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The latest move has roiled one of the most fiercely contested Senate contests

Chris Philp says the home secretary is giving in to open-borders Labour left' ahead of an announcement this afternoonDowning Street has declined to say how much it cost for the plane carrying Andy Burnham and UK delegates to a Commonwealth leaders' summit to stop in Manchester to pick him up (see 10.28am), the Press Association reports.At the morning lobby briefing, asked if this was an appropriate use of public money, the PM's spokesperson said:The prime minister's travel arrangements are made on the basis of security, operational requirements, and value for money for the taxpayer.The prime minister's travel arrangements reflect where he was carrying out official government business at the end of last week. Continue reading...

Supermarkets across Europe have experienced temperature- control meddlingThe fake nuclear threats to Ukraine came as Russia resumed its attacks on the southern city of Kherson, just hours after the end of a ceasefire during which hundreds of people were evacuated from the nearby Kremlin-controlled town of Oleshky.Kherson's military administration said a Russian drone hit a hospital at 7.40am. Video footage showed wrecked rooms, with windows blown out, doors broken, and debris on the street. Nobody was hurt, officials said. Continue reading...

Action taken to prevent bottom trawling in the marine protected area and conserve porpoise populationsGreenpeace activists have dropped boulders in the North Sea to snag the dragnets of industrial trawlers fishing in a marine protected area.Activists onboard the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise dropped the giant stones to form an underwater barrier around the Southern North Sea marine protected area (MPA) - the UK's most bottom-trawled MPA. Continue reading...

Concerns about datacenters and high energy bills could help Democrats clinch races in Ohio, Arizona and MichiganIn Arizona, where summer temperatures regularly hit triple digits, air conditioning can be a matter of life and death. This year, as the state recorded its hottest summer on record, Diali Avila's monthly power bill went up to $400, the highest it has ever been.Avila, the state director for Climate Power, an advocacy group, said the upcoming elections offered voters an opportunity to elect candidates who can ease their utility bills. People are making the connection: they're looking at their electricity bills that they get at the end of the month, and then they're looking at their ballot, and they're [realizing], this is my moment to take action," she said. Continue reading...

Prospect to hold workplace sessions and recruit members under agreement with tech companyTrade unions are expected to make further inroads into big tech companies in the UK after new rights for unions to access workplaces came into force, with Google UK signing an agreement on Monday.The Prospect union has reached an agreement with Google to begin organising among about 7,000 workers across its UK operations, including YouTube butexcluding DeepMind. Continue reading...

Airline also weighs up reducing crew on flights and increasing use of AI as part of cost-cutting measures

Letter from mayor tells federal agents to stay out of city-owned facilities for immigration operationsMayor Zohran Mamdani has threatened to take legal action against Immigration and Customs Enforcement over allegations the agency's officers at the agency are using parking lots owned by New York City for operations in the area.In a letter to the Trump administration, Mamdani noted the agency's use of property owned by the city was unauthorized and is therefore illegal, endangers City residents, and sows fear among those who seek to access City property". Continue reading...

The Jojo Rabbit director blamed the dismal numbers for his film of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel on obsolete' reviewers' notices, adding that he works for the people' - whose Rotten Tomatoes ratings are much higherTaika Waititi has launched a furious broadside at critics" following the disastrous commercial performance of Klara and the Sun, his new film adapted from a Kazuo Ishiguro novel.In a post on social media, Waititi wrote: This Halloween, let's spare a thought for those sad lost souls who couldn't achieve their dreams of becoming artists, and thus settled, and became critics." Continue reading...

Ibstock, which has cut production by a fifth, criticises government for delay in help for housing sectorSales at the UK's largest brickmaker plunged by more than a fifth over the summer, as it criticised the government for not introducing fresh help for the housing sector faster.Leicestershire-based Ibstock said on Monday that sales slumped by 22% below its expectations in the quarter to the end of September, prompting it to slash production levels by a fifth. Continue reading...

