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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...

Prime minister is facing the same fate as Theresa May when the Commons returns and could even be removed as leaderLiz Truss is already facing the possibility of crippling parliamentary rebellions over welfare, planning and a new wave of austerity, as MPs warn that No 10 has become “disconnected from reality”.With some Conservatives in talks with Labour over how to block elements of the prime minister’s sweeping plans, senior Tories believe that Truss is now heading into the bruising parliamentary warfare that characterised Theresa May’s beleaguered premiership. Continue reading...

Sydney United 58 supports ejected during Australia Cup final with video now being reviewed to uncover others who displayed ‘vile symbols and salutes’

Task Force Rusich, linked to the Wagner Group, advises its fighters not to report the capture of Ukrainians to Russian commanders

Outgoing president insists AFL club is not in crisis as WorkSafe urges anyone who experienced or witnessed ‘health and safety concerns’ to contact them

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Even as Russia lays claim to more of the country, confidence is growing that the former territory can be retaken

Clare O’Neil says Optus has emailed 10,200 customers who had their records posted online after 10 million people affected in larger cyber hack

Exclusive: More than 20 Australian women and more than 40 children related to Islamic State combatants held in al-Hawl And Roj camps

Exchange of Maduro nephews for seven Americans is unusual gesture of goodwill from socialist president but Washington denies any change in policyVenezuela has freed seven imprisoned Americans in exchange for the US releasing two nephews of President Nicolás Maduro’s wife who had been jailed for years on narcotics convictions.The swap of the Americans, including five oil executives held for nearly five years, follows months of back-channel diplomacy by senior US officials – secretive talks with a major oil producer that took on greater urgency after sanctions on Russia put pressure on global energy prices. Continue reading...

Attorney general Mark Dreyfus insists new commission ‘is not an exercise in political payback’ and says it could tap phones of federal politicians

Russian forces retreat from stronghold of Lyman hours after Putin declares it Russia’s ‘for ever’; Germany minister visits Ukraine; Nord Stream pipeline leak halted

Military defeat in Donetsk comes hours after Moscow declared that the region was Russian territory ‘for ever’

No need to apply because £400 discount will ‘reach people automatically’, says Rees-MoggA scam alert has been issued by ministers encouraging people not to fall foul of fraudulent messages asking them to provide bank details as the energy price guarantee comes into force.From 1 October, a limit on the price households pay for a unit of gas and electricity they use will mean a typical energy bill should be £2,500 a year. The first instalment of a £400 discount for households will also appear on bills. Continue reading...

Aides Alice Robinson and Mac Chapwell paid by company run by Liz Truss’s new chief of staffTwo of the prime minister’s most senior advisers are being paid through her new chief of staff’s lobbying company, it has emerged, days after Downing Street said it would employ the latter directly.The government admitted last weekend that Liz Truss’s chief of staff, Mark Fullbrook, was being paid through his lobbying firm, a move that could have helped him avoid paying tax. Continue reading...

Russian defence ministry says troops have withdrawn amid ‘threat of encirclement’

Teargas and stun grenades used by security forces as unrest over poverty and corruption flares up in the capital and other citiesIraqi security forces have fired teargas and stun grenades to disperse stone-throwing protesters in clashes that wounded scores of people near Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, where hundreds marked the anniversary of anti-government unrest in 2019.At least 86 people were wounded on Saturday, about half of them members of the security forces, and 38 protesters were hit by rubber bullets. Continue reading...

London museum bows to years of pressure and removes signs bearing name of family associated with OxyContin crisisThe Victoria and Albert Museum has bowed to growing pressure to rename key areas of its Kensington site, the Observer has learned, as it drops controversial ties with the Sackler family, benefactors descended from the American makers of addictive opioid prescription drugs.This weekend the signs that directed V&A visitors to the Sackler Centre for Arts Education and to the £2m tiled “Sackler Courtyard” on Exhibition Road, have gone, as the museum finally jettisons its damaging association with the opioid drug market. Continue reading...

Prime minister’s net approval falls to minus 37, while just 12% say mini-budget was ‘good’Liz Truss’s personal popularity ratings are lower than those of Boris Johnson when his premiership came to an end, a new Observer poll has revealed.The latest Opinium poll shows a precipitous fall in Truss’s personal ratings after the fallout from her government’s mini-budget, and Labour surging ahead with voters across a whole range of issues. Continue reading...

Conservative MPs urge Liz Truss’s removal from No 10 after poll reveals British public’s fury over tax plansThree-quarters of UK voters, including a staggering 71% of those who backed the Conservatives at the last general election, believe the prime minister, Liz Truss, and the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, have “lost control” of the economy, according to a devastating poll for the Observer on the eve of the Tory conference.The survey by Opinium – which also reveals that Labour has extended its lead by a massive 14 percentage points in the last week alone, from 5 points to 19 points, and that Truss’s ratings are now lower than Boris Johnson’s at the height of the Partygate scandal – comes as some Tory MPs are beginning to demand the new prime minister’s removal from No 10 after less than a month in office. Continue reading...

