MPs from across party confident of enough letters to trigger leadership contest after Sue Gray’s reportThe mood of Conservative MPs was hardening against Boris Johnson on Tuesday night, with open talk of how to oust the prime minister and who should succeed him as he gave a disastrous interview claiming not to have lied over Downing Street parties.A string of Tory MPs from various ranks and wings of the party said they believed there would be enough letters to trigger a leadership contest after the publication of the Sue Gray report into allegations of lockdown breaches, with some reports on Tuesday night that it could come sooner. Continue reading...

Rising number of coronavirus cases prompts official US advice, which brings number of countries on ‘level four’ list to over 100The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday advised against travel to 22 nations and territories because of a rising number of Covid-19 cases including for Australia, Israel, Egypt, Albania, Argentina and Uruguay.The nation’s health protection agency elevated its travel recommendation to “level four: very high”, telling Americans they should avoid travel to those destinations, which also include Panama, Qatar, the Bahamas, Bahrain and Bolivia. In total, there are now over 100 countries on the CDC’s level four list. Continue reading...

Breiner David Cucuñame was shot dead while on patrol with the unarmed group Indigenous GuardA 14-year old indigenous activist has been murdered in Colombia, prompting horror and shock at the latest in a spate of killings of environmentalists and social leaders in the South American country.Breiner David Cucuñame was shot dead on Friday while on patrol with the Indigenous Guard, an unarmed group which seeks to protect indigenous lands from incursions by the country’s many armed groups. Continue reading...

Move against Ahmed Nasser al-Raisi made by lawyer for human rights defender jailed in UAEA lawyer representing a jailed human rights defender in the United Arab Emirates has filed a torture complaint against the new president of Interpol, Maj Gen Ahmed Nasser al-Raisi, as the official made his first visit to the international police agency’s headquarters in the French city of Lyon.William Bourdon, a lawyer for the Emirati human rights defender and blogger Ahmed Mansour, said he filed the complaint against al-Raisi in a Paris court under the principle of universal jurisdiction. Mansour is serving a 10-year sentence in the UAE for charges of “insulting the status and prestige of the UAE” and its leaders in social media posts. Continue reading...

UK intelligence concluded Malik Faisal Akram posed no threat, which allowed him to travel to US and buy gunThe British man who took hostages at a Texas synagogue had been under investigation by MI5 as a possible Islamist terrorist threat as recently as 2020, Whitehall sources have acknowledged.British intelligence closed the investigation, however, after officers had concluded Malik Faisal Akram from Blackburn posed no threat, and as a result he was able to travel freely to the US and purchase a gun. Continue reading...

Suspect in his 30s was detained after being treated for unexplained injuries in a Dublin hospitalIrish police investigating the death of Ashling Murphy have arrested a man in his 30s on suspicion of murder.Murphy, a primary school teacher, was strangled on a canal path near the town of Tullamore while out jogging last Wednesday afternoon. Her funeral was held on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Ingrid Betancourt will enter a crowded field as a candidate for the Green Oxygen party in May’s electionIngrid Betancourt, the Colombian politician who was held as a hostage for six years by Colombia’s largest guerrilla group before a dramatic rescue, has announced that she will be running for her country’s presidency.The news comes almost two decades after Betancourt was kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia while also campaigning for the country’s top office for the Green Oxygen party, a movement she founded while she was a congresswoman. Continue reading...

Government issues first official update since huge blast on Saturday, saying death toll could riseTonga is facing an “unprecedented disaster” from a massive volcanic eruption that covered the nation in ash and 15-metre tsunami waves that destroyed almost all the homes on two small islands, the government has said.Hampered by a communications breakdown caused by the severing of a major undersea cable, authorities had not released an official update since the blast on Saturday, when the Pacific island nation was shaken by what may have been the largest volcanic event in three decades. Continue reading...

Fashion designer and menswear pioneeer whose relaxed suits made star appearances in more than 100 Hollywood filmsThe fashion designer and businessman Nino Cerruti was first and last a native of the city of Biella in northern Italy, where alpine-pastured sheep, and mountain water and its millwheel powers, had been supplying an industry in fine wool textiles for a millennium. He was bred to the spinning and loom trades – “I was born in a manger,” he said, “only instead of straw, there was wool” – and he returned to those trades, and Biella, for his last years.In between, Cerruti, who has died aged 91, became an international fashion name, whose relaxed suits made star appearances in more than 100 Hollywood movies, by applying his profound knowledge of the properties of good wool and other natural fibres to a modern masculine tailoring that did not depend for shape on an invisible interior armature of canvas, padding and lining. Continue reading...

