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Unions and industry leaders to meet ministers in attempt to break deadlockThe RMT leader, Mick Lynch, said ministers should “stop play-acting” and end the long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions on the railway, before a meeting in Whitehall on Monday.Rail unions and industry leaders were to meet ministers in an attempt to break the deadlock, on the first day in almost a month that the railways have not been disrupted by industrial action. Continue reading...

Market attack leaves at least two people dead; Ukrainian forces holding positions in Bakhmut under heavy attack, says Zelenskiy

Joe Biden says situation in Brazil is ‘outrageous’ as presidents across South America denounce ‘assault on democracy’Joe Biden said the situation in Brazil was “outrageous” after supporters of the former president Jair Bolsonaro invaded the country’s congress, presidential palace and supreme court on Sunday, with some senior US lawmakers calling for the far-right figure to be extradited from the US.Biden’s words of condemnation were echoed by world leaders across the globe, including some of Brazil’s closest neighbours. Continue reading...

‘Atmospheric river’ has brought heavy rainfall to major west coast cities, and more is expected in the coming daysThe US has seen various types of severe weather in recent weeks, with much of the country bearing the brunt of a winter freeze. However, California has been subject to relentless rain since the turn of the year and there is little sign of this easing over the coming week. This “atmospheric river” has brought successive areas of low pressure and exceptional rainfall to major cities on the west coast, with San Francisco seeing more than 250mm (10 inches) of rain over a 10 day period up to 4 January.The resulting floods have already caused at least six deaths this year. Much of the precipitation has fallen as snow over the Sierra Nevada, with depths in the mountain range double what would be expected in early January. Continue reading...

Itamar Ben-Gvir’s order follows series of punitive steps against Palestinians since Israel’s hardline government took officeIsrael’s national security minister has ordered police to ban Palestinian flags from public places in the latest crackdown by the country’s new hardline government.Itamar Ben-Gvir’s order follows a series of other punitive steps against the Palestinians since taking office late last month. Continue reading...

Media council reports progress under progressive stance of President Suluhu following years of repression by former regimeThe number of journalists being censured for their work in Tanzania has fallen slightly, raising hopes that press freedom is improving in the country.Last year, 17 “press violations”, which include threats, arrests, denial of access to information and equipment seizures, were reported in the east African nation, the Media Council of Tanzania told the Guardian. This compares with 25 in 2021 and 41 in 2020. Continue reading...

New scheme for companies, charities and public sector organisations to offer discount on wholesale pricesThe chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, is poised to announce a cut to the financial support offered to businesses to help with their energy bills.A new scheme to provide support for businesses, charities and public sector organisations at a less generous level than the current scheme is expected to be presented in the House of Commons on Monday. Continue reading...

Union chief welcomes hour-long meeting with ministers on Monday but says ‘months have been wasted’

Vice-chancellor says 26 January is seen as Invasion Day by First Nations colleagues and we should ‘be clear about what we’re celebrating’

The development marks an important step in addressing the continent’s reliance on imported treatments and vaccinesThe first Moroccan-produced tests to diagnose breast cancer and leukaemia will become commercially available within months, cutting costs and waiting times for patients in the country and across Africa.Most of the diagnostic kits for cancer and other diseases in Africa are expensive imports from outside the continent, usually from Europe and the US. Continue reading...

Data from the health commission for central Henan suggests 88 million people in the province may have had the virusAlmost 90% of people in China’s third most populous province have now been infected with Covid-19, a top local official has said, as the country battles an unprecedented surge in cases.Kan Quancheng, director of the health commission for central Henan province, told a press conference that “as of January 6, 2023, the province’s Covid infection rate is 89%”. Continue reading...

Election results elsewhere have boosted Nicolás Maduro but humanitarian crisis is far from overAs Venezuela crumbled and its people began to starve, pastor Jesús Campo founded a sanctuary for hunger-stricken refugees across the border in Brazil. He called it Vila Esperança – the Village of Hope. More than 7 million Venezuelans have fled their country’s economic meltdown in recent years and scores of them found shelter in his ramshackle shantytown in the border town of Pacaraima, cobbling huts together from recycled wood, scrap metal and mud.But a decade after Vila Esperança was born on a hilltop near the frontier, Campo sees cause for optimism once again – this time back in his decaying homeland. “Little by little, our country is rising up,” the 76-year-old preacher said one recent morning as he sat in a shack built from black plastic and branches. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Labour analysis of DfE figures comes as party hopes to shift political focus to educationNearly a third of teachers who qualified in the last decade have since left the profession, according to Labour analysis that has been released as the party attempts to shift the political focus on to education.With the results of strike ballots by teaching unions due in the coming days, Labour intends to use a Commons vote this week to push their plan to impose VAT on private school fees, which they say would help pay for new teachers in the state sector. Continue reading...

