Scuffles broke out between anti-hunting protesters and supporters at the Avon Vale Hunt on 27 DecemberPolice have released images of three men wanted in connection with violent clashes at an annual hunt in Wiltshire.Scuffles broke out between anti-hunting protesters and supporters at the Boxing Day meet of the Avon Vale Hunt in the village of Lacock, which this year was held on 27 December. Continue reading...
Offer could be on table in upcoming trade talks in Delhi in bid to access to country’s growing economyMinisters are keen to ease immigration restrictions in a bid to make it easier for thousands of Indian citizens to live and work in the UK as part of forthcoming trade talks.The potential offer will be under discussion when the international trade secretary, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, travels to Delhi this month, reports the Times. Relaxing immigration rules for Indian citizens is a key demand from Delhi. Continue reading...
by Hosted by Jane Lane. Recommended by Alyx Gorman. W on (#5TJ5W)
In the charity’s storeroom sit the cremated remains of seven former visitors – unclaimed, contested or forgotten. Lifestyle editor Alyx Gorman introduces an intimate story about three of themYou can read the original article here: The unclaimed: the ashes left waiting in Sydney’s Wayside Chapel. Continue reading...
Police say body spotted along seafront at Corton, near Lowestoft, on Saturday at about 10.30amA man’s body has been found in the sea off Suffolk. Police said the body was spotted along the seafront at Corton, near Lowestoft, on Saturday at about 10.30am.Emergency services were called but no further details are available. Continue reading...
Along the eastern shore, seaside attractions are being demolished and millions of homes are at risk as rising sea levels speed erosionFrom a distance, the beach at Winterton-on-sea in Norfolk looks like the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan, with hundreds of grey bodies lying motionless across the sand. On closer inspection, it becomes clear they are not fallen soldiers but a huge colony of seals taken to the land for pupping season.It’s an amazing annual sight that draws tourists and nature-lovers from across the country, but another process is taking place that is pushing people back – the growing threat of coastal erosion. Just along from where the armies of grey seals lay with their white pups, there used to stand the Dunes Cafe, a much-loved beach facility with a large and loyal clientele. Continue reading...
by Euan O'Byrne Mulligan and Rachel Obordo on (#5THZZ)
Three former refuseniks reveal their misgivings about having the vaccination and what finally convinced them to take the plungeThe UK’s vaccine rollout has largely been a success: more than 90% of the population aged 12 and over has now had at least one dose, with just over half having had a second dose and the booster.However, there are thousands of people who still haven’t had a jab, despite estimates suggesting that 90% of the most severely ill Covid patients in hospital at the moment are unvaccinated. Continue reading...
Several more injured in separate incidents despite Germany introducing ban this year on sale of fireworks for personal useExploding fireworks killed two men on New Year’s Eve, one in Germany and the other in Austria, according to local media.A 37-year-old man died in Hennef, near Germany’s western city of Bonn. A 39-year-old was severely injured in the same incident and taken to hospital. Continue reading...
Artefacts from hideout of family sent to Auschwitz death camp with Anne Frank and her family are put on display in NetherlandsA clock that is the sole surviving object from a second world war Jewish hideout will go on display at Amsterdam’s Dutch Resistance Museum this year.The round mantelpiece clock may have been one of the last things people saw as they were seized by the Nazis and sent to death camps. Continue reading...
Three years after it ended, scandal surrounds the show, but its familiarity and formula provided a comfort blanket. I really hope they bring it backIt sounds troublingly shallow, but when I saw the tweet that said “Holy shit, ANTM [America’s Next Top Model] is on Amazon Prime” my heart soared. I am not one who can pretend the pandemic isn’t still raging but, in that fleeting moment, I felt a spiritual lightness I hadn’t experienced since 2019.I dropped everything to binge the episodes, then fell deep into a rabbit hole of detective work: where are the contestants now? Are they on Instagram? I found a whole subsection of TikTok dedicated to calling out where the show was problematic, and YouTuber Oliver Twixt has a highly viewed series of interviews with ANTM contestants levelling accusations of maltreatment at the show’s producers. Whatever the reason, ANTM is back in the cultural sphere. Continue reading...
