PM mingled with Russian elite amid claims of Moscow interference in UK politicsIt was the equivalent of a V-sign cheerfully flashed at his critics. The day after his landslide election victory, Boris Johnson and his girlfriend Carrie Symonds dropped into a caviar-fuelled Christmas party in London hosted by former KGB agent Alexander Lebedev and his son Evgeny.During the campaign Johnson had stubbornly refused to publish the Russia report, written by the last parliament’s intelligence and security committee. Continue reading...

Bucharest’s notorious Palace of the Parliament bears witness to the folly of dictator shot dead on Christmas Day 1989Bucharest’s most notorious building sits atop a small hill in the centre of the city, appearing squat despite its 84-metre height, due to its vast length and breadth. The Palace of the Parliament, as it is now called, is a monument to dictatorial folly whose benefactor was executed before he could see it completed.Christmas Day will mark 30 years since Romania’s communist-era dictator, Nicolae Ceaușescu, was tried and shot dead along with his wife, as the last revolution of 1989 swept through what was perhaps the communist bloc’s most repressive state. Continue reading...

President gives up automatic pension given to French leaders as union standoff continuesEmmanuel Macron is to give up his own generous presidential pension in an attempt to calm anger over politicians’ privileges, as French transport strikes caused chaos for Christmas travellers.With rail strikes continuing into their third week and travellers scrambling to get to home for the holidays, Macron, who turned 42 this weekend, made the symbolic move to become the first president in more than 50 years to give up the automatic pension of more than €6,000 a month that all French leaders receive after leaving office, regardless of age or wealth. Continue reading...

PM denies law is anti-Muslim as police clash with demonstrators across IndiaClashes have continued between Indian police and protesters angered by a new citizenship law that excludes Muslims, as the prime minister, Narendra Modi, used a rally for his Hindu nationalist party to defend the legislation, accusing the opposition of pushing the country into a “fear psychosis”.Twenty-three people have been killed nationwide since the law was passed in parliament earlier this month in protests that represent the first major roadblock for Modi’s Hindu nationalist agenda since his party’s landslide re-election last spring. Continue reading...

Leader of ultra-conservative group ordered to retire over allegations, but died before facing accusersSexual abuse of minors was rife among superiors of the Legionaires of Christ Catholic religious order, with at least 60 boys abused by its founder, Father Marcial Maciel, a report by the group revealed.The report is important because for decades until 2006, including during all of the pontificate of Pope John Paul, the Vatican dismissed accusations by seminarians that Maciel had abused them sexually, some when they were as young as 12. Continue reading...

Twenty-six-year-old car passenger killed in collision in Queenstown Road, BatterseaA 26-year-old woman has died after a collision between a National Express coach and a car in south-west London.The incident took place on Queenstown Road, in Battersea, at about 4.30am on Sunday. A rear-seat passenger of the car was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after 5am. The female driver of the vehicle was taken to a south London hospital where police said she remained in a critical condition. Continue reading...

Police pepper-spray demonstrators after peaceful protest in support of UighursHong Kong riot police pepper-sprayed protesters to disperse crowds in the heart of the city’s financial district after a largely peaceful rally in support of China’s ethnic Uighurs turned chaotic.Dozens of police marched across a public square overlooking Hong Kong’s harbour on Sunday to confront protesters who hurled glass bottles and rocks at them. Continue reading...

Ebrima Cham, 35, killed in Hounslow flat in what police believe was a targeted attackA man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a 35-year-old was stabbed to death as he slept in what detectives believe was a targeted attack.Ebrima Cham, known as Brim, was attacked after three men broke in to his friend’s flat in Hounslow, west London, where he was staying. Continue reading...

Holders of ticket number 26590 win top prize in country’s bumper Christmas lotteryThe holders of ticket number 26590 struck it lucky in Spain when they won the top prize in the country’s bumper Christmas lottery.The top-prize-winning number, worth €400,000 (£341,000) fell out of the enormous metallic shuffling bins in a live televised event on Sunday morning. The winners won €20,000 for each euro spent on a €20 ticket. Continue reading...

