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About 150 anti-lockdown protesters arrested after shops looted and cars set alight in several towns and cities

Unsure what to do with that tin of goop at the back of the cupboard? These brilliant sweet and savoury dishes will make the most of it

Despite appearing on reality TV as a teenager, I’ve never been a fan of the genre. But Housewives is different – and I’ve become an evangelist for its illicit thrill and numbing qualityAlready, 2021 has had no shortage of sobering moments. Armie Hammer (allegedly) being a cannibal. Azealia Banks boiling her dead cat. The pandemic refusing to evaporate like Cinderella’s stagecoach the second we bellowed “happy new year” into the eerie silence of our living rooms. But none has been more sobering than the moment when I realised that I have watched more than 190 hours of Real Housewives during lockdown.It was especially startling because I had never considered myself much of a reality TV fan. Certainly not the type of lunatic who dedicates hours to watching extremely privileged women scream about whether or not they have Munchausen’s. Having appeared on reality TV as a teenager, I felt as though I understood the format and took for granted that much of the action is stage-managed. I reasoned that, if I was going to watch people ham it up unconvincingly, I could watch Pose, or a Boris Johnson press conference. But Housewives is different. Continue reading...

Excavated Shellac rejects the western canon of pop, rock, jazz, classical and more to champion 78rpm gems from overlooked corners of the world – ‘an alternate universe’, according to the man behind itImagine an anthology of 20th-century music making that purposely ignored pop, rock, jazz, blues, country, classical and opera. Cue outrage, at least from English-speaking listeners. But away from the western canon that has come to dominate our conception of music-making, much of the world was busy creating swathes of very different, extremely beautiful music.These overlooked styles are collated on a new 100-track compilation, An Alternate History of the World’s Music, and presumptuous as it may seem to announce that the best album of 2021 has already been released, to my mind it’s unlikely it will be topped. Helmed by Dust-to-Digital, the US label that has done a magnificent job with box sets chronicling overlooked areas of pre-second world war music, the digital release also features a 186-page ebook (complete with beautiful illustrations like the ones here), in which every tune gets discussed – the first is a South African miner’s protest against police brutality, the last a sultry Cuban dance tune whose singers sound like they might have been hitting the rum while recording. This sonic smorgasbord from across the globe lives up to the provocative title, with music from Afghanistan, Sudan, the former Yugoslavia, Uganda, Spain, Albania, Mongolia, Mexico and elsewhere. Ever wondered what the Crimean Tartar Orchestra might sound like? Well, their raucous, minor key, brass party music is fabulous. Continue reading...

One man died after rejection from 10 hospitals as country passes one million cases of coronavirus

Handling of earliest cases early last year provided ominous foretaste of things to come

Duncan Craw, initially believed to have been killed by a shark, may have suffered ‘medical episode’, his family saysHuman remains have been discovered near where it was thought a man had been killed by a shark while snorkelling with his family off the South Australian coast.Police are investigating whether the remains belong to Duncan Craw, 32, who disappeared on Thursday near Port Macdonnell in the state’s south-east. Continue reading...

Continuing our series on the best films about theatre, a 200-year-old Japanese ghost story takes centre stage in a movie merging reality and fantasyThe prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike is best known for his 1999 horror film Audition, in which a widower advertises a role in a fake movie production, intending to choose a wife from those who apply. The backdrop of the screen industry suggests that his casual misogyny is symptomatic of a wider social disease. Fifteen years later, Miike released Over Your Dead Body, a sort of companion piece, following a group of theatre actors in and out of rehearsals. Like Audition, the film – whose Japanese title is Kuime – explores deception and vengeance with slow-burning and increasingly grisly intensity. Amid its schlock and horror, it vividly retains a traditional theatricality that left me longing to see a proper production of the play at its centre.That play is the ghost story Yotsuya Kaidan, about a ruthless samurai who is haunted by his rejected wife, Oiwa. The samurai is portrayed in the play by the cruel Kosuke who abandons his lover, the established stage performer Miyuki (who plays Oiwa in their production), and starts an affair with a younger actor. Continue reading...

