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The new government headed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz has a plan – and it is already being put to the testThe Lufthansa stewardess on the flight from London to Munich handed me one very small, yellow-wrapped bar of chocolate: the usual ration. When she saw that I was working my way through a long German document she gave me one more, exclaimingm Sie sind so fleissig! (”You’re so hard-working!”) I explained that this was actually the 177-page coalition agreement between the three parties forming her new government. Excitedly, she showered me with a whole handful of the miniature chocolate bars, followed by yet another handful. Most of them I offered to my neighbour, who had young children, but I slipped a couple into my pocket. A few days later, I presented one to a key minister in the “traffic light” government of Social Democrats, Greens and Free Democrats that formally took office in Berlin on Wednesday. He accepted it with appropriate ceremonial gravity.Some chocolate is called for. Given the difficulty of reaching common ground between three parties, the coalition agreement is remarkably coherent, substantial and ambitious. Parts of it are even well-written, with echoes of the inspirational rhetoric of the great chancellor of West German Ostpolitik, Willy Brandt. As befits a democracy now more widely respected than that of the US, it proposes a mixture of continuity and change. Yet the government headed by chancellor Olaf Scholz faces huge challenges from its very first day. As often before in German history, many of these lie in the east. They are Germany’s new Eastern Questions.Timothy Garton Ash is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Gold Coast lockdown ‘unlikely’ despite new community Covid cases; Alan Jones says new show and podcast a ‘pioneering initiative’; NSW records 516 new infections; two cases of Omicron variant as Victoria records 1,206 cases and two deaths; six new infections in ACT and four in NT; SA investigates possible Omicron cases.This blog is now closed

The Ardern government does not believe that the fate of the Indo-Pacific rests on US-China rivalryAfter the Biden administration’s announcement concerning the “diplomatic ban” of China’s Winter Games, Jacinda Ardern’s government has distanced itself from western allies once again – but it would be wrong to assume that Wellington has any illusions about China.The US government confirmed this week it would diplomatically boycott the Winter Olympic Games to protest against China’s persecution of the Uyghur people in the country’s Xinjiang province. Australia, UK and Canada subsequently indicated they would join the boycott. Continue reading...

‘Toddy tappers’ who collect sap used in everything from palm wine to ice-cream are enjoying a boost to business that has revived the traditional skill and improved their quality of lifeThe palmyra palm tree with its wide fan leaves is a distinctive and common sight across Jaffna, northern Sri Lanka, thriving in the arid conditions.Kutty, who goes by only one name, is a “toddy tapper”. Climbing the palms with his clay pot, he collects sap from the flower heads at the top of the great trees, which can grow to more than 30 metres (90ft). The sap is fermented to make toddy, an alcoholic drink also known as palm wine. Continue reading...

The Succession star Jeremy Strong has been widely scorned after a magazine profile revealed his ‘preening’ and ‘self-indulgent’ acting process. But many actors have been lauded for their method – so what has changed?Robert De Niro is the greatest actor of his generation. So claimed the headline in a popular magazine last year, and it’s not a controversial claim. The evidence offered for this opinion was the same that’s always wheeled out when discussing De Niro’s acting: “[He] took method acting to previously uncharted levels. He got a New York cab licence for Taxi Driver, learned Italian and lived in Sicily to prepare for The Godfather Part II, put on 60lbs to play Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull, learned Latin for True Confessions and the sax for New York, New York. He was the hardest-working man in Hollywood,” wrote the journalist.For decades, this has been the general feeling about actors: the more method, the better. After all, if they don’t eat raw bison and sleep in an animal carcass (Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant), stay in a wheelchair and be spoonfed by the crew (Daniel Day-Lewis in My Left Foot) or lose so much weight that they start to go blind (Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club), they’re just playing make-believe. And why should they get all that fame, adoration and money just for that? All of the above actors were rewarded for their efforts with an Oscar, and actors talking about their method efforts has become as much a part of the run-up to the Oscars as shops playing Do They Know It’s Christmas in the run-up to the holidays. Continue reading...

