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Force repeatedly dismissed fears that deaths of four young gay men in Barking could be linked, jury hearsThe Metropolitan police were guilty of “institutional homophobia” for repeatedly dismissing fears that the deaths of four young gay men in Barking, east London, could be linked, an inquest heard.John Pape, a friend of Gabriel Kovari, the serial killer Stephen Port’s second victim, said he tried to help detectives by passing on information he felt could be helpful but they were “unwilling to engage” with him, and did not seem “curious” about the information he had. Continue reading...

Following the acclaimed author’s decision not to have Beautiful World, Where Are You translated by an Israeli publisher, two major retailers have removed her work from their shelvesBooks by Sally Rooney will no longer be sold in two Israeli bookshop chains, after the acclaimed writer’s decision not to sell translation rights for her most recent novel to an Israeli publisher.Rooney’s novels were previously available from Steimatzky and Tzomet Sefarim, but the books have now been removed from their websites, and will be pulled from physical shops too. The retailers have more than 200 branches between them. Continue reading...

Many Addis Ababa residents claim Abiy Ahmed’s decision to shoot at enemy is leading to history repeating itselfAddis Ababa was its usual bustling self a year ago. Events were taking place day and night in the Ethiopian capital; bars and restaurants were filled with visitors from other African countries where stricter anti-Covid measures had been put in place.Now all that has changed. A year to the week since the prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, ordered military operations to commence in the northern region of Tigray, a slow deterioration in security and living standards has worsened. Continue reading...

President to accept resignation of Andrej Babiš and ask centre-right leader to form new governmentThe Czech Republic’s ailing president has signalled an end to prolonged political uncertainty in the country by saying he will accept the resignation of its prime minister, Andrej Babiš, following a general election defeat.In his first public comments since being rushed to hospital nearly a month ago, Miloš Zeman said he planned to invite Petr Fiala, the leader of the centre-right grouping Spolu (Together) to form a new government. Continue reading...

Route to resignation was marked out more than two years ago following a Guardian investigationThe route to Owen Paterson’s resignation on Thursday afternoon was marked out more than two years ago, when in 2019 the Guardian exposed his lobbying on behalf of two companies from whom he has received at least £500,000 in payments.Documents released following freedom of information requests revealed the MP had repeatedly demanded access to ministers and regulators on behalf of his paying clients. This raised the question of whether he had broken parliamentary rules that prohibit MPs from undertaking paid advocacy– rules that have existed in various forms since the 17th century. Continue reading...

To get on to shelves, Chinese-made items must overcome shortfall in electricity and workers, as well as shipping crisisAt a toy factory in south-east China, boxes of plastic dart guns are stacked across the floor. Sometimes, so many packages pile up that they stretch into the production area, slowing the work of making more toys.What to do with all the blaster guns, which have been sold to retailers in the UK but cannot find room on ships to get them there, is a problem for Nick Mowbray, the co-founder of Zuru Toys. The company expects to generate about NZ$1.1bn (£580m) in revenue this year thanks to surging demand for products such as 5 Surprise Mini Brands, Rainbocorns and X-Shot blasters. Continue reading...

Brexit minister says time running out in talks with Brussels over Northern Ireland protocolDavid Frost, the UK’s Brexit minister, has said triggering article 16 to suspend post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland is “very much on the table”, as he met his EU counterpart in Brussels.After three weeks of talks over the Northern Ireland protocol, Lord Frost said time was running out, as EU sources also spoke of deep pessimism about the chances of a successful outcome. Continue reading...

Some from 2019 intake complain of being ‘hung out to dry’ for colleague who would not recognise themNew Conservative MPs have shed much sweat and tears this week after being strong-armed into trying to save a colleague from suspension by ripping up anti-sleaze rules, before the government was forced into a screeching U-turn.Some from the 2019 intake privately confessed their fury at being told by Downing Street and Tory whips to put their necks on the line for Owen Paterson, who they believed had broken Commons rules and would not recognise them in the corridor. Continue reading...

Reports have emerged of atrocities committed by all sides, and millions of people have been displacedEthiopian government forces and their allies have been fighting against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the ruling party of the country’s northern region, for just over a year. But the conflict has developed rapidly after the Ethiopians suffered a series of reverses since June, and the TPLF has recruited more allies to its cause. Continue reading...

