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The movie will be based on Racism from the Eyes of a Child - the pop mogul's book about his early life in pre-civil rights AlabamaA memoir by Beyonce Knowles' father Mathew Knowles is to become a feature film, detailing his early years as a student activist.According to a report in Variety, Knowles' 2017 book Racism from the Eyes of a Child is in active development as a film, with plans for a TV series as well. The book covers Knowles' childhood in pre-civil rights Alabama, during which he has said he attended all-white" high schools and universities: I had been beaten, I've been electrically prodded, I've been spit on, I've been humiliated, all sorts of trauma." Knowles graduated from Fisk University in Nashville, an HBCU (historically black college or university). Continue reading...

Senior officer from Golani Brigade dies after failed attempt to rescue injured troops in Shejaiya area

Rapper reportedly denies antisemitism on new album Vultures, a collaboration with vocalist Ty Dolla SignKanye West has worn a Ku Klux Klan-style hood at a listening party for his upcoming album Vultures, which is expected to be released on Friday.West wore the garment, a pointed black hood with eyeholes, on stage at the event in Miami, which also featured music stars including Chris Brown, Kodak Black, Offset and more, plus West's children North, Saint and Chicago. Continue reading...

Cutting down of dozens of trees on seafront of English riviera' town in Devon provokes public outcryPalm trees that have welcomed visitors to the English riviera" for a century have been cut down without warning in an act that residents have described as pure vandalism".The felling of 40 trees in Torquay, Devon, has provoked a furious public outcry and accusations that the council has wrought a soul-destroying", total destruction" of a world-famous seaside front. Continue reading...

Yung, a senior pediatrician, died in hospital after allegedly being attacked in his Gilberton home early on Monday

Environmental activists claim success after partial overturn of state laws that criminalised protest actions near major hubs

BoM issues warnings as radar forecasts intense rain, destructive winds and possible flash flooding in parts of Queensland

Lehrmann has sued Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson for defamation in the federal court of Australia. Follow the latest news and updates from the trial today

Most states and territories to ban product on 1 July, with Commonwealth flagging an import prohibitionAustralia will ban engineered stone from 1 July 2024, following a meeting of state and federal workplace ministers.According to Queensland and Victorian governments, ministers on Wednesday agreed to ban the material, which is commonly used in kitchen and bathroom benchtops. Continue reading...

Supermarket says it protects personal data incredibly carefully' and move makes ads more relevant'The chief executive of Sainsbury's has defended its decision to sell data on the shopping habits of his customers to TV and consumer goods manufacturers looking to target their advertising.Simon Roberts has said the supermarket group protects personal data incredibly carefully" and that its strategy had made adverts more relevant" for shoppers. Continue reading...

Exclusive: survey finds 57% of people have never heard of physician associates even though they are widely usedMany people are deeply confused about the growing number of physician associates" in the NHS and wrongly assume they are doctors, research suggests.Around 4,000 physician associates work in the NHS in England. Ministers and health chiefs plan to increase the figure to 10,000 to help plug widespread gaps in the NHS workforce. Continue reading...

Historic England highlights remarkable gems' among 227 places added to national list in 2023An intact second world war radar station and a 1960s church that resembles an upturned boat have joined some of England's grandest buildings on the national heritage list.Historic England singled out 16 remarkable historic gems" that had been added to the list or had their entries updated in 2023. They include a 400-year-old structure regarded as England's earliest known modern-day car wash", an unusually long railway footbridge, an iron age cave and a Manchester primary school that still has its flashy art nouveau tiling from more than a century ago. Continue reading...

Volodymyr Zelenskiy's chief of staff warns the Europe puzzle' cannot come together without UkraineKyiv has increased pressure on the EU to open accession talks at a crucial summit this week, with Volodymyr Zelenskiy's most senior adviser warning that without his country the Europe puzzle' cannot come together".After the European Commission's recommendation last month that formal membership talks begin, the EU's 27 heads of government are due to discuss the proposal at a meeting in Brussels on Thursday and Friday. Continue reading...

