ECDC follows WHO in threat assessment of new variant; countries bar foreign nationals from several southern African nations; UK sees most new infections for a month

Analysis: Australia knows the horror of deaths at sea – and that turn-backs and offshore processing have huge human costsThe prime ministerial language is starkly reminiscent.In 2013, as asylum seeker boats appeared on Australia’s north and west horizons almost daily, the then prime minister Kevin Rudd said those who were bringing them were “the absolute scum of the earth” and should “rot in hell”. Continue reading...

The badly burnt victims were discovered in a building in Chinatown in Honiara after days of riotingThe bodies of three people have been discovered in a burnt-out building in the Solomon Islands capital of Honiara, the first reported deaths after days of rioting.The charred bodies were discovered in a store in the Chinatown district of Honiara, police said on Saturday. Continue reading...

Channel Seven reporter says his failure to listen to Adele’s album was a ‘terrible mistake’Australian TV reporter Matt Doran has made a lengthy, unreserved apology to Adele for failing to listen to her new album before an exclusive interview with the singer, calling the bungle a “terrible mistake”.Doran made international headlines this week for his interview with the singer, which was canned after he conceded he had only heard one track from her latest work, 30. Sony is refusing to release the footage. Continue reading...

Remains found inside an underground structure were tied up by ropes and with the hands covering the faceA team of experts has found a mummy estimated to be at least 800 years old on Peru’s central coast, one of the archaeologists who participated in the excavation said.The mummified remains were of a person from the culture that developed between the coast and mountains of the South American country. The mummy, whose gender was not identified, was discovered in the Lima region, said archaeologist Pieter Van Dalen Luna on Friday. Continue reading...

The American composer and lyricist, who has died aged 91, shaped the musical artform with his wise, witty and extravagantly clever workStephen Sondheim achieved such acclaim – for deepening the content and extending the lyrical ingenuity of musical theatre – that, from the age of 50, each major birthday was celebrated with tribute concerts in London, New York or both.Watching the composer-lyricist of Sweeney Todd and Follies at such events – taking a bow, with his wry smile – it was impossible not to reflect on our luck in coinciding with the life of someone who would clearly stand in the history of the genre alongside such geniuses as Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Weill, Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein. Continue reading...

The supreme lyricist and composer has died aged 91. In a piece first published to mark his 9oth birthday, Jake Gyllenhaal, Patti LuPone, Chita Rivera, Nathan Lane and many more celebrate the man and his musicalsDuring the previews of Sunday in the Park With George on Broadway, I was struggling with the song Color and Light. Steve asked me to come to his home. He was wearing a T-shirt and sweatpants and said: “Sorry I didn’t dress up for you!” There had been some discussion about me painting each dot of colour with a different brush. I was confused but he was like: “I don’t care how many fucking brushes you use, just paint on rhythm. Each thought is the colour.” Continue reading...

Scoring his first big hit with West Side Story at 27, the US composer and lyricist raised the art form’s status with moving and funny masterpieces including Follies and Company‘His songs are like a fabulous steak’: an all-star toast to SondheimStephen Sondheim, the master craftsman of the American musical, has died at the age of 91. His death, at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut, on Friday has prompted tributes throughout the entertainment industry and beyond. Andrew Lloyd Webber called him “the musical theatre giant of our times, an inspiration not just to two but to three generations [whose] contribution to theatre will never be equalled”. Cameron Mackintosh said: “The theatre has lost one of its greatest geniuses and the world has lost one of its greatest and most original writers. Sadly, there is now a giant in the sky. But the brilliance of Stephen Sondheim will still be here as his legendary songs and shows will be performed for evermore.”Over the course of a celebrated career spanning more than 60 years, Sondheim co-created Broadway theatre classics such as West Side Story, Gypsy, Sweeney Todd and Into the Woods, all of which also became hit movies. His intricate and dazzlingly clever songs pushed the boundaries of the art form and he made moving and funny masterpieces from unlikely subject matters, including a murderous barber (Sweeney Todd), the Roman comedies of Plautus (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) and a pointillist painting by Georges Seurat (Sunday in the Park With George). Continue reading...

