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Keir Starmer’s proposals closely match advice given by energy economists and won praise from unions and businessA publicly owned energy company, insulation for every British home, carbon-free power by the end of the decade – the Labour conference showed Keir Starmer putting a low-carbon future firmly at the centre of his economic plans.Crucially, however, these announcements were not just green in intent – they are mainly aimed at tackling the soaring cost of living, and at “levelling up” the UK’s regions. With the world in the grip of a gas crisis while renewable energy has tumbled in price, the real costs of fossil fuel addiction are increasingly clear, and a low-carbon energy system looks the economic choice.A £60bn plan to insulate 19 million UK homes over the next decade, permanently saving about £1,000 per household on energy bills, set out by Ed Miliband.A low-carbon electricity sector by 2030.Boosting fledgling “green” hydrogen technology, through the national wealth fund set out by the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves.Electric vehicle development, also through the national wealth fund.Adopting green steel technology, to reduce carbon emissions and end reliance on fossil fuels.Moves to decarbonise the UK’s heavy industry. Continue reading...

Party reports significant increase in business interest as Labour continues to perform well in polls

Research by criminologists in 10 towns in England and Wales finds public space orders ‘merely recycle homelessness problem’Dispersing rough sleepers from town centres fails to stop so-called antisocial behaviour and wrongly criminalises homeless people, a study of 10 towns by criminologists has found.Councils in England and Wales using public space protection orders (PSPOs) to levy £100 fines to control or ban behaviours such as drinking, pitching tents and sleeping in public simply see homeless people come back later, according to research by Sheffield Hallam University with recommendations for fairer treatment endorsed by Crisis, the homelessness charity. Continue reading...

Party whip suspended after Labour MP accused of making ‘racist’ comment about chancellor

Leader’s address was a victory lap after marginalising the Corbynite left, and was well received in the hallOccasionally a party conference speech gets remembered and quoted for years, but more often they are largely forgotten soon after conference season and this speech was in the latter category – a standard conference speech, rather than a belter. It was calm, rather than excitable; sensible, rather than audacious; realistic more than inspirational. But after three years of Boris Johnson, and with Liz Truss as PM, there is a lot to be said for calm, sensible and realistic. It was a successful speech for Starmer, in that it did the job.There was policy in it, but the key takeway from the speech – and the feature for which it will be remembered – is what it said about Labour being back in the centre-ground of British politics. Starmer said:Conference, on climate change, growth, aspiration, levelling-up, Brexit, economic responsibility we are the party of the centre ground.Once again, the political wing of the British people, and we can achieve great things. Continue reading...

Banks and building societies pull hundreds of deals in anticipation of further interest rate rises

Attorney general Mark Dreyfus also confirms integrity commission will be able to investigate conduct retrospectively

Tokyo demands apology from Moscow after diplomat subjected to ‘coercive interrogation’ in Vladivostok

Boris Johnson may have failed to meet standard of public life when mayor over links to Jennifer Arcuri, GLA findsEthics rules for the London mayor must be strengthened as Boris Johnson may have failed to meet the standard expected of public figures over his failure to declare personal links to the US businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri, an inquiry into the affair has found.An investigation by the Greater London Authority’s oversight committee said Johnson had opened himself up to “a perception of lack of due process and favouritism” over Arcuri’s inclusion on trade missions in an unofficial capacity. Continue reading...

Passengers heading to Armenia and Turkey amid fears Russia could soon close borders to men of fighting age

Satellite trackers show two of the animals are now ‘well south’ of Tasmania

Dominique Ogilvie, who invested $2.5m with Caddick’s fake company, tells inquest she met another woman who warned her the conwoman was acting illegally

Royal commissioner says inquiry’s focus will be on those who had or should have had oversight over the automated debt recovery scheme

Air force insists standards did not drop as a result of campaign that prompted resignation of group captainThe Ministry of Defence has said “some mistakes were made” following a recruitment drive that prioritised women and minority ethnic groups in an attempt to meet “impossible” diversity targets.It was claimed in August that the head of recruitment for the Royal Air Force deemed it “unlawful” to prioritise women and minority ethnic groups, and had refused to follow recruitment practices that would to prioritise such candidates over white men. Continue reading...

Leader will promise ‘fresh start’ for UK after turbulence of successive Conservative governments in keynote address to conferenceKeir Starmer will attempt to take on the mantle of Tony Blair on Tuesday by describing Labour as the “political wing of the British people” as he accuses the Tories of losing control of the economy and ceding the political centre.In his keynote speech to the Labour conference in Liverpool, Starmer will set out his stall for the next general election by saying his plans show that Labour is once again “the party of the centre ground”. Continue reading...

