Nicola Sturgeon softens measures despite record Covid cases after pressure from business

Nasser Sari has grown a huge social media after documenting life in one of the poorest French neighbourhoods. Now he wants to enter national politicsInfluence is not a word readily associated with St Jacques, the Gypsy quarter of the city of Perpignan. Yet, on a recent chilly night shortly before 8pm, the ineffable hand of influence is behind an outbreak of street theatre on the plane tree-lined oblong of Place Cassanyes. People are arriving in droves. By 7.50pm, there must be more than 200, mostly young men, in rowdy clusters. Smoking, yelling, stretching, one group doing can-can legs: it’s like Fast & Furious without the automobiles.One man in a red Adidas tracksuit is trying to line everyone up across the square’s breadth. A beacon in a sea of dark casual-wear, the influencer known as NasDas – St Jacques born and bred – is responsible for this circus. The previous night, NasDas posted to his 1.2 million followers a picture of one of his posse holding up a crinkled €500 bill, followed by footage of a previous Place Cassanyes footrace. Tonight is a rerun, only with a bigger prize. But this time the turnout is far bigger, too. Streaming live on Snapchat, he’s antsy: “On my mother’s life, I didn’t expect this kind of crowd – from Avignon, from Marseille, from everywhere.” Continue reading...

He experienced horrendous abuse in foster care, then suffered terribly years later when the case came to court. Now a police officer, he is determined to change how the system treats survivorsJon Needham looks like a copper. Tall, broad and imposing, he works in a lifetime offender management unit, where he deals with serious and organised criminals. So when he speaks, his gentleness comes as a surprise. “I joined the police because I was passionate about helping people,” he says. “It sounds like a cliche to say you want to make a real difference, but I genuinely mean it.”Needham gets paid for working with “nominals” – people who are on the police database (“That’s what the police call them, I call them people,” he says). But he is also transforming how his colleagues deal with victims of rape and sexual assault. Continue reading...

Yellow warnings issued for band of sleet, hail, snow and lightning that could cause power outages and travel disruptionForecasters say “thundersnow” that could disrupt travel and cause power outages is expected to hit the UK as a band of sleet, hail and snow showers passes through the country.The Met Office issued three yellow warnings for dangerous weather conditions, including lightning strikes from isolated thunderstorms and as much as 10cm of snow falling on the highest ground, from 10am on Thursday until 11am on Friday across Scotland, Wales and northern England.

Bolsonaro said he was discharged on Wednesday, two days after being admitted with intestinal obstructionThe Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, has been discharged from hospital, two days after being admitted with an intestinal obstruction, his latest health complication from a 2018 stabbing.“Being discharged now. Thank you all,” Bolsonaro posted on Twitter on Wednesday morning alongside a religious message and a photo of himself and his doctors giving a thumbs up. Continue reading...

A writer who had felt shut out from stage plays finds out how Curve Leicester’s A Chorus Line is presented with audio description and a guide to the costumesGrowing up, trips to the theatre for me involved squinting at the stage, unable to follow what was happening. Being partially sighted, plays have felt out of my reach. But now here I am standing on the stage at Curve theatre in Leicester, running my fingers along the delicate gold sequins of a costume for A Chorus Line. There are around a dozen of us at this pre-show talk for visually impaired people, which gives us a chance to familiarise ourselves with the performance we’ll be watching in an hour’s time.Before the pandemic, this pre-show talk would have taken the form of a touch tour, where we’d get to feel more of the costumes and set. Today we can only touch two costumes due to Covid safety precautions, but even through the thin gloves we wear, I can feel the texture, the snag of chiffon and sequins, and see details up close. Our guide, Nadine Beasley for Talking Sense Audio Description Services, tells us how the bright lighting in the show’s finale will make these outfits dazzle. Continue reading...

Pontiff says denial of fatherhood and motherhood diminishes people and takes away their humanityPope Francis risked the ire of the world’s childless dog and cat owners by suggesting people who substitute pets for children exhibit “a certain selfishness”.Speaking on parenthood during a general audience at the Vatican, the pontiff lamented that pets “sometimes take the place of children” in society. Continue reading...

