World news | The Guardian

Covid case numbers continue to grow across Australia with 1,608 cases in Victoria, 774 in South Australia, 714 in Queensland, 44 in Tasmania and 12 in the Northern Territory

Government seeking to extend licensing hours during longer June bank holiday weekendPubs, clubs and bars could be allowed to stay open into the early hours over next year’s bank holiday weekend to mark the Queen’s platinum jubilee under government plans.Venues across England and Wales would be able to continue serving customers for an extra two hours to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the monarch’s reign under the draft order. Continue reading...

Attacker targeted restaurant and bar in Beni on Saturday as patrons gathered to celebrate holidayA suicide bomber attacked a restaurant and bar in Beni on Christmas Day, killing at least six people in the eastern Congolese town where Islamic extremists are known to be active.Heavy gunfire rang out shortly after the bomb went off, with panicked crowds fleeing the town’s hub. Continue reading...

The 1.8m likes on his videos are proof that ‘politics doesn’t have to be boring’, the Labor MP saysScott Morrison has just joined TikTok - but the most popular Australian politician on the social media app isn’t the prime minister, nor the man vying to replace him.That honour goes to Julian Hill, a federal Labor MP from Victoria you may never have heard of if you’re not a user of the app famous for music videos and viral dances. Continue reading...

An Opinium poll also found that 42% of people who voted Leave in 2016 had a negative view of how it had turned outMore than six out of 10 voters believe Brexit has either gone badly or worse than they expected – a year after the UK left the EU, according to an anniversary poll for the Observer.The Opinium survey – coming a week after the minister in charge of Brexit, Lord Frost, resigned from Boris Johnson’s government – also found that 42% of people who voted Leave in 2016 had a negative view of how Brexit had turned out so far. Continue reading...

Churches cancel some services in New York, Washington and Boston, while some officials cut isolation period for positive casesThe Omicron coronavirus variant vigorously continued its viral march across the US on Christmas Day, throwing many winter holiday celebrations into turmoil.Airlines continued to cancel hundreds of flights Saturday as staffing issues tied to Covid disrupted holiday celebrations during one of the busiest travel times of the year. Continue reading...

ONS figures are highest on record so far; Christmas for many in disarray as US and Australian airlines say flight crews hit by Covid

Nicolas Baudin’s voyage at the height of the Napoleonic wars gave us dozens of French place names, and left with kangaroos for the Empress Josephine

Four wolves were shot dead by park workers and five anaesthetised by officials at sceneAuthorities in the south of France have temporarily shut down a zoo after a pack of nine wolves escaped from an enclosure during visiting hours, officials have said.No humans were injured in the incident last weekend at the Trois Vallées zoo in Montredon-Labessonnié in the south-west Tarn region but four of the wolves were shot dead by park workers and five were anaesthetised by local officials on the scene, Fabien Chollet, a local official, told AFP on Friday. Continue reading...

Vladimir Putin has accused the west of 'coming with its missiles to our doorstep' as he reiterated demands for no further Nato expansion in Europe. 'They keep telling us: war, war, war,' Putin said on Thursday.The Russian president did little to reduce tensions over Ukraine as he spoke at a televised press conference, saying he would be prepared to launch an intervention if he felt Ukraine or its western allies were preparing an attack on Russia’s proxies in the country

Deal struck to buy Italian gambling company Sisal, one of four firms bidding for licence to run UK lotteryFlutter, the gambling company that owns Paddy Power and SkyBet, has agreed to buy the Italian operator Sisal in a £1.6bn deal that could have a significant bearing on the competition to run the UK’s national lottery.In a statement to the stock market, Flutter said it had struck a deal with the private equity group CVC Partners to buy Sisal, a major Italian gambling and betting firm which also operates lotteries in Italy, Turkey and Morocco. Continue reading...

Sometimes the only contact Covid intensive care patients had with their family was via FaceTime or Skype, Dr Katrina Tonga says

Aged 30 to 66, these nine masters swimmers hit their stride when they found an 85-year-old coachThe Syncettes began in 2019 as a group of five swimming friends who met in the “latte lane” of their local swimming club in the Darwin suburb of Fannie Bay.Inspired by the British comedy film Swimming with Men, this fun-loving bunch of masters swimmers are now a retro-focused, synchronised swimming team of nine who are launching into a series of Christmas performances. Continue reading...

