World news | The Guardian

Since you’re seeking the indigestible, whatever it is usually has to be raw – unless it’s an onionYou’ll have heard of probiotics, because they’re very 2015, which I have identified as the year in which everyone started talking about gut health (the phrase “gut fauna” entered the vernacular a bit later). The potted version is that you want your gut bacteria to be as varied and exciting as possible, and the best way to ensure that is by eating fermented foods: yoghurts, kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut. Cultures that are alive when you consume them.Prebiotics are different: these are sources of indigestible fibre. Roughage, broadly, is the element of a plant or legume that won’t dissolve in water, and therefore moves intact through your body, not releasing calories but doing other useful things, such as keeping you regular. There’s a sub-category within that, though, of indigestible fibres that the bacteria inside your gut can digest: almost always raw, and very often weird – dandelions, acacia gum – and this will boost your bacterial environment overall. Continue reading...

Scant funding and scattered logistics have slowed distribution process as coronavirus case numbers rise, painting a dire picture for the futureAmerica had no trouble hitting the appalling milestone of 20 million coronavirus cases, but reaching the federal government’s own target of vaccinating 20 million people by the end of 2020 proved a huge problem.Just under three million Americans were vaccinated by the time the crystal-encrusted ball dropped in New York’s almost-deserted Times Square at midnight on New Year’s Eve to mark the end of a hellish year. Continue reading...

Once Trump’s darling, Fox has seen its favorability decline among GOP supporters with the rise of OAN and NewsmaxJust as change is coming at the White House, a fresh wind appears to be blowing through the established rightwing media system, with a collage of TV stations and social media networks seeking to attract the ardent, dissatisfied Donald Trump supporters.For years Fox News has dominated the conservative landscape. The network has spent four years fawning over Trump, and promoting sometimes spurious stories about his rivals over the past four years. Continue reading...

Andrea, 24, student, and Emily, 24, photographer and brewerWhat were you hoping for?

I explain the gag in some detail. The youngest one asks if anyone my age knows who Cardi B is

Gladys Berejiklian announces new measures for greater Sydney and $200 on-the-spot fines, as Victoria’s hard border takes effectThe New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said she does not want to “restrict business activity, jobs or economic activity”, announcing new restrictions including mandatory masks, as seven new cases of community transmission of coronavirus were announced on Saturday.Meanwhile Victoria’s hard border blocking travel from NSW took effect, with the Victorian health minister, Martin Foley, saying he would not apologise for taking tough measures to prevent virus spread. The ACT health department also announced non-ACT residents travelling from affected areas of NSW would now need an exemption. Continue reading...

UK company says it will keep trying to use leverage to get compensation from local supplierTate & Lyle has been accused of betraying 200 families in Cambodia who have fought for years to secure compensation for land they say was taken from them to make way for a sugar plantation.Residents in Koh Kong, Cambodia, say their livelihoods, and their children’s futures, were devastated when their land was taken from them in a process that began in 2006. The land was later used to supply sugar to Tate & Lyle. Continue reading...

Some 9,000 cases yet to be formally reported as chief medical officer says biggest worry is rise in hospitalisations

Wright himself was filming the incident, then jumped a fence, dived into the water and pulled the woman to safetyAn Instagram video has caught an Australian pro surfer heroically stepping in to rescue a woman being swept away by strong currents in Hawaii.Mikey Wright was looking out over a beach, thought to be on Oahu’s north shore, when he saw a beachgoer struggling in the surf. Continue reading...

Dozens more died in large commercial plane crashes despite 42% drop in flights worldwideThe number of people killed in large commercial airplane crashes rose in 2020 to 299 worldwide despite a sharp decline in flights due to the coronavirus pandemic, a Dutch consulting firm has found.In 2020 there were 40 accidents involving large commercial passenger planes, five of which were fatal, resulting in 299 fatalities. In 2019 there were nearly double the number of accidents – 86 – eight of which were fatal, resulting in 257 fatalities, said aviation consulting firm To70. Continue reading...

Latest move was flagged in law passed last month after the assassination of country’s top nuclear scientistIran has told the United Nations nuclear watchdog it plans to enrich uranium to up to 20% purity, a level it achieved before its 2015 accord, at its Fordow site buried inside a mountain, the agency has said.The move is the latest of several recent announcements by Iran to the International Atomic Energy Agency that it plans to further breach the deal, which it started violating in 2019 in retaliation for Washington’s withdrawal from the agreement and the reimposition of US sanctions against Tehran. Continue reading...

