Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and others to discuss peace plan as US tries to push through peace deal Leaders of the so-called “coalition of the willing” group of nations will hold a video call on Thursday, as chaotic American efforts to push through a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine reach a crunch moment. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said his officials would hand over a revised version of a peace plan to US negotiators on Wednesday, ahead of the call with leaders and officials from about 30 nations. Continue reading...

The 71-strong chain was recently bought back by its co-founder, who says Leon must downsize as more customers work from home Fast food chain Leon is planning to close restaurants and cut jobs, less than two months after it was bought back from Asda by its co-founder John Vincent. The 71-strong chain said on Wednesday that it had appointed administrators to lead a restructuring programme, and it was considering how many restaurants would need to shut. It did not say how many roles could be affected. Continue reading...

Party says appointments needed to balance composition, choosing former advisers to No 10 and the chancellor UK politics live – latest updates Keir Starmer has appointed 25 Labour peers including a number of former senior government and party aides in a bid to strengthen his hand in the House of Lords. Matthew Doyle, a former No 10 director of communications, and Katie Martin, a former chief of staff to Rachel Reeves, will be among those appointed to the upper house in a move first reported by the Guardian. Continue reading...

BMA says consulation on calling off action follows offer from government on ‘ending the jobs crisis for doctors’ Resident doctors are to be consulted on whether or not to call off next week’s planned strike after receiving an offer from the government, the British Medical Association (BMA) has said. Medics are due to strike for five days from 17 December because of an ongoing row over pay and concerns over training places. Continue reading...

One in 10 of CQC’s respondents say they were left alone at a time that worried them during maternity care Almost one in five women feel their concerns were not taken seriously by healthcare professionals during childbirth, according to the “concerning” results of a national survey of maternity experiences. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) survey of almost 17,000 women who gave birth across England in NHS settings this year found that 15% felt they had not been given relevant advice or support when they contacted a midwife at the start of their labour, while 18% said their concerns had not been taken seriously. Continue reading...

Co-chairs will preside over a gala themed around Costume Art, with Beyoncé attending for first time since 2016 The co-chairs of the Met Gala, which is held every year on the first Monday in May in New York City, have been announced as Beyoncé, Venus Williams, Nicole Kidman and, of course, Anna Wintour. Otherwise known as “fashion’s biggest night out” or “the Superbowl of fashion”, it will be Beyoncé’s first time in attendance since 2016, when she wore Givenchy to attend a Met Gala themed Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology. Continue reading...

‘I would never do something like this on purpose’ South Africa lock accepts 12-match ban Eben Etzebeth, the Springboks lock serving a 12-match ban for eye-gouging Alex Mann of Wales, has claimed it was “never intentional”, contradicting the verdict of an independent disciplinary committee announced last week. In an Instagram post on Wednesday the Sharks second row accepted guilt and apologised, saying “unfortunately mistakes happen”. The 34-year-old double Rugby World Cup winner also appeared to distance himself from the act by drawing attention to “other factors”. Continue reading...

Director, actor and a co-founder of Monstrous Regiment, whose work would concentrate on women’s experience In 1975 the stage director Susan Todd, who has died aged 83, teamed up with the actors Gillian Hanna and Mary McCusker to form Monstrous Regiment, a national touring company that would always have a majority of women members, and whose work would explore the experience of women, past and present. Taking their title from the Scottish fundamentalist John Knox’s notorious treatise The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, the company started with Claire Luckham’s Paris commune-set Scum: Death, Destruction and Dirty Washing (1976); the following year came Caryl Churchill’s witchcraft play Vinegar Tom. Todd herself wrote Kiss and Kill (with Ann Mitchell) about domestic violence (1977-78), and – in 1979 – collaborated with me on the company’s first play involving a male writer, bringing the worlds of student revolution and schoolgirl romance into crashing contradiction, in Teendreams. As in all of the early Monstrous Regiment shows, Todd was also a member of the acting company. Continue reading...

Iceland will join Spain, Slovenia, the Netherlands and Ireland in neither participating in nor broadcasting event Iceland has become the fifth country to boycott next year’s Eurovision song contest after Israel was given the go-ahead to compete, deepening the crisis facing the competition. The board of the national broadcaster, RÚV, voted on Wednesday not to participate, meaning Iceland will join Spain, Slovenia, the Netherlands and Ireland in neither participating in nor broadcasting the event, which is scheduled to take place in Vienna. Continue reading...