Some areas still cut off a week after disaster, with power outages and shortages of food and clean waterMore than 3 million people have been directly affected by the devastation wreaked by Typhoon Rai, which caused widespread power outages and water shortages, and has left some areas completely cut off from relief teams even a week after the disaster.Rai first hit the Philippines last Thursday, and has been described by the Red Cross as one of the worst typhoons to hit the country in December in five decades. The true scale of the destruction is still unknown because of the extensive communication cuts, and damage to roads, ports and airports. Continue reading...

Russian president again voices anger at Nato expansion and says he would be prepared to intervene in UkraineVladimir Putin has accused the west of “coming with its missiles to our doorstep” as he reiterated demands for no further Nato expansion in Europe.The Russian president did little to reduce tensions over Ukraine as he spoke at a televised press conference, saying he would be prepared to launch an intervention if he felt Ukraine or its western allies were preparing an attack on Russia’s proxies in the country. Continue reading...

He is not a big name among dogfluencers, but whenever I felt stressed, something about this pekingese Instagram pup calmed meOn the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog, went the New Yorker cartoon. Nearly 30 years later, it says so in your profile.My Instagram feed is full of dogs, or people posting as their dogs from their own accounts. Some I know well, like my sister’s sweet but vacant pug Margot. Continue reading...

The films’ heroes look like they’ve just stepped off the Berghain dancefloor – and the connection isn’t merely aesthetic. The series shares the genre’s philosophy of liberation“We can’t see it,” says a character in The Matrix Resurrections, “but we’re all trapped inside these strange repeating loops.” Small surprise techno producer Marcel Dettmann was commissioned to write music for this latest film in the franchise. It’s a natural fit. Its director, Lana Wachowski, goes clubbing at Berghain, the Berlin techno club where Dettmann is resident and where, cut off from the everyday world, people have surreal, liberating experiences. Techno continues to inspire the franchise’s aesthetics.When club techno arose in 1980s Detroit, African American producers were reimagining the deindustrialised city as a site of futurist fantasies. Cybotron’s dystopian 1984 track Techno City was inspired by Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and the Tokyo of Yellow Magic Orchestra’s track Technopolis. “I extrapolated the necessity of interfacing the spirituality of human beings into the cybernetic matrix,” said Cybotron’s Rik Davis (using the word “matrix” before the film existed), “between the brain, the soul and the mechanisms of cyberspace.” Continue reading...

After volcanic eruptions and tourism woes, island gets some Christmas cheer as tickets scoop €400,000After grappling with volcanic eruptions that dragged on for three months, piling on to the tourism woes brought by the coronavirus pandemic, a bit of luck has landed in the Canary Island of La Palma.Spain’s Christmas lottery – the two-century-old tradition that on Wednesday showered €2.4bn in prize money across the country – included a nugget of good news for the hard-hit island as two local kiosks said they had sold winning tickets worth a total of €400,000. Continue reading...

Yasuyoshi Chiba has been chosen by the picture desk as its agency photographer of the year. We hear from the AFP photojournalist

Hundreds gather at cathedral for funeral of Ava White who died after ‘verbal argument’Hundreds of mourners gathered at Liverpool’s Catholic cathedral on Thursday morning for the funeral of 12-year-old Ava White, who was stabbed to death after the city’s Christmas lights switch-on.It was a grey, wet Liverpool day but there was lots of colour as many people arrived in purples, pinks, reds and blues – anything but black at the request of the family. Continue reading...

Russian oligarch ends his case against journalist Catherine Belton over her book Putin’s PeopleThe Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich has settled his libel claim against the journalist Catherine Belton over her best-selling book Putin’s People, after an agreement was reached late on Tuesday.The text will now recognise that the allegation Abramovich bought Chelsea football club at the Russian president’s behest is not a statement of fact. It will include additional denials from the oligarch’s spokesperson and the club. Continue reading...

Charge relates to new complainant and is alleged to have taken place in July this yearThe Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy has been accused of another count of rape.Mendy, 27, who was already accused of a series of sexual offences, was charged last week with the further count of rape, but this was subject to reporting restrictions. The restrictions were lifted on Wednesday as Mendy appeared at Chester crown court for a hearing ahead of his trial next year. Continue reading...

At least one person has died and up to 100 more may have been swept into a lake in Kachin stateAt least one person is dead and dozens more are missing after a landslide at a jade mine in northern Myanmar, a member of a rescue team has said.The landslide in the Hpakant area of Kachin state happened at about 4am on Wednesday local time, and there were fears up to 100 people were missing. Ko Nyi, a member of a rescue team, said: “We’ve sent 25 injured people to hospital while we’ve found one dead.”Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report Continue reading...

