Meanwhile, an overnight Russian strike on Dnipro in central Ukraine has killed at least three people and wounded at least a dozen, the local governon said, as reported by AFP. “All emergency services are working at the site of the missile attack in Dnipro. Currently, three people are reported killed,” the Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Vladyslav Gaivanenko said on Telegram.
Cyclone Ditwah, which unleashed catastrophic flooding and landslides across Sri Lanka, has brought heavy rain to India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu. The storm, now about 30 miles off the coast of the city of Chennai, the state capital, has weakened into a “deep depression”, according to weather officials, who expect it to weaken even further across the day.
A court in Bangladesh has sentenced the British MP Tulip Siddiq to two years in jail after a judge ruled she was complicit in corrupt land deals with her aunt, the country’s deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina. In a ruling on Monday, a judge found Siddiq, the Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate, guilty of misusing her “special influence” as a British politician to coerce Hasina into giving valuable pieces of land to her mother, brother and sister. Siddiq’s mother, Sheikh Rehana, was given seven years in prison and considered the prime participant in the case. The trial had been carried out in absentia and on Monday – neither Hasina, Siddiq, Rehana nor more than a dozen other members of her family accused in the case were in the court as the verdict was read out. The UK does not have an extradition treaty with Bangladesh and it is unlikely Siddiq will serve the sentence. The Labour party said it did not recognise the corruption judgment against Siddiq because she was denied the opportunity to a fair legal process in the case. Siddiq had denied the charges, claiming that much of the evidence being presented by prosecutors was forged. She had been put on trial as a Bangladeshi citizen, with a passport and tax ID, even though she said she had not held a Bangladeshi passport since childhood and had never paid taxes there. After the verdict, Siddiq told the Guardian she hoped it would be met with the “contempt it deserves”. She said: “This whole process has been flawed and farcical from the beginning to the end. “The outcome of this kangaroo court is as predictable as it is unjustified. I hope this so-called ‘verdict’ will be treated with the contempt it deserves. My focus has always been my constituents in Hampstead and Highgate and I refuse to be distracted by the dirty politics of Bangladesh.” Last week, a group of leading Brtish lawyers, including a former Conservative justice secretary, told Bangladesh’s ambassador that the trial against Siddiq was “artificial, contrived and unfair”. Due to their absence, the accused in the case were denied access to defence lawyers and a lawyer who attempted to represent Siddiq and others alleged she was threatened and put under house arrest. Siddiq, a former cabinet minister, claimed had been caught up in a politically motivated attack on her aunt Hasina, whose 15-year rule of Bangladesh was marred with authoritarianism, corruption and human rights abuses. Last month, Hasina was found guilty of crimes against humanity by a special tribunal in Dhaka, for her role in the massacre of more than 1,000 people who took part in anti-government protests last year that eventually led to her downfall. Last week, she was given a further 21-year prison sentence on corruption charges. Hasina has remained in exile in India since her fall from power in August 2024, and the country has yet to respond to extradition requests by Bangladesh for her to return to serve her sentence. During Hasina’s tenure, Siddiq was pictured several times with Hasina in Bangladesh. In January, she stepped down as Treasury minister amid allegations that she had used properties linked to the Hasina regime, though an inquiry later found she had broken no rules. Following the verdict, a Labour party spokesperson said: “The Labour party and all our elected representatives take the rule of law incredibly seriously and will always fulfil our legal responsibilities. “As has been reported, highly regarded senior legal professionals have highlighted that Tulip Siddiq has not had access to a fair legal process in this case and has never been informed of the details of the charges against her. “This is despite repeated requests made to the Bangladeshi authorities through her legal team. “Anyone facing any charge should always be afforded the right to make legal representations when allegations are made against them. Given that has not happened in this case, we cannot recognise this judgment.”