As the first learning-disabled artist to win the UK’s most prestigious art award, Kalu has smashed a ‘very stubborn glass ceiling’. Her facilitator reveals why her victory is so seismic – and the secrets of her party playlist The morning after the Turner prize ceremony, the winner of the UK’s most prestigious art award, Nnena Kalu, is eating toast and drinking a strong cup of tea. Everyone around her is beaming – only a little the worse for wear after dancing their feet off at the previous night’s party in Bradford, and sinking “a couple of brandies” back at the hotel bar. I say hello to Kalu, offer my congratulations, and admire the 59-year-old’s beautifully manicured creamy pink nails. But the interview is with her facilitator, Charlotte Hollinshead, who has worked with the artist since 1999. Kalu has limited verbal communication skills; she has learning disabilities and is autistic. As for Hollinshead, she is struggling to encapsulate the enormity of the win: for Kalu herself; for ActionSpace, the organisation that has supported her for 25 years; and for the visibility and acceptance of artists with learning disabilities within the wider art world. “It’s unbelievably huge,” she says. “I have to think back to where we started, when there was absolutely no interest whatsoever. I’d sit at dinner parties with friends in the art world. Nobody was interested in what I did, or who we worked with. We couldn’t get any exhibitions anywhere. No galleries were interested. Other artists weren’t interested. Art students weren’t interested. We have had to claw our way up from the very depths of the bottom.” Continue reading...

Despite the Tories still tanking behind Labour in the polls, the PM’s lack of answers is a morale boost for the opposition With little more than a week to go until the Christmas recess, the Commons is already in festive overdrive. Demob happy. A few minutes in to the year’s penultimate prime minister’s questions with MPs from both sides shouting and cheering, the speaker interrupted proceedings to say, “we don’t need the panto auditions any more”. To which the natural response was, ‘oh yes we do’. Because that’s pretty much the whole purpose of PMQs at the best of times. A feelgood experience for some. A feelbad experience for others. Noise with no substance. No one embraces the panto spirit more than Kemi Badenoch. Kemi has come to realise that the bar is actually quite low for her to remain as Tory leader. All she has to do is be a little bit better than Keir Starmer at PMQs. Which is turning out to be a lot less difficult than she imagined. Sometimes just standing up is enough. Continue reading...

Cross-party group of MSPs says bill going through Holyrood could attract people from elsewhere in UK Senior Scottish politicians fear there could be a risk of “death tourism” from terminally ill people travelling from other parts of the UK to end their lives in Scotland. A cross-party group of MSPs, including the deputy first minister, Kate Forbes, said the looser controls on eligibility written into an assisted dying bill for Scotland could attract people who are unhappy with stricter rules planned for England and Wales. Continue reading...

Former deputy prime minister, who left Meta this year, to be joined by Facebook-owner’s chief AI scientist Nick Clegg is to add venture capitalist to his list of post-politics jobs, with the former British deputy prime minister and ex-senior executive at Meta taking on a new role at London-based Hiro Capital. Clegg, who left his role as the Facebook-owner’s head of global affairs this year, is joining the European tech investment firm as a general partner. Continue reading...

