Survivors urge government to stop using suppliers cited in public inquiry into fire in which 72 people died
Survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire have called on the government to stop companies implicated in the disaster from receiving public contracts, after it was revealed several were still in receipt of multimillion-pound deals.
New analysis found at least 87 contracts across the public sector in the government’s own database involve companies criticised in the phase 2 report into the Grenfell fire, published in September 2024, though some contracts may have since expired.
With his new film rejected by official censors, the award-winning film-maker says he is being punished for his outspoken views
In Hong Kong, where dissent is now characterised by silence, few dare openly criticise the government or the Chinese Communist party (CCP) that controls it. Film-maker Kiwi Chow is one of the few.
“The Chinese Communist party’s practice is to try and destroy history and truth,” the 46-year-old director says from his home in the region. “It’s ridiculous that I can still live in Hong Kong without being in jail.”
Rural depopulation compounding challenges of climate emergency and changing technologies in drawing young people to sector
The huge concrete vats that have held countless litres of verdejo white wine in the 90 years since the Cuatro Rayas cooperative winery was founded are dwarfed by the stainless steels tanks that sit opposite and serve as reminders that, even in an enterprise as ancient as winemaking, times change.
Outside, a chilly but welcome rain falls on the surrounding vines, autumn-brown after another furnace-hot summer in the northern Spanish province of Valladolid. But changing technologies and the vagaries of the climate emergency are not the only challenges facing Spain’s €22.4bn (£20bn) wine industry.
Israel’s PM travels to Mar-a-Lago as US administration reported to be running out of patience over Gaza ceasefire
Benjamin Netanyahu is to meet Donald Trump at the US president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Monday evening amid growing fears Israel could launch new offensives against regional enemies, potentially plunging the Middle East further into instability.
The Israeli prime minister left Israel on Sunday on his fifth visit to see Trump in the US this year.
I love many shows on the streaming channels, but the BBC is our storyteller. It defines a nation and its culture – and we must defend it
Tony Hall was director general of the BBC between April 2013 and August 2020
Don’t let President Trump cloud the real debate about the BBC. Of course, his demand for damages of no less than $5bn has dominated our thinking about the corporation over the past few weeks, as has its cause. But let’s get this into perspective. This was a serious own goal and journalists make mistakes. Salvation in this case would have been a line of script between the clips, or once a mistake had been discovered, a very speedy public acknowledgment. Now, though, the BBC is right not to yield on this. It has apologised. And, unlike other broadcasters and institutions in the United States, it doesn’t need the president’s support. This is a chance to demonstrate the BBC’s independence. Fight on.
But we must not let this cloud the debate here about the sort of BBC we all want and need, and I hope that is what dominates our conversation in the coming crucial year. The government’s green paper, published in December, starts off with a reminder of what, despite all its travails, the BBC delivers for the country. “It’s not just a broadcaster,” says the introduction, “it’s also a national institution … if it did not already exist, we would have to invent it.” The secretary of state, Lisa Nandy, is even more forthright: “I believe the BBC, alongside the NHS, is one of the two most important institutions in our country. While one is fundamental to the health of our people, the other is fundamental to the health of our democracy.” Seeing the BBC not just as a media organisation, but as a cultural organisation helping to define who we are is crucial to next year’s debate about what we want the BBC to be. It should be seen as part of our social infrastructure.
Move over, nachos: a loaded crisp platter is the new party snack in town
Pimento cheese, a much-loved American spread, has been a permanent fixture in my kitchen this month. Whether it’s a quick sandwich filling in times of chaos or an effortless party dip, I am addicted. My favourite way to serve it, though, is as part of a loaded crisp platter. Use salted or pickle crisps, and load them up with spoonfuls of pimento cheese, sliced pickles, herbs and heat. Move over nachos, there’s a new crisp platter in town.
Ahmed al-Ahmed, who disarmed one of the Bondi gunmen before being shot five times, says he knows his bravery saved many lives but is sad for those who were killed in the attack.
In an interview with CBS News, Ahmed said he “didn’t worry about anything” except for the lives he could save as he disarmed Sajid Akram on 14 December. The act was caught on camera and shared around the world.
With the Danish postal service ending its letter deliveries, we asked what you would put in your final envelope
At the end of December, the Danish postal service will deliver its last letter, focusing on packages, citing the “increasing digitalisation” of society.
While the public will still be able to send letters through the distributor DAO, it made us think about how we would use that last chance to send a letter.
Exclusive: Organisation accuses Sir Mark Rowley of religious discrimination and ‘whipping up conspiracy theories’
Freemasons have demanded an emergency injunction from the high court to halt the Metropolitan police’s new policy that orders officers to tell their bosses if they are members of the organisation.
The Freemasons filed papers in London on Christmas Eve and claim the Met’s policy amounts to “religious discrimination” against Freemasons who are also police officers.
In 2014 the Malaysian Airlines jet vanished over the Indian Ocean. Now the team that located Shackleton’s Endurance is looking again with the latest undersea robots
More than a decade after Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 went missing after veering thousands of miles off course, its location remains unknown.
The Malaysian government has promised to pay a private company, Ocean Infinity, $70m (£56m) to search for the plane on a “no find, no fee” basis.
Marine robotics firm to renew its search more than decade after plane disappeared with 239 people onboard
The search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is expected to resume on 30 December, more than a decade after the plane disappeared with 239 people onboard in one of aviation’s greatest mysteries.
