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The women and equalities minister defends the guidance, but also claims telling children they are born in the wrong body is harmful'Michelle Mone is facing legal action after her admission that she lied to the media over her links to a PPE firm that won controversial government contracts during Covid.The businesswoman and peer told the BBC at the weekend that she repeatedly denied being connected to PPE Medpro because she wanted to protect her family from press attention and she declared: That's not a crime."We were forced to spend several thousand pounds of costs in legal fees responding to her mendacious threats. We want our money back.More than that, we want to establish a future deterrent against wealthy individuals willing to lie to stymie honest reporting. We look forward to seeing Mone in court in the new year.The law must not allow itself to become a tool whereby those with money can bully and silence those with none. We aim to create further jeopardy for those who engage in these kinds of egregious breaches.I think it's clear that people across Wellingborough, they want a fresh start. They know it's time for a change.And after 13 years, now going on 14 years, of the Conservatives, when people are paying more in tax, they're paying more on their mortgage thanks to decisions by the Conservative government, they are paying more on their energy bills, they're paying more in the shops, families are struggling and they know that there can be a better way. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed, you can read more of our Ukraine war coverage hereUkrainian agriculture businesses have received 41.3bn hryvnias (870m) in state loans since the beginning of 2023.10,300 agricultural enterprises were financed under the state programme Affordable Credits 5-7-9%". Continue reading...

Inquiry hears of macho and egotistical' climate in which women spoke for as little as 10 minutes in five hours of key meetingsBoris Johnson's Downing Street was so macho and egotistical" that women's voices were heard for as little as 10 minutes in five hours of meetings during a key week of coronavirus policy, the Covid inquiry has heard.Three weeks into the first lockdown, the most senior female civil servant in No 10 emailed a group of other women to say she believed the lack of women's voices in decision making is causing a substantive problem". Continue reading...

Killers' messages led investigators to believe plot was not driven primarily by a hatred of Brianna's transgender identityWithin 48 hours of Brianna Ghey's murder, DCS Mike Evans of Cheshire police told the media that the force had no information or intelligence to suggest it was a hate crime". The statement caused an immediate uproar, particularly among the LGBTQ+ community, who held vigils in her memory. Many people suspected that Brianna being a transgender girl may well have played a role in her killing and were angry that detectives seemed so quick to rule out transphobia as a motive.What the activists did not know was that police by then had already started trawling through thousands of WhatsApp messages exchanged between the two teenage suspects before and after the murder. What they discovered was highly disturbing but not, they thought, a plot driven primarily by a hatred of Brianna's transgender identity. Continue reading...

Defendants seemed to take delight in discussing gruesome ways of killing - but why they targeted Brianna remains unclearOne killer called the other a sociopath"; while her partner-in-crime said she was not a normal person" who would joke about dead babies".Despite this, or perhaps because of it, the girl and boy who murdered Brianna Ghey were firm friends, having met at school aged 11. Continue reading...

GT Karber's book of challenges beats Richard Osman's The Last Devil to Die and Guinness World Records to top spotThe murder mystery puzzle book Murdle by US writer GT Karber has climbed the UK bestsellers chart to become this year's Christmas No 1 book, beating Richard Osman's The Last Devil to Die and Guinness World Records for the top spot.Murdle is based on the daily puzzle website Karber developed in 2021, and across the book's 100 challenges, readers must use codes and maps to decipher who the killers are. It has sold more than 200,000 copies since its publication in June, according to Nielsen BookScan's chart. Almost a third of those sales have been in the last month, after it was named Waterstones' gift of the year at the end of November. Continue reading...

Cape of Good Hope diversion adds 6,000 nautical miles and three or four weeks to delivery times and has driven up oil pricesMore than 100 container ships have been rerouted around southern Africa to avoid the Suez canal, in a sign of the disruption to global trade caused by Houthi rebels attacking vessels on the western coast of Yemen.The shipping company Kuehne and Nagel said it had identified 103 ships that had already changed course, with more expected to go around South Africa's Cape of Good Hope. The diversion adds about 6,000 nautical miles to a typical journey from Asia to Europe, potentially adding three or four weeks to product delivery times. Continue reading...

