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The head of the Foreign Office has been accused of covering up the prime minister’s involvement in the decision to evacuate pets from Kabul at a select committee hearing.Labour MP Chris Bryant made the accusation to Sir Philip Barton and read out a leaked letter from Boris Johnson’s parliamentary private secretary which he said implied Johnson’s 'fingers' were 'all over' the controversial decision.Barton did not accept the charge and, in a separate interview, Johnson dismissed the accusation that he was involved as 'complete nonsense'

Police say man, named as Khalid Aedh al-Otaibi, was arrested as he was about to board flight from Paris to RiyadhFrench police have arrested a man on suspicion of being a former member of the Saudi royal guard accused of being involved in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.The man, named as Khalid Aedh al-Otaibi, was taken into custody at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport as he was about to board a plane to the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Continue reading...

Vote seen as a blow to conservative presidential candidate José Antonio Kast, who won majority of votes in November’s first roundA historic vote granting equal marriage rights to same-sex couples in Chile has been heralded by activists as a triumph and a blow to the conservative agenda of presidential candidate José Antonio Kast.Kast won the majority of votes in November’s first-round vote, instilling a wave of fear among the country’s LGBTQ+ community. A tight runoff between Kast and his progressive opponent, former student protest leader Gabriel Boric, is scheduled on 19 December. Continue reading...

White House says the US president voiced ‘deep concerns’ about the Russian military buildup in the two-hour video callJoe Biden and Vladimir Putin held a virtual summit on Tuesday but made little apparent headway in defusing the crisis over Ukraine in the wake of a Russian troop buildup, and instead delegated officials from both countries to stay in contact.The two leaders talked by videoconference for just over two hours, during which they laid out their positions. Continue reading...

Sir Philip Barton refused to say precisely when Raab had been on holiday in AugustThe head of the diplomatic service has admitted failing to show leadership after he began a three-week holiday two days before the Foreign Office internally accepted Kabul was about to fall to the Taliban.Sir Philip Barton stayed on holiday until 28 August and during bruising evidence to the foreign affairs select committee, he admitted this was a mistake. Continue reading...

Witnesses describe Ryder Cup winner’s behaviour on British Airways flight as ‘completely bizarre’A Ryder Cup-winning golfer has said he was “embarrassed and felt horrible” after being accused of drunkenly groping a woman on a flight.Thorbjørn Olesen, who was ranked 51st in the world at the time, was on a British Airways flight from the US to the UK when the alleged incident happened. He was travelling with other professionals, including England’s Ian Poulter, 45, and Justin Rose, 41, after the World Golf Championships-FedEx St Jude Invitational in Memphis. Continue reading...

Speculation about listing comes amid reports of Porsche and Piëch families considering their VW stakeVolkswagen is still considering a stock market listing of its luxury sports car brand Porsche, according to reports, as it looks to raise capital for a costly shift towards electric vehicles.Estimates for what Porsche could be worth as a standalone company range between €45bn and €90bn (£38bn and £77bn). Continue reading...

The Q-League is a far cry from the refugee camps where some of its players learned to play football using scrunched up plastic bags. Guardian Australia’s sport editor Mike Hytner introduces this story about the inclusiveness of sport and a player’s memory of holding a real football for the first timeYou can read the original article here: Rohingya United: the football team bringing together refugees

Analysis: why the UK is bracing for a second winter storm and where it is coming fromThe UK is facing a second big storm, Storm Barra, while some homes in the north are still lacking power after the devastation of Storm Arwen just over a week ago. Continue reading...

Man, 67, convicted of assault for removing testicles of several people and causing one person to dieA German court convicted a 67-year-old electrician of aggravated, dangerous and simple assault for removing the testicles of several men at their request, causing one person to die, the dpa news agency has reported.A Munich regional court sentenced the man to eight years and six months in prison. The defendant, whose name was not released for privacy reasons, had initially also been charged with murder by omission but prosecutors later dropped that charge. Continue reading...

The arrival of the Omicron variant and rising infection rates has led to myriad new rules that travellers have to negotiate before setting offSpain has banned all non-vaccinated Britons from entering the country. The ban is expected to last until at least 31 December, at which point the rules will be reviewed. Continue reading...

