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Eleanor Williams tells jury she was given drugs and alcohol at ‘parties’ where she was paid for sexA woman accused of lying about being raped and trafficked by an Asian grooming gang claimed she was forced to get engaged to one of her abusers to help him get a visa.Eleanor Williams, 22, said the man, Muhmun, was from Bangladesh and that they met in her home town of Barrow when she was a teenager. She told a jury at Preston crown court that he was one of numerous Asian men who plied her with drugs and alcohol and paid her for sex at “parties”, which the prosecution say never took place. Continue reading...

The 16-year-old was shot in the head after reportedly driving from service station without paying for 20 euros of petrolThousands of protesters have marched through Thessaloniki and Athens, as Roma community leaders appealed for calm after the death of a teenager shot in the head last week during a police chase.The 16-year-old boy, who has not been officially named, died on Tuesday, eight days after he was shot by a police motorcyclist after reportedly driving away from a service station without paying for 20 euros of petrol. Continue reading...

Move comes after cross-party push and means major housebuilders could be obliged to pay towards new facilitiesMinisters have backed down in the face of a cross-party push for childcare to be treated as an infrastructure issue like schools, GPs and public transport, meaning major housebuilders could be obliged to pay towards new childcare facilities.The campaign was led by the Labour MP Stella Creasy, who argued that the issue of new homes being built without accompanying childcare was exacerbating a national shortfall in provision that has resulted in prices rising to levels unaffordable for many parents. Continue reading...

Fire service says it handed over reported gas leak to Island Energy seven hours before explosionJersey’s energy company is facing questions over the deaths of up to nine people after the island’s fire chief said his officers handed over a reported gas leak to the firm seven hours before a block of flats blew up.Paul Brown, Jersey’s chief fire officer, said his service attended the Haut du Mont flats in St Helier on Friday evening at 8.36pm, and responsibility for the case was passed to Island Energy by 9.01pm. Continue reading...

Unmentioned in Netflix series is how UK media figures could be dragged into legal proceedingsOn the surface, there is the fight you can see.With Buckingham Palace bracing itself for a second tranche of the Harry and Meghan documentary on Thursday, Britain’s tabloid media have warned of the threat the renegade royals pose to the monarchy. Continue reading...

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Rail bosses and unions also signal they will not budge, as RMT’s Mick Lynch says there is ‘no deal in sight’

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Result boosts president’s effort to win second term as leader of the ruling African National CongressSouth Africa’s parliament on Tuesday voted against launching an impeachment process against embattled president Cyril Ramaphosa, boosting the veteran politician’s effort to win a second term as leader of the ruling African National Congress at a key elective conference which opens later this week.The motion to impeach Ramaphosa followed a report by an independent panel appointed by parliament that accused the veteran politician of serious misconduct after the theft from his private game ranch of somewhere between $500,000 (£410,000) and $5m in cash almost three years ago. Continue reading...

Just 7% of people working in sector identify as people of colour, compared with 14% in workforce at largeHalf as many people from ethnic minorities work in the environment charity sector in the UK as do proportionally across the general workforce, new research has found.Just 7% of people working across environmental charities identified as people of colour, compared with 14% in the workforce at large, according to the data from the Racial Action for the Climate Emergency (Race) report campaign. Continue reading...

Energy supplier to compensate 25,000 customers classed as vulnerable who use prepayment metersUtilita Energy is to pay out £830,000 after the regulator Ofgem raised concerns over its support of households on prepayment meters.Ofgem said the energy supplier would hand out compensation to 25,000 of its customers who had been potentially affected, including those with medical issues and those classed as vulnerable. Continue reading...

Concerns raised over pharmacists’ losses as market price increases outpace reimbursement pricesThe cost of antibiotics used to treat infections including strep A have risen more than tenfold in the UK in recent weeks, pharmacists have said, with many facing continued difficulties in sourcing supplies.Cases of scarlet fever and strep A have increased earlier in the season than usual: last Thursday the UK Health Security Agency said that since mid-September there had been 60 deaths from invasive strep A infections across all age groups in England, including 13 children. Continue reading...

Bear found guilty of sharing private content and voyeurism over CCTV footage of him with ex-girlfriend Georgia HarrisonReality TV star Stephen Bear has been found guilty of sharing a sex tape showing him with ex-girlfriend Georgia Harrison after the recording emerged on the website OnlyFans.

EU reaches in-principle deal to send €18bn in further aid to Ukraine; freed Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout joins Russian ultranationalist party

Prosecutors request more time to study case of David Hunter, who admits smothering his partnerA court in Cyprus has adjourned the trial of a Briton, accused of murdering his cancer-stricken wife, for an eighth time, highlighting the sensitivity that the case has elicited in a country that continues to outlaw euthanasia.A judge sitting in the south-western town of Paphos delayed the hearing for a week after the prosecutor told the tribunal that the attorney general, the island’s top legal officer, required more time to study the file. Continue reading...