As the PM slumps around Glasgow, here in New York the maths and mayors are only getting weirderIt has been a feature o f Covid that, along with all the other bad things ushered in by the pandemic, it has opened up whole new categories of people to hate. Thought the mum you exchanged casual greetings with every morning at school drop-off was more or less sane? Turns out she believes the health authorities are lying to us and the vaccine programme is tantamount to murder. Or the friend who, before vaccines were available, was still throwing indoor parties? Or the cabinet minister and the testing contract? The world is full of lunatics, benign in good times, dangerous in bad, available, almost two years into this rolling disaster, for unprecedented levels of resentment. Continue reading...

Indigenous advocates say police were the good guys in Cleo’s disappearance but that isn’t always the experience when Aboriginal kids go missing

Former owner of Asian Babes and Readers’ Wives has hired lawyers to demand Wikipedia remove word from bioRichard Desmond, the billionaire former owner of adult television channels and top-shelf magazines, has spent years having his Wikipedia edited in a failed attempt to remove any suggestion he is a “pornographer”.The former owner of the Daily Express and Channel 5, and one of Britain’s richest men, appears to have become fixated with his biography on the open-source encyclopedia. To this end, an account operating on behalf of Desmond has repeatedly edited the article to replace the description of him as a “pornographer” with the term “philanthropist”. Continue reading...

Husband of jailed aid worker says protest feels ‘more visceral this time’, but he is determined to get ministers to act on IranRichard Ratcliffe no longer feels hunger pangs, as long as nobody mentions food. Even so, his inanition has left him feeling increasingly weak, dulling his mind and senses as he begins to retreat into himself to focus on the task of survival.It is the 13th day of his hunger strike on Friday, sleeping in near-freezing temperatures in a pop-up tent pitched opposite the Continue reading...

Education secretary denies debacle calls Boris Johnson’s judgment into questionThe education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, has accepted the government committed errors in its attempt to save the former minister Owen Paterson from suspension, but denied the debacle called into question the prime minister’s judgment.In a broadcast round, Zahawi accepted it was a “mistake” to try to link overhauling the standards system that had found Paterson guilty of paid advocacy with a parliamentary attempt to preventing him facing the punishment of suspension. Continue reading...

The education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, said on Friday that creating a system of appeal for suspended MPs should not have been conflated with lobbying allegations against the former Conservative MP Owen Paterson, calling the ordeal a 'mistake'. The dispute came after lawmakers voted on Wednesday not to suspend Paterson after he was found to have broken lobbying rules. Paterson then resigned as MP for North Shropshire after the government ditched its plan to set up a new standards panel amid a backlash

The sheriff of Macon county, Alabama, thought he was too strong and healthy to worry. Then he got CovidEvery morning before the dew has dried on Andre Brunson’s 80 acres of land along Alabama’s Uphapee Creek, he swings his pickup truck out on to the gravel road leading from his house in Alabama.When heading for his eight-hour shift, he packs his bulletproof vest, gun, flashlight and now – since coronavirus sent him to the hospital in January – an asthma inhaler and a nebulizer. Continue reading...

I’m only 13, but my brother and I both qualified for the World Championships. In the final it was just us, facing off for the titleThere’s a shelf in my dad’s closet, full of old video games and consoles dating back to the 1970s. I was eight when I found his Nintendo Game Boy and discovered Tetris. My older brother Andy and I played it in our home in Texas.Tetris is a simple concept: you rotate and align descending shapes to complete horizontal rows, which then drop down and disappear. If uncompleted, they stay on screen and shapes pile up on top. Once the screen fills with shapes, you lose. The game is so universally popular that over the decades, it has migrated from the Game Boy to PlayStation, Xbox, iPhone and everything in between. But when I came across a YouTube video of the Classic Tetris world championship, in 2018, I was amazed. Continue reading...

How likely is it that Britain will trigger the Northern Ireland protocol clause, and could it lead to a trade war?Fears are growing that the UK will trigger article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol, potentially rupturing the already strained relations with the EU. If talks with the EU collapse, it is expected just after Cop26 in seven days’ time.On Wednesday Ireland’s prime minister heightened concerns that this was almost a racing certainty after his bluntest warning yet to the UK that such a move would be “reckless”, “irresponsible” and have “far-reaching consequences”. Continue reading...

Four-year-old’s mother and stepfather say they are humbled by love and support from their WA communityThe family of Cleo Smith have thanked police and locals in their remote Western Australian community for helping to “bring their little girl back” to them.In their first public statement, released on Friday afternoon, Cleo’s mother, Ellie Smith, and stepfather, Jake Gliddon, said the family were “humbled by the love and support” they had received from “not only our local community but the whole of Western Australia and across the country” in relation to their daughter’s alleged abduction. Continue reading...

