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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...

Twenty-two Israelis confirmed dead so far and 545 injured, with death toll likely to rise, after aerial and ground attack

How Steve Back has broken a number of exclusives by snapping the documents of unsuspecting politicians and officialsThere is a framed notice in the hallway of 10 Downing Street. It carries the message: Please remember. You may be photographed. Please cover any documents you may be holding."It is not a warning always heeded - as many prime ministers have come to rue. The latest victim was Rishi Sunak, whose government was left scrabbling after a secret document suggesting phase 2 of HS2 was in danger of being scrapped was photographed under the arm of a government official. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Levi Bellfield has twice confessed to 1996 murders despite Michael Stone spending 26 years in prison for the crimeThe conviction of Michael Stone, who has served 26 years in prison for the murders of Lin Russell and her daughter Megan, is being reviewed by the criminal cases review commission after a confession by the serial killer Levi Bellfield.In a reversal of a decision made three months ago in which the CCRC had said there was no realistic prospect of Stone's conviction being overturned at the court of appeal, the statutory body responsible for investigating alleged miscarriages of justice has said it will begin a fresh review. Continue reading...

Lagos police chief says unnamed nurse injected singer before his death last monthA nurse has been identified as the principal suspect" in the mysterious death of a Nigerian Afrobeats star, which triggered days of protests by thousands demanding justice.Investigations into the death of Ilerioluwa Aloba, better known as MohBad, in the commercial hub of Lagos have pointed to the nurse who treated the late singer before his death, the Lagos police chief, Idowu Owohunwa, told reporters on Friday. Continue reading...

Nikki and Russell Eatly's poem The Work Wife wins competition in Poetry in Motion collectionThroughout the ages, poems have been written to express profound love for fellow human beings, nature and God. Vans - not so much.But now Poetry in Motion (pdf), the world's first anthology of poems by van drivers about life on the road, has been published by Mercedes-Benz Vans with the support of George Mpanga, better known as George the Poet. Continue reading...

Government challenged to explain claim that UK will need 25% of energy to come from fossil fuels in 2050UK politics live - latest updatesThe UK government has misrepresented" the Climate Change Committee (CCC) by wrongly claiming it said we would need a quarter of our energy to come from fossil fuels by 2050, scientists have said.In order to justify signing off new oil and gas licences in the North Sea, ministers have said the country will still require a quarter of its energy to come from gas in 2050, the year the UK is supposed to meet net zero. Continue reading...

Cost of living crisis drives consumers to low-cost pub chain but company remains cautiousJD Wetherspoon has bounced back to profit for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic three years ago, as budget-conscious consumers flocked to the low-cost pub chain amid the cost of living crisis.Wetherspoon's, which runs about 830 pubs across the UK and Ireland, reported a pre-tax profit of almost 43m in the year to 30 July. Continue reading...

Officials tell AP process expected to begin shortly but decline to provide more details before announcement of government planThe Biden administration is going to resume deporting migrants to Venezuela, two US officials told the Associated Press on Thursday.The process is expected to begin shortly, the officials said, though they did not provide specific details on when the flights would begin taking off. The officials were not authorized to publicly disclose details of the government's plan ahead of an official announcement and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity. Continue reading...

Free & Just uses signs referring to Jessica and Celeste Burgess, who received prison sentences after procuring and using abortion pillsOver the last week, if Nebraskans on their commute looked up, they might have glimpsed a striking banner flying through the sky - a red, black and white flag that read: Extremist groups don't want you to know women are going to jail under Nebraska's abortion ban."The banner is the work of Free & Just, an abortion rights organization that, over the past few months, has launched a campaign that publicizes the case of Jessica Burgess and her teenage daughter Celeste Burgess, who were jailed last year after police accused Jessica of giving abortion pills to Celeste. Celeste Burgess was sentenced to 90 days in jail, while Jessica Burgess has been sentenced to two years in prison. Continue reading...

Prime minister's move criticised as salting the earth' so Birmingham-Crewe line cannot be builtA future Labour government would not be able to easily reverse Rishi Sunak's decision to scrap the northern leg of HS2 as he has spitefully" authorised the sale of properties that were subject to compulsory purchase orders on part of the route.Steve Rotheram, the mayor of the Liverpool city region, said the move killed HS2 stone dead" and would tie any future government's hands and make the delivery of HS2 for the north all but impossible". Continue reading...

