The Guardian

Biden blames Trump’s ‘web of lies’ for US Capitol attack in one-year anniversary speech – live
Russian paratroopers arrive in Kazakhstan as unrest continues
Crisis, what crisis? Florida Republicans deny Omicron is straining hospitals
Novak Djokovic to remain in detention during court challenge to Australian visa cancellation
Treasure hunters demand answers from FBI about search for civil war-era gold
‘Gay cake’ row: man loses seven-year battle against Belfast bakery
Seattle police faked radio chatter about Proud Boys during 2020 racial justice protests – watchdog
Human remains found near suspected origin of Colorado wildfire
Literary mystery may finally be solved as man arrested for allegedly stealing unpublished books
‘Ghost’ orchid that grows in the dark among new plant finds
High-ranking Tennessee Republican apologizes after apparent attempt to ‘pants’ ref
‘Urban fire storm’: suburban sprawl raising risk of destructive wildfires
When American democracy crumbles, it won’t be televised | Bhaskar Sunkara
MI6 chief thanks China for ‘free publicity’ after James Bond spoof
Nicolas Cage says actors need to know how to use a gun
Your work is not your god: welcome to the age of the burnout epidemic
‘It’s a revenge’: the global success of the Tahitian dance that Europeans tried to outlaw
‘I hated it the minute it was finished’: bad body art and regrets in a tattoo removal clinic
‘I kept saying – don’t worry Luma, we see you’: Andrea Arnold on her four years filming a cow
‘I have moments of shame I can’t control’: the lives ruined by explicit ‘collector culture’
Bruce Willis films – ranked!
Covid live: Boris Johnson hits out at anti-vaxxers spreading ‘mumbo jumbo’; French parliament approves ‘vaccine pass’ law
French MPs pass controversial Covid vaccine bill with large majority
US troops in Okinawa ordered to wear masks as Covid cases rise
Italy makes Covid vaccinations compulsory for over-50s
Republicans are laying a path back to power – and paving it with lies | Rebecca Solnit
The insurrection is only the tip of the iceberg | Sidney Blumenthal
Britain’s shameful slavery history matters – that’s why a jury acquitted the Colston Four | David Olusoga
From corruption to the 'mark of the beast' – why countries like Malawi are struggling against Covid | Madalitso Wills Kateta
Moving back to Australia mid-pandemic was like entering a time warp | Jacqueline Housden
The Guardian view on Trump’s mob, a year on: threats to democracy grow
The Guardian view on Elizabeth Holmes: fake it to make it until you break it | Editorial
Serbian president decries Novak Djokovic ‘harassment’ amid reaction to visa cancellation
Wilson to the Browns? Rodgers in Denver? A look at the quarterback merry-go-round
Antonio Brown: I did not quit on Buccaneers during game, I was injured
Kyrie Irving’s 22 points lift Nets in unvaccinated star’s season debut
‘If you are vaccinated you can play’: Rafael Nadal short on sympathy for Djokovic
Aston Villa pursue loan move for Barcelona’s Philippe Coutinho
Tottenham criticise fans’ homophobic chants during game at Chelsea
England’s farmers to be paid to rewild land
Fossil fuel firms among biggest spenders on Google ads that look like search results
Californians could face $500 fines for wasting water under new rules
How the Capitol attack still divides the United States
Can the UK cope with the Omicron surge?
‘Shame, ageism and nudity – there’s a lot to identify with’: actor David Pevsner on his memoir
Time on Rock by Anna Fleming review – vertiginous adventures
The 400 Blows review – François Truffaut’s coming-of-age masterwork
The Wombats: Fix Yourself, Not the World review – noughties indie returns bigger and brighter
Tides by Sara Freeman review – an experimental study of grief
Elvis Costello: ‘The OBE is just another bauble in my china cabinet’
The Expectation Effect by David Robson review – mind-changing science
Munich: The Edge of War review – an elegant what-if twist on wartime history
Jon Stewart denies claims he accused JK Rowling of antisemitism
Grammy awards 2022 postponed indefinitely due to Omicron
Dining across the divide: ‘I thought she was going to be an over-the-top liberal’
Detectives, sea monsters and stupid dangerous stunts – take the Thursday quiz
Dogs may be able to tell difference between speech patterns, study finds
Walk like a Minoan: hiking and foraging in eastern Crete
Easy wins: cutting down on alcohol – ‘your heart, liver, stomach and brain will thank you’
How to make tom yum – recipe | Felicity Cloake's Masterclass
Republicans’ anti-democratic attacks are the new normal
Merrick Garland vows to pursue all those responsible for 6 January attack
Bomb threats at seven HBCUs force students to evacuate or shelter in place
Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyers call for a retrial following juror’s interview
Homer Plessy, US civil rights pioneer, receives pardon 130 years on
California bill would hold gunmakers liable for injuries or deaths
Oldest second world war veteran in the US dies aged 112
Dog saves day as ‘real-life Lassie’ leads rescuers to injured men after accident
More than 40% in US do not believe Biden legitimately won election – poll
Eight children among 12 dead in Philadelphia house fire
French Dakar rally driver out of coma as team says bomb caused blast
UK accused of ‘targeted killing’ after drone strike on arms dealer to IS
Extremist told to read classics by UK judge ‘enjoyed Shakespeare more than Austen’
Falkland Islands war photos to go on show for 40th anniversary
France fines Google and Facebook €210m over user tracking
Tui reaches agreement with Sousse terror survivors and victims’ families
‘Poor meat and ill-treated animals’: Spain in uproar over minister’s remarks
German police dogs sent off duty after ban on ‘pulling collars’
BMW unveils car that changes colour at touch of a button
Italian mafia fugitive arrested in Spain after Google Street View sighting
Life after Deepwater Horizon: the hidden toll of surviving disaster on an oil rig
The Afghan judge working to free her sisters left behind
Why new year resolutions can just cause you more stress | Vishvapani Blomfield
Trump’s border wall and the slow decay of American soil | Carlos Sanchez
'He knew the conditions': Rafael Nadal short on sympathy for Novak Djokovic – video
James Pond: Chinese state news agency releases spoof mocking MI6 focus on Beijing – video
Gunfire heard during protests in Kazakhstan's biggest city – video
Owning cats and dogs instead of having children is selfish, says pope – video
The fall of Elizabeth Holmes: how Silicon Valley's trial of the century unfolded - video
Violent clashes in Kazakhstan amid fuel protests – in pictures
Call of the wild: remote island life – in pictures
Epiphany and a tennis challenge: Thursday’s best photos

Biden blames Trump’s ‘web of lies’ for US Capitol attack in one-year anniversary speech – live

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 07:13 AM PST

Joe Biden continued to go strong against Donald Trump in his speech on the anniversary of the 6 January attack on the US Capitol:

"The former president of the United States of America has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election," Biden said.

Russian paratroopers arrive in Kazakhstan as unrest continues

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 12:26 AM PST

Moscow-led 'peacekeeping' alliance enters country amid violent clashes between protesters, police and army

Kazakhstan unrest: what are the protests about?

Russian paratroopers have arrived in Kazakhstan as part of a "peacekeeping" mission by a Moscow-led military alliance to help the president regain control of the country, according to Russian news agencies.

Kazakhstan's president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, asked for the intervention from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) – an alliance made up of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan – late on Wednesday and it was swiftly approved.

Crisis, what crisis? Florida Republicans deny Omicron is straining hospitals

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 02:00 AM PST

State becomes focal point of politicized debate over whether Omicron is dangerous enough to overwhelm hospital systems

While Florida has experienced a record number of Covid-19 cases and sharp increase in hospitalizations in recent weeks, there is disagreement between Republicans and Democrats over whether the Omicron surge has actually overwhelmed the state's healthcare system.

For example, Florida Republican senator Marco Rubio posted on Twitter that there "is no Omicron hospital 'surge' in Florida. People admitted for non-Covid reasons get tested. If they test positive they get counted as a 'Covid patient.'"

Novak Djokovic to remain in detention during court challenge to Australian visa cancellation

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 12:50 AM PST

Australian Open champion is challenging his deportation after the Australian prime minister said officials were 'following the rules'

Novak Djokovic is awaiting his Australian Open fate in a Melbourne immigration hotel as the world No 1 mounts a legal challenge against Australia's a decision to cancel his visa

Djokovic's lawyers succeeded in a bid to stop him from being deported on Thursday with a full hearing in the federal circuit court now scheduled for Monday. The tennis champion spent eight hours detained at Melbourne airport overnight before Australian Border Force officials announced he had been denied entry into the country on Thursday morning. They cited a failure to meet Australia's Covid vaccination exemption requirements.