Singer hit No 1 with pop-rock band in 1968 and scored three more Top 10 hits with them, before solo career featuring collaborations with Paul WellerSteve Ellis, the singer who found fame as the frontman of 60s pop-rockers Love Affair, has died aged 76. A message on social media announced that Ellis died peacefully" on 30 October, after complications from a chronic illness".With his stirring, heartfelt croon, Ellis gave voice to one of the most enduring hits of the 1960s: Everlasting Love, which topped the UK chart in 1968. Continue reading...

Chains in Sweden, Belgium and Luxembourg say fridge temperatures rose overnight, similar to hack of French storesSupermarket chains in Sweden, Belgium and Luxembourg have said the temperatures of their refrigerators and freezers in dozens of stores rose overnight, prompting fears of a cyber-attack similar to one that caused millions of euros of food losses in France.Sweden's Coop chain told the daily Aftonbladet on Monday that six of its stores had been affected, while ICA said it was aware that a limited number of stores were affected by an incident overnight which impacted their refrigeration and freezer systems". Continue reading...

Residents in Kyiv also warned of chemical attack and street-to-street fighting in false message sent by unknown party

Father says officers did not tell the truth' of what happened after teenager was handcuffed as he bled to deathThe family of the murdered teenager Henry Nowak, who was arrested as he pleaded for medical help after being stabbed, have said they were failed by the authorities and fear they were manipulated in their darkest hour.His parents described how police wrongly told them Henry, 18, had been the aggressor, and that officers had immediately administered first aid. And they said the police watchdog had initially insisted there was no evidence of misconduct by officers. Continue reading...

Actor, who appeared in Dad's Army and Rainbow, remembered as true gent' by TV producer Russell T DaviesJohn Leeson, the actor best known as the voice of K9, the robot dog in Doctor Who, has died at 83.Leeson's son, Guy Ducker, shared the news on Facebook. He wrote: I regret to announce the death of my father ... after a summer of illness. The end was peaceful." Continue reading...

Jasper Jones writer sent multiple messages about his sexual desire for young boys, Western Australian district court hears

Mal Evans's tale of historic meeting among revelations in forthcoming memoir unpublished before his death in 1976Meeting Elvis Presley was the biggest day of all the years I have spent with the famous Beatles", the band's loyal road manager wrote.It is among recollections in a memoir that Mal Evans had planned to publish, with the band's permission, before his death in 1976, aged 40, in a shooting by the Los Angeles police. Distraught over the breakup of his marriage, it is believed to have been suicide by cop" after he repeatedly pointed an air rifle at police. Continue reading...

From 1945 to 1989 security police relied on tens of thousands of spies to suppress dissent. To rebuild trust, their files will finally be made publicHungary's new government will on Wednesday reveal the names of tens of thousands of state informants from the communist era in an attempt to confront the past and rebuild public trust.From 1945 to 1989, Hungary's communist state-security services relied on an extensive network of informants to monitor society and suppress dissent. Some were blackmailed or coerced into reporting on neighbours, friends, colleagues and even family members; others were recruited through promises of various advantages. Continue reading...

Woman among hundreds asking why electronic trackers not fitted before offenders leave prisonA domestic violence survivor who was punched, threatened with a knife and had her front door kicked in by her former partner is living in terror" because he has still not been fitted with a tracking tag, weeks after his release from prison.Michelle, 38, who now lives in a static caravan with her four children, said relatives were sleeping on her floor in case the man tried to attack again. He had been recalled to prison on several occasions before for breaching his probation conditions. Continue reading...

Australia's central bank expected to hit mortgage holders again on Tuesday, as war in Middle East combines with collapsing house prices

Frustration grows over the economy with one Labor MP saying voter anger is already high ahead of Reserve Bank of Australia decision

Paediatric early warning system (Pews) uses a vital signs scoring system to assess whether a child is deterioratingThe world's largest early warning system" to spot when sick children are dangerously deteriorating is being introduced in A&E departments across England, NHS leaders have said.The national paediatric early warning system (Pews) uses a scoring system for vital signs to assess whether a child needs more urgent attention. It is already used for inpatients, but NHS England has said this winter will be the first time it is used in A&E. Continue reading...

