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A tweet from the actor has sparked a call to action by Thailand’s prime minister, but will anything really change?Reams of black wiring suspended between poles, haphazardly bundled into nest-like knots, and often hanging at head height are a common sight in Bangkok, and has become almost synonymous with the city.“If you walk around my area, there are many wire bundles hanging down to human height or sitting on the ground along the pedestrian walkway,” says Kullapa Sakkaravech, a language teacher from Bangkok. Continue reading...

With the growing possibility of a pro-independence victory, France is derailing decolonisation in a bid to shore up its position in the Indo-PacificThe French government’s decision to hold New Caledonia’s self-determination referendum on 12 December, despite the resolve of pro-independence parties not to participate, is a reckless political gambit with potentially dire consequences.The referendum will be the third and final consultation held under the 1998 Noumea accord – successor to the Matignon accords which ended instability and violence between the Kanak independence movement and local “loyalists” and the French state in 1988. By organising this month’s referendum without the participation of the Indigenous Kanak people, who overwhelmingly support independence, France is undermining the innovative and peaceful decolonisation process of the last 30 years, founded on French state neutrality and seeking consensus between opposing local political parties. Continue reading...

Case identified in California; UK infections on rise amid fears over Omicron variant; non-EU travellers to France must have negative Covid test regardless of vaccination status

Complaints to be dealt with outside chain of command – but military police retain right to investigate rape claimsComplaint of sexual offences in the armed forces will be dealt with outside the chain of command in future – but military police will retain the right to investigate allegations of rape, the Ministry of Defence announced on Thursday.The government commitment came in response to a landmark parliamentary inquiry into the experiences of women who serve or have served in the armed forces, although it was criticised for not going far enough with calls that only civilian forces should investigate allegations of rape and sexual abuse. Continue reading...

Thomas Schreiber has admitted manslaughter of his mother’s partner but denies murderA man who launched a sustained knife attack on his mother and her partner, the tycoon Sir Richard Sutton, led police on a 135mph car chase before officers carried out a “hard stop” on a London street and Tasered him as he stabbed himself, a murder trial has heard.Thomas Schreiber, 35, who killed Sutton and seriously injured his mother, Anne Schreiber, on the anniversary of his own father’s death, claimed he snapped after laying out some pistachio nuts and putting champagne on ice to share with his mother and Sutton, and argued that “demons” rather than himself were to blame. Continue reading...

Xiomara Castro has said she will foster ties with Beijing in what experts see as a move to counter US influenceXiomara Castro’s victory in the Honduras presidential elections has placed the Central American nation at the heart of an intensifying diplomatic tug-of-war between Taiwan and China.Honduras is one of only 15 remaining countries that recognizes the sovereignty of Taiwan, which China claims as part of its own territory. But Castro made a manifesto pledge to end that decades-long relationship and establish diplomatic ties with Beijing. Continue reading...

Thursday: Many temporary visa holders face another Christmas without family. Plus: expanded league gets set for 20210-22 seasonGood morning. Skilled workers face Australian residency jeopardy, government advisers urge swift action on sex discrimination inside parliament and more countries tighten their borders in the face of Omicron.Thousands of skilled workers and bridging visa holders are contemplating leaving Australia permanently due to inconsistencies in the government’s pandemic response that mean several visa categories are not included for exemption-free travel from mid-December. People on distinguished talent visas or awaiting permanent residency confirmation are being effectively blocked from returning home, with some, like Giorgia Di Girolamo, facing a difficult the prospect of giving up the life she’s built in Australia since 2017 to see her dying grandfather. A petition to expand exemption-free travel to such visa holders has garnered 9,000 signatories. Continue reading...

Tehran accuses Israel of ‘trumpeting lies to poison’ talks aimed at reviving 2015 pactIran sought to heighten pressure on western negotiators in Vienna through increasing its use of advanced centrifuges as talks on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal carried on for a third day on Wednesday.The International Atomic Energy Agency reported on Wednesday that Iran had started the process of enriching uranium to up to 20% purity with one cascade, or cluster, of 166 advanced IR-6 machines at the Fordow fuel enrichment plant, which is about 20 miles north-east of Qom. Those machines are far more efficient than the first-generation IR-1. Continue reading...

