Kate and Wills may be planning to jet off on a 10-day honeymoon in a $6,600-per-night villa on an island in the Indian Ocean later this month, but that will soon be followed by a rough 10-week separation, as the Duke of Cambridge has been assigned to head to…
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Martin Sheen’s new film will make the religious route in Spain even more popular In the Middle Ages, Santiago de Compostela in north- western Spain was the No 1 centre of pilgrimage in Christendom. The first recorded pilgrims arrived in AD950 and by the 13th century more than half a million people a year trekked from across Europe to visit the grave of the apostle Saint James, whose remains had supposedly been discovered by a shepherd. The past 20 years have seen a revival of interest in the pilgrimage, especially along the best-known path, the 500-mile Camino Francés, which crosses northern Spain from the Pyrenees across the flat central “meseta” and finally over the green hills of Galicia. In 1985 just 2,500 pilgrims walked to Santiago. Last year, the Confraternity of Saint James reported that more than 150,000 people received their “compostelas”, the certificate of pilgrimage. And interest looks set to increase with the release this month of The Way , a film about an American doctor, played by Martin Sheen, who completes the route in memory of his son, killed while walking the Camino. So is the revival of the pigrimage a sign of increased religiosity? No matter what the Catholic church might hope, I don’t think so. Most people I walked with a few years ago were not practising Catholics; I started the walk as an atheist, and came back as one. But the Camino is a fantastic antidote to our stressful lives – and a lesson in deferred gratification. You set little targets, some forced by geography, some self-imposed. So, no water until the top of the hill, no lunch until the next village, nowhere to sleep until the next refugio. My fellow pilgrim Jonna, a Finnish journalist, says: “The rhythm of walking was magic. It was such a mental relief to get away from city life, cars and noise.” You probably won’t find the answers you’re looking for, but after 33 days of walking (plus two rest days) I certainly ended up asking different questions. You also learn what you really need to be happy: a light rucksack, less clutter, and no blisters. Santiago de Compostela Walking holidays Spain Martin Sheen Rob Williams guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Good news for Detroit: The Big Three automakers are all profitable once again. Chrysler has reported its first net profit since leaving bankruptcy nearly two years ago, with a net income of $116 million in the first quarter. The firm saw revenue jump 35% to $13.1 billion compared to…
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Tribute to late designer from city’s Metropolitan Museum of Art follows royal wedding dress commission In life, Alexander McQueen was the risqué rebel of fashion, a designer who occasionally struggled to juggle his extraordinary creativity with the demands of commerciality; in death, he has achieved a level of establishment acceptance that he could never have dreamed possible – even with his elastic imagination. Only four days after it was revealed that his label had received the commission of a generation , when the Duchess of Cambridge stepped out of the car wearing a wedding dress by the label’s head designer, Sarah Burton, the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York held a preview of its retrospective of the designer’s work. Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty opens on Wednesday. Since his death last year, Lee McQueen, who adopted the name Alexander for his label, has grown in prominence. It is an irony that this designer, who often played with images of mortality in his work, would have appreciated with his typically black humour. The exhibition features all of McQueen’s best-known work, from his early days in the 1990s, through his tempestuous tenure at Givenchy, to his very last collection. The dress that was famously spraypainted mid-show by paint jets in 1999, the Chinese garden hat from his 2005 collection that was worn by his long-term muse, Isabella Blow, whose suicide in 2007 preceded McQueen’s, and videos from his highly original shows all serve as reminders of the designer’s unique talent. “For me, this feels horrific, but [McQueen] would have loved it – he would have pretended that he didn’t, but he would have, and the wedding dress would have given him such a sense of validation,” said McQueen’s long-time collaborator, milliner Philip Treacy, as he walked through the show. “Fashion is supposed to be effortless, but when I look at every piece I think of what he put into it and how in the end the sheer pressure of creativity killed him. He promoted this idea of himself as an enfant terrible but he was actually a very sweet and gentle person – he wouldn’t have wanted you to know that, either.” Fellow British designer Stella McCartney talked about “the genius of my friend” and remembered when the two of them were just starting out and “used to joke about starting businesses in London – who’d have thought”. The highly private Sarah Burton, fresh off the plane from London after a fairly busy few days, recalled the weekend when McQueen went for a walk on the beach and returned to the office on Sunday with bags full of shells to be incorporated into his collection. “The studio smelled like the seaside,” she said. Harold Koda, chief of the Costume Institute, said that what particularly struck him was how “McQueen took things that were terrifying but made them beautiful.” This is certainly apparent in the exhibition: the jewellery that more than flirts with S&M imagery, the billowing capes that oscillate between ghostly and elegant, the body-fitted leather dresses that turn feminine gowns into armour. “He confronted demons and made them magical,” added Koda. Meanwhile, the Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding dress is to go on display. It is not known exactly when or where it will appear, although Kensington Palace and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London are among possible locations. “The Duchess of Cambridge is considering a number of options to give members of the public the opportunity to see, close up, the skilled British