Thomas Hawk posted a photo:
The diplomatic spat continues to simmer as Moscow summons Tokyo’s ambassador after the Russian president’s trip to the disputed islands last week
The diplomatic spat between Japan and Russia following Vladimir Putin’s visit to an archipelago of disputed islands north of Hokkaido continues to escalate, after Moscow summoned the Japanese ambassador on Tuesday.
On Thursday Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s prime minister, called Putin’s actions “absolutely unacceptable” and Russia’s ambassador in Tokyo was immediately called in for a dressing down. Russia countered that it was Japan making unfounded claims on its territory.
Continue reading...Country’s second fatal school shooting in two months took place in city of Zamboanga and video appeared to be live-streamed on social media
A student was shot dead at a high school in the southern Philippines before the alleged killer took his own life, the local mayor said, in the second school shooting in the South-east Asian nation in two months.
The shooting took place at a school attached to Ateneo de Zamboanga University in the southern city of Zamboanga, a Catholic private institution in western Mindanao.
Continue reading...The PM’s net zero pragmatism may please some voters, but as parts of the country go up in flames, it’s an increasingly hard sell
When the siren sounded on Friday night, my first thought was fire.
Weeks of unrelenting sun in the normally soggy Peak District, where I was visiting my mum, have bleached green valleys a dangerously dry, crispy blond. One of her neighbours had earlier pointed out an ominous cloud of smoke on the horizon, coming from one of the wildfires raging all summer on the moor. When that harsh, discordant shriek blared from every mobile phone in the house, I was half-braced for an evacuation order, not what turned out to be a faintly melodramatic warning to the nation to lay off the barbecues. A false alarm, of sorts, but one that felt uneasily like a wake-up call.
Continue reading...Two Café Cecilia stalwarts that are just the thing for the summer heat
Five years after Café Cecilia opened, a handful of dishes have become permanent fixtures, returning to the menu time and again – and this confit trout salad is definitely one of them. During the recent heatwaves, we’ve naturally shifted towards dishes that are best served at room temperature or slightly warm, and both of these recipes reflect that approach. They’re designed to serve two, but can just as easily be scaled up for a larger group. And almost everything can be prepared in advance, making them ideal for entertaining at home.
Continue reading...Rick Baker helped define Hollywood’s creature features with his wild makeup effects skills. From Locarno, he talks Gremlins, his love of simians– and why AI will never replace expert design
When Rick Baker was 22 years old and laying the first bricks of what would become one of the great Hollywood careers, he travelled to Hatra in Iraq with director William Friedkin to assist with Max von Sydow’s makeup on The Exorcist. “Oh, he was definitely a lunatic,” Baker recalls of Friedkin, his signature goatee and ponytail still intact, if a little more salt than pepper these days. “But he made a great movie.” Friedkin had been travelling with a fake passport, and the production was plagued by extreme heat and dust storms – but the show went on. “I did von Sydow’s hands,” Baker says. “I pretty much just held a glue bottle.”
We are speaking in Locarno, Switzerland, during the film festival, where Baker has accepted a lifetime achievement award and introduced screenings of An American Werewolf in London and The Nutty Professor – the first and fourth of his seven Oscar wins. When he completed his last big production, Maleficent, in 2014, it ended a more than 40-year career in which he made some huge contributions to popular culture. The monsters in Michael Jackson’s Thriller video? They were Baker’s handiwork. The Mos Eisley cantina band in Star Wars? That was him, too. In 1999, he leaked a story to the press to stop the studio from simply painting Jim Carrey green instead of using his designs for How the Grinch Stole Christmas; he won the argument and a sixth Oscar followed.
Continue reading...Psychiatrists in Channel 4 documentary argue it is more a ‘social construct’ than a medical condition
People are increasingly seeking to an obtain an ADHD diagnosis without pursuing treatment, according to experts who have called for more research to understand why.
Some people now regard ADHD as “an identity, rather than a disorder”, with the result that many obtain assessments from poor quality private providers, which lead them to “believe they have a condition needing treatment”, said the psychiatrist Dr Marios Adamou, the founder of the UK Adult ADHD Network.
Continue reading...Nearly a decade after fighting ended in northern Iraq, the climate crisis has brought extreme heat and a water shortage, making life almost impossible
The first thing that strikes visitors arriving in Faka, a small village in Sinjar district, northern Iraq, is the silence. No children play in the streets. No shops are open. Roofless houses stretch across the hillside, their walls pockmarked by shellfire, while weeds and wild grasses grow through collapsed living rooms.