More than 2.3m households face jump in payments in 2027, after expected increase in Bank of England rate this weekMore than 2.3m UK households face a sharp rise in mortgage payments as they come off fixed-rate deals in 2027, with the Bank of England expected to begin raising interest rates this week.The Bank's nine-member monetary policy committee (MPC) is widely expected to increase the base rate from 3.75% to 4% on 5 November after UK inflation rose further to 3.5% in September. Continue reading...

Survey finds UK government's decision to impose trade ban was not a decisive factor in how Israelis voted in electionThe UK government's decision to impose a ban on trade in goods from illegal settlements was not decisive in how Israelis voted in their general election, but a majority think the Israeli government's settlements policy should change if it is going to lead to further sanctions, a new poll of Israelis shows.There had been fierce criticism of the UK foreign secretary Ed Miliband's decision in September to impose a trade ban and wider sanctions on illegal settlements, with some claiming it would drive Israeli voters into the arms of Benjamin Netanyahu. Continue reading...

Yousef Jabareen says he is ready to join forces with opposition bloc to oust Benjamin Netanyahu after winning record number of seats in KnessetThe leader of Israel's main Palestinian coalition, which holds the balance of power after Tuesday's elections, has said the country is facing a historic opportunity to change direction.Yousef Jabareen, the head of the Joint List, said he was ready to join forces with the Change" bloc to oust Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right coalition, and to wrest control of the Knesset. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Professional bodies call for regulation to boost confidence and protect public from abuse in landmark' reportMinisters should introduce statutory regulation for counsellors and psychotherapists to protect the public from abuse, according to a report that has been hailed as a watershed moment" for the profession.Unlike most other healthcare roles, including doctors, midwives and osteopaths, psychotherapist" and counsellor" are not protected titles nor statutorily regulated professions in the UK. Continue reading...

Commons committee says lack of coherent strategy is hampering business and leaving national security risks unaddressedThe UK is making up policy on China as it goes along" and risks having its strategy dictated by Washington or Beijing, a parliamentary report has concluded.An investigation by the Commons business, innovation, science and trade select committee said Labour's failure to formulate a coherent strategy since 2024 combined the worst of both worlds" for the UK in relation to China. Continue reading...

Judicial commission finds against Vicky Prapas over a series of comments, including one made when school children were present

I'm just happy to catch fish,' Matthew Maurice says after landing 80cm barramundi as part of Northern Territory competition

The train disaster, one of Europe's deadliest rail incidents this century, killed 69 people, including 54 SpaniardsFour US citizens and one each from Canada, Japan, Argentina, Mexico, Tunisia and the Czech Republic were among the 69 killed in last week's high-speed train collision in Spain, authorities said.Wednesday's disaster - one of Europe's deadliest rail accidents this century - has seen victims' relatives endure an agonising wait as forensics teams identify the dead, sometimes from individual body parts. Continue reading...

The train disaster, one of Europe's deadliest rail incidents this century, killed 69 people, including 54 SpaniardsFour US citizens and one each from Canada, Japan, Argentina, Mexico, Tunisia and the Czech Republic were among the 69 killed in last week's high-speed train collision in Spain, authorities said.Wednesday's disaster - one of Europe's deadliest rail accidents this century - has seen victims' relatives endure an agonising wait as forensics teams identify the dead, sometimes from individual body parts. Continue reading...

My political career may die,' senator says after Michelle Landry announced she will not recontest her Queensland seat of Capricornia

British prime minister has now agreed to structured dialogue on reparatory justice but issue remains off formal Chogm agendaBritish officials reportedly insisted that discussions of reparations for slavery should not be on the agenda of the Commonwealth leaders' summit in Antigua and Barbuda - and even warned that Andy Burnham would not attend the meeting if the subject was formally included, according to a leading Caribbean political figure.Ralph Gonsalves, a former prime minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines and a senior figure in the reparatory justice movement Repair Campaign, welcomed Britain's decision to enter structured dialogue on reparations, but said the UK had come kicking and screaming" to the conversation. Continue reading...