Prime minister ‘quite certain’ Australia will reach 80% double-dose target today; Mark McGowan says Western Australia’s border restrictions could be eased by late January; Victoria records 1,343 Covid cases and 10 deaths; NSW records 249 cases, three deaths; Melbourne Cup attendee and Flemington Racecourse contract worker test positive; Northern Territory records second Covid case in two days – follow live updates here

French authorities say person was found dead and two others treated for hypothermia on beach near CalaisA person has died after attempting to cross the Channel to get to the UK, French authorities have confirmed.The Maritime Prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea said one person was found dead on the beach of Wissant, near Calais, on Thursday morning after the discovery of a boat filled with water. Continue reading...

We air both sides of a domestic disagreement – and ask you to deliver a verdict

Perth photographer sent a drone up after hearing a whale spout and was stunned to see four of the mammals less than 200 metres from coastCatching just a glimpse of a blue whale is thrilling – at up to 30 metres long, it is the world’s largest animal.So when Dylan deHaas sent his drone up after hearing a whale spout in the near distance, he was stunned to see a group of four of the giant mammals in his frame. Continue reading...

With his films Tick, Tick ... Boom! and The Eyes of Tammy Faye tipped for Oscars success, he discusses his inner malevolence, his mother’s death – and his ‘heartbreaking’ time as Spider-ManAndrew Garfield is smiling beatifically and clasping his hands together as if in prayer. The pose suits an actor who has cornered the market in the holy and heroic, from a Jesuit priest in Silence to a Seventh-day Adventist saving lives on the battlefield in Hacksaw Ridge; from a man left paralysed by polio in Breathe to a credulous innocent who dies surrendering his organs in Never Let Me Go. He is a remarkable actor, but watch too many of his movies back to back and you are liable to hear celestial trumpets.His prayer-like gesture of gratitude comes in response to my promise not to ask whether he and his fellow former web-slinger Tobey Maguire will be appearing in the new Spider-Man: No Way Home. “I appreciate that,” says the 38-year-old, speaking over Zoom from Calgary, where he is shooting the murder-and-Mormons series Under the Banner of Heaven. There seems no point posing the Spidey question when he has greeted each identical inquiry this year with a display of shrugging bafflement that may or may not be genuine. (Let’s see when the movie opens next month.) Continue reading...

Cargo ship, carrying 382 migrants, was towed across the seas for four days before Athens was forced into a rescue after mayday callIt was hailed as the biggest search-and-rescue operation in the eastern Mediterranean for a decade. But the bid to save hundreds of refugees on a stricken ship in the Aegean Sea has led to allegations that the operation bore all the hallmarks of an illegal pushback before the Greek coastguard was forced to change tactics.Only days after 382 asylum seekers disembarked on the island of Kos, criticism has mounted over their “unnecessarily prolonged” ordeal at sea. Continue reading...

Citizen reporter Zhang Zhan, 38, was arrested and jailed after reporting on the outbreak

Plaque for Malwine and Max Schindler is installed at Pariser Strasse 54 outside couple’s former Berlin homeA Berlin couple who dedicated themselves to spiriting Jewish families and political dissidents out of Nazi Germany via a clandestine network disguised as an English-language tutoring service have been honoured in the German capital for the first time since their story fell into obscurity half a century ago.A commemorative plaque was installed on Thursday by Berlin authorities at Pariser Strasse 54 in the Wilmersdorf district, outside the former home of Max and Malwine Schindler. Their legacy was rediscovered two years ago through a cache of letters and photographs found in a garden shed in Australia. Continue reading...

UK has cut relief grant for Palestinians by more than 50% from £42.5m in 2020 to £20.8m in 2021Cuts to the budget of the UN’s relief agency for Palestinians – including a halving of the UK grant – means the agency is close to collapse, the head of the agency, Philippe Lazzarini, has said. The UK has cut its core grant by more than 50% from £42.5m in 2020 to £20.8m in 2021.Lazzarini, the commissioner general of UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which serves Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza but also in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, said the agency was in an existential crisis due to a $100m (£74m) shortfall this year, but also because of a method of long-term funding that has proved unsustainable. Continue reading...