craftsmanship that went into the making of her wedding dress by Sarah Burton and her team as well as the Royal School of Needlework,” said Clarence House. For months, the dress was fashion’s best-kept secret. Even the team of embroiderers at Hampton Court Palace did not know the identity of the designer. At the forefront Duchess of Cambridge Her decision to opt for wedding dress by head designer Sarah Burton propelled it to the highest prominence a brand can have Michelle Obama Wore a flame-red floor-length McQueen gown to state dinner in honour of China earlier this year, prompting much embarrassing bluster among American designers and journalists, cross that she didn’t wear a design by a homegrown label Kate Moss Moss and McQueen were mutually supportive of one another from the early days of their careers. After Moss was photographed apparently taking cocaine, McQueen appeared at his next show proclaiming his love for the model Isabella Blow McQueen’s lifelong muse and supporter bought his entire graduate collection and was hardly ever seen wearing another label Blow’s suicide in 2007 was said to have contributed to the depression that led to the designer’s death last year. Alexander McQueen Fashion Fashion designers Museums Kate Middleton Royal wedding United States Hadley Freeman guardian.co.uk
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• Humanitarian aid cannot reach city’s harbour • Evacuees and casualties stranded in the assaults Muammar Gaddafi’s forces have bombarded Misrata with missiles and tank fire, preventing ships carrying humanitarian aid from entering the port for a fourth straight day. The sustained attacks on the port are causing deep concern in the city, which has been surrounded by Gaddafi’s troops on land for more than two months. Food, medical supplies and other aid can only be delivered through the harbour, while migrant workers and casualties can only be evacuated by boat. The shelling came as crowds gathered in Tripoli for the funeral of Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Arab and three of his grandchildren, who were killed in a Nato air strike on Saturday, according to the government. Gaddafi did not attend the funeral but his son Saif al-Islam did, watching as his brother’s coffin, covered in a green flag and flowers, was carried to the cemetery. The deaths triggered reprisal attacks on the French and British embassies in Tripoli, and the US diplomatic mission, for their role in the Nato mission. But in Misrata, where more than 1,000 people have killed since late February, there is increasing anger that Nato is not doing enough to destroy Gaddafi’s missile launchers that continue to pummel the city. A ferry chartered by the International Organisation for Migration has been forced to wait offshore since Saturday morning. It is due to collect at least 800 African workers who have been trying to escape the city for weeks, and who have been forced to endure the barrage of missiles in recent days. More than 30 hospital patients, four of them in intensive care, are also waiting to board the ship. “We know the only way to keep Misrata alive is to keep the harbour open,” said Hafed Makhlouf, the controller and ship pilot of the port. “Gaddafi realises this too, and knows that the only way to extinguish the revolution is by starving the people.” On Sunday, just hours after Makhlouf had pleaded for Nato to stop the attack on the port, it was pounded again by dozens of missiles that struck the land as well as the sea around the harbour mouth. A checkpoint on the road to the port was also destroyed, killing two guards. “To be honest, I am not that satisfied with Nato’s actions,” said Makhlouf, a navy veteran who has worked at the port since 1996. “The harbour has been nearly completely closed for days now.” But a few hours spent with Makhlouf in the controller’s office again highlighted the difficulties in communications between the rebels and Nato, which was illustrated last week when 12 rebel fighters were killed after straying into an area that had been cleared for bombing. “Nato, we have special information for you,” said Makhlouf, speaking quickly into the radio. “Do you have a warship close to the breakwater? It’s very urgent. Our men are going to fire.” The Nato radio operator answered immediately, promising to check. Makhlouf ran outside with his satellite phone and binoculars, scanning the harbour entrance. His phone rang: it was Nato confirming neither of its two frigates were that close to the port. Indeed, what the rebel lookouts had spotted was a group of doctors aboard a small boat that had been dispatched from a mother ship forced to remain far offshore. After losing the battle for Misrata’s city centre last week, loyalist forces have concentrated their efforts on shutting down the port, which Gaddafi says is used by rebels to bring in arms. They have been doing so, using small fishing boats from the eastern city of Benghazi but the vast majority of the incoming cargo has been food, drugs and other medical supplies. In addition to the missile attacks, Gaddafi has also attempted to sink some of the incoming ships using sea mines. According to Makhlouf, the rebels had received a tip on Thursday from Zleten, a town 30 miles west of Misrata, that three small microbuses had been spotted dropping off a crew of frogmen near the harbour. Makhlouf said he passed on the warning to the two Nato warships stationed off Misrata. At 4.30am on Friday, while he was asleep on the chair in his office, his radio crackled to life. It was Nato, saying it had spotted four small dinghies approaching Misrata at speed. “I asked Nato to act as I was sure it was a plot to destroy the warships, or other ships coming into Misrata,” said Makhlouf. He was right. The loyalist naval team was carrying several floating sea mines aboard two of the dinghies, which they sank about 1.5 miles offshore, directly in the shipping lane to Misrata. Nato said it had intercepted three mines, and disposed of them. Libya Muammar Gaddafi Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Xan Rice guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The controversial airstrikes in Libya that killed one of Gadhafi’s sons and three grandchildren Saturday fall within the UN mandate to protect civilian life, said NATO officials and other Western leaders yesterday. The compound housed an operations bunker underneath, said NATO officials, making it a military target, reports the New…
