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After at least 27 people lost their lives in a Channel boat crossing, readers discuss the government’s culpability in closing off safe routes for refugeesBoris Johnson describes himself as appalled at Wednesday’s Channel tragedy (Tragedy at sea claims dozens of lives in deadliest day of Channel crisis, 25 November), and is elsewhere reported as accusing France of letting human traffickers “get away with murder”, but it’s the asylum policy of his and previous governments that has created the conditions in which trafficking can flourish and tragedies such as this can occur.There are no options other than “irregular” ones by which asylum seekers can now enter this country. The Home Office requires physical arrival in the United Kingdom before an asylum application can be lodged. Its current nationality and borders bill, by criminalising all means of entry other than official ones that are impossible to access, is clearly intended to bring an end to finding asylum in this country. It won’t, however, bring an end to the displaced making their desperate attempts to reach our shores. Continue reading...

Members of industry association say large number of vehicles will be used to block key artery between nationsFrench fishers are threatening to block access to the Eurotunnel and the ferry port in Calais on Friday as part of an ongoing dispute over access to the waters between France and the UK in the wake of Brexit.They have branded the UK’s approach as “contemptuous” and “humiliating” and say they have no other option but to block access to the port and tunnel along with two other ports, Saint-Malo and Ouistreham. Continue reading...

Plymouth officers continue to question 24-year-old after teenager vanished from bus stopPolice investigating the killing of 18-year-old Bobbi-Anne McLeod, who vanished from a bus stop in Devon, have confirmed there is no known link between her and a man being held on suspicion of murder.In an attempt to calm growing fears in the community, Devon and Cornwall police also said they were not currently looking for anyone else over McLeod’s death. Continue reading...

The home secretary said it was up to France to stop refugees crossing the Channel in small boats, after 27 people, mostly Kurds from Iraq or Iran, drowned trying to reach the UK in an inflatable boat.Making a statement to MPs, Patel said that while there was no rapid solution to the issue of people seeking to make the crossing, she had reiterated a UK offer to send more police to France.Patel told the Commons she had just spoken to her French counterpart, Gérald Darmanin, after the disaster in which 17 men, seven women and three adolescents – two boys and a girl – drowned

Andy Smith, who documents his travels on YouTube, estimates task will take ‘best part of 25 to 30 years’When Andy Smith moved from the Lincolnshire countryside where he grew up, to Rotherham, he immediately longed for a return to his rural life.“For the first 24 years of my life I lived in a village, and living in a town is a big difference,” said 37-year-old Smith, who was born in Saxilby. “It made me miss village life. So I thought, how can I combine the missing of village life with my passion for geography?” Continue reading...

Around Australia, many homes and businesses are willing a ‘crappy’ Covid year to be over by getting a jump start on festive joy

It’s the “mystery that must be solved”. Seven-and-a-half years after the Malaysia Airlines flight disappeared with 239 people on board, head of news Mike Ticher recommends this story as he remembers covering the tragedy when the news broke

Since 2017 the contract – now worth $1.6bn – has been amended seven times without competitive tender

A cultural ‘cancer’, soft porn … or the height of empowerment? A revealing documentary examines the debates around one of the raunchiest – and most talked about – rap records aroundAs winter forces many of us to ditch nights out with friends in favour of nights in on the sofa, Belcalis Alamanzar’s iconic words ring out across the digital ether: “A ho never gets cold!”. In a clip that went viral in 2014, the rapper better known as Cardi B parades up and down a hotel corridor, clad in a plunging, barely-there bralette and tight-fitting skirt. For women who wear little and care about it even less, Megan Thee Stallion has made a name for herself in the same vein. Together, Meg and Cardi would go on to birth a movement with their hit 2020 single, WAP, an ode to female sexuality and “wet ass pussy” which brought a slice of the club to the worlds’ living rooms at the peak of lockdown.In three minutes and seven seconds of poetic dirty talk, the pair walk us through the spiciest of bedroom sessions, except – contrary to patriarchal norms – they are firmly in the driver’s seat. From fellatio to make-up sex, Cardi and Megan leave their targets weak. With the video quickly becoming a talking point around the world, their sexual desire (and that of women in general) became the subject of fierce debate. While many praised their cheeky candour, others were unimpressed, with Fox News’s Candace Owens going as far as to call Cardi a “cancer cell” who was destroying culture. Continue reading...

