Rights groups say whatever the outcome of election, no real change will follow despite record number of female candidatesBahrainis headed to the polls on Saturday but a ban on opposition candidates meant the election will bring no meaningful change despite a record number of people vying for seats, rights groups said.More than 330 candidates, including a record 73 women, are competing to join the 40-seat council of representatives – the lower house of parliament that advises King Hamad, who has ruled since his father died in March 1999. Continue reading...
Ex-health secretary pelted with messy substances while competing in a quiz based on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?Matt Hancock was covered in slime and pelted with feathers and custard as he took part in his fourth challenge on I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!After a public vote, the former health secretary, 44, and his 23-year-old campmate Owen Warner, known as Romeo Nightingale in Hollyoaks, were chosen for Friday’s trial. Continue reading...
Firms should be ‘legally required’ to publish their class pay gaps, says thinktank, after it found salary differences of up to £10,000People from working-class families earn several thousands of pounds a year less on average for doing the same jobs as their more privileged peers, according to a landmark study of the class pay gap.Professionals from working-class backgrounds earn £6,718 less on average, while women and most ethnic minorities face a double disadvantage, according to the Social Mobility Foundation (SMF), which conducted the research. Working-class professional women earn £9,450 less than men, while working-class Bangladeshi professionals earn £10,432 less than their white counterparts in the same jobs. Continue reading...
Two women arrested after defacing statue of Arthur Balfour who as foreign secretary pledged support in 1917 for a Jewish homelandTwo women have been arrested after protesters pretending to be tourists squirted tomato ketchup on to a statue in the Houses of Parliament.Members of Palestine Action used tourist passes to enter the members’ lobby of the House of Commons. Continue reading...
by Michael Savage, Pippa Crerarand Toby Helm on (#65RMZ)
‘Formal expression of concern’ about Tory MP’s behaviour was sent to cabinet office in 2018Concerns over Dominic Raab’s behaviour towards officials were raised inside Whitehall during his time as Brexit secretary in 2018, the Observer has been told.In the latest allegation against Raab over his conduct in government, a senior source said that a document outlining a “formal expression of concern” was dispatched to the Cabinet Office by a prominent official in the Brexit department. Continue reading...
Innovative post-punk musician was an original member of the Clash before founding PiL with John Lydon and Jah WobbleKeith Levene, the innovative guitarist who was a founder member of both the Clash and Public Image Ltd, has died at the age of 65.Levene, who had liver cancer, died at his home in Norfolk , leaving a lasting legacy of influence on British rock music. Continue reading...
Former party leader’s Islington North constituency riven by tensions over whether to support incumbent or find new candidateIt is hard to find a more Labour-dominated part of the country than the London seat of Islington North. Yet should you ask Labour members which candidate they will be backing at the next election, there is nervousness, hesitation and hushed tones.Jeremy Corbyn, the local MP in the seat for the last 39 years, is currently an independent MP having been stripped of the Labour party whip. He retains significant local support, but should he decide to run as an independent candidate at the next election, every Labour member in the seat will face a choice – campaign for the party’s candidate, or campaign for Corbyn and risk expulsion. Continue reading...
The 82-year-old monarch rode in a carriage through Copenhagen and was joined by her family, despite recent public row with sonDenmark’s Queen Margrethe II rounded off celebrations marking her 50th year on the throne on Saturday, and was joined by her family despite a recent public row with her youngest son.The 82-year-old monarch took a carriage ride through Copenhagen and attended a ceremony at city hall. Continue reading...
Lille resident was returning home about 3am when he saw cracks appearing in a four-storey building and alerted emergency servicesA four-storey building has collapsed in the northern French city of Lille but no deaths have been reported so far, thanks to a resident’s advance warning, French authorities said.Lille firefighters said they rescued one person from the rubble with only light injuries. The search for any others possibly trapped in the rubble was continuing before an investigation begins into why the building collapsed on Saturday morning. Continue reading...
by Vanessa Thorpe, Arts and Media correspondent on (#65RET)
Xander Parish, who fled St Petersburg in March, talks about his performance this weekend with Russian and Ukrainian artistesWhen the dancer Xander Parish made his return to the London stage in Swan Lake, visiting Covent Garden five years ago as a member of a renowned Russian ballet company, it was a moment of triumph. The Yorkshire-born star was, after all, the first Brit to have been accepted by the Mariinsky Ballet – known as the Kirov in Soviet times. And after the curtain came down the company promoted Parish to the status of principal dancer.How times change. This March Parish turned his back on his new home in St Petersburg. He and his Russian wife, the dancer Anastasia Demidova, fled the country in protest at the invasion of Ukraine in February. On 12 November, Parish was due to take a further stand. Continue reading...
