World news | The Guardian

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...

Influential former minister hints he will not vote for mini-budget measures in blow to PMTory party conference: latest updatesMichael Gove has launched a sustained broadside at Liz Truss’s economic plans, saying it was “not Conservative” to fund tax cuts from borrowing and marked a betrayal of the party’s one nation 2019 election manifesto.In a frantic day of interventions, the former levelling up secretary first told BBC One – while Truss watched from the same studio – that it was probable he could not back the tax cuts in parliament, before embarking on a string of similarly damning fringe appearances at the Conservative conference. Continue reading...

Business secretary given police escort as protests take place over rising cost of living and government policiesJacob Rees-Mogg was heckled and chased by protesters outside the Conservative party conference in Birmingham, as hundreds gathered near the venue to express their anger at the government.The business secretary was escorted by police officers as he made his way through crowds of booing protesters in Victoria Square on Sunday who were demonstrating against rising energy costs and falling living standards. Continue reading...

Labour calls for clarity for businesses after home secretary appears to contradict chancellorMinisters have been accused of sending mixed signals to a business community seeking to employ foreign staff after the home secretary said the UK had too many low-skilled migrant workers and high numbers of international students who often bring dependants.Suella Braverman’s comments came days after the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, said the government was launching a review of immigration policy as part of an attempt to boost growth after complaints from business groups that post-Brexit rules were too restrictive, especially for low-paid jobs. Continue reading...

Kostiantyn Bidnenko and Viktoriya Kiose’s emotional challenge was one of thousands of extraordinary storiesOn a day when the capital’s streets basked in permanent smiles and unexpected sunshine, more than 40,000 runners from 18 to 89 created their own special London Marathon memories. Some stories, though, were even more extraordinary than others.At the front of the field, the 23-year-old Ethiopian, Yalemzerf Yehualaw, became the youngest ever women’s winner of the race despite injuring her hip and knee when tripping over a speed bump six miles from the finish. Continue reading...

Lender also takes unusual move of issuing notice to brokers on Sunday, saying it was increasing its ratesThe government-backed lender NatWest has become the last big bank to raise interest rates on its mortgage products after last week’s market turmoil, dashing homeowners’ hopes of securing loans with rates lower than 4%.In an unusual move for a high street lender, NatWest issued a notice to brokers on Sunday morning, saying it was increasing rates on a swathe of mortgages following a surge in demand. Continue reading...

Shane Healey urges government to establish holistic and ‘individualised’ process for kids who spent formative years in violent conditions

Almost half of those polled support axing stage three cuts while one quarter thought they should be kept

Some patients are taking cannabis for conditions where there is little evidence it is effective, GPs and researchers say

Supporters of leftwing frontrunner confident he will prevail as 156 million Brazilians cast their votesGabriela Leoncio has been waiting for the chance to free Brazil from Jair Bolsonaro for four years. On Sunday that chance came.“It’s been a joke-slash-tragedy,” the restaurant host, 29, said of the president’s tumultuous far-right administration as she cast her vote against him in her country’s most important election in decades. Continue reading...

Almost 10,000 patients referred by a GP to a cancer specialist had to wait double NHS recommended 14-day waiting timePatients with suspected skin and breast cancer have experienced the largest increase in waiting times of everyone urgently referred to a cancer specialist, with one in 20 patients now facing the longest waits, analysis of NHS England data shows.Almost 10,000 patients referred by a GP to a cancer specialist had to wait for more 28 days – double the supposed maximum 14-day waiting time – in July. Three-quarters of them were suspected of having skin, breast or lower gastrointestinal cancer, a Guardian analysis has revealed. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Westminster council gave exemption for Hinduja brothers’ Old War Office developmentThe UK’s two richest people have been allowed to avoid planning rules that should have required them to build 98 affordable flats for key workers and low income workers at their new £1.2bn luxury development in London.The Hinduja brothers, named by the Sunday Times as the wealthiest people in Britain with a £28.5bn fortune, won approval to develop the historic Old War Office near Downing Street into 85 luxury flats and a 120-room five-star Raffles hotel. Continue reading...

