Antanas Jankauskas, 38, due in court after body of Sarah Ashwell, 47, found at her homeA man has been charged with murder after the death of a woman in Somerset.Sarah Ashwell, 47, was found dead at her home in Wells on the afternoon of 7 November. Continue reading...

Chancellor warns of difficult weeks ahead as Germany’s infection rate climbs to 277.4 new cases per 100,000 people

Mayfair hotel says it respects Daniel Humm’s plant-based vision but it ‘is not the path we wish to follow’The five-star Claridge’s hotel in Mayfair has lost its chef after it rejected his vision for an all-vegan menu at his restaurant.Daniel Humm, 45, will leave Davies and Brook at the end of the year after talks with management about transforming the kitchen in his London restaurant at Claridge’s hotel to serve only plant-based dishes. Continue reading...

When she landed in LA, aged 19, the model, actor and writer was plunged into a world where wealthy men were desperate to be seen with women like her. At what cost?To be paid $25,000 to show up to an event was the most ridiculous thing I’d ever heard. In 2014 my manager at the time, Evan, informed me that the billionaire financier behind The Wolf of Wall Street was offering to pay me that much to go to the Super Bowl with him. He explained that this person, Jho Low, “just liked to have famous men and women around” and there would be other celebrities going too. “He’s just one of those insanely rich guys from Asia.” Jho Low’s fortune came from family money, Evan said.“I’m sure Leo will be there, and a bunch of other people you’ll know, or, er, recognize. You know their movie is up for five Academy Awards next month?” Continue reading...

From supporting parts on TV to Hollywood stardom to her darkest role yet: the Oscar winner reveals why even the toughest jobs can’t compare to her role in The CrownOlivia Colman’s husband has written his first TV drama, a true crime series starring his wife, and I have so many questions about this that she says she can bring him downstairs to join in if I like. Ah, the possibilities when interviewing someone over Zoom. “Eddy!” she shouts up the stairs, while I peer into their comfy sitting room, somewhere deep in the English countryside (period fireplace, bookshelves). “I’m slagging you off!” she shouts with glee at him, followed by a distant grunt.We carry on alone, accompanied only by one of their dogs, the excitable Alfred, Lord Waggyson, and a child who briefly pops into the room to a big grin from mum. Colman, blessed with the friendliest, giggliest face on British telly, familiar from so many hit shows, somehow feels as if she belongs in my home, as if we are already friends. This, as we will find out, is something of a problem now she’s an international megastar. Continue reading...

Former major says withdrawal has prompted some British veterans to question value of time in countryThis year’s Remembrance Sunday commemorations will be the first since last summer’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, events that have prompted many British veterans to question the value of their time in the country.One of those is Rob Shenton, a former major who has suffered from bouts of depression and PTSD, and served two tours in the country before he was medically discharged by the army in 2016 after 25 years, after a period of poor mental health. Continue reading...

Planting trees to offset carbon emissions sounds great, but where are we going to put them all?As the United Nations Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow winds down, many world leaders and corporate boards are embracing an increasingly popular idea to solve climate change: trees.The United Arab Emirates – one of the biggest oil producers in the world – promised to plant 100m mangroves by 2030. India said it aims to plant enough trees to cover a third of its land area with forests. Earlier this month the Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, announced a $1bn fund towards planting trees, “revitalizing” grasslands in Africa and restoring landscapes across the US. And at the start of the conference, more than 100 countries pledged to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030. “These great teeming ecosystems – these cathedrals of nature – are the lungs of our planet,” Boris Johnson said, exalting the effort. Continue reading...

‘Lapsed Liberals’ and grassroots community groups are fielding high-profile candidates. Their target: the balance of power in Australia’s 2022 electionAt the last federal election, the Coalition faced challenges from a string of hopeful independents in rural and city seats, largely running on climate issues. With two exceptions – Zali Steggall in Warringah and Helen Haines in Indi – they came up short.Next year the independents will be back for another shot, focusing on heartland Coalition seats in New South Wales and Victoria. The difference this time is there is a road-tested model of how to mobilise the local community and run a campaign, and a $3.6m war chest on offer from Climate 200, a group established by the climate activist Simon Holmes à Court. Continue reading...