We need people from Europe to move to the UK – but also a way to give Brits the opportunity to build the futures they crave Announcing her new Youth Matters plan – £500m to “boost resilience and teach skills” – the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, spoke of a “violent indifference” from the political establishment towards young people that had been going on “for decades”. She’s not wrong. We can look at all of the ways in which young people have seen their economic prospects and work opportunities systematically destroyed – and see that they all date from 2010. First, the tripling of the tuition fee cap saddled them with debts that have become astronomical, particularly for degrees that are socially beneficial, such as medicine and nursing; this, incidentally, from a coalition in which one party explicitly promised never to do that. Yet for all its boldness in setting fire to manifesto promises and playing fast and loose with a generation’s future, the tuition fees policy didn’t actually deliver a sustainable funding plan for tertiary education – instead leaving it to cross-subsidise with foreign students, whom the political establishment has spent the past five years trying to chase out of the country. Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Emma Mackey, Jamie Lee Curtis, Albert Brooks, Rebecca Hall and Woody Harrelson are among the stars lost in the writer-director’s baffling misfire Ella McCay, a new comedy drama written and directed by James L Brooks, feels like a relic, and not just because it’s set, seemingly arbitrarily, in 2008. Broadly appealing, well cast, neither strictly comic nor melodramatic, concerning ordinary people in non-IP circumstances, it’s the type of mid-budget adult film that used to appear regularly in cinemas in the 90s and aughts, before the streaming wars devoured the market. Even its lead promotional image, turned into a life-size cardboard cut-out at the theater – Emma Mackey’s titular Ella in a sensible trench coat, balancing on one foot as she fixes a broken block heel – recalls a bygone era of films like Confessions of a Shopaholic, Miss Congeniality or Little Miss Sunshine, that would now go straight to streaming. To be clear, I miss these types of movies, and want to see more of them. I want to see a lighthearted but realistic portrait of a 34-year-old woman serving as lieutenant governor of an unnamed state that is, judging by the college football paraphernalia and the vibe, probably Michigan. I want to still believe in the possibility of smart and sentimental popcorn fare whose low-stakes drama insists on the inherent inconsistencies and decency of people. I especially would like to say that Ella McCay is an admirable final salvo (or so) for Brooks, the 85-year-old writer/director/producer whose prolific career includes both iconic sitcoms (The Mary Tyler Moore show, Taxi and the Simpsons), and now-classic films (Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News and As Good As It Gets). Continue reading...

The festival says goodbye to both founder Robert Redford and its longtime home of Park City, Utah, with a selection of provocative documentaries and starry new films New films starring Charli xcx, Natalie Portman and Salman Rushdie will all receive their world premieres at next month’s Sundance film festival. The festival will be held for the last time in Park City, Utah, before it moves to Boulder, Colorado, in 2027. Over the years, it has been home to the first screenings of films including Get Out, Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Blair Witch Project, Past Lives, Napoleon Dynamite, Precious and Little Miss Sunshine. Continue reading...

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Craig Guildford told to provide more evidence and not ‘mislead parliament’ after Maccabi Tel Aviv fans ban from Europa League match A parliamentary committee has said it expects to recall the chief constable of West Midlands police to explain why his evidence on the reasons behind a ban on Maccabi Tel fans was wrong. In a letter to Craig Guildford, the home affairs committee of MPs warned him of the seriousness of misleading parliament and demanded more documents be handed over. Continue reading...

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now! While Chelsea didn’t completely torpedo their chances of finishing in the top eight of Bigger Cup group stage by losing against Atalanta, they performed a precise, surgical strike on their own chances of waltzing straight into the round of 16. Of course, the good news is that in the short one-year history of the new and not-necessarily-improved Bigger Cup, achieving a top-eight finish isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. The recently revamped competition’s first champion – Paris Saint-Germain – finished 15th in the “league phase” after Uefa jazzed things up, introducing what appears to be a Super League by stealth. And besides, if any club has sufficient personnel to deal with the added hassle of an extra playoff round, it’s surely the one with so many players on its books that their squad list has to be written on a toilet roll, with a librarian employed to keep track of all their loans. Well, no wonder Wolves are in such a sad state (yesterday’s Football Daily). As any longtime reader of this email will know, the only good pre-match protests involve marching from a pub that the supporters planned to be at anyway, to the stadium that they were inevitably going to. Just showing up 10 minutes late? That’s how long it takes fans to get to their seats anyway” – Mike Wilner. I see that Noble Francis not only got Tuesday’s letter o’ the day, but also a name check in Matthew Kipwell’s letter. On a night where both Sheffield teams (again) surrendered points after leading, I am led to ponder: with the two correspondents mentioned, plus Jon Millard, myself (occasionally) and, no doubt, others, could Sheffield be proving that the frequency of representation in your letters section is inversely proportional to the value of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – Trevor Townson. Before Sunday’s Wear–Tyne derby and inspired by Matthew’s experience, I recalled a trip to Roker Park for a derby between Sunderland and Newcastle. No Newcastle fans were allowed in, but a friend got me a ticket in the paddocks and, not wanting to miss out on a bit of history, I went along incognito. When Peter Beardsley equalised, one of the ‘luxury boxes’ erupted in delight. As the Sunderland fans worked themselves into an indignant frenzy trying to storm the boxes, one of them turned to me and said ‘It’s just ‘cos they’re rich. If there was a Mag in here right now, they’d rip him limb from limb.’ I’ve never been as emotionless, or terrified, at any game before or since!” – Ben Graham. The past six months have proven difficult for West Brom supporters. The old regime had been consigned to history, clearing the way for better times. The new manager arrived with a track record that held the promise of a brighter future. Instead, season ticket holders are (still) unable to identify a philosophy or tactical approach. Knowledgeable football people are surprised by team selections and then dismayed by substitutions made during the game. The manager is a quietly spoken, dignified, courteous, calm man who wears a pained expression when asked to explain himself that belies a clear and obvious lack of confidence and authority. For a Labour voter, this is all too much” – David Royce. Continue reading...

