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Man, 29, says shark bite at Kangaroo Island’s D’Estrees Bay was ‘like being hit by a truck’Paramedics have hailed the “remarkable” survival story of a South Australian surfer who swam back to shore alone and walked 300 metres for help after suffering “extraordinary” injuries from a shark bite at a remote beach.Paramedic Michael Rushby said the man had “serious” lacerations on his back, backside and leg “consistent with quite a large shark bite”, but managed to haul himself to safety. Continue reading...

The horror director is back with a sci-fi shocker about mind-robbing assassins going on violent killing sprees. He tells our writer why digital effects just don’t cut the eyeballBrandon Cronenberg has the sniffles. This would not be worthy of note, but for the fact that the 40-year-old Canadian film-maker, son of horror pioneer David, made his directorial debut in 2012 with Antiviral, about a clinic that harvests diseases from celebrities. For the right price, patients can be infected with Hollywood herpes, or catch the exact strain of flu that caused their favourite singer to cancel a tour. So whose cold is he wearing? “Nothing so interesting,” says Cronenberg through a bunged-up nose. “It’s just sinus trouble. Sorry, I didn’t mean to be disgusting.”It’s a bit late for that, as anyone who has seen his films will attest. In Antiviral, restaurants serve steaks cultivated from A-list muscle tissue – while his new psychological horror, Possessor, features assassins who inhabit people’s bodies via neural implants, then use them as puppets to carry out hits. One such operative, played by Andrea Riseborough, is having difficulty negotiating the work-life balance. Although equipped with a gun, she takes it upon herself to sever her victim’s jugular instead. The stabbing felt “in character”, she says during her debriefing, to which her boss, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh, asks: “Whose character?” Decanted into another patsy, Riseborough goes wild, driving a poker into her target’s mouth and breaking his teeth like biscuits, before gouging out an eyeball for good measure. Continue reading...

The band’s last surviving member talks about falling out with his brothers before they died, how his wife saved him from drugs – and why he had to ask Michael Jackson to leave his house

Exclusive: bereaved families claim police misused information and intruded on grief

Helena Smith on 30 years as Greece correspondent, meeting resistance heroes, being quoted by Obama, and Golden DawnAll roads lead to this part of the world fairly early on. My history with Greece began in my 20s, although I arrived here via Cyprus, where I spent some of my childhood. Continue reading...

What are the restrictions within Victoria and the border closures with NSW and Queensland? How far can I travel, and how many people can I have at my house? Untangle Australia’s Covid-19 laws and guidelines with our guide

St John Ambulance warns it may be forced to close down over Christmas or sell some of its fleetPapua New Guinea’s main ambulance service – St John Ambulance – has been allocated no money in the government’s budget for 2021.St John Ambulance runs a fleet in the capital, Port Moresby, and across provincial centres. For much of the country it is the only ambulance service. Continue reading...

Sticking points between the two sides are still fisheries, fair competition and governanceIt seems like deja vu, yet another crunch week with talks centring on three issues: fisheries, fair competition and governance.But with key meeting of EU leaders at a council summit on Thursday, most are agreed there are only three or four days left to seal an agreement. Continue reading...

Terms on access to UK waters all but finalised, say Brussels sources, but issue of following EU laws remains an obstacle

Statement comes after the UK culture secretary said he was going to write to company to request caveatNetflix has said it has no plans to add a disclaimer to The Crown stating that the hit series is a work of fiction, after the UK culture secretary said he was going to write to request such a caveat.In a statement on Saturday, Netflix said: “We have always presented The Crown as a drama and we have every confidence our members understand it’s a work of fiction that’s broadly based on historical events. Continue reading...

Medical director warns of great hurdles in largest vaccination campaign in UK history

It’s been an amazing year for the 24-year-old star of The Queen’s Gambit. She reflects on Netflix’s unlikely chess drama hit and her next film, an Edgar Wright psychological thriller

PM lauds 1978 constitution after some former armed forces members rue demise of Franco dictatorshipSpain has celebrated the 42nd anniversary of the constitution that ushered the country back to democracy following the end of the Franco dictatorship, as some former members of the armed forces made inflammatory declarations.The prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said the 1978 constitution was “the greatest success of our collective history” and hailed 42 years of “peace, co-existence and freedom”. Continue reading...

The Imperial College epidemiologist behind influential Covid modelling found himself in the unwelcome glare of the media

Heirs of Jewish art dealers bring case over Guelph Treasure that defence lawyers say could open floodgates

The fitness coach whose streamed workouts attracted record viewers became a beacon of wellbeing and positivity during Britain’s first lockdown

Statement on author’s official website says his views caused ‘lasting and understandable hurt’The family of Roald Dahl has apologised for his antisemitism in a statement buried deep in the author’s official website.Dahl, who died 30 years ago, is described on the site as “the world’s No 1 storyteller”, whose books – including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda and The BFG – have entranced children since the 1960s. Continue reading...