Independent body to review plans for Olympic and Paralympic games as new premier and deputy distance themselves from Palaszcuzuk-era policies

This blog is now closed. See all our Israel-Gaza war coverage hereReports are coming in from the Reuters news agency that three Palestinians were killed on Tuesday during an Israeli raid on the occupied West Bank city of Jenin - that's according to the Palestinian health ministry.An Israeli drone attack killed the three Palestinians and injured others, medical sources say, adding that the Israeli raid included the city of Jenin and its refugee camp.Between the afternoons of 10 and 11 December, 208 Palestinians were killed and another 416 were injured, according to the [Hamas run] Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza. Heavy Israeli bombardments from air, land, and sea across Gaza continued, especially in the central part, including Al Maghazi and An Nuseirat Refugee Camps, as well as in parts of northern Gaza. Meanwhile, intense ground operations and fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups continued, especially in Khan Younis, Jabalya, and the northern parts of Gaza Strip. Additionally, air strikes have reportedly targeted residential homes in the western and central parts of Rafah, areas designated as safe for displaced Palestinians by the Israeli army. The firing of rockets by Palestinian armed groups into Israel also continued.Limited aid distributions are taking place in Rafah governorate. In the rest of the Gaza Strip, aid distribution has largely stopped over the past few days, due to the intensity of hostilities and restrictions of movement along the main roads, except for limited fuel deliveries to key service providers and a one-off high-risk mission on 9 December to Al Ahli hospital.On 11 December, as of 22:00, 100 trucks carrying humanitarian supplies entered Gaza from Egypt, the same volume recorded on most days since the resumption of hostilities on 1 December. This is well below the daily average of 500 truckloads (including fuel) that entered every working day prior to 7 October. The ability of the UN to receive incoming aid has been significantly impaired over the past few days by several factors. These include a shortage of trucks within Gaza; the continuing lack of fuel; telecommunications blackouts; and the increasing number of staff who were unable to travel to the Rafah crossing due to the intensity of hostilities. Continue reading...

The actor who played the deadpan Captain Raymond Holt and starred in Homicide: Life on the Street, has died after a brief illnessAndre Braugher, who starred as Captain Raymond Holt in the hit comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine and as Detective Frank Pembleton in Homicide: Life on the Street, has died aged 61.The actor died on Monday after a brief illness, his publicist confirmed. Continue reading...

High court dismisses application to appeal conviction, despite minority of judges raising possibility he is innocent

Kit plane clipped power lines before crashing and bursting into flames near Grafton on Tuesday morning, authorities say

Attacks on vessels close to Yemen have led to a rise in the cost of shipping with fears that supply chains could be disruptedA senior official from Yemen's Houthis has warned cargo ships in the Red Sea to avoid travelling toward Israel and the occupied territories, after the Iran-aligned group claimed an attack on a commercial tanker earlier in the day.Mohamed Ali al-Houthi, head of Yemen's Houthi supreme revolutionary committee, said that ships should avoid heading toward Israel and that any that pass Yemen should keep radios turned on, and quickly respond to Houthi attempts at communication. Continue reading...

Artistic director of the Kiln theatre will take over from Rufus Norris in spring 2025Indhu Rubasingham has been announced as the next director of the National Theatre, marking the first time that a woman and a person of colour has taken on the biggest role in British theatre.Rubasingham, who has been artistic director of the Kiln theatre since 2012, will take over from Rufus Norris in spring 2025, when his second term ends. She and Kate Varah will also become joint chief executives in a co-leadership model. Continue reading...

Study says societal factors play more of a role rather than the views of individual officersPolice are far more likely to use a Taser electrical weapon against black people due to structural and institutional racism rather than the views of individual officers, a new report says.It follows the biggest ever academic study of the police's use of the weapon, which found officers increasingly see it as a tool that can get suspects to comply, rather than a potentially lethal item. Continue reading...

Australia joins 152 nations to vote for resolution that expresses grave concern over catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza'

Rishi Sunak's Rwanda bill passes its first Commons vote but only after rebellion by a collection of rightwing Tory MPsLord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, a former lord chief justice of England and Wales, has said the government should not try to ignore the jurisdiction of the European court of human rights. In an interview for a podcast called the Judges, he said:If you have subjected yourself to a court, and it was our voluntary decision to do so, then you have to take the rough with the smooth and if they've decided [the court] have this jurisdiction then you ought to follow it.You can't expect others to respect the law if you say you won't respect the law of someone else.You ought to actually be able, within a set period of time, say a fortnight, to investigate, decide, give him one right of appeal - why you should have more than one right of appeal I simply don't understand - and remove them." But, he concedes, it costs money.Britain is a practical nation - always has been. People can't afford Christmas. If they call an ambulance this winter - they don't know if it will come. 6,000 crimes go unpunished - every day. Common sense is rolling your sleeves up and solving these problems practically, not indulging in some kind of political performance art.This goes for stopping the boats as well. It's not about wave machines, or armoured jet skis, or schemes like Rwanda you know will never work. Continue reading...

