World news | The Guardian

Business Council of Australia chief Jennifer Westacott sees a chance to ‘start building relationships’ damaged by trade and human rights disputes

Manchester City boss tells court he does not know what player does with private life as he is ‘not his father’The Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola, has told jurors in the rape trial of Benjamin Mendy that the footballer is a “really good boy” but he does not know what the player does with his private life, adding: “I’m not his father.”The 28-year-old French international is accused of sexually assaulting women during parties at his Cheshire mansion or at an apartment in Manchester city centre. Continue reading...

PM keen to define policy towards Moscow after previously warning over financial impact of sanctions when chancellorRishi Sunak has called Russia a “pariah state” on the eve of his first meeting of the G20 in Indonesia, where he has vowed to confront Moscow’s representative in public and on the sidelines of the summit.The UK prime minister said he would take every opportunity during the summit to confront Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, attending in Vladimir Putin’s absence, and said that would be not only in the hall itself but at any opportunity if the two came face-to-face. Continue reading...

Unnamed person faces execution for alleged arson as part of crackdown on unrest triggered by death of Mahsa AminiIran has issued a first death sentence over protests that have mounted a fierce challenge to four decades of hardline clerical rule, as rights groups warn of a wave of executions may follow as leaders try to end nearly two months of sustained nationwide dissent.The execution was ordered for an unidentified person for allegedly setting fire to a government building. It followed 272 of Iran’s 290 lawmakers voting earlier this month to implement the death penalty for serious crimes against the state and repeated demands by some officials to take a harder line against unrest that shows little sign of abating. Continue reading...

Owner of Fawley oil refinery near Southampton bounces back after losses of £379m in 2020The owner of Britain’s biggest oil refinery has bounced back into the black in a post-pandemic recovery, as the UK’s competition watchdog examines refining profits.Esso Petroleum Company (EPC), the owner of the Fawley refinery near Southampton, has posted pre-tax profits of £151m for 2021, up from losses of £379m a year earlier. Continue reading...

Exclusive: government lawyers sent claimants ‘bullying’ letters saying they will have to pay MoD’s legal costsArmy families suing the Ministry of Defence over the squalor of their living quarters are being issued with “bullying” ultimatums to drop the claims or face having their pay docked to cover the legal costs.Documents obtained by the Guardian suggest the threat of further financial pain amid a deepening cost of living crisis is being exploited by government lawyers to keep compensation cases out of court. Continue reading...

Charities say reduced donations to the Global Fund will lead to the preventable deaths of up to 1.5 million peopleCharities and MPs have criticised the UK for reducing the amount of money it gives to a major global health fund by almost a third, lambasting it as a “disastrous decision” that will cause preventable deaths and mean “a more dangerous world for us all”.Britain will provide £1bn over the next three years to the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development office said today, a cut of £400m on its previous pledge in 2019. Continue reading...

Campaigner highlighted health service failures after receiving a false negative cervical cancer result in 2011It was a death foretold but the news still hit Ireland hard: Vicky Phelan, a terminally ill campaigner who exposed a cervical cancer screening scandal, died on Monday. She was 48.President Michael D Higgins led an outpouring of tributes to Phelan’s courage and how she shone a light on health service failures that affected hundreds of other women. Continue reading...

Advocates say it’s disappointing church is spending funds trying to block compensation bids ‘rather than redirecting money to deserving survivors’

Half of Australians say Albanese government’s workplace bill is key to lifting wages, with majority support for all of bill’s individual measures, poll suggests

Research conducted jointly by IAG insurer and the US National Center for Atmospheric Research warns of ‘rapidly increasing risk’ from severe storms

Analysis reveals Australia’s biggest superannuation funds are investing huge volume of workers’ retirement savings in casinos and poker machines

Workers at Pladis site near Liverpool have been in dispute over ‘real-terms pay cut’ since SeptemberUK production of the snack favourites Jacob’s Cream Crackers and Twiglets is at risk after hundreds of workers went on strike at owner Pladis’s factory in Aintree, near Liverpool.More than 750 of about 800 workers at the plant, who help make 4,000 tons of crackers every year, say they will strike until bosses agree to negotiate on pay. Continue reading...