As Bosnian Serb assembly prepares to vote on opting out of Bosnian institutions, US officials plan a diplomatic offensiveThe US is determined to walk Bosnia “back from the cliff” amid secessionist threats from Serb nationalists and is exploring sanctions among other options, a senior state department official has said.Derek Chollet, a senior adviser to secretary of state Antony Blinken, was speaking ahead of a meeting on Friday of the Bosnian Serb assembly, which is expected to vote on whether to begin the process of opting out of the Bosnian army, judiciary and tax system. Continue reading...

Graham George Spencer says he was bitten 26 times in 10 seconds while out for a morning walkA man attacked by a pack of otters in a Singapore park has said that he thought he was going to die during the ordeal.Graham George Spencer, a British citizen living in Singapore, said he was chased, pinned down and bitten “26 times in 10 seconds” by a family of otters while out for an early morning walk in the botanic gardens. Continue reading...

Article that says ‘no party member should use any excuse’ to have only one or two children goes viral then disappearsAn editorial in a Chinese state-run news website has suggested Communist party members are obliged to have three children for the good of the country, as Beijing seeks to address plummeting birthrates.The editorial, which was first published last month, went viral this week and drew sharp reaction from Chinese internet users, with millions of shares, views and comments. As the wave of reaction grew, the original article disappeared from the website. Continue reading...

The government invests heavily to remove human contact from many aspects of life but fears of harmful social consequences persistFor Seoul-based graduate Lee Su-bin, the transition to a new lifestyle during the pandemic was no big deal.“At the university library, I would reserve my books online, which would then be sanitised in a book steriliser before being delivered to a locker for pick up,” the 25-year-old says. Continue reading...

Deadly clashes erupt in three separate areas with poor medical facilities as wider Darfur region slides into violenceTribal fighting has killed dozens of people over the past three weeks in three separate areas of Sudan’s West Darfur region and thousands of people have fled the violence, local medics have said.The West Darfur Doctors Committee said in statements on Wednesday and Thursday that attacks in the Kreinik area killed 88 and wounded 84, while renewed violence in the Jebel Moon area killed 25 and wounded four. Meanwhile, violence in the Sarba locality killed eight and wounded six. Continue reading...

Australia will begin administering vaccines for children from January; People and businesses in Scotland been urged not to go ahead with parties

Ecologists say numbers declined by about 99.5% three years ago, likely due to drought, pesticides and light pollution

US president makes pledge in phone calls to Ukrainian president and nine other statesJoe Biden has phoned the leaders of Ukraine and nine eastern European Nato states promising support if Russia attacks Ukraine and pledging to involve them in decisions about the region.After a 90-minute call with Biden late on Thursday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Twitter that the two “discussed possible formats for resolving the conflict” in eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists have carved out a self-declared state. Continue reading...

Mark Drakeford also urges mask-wearing in pubs as Covid cases likely to rise ‘quickly and sharply’

Friday: Australia’s coal-fired power plants are likely to shut at almost triple the pace now announced. Plus: a moth once famed for blocking out the moon is now listed as endangeredGood morning. Australia’s coal-fired power plants are likely to shut more rapidly than expected. The Omicron variant is in 57 countries. And the bogong moth has been added to the endangered species list.Coal-fired power plants are likely to shut at almost triple the pace now announced, with Victoria’s brown coal fleet to be closed in just over a decade and the main electricity grid becoming coal-free by 2043, according to the market operator. The draft Integrated System Plan 2022, an industry blueprint updated every two years and released today, plots how the grid serving eastern Australia will change to meet emissions reduction and market goals. It details four scenarios based on extensive consultation over 18 months. The most probable path, dubbed the “step change” option, anticipates a nine-fold increase in large-scale renewable energy. Continue reading...

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan accuse state of breaching terms including a prisoner release agreementTaliban militants in Pakistan have declared an end to a month-long ceasefire arranged with the aid of the Afghan Taliban, accusing the government of breaching terms including a prisoner release agreement and the formation of negotiating committees.The Pakistani Taliban, or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), are a separate movement from the Afghan Taliban and have fought for years to overthrow the government in Islamabad and rule with their own brand of Islamic sharia law. Continue reading...

