For the first time in a decade deaths from TB are rising, with the curable disease killing 20,000 Kenyans last year. Now testing ‘ATMs’ and other innovations are helping to find ‘missing cases’One day in May last year, Violet Chemesunte, a community health volunteer in Kibera, the largest slum in Nairobi, got a call from a colleague worried about a woman she had visited who kept coughing.She asked if Chemesunte could go round and convince the 37-year-old woman, a single mother to three young children, to seek medical help. She suspected tuberculosis (TB), and feared it might already be too late. Continue reading...

In first on-camera interview since accidental film-set shooting, actor says there is only one question: ‘where did the live round come from?’Alec Baldwin has questioned how the bullet that accidentally killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins ended up in a gun on the set of the film Rust, speaking out about the fatal shooting in a lengthy and emotional interview.The actor said he did not pull the trigger on the gun that killed Hutchins, 42, and injured director Joel Souza, 48. The gun he was holding, which Baldwin believed to be safe, went off during rehearsals for the western, in an incident that shocked Hollywood and prompted a reckoning over production safety and the use of weapons on set. Continue reading...

Vaccinated people in New Zealand’s largest city can now go to the pub for the first time in over 100 daysIn Auckland, nature was healing. The ungroomed lined up for their eyebrow appointments. Bars flung open their doors with the promise of free drinks. Locals posted photos of their flat whites and brunch menus. The city’s sky tower was lit up for the first day of the “traffic light” reopening. And, in perhaps the truest sign that the gridlock-plagued city was on its pathway to normalcy, four lanes of the southern motorway were bumper to bumper.The traffic light system, announced by prime minister Jacinda Ardern in late November, ends lockdowns in favour of restrictions on the unvaccinated. The red, orange and green levels depend on vaccination rates and the level of strain on the health system, but even at red – the strictest level – businesses are fully open to the vaccinated, with some restrictions on gathering size. Continue reading...

Magazine becomes the first major publication to ban fur content across all of its pages, saying it is rejecting animal crueltyElle magazine has announced it will stop using fur in all its editorial and advertising content worldwide, becoming the first major publication to do so.The monthly lifestyle magazine, which originated in France and is owned by French media group Lagardère, has 45 editions around the world. It has about 33 million readers from Mexico to Japan, with 100 million monthly online visitors. Continue reading...

Germany is seeking to break a surge in coronavirus infections; Biden announces plan for boosters for 100 million Americans

Boris Johnson proposal rebuffed with suggestion he offer legal alternatives to reduce risky Channel crossingsFrance has formally rejected Boris Johnson’s proposal for British forces to conduct joint border patrols around Calais to deter migrants from crossing the Channel.In a letter to Johnson, Jean Castex, the French prime minister, suggested the UK should instead focus on reforming its own systems to offer “legal immigration paths” for people wishing to come to the country instead of risking the perilous crossing. Continue reading...

Javiera Rojas remembered as ‘an emblematic activist who was dedicated to the process of resistance’Environmental activists in Chile have called for justice after a 42-year-old land defender was found dead with her hands and feet bound.The body of Javiera Rojas was found buried under a pile of clothes in an abandoned house on Sunday in Calama in the northern region of Antofagasta. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Sharon Graham, Unite’s boss, believes money would be better spent on union campaigns

As an athlete who spoke up about abuse, I am tired of seeing reputation being prioritised over safetyWhen I first experienced abuse as an athlete, I made a vow to myself to never tell anyone. Ever. I was worried that I wouldn’t be believed, but also the thought that anyone would know me as a “victim” mortified me. On top of that, I knew that even if I told anyone, nothing would change. I was both right and wrong. Years later, after I stopped competing in figure skating, I broke my own silence on the physical abuse inflicted on me in China, and it freed me. I talked about it to my close friends, to reporters, and to my therapist – extensively. It never got easier to talk about but each time I did, I began to heal a little more.The most powerful perpetrator of abuse is silence. It allows for abusers to continue to harm athletes, for athletes to continue believing that such treatment is OK, and for authority figures to continue to turn a blind eye without guilt. Every allegation of abuse that is aired needs to be investigated properly for there to be any hope of justice. Continue reading...

