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Top economist believes internet access issues are standing in the way of decarbonisation and more efficient production

Start date for dialogue with the National Liberation Army will be announced after first week of NovemberColombia’s government and the nation’s largest remaining guerrilla group have announced that they will restart peace talks next month for the first time since 2018.After meeting in Caracas, representatives of the Colombian government and the National Liberation Army issued a statement saying a start date for the peace talks would be announced after the first week of November. The statement added that Norway, Venezuela and Cuba would be “guarantor states” in the talks, and that the participation of civil society groups would be “essential” for the peace talks to succeed. Continue reading...

Football authorities say flaw contributed to disaster in which 131 died after violence at the end of a matchDelays in unlocking stadium gates after violence broke out at the end of a football match contributed to a crowd crush in which at least 131 people died, Indonesia’s national football association has said.The Football Association of Indonesia said it has permanently banned the chief executive and security coordinator of the host team for failing to secure the field or promptly issue a command to unlock the gates. Continue reading...

Jolie alleges Pitt was abusive toward her and two of their children on a 2016 flight as legal battle over French winery escalatesAngelina Jolie has shared new details of the 2016 plane flight that led to the dissolution of her marriage to Brad Pitt, describing alleged abusive behavior.In a cross-complaint as part of an ongoing legal battle over the French winery the A-list former couple once co-owned, the actor filed papers in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Lawyers for the 47-year-old allege that negotiations for Jolie to sell her share of Chateau Miraval to Pitt broke down over his demand that she sign “a nondisclosure agreement that would have contractually prohibited her from speaking outside of court about Pitt’s physical and emotional abuse of her and their children”. Continue reading...

Conservative disharmony shows no sign of abating as cabinet ministers fight over further potential U-turns

People in Ukrainian city try to pick up pieces amid remains of Russia’s chaotic and bloody withdrawal

Aslef general secretary says dispute will continue until government intervenesRail passengers face further travel chaos on Wednesday due to another strike in the long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions, with many Conservative party conference attendees set to leave early to avoid disruptions.Members of the drivers’ union Aslef and the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA), encompassing 12 train operators, will walk out, causing huge disruption to services across the UK. Continue reading...

Home secretary says her ‘ultimate aspiration’ was to reduce migration figure from current level of 239,000Suella Braverman has revived a previous Conservative pledge to reduce net migration to tens of thousands of people, despite the failure of successive governments to hit the same target over a nine-year period.The home secretary said she would aspire to cut the overall migration figure from the current level of 239,000 amid a growing clamour from party activists for the government to take control of immigration levels. Continue reading...

Productivity Commission says education sector must make improvements to meet future skills needs

Reform advocates to tell Labor-led inquiry into military deployment that MPs should be accountable for consequences of war

Strong ties between government and LGBTQ+ community leads to proactive messaging and quick action on vaccines, experts say

Kentucky-born singer went from poverty and teenage marriage to becoming one of the most celebrated stars of US countryLoretta Lynn, whose tales of heartbreak and poverty are among the most celebrated in the country music canon, has died aged 90.Lynn died at home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, on 4 October, her family confirmed. Continue reading...

City 15 miles from Tory conference has England’s highest fuel poverty rate and is setting up warm banks for winter

Essendon says City on a Hill’s values are in ‘direct contradiction’ with its own, as Daniel Andrews labels its views on homosexuality and abortion ‘appalling’Andrew Thorburn has resigned as Essendon chief executive 24 hours after being appointed because his links to a church condemning homosexuality and abortion were in “direct contradiction” to the values of the AFL club.The Bombers announced on Tuesday afternoon that Thorburn, despite not holding the same personal views as the City on the Hill movement for which he is chairman, felt he could not serve in both roles and had offered his resignation. Continue reading...

