by Josh Taylor (now) and Royce Kurmelovs (earlier) on (#658Q7)
People have been cleared to return to their homes as flood threat eases in Victoria, but the Bureau of Meteorology is warning of renewed flooding in parts of NSW. This blog is now closed
Polls – which underestimated incumbent’s vote in first round – give Workers’ party leader 52% to 48% advantageBrazilians head to the polls on Sunday in their most important election for years, with leftist challenger Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva the slight favourite to put an end to four years of destructive government by the far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.Opinion polls on the eve of the ballot gave Lula, as the Workers’ party candidate is known, a lead of between four and eight percentage points. Continue reading...
At least 150 people died when large crowd surged in narrow alley of South Korean nightlife district, officials sayAt least 150 people have been killed and around 80 injured in a crowd crush and stampede in a narrow alley during Halloween festivities in Itaewon, a popular leisure district of Seoul in South Korea.Officials said a large crowd began pushing forward in the sloped alley near the Hamilton Hotel, a party spot in Seoul. Some local media reports said earlier that people rushed to a bar after a celebrity was sighted.Many of the victims were women in their 20s, said a National Fire Agency offical, Choi Cheon-sik.Fire officials and witnesses said people continued to pour into the alley while it was already packed wall-to-wall. When those at the top of the sloped street fell, it sent others below them toppling over others.About 100,000 people had filled Itaewon’s streets for the biggest festivities since the easing of Covid-19 pandemic restrictions. Dozens of bars and restaurants were packed with revellers wearing elaborate Halloween costumes.TV footage and photos from the scene showed emergency workers and pedestrians performing CPR on people lying in the streets. The bodies of people who had been crushed or trampled to death lay in rows, covered with blankets or makeshift shrouds.Witnesses described chaotic scenes beforehand, with police appearing to have trouble maintaining control of the crowds. “It was at least 10 times more crowded than usual,” Moon Ju-young, 21, told Reuters. Continue reading...
Witnesses and bystanders in South Korean Halloween disaster tell how thick post-Covid crowds overwhelmed Seoul party district with deadly resultsPartygoers in costumes fleeing in panic, desperate attempts at first aid on the sidewalks, scores of bodies lined up under makeshift shrouds: in Seoul’s lively Itaewon district, a Halloween festival turned to tragedy on Saturday.At least 150 people were killed in a crowd surge and stampede, the cause of which remained unclear on Sunday. The popular, cosmopolitan district of the South Korean capital, located close to a former US military base, is renowned for its bars and clubs. Continue reading...
Reinstalled levelling up secretary says he understands public anger at party’s choice of Truss and her tax cuts for the richMichael Gove has said the Conservative party owes the public an apology for installing Liz Truss as leader.Gove, who was reinstated as levelling up secretary by Rishi Sunak this week, acknowledged that the Tories “made the wrong choice this summer about the path we should take”. Continue reading...
Civil servants say there was ‘significant disquiet’ over home secretary Suella Braverman’s dealings with Tory rightwinger John HayesHome Office officials raised concerns over a series of secretive meetings Suella Braverman held with an influential rightwing backbench MP weeks before she was forced to resign over leaking sensitive information to him, the Observer has been told.In addition, sources have claimed that the home secretary appears to have instructed officials to look at potentially implementing hardline proposals cooked up by a rightwing thinktank that would in effect prohibit “genuine refugees” from settling in the UK, a move that threatens an even more uncompromising approach to asylum seekers. Continue reading...
Ryan Murphy says controversial show’s team tried to speak to about 20 friends and family of serial killer’s victimsThe creator of Netflix’s recent controversial series on the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer has said his team tried to speak with about 20 of the victims’ friends and family before the show’s release but no one called back.Series creator Ryan Murphy’s remarks counter claims by some victims’ relatives that no one from the production notified them of the show or consulted them. Continue reading...
Many new products now need multiple safety test facilities for home and abroad, say entrepreneursBritish inventions are being brought to market overseas because new Brexit safety certification rules mean they can’t be sold in the UK.Trade bodies and entrepreneurs have blamed the government’s decision to stop accepting the European Union’s CE mark and instead create a new UK Conformity Assessed (UKCA) mark showing that a product is safe. Continue reading...