Musician regains independence after legal arrangement denied her right to make key life decisionsA judge has approved the termination of Britney Spears’s conservatorship, freeing the pop star from the controversial legal arrangement that has controlled her life for nearly 14 years.The ruling marks an extraordinary victory for the singer who had fought for years to regain her independence from the courts, which in 2008 took away her rights to make basic decisions about her finances, career and personal life. Continue reading...

Talks expected to last into Saturday afternoon as delegates are told they must reach a deal or future generations will be forced into violent competition for resourcesChildren born today will be fighting each other for food and water in 2050 if the Cop26 climate summit fails, exhausted delegates were told as negotiators fight over the final details of a potential deal.The deadline for the fortnight-long talks to finish came and went as leading figures took to the floor for what they hoped would be the final time, to exhort each other to cooperate in the interests of people threatened by the climate crisis around the world. Continue reading...

It is a grim irony that my Irish family – paying to live on land colonised by the English – was involved in alienating Māori from their landOn the morning of the5 November 1881 my great-grandfather, Andrew Gilhooly, stood alongside 1,588 other men, waiting to commence the invasion of Parihaka pā (settlement), home to the great pacifist leaders Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi and their people. He would have participated in the weeks and months of destruction and despoliation – of people, property and cultivations – that followed.Andrew remained at Parihaka – which is on the west coast of the North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand – as part of the Armed Constabulary’s occupying force until late 1884. The occupation was not benign: on one occasion constables tore down 12 houses in retaliation for attempts by neighbouring Māori to bring goods into Parihaka (the attempt to feed starving people was dismissed by the Native Minister as being “in every way objectionable”). Continue reading...

UK government watchdog finds lack of due diligence over human rights in occupied territoriesJCB, the British tractor firm, has been found by a UK government watchdog to have failed to carry out due diligence human rights checks over the potential use of its equipment to demolish homes in the occupied Palestinian territories (OPT).The watchdog ruled: “It is unfortunate that JCB, which is a leading British manufacturer of world-class products, did not take any steps to conduct human rights due diligence of any kind despite being aware of alleged adverse human rights impacts and that its products are potentially contributing to those impacts.” Continue reading...

The Duchess of Sussex’s case against the Associated Newspapers offered much drama this week which looks set to continueAn 11th-hour intervention, an admission of forgetfulness, and an apology to the court; the potentially explosive developments in the Duchess of Sussex’s privacy case against the Mail on Sunday offered much drama this week.And it may be far from over. Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL) wants the court of appeal to overturn a judge’s ruling that the Mail on Sunday and Mail Online breached the duchess’s privacy in publishing extracts of her letter to her estranged father Thomas Markle, 77, and for the issues to go to trial. Continue reading...

Duchess says in messages to aide that Harry was receiving ‘constant berating’ from family over Thomas MarkleThe Duchess of Sussex chose to write a letter to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, to protect Prince Harry from “constant berating” from the royal family to do something to stop him talking to the media, texts have revealed.Meghan also believed a letter was better than an email or text as it “does not open the door for a conversation”. Continue reading...

Outside EU, people can no longer be returned to other European countries under legislation known as Dublin regulationRefugees living in northern France say Brexit has made it easier for them to reach the UK in small boats, as it emerged that record numbers of people crossed the Channel in one day.Despite the worsening weather conditions and the UK government’s attempts to deter them, 1,185 people made the crossing on Thursday, according to the Home Office. Continue reading...

