World news | The Guardian

Victory in World Cup opener sparks street celebrations and banishes painful memories in Doha of failure to qualify for USA 1994Japan’s shock victory over Germany in Qatar on Wednesday sparked late-night celebrations and calls to mark the Samurai Blue’s momentous feat in their 2022 World Cup opener with a public holiday.The clock was nearing midnight when Takuma Asano rifled Japan’s winner into the roof of the net at Khalifa International Stadium in Doha – a result that had seemed impossible after a poor first half from Japan, playing in their seventh straight World Cup. Continue reading...

Head of Brazil's electoral court rejects claim from outgoing president’s coalition that said voting machines malfunctionedThe head of Brazil’s electoral court has rejected an attempt by outgoing president Jair Bolsonaro’s party to overturn the results of October’s run-off election, which he lost.Alexandre de Moraes, a supreme court justice, also fined the parties in Bolsonaro’s coalition 22.9m reais ($4.3m) for what the court described as bad faith litigation. Continue reading...

Regime refuses to provide consular access as it does not recognise dual nationality, Dfat says

Five-week-old boy was found with ‘distressing’ internal injuries in Daisy Hill in June last year, police say

Volodymyr Zelenskiy calls for UN security council to take action after latest strikes; EU leaders fail to agree on price cap for Russian oil

Airline launches campaign targeting ‘empty nesters’ or people looking for challenge later in life

Guardian analysis of promises targeting single seats shows Labor sandbagging home turf while opponents spend big on marginals

Russia launches 70 missiles in ‘large-scale attack on critical facilities’; cyber-attack hits European parliament after MEPs declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism

Yes signs, bagpipes and Saltire on parade as mainly anti-Westminster crowd gathers at Holyrood to support ‘democratic rights’

Rallies in Edinburgh and across country after ruling says Scottish parliament cannot hold independence referendum without Westminster approvalReed says the Scotland Act gives the Scottish parliament limited powers. It cannot legislate on reserved matters. Those include fundamental matters, including the union of the UK.If legislation related to the union, or the UK parliament, the Scottish parliament would have no power to enact it. Continue reading...

Government ‘committed’ to financial regulators’ independence says City minister in Tory U-turnThe government has made a U-turn on plans to introduce sweeping powers that would allow ministers to override regulators, including the Bank of England, after multiple warnings that such a move would harm the UK’s global reputation.The Treasury confirmed on Wednesday evening that it would “not proceed with the intervention power at this time”, noting that the government was “committed” to the independence of City watchdogs, which include the Financial Conduct Authority. Continue reading...

NHS heads warn patients dying every day as A&E logjams cause 169,000 hours of crew delays in worst-ever monthAmbulance crews could not respond to almost one in four 999 calls last month – the most ever – because so many were tied up outside A&Es waiting to hand patients over, dramatic new NHS figures show.An estimated 5,000 patients in England – also the highest number on record – potentially suffered “severe harm” through waiting so long either to be admitted to A&E or just to get an ambulance to turn up to help them.18% of ambulance handovers took more than an hour last month, when the NHS target is 15 minutes – a nine-fold increase on the 2% seen in October 2019.The average handover time was 42 minutes, up 12 minutes from October 2021 and up 23 mins from Oct 2020.The number of one, two, three and 10-hour handovers was the highest ever recorded.Delays exposed an estimated 41,000 patients to potential harm, of whom about 5,000 were put at risk of, or experienced, “severe harm”, including death. Continue reading...

Lawyer says home secretary failed to consider ‘serious consequences’ of removing 23-year-old’s citizenshipShamima Begum would face the death penalty if sent to Bangladesh, her parents’ country of origin, and is now effectively stateless, a court has heard.The 23-year-old’s legal appeal at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) was told that the then home secretary, Sajid Javid, had failed to consider the “serious practical consequences” of removing Begum’s UK citizenship in 2019. Continue reading...

Scotland’s first minister sees general election as independence referendum after UK supreme court judgment on second poll

Home secretary faces five legal challenges over crisis at Manston processing centre for asylum seekers

Person arrested in Isfahan province accused of sharing information with BBC and Iran International, says state mediaAn unnamed British-Iranian citizen was arrested in Iran’s Isfahan province on Wednesday for allegedly sharing information with foreign-based news channels, Iranian state media reported.“The Revolutionary Guards’ Intelligence Organisation arrested a British-Iranian citizen who communicated with the BBC and Iran International,” the Islamic Republic of Iran’s News Network said, before adding the person was born in Britain. Continue reading...

