World news | The Guardian

From a change of routine to an unexpected rest, those self-isolating look on the bright side

At least 39 people have been killed and 70 injured after a fire ripped through a crowded river ferry in Bangladesh.The blaze began in the engine room of the ferry in the early hours of Friday morning, officials said, but the cause was not immediately clear. It took 15 fire engines two hours to get it under control.People were forced to jump from the vessel, which was carrying about 800 passengers, into the freezing river water to escape

Photograph of TV address released by palace shows Queen sitting next to a portrait of her and Prince PhilipThe Queen’s Christmas Day message is expected to be a particularly personal one this year, her first since the death of the Duke of Edinburgh.A photograph, which was released by Buckingham Palace ahead of her televised address, shows the Queen sitting behind a desk in the White Drawing Room at Windsor Castle, accompanied by a single, framed picture of the couple taken in 2007 at Broadlands country house, Hampshire, to mark their diamond wedding anniversary. Continue reading...

How’s your 2021 TV knowledge? Test how much love you’ve been giving your favourite shows with our brain-tickling end-of-year quiz. Continue reading...

Grant Bailey was working as security consultant in Kabul where he liaised with US state departmentA British man is missing in Afghanistan after a report he has been detained by the Taliban. Grant Bailey was arrested in the Afghan capital, Kabul, where he has been working as a security consultant.The arrest came during a Taliban security clampdown, according to the Daily Mirror. Continue reading...

Disciplinary body says people to be held accountable for failing in efforts to prevent and control outbreak

Single father of five who 'would give any dog a chance of life’ was kennel of choice for policeA kennel owner who died in a dog attack was a passionate animal welfare campaigner who worked tirelessly to give abused dogs another chance in life, his friends and colleagues have said.Adam Watts was killed at the Juniper kennels and cattery he ran in Kirkton of Auchterhouse, near Dundee, on Wednesday, by a dog it is understood police had previously seized and brought to him for rehabilitation. Continue reading...

Moscow ruling is first revenue-based fine of its kind in Russia and comes amid fears of internet crackdownA Moscow court has said it is fining Alphabet’s Google 7.2bn roubles (£73m) for what it says is a repeated failure to delete content Russia deems illegal, the first revenue-based fine of its kind in Russia.Moscow has increased pressure on big tech this year in a campaign that critics characterise as an attempt by Russian authorities to exert tighter control over the internet, something they say threatens individual and corporate freedom. Continue reading...

Passengers jumped off vessel carrying 800 passengers and tried to swim ashore, officials sayA massive fire has swept through a crowded river ferry in Bangladesh, leaving at least 39 people dead and 70 injured, officials have said.Many passengers leaped from the vessel into cold waters to escape the fire. It took 15 fire engines two hours to control the blaze and another eight to cool down the vessel, according to Kamal Uddin Bhuiyan, the fire officer who led the rescue operation. Continue reading...

Lawyers describe Spencer Elden’s claim of child exploitation as ‘not serious’ and says it fails to meet statute of limitationsLawyers working on behalf of Nirvana have filed to dismiss a lawsuit made against the band by Spencer Elden, who appeared as a baby on the cover of their album Nevermind.In the lawsuit filed in August, Elden claimed he was the victim of child sexual exploitation and that the cover artwork was a child sexual abuse image. “Defendants knowingly produced, possessed and advertised commercial child pornography depicting Spencer,” the lawsuit read. Continue reading...

Founder Aryan Pasha wants La Beauté & Style to be an inclusive and comfortable space, as well as tackle prejudice and provide employmentThe beauty treatments listed at the new La Beauté & Style salon are much the same as those offered by the dozen or so other parlours that dot the traffic-heavy Dilshad Extension area of Ghaziabad, 17 miles (28km) east of Delhi. But that is where the similarity ends.The wall behind the reception desk is painted in rainbow colours; a mural of a trans man with flowing multicoloured locks decorates another wall; a woman wearing a sari is having her eyebrows plucked next to a trans man who is telling a stylist how he would like his hair cut. Continue reading...

