World news | The Guardian

Exclusive: French artist planning to cover bridge over Seine in tribute to Christo and Jeanne-ClaudeThe enigmatic French artist JR will undertake what he says is his biggest ever challenge next year when he wraps" Pont Neuf, the oldest standing bridge across the Seine River in Paris, in a tribute to a monumental art project by Christo and Jeanne-Claude.For three weeks next June, the 232-metre (761ft) long bridge will be wrapped in fabric, 40 years after the married artists known for their large-scale, site-specific environmental installations did the same thing. Continue reading...

Axing of Maki Otsuki performance in Shanghai the latest in spate of cancelled cultural events involving Asia's two biggest economiesJapanese One Piece" singer Maki Otsuki was forced to halt her performance on stage in Shanghai, her management said, one of the latest events hit by a diplomatic spat between Tokyo and Beijing.Otsuki, known for the theme song of the popular anime, had been slated to perform for two days from Friday at the Bandai Namco Festival 2025 in the Chinese city. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Shot as he barricaded the synagogue, Yoni Finlay describes the assault - and the climate that allowed it to happenIt was just after 6am and Yoni Finlay woke early with nerves. It was Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, and the 39-year-old Mancunian was due to sing the dawn prayer, Shacharis, before hundreds of worshippers later that morning.After practising his verse, Finlay buttoned up his white robes and headed to Heaton Park shul in north Manchester. He greeted familiar faces - exchanging a cheery hello with Bernard Agyemang, the security guard - then took a seat on the stage, the bimah, and said prayers. Continue reading...

Men represent 50% of all infertility cases but poor understanding among GPs means it is often untreatedCouples are needlessly going through IVF because male infertility is under-researched, with the NHS too often failing to diagnose treatable causes, leading experts have said.Poor understanding among GPs and a lack of specialists and NHS testing means male infertility is often left untreated in couples struggling to conceive, despite men accounting for 50% of all infertility cases. Continue reading...

Pay mistake is latest setback to image of exclusive Qatar-owned London retailer after a series of crisesHarrods warehouse staff have been underpaid thousands of pounds after the temporary recruitment agency employing the workers failed to award them the correct levels of holiday pay.The error, which possibly equates to a six-figure debt owed to hundreds of lower-paid personnel, marks the latest setback to the image of the exclusive Knightsbridge retailer, which is owned by Qatar's sovereign wealth fund and has spent the past 12 months firefighting a series of crises. Continue reading...

Family saddened' by minister's response to London coroner's concerns over police database access

Two new books analyse what makes the perfect pub' and both come to a sobering conclusion: Irish pubs are in troubleLike triple-distilled whiskey, Irish pubs appear to have timeless appeal. They are staple setting in films, books and plays, draw tourists to Ireland, replicate themselves around the world and induce social media quests for the perfect snug and the perfect pint.Scholars have now bestowed academic imprimatur on this cultural treasure status by examining - and celebrating - pubs through the lens of history, sociology, architecture, psychology, design, art and literature. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed

Police on Saturday detained one person who was part of a group that launched a petition demanding accountabilityAnger over a deadly blaze at a Hong Kong high-rise apartment complex simmered on Sunday as Beijing warned against attempts to use the disaster to disrupt the city, while people across the financial hub continued to mourn for the more than 128 victims.Police on Saturday detained one person who was part of a group that launched a petition demanding government accountability, an independent probe into possible corruption, proper resettlement for residents, and a review of construction oversight, two sources familiar with the matter said. Continue reading...

Woman, 36, and her husband, 44, arrested at Barangaroo and charged with dishonestly obtaining financial advantage

Kyiv tries to pile pressure on Russia with attack on empty vessels on way to load up with oil for foreign marketsUkrainian naval drones hit two tankers operating under sanctions in the Black Sea as they headed to a Russian port to load up with oil destined for foreign markets, an official said on Saturday, as Kyiv tries to pile pressure on Russia's vast oil industry.The two oil tankers, identified as the Kairos and Virat, were empty and sailing to Novorossiysk, a major Russian Black Sea oil terminal, the official at the security service of Ukraine told Reuters. Continue reading...