Treasure hunters demand answers from FBI about search for civil war-era gold

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 11:00 PM PST

Finders Keepers lawsuit seeks confirmation that agency found trove in Pennsylvania after father-son team suggested location

Treasure hunters who believe they found a huge cache of fabled US civil war-era gold in Pennsylvania are now on the prowl for something as elusive as the buried booty itself: government records of the FBI's excavation.

Finders Keepers, a lost treasure locate and recovery service, filed a federal lawsuit against the justice department over its failure to produce documents on the FBI's search for the legendary gold, which took place nearly four years ago at a remote woodland site in north-western Pennsylvania.

‘Gay cake’ row: man loses seven-year battle against Belfast bakery

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 01:34 AM PST

ECHR says Gareth Lee's case against bakery that refused to make cake with 'support gay marriage' message is inadmissible

A man has lost a seven-year legal battle against a Belfast bakery that refused to make him a cake emblazoned with the message "support gay marriage" after the European court of human rights ruled that his claim was inadmissible.

On Thursday, the ECHR, by a majority decision, said it would not reconsider the decision of the UK supreme court, which had overturned a £500 damages award imposed on Ashers bakery, which is run by evangelical Christians.

Seattle police faked radio chatter about Proud Boys during 2020 racial justice protests – watchdog

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 06:08 PM PST

Investigation finds police used an 'improper ruse' and exacerbated an already volatile situation, but consequences are unlikely

Seattle police exchanged detailed fake radio transmissions about a nonexistent group of menacing right-wing extremists at a crucial moment during the 2020 racial justice protests, an investigation by the city's police watchdog group shows.

The radio chatter about members of the Proud Boys marching around downtown Seattle, some possibly carrying guns and then heading to confront protesters on Capitol Hill was an improper "ruse", or dishonest ploy, that exacerbated a volatile situation, the Seattle Times reported. That's according to findings released Wednesday by the city's Office of Police Accountability (OPA).

Human remains found near suspected origin of Colorado wildfire

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 03:52 PM PST

Partial remains of adult discovered south of Boulder but experts say tally of two missing is strikingly low for a blaze of this ferocity

Investigators have found partial human remains in an area near the suspected origin of the destructive Colorado blaze that broke out last Thursday.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Boulder county sheriff's office said investigators located partial human remains of an adult in the Marshall area south of Boulder.

Literary mystery may finally be solved as man arrested for allegedly stealing unpublished books

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 08:20 PM PST

Filippo Bernardini is accused of impersonating publishing figures to steal manuscripts, in scam that has stumped authors and editors for years

A mysterious fraudster who impersonated publishers and agents to steal book manuscripts in an international phishing scam may have finally been caught, with the FBI arresting a 29-year-old man at John F Kennedy airport in New York on Wednesday.

Filippo Bernardini, an Italian citizen who worked at UK publisher Simon & Schuster, was arrested upon landing in the US on Wednesday. The FBI alleged that Bernardini had "impersonated, defrauded, and attempted to defraud, hundreds of individuals" to obtain unpublished and draft works.

‘Ghost’ orchid that grows in the dark among new plant finds

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 03:00 AM PST

Hundreds of new species include pink voodoo lily and an ylang-ylang tree named after Leonardo DiCaprio

A ghost orchid that grows in complete darkness, an insect-trapping tobacco plant and an "exploding firework" flower are among the new species named by scientists in the last year. The species range from a voodoo lily from Cameroon to a rare tooth fungus unearthed near London, UK.

A new tree from the ylang-ylang family is the first to be named in 2022 and is being named after the actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio. He campaigned to revoke a logging concession which threatened the African tree, which features glossy yellow flowers on its trunk.

High-ranking Tennessee Republican apologizes after apparent attempt to ‘pants’ ref

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 05:08 AM PST

Jeremy Faison was ejected from son's basketball game
'Emotions getting in way of rational thoughts are never good'

A high-ranking Tennessee Republican lawmaker has apologized after he was ejected from a high school basketball game after a confrontation with a referee. The dustup included what appeared to be a failed attempt at pulling down the official's pants, according to video footage.

On Tuesday, Jeremy Faison, a Republican member of the Tennessee House of Representatives, posted on Twitter that he "acted the fool tonight and lost my temper on a ref."

‘Urban fire storm’: suburban sprawl raising risk of destructive wildfires

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 03:00 AM PST

Recent conflagration in Colorado exposed threat of development pushing into wildland amid a changing climate

It was just after sunrise on New Year's Eve when climate scientist Daniel Swain paused outside his home in Boulder county, Colorado. Snow was beginning to fall and a strong acrid smell – "like burned plastic", Swain said – hung on the newly chilled breeze.

A fast-moving wildfire had torn through the area the day before, leaving devastation in its wake. Driven by winds of more than 100mph, what started as a small brush fire swiftly consumed nearly 1,000 homes within 24 hours.

When American democracy crumbles, it won’t be televised | Bhaskar Sunkara

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 03:30 AM PST

Don't expect a dramatic fascist storming of the Capitol building or a military takeover when our crisis comes to a head

Americans are not exactly known for nuance. Maybe it shouldn't surprise us then that the rightwing protests that turned into a riot at the US Capitol building on 6 January 2021 were immediately described as a coup attempt.

For most Democrats, the participants were at the very least insurrectionists guilty of sedition, or perhaps even domestic terrorists. Wall-to-wall coverage at the time on broadcast television and magazine thinkpieces waxing eloquent about the attack on "the people's house" confirmed the assessment.

MI6 chief thanks China for ‘free publicity’ after James Bond spoof

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 07:06 AM PST

Rare response from Richard Moore comes after state news agency posted video mocking western intelligence

The head of MI6 has thanked China's state news agency for "free publicity" after it posted a James Bond spoof video in response to a statement he made last year that Beijing was the spy agency's "single greatest priority".

Richard Moore, codenamed C, intervened after Xinhua released an extraordinary four-minute English video featuring a pair of supposed British spies, James Bond and an apparent Marvel universe recruit, Black Window.

Nicolas Cage says actors need to know how to use a gun

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 03:27 AM PST

Asked if firearms should be banned from film sets after the fatal shooting involving Alec Baldwin last year, Cage said they are 'part of the job profile'

Nicolas Cage has said actors need to be able to use a gun as it is "part of the job", in comments responding to the fatal shooting on the set of Rust in which cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed.

Cage was speaking as part of a wide-ranging roundtable discussion for the Hollywood Reporter with fellow actors including Peter Dinklage, Jonathan Majors and Andrew Garfield. On being asked whether guns should be banned from film sets in the wake of the Rust shooting, Cage responded by saying that "movie stars" needed to know how to perform certain activities that may be outside the experience of workaday actors. "You need to know how to fight. You're going to do fight scenes. You need to know how to ride a motorcycle. You need to know how to use a stick shift and drive sports cars, and you do need to know how to use a gun. You do. You need to take the time to know what the procedure is. Those are part of the job profiles."

Your work is not your god: welcome to the age of the burnout epidemic

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 01:00 AM PST

The reason why so many of us are at the end of our rope? We allowed work to be what gave our lives meaning

The rich are irrational when it comes to work. Out of everyone in our society, they have the least need to earn more money, but they work the most.

Billionaire tech-industry titans brag about their hundred-hour work weeks, even though their labor isn't what boosts their companies' stock prices and enriches them further. Americans with advanced degrees have the highest average earning power, but typically work more and spend less time on leisure than people with less formal education. The children of rich parents are twice as likely to have summer jobs as poor kids are. And many older American professionals with plenty saved for retirement keep showing up at the office.

‘It’s a revenge’: the global success of the Tahitian dance that Europeans tried to outlaw

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 09:00 PM PST

The fast, hip-shaking dance of Tahiti is taking off around the world, with thousands of women taking classes and competing

Wearing intricate costumes made of plants and adorned with tropical flowers, the women look spectacular. While their torsos remain completely still, somehow, impossibly, their hips are moving in circles so fast it's almost a blur.

These women are performing traditional Tahitian dance, or Ori Tahiti, in Tahiti's annual cultural festival, the Heiva. And they're not alone. Thousands of women across the globe, from Mexico to Japan, are doing it too.

‘I hated it the minute it was finished’: bad body art and regrets in a tattoo removal clinic

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 02:00 AM PST

From Brexit written across a bum to the name of an ex, some tattoos are mistakes that their owners are desperate to erase. But is costly laser treatment worth the pain?

At the temple of regret, you can have your mistakes burned away by a smiling practitioner, if you are willing to pay a hefty fee. I'm at an unremarkable office block near Monument tube station in central London, watching the remorseful have their body art erased at Pulse Light Clinic, which offers state-of-the-art tattoo removal using laser technology. As penitents of all ages, walks of life and ethnicities walk through the door, one thing becomes clear: there are a lot of terrible tattoos out there.

