Shoko Arai was voted out of her seat after making allegations against mayor that most residents said damaged the town’s reputationThe only female member of a town assembly in Japan has been voted out of her seat after she accused the mayor of sexual assault, in a setback for the country’s nascent #MeToo movement.Shoko Arai, until Monday a councillor in Kusatsu, a popular hot spring resort north-west of Tokyo, lost her seat after more than 90% of residents voted to recall her, saying she had damaged the town’s reputation, Japanese media reported. Continue reading...

Analysis: Even with the world’s largest vaccination scheme already in place, the distribution at this scale has huge potential pitfalls

She was a rock’n’roll powerhouse who electrified audiences worldwide. As Tina Turner releases a guide to happiness, she talks to playwright V (formerly Eve Ensler) about how she found the strength to overcome illness, abuse and tragedy

The Strictly Come Dancing judge reveals which contestant surprised him the most and why he’s looking forward to getting booed twice a day in Robin HoodYou’re a panto regular – what do you enjoy most about it?

8 December 1973: Nobody any longer bothers to deny that Atlantic relations have gone sour. But the Europeans feel that they have been more sinned against than sinningDr Kissinger’s first appearance on the NATO stage is awaited by the European allies with a mixture of interest and irritation – all the more so since he has not used diplomatic channels to give advance notice of what he plans to discuss with his colleagues.Nobody any longer bothers to deny that Atlantic relations have gone sour. But the Europeans feel that they have been more sinned against than sinning. After years of neglect of Western European interests, with Dr Kissinger and Mr Nixon concentrating on Vietnam, the Soviet Union, and China, the Europeans were suddenly told last April that their turn had come and this was the Year of Europe. The Atlantic Charter was to be updated. Continue reading...

New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern apologises for police and security failings but says they would not have stopped the attackNew Zealand’s security agencies were “almost exclusively” focused on the threat from Islamist terrorism at the time of the 2019 Christchurch shooting, in which a gunman shot dead 51 Muslim worshippers, an inquiry into the country’s worst peacetime massacre has found.The landmark Christchurch royal commission report, which was released on Tuesday after 20 months of consultation, also revealed police failed to enforce proper checks on firearm licences. Continue reading...

The Smithsonian national zoo’s three giant pandas will stay in Washington for another three years, upholding a decades-long traditionDonald Trump may have done his best to disrupt Washington’s relations with Beijing, but at least Americans will still be able to enjoy the original bonus of more open links with China: giant pandas.Ever since Richard Nixon welcomed the gift of the animals when he “opened up” China in the early 70s, panda diplomacy has loomed large in relations between the two countries. Continue reading...

The nearly 800-page report is the result of an extensive inquiry into the March 2019 mosque attacks in which 51 people were killed2.42am GMTMore from AAP:Commissioners interviewed the Grafton-raised man, who is serving a lifetime sentence for the terror attack, as part of the 18-month investigation.

Chris Patten says Communist party ‘trying to hammer Australia’ with trade actions in order to set an example for other countriesAustralia needs help from governments around the world to resist “the most extreme example of coercive, commercial” pressure from China, otherwise those countries will be “picked off” in the same way, the last British governor of Hong Kong has said.Chris Patten, the governor from 1992 to until the handover to China in 1997, also told the Guardian he was “extremely sad” about the crackdown in Hong Kong this year and believed it reflected a change in character of the Chinese Communist party (CCP) under Xi Jinping’s leadership. Continue reading...

Disputes will test the limits of the jurisdiction of US courts as judges weigh whether property stolen from Jews can be recoveredThe US supreme court is wrestling with the vexed question of whether art and other property stolen by the Nazis from Jews in Germany and Hungary can be recovered or recouped through the US courts.On Monday, the nine justices heard oral arguments in two cases. Continue reading...

Hari Shukla, 87, and his wife Ranjan to have first of two injections of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine

Sydney and Melbourne nightclubs are finally open (with a few Covidsafe caveats) – and for LGBTQI people, an essential space has returnedThe perfect lockdown anthem came pretty early in 2020: Charli XCX’s frantic, party-thirsty Anthems, from her album released in mid-May. She starts by declaring “I’m so bored” before recounting days in lockdown and everything she desperately craves about partying: anthems, late nights, her friends, “the heat from all the bodies”. Charli also misses New York – although the city that never sleeps is still very deep in its Covid-induced nap.It’s a different story in Australia where, after seven months, Sydney and Melbourne finally got the green light to return to nightclubs on Monday. There was one sticking point: no more than 50 people on the dancefloor at once, with enough space for one person per four square metres. Continue reading...