NHS and No 10 advice differs on wearing masks if you have flu symptoms. What is best practice for prevention and protection? An NHS leader has said people who are unwell with flu “must wear” a mask in public. A UK government official has said if you need to go out while sick, you should only “consider” wearing a mask. So what is the official advice, how serious is the threat posed by flu, and what should you do if have symptoms? Continue reading...

Syrians who have rebuilt their lives abroad face uncertainty over their futures amid hardening of attitudes Tears of joy streamed down Abdulhkeem Alshater’s face as he joined thousands of other Syrian nationals in central Vienna last year. The moment they were marking felt like a miracle: after more than five decades of brutality and repression, the Assad regime had fallen. A day later, however, the ripple effects of what had happened 2,000 miles away in Syria were laid bare. A dozen European states announced plans to suspend asylum applications from Syrians, in a show of how western states are increasingly treating refugees as transients. As the fall of Bashar al-Assad collided with politicians’ quest to be seen as taking a hard line on migration, the lives of Syrians around the globe were plunged into uncertainty. Continue reading...

Organisers confirm ‘Pride Match’ activities will take place Seattle to host Egypt v Iran in Group G next summer Plans to celebrate LGBTQ+ rights and freedoms in Seattle during next summer’s World Cup will continue despite objections from the Egyptian and Iranian football federations over the “Pride Match” due to take place in the city. Seattle organisers have confirmed they are “moving forward as planned” with Pride activities in the city when Egypt face Iran in Group G on 26 June. Rainbow flags will also be allowed into the stadium by Fifa. Continue reading...

Hockey player known for his modesty and loyalty who scored twice in the 1988 Olympic final against Germany to win gold Imran Sherwani, who has died aged 63 of Alzheimer’s disease, was a star of the Great Britain hockey team that won Olympic gold in 1988 with a 3-1 win against West Germany in the final, a match in which he scored twice. Sherwani’s second goal, which put the game beyond the opposition, came as he ran in behind the defence to knock in a cross from Stephen Batchelor – a breathless passage of play that led to a much-replayed piece of TV commentary from the BBC’s Barry Davies. Referring to the lack of marking on Sherwani, Davies asked: “Where were the Germans?” before abandoning any pretence of impartiality to add: “But frankly, who cares?” Continue reading...

A fin whale washed ashore in Anchorage and was left there for months. Then a self-described ‘wacko’ museum director made a plan When a whale dies, its body descends to the bottom of the deep sea in a transformative phenomenon called a whale fall. A whale’s death jump-starts an explosion of life, enough to feed and sustain a deep-ocean ecosystem for decades. There are a lot of ways whales can die. Migrating whales lose their way and, unable to find their way back from unfamiliar waters, are stranded. They can starve when prey disappears or fall to predators such as orcas. They become bycatch, tangled in fishing lines and nets. Mass whale deaths have been linked to marine heatwaves and the toxic algae blooms that follow. Continue reading...

Groundbreaking find makes compelling case that humans were lighting fires much earlier than originally believed Humans mastered the art of creating fire 400,000 years ago, almost 350,000 years earlier than previously known, according to a groundbreaking discovery in a field in Suffolk. It is known that humans used natural fire more than 1m years ago, but until now the earliest unambiguous example of humans lighting fires came from a site in northern France dating from 50,000 years ago. Continue reading...