Candice Servatius, an evangelical Protestant, claimed ceremony infringes on her children’s religious freedomsA Canadian court has again rejected claims from a mother that Indigenous cultural events at her children’s school infringed on their religious freedoms, ordering her to pay costs after revelations her lawsuit was secretly funded by a Christian activist organization.Candice Servatius, an evangelical Protestant, complained in 2016 after an Elder performed a smudging demonstration at her children’s school in the western British Columbia town of Port Alberni. A hoop dancer also said a prayer while performing at a school assembly. Continue reading...

Ukraine president calls for more infrastructure aid to counter Putin’s ‘blackout and energy terror’

Retailer among companies listed by Leave Russia project but says it does not itself operate there

Mohammed Abouagela Masud, who has appeared in US court, was seized by notorious Libyan militia from Tripoli homeThe abduction of a former Libyan intelligence operative accused of preparing the bomb that brought down Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 and his transfer into US custody was agreed about three months ago after conversations between US government and Libyan officials, the Guardian has been told.Mohammed Abouagela Masud appeared briefly in court in Washington DC on Monday, accused of having set the timer for the bomb that destroyed the Boeing 747, killing 270 people in the most deadly terrorist attack to have taken place on British soil. Continue reading...

Crammed wards, burnt-out GPs, patients waiting hours for ambulances – the health service is at breaking point

Attorneys general give in-principle support to changes including new innocent dissemination defence for intermediaries

MEPs vote to remove role from Eva Kaili, one of four charged in corruption and bribery investigationThe European parliament has voted to strip a Greek MEP implicated in a bribery and corruption scandal of her role as one of the body’s vice-presidents.MEPs voted by 625 votes to one, with two abstentions, to remove Eva Kaili as one of the parliament’s 14 vice-presidents, following a decision in favour of the move by the assembly’s senior leaders. Continue reading...

Police have made two arrests after receiving information about the death of a child in HandsworthPolice are searching the garden of a property in Birmingham for human remains as part of an investigation into the death of a child in 2020.West Midlands police said they had launched an investigation after receiving information about the death of a child at a house in Clarence Road, Handsworth. Continue reading...

Windsor MP will stand down at next election but not quit and trigger byelectionThe Conservative MP Adam Afriyie has said he will not quit as an MP after being made bankrupt by a court ruling, which found he owed about £1.7m.Afriyie was pursued by creditors including HMRC for £1m in unpaid tax and Barclays Bank. He asked for more time to sell the family home in order to pay his debts. But the judge ruled Afriyie had had long enough to make arrangements and ordered bankruptcy. Continue reading...

Morrison is likely to be asked what he knew about the scheme when it was devised, why he was attracted to it – and what he did when it came under fireFormer prime minister Scott Morrison will appear at the royal commission into the robodebt scheme on Wednesday.Morrison was the social services minister when the program was devised and launched, treasurer when it was expanded and prime minister when it faced two legal challenges. Continue reading...

Health minister maintains reform is needed and other mental health advocates back wholesale changes to Better Access system

Record for coldest night of year broken again as yellow snow and ice warnings extended around UK

Leaked clip of deputy leader also fuels moves to tighten social media regulationA video of Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s tánaiste, socialising in a nightclub has triggered a debate about the right to privacy and regulation of social media.The brief clip of the deputy prime minister was clandestinely recorded in a Dublin nightclub earlier this month and has racked up millions of views on multiple platforms. Continue reading...

Migration advisory committee calls for rural visa pilot to help send workers to depopulated parts of countryside

RMT boss hits out at Today presenter Mishal Husain and also clashes with GMB’s Richard Madeley over strikes

Amnesty accuses Morocco and Spain of also failing to offer first aid after crush in which at least 37 diedThe “widespread use of unlawful force” by Moroccan and Spanish authorities contributed to the deaths of at least 37 people who perished during a mass storming of the border fence between Morocco and Spain’s north African enclave of Melilla in June, according to a report.The Amnesty International report also accuses Moroccan and Spanish police of failing to provide even basic first aid to those injured in the crush as they were left “in the full glare of the sun for up to eight hours”. It says Moroccan authorities prioritised moving corpses and treating security officials above the needs of injured migrants and refugees. Continue reading...

Forecast predicts people will leave platform over technical problems and spread of hate speechMore than 30 million users are expected to leave Twitter over the next two years as concerns mount over technical issues and the proliferation of offensive content after Elon Musk’s $44bn takeover, according to a forecast.The number of global monthly users is predicted to fall by nearly 4% next year and 5% in 2024 – more than 32 million in total – in the first annual declines forecast by the market research agency Insider Intelligence since it began tracking the social media platform in 2008. Continue reading...

Children who have special education needs among those worst affected, says watchdog’s chief inspectorChildren’s recovery from the pandemic is being held back by a workforce crisis in schools, colleges and early years, with children who have special education needs among those worst affected, according to England’s schools inspectorate, Ofsted.Publishing her annual report on Tuesday, Ofsted’s chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, said the Covid pandemic continued to “cast a long shadow” over children’s education and social care, and despite teachers’ best efforts, recovery was “far from complete”. Continue reading...

