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University leaders says planned levy on international student fees will leave many institutions even worse offUniversity students in England get just two-thirds of the funding they would have received a decade ago, after inflation and government cuts have reduced the resources available for teaching, according to vice-chancellors.University leaders said the situation was likely to get worse if the government went ahead with a new levy on international student fees in Wednesday's budget. Continue reading...

Liberal party senator calls Department of Parliamentary Services email incredibly concerning'

Actor who appeared in My Own Private Idaho, Blade, Armageddon and Dogville, as well as Madonna music videos and video games, died on SundayUdo Kier, the German actor who appeared in 275 roles across Hollywood and European cinema, including multiple films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Gus Van Sant and Lars von Trier, has died aged 81.Kier died on Sunday morning, his partner Delbert McBride told Variety. The actor died in hospital in Palm Springs, California, his friend the photographer Michael Childers announced on social media. No cause of death was given. Continue reading...

MPs will examine Michael Prescott's claims of liberal bias in coverage of Gaza, racial diversity and trans issuesThe BBC has been plunged into crisis by the sudden resignation of its director general, Tim Davie, and the head of news, Deborah Turness. Their departure followed a disagreement over how to respond to a memo from its former external adviser Michael Prescott, in which he claimed there were serious and systemic problems" at the corporation. He alleged liberal bias in its coverage of the US election, Gaza and racial diversity and transgender issues.Their decision shocked many in New Broadcasting House, but what emerged in the hours after their departure was talk of a rightwing coup", board splits and crippling delays. Continue reading...

Former PM to examine issue of trust in politics and Oscar-winning actor's show will discuss AIThe former prime minister Theresa May is to guest edit Radio 4's Today programme and use it to explore the issue of dwindling trust in politics.May, who resigned in 2019 with a tearful statement about the honour she felt in holding the office, will edit Today on New Year's Eve. Continue reading...

Musicologist Peter Wollny chanced upon the manuscripts in 1992 and authenticating them took half of his lifetimeThe best fictional detectives are famed for their intuition, an ability to spot some seemingly ineffable discrepancy. Peter Wollny, the musicologist behind last week's world sensational" revelation of two previously unknown works by Johann Sebastian Bach, had a funny feeling when he chanced upon two intriguing sheets of music in a dusty library in 1992.His equivalent of the Columbo turn, from mere hunch to unravelling a secret, would take up half his life. Continue reading...

Competition-winning apartment building plans should be approved twice as quickly by NSW councils, and will be three to six storeys high

Australian foreign minister echoes European call for sovereignty to be respected and for end to Russia's illegal and immoral war'

Charities say vulnerable young people are being failed by local authorities, the police and central governmentMore than 2,000 children who have been trafficked or who arrived in the UK alone to claim asylum disappeared from social services' care last year, according to freedom of information data shared with the Guardian.The authors of a report, Until Harm Ends, submitted FoI requests to children's services departments in councils across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland asking for information about trafficked children and those who arrived alone in the UK and claimed asylum, who then went missing after being taken into care. Continue reading...

In-app notifications go out this week to users believed to be aged under 16 ahead of 10 December social media ban

Move aims to bring in extra 1.2bn of savings as government seeks to head off criticism over welfare spending

US-Ukraine statement comes hours after European countries propose their own alternative peaceThe US and Ukraine said they had created an updated and refined peace framework" to end the war with Russia, hours after European countries proposed their own radical alternative that omitted some of the pro-Russia points made in an original US-backed document that was leaked last week.The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, emerged from a meeting in Switzerland late on Sunday with a Ukrainian delegation led by Volodymyr Zelenskyy's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, saying he was very optimistic" about the progress of the talks. A joint statement between the two countries said that any eventual deal would fully uphold" Ukraine's sovereignty. Continue reading...

Tributes paid to culinary visionary' who was early celebrity proponent of using local and seasonal ingredientsTributes have been paid to the pioneering chef and restaurant proprietor Skye Gyngell, who has died aged 62.The Australian was an early celebrity proponent of using local and seasonal ingredients and built a garden restaurant from scratch, the Petersham Nurseries Cafe in Richmond, south-west London, which went on to win a Michelin star. Continue reading...

Re:State report says role hospitals play needs fundamental reinvention' to deliver better care for patientsHospitals need to become smaller, with fewer beds, to help save the NHS from its permacrisis", a thinktank has said.The role hospitals play needs to undergo a fundamental reinvention" to help them escape the overcrowding that has become widespread over the last decade, according to the thinktank Re:State. Continue reading...

