by Dan Sabbagh Defence and security editor on (#5SAFR)
Cross-party group overseeing spy agencies pushed Boris Johnson to let it publish report before ChristmasA frustrated intelligence and security committee – the parliamentary body that has oversight of Britain’s spy agencies – was forced to make a public complaint in order to persuade Boris Johnson to let it publish its annual report before Christmas.The cross-party group had warned on Tuesday that Johnson had been so slow that there was a risk it would not be able to release the latest review before the end of year recess, echoing a previous row when No 10 had sat on its Russia report. Continue reading...
‘Priceless’ artefacts recording details of the famed expeditions of the 1910s were discovered in the vaults of New Zealand’s meterological service“Priceless” artefacts linked to Antarctic explorers Ernest Shackleton and Capt Robert Falcon Scott have been unearthed in a surprise discovery within the dark storage room of New Zealand’s meterological service.Metservice staff came across a set of logbooks from some of the most famous Antarctic expeditions while preparing to move buildings in Wellington. Continue reading...
Eighteen-year-old’s body was found seven miles from her home three days after she went missingAt 6pm on Saturday, Bobbi-Anne McLeod took the short walk up the hill from her family’s terraced home in the Leigham area of Plymouth to a bus stop. The 18-year-old was due to catch the number 50 into the city centre and then stroll about eight minutes to her boyfriend’s home. She never got there.A passing driver, Stuart Fullard, 54, said he saw McLeod sitting on a metal rail at the bus stop. He noticed her because she was dressed distinctively in ripped jeans with fishnet tights underneath and because she looked so young – McLeod was less than 5ft and could have been mistaken for someone much younger. Fullard has a daughter himself and said he felt nervous for her in the drizzly dark. “But she didn’t look as if she had a care in the world.” Continue reading...
Collin Reeves, 34, is accused of killing Stephen and Jennifer Chapple as their children slept upstairsA former soldier has been charged with the murder of a husband and wife who died at their home in a Somerset village as their children slept upstairs.Collin Reeves, 34, is accused of murdering his neighbours Stephen Chapple, 36, a teacher, and Jennifer Chapple, 33, who worked in a coffee shop. Continue reading...
Magdalena Andersson quits on day one after the Green party withdraws support for her budgetSweden’s first female prime minister, the Social Democrat Magdalena Andersson, has resigned less than 12 hours into the job when her coalition collapsed, plunging the country into further political uncertainty.Andersson said a decision by the Green party, the junior party in the coalition, to quit had forced her to resign. She added that she had told the speaker of parliament she hoped to be appointed prime minster again as the head of a single-party government. Continue reading...
Cases under ‘foreign agents’ law mark attack on civil society and attempt to recast Soviet historyRussia may dissolve Memorial, the country’s premier human rights group, in an attack on civil society and symbolic reversal of the freedoms won by dissidents at the fall of the Soviet Union.A supreme court case, to be heard on Thursday, may mark a watershed in Vladimir Putin’s campaign to recast Soviet history by banning International Memorial, which began meeting in the late 1980s to shed light on atrocities and political repression under Stalin and other Soviet leaders. Continue reading...
by Mark Brown North of England correspondent on (#5SA2N)
Andy Burnham warned plans would ‘fail generations to come’ as he urged Downing Street to engage in talksMayors and council leaders in northern England have refused to give up on a new high speed east-west rail line, calling for talks with the government to discuss alternative funding models.A meeting of politicians on the board of Transport for the North, the statutory body created to advise the government on the region’s transport needs, was held on Wednesday in Leeds . They discussed the announcement by the government of its new integrated rail plan, which has been condemned as a “betrayal” of the north. Continue reading...
Two-time Olympic gold medallist enlists as alarm grows over war that threatens to engulf Addis AbabaThe two-time Olympic gold medallist Haile Gebrselassie has announced he is enlisting in the Ethiopian military to fight an insurgency that threatens to attack the capital, Addis Ababa.Gebrselassie, who set 27 long-distance running records, told Reuters he was joining up on Wednesday. The Olympic silver medallist runner Feyisa Lilesa would also enlist, local media reported. Continue reading...