Analysis: From overhauling the asylum system to simply taking what refugees say seriously, some ideas to stop the small boatsAmid a rising number of small boats crossing the Channel, culminating in Wednesday’s tragedy, campaigners and experts have proposed a number of possible solutions to curb the dangerous journeys: Continue reading...

Drawn from the Jam, the Style Council and his solo work, all of it powered by romance, storytelling and political vim, here is the best of a British songwriter unbounded by genreOn the B-side of A Solid Bond in Your Heart lurks Weller’s mea culpa take on the sudden demise of the Jam, the arrogance of youth and the perils of becoming the Voice of a Generation. “I was a shit-stained statue / Schoolchildren would stand in awe … I thought I was lord of this crappy jungle.” Continue reading...

Nearly half of infants have drug-resistant HIV in 10 African countries, study finds, underlining need for new alternativesHIV drug resistance is on the rise, according to a new report, which found that the number of people with the virus being treated with antiretrovirals had risen to 27.5 million – an annual increase of 2 million.Four out of five countries with high rates had seen success in suppressing the virus with antiretroviral treatments, according to the World Health Organization’s HIV drug-resistance report. Continue reading...

Analysis finds vaccinated women no more likely than unvaccinated to suffer stillbirth or premature births

Bake Off’s first Italian winner thought he would hate being in the tent. Now that he’s won, he feels more confident than ever – though he still has no plans to give up his day jobIt was a grand slam for Italy – winners of Eurovision and Euro 2020 – this week, as Giuseppe Dell’Anno triumphed in The Great British Bake Off. The 45-year-old engineer – with his precise, impeccable English; his Bristolian life; wife and three sons; and his unbelievably tidy workstation – never thought of himself as a showman. “Whenever I do a Myers-Briggs [personality] test,” he tells me the morning after the final airs, “I come out as a massive introvert. Nothing gives me more energy than locking myself in a room and working on my own. When I got into Bake Off, I thought: ‘This is going to be a nightmare.’”But cameras, audiences and – most importantly – the judges loved him. Twice awarded star baker – once for some milk bread that looked like vegetables, again for a German cake that looked like an alien invasion on the brink of victory – to the uninitiated, his creations may have seemed as elaborate as those of any Bake Off winner. “But one of the comments that Paul often gave me,” he recalls, of those moments before a Hollywood Handshake, “was that my bakes were ‘rather simple but very effective’. That is the way I work. I would rather spend time doing something small, and doing it very well, than venture into something complicated.” Continue reading...

Defence secretary says Future Soldier programme will reconfigure army to face next-generation threatsThe defence secretary, Ben Wallace, has announced a radical reorganisation of the British army, with an additional £8.6bn to be spent on equipment and a new ranger regiment created to help counter extremist organisations and hostile state threats.The Future Soldier programme would reconfigure the army to address next-generation threats around the globe, positioning it as a globally engaged, modernised war-fighting force, Wallace told MPs. Continue reading...

Deployment to support ‘riot control’ as protesters defy lockdown order to take to streets for second dayAustralia is deploying more than 100 police and defence force personnel to Solomon Islands, where anti-government protesters took to the streets in the capital, Honiara, for a second day running in defiance of a lockdown order.The Australian government said the deployment would support “riot control” and security at critical infrastructure, a day after demonstrators attempted to storm parliament and topple the prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare. Continue reading...