Olaf Scholz says responsibility for violence lies solely with regime and pledges new sanctionsThe German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has strongly criticised the Iranian government for its brutal crackdown on protests and said Germany stood “shoulder to shoulder with the Iranian people”.Scholz said the protests sparked by the death on 16 September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her detention by Iran’s morality police were no longer “merely a question of dress codes” but had evolved into a fight for freedom and justice. Continue reading...
Vehicle carrying 35 people came off road and fell into canal in Aga, 70 miles north of CairoNineteen people were killed and six others were injured when a bus drove into a canal in northern Egypt on Saturday, the country’s health ministry said.The bus was carrying 35 people when it came off a highway and fell into Mansoura canal in Aga, in the northern Dakahlia region, according to security sources. Continue reading...
Sector hit by staff and funding shortages warns against giving residents legal right to see guestsCare homes face being “vilified” if they are forced to allow in visitors under new plans being considered by the government, ministers have been told.The care minister Helen Whately said stopping relatives from visiting loved ones in care homes as a precaution against the spread of Covid-19 showed “a lack of humanity”. Legislation is being planned to give care home residents and hospital patients the legal right to see guests, according to the Times, prompting fury from the care sector. Continue reading...
As abortion rights are rolled back, more citizens seeking access to reproductive healthcare may face similar treatmentThree women who peacefully protested against restrictions on abortion rights in the US supreme court were mistreated and detained in “inhumane” conditions after their arrest, they say.Their experience shows unsettling treatment in a landscape where pregnant people, medical providers and others increasingly face criminalization after the Dobbs decision on reproductive care. Continue reading...
Course thought to be world first agreed after university bowed to pressure from seven-day End Fossil protestAll students at the University of Barcelona will have to take a mandatory course on the climate crisis after the establishment agreed to meet the demands of activists conducting a sit-in occupation.In a move thought to be a world first, all 10,000 graduate and postgraduate students will have to take the course from the 2024 academic year. It will also devise a training programme on climate issues for its 6,000 academic staff. Continue reading...
by Lisa O'Carroll Brexit correspondent on (#65R8H)
Academics with settled status had to leave four-month-old with family in India due to Home Office waitA German biophysicist and his neurophysicist wife have told how they were separated from their newborn baby amid Home Office delays processing a post-Brexit residency application for their little girl.Darius, an associate professor at a Russell Group university in England, and his Indian wife, Sunaina, arrived in the UK before Brexit and had settled status – entitling them and their direct family members to reside in the country. Continue reading...
The singer will release a recording of her recent appearance at Newport Folk festival, her first full performance in 20 yearsJoni Mitchell has announced a new live album of her recent surprise Newport Folk festival performance. Speaking to Elton John on his Apple Music radio show Rocket Hour in a rare, wide-ranging interview, Mitchell confirmed that she and her team are “trying to” release an album of the show, a collaborative performance with US Americana singer Brandi Carlile which featured guests including Blake Mills, Marcus Mumford, Wynonna Judd and more. It was Mitchell’s first full performance in more than 20 years, and found the iconic folk artist singing from an onstage throne; at one point, during Just Like This Train, she stood to perform a guitar solo. “I couldn’t sing the key, I’ve become an alto, I’m not a soprano any more,” Mitchell told John of the rendition. “I thought people might feel lighted if I just played the guitar part … it was very well received, much to my delight.”Elsewhere in the interview, which airs in full at 5pm today (12 November), Mitchell discusses the original reception to much of her work, which she says “made people nervous”: “People thought it was too intimate. It was almost like Dylan going electric. I think it upset the male singer-songwriters … It took to this generation, they seem to be able to face those emotions more easily than my generation.” She also expresses her “outrage” at wars (“I guess it’s an old hippy thought like make love, not war … you’d think we’d wise up and take care of the ecology situation instead of starting wars”) and describes Chuck Berry as the “goat”, an acronym for greatest of all time. Continue reading...
by Jessica Elgot Deputy political editor on (#65R7K)
PM’s stance on global issues not fully known but he will be keen for Russia not to be seen as calling the shotsWhen Rishi Sunak steps off the plane in Bali for what will be his first major diplomatic test as prime minister, there is a forecast for heavy rain on the Indonesian island paradise and a veil of gloom over the prospects for any agreement between G20 leaders.The longest shadow has been cast by Russia – and that country’s membership of the G20 means that British officials acknowledge it will be nearly impossible for the leaders to agree a communique at all. Continue reading...