Steve Wyborn tells court Australians had been ‘sold a pup’ with Higgins’s allegations Lehrmann sexually assaulted her in Parliament House

Then-president voiced concern after socialite’s sex trafficking arrest, according to book by New York Times’s Maggie HabermanAt an Oval Office meeting in July 2020, Donald Trump asked aides if Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend of the financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein who had been arrested on sex trafficking charges, had named him among influential contacts she might count upon to protect her.According to a new book by Maggie Haberman of the New York Times, Trump asked “campaign advisers … ‘You see that article in the [New York] Post today that mentioned me?’ Continue reading...

Doctor noticed presenter was less exuberant when presenting long-running show, Paxman revealsA doctor diagnosed Jeremy Paxman with Parkinson’s disease after noticing the presenter was less “exuberant” when presenting University Challenge, the veteran broadcaster has revealed.The former Newsnight presenter said the diagnosis came when he was in hospital after collapsing while walking his dog. Continue reading...

RBA on Tuesday raised its official rate by 25 basis points as it seeks to stifle inflation

Liberal party source says departure of deputy director Scott Samson shows campaign is a ‘mess’

Daniel Andrews announces 12-year strategy to separate emergency care from elective surgery

Values across Australia’s capitals decline for fifth consecutive month – with only Darwin bucking trend

As part of bail conditions Tyrell Edwards cannot be in company of any person under age of 18 unless with his mother

Tennis star faces a charge of common assault relating to an alleged incident in January 2021Nick Kyrgios will seek to have his assault charge dismissed on mental health grounds.Lawyers for the tennis star appeared in Australian Capital Territory magistrates court on Tuesday and asked for an adjournment so forensic mental health reports could be prepared. Continue reading...

Outrage and condemnation over billionaire’s suggestions including formally making Crimea part of RussiaElon Musk has prompted an online row with Ukraine’s president after he asked Twitter users to weigh in on his ideas to end Russia’s war.In a tweet, Musk suggested UN-supervised elections in four occupied regions that Moscow has falsely annexed after what it called referendums. The votes were denounced by Kyiv and western governments as illegal and coercive. “Russia leaves if that is will of the people,” Musk wrote. Continue reading...

NGOs say Home Office is detaining more trafficking victims as figures show vast majority of claimants are genuineThe number of potential trafficking victims who have been detained by the Home Office has tripled in four years, according to a new report.In 2017 501 referrals for potential victims of trafficking were made among people the Home Office placed in immigration detention centres. By last year the number of referrals of potential victims who had been detained had jumped to 1,611. Continue reading...

Study finds three-quarters of users surveyed experienced online sexual violence while one-third reported in-person incidents

Far-right president forces second round after closely trailing Lula, disappointing those who had hoped to turn a page on his influenceTears filled Beatriz Simões’s eyes as she digested Jair Bolsonaro’s startlingly strong performance in Sunday’s Brazilian election.Hours earlier the 34-year-old publicist had been convinced a hope-filled dawn was coming with the election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as Brazil’s next leader. Continue reading...

Police say incident occurred on Sunday evening when a bicycle and a black VW Golf were involved in a collisionA murder investigation has been launched after a 21-year-old cyclist was set upon and killed by four men after he collided with the car in which they were travelling in Slough.Thames Valley police have established that after the man collided with the car, believed to be a black Volkswagen Golf, in Earls Lane, four men exited the vehicle and chased him into Waterman Court where he was fatally attacked. Continue reading...

Monarch says his mother’s ‘deep love for Scotland was one of the foundations of her life’King Charles has conferred city status on Dunfermline, an ancient capital of Scotland, after carrying out his first official visit as monarch.During a short walkabout in the city, a burial place for medieval kings including Robert the Bruce, who fought off an English invasion 700 years ago, the King was greeted by large crowds. Continue reading...

Journalist Marina Ovsyannikova gained international attention after holding up ‘no war’ poster on live TV

Tributes paid to one of the most celebrated newspaper photographers and picture editors of his generationEamonn McCabe, one of the most celebrated and admired newspaper photographers and picture editors of his generation, has died aged 74.McCabe was a multi-award-winning sports photographer at the Observer from 1976 and later became a trailblazing picture editor of the Guardian at a key moment in its history. His third act was as a portrait photographer, with 29 examples of his work in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery. Continue reading...

