11 must-see historic landmarks in Macau
The compound, originally built in 1869, has seen extensions and renovations over the years. It was constructed in a Lingnan style typical of southern China, with subtle Western influences. This unique blend of Chinese and Western elements reflects a time when Macao's architecture was a fusion of styles, a fascinating aspect for architecture enthusiasts. The compound's courtyards, stunning interior frescoes, and intricately carved screen doors offer a tranquil retreat from the city's hustle and bustle.
The Mandarin's House was acquired by the Macau SAR Government in 2001 and underwent a meticulous restoration process. It later reopened to the public in 2010.
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The Guardian
10 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘Why didn't you tell me?': the Australian push to have all adopted people told their full history and identity
Merrilees Ritchie describes it as an 'out of body experience'. It felt as if she was watching from above her kitchen table in Albany, Western Australia, as her brother explained to her that the pair of them had been adopted as babies, nearly 40 years before. Over a cup of tea he revealed they also had different biological mothers. They were not biologically related. 'I was absolutely shell-shocked,' Ritchie recalls. 'I'd basically lived half my life by then, believing I was part of this family I'd grown up with.' By the time her brother made the revelation, 32 years ago, their adoptive mother had been dead for 10 years. Ritchie had kept a photograph of her up on the kitchenette. 'I looked at the photo and just thought: 'You liar, you liar, why didn't you tell me?'' After her brother's disclosure, she has spent years jumping through hoops trying get hold of crucial documents that would help her claim back her identity. She even had to pay for her real birth certificate, since adoptees were given fabricated versions with their adoptive parents' names on them. Ritchie is a late discovery adoptee, a term given to people who find out as adults that they are not who they thought they were. She is one of a number of people born during the secretive forced adoption era from the 1940s to the early 1980s, when thousands of babies were removed from their single mothers and given to married couples. For many late discovery adoptees, the truth is only discovered after an adoptive parent dies or by accident. Now Ritchie is part of the Great Southern Adoptee Support Group, calling for all adoptees to be notified of their adopted status. 'It's like a bomb going off,' says Caroline de la Harpe, a senior counsellor with the WA-based Adoption Research and Counselling Service. Suddenly, she says, grown adults have to navigate two different worlds, that of their adoptive family and their newly discovered biological kin. 'That kind of turns their world upside down in terms of who they think they are.' The plight of late discovery adoptees was highlighted at a WA parliamentary inquiry into the forced adoption polices of last century, with its report released in August last year. Among its 39 recommendations, Broken Bonds, Fractured Lives recommended the WA government notifies all adult adopted persons not already aware of their adopted status. A system of automatic notification would be the first of its kind in Australia. Although no clear pathway for notification was outlined in the report, advocates say mandatory notification would tackle the ongoing harm to people who may find out the truth without warning or support, or are denied the truth about their origins for their whole lives. The recommendation was rejected by the WA government two months later due to its potential to 'cause significant psychological harm and distress.' Bernadette Richards, associate professor of ethics and professionalism at Queensland University medical school, says while the argument about potentially traumatising unsuspecting people by telling them they are adopted is persuasive, doing nothing breaches adopted people's fundamental human rights. Not least their right to know their family medical history. 'There is also that risk there of benevolent paternalism,' she says. 'Trying not to harm someone but taking away a choice. In reality, that's what has happened to these people, isn't it? They've lost the right to know something important.' However, Richards says comprehensive supports would need to be carefully planned to address the 'real risk of harm' in implementing a mass notification system. 'The age of these people must be respected, as must the fact that this is really something that goes to the core of individual identity and understanding of who they are and how they define that,' she says. Prof Daryl Higgins, a psychologist who has researched the impact of forced adoption, questions whether there is research to support the case for mass notification. Higgins, the director of the Institute of Child Protection Studies at the Australian Catholic University, says while adoptees have a right to know information about themselves, if they choose to, he is not convinced that all adoptees would welcome, or benefit from, being told by government authorities. Instead, he calls for a community awareness campaign – ideally a national initiative – to encourage people who have doubts about their birth status to access services that can help them find out in a supported way. Dr Ebony White from St Bonaventure University in New York was a co-author of one of the few studies in existence about late discovery adoptees. White backs the idea of proactively notifying adults, but supports a national awareness campaign to prepare people beforehand. She too underscores the importance of providing counselling and support to those who suspect they may have been adopted and coaching for adoptive families on how to broach the truth with their adult children. She also warns that for many reasons some biological parents do not wish to be found, and mandatory notification could lead to distress for all parties. That's an issue also raised by Caroline de la Harpe of the WA government-funded Adoption Research and Counselling Service, who stresses the importance of considering other family members, including half-siblings. 'Absolutely, [the adoptees] have the right to know information about themselves,' she says. 'But you can't just think about notifying that person because there's a whole raft of people who are going to be affected by that notification.' The senior counsellor and psychotherapist says, for example, biological families would also have to receive support in advance of possible reunification. 'Are you wanting a relationship with them? Are you willing to at least meet them and get to know them? So at least when [adoptees] are notified, you've got some information around their birth family and what the possibilities are for getting to know them.' So-called 'contact vetoes', which are lodged by different parties to adoption who do not wish to be contacted by each other, would also have to be carefully considered, she adds, with separate management plans put in place to handle those cases. About 700 contact vetoes remained in place in WA at the time of the inquiry. For Ritchie, now 71, despite the fact that her reunion with her biological mother was imperfect, she is glad she knows the truth about herself. 