By backing Israeli annexation and denying Palestinians their rights, Donald Trump is only perpetuating the conflictDonald Trump’s long-awaited “deal of the century”, unveiled with boastful fanfare on Tuesday in the presence of a beaming Benjamin Netanyahu, is not by any stretch of the imagination a plan that will allow Israelis and Palestinians to work out how they can live together in peace, equality and dignity.It is unlikely to lead to any kind of negotiations, because the Palestinians were already understandably furious at a series of unilateral US moves that undermined decades of international consensus about how to resolve the world’s most intractable conflict – involving the status of Jerusalem, the legality of Israeli settlements and the ever-emotive question of Palestinian refugees. It ignores countless UN resolutions, the Oslo accords of 1993, the Arab peace initiative of 2002 and the fundamental idea that Palestinians, like Israelis, have the inalienable right to self-determination. Continue reading...

Which passport should my children use? Will I pay home or EU student fees? Your questions answeredThere is continuing confusion about citizens’ rights after Brexit. We asked you about your concerns, and many wrote in with questions about pension and healthcare rights.You raised other issues too: can I still sail around Europe? Will I pay home fees if I start university in the Netherlands this year? What will happen about my pet’s passport? There is much unfinished Brexit business, as you will see from our answers below, composed with the help of experts and government departments. Continue reading...

Call for inquiry into CPS as prosecutions fall by a quarter and convictions by a fifth

This plan is simply a continuation of US-Israel policy. Palestinians have heard it all before and won’t accept itAt the White House on Tuesday, Donald Trump laid out his “deal of the century”: a plan for total Palestinian capitulation. It calls on Palestinians to recognise Israel as a Jewish state with all of Jerusalem as its capital, to give up the right of return that would allow Palestinian refugees to live in Israel, to accept the annexation of the Jordan Valley and the illegal Israeli settlements there, and to live in a series of Bantustans connected by roads and tunnels that would all essentially be controlled by Israel.None of this should be surprising. Not only is the plan simply a continuation of the Trump administration’s policy towards Israel and Palestine since the day he took office, but it comes after decades of disregard towards Palestinian aspirations of freedom and sovereignty. Continue reading...

Bronze sculptures and etchings by Spanish surrealist stolen from Stockholm’s Couleur galleryThieves have stolen bronze sculptures and etchings by the surrealist artist Salvador Dalí from a gallery in Stockholm in a smash and grab raid.The Couleur gallery, in the Swedish capital’s upmarket Östermalm district, was holding an exhibition of work by Dalí containing about 10 pieces by the Spanish artist, the news agency TT said. Continue reading...

Mother appeals for help finding Natalie Jenkins, 32, who was last seen on 10 DecemberA woman has appealed to the public for help finding her daughter as detectives launched a murder inquiry.Natalie Jenkins, 32, was last seen in Middlesbrough on 10 December and although she was close to her family, they have not heard from her since. At a news conference in Middlesbrough, DCI Mark Dimelow said the force was treating her disappearance as a suspected murder. Continue reading...

Chinese authorities yet to give plane permission to leave region at centre of outbreakHundreds of Britons hoping to flee the Chinese region at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak have been left stranded after an emergency flight chartered by the government to take them home was delayed.A plane was due to leave locked-down Wuhan on Thursday morning, evacuating about 200 Britons to the UK where they would be quarantined for two weeks at a secure NHS facility. Continue reading...

WHO prepares to meet to decide whether to declare outbreak a global emergency

Political party of Los Israelitas wins second largest share in new congress, and prompts concern over their fundamentalist viewsIn a country that takes pride in its colourful folklore, Los Israelitas – a religious sect whose members dress in flowing biblical robes – were regarded as just one more strand in Peru’s cultural tapestry.That was until their political party became an unexpected winner in parliamentary elections on Sunday. Continue reading...