From the Himalayas to Palestine; north London to south Devon, hiking gives the film-maker and climate activist a sense of belongingFrom the age of eight, I attended a little boarding school on the Derbyshire-Staffordshire border where I’d often get in trouble on a Sunday afternoon. The teachers would leave us to roam the edge of the grounds where we were supposed to pass time making fires, toasting marshmallows or playing cricket but my habit was to set out over the fences and stiles into the landscape and often, much to the teachers’ chagrin, no one knew where to find me.That was the point. To stand on unfamiliar ground and, for a moment, feel the world as something new brought with it a feeling I would crave and it formed a habit that stuck with me. By my mid-20s, I was a committed pedestrian, buoyed up by a privileged encounter on the streets of Whitechapel with east London’s resident visionary, Iain Sinclair, who warned against the underground as a way of getting around the city. He likened its subterranean networks to rabbit warrens that would cut us off from instinct and make it hard for us to know where (or who) we really are. Continue reading...

Forced from their homes by missionaries, the Ayoreo cling on in the Chaco. Now the Bioceanic Corridor cuts through the fastest-vanishing forest on Earth, refuge of some of the Americas’ last hunter-gatherersIn 1972, Catholic missionaries entered the Chaco forest of northern Paraguay and forced Oscar Pisoraja’s family, and their nomadic Ayoreo people, to leave with them. Many perished from thirst on the long march south. Settled near the village of Carmelo Peralta on the Paraguay River, dozens more died from illnesses. Still, the survivors kept up some traditions – hunting for armadillos; weaving satchels from the spiky caraguatá plant. “We felt part of this place,” says Pisoraja, now 51.Today, his community – and other indigenous peoples across the Chaco, a tapestry of swamp, savanna and thorny forest across four countries that is South America’s largest ecosystem after the Amazon – are confronting a dramatic new change.Mario Abdo Benítez, Paraguay’s president, and Reinaldo Azambuja Silva, governor of Mato Grosso do Sul state in Brazil, at the site of a new bridge across the Paraguay River, due to be completed in 2024 Continue reading...

The island nation struggles to keep the lights on but has inoculated 90% of population with home-developed vaccinesGeneral Máximo Gómez, a key figure in Cuba’s 19th-century wars of independence against Spain once said: “Cubans either don’t meet the mark – or go way past it.”A century and a half later, the aphorism rings true. This downtrodden island struggles to keep the lights on, but has now vaccinated more of its citizens against Covid-19 than any of the world’s major nations. Continue reading...

Support for España Vaciada in villages such as Milmarcos could threaten the old ruling duopolyJudith Iturbe grimaces as she thinks about August and what it means for the residents and rhythms of Milmarcos.At the height of summer, the population of this small and beautiful Spanish village, which sits close to Castilla-La Mancha’s border with Aragón, rises from just 44 to about 1,000. Continue reading...

Online video shows man claiming he is putting health secretary on notice for ‘harming’ people in BritainA 60-year-old man has been charged after reports of an anti-vaccine protest outside the health secretary’s London home.A video posted online appears to show a person delivering a letter with an anti-Covid-vaccine message to what they claimed was Sajid Javid’s home in Fulham, south-west London. Continue reading...

More than 6 million people with a concession card will be given 10 free rapid antigen tests over the next three months as Australia reports 64,000 cases

Manchester Airports Group and Airlines UK say such a move would not affect spread of Omicron

Sotrovimab must be given within five days of symptoms appearing, but doctors warn at-risk patients may not be identified in time

Former AMA president says Djokovic shouldn’t be allowed into Australia, while fellow players express surprise at the decision

The Philippines adds little to global emissions but faces some of its worst effects in extreme weather. Climate justice is neededA few days before Christmas, Super-typhoon Rai – known locally as Odette – ravaged the Philippines. The morning after the onslaught, on my way back to Iloilo City from San Jose, Antique, I could see the ocean still boiling; houses blown away and great trees knocked down, making roads impassable. The sights were terrifying.Lost lives continue to climb two weeks on. Vast numbers of buildings were destroyed – from houses to schools; food crops lost to flooding. At first, I did not know what to feel – anger, helplessness? Later, I knew what I wanted: climate justice. Continue reading...

