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At least 92 people were killed and dozens more injured in the capital, Freetown, when a fuel tanker exploded following a collision, according to local authorities

The actor and her mother recreate an old photograph, and reflect on the ‘craziness’ of family lifeA poster girl for 90s cool, Sadie Frost rose to prominence as a Vivienne Westwood model, before starring in Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The daughter of Mary Davidson and psychedelic artist David Vaughan, who died in 2003, Frost began her acting career with a Jelly Tots advert in 1968. She has since ventured into fashion (with the label FrostFrench), stage performance (one-woman play Touched … Like a Virgin) and film production (Set the Thames on Fire). She makes her feature-length directorial debut with Quant, a documentary about the influence of fashion icon Mary Quant. She lives in London and has four children: Finlay with her first husband, Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp, and Rafferty, Iris and Rudy with Jude Law. Continue reading...

Police in Bavaria arrest man after incident in which at least three people suffered injuriesSeveral people have been wounded in a knife attack on a high-speed train in the German state of Bavaria, local police have said, adding that the alleged perpetrator has been arrested.“According to preliminary information, several people were injured,” police in Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz said in a statement, assuring that “there is now no more danger”. Continue reading...

Gina Yashere, Stephen K Amos, Lenny Henry and Daliso Chaponda discuss rejecting stereotypes, unwittingly becoming spokespeople and the strides that have been made in representation

Several million pounds paid to resolve claims that troops subjected Iraqis to inhumane treatment, arbitrary detention or assaultThe Ministry of Defence has quietly settled 417 Iraq compensation claims and paid out several million pounds to resolve accusations that British troops subjected Iraqis to cruel and inhumane treatment, arbitrary detention or assault.Individual claims that have been settled run into the low tens of thousands and follow high court rulings that concluded there were breaches of the Geneva conventions and the Human Rights Act, during the military operation that followed the invasion in 2003. Continue reading...

She was Hillary Clinton’s aide and the wife of a star politician when a sexting scandal sent him to prison, destroyed their marriage – and derailed her boss’s bid to become president. How did she cope?

Victoria records 1,268 new cases, NSW 270, ACT 18 and Northern Territory and and Queensland one each. This blog is now closed

Suppressed partygoers prepare to ramp up the glamour, offset by an emphasis upon Covid-compliant celebrations

Will, 25, medical student, meets Kate, 26, PhD studentWill on KateWhat were you hoping for?

Pair aged 22 and 23 expected to make full recovery, as 11 lions and two tigers at the zoo also test positiveTwo hyenas at the Denver zoo have tested positive for Covid-19, the first confirmed cases among the animals worldwide.Samples from a variety of animals at the zoo, including the spotted hyenas, were tested after several of its lions became ill, according to the National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL). The hyena samples tested presumptive positive at a lab at Colorado State University and were confirmed by the national lab. Continue reading...

Calls for greater resources as Aboriginal people disproportionately forced to ‘live with Covid’

Youth climate activists appeared sceptical about how genuine the political will to change is when they spoke at the Fridays for Future protest in Glasgow discussing youth empowerment.Campaigners and pressure groups have been underwhelmed by the commitments made by governments during the Cop26 conference's first week, many of which are voluntary or set deadlines decades away

Down to just one breeding pair 40 years ago, the bird bounced back after extraordinary efforts – now its survival is again under threatForty years ago, on a remote rocky island in the Pacific, 800km east of New Zealand, a conservationist set out to bring the rarest bird in the world back from the brink of extinction.Don Merton, wearing a check shirt and shorts, climbed 200 metres up the rockface of Little Mangere Island, part of the Chatham Islands (Rēkohu in the indigenous Moriori language and Wharekauri in Māori), and laid a soft netted trap for the black robin, also known as kakaruia and karure – a tiny endemic bird that lives up to its name, with black plumage, black eyes and a little pointy black beak. Once captured, he gently placed the bird inside a wooden box, strapped it to his back, descended the cliff and jumped on a boat to the neighbouring island – Mangere, a larger, more verdant habitat. Continue reading...

Can you tell a political comedy from actual #AusPol? Put yourself to the test by guessing where these quotes came fromWay before Malcolm Turnbull chose to adopt a Veep joke as an actual election campaign, the line dividing sharp political satire and Australian politics’ somewhat less incisive moments blurred into invisibility.That was made clear during the New South Wales Icac investigation into disgraced former MP for Wagga Wagga Daryl Maguire. Continue reading...

John Barilaro says he asked for three areas abutting the Wollemi national park to be removed from the government’s long-term plan for coal

Readers share how they spent festival of lightsI have lived in the Algarve for the last two years, so it was lovely to come home with the diyas (oil lamps) lit in the hallway, and the rangoli (beautiful designs using bright colours) already put out by my mum. Since Tuesday, we’ve been praying together in the evenings. The first day of celebrations begin with Dhanteras, which was marked with Laxmi Pooja to the goddess of health and wealth to usher in prosperity for the year to come. This day always stands out to me as we wash coins and silver collected over the years: the highlight is seeing a British Indian rupee from the 1920s with King George V and inscriptions in Hindi, Urdu and English. It reminds me of how long my family has been holding and washing this little pot of coins – a history that goes across India, Uganda and the UK, and is lovingly looked after every year. Continue reading...

Sinking in which five died led to years of allegations – and denials – that a submarine was involvedIt sounds like the plot of a thriller. A fishing boat sinks off the Cornish coast as submarines converge for a naval exercise. Years of allegations, conspiracy theories, and denials by military chiefs follow.More than 17 years after the Bugaled Breizh sank with the loss of its five crew members, bereaved relatives remain convinced a submarine pulled the trawler down, but an inquest has now ruled otherwise. Continue reading...

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...