St James’s Park in central London has provisionally beaten record with a temperature of 16.2CBritain has enjoyed the warmest new year on record as temperatures rose above 16C.St James’s Park in central London has provisionally beaten the record with a temperature of 16.2C, the Met Office said. Continue reading...
Mina Smallman says she ‘can’t wait’ to meet Deniz Jaffer, one of the officers who shared pictures of Nicole Smallman and Bibaa HenryThe mother of two sisters murdered in a London park said she wants to meet one of the police officers who took selfies at the scene and shared the images.The Ven Mina Smallman, the first black woman to become an archdeacon in the Church of England, who was guest editing BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, also spoke of the pain of losing her daughters Nicole Smallman, 27, and Bibaa Henry, 46, in June 2020. Continue reading...
A lifetime of hating my body has got me nowhere. If I can’t love it, can I at least respect it?Every January, the same old battle cry: this will be the year that I get thin. Last January, I did a week-long juice cleanse, and the year before that, I fasted for three days. It wasn’t quite nil by mouth, but almost. At the time, I told myself the science interested me (the fervour with which fasting evangelists assure you that a few days without food can reset your microbiome or stave off cellular ageing is compelling enough to make you ignore the health warnings). Really, though, what I wanted was rapid weight loss, minimum one dress size.I made it to 81 hours. Practically levitating with hunger, I ignored the advice to reintroduce food slowly (soups and juices before solids) by bingeing on a cheese sandwich, which I promptly threw up. Happy new year to me. Continue reading...
Whether it’s taking fruit to work (and to the bedroom!), being polite to rude strangers or taking up skinny-dipping, here’s a century of ways to make life better, with little effort involved …1 Exercise on a Monday night (nothing fun happens on a Monday night).2 On the fence about a purchase? Wait 72 hours before you buy it. Continue reading...
From hiking the Highlands to vintage train journeys, our travel writers pick the breaks on their wishlistsDisconnect on the impeccably green island of Eigg Continue reading...
by Larry Elliott, Julia Kollewe, Sarah Butler, Mark S on (#5THTY)
While women remain under-represented at the very top, the Business desk casts its eye over the biggest hittersLuck plays a big part in politics and the shadow chancellor took full advantage of her good fortune when Keir Starmer tested positive for Covid just before the October 2021 budget. According to parliamentary tradition, the leader of the opposition responds to the chancellor’s budget speech, but Starmer’s absence meant Reeves stepped in and, by general consent, delivered a polished reply to Rishi Sunak. Continue reading...
Five Paris museums to display fashion designer’s creations with artwork that inspired themSimultaneous exhibitions to mark the 60th anniversary of Yves Saint Laurent’s first collection are to be held by six leading Paris museums in an unprecedented tribute from the art world to the late French fashion designer.The events at museums, among them the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay, will reveal how the celebrated couturier was inspired by some of the 20th century’s greatest artists including Picasso, Matisse and Mondrian. Continue reading...
Night-time tragedy at revered site in Indian-administered Kashmir happened as thousands of pilgrims massed to offer prayersAt least 12 people have died and 13 were injured in a stampede at a religious shrine in Indian-administered Kashmir as thousands of pilgrims massed to offer prayers.The disaster happened around 3am on New Year’s Day while it was still dark on the route to the Vaishno Devi shrine, one of the area’s most revered Hindu sites. Continue reading...
New York tradition brings some normalcy as coronavirus pandemic leads to cancellation of shows around the worldA Miley Cyrus wardrobe malfunction, a celebrity rant about outgoing New York City mayor, Bill de Blasio, and the traditional dropping of a six-tonne ball in Times Square were among the highlights as America welcomed the new year, and bid good riddance to the old one.The New Year’s Eve tradition of crowds at Times Square returned this year, though with only 15,000 of the usual 60,000 spectators there to watch the ball, encrusted with nearly 2,700 Waterford crystals, descend as couples embraced, some still wearing their masks. Continue reading...
by Mostafa Rachwani and Donna Lu (earlier) on (#5THK5)
NSW records 22,577 new cases and four deaths, Victoria 7,442 cases and nine deaths, Queensland 2,266 cases, South Australia 2,100, Tasmania 428, Northern Territory 54 and the ACT 448; Queensland makes masks mandatory indoors; SA clinic sends wrong test result to 11 people. This blog is now closed
Police had mounted a search operation after the young boy went missing in a community south-west of Alice SpringsA young boy has died after going missing from his home in a remote community south-west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.The boy’s family reported his absence to police after they had searched for several hours. Continue reading...