Tianqiuping-style porcelain sells for nearly 4,000 times its estimated value after buyers are convinced it is a rare artefactAn “ordinary” Chinese vase put up for auction in France and valued at €2,000 (£1,745) has sold for almost €8m after a ferocious bidding war among buyers convinced it was a rare 18th-century artefact.At the sale in Fontainebleau near Paris, auctioneers were astonished as the offers from about 30 mainly Chinese bidders kept on coming. When the hammer fell the vase had been sold for €7.7m – almost 4,000 times its estimated value. With the seller’s fees, the final purchase price was €9.12m. Continue reading...

FoI data reveals thousands of children including two-year-old targeted by immigration enforcement operationThousands of unaccompanied children, including one aged two years old, have been subjected to police fingerprinting and photographing soon after arriving in the UK as part of a little-known immigration enforcement operation.Operation Innerste is a multi-agency initiative that was rolled out in 2018 and is designed to protect children newly arrived in the UK from falling into the hands of traffickers. Continue reading...

New book covers period from 1950s to 1970s, but its author highlights continuing lack of full banBill was 24 when he had electric shock therapy for the first time. It was 1971, and he had known he was gay since he was 11, but had never told anyone, before going to his doctor for “help”.In a darkened hospital room he was told to choose 40 images of men he found attractive and 40 images of women. When the images of the men flashed up, electricity surged through his body; with the images of the women, he was given respite. He went through the images three times, every Friday, for months. “I wanted to be straight because I thought it would make life easier,” says Bill, now 74. “But it was just a total waste of time.” Continue reading...

Human rights groups ‘extremely concerned’ about violent repression of demonstrations in TehranIranian students have stepped up their protests in defiance of a crackdown by security forces who allegedly cornered and shot 12 students at a prestigious university in Tehran on Sunday night.Anti-government protests ignited by the death of a young woman in police custody in mid-September have spread around the country at various levels of intensity, revealing a cultural chasm between the country’s educated youth and an elderly male religious establishment. Continue reading...

BoM expects widespread falls from Top End to Tasmania with flooding risk in eastern inland areas

Madame Wu’s Garden became a destination for Hollywood elite when it opened in 1959, known for its cuisine and decor as much as for its elegant hostSylvia Wu, whose famed southern California restaurant drew Hollywood’s biggest stars for four decades, has died at the age of 106, the LA Times reports.Madame Wu’s Garden on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica became a dining destination shortly after it opened in 1959, popular for its cuisine and pagoda-style decor featuring jade statues, a stone waterfall and a koi-filled fountain. Continue reading...

Investors and banks predict RBA will raise cash rate further on Tuesday, while rent increases begin to slow around Australia

Government says change would apply to all new regulations and it would look to raise in threshold in futureMinisters are seeking to exempt firms with up to 500 staff from new regulations, with unions warning that they could soon be spared from reporting on gender pay gaps and executive pay ratios in a “cynical and reckless” move.Liz Truss announced on Sunday that companies with up to 500 staff would now be treated the same way as small businesses with fewer than 50 staff, which are exempt when new regulations are introduced. Continue reading...

Key city in east of country ‘fully cleared’ of Russian forces, says Zelenskiy; European leaders call annexation ‘blatant’ violation of international law

Party conference overshadowed by fears that refusing to do a U-turn on tax and spending cuts will kill off election chancesLiz Truss is struggling to persuade Conservative MPs to back her controversial mini-budget, with some even threatening all-out rebellion amid fears that they will once again become known as the “nasty party”.The prime minister faces with a rising drumbeat of discontent that is overshadowing the Tory conference after she insisted she would “stand by” her plans to cut the top rate of income tax and ram through public spending cuts. Continue reading...

