Picture emerges showing Tory mayoral candidate, activists and a party donor crammed together during lockdown

Chief medical officer warns of ‘two epidemics on top of each other’ as UK records highest ever daily total of new cases

Defence says memorial to slave trader toppled last June was ‘indecent and threatening’ to city’s black communityThe statue of Edward Colston in Bristol was “a monument to racism”, a court has heard, as a defendant described the moment he gave the signal to topple the memorial to the slave trader.Rhian Graham, 30, Milo Ponsford, 26, and Sage Willoughby, 22, are accused of helping to tear down the statue of the slave trader during a Black Lives Matter protest on 7 June last year. They are on trial alongside Jake Skuse, 33, who is accused of helping to roll the bronze to Bristol harbour where it was thrown into the River Avon. Continue reading...

Florin Roman, the minister for innovation and digitalization, resigned after being on his post for less than a monthRomania’s minister of innovation and digitalization has resigned after an investigation by journalists who reported they found significant irregularities on his resume and evidence he plagiarized from an academic paper.Florin Roman, who had served in Romania’s new coalition government for less than a month, quit his post after Romania’s Libertatea newspaper published a third article calling his claimed educational credentials into question. Continue reading...

In acclaimed works Ain’t I a Woman and All About Love the writer shared her ideas about race, feminism and romance with flair and compassionGloria Jean Watkins, better known by her pen name bell hooks, has died aged 69.Her niece Ebony Motley tweeted: “The family of @bellhooks is sad to announce the passing of our sister, aunt, great aunt and great great aunt.” Continue reading...

Auction house credits younger, tech-savvy collectors for highest annual sales in its 277-year historySotheby’s has sold a record $7.3bn (£5.5bn) worth of art and other collectibles so far this year – the most in its 277-year history.The auction house said on Wednesday that an “influx of younger, tech-savvy collectors” buying luxury items such as handbags, jewellery, wine and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) during the pandemic had helped lift sales to the record high. Continue reading...

Controversy leads to parliamentary inquiry, calls for ‘must-be-won’ draw similar to UK’s – and Shergar jokesIt has been said that even the dead racehorse Shergar has a better chance of winning Ireland’s national lottery than a member of the public.For six months the jackpot has yet to be won, prompting calls for an investigation, a reduction in the number of balls to increase the chances of a win and on Wednesday, a parliamentary inquiry. Continue reading...

Russian leader defies western boycott and forms ‘new model of cooperation’ with Chinese leaderVladimir Putin has confirmed he will attend the opening of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, an event that Boris Johnson and other western leaders have boycotted in protest at human rights abuses in China.Putin made the pledge during a video call with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, as he said that a “new model of cooperation has been formed between our countries, based on other matters of principles such as non-interference in [each other’s] internal affairs”. Continue reading...

Decision follows court ruling that Russia was behind 2019 murder of Chechen dissident in German capitalGermany has expelled two Russian diplomats and accused the Kremlin of infringing on its sovereignty after a German court ruled on Wednesday that the 2019 murder of a Chechen dissident in Berlin took place at the behest of the Russian authorities.Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili, 40, a Georgian citizen who fought against Russia during the second Chechen war in the early 2000s, was shot twice in the head at close range in the Kleiner Tiergarten, a park in central Berlin, in August 2019. Continue reading...

A rise in the price of gas is contributing to a shortage of the emission inhibitor, which will affect almost all diesel engines, including fuel trucks

Despite anguish caused by such acts, necrophilia is today punishable by a maximum of two years in prisonProsecutors described David Fuller’s offending as the “worst of its kind” in British legal history, as he was condemned by his library of images of “unimaginable sexual depravity” of him abusing his victims.His disturbing case has thrown the spotlight on necrophilia, until relatively recently an invisible crime in British law, and which today is punishable by a maximum of just two years in prison. Continue reading...

