World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk

Covid live news: travel chaos as 3,500 more flights cancelled; fresh curbs in France
China anger after space station forced to move to avoid Elon Musk Starlink satellites
Australia retain the Ashes after thrashing England to take 3-0 series lead | Ali Martin
Crews find second apparent 1887 time capsule under Robert E Lee statue
Donald Trump golf resorts claimed at least £3.3m in UK furlough support
Iran nuclear deal: eighth round of talks begins in Vienna
Capitol panel to investigate Trump call to Willard hotel in hours before attack
Polish president vetoes media law criticised by US and EU
Afghan ex-BBC journalist stranded for months due to Home Office scheme delays
Palma to limit cruise ships after environmental concerns
Policeman ‘shocked’ by state of car driven with rear end hanging off
England reports record 113,638 new Covid cases on Christmas Day
Guidance v rules: which Covid measures work better?
Covid positive test rate in NSW jumps to 6.5%, highest since start of pandemic
‘Other surfers respect me’: the 92-year-old still riding waves in New Zealand
Brexit: ‘the biggest disaster any government has ever negotiated’
Pfizer/BioNTech tax windfall brings Mainz an early Christmas present
‘No roof, no seats, no desks’: photographing Yemen’s conflict-hit schools
The King William’s College quiz 2021
I tried to run from my brother’s death – but therapy helped me confront my traumatic past
How Australia’s far right uses cryptocurrencies to monetise hate online
MoD under fire for spending almost £13m on hire cars for staff
England hospital Covid admissions highest since February; France announces new curbs – as it happened
‘We looked up to him’: South Africa begins week of mourning for Desmond Tutu
Charity appeal in Guatemala, where the fight for land and water rights is a battle for survival
Keri Hulme, New Zealand’s first Booker prize-winning writer, dies aged 74
Australia Covid live news updates: almost 500 extra Sydney cases undetected in community for days after mistake by major testing facility
Engineering the future: meet the Africa prize shortlist innovators
‘Families want a son at any cost’: the women forced to abort female foetuses in India
Revealed: the secret ‘forced labour’ migration route from Vietnam to the UK
A seed for all seasons: can ancient methods future-proof food security in the Andes?
What are Covid rules in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland?
Tensions are rising about pandemic modelling, but we ‘gloomsters’ are saving lives
South African president Ramaphosa pays tribute to Desmond Tutu in address to the nation – video
'A generous, wonderful life': tributes pour in for Archbishop Desmond Tutu – video
'He loved, he laughed, he cried': Desmond Tutu: in his own words – video obituary
Archbishop Desmond Tutu: a life in pictures

Covid live news: travel chaos as 3,500 more flights cancelled; fresh curbs in France

Posted: 27 Dec 2021 07:55 PM PST

France cuts wait time for booster shots; US surge cause for concern, not panic, says Biden; Johnson rules out new year restrictions in England

Stock markets have continued to gain ground despite the surge of Omicron around the world.

Asian markets lifted on Tuesday with the Nikkei in Japan up nearly 1%, Shanghai up 0.2%, Seoul up 0.1% and Sydney's ASX200 is up 0.44%.

China anger after space station forced to move to avoid Elon Musk Starlink satellites

Posted: 27 Dec 2021 05:17 PM PST

China said its space station deployed prevention collision avoidance control measures in July and October and called on the US to 'bear responsibility'

Beijing has called on the UN to remind the US to abide by the treaty regulating outer space after space satellites launched by tech tycoon Elon Musk's aerospace company SpaceX almost collided with its space station twice in the past year.

China said its space station deployed prevention collision avoidance control measures in July and October to avoid colliding with Starlink satellites in a recent report submitted by Beijing to the UN's Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space earlier this month.

Australia retain the Ashes after thrashing England to take 3-0 series lead | Ali Martin

Posted: 27 Dec 2021 04:54 PM PST

Third Test, day 3: England 185 and 68; Australia 267
Boland takes a six-for on debut as England collapse again

There are dream Test debuts and then there is the match that Scott Boland just experienced. The 32-year-old Victorian was handed his Baggy Green cap on Boxing Day and just three days later ripped through England with a quite remarkable six-wicket haul that saw Australia retain the Ashes at the earliest opportunity.

The coup de grâce came at 11.49am on the third morning, less than half way through the scheduled series, when Cameron Green pegged back Jimmy Anderson's off-stump to secure an unassailable 3-0 lead. England were all out for a meagre 68 in just 27.4 overs, having somehow conspired to lose by an innings and 14 runs in a match where their opponents had stuck just 267 on the board.