Changes intended to benefit innocent suspects kept some attackers at liberty until trialVictims have been left unprotected and a suspected paedophile left free to strike after government changes to bail plunged parts of the criminal justice system into chaos, an official report has found.The report from the police and prosecution inspectorates found damage was caused to the confidence of domestic abuse victims, whose alleged attackers were left free without restrictions while cases came to court. Continue reading...

Gag about former No 10 adviser tops TV channel Gold’s top 10 list of seasonal gagsMoments of light relief have been hard to come by this year but the annual ranking of topical Christmas cracker jokes provides some, with the top spot taken by one that has a punchline featuring a Chris Rea song and Dominic Cummings.The TV channel Gold’s eighth annual ranking, which is chosen by a panel chaired by the comedy critic Bruce Dessau, was put to 2,000 voters who chose: “What is Dominic Cummings’ favourite Christmas song? Driving Home for Christmas”, as the best cracker joke this year. Continue reading...

Latest updates: move to remove clause allowing UK to break international law is rejected in Commons vote

PM to make trip in 11th-hour effort to break impasse, raising hopes of a deal on trade and security

Kirill Shamalov purchased large stake in Russian petrochemicals company months after marrying Katerina TikhonovaA Russian businessman who was married to Vladimir Putin’s daughter received an estimated $380m (£283m) stake in a Russian petrochemicals company for just $100, an investigation by Russia’s iStories investigative outlet has claimed.The investigation, published in collaboration with the the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), used a trove of leaked emails to shine new light on the closed circle of family and associates who surround the Russian president. Continue reading...

Next year will be the last for publication that challenged the Bible for No. 1 circulation spotAt its peak, the Ikea catalogue was said to have a greater circulation than that of the Bible. But while around 40m copies of the Bible are expected to be distributed around the world next year, the catalogue of the Swedish furniture giant will, after seven decades, no longer be published because demand has fallen.“It has been one of our best-known and best-loved products for 70 years, inspiring billions of people around the world,” an Ikea manager, Konrad Grüss, said in a statement. As ever fewer people were reading it, leading to the decision to “respectfully end the successful career of the Ikea catalogue”. Continue reading...

Claim thought to relate to article alleging that duke had not kept in contact with Royal MarinesThe Duke of Sussex has launched a libel action against Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Mail on Sunday, the same newspaper against which his wife, the Duchess of Sussex, is pursuing separate legal action.Documents were lodged with the high court by the couple’s legal team, Schillings, on 27 November. Continue reading...

Shooting of cousins aged just four and seven, allegedly by police, heightens calls for national reckoning over ‘genocide’The shooting of two young black girls – who had between them enjoyed fewer than 11 years of life – has sparked outrage in Brazil and intensified the debate over police violence and structural racism in a country still grappling with the legacy of slavery.Emily Victoria Moreira dos Santos and Rebeca Beatriz Rodrigues Santos, cousins aged four and seven, were killed on Friday night as they played outside their grandmother’s home in Barro Vermelho, a redbrick favela on Rio’s rundown northern fringe. Continue reading...

Warning comes after closure of Christmas market in Nottingham, also under tier 3 Covid restrictions

Katie Stewart of Borders general hospital in Scotland is eligible for one of the first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech jab

UK offers to drop sections that would breach international law in potential sign of softening attitudesThe government has said it may drop sections of its internal market bill that would breach international law by letting the UK unilaterally rewrite parts of the Brexit departure agreement, in a potential sign of softening attitudes.A government statement said the change in stance followed talks between the UK and EU via the withdrawal agreement joint committee, the body intended to iron out disagreements over the document, signed in January. Continue reading...

Mexico has become a major importer of spying kit but officials are accused of colluding with criminal groups – and innocent individuals are often targetedCorrupt Mexican officials have helped drug cartels in the country obtain state-of-the-art spyware which can be used to hack mobile phones, according to a senior DEA official.As many as 25 private companies – including the Israeli company NSO Group and the Italian firm Hacking Team – have sold surveillance software to Mexican federal and state police forces, but there is little or no regulation of the sector – and no way to control where the spyware ends up, said the officials. Continue reading...

Government confirms no delay, despite demands from businesses and farmers in Northern IrelandChecks on goods crossing the Irish Sea into Northern Ireland will be imposed from 1 January with no delays in implementation, despite protests from local businesses and farming leaders, the government has confirmed.Local businesses implored EU leaders last month to delay the new trading arrangements, saying they were being given weeks to prepare for a new system that would normally take up to 18 months. Continue reading...

Navigating the world when you’re unemployed, says Michelle Lim, feels like being in a maze. She is one of a generation of young Australians whose lives are being shaped by Covid

Tim Watts and Dave Sharma also say Chinese Australian communities are assets and warn against ‘descent into McCarthyism’Australia would be shooting itself in the foot if it tried to untangle itself from economic reliance on China, politicians from both major parties have declared, while warning there is no end in sight to the turbulence in the relationship.Labor MP Tim Watts cautioned on Tuesday that economic decoupling from China – an idea that is advanced by some of the most hawkish politicians in Canberra – would be “an unprecedented act of national self-sabotage”. Continue reading...

