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Children aged eight, 10 and 11 have died after being pulled from lake; emergency services waded into lake without cold weather gearDaniel Duffield, a 22-year-old off-duty paramedic, was stuck on the M25 for more than two-and-a-half hours this morning, while attempting to travel home to Birmingham from London.He told PA Media that vehicles have been “stationary with very small movement”.I expected some traffic due to weather but nothing this bad. Traffic appeared to be at a standstill for miles and miles. Other drivers were turning their engines off presumably to save fuel due to the uncertainty. A few people were stretching their legs due to delays too. Continue reading...

Foreign secretary suggests UK will seek long partnerships with fewer countries, some of whom will not share its values

More than 60% also say they support the Indigenous voice to parliament, with the Liberal party at risk of alienating younger voters if it backs the Nationals’ position

Former corporate lawyer is backed by same group that supported Kylea Tink’s successful federal campaign

Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell expected to enter upper house, where Labor needs six crossbench votes to pass legislation

Government receiving big jump in revenue as number of Australians paying for faster processing doubles from pre-pandemic

Woman receives payout and secures protections against charity sharing certain data with Home OfficeA victim of county lines trafficking has won a landmark victory in the high court securing new protections against the Salvation Army handing over confidential information to the Home Office.The 25-year-old British woman, who cannot be identified, has received compensation from the Home Office and secured a change in policy relating to the way the Salvation Army, which has a victim care contract with the Home Office to look after and support trafficking victims, shares confidential information about these victims with the Home Office. Continue reading...

About 900 civil servants on fast stream being balloted, with 81% backing industrial action at consultative stage

Bout, who was released in prisoner exchange, says he has no immediate plans to take part in electionsThe Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who returned home last week in a prisoner exchange for the American basketball star Brittney Griner, has joined the pro-Kremlin far-right Liberal Democratic party (LDPR), in a move that could see him seek a seat in the Russian parliament.In a video posted on telegram, LDPR’s leader, Leonid Slutsky, who was standing next to Bout, said: “I want to thank Viktor Anatolievich [Bout] for the decision he has made and welcome him into the ranks of the best political party in today’s Russia.” Continue reading...

Health authorities sound warning on infection rate, with hundreds of thousands of doctors redeployed across the countryChina announced plans to scrap its primary Covid tracking app in the latest rollback of pandemic control measures, just days after abruptly abandoning its long-running zero-Covid policy.It came as health authorities warned of widespread infections on the horizon, and redeployed hundreds of thousands of doctors and nurses to intensive care units in preparation for an Omicron surge through the population of 1.4 billion people. Continue reading...

Authorities want Glory to Hong Kong axed from top results and replaced with China’s national anthemGoogle has refused to change its search results to display China’s national anthem, rather than a protest song, when users search for Hong Kong’s national anthem, the city’s security chief has said, expressing “great regret” at the decision.Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Continue reading...

AMA concerned by ‘significant disincentives’ to virus testing and psychologist body ‘bitterly disappointed’

Under regulations coming into effect on Saturday, agents are barred from asking tenants to offer higher rents

Figure includes agreements rolled over from before leaving EU, and description of ‘new trade’ is misleading says UKSA chiefThe official statistics watchdog has reprimanded the Conservatives for claiming the UK had secured £800bn in “new free trade deals” since leaving the EU, saying the figure includes deals rolled over from before Brexit.The UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) said it had written to the Tories about the infographic, shared last month by Michael Gove among others, also warning that the party should provide sources for such figures in the future. Continue reading...

Conflict has displaced at least 400,000 people since March in a growing humanitarian crisisIn the camps on the flanks of the Nyiragongo volcano in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, they listen carefully. Not for warning of an eruption but to the dull thuds of distant mortar and artillery fire. Some days there are none, and hopes are raised. On other days, the sounds of war make clear to every one of the thousands of villagers huddled in their makeshift shelters that they will not be going anywhere very soon.“We want to return home to cultivate our fields and keep our cows, sheep and goats because we are here and we are hungry. We are suffering a lot,” said Nsambimana Ashiwe, 64, at a displacement camp in Kanyaruchinya, a few miles south of the frontlines. Continue reading...

