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More than 600 staff set to walk out over pay, with Unite saying some workers worried about becoming homeless themselvesMore than 600 workers at the housing and homelessness charity Shelter are beginning an “unprecedented” fortnight of strike action on Monday in a dispute over pay – coinciding with one of its busiest times of the year.The Unite union said a 3% pay increase this year had left some of Shelter’s staff unable to pay their rent and very worried about the possibility of becoming homeless themselves. Continue reading...

In keeping with tradition, jokes chosen by Gold TV poll more likely to elicit groans of despair than laughterJokes about Phil Schofield, Liz Truss, and the cost of living crisis are among the best contemporary Christmas cracker jokes selected by the British public in an annual poll.The vote asked members of the public to vote on a shortlist of 10 modern jokes considered as being worthy of inclusion in a cracker. In keeping with festive tradition, the jokes are more likely to elicit deep groans of despair at their attempted wordplay rather than a sincere cackle.Why does Kate Bush need to turn the heating off? She’s running up that billHow did King Charles III sign his Christmas cards to his family? The Artist Formerly Known as PrinceWhat’s the difference between Liz Truss and a shepherd? One U-turns and the other turns ewesWhy are Will Smith and Chris Rock not having turkey this Christmas? Because they’ve got beefWhy has Santa been banned from sooty chimneys? Carbon footprintsWhat crisps do Phil and Holly serve at their Christmas party? SkipsWhy are the government having problems with their own version of the Christmas Nativity? They can’t find three wise menWhat do people heating their homes and wrapping paper have in common this Christmas? Both of them are getting ripped offHow can you keep your home warm this Christmas? Tinsulation Continue reading...

Analysis of database tailored to EU needs shows 85% of GB exports stay in the region’s factories and shopsUK hopes that controversial Brexit checks on goods crossing the Irish sea can be eliminated have risen after early analysis of government data showed that at least 85% of goods arriving in Northern Ireland from Great Britain stay in factories or shops in the region.The research comes from a new HM Revenue and Customs database, the EU Access system, that tracked the movement of 1m goods crossing the Irish Sea in 2021. Continue reading...

Findings for British Beer and Pub Association indicate businesses will face loss of 20% on average after energy bill relief scheme endsMany pubs and breweries across the UK will be forced to shut their doors for good as they face rocketing losses without further energy support, industry bosses have warned.Calculations in a report by the consultancy Frontier Economics, produced for the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA), showed that energy bills returning to their regular rate from April would put pubs and brewers at a loss of 20% on average. Continue reading...

Daniel Andrews says too many First Nations children taken from families and plans to work with minister to ‘devise a new system’

Pentecostal church founder denies the comment and has pleaded not guilty to concealing sexual abuse by his father Frank, who confessed to police in 1999

Routine indexation comes amid soaring inflation, but social welfare advocates say it is still not enough

Plane flying from Kraków in Poland to Bristol diverted on Sunday night and landed safely in Prague and no dangerous object was found, says Czech airportAn easyJet flight heading for the UK has landed safely after being been diverted to Prague due to a report of a “possible bomb” on board.Flight 6276 was flying from Kraków in Poland to Bristol on Sunday when it was diverted towards the Czech capital and landed safely at 10.50pm local time (9.50pm UK time), according to Prague airport. Continue reading...

Bester was in October charged in relation to posts related to and directed to Tame

Shoppers should look out for fake online stores, too-cheap puppies and text alerts for unexpected deliveries

Civil rights group claims outposts are used to monitor Chinese population abroad and force dissidents to returnItaly hosts the highest number of unofficial Chinese “police stations” out of a network of more than 100 around the world, a report by a Spanish civil rights group has claimed.The northern Italian city of Milan was allegedly used by two local Chinese public security authorities as a European testing ground for a policing strategy to monitor the Chinese population abroad and force dissidents to return home. Continue reading...

Co-chair of the Indigenous voice to parliament design group condemns National party opposition and implores critics to examine detail

Tough measures to address ‘big concern’ for Tory voters are among suggestions in report by rightwing thinktankLocking up people who enter the country illegally and barring them from ever settling in the UK are “options” under consideration by Suella Braverman and No 10 as the government puts a crackdown on small boats at the heart of its agenda.The ideas are contained in a report by the rightwing thinktank the Centre for Policy Studies, for which Braverman wrote a foreword. Continue reading...

