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Exclusive: wide-ranging police powers used to conduct non-compliant searches that resulted in 33 people being charged or fined

Discounts started earlier than usual as competition for customers hit fever pitch', says British Retail ConsortiumCompetition between retailers seeking to entice customers with early Black Friday deals led to a slowdown in shop price rises during November, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC).The trade association for retailers said prices in shops rose by 0.6% last month compared with November 2024. This was down from a 1% rise in October and below the three-month average of 1%. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Letter says L&Q appears to have systematically failed in its duty to provide adequate standard of livingUN experts have said that one of England's biggest social landlords appears to have systematically failed to ensure the habitability of its rental properties.In a letter to the UK government, they cite the case of a disabled tenant, Sanjay Ramburn, 55, who they say lived with his family of five in an L&Q group property in Forest Gate, east London, for several years with no electricity. They experienced four ceiling collapses, as well as severe damp and mould that affected their health. Continue reading...

New Zealand police allege 32-year-old ingested the 18-karat gold egg - a James Bond Octopussy locket - and say the object has not yet been recovered'A New Zealand man has been charged with theft after allegedly swallowing a Faberge James Bond Octopussy egg pendant worth more than $33,500 (US$19,200).Police were called to a central Auckland jewellery store, Partridge Jewellers, on Friday afternoon after staff reported a man had allegedly picked up the pendant and swallowed it, said Grae Anderson, the city's central area commander. Continue reading...

Sanae Takaichi's not-so-catchy remarks about everyone working like a horse did not go down well in a country notorious for its demanding work cultureIt is not, perhaps, a word many people in Japan will want to hear as they prepare for the bonenkai office party season and some well-earned time off over the new year.But the promise made by Japan's new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, that she would work, work, work, work, and work" on behalf of her country has clearly struck a chord. Continue reading...

Man in his 60s was fighting large blaze near Ravensthorpe, about 500km south-east of Perth

Zelenskyy says redrafted peace plan looks better' but Kaja Kallas fears Moscow meeting will wrongfully put pressure on Kyiv rather than Kremlin. What we know on day 1,378An intensified diplomatic push to end the nearly four-year war has continued, with Volodymyr Zelenskyy visiting Paris on Monday - a day after the Ukrainian president's team held talks with US officials - and Vladimir Putin due to meet with US special envoy Steve Witkoff on Tuesday.Zelenskyy, speaking in Paris, said the Kremlin's claims of battlefield advances were exaggerated. He said Ukraine's priorities remained security guarantees, sovereignty and territorial integrity, as he insisted that Russia must not get rewards for its aggression on Ukraine. He said he hoped to have talks with the US president, Donald Trump, to discuss next steps once Steve Witkoff is back from his talks in Russia.Ukraine's president said that after revisions the peace plan circulating between Ukraine, Russia and Washigton looks better" and the work will continue. The EU's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, warned however that talks between the Putin and Witkoff will again pile pressure on Ukraine to make concessions, write Jennifer Rankin and Pjotr Sauer. Kallas said: In order to have peace, we shouldn't lose focus that it's actually Russia who has started this war and Russia that is continuing this war and Russia that is really targeting civilians, civilian infrastructure every single day to cause as much damage as possible."The White House said it was very optimistic" of a deal being reached to end the war. The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told reporters: Just yesterday [the White House team] had very good talks with the Ukrainians in Florida and now of course special envoy Witkoff is on his way to Russia." Witkoff has in the past returned to Washington conveying variations of Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands for Ukraine's total capitulation. His role has come under scrutiny following a report that he coached Putin's foreign affairs adviser on how to pitch to Trump.The Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov said the Florida talks achieved significant progress" but that some issues remained unresolved. Zelenskyy, while trying carefully not to anger Trump, has refused US-backed calls for Ukraine to give up hard-fought territory that Russia has not been able to seize.Four people were killed and 40 wounded in a Russian missile attack on the eastern-central Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Monday, Ukrainian officials said. Vladyslav Haivanenko, the acting governor of the surrounding Dnipropetrovsk region, said 11 of those injured were in a serious condition. Ukraine's emergency services said car service stations, other businesses, an office building and 49 cars were all damaged in the attack. Continue reading...

The king and queen's visit to the former colony is the first by members of the Dutch royal family in nearly five decadesThe Dutch king, Willem-Alexander, vowed on Monday that the topic of slavery would not be off-limits as he visits former colony Suriname, where the practice ended just over 150 years ago.The king arrived in the capital Paramaribo on Sunday with Queen Maxima, a week after the small South American country marked 50 years of independence from the Netherlands. Continue reading...

