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The head coach and breakout star of the Netflix hit, Cheer, talks about her high expectations for her cheerleading team, and how she has been affected by claims of child abuse against one of the show’s starsTwo years ago, hardly anyone outside the world of competitive cheerleading would have been familiar with Navarro College, based in the small Texan town of Corsicana, its junior college cheer squad, or its head coach, Monica Aldama. But the global success of Cheer, Netflix’s Emmy-winning docuseries following Aldama and her team’s journey to the national championships in Daytona, changed all of that.Audiences were immediately captivated by the technical skill, athleticism and personal dramas of competitive cheerleading. Cast members became stars, garnering huge social media followings and appearing on the likes of The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Oprah’s live tour. Aldama’s signature blond highlights and no-nonsense “mat talk” were satirised on SNL. Reese Witherspoon even said she inspired her to the point of tears. Continue reading...

Doctor describes ‘very dire’ situation with non-ICU trained nurses working in ICU wards, patients not being fed or showered

On an ordinary trip out in my father’s boat, we began taking in water. For once my mother could not comfort me and it felt as if life’s invisible chaos had become clear

The Spanish festival of Las Luminarias has been held for the first time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic Continue reading...

A budding industry that aims to catch zooplankton for health supplements and fish food has scientists fearing that its effects on marine ecosystems could be devastating• ‘It’s mind-boggling’: the hidden cost of our obsession with fish oil pillsA few times a day, off the Faroe Islands’ coast, the crew of the Jákup Sverri marine survey ship test the water, measuring its salinity, temperature and oxygen at different sea depths. But they also look for something else.Durita Sørensen, a laboratory technician, holds up the contents of a special net to demonstrate. If the water is greenish, it contains a lot of phytoplankton, the plants at the base of the oceanic food chain. But if it is red or brown, as in Sørensen’s net, the haul is one rung higher up the ladder: zooplankton. “This is calanus, or Calanus finmarchicus,” she says, indicating the tiny red creatures. “This is what they are interested in making fish oil [from] as a food supplement for humans.” Continue reading...

Four arrests of cult-like criminal gang members made in southern Italy after Nigerian woman forced into prostitution comes forwardFour alleged members of the Nigerian mafia have been arrested in southern Italy after a young sex trafficking survivor spoke out against them.The men, who were arrested in Palermo and Taranto in the early hours of Tuesday, allegedly belong to the feared Black Axe, a cult-like criminal gang that emerged in the 1970s at the University of Benin, according to police. Continue reading...

With Labour ahead in the polls and the prime minister on the ropes, the former lawyer is riding high. But can he finally connect with the country?There could not be a better day to meet Sir Keir Starmer than last Wednesday. A few hours earlier, at Prime Minister’s Questions, Boris Johnson had apologised for his presence at a Downing Street party held during lockdown in a manner that was as ludicrous as it was humiliating. When the prime minister said that he didn’t realise the 30 to 40 people gathered in his garden boozing and eating food from a long table constituted a party, Starmer told him he had run out of road. “His defence that he didn’t realise he was at a party is so ridiculous that it’s actually offensive to the British public,” Starmer told the Commons. “Is he now going to do the decent thing and resign?” Not surprisingly, partygate has helped Labour to its biggest lead over the Conservatives since 2013.I half expect the leader of the opposition to be on a high. But I am not sure he does highs. Starmer is the anti-Johnson. While the prime minister appears to pride himself on being a feckless buffoon, Starmer is the straight man’s straight man – so solid he verges on stolid. He rises to greet me and offers an elbow by way of a handshake. He is wearing blue trousers and a pristine white shirt, sleeves rolled up. It is a metaphor as much as a sartorial statement. Continue reading...

Tsunami waves reaching up to 15 metres hit remote area that sent distress signalThe Tongan government has raised concerns about the tiny islands of Mango and Fonoifua islands – north-east of the main island of Tongatapu – which both suffered catastrophic damage from the tsunami and volcano eruption on Saturday.The Tongan government reported on Tuesday night that all houses had been destroyed on Mango Island, and only two houses remained on Fonoifua. Continue reading...

A 31-year-old man was arrested in Surry Hills on Tuesday night and faced court on Wednesday after the missing girl’s body was found near the Colo RiverNew South Wales police say they have found the remains of a child in a barrel in bushland near the Colo River that they believe is a nine-year-old girl missing in the Blue Mountains since late last week.The girl, who can no longer be named due to a murder charge being laid, had been holidaying with family at Wildenstein Private Gardens in Mount Wilson west of Sydney before she was reported missing on Friday. Continue reading...