As Australia's players managed to catch up with Green's haring sprint of celebration (Boland among the throng that engulfed the giant all-rounder, and Pat Cummins savouring his first series win as captain) English cricket was in a state of humiliation. Joe Root had top-scored with 28, falling 80 runs short of Mohammad Yusuf's record 1,788 in a calendar year, but once again his team-mates had melted around him.

Instead the only records set by way of calendar year were England registering their ninth defeat in 2021, surpassing a previous worst of eight, achieved four times, and registering 54 ducks to match a mark set by their forebears in 1998. They had also found themselves on the receiving end of the fastest Ashes five-wicket haul by an Australian, Boland requiring just 17 deliveries either side of stumps on day two to cap a stunning debut.

This was also England's lowest total in Australia since 1904 and yet despite the previous evening's collapse against a rampant attack, stumbling to 31 for four in response to a first innings deficit of 82, the tourists started the day with Root and his vice-captain, Ben Stokes, at the crease with a chance of setting their hosts a tricky target on what was clearly a spicy pitch for the seamers.

Crews find second apparent 1887 time capsule under Robert E Lee statue

Posted: 27 Dec 2021 04:28 PM PST

Long-sought-after item could contain artifacts, Confederate memorabilia and even a rare photo of Abraham Lincoln

Crews wrapping up the removal Monday of a giant pedestal that once held a statue of Confederate Gen Robert E Lee in Richmond found what appeared to be a second and long-sought-after time capsule, Virginia governor Ralph Northam said.

The governor tweeted photos of a box being removed from the site and said conservators were studying the artifact.

Donald Trump golf resorts claimed at least £3.3m in UK furlough support

Posted: 27 Dec 2021 08:01 AM PST

Former US president's two Scottish resorts claimed emergency support during Covid pandemic

Donald Trump's loss-making Scottish golf resorts claimed in excess of £3.3m in emergency support from the UK government, to help furlough staff during the Covid pandemic.

Company accounts for the former president's resorts at Turnberry in Ayrshire and Balmedie, north of Aberdeen, show his businesses cut 273 jobs due to the Covid crisis last year, while also claiming £2.8m in furlough support.

Iran nuclear deal: eighth round of talks begins in Vienna

Posted: 27 Dec 2021 09:56 AM PST

Tehran is keen to verify US sanctions have genuinely been lifted

An eighth round of talks on reviving the Iran nuclear deal has begun in Vienna, with Iran saying participants have been largely working from an acceptable common draft text and that its team was willing to stay as long as it takes to reach an agreement.

The Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said he wanted the focus of the coming round of talks to be on how Tehran could verify US sanctions had genuinely been lifted. The landmark 2015 deal, from which Donald Trump withdrew the US, had lifted sanctions on Iran in return for controls on its civilian nuclear programme.

Capitol panel to investigate Trump call to Willard hotel in hours before attack

Posted: 27 Dec 2021 02:00 AM PST

Committee to request contents of the call seeking to stop Biden's certification and may subpoena Rudy Giuliani

Congressman Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack, has said the panel will open an inquiry into Donald Trump's phone call seeking to stop Joe Biden's certification from taking place on 6 January hours before the insurrection.

The chairman said the select committee intended to scrutinize the phone call – revealed last month by the Guardian – should they prevail in their legal effort to obtain Trump White House records over the former president's objections of executive privilege.

Polish president vetoes media law criticised by US and EU

Posted: 27 Dec 2021 04:56 AM PST

Law would have prevented companies outside the EEA from holding a controlling stake in Polish media companies

The Polish president has vetoed a media ownership law that critics said was aimed at silencing the US-owned news channel TVN24, side-stepping a row with Washington as tensions rise in eastern Europe amid what some countries see as increased Russian assertiveness.

"I am vetoing it," Andrzej Duda said in a televised statement, after the EU and the US heavily criticised the law.

Afghan ex-BBC journalist stranded for months due to Home Office scheme delays

Posted: 27 Dec 2021 04:25 AM PST

Mudassar Kadir said 'zero progress' made since he and his family arrived at Dubai refugee centre

An Afghan former BBC journalist who managed to flee the Taliban has been stranded in a refugee camp for months because of delays to a resettlement scheme promised by the UK government.