Businesswoman had made claims about journalist’s inclusion in a contact book owned by Jeffrey EpsteinAndrew Neil says he has launched legal action against Jennifer Arcuri, the US businesswoman and former lover of Boris Johnson, after she made claims about the veteran journalist’s inclusion in a contact book owned by the deceased paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.In a public spat that started with a disagreement over the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines, Arcuri tagged the former BBC presenter in a now-deleted tweet that read: “Citation for @afneil: Not only is he a paid for pharma puppet but here he is on the pedo elite train. Everyone knows what happened on that plane.” Alongside were the hashtags #itsOver and #ticktock, a picture of Neil arm in arm with a woman, and a screengrab from Epstein’s address book purportedly showing Neil’s name. Continue reading...

Apology comes as dozens of junior officials to former ministers face investigationThe government has apologised for failures in the lead up to the Grenfell Tower fire, admitting to “errors and missed opportunities” that helped create “an environment in which such a tragedy was possible”.It told the public inquiry into the disaster it was “deeply sorry” and conceded it did not know how building regulations were being applied on the ground. It said the “system failed”. Continue reading...

Patrick Zaki was detained last year and still faces charges of ‘spreading false news’An Egyptian court has ordered the release of researcher Patrick Zaki, whose detention in February last year sparked international condemnation, particularly in Italy where he had been studying, his family said.“I’m jumping for joy!” his mother Hala Sobhi told AFP. “We’re now on our way to the police station in Mansoura,” a city in Egypt’s Nile Delta, where Zaki is from. Continue reading...

Cheese and chocolate are your friends, but keep them bite-sized. Top chefs share their favourite nibbles …• Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.comWhat makes the best party snacks?

Inmate says police refused to open doors amid blaze that left 38 dead and 69 seriously hurtA massive fire ripped through an overcrowded prison in Burundi before dawn on Tuesday, killing dozens of inmates and seriously injuring many more, the country’s vice-president said.Many inmates were still sleeping at the time of the blaze that destroyed several parts of the facility in Burundi’s political capital, Gitega, witnesses said. Continue reading...

Alexander Layton repeatedly stabbed James Stokoe, who had shouted at him for crossing the road carelesslyA pedestrian who fatally stabbed a driver who shouted at him for crossing the road carelessly has been convicted of murder and sentenced to a minimum of 23 years in prison.Alexander Layton was convicted of murdering James Stokoe, a 40-year-old married father, in his BMW in Thornaby, Teesside, in May 2020, following a trial at Teesside crown court. Continue reading...

Nato not sending a clear signal would mean ‘glue that keeps us together’ has failed, says foreign ministerA swift reprisal package against Russia – including US troops and Patriot missiles stationed in the Baltics, the cutting off of Russia from the Swift banking payments system and reinstated sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline – must be prepared now in case it invades Ukraine, the Latvian foreign minister has said.The warning from Edgars Rinkēvičs comes as Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin prepare to hold talks about the growing tensions. Continue reading...

The Royal Ballet’s phenomenal principal dancer was the fixed star at the heart of an extraordinary year for the company

As he releases his latest film as a director, what do you want to ask the man who played the ultimate Euro-iceman in 80s action flicks?Here’s some things you might not know about Dolph Lundgren: he’s got a masters in chemical engineering, Jerry Springer played the US president in his directorial debut The Defender, and his real first name is … Hans.Well, would Hans Lundgren have been the same big deal? The ultimate Euro-iceman in the 1980s, he played a villain in Bond film A View to a Kill (at the behest of then-girlfriend Grace Jones, who had a starring role in the film), and man-mountain Soviet boxer Ivan Drago in the fondly remembered Rocky IV (so fondly remembered, in fact, that director-star Sylvester Stallone, weirdly, felt the need to release a director’s cut a few weeks back). Lundgren, notoriously, put Stallone in hospital with a dangerously swollen heart after he was allowed to whale on his co-star, no holds barred, for a few seconds. Continue reading...

Official figures show deaths increased nearly 19% in 2020 as Public Health England notes changing consumption patterns

‘National working week’ aimed at improving work-life balance and economic competitivenessThe United Arab Emirates is cutting its working week to four-and-a-half days and moving its weekend from Friday-Saturday to Saturday-Sunday in a major shift aimed at improving the country’s competitiveness, officials have said.The “national working week” will be mandatory for government bodies from 1 January and bucks the regional norm of a full day-off on Friday for Muslim prayers. Continue reading...