Michael O’Leary blames Covid rules for 1 million fewer passengers flying with airline this month

European leaders to tell Kremlin further aggression will carry ‘severe cost’, leak revealsEU leaders will unite in warning Vladimir Putin that there will be “massive consequences and severe cost” if Russia invades Ukraine, a leaked draft has revealed.The message will be sent to the Kremlin via a post-summit communique on Thursday, although EU officials decline to flesh out what measures could be taken. Continue reading...

Council blames ‘IT limitations’ for failure to submit necessary documents before deadlineBolton council has admitted it missed the deadline to apply for a £16m levelling-up grant because of an email mishap.This year the council was making two separate bids, which had to be submitted by noon on 18 June. Continue reading...

German chancellor promises to defeat pandemic, tackle extremists and speed up switch to renewable energyThe German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has used his inaugural address to parliament to promise to defeat the pandemic and to tackle a “minority of hate-filled extremists” trying to overturn the government’s coronavirus measures.In a wide-ranging speech in which he said there was “a lot to do” and “no time to lose”, Scholz also acknowledged the huge challenges Germany faced in tackling the climate emergency, including the fears many had about the impact a transition to climate neutrality might have on their lives. Continue reading...

Survey of 1,000 dog owners finds Wham’s festive hit Last Christmas is canines’ top tuneFrom Wham’s Last Christmas to Jingle Bells, humans are not the only species to enjoy festive songs.A survey of 1,000 dog owners by the charity Guide Dogs found Wham’s classic is the most beloved by canines, with 10% of the votes, followed by Jingle Bells (9%) and All I Want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carey (6%). Continue reading...

Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, London

Exclusive: Daniel Kawczynski’s WhatsApp messages show he claimed to be most ‘pro-Saudi’ MP in bid to secure second jobA Conservative MP pleaded with a fixer to help him secure a well-paid second job with a Saudi company or other work relating to the Middle East, at one point saying he needed money to pay school fees.Daniel Kawczynski’s repeated pleas for lucrative employment – revealed in a series of WhatsApp messages seen by the Guardian – show him citing his pro-Saudi stance in parliament as part of an attempt to get paid work from a businessman. Continue reading...

Lack of seismic activity of Cumbre Vieja on Canary island could herald end to three months of eruptionsAfter three months of eruptions, earthquakes and evacuations, scientists are cautiously optimistic that the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the Canary island of La Palma may be quietening down.The eruption, which began on 19 September, has destroyed almost 3,000 buildings, forced thousands of people from their homes and devastated the banana plantations on which many in La Palma depend for their livelihoods. Continue reading...

A blaze at a property in Grovelands Road, Reading, is believed to have killed one person and left a number of others unaccounted for.A 31-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of arson and murder and is being held in custody. Police said the incident was not being treated as terror-related and urged people to avoid the area, with road closures in place

In likely the last update before election, treasurer will highlight jobless rate of below 5% for first time since before GFC in MYEFO address

Proposed acquisition was being investigated by competition authorities in UK and EUThe British Airways and Iberia owner, International Airlines Group , is to scrap its plan to buy the Spanish airline Air Europa, a deal that was being investigated by competition authorities in the UK and the EU.The move comes more than two years after International Airlines Group (IAG) – under its former chief executive, Willie Walsh – first announced plans to buy the carrier from the Spanish tourism group Globalia for €1bn (£850m) in November 2019, before renegotiating the deal at half the price after Covid-19 closed down most international travel, prompting huge losses at airlines. Continue reading...

Searches carried out in Dresden after plans for the killing discussed on Telegram messaging group

Investigation finds areas of cleared land in Queensland likely to be habitats for threatened species

Cumbre Vieja, the La Palma volcano that has been spewing lava in the Canary Islands for almost three months, has quietened but scientists have warned the lull does not necessarily mean the eruption is over. Photographer Jorge Guerrero surveys the island’s changed landscapes Continue reading...