Star is a frequent flogger of his own songs and this move is in keeping with his sharp commercial sense

In a new documentary, film-maker Tommy Oliver explores the struggle to free black radical group Move Nine and the systemic racism that led to their imprisonmentAbout 20 minutes into 40 Years a Prisoner, Tommy Oliver’s powerful new documentary about the decades-long struggle to free the incarcerated black radicals known as the Move Nine, the film-maker accompanies the central character in his movie, Mike Africa Jr, back to the place of his birth.The camera follows Africa as he walks down the eerily abandoned corridor of G Wing in Philadelphia’s House of Corrections, its paint peeling and doors ajar, until he comes to the last cell. He enters the tiny white concrete cell, empty now but for two metal cots, one of which he lies down upon. “The number of times …” he says, staring up at the ceiling without finishing the sentence. Continue reading...

Deal covers 600 songs including Blowin’ in the Wind and Knockin’ on Heaven’s DoorBob Dylan has sold his entire catalogue of 600 songs, including Blowin’ in the Wind and Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, to Universal Music in the biggest music publishing deal in decades.While the terms of the deal were not disclosed, the volume and popularity of the 79-year-old’s work is likely to mean it is one of the most lucrative music publishing sales ever struck, with the New York Times reporting on Monday that it was worth more than $300m (£225m). Continue reading...

Welsh health minister refuses to rule out more restrictions as hospital cases hit new high

Hashem Abedi, 23, makes admission for first time over bombing that killed 22 people, inquiry hearsThe imprisoned terrorist Hashem Abedi, 23, has admitted for the first time his involvement in planning the Manchester Arena bombing that killed 22 people, a public inquiry has heard.Abedi, 23, the brother of the suicide bomber Salman Abedi, 22, made the admission in prison in October while being interviewed by two members of the inquiry’s legal team as part of the inquiry into the atrocity on 22 May 2017. Continue reading...

Senior commander says weapon ‘zoomed in’ on Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, leaving his wife uninjuredThe assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist last month was carried out remotely with artificial intelligence and a machine gun equipped with a “satellite-controlled smart system”, Iranian news agencies quoted a senior Iranian commander as saying.Ali Fadavi, the deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, told Iranian news agencies that Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was driving when a weapon opened fire on his car on a highway near Tehran. The weapon “zoomed in on Fakhrizadeh” using an “advanced camera”, Fadavi said. “No terrorists were present on the ground.” Continue reading...

The killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was designed to undermine the possibility of a quick US-Iran detente come January 2021The assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, on 27 November, which is likely to have been carried out by Israel, was intended to undermine the possibility of a quick US-Iran detente once the president-elect, Joe Biden, takes office in January. It’s part of a scorched earth campaign by Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump to make it as difficult as possible for Iran to resume negotiations with the Biden administration and return to the 2015 nuclear agreement.But the brazen killing is also designed to exploit rifts within Iran’s factional political structure: between conservative politicians and hardline factions aligned with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, and the reformist camp led by the president, Hassan Rouhani. In January, the US assassinated Iran’s most powerful general, Qassem Suleimani, in a drone strike outside Baghdad’s airport. That attack exposed weaknesses in Iran’s security apparatus and the regime was unable to follow through on threats to avenge the targeting of its top officials. Iran did fire missiles at US bases in Iraq in retaliation for Donald Trump ordering – and later boasting about – Suleimani’s killing. But that was a largely symbolic act and Tehran has not targeted a US official of equal stature, as it threatened to. Since Fakhrizadeh’s assassination, hardliners have been calling for tougher action in order to restore some deterrence with Israel and, by extension, the US. Continue reading...

No deal likely to damage relations with EU and Ireland, raise food prices and affect travelFears that the UK and the EU will not agree a trade deal were fuelled by Michel Barnier on Monday when he told envoys in Brussels that he “cannot guarantee” an agreement.Although hopes have been raised about a breakthrough on fishing, his words caused a drop in sterling and give a glimpse of the volatility that can be expected in the event of no deal. Continue reading...

One patient died, and officials looking into possible food or water contaminationOne person has died and more than 450 have been admitted to hospital with a mystery illness in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.Over the weekend hundreds of people in Eluru, a town in the southern state, collapsed and experienced seizures and nausea, and some reportedly foamed at the mouth. Continue reading...

Francis plans tour of cities including Baghdad and Ur in risky trip that eluded his predecessors

Sales of the spread are soaring. But what to do with it, aside from slathering it on toast?