Australia and New Zealand dispatch naval vessels carrying material to help provide temporary shelter and clean drinking water after volcanic eruptionAustralia and New Zealand have started to dispatch aid to Tonga, amid fears that relief workers could bring a “tsunami of Covid” cases to the Pacific Island nation that has so far recorded just one case of the virus.New Zealand has dispatched two naval vessels with relief supplies onboard. Defence minister Peeni Henare said they were expected to arrive in four days, though could arrive as soon as Friday if the weather holds. Continue reading...

Advertising Standards Authority says advert attracted 14 complaints alleging unsafe behaviourAn advert featuring two girls hanging upside down while one eats a Dairylea cheese triangle has been banned following complaints that it could encourage unsafe behaviour.The video-on-demand ad, seen on ITV Hub, All 4 and My 5 in August, shows the girls hanging upside down from the crossbar of a goal at a local park and chatting. One wonders where food goes if you are upside down, and when the other suggests her brain, she opens the cheese snack and eats it. Continue reading...

Authorities have called for calm while announcing the first case of the virulent strain of Covid-19

Edward Leung, who came up with ‘Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times’, has spent four years in prison over 2016 riotsHong Kong activist Edward Leung, who coined the now-banned slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times” has been released from prison and placed under strict supervision after spending four years behind bars.The prominent independence activist said in a statement posted on his Facebook page – hours after his reported release at about 3am on Wednesday – that he was back with his family. Continue reading...

US secretary of state Tony Blinken to meet with foreign minister Sergei Lavrov amid fears of Russian attack on UkraineThe US and Russian foreign ministers will hold talks in Geneva on Friday in a development that a US official said suggested that “perhaps diplomacy is not dead” in the efforts to fend off a new Russian attack on Ukraine.With the White House warning that such an attack could come “at any time”, the US secretary of state, Tony Blinken, will fly to Kyiv on Wednesday and Berlin on Thursday to consult with the Ukrainian government and European allies before the meeting the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. It comes as Nato also offered Russia a fresh round of talks. Continue reading...

Measures introduced to fight spread of Omicron could be lifted next week with millions told to return to workplaces

Shortages of at-home tests and long lines at test sites led White House to offer free test kits by mailThe Biden administration on Tuesday quietly launched its website for Americans to request free at-home Covid-19 tests, a day before the site was scheduled to officially go online.The website, CovidTests.gov, now includes a link for Americans to access an order form run by the US Postal Service. Continue reading...

Experienced skier accused of hitting holidaying girl in ski school at excessive speedA French skier who killed a five-year-old British girl after slamming into her at a resort in the Alps has been charged with manslaughter.

City leaders concede ‘trashed Paris’ campaign has a point and commit to beautificationParis city authorities have published a “manifesto for beauty” containing plans to spruce up the City of Lights, where an online campaign highlighting ugliness and filth has piled pressure on mayor Anne Hidalgo.Deputy mayor Emmanuel Grégoire said that several recent initiatives from the Socialist-Green alliance that runs the capital would be scrapped, including allowing Parisians to plant their own gardens on public space. Continue reading...

Beijing faces a demographic timebomb, with population growth at its lowest for six decades“Of all things in the world, people are the most precious,” Mao Zedong said soon after taking power, believing China needed more soldiers and workers. The advent of peace saw the population rocket from 540 million to 969 million over the next three decades. Authorities abruptly switched to curbing births and brutally implementing the “one-child” policy.These days, most Chinese couples are curtailing their families – or going without – by choice. The population now stands at 1.4 billion; a sixth of the global total. But last year’s birthrate was the lowest since 1949, and the rate of population growth the lowest since the Great Famine six decades ago. The pandemic has seen dramatic drops in births in many places. But in China, the shift is part of a pronounced long-term trend. Several experts believe that last year marked the population peak. Continue reading...

Far-right mass murderer has served 10 years of a 21-year sentence for 2011 shootingsAnders Breivik, the Norwegian far-right mass murderer behind the country’s worst peacetime massacre, has appeared in court asking to be released on parole after serving 10 years in prison in near isolation for killing 77 people in a double bomb and gun attack in 2011.Breivik – who legally changed his name to Fjotolf Hansen in 2017 – attacked the country’s government quarter in Oslo with a van bomb before heading to a youth camp being held by the country’s Labour party on the island of Utøya where he killed 69 people, most of them teenagers, in a gun attack. Continue reading...

