The jailing of pro-democracy activists, omnipresent surveillance and a distrust of the police have driven people into a fearful silence

Growing up, I had always dreamed of becoming a police officer like my uncle. In my childhood in the 1980s and 90s, the police had a positive and brave image. I remember when I was in first or second grade, struggling with English, my uncle would tutor me. After our lessons, I would stay at his house to play. Next to his bed was a punching bag, and he would teach me how to throw punches and do one-handed push-ups.

My uncle would show off the muscles on his arms, telling me his dream was to become a police officer who fights crime and protects the innocent. He eventually did. And in his police uniform graduation photo, he stood tall and proud – a hero in my eyes.

The Arab world is increasingly divided between those who are losing everything, and those who have everything

For the past few months, there has been a grim new ritual whenever I meet people from some Arab countries. It’s a sort of mutual commiseration and checking in. How are things with you? Where is your family? I hope you are safe, I hope they are safe. I hope you are OK. We are with you.

There is a comfort to it, and also an awkwardness. Comfort because the words are earnest, the solidarity almost unbearably meaningful. Awkward because the scale of what many are enduring is too large to be captured in those words. Everything feels shot through with survivor’s guilt, but also with a little bit of resolve in the knowledge that the calamities tearing apart our nations have closed the distances between us.

Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist

Written complaints about DWP double, while prisons, the NHS and higher education experience big increase

Complaints about public services have soared by more than a third since 2016 with substantial jumps in relation to benefits, prisons, the NHS and higher education, according to a leading thinktank.

Demos, a cross-party organisation, found that between 2015-16 and 2023-24 complaints across key public services increased steadily by evermore than 100,000 from 309,758 to 425,624 – aside from a sharp drop during the pandemic.

A National Trust viewing platform at Corfe Castle offers visitors a glimpse into the king’s royal quarters in Dorset

A luxurious suite of “rooms with a view”, built for the son of William the Conquerer but partly destroyed in the English Civil War, has become accessible to visitors for the first time in almost 400 years, thanks to a new viewing platform at one of England’s most dramatically situated castles.

The King’s Tower was built in 1107 for William’s son Henry I at Corfe castle, which sits on top of a steep hill on the Purbeck peninsula near Wareham in Dorset. Constructed from gleaming white limestone inside the imposing fortification, the 23-metre tower was Henry’s personal penthouse, built to the highest standards of luxury and including an “appearance door” from which he could be seen by his subjects far below.

Tony Blair Institute says global carbon emissions would be 6% lower if not for ‘inaccurate narrative’ over 1986 disaster

Global carbon emissions would be 6% lower than today if not for the “inaccurate narrative” against nuclear power since the Chornobyl disaster that has created “unfounded public concern”, according to Tony Blair’s thinktank.

A report from the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) has found that if the nuclear power industry had continued to grow at the same pace as before the 1986 nuclear disaster, the carbon savings would be the equivalent of removing the emissions of Canada, South Korea, Australia and Mexico combined.

Emma Kamio describes ‘abuse’ of act after daughter’s alleged involvement in action against Israeli arms company

A Swansea woman has said she was left traumatised after being arrested under the Terrorism Act and held incommunicado for five days because her daughter was allegedly involved in an action against an Israeli arms company.

Emma Kamio, 57, who runs her own homeopathy and pilates business, was led away in handcuffs from her home in front of her son and neighbours and had three laptops and mobile phones seized, after a Palestine Action protest at an Elbit Systems UK building near Patchway on the outskirts of Bristol.

Wren has been at the forefront of broadcast news for 25 years, editing Newsnight and now Channel 4 News. She talks about slippery politicians – and the blockade on journalism in Gaza

“I’m not joking,” says Esme Wren. She has just told me that she often spends her free time watching old Jeremy Paxman interviews with Tony Blair. Why? Back then, “politicians kind of enjoyed it – they felt like if they passed the Paxman test, it made them a better politician. And they answered the questions, they engaged, they felt that was their duty, to be accountable. So although we weren’t delivered senior members of the cabinet every night, we got our fair share.” The editor of Channel 4 News is remembering her time on the BBC’s Newsnight, which she first worked on in 1998 as an intern, and helmed as editor from 2018 to 2021.

Wren is sitting in the cafe-foyer of the ITN building in central London, which houses the broadcast studios of ITV1, ITV London, Channel 4 and Channel 5. Everything about her – posture, expression, hair, outfit – is exquisitely composed and radiates calm. She attributes this to her 13 years at Sky between 2005 and 2018: “When you’re in a rolling news environment, you learn not to react. My adrenaline’s gone. I’m like Andrew,” she says, wryly. Not someone to laugh at her own jokes, she is referring to the 2019 Newsnight interview between Prince Andrew and Emily Maitlis, so dramatic that two TV programmes have been made of it: Prime’s A Very Royal Scandal (in which Wren is played by Lydia Leonard) and Netflix’s Scoop (in which she is played by Romola Garai).

Some tried to defend Irish MMA fighter after civil jury ruled against him in rape case but others hope it will open space for conversation about masculinity

The ruling made headlines across Ireland and around the world, sending women spilling into the streets of Dublin with signs that read “Thank you Nikita”.

Days after a civil court jury ordered mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor to pay nearly €250,000 over claims he had “brutally raped and battered” Nikita Hand, the case has prompted calls for a rethink of how society interacts with power, wealth and a “manosphere” intent on pushing its own notions of masculinity.

Employees take action over plans to axe at least three plants in first domestic closures in company’s 87-year history

Workers at Volkswagen factories in Germany will strike from Monday over the carmaker’s plans to lay off thousands of people, cut pay and close plants for the first time in its home country.

