Unsettled weather to continue across western Europe and southern Australia forecast to experience unseasonably cold spellAfter causing devastation in Florida last week, Hurricane Nicole travelled along the east coast of the US and across the Atlantic towards western Europe as an extratropical cyclone. The remnants of Nicole brought heavy rain and strong winds to Ireland, the UK and parts of northern France during Monday night and Tuesday.Unsettled conditions are set to continue throughout the next few days across western Europe as several areas of low pressure move in from the Atlantic. These lows are expected to affect areas as far east as Norway and as far south as the Bay of Biscay, and will bring the potential of some localised flooding for the worst affected areas. Continue reading...
Moment hints at possible limits to unrelenting rise of China and raises questions about ability of India to reap demographic dividendOn the day India surpasses China as the world’s most populous nation, the change for both countries will be psychological and symbolic.China will still be the greater economic power, the one challenging the United States for full superpower status, but it will no longer be able to call itself the largest nation by sheer numbers. Continue reading...
India’s entrenched north-south divide is growing as its population changes, with serious social and political consequencesThe cry of a baby born in India one day next year will herald a watershed moment for the country, when the scales tip and India overtakes China as the world’s most populous nation.Yet the story of India’s population boom is really two stories. In the north, led by just two states, the population is still rising. In the richer south, numbers are stabilising and in some areas declining. The deepening divisions between these regions mean the government must eventually grapple with a unique problem: the consequences of a baby boom and an ageing population, all inside one nation. Continue reading...
Industry reports sales of titles for under-10s addressing emotions up almost 40%, driven by demand from young peopleMindfulness books for children as young as two are the latest runaway publishing trend, the industry has said, with children themselves calling for more titles to help them make sense of their emotions.Publishers including Magic Cat Publishing are reporting that sales of books for children under 10 years old that address emotions and mental health issues are up almost 40% year on year since 2021. Continue reading...
Hong Kong and Chinese markets soared on the announcement that the government would extend loans for distressed developersChinese authorities have unveiled sweeping measures to rescue the struggling property sector, as regulators seek to offset years of harsh pandemic curbs and a real estate crackdown that have stalled the world’s No 2 economy.The banking regulator and central bank issued a 16-point set of internal directives to promote the “stable and healthy development” of the industry. Continue reading...
Cost of living crisis affecting different generations in very different ways, says Resolution FoundationOlder people face a bigger income hit from surging energy costs this winter but younger households are more at risk of being unable to pay their bill or getting into debt amid the cost of living crisis, according to a report.As households across Britain turn their heating on, the research by the Resolution Foundation thinktank found that older generations, in particular the over-75s, will spend a bigger share of their income, up from 5% to 8%, on their energy bills. For those under 50 the proportion is 5%. Continue reading...
A Place in the Sun and Escape to the Country host hopes he can inspire others to ‘make the most of every day’The TV presenter Jonnie Irwin has revealed he has terminal cancer, saying he hopes sharing his diagnosis will inspire others to “make the most of every day”.The 48-year-old, who presents Channel 4’s A Place in the Sun and the BBC’s Escape to the Country, said he had lung cancer that had spread to his brain, and that he did not know how much time he had left to live. Continue reading...
Brian Glendinning, 43, was contracted to work for BP in Iraq when arrested over an alleged debt owed to the Qatari National BankA Scottish engineer who was held in an Iraqi prison facing extradition to Qatar over a bank debt has been released, according to a human rights charity that had been campaigning for his freedom.Brian Glendinning, 43, who had been contracted to work at a BP oil refinery in Iraq, was arrested on an Interpol red notice at Baghdad airport on 12 September. Continue reading...
Former broadcaster and lawyer to Melania Trump was backed by centre-left government and defeated conservative rivalA liberal lawyer and former data privacy commissioner backed by Slovenia’s centre-left government has been elected the country’s first female president after beating her conservative rival in a runoff vote on Sunday.With 99% of votes counted, Nataša Pirc Musar was in the lead on 53.8% of the vote, ahead of the conservative veteran Anže Logar on 46.1%. While both candidates had run as independents, they were backed by the centre-left and rightwing political blocs of the small eastern European country of 2 million, which has been a member of the EU for 15 years. Continue reading...
