Thursday: Government received not a drop for $80m spent buying water entitlements. Plus, prize-winning author on the bird she holds in her heart.Good morning, this is Richard Parkin bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Thursday 31 October. Continue reading...

Rolling updates on the day’s political developments, including PM’s Grenfell statement, PMQs and Amber Rudd saying she won’t contest 12 December election

150-strong committee meets to chart political settlement and negotiate end to civil warRussia underscored its role in the political future of Syria as the Moscow-backed Syrian constitutional committee met for the first time under UN auspices to chart a political settlement to end the eight-and-a-half-year civil war.The meeting – a key proposal from Moscow – in Geneva is being overseen by the UN special envoy for Syria Geir Pederson with expectations low that the Syrian government, in an increasingly strong military position, will see the need to make any major political concessions to secure western recognition. Continue reading...

Robert Philip Longcake, 53, died after hanging upside down for hours at Dixon’s ChimneyA man who died after hanging upside down for hours from a chimney in Carlisle has been named as Robert Philip Longcake, known as Phil to his family and friends.His family described Phil, 53, as a “strong, brave man” who had been struggling with his mental health after recently disclosing past trauma. Continue reading...

New law, which goes into effect 1 January, is intended to ‘protect’ teens and their developing brains, said junior health ministerThe day cannabis was legalized in Canada in 2018, the line outside of Quebec’s government-run pot shop in downtown Montreal ran hundreds deep down multiple city blocks.At least some of those enthusiasts will be gravely disappointed after a new law passed by the provincial government has raised the legal consumption age from 18 to 21. The change, announced this week, is intended to “protect” teenagers and their developing brains, according to the junior health minister, Lionel Carmant. Continue reading...

PM will accept in principle all of report’s recommendations for central governmentBoris Johnson has said the government will fully accept the findings of a report on failings in the Grenfell Tower disaster, promising survivors and relatives that “the truth will out and justice will be done”.Responding to the report by the inquiry chairman, Sir Martin Moore-Bick, on the causes of the blaze at the west London block in June 2017 that killed 72 people, the prime minister opened a Commons debate by promising a rapid official response. Continue reading...

Britain will go to the polls on 12 December … two more men sought over 39 bodies in lorry trailer … and the pub with the same barmaid since 1957Good morning – Warren Murray here. Did you know election signs are made of something called “correx”? You’re going to be seeing quite a lot of it … Continue reading...

Passenger – reported to be Irish tourist, 26 – winched off cliff at Lennox Head by helicopterOne man is dead and another, believed to be an Irish tourist, is in a critical condition after a hang-gliding accident on the New South Wales north coast.Emergency services were called to the Pat Morton lookout at Lennox Head near Byron Bay about midday on Wednesday after reports of a crash. Continue reading...

Recommendation adds to a growing push for reforms to Australia’s whistleblowing laws, which fail to prevent reprisals against those who speak outPublic servants should be legally compelled to report misconduct and face punishment for failing to do so, a group of former judges and integrity experts say.The recommendation is one of a series of urgent reforms needed to improve government integrity, strengthen accountability bodies and address flaws in the whistleblowing regime, according to a paper released by the Centre for Public Integrity on Tuesday. Continue reading...

More than 70 women sign letter saying coverage of duchess has ‘outdated, colonial undertones’Female MPs from across the political divide have condemned the media’s treatment of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, claiming some of it displays “outdated, colonial undertones”.More than 70 female parliamentarians have signed an open letter stating that they stand with Meghan in saying such behaviour “cannot be allowed to go unchallenged” and praising her for “taking a stand”. Continue reading...

Lawyers for family say Trump administration tried to ‘twist’ immunity law for US diplomatThe family of a 19-year-old motorcyclist killed in a crash involving the wife of a US diplomat have announced they are planning to sue the Trump administration for lawless misconduct and a cover-up.Harry Dunn’s family are also going ahead with previously announced plans to sue Anne Sacoolas for damages in a civil action. Continue reading...