Tropical cyclones have combined with heavy monsoon rains to lay waste to swathes of Asia, killing more than 1,000 people and leaving many more homeless. Parts of the Indonesian archipelago have been particularly hard hit by flooding that began about a week ago, with 502 killed and 508 missing. Nearly 300,000 people have been displaced and nearly 3,000 houses damaged, including 827 that were flattened or swept away. In the Indonesian island of Sumatra, videos circulating on social media showed people scrambling across crumbling barricades, flooded roads and broken glass to get their hands on food, medicine and fuel. Some were wading through waist-deep flood waters to reach damaged convenience stores. A police spokesperson, Ferry Walintukan, said regional police had been deployed to restore order. “The looting happened before logistical aid arrived,” Walintukan said. “[Residents] didn’t know that aid would come and were worried they would starve.” In Sri Lanka, the death toll from floods and landslides triggered by Cyclone Ditwah stands at 355, with 366 missing. The country’s disaster management centre said more than 1.3 million people across the country had been affected by the record rains. It is the worst extreme weather to hit Sri Lanka in two decades, and officials said the extent of damage in the worst-affected central region was only just being revealed as relief workers cleared roads blocked by fallen trees and mudslides. The heavy rains that often sweep through the region at this time of year have been exacerbated by the rare formation of two tropical cyclones – Koto and Senyar – which have helped fuel the rains by bringing in more moist, warm air. Indonesia’s meteorology agency said the formation of Senyar in the strait of Malacca was a “rare” event, although one that had become more frequent in the past five years. “Indonesia’s location near the equator theoretically makes it less prone to the formation or passage of tropical cyclones,” said Andri Ramdhani at Indonesia’s meteorology, climatology and geophysics agency. Areas very close to the equator usually lack the Coriolis force that enables storms to develop. Human-caused climate breakdown has increased the occurrence of the most intense and destructive tropical cyclones (though the overall number per year has not changed globally). This is because warming oceans provide more energy, producing stronger storms. Extreme rainfall is more common and more intense because of human-caused climate breakdown across most of the world. The devastation in Sri Lanka was caused by Cyclone Ditwah, which formed over the Bay of Bengal and made landfall on Wednesday, combining with the north-east monsoon season to bring disastrous rains. Low-lying areas flooded over the weekend, prompting authorities to issue evacuation orders for those living along the banks of the Kelani River, which flows through Colombo into the Indian Ocean. Thousands of police and military personnel are distributing food, clearing roads and moving trapped families to safety. Nearly 148,000 people have been displaced from their homes and are housed in temporary shelters. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who declared a state of emergency to deal with the disaster, vowed to build back with international support. “We are facing the largest and most challenging natural disaster in our history,” he said in an address to the country. “Certainly, we will build a better nation than what existed before.” The rains have subsided across Sri Lanka but low-lying areas of the capital, Colombo, remained flooded on Sunday, sparking a major relief operation. Thailand’s ministry of public health said 170 people had died as of Sunday, after some of the worst flooding in a decade. Songkhla province had the highest number of fatalities at 131. Hat Yai, the largest city in Songkhla, received 372mm (14.6in) of rain on 21 November, its highest single-day tally in 300 years, amid days of heavy downpours. Authorities have been working to deliver aid and clear the damage, and have offered compensation of up to 2m baht (£47,000) for households that have lost family members. But there has been growing public criticism of Thailand’s flood response, and two local officials have been suspended over their alleged failures. The rains from Koto killed three people in Vietnam, authorities said on Sunday, after two boats sank amid strong winds and high seas along the flood-hit central coast. Heavy rains have lashed central areas of Vietnam in recent weeks, flooding historic sites and popular holiday destinations and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. Vietnam’s weather bureau has forecast rains of up to 150mm (6in) on Tuesday and Wednesday in regions that have only just recovered from historic floods. In Malaysia, two people were killed after floods left stretches of northern Perlis state underwater. There are still about 18,700 people in evacuation centres, according to the country’s national disaster management agency. With Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