Pristina claims Belgrade financed and supported last month's ambush by Serb paramilitaries on Kosovan policeKosovo will not re-enter talks to normalise relations with Serbia unless sanctions are imposed on Belgrade, the country's president has said, as she accused the Serbian government of pursuing a strategy straight from the book of [Slobodan] Miloevi."Speaking as she arrived at the summit of the European Political Community on Thursday, Vjosa Osmani ruled out more talks taking place until the US and EU put sanctions in place after a deadly gun battle last month in a northern Kosovo village. Continue reading...

Stock falls by 30% during trading as high street lender seeks to raise 350m to shore up its balance sheet

Among the dead is a brother of a lawmaker belonging to the same party as Marielle Franco, Rio politician shot dead in 2018Three doctors have been killed and another wounded in a beachside shooting in Rio de Janeiro, which Brazilian officials believe may have been a politically motivated attack.Security camera footage obtained by local newspaper O Globo showed a group of black-clad gunmen emerging from a car and running up to the victims' table in the Barra da Tijuca neighborhood and opening fire. Continue reading...

Jessica Baker, 15, suffered instantaneous death after crash of coach driven by Stephen Shrimpton, who also diedA schoolgirl died after she was partially ejected from her school bus that landed on her after the driver suffered an event" at the wheel and the vehicle overturned on the motorway, a coroner's court has heard.Jessica Baker, 15, suffered instantaneous" death from catastrophic" injuries in the school-run coach crash on the northbound M53 near junction five at Hooton in Wirral on Friday. Continue reading...

Identities confirmed of 21 tourists killed when coach crashed through railings and fell 15 metres onto overpassThe identities of the 21 tourists who were killed in a coach crash near Venice, including nine Ukrainians, a toddler from Germany and a pregnant Croatian woman on honeymoon, have been confirmed, as controversy mounts over Italy's ageing road infrastructure.The coach crash - the second most deadly to have occurred in the country in the past decade - also cost the lives of a family of four from Romania, a couple in their mid-50s from Portugal, two Germans aged 28 and 32, a South African woman and the Italian driver. Continue reading...

Most company leaders also believe pay and promotions could become linked to workplace attendance

Policies did not ensure fair trial of postmasters accused of wrongdoing, says inquiry's prosecution leadThe Post Office did not provide adequate guidance and training to prosecutors who investigated branch operators accused of wrongdoing in the Horizon IT scandal, according to a criminal prosecutions expert.More than 700 post office operators were prosecuted in England and Wales between 1999 and 2015 for theft, fraud and false accounting because of faulty accounting software installed in the late 1990s. Continue reading...

Rishi Sunak's promise depends on a substantial portion of the cost being met by third-party investment

Increase of 11% in year ending March 2023 may be due to comments in media and by politicians, says Home OfficeA record number of hate crimes were committed against transgender people last year in England and Wales, even as racist and homophobic hate crimes recorded by police fell for the first time on record.In the year ending March 2023, 4,732 hate crimes against transgender people were recorded - a rise of 11% on the previous year. The Home Office report said that comments by politicians and the media over the last year may have led to an increase in these offences. Continue reading...

Media watchdog refers 7.5bn sector to competition regulator after being particularly concerned' about position of market leadersThe UK communications regulator has referred the country's 7.5bn cloud computing market to the competition watchdog for a formal investigation after a study raised concerns about industry leaders Amazon and Microsoft.Ofcom has asked the Competition and Markets Authority to launch an inquiry, saying it is particularly concerned about the position of the market leaders Amazon and Microsoft". Continue reading...

Updated $1 coins will start circulating before Christmas, with other denominations to be rolled out in 2024

Firefighters backed by water-dropping helicopters battle blaze that broke out in area of Spanish Canary island ravaged by fire in AugustA wildfire raging on Spain's holiday island of Tenerife amid unseasonably hot temperatures has forced the evacuation of about 3,000 people from their homes, local officials said.Firefighters backed by six water-dropping helicopters were battling the blaze, which broke out on Wednesday afternoon in an area of steep ravines in the north-east of the island that was badly ravaged by a huge wildfire in August, the regional government of Tenerife said. Continue reading...

