Chancellor is backed by prime minister after saying she inadvertently' failed to pay fee required by London councilRachel Reeves has admitted to inadvertently" breaking housing rules by renting out her south London home without the specific 945 licence required by the local council.The chancellor admitted the error to the prime minister, Keir Starmer, and to parliamentary ethics officers, after it was first disclosed by the Daily Mail. Continue reading...
Media group's own paper publishes photograph of RedBird Capital chair with alleged spy ring chiefThe sale of the Telegraph Media Group has been thrown into fresh turmoil after the company's own newspaper linked its presumed new owner to the suspected ringleader of the alleged Chinese spy ring in Westminster.Wednesday's edition of the Daily Telegraph published a 2024 photograph of the financier John Thornton shaking hands with Cai Qi, a senior member of the Chinese Communist party's ruling politburo, raising questions as to whether the British title is being weighed as a means for China to exert foreign influence. Continue reading...
Frans Timmermans resigns as GreenLeft-Labour leader as exit poll suggests Geert Wilders' far-right PVV could finish secondThe Anne Frank House is not the only unusual place where voters can cast their votes today.The Dutch Vogue has a list of 11 special locations, including a children's zoo in Amsterdam, the marine museum in Rotterdam, the miniature park in The Hague. Continue reading...
Strong demand for ads and cloud services powered tech giant's growth as it makes multibillion-dollar AI investmentGoogle's parent company, Alphabet, displayed steady growth in its core advertising business and cloud computing division as it reported third-quarter earnings on Wednesday, beating Wall Street estimates as it reported its first quarter of $100bn in revenue.The company thrilled Wall Street - shares rose in after-hours trading - even as it announced that it would spend billions more than previously predicted. Alphabet raised its capital expenditure guidance in financial filings, declaring it would spend between $91bn and $93bn in the upcoming year, nearly all of it on infrastructure like datacenters to support artificial intelligence products, which are becoming an integral part of the company's business. That estimate is up from an original declaration of $75bn in February and a revised figure of $85bn announced in July. Continue reading...
Government still struggling to win the agenda from Reform, leaving planners trusting voters will sour on what they seeAfter Nigel Farage dominated the summer headlines with weekly press conferences while his rivals were on their sunloungers and the news agenda was light, Labour strategists swore they would never let it happen again.Labour MPs had returned to Westminster after recess, fuming that the government had vacated the public arena and allowed Reform UK to shape the narrative to the extent that the mood hardened against Keir Starmer. Continue reading...
Starmer signs agreement with visiting Vietnamese leader after surge in clandestine arrivals from countryVietnamese people who arrive in the UK by irregular means will be fast-tracked for deportation under a new agreement, Downing Street has said.After a surge in clandestine arrivals from the south-east Asian country last year via small boats and in the back of lorries, the deal is supposed to cut red tape and make it faster and easier to return those with no right to be in the UK. Continue reading...
Committee asks for rationale behind spending public money in relation to Andrew after recent controversyPoliticians are demanding clarity over Prince Andrew's peppercorn" rent at Royal Lodge, as the parliamentary spending watchdog writes to the Treasury and crown estate asking for an explanation.Keir Starmer had indicated that he was open to MPs questioning Andrew in person about his home in Windsor Great Park, where he has lived for more than 20 years. Continue reading...
Police are no closer to recovering the gems, despite the arrest of two men last weekTwo men arrested on suspicion of stealing crown jewels worth an estimated 88m (76m) from the Louvre in Paris have partially admitted" their role in the heist, the prosecutor has said, but police are no closer to recovering the gems.Laure Beccuau said the pair, arrested on Sunday, would be brought before magistrates with a view to being charged with organised theft, which carries a 15-year prison sentence, and criminal conspiracy, punishable by 10 years". Continue reading...
Lib Dems say ECHR protects our elderly and most vulnerable...the very people who need it most'Mark Sedwill, the former cabinet secretary and former national security adviser, goes next. He is now a peer, and a member of the committee.He says the deputy national security adviser, Matthew Collins, thought there was enough evidence for the case to go ahead. But the CPS did not agree. Who was right?In 2017, the Law Commission flagged that the term enemy [in the legislation] was deeply problematic and it would give rise to difficulties in future prosecutions.And I think what has played out, during this prosecution exemplifies and highlights the difficulties with that. Continue reading...