'I'm only sorry I wasn't told earlier,' she says. Although she managed to find her biological mother, Nola, she says too much time had been lost. Reconnecting with her biological mother at a younger age, she believes, could have brought them closer. 'I don't think she could actually deal with the fact that I was back in her life,' she says. 'I feel quite cheated. If we'd been given more time, I think she would have softened.' They never hugged or had any physical contact, until six hours before her mother died when Ritchie was able to visit her in hospital in Perth. 'I just put my hand on top of her hand,' remembers Ritchie. 'I don't even know if she knew I was there, but I knew I was there.' To contact the Forced Adoption Support Service in your state or territory, ring 1800 210 313. To contact the Adoption Research and Counselling Service, ring (08) 9370 4914
Reuters
25-07-2025
- Reuters
Serious safety violations found at Russian airline a month before fatal crash, Izvestia says
MOSCOW, July 25 (Reuters) - A spot check on Angara Airlines, which operated the Antonov An-24 plane which crashed in Russia's far east on Thursday killing all 48 on board, had uncovered serious safety violations a month beforehand, the Izvestia news outlet reported on Friday. The plane, which was 49 years old, crashed as it prepared to land, in an incident that highlighted the use of old, Soviet-era aircraft and raised questions about their viability, with Western sanctions limiting access to investment and spare parts. Russia's transport ministry said on Friday that aviation and transport regulators would investigate the privately-owned Angara's activities to check if it is complying with federal aviation rules before taking a decision about its future. Vasily Orlov, the governor of the Amur region where the plane came down, said on Friday that investigators were working on the crash site and that there were two main theories about what had caused it: technical failure and pilot error. The plane's black boxes had been recovered and were being sent to Moscow to be studied, he said. Citing documents it had seen from Russia's airline and transport regulators, Izvestia said that transport safety inspectors had carried out a spot check on Angara in June which had uncovered concerns related to the servicing of its planes. Eight of Angara's planes had been temporarily grounded due to the inspection, it said, and four of its technical staff temporarily banned from carrying out technical inspections. Angara and Rostransnadzor, the transport regulator, did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and Reuters could not independently verify the details of the inspection. Izvestia said that inspectors had drawn attention to the fact that the company's documents had shown that planes had sometimes purportedly been serviced by staff who other documents showed were not working on the relevant days. The standard rules and methods of servicing were also not being followed by staff, some of whom did not have the necessary qualifications for such work, Izvestia said. In one instance, documents showed that a special piece of testing equipment needed to check a plane's control panel had not been physically issued even though other documents showed someone had signed off that the test had been done. "I ask you to present a plan to fix the violations identified, a report about the reasons for them, and measures being taken to ensure they do not occur," a letter from Rostransnadzor, the transport regulator, to Angara sent after the inspection said, according to Izvestia.
ITV News
24-07-2025
- ITV News
Parents criticise poor parental leave in Guernsey as it ranks among the worst in the Western world
New parents in Guernsey say they are frustrated over the island's parental leave provision, which is among the worst in the Western world. Unlike Jersey and the UK, Guernsey does not force employers to offer paid maternity or paternity leave. Instead, parents can receive a statutory allowance that is less than minimum wage. One mother, Constance Walden, says: "Every mother I spoke to at some stage was concerned that, financially, they weren't being paid for a period of their maternity at least. It's a shame we don't have that same assistance." Constance adds that some islanders are having to dip into savings to cover the difference. She explains: "Obviously, it wasn't a surprise knowing what I was going to be paid; it was part of my contract. "But the reality of when you are pregnant and going on maternity leave is very different. I did rely on my savings." The amount of maternity leave a mother can take in Guernsey is much less than in Jersey and the UK, and as it stands, there is no legal requirement for employers to pay for it. Also, teacher Kat Arlington found out that if a parent has not been on the island long enough, they are not eligible for the full 26 weeks. She says it means she has been forced to turn down work opportunities, explaining: "We decided to be really transparent with the head teacher and to let him know from the outset. "But then, that's when he informed me that the maternity leave would only be three months, so unfortunately, we couldn't go ahead with the position." Guernsey law allows just two weeks of compulsory paternity leave for fathers - 50 weeks below Jersey and the UK - and no statutory pay. There are also concerns over the island's birth rate, which is unsustainably low. Over the past 10 years, it has dropped by 33% to 422 births last year. ITV News also understands that leave and pay security changes widely between professions, with people now choosing jobs based on what parental leave is offered. Those differences are something Teresa Bott, manager of the children's nursery Bright Beginnings, says she has heard first-hand. She says: "Having spoken to some of our parents recently, I think it's not a one-size-fits-all and perhaps that's the problem. "It depends on who you work for. It depends on the policies in your own place of work." While Guernsey's maternity and paternity legislation has stagnated, some countries have made massive leaps forward. In Estonia, a parent can take up to one and a half years off at full pay. Arther Panov, a Family Policy Advisor at the Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs, told ITV News: "During the parental leave, you are entitled to 100% of your income that you were earning one year before the beginning of the pregnancy. "When this maternity leave ends, any parent, either mother or father, is entitled to share parental leave, which can last up to when a child is three years old." ITV News contacted the new President of Employment and Social Security, Deputy Tina Bury, on whether there are plans to change Guernsey's legislation. However, we were told that the committee needs some time before it can decide its priorities for the political term.