Friday: The ALP is expected to reveals its medium-term reduction target and measures related to energy economy jobs. Plus: La Niña brings more than just rainGood morning. Labor is set to reveal an emission reduction target. Biden and Putin are to hold talks about Ukraine. And energy debt in Australia is on the rise, as are spiders, mozzies, mice and mould.Labor is poised to unveil a new medium-term emissions reduction target and a suite of policy measures – including significant investments in new energy economy jobs – provided the package is given the green light by the shadow cabinet on Friday morning. Guardian Australia understands the shadow climate change minister, Chris Bowen, has prepared options in a range between 35% and 45% for a new 2030 emissions reduction target, depending on the underpinning mechanisms and policy measures the shadow cabinet is prepared to adopt. Continue reading...

Emma Tustin was convicted of murdering Thomas Hughes’s son, who suffered ‘unsurvivable brain injury’A father and stepmother killed their six-year-old boy in a “campaign of appalling cruelty” two months after social workers found no evidence of safeguarding concerns.An investigation has been launched into the authorities’ actions after Arthur Labinjo-Hughes was deprived of food, force-fed salt, and assaulted in abuse that was filmed and photographed by his stepmother and father. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Mone is alleged to have called man of Indian heritage ‘a waste of a man’s white skin’ in WhatsApp exchangeThe Conservative peer Michelle Mone has been accused of sending a racist message to a man of Indian heritage who alleged in an official complaint that she told him he was “a waste of a man’s white skin”.The phrase was allegedly used in a WhatsApp message sent by the Tory member of the House of Lords in June 2019 during a disagreement following a fatal yacht crash off the coast of Monaco. Continue reading...

Scientists warn of higher rate of repeat infections but say vaccines appear to protect against serious illness

Moscow defence ministry posts video of missile system arriving on Matua in Kuril island chainRussia has deployed coastal defence missile systems near Pacific islands also claimed by Japan, a move intended to underline Moscow’s firm stance in the dispute.The Bastion missile systems were moved to Matua, a deserted volcanic island in the middle of the Kuril island chain. Japan claims four of the southernmost islands. Continue reading...

The US threatened to deploy ‘high-impact’ economic measures if a Russian buildup of troops leads to a larger conflictJoe Biden and Vladimir Putin are due to hold talks “in the near future” after their top diplomats made no apparent progress in Stockholm towards defusing a standoff over Ukraine, amid fears of a Russian invasion.The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov opted not to make a joint appearance after trading threats during a 40-minute meeting whose short duration indicated there was little chance of a breakthrough. Continue reading...

Analysis: a full-scale attack seems improbable – but the troop buildup is enough to have Nato warn of sanctionsIt is the second time this year that Russia has amassed forces near its borders with Ukraine, so why has the estimated 90,000 troop buildup left western governments and independent analysts more concerned?The stark warning by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, on Wednesday that Russia has made plans for a “large-scale” attack is backed up by open source analysis – and western intelligence assessments. “There is enough substance to this,” one insider added. Continue reading...

Éric Ciotti wants referendum ‘to stop mass immigration’ and set up ‘a French Guantánamo bay’A hard-right French MP who wants to hold a referendum “to stop mass immigration” and set up “a French Guantánamo bay” to deal with terrorism, has topped the first-round vote to choose a presidential candidate for the right’s Les Républicains party, in a shock result.Éric Ciotti, 56, a politician from Nice who is known for his hardline views on Islam and immigration, went from outsider to the surprise top position in Thursday’s first-round vote by members of Nicolas Sarkozy’s party. He now faces a second-round runoff against Valérie Pécresse, the former Sarkozy minister who wants to become France’s first female president. Continue reading...

Latest updates: Boris Johnson says ‘no need’ to cancel Christmas events as UK reports 53,945 daily coronavirus cases

Peter Jackson’s eight-hour documentary on the Fab Four reveals Ringo is an amazing drummer, McCartney was a joy and their entourage were coolest of allThe concept for Let It Be was: no concept. The Beatles arrived in an empty studio and wondered where the equipment was. (And revealed that they knew very little about setting up PA systems.) What were they rehearsing for? A show on the QE2? A concert on Primrose Hill? A TV special in Libya? A film? What would the set look like? Would it be made of plastic? Why, George Harrison wondered, were they being recorded? Get Back makes clear that the Beatles didn’t have a clue what to expect from Let It Be. Continue reading...