Aircraft had departed Austin-Bergstrom international airport and was headed to the Bahamas when it crashedAll nine people have died who were aboard a business jet that crashed in a Florida neighborhood on Sunday, Sean Duffy, the US transportation secretary, said. The aircraft erupted in a massive fireball that appeared to just miss homes before crashing near a busy roadway.Duffy posted on X on Sunday that the Learjet 60 crashed in Palm Beach county at 12.50pm and called it a horrific tragedy". The Federal Aviation Administration is sending a team to support the National Transportation Safety Board's investigation into the cause, he said. Continue reading...

Judges hail Sofia Demetriades's performance of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto as full of insights, poetry and maturityA teenage violinist has won the BBC Young Musician competition 2026, in the first all-female final in the competition's 48-year history.The judges, Joanna MacGregor, Ben Gernon and Errollyn Wallen, hailed Sofia Demetriades's performance of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto as full of insights, poetry and maturity. Continue reading...

Incumbent Dan Sullivan says he will accept election results after unprecedented intervention' by Trump's DoJA judge has dismissed the Donald Trump-backed lawsuit seeking to block certification of Alaska's US Senate race if Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan loses.Trump said on 23 October that he had ordered the justice department to file the lawsuit in a move that voting rights experts called an unprecedented intervention" by the federal government with control of Congress in the balance. Continue reading...

MPs say Shabana Mahmood's new rules risk staff shortages in health and social care and second Windrush scandalShabana Mahmood will announce sweeping new rules on Monday on how long legal migrants must wait for settlement in the UK, with most likely to wait a decade and some up to 15 years.Ministers - including the housing secretary, Angela Rayner - had raised concerns about the effect the rules would have on care workers already in the UK who would be likely to face a 15-year wait for settlement, also known as indefinite leave to remain (ILR). Continue reading...

Dr Marta Shahbazi was travelling to a conference to receive award for scientific excellence in developmental biologyAn inspiring" University of Cambridge scientist died in the Spanish train collision on Wednesday that killed at least 69 people.Dr Marta Shahbazi, 41, an affiliate associate professor at the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and a group leader at the city's Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB), was travelling on one of the trains involved in the crash near Urda in Toledo province. Continue reading...

Third day of indirect talks as Qatar tries to negotiate release of $6bn in Iranian assets that could lead to waterway's reopeningOfficials from the Gulf states are braced for the worst" as they wait for Washington's response to an Iranian proposal that could reopen the strait of Hormuz before the US midterm elections on Tuesday.Indirect talks in Doha ran into a third day on Sunday with Qatar trying to negotiate the release of more than $6bn in Iranian assets, which could lead to the reopening of the strait of Hormuz and the restart of negotiations on Iran's nuclear programme. Continue reading...

On Brexit, devolution and investment, the former chancellor is eerily in tune with the man who sacked her

Residents of Menomonie mounted a successful protest against a huge campus in the city as national resistance to the AI boom growsIn the spring of 2025, Sydney Brennan was riding high. The 22-year-old was finishing college and was a newly elected councilwoman in Menomonie, a city of about 17,000 in the lush plains of north-western Wisconsin.Weeks into the new job, she was invited to a meeting with consultants pitching a $1.6bn AI hyperscale datacenter campus that an undisclosed big tech company wanted to build just outside of town. The project's numbers were eye-opening: a 320-acre site that would use an estimated 75,000 gallons of water per day, making it the most significant development in Menomonie's nearly 150-year history. Continue reading...

Arrests come ahead of Wednesday's supreme court challenge to the ban on the direct action groupPolice have said they arrested 325 people on Saturday at a demonstration outside the US embassy in London against the proscription of Palestine Action.In updated arrest figures released on Sunday, the Metropolitan police said 320 people were detained outside the building in Battersea, south London, for allegedly expressing support for an organisation banned under the Terrorism Act. Continue reading...