Buses are running again and the market is crowded after the liberation of strategic Lyman nearby

Volodymyr Zelenskiy confirmed his troops had liberated the key eastern city, marking an embarrassing set back for PutinVolodymyr Zelenskiy confirmed Ukraine has “fully cleared” Russian forces from the key eastern city of Lyman, a day after Moscow admitted its troops had pulled out after they were encircled.In a short video clip on his Telegram channel, Zelenskiy thanked serving Ukrainian troops for liberating Lyman. “As of 1230 [Kyiv] local time Lyman is completely cleared,” he said, adding: “Glory to Ukraine”. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Refugees at Home says it is taking action as government scheme is unworkable

The Telegraph claimed the London mayor had ruled out a sculpture of the late Queen on Trafalger Square’s fourth plinthSadiq Khan has received a wave of social media abuse, some of it racist, after newspapers incorrectly reported he might block a new statue of the Queen, days after the London mayor warned some media outlets were “monetising” hatred.The story, initially reported by the Telegraph under the headline, ‘No room for Queen Elizabeth II statue on Trafalgar Square’s fouth plinth, rules Sadiq Khan,’ was printed despite a statement saying this was not the case. Continue reading...

Exclusive: members say they are ill-equipped and lack guidance on rescuing people crossing on small boatsLifeboat crews dealing with small boats crossing the Channel say they lack equipment, guidance, qualified staff and support in coping with the trauma involved as they accuse managers of complacency over the crisis.One member suggested crews needed bigger life rafts, more personnel, increased training for mass casualty events, and better onboard welfare facilities for rescued people. Continue reading...

City financier who co-founded investment firm with business secretary is made trade ministerThe City business partner of Jacob Rees-Mogg has been handed a peerage and job as a senior minister by Liz Truss’s government in a move likely to trigger accusations of cronyism.Dominic Johnson, a financier who co-founded Somerset Capital Management with Rees-Mogg, was appointed as a minister in the Cabinet Office and the Department for International Trade. Continue reading...

German billionaire restores Minsk cafe in Potsdam as showpiece of socialist realist architectureFor almost three decades it appeared to have been consigned to the scrap heap of history, a relic of East German communism considered as redundant and unsightly as the Berlin Wall and destined to fall victim to the wrecking ball.But a former terrace cafe in the city of Potsdam, just west of Berlin, is being lauded as a showpiece of socialist realist architecture having been saved from demolition by a billionaire German businessman who has recast it as an art gallery. Continue reading...

Police and match organisers under scrutiny after officers fired teargas in response to rioting fansOne of the world’s worst-ever sports stadium disasters has left 125 people dead and around 180 injured at a football match in Indonesia.Police used teargas in response to a pitch invasion by rioting fans, causing a crush among panicked spectators. Continue reading...

Friends and family fly in and Buddhist monks light pyre at funeral in Nepal of extreme skierA famed extreme skier from the United States who was killed after falling from one of the world’s tallest mountains was on Sunday given a traditional funeral at a Sherpa cremation ground.Buddhist monks officiated at a ceremony attended by family, friends and government officials. Continue reading...

Blackout during PM’s appearance on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg prompted social media quips about ‘interference’The BBC has apologised to viewers after the start of Liz Truss’s first live TV interview since the mini-budget was marred by “technical glitches”.The interruption on BBC One’s flagship political programme, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, led to online quips about potential interference, while others joked that it was preparation for energy blackouts to come. Continue reading...

Star Wars actor promotes Ukrainian drive for donations and compares Russia to ‘evil empire’The Star Wars actor Mark Hamill has said Ukraine needs more drones to fight off the Russian invasion and compared Moscow to the dark side of the force in the film series.Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the films, was made an ambassador to the United24 project – which Ukraine set up to elicit donations, including the donation of drones to the Ukrainian army – by president Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Continue reading...