Mudassar Kadir* is the only one of 14 former BBC employees to have escaped Afghanistan since the Taliban took over in August. The other 13 remain in hiding in fear of their lives.

Palma to limit cruise ships after environmental concerns

Posted: 27 Dec 2021 06:15 AM PST

Spanish officials hail 'historic' deal to limit arrivals to maximum of three vessels a day at Mallorca port

Officials in the Balearic Islands will seek to limit cruise ships to a maximum of three vessels a day at its largest port, in a deal described as the first of its kind in Spain.

The regional government said in a statement that arrivals at Palma in Mallorca would be limited when possible to three cruise ships a day, one of the vessels allowed to be a mega-cruise liner carrying more than 5,000 people, starting in 2022.

Policeman ‘shocked’ by state of car driven with rear end hanging off

Posted: 27 Dec 2021 12:47 PM PST

Porsche stopped on M25 so badly damaged its bumper was 'literally bouncing out of the boot'

A police officer said he was "honestly shocked" to see a motorist had driven for more than 30 miles along the M25 in a car so badly damaged its rear end was hanging off.

PC Serge Hadfield, from Surrey police, stopped the car near Cobham on Sunday after a member of the public called the police.

England reports record 113,638 new Covid cases on Christmas Day

Posted: 27 Dec 2021 09:31 AM PST

Official data also shows 98,515 cases on Monday, but experts say figures may not reflect true trends

Covid cases in England reached a new high of 113,628 on Christmas Day and 1,281 people were admitted to hospital – the highest daily figure since mid-February.

Official data on new Covid cases, which was delayed over the festive period, also showed 98,515 new confirmed cases reported in England on Monday. Data for Boxing Day from England and Wales combined revealed 108,893 daily cases reported.

Guidance v rules: which Covid measures work better?

Posted: 27 Dec 2021 07:43 AM PST

Analysis: the Tories are arguing against further restrictions – but what do scientists think works best to prevent the spread of Covid?

They are questions that have cast a shadow over the festive season: will new Covid measures be needed, and if so, when and what form will they take?

The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) has said peak admissions could be comparable with or even greater than previous highs without significant behaviour change or further interventions, but many Tory backbenchers have argued against legal restrictions, saying that the public should be trusted to make their own decisions on the risks they wish to take.

Covid positive test rate in NSW jumps to 6.5%, highest since start of pandemic

Posted: 27 Dec 2021 08:30 AM PST

After easing of restrictions in mid-October, positive result rate hovered at 0.5% or below

The Covid positive test rate in New South Wales has risen to 6.5%, the highest since the pandemic began.

The positivity rate is up from 1.73% a week ago and 0.71% a fortnight ago, a figure some epidemiologists say is likely to mean a proportion of cases are going undetected.

‘Other surfers respect me’: the 92-year-old still riding waves in New Zealand

Posted: 27 Dec 2021 03:02 PM PST

Nancy Meherne is determined to keep surfing as long as she can 'do a little jump' to get on the waves

Nancy Meherne lives a simple life by the sea, gardening and riding the soft, mellow waves at Scarborough Beach just a couple of blocks from her house.

The 92-year-old's now pumice-like board was made in New Zealand in the 1970s by a factory that churned out gumboots and other rubber and foam products.

Brexit: ‘the biggest disaster any government has ever negotiated’

Posted: 27 Dec 2021 06:00 AM PST

Exclusive: British cheesemaker says Brexit and subsequent trade deals have cost his firm £270,000

A British cheesemaker who predicted Brexit would cost him hundreds of thousands of pounds in exports has called the UK's departure from the EU single market a disaster, after losing his entire wholesale and retail business in the bloc over the past year. Simon Spurrell, the co-founder of the Cheshire Cheese Company, said personal advice from a government minister to pursue non-EU markets to compensate for his losses had proved to be "an expensive joke".

"It turns out our greatest competitor on the planet is the UK government because every time they do a fantastic deal, they kick us out of that market – starting with the Brexit deal," he said.

Pfizer/BioNTech tax windfall brings Mainz an early Christmas present

Posted: 27 Dec 2021 04:40 AM PST

German city where early Covid vaccine was developed uses its new-found wealth to slash debt and attract other biotech firms

The Pfizer/BioNTech jab is having an unexpected side-effect on the German municipality where scientists first developed it: for the first time in three decades the city of Mainz expects to become debt-free thanks to the tax revenues generated by the company's global success.

