World news | The Guardian

Deceased diplomat who caught coronavirus in Yemen was evacuated too slowly, says Iranian spokespersonIran has implied that its regional foe, Saudi Arabia, may have blocked efforts to save the life of its ambassador to Yemen, who contracted coronavirus there but was unable to immediately be repatriated for urgent medical treatment.The ambassador, Hasan Irlu, “was evacuated in poor condition due to delayed cooperation from certain countries”, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, Saeed Khatibzadeh, told state media. Continue reading...

Owners of 17th-century Scottish tavern to meet those who don’t want its name changed to the Black HoundNo visitor to Linlithgow can miss the prominent lettering across the gable end of the 17th-century tavern at the top of the high street: Black Bitch.“There will be people who are offended and they have a right to their opinion,” said Alistair Old. He is leading an energetic campaign to retain the pub’s name after its owner, Greene King, announced last month it would be rebranded as the Black Hound in line with its diversity policy. “But the people of Linlithgow wouldn’t have tolerated it if the name had racist connotations,” Old added. Continue reading...

All sides acknowledge 24 December vote cannot go ahead but there has been no announcement, and political vacuum loomsThe United Nations is scrambling to manage the postponement of Libya’s presidential elections, which are due to take place on 24 December, as fears grow that a looming political vacuum will lead to renewed violence and economic chaos.There has been no formal announcement on a postponement, but all sides acknowledge the vote cannot proceed, not least because a list of authorised candidates has yet to be published. Continue reading...

Russian leader’s speech to top commanders comes amid growing tensions over UkraineVladimir Putin has said he will consider a military response if Russia feels threatened by Nato, in a sign that he is not ready to de-escalate tensions over a potential invasion of Ukraine.In a combative speech on Tuesday, Putin – who has demanded “security guarantees” from Nato – told his top military commanders that the west was to blame for the rising tensions. It came against a backdrop of a Russian buildup of tanks and artillery for what could constitute an invasion force within weeks. Continue reading...

Continental media are in no mood to donner un break to the British PM, sensing the ‘beginning of the end’For El País in Spain, his “magic has vanished”. For Libération in France he is “the only actor in the Boris Johnson show – which is, increasingly, a flop”. In Germany, Der Spiegel asked how long Britain could last being governed “almost exclusively by defiant optimism”.As the scandals mount, the approval ratings plunge, the electoral defeats accumulate, the rebellions multiply, his trusted Brexit lieutenant jumps ship and the Omicron variant runs rampant, continental media seem – to coin a phrase – in no mood to donner un break to Britain’s beleaguered prime minister. Continue reading...

Attempted crossing from Libya to Europe surge as authorities carry out deadly crackdown on refugeesMore than 160 people drowned in two separate shipwrecks off the coast of Libya in the past week, a UN migration official has said. The fatalities were the latest disasters in the Mediterranean Sea involving refugees seeking a better life in Europe.Safa Msehli, a spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said at least 102 were reported dead after their wooden boat capsized on Friday and at least eight others were rescued and returned to shore. Continue reading...

‘It has to be recognised as a term and as a crime’, says government opposition, after unprecedented number of women murdered by partnersThe Greek government has come under growing pressure to introduce femicide as an offence in the country’s penal code amid outrage over the growing and unprecedented number of women being brutally murdered by their partners.Two women were murdered by their husbands within five days last week, bringing the death toll to 17 since January, according to state-run television. Both men allegedly told police that they had killed their wives out of fear that they would leave them. Continue reading...

Crumbles, samosas, flapjacks, ice-cream … try a few of the alternatives and you’ll soon be wondering why you settled for the traditional mincemeat-in-pasty arrangementChristmas is coming and, in a burst of uncharacteristic domesticity, you have decided to make your own mince pies. It’s a sensible impulse because the act of eating most shop-bought mince pies is roughly equivalent to force-feeding yourself dry pastry. However, you have mucked up the quantities and now you have buckets and buckets of leftover mincemeat. Whatever should you do with it all? Glad you asked. Here are 10 very good uses. Continue reading...