Police no longer looking for a suspect after arrest of man in connection with death of Donald Ralph in EssexPolice on the hunt for Leighton Snook in connection with the murder of a pensioner earlier this week have arrested a 28-year-old man in Colchester.The suspect was wanted in connection with the killing of 83-year-old Donald Ralph at his home in the Essex village of Aldham on Tuesday. Continue reading...

It’s getting harder for young people to establish themselves as independent adults. Irresponsible lending practices will threaten that even moreEverything has been going right for Tash Drujinin of late.A few months ago the 29-year-old landed a stable job in the financial services sector. When many thousands were being laid off with the pandemic, she was made permanent and the security meant she could finally pay off the $20,000 she owed in credit card bills and personal loans. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Richard Forbes is being paid to produce videos documenting the recovery of communities hit by last summer’s firesA former senior Howard government media adviser has been awarded a $190,000 public relations contract with Australia’s bushfire recovery agency without a full tender process.Guardian Australia can reveal Richard Forbes, who was an adviser to the former deputy prime minister and Nationals leader Mark Vaile, is being paid to produce videos documenting the recovery of communities affected by the “black summer” bushfires. Continue reading...

US has almost twice as many confirmed coronavirus cases as the next worst-hit country, India, and almost 350,000 have diedThe US marked the first day of 2021 by surpassing the dismal landmark of 20 million coronavirus cases, as hospitals, undertakers, vaccine administrators and ordinary families struggled across the nation.More than 10,000 Americans died in the last three days of 2020 as the year finished with the pandemic, which has never been under control in the US since the start of the outbreak last January, breaking all the wrong world records. Continue reading...

We look at how the introduction of a new vaccine in the fight against Covid will work

Teachers and coronavirus | Honours and Spike Milligan | Art quiz | World leaders | Severn BridgeWhat? No teachers interviewed or photographed at the chalkface in praise of their efforts to keep schools running (Heroes of 2020, 22-31 December)? Rising levels of coronavirus among pupils put all teachers at risk. There is limited use of PPE and masks are not used in class. My son is one of those unsung and exposed heroes, with a wife who suffers from asthma.

Tehran says it will defend itself forcefully as tensions rise ahead of anniversary of Suleimani killingIran fears that Donald Trump is preparing to order a military attack on its regional interests in the final three weeks of his administration and has warned it would retaliate against US bases in the Middle East.Concerns have increased in Tehran over the past week that the US president could authorise a strike against Iranian proxy groups operating in Iraq, or a more extensive attack against Iran, a foe his government has attempted to break through nearly four years of economic sanctions and military muscle. Continue reading...

Violence increases amid stalled Taliban peace talks, with Isis claiming it was behind earlier journalist killing

Re-analysis of 2m Covid tests raises fresh questions about origin of B117 ‘UK strain’ and suggests it may already be widespreadA coronavirus variant carrying some of the same mutations as the highly contagious British variant may have been in the US since October and already be widespread, a re-analysis of more than 2m tests suggests. Continue reading...

As long as you expect your mother to be someone different, you will get hurt, says Annalisa BarbieriI am 29. When I was nine, I found a letter addressed to a man’s name I didn’t recognise. My parents were married. When I was 11, my dad told me my mum was having an affair that had begun before their marriage. He told me how she wouldn’t be there when he came home, and would disappear at weekends. Throughout my adolescence, this man would call the house and hang up, and send cards to my mum. My dad said she was a bad person and that her morals were all mixed up.I tried to speak to her about it as I got older, but she would angrily deny it. After my parents divorced, she thought she would be with the other man, but this never happened. Twenty years later, she still refuses to admit anything is going on. But over the years, I have seen many messages showing her wanting to be with him. Continue reading...

Disco-dancing crabs, flamingos under a volcano … and a frog freezing itself alive. Behind the scenes of the BBC’s new nature documentaryEd Charles, producer, Weather and Oceans

Agreement between UK and Spain will allow British territory to become part of Schengen areaSurrounded by fences and set against the dramatic backdrop of the Rock of Gibraltar, the frontier between Spain and Gibraltar has long set the pace of life in the southern tip of the Iberian peninsula, shuttling through as many as 30,000 cross-border workers and tourists on a daily basis.News that border controls could be a thing of the past, following a last-minute New Year’s Eve deal between the UK and Spain, was met with wonder, relief and a heady dose of wariness on both sides of the land border. Continue reading...