Kremlin says Kyiv is simply ignoring' US wishes days before midterm elections after reported strikes on two oil sitesUkraine has resumed its attacks on Russian oil refineries in defiance of pressure from Donald Trump ahead of the US midterm elections, with a ceasefire in the occupied town of Oleshky due to end late on Sunday.Russian state media said on Sunday Ukrainian long-range drones had set fire to the Kstovo refinery in Nizhny Novgorod oblast overnight, soon after a major strike against another big refinery in Samara oblast, owned by the Russian state energy giant Rosneft. Continue reading...

Mann taken to hospital with superficial injury after weapon accidentally discharged while holsteredHollywood director Michael Mann has been taken to the hospital following an apparently accidental shooting at a Los Angeles gun range, according to the Associated Press.Mann, 83, reportedly shot himself in the leg while at the The Range LA. The news was first reported on celebrity website TMZ. He sustained what his representative described as a superficial injury after a weapon accidentally discharged while holstered. Continue reading...

Youth-led protests end with street violence in cities across France, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal and AlbaniaFrench officials have opened an investigation into the attempted murder of a police officer and Germany's interior minister has called for harsh penalties after peaceful and mainly youth-led protests across Europe ended in violence.In Portugal, police - some with dogs - cleared protest camps with baton charges, while security forces in Switzerland were attacked with paving stones. Continue reading...

Police say three separate shootings occurred in Deep Ellum neighborhood and are trying to determine if they're relatedPolice in Dallas say four people are dead and 15 are injured following separate shootings in a Dallas neighborhood. It was among several violent incidents nationwide on Halloween weekend.The police chief, Daniel Comeaux, said police are still trying to determine if the shootings in the Deep Ellum neighborhood were related. Continue reading...

Police searching for unknown group' that gained entry to property in Chandler's Ford on Saturday nightFive teenage boys were stabbed at a Halloween party, after an unknown group" gained entry to the event on a residential road, police have been told.The boys, all aged 16 and 17, were found injured after police were called to a report five teenagers had been stabbed at a property in Chandler's Ford near Eastleigh, Hampshire, just after 10.30pm on Saturday. Continue reading...

Led by Congress party, India's opposition alliance channels anger over removal of 130 million names from voter rollThousands of opposition supporters have gathered in Delhi as protests against the Narendra Modi government continue to gather momentum.Led by the Congress party, India's opposition alliance has brought together supporters from across the country, amid growing anger over a large-scale revision of the country's voter roll that has seen 130 million names erased. Continue reading...

Prime minister says shake-up is vital to restore tribunal crippled by years of political disputesPoland's prime minister, Donald Tusk, has vowed to see through a contested overhaul of the country's constitutional court, declaring that in certain matters, there can be no compromise".In a prime-time television address on Saturday night, Tusk was defiant, despite overnight protests that saw riot police drafted to protect the court's building, saying the shake-up was vital to restore a tribunal crippled by years of political disputes. Continue reading...

Ahead of a meeting with Commonwealth leaders, Andy Burnham wrote that Britain needed to acknowledge its complicated history'At the end of his interview with Kuennsberg, Healey was also asked to comment on a potential apology for Britain's near-250 years of perpetrating the slave trade and why the government should or shouldn't pay reparations to enslaved people and their countries.Sitting in the grand settings of Number 11 Downing St, Kuenssberg pointed out the lavish interiors:Considering a formal apology doesn't mean accepting that British people now should accept the financial liability for any party and things that happened hundreds of years ago, in which they had no role.For almost 250 years (1560s-1807), British ships trafficked more than three million enslaved African men, women and children in a state policy backed by the monarchy and parliament.Many were taken to British-owned plantations in the Caribbean, which enslaved generations. Children were born into slavery, uprisings were put down with extreme brutalityThere were still 800,000 enslaved people on British plantations when enslavement was finally abolished by parliament in 1833Abolishment was only achieved because the government agreed to compensate" the enslavers. The government paid an enormous sum, the equivalent of billions of dollars these days, to the owners" of enslaved people; this came from a huge loan that was only paid off in 2015.Britain has never paid any compensation or reparations to the people who were enslaved, or their countries.U.K. politicians have traditionally focused on the country's role in banning the slave trade in 1807 and outlawing slavery throughout the British Empire in 1833. Continue reading...