Consumer group Choice says Aldi brand scored 79%, beating two Finish detergents on 77%, including one nearly 10 times the price

Head of National Education Union says new qualification would need 5,300 additional teachers in EnglandRishi Sunak wants to scrap A-levels and replace them with a single qualification that includes compulsory English and maths, bringing upheaval to sixth-form education in England that would last a decade.The new baccalaureate-style Advanced British Standard, which Sunak announced in his speech to the Conservative party conference in Manchester, would also kill off the T-level vocational qualification the government launched just three years ago. Continue reading...

Commonwealth agrees to settle with more than 120 Indonesians wrongly detained as adult people smugglers, some when they were as young as 12

Based on declassified intelligence', UK says Russia targeting civilian shipping on approaches to Black Sea portsBritain has accused Russia of plotting to sabotage civilian tankers loaded with Ukrainian grain by planting sea mines on the approaches to the country's Black Sea ports.Based on what it said was declassified intelligence, the UK said Russia did not want to directly attack merchant ships using Ukraine's newly created humanitarian corridor with missiles, but instead try to destroy them covertly. Continue reading...

Sunak may be slightly better than the Maybot, but he's still very much AI in developmentO brave new world! An hour before Rishi Sunak's speech, I went to get my pass. You haven't been given one," I was told by the Tory press office. I couldn't even use a colleague's. It was me they didn't want. Me and my luxury beliefs. Then things got truly wild. The Telegraph's sketch writer was also banned. Not for the first time this week, the Conservative party conference had disappeared through the looking glass.Then redemption. After half an hour of ridicule on Twitter, the Tories changed their mind. When they had said I wasn't welcome, what they really meant was that they were desperate for me to come. Even Rish! is into dialectics these days. He couldn't wait for me. No one could imagine how I'd ever thought otherwise. There were even plenty of empty seats in the media section for me. Whoever would have guessed? Continue reading...

Failure to renew ICHREE mandate comes after human rights experts warn that abuses continue in EthiopiaA United Nations investigation into human rights abuses committed during Ethiopia's Tigray war has been terminated, despite urgent warnings from its members about the risk of future violations in the east African country.The mandate of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia (ICHREE) will expire later this month, after a deadline passed on Wednesday to table a resolution renewing it to the UN Human Rights Council. Continue reading...

Members of Aslef union strike for second time in four days meaning no trains will run on most English routesRail passengers in England face another day without trains on Wednesday as a strike by train drivers halts most services.Members of the Aslef union are on strike for the second time in four days, in a 24-hour walkout timed to coincide with the final day of the Conservative party conference in Manchester. Continue reading...

Rise in provably false statements by Rishi Sunak and his ministers adds weight to theory No 10 is sowing untruths for electoral advantageHis government, Rishi Sunak said, had scrapped plans to ban Christmas, Strictly Come Dancing, and puppies. This was a very obviously self-knowing joke. But at times at the Conservative conference, it can feel as if the joke might be on voters.In the traditionally lighthearted speech to a dinner for Westminster journalists last week, Sunak had been mocking himself for claiming, amid a watering down of green policies, to have averted a series of policies that were never formally proposed, including mandatory car-pooling and seven different recycling bins. Continue reading...

It started out with high hopes and a higher budget. Helen Pidd explains why the government has lost faith in the ambitious - and controversial - rail projectIt's been more than a decade in the making - and was supposed to help connect English cities like never before. Now, delayed, over budget and more controversial than ever, HS2 ambitions have hit the buffers.Rumours have been swirling for weeks that the Manchester to Birmingham leg would be scrapped - and that the fate of the line between Euston and Old Oak Common was hanging in the balance. Now as the Conservative party conference is in full swing - ironically in a former Manchester railway station - the speculation that Sunak is finally going to confirm the rumours has hit fever pitch. And it has caused an outpouring of anger from politicians in the North and Midlands, such as Manchester's mayor, Andy Burnham. Continue reading...

Teenager's attempt to deflect conversion instead diverted ball over own side's posts, denying his team victoryOwn goals are, unfortunately, an occupational hazard for defenders in football.But an overenthusiastic Scottish teenager has managed to score a vanishingly rare rugby version and deny his team a win. Continue reading...