Tulip Siddiq, the Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate, has been sentenced to two years in jail by a court in Bangladesh, over allegations of corruption linked to her aunt, the country’s ousted former prime minister. Siddiq denies all the allegations and says she has not been informed of the charges against her or given access to legal representation. The prosecution is seeking a maximum life sentence. The verdict came on Monday, after Sheikh Hasina, Siddiq’s aunt, was last month given a death sentence over charges of crimes against humanity relating to last year’s crackdown on student-led protests. The charges in Bangladesh are distinct from the row about Siddiq’s financial links to supporters of Hasina in the UK, which led to her resigning last January as anti-corruption minister. This is how the situation unfolded: What is Siddiq accused of doing in Bangladesh? Siddiq and 20 other individuals, including her aunt, her mother, her brother and her sister, have been on trial in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, since the start of August. Hasina was ousted as Bangladesh’s prime minister last year after 15 years in power, considered by many in Bangladesh as a reign of terror. Siddiq is accused of influencing Hasina to secure a plot of land in a suburb of Dhaka for her family members. The anti-corruption commission prosecuting the case has claimed a summons was sent to an address listed on Siddiq’s Bangladesh passport, national identity card and in the voter roll. How has Siddiq responded to the allegations? Siddiq has said the prosecution is “completely absurd” and a politically motivated attack on her due to her relationship with her aunt. Siddiq has said she has never had a Bangladesh passport or ID card and that identity documents published by authorities in Dhaka were forgeries. A group of high-profile lawyers including Robert Buckland KC, who was UK justice secretary under Boris Johnson, and the former Tory attorney general Dominic Grieve, suggest Siddiq has not enjoyed basic rights during her trial, including knowledge of the charges against her or access to legal representation. The group of lawyers, which also includes Cherie Blair KC, Philippe Sands KC and Geoffrey Robertson KC, also claim that a lawyer she instructed to represent her was put under house arrest and faced threats to his daughter. After the verdict, Siddiq said: “This whole process has been flawed and farcical from the beginning to the end. The outcome of this kangaroo court is as predictable as it is unjustified. I hope this so-called ‘verdict’ will be treated with the contempt it deserves. “My focus has always been my constituents in Hampstead and Highgate and I refuse to be distracted by the dirty politics of Bangladesh.” What did Sheikh Hasina do and what happened in her trial? Hasina ruled for 15 years in Bangladesh in a regime widely seen as authoritarian. Her years in power were characterised by allegations of corruption, torture and enforced disappearances, which were documented by human rights organisations and the UN. She fled the country along with Siddiq’s mother, Sheikh Rehana, in a military helicopter in August last year and has been living in exile – and under protection – in neighbouring India. A three-judge bench of Bangladesh’s international crimes tribunal convicted Hasina of crimes including incitement, orders to kill and inaction to prevent atrocities as she oversaw a crackdown on anti-government protesters last year. Reading the verdict to the court, Justice Golam Mortuza Mozumder said the “accused prime minister committed crimes against humanity by her order to use drones, helicopters and lethal weapons” against civilians. What was Siddiq’s relationship with her aunt? Siddiq, who was born in London, has Bangladeshi citizenship due to both parents being born there. She said she also had a Bangladesh passport as a child but that it expired when she was about 18 years old and it was not renewed. She was seen as close to her aunt while Hasina was in power, and was present at the signing of a 2013 nuclear deal between her aunt and Vladimir Putin in Moscow. She has said she was there only socially and as a tourist. While she has insisted that she has no relationship with Bangladeshi politics, others claim she has sought to minimise the benefits she has gained from her relationship to her aunt’s Awami League party. Why did Siddiq resign from her role as a minister? Siddiq resigned as a UK Treasury minister last January over a row about financial ties to her aunt. An investigation by Laurie Magnus, the adviser on ministerial standards, was launched into her use of properties given to herself and family by supporters of the Hasina regime. She was not deemed by Magnus to have broken any rules over her use of the homes and he found no evidence to suggest any of Siddiq’s assets were derived from anything other than legitimate means. However he added that it was “regrettable that she was not more alert to the potential reputational risks” that arose from her familial ties and her government role. What will happen to her in the UK if she is convicted in Bangladesh? Siddiq would not be automatically extradited to Bangladesh as there is no treaty but the authorities are still likely to seek her extradition by request to the home secretary. A conviction carrying a lengthy jail sentence would also mean she would not be able to travel to the country of her parents’ birth and could also affect travel to allies of Bangladesh. A conviction could be politically difficult for the diplomatic relationship between the UK and Bangladesh.