Planned overhaul of editorial guidelines committee would dilute influence of Tory board appointment Robbie GibbThe BBC is planning to overhaul the way it investigates editorial concerns, in a move that will dilute the influence of a Conservative figure accused of trying to sway its political impartiality.A new deputy director general post is also expected to be created to aid Tim Davie's successor as director general, after concerns that the task of overseeing the corporation has become too big for one person. Continue reading...

Brazil's former president says he took a soldering iron to electronic tag as he was hallucinating that it was buggedBrazil's far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro has claimed he took a soldering iron to his electronic ankle monitor after having a substance-induced psychotic attack" that caused him to hallucinate that the device was bugged.Bolsonaro made the claim during a custody hearing on Sunday, 24 hours after he was arrested at his home in the capital, Brasilia, amid suspicions he was planning to abscond to a foreign embassy to avoid being sent to jail to serve a 27-year sentence for masterminding a failed coup. Continue reading...

Sarah Forrester, 55, was found unresponsive at a home in Moredon, with a 13-year-old girl arrested and later bailedPolice have named a woman whose death has sparked a murder investigation.Sarah Forrester, 55, a mental health counsellor, died after an incident at a house in Moredon, Swindon, on Friday evening. Continue reading...

Fifty groups write letter calling for policy in high-profile cases in England and Wales to be scrappedThe police's decision to reveal the ethnicity and nationality of suspects in high-profile crimes has had a devastating effect" and is helping to spread prejudice, racial justice campaigners say.The warning comes from the Runnymede Trust and 50 other groups demanding that the policy in England and Wales is scrapped, in a letter sent to the home secretary and police chiefs on Friday. Continue reading...

People rightly want to get get paid for their work, says Liz Kendall, in apparent change of tack to predecessorThe technology secretary, Liz Kendall, has indicated she is sympathetic to artists' demands not to have their copyrighted works scraped by AI companies without payment and said she wanted to reset" the debate.In remarks that suggest a change in approach from her predecessor, Peter Kyle, who had hoped to require artists to actively opt out of having their work ingested by generative AI systems, she said people rightly want to get paid for the work that they do" and we have to find a way that both sectors can grow and thrive in future". Continue reading...

Chancellor Friedrich Merz says we are still a long way from that' as Trump blasts Ukrainian leadership on social mediaThe Ukrainian delegation has held talks with European security officials in Geneva, according to the head of Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office, Andriy Yermak.Overall, a series of meetings in various formats is planned for today. We continue working together to achieve a lasting and just peace for Ukraine," Yermak wrote in a post on X. The next meeting is with the US delegation. We are in a very constructive mood." Continue reading...

TUC calls on chancellor to focus on child poverty and upping minimum wageUnions have urged the chancellor to keep focused on raising living standards, targeting child poverty and upping the national minimum wage, in the face of renewed calls from business to change course on employment rights.The TUC said that Rachel Reeves must deliver a living standards budget" on Wednesday to ease the pressure on working households whose incomes have remained stagnant in more than a decade. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Man box' stereotype of appearing tough and believing in rigid gender roles linked to likelihood of committing acts of abuse, new report finds

Unable to reunite with their families in Gaza due to the closed border, Palestinian workers have spent two years in a refugee camp at Nablus stadiumInside a dim locker room at the Nablus municipal stadium, in the occupied West Bank, the television rarely goes dark, streaming day and night the relentless news from Gaza. Gathered in front of it are a group of men from Khan Younis. For more than two years, they have lived in this stadium converted into a refugee camp, their lives suspended between exile and the war they watched on a screen.They are mostly construction workers who were in Israel on the morning of 7 October 2023 when Hamas launched its attack. As Israel rounded up Palestinians from Gaza, they fled to the West Bank, where they remain - cut off from wives and children living in makeshift tents inside the strip. With very few exceptions, civilians are not currently allowed in or out of Gaza. Continue reading...

TV personality wants homeowners and businesses to shun dishonest' firms Arconic, Kingspan and CelotexGrenfell United and the TV architect George Clarke are calling on businesses and homeowners to take a moral decision" and boycott the companies criticised in the Grenfell inquiry for systematic dishonesty".Clarke, best known for his series George Clarke's Amazing Spaces, said he had made the decision not to use products from Arconic, Kingspan and Celotex, three companies that were heavily criticised in the findings of the Grenfell inquiry published last year and who have continued to deny wrongdoing. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Jason Clare says new powers will ensure information is accurate, comprehensive and representative' to help government deliver evidence-based reforms'

Artworks to go on display in January at Bethlem Museum of the Mind, in the world's oldest psychiatric hospitalFrom images of empty community rooms and a colourful canvas crammed with caricatures to a baby linked by an umbilical-like cord to a seated stranger, artworks on the subject of mental health are to go on display in an exhibition that examines social bonds against the backdrop of today's polarised times.Artists have long drawn on their own experiences of mental ill health. Staged at the Bethlem Museum of the Mind, in the world's oldest psychiatric hospital, in south-east London, Kindred will explore the power of communities to make people feel comforted as well as isolated. Continue reading...