Research shows perpetrators use methods such as stopping mothers accessing bank accounts and child benefitsAlmost 4 million children in the UK are suffering the impact of economic abuse in their families, with some having pocket or birthday money stolen by the perpetrators, a charity has found.Data from charity Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA) showed that over the past year 27% of mothers with children under 18 had experienced behaviour considered to be economic abuse, where a current or former partner has controlled the family's money. Continue reading...

Justice secretary expected to announce plans to tackle backlog of cases as he says system has been pushed to brink of collapseA courts emergency" that will surpass 100,000 outstanding cases without radical reforms is leaving victims waiting years for justice, David Lammy has said as he prepares to face MPs over plans to drop thousands of jury trials.The justice secretary proposed last week to reduce the 78,000 outstanding cases in England and Wales by allowing jury trials only for serious crimes such as murder, rape and manslaughter. Continue reading...

Police plead with parents to buy only safe, unmodified ebikes as Christmas presents

Home Office accused of putting criminality before dignity with rule seeking intelligence on people-smugglersChildren who arrive in the UK on small boats could be searched to check if they are concealing phone sim cards in their mouths under new Home Office rules.New measures will allow immigration enforcement officials to seize phones at the border if it is believed they contain useful intelligence about people-smugglers. Continue reading...

Survey also reveals Britons' favourite festive film, views on tear-jerkers and family cinema tripsWhen Macaulay Culkin recently said he didn't consider Die Hard to be a Christmas film - wading into one of pop culture's most heated holiday debates - he was booed by a live audience.But it looks like the British people are behind the actor, with a survey revealing that Home Alone is the UK's favourite festive film, while Die Hard has officially been voted not a Christmas movie. Continue reading...

Move by firm, owned by US group Avis Budget, will remove access to shared fleet across London at end of yearThe world's biggest car-sharing company, Zipcar, has said it will close its UK operation, removing access to its shared fleet across London at the end of this year.The company, owned by the US car rental group Avis Budget, said it would suspend new bookings through its app after 31 December, pending the outcome of a consultation on possible redundancies. The UK operating company had 71 staff last year, according to its latest accounts. Continue reading...

US president sent a blunt message' to his South American counterpart, sources say

Disgraced and incarcerated music mogul claims footage in docuseries Sean Combs: The Reckoning was stolenSean Diddy" Combs has taken issue with a splashy new Netflix docuseries on his life and many legal troubles, that is executive produced by his longtime rival 50 Cent.The former Bad Boy Records executive and hip-hop star, currently serving a four-year sentence for prostitution-related charges, blasted Sean Combs: The Reckoning as a shameful hit piece", and accused Netflix of incorporating stolen footage. Continue reading...

A report by Lynelle Briggs says placements look like nepotism' and are undermining confidence in government

Iranian film-maker won Cannes film festival's Palme D'Or prize earlier this year for It Was Just an AccidentIran has sentenced the Palme d'Or-winning film-maker Jafar Panahi in absentia to one year in prison and a travel ban over propaganda activities" against the country.The sentence includes a two-year ban on leaving Iran and prohibition of Panahi from membership of any political or social groups, his lawyer Mostafa Nili said, adding that they would file an appeal. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Richard Hermer, a senior Jewish minister, says Reform leader clearly deeply hurt' many people with his alleged behaviourThe UK's top law officer, one of the most senior Jewish government ministers, has urged Nigel Farage to apologise to school contemporaries who claim the Reform UK leader racially abused them while at school.The attorney general, Richard Hermer, said Farage had clearly deeply hurt" many people with their descriptions of his behaviour, and that his constantly changing" denials had been unconvincing. Continue reading...

Five days of strike action over jobs and pay to take place from 17 to 22 DecemberThousands of doctors in England are to go on strike again this month, in a dispute over pay and job security.The British Medical Association has announced that resident doctors - formerly known as junior doctors - will begin a five-day strike action that will run from 7am on 17 December until 7am on 22 December. Continue reading...

Ukrainian president says focus remains on security guarantees, maintaining sovereignty and territoryUK prime minister Keir Starmer is delivering a major economy speech this morning.You can follow all the key lines on our UK live blog with my colleague Andrew Sparrow, but there's a particular line of argument that will no doubt reasonate in Europe, too.Let me be crystal clear, there is no credible economic vision for Britain that does not position us as an open, trading economy.So we must all now confront the reality that the Brexit deal we have significantly hurt our economy and so for economic renewal, we have to keep reducing frictions. Continue reading...