Mainz's decision to use its financial windfall to also slash corporate tax rates in the hope of attracting industry, especially biotech companies, however, is drawing criticism from neighbouring cities and economists.

‘No roof, no seats, no desks’: photographing Yemen’s conflict-hit schools

Posted: 27 Dec 2021 07:00 AM PST

Years of fighting mean children as old as 10 have never been to school. Khaled Ziad's images document a generation whose entire future is at risk

Read more in our series: Forgotten human rights crises 2021

Their classroom has no roof, no seats, no desks; most of the 50 small children sitting on the rubble-strewn floor have no pens or paper. But the students in this makeshift school in Hays, a village in Yemen's Hodeidah province, are still among the luckiest in the country simply for having a teacher and a place to learn.

Seven years into a catastrophic war that sparked the world's worst humanitarian crisis, Yemen's conflict shows no signs of ending soon, and the future of an entire generation is at risk of being destroyed. About 3 million children are unable to attend school, according to the Red Cross, with 8.1 million needing urgent educational assistance.

The King William’s College quiz 2021

Posted: 27 Dec 2021 05:00 AM PST

Who released a triple citrous concoction at 50 East Ida B, Wells Drive? Who, following a repast of peas, fell asleep in a wicker hamper? Who followed Giggs and preceded Cavendish? Only 177 more to go, in the famously fiendish quiz

Editor's note: the King William's College quiz has appeared in the Guardian since 1951. These days, the quiz is no longer sat formally; instead it is sent to the schoolchildren and their families to tackle over the Christmas holiday. In other words, you are allowed to Google! However, the questions are constructed to make that a less than straightforward strategy. Good luck!

General knowledge paper, 2021-22, No 117, sat by the pupils of King William's College, Isle of Man

I tried to run from my brother’s death – but therapy helped me confront my traumatic past

Posted: 27 Dec 2021 04:00 AM PST

My tank was empty. No matter how much I willed myself to carry on as normal, my body and mind resisted. It was time to stop running

When my older brother died, the first thing I thought about was work. I had just moved to New York from London, so my family had to break the news over the phone, grappling with my grief while still sucker-punched by their own. But if you had asked me at that moment, I would have told you there was no grief.

Instead, I immediately began thinking about which editors I was going to have to let down. What work might fall by the wayside for ever? I quickly calculated the upsides of my "time off". At least I would have more time to spend on that long article that was due. Then I thought about going for a run. Or shouting at somebody. Mostly, I thought about getting off the phone. It was all an inconvenience. Had my family – always so keen to remind me of where I had come from and who I was never going to get to be – just passed on this news to ruin my day?

How Australia’s far right uses cryptocurrencies to monetise hate online

Posted: 27 Dec 2021 08:30 AM PST

As cryptocurrencies become mainstream and frictionless, extremists are finding new ways to fundraise

There have never been more ways to ask for money on the internet. For rightwing extremists looking to monetise hate, that can be a big opportunity – and the earning potential of these digital assets hasn't gone unnoticed in Australia.

Earlier this year, I traced funding networks associated with a sample of Australian channels that share rightwing extremist content on the chat app Telegram, and found links to at least 22 online funding tools. These included donation requests via wallet addresses for cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, monero, ethereum and litecoin.

Ariel Bogle is a researcher and journalist with a focus on technology and extremism. She owns a small amount of ethereum.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

MoD under fire for spending almost £13m on hire cars for staff

Posted: 27 Dec 2021 04:01 PM PST

Unite union criticises 'excessive' figure while Labour says 'Tory waste' letting down taxpayers

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has come under fire after revelations that it has spent almost £13m on hire cars for staff this year.

A freedom of information (FoI) request by PA Media also showed that the Department for Transport spent more than £1.1m in the year to October, while other departments have spent tens of thousands of pounds. The total figure from responses to the FoI request was more than £14.2m.

England hospital Covid admissions highest since February; France announces new curbs – as it happened

Posted: 27 Dec 2021 04:25 PM PST

No walk-in PCR tests available in England for a few hours due to 'high demand'; French PM announces new measures

Queensland has detected 784 new Covid-19 cases but the health system is coping, state premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has said.

Quarantine and testing policies are being reviewed and rapid antigen tests may be introduced for some people within 48 hours to take pressure of testing facilities, AAP reports.

I don't want people to be alarmed by that, the real issue here is what is the impact it is having on individuals in hospitals?