Callum Griffiths, 19, Jesse Owen, 18, and Morgan Smith, 18, declared dead at scene while two others suffer life-threatening injuriesThe families of three teenagers who died after a road traffic collision in a small village in south Wales have paid tribute to the young men.Callum Griffiths, 19, from Porth, and Jesse Owen, 18, and Morgan Smith, 18, both from Tonypandy, were killed in a collision between a bus and an Audi A1 on Ely Valley Road in Coedely, in the borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, at about 7pm on Monday. Continue reading...

Bill passes with a majority of 44 but prime minister faces further peril in the new year

The immigration legislation has cleared its first hurdle but the PM still faces a bumpy road if it is to become law

Prime minister's focus on small boats looks tragically misdirected and the storm clouds are still gatheringAs the storm clouds gathered over Westminster on Tuesday afternoon, one of Rishi Sunak's cabinet ministers looked up at the heavy grey sky and sighed: It's pathetic fallacy."Yet despite the dark mood among the prime minister's allies - and grim warnings to the contrary - the first stage of his flagship Rwanda bill passed easily through the House of Commons. Continue reading...

So-called five families deal blow to Rishi Sunak before vote on second reading of bill on Tuesday nightA collective of rightwing Conservative MPs have announced that they will not support the second reading of Rishi Sunak's bill which aims to overcome legal obstacles in deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda.The so-called five families - a loose alliance of five different rightwing Tory groups, who claim to represent more than 100 MPs overall - announced their decision as the Commons continued to debate the bill, which will be voted on at about 7pm. The bulk are expected to abstain. Continue reading...

Rabbi says antisemitic attack, hours after new PM vowed to reform Poland, had galvanised support for Jewish communityA far-right Polish MP has extinguished candles on a menorah lit for Hanukah in Poland's parliament, disrupting proceedings before a planned vote of confidence in the new government.Grzegorz Braun, a fringe far-right MP, was shown on television spraying the menorah with a fire extinguisher. Smoke and haze filled the area. The parliament took a break in proceedings to deal with the incident and Braun was suspended for the rest of the day. Continue reading...

Washington-based development organisation providing $20m for citizens suffering multidimensional poverty'

Speaker of house tells reporters that a complaint will be filed with the prosecutor's office against Grzegorz Braun after incidentAs Poland moves to form a new government, the European court of human rights issued a new judgment today that the lack of any form of legal recognition and protection for same-sex couples in Poland breaches the European convention on human rights.The court considered that the Polish state had failed to comply with its duty to ensure that the applicants had a specific legal framework providing for the recognition and protection of their samesex unions.That failure had resulted in the applicants' inability to regulate fundamental aspects of their lives and amounted to a breach of their right to respect for their private and family life.I protest against the xenophobia introduced by the authorities into public debate.I protest against the hostile attitude of the authorities towards immigrants.I protest against the incapacitation of public television.We will have different views on many issues, but we want to be a community and the work of the future government will focus on this.We are so different, we are attached to different traditions. This is our wealth. The community is built by the rule of law and the constitution, and we should not argue about this just to be able to safely argue about other topics. Continue reading...

Fury as Graham Stuart returns to London as Caroline Lucas says UK has obliterated its moral authority'Tuesday morning at Cop28 and we're back in a waiting game. Heads of delegation met until the early hours, mostly expressing their deep unhappiness with the draft text produced by the summit presidency late Monday afternoon.The scheduled end of the two-week conference has come and gone - that was 11am local - and as yet there is no new text to replace the document from yesterday. Anybody who says they know when this will end is guessing. Continue reading...

Police say Kenneth Law, 58, sent at least 1,200 packages containing lethal substances to addresses in more than 40 countriesA Canadian man who allegedly helped more than a dozen young people across the province of Ontario kill themselves by mailing them poison has been charged with 14 counts of second-degree murder, police said on Tuesday.Kenneth Law, 58, had previously been charged with 14 counts of counseling or aiding suicide.In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...

