Burd Ellen: Says the Never Beyond review | Jude Rogers's folk album of the month

(Self-released)Debbie Armour and Gayle Brogan harmonise beautifully and add unnerving sounds to British seasonal songsAnd so it is Christmas. Here’s what Burd Ellen have done: made a brilliant set of wintersongs from all across Britain that almost hovers in the air like an eerie snowglobe of sound. It begins with two minutes of buzzing drones, bowed...

12m

FTSE 100 hits nine-month high amid vaccine and stimulus hopes and Opec deal – business live

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news 8.26am GMT Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the world economy, the financial markets, the eurozone and business.After a rough year, Britain’s FTSE 100 is ending 2020 on the front foot.“The bottom line is, this is right in the range of reason. It’s not a perfect bill, but...

22m

Mobo founder Kanya King: 'I’ve been fighting to break down barriers. It's isolating'

On hiatus since 2017, the Music of Black Origin awards return next week with black British music stronger than ever – but the industry still unequal. Its founder explains the work that needs to be done“It was almost like the world had woken up,” says Kanya King, the Mobos founder, who is discussing an open letter she sent to the culture secretary, Oliver...

40m

The British government is still hiding the truth about my father's murder | John Finucane

Boris Johnson is dodging a public inquiry into the killing of Pat Finucane by loyalist paramilitaries in Northern IrelandJohn Finucane is the Sinn Féin MP for Belfast NorthOn 12 February 1989, my father, the human rights lawyer Pat Finucane, was murdered by loyalist paramilitaries as we sat together at the dinner table in the kitchen of our home in...

40m

Chess: British online championships can lead to a Hastings centenary chance

‘Onerous’ anti-cheating measures spark debate as leading players are slow to enterThis month’s online British championships will link to Hastings’s centenary congress in a Covid-era £5000 event which will include England’s leading players.Qualifiers start on 18 December and culminate in finals on 3 January. The championships in various categories –...

40m

Distressed mother separated from breastfed baby for days during hospital stay

Hospital admits breaking own Covid policy as mothers like Charlotte Jones are being needlessly kept apart from their babiesCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageA new mother has spoken of her distress after wrongly-imposed Covid rules led to her being separated from her six-week-old baby for almost a week while she received treatment...

40m

Australia v India: first T20 international – live!

Updates from the opening Twenty20 match at Manuka OvalHosts win toss and bowl first in the Aus vs India game in CanberraAny thoughts? Email or tweet @GeoffLemonSport 8.31am GMT 4th over: India 21-1 (Rahul 11, Kohli 7) That’s the definition of dismissive. Hazlewood bowls a decent length ball, fast, a touch straight, and Kohli just wafts it off his pads...

51m

‘Chadwick will be remembered as a hero’: Denzel Washington and Viola Davis on making Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

The late actor’s final film role was in a blazing new adaptation of the August Wilson play. Cast and crew remember camaraderie and competition on an emotional shootOne of the most powerful moments in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom comes when Levee, the firebrand trumpeter played by the late Chadwick Boseman, gets into an argument with his bandmate about religion....

51m

An Inventory of Losses by Judith Schalansky review – it can't last

This playful meditation on lost objects, from paintings to actors and islands, is a satisfying mix of history, imagination and detailWhat, asks this book, is “more terrifying: the notion that everything comes to an end, or the thought that it may not”? Such issues – impermanence, the fringes of things, the border between here and there – are catnip...

1h

Could it be magic: why store window displays mean more this Christmas

While festive shopping is more likely to be online this year, a tour around the window displays of stores is a pandemic-friendly way of bringing sparkle in the run-up to the big day.There will be no cosy photo op with a random stranger in a cotton-wool beard in Santa’s grotto this year. Nor any carol singers to soothe your frayed festive nerves. And...

1h