2 hours ago Youth pastor identified as man who died after shark bite off Queensland coast

The 40-year-old school chaplain was bitten by the shark while fishing with family in waters off Keppel Islands on SaturdayGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA youth pastor and school chaplain described as an inspirational leader has been identified as the man who died after being bitten by a shark while on holiday with his family in Queensland.Emergency services were called to Humpy Island in the Keppel Bay Islands national park, about 18km off the central Queensland coast, on Saturday after reports a man had been attacked.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading...

Politics

9 hours ago Beaches, beer and a rare suspended lake why can’t Nigeria attract more tourists?

Visitor numbers to the African country lag far behind its neighbours due to lack of infrastructure and national planning. Now some are starting to demand changesAt the top of the Ado-Awaye hills lies a lake suspended 433 metres above sea level. Local people say the lake is named Iyake (Yoruba for “crying woman”) after a weeping, barren woman who fell in the water hundreds of years ago, conferring on it powers of fertility.This belief in the divine is evident in the foothills, where a huge boulder is emblazoned with the words, written in golden letters: “Here we come: African Jerusalem.” Continue reading...

Society

4 hours ago Rachel Reeves promises state school cash boost as Labour ends tax breaks for private education

Writing for the Mirror, the Chancellor said the change would allow the government to “fix some of the problems in our state schools, where 94% of this country’s children are educated”

Economics

41 minutes ago South Korea plane crash horror: 62 dead after aircraft carrying 175 passengers and six crew crashes off runway and erupts into ball of flames

At least 62 people are dead after a plane carrying 181 people crashed off the runway and smashed into a wall at a South Korean airport.

Events

12 hours ago Sheffield’s museums show how art comes to life when it is connected to place | Rowan Moore

Institutions in and around the city combine great works with humdrum relics of local life, to fantastic effectI’ve been living partly in Sheffield for the past month or so, which has given me the chance to catch up on some of the great monuments of industry and power in and near the city – the model miners’ village and the fantastical Jacobean castle in Bolsover, the stately home of Wentworth Woodhouse with its battleship-length Palladian facade, the buildings of the subtle modernist Peter Womersley in Huddersfield.Also the Weston Park Museum in Sheffield and the Derby Museum and Art Gallery, both of which combine world-class art with humdrum relics of local life. In one, a large John Singer Sargent portrait of three young Yorkshire women shares the premises with the plastic car roof sign of a 1970s driving school. In the other, there is a gallery full of the illuminated tableaux of science and humanity by Joseph Wright of Derby and another room with a collection of stuffed animals,...

Culture

4 hours ago Team GB dressage star's partner spied on young woman in bathroom with camera hidden in air freshener

David Crockford, 61, the partner of former Team GB dressage rider Sarah Millis, 43, installed a camera in an empty air freshener left in a bathroom.

Politics

16 hours ago Young woman so good at her job aged 27 that her clients keep her a secret

Roisin Lea, 27, runs a salon alongside her sister Liv and has built a long list of dedicated clients

Society

4 hours ago Starmer hails £1.7bn boost for state schools before VAT raid on private school fees comes into force

Despite warnings from private schools over the impact of the policy, the prime minister is ploughing ahead and will charge 20 per cent VAT on independent school fees from the start of 2025

Economics

99 minutes ago South Korea plane crash horror: 29 dead after aircraft carrying 175 passengers and six crew crashes off runway and erupts into ball of flames

At least 28 people are dead after a plane carrying 181 people crashed off the runway and smashed into a wall at a South Korean airport.

Events

5 hours ago Woman defended for getting engaged only days after her brother’s wedding

The woman on Reddit says she engaged during a vacation with her partner after the destination wedding

Politics

2 hours ago South Korea plane crash horror: At least 28 dead after aircraft carrying 175 passengers and six crew crashes off runway and erupts into ball of flames

An aircraft carrying 175 passengers has driven off a runway and crashed into a wall at an airport.

Events

8 hours ago Age of tactical ideologues is over as Spain dominates new era of pragmatism | Jonathan Wilson

Coaches such as Arteta, Iraola and Emery play variations of the Guardiola model – flexibility and adaptability are in vogueSpain are the European champions. Real Madrid won the Champions League. Rodri won the Ballon d’Or and has only come to seem more important since suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury. Spanish managers won the Premier League, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 last season. No fewer than five Premier League clubs are managed by Spaniards.It has been another year of Spanish domination but the manager who more than anybody has been the architect of what is now considered the Spanish style is facing the biggest crisis of his career. Continue reading...