Residents of Pontedeume form patrol after brushes with man they suspect is escaped murder convict Alfredo Sánchez ChacónResidents of a town in north-west Spain have banded together to try to track down a convicted murderer – nicknamed the “Galician Rambo” for his multiple jailbreaks and extensive knowledge of survival techniques – who is believed to be living in a nearby wooded area.Alfredo Sánchez Chacón has been on the run since March when he failed to return to prison after being allowed out on a day pass. News that the 63-year-old was missing probably surprised few: Sánchez Chacón, who is due to be in prison until 2025 for a murder in 1996, was already notorious across Spain for slipping out of prison twice. Continue reading...
Iranian-Austrian Kamran Ghaderi is serving a 10-year sentence for spying and his family are still waiting for answersSix years ago on New Year’s Day, an Iranian-Austrian IT businessman said goodbye to his wife and three children and boarded a flight from Vienna to Tehran via Istanbul. Kamran Ghaderi was due to return five to six days later, but instead, on 2 January 2016, he was arrested and has now spent six years in Evin prison in Tehran.In October 2016, he was sentenced to 10 years for spying for a foreign country at a trial in which neither he nor his lawyer were able to say more than two words. His sentencing was based on a confession he gave under what his wife, Harika, says was torture, in the belief she might be in danger. No written judgment has ever been given to his family. Continue reading...
France takes over EU presidency, with Macron announcing an ambitious agenda while eyeing domestic re-electionEmmanuel Macron has declared “the year 2022 must be a turning point for Europe” as France took over the rotating presidency of the European Union.In a New Year’s Eve national address, the French president hailed the EU’s role during the Covid-19 crisis and announced an ambitious agenda for the bloc that could also serve his domestic campaign for re-election. Continue reading...
Kim’s focus on food and factories rather than nuclear weapons or US underscores country’s economic crisisThe North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, has capped off his 10th year in power with a speech that made more mention of tractor factories and school uniforms than nuclear weapons or the United States.North Korea’s main goals for 2022 will be jump-starting economic development and improving people’s lives as it faces a “great life-and-death struggle”, Kim told a meeting of the ruling party’s central committee on Friday. Continue reading...
A 27-year-old man is in police custody after the incident at the West Kentish Road campgrounds in state’s north-westA man has allegedly driven a car through a tent at a campground in Tasmania in the early hours of New Year’s Day, injuring two adults and three children.They were taken to the Northwest Regional Hospital with injuries ranging from minor lacerations to suspected internal injuries. Continue reading...
by Rowena Mason Deputy political editor on (#5THKR)
Boris Johnson accused of ‘wrong priorities’ after David Winton Harding given award for services to philanthropy• New year honours feature Covid experts alongside actors and OlympiansA billionaire hedge fund founder who has given nearly £1.5m to the Conservatives has been knighted in the new year honours list, prompting accusations that Boris Johnson has “the wrong priorities”.David Winton Harding, who has been funding the Tories since 2006, was given the award for services to philanthropy. Continue reading...
by Interview by Paul Daley with Tony Birch. Produced on (#5THGG)
Paul Daley talks to Tony Birch about finding affection on the so-called margins of the inner city, the injustice of climate change and blak humour. Birch also describes why he doesn’t view his fiction as having a political messageYou can hear other episodes of Book It In hereDark as Last Night by Tony Birch was one of Guardian Australia critics and staff’s best Australian books for 2021 Continue reading...
