Musician will be best remembered for scoring the film Zorba the Greek and defiance during military rule
The renowned Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis, who scored the 1964 classic film Zorba the Greek and was an icon of resistance to the former military junta, has died in Athens, aged 96.
A prolific talent and political maverick, Theodorakis was revered in his home country for his inspirational music and defiance during the junta that ruled from 1967 to 1974.
Continue reading...Swedish hitmakers to release album of brand new material in November, and digital avatars will appear in London concert residency in 2022
One of the most anticipated comebacks in pop culture has finally come to pass: the return of Abba.
Forty years after the bitter songs written in the wake of two band divorces for their last album, 1981’s The Visitors, the Swedish pop quartet have reunited for Voyage, an album of brand new songs that will be released on 5 November – including, they say, a Christmas song. Two tracks from it, the stately and epic ballad I Still Have Faith in You and the shimmying Don’t Shut Me Down, are out now.
Continue reading...Joe Biden condemned the US supreme court on Thursday, saying it had delivered “an unprecedented assault on a woman’s constitutional right” in a rebuke of its decision not to consider a Texas law that effectively bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
Related: Biden launches ‘whole-of-government’ effort to protect Texas abortion rights after ruling – live
Continue reading...Foreign secretary says UK must engage with Taliban in Afghanistan after meeting with Qatari officials
Evacuations may be able to resume from Kabul airport “in the near future”, the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has said as he expressed a need for direct engagement with the Taliban.
Speaking after talks in Qatar on Thursday, Raab raised hopes that the Britons and Afghans left behind may be able to leave on flights from Afghanistan’s capital.
Continue reading...Record-breaking rainfall brought by the remnants of Storm Ida has swept through the New York area leaving parts of Manhattan, Brooklyn and New Jersey affected by rare flooding
Continue reading...Those on board the cramped military plane weren’t granted a last glimpse of their homeland before the difficult journey ahead, while all knew thousands still waited desperately below
The American marine shouted “push!”. And hundreds of people did, shoving inside the Boeing C-17 military aircraft; tumbling over, then pulling their bodies into tight huddles on the floor to let as many others in as possible.
As the rear door closed and the deafening engines started, lifting the heavy plane off the runway at Kabul’s international airport, people broke down wailing; crying. Now refugees.
Continue reading...Broadcasters ordered not to promote ‘sissy’ men in attempt to reshape country’s entertainment industry
China has banned some reality talent shows and ordered broadcasters not to promote “sissy” men, in the latest attempt to reshape the culture of the country’s huge entertainment industry that authorities believe is leading young Chinese people astray.
“Broadcast and TV institutions must not screen idol development programmes or variety shows and reality shows that feature the children of celebrities,” China’s broadcast regulator, the National Radio and Television Administration said, in new regulations announced on Thursday.
Continue reading...Reports in state media give rare details of allegations against Michael Spavor and his compatriot Michael Kovrig
Chinese state media have accused the jailed Canadian Michael Spavor of supplying photographs of military equipment to Michael Kovrig in repeated acts of espionage, offering rare details of the allegations against the two men.
The two men were arrested in December 2018, just days after Canadian officials arrested the Chinese executive Meng Wanzhou. Last month Spavor, who lived in China and arranged tours to North Korea, was sentenced to 11 years in prison and deportation from China. Kovrig, a former diplomat turned analyst for the International Crisis Group, was also tried in secret in March. Kovrig is yet to have his verdict or sentence announced.
Continue reading...Five Star Movement’s Virginia Raggi accuses Lazio regional government of failing to tackle problem
Rome’s mayor has opened a criminal lawsuit against the surrounding Lazio regional government over “the massive and uncontrolled presence of wild boar in Italy’s capital”.
In recent years, Rome’s citizens and farmers have protested about wild boar wreaking havoc on their land and causing fatal car crashes. The animal is believed to be responsible for an average of 10,000 road accidents a year in the country.
Continue reading...Official says ceremony is being prepared at presidential palace in Kabul – two weeks after Islamist militia seized control
The Taliban are expected to announce a new government in Afghanistan within hours, as chaos in the country deepened and aid experts warned of imminent economic collapse.
More than two weeks after the Islamist militia seized control, sources told Agence-France Presse that the cabinet could be presented after morning prayers on Friday and Ahmadullah Muttaqi, a Taliban official, said on social media that a ceremony was being prepared at the presidential palace in Kabul.
