Foot fetishes, armpit licking and credit card dramas abound in this funny, charming Channel 4 documentary about the adult streaming site. Plus, Alex Sims Wise as the fairy godmother of fetishThe problem with Channel 4 documentaries is, done right, they can be so utterly convincing they lead you to consider a fairly drastic lifestyle change. This is how I almost became a paedophile hunter in 2014, for instance. The long week in 2013 when I got on to the dogging forums. So it is fair to say I went into How to Make It on OnlyFans, the new documentary about the boom in British creators making their livelihoods with sex work online, with a healthy amount of trepidation. Who would I be at the end of this hour-long? Or rather: what fruit would I be mashing with my feet for a paying audience?Do I need to explain what OnlyFans is and what people do on it to you? Do we need to do this dance? Fine, fine: OnlyFans is a content subscription service where you can pay for premium access to certain creators. There might be a golf coach you follow, for instance, who offers putting tips. Perhaps a musical artist you like will give previews of upcoming work. But, realistically, 90% of the platform is sex workers selling nudes. Yes, you could follow the golf coach. Or you could follow the lad who does the piss content you like and takes custom requests. Right, I think we all get the concept now. Continue reading...

While Merkel has said she has no particular plans, doing nothing doesn’t seem a realistic prospect for the outgoing chancellorAfter 16 years of gruelling European summits, late-light coalition negotiations and back-to-back conference calls with heads of state, Angela Merkel has vowed to spend the foreseeable future kicking back her flat black shoes and reading a few good books.But newly emerged details of a new office in central Berlin and veiled hints in interviews suggests the world may not have seen the last of Germany’s outgoing chancellor yet. Continue reading...

Bureau of Meteorology issues severe weather warning and says flood impacts will be felt particularly on state’s south coast

TGA provisionally approves Moderna booster shots for over-18s; two cases of Omicron variant detected in Queensland and one in Victoria; George Christensen should go ‘quietly’ into retirement, Scott Morrison says; China blames Australia for tense relationship after Winter Olympics boycott; Victoria records 1,312 new Covid cases and five deaths; NSW reports 403 cases, one death; eight cases and one death in ACT. Follow all the day’s news

The asylum seekers on the Poland-Belarus border are not aggressors: they are desperate pawns in a disgusting political struggleOne thought is a constant in my head: “I have kids at home, I cannot go to jail, I cannot go to jail.” The politics are beyond my reach or that of the victims on the Poland-Belarus border. It involves outgoing German chancellor, Angela Merkel, getting through to Alexander Lukashenko, president of Belarus. It’s ironic that this border has more than 50 media crews gathered, yet Poland is the only place in the EU where journalists cannot freely report.Meanwhile, the harsh north European winter is closing in and my fingers are freezing in the dark snowy nights. Continue reading...

Aaron Sorkin’s Oscar-tipped drama shows behind the scenes of the much-loved sitcom I Love Lucy. Here those who knew her look back on her unusual career“She was very complicated, she was very loving and she was very mercurial. She was very generous but she came from the Depression and she was very guarded about money. She was a conundrum. She was a paradox of things. But she made me feel like I was the only person in the room, even in a crowd, and she made me feel authentic.”Lee Tannen, author and playwright, is in full flow as he reminisces about his intense decade-long friendship with Lucille Ball, once the funniest and most famous woman in America. Her 1950s sitcom, I Love Lucy, pulled in 60m viewers and became part of the country’s cultural DNA. Continue reading...

Producer Barbara Broccoli has not yet decided how Bond will return in the next film – but here are some ideas

40,000 people in one of the largest slums in the Kenyan capital have had their homes demolished to make way for works for a Chinese-backed toll road, with some asking: ‘this is development for who?’About 40,000 people have been made homeless by demolition works for a major Chinese-backed toll road in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.Amnesty International Kenya says it believes the roadworks have created a humanitarian crisis, as schools, businesses and 13,000 homes spread across nearly 40 hectares (100 acres) of the Mukuru Kwa Njenga slum have been demolished since October, clearing land for a link to the Nairobi expressway.A girl stands among the rubble of Mukuru Kwa Njenga slum, Nairobi, where 13,000 homes were razed to the ground Continue reading...