Hossein Salami’s tough language raises fears security forces may be about to intensify crackdown on unrestThe head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has told protesters that Saturday will be their last day of taking to the streets, in a sign that security forces may intensify their crackdown on unrest sweeping the country.Iran has been gripped by protests since the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, in the custody of the morality police last month, posing one of the boldest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution. Continue reading...
Homicide police investigating knife attack on 32-year-old near block of flats in LondonA man has died after being stabbed near Waterloo railway station in London, the Metropolitan police said.Officers were called to Lower Marsh, on the southern side of the station, at 2.15am on Saturday to reports that a man had been stabbed. He was found near a block of flats in Frazier Street. Continue reading...
Coronation of Misuzulu Zulu at football stadium follows bitter feuding over royal successionTens of thousands of people gathered at a football stadium in Durban on Saturday to celebrate the coronation of South Africa’s Zulu king.President Cyril Ramaphosa was to hand over the certificate to formally recognise the 48-year-old new ruler of the country’s richest and most influential traditional monarchy. Continue reading...
Comedian defends remarks about reaction to new PM’s appointment after widespread criticismThe comedian Trevor Noah has said he did not claim “the entire UK is racist” after a row over his skit about Rishi Sunak’s appointment as the UK prime minister.Noah said on the US news programme The Daily Show earlier this week that there had been a “backlash” over Sunak, comments that were widely criticised in the UK. The former chancellor Sajid Javid said Noah had been “simply wrong”. Continue reading...
Marius Mihai Dragici, arrested in Romania in August, faces 39 counts of manslaughterA man has been charged with manslaughter and being part of the conspiracy that led to the deaths of 39 Vietnamese nationals found in a lorry in Essex.The victims’ bodies were discovered in the back of the lorry trailer, which had been transported by ferry from Zeebrugge in Belgium to Purfleet early on 23 October 2019. Continue reading...
London landmark to signal end of daylight saving after major repair and conservation projectWhen do the clocks go back to end British summertime?All four faces of Big Ben will be put back to Greenwich mean time (GMT) this weekend for the first time in five years.British summer time (BST) officially ends at 2am on Sunday, and the clocks go back an hour, giving people an extra hour in bed – or partying. Continue reading...
by Robert Booth Social affairs correspondent on (#6585N)
Split over colour of heart symbol – and who it represents – and date of annual commemorationAn emotionally charged dispute over how best to memorialise Covid in the UK risks dividing people bereaved over the course of the pandemic.A split has emerged over whether a red or yellow heart should become the long-term symbol of loss, and over the date of an annual commemoration. The crux of the dispute is a claim from some people who lost loved ones to Covid that their experience “needs to be treated differently” than those bereaved during Covid. Continue reading...
Former DPP Starmer tried to send head of News UK Rebekah Brooks to prison for phone hacking 10 years agoTen years ago Keir Starmer attempted to send Rebekah Brooks to prison for phone hacking.Now Starmer could cause another headache for the boss of Rupert Murdoch’s British media empire. She has to work out how her Tory-backing newspapers – which include the Sun and the Times – handle the growing popularity of the man who is favourite to become the next prime minister. Continue reading...
Ben-Gvir, a defender of Jewish extremists, poised to become powerful mainstream forceWhenever the far-right politician Meir Kahane got up to speak in the Knesset after winning his Kach party’s only ever seat, in 1984, the rest of the plenum would walk out. Even the hardline prime minister at the time, Yitzhak Shamir, called the rabbi’s anti-Arab movement “negative, dangerous and damaging”. Kach was banned from politics a few years later for inciting racism.Four decades on, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is still raging, and Israel’s political sphere is more rightwing than ever before. The country will hold its fifth election in less than four years next week. Kahane’s disciple Itamar Ben-Gvir is on course to become a powerful mainstream force. Continue reading...
PM previously cut aid and allowed use of international development money for domestic purposes, such as housing Ukrainian refugeesBritain is spending more of its international development budget at home than in poor developing countries, development experts have said.A large proportion is being spent on housing refugees, mainly from Ukraine, according to the Centre for Global Development (CGD). Continue reading...
Man posing as Brazilian academic José Assis Giammaria thought to have used his time in the country to build up a deep-cover identityA suspected Russian spy who posed as a Brazilian academic before his arrest this week by Norway’s domestic security agency spent years studying at Canadian universities with a focus on Arctic security issues.The man, who called himself José Assis Giammaria, worked as researcher at the University of Tromsø and was arrested on suspicion he had entered Norway under false pretences. On Friday, prosecutor Thomas Blom named the man as Mikhail Mikushin, adding that Norway’s domestic security agency was “not positively sure of his identity, but we are quite certain that he is not Brazilian”. Continue reading...