In a spotless treatment room beside a £6,500 tattoo-removing PicoSure laser machine, senior practitioner Cherry Brierly is recounting her clients' stories. "I had one lovely guy," she says brightly. "He had a tattoo on his head. He was in his 60s, newly divorced. He came in and said: 'It's not me any more. I need to find a new wife.'" The tattoo said: "Made in London". It disappeared in a single session.

‘I kept saying – don’t worry Luma, we see you’: Andrea Arnold on her four years filming a cow

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 10:00 PM PST

The Oscar-winning director's new documentary explores warmth, joy and anger through the eyes of a farmyard animal. She reveals what it taught her about life

Andrea Arnold's films are known for their spare dialogue, and in her first documentary it is more pared-backed than ever: Cow consists of 94 minutes of moos, with the odd off-camera interjection from farmhands. It is hardly a thriller (though the ending is pure Tarantino). But it is one of the most beautifully crafted and tender portraits of a life you are likely to see.

Arnold, who started her professional life as a rollerskating TV presenter on the children's Saturday show No 73, began thinking about documenting an animal's life nine years ago. Eventually she settled on a cow. "I thought a cow would be interesting because they work so hard, getting pregnant and giving milk their entire lives. It's a huge job they do." She chose Luma because she was told she had a big personality and was feisty. Arnold and her team spent four years, on and off, filming her. Why did she make Cow? "I wanted to show a non-human consciousness. I was intrigued as to whether we would be able to see her consciousness if we followed her long enough."

‘I have moments of shame I can’t control’: the lives ruined by explicit ‘collector culture’

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 10:00 PM PST

The swapping, collating and posting of nude images of women without their consent is on the rise. But unlike revenge porn, it is not a crime. Now survivors are demanding a change in the law

Ruby will never forget the first time she clicked on the database AnonIB. It is a so-called "revenge porn" site and in January 2020, a friend had texted her for help. Ruby is a secondary school teacher, used to supporting teenagers, and her friend turned to her for advice when she discovered her images were on the site.

"She didn't send the thread that she was on," says Ruby, 29. "She was embarrassed, so she sent a general link to the site itself." When Ruby opened it, "I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I couldn't believe that such an infrastructure existed: something so well organised, so systematic, fed by the people who lived around us."

Bruce Willis films – ranked!

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 04:15 AM PST

With the actor starring in not one but two iffy thrillers out this month, we take a look over the more successful end of his long, action-packed career

This futuristic thriller about "surries" – artificial doubles who do the dirty work while their owners stay home – could have had heaps more fun riffing on the disparity between the grizzled older Willis and his blond synthetic doppelganger. Still, it is nice to see him bristling with Rosamund Pike, who plays his glassy wife, and being reunited briefly with his Pulp Fiction nemesis Ving Rhames.

Covid live: Boris Johnson hits out at anti-vaxxers spreading ‘mumbo jumbo’; French parliament approves ‘vaccine pass’ law

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 07:06 AM PST

UK prime minister criticises people spreading misinformation; law passes after controversy over Macron's words on putting pressure on unvaccinated

Novak Djokovic flew into Melbourne airport on Wednesday night planning to defend his Australian Open title. Instead, the World No 1 is being held in a quarantine hotel and is set to be deported tonight after a remarkable series of events led to his visa being cancelled.

So how on earth did it get to this point?

French MPs pass controversial Covid vaccine bill with large majority

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 02:56 AM PST

Bill to restrict restaurant, theatre and other access to vaccinated follows Macron's pledge to 'piss off' those without jabs

French MPs have passed the government's controversial vaccine pass bill after three days of an angry stop-start debate.

The legislation, which requires people to be fully vaccinated to enjoy social, sporting and cultural activities, was approved by a large majority in the assemblée nationale in the early hours of Thursday morning.

US troops in Okinawa ordered to wear masks as Covid cases rise

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 01:17 AM PST

Military personnel must wear face coverings off base after virus surges among civilians in Japan

US troops in Okinawa prefecture have been ordered to wear masks off base amid criticism that military authorities failed to tackle a fresh Covid-19 outbreak among service personnel that has taken hold among the local civilian population in Japan.

Okinawa is at the centre of the country's latest outbreak, with cases surging in recent days from 51 on Saturday to at least 980 on Thursday – a record daily caseload for the southern island.

Italy makes Covid vaccinations compulsory for over-50s

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 02:29 PM PST

Workplace rules also tightened to require health passes for those 50 or over with minimum €600 fines for non-compliance

Italy has made it obligatory for people aged 50 or more to be vaccinated against Covid-19 as the country scrambles to ease pressure on hospitals and reduce deaths amid a dramatic surge in infections.

The measure is among the toughest vaccine mandates in Europe and takes effect immediately. The move was unanimously supported by ministers despite divisions between the parties that make up prime minister Mario Draghi's broad coalition before the cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Republicans are laying a path back to power – and paving it with lies | Rebecca Solnit

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 10:00 PM PST

Despite having fled the mob on 6 January, many congressmen are openly fleeing the truth about what happened that day

When the insurrectionists of 6 January rampaged through the Capitol, congressman Andrew Clyde of Georgia helped barricade a door, and he fled when the rest of Congress did. A photograph shows him looking panicky, mouth wide open and arm gesticulating wildly, behind what appears to be a security team member with a gun drawn, defending him. But a few months later he declared: "Watching the TV footage of those who entered the Capitol and walked through Statuary Hall showed people in an orderly fashion staying between the stanchions and ropes, taking videos, pictures. You know, if you didn't know the TV footage was a video from 6 January, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit."

Clyde's account of 6 January might be a little more preposterous than those of his fellow Republican legislators. But they all joined him in pretending nothing much had happened and objecting to the investigation of the day's events. After all, they were partly responsible, most of them. It was elected Republicans who supported and spread the earlier lies that Donald Trump had won the election, the lies that fed the insurrection; and then they lied some more about their own words and actions before, during and after. In the immediate aftermath, the then Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, was angry and shaken, declaring: "The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president." Then he too began the project of walking it all back.

Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. Her most recent books are Recollections of My Nonexistence and Orwell's Roses

The insurrection is only the tip of the iceberg | Sidney Blumenthal

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 03:29 AM PST

Behind the insurrection of 6 January was a coup plot that was months in the making, and which involved a dastardly cast of characters

After thousands of posts appeared for weeks on a website called TheDonald.win detailing plans for the 6 January attack on the Capitol, including how to form a "wall of death" to force police to abandon defensive positions; after Gen Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, warned his senior aides of "a Reichstag moment" like the 1933 burning of the German parliament that Hitler used to seize dictatorial power; after insurrectionists smashed several ground floor windows of the Capitol, the only ones out of 658 they somehow knew were not reinforced, that allowed rioters to pour inside; after marching to the chamber of the House chanting "Hang Mike Pence!"; after pounding on the locked doors; and as the Capitol police led members in a run through the tunnels under the Capitol for safe passage to the Longworth Building, Congressman Jody Hice, a Republican of Georgia, raced by a Democratic colleague, who told me Hice was screaming into his phone: "You screwed it up, y'all screwed it all up!"

Hice, an evangelical minister, professor of preaching at a Southern Baptist seminary, and radio talkshow host before his election in 2014, has notably declared that freedom of religion should not apply to Muslims and that the Sandy Hook massacre of 26 people at an elementary school by a deranged shooter occurred because liberals were "kicking God out of the public square".

Britain’s shameful slavery history matters – that’s why a jury acquitted the Colston Four | David Olusoga

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 02:58 AM PST

Jurors were asked to rule that Edward Colston's heinous crimes were immaterial, but they chose to put themselves on the right side of history

There were cheers from the public gallery of Bristol crown court when the verdicts of not guilty were returned. Eighteen months after Bristol's now infamous statue of the slave trader Edward Colston was sent crashing to the pavement, the four young people who had been charged with criminal damage were acquitted.

The strategy that the prosecution appears to have adopted – in a case that some now argue should never have been brought to trial – seemed to centre on asking that the jury be blind to history. Who the statue venerated, they argued, was irrelevant. This, they claimed, was an open-and-shut case of criminal damage, one in which the defendants did not even deny their role in the toppling of the statue or, in one case, helping to roll it to Bristol harbourside, from where it was cast into the water.