Strike on Kyiv cuts power to half of city amid Moscow's campaign to break civil resistance by attacking energy gridSix people were killed and dozens were wounded by a Russian drone and missile attack on Ukraine.Nearly 600 drones and 36 rockets were fired into the country in an attack that its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said highlighted Ukraine's need for western help with air defence, as well as other financial and political support. Continue reading...

Authorities have undertaken one of the largest and most intensive searches for a missing person in South Australia

Two Palestinian children reportedly killed on Saturday as Israel continues its strikes after latest ceasefireThe Palestinian death toll has surpassed 70,000 since the Israel-Gaza war began, Gaza's health ministry said on Saturday, while a hospital reported Israeli fire killed two Palestinian children in the territory's south.The toll has continued to rise after the latest ceasefire took effect on 10 October. Israel still carries out strikes in response to what it has called violations of the truce, and bodies from earlier in the war are being recovered from the rubble. Continue reading...

Differences between Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn and over admitting Socialist Workers members mean rows look likely to continueWhen the idea of a new leftwing party spearheaded by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana was first mooted in the summer, it was so popular that hundreds of thousands of people expressed an interest in joining.Although it was quickly beset by arguments - its co-founders rowed bitterly over its initial leadership and funding model - many hoped this weekend's inaugural conference would signal a fresh start. Continue reading...

A theatrical sensation since the 1960s, whose dramas included Arcadia, The Real Thing and Leopoldstadt, Stoppard also had huge success as a screenwriter

Independent MP Zali Steggall says it's not always clear who is behind disorderly behaviour - and sometimes it can be a whole section of a political party

Exclusive: Health department data shows spending on the 2004 extended safety net has nearly tripled, from $324.9m in 2010 to $850.4m in 2024

Exclusive: Experts raise concern as Queensland's Domestic and Family Violence Death Review and Advisory Board turns focus to historical, rather than recent, data

Rightwing activist claimed Commons deputy speaker Nusrat Ghani should be barred because she was born in PakistanGB News is facing calls to cut ties with a regular contributor who has been accused of racism after claiming that the House of Commons deputy speaker, Nusrat Ghani, should not be allowed in the house because she was born in Pakistan.The comments by Lucy White, a rightwing activist, have drawn criticism from across the political spectrum amid warnings that explicitly racist language is becoming increasingly normalised in British life. Continue reading...

Sultana skips Saturday's proceeding in solidarity with delegates expelled over links to other partiesZarah Sultana has boycotted the first day of Your Party's inaugural conference, throwing the party's first official gathering into chaos amid disagreements with co-founder Jeremy Corbyn over how the party should be run.Corbyn confirmed to journalists on Saturday that he preferred a single leader and is likely to stand for the role but Sultana said she would vote for collective leadership and that she did not believe parties should be run by sole personalities". Continue reading...

Exit of Zelenskyy's most powerful aide could also have impact on Kyiv's negotiating position in talks over ending warUkraine's political system is bracing for a mini-revolution" as the county's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is forced to adapt to life without his closest adviser, chief enforcer and most loyal associate, Andriy Yermak, who resigned on Friday after his apartment was searched as part of a widening anti-corruption probe.Yermak's resignation could have tremendous consequences for domestic governance, as well as for Ukraine's negotiating position in talks over ending the war with Russia, where he had served as the head of Ukraine's delegation to peace talks with the White House. Continue reading...

Committee highlights allegations including dog attacks and sexual violence, raising concern about impunity for war crimesIsrael has a de facto state policy of organised and widespread torture", according to a UN report covering the past two years, which also raised concerns about the impunity of Israeli security forces for war crimes.The UN committee on torture expressed deep concern over allegations of repeated severe beatings, dog attacks, electrocution, waterboarding, use of prolonged stress positions [and] sexual violence". Continue reading...