Forecast high temperatures unlikely to top 10C in parts of Melbourne as south-east Australia is subject to whims of La Niña weather pattern

Court heard James Morton Mason joked about roasting marshmallows after blaze at Alexis Parkes’ home

Joseph Wu says that communication with China has become more difficult after a purge of some factions within the Communist partyTaiwan’s government believes China is preparing to find another “pretext for practising their future attack” on the island, its foreign minister has said, after a record-breaking year of military threats and incursions.Joseph Wu also suggested cross-strait communications may diminish even further now that Xi Jinping has secured his third term, with last month’s extraordinary political purges of rival Communist party members severing the few unofficial ties remaining. Continue reading...

Prime minister admits incentives could be paid to maintain supply as he recalls parliament to pass plan

Property website reports largest pre-Christmas dip of last four years as figure falls to £359,137 in early DecemberThe average asking price of homes being put on the UK market has fallen by 2.1% over the last month, according to Rightmove, which said it had seen the largest pre-Christmas dip of the last four years.The UK’s biggest property website said the average asking price was £359,137 in early December – about £7,862 less than a month previously. The fall in asking prices followed a 1.1% decrease in November’s prices, and will be seen as further evidence that the property market is rapidly cooling. Continue reading...

The Hague convention was meant to stop children being abducted over international borders – but its use in cases of domestic violence is being questioned

Singer abruptly evacuated just a couple of songs into her concert after the bomb threat forced authorities to evacuate the theatrePatti LaBelle was abruptly rushed offstage just a couple of songs into a Christmas concert in Milwaukee, after a bomb threat forced authorities to suddenly evacuate the venue.Footage of the 78-year-old singer’s sudden evacuation from the stage at the Riverside Theater began to circulate on social media on Saturday night shortly after the incident. Continue reading...

Special effects company behind display says initial investigations indicate a manufacturing problem

Party criticises significant rise in use of temporary staff while places at medical school have been cutNHS trusts are paying as much as £5,200 a shift for agency doctors, figures uncovered by Labour have shown, with the party saying that low staffing levels resulted in a significant rise in the use of temporary workers last year.In what Labour called an indication of a “desperate” staffing crisis in the health service, freedom of information requests to every English NHS trust showed they paid £3bn to agencies for staff during 2021-22, 20% more than in the previous year. Continue reading...

Former education secretary for England says podcast ‘was replete with errors’ about controversy involving Birmingham schoolsMichael Gove has attacked the New York Times as “useful idiots” for its podcast about the Trojan horse controversy involving Birmingham schools, and accused it of portraying the UK “as an insular backwater whose inhabitants are drowning in a tide of nostalgia, racism and bad food”.Gove’s claims come in the foreword of a new “documentary record” about the Trojan horse affair published by the Policy Exchange thinktank, whose authors question whether the government has adequately followed up concerns over extremism in schools. Continue reading...

West Midlands fire service said reports indicated the children were playing on the ice before falling throughFour children were taken to hospital in cardiac arrest after falling through the ice on a lake in Solihull, emergency services have said.West Midlands police said emergency services are continuing a search and rescue operation at Babbs Mill Park in Kingshurst in the town on Sunday. Continue reading...

Performer criticises operator over cancellations in journey after paying ‘eye-watering’ price for first-class Brighton-Bangor returnA rail passenger who paid an “eye-watering” £589 for a return train ticket from Brighton to Wales has hit out at operator Avanti West Coast for cancelling parts of his journey and providing “a masterclass in poor service”.Drag performer Le Gateau Chocolat – Gateau for short – paid the sum for a first-class open return ticket between Brighton and Bangor in north Wales to perform for a private customer as a birthday treat. Continue reading...

Grade-II*-listed eight-bedroom, six-bathroom Piers Court is where Waugh wrote many illustrious novels, including Brideshead RevisitedA Grade II*-listed Cotswold mansion where Evelyn Waugh wrote Brideshead Revisited is up for auction with a guide price of £2.5m – about £400,000 less than it sold for just four years ago.However, there is a catch, or two. Prospective buyers are unable to look around the eight-bedroom, six-bathroom property and no recent photos are available because sitting tenants are refusing to leave the property or allow estate agents or buyers in. The tenants are paying rent of £250 a year. Continue reading...

Shane Drumgold also says Reynolds’ husband was seen conferencing with Lehrmann’s defence ‘during the course of the entire trial’

Pharmacists also report difficulties finding supplies of antibiotics to treat the infectionStrep A home-testing kits have sold out online as parents rush to find ways to diagnose their children’s rashes and high temperatures.The panic-buying follows the deaths of at least 16 children from invasive strep A infections in the UK, with the latest fatality involving a secondary school pupil at Hove Park school in Hove on Friday. Continue reading...