New tourism catchphrase will be splashed on Lebanon’s national airline and in social media campaignsLebanon’s tourism minister has announced a new slogan for the crisis-swept country that aimed to portray the precarity of life there as a point of pride, roughly translating to “I love you in your madness”.Lebanon is suffering a financial and economic meltdown which the World Bank has labelled as one of the deepest depressions of modern history, compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic and a massive explosion at Beirut’s port that destroyed large parts of the city and killed more than 215 people. Continue reading...

Kelly, 36, transferred from Carnarvon to Perth in Western Australia after being charged with various offences including one count of taking a child under 16The man charged with abducting four-year-old Cleo Smith will be transferred from Carnarvon to a maximum-security prison in Perth.Terence Darrell Kelly, 36, appeared briefly before a magistrate in Carnarvon on Thursday charged with various offences related to the abduction of Cleo, including one count of forcibly taking a child under 16. Continue reading...

Lawyer for two inmates says practice of giving prisoners notice of only a matter of hours is ‘extremely inhumane’Two death row inmates in Japan are suing the government, claiming that the practice of not informing inmates of the time of their execution until only hours beforehand is “inhumane”, local media have reported.The prisoners aredemanding change and seeking compensation. Continue reading...

Staff and tourists near the Mexican resort city of Cancún have been sent rushing for shelter after a group of armed men entered the beach outside a luxury hotel and opened fire. Two men were killed on Thursday in what state officials described as a confrontation between drug dealers at the Hyatt Ziva in Puerto Morelos, just south of Cancún

Clint Eastwood’s A Fistful of Dollars is the latest to be dubbed in the Indigenous language set to premiere on 16 NovemberManuelito Wheeler isn’t sure exactly why Navajo elders admire Western films.It could be that decades ago, many of them were treated to the films in boarding schools off the reservation decades ago. Or, like his father, they told stories of growing up gathered around a television to watch gunslingers in a battle against good and evil on familiar-looking landscapes. Continue reading...

Finance minister queries whether it was in the national interest for Australian reporters to ask Macron about cancelled submarine deal

Industry body head warns there is ‘no vaccine’ against climate change and winemakers must adapt with ‘urgent necessity’World wine production is expected to fall to one of its lowest levels on record after harsh weather battered vineyards in Europe’s major wine-producing regions.The conditions “severely impacted” production in Italy, Spain and France, resulting in “extremely low” production volumes, an international wine body has said. Continue reading...

Colin and Donna Craig-Brown have named the 17.4lb tuber Doug and have been taking him for walksA giant 7.9kg potato found in a New Zealand couple’s overgrown garden may set a new world record for the largest of its kind ever to be discovered.Colin and Donna Craig-Brown were doing a spot of weeding in their Hamilton back yard, when Colin’s hoe hit something below the ground. Continue reading...

Management company says he died on Thursday morning surrounded by his family

Attack on mayor’s delegation adds to 530 already killed by jihadist groups in southwest Niger this yearGunmen killed 69 people including a local mayor in a jihadist attack in a remote area of south-west Niger, the country’s interior minister has confirmed, amid a wave of violence against civilians that has swept the country this year.A delegation led by the mayor of Banibangou was ambushed on Tuesday about 50 km (30 miles) from the town, near the border with Mali. The area is overrun by militants associated with a local affiliate of Islamic State that has killed hundreds of civilians in rural communities this year. Continue reading...

WHO chiefs have warned Europe is ‘at the epicentre’ of the pandemic after uneven vaccine coverage and a relaxation of preventive measures across the 53 countries in the region.Hans Kluge of the World Health Organization has said cases are again at near-record levels and 500,000 more deaths forecast by February

Lawyers expected to argue for dismissal of Giuffre’s lawsuit accusing Duke of York of sexual abuse when she was under 18A US federal judge in New York on Thursday scheduled a 4 January hearing where lawyers for Britain’s Prince Andrew are expected to argue for a dismissal of Virginia Giuffre’s lawsuit accusing the Duke of York of sexually abusing her when she was under 18.US district judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan issued the scheduling order one day after saying he expected Giuffre’s civil case to go to trial between September and December 2022, provided it is not settled or dismissed. Continue reading...