Chinese companies dominate mining, battery and manufacturing sectors, and amid human rights concerns, Europe and the US are struggling to keep pace

Commission says unrestricted travel between states should apply to those who get booster 9 months after jabs

Home Office says 67,547 applications waiting to be dealt with, as ministers urged to drop ‘nationalist posturing’Asylum claims made in the UK have risen to their highest level for nearly 20 years, according to new figures from the Home Office, as the head of the Refugee Council calls for less “nationalist posturing” over people fleeing war zones.The backlog of cases waiting to be dealt with is also at a record high, with 67,547 people in the queue and more than 125,000 either waiting for a decision or due to be removed from the UK. Continue reading...

The Swedish actor best known for his collaborations with Lars von Trier – as well as Marvel movies, Pirates of the Caribbean and Mamma Mia! – answers your questions about Lars von Trier, porn and pickled herringsAre you ever frustrated with having to wear clothes when you’re working? Do you feel you’re better at your job if you’re able to be naked? KayBee123I usually take off my clothes when I get home but I have no special ambition to be naked on screen. And I’m getting fewer and fewer offers. I don’t know what that means. Continue reading...

The continent is now the centre of the global coronavirus pandemic – again. As countries from the Baltic to the Med brace for harsher winter measures, the Guardian's Jon Henley looks at the reasons behind the fourth wave

Exclusive: Far-right politician is in campaign mode and says he has no regrets about draconian policies he introduced when he was interior ministerWhether they’re camped outside in freezing temperatures or stranded at sea, Matteo Salvini exhibits little sympathy for the asylum seekers blocked at European borders. The Italian far-right leader, who as interior minister attempted to stop NGO rescue boats landing in Italian ports, in one case leading to criminal charges, will travel to Warsaw next month in a show of solidarity with his Polish allies who have deployed hardcore tactics to ward off thousands of refugees trying to enter from Belarus.“I think that Europe is realising that illegal immigration is dangerous,” Salvini told the Guardian in an interview conducted before 27 people drowned attempting to cross the Channel in an inflatable boat. “So maybe this shock will be useful.” Continue reading...

Owner says North Yorkshire restaurant ‘won’t be open for a while’ after blaze breaks out in thatched roofA Michelin-starred restaurant in a 14th-century thatched inn has been “reduced to ashes” after fire broke out in its roof.Firefighters spent the night tackling the devastating blaze at the Star Inn at Harome, near Helmsley in North Yorkshire. Continue reading...

Squeaky clean, uncool and old before her years, the US singer blazed a trail for young women creating their own material. Having dealt with stalkers, addiction and illness, she’s backThirty-three years ago – in musical terms, an epoch – Debbie Gibson was the most famous American teen pop star on earth. At 17 she was as loved by teenagers as Billie Eilish was at 17, in polar opposite ways. Gibson, uncool and critically dismissed, was the wholesome, toothsome innocent who sang upbeat, unapologetically weedy songs about adolescent love. Eilish, peerlessly cool and critically sacred, remains a sad-eyed cynic singing unapologetically disturbing songs about death, sex and generational neuroses. If popular culture is unrecognisable from 1988, as it should be, one aspect remains identical: the constant judgment of female public figures over their physicality, as Eilish always is and Gibson still is, harangued on social media for being “too thin” since her 2013 Lyme disease diagnosis.“I hope Billie is handling all the pressure as beautifully as she appears to be handling it,” ponders Gibson today. “She seems a wise old soul. Everyone changes, you lose weight, gain weight, dye your hair, change your aesthetic … life just happens. But with social media, there’s unsolicited feedback coming from everywhere. You need a backbone of steel, like the Kardashians. Young minds are not wired to process that. The price of fame these days is definitely high. Look, even I have a therapist on speed dial!” Continue reading...

From our archive: from festive pickles and homemade sweets to luxury biscuits and exotic oils, a a gift you’ve made yourself can make someone’s ChristmasA trio of presents that you’ll want for Christmas dinner: a ginger nut brittle to serve as is or to blitz into a toast-topping paste, crumbly cheese biscuits and an enticingly easy fig jam Continue reading...