Anthony Broadwater spent 16 years in jail as victim of miscarriage of justice but has accepted author’s apologyOn 4 November 1981, five Black men in matching light blue shirts filed into a narrow, well-lit room on the third floor of a police station in Syracuse, New York, and turned to face a one-way mirror. On the other side, a 19-year-old white student stepped towards the glass, and tried to identify which of them was her rapist.The student, Alice Sebold, would go on to a storied literary career. She had been the subject of a horrific attack late one night in May of the same year, dragged into a tunnel from a path in a public park and forced to lie down among broken bottles. Continue reading...

Secretary of state says Nato is ‘prepared to impose severe costs’ on Moscow if invasion attemptedThe US says it has evidence Russia has made plans for a “large scale” attack on Ukraine and that Nato allies are “prepared to impose severe costs” on Moscow if it attempts an invasion.Speaking at a Nato ministers meeting in Latvia, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said it was unclear whether Vladimir Putin had made a decision to invade but added: “He’s putting in place the capacity to do so in short order, should he so decide. Continue reading...

Campaigners file legal challenge against seismic survey along South Africa’s Eastern Cape provinceAn 11th hour attempt has been launched to try to halt plans by Shell to explore for oil in vital whale breeding grounds along the Wild Coast of eastern South Africa.Campaigners filed an urgent legal challenge against the seismic survey, which was scheduled to begin on Wednesday, in an effort to prevent it harming whales, dolphins and seals in the relatively untouched marine environment. Continue reading...

Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng says climate crisis likely to cause future extreme weather eventsStorm Arwen was “an event the likes of which we haven’t seen for 60 years” and the UK needs to be prepared for more extreme weather due to the climate crisis, according to the business secretary, as more than 30,000 homes remain without power.Kwasi Kwarteng said the majority of those people will have power restored “in the next day or two”, although he conceded some in remote locations may have to wait much longer. Continue reading...

Blast near busy German train station happened during drilling work on construction site, say policeFour people have been injured, one seriously, after an old aircraft bomb exploded at a bridge near Munich‘s busy main train station.More than 2,000 tonnes of live bombs and munitions are discovered each year in Germany, more than 70 years after the end of the second world war. Continue reading...

Terminal 4 to be used for passengers from 10 red-list countries in southern Africa

London mayor’s cycling and walking chief pauses ad showing cyclist and driver making up after collisionTransport for London has halted an ad campaign promoting road safety that featured a driver and cyclist making up after the latter was almost hit, following a backlash accusing the ad of “victim blaming”.The TfL campaign, called See Their Side, was launched during Road Safety Week last month as part of the London mayor Sadiq Khan’s long-term goal of having no deaths and serious injuries on the capital’s roads by 2041. Continue reading...

PM says all guidance was followed but Keir Starmer says Johnson ‘taking British public for fools’

European Commission president says EU states need to discuss idea in response to spread of Omicron variant

Aid agencies fear plans to scrap applications via Skype are an attempt to control and contain rather than help asylum seekersWhen Hadi Karam*, a soft-spoken Syrian, decided to leave the war-stricken city of Raqqa, he knew the journey to Europe would be risky. What he had not factored in was how technology would be a stumbling block once he reached Greece.“I never thought Skype would be the problem,” says the young professional, recounting his family’s ordeal trying to contact asylum officers in the country. “You ring and ring and ring. Weeks and weeks go by, and there is never any answer.” Continue reading...