After a day of volatility, the Bank’s statement was a far cry from the cavalry arriving to help the battered pound

Riccardo Tisci’s fingerprints were all over the high-gothic Victoriana of long, intricate lace dressesThe Burberry catwalk show was perhaps not quite the triumphant moment of upbeat glamour that had been planned for this season’s London fashion week, but it was a blockbuster display of its firepower.When Britain’s biggest luxury brand swiftly postponed its post-pandemic return to the schedule as a mark of respect after the Queen’s death, Burberry’s prime Saturday slot turned into a Monday one sandwiched between Milan and Paris fashion weeks. Continue reading...

Letter undermines Priti Patel’s claim that Albanians arriving with ‘spurious’ claims could be removed quicklyThe Home Office has conceded that it does not have the right to fast-track the deportation of Albanian asylum seekers after their arrival in the UK, in an abrupt policy U-turn.Priti Patel, the former home secretary, signed a deal with the Albanian government in August to return those who arrive illegally. She claimed it meant the UK could quickly return asylum seekers who arrived in the UK and made “spurious” claims. Continue reading...

Backbenchers express concern the new leadership team has already lost them the next election

Untrained conscripts being sent directly to Ukraine frontline, Kyiv claims; UK announces new package of sanctions. This live blog has now closed

Observers expect Giorgia Meloni and Matteo Salvini to float policies inimical to migrants, LGBT rights and abortionsMatteo Salvini, the leader of Italy’s far-right League, has promised that his alliance with Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy will deliver a long-lasting government as Italians began to digest the outcome of an election that delivered the country’s most rightwing government since the end of the second world war.Final results on Monday gave the coalition control of both houses of parliament with 44% of the vote and confirmed the swing in the balance of power in the Italian far-right towards Meloni after her party made spectacular gains in the League’s northern strongholds of Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia. Continue reading...

Boys, 15 and 16, remanded in custody after stabbing of teenager outside school in HuddersfieldTwo teenage boys have appeared in court charged with the murder of 15-year-old Khayri McLean, who was stabbed outside his school on Wednesday.The boys, 15 and 16, were also charged with possession of a bladed article at Leeds youth court on Monday. Continue reading...

Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party is set to lead a coalition; Kremlin welcomes what it calls ‘more constructive’ parties leading Italy

LGTBQ+ activists denounce discrimination at polling stations in Sunday’s general election

Conference also passes motion in support of Labour MPs attending picket lines, in rebuke to Keir Starmer

Call comes as EU consults on whether Google and others should help pay towards soaring infrastructure costsThe bosses of Europe’s biggest telecoms operators including BT, Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom have called for tech firms such as Netflix an Amazon to pay for some of the soaring costs of data fuelled by the global streaming and internet boom.The call from the 16 chief executives comes as the European Commission prepares to launch a consultation into whether technology companies such as Google, Facebook, Netflix and Microsoft should be made to pay some of the soaring costs for the huge amount of global internet traffic they carry on their telecoms networks. Continue reading...

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves says recent events show Labour is now party of economic competence

In past 12 weeks 1.5m extra customers visited discount supermarket’s stores in BritainAldi has revealed a steep drop in UK profits but said that customers are switching to the discount supermarket chain “in their droves” from higher-cost rivals as the cost of living crisis bites and shoppers look for lower prices.The German-owned retailer said that 1.5 million extra customers had visited its UK stores over the past 12 weeks, even as it revealed annual pre-tax profits for 2021 slumped to £36m, compared with £265m in 2020 – an 86% decline. Continue reading...

Two centres in England could detain 1,000 male asylum seekers in move linked to Rwanda schemeThe Home Office plans to open two immigration detention centres to detain 1,000 male asylum seekers in a scheme which is projected to cost £399m.The home secretary, Suella Braverman, has indicated she will take an even harder line on immigration than her predecessor, Priti Patel, and plans to increase the use of detention. Continue reading...

Catholic cleric and fellow activists were arrested for ‘colluding with foreign forces’ under Beijing-imposed national security lawA 90-year-old Catholic cardinal and five prominent pro-democracy campaigners have pleaded not guilty in court in Hong Kong for failing to properly register a humanitarian fund they set up to help people arrested in anti-government protests in 2019.Cardinal Joseph Zen, one of Asia’s highest-ranking Catholic clerics, and his fellow campaigners were arrested in May for “colluding with foreign forces” under a national security law that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong to crack down on dissent. All were trustees of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, which provided legal and financial assistance to more than 2,000 people prosecuted for their part in the 2019 pro-democracy protests. The fund is charged with not properly registering under the societies ordinance, a colonial-era law from 1911.