Prit Buttar, who tweeted about comforting grieving woman, says he wanted to show difference in experience between ordinary people and Downing StreetWhen Dr Prit Buttar, a retired GP, decided to break social distancing rules and offer his embrace to a bereaved woman, it was a gesture of core humanity. “Everybody on the team would have done exactly the same, Covid or no Covid,” he said from his study near Kirkcudbright.He did not envisage, a year on, that his recollection of that moment would inspire a cathartic outpouring of similar memories from people across the UK, or that he would become a reluctant – though passionate – advocate for the fury and dismay of ordinary people at the boozy rule-breaking in the seat of power. Continue reading...

Latest updates: PM says ‘nobody told me that what we were doing was against the rules’ and says he did not tell lie in Commons

Doctors are currently banned from advertising abortion services and offering information onlineA Nazi-era law banning doctors from giving women information about abortions is to be scrapped by Germany’s new government in a decision welcomed by activists who have long argued that it has hampered women’s ability to make informed choices.The justice minister, Marco Buschmann, said that he will ditch Paragraph 219a from the penal code after almost 90 years, meaning that doctors will no longer have to fear prosecution if they provide information about the procedure. Continue reading...

Nightclubs can reopen and three-household limit on indoor gatherings to end from next Monday

Exclusive: School administrators have been warned Covid infections may force 20% of staff off work when classes resume

Margarito Martínez Esquivel and José Luis Gamboa are the latest casualties in the world’s most dangerous country for reporters outside war zonesMexico’s embattled press corps has suffered a shattering start to the new year with the murders of two journalists who had dared chronicle their country’s slide into drug and corruption-fuelled violence.Margarito Martínez Esquivel, a crime reporter and photographer who often collaborated with members of the foreign media, was shot dead outside his home in the northern city of Tijuana on Monday lunchtime. Continue reading...

Bishop laments ‘disrespect for human life’ at funeral of 23-year-old attacked while out jogging in TullamoreA depraved act of violence took the life of the talented and admired Ashling Murphy but such “disrespect for human life” must not be allowed to take root in communities, mourners at the funeral of the murdered schoolteacher were told.The bishop of Meath, Tom Deenihan, said nobody should die like the 23-year-old did when attacked and strangled last Wednesday while jogging. “No family like Ashling’s should suffer as they do now,” he said. Continue reading...

Amika George, an activist who founded the #FreePeriods campaign, shares her worries about the police and crime bill. She started her non-profit campaign group in 2017 and two years later got the government to commit to funding period products in every state school and college in England.The Guardian reporter Damien Gayle explains what is behind the government's police and crime bill and what it could mean for protesting. On Monday night, the House of Lords voted down proposed changes in the law that would give more powers to police over the way they treat protests. Sections of the bill have been condemned by human rights activists as a ‘vitriolic attack’ on the right to protest, freedoms to show dissatisfaction or to call for change.This week, activists and protesters across the UK have taken to the streets rallying against a bill that would limit their rights to protest and give tougher sentences to those who break the rules

Campaign for British Museum to return of antiquities boosted by support from the Times newspaperGreece has vowed to intensify its campaign for the reunification of the Parthenon sculptures amid “optimistic” signs that British public opinion has shifted markedly in favour of returning the prized “Elgin” marbles to Athens.The Greek government said it would step up pressure for the fifth-century BC antiquities to be enjoyed in their entirety, within view of the Acropolis, after receiving support from an unexpected quarter of the British establishment. Continue reading...