Mario Sandoval charged with dictatorship-era crimes in Argentina – so how could he have worked undetected at a top French university?Mario Sandoval had been living in France for 14 years when he became a lecturer at the Institute of Latin American Studies (IHEAL) at the Sorbonne in Paris.The Argentinian security specialist was in his mid-40s, spoke good French and had recently obtained French citizenship. His credentials were impeccable – he’d spent the previous five years teaching international relations at another Paris institute, the Université Marne-la-Vallée – and he soon became a valued asset at the Sorbonne. Continue reading...

Scar of Bethlehem designed to make people think about how Palestinians live in divided cityBanksy’s latest piece – the artist’s take on a nativity scene – has been unveiled at a hotel in Bethlehem.The Scar of Bethlehem features a nativity scene with Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus, but instead of a star hanging over the crib there is what appears to be a large bullet hole piercing an imposing grey wall. Continue reading...

Australian PM Scott Morrison says government won’t change its climate change policy as New South Wales premier says ‘not much left’ of town of Balmoral

Scott Morrison’s press conference on the Australian fires was just more talking points and spin. The country needs more than wordsScott Morrison says this is not a time for division, or partisanship, or point scoring. He says we should unite in response to the current crisis. That’s certainly true. We have been.But prime minister, this is also time to stop pretending. Talking about Australia’s woefully inadequate climate policy at this time is not partisan, it is essential. And, with respect, the same same old talking points you rolled out on your return from Hawaii just don’t cut it anymore. Continue reading...

As an election year approaches, several key themes emerged from questions you sent in for the prime minister

As MPs approve the prime minister’s Brexit deal, a monster stirs…•You can buy your own print of this cartoon Continue reading...

Two people confirmed dead in South Australia as fires burn at emergency level across three different states

Police and protesters have clashed across India and six people died during standoffs on Friday in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, where tensions exploded between majority Hindus and minority Muslims.

Founding family criticises approval of £4bn deal despite national security concernsThe government has been accused of handing control away after it approved a US private equity firm’s £4bn takeover of the UK defence company Cobham despite national security concerns.The deal had been delayed since mid-2019 after fears were raised that Advent International’s acquisition could undermine the country’s security. Continue reading...

The Democratic congresswoman and the Labour MP swap stories of challenging presidents and PMs, Bollywood, and formative childhoodsThe wall outside Ilhan Omar’s office is not like that of other members of Congress. In Washington DC, a blank corridor of congressional offices gives way, outside the door to the office of the Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota, to a collage of cards, notes and handwritten posters offering variations on the slogan “We stand with Ilhan”. The 37-year-old, who was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, and spent four years in a refugee camp before fleeing with her family to the US, has for the last year been the target of vicious rightwing attacks, not least by President Trump. In July this year, he suggested she and three other women of colour – members of the so-called Squad of progressives newly elected to Congress – should “go back” to the “places from which they came”. In some ways, Omar is the most visible of the four: she is the first person ever to wear a hijab in Congress.Tan Dhesi, Labour MP for Slough, understands the law of firsts: the 41-year-old is the first member of parliament to wear a turban and, like Omar, has a reputation for speaking out against anti-Muslim sentiment in government. In September, during prime minister’s questions, Dhesi called on Boris Johnson to apologise for his remarks about Muslim women looking like “letterboxes” which, to cheers from the chamber, he called “derogatory and racist”. Continue reading...

How events are likely to unfold as the UK enters an 11-month transition period after Brexit day

Downing Street event featured Johnson’s attempt to be funny, but with Dom surrounded by hacks it was easy to see where real power layUnder normal circumstances, it would be considered a huge breach of etiquette to let you know that yet again I have been overlooked in the New Year’s honours list before its publication. An astonishing omission, I agree, but there you are. But with the announcement of Nicky Morgan’s peerage, I feel that the rules have already been broken and I might as well come clean now. Because exactly when the once and present culture secretary first discovered she was going to be made a baroness is now a matter of some confusion. Continue reading...