David Olusoga is a historian and broadcaster

From corruption to the 'mark of the beast' – why countries like Malawi are struggling against Covid | Madalitso Wills Kateta

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 02:00 AM PST

With 80% of pandemic funds misused and widespread vaccine myths, citizens have had to step up where government has failed

In January 2021, the Malawian rights activist Paul Msoma wrote that he was in Kamuzu central hospital, struggling to breathe. The hospital had oxygen cylinders but no flowmeters – the necessary instrument to connect him to them. I was left wondering where the funds that had been released for the country's Covid-19 response were going. "My situation is getting bad and l desperately need oxygen," Msoma wrote on Facebook. "Anyone who can urgently help out there please help by donating this very gadget."

Kamuzu central hospital is one of the biggest referral hospitals in Malawi and it did not seem right for such a big hospital not to have oxygen flowmeters, which are very basic medical equipment costing around £18 a piece. This was at a time when the government had released more than £5.6m for the Covid-19 response effort.

Madalitso Wills Kateta is a freelance journalist based in Lilongwe, Malawi

Moving back to Australia mid-pandemic was like entering a time warp | Jacqueline Housden

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 04:37 PM PST

After 18 years in the UK, my dreams of our new life had not included my mother bursting into work meetings holding a kilo of raw chicken

It will be like a real-life Frayed, I joked to friends. We'll appear, slightly disoriented, in Sydney's southern, faded beach-side suburbs, a place I thought I'd long since left behind. I'll even wear the dresses.

After 18 years of living in the UK, returning to Australia with a small family in tow was always going to be an adventure/insane, especially in the middle of a pandemic. But my head was only filled with the good stuff: the smell of eucalyptus, glimmering green ocean pools, the warm embrace of family and friends, and sweet non-Covid freedom.

The reality, as always, was something else. Because moving home meant moving back in – at least temporarily – with my parents, and to the house I grew up in.

The Guardian view on Trump’s mob, a year on: threats to democracy grow

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 11:14 AM PST

On the anniversary of the US Capitol riot, the danger is not over. Republicans are stepping up their assault upon voters' rights and essential institutions

The threat to American democracy may be greater today than when the insurrectionist mob swept into the US Capitol one year ago, attempting to prevent the peaceful transfer of power following a free and fair election. Joe Biden is ensconced in the White House and with the passage of time, the shock of their lethal assault has faded. But if the danger appears less immediate, addressing it is no less urgent.

We know more than we did a year ago about the full violence and menace of the riot, and about what preceded it – including the PowerPoint presentation turned over by Donald Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows, detailing ways to stage a coup. Rioters have been jailed, but so far no case has been brought against those who encouraged and incited them. Mr Trump himself has resurged, with a cult-like grip upon his party. He and his allies have longer to plan for this year's midterms and 2024. State legislatures are constructing an election-stealing machine. In short: 6 January was not an end, but a beginning.

The Guardian view on Elizabeth Holmes: fake it to make it until you break it | Editorial

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 11:13 AM PST

The downfall of the founder of Theranos is a story of hubris and lies – and a parable for a financial system that is badly broken

The story of how Elizabeth Holmes came to defraud some of the richest and most powerful investors in the US, only to end up this week facing decades in prison, is so epic and outlandish that it is no wonder it has already flowered into a prize-winning book and a popular podcast, and is reportedly on its way to becoming a Hollywood film, with Ms Holmes to be played by Jennifer Lawrence, no less. But it is more than superb entertainment; it is a parable about how our financial system is badly broken.

At only 19, Ms Holmes decided to reinvent a fundamental part of healthcare: blood testing. No more painful pinpricks, nor anxious waits for results. She dropped out of Stanford to start Theranos in 2003, and in short order pulled in some of the biggest investors in Silicon Valley, garnered adoring magazine profiles and turned her startup into a firm employing 800 staff and valued at £6.6bn.

Serbian president decries Novak Djokovic ‘harassment’ amid reaction to visa cancellation

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 11:08 PM PST

Aleksandar Vučić says 'whole of Serbia' is backing tennis player as row rages over Australia's handling of Covid vaccine exemption saga

The Serbian president has accused Australia of "maltreatment" of tennis star Novak Djokovic, who was denied entry to the country after he flew into Melbourne with a medical exemption from coronavirus vaccination rules.

Djokovic was granted a controversial exemption to enter Australia and compete in the Australian Open, but was held up at Melbourne airport by authorities for several hours before his visa was cancelled. The Australian Border Force said he had failed to provide adequate evidence to support his exemption, and the player has now taken his case to court.

Wilson to the Browns? Rodgers in Denver? A look at the quarterback merry-go-round

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 12:30 AM PST

The upcoming offseason is set to be a frenetic one. Current and future NFL MVPs could all be on the move in 2022

Last year the player empowerment movement that has swept across sports finally arrived in the huddle. Quarterbacks throughout the NFL started to flex their power. Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, Matthew Stafford, and Deshaun Watson all suggested (or demanded) trades; all four were stars at the peak of their powers.

It will be much the same this summer. Rodgers, Wilson and Watson will be joined in trade discussions by Kirk Cousins and Matt Ryan, and the domino effect of any moves will be felt around the league.

Antonio Brown: I did not quit on Buccaneers during game, I was injured

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 01:02 AM PST

Wide receiver walked-off field during victory over Jets
Brown says MRI shows he has extensive ankle injuries

Antonio Brown says he didn't quit on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the middle of a game on Sunday, but rather he was cut after refusing to play through an ankle injury that sidelined him for several weeks this season.

The oft-troubled wide receiver, who took off his jersey, shoulder pads and undershirt before walking off the sideline during Sunday's victory over the New York Jets, said in a statement released by his attorney that he was pressured to play. He claims Bucs coach Bruce Arians then fired him when the player told the coach he was not able to re-enter the game because of his ankle.

Kyrie Irving’s 22 points lift Nets in unvaccinated star’s season debut

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 11:54 PM PST

Irving scores 22 in first game of season as Nets beat Pacers
Star guard to only play road games due to vaccination status

Kyrie Irving was just the jolt the Brooklyn Nets needed to escape a midseason slump.

He can only provide it on a part-time basis, as his refusal to get vaccinated against the coronavirus means he can't play in New York. So for now, Irving will enjoy every chance he gets on the road – while still holding out hope he'll be able to put on a show for his own fans.

‘If you are vaccinated you can play’: Rafael Nadal short on sympathy for Djokovic

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 01:45 AM PST

'I feel sorry for him but he knew the conditions months ago'
Djokovic detained in hotel until Monday for appeal hearing

The ignominy of Novak Djokovic's attempt to enter Australia to pursue a record 21st grand slam singles title was driven home on Thursday when Rafael Nadal responded to the world No 1's visa cancellation by stressing the necessity of being vaccinated against Covid.

After spending his first night in Australia at the airport interrogated by border officials, Djokovic spent the second in a quarantine hotel awaiting a visa appeal hearing on Monday. It following an extraordinary day of rolling developments that involved the Serbian player at the centre of a diplomatic and political furore over the validity or not of his medical exemption from Covid-19 vaccination.

Aston Villa pursue loan move for Barcelona’s Philippe Coutinho

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 07:19 AM PST

Villa contact player's agent with view to negotiating deal
Coutinho ready to move and has other Premier League suitors

Aston Villa want to sign Philippe Coutinho on loan from Barcelona and have contacted the player's agent with a view to negotiating a deal.

Coutinho is ready to leave the Camp Nou and Villa are understood to be one of three Premier League suitors. The 29-year-old joined Barcelona from Liverpool for an initial £106m in January 2018 but the move has not worked out and he spent the 2019-20 season on loan at Bayern Munich.

Tottenham criticise fans’ homophobic chants during game at Chelsea

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 03:51 AM PST

Spurs 'extremely disappointed' by behaviour of some fans
Tottenham state there is 'no place for discrimination'

Tottenham have criticised homophobic chants by their fans at Chelsea on Wednesday night. The club issued a statement saying there was "no place for discrimination" at Spurs, the morning after a 2-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg.

"The club is extremely disappointed by homophobic chanting from sections of our support at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night," they said. "We work closely with our LGBTQ+ fan group Proud Lilywhites to create a welcoming and inclusive environment at our club and are proud to display the Progress Flag in our stadium on matchdays.

England’s farmers to be paid to rewild land

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 11:00 PM PST

Nature recovery schemes are part of post-Brexit subsidies overhaul, but eco campaigners are sceptical

Farmers in England will be given taxpayers' cash to rewild their land, under plans for large-scale nature recovery projects announced by the government. These will lead to vast tracts of land being newly managed to conserve species, provide habitats for wildlife and restore health to rivers and streams.

Bids are being invited for 10-15 pilot projects, each covering at least 500 hectares and up to 5,000 hectares, to a total of approximately 10,000 hectares in the first two-year phase – about 10 times the size of Richmond Park in London. These pilots could involve full rewilding or other forms of management that focus on species recovery and wildlife habitats.