Politics

3 hours ago South Korea plane crash: 62 killed as aircraft carrying 175 passengers explodes at Muan International Airport

62 people have been confirmed dead so far after what is thought to be a Boeing 737 flying from Bangkok to South Korea crashed at Muan International Airport in another festive horror

Events

8 hours ago Tributes pour in for legendary film director as family issues heartbreaking statement

Charles Shyer, the director of iconic films like Father of the Bride and The Parent Trap, has died at the age of 83. His family have issued a statement following his sad passing

Politics

6 hours ago Woman found nail bomb after opening Galaxy chocolate tin left on doorstep

The pharmacist was preparing for a weekend away with her sister when she received the package.

Events

8 hours ago Netflix changes Squid Game detail after show nearly 'ruined woman's life'

Squid Game season 2 is currently streaming on Netflix, but the streaming platform had to make a significant change to the show after it almost made one woman's life unbearable.

Politics

7 hours ago Woman spots late dad sitting in favourite spot on Google Street View 11 years after death

Katie Scott, from Salford, Greater Manchester, discovered her father Arthur Scott, who died from complications of kidney failure, has been immortalised on Google Street View

Events

9 hours ago Woman's 'Christmas dinner' called 'minging' until people realised their mistake

"A lot of people are doing what I'm doing now. But maybe I’ve set a trend."

Politics

7 hours ago Two men dead and baby rushed to hospital after Audi and Mercedes crash in Northern Ireland: Woman remains fighting for her life after smash

The collision, involving a Mercedes and an Audi, happened outside the village of Killylea just before 12.45pm on Friday.

Events

15 hours ago I starred in one of the nation's favourite Christmas films and even won an Oscar

Brenda Fricker is best known for starring as the homeless woman in Home Alone 2: Lost In New York back in 1992. 

Politics

7 hours ago Boxing Day horror as holidaymaker dies climbing Lake District mountain in dense fog

A person has died while climbing in the Lake District on Boxing Day, with the climber travelling through dense fog before suffering a suspected fatal head injury

Events

16 hours ago Sergio Perez's 'obvious' next racing project emerges after Red Bull F1 axe

Sergio Perez is figuring out how to reboot his Formula 1 career at the age of 34 after Red Bull axed him following a dismal 2024 season, replacing him with Liam Lawson

Politics

8 hours ago Trailblazing model Dayle Haddon dies from suspected carbon monoxide poisoning

A trailblazing former “Sports Illustrated” model who pushed back against age discrimination has died in a Pennsylvania home from what authorities believe was carbon monoxide poisoning

Events

18 hours ago Bride slammed by groom's family for not honouring his ex's 'simple' request

A woman has been left fuming after her fiancé's ex-girlfriend made a request for their wedding day - and his family are all on the ex's side, calling the bride-to-be 'oversensitive'

Politics

8 hours ago Father of the Bride director Charles Shyer dies as family issues heartbreaking statement

The director of hit films Father of the Bride and Baby Boom, Charles Shyer, has died at the age of 83

Events

18 hours ago Isabel Allende: ‘My most expensive purchase? A Tesla for my former husband. He didn’t deserve it’

The writer on unattainable studs, erotic fantasies, and why she owes her birth father nothingBorn in Peru, Isabel Allende, 82, worked as a journalist and children’s writer. In 1982, she published her first adult novel, The House of the Spirits, which became an international bestseller. Her titles have been translated into 42 languages, and include a memoir for her daughter, who died at 29. Allende’s accolades include the US presidential medal of freedom and PEN Center lifetime achievement award. Her course, Magical Storytelling, is available on BBC Maestro’s online platform. She lives in California.When were you happiest? When my kids were little – and now, in my old age. Continue reading...

Politics

10 hours ago Bodies of missing pilot and passenger found in Amazon after horror plane crash

Authorities had been searching for Rodrigo Boer Machado, 29, for five days after he took off on a routine flight in Cessna aircraft, registration PT-JCZ,on Friday December 20

Events

20 hours ago On the towering cliffs, my family found a sanctuary. It still pulls me back today | Kat Lister

My grandmother called it The Haven – a shack perched high above the beach. Years later, another special woman rekindled my love of that placeIn our end of year series, writers and public figures remember the place or time when they felt most at homeIn the 18th century, physicians went looking for a nostalgia bone, as though a person’s yearning for a past time or place could be assigned to a chunk of tissue. But for me, writing in the 21st, the stimulus can be found not in the body I’m in, but the memories I carry. And in particular, as I edge further into my 40s, the memories of coastland I visited in the 1980s: a four-mile stretch in south-east Cornwall where my family and I summered each year with my grandmother.As a child, I would zigzag down the narrow cliff path with wild abandon, my mother nervously calling out to me as I sprinted down to the white sand below. This is where the roots of so many of my happy memories can be found. Not simply in the towering cliffs themselves, bu...