We are not seeing any massive impacts on our hospitals, which is really good news.

‘We looked up to him’: South Africa begins week of mourning for Desmond Tutu

Posted: 27 Dec 2021 08:48 AM PST

The beloved anti-apartheid hero will lie in state for two days in Cape Town before a funeral on 1 January

Thousands of South Africans will pause to remember the anti-apartheid icon Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who died on Sunday aged 90, every day this week as bells are rung at churches across the country for 10 minutes at noon.

Tributes to Tutu, described as the "moral compass" of his country, have poured in from around the world since his death in a Cape Town care home, as a series of events commemorating his life and achievements begin.

Charity appeal in Guatemala, where the fight for land and water rights is a battle for survival

Posted: 25 Dec 2021 10:00 PM PST

This year's appeal has already raised over £500,000. We report on an organisation supporting Indigenous communities against wealthy vested interests

José Méndez walked up the mountain behind his rural Ch'orti' Mayan community of Corozal in eastern Guatemala. He pointed towards an abandoned home of the plantation owner who used to run this hillside. "Right outside that house they killed our three compañeros, the exact same day the county government recognised us as an Indigenous community with rights to the land."

Further up the mountain, in the mist of corn and coffee fields, Méndez shows off a large water reservoir that irrigates the community's crops as well as small household gardens of nutritious and medicinal herbs. "This is what we sacrificed for. To recover our land and our water to have a chance to survive here."

Keri Hulme, New Zealand’s first Booker prize-winning writer, dies aged 74

Posted: 27 Dec 2021 07:21 PM PST

Author won the prize in 1985 for her first novel, The Bone People, which was described as a 'unique example of Māori magical realism'

Acclaimed author and poet Keri Hulme, who was the first New Zealander to win the Booker prize, has died aged 74.

The reclusive writer, who won the prestigious literary prize in 1985 for her first novel The Bone People, died on Monday at her home in Waimate in New Zealand's South Island.

Australia Covid live news updates: almost 500 extra Sydney cases undetected in community for days after mistake by major testing facility

Posted: 27 Dec 2021 07:56 PM PST

More positive cases after Sydney lab testing error; 'sacred' SCG Ashes Test to go ahead, NSW minister says; Queensland reports 1,158 cases, scraps day five testing requirement after Brad Hazzard criticises 'tourism testing'; massive demand for testing in NSW blows out wait times as state records 6,062 cases and one death; Victoria records 2,738 Covid cases and four deaths; and the ACT reports 252 cases, Tasmania 43 and the NT 16 – follow all the latest news

More footage of those queues – this one in Sydney. Yikes. A big thank you to everyone involved for their patience ...

Back on those testing queues, waiting times for results and calls for more rapid antigen testing.

Of the people AAP spoke to, around half were from interstate and were required to take a PCR test. Car batteries were going flat in the line and people, including the elderly, were forced to wait for hours in hot vehicles.

The numbers appear to correlate with people lining up in the ACT to get tested, with the territory's health minister saying anecdotal evidence from testing teams pointed to half of all swabs being for people getting tested to travel.

Engineering the future: meet the Africa prize shortlist innovators

Posted: 27 Dec 2021 02:00 AM PST

Turning invasive plants into a force for good and powering healthcare with solar – here are three of the 2022 nominees

From a solar-powered crib that treats jaundiced babies to fibre made from water hyacinth that absorbs oil spills, innovators from nine African countries have been shortlisted for the Royal Academy of Engineering's 2022 Africa prize.

This year half of the shortlist of 16 are women, and for the first time it includes Togolese and Congolese inventors. The entrepreneurs will undergo eight months of business training and mentoring before a winner is chosen, who will receive £25,000, and three runners-up, who win £10,000 each. All the projects are sustainable solutions to issues such as access to healthcare, farming resilience, reducing waste, and energy efficiency. The Guardian spoke to three of the shortlisted candidates.

‘Families want a son at any cost’: the women forced to abort female foetuses in India

Posted: 26 Dec 2021 11:00 PM PST

Laali and Meenakshi's unborn daughters are among the country's 46 million 'missing' women and girls over the past 50 years

Laali was alone at home when she realised her legs were drenched in blood. The bleeding did not stop for eight hours. As she fell unconscious, the 25-year-old thought she would die alongside the foetus she was losing.

She had been three months pregnant when she was taken for prenatal sex determination. "When I learned it was a girl, I started feeling as though I was suffocating," she says.