Former Italian prime minister’s charm offensive risks stoking tensions within coalitionThe one thing missing from the list of 22 personality traits and accomplishments flaunted in a full-page newspaper advert entitled “Who is Silvio Berlusconi?” was the former Italian prime minister’s talent for singing. But the one-time cruise ship crooner, one of Italy’s most controversial leaders well known for his myriad legal woes, is hoping his pleasant voice will seduce dozens of parliamentarians into backing his bid to become Italy’s next president.The secret ballot begins on 24 January, and Berlusconi, 85, has broken from tradition by shamelessly campaigning for the job, a largely ceremonial role with powers to resolve political crises, even without officially throwing his hat into the ring. His charm offensive, which includes telephone canvassing unaffiliated parliamentarians whose votes could secure his victory and jokingly inviting them to his “bunga bunga party”’, is stoking tensions within Italy’s ruling coalition, blocking any meaningful debate on an impartial candidate all parties can agree on and igniting protests among Italians who find the prospect of the scandal-plagued Berlusconi becoming head of state abominable. Continue reading...

Now that I work from my boat, I miss the comfort of the office – and the long-running war I waged over my contraband kettle and illicit ciderFor the past five years, I’ve been “working from boat”, sailing in a crystal Mediterranean sea, with turtles nibbling at my anchor. Sounds fun. It’s not. I miss the office.There are problems with working in paradise. Imagine spending your tea breaks checking the anchor isn’t dragging your workspace towards treacherous rocks, stupid jet skiers swerving by while you type. Imagine wondering if the sun has provided enough power to charge your laptop, or assessing whether a storm is likely to hit before deadline – should I sail 20 miles to shelter before I file? Continue reading...

Farkhunda’s sister and two brothers have disabilities and left their wheelchairs behind when fleeing a Taliban raidFarkhunda’s* mother has run a feminist radio station in her conservative province for the best part of 20 years, in defiance of Taliban threats. She has three children with disabilities who were forced to abandon their wheelchairs when gunmen attacked their home about two months after the Taliban takeover. They are in hiding in a city safe house, but don’t know how they will survive longer term.When the fighting closed in on our city in August we were moving around – one night in one place, one night in another place – staying with different relatives because my mum had received a lot of threats in the past. Continue reading...

Emma Raducanu earned an impressive win over Sloane Stephens while Andy Murray prevailed in a five-setter against Nikoloz BasilashviliFirst set: Basilashvili 1-2 Murray* (*denotes next server) Wahey! Basilashvili attempts to serve but the ball hits the top of the frame of his racket and it pings off skywards! You don’t see that every day in professional tennis. Anyway, it clearly doesn’t help him and a couple of unforced errors give Murray two break points - he grabs his chance as Basilashvili goes long and the Scot edges ahead earlier in this match.First set: *Basilashvili 1-1 Murray (*denotes next server) There are some vocal fans in the arena today. I don’t speak Georgian but am assuming the bloke who is making himself heard from the stands is a Basilashvili fan. Good start from Murray, who ignores the distractions and secures a love-service game. Continue reading...

With petrol and diesel already close to record highs, driving costs look likely to increase againBritain’s hard-pressed households face a fresh threat to their living standards after fears of Middle East supply disruption sent the price of oil to its highest level in seven years.With the cost of petrol and diesel already close to their highest-ever level in the UK, the cost of driving is set to rise again after a jump in oil prices to almost $88 (£65) a barrel. Continue reading...

Pictures from New Zealand defence force surveillance flight and UN satellite images show land and trees coated in ashSome of the first images have emerged from Tonga’s volcano and tsunami-hit islands, after a New Zealand defence force surveillance flight returned from the cut-off country, as three deaths from the disaster have been confirmed in Tonga.Aerial photography of Nomuka, a small island in the southern part of the Haʻapai group, shows land and trees coated with ash and other damage inflicted by the huge undersea volcanic eruption and tsunami that hit the Pacific nation on Saturday. Continue reading...

Revelation that Jean-Michel Blanquer was on holiday at one of toughest times for schools creates PR disaster

Peers rejected measures in police, crime, sentencing and courts bill targeted at activists

A program in Washington state is intended to trigger an effective search and raise awareness of the problemFour years ago, Debra Lekanoff was busy traveling across the nation in her role as governmental affairs director for the Swinomish Tribe when her daughter came to her, worried.The 14-year-old had just learned some of the troubling details of the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and was concerned that her mother, who is Alaska Native and tended to travel alone, might one day not make it home. Continue reading...

