deaths related to measles, mostly among small children, have more than tripled to 20 in the past week on the Pacific island of Samoa, the government has said, eight days after declaring a state of emergency over the outbreak.
The island state of 200,000, located south of the equator and half way between Hawaii and New Zealand, declared a measles epidemic late in October after the first deaths.
Continue reading...People are ‘in the mood for celebration’ as they choose whether to split from Papua New Guinea
After 20 years, the big day has finally arrived for the people of Bougainville. Large crowds gathered on Saturday at the aptly named Bel Isi (Peace) park in Buka for the first day of a two-week referendum to decide whether the archipelago should become independent from Papua New Guinea.
Amid a significant security presence, hundreds of Bougainvilleans marched through the streets as they followed the autonomous region’s president, John Momis, as he arrived at a polling booth to cast his vote.
Continue reading...The Westpac scandal has brought the role of financial institutions in enabling child sexual abuse into sharp relief
On 25 October plainclothes police barged through the red door of a family home in a dense neighbourhood in Rizal, a province two hours away from Manila.
There they arrested a mother who was allegedly sexually exploiting her own 12-year-old daughter. The 45-year-old woman was clutching her phone. Police took it and then handcuffed her.
Continue reading...