Kremlin audience with relatives of mobilised troops granted to dispel fears over the Ukraine call-up

German official says former UK PM has ‘unique relationship with the truth’ in rebuttal of Johnson’s claims

CWU members to strike on dates around Black Friday and Christmas after spurning ‘final’ pay offer up to 9%Strikes by postal workers around Black Friday and in the run-up to Christmas are to go ahead after their union rejected a pay offer that Royal Mail said was final.Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) will strike for 48 hours on Thursday and Friday and on 30 November and 1 December, and will also carry out single days of action on 9, 11, 14, 15 and 23 December and on Christmas Eve. Continue reading...

Initial findings show explosions were result of nails and explosive devices left in bags at two sites, say policeA teenage boy has died and 22 people have been injured in two blasts targeting rush-hour commuters in Jerusalem, attacks that hark back to the violence of the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising.The first explosion occurred shortly after 7am local time on Wednesday near a bus stop packed with civilians on the western outskirts of the divided city. The second blast, half an hour later near a busy junction in the Ramot settlement, north of Jerusalem, injured another five people. The child who died from his injuries in hospital was named as a dual Israeli-Canadian citizen, Aryeh Schupak, 15. Continue reading...

Mayor of Greater Manchester steps into row over opera company’s mooted move to outside LondonAndy Burnham has told the English National Opera (ENO) that the company is not welcome in Manchester if it does not want to relocate there from London.“If they think we are all heathens here, that nobody would go, I’m afraid it doesn’t understand us and therefore it doesn’t deserve to come here. If they want to come, come willingly. If you can’t come willingly, don’t come at all,” the mayor of Greater Manchester said on Wednesday. Continue reading...

First minister has always said she seeks ‘gold standard’ of legality for second vote – so where does ruling leave SNP?

Labour leader condemns non-dom and windfall tax avoidance, accusing PM of not standing up to his party

‘Hefty chunk’ of documents handed over to committee last week, four months after request

Ukrainian official says suspected Russian citizens and pro-Russia literature found in raids on Orthodox sites

Nicola Sturgeon says ‘Scottish democracy will not be denied’ after court blocks route to referendum

Adam Tolley KC will draw up a report for PM, who will then decide whether Raab should face sanctionRishi Sunak has appointed a top employment barrister to investigate formal complaints into his deputy prime minister, Dominic Raab, who has been accused by multiple civil servants of bullying behaviour across several government departments.The lawyer, Adam Tolley KC, has been tasked with investigating the claims, which are understood to go back several years, and drawing up a report for the prime minister, who will then decide whether Raab should face sanction. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Passerby Mike Ashley who was at the QVB says he was threatened with charge of hindering arrest when he tried to intervene

The state suffered country’s sharpest economic slowdown due to long lockdowns, requiring bigger fiscal repair job, one expert says

NSW health department’s concerns revealed in report released by WaterNSW

After two years of eating in silence, survey by mother finds 90% of schoolchildren want to converse againMost children in Japan long for a return to the days when they could chat to their classmates over lunch – a pleasure they have been denied during the coronavirus pandemic.After well over two years of eating in near silence to prevent the spread of the airborne virus, schoolchildren say they want their classrooms to reverberate to more than the sound of cutlery and crockery at lunchtime. Continue reading...

Darebin council has denied ALP accusation of ‘blatant political interference’ in the tightly contested seat of Northcote

A potential late-night sitting session next week is likely to overturn the 16-year-old federal ban

Thinktank finds restrictive stance on migration would repel more voters than it would attract for Conservatives and LabourKeir Starmer and Rishi Sunak could adopt a more open approach to migration without damaging their electoral prospects, according to a study by a left-of-centre thinktank.Data on voting intentions and attitudes to immigration examined by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) suggests that a more flexible approach would attract many more swing voters than it would repel for Labour. Continue reading...

New national guidance includes measures to support and retain staff and ‘break the stigma’ of menopauseMenopausal women working in NHS England will be able to work flexibly should they need to under new guidance.Launching the first-ever national NHS guidance on menopause, the NHS England chief executive, Amanda Pritchard, has called on other employers to follow suit to help “break the stigma”. Continue reading...

RMT union announces two lots of 48-hour strikes for mid-December and two more in the new yearRail passengers will face more disruption in December and January across Britain after the RMT union announced a fresh series of 48-hour strikes.Thousands of members of the RMT working for Network Rail and 14 train operating companies will strike on 13-14 and 16-17 December, causing disruption in the run-up to Christmas. There will be a further two strikes on 3-4 and 6-7 January. Continue reading...

Independent assessor deeply critical of proposals to discard up to 4,000 pieces of EU-derived legislationThe plans for discarding EU-derived laws following Brexit have been called “not fit for purpose” by the government’s own independent assessor.Under new legislation that was the brain-child of the former business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg, thousands of laws copied from the EU to Britain’s statute book will be “sunsetted” by the end of next year if they are not each signed off by ministers to be kept. Continue reading...