Singer tells event societal change is required if the lives of women are to be freed from threat of abuseThe former Spice Girl Melanie Brown has told an event at the Conservative party conference of her fears that the “massive issue of domestic abuse” will slip down the agenda during “these times of absolute economic chaos”.The singer, known to millions as Mel B or “Scary Spice”, was speaking at a meeting organised by the Sun and Women’s Aid, which she became a patron of in 2018 after leaving what she described as an abusive relationship. Continue reading...

Tory MPs fear voters see them as the nasty party again after the prime minister refused to rethink tax cuts for the richLiz Truss has long channelled Margaret Thatcher – echoing her rhetoric, her free market instincts and even her clothes – but as the Tory conference kicked off in Birmingham on Sunday many in her party were hoping that she would relinquish ambitions to be the next Iron Lady and drop her mini-budget plans.There were early glimmers of hope. In an article for the Sun, she admitted her proposals would cause “short term disruption” but that she had an “iron grip” on the country’s finances. Then she told the BBC she understood public concerns. “I do accept we should have laid the ground better,” she said. Continue reading...

Jake Berry says event on mini-budget day, where guests allegedly told Kwasi Kwarteng to stick to his policies, was ‘not unusual’The Conservative party chair has defended the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, and said that people who attended a private champagne reception with him on the day he delivered his mini-budget should be “lauded” as Britain’s leading entrepreneurs.Jake Berry said the drinks reception was not unusual and that, along with hedge fund managers, property developers had also been present. Continue reading...

Northern Ireland secretary says he and colleagues had not always respected others’ ‘legitimate interests’Steve Baker – arch Brexiter and one of the Conservative party’s fiercest campaigners to get the UK out of the EU – has apologised to Ireland and Brussels for the way he and some of his colleagues behaved over the past six years.Baker told the Tory party conference that he and others in the party had not shown respect to the “legitimate interests” of Ireland or the EU during the campaign to leave the bloc. Continue reading...

Two masked men entered Donegal Celtic social club and fired multiple times before fleeingA murder investigation is under way after a man was shot dead in a social club in west Belfast on Sunday.Two masked men entered the Donegal Celtic sports and social club in Suffolk Road shortly before 2.30pm and shot the victim a number of times. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Continue reading...

Party chair’s ‘very provocative and very silly’ warning risks ‘breaking the dam’, say backbenchersConservative MPs are warning of a backlash after threats they could lose the whip if they vote against the abolition of the 45p tax rate, with at least 14 MPs publicly expressing concern about the plans to cut taxes and slash spending.Jake Berry, the Conservative party chair, sparked anger among colleagues on Sunday when he said MPs would be expected to back the tax measures or would no longer be allowed to sit as Conservatives. Continue reading...

Polls suggest Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is close to majority of votes needed to stop election run-off against Jair BolsonaroBrazil’s leftwing former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva appeared on the verge of a startling political comeback on Sunday as more than 156 million Brazilians took part in the country’s most important election in decades.As the veteran ex-president cast his vote in Brazil’s industrial heartlands on Sunday morning, Lula voiced optimism he was heading for victory over the far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro. Continue reading...

Family members raised £9,000 for repatriation after Foreign Office said it was unable to pay transport costsThe body of Paul Urey, a British aid volunteer who died after being captured by Russian fighters in Ukraine, has been returned to the UK.Family members of the Warrington man raised £9,000 to repatriate his body after the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said it was unable to pay the transport costs. Continue reading...

The turmoil in financial markets has led to reports of friction between the prime minister and her closest political ally the chancellorThey are neighbours in the same small corner of Greenwich, and now live next door in Downing Street – but the alliance between Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng actually goes back more than a decade to their entry into parliament as new MPs in 2010.Back then, as part of a new Free Enterprise Group of Tory MPs, the pair were trying to push the coalition government towards a more free market approach to Conservative politics. Continue reading...