Gallery puts seldom-seen Divine Comedy sketches on display online to mark 700 years since poet’s deathEighty-eight rarely seen drawings of Dante’s The Divine Comedy have been put on virtual display as Italy begins a year-long calendar of events to mark the 700th anniversary of the poet’s death.The drawings, by the 16th-century Renaissance artist Federico Zuccari, are being exhibited online, for free, by the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Continue reading...

Videos taken near remote Highland area of Spean Bridge and over Edinburgh show drones taking off and forming stunning shapes, including a leaping stag

From exercising with animal noises to the thrills of a mini trampoline, readers share their secrets for staying healthy despite Covid restrictionsKeeping motivated while doing an online class is hard. When doing any exercise named after an animal, I find that making the sound of that animal makes the whole thing a lot more fun. For example: growl for bear crawls, yowl for leopard leaps, ribbit for frog-hop squat jumps, nibbling chatter for bunny hops, roaring for dragon crawls. I’ve also added a Mario-style “woo-hoo” for chest-to-floor burpees. In the gym, it would be hard to do this unless you don’t mind making a fool of yourself, but at home, with your mic on mute, no one knows. Iszi Lawrence, Reading Continue reading...

Large gatherings broken up across country but police say vast majority of people stuck to rules

As Brexit’s tangible effects kick in, we look at the impact the EU’s most far-reaching project has had on British society

More than 9,000 readers contribute to charities supporting young people through Covid crisis

Anderson says he will not seek re-election after police extend his bail over corruption investigation

I have always been a voracious reader. But one day I realised my passion for books had turned into a maniaThe need for last year’s resolution started in my childhood. (Don’t they all?) By the age of six, I was reading braille at an unheard-of speed, to the point where the teacher at my blind school accused me of lying when I said I had finished the three books she had given me that morning. It was the start of a lifelong problem: braille books were scarce, but I could not get enough of them.The school had devised a particularly cruel and subtle form of torture for someone like me: they kept just one title of a child’s favourite author in the school library; for example, just one Famous Five book, one Billy Bunter, one Just William. As I grew older and my tastes changed, the problem remained the same: one Raymond Chandler, one PG Wodehouse, just one even mildly dirty book when puberty hit. Continue reading...

Analysis shows average car journey times have also increased after Kensington and Chelsea council took out laneA much-used cycle lane in London that was removed because the local council said it was impeding the flow of motor vehicles has since been blocked by parked cars up to 80% of the time, a study by a campaign group has found.Computer analysis of traffic cameras on Kensington High Street have also shown that average car journey times appear to have increased since officials took out the bike lane just seven weeks after it was installed. Continue reading...

Bangladesh authorities under pressure from rights activists including Bianca Jagger over detention of Abul KaramBangladesh authorities are facing calls to release a Rohingya man arrested while photographing the transfer of refugees to a controversial island camp this week.Abul Kalam, 35, has been held since Monday morning when he was reportedly beaten before being taken to police barracks near the Kutupalong refugee camp, where he has lived since leaving Myanmar as a child refugee in the early 1990s. Continue reading...

Recalling the delivery of the Streets and the music of James Blake, David Balfe’s project is a cathartic document in the wake his best friend’s death

Raised between Accra and Atlanta, the genre-rejecting singer draws from her cosmopolitan upbringing – and a love of Kelis – to confront narrow definitions of womanhood

Wiltshire voted to leave the EU but jubilation is in short supply as the UK finally exitsAs the UK’s departure from the EU loomed, Alex Joll, who runs the Free Range Cafe in Trowbridge’s grand old town hall, thought he had better stockpile one of his key products.“It’s quite random,” he said. “Our coffee comes from Peru, but is stored in a huge warehouse in Germany before coming to the UK, where it is roasted. I thought I’d better stock up just in case. I got in an extra month’s worth a little while ago to tide us over just in case.” Continue reading...

Move has been well-received across political spectrum, while triggering calls to improve treatment of Indigenous AustraliansScott Morrison’s decision to tweak Australia’s national anthem so it no longer ignores tens of thousands of years of Indigenous history has won support from across the political spectrum.But the prime minister’s surprise move to change the line “young and free” to “one and free” also triggered calls for the government to take more ambitious steps to improve the treatment of First Nations peoples. Continue reading...