The former Arsenal captain left the show urging those suffering from mental health issues to get the help they needTony Adams has become the seventh contestant to leave Strictly Come Dancing after withdrawing because of injury.The former Arsenal and England captain’s exit meant that Kiss FM DJ Tyler West and his partner, Dianne Buswell, went through to next week’s show without having to take part in a dance-off. Continue reading...
Chancellor warns health service has to help fix UK’s broken economy despite facing ‘massive pressures’The chancellor has said he accepts “the picture that the NHS is on the brink of collapse” but warned the struggling service will also need to play its part in helping fix Britain’s broken economy.Jeremy Hunt said there were “massive pressures in the NHS … with doctors, nurses on the frontline frankly under unbearable pressure”. However, he said the service received a lot of money and “we need to do everything we can to find efficiencies”. Continue reading...
Celebrity gospel singer Flordelis dos Santos de Souza, famous for her 55 children, given 50-year jail sentenceA former Brazilian congresswoman has been found guilty of ordering the murder of her preacher husband and sentenced to 50 years and 28 days in prison, bringing an end to one of the most sensational crimes in recent Brazilian history.The celebrity gospel singer Flordelis dos Santos de Souza, known as Flordelis, was also found guilty on Sunday of associated crimes, including unsuccessfully attempting to poison Anderson do Carmo with cyanide at least six times before giving up and arranging his killing. Continue reading...
by Jessica Elgot Deputy political editor on (#65SCD)
Party sources unrepentant as critics say strategy is creating identikit candidates with few from working-class jobsWhen Labour under Jeremy Corbyn won a swathe of new seats in 2017, a senior member of the party’s national executive committee (NEC) confided shortly after the election that there were at least three new MPs that they had not expected to win their seats – and about whom they had some concerns.The first was Jared O’Mara, who stood down in 2019 after a string of scandals. The second was Fiona Onasanya, who lost her seat after a criminal conviction. The third, whom it would be unfair to name, turned out to be scandal-free. Continue reading...
Men found with stab wounds in ‘fairly busy’ area of Houghton Regis in early hours of Sunday, police sayTwo young men have died and a third is seriously injured after being found with stab wounds.Bedfordshire police said officers were called to reports of a man being struck by a vehicle in Tithe Farm Road, in Houghton Regis, at 1.18am on Sunday. Continue reading...
Hit podcast to end eight-year run by hearing from creator of the Belinda Blinked amateur erotic novelsListeners of My Dad Wrote a Porno will be treated to a guest appearance of the titular dad, who has remained elusive during the eight-year run, in the podcast’s final episode next month.Jamie Morton, Alice Levine and James Cooper last week recorded the concluding three episodes of the show, labelled “the most successful podcast in British history”, with the first due to be released on 28 November. Continue reading...
Accommodation providers told officials of increase in people threatening to harm themselves, minutes of meeting showThe Home Office was warned that its Rwanda policy was causing a rise in the number of asylum seekers reporting feeling suicidal and vanishing from hotel accommodation, an internal safeguarding document has revealed.The Labour peer Helena Kennedy KC has called the Home Office “heartless” for pursuing the policy despite officials knowing how much damage it was causing to people.In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org. Continue reading...
Iranian Mehran Karimi Nasseri inspired the Steven Spielberg film The Terminal, starring Tom HanksAn Iranian man who lived for 18 years in Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport and inspired the 2004 Steven Spielberg film The Terminal died on Saturday in the airport, officials said.Mehran Karimi Nasseri died after a heart attack in the airport’s Terminal 2F around midday, according an official with the Paris airport authority. Police and a medical team treated him but were not able to save him, the official said. Continue reading...
by Lisa O'Carroll Brexit correspondent on (#65S5X)
Phil Russell says he was four days overdue sending an application to stay he did not know he neededA British man living in Denmark is being deported from the country because he was four days late with an application to stay there post-Brexit.Danish MP Mads Fuglede is fighting to stop the deportation which he says is a breach of the spirit of the withdrawal agreement to protect EU citizens’ rights. However, following elections last week and with no new government in sight in Copenhagen, he is worried help may not come in time for Philip Russell. Continue reading...
