City that had 8 million overseas visitors in 2019 – including free-spending parties of Chinese people – is getting used to the peace and quiet

Omicron variant now accounts for nearly all of the Covid infections globally; UK joins France, Italy and Turkey in recording six-figure case numbers

Senator Rex Patrick fighting ongoing battle for further release of cabinet documents from 2000

Charing Cross station case shows old problems were allowed to fester on social media thanks to culture of fear

Met denies culture of misogyny as damning report reveals sexist, racist and homophobic messages sent as ‘banter’The Metropolitan police have denied the force is plagued by a culture of misogyny after an official report revealed shocking details of officers sharing messages about hitting and raping women, as well as the deaths of black babies and the Holocaust.The officers were based mainly at the Charing Cross police station in central London, with the offending behaviour taking place between 2016 and 2018.One male officer wrote to a female officer: “I would happily rape you … if I was single … if I was single I would happily chloroform you.”Another officer advocated violence: “Getting a woman into bed is like spreading butter. It can be done with a bit of effort using a credit card, but it’s quicker and easier just to use a knife.”Police officers wrote about attending a festival dressed as known sex offenders and a molested child.“Numerous messages about rape and ‘raping’ each other” were sent in two WhatsApp group and one Facebook group.One officer messaged another saying he was going to attack his partner and wrote: “Swear to got [sic] I’m going to smack her”.Another message shows an officer bragging about visiting a sex worker when he was using steroids. Continue reading...

PM joins Volodymyr Zelenskiy to spell out consequences of Russian aggression and declare UK will be judged by the level of its supportA Russian invasion of Ukraine would end in a humanitarian, political and military disaster for Russia and the world, Boris Johnson has warned as he stood alongside the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in Kyiv, saying the UK would be judged by the level of help it gave to Ukraine.On a flying visit to the Ukrainian capital, he denied the US and the UK were exaggerating the scale of the Russian threat, saying they were not trying to “big up” the intelligence. “The grim reality” was that Russian troops were “massing on Ukraine’s border. This is a clear and present danger,” he said, adding that the troop concentration was “perhaps the biggest demonstration of hostility to Ukraine in our lifetimes”. Johnson said it dwarfed the Russian forces mounted before the invasion in 2014. Continue reading...

Greater Manchester police say detectives have been further granted additional time to speak to suspectManchester United footballer Mason Greenwood has been further arrested on suspicion of sexual assault and making threats to kill.The 20-year-old was arrested on suspicion of rape and assault on Sunday afternoon after police saw a woman reporting claims of physical violence and sexual threats on social media. Continue reading...

British prime minister holds joint news conference with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv

Attempt to create a rightwing political force may mean the end of partnership with Brothers of ItalyThe Italian League leader, Matteo Salvini, has proposed creating a rightwing political force styled on America’s Republican party in a move that threatens to spell the end of his tense partnership with his far-right sometime rival Giorgia Meloni.Salvini’s League and other parties including the centre-left Democratic party and populist Five Star Movement that make up Italy’s broad ruling coalition have been left in disarray after failing to agree on a mutually acceptable candidate for head of state in last week’s presidential election, culminating with Sergio Mattarella, 80, being elected for a second term against his earlier expressed wishes. Continue reading...

PM told to ‘come clean’ on lockdown parties after Raab says it is unclear if there is more evidence to come

Israeli spyware firm denies doing business with Mobileum and co-founder ‘has no recollection of using the phrase’A whistleblower has alleged that an executive at NSO Group offered a US-based mobile security company “bags of cash” in exchange for access to a global signalling network used to track individuals through their mobile phone, according to a complaint that was made to the US Department of Justice.The allegation, which dates back to 2017 and was made by a former mobile security executive named Gary Miller, was disclosed to federal authorities and to the US congressman Ted Lieu, who said he conducted his own due diligence on the claim and found it “highly disturbing”. Continue reading...

