General news

• More than 60 people dead after road accident in southern Ethiopia

  30-12-2024 00:07 via theguardian.com
  
  Incident at Gelan bridge in Bona Zuria Woreda ‘claimed lives of 66 people so far’, says Sidama health bureauMore than 60 people have died after a road accident in southern Ethiopia, the local health authority said on Sunday.Sidama state is in the south of Ethiopia, about 300km south of the capital Addis Ababa. Continue reading...
  
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• Forget all your troubles, forget all your cares: Petula Clark’s 20 best songs – ranked!

  02-01-2025 14:39 via theguardian.com
  Sixty years after Downtown made her the second British woman to top the US charts, we rate the best of Clark’s exhilarating, perfectly enunciated popThe span of Petula Clark’s career is extraordinary: she made her radio debut at the height of the blitz and essayed an impressive cover of Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy in her 80s. But Cut Copy Me is the pick of her latter-day recordings, an authentically creepy bit of Auto-Tune-heavy late-night psychodrama, the last thing you’d exp
  
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• German officials call for clampdown on illegal ‘firework bombs’ after five deaths

  02-01-2025 14:28 via theguardian.com
  
  Explosives brought in from Poland and the Czech Republic are combined with household items for a bigger bangGerman officials have called for a clampdown on illegally imported and homemade “firework bombs” after pyrotechnics for personal use killed at least five people across the country on New Year’s Eve.The use of personal firecrackers is widespread and only lightly regulated in Germany, leading to hundreds of injuries and massive deployments of police and first responders in
  
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• Middle East crisis live: at least 37 killed by Israeli strikes on Gaza including in al-Mawasi ‘safe zone’

  02-01-2025 14:26 via theguardian.com
  Airstrike hit tent encampment sheltering displaced families and also killed director-general of Gaza’s police department, say medicsLebanon’s National News Agency reports that Israeli forces fired two shells “targeting a house in the town of Beit Lif”, which is in the south of the country.The Al Jazeera news network has issued a statement denouncing the Palestinian Authority for its decision to close the network’s office.Al Jazeera Media Network denounces the Palest
  
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• ‘Wait and see’: Real Madrid keep their counsel over Trent Alexander-Arnold

  02-01-2025 14:24 via theguardian.com
  
  Ancelotti won’t commit on move for Liverpool defenderAlexander-Arnold can speak to club over summer moveCarlo Ancelotti has refused to be drawn on Real Madrid’s pursuit of the Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold. The Champions League holders were rebuffed when they made an initial inquiry about the England right-back’s availability a few days ago.Liverpool are determined to hang on to the 26-year-old, whose contract expires in the summer, and a reported potential second a
  
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• Elon Musk’s calls for Tommy Robinson release anger Labour MPs

  02-01-2025 14:20 via theguardian.com
  
  Billionaire ally of Donald Trump also accuses Keir Starmer on X of failing to prosecute child rapists in OldhamElon Musk has caused anger by calling for the release of Tommy Robinson and accusing Keir Starmer of failing to prosecute child rapists in Oldham in Greater Manchester.The billionaire ally of Donald Trump pinned a message at the top of his X feed overnight saying “Free Tommy Robinson!”, tagging the far-right activist who is in jail for contempt of court. Continue reading...
  
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• Wholesale gas price at highest level in more than year as Russian supplies stop

  02-01-2025 14:18 via theguardian.com
  Prices highest since October 2023 after transit deal ends as storage supply levels in Europe fall at fastest pace since 2021Business live – latest updatesThe wholesale price of gas has risen to its highest level in more than a year after Russian supplies stopped flowing to Europe through Ukraine.Benchmark prices rose to the highest level since October 2023, a day after a longstanding transit contract between Russia and Ukraine expired. Russian gas deliveries across Ukraine expired in the e
  
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• New Orleans: local authorities say they believe ‘multiple people are involved’ in attack – latest updates