Fossil fuel firms among biggest spenders on Google ads that look like search results

Posted: 04 Jan 2022 11:00 PM PST

One in five ads served on search results for 78 climate-related terms placed by firms with interests in fossil fuels, research finds

Fossil fuel companies and firms that work closely with them are among the biggest spenders on ads designed to look like Google search results, in what campaigners say is an example of "endemic greenwashing".

The Guardian analysed ads served on Google search results for 78 climate-related terms, in collaboration with InfluenceMap, a thinktank that tracks the lobbying efforts of polluting industries.

Californians could face $500 fines for wasting water under new rules

Posted: 04 Jan 2022 03:02 PM PST

Despite a recent wave of heavy rain and snow, a third of the state still struggles in extreme or exceptional drought conditions

Californians will not be able to water their lawns for 48 hours after rainstorms or let their sprinklers run on to the sidewalk under new, mandatory water saving rules that could result in a fine of up to $500 a day.

The restrictions, adopted by state regulators on Tuesday, come as California continues to struggle under drought conditions, despite a recent wave of heavy rain and snow.

How the Capitol attack still divides the United States

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 07:00 PM PST

A year ago today, rioters stormed the Capitol building in Washington DC after Donald Trump encouraged his supporters to march on Congress to protest against the election result

A year ago today, Donald Trump made a speech to his supporters contesting the election result and encouraging them to march on Congress. The riot that ensued was unlike anything seen before in American politics. Many hoped a line would subsequently be drawn in the sand and that politicians would come together in solidarity to ensure that nothing of the sort could happen again.

But as the Guardian's Washington DC bureau chief, David Smith, tells Nosheen Iqbal, that is not what has happened in the weeks and month since the attack. Instead, two distinct narratives have evolved: on the one hand, those who are being led by the mountains of documentary evidence and on the other, those sympathetic to the former president downplaying the events of 6 January and falsely blaming leftwing agitators.

Can the UK cope with the Omicron surge?

Posted: 04 Jan 2022 07:00 PM PST

The year has begun with warnings of critical incidents in UK hospitals and fears over school re-openings but there are reasons to be optimistic, says science correspondent Nicola Davis

With evidence that the Omicron variant is less severe, the government is under pressure to go no further with restrictions, but staffing shortages and a rise in admissions have led to hospitals across England declaring 'critical incidents'.

Science correspondent Nicola Davis tells Nosheen Iqbal that it is far too soon to declare the worst is behind us with data only now been released from a disrupted holiday period where many people changed their behaviour. It's in the coming days or weeks that we will learn just how disruptive – and deadly – the latest wave of Covid infections will be.

‘Shame, ageism and nudity – there’s a lot to identify with’: actor David Pevsner on his memoir

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 06:00 AM PST

Having survived teen shame and the Aids crisis, the Broadway actor – and erstwhile escort – is now blazing a trail for silver sexuality

There were things in the first draft of his memoir, says David Pevsner, that his editor thought were "maybe TMI, maybe a bridge too far". I can't begin to imagine what was deemed unacceptable, because there is TMI – sample line: "I have always been a copious ejaculator" – on just about every page of Damn Shame, an entertaining, touching and absolutely filthy book. My goodness, the filth! "There is that," he says with a laugh.

Pevsner describes himself, self-deprecatingly, as "a minor player in the entertainment biz"; he's had small roles in big TV dramas such as Grey's Anatomy and Modern Family, and bigger roles in small ones. He has been on Broadway, touring productions and off-Broadway hits. He's not a well-known face, though if you're a subscriber to his OnlyFans account, where he shares erotic photos and videos of himself, you will be very familiar with his body; Pevsner is, I believe, the only person I've interviewed whose erection I have seen. Along the way, to supplement his theatre salary, he has been an escort and a "naked maid", which had things in common with sex work while also including vacuuming (not a euphemism). He appears, smiling and charming (and dressed), over Zoom from his home in Los Angeles.

Time on Rock by Anna Fleming review – vertiginous adventures

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 03:00 AM PST

An intimate account of 10 years spent learning to climb celebrates the "electrifying charge" of risk

Climbing, says Anna Fleming, is "a form of dance", an intensely physical ballet between self and rock. This book charts her stony path to mastering the craft of traditional climbing, from being a "terrified novice" to a "competent leader". Unlike sport climbing, where bolts are left in the rock for others to use, traditional climbing involves a lead climber who inserts metalware into cracks in the rock, to which safety ropes are attached. These are then collected by the climber's partner.

Leading, Fleming admits, used to terrify her. But what she describes as the "electrifying charge" of risk is an essential part of learning to climb. Falling and being caught by the rope is a necessary experience. Climbing the Cuillin on Skye in her early 20s, she was saved by her rope from "the brink of a mortal abyss" when a large block she caught hold of came loose. "I walked away feeling deeply humbled, carrying an enhanced respect for the gravity of these heightened places," she writes. Only when she returned four years later to complete the route did she feel that her "mountain apprenticeship" had been truly served.

The 400 Blows review – François Truffaut’s coming-of-age masterwork

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 01:00 AM PST

Jean-Pierre Léaud dazzles at the heart of an autobiographical opus that invites new waves of adulation with each viewing

François Truffaut's sublime autobiographical debut is now rereleased, a portrait of the artist as an unhappy child. He deserved every prize going simply for those heartstopping images of the children's faces as they watch a Punch and Judy show. This is its first release in the UK since 2009, but maybe 62 years is now enough perspective to see fully how the grim scenes of home life and school life, which would have been accepted as contemporary realism in 1959 and for years afterwards, now look like historical documents. The title itself, from faire les quatre cent coups, means to hand out punishment, raise hell, sow wild oats – but this is an ironic upending. Truffaut's alter ego, Antoine Doinel, is receiving the blows. They rain down on him. Cruelty and humiliation and desperation – and defiance – are this kid's destiny.

Jean-Pierre Léaud played the 12-year-old lead in this and the five successive Doinel films, a role which was to define his entire life. Like Truffaut, Doinel is a truant, a delinquent, a kid from an unhappy home and a thief: he steals money, a bottle of milk, a typewriter and, most importantly of all, a piece of writing. For a class assignment, he plagiarises, or at any rate paraphrases, a passage from Balzac's Quest of the Absolute from 1834, about the death of the alchemist Balthazar Claes, repurposing it for the supposed death of his own grandfather. Doinel even has a candlelit shrine to Balzac in the cramped family apartment, which almost burns the place down.

The Wombats: Fix Yourself, Not the World review – noughties indie returns bigger and brighter

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 04:00 AM PST

(Awal)
The trio repurpose their sound from post-punk to pop-facing with a polished and snappy fifth album

Scroll down the Wombats' Spotify page and you come to the section headed "Fans also like". It features a selection of their mid-00s contemporaries, fellow strivers in the league of what was cruelly dubbed "landfill indie": the Pigeon Detectives, the Kooks, the Enemy, Scouting for Girls. As everyone knows, fashion is cyclical and this stuff currently lurks at the foot of fortune's wheel: old enough to seem like yesterday's news, not old enough to seem appealingly retro. Give it 10 years and they'll be packing them in at 00s revival festivals, as their Britpop forebears are today, but for now, it's strictly self-released albums and tours of venues euphemistically described as "intimate".

By rights, the Wombats should be in the same boat as those bands, more anonymous than their peers (close your eyes and try to visualise frontman Matthew "Murph" Murphy, let alone drummer Dan Haggis), they were dumped by their major label in the same year the NME became a free sheet in the face of slumping sales. But the Wombats' recent interviews come peppered with unexpected phrases: "their studio in LA", "forthcoming gig at the O2 Arena" and "produced by Jacknife Lee", the latter fresh from working with U2. It's not just that they now play far bigger venues than 15 years ago, it's that the venues come packed – as every reviewer notes in astonishment – with kids too young to remember the Wombats' first flush of fame. Last year, their 2015 single Greek Tragedy belatedly went gold in the US: between the original and a subsequent remix by Swedish producer Oliver Nelson in 2020, it's racked up nearly 175m streams on Spotify.

Tides by Sara Freeman review – an experimental study of grief

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 01:00 AM PST

With its highly fragmented form, this is a poignant evocation of a woman adrift in the wake of tragedy

Each page of Sara Freeman's debut novel holds a slim paragraph, two at most. And if there are two paragraphs on one page, then these are divided by the symbol of a crescent moon, so that at no point is any section of text close to touching another. At all moments, the writing in Tides has to contend with an expanse of vacant space. The experience of reading such a novel is like travelling through a series of expertly designed studio flats. You marvel at every interior you come to: a whole unto itself, not a foot wrong in the design. But then you turn the page and enter yet another four walls, the last beginning to fade from your mind. Only at the end are you able to conceive of all these paragraphs at once, imagine a whole tower block of crafted text.