Health minister says Australian contract with AstraZeneca and CSL will allow for onshore manufacture of 50 million dosesThe Australian government expects doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to be rolled out in March and that there will be no shortfalls, despite threats by the European Union to block exports of the vaccine due to a lack of supply.A spokesman for the health minister, Greg Hunt, said there was immense competition for Covid-19 vaccines around the world. Continue reading...

Jacinda Ardern says New Zealand can return to ‘normal’ only when the rest of the world does too

The country’s most visible scientist worries Kiwis aren’t doing their bit when it comes to preventing another mass outbreakOn Christmas morning, Siouxsie Wiles got a call from her father-in-law. He he had woken up feeling fluey after attending an event a few days before.As he spoke, Wiles looked up his closest Covid-19 testing centre on her phone. “I recommend you give them a call,” she told him, “because you are not coming for Christmas dinner.” Continue reading...

Research from three Cambridge grave sites suggests poor people were at greatest risk of injuryA friar crushed by a cart, another the victim of an attack by bandits: it sounds like the plot of a medieval mystery. But according to new research these are some of the possible misfortunes to have befallen those in centuries gone by.An analysis of bones from 314 individuals aged 12 or older, dating from around 1100 to the 1530s, and found in three different sites across Cambridge, reveals that bone fractures were common among those buried in a parish cemetery – where many ordinary workers would have been laid to rest. But the team also found evidence of horrific injuries among those buried in an Augustinian friary, suggesting the clergy were not protected against violent events. Continue reading...

Spain saw 93,822 infections between Friday and Monday, and 767 deaths; Moderna confirms its jab works against new variants

The death toll from the disaster at a gold mine in Shandong province rises to 10Chinese rescuers have found the bodies of nine workers killed in explosions at a gold mine, raising the death toll to 10.Eleven others were rescued a day earlier after being trapped underground for two weeks at the mine in Shandong province. One person was still missing, officials said on Monday. Continue reading...

Authorities found the bodies late on Saturday in burning vehicles left beside a dirt road outside the town of CamargoMexican authorities are attempting to identify 19 charred corpses which were found near a town across the Rio Grande from Texas, in an area that has seen violent territorial disputes between organized crime groups in recent years.Authorities found the bodies late on Saturday in two burning vehicles which had been left beside a dirt road outside the town of Camargo. All the victims had been shot, but shells were not found at the site, leading investigators to believe they were killed somewhere else. Continue reading...

News of a Harry Potter show in early development at HBO Max begs the question: what can justify another extension to an already stretched universe?When I saw the news, reported by the Hollywood Reporter, that HBO Max was in talks to develop live-action Harry Potter television series, all details and talent TBD, my first reaction was: oh no. Like many late millennials, I grew up a fan of the books – more accurately, I grew up with the books, from some of my earliest reading memories through the time I literally crashed my car while listening to the sixth installment on tape for the fourth time. But my appetite for wizarding content has waned over the last eight years or so, as unquestioned Potter standom (self-proclaimed Gryffindors and Slytherins) soured into generational parody, creator JK Rowling doubled down on her transphobic views, and the Potterverse expansion seemed less interested in the earnest fun of fan culture – the midnight premieres, the trivia board games, the rangy wikis – than the consistent wringing out of a highly lucrative franchise for paced output.Related: Harry Potter fan sites distance themselves from JK Rowling over transgender rights Continue reading...

Lawyers point out series of failings in buildup to bombing that killed 22 and injured hundreds

Rodney Baker and his wife travelled to remote community of 100 in Yukon territory and claimed to be workers at a local motel

In virtual address to World Economic Forum Chinese president called for multilateral approach to solving crisisChina’s president, Xi Jinping, has sent out a warning to Joe Biden that he risks a new cold war if he continues with the protectionist policies of his predecessor, Donald Trump.In an address to the virtual World Economic Forum event, Xi called for a multilateral approach to solving the economic crisis caused by Covid-19 and said the pandemic should not be used as an excuse to reverse globalisation in favour of “decoupling and seclusion”. Continue reading...