Payment to protect Princess Haya and children from threat sheikh poses to them is highest awarded by a UK court

The high figure in the modelling, to be discussed at national cabinet on Wednesday, would only be reached ‘if we do nothing’, a senior source says

Restaurants have had a rush of visitors since lockdown was imposed in the Netherlands on Sunday

The painter impressed Nigeria’s Afrobeat pioneer, and soon he was creating intricate record covers at Kuti’s right hand. But amid violence and disorder, their friendship souredTeeming with stimuli in highly-populated scenes reminiscent of a Where’s Wally? spread, a Lemi Ghariokwu painting is instantly recognisable. Raised in Lagos, the 66-year-old has painted over 2,000 album covers for artists both major and independent in Nigeria and beyond, but his most famous were for Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti – visible in a new box set out this month – whose warrior spirit railed against the country’s military regime and aligned with Ghariokwu in an eventful four-year partnership.At five years old, Ghariokwu would draw luxury cars that sometimes drove by, using a broomstick on Lagos’s unpaved sand streets. He would not pursue art professionally until 17, when he came across a record designed by Roger Dean, the British artist famous for his work with prog band Yes. “Seeing him have magazine interviews because of his work, the inspiration was foundational,” he says. Continue reading...

The indigenous activist was opposing the construction of a dam being constructed by Roberto David Castillo’s companyWhen Roberto David Castillo graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point, the Honduran cadet was confident he’d leave behind a legacy.“He will be remembered by all as being a fearless leader committed to God, his family and serving others,” read the caption under his yearbook portrait. Continue reading...

It was another year of enforced stints on the sofa – perfect preparation for our fiendish cultural quiz• Try our kids’ quiz, news quiz and bumper Saturday quiz, too Continue reading...

Southern Tasmania was forced into three-day lockdown after Timothy Andrew Gunn, 31, absconded and tested positive to CovidA New South Wales man who absconded from hotel quarantine in Hobart and sparked a three-day lockdown across southern Tasmania has been sentenced to five months’ jail for breaching public health orders.Much of the island state, including the capital, was forced into lockdown on 15 October after Timothy Andrew Gunn, 31, returned a positive coronavirus test having spent time in the community. Continue reading...

Judge rules Humberside’s actions were ‘disproportionate interference’ with right to freedom of expressionA former police officer has won a court of appeal challenge over police guidance on hate incidents after claiming it unlawfully interferes with the right to freedom of expression.Ex-officer Harry Miller, who describes himself as “gender critical”, was visited at work by an officer from Humberside police in January 2019 after a member of the public complained about his allegedly transphobic tweets. Continue reading...

AMA calls for mask mandate and density limits for Christmas; South Australia records 154 new Covid cases, Queensland 86; RACP calls on state and territory governments to reintroduce restrictions as PM says ‘we’re not going back to lockdowns’; Victoria records 1,245 cases; NSW records 3,057 cases; national cabinet to discuss vaccination timeframes and mask mandates – follow all the day’s news live

Tis the season for novelty hits, charity records and, now, songs about baked goods. But though everyone wants a festive No 1, they rarely stay up longer than the tinselFor a nation so obsessed with the Christmas No 1 – as much part of the festive season as overboiled sprouts and Lynx Africa – Britons are awfully sanguine about what they put at the top of the charts each year. Since the chart began in 1952, only 12 Christmas No 1s have had some clear and unambiguous connection to the season: two of them have been versions of Mary’s Boy Child and three have been Do They Know It’s Christmas?While we have our platonic ideals of what a Christmas No 1 should sound like – somewhere between Mariah Carey and Slade and slathered in sleigh bells – the history of UK Christmas No 1s tells a different story. The Britain reflected in our seasonal chart toppers is one that is nostalgic, silly and generous. And it is inconstant: at Christmas, Britain wants only something to make it feel good, and is happy to cast its December favourites aside the minute it’s New Year’s Eve. Continue reading...