Exclusive: request to train more than 500 personnel raises tensions between Home Office and MoDThe army is expected to begin training on 21 November to replace striking Border Force officers at ports and airports, Home Office staff have been told.The Guardian understands that more than 500 military personnel are expected to each receive five days of training before being asked to work in frontline jobs. The first are supposed to arrive for training a week on Monday, Home Office staff have been told. Continue reading...
by Aubrey Allegretti and Jessica Murray on (#65R7N)
Exclusive: Complaints include that too many turned a ‘blind eye’ to racist slurs and issue was not taken seriouslyOne of Labour’s biggest local branches has been plunged into a racism storm, with minority ethnic councillors claiming there is a “toxic culture” designed to keep them “in their place, which is at the bottom”.Leaders of the Labour group on Birmingham city council were accused of “not taking racism and discrimination seriously”, and criticised for a “frankly appalling” lack of representation of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) politicians in senior roles. Continue reading...
The much-anticipated release of the Marvel sequel is set to be one of the year’s biggest hits, but it arrives with a swell of sadnessThis time around, there were no filmgoers in brightly colored kente cloth outfits or other African garb waiting to greet the coming of the Black Panthers.Where the first film was a celebration of Black excellence, the sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is an elegy for the late Chadwick Boseman. The mood was somber at theaters in Atlanta, the closest place America has to a Wakanda on Earth (like the original, it was partly filmed here). Continue reading...
Councillors in the largest town in the former health secretary’s West Suffolk constituency have already called for his resignationIf he harboured any doubts about his decision, Matt Hancock gave little hint this week when challenged by a fellow I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! contestant about his decision to abandon his duties as an MP.“Rishi’s great. We’ll be fine,” came the breezy reply from the former Health Secretary as he reclined on the jungle set ahead of being covered in slurry and insects during the first of the show’s bushtucker trials. Continue reading...
The potential impact of the chancellor’s various options and which ones we think he will pursueWhen he was chancellor, Rishi Sunak’s Treasury would routinely leak many elements of his budgets in advance, and there has been a similar wealth of informed speculation about how, as prime minister, he can fill the estimated £60bn gap in the UK’s public finances in next week’s autumn statement.With much fiscal misery expected, there is a benefit for Sunak and his chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, in floating possible options to gauge the reaction – and it is likely that some ideas mentioned in newspapers never make the cut. But here are some of the ideas on the table, in terms of tax rises and spending cuts, and the likelihood of them being implemented. Continue reading...
by Harry Taylor (now); Ben Quinn and Samantha Lock (e on (#65PZ7)
This live blog has now closed, you can read more on Ukraine’s recapture of Kherson hereThe absence of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in connection with announcements about his forces’ retreat from key areas of Ukraine is being discussed by commentators.The distance has been deliberate, writes New York Times national correspondent Neil MacFarquhar, who adds:With each new pronounced setback in Ukraine, however, it is getting harder for Mr. Putin to separate himself from the whiff of failure, which is gradually eroding his image as a decisive, indomitable leader.There is a withdrawal of Russian troops to more fortified positions. But there were still populated points where we saw battles.They withdraw because they suffer losses, very heavy losses. What’s more, they don’t even take the bodies of their soldiers and leave the wounded behind. Continue reading...
Prosecutors say David Smith, 58, from Paisley, became disillusioned with west and contacted Russian militaryA security guard who worked for the British embassy in Berlin has pleaded guilty to passing secret material to a Russian military attache in a rare espionage prosecution.David Smith, 58, faces up to 14 years in jail after admitting to passing on information about the staff and layout of the British embassy – and other secret material between May 2020 and August the following year. Continue reading...
Lawyers for relatives of Dawn Sturgess, who was killed in Wiltshire in 2018, call for process to be speeded upThe family of a woman killed in the Wiltshire novichok poisonings more than four years ago has expressed concern that there is still no start date for the full independent inquiry into her death despite it raising pressing national security issues.Lawyers for relatives of Dawn Sturgess said there had been “substantial” delays and called for the preparation process to be speeded up and for extra resources to be made available if necessary. Continue reading...
Some excuse alleged behaviour of Raab, Patel and Williamson, but others want to clean up WestminsterLike the Westminster sex pest stories and the sleaze rows over lobbying, allegations of bullying just seem to keep on coming out of SW1.Priti Patel was said by the ministerial ethics adviser to have bullied civil servants but was let off by Boris Johnson; John Bercow was found to have bullied Commons clerks; and Gavin Williamson is accused of telling a civil servant to slit his throat and jump out of a window – the common thread is that they were targeting those they considered beneath them. Continue reading...
by Hannah Devlin Science correspondent on (#65QEP)
Scientists caution against idea of fertility ‘insurance policy’ after Jennifer Aniston advice to freeze eggsJennifer Aniston revealed this week that she was trying to get pregnant through IVF at a time when tabloids were obsessively speculating about whether she would have children. The actor told Allure magazine she felt relief now that “the ship has sailed”, but that “I would’ve given anything if someone had said to me: ‘Freeze your eggs. Do yourself a favour.’”Aniston has been widely praised for speaking out about a side to IVF that is not often talked about, but experts cautioned against the idea that freezing eggs is an “insurance policy”. Continue reading...