Rio Tinto wants to fund rehabilitation but Ranger mine owner’s minority shareholders are pushing for further development

Clinton Fernandes argues in provocative new book the security pact will make it impossible to have an independent defence policy

As the major parties spar over health policies ahead of November’s election, Liberal MPs are questioning the Coalition’s strategy

Advocates say they are ‘gravely concerned’ by new figures which show available government housing for vulnerable people is going backwards

Thomas Cashman, 34, also charged with attempted murder of Olivia’s mother, Cheryl Korbel, and Joseph NeeA 34-year-old man has been charged with the murder of Olivia Pratt-Korbel, the girl shot dead in her own home in Liverpool, along with the attempted murder of her mother.Thomas Cashman, from the west Derby area of the city, is accused of killing the nine-year-old, who was shot in the chest. Continue reading...

People, determined to defy violence by security forces and online blackout, are resorting to old-fashioned methods to organise unrestThe messages, printed on scraps of paper, were thrown on doorsteps across Iran overnight by protesters determined that an online crackdown would not stop their movement.“The Islamic Republic is falling. Join the people,” said one handed out in northern Rasht city. In southern Ahvaz organisers gave an address and time for protest, and a broader call to action. “If you cannot come, spread the message so other people come,” it urged readers. Continue reading...

Jingye Group understood to have told ministers that its blast furnaces are unviable without huge cash injectionThe owner of British Steel, the UK’s second-biggest steel producer, is understood to be seeking an urgent package of financial support from the government.Jingye Group, which bought the company out of insolvency just two years ago, has told ministers that its two blastfurnaces are unlikely to remain feasible unless the Scunthorpe-headquartered company is granted financial aid, Sky News has reported. Continue reading...

Rally by campaigners, who say Westminster government does not serve nation’s best interests, is second in a few monthsThousands of people have marched through Cardiff as part of a rally for Welsh independence.Campaigners at the event carried large flags and banners and paraded through the city centre led by a samba band. It was organised by All Under One Banner Cymru (AUOB) and Yes Cymru. It was the second pro-independence rally to take place in Wales this year, after a march attracted about 8,000 supporters in Wrexham in July. Continue reading...

Basic Oxygen Steelmaking, which shut seven years ago, blown up using 1.6 tonnes of explosivesA former steelworks in Redcar has been pulled down in what is believed to be one of the biggest explosive demolitions in the UK.In dramatic scenes – in which the structure disappeared in a cloud of dust and smoke with a blast that could reportedly be heard eight miles away – the 65-metre-high Basic Oxygen Steelmaking plant was blown up on Saturday morning. Continue reading...

Brokers in Monaco told it is ‘strictly prohibited’ to advertise sale of MySky on print or the internet

Campaigners hit out after data reveals majority of successful appeals were due to Department for Work and Pensions mistakesCampaigners have accused the government of “unforgivable” failings after previously unreleased figures suggested that the majority of successful disability benefit appeals were because of errors by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).According to previously unpublished data held by the DWP, 59% of successful tribunal appeals by applicants for the personal independence payment (Pip) benefit since the start of 2021 were because the tribunal “reached a different conclusion on substantially the same facts”. Continue reading...

West African bloc said country’s second military coup in nine months was ‘inappropriate’Gunshots rang out in Burkina Faso’s capital amid signs of lingering tensions a day after a group of military officers overthrew the man who had seized power in a coup only nine months earlier.Roads remained blocked off in Ouagadougou, where a helicopter could be heard flying overhead. An internal security analysis for the EU seen by the Associated Press said there was “abnormal military movement” in the city. Continue reading...

Amid angry protests over the conscription of new recruits, a propaganda drive is seeking to deflect blame from Vladimir Putin

Protest group repeats call not to pay unless electricity and gas tariffs are made affordable, as 193,000 sign upMore than 193,000 people have pledged to “strike” from paying their energy bills if a million Britons commit to not paying.Originally, the Don’t Pay campaign had pledged not to pay from 1 October, the date regulator Ofgem’s price cap was due to rise, if a million people had signed up. The scale would “give safety in numbers” from repercussions, the anonymous organisers argued. Continue reading...

Russia is suspected to have carried out explosions to put pressure on western energy suppliesLiz Truss has said a series of explosions which severely damaged Russia’s undersea Nord Stream gas pipelines were an act of sabotage.In a joint report delivered to the United Nations last week, the Danish and Swedish governments have claimed that the leaks in the Nord Stream gas pipelines, which can carry gas to Germany, were caused by blasts equivalent to the power of “several hundred kilograms of explosive”. Continue reading...