Draft safeguards would mark major development in women’s rights as China faces calls for gender equalityChina is considering strengthening its laws on women’s rights to provide more robust protection against gender-based discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace.The draft regulations come amid the rise of a nascent #MeToo movement in China, which activists say has been hampered by the country’s strict regime of censorship and oppression against all signs of dissent. Continue reading...

States call for the vaccine booster interval to be shortened as New South Wales records 3,057 new cases

When I was a child, my GP father took us to visit lonely patients in hospital each Christmas Day. I was so grateful to see the care he was given in returnMummy, when Grampy’s burnt will there be fireworks?” my six-year-old demanded. My heart sank as I realised I’d made a terrible job of explaining cremation. We were racing down the motorway so that Abbey and her older brother could see their grandad – my father – one final time. But it was only a few weeks after Bonfire Night. Abbey’s one frame of reference for setting people alight was the guy that had so enthralled her on the school playing field, going up in a blaze of sparks and cinders.As soon as we arrived – on an icy Christmas Eve in 2017 – the children stampeded into the dining room where Dad lay on a hospital bed being drip-fed morphine, yellow with jaundice and skeletal. I’d worried that the sight of him might frighten them. But no. “Grampy!” they squealed as they raced to his bedside. Abbey instinctively leant downwards to kiss his forehead, while Finn took the bare bones of Dad’s hand in the plumpness of his, and gently, tenderly, squeezed them. Tinsel and fairy lights twinkled around them. He was too weak to speak, but Dad’s eyes danced with pleasure. My heart cracked as I watched his face – so very gaunt, stripped bare by cancer – glow with an unmistakable smile. Continue reading...

Rebrand of Foreign Office’s development arm, seen as effort to rival China’s loans, will shift aid to private sector, warn NGOs and unionsThe British government has been accused by NGOs and trade unions of “chasing colonial post-Brexit fantasies” at the expense of the world’s poorest as they urge Liz Truss to keep aid focused on poverty reduction rather than geopolitical manoeuvring.In a joint letter to the foreign secretary, the group criticises the rebranding of the UK’s development investment arm, which will see the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) become British International Investment (BII) next year. Continue reading...

Tricked into boarding a plane back to Kigali and allegedly coerced into confessing, the high-profile exile faces 25 years in prison, but his family are determined to keep up the pressureThe children of Paul Rusesabagina, the imprisoned Rwandan opposition figure, are only able to speak to their father for five minutes once a week. Even then the Rwandan authorities listen into the phone call.Tricked into boarding a private plane in Dubai and flown to Kigali, the 67-year-old Rusesabagina – who came to international attention after his life-saving acts were depicted in the Hollywood film Hotel Rwanda, set during the country’s genocide in 1994 – was given what his family says was a show trial and jailed over allegations that he had been a founder and leader of a terrorist group. Continue reading...

The night of the party, I put my heartbreak aside. With nothing to lose, I walked up to a man and told him he was the most handsome one in the roomIn a warehouse in Ladywood, Birmingham, with a papier-mache spine down my back and breath like a dustpan, I walked up to a man and said, without any preamble: “You are the most handsome man at this party.”It was December 2004, the theme of the party was dinosaurs and, being a fan of puns, I had decided to go as a thesaurus. In my little room in Lupton Flats – the cheapest halls of residence at Leeds University at the time – I’d sat on the floor, beside my single bed, and patiently glued down layers of paper into a string of points. Reluctant to sacrifice my actual thesaurus, I had rooted around my reading list for another book, eventually choosing The French Lieutenant’s Woman. Listening to Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions and drinking PG Tips, it had taken me at least two hours to make the dinosaur spine, which would attach around my neck like a backwards pendant. Slipping it on and looking in the mirror, I wondered if anyone would even notice me. Continue reading...