Six customers and about two dozen staff spent the night in the bed department after a foot of snow fellA showroom in northern Denmark turned into a vast bedroom after six customers and about two dozen employees were stranded by a snowstorm and forced to spend the night in the store.Up to 30 centimeters (12 inches) of snow fell, trapping the customers and employees when the department store in Aalborg closed on Wednesday evening. Continue reading...

Film stars have long advertised beauty products, then they started their own cosmetics firms. Making products for their own personal use was the obvious next step

Stunning recreations of the original film’s New York retain the songs and the dancing in a re-telling that will leave you gaspingSteven Spielberg’s West Side Story 2.0 is an ecstatic act of ancestor-worship: a vividly dreamed, cunningly modified and visually staggering revival. No one but Spielberg could have brought it off, creating a movie in which Leonard Bernstein’s score and Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics blaze out with fierce new clarity. Spielberg retains Maria’s narcissistic I Feel Pretty, transplanted from the bridal workshop to a fancy department store where she’s working as a cleaner. This was the number whose Cowardian skittishness Sondheim himself had second thoughts about. But its confection is entirely palatable.Spielberg has worked with screenwriter Tony Kushner to change the original book by Arthur Laurents, tilting the emphases and giving new stretches of unsubtitled Spanish dialogue and keeping much of the visual idiom of Jerome Robbins’s stylised choreography. This new West Side Story isn’t updated historically yet neither is it a shot-for-shot remake. But daringly, and maybe almost defiantly, it reproduces the original period ambience with stunning digital fabrications of late-1950s New York whose authentic detail co-exists with an unashamed theatricality. On the big screen the effect is hyperreal, as if you have somehow hallucinated your way back 70 years on to both the musical stage for the Broadway opening night and also the city streets outside. I couldn’t watch without gasping those opening “prologue” sequences, in which the camera drifts over the slum-clearance wreckage of Manhattan’s postwar Upper West Side, as if in a sci-fi mystery, with strangely familiar musical phrases echoing up from below ground. Continue reading...

Campaigners say government leaves major shortfall for those affected by housing built with too much micaHomeowners in Ireland living in houses built with defective blocks that “crumble like Weetabix” say a compensation scheme unveiled by the government will still leave them with devastating bills of up to €80,000 (£60,000).A long-awaited redress scheme for the estimated 6,000 people living in homes that have to be demolished and rebuilt was unveiled by the government earlier this week. The government says the scheme will cost €2.2bn and means homeowners will bear no upfront costs. Continue reading...

Musicians from Nile Rodgers to Johnny Marr, Moor Mother and Booker T Jones discuss Sly and the Family Stone’s drug-fuelled landmark in US social commentarySly and the Family Stone emerged in mid-60s San Francisco with a lineup that was trailblazing in its diversity and euphoric in its fusion of rock, soul, gospel, funk, jazz and psychedelia. After acelebrated Woodstock appearance in 1969, the outlandishly stylish bandleader Sly Stone retreated to a Los Angeles attic and much-mythologised drug-fuelled circumstances to record There’s a Riot Goin’ On, an album rich in militant social commentary and groundbreaking production techniques.It is now regarded as one of the 20th century’s finest albums in any genre. As a vinyl reissue celebrates its half-century, stars from different generations discuss the album’s impact on them, and how it continues to reverberate in pop music to this day. Continue reading...

Sebastian Kurz dominated domestic politics for five years before being placed under corruption investigationAustria’s former chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who has dominated his centre-right People’s party (ÖVP) and his country’s political life for the past five years, has unexpectedly announced he is leaving politics.Slick, suave and long seen as a political wunderkind, Kurz became one of the world’s youngest democratically elected heads of government at 31 in 2017, but resigned as chancellor in October after being placed under investigation on suspicion of corruption. Continue reading...

An overcrowded ship with asylum seekers leaves Libya bound for Europe – triggering a high-stakes showdown between a Doctors Without Borders vessel wanting to escort it to safety and the Libyan Coast Guard fighting to turn it back. As the Libyans issue armed threats the tension grows below deck. With European countries' responsibilities toward refugees once again in the spotlight, here is an inside view of the desperate hope that is the deadly race for Europe Continue reading...