Virginia Giuffre’s lawyers seek her statement to counter the royal’s insistence he has never met their client or visited the clubA woman who may have seen Prince Andrew with Virginia Giuffre at a London nightclub 20 years ago is “willing” to provide testimony in Giuffre’s civil lawsuit against the royal, whom she accuses of sexual abuse, the witness’s lawyer said.“I am proud to represent Shukri Walker, who has bravely stepped forward as a witness and encourages others who may have information to do so as well,” the lawyer Lisa Bloom said in an email. Continue reading...

Ian Stewart, who was convicted in 2016 of murdering Helen Bailey, is charged with murdering Diane Stewart in 2010The killer of the children’s author Helen Bailey in 2016 has gone on trial charged with murdering his wife six years earlier in an incident he claimed was an epileptic fit.Ian Stewart, 61, is charged with the murder of Diane Stewart, who died at their Cambridgeshire home in June 2010. Continue reading...

Conservative wins broad support despite anti-abortion views as she pledges to back views taken by parliamentA conservative Maltese lawyer who opposes abortion has been elected president of the European parliament, the first woman in 20 years to lead the assembly.Roberta Metsola, who is celebrating her 43rd birthday on Tuesday, is the youngest-ever president of the European parliament, winning a comfortable majority to serve a two-and-a-half-year term. Continue reading...

Pollsters predict comfortable win for Mia Mottley, but she faces criticism of running a ‘one-party state’She wowed Cop26 by castigating dithering global leaders for inflicting a “death sentence” on island nations and then made headlines around the world when she ditched the Queen as head of state, installing the singer Rihanna as an official national hero.On Wednesday, the Barbados prime minister, Mia Mottley, hopes her soaring international profile will translate into a second term when the country goes to the polls in a snap general election. Continue reading...

Authorities call for animals to be surrendered for ‘disposal’ after traces of virus detected at pet shop

Private hospital staff diverted to public system as national medical stockpile activated; Victoria declares ‘code brown’ emergency for hospitals; NSW records 36 deaths and 29,830 new cases. This blog is now closed

Nicknamed after dog shot in Thorpe affair, plan afoot to oust PM over Downing Street parties scandalRebel Tories are upping pressure on Boris Johnson to quit over the Downing Street parties scandal, with one naming the plan “Operation Rinka” in reference to the dog killed in the Jeremy Thorpe affair in the 1970s.While Downing Street insiders have reportedly devised a plan to sack officials and save Johnson, referred to as “Operation Save Big Dog”, some Tory MPs are stepping up pressure on colleagues to submit letters of no confidence in the prime minister.Join our journalists for a Guardian Live online event on the No 10 lockdown party and Boris Johnson’s future on Wednesday 19 January. Book here Continue reading...

Picasso chose a Mouton Rothschild, Yoko Ono a vintage chianti. But why do artists love doing wine labels – and can they enhance the quaff? Our writer enters a world where labels are so prized, drinkers get them as tattoosHere’s a good pub quiz question: what do David Shrigley, Tracey Emin and, er, Prince Charles have in common? The answer is they’ve all painted works of art you can order in a restaurant. Because while a wine bottle may provide only the slenderest of canvases, that hasn’t stopped some of the biggest names in the world of art from daubing something onto the label’s few square inches.The latest to do so is Olafur Eliasson, the revered Icelandic–Danish environmental artist who created a work for the 2019 vintage of Château Mouton Rothschild – a series of ellipses that form a ring charting the path of the sun in relation to the chateau’s location in Pauillac, south-west France. If you really want to understand the bond between fine art and fine wine, there is no better chateau to start with. Since its first artistic collaboration in 1924, the roll-call of names to grace its bottles is astonishing: Salvador Dalí doodled the winery’s ram emblem for the 1958 vintage, Jeff Koons modified a first-century Roman fresco in 2010 and, four years later, David Hockney provided an empty and full glass. Continue reading...