I wrote the first draft in a ghetto in Lagos, working on it at 4am. With its publication the life I was meant to live began

President appoints acting prime minister after earlier declaring a state of emergency to tackle widespread demonstrations over rising fuel pricesKazakhstan’s president has accepted the resignation of the government, hours after he declared a state of emergency in large parts of the country in response to a rare outbreak of unrest.Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has appointed Alikhan Smailov as acting prime minister, the president’s office said early on Wednesday. Smailov was previously the first deputy prime minister. Continue reading...

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut, adapted from the short novel by Elena Ferrante, unravels the myth that motherhood comes naturally to womenIt is clear from the opening minutes of The Lost Daughter, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s melancholic, bristly directorial debut on Netflix, that a dark secret stalks the sunny Mediterranean vacation of Leda Caruso, (a luminous Olivia Colman), a 48-year-old English professor of comparative literature. Her “working holiday” at a Greek island is immediately beset by increasingly ominous intrusions: a spectral foghorn, a bowl of rotting fruit, a shrill cicada, a boisterous Italian American family from Queens who disrupt her beachside reading. Memories pull at her focus; when the young daughter of Nina (Dakota Johnson), a beautiful, languid member of the Queens bunch who immediately catches Leda’s attention, goes briefly missing, Nina’s panic elides with a flashback to twentysomething Leda’s (Jessie Buckley) frantic search for her daughter Bianca at a beach.It’s a familiar language of buried secrets, sinister subtext and unspooling memories – the building blocks of suspense – but the landmines in The Lost Daughter aren’t the usual culprits of dark revelation: unspeakable trauma or abuse, evil spirits, suppressed desires, the ravages of capitalism or greed. Instead, the molten core of The Lost Daughter is one of our culture’s most enduring and least touchable taboos: the selfish, uncaring, “unnatural” mother – one who doesn’t shift easily to care-taking, who does not relish her role, who not only begrudges but resents her children. Continue reading...

Over 11,000 care workers off for Covid reasons, internal health system staffing data shows

Every year millions of us resolve to learn a new language, get super fit or master a new skill ... then never start. How can we make it happen? Experts explain allThis year, my new year resolution is to finish the first draft of a novel. It’s a realistic goal – I’m not saying it has to make money, or even be any good. I just want the words on the page, even if all they do then is languish for ever in a folder.Well, I say that’s what I want – but of course finishing a draft was my new year resolution last year, and the year before that, and before that. In truth, I’ve been pushing back this particular ambition since 2017. Continue reading...

Newspaper accepts defeat and will pay additional unspecified sum for infringing her copyrightThe Mail on Sunday will pay the Duchess of Sussex just £1 in damages for invading her privacy by publishing a private letter she had sent to her father.The nominal sum is set out in court documents that also formally confirm that the newspaper – and its sister website MailOnline – has accepted defeat and will not be taking the long-running case to a supreme court appeal. Continue reading...

Michele Rech aka Zerocalcare’s book signings attract huge crowds and now he has a hit Netflix animated series inspired by his lifeMichele Rech is uncomfortable with success. The shy 38-year-old comic book artist, who works from a modest apartment on the outskirts of Rome, does not use the word “fame” but refers instead to his rise to national prominence as a “thing” he struggles to manage.In the art world, he is known as Zerocalcare and is the cartoonist’s equivalent of Hunter S Thompson. Rech’s graphic novels are a form of gonzo journalism – inspired by his own adventures as a protester on the frontlines of police violence in Italy, and in Syria, where he was embedded with Kurdish forces. Continue reading...

Book explores unseen archive papers relating to Prince Louis Rwagasore’s murder, which led to years of unrestA popular prime minister of Burundi, Prince Louis Rwagasore, was shot dead just over 60 years ago with the complicity of Belgium, the departing colonial power, a researcher has claimed.The Belgian state has an “overwhelming responsibility” for the assassination of Rwagasore, according to Ludo De Witte, a Flemish sociologist who has spent five years investigating the killing. His previous work on the assassination of Congo’s first elected prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, led to a parliamentary inquiry that concluded Belgium had a “moral responsibility” for the death of the charismatic leader. Continue reading...