Law includes limited form of immunity from prosecution for Troubles-related offencesIreland is to initiate a legal challenge against the UK government's legislation to deal with the legacy of the Northern Ireland Troubles.Ireland's deputy premier Micheal Martin said the interstate case would argue that the provisions of the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 are incompatible with the UK's obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Union-commissioned poll shows slight bump in support for Labor after leadership change

Governor sacked and a review of conditions launched at HMP Lowdham Grange near NottinghamMinisters have taken over a private prison in England after a series of suspected suicides, the ready availability" of illegal drugs, high levels of self-harm and significant staffing issues".The prisons minister has sacked the governor of HMP Lowdham Grange, a category B men's prison near Nottingham that was taken over by Sodexo in February this year. Continue reading...

Universities Scotland says 48.5m cuts will lead to hard choices' next yearMinisters in Edinburgh have cut spending on free university places for Scottish students, forcing universities to pare back on loss-making courses and cut spending.Universities Scotland, the umbrella body for the sector, said the proposed cuts of 48.5m in funding for teaching Scottish students would lead to inescapably hard choices" next year, likely to include leaving teaching vacancies unfilled. Continue reading...

After a hiker is rescued by helicopter, police say route approaching site of eruption is not for everyone'Icelandic police have warned tourists to think four times" before attempting to get close to the site of a spectacular volcanic eruption, after they had to rescue an exhausted hiker by helicopter.Within hours of Monday night's eruption, which came after weeks of earthquake activity, the site near the south-western town of Grindavik had become an attraction for inquisitive volcano enthusiasts. Continue reading...

Council of EU says, however, that new rules will lighten load on those member states where most migrants arrive'The European Parliament and the Spanish presidency of the Council reached an agreement today on the core political elements of five key regulations that will thoroughly overhaul the EU's legal framework on asylum and migration," the Council said in a statement.It noted that following today's provisional agreement, work will continue at technical level in the coming weeks to flesh out the details of the new regulations." Continue reading...

Palestinian national claims British intelligence services asked CIA to put questions to him while he was being tortured in black sites'A Guantanamo Bay prisoner can sue the UK government in England and Wales over allegations that British intelligence services asked the CIA to put questions to him while he was being tortured in black sites", the UK's highest court has ruled.The supreme court said MI5 and MI6 were subject to the law of England and Wales and not - as the government had attempted to argue - the six different countries where Abu Zubaydah was held.There was no suggestion that the UK intelligence services were aware or ever took steps to find out where Abu Zubaydah was.He was rendered to and held in each of the six countries by the CIA without any reference - or access - to the laws of those countries.The number of black sites in which the claimant was held diminishes the significance of the law of any one of them".Abu Zubaydah's captors and those who administered the ill-treatment were not agents of any of the six countries (save possibly in relation to Guantanamo Bay).The alleged torts were committed by UK intelligence services in England and Wales.MI5 and MI6 were acting in their official capacity in the purported exercise of powers conferred under the law of England and Wales". Continue reading...

Lawrence Bierton was on licence for 1995 murder of two elderly sisters when he killed Pauline Quinn in 2021A triple killer has been given a whole-life order for murdering his neighbour after being wrongly housed next to her while on licence.Lawrence Bierton will spend the rest of his life in prison after beating 73-year-old Pauline Quinn to death with her coffee table at her home in Rayton Spur, Worksop, Nottinghamshire, on 9 November 2021. Continue reading...