Study finds drivers spending up to a fifth of pre-tax income on running a car as lack of infrastructure deters people from cyclingMillions of Britons are trapped in transport poverty owing to a lack of alternatives to car ownership, with some spending nearly a fifth of their pre-tax income keeping a car on the road, a study has found.Those who own a car spend on average 13% of their gross income on it, above the 10% generally seen as the indicator of transport poverty. For those paying for their car with a finance or loan deal this proportion rises to 19%. Continue reading...

Government report prompts calls for better oversight to stop inappropriate practices at youth organisationsA government report has identified multiple safeguarding risks at “out-of-school settings” (OOSS), which include sports clubs, tuition centres and uniformed youth groups attended by millions of children across England every week, prompting calls for better oversight of the sector.Some children were judged to be in “immediate danger” due to unsafe premises, unchecked staff and inappropriate practices, including verbal abuse, physical chastisement, inappropriate sexual behaviour, grooming and reports of child sexual abuse. Continue reading...

Managers have embraced hybrid working but many still think long hours are needed for career progressManagers no longer stigmatise flexible working, believing it results in improved productivity – though long hours are still seen as essential for career progress, research suggests.Managers are more positive about flexible working than they have ever been, with three-quarters believing that it increases productivity and 62.5% considering that it boosts motivation, according to a survey of 597 managers across the UK by the Equal Parenting Project at the University of Birmingham. Continue reading...

But market is unlikely to have bottomed out, with further cash rate increases from 3.1% likely to continue driving prices lower in 2023

President tours scene of riot and orders federal government to take control of policing in capital Brasília as extremists refuse to accept his presidencyBrazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has toured the wreckage of his presidential palace after an extraordinary day of political violence in the capital, Brasília, saw thousands of far-right extremists run riot through the country’s democratic institutions in a failed attempt to overthrow his week-old government.The massed attack by supporters of the ex-president Jair Bolsonaro was a stunning security breach that was immediately compared to the 6 January invasion of the US Capitol by followers of Donald Trump in 2021. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed. You can read our full story on the day’s events below:

Percy Lovett alleges a breach of human rights in a civil claim filed in state’s supreme court

King, queen consort and Prince William all criticised as Harry says silence ‘allows the abuser to abuse’

WA premier warns recovery efforts will take time after what he describes as the worst floods the state has ever seen

President Lula denounces ‘fanatical fascists’ and announces federal security intervention after Bolsonaro supporters storm political buildings in capital

Opposition plans to put forward amendments to outlaw ‘VIP lanes’ and introduce clawback clausesMinisters have been accused of writing a “charter for cronies” that would legalise its Covid “VIP lane” and hand more power to ministers, ahead of its procurement bill returning to the Commons.Labour backs the principle of consolidating the “spaghetti” of different procurement rules to create a more straightforward framework, but has signalled to ministers that they must remove loopholes from the bill. Continue reading...

Care England says current funding is ‘inadequate’ if homes are to pay staff more and manage rehabilitationCare providers are demanding double the usual fees to look after thousands of people who need to be discharged from hospitals to ease the crisis in the NHS.Care England, which represents the largest private care home providers, said on Sunday it wanted the government to pay them £1,500 a week per person, citing the need to pay care workers more and hire rehabilitation specialists so people languishing in hospital can eventually be sent home. Continue reading...

PM for first time signals willingness to help with cost of living as ministers prepare for talks with health unionsRishi Sunak has opened the door to a pay deal for striking nurses when ministers meet health unions for talks on Monday after signalling for the first time a willingness to address demands for more help with the cost of living.The Guardian understands ministers are prepared to look at a “one-off” payment to health workers, possibly in the form of a hardship payment to get them through this winter. Downing Street and the Treasury were accused of blocking such an offer last month. Continue reading...

