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Many participants struggled to afford basics, cutting back on food or rationing medication, survey suggests

People told to evacuate homes as quickly possible and curfews declared in most heavily affected citiesFirefighters are wrestling with huge forest fires that broke out in central Chile on Friday. Officials have extended curfews in cities most heavily affected by the blazes and said at least 99 people were killed.The fires have been burning with the highest intensity around the city of Vina del Mar, where a botanical garden founded in 1931 was destroyed by the flames. At least 1,600 people have been left without homes. Continue reading...

National security adviser refuses to rule out targeting Iran after 85 sites were attacked in Iraq and SyriaUS airstrikes on Iranian-backed militias in the Middle East were just the beginning of a sustained response, the White House national security adviser warned on Sunday, as he refused to rule out strikes on Iranian soil.Jake Sullivan said the strikes on Friday night against 85 targets in Iraq and Syria, designed as retaliation for the killing of three US soldiers, were the beginning, not the end of our response, and ... there will be more steps, some seen, some perhaps unseen, all in an effort to send a very clear message that when American forces are attacked, when Americans are killed, we will respond and we will respond forcefully". Continue reading...

PM hails fantastic cause for optimism' as he seeks to put his stamp on success of Stormont reconveningRishi Sunak has said there is fantastic cause for optimism" after arriving in Northern Ireland to meet the leaders of a new power-sharing executive that ended two years of political deadlock.The prime minister arrived in Belfast on Sunday evening in advance of a meeting on Monday with Sinn Fein's Michelle O'Neill, who has made history by becoming the first nationalist first minister at Stormont. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Radical changes in a draft race equality act would give same protections as women now receive

Voters will welcome announcement of what party's reforms will look like but structural inequalities run deep

Zuber Issa reportedly in talks to offload 22.5% share of supermarket in parting of ways with co-owner brotherThe ownership team behind the indebted supermarket Asda could be about to change again after one of the billionaire Issa brothers was reported to be exploring the sale of his stake in the business.Zuber Issa, 51, owns 22.5% of the grocer after a 6.8bn takeover alongside his older brother Mohsin and the private equity firm TDR Capital three years ago. Continue reading...

Boy, 17, due to appear at magistrates court on Monday over stabbing of Mason Rist and Max DixonA 17-year-old boy has been charged with the murder of two teenagers who were stabbed to death in Bristol.Mason Rist, 15, and Max Dixon, 16, died on 27 January after being attacked in the Knowle West area. Continue reading...

Jonathan Glazer's Auschwitz drama takes best film, director and technical achievement prizes at annual ceremony, while Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal amongst a trio of winners for All of Us StrangersHomegrown experimentalism reigned supreme at the London Critics' Circle awards, which gave its top honours to Jonathan Glazer's radical Holocaust film, The Zone of Interest - and an equal number to Andrew Haigh's devastating ghost romance, All of Us Strangers.The Zone of Interest, about the domestic idyll constructed by Helga and Rudolph Hoss next door to Auschwitz, where he was camp commandant, won best picture and best director. Continue reading...

Russia boasts of taking in 700,000 children and stands accused of trying to erase their Ukrainian identityDuring the 14 months that Veronika Vlasenko attended school in Russia, she was regularly told by teachers and fellow students that she would never be able to go home to Ukraine. Every day they said to me that I would be staying here for ever and would never leave Russia," she said. They told me that Ukraine doesn't exist, that it never existed, that we're all Russians ... At times the other kids would beat me for being pro-Ukrainian."Veronika was one of nearly 20,000 children documented by Ukrainian authorities as having been taken from Ukraine to Russia over the past two years. The authorities believe the real number is probably 10 times that, while Russian officials have even boasted of moving 700,000 Ukrainian children to Russia. Continue reading...