Crew on two vessels face further investigation in Pacific nation, a month after similar incident in PalauTwo Chinese fishing vessels have been detained by Vanuatu authorities amid allegations they were fishing illegally in the Pacific nation’s territorial waters.This is the first time that Chinese vessels have been accused of illegal fishing activities in Vanuatu’s territory, but their confinement comes just a month after Palau detained a Chinese-flagged vessel reportedly illegally harvesting sea cucumber, or beche-de-mer, in the western Pacific state’s territorial waters. Continue reading...

Denying mission full privileges under the Vienna convention risks poisoning diplomatic ties, No 10 toldDowning Street has been warned by Brussels that downgrading the status of the EU’s ambassador to the UK will poison diplomatic relations for years to come.The UK has so far declined to grant the bloc’s representative, João Vale de Almeida, and his 25-strong mission the privileges and immunities afforded to diplomats under the Vienna convention. Continue reading...

Latest updates: patients on ventilators hit record high as UK records 22,195 further cases and 592 Covid-related deaths

Government bans non-essential cross-border movement after reversing one of worst infection rates in Europe

As I move from the country to the city and start my life as a university student, I’m disheartened by the lack of support from Centrelink

After three-hour meeting in Istanbul, sources say second round of dialogue will take place in AthensAfter a five-year hiatus marked by increasingly heated relations, sabre-rattling and near conflict, Greece and Turkey have taken a tentative step towards reconciliation, agreeing to resume talks in an attempt to avert further military escalation in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean.Following a three-hour meeting of delegations from both sides in Istanbul on Monday, diplomatic sources confirmed the high-level contacts would continue, with a second round of talks taking place in Athens. Continue reading...

Invitation for people on magazine’s ‘30 under 30’ list is dropped hours after Guardian inquiry

The global floral industry has been hard hit by coronavirus. But not all those unused blooms have had to go to wasteName: Dried flowers.Age: Old. Continue reading...

Accused exercise right to judge and jury trial after appearing at Bristol magistrates court amid tight security

Feel the Bern, not the cold, with your own pair of winter-proof hand warmers – here’s how to stitch them at homeWhile it was Michelle Obama’s hair that brought the glamour to Joe Biden’s inauguration day, it was Bernie Sanders’ mittens that delivered the memes. Sitting at the event in a winter coat and mittens, arms and legs crossed, he was the yin to the rest of the Capitol’s sharp-suited yang – and promptly Photoshopped into Edward Hopper paintings, scenes from Glee and the vice-presidential debate, replacing the fly atop Mike Pence’s head. Continue reading...

State of emergency declared after armed opposition forces attack convoy carrying supplies and blockade the city of BanguiCentral African Republic is facing serious food shortages as election violence has cut off the country and stranded hundreds of trucks carrying supplies outside its borders.Food prices have risen steeply since the landlocked country’s main supply route from Cameroon was cut off by armed groups trying to blockade the capital, Bangui, where the government declared a state of emergency on Thursday. Continue reading...

Brexit rule changes that make it tricky to tour the EU will hold back UK artists from a fast-growing marketLimiting UK artists from working and touring in the EU post-Brexit will destroy the development of British music, say European industry experts, amid thriving competition from German rap, Spanish pop and more.British artists now face the need for visas, work permits and equipment carnets when working in the EU, with emerging acts most likely to feel the impact of this costly and time-consuming admin. Over the last month, the UK and the EU have blamed each other for the inability to strike a deal to help the creative industries. Continue reading...

Olga Freeman, who struggled to care for son during lockdown, admits manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibilityA woman has admitted killing her disabled 10-year-old son after undergoing a mental breakdown while struggling to care for him during the lockdown.Olga Freeman, 40, was charged with the murder of Dylan Freeman, who was found dead at their home in Acton, west London, on 15 August. Continue reading...

Trombonist heralded by president Cyril Ramaphosa as ‘a giant of our revolutionary cultural movement’Jonas Gwangwa, the Oscar-nominated South African jazz musician who campaigned against apartheid for decades, has died aged 83. The cause of death has not been announced.South African president Cyril Ramaphosa led tributes, saying: Continue reading...