An official confirmed nearly a dozen deaths, including a mother and her child, in Artibonite region over the weekendHeavily armed gangs attacked Haiti's central region over the weekend, killing men, women and children as they set fire to homes and forced survivors to flee into the darkness.Police made emergency calls for backup, asserting that 50% of the Artibonite region had fallen under gang control after the large-scale attacks targeting towns including Bercy and Pont-Sonde. Continue reading...

Millions of people affected by torrential rainfall in Sri Lanka and large parts of Indonesia's Sumatra, southern Thailand and northern Malaysia

Undercover unit monitored Stephen Lawrence's family, as well as thousands of mainly leftwing political activistsTwo senior officers who supervised an undercover Scotland Yard unit spying on political campaigns were horribly and incredibly" racist, a whistleblower has told a public inquiry.Peter Francis, a former member of the unit, testified that one regularly used the N-word", while the other used a repertoire of explicit racist slurs. Continue reading...

MP for Hampstead and Highgate in London denies allegations and condemns flawed and farcical' trial

Avanti service was to have been axed from mid-December but would have still run because of needs out of EustonThe express Manchester-London 7am Avanti service will take passengers after all, after the rail regulator conceded defeat in the face of public outcry over a ruling that would have left it running as an empty ghost train" each day.The 7am train, the only service linking the cities in under two hours, was set to be axed from the passenger table from mid-December - but would, as the Guardian reported on Saturday, have kept running empty from Piccadilly each day so it could run morning trains back out of Euston. Continue reading...

Hundreds remain missing in Indonesia and Sri Lanka as rescue efforts continue after Cyclone Ditwah

Some foods can interact negatively with certain medication while medical moisturisers can make clothes more flammableChristmas might be a season of comfort and joy but health experts have warned of lurking dangers, ranging from the fire risk posed by skin creams to the possibility of festive foods interacting with certain medications.People using medical moisturisers known as emollient creams, often used for eczema and other dry skin conditions, should stay away from heat sources including candles and open flames because such creams can soak into fabrics and make them more flammable, according to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Continue reading...

Exclusive: Legislation would prohibit deferrable, irreversible procedures until child can give informed consent, bringing state in line with ACT

PM says he is very supportive' of spending watchdog but breach was a massive discourtesy' to parliament

Authorities face growing criticism for detaining at least two civilians who have called for accountabilityAuthorities in Hong Kong have arrested 13 people on suspicion of manslaughter in relation to last week's devastating fire, as they face growing criticism from residents over the arrests under national security laws of at least two civilians calling for accountability.Emergency services continued to search through the seven towers of the Wang Fuk Court estate in Tai Po on Monday, days after the city's deadliest fire in 75 years. The death toll rose to 151 and is expected to rise further as the search continues. About 40 people are still missing. Continue reading...

US president says he will look into reports US military was told to conduct follow-up attack on suspected drug vesselDonald Trump said on Sunday he would look into reports that the US military conducted a follow-up strike on a boat in the Caribbean that it believed to be ferrying drugs, killing survivors of an initial missile attack.The US president also said he wouldn't have wanted" a second strike on the vessel during the incident on 2 September - the first publicised operation in a series of attacks in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific that Washington says are aimed at combatting the drug trade. Continue reading...

Existence of phrase - to describe content intended to make you angry - shows people are aware of manipulation tactics used online, says Oxford Dictionary publisherGood news for those who find their blood pressure rising as they scroll through their online news feeds: the Oxford English Dictionary's publisher has highlighted the term they might need to describe how they often feel, naming rage bait" as its word of the year.According to the Oxford University Press' analysis, use of the phrase has tripled in the past 12 months. Continue reading...

Consultancy's move to embrace artificial intelligence follows Disney's use of the term imagineers'

Company failed to protect thousands of people switching from analogue to digital landline, Ofcom rules

Yacht that Deirdre Sibly was sailing made distress call Wednesday evening and was later found with two deceased people on board

Exclusive: PM hits back at critics as he insists Rachel Reeves right to impose 26bn worth of tax rises at budget Keir Starmer: Labour is getting on with the job of economic renewalLabour's economic plan will take years to deliver in full, Keir Starmer has said as he tries to regain the narrative after a turbulent response to last week's budget.In an article for the Guardian, the prime minister hit back at his political opponents, insisting the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, was right to impose 26bn-worth of tax rises. Continue reading...

TGA issues a separate warning for Mounjaro about risk of reduced effectiveness of contraception

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Reports highlight devastating impact of slashed funding, especially in parts of Africa, that could lead to 3.3m new HIV infections by 2030In Mozambique, a teenage rape victim sought care at a health clinic only to find it closed. In Zimbabwe, Aids-related deaths have risen for the first time in five years. In Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), patients with suspected HIV went undiagnosed due to test-kit stocks running out.Stories of the devastating impact of US, British and wider European aid cuts on the fight against HIV - particularly in sub-Saharan Africa - continue to mount as 2025 comes to an end, and are set out in a series of reports released in the past week. Continue reading...