Continuing our series of exposés about the TV industry, insiders talk about being misgendered, treated like sexual predators and having to work with ‘outwardly homophobic and transphobic’ talent

Britain has lost an estimated 50% of its public toilets in the past 10 years. This is a problem for everyone, and for some it is so acute that they are either dehydrating before going out or not leaving home at allFor about an hour and a half before she finishes work and gets the bus home, Jacqui won’t eat or drink anything. Once, while waiting at the bus stop, and suddenly needing the loo, she had to head to the other end of town; the public toilets nearby had closed. She didn’t make it in time. Jacqui, who has multiple sclerosis, which can affect bladder and bowel function, says: “I go everywhere with a spare pair of knickers and a packet of wipes, but it’s not something you want to do if you can help it.”Jacqui was diagnosed with MS five years ago, and in that time she has noticed a decline in the number of public toilets. Of the ones that are left, one only takes 20p coins, “and in this increasingly cashless society, you have to make sure you always go out with a 20p”. The other block of loos are “up two flights of stairs or the lift, so it’s not the most suitable access”. If she is out for the day, she will research where the loos are, and it has meant missing out on trips with friends, such as to an outdoor festival, where the loos just weren’t accessible enough. The MS Society has given her a card, which she shows in cafes requesting access to their loos when she’s not a customer, and every person she has flashed it to “has been wonderful”. But, she adds: “You use it as a last resort because you don’t really want to burst into a cafe in front of people and say: ‘Excuse me, I need to wee.’” Continue reading...

Aspen Institute’s New Voices want donors to exercise humility and trust those receiving grants to know what their communities needAid donors are being urged to revolutionise the way money is spent to move away from colonial ideas and create meaningful change.Ahead of a two-day conference this week, activists from Africa, Asia and Latin America have called on public and private global health donors – including governments, the United Nations, private philanthropists and international organisations – to prioritise funding for programmes driven by the needs of the community involved, rather than dictated by preconceived objectives. Continue reading...

Health secretary says demands for GPs to return to face-to-face appointments could be axed to bolster vaccination effort

Maeve’s law will legalise partial DNA donations, allowing women to give birth without passing on a genetic disease

Emergency crews battling rising flood waters as wet weather inundates vast areas of the state

It is hard to protect yourself from HIV when having sterile syringes or condoms can lead to arrest: discrimination is restricting progress in eliminating HIV

I had impressed Mr Priamo with my passion for winning. In questioning his certainty I learned the eternal value of doubt and ambiguityEven before I entered his class, I knew Mr Priamo, the sixth-grade teacher at my Catholic elementary school, as the small, powerfully built man who strutted the hallways, and especially the gymnasium, with the ease of an athletic star. In golf shirts and trousers that pulled too tight at the rear, he appeared to be in perpetual motion – an illusion enhanced by his booming voice and jangling keys, the storm of gum-chewing and cologne that encircled him. It was my first encounter with a kind of masculine drag, an adult embodying a role so fully and so well it was impossible to tell where that bit ended and the real person began. Having crafted my own persona as a low-key academic prodigy, I watched him as a cub might regard the leader of a rival clan.The prospect of submitting to the instruction of someone as brash and sports-metaphor prone as Mr Priamo intrigued me. He was my first male teacher – a relief, following a year in which two female co-teachers (eager to prove a point, it seemed to me, about wanting something too badly) had denied me the top scholastic prize, breaking a three-year streak. Though useless on the track and the basketball court, I impressed Mr Priamo due to the stealthy resolve with which I secured and guarded my standing in his class. Among the first things I learned under his tutelage was that to share a passion for winning is to share a lot. Continue reading...

New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern says she is ‘deeply concerned by the recent civil unrest and rioting in Honiara’New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern has ordered police and troops to join an international peacekeeping mission in the crisis-hit Solomon Islands following deadly anti-government riots.Ardern said on Wednesday the deployment of 65 peacekeepers followed a request from the Solomons government, which was almost toppled during the unrest that claimed at least three lives and reduced much of downtown Honiara – the country’s capital – to smouldering rubble. Continue reading...

Leftist winner Xiomara Castro says she will ‘not fail’ the people after National party rules out contesting election resultHonduras’s ruling party has conceded defeat in presidential elections, giving victory to the leftist opposition candidate Xiomara Castro and easing fears of another contested vote and violent protests.Tegucigalpa mayor Nasry Asfura, the presidential candidate of the National party, said in a statement on Tuesday that he had personally congratulated Castro, despite only about half the voting tallies being counted from Sunday’s election. Continue reading...