Singer should have been self-isolating after trip to Egypt when she celebrated birthday at London venueBritish singer Rita Ora has apologised after reports emerged that she should have been self-isolating when she celebrated her birthday at a London restaurant last month.The 30-year-old flew to Egypt in a private jet on 21 November to perform at the five-star W Hotel in Cairo, an appearance for which she was paid a six-figure sum, the Mail on Sunday reported. Continue reading...

Consumers don’t want to know their stuff is made by forced Uighur labourToday’s confrontation with the slave trade of the 18th and 19th centuries could puff us up and make us feel better about ourselves were the slave trade of the 21st not thriving. We will remember 2020 for the crowds taking down statues of Confederate generals and English slavers; of Black Lives Matter protests against slavery’s continuing legacy of condemning African Americans to suffer as their country’s lowest caste.So successful has the overdue moment of reckoning been that Hollywood and the leaders of American capitalism have embraced anti-racism. In the words of its CEO, Tim Cook, Apple was willing to commit to change that would end “the fear, hurt, and outrage rightly provoked by the senseless killing of George Floyd and a much longer history of racism”. Do not let a leftish sneer form on your lips. Causes only win when the likes of Tim Cook endorse them. The elite’s embrace is a sign of victory. Continue reading...

Police and officials maintain presence at mass trespass after bypass approvedMore than 100 protesters have staged a trespass at Stonehenge to raise concerns over plans for a two-mile tunnel underneath the world heritage site.Last month the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, approved the £1.7bn project, which will include eight miles of extended dual carriageway along the A303 in Wiltshire. Continue reading...

Posts shared thousands of times shone a spotlight on nurses and doctors speaking out during the pandemicMidway through the afternoon on Thursday 19 March, Dawn Bilbrough, a critical care nurse of 20 years, was on her way home after four punishing days of 12-hour shifts. Stopping to get fresh food at the supermarket, she found the shelves empty, and people walking around in a daze, “just stunned”. By the next morning, on her work break still in her scrubs, she was on ITV’s This Morning. Continue reading...

Statement following arrest as part of fraud inquiry says he was interviewed for six hoursThe mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, has said he is cooperating with police inquiries and supports the Labour party’s decision to suspend him following his arrest as part of a fraud investigation.The mayor, who has led Liverpool for a decade, was one of five men arrested on Friday during an investigation into building and development contracts in the city. Continue reading...

Alert in south of England as national rail reports flooding on some Scottish routesParts of Scotland and southern England experienced transport disruptions and multiple flood warnings on Saturday morning following heavy rainfall.While Friday brought “thundersnow” to some parts of Scotland, and other parts of the UK woke up to wintry scenes, Saturday’s forecast featured more rain. Continue reading...

Leaving London for Brussels on Saturday morning, the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, told reporters: ‘We keep calm, as always, and if there is still a way, we will see.’ UK government sources have put the chances of a Brexit deal at no higher than 50% as Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen prepare to open direct talks after their negotiators failed to reach agreement

Men in their mid-30s drown and boy, 9, in hospital, after incident on Australia’s Sunshine CoastTwo men have drowned and a boy has been taken to hospital after getting into trouble in the surf on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.The men in their mid-30s were pulled from the water at Teewah Beach in Noosa North Shore about 2.30pm on Saturday but could not be revived. Continue reading...

UK prime minister to speak directly to Ursula von der Leyen to unblock talks on trade dealBoris Johnson and the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, will speak on Saturday in an attempt to unblock talks on a post-Brexit trade deal. Continue reading...

Investigations into cause of incident in Illingworth area of Halifax on Saturday morning are ongoingAn explosion in a house in West Yorkshire has left three people in hospital.The incident happened shortly after 7.30 am on Saturday in Green Lane in the Illingworth area of Halifax.

Vaccine could be in use by 2024 if next year’s human trials are successfulThe Oxford team that has produced a successful coronavirus vaccine is about to enter the final stage of human trials in its quest for an inoculation against malaria.The Jenner Institute director, Prof Adrian Hill, said the malaria vaccine would be tested on 4,800 children in Africa next year after early trials yielded promising results. Continue reading...

Local councils raise concerns about congestion and pollution around ‘inland border facility’Concerns have been raised about tailbacks of as many as 700 lorries a day queueing for Brexit checks in a new government site to be opened near Warrington.The lorry park in Appleton Thorn was previously used as a coach interchange for the holiday company Shearings, and was chosen because there were no suitable sites available for lorries coming from Ireland into Liverpool, Holyhead and Heysham ports. Continue reading...