A renewed search by Ocean Infinity, a UK and US-based marine robotics company, had begun earlier this year but was called off in April because of bad weather.
Action began in January, before an all-out strike in March. For locals, the flytipping, vermin, maggots and mess are taking a huge environmental and emotional toll
It’s an icy cold winter morning, and 80-year-old Mohammed Bashir is armed with a broom, tackling the large pile of rubbish that has accumulated outside his terraced house in Small Heath, Birmingham.
This has become an almost daily activity for Bashir since the city’s bin strike started 50 weeks ago and, like many in the city, he is starting to lose patience.
As wars in Ukraine and Gaza continued, anti-government protests erupted around the world. Amid the violence, there were moments of humanity, sporting glory and stunning natural beauty. Photographers reflect on the moments behind the pictures
A man cries out in distress as a fire spreads across multiple buildings on a housing estate in Hong Kong Tyrone Siu/Reuters A massive fire broke out around 3pm at Wang Fuk Court, a densely packed housing estate in Tai Po, and I arrived about an hour later. By then, the flames were raging across multiple blocks, with thick black smoke. Unsafe bamboo scaffolding and foam may have led to what became Hong Kong’s worst fire in decades. Residents were streaming out in panic, while emergency crews fought a losing battle against the inferno spreading from one tower to the next.
The prime minister has been lauded for her country’s growing role on the world stage. But poverty and precarity are forcing vast numbers to emigrate
Earlier this month, the gardens of Rome’s Castel Sant’Angelo were filled with families enjoying some unseasonably warm sun by a pop-up ice rink. Teenage couples skated hand in hand, while the watching crowds sipped mulled wine and hot chocolate to a soundtrack of Nat King Cole. At first glance, it looked like a normal Christmas market. The stands, however, revealed a different reality. Among the nativity displays and kitsch decorations were adverts for nationalist newspapers and something called “patriot radio”. On a wall near the kids’ play area, a mural depicted an unlikely cast of characters, tracing a lineage from the fascist poet Gabriele D’Annunzio to the late American Maga influencer Charlie Kirk.
This was the setup I witnessed at this year’s Atreju, Italy’s biggest rightwing festival, which has been running since 1998 as an annual celebration of patriotism and nationalism. During the early editions, proud neo-fascists, including black-hooded thugs from street movements such as CasaPound and Forza Nuova, made up a visible portion of the attenders. At this year’s event, however, the Celtic crosses and odal rune tattoos were tucked under well-ironed shirts. The crowd was made up of nerdy students, gen-Z influencers, civil society campaigners and passersby who had been lured off the street by the glittery lights.
Jamie Mackay is a writer and translator based in Florence
The activist Zarmina Paryani speaks from exile in Germany about how Afghanistan has tried to silence the voices of women and girls since the 2021 takeover
It was nearly dark on 19 January 2022 when the knocking began. At first soft, then insistent, the sound echoed through the flat in the Afghan capital, Kabul. Zarmina Paryani and her sisters froze. They had known this day was coming.
“We always knew the risks of protesting and we were prepared to die on the streets,” the 26-year-old activist told the Guardian. “But I never imagined they would come for us like that – in the middle of the night, breaking into our home.”
National Trust says these are ‘alarm signals we cannot ignore’ as climate breakdown puts pressure on wildlife
Extremes of weather have pushed nature to its limits in 2025, putting wildlife, plants and landscapes under severe pressure, an annual audit of flora and fauna has concluded.
Taipei condemns exercise that Chinese army calls ‘a stern warning against “Taiwan independence” separatist forces and external interference forces’
China has launched live-fire military drills around Taiwan, simulating a blockade of major ports, attacking maritime targets, and fending off international “interference”, in what it calls a warning to “separatist” forces in Taiwan.
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) – the military wing of the ruling Communist party in China – said it had sent naval, air force and rocket forces to surround Taiwan on Monday morning. Chinese coast guard vessels were also sent out to conduct “law enforcement inspections” at sea around Taiwan’s outer islands.
South Australian police hold grave fears for a woman missing in the outback for 16 days and have renewed search efforts near where her car was found abandoned.
Trisha Graf was last seen in the early hours of Friday 12 December in the Roxby Downs area, 510km north of Adelaide.
Doctors say they blocked his right phrenic nerve in procedure that took place after jailed former president was hospitalised last week for hernia operation
Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro underwent “a phrenic nerve block procedure” on Saturday to treat his persistent hiccups, his wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, said on social media.
The doctors treating Bolsonaro said later that they blocked the right phrenic nerve and scheduled a new procedure in 48 hours to block the left one.
Brigitte Bardot, hailed as the French Marilyn Monroe, was the first major film star to channel her glamour and fame into supporting France’s far right, who she backed for more than 30 years.
Up until her death on Sunday, Bardot had expressed her contentment at Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration National Rally party’s rising share of the vote before the 2027 presidential race.
Authorities say they arrested a man, 23, for kidnapping teen in a Houston suburb as she walked her dog on Christmas
A Texas father used the parental controls on his teenage daughter’s cell phone to find and help rescue her after she was kidnapped at knifepoint while walking her dog on Christmas, authorities allege.
The 15-year-old girl at the center of a case, which quickly gained national attention in the US over the weekend, was reportedly kidnapped in the Houston suburb of Porter. Her parents said she took her dog for a walk and had not returned by the time she was supposed to, according to a statement from the Montgomery county sheriff’s office.
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