An immaculate social satire featuring scabrous character studies, a murder-mystery and a shocking revenge scene

The foreign secretary, now chief negotiator with the EU, wants ‘a comprehensive solution’The UK’s newly appointed chief post-Brexit negotiator, Liz Truss, said she would speak to her EU counterpart, Maroš Šefčovič, on Tuesday amid renewed calls to rip up the controversial Northern Ireland protocol.The cabinet minister, who is also the foreign secretary, said she wanted to negotiate “a comprehensive solution” to the agreement, which requires post-Brexit checks on goods arriving in Northern Ireland from Great Britain. Continue reading...

Cabinet Office can investigate ‘credible allegations’ on other gatherings, but PM says photo of staff shows work meetingBereaved families have accused Boris Johnson of showing “flagrant disregard” for the public as ministers struggled to explain the justification for a wine and cheese event in Downing Street at the height of lockdown.A Cabinet Office inquiry into other alleged government parties in breach of Covid rules could be expanded after the Guardian published an image showing the prime minister alongside his wife and up to 17 staff in the Downing Street garden in May 2020. Continue reading...

Japan has resisted calls for abolition of the capital punishment, and the latest executions are the first under the new prime minister, Fumio KishidaJapan has hanged three men in the country’s first executions for two years, media reports said on Tuesday, amid criticism of its use of the death penalty.The Kyodo news agency said the justice ministry had identified the men as Yasutaka Fujishiro, 65, who murdered seven of his relatives in 2004, and Tomoaki Takanezawa, 54, and Mitsunori Onogawa, 44, who were convicted of killing two employees of a pachinko parlour in 2003. Continue reading...

Statement came as CBS said Noth will no longer be part The Equalizer ‘effective immediately’ following allegations by two womenThe leads of Sex and the City’s recent reboot And Just Like That have responded to sexual assault allegations made by two women against their fellow castmate, Chris Noth.Cynthia Nixon – who plays Miranda in the series and its reboot – shared a statement on social media, signed by herself, Sarah Jessica Parker (Carrie) and Kristin Davis (Charlotte). Continue reading...

Border had been set to reopen to visitors and visa holders coming from Australia from 17 JanuaryNew Zealand has announced a suite of measures to strengthen its defence against the Omicron variant, including pushing back the start of its quarantine-free border reopening to the end of February.

Calls for urgent aid as some residents remain without drinking water and food in the aftermath of Typhoon RaiThe death toll from the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines this year has surged to 375 , as desperate survivors pleaded for urgent supplies of drinking water and food.The Philippine Red Cross reported “complete carnage” in coastal areas after Super Typhoon Rai left homes, hospitals and schools “ripped to shreds”. Continue reading...

British monarch will stay in Windsor instead of going to Sandringham as usual; European Medicines Agency gives green light to fifth vaccine

Following leaked accounts, union’s new general secretary says possible ‘significant loss’ must be investigatedUnite is launching an independent inquiry into how the building costs of a hotel and conference centre in Birmingham spiralled into a “potentially significant loss” for the trade union.The inquiry follows reports at the beginning of the year of leaked accounts seeming to indicate that the union had overspent on the 170-room hotel and 1,000-person conference centre. Continue reading...

Boris Johnson caught between scientific advisers and his sceptical cabinet over action on Omicron

Boris Johnson says it was a meeting of ‘people at work, talking about work’ during lockdown last yearThere have been a series of explanations as to why Boris Johnson, his wife and 17 other people were photographed with wine and cheese in the Downing Street garden during the Covid lockdown in May last year.Johnson’s spokesman on Friday, after sources told the Guardian and Independent about the event:In the summer months Downing Street staff regularly use the garden for some meetings. On 15 May 2020 the prime minister held a series of meetings throughout the afternoon, including briefly with the then health and care secretary and his team in the garden following a press conference. The prime minister went to his residence shortly after 7pm. A small number of staff required to be in work remained in the Downing Street garden for part of the afternoon and evening.As we said last week, work meetings often take place in the Downing Street garden in the summer months. On this occasion there were staff meetings after a No 10 press conference. Downing Street is the prime minister’s home as well as his workplace. The prime minister’s wife lives in No 10 and therefore also legitimately uses the garden.I think there’s a lot of exhausted people, and they, as people do in work, were having a drink after the formal business had been done.This shows colleagues who were required to be in work, meeting following a press conference to discuss work … It was not against the regulations for those individuals to have a drink outside working hours, but still discussing work.This is where I live, it is where I work. Those were meetings of people at work, talking about work. Continue reading...