Until four years ago Dar Es Salaam had no public transport. Artist Popa Matumula looks at the impact a new bus system is having on the city’s legendarily bad traffic Continue reading...

The program, introduced after the Christchurch massacre in March, has removed 56,000 guns from circulationNew Zealand’s ambitious firearm amnesty ends on Friday with questions over its success, as critics say the police only managed to collect about a third of the weapons that were outlawed after the Christchurch massacre.Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern banned semi-automatic weapons and launched a gun amnesty and buyback scheme earlier this year, after a March shooting in Christchurch where a man is accused of gunning down 51 Muslims in two mosques. Continue reading...

Average maximum reaches temperature of 41.9C or 107.4F on Wednesday – a full degree above previous mark set the day beforeAustralia recorded its hottest day on record on Wednesday, with an average maximum temperature of 41.9C (107.4F), beating the previous record by 1C that had been set only 24 hours earlier.Tuesday 16 December recorded an average of 40.9C across the continent, beating the previous record of 40.3C set on 7 January 2013. But it held the record for just 24 hours. Continue reading...

Civil court rules in favour of reporter, two years after she alleged a bureau chief date-raped herA Japanese woman whose rape accusations against a prominent TV journalist turned her into a symbol of the country’s fledgling #MeToo movement has been awarded 3.3m yen [$30,000] in damages.Shiori Ito went public in 2017 with allegations that Noriyuki Yamaguchi, a former Washington bureau chief for the TBS network with close ties to the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, had raped her two years earlier. Continue reading...

Edita Butkeviciute, 30, suffered injuries to her spine, legs and lungs in Aberdeen incidentA woman is slowly recovering after suffering a fractured spine when she was crushed by a sofa that fell from the roof of a building.Edita Butkeviciute, 30, is expected to be in hospital for the next three months after she suffered injuries to her spine, legs and lungs following the incident in Aberdeen city centre on 7 December. Doctors were initially unsure if she would walk again. Continue reading...

Official photos seem to show president using unsupported OS at Kremlin and residenceRussian agents have been accused of worldwide hacking operations, but someone at the Kremlin has apparently forgotten to inform Vladimir Putin of the importance of cyber security.Putin, 67, has the obsolete Microsoft Windows XP operating system installed on computers in his office at the Kremlin and at his official Novo-Ogaryovo residence near Moscow, according to images released by his press service. Continue reading...

Family started taking far more money out of firm after it was fined for misleading marketing of drugThe wealthy owners of OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma started taking far more money out of the company after it was fined for misleading marketing of the powerful prescription painkiller.Purdue made payments for the benefit of members of the Sackler family totalling $10.7bn (£8bn) from 2008 through to 2017, a court filing made by the company on Monday evening shows. Continue reading...

Chileans are gripped by uncertainty – suspended between hopes of progress, and frustration over an elusive political solutionWhen a tsunami of unrest spilled into Santiago’s fashionable Bellavista neighbourhood in October, Daniel Gajardo, 33, was torn between sympathy for the protesters and frustration at the harm they were doing his fledgling business.The recording studio and music shop he co-owns had been thriving, and moved to new premises just a day before the first major demonstration. Continue reading...

Former ruler, who no longer lives in country, was tried for imposing state of emergency in 2007A Pakistani court has sentenced the country’s former military ruler Pervez Musharraf to death on charges of high treason and subverting the constitution.Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup and later ruled as president, is not in Pakistan and was not available for comment on the sentence, handed down by an anti-terrorism court hearing the high treason case. Continue reading...

Legal block on finalising deal after 2020 removes safety net below negotiations with EUBoris Johnson will attempt to mark his election promise to “get Brexit done” by writing into law that the UK will leave the EU in 2020 and will not extend the transition period.As MPs begin to be sworn in at Westminster on Tuesday, the prime minister’s team is working on amending the withdrawal agreement bill so that the transition, also known as the implementation period, must end on 31 December 2020 and there will be no request to the EU for a further extension. Continue reading...