Suspect wanted in connection with racially aggravated assault outside West Hampstead overground stationA man was injured in an antisemitic attack in London during Hanukah, the Metropolitan police have said.The force is searching for a man wanted in connection with the racially aggravated assault, which happened outside West Hampstead overground station in north London on Thursday 2 December. Continue reading...

Labor MP Jim Chalmers was up and about on breakfast television earlier today, expressing shock at NSW premier Dominic Perrottet’s slow limp to reintroducing mask mandates.He said mask mandates were just “common sense” right now:It’s a bit strange frankly that they held out for so long and in that period we probably lost a bit of ground when it came to tracing and tracking outbreaks of the virus, particularly the new strain.It’s an interesting thought but it’s not a thought which I think should turn into practice. We have a universal health system ... we care for people who need that care. We should encourage people to get vaccinated, it’s the best thing we can do to protect our health, but I don’t think our health system should discriminate. Continue reading...

In Kyiv and beyond, people carry on with the festive season despite rhetoric about imminent conflictRussia is threatening war on Ukraine, but in Kyiv the city council is putting up Christmas trees rather than bomb shelter notices, and organising concerts rather than army recruitment drives.Amid a Russian military buildup on Ukraine’s eastern border and in annexed Crimea, hostile rhetoric between Russia and the US and its allies is edging towards a cold war high, with Ukraine the battlefield for any actual fighting. Ukrainians, however, just emerging from Covid quarantine, are enjoying ice rinks and markets put up for the holiday season and would rather think about how to celebrate the coming new year. Continue reading...

The creator of the hit BBC romcom talks about having less than a day to enjoy its triumph – and how extreme nerd-dom got her through 2021Rose Matafeo is arguably the breakout star of 2021. Her BBC Three sitcom Starstruck became the channel’s best-performing comedy within weeks of launch, racking up 3m views and earning a second series before it even premiered. The impact was so huge and immediate that you could be forgiven for thinking she had dropped from the sky fully formed.

Every year this hilltop community becomes Christmas Village, a rustic, artisanal festive wonderland attracting visitors from far and wideJosé Galvão does not look much like an elf. At 79, he has the weather-burned face and strong labourer’s hands of a man born in the mountains of central Portugal. Yet, for months he’s been beavering away behind the scenes to bring to life what must be one of the world’s friendliest and least showy Christmas celebrations.

Oscott Gardens will provide temporary accommodation for up to 300 families as council faces soaring demand for housingThe sprawling 419-bed Oscott Gardens in north Birmingham was once home to hundreds of first-year university students. From January, however, in a first-of-its-kind project for the city, the student halls will become temporary accommodation for homeless families as the council buckles under the strain of a national housing crisis.“We’re seeing around 300 families a month present to us as homeless, enough to fill a whole tower block,” said Sharon Thompson, Birmingham city council’s cabinet member for vulnerable children, families and homelessness. “Having been a councillor since 2014, I’ve never seen local communities hit in the way they are at the moment.” Continue reading...

As thousands attempt to cross the Belarus-Poland border seeking asylum in Europe, local activists are trying to helpIn the attic of a cottage in the woods near the Polish village of Narewka, a young Iraqi Kurd crouches, trembling with cold and fear. Through the skylight, the blue lights of police vans flash on the walls of his hiding place. Outside, dozens of border guards are searching for people like him in the snowstorm. Downstairs, the owner of the house sits in silence with his terrified wife and children.The young Kurd is one of thousands of asylum seekers who entered Poland across the border with Belarus, where countless others have become trapped on their way to Europe. The Polish family have offered him shelter. But if the Polish police find him, he risks being sent back across the frontier into the sub-zero forests of Belarus, while his protectors risk being charged for aiding illegal immigration. Continue reading...

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has thanked the 'many selfless Australians' who are caring for others this Christmas. The opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, delivered his Christmas message with the help of his dog, Toto, saying 'after such a tough couple of years, we all deserve a happy Christmas'.