Mother of victim urges Netflix to be respectful and truthful as people still grieving today

Former senator Nigel Scullion is also a shooting enthusiast and funds were announced shortly before May 2019 electionBridget McKenzie gave a $500,000 grant to the Northern Territory shooting club of Nigel Scullion, her former Coalition colleague and fellow shooting enthusiast.Guardian Australia also understands that the club’s application for the grant was initially given a low score of 60 out of 100 by Sport Australia, well below the 74-point cut-off identified by the auditor-general as necessary for projects to be awarded money. Continue reading...

Politicians sing Auld Lang Syne in raw end to a banal debate where the result was never in doubt

Quim Torra address lays bare splits over best way to achieve independence from SpainCatalonia’s separatist president, Quim Torra, has announced he will call an early regional election amid growing divisions and deteriorating relations between the two pro-independence parties in his coalition government.In an address that laid bare the splits between his centre-right Together for Catalonia party and the Catalan Republican Left (ERC), Torra said: “No government can work without unity and without a shared, common strategy and loyalty between partners.” Continue reading...

UK nationals rush to settle in Spain before they lose their rights as EU citizens on 31 December

Campaigners say Césars are acclaiming ‘an abuser and rapist on the run’Feminist campaigners have accused France’s most prestigious film awards of acclaiming “an abuser and rapist on the run” after Roman Polanski’s latest film topped the list of nominations for prizes this year.The Polish-born director fled from the US to France in 1978 after admitting the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl and he has been a fugitive from the US justice system ever since, despite repeated attempts to have him extradited. Continue reading...

Hundreds of foreigners evacuated from Wuhan as number of confirmed cases in China reaches almost 6,000

As Britain prepares for Brexit day on Friday, we visit the countries that are desperate to join“I sometimes think that those who are inside the European Union don’t realise how cold it is outside,” said Zoran Zaev, who in April will stand for re-election as North Macedonia’s prime minister. For Zaev, watching the Brexit saga play out has been a bemusing experience as he pushes to take his country in the other direction.The western Balkans nations have been promised an EU future for more than a decade, but expectations of a formal start to accession talks with North Macedonia and Albania were dashed late last year when the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said that given Brexit and other challenges, the bloc should reconsider how it goes about enlargement. Continue reading...

Hearing on teenager who later killed herself could lead to first international standard for protection from sexual violence at schools in Latin AmericaAn international court hearing that involves the alleged sexual abuse of an Ecuadorian schoolgirl between the age of 14 and 16 by her vice-principal could transform girls’ rights across Latin America.In a region where 30% of students between 13 and 15 claim to have experienced sexual harassment while at school, it is hoped that the case, heard on Tuesday at the Inter-American Court on Human Rights (IACHR) in Costa Rica, will establish the first international standards to protect girls from coercion and sexual violence in school. Continue reading...

Fisheries bill to also ensure sustainable and ‘climate smart’ fishingThe automatic right of EU vessels to fish in British waters, in accordance with the EU’s common fisheries policy, is to be ended under the fisheries bill introduced to parliament today.There will also be measures to ensure sustainable fishing and “climate-smart” fishing in UK waters, added since the last version of the bill which had to be abandoned. This is in line with the government’s environmental commitments, and provisions to provide financial support to fishing communities. Continue reading...

Scott Morrison may pat heads and spout calming words, but he and his government are playing with the factsThink of it as a hypnotist’s trick, because that’s what it is. Scott Morrison says it over and over: there is no dispute about the need to take action to reduce Australia’s emissions. No dispute. You are getting sleepy. No dispute.In fact there is a dispute, and a serious one. By failing to do what is necessary, the government Morrison leads maintains a serious dispute with what the climate science tells us needs to be done both in Australia and internationally to avert the most dangerous risks associated with global heating. Continue reading...