The prize-winning author’s life is now an episode of Steve McQueen’s hit series Small Axe. He talks about working on the project and his latest novel, based on a Jamaican slave uprisingAmid the brunchtime clatter of a busy south London cafe, Alex Wheatle is talking about how, lately, he has been considering 1970s pop culture and the way it has shaped and warped his perception of self. “I grew up with Tarzan on TV; Tarzan beating up all the black guys he came across and being able to talk to the animals while the black people couldn’t,” he says. “And I hate to admit it, but when I was 10 or 11, I actually cheered for Tarzan when he was fighting with a so-called ‘savage’. It was only later that I thought: ‘I think I’ve got that wrong.’”In many ways, Wheatle’s 20-year writing career has been about correcting that wrong. Because if the focus of the author’s extraordinary early years was on mistruths around his heritage – about its history, its value, its implicit inferiority to a loin-clothed white saviour – then the intervening period has been all about creating the depictions of nuanced black heroism he was denied as a child. Continue reading...

Want to give a little love with a handmade present, but don’t know where to start? Try these ideas from artists and designersA friend once gave me a copy of The Lonely Doll by Dare Wright, a cult picture book about a doll who knits a scarf as a Christmas gift for Mr Bear because, she says, a present you make is so much better than one you buy. The sentiment is more relevant this year than ever – the thought is what counts, and 2020 will be the year of the homemade Christmas present.When kept apart from family and loved ones, the surest way to show how much you care is to make a gift, however small. And it’s the perfect way to while away long winter evenings at home. Continue reading...

In 2016, the Guardian spoke to 16-year-olds across the globe about their hopes and dreams. As they turn 20 in a global pandemic, we tracked them down

Health workers and teachers have priority in first mass immunisation programme

Turkey and all the trimmings is all very well, but to turn heads this Christmas, try out this roast spatchcock chicken in chilli butter with a Gruffalo-inspired stuffing cake, sweet potatoes roasted with pecan and lime, and a zingy sprout slawIf you’ve never spatchcocked a chicken, you can now add it to the list of “things I had time for in 2020 that I would never have done otherwise” (or ask the butcher to do it for you). If you want to get ahead, prepare the chicken the day before: refrigerate it all laid out and ready in the tray, but remember to bring it up to room temperature before it goes in the oven. Continue reading...

Whether you’ve lost your job or fallen out of love with it, many people turned to something new this year. We meet those who did – plus a beginner’s guide to taking the plungeFor 21 years, Ian Garrett worked in the oil industry. He started his career at BP, then made his way up through the ranks, eventually becoming the chief well engineer for Tullow Oil. He worked long days; his job required a lot of travel, and took him from the North Sea to places such as Angola, Ghana and Algeria. But, at the age of 43, he has just finalised his application to become a schoolteacher. “Assuming that’s successful, I’ll start the PGCE in secondary school maths teaching next September, graduate from that by the following summer, and I’ll be teaching full-time in September 2022.”Garrett was made redundant from the oil company at the start of the first lockdown. He planned to use his redundancy package to take the summer off, and start looking for work later in the year. But when he and his wife ended up home schooling their two children, aged six and eight, he became one of the few parents to enjoy the experience. “I loved it, actually,” he says. “I found it really rewarding.” Continue reading...

When R numbers have been daily news, and medical officers have shared platforms with politicians, Gaia Vince reflects on a challenging and exhilarating year of being a science writerThis year has had the makings of an epic saga: a monstrous disease that took over the world, killing the oldest, poorest and most vulnerable, imprisoning the population in lockdown – and the heroic scientists who battled day and night to create a miracle vaccine to defeat it. Books are already being written about their quest, and we will rush to read them, hoping to understand more about this terrible pandemic and how it was ended.It has been an extraordinary year to be a science writer, watching the formerly niche subjects of epidemiology, virology and immunology take centre stage – a bit like how it must be for constitutional law experts when a new Brexit detail is announced. Suddenly, being a scientist – and writing about science – was more interesting to the public than making movies or playing football (especially when neither of these was allowed). The scramble to get a grip on this invisible global killer was all-consuming, and writers rose to the challenge, producing reams of coverage: the disease was only officially named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (Sars-CoV-2) on 11 February; by June, the first book on it had been published. Continue reading...