Officers from Hertfordshire constabulary were involved in the pursuit, which had been called off before the collisionThe police watchdog has launched an investigation after a van that had been pursued by officers was involved in a fatal crash on the M25 motorway. Officers from Hertfordshire constabulary were involved in the pursuit in the early hours of Sunday, before it was called off.The van was then involved in a fatal crash with three other vehicles between the junctions for Watford and St Albans on the M25. Continue reading...

Brazilian, 40, has been charged with the rape of a 23-year-old woman in a nightclubThe former Barcelona and Brazil footballer Dani Alves will appear in court on Monday charged with the rape of a 23-year-old woman in a Barcelona nightclub.Alves, 40, faces damning scientific and video evidence, as well as witness accounts. Continue reading...

Police still looking for Abdul Ezedi, who is alleged to have attacked woman and her daughters, and think people are hiding his locationThe woman left seriously injured in the Clapham chemical attack came to Britain for safety as an asylum seeker from Afghanistan, the Guardian has learned, as police offered a 20,000 reward for the capture of the suspected assailant.Abdul Ezedi remains the target of a huge manhunt after Wednesday's attack with the corrosive substance, after which he went on the run. Continue reading...

Dominic Johnson told firm owned by PM's wife's family he would do what he could' to help grow it in UKRishi Sunak is facing fresh scrutiny over his government's relationship with the IT firm Infosys, owned by his wife's family, after it emerged that a minister told company executives he would do what he could" to help grow its UK business.Dominic Johnson, a trade minister, discussed the UK operations of Infosys in a meeting at the company's offices in Bengaluru, India, details of which were obtained by the Sunday Mirror through freedom of information requests. Continue reading...

LVMH-owned luxury makeup brand defies cost of living crisis with open-sell' format shoppers seem to loveWith ropes to manage queues and a team of security guards stationed at the door the vibe at Sephora in west London's Westfield White City shopping mall is more nightclub than beauty hall.But inside, rather than dancing and sipping drinks, women huddle around displays of eyeshadows, lipsticks and serums under signs promising the next big thing" and hot on social media". Amid a cornucopia of 135 of the most sought-after cosmetics brands in the TikToksphere two women are prostrate, towels over eyes, mid-facial at the face glow" bar. Continue reading...

Post office operators' union calls meeting after miscarriage of justice that saw more than 700 branch managers prosecutedThe government is to meet representatives of post office operators this week to discuss the possibility of handing them ownership of the Post Office.The move follows a chastening few months for the government and the network after historical scandals - frequently described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history" - caught the public imagination with the broadcast of ITV's drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office. Continue reading...

GUR agency says it is working to confirm whether Oleg Sergeevich Stegachyov, directly involved in missile strikes on Ukraine', survived attack

Police destroy two dogs, thought to be XL bullies, in Jaywick and arrest man on suspicion of dogs offencesA woman who died after being attacked by two dogs thought to be XL bullies at a house in Essex has been named as 68-year-old Esther Martin.Police said they were called to an address in the village of Jaywick, near Clacton-on-Sea, just after 4pm on Saturday where they found Martin. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Continue reading...

Policy Exchange report highlights security threat and accuses Dublin of freeloading' on European defenceBritain faces a backdoor" threat to its security from a Russian, Chinese and Iranian presence in the Republic of Ireland, according to a report by an influential thinktank that accuses Dublin of freeloading" when it comes to European defence.The UK should also expand its air and naval presence in Northern Ireland, to counter a growing Russian threat on the UK's western flank, according to the Policy Exchange report, which is backed by two former defence secretaries, Michael Fallon and George Robertson. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Guardian Australia investigation lifts the veil on shocking life expectancy gap and the system failures fuelling deathsHundreds of Australians experiencing homelessness are dying more than 30 years prematurely in a nationwide crisis fuelled by despair, critical housing shortages, a breakdown in health provision, violence on the streets and failures of the justice system.A 12-month Guardian Australia investigation identifying and examining more than 600 cases has found people experiencing homelessness are dying at an average age of 44, a shocking life expectancy gap that experts say is worse than any other disadvantaged group in the country. Continue reading...