Sub-lineage described as Omicron ‘like’ was identified in an overseas arrival to the state from South Africa

Scott Morrison says athletes will compete in next year’s Games because sport and politics should not mix

Drone footage has captured some of the devastation following the eruption of Mount Semeru on the Indonesian island of Java. Dozens of people have been killed and thousands remain displaced. The volcano continues to spew hot gas and ash, hampering rescue efforts

Two of their generation’s greatest actors reach new heights in this immaculate retelling of real-life murderous couple Susan and Christopher EdwardsIt isn’t always the quiet ones. In fact, it’s hardly ever the quiet ones. Generally, it’s exactly the ones you expect who do exactly what they seem very likely to do. But it’s the quiet ones who draw us in, who demand closer attention, deeper digging.All of which makes the case of Susan and Christopher Edwards – a librarian and an accountant from Dagenham, convicted in 2014 of murdering her parents, burying their bodies in the back garden and concealing the deaths for the next 15 years – catnip to anyone, including another married couple, Olivia Colman and Ed Sinclair. Colman gives a career-best performance (in a career full of them – you keep thinking she must top out eventually, but not so far) as Susan in the three-part HBO drama Landscapers (Sky Atlantic), exquisitely, tenderly and comically written by Sinclair. The project would have been almost impossible to sabotage, no matter who was cast as Chris, but we have David Thewlis, and it’s a matchless combination. Imagine two of the greatest actors of their generation being even better together than they are separately. That’s Landscapers.Landscapers is available to stream on Stan in Australia Continue reading...

Wednesday: A taxpayer-funded staffer for federal MP Andrew Laming dressed as Kyle Rittenhouse for Halloween. Plus: Australia’s top Google searches for 2021Good morning. Before you Google Covid news, which was Australia’s top search in 2021, we have the latest on the Omicron variant in your morning mail today. Plus the details of a questionable Halloween outfit choice by an Andrew Lamming staffer and word on new music from former Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns.A staffer for federal MP Andrew Laming, Barclay McGain, has posed with a paintball-style toy assault rifle dressed as Kyle Rittenhouse for a delayed Halloween party. McGain posted the photo, in which he was dressed as the teenager who shot dead two Black Lives Matter protesters and was acquitted of all criminal charges, to social media with the caption: “Kyle Rittenhouse on neighbourhood watch duties in Brisbane’s south tonight.” McGain was sacked from his electorate officer position by Laming 18 months ago over a controversial schoolies video that denigrated Indigenous Australians. Six months later he was rehired by Laming. Continue reading...

Inquiry into events in 2017 hears how Brook House officers ‘radicalised’ into racistsA whistleblower guard who worked at the controversial immigration detention centre Brook House, has told a public inquiry into abuses there that staff were “radicalised” into being racist because of a toxic culture.The public inquiry was launched after a BBC Panorama programme in September 2017 used undercover filming to expose a culture of abuse and humiliation of immigration detainees at the Home Office removal centre near Gatwick, run by the contractor G4S. Continue reading...

Organisation also defends its handling case of Chinese tennis player, Peng Shuai, as ‘quiet diplomacy’The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has said that it respects the United States’ decision to diplomatically boycott the forthcoming Beijing Winter Olympics, while defending its “quiet diplomacy” in handling the case of Chinese tennis player, Peng Shuai.“We always ask for as much respect as possible and least possible interference from the political world,” said Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr, the IOC’s coordination commission chief for the Beijing Winter Olympics. “We have to be reciprocal. We respect the political decisions taken by political bodies.” Continue reading...

Stopping people flying won’t stop spread of variant, Europe official says, as archbishop denounces ‘travel apartheid’

Adm Tony Radakin rejects idea that encouraging gender, racial and religious diversity is ‘wokefulness’Britain’s military must embrace the country’s racial, gender and religious diversity after a string of controversies and scandals, the new head of the armed forces said as he rejected the idea this amounted to “wokefulness”.In his first speech, Adm Tony Radakin pointedly declared that the armed forces had to “strive to do better” in every “aspect of our leadership” in a speech to the Rusi thinktank. “That includes reflecting the diverse nation we serve. Because if we don’t, then quite simply, we risk looking ridiculous.” Continue reading...