Politics

10 hours ago First picture of tragic couple killed in Boxing Day horror in front of young daughter

Anthony Hogg, 40, and wife Georgina Hogg-Moore, 39, were walking with their daughter near Blanchardstown Shopping Centre when they were knocked down and killed

Events

20 hours ago The Guardian Footballer of the Year Sofie Junge Pedersen: ‘We wanted to send a message’

The Inter and Denmark player wins the award for her climate activism and being behind an open letter to Fifa regarding Saudi Arabia’s human rights issuesThe Guardian Footballer of the Year is an award given to a player who has done something remarkable, whether by overcoming adversity, helping others or setting a sporting example by acting with exceptional honesty.If the football had not worked out, perhaps Sofie Junge Pedersen could have run away to the circus. When her after-school youth club in Aarhus put on its annual week of performances there was one challenge that struck her in particular: the chance to juggle with fire torches and mock knives. “It was quite serious,” she laughs. “We practised a lot beforehand and I thought it would be fun. I just wanted to be the best.” So it proved and there is no evidence that anyone has beaten the time she set, aged 13, for keeping the two airborne simultaneously. Continue reading...

Politics

10 hours ago Bible removed from schools after new law banning 'sexually explicit' books 'backfires'

The Bible was removed from Canyon Independent School District in Texas after a new law banned sexually explicit books. The holy text was said to have sexually explicit material in it

Events

21 hours ago McCarthyism stalked my family. Its paranoia contains a lesson for Trump’s second term | Richard Sennett

Trump’s eerily familiar evocations of the ‘enemy within’ may be harder to shake off than the man who targeted my parentsThe rise of Donald Trump aroused in me an old fear of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Both McCarthy and Trump rose to power as demagogues who fed on the American public’s fear of “enemies within”. My family had cause to fear on the biggest of these counts: my parents were communists from an early age, although they had quit the party in 1939 after Hitler’s pact with Stalin. In the heyday of US power, families such as mine were persecuted for a cause in which they no longer believed. We developed ways to avoid or resist persecution that worked pretty well, and I think these help to illuminate the combat that is to come with Trumpism.Some connections between McCarthy and Trump are straightforward, both having been charismatic performers with a base of willing believers, both exploiting patriotism, both making up “facts” on the spur of the moment. There is a personal bridge ...

Politics

10 hours ago UK's predatory loan sharks exposed – inside thugs' horror tactics and vile threats

Exclusive figures released by the debt charity StepChange to the Mirror showed that around 14.5million people in the UK will struggle to afford Christmas this year

Events

22 hours ago Jimmy Thelin reading Aberdeen riot act was needed as Nicky Devlin reveals what must happen now

The Dons are on a horror run of results and suffered a 4-0 battering at Kilmarnock last time out

Politics

11 hours ago 'Remarkable' Olivia Hussey who has died aged 73 faced rape, beatings, infidelity and cancer after shooting to fame at just 15 as Zeffirelli's Juliet

Olivia Hussey - who rose to fame starring in Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 film Romeo And Juliet - died at the age of 73 on Friday, December 27, after a successful but tumultuous life.

Events

11 hours ago 'Targeted' Salford shooting 'not linked to another incident' as police hunt gunman

Forensics officers were seen at the flat near a primary school

Events

11 hours ago Father of the Bride director Charles Shyer dead at 83: 'His loss leaves an unfillable hole in our lives'

Father of the Bride director Charles Shyer, best known for penning the Oscar-nominated Private Benjamin alongside Nancy Meyers, died at age 82 on Friday.

Events

11 hours ago Two people dead and baby injured in 'unimaginable tragedy' days after Christmas

Four others, including a baby, have been taken to hospital for treatment and one woman remains in a critical condition.

Events

11 hours ago Coronation Street boss hints at heartbreaking deaths in Platt fire horror

Coronation Street boss Kate Brooks teased a 'massive stunt' on the way involving David Platt, with her teasing he could lose things 'he holds dear' amid reports of a fire

Events

12 hours ago Bird flu may be mutating to become more transmissible to humans say scientists after woman caught first severe case in the US

Bird flu could be mutating to become more transmissible to humans, scientists have warned, as the US reported its first severe case that left a woman in Louisiana hospitalised.

Events