Donald Trump said on Sunday there was a “good chance” of a deal to end the war in Ukraine after the latest US negotiations with Kyiv, as his special envoy prepares to travel to Russia for follow-up talks. After hours of what both sides called “productive” discussions in Florida, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said “more work” was required. A source in Kyiv’s delegation characterised the discussions as “not easy”. The talks set the stage for a visit to Moscow by Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, who is expected to discuss Ukraine with Russian president Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. “Ukraine’s got some difficult little problems,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, referring to a corruption investigation that recently forced President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to sack his chief of staff and top negotiator. “But I think that there’s a good chance we can make a deal.” Rubio earlier told reporters the Florida talks were productive but “there’s more work to be done”. “We continue to be realistic about how difficult this is, but optimistic.” Rubio also said: “It’s not just about the terms that ends fighting. It’s about also the terms that set up Ukraine for long-term prosperity.” The talks – also attended by Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner – come as Kyiv faces pressure on military and political fronts. At least six people were killed and dozens wounded across Ukraine over the weekend, report Dan Sabbagh and Jane Clinton. A drone attack on the outskirts of Kyiv on Saturday night killed one person and wounded 11, the regional governor said. A Ukrainian security source said Kyiv was responsible for attacks by naval drones on two oil tankers off Turkey’s Black Sea coast that it believed were covertly transporting sanctioned Russian oil. And the Ukrainian government has faced turbulence as Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, was forced to resign on Friday after his flat was searched by anti-corruption officials investigating a kickback scheme. Zelenskyy is to meet the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in Paris on Monday seeking to shore up European support. The French foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, said in comments to the La Tribune Dimanche newspaper on Sunday that the meeting aimed “to move the negotiations forward”. “Peace is within reach, if Vladimir Putin abandons his delusional hope of reconstituting the Soviet empire by first subjugating Ukraine,” he added. The Turkish government has condemned the Ukrainian drone attacks on two Russian “shadow fleet” oil tankers off Turkey’s Black Sea coast. Foreign ministry spokesperson Oncu Keceli said the attacks on the Kairos and Virat vessels happened inside Turkey’s exclusive economic zone and “have posed serious risks to navigation, life, property and environmental safety in the region”. Ukraine has said it used naval drones to hit the tankers in quick succession late Friday afternoon. Crew members onboard both vessels were reported to be safe. Zelenskyy said he had talks with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and thanked her for backing Kyiv’s resistance to Russia’s invasion. “Ursula is paying close attention to the need to strengthen our resilience amid Russia’s constant strikes on our infrastructure and the energy sector,” he said on X on Sunday.
Good morning. Over the weekend the new left-wing party being built by Jeremy Corbyn, Zarah Sultana and their supporters held its first conference. It came after months of public in-fighting and factional disputes, and in the wake of two independent MPs quitting the project before it even had a name. In the end, the main announcement proved somewhat underwhelming – with the party sticking with the bound-to-get-confusing moniker Your Party. But the decision to have a form of collective leadership, rather than face what threatened to be a bitter contest between Corbyn and Sultana for the top job, may prove ultimately more consequential. Sultana’s refusal to attend on Saturday, in solidarity with delegates expelled over links to other parties, suggested the in-fighting isn’t over. I spoke to Geraldine McKelvie, a senior correspondent for the Guardian, who attended the conference on Saturday, about the party’s chaotic start, its still-emerging policy platform, and the danger that it may already have been outflanked by Zack Polanski’s surging Green party. Before that, here are the headlines. Five big stories Politics | Labour’s economic plan will take years to deliver in full, Keir Starmer has said as he tries to regain the narrative after a turbulent response to last week’s budget. In an article for the Guardian, the prime minister hit back at his political opponents, insisting the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, was right to impose £26bn worth of tax rises. Bangladesh | A Bangladesh court has sentenced MP and former minister Tulip Siddiq to two years in jail, in a corruption case involving the alleged illegal allocation of a plot of land. Siddiq has denied the allegations and the trial was conducted in her absence. Ukraine | Ukrainian negotiators have met US officials in Florida to thrash out details of Washington’s proposed framework to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, as Kyiv faces pressure on military and political fronts. Israel | Benjamin Netanyahu has asked Israel’s president for a pardon for bribery and fraud charges and an end to a five-year corruption trial, arguing that it would be in the “national interest”. Extreme weather | Sri Lanka and Indonesia have deployed military personnel to help victims of devastating flooding that has killed nearly 1,000 people across four countries in Asia in recent days. In depth: Your Party’s moment of truth Hundreds of thousands of people immediately signed up to join the Your Party mailing list when plans for the party were first announced back in July, and 2,500 delegates gathered in Liverpool over the weekend for the inaugural conference. “It feels odd to put a number on support for a party that didn’t formally have a name yet,” Geraldine McKelvie told me. We are so far out from the likely date of the next general election as to render polling figures akin to reading tea leaves, but recent YouGov numbers suggested about 12% of voters would consider backing Your Party – a sign that a sizeable chunk of the left remains dismayed by the direction of Keir Starmer’s government. *** Chaos from the start and splits in the ranks The party did not get off to a great start. Back in September, a moment that should have been celebratory: Zarah Sultana’s public announcement that she was leaving Labour to co-lead a new left-wing party with Jeremy Corbyn – quickly turned sour. The problem, it turned out, was that Corbyn and his allies had not yet committed to the project. Instead of keeping quiet, they began briefing this to the press. This moment, Geraldine told me, was such a bad start to the project that it’s now known internally as “terrible Thursday”. Then came the misfiring tech side of the launch. “Sultana set up a membership portal, collected a lot of personal data and membership fees, and Corbyn’s team were really unhappy about that, as she seemed to have done it off her own bat”, said Geraldine. The money has subsequently seemed to be in limbo – but the headlines the story generated, plus the vibe of financial mismanagement and general incompetence, have not been good for the party. Peter Walker teed up the conference on Friday with an in-depth piece worth reading, that sums up the debacle of the party’s origins: “At one point we had six MPs and four different factions.” Two of the MPs who initially backed the project – Blackburn MP Adnan Hussain and Dewsbury and Batley MP Iqbal Mohamed – have since split away “They said the atmosphere was toxic and not inclusive enough,” Geraldine said. “They were among a cohort of independent MPs elected in 2024 in areas with a large Muslim population standing almost on a pro-Gaza single-issue ticket. “They tend to be quite culturally conservative, whereas many new Your Party members are very progressive on issues like transgender rights. Finding a consensus between those groups will be a challenge.” *** A different kind of conference The weekend in Liverpool was promoted as a very different type of conference. Instead of delegates being appointed by local party branches – which don’t exist yet – people were selected to attend by sortition, a system akin to random jury service, but weighted to make the hall broadly representative of the membership. But supporters of one particular Your Party member dominate. “The party is built around Jeremy Corbyn’s appeal. Without him, would people still be attracted to it?” asked Geraldine. And that presents its own problems: Corbyn is 76 now, and could be 80 come the next election – and while Corbyn might still have a political appetite by then, it’s also hard to predict. Going into the weekend’s conference was unlike covering other political gatherings, Geraldine said. “By Thursday evening there was still no programme. I still didn’t know what debates were happening when. I’d been chasing advisers for details. All I knew was that there would be a few debates and some amendments voted on – but not what the subjects were.” *** What did conference decide? “We have a party, we have rules, we have a constitution, we have enthusiasm, we have commitment, we have principles. And, above all, we have a name,” Corbyn said yesterday as it was revealed that given the options Your Party, Our Party, Popular Alliance and For The Many, 37% of members had opted to stay with what they know. The more significant outcome longer term was a narrow vote for ‘“collective leadership”. A new member-led executive will take the big decisions around the party’s management and strategy, with a chair, deputy chair and spokesperson helping to provide public leadership. It may be a very public symbol of doing politics differently, but it isn’t a structure the British voting public are yet familiar with. It was the option that Sultana had spoken in favour of – and avoids any chance of a messy leadership contest in the near future. In what appeared to be another win for Sultana’s view of the party’s future there was also a vote in favour of allowing members to hold dual membership of other political groups. Sultana had refused to attend on Saturday after delegates were expelled over links to other leftwing parties. She had described that as a “witch-hunt”, even as Corbyn was supportive of the decision. *** The threat from the Greens While Your Party attempts to get itself organised, the Zack Polanski-led Green party of England and Wales – the Scottish Greens are a separate entity – appears to have marched