Victorian education department investigating after teacher accused of playing ‘explicit and blasphemous’ video to class

‘Total destruction’ and dozens of people still unaccounted for in Texas town while Arkansas and Oklahoma also hit by tornadoesAt least one person has died and dozens more are injured after tornadoes ravaged parts of Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma.Several twisters caused property damage and physical injury across the various states on Friday. Tornado warnings had still been in effect as of late Friday in parts of Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri.Ramon Antonio Vargas contributed reporting. Continue reading...

Alexander Nikulin, who sentenced two captured Britons to death in June, had attempt made on his life in eastern DonetskA judge in a Ukrainian town controlled by Moscow is in a “serious” condition after surviving an assassination attempt, a separatist leader in Donetsk said.Alexander Nikulin was on a judicial panel that in June sentenced to death two Britons, Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, and a Moroccan, Brahim Saadoune, who were fighting on the Ukrainian side. Continue reading...

Party vice-president Michelle O’Neill says government must find a way to make post-Brexit arrangements workThe Sinn Féin leader in Northern Ireland, Michelle O’Neill, has said the UK government needs to “step up to the plate” and find a way to make the Northern Ireland protocol work.On Friday, the Northern Ireland secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, said there will not be a Stormont election in December. Continue reading...

Unexpected announcement quashes hopes of lifting lockdowns, quarantining and rigorous testingHealth officials in China on Saturday dashed hopes there would be a relaxation of the country’s strict Covid-19 restrictions. At a news conference, they insisted China would “unswervingly” stick to its zero-Covid policy which includes lockdowns, quarantining and rigorous testing aimed at stopping the spread of the coronavirus.The announcement follows several days’ speculation that they were considering changing a disease containment policy that has disrupted economic growth and daily life, and is increasingly out of step with the rest of the world. Continue reading...

Amid cabinet backlash, No 10 has signalled to insiders that sale will not be in media bill, says Financial TimesRishi Sunak is expected to shelve the proposed privatisation of Channel 4 after a backlash against the move from within his own cabinet.Industry insiders expect the sale of Channel 4 to be dropped from the upcoming media bill as the prime minister overhauls policy pledges, according to the Financial Times. Continue reading...

Protest by People’s Assembly campaign group also calling for action on the cost of living crisisThousands have gathered in central London on Saturday to demonstrate against what they called “Tory austerity” and demand an immediate general election.The protest, called Britain is Broken, has been organised by the People’s Assembly Against Austerity, and is supported by groups including CND, Unite, Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion. Continue reading...

Prasanna Puwanarajah, who is playing the disgraced BBC broadcaster, on how the Netflix drama approached the infamous Panorama programmeIt was the TV interview that confirmed it all. When Diana, Princess of Wales, agreed to join Martin Bashir on Guy Fawkes night in front of BBC cameras to talk about her feelings of marital betrayal and loneliness, the foundations of the British establishment shook. The broadcast of that fateful interview was, of course, also a moment of personal pain and sorrow for Prince Charles, now King Charles, and their two sons, William and Harry.The BBC have since agreed never to show the Panorama programme of 1995 because of the duplicitous way Bashir secured the late princess’s involvement, misleading her into suspecting widespread treachery against her. But now, contrary to the wishes of the royal family, the makers of The Crown, the award-winning Netflix drama, have faithfully recreated the infamous encounter and are to show its key moments, as well as the background to the broadcast, over two episodes of the upcoming fifth season, which starts on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Tragedy that killed 135 sparks safety fears over creaking colonial-era structuresThe collapse of a bridge in Gujarat that left 135 people dead has prompted concerns over the safety of thousands of other colonial-era structures across India.The bridge in Morbi was more than a century old when it snapped in two last month while families had gathered on it to enjoy an evening on the river. Many of those standing in the middle of the bridge plunged into the river and drowned, while others died from the impact of falling on to the stones and boulders below. Continue reading...

Newly discovered official accounts show that, while a prisoner of Elizabeth I, her cousin lived a life of luxuryShe was executed as a Roman Catholic threat to the English throne, but during her long years of imprisonment by her Protestant cousin, Elizabeth I, Mary, Queen of Scots was still treated as a queen, previously unpublished documents reveal.The British Library has acquired official financial accounts for the 1580s which detail the finest foods and other luxuries given to the Scottish queen during her captivity at Wingfield Manor in Derbyshire and Tutbury Castle in Staffordshire. Continue reading...