Inquiry into abuse in England and Wales points to ‘extensive failures’ in way exploitation by criminal gangs is tackledPolice and councils are potentially downplaying the scale of child sexual exploitation by criminal gangs over concerns about negative publicity, a public inquiry has found.Charities labelled the findings a “damning indictment” of responses to child exploitation across England and Wales, and called for urgent change to support and protect victims.In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support for rape and sexual abuse on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html Continue reading...

Exclusive: Emails reveal how state abandoned ‘rapid response’ plan for managing coronavirus in disability housing as Omicron hit

Former reality TV contestant Andrew Brady pleads guilty to harassment of GB News presenterCaroline Flack’s former fiance accused the GB News presenter Dan Wootton of being a murderer and a sex offender, a court has been told.A judge in Sheffield heard how Andrew Brady compared Wootton, now also a columnist for MailOnline, to the former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein in a series of messages sent over a period of more than two months. Continue reading...

PM had to cancel original call because of partygate statementA phone call between Boris Johnson and Vladimir Putin that the prime minister was forced to cancel on Monday has been rescheduled for Wednesday, Johnson’s spokesman has said, after the Kremlin rejected a request to hold it on Tuesday.It is not clear if the initial rejection stemmed from genuine scheduling issues or if it was a calculated snub by Moscow to highlight Britain’s irrelevance, and Johnson’s weakness, but in any case it dealt a blow to Johnson’s efforts to present himself as an important diplomatic player in the Ukraine crisis. Continue reading...

Weekend outages still affecting 9,500 homes in England and Scotland could last till WednesdayAbout 9,500 homes remain without power in northern Scotland and the north-east of England, with dozens of schools closed for another day, as the effort to clear up after Storms Malik and Corrie continues.Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) was at red alert status after the storms cut power to 114,500 customers in Scotland, with restorations hampered by continuing high winds. Continue reading...

Shops abandoned as public defies military threats and stays at home a year after ousting of governmentStreets were deserted and shops abandoned across many of Myanmar’s towns and cities on Monday, as the public defied threats by the military junta and stayed at home in a “silent strike” on the first anniversary of the country’s coup.Images posted on social media showed usually congested roads with no traffic and stores shuttered. In a photograph shared by Khit Thit Media, the usually busy Sule Pagoda road in downtown Yangon was completely empty. In Mandalay, the second largest city, a normally bustling market had virtually no customers. Continue reading...

When it comes to deflecting inconvenient questions, the prime minister has all the moves

US talkshow host offers ‘sincerest apologies’ after comments spark online backlashThe US talkshow host and actor Whoopi Goldberg has offered her “sincerest apologies” after saying the Holocaust “isn’t about race”.She said Jewish people around the world had “always had my support”, in a statement after her remarks led to a backlash online. Continue reading...

At a UNSC meeting, Russian diplomat Vasily Nebenzya claimed Ukraine’s violation of the Minsk pact could end in ‘worst way’Ukraine will be responsible for its own destruction if it undermines existing peace agreements, a senior Russian diplomat has warned at a combative UN security council debate on the crisis.The warning from Vasily Nebenzya, Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, came on a day of continued high-level diplomacy aimed at defusing the Ukraine crisis. Continue reading...

Though still rare, the numbers of kids across the US reporting symptoms long after infection are increasing, doctors sayJavanese Hailey found her daughter hunched over in pain inside their home in Manassas, Virginia, about 32 miles south-west of Washington DC.The nine-year-old could barely walk because her stomach hurt so much, Hailey said, recalling that Sunday evening in October. Continue reading...

Lake Turkana’s shores have been home to the El Molo for millennia but as rising waters swallow homes and sacred sites they face losing everythingMombasa Lenapir briefly strokes the waters of Kenya’s Lake Turkana with his hand as he boards the rickety canoe. A piece of hippo tooth or kalate, dangles from his right earlobe, evidence that he once killed a hippo in his younger years as a rite of passage.Lenapir, who says he is 70 but looks older, is a member of the El Molo community that has lived on the shores of Lake Turkana for millennia. Two years ago, he was forced to move out of his home when rising waters engulfed his village, Komote, turning it into an island. Fearing being marooned by the expanding lake, Lenapir and other families built new homes on the mainland, while some opted to remain on the new island and use canoes to travel between the two settlements. Continue reading...