Ten years after my dad died, I felt rudderless – a manchild still making sense of life. But suddenly, surprisingly, I met someone with whom I had an immediate bondFor most of the winter of 2011-12, I was a slightly reluctant member of the Guardian’sspin-off dating site, Guardian Soulmates. I was still in my 20s, just about, and pouring the energy and naivety of youth into a busy social life, a career as a writer of newsprint ephemera and a room in a shared flat. I think I was also a bit lonely and rudderless – a manchild still making sense of life 10 years after the sudden death of my dad. Whatever it was, something was missing.By late February, I had been on half a dozen first dates – and no second dates. I was getting tired of the whole thing. It was all so procedural. But I’d agreed to meet a girl called Jess, whose profile handle – “good_grammar_is_hot” – had somehow not entirely put me off. Continue reading...

Pacific Island nation to host six Chinese officers as well as receiving shields, helmets and batons, says governmentChina will send police officers to the Solomon Islands to help train its police force, the Pacific island nation says, after rioting last month sparked by the country’s 2019 switch of diplomatic relations to Beijing from Taiwan.The unrest, in which dozens of buildings were burnt down, arose after the decision by prime minister Manasseh Sogavare to launch relations with China fuelled a dispute between the national government and the most populous province, Malaita. Other domestic issues also stirred the discontent. Continue reading...

Despite the turnaround, campaigners say the Santos’ case illustrates wider problems with NZ’s treatment of migrantsA Philippine family set to be deported from New Zealand on Christmas Day after the father used a false address to claim food vouchers out of desperation has been granted a last-minute reprieve in what they described as the “best present”.Jeffrey Santos had used a false address to claim $1,600 in vouchers because he lost his job when the Covid lockdown struck in March 2020 and was ineligible for New Zealand’s income relief payment, which wasn’t available to migrant workers. As a result, Jeffrey, his wife, Marjorie, and 8-year-old son James were to be deported back to the Philippines on Christmas Day. Continue reading...

CUHK’s Goddess of Democracy and a sculpture at Lingnan University were removed overnight as authorities move to erase memorials to the massacreTwo more Hong Kong universities have removed works of art marking Beijing’s deadly 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square democracy protesters, as authorities move to erase memorials to the event.The removals come a day after Hong Kong’s oldest university took down a statue named the Pillar of Shame, commemorating the events of 1989, sparking outcry by activists and dissident artists in the city and abroad. Continue reading...

US would set up bases from a Japanese island to Taiwan and deploy troops, with Japan providing logistical support, Kyodo reportsJapanese and US armed forces have drawn up a draft plan for a joint operation for a possible Taiwan emergency, Japan’s Kyodo news agency has reported, amid increased tensions between the island and China.Under the plan, the US marine corps would set up temporary bases on the Nansei island chain stretching from Kyushu – one of the four main islands of Japan – to Taiwan at the initial stage of a Taiwan emergency and would deploy troops, Kyodo said on Thursday, citing unnamed Japanese government sources. Continue reading...

Deal with Thai and Austrian firms includes the four UK stores and raises hopes for Oxford Street redevelopmentThe family owners of Selfridges have sold out to a Thai retailer and an Austrian property company for an estimated £4bn ($5.36bn) in a deal which sees the return of the luxury department store’s former boss Vittorio Radice.Thailand’s Central Group and Austrian real estate company Signa Holding already jointly own major department stores in Italy, Germany and Denmark via a division run by Radice, who left Selfridges in 2002, the year before Canada’s Weston family bought it for £628m. Continue reading...

Survey also finds a third think the pandemic will never be over, as ONS records highest anxiety in 11 monthsPeople are less likely to shake hands and hug people they do not live with than they were before the pandemic, a poll suggests, while separate research indicates that anxiety levels have increased markedly in the run-up to this Christmas.Data collected by YouGov and the PA news agency suggests that nearly two-thirds of people shake hands less now than they did before Covid-19 and more than half have cut down on hugging people they do not live with. Continue reading...