Dramatic footage released by the Japan coastguard shows the rescue of a 69-year-old man in rough seas after spending 22 hours drifting in open water.

James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan’s love-hate romance, which spawned many later meet-cutes, is more eccentric than you might rememberErnst Lubitsch’s 1940 romcom classic is re-released: it stars James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan as the two squabbling shop assistants, Alfred and Klara, who are anonymous romantic penpals falling in love without knowing who the other really is and who in real life can’t stand each other. It’s a parallel universe situation that effectively takes the dislike/love duality of the meet-cute scenario and perpetuates it through almost the entire drama.The Shop Around the Corner is based on the Hungarian stage play Parfumerie and keeps the Mitteleuropa setting of elegant Budapest: strange to think that this film was appearing just as Hungary was joining the war, on the wrong side. It inspired many remakes, most famously the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan weepie-romance update You’ve Got Mail in 1998 – with emails instead of letters – which shifted the action to New York. (My own personal theory is that the original’s ensemble set-up, with its gallery of shop assistants and a venerable father-figure boss, inspired the BBC TV comedy Are You Being Served?) Continue reading...

Inquest hears 18-year-old ‘seemed like he was losing his co-ordination’ prior to being ejected from New South Wales bar in 2019 before vanishing

Thérèse Coffey says people should not kiss anyone they do not know to limit spread of coronavirus

Inter-American court of human rights orders Central American country to reform harsh policies on reproductive healthThe Inter-American court of human rights has ruled that El Salvador was responsible for the death of Manuela, a woman who was jailed in 2008 for killing her baby when she suffered a miscarriage.The court has ordered the Central American country to reform its draconian policies on reproductive health. Continue reading...

Alan Tudge stands aside as education minister pending investigation; Greg Hunt gives valedictory speech as parliament moves to Christmas messages; epidemic thunderstorm asthma risk warning for Melbourne; Fair Work Ombudsman accuses Coles of underpaying 7,800 staff; Victoria records 10 Covid deaths and 1,419 new cases, NSW 271 cases and zero deaths – follow all the day’s news

Jane Campion’s Oscar-tipped Netflix period drama pits two opposed men against each other with thrilling, and surprising, resultsJane Campion’s The Power of the Dog is a film of reveals: some gradual and ruthlessly calculated, others abrupt and careless and hastily re-concealed. Bodies and desires are unwittingly exposed to others. Motivations are guarded until it’s too late to change them. When they slip, they show us the secret lives and minds of men who want to seem more straight and simple than they are.Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance is the film is a reveal in itself. It’s aggressive and dissonant and off-kilter in ways the refined British actor rarely permits himself to be on screen, and I spent a good portion of the film’s running time figuring out if I liked it or not. Whenever he plays American, Cumberbatch gives the appearance of acting more than usual, and such is the case here: cast very much against type as crude, caustic Montana rancher Phil Burbank, his growling drawl and wide-gaited cowboy swagger feel like put-ons, almost distractingly unnatural to him — even as his presence fixes your gaze with eerie insistence. Continue reading...

MPs from across the political spectrum raise human rights in Xinjiang and Hong Kong crackdown as they sign off on powers

Udall presents a less controversial image than Donald Trump’s pick, as US seeks to ease tensions in the Indo PacificClad in the cowboy boots and turquoise gemstone bolo tie of his home state, Tom Udall, Joe Biden’s longtime friend and pick as US ambassador, made a distinctly American impression as he addressed New Zealand’s press for the first time on Thursday.Despite the departure from the usual diplomatic sartorial tastes, Udall represents a less controversial pick than his predecessor, outspoken Trump selection Scott Brown, who left New Zealand in December. Brown had been one of Trump’s first political backers, with a colourful – at times controversial – history in and out of politics. Continue reading...

Military tattoo to be held in chancellor’s honour on Thursday but formal handover of power not expected until next weekAngela Merkel will ceremonially bow out of office on with a military tattoo held in her honour on Thursday evening, before she is expected to formally hand over her seat of power to Olaf Scholz in the first half of next week.Featuring torch-carrying soldiers in full military regalia, precision choreography and three songs of the outgoing chancellor’s own choosing played by a marching band, the event will mark the high point of Merkel’s leaving tour after 16 years of holding office. Continue reading...