The Conservative rebellion against Boris Johnson’s new Covid restrictions dominates front pages, prompting questions about his future

AMA warns against shutting vaccination hubs as GPs reveal chaos in securing supplies

With the king barely seen for 20 months, the crown prince is holding the reins of power – and unbothered by who knows itBeaming in satisfaction as Arab rulers arrived in Riyadh on Tuesday, Mohammed bin Salman looked like a man in charge. As a succession of planes disgorged heads of state for a regional summit, the Saudi crown prince was there to receive them – standing in for his father at yet another big event.But as Prince Mohammed ushered leaders of Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain along a purple carpet to a reception hall, the king’s absence loomed large. If the ailing monarch was to reappear in public – a once every five year gathering under his auspices would have been the time and place. Continue reading...

Singer says exposure from the age of 11 messed her up when she began dating as ‘I was not saying no to things that were not good’Grammy-winning singer Billie Eilish has spoken about an addiction to watching pornography, starting at age 11, and how it gave her nightmares and messed her up when she started dating.Eilish, who turns 20 on Saturday, was speaking on the Howard Stern Show on Sirius XM radio on Monday. Continue reading...

The United States has surpassed 800,000 coronavirus-related deaths; Moderna chief cautions against assumptions Omicron is milder than Delta

Australian prime minister says ‘we’re going to live with this virus’ after he was declared a contact and tested for coronavirus

Measure comes into force on Wednesday and was passed despite many Tories voting against

Officials hopeful that US and European nations will agree Tehran is in breach of its obligationsTehran’s approach to talks on its nuclear programme in Vienna has become so uncompromising according to Israel’s lead diplomat on Iran, Joshua Zarka, that they “have reached the last stretch of diplomacy”.Israeli officials said they were hopeful that the US and European nations would agree to put an emergency motion to the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) stating that Iran was in breach of its obligations under the non-proliferation treaty (NPT) and the 2015 nuclear deal. Continue reading...

Wednesday: Australia’s island state opens to the mainland as NSW further eases restrictions. Plus: Christine Anu’s beloved itemsGood morning. Tasmania is reconnecting to the mainland today, reopening borders to all vaccinated Australians just in time for Christmas. Two Liberal backbenchers have thrown their support behind bringing Wikileaks founder Julian Assange home. And Warwick Thornton’s must-see Indigenous vampire hunter series hits the small screen this week.Covid restrictions in New South Wales will ease today, including those for unvaccinated people, despite epidemiologists urging caution amid rising case numbers and the Omicron variant. The NSW health minister, Brad Hazzard, said the government would “look at all options”, but the emergence of the Omicron strain and rising numbers would not affect the relaxing of restrictions. It comes as Tasmania reopens its borders to the rest of the country and two Virgin flights into Queensland are forced into isolation for Christmas after an infected passenger was detected onboard. Continue reading...

Cluj-based judge Cristi Danileţ has been suspended over two videos he posted on platform last yearA prominent judge in Romania has been suspended from his position for posting videos on TikTok in a move that has drawn widespread criticism, and condemnation from the US embassy.Cristi Danileţ, a judge in Romania’s northern city of Cluj, was suspended on Monday by the superior council of magistrates over two videos he posted on TikTok last year, which a panel decided amounted to “behaviour that affects the image of the justice system”. Continue reading...

Council says no action was taken over slave trader memorial despite ‘significant’ community concernsBristol had not considered removing the statue of Edward Colston before its toppling by protesters, despite “significant concerns” about its presence among the local black community, the city council’s head of culture has said.Jon Finch spoke at Bristol crown court on day two of the trial of the four people accused of helping to pull down the memorial to the slave trader, roll it to Bristol harbour and dump it in the River Avon. Continue reading...

Airline plans to transfer 35 routes to new subsidiary BA Euroflyer later in 2022, with fares starting at £39British Airways will return to short-haul flying from London Gatwick next year, the airline has said as it confirmed the go-ahead of its planned subsidiary, BA Euroflyer.BA, which stopped flying from the West Sussex airport soon after the Covid pandemic started, will relaunch its short-haul leisure network in late March 2022, ending a break of almost two years. Continue reading...