Six people died and 81 were injured when Istanbul’s popular pedestrian thoroughfare İstiklal Avenue was hit by a bomb attackTurkey’s interior minister has accused Kurdish militants in northern Syria of responsibility for a bombing in a busy Istanbul shopping thoroughfare that killed six people, and said that a suspect had been arrested.Six people died and 81 were injured when a bomb struck Istanbul’s popular pedestrian thoroughfare İstiklal Avenue, timed to strike when it was most crowded. Turkey’s justice minister, Bekir Bozdağ, said that “a woman sat on a bench there for 45 minutes”, and that the explosion occurred moments after she left. Continue reading...

Suitmaker dating back to 18th century was put up for sale after collapse of Hong Kong-based ownerMike Ashley’s retail empire is in advanced talks to take over Gieves & Hawkes, one of London’s oldest bespoke tailors on Savile Row.Frasers Group, of which Ashley is majority owner, is in talks to buy the brand, which was put up for sale earlier this year after the collapse of its Hong Kong-based owner. Continue reading...

As residents are helicoptered to safety from the isolated town, a community rallies to give hope

Children languishing in unsuitable settings owing to severe shortage of secure placementsCampaigners have warned of a “national child protection emergency” in England with vulnerable and disturbed children languishing for months in unsuitable placements while social workers attempt to find them secure homes.According to figures obtained from the Department for Education after a freedom of information request, the average time a child who has been deprived of their liberty for their own protection will spend waiting for a secure placement is currently 65 days. In the two years to 19 October, the longest time a child had to wait for a secure placement was 211 days. Continue reading...

Fashion retailer has about 130 stores and employs more than 1,600 peopleThe fashion retailer Joules has announced it attends to appoint administrators, putting at risk as many as 1,600 jobs after talks fell through to find new investors.The board of Joules on Monday said it had “regrettably” decided to appoint administrators from Interpath Advisory to Joules Group and three subsidiaries including the Garden Trading Company. Trading in Joules shares has been suspended. Continue reading...

Decision comes after internal agitation from Coalition MPs and opposition from independents

Peter Malinauskas says LIV Golf competition will boost state’s economy but critics say it is an attempt to ‘sports wash Saudi Arabia’s human rights record’

Lawyers for convicted mother said if variant was a factor in deaths of her daughters it would create reasonable doubt

Unsettled weather to continue across western Europe and southern Australia forecast to experience unseasonably cold spellAfter causing devastation in Florida last week, Hurricane Nicole travelled along the east coast of the US and across the Atlantic towards western Europe as an extratropical cyclone. The remnants of Nicole brought heavy rain and strong winds to Ireland, the UK and parts of northern France during Monday night and Tuesday.Unsettled conditions are set to continue throughout the next few days across western Europe as several areas of low pressure move in from the Atlantic. These lows are expected to affect areas as far east as Norway and as far south as the Bay of Biscay, and will bring the potential of some localised flooding for the worst affected areas. Continue reading...

Elisabeth Armitage travelled to tiny NT town to hear first-hand how the 19-year-old’s death had affected community

Darren Henley said decision to push ENO to leave London will force it to embrace positive changes

Trade minister Don Farrell says Australia is ‘open to discussing possible off-ramps that result in a mutually agreed solution’

Moment hints at possible limits to unrelenting rise of China and raises questions about ability of India to reap demographic dividendOn the day India surpasses China as the world’s most populous nation, the change for both countries will be psychological and symbolic.China will still be the greater economic power, the one challenging the United States for full superpower status, but it will no longer be able to call itself the largest nation by sheer numbers. Continue reading...

India’s entrenched north-south divide is growing as its population changes, with serious social and political consequencesThe cry of a baby born in India one day next year will herald a watershed moment for the country, when the scales tip and India overtakes China as the world’s most populous nation.Yet the story of India’s population boom is really two stories. In the north, led by just two states, the population is still rising. In the richer south, numbers are stabilising and in some areas declining. The deepening divisions between these regions mean the government must eventually grapple with a unique problem: the consequences of a baby boom and an ageing population, all inside one nation. Continue reading...