Prior to the novel's start, Mara, the main character, underwent the tragedy of a stillbirth. After that, she could no longer endure any of the relationships that bordered that terrible experience – not with her husband, nor her brother, his wife and their new baby, who lived on the floor below her apartment, "their joy so firmly lodged beneath her grief". And so she boards a bus that will take her far away, to an American seaside town: 2,353 inhabitants, a few shops, hostels, then the bay and the water beyond that. For much of the novel, she drifts from place to place, staying at various hostels, spending nights passed out blind drunk on the beach or with strange men – before she finds more permanent residence in the disused attic of a wine shop, where she has got herself a temporary job.

Elvis Costello: ‘The OBE is just another bauble in my china cabinet’

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 06:00 AM PST

Answering readers' questions, the troubadour recalls inspiring meetings with Neil Young, Fiona Apple and David Chase – and reveals his new music with Burt Bacharach

Best gig ever: 3.30 in the morning, sun coming up, watching from the front as you played to an uninterested crowd at Oxford's Trinity College May ball, 1981. You must have thought you'd sold your soul to the devil. kiwisimmo

The fee was good and we needed new amplifiers. I remember lots of "girls" – as they might have called them in an upper-class novel – being sick in the bushes and people tearing around in outfits. They made the mistake of giving us rooms and free champagne. Pete [Thomas], our drummer, was an enthusiastic drinker in those days and took off into the night wearing a gown and a tiara.

The Expectation Effect by David Robson review – mind-changing science

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 11:30 PM PST

From exercise to old age, the latest research shows that what we believe can have some very concrete consequences

When dozens of apparently healthy young men who had emigrated from Laos started dying in their sleep in the late 1970s, US medical authorities couldn't fathom what was going on. They termed the phenomenon "sudden unexpected nocturnal death syndrome", but that was just a label for their bafflement. Today, we think we know the cause: the men experienced sleep paralysis, which is common and harmless in itself; but they understood it as a visitation from the dab tsog, a malevolent spirit who sits on victims' chests at night. Living far from the shamans and family members who might have helped them ward off the evil, the men panicked, probably exacerbating a form of heart arrhythmia more prevalent in people from south-east Asia, and triggering cardiac arrest.

The science writer David Robson's mission in The Expectation Effect is to convince us we shouldn't look on those men with condescending pity: our own expectations and beliefs, however irrational, influence our health, happiness and our survival no less decisively. Take, for example, ageing: if you think it's a matter of inevitable cognitive decline and becoming useless to society, you're more likely to experience hearing loss, frailty, even Alzheimer's. Such attitudes predict higher levels of stress and inflammation, which in turn contribute to a range of disorders. (By contrast, in places such as Sardinia, where centenarians are numerous and thriving, their role in intergenerational households is thought to be a factor: it encourages them to expect to stay active.) If you convince yourself that you're prone to insomnia, you'll suffer the symptoms of insomnia – even if the truth is that you sleep fairly well. And it's common for participants in medical trials to experience not only the placebo effect but the "nocebo effect" – drug side-effects such as nausea, dizziness or rashes, even though they're only taking sugar pills.

Munich: The Edge of War review – an elegant what-if twist on wartime history

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 11:00 PM PST

Jeremy Irons is on top form as Neville Chamberlain in a Robert Harris adaptation that melds fact with enjoyable fiction

There's a great turn from Jeremy Irons as the careworn appeaser Neville Chamberlain in this breezy what-if political thriller, adapted from the page-turner by Robert Harris and directed by Christian Schwochow. It's set at the notorious 1938 Munich conference, convened by Adolf Hitler to force the cringing western powers into giving him the Czech Sudetenland.

With some generous revisionism, this film makes the case for Chamberlain's savvy negotiating powers and heroic self-sacrifice: he was apparently buying time for British rearmament and exposing Hitler as a bully at the cost of his own reputation. The movie even includes some eyebrow-raising dialogue on the plane home, after Chamberlain has got Hitler to sign that piece of paper promising peace, in which the prime minister predicts that if the Führer ever broke his promise, he would call down world fury on himself – and even bring the Americans into the resulting war! Could Chamberlain have come within a mile of foreseeing that? Or is the movie's tongue in its cheek?

Jon Stewart denies claims he accused JK Rowling of antisemitism

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 01:58 PM PST

Ex-US talkshow host says his comments about goblins who run Gringotts bank in wizarding movies were meant to be lighthearted

Former US talkshow host Jon Stewart says comments he made about the Harry Potter films were meant to be "lighthearted" and he was not accusing author JK Rowling of antisemitism.

The comedian said news outlets had "piled into this ridiculously out of context nonsense", and he did not want the franchise censored "in any way".

This article was published after Jon Stewart clarified that his comments about the Harry Potter films were light-hearted and he was not accusing J K Rowling of anti-semitism. It replaces an earlier version, also published on 5 January 2021, that reported on the comments in his podcast.

Grammy awards 2022 postponed indefinitely due to Omicron

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 12:27 PM PST

A recent surge in Covid cases forced the delay to the annual awards ceremony that was set to take place this month

This year's Grammy awards has been postponed as a result of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

A statement confirms that the ceremony has been postponed indefinitely with no new date yet announced.

Dining across the divide: ‘I thought she was going to be an over-the-top liberal’

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 04:30 AM PST

Libertarians, Brexit, Covid: can two strangers find common ground over dinner?

Click here if you'd like to dine across the divide

James, 24, Rochdale

Occupation Student

Detectives, sea monsters and stupid dangerous stunts – take the Thursday quiz

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 03:00 AM PST

Fifteen questions on general knowledge and topical trivia, plus a few jokes every Thursday – how will you fare?

A new year! 2022! A chance for a new beginning! A chance to put it all behind you! Everything is renewed! But not here at the Thursday quiz, where it is the same old gubbins as ever, or as one excited commentator put it last week: "Sheesh Martin, the Sparks shoehorn? Again?" Ahead of you lie 15 topical and general knowledge questions, sprinkled with a generous helping of Ron from Sparks, a hidden Doctor Who reference, the wonderful Kate Bush and all your favourites. It is just for fun and there are no prizes, but let us know how you get on in the comments.

The Thursday quiz, No 37

If you do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers, please feel free to email martin.belam@theguardian.com but remember, the quiz master's word is always final, and his new year resolution was to ignore all his work emails.

Dogs may be able to tell difference between speech patterns, study finds

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 02:30 AM PST

Dogs react differently to speech and non-speech when listening to human voices, say researchers

Dogs may appear to have selective hearing when it comes to commands but research suggests they are paying attention to human chit-chat.

Researchers – who arranged for headphone-wearing dogs to listen to excerpts from the novella The Little Prince – revealed the brains of our canine companions can tell the difference between speech and non-speech when listening to human voices, and show different responses to speech in an unfamiliar language.

Walk like a Minoan: hiking and foraging in eastern Crete

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 11:00 PM PST

A winter hike on a remote section of Crete's E4 trail, fuelled by feta cheese and wild herbs, proves the perfect antidote to bleak times

Like swirling paper scraps from a bonfire, the charcoal-winged vultures circled high overhead. When I imitated a lamb's bleat they circled closer, stretching their massive wings and craning long wrinkled necks. The bone-white rocks of the Gorge of the Dead was a fitting backdrop for these pterodactyl-like birds – I could have been in a scene from Jurassic Park.

Named not for the hikers that have perished here (happily none has) but because it's littered with caves where the Minoans once buried their dead, this seven-mile canyon – also called the Zakros gorge – is the end of the Cretan section of the ultra-long-distance E4 hiking route. The whole trail runs for more than 10,000km from Tarifa in Spain to Cyprus, but this island's stretch starts 320km away in the north-western town of Kastelli-Kissamos and ends at the remote resort of Kato Zakros.

Easy wins: cutting down on alcohol – ‘your heart, liver, stomach and brain will thank you’

Posted: 04 Jan 2022 08:30 AM PST

Drinking in Australia is often an all-or-nothing affair. Here's how I manage my booze intake without going to extremes

Easy wins: see others in the series

Sometimes on a Monday or a Tuesday after work, I could really do with a G&T. Or a solitary chilled beer. Sometimes it's just that kind of night.

But if it's a Monday or a Tuesday, the rule is this: no. Not after a hard day. Not out with friends. Not if there's a half-full bottle of impeccably chilled pinot in the fridge. No.