Collaery won ACT court of appeal case lifting previous secrecy orders and declaring importance of open justice

Teachers’ strike closes almost 400 state schools for 24 hours as transport in Sydney, Hunter, Blue Mountains and Central Coast also disrupted

Scott Morrison has made a statement about George Christensen’s appearance with Alex Jones; Adam Bandt says Greens want to ‘improve and pass’ Labor’s climate policy, not block it; Reserve Bank leaves cash rate unchanged at 0.1%; David Littleproud says ‘conversations are happening’ about Olympics boycott; NSW teachers’ strike closes nearly 400 public schools; Victoria pandemic bill becomes law; Victoria records 1,185 cases and seven deaths; NSW records 260 cases and two deaths – follow all the day’s news

The Omicron variant has refocused attention on vaccination rates as data shows disparities in uptake across age, region and ethnicity

Beijing dismisses no-show and says American officials had not been invited in the first place, as other countries consider their positionsChina has reacted angrily to the US government’s diplomatic boycott of next year’s Winter Olympics, as more countries said they would consider joining the protest over Beijing’s human rights record and New Zealand announced it would not send representatives to the Games.Chinese officials dismissed Washington’s boycott as a “posturing and political manipulation” and tried to discredit the decision by claiming that US diplomats had not even been invited to Beijing in the first place. Continue reading...

With its cosmic roots and being the home of Stella Artois, the compact gothic town is a hip destination that has remained Belgium’s best-kept secret

After 30 years in exile, it’s easy to doubt that it will ever be safe to live and work in Sudan. But the action being taken by young people shows democracy will rise again“All the goodness and the heroisms will rise up again, then be cut down again and rise up,” John Steinbeck wrote to a friend in 1941, just before the US entered the second world war. “It isn’t that the evil thing wins – it never will – but that it doesn’t die.”Growing up, I was always interested in politics, politics was the reason I had to leave Sudan at the age of 11. At school, we weren’t allowed to study or discuss it, and it was the same at home.For years, I lay in bed and listened to my father and his friends as they argued about politics and sang traditional songs during their weekend whisky rituals. They watched a new Arabic news channel, Al Jazeera, which aired from Qatar. All the journalism my father consumed about Sudan was from the London-based weekly opposition newspaper, Al Khartoum. The only time he turned on our dial-up internet was to visit Sudanese Online. Continue reading...

Comedian says he ‘hypnotises’ hand to stop it shaking but laments condition stopping him writingBilly Connolly said he has learned to hypnotise his hand to stop shaking due to Parkinson’s disease, but lamented not being able to write by hand due to the condition that has forced him to retire from live standup comedy.Speaking during an interview with the Radio Times, Connolly said he treated his illness the way he used to deal with hecklers at his comedy shows. When he starts to shake, he stops what he’s doing and faces it down. Continue reading...

As he stars alongside Olivia Colman in a drama about the Mansfield Murders, the actor talks about his discomfort with Naked, doing night shoots with Julie Walters – and growing old grotesquelyDavid Thewlis, speaking by Zoom from his home in the Berkshire village of Sunningdale, has set his screen at a jaunty angle. His manner is equable, nerdy, eager to please. Nothing like what you’d expect, in other words – unless you had watched Landscapers, a new four-part TV drama in which Thewlis stars opposite Olivia Colman. Perhaps he’s one of those actors who doesn’t de-role until he’s on to the next character.Landscapers is true crime, in so far as the protagonists are Susan and Christopher Edwards, the so-called Mansfield Murderers convicted in 2014 of killing Susan’s parents and burying them in the garden 15 years before. Yet it is absolutely nothing like true crime. It jumps through time and genre, smashes the fourth wall then puts it back together as a jail cell. It is vividly experimental yet recalls the golden age of British TV, specifically Dennis Potter and his dreamlike, restless theatricality. “I didn’t think of that while we were making it,” says Thewlis. “But when I saw it, I thought of The Singing Detective – which I was in!” Continue reading...

