But report says Labour lead is much narrower among working-class voters than electorate as a whole and urges focus on fairnessWorking-class people who were a key part of the coalition of voters that delivered the Conservatives' 2019 general election win have been deserting the party in droves under Rishi Sunak's leadership, polling has found.Only 44% of working-class voters who voted for the Tories in 2019 say they will back the party next time, according to research by YouGov released as Keir Starmer prepares to make what will probably be his last pitch for support at a Labour conference before a general election. Continue reading...
Political stakes are high for ministers but refugees say their lives are at risk if policy is greenlitThe UK government's plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda had generated controversy even before the former home secretary Priti Patel signed a deal with the east African country in April last year sealing the deal. Ministers claimed the plan would deter people from making the dangerous journey across the Channel on small boats.On Monday, a case examining the legality of the policy reaches the UK's highest court, the supreme court. The political stakes for ministers are high but the asylum seekers threatened with being forcibly removed to Rwanda say their lives are at stake if the policy is greenlit. Continue reading...
Coalition talks to begin on Monday after full results show previous Liberal-led coalition no longer has majorityThe coalition government of Luxembourg's Liberal prime minister Xavier Bettel has lost its parliamentary majority in Sunday's general election, which also saw the Greens routed.That leaves the way open for the biggest single party, the conservative Christian Social People's party (CSV). The CSV came out on top, as it did at the last elections in 2018, with 29% of the vote, up 0.9 percentage points, according to the full results published on Sunday evening. Continue reading...
by Dan Sabbagh Defence and security editor on (#6FDFR)
Public inquiry into alleged actions of SAS units to begin amid victims' families pleas for truth to be uncoveredA public inquiry into allegations that 80 Afghans were summarily killed by members of three different British SAS units begins on Monday amid pleas from victims' families to uncover the truth behind the deaths.Mansour Aziz, whose brother and sister-in-law were shot and killed while sleeping by British elite forces during a night raid on 6 August 2012, said he hoped the inquiry would establish why his home had been targeted. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Rachel Reeves announces plans for powerful watchdog to recover taxpayer cash lost to waste and fraudA Labour government would create a powerful Covid corruption commissioner to help recoup billions of pounds of taxpayers' money that has been lost to waste, fraud and flawed contracts during the pandemic, Rachel Reeves is to announce.The new commissioner would be given the power to bring together public agencies including HMRC, the Serious Fraud Office and the National Crime Agency to pursue at least 2.6bn of lost" public funds. They would examine contracts line by line and would have to update parliament on their progress in clawing back money. Continue reading...
Staffing difficulties worst in hospitality sector, finds BCC poll, with separate research showing recruitment intentions falling in UKThree-quarters of UK firms are still struggling to recruit staff, research has found, but the post-pandemic jobs boom" appears to be in decline, with hiring intentions continuing to fall last month.A survey by the British Chambers of Commerce found that 73% of the almost 5,000 companies it polled had faced hiring difficulties in the July to September quarter - a nine percentage point drop from the record high of 82% in the final three months of 2022. Continue reading...
Worries about the economy and migration pushed up share for far-right AfD in Hesse and Bavaria, while coalition parties did worseGerman chancellor Olaf Scholz's fractious centre-left coalition has received a sharp rebuke from voters in the key states of Bavaria and Hesse, with economic woes and immigration fears boosting the opposition conservatives and the far right.At the elections on Sunday the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party burst out of its post-industrial eastern strongholds to score its best ever result in a western state. Polls showed it on course to be the second largest party in Hesse, home to the financial capital Frankfurt. Continue reading...
Director recalls enjoyment of making highest-grossing film of the year and says she was so moved' by responseGreta Gerwig has spoken of her thrill" at the incredible reaction" to Barbie, her existential comedy and the runaway hit film of the year.Talking to Succession and Peep Show co-creator Jesse Armstrong at an audience during the London film festival at the BFI Southbank, Gerwig, 40, recalled standing covertly at the back of cinemas in New York during the film's opening weekend, asking the projectors to turn up the volume" and being so moved" by the warmth of audience response. Continue reading...
Israel's national security council says its citizens should avoid going abroad and those in Egypt should leaveAn Egyptian police officer shot dead two Israeli tourists and their Egyptian guide on Sunday, as war raged for a second day between Israel and Palestinian militants.Israel's national security council later said its citizens should consider not travelling abroad particularly in the Middle East on the backdrop of the attack in Egypt". It said visitors already in Egypt should leave as soon as possible". Continue reading...