The man, thought to be between 40 and 50 years old, was found near seafront but doesn’t know who he isPolice are still unable to identify a man who was found in a seaside town more than three months ago.The man, thought to be aged between 40 and 50 years old, was found in Weymouth, Dorset, on 28 September. He was found near the seafront but cannot tell officers who he is or where he is from. Continue reading...

The Labour leader is keen to emphasise he would be a prudent PM despite inheriting cash-starved public servicesKeir Starmer leans over an open newspaper and points out a picture of him and the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, holding hi-tech rivet guns while touring a design lab.“I’ve had a few shadow cabinet ministers ask me if this is how we’re going to get them to stick to fiscal discipline,” he jokes, before an interview with the Guardian in his constituency office in Camden, north London. Continue reading...

Russian attacks reported in at least seven Ukraine regions despite Putin’s ceasefire pledge; shelling reportedly damages power plants in Moscow-controlled region

American novelist wrote about rural working class communities and those who died trying to break out in his native north-eastRussell Banks, an award-winning fiction writer who rooted such novels as Affliction and The Sweet Hereafter in the wintry, rural communities of his native north-east and imagined the dreams and downfalls of everyone from modern blue-collar workers to the radical abolitionist John Brown, has died. He was 82.Banks, a professor emeritus at Princeton University, died Saturday in upstate New York, his editor, Dan Halpern, told the Associated Press. Banks was being treated for cancer, Halpern said. Continue reading...

Study shows income of Conservatives such as Theresa May and Boris Johnson dwarfs that of other partiesTory MPs have received £15.2m from second jobs since the last general election, dwarfing the combined income of politicians who represent other parties.The former prime minister Theresa May was the biggest recipient, taking home £2.5m on top of her parliamentary salary, mainly from giving speeches to organisations in the US such as JP Morgan bank and the private equity firm Apax Partners. She draws a salary of £85,000 from this pot and says the rest of the money is used to fund her private office, promote her involvement in public life, and make charitable donations. Continue reading...

Weapons, soldiers and equipment added to exercises, as concern grows Minsk is being pressured to join war

Bigger multimillion-pound payout from stake unlikely with Somerset Capital Management no longer up for saleFormer business secretary and staunch Brexiter Jacob Rees-Mogg will receive about £500,000 in annual dividends from his stake in Somerset Capital Management, the investment fund he co-founded in 2007.However, the prospect of Rees-Mogg collecting an even bigger multimillion-pound windfall appears to be on ice, as the Guardian understands Somerset is no longer holding talks about a potential sale of the firm valued at between £70m and £100m. Continue reading...

Student volunteers will be trained to teach groups of up to three children who fell behind during pandemicUniversity undergraduates are being trained to tutor disadvantaged pupils who have fallen behind as a result of the Covid pandemic, in a new pilot set up to boost education recovery efforts in England’s schools.Student volunteers are given training, including a series of lectures, before being assigned to a school where they teach small groups of up to three children once a week to try to plug learning gaps. Continue reading...

UK advertising authority’s ruling that crypto exchange breached standards invites scrutiny of its Australian promotions

Sufferers may be driven online because of the difficulty in accessing affordable GP appointments, professor says

Police detain 32-year-old in town near Dortmund after tipoff from foreign agency believed to be the FBIGerman police have arrested an Iranian man suspected of planning a chemical attack motivated by Islamic extremism.The 32-year-old was seized at his flat shortly before midnight on Saturday in the town of Castrop-Rauxel, close to Dortmund in western Germany. The arrest followed a tip-off from a foreign intelligence agency that the man had obtained toxins, including cyanide and ricin, with which he planned to carry out a terror attack, authorities said on Sunday. Continue reading...

PM urged to ‘come clean’ amid suggestions he is out of touch with millions who face long NHS waitsRishi Sunak has refused to say whether he uses private healthcare amid suggestions he is out of touch with millions of ordinary people who face long waiting times to receive treatment on the NHS.The prime minister said his own healthcare was “not really relevant” and was a “distraction” from his focus on making sure people across England receive high-quality NHS provision. Continue reading...