Friday: Less than 2% of the barrier reef’s coral has escaped bleaching since 1998 in blow to site’s future. Plus: a visitor’s guide to a place of ‘quirky souls’Good morning. A 36-year-old man has been charged in relation to Cleo Smith’s alleged abduction. The United Nations says countries have failed to adapt for unavoidable climate damage. And less than 2% of the Great Barrier Reef’s coral reefs have escaped bleaching since 1998.West Australian police have charged 36-year-old man Terence Darrell Kelly in relation to the alleged abduction of Cleo Smith after the four-year-old was found alive and well 18 days after she disappeared. Officers found Cleo about 1am local time on Wednesday alone in a room at a house in Carnarvon, a town 900km north of Perth and just 75km from where her family was camping when she disappeared from their tent on 16 October. Kelly was taken into custody as officers rescued Cleo and he was later questioned about the suspected abduction. Police have said he has no connection to her family. Continue reading...

Some of New Zealand’s anti-vaxxers say that the Covid vaccine is a form of 21st-century colonialism – it’s notOne thing that characterises the typical anti-vaxxer, other than being wrong, is their short attention span.In the space of a single conversation the enemy can range from 5G, the electromagnetic spectrum that can apparently spread biological matter as well as a phone signal, to Bill Gates, the Microsoft (“microchip”) billionaire allegedly at the centre of a nexus to command and control the world populace. In New Zealand, anti-vaxxers take this shopping list of modern hazards and foreign enemies and add their own local products. In one conspiracy prime minister Jacinda Ardern is part of an international plot to microchip New Zealanders using the Pfizer vaccine as the vector. Her reward? The UN secretary generalship. Continue reading...

Brexit minister David Frost met Europe minister Clément Beaune in Paris but two sides remain at oddsTalks between the British and French governments to settle a post-Brexit fishing row have ended in stalemate as No 10 said it did not believe Paris would follow through on threats to slow down trade.The Brexit minister, David Frost, spent about 90 minutes meeting France’s Europe minister, Clément Beaune, in Paris on Thursday, but despite smiles for the cameras the two sides remained far apart. Continue reading...

When Scott Morrison left Australia to attend the global climate summit in Glasgow, he left prepared to defend Australia’s checkered position on global heating. But by the time he touched down in Europe, another diplomatic disaster was unfolding with the French.Lenore Taylor and Mike Ticher speak to Gabrielle Jackson about Scott Morrison’s leadership on the global stageRead more: Continue reading...

Woman quoted in piece later described trans women as ‘vile, weak and disgusting’The BBC has been forced to edit an article condemned as transphobic after a woman quoted in the piece described trans women as “vile, weak and disgusting” and it emerged she had previously been accused of sexual misconduct.Standing behind its decision to publish the piece online last week – headlined “We’re being pressured into sex by some trans women” – the BBC took the decision on Thursday to remove a contribution from a former porn star, Lily Cade, “in light of comments” she made following its publication, after a week of sustained pressure and criticism. Continue reading...

Despite inexperience and few allies, Jaha Dukureh is offering people change and a break with the past in December’s electionJaha Dukureh was a young mother of three with little campaigning experience when she started a movement in the Gambia to end female genital mutilation, backed by the Guardian.In the seven years that followed she advised Barack Obama in the US, where she was then living, helped have FGM banned in her home country, was nominated for a Nobel peace prize and became a UN ambassador. Continue reading...

Diwali is one of the most popular festivals in Hinduism and is celebrated by Hindus all over the world. It is also known as the festival of lights Continue reading...

Preet Chandi – or Polar Preet – hopes to inspire others by becoming the first woman of colour to voyage unsupported across AntarcticaWhen she returned from a trek across Greenland last year, Preet Chandi had a mild case of frostbite on her nose. “I remember somebody saying to me they’ve never seen an injury like that on somebody of my colour skin before,” she said. “I am an Asian woman, I’m not the image that people expect to see out there.”Later this month Chandi, a 32-year-old army physiotherapist, hopes to become the first woman of colour to complete a solo unsupported trek across Antarctica to the south pole. Continue reading...

Women’s rights activists fear for their lives as Afghanistan’s new rulers infiltrate, detain, beat and torture groups of protestersA month ago, Reshmin was busy organising protests against Taliban rule in online groups of hundreds of fellow women’s rights activists. Now the 26-year-old economics graduate must operate clandestinely, dressing in disguise and only demonstrating with a select few.“If things continue like this, there will be no future for women in Afghanistan. It’s better if the future never arrives,” says Reshmin, who spoke to the Guardian using only her first name, which means “silk” in Farsi, out of security concerns. “Each time we go out, we say farewell because we might not make it back alive.” Continue reading...