The alternative Black history of a deep-sea civilisation has planted the seed for proposals to memorialise the 1.8 million Africans who died in the AtlanticSomewhere in the dark, vast abyss of the Atlantic Ocean, deep beneath the waves, lies a civilisation. For centuries the Drexciyans have lived in peaceful isolation on the seabed, occupying their bubble metropolis, unaware of the land-based realm their ancestors were forced to leave behind.The Drexciyans trace their lineage back to the pregnant African women – considered by their captors to be sick or disruptive – who were thrown off slave ships to drown. Baby Drexciyans swam from their mothers’ wombs, never needing to breathe air, and gave rise to a subaqueous empire. Continue reading...

Acting ambassador to Kuwait fled for South last year, says fellow defectorNorth Korea’s acting ambassador to Kuwait has defected to South Korea in the latest high-profile escape from the isolated country.Ryu Hyun Woo had led North Korea’s embassy in Kuwait since former ambassador So Chang Sik was expelled after a 2017 UN resolution sought to scale back the country’s overseas diplomatic missions. Continue reading...

An era of uprisings, nascent democracy and civil war in the Arab world started with protests in a small Tunisian city. This is how the unrest grew to engulf the Middle East, shake authoritarian governments and unleash consequences that still shape the world a decade laterA decade ago this month, protests forced Tunisia’s authoritarian president, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, to flee his country. It was a quick and relatively peaceful revolution, coming after decades of stagnant but entrenched regimes across the Arab world.Few at the time understood the power of the images of unrest being broadcast online and into homes across the Middle East. Within weeks, other significant protest movements would emerge, and by the middle of 2011, leaders in Cairo, Tripoli, Sana’a, Damascus and elsewhere were under serious pressure or had been swept away by a tidal wave of peaceful demonstrations and armed resistance. Continue reading...

Northern Ireland’s coronavirus lockdown is to be extended to 5 March, and restrictions that forced much of the city to close may not ultimately be lifted until Easter. Charles McQuillan’s panoramic photographs of Belfast capture the sceneSnow falls over Belfast as a lone figure walks along Cavehill Continue reading...

Prime minister Scott Morrison also plays down comments by education minister on plan’s potentialAn infectious diseases expert has said plans to bring international students back to Australia with vaccine passports are “premature” and unlikely to start this year.On Monday the education minister, Alan Tudge, said that “digital vaccine certificates” could allow international students to return to Australia without the need for hotel quarantine. Continue reading...

With a judicial inquiry looming and the EU looking to blacklist the territory, the BVI is debating where its future liesThe shuffling of diplomats around the UK’s Caribbean territories rarely makes much of a splash. But Gus Jaspert ensured his last days as governor of the British Virgin Islands would be remembered.In an emotional Facebook video post to the BVI’s 30,000 inhabitants, he accused the country’s government of overseeing a “plague” of corruption, interfering in the criminal justice system and attempting to silence anyone who raised concerns about the misuse of funds, including £30m given by the UK to help the islands’ fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading...

The first community case for two months is a reminder that our freedom to go to the office is something to be appreciatedA chap working in the prime minister’s department mentions in passing that he’s on holiday in Golden Bay, that amazing republic of long, empty beaches lapped by the Tasman ocean, at the top of the South Island. “Too much sand,” he texts. “Too much sun.” He’s plainly in heaven. In normal circumstances I’d hate someone for enjoying a holiday while I’m back at work but things are different this year.Most working New Zealanders are back to the grind after the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Schools start next week. Parliament resumes on 7 February. Business as usual, but there’s something light-hearted about it in 2021. The tedium and drab necessity of returning to work is tempered by the knowledge that it’s not that bad, that it could be a lot worse. The mere fact we can move around the towns and cities, squeeze into elevators, and mooch around with each other in offices and cafes and doctor’s waiting rooms and any confined space you care to name, is a joy. Freedom isn’t just the open road; freedom is also a day measured in paperclips and paper jams. It’s a freedom denied other countries in lockdown. Continue reading...