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No to AV campaign’s cross-party claim under scrutiny as 42 of 53 named donors revealed to be from Tory sources The official campaign against AV has been almost exclusively funded by Conservative party donors, among them hedge-fund managers, bankers and big City names, raising new questions about the organisation’s claims to be cross-party and politically neutral. An analysis of the most complete set of accounts of donations reveals the extent of the no campaign’s reliance on the City for funding and how the Tory party fundraising machine helped shore up support for No to AV, which has seen it strengthening its lead in the polls in the runup to Thursday’s vote. The link between the no campaign and the Tory party’s financiers is causing some unease among Labour opponents to AV. But Margaret Beckett, the former foreign secretary, called it a “necessary evil” to counter the arguments of the better funded yes camp. Both campaigns provided the Guardian with every donation received in recent weeks, updating their previously declared donations. Despite the support of more than half of the Labour benches, 42 of the 53 named donors to the No to AV campaign are also Tory donors, having given £18.4m between them over the past decade. Nine are not readily identifiable in official donor records, a 10th is official funding from the electoral commission and just one is a Labour donor, the GMB union. Among the Tory names are seven Conservative peers including Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover, who has donated nearly £3m to the Tories in six years. Jonathan Wood, who was the biggest shareholder in Northern Rock when it collapsed and later tried to sue the government over its handling of the bank’s nationalisation, and Lord Fink, the Tory co-treasurer who has been described as the “godfather” of the UK hedge-fund industry, have both come to the aid of the campaign in recent weeks, giving another £75,000 between them. Stockbroking and corporate finance group Shore Capital has given £25,000 while hedge fund Odey Asset Management Group, founded by Crispin Odey in 1991, has donated £20,000. Lord Wolfson, the boss of clothing chain Next, gave £25,000. John Nash, chairman of the healthcare company Care UK, has donated £25,000. His wife has previously donated more than £230,000 to the Tories including, controversially, sums to the health secretary Andrew Lansley, from whose health reforms the company could profit. Beckett, who is also a member of the committee on standards in public life, which is reviewing political funding, said: “The people who have the money are people who fund the Conservative party. “This is the truism in politics. I think it’s a pity, I’m sorry about it. Am I excited about it? No. “I would feel really uncomfortable being in a position where the yes campaign has £2m from the off and we aren’t able to have any funding to counter their arguments … It’s a necessary evil.” The figures reveal for the first time that the yes campaign has now outspent the anti-AV camp by £3.4m to £2.6m, the majority from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Electoral Reform Society (ERS). George Osborne has accused the ERS of having a vested interest in a yes vote. The ERS’s commercial subsidiary Electoral Reform Services Ltd (ERSL) is printing the postal ballots for the referendum. The organisation has denied it would profit from a yes vote. The yes camp received an additional £236,579 from the ERS in the past month along with £50,000 from the venture capitalists C&C Alpha Group and £30,000 from Alan Parker, head of Brunswick PR, who has the distinction of being close to both Gordon Brown and David Cameron. It has also received £75,000 from Paul Marshall, the hedge fund manager and Liberal Democrat donor. But the No to AV figures do not include donations it received prior to the referendum bill passing in parliament. The law requires that the official campaigns name all donors who give more than £7,500 but it does not apply to the period before the bill got royal assent, during which No to AV lobbied to become the official no campaign. The yes figures include all sums received since it was set up last summer. Some Labour supporters of the no campaign called on the organisers to fully disclose all their funding sources. An aide to David Blunkett, the former home secretary, said: “He’s not involved in any of the administration of the no campaign. But he thinks both campaigns should disclose all their funding.” Martin Bell, the former MP for Tatton and supporter of the yes campaign, said: “We have a right to know who set them up and who bankrolled them from the start.” A spokesman for the No to AV campaign said: “There are people who donate – across the political divide – who prefer not to be named when they do. We have disclosed everyone who has donated from the time of royal assent in accord with our commitment. “Prior to that … there was no legal basis or reason to disclose our funding sources. It is a much easier job for the yes campaign because they are received funding from two opaque organisations.” AV referendum Party funding Electoral reform Conservatives Labour Liberal Democrats Margaret Beckett Polly Curtis Julia Kollewe guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Twitter has become an increasingly important method of breaking and delivering news, and yesterday it had its biggest moment yet. Osama bin Laden’s death was first reported on the social media service, tweeted by both an in-the-know former political aide and an unwitting IT consultant. Keith Urbahn , once chief of…
Continue reading …Donald Trump says his choice is made—he’s going to run. “In my mind, I have already decided,” he told Bloomberg yesterday. “I am going to announce. But I can’t do anything until the show”— Celebrity Apprentice —ends.” His goal as president? “Making our country rich and respected”: He aims…
Continue reading …Wild boars are increasingly intruding into Berlin, rummaging through garbage bins and destroying lawns and property, reports the BBC . Shooting boars is dangerous in cities, and the smart animals quickly learn to avoid traps. But now Berlin has hired a wild boar hunter to try to control the pests. “They…
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