Tens of thousands demonstrate in Spanish region's capital as Pedro Sanchez weighs move in attempt to form governmentTens of thousands of people have joined conservative and far-right Spanish political leaders in Barcelona to protest against the Socialist party's decision to consider an amnesty for those involved in the failed, unlawful and unilateral push for Catalan independence six years ago.Sunday's demonstration, organised by the anti-independence group Societat Civil Catalana, was called after Catalan separatist parties said they would only consider supporting a new, socialist-led government following July's inconclusive general election if they were offered an amnesty in return. Continue reading...
Spokesman for air force says country has already seen more than 500 Iranian-designed Shahed drones in September aloneFour people including a nine-year-old girl have been injured in a rocket strike on Konstantinivka on Sunday morning, according to the acting governor of Donetsk.A 27-year-old woman and her nine-month-old baby are among those wounded in a Russian attack on the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, according to its governor, Oleksandr Prokudin. The woman and the infant were hospitalised with moderate wounds, he said, adding that a 33-year-old Red Cross medic was also wounded. Several houses and gas pipelines were damaged in the attack.UN and local investigators are searching for answers in the village of Hroza in Kharkiv following one of the deadliest air strikes of the war. The strike on Thursday turned the sole cafe and store in the village to rubble and killed nearly 52 people gathered for a dead soldier's wake, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other top officials in Kyiv. Only six people in the cafe survived.Ukraine's armed forces report that about 580 Russian troops have been killed during fighting over the last day. Posting its latest overnight summary of casualties, the Ukrainian military claims Russia has suffered 282,280 losses since the start of the war on 24 February last year.The figures have not been independently verified and are still being updated.Poland's president, Andrzej Duda, says that current violence between Hamas and Israel is useful for Russia in diverting the world's attention and works in their favour. Duda argued in an interview with private broadcaster Polsat News on Sunday that conflict in the Middle East distracts international scrutiny away from Moscow's aggression in Ukraine and may result in new migration pressures on Europe.Volodymyr Zelenskiy has spoken about the situation in Israel, drawing parallels with the war in Ukraine by stating that Israel's right to self-defence is unquestionable". He said his government had set up an operational headquarters to aid any Ukrainians in Israel. Officials have estimated that about 15,000 Ukrainian refugees have fled to Israel. While having sent tons of humanitarian aid, Netanyahu has consistently refused to supply weapons to Kyiv.A United Russia party official in the Russian-held town of Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson oblast was killed in a car explosion on Saturday, the Russian-installed regional governor said. Vladimir Malov, executive secretary of the town branch of Russia's governing United Russia party, died in hospital, Vladimir Saldo said in a post on his Telegram channel. Kyiv has not claimed responsibility.Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's former leader, has called for a civil war in the US, as he said a civil war would be the only thing that could stop America's manic passion for sparking conflicts everywhere on the planet".Train traffic between North Korea and Russia has dramatically increased after the recent summit between leaders Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin, indicating a likely" transfer of arms, according to a new report by Washington-based analysts. High-resolution satellite imagery reveals at least 70 freight cars at North Korea's border Tumangang rail facility, the Beyond Parallel group said on Friday, a number described as unprecedented".Poland's president, Andrzej Duda, says that current violence between Hamas and Israel is useful for Russia in diverting the world's attention and works in their favour, Reuters reports. Continue reading...
Charities fear landlords are pushing evictions through before the renters' reform bill becomes lawWhen Kitto Haywood moved into their eighth-floor flat in Manchester last year, they planted tomatoes, strawberries, garlic, carrots and mint in pots on the balcony. It had taken five months to find an ideal home after moving from Brighton. I finally felt like we were going to be there long-term," says Haywood.But over the summer, Haywood, 24, let the plants wilt. On 21 May they received a no-fault" section 21 eviction notice from their estate agent, telling them to leave in two months. Four months later, they're still in limbo. Continue reading...
by Kalyeena Makortoff and Julia Kollewe on (#6FD7C)
JP Morgan also approached as Metro reportedly tries to thrash out rescue package with investorsThe Bank of England's regulatory arm is understood to have approached a number of big lenders in the past few days, including NatWest and JP Morgan Chase, to see if they had any interest in the embattled high street rival Metro Bank.JP Morgan Chase examined a potential bid to take over the whole of Metro after speaking to the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) but decided on Saturday night not to go ahead with it, a source said. Continue reading...