With shock eliminations and rushed challenges, the third series hasn’t compared to previous brash, irreverent outings. It’s time to bring back the authenticity – and the joyIn recent years, RuPaul’s Drag Race has become a mainstay of international TV, with outposts from Spain and Australia to Thailand and Canada. The UK version debuted at the end of 2019 to much acclaim, with two more series filmed in London and Manchester following in quick succession. The third – currently airing on BBC Three – has seen a number of twists on the format, however, with shock eliminations and surprise saves, and lip-syncs used to separate both the top and the bottom of the pile. It’s the closest the UK series has felt to its US counterpart, but in doing so it risks losing the subversive, cheeky charm that made it so irresistible.In fact, the first two series of Drag Race UK were worlds away from the heavily produced and polished US series. Embracing the camp irreverence of its queens, it allowed them to shine on their own terms, relishing their rough edges and quintessentially British pop culture references (think EastEnders, Gemma Collins and, er, Margaret Thatcher). Breathing new life into Drag Race, it struck the balance between revering and ridiculing the franchise. It also celebrated queer people and shared their stories in a way that many shows struggle to do, with British drag celebrated on the global stage. Continue reading...
When Rana came to Britain from India, aged 16, he encountered racism for the very first time. Soon he was dedicating his life to the fight to end itBalwinder Rana was 16 when he first spoke to a white person. It was 1963, on a sunlit but freezing spring day, and he had just landed at Heathrow airport, after taking his first plane journey, on his first trip outside Punjab, India. He had arrived to join his father and his brother, who had moved to England two years earlier.“How long are you staying here?” the white immigration officer asked. “It’s up to my father,” a sheepish Rana replied. Continue reading...
IAEA head says failure to gain renewed access to sites casts doubt over chances of restoring 2015 dealThe head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog has said he has failed to reach a deal with Iran over renewed access to key nuclear sites after talks in Tehran.Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said the failure was seriously affecting the agency’s ability to do its work and the chances of a restoration of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Continue reading...
Parents wanted a second child to act as bone marrow donor to their son but ended up with moreA hospital in Belgium has been ordered to compensate a couple for their “shock” and “impoverishment” after they ended up having three children by IVF treatment owing to a mistake at its fertility clinic.It is the first time the Belgian courts have found that a healthy child can be the cause of loss to parents. Continue reading...
On 6 December 1921, the treaty ended the war of independence and provided for the establishment of the Irish Free State as a self-governing dominion within the British Commonwealth. See how the Guardian reported events7 December 1921 Continue reading...
by Guardian readers, Rachel Obordo and Alfie Packham on (#5S9EW)
It’s the biggest album of the year – and Guardian readers are split on whether Adele’s latest magnum mope-us is raw or overdoneIt’s so upfront and honest. You know exactly the story she’s telling, and even if you haven’t experienced divorce yourself, you feel every word of it. Her voice is sounding better than it’s ever done, using so much more of her range – just listen to Love is A Game. Gone are the lofty metaphors that hint at heartbreak, replaced with extremely raw and naked lyrics that welcome you in to her experiences. I think it’s much more poetic than before. Best album so far. Continue reading...
The human price of Qatar’s World Cup dream. Plus, Canada’s flood pains.Get the Guardian Weekly delivered to your doorAround a year after the stunning announcement, in 2010, that the tiny, oil-rich Gulf nation of Qatar would host the 2022 football World Cup, the Guardian journalist Pete Pattisson began investigating why dozens of Nepalese workers repatriated from Qatar back to their families had never made it home alive. It was the beginning of nearly 10 years of reporting by the Guardian into the often brutal conditions faced by hundreds of thousands of migrant workers tasked with building Qatar’s state-of-the-art stadiums, as well as the roads, hotels and infrastructure needed to host the biggest sporting event on Earth.With a year to go until the tournament kicks off, Pattisson considers what has really changed for Qatar’s migrant workers, while David Conn asks what the most controversial World Cup in history will tell us about shifting global influence, power and wealth. Continue reading...
The internal disunity is noisy enough to create the impression the prime minister isn’t in full command of his troopsOn Monday, news photographers returned chuckling after an early assignment because the defence minister, Peter Dutton, had been seen smiling, spontaneously, in daylight, apparently without effort.Dutton smiling is a persistent Canberra in-joke. Back in 2018, when the right faction came for Malcolm Turnbull, and Dutton was the candidate, the hard man of the Liberal party thought – and said – he needed to smile more and “maybe show a different side to what I show when I talk about border protection”.Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Continue reading...
Police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters demanding the prime minister step down, amid reports of lootingPolice in Solomon Islands have used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse hundreds of protesters, who allegedly burned down a building in the parliament precinct, a police station and a store in the nation’s capital of Honiara, amid reports of looting.The protesters marched on the parliamentary precinct in the east of Honiara, where they allegedly set fire to a leaf hut next to Parliament House where MPs and staffers go to smoke and eat lunch. Continue reading...