Emails reveal architect and builders discussed how cladding was not fire-resistantThe architect, builders and fire engineer who worked on the disastrous Grenfell Tower refurbishment knew the cladding system would fail in the event of a fire more than two years before 72 people were killed, according to emails revealed at the public inquiry on Tuesday.Staff at architects Studio E, the fire engineer Exova, the facade installer Harley, and Rydon, the main contractor, discussed how the cladding system they were planning to wrap around the 120-home apartment block was likely to fail in the event of a fire. Continue reading...

Man infected by colleague who appeared not to have symptoms when virus was transmitted

Amnesty attacks heavy-handed response to protests as Adama Barrow clings to powerHuman rights groups have criticised authorities in the Gambia after police arrested 137 people, injured dozens and detained prominent journalists amid protests calling for the president to honour a pledge to step down after three years in office.Adama Barrow came to power after the election in 2016, ending 22 years of brutal dictatorship by Yahya Jammeh and inspiring widespread hopes for reform. Continue reading...

Nations scramble to extract citizens from Wuhan as first death is recorded in Beijing

Indigenous affairs minister says Cashman’s membership of advisory group on voice to parliament is untenable after letter is used to discredit Bruce PascoeThe Aboriginal businesswoman Josephine Cashman has been sacked from her government advisory role, after allegations that she provided a faked letter from a senior Aboriginal leader as part of a campaign to discredit the author Bruce Pascoe.In a brief statement the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Ken Wyatt, said Cashman’s actions were “not conducive to the constructive and collaborative approach” needed on the advisory council on an Indigenous voice to parliament. Continue reading...

Mustafa Sanalla says country facing disaster as blockade disrupts oil productionWorld powers will be complicit in the collapse of the rule of law in Libya if they do not do more to call out the countries backing those responsible for disrupting the country’s oil exports, the head of the Libyan national oil corporation has said.Mustafa Sanalla said too many western powers were happy to let the countries meddling in Libya sign non-intervention agreements that they had no intention of honouring. Continue reading...

Artist revealed last year that the chorus of her Grammy award winning song, which also topped the Triple J listener poll, used a sample of Sydney traffic light sounds

Police and prison staff attacked as five gang members sentenced for murder of 19-year-oldViolence broke out in the dock and the public gallery as five gang members were jailed for life over the murder of a 19-year-old man in north London last year.Police officers and prison staff at the Old Bailey were attacked as the five defendants were sentenced on Monday for murdering Kamali Gabbidon-Lynck in Wood Green in February 2019. Continue reading...

Review led by Ed Miliband tasked with suggesting ways the party might find a path to powerGimmicky policies, horrible inefficiency and factional promotions are among the catalogue of errors behind Labour’s dismal performance at the general election, according to party members.The damning comments on Labour’s campaign form part of an early release of views gathered by a team headed by the former party leader Ed Miliband consisting of MPs, union leaders and party members. They have tasked themselves with analysing Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign and suggesting ways the party might find a path back to power. Continue reading...

Storms have submerged entire neighborhoods and sent homes tumbling down hillsides, causing more than 30,000 to fleeMore than 30,000 people have been displaced by heavy rains in south-east Brazil that have killed 54 people and left 18 missing.The storms have caused floods and landslides, submerging entire neighborhoods and sending homes tumbling down hillsides in the states of Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo and Rio de Janeiro. Rains subsided by Monday, but were expected to resume later this week in some areas. Continue reading...

Global equity sell-off deepens and oil falls below $59 as death toll from coronavirus rises, sparking fears over economic impact

Housing officers are using their local knowledge to spot abuse and exploitation, particularly ‘cuckooing’ of vulnerable residents by drug gangsHousing associations are playing a growing role in tackling county lines crimes, using their knowledge of local communities to spot early signs of abuse and exploitation.In the north west of England, the exploitation of young people by drug gangs – known as “county lines” crime – is a serious problem, not just in poorer areas but in York, Harrogate and places with good transport links. Now lawyers, housing associations and police are building networks of support to try and provide innovative solutions to the crisis. Continue reading...