PM urges public to take up jab in Christmas message that echoes archbishop saying vaccination is ‘how we love our neighbour’

Latest updates: UK says risk of hospitalisation 70% lower with Omicron; France set to report highest case numbers

Gentile said the Sex and the City actor threatened to ruin her career if she ever came forward about the alleged assaultA fourth woman has come forward to accuse Chris Noth of sexual assault, days after the actor best known for his character Mr Big on Sex and the City was fired from the CBS TV drama The Equalizer.Singer-songwriter Lisa Gentile gave an account on Thursday that Noth had forcibly kissed and groped her in her New York apartment after she met him at Da Marino, a restaurant in midtown Manhattan where another of Noth’s accusers has said she was assaulted by the actor. Continue reading...

Picture of Queen recording Christmas message at Windsor Castle also made public, featuring a photo with the Duke of EdinburghThe Duke and Duchess of Sussex have released the first picture of their daughter, Lilibet, with Meghan holding up the laughing child in an image on their Christmas card.The photo, which also shows Prince Harry with curly haired Archie on his knee, was taken by Alexi Lubomirski this summer at the couple’s home in Santa Barbara, California. Continue reading...

Protest at property near Newcastle follows video of former England football captain urging people to get Covid boosterAnti-vaccination protesters who attempted to serve spurious legal papers to the former England football captain Alan Shearer delivered the documents to the wrong house, it has emerged.The former Newcastle United and Blackburn Rovers striker had encouraged people to get a Covid booster jab in a video promoted by the Premier League last week. Continue reading...

Long-awaited scheme for 20,000 opens as charities seek clarity on how it will workThe government has announced that the long-awaited Afghan citizens resettlement scheme will start in January 2022.The programme will provide support for up to 20,000 Afghans, prioritising women, children and others at risk. Continue reading...

The designer’s salary rose to £2.7m last year while her company claimed almost £850k in government supportStella McCartney took a near £2.7m salary from her fashion company last year, up more than £220,000 on the year before, while the business claimed almost £850,000 in support from the government’s furlough scheme.The designer’s pay went up despite a 26% fall in sales to £28.4m in the year to 31 December 2020, as sales in the UK more than halved, while the company recorded a pre-tax loss of £31.4m, according to accounts for Stella McCartney Limited filed at Companies House. The group made a £33.4m pretax loss the year before. Continue reading...

Analysis: As Ukraine drifts from the control he desires, disdain for potential negotiating partners leaves the option of forceVladimir Putin has deployed his troops to the border with Ukraine, delivered impossible demands on Europe and appears ready to launch a new offensive to establish his domination over Kyiv.Putin is said to feel a “historical mission” to reverse Ukraine’s drift towards the west, despite his own role in creating a rift by annexing Crimea and fuelling a war in Ukraine’s south-east. But his current fast pace raises questions of why he appears to feel the moment to act is now, as if he is running out of time. Continue reading...

Unsparing observer of national politics and her own life, she won enormous acclaim for her memoir of grief, The Year of Magical ThinkingJoan Didion, the eminent journalist, author and anthropologist of contemporary American politics and culture – a singularly clear, precise voice across a multitude of subjects for more than 60 years – has died at her home in Manhattan, New York. She was 87 years old.The cause of death was Parkinson’s disease, according to Paul Bogaards, an executive at Didion’s publisher Knopf. Continue reading...

Premiered in Cairo 150 years ago, set in an exoticised ancient Egypt and written by a man who refused to visit the country for fear of ‘being mummified’, the beloved opera has left a complex legacy in the country its drama is setIn the middle of downtown Cairo is an anonymous-looking concrete building that stretches along one side of a huge landscaped roundabout. If you peer upwards, you’ll see it labelled, between rows of air-con units, in Arabic and English: “Opera office building and garage.” As monuments to past cultural glories go, it’s not a thing of beauty. But this block marks the site of the Khedivial Opera House – a venue erected in 1869 – and which, on 24 December 1871, staged the first performance of a new opera by the world’s then most famous composer: Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida.Today, Aida is one of the most regularly performed operas across the globe. Its just-add-pyramids ancient Egypt setting is as beloved by directors and audiences as Carmen’s Spain or Madama Butterfly’s Japan, almost always preserved as a spectacular backdrop for its conventional Italian-opera love story. Yet in recent decades Aida’s overt exoticism has attracted controversy. The Palestinian intellectual Edward Said argued that it was just another product of European imperialism – an opera that has had, he wrote in 1993, “an anaesthetic as well as informative effect on European audiences”. Continue reading...