Andrea Costantino says he has been in tiny room since release from prison on ‘totally unfounded’ charges of funding terrorismAn Italian man trapped for six months in his country’s embassy in the UAE has claimed he is the victim of a diplomatic spat between the two states and pleaded with Giorgia Meloni’s government to bring him home.Andrea Costantino, 49, said he had been living a “Groundhog day-like” existence in a tiny room at the Italian embassy in Abu Dhabi since being released in late May from the emirate’s notorious maximum-security prison, Al Wathba, where he spent more than a year on charges of funding terrorism in war-torn Yemen after shipping a cargo of diesel to a client there. Continue reading...

Doctors’ union criticises shadow health secretary for ‘incredibly disappointing’ comments over funding and primary careWes Streeting has again criticised the British Medical Association (BMA) in a war of words with the doctors’ union, after the shadow health secretary called for increased NHS funding to be matched by a change in approach among GPs.The BMA criticised Streeting for what it called “disappointing” comments after he used an interview with the Sunday Telegraph to accuse the union of being hostile towards vitally needed NHS reform efforts. Continue reading...

Eighty years after Anthony Eden revealed the extent of the Nazi genocide, the chamber will observe a moment of silence againIt was the moment when parliament first formally recognised the appalling fate of the Jewish people at the hands of the Nazis – and MPs rose from their seats in solemn silence.The date was 17 December 1942 and evidence of the deportation of Jews from occupied countries to eastern Europe was mounting by the day. Continue reading...

Shooting to fame as a teenager with the Royal Ballet, Grey won international acclaim as a dancer and was artistic director of the company that became English National BalletThe renowned dancer Dame Beryl Grey, one of the great pioneering forces in British ballet, has died at the age of 95. The Royal Ballet announced the news on Twitter on Saturday and said she had been a “commanding figure” since her Swan Lake debut aged 15. English National Ballet tweeted that she would be “remembered for her significant legacy and immeasurable contribution to the artform”. The organisation bbodance said that Grey, who was their president, was a “truly wonderful ballerina who will be sorely missed by us all”.A teenage prodigy, Grey rose to fame at the Royal Ballet, which she left in 1957 to pursue an international career as a freelance ballerina. Grey was not only the first British ballerina to dance in Russia (with the Bolshoi in 1957, during the cold war) but also the first western ballerina to perform in Beijing (with Peking Ballet in 1964). Later she was appointed artistic director of London Festival Ballet (1968-79), transforming the fortunes of the company that became English National Ballet. Continue reading...

Government rebuffs union offer to suspend action in return for talks, saying it can’t depart from review body’s recommendationMinisters have rebuffed an offer by nursing unions to suspend planned strikes in return for negotiations on pay, arguing that it was not possible for the government to amend awards decided by the independent pay body for NHS staff.The foreign secretary, James Cleverly, told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday show that the health secretary would happily talk to the unions, but only about improving NHS performance and working conditions, and not about pay. Continue reading...

I Camisa has been battered by the pandemic and rising costs and is threatened with doom after almost a century of tradingFor decades, the I Camisa deli has been at the heart of the community in London’s West End. Opened in 1929 by the Italian brothers Ennio and Isidoro Camisa, the Soho institution sells speciality produce including imported meats and cheeses, as well as handmade pasta and sauces, and hot sandwiches on freshly baked bread.The food has won it an array of accolades, praise from critics and cameos on TV shows including The Great British Bake Off and actor Stanley Tucci’s BBC travel show. But now, battered by the effects of the pandemic, I Camisa looks set to shut for good almost 100 years after it began trading. Continue reading...

Move by Task Force Rusich raises fears of rogue paramilitary attacks on Baltic nations of Latvia, Lithuania and EstoniaA neo-Nazi paramilitary group linked to the Kremlin has asked its members to submit intelligence on border and military activity in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, raising concerns over whether far-right Russian groups are planning an attack on Nato countries.The official Telegram channel for “Task Force Rusich” – currently fighting in Ukraine on behalf of the Kremlin and linked to the notorious Wagner Group – last week requested members to forward details relating to border posts and military movements in the three Baltic states, which were formerly part of the Soviet Union. Continue reading...