The 22-year-old's family blocked from coming to France from Iran to collect Sakharov prizeThe European parliament has presented a rights prize posthumously to Mahsa Amini, whose death in Iranian custody prompted mass protests, as her mother hailed her daughter's name as a secret code for freedom".The award is the latest international recognition for the women challenging Iran's religious government after Narges Mohammadi, the jailed activist, was given the Nobel peace prize. Continue reading...

Telegraph bidder RedBird IMI in talks to buy UK's largest independent TV production groupThe Abu Dhabi-backed investment group that has struck a deal to buy the Telegraph is close to securing a 1bn-plus takeover of another prize UK media asset - All3Media, the TV production group behind shows including Call the Midwife, Squid Game: The Challenge, Gogglebox and Midsomer Murders.RedBird IMI, a joint-venture between the US company RedBird Capital and International Media Investments (IMI) of Abu Dhabi, the investment vehicle for the UAE vice-president, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, is understood to be in advanced negotiations to buy the UK's largest independent TV production group. Continue reading...

Majority of additional revenue disclosed in mid-year budget update likely to be banked to avoid further stoking inflation

The nation's outdoorsy reputation may not be fully deserved, according to the AllTrails app study, with many too scared to go on walksAustralians' outdoorsy reputation may not be earned when it comes to survival skills, according to a new survey.Just one in three Australians know how to deal with getting lost, while two in three Australians entirely reconsider going on trail walks due to safety concerns, according to research commissioned by popular hiking app AllTrails. Continue reading...

Having built a public reputation as a wisecracking political warrior, the premier designate is attempting to show he's up to the task

Opposition accuses Labor of achieving absolutely nothing' towards its fast rail ambition

The children were wrongly deemed to be adults by federal police and Australian courts, who were relying on a wildly inaccurate technique

Graham Stuart's surprise exit leaves civil servants in Dubai to finish negotiations in his absence

Circles UK is one of a handful of organisations taking creative approaches to help tackle an escalating problemJames (not his real name) was in his early 20s and sinking into depression after the death of his father when he started to visit anonymous online chatrooms. There he formed a relationship he now recognises as really unhealthy" with a man who encouraged him to download indecent images of children.James describes his arrest - his first contact with the criminal justice system - as shocking. He had only the vaguest idea that this activity was illegal and understood it as victimless. I think very differently now," he says. Continue reading...

Consumers may be misled by green' claims on some essential household products, says watchdogUnilever, the maker of Marmite, Domestos and Vaseline, is to be investigated by the UK's competition watchdog over concerns that consumers are being misled by the company's green" claims on some essential household products.The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said Unilever may be overstating how green certain products are through the use of vague and broad" claims, unclear statements about recyclability, and natural-looking images and logos such as green leaves. Continue reading...

Michael Tomlinson leaves open prospect that Tory MPs who vote against Rwanda bill could lose whip

Exclusive: Report calls for new law on maximum indoor temperature to stop workers overheatingA maximum indoor temperature working law giving people a day off if workplace temperatures surpass 30C should be mandated by government, a new report recommends.The report by the Fabian Society thinktank highlights inequalities in who bears the brunt of the impacts of climate breakdown and puts responsibility on bosses and landlords to stop people from overheating. Continue reading...

Customers should be told clearly upfront rather than facing inflation-linked mid-contract increases, Ofcom says

Michael Yung, head of the Women's and Children's Hospital paediatric intensive care unit, has died in hospital after he was attacked in his Gilberton home

Singer who played for Nelson Mandela at his home had been hospitalised with physical pains', and previously suffered liver damage from alcoholismThe South African pop singer Zahara, whose soaring voice and strident ballads earned her multiple platinum-selling albums in her home country, has died aged 35.South Africa's sports, arts and culture minister, Zizi Kodwa, announced her death, saying: My deepest condolences to the Mkutukana family and the South African music industry. Government has been with the family for some time now. Zahara and her guitar made an incredible and lasting impact in South African music." Continue reading...

Defamation trial also played two secret recordings, including one in which Michaelia Cash tells Higgins we didn't know anything'The Project producer Angus Llewellyn has been cross-examined in the federal court about whether the program checked the credibility of what Brittany Higgins told them before her interview with Lisa Wilkinson was broadcast on Ten.Bruce Lehrmann brought the defamation case against Network Ten and Wilkinson over the interview, in which Higgins alleged she was raped by a Liberal staffer in Parliament House in March 2019. Network Ten and Wilkinson are defending the case. Continue reading...

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