As illegal industrial-scale fishing by foreign fleets pillages fish populations, despairing coastal communities feel powerlessAlong Tombo’s crumbling waterfront, dozens of hand-painted wooden boats are arriving in the blistering midday sun with the day’s catch for the scrum of the market in one of Sierra Leone’s largest fishing ports.In a scrap of shade at the bustling dock, Joseph Fofana, a 36-year-old fisherman, is repairing a torn net. Fofana says he earns about 50,000 leone (£3.30) for a brutal, 14-hour day at sea, crammed in with 20 men, all paying the owner for use of his vessel. “This is the only job we can do,” he says. “It’s not my choice. God carried me here. But we are suffering.” Continue reading...

The toy company has recruited Lena Dunham, Greta Gerwig and Tom Hanks to help usher in a new slate of films based on kids’ favouritesDeep down, everyone wishes they were Marvel. Armed with nothing but B-grade IP and heroic levels of pluck, a lowly comic book company slowly went about wrestling the film industry into an inescapable stranglehold. But a decade and a half on, Marvel has become the established order. It is time for a new plucky upstart to stage another revolution. That upstart?Mattel. You know, Mattel. The toy people. No, really. Continue reading...

Photojournalist Moe documented the military’s terrifying and brutal attacks on protests in Mandalay, until even carrying his camera became too riskyMy first encounter with the military came on 4 February 2021, three days after the coup. From the back of my friend’s motorcycle, I hid my camera under my clothes and attempted to photograph soliders as they drove in trucks through my native city of Mandalay carrying their guns. I couldn’t get a good picture, however, because one of the vehicles started following us and we had to retreat.Within days, almost the whole country had erupted in protest. I couldn’t stay still any more, and I joined the crowds on 7 February.‘The whole country had erupted in protest. I couldn’t stay still any more, and I joined the crowds’ Continue reading...

YTY Group accused of ‘deception, intimidation and debt bondage’, says it is ‘working to improve conditions of migrant workers’

Student found to not have had a fair trial two years after being wrongly convicted for making up allegationAuthorities in Cyprus are being urged to launch a fresh inquiry into a gang rape complaint by a British woman after the country’s supreme court acquitted her of fabricating the claim that she had been sexually assaulted at a holiday resort.The 21-year-old’s legal team said it was incumbent on the island’s police force to reopen the investigation in the wake of the landmark ruling. “It’s our next big battle,” said the human rights lawyer Nicoletta Charalambidou. Continue reading...

The country would grind to a halt without hauliers such as Rob Piper. But do they get the respect they deserve? Our reporter joined him on the road to find outRob Piper’s world is grey, blue and black.The early morning sky is an inky blue-black as Piper drives his 44-tonne, 12-wheeled DAF XF lorry out of the Nursling industrial estate in Southampton. At this time of day – 6am – the endless grey roads consist mainly of lorries. Their metal bullbars flash a friendly smile in the halogen glare of each other’s headlights.On the road again … Piper sets off from Southampton for an 11am delivery in Swindon. Continue reading...