The Nobel laureate’s tale of a coup in 1950s Guatemala speaks to our timesThis is the kind of novel that mocks the give-it-10-pages, I-need-to-be-grabbed-because-life-is-too-short school of reading. Even those of the trust-the-artist, persevere-and-stand-fast persuasion should prepare to be tested. I confess: I was confused, bewildered, lost. I wrote down the names of the characters. I backtracked. I cross-tracked. I re-tracked. The shape of the narrative only really began to declare itself around page 90. But then … oh, what an engaging education Harsh Times turned out to be, and how I came to look forward to my time in its company.I should not have doubted a master. Now 85, Mario Vargas Llosa has won numerous literary prizes, from the Nobel down. He ran for president of Peru in 1990 and has a serious claim to be the pre-eminent Latin American writer of his generation. He has written myriad plays, novels, much journalism and nonfiction. In many ways, he is the embodiment of what a great novelist should be: unafraid to write panoptic political novels about the fate of nations and the clash of political ideologies; intellectually capable of encompassing such scope; artistically skilful enough to suffuse it with resonance, torque and drama; and all of this without losing the immersive kinesis of individual stories taken from all points on the compass of the human character. Continue reading...
by Helen Pidd and Weronika Strzyżyńska on (#5S9A1)
Pedestrians call them ugly and a nuisance but council says money is sorely needed after years of cutsEarlier this year, Manchester city council declared ambitions to become a pedestrian paradise. “We want walking to be the main way people get around the city centre,” proclaimed the town hall’s transport plan. “Pavements and public spaces will be high quality, well-maintained, green and accessible – catering for everyone, no matter what their age or mobility.”Yet this autumn, 86 mysterious grey boxes were plonked on pavements across the city which did pretty much the opposite. Measuring more than a metre across, the metal monoliths obstructed the footway, failing what transport engineers call “the double buggy test” while upsetting wheelchair users and aesthetes alike. Continue reading...
by Helen Davidson in Taipei, and agencies on (#5S9A2)
Beijing urges Washington to stick to the ‘one China’ principle amid rising tensions over TaiwanChina’s government has accused Joe Biden of “a mistake” in inviting Taiwan to participate in a democracy summit alongside 109 other democratic governments.Taiwan was included in a list of participants for next month’s Summit for Democracy, published by the state department on Tuesday. Taiwan is a democracy and self-governing, but Beijing claims it is a province of China and has accused its government of separatism. Continue reading...
Ján Kubiš gives no reason for resignation, having only taken post in war-torn country in JanuaryThe UN special envoy for Libya, Ján Kubiš, has quit just a month before crucial presidential elections in the war-torn nation – without giving security council members a clear reason for his sudden departure.“Mr Kubiš has tendered his resignation to the secretary general, who has accepted it with regret,” UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric told reporters, adding that António Guterres was “working on an appropriate replacement”. Continue reading...
A 55-year-old Caroline Springs man is being questioned in relation to missing pair Russell Hill and Carol ClayCharges are expected to be laid over the disappearance of missing Victorian campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay.A 55-year-old Caroline Springs man is being questioned after a dramatic arrest by specialist police at a remote campsite in Arbuckle Junction in Victoria’s high country on Monday night. Continue reading...
by Scott Bryan and Michael Chakraverty on (#5S8TT)
Crystelle, Chigs and Giuseppe have to conjure up a Mad Hatter’s tea party in the final … but who will take home the coveted cake stand?Please, I don’t want to see Matt Lucas singing the Flintstones theme tune again.May the mangos be ever in your favour. Continue reading...
Coroner says those around Alexander Tostevin should have realised his treatment plan was not workingOpportunities to reassess the risks a special forces soldier who took his own life posed to himself were missed, a coroner has reported.Coroner Brendan Allan said Cpl Alexander Tostevin was not neglected by his superiors or military mental health staff. The 28-year-old special forces soldier was found dead in his property in March 2018 after he killed himself. Continue reading...
Wednesday: Senator’s posts about vaccine side-effects spark concerns for public confidence. Plus: HG Nelson’s three beloved itemsGood morning. Health experts claims Liberal MP Gerard Rennick’s Facebook posts about vaccines could be “dangerous”. Covid cases continue to rise across Europe. And petrol and rental prices are putting financial pressure on Australians.Senator Gerard Rennick’s use of Facebook to push unverified stories about vaccine side-effects is potentially dangerous, a top health expert has warned, as fresh doubt is cast on the legitimacy of a story he helped promote. Rennick conceded to Guardian Australia that he does not verify the accuracy of the dozens of third-party claims he has published about severe vaccine side-effects. Associate professor and head of the AusVaxSafety program, Nick Wood, said: “The fact that he has admitted he hasn’t checked them and he’s just posted them on, that’s a problem. I think that is a danger because it feeds into: ‘is there a cover-up here, we’re not being told things’. That can potentially impact public confidence.” Continue reading...