Public confusion and distrust over vaccination have been fuelled by what experts say are crippling failures in authorities’ response to the pandemic

Doctor found guilty of gross negligence after marking wrong leg of 82-year-old man for operationAn Austrian court has fined a surgeon for amputating the wrong leg of an elderly patient.The 43-year-old surgeon said her actions were due to “human error”, but the judge found her guilty of gross negligence and fined her €2,700 ($3,060), with half the amount suspended, a spokesperson for the tribunal in the northern city of Linz said on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Report follows French president’s complaint about PM’s behaviour after they discussed sinking of refugee boat in the ChannelThe French president, Emmanuel Macron, referred to Boris Johnson in a private conversation as a “clown”, according to reports in France.The political magazine Le Canard enchaîné, often described as the French equivalent of Private Eye, reported Macron as saying the British prime minister has “the attitude of a vulgarian”. Continue reading...

Police appeal for information after Mohammed Khan fails to return home from playing in nearby parkA young boy from Afghanistan has gone missing less than a month after arriving in the UK.Metropolitan police detectives have launched a high-risk missing persons investigation as they search for 11-year-old Mohammed Khan, who was last seen at about 4pm on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Amber Gibson’s body was discovered in Cadzow Glen park in Hamilton on SundayPolice investigating the death of a 16-year-old girl have arrested a 19-year-old man.Amber Gibson left her home in the Hillhouse area of Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, at about 9.15pm on Friday and was reported missing later that night when she did not return. Continue reading...

The armed group broke into the jail in Tula and opened fire, injuring a guard and a police officerMexican gangsters used a convoy of vehicles – including a truck with homemade armour-plating – to ram their way into a prison before opening fire at guards and rescuing nine inmates.Several other vehicles were also set on fire in the spectacular plot targeting the jail in the central city of Tula. The escapees include José Artemio Maldonado Mejía, alias “El Michoacano”, the leader of a local crime organisation known as Pueblos Unidos. Continue reading...

In a preview for the actor’s first on-camera interview since the tragedy, Baldwin says he did not fire the gun that killed Halyna HutchinsAlec Baldwin says he did not pull the trigger on the gun that accidentally killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the movie Rust in October.Hutchins, 42, was killed, and director Joel Souza, 48, injured when the gun Baldwin was holding went off during rehearsals for the western on a ranch outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico – a rare filming fatality that sent shockwaves through Hollywood and has forced a reckoning on the use of weapons on set and cutting corners on production safety. Continue reading...

The EU must consider mandatory vaccination in response to the spread of the 'highly contagious' Omicron Covid variant across Europe, the European Commission president has said. Ursula von der Leyen said one-third of Europe's 150-million population were not vaccinated and it was 'appropriate' to discuss the issue

There have been no end of complaints about some of the trees being put up –from a metal one in Cardiff to a puny one in GrimsbyName: Disappointing Christmas trees.Height: As much as 25m. Continue reading...

Rights group criticise EU Commission over proposals for emergency measure to tackle crisisRights groups have criticised the European Commission after it proposed that three countries sharing a border with Belarus should be allowed to hold people in special asylum processing centres for up to 16 weeks, up from the current maximum of four.Top officials at the EU executive said the emergency measures would give Poland, Lithuania and Latvia the flexibility to deal with an unprecedented situation caused by what the EU calls a hybrid attack from Alexander Lukashenko’s Belarusian regime. Continue reading...

Home Office acknowledges people involved in tragedy may have tried to call for help as investigations continueThe occupants of a boat that sank last week in the Channel causing the deaths of at least 27 people may have tried to contact the UK authorities, the Home Office has acknowledged.Dan O’Mahoney – the clandestine channel threat commander – said he could not say with any certainty if those onboard had rung the UK for help. Speaking to parliament’s human rights committee, O’Mahoney said HM Coastguard was now investigating. Continue reading...

Duke of Sussex says on World Aids Day that vaccinating the world against Covid is ‘test of our moral character’

A bill before federal parliament would legalise IVF technology to prevent a rare genetic disorder – mitochondrial disease. In Australia, about one child a week is born with a severe form of mitochondrial disease, and many of those children will die before they turn five. While this bill has cross-party support, some MPs are opposed to it and it has also stoked controversy with religious groups.