Fun-seekers criticise Welsh restrictions on New Year’s Eve celebrations but say they’ll be carefulThey arrived at Bristol Temple Meads train station clutching cans of booze, a change of clothes and this year’s most essential New Year’s Eve accessory – a negative lateral flow test.The closure of nightclubs and restrictions in bars and pubs in Wales was not going to stop a determined band of Welsh fun-seekers hopping across the border for a big night out on the English side of the Severn. Continue reading...
Statistics on gender-based violence broadened beyond cases involving partners or exesOfficial statistics on gender-based violence in Spain will be broadened to include killings of women and children by men regardless of whether there was a prior relationship between victim and killer, in what is being described as a first in Europe.“What is not named does not exist,” said Spain’s equality minister, Irene Montero. “We have to recognise all of the victims and make visible all forms of violence – all machista [sexist] killings – so that we can put in place policies for prevention, early detection and eradication.” Continue reading...
Naples authorities refuse a public send-off for the convicted murderer known as Lady CamorraNo crowds attended the cortege for Assunta Maresca, better known as Pupetta Maresca, who died at home this week in Castellammare di Stabia aged 86. Maresca, a convicted murderer and mafia boss also known as Lady Camorra, had been the centre of such frenzied media attention in her life that Naples authorities declared she would not have a public send-off.“We are seeing on social media a glorification of this woman who is a symbol of the Camorra in our neighbourhood,” Francesco Emilio Borrelli, a regional councillor for the Europa Verde party, said in a letter to the Naples police. “The mythologising of bosses is to be avoided at all costs.” Continue reading...
Royal’s legal team say some of the disclosure requests in Virginia Giuffre lawsuit are ‘overbroad and oppressive’Lawyers representing a woman who has accused Prince Andrew of sexual abuse are demanding that he hand over documents explaining why he does not sweat.Virginia Giuffre’s legal team have requested a wealth of information from Andrew’s lawyers in response to his BBC Newsnight interview in 2019 when he said he visited a Pizza Express on the day of the claimed sexual encounter. Continue reading...
Tony Wilson, director of the Institute for Employment Studies, on whether the huge rise in vacancies in the UK offers an incentive to look for another jobWith the pandemic, workers have been saying “I quit!” in their droves. In the US, employees packed in their jobs at such pace that a new term was coined – the Great Resignation – and alongside it, countless newspaper articles appeared about career-switching. But in the UK, are as many people quitting as we think? And would the greatest new year’s resolution be to join in? I asked Tony Wilson, director of the Institute for Employment Studies.Is the Great British Resignation under way?
Man arrested on suspicion of affray after disorder between Avon Vale hunt members and protestersA man has been arrested on suspicion of affray after disorder at a Boxing Day hunt, according to police.Anti-hunt protesters and members of the Avon Vale Hunt clashed in the village of Lacock in Wiltshire on the morning of 27 December. Continue reading...
With his odd symbols and signs, the East German painter created a ‘democratic’ style in defiance of the state. A new exhibition shows how his vision was inspired by the trauma of conflict and the cold warIn 1979, the Stasi entered Ralf Winkler’s Dresden studio and trashed the place. It was the culmination of a harassment campaign against the artist, who found fame under the pseudonym AR Penck, for refusing to make social-realist propaganda.Instead, his paintings featured oft-repeated hieroglyphs, odd symbols and signs, seemingly child-like naive scrawls and simple stick men (often with outsized penises). The authorities were right to be suspicious of this new painterly style: Penck sought the construction of a new language, one that mixed the linguistic and pictorial, that was both “universal” and “democratic”. It was a wish born of the trauma of the second world war, particularly witnessing the destruction of Dresden as a child, and the ensuing dystopia of the German Democratic Republic. Continue reading...
Country celebrates new year amid record rise in Covid cases and sweltering temperaturesAustralia has welcomed in the new year more cautiously than usual, with far fewer people attending firework displays and other events.But after a tumultuous 2021 the prime minister, Scott Morrison, said Australians had much to be thankful for. “Despite the pandemic, despite the floods, the fires, continuing drought in some areas, the cyclones, the lockdowns, even mice plagues, Australia is stronger today than we were a year ago. And we’re safer,” he said in a New Year’s Eve message. Continue reading...