Hariri says he intends to make ‘positive shock’ to country gripped by mass protestsLebanon’s prime minister, Saad Hariri, has announced his resignation, in a move set to spark further uncertainty in a country paralysed by political crises and a nationwide protest movement that has risen up in response.Hariri’s announcement came several hours after large groups of youths overran protest sites in downtown Beirut, ransacking tents and stalls set up by demonstrators who for the past 13 days have demanded an overhaul of the ruling class and an end to rampant corruption. Continue reading...

More than 250 have died and thousands injured in anti-government protestsIn Al Umma Park in central Baghdad – the “park of the nation” – a small group of men and two women debated under ageing eucalyptus trees how best to articulate the demands of the protesters who have taken to the streets of Iraqi cities in their thousands this month.“Burning army trucks won’t help us, it will only help the government accuse us of being hooligans,” said a young man. “If I give you 17 RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] launchers and you burn that building, how will that benefit our demands?” Another man called for the government to be toppled. As the group gathered around him listening, someone shouted: “Who made you a speaker?” This spurred the rest of the crowd to break into chants of “no one represents us” and “Iran out, out”, denouncing Iraq’s ruling Islamic parties and their Iranian backers. Continue reading...

Former Gurkha Nirmal Purja completed feat in six months and six daysA Nepalese former British army soldier has climbed all 14 of the world’s 8,000-metre high mountains in a record-breaking 189 days – a feat that has taken other climbers years to achieve.Nirmal “Nims” Purja, who came to international attention this year with the publication of his shocking photograph of a queue of climbers close to the summit of Everest, completed the last of his 14 climbs, to the summit of Shishapangma, at 8.58am local time on Tuesday, almost exactly on the schedule predicted by his support team last week. Continue reading...

The 30th anniversary of the fall of the Wall marks a great chance to see these fascinating, and less-well-known, reminders of a divided cityAlthough it’s been almost 30 years since the Berlin Wall fell, traces of the cold-war-era division can still be seen and felt throughout the city. GDR-era architecture and infrastructure is still strewn across the former east (including tourist-friendly districts Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg and Friedrichshain), from the streetlights and high-rise Plattenbauten tower blocks to outsize boulevards, such as Karl-Marx-Strasse, and the former Geisterbahnhöfe – the metro network “ghost stations” that were closed during the period of division.Then there are the demographic divisions. There’s a reason the biggest Turkish communities – and the best kebabs – can be found in former West Berlin districts, such as Neukölln, Kreuzberg and Wedding, while former eastern districts, like Lichtenberg and Marzahn, are known for their Vietnamese communities and restaurants. It is because Gastarbeiter (guest worker) programmes of the 1950s-70s saw West Germany draft in workers from Turkey (among other countries), while the Gastarbeiter (the GDR equivalent) were from communist countries allied to the Soviet Union, such as Vietnam. Continue reading...

Opposition leader’s first vision statement says a shift to clean energy will unlock new economic opportunitiesLabor leader Anthony Albanese has pledged to tackle skills shortages and industrial relations reform if he wins government, as he seeks to reposition the party’s proposed action on climate change as a new jobs “revolution”.In the first of a series of vision statements aimed at resetting Labor’s policy agenda following the May election, the opposition leader has outlined the party’s jobs and skills agenda in a speech in Perth on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Two tourists both in a serious condition with lower limb injuries after they were bitten off the Whitsundays coastA British tourist has had his foot bitten off by a shark during a day cruise in the Whitsunday region of north Queensland.Two men were airlifted to hospital in Mackay, both suffering serious lower leg injuries after being attacked by the shark in Hook Passage, about 30km from the harbour at Airlie Beach. Continue reading...

Chief executive denies Beijing is planning to replace her and says she will ‘handle the situation’After five months of protests, Hong Kong’s embattled leader Carrie Lam has said her government will “tackle the violence head on” as the Asian financial hub slips into a recession, its first since the global financial crisis.Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Lam said she expected Hong Kong to register negative growth for the full year of 2019. Last week, the government said it would spend HK$2bn ($255m) to support sectors hit by the protests, following a previous HK$19.1bn ($2.4bn) relief package. Continue reading...

When Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey began investigating Harvey Weinstein, they had no idea it would ignite a global reckoning on sexual harassment resulting in #MeToo. And: Rafael Behr on the likelihood of a winter electionIn the summer of 2017, the New York Times journalist Megan Twohey was on maternity leave when she received a call from a colleague, Jodi Kantor. The two had never spoken before, but Kantor was working on a story and needed Twohey’s help. It was an investigation into the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. What they uncovered became one of the biggest stories of our times, launching a global movement.Rachel Humphreys talks to the journalists about how they convinced prominent actors and former Weinstein employees to speak to them, the lengths Weinstein was willing to go to in an attempt to prevent the story from becoming public, and what more needs to be done about sexual harassment in the workplace. Continue reading...

Government fails to win two-thirds majority for early ballot needed under Fixed-term Parliaments Act, after EU agrees to delay Brexit

Pope says new name for trove of priceless papers will be the Vatican Apostolic ArchivesThe Vatican Secret Archives, containing millions of documents spanning 12 centuries, are no longer officially “secret”.Pope Francis has renamed the priceless archives, which include letters concerning King Henry VIII’s request to divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn, which led to the English church breaking away from Rome in 1534. Continue reading...

Alliance led by far right ends 50 years of leftwing rule in central Italian region

Government could back plan if it fails to pass motion under Fixed-term Parliaments Act

Baghdadi died in a US raid on a compound near the village of Barisha in north-west SyriaThe US began to receive intelligence on the whereabouts of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi about a month ago, according to Donald Trump. Intelligence officials were able to scope out his exact location two weeks ago, and Trump was made aware of the planned raid at the end of last week. Continue reading...

In a dramatic return, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, one of Argentina’s most popular presidents during her two terms in 2007-15, has been voted back into office as vice-president. A large crowd of supporters celebrated outside the Frente de Todos (Everyone’s Front) party headquarters in Buenos Aires on Sunday, when preliminary official results gave the victory to the centre-left presidential candidate, Alberto Fernández, and his running mate, Fernández de Kirchner. The incumbent, Mauricio Macri, conceded defeat on Sunday night

Victory of Alberto Fernández’s presidential campaign puts an end to the pro-business economic policies of Macri’s administrationIn a dramatic comeback, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, one of Argentina’s most popular presidents during her two terms in 2007-2015, has been voted back into office as vice president.A large crowd of supporters burst into a roar outside the Frente de Todos (Everybody’s Front) party bunker in the Chacarita neighbourhood of the capital city of Buenos Aires at 9pm when preliminary official results gave the victory to the centre left presidential candidate Alberto Fernández and his running mate Fernández de Kirchner. Continue reading...

Wastewater tests show regional Australians use more cannabis, prescription opioids, alcohol and methamphetamine than capital city dwellersDrug use in regional Australia is outpacing consumption in capital cities, according to new data.Figures released by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission on Monday show that while Sydney is still the capital for cocaine, and heroin is most frequently found in Melbourne, it is in regional Australia where drug use is most pronounced. Continue reading...

The climate crisis is a complex issue. So how do you explain it to kids? For children living on Tuvalu – who are already seeing the effects of climate change – it’s an unavoidable conversation. How do you create hope when your island will be unliveable in their lifetime? And here in Australia, how much should we be telling kids about the potential scale of the problem? Pacific editor Kate Lyons, with the help of Tuvaluan and Australian kids, sits down with Laura Murphy-Oates to discussYou can read more on Kate Lyon’s reporting from the Pacific – from talking with the Fijian prime minister about the climate crisis over kava, to a reflection from the former prime minister of Tuvalu following the Pacific Islands Forum.Subscribe to Full Story for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app. Continue reading...