Serge Gelle one of two survivors to make marathon swim to shore after ejecting from stricken helicopterA Madagascan minister was one of two survivors to have swum about 12 hours to shore after their helicopter crashed off the island’s north-east coast, authorities said.A search was continuing for two other passengers after Monday’s crash, the cause of which was not immediately clear, police and port authorities said. Continue reading...

It’s a Sin has been voted the Guardian’s best TV show of the year. Russell T Davies reveals why it took him 30 years to write, who the real Colin is – and why he just can’t keep away from Doctor WhoRussell T Davies doesn’t hold back. If he’s thrilled, he shouts about it. And sure enough, the 6ft 6in giant of a man is shouting today. “I’m gobsmacked. I’ve never come first in this. Ever,” he exclaims, admitting that he has always had his eye on the Guardian’s list of the best TV of the year. “If I’ve had a show on, I spend every December watching that countdown wondering if I’ll be on it – I think A Very English Scandal got to No 2.” He’s right, it did. Three years on, his wonderful Channel 4 mini-series It’s a Sin has been voted the Guardian’s best TV show of the year. “I’m ridiculously thrilled,” says Davies, who is Zooming from his home in Manchester.It’s 30 years since his first TV series – Dark Season, featuring a 15-year-old Kate Winslet – aired on the BBC. Since then, Davies has created any number of groundbreaking dramas (including Queer as Folk; Cucumber, Banana and Tofu; Years and Years) as well as breathing new life into Doctor Who. But he is particularly pleased to have won for It’s a Sin, the five-part drama about a group of young gay friends living – and dying – through the Aids era of the 80s and early 90s. This is the show he knew he had to write 30 years ago, and spent the intervening decades years putting off, because it was simply too personal and painful. Continue reading...

Activists lament that a safe, legal way into Britain has closed with Brexit, when stranded children need it as much as ever‘When I was a child in Afghanistan I loved to watch my uncle play chess. Now I have joined the local club here.” Samir is grinning as he talks about settling into life on England’s south coast. “I’m very happy here, just being with my family, going for walks to look at the Christmas lights. It’s really beautiful.”After arriving in Greece alone two years ago, when he was just 16, and spending many months homeless and terrified in the port city of Patras, Samir recently made a journey that most refugees can only dream about. He said goodbye to the friends he had made in a camp for unaccompanied minors – other teenagers from Somalia, Iraq and Palestine – and travelled safely and legally to join his father and sister in the UK. Continue reading...

The average house price on Tite Street in Chelsea is £28.9m, says mortgage lender HalifaxIt was once home to literary and artistic greats including Oscar Wilde, but now Tite Street in west London has a new claim to fame after Halifax named it the most expensive street in England and Wales, with an average house price of £28.9m.The mortgage lender said the top 10 priciest streets in 2021 were all in the capital, mainly in Westminster or the borough of Kensington and Chelsea, where Tite Street is situated. Continue reading...

Residents begged Boris Johnson for help after no improvements made to rundown flats in Uxbridge and South RuislipDozens of asylum seekers are begging Boris Johnson to help rehouse them, claiming the Home Office accommodation in his constituency is not fit to live in.The 18 rundown flats in Uxbridge and South Ruislip have housed some asylum seekers for years without any improvements being made – despite repeated complaints. Each apartment has five tiny bedrooms and no communal space, besides kitchens and bathrooms left filthy from a lack of maintenance. Continue reading...

Officials privately accept legislation to counter Serb efforts to deny scope of 1995 Srebrenica massacre risks reigniting regional conflictSenior EU officials are working behind the scenes to “correct” a new law in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) that criminalises denial of the massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica, after privately concluding it risks reigniting fresh regional conflict.Milorad Dodik, the Serb member of the tripartite BiH leadership, has been accused in recent months of seeking to break up the country by withdrawing its Serbian part from state-level institutions. Continue reading...

Super Typhoon Rai destroyed the popular tourist island, that was about to welcome visitors again after domestic Covid restrictions easedResort and bar owners on a Philippine island popular with surfers and tourists were expecting a bumper Christmas holiday after Covid-19 restrictions finally eased. Then Super Typhoon Rai wiped them out.The strongest storm to hit the archipelago this year cut a swathe through Siargao, a tropical paradise known for its sandy beaches, big waves and relaxed vibe. Continue reading...

Covid-19 and floods in Canada force fast-food company to sell only small-sized friesA new kind of chip shortage has hit Japanese supply chains, with McDonald’s forced to ration fries as Covid-19 and floods in Canada squeeze potato imports.McDonald’s Japan said it would only sell small-sized french fries for a week from Friday to avoid shortages. “Due to large-scale flooding near the Port of Vancouver … and the global supply chain crunch caused by the coronavirus pandemic, there are delays in the supply of potatoes.” Continue reading...