Committee to look at ‘real-world evidence’ including experiences of countries where law has changedMPs are to open an inquiry into assisted dying in the new year, looking in particular at the experience of other countries that have changed their laws.The health and social care committee will hear evidence from medical professionals, campaigners and the public, and make recommendations to the government on the issue. Continue reading...

Coronial inquest into Australia’s first terrorism cold case starts in NSW as investigators hope to track down three people believed to be involved

Gordon Brown’s Commission on the UK’s Future also aims to curb influence of wealth and foreign moneyLabour will consult on replacing what the party calls the “indefensible” House of Lords with an elected chamber as part of a 40-point plan written by Gordon Brown to overhaul the constitution, but stopped short of committing to its abolition in the manifesto.Keir Starmer will on Monday join Brown for the launch of the former prime minister’s Commission on the UK’s Future, which makes recommendations on Lords reform, devolution of power and the future of the union.This article was amended after its initial publication to correct the assertion that Lord McFall had previously been a Conservative MP. He was, in fact, a Labour MP from 1987 to 2010. Continue reading...

Initiative is part of measures agreed between London’s mayor Sadiq Khan and the police forcePolice officers in schools are to be monitored to see if they are disproportionately targeting black children. The initiative is part of new measures agreed in negotiations between the Metropolitan police and the London mayor, Sadiq Khan.Under the plans, the use of powers by so-called safer schools officers in London, such as arrests and stop and searches, will be examined to see if there is racial bias. Continue reading...

Deputy PM briefed over outstanding recommendation of Brereton report as legal centre says there is no excuse for inaction

Exclusive: departure of John Ryley, who has been in charge of Sky News since 2006, expected to be announced on MondayThe head of Sky News is set to quit after 16 years in the job, as the news outlet faces up to long-term challenges in adapting to a post-television future.John Ryley has been in charge of Sky News since 2006, taking over at a time when the outlet was almost entirely focused on producing its flagship live television channel. Under his leadership, Sky News has transformed itself into a multimedia operation with a large online audience, although it continues to spend a substantial proportion of its budget on its traditional broadcasting. Continue reading...

Majority were not disaffected Coalition supporters and voted tactically to defeat incumbents, according to report

Nadhim Zahawi urges nurses to call off strikes and negotiate but union says it is ministers who are refusing to talkThe Conservative party chairman, Nadhim Zahawi, has been accused of insulting NHS workers with a “ludicrous” suggestion that it is the wrong time to strike over low pay because it would help Vladimir Putin divide the west.Zahawi told broadcasters that nurses should call off their strikes and abandon their pay demands because it risked playing into the hands of the Russian president, who he said wanted to fuel inflation in the west. Continue reading...

Nadhim Zahawi says parents should look out for symptoms of infection, such as fever, headache or skin rashMedics have raised the alarm over the ability of the NHS to cope with increased rates of strep A, after reports that a 12-year-old schoolboy from London had become the latest child to die after contracting a rare, invasive form of the infection.On Sunday, cabinet minister Nadhim Zahawi urged parents to be vigilant for signs of streptococcus A, even though most cases are mild. Continue reading...

Sculpture of campaigner to be unveiled next year as one of five in Monumental Welsh Women projectA statue of a Welsh suffragette who was jailed for setting fire to a postbox, survived a shipwreck, and played a key role in the fight to allow women into the House of Lords is to be erected in Newport.The statue of Margaret Haig Thomas, Lady Rhondda, is being created by the figurative sculptor Jane Robbins and will be unveiled in the city where she worked and campaigned a century ago. Continue reading...

State media distance themselves from claim ‘morality police’ have been shut down after Mahsa Amini deathProtesters in Iran have called for a three-day strike this week amid conflicting reports that its “morality police” had been shut down, and as the US said the leadership in Tehran had locked itself into a “vicious cycle” that had cut it off from its own people and the international community.The call steps up pressure on Iranian authorities after the attorney general said this weekend that the morality police – whose detention of a young woman triggered months of protests – had been shut down. There was no confirmation of the closure from the interior ministry, which is in charge of the morality police, and Iranian state media said the attorney general, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, was not responsible for overseeing the force. Continue reading...