Magnitude-6.3 earthquake struck near Herat on Saturday, with hundreds of houses reported destroyedThe death toll from a series of earthquakes in western Afghanistan has risen sharply to more than 2,000 people, according to a Taliban spokesperson, as rescuers searched for survivors among the ruins of razed villages.More than 2,060 people are dead and over 10,000 are injured," he told the Guardian. Many more people are still under the rubble." Continue reading...
by Mark Brown North of England correspondent on (#6FD5Y)
Team behind festival want to make opera relevant to people of the city as well as find and train talent of the futureExplain!" says Count Almaviva to Figaro in the Barber of Seville. Tha what?" says the count in next month's Yorkshire version of Rossini's comic opera.Rosina's wrath if crossed will be less viper and more a whippet's bite"... A hundred traps ah lay / Until I get mi way / Get thissen set / Get thissen set" the soprano will intone as she sings the thrilling, showstopper aria una voce poca fa'. The opera will be heard like never before thanks to a full translation into Yorkshire dialect by the poet, writer and broadcaster Ian McMillan. Continue reading...
by Philip Oltermann European culture editor on (#6FD3E)
Crime novelist has been forced to deny claims that she tricked readers into buying books she didn't write herselfIt is a gripping detective story typical of the queen of Nordic noir, leaving fans pondering the ethics of relationships and the dirty secrets of people with power and influence.But for once, bestselling crime novelist Camilla Lackberg is not the author of this particular literary whodunnit, but its protagonist. Continue reading...
A new exhibition aims to highlight a huge but often ignored contribution to style in the Swinging 60sWhen the Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein, wanted to create a new image for the band in the 1960s, the go-to tailor of the day was Cecil Gee on Shaftesbury Avenue in London.So he dragged all four members of the band into the shop for a fitting. Continue reading...
Three men say their visas will expire before they receive their degrees from Coventry universityThree international students are facing deportation after an alleged technical glitch at their university meant they did not get a final grade.The students claim they had all tried to submit their exams ahead of the deadline given by Coventry university, but they received an error message and were unable to upload their assessments. The university claims there is no evidence of a technical problem with its system. Continue reading...
Scheme aims to target poorer regions with concentrations of monuments, buildings and protected landscapesApplying some common sense can sometimes be a radical move. From 9 October an oddly simple new 200m scheme will, for the first time, focus on clusters of heritage sites, including ancient monuments, protected landscapes, museums and an abbey, in specifically targeted, poorer areas of Britain.The new 10-year plan will be unveiled by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, which has been supported by lottery players for nearly 30 years. It means the fund can spend its cash on preserving and improving a group of significant landmarks inside a concentrated development area, rather than only spending its money on individual projects. Continue reading...
Demonstration planned in Liverpool to call for return of London MP who was ousted after a racism rowKeir Starmer will come under fresh pressure on Sunday to restore the whip to Diane Abbott, as MPs and party activists stage protests demanding her return at the Labour conference.A solidarity demonstration will be held in Liverpool by Labour Black Socialists and Momentum's black caucus calling for the 70-year-old to be welcomed back after a six-month racism row. Continue reading...
Athlete's total of 34 world and Olympic medals surpasses any other gymnast, making her most decorated in historySimone Biles fell short of further burnishing her status as the greatest gymnast of all time last night, coming fifth in the uneven bars finals at the World Gymnastics Championships.The result was immaterial to most fans, following as it did her all-around gold win on Friday which capped an astonishing comeback after a two-year career hiatus to protect her mental health. Her total haul of 34 world and Olympic medals eclipses any other gymnast, male or female, making her the most decorated in history. Continue reading...
Scrapping A-levels and making English and Maths compulsory to 18 said to be unworkable due to recruitment crisis in subject areasHeads, teaching experts and unions have slammed Rishi Sunak's plans to scrap A-levels and make Maths and English compulsory to 18 as a misdirected fantasy" that won't work because so many schools can't recruit teachers in these subjects.Sunak, who argued in his speech to the Conservative party conference last week that reforming education was one of the biggest levers we have to change the direction of our country", plans to replace both A-levels and the government's new T-levels with a merged baccalaureate-style qualification called the Advanced British Standard. Continue reading...