Staff at human rights body said to be desperate for regime change' over inertia after court's legal definition of a womanThe ongoing impasse over guidance from the UK's human rights watchdog on access to single-sex spaces is distracting from other pressing issues, including the rise of the far right, insiders have told the Guardian.Some members of staff at the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) are described as desperate for regime change" ahead of the new chair, Mary-Ann Stephenson, taking up her post in December. Continue reading...

Venues promoting destruction as stress relief are appearing around the UK but experts - and our correspondent - are unsureIf you find it hard to count to 10 when anger bubbles up, a new trend offers a more hands-on approach. Rage rooms are cropping up across the UK, allowing punters to smash seven bells out of old TVs, plates and furniture.Such pay-to-destroy ventures are thought to have originated in Japan in 2008, but have since gone global. In the UK alone venues can be found in locations from Birmingham to Brighton, with many promoting destruction as a stress-relieving experience. Continue reading...

Move, which is part of crackdown on costs, comes after it emerged Home Office spends 15.8m a year on serviceAsylum seekers will be banned from taking taxis to medical appointments after it was revealed the Home Office spends about 15.8m a year on the service.From February they will have to use alternative transport such as buses, no matter how urgent their medical needs. Continue reading...

Account of visit to Gaza by French professor describes Israeli military attacks on security personnel protecting convoysA historian who spent more than a month in Gaza at the turn of the year says he saw utterly convincing" evidence that Israel supported looters who attacked aid convoys during the conflict.Jean-Pierre Filiu, a professor of Middle East studies at France's prestigious Sciences Po university, entered Gaza in December where he was hosted by an international humanitarian organisation in the southern coastal zone of al-Mawasi. Continue reading...

Nathan Law says moral obligation' to Hongkongers should extend to anyone fleeing from political persecutionAn exiled leader of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong has said the UK government risks reneging on a commitment to people from its former colony in its shake-up of legal immigration routes.Nathan Law, a former Hong Kong politician who arrived in the UK in 2020 and has a bounty on his head, said that the government should reflect on its moral obligations when enacting its increase of the standard qualifying period for permanent residence to a decade. Continue reading...

E3G thinktank warns retrofit sector could shed 10,000 skilled jobs as small firms struggle to surviveCuts to a scheme for insulation and heatpumps for low-income households will leave homes damp, draughty and unsafe over winter, experts have said.Housing have asked for a one-year extension to the scheme to ensure continuity and prevent small retrofit firms going bust. Companies say funding for solar panels and insulation is already being withdrawn, leaving homes cold and draughty as winter sets in. Continue reading...

Welsh government grants used to fund football club even though it is owned by wealthy movie starsWrexham AFC has risen meteorically through the English football leagues thanks to the deep pockets of Hollywood movie star owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. Yet the club has also had 18m in help from other, unwitting backers: Welsh taxpayers.The club has received almost 18m in nonrepayable grants from the Welsh government via the local council, according to UK government state aid disclosures - far in excess of the direct aid listed for any other football club in Britain. Continue reading...

The PM becomes the first Australian leader to celebrate a wedding while in office with a private ceremony followed by a reception at his official residence, the Lodge

Locked away in prison for decades, Marwan Barghouti is a longstanding advocate for a two-state solutionA global campaign is being launched to secure the release of Marwan Barghouti, the Palestinian prisoner seen by many as the best hope of leading a future Palestinian state, as negotiations continue in the context of the current Gaza ceasefire.The campaign, being led by Barghouti's West Bank-based family with UK civil society support, is seeking to put the 66-year-old's fate at the centre of the next stage of the ceasefire. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Rail regulator pulls Avanti service from timetable from mid-December but it is needed for staff travelThe good news for rail travel between Manchester and London is that a morning train will continue to link England's biggest cities in under two hours. The bad news: passengers will no longer be able to get onboard.The rail regulator has axed one of Britain's fastest and most lucrative intercity services, the 7am Avanti West Coast from Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston, as part of a timetable shake-up that will take effect in mid-December. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Concerns over impact on health and environment, as well as 1.63bn in avoided landfill taxThe UK is estimated to have at least 8,000 illegal waste sites, containing approximately 13m tonnes of rubbish, research has revealed.The scale of the criminal dumping means at least 1.63bn of landfill taxes have been avoided, according to an analysis of data from the satellite company Air & Space Evidence, shared with the Guardian and Watershed Investigations. Continue reading...