Exclusive: PCS joins action with charity and a woman placed at Kent processing centre for boat arrivalsA trade union that represents many Home Office staff is joining a legal action against the home secretary over “horrendous, inhumane and dangerous” conditions at the Manston processing centre for people arriving in the country by small boat.The Public and Commercial Services union, the UK’s largest union for civil servants, counts among its members Border Force staff, enforcement officers and caseworkers making decisions about whether to detain small boat arrivals. Continue reading...

Reports suggest blaze could have been started by a drunk man firing a ‘flare gun’ on the dancefloorRussian police have detained a man suspected of causing a huge fire overnight at a bar in the city of Kostroma that killed at least 15 people.Firefighters fought through the early hours to extinguish the blaze at the popular Poligon bar in the city. Russian news agencies reported that the fire may have been started when a drunk man fired a “flare gun” on the dancefloor. Continue reading...

Moscow is deporting residents along with stolen art, tractors and cars as Ukraine’s forces close in

Police say they stopped the show near the capital Jakarta when fans surged forward to get closer to the stageK-pop band NCT 127 were forced to end their first concert in Indonesia early after 30 people fainted in a crush, police said.Indonesia is still reeling after more than 130 people, including more than 40 children, died in a stadium crush last month – one of the deadliest disasters in football history. Continue reading...

Counter-terrorism unit says evidence points to an extreme rightwing motivation behind attackThe firebombing of a migrant centre in Dover had “an extreme rightwing motivation”, police have said.Andrew Leak, 66, from High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, is believed to have killed himself after throwing two or three “crude” incendiary devices at the Western Jet Foil site in Kent last Sunday. Continue reading...

Pair were trapped underground for nine days and pitched a tent to keep themselves warmTwo South Korean miners who were trapped underground for nine days survived on coffee powder, authorities have said, after the pair were brought to safety.The men walked free from a collapsed zinc mine in the north-eastern county of Bonghwa late on Friday. They had been trapped in a vertical shaft about 190 metres (620ft) underground after the mine collapsed on 26 October. Continue reading...

Jordan Bardella, 27, who joined the party as a teenager and is a protege of Marine Le Pen, replaces her as leaderFrance’s far-right National Rally (RN) has elected a 27-year-old from the Paris banlieue who joined the party as a teenager as its new president to replace Marine Le Pen.The result means that for the first time since the party – originally the National Front – was created in 1972, it will not be run by a Le Pen. Continue reading...

Law enforcement concedes insufficient planning as president belatedly expresses regret for disasterThousands of people gathered near Seoul’s city hall on Saturday to commemorate the 156 people killed in a Halloween crowd crush in Itaewon last weekend.Christian and Buddhist leaders spoke on stage, demanding President Yoon Suk-yeol step down and asking how the country could mourn without knowing the truth behind the deaths. Continue reading...

Case was reinvestigated after outcry over reduced charge, and age of consent was set at 15A 33-year-old man has been convicted of raping an 11-year-old girl in a landmark case that led to the establishing of an age of consent in France.The accused, who has not been named, admitted having sex with the secondary school pupil in 2017 after meeting her in a park. He was 28 at the time and insisted the girl had consented. Continue reading...

Minister says ‘small number’ of drones were sent to Russia months before invasion but denies supply continuesIran has acknowledged for the first time that it supplied Moscow with drones but said they were sent before the war in Ukraine, where Russia has used drones to target power stations and civilian infrastructure.The Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said a “small number” of drones were supplied to Russia a few months before Moscow’s forces invaded Ukraine on 24 February. He denied Tehran that was continuing to supply drones to Moscow. Continue reading...

Prime minister declares inflation ‘number one enemy’ and promises to rebuild trust in governmentRishi Sunak has vowed to limit the impact of rising inflation on people with mortgages, as he promised to rebuild trust in the government.The prime minister said inflation was the “number one enemy” and that he was doing everything he could to “grip” the issue. Continue reading...

Move came too late to reinstate services on Saturday, and they will remain ‘extremely limited’Rail passengers in Britain are being warned they could still face disruption on Saturday despite a series of planned strikes being called off.The RMT union said on Friday afternoon that three days of industrial action by thousands of its members at Network Rail, due to take place on Saturday, Monday and Wednesday on lines across the country, would no longer go ahead. Continue reading...

Daniel Greenberg pledges to be advocate for ‘vast majority’ of MPs committed to high public standardsThe reputation of British politicians is at a “low point”, the UK’s new independent parliamentary commissioner for standards has said, as he pledged to be an advocate for the “vast majority” of MPs who were committed to high standards in public life.Daniel Greenberg, who takes over from Kathryn Stone when her five-year term comes to an end in January, admitted that a slew of scandals in recent years as well as the turbulence of the past 12 months had tarnished parliament’s reputation. Continue reading...