Anyone can make a bad movie. But, from The Room to Cats, it takes something special to make a turkey that stands the test of timeThere is nothing quite like a good-bad movie. Sometimes the title alone is enough to let us know what we’re in for: think Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958). Sometimes the good-badness might be about knowing we are guaranteed an over-ripe performance from a particular star: think Nicolas Cage from around 2010 onwards. Sometimes a lurid or ridiculous premise promises a good time all by itself (see: Night of the Lepus, AKA the killer rabbit movie). But whether or not the creative minds behind these kinds of cultural landmarks were in on the joke is sometimes less self-evident.Related: The Guide: Staying In – sign up for our home entertainment tips Continue reading...

As Covid infections rose, hospital felt like an increasingly dangerous place to have a baby. But is labouring without midwives or doctors the answer?

Monisha Rajesh had a complex relationship with her parents’ homeland, until she saw all of Indian life played out on the country’s railwaySix-people deep, and growing by the second, the crowd tensed. A single knuckle pressed into my back and betel-nut breath filled my nostrils as a steady beat rose above the din. Against the peach pink of Mumbai’s evening skies, the commuter service curled into view, passengers hanging from the sides like moving livery. Braking with a wail and grind of metal, the train slowed into the station and I braced against the surge of bodies from behind. Like relay runners, they began to move before the train had stopped, reaching over my head at the same time as a torrent of polyester shirts and satchels thundered down from the open doorways.A slice of papaya in one hand my bag gripped with the other, I battled through elbows, meaty shoulders and thick plaits slicked with coconut oil. In the crush the papaya was knocked to the ground and my sandal came off, but I made it on board and fell sideways into a seat as the train jerked away from the platform. Wiping someone else’s sweat from my arm, I watched fellow travellers scrabble for handholds, adjust saris and pull out phones before relaxing into the ride with a mix of relief and pride. I’d survived my first experience on the infamous Mumbai “locals”. Continue reading...

Aiden, 29, teacher, meets Charlotte, 26, actorWhat were you hoping for?

Five still trapped after accident involving workers dismantling underground equipment at Diaoshuidong coal mine

Rightwing prime minister Viktor Orbán reignites anti-Soros rhetoric with EU disputeHungary’s rightwing prime minister, Viktor Orbán, is threatening to veto the new EU budget over a provision that would link some funding to rule-of-law concerns. As the standoff intensifies, he has found a familiar enemy to blame: the 90-year-old financier and philanthropist George Soros.Orbán has reinvigorated his government’s anti-Soros campaign, which has often been marked by conspiratorial and antisemitic rhetoric, as Hungary and Poland have tussled with other European leaders over the so-called “rule-of-law” mechanism. The dispute is holding up final agreement on the EU’s €1.7tn (£1.5tn) seven-year budget and recovery package. Continue reading...

Restaurant closed down after photos posted online showed dozens of maskless partiers, including Florida congressman Matt GaetzNew Jersey’s governor, Phil Murphy, has said authorities are investigating a New York Republican club for holding a political gala fundraiser that appeared to violate the state’s coronavirus guidelines.Photos and video posted on Twitter showed dozens of maskless partiers at the New York Young Republican Club event on Thursday night in Jersey City. Continue reading...

David Fuller, 66, from East Sussex, will appear before Medway magistrates’ court on SaturdayA 66-year-old man has been charged with the murder of two women in Kent more than 30 years ago.Police said David Fuller, from Heathfield, East Sussex, has been charged with two counts of murder in connection with the deaths of Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce in 1987. Continue reading...

Award-winning actor admits cutting his own hair with device long before salons closed this year due to CovidWith salons largely closed until this week, male grooming has been in freefall since the start of the spring lockdown. DIY haircuts have not been successful for all. Yet one Hollywood star has proved that even in a global pandemic, bad hair is not the great equaliser we hoped it would be.George Clooney, the 59-year-old award-winning actor and human rights activist, has admitted to successfully cutting his own hair at home using a device called a Flowbee. “My hair’s really like straw, so it’s easy,” he told CBS Sunday Morning. Continue reading...

World Health Organization leaders have warned vaccines do not mean the end of the coronavirus pandemic, and renewed their advice to follow guidelines during the Christmas and new year period

Katharine Murphy talks to MP Anne Webster after her defamation case against conspiracy theorist Karen Brewer. Webster intends to bring forward legislation that would force Facebook and other platforms to assume editorial responsibility for the content they publish, in an effort to combat proliferating misinformation. How would the legislation work? Will senior ministers support it? What impact would it have on Australian media? Continue reading...

Taitusi Ratucaucau served 11 years in the Royal Logistics Corps, only for his contract to be terminated and his life left in limboTwo decades ago, when Taitusi Ratucaucau signed his papers, there was such hope. A career in the British Army would bring security, adventure, a sense, too, of service.In 2000, his homeland Fiji, roiled by a protracted and violent coup, held little hope. A career in the British military was Ratucaucau’s ticket to a wider world. Continue reading...