Baghdad embassy cafeteria believed to have been struck in rare direct hit in fortified Green Zone

Ivor Perl and Susan Pollack were 12 and 13 when they were transported to Auschwitz. On the 75th anniversary of the concentration camp’s liberation, they tell their storiesOn 27 January 1945 Soviet soldiers entered the gates of the Auschwitz concentration camp in south-west Poland. The site had been evacuated by the Nazis just days earlier. Thus ended the largest mass murder in a single location in human history.Precise numbers are still debated, but according to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, the German SS systematically killed at least 960,000 of the 1.1 million to 1.3 million Jews sent to the camp. Other victims included approximately 74,000 Poles, 21,000 Roma, 15,000 Soviet PoWs and at least 10,000 from other nationalities. More people died at Auschwitz than at any other Nazi concentration camp. Continue reading...

Appearance of Kim Kyong-hui next to the North Korean leader at a performance puts paid to talk of executionKim Jong-un’s aunt has appeared in public for the first time in more than six years, ending speculation that she had been purged or executed after helping her nephew establish himself as North Korea’s leader.The official newspaper of North Korea’s ruling party, the Rodong Sinmun, showed Kim Kyong-hui seated next to Kim and his wife, Ri Sol-ju, at a performance to mark the lunar new year at a theatre in Pyongyang on Saturday. Continue reading...

Fears expressed over inquiry descending into ‘blame game’ among corporates involved in construction, design and claddingThe companies which wrapped Grenfell Tower in combustible cladding will finally face public scrutiny when the inquiry into the loss of 72 lives restarts this week.Around 200,000 unseen documents, from private emails to phone transcripts and commercial agreements, will be released during 18 months of hearings examining decisions taken in the months and years before the fire, its immediate aftermath and the role of the UK government. Some of the evidence are expected to contain explosive revelations. Continue reading...

At least 22 people killed and more than 1,100 injured, with fatalities likely to increaseA powerful 6.8-magnitude earthquake in eastern Turkey has killed at least 22 people, with the death toll expected to rise as rescuers search for survivors under the rubble in freezing winter conditions.The quake late on Friday injured a further 1,103 people in hardest-hit Elazig and Malatya provinces and was followed by more than 390 aftershocks, 14 of which had magnitudes above 4 and were felt as far away as Iran and Lebanon. Continue reading...

From stars who don’t age to the Love Island pout, the ‘tweaked’ look is becoming the new normal. But what is it doing to us?Do you know what a tweakment is? I didn’t, not really, until I was lying on my back with a woman dressed in white poised to inject a needle into my face. Tweakment sounds cute, right? Well, tweak does. Like in the Mary Poppins song: “My father gave me nose a tweak.” A tweak is a gesture of affection, like pinching the cheek of a toddler. Tweak tweak.A tweakment is a minor cosmetic procedure, one that doesn’t involve being cut open or going under general anaesthetic or hiding from the world for a fortnight. (Actually, it might involve the last.) The word has come to prominence over the past few years, and is used to cover many different techniques and therapies, mostly done to your face. Continue reading...

Combat Stress says decision to turn down new cases was taken ‘with great sadness’A mental health charity for military veterans is no longer able to take new cases in England or Wales because of a funding crisis.Combat Stress said its income has fallen from £16m to £10m in this financial year partly because of a cut in its NHS funding support, and said the decision to turn down new cases had been taken “with great sadness”. Continue reading...