How to make sense of some of the key passages from long-delayed guidanceThe UK government finally published its long-delayed guidance for England's schools on youth transition. The document promises a clear set of principles for teachers and staff as they wrestle with the needs of children who are questioning their gender identity. According to the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, the guidance puts the best interests of all children first".But while the guidance has been broadly welcomed by those who believe that it is too easy for young people to socially transition" at school, there are others who disagree vehemently. They see the government's approach as informed by an underlying hostility to trans people, and scepticism about whether they even exist. And although the guidance does not include an outright ban on allowing social transition (said to have been under consideration until it was found to be unlawful), it clearly creates new barriers for teenagers who want to talk to teachers about their gender without fear of being outed at home.In recent years, we have seen a significant increase in the number of children questioning the way they feel about being a boy or a girl ... This has been linked to gender identity ideology, the belief that a person can have a gender' that is different to their biological sex.We have not used the term transgender to describe children. Under UK law children cannot obtain a Gender Recognition Certificate and therefore cannot change their legal sex.As part of testing whether this is a sustained request, schools and colleges should seek to understand societal or other factors that may have influenced the child, for example:Has the child been influenced by peers or social media?Parents should not be excluded from decisions taken by a school or college relating to requests for a child to socially transition'.Schools and colleges should engage parents as a matter of priority, and encourage the child to speak to their parents, other than in the exceptionally rare circumstances where involving parents would constitute a significant risk of harm to the child.[Schools] may conclude that the impact on the school and college community is such that it may not be possible to agree to support a request [for a change in how a pupil is treated at school].Schools and colleges should only agree to a change of pronouns if they are confident that the benefit to the individual child outweighs the impact on the school community. It is expected that there will be very few occasions in which a school or college will be able to agree to a change of pronouns.This is non-statutory guidance from the Department for Education. Its focus is to provide practical advice, which we expect schools and colleges to follow. Continue reading...

Fyles quite after it was uncovered she owned undisclosed shares in a mining company with interests in the territory

Electronics firm taken private in 11bn deal by consortium led by Japan Industrial PartnersToshiba, the Japanese company synonymous with the country's 20th century dominance of electronics, has delisted from the Tokyo stock exchange after 74 years.The manufacturer, associated in the UK with its 1980s Ello Tosh, got a Toshiba" advertising campaign, was taken private on Wednesday in an 11bn deal by a consortium of investors led by the private equity investor Japan Industrial Partners. Continue reading...

SA police say a 30-year-old man was arrested at the scene and he is expected to be charged with murderA woman has been killed and another taken to hospital after they were allegedly stabbed by a stranger at an Adelaide business.The two women were allegedly stabbed by a man they did not know at a Plympton business in the city's inner south-west on Wednesday afternoon, South Australian police said.Sign up for Guardian Australia's free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Continue reading...

Expense report, which previously included itemised spending, now has almost zero detail on how money actually spent in each category

The reason Anthony Albanese cited for declining sounds very familiar. Almost like the Coalition said the much the same thing

Attorney general says Ley needs to take a long hard look at herself' after she criticised him for not attempting to keep Benbrika behind bars

Trials are under way for a treatment for newborns and infants, who are often wrongly assumed to have immunity through their mothersWhen Rose Akinyi's baby, Jayla Joy, would not eat or stop crying one night, she thought her newborn had a stomach upset. She gave her some mild pain medication, but her condition grew worse.She was burning hot, so I removed her clothes and gave her [more pain medication]," said 30-year-old Akinyi, from Kisumu, a port city in western Kenya on Lake Victoria. Continue reading...

Family of Avtar Singh Khanda, 35, say Home Office decision could allay fears of Sikhs in UK of being targeted by IndiaThe family of the late Sikh activist Avtar Singh Khanda have called on the Home Office to appoint a police force to conduct a full and independent investigation into his sudden death last June, which coincided with a murder and an attempted murder of Sikh separatists in Canada and the US.Khanda's family lawyer, Michael Polak, said that a decision by the Home Office to launch an investigation would alleviate concerns among the Sikh community that they could be targeted by India and that their safety and rights were being sacrificed for political expediency". Continue reading...

Two women and a man in their 20s die after vehicle crashes on Kamilaroi highway south of Gunnedah

Temesgen Tsegay Gebreyonas was among those released after high court ruling and is accused of breaching curfew

Hospital boss says fresh strikes in England over festive season will heighten risk of patients dyingStrikes by junior doctors have fractured" their relationship with consultants and increased the risk of patients dying during action, hospital bosses claim.The 28 days of industrial action junior doctors have staged this year and the nine days of fresh strikes starting on Wednesday have led to tensions with more senior colleagues who are worn out" from having to cover for striking junior doctors as well as doing their usual shifts. Continue reading...