Remote and Indigenous communities disproportionately energy insecure, with inequities to become more apparent due to climate change, study co-author says

Liam Hatch's appearance in Albert Square as Logan met with comments such as Dad's gone back to class'It is a frequent observation at the school gates, the bowling alley or the local branch of Nando's: the students are starting to look older than the teachers nowadays.And EastEnders fans thought the same this week after seeing Albert Square's newest school bully, Logan - played by the actor Liam Hatch, 27.Stockard Channing was 33 when she played the 17-year-old Rizzo in Grease.Judd Nelson was 25 when he played 16-year-old John Bender in The Breakfast Club.Stacey Dash played 16-year-old Dionne Marie Davenport in Clueless when she was 28.Barbra Streisand was 40 when she played a 28-year-old woman trying to pass as a 17-year-old boy in Yentl.Alan Ruck played high-schooler Cameron Frye in Ferris Bueller's Day Off! aged 29.Rachel McAdams was 25 when she played 17 year-old Regina George in Mean Girls.Ben McKenzie was 25 when he played 16-year-old Ryan in the OC. Continue reading...

Kitty Harrison clung to tiny ledge above 300ft drop for more than three hours before helicopter rescueA woman has told of how she had to be rescued by a helicopter and 12-strong mountain rescue team when she slipped while scattering her father's ashes on one of Wales' highest mountains.Kitty Harrison had just given her father, Steve Parry, an emotional send-off on the summit of Tryfan in Snowdonia when she lost her footing. The 32-year-old trainee dental nurse had to cling to a tiny ledge where she balanced precariously above a 300ft (91m) drop for more than three hours. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Low-traffic neighbourhood applications were rejected due to lack of ambition, not policy shiftGovernment claims that it blocked councils from installing low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) appear to have been a fiction, the Guardian has learned, in another apparent sign that Rishi Sunak's plan for drivers" is thus far mainly performative.After the revelation last month that the prime minister's decision to prioritise driving over walking and cycling was prompted in part by 15-minute city" conspiracy theories, documents show that a claim about the wider policy shift was invented. Continue reading...

Facilities at St Pancras too inadequate' to process new checks without hour-long queues' at peak times, says operator HS1Eurostar could be forced to limit passenger numbers travelling from St Pancras each day under post-Brexit plans to bring in biometric border controls later this year, the owner of the station has warned.HS1, the owner and operator of the line and stations between London and the Channel tunnel, has raised concerns that planning for new Entry/Exit System (EES) checks at the London rail station are severely inadequate", and would lead to long delays and potential capping of services and passenger numbers. Continue reading...

Crypto Open Patent Alliance wants court in London to declare that Craig Wright is not Satoshi NakamotoAn Australian computer scientist's claim to be the mythical figure behind bitcoin will be challenged in the UK on Monday, in a high court case backed by Mark Zuckerberg's Meta and the Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.Craig Wright has asserted for years that he is the real Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous author of the 2008 white paper behind the world's cornerstone cryptocurrency, but has failed to prove it. Continue reading...

Insiders say pressure from the top results in credulous reporting of Israeli claims and silencing of Palestinian perspectivesCNN is facing a backlash from its own staff over editorial policies they say have led to a regurgitation of Israeli propaganda and the censoring of Palestinians perspectives in the network's coverage of the war in Gaza.Journalists in CNN newsrooms in the US and overseas say broadcasts have been skewed by management edicts and a story-approval process that has resulted in highly partial coverage of the Hamas massacre on 7 October and Israel's retaliatory attack on Gaza. Continue reading...

Admirers of the avant-garde composer's work hope the concert in the German church will stay the course - all the way to 2640When Halberstadt's St Burchardi church opens its doors for a once-in-a-lifetime musical experience on Monday, some of the spectators streaming into the 11th-century building will have booked their tickets years in advance and crossed continents to get there. But don't expect them to demand an encore.Because if one thing is certain about this concert, it's that it won't be over for a long, long time yet. Continue reading...

