Several days of snow brought avalanche risk at Christmas, as wintry weather also caused four deaths in India

A snowstorm developed across the Alps on Saturday 21 December due to a low-pressure system situated over the Adriatic Sea. This depression allowed relatively warm and moist air to push into the Alps, condensing and falling as snow as it met the much colder alpine air mass. Snowfall continued for several days, allowing some of the peaks to see well over 1 metre of snow, with significant snowfall also seen across many ski villages. Consequently, there was a significant avalanche risk over the Christmas period.

Ski resorts in Bulgaria also experienced significant snow starting on Christmas Day, which caused disruption in the mountainous west, where ski resorts had to temporarily shut down due to road closures. Towns such as Troyan, Samokov and Teteven were particularly badly affected with snowdrifts and power failures.

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© Photograph: Jeanne Accorsini/SIPA/REX/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Jeanne Accorsini/SIPA/REX/Shutterstock

With a role in the Oscar-tipped reform school drama, the actor continues to pick parts that align with her activism. She recalls how the resilience of her grandmother – and the racism faced by her grandfather – has shaped her

There is a scene in Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor’s new film in which she gives a hug unlike any other hug you’ll see on screen. The film is Nickel Boys, an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s 2019 novel based on the real-life horror of Florida’s Dozier School for Boys, with Ellis-Taylor playing Hattie, the grandmother of Elwood (Ethan Herisse), a boy incarcerated there. In the scene, she is prevented from visiting her much-missed grandson, but encounters a friend of his (Brandon Wilson), who becomes a kind of emotional proxy.

What makes this hug so special, though, is not just the intensity of the human moment, but the way it exemplifies the power of the first-person perspective, which director RaMell Ross utilises throughout his film. Watching it, you the viewer feel as if you are also being enveloped in Hattie’s arms. “RaMell is a scholar, you know what I mean?” says Ellis-Taylor, an enlivening sight this morning, with her cropped, bleached hair, red lipstick and warmly engaging manner.

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© Photograph: Courtesy of Orion Pictures/AP

© Photograph: Courtesy of Orion Pictures/AP

Vice City returns, but there are plenty of new games and reboots, from Monster Hunter Wilds and Atomfall to Civilization VII and DOOM: The Dark Ages

Explore, expand, exploit, exterminate: the rules of Civilization haven’t changed, but this devilishly compelling strategy series has long been due an overhaul. Next year’s instalment lets you pick and choose between many more different leaders and peoples to guide to world domination, from antiquity and through the age of exploration to the modern era – peacefully, or otherwise.
• Released 11 Feb 11; all platforms

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© Composite: Guardian

© Composite: Guardian

Most runners have experienced an injury or two — the blame often lies in overtraining, inadequate recovery time, bad form or the wrong footwear.

The recent spectacular and decisive presidential election victory by Donald Trump — a self-styled benevolent "dictator" swept to power with an unequivocal mandate from U.S. voters — has become what can only be described as a political tsunami for left-leaning observers. Read More

A Halifax man and former soldier who allegedly sexually assaulted his domestic partner multiple times while she was sleeping, sometimes in the presence of young children, captured the episodes in images stored on a hard drive seized this fall by the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service, according to documents military police filed in court to get a warrant. Read More

Eight attacks. That’s how many times Kehillat Shaarei Torah, the Toronto synagogue where I grew up, celebrated my bat mitzvah, and served as youth director, has been targeted. Once would have been too many. Eight times is a national disgrace. Read More

Jonathan Kanter, who retired as the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust head on Dec. 20, reinvigorated competition law in his three years as assistant attorney-general of the United States. In his farewell address a few days earlier, he warned Americans about the “powerful forces suppressing their economic freedom.” This is adapted from that speech. Read More

Parts of the South face the threat of flooding as another storm is slamming into the West Coast.

Move to secure electricity supply comes as Finland investigates tanker that sailed from Russian port

Estonia has begun naval patrols to protect a cable supplying electricity from Finland after the suspected sabotage of another one on Christmas Day, the Estonian defence minister, Hanno Pevkur, said.

“We’ve decided to send our navy close to Estlink 1 to defend and secure our energy connection with Finland,” he posted on X.

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© Photograph: Finnish Border Guard/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Finnish Border Guard/AFP/Getty Images

After moving to oust President Yoon Suk Yeol, opposition lawmakers voted to impeach the interim leader as well. Here’s how the turmoil unfolded.

© Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

He built Suzuki Motor from a small company into a global powerhouse, entering the Indian market in the 1980s in one of his early successes.

© Kazuhiro Nogi/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Flaky pastry filled with seafood delicacy gains cult status and draws crowds to sleepy beach community

Celebrities have raved about them, politicians have bulk-ordered them, local people line up and tourists drive hours for them. The legendary pāua pie – a flaky pie filled with a New Zealand seafood delicacy – is enticing crowds to a remote cafe on the isolated East Coast.

The savoury pie may be one of the closest things New Zealand has to a national dish. From the basic mince pie found in corner stores and petrol stations to the more inventive gourmet pies offered in cafes and fine dining restaurants, wherever you go, there are pies.

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© Photograph: Derek Morrison/Credit: Derek Morrison

© Photograph: Derek Morrison/Credit: Derek Morrison

Famous for felines that outnumber its humans, Aoshima is also emblematic of a deeper trend afflicting the country’s rural and island communities

The reason for Aoshima’s nickname was clear before we had set foot on the island. As our tiny vessel slowed to a halt and its handful of passengers prepared to disembark, the quayside was alive with orangey-white blurs – a whiskered welcome party that forms as soon as its members hear the hum of an approaching motor.

The only human here to greet us is Naoko Kamimoto, appropriately dressed in a pinafore with feline designs, who secures the boat with a rope as half a dozen cats swirl around her feet.

Cats lazing in the sun among the Kamimoto’s fishing nets.

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© Photograph: Kazuma Obara/The Guardian

© Photograph: Kazuma Obara/The Guardian

A decade since the United States and Cuba restored diplomatic relations — which many believed would transform the island — Cuba is in its worst crisis since Fidel Castro took power.

© Jorge Luis Baños for The New York Times

I was once intensely skeptical that telehealth could offer good medicine. I was wrong.

© Sarah van Rij for The New York Times

The settlements culminate a lengthy personal and legal odyssey for the first accuser, Alex Harrison, who was subsequently shunned by teammates and parents.

© Cayce Clifford for The New York Times

The agency obtained research from 3M in 2003 revealing that sewage sludge, the raw material for the fertilizer, carried toxic “forever chemicals.”

© Tim Gruber for The New York Times

Amid an outcry for justice and accountability and threats online, a once-dominant group is feeling deep anxiety after the ouster of Syria’s dictator.

© Ivor Prickett for The New York Times

Everyone from Jamie Dimon to the International Monetary Fund is ringing alarms about the shadowy world of private credit. But the money keeps rolling in.

© Ricardo Rey

In his first term, Donald Trump denigrated African nations, but leaders there are hopeful his return will bring more investment and less pressure to uphold democracy and human rights.

© Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times

“Technostuff” built in the last 100 years outweighs all the living matter on Earth.

© Brice Ménard and Nikita Starkman