Producers believe this is the first time a film has used both English and Kernewek on its postersThe new film from the director Mark Jenkin, who has won plaudits for his gritty takes of life in the far south-west of England, is being promoted with Cornish-language posters.Producers of the film, a folk horror called Enys Men, believe it is the first time posters in Cornish (Kernewek) as well as English are being used to market a major feature film. Continue reading...

UK says support within Russia for military action is waning; US intelligence chief says Putin ‘more informed’ about reality of challenges on the ground

Najat Ibrahim Ismail was jailed in 2017 and officials tried to deport him three times before judge’s ruling in his favour

Shanghai and Urumqi to reopen markets and restaurants and loosen public transport restrictionsChinese cities, including the financial hub of Shanghai and Urumqi in the far west, have announced an easing of coronavirus curbs after unprecedented protests against zero-Covid restrictions last weekend.Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region and centre of the first protests, will reopen malls, markets, restaurants and other venues from Monday, authorities said, ending months-long strict lockdowns. Continue reading...

Eric Tucker, self-taught and virtually unknown until his death in 2018, has since been compared to LS LowryIt is the cluttered front room of a Warrington council house: gas fire set into a tiled surround, glass-fronted cabinet housing treasured knick-knacks; shoes tucked under a chair; magazines and books piled up. And in the middle, an easel, surrounded by tubes of paint and jars of brushes.The room is where Eric Tucker, an artist virtually unknown until his death in 2018 but since compared to LS Lowry, painted people in the pub and on the street, gossiping, reading, smoking, playing cards. Continue reading...

Police officer also dies during clashes amid claims security forces fired live ammunition on protestersA protester and a police officer have been killed during an anti-government demonstration in Syria’s Druze-majority Sweida province.Seven people were wounded during the incident on Sunday, at a rare protest in the country where President Bashar al-Assad stamped out a pro-democracy uprising over a decade ago. Assad survived the resulting civil war but the conflict has plunged Syria into poverty, coupled with a food security and energy crisis. Continue reading...

US opposition may be softening after lobbying by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy

General practices have ‘steady profit margins’ and many are turning away from bulk billing, leaving poorer Australians without access to care, thinktank says

After months in intensive care, Cesar Franco became the first person in Britain to have the operation because of the virus“When I woke up I was confused. I remembered the doctors in St George’s hospital deciding to intubate me. But when I woke up from the intubation, I’d been transferred to another hospital, St Thomas’, and was on a machine that was keeping me alive. I wondered how things had gotten so bad and how I’d gone from being just ill to being, you know, very close to dying.”Cesar Franco is reliving how he fell gravely ill with Covid-19 late last year and ended up in the intensive care unit (ICU) of St Thomas’ hospital in central London, helpless, struggling to breathe and only still alive thanks to the quiet pumping of an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (Ecmo) machine. It was the start of what became five arduous, precarious months in ICU on Ecmo. That is an unusually long time, even for a Covid patient, to receive what, for some but not all, proves to be life-saving care. Continue reading...

Exclusive: During 220 days in prison, Eamonn Coughlan says he was bashed, stabbed with a syringe and denied prescription drugs

Condemnation comes as the state’s truth-telling inquiry, the Yoorrook Justice commission, prepares to hold hearings on the subject from Monday

New report has called for urgent structural reform after finding women’s income and health have deteriorated in the past decade

Retailer says its responsibility is to ensure customers ‘get hold of their technology’ for Christmas

US firm says network of bot accounts also hijacking hashtags in large-scale attempt to obscure coverageAn attempt to flood social media platforms with spam in order to drown out coverage of the lockdown protests in China was probably backed by the Chinese government, according to analysis by a US cybersecurity firm.Recorded Future found that networks of coordinated bot accounts were targeting non-Chinese social media platforms to crowd out genuine posts about the demonstrations with spam content and by hijacking hashtags of names of Chinese cities. It said China’s government was most likely to be behind the tactic. Continue reading...

Conservative chair comments after unnamed MP was reported to the party and police by colleaguesThe Conservatives will take action against a Tory MP facing allegations of rape and sexual assault if the police do, the party’s new chairman has said.Nadhim Zahawi said he had commissioned legal advice on the situation as one of his first acts in the job, after the unnamed MP was reported to the party and police by some of his colleagues. Continue reading...