What kills exercise for me is the knowing you are doing it, and the waiting for it to end. My pandemic project changed thatI have been working from home since 2011, long before the pandemic, and getting enough exercise without a daily commute to the office has proven a challenge. I exercise most effectively when it’s just built into my day, like cycling to work was previously.My home office is also my person-cave and it is rigged out with a small couch and a TV. At some stage I independently discovered the concept of “temptation bundling” before it became a thing. At night I was binging TV shows while doing what I called the Batman Workout – situps, pushups and pull-ups, which was all Christian Bale’s Dark Knight ever seemed to need. By the time all six seasons of The Sopranos were finished, I actually was on my way to getting slightly ripped. But then I must have hurt my back, run out of good TV shows, or got the shits with it or something because I stopped. Continue reading...

As the environmental benefits of casks become more important to new consumers, the quality of their contents is on the riseBoxed wine is one of Australia’s most extraordinary contributions to the wine industry, also known as cardboardeaux, bag-in-box or, more commonly, goon (from flagon).The Australian winemaker Thomas Angrove patented the design for a one-gallon polyethylene bladder in a cardboard box in 1965, inspired by the ancient method of storing wine in goat skins. The first model required drinkers to cut a corner of the plastic bag and reseal it with a special category peg (used to transport battery acid). Continue reading...

Archbishop of Canterbury hints at disapproval of gathering in interview with ITVThe archbishop of Canterbury has said that people will have felt “sorrow and sadness” seeing the photograph of Downing Street staff drinking together last May because it will have reminded them of what they sacrificed.In an interview with ITV, Justin Welby hinted at his disapproval over the gathering, saying that leadership involved setting an example. Continue reading...

Investigation into 24 November incident pieces together final hours of attempt to reach UK from FranceMost of the people who lost their lives when their flimsy dinghy sank in the Channel last month have been named for the first time in a new investigation.The BBC World Service has named 20 of the people who travelled to the UK in search of a better life but drowned in the early hours of 24 November. Continue reading...

The Brisbane author and academic talks about her new book, settler colonialism and the everyday-ness of ongoing dispossessionCelebrated Munanjahli and South Sea Islander academic and writer Chelsea Watego unambiguously wrote her book Another Day in the Colony for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readership.There’s nothing stopping you reading it if you’re not Indigenous. But if you do with an open mind – even if you’re the type of “progressive” whitefella who considers him- or herself conversant with the woeful and violent racism upon which Australia is founded – you might wander about for days afterwards with ringing in your ears. Continue reading...

Ryan Roberts set fire to police vehicles during a demonstration against the police, crime, sentencing and courts billA protester who set fire to police vehicles during a riot that followed a “kill the bill” demonstration in Bristol has been jailed for 14 years.Ryan Roberts led chants of “ACAB: all cops are bastards” outside Bridewell police station on 21 March before throwing cans, bottles and placards at officers, as well as verbally abusing and kicking them. Continue reading...

Analysis: It’s not Downing Street, it’s him, says a minister, amid fears the PM’s strengths have become weaknessesAsked on Friday whether he took personal responsibility for the disastrous North Shropshire byelection result, Boris Johnson suggested the problem was that everyone else was talking about the wrong issues. “My job as prime minister is to get the focus on to the things that matter for all of us,” he said.Yet after weeks of self-inflicted crises and the drip, drip of stories about lockdown-busting parties at the heart of Downing Street, many of his MPs believe it is Johnson himself who is the real problem – and some are warning he is now on borrowed time. Continue reading...

European negotiators issue warning as talks adjourned to allow Iranian envoy to return for consultationAttempts to salvage the 2015 Iran nuclear deal are “rapidly reaching the end of the road”, European negotiators have warned, as talks in Vienna adjourned to allow the Iranian negotiator to return home for consultation – a pause described by the Europeans as disappointing.“We hope that Iran is in a position to resume the talks quickly, and to engage constructively so that talks can move at a faster pace,” France, Germany and the UK said. “As we have said, there are weeks not months before the deal’s core non-proliferation benefits are lost. We are rapidly reaching the end of the road for this negotiation. Continue reading...