Resettlement in the US has allowed some long-persecuted people to flourish, but that doesn’t let Australia off the hook“To freedom.”Imran, a 25-year-old Rohingya refugee from Myanmar, raises a glass with a big smile. We are in a bustling restaurant on Chicago’s north side. This midwestern city seems a million miles from Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, or the tiny Pacific island nation of Nauru, yet it’s now home to several Rohingya men resettled under an agreement between Australia and the US. Continue reading...

There are choices to be made. Whatever the rhetoric, I’m willing to bet the UK remains in the single marketBrexit is “oven ready” and will be “done” on 31 January of next year. True enough. Except, of course, virtually nothing will actually change – except that we lose our voice and vote, and what remains of our influence on the future course of the EU. We’ll still be in the single market, free movement will continue, as will our financial contributions, and there will be no tariffs or customs checks, either between Dublin and Calais or in the Irish Sea. Instead, we will enter an uneasy interregnum, the so-called “transition” period – really a standstill period.Once again, we’re entering into a negotiation with a much larger and economically more powerful partner Continue reading...

Dell, Microsoft and Tesla also among tech firms named in case brought by families of children killed or injured while mining in DRC

Music can be a form of resistance – but an unstrung violin didn’t hold much promise. Then it was fixed, a plume of dust rose, and the fiddler began to playIt wasn’t a long journey, really, from East Jerusalem to Bethlehem in the central West Bank, but it went across ancient borders and boundaries and checkpoints. We were on our way, a group of five from the non-profit global exchange group Narrative 4, to the Aida refugee camp in the shadow of what the Israelis call the “separation barrier” and the Palestinians call the “apartheid wall”. Among our group was Colm Mac Con Iomaire, an Irish fiddle player, one of the finest musicians in the world.We abandoned the taxi at Checkpoint 300 and left Colm’s fiddle in the car, knowing that we were quicker on foot, but that the taxi would bring the fiddle along later: everywhere we went in Israel and Palestine, Colm would open up the eyelids of the day by playing a tune. Continue reading...

Player, who has 4 million followers on Chinese microblog Weibo, is called a ‘dirty ant’ for attacking ChinaChinese football fans have burned Arsenal football shirts and called on the club to fire star player Mesut Özil after he publicly criticised China’s treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang.On Friday, Özil, who is usually quiet on social media, posted a message on his Instagram profile describing Uighurs in the far north-western region of China as “warriors who resist persecution”. Continue reading...

Soldiers wearing protective clothing and breathing equipment endured heat stress and threat of another eruption in high-risk operationA team of six New Zealand soldiers wearing breathing apparatus and special fire-retardant suits battled heat stress as they recovered six of the victims of the Whakaari/White Island volcano eruption, the military said on Friday.The Defence Force revealed that the painstaking operation consisted of three two-person teams deployed on the ash-strewn island at about 8am, backed up by medical staff on a police boat that also offered communications support. A helicopter hovered overhead, and HMNZS Wellington waited further offshore to receive the bodies. Continue reading...

Will the director’s latest effort, 6 Underground, a vigilante revenge thriller starring Ryan Reynolds, match the bombastic grandeur of the rest of his oeuvre? And which Transformers film was the least bad, anyway?You can tell that this was Michael Bay’s final Transformers film. It’s basically a compilation of every bad idea the man has ever had. There’s King Arthur. Stanley Tucci is Merlin. There’s a sexy Oxford professor called Viviane Wembley. It’s heavily implied that planet Earth was a great big Transformer all along. Everyone hated this film, even the idiots who went to see the other four. Continue reading...

Most EU nationals living in the UK cannot vote – leaving many feeling like pawns in a political gameIn a threadbare youth centre in Bradford, Vie Clerc, who got off a Eurostar from Paris 19 years ago with £50 in her pocket and never left, laments the irony. “It’s the first one I’ll actually be able to vote in,” she said. “Shame I’ve never felt less British.”In a bright mezzanine office in Bristol, Denny Pencheva, who landed in 2013 from Bulgaria via Copenhagen and now teaches at the university, bemoans politicians “who use us to score their political points, but don’t actually have to consider us – because politically, we don’t count”. Continue reading...