Protesters refuse to leave square in Baghdad despite further deadly clashes with security forcesThousands of Iraqi protesters occupied Baghdad’s central Tahrir square on Sunday, defying a bloody crackdown that killed scores over the weekend and an overnight raid by security forces seeking to disperse them.Throughout the day security forces fired teargas at groups of young men wearing heavy duty gloves who rushed at the canisters and threw them back. Protesters also barricaded a bridge leading to the capital’s fortified Green Zone. Continue reading...

Thames Valley police had arrested 27-year-old over stabbings of teenagers at house partyA man arrested in connection with the murder of two teenagers stabbed at a house party has been released under investigation.The 27-year-old was arrested on Saturday after Dom Ansah and Ben Gillham-Rice, both 17, were killed in the attack in Milton Keynes last weekend. Continue reading...

In June 2018, Italian photographer Nicoló Lanfranchi joined the last ship patrolling the Mediterranean to save refugees. Then, over many months, he tracked them down to their new homes

Exclusive: Labor senator Pat Dodson says PM’s failure to show up to climb closure celebrations demonstrates his ‘shallowness’Labor senator Pat Dodson has blasted the prime minister for his absence at Sunday night’s celebrations of the closing of the climb at Uluru as “more than an insult” to First Nations people.Sitting alongside Labor colleagues Linda Burney, Malarndirri McCarthy and Warren Snowdon, Dodson chastised Scott Morrison’s failure to progress the Uluru Statement from the Heart, saying it demonstrated he’s a man in need of “an epiphany”. Continue reading...

Bodies of Tiana Djurasovic, 6, and her sister Mia, 10, found on Friday at their Madeley home

The Kurdish community in Australia fears a genocide under Turkey’s military operation“We are holding our hearts every day, so that they don’t break.”Abdulrahman Khalil Elyas’s father died in Rojava last week. Because of the bombardment of the Kurdish-controlled north-east region of Syria, he was hastily buried without a funeral. Continue reading...

Britons in Europe spoke of the importance of an actively European identity to themThe number of British citizens leaving for European Union countries is at a 10-year high, with the rate of departure accelerating since the referendum, new research has revealed.According to initial findings of a report on the migration of UK citizens, 84,000 people are expected to leave Britain for another EU nation this year, compared with 59,000 in 2008. It found that about 11,500 people moved from the UK to Germany in 2018, compared with more than 8,500 in 2008. Continue reading...

Essex lorry tragedy has brought back painful memories for those who made similar decisions in search of a better lifeFor Loan Hoang, news of the tragedy in Essex brought memories rushing back of how her own brothers risked their lives to help their family flee Vietnam four decades ago.In 1978, three of them were among 600 people crammed on to a boat made for 400. With the boat barely floating under the weight of its cargo, they set out to sea uncertain whether the voyage would end in safety or death. Continue reading...

Santa and his little helper offer some unsavoury gifts for Christmas•You can buy your own print of this cartoon Continue reading...

The relentlessly upbeat entrepreneur believes efficiency and electricity could stop airlines worsening the climate crisisLife has been quite a trip for Sir Richard Branson so far, and this weekend will be no exception as he flies to the US from Tel Aviv via London with space rockets on his mind.He is heading to Wall Street to ring the opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange as his spaceflight company, Virgin Galactic, becomes a listed company tomorrow. Continue reading...

Business minister defends Johnson after Labour says PM misled parliament with his plan for exiting the EUThe government has denied it has misled parliament and that it is seeking to tear up provisions for workers’ rights after Brexit.The business minister Kwasi Kwarteng admitted on Saturday that it would be very difficult for Britain to leave the European Union next week, but he dismissed reports employees’ rights would be slashed after Brexit as “way exaggerated”. Continue reading...

A protest in Chile's capital, Santiago, turned violent with police firing teargas and deploying water cannon to try to disperse demonstrators who are demanding economic reforms

Amelia Bambridge, 21, from Sussex, was last seen in early hours of Thursday at beach party on Koh RongPolice and volunteers in Cambodia are searching for a missing British woman last seen by friends in the early hours of Thursday at a beach party on the island of Koh Rong.Amelia Bambridge, 21, from Worthing in Sussex, went to a party on Wednesday at Police Beach, which is popular with backpackers and located off the south-west coast of the South-East Asian country. Her handbag, containing her phone and bank cards, was found on the beach on Thursday but she has not been seen since the event. Continue reading...

