World news | The Guardian

Family of Melvyn Ryan say he could have died if they had not driven him in a van as no ambulances availableThe family of an 89-year-old man with a broken hip and shoulder and a cut head who they had to take to hospital strapped to a plank in the back of a van because there were no ambulances have said he could have died had they not found a makeshift way of getting him to safety.Melvyn Ryan’s granddaughter, Nicole Lea, found him lying on the floor of his home in Cwmbran, south Wales, in the early hours but when she dialled 999 a call handler told her no ambulances were available and advised her to book a taxi before ringing off. Continue reading...

Conspiracy theories and any prior planning will be central to an investigation in Wieambilla

Bristol, Leeds Bradford and Luton airports also criticised by CAA for poor accessibility performanceMany disabled and less mobile passengers missed summer flights at Heathrow – one of the busiest airports in the world – due to its poor accessibility performance, the aviation watchdog has found.Bristol, Leeds Bradford and Luton airports were also criticised along with Britain’s biggest airport by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in its interim airport accessibility report. Continue reading...

Sewell pleads not guilty to assault and claims he acted in self-defence and was defending his cameraman outside Nine offices

The 30-year-old begins five weeks of training amid questions over future of the global phenomenon bandJin, the oldest member of the K-pop phenomenon BTS, was due to begin his mandatory military service on Tuesday at a base close to the border with North Korea, amid growing speculation about the band’s future.The 30-year-old, now sporting a buzzcut, will be followed into the military by younger members of the band in the coming years, after their impending enlistment sparked a debate among South Koreans over whether the band, and other successful entertainers, should be granted exemptions. Continue reading...

Law Enforcement Conduct Commission report says Fuller’s failure to disclose potential conflict of interest warrants criticism but not a serious misconduct finding

Man eligible for parole within days after he hired an undercover police officer to target pastor his wife had used as a confidant about domestic violence

The rapper’s attorneys confirmed the fellow music star would present testimony on WednesdayOpening statements in the trial of Tory Lanez, the rapper accused of shooting fellow rapper Megan Thee Stallion in the foot, began on Monday in Los Angeles. Lanez, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, faces more than 22 years in prison if he is convicted on all three felony counts he is currently charged with.Los Angeles county prosecutors Kathy Ta and Alexander Bott allege Peterson shot the rapper, whose real name is Megan Pete, with a semi-automatic firearm during an argument that began inside a vehicle in Hollywood Hills. Peterson has pleaded not guilty to three separate felony charges stemming from the alleged shooting including assault and having a concealed gun in a vehicle. Continue reading...

Police commissioner Katarina Carroll says it’s a miracle two officers survived after being confronted by a ‘hail of gunshots’

Labour highlights issue to back up pledge to invest heavily in addressing shortagesThe number of operations cancelled by the NHS in England because of staff shortages may have doubled in three years, with an estimated 30,000 not proceeding because no staff were available to perform them.At least a third of cancelled operations were those that were deemed urgent, according to the analysis by Labour. It suggested at least 2,500 cancelled operations for cancer patients and 8,000 on children. Continue reading...

Dr Kajal Sharma was only one of 12 senior academics not to be reappointed to her postA university has been found to have discriminated against an Indian lecturer on the grounds of race after it failed to reappoint her for a job she had been doing for five years, replacing her with a white candidate with no experience of the role.Dr Kajal Sharma was one of only two senior lecturers at the University of Portsmouth who were not reappointed to their jobs when their contract came to an end, while 11 out of 12 white colleagues were successful, an employment tribunal heard. Continue reading...

Human rights group warns death of Majidreza Rahnavard ‘a significant escalation of violence against protesters’Fears are growing that Iran is preparing to execute scores more protesters after authorities hanged a 23-year-old man from a crane, in a public killing carried out less than a month after he was arrested and following a secretive trial.Majidreza Rahnavard was sentenced to death by a court in the city of Mashhad, a centre of the protests, for allegedly killing two members of the paramilitary Basij force and wounding four others. The Basij, affiliated with the country’s feared Revolutionary Guards, has been at the forefront of the state crackdown. Continue reading...

Belgian prosecutors say 20 searches conducted since Friday, prompting warning that EU’s credibility at stakeBelgian police have searched European parliament offices as part of a growing investigation into alleged bribery and corruption, as senior EU leaders warned the credibility of the European Union was at stake.Belgium’s federal prosecutor announced on Monday it had carried out 20 searches since Friday, including 19 at private homes and one at the offices at the European parliament. Continue reading...

Barry and Honey Sherman found dead in Toronto home five years ago but family frustration mounts as crime remains unsolvedThe son of a billionaire couple murdered five years ago has tripled a cash reward for information about the unsolved crime amid frustration over a lack of progress in the investigation and deep rifts within the family.Barry Sherman, the founder of drug giant Apotex, and his wife Honey, are believed to have been killed in their Toronto home on 13 December 2017. A realtor found the couple in the basement pool area of their home two days later, with belts looped around their necks and attached to a pool railing. Continue reading...

Russell Causley claims at hearing in Lewes that his lover was responsible for 1985 murder of Carole PackmanA man convicted of his wife’s 1985 murder has claimed his lover was responsible for the crime at the first ever public Parole Board hearing in England and Wales.Russell Causley’s hearing was the first that the public have been granted access to since new rules, brought in after the ultimately quashed decision to release the “black-cab rapist” John Worboys, came into effect in July. Continue reading...

Beira’s Place will add to Edinburgh’s existing rape crisis centre, which is run by a trans womanJK Rowling is funding a new support and counselling service for survivors of sexual violence in Edinburgh.The author, who has written about her own experience as a survivor of sexual assault, is setting up the new centre, called Beira’s Place, because she believes there is an “unmet need for women” in the Lothians area. Continue reading...

Landowner Alexander Darwall is seeking to overturn legally enshrined right to camp wild in national parkOn a freezing afternoon underneath the ice-encrusted turrets of the Royal Courts of Justice, about 100 ramblers gathered on Monday to protest for their right to wild camp on Dartmoor.In a case being heard this week, a wealthy landowner is trying to overturn the legally enshrined right to camp wild in the national park. Continue reading...

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...