Politician says no one will be allowed to ‘insult our anthem and flag’ as loyalist media vent fury over protests during England gameIran’s footballers could face reprisals if they fail to sing the national anthem in their remaining World Cup group games, after a politician said the country “will never allow anyone to insult our anthem”.The football team stayed silent while the anthem was played before their 6-2 defeat to England on Monday, in a symbolic show of support for the protest movement that has roiled Iran since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody in September. Continue reading...

Campaigners call for more access after analysis reveals public cannot access huge chunks of many parksThe majority of many of the national parks in England and Wales are shut off to walkers, analysis by campaigners has found, as they ask for larger areas to be opened to the public.Research by the Campaign for National Parks shows that just 10% of the Pembrokeshire coast is open to the public. Only 36% of land is accessible in the Peak District, which was the first designated national park, and given the status in 1951 after protests over the right to freely roam in the countryside, most notably the Kinder trespass. Continue reading...

Lord Bracadale, leading inquiry into Bayoh’s death in custody in Fife, says abuse ‘may amount to hate crime’The chair of the public inquiry into the death in police custody of Sheku Bayoh has condemned as “despicable” the racist abuse directed towards the family of the deceased man.In his opening remarks as the inquiry entered its second stage on Tuesday morning, Lord Bracadale said: “Recently it has been reported to me that the family of Sheku Bayoh and their solicitor have been subjected to racist abuse. I am sure that everyone associated with this inquiry will agree with me that such behaviour is despicable and entirely unacceptable. In some instances, it may amount to hate crime.” Continue reading...

Tensions rise over plans to fine ethnic Serbs in Kosovo who refuse to surrender Belgrade-issued platesA row over car number plates in Kosovo is threatening to erupt into open unrest and one of the most serious regional crises in years as tensions between Serbia and its breakaway former province continue to mount.The EU, US and Nato have expressed alarm after more than eight hours of emergency talks in Brussels on Monday failed to resolve the dispute over Kosovo’s plans to fine ethnic Serb residents who refuse to surrender their Belgrade-issued plates. Continue reading...

Central banks will need to adjust rates more often to respond to unpredictable levels of inflation, Philip Lowe says

Defender tweeted he went from crying all day to playing in World Cup gameThe defender Neco Williams has revealed he played in Wales’ stirring opening World Cup match against the US the day after his grandfather died.Williams, 21, said he managed to get though the 1-1 draw thanks to the support of his team mates and family. Continue reading...

Office for National Statistics says refugees face difficulties due to lack of guarantors or referencesUkrainian refugees in the UK are experiencing difficulties accessing private rented accommodation because they are unable to secure guarantors or references, the Office for National Statistics has revealed.The ONS surveyed nearly 3,000 Ukrainians who fled Russia’s invasion of their country to live in the UK under two visa schemes. Continue reading...

Finlay Fisher, who has cerebral palsy, thanks England footballer for keeping promise to celebrate goal with special danceA young football fan with cerebral palsy said seeing Jack Grealish perform their special goal celebration was “a dream come true” – and urged the England star to do “the Finlay” each time he scores.Grealish had promised Finlay Fisher he would perform the shoulder waggle celebration after the 12-year-old wrote to him upon learning that the player’s sister Holly also has cerebral palsy. True to his word, the Manchester City forward pulled out the dance after scoring the sixth goal in England’s 6-2 win against Iran at the World Cup in Qatar on Monday. Continue reading...

Online electrical store is cutting costs but faces ‘tough environment’ and supply chain problemsThe online electrical goods retailer AO World has reported bigger half year losses as it has been hammered by the cost of living crisis and supply chain problems.AO, which sells kitchen appliances, mobile phones and laptops for home delivery, warned of tough times ahead, but raised its full-year earnings guidance after closing loss-making divisions and its German business. This drove its shares 15% higher, but they are down more than 40% so far this year. Continue reading...

Offered opportunities to attack in Sky News debate, Daniel Andrews and Matthew Guy each sought to be more civil than the other

Apparent vacating of Home Office site follows series of concerns including over outbreak of diphtheria

Watchdog finds ‘severe weaknesses’ at Good Energy, Outfox, So Energy, TruEnergy and UtilitaEnergy companies are failing vulnerable customers, Britain’s energy watchdog said, calling for urgent improvement ahead of a cold winter.Ofgem told all 17 energy suppliers in its third review into the sector to improve their support for customers, in particular vulnerable ones. It found “severe weaknesses” in five suppliers – Good Energy, Outfox, So Energy, TruEnergy and Utilita. Continue reading...

A number of MPs say they will not claim for festive gatherings, with foreign secretary calling guidance ‘stupid’