Art museum announces change in the wake of leading members of the family being blamed for fueling the deadly US opioids crisisNew York’s famed Metropolitan Museum of Art is going to remove the name of arguably its most controversial donor groups – the billionaire Sackler family – from its galleries.The news comes in the wake of leading members of the US family, one of America’s richest, being blamed for fueling the deadly opioids crisis in America with the aggressive selling of the family company’s prescription narcotic painkiller, OxyContin. Continue reading...

France willing to re-engage on Channel crossings, but UK economy relies on illegal labour, says presidentRelations between France and Britain are strained because the current UK government does not honour its word, president Emmanuel Macron has said.Macron accused London of failing to keep its word on Brexit and fishing licences, but said France was willing to re-engage in good faith, and called for “British re-engagement” over the “humanitarian question” of dangerous Channel crossings, after at least 27 migrants drowned trying to reach the British coast. Continue reading...

Home Office figures reveal 25 under-18s arrested in year to September, the highest for a 12-month periodPolice arrested a record number of children for terror offences over a 12-month period, a development that investigators have linked to the shutdown of schools during the early stages of the pandemic.Figures released by the Home Office show that 25 under-18s were arrested in the year to September, the vast majority in relation to far-right ideology. Continue reading...

Beijing accuses nations of using Games ‘for political manipulation’ amid diplomatic boycottsChina has said Australia, Britain and the US will pay a price for their “mistaken acts” in deciding not to send government delegations to the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February, in the latest warning demonstrating China’s escalating diplomatic tensions with the US and its major allies.The US was the first to announce a boycott, saying on Monday that its government officials would not attend the February Games because of China’s human rights “atrocities”, weeks after talks aimed at easing tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Continue reading...

Annalena Baerbock has sympathy with US demands, but there is considerable Social Democrat support for Russia’s pipelineGermany’s new foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has been caught a diplomatic vice days into the job, as US puts pressure on the coalition government in Berlin to vow to block the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in the event of Russia invading Ukraine.The controversial pipeline project, which runs from Vyborg in Russia to Lubmin in north-east Germany, is also likely to be the first test of the new German government’s unity of approach. Continue reading...

Actor, who believes reporter illegally obtained medical records, speaks after accepting settlementSienna Miller has said the Sun forced her to make decisions “about my own body that I have to live with every single day” after the newspaper found out she was in the early stages of pregnancy.The actor said the then Sun editor Rebekah Brooks, now the chief executive of Rupert Murdoch’s News UK business, phoned her agent in 2005 to discuss the pregnancy before the actor had had the opportunity to discuss it with close friends and family. Continue reading...

With Last Christmas sailing up the singles charts again, now’s the time to reappraise Michael’s best tracks, from sublime pop to haunting elegiesTucked away on the B-side of The Edge of Heaven, Battlestations is a fascinating anomaly in the Wham! catalogue. Raw, minimal, and influenced by contemporary dancefloor trends – but still very much a pop song – it gives a glimpse of what might have happened had the duo stayed together and taken a hipper, more experimental direction. Continue reading...

Analysis: scientists say home working makes sense but voice fears over advice to go ahead with parties amid steep trajectory in cases

Some 782 out of 2,370 large companies paid no tax in 2019-20, mostly because they made a loss or claimed credits for previous losses

The director was a film-maker with mordant and subversive things to say about the postwar Italian soul, particularly in Seven Beauties

The stars of Adam McKay’s apocalypse satire Don’t Look Up discuss their worst fears, their favourite conspiracy theories and their final moments on EarthIf a massive meteor were expected to collide with Earth in six months’ time, what would our leaders do? Everything in their power to stop it? Or everything possible to leverage it for political and financial gain?How about the rest of us? How would we cope with the prospect of impending apocalypse? By facing the end of the world with sobriety and compassion? Or drowning ourselves in sex, drugs and celebrity gossip? Might some of us even enjoy the drama? Continue reading...