Residents in Batn al-Hawa have all but given up hope and blame the Gaza war which, they say, has created an atmosphere of hate' towards themThe dome of the al-Aqsa mosque gleamed in the late afternoon autumnal sun as Zohair Rajabi looked out from his balcony towards the skyline of Jerusalem's Old City. Christian pilgrims spilled out of buses, while observant Jewish worshippers gathered outside the gate to the Western Wall.New flags now fly a few metres from Rajabi's home. Blue and white and bearing the Star of David, they mark where residents were evicted recently from their homes by Israeli police. After more than 20 years of activism, Rajabi knows his days in Batn al-Hawa, a predominantly Palestinian neighbourhood less than a mile south of the Old City, are almost certainly numbered. Continue reading...

Refugee Council says Home Office figures show safe and legal pathways are disappearing when most needed'The number of refugees allowed to settle in the UK under UN-facilitated schemes has dropped by more than a quarter in a year, according to figures released by the Home Office.Just 7,271 people were granted protection through refugee resettlement programmes in the year ending September 2025, about half of whom were Afghans whose lives were at risk after an accidental data breach by a UK defence official. Continue reading...

Blue Wiggle Anthony Field and Tree of Wisdom' appeared in now-deleted video from singer Keli Holiday

Detectives claim to have uncovered Sydney-based network involving online distribution of child sexual abuse material involving ritualistic or satanic themes

Whistleblower says chain of command failed to stop extrajudicial shootings, including of children, after alarm was raisedThe former director of UK special forces and other senior military officers tried to cover up concerns that SAS units were carrying out unlawful killings in Afghanistan, an inquiry has heard.A senior special forces whistleblower said the chain of command failed to stop extrajudicial shootings, including of two small children, after the alarm was first raised in early 2011. That failure allegedly allowed them to continue until 2013. Continue reading...

The prime minister is keen to change the conversation after the Tories called his chancellor's ethics into questionThe political fates of Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are intertwined. Allies say that if one goes, the other is likely to follow.This is why, in the wake of the budget, the Conservatives have attempted to focus their response on the chancellor's personal ethics, accusing Reeves of lying about the rationale behind her record-breaking tax rises. Continue reading...

Algerian foreign minister says African countries and peoples continue to pay a heavy price for colonialismAfrican leaders are pushing to have colonial-era crimes recognised, criminalised and addressed through reparations.At a conference in the Algerian capital, Algiers, diplomats and leaders convened to advance an African Union resolution passed at a meeting earlier this year calling for justice and reparations for victims of colonialism. Continue reading...

Journalist and editor also led British Board of Film Classification and served as senior lay member of the Church of EnglandAndreas Whittam Smith, the co-founder of the Independent newspaper and a former president of the British Board of Film Classification, has died aged 88.Whittam Smith was also the first editor of the Independent and served as first church estates commissioner, the senior lay member of the Church of England, from 2002 to 2017. Continue reading...

Liverpool gathering lays bare bitter divisions within new party founded by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah SultanaThe new leftwing party founded by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana will be called Your Party after a vote by members, but its weekend conference laid bare bitter divisions.Just over 37% of members voted for the name Your Party, provisionally adopted when it was launched earlier this year, to become permanent. The votes for others on the shortlist were 25.23% to be called For The Many, 25.23% for Popular Alliance and 14.19% for Our Party. Continue reading...

Former Labour leader announces official name at conference in Liverpool after vote by membersKemi Badenoch has reiterated her calls for the chancellor to resign on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, after accusing Rachel Reeves of breaking promises not to raise taxes.In this year's budget, Reeves froze tax thresholds for three years longer than previously planned, meaning that as wages rise more people will have to start paying income tax.The chancellor called an emergency press conference telling everyone about how terrible the state of the finances were and now we have seen that the OBR had told her the complete opposite. She was raising taxes to pay for welfare.The only thing that was unfunded was the welfare payments which she has made and she's doing it on the backs of a lot of people out there who are working very hard and getting poorer. And because of that, I believe she should resign.The shadow chancellor, Mel Stride, has written to the FCA (the Financial Conduct Authority). Hopefully there will be an investigation, because it looks like what she was doing was trying to pitch-roll her budget - tell everyone how awful it would be and then they wouldn't be as upset when she finally announced it - and still sneak in those tax rises to pay for welfare. That's not how we should be running this process. Continue reading...