Revealed: the secret ‘forced labour’ migration route from Vietnam to the UK

Posted: 25 Dec 2021 08:00 AM PST

Observer investigation uncovers new trafficking gateway to the west after 500 migrants found in shocking conditions in Serbia

When construction began to great fanfare in 2019, the Linglong car tyre factory outside of Belgrade was heralded as the jewel in the crown of Serbia's burgeoning strategic partnership with China.

Two years later, 500 Vietnamese construction workers were allegedly found last month working in conditions of forced labour with their passports confiscated and living in cramped and degrading conditions.

A seed for all seasons: can ancient methods future-proof food security in the Andes?

Posted: 25 Dec 2021 02:01 AM PST

In Peru's remote villages, farmers have used diverse crops to survive unpredictable weather for millennia. Now they are using this knowledge to adapt to the climate crisis

In a pastoral scene that has changed little in centuries, farmers wearing red woollen ponchos gather on a December morning in a semicircle to drink chicha, made from fermented maize, and mutter an invocation to Pachamama – Mother Earth – before sprinkling the dregs on the Andean soil.

Singing in Quechua, the language spread along the vast length of the Andes by the Incas, they hill the soil around plants in the numerous small plots terraced into a patchwork up and down the Peruvian mountainside.

What are Covid rules in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland?

Posted: 27 Dec 2021 11:41 AM PST

Announcement that there will be no new restrictions in England before new year puts it at odds with rest of UK

Ministers have confirmed that no new Covid-19 restrictions will be imposed in England before the new year.

Sajid Javid, the health secretary, told reporters there will be "no further measures before the new year", adding: "Of course people should remain cautious as we approach new year celebrations and take a lateral flow test if that makes sense, celebrate outdoors if you can, have some ventilation indoors if you can."

Tensions are rising about pandemic modelling, but we ‘gloomsters’ are saving lives

Posted: 25 Dec 2021 11:15 PM PST

Scientists are often blamed for leading to excessive curbs on society. But they are cautious for a very good reason

Global coronavirus updates – live

The past week has seen tensions rising about scientific modelling during the pandemic. Projections cited by UK and devolved governments as they tightened Covid restrictions have led to strained exchanges. But modelling is essential because it tell us:

• What are the range of possible outcomes based on what we know?
Society can't just wait for things to happen. We can and do save lives by being prepared for a range of things, only some of which happen. As information increases, the model improves, and the range of outcomes narrows as scenarios are eliminated.

South African president Ramaphosa pays tribute to Desmond Tutu in address to the nation – video

Posted: 26 Dec 2021 12:50 PM PST

Cyril Ramaphosa, president of South Africa, paid tribute to the late archbishop Desmond Tutu in a televised address to the nation on Sunday. Calling him a leader with 'compassion, dignity, humility and grace', Ramaphosa highlighted Tutu's activist approach to peace and alleviating poverty.

Tutu was diagnosed with prostate cancer in the late 1990s and in recent years was hospitalised on several occasions because of infections associated with his treatment. He died peacefully in the early hours of Sunday morning, according to his relatives.

'A generous, wonderful life': tributes pour in for Archbishop Desmond Tutu – video

Posted: 26 Dec 2021 09:02 AM PST

Leaders around the world have paid tribute to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the cleric, social activist and giant of South Africa's struggle against apartheid, who died on Sunday aged 90.

Residents of Cape Town and the Soweto township in Johannesburg also described their feelings about 'the arch' who has been described as the moral conscience of his nation

'A patriot without equal': world mourns death of Desmond Tutu

'He loved, he laughed, he cried': Desmond Tutu: in his own words – video obituary

Posted: 26 Dec 2021 04:58 AM PST

Archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu, the cleric and social activist who was a giant of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, has died aged 90. Tutu, described by foreign observers and his countrymen as the moral conscience of his nation, died in Cape Town on Boxing Day.

Excitable, emotional and charismatic, Tutu won the Nobel peace prize in 1984 and chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), the controversial and emotional hearings into apartheid-era human rights abuses. This is his life, in his own words

Archbishop Desmond Tutu: a life in pictures

Posted: 26 Dec 2021 04:05 AM PST

Described as South Africa's moral compass, Desmond Tutu, the anti-apartheid Nobel peace prize-winning activist for racial justice and LGBT rights, and retired Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, has died aged 90. An uncompromising foe of apartheid, Tutu worked tirelessly but non-violently for its downfall