  02-01-2025 14:14 via theguardian.com
  
  House fire in New Orleans home also believed to be ‘connected to this event’, says Louisiana attorney general Liz MurrillShamsud-Din Jabbar, the 42-year-old US citizen from Texas identified by the FBI as the New Orleans attacker, peviously pleaded guilty to two charges, including driving under the influence in 2015, reports CNN.According to documents from a US district court in North Carolina obtained by CNN, Jabbar had driven under the influence of an impairing substance in November
  
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• Novak Djokovic extends Monfils misery with record 20th win over Frenchman

  02-01-2025 14:03 via theguardian.com
  Win prolongs sport’s most dominant head-to-head recordSerbian triumphs 6-3, 6-3 in Brisbane International last 16Novak Djokovic extended the most dominant head-to-head record in the history of tennis by defeating Gaël Monfils 6-3, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals of the Brisbane International on Thursday night.The victory marks Djokovic’s 20th career victory over Monfils, who is still searching for his first win over the Serbian after competing against each other on the professio
  
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• ‘The best abs I’ve ever had – but it hurt!’: the punishing rise of extreme pilates

  02-01-2025 14:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Intense workouts like Solidcore and SLT are booming, one $43 class at a time. Are they making women stronger or feeding Ozempic-era expectations for thin bodies?It’s lunchtime on a Wednesday and I am in a dark room, shaking intensely. My forearms are propped up on a big black machine called a “Sweatlana”. Like five other quaking women beside me, I am furiously plank-crunching, attempting to move the machine’s carriage forwards and backwards using only the force of my abs.
  
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• Young people in UK: tell us why you love knitting, sewing, embroidery or making your own clothes

  02-01-2025 13:53 via theguardian.com
  We want to hear from young people who’ve taken up the habit of making their own garmentsThe UK saw an arts and craft renaissance during Covid lockdowns, as people took up new hobbies such as knitting, sewing, embroidery and making their own garments.Around 1 million people became hooked on knitting after lockdown, according to a 2022 finding from the UK Hand Knitting Association. Continue reading...
  
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• Quadrantid meteor shower to light up the sky this weekend

  02-01-2025 13:53 via theguardian.com
  
  Annual event of bright blue fireballs best seen in northern hemisphere and will peak late on Friday nightWhile fireworks are a traditional way to welcome the new year, a natural phenomenon will be lighting up the sky this weekend as the annual Quadrantid meteor shower reaches its peak.Taking its name from a now obsolete constellation known as Quadrans Muralis, the event is best viewed in the northern hemisphere, with the meteors appearing to radiate from the constellation Boötes, which is f
  
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• British factories suffer winter chill as government ‘dampens confidence’ – business live

  02-01-2025 13:46 via theguardian.com
  
  Live, rolling coverage of business, economics and financial markets as 2025 starts with trepidation over new US administration’s trade policies, and global manufacturing sector strugglesNine out of ten new cars sold in Norway last year were powered by battery only, as the country approaches the feat of becoming the first to completely ditch petrol and diesel sales.Norway is aiming to completely phase out sales of cars with petrol and diesel engines by 2025. The latest data from the Norwegi
  
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• Iga Swiatek bundles brilliant Boulter and Britain out of United Cup after epic

  02-01-2025 13:42 via theguardian.com
  ‘Exhausted’ Pole edges out British No 1 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-4Boulter so close to securing biggest win of her careerOver the course of the past 18 months, by far the rewarding period in her blossoming career, Katie Boulter has gradually established herself as one of the best tennis players in the world. She has won noteworthy titles, defeated top opponents and embedded herself inside the top 30.Yet no battle in her career has quite matched the delirium of an unforgettable night in Sydney
  
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• The case for Arsenal’s title challenge and an EFL roundup: Football Weekly Extra - podcast

  02-01-2025 13:34 via theguardian.com
  
  Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Mark Langdon and Ali Maxwell as Arsenal win at Brentford to cut Liverpool’s lead at the topRate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.On the podcast today: it’s all quite comfortable for Arsenal at the former fortress Gtech in Brentford. Gabriel Jesus gets back among the goals but with Bukayo Saka out, will Arsenal strengthen in January
  