Site of the Pillar of Shame at city’s oldest university under guard after workmen cut up statueHong Kong’s oldest university and the territory’s authorities have been accused of rewriting history after cutting up and removing a statue mourning those killed in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.The erasure of the memorial from where it had stood for nearly 25 years came as Beijing has intensified its targeting of political dissent in Hong Kong since the Covid pandemic. Continue reading...

Chris Martin says band will continue to tour in interview with Jo Whiley on BBC Radio 2Fans have reacted with dismay to the news that Coldplay will stop recording music as a band in 2025, although quiet glee was also detected among some detractors.The band’s frontman, Chris Martin, shared the “huge revelation” with the BBC Radio 2 presenter Jo Whiley on a special show to be broadcast on Friday from 7pm. Continue reading...

Figures reveal child refugees who arrived on their own are waiting longer than adults for Home Office decisionChildren who have arrived in the UK on their own to seek asylum are at risk of self-harm and dying by suicide, according to 25 child and migrant rights organisation, as figures reveal they are waiting longer than adults for a decision on their claim.The warning, in a letter to safeguarding institutions, including the children’s commissioner and the chief social worker, said the risk was “exacerbated by Home Office failures to decide the children’s asylum claims”.In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org. Continue reading...

Competition planned as part of Queen’s platinum jubilee celebrations will also include Cayman Islands and FalklandsYou could forgive the good burghers of Goole for being a bit put out: what chance do they have against Gibraltar?Old feuds have been dusted off and battle lines drawn, as the competition to decide which town will be awarded city status as part of the Queen’s platinum jubilee celebrations begins in earnest – with the Cayman Islands, Gibraltar and the Falklands included for the first time. Continue reading...

Analysis from People’s Vaccine Alliance highlights gulf as it calls for dose recipes to be shared

Fifteen questions on general knowledge and topical trivia plus a few jokes every Thursday – how will you fare?Two days until Christmas, eh? Why not put aside your last-minute panic-buying, your anxiety about whether the day will go well, and your distress that nothing seems as magical as it did when you were a kid by doing the Thursday quiz? Fifteen questions on topical and general knowledge, with a few of our beloved regulars like Kate Bush, Ron from Sparks and Ding dong merrily on high the anagrams are back. Let us know how you get on in the comments, and we are sure this week you will definitely all spot the hidden Doctor Who reference.The Thursday quiz, No 35If you do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers, please feel free to email martin.belam@theguardian.com but remember, the quiz master’s word is always final, and you don’t want him sneaking down your chimney late at night. Also he is on holiday so isn’t looking at his email. Continue reading...

The island imports 85% of its food but three farms are part of the agroecology movement seeking food sovereignty and climate solutionsPuerto Rico was once a thriving agricultural hub thanks to its tropical climate, rich biodiversity, and sustainable farming traditions.Today, less than 2% of the workforce is employed in agriculture and tens of thousands of acres of arable land sit idle. Meanwhile 85% of the food eaten in Puerto Rico is imported, grocery prices are among the highest in the US and last year two in five people experienced food insecurity. “Unemployment is brutal, prices are brutal, migration from the island is brutal,” said Denise Santos, who runs Puerto Rico’s food bank.It involves a set of farming principles and practices that can be adapted to any ecosystem, microclimate and culture – a way of life practiced for thousands of years by indigenous people and peasant farmers. Farmers often integrate crops, livestock and trees (agroforestry) in order to maximize ecological conditions, such as a fruit orchard that aids water retention and provides shade for crops and grazing animals who in turn fertilize the earth to improve the yield.Crop rotation and crop cover are fundamental to this holistic approach, that takes into consideration the well-being of the Earth, those who produce the food as well as the local communities who eat it. Like in nature, every part of every ecosystem – which includes the farmers – help and depend on each other in some way. Contrast this to intensive industrialized farming which guzzles water, depletes the soil and burns fossil fuels (for fertilizers and powering machinery) to control the environment for genetically identical monocrop production.Advocates say agroecology offers locally driven solutions to a myriad of interconnected crises including food insecurity, biodiversity loss, environmental degradation and global heating.Agroecology is a social and political movement seeking to influence public policies so that sustainable farming benefits from government support (tax breaks, subsidies, and bailouts) currently propping up the dominant industrial agriculture system which is a major cause of biodiversity loss and accounts for more than a quarter of global greenhouse gases. Continue reading...