Merseyside police said a man had been arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender and was being questioned by detectivesA man has been arrested in connection with the murder of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel in Liverpool.Olivia was fatally shot in the chest at her home in Dovecot, Liverpool, on 22 August. Continue reading...
Simon Murray, official overseeing programme, said he is concerned at the number of people who have died before receiving anythingVictims of the Windrush scandal have expressed frustration at the slow progress of the compensation scheme at the first national conference of a coalition of grassroots organisations fighting for justice for those affected.The newly appointed Home Office minister Simon Murray stressed that improvements have been made to the compensation scheme for the Windrush scandal, which saw thousands of British people wrongly classified as illegal immigrants. However, he acknowledged that there was more work to be done to ensure swift payments were made to people affected by it. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Inflation, energy prices and Liz Truss’ mini-budget are contributing factors to cuts local leaders described as unprecedentedLibraries and children’s centres are closing and home pick-ups for young disabled people being cancelled as councils try to meet a £3.2bn budget shortfall next year.With inflation and energy prices eating into budgets, local authorities across the UK are facing a record black hole that is unlikely to be plugged by central governmentas the Treasury is seeking to squeeze spending to make up for a £30-50bn shortfall in the public finances. Continue reading...
Normunds Freibergs, Jacobus Stankevicius and Ruta Stankeviciene took man’s passport and stole estimated £10,000 in wagesTwo men have been jailed and a woman given a suspended sentence for “enslaving a man to line their own pockets”.Normunds Freibergs, 40, and his accomplices Jacobus Stankevicius, 59, and Ruta Stankeviciene, 57, exploited and abused the vulnerable victim, whom they forced to work to pay off debt they claimed he owed them. Continue reading...
Twelve officers face charges including rape, murder and torture over response to post-election protestsIn a landmark decision, 12 Kenyan police officers will face charges of crimes against humanity over a deadly crackdown on post-election protests in 2017, prosecutors have announced.The charges include rape, murder and torture and the case of a six-month-old girl whose death became a symbol of police brutality during the election aftermath. Continue reading...
by Libby Brooks Scotland correspondent on (#657MZ)
Opposition says it can assuage bill’s critics as SNP supporters fear more amendment attemptsScottish Labour has pledged to “bring people together” over the issue of gender recognition reform after an intense Holyrood debate on proposals to make it easier for transgender people to change their legal sex that saw the Scottish National party suffer its biggest backbench revolt in 15 years of government.Although the gender recognition reform bill easily passed the first of three legislative stages on Thursday evening with a vote of 88 MSPs in favour to 33 against, with four abstentions, as the legislation enters the amendment stage supporters are concerned that some key elements – such as the reduction in the age someone can apply for a gender recognition certificate to 16 – may be lost. Continue reading...
Chris Heaton-Harris obliged to call new poll after deadline to restore devolved government expiresThe Northern Ireland secretary has announced he will call an election for the Stormont assembly but refused to name a date.Chris Heaton-Harris said on Friday he would do his “legal duty” to call an election within 12 weeks and promised to give more detail next week after talks with Northern Ireland party leaders. Continue reading...
by Nadia Khomami Arts and culture correspondent on (#657HA)
Authors and politicians have accused the US comedian of projecting an American cultural context on to the UKThe row began with a single call to a UK radio station, was stoked by one of America’s best-known comedians and ended with former cabinet ministers wading in – and Downing Street, too.At the heart of the furore: a claim that Rishi Sunak had experienced a racist “backlash” after becoming the UK’s first British-Asian prime minister. Continue reading...
by Harriet Sherwood Arts and culture correspondent on (#65795)
White Disaster (White Car Crash 19 Times) to go under the hammer in New YorkSix months after a vivid image of Marilyn Monroe smashed records when it sold for $195m, a rather more dark and brutal work by the cult pop artist Andy Warhol may also be about to fetch a large sum.White Disaster (White Car Crash 19 Times) – repeated graphic black and white images across a huge canvas measuring 12ft tall and 6ft wide – is expected to sell for at least $80m in New York next month. Continue reading...