Yang Maodong held ‘on suspicion of inciting subversion of state power’ two days after death of his wifeA Chinese human rights activist and writer who was detained following repeated pleas to be allowed to visit his terminally ill wife has been formally arrested days after she died for allegedly “inciting subversion of state power”.Yang Maodong, who goes by the pen-name Guo Feixiong, was formally arrested on Monday last week by the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau, two days after the death of his wife, Zhang Qing. Continue reading...

Did the iconic three-note sequence come from Stravinsky, the Muppets or somewhere else? Our writer set out to – dun, dun duuuun! – reveal the mysteryThere’s surely only one thing that unites Russian composer Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, the 1974 comedy horror Young Frankenstein and The Muppets’ most recent special on Disney+. Regrettably, it is not Kermit the Frog. The thing that appears in all of these works has no easily recognisable familiar name, although it is perhaps one of the most recognisable three-beat musical phrases in history. It starts with a dun; it continues with a dun; it ends with a duuun!On screen, a dramatic “dun, dun duuun” has appeared in everything from Disney’s Fantasia to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to The IT Crowd. In 2007, a YouTuber scored a video of a melodramatic prairie dog with the three beats, earning over 43m views and a solid place in internet history. Yet though many of us are familiar with the sound, no one seems to know exactly where it came from. Try to Google it and … dun, dun, duuun! Its origins are a mystery. Continue reading...

New to marriage and my job, an almighty row threatened both. But my colleagues’ stoic determination to ignore the cacophony was the silver liningHaving personal conversations at work, in the days before mobile phones existed, could be perilous. Usually, you had to duck into an unoccupied desk space or wait until everyone was at lunch. But I worked on a trading floor – each desk crammed next to another, with everyone eating lunch there, too. Perilous didn’t begin to cover it.In addition, phones rang constantly, people shouted across the room or at each other, and market information was broadcast over the Tannoy while overhead TVs blared CNBC and Bloomberg News. Private conversations had to wait. Continue reading...

Australian government defends handling of women’s safety plan after initially opening up consultation for a fortnight in summer

Justice secretary says allegations that Boris Johnson lied about No 10 lockdown party are ‘nonsense’

Abdullah says guards who risked their lives for the British cannot understand why they have been abandonedAbdullah*, 34, was a security guard for the British embassy, employed under contract by GardaWorld, and had a senior management role, looking after other locally employed embassy guards. He and about 180 colleagues had hoped to be evacuated to the UK at the end of August, but the evacuation was stopped by a bomb at the airport. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) made a clear commitment that all GardaWorld staff would be allowed to travel to the UK, but this has not happened.We’ve heard nothing from the Home Office or the FCDO and life is becoming very hard for everyone who worked for the British embassy. Surviving when there is no income and no work is very difficult. We’re still hoping we will get an email about evacuation plans, but we haven’t heard anything. The UK government is helping footballers and writers to leave the country, but there has been no help for us. We feel like we should be first in line because we risked our lives for the British government. It’s a huge disappointment for all of us. Continue reading...

Party vows to vote against proposal, which would allow DUP leader to work at Westminster and StormontLabour has called on the government to immediately withdraw a proposed law that would allow the Democratic Unionist party leader to “double job” at Westminster and Stormont.The shadow Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Kyle, said Labour would vote against the government and had tabled the amendment to the Northern Ireland (ministers, elections and petitions of concern) bill, having “clearly failed the sufficient consensus” among Northern Ireland parties to support the move. Continue reading...

Villagers rely more on the forest’s resources, threatening its ecosystem – and leaving them more vulnerable to cyclones

Prime minister, who has denied it’s hypocritical to deport Novak Djokovic while government MPs spread misinformation, says Covid vaccinations ‘save lives’

I was struck by how few authors I could name who are women. With Makewana, the ‘mother’ responsible for rain, as our namesake, my group set out to end the literary droughtI have often tried to imagine what Makewana, the original female rainmaker of ancient Malawi, must have looked like.There is a statue of her with long hair at Mua Mission in Dedza, since to cut her hair would have signified drought. Continue reading...

Methods used in Sky Net program range from family intimidation to state-sanctioned kidnappings, says rights groupChinese authorities captured more than 2,500 “fugitives” from overseas and brought them back to China during the pandemic, under a program using methods ranging from family intimidation to “state-sanctioned kidnapping”, according to a new report.Human rights group Safeguard Defenders estimates in its report published on Tuesday that the continued repatriations now total more than 10,000 since Beijing launched operation Fox Hunt in 2014, followed by Sky Net in 2015. Continue reading...