How to make tom yum – recipe | Felicity Cloake's Masterclass

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 04:00 AM PST

This almost endlessly adaptable Thai soup vibrates with flavour, and is just what you need to cut through the festive fug

Spicy and ear-tinglingly sour, this classic Thai soup is just what I fancy at this time of year: it's something to cut through the pleasant, festive fug and reset the senses. Though shellfish are a common ingredient, this soup is almost endlessly adaptable, even for vegans: as long as it vibrates with flavour – aromatic lime leaves and lemongrass, warming galangal and fresh citrus – you're on the right track.

Prep 12 min
Cook 15 min
Serves 4

Republicans’ anti-democratic attacks are the new normal

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 07:00 AM PST

Efforts to exert control over election administration and counting of votes is latest in alarming anti-democratic trends

Hello, and happy Thursday (and 2022),

Over the last few days, I've been reporting on Republicans' efforts to exert partisan control over election administration and the counting of votes, a new and deeply alarming anti-democratic trend.

Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, pledged there will be a vote on changing the filibuster rules by 17 January to pass voting rights legislation. It's unclear if Democrats will have enough support to change the rules.

A group of prominent election law scholars wrote an op-ed laying out how Congress can fix the Electoral Count Act, a confusing 19th-century law that Trump and allies tried to rely on to overturn the 2020 election. The law has remained unchanged since last year.

Texas quietly released the results of the first part of a review of the 2020 election on New Year's Eve. Officials didn't find much.

A Minnesota prosecutor is bringing criminal charges against a man who requested an absentee ballot in 2020 while on probation for a felony, but who never voted.

California authorities completed a months-long investigation into a man who was found passed out with 300 absentee ballots last summer, and said there was no evidence he intended to commit election fraud.

Merrick Garland vows to pursue all those responsible for 6 January attack

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 03:30 PM PST

Attorney general says justice department has 'no higher priority' and promises further actions over 'assault on our democracy'

The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, on Wednesday vowed that the justice department would hold accountable all those responsible for the deadly 6 January attack, whether they were physically present at the Capitol or not.

Garland's remarks come as he faces growing calls from lawmakers, legal experts and former elected officials to intensify the department's investigation into the events of Capitol assault, and in particular to prosecute those who helped orchestrate the failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election results, including Donald Trump and his associates.

Bomb threats at seven HBCUs force students to evacuate or shelter in place

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 11:48 AM PST

Targeted historically Black colleges and universities spanned six states and DC as police warned that at least one had been 'very real'

At least seven historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) across the United States received back-to-back bomb threats this week, forcing students to evacuate or shelter in place while authorities investigated.

The threats come amid a dramatic rise in bombings in the US and follow bomb threats at other US colleges last November.

Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyers call for a retrial following juror’s interview

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 02:29 PM PST

Maxwell's legal team says they believe a new trial is warranted following revelations about juror

Lawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell have called for a retrial after a juror said in recent post-trial media interviews that he was a victim of sexual abuse.

Maxwell was found guilty on 29 December of five counts for facilitating the late financier Jeffrey Epstein's sexual abuse of girls, some as young as 14.

With additional reporting from Edward Helmore

Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 802 9999. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

Homer Plessy, US civil rights pioneer, receives pardon 130 years on

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 12:04 PM PST

Plessy's act of civil disobedience led to court decision that legalized 'separate but equal' doctrine and ushered in Jim Crow era

In front of the old New Orleans train station where, in 1892, Homer Plessy engaged in a trailblazing act of civil disobedience that led to the landmark Plessy v Ferguson supreme court decision, Louisiana's governor stood 130 years later and issued a posthumous pardon to the late civil rights pioneer.

Beneath a grey sky and in a ceremony laced with symbolism and repentance, Governor John Bel Edwards signed the pardon for Plessy, a Creole man of color who purchased a ticket for a whites-only train cabin and was subsequently arrested for violating Louisiana's Separate Car Act.

California bill would hold gunmakers liable for injuries or deaths

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 12:14 PM PST

The legislation is modeled after a first-in-the-nation New York law that declares such violations a 'public nuisance'

Some Democratic California lawmakers want to make it easier for people to sue gun companies for liability in shootings that cause injuries or deaths, a move advocates say is aimed at getting around a US law that prevents such lawsuits and allows the industry to act recklessly.

In general, when someone is injured or killed by gunfire it's very hard for the victim or their family to hold the gun manufacturer or dealer responsible by suing them and making them pay damages. A federal law prevents most of those types of lawsuits.

Oldest second world war veteran in the US dies aged 112

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 12:09 PM PST

Lawrence N Brooks served in the mostly black 91st engineer general service regiment and was discharged in August 1945

Lawrence N Brooks, the oldest second world war veteran in the US – believed to be the oldest man in the country – died on Wednesday at the age of 112.

His death was announced by the National WWII Museum and confirmed by his daughter.

Dog saves day as ‘real-life Lassie’ leads rescuers to injured men after accident

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 10:43 AM PST

German shepherd Tinsley led New Hampshire police to owner and passenger after truck crashed off highway in freezing conditions

New Hampshire police officers were engaged in a low-speed dog-chase on a highway along the state's border with Vermont when they discovered that a real-life Lassie was leading them to rescue two men thrown from a truck and suffering from hypothermia.

The driver, Cam Laundry, 31, and his passenger, Justin Connors, 40, were found injured but alive on Monday thanks to Tinsley, Laundry's canine companion. Another dog, Connors' bulldog, was hit by a car and found dead on the side of the road after the accident.

More than 40% in US do not believe Biden legitimately won election – poll

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 10:16 AM PST

Axios-Momentive poll also finds majority of Americans fear repeat of Capitol attack in next few years

More than 40% of Americans still do not believe that Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 presidential election despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud, according to a new Axios-Momentive poll.

The poll, released on the eve of the first anniversary of the attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob, found that 55% of those surveyed believe Biden won the election. That figure has barely changed since Axios's poll from 2020, published shortly before the insurrection. That poll, published in 2020, found 58% said that they accepted Biden as the legitimate winner of the presidential election.

Eight children among 12 dead in Philadelphia house fire

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 10:59 AM PST

Large fire broke out at three-story rowhouse in Fairmount
Officials say four smoke detectors in building were not working

A large house fire that tore through a building in Philadelphia early on Wednesday has killed 12 people, including eight children, fire officials said.

At least two people were sent to hospitals, and officials warned the toll could grow as firefighters searched the brick rowhome, where 26 people had been staying.

French Dakar rally driver out of coma as team says bomb caused blast

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 07:08 AM PST

Saudi authorities accused of trying to cover up cause of explosion in which Philippe Boutron was badly injured

A French rally driver seriously injured in an explosion in Jeddah last week has emerged from a coma, while his team have claimed Saudi Arabian authorities are trying to cover up the cause of the incident.

Philippe Boutron sustained serious injuries in the blast outside a hotel near Jeddah's international airport a week ago. The explosion damaged a support vehicle he was driving for the Sodicars Racing team that was competing in the Dakar rally.

UK accused of ‘targeted killing’ after drone strike on arms dealer to IS

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 10:00 PM PST

Rights charity Reprieve seeks answers from MoD over death of Abu Hamza al-Shuhail in Syria in October

Britain has been accused of reviving a policy of "targeted killing" after it emerged that the RAF had killed an arms dealer linked to Islamic State in a precision drone strike in Syria at the end of October.

Reprieve, a human rights charity, asked "what are the criteria" used to justify who can be targeted in a "track and kill" drone strike, and called on ministers to tell the Commons why this strike was deemed necessary.

Extremist told to read classics by UK judge ‘enjoyed Shakespeare more than Austen’

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 06:06 AM PST

Ben John gives update on reading list after being handed suspended sentence for terrorism offence

A former student who was told to read classic literature after being convicted of a terrorism offence has told the sentencing judge he "enjoyed Shakespeare more than Jane Austen".

Ben John, who downloaded almost 70,000 white supremacist documents and bomb-making instructions, was given a two-year suspended prison sentence at Leicester crown court in August last year.

Falkland Islands war photos to go on show for 40th anniversary

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 11:00 PM PST

Imperial War Museums exhibition will explore long-term legacy of the UK's 1982 conflict with Argentina

Striking images taken during the Falkland Islands conflict will go on display together for the first time in a new Imperial War Museums (IWM) exhibition which aims to highlight the long-term legacy of war.

The photographs, by Paul Haley for the British army's Soldier magazine, will feature alongside other exhibits, including online films, to mark the 40th anniversary of the 10-week undeclared 1982 war, with a focus on new awareness of its impact.