One of northern England's best-known restaurants has been engulfed in flames after its thatched roof caught fire. More than 40 firefighters were called to the Michelin-starred Star Inn at Harome, North Yorkshire. 'It's been a long night so far ... I'm afraid we won't be open for a while as we are reduced to ashes,' said chef Andrew Pern, who tweeted footage of the fire. The 14th-century inn has regularly been cited as one of the best in the UK since the arrival of Pern 25 years ago Continue reading...

Exclusive: Deal is part of north-east regeneration scheme developed by property tycoons David and Simon ReubenHM Revenue and Customs has struck a deal to relocate tax officials into a new office complex in Newcastle owned by major Conservative party donors through an offshore company based in a tax haven, the Guardian can reveal.The department’s planned new home in the north-east of England is part of a regeneration scheme developed by a British Virgin Islands (BVI) entity controlled by the billionaire property tycoons David and Simon Reuben. Continue reading...

Charities say home secretary’s policy for small boats in Channel is unlawful under rights and maritime laws

Campaigners claim Ankara is abusing its position as host, by pressuring the police body to harass dissidents living abroadHuman rights activists have accused Turkey of using its role as host of Interpol’s general assembly to push for a crackdown on critics and political opponents who have fled the country.The alert came after the Turkish interior minister, Süleyman Soylu, said his government would use the three-day event in Istanbul to persuade the international criminal police organisation’s officials and delegates to find, arrest and extradite Turkish dissident citizens – particularly those it labels terrorists – abroad. Continue reading...

Victims mostly Kurds from Iraq or Iran, say French authorities, as criminal investigation begins

The Atlanta rapper will answer your questions – ranging across his three-decade career – as he prepares to release his new album, The Big SleepoverOne of the American south’s greatest ever rappers returns. Big Boi’s new album The Big Sleepover is released next month and to mark it, he will be answering Guardian readers’ questions about the record and anything else in his long career, which you can post in the comments section below.The Big Sleepover pairs the Atlantan born Antwan Patton not with his most famous partner – André 3000 in Outkast – but another longtime foil, the vocalist and producer Sleepy Brown. Their collaborations stretch back to the early days of Outkast, when Brown sang the chorus to their breakthrough 1993 hit Player’s Ball. The track showcased what would become the signature Outkast sound, that would in turn influence an entire region: funk-driven, somewhat psychedelic, sometimes laidback, but absolutely rooted in the crisp, alert percussion of hip-hop. Continue reading...

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva gets a fist bump from Olaf Scholz and an invitation to the presidential palace from MacronIt was a welcome fit for a president.Republican Guards at the Élysée Palace. A standing ovation at the European Parliament. A front-page interview in Spain’s top newspaper in which the visiting dignitary was hailed as a “cyclone” of energy. Continue reading...

PM says Gladys Berejiklian was ‘done over’ by NSW Icac but Tasmanian MP Bridget Archer says government needs to act

The people of Tiny and neighboring First Nations are fighting the expansion of the quarry pits to keep their water pristineSome of cleanest water in the world fell to the ground about 70 years ago, passing through smoggy skies that stuffed the droplets full of ash, soot, vehicle exhaust, chemicals and heavy metals.It percolated through gravel, glacial silt and permeable rock and eventually gushed from a hose and into a pitcher held by Bonnie Pauzé. Continue reading...

Police say they are ‘hopeful’ of finding remains of campers who went missing in Victorian high countryA 55-year-old Melbourne man has been charged with the murders of Victorian campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay.A crime scene has been established in the state’s alpine region with police focusing their efforts on finding the pair’s remains. Continue reading...