Peter Hain says Labour leader must have plans ready to limit the damage caused by leaving the EU if he becomes PMKeir Starmer must urgently develop a series of practical policies to address the economic “disaster” of Brexit and prevent it from driving Scotland towards independence, a former Labour Europe minister has warned.Backed by several other Labour peers, Peter Hain, who is also a former Northern Ireland secretary, says the crises caused by climate change, the Ukraine war, the lack of economic growth and rising energy prices can only be tackled through closer cooperation with our EU neighbours than the current Brexit arrangements allow. Continue reading...

Senior politicians from both major parties to travel to Vanuatu, the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and Palau this week. This blog is now closed

Company says ‘the welfare of our staff is our absolute priority’ and it will ‘take these allegations very seriously’

There is little to soothe the pain on the front pages, with ample reminder of Harry Kane putting it over the crossbar to send his team homeHarry Kane’s penalty shot went over the crossbar and that was it for England’s World Cup hopes. Here is how the papers covered the World Cup quarter-final.“England 1 France 2 – Heartbreak for Harry” – the Observer’s take on the result. It was, the paper says, a “stinging end” to an “enthralling World Cup quarter-final”. There’s also room on the front for “We’ll suspend strikes if you talk about pay: health unions”. Continue reading...

Baird will take over from February with his predecessor stepping down and taking the chief executive’s job with HBF

In defence of energy price caps, minister Chris Bowen says Australians should pay a fair cost for gas extracted in Australia rather than a ‘wartime price’

Release of names, numbers and addresses of some unlisted customers was not due to cyber-attack

Nato head warns the war could spin out of control and Ukrainian president says eastern city of Bakhmut has been ‘destroyed’

Ruben Ostlund’s Palme d’Or-winning satire takes best picture, director, actor and screenplay at continent’s answer to the OscarsIt was plain sailing at this year’s European film awards in Reykjavík for Triangle of Sadness, Ruben Ostlund’s luxury yacht-set satire of western entitlement and self-regard, which won best film as well as three other major prizes.The Swedish director, fast becoming an EFAs favourite, also took best director and best screenwriter to add to his six European awards for his 2017 art-world roast The Square. Veteran Croatian actor Zlatko Burić scooped best actor for his role as a Russian fertiliser magnate who becomes an unlikely revolutionary aboard Ostlund’s puke-swilling ship of fools. Continue reading...

Vessel thought to have embarked from Bangladesh is reportedly near Malaysia with 160 people onboard who have no food or waterActivists have called for urgent assistance to rescue 160 Rohingya refugees, including young children, who they say are stranded at sea on a damaged boat and have been without food or water for days.The boat, which activists say is near Malaysian waters, is believed to have left on 25 November from Bangladesh, where almost 1 million Rohingya live in squalid and cramped refugee camps. Continue reading...

Flights cancelled or diverted after Met Office says temperatures below 0C may cause travel disruptionManchester airport was earlier forced to close both its runways because of heavy snow on Saturday morning, and large parts of the UK have been warned to expect severe weather over the weekend.Passengers were told the runways had been temporarily closed and to contact their airlines for the latest information. However, airport managers reopened one runway at 11.30am, allowing a limited number of services to resume, with work continuing to reopen the other. Continue reading...

More than 150 groups urge PM to rule out once and for all its replacement with Dominic Raab’s bill of rightsMore than 150 civil society groups have written to Rishi Sunak urging him to commit to retaining the Human Rights Act and rule out its replacement by a British bill of rights.The prime minister’s position in regards the proposed legislation is in doubt but Dominic Raab, having been reappointed justice secretary, remains determined to push through his pet project, which was shelved under Liz Truss’s premiership.Fundamentally weaken the right to respect for private and family life.Remove the legal duty on courts and public bodies to interpret other laws compatibly with human rights, exposing people to the arbitrary use of laws with no checks.Limit access to justice by adding barriers to bringing a human rights case to court.Destroy the positive obligation on public bodies to take proactive steps to protect people from harm, including protecting domestic and child abuse survivors. Continue reading...

Government likely to accept 18 out of 20 recommendations but risks triggering another standards rowRishi Sunak’s government is expected to accept most of a proposed new code of conduct for MPs after the Owen Paterson scandal but has rejected the idea that ministers should declare more details about free hospitality from lobbyists and companies.MPs will debate the proposals put forward by the standards committee on Monday, with Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the House of Commons, likely to accept 18 of the 20 recommendations. Key measures include tightening the rules on lobbying to stop MPs providing paid parliamentary advice, consultancy or strategy. Continue reading...