Standoff between China and EU over supply of chips for car industry underlines value of sector requiring huge financial investmentKeir Starmer has announced a critical minerals and rare earths strategy to build resilience against China, which has a stranglehold on supplies of materials including magnets critical to everything from car doors to fridges.For too long, Britain has been dependent on a handful of overseas suppliers, leaving our economy and national security exposed to global shocks," the prime minister said. Continue reading...

Severe lack' in territory where Israeli strikes have killed more than 50 people and injured over 100 in recent daysHospitals in Gaza are running out of essential supplies, with new waves of Israeli airstrikes killing more than 50 people and injuring more than 100 in recent days, medical and aid workers in the devastated Palestinian territory have said.Medics told the Guardian on Sunday that stocks of gauze, antiseptics, thermometers and antibiotics were running low. Continue reading...

Did the talks succeed or fail? The verdict must take account of the geopolitical minefield they took place inCop30 in Belem wrapped up on Saturday night more than 24 hours later than planned, and with an Amazonian rainstorm thundering down on the conference centre. The United Nations structure just about held, as it has done these past three weeks despite fire, savage tropical heat and blistering political attacks on the multilateral system of global environmental governance.Dozens of agreements were gavelled through on the final day, as the most collective form of humanity worked to resolve the most complex and dangerous challenge that our species has ever faced. It was chaotic. The process very nearly collapsed and had to be rescued by last-ditch talks that lasted into the early morning. Veteran observers told me the Paris agreement was on life-support. Continue reading...

Professionals say claims about birth, including excessive bleeding, blue babies and placenta care, are dangerous Full story: How the FBS is linked to baby deaths around the worldThe Free Birth Society (FBS) is a multimillion-dollar business that promotes the idea of women giving birth with no medical assistance.It is led by two ex-doulas turned social media influencers: Emilee Saldaya and Yolande Norris-Clark. Neither have midwifery or medical training, but they claim to have extensive experience from attending the births of other women. Continue reading...

Calls for Rachel Reeves to increase taxes in budget as estimate outstrips duties collected from online casinosBritish gambling companies spent an astronomic" 2bn on advertising and marketing last year, according to a new estimate that has intensified calls for the chancellor to increase taxes on the sector.Bookmakers, online casinos and slot machine companies spent the sum through a mixture of print and digital promotions, as well as affiliate programmes, where third parties are paid to steer gamblers towards particular operators in return for a fee. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Member of homeland security group says anti-terrorism Prevent scheme risks being overwhelmed by Palestine advocatesThe anti-terrorism Prevent programme risks being overwhelmed because of the government's ban on Palestine Action and could lead to people being wrongly criminalised, a member of the Home Office's homeland security group has warned.The official said there was already confusion among counter-terrorism police, officials and in schools and hospitals as a result of the proscription of the direct action group, which makes being a member of - or showing support for - it a criminal offence under the Terrorism Act. Continue reading...

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Environment ministry says most of the deaths were in the mountainous central province of Dak LakThe death toll from major flooding in Vietnam has risen to 90, with 12 more people missing, the environment ministry said on Sunday after days of heavy rain and landslides.Relentless rain has lashed south-central Vietnam since late October and popular holiday destinations have been hit by several rounds of flooding. Continue reading...

Christian group revises up number of students and teachers missing after one of country's largest mass abductionGunmen have kidnapped more than 300 students and teachers in one of the largest mass kidnappings in Nigeria, a Christian group said on Saturday, as security fears mounted in Africa's most populous nation.The early Friday raid on St Mary's co-educational school in Niger state in western Nigeria came after gunmen on Monday stormed a secondary school in neighbouring Kebbi state, abducting 25 girls. Continue reading...

Research shows members would back Andy Burnham, Ed Miliband, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting over PMAndy Burnham, Ed Miliband, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting would all win a head-to-head leadership contest against Keir Starmer, according to a poll of Labour members.Research conducted by Survation for LabourList found that Burnham and Rayner would defeat the prime minister by considerable margins, while Streeting and Miliband would have a slight advantage but within the margin of error. Continue reading...

Chancellor will confirm the measure, intended to help commuters on expensive routes, in her budget speechRail fares in England will not be increased in 2026, the government has announced, surprising passengers with the first fare freeze in 30 years.The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will confirm a freeze on fares in this week's budget, a move designed to limit inflation, ease the cost of living and support economic growth. Continue reading...

