UK has had average of just three hours of sun over past week, but skies should start to clear from Sunday

An “anticyclonic gloom” has been blamed for cloudy weather across parts of England, with one village receiving absolutely no sunshine since October.

Odiham, in Hampshire, has reportedly recorded zero minutes of sunshine since October, but forecasters are predicting that the fog, drizzle and low cloud should start clearing from Sunday.

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Campaign under way to identify subjects of images shot in 1970s and 1980s by Westra, one of New Zealand’s best-known social documentary photographers

When a black-and-white photo of a man and a woman sitting on a patterned sofa outside an old weatherboard house appeared on a billboard in central Wellington recently, Arthur Uruamo’s phone lit up.

“A lot of people have rung me about that photo,” Uruamo tells the Guardian.

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From a book that reveals the stories behind the record-breaking singer’s songs to her favourite kind of red lipstick, these pressies picked by our music editor will delight the Swiftie in your life

Despite the rise of a new class of pop star – Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Charli xcx – 2024 unarguably belonged to Taylor Swift. Her Eras tour smashed records; she deepened her catalogue with a surprise album, The Tortured Poets Department , and she even brought a new audience to American football after she started dating Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce.

An already monumental fanbase grew even larger – meaning you’ll doubtless have at least one Swift fan in your life to buy for this Christmas. Swift’s quippy lyrics and love of cats have seen her face (and cats’ faces) plastered over all sorts of unofficial plasticky tat – but here’s a more thoughtful way to buy Swift-inspired gifts, for recipients young and old. There’s a blank space on the label: write their name!

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Robert Smith says getting first chart-topper since 1992’s Wish is ‘enormously uplifting’ and ‘genuinely heartwarming’

The Cure have scored their first UK No 1 album in 32 years, with Songs of a Lost World.

The band’s frontman Robert Smith said: “It is enormously uplifting, genuinely heartwarming to experience such a wonderful reaction to the release of the new Cure album. To everyone who has bought it, listened to it, loved it, believed in us over the years – thank you!”

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• Captain rallies team to ‘go out and play with courage’
• England are odds-on to beat struggling Wallabies

Jamie George has called on his England side to have the bravery to stick to their guns and go for the jugular against Australia rather than go into their shells after making a losing start to their autumn campaign.

England will be seeking an 11th win in 12 matches against Australia, who arrive at Twickenham ranked ninth in the world, but Steve Borthwick’s side have lost four of their past five matches after slipping to a third straight defeat by the All Blacks last weekend.

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Exclusive: Official in Zelenskyy administration expresses frustration with Starmer over lack of missiles

Ukraine’s relationship with the UK has “got worse” since the Labour government took power in July, officials in Kyiv have told the Guardian, voicing frustration over Britain’s failure to supply additional long-range missiles.

The UK prime minister is yet to visit Ukraine four months after taking office and a frustrated Kyiv has said that a trip would be worthless unless Keir Starmer committed to replenishing stocks of the sought after long-range Storm Shadow system.

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Taxi driver among three on trial over death of 10-year-old says she briefly opened her eyes and asked for water before dying in his arms

The father of Sara Sharif wept as he told how his limp daughter briefly opened her eyes and asked for water before dying in his arms, a court has heard.

Urfan Sharif said his wife, Beinash Batool, did not call an ambulance in Sara’s final moments, but had said the 10-year-old was being “dramatic and pretending”.

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Dave Penman says any findings of watchdog investigating potential misconduct by top politicians should be binding

Keir Starmer’s reforms to the ministerial code do not go far enough towards an “truly independent” standards regime to hold top politicians to account, the head of the senior civil servants union has said.

Dave Penman, the general secretary of the FDA, said Starmer had gone further than any previous prime minister in allowing the independent watchdog to initiate investigations into suspected misconduct by ministers, rather than requiring permission.

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Jonathan Powell led talks on Chagos Islands in September and played key role in Good Friday agreement

• UK politics live – latest updates

Jonathan Powell, the former chief of staff to Tony Blair, has been appointed as Keir Starmer’s new national security adviser in a further sign that important figures from the New Labour era are returning to the government.

The veteran former diplomat, who played a significant role in the Northern Ireland peace deal struck in 1998 and served Blair for a decade, will take up the job in Starmer’s No 10.

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