Operators of Melbourne Covid-ravaged nursing home will have to give evidence despite claim it could incriminate themThe operators of a Melbourne nursing home ravaged by a Covid-19 outbreak will have to give evidence to an inquest despite their argument it would be a “dress rehearsal” in any potential future prosecution.Kon Kontis and Vicky Kos last week faced the Victorian Coroners Court and formally requested to be excused from testifying at the inquest into the fatal outbreak at St Basil’s Home for the Aged on the grounds they may incriminate themselves. Continue reading...

Psychologist Ratnaboli Ray’s recovery from a mental health crisis inspired her to fight for women suffering in ‘abysmal’ conditions in West Bengal’s state institutions

What was the sorcerer thinking? Has Sony marked its turf? And where does Green Goblin rank among the great villains?When is a movie that’s only good, rather than great, the best thing you’ve seen all year? When it’s a fan event on the scale of Spider-Man: No Way Home, which unites everyone who ever loved the big-screen franchise (going back to 2002’s Spider-Man) for a gorgeously nostalgic feelgood romp.This is the climax to Jon Watts’ “Home” trilogy, following the excellent Spider-Man: Homecoming and its 2019 sequel Far From Home. But while it nicely rounds off the character arc of Tom Holland’s Peter Parker, it also restores a sense of wellbeing to the Sony-owned Spider-flicks that came before it, and may just turn out to be the future. So what did we learn from our latest trip into Spider-Man’s rapidly expanding world? Continue reading...

The Guardian and Observer’s 2021 charity appeal is fighting for climate justice. In this video, we meet some of those on the climate frontline, and the charities helping them. This year we are supporting four charities - Global Greengrants Fund UK, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Environmental Justice Foundation, and Practical Action - that fight to protect the rights and livelihoods of communities hit by extreme weather events caused by the climate emergency. Continue reading...

NSW premier had said Queensland would accept rapid antigen tests instead of PCR from 1 January, but Palaszczuk says decision not yet made

The pro-business premier eased restrictions and ‘opened up’ the NSW economy but staff are ill or isolating while customers are staying at home

The star of one of 2021’s biggest TV hits, Mare of Easttown, talks about weepy reunions with Leonardo DiCaprio, binging Ted Lasso and middle-aged women taking over our screensKate Winslet will be ready in a sec. “I’m just going to put some more eyedrops on my stye,” she says. Blame her intense crime drama Mare of Easttown, one of the TV hits of the pandemic. “It was quite a stressful job, and about nine weeks in I got three styes in my left eye, the third of which turned into a solid little marble and had to be cut out. But I pushed on. On with the show!” In it, she plays DS Mare Sheehan, who is raising her grandson, coping with her son’s suicide, and trying to solve the murder of a young mother in a working-class Philadelphia suburb. All without makeup: Mare is more likely to reach for a Cheeto topped with a squirt of spray cheese than anything in the Max Factor range.“The discussion about how Mare looked blew my mind,” says Winslet. The 46-year-old actor is speaking by phone from the West Sussex home she shares with her husband, Ned Abel Smith, and their seven-year-old son Bear, as well as her two children from previous marriages: 21-year-old Mia by her first husband, Jim Threapleton, and 17-year-old Joe by her second, the director Sam Mendes. “People were asking, ‘Did she gain weight? Didn’t she look frumpy? Wasn’t that brave of her?’ But why should that be brave? I suppose because it’s not how leading actresses are represented. Maybe Mare will be the tipping point, and we’re going to stop scrutinising women on screen quite so much.” Continue reading...