Brazilian ex-president says he used soldering iron on device and is now in custody over fears he was going to abscondBrazil's former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro has claimed he tried to damage his electronic ankle monitor out of curiosity" after he was arrested at his villa owing to suspicions he was poised to abscond.In a video released by the supreme court, Bolsonaro - who was recently sentenced to 27 years in prison for masterminding a military coup - can be heard admitting to a security official that he had used a soldering iron to tamper with the black tag. Continue reading...

Prime minister says in principle anyone with knowledge of child sexual offence cases should disclose what they knowKeir Starmer has increased the pressure on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to cooperate with a congressional investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, saying those who are caught up in child sexual offence cases should disclose any information they have.Asked whether Mountbatten-Windsor, who was stripped of his royal titles last month, should respond to the US House oversight committee, the prime minister said those with relevant information" should share it. The former prince had a long friendship with Epstein and is alleged to have sexually assaulted one of his victims, Virginia Giuffre - allegations he denies. Continue reading...

Many fear competition and diversity will be diminished as Daily Mail owner wins race to buy newspaperAs the dust settles from the battle for the ownership of the Daily Telegraph, one man has been left standing: Lord Rothermere, whose family have been a mainstay of British newspapers for more than a century.This is a very British stitch-up," said Lionel Barber, the former editor of the Financial Times. Lord Rothermere has played a very astute poker hand, he's shown patience and he's the big winner." Continue reading...

Files show then PM was walking dog, riding motorbike and hosting guests as pandemic planning stalled in lost month'Boris Johnson took four days off from official government business during a key period in the UK's Covid preparation when the NHS was bracing to be overwhelmed" by the virus.Official disclosure for the period in February 2020 - described by the Covid inquiry as a lost month" in the country's crisis response - reveal Johnson enjoyed an extended break during the half-term holidays at Chevening, a governmental estate in Kent, where he spent time walking his dog and taking motorcycle rides. Continue reading...

Celebrations to McLean's jaw-dropping goal picked up by seismic activity monitors at Glasgow Geothermal ObservatoryWhen Scotland qualified for the men's football World Cup for the first time in 28 years, supporters were propelled into wild celebration - and even made the earth move in the process.According to the British Geological Survey (BGS), when Kenny McLean scored from the halfway line to seal a breathtaking 4-2 win over Denmark, which are ranked 18 places higher in the world than Scotland, the reaction at Hampden Park was equivalent to a very small earthquake. Continue reading...

Police detain teenager after responding to reports of disorder in Moredon on Friday eveningA 13-year-old schoolgirl has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a woman died inside a house in Swindon.Police detained the teenager after responding to reports of a disorder in Baydon Close, Moredon, at about 7pm on Friday. They arrived to find a woman in her 50s not breathing, with no other reported injuries. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed, you can read more on this story hereLeaders from Europe, Canada, Japan and Australia are expected to huddle on the sidelines of the G20 summit on Saturday to discuss the way ahead on Ukraine", an EU official said.A European diplomatic source told Agence France-Presse (AFP):We are working on making the US plan something more able to be applied, based on previous dialogue. Continue reading...

Women's groups welcomed the announcement on the eve of the international leaders' summit in JohannesburgHundreds of women gathered in cities across South Africa on Friday to protest against gender-based violence in the country before the G20 summit in Johannesburg this weekend.Demonstrators turned out in 15 locations - including Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban - wearing black as a sign of mourning and resistance". Continue reading...

Louise Haigh criticises delivery company over treatment of workers who spoke out against pay cutsThe Labour government must back delivery workers who were sacked for speaking out about DPD's plans to cut of thousands of pounds from their pay, a former cabinet minister has said.Louise Haigh has heavily criticised the delivery firm over its treatment of the workers - one of whom said the row had cost them their livelihoods just in time for Christmas. Continue reading...

Robert James Purkiss faces extradition for alleged septic tank killing of Agnes Wanjiru near army training baseA former British soldier accused of murdering a Kenyan woman whose body was found in a septic tank in 2012 has spoken publicly about the allegations, saying: I do not believe I ever met her."Robert James Purkiss, 38, faces extradition to Kenya, where he is wanted for the alleged brutal" murder of 21-year-old Agnes Wanjiru in Nanyuki, a town near a British army training camp. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Kanak leader Christian Tein, who was freed from prison in June, says France is deliberately dragging out' re-issue of his passportA pro-independence leader from the French overseas territory of New Caledonia has accused the French government of deliberately dragging out" his passport application, preventing him from flying home after his release from prison.Christian Tein, an Indigenous Kanak leader, was arrested in New Caledonia in June 2024 over allegations that he had instigated the deadly pro-independence protests that had taken place on the island a month earlier. Continue reading...