Thirty-six women and children stuck in Syria say they would agree to be put under anti-terrorism ordersAustralian women and children stuck in northern Syrian camps have offered to be placed under restrictive control orders if the Australian government will bring them home.The situation in northern Syria has become dramatically more dangerous, including for those in the camps, after the US president, Donald Trump, declared US troops would be leaving, paving the way for a Turkish invasion. Continue reading...

Leaders from US, UK, Kenya, Mexico, Greece and Canada said immigration program manufactured a crisis at borderAmnesty International leaders from around the world on Friday decried the US policy of sending asylum-seekers back to dangerous Mexican border towns to wait for their immigration cases as an “international disgrace” that must be ended.During a visit to the US-Mexico border this week, Amnesty International leaders from the US, UK, Kenya, Mexico, Greece and Canada said the Remain in Mexico, or Migration Protection Protocols (MPP), program had manufactured a crisis at the border by sending more than 50,000 people to Mexico. Continue reading...

Rail services from the London hub suspended while police dealt with trespassing incidentCommuters travelling through London Euston faced major disruption after services were delayed or cancelled during rush hour.All rail services from the central London station were suspended and the West Coast main line was closed while police dealt with a trespassing incident on Friday evening. Continue reading...

Incident at end of Francis’s Amazon synod blamed on conservatives and ‘racists’Pope Francis has apologised to Amazonian bishops and tribal leaders after thieves stole indigenous statues from a church close to the Vatican and tossed them into the River Tiber in a show of conservative opposition to the first Latin American pope.Speaking as “the bishop of Rome”, Francis dismissed allegations that the wooden statues of naked pregnant women were pagan symbols and said they had been placed in the church “without any intention of idolatry”. Continue reading...

Eighty years after the civil war, Spain has faced up to the delicate but necessary task of ending its official veneration of the country’s fascist leaderBriefly, fog threatened to disrupt General Francisco Franco’s final, unscheduled journey . Then the sky cleared and a helicopter was able to carry the dictator’s coffin away from the Valley of the Fallen, Europe’s most unloved war memorial. After 16 months of wrangling over Franco’s exhumation, the ceremonies of departure were performed with a dignity not accorded to the 100,000 victims of Spain’s 1936-39 civil war who still lie in unmarked graves. A reburial was performed in a private ceremony at the family mausoleum north of Madrid, where Franco now lies next to his wife, Carmen.This symbolic settling of accounts with a dead dictator might have seemed a touch macabre, but it was necessary. Spain’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, was correct to say the country had fulfilled a duty to itself by removing Franco from the triumphalist, overbearing memorial he created as “a national monument of atonement”, after the civil war. The Valley of the Fallen, with its basilica and 150m high cross, was built in 1940 in part by the forced labour of an estimated 20,000 political prisoners. It contains almost 34,000 corpses, including thousands of Franco’s republican victims, interred there en masse without permission and inaccessible to relatives. With Franco buried at its heart after his death in 1975, it became a nationalist shrine, and focus of nostalgia for the far right; a monument to division rather than reconciliation. Continue reading...

Revelation during appeal against Shamima Begum’s citizenship removal contradicts official statementsThe UK government has considered options for repatriating British members of Islamic State being held in prison camps in northern Syria, it has emerged.The information was disclosed during the hearing into the home secretary’s decision to remove the citizenship of Shamima Begum, the former Bethnal Green schoolgirl who travelled to Syria at the age of 15. Continue reading...

If SUV drivers were a nation, they would rank seventh in the world for carbon emissionsGrowing demand for SUVs was the second-largest contributor to the increase in global CO2 emissions from 2010 to 2018, a new analysis has found.

Indigenous Australians watch tourists make last climbs after years of asking for closure