Continue reading...The Vieux Pays of Goussainville should have disappeared during the construction of the Charles de Gaulle airport in the 70s, however some inhabitants resisted the takeover of their houses and continue to live there despite the noise and isolation
Continue reading...The Afghan television anchor Beheshta Arghand has been evacuated from Afghanistan amid risks for her safety and freedom after interviewing a Taliban official live on air after the fall of Kabul in late August.
Arghand, who is now in Qatar, said she had felt trapped in a leadership that did not accept women. The Taliban limited freedom of the press to ask questions, enforced burkas to be worn on some TV stations and suspended female journalists at others
Continue reading...In the poverty-stricken kingdom, an older generation rely on growing marijuana to feed children orphaned by Aids epidemic
In Nhlangano, in the south of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), the illegal farming of the mountainous kingdom’s famous “Swazi gold” is a risk many grandmothers are ready to take.
In what is known locally as the “gardens of Eden”, a generation of grandparents are growing cannabis, many of them sole carers for some of the many children orphaned by the HIV/Aids epidemic that gripped southern Africa.
Continue reading...Likelihood of long Covid in double-jabbed adults who get coronavirus almost half; Taiwan receives delivery organised by tech giants and a charity
Taiwan received its first batch of Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccines on Thursday, a delivery organised by two tech giants and a charity because of diplomatic pressure from China, AFP reports.
The 930,000 doses are the first of 15 million jabs acquired by Foxconn and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), as well as Buddhist charity Tzu Chi foundation, in deals with a China-based distributor after months of wrangling.
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
Taiwan has received its first batch of Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccines, a delivery organised by two tech giants and a charity because of diplomatic pressure from China.
Continue reading...Foreign materials including stainless steel identified in batches of Covid-19 vaccine though no safety or efficacy issues have been reported
The Moderna coronavirus vaccine programme in Japan has been hit by a series of contamination incidents, prompting it to recall 1.63m doses found to contain metal fragments.
Other potential contaminants have been identified in separate batches over the past week but so far no injuries as a result of those vaccines have been reported.
Continue reading...At 80, the superstar musician has survived heroin addiction, illness and tragedy to hit an unprecedented run of musical form. He discusses the joy of fatherhood, the pain of falling out with bandmates – and why Joni Mitchell is still the greatest
David Crosby has just turned 80. Congratulations, I say. “Thank you, man!” says the great singer-songwriter, trailblazer and trouble-maker. How did he celebrate? “Eighty years old is something you mourn, not celebrate,” he says.
But that, it turns out, is not quite true. Crosby admits he did celebrate. “We had a great time, man! My son and my wife made me a cake, then my son barbecued some steaks. We baked potatoes, made salads and feasted.”
Continue reading...Kabul evacuees at Sicilian air base of Sigonella worry about those left living under Taliban rule
As another 250 Afghan refugees evacuated from Kabul left the Sigonella airbase in Sicily bound for Philadelphia, Haifa, 30, watches the plane lift off the runway and disappear into the clouds.
With dozens of other compatriots, she waits in line for her turn for an afternoon departure, when another plane will bring hundreds of other Afghans to the other side of the ocean, far away from the Taliban. There are 3,000 Afghans at the base, known as the Hub of the Med and serving as a transit station complete with temporary lodgings, religious and recreational areas, for evacuees moving on to other locations.
Continue reading...Court voted 5-4 to deny emergency appeal from abortion providers against law that bans abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity
A deeply divided supreme court has allowed a Texas law that bans most abortions to remain in force, stripping most women of the right to an abortion in the nation’s second-largest state.
The court voted 5-4 early on Thursday to deny an emergency appeal from abortion providers and others that sought to block enforcement of the law that went into effect Wednesday.
Continue reading...The US state of Texas has enacted the strictest anti-abortion law in the country, banning all abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy – before most women know they are pregnant. The law gives private citizens the power to sue abortion providers and anyone who 'aids or abets' an abortion after six weeks. Citizens who win such lawsuits would be entitled to at least $10,000. There is concern this will spur abortion ‘bounty hunters’
Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi tells US climate envoy John Kerry cooperation on reducing emissions cannot be separated from the broader relationship
Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi has warned US climate envoy John Kerry that deteriorating US-China relations could undermine cooperation between the two countries on climate change.
In a video link call on Wednesday, Wang told Kerry that such cooperation cannot be separated from the broader relationship and called on the US to take steps to improve ties, a foreign ministry statement said.
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