Political disagreement about the role of the state, the expense of reform and our unwillingness to confront ageing are at the root of the problemA confidential No 10 memo on (not) reforming social care reads: “The prime minister agreed that this seemed the right course, but noted that careful thought needed to be given to the presentation in order to avoid charges that the government had pulled back from its original commitments on long-term care.”That’s not a recent leak: it was from 1996, and shows how far back political failure on social care stretches. Politicians have not incurred any penalties for shirking this responsibility. In fact, the only leader who has really been burned by it is Theresa May – and that’s because she tried to do the right thing and be honest with the public about the cost in the 2017 election.

Firms such as Animals at Home offer range of care services and can step in when pets are in troubleThe day did not begin as expected for Verity Hope. She had been due to spend a wet November morning making a trip to a vet with a reactive dog, but the client phoned in sick. Then another job cropped up: taking a dead rabbit to a pet crematorium.It may seem an eclectic set of requests, but for Verity and her animal ambulance it is the norm. Since the start of the pandemic, 4.7m households have acquired a new pet. Changes in work patterns and everyday pressures mean many need support. Continue reading...

Woman recounts suffering on perilous journeys taken to escape oppression in Myanmar and squalid Bangladesh campsHatemon Nesa recalled hugging her young daughter tightly as the cramped, broken-down boat they were sitting on drifted aimlessly. They had set off on 25 November from the squalid Cox’s Bazar refugee camp in Bangladesh, where they had lived since 2017, when a brutal crackdown by Myanmar’s military forced more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee over the border.The 27-year-old, like many other Rohingya refugees, was hoping for a better life in Malaysia. But about 10 days into the journey the boat’s engine stopped working and food and water supplies began to run out. Continue reading...

Tirailleurs, featuring Lupin star Omar Sy, tells story of father and son during first world warA new film featuring the Lupin star Omar Sy has highlighted the forgotten heroism of African riflemen from France’s former colonies who fought in the frontline trenches of the first world war.Tirailleurs was released on Wednesday shortly after a row sparked by an interview the actor had given to Le Parisien in which he contrasted attitudes to conflicts in Europe and Africa. Continue reading...

Catherine Mayer says anger over racism, misogyny and wealth in the royal family can undermine public consent for a monarchyThe “absolutely catastrophic” implications of attacks on the behaviour of the royal family in the new memoir from the Duke of Sussex are being ignored, according to Catherine Mayer, the royal analyst and biographer of King Charles.Early publication of the Spanish edition of Spare has put the focus on personality clashes, some of it fed by the royal publicity machine, and this could threaten the constitutional monarchy, whether or not the British public is calling for such a change, Mayer believes. Continue reading...

While the decisions cannot undo abortion bans in the 13 states they exist, it could make a huge difference where the right is protectedThis week, the federal government announced two decisions designed to improve abortion access in the US. The first, a rule change made by the Food and Drug Administration, allows pharmacies to dispense mifepristone, one of the two drugs needed for a medication abortion. The second, an opinion drafted by the justice department, gives the US Postal Service the all clear to continue mailing abortion pills, even to states where abortion is severely restricted.How big an impact the moves will have, however, remains to be seen. Continue reading...

Local media report the accident took place when a truck hit a funeral procession in China’s eastern Jiangxi provinceNineteen people were killed and 20 injured in a road traffic accident in eastern China’s Jiangxi province on Sunday, state media reported.The injured had been sent to the hospital, state broadcaster CCTV reported, citing local authorities. Continue reading...

Pressure grows on Putin as politicians and lawyers point to principles that led to Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals

Federal opposition leader wants Labor to legislate its preferred model before referendum is held this year. This blog is now closed‘I’m genuinely interested in advancing the cause of reconciliation’Peter Dutton is asked about whether the prime minister has been given a copy of his letter – Anthony Albanese has said he has not received it – and Dutton says a copy has been provided to the prime minister’s office and he expects “he will respond in due course”.I don’t think that’s unreasonable. Certainly not racist. It’s not being opposed to reconciliation. It’s all about, frankly, just being informed about what it is they’re being asked to vote on. I don’t think that is unreasonable to ask the prime minister to provide that.I’ve met with the prime minister and I’m grateful for the meetings that we’ve had and he knows that I’m genuinely interested in advancing the cause of reconciliation.I’m speaking of millions of Australians, we’re asking you the reasonable questions. Continue reading...

‘I did not kill the woman,’ suspect says outside Delhi hearing, adding that he wants to reveal all to a court in Australia

Opposition leader has demanded more detail, saying lack of clear information will condemn referendum to failure and damage reconciliation efforts