Neither will reveal how much they will spend hosting 2023 event – but taking crown seen as boon to eitherWill they be made up in Liverpool or pure gallus in Glasgow? Crowds at the Bank Arena or hordes at the Hydro? Will there be carousing in the Cavern Club or at King Tut’s?The cities of Liverpool and Glasgow are expected to learn within days which one of them will host next year’s Eurovision song contest and deliver a one-off spectacular on behalf of Ukraine. Continue reading...

The prime minister appeared at ease despite mounting Tory unrest after the mini-budgetLiz Truss had her first lengthy grilling since the mini-budget from Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, after critics called a series of mini-interviews with BBC local radio and regional TV presenters earlier in the week a “car crash”.In a 20-minute interview on Sunday morning with the BBC’s Kuenssberg, the prime minister appeared at ease despite the mounting Tory rebellion over her chancellor’s mini-budget, which sent the markets into a spiral. Continue reading...

Frozen funds expected to be released in exchange for freedom of Baquer and Siamak Namazi, says state mediaIran is awaiting the release of about $7bn (£6.3bn) in funds frozen abroad, state media said on Sunday, after it allowed an Iranian-American to leave the country and released his son from detention.Baquer Namazi, 85, was permitted to leave Iran for medical treatment abroad, and his son Siamak, 50, was released from detention in Tehran, the UN said on Saturday. Continue reading...

PM says she accepts ‘we should have laid ground better’ after mini-budget sparked economic turmoilLiz Truss has refused to rule out public spending cuts and a real-terms drop in benefits to help pay for the mini-budget, as she sought to quell fury over her handling of the economy by admitting she should have “laid the ground better”.The prime minister offered a sliver of remorse for the way last Friday’s mini-budget was received. There was a temporary collapse in the value of sterling against the dollar, a rebuke from the International Monetary Fund and warnings that interest rates could be hiked again. Continue reading...

The Afghan Adjustment Act would offer permanent resident status to Afghans who fled the Taliban but Congress has not taken action​​A group of 12 people sit in camp chairs – chatting, smoking, listening – in the dark. Behind them, the Capitol building in Washington DC is luminescent, bringing into focus the Afghan flag. Well, the version of the flag before the Taliban changed it. It flies above their heads, catching the yellowy light of dusk.Since Kabul fell to the Taliban in August last year, military veterans and organizations have been lobbying Congress to offer Afghan evacuees long-term visas to stay in the US. Now, with no action taken and thousands coming to the end of their temporary stays, a different route is being taken to pass the Afghan Adjustment Act. This bipartisan bill would grant thousands of Afghans permanent status in the US. Continue reading...

Surging poll numbers mean the party can dare to dream of No 10, but it’s been here before, and the path is riskier than everTwelve short months ago, Boris Johnson’s Conservatives were riding a vaccine bounce, and high-spirited Tory commentators were speculating about another decade in office. Now it is Labour who are buoyant, as their poll numbers surge to record highs after a disastrous mini-budget from the new Truss administration unleashed economic and political turmoil. Some in Labour now dare to dream big. Could their party rebound from the worst performance in 80 years straight to a Commons majority?Veterans counsel caution. Labour has been burned before. Ed Miliband’s opposition posted regular big poll leads during the coalition only for these to evaporate come polling day. But history never repeats itself exactly. Unless the economic weather changes fast, the next election will be fought in the wake of inflation, recession and home repossessions. The Conservatives’ ratings on economic management are already the worst in a generation, with much of the real pain still to come. When their reputation was last torched like this, by the ERM crisis, the next result was a Labour landslide. Time to start humming Things Can Only Get Better?Robert Ford is professor of political science at Manchester University and co-author of The British General Election of 2019 Continue reading...

But hopes leftwing former president will defeat Jair Bolsonaro tempered by fear a runoff contest could mean weeks of turmoil and violenceBrazil’s former leftwing president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is on the brink of an astonishing political comeback, with polls suggesting he is poised to defeat his far-right rival Jair Bolsonaro in Sunday’s election.Eve of election polls suggested Lula was within a whisker of securing the overall majority of votes that would guarantee him a first-round victory against Brazil’s radical incumbent, whose calamitous Covid response, assault on the Amazon and foul-mouthed threats to democracy have alienated more than half of the population. Continue reading...