A fire chief is under investigation for a prescribed burn gone wrong and stirred up long-simmering tensions over wildfire riskHours before Rick Snodgrass was cuffed and loaded into a squad car, he’d called the sheriff himself. The United States Forest Service burn boss had requested the help of local law enforcement in Grant county, Oregon, reporting his crew was being harassed while conducting a controlled burn within the Malheur national forest.It was the second burn that crews had conducted in the area in two weeks, with flames intended to char around 300 acres. But that warm October afternoon, the treatment did not go according to plan. Continue reading...
Branch Hill pond dried up in the 1880s. Now it will teem with wildlife again, as it did in the artist’s heydayIt was a view that John Constable sketched and painted dozens of times. From the top of Hampstead Heath, London’s highest point at 134 metres (440ft), the artist would look west and north towards today’s suburbs of Willesden, Edgware and Harrow. About 100 metres away, down below, was a beautiful natural pond.But in the 1880s, Branch Hill pond dried up. Now, nearly two centuries after Constable immortalised on canvas his favourite landscape in the capital, the pond has been recreated. Continue reading...
City authorities hope to soothe those who are ‘deeply shocked’ by the comic-strip trail of Belgium’s rich historyIn the centre of Brussels, close to the monumental Palais de Justice, is a brightly coloured cartoon painted down a strip of a scruffy four-storey building. Playing on the stories of crime and judgment unfolding in the nearby courtrooms, the mural shows heaven and hell. In the blue skies, a caricatured police officer flies over a topless woman sunbathing, while a white officer eyes a black man; down below, the red-tailed devil looks grumpy.The work, from a popular cartoon that first appeared in the 1980s, is just one of 68 murals celebrating Belgium’s rich history of comic strips, or bandes dessinées, including figures such as Tintin, Lucky Luke and the Smurfs. Continue reading...
Ali, a Kurd who fled Iran, may also be offered a university place after he told of the tedium of 500 days in limboAn asylum seeker who has spent almost 500 days stranded in a Berkshire hotel has thanked Observer readers for their generosity after he was inundated with books.Last week Ali featured in an article articulating life in limbo for the 37,000 asylum seekers living in hotels, with the Kurdish Iranian lamenting that the one thing he craved to relieve the tedium was a book to read. Continue reading...
Chefs are hoping the concept will tempt diners to spend a little more and fight the cost-of-living crisisLinden Stores, in the Cheshire village of Audlem, has started a whole sharing menu of modern British food, with two people sharing seven dishes including charred pepper and Cornish Quartz cheddar croquettes, hake wrapped in wild boar pancetta and chocolate and peanut butter tart.Laura Christie and her partner, Chris Boustead, relocated the restaurant to the village from London in 2020. She has been surprised by the reaction. Continue reading...
Ukraine’s step towards victory presents challenges, but demonstrates what can be done with a steady supply of western supportThe Russian decision to withdraw from the Ukrainian city of Kherson to defensive positions on the left bank of the Dnipro River was driven by sound military logic. Russian control of the city could only be maintained at a steep price in troops and materiel. Operationally, the withdrawal should help the Russians stabilise their defensive positions over the winter. Strategically, the withdrawal is an unambiguous Russian defeat.When Ukraine launched its counteroffensive against Kherson at the end of August its military knew it lacked the combat power to storm the city. However, strikes on the bridges over the Dnipro limited Russia’s ability to supply its troops with heavy equipment, while the river protected Ukrainian forces from counterattack. This favourable battlefield geometry allowed Ukraine to create a killing area in which its artillery could inflict heavy casualties on Russia’s most motivated and competent units. Continue reading...
Revolt over ‘levelling up’ label on Arts Council cash for established institutions, while projects for disadvantaged children are cutA Tory revolt has emerged over “patronising” claims that funding for established cultural institutions contributes to the government’s levelling up pledge, amid concerns from ministers and MPs that “real levelling up” projects for the underprivileged have been slashed.Rishi Sunak is expected to be confronted this week over the issue during prime minister’s questions. Continue reading...