Experts stress importance of delaying import of new Covid variant to UK to avoid Christmas mixing

The proposed law has implications for multiple areas of public life but may not overcome some constitutional issues

Experts say demand for wellness and calming products for animal companions have surged since Australia’s restrictions lifted

Responding to Labor criticism, Col Murray says his time in construction and local government prepared him for role

Scientists have carefully collected spawn bundles by moonlight in a bid to help save the reefIt’s nearing 10pm, and Dr Kate Quigley is still waiting. Using red lights to minimise disruption to the animals’ behaviour, she is inspecting corals.Quigley, who studies reef restoration at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, is looking for “little red dots all over the surface”. A pimply appearance is a hallmark sign that a coral is about to spawn, releasing sperm and eggs in bundles resembling small bubbles. Continue reading...

Company says it will know in two weeks whether current Pfizer jab is effective against Omicron variant

Shocked mourners leave flowers and cards near scene where 12-year-old was stabbed on Thursday nightThe news of 12-year-old Ava White’s death spread slowly across Liverpool on Friday morning. Christmas shoppers, unaware of her killing, came into the city centre to be greeted by police cordons closing off much of Church Street and surrounding areas where the stabbing took place on Thursday night.“She was everyone’s baby. It could have been anyone’s child,” said 51-year-old Hayley Hughes, who came to pay her respects at a small flower memorial near the crime scene. Hughes said that, while she had heard of stabbings in Liverpool before, she did not expect something like this to happen in the city centre to such a young child. “She only came in to see the lights switched on,” she said. Continue reading...

Travel, aviation and oil stocks around world badly hit as worries deepen over effect of fresh Covid wave on global economy

Latest updates: Macron slams Boris Johnson for trying to negotiate with him via Twitter as it cancels talks with UK officials over Channel crossings

Ali, 28, left his home in Iran to escape religious persecution. After being denied asylum in France, he made the decision to cross the Channel in a dinghy. He told the Guardian's Today in Focus podcast about his experience making the perilous crossing twice, in search of a better life

Footage purporting to show Abiy Ahmed on the battlefront of the country’s year-long war against Tigray forces has been broadcast, four days after he announced he would direct the army from there. Wearing military uniform, Abiy said: 'The enemy doesn't know our capabilities and our preparations ... instead of sitting in Addis, we made a change and decided to come to the front'

Volodymyr Zelenskiy says there is evidence of ‘coup d’état’ being planned for early DecemberUkraine’s president has said intelligence services uncovered a plot involving a group of Russians and Ukrainians to overthrow his government next week.Speaking at an hours-long press conference, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian intelligence had obtained audio recordings of the plotters discussing their plans, which he said involved tying to enlist the support of Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov. Continue reading...

Abiy Ahmed claims in the footage that the war was ‘being conducted with a high level of success’A state-affiliated Ethiopian TV channel has broadcast footage purporting to show the country’s Nobel peace prize-winning prime minister on the battlefront of the country’s year-long war against Tigray forces, four days after he announced he would direct the army from there.Wearing military uniform, Abiy Ahmed claimed in the footage that the war was “being conducted with a high level of success” and referred to locations on the border between the country’s Amhara and Afar regions, which neighbour Tigray. Continue reading...

Investigators believe blaze at Michelin-starred pub in North Yorkshire was started deliberatelyA fire that reduced a Michelin-starred restaurant in North Yorkshire to “ashes” is being treated as arson.Investigators believe the blaze at the thatched, 14th-century Star Inn at Harome on the edge of the North York Moors was started deliberately on Wednesday evening. Continue reading...