Monarch moves traditional festivities for second year in succession due to concerns over Covid

Twelve kidnapped in October, including an infant and small child, walked hours by moonlight to safetyKidnapped missionaries in Haiti found freedom last week by making a daring overnight escape, eluding their kidnappers and walking for miles over difficult, moonlit terrain with an infant and other children in tow, according to the agency they work for.Ransom money was raised to pay for the release of the missionaries who were abducted on 16 October, but a dozen of them managed to flee, navigating by the stars to reach safety, Christian Aid Ministries said on Monday Continue reading...

First doses of protein-based Nuvaxovid are expected to be used in new year after European Medicines Agency gives go-ahead

Alaa Abd El-Fattah gets five years for ‘spreading false news’ and lawyer and blogger get four-year termsA leading figure in Egypt’s 2011 uprising, his lawyer and a blogger have been served lengthy prison sentences in a Cairo court, in a move that observers have branded a further blow to human rights.An emergency court on Monday sentenced activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah to five years in prison on charges of “spreading false news”. Human rights lawyer Mohamed El-Baqer, formerly Abd El-Fattah’s counsel, and blogger Mohamed “Oxygen” Ibrahim were both sentenced to four years in detention on the same charges. Continue reading...

Schreiber was convicted last week of killing landowner and attempted murder of his own motherAn aspiring artist convicted of murdering one of the UK’s wealthiest landowners and attempting to murder his mother has been jailed for a minimum of 36 years.Thomas Schreiber, 35, killed Sir Richard Sutton, 83, in a knife attack at the multimillionaire’s country estate in Dorset during Covid lockdown restrictions in April. He also injured Anne Schreiber, 66, so badly that she remains in hospital eight months later. Continue reading...

New manager of the Ship Inn on small Cumbrian island will need to accept a few odd conditionsWanted: someone with experience running a pub, a love of isolation and a willingness to mark their appointment by sitting on a throne and having beer poured over their head.A council has begun one of the UK’s most unusual local government recruitment processes while seeking someone to run the Ship Inn on Piel Island, off the coast near Barrow-in-Furness. The downside might be the uncertain weather, or the isolation, or the long hours. On the upside, you can watch seals and birds, enjoy stunning sunsets and, if you have self-esteem issues, know you really will be a king or queen. It would sort of be official. Continue reading...

Proposal to UN for TDF troops to return to Tigray in exchange for an arms embargo on Ethiopia and an end to aircraft attacksTigrayan forces at war with Ethiopia’s government have pledged to withdraw from neighbouring regions in the north of the country in a sudden step towards a possible ceasefire after more than a year of brutal conflict.Tigray Defence Forces (TDF) outside Tigray have been ordered to return to the region in a “decisive opening for peace”, wrote Debretsion Gebremichael, the head of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), to the United Nations in a letter dated Sunday. Continue reading...

Free or subsidised antigen tests would send a ‘market signal’ to global suppliers, businesses say

The decisive victory reflects Chileans’ revolt against a threadbare welfare system and a society systematically stacked in the favour of the richAt the age of 14, Gabriel Boric – the great-grandson of a Croatian migrant and an avid reader of Marx and Hegel – formed a city-wide student union in the Chilean city of Punta Arenas.At 21, and by then a law student, he led a campus sit-in for 44 days in Santiago, Chile’s capital, to oust a senior professor accused of plagiarism and corruption. Two years later, in 2011, he was elected figurehead of a massive student rebellion against profiteering private universities, and in 2013 became a congressman for his remote home region. Continue reading...