After giving safe harbour to thousands of people fleeing Nazi persecution in Europe, the British government decided that some of them could be a threat – and locked all of them up. For many, it was a betrayal on the part of their supposed liberatorsHilde Marchant, star reporter for the Daily Express, heard the story from a sailor. At first she didn’t believe it. Two nights earlier, the sailor explained, he had been standing on the deck of a ship loaded with British nationals headed to England, and watched as a confetti of parachutes drifted into Rotterdam harbour. Dangling from each silhouetted disc, the sailor insisted, were German soldiers dressed, not in Nazi uniforms, but skirts and blouses. Each carried a submachine gun. When the disguised paratroopers landed, another witness claimed, men and women working as cleaners and servants emerged from basements and back doors wearing German uniforms. These traitorous individuals, the witness said, had come to Holland claiming to be refugees from Nazi oppression, sleeper agents posing as asylum seekers.On 13 May 1940, three days after the invasion of the Netherlands began, the Daily Express published Marchant’s story under the headline “Germans dropped women parachutists as decoys”. Peppered throughout Marchant’s story was the term “fifth columnist” – one that, a short time before, would have been unrecognisable to most readers. Marchant was one of the first people to adopt the phrase, coined during the 1936 Spanish civil war as shorthand for traitors poised to support an enemy invasion from within. British newspapers had begun to refer to fifth columnists after the German invasion of Norway in early April 1940, when reports circulated that spies had been installed in the country to aid the German invasion. By the time Marchant’s story ran, there wasn’t a reader in Britain unaware of the term, or the notion that a similar network of duplicitous immigrants might lurk in their own towns and villages. Continue reading...

Bureau opening cases on Chinese intelligence operations every 12 hours, says Christopher Wray, as George Soros calls Xi Jinping the ‘greatest threat’ to open societyThe threat to the west from the Chinese government is “more brazen, more damaging” than ever before, FBI director Christopher Wray has said, accusing Beijing of stealing American ideas and innovation and launching massive hacking operations.The speech at the Reagan Presidential Library in California on Monday amounted to a stinging rebuke of the Chinese government just days before Beijing is set to occupy the global stage by hosting the Winter Olympics. Continue reading...

Despite Covid-19 dampening travel plans, millions of people from across the globe are welcoming the Year of the Tiger Continue reading...

Ding Jiaxi and Xu Zhiyong expected to be charged with involvement in a covert meeting in late 2019As millions of Chinese families gather this week to celebrate the arrival of the year of the tiger, Luo Shengchun is awaiting news of the fate of her husband, Ding Jiaxi, a human rights lawyer.“It’s the third year that our family hasn’t celebrated the Chinese new year. I don’t know what celebrating new year means now,” said Luo, who now lives in self-imposed exile in New York. “It’s beyond devastating for my family. My husband has not done anything illegal. Why did they deprive us of a normal life?” Continue reading...

Authorities are conducting a month-long campaign to root out illegal and sensitive content during the lunar new year holiday and Winter GamesGay dating app Grindr has disappeared from multiple app stores in China as authorities tighten control of the country’s already heavily policed internet and purge online behaviour the ruling Communist party dislikes.The country’s cyber authority is conducting a month-long campaign to root out illegal and sensitive content during the lunar new year holiday and February’s Winter Olympics. Continue reading...

NSW government to consider ambitious revitalisation plan to make the city centre a safer and more appealing destination

Tuesday: Nearly half of Australia’s aged care homes grapple with outbreaks as the government defends missing its booster rollout deadline. Plus what’s new to streaming this monthGood morning. Nearly half of Australia’s aged care facilities are battling Covid outbreaks. The UK warns Moscow that an invasion of Ukraine would be met with “massive consequences for Russia’s interests and economy”. And what’s new to streaming in Australia.Unboosted aged care residents are dominating Australia’s Covid death toll, with almost half of the country’s aged care homes battling outbreaks. It comes as the Morrison government defends missing its own booster rollout deadline. More than a quarter of aged care staff say their workplace is not giving them free rapid antigen tests, with nearly 20% reporting they’ve had to find and buy their own kits before working. Trade unions have lashed the prime minister, Scott Morrison, and the Coalition over the findings of the new survey from the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Foundation, saying it was “an indictment on this government” that aged care workers were forced to dip into their own pocket for the tests Continue reading...