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• Rise in UK deaths expected due to snow and ice weather warnings

  02-01-2025 13:31 via theguardian.com
  UK public health agency issues amber alert for social care in England, as country braces itself for heavy snowPublic health bosses in the UK are expecting a rise in deaths from cold weather, amid severe weather warnings for snow and ice over the next five days.The UK’s Health Security Agency (UKHSA) issued an amber alert for social care in England, saying vulnerable people were at risk as the country braced for heavy snow and ice going into the weekend. Continue reading...
  
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• Dining across the divide: ‘He’s keen on punishing people for their crimes. It’s not something I believe in’

  02-01-2025 13:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Can a former police officer and a medical student come to any agreement on prisons?David, 82, ChesterfieldOccupation Retired policeman/journalist/consultant Continue reading...
  
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• Ridley Scott is a genius film-maker who can do anything – even start a political crisis in Malta

  02-01-2025 13:19 via theguardian.com
  
  It wouldn’t be a press tour without the Gladiator II director saying something contentious, and now he’s managed to upset big cheeses on the Mediterranean islandFor a while, it looked as if Ridley Scott was going to get through the Gladiator II press cycle without saying anything remotely contentious. That was a worry since, as we know, saying contentious things is the entire point of a Ridley Scott press cycle. The gold standard, of course, was Napoleon; a film about a historical Fr
  
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• ‘We’d be stuck’: alarm as UK’s last braille typewriter repairer ponders retirement

  02-01-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Alan Thorpe is Britain’s last certified fixer of the Perkins brailler, a machine vital for teaching blind children to read and writeAlan Thorpe runs his fingers over the braille note attached to the latest repair job to arrive at his doorstep in Sheffield. Reading from the tactile note, he says: “The paper won’t wind in and the keys are jammed. Good luck.”Thorpe, 60, is the only certified repairer in the UK of Perkins braille typewriters, the world’s most widely use
  
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• We can tell the truth about pregnancy without scaring women to death – in fact, it’s vital that we do | Emily Oster

  02-01-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Many women have no idea about the potential complications until they happen. Without discussion there is no treatment or preventionThere is an inherent tension between two basic facts about childbirth. On the one hand, it has happened billions and billions of times in the course of human history and it has been successful in a wide range of settings, from neolithic caves to state-of-the-art hospitals. On the other, it is objectively dangerous in many cases.This tension can be felt in much of the
  
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• Trackways of large dinosaur footprints found in Oxfordshire quarry

  02-01-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Cetiosauruses and a megalosaurus are thought to have left prints at what is said to be largest site of its kind in UKIt is now a quarry in Oxfordshire. But nearly 166m years ago it was where a large number of dinosaurs crisscrossed the limestone floor.Researchers have unearthed 200 large dinosaur footprints – said to be the biggest site of its kind in the UK – from two types of dinosaurs, thought to be the herbivorous cetiosaurus and the carnivorous megalosaurus. The longest trackway
  
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• ‘They see it is living’: Durham professor’s mission to get more pupils into classics

  02-01-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Arlene Holmes-Henderson wants all children in UK to have equal access to classical education“My business school colleagues tell me that it’s not called levelling up any more, it’s rebalancing,” says Arlene Holmes-Henderson, a Durham University professor. “I think it’s just doing the right thing.”Holmes-Henderson is discussing her mission to help fix a problem many people don’t know or think about, though she thinks they should. She wants people to
  
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• The best running shoes to take you from trail to road to marathon, tried and tested by runners

  02-01-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Whether you’re a beginner runner, a 5k faithful or a track star, our expert-picked running trainers, from Adidas and Asics to Hoka, will help you beat your PBs‘How does anyone do this?” I thought as I hobbled home from my first run, a pair of threadbare Converse biting into my heels. It took me a while to connect the dots. Maybe I was just prone to shin splints? Perhaps your calves were supposed to burn with every stride? Or – lightbulb moment – could it be that the
  