Deputy commissioner Mark Wheeler says comments made at a Brisbane watch house ‘have no place in society’

Industry reports sales of titles for under-10s addressing emotions up almost 40%, driven by demand from young peopleMindfulness books for children as young as two are the latest runaway publishing trend, the industry has said, with children themselves calling for more titles to help them make sense of their emotions.Publishers including Magic Cat Publishing are reporting that sales of books for children under 10 years old that address emotions and mental health issues are up almost 40% year on year since 2021. Continue reading...

Detectives allege someone with inside knowledge of the tallies shared information with others

Hong Kong and Chinese markets soared on the announcement that the government would extend loans for distressed developersChinese authorities have unveiled sweeping measures to rescue the struggling property sector, as regulators seek to offset years of harsh pandemic curbs and a real estate crackdown that have stalled the world’s No 2 economy.The banking regulator and central bank issued a 16-point set of internal directives to promote the “stable and healthy development” of the industry. Continue reading...

No one was injured in the incident, which occurred near Inverleigh along the Hamilton Highway in regional Victoria

Kyle & Jackie O Show radio host reveals on air she is ‘struggling with this fatigue’ and has received medical advice to stop working

Cost of living crisis affecting different generations in very different ways, says Resolution FoundationOlder people face a bigger income hit from surging energy costs this winter but younger households are more at risk of being unable to pay their bill or getting into debt amid the cost of living crisis, according to a report.As households across Britain turn their heating on, the research by the Resolution Foundation thinktank found that older generations, in particular the over-75s, will spend a bigger share of their income, up from 5% to 8%, on their energy bills. For those under 50 the proportion is 5%. Continue reading...

A Place in the Sun and Escape to the Country host hopes he can inspire others to ‘make the most of every day’The TV presenter Jonnie Irwin has revealed he has terminal cancer, saying he hopes sharing his diagnosis will inspire others to “make the most of every day”.The 48-year-old, who presents Channel 4’s A Place in the Sun and the BBC’s Escape to the Country, said he had lung cancer that had spread to his brain, and that he did not know how much time he had left to live. Continue reading...

Brian Glendinning, 43, was contracted to work for BP in Iraq when arrested over an alleged debt owed to the Qatari National BankA Scottish engineer who was held in an Iraqi prison facing extradition to Qatar over a bank debt has been released, according to a human rights charity that had been campaigning for his freedom.Brian Glendinning, 43, who had been contracted to work at a BP oil refinery in Iraq, was arrested on an Interpol red notice at Baghdad airport on 12 September. Continue reading...

Former broadcaster and lawyer to Melania Trump was backed by centre-left government and defeated conservative rivalA liberal lawyer and former data privacy commissioner backed by Slovenia’s centre-left government has been elected the country’s first female president after beating her conservative rival in a runoff vote on Sunday.With 99% of votes counted, Nataša Pirc Musar was in the lead on 53.8% of the vote, ahead of the conservative veteran Anže Logar on 46.1%. While both candidates had run as independents, they were backed by the centre-left and rightwing political blocs of the small eastern European country of 2 million, which has been a member of the EU for 15 years. Continue reading...

The former Arsenal captain left the show urging those suffering from mental health issues to get the help they needTony Adams has become the seventh contestant to leave Strictly Come Dancing after withdrawing because of injury.The former Arsenal and England captain’s exit meant that Kiss FM DJ Tyler West and his partner, Dianne Buswell, went through to next week’s show without having to take part in a dance-off. Continue reading...

Chancellor warns health service has to help fix UK’s broken economy despite facing ‘massive pressures’The chancellor has said he accepts “the picture that the NHS is on the brink of collapse” but warned the struggling service will also need to play its part in helping fix Britain’s broken economy.Jeremy Hunt said there were “massive pressures in the NHS … with doctors, nurses on the frontline frankly under unbearable pressure”. However, he said the service received a lot of money and “we need to do everything we can to find efficiencies”. Continue reading...