Region on high alert after dozens reported injured in first clash in disputed area for more than two yearsChinese and Indian troops have clashed in a disputed Himalayan border region for the first time in more than two years, with reports of dozens injured.At least 20 Indian soldiers were injured in the incident on 9 December in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh, the Indian army said on Tuesday. The clash was the most serious since June 2020, when at least 24 soldiers died in violent hand-to-hand combat, and comes after months of major acts of disengagement by both militaries in the long-running dispute. Continue reading...

Yang Zijing, 25, apparently detained in Guangzhou after taking part in rallies against harsh restrictionsA young protester has been held in police detention in southern China for nine days after taking part in rallies against Covid restrictions, her mother has said, expressing fear and anguish over her daughter’s safety.China last week effectively ended its harsh zero-Covid policy, after years of economic damage and simmering public discontent that erupted in nationwide protests on a scale unseen in decades. Continue reading...

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Ousted president calls successor Dina Boluarte the ‘snot and slobber of the coup-mongering right’ in a letter written behind barsOusted Peruvian president Pedro Castillo has derided his successor as a “usurper”, and vowed to continue as head of state as the death toll from growing protests against the new government of Dina Boluarte rose to seven.Demonstrations in support of Castillo spread from city to city on the sixth day of unrest, with widespread vandalism and looting showing little sign of abating. Continue reading...

Co-chair of Victoria’s First Peoples’ Assembly says ‘we can’t wait until 2024 for a state-wide treaty and then begin negotiations on this work’

Indictment says Daniel Duggan provided military training to the pilots through a ‘test flying academy’ in South Africa between 2010-12Australian pilot Daniel Duggan – a former US Marine Corps aviator – has been accused of breaking American arms control laws by training Chinese fighter pilots to land on aircraft carriers, according to an indictment now unsealed by a US court.The indictment said the naturalised Australian “provided military training to (PRC) People’s Republic of China pilots” through a “test flying academy” in South Africa between 2010 and 2012. Continue reading...

Former judge finds lab manager focused on speed over accuracy and ‘deliberately crafted series of lies’ to cover up problems

Property website has shared the most viewed listings in 2022, which include a £35m house in HighgateIf you spend a good proportion of your evenings idly browsing property websites looking for your favourite fantasy home, you’re not alone. Property site Rightmove says millions of us do just that, and our fantasy bank balances appear to be much larger than our actual purchasing power.“From homes with years of history, to contemporary pads with every modern feature available, this year millions of people have been looking at the most amazing homes on the market,” said Rightmove’s Tim Bannister. “Many of us have thought about where we could live if money was no object, and this shows in the most viewed homes of the year which have captured the imagination of people across Great Britain during 2022.” Continue reading...

Foreign minister ‘deeply proud’ to announce bilateral pact after ‘40 years of cooperation between our security forces’

Democracy activist and founder of Apple Daily tabloid newspaper potentially faces life in prison over charges of conspiring to collude with foreign forcesA Hong Kong court has delayed the national security trial of media mogul Jimmy Lai until September 2023, after a hearing revealed Lai’s British lawyer had been denied a visa extension and forced to leave.Lai’s trial was scheduled to begin on Tuesday, but has faced delays, including the Hong Kong government’s attempts to prevent his British lawyer Tim Owens from representing him. Continue reading...

The country is believed to be the first to implement an annually rising legal smoking ageNew Zealand has introduced a steadily rising smoking age to stop those aged 14 and under from ever being able to legally buy cigarettes in world-first legislation to outlaw smoking for the next generation.Associate health minister Ayesha Verrall said at the law’s passing on Tuesday: “Thousands of people will live longer, healthier lives and the health system will be $5bn better off from not needing to treat the illnesses caused by smoking, such as numerous types of cancer, heart attacks, strokes, amputations.” Continue reading...

Nine’s managing director of radio says Smith’s behaviour was ‘a serious breach of his contract’

Judge rules Coco, jailed for Sydney Harbour Bridge protest, did not represent a risk to the community

New Zealand PM apologised for comment made live on parliament television during question timeNew Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern has become the latest leader to fall victim to a hot microphone, after her comment that the leader of a minor opposition party was an “arrogant prick” was picked up and broadcast on parliament television.During question time in the house on Tuesday, the leader of the libertarian Act party, David Seymour, asked Ardern if she could “give an example of her making a mistake, apologising for it properly, and fixing it”. Continue reading...

RMIT report finds rural communities suffer much slower data speeds than urban counterparts

Constitutional experts explain voice will not ‘take away any right, power or privilege of anyone who is not Indigenous’

Senior staff tell HM Inspectorate of Prisons the initiative could begin immediately, after report highlights deep divisionsBlack prisoners and white guards should cook and eat together as a way of breaking down cultural barriers and suspicions, the official prisons watchdog has said.Some senior prison staff told HM Inspectorate of Prisons that the initiative could begin immediately after concerns of deep divisions between black prisoners and prison staff who remain predominantly white. Continue reading...