Brussels Brexit chief offers glimmer of hope, but London says threat of article 16 still on the tableA glimmer of hope of a solution to the dispute over the Northern Ireland Brexit arrangements has emerged after a fourth week of talks ended on Friday.After a week of recriminations and the threat of a trade war, the European Commission vice-president, Maroš Šefčovič , said there had been a change in tone from the UK’s Brexit minister, David Frost, confirming the UK had stepped back from the brink of triggering article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Costa del Sol property firms owned by Goldsmith family ordered to pay €24m in unpaid taxes and finesThe luxury villa where Boris Johnson stayed on holiday last month is linked to Costa del Sol property businesses owned by Zac Goldsmith’s family that engaged in a multimillion-pound tax evasion scheme, according to Spanish courts.Court papers obtained by the Guardian show tax inspectors ordered two property companies owned by the Goldsmith family to pay €24m (£20m) in unpaid taxes and fines after investigating what they said was a suspicious property deal. Continue reading...

Sam Pybus was jailed for less than five years after choking Moss to death during sex in FebruaryWomen’s groups have called for a further overhaul of the law after the court of appeal declined to increase the sentence of a man jailed for less than five years after choking a woman to death during sex.Sam Pybus’s own wife described the decision as “extremely disappointing” and “victim-blaming”. Continue reading...

Move comes amid standoff between Belarus and EU over arrival of thousands of people at Polish borderTurkey has blocked citizens of Syria, Yemen and Iraq from buying flight tickets to Belarus, as the EU puts pressure on foreign governments over their role in the arrival of thousands of people from the Middle East at its eastern border.Belavia, the Belarusian state airline, said it would no longer carry citizens of those countries to Belarus, days before a planned announcement of new sanctions from the EU that could target airlines. Turkish Airlines, which is 49% state-owned, has also pledged to limit migrant flights to Belarus, European officials said on Friday. Continue reading...

Thousands of Iraqi Kurds and Syrians are living in tents near Polish border, and thousands more want to join themOn a dark forest road last month, Polish police were in pursuit of a speeding car that had skipped a checkpoint. The car’s driver was a people smuggler, and his passengers three Syrians who had paid thousands for him to take them to Germany, the final leg of their journey from the Middle East via Belarus. A truck coming in the opposite direction tried to dodge them but could not. Ferhad Nabo, 33, a married father of two from Kobane, was killed instantly in the crash.“He left Syria, like many others, to reach Europe,” said his cousin Rashwan Nabo, a Syrian humanitarian worker. From Erbil, in northern Iraq, Ferhad had boarded a direct flight to Minsk. “In Raqqa, Damascus and Aleppo, word has been spreading for months that the easiest and fastest way to reach Europe is a direct flight to Belarus,” his cousin said. Continue reading...

Exclusive: academics call on Christopher Geidt to step aside from role as chair of a London universityBoris Johnson’s independent adviser on ministerial interests is under pressure over his own financial dealings, with academics calling for him to step aside from his role as chair of a London university.Christopher Geidt, who is chair of the council of King’s College London (KCL), is facing scrutiny from the University and College Union (UCU) over his job as chair of a board of the investment firm Schroders, and his advisory role at BAE Systems until April this year. Continue reading...

The colossal mirrored bowl of the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen costs a fortune to clean and has upset a neighbouring hospital. So how are locals finding it?Inspiration often strikes at lunch in the office of Dutch architects MVRDV. It’s the one moment in the day when everyone breaks from their screens and comes together around a long communal dining table, spread with assorted salads, to eat and chat. One fateful day in 2013, during a lunchtime brainstorming session, the tableware would prove to be more inspirational than ever. Eight years on, a monumental Ikea salad bowl has been added to the Rotterdam skyline – a €3.99 Blanda Blank rising 40 metres high.

Analysts say Maha Vajiralongkorn’s trip abroad could be sign he considers situation is under controlThailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn has reportedly flown to Germany in what is believed to be his first trip abroad since pro-democracy protests escalated last year, breaking long held taboos to call for reforms to the monarchy.The German tabloid Bild reported that Vajiralongkorn arrived on Monday in Bavaria, where it said he and his entourage of 250 people and 30 royal poodles had booked an entire floor of the Hilton Munich airport hotel for 11 days. Continue reading...