Despite decreasing positivity rates, hospitals continue to struggle amid a surging patient load and staff shortagesNew York City and some north-eastern US states appear to be seeing rapid decreases in their numbers of Covid-19 cases in recent days, raising the possibility that the Omicron wave has now already peaked in some parts of America.In New York City the rolling seven-day average of new cases was less than 28,000 a day on 16 January, down from an average of more than 40,000 on 9 January. Continue reading...

The 40 images paint a much fuller picture of the damage to the country following a volcanic eruption and tsunamiAerial images prepared by the New Zealand defence force for the Tongan government have been leaked online and show some areas have had “catastrophic” devastation inflicted by the tsunami and volcanic eruption while others were relatively unscathed.The 40 aerial pictures show some areas blanketed with ash, with damaged buildings, while others show parts of the country that appear unscathed. Continue reading...

The market in this prized commodity is worth billions – but are the supposed benefits worth the cost to global ecosystems?Scanning the shelves and internet for fish oil is a dizzying task. There are dozens of brands available and, although the typical consideration for the popular supplement is that quality matters most, it is not the only factor.These prized products travel a long way before being labelled as “pure” and “fresh” – starting with the industrial-scale grinding down of a tiny fish that is crucial for healthy ocean and food systems. Continue reading...

I had always done my best to avoid ‘all-nighters’ – but as the hours spun out I began to enjoy the surreal experienceI was sent to Brussels early in my ill-fated career as a City solicitor, to an office in a stunning Belle Époque building with a murky colonial past and beautiful stained-glass windows. It was thrillingly foreign, with office lunches that put Boots’ meal deals to shame and sparkling wine at the weekly “tea time”. I was delighted, but convinced it was a clerical error. Foreign postings were supposed to reward the best; I devoted most of my time and energy to evading work.I was also irrationally terrified of the fabled “all-nighter”, a corporate law rite of passage. I think I believed that, gremlin-like, something terrible would happen if I was exposed to spreadsheets after midnight – I would reveal I didn’t actually understand them, perhaps. I had developed hacks to ensure this never happened: dodging notorious taskmasters, fibbing about my workload, and leaving my computer on when I went home. Continue reading...

University of Exeter ordered to pay compensation to physicist Dr Annette Plaut, who was sacked after 29 yearsA senior academic who says she was sacked from her post in a university’s physics department because of her loud voice has been awarded more than £100,000 after winning a claim for unfair dismissal.Dr Annette Plaut told the Guardian she had a “naturally loud voice” that came from her middle European Jewish background and claimed it was the combination of her being “female and loud” that had led to her dismissal from the University of Exeter. Continue reading...

Threat of new volcanic eruption could prevent access by repair ship, which is en route from 4,000km awayThe mission to repair the undersea communications cable that connects Tonga with the rest of the world could take up to a fortnight, the cable operator has warned, due to risks that a subsequent volcanic eruption could endanger a repair ship.Thousands of families remained without word from loved ones across Tonga, four days after the massive eruption of the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai volcano sent tsunami waves across the archipelago, and blanketed islands in ash. Continue reading...

Whedon denies allegations of threats and cruelty detailed by Buffy and Justice League actors, saying he has been made to seem like an ‘abusive monster’Joss Whedon, Buffy creator and director of films including The Avengers and Justice League, has responded to multiple allegations of misconduct, denying claims from actors including Gal Gadot and Ray Fisher that he threatened and belittled them on set.In a lengthy interview with New York magazine, Whedon responded to the stream of allegations made against him, which began to gain momentum in 2020 when Fisher detailed his experiences on the set of Justice League. Whedon stepped in to direct the film after the departure of Zack Snyder. Continue reading...

Doctors say Australia must coordinate Covid-19 data nationally and pick up the game on testing, tracing, isolating and quarantining

Police allege staff at the beleaguered airline ‘conducted unnecessary activities’ during home isolation as China presses on with zero-Covid strategy

Un-jabbed older people in Greece face penalties starting at a €50; UK cases continue downward trend

Distraught couples face prospect of cutting guest lists from more than 600 people down to just 20 after coronavirus variant took hold