The Times deletes article after its reporter was duped by impostor pretending to be former New York mayorThe Times has apologized and deleted an article after discovering its reporter had been duped by someone pretending to be Bill de Blasio, the former mayor of New York City.The UK newspaper removed the article from its website after the real De Blasio released a statement calling the quotes attributed to him entirely false and fabricated" and lambasted the Times for its absolute violation of journalistic ethics". Continue reading...
After staff realized suspect had been freed, officers began search and confirmed he was no longer in the area'A manhunt is underway in California after a murder suspect was accidentally released from jail last week.The Contra Costa sheriff's office said that it was investigating the release of 20-year-old Isaiah Jamon Andrews of Kent, Washington. Andrews was released on 22 October from the Martinez detention facility in northern California. Continue reading...
John Ashby, 32, did not enter a plea and was remanded to appear in Birmingham crown courtA man charged with the rape and sexual assault of a Sikh woman in Walsall has been remanded in custody after entering no plea at Birmingham magistrates court.This comes after a woman in her 20s was attacked in the Park Hall area of Walsall on 25 October 2025, West Midlands police said on Tuesday. Continue reading...
Government critics abducted, killed or arrested in run-up to vote as global monitor records internet blackoutViolent demonstrations broke out in Tanzania's largest city, Dar es Salaam, as the country held an election on Wednesday.Samia Suluhu Hassan, the president, is expected to strengthen her grip on the country against the backdrop of rapidly intensifying repression and the exclusion of opponents from the presidential contest. Continue reading...
by Eleni Courea Political correspondent on (#713B1)
Richard Hermer says failure by Kemi Badenoch and James Cleverly to describe China as a threat would have been seized on in trialDefence lawyers would have used Kemi Badenoch and James Cleverly's statements about China to dismiss a case against two men charged with spying for Beijing, the attorney general has argued.Richard Hermer told parliament that there would have been plenty of reference" by Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry's lawyers to Conservative ministers' policy positions had the trial gone ahead. Continue reading...
Steve Reed writes to South Cambridgeshire council raising concerns over performance and value for moneyThe local government secretary, Steve Reed, is seeking to clamp down on councils introducing four-day working weeks after writing to South Cambridgeshire warning that the policy has damaged performance.Reed told the council, which is the only local authority to formally trial a four-day week for staff, that the move risked worsening public services and value for money. Continue reading...
Sales benefited from warm summer, M&S online shutdown after cyber-attack and supply improvementsNext has raised hopes that UK consumers are still willing to spend despite pressures on household budgets, as it revealed sales and profit growth materially above" expectations.The clothing and homeware retailer said it benefited from sunny weather over the summer, the online shutdown of the rival Marks & Spencer for several weeks after an Easter cyber-attack and an improvement in clothing supplies from countries such as Bangladesh compared with last year. Continue reading...
Big win leaves many wondering if result reflects genuine support for president or corrosive US influenceOpposition posters scattered across Buenos Aires before Sunday's midterms showed president Javier Milei's name plastered over a US flag, in a bid to tap into anti-American sentiment over Donald Trump's alleged interference in Argentina's election.Days before the vote, the US president announced a $40bn bailout for his Argentinian counterpart but warned that if Milei did not win he would withdraw his support. Continue reading...
Major parties rule out coalition with rightwinger, giving his party little chance of being part of governmentVoting is under way in a knife-edge parliamentary election in the Netherlands that polls suggest could again be won by the far-right Freedom party (PVV) of Geert Wilders, although there is little chance of it being part of the next government.The PVV, which finished a shock first in the last election and formed a short-lived, four-party rightwing coalition, has seen its once sizeable lead fade fast. With nearly half the electorate undecided, analysts say the race is too tight to call. Continue reading...
Kebatu, who was wrongly freed from Essex prison, was put on a flight to Ethiopia and arrived on WednesdayA convicted child sex offender who arrived in the UK in a small boat and was mistakenly released from prison has been deported, the Home Office says.Hadush Kebatu arrived in Ethiopia in the early hours after being removed from the UK on a flight with no right to return, a statement said. Continue reading...
by Vikram Dodd Police and crime correspondent on (#712SM)
Dog walker was reportedly walking past Uxbridge house where man and child were stabbedMurder detectives are investigating after a man believed to have been walking a dog past a house where a row had broken out was stabbed to death.The 49-year-old man, named locally as Wayne Broadhurst, died in Midhurst Gardens, Uxbridge, west London, in an incident when a man and a child were also stabbed. Continue reading...