Modern society has largely exiled death to the outskirts of existence, but Covid-19 has forced us all to confront it. Our relationship to the planet, each other and time itself can never be the same againWe have been asked to write about the future, the afterlife of the pandemic, but the future can never be told. This at least was the view of the economist John Maynard Keynes, who was commissioned to edit a series of essays for the Guardian in 1921, as the world was rebuilding after the first world war. The future is “fluctuating, vague and uncertain”, he wrote later, at a time when the mass unemployment of the 1930s had upended all confidence, the first stage on a road to international disaster that could, and could not, be foreseen. “The senses in which I am using the term [uncertain],” he said, “is that in which the prospect of a European war is uncertain, or the price of copper and the rate of interest 20 years hence, or the obsolescence of a new invention, or the position of private wealth-owners in the social system in 1970. About these matters there is no scientific basis on which to form any calculable probability whatever. We simply do not know.”This may always be the case, but the pandemic has brought this truth so brutally into our lives that it threatens to crush the best hopes of the heart, which always look beyond the present. We are being robbed of the illusion that we can predict what will happen in the space of a second, a minute, an hour or a day. From one moment to the next, the pandemic seems to turn and point its finger at anyone, even at those who believed they were safely immune. The distribution of the virus and vaccination programme in different countries has been cruelly unequal, but as long as Covid remains a global presence, waves of increasing severity will be possible anywhere and at any moment in time. The most deadly pandemic of the 20th century, the Spanish flu at the end of the first world war, went through wave after wave and lasted for nearly four years. Across the world, people are desperate to feel they have turned a corner, that an end is in sight, only to be faced with a future that seems to be retreating like a vanishing horizon, a shadow, a blur. Nobody knows, with any degree of confidence, what will happen next. Anyone claiming to do so is a fraud. Continue reading...

Court will examine ‘devastating’ domestic violence and what could have been done to save mother and children murdered in 2020

Sajid Javid told MPs on Monday that ‘multiple regions of England’ were seeing cases of the variant that were not linked to international travel

Industry body warns that some operators won’t last the winter after return of strict Covid travel rules

Ex-diplomat claims string of failings within department led to ‘people being left to die at the hands of the Taliban’

Ten days after disruption began, prime minister reveals new target after phone call to head of Northern PowergridHomes still without power following Storm Arwen will be reconnected by Tuesday at the latest, Boris Johnson has said.The prime minister said he spoke to the chief executive of Northern Powergrid on Monday, and that he had been told of the new target. But a deadline set on Wednesday last week had already been missed as MPs heard there was something “seriously wrong” at the supplier. Continue reading...

In the most horrifying episode of the show so far, Shiv and Roman take things too far at the Tuscan wedding, Logan is left incandescent with rage … and then there’s KendallSpoiler alert: this recap is for people watching Succession season three, which airs on HBO in the US and Sky Atlantic in the UK. Do not read on unless you have watched episode eight.Wedding bells were ringing. So were alarm bells in Waystar Royco’s HR department. But is a funeral toll about to ring out, too? Here are your tasting notes for the penultimate episode, titled Chiantishire … Continue reading...

The star pulled his nominations for best rap album and best rap performance after consultation with his managementDrake has decided to withdraw his two Grammy nominations.Though his motive remained unclear, Variety reported the 35-year-old artist withdrew his two nominations – best rap album for Certified Lover Boy and best rap performance for his song Way 2 Sexy, featuring Future and Young Thug – after consultation with his management. Continue reading...

Almost a year on from the coup, resistance to the military is growing stronger and more organisedOn Sunday morning, a small group of protesters walked together in Kyimyindaing township, Yangon, waving bunches of eugenia and roses. They carried a banner reading: “The only real prison is fear and the real freedom is freedom from fear”.The words are famously those of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose sentencing by the junta to two years in detention was announced on Monday. Continue reading...

Children’s charities say change creates a ‘toxic cocktail of risk’ by making detection of abuse more difficultWhatsApp users are to be given the option to have their messages disappear after 24 hours, a change that drew immediate criticism from children’s charities.In a blog post announcing the change, WhatsApp, which has 2 billion users, said its mission was to “connect the world privately”. Continue reading...

First verdicts announced in cases against Myanmar’s former leader, who was deposed in a coup in FebruaryA military court in Myanmar has found Aung San Suu Kyi guilty of incitement and breaking Covid restrictions, drawing condemnation from the United Nations, European Union and others, who described the verdicts as politically motivated.The 76-year-old, who was deposed in a coup in February, is set to serve two years in detention at an undisclosed location, a sentence reduced from four years after a partial pardon from the country’s military chief, state TV reported. Continue reading...