Başak Demirtaş and her doctor sentenced over ‘falsified’ medical report on her miscarriageThe wife of a jailed Kurdish politician has been sentenced to two and a half years in a Turkish prison over a typo in a medical report on a miscarriage, in a case denounced as an “appalling” political persecution.A court in Diyarbakır handed down sentences of 30 months each for Başak Demirtaş, a teacher, and her doctor on Thursday for submitting a falsified medical report, a local Kurdish news agency reported. Continue reading...

Analysis: Clarence House will be hoping to draw a line under potentially toxic cash-for-honours claimsAfter 40 years at his master’s side, Michael Fawcett’s resignation as the head of Prince Charles’s charitable arm amid an alleged cash-for-honours scandal is a blow for the heir to the throne.The announcement that the one-time valet, 59, has decided to step down from The Prince’s Foundation before the outcome of an inquiry into the claims is seen by royal observers as a necessary step on Charles’s road to the crown. Continue reading...

Feras al-Jayoosi wore shirts supporting banned Palestinian groups in area of London with large Jewish populationA man who wore T-shirts supporting banned Palestinian groups in Golders Green has admitted terror offences.Feras al-Jayoosi, 34, pleaded guilty to four counts of wearing an article supporting a proscribed organisation at Westminster magistrates court on Friday. Continue reading...

From first kisses to ghosting, dating can be a minefield for young people. Here’s how to have a happy, healthy romanceTeen relationships often start online, so how do you progress to a real-world date? The first step is to make your chat more meaningful, says Charlene Douglas, an intimacy coach and sexual health educator. “Online, young people can banter for hours, so try to move the conversation on. Rather than just talking about celebs, or who said what at school, bring those situations back to what you have in common.” Continue reading...

Foley artists are film and television’s unsung heroes: the people who create sounds, for everything from crunchy snow, kissing and horses’ hooves. Just don’t mention coconutsMonday morning in the small Essex town of Coggeshall, and in an unassuming building that used to be a laundry, a man named Barnaby is trying to sound like a horse. Trying and succeeding, uncannily. Not neighing or whinnying, just making the sound of the hooves on the ground.In a big screen on the wall of a windowless room is an armoured knight astride a white warhorse. It’s Richard III, as it happens, accompanied by a gaggle of guards, also armoured and mounted. It’s a scene from The Lost King, Stephen Frears’s upcoming film about the woman who, after 30 years of looking, discovered Richard’s remains under a Leicester car park. Continue reading...

Artisan producers have begun to emerge and demand for cheese platters has ‘gone ballistic’It was one day during the Covid-19 lockdown last year that Namrata Sundaresan’s phone began ringing non-stop. Sundaresan, the co-founder of Käse, the only artisan cheesemaker in the southern Indian city of Chennai, was bemused by the avalanche of requests for one thing: pecorino cheese.“I had 20 people call me and ask for pecorino,” she said. “I was really surprised because pecorino is not something that a lot of people in India know about.” It turned out a video featuring the Italian pasta dish cacio e pepe was going viral on social media and WhatsApp. Suddenly people across the country wanted to get their hands on some Italian-style hard cheese. “This would have been unthinkable two years ago,” said Sundaresan. Continue reading...

The Communist party has banned the planned string of pro-democracy marches, saying they are an overthrow attemptThe Cuban playwright Yunior García has shot to fame over the past year, but not because of his art. The 39-year old has become the face of Archipelago, a largely online opposition group which is planning a string of pro-democracy marches across the island on Monday.The Communist party has banned the protests – which coincide with the reopening of the country after 20 months of coronavirus lockdowns – arguing that they are a US-backed attempt to overthrow the government. Continue reading...

About 1,000 people reach Britain in single day by crossing Channel from France in small boatsThree people risking their lives to cross the Channel in kayaks have been reported missing by the French coastguard.