HRT was first successfully marketed as a ‘cure’ for menopause in the 1940s before a misreported study crashed sales in 2002For centuries the symptoms of menopause were documented, but women went through it with little intervention. It wasn’t until the advent of science as we know it that physicians (all male at the time obviously) started more commonly “treating” its symptoms. It’s clear now they had no idea what they were dealing with, since treatments ranged from the benign (cupping, cold water) to downright mutilation (clitoridectomy, anyone?).Suffice it to say, the history of misogyny in medicine goes way, way back; all founded in the idea of women as inferior, and of menstrual blood as evil and poisonous. Fast-forward to the early 20th century, when it was discovered that oestrogen, in the form of conjugated equine oestrogen – yes, from horses – could be used as a hormone treatment for the symptoms of menopause. In 1942 the first oestrogen product was marketed under the name Premarin. Continue reading...

Regular contact with Tonga may not resume for weeks after confirmation the communications cable was cut in at least one placeA distress signal has been detected in an isolated, low-lying group of Tongan islands after Saturday’s huge volcanic eruption, even as most external communications remain down, and diaspora families anxiously await news.Reuters reports that the UN detected the distress signal on Monday, prompting particular concern for the inhabitants of Fonoi and Mango. According to the Tonga government, 36 people live on Mango and 69 on Fonoi. Continue reading...

Pandemic has caused huge delays in justice system but barristers claim change in England and Wales is ‘distraction politics’Magistrates in England and Wales will be given more sentencing powers in an attempt to tackle the backlog of cases waiting to be dealt with by criminal courts.In the latest effort to reduce both the number of outstanding cases and the pressure faced by crown courts during the coronavirus pandemic, magistrates will be able to hand out jail terms of up to a year – double the current maximum. Continue reading...

Tuesday: Big orders from state and federal governments and large corporates for rapid tests are contributing to a shortage. Plus: how to care for Covid face masksGood morning. Still searching for rapid antigen tests? Orders from big business and governments means less are ending up on the shelves. The extent of the damage in Tonga is becoming clearer. And some tips on how to keep your mask effective.The shortage of rapid antigen tests for consumers is being exacerbated by state and federal governments and large corporates placing mammoth orders for the self-administered test kits, causing stock to be diverted from online retailers and pharmacies. Australia is currently in the midst of a huge Omicron wave after state and federal governments pivoted from a policy of Covid suppression to one of “living with the virus”, causing a surge in demand for rapid antigen testing kits. The federal health minister, Greg Hunt, denied on Monday the commonwealth was requisitioning supplies of rapid antigen tests, as it can do under the Health Act allows. Continue reading...

Journalist Carole Cadwalladr gives evidence as she defends her reporting on multimillionaire Brexit backerThe Observer and Guardian journalist Carole Cadwalladr has told a court she believes the multimillionaire Brexit backer Arron Banks may have been “used and exploited” by the Russian government, as she defended her reporting.Banks, who funded the pro-Brexit Leave.EU campaign group, is suing Cadwalladr for defamation over two instances in which she said the businessman was lying about his relationship with the Russian state. Continue reading...

Johnson told MPs he did not realise 20 May 2020 event was social gathering but ex-aide says PM was advised not to allow it

Beijing has announced major reforms to address the decline, including raising the retirement age and implementing a three-child policyChina’s population growth rate has fallen to its lowest level in six decades, barely outnumbering deaths in 2021 despite major government efforts to increase population growth and stave off a demographic crisis.Across China, 10.62 million babies were born in 2021, a rate of 7.52 per thousand people, the national bureau of statistics said on Monday. In the same period 10.14 million deaths were recorded, a mortality rate of 7.18 per thousand, producing a population growth rate of just 0.34 per thousand head of population. Continue reading...

Malik Faisal Akram from Blackburn was killed by police after taking four hostages in a synagogueA British man who flew to the US, acquired a gun and took hostages at a Texas synagogue had a criminal record and an extensive history of mental health issues, the Guardian understands.Malik Faisal Akram, a 44-year-old from Blackburn, was killed after a tense 11-hour hostage standoff at the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in the Dallas suburb of Colleyville on Saturday evening. All four hostages survived the siege and were unharmed. Continue reading...

Michaela Hall, 49, was allegedly stabbed through eye by Lee Kendall, 42, in Mount Hawke, CornwallA former charity worker who worked with released prisoners was stabbed to death by an ex-inmate she had begun a relationship with, a jury has heard.Michaela Hall, 49, was stabbed through the eye by Lee Kendall, 42, in a bedroom of her house in the Cornish village of Mount Hawke, Truro crown court was told. The court heard that Hall, a mother of two, was the victim of a number of assaults before she was killed, but declined to pursue prosecutions against Kendall. Continue reading...

