Rare and original American founding documents to fly on Freedom Plane across nation



Some 193 people have been returned to France under Starmer’s flagship one in, one out scheme with France by 22 December last year

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The 79-year-old president demanded ‘immediate negotiations’ over Greenland

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Actor and director surrendered himself to police last week, days after an arrest warrant charged him with two counts of criminal sexual contact and child abuse

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French president drew attention for wearing striking pair of blue aviators during Davos speech

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Government’s remedial order would give judges the power to revive Troubles-related civil actions
British military veteran groups have condemned a government attempt to remove immunity provisions from Northern Ireland legacy legislation, claiming it will expose former soldiers to “hounding” through the courts.
MPs are to vote on Wednesday on a motion to reverse a Tory-era law that granted conditional immunity to those accused of wrongdoing during the Troubles.
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© Photograph: Peter Kemp/AP

© Photograph: Peter Kemp/AP

© Photograph: Peter Kemp/AP
There was the struggle to make chitchat, a whiff of humiliation – and a sobering recognition of what women have to put up with
I had an unusual experience just before Christmas. I think it did me good. This was at a gathering of some old friends of mine, a group of dentists as it happens, but’s that’s not relevant. The assembled were all blokes, which is relevant. This was at a pub/restaurant that was doing a roaring trade. A lost afternoon was had by all. Nice food, nice drink and surprisingly amusing anecdotes about teeth. Naturally enough, the time came for visits to the gents. Those who went, I half-noticed, seemed to be away a long time. I didn’t dwell on why this might have been so, but when it came to my turn all became clear. I turned the corner, and what should I find but a long queue for the gentlemen’s toilet. No queue at all for the women’s toilet, but a great long one for the men’s. What fresh hell was this? This wasn’t a world any of us in this queue recognised.
For the avoidance of doubt, I neither court nor expect sympathy from any woman here. I am obviously aware that, for women, having to queue to use a public toilet is the norm. How many times have I seen women standing in a queue while men in the same establishment have to do no such thing? Apart from the inconvenience of having to queue to use a convenience, there’s a whiff of humiliation about standing there, waiting for something that men generally don’t have to wait for. It was decidedly bracing to get a taste of it myself, watching the other sex breeze through the door while I was forced to stand solemnly in line with my fellow fellas, angling away at whatever we had in our pockets and consulting our phones.
There’s a whole conversational genre here – toilet queue chitchat – of which men have scant experience. Women, I imagine, have learned to be rather good at it, exchanging pleasantries and an interesting observation or two. On this I’ve consulted some women of my acquaintance. The consensus is that intra-queue communication is limited to the odd eye roll and: “Fuck this, I’m going to use the men’s.” A colleague told me it’s only at the washbasins afterwards that conversation tends to break out.
If I was a woman, I’d waste no time on either pleasantries or silence. If I was forced, time and again, to stand in a public line merely for the opportunity to empty my bladder, I’d vent my spleen like nobody’s business at the sheer injustice of it. A useful metric for any civilised society would be gender parity in wee waiting times. I’m seeking out research on this.
Back in my queue, I tried to get some brotherly banter going about this novel situation of ours. I tutted a bit, rolled my eyes and said something along the lines of: “Well, this makes an unpleasant change, doesn’t it lads?” Someone smiled, someone else looked blank, a third looked sheepish. Another shook his head as if this was yet another manifestation of broken Britain, woke madness etc. Otherwise, silence reigned. Someone emerged, zipping up. The queue shuffled up a place. Two more men joined the back of it. I sighed.
A woman wafted out of the adjacent facility, all fragrant and relaxed. It was all right for some. I grinned bashfully at her, trying to communicate acknowledgement of this topsy-turvy scenario. She said: “Don’t look to me for solidarity, you bastard. Come back when you’ve done this another hundred times and then I might give you the time of day.” Actually, she didn’t say that. She didn’t say anything. But I know that’s what she was thinking. And I really wouldn’t blame her.
• Adrian Chiles is a writer, broadcaster and a Guardian columnist
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The opening ceremony for the Winter Olympics is just 16 days away and some venues are still yet to be completed

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A grand bargain on immigration could address problems with both the old approach and Trump’s new approach
Immigration is one of the most divisive issues facing the United States, as it is in many countries. An ICE agent’s killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis is only the latest outrage that has brought the issue to the fore.
Facing a 30 January deadline to renew funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which houses ICE, Democrats are now insisting on limits on ICE, at risk of another shutdown. It may be a pipe dream, but it is worth asking whether now might finally be a time to forge the long-elusive bipartisan agreement on immigration.
Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch (1993-2022), is a visiting professor at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs. His book, Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments, is published by Knopf and Allen Lane
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© Photograph: Hérika Martínez/AFP/Getty Images
Alex Jennings’s performance hums with buried rage in Christopher Isherwood’s landmark exploration of grief
At the start of A Single Man, George Falconer wakes up at home in the morning and drags himself despondently to the bathroom. There he stares at himself in the mirror, observing not so much a face as “the expression of a predicament … a dull harassed stare, a coarsened nose, a mouth dragged down by the corners into a grimace as if at the sourness of its own toxins, cheeks sagging from their anchors of muscle”.
Set in 1962, Christopher Isherwood’s landmark novel follows a day in the life of a 58-year-old British expat and college professor living in California. George is silently trying to come to terms with the death of his partner, Jim, after a car accident. We accompany him from his morning ablutions – during which he reflects on the judgment of his homophobic neighbour Mrs Strunk – and his drive to work, to a teaching session, a gym workout and a drink with his friend Charley. Throughout we are privy to his internal monologue, which reveals George as a man prone to existential dread and who is isolated in a world that, owing to his sexuality, regards him with suspicion.
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© Photograph: Moviestore Collection Ltd/Alamy

© Photograph: Moviestore Collection Ltd/Alamy
Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has issued a warning to travellers going on holiday this summer.

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