Mukuru, one of Kenya’s largest informal settlements, has cleaned up its act with improved water, roads and sanitationThe people who live in Mukuru, one of the vast, sprawling “informal settlements” in Nairobi, used to dread the rains, when the slum’s mud-packed lanes would dissolve into a soggy quagmire of sewage, stagnant water and slimy rubbish.But a few years ago, things began to change. On a newly paved road Benedetta Kasendi is selling sugar cane from a cart. It gives her a clean platform, somewhere she can keep her wares tidy. Her biggest challenge now is what to do with the sugar-cane waste as she does not want to clog up Mukuru’s revamped sewers. Continue reading...

The brash new thriller, starring Christina Ricci, Juliette Lewis and Melanie Lynskey, is an ambitious meditation on survival and middle age with turbulent tonal shiftsIt’s clear from the first scene of Yellowjackets, Showtime’s genre-bending survivalist series with a host of second-act 90s stars, that the girls of Wiskayok high school, fierce soccer stars on the field and headstrong teens off it, will go feral. There’s blood in the snow, screams of terror, a booby trap, an impaled body (not the first in a series that favors at least three gory shots an episode), a heart necklace hanging from a lifeless body, figures garbed in animal skins and overt suggestions of cannibalism.Cut to weeks earlier, 1996: the Yellowjackets, an undefeated and under-heralded soccer team in suburban New Jersey, are headed to nationals, and their close-knit relationships are starting to fray. Then cut to 2021, when four of the girls, now fortysomethings concealing improbable trauma with cracking glue, are thrown back to the tabloid-heavy drama of their past. The 10-part series, created by the Narcos alums Bart Nickerson and Ashley Lyle, toggles between the (pandemic-less) present and the girls’ traumatic upheaval 25 years before, when the private plane to nationals crashes somewhere in the Canadian wilderness. Lord of the Flies, meet Liz Phair and Lost. Continue reading...

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Jens Galschiot wants to bring sculpture back after decades in Hong Kong but fears arrest under national security lawThe Danish sculptor of a statue that commemorates pro-democracy protesters killed during China’s Tiananmen Square crackdown has asked Hong Kong authorities for immunity from a national security law so he can take it back to Denmark.Jens Galschiot loaned the eight-metre high, two-tonne copper sculpture called Pillar of Shame to a local civil society group, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, in perpetuity. Continue reading...

Ma Chun-man, who carried the superhero’s shield and chanted pro-democracy slogans at rallies, was convicted under new security lawsA Hong Kong man known as “Captain America” for carrying the superhero’s shield at protest rallies has been sentenced to more than five years in jail for chanting slogans promoting Hong Kong’s independence from China.Ma Chun-man, a 31-year-old food delivery driver, was convicted last month by a judge of trying to separate the city from China by chanting slogans and displaying placards, as well as through interviews with reporters. Continue reading...

Robert Koch Institute records 50,196 new cases of coronavirus in Germany; Netherlands would have western Europe’s first lockdown since the summer

Michael Fawcett resigns from The Prince’s Foundation after accusations he offered to help secure a knighthood for Saudi donorA former aide to the Prince of Wales has resigned as chief executive of one of Charles’ charities amid an alleged cash-for-honours scandal.Michael Fawcett and his party planning company will also no longer be providing services to Clarence House, a spokesperson said. Continue reading...

Hollywood actor paints over original work, which was created for Stephen Merchant’s TV series The OutlawsA piece of art created by Banksy was painted over by Hollywood actor Christopher Walken in the final episode of BBC series The Outlaws.The six-part comedy-drama, which Stephen Merchant co-created with US writer and producer Elgin James, and also directed, follows a group of misfits renovating a derelict community centre in Bristol, as part of community service for crimes they have committed. Continue reading...

Ali Bagheri Kani also says all sanctions must be lifted before Tehran returns to full compliance with 2015 agreementIran requires a commitment that the US will not again leave the nuclear deal signed with world powers in 2015, the country’s new chief negotiator and deputy foreign minister has told the Guardian.Ali Bagheri Kani also said that talks in Vienna between Iran and other signatories had failed to reach agreement on a means of verifying that US sanctions had both been lifted and had a practical impact on trade with Iran. Continue reading...