Government focus on homes at higher ‘affordable’ rent helps fuel drastic shortage with demand poised to surgeForty councils in England saw no social rent housing built in five years in the wake of government funding cuts, according to official figures analysed by the Observer.In 2010 the Conservative-led coalition slashed funding for subsidised housing by 60% and redirected the remaining money away from social rent and towards more expensive “affordable rent” housing. Continue reading...
New book by Nick Lowles of Hope not Hate claims ex-MI5 informer who bombed for the Republicans is extremist’s ‘surveillance officer’A notorious former MI5 informant linked to a series of terrorist murders is working for far-right activist Tommy Robinson to spy on his opponents, including some of the UK’s most prominent anti-fascists, a new book claims.Peter Keeley, who operated as a mole in the IRA for the UK security services under the name Kevin Fulton, has been working for the former leader of the English Defence League as “surveillance officer” since 2020, covertly following and recording people of interest, including Nick Lowles, chief executive of anti-fascist campaign group Hope not Hate. Continue reading...
by Graham Readfearn (now) and Royce Kurmelovs (earlie on (#65RS5)
Victorian opposition vows to restrict gas produced in the state from being exported in a bid to reduce household bills; Anthony Albanese speaks to Chinese premier Li Keqiang at East Asia Summit gala dinner. This blog is now closed
Nepali workers who quit jobs and borrowed cash to come to UK are out of work just weeks after arrivingNepali workers hired to pick fruit on British farms say they have been left thousands of pounds in debt after being sent home only weeks after they arrived.The fruit pickers were recruited under the government’s seasonal worker scheme and say they were offered work for six months. But less than two months after arriving, they were told they were no longer needed and instructed to book flights home. Continue reading...
Patients will have no say over records going to Palantir, the software giant run by billionaire Republican backerAn NHS project to incorporate tens of millions of personal digital medical records into one of the biggest health data platforms in the world is to be launched without seeking new patient consent.Health officials confirmed this weekend the proposed £360m new data platform for England will incorporate the NHS shared care records that track patients across the health and care system. Continue reading...
Anti-mafia journalist to appear in court in Rome over comments made about policy towards migrants drowning in MediterraneanItaly’s new far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, is suing one of the world’s best-known journalists, the anti-mafia and human rights campaigner Roberto Saviano, for criminal defamation, over remarks he made regarding her policy towards migrants drowning in the Mediterranean sea.This is the second time in just under four years that senior government ministers have targeted Saviano, 43, with criminal proceedings, despite a duty to protect him after the Neapolitan Camorra issued a death threat following publication of his book Gomorrah in 2006. Continue reading...
Inquiry will hear new evidence of fatal gene mutation that may be to blameIn 2003 Kathleen Folbigg was convicted of smothering and killing her four young children, Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Laura. She was given a prison sentence of 40 years and dubbed Australia’s worst female serial killer.Folbigg had to be kept in protective custody to prevent violence from other inmates but has steadfastly maintained her innocence, a claim that has slowly gathered support over the years. Scientists, including several Nobel prize winners, have since argued that a mutant gene was responsible for the children’s deaths. Continue reading...
Region is in the grip of a severe crisis due to a lack of food and medicine after a two-year conflictEthiopia’s government and Tigrayan rebels have agreed to facilitate immediate humanitarian access to “all in need” in war-ravaged Tigray and neighbouring regions.The agreement followed talks in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi this week on the full implementation of a deal signed between the warring sides 10 days ago to end the brutal two-year conflict in northern Ethiopia. Continue reading...
Steve Barclay adds he is ‘saddened’ by the RCN’s proposed industrial action, saying it is in ‘nobody’s best interests’Pay demands from unions representing nurses are “neither reasonable nor affordable”, the health secretary has said after their members voted to go on strike.Steve Barclay said he was saddened by the proposed industrial action by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which he said was in “nobody’s best interests”. Continue reading...
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