Oil sketch of Elsie Palmer to go on display at Ightham Mote in Kent after being acquired by trustAn oil sketch by John Singer Sargent of one of his most famous models will be returned to the English country house where it was painted after being acquired by the National Trust.Sargent’s sketch of Elsie Palmer, which was done in preparation for his masterpiece A Lady in White, will go on display at Ightham Mote in Kent, where the Palmer family lived and hosted artistic and literary gatherings for the likes of the actor Ellen Terry and the novelist Henry James in the late 1890s. Continue reading...

Pregnant woman and midwife among 10 rescues in NSW town of Forbes. This blog is now closed

Mahathir has offered to become prime minister for a third time, as campaigning in Malaysia’s general election gets under wayMahathir Mohamad, the 97-year-old elder statesman of Malaysian politics, filed his candidacy on Saturday as campaigning for the upcoming general elections began.The prime minister, Ismail Sabri Yaakob, called for elections 10 months ahead of schedule, hoping to win a stronger mandate for his party and stabilise the rocky political landscape that has plagued the country over the past four years. Continue reading...

Police received a call on Saturday morning from a member of the public who had seen a person in the pondPolice have launched an urgent search for a young boy after two bodies were found in a pond in Gungahlin in Canberra’s north.ACT police were investigating after the bodies were found in Yerrabi pond early on Saturday. Continue reading...

Prime minister offers condolences to family and friends of Trevor Kjeldal, describing the news as ‘tragic’

Restart of aid imminent after surprise deal earlier this week brought prospect of end to blockade and one of Africa’s deadliest conflictsDoctors and aid workers in Tigray are racing against time to keep desperately sick or malnourished patients alive as they wait for humanitarian assistance after a surprise peace deal potentially ended the conflict in northern Ethiopia.In the deal, signed on Wednesday in South Africa, the federal government pledged to end the blockade on Tigray imposed at the beginning of the war two years ago, while the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the political movement in power in the region, agreed to disarm its forces. Continue reading...

Victorian premier says ‘I act appropriately at all times’ following questions about his role in awarding two grants worth $3.4m to a Labor-linked union

Putin says Kherson region’s residents must be ‘evacuated’ as round-the-clock curfew imposed on its capital; Letterman travels to Kyiv to interview Zelenskiy

Proposals are part of party’s wider ambition to build system of high-quality, affordable childcare and to make issue an election pledge

Major says show is ‘fiction paraded as fact’ and disrespectful given the Queen’s recent passingJohn Major and Tony Blair have hit out at The Crown’s depiction of them ahead of the upcoming fifth series.The show is expected to portray Charles, played by Dominic West, cutting short a holiday with Diana, the Princess of Wales, to host a secret meeting with Major at Highgrove in 1991, at which they discuss ousting the Queen. Continue reading...

Latest group are among scores of people removed from Manston immigration centre in Kent by Home Office with no offer of shelterHungry and confused asylum seekers from war-torn east Africa have been found sleeping rough in central London after the Home Office removed scores of people from the Manston immigration processing centre in Kent without offering replacement shelter.At least 18 asylum seekers are now believed to have slept on the streets this week after at least two buses left them at Victoria station, forcing three charities and two councils to provide emergency help. Continue reading...

Swiss woman, 45, was run over three times after she got out of her car and left the engine runningA woman in Switzerland was seriously injured after she got out of her car with the engine still on only for it to run her over three times, police said on Friday.The 45-year-old had stepped out of her car in a residential area in St Gallen in northeastern Switzerland, probably in order to get something out of the boot, regional police said, according to the Swiss news agency ATS. Continue reading...

Opening is latest step by private militia’s owner Yevgeny Prigozhin in taking a more public role in shaping Russia’s defence policyRussia’s Wagner Group – the once-secretive private militia controlled by Yevgeny Prigozhin – has opened a military technology centre in St Petersburg, in the latest move by the Putin ally who has criticised the Kremlin’s defence top brass over the Ukraine conflict.The opening of the “Wagner Centre” on Friday is seen as another step by Prigozhin to publicise his military credentials and take a more public role in shaping Russia’s defence policy. Continue reading...

Veteran leader and his far-right allies win decisive 64 seats in 120-seat KnessetThe former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has begun coalition negotiations on forming a government, after winning a decisive majority in Israel’s fifth election in four years with the help of ultra-Orthodox parties and a new alliance with the far right.After a year in opposition, and years of political chaos triggered by his ongoing corruption trial, the veteran politician engineered a comeback in Tuesday’s vote. His majority means that the period of electoral deadlock is in all probability over for now, and Netanyahu – already the country’s longest serving prime minister – is set to stay in the job for at least the next four years. Back in office, the 73-year-old’s first priority will be seeking to get his trial dropped. He denies all charges. Continue reading...

Three guest panellists give their verdict on how the parties performed in the opening week of the campaign

Police watchdog says it has launched two investigations into the Civil Nuclear Constabulary officersNine police officers are being investigated for the alleged use of discriminatory language while on duty, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has said.In a statement on Friday, the IOPC said it has launched two investigations into the officers – who belong to the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC) – for allegedly engaging in conversations of a racist, misogynistic, ableist and offensive nature. Continue reading...

Wisdom of cabinet return called into question after former chief whip ‘complains’ about conductGavin Williamson is facing a complaint that he sent “vile” and “threatening” messages to former chief whip Wendy Morton, raising questions over Rishi Sunak’s decision to reappoint the twice-sacked Tory.Morton is believed to have made a formal complaint to the Conservative party over claims of Williamson’s behaviour to her in the final days of Liz Truss’s government. Continue reading...

Stakes raised on Friday as clashes erupt between police and protesters in cities across PakistanHundreds of police officers equipped with teargas hurriedly took positions near a junction connecting Islamabad with its twin city of Rawalpindi as a group of protesters burned wood and chanted slogans on Friday.The two groups edged towards each other, and then the protesters hurled stones at the police, who responded with teargas rounds. Not long afterwards, the protesters dispersed, and police reopened the junction to traffic. Continue reading...

Indian firm from which Rishi Sunak’s wife collects £11.5m in annual dividends retains staffed Moscow office

Detained students could face death penalty, human rights groups report, with at least 277 people killed as protests enter eighth weekIran’s security forces have launched a series of attacks on university students at campuses across the country with dozens of students being arrested, according to the Students’ Union of Iran.According to student organisations and human rights groups, the attacks on universities intensified this week as young people gathered to mark 40 days since Mahsa Amini died in the custody of Iran’s morality police in September. The death of the 22-year-old woman sparked eight weeks of nationwide protests against the regime. The highly symbolic 40th day traditionally marks the end of mourning. Continue reading...

The multi-hyphenate was known for directing 1996’s Emma, co-writing Bullets Over Broadway and writing the book for Beautiful: The Carole King MusicalWriter, director and actor Douglas McGrath has died at the age of 64.The Tony and Oscar nominee had been recently starring in the autobiographical off-Broadway show Everything’s Fine that he had also written. His death on 3 November was announced by the show’s producers Daryl Roth, Tom Werner and John Lithgow, who was also directing. Continue reading...

This live blog has now closed, you can read more on this story hereThe Downing Street lobby briefing is over, and the prime minister’s spokesperson has just shot down reports that the proposed Sizewell C nuclear power plant could be shelved.This morning the BBC was leading the news with a story saying this was an option. A government official told Simon Jack, the BBC’s business editor: “We are reviewing every major project – including Sizewell C.”I’ve seen some reporting on that, but it is not accurate to say we are scrapping it. Our position on Sizewell C has not changed. It remains crucial to ending our reliance on fossil fuels, increasing our energy security and meeting our net zero ambitions.We hope to get a deal over the line as soon as possible. There are negotiations are ongoing. Negotiations have been constructive. Continue reading...

Planned Parenthood struggles to keep up with demand from patients crossing state lines to access legal abortionsThe supreme court’s reversal of Roe v Wade has “broken” the abortion ecosystem in the US, according to executives of a Kansas clinic that opened just days after the landmark ruling in June.The warning comes four days ahead of the pivotal midterm elections, in which Democrats have sought to make abortion rights a central issue. Continue reading...

Move comes after Canada’s most populous province fast-tracked bill that fines striking workers C$4,000 a dayMore than 55,000 education workers in Ontario have walked off the job, pledging to strike for “as long as it takes” in defiance a “draconian” new law amid a bitter fight with the provincial government over pay.The Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents custodial staff, early childhood education and education support workers, launched the strike on Friday, despite legislation fast-tracked by the Ontario premier, Doug Ford, that bars it from striking and unilaterally imposes a contract on employees. Continue reading...

Xi Jinping tells Olaf Scholz of the need for greater cooperation during ‘times of change and turmoil’

Figures show 13 alcohol-induced deaths per 100,000 Americans in 2020 – highest rate recorded in at least 40 yearsThe rate of deaths that can be directly attributed to alcohol rose nearly 30% in the US during the first year of the Covid pandemic, according to new government data.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had already said the overall number of such deaths rose in 2020 and 2021. Continue reading...

Bamford family has contributed almost £50k to ex-PM’s lifestyle since July, register of MPs’ interests shows