Parents say they were treated as fraudsters because Home Office travel records failed to show their return to UKThe UK tax authorities have announced they will no longer cut off parents' child benefit payments after a new crackdown on overseas fraud backfired due to incomplete Home Office travel data.The flawed data led to HMRC suspending 23,500 payments in recent weeks, including for many families who had simply gone on holiday without the Home Office recording their return. Continue reading...
In today's newsletter: Meteorologists have called it a dire situation unfolding in slow motion' - what will it leave behind?Good morning. Hurricane Melissa, the strongest storm to hit Jamaica since records began in 1851, made landfall at about midday local time on Tuesday. With winds reaching 185mph and torrential rains, it knocked out power lines, cut off the internet, and demolished buildings; the death toll and extent of the damage are still unknown.The storm has already hit Haiti and the Dominican Republic; though it was at one stage downgraded to a tropical storm, now it has strengthened again and is expected to arrive imminently in Cuba, where more than 700,000 people have been evacuated. The reports that are coming in are catastrophic," Jamaican energy and transport minister Daryl Vaz told Sky News. Not very much survives a Category 5 hurricane, in terms of infrastructure."Economy | Rachel Reeves has said Britain can defy gloomy economic forecasts after the fiscal watchdog infuriated ministers by predicting a productivity downgrade would leave her with a 20bn gap to fill in her forthcoming budget.Sudan | Ethnically motivated mass killings and other atrocities are being reported from El Fasher after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces took control of the city in Sudan's western Darfur region over the weekend.UK news | Downing Street has defended the prospect of paying more to house asylum seekers in disused barracks instead of hotels, arguing that quelling public disquiet was worth the extra cost. No 10 said that communities don't want asylum seekers housed in hotels, and neither does the government".Middle East | Israeli warplanes struck Gaza on Tuesday night, shortly after Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, ordered the military to carry out powerful strikes" in Gaza, in the most serious test of the increasingly shaky US-brokered ceasefire.Television | Prunella Scales, the actor best known for playing Sybil Fawlty in the classic comedy series Fawlty Towers, has died aged 93. Scales, who was married to fellow actor Timothy West, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2013. Continue reading...
US president to be presented with replica royal gold crown before meeting his South Korean counterpart, Lee Jae Myung, but expectations of a breakthrough on tariffs are lowDonald Trump landed in South Korea on Wednesday to meet President Lee Jae Myung, with deadlocked talks over a $350bn trade deal between the two countries threatening to cast a shadow over the event.After arriving on a flight from Tokyo, where he signed a rare earths deal with Japan's new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, the US president addressed a summit of CEOs ahead of a meeting with Lee in the town of Gyeongju, a historical city playing host to the annual Apec summit. Continue reading...
by Eleni Courea Political correspondent on (#71342)
Exclusive: Former PM gave consent while foreign secretary for Royal Mint Court complex, a project still in limbo seven years laterBoris Johnson approved the China's super-embassy proposal in 2018 and welcomed the fact it would represent China's largest overseas diplomatic investment" anywhere in the world, the Guardian can disclose.In a letter to Wang Yi, China's top diplomat, Johnson gave his consent for Royal Mint Court to house a sprawling diplomatic complex in May 2018. The Chinese government bought the 20,000 sq metres site for 255m that same month. Continue reading...
NSW police say an investigation is under way following the death of a man at Sutherland hospital' while Vanessa Moulton, 42, has denied sabotage charges
by Tobi Thomas Health and inequalities correspondent on (#7130B)
Those in need of free emergency contraception no longer have to see their GP or attend a sexual health clinicThe NHS has made the morning-after pill available for free across pharmacies in England in an effort to reduce a postcode lottery" of access to emergency contraception.Almost 10,000 pharmacies are now able to offer the pill without charge, saving those in need of free emergency contraception from having to visit their GP or to get an appointment at a sexual health clinic. Continue reading...
Between 15 and 80 Binjareb Noongar people were killed in the massacre which was led by the then WA governor, James StirlingWarning: This article contains historical records that use racist and offensive language, and descriptions of events that will be distressing to some readers. It also contains references to Indigenous Australians who have died
by Rajeev Syal, Aletha Adu and Libby Brooks on (#712TX)
Government defends prospect of paying more for barracks, saying people don't want asylum seekers in hotels'Downing Street has defended the prospect of paying more to house asylum seekers in disused barracks instead of hotels, arguing that quelling public disquiet was worth any extra cost.As refugee organisations and local politicians described plans to house tens of thousands of people in ex-military sites as fanciful" and too expensive", No 10 said that communities don't want asylum seekers housed in hotels, and neither does the government". Continue reading...