Announcing that “warning strikes”, which usually last a few hours, will begin at all VW plants, Thorsten Gröger, the union IG Metall’s lead negotiator with VW, said: “If need be, it will be the toughest collective bargaining battle Volkswagen has ever seen.”

Every informed observer agrees that food waste and loss must be reduced if we are to feed all humans. What’s stopping us? By Julian Baggini

The president and supporters argue Hunter Biden would never have been charged were it not for his name – and any father might have done the same. But this exercise of power also looks like a validation of Donald Trump

A loving act of mercy by a father who has already known much sorrow? Or a hypocritical political manoeuvre reminiscent of his great foe? Maybe both can be true.

Joe Biden’s announcement on Sunday that he had pardoned his son Hunter, who is facing sentencing in two criminal cases, is likely to have been the product of a Shakespearean struggle between head and heart.

Authorities in Akita prefecture had struggled to locate the animal, which attacked a man and has eaten large quantities of meat

A bear that attacked a supermarket employee in northern Japan at the weekend before apparently holing up inside for three days has been exterminated after being found in a trap local authorities had laid near the store’s entrance.

A 47-year-old man was taken to hospital suffering from facial and other injuries after the attack in the northern prefecture of Akita on Saturday morning. His injuries are not life-threatening, according to local media.

The 77-year-old, who is blind in one eye and has poor vision in the other, spoke of his health issues at a gala performance of The Devil Wears Prada

Elton John has revealed at a gala performance of his new musical The Devil Wears Prada, for which he wrote the lyrics, that he is physically unable to see the show, due to ongoing problems with his eyesight.

Speaking on stage the 77-year-old singer thanked his husband David Furnish, “who has been my rock”.

ICJ to hear submissions from more than 100 groups in Pacific-led campaign to provide an advisory opinion on states’ obligations for climate harm

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is due to begin hearings in a landmark climate change case on Monday, examining what countries worldwide are legally required to do to combat climate change and help vulnerable nations fight its devastating impact.

After years of lobbying by island nations, the UN General Assembly asked the ICJ last year for an opinion on “the obligations of States in respect of climate change.”

In what could be the biggest protest march in New Zealand’s history, 42,000 people took to the roads over fears Māori rights are being dismantled. Eva Corlett reports

It started at the northern tip of the North Island, gathering momentum as it moved its way down the country. By the time the march – or hikoi – reached its conclusion nine days later outside parliament in Wellington it was thought to be one of the biggest New Zealand has ever seen, with 42,000 people taking part. The demonstration was sparked by what critics say is the rightwing government’s attempt to fundamentally redraw the relationship between the Māori people and the state.

A lawyer and activist Annette Sykes, who was on the march, says it was a unifying moment for Māori people, but also showed the strength of public feeling against a potential rollback of hard-won rights. She says she feels the new ruling coalition is coming up with divisive policies that “are actually trying to demolish that sense of unity that we have forged as a nation, that mutual respect”.

Decision marks reversal after US president said he would not use executive authority, but now says Hunter Biden was only prosecuted for political reasons

• Biden’s statement in full

Joe Biden has issued “a full and unconditional” pardon to his son Hunter Biden covering convictions on federal gun and tax charges, the US president said in a statement released by the White House on Sunday.

The decision marks a reversal for the president, who had repeatedly said he would not use his executive authority to pardon his son or commute his sentence.

Elusive spouse of the former prime minister led march of tens of thousands on Islamabad

As vast crowds converged on Pakistan’s capital demanding the release of the former prime minister Imran Khan, one unlikely figure was at the forefront of the protest.

Bushra Bibi, Khan’s third wife, had always been deemed an apolitical and somewhat mysterious spiritual figure. Her marriage to Khan had generated wild gossip for years, but she kept herself largely shielded from the public gaze – even as she found herself jailed alongside her husband in January.

Manchester City’s empire has imploded at incredible speed and they were humbled further by merciless Liverpool side

Pep Guardiola kept holding up six fingers. The Liverpool fans were in delirium and the Liverpool players were jigging and jiving across the turf, and his own players had gone over to applaud the travelling support, which is really the least anyone deserves after attempting to travel across northern England on a Sunday.

Still Guardiola kept holding up six fingers: proudly, almost incredulously, as if discovering the concept of fingers for the very first time. What did it all mean? The number of defeats since they last won a game? The position in which they most desperately require reinforcements in January? The number of touches, over 90 minutes, that Erling Haaland had in the final third?

Ukrainian president presses idea of ‘Nato umbrella’ for areas under Kyiv’s control while Kaja Kallas says it should not be ruled out. What we know on day 1,013

Expression chosen after public vote describes impact of endless scrolling of mind-numbing content

“Brain rot” has been announced as the Oxford word of the year for 2024, amid concerns over endless social media scrolling and mind-numbing content.

More than 37,000 people voted to help choose the winner from a shortlist of six words drawn up by Oxford University Press, the publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary.

The Lithuanian faces up to eight months of cyclones, adverse winds and extreme loneliness as he rows in solidarity with Ukraine

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In his first three days at sea, Aurimas Mockus says, he got only five hours of sleep. His body ached and his hands were covered with wounds and blisters.

But alone in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, facing up to eight months of rowing, pain quickly turned to “nothing”, the Lithuanian said in a media release.

From the Rising Tide protest flotilla in Newcastle to sunburnt schoolies and a corpse flower in bloom, Guardian Australia looks back at striking images from around the country

• A nostalgic photographic road trip across Australia – in pictures