Man who slipped and broke his back while working from home was commuting, it is decidedA German court has ruled that a man who slipped while walking a few metres from his bed to his home office can claim on workplace accident insurance as he was technically commuting.The man was working from home and on his way to his desk one floor below his bedroom, the federal social court, which oversees social security issues, said in its decision. Continue reading...

The chimney of Scotland's last coal-fired power station came crashing down in a controlled explosion on Thursday.The 600ft chimney at Longannet was detonated by Nicola Sturgeon after the power station had ceased operations in 2016 Continue reading...

Agency is working on detailed analysis of what the new mutant form of the coronavirus might hold for the USMore than 40 people in the US have been found to be infected with the Omicron variant so far, and more than three-quarters of them had been vaccinated, the chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said. But she added nearly all of them were only mildly ill.In an interview with the Associated Press, Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said the data is very limited and the agency is working on a more detailed analysis of what the new mutant form of the coronavirus might hold for the US. Continue reading...

A million-selling superstar at home and in France, she discusses her confrontation with Playboy, growing up in a famous family and being publicly outed as bisexualA few years ago, a popular pub quiz question involved naming 10 famous Belgians. The answers often revealed more about British cultural ignorance than Belgium’s ability to produce international celebrities, given that the fictional Tintin and Hercule Poirot were the best many could come up with.The game has got easier since the rise of Angèle, a stridently feminist Belgian pop singer-songwriter who shot to fame in 2016 after posting short clips singing covers and playing the piano on Instagram. She was young, talented and not afraid to make fun of herself, pulling faces and sticking pencils up her nose. Her 2018 debut album, Brol, sold a million copies; by 2019, she was a face of Chanel. “I’d always wanted a career in music, but I was thinking more of working as a piano accompanist,” she says, folding into an armchair at a five-star boutique hotel near the Paris Opéra. “I really didn’t expect it to happen like that.” Continue reading...

From Glyndebourne to the Globe, actor, opera singer and drag star Le Gateau Chocolat is a UK stage fixture – although not everywhere has been so welcomingIn a big, bright rehearsal room at Southwark’s Unicorn Theatre, Le Gateau Chocolat is giving feedback to the new cast of his revolutionary children’s production, Duckie. His fingernails, painted an iridescent shade of blue, flash in the sunlight as the cabaret star, opera singer and all-round entertainment powerhouse praises his tiny team and smiles.First imagined in 2015 – in part to offer comfort to his young niece, who had recently moved to the UK from Nigeria and was struggling to settle in, and in part upon realising that a drag queen’s natural audience is a gaggle of excitable kids – Duckie is a radical reimagining of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Ugly Duckling. Following acclaimed stints everywhere from London’s Southbank Centre to the Fringe World festival in Perth, Australia, Gateau is now stepping down from the lead role for its festive run at Manchester’s Home theatre. Instead, it will be shared by two young actors, both non-binary and one neurodiverse, with aspects of the part adjusted accordingly. Continue reading...

Bronski formed the trailblazing gay pop trio with Jimmy Somerville and Larry Steinbachek, which had hits in the 80s including Smalltown BoySteve Bronski, a founding member of the trailblazing British synth-pop trio Bronski Beat, has died, a source close to the group has confirmed. The BBC reported his age as 61. No cause of death was given.His bandmate Jimmy Somerville described him as a “talented and very melodic man”. Continue reading...

Independent report says crimes include torture and the systematic suppression of birthsUyghur people living in Xinjiang province in China have been subjected to unconscionable crimes against humanity directed by the Chinese state that amount to an act of genocide, an independent and unofficial tribunal has found.Hundreds of thousands and possibly a million people have been incarcerated without any or remotely fair justification, the tribunal’s chair, Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, said as he delivered the tribunal’s findings in London. “This vast apparatus of state repression could not exist if a plan was not authorised at the highest levels,” Nice said. Continue reading...