Newton Carey gives his view after draft guidance was issued by the UK government

Temperatures are as low as -16C in Gansu and Qinghai provinces, where the magnitude-6.2 quake struck on MondayThe death toll from China's earthquake has risen to 131, with almost 1,000 people injured, as rescuers dig through rubble in below freezing conditions.The magnitude-6.2 earthquake struck just before midnight on Monday, in Jishishan county near the border of Gansu and Qinghai provinces, destroying or damaging more than 150,000 homes, according to state media. The quake, which was followed by several strong aftershocks, caused mud and landslides, and damaged power lines and other local infrastructure to varying degrees". Continue reading...

Temperatures around 27C-28C are forecast for Sydney over Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, while Melbourne can expect temperatures in the low 20s

Injures presenting to Royal Melbourne hospital jumped from five in February 2022 to 40 in December last year after Victoria's e-scooter trial began

Sosthene Munyemana is sixth person to be tried and convicted in France over involvement in slaughter of Tutsi minorityFormer Rwandan doctor Sosthene Munyemana has been jailed for 24 years by a French court for his involvement in the 1994 genocide of Tutsis.The 68-year-old former gynaecologist was on Wednesday found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and participation in a conspiracy to prepare these crimes. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed. See all our Israel-Gaza war coverage hereThe US defence secretary has invited dozens of countries to take steps to address Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping as he spoke at a defence ministerial to tout a new military operation to secure commerce in the waterway.We're all here because many countries can directly contribute to our common efforts to keep strategic waterways safe," Lloyd Austin said, according to prepared remarks. Continue reading...

Volodymyr Zelenskiy insists US and European support for war will continue; Vladimir Putin says Moscow will not give up what is ours'

Work continues on UN security council text of resolution that the US could at least abstain on, as Qatar says hostage talks have been positive'A vote on a Gaza ceasefire resolution was postponed for a second time at the UN security council on Tuesday, amid reported policy differences inside the Biden administration.While diplomatic efforts struggled in New York in the pursuit of a formalised truce, there was a renewed push for a new hostage deal that would involve a short humanitarian pause in the fight to allow an exchange with Palestinian prisoners. Continue reading...

Attorneys of Duane Keith Keffe D' Davis, whose trial is set for 2024, says the 60-year-old is not getting proper medical attentionA former Los Angeles-area gang leader charged with murder in the killing of hip-hop music icon Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas is deriding the case against him as the product of speculation and second-hand testimony as he asks a judge to put him on house arrest ahead of his trial.A 2 January hearing date was set Tuesday on Duane Keffe D" Davis's bid to be released on no more than $100,000 bail. His court-appointed attorneys wrote that the health of their 60-year-old client has deteriorated in jail and that he is not getting proper medical attention following a bout with colon cancer that they said is in remission. Continue reading...

Strict new law contains so many hardline measures that the far-right Marine Le Pen has claimed it as an ideological victory'The French government is facing a political crisis after the health minister Aurelien Rousseau offered his resignation in protest over a hardline immigration bill.Emmanuel Macron's ruling centrist party was divided and soul-searching on Wednesday after a strict new immigration law was approved by parliament but contained so many hardline measures that the far-right Marine Le Pen claimed it as an ideological victory" for her own anti-immigration platform. Continue reading...

Company hails battery another significant milestone in AGL's decarbonisation pathway and the transition of its energy portfolio'

MP tells Covid inquiry that then prime minister's chief of staff ignored repeated attempts to discuss matterPenny Mordaunt has told the Covid inquiry that a series of WhatsApp messages with Boris Johnson mysteriously disappeared from her phone, and that Johnson's then chief of staff ignored 14 attempts by her to arrange a meeting to discuss the matter.In a further twist to the saga of 5,000 WhatsApp messages lost by Johnson, Mordaunt said she was told by Cabinet Office officials it would cost about 40,000 to examine her phone to determine what had happened. Continue reading...

Twenty-year-old British student killed by Michel Fourniret, Monique Olivier's ex-husband, in 1990The ex-wife of the French serial killer Michel Fourniret has been found guilty of complicity in the murder of British student Joanna Parrish and two other French victims.Monique Olivier, 75, had admitted the accusations, but a panel of three judges and six jurors still took more than 10 hours to find her guilty after a three-week trial. Continue reading...