New cases on island outpacing those in Tokyo amid criticism of US forces for failing to contain Omicron outbreak

Canada has reached an in-principle agreement totalling C$4bn (US$31.bn) to compensate First Nations children who were taken from their families and put into the welfare system, a major step toward reconciliation with the country's Indigenous people. David Sterns, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said: ‘This settlement is the largest class action settlement in Canadian history and it is believed to be one of the largest anywhere in the world.' The agreement includes C$2bn for potentially hundreds of thousands of First Nations children who were removed from their families. Another C$2bn is to reform the system over the next five years

There were 12,912 people in hospital in Italy; Israel PM says study shows safety of fourth dose and increase in antibodies a week after jab

So many young people in Australia are testing positive to Covid that videos about their experiences are going viral on TikTok. 'Gorgeous gorgeous girls Afterpay their rapid antigen test,' writes TikTok user @eilishgilligan, in a statement that attempts to capture the mood of young people living in Australia’s major cities

French president stokes divisions as parliament debates tighter requirements for mandatory health passEmmanuel Macron has prompted a furore after saying that his government’s vaccination strategy is to “piss off” people who have not had coronavirus jabs by continuing to make daily life more and more difficult for them.“I am not about pissing off the French people,” the president said in an interview with readers of Le Parisien daily on Tuesday. “But as for the non-vaccinated, I really want to piss them off. And we will continue to do this, to the end. This is the strategy.” Continue reading...

Weary abductees including children and babies ‘freed unconditionally’, say police in troubled northern statesNearly 100 hostages, most of them women and children, have been rescued more than two months after they were abducted by armed groups in northwest Nigeria.Among the 97 freed hostages were 19 babies and more than a dozen children, Ayuba Elkana, police chief in Zamfara state, said on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Mario Antonio Palacios had been detained in Panama en route to Colombia from JamaicaA suspected member of the group involved in the assassination of Haiti’s president, Jovenel Moïse, has been arrested by US authorities after he was detained while transiting through Panama following his deportation from Jamaica to Colombia.Mario Antonio Palacios, 43, a former member of the Colombian military, is accused by Haitian authorities of being part of a mercenary group that tortured and killed Moïse and wounded his wife, Martine, during an attack on Moïse’s private home in July. Continue reading...

Wednesday: Tennis tournament organisers confirm world No 1 will play grand slam. Plus: how the pandemic changed parentingGood morning. Weeks of speculation about Novak Djokovic’s involvement in the Australia Open have come to an end after the world No 1 last night revealed he has a medical exemption to get around Melbourne’s strict quarantine rules. Meanwhile, more hospital staff in NSW speak out about the pressure of staff shortages and record Covid infections.Djokovic is on his way to Melbourne to defend his Australian Open title after he refused to divulge his Covid vaccination status. Australian Open organisers confirmed he had received a medical exemption and said two panels of experts had reviewed the case. The Australian Technical Advisory Group allows exemptions for reasons including acute major medical conditions to any serious adverse effect from previous doses of the Covid-19 vaccine. The reason for Djokovic’s exemption is unclear and has garnered mixed responses from his peers. Continue reading...

Arguments via videoconference come day after unsealing of 2009 Epstein settlement as judge promises ‘a decision pretty soon’Lawyers for Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre, who has long accused the royal of sexual abuse, faced off in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, in his attempt to dismiss her civil lawsuit.The arguments via videoconference came a day after the unsealing of a 2009 settlement between Giuffre and the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Continue reading...

Israeli officials attack actor’s message, and are accused of ‘cynical weaponisation’ of termEmma Watson has been accused of antisemitism by Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations after she posted a message of support for the Palestinian cause.Watson, best known for playing Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films, posted an image on Instagram showing a photograph of a pro-Palestinian protest with the banner “Solidarity is a Verb” written across it. It was accompanied with a quote about the meaning of solidarity from the intersectional feminist scholar Sara Ahmed. Continue reading...

Rise comes amid ongoing concern about intentions of Russia as supplies flow east for 15th day in rowEuropean gas prices have risen by more than 30% on Tuesday, adding to mounting concerns about the cost of heating a home, as supplies that usually come into Europe from Siberia continued to flow eastwards for the 15th day in a row.The Kremlin has repeatedly denied using Russia’s vast gas resources to turn the screw on Europe, after gas coming through the Yamal-Europe pipeline reversed direction three days before Christmas. Continue reading...

Closed circuit cameras captured the attack by the deer which was a donation to the presidential residenceA Paraguayan military officer has died after being attacked by a deer that ran an antler through his chest while he was serving in a security detail at the presidential residence in the capital, Asunción.Infantry assistant sergeant Víctor Isasi Flecha, 42, died on Monday night as a result of “piercing injuries” caused by the animal, said a statement from the military forces of the South American country. Continue reading...