Remember being inundated with invitations and parties? If the last two years have taught me anything, it’s that you don’t have to go to any of themIt was never my intention to hide in the toilet. There was lots going on outside: highbrow small talk and top-tier networking; free drinks, air kisses, and cold canapés that – I’d quickly discovered, following glances – were very much, like my fellow attenders, there only for show. The gallery was filled, I’d been assured, with fashion figures and media leaders. I was lucky to have been invited to this salon, one of the hosts had informed me, generously. Exactly what a “salon” is, I’m still unsure.Deep down, I just didn’t want to be there. Only 90 minutes previously I’d been watching Gogglebox and scoffing Pringles in bed. But I went along out of some sense of duty. Perhaps a desire to broaden my horizons, or a compulsion to step outside my comfort zone, where I had become too safe and snug. Now here I was, sitting in a locked cubicle counting down the minutes before I could leave without seeming rude. Continue reading...
Germany and UK are big exporters of plastic, much of which lies rotting in ports in Turkey, Vietnam and other countries141 containers filled with rotting plastic waste have been on a journey for more than a year. Scattered between Turkey, Greece and Vietnam, far from their origins in Germany, the containers’ voyage sheds light on the hidden global trade in plastic waste.Arriving in Turkey in late 2020, shortly before a ban on mixed plastic waste imports came into force, the containers quickly became the centre of a battle between traders, a shipping line, multiple governments and environmental campaigners demanding their return. Continue reading...
Analysis: expect more daunting challenges, from an arms race in space and possible war in Ukraine to increasing populism … not to mention the pandemicOn the brink of a new year, the world faces a daunting array of challenges: the Covid pandemic, the climate emergency, the epic struggle between democracy and authoritarianism, humanitarian crises, mass migration, and trans-national terrorism. There is also the danger of new inter-state conflicts, exacerbated by the breakdown of the rules-based international order and the unregulated spread of lethal autonomous weapons employing artificial intelligence. All in all, for most people on Earth – and a handful in space – 2022 will be another year of living dangerously. Continue reading...
This follow-up to the 2016 flop makes a scattershot attempt at fusing celebrity satire with a riotous musical plot“Fans are fickle. You never know when taste might change. It’s a numbers game, and I’m going to play it,” says Bodi, the guitar-hero hound from the village of Snow Mountain. While Rock Dog 2 nominally denounces selling out, perhaps mindful of how the 2016 original – one of the most expensive Chinese-produced animations ever – bombed, it hectically plays the numbers game itself. Half modern entertainment-biz trawl, half nostalgic Asian rural fable, this messy sequel tries to cover both western and Chinese angles – and toss around enough scattershot energy to keep everyone happy.Bodi’s power-pop trio True Blue are the hottest new act on the block, their music radiating cyan energy waves out to their following. But they have popped up on the radar of Lang, a music-impresario sheep with a fluffy pompadour and British Invasion accent, who has multiple agendas: not just to separate Bodi from his bandmates by teaming him up with starlet Lil’ Foxy, but to shut down Rock’n’Roll Park where the city’s diehard guitar warriors keep the flame burning. Meanwhile in Snow Mountain’s Tibet-style fastness, Bodi’s family are fretting about his sudden fame – though, making a killing selling keychains to True Blue-mad locals, possibly succumbing to the mania themselves. Continue reading...
In what city did Bond almost come a cropper, and which country ditched the Queen? See how much you remember from the world of travel in 2021 Continue reading...
Maseray Sei, 21, was found dead after undergoing the procedure in a centuries-old ritual carried out by a secret society for womenThe death of a young woman in Sierra Leone, almost immediately after undergoing female genital mutilation, has sparked outrage and revived calls to end the practice.The body of 21-year-old Maseray Sei was found on 20 December at Nyandeni village in Bonthe district, southern Sierra Leone, a day after the FGM took place. Sei’s family said that after the procedure the mother of two boys complained of a migraine and was in pain, with complications from FGM thought to be the cause, according to activists working on the case. Continue reading...
Cases have dropped nearly 30% in a week, say authorities, as Israel approves fourth booster shot and New Year’s Eve gatherings around the world are restricted
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