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• Live ones go in paper bags, dead ones in the freezer: the volunteers saving birds that fly into windows

  02-01-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Across Toronto, a team sets out at dawn to rescue migrating birds that have collided with buildings, and keep a record of the thousands each year that don’t make itEvery morning at dawn, a dozen volunteers scour the streets of Toronto picking up small birds. Some days they will find hundreds of them, most already dead or dying. A few they are able to save. Live birds are put in brown paper bags and driven to wildlife recovery centres, while dead birds are put in a large freezer. If no one
  
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• Ethel Cain: Perverts review – pink noise and punishment as cult star heads underground

  02-01-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  (Daughters of Cain)
  Having struggled with the obsessive fandom drawn to her widescreen pop-Americana, Cain returns with 90 minutes of collapsing songs and confrontational power electronicsIn 2023, the Guardian interviewed Hayden Anhedönia, who records as Ethel Cain. She was, in theory, riding high on the critical success of her self-released debut album, Preacher’s Daughter, and the cult following that sprung up in its wake, entranced by its macabre lyrics, drifting, gothy sound &ndas
  
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• UK factory output falls at fastest rate since February amid tax rise fears

  02-01-2025 12:57 via theguardian.com
  
  Manufacturing PMI in December at 11-month low as government policy ‘dampens confidence and raises costs’Business live – latest updatesManufacturers in the UK have cut back output at the fastest rate in 11 months, compounding the gloomy picture for the British economy, according to a closely watched survey.The purchasing managers’ index for manufacturing fell in December to 47, down from 48 in November – its weakest reading since February. Any reading below 50 signal
  
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• Dancer Wayne Sleep: ‘I hid my sexuality from my mother, so it was wonderful to come out and be myself at last’

  02-01-2025 12:49 via theguardian.com
  
  The dancer and his husband on meeting at a beach bar in Spain, the stresses of working together, and who is the teenager in the relationshipBorn in Plymouth in 1948, Wayne Sleep is a dancer and media personality. At 12, he won a scholarship to the Royal Ballet School in London, and made his stage debut with the company at 17. In the 1970s and 80s he became one of the industry’s most prominent dancers, creating the role of Mr Mistoffelees in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hit Cats, a
  
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• Figures reveal 1,500 drug-addicted babies born in Scotland since 2017

  02-01-2025 12:48 via theguardian.com
  Lib Dems warn first minister that party could withdraw support if government does not boost funding for issueOpposition parties have called for a significant increase in addiction funding in Scotland after it emerged that more than 1,500 drug-addicted babies have been born in recent years.The Scottish Liberal Democrats said data from the country’s health boards showed that around 200 babies were born each year with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), a sign their mother was taking addictiv
  
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• Stormzy given ban for using mobile phone while driving

  02-01-2025 12:22 via theguardian.com
  
  Rapper banned from driving for nine months after pleading guilty to using mobile behind wheel of car in LondonStormzy has been banned from driving for nine months after an undercover police officer caught him using a mobile phone while behind the wheel of his car in west London.The rapper, named Michael Ebenazer Owuo Junior, 31, pleaded guilty via a letter to driving the Rolls-Royce Wraith while using his device on Addison Road, west Kensington, shortly after 3.30pm on 7 March last year. Continu
  
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• Aleksey Bugaev: Russian footballer’s spiralling story ends with death in Ukraine

  02-01-2025 12:12 via theguardian.com
  
  Once one of the most talented defenders in Russia, Bugaev opted to fight in war rather than serve long prison sentenceFaced with a severe shortage of soldiers for the war in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin’s Russia started recruiting convicted criminals from prisons. A person can be immediately pardoned by the president just for agreeing to fight – and it does not matter how dangerous they are.The worst of murderers and rapists are able to get out and then hailed as national heroes by author
  
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