US-born singer-songwriter Wang Leehom accused of infidelity and emotional abuse by Lee JingleiThe highly successful Mandarin-speaking singer-songwriter Wang Leehom has issued a public apology to his ex-wife after a high-profile family row that has gripped the Chinese-speaking world.In a lengthy social media post on Friday, Lee Jinglei accused Wang of emotional abuse, lack of care for his family, infidelity and solicitation of sex workers. Continue reading...

I rewatched Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s monstrous and lovable creation after my mother died in lockdown. The show gave me space to live and grieveFleabag isn’t really the person who got me through 2021. To confess the truth (and now the Hot Priest is saying “Kneel!” in your head, isn’t he?), she also got me through 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017 and half of 2016, when the show first aired. It’s been an intense few years. Which is precisely why only a show about a self-sabotaging, black-humoured, grief-stricken, sex-obsessed, charismatic and broken nihilist would do.However, 2021 has been different. It’s the first year I’ve rewatched Fleabag since my mum’s death. She died last June in the midst of lockdown. She had breast cancer, just like Fleabag’s mum, whose farts sounded either like “a door opening” or a “suspicious duck”, and who also died. My mum was ill – with a remission in the middle that was like the sun coming out – for eight long years. Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s monstrous/lovable creation (whom she plays with such startling acuity that I actually felt betrayed when I discovered her own mother was alive) was my (evil) spirit guide through much of the darkness. Now she walks with me on this newly laid, even longer road through the wilderness of grief. I can think of no better companion. Continue reading...

Commissioner’s stance underlines difficulty of task facing Liz Truss as she steps into David Frost’s briefA senior EU official has said she does not expect the bloc to strike a migration deal with the UK because of disputes over the Brexit agreement.Ylva Johansson, the European commissioner for home affairs, said EU member states had “limited” appetite for an agreement with the UK to manage asylum seekers and migrants, citing concerns over the post-Brexit trade deal and the Northern Ireland protocol. Continue reading...

Spokesperson says wine-drinking was within rules and it is impossible to tell if people were 2 metres apart

Meagre turnout for West Side Story shows that these days, the way to cash in on intellectual property is via sequels and rebootsSo far, Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story hasn’t had audiences pirouetting and finger-clicking their way to cinemas. There are plenty of reasons why; the main one relating to a certain global pandemic. But one explanation that keeps being proffered is that viewers are simply sick of remakes – and it’s not entirely wrong. Hollywood still has no qualms about bringing back its vintage franchises, of course. But as the imminent returns of The Matrix, Scream, Top Gun, Indiana Jones, Hocus Pocus and Legally Blonde demonstrate, the fashionable way to cash in on a venerable intellectual property is to hire as many of the original cast members as you can and to pick up where you left off. Sequels are in; remakes are out.Remakes, lest we forget, were once central to the cinematic landscape – hardly more remarkable or disreputable than a new theatrical production of an old play. When The Maltese Falcon came out in 1940, it was the third adaptation of the same book within a decade. Some Like It Hot? Pinched from a 1951 German farce, which was in turn pinched from a 1935 French one. Hitchcock’s 1956 classic The Man Who Knew Too Much? A total rip-off of Hitchcock’s 1934 classic, The Man Who Knew Too Much. Continue reading...

Lawyers for disputed president, Nicolás Maduro, criticise overturning of appeal court decisionMarathon legal efforts by Venezuela’s Juan Guaidó to gain control over €1.6bn (£1.3bn) of gold reserves held by the Bank of England have come closer to success after the UK supreme court ruled that Britain unequivocally recognises him as head of state.Although the supreme court referred the case back to the commercial court to study the issue further, it added that it did not believe the UK court could recognise rulings by Venezuela’s highest court, the supreme tribunal of justice (STJ), which has already declared Guaidó’s efforts to gain control of the assets unlawful. Continue reading...