Syarhei Tsikhanouski was arrested in 2020 as he prepared to challenge Alexander LukashenkoBelarus has sentenced the husband of the opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya to 18 years in prison for challenging the authoritarian ruler, Alexander Lukashenko, and helping to spark the biggest demonstrations in the country’s modern history.Syarhei Tsikhanouski, a popular video blogger, was arrested in 2020 as he campaigned to run for president against Lukashenko, whom he compared to a cockroach. He was charged with organising mass unrest and inciting social hatred. Continue reading...

High levels of previous infection in province at centre of outbreak may be behind relatively low level of severe disease, expert says

All 11 countries to be removed from list as concerns about importing variant diminish

The UK health secretary opened the Commons debate on Plan B Covid restrictions by highlighting that the Omicron variant is more transmissible than Delta. The growing cases in the UK is mirroring what happened in South Africa, with the observed doubling time for Omicron taking two days.Javid said that although there are just 4,713 confirmed cases, scientists estimate the real number of people getting infected every day is 42 times higher, at about 200,000 Continue reading...

Managing policing and other public services should be about people, not data, writes Derrick Joad, while Simon Marlow-Ridley thinks the job of Met commissioner is too big for one personWhat Dal Babu’s article on policing (The Stephen Port scandal is another betrayal of public trust. The UK deserves better policing, 10 December) demonstrates is how the prevalent cult of “managerialism” blights so much of public life. This is a cult that overvalues “good management” and devalues the task of doing.Managerialism insists everything must be managed in the correct way, as taught by business schools and promoted by politicians as the answer to everything. Neither politicians, auditors nor commentators were aware of the approaching failure of Carillion, the outsourcing giant, because it was “managed” correctly. What Babu describes is the very negative consequence of the adherence to this cult in the police service. Continue reading...

Laramba’s Indigenous residents fear they are at risk of long-term illness and say they need to know who is responsible for fixing the problem. Features editor, Lucy Clark, introduces this story about contaminated drinking waterYou can read the original article here: ‘It makes us sick’: remote NT community wants answers about uranium in its water supply

Total number of injured still not known after truck carrying gasoline overturned around midnight in the Sanmarie area

Scandinavian countries say Omicron is spreading rapidly and expect record number of daily infections

More than 3,500 people sign petition opposing plan for cemetery with Muslim funeral parlour and prayer roomsPeople rarely move to Oswaldtwistle, locals say. The 11,000 residents of the town outside Blackburn are mostly descendants of miners and textile workers, with some saying the last significant conflict was the 19th-century power-loom riots. But a dispute over a cemetery is now causing division.The Blackburn billionaires Mohsin and Zuber Issa – the new owners of Asda – have proposed building a cemetery with up to 35,000 burial plots alongside a Muslim funeral parlour and prayer rooms to allow traditional Muslim burial rites on the site. Continue reading...

Emphasising that nobody should cancel their Christmas Day plans, Scotland's first minister has urged people socialising before and immediately after 25 December to limit their indoor socialising to no more than three households

Olaf Scholz frustrates journalists with vague and formulaic answersLess than a week into his tenure, Germany’s new chancellor, Olaf Scholz, is already reminding the rest of the world of one of his rarer political talents: an ability to frustrate journalists with answers so vague and formulaic they once earned him the nickname “Scholz-o-matic”.Social Democrat Scholz, who will govern in a “traffic light” coalition with the Green party and the liberal Free Democratic party, on Sunday left his Polish counterpart, Mateusz Morawiecki, none the wiser about his plans for the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline between Russia and Germany, which Poland has urged its western neighbour to scrap. Continue reading...

First minister asks public to keep festive celebrations ‘as small as your family circumstances allow’

A new study suggests interrupted hypnagogia, a technique beloved of Salvador Dalí and Thomas Edison, can boost creativityName: The semi-lucid dream trick.Age: At least 90 years old. Continue reading...