Ardern is imperfect and her government often struggles to implement its agenda – but they excel at crisis management“If you want to know me, look at my surface”, Andy Warhol once said, or something along those lines. It’s an invitation to the obvious that should apply in politics, and yet the public regard politicians with – at best – a good deal of suspicion and, at worst, contempt. And who can blame them? In New Zealand the workers’ party (Labour) was responsible for introducing and administering neoliberalism in the 1980s, a dramatic break with their social democratic history that the Australian Labor party was also undertaking in the 1980s, the US Democrats in the 1990s, and UK Labour shortly after. As the old joke goes, capturing the distrust most people feel for left and right, “it doesn’t matter who you vote for, a politician always gets in”.But what distinguishes prime minister Jacinda Ardern from the politicians who bite at her heels is that the Warholian doctrine is probably true. At least in her case. In New Zealand’s double disasters – the Christchurch massacre and the Whakaari eruption – Ardern met each tragedy with immediate action, crisp and clear communication, and an extraordinary human care almost entirely absent in modern politics. She met with victims, their families took her into their own homes and at every opportunity she made an invitation to act in solidarity – from the country’s successful gun reforms to the “Christchurch call”, an international bid to stamp out violent extremism online. Continue reading...
Western nations urge citizens to fly out as Abiy Ahmed vows to lead troops in war against advancing Tigray rebelsThe US, France and Germany have called on their nationals to leave Ethiopia immediately as the prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, vowed to lead his country’s troops “from the battlefront”, the latest turn in a devastating year-long war with rebel groups.The Nobel Peace prize winner said in a statement posted to Twitter: “I will mobilise to the front to lead the defence forces. Those who want to be among the Ethiopian children who will be hailed by history, rise up for your country.” Continue reading...
Two arrested as neighbours say there had been disputes about parking in areaA husband and wife were stabbed to death at their Somerset home as their children slept upstairs, police have said.Paramedics tried to save Stephen Chapple, 36, a teacher, and Jennifer Chapple, 33, who worked in a coffee shop, but they died of their wounds in their house in the village of Norton Fitzwarren, near Taunton. Continue reading...
Interior ministry says they spent a further £9m on vehicles equipped with monitoring equipmentThe French government has bought another 100 vehicles to help stop people from travelling by small boats to England across the Channel as part of a deal with the UK government, it has been announced.Amid a deepening political row in parliament over the growing number of people taking the hazardous route, the interior ministry in Paris said on Tuesday that it had spent a further £9m on quad bikes, 4X4s, boats and vehicles equipped with monitoring equipment. Continue reading...
Covid surge in Europe before Christmas also delaying passengers’ early summer 2022 plans, says Michael O’LearyEuropean airlines face a slump in Christmas and early summer travel as the spectre of another wave of lockdowns puts people off booking holidays, Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has warned.Austria’s decision to impose a third national lockdown from Monday, which could last until 12 December, to curb a surge in coronavirus cases and fatalities, has stoked fears of a wave of tighter travel restrictions being imposed across Europe. Continue reading...
With talks between governments deadlocked, fishers to decide on taking their own action, reports sayFrench fishers are set to take action within days, including blocking road and sea freight bound for the UK through Calais and other Channel ports, as a months-long dispute over licences to operate in British waters intensifies.French media reported on Tuesday that with talks between the two governments and the European Commission over post-Brexit fishing rights seemingly deadlocked, angry fishers in northern France would decide on Thursday what steps to take. Continue reading...
by Presented by Laura Murphy-Oates and reported by Ka on (#5S8KB)
From next week, Australian borders will open to international students with valid visas. But after nearly two years of uncertainty, experts say some students won’t be returning, and the impact to broader Australian society will be felt for a long time.Audio producer Karishma Luthria speaks to international students about their life during the pandemic and whether they will return.Read more: Continue reading...
by Hannah Ellis-Petersen South Asia correspondent on (#5S8C3)
Government criticised for delay as suspects face charges relating to 269 deaths 30 months after attacksThe trial has begun of the 25 men accused of masterminding the 2019 Easter bombings in Sri Lanka, which killed almost 300 people when churches and luxury hotels were targeted by Islamic terrorist suicide bombers.The lengthy process to reach trial after more than two years has been heavily criticised by families of those killed and the Christian church in Sri Lanka, who have accused the government of failing to take proper action against those responsible. Continue reading...