Move part of diplomatic reboot of efforts to cajole opposing sides into forming national unity governmentThe United Nations will try to reboot its push towards national unity in Libya by bringing in monitors to oversee a widely flouted ceasefire and by forcing the country’s riven political leadership to find a mechanism for electing a prime minister.UN officials said Libya was locked in a race against time to make tangible progress towards forming a national unity government and avoid the possible collapse of a three-month ceasefire. Continue reading...

Nicola Sturgeon says Scotland will be back soon, while Nigel Farage hails exit from EUSome politicians in Britain and the EU have expressed triumph while others voiced bitter regret after the UK’s Brexit transition period ended on Thursday night.

Few fireworks, social distancing and watching from home: Australasia rings in the new normal during subdued celebrations to farewell 2020 – a year like no other

Freight traffic mayhem subsides at Kent port, but concerns remain over lorry parks and paperworkAfter a week of mayhem, the roads of Kent are eerily deserted, almost devoid of freight traffic as lorry drivers from all over the EU avoid Dover and the Eurotunnel as the Brexit transition period ends.The only reminder of the potential for Brexit chaos are the miles and miles of detritus – plastic bottles, shopping bags, and even towels – strewn along the banks of the southbound M20 motorway to the cliffs of Dover. Continue reading...

Rod Phillips steps down as finance minister of Canada’s most populous province, adding to pressure on the premier, Doug FordThe finance minister for Canada’s most populous province has resigned after going on a Caribbean vacation during the pandemic and apparently trying to hide the fact by sending social media posts showing him in a sweater before a fireplace.Ontario’s premier, Doug Ford, said on Thursday he had accepted Rod Phillips’s resignation as minister hours after Phillips returned home from a more than two-week stay on the island of St Barts despite government guidelines urging people to avoid non-essential travel. Continue reading...

Announcement comes as large retailers pause deliveries or cancel orders over uncertainty about rulesBusinesses in Great Britain sending parcels to customers in Northern Ireland will not have to complete new customs processes for three months, the government has said.The announcement came after large retailers including the department store chain John Lewis paused deliveries to the region, while others cancelled orders, owing to uncertainty about the introduction of mandatory controls on the Irish Sea border after Brexit. Continue reading...

Boris Johnson signed his post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union on Wednesday, adding his signature to that of EU chiefs after the document was flown from Brussels to London Continue reading...

There is surprisingly little formal research into how best to deal with bug bites and stings but there are some things that might helpIt’s the holidays and we’re spending more time outdoors. This means we’re exposed to the more annoying and painful aspects of summer – insect bites and stings.There are plenty of products at the local pharmacy to treat these. Some treat the initial bite or sting, others the itchy aftermath. Continue reading...

Photographer Rachel Mounsey has documented the year after the blazes tore through her home regionStanding in my backyard under a searing midday sun, the bricklayer’s sinewy arms are splayed out, rollie in one hand, trowel in the other. Bart the brickie reenacts the moment he thought might have been his last.He is reliving putting out embers with his flannelette shirt and driving over flames in his old Holden Commodore. He throws the trowel down and with his finger draws a fire map in the wet cement. His fingers dash and dot to signify embers falling from the sky, and a looming fire front creeping down from the ridge. Continue reading...

British and Spanish negotiators have reached a draft agreement on the future of Gibraltar after Brexit. Spain’s foreign minister, Arancha González Laya, welcomed the deal which she said meant the British Overseas Territory on the southern tip of the Iberian peninsula would be able to join EU programmes and policies such as Schengen

Assault reportedly targeted Syrian regime soldiers returning to their posts in Deir ez-Zor, near Iraq borderAt least 37 people in Syria have been killed in one of the biggest attacks carried out by Islamic State since the fall of the self-proclaimed caliphate last year.The assault on Wednesday reportedly targeted a convoy of Syrian regime soldiers and militiamen returning from leave to their posts in Deir ez-Zor province, a mainly desert area on the border with Iraq. Continue reading...

Fifty years ago, a hit album proved whales “sing” – and led to one of the great environmental success stories. But soon it could all be for nothingIn June 1975, a small group of activists set off from the coast of California in an 85ft boat. They were headed for the Dalniy Vostok factory ship, which was at sea conducting business as usual: harpooning sperm whales.The activists were members of Greenpeace, an organisation that had only recently been founded, in Vancouver in 1971, and they were setting out to meet the Russian whaling ship under the banner of what would become one of the most famous slogans of the environmental movement, Save the Whales. Continue reading...