Dr Guido Russo says stunt was protest against vaccine mandates and jab is ‘best weapon we have’ against virus

Carrie and co are back and having excruciating ‘learning experiences’ to haul themselves into modern times. But there are reasons to be hopeful!Warning: this review contains spoilers from the first episode of And Just Like That.The first 20 minutes of the long-anticipated, much-hyped reboot of Sex and the City, And Just Like That (Sky Comedy/HBO Max), are terrible. The Manhattan streets are alive with the sound of crowbars jimmying more exposition into the dialogue than Carrie’s closet has shoes. Samantha’s absence (Kim Cattrall declined to take part in the new show, apparently as a result of longstanding animus between her and Sarah Jessica Parker) is briskly dealt with. She moved to London (“Sexy sirens in their 60s are still viable there!” says someone with their tongue not firmly enough in their cheek) in a fit of pique after Carrie told her she didn’t need her as a publicist any more. That this does not square with anything we have ever known about Samantha apparently matters not a jot. Viewers are then led at a quick jog through the news that Carrie’s Instagram account has really taken off now she is on a podcast, Charlotte is still dyeing her hair, and Miranda has left her corporate law job and is heading back to college to get a masters degree in human rights law after realising she “can no longer be part of the problem”. Writer and showrunner Michael Patrick King gets her to lay out the show’s organising principle too, for the cheap seats at the back. “We can’t just stay who we were, right? There are more important issues in the world.” Continue reading...

Plans for foreign citizens to need pre-clearance to enter Northern Ireland denounced as ‘hardening of border’EU citizens and other non-Irish or non-British nationals who cross the border from the republic of Ireland into Northern Ireland will have to get pre-clearance under new rules being proposed by the UK government.They will require a US-style waiver known as an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) to cross the border as part of the new post-Brexit immigration nationality and borders bill. Continue reading...

The Random Restaurant Twitter feed shows that mini chip fryer baskets and terrible food photos are a planet-wide phenomenonIt’s a familiar image. There’s a well-stacked burger: domed bun, a couple of patties, the crimson flash of fresh tomato. It’s not unappetising. Next to it, however, is an emblem for all that is naff, irritating and deathly in the restaurant world: a mini chip fryer basket full of chips. Because what could be more fun than a miniaturised version of a piece of kitchen equipment? It’s exactly the kind of thing you’d expect to find in a dreary low-rent British gastropub; one that has decided crass serving items are a substitute for a commitment to good food.Except this image is not from a clumsy gastro pub. It’s certainly not from Britain. It’s from Fast Food Le Jasmin, a restaurant in Guelma, in north-eastern Algeria. I can show you other examples from Costa Rica and French Polynesia. For the joyous revelation that restaurant stupidity is not restricted to the UK, we must thank a Twitter account called Random Restaurant or @_restaurant_bot, created by one Joe Schoech. As its name suggests, it uses a bot to search Google randomly for information on restaurants all over the world. Around 20 times a day it posts a map link, plus the first four photographs it finds. Certain countries, including China, are excluded because Google isn’t available there. Otherwise, it provides an extraordinary window on how we eat out globally. Continue reading...

Analysis: The ‘Brussels effect’ means British firms may adopt ambitious EU employment rights for gig economy workers

New Zealand has announced it will outlaw smoking for the next generation, so that those who are aged 14 and under today will never be legally able to buy tobacco.New legislation means the legal smoking age will increase every year, to create a smoke-free generation of New Zealanders, associate health minister Dr Ayesha Verrall said

As the sea claims more of the west African shoreline, those left homeless by floods are losing hope that the government will actWaves have taken the landscape John Afedzie knew so well. “The waters came closer in the last few months, but now they have destroyed parts of schools and homes. The waves have taken the whole of the village. One needs to use a boat to commute now because of the rising sea levels,” he says.Afedzie lives in Keta, one of Ghana’s coastal towns, where a month ago high tide brought seawater flooding into 1,027 houses, according to the government, leaving him among about 3,000 people made homeless overnight. Continue reading...

Staff employed to teach British values and the English language refused the right to come to the UKNearly 100 former British Council staff employed to teach British values and the English language remain in hiding in Afghanistan after having so far been refused the right to come to the UK by officials.Their plight has been taken up by Joseph Seaton, the former British Council Afghanistan English manager, and its deputy director, who has written to the most relevant cabinet members in a bid to gain their support. Continue reading...