Governor says city at war' after gunfights between troops and Red Command drug traffickers who reportedly used weaponised dronesAt least 64 people have reportedly been killed in Rio's worst-ever day of violence as more than 2,500 officers and special forces stormed an area of favelas near Rio's international airport that is considered the headquarters of one of Brazil's most powerful organised crime groups.The predawn police raid - the deadliest in Rio's history - sparked intense gunfights in and around Alemao and Penha favelas, which are home to an estimated 300,000 people. Continue reading...
Wiltshire police leading investigation into allegations about enlistment examinations between the 1970s and 2016Hundreds of women have come forward to allege sexual abuse took place during British army medical examinations over five decades.Police are investigating claims of abuse at various army locations in the UK, and officers believe multiple alleged perpetrators may be involved. Continue reading...
by Rowena Mason, Whitehall correspondent on (#712TZ)
The department is once again the subject of debate about whether it is beyond repair after immigration and prison problemsIt's not that the Home Office is too big. It's that the brains of many of the people who run it are not big enough," says one former departmental insider.Unwieldy, dysfunctional and plagued by poor morale, the Home Office is once again the subject of debate about whether it is beyond repair and should simply be chopped up into two more manageable units. Continue reading...
Tiphaine Auziere spoke at trial of 10 people accused of harassment by posting claims that French first lady was born a manBrigitte Macron's daughter has told a Paris court that false claims online that the French first lady was born a man had damaged her mother's quality of life, leaving her worrying every day about the clothes she wears and how she stands.Tiphaine Auziere, 41, a lawyer, was called as a witness at the trial of 10 people accused of online harassment of Brigitte Macron by creating or reposting social media posts falsely claiming she was a man. Continue reading...
Former PM says a pact would destroy the Conservatives for good and urges them not to desert centre groundJohn Major has told the Conservatives that forming an alliance with Reform UK would for ever destroy" the party, which he said had already left traditional supporters politically homeless" by lurching too far to the right.The former prime minister dismissed a pact with Nigel Farage's party as beyond stupid", saying that any Tories tempted to defect to Reform should go now because his own party would be better off without them. Continue reading...
by Carlos Mureithi in Nairobi and agencies on (#712D5)
Rapid Support Forces accused of killing more than 2,000 unarmed civilians in El Fasher in recent daysReports of ethnically motivated mass killings and other atrocities are emerging from El Fasher after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces took control of the city in Sudan's western Darfur region over the weekend.Video released by local activists showed a fighter known for executing civilians in RSF-controlled areas shooting a group of unarmed civilians sitting on the ground at point-blank range. Continue reading...
The Ukrainian president stressed that this would not a plan to end the war' but one to begin diplomacy'EU's von der Leyen also gets asked about the balloons disrupting the Lithuanian airspace.She says she wants to express my full solidarity" with Lithuania, and calls it a provocation, a hybrid threat," which we cannot tolerate."We're in for the long haul. We are ready to cover the financing needs of Ukraine, so that we are standing by Ukraine for as long as it takes. Continue reading...
Dania Alafranji, 16, still waiting on visa from Home Office despite being offered school place in Berkshire 18 months agoA teenager from Gaza who has been denied an opportunity to attend school in Britain and be reunited with her mother has said she is stuck in hell", despite other European countries making exceptions for students from the region.Dania Alafranji, 16, was accepted on to the Nsouli Scholars Programme to attend Reddam House school in Berkshire more than 18 months ago, but has yet to receive a visa that would allow her to escape the war in Gaza, with her family saying that they feel helpless and have been going in circles" trying to get her to Britain. Continue reading...
by Mark Brown North of England correspondent on (#712HG)
Family of Bella Culley, 19, paid 138,000 in deal that could result in a two-year sentence in former Soviet republicThe family of a pregnant British teenager being held on drug smuggling charges in Georgia have paid 138,000 in a plea bargain deal that could result in a two-year jail sentence.It may mean that Bella Culley, a 19-year-old student nurse from Billingham, Teesside, will give birth while imprisoned in the former Soviet republic. Continue reading...
Former Labour leader will make onscreen cameo as Wizard of Oz-lington' in drag production of Wicked WitchesHe has spent a whole career dealing with booing and hissing in the House of Commons. But now in the run-up to Christmas, the former Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn will bring that experience to bear as he appears in pantomime at a north London theatre.The Islington North MP, who sits as an independent, will perform as the Wizard of Oz-lington" in a drag production of Wicked Witches. The venue said he would make an onscreen cameo. Continue reading...
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