In 2012 letter to Greek official, then London mayor said that ideally the sculptures would have stayed in AthensBoris Johnson believed in 2012 that the Parthenon sculptures should “never have been removed from the Acropolis,” and admitted that ideally they would continue to be seen in their entirety in Athens, a letter shared with the Guardian reveals.Writing to a provincial Greek official, the then mayor of London and future British prime minister noted: “This is a matter on which I have reflected deeply over many years. In an ideal world, it is of course true that the Parthenon marbles would never have been removed from the Acropolis and it would now be possible to see them in situ.” Continue reading...
Despite their equal billing on the forthcoming Adam McKay disaster comedy, Lawrence says she is ‘extremely fortunate and happy with my deal’Jennifer Lawrence has defended the higher salary paid to Leonardo DiCaprio for Don’t Look Up, their forthcoming film for which they receive equal billing.Speaking to Vanity Fair, Lawrence said: “Leo brings in more box office than I do. I’m extremely fortunate and happy with my deal.” A recently published report in Variety suggested that DiCaprio will receive $30m (£22.5m) for the movie, and Lawrence will be paid $25m ($18.7m) – meaning DiCaprio’s fee is 20% higher. Continue reading...
Judge sentences 20-year-old to three years and seven months in prison for secession and money launderingA 20-year-old student activist who was arrested while attempting to seek asylum at the US consulate in Hong Kong has become the youngest person sentenced under the city’s draconian national security law.Tony Chung was sentenced to three years and seven months in prison after being convicted of secession and money laundering. Continue reading...
The famous diarist’s dedicated building, left to his Cambridge alma mater, could not be altered. So architect Níall McLaughlin created a magical solution“My delight is in the neatness of everything,” wrote Samuel Pepys in his diary in 1663, “and so cannot be pleased with anything unless it be very neat, which is a strange folly.”He was referring in part to the fastidious organisation of his magnificent collection of books. By the time of his death in 1703 he had amassed 3,000 of them, which he left to his alma mater, Magdalene College, Cambridge, to be housed in a dedicated building with his name above the door. He gave strict instructions that his library be kept intact for posterity, without addition or subtraction, its contents arranged “according to heighth” in the bespoke glass-fronted bookcases he had especially commissioned. The responsibility came with an added threat: if one volume goes missing, he instructed, the whole library must be transferred to Trinity. Continue reading...
With genitalia proudly exposed, the amphibian raced up the charts in 2005 and irritated much of the UK. Why has it been allowed a second chance? Its handler explains himselfFor a few months in 2005, you couldn’t move without encountering Crazy Frog. First sold as a ringtone, his nonsensical catchphrase, “Rring ding ding ding baa baa”, entered the national vocabulary. Then it became the most popular – and divisive – single of 2005, coupled with a CGI video of an explicitly naked frog on the lam in a futuristic cityscape. “The frog is irritating to the point of distraction and back again,” wrote BBC News. “And yet at the same, it’s strangely compelling.”The craze lasted for five Top 20 hits and then mercifully dwindled. The character was so hated that hackers found success with a virus offering to show users an image of him being killed off. But now the frog is staging a comeback. Next month, the once-ubiquitous amphibian will release a new single – a mash-up of a classic and a more recent song, the details of which the frog’s guardians are keeping under wraps, other than to say that both are popular on TikTok. Continue reading...
Album also outselling rest of UK Top 40 combined, while Taylor Swift’s All Too Well (Taylor’s Version) becomes longest song to reach US No 1Adele’s 30 is already the biggest-selling album of the year in the US, just three days after it went on sale.Using a metric that combines sales of vinyl, CDs and downloads alongside streaming, 30 has sold over 575,000 copies. Adele has overtaken the previous highest seller Taylor Swift, whose December 2020 album Evermore has sold 462,000 copies this year. Continue reading...
Official statistics show 8.5 births per 1,000 people in 2020, the first time under 10 in decadesChina’s birthrate has plummeted to its lowest level since 1978 as the government struggles to stave off a looming demographic crisis.Data released by the country’s national bureau of statistics shows there were 8.5 births per 1,000 people in 2020, the first time in decades that the figure has fallen below 10. The statistical yearbook, released at the weekend, said the natural rate of population growth – taking in births and deaths – was at a new low of 1.45. Continue reading...
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