Birgitte Bonnesen accused of fraud and market manipulation in relation to high-risk transactions in BalticsThe former chief executive of Swedbank has been charged with fraud, market manipulation and the unauthorised disclosure of inside information, following an investigation into a large-scale money laundering scandal in the Baltics.Birgitte Bonnesen, who was sacked as chief executive two years ago when the scandal came to light, “repeatedly spread misleading information” that the bank did not have any issues with its anti-money laundering (AML) processes in Estonia, according to Sweden’s Economic Crime Authority. Continue reading...

Twelve people died when the Lake Illawarra bulk carrier struck the bridge connecting Hobart across the Derwent River in 1975

Accused man, 49, pleads not guilty of causing blaze that burned down parts of the Cape Town complexA fire that devastated South Africa’s parliament has been contained after a two-day battle, firefighters said, as a man appeared in court to face charges of starting the blaze.Flames broke out in the Cape Town complex before dawn on Sunday, spreading to the National Assembly, the roof of which collapsed, threatening artworks and artefacts housed in an older section. Continue reading...

Teenager appears in court charged with murder of Zaian Aimable-Lina in Croydon last weekA scream was heard before the body of a teenage boy was found in a park in south London, a court has been told.Zaian Aimable-Lina, 15, was stabbed in Ashburton Park, Croydon, on Thursday 30 December. A 15-year-old boy has been charged with his murder and appeared at Bromley magistrates court on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Josep Borrell’s trip comes as west steps up diplomatic efforts in response to Russian troop buildup on borderThe European Union’s top diplomat is visiting the frontline of Ukraine’s war with Moscow-backed separatists, amid intensifying diplomatic activity in response to Russia’s buildup of troops on the country’s border.Josep Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief, began a two-day trip to Ukraine on Tuesday, before US-Russia talks in Geneva on 10 January and Nato-Russia talks on 12 January. Borrell is meeting Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, during a trip intended to show solidarity with Kyiv, which aspires to join Nato and the EU. Continue reading...

Morecambe Bay and Blackpool trusts join at least six others that have recently issued alerts

State-owned Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor steps in after row between Vilnius and BeijingTaiwan’s government is sharing cocktail recipes with the public after it reportedly bought 20,400 bottles of Lithuanian rum bound for China amid a row between Vilnius and Beijing.The state-owned Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor (TTL) said it made the purchase in December to support Lithuania after learning the shipment was going to be blocked by Chinese authorities. Continue reading...

Previously, we made the most of our time together, and both enjoyed having an open relationship – but now we have moved in together, I feel my partner is no longer physically attracted to me

Legal team will claim in critical New York hearing that case brought by Virginia Roberts Giuffre is baselessA US judge is to hear arguments by the Duke of York’s legal representatives to have the sexual assault civil lawsuit brought against him dismissed without trial in a crucial New York hearing.Prince Andrew, 61, is being sued by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, 38, for alleged sexual assault that she claims took place when she was aged 17 and had been trafficked by the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Continue reading...

Man’s decision raises questions about treatment of defectors in South Korea with many said to face discriminationA North Korean defector who made a daring return to his home country at the weekend had reportedly struggled to build a new life in South Korea since his arrival just over a year ago.The man, who has not been named, crossed the heavily armed demilitarised zone [DMZ] that has divided North and South since the end of the 1950 to 1953 Korean war, on Saturday. Continue reading...

Two years on from the start of the pandemic, families across the world tell of their loss as they pay tribute

A key figure in South Australia’s response to Covid has tested positive to the virus this morning.Police commissioner Grant Stevens is the state’s emergency coordinator during the pandemic. After waking up yesterday with a sore throat he is now isolating at home. Continue reading...

June will see four-day celebrations but Prince Andrew’s court case is cloud on horizonAs the Queen, the longest-serving British monarch in history, attains 70 years on the throne, 2022 is expected to be a year of mixed blessings – with national celebrations as well as the possibility of yet more unwelcome headlines.The monarch joins an extremely exclusive club in February when she marks her platinum jubilee, also achieved by Louis XIV of France, Johann II, Prince of Liechtenstein, and, most recently King Bhumibol of Thailand. Continue reading...