Woman cancels all benefits including disability living allowance for daughter after policy change announcementA low-paid carer from Ghana has cancelled all the benefits she is legally entitled to, including the disability allowance one of her children receives, owing to fears about her immigration status after the policy changes announced by the home secretary.The radical changes to legal migration announced by Shabana Mahmood on 20 November will penalise those who are living and working legally in the UK, but who claim benefits. Continue reading...

Councils consult on removing former prince's name as residents report embarrassment' and smirks' when giving their addressesStreets named after Andrew, formerly known as Prince but now plain Mountbatten-Windsor, can be found from Broadstairs to Belfast to Birmingham. Roads, avenues, terraces, lanes, crescents, closes, drives and ways are all afflicted - to the dismay of some residents.In Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland, Prince Andrew Way, celebrating Mountbatten-Windsor's 1986 marriage to Sarah Ferguson, will be purged after Mid and East Antrim council passed a motion, described by one councillor as sad but necessary", to rename. A public consultation is under way. Continue reading...

Immediate software update ordered by Airbus after US mid-air incident causes airport disruption across Australia and New Zealand

Washington's Putin-appeasing plan for peace in Ukraine has failed, but many heard death knell sounded for European reliance on US protectionKaja Kallas, the European Union foreign policy chief, asked her officials this week to dig up the number of times Russia had - in its various guises - invaded other states in the 20th and 21st centuries. The answer that came back was 19 states, on 33 occasions. Kallas, the former Estonian prime minister, was not just indulging in some form of historical mathematics. She was seeking to make a point that lies at the heart of the dispute between the US and Europe over Ukraine's future, a dispute that has again revealed the chasm across the Atlantic about the true nature of the Russian regime.Kallas reads history books as a leisure activity and - drawing on her own country's history of Soviet occupation - has long maintained that the Soviet Union fell, but its imperialism never did. Russia has never truly had to come to terms with its brutal past or bear the consequences of its actions," she has said, arguing that the nature of the Russian regime means rewarding aggression will bring more war, not less": Putin will come back for more. Continue reading...

Families are combing hospitals hoping to find their loved ones as about 200 people still listed as missing, and at least 128 killedAn outpouring of grief was set to sweep Hong Kong on Saturday as an official, three-day mourning period began with a moment of silence for the 128 people killed in one of the city's deadliest fires.City leader John Lee, along with senior ministers and dozens of top civil servants, stood in silence for three minutes on Saturday morning outside the government headquarters, where the flags of China and Hong Kong were flown at half-mast. Continue reading...

Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea says it is checking whether data taken contained residents' detailsA London council has urged thousands of residents to be extra vigilant" when receiving calls, emails or text messages after confirming that data had been taken in a cyber-attack.The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), which has 147,500 residents, said some data had been copied from its systems in an attack this week. Continue reading...

Leftwing party asks members to pick between Your Party, Our Party, Popular Alliance and For The ManyThe leftwing party formed by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana has revealed a shortlist of names for its members to pick from: Your Party, Our Party, Popular Alliance and For The Many.Ahead of its first conference in Liverpool this weekend, the party is asking its 50,000 members to choose what it should be called, with the result to be announced by Corbyn on Sunday. Continue reading...

Move marks shift in how the guard are used in the US capital, days after two members were shotNational guard troops are to be paired with local law enforcement on patrols in Washington DC, according to a report in the Washington Post on Friday, 48 hours after two guard members were shot.Officers will conduct high-visibility patrols with the national guard and provide assistance as needed," according to an email to the district's leadership obtained by the Post. Continue reading...