Zelenskiy sitcom lasted just one night after alluding to Putin in crude sub-languageA Russian television channel has abruptly cancelled a sitcom starring Ukraine’s president after an allusion to a crude joke about Vladimir Putin was aired in Russia’s far east.The political satire Servant of the People served as a platform for the former comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy to gain popularity and eventually win the Ukrainian presidency, in a vote largely driven by anger at the country’s previous leaders. Continue reading...

Paramilitary forces deployed at demonstrations in north-east over bill excluding MuslimsIndian police have fired blanks on protesters as thousands ignored a curfew in the north-east of the country in fresh demonstrations against contentious new citizenship legislation.Officials said on Thursday about 20 to 30 people have been hurt in the protests in recent days, with vehicles torched and police firing teargas and charging the crowds with heavy wooden sticks. Continue reading...

If Washington wants to be on the right side of history, it must open the way for Sudan to receive economic supportOver the past year, the Sudanese people have staged a near miraculous revolution, overthrowing the 30-year dictatorship of President Omar al-Bashir.Following mediation led by the African Union and Ethiopia, a transitional government consisting of civilians and military generals is headed by Abdalla Hamdok, a veteran economist untainted by the decades of corruption and misrule. It is the best compromise: the army, and especially the paramilitary Rapid Support Force, are simply too powerful to be removed from politics in one fell swoop. Continue reading...

Gangland lawyer turned police informant says she has been forced to live overseas due to fear for her and her children’s safetyGangland lawyer turned police informer Nicola Gobbo says she has been “snookered by Victoria police”, forced to live in an undisclosed overseas location because she fears for her and her children’s lives.Gobbo’s longest registration as police informer “Lawyer X” was from 2005 until 2009, when she turned on some of her most high-profile clients, including drug trafficker Tony Mokbel and underworld murderer Carl Williams. In July, Gobbo’s former client Faruk Orman was released from jail after a 12-year sentence when his criminal conviction was overturned, with Gobbo’s informing found to have led to a substantial miscarriage of justice. Continue reading...

‘The burns were horrific … A lot of the people could not talk,’ says Mark LawWhite Island volcano: police open inquiry as sixth person diesA commercial helicopter pilot who led a team that rescued 12 victims from the White Island volcano eruption has told how he believed he was their last hope of survival.“We found people dead, dying and alive but in various states of unconsciousness,” said Mark Law, a tour company boss who flew to the volcano and spent an hour on the ground even as a pillar of ash towered above them. Continue reading...

Politicians in Germany say claims from Russian leader are designed to muddy waters around murderVladimir Putin has claimed the Chechen separatist shot dead in Berlin in what prosecutors believe was a state-sanctioned assassination had been responsible for carrying out killings on Russian soil, frustrating German politicians who have sought clarification over the Kremlin’s involvement in the murder.At a joint press conference with the leaders of Germany, France and Ukraine at the end of a summit in Paris, Putin described the Georgian citizen Zelimkhan Khangoshvili as “a cruel and bloodthirsty person” whom Russian authorities had sought to have extradited from his exile in Germany. Continue reading...

Repentance, reparation and remedy for the terrible damage done to the people of Bayelsa state in Nigeria is long overdue

As a doctors’ and nurses’ strike paralyses Zimbabwe’s health system, one woman has delivered 100 babies in her flat•Photographs by Cynthia R MatonhodzeSix expectant mothers groan through their labour pains in the lounge of a tiny two-roomed apartment in Mbare, Zimbabwe’s oldest township.Sweating and visibly in pain, a heavily pregnant woman peeps through the window to catch a breath while others lie on the floor. Continue reading...

Investigation reveals 70% of Nasa fire alerts were in the estimated buying zones of beef companies, some of which export to UK

White Island’s eruption is a reminder that we are not nature’s master, but at its whim