Six southern African countries added to list and temporary flight ban in place owing to new Covid-19 variant

Artist says it is ‘astounding’ that women can show any part of their body except nipplesFrom her infamous corset bodysuit with conical bra cups to her bondage-inspired outfits at the Met Gala and MTV video music awards, Madonna has never been shy of causing a stir with her looks. But now, the international superstar has come up against an unlikely and powerful foe: Mark Zuckerberg’s social media empire.On Thursday, the singer criticised Instagram for taking down photographs in which her nipple was exposed, telling her 17 million followers she is grateful she maintained her sanity “through four decades of censorship … sexism … ageism and misogyny”. Continue reading...

‘Symbolic’ protests do not halt traffic but are intended as warning shot in post-Brexit fishing licences rowFrench fishing crews mounted “symbolic” protests at the Channel tunnel and three ports in northern France in a day of action against the British government over the ongoing dispute about access of French boats in the Channel.The fishers lit red flares as they started their protest on Friday at the port of Saint-Malo before moving on to Calais and the Channel tunnel in the afternoon. Continue reading...

Young people who have made the dangerous journey tell why they have risked all to reach the UK

Fame and adoration could not protect her when she made sexual assault claims against a Chinese officialAfter Peng Shuai and Andrea Sestini Hlaváčková won the doubles final at the 2014 Beijing Open, they went to karaoke to celebrate. The fifth-seeded duo had just beaten India’s Sania Mirza and Zimbabwe’s Cara Black, who had never lost a match in the Asia-Pacific region.“She was at the beginning of her comeback and I was happy to be there to play with her,” Hlaváčková recalls, on the phone from Rome. Their victory called for a night out so they went to a big Beijing nightclub. “She was singing a lot of Chinese songs.” Continue reading...

Review finds both would be vastly expensive, fraught with complexities and take at least 30 years to openBoris Johnson’s proposal for a bridge or tunnel linking Scotland to Northern Ireland has been rejected by a feasibility study as vastly expensive and fraught with potential difficulties.Released alongside a wider so-called union connectivity review, which called for investment in road, rail and domestic aviation to better connect the four UK nations, the fixed link report found either a bridge or tunnel would be at the very edge of what could be achieved with current technology. Continue reading...

After Glasgow, there is a clamour for fashion companies to increase their commitment to sustainability and supply chain transparency – and for legislation to hold them to their promisesAt the Cop26 conference, high-profile British brands including Stella McCartney, Burberry and Mulberry presented their visions for an ethical, sustainable industry. Now, there is an increasing demand for all fashion companies to make legally binding commitments to address the impact their supply chains have on the environment. While hundreds of companies – including Gucci-owner Kering, H&M and Inditex, which owns Zara – have signed up to the UN’s Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action, which sets science-based targets in line with the Paris agreement, there is no obligation to take part, nor a legal mandate to hold brands to account.Leading industry figures say that if fashion brands are to have any chance of having a meaningful impact on the climate crisis, legislation is needed. Continue reading...

Educational leaders in England reveal run-ins with parents and souring relations with staff

There’s more to good sex than complicated positions or wild lust. The authors of a groundbreaking study explain what really makes it greatFar from what films and TV shows might tell us, truly magnificent sex has very little to do with daring feats of seduction or screaming orgasms. In fact, according to the latest research, erotic intimacy is more a state of mind than a physical act.In a recent study, Magnificent Sex, psychologist and sex therapist Dr Peggy J Kleinplatz and her colleagues at Ottawa University in Canada realised that, while whole library sections were dedicated to bad sex (and how to make it better), there was almost no literature dedicated to great sex. What did it feel like? Who was having it? And what made it so great? Continue reading...