But that didn’t alter the fact his long-promised federal integrity commission legislation is not yet in the parliamentNotwithstanding the wildness of the penultimate sitting week, the circumstances were unusual across the board. A Liberal MP, rather than threatening to cross the floor of parliament, first signalled she would do so, then actually did it.Bridget Archer’s objective seemed simple and clear: shame colleagues into actually proceeding with the federal integrity commission the Coalition had promised, but studiously not delivered, for the best part of three years. Continue reading...

In Peter Jackson’s latest epic, the moments of inspiration and interest are marooned amid acres of meandering chit-chat. What a schlepThe Beatles’ 1970 album Let It Be and its depressing accompanying documentary were always bugbears among the former Fabs. John Lennon dismissed the music as “badly recorded shit”; Paul McCartney was so horrified by the album that he masterminded a new version in 2003, shorn of the additions by Phil Spector, whom Lennon employed as a producer without telling McCartney. None of the Beatles turned up to the documentary’s premiere; Ringo Starr objected that it was “very narrow” and had “no joy”.Peter Jackson’s Get Back is a documentary series designed to address Starr’s concerns. It shows a broader, ostensibly happier, picture of the band’s doomed 1969 project to write a new album, rehearse the songs and perform them live in the space of two weeks. Whether the Get Back sessions hastened the Beatles’ demise remains moot, but a preponderance of footage featuring songs sung in funny voices, mugging to camera and in-jokes can’t stop the initial sessions at Twickenham Studios from looking like misery. Continue reading...

When we feel extreme fatigue most of us focus on sleep problems. But proper relaxation takes many forms. I spent a week exploring what really works“Are you the most tired you can ever remember being?” asks a friend. Well, yes. I have it easy – my caring responsibilities are limited and my work is physically undemanding and very low stakes – but I am wrecked. The brain fog, tearful confusion and deep lethargy I feel seems near universal. A viral tweet from February asked: “Just to confirm … everyone feels tired ALL the time no matter how much sleep they get or caffeine they consume?” The 71,000-plus retweets seemed to confirm it’s the case.But when we say we are exhausted, or Google “Why am I tired all the time?” (searches were reportedly at an all-time high between July and September this year), what do we mean? Yes, pandemic living is, objectively, exhausting. Existing on high alert is physically and mentally depleting; our sleep has suffered and many of us have lost a sense of basic safety, affecting our capacity to relax. But the circumstances and stresses we face are individual, which means the remedy is probably also individual. Continue reading...

• Reconstruction after Covid: a new series of long readsDespite Thatcher and Reagan’s best efforts, there is and has always been such a thing as society. The question is not whether it exists, but what shape it must take in a post-pandemic worldIn March 2020, Boris Johnson, pale and exhausted, self-isolating in his flat on Downing Street, released a video of himself – that he had taken himself – reassuring Britons that they would get through the pandemic, together. “One thing I think the coronavirus crisis has already proved is that there really is such a thing as society,” the prime minister announced, confirming the existence of society while talking to his phone, alone in a room.All this was very odd. Johnson seemed at once frantic and weak (not long afterwards, he was admitted to hospital and put in the intensive care unit). Had he, in his feverishness, undergone a political conversion? Because, by announcing the existence of society, Johnson appeared to renounce, publicly, something Margaret Thatcher had said in an interview in 1987, in remarks that are often taken as a definition of modern conservatism. “Too many children and people have been given to understand ‘I have a problem, it is the government’s job to cope with it!’” Thatcher said. “They are casting their problems on society, and who is society? There is no such thing!” She, however, had not contracted Covid-19. Continue reading...

The 25cm-tall robots that sing, dance and do kung-fu used as teaching aids in 300 childcare centres across SeoulSeoul has started trialling pint-sized robots as teaching aids in kindergartens – a pilot project the city government said would help prepare the next generation for a hi-tech future.The “Alpha Mini” is just 24.5 centimetres tall and can dance, lead sing-a-longs, recite stories and even teach kung fu moves as children mimic its push-ups and one-legged balances. Continue reading...