Lawyers and human rights campaigners say case shows Home Office's increasingly hostile environment policy for EU citizensA Portuguese plumber who has lived legally in the UK for more than 20 years has been threatened with deportation by the Home Office after struggling with his application to remain here.According to lawyers and human rights campaigners the case of Joao Rocha Goncalves Da Silva, 45, is evidence of the Home Office's increasingly hostile environment policy regarding EU citizens. Continue reading...

Fighting resilience undermined by hollowing out' of armed forces since 2010, defence committee hearsThe UK's ability to fight an all-out war would be marred by the armed forces' capability, stockpile shortages and a recruitment crisis, MPs have been told.The Commons defence committee heard that the hollowing out" of the armed forces since 2010 had undermined the UK's war fighting resilience, and the army would exhaust its capabilities after the first couple of months" in a peer-on-peer war. Continue reading...

Less well-off residents in the southern city of Antakya feel left out of the city's rebuilding efforts Read more: A year in the aftermath of Turkey's earthquake - a photo essayRows of bright white marble gravestones dot a hillside on the outskirts of Antakya, some bearing the words martyr of the earthquake". The final resting place for the city's dead will soon be overshadowed by tower blocks for those who survived. Bright yellow cranes jut into the skyline on the next hillside, slowly birthing a cluster of concrete skeletons, new government housing for some of the hundreds of thousands who lost their homes when deadly earthquakes struck southern Turkey and northern Syria last February.No one can bring back what was lost, as we lost everything," said sa Akbaba, who lost seven members of his extended family along with his home. Continue reading...

Labour MPs call to extend provision to every primary pupil in England after study finds health and learning improveLabour is facing calls from MPs to back the provision of free school meals for all primary school children in England, after a new study found evidence that it reduces obesity and boosts reading skills.Levels of obesity were reduced by 7% to 11% among reception children in the four London boroughs that have already adopted the policy, according to the study seen by the Observer. For children in year six, who had been given free school meals for their entire time in primary school, there was a 5-8% reduction. Continue reading...

First prime minister after independence from South Africa went on to become third president in 2014 and won re-election in 2019Namibia's president, Hage Geingob, died early on Sunday in a hospital in the capital, Windhoek, the presidential office said in a statement. He was 82.First elected president in 2014, Geingob was Namibia's longest serving prime minister and third president. Namibia is to hold presidential and national assembly elections towards the end of the year. Continue reading...

Advocates lament missed opportunity for reform, saying some safeguards have become barriers

A business department report trumpeting the four-year benefits of leaving the EU does not match the reality faced by companiesOn the four-year anniversary of Brexit last Wednesday, business and trade secretary Kemi Badenoch trumpeted its successes. The British people's conviction that the UK would excel as masters of our own fate has paid dividends," she said, launching a report detailing the benefits.Among the top achievements listed were booming sales of honey to Saudi Arabia, surging pet food exports to India, a rush of UK pork, worth 18m over five years, heading into Mexico's restaurants and homes, and UK beauty products sales leaping in China, thanks to barriers being smashed. Continue reading...

Macky Sall cites dispute between national assembly and the constitutional court over rejection of candidates as reason for delaySenegal's president, Macky Sall, has announced the indefinite postponement of a presidential election scheduled for 25 February a few hours before official campaigning was due to start, provoking anger from opposition figures and a ministerial resignation.In an address to the nation on Saturday, Sall said he had postponed the vote that would have decided his successor because of a dispute between the national assembly and constitutional court over the rejection of candidates. Continue reading...

A member of the stolen generations, the Yankunytjatjara leader was only reunited with her mother through a chance meeting 30 years later

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Victim, 70, had been shopping with six-year-old before she was stabbed on Saturday night in Redbank Plains, police say

Defence secretary says third joint UK-US assault on Iran-backed group is to protect lives and preserve freedom of navigation'The UK has joined the US for a third time in conducting a wave of airstrikes on Iran-linked Houthi targets in Yemen.The defence secretary, Grant Shapps, said the fresh assaults were not an escalation", but instead were designed to protect innocent lives and preserve freedom of navigation" in the Red Sea amid Houthi attacks on boats. Continue reading...