Eruption causes roads to close after volcanic ash rains down on Java islandA volcano has erupted in Indonesia, spewing a cloud of ash 15km into the sky and forcing the evacuation of nearly 2,000 people, authorities have said, as they issued their highest warning for the area in the east of Java island.There were no immediate reports of any casualties from the eruption of the Semeru volcano and Indonesia’s transport ministry said air travel was not affected but notices had been sent to two regional airports for them to be vigilant. Continue reading...

Take a crisp white shirt, layers of black tulle and lace, and team with a sullen stare. Now you’re tuned in to Netflix’s new take on the Addams familyIf you are seeing a lot of Gen Z wearing black, plaiting their hair into pigtails and giving you a Kubrick Stare, it’s all because of their new anti-heroine heroine, Wednesday. It has been just over a week since Tim Burton’s new series Wednesday debuted on Netflix but already tweens and teens are channelling the sullen and sardonic daughter of the Addams family.Defined by the deadpan Christina Ricci in the 90s films, this time round Wednesday has been given a Gen-Z makeover. The series follows a now teenage Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) as she is banished to Nevermore Academy, a creepy boarding school, after an incident involving a school swimming team and a bag of piranhas. What ensues is an action-packed melodrama fusing the genres of murder mystery with horror and a dollop of teenage angst. It has swiftly become Netflix’s most popular show, beating the last series of Stranger Things. Continue reading...

Adult survivors of sexual abuse can now file lawsuits even if the statute of limitations on their claims had already run outA trickle of high-profile sexual abuse lawsuits passing through New York’s civil courts is likely to become a flood in the coming months because of a new, one-year window for time-expired claims.Already, some bold-faced names from the worlds of arts, finance and politics have become involved, including Donald Trump and banker Leon Black. Continue reading...

Snow could fall in Scotland, Northern Ireland and north-east England from Wednesday, with travel disruptedThe Met Office has issued its first snow warning this winter, as Britain is expected to face icy temperatures this week.A yellow weather warning for snow has been issued for northern Scotland on Wednesday, with snow showers likely to bring travel disruption. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Stage sequel to focus on then housing secretary, fire chief and two families devastated by 2017 fireA play dramatising the “merry-go-round of buck-passing” at the Grenfell Tower public inquiry will open in February, casting actors as Eric Pickles, the former housing secretary, and Hisam Choucair, who lost six members of his family in the 2017 fire.Grenfell: System Failure will be the sequel to a critically acclaimed verbatim play exploring the disastrous construction project that led to west London council block being clad in plastic panels that burned like petrol. Continue reading...

Film offers most detailed account yet of journalist’s killing by Israeli army, including video of moments surrounding shootingA new documentary about the Israeli army’s killing of the Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh is likely to increase pressure on the Biden administration to ensure that the FBI is permitted to fully investigate her death after Israel said it would not cooperate.The documentary, Faultlines, by Abu Akleh’s employer, Al Jazeera, is the most detailed account yet of events during an Israeli raid on the West Bank city of Jenin in May. Continue reading...

Businesses are having to turn down bookings as employee numbers remain low following the pandemic and BrexitTurning down party bookings over the Christmas period is the last thing a restaurant owner wants to do. But that is the harsh reality for the Rattle Owl, an independent restaurant featured in the Michelin Guide, which, like the vast majority of hospitality businesses, is suffering a shortage of staff and having to make compromises.“We used to be able to do 26 (people for a Christmas party booking) but we absolutely can’t do that now. The max we can do now is 10,” said the York restaurant’s owner, Clarrie O’Callaghan. Continue reading...

Triage system eConsult was supposed to improve patient care but UK surgeries are having to switch it off for periods as demand soarsAn online consultation platform widely used by GP surgeries and promoted as being available “around the clock” is being turned off by some practices for most of the day because of high demand.The eConsult platform is used in more than 3,000 GP practices in England, Scotland and Wales to help direct patients to the care they need. The online facility, offered to about 28 million patients, is described in promotional material as “available to use any time, day or night, from any device connected to the internet”. Continue reading...

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In Deptford, south-east London, support for Senegal is high among the older generation, while their offspring opt for the country of their birth in the World Cup showdownFootball’s capacity to unite is routinely lauded, but Sunday’s World Cup match between England and Senegal has already divided many west African families in London.The split is generational. Parents say they tend to support Senegal, the country of their birth, while their children opt to support the state they were raised in: England. Continue reading...

Reynolds confirmed she has been contacted by lawyers acting for her former staff member and a civil claim would be lodged this month