Labour is now 13 points ahead of the Conservatives despite the prime minister's efforts to present himself as the change candidate at the next general electionRishi Sunak's has achieved no positive conference bounce after trying to relaunch the Tories as the party of change" at their annual gathering in Manchester last week.Instead Labour, ahead of their gathering in Liverpool which starts this weekend, is up three points since last weekend and now stands on 42%, stretching its lead to 13 points. Continue reading...
Assault is designed to give militant group control over the Palestinian narrative as regional relationships changeThere are two key questions in the immediate aftermath of Hamas's surprise assault on Israel: what was the attack designed to achieve, and why now?Even as the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel was at war with Hamas and the other Gaza factions, it is important to understand what Hamas's military aims did not include. Hamas fights its periodic conflicts for political reasons, to shore up support in Gaza and elsewhere and to ensure its continuing relevance. Continue reading...
UN says estimate of 320 fatalities is being verified, although local authorities put the death toll at 100, with 500 injuredHundreds of people are feared dead after a series of powerful earthquakes hit western Afghanistan.The United Nations said more than 320 had lost their lives before later saying the figure was still being verified. A local Taliban official told the Guardian the death toll is much higher than that". Continue reading...
Joe Biden says US will offer rock solid and unwavering' support to Israeli government as Tel Aviv mounts counterattackThe White House and other US politicians voiced their support for Israel on Saturday after attacks from Hamas stunned the world.Joe Biden said he spoke to Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Saturday, assuring him that the American government is ready to offer all appropriate means of support to the government and people of Israel". Continue reading...
Stefanos Kasselakis says he wanted to open up the subject of same-sex couples having childrenGreece's first openly gay political party leader says he was deliberately trying to stir stagnant waters" and tackle the taboo subject of same-sex couples having children when he announced he and his partner planned to become parents through surrogacy.Weeks after his unexpected election to the helm of the main opposition left-wing Syriza, Stefanos Kasselakis insisted his comments had aimed to give the issue visibility in a nation where LGBT rights were rarely publicly discussed. Continue reading...
Amy Kavanagh was seeking urgent care for daughter at West Middlesex University hospital when incident occurredAn NHS trust has apologised to a blind woman after a security guard tried to prevent her entering a hospital with her sick daughter because she was with her guide dog.Historian Dr Amy Kavanagh, 34, said the incident occurred as she tried to enter the West Middlesex University hospital, which is run by the Chelsea and Westminster hospital NHS foundation trust. Continue reading...
Majid Tavakoli, taken from his family in handcuffs, urges dissidents to frankly analyse' why opposition to the regime has successively failedOne of Iran's foremost public intellectuals and critics of the Iranian regime was taken to prison in handcuffs on Saturday to start serving a five-year sentence.Majid Tavakoli, who has a three-year-old child, was found guilty of spreading propaganda against the state. His dispatch to jail had been deferred for three weeks, but security officials came to take him away on Saturday, the day after another jailed Iranian human rights activist, Narges Mohammadi, was given the Nobel peace prize. Continue reading...
Corporation says decision will be made in due course' after show's staff reportedly told to look for other work after Andrew Flintoff crashThe BBC has denied Top Gear has reached the end of the road amid reports the show had been axed.The Sun reported on Friday that the broadcaster had told production staff on the long-running show to look for other work after the presenter and former cricketer Andrew Flintoff was injured during filming last December. Continue reading...
Kyiza Sandiford, 23, appeared before Wimbledon magistrates in connection with stabbing on TuesdayA man has been charged with murder after a 22-year-old man was stabbed to death in Brixton.Kyiza Sandiford, 23, has appeared at Wimbledon magistrates court on Saturday charged with the murder of Keelen Morris Wong and possession of an offensive weapon. Continue reading...
Dramatic findings point to Conservatives losing every red wall seat that they secured at the last electionLabour is currently on course to win a landslide victory on the scale of 1997, according to dramatic new modelling that points to the Conservatives losing every red wall seat secured at the last election.The Tories could also lose more than 20 constituencies in its southern blue wall strongholds and achieve a record-low number of seats, according to a constituency-by-constituency model seen by the Observer. Deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden, defence secretary Grant Shapps and leadership contender Penny Mordaunt are among those facing for defeat. Some 12 cabinet ministers face being unseated unless Rishi Sunak can close Labour's poll lead. Continue reading...
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