Judge overseeing Virginia Giuffre’s sexual abuse case requests assistance in obtaining testimony from witnesses outside USThe New York judge overseeing Virginia Giuffre’s sexual abuse case against Britain’s Prince Andrew has officially requested assistance from British and Australian legal authorities in obtaining testimony from potential witnesses outside the US.Judge Lewis Kaplan’s formal request stems from petitions filed several weeks ago by both Giuffre and the Duke of York’s legal teams. Giuffre on 14 January requested that Kaplan ask British authorities for help in obtaining testimony from Andrew’s former equerry, Robert Olney.Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 802 9999. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html Continue reading...

Sajid Javid says says mandatory jabs were ‘right policy at the time’ but announces review

Joël Meyer given 72 hours to leave country after ‘outrageous comments’ by Jean-Yves Le Drian, according to statementMali has told the French ambassador to leave, according to a government statement, amid mounting tensions between the west African country and its international partners.The action puts into question a French-led anti-terrorist military operation present in Mali at the request of Malian leaders. Continue reading...

Thousands gathered in Ottawa to protest against Covid mandates and some urinated on the National War MemorialJustin Trudeau has said that Canadians were disgusted by the behaviour of anti-vaccine protesters, and said he would not be intimidated by those who hurled abuse.The Canadian prime minister spoke as central Ottawa remained blockaded by dozens of trucks and other vehicles after thousands descended upon Parliament Hill on Saturday to protest against Covid-19 vaccine mandates. Continue reading...

Ambo Anthos says it will stop printing The Betrayal of Anne Frank and admits more work is neededA Dutch publisher has apologised for a book that made headlines around the world by identifying a Jewish notary as the prime suspect for the betrayal of Anne Frank to the Nazis.Ambo Anthos has said that it had decided to suspend further prints of The Betrayal of Anne Frank until there was more work done on the book’s central claims. Continue reading...

Shooting took place during traffic check near Kusel in early hours of MondayPolice in western Germany have arrested two men suspected of being involved in the killing of two police officers who were shot dead on a rural road while on a routine patrol.The shooting happened during a traffic check near Kusel at about 4.20am on Monday, police in Kaiserslautern said. Continue reading...

People are ‘sweltering in poorly insulated rentals, getting sick and sometimes even dying’, social services advocate says

Vaccine inequity will prolong pandemic and increase risk of new variants developing, modelling finds

UK government accused of not properly consulting devolved parliaments over ‘Brexit freedom bill’

Prime minister announces bonuses of up to $800 for more than 230,000 staff but union says ‘trinkets are not required when diamonds are needed’

Junta warns public not to take part in planned ‘silent strike’ and arrests business owners who vowed to close on 1 FebruaryMyanmar’s military junta has threatened sedition and terrorism charges against anyone who shuts their business, claps or bang pots on Tuesday, as it tries to stamp out any protests planned to mark the one-year anniversary of the coup.The military, which ousted the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on 1 February 2021, continues to face defiant opposition including peaceful protests and an armed resistance. Continue reading...

Washington vows to hold Moscow to account as it works with allies to beef up sanctions should Russia invadeThe UN security council is meeting on Monday to discuss the Ukraine crisis, with Washington vowing to hold Moscow to account as it works with Nato allies to beef up sanctions should Russia invade its neighbour.Fears of an imminent incursion have grown in recent days, despite denials from Moscow and pleas from Ukraine’s president to avoid stirring “panic” over the massive Russian military build-up on the border. Continue reading...

Commentator maintains 2021 Australian of the Year was rude and impolite but says writing criticism made him ‘as bad as Grace Tame’Political journalist and commentator Peter van Onselen has conceded his column criticising Grace Tame for being “rude” to the prime minister “probably” didn’t need to be written.In a podcast interview, van Onselen said he didn’t resile from his view but said expressing his disapproval of the outgoing Australian of the Year’s actions made him the story and “as bad as Grace Tame”. Continue reading...

The New South Wales treasurer, Matt Kean, is calling on the federal government to stand by small businesses struggling through Omicron

Excitement is running high before the opening on 4 February. Beijingers have been increasingly participating in winter sports since China was awarded the games Continue reading...