Public health expert says he could not resign as someone had to push back against ‘nonsense’

Indigenous methods of tackling ecological problems were developed by dint of necessity - there is no better impetus for successWhen I was taught how to trap possums, I was encouraged to combine the traditional knowledge of my Māori ancestors with modern technologies. An example of this is when the kawakawa plant bears fruit – the best lure to use is cinnamon. This is because the scents complement each other in the forest, to which the possums become attracted.I assumed this was also the case when taught to use curry powder as a lure for when the hangehange flowers blossom. Instead, it was because wasps were very active at the time and I learned curry powder is one of the few lures to which wasps are not attracted; and no one wants to fiddle with traps covered in wasps! Continue reading...

In 2013 James Howells threw out a computer hard drive containing bitcoin. Last week he again asked his local council for permission to dig for it at his local dump as he believes it is now worth about £200m. The Guardian’s UK technology editor, Alex Hern, discusses the rise of bitcoin and whether it should be bannedThe Guardian’s UK technology editor, Alex Hern, talks to Rachel Humphreys about the cryptocurrency bitcoin, which allows people to bypass banks and traditional payment methods. It uses a blockchain – a shared public record of transactions – to create and track a new type of digital token, one that can only be made and shared according to the agreed-upon rules of the network. At its heart, bitcoin is a big database of who owns what, and what transactions were made between those owners. But unlike a conventional bank, there is no central authority running that database. Continue reading...

New Zealand reports first community case in over two months; Dutch police make curfew arrests

Thousands join events in Scotland and far afield, and post-a-haggis service is in high demandIt’s the night when Scots emerge from mid-winter hibernation, says the Burns scholar Pauline Mackay. On the poet’s birthday, 25 January, or thereabouts, thousands of societies, clubs and groups of friends across Scotland and around the world gather to celebrate the life and work of the national bard Robert Burns.The ritual elements of a Burns supper – addressing those gathered with his poem To a Haggis, completing several rounds of toasts and reading from the funny, sexy, radical diversity of his work – have remained constant since the first event was held by nine friends in 1801, five years after his death. Continue reading...

Online course being used to help reach government target was created after letter to the GuardianAn online language course created five years ago following a letter published in the Guardian is to be used to help reach a government target of a million Welsh speakers by 2050.Duolingo launched its Welsh language course in January 2016 and so far more than 1.5 million people around the world have been taught through it. Continue reading...

First minister says she will hold advisory referendum, whether Westminster consents or notNicola Sturgeon says she will hold an advisory referendum on independence if the Scottish National party wins a majority in May’s Holyrood elections, regardless of whether Westminster consents to the move.Her party is setting out an 11-point roadmap for taking forward another vote, which will be presented to members of the SNP’s national assembly on Sunday. Continue reading...

Weird and wonderful buildings are springing up in China and elsewhere, driven by cities’ desire to make a mark in a world full of eye-popping imageryAn image opens on my screen: a 2,000-seat theatre on the edge lands of Guangzhou, a territory of raw new towers and just-departed rural ghosts, designed to look like a swirl of red silk, imprinted with “tattoos” of phoenixes, cranes and other ornithology. It refers, goes the explanatory text, to Guangzhou’s historic role as “the birthplace of the silk road on the sea”. It is a declaration of something where there was formerly nothing, a three-dimensional advertisement for the colossal Sunac Wanda cultural tourism city of which it is part. I peer at the image – is it virtual or real? It’s real.It enters a mental folder already bulging with such projects as a football stadium – reportedly the largest in the world – under construction in the same city in the shape of a giant lotus flower. Also the completed Zendai Himalayas centre in Nanjing, a 560,000 sq metre mixed-use development shaped like a mountain range, which is said to adapt “the traditional Chinese shanshui ethos of spiritual harmony between nature and humanity to the modern urban environment”. Other prodigies demand attention: a pair of super-tall skyscrapers in Shenzhen whose conjoined nether regions melt into tree-filled terraces and undulant glass, a quartet of twisting aluminium-clad towers in Qatar and apartment towers in Vancouver propped like tulip heads on narrow stalks. Continue reading...

JCVI deputy chair defends extended gap between jabs as Hancock warns end of restrictions ‘long way off’