Committee to Protect Journalists says 293 reporters are in prison, and at least 24 have been killed in 2021The number of journalists who are behind bars worldwide reached a new high point in 2021, according to a study which says that 293 reporters were imprisoned as of 1 December 2021.At least 24 journalists were killed because of their coverage, and 18 others died in circumstances that make it too difficult to determine whether they were targeted because of their work, the nonprofit Committee to Protect Journalists said on Thursday in its annual survey on press freedom and attacks on the media. Continue reading...

Advocates welcome bill allowing for self-identification they say upholds rights for transgender and non-binary New ZealandersNew Zealand’s rainbow community will be allowed to change the sex recorded on their birth certificates without providing evidence of a medical procedure, after a bill to recognise the right for gender minorities to self-identify passed into law.“Today is a proud day in Aotearoa’s history,” internal affairs minister Jan Tinetti said. “Parliament has voted in favour of inclusivity and against discrimination.” Continue reading...

The artist’s mind-boggling works – full of stairways leading nowhere and water flowing uphill – defy logic. But did they also foresee the second world war? And why was he so riled by the Stones frontman?You are walking up a staircase that winds up to the top of a tall square tower. It ascends one side, then the next, then the next – and then suddenly you are right back where you started. This is the kind of problem people who are trapped in the geometrically impossible, yet still strangely plausible, worlds of MC Escher have to deal with all the time. In his mind-boggling creations, dimensions collide and normality dissolves. Looking into his pictures is like standing on the very edge of a cliff – and being right down at the bottom at the same time.The Dutchman’s illusions have been famous and beloved since the 1950s, when spaced-out fans first started claiming to see hemp plants hidden in his art. And now we have Kaleidocycles, a Taschen book about the artist featuring paper puzzle kits that allow you to actually build his paradoxical structures at home, unlikely as that may seem. The tome has just been reissued in time for Christmas and the 50th anniversary of his death next year. His work does seem perfect for the festive season, given it’s all fun and games. Or at least that’s how it seems, initially. Continue reading...

Housing survivors of torture or other serious forms of violence in barracks ‘harmful’, all-party report saysA cross-party group of parliamentarians is calling on the government to end its use of controversial barracks accommodation for people seeking asylum, in a new report published on Thursday.The report also recommends the scrapping of government plans to expand barracks-style accommodation for up to 8,000 asylum seekers. It refers to accommodation, including Napier barracks in Kent, which is currently being used to house hundreds of asylum seekers, as “quasi-detention” due to visible security measures, surveillance, shared living quarters and isolation from the wider community. Continue reading...

Anupama S Chandran’s newborn child was sent away by her parents, who were unhappy that his father was from the Dalit casteThrough the rains and steamy heat of November, day and night, Anupama S Chandran sat by the gates of the Kerala state secretariat. She refused to eat, drink or be moved. Her single demand was written on a placard: “Give me my baby.”The story of Chandran’s fight to get back her child, who was snatched from her by her own family days after he was born and put up for adoption without her knowledge, is one that has been greeted with both horror and a sad familiarity in India. Continue reading...

World Health Organization says new Covid variant spreading rapidly in South Africa, with cases doubling in the past weekThe Omicron variant of Covid-19 has now been reported in 57 countries and continues to spread rapidly in South Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.But the latest epidemiological report from WHO says given the Delta variant remains dominant, particularly in Europe and the US, it is still too early to draw any conclusions about the global impact of Omicron. Continue reading...

You’ve done a brave thing by changing your life, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith, don’t let that change become its own choreAfter years of struggling with a punishing combination of emotional instability and over-work in high pressure jobs, I eventually got sick, dropped out and am finally on the road to recovery, with a new understanding of how to take better care of my mental health and the value of a healthy body.I’ve been appreciating simple pleasures, good old friends and the benefits of a quiet life, but it’s a particularly daunting time to start stepping back into the swim. Although I’m now aware of people and situations that aren’t good for me, I have become very self-protective – not helped by the pandemic. It’s very easy to decide it’s too crazy and unkind out there. Continue reading...