My friend Elli Glevey, who has died aged 62 of cancer, was a passionate educator and philosopher dedicated to building links between the UK and Africa. Through his work at the Institute of Education, in London, Elli made a real impact in the field in the UK, but he was determined equally to make a contribution in his home country, Ghana.Born in Accra, shortly after Ghanaian independence, Elli was the son of Gabriel Gleveh, an official in Kwame Nkrumah’s government, and Gladys (nee Atta Nee Boleh), who ran an import business. Elli’s first passion was music, starting with highlife and moving on to jazz. He came to London in 1977 and, along with various odd jobs, played saxophone as a session musician. As well as music, he wrote poetry and sketched throughout his life. Continue reading...

Amid hostile rhetoric from her president, the singer is trying to foreground community and love in her new, rapturously received albumAmong the wealth of images in the beautiful new “visual album” by Brazilian singer Luedji Luna – her swimming underwater pregnant, dancing with strangers during a street carnival in her native Salvador, crying alone – one shot lingers in the mind. A phrase in Portuguese spray-painted on a wall: “Black women are the revolution.”Bom Mesmo É Estar Debaixo D’Água (It’s Really Good to Be Underwater), replete with references to Afro-Brazilian religion, Black feminism, love, revenge and celebration, is one of the most rapturously reviewed albums in her country this year. “It’s an album that talks about me, that is about me,” she says over a video call, “but I also bring other voices and images of Black women. Because it is an ‘I’ that is an ‘us’, that is collective.” Continue reading...

UN Middle East envoy describes killing of 13-year-old as ‘shocking and unacceptable’Israel’s military will investigate allegations its forces shot dead a Palestinian child during a protest last week, a killing that was deplored by the United Nations and the European Union.Ali Ayman Abu Aliya, said by Palestinian officials to be as young as 13, died after he was hit by a bullet in the abdomen on Friday. He and other Palestinians had been protesting against the construction of a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank. Continue reading...

Scott Morrison has written to the clerk of the lower house correcting the record and apologising to the former Labor leaderScott Morrison has written to the clerk of the House of Representatives correcting the record and apologising to Kevin Rudd after declaring erroneously in question time that the former Labor prime minister had been allowed to leave and re-enter Australia during the pandemic.The controversy began when Labor on Monday asked Morrison why Tony Abbott and Alexander Downer had been able to leave and re-enter the country multiple times this year “when there are thousands of vulnerable stranded Australians who haven’t been able to get home once?” Continue reading...

German-Iranian Nahid Taghavi, 66, has been detained in Evin for seven weeks with no outside access

A parliamentary committee has urged the ACCC to further investigate high food and grocery prices in Aboriginal communitiesStore owners in remote Indigenous communities are not engaged in systemic price gouging despite the high cost of some everyday items, a federal parliamentary committee has found.But, the Australian consumer watchdog has been urged to investigate further, following the third significant review into the stores since 2009. Continue reading...

National assembly was only institution not commanded by ruling Socialist partyNicolás Maduro tightened his grip over Venezuela on Sunday in legislative elections that some believe effectively marked the end of Juan Guaidó’s US-backed campaign to topple the South American strongman.The bulk of Venezuela’s beleaguered opposition boycotted the contest for seats in the 277-seat national assembly, calling it a sham designed to lend Maduro’s authoritarian regime an air of democratic legitimacy. Continue reading...

Revolt criticising policies on independence, economy and transgender rights could also see Alex Salmond return to partyNicola Sturgeon faces a growing rebellion over her leadership style that is expected to involve Alex Salmond being readmitted to the Scottish National party next year.More than 20 activists, councillors and MPs critical of Sturgeon’s leadership and her policies on independence, the economy and transgender rights were elected last week to the party’s national executive as office bearers and ruling committees, to the shock of party leaders. Continue reading...

Some residents have stayed to protect homes despite authorities urging them to leave hamlets in path of the blazesPeople in two hamlets are being urged to “leave immediately” as a dangerous bushfire bears down on them on Queensland’s Fraser Island.The Queensland Fire and Emergency Services warned people in Yidney Rocks and The Oaks to evacuate via Eastern Beach on Monday afternoon. Continue reading...

Bhante Buddharakkhita, who became a Buddhist while studying in India, is on a mission to use mindfulness meditation to heal trauma

Turmeric is synonymous with Sri Lankan cuisine and an import ban is helping boost production after the ravages of civil warIn Sri Lankan cuisine, a pinch of turmeric brings the gold colour to sodhi, the mildly spiced coconut soup eaten with the island’s carbohydrate-rich foods.Turmeric is valued in every Sri Lankan kitchen for its subtle flavour, distinct yellow colour and powerful aroma. In ayurvedic medicine, this humble spice is hailed for its values as an anti-inflammatory. Continue reading...