Actor says she received ‘pushback’ from her management due to fears of the impact it could have on her careerRebel Wilson, one of Hollywood’s top comedy actors, has said her own team were opposed to her losing weight because she was “earning millions of dollars being the funny fat girl”.The Australian actor, 41, documented her physical transformation on social media after embarking on a health and fitness journey a couple of years ago. Continue reading...

British nationals and vulnerable Afghans stuck without help months after Taliban takeoverBritish nationals and vulnerable Afghans who have been approved for evacuation have spoken of their anguish and frustration as they remain trapped in Afghanistan months after it was taken over by the Taliban.After devastating testimony by a whistleblower in the Foreign Office, who claimed there was an incompetent and chaotic response to the fall of Kabul, those waiting to be evacuated have called for rapid action from the UK government. Continue reading...

Olaf Scholz takes over from Angela Merkel and brings with him a northern accent typical of HamburgGermany’s next coalition government, which will be sworn in on Wednesday, will come with a lineup of new faces, a new set of policy priorities and a new dose of energy. It will also speak with a distinctive accent.Olaf Scholz, the centre-left politician who will step into Angela Merkel’s shoes, is a man of the German north not only by upbringing but by voice. When the former mayor of Hamburg recently warned in parliament that Covid-19 had not yet been beaten, he leaned into the stretched out fricatives typical of Germany’s second-largest city: Scholz pronounces the word besiegt as besiecht. Continue reading...

Pro-independence groups have called for Indigenous voters not to take part in Sunday’s long-awaited ballot, saying proper campaigning has been preventedNew Caledonia is set to hold a referendum on independence from France this weekend, the third and final poll meant to conclude a decolonisation process initiated 30 years ago.For anyone who witnessed the first two referenda, the contrast with the vote set for 12 December is striking: instead of the countless Kanaky flags or the red, white and blue of the French tricolour that adorned houses, balconies, roadsides, pickups or even people in the run-up to the 2018 and 2020 votes, this year there is little to see. On the Place des Cocotiers, in the centre of Nouméa, the capital, the quiet is disturbed only by the incessant patrolling of police trucks, part of the increased security around the vote. Continue reading...

When they work, environmental or biodiversity offsets are supposed to prevent new roads, buildings and other major infrastructure from impacting negatively on the environment. But Guardian Australia has exposed serious concerns about the NSW offsets system, triggering multiple inquiries.Environment reporter Lisa Cox explains to Jane Lee how Australia’s environmental offsets policy, which was designed to protect Australian wildlife, ended up failing it.You can also read: Continue reading...

Officials refused Seyfu Jamaal’s asylum claim after he had waited more than three and a half yearsA runner from Ethiopia who dreams of representing Team GB is facing deportation back to his home country even though a state of emergency has been declared there.Seyfu Jamaal, 21, arrived in the UK aged 17 after travelling to the UK in the back of a lorry and claimed asylum. The Home Office accepts he was persecuted and trafficked before he arrived in the UK. But officials refused his asylum claim in May of this year after keeping him waiting for more than three and a half years for a decision, saying it would be safe for him to return home. Continue reading...

At least 56,000 homes and firms affected, with warning that storm could pose danger to life as it reaches UKMore than 56,000 homes and businesses in Ireland have been left without power after Storm Barra made landfall, with winds gusting up to 80mph (130km/h) as it moved east throughout the day.Heavy rain, sleet and snow fell on Tuesday over the north-west of Ireland and Scotland, threatening further disruption to areas only just recovering from lengthy power cuts in the wake of Storm Arwen. . Continue reading...

In Alex Gibney’s harrowing documentary, the tale of Abu Zubaydah, seen as patient zero for the CIA’s torture programme, is explored with horrifying new detailsFrom “a black site” in Thailand in 2002, CIA officers warned headquarters that their interrogation techniques might result in the death of a prisoner. If that happened, he would be cremated, leaving no trace. But if he survived, could the CIA offer assurance that he would be remain in isolation?It could. Abu Zubaydah, the agency said in a cable, “will never be placed in a situation where he has any significant contact with others” and “should remain incommunicado for the remainder of his life”. Continue reading...