Operation on farm near Madrid resembled clandestine outdoor labs found in jungles of South America, police saidSpanish police have arrested 12 people after raiding a cocaine laboratory near Madrid that operated like the clandestine outdoor labs found in the jungles of South America and which had the capacity to produce 120kg of the drug each week.The lab, the first of its kind discovered in Spain, was stormed by officers from the Policía Nacional’s special operation group, who found five “cooks” at work when they burst in. Continue reading...

Presenter wrongly suggested people marching over police shooting were heading to palace to mourn the QueenSky News is being investigated by the media regulator after it wrongly suggested that a protest march over the police shooting of Chris Kaba was a crowd of people mourning Queen Elizabeth II.Thousands of people protested in central London on 10 September, five days after a Met firearms officer shot Kaba, 24, who was unarmed, after a chase in south London. Those demonstrating included the Labour MPs Diane Abbott and Bell Ribeiro-Addy and the musician Stormzy. Continue reading...

Russian businessman confirms deployment to countries in Latin America and Africa in first public confirmation of link

Lawyers’ claims of unfair procedures show misunderstanding of parliamentary process, says committee

Marine Le Pen and members of Hungarian and Spanish parties among those welcoming poll results

Authorities say gunman killed himself after attack in Izhevsk in Udmurtia regionA gunman has killed 13 people including seven children and wounded another 21 at a school in Russia, before killing himself.The motive for the shooting in Izhevsk, the capital of the Udmurtia region about 600 miles east of Moscow, was unclear. Continue reading...

Bazzi will not face prospect of high court overturning earlier win and Dutton will not pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs

With many catchments soaked and more rain on the way, authorities say waterways are ‘sensitive to any future rainfall’

Tropical systems often strengthen in warmer areas of Atlantic, but can also intensify elsewhere in certain conditionsLate last week, Canada’s Atlantic coast was impacted by Hurricane Fiona, with maximum sustained winds in the region of 90mph (145km/h). Hurricanes rarely maintain such an intensity that far north. Why? Hurricanes are fuelled by high sea surface temperatures (SSTs), and ideally high sea temperatures over a large depth. As you move away from the tropics, SSTs typically reduce.But hurricanes are not confined to the warmer areas of the Atlantic, such as the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Tropical systems often strengthen in these regions, but can sometimes sustain or even strengthen elsewhere given favourable conditions. Ocean currents can transport warmer water poleward which can produce regions at higher latitudes that have higher SSTs than their surroundings. Tropical systems that track northwards over warmer seas can maintain intensity or even strengthen, such as happened with Hurricane Fiona. Continue reading...

NT assistant commissioner says it was ‘wholly inappropriate’ for specialist police to carry assault weapons in remote Yuendumu community

Home affairs minister Clare O’Neil says company to blame and flags new laws with large fines for such breaches

The three-time Paralympic gold medallist says ‘trust with the organisation itself is a visceral thing’

Man charged after 45 year-old former champion found unconscious on ground on NSW mid-north coast

Brigid Heywood lodges not guilty plea to charges of common assault and offensive behaviour

Commission of inquiry hears changes to thresholds were proposed in 2017 to increase testing speed and free up money

The leader of the Brothers of Italy party appears set to become country’s first female PMGiorgia Meloni has claimed victory in Italy’s elections and promised to govern for all Italians, after exit polls gave her rightwing coalition a clear majority, putting her on course to create the most rightwing government since the end of the second world war.With full results due on Monday, the Brothers of Italy leader is set to become Italy’s first female prime minister – and a model for nationalist parties across Europe as she heads one of the EU’s six original member states. Continue reading...

Despite Dominic Perrottet’s strong criticism of Queensland’s land tax changes, the state says it has all the information it needs

Vincent Van Quickenborne says rule of law ‘will never fold to violence’ after Dutch nationals detained in the NetherlandsPolice in the Netherlands have arrested four suspects over what Belgium’s justice minister described as a plan to kidnap him.Vincent Van Quickenborne, who is also the mayor of the city of Kortrijk in western Flanders, appeared to blame a “drug mafia” in a video message run by state broadcaster RTBF. Continue reading...

Peak welfare body and Greens recommend raise in income support payments but Albanese government rules out benefits increase in next month’s budget