Rock star wins case against German woman who says her late husband bought the disc at a popular department store in the 80sEric Clapton has won a legal case against a 55-year-old German woman selling a bootleg live CD for €9.95 (£8.45), Deutsche Welle reports.The woman, known as Gabriele P, claimed she was unaware that she was committing copyright infringement by listing the CD titled Eric Clapton – Live USA, which contains recordings of performances from the 1980s, on eBay. She told the court that the listing was removed after one day. Continue reading...

Non-binding vote comes as the conservative party looks for new direction after end of Merkel eraMembers of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) have elected stalwart rightwinger Friedrich Merz as their designated new leader, as the conservative party seeks a new direction in opposition following the departure of Angela Merkel.Merz, who has twice come second to centrist candidates in previous leadership races, won a surprise majority in the ballot, beating Merkel’s former chief of staff Helge Braun and foreign policy specialist Norbert Röttgen with 62% of the vote, thus eliminating the need for a run-off vote. Continue reading...

Coalition headed by Petr Fiala vows action to tackle Covid, inflation, high energy prices and budget deficitA long post-election hiatus in the Czech Republic has ended after a new government took office, promising urgently to tackle rampant Covid-19 infection rates, inflation, energy prices and a ballooning budget deficit.Ten weeks after decisively winning a general election, a five-party coalition headed by Petr Fiala, the new prime minister, was sworn in by the Czech president, Miloš Zeman, who urged it do “something useful” amid dire warnings of an incipient crisis in the central European country. Continue reading...

Eleven years after the start of the Arab spring, those trying to survive rising prices, unemployment and a pandemic feel little has changedFor a decade, Tunisia’s revolution has been remembered on 14 January, the day autocratic ruler Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia and the political elite declared the revolution complete.From today, by President Kais Saied’s decree, the event will be marked on 17 December, the day street trader Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in protest at state corruption and the faltering economy. The self-immolation became a catalyst for Tunisia’s uprising and the wider Arab spring. Continue reading...

Jordan Monaghan smothered daughter and son in 2013 and gave new partner a fatal overdose in 2019A man is facing life behind bars after being convicted of murdering two of his children in 2013 and his new partner six years later.Jordan Monaghan, a construction worker from Blackburn, smothered to death his 24-day-old daughter, Ruby, on New Year’s Day 2013 as she slept in her moses basket while the child’s mother, Laura Gray, was asleep upstairs. Continue reading...

Smouldering buildup to attack on Sir Richard Sutton and Anne Schreiber began in Schreiber’s teenage yearsThomas Schreiber spent the morning of 7 April visiting his father’s grave – it was the eighth anniversary of his death – and in the afternoon worked on an abstract painting while downing gin and tonics. Art was Schreiber’s passion, firing his imagination and soothing his mind. Drinking regularly and heavily was another mechanism for trying to keep despair at bay.As the day wore on, Schreiber left his makeshift studio in the snooker room at Moorhill, the Dorset mansion he was sharing with his mother, Anne Schreiber, and her partner, the wealthy landowner and hotelier Sir Richard Sutton, and appeared in their part of the house. Continue reading...

Former justice minister would be first Black woman to hold position and has promised to unite the leftChristiane Taubira, the former justice minister and leading figure on the French left, has said she is considering running for president in the spring and will announce a final decision next month.In a video posted on social media she promised to “use all my strength” to unite the divided left. Taubira’s supporters had for months been calling on her to run to be France’s first Black female president to counter the rise of the far-right. Continue reading...

Yippie-ki-yay! Here’s your ultimate festive film guide, from masterful classics and family favourites to starry new movies like Don’t Look Up and Last Train to ChristmasOn a train back to Nottingham on Christmas Eve 1985, Stringfellow-esque club owner Tony Towers (Michael Sheen) discovers that if he moves between coaches he can visit his past or future life. With his business and relationship with his brother Roger (Cary Elwes) in peril, Tony tries to rewrite history in his favour, only to make things worse for everyone. A smart, twisty reboot of A Christmas Carol from Julian Kemp, with Sheen sporting a series of wonderfully cringe-worthy hairstyles and clothes.

Oliver Dowden says voters are fed up, and a senior MP warns Boris Johnson ‘one more strike and he’s out’

Justin Welby says ‘we must all obey the rules’, as Met police to contact pair who attended event at Tory HQ

Opposition leader Chris Minns welcomes decision, claiming the removal of signs was about revenue raising not road safetyA leading road safety expert says the New South Wales government’s decision to reintroduce warning signs for mobile speed cameras is “populist insanity”.Prof Raphael Grzebieta from UNSW’s Transport and Road Safety Research Centre said on Friday the decision was “very disappointing” and would lead to more road deaths. Continue reading...