France fines Google and Facebook €210m over user tracking

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 04:27 AM PST

Data privacy watchdog says websites make it difficult for users to refuse cookies

France's data privacy watchdog has fined Google and Facebook a combined €210m (£176m) for hampering users' ability to stop the companies tracking their online activity.

The Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) said on Thursday it had fined Google a record €150m for making it difficult for internet users to refuse cookies – small text files that build up a profile of a person's web activity for commercial purposes. It fined Facebook €60m for the same reason.

Tui reaches agreement with Sousse terror survivors and victims’ families

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 06:47 AM PST

Travel agent and lawyers representing 80 people agree settlement over 2015 Tunisian beach attack that left 38 dead

Dozens of Britons who lost loved ones in a terror attack at a Tunisian resort have reached a settlement with the travel company Tui, after launching a multimillion pound compensation case.

The settlement for an undisclosed amount was reached "without admission of liability or fault", according to a joint statement issued by the operator and a law firm acting on behalf of families, who had alleged that there was poor hotel security at the resort.

‘Poor meat and ill-treated animals’: Spain in uproar over minister’s remarks

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 05:24 AM PST

Government distances itself from Alberto Garzón's Guardian interview amid outrage in meat industry

Claims by a Spanish government minister that factory farming is damaging the environment and leading to the export of poor-quality meat have provoked a furious backlash after his comments were published in the Guardian.

In an interview published on Boxing Day, Alberto Garzón, the minister for consumer affairs, defended traditional grazing "as an environmentally sustainable means of cattle farming".

German police dogs sent off duty after ban on ‘pulling collars’

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 09:00 PM PST

Method used to control dogs while making arrests illegal under new animal rights law

Berlin police dogs trained to attack perpetrators have been put on an enforced break, along with their handlers, over contradictions between the methods used to control them and a new law to prevent cruelty to dogs.

The use of pulling collars to channel a police dog's aggression towards an agitator or potential criminal contravenes the law, introduced by the former agriculture minister, which came into force on 1 January.

BMW unveils car that changes colour at touch of a button

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 11:02 AM PST

Electronic ink wrap around electric model changes between black and white and even light and dark stripes

BMW has unveiled a chameleon car that changes colour, in the latest attempt by automotive firms to combine their vehicles with cutting-edge technology.

The German car firm said it was "bringing the car body to life" with the specially developed body wrap for its all-electric iX SUV model, which uses the same technology as Amazon's Kindle e-reader.

Italian mafia fugitive arrested in Spain after Google Street View sighting

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 10:05 AM PST

Convicted murderer Gioacchino Gammino tracked down in Galapagar, where he had lived undetected for 20 years

An Italian mafia boss on the run for 20 years was tracked down to a Spanish town after being spotted on Google Street View.

Gioacchino Gammino, a convicted murderer listed among Italy's most wanted gangsters, was arrested in Galapagar, a town near Madrid, where over the years he had married, changed his name to Manuel, worked as a chef and owned a fruit and vegetable shop.

Life after Deepwater Horizon: the hidden toll of surviving disaster on an oil rig

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 10:00 PM PST

When the drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico exploded in 2010, Stephen Stone escaped with his life. But in the years that followed, he came to feel deeply betrayed by the industry he had once trusted

On the morning of 21 April 2010, Sara Lattis Stone began frantically calling the burn units of various hospitals in Alabama and Louisiana. She was searching for news about her husband, Stephen, who worked on an offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico where a massive explosion had occurred. The blast took place the day before Stephen was scheduled to return home from his latest three-week hitch on the rig, a semisubmersible floating unit called the Deepwater Horizon.

In the hours after a spokesperson from Transocean, the company that owned the Deepwater Horizon, called to tell her that an "incident" had required the rig to be evacuated, Sara veered between panic and denial. One minute, she was telling herself that Stephen was fine. The next, she was convinced that she would never see him again. On Facebook, she came across frightening messages – "the water's on fire!", "the rig is burning" – posted by the spouses of other workers. At one point, Sara got on the phone with one of them, a woman who had her TV tuned to the same channel that she was watching, which was airing live coverage of the blowout. As they peered at the screen, they heard the same update, describing the blast as a catastrophic accident and raising the possibility that no one on the rig had survived. The news made them drop their phones and scream.

The Afghan judge working to free her sisters left behind

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 06:53 AM PST

Fawzia escaped from Afghanistan. Now in London, she's trying to secure a safe exit for women still stranded

Just under three weeks before the Taliban reached Kabul and took control of Afghanistan, 50 of the most powerful women in the country gathered outdoors in a shady spot to discuss how to deal with the approaching danger.

Wearing colourful headscarves, some took notes while others listened intently to Fawzia, 48, one of the most senior female judges in Afghanistan. Holding a microphone, she spoke with urgency about the advancing threat and the need to protect the rights that female lawyers, women's rights activists and journalists had spent decades fighting for.

Why new year resolutions can just cause you more stress | Vishvapani Blomfield

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 11:00 PM PST

Focusing on a more mindful life instead of chasing targets creates space to reflect and be curious, even while jogging

The evidence for whether new year resolutions are effective is mixed. Make them Smart – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely – and they can be a spur to effective action. But vaguer resolutions such as "get fit", "lose weight" or "stop wasting so much time" often conceal a deeper self-criticism that undermines our intentions.

The underlying approach is that we must simply try harder – sometimes at everything at once – and that sets us up to fail. We binge on diets, then binge on food and, finally, binge on guilt.

Vishvapani Blomfield is the Buddhist contributor to BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day and leads meditation on the RoundGlass app

Trump’s border wall and the slow decay of American soil | Carlos Sanchez

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 08:00 AM PST

The 'big, beautiful wall' has kept US citizens away from the no man's land it created – and in effect ceded territory to Mexico

Several miles south of the small town of San Juan, Texas, beyond acres of onion fields, orange groves and other cash crops sits a historic cemetery and the site of the beginning of a slow decay of American soil.

I hadn't been to this area for more than a year because of the pandemic, and I was startled at how different this remote part of Texas had become. The most obvious change is the steel 18ft-high bollard fencing, among the last vestiges of Donald Trump's glorious border wall with Mexico.

'He knew the conditions': Rafael Nadal short on sympathy for Novak Djokovic – video

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 04:04 AM PST

Rafael Nadal has said he felt sorry that Novak Djokovic was denied entry into Australia, but added players who are vaccinated could play in the Australian Open and the world No 1 knows the rules.

Djokovic, 34, is set to spend the weekend in detention in hotel quarantine after his appeal against his visa being cancelled was adjourned until Monday.

He was detained by officials at the border on Thursday for several hours before his visa was revoked amid a storm of protest about the decision to grant him a medical exemption from vaccination requirements to play in the Australian Open.

James Pond: Chinese state news agency releases spoof mocking MI6 focus on Beijing – video

Posted: 06 Jan 2022 01:19 AM PST

Britain's spy chief has thanked China's state news agency for 'free publicity' after it posted a James Bond spoof that mocked the western intelligence community's growing focus on threats posed by Beijing. The rare response by the head of MI6, Richard Moore, on Thursday comes as China and Britain clash over Beijing's treatment of its Uyghur minority and creeping authoritarianism in the former British colony of Hong Kong

Gunfire heard during protests in Kazakhstan's biggest city – video

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 11:12 PM PST

Footage taken on the streets of Almaty appears to show guns being fired as unrest continues. Initially angered by a fuel price rise, protesters have been storming buildings and chanting against President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's predecessor, Nursultan Nazarbayev. State buildings have been torched and eight security personnel reported dead in the demonstrations. The internet was shut down and 'peacekeeping forces' from a Russian-led alliance of former Soviet states will be sent to Kazakhstan to help stabilise the country

Owning cats and dogs instead of having children is selfish, says pope – video

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 08:08 AM PST

Pope Francis suggested people who own cats and dogs instead of having children exhibit 'a certain selfishness', during a speech on parenthood and adoption at the Vatican.

The pontiff lamented that pets 'sometimes take the place of children' and that countries were becoming older and losing their humanity as a result

Pope calls couples who choose pets over having children 'selfish'

The fall of Elizabeth Holmes: how Silicon Valley's trial of the century unfolded - video

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 07:33 AM PST

Elizabeth Holmes, founder of the collapsed blood testing company Theranos, is facing decades in prison after being found guilty of conspiring to defraud her investors out of billions. The Guardian's Rupert Neate explains how she went from "the next Steve Jobs" to convicted fraudster

Violent clashes in Kazakhstan amid fuel protests – in pictures

Posted: 05 Jan 2022 08:40 PM PST

Fuel price rises have triggered protests in Almaty, the country's commercial capital and largest city, and other cities