Babis Anagnostopoulos may be charged for claiming Caroline Crouch died in botched burglaryThe Greek pilot, who allegedly confessed to strangling his British wife in May as she slept in their Athens home beside the couple’s baby, should be tried for premeditated murder, according to charges made public on Thursday.The public prosecutor handling the case also recommended that Babis Anagnostopoulos be charged with lying to police after claiming for 37 days that the death of his wife, Caroline Crouch, was the result of a botched burglary. Continue reading...

Figueres, Tubiana and Fabius warn that leaders must improve plans next year if world is to stay within crucial 1.5C limitWorld leaders will have to return to the negotiating table next year with improved plans to cut greenhouse gases because the proposed targets agreed at the Cop26 summit are too weak to prevent disastrous levels of global heating, the three architects of the Paris agreement have warned.Christiana Figueres, the former UN climate chief who oversaw the 2015 Paris summit, and Laurence Tubiana, the French diplomat who crafted the agreement, have told the Guardian the deadline is essential if the world is to avoid exceeding its 1.5C temperature limit. Laurent Fabius, the former French foreign minister who also oversaw Paris, added: “In the present circumstances [targets] must be enhanced next year.” Continue reading...

The murder case against Kyle Rittenhouse has been thrown into jeopardy after his lawyers requested a mistrial over what appeared to be out-of-bounds questions asked of him by the prosecution. On the seventh day of the trial, Rittenhouse took to the stand to insist he had acted in self-defence. The 18-year-old is on trial on charges of killing two men and injuring a third during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin last year.

Bosses at Alder Hey children’s NHS foundation trust admit ‘breach of duty’, judge says in rulingA high court judge has approved a £27m settlement of a clinical negligence claim after a boy was left with “catastrophic brain injuries”.The boy’s father sued Alder Hey children’s NHS foundation trust in Liverpool on his son’s behalf, and Mr Justice Fordham outlined detail of a settlement in a written ruling published after a high court hearing in Manchester. Continue reading...

Group of 10 MPs and peers say Boris Johnson’s government has prioritised trade over national securityBoris Johnson’s government has been accused by MPs of prioritising trade agreements over national security in its handling of surveillance abuses on British soil by governments using spyware made by the Israeli company NSO Group.A letter to the British prime minister signed by 10 MPs and peers has called on the government to end its cybersecurity programmes with countries that are known to have used NSO spyware to target dissidents, journalists and lawyers, among others, and to impose sanctions on NSO, “if they are at all serious about our national security”. Continue reading...

Move by top general comes despite promise to hand power from military to civilian authoritiesSudan’s top general has re-appointed himself as head of the army-run interim governing body, a sign that he is tightening his grip two weeks after he led a coup against civilian leaders.There was no immediate reaction by pro-democracy groups to the move by Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, which was announced by Sudan’s state television. Continue reading...

The country that kept the virus out for so long is now coming to terms with endemic Covid

Chancellor-in-waiting sticks with plan to lift nationwide state of emergency

Last president of South Africa under apartheid who oversaw the orderly transfer of powerFrederik Willem – FW – de Klerk, who has died aged 85, was the last president of South Africa under apartheid. He was often compared with Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, for his work in consigning a bankrupt and reviled regime to oblivion.When De Klerk succeeded PW Botha in 1989, he oversaw an event no less unexpected than the collapse of Soviet communism was when Gorbachev came to power in 1985. His stunning act of realpolitik in announcing sweeping political reform, including the release of his eventual successor, Nelson Mandela, was the grand gesture that saved his country, and in 1993 they shared the Nobel peace prize. The following year Mandela became the country’s first democratically elected leader. Continue reading...

With a new electric vehicles strategy and more money for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, Scott Morrison would appear to be announcing policies to help the nation reach its net zero emissions goal by 2050. But do these policies represent a true change of heart for the Coalition, or are they just pamphlets with little action attached?Gabrielle Jackson talks to Lenore Taylor and Mike Ticher about climate policy and posturingYou can read more about the Morrison government’s announcements here: Continue reading...