by Aubrey Allegretti, Jessica Elgot, Pippa Crerar and on (#6560B)
Former intelligence select committee chief warns issue threatens to undermine confidence in sharing sensitive informationSuella Braverman is under pressure to answer fresh questions about alleged “security breaches”, as a former head of parliament’s intelligence and security committee warned the row threatened to undermine officials’ confidence in sharing sensitive information with her.The account given by the home secretary and backed up by the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, when he defended reappointing her just six days after she was found to have broken the ministerial code were challenged by government insiders and a senior Conservative MP. Continue reading...
by Mark Brown North of England correspondent on (#656D2)
Luke O’Connor died in hospital after attack near a large halls of residence in Fallowfield area of cityFamily and friends have paid tribute to a “lively, bubbly, beautiful” university student who was fatally stabbed near a large halls of residence in Manchester.Greater Manchester police said Luke O’Connor, 19, was stabbed on Wilmslow Road in Fallowfield at about 2am on Wednesday. He was given CPR at the scene but later died of his injuries in hospital. Continue reading...
by Jessica Elgot Deputy political editor on (#656C5)
Truss filled her cabinet with friends. Johnson said he wanted ‘tired old lions, so I can be king lion!’. The new PM takes a different tackWhen Liz Truss entered Number 10, she had very limited political capital. She had been the first choice of fewer than 50 MPs, had exiled many big beasts to the backbenches and had inherited a parliamentary party with grave doubts about her abilities and her project.Rishi Sunak has a far healthier inheritance. Not only is the economic picture beginning to improve with lower gas prices and a stabilising pound, but he has broad goodwill from all but the most hardcore wings of his party. Continue reading...
Ex-provincial minister convicted over death of his wife attended speech arguing government is ‘too lenient’ on violent offendersThe conservative government of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan is under scrutiny after a convicted murderer was invited to attend its tough-on-crime speech.On Wednesday the province’s lieutenant governor, Russell Mirasty, presented the throne speech, outlining the conservative administration’s agenda and arguing the federal government were “too lenient” on violent offenders. Continue reading...
Relatives pay tribute to ‘bright, funny young woman’ who had a ‘smile that lit up the room’The family of Leah Croucher said their hopes of finding her alive were “extinguished in the cruellest and harshest of ways” after her body was discovered earlier this month, three years after she disappeared.The 19-year-old’s relatives said she was a “bright, funny young woman” with a “smile that lit up the room”, as they paid tribute to her in a statement released on Thursday. Continue reading...
Arms control advocates say changes from Trump era outlined in Nuclear Posture Review do not go far enoughThe Biden administration has confirmed it will cancel a submarine-launched nuclear cruise missile programme begun by Donald Trump, as part of its review of nuclear policy.The administration will also retire a gravity bomb, the B63, from its arsenal as part of its Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), but arms control advocates argued the changes from the Trump era did not go far enough. Continue reading...
DfT says current penalty no longer acts as deterrent for evasion, which costs taxpayers about £240m a yearRail passengers caught travelling without a valid ticket on trains in England will face a fine of £100 from early next year – a fivefold increase from the current level.The Department for Transport (DfT) said the fines were being increased for the first time since 2005 because they no longer acted as a deterrent against fare dodging. Continue reading...
Manston processing site ‘gummed up’ as more than 100,000 asylum claims waiting to be decided, says select committee chairA migrant processing centre in Kent is “catastrophically overcrowded”, with people waiting for their applications for asylum to be processed kept in inhumane conditions and guards not being trained properly, a union leader says.Criticism of the government’s handling of the facility is mounting, with the chair of a parliamentary select committee saying a “crisis” was brewing given the backlog of more than 100,000 cases. Continue reading...
Ksenia Sobchak, media personality and daughter of Vladimir Putin’s one-time boss, was subject of arrest orderThe Russian journalist and TV personality Ksenia Sobchak – the daughter of Vladimir Putin’s one-time boss – has fled to Lithuania, intelligence services in Vilnius said, after police in Moscow raided one of her homes.A well-known media figure in Russia, Sobchak first became famous as a reality show presenter before embarking on a career in journalism. She also ran for the Russian presidency in 2018, a move her critics said was a publicity stunt intended to help the Kremlin create the impression of competitive elections. Continue reading...
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