Mass vaccination drive could cut risk of Covid surge in older relatives over holiday season, WHO says

Dr Annette Plaut, a physicist at Exeter University, claimed she was victim of race and sex discriminationA senior academic who claimed she was sacked because her bosses could not tolerate her “naturally loud” voice and passionate teaching style has won her case for unfair dismissal.Dr Annette Plaut, who had worked as a physicist at Exeter University for 30 years, was described as a “Marmite character” during the tribunal, valued by many but considered “overbearing” by others. Continue reading...

Continuing our series on the people behind the 2021 headlines, the 28-year-old detained at the Clapham Common vigil for Sarah Everard discusses violence against women, receiving death threats, and her new passion for activism

Calls grow for Morrison government to follow US in diplomatic boycott of China over ‘ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity’

The tiny Pacific country scrambled over the weekend, before tests showed the positive case was historicalThe Cook Islands has spent recent days in a state of panic.On Friday, the tiny Pacific country, one of the few countries to avoid any Covid cases throughout the pandemic, announced its first case: a 10-year-old boy who arrived on a flight from Auckland to Rarotonga, the main island in the country. Continue reading...

The inquiry was reopened after a 2017 book claimed the white woman at the center of the case lied about Till whistling at herThe US justice department is ending its latest investigation into the death of Emmett Till, a Black teenager who was brutally abducted, tortured and killed in 1955, without filing any charges after failing to prove that a key witness lied.Till’s family said it was disappointed by the news that there will continue to be no accountability for the infamous lynching. Continue reading...

Johnny Mercer opposing government over high costs faced by soldiers from Commonwealth who want to settle in UKA former Conservative defence minister is trying to force ministers to waive hefty immigration fees faced by Commonwealth soldiers and their families who want to live in the UK at the end of their military service.Johnny Mercer – who was fired from the government last year – has the support of several senior Conservatives including Tobias Ellwood, chair of the defence committee, and former leader Iain Duncan Smith. Continue reading...

Official says Washington would also impose economic measures, in a warning to Moscow on eve of talks between Biden and PutinThe US has said it would send reinforcements to Nato’s eastern flank in the wake of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as imposing severe new economic measures, in a warning to Moscow on the eve of talks between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin.Biden will also make clear to Putin that the US will not rule out future Ukrainian membership of Nato, as the Russian leader has demanded, a senior US official said. Continue reading...

The health secretary has updated the Commons on the latest numbers of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus virus, as well as new travel restrictions for those arriving in the UK

Health secretary says cocaine trade causes ‘suffering, violence and exploitation at every stage’

Decision is response to what is described as China’s ‘genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang’ and other abusesThe White House has confirmed it will stage a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, in the latest move that will further widen the rift in an already strained bilateral relationship.“The Biden administration will not send any diplomatic or official representation to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games, given the PRC’s ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses,” press secretary Jen Psaki said from the briefing room podium on Monday. Continue reading...

Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-tipped remake will not be showing in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar or the UAESteven Spielberg’s remake of West Side Story will not be showing in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar or the UAE.The big-budget musical, tipped for Oscars, has reportedly been banned because of a transgender character Anybodys, played by Iris Menas, known for Jagged Little Pill. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the film wasn’t granted a certificate in either Saudi Arabia or Kuwait and in the remaining countries, requests for cuts were made that Disney refused to make. Continue reading...

Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein claims Juan Carlos directed campaign of harassment after affair endedA former lover of the former king of Spain believes a book about the death of Diana, Princess of Wales was left in her home as part of a campaign of harassment directed by the monarch, the high court in London has been told.The former king Juan Carlos is seeking sovereign immunity at the court against claims he used Spain’s spy agency to harass a Danish businesswoman, Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein. Continue reading...

Actor and activist announces he will use future earnings to fund social projects after ‘turning point’ of organising 2019 Homeless World CupHollywood star Michael Sheen has said he is now a “not-for-profit actor” after selling his houses and giving the proceeds to charity.The actor and activist, 52, said organising the 2019 Homeless World Cup in Cardiff was a turning point for him. When funding for the £2m project fell through at the last moment, Sheen sold his own houses to bankroll it. Continue reading...