From winning dance competitions to confronting Nazis, black veterans of the 70s soul all-nighters share their stories – and counter the idea that the movement was exclusively whiteIn the run-up to Christmas in 1977, viewers of Granada TV were offered a glimpse inside a little-understood world. The documentary maker Tony Palmer had ventured inside the Wigan Casino, the centre of the northern soul scene, to shoot a 30-minute film called This England.Palmer didn’t know anything about the club, the scene or the music when he arrived in Wigan – but over the course of a couple of nights he captured famous footage of a northern soul all-nighter in full swing. There’s the crush at the front door as a lone doorman tries in vain to instil some sense of order; the gravity-defying spins and splits that lit up the dancefloor; the interviews with the fans who articulate their obsession with obscure soul records in thick Lancastrian accents. It’s all punctuated by thousand-yard stares from amphetamine-fuelled punters – you can almost smell the Brut aftershave and sweat. Continue reading...

We air both sides of a domestic disagreement – and ask you to deliver a verdict

From The Handmaid’s Tale to Hereditary, the 65-year-old actor owns malevolence. She talks about her Oscar-tipped role as a school-shooter’s mother in Mass – and why men are more vulnerable than womenMany people don’t want to see Ann Dowd’s new movie. Even the most positive of its reviews from Sundance called it “excruciating”, “exhausting” and “tortuous”; an endurance test some will not be willing to endure. Including Dowd herself, who has yet to watch it.“We’ve talked about it a lot, the cast, and we have different points of view,” Dowd says to me over coffee in Chelsea, New York, conscious that Mass is a tough sell. “When people ask me, I say this film has tremendous hope and that it has to do with healing and forgiveness. I don’t give the specifics.” Continue reading...

Peter Dutton ‘a dangerous personality’, Paul Keating says; China responds after defence minister warns against ‘mistakes of the 1930s’; record Queensland native title claim granted; WHO calls meeting over new Covid variant; Victoria records 1,362 new cases, NSW 261; police update on William Tyrrell search; Australia on track for wettest spring in a decade. This blog is now closed

The Transport Workers Union said it was investigating reports that Amazon Flex workers’ cars were dangerously overloadedAn Amazon warehouse in western Sydney called the police to remove two union officials investigating allegations of workers’ cars being overpacked during its busy Back Friday sales period.The Transport Workers’ Union sent three officials to Amazon Flex’s Bella Vista parcel pickup facility on Friday, with two of them tasked with going onsite to investigate reports of alleged dangerous overloading of vehicles. They believed workers were being pressured to accept the parcels to avoid disciplinary action or termination. Continue reading...

A storm took the roof off Binta Bah’s house before torrential rain destroyed her family’s belongings, as poverty combines with the climate crisis to wreak havoc on Africa’s smallest mainland countryThe windstorm arrived in Jalambang late in the evening, when Binta Bah and her family were enjoying the evening cool outside. “But when we first heard the wind, the kids started to run and go in the house,” she says.First they went in one room but the roof – a sheet of corrugated iron fixed only by a timbere pole – flew off. They ran into another but the roof soon went there too. Continue reading...

Ai-Da used data bank of words and speech pattern analysis to produce and perform a work that is ‘reactive’ to the Divine ComedyDante’s Divine Comedy has inspired countless artists, from William Blake to Franz Lizst, and from Auguste Rodin to CS Lewis. But an exhibition marking the 700th anniversary of the Italian poet’s death will be showcasing the work of a rather more modern devotee: Ai-Da the robot, which will make history by becoming the first robot to publicly perform poetry written by its AI algorithms.The ultra-realistic Ai-Da, who was devised in Oxford by Aidan Meller and named after computing pioneer Ada Lovelace, was given the whole of Dante’s epic three-part narrative poem, the Divine Comedy, to read, in JG Nichols’ English translation. She then used her algorithms, drawing on her data bank of words and speech pattern analysis, to produce her own reactive work to Dante’s. Continue reading...

Comments come as Australian police and defence force personnel begin taking control of capital HoniaraSolomon Islands prime minister Manasseh Sogavare has blamed foreign interference over his government’s decision to switch alliances from Taiwan to Beijing for anti-government protests, arson and looting that have ravaged the capital Honiara for the past three days.However, critics have also blamed the unrest on complaints of a lack of government services and accountability, corruption and foreign workers taking local jobs. In 2019, Sogavare also angered many, particularly leaders of Solomon Islands’ most populous province, Malaita, when he cut the country’s diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Continue reading...