Relations between countries continue to fracture over alleged assassination of Sikh separatist in British ColumbiaIndia has told Canada it must remove 41 diplomats from its embassy in Delhi as the diplomatic spat continues between the two countries.According to officials who spoke to the Financial Times, the Indian foreign ministry has given Canada a week to repatriate two-thirds of its diplomats stationed in India, reducing the number to 21. India's Ministry of External Affairs declined comment. An official familiar with the matter confirmed the report to the Associated Press. Continue reading...

PM declines to reveal if Manchester to Birmingham line will be scrapped amid speculation over soaring costs

City's culture minister hopes to turn Galeries Lafayette store into German capital's new living room,' but critics question likely costPerusing the cold meat counter in the Galeries Lafayette on Berlin's Friedrichstrasse, Rahel Schorn was taken by the idea that she may one day come here to pore over books instead. The location is very central," said the business student, shopping for groceries with her mother. And the building is large, light and airy."Under proposals by Berlin's culture senator, Joe Chialo, the French department store might yet be turned into the city's first central library, something decision-makers have argued about for more than 100 years and German librarians insist is the chance of a century". Continue reading...

Questions raised about sudden death in Birmingham after Canada links India to murder in British ColumbiaThe family of Avtar Singh Khanda, the 35-year-old Sikh activist who died in a Birmingham hospital after a short illness this summer, is seeking a formal inquest into his death from the chief coroner for England and Wales.The request by the family, in conjunction with the Sikh Federation UK, comes on the heels of a claim by Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, that India was linked to the murder of another Sikh activist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in British Columbia. Continue reading...

News Corp-backed Betr attracted controversy last year when it offered 100-1 odds on the 2023 grand final winners in the NRL, AFL and other sports

Russia's former leader responds to statements by UK defence secretary, who said UK is in talks to move training to Ukraine

Members of the African-Caribbean community will be given freedom of the borough status for their exceptional contribution' to the areaMembers of the Windrush generation and the African-Caribbean community in East Staffordshire are going to be given the highest honour by the borough council, as a mark of heartfelt gratitude" to their contribution to the area.As the UK marks the start of Black History Month, local members of the Windrush community and their families will be given freedom of the borough status - the highest award a council can give - at an extraordinary council meeting on Monday. Continue reading...

Family and headteacher of Jessica Baker praise teenager's talent and inspirational dedication to climbingTributes have been paid to an unequivocally kind and empathic" 15-year-old girl who was killed when a bus overturned on the M53 in Wirral on Friday.Jessica Baker, a talented climber, died after the school bus carrying about 50 children overturned near junction five at about 8.30am. Continue reading...

The populist Smer leader, who has pledged to end military aid to Ukraine, says he is ready to open talks on forming a coalition governmentSlovakia's populist former prime minister, Robert Fico, who campaigned on a pledge to end military aid to Ukraine, has said his position has not changed" after his party's clear election win made him favourite to lead the country for a fourth time.Fico told reporters he was waiting for Slovakia's president to give him a mandate to start forming a government - expected on Monday - after officials said on Sunday that Smer-SD had scored 22.9% in Saturday's vote with 99.98% of ballots counted. Continue reading...

Observers hail a smart' deal that allows for artificial intelligence as a tool, not a replacement - and could be a model for other industriesHollywood writers scored a major victory this week in the battle over artificial intelligence with a new contract featuring strong guardrails in how the technology can be used in film and television projects.One of the longest labor strikes in Hollywood history came to an end on Tuesday after the Writers Guild of America (WGA) approved an agreement made with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Writers and actors had been picketing for months as part of a historic double strike" that brought the industry to a standstill. Continue reading...

Nine injured as blaze erupts at oil pipeline in western Ukraine; drone attack in southern Russia leaves one hurt

Runoff vote was widely seen as a referendum on whether to pursue closer ties with China or India, both vying for influence in the island nationPro-China candidate Mohamed Muizzu won Saturday's presidential election in the Maldives, a result set to once again upend the archipelago's relationship with traditional partner India.Muizzu helms a party that presided over an influx of Chinese loans when it last held power in the atoll nation, better known for its luxury beach resorts and celebrity tourists. Continue reading...