How did Britain’s worst rapist evade capture for so long?Everyone has a similar reaction when they see Reynhard Sinaga for the first time. It was the same whenever a new reporter came into the Manchester crown courtroom and stared into the dock. Sitting there, smiling, between three hulking security guards, was a small man with thick-rimmed hipster glasses, playing with the shiny, shoulder-length hair he had not cut since his arrest in June 2017. Him? That’s Britain’s worst rapist? Predators come in all shapes and sizes, but Sinaga’s “worst ever” billing was hard to square with the boyish figure in the lumberjack shirt, scribbling notes behind the bulletproof glass as a stream of nervous young men went into the witness box to testify against him.The Guardian was present at three out of Sinaga’s four trials, and Sinaga often seemed to be enjoying himself. He would cock his head to one side, as if studying a nature documentary, as he watched videos of himself raping dozens of men who had made the mistake of going back to his flat after a drunken night out. The prosecution tried to persuade the judge, Suzanne Goddard QC, that Sinaga didn’t need to see the films he had recorded on two iPhones, one perched on a dresser for long shots and another handheld for closeups. But Goddard reluctantly ruled that he should be allowed to see the evidence in order to mount what seemed to be a hopeless defence: that he wasn’t a sexual predator, but a harmless deviant. He just happened to be irresistible to young, usually straight men, who would pretend to be asleep as part of a sexual fantasy in which Sinaga would penetrate them on camera, sometimes for hours on end. Continue reading...

Prime minister says signing of document will end years of argument and divisionBoris Johnson has formally signed the EU withdrawal agreement, smiling as he described it as a “fantastic moment” for the country.His enthusiasm came in sharp contrast to the sombre tone of EU officials, who earlier added their signatures to the document before it crossed the Channel. Continue reading...

Singer imprisoned for nine years for getting teenagers to send him explicit picturesA former star of The X Factor has been jailed for nine years for sexually exploiting seven teenage boys.Danny Tetley, from Bradford, was described as “a despicable creature with very few redeeming features” for encouraging the youngsters to send him explicit pictures in exchange for money. Continue reading...

Huge locust swarms in east Africa are the result of extreme weather swings and could prove catastrophic for a region still reeling from drought and deadly floods. Dense clouds of the ravenous insects have spread from Ethiopia and Somalia into Kenya, in the region’s worse infestation in decades Continue reading...

Andrea Riseborough does her best in a horror reboot that offers murders, maggots, corpses, a haunted house … and zero scares“It’s happening again! It’s NEVER going to end!” That’s a cop, locked up in a secure psychiatric facility after shooting half his face off, ranting about the curse that drove him insane. His words may also be a healthy response to news that Sam Raimi has rebooted The Grudge haunted-house franchise. (Brief history: Takashi Shimizu directed the decent original and a sequel in Japan and made two out of three of the subpar Hollywood follow-ons.) Raimi produces here while directing duties pass to 30-year-old American Nicolas Pesce, who has come up with this franchise oddity: a mainstream horror movie with arthouse sensibilities, a potentially interesting streak of bleak realism and naturalistic performances – but zero scares. Forget about chilling to the bone, The Grudge barely drops below room temperature.Related: Top 20 J-horror films – ranked! Continue reading...

Supreme court justice ‘reserves judgment’ in case of Meng Wanzhou, whom the US is trying to extradite on charges of fraudThe Canadian court tussle over the arrest of a Huawei telecoms executive has been put in limbo after a judge adjourned the case that pits the United States against China.Washington is seeking extradition of Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested in December 2018 during a flight stopover in Vancouver. Continue reading...

News Corp owner was the only media baron the prime minister saw in his first three monthsBoris Johnson saw Rupert Murdoch for a “social meeting” on the day he signalled his intention to seek a general election last year, according to new transparency disclosures.Johnson saw the media billionaire on 2 September, the day when Downing Street briefed that he would be seeking an autumn election if his Brexit plans were thwarted. In the event the election was pushed back to December. Continue reading...

Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen

Prince Charles greets world leaders at the Holocaust remembrance day at fifth World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem. The British royal addressed politicians on Thursday during commemorations marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp Continue reading...

Wellington has restricted foreign political donations but its lax approach to Beijing suggests economic interests still trump national security concernsTransparency International announced yesterday that New Zealand is the least corrupt country in the world. This is excellent news, but New Zealand cannot afford to rest on its laurels.Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index assesses whether countries have a corrupt judiciary and public sector. Some other aspects where corruption can also occur, such as political funding, are not included in the index. Continue reading...