As the annual Christmas shopping frenzy begins, readers discuss how they have challenged this culture – from sewing to buying secondhand to instituting a ‘90 day rule’With Black Friday marking the start of a frantic month of Christmas shopping, we asked our readers to get in touch about the ways they have challenged consumerism.Responses ranged from revolutionary changes such as giving up buying new clothes to subtler tweaks such as making sandwiches rather than buying a plastic-encased meal deal. Everyone agreed, however, that turning their back on a culture that constantly demands more from consumers came with financial and environmental benefits, not to mention a feeling of smug satisfaction that money simply can’t buy. Continue reading...

Laura Mvula, Kasabian’s Serge Pizzorno, Snail Mail, BackRoad Gee, Sigrid and Eris Drew mull over the year’s big stories, from Britney’s freedom to battles over plagiarism and streamingHow did you feel coming into 2021, after the unprecedented bleakness of 2020? Continue reading...

News of Channel deaths has reached camp, but many still plan to pay people smugglers huge amounts in hope of a better lifeEverybody at the camp on the outskirts of Dunkirk, little more than a scrappy collection of tents with no toilets or running water, has heard about the 27 people who drowned on Wednesday.Everybody knows the risks. But everybody says they still have the same plan, to try to get on a boat to the UK, because they do not believe that death will come to them – and because of their hope for a better life. Continue reading...

Over 500 flights from Shanghai’s two major airports were cancelled and six hospitals suspended outpatient servicesHundreds of flights have been cancelled while some schools were shuttered and tour groups suspended on Friday after three Covid cases were reported in Shanghai, as China continues its strict zero-Covid policy.Beijing has largely succeeded in controlling the spread of the coronavirus within its borders through travel restrictions and snap lockdowns, but frequent domestic flare-ups have tested its no-tolerance strategy in recent months. Continue reading...

Civilisation is in a death spiral but you can’t get the lid off the goddamn jar of salsa!

Honiara has awoken to a calmer scene but tension lingers as quelling the violent protests has not resolved their underlying causesUnresolved tensions and geopolitical pressures are a volatile mix in Solomon Islands.What began as a peaceful protest calling for the resignation of prime minister Manasseh Sogavare on Wednesday quickly descended into unrest as the crowd of about 1,000 people, many of whom travelled from the neighbouring Malaita province, grew agitated and set fire to a leaf hut in the capital Honiara’s parliamentary complex. Continue reading...

Analysis: UK suggestions that the French are not exerting themselves enough belies a more complex situationBehind Boris Johnson’s suggestions, in the wake of the Channel drownings, that France was not doing enough to stop small boat crossings, lies a more complex picture. There is a growing sense among charities and the French political class that policing, security and repression alone cannot solve the issue of refugees risking their life to reach the UK to claim asylum.In the past year, with rising numbers of attempted small boat crossings across the perilous shipping lanes of the Channel, there has been a significant increase in policing and patrols along the French coast, with new surveillance equipment, reservists called in, and more than 600 police officers and gendarmes working 24 hours a day – increasingly at night – to patrol a 40-mile stretch of rugged coast. UK financing has already contributed to new technology and an increase in officers. In addition, asylum seekers sleeping rough are moved on nightly, with tents and sleeping bags confiscated and camps broken up. Continue reading...

As officials grapple with crisis, even more Kurds are preparing to make dangerous journey to EuropeWere they driven to the freezing shores of Europe by desperation, or did several thousand Kurds instead make the dangerous journey in search of opportunity?As officials in Iraqi Kurdistan grapple with what is driving a crisis that is thought to have led to scores of citizens drowning in the Channel on Wednesday, and thousands of others to brave precarious migrant routes to Europe, even more are preparing to leave. Continue reading...

Meeting will determine if B.1.1.529 variant warrants a designation as one of ‘interest’ or of ‘concern’