Labour given chance to win back seat after Tory MP found to have subjected staff member to bullying and sexual misconductLabour will get a chance to win back Wellingborough after voters there chose to trigger a byelection after the suspension of their MP, Peter Bone.The recall petition was opened when the former minister was suspended from parliament for six weeks after a watchdog found he had bullied a staff member and exposed his genitals near their face. Continue reading...

Ruth Baza, 51, said previous allegations against Depardieu provoked flashes' of memory of alleged 30-year-old assaultA Spanish journalist and author has filed a criminal complaint in Spain against Gerard Depardieu, claiming that the film star raped her nearly 30 years ago in Paris.Ruth Baza, 51, told AFP she filed the complaint with Spanish police on Thursday, saying the alleged rape happened when she interviewed the actor in Paris on 12 October 1995, for the magazine Cinemania. Continue reading...

John Joel Joseph, an opponent of the late president's party, is third of 11 suspects charged for plotting to assassinate Jovenel MoiseA former Haitian senator has been sentenced to life in prison for conspiring to kill Haiti's President Jovenel Moise in 2021, an assassination which caused unprecedented turmoil in the Caribbean nation.John Joel Joseph is the third of 11 suspects detained and charged in Miami to be sentenced in what US prosecutors have described as a plot hatched in Haiti and Florida to hire mercenaries to kidnap or kill Moise, who was 53 when he was shot dead at his private home near the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince on 7 July 2021. Continue reading...

In liaison committee appearance, PM also says he cannot say when he will deliver on stop the boats' pledgeRishi Sunak has refused to disclose whether any airline would be willing to fly asylum seekers to Rwanda, amid concerns they could face reputational damage if the deportation plan gets off the ground.The prime minister said he was confident that the UK government would be able to send asylum seekers to the African state but did not reveal whether any airlines had agreed to participate, citing commercial confidentiality. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Significant' number of staff sacked from digger firm after drug and alcohol testsJCB, one of the UK's biggest manufacturers, is investigating a spate of drug use among workers based at its headquarters and has sacked a significant" number of staff, the Guardian can reveal.A message sent to UK employees last week by the digger-maker's group human resources director, Max Jeffery, seen by the Guardian, said it had been conducting a series of investigations into substance misuse" over the past two months. This had resulted in a small but significant number of people leaving JCB". Continue reading...

Ukraine president seeks to boost morale after difficult year as Russian opponent claims to hold initiativeThe leaders of Ukraine and Russia have struck a defiant tone and vowed to reach their military goals as the war heads toward its third year.Speaking in Kyiv during his end-of-year press conference, Volodymyr Zelenskiy sought to boost the domestic mood and maintain western support that has been stuttering in recent weeks. Continue reading...

Ukraine's president is speaking to the world's media at an end-of-year press conferenceRussian air defences downed a hostile drone near Moscow on Tuesday, the city mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, has said. No casualties were reported.Two Moscow airports, Vnukovo and Domodedovo, had restricted flights, a measure often taken during drone attacks. Continue reading...

Grindavik residents had been preparing to spend Christmas back at home after being evacuatedUntil just after 10pm on Monday, when the earth opened up and spat out an otherworldly 4km-long wall of lava, Sigrun Isdal had been planning to spend Christmas at home in Grindavik with her family. Like many residents of the fishing town on Iceland's Reykjanes peninsula, who were all evacuated on 10 November, she had been preparing to move back after more than a month spent in the limbo of temporary accommodation.Isdal, who works at Grindavik sports centre, had even been in the town briefly on Monday evening to pick up a few possessions, as residents have recently been allowed to do. There was just good weather and I didn't see anything," she said. Continue reading...

Jonathan Coad, who represented former Tory peer, says sorry for unwittingly misleading the mediaA lawyer who represented Michelle Mone has offered an unqualified apology" for incorrectly claiming she was not connected to a firm that received PPE contracts worth 200m during the coronavirus pandemic.Two other lawyers who acted for the former Conservative peer, telling the media she was not connected to or involved in the company, PPE Medpro, said client confidentiality limited what they could say about the matter. Continue reading...