Police Scotland said no criminality had been found after photograph of writer’s address was put onlinePolice will take no action against trans rights activists who posted a photograph of JK Rowling’s home online.The author had contacted police in Scotland in November after the tweet, which showed her Edinburgh house and revealed the address. The image showed activists standing outside the property with placards carrying slogans such as “trans liberation now”. Continue reading...

Abattoir had exemption from state government but supermarket giant halted orders for product after discussion with ACTU

Yang Hengjun was arrested in 2019 on espionage charges and his supporters fear he will be left to die of ‘medical neglect’

Analysis: UK reportedly considering sending asylum seekers to Rwanda, which was involved in controversial scheme with IsraelRwanda – one of two African countries to which the UK government is reportedly considering sending asylum seekers for resettlement and processing – was previously embroiled in a highly controversial migrant deportation scheme involving Israel.Although few details have emerged after a report in the Times that migrants could be sent to Ghana and Rwanda, Rwanda’s previous involvement in receiving African deportees from Israel raises serious concerns over whether – even with UK funding – it has the resources or even willingness to host deportations. Continue reading...

Latest updates: No 10 has again denied that Boris Johnson was warned in advance of the party in the Downing Street garden on 20 May 2020

Authorities close organisation after pro-government journalists and police storm its premisesThe future of press freedom in Indian-administered Kashmir has been thrown into question after pro-government journalists and police officers forcibly took over its independent press club, which the authorities later shut down.The incident, which follows the harassment and detention of dozens of journalists in Kashmir in recent months, is the latest attack on independent journalism in the region, which is disputed between India and Pakistan. Continue reading...

Animal shelter operator Angela Glover, 50, from Brighton, died trying to save her dogs, says familyA body has been found after a British woman went missing following a tsunami in Tonga, according to her family.Angela Glover, 50, from Brighton, died after an undersea volcano erupted near the Pacific nation on Saturday, sending large waves crashing across the shore. Continue reading...

Tickets will instead by distributed to chosen groups amid first reported locally transmitted cases of OmicronTickets to the Beijing Winter Olympics will not be sold to the general public, but distributed to “targeted” groups, organisers have announced, in China’s latest attempt to control the spread of the highly-infectious Omicron Covid variant.Beijing reported its first locally transmitted Omicron case over the weekend, piling renewed pressure on authorities in the run-up to the Games, which are due to start on 4 February and coincide with the lunar new year celebrations week, typically the biggest travel period of the year. Continue reading...

Negin overcame significant disadvantages to obtain her role but now fears those seeking revengeThe Taliban blighted *Negin’s childhood with their ban on girls’ education, but she overcame the late start to her schooling to become a senior prosecutor. Afghanistan’s legal system was slow and often corrupt, but it offered women some hope of escaping abusers and seeing their tormentors jailed. Now she fears that some of those men, freed in a Taliban-orchestrated mass jailbreak last summer, want revenge.My life was already affected by the Taliban long before they took over Afghanistan this summer. I only started school at 14, because they were in power in the 90s and did not allow girls to study. Once I could go to school, I graduated and went to university.In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org. Continue reading...

Annalena Baerbock says Germany will not compromise on ‘basic principles’ ahead of meeting with Russian foreign ministerThe new German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, sought to reassure a nervous Ukraine that she will not allow Germany to compromise on the basic principles of Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty when she meets the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, in Moscow for the first time on Tuesday.Baerbock, a member of the Green party, said on a visit to Kyiv she was ready for serious dialogue with Russia about mutual security, but was not willing to backtrack “on basic principles such as territorial inviolability, the free choice of alliances and the renunciation of the threat of violence”. Continue reading...

Her whirlwind relationship with Machine Gun Kelly has seen them wearing vials of each others blood, tattooing their names on one another and arriving at events chained to one anotherFor most people, just a “yes” or “I will”, suffices. Megan Fox went a little further when the musician Machine Gun Kelly asked her to marry her. “Just as in every lifetime before this one,” she posted on Instagram “and as in every lifetime that will follow it, I said yes… And then we drank each other’s blood.”Kelly proposed under the same banyan tree, at the Ritz-Carlton Dorado Beach hotel in Puerto Rico, where the pair met a year earlier. At that time they were filming Midnight in the Switchgrass, a Bruce Willis crime-thriller with an 8% rating on Rottten tomatoes. Continue reading...