Lawyers and campaigners fear decision not to grant appeal against conviction risks silencing other victims of domestic abuseA mother jailed for harming her baby has accused the courts of “injustice” after judges accepted she was a victim of abuse but ruled against an application for an appeal against her conviction made on the grounds that her violent ex-partner coerced her to lie at her trial.The woman, known as “Jenny”, was convicted in 2017 of causing or allowing serious harm after her child sustained skull fractures and bleeding on the brain. The baby’s father was her co-defendant but was acquitted on a lesser charge. Continue reading...

Walmart removes listing by third-party seller after Ontario woman discovers one of toy’s songs is about cocaine and hopelessnessA word of warning before you go toy shopping this Christmas: beware the rapping cactus.The toy, marketed as educational, may teach your children more than you want them to know, as a woman in Brampton, Ontario, discovered the hard way. The miniature, bright-green dancing cactus Ania Tanner bought sings in English, Spanish and Polish while squirming to the beat. After buying it for her granddaughter, Tanner discovered that one of the songs in its repertoire was an explicit tune about cocaine and hopelessness. Continue reading...

We are raiding the Audio Long Read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors.This week, from 2016: Across the continent, rightwing populist parties have seized control of the political conversation. How have they done it? By stealing the language, causes and voters of the traditional left. By Sasha Polakow-Suransky

Kurt Campbell says China’s attempts to drive Australia ‘to its knees’ through a trade war won’t succeed

Surge up the table partly due to the strength of the national currency against the dollar, as well as increases in prices for transport and groceriesTel Aviv has been ranked the world’s most expensive city to live in thanks to the rapid rise in inflation that has pushed up the cost of a whole range of goods and services across the world in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.The Israeli city climbed five spots in the past 12 months to take the unwanted title away from last year’s joint winners of Paris, Hong Kong and Zurich, according to the authoritative ranking system compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Continue reading...

As the supreme court hears new challenges to Roe v Wade, American abortion rights hang in the balanceAccording to recent polls, Americans overwhelmingly support Roe v Wade, the 1973 US supreme court ruling that protects a woman’s right to an abortion. But two new legal challenges to that decision could jeopardise the ability of American women to access abortions – and have knock-on effects for reproductive rights across the globe.Guardian US health reporter Jessica Glenza has been reporting on laws that severely restrict abortion access in Mississippi and Texas; she tells Nosheen Iqbal that this is a ‘perilous moment’ for reproductive rights in the US. Continue reading...

The designer’s last show underlines his rule-breaking attitude to menswear with electrifyingly futuristic garms“Is it too soon?” is the question we ask ourselves, as the final collection from Virgil Abloh goes on show just a few days after the announcement of his death. It may have been one of his final professional wishes – and in keeping with his furious work ethic – to finish the show, yet there’s a brutal finality seeing it play out before our eyes.Emotions are running high as the show, streaming live from Miami, opens with Abloh’s voiceover talking about a return “to childhood wonderment”, while a repeating visual motif of a red hot air balloon suggests Oz and, perhaps, ascension to the afterlife. Continue reading...

Anchor used media contacts to gather information about Andrew Cuomo’s accusersCNN has suspended Chris Cuomo indefinitely after details emerged about how he helped his brother, the former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, as he faced accusations of sexual harassment.Questions have hovered over the CNN anchor’s future since the release of documents by New York’s attorney general on Monday indicated a greater involvement in his brother’s efforts than the network previously knew. Continue reading...

Bev Craig says too much urban planning has been ‘male-led’, making public spaces feel less safeThe first female leader of Manchester city council has pledged to put the safety of women and girls at the heart of her administration, and believes too much urban planning is “male-led”, which has created public spaces that do not feel safe for everyone else.Bev Craig, who takes office on Wednesday, said she previously had to explain to male colleagues that “as a woman, I’ve been taught if you want to go for a run in winter, it’s probably best to go to the gym. Don’t go near the Fallowfield loop [an off road cycling and walking route that has been plagued by muggings]. And sure as hell don’t go near a park.” Continue reading...