firmly on to the turf of the progressive left. Geraldine thinks the Greens’ current momentum is a major strategic threat to the success of Your Party. The numbers here are telling; the Green party now has more members than the Conservatives, and has been left wondering how to spend a huge cash windfall of £4m from new members (£), and it also seems to have eaten up a huge swathe of voters who have turned off Your Party. That could be good news for the left, but it’s certainly bad news for Your Party. “Left-wing politics often has a reputation for being quite factional,” Geraldine reminded me, adding “but Your Party seems to be the epitome of that already, and it’s not even a year old. That may put a lot of the electorate off.” *** The road ahead The party has left itself a great deal of work to do if it wants to contest the Scottish parliament, Welsh Senedd and English local elections in May 2026, and will announce a decision on its plans for those shortly. Reform UK’s troubles with off-piste MPs and councillors since the 2024 general election have ably demonstrated how difficult it is for a new(ish) party to vet a large slate of candidates in a hurry. “They’ve been deliberately very light on policy,” Geraldine said. “But beyond the Gaza issue that some of the independents were elected on, it’s not clear what the party stands for. Members want it to be member-led, but before the next election voters will want to know what they’re actually offering.” And once a platform emerges, it carries risks. “There’s a danger,” Geraldine said, “that if their policies are too out of line with the British public on things like Nato – where barely 8% support an exit – soft-left Labour voters disillusioned with Starmer might find it easier to protest-vote Lib Dem as a more moderate option.” Whether any of the weekend’s decisions in Liverpool brought clarity – or merely added new layers of factional argument – is something Your Party members may still be working out today. What else we’ve been reading Simon Hattenstone’s interview with Jessie J is good on so many levels. First of all, it gave me closure about that time she left her long-term relationship with a woman and then referred to it as “just a phase”. But I was also just amazed at her optimism and resilience. Poppy Noor, newsletters team The full scale of the Trump cash-machine is laid bare by Tom Burgis, and while you may think you know the story – the frenzy of deal making is still shocking. Toby Moses, newsletters team Zoe Williams on the tactics we can all use to resist hard-line governments is a rousing, heartening lesson in philosophy and community organising. Poppy Has the UK reached peak pizza? Sarah Butler examines the biggest question of our age, after the news last week that the chief exec of Domino’s was stepping down shortly after having suggested a pivot to fried chicken. Toby I loved our infographic on the sex lives of gen Z, which I knew nothing about prior! Poppy Sport Football | Premier League leaders Arsenal were held 1-1 at Stamford Bridge, despite Chelsea going down to 10 men in the 38th minute when Moisés Caicedo was sent off for a horrible challenge on Mikel Merino, pictured above. The Spanish international went on to score the equaliser. Formula One | Max Verstappen won the Qatar Grand Prix, ensuring the title will go down to the final race in Abu Dhabi. Rugby union | Bath won 36-29 at Saracens, despite having been 14-0 down, with Henry Arundell scoring two tries. The front pages The fallout from the budget continues, as the Guardian leads with “PM says bold plan will take years to deliver as he hits back at critics”. The Times headline is “Ministers: Reeves misled us over hole in finances”, while the Telegraph says “Reeves faces ethics probe over Budget lies”. The Mail reports “Farage: Reeves must face sleaze probe over Budget lies”. The i has “I didn’t lie about Budget tax rises and black hole, insists Reeves”. The Financial Times headlines “Nato chiefs weigh ‘more aggressive’ response to Russian hybrid warfare”. Finally the Mirror kicks off its Christmas appeal with “A lifeline to the world”. Today in Focus The women throwing off their hijabs in Tehran Social media videos of women riding motorbike and dancing in the streets in the Islamic Republic have gone viral. But after war, and the crushing of the ‘Women, life, freedom’ movement what is life really like? Deepa Parent reports. Cartoon of the day | Tom Gauld The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad At 85, Sir Cliff Richard is out on the road again – because, despite being exiled from pop’s mainstream, he’s outlasted his contemporaries. Last week, he finished a run of shows in Australia and New Zealand. He was the artist who opened the British rock’n’roll era, with Move It in 1958 – and the UK leg of his Can’t Stop Me Now tour – opening in Cardiff – is finishing at the Royal Albert Hall on 9 December. After 67 years he is still selling out big rooms, despite being shunned from the radio long ago. So what’s behind his enduring appeal? To the uninitiated, Sir Cliff’s continued presence in the music space is, at best, a mystery, and at worst an affront to taste. That is to misunderstand him: because Sir Cliff doesn’t so much operate in the music business as he does in the Cliff Richard business. Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday Bored at work? And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply