Announcement ends long debate over whether K-pop group should get exemptionThe seven members of BTS – one of the world’s biggest bands – will perform military service in their native South Korea, their agency has said, ending a long national debate over whether they should receive an exemption.While many fans of the K-pop sensations were hoping the band members would be given special consideration due to their contribution to the South Korean economy and international prestige, the artists will each serve almost two years in the military. Continue reading...

Sir Mark Rowley says police leaders who failed to take action are ‘as guilty as the offender’ in wake of damning review of Met failingsMetropolitan police leaders who have turned a blind eye to racist and misogynist behaviour at Scotland Yard are just as responsible as the perpetrators, the force’s commissioner has said.Sir Mark Rowley vowed to root out those behind the “appalling” culture after a damning review exposed massive failings in how a force weighed down by “systemic” racism and misogyny dealt with wrongdoing in its ranks. Continue reading...

Hitting civilian infrastructure seems to be only effective tactic for Putin’s under-pressure forces

Maythem Kamil Radhi pleads not guilty facilitating the proposed entry of non-citizens into Australia

Richard Blumenthal to sek reassurances from Pentagon that ‘they are on top of’ risk of sharing information with gulf stateA senior Democratic lawmaker has raised alarms about the possibility that sensitive US defense technology could be shared with Russia by Saudi Arabia in the wake of the kingdom’s recent decision to side with Moscow over the interests of the US.Richard Blumenthal, a member of the Senate armed services committee who has proposed a one-year freeze on weapons sales to Saudi following Opec+’s decision to cut oil production, said he would “dig deeper into the risk” in discussions with the Pentagon. Continue reading...

Leeanne Enoch says email sent to landlords by Brisbane agent comes amid ‘unprecedented pressures’ on market

Daniel Andrews announces a $351m emergency package to begin recovery from the floods

Former nurse, whose husband contracted coronavirus, alleges cruise ship company failed in its duty to take reasonable care of passengers

Move marks a reversal for Fumio Kishida who was reluctant to scrutinise Moonies’ connections with his own lawmakersJapan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has ordered an investigation into the Unification church as he attempts to revive his political fortunes amid a scandal linking his party to the religious group.Kishida had initially been reluctant to increase scrutiny of the church – whose members are colloquially known as Moonies – but on Monday his education minister, Keiko Nagaoka, said the probe would begin “immediately”. Depending on the outcome, the church could lose its tax-exempt status, media reports said. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Former PM Scott Morrison’s decision to formally recognise West Jerusalem has now been reversed by Labor government

Exclusive: total number of homes with at least one subscription fell by 937,000 from January to SeptemberAlmost 1m British households have given up on the streaming revolution so far this year, as the cost of living crisis forces increasingly budget-conscious consumers to stop taking services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+.The premiere of two of the most-hyped and expensive shows of all time – the $650m (£580m) productions of Rings of Power and House of the Dragon – failed to prove a big enough draw to reverse a decline of another 234,000 homes with at least one paid streaming service in the third quarter. Continue reading...

Green is latest celebrity to make allegations about 72-year-old’s behaviour, after reports he straddled and kissed female crew member on set

Leftist challenger Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva calls incumbent Jair Bolsonaro a ‘shameless liar’ who ‘fooled around’ with Covid causing huge fatalitiesThe leftist frontrunner to become Brazil’s next president branded the far-right incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro, “a tiny little dictator” and “the king of fake news and stupidity” during a television debate that will help define the political future of one of the world’s biggest democracies.Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who nearly beat Bolsonaro in the presidential election’s first round in September, admonished his opponent over his handling of Covid and soaring Amazon deforestation during the feisty two-hour encounter. Continue reading...

The NSW Independent Casino Commission says taking away the licence would have meant thousands of employees out of work overnight

PM warns of inflationary impact and hit to budget from flooding in Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania

Average price of a property coming to market up 0.9%, says Rightmove, but first-time buyer demand has droppedAsking prices for houses in the UK edged higher in October, although demand from first-time buyers has dropped as mortgage rates surge.Despite the economic turmoil since the government’s mini-budget last month, there has been little immediate sign of the housing market slipping, according to Rightmove. Continue reading...

Unison’s Christina McAnea says winter strikes ‘inevitable’ as only way for workers to get message acrossEndemic low pay represents a threat to the very future of the NHS, the head of the biggest union representing health staff has warned ahead of an expected wave of strike action this winter.Strike action over pay seemed “inevitable”, said Christina McAnea, the general secretary of Unison, even though a formal ballot of staff in England, Wales and Northern Ireland only opens later this month, while the process is ongoing in Scotland. Continue reading...

Prime minister to meet mutinous Tory MPs this week in effort to shore up her position after U-turns on taxLiz Truss is fighting for her political survival, with Conservative MPs threatening to oust her and even allies warning she has just days to turn around her premiership despite ripping up her economic strategy and appointing Jeremy Hunt as chancellor.The beleaguered prime minister will attempt to shore up her crumbling support by gathering her cabinet ministers at No 10 on Monday evening and then embarking on a series of meetings with mutinous Tory MPs before the next budget in a fortnight’s time. Continue reading...

Survey for TUC shows string of top Tory ministers in peril and opposition to removal of workers’ rightsAround 10 cabinet ministers including Jacob Rees-Mogg, Thérèse Coffey, Jeremy Hunt and Simon Clarke would lose their seats in a general election, according to a poll for the Trades Union Congress (TUC), which also shows voters are opposed to the removal of workers’ rights.The poll by Opinium, using the MRP method to estimate constituency-level results, projected a 1997-style landslide for Labour, with the party winning 411 seats. It suggested the Conservatives would lose 219 seats to end up on 137, with the Liberal Democrats on 39 seats and SNP on 37. It projected vote share for Labour of 43%, Conservatives 28%, the Lib Dems 13%, Green 7%, SNP 4%. Continue reading...

Trans MP says senior Tories sought ‘cheap political points’ and tells Liz Truss to resign for bringing them into governmentJamie Wallis, a Conservative MP who came out as transgender earlier this year, has accused fellow Tory MPs of exploiting and weaponising trans issues “in order to score cheap political points” during the recent leadership contest.The MP for Bridgend in Wales, who has written a letter to Liz Truss calling on her to resign as prime minister, described the tactics used during the battle to succeed Boris Johnson as “extremely unpleasant”. Continue reading...

Russian servicemen begin to arrive in Belarus; US thinktank says Putin engaging in ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Ukraine

Mark Fullbrook accused of trying to change UK policy by arranging for ministers to meet Libyan politicianLabour has claimed Mark Fullbrook’s position as Downing Street chief of staff is no longer tenable after it was revealed that before his appointment he tried to change UK foreign policy by arranging for two cabinet ministers to meet Fathi Bashagha, a Libyan politician with links to the Russian Wagner Group.The Guardian had previously reported that Fullbrook, as chief executive of Fullbrook Strategies, had lobbied on behalf of Bashagha, but the Sunday Times alleged he arranged for Bashagha to come to London in June, where he met the then business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, and the education secretary at the time, Nadhim Zahawi. Continue reading...

Peter Nash accused of killing Jillu Nash, 43, and 12-year-old daughter Louise at their home last monthA man has been charged with the murder of his wife and 12-year-old daughter who were found dead at their home in Suffolk.The bodies of Jillu Nash, 43, and Louise Nash were discovered at a property in Great Waldingfield, Sudbury, on 8 September. Continue reading...

PM will gather her cabinet for a rare Monday meeting to try to convince them she still holds levers of powerWhen Liz Truss gathers her cabinet in Downing Street for a rare Monday meeting to shore up support and talk them through her radically changed plans for the Halloween budget, she will be trying to convince them she still has a grip on power.Sacking Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor and bringing in Jeremy Hunt – who quickly buried key elements of her economic strategy, with tax rises and public spending cuts to come – was a necessary political sacrifice if she was to survive in No 10. Continue reading...

Former PM angered by fictitious storyline in which Charles seeks his help in getting the Queen to abdicateAs Netflix prepares to release its fifth season of big budget royal drama The Crown it has rejected criticism of the latest season after former prime minster Sir John Major described it as a “barrel load of nonsense”.Major’s comments were made after concerns arose that a storyline in the hit programme could damage King Charles’s reputation. Continue reading...

National plan calls for improved crisis housing and assisting men to develop ‘healthy masculinities’

Exclusive: principal of Queensland’s Livingstone Christian College said investigation was sparked by a parent’s concern over ‘biblical moral standards’

With criminals suspected of cashing in on such accommodation, one ex-tenant says they are a ‘money grab’

Charities warn criminals cashing in on unregulated accommodation for vulnerable people exempt from housing benefit caps

Crime boss Gerry ‘the Monk’ Hutch to be tried for a 2016 murder that fuelled a lethal feud with a rival gangArmed police, members of the underworld and a fascinated public are expected to converge on a Dublin courthouse this week for what has been dubbed Ireland’s gangland trial of the century.Gerry “the Monk” Hutch, 58, a prominent crime boss, is to be tried for a 2016 murder that fuelled a lethal feud between rival gangs that still simmers six years later. Continue reading...

Far-right party says online post by Rebecka Fallenkvist about Jewish diarist was ‘insensitive’A Sweden Democrats official has been suspended by the far-right party for making degrading comments about Anne Frank.In an Instagram posting that has now been deleted, Rebecka Fallenkvist called the Jewish teenage diarist “immoral”, among other things, according to Swedish media. Continue reading...

Three-time former PM’s outburst comes as their party’s scramble to form a coalition governmentSilvio Berlusconi has described Giorgia Meloni, who is poised to become Italy’s prime minister, as “patronising” and “bossy” as the fragile dynamic between the pair unravels as they scramble to form a government.Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, which has neo-fascist roots, won the biggest share of the vote in general elections on 25 September, helping to secure the largest majority of any coalition government in Italy since 1994. Continue reading...

Sims shot to fame in the late 1980s when her single Come Into My Life reached the top 10 in the US and the UKTributes have been paid to the R&B singer-songwriter Joyce Sims, who has died at the age of 63.Sims shot to fame in the late 1980s when her single Come Into My Life reached the top 10 in the US and the UK. Continue reading...

Health secretary accused of ‘monumental stupidity’ for saying she had shared a prescribed medicationDoctors have rounded on the health secretary, Thérèse Coffey, after she admitted to sharing prescription medicines with others, actions the British Medical Association described as both dangerous and against the law.Coffey told civil servants in a meeting last month that she had given leftover antibiotics to a poorly friend, an admission that came as the discussion on how to alleviate pressures on struggling GPs moved on to public behaviour around antibiotics. Continue reading...

Claim brought on behalf of initial 3,200 investors caught up in collapse of Neil Woodford’s equity income fundHargreaves Lansdown, a top British investment platform, has been hit by a multimillion-pound lawsuit over the failure of fallen star manager Neil Woodford’s equity income fund, which left hundreds of thousands of investors nursing losses.The claims management firm RGL said it had filed the claim in the high court in London on behalf of an initial 3,200 investors caught up in the scandal against the London blue-chip company, which promoted the former flagship Woodford Equity Income Fund (WEIF). Continue reading...

Suppliers raise concerns that energy prices bill contains proposals for ministers to overrule independent regulator, OfgemThe business secretary, Jacob Rees-Mogg, has been accused of launching a “power grab” as new legislation proposes to hand sweeping control over the energy industry to the government.The government last week introduced the energy prices bill to parliament to formalise the energy price guarantee, Liz Truss’s flagship policy to reduce household bills by limiting the cost of electricity and gas for two years. Continue reading...

International condemnation swift after conductor Yuriy Kerpatenko shot dead in his home

Former quarantine facility in Mickleham to act as a shelter and more than 100 schools to be closed

Chancellor warns of public spending cuts as he tears up PM’s economic agenda and promises to reassure marketsJeremy Hunt has insisted that Liz Truss is in charge despite her premiership looking increasingly in peril, as he warned of further public spending cuts and failed to rule out more U-turns on her disastrous mini-budget.The new chancellor, now widely seen as the most powerful man in government since he took over from the sacked Kwasi Kwarteng, has buried a series of flagship policies that brought Truss to power. Continue reading...

Followers of the German modernist give up hopes of preserving his working studio, the Merz Barn after funding cutRevellers in bizarre fancy dress gathered beside Windermere on Saturday night to honour the legacy of the artist Kurt Schwitters and his absurdist Merz movement. Tango and Charleston lessons in Ambleside were followed by the first Dada/Merz ball. But behind the swinging dance music of the inter-war years, a sadder note rang out across the lake shore.For the memory of Schwitters, the anti-fascist German artist who lived in the Lake District, has been dealt a serious blow. The celebrated Merz Barn that he set up 75 years ago on land next to the village of Elterwater, and which once won handsome support from the Arts Council of England, is to be sold. Despite recent donations from leading artists Bridget Riley, Antony Gormley, Damien Hirst and Tacita Dean, the rustic art studio, which was to have become a landmark on a planned Schwitters trail, will be shut next month and is likely to be commercially developed. Continue reading...

The Buckinghamshire attraction, a re-enactment site and TV location, is told it is breaching ‘peace and privacy’ of luxury homesOne of the country’s most popular open air museums has warned its operations are under threat from a property developer that claims the family attraction is disturbing the “peace and privacy” of its new gated private estate in Buckinghamshire.The property group Comer Homes bought Newland Park, an 18th-century estate, for £15m in 2011 and was given planning permission for a 309-home development five years later. Continue reading...

Revealed: four ways that the prime minister might be shown the doorUnder Tory party rules, a new leader cannot be challenged through official procedures for at least a year after entering office. But there are other routes. MPs say that if at least half the parliamentary party wanted Truss gone (that is the case already) and they all write to 1922 committee chair Graham Brady to say so, he would then feel obliged to visit the PM and tell her the game was up. If messages were also conveyed from the chief whip, Wendy Morton, and other grandees that she had lost her party in parliament, it would be difficult to fight on. Continue reading...

President supports peaceful reunification but will ‘never promise to renounce use of force’ as speech launches event likely to grant him third five-year termXi Jinping celebrated China’s crushing of Hong Kong’s autonomy and warned Taiwan that the “wheels of history” are turning towards Beijing taking control of the island democracy in his speech opening the Communist party congress.The most important gathering in the five-year Chinese political cycle is expected to hand Xi another five-year term running China, cementing his position as the most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. Continue reading...

Staff member who spoke to the Observer about drive to get workers to join IWGB union claims she was ‘punished’ by arts charityThe Royal Society of Arts has been accused of punishing staff who spoke out about their campaign to unionise the 270-year-old charity.The Observer reported last week that almost half the charity’s workforce below senior manager level had joined the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB), with a petition indicating most staff backed unionisation. The RSA senior management team led by Andy Haldane, a former chief economist at the Bank of England, has rebuffed three requests to voluntarily recognise the union. Continue reading...

As cost of living crisis bites, 3,000 volunteers across several organisations sign letter of warning to the prime ministerThousands of food bank volunteers will warn Liz Truss on Monday that they are having to ration provisions, as their services have become “overstretched and exhausted” because of an influx of people needing their help.In a sign of a continuing cost of living crisis that was building even before the economic crisis that followed the government’s mini-budget, a letter signed by more than 3,000 food bank workers will be delivered to Downing Street. Continue reading...

The prime minister ditched her close ally Kwasi Kwarteng to save her own job – but now Conservative MPs are openly plotting to replace her

Chris Minns has promised to build a local fleet of trains to replace the state’s ageing stock and 10,000 extra fixed teaching roles

Ten crews battle fire in high-rise building near Millennium Square as safety cordon put in placeFirefighters tackled a large blaze in a city centre building in Leeds on Saturday night.The blaze broke out on the top floors of a derelict high-rise building in Cookridge Street, near the city’s Millennium Square, at 7.47pm. Continue reading...

Defence minister says two assailants shot dead after attack at training ground in region bordering UkraineAt least 11 people were killed and 15 more wounded at a military training ground in the Belgorod region in south-western Russia on Saturday when two volunteers opened fire on other troops, the Russian defence ministry has said.The ministry said in a statement that the two shooters were nationals from a former Soviet republic and had been shot dead after the attack. Continue reading...