Nitzan Horowitz says ‘already room for optimism’ that vaccines will cover new variant; US Food & Drug Administration checking if tweaks needed

Defendant convicted in a German court after enslaving a Yazidi woman and her five-year-old daughterIn a landmark verdict, a former member of the Islamic State group has been found guilty of genocide by a German court over the death of a five-year-old Yazidi girl he had bought as a slave and then chained up in the hot sun to die.The Frankfurt regional court also convicted Taha Al-J of crimes against humanity, war crimes and bodily harm resulting in death. The 29-year-old was sentenced to life imprisonment and ordered to pay the girl’s mother €50,000 (£42,600). Continue reading...

Ben Raymond was found guilty of membership of far-right group NS131, which promoted racial hatredA man has been convicted of acting as “head of propaganda” for a banned neo-Nazi terror group set up to wage a race war in Britain.Ben Raymond, 32, co-founded the “unapologetically racist” organisation National Action in 2013, which promoted ethnic cleansing, as well as attacks on LGBTQ+ people and liberals. Continue reading...

It is time to ‘save’ France, controversial figure says as he reads video speech posted on social mediaÉric Zemmour, a controversial French far-right TV pundit who has convictions for inciting racial hatred, has declared he will run for president next spring, claiming he wants to “save” traditional France from “disappearing”.In a 10-minute video posted on social media, Zemmour sat at a desk reading a speech in front of an old-fashioned microphone, designed to look like Charles de Gaulle’s famous June 1940 broadcast to Nazi-occupied France – provoking anger from the traditional Gaullist right. Continue reading...

A rural community of 5,500 people, with an under-resourced health system, came together to take on Covid. International news editor Bonnie Malkin introduces this story about a community effort to confront Delta

Australian citizens are unhappy their adult children living overseas don’t count as ‘immediate family’ under travel rules

Guidelines promoted use of ‘holiday season’ instead of Christmas and advised against saying ‘man-made’An internal European commission document advising officials to use inclusive language such as “holiday season” rather than Christmas and avoid terms such as “man-made” has been withdrawn after an outcry from rightwing politicians.The EU executive’s volte-face over the guidelines, launched by the commissioner for equality, Helena Dalli, at the end of October, was prompted by an article in the Italian tabloid Il Giornale which claimed it amounted to an attempt to “cancel Christmas”. Continue reading...

Our stateside movie showdown opens, celebrating Emma Seligman’s directorial debut and a powerful Covid doc from Matthew Heineman

Diversity United is a travelling exhibition featuring work by 100 living artists from 34 countries – seeing this monument to liberal values moved our writer to tearsWhen it comes to outsized projects with geopolitical undertones, Walter Smerling has form. Between 2015 and 2017, the chairman of the Stiftung für Kunst und Kultur (Foundation for Art and Culture) in Bonn and a German art-world statesman of sorts organised the largest ever exhibitions of Chinese art in Germany and German art in China. And when tensions between western Europe and Russia started rising around the same time, he envisaged a continent-spanning exhibition: “A dialogue,” as he puts it, “about what unites people in Europe. About democracy, about solidarity, about personal and political freedom.”

When she first took office her fellow leaders included Blair, Chirac and Bush. Three of those at her first G8 summit look back on her legacyEuropean Commission president, 2004-14 Continue reading...

No reason for deferral given as Nobel laureate faces charges that could see her jailed for decades under military juntaA Myanmar court has deferred the first verdicts in the trial of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi to 6 December, a source familiar with the proceedings said.The Nobel Peace laureate, who led an elected civilian government that was ousted in a military coup on 1 February, has been held incommunicado and been on trial since June, with court hearings behind closed doors. Continue reading...

The heir to the Chrysanthemum throne lashes out at criticism of Mako’s marriage to a commonerPrince Akishino, the first in line to the Japanese throne, has lambasted the country’s media for their treatment of his eldest daughter, Mako, accusing them of saying “terrible things” about her in the run-up to her marriage.Mako married Kei Komuro, a non-royal whom she met at university, on 26 October, almost four years after their engagement was called off following revelations about a minor financial dispute involving his mother. But they made only a brief public appearance before moving to New York, where Komuro works for a law firm. Continue reading...