Boris Johnson renews calls for France to agree to joint patrols along its coast, while Emmanuel Macron urges UK not to politicise the flow of migrantsBritish and French leaders have traded accusations after at least 27 people died trying to cross the Channel in the deadliest incident since the current migration crisis began.In a phone call with Boris Johnson on Wednesday night, French president Emmanuel Macron stressed “the shared responsibility” of France and the UK, and told Johnson he expected full cooperation and that the situation would not be used “for political purposes”, the Élysée said. Continue reading...

Officials hope three-day weekend will help reduce toxic pollution levels in country’s second largest cityPakistan has ordered private offices and schools to remain closed on Mondays in Lahore in the hope that a three-day weekend will help reduce toxic levels of smog in the country’s second-largest city.The directive, issued by Punjab relief commissioner Babar Hayat Tarar, aimed to act “as a preventive and speedy remedy” during the winter smog season and will last until 15 January. Continue reading...

China hawks in Coalition say nation risks loosening ‘foothold’ on Antarctica by abandoning project

Analysis: experts say emphasis on the west and international diplomacy obfuscates the original allegationDespite endless speculation from international press in recent weeks, there has been barely a mention of tennis star Peng Shuai’s bombshell allegation against Zhang Gaoli, the country’s former vice-premier, in domestic news coverage. Outside the country, the event was initially referred to by the editor of the official nationalist tabloid Global Times, Hu Xijin, only as “the thing people talked about”.“For some years now, China has responded to negative global attention either by giving an unconvincing explanation, or by stoically pretending the criticism isn’t there,” Zhang Ming, a retired professor of politics at Renmin University told Reuters this week. Continue reading...

Lifting of strict isolation rules brings wave of relief – but some say being locked out has soured their view of ‘home’ forever

The British papers reflect the horror of the worst migrant Channel disaster of the crisis, along with anger at how the boats are allowed to set off at allThe front pages of Thursday’s papers are dominated by the deaths of 27 migrants in the Channel with the coverage veering from sombre reporting to accusations that the French authorities did not do enough to prevent the tragedy.The Times’ main headline says “Dozens of migrants drown in Channel dinghy tragedy” and features a photograph of migrants preparing to launch a boat from France on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Sweden’s first female prime minister, the Social Democrat Magdalena Andersson, has resigned less than 12 hours into the job when her coalition collapsed. Andersson said a decision by the Green party, the junior party in the coalition, to quit had forced her to resign from the post. 'I have asked the speaker to be relieved of my duties as prime minister,' Andersson said. 'I am ready to be prime minister in a single-party, Social Democrat government.'

New National party leader will be chosen next week, with former Air New Zealand boss Chris Luxon a favourite for the jobJudith Collins, leader of New Zealand’s opposition National party, has been toppled after months of poor polling and a shock move to strip a political rival of his portfolios.MPs voted to end Collins’ leadership at a crisis caucus meeting on Thursday. The meeting was prompted after Collins demoted Simon Bridges, a former party leader and one of her rivals. Late on Wednesday night, she stripped Bridges of all of his portfolios, citing an inappropriate comment made by Bridges in 2017 in front of a female colleague– where Bridges says he discussed “old wives tales” about how he and his wife might produce a female child. Collins described the comment as “serious misconduct”. Continue reading...

Italy unveils new Covid measures, to come into force on 6 December, that will ban unvaccinated people from entering venues

Ban will include social media ads and include anything likely to have particular appeal to young people, says watchdogCosmetic surgery clinics are to be banned from targeting adverts for procedures such as breast enlargement, nose jobs and liposuction at under-18s, in a crackdown by the UK advertising watchdog.New rules will bar ads on all media – ranging from social media sites such as Facebook, TikTok and Instagram to billboards and posters, newspapers, magazines and radio as well as social influencer marketing – that are aimed at under-18s or likely to have a particular appeal to that age group. Continue reading...