Trump baselessly claims his predecessor didn't sign off on directives himself due to use of autopen machineDonald Trump has declared he intends to cancel most of the executive orders signed by Joe Biden, his predecessor as president of the United States.In a post on social media, Trump claimed baselessly that Biden had not signed off on the orders himself, saying that the radical left lunatics circling Biden around the beautiful Resolute Desk in the Oval Office took the Presidency away from him" by signing his name using an autopen - a signature machine that has commonly been used by US presidents since the device's invention. Continue reading...

David Coburn, who was leader of Ukip in Scotland, denies involvement after Nathan Gill jailed for taking bribesA former leading member of the group of MEPs headed by Nigel Farage has denied taking money as part of a campaign to promote Russian interests.David Coburn, who was leader of Ukip in Scotland for four years, was responding after the jailing of his former colleague, Nathan Gill, on charges of being bribed by an alleged pro-Russian asset. Continue reading...

Tracey Smith sent the government minister and MP Ellie Reeves 22 emails and 10 voicemailsA woman who tried to summon her MP, the solicitor general Ellie Reeves, to court has been jailed for harassment in London.Tracey Smith sent Reeves 22 emails and 10 voicemails calling her transphobic" and accusing her older sister - the chancellor, Rachel Reeves - of physically assaulting her at a buffet bar. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Chancellor says she made fair and necessary choices' in budget, and was unwilling to make cutsBritain's wealthy must shoulder the burden of paying to rebuild the UK's creaky" public services, Rachel Reeves has said, as she warned Labour MPs that leadership speculation was bad for the country.The chancellor said she had opted to increase taxes by 26bn in this week's budget to improve schools, hospitals and infrastructure, rejecting calls to cut our cloth accordingly" after a downgrade in productivity forecasts. Continue reading...

Unhappy MPs will push for stronger protections in other areas, such as bogus self-employment arrangementsLabour MPs are preparing to demand further concessions on workers' rights as the price of accepting ministers' decision to ditch plans for day-one protection against unfair dismissal.MPs who are unhappy about the move will push for stronger protections in other areas, such as bogus self-employment arrangements, as part of Labour's make work pay" agenda. Continue reading...

I want there to be no rumours and speculation,' Zelenskyy says as Andriy Yermak resignsThe Commission also totally rejected dismissed Russia's criticism of Volodymyr Zelenskyy as illegitimate" leader of Ukraine, after Vladimir Putin suggested yesterday that was a technical reason he couldn't agree a peace deal with Zelenskyy.President Zelensky is the democratically elected president, by the Ukrainian people, of Ukraine," a commission spokesperson said in response, somewhat mockingly adding that Putin seems to have some difficulties in recognising the democratically elected president of his neighbour country, Ukraine."Let me stress the fight against corruption is a key element for a country to join the EU, it requires continuous efforts and a strong capacity to fight corruption. This is a key element that we also address in our enlargement report that was published a couple of weeks ago, so we will continue to follow the situation very closely." Continue reading...

Bill 9 would outlaw prayer and face coverings in public institutions, sparking fears it targets Muslims in CanadaQuebec says it will intensify its crackdown on public displays of religion in a sweeping new law that critics say pushes Canadian provinces into private spaces and disproportionately affects Muslims.Bill 9, introduced by the governing Coalition Avenir Quebec on Thursday, bans prayer in public institutions, including in colleges and universities. It also bans communal prayer on public roads and in parks, with the threat of fines of C$1,125 for groups in contravention of the prohibition. Short public events with prior approval are exempt. Continue reading...

Trio given leave to stay in their abandoned convent near Salzburg until further notice, church officials sayThree octogenarian nuns who gained a global following after breaking out of their care home and moving back to their abandoned convent near Salzburg have been given leave to stay in the nunnery until further notice" - on condition they stay off social media, church officials have said.The rebel sisters - Bernadette, 88, Regina, 86, and Rita, 82, all former teachers at the school adjacent to their convent - broke back into their old home of Goldenstein Castle in Elsbethen in September in defiance of their spiritual superiors. Continue reading...