Celebrity gospel singer Flordelis dos Santos de Souza, famous for her 55 children, given 50-year jail sentenceA former Brazilian congresswoman has been found guilty of ordering the murder of her preacher husband and sentenced to 50 years and 28 days in prison, bringing an end to one of the most sensational crimes in recent Brazilian history.The celebrity gospel singer Flordelis dos Santos de Souza, known as Flordelis, was also found guilty on Sunday of associated crimes, including unsuccessfully attempting to poison Anderson do Carmo with cyanide at least six times before giving up and arranging his killing. Continue reading...

Party sources unrepentant as critics say strategy is creating identikit candidates with few from working-class jobsWhen Labour under Jeremy Corbyn won a swathe of new seats in 2017, a senior member of the party’s national executive committee (NEC) confided shortly after the election that there were at least three new MPs that they had not expected to win their seats – and about whom they had some concerns.The first was Jared O’Mara, who stood down in 2019 after a string of scandals. The second was Fiona Onasanya, who lost her seat after a criminal conviction. The third, whom it would be unfair to name, turned out to be scandal-free. Continue reading...

Men found with stab wounds in ‘fairly busy’ area of Houghton Regis in early hours of Sunday, police sayTwo young men have died and a third is seriously injured after being found with stab wounds.Bedfordshire police said officers were called to reports of a man being struck by a vehicle in Tithe Farm Road, in Houghton Regis, at 1.18am on Sunday. Continue reading...

The prime minister will use a keynote address at the B20, a business summit alongside the G20 in Bali, to argue for a more sustainable global economy

Mark Ryan’s office then referred the matter to Queensland police service, an action that whistleblower Steven Marshall describes as ‘reckless’

Hit podcast to end eight-year run by hearing from creator of the Belinda Blinked amateur erotic novelsListeners of My Dad Wrote a Porno will be treated to a guest appearance of the titular dad, who has remained elusive during the eight-year run, in the podcast’s final episode next month.Jamie Morton, Alice Levine and James Cooper last week recorded the concluding three episodes of the show, labelled “the most successful podcast in British history”, with the first due to be released on 28 November. Continue reading...

Accommodation providers told officials of increase in people threatening to harm themselves, minutes of meeting showThe Home Office was warned that its Rwanda policy was causing a rise in the number of asylum seekers reporting feeling suicidal and vanishing from hotel accommodation, an internal safeguarding document has revealed.The Labour peer Helena Kennedy KC has called the Home Office “heartless” for pursuing the policy despite officials knowing how much damage it was causing to people.In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org. Continue reading...

Iranian Mehran Karimi Nasseri inspired the Steven Spielberg film The Terminal, starring Tom HanksAn Iranian man who lived for 18 years in Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport and inspired the 2004 Steven Spielberg film The Terminal died on Saturday in the airport, officials said.Mehran Karimi Nasseri died after a heart attack in the airport’s Terminal 2F around midday, according an official with the Paris airport authority. Police and a medical team treated him but were not able to save him, the official said. Continue reading...

Phil Russell says he was four days overdue sending an application to stay he did not know he neededA British man living in Denmark is being deported from the country because he was four days late with an application to stay there post-Brexit.Danish MP Mads Fuglede is fighting to stop the deportation which he says is a breach of the spirit of the withdrawal agreement to protect EU citizens’ rights. However, following elections last week and with no new government in sight in Copenhagen, he is worried help may not come in time for Philip Russell. Continue reading...

Chancellor also warns of severe cuts to services as he prepares for his biggest test in his new role

A fire chief is under investigation for a prescribed burn gone wrong and stirred up long-simmering tensions over wildfire riskHours before Rick Snodgrass was cuffed and loaded into a squad car, he’d called the sheriff himself. The United States Forest Service burn boss had requested the help of local law enforcement in Grant county, Oregon, reporting his crew was being harassed while conducting a controlled burn within the Malheur national forest.It was the second burn that crews had conducted in the area in two weeks, with flames intended to char around 300 acres. But that warm October afternoon, the treatment did not go according to plan. Continue reading...