Daughter and sister of victims found bodies before detectives arrested 43-year-old man who police say was living across the road in Rosewater

At least 46 people reported dead as dozens of fires sweep across central and southern regions, with Valparaiso worst affectedAt least 46 people have died from forest fires raging in central Chile, President Gabriel Boric has said, warning that the death toll is likely to rise.Earlier on Saturday, Chile's interior minister, Carolina Toha, said there were currently 92 forest fires in the centre and south of the country, where temperatures were unusually high. More than 1,000 homes have been destroyed. Continue reading...

Russian claims that western weapons used in attack on town in Moscow-controlled Luhansk regionRussia's emergencies ministry said workers had retrieved the bodies of 20 people from the rubble following a Ukrainian attack on a building housing a bakery in the city of Lysychansk in the occupied eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk.

Influential musician also co-produced group's albums and mentored many Jamaican artistsAston Family Man" Barrett, bassist for Bob Marley and the Wailers, has died aged 77.The news was confirmed on Saturday by Olivia Grange, Jamaica's minister for culture, who wrote on X (formerly Twitter): I share with you my deep regret at the passing of Aston Francis Barrett, popularly known as Family Man' or Fams' ... He died at the University of Miami Hospital in Florida in the United States early this morning." Continue reading...

Searches carried out at Abdul Ezedi's Newcastle home and in London as his female victim remains critical but stable'With the hunt for Abdul Ezedi entering its fourth day, police have appealed for the public to come forward with information about the suspected chemical attacker.Investigators released two images of white plastic bottles with warnings about corrosive substances, which may be linked to the attack on a 31-year-old woman and her two daughters last week. Continue reading...

Plans to reform social care and House of Lords are trimmed as Keir Starmer's party opts for caution ahead of voteLabour is planning only limited first-term reforms of social care and the House of Lords and a smaller green investment plan as part of a stripped-down general election manifesto, as it seeks to make its policies bombproof" to Tory attacks.Shadow cabinet ministers have been given until 8 Februaryto make policy submissions for the manifesto, as Keir Starmer's party gears up for an election that, according to opinion polls, looks likely to return it to government for the first time since 2010. Continue reading...

Network says role will be recast after Ukraine hit out over casting of Serbian for new seasonThe makers of hit TV show the White Lotus have dropped actor Milo Bikovi from the upcoming series after criticism from Ukraine over the Serbian native's ties to Russia.Bikovi, who was cast for the third season of the award-winning dark comedy just weeks ago, has protested against HBO's decision as the triumph of absurdity and the defeat of art". Continue reading...

Countdown for republicans to potential Irish unification ticks louder as new first minister pledges to serve everyone equally' at StormontThe chamber's ornate ceiling remained blue, red and gold, and Portland stone still held up the Stormont edifice, but the beaming Sinn Fein faces declared this was a historic moment for Irish nationalism.Michelle O'Neill became Northern Ireland's first nationalist first minister in a day of symbolism and pomp that restored devolved government and etched an epitaph on the tomb of what was once a unionist state. Continue reading...

Officers admit there have been no confirmed sightings of the 35-year-old since the night of the attack on WednesdayThe Met has issued a new appeal to the public as the search for the suspected chemical attacker Abdul Ezedi entered its third day and released video of officers in Newcastle raiding an address in the city.Ezedi, 35, from the Newcastle area, has been on the run since Wednesday's attack and is described as having very significant injuries to the right side of his face". On Saturday evening police said there had been no confirmed sightings of him since 9pm on the night of the attack. Continue reading...

Buckingham Palace is yet to issue an official study of the monarch for Australia as local MPs keep lists of eager constituents who have requested a copy