LGBTQ+ performers are making sure that queerness isn’t ‘swept under the carpet’ this Christmas – and providing community, fun and celebration for audiencesDrag king Mark Anthony loves Christmas. He always has – it’s a big thing in his family. Still, he says he found his Christmas “blighted slightly” in recent years since coming out as transgender and non-binary. “It wasn’t a big sob story of rejection,” Anthony, whose family fully accepts him for who he is, explains. “It was a discomfort type thing, from both sides, where you’re trying to work out how you fit into a different role. By this point, we’re pretty much adjusted now.” (Out of drag, Anthony, performed by Isaac Williams, uses the pronouns they and them.)Anthony knows how Christmas “might have quite negative associations” for those LGBTQ+ people “who don’t feel they can be authentically themselves at home with their families”. It is a time that “puts a spotlight on anything that’s changed and makes it feel really kind of awkward”, for example, if someone has come out about their sexuality or gender identity. Continue reading...

Singer discusses health difficulties in rare public speech as she accepts Kennedy Center awardJoni Mitchell addressed her health difficulties in a rare public speech as she accepted her Kennedy Center Honor, one of the most prestigious awards in American cultural life.At a ceremony attended by Joe Biden – in a show of support for the arts after the awards were snubbed by Donald Trump – Mitchell discussed the issues she’s faced in the wake of an aneurysm in 2015 that left her temporarily unable to walk or talk. Continue reading...

Manasseh Sogavare defends switching diplomatic ties from Taiwan to ChinaThe prime minister of Solomon Islands has defended his government’s decision to establish diplomatic relations with China, accusing “agents of Taiwan” of attempting to destabilise the government.

Received wisdom says older cheese is better, you should pair it with red wine and wrap any leftovers in clingfilm. Here is what the experts say‘I hate to dictate to people. I don’t like too many rules,” says Iain Mellis, a cheesemonger of 40 years, with cheese shops bearing his name scattered across Scotland. Mellis has spent his life trying to make artisan cheese more accessible; the last thing he wants is to be so prescriptive that people are put off.Yet the world of good cheese is already mired in misunderstandings that, at best, detract from its enjoyment and, at worst, result in its ruination. Cheese stored incorrectly is easily marred, while the mistaken beliefs that you need red wine, specialist knives or even a cheeseboard to enjoy it only reinforce cheese’s recherché reputation. Continue reading...

Being a beautiful watery creature is a challenge if you have no technique or breath control – and can’t hear a word beneath your floral swimming capI am too old for Disney’s Little Mermaid. My sister was the right age, but our right-on 80s household was a princess-free zone (though The Little Mermaid is arguably one of the more subversive films in the canon, with its exploration of identity and conformity and nods to drag culture). I have, however, gleaned that the transformation from mermaid to human is a risky business; I believe a crab says so.But what about the reverse? Because today, I, a human, am becoming a mermaid, thanks to Donna Rumney of Mermaids at Jesmond Pool, in Newcastle upon Tyne. Donna is booked out with children’s mermaid parties but adult sessions are popular, too: everyone wants to be a mermaid now. There are mermaid pageants and conventions; people pay thousands of pounds for custom-made silicone tails. Something about that in-between state, the grace and fluidity, appeals when life on land feels so hidebound and joyless. I love the idea of achieving a state of otherworldly aquatic grace; what could possibly go wrong? Continue reading...

Photographer Andrea Capello, who became a British citizen in 2021, wanted to know more about the experience of other people who had chosen to do the sameOn 28 July 2021, I became a British citizen. I’ve been living in the UK for 18 years, and never considered taking this big step until now. I am proudly European and, I must admit, Brexit played a massive role in my decision. Once I started the application process, something happened to me; collecting payslips, P60s and several documents from decades ago triggered a range of conflicting emotions.I realised how much living in this country changed me and shaped my character. I became an adult here, I made strong friendships and met extraordinary people. I learned how challenging it is to live away from your family, how rewarding it is to live in a multicultural society, and how contradictory and yet exhilarating British culture is. I then started to ask myself other questions: why did I come here in the first place? Is the UK still the same country as when I arrived? How do other British/European citizens like me feel about it and what are their hopes for the future?Sonia Vico, a multidisciplinary artist from Valencia, Spain. British citizen since June 2021. Continue reading...

State’s police commissioner tells people to ‘pack your patience’ and expect long delays if entering by road