French government calls Italy ‘inhumane’ for refusing vessel but Italian PM hits back as rift deepensFrance and Italy have intensified their bitter row over migration after a charity-operated ship carrying hundreds of asylum seekers rescued in the central Mediterranean docked in the French port of Toulon after almost three weeks during which Italy’s far-right government failed to give it safe port.The French government called Italy “irresponsible” and “inhumane” for not coming to the aid of the ship, which had been stuck in Italian waters for weeks carrying sick passengers who had been rescued at sea between Libya and Italy. Continue reading...
Suspect tried to convince courts he was an orphan from Ireland who had never been to USA man who has been fighting extradition to the US has been confirmed by a court in Scotland as the rape suspect Nicholas Rossi.The 35-year-old has spent the past 11 months telling the court he is Arthur Knight, an orphan from Ireland, who has never been to the US. But on Friday, Edinburgh sheriff court found him to be Rossi, a man the US authorities have been seeking in relation to two rape allegations and one allegation of sexual assault. Continue reading...
Socialist-led coalition to rename offence ‘aggravated public disorder’ and reduce maximum sentence to five yearsSpain’s Socialist-led coalition government has announced plans to overhaul the archaic sedition law that was used to prosecute the Catalan leaders who tried to secede from the rest of the country after the illegal and unilateral referendum held five years ago.Under the Spanish penal code, the offence of sedition – which dates back to 1822 – is defined as “rising up publicly and tumultuously to prevent, through force or beyond legal means, the application of the law”. It carries a maximum prison sentence of 15 years. Continue reading...
Curators introduce playful touches to confound expectations about how art should be displayedFrom the outside the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp looks like the epitome of convention. The grand neo-classical monument, modelled on a Greek temple, first opened in 1890 and bears all the pomp and circumstance of its age. Yet behind the imposing facade are some playful and surprising touches.In one room, a painting hangs at a crooked angle. In another, a luminous green cat sits menacingly in a cage with the door ajar. Elsewhere, a wall “comes to life” as an eerie curtain of rustling leaves. It is all part of a visit to the Royal Museum, known as KMSKA, which reopened in September after being closed for 11 years following a €100m (£87m) renovation. Continue reading...
After hack allegedly carried out by Russians, details of abortions, drug addiction, mental health issues and alcoholism emerge onlineNearly 10 million Australians have had their private health data hacked – with sensitive medical records detailing treatments for alcoholism, drug addictions, and pregnancy terminations already posted online – in a cyber-attack believed to have been coordinated from Russia.The Australian Federal Police have said they know the identity of the Russian ransomware criminal organisation that hacked into the databases of Medibank, Australia’s largest private health insurer, stealing customer data over weeks inside the company’s computer systems. Continue reading...
Concerns grow that people relying on communal heating may not receive state discount promisedThousands of people living in homes with centrally supplied electricity are still waiting to hear if and when the UK government will pay them the £400 promised under the energy bills support scheme.While those living in conventional homes with standard electricity meters are due to receive their second monthly payment of £66, concern is growing among some of the several hundred thousand households that receive their electricity via a communal supply that they will not see any of the money they have been promised. Continue reading...
Church of England is ‘still discriminating against women’ 30 years after allowing them to become priestsThirty years after the Church of England took the historic step of allowing women to become priests, equality campaigners say female clergy still face “institutionalised discrimination”.Fewer than one in three paid clergy are female, according to 2020 data – the most recent published – although the same source showed more women (55%) than men had begun training for the priesthood. Continue reading...
Wiltshire council criticised for unveiling plaque littered with mistakesSwindon borough council has been criticised for botching a tribute to key workers during the Covid pandemic with a plaque littered with mistakes.Images of the plaque have been widely shared on social media, showing random capitalisation, punctuation errors and spelling mistakes. Continue reading...
Airport vows passengers will not face daily cap during biggest festive getaway in three yearsHeathrow airport has said it is prepared for the biggest Christmas getaway in three years and promised that passengers will not have to face a return of the daily cap that was introduced as summer holiday travel descended into chaos.Europe’s busiest airport, which said last month that on the busiest travel days over the festive period travellers may have to fly outside peak times to manage the festive rush, said it was working on contingency plans for potential strike action over the period. Continue reading...
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