Race to restore power to homes hit by Storm Arwen before latest bad weather on Tuesday and WednesdayThere are warnings of dangerous coastal waves, atrocious driving conditions, travel delays, flooding and potential damage to buildings for when Storm Barra sweeps across Ireland and the UK.Engineers were engaged in a race against time to restore power to about 1,600 homes in north-east England still cut off after the havoc wreaked by Storm Arwen 10 days ago. Continue reading...

Deniz Jaffer and Jamie Lewis sentenced to two years and nine months for taking and sharing photos of Nicole Smallman and Bibaa HenryTwo Metropolitan police officers who “dehumanised” two black murder victims “for their own amusement” by taking and sharing photos from the scene where they lay murdered have each been jailed for two years and nine months.Deniz Jaffer, 47, and Jamie Lewis, 33, were ordered to guard the scene in a London park where two sisters, Nicole Smallman, 27, and Bibaa Henry, 46, were found stabbed to death in June 2020. Continue reading...

Two-thirds of contracts awarded before ‘eight-stage process’ was put in place were given out after referrals from ‘VIP lane’At least 46 PPE deals were awarded to firms put in a special “VIP lane” by Conservative ministers, MPs and officials during the Covid pandemic before a formal due diligence process was put in place, it has emerged.Ministers had claimed all PPE contracts were put through a rigorous “eight-stage process” for assuring quality and value for money, when criticised over the “VIP lane” via which £5bn in contracts were handed to companies with political or Whitehall connections. Continue reading...

Productivity Commission projects fourfold rise in total value of inheritances to 2050, driven by housing and unspent super

Tempting as it may be to leave swimmers rolled up in a towel at the bottom of your beach bag, they’ll last far longer if you treat them betterAny swimmer will tell you that once the weather warms up, their exercise routine becomes subject to disruptions from fair weather swimmers: people who haven’t learnt the politics of lap swimming. Things like not pushing off ahead of someone about to tumble turn; no board shorts in the fast lane; if someone is overtaking you it’s not an invitation to speed up; and only jerks do butterfly in a public pool.Now that summer is here, hopefully we’ll all find ourselves beside a pool or at the beach in the coming months, so we thought it was a good moment remember swimwear can benefit from good manners too. This week, we asked swimwear experts for advice on how to keep bathers in great shape. Continue reading...

Deliveries are being snatched minutes after they arrive – with Citizens Advice reporting more than 22,000 visits to its lost and stolen parcels webpage last monthName: Porch piracy.Age: the phrase porch pirate dates right back to the early 2010s, debuting in Urban Dictionary in 2011. Continue reading...

Dozens detained after protesters attacked at campaign rally for presidential candidate Éric ZemmourFrench prosecutors have opened an investigation into violence that erupted at the first major campaign rally held by the far-right French presidential candidate Éric Zemmour.Shortly after Zemmour began speaking on Sunday evening, some of his supporters attacked a group of protesters from the campaign group SOS-Racism who had entered the rear of the venue wearing T-shirts reading “No to Racism”. Continue reading...

Payout to Jack and Sarah Hawkins is thought to be largest settlement for a stillbirth clinical negligence caseA couple whose daughter died before birth after maternity staff failings have received a £2.8m payout from the NHS in what is believed to be the largest settlement for a stillbirth clinical negligence case.Sarah Hawkins was in labour for six days before Harriet was stillborn, almost nine hours after dying, at Nottingham City hospital in April 2016. Continue reading...

‘The first verse came to me as I was going up the stairs of a double-decker bus with a hangover’Neneh Cherry, singer and songwriter

Beijing highlights virtues of its own one-party model in slew of scathing criticisms of western systemChina has launched a campaign to discredit what it calls US-style democracy in advance of the first of Joe Biden’s two “summits of democracy” later this week.Over recent days, official Chinese media outlets and diplomats have made a string of scathing attacks on the US governing system, calling it “a game of money politics” and “rule of the few over the many”. Continue reading...

The policing minister, Kit Malthouse, said 'no rules were broken' if a party took place last Christmas at Downing Street, directly contradicting Dominic Raab, the justice secretary, who conceded on Sunday that a 'formal party' of the sort reported would have been contrary to the then-Covid-19 guidance.Malthouse claimed the police 'don’t normally look back and investigate things that have taken place a year ago', but said it would be right for police to follow up any formal complaints about the event.