A decade after Islamic State (IS) swept across the region, war remains visible everywhere. But according to the people who returned, another enemy has quietly taken its place.
Rajab Mohammed says the problem in his village of Faka is no longer Islamic State but water and jobs
Continue reading...As men we’re often taught to chase lives defined by vanity and hollow expressions. But genuine decency lasts far longer than any name on a building
Occasionally, in our lives, there are markers that arrive with enough strength to hop us off the treadmill just long enough to remind ourselves that everyone’s race has a finish line, and none of us are getting out of this jolly for free.
One of these blots is often when someone we know passes away.
Continue reading...Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns beat American pair 6-2, 1-6, 10-8
Serena and Venus enjoy ‘fun’ on-court reunion despite defeat
Just one game into the family reunion of the decade, Venus Williams launched herself inside the baseline in her single-minded pursuit of a puffball second serve. For a brief moment, grandstand stadium at the Cincinnati Open had been transported back 15 years. Williams pounded her forehand return directly at the right hip of her opponent Marta Kostyuk, instantly eliciting gasps from the audience as she snatched the point. Back when the Williams sisters spent their spare time racking up grand slam titles for fun, this is how they dealt with most adversaries.
In the end, Venus and Serena’s first doubles match in four years, and just their second in the past decade, ended in a rollercoaster 6-2, 1-6, 10-8 defeat to Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns, another wildcard pair and two formidable singles players. For once, the result did not seem to matter.
Continue reading...
De nieuwe Renaissanceschool in Almere, die is ontstaan vanuit de kring rond Forum voor Democratie, is maandag van start gegaan met slechts vier leerlingen. Op het schoolplein was het bij de opening opvallend rustig.
De basisschool wil kinderen onderwijzen vanuit de waarden van het „oude Europa”. Daarbij kiest de school onder meer voor kleine klassen, klassieke kunst in het gebouw en een eigen benadering van onderwijs voor jongens en meisjes. Volgens berichtgeving over de eerste schooldag arriveerde de laatste leerling pas na negen uur: een vierjarig meisje uit Oekraïne, dat werd begeleid door haar ouders en oom.
De Renaissanceschool trekt al langere tijd politieke aandacht. Critici vrezen dat een school die nauw verbonden is met een politieke partij kan leiden tot ideologische beïnvloeding van leerlingen. Staatssecretaris Judith Tielen (Onderwijs) heeft laten weten dat de Onderwijsinspectie de school nauwlettend volgt. In het eerste jaar staat al een volledig kwaliteitsonderzoek gepland.
De geringe opkomst op de eerste dag betekent niet automatisch dat de school geen toekomst heeft: basisscholen kunnen gedurende het schooljaar nog nieuwe leerlingen verwelkomen. Maar de start met vier kinderen onderstreept wel hoe klein de school voorlopig is.
Een inwoner van Almere heeft een rechtszaak verloren waarin hij een imker aansprakelijk stelde voor overlast en schade door bijenpoep. Volgens de rechter heeft de man onvoldoende bewijs geleverd dat de bijen van de imker daadwerkelijk verantwoordelijk waren voor de vervuiling.
De Almeerder stelde dat onder meer zijn auto en tuin regelmatig onder de uitwerpselen zaten, maar kon de herkomst daarvan niet overtuigend aantonen. De rechter wees de vordering daarom af.
Waterschap Brabantse Delta gaat aangifte doen na bedreigingen aan het adres van meerdere medewerkers, schrijft BN DeStem. Het gaat om toezichthouders die controleren of boeren overdag geen water uit sloten en beken gebruiken.
Waterschap Brabantse Delta had vorige week de media uitgenodigd om mee te kijken bij het werk van toezichthouders die onder meer met een drone controleren of agrariërs in deze droogteperiode juist beregenen. Beregenen mag in Midden- en West-Brabant, alleen niet met water uit sloten of beken. Al sinds half juli geldt er overdag een regiobreed onttrekkingsverbod voor oppervlaktewater.
Na een reportage van Omroep Brabant waarin de namen van de toezichthouders werden genoemd, kregen deze waterschapsmedewerkers persoonlijke bedreigingen.
Het waterschap kan vanwege de veiligheid en privacy van de medewerkers niet